nobrokenreed

So you want to make disciples?

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From him [Jesus] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. – Paul to the Ephesians

We were late last night, just a few minutes. Our friend was standing up the front, singing his heart out in praise to God, his son accompanying on the guitar. Around just the two of them, a few old men, nicotine stained and stinking to high heavens from goodness knows what. On a Saturday evening, we cross the city to what is the largest Housing Project in the country, some 500 or so units, a vast concrete jungle that seems more like a prison.

Long ago, the drug lords moved in, physically kicking out some in the larger apartments, setting up shop to supply a willing and ready-made community of addicts. Nobody knows what to do. In a small corner of the sprawl, we meet each week with a group who, with varying degrees of comprehension, sit around and read God’s word together. If nothing else, those there are genuine.

Afterwards, we cook eggs, bacon and sausage to a crowd that by now, has swelled to 5 or 6 times the size. Most are expectant, some picky about what they will and won’t eat. Many take the food and wander off into the night, not wanting to engage.

I have come to realise the immense task God has given us in making disciples. For much of the time, it is sheer graft, especially in the West. Here, the rich don’t need God because they have everything they need. The middle class by any standards are comfortable, and their focus is not on the God of the next world. Even those who go to church, sadly, are not really connected with what Jesus calls. Most who sit in churches, are wealthy and complacent. We simply cannot see our state of being.

The poor too, are hardly poor. Living in a subsidised welfare society, they enjoy benefits beyond the wildest dreams of the poor in many other nations; in some instances, some will ring us before group meetings and ask what’s on the menu, what time it’s being served. They can decide then, whether it’s worth the effort. They seem able to subsidise addictions of all sorts, with free meals laid on every single night of the week. They don’t need to go to the bother of listening to someone talk about God; free food is no longer the domain of the church.

Of all the letters, the book of Acts is not necessarily the place to study disciple making. Making disciples involves getting people to commit regularly to gathering as they ‘discover’ Jesus. It can be tiresome, hard work, and can often show little immediate fruit. Some of Paul’s letters are very relevant, as he preaches in the streets amongst great opposition, and sees numbers grow in just 1’s and 2’s. We have to go and search for them first – Jesus came to ‘seek and save the lost’ – it invokes an image that he went out and found them. In 3 years, in spite of all he did and who he was, comparatively few stuck. He knew it would be hard work.

As I thought about the massive housing community last night, I wondered about how much God could really change it. Why doesn’t he? God seems to respond to our desire to want to bring his Kingdom to earth. There are quite literally, dozens of churches within the vicinity. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if on at least a few nights a week, an army of ordinary people marched around the entire precinct in prayer, singing praises to Jesus that he might bring down his heavenly power. Or that, rather than a single paltry weekly effort, every night groups of believers decided that they would door knock the community and offer Discovery Groups in the rooms, or centre. That prayers for healing and deliverance were offered to all who wanted, with the background knowledge that another army was in constant prayer for this community. Surely God would respond, as he loves to do. Can you imagine the transformation if that really happened? Governments would come down and take notice.

Instead though, we – all of us, are caught up in the world. Our thoughts are elsewhere, confined to the things of this world, not on the things of the Father. Sad, but true. Do any of us care enough?

The thing that needs to happen above all else in our society, is we need repentance. Christian and non-Christian alike, we are consumed by our attraction to the world and apathy towards God. We simply don’t care. How tragic. We need God to bring us to our knees.

That is the first step in all of us making disciples. Until then, we are unlikely to go further.

God in heaven, make us care, all of us. If it’s your will, bring this country to its knees, such that there is weeping in the streets over our apathy towards your great Son. Let us realise the folly of our ways, show us how desperate and in need we really are for you. Reveal your power, your majesty, your Holiness to us as sinful people. Bring us to repentance, all of us, including the church.

We need Saving.

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We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world – John’s Gospel

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing – The prophet Zephaniah

A good friend of ours, someone our age died recently. We mourn with his wife, with his family. The speed at which he was taken took our breath away, and I found the nature of death very confronting. I managed to see my friend in the last few days, and as ever his humour was high. We quipped about a few things and talked openly about life in the presence of God. I got to pray with him and his wife.

