To follow

I have been thinking about what it means to try and build a church around discipleship. What would it look like? How do you go about facilitating it? What about those people who would find it uncomfortable? Is it something that, like an iceberg, is glimpsed but largely goes on under the surface? Or should it be integral to everything we do?

I know that one of the most valuable influences on my Christian growth has been firstly as a 14 year old being in a bible study group of young 20s, I may not always have understood everything but it was fascinating to see debate and passion about what the bible said. It also led to relationships where people could challenge me about my Christian living, just what I needed in my later teen years.

Then at uni I met for a reading group with the UCCF staff worker and some other students, then later on 1-2-1 with another Christian, both significant influences. I needed people to debate and discuss with, to bounce ideas off, to work out my theology and Christian living with.

I guess that's partly why I think discipleship is so important, it has played a huge part in my growth as a Christian. Its why I have met with 4 young men over the last 4 years for 35-60 mins a week to study the Bible, encourage one another and pray for each other. I get as much out of it as they do, if not more.

But would it be possible to get everyone in a church involved in just such a relationship? I guess one fear we all have is what do we do. In my experience it needs to be kept fairly simple - read a passage of the Bible together and chat about what surprises you, what makes you say wow, what does it teach us about God, what about Christ and what about yourself? What does it mean to put it into action? Spend time together chatting about your week, pray for each others needs, families, and spiritual health (prayer, leading family, bible reading, evangelism). Or alternatively use the same bible reading notes and then discuss what you have read in the last seven days.

You don't have to challenge the socks off each other every week, but be ready to issue a challenge when it comes. Above all such things must be built on relationship - give it time, do things together, and keep the things you pray about between the two of you unless you agree otherwise.

Is it possible to see a whole church built around relationships like this? Yes. How do you make it happen? You find someone and ask them if they want to meet up and then you commit to it.

Am I being discipled?

We are all very familiar with the great commission in Matthew 28, "go and make disciples of all nations..." It is a clarion call to evangelism that we hear time and again, but we need to just have a double take, the call is not to go and 'get decisions' it is to go and "make disciples". A disciple is one who answers Jesus call to "Follow me", it is not hit and run evangelism Jesus calls us to but long term discipleship.

The gospels have much to say about the cost of discipleship, it is described as carrying your cross, it is costly, it involves rejection, it involves showing mercy to those who hate you... Discipleship is not easy, but as you read through the gospels you see Jesus gradually moulding the disciples, asking them challenging questions, confronting them, opposing them, giving them challenging tasks but always discipling them.

That's why come Acts the previously fearful apostles are ready to form the church, to lead it, to carry their crosses, to be persecuted, to be opposed, to face death. They know Jesus is the Messiah and they are witnesses of the resurrection and they have also been discipled, they have been trained, taught, and nurtured in the faith.

Is that going on today? Am I in a discipleship relationship? In our world of time constraints, deadlines and the like I wonder if this has been lost. If we want to see young people become the next generation of church leaders we must invest time into discipling them, if we want to grow in our faith we must ensure we are being discipled by someone older and wiser in the faith. It is what we see modelled with Paul and Timothy and as Paul writes to Timothy he says "what you have heard from me...entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also." That is discipleship.

The challenge is will I make time for it? Will the church help facilitate it? How can it do so? We must because it is what we are called to do, disciples are fruit that lasts.

The questions men asked

Just finished reading Why men hate going to church? It is a thought provoking book, though as always with American based books part of the challenge in thinking about it is working out how reflective the trends it highlights in US Churches are of British churches. Wouldn't it be great to have a book specifically researched and written in the context of British churches.

One of the best chapters in the book was about teaching and the masculine spirit, the challenge as Murrow sees it is dor our churcehs to be places where men are learning. He says we need to ask men great questions, not simply give them easy answers, and addressing the questions that men have in our preaching, here are his ten questions:

1. What is true manliness?
2. What is success?
3. How do I deal with guilt feelings?
4. What is male sexuality? Is purity possible for the modern man?
5. How can we nurture family life?
6. What is Christian leadership? How is it developed?
7. What are the basic disciplines of the Christian man?
8. What ministry skills need to be developed? How?
9. What is biblical business conduct?
10. What is integrity? How is it developed?

