1 Samuel 31 - A Sad Ending

What does the world conclude when a church closes? Or when missionaries are expelled from a country? Or when there’s a scandal and a church leader steps down in shame? Or when a government outlaws Christianity driving the church underground or claiming it’s successful extinction? It either claims that it proves God does not exist, or simply shrugs its shoulders and concludes that God is irrelevant or too weak or incompetent to do anything about it. 

But what about us? What should we conclude? How are we supposed to think about such things? How are we supposed to react to them? Is God defeated? Is God unable to act? I guess we’d say no, so how are we supposed to react do we shrug our shoulders and carry on as normal because we know God is sovereign? Do we simply ignore such things and carry on as if it doesn’t affect us at all? Or do we react differently?

Is God defeated?

Ch31 of 1 Samuel is bleak. It’s just a few short hours after Saul went to see the medium at Endor at the end of ch28, the morning after his final meal. Look at (1)“Now the Philistines fought against Israel” That in itself wasn’t a problem, in fact Saul was made king to defeat the Philistines, he’d done it before, defeating the Philistines was the norm during his reign. He’d done it, his soldiers had done it, David had done it on his behalf. Except this time its different, this time “the Israelites fled before them and many fell dead.” The three F’s of verse one sum up the situation; fight, flee, fall.

We get more details of the scale of the defeat in the verses that follow, Israel don’t just lose a battle they are routed. Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-shuh, Saul’s three sons are all killed. Saul is fatally wounded and knows there is no hope of victory. It is inevitable that the Philistines will overrun Saul take him captive and torture and mutilate him, so he asks for death, and when that is refused falls on his own sword. The defeat is total(6), Israel are left without leadership – no king and all his sons are dead - and flee, (7)and those around about see the scale of the defeat and thousands become refugees of the war and run. Whole towns are terrified and can see nothing but defeat in their future and so they run. The Philistines occupy Israel.

The defeat is so comprehensive, so cowed and afraid are the Israelites that no-one tries to rescue the bodies from the battlefield. Saul’s and his sons along are looted and decapitated.

But that’s not all that happens(8-9) where do the Philistines particularly proclaim news of their victory? In the temple of their idols. Where do they put Saul’s armour on display? In the temple of the Ashtoreths. The Philistines see Saul’s defeat as Yahweh’s defeat, they see their victory as their gods victory. It’s not |just Saul and Israel who they proclaim as defeated but Yahweh. As the news is proclaimed and the boasting begins as the trophies are mounted on the walls the spiritual conclusions are drawn. The gods win Yahweh loses.

We need to not be surprised when the world crows about what it sees as its victory. We must not be surprised at claims that a churches failure or a leaders lapse or a countries laws prove that God is dead, that he is past it. Claims of God’s demise just like of those of God’s kingdom have always been made. God is not defeated God is faithful.

In Genesis 3 it looks like God’s plans are defeated, as if God is defeated but he sustains as godly line, in Judges we’ve seen it again and again, here we see it again. In places like 1 Kings when Ahab rules, supremely at the cross we see it again – when God looks most defeated he is working his most glorious rescue ever. In the early church as they are arrested and persecuted and scattered God is at work to scatter the seeds of the gospel with his scattered people.

We see it today in places like China where state persecution led the church to thrive. We see it in North Korea. We mustn’t listen to the lies that God is defeated, we mustn’t allow it to make us defeatist.

Bring it down to the life of our church. When people leave we will feel the pain but God is not defeated. When people come and reject the gospel God is not defeated.

God is faithful

Perspective matters when we view events, sometimes we’re tempted into a kneejerk reaction rather than viewing things in the light of who we know God to be. In an ever changing world we forget to focus on the one person who never changes – God.

Perspective matters too when we read the narrative events of the bible, context helps us view things rightly. If you were just to read 1 Samuel 31 you might conclude that God is defeated. But context teaches us God is faithful and sovereign even over these calamitous and disastrous events.

Turn back to 1 Samuel 2 and Hannah’s prayer. This prayer is the primer for the book of Samuel. (3)Reminds us not to arrogantly presume to take God on because he knows and weighs every action, that God is the God of reversals humbling the proud and exalting the lowly. (9)That he guards the feet of his faithful servants but (10)judges those who oppose him. That he will strengthen his king.

God isn’t defeated he is sovereignly keeping his word. Saul has been opposed to God, repeatedly choosing his word and ways above God’s and now he is weighed and broken. Turn to 1 Samuel 28:19 God has done exactly what he said. Israel and Saul have been delivered into the hands of the Philistines and Saul and his sons are dead. God’s words of warning must be taken seriously

God is keeping his word about kingship in Israel too. Turn to Deuteronomy 17:18-20, Saul rejects God’s law, God’s word to him and so his reign is cut short. But the fact that God is faithfully keeping his word does not remove the sense of tragedy, God is not dead or defeated but Saul and his people are. God’s warnings have been ignored and the outcome is tragic. Israel and even David (2 Samuel 1) still mourned Saul. The writer still records this overwhelming defeat to evoke our compassion. We are not to be hardened to it because Saul deserved it and God was keeping his word.