Since then, I have been amongst a great deal of people it seems, who are bent on self-destruction; consuming drugs at an alarming rate, prone to violence or just generally careless about life itself. Just last night, a woman stepped from the shadows and asked if I would walk her across the road. Likely younger than me, she had an amputated arm, and had already suffered a stroke, and what I thought would be a 5 minute jaunt turned into a half hour mission. Along the way, she spoke of violence, drugs and alcoholism, with 2 children taken away into foster care. When we got there, she lit up a fag as I prayed for her. What struck me though, was the bravado, arrogance even about the way she lived. A life rapidly careering towards death. She is not alone, or even unusual, we know many people who exist in the same vacuous, vacant state. Death will come fast for many.

As I have been pondering about this, I reflected on the immense variance Jesus makes in the entire equation. He is all the difference.

The church at large, has shifted it’s focus far too much toward what is happening in this life; we discuss maybe too much, the kingdom here, the community here, Jesus solving our problems in the here and now. Yet, far and away the greatest achievement of Christ, was his conquering of death.

This world needs saving above all else; I’m not that convinced the condition of the world is ever going to change, even in our Christian communities. From the Old Testament, through to the early passages of the Gospels though, Jesus is announced to us as the one who will save us. In particular he will save us from our sins, which means he will save us from the terrible judgement of God that is coming upon the world. God promises those who believe, an eternity in his presence.

The difference in outcome between the death of my friend, whose hope was set on salvation through Christ, and the woman I met last night, whose hatred of all that was good is immense. She faces total separation of God for all eternity, whereas my friend is merely changing address. He will be more alive than ever.

This means two things. Firstly, it means the Gospel message is hard nosed and raw. It demands action on our behalf to come to God on our knees and ask for his forgiveness. There is absolutely nothing passive in the Gospel, nothing at all. It cost God everything, and the alternatives are unbearable, beyond imagination. We have softened it, watered it down at our peril. In spite of this, the message has not changed, it starts with repentance.

Secondly, it demands that all those who say they believe, us, must do something about it. We cannot take our salvation and pack it away tidily in a suitcase. In our lives, it demands action. I have heard so many, witnessed far too many who do so little with the Gospel in their lives. I am saved, why should I worry?

Friends, if that is your Gospel then it is no Gospel. It is not the Gospel Jesus lived. Every day that goes by, without our having advanced the cause of Christ – you and me, is a day in which the Devil and all darkness has scored.

Even if people do not respond, our job is to make sure they hear from us – everyday, at all times and all the time, that Jesus came to save us from our sins. We do not know where our witness will end in someone else’s life.

Strangely God seems to be willing to take the risk that we will be good messengers of his message – that is, Salvation is found in no one else. Let’s get to it.

The Political Jesus

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‘and the government shall be upon his shoulders’

One of the great challenges facing Christendom, is Western Christian’s obsession with taking political sides. Trump or Clinton, Brexit or Remain, Liberal-Labor, passions run high. For many Christians, their identity is seen more in their politics than in Jesus, in fact you would assume from the outside, that politics is their Lord.

Refugees in America stood amazed as the battle lines were drawn between various church factions prior to the last election. Where they had come from, their unity was first and foremost in Christ and standing united under him was their only chance of survival. We in the West need to take careful note of this, because if we read the signs correctly, a time is coming when any government and all government will be against Christ and his followers. Do we think we will be able to preach ‘one true God’ in the pulpit for much longer? It has already been banned from the streets in many countries.

In different ways, the church and its followers are preparing for this; some, a minority, are realising that there will be a need to toughen their resolve and face what is coming. But for most, there has already been a merging of the message with modern day political acceptance. There is a subtle but widespread shift amongst many evangelicals, towards a soft-Left morass of the Gospel and political tolerance. The hard, uncompromising Gospel of Jesus Christ is being soft-pedalled to accommodate our recent acceptance of new standards. Jesus, we are told, would be much more accepting of homosexuality today, that he would be environmentally friendly, and more proactive for women’s rights.

The cross has become an embarrassment to many believers today in the West, especially amongst the enlightened. That Jesus had to die to save homosexuals, or young couples living together today is simply abhorrent to the vast majority of Christians. The political line goes, who are we to judge, how dare we? Sin is slowly being dismantled from the Gospel. The next obvious question then becomes is Allah any different from Jesus, do we have the right to tell Hindus that our religion is superior to theirs?

The combined effect of all this though, is that proclaiming the Gospel at all is seen as offensive, pointless. Even dangerous. Christians everywhere will be content with the notion, ‘I believe in my God, they believe in theirs.’ We can express our differences in our politics. It reminds me of Israel in the Old Testament, the great compromise that occurred where Yahweh and all that he stood for, became ‘the also ran God’ in Israel.