I wonder if men in church in Britain today would agree that they are the questions they'd love teaching on?

Can a spade ever be anything but a spade?

Last night I was listening to someone from The Barnabas Fund sharing about the work they are involved in with the persecuted church across the globe, though predominantly in Muslim Countries. There were lots of stories of faith in action in terrifying situations, of murders, attacks and imprisonment of believers for their faith.

But I think what struck me most was the concerns of the speaker about the naivety of Christians in Britain. We should champion equal rights for other religions in Britain, we do not want to move to a society where anything but Christianity is oppressed, but we do need to wise up in our thinking.

Christianity is exclusive, it always has been as Jesus claimed; "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." The danger is that whilst we nod assent to this verse we moderate with the tolerance culture we live in. Any other way of approaching God apart from through Jesus Christ will not work because it doesn't deal with our biggest problem - sin.

That's why Paul, in Acts 17, starts off with the idols in Athens but then proclaims the true way to God, he doesn't say your idols are good enough, or another equally valid way to God, or even a way to God. He says "in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

The command is to repent of anything that isn't true worship of God in Jesus Christ. I must seek to take the same message to my Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist friends as to my atheist friends, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Any other means of trying to approach God is flawed because it does not deal with our sin.

It may be not a popular message in our "tolerant" society, even with some Christians, but better to speak the truth and be rejected than to peddle a lie. The gospel is an offense, we are not meant to try to make it offensive by our behaviour or manner of delivery, but the message itself will be offensive to many because they will refuse to recognise what God says about them. But Jesus told us to expect exactly that "They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the hour is coming when those who kill you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me."

Being called

Having begun thinking about Acts 13 yesterday its hard to just turn off from it as it is such an important passage in the book and the history of the church. It is the point at which the mission to be Jesus' witnesses to the ends of the earth really takes off. In Chapter 10 and 11 we see the beginnings of the Gentile mission as Peter goes to Cornelius and a church is started in Antioch, but it is really as Barnabas and Saul are set apart that the new chapter opens.

S/Paul has of course already had his calling back in chapter 9 at his conversion, but here in chapter 13 it is clear that the "Holy Spirit said "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."" Interestingly it is in the context of the church (v2) worshipping and fasting - presumably that means that the church as a whole were seeking God's guidance. Not content merely just to chug along but willing to go where God would have them go when God would have them go, and to send who God woudl have them send.

I guess we are all tempted to say guidance would be so much easier if I could just have a voice from heaven that said go. But the interesting thing is that though we are told the Holy Spirit said set them apart even here we are not told how he said it.

Paul and Barnabas are gospel minded people sent by a gospel minded God to where their are gospel needy people. If we are gospel minded, alert for those in need of the gospel, then God will show us when and where. It may not be a clear voice, it may just be a gospel opportunity that excites us, it may be that it is a risk that takes us out of our comfort zone for the gospel, it may be that it is something that we have the gifts and abilities to do. All of those are ways that God guides us.

A friend of mine used to have a No Fear T-shirt and it had this slogan on the back "If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!" Am I living on the edge when it comes to the gospel, on the front line every day where the fighting is fiercest but God is most glorified because Christ is most obviously my treasure.

Is risk right?

We live in a risk averse world, that's why we have insurance for everything, be it travel, contents, buildings, car, health, whatever. Its why we have risk assessments and health and safety training courses and all those are well and good and serve a purpose. But what about when it comes to the gospel?