That is so helpful. We can sometimes find ourselves being compassionless when we hear of tragedy and struggle. This week has seen God’s church in Nigeria attacked again and again, church burnt down and worse. How do we react? We mustn’t brush these things off as if they don’t affect us. We must be compassionate for God’s people just as David is for Jonathan – God’s faithful servant and his friend.

But we must also have the same compassion for those who reject God, just as David mourned Saul who had sought to kill him. God is not defeated, God is sovereign and faithful, but that does not make us compassionless towards those involved. 

Secondly we are to see that events don’t challenge our trust in God and his rule but we are also to be warned that a promising beginning can have a tragic end. We are to beware of putting our word in place of God’s, we’re to pray for those we know of in danger of doing so, and be ready to warn them.

God is not defeated, God is faithful to his word, Jesus has secured the victory, the outcome of the battle is not in doubt God will build his kingdom and nothing will stop it. That ought not to make us cold but it should move us to be compassionate and reach out to those who are in danger of ignoring God’s word of warning.

God gives his people hope

Amidst all the darkness of this chapter there is a tiny spark of hope at the end of the chapter. The valiant men of Jabesh Gilead, in a scene reminiscent of something from lord of the Rings, stealthily march through the night over 15 miles of enemy occupied territory just to get the bodies of Saul and his sons. Jabesh Gilead is the town Saul rescued from the Ammonites in his first act as King of Israel. Now in gratitude and faithfulness they end the desecration and gloating as they retrieve the bodies. There’s a glimmer here that God is not done with his people, they have been beaten but their defeat is not permanent.

But there are also other signs of light all around this chapter. Hannah’s prayer promises that “God will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed” well we know Saul is no longer God’s anointed king, we’ve been waiting for David to take the throne. And ch31 makes us long for the coming of God’s chosen king. He is Israel’s hope. We tend to read 1 Samuel then take a break and look at 2 Samuel, but in the Hebrew bible it’s all one book, this isn’t the last chapter, it’s simply part of David’s rise to the throne. It is sandwiched between ch30 where God strengthens David and wins an amazing victory over the Amalekites and David’s anguish at these events and his coronation as king in what becomes Israel’s golden age as God strengthens and exalts his king who follows his law.

Hannah’s prayer at the start of 1 Samuel looks forward to God’s coming king and David at the end of 2 Samuel looks back and sings of God’s salvation. Israel’s hope is the coming king, not the king who is like the nations in rejecting God but the one who God has anointed.

God’s perspective is long term, his kingdom plans are long term. If we just read 1 Samuel 31 we might despair and conclude God is defeated. But God’s perspective and plan are long term, he will keep his word and bring about his kingdom.

So what? We need to learn to avoid knee jerk instant reactions to events. We need to learn patience and to wait on God trusting that he is faithful and he is building his kingdom.

When we hear of a church shutting we are to be saddened by the conclusions others draw about God from that. We are to be compassionately concerned about those affected by it but we are not to be defeated. When we hear of court rulings that go against God’s word or restrict God’s people, we’re not to react in a alarmist ways decrying the end of Christian Britain, we pray, we bring our concern to God and recognise that he’s faithful, it is just what he said would happen in the last days and that God is still building his church, that he is sovereign. We are to patiently take the long term view and long for the return of his king – Jesus - and the coming of his kingdom when everyone will see that God reigns.

1 Samuel 22:6-23

Here are my notes and discussion questions from Lighthouse on Sunday night, looking at 1 Samuel 22.

Where do you expect to experience opposition to God, and what form do you expect it to take?
This chapter is one of the bibles nasties, it’s one of those stories where after the first reading you find yourself thinking what on earth is this teaching me about God? Because in it everything seems to be going wrong, and God seems absent. David is on the run from Saul who is determined to kill him, why? Not because of anything David has done, in fact David has done nothing but treat Saul well, a point Ahimalek makes (14) as he lists David’s loyalty and good service. Yet he is a fugitive. And Abiathar finds himself in the same boat all he has done is fulfil the role of priest and been loyal to Saul(15). And yet his whole family and everyone in the town are butchered despite their innocence, and he is on the run.

What are we to make of this chapter? How do we get our bearings in it? Turn back to 1 Samuel 2. Hannah’s prayer sets out at the start of the book who God is and who he will be revealed to be in the chapters that follow. It is the primer that helps us understand the rest of the book and the events it records and what is happening in them. In (10-11)Hannah’s prayer expresses a hope for rescue from God’s king who he will raise up and the kingdom he will bring about. But it also tells us that this kingdom will come about in the face of opposition. Now Saul is Israel’s first king but he is a king in the mould of all the other nations, and therefore as one who opposes God he will be broken. But God is at work to exalt a king to the throne who will bring about a kingdom and be a picture of the ultimate king – the Messiah.

Opposition to God is a realityFrom chapter 15 onwards reading about Saul’s kingship is like watching the slow motion replay of a car crash. He proves to be exactly what Israel asked for; a king “such as all the nations have”(8:5). And that is seen as he increasingly opposes God and rules less and less like a king of Israel should. It begins gradually with his making the burnt offering himself, then in compromising and not wiping out the Amalekites, their flocks and herds. Bit by bit he has become more and more focused on his retaining power so that by ch22 Saul is set on a course that is totally opposed to God.