We think of course, in our naivety, that this will lead to the world being a much happier place. We will all love each other and be more accepting, just as Jesus wanted. In fact, history teaches us the opposite is true. God doesn’t wholly agree with our terms he is just another God and the world refuses the notion Jesus should be Lord. Clashes erupt on both sides, quite the opposite to the outcome we expected.

The only politics Jesus spoke about, was the one where he reigns unfettered across all Kingdoms, including this world. He promises us that will happen one day and urges us to cling to that at all costs. I have been reminded recently, that it is impossible to show the love of Jesus to my neighbour, while expressing my disdain about some political leader or another. That it is impossible to preach the uncompromising Gospel about sin, while being unwilling to accept that so many of today’s norms are sinful in his eyes. The cross, however abhorrent is the centrepiece of the Gospel.

I have become alarmed, when so many Christians post their political views on social media when these so clearly clash with the teachings of Jesus. When we claim special insights into his teachings (found nowhere in Scripture) that somehow justify our political position; but mostly, when our political views, not him, dictate and govern our thoughts and behaviours.

I fear we have slipped into a position from which we will not easily recover unless of course we are willing to repent. That the ramifications of our continually willing to accept the current worldview over the cause of the Gospel of Jesus will be severe.

For those of us who refuse to compromise, who are willing to bury our political views because of our desire for the Lordship of Jesus in our own lives, and who will not stop preaching the Gospel of the Cross beware. The fiercest opposition may well come from within the church itself.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

In the Name of Jesus

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In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, we have the victory! – Ancient Chorus

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved – The Disciples of Jesus

Friends, Jesus is the one thing in this life that makes the difference. It is why this blog exists. Here are some stories from the week.

Last Sunday we wandered down to our Community Centre to see who might be around for Discovery Group. Sam, the person we least expected to see, turned up. We had a great time. Sam is a young kid, and we sat and listened to his story – a bright boy with everything to live for, a year ago he was hit by a motorbike and is now racked with pain. Along the way, he became addicted to prescription drugs, and smokes weed in large quantities to dull the pain. Out of all this though, Sam is interested in the person of Jesus. He would like to be healed. We read some passages together about how Jesus healed so many people, and then prayed (and continue to pray) for healing. One day we hope to write more on that story.

Mid-week I met with an old church friend, and we had lunch together. Sadly, while we talked of all things church, we spoke little of Jesus. We talked of sermons and pastors, buildings and congregations, whether this church might be a better ‘fit’ for his family than that one, but little of Christ. We didn’t pray (it wasn’t Sunday).

When Jesus isn’t part of your life, it leaves the door open for you to interpret how to live. Your kids can live together, and you say ‘it’s okay.’ You can pursue a life that is really no different to the world, give a tithe away each week and believe that you are saved – you might well be saved by the way, but Jesus doesn’t call us to live like the world. If we do, then tithing won’t fix it either. Yet, we hear this so often, see it so often. Jesus, noticeable by his absence.

I stepped out of lunch into an Uber, where I met Reg. Reg was about as ocker as they come. Guess what his first sentence to me was? ‘Jesus Christ….’ This would be interesting. Reg used more expletives in his sentences than ordinary words, and I wondered how Jesus would fit into this conversation? Surely a challenge too great. The conversation quickly slid down into all things degrading and Reg asked how the women in Sydney were?

“I’m not sure Reg, I’ve been married to the same one for 26 years,” I replied. “Jesus Christ, how did you manage that?” Because of Jesus Christ, and so he came into the conversation.

Turns out Reg has been married three times and lived with another for a length of time as well. He shouldn’t have let her go, but I guess fronting up a fourth time was just too much. Here’s the thing though friends, and this never ceases to amaze me. When Jesus was brought into the conversation, the tone of the conversation and Reg ‘s demeanour all changed. Gone were the expletives, and the talk of all things sexual. I didn’t say a thing to stop it.

It was replaced by a quizzing of what ‘church’ looks like for us, how you can actually have a relationship with God, through Jesus, how we can become part of God’s family through him. Reg was intrigued. From here, out came the stories of a broken life, trauma as a solider in Vietnam, no money (3 wives will do that to you) and at an age of retirement, working long hours to recover. More still, the broken family relationships. We left with me praying for Reg outside the airport, as the tears welled up through the conviction of the Spirit. I was sad to leave.

I pray Reg, the next person who comes along who is a believer will spend the time going deeper into Jesus than we had time to do. I hope he’s your neighbour or your friend, and because Jesus is his all, he is not ashamed to explain the glorious relationship he shares with this God and man, Jesus Christ.

Could it be you, me? We can be that person.

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