I've decided that I am risk averse. Yet the Bible in contrast gives me pictures of people who took risks because they trusted God and the gospel was their greatest treasure. Moses leading the people of Israel was a risk, Joshua as he takes on Moses mantles risks, the prophets risk for God's word and his people. Move to the New Testament and you cannot move in the gospel for risk; Jesus risks as he speaks, as he confronts the Pharisees, as he calls the twelve, as he goes to the cross. Then Peter is another who risks as he steps out of the boat onto the water, as he blurts out you are the Christ, as he sneaks into the courtyard after Jesus arrest, as he goes to Cornelius' house.

I've been looking at Acts 13:1-2 today and it is rife with risk. There is Saul/Paul and Barnabas who risk by going to Cyprus and to the Gentiles, leaving a church where they have been teaching the people, presumably well received (c/f 11:19-30), for a whole year. Going to the Gentiles when surely Saul was better suited to go to Jerusalem, but going to where there would be cultural barriers to overcome and difficulties to face because of God's call and the gospels drive.

Then in the same two verses there is the risk of the Church at Antioch, S/Paul and Barnabas are two of the five prophets and teachers of that church and yet when led by God they set them apart and "sent them off." That is risk, sending your best people to evangelise and plant churches.

The challenge as I've looked at it is; do I take risks as the gospel calls me to or am I content to be comfortable? My fear is that if I am comfortable the gospel isn't driving me hard enough out to others. Am I praying for God to show me what he would have me do for his kingdom? Am I ready to risk for the gospel?

Hope

This week I'll attend the second funeral I've been to in two weeks, it would be three in two but for the fact another is on the same day. Whilst funerals are never enjoyable they are not without hope for those who believe in Jesus Christ as their saviour.

It is at the grave side that you are confronted with the big questions of life that we try so hard to insulate ourselves from in our everyday lives - what's the meaning of life and what happens when we die?

The Victorians big taboo was sex, they didn't talk about it and any evidence was hidden away. In our society we have gone to the other extreme and sex is on everything, you don't have to spend too long watching day time television or adverts or listening to the breakfast shows on the radio to realise that. Our taboo is death, the Victorians dealt with death much more matter of fact way than we do, but we hide it away and try to isolate people from thinking about it. Mention it in conversation and it suddenly goes very quiet. Lose someone close to you and people don't know what to say to you, in fact so often they choose to avoid you altogether.

I wonder if that's why people no longer think about the big question; 'What happens after we die?' I'm not sure my friends would appreciate me even asking the question, yet it is one that is pushed at us every day as we watch the news and hear of more deaths in Iraq or of the Virginia tech shooting, or another teenager killed in London.

Its a question that Jesus seems to address frequently in the gospels. With Nicodemus he talks about the need to be born again if you want eternal life - life after death, with the rich young ruler that is the issue under discussion, in Matthew 24 and 25 again it is life after death that is the subject.

When Paul writes to the Corinthians life after death features (chapter 15) and then to the Thessalonians (chapter 4:13) he writes "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you grieve like the rest, who have no hope..."

If the New Testament answers that question about life after death then it is a question that man had and still has, and it is a question that we must pose of those around us.

Barriers to evangelism

What are the barriers to evangelism? What is it that stops me from sharing the news that Jesus came to seek and save the lost?

I guess that with our friends and family most often it is fear of rejection, or fear of being thought fundamentalist (the new f-word). But what about with everyone else? What is it that stops me sharing the gospel with every one else. I wonder if it is prejudice or self righteousness.

I guess we'd all like to think we're not self-righteous but society conditions us to think we are better than others, we are subtly taught it from the cradle and it is reinforced until the grave. We may like to think we are too sophisticated to live in tribes but in reality we just have tribes with different labels. There are the big tribes based on socio-economic status, background, education, or where we live. But then within them there's the sporty sub-tribe, or the gardening sub-tribe and so on.

The danger is that we never cross into other sub-tribes let alone tribes to share the gospel. But the gospel leaves me no room for such divisions, just read Ephesians 2 where Paul says the gospel overturns the biggest social division of his day, Jew and Gentile.