He’s determined to secure the throne for himself and kill God’s anointed. He’s been told that the throne has been taken from him and given to another but he won’t have it, he won’t accept it, he will fight God. That’s what he is doing as he hurls the spear at David, as he yells at Jonathan, and he hunts David. This isn’t a personal dislike of David, it’s not a matter of politics or securing the succession this is Saul at war with God and God’s anointed. This is Saul opposing God’s plans and purposes.

The scene opens with Saul ruling over Israel(6) and the paranoia that his opposition to David and God is causing as he flings out accusation against his men, his son and David himself as he tries to justify his actions(6-8). None of the accusations Saul makes in this chapter are true, but he does not care. Reality and evidence do not matter, Saul has fixed his own reality and David must die!

Throughout the chapter Saul is isolated in his opposition to God. Only one man supports him in his actions, Doeg. And what is emphasized three times about Doeg? He is an Edomite (9, 19, 22). He is not one of God’s people, he’s of a line that has stood opposed to God right from Esau who despised his birthright and lost the blessing. Saul and the Edomite stand side by side in their bloody and determined opposition to God.

(11-19)As he summons the priests again reality and evidence don’t matter, despite Ahimelek’s evidence that David is loyal and not plotting and that he himself is faithful to Saul decrees that all the priests must die. Saul effectively institutes the ban – total destruction – on the priests and the town of Nob. That is shocking Saul the King of Israel, who Deut 17 tells us is supposed to read and know the law so he reveres God, carries out the ban – reserved only for removing sinful Canaanites from the Promised Land - against the Lord’s priests. And even when his loyal Israelite men will not do such a thing because it should not be done he ignores their implicit rebuke and simply finds someone who will do it. Doeg the Edomite. Saul’s opposition to God is so great that the only person who will enact his will is an Edomite from a nation who have opposed God’s people throughout history. But even that fact will not draw Saul up short.

We see here is Saul that opposition to God is not reasoned, or calm, rational or on the basis of evidence. It is based on a determination to reject God and his word and will and moulds its reality around that desire. And it is directed at God’s people. Hunting David and striking out at Ahimelek his family and the town are Saul’s way of striking out at God. Opposition to God is a reality we cannot ignore it or expect to avoid it. And we must learn that God’s people will be the focus for opposition to God, we must expect it.

It is what Jesus tells Saul in Acts 9. Saul has been persecuting the church, but Jesus says persecution of his people is persecution of him. Persecuting God’s people is to persecute God and people will try to attack God by attacking his people. It must not surprise us, Satan is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour as he rails against God by attacking his people.

So how should we react? How do we prepare ourselves? What do we cling to in the face of opposition?

God’s love and kingdom are the ultimate realityYou can’t help but see the repeated pattern of the Bible’s narrative here as (20) one son of Ahimelek escapes. Saul’s opposition to God sees him try to wipe out the priests but one survives. Just as Pharaoh’s attempt to restrict and stop Israel becoming too numerous sees one boy, Moses, survive. Just as Athaliah tries to destroy the royal household only for Josiah to survive, and just as centuries later Herod would oppose God and try to kill the Messiah, only for Jesus to flee to Egypt and return to bring the kingdom.

Opposition to God and his kingdom is the norm. But God’s kingdom will not die. In fact Saul and Doeg’s actions, evil though they are and accountable as they will stand for them, simply serve to fulfil God’s words and play a part in the rise of God’s anointed, in the strengthening of David’s kingdom. As Saul murders the priests of Nob, he partially fulfils God’s word of judgement against Eli and his family (2:31-33), not that that is his intention, but even God’s opponents can’t stop God fulfilling his word.

But Saul also drives Abiathar to who? To David. Abiathar runs from a king seeking to take his life to one who promises safety and security. And as he does so he strengthens David. David who at the end of ch20 is a lone man on the run from a king who is hunting him, now has a band of men around him, and Gad the prophet with him, and due to Saul and Doeg’s actions and God’s protection and provision a priest with him through whom David can enquire of the Lord his will.

Every act of opposition and evil will be judged but God takes and uses them to give strength to his king, to exalt his anointed. They do not challenge God’s rule they only confirm it. But it doesn’t make the pain any less real for Abiathar or the struggle any less real for David. But they can trust in the God who always keeps his will, whose kingdom is un-existinguishable, and he gracious encourages each of them in each other.

David knows that even these events are not outside of God’s steadfast, reliable love. Turn to Psalm 52. David trusts in God’s love and his word and that enables him to wait for God to act.

And that is another repeated pattern in the Bible. It is a truth we cannot just trust in but bank our lives upon. Turn over to Acts 2 Peter reminds us that we see that supremely in Jesus, the ultimate king to who David points, who is the one to whom we come and find not just safety and security now but for eternity. “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

And again in Acts 4 as the church is threatened and opposed by more Jewish rulers. “ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

God is so sovereign that he works opposition and acts of evil for his purposes to advance his kingdom. God doesn’t promise that we will never die for his kingdom but he does promise that his kingdom will never die.

We need to live expecting opposition, aware that throughout the Bible God and his people are opposed and that that opposition is often unjust and irrational and bloody and fiercely determined. And that it may come from places we do not expect it.

But we must also resolve in the face of it to live trusting that our God who loves us with a unbreakable love will enable us to meet it. That we are secure in God’s love for us in Jesus forever and that God will work all things for the growth of his kingdom. That even in that act of opposition God is working to advance his kingdom in ways we do not yet see.

“I trust in God’s unfailing love, forever and ever.”

1. What stops us expecting opposition? Why is this dangerous for us? 

2. What truths about God do we need to learn and prove before and during facing opposition? 

3. How can we best help one another prepare for facing opposition and when facing opposition to stand trusting in God?

Revelation 3:14-22 The Lukewarm Church

Here are the notes from last weeks LightHouse:

Discuss: What trends in our culture have permeated and influenced the church?

Laodicea was a very wealthy city. It was famous for its banking and commerce, its expensive black wool, and its eye specialist. Each of these things made the city very wealthy, it was the Windsor or Alderly Edge of its day. In fact it was so wealthy that twice when it was badly damaged by powerful earthquakes the city refused Imperial disaster relief to rebuild and paid for it themselves. As a city Laodicea was wealthy, self-sufficient and proud.

The tragedy in Laodicea was that too much of the city had got into the church. The church was more like the city that it lived among than the Saviour who is its head.

As Jesus writes to this church he has some harsh words to say but the question is will they listen? Will a self-sufficient proud people respond to his rebuke? (14)The description of Jesus stresses his honesty, integrity and divinity. It’s easy to dismiss the words of someone who doesn’t know you very well, or who only sees you from time to time, or who only sees your public persona. We can even sometimes dismiss the words of those who know us best. But Jesus is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.” The one who is speaking to them can be trusted, he sees, he knows, he rules, he’s God’s final word. The one through whom God created everything, they've heard this before in the letter to the Colossians (1:15f). Listen to me, is what (14)is saying. You can trust this diagnosis because of who gives it, these are words to hang your life on.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Jesus is using a picture that all Laodiceans are familiar with. Laodicea’s big weakness was its water supply. Hieropolis just up the road had healing hot springs, Colossae had refreshing pure cold water. But Laodicea had neither, they had to pipe water into the city, but when the hot or cold water arrived it was lukewarm and full of deposits. It was useless, undrinkable, it made you sick.

Jesus isn’t saying I wish you were passionate about the gospel or dead. Jesus wouldn’t wish them to be dead, in Sardis he wants to relight smouldering embers of faith, here there isn’t even that to work with. But his rebuke is that the church is useless, they’re like the cities water supply good for nothing. The church doesn’t refresh the spiritually weary and battered but neither does it provide pure healing water for the spiritually sick. It doesn’t care for its own or hold out the gospel of living water to those in need. In short it makes him sick!

Jesus gives two reasons why they have become like this, two questions it’s worth posing of ourselves, and a remedy that comes with a promise.

The Danger of Delusion: Are we deluded or self aware?

How good are you at seeing yourself? If I asked you to describe your physical appearance could you? How about your spiritual state? How often do you stop and ask yourself where you are at spiritually? And how accurate do you think you are in that assessment?

(17)As Jesus diagnoses the problem with this church and rebukes them for it we see that it’s easy to be deluded. “You say I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” What a contrast. It is easy to be wrong about where we are spiritually as a church and as individuals.

The problem for the church in Laodicea is that they aren’t using Jesus criteria to evaluate themselves but societies. Their culture prizes wealth, the church prizes wealth. They see wealth as being a sign of spiritual blessing, as a guarantee that they are rich spiritually. But says Jesus you couldn’t be more wrong. They equate physically riches with being rich towards God, but they are not one and the same. They are wrong(17b) and tragically they aren’t rich they are bankrupt!

We mustn’t make the same mistake. Maybe it’s not in terms of riches, maybe that isn’t what blinds us as a church, but it can be anything that makes us think we’ve arrived. Number of people in church, our theology, our connections whatever.

We mustn’t be deluded as a church, we must evaluate ourselves as Jesus does, in the light of the mission he leaves us in scripture to love one another deeply and to call others to know Jesus and meet him in the church.

But neither must we be deluded as individuals we need to look and learn from what Jesus has to say to us. That’s why listening to God’s word and reading it are so vital. It saves us from delusion.

The Danger of Self-reliance: Are we independent or dependent on Jesus?

(17)Gives us another brilliant little diagnostic tool to help the church then and now evaluate itself. “I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” What an amazingly arrogant thing for a church to say. This church is self-reliant, it prides itself on its independence. Just as the city refused Imperial aid in rebuilding so the church refuses divine aid and sets about building the church itself. But it is building with the wrong materials on the wrong foundations.

When we find ourselves saying to Jesus “I don’t need a thing, I’ve got it covered.” We are in spiritual crisis. It’s easy to think we’d never say that, and we probably wouldn’t articulate it, but do we ever say it in our actions? 