The big danger with tribes is that it leads to self-righteousness and the danger is that we don't take the gospel to certain groups of people. Yet the Bible makes very clear that the gospel is not just for the religious or the middle class. So why so often is that where my and the churches evangelistic efforts are targeted?

I need to keep revisiting Luke 5:27-31 where we see Jesus eating with Levi, the good religious church goers of Jesus day are shocked "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" How does Jesus reply "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." We need to remember that and think about who the tax collectors and sinners are in our area that we need to reach and about how will we reach them? If Jesus says the gospel is for them dare I do any less than take it to them?

Another thing that will stop us is fear of what others will say, that we'll be misunderstood. Again reading Luke is helpful, in Luke 7:33-35 we see that Jesus was misunderstood as he spent time with sinners, as was John the Baptist before him. Yet both were driven by the need to reach the lost with the gospel, despite popular opinion.

What risks with the gospel does my self righteousness and fear of others opinions stop me taking?

Reaching men

I've just started reading Why men hate going to church and it has some disturbing statistics which I found alarming about the rate of men leaving the church and suggestions about why this is. Basically David Murrow's point is that we do church for women and it therefore doesn't appeal to men. So men love adventure, excitement, challenge and risk, women like security, safety and friendship. The church does the later but not much of the former. Women tend to be more academic men more practical. I could go on with other things that he points out as possible contributors as to why we struggle to reach men.

But actually what is more alarming is that besides men the other part of the populace which is abandoning church is women between the ages of 18 and 34. Maybe because they now share the desire for excitement, challenge, risk and the church is not providing this.

Yet Jesus called, challenged, confronted and risked and had no problem winning men. It has set me thinking about how would you do church that reaches men as well as ladies? Does it mean shorter services? Does it mean bacon butties before church? Is the need for discipleship, where men can challenge one another and spur one another on to take risks and to live out their faith?

In short how could we do church that men loved?

Its all just talk.

Do you talk about Jesus as naturally as you do about the team you support or your kids or your hobby? If people are to see that Jesus is the thing I treasure most, if they are meant to ask me about the hope that I have then it must be reflected in my conversation. If I only talk about him in 'God conversations' then people will think we compartmentalise our lives and that we are hypocrites.

I'm not saying we continually spout theological words and phrases but that our faith and our saviour should be a part of our everyday lives. So often the temptation when asked is to say oh yeah I think this. When actually I think this because the Bible says so. If that's the case why not say it. Yes you may get the odd funny look but it is saying morality is a matter of God's revelation, he sets the standards that I live by, it isn't that I've just decided this is right or wrong based on how I feel.

When someone talks about their problems with you I guess with a Christian we'd naturally offer to pray for them. So why don't we do that with all of our friends? If a friend is struggling at work why don't we offer to pray with them. It shows them that we believe prayer works, that we are dependent upon God.

When they ask how our week has been why is my reply so often not in terms of what God has done, even when people from church ask, let alone when my mates from the pub ask? Is it that I am afraid? Is it that I am embarrassed? Do I fear their rejection?

How can I expect them to ask me about the hope I have if I never articulate that hope in my every day conversation. How will they take Christianity and Christ seriously if they do not see that his sacrifice and love dominates the whole of my life not just one little compartment.

"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord" I Peter 3:15

Guilty as charged?

One of the most popular reasons why people reject Christianity is the charge that Christians are hypocrites. How do we respond when we receive that response?

The primary response must be long before that charge is ever made and last long after it has faded to a distant memory. It is for people to be able to look at our lives and come to the conclusion that we are not hypocrites. That we actually live out what we say.

Though this doesn't mean never letting them see the things that we struggle with. I think it is the Teflon Christian with whom people struggle most. People need to see our concern, our love, our compassion for others. But they need to see that we do more than talk about love or fellowship or community. They need to see that these are ideas that we hold deeply to, so deeply that we put them into action. We don't just talk about love but we show it.

The Apostle Paul invited people to do just that, to look at the way he and his friends lived and see if it proved the gospel true. Here is what he writes to the Thessalonians:
"Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. Surely, you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witness, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you..."