Are there times we rely on a product or a package rather than on Jesus? What does a lack of prayer say? What does a reliance on experience or past practice or knowledge say? What does a refusal to ask others for help say? Are there ways in which our actions say to Jesus ‘I’ve got it covered?’

Self sufficiency is dangerous to the disciple and to the church because (20)look where it puts Jesus. Jesus says “Here I am!” I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.” Here is the question; where is Jesus saying he is in relation to the church? He’s outside the church knocking on the door asking to be let in!

This church excludes Jesus not by losing its doctrine, not by stopping meeting together, not by stopping programmes, but by becoming self reliant, by being too shaped by the culture around it so that it prizes independence. Can’t you see that danger for us as a church and as individuals?

We must never reach the point where we are saying to Jesus ‘I don’t need you, I’ve got it covered.’ Where we operate by the worlds standards inside the church rather than listening to Jesus words.

How to Becoming Rich when you are Spiritual Poor

This letter to the church in Laodicea drips with Jesus grace and love as Jesus calls on this church which has effectively put him outside the doors to welcome him back in, as he calls on this bankrupt church to recognise its need and come to him.

(18)Jesus is what this church needs. He offers them gold in place of their poverty so that they have faith, white robes to cover their nakedness so they can stand before God without fear of judgement, and healing for their eyes so that they can see themselves, the world, and what makes for riches properly.

But how do they ‘buy’ them? First of all they need to come to Jesus, they are to buy from him and stop buying from the world! (19-20)It’s not something that can be earned(19), instead they need to listen to Jesus loving rebuke, accept his discipline, seek him and repent. Not half heartedly but passionately and honestly. They need to open the door of the church and invite Jesus in, not as a member but as its Lord and head and submit to his rule by his word. How do you ‘buy’ from Jesus everything you need? You come recognising your need and that he by grace has supplied everything you need and you go on depending on him in exactly the same way.

The question is will they? Will we?

Will we recognise Jesus diagnosis and evaluate ourselves in the light of it. It is possible that as a church and as individuals we have brought societies values into the church, have we? It is possible that we are excluding Jesus and his word and his rule, are we? It’s possible that we have become self reliant, relying on our resources, our know how, our riches, have we?

Jesus in love says recognise the danger, weigh yourselves, and come to me. I stand right here waiting for you to invite me in, to make me Lord of everything, if you’ll just open the door. Grace is available if you recognise your ongoing need of it.

Live for Real Riches

To a church in a city that was awash with riches Jesus ends with promises of real riches, eternal riches. Some riches that are, and some that will be, theirs when they repent.

Some are present riches; (18)faith, cleansed white robes which signify forgiveness and justification , and spiritual sight. (20)He also promises relationship, fellowship with him for the church if it invites him in. The picture he gives isn’t of a quick hurried drive though meal, it’s of the main meal of the day which was eaten slowly with time spent with one another as much the focus as the food itself. Jesus will come in and dwell within the church now. So that when the spiritually thirst come they will find Jesus, so that the spiritually weary and battered find refreshment for their souls because they meet Jesus there. Don’t we long to be a church like that?

And there is the promise of future riches and reign. (21-22)Those who overcome will share in the riches of Jesus reign, in fact they will reign with him. That picture of reign and throne points us on to chapters 4-5 where that throne and majesty and might is pictured. God reigning supreme and sovereign, worshipped for all eternity with his redeemed singing his and the lambs praise. A future where fellowship, relationship with Jesus and God the Father continues unbroken and unspoilt for eternity.

As Jesus finishes this letter with a call to listen the question is will they? Will we? It ends with a call to return to our Saviour and experience again his grace, to drink deep of it, and live life drinking of it. To be refreshed and go on refreshed in him as we make him Lord of his Church. As we long for a certain future.

Revelation 3:1-6 The Dying Church

Here are the discussion questions and notes from LightHouse recently:

“There is no such thing as harmonious co-existence between the church and the world, for where there is no conflict it is because the world has taken over”. Do you agree or disagree?

As Jesus writes to the church at Sardis he reveals himself as the one who holds the Seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. In other words he’s the one who holds the church in his hands, who is in control of it, who sees what is going on in it, whose Spirit is at work in it. The church will answer to him, he is its head and he knows it. But he also knows what privileges have been given to it, the Spirit is at work in the church, and in the Spirit the church has been given it everything it needs to flourish in godliness and to bring him glory.

But as Jesus reveals what he sees it does not make comfortable reading. This is a church that is on the edge of death, it’s in a coma and only a short step from the graveyard. There’s little to commend and even what there is to commend simply highlights the decay and death all around it. Sardis stands as a warning against the end result of a creeping spiritual complacency, of failing to live for Christ, of creeping compromise with the world.

Complacency always results in a drift towards death not life

Reputation matters, marketing matters, appearance matters. Bigger, glossier, louder, better. Everyone has a PR department, companies specialise in ensuring you have a positive on-line presence. Some even set themselves up specifically for churches. Your reputation matters. Sardis had the reputation side of things cracked. Whether it was how they thought of themselves or more likely the way others thought of them. They had the reputation of being alive.

So Jesus words would have hit them with a jolt! “I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.” Can you imagine the shock, the nodding heads followed by the dumbfounded expressions? Jesus sees through the reputation to the reality. That’s worth us remembering, whilst we may be able to fool those around us as to how we are spiritually, even where we are as a church – Jesus knows. He isn’t taken in, he doesn’t worry about our reputation he knows the reality. No matter how we try to keep things hidden Jesus knows.

We know that the believers in Sardis heard the gospel(3), that they began well(2) but now they have stalled, they have fallen into a coma. There is no progress, no desire, no appetite. And unlike the other churches there is no mention here of false teaching or of external persecution. They have stopped fighting the battle, they have compromised(4) the majority of the church have soiled their robes. They have settled in to the culture and because the culture doesn’t seem overtly hostile the culture has influenced and infected the church.

The church mirrors the city. Sardis was an amazing fortress, it was almost impregnable. It had huge walls and was surrounded by cliffs, in fact only twice in its history had it fallen to an enemy at its gates. And both times it was because of a lack of watchfulness. Twice watchman left a seemingly safe part of the city walls unguarded only for a small enemy force to scale the cliffs and open the doors to the city to the enemy. A lack of watchfulness has cost the city and led to its defeat and it is the same for the church.

It’s as if their safety and security has lulled them to sleep, it’s led them not to live a distinctively different gospel life. Their deeds are incomplete and they’ve stopped being different, they’ve stopped being alert and they’re in terrible danger.

The church has become a dormitory for sleepy saints, no longer fighting, no longer living distinctively. And it’s only a short step from being a dormitory to becoming a cemetery. And Jesus is horrified at what has happened to his church he died for. And he warns them that unless they recognise their state and do something he will come to them as judge. 

Don’t be too harsh on Sardis, don’t be too quick to condemn them. Because of all the churches this one perhaps most closely parallels the church in Britain. Comfort, ease and social acceptability leading the church to lack urgency, to fall into an evangelistic-less passionless, truth compromised stupor. And then to assume that’s the norm and settle into this comfort and begin to die.

It’s also a very real danger for us as a church and as individuals. To become complacent, to expect welcome and ease. And because we’ve become used to that not to be prepared for conflict, and when we experience it to be taken aback and instinctively want to appease, to compromise in order to enjoy the comfort and welcome we’ve become used to. To simply fit into the culture and mute distinctive Christ like living. To simply drift into spiritual apathy.

But complacency always results in a drift towards death not life. Compromise is dangerous, and apathy is a spiritual killer.

Wake Up!

Having delivered his loving warning Jesus exhorts this church to do five things in order to wake up. Because he is the one who can raise the dead, even dead churches!

a. Wake Up

They need to recognise reality, to accept Jesus diagnosis and throw off their spiritual sleepiness. They aren’t tired because they’re exhausted they are tired because they’re apathetic, they just aren’t bothered, and Jesus says wake up or else. There’s no room in the church for apathy! There is no way it is right to respond to the gospel with apathy. They need to be alert to the danger that they are in. If not they will never heed his warning.

b. Strengthen what remains

The church isn’t past the point of no return. They aren’t beyond rescue. There’s still a righteous remnant who have stayed faithful, who haven’t compromised, who have stayed awake, who are living out the gospel. The church is on the brink but not yet beyond it. If they will strengthen and support where it’s needed, if they will listen to this faithful few and live like them and learn from them then there is hope. But they need to act, they need to shake of their apathy and start being active.

c. Remember

Keep on remembering what you were taught. This church has heard the gospel, they responded to the gospel in the past. But time and complacency has led to compromise, forgetfulness and apathy. They need to remember what they were taught, and to keep on remembering it. They are to teach the gospel again and again. They are to recall what they have been taught, not just apathetically let it drift over them, but ensure they take it in and remember it. 

d. hold it fast

Means not just hear it but to put it into action, to obey what they remember, what they were taught. The gospel is not theory it is truth which brings radical practical transformation which impacts everything. It changes the way you see the world and calls you to live as Christ’s.

e. Repent

The church needs to be convicted of its sin and apathy and change. It needs to respond not just in action but from the heart. Jesus words should produce shock and godly sorrow for its apathy and complacency. It needs to turn around and live for its Saviour.

And it must do these things urgently or Christ will come and judge the church when they don’t expect it(3).

We need to stop here and ask ourselves both personally and as a church have I fallen asleep? Has apathy lulled us? Has complacency crept up on us?

Are we living for Christ? Are we living differently to those around me or are we compromising?

Am I spiritually apathetic? Am I continually learning more about what Christ has done for me and what it means to be in him? Is that fuelling my devotion and my love or are they just words and ideas on a page? Is that impacting my life? Am I putting it into action? Am I changing as I understand more of who I now am in Jesus? How have I changed in the last 6 months?

Or am drifting? And more worryingly am I content to drift? If we find we are we need to repent, to wake up, to put these things in place. Jesus is in the business of bring the dead to life of breathing life into dead bones. He lovingly warns because he longs for us to repent.