Paul was able to say you are witnesses of how we lived, and our living gave credibility to the gospel. The Thessalonians couldn't charge him with hypocrisy, their lives that had been shared with them disabled such an accusation.

When someone says that all Christians are hypocrites the answer if we dare to give it is 'OK lets put it to the test'. Introduce them to Christian friends, to the church and encourage them to watch the way you live, the way we are at work, when we drive, with family, with money, with priorities, with loving others, and we'll talk again in a couple of months.

But from the other side, the way I am at work, at the school gates, or on the squash court, or in the gym needs to challenge that objection for those around me. Our calling is to live lives that glorify God in every situation and as we do so to be provoking questions and challenging misconceptions.

A wasted life?

I'm just reading John Piper's book Don't waste your life it is a real challenge. Its good to read books that makes you feel uncomfortable, though only if you do something about the issues it they throw up.

Piper's fear is that millions of Christians are wasting their lives because we do not live to glorify God, to enjoy God, as if we treasure God. I have found a number of the questions he poses challenging and thought provoking:

• What is the one passion of your life that makes everything else look like rubbish in comparison?


• How do I boast in the cross?


• If I love Christ how can he be magnified in my behaviour this afternoon, this evening or this week?


• Do I really believe it is better to lose my life than waste it?


• Do I live as if Christ supplies all I need?


• Why don't people ask about my hope? Is it because our lives look no different?


• How does my life show that I treasure Christ above everything else?

The challenge is one I need to look at. How do I use my money for Christ's glory? Piper even has a challenge for us on TV and family. But I think the biggest challenge is when he talks of having a wartime mentality. In wartime everything is geared up for the battle. In Peace time everything is geared up for comfort. The challenge is obvious - what does my living show about how I view life here and now?

Its a great book well worth reading, but it should come with a warning, it will not let you feel comfortable, it will prod and poke at your life and living. But my hunch is that is just what I need.

always prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have

It is quite a challenge that Peter makes in his letter (1 Peter 3:15) 'always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.'

It assumes that people will have looked at your life and had questions to ask you. In fact at the start of that verse Peter even tells us how to ensure that is that case; 'But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord'. If people see that Christ is Lord of our lives, that we are seeking to live for his glory and not for our own then it will provoke questions. If people see that actually we are maximising the law not minimising it then they will ask questions. If people see by our actions that we love others because we have been loved by God then they will ask questions.

And that is when we must be ready. I think the first challenge for us in 2007 is to be close enough to people that they can see that Christ is Lord, unless people are seeing how I act under pressure, in the home, on the squash court, in the pub how will they ever know that we have a hope. Unless we are in the world people cannot ask us the questions Peter assumes they will be asking. We have to get out of the Christian ghetto, move away from the holy huddle. And not just into superficial relationships but to real relationships that show those around us that we love them, that we care, that we are different.

Only then will it provoke questions about the hope that we have, about our reasons for believing such hope. Then we must be ready to answer those questions. I wonder some times if we spend so long on preparing to answer the questions that by the time we feel we're ready we have no one who knows us well enough to see our lives and to ask the questions.

Can you golf to glorify God?

I was struck yesterday as I read the Times by a fantastic comment by the Masters winner Zach Johnson. “Regardless of what happened today,” Johnson said later, “my responsibility was to glorify God and hopefully He thinks I did.”

That's a statement that is worth us writing down where we will see it every morning as we head out of the door to work or to see family or friends.

What is relevance?

Relevance - what is it? It's what people want in our busy world isn't it, relevance. Cut to the chase, tell me what I need to know, don't give me all the details just the facts. It's partly the result of the pressure we all feel under, pressure to get the job done, pressure to get the answers, to complete the task, to save time, to be efficient. But what is really relevant?