The Faithful few are not forgotten

I want you to notice very carefully that Jesus doesn’t condemn the whole church, Jesus knows not just the reputation and reality of the church but the reputation and reality of each individual part of that church. He knows some are comatose but some are living. Some have soiled their garments some have not. Some are apathetic whilst others are pressing on. I think there’s a lesson for us in that, don’t blanket condemn churches or denominations. That’s not our job.

In fact as Jesus encourages the faithful few that he will welcome them and they will be dressed in pure robes washed in his blood, that they’ll be welcomed and find their names in the book of life and be confessed and acknowledged on the last day. Just as Jesus knows the apathy and complacency of some he knows the faithful living of others. And notice he doesn’t tell them to leave the church. In fact they are the hope of the church for revival. Jesus sees this faithful few as the potential spark which could reignite the quickly cooling embers of the Church in Sardis.

The call is to live as the faithful few. Don’t compromise, recognise the battle, see the battle lines, listen and respond and follow your Saviour, longing for your victors welcome.

But we also need to pray for those who find themselves in sleeping churches, who are the faithful few. I think of a friend of mine who is a minister in a denomination which fits this image of Sardis. Who struggles with the compromise and decay he sees around him. But faithfully calls others back to Christ, who challenges other leaders within the denomination with the truth of the bible, and who teaches the gospel to his congregations. 

You can think of churches within denominations, of people within individual churches. Jesus knows, that is their comfort. As they labour to reignite a passion for Jesus, to turn around the compromise, to transform a church Jesus. We need to pray for them.

Jesus sees, Jesus knows, sometimes a church might be better off if it faced hardship and attack rather than comfort and security. But Jesus can raise a church to new life. He stands ready to warn, to forgive and to welcome.

What blind spots do you think we have in terms of compromising with the world?

Why do you think we fear persecution and false teaching? How might it be beneficial to us as a church and as individuals? How might it not?

When, and how, do you tend to drift towards spiritual complacency? How can others help wake you up?

The Suffering Church - Revelation 2:8-11

The church in Smyrna was a people under pressure. (9)They’re afflicted, they’re suffering. They’re in poverty – often Christians in the first century were from the poorer parts of society, but becoming a Christian could lead to loss of business, loss of jobs, even confiscation of property. Certainly it changed working practices and friendships and connections. You were treated like a social leper and lived on societies margins. Unrecognised, unloved, and voice less. There was no safety net of the welfare estate, no unemployment, incapacity or housing benefit. Within the church those with money shared what they had with those struggling.

Added to that affliction and poverty was the slander they were facing. We don’t know exactly what that looked like, perhaps there were malicious rumours being spread about their faith – we know that at times in history Christians have been accused of incest, of cannibalism and the like. Perhaps it was simply accusing them of subverting the city and Roman rule by refusing to worship the emperor, perhaps it was trying to get their protected religion status revoked. Whatever it was the church felt it keenly, it was having an impact.

Can you imagine how the church felt? Harassed and afflicted, in poverty struggling to make ends meet, slandered and whispered about on every side. But Jesus wants to encourage this church which might be tempted to adopt a siege mentality. To turn in on itself because everyone is against them. He wants them to see the true nature of the world they live in and to know the truth of their situation – Jesus rules, and their future is secure.

See the World ClearlyHow do you think of the world we live in? We tend to think of it as neutral. A bit like a spiritual Switzerland. Places like North Korea and Nigeria are hostile but Britain is not too bad. But the Bible thinks of the world very differently, Smyrna is one of the churches in Asia Peter wrote to. In 1 Peter 1he reminded them that they were scattered exiles living in a hostile world. A world where “your enemy the devil prowls round like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” A world where God’s people are to expect hostility and persecution.

Jesus reminds them of where they live and of the cosmic battle they are part of and that Smyrna is not neutral. The devil is active in oppressing and opposing God’s people, putting them to the test(10). The church is a kingdom outpost in enemy territory, and that brings pressure. There’s a battle to fight, an enemy to be overcome and a victory to persevere for.

But notice specifically in this letter where the slander is coming from. It comes from where? From the Jews. And notice how Jesus describes them they aren’t really Jews, but a synagogue of Satan. That’s a striking phrase isn’t it? God’s people are now those who follow Jesus, the Jews are no longer God’s people, but the Jews in the synagogue in Smyrna are opposing the church. Marking them out as God’s enemies, as those who now do Satan’s bidding, because they align with his goal of destroying God’s kingdom.

How do we see the world? It isn’t neutral. People around us aren’t neutral. Jesus gives us a glimpse into the reality of the spiritual battle that rages all around us. We live in hostile territory, Britain is increasingly open in its hostility. We need to expect hostility and opposition not just from other religions but even from those who claim they serve the same God we serve but do not. Mormons are not Christians, we need to recognise them for what they are. JW’s are not Christians and we must recognise them for what they are. Even churches which though they are churches are liberal and or dead in formalism but which attack us for being fundamentalist, for believing in the Bible, for believing Jesus died as our substitute. We must recognise them for what they are. They are not for Jesus but opposed to him.

What marks out the people of God is faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord and you are either for him or opposed to him.