I sat with a 90 year old lady yesterday afternoon whose mind was as sharp as they come. She was asking why people don't have time for God any more? How they find meaning in life without the gospel and the good news that Jesus died to remove the judgement we face and give us a future we can look forward to rather than fear.

Her conclusion was that people just don't have the time to think about questions like that, let alone have time to think about them. No time to stop and ponder what the meaning of life is, to ask; Why am I here?

I think it all comes down to relevance. It's easy in the rush of the workplace/family home/gym/retirement/whatever to think that what is relevant is only what is immediate. What's relevant is those figures I need to complete my report, what's relevant is how my child is doing in school, not how the school or staff are doing. What's relevant is how I improve my standard of living now. And we fool ourselves by consoling ourselves with the thought that there is time for that later.

It means that the questions about what is immediately relevant push out the real question about what is ultimately important. Why am I here? How did the universe come to be? If Jesus was an historical character what does it mean? What happens after I die?

They think its all over

How do you deal with the post stress let down? When the adrenaline rush subsides because everything is done. Do you collapse in a heap or carry on encouraged? Last weeks mission is finished and Easter is over for another year.

The danger is to just go back to default mode. Having put all that effort into inviting people to things for the week just to let it drift. But what a great catalyst it should be. It was such an encouragement to see the church full of ladies flower arranging and listening to the gospel, to see men playing golf, playing football or eating curry and listening to the gospel. To see families engaging with one another enjoying themselves and hearing the gospel. To see the church full of people listening to Jazz building relationships and engaging with issues such as suffering, truth, and life before death. And then to see friends with us on Sunday to hear God's word taught and the resurrection proclaimed.

The encouragement is that the gospel is relevant, that our friends and neighbours do have those questions and are willing to come and hear the Bibles answers. God is great and he works as we pray and then take the risk of inviting those we want to hear the great news.

Happy Easter

Christ is risen - that is the traditional greeting that was said in Churches this morning, as we remember the fantastic news that having died for our sins on the cross, God the Father raised Jesus back to life because death could not hold him and God's anger against sin had been poured out upon Jesus and he had exhausted it.

Christ is risen - it is a three word phrase laden with meaning. It means death is defeated, it means that the wages of my sin are paid for in full, it means I am brought into relationship with God, it means I am viewed by a just and Holy God as his child credited with Christ's perfect record, it means I have a future to look forward to and live in the light of.

Christ is risen - the first fruits as the New Testament writers call him, the trailblazer whose resurrection to life will be the experience of all those who trust in him for salvation, who call him Lord and saviour.

Christ is risen - the just anger of a holy God against our, my, rebellion is paid for in full and I am free of its guilt and burden.

Mission

We're running a football event tonight with a mini tournament for an hour or so and then off for a curry at a local curry house. It's striking how willing people are to come to this. My hunch, however, is that if it was back to church for a curry afterwards suddenly the number of people coming would drop off.

There is something about coming into a church building that just turns men off almost no matter what the event is. Especially if those men are in their twenties and thirties as most of these men are. It'd be interesting to probe their ideas of church and find out what exactly it is that produces such a reaction, but that is another idea for another time.

If men won't come in then we have to go out. Where are the places that men congregate? Where will they feel at ease and listen most? My hunch is it is either in the pub, at a sporting venue or at a restaurant, so the onus is on us to meet them with the gospel in those places. I know of one church which has planted a new congregation in a football stadium and found it has reached men.

Interestingly it is what you see in Acts as Paul evangelises and then plants churches. He goes to the synagogue first but then he goes where the people who need the gospel are - the market place, the debating hall, the river bank. In a world that is more like that of the first century Roman Empire than ever there is much we need to learn from Paul.

For centuries we've been in a culture where people have been willing to come into church when invited, this has removed the need to innovate. Britain in 2007 is no longer like that, church is foreign to most people and a place in which they do not feel comfortable. We must therefore go out to make the gospel known.

Discover

This week we are running a week of mission called Discover. It was great yesterday to have the church full of ladies for a flower arranging demonstration and a gospel talk. The afternoon was then spent hacking (in some cases!) round a nice golf course before some food and another talk from Luke's gospel.

It was great to spend an afternoon walking the golf course, though it was freezing, chatting to a group of guys from various backgrounds, laughing with/at one another, and getting to know some of the guys better.

It struck me as we did it that it isn't something we do very often as men is it! We are a bit too focused, a bit too driven, we go to work and then we go home, we go to something social and we go home, we tend not to do the relational side of things very well. Yet in the gospel we see Jesus do what we did yesterday spend time with people and chat with them over food. The challenge is as men to take time to do this regularly, to make the resolution reality in the diary.

What is the gospel?

The extract below is from DB Knox looking at the question, what is the gospel?

"To sum up, the gospel was the news that God has fixed the judgement day when he would judge the world in righteousness, and he had appointed a judge, Jesus, whom he had sealed in this office by the resurrection from the dead and by his exaltation to the throne of God as Lord. He was king and judge, and not only king and judge, but saviour from the consequences of the judgement of God on sinners. For God in his graciousness had sent his his son Jesus to be the saviour of the world, so that all who call on him for salvation, all who recognise his lordship and seek his help, will receive that salvation, which consists in the forgiveness of sins and justification in the eyes of the judge."

That paragraph from Knox in The Gospel of the New Testament is striking isn't it. It is, he contends, the gospel John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul and the other Apostles taught. It provokes the question is that the gospel I teach?

It is not a hard message to get across to those around us but it is one which our society would take issue with, which would meet with outright hostility and anger. But then that was John the Baptists experience, that was Jesus experience, that was the fate of James, Paul, Peter and the others. That's not bad company to have an experience in common with as you preach the gospel.

The Easter Bunny

I wonder if you remember ghostbusters? You will if you are of a certain generation. It ended with the team battling the giant Marshmallow man - Ray's first thought and a humorous way of meeting out destruction to the world.

I have my very own marshmallow man fear at the moment, but it isn't a giant sugar confectionery foe fit for roasting over a roaring fire, it is the ever growing Easter Bunny. In our commercially aware culture retailers are seizing upon Easter as another way to increase sales - in between Valentines Day and our Summer holidays - and put pressure on us to spend, spend, spend. Easter cards are now in the shops and we are encouraged to remind someone that you are thinking of them, oceans of chocolate is setting as I speak and being ferried up and down the country, Easter presents are beginning to appear complete with Easter chick, rabbit and lamb wrapping paper.

And in all the commercialism where is the actual symbol of Easter? The rabbit has, or is beginning to, dwarfed the cross.

No, I'm not turning into scrooge (well not over Easter anyway), sat chuntering humbug over my keyboard as I type, but just as the commercialisation of Christmas has divorced it from its true meaning so I fear the Easter bunny is set to displace the cross and the empty tomb at Easter.

Easter is the most amazing opportunity to share the gospel with those around us. It is a time to remember the great news. "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and after that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve..." (1 Corinthian 15:3-5).

That is what Easter is all about, remove the cross and resurrection from Easter and there is no reason to celebrate. God in his love sent his only Son to pay the penalty for our sin and to enable us to enter into relationship with God, to look forward to life without the wages of our rebellion - death - dominating our landscape, and all because God sent his Son who willingly goes to the cross in my place. And 3 days later the tomb was empty, Christ was alive again and was seen by many witnesses, as he rose again death and sin were defeated for those who trust in him, because his resurrection declares it is paid for, it is accomplished, it is finished. God now views me as his perfect Son in Christ and I can live now in light of that reality.

How should Christians respond to the rampant commercialisation of Easter - oppose the bunny! Declare the cross. The challenge is to convey the true message to our children, our neighbours, our family, our friends. It may not be popular but surely at Easter more than at any other time the love of Christ must compel us to witness to him. To give a gospel rather than an Easter card, to give a tract rather than chocolate, to speak of Jesus Christ rather than the Easter Bunny!