We need to see the world as Jesus shows it to us. We’re to expect opposition, poverty, and slander. We’re to expect attacks even from those who will claim to worship the same God but don’t. We need to expect hostility, to recognise the opposition, so that we live life expecting it and reliant on Jesus.

Know Jesus Rules NowThe danger in seeing the world as it is, is that the church in Smyrna and we are afraid. That we retreat into a holy huddle, hiding from the big bad world as it huffs and puffs and tries to blow the church down. But Jesus doesn’t want his church to retreat or to be afraid(10) but to be faithful. How can we do that in the face of such opposition? Because it doesn’t only know the world but knows that Jesus is sovereign now, he’s at the Father’s right hand now.

(9)“I know” appears twice. The encouragement for Smyrna is that Jesus sees what’s happening, he knows what his people are facing, and he writes encouraging them that he knows. But he writes to encourage them that more than just knowing he’s working through what they’re suffering to make them rich. In contrast to their material poverty this is a church that is spiritually rich. Again in 1 Peter 1 Peter inspired by the Spirit writes of trials “These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Christ is revealed.”

Through persecution and affliction God is at work, even as the Devil tempts them, to test and refine their faith. What Satan intends to trip them up and tear down God will use to build up and purify their faith. As he weans them from a love of comfort and the world, as he causes them to long for his kingdom come, as they entrust themselves to his care, know his love and live in the light of their confidence in his rule over history and in the resurrection.

This church may be poor materially but they’re storing up for themselves treasures in heaven. As they face the present they are secure because God is at work bringing good and glory out of the opposition they face. That doesn’t lessen the struggle but it does make the struggle purposeful.

We have that same confidence. When we face opposition we ought not to ask why but what is God teaching me? What is he weaning me from? How is he changing my loves and refining my treasures? How is he weaning me from the world to trust in him? God’s concern is not for our comfort but for our Christlikeness. Is that how we see opposition? Do we rest in Christ’s rule and purpose?

Faith in your ultimate Future should impact your short term living Jesus is sovereign not just over the present but the future. (10)He warns them that they face a period of intense persecution, which will bring imprisonment, and for some even death. But it’ll be for a limited period, 10 days, not literally but a time of testing which will be temporary and have an end. Jesus calls them to not fear but to be faithful. How can they do that? By having their faith fixed on their ultimate future and secondly because of who promises it.

I guess some of you will have heard the phrase “too heavenly minded to be any earthly use.” It’s a travesty that that phrase has been coined. Because the bible would tell us that being heavenly minded makes us of earthly use. It’s being heavenly minded that leads us to live by faith here and now, to persevere, to endure by faith, to boldly take the gospel to those who persecute and oppose us.

Living aware of their future is what Jesus calls them to here. What is it that awaits those who are faithful even to the point of death? “I will give you a victor’s crown”. The image is drawn from the games that were popular in Smyrna, a victors crown was a sign of recognition and honour for those who won the race. The equivalent of winning an Olympic gold medal. (11) “Those who are victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.” Smyrna may take your physical life but there is a far greater and more dreadful, more permanent judgement which Christ has saved you from. Live with your salvation in mind, live longing to receive from his hand your overcomer’s crown.

Do you see the encouragement here? You will overcome, victory is certain if you hold on. See what is yours already in Christ and be faithful, don’t give up, don’t give in. There’s a reward kept in heaven for you if you run the race faithfully.

Secondly this is certain, you can stake your life on it because of who promises it. (8)“These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.” How do you know there is eternal life to be enjoyed, to long for, and live in the light of? Because of Jesus, he suffered, died, rose again and ascended to the Father’s side. He goes before you, he has set the pattern. He’s the guarantee, currently you share in his suffering but you will share in his resurrection and receive from his hand your crown of glory. Jesus stands waiting to give his faithful persevering saints a welcome and their reward for following him through suffering to glory.

What an encouragement, Jesus isn’t asking his church, us, to do anything he didn’t do. And he doesn’t promise us something he hasn’t proved is ours in him. So listen, hear, take this to heart(11), let it fill your heart with joy, let it fuel your faith, let it capture your vision and let it propel you to live boldly by faith striving to hear his well done. Confident that he has done it all and in him it is all ours.

So what difference did this make? What would it look like to listen and take Jesus words to heart?

Polycarp, was in the church when Revelation was written, he was probably a disciple of John. He went on become bishop of Smyrna and was arrested for not calling Caesar Lord and offering incense to him. Pressure was put on him to worship both Jesus and Caesar; if he recognised both as Lord he would be released. But he wouldn’t so he was sent into the stadium. Even in the stadium the Roman proconsul gave him one more chance: “Swear, and I will release thee; curse the Christ.”

This was Polycarp’s reply: “Eighty six years have I served him, and he hath done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” Polycarp was burnt to death in that stadium.

Why? Because he didn’t fear, because he was faithful to the world as Jesus had shown it to him, to the present as Jesus had revealed it, and his future as Jesus had guaranteed it.

Haggai 2:10-23

Here are the notes from LightHouse last night, with questions

Look at the passage, what surprises you?  What questions do you have?  What don't you understand?

We can’t earn mercy (10-19)

We expect our achievements to be recognised, if we have done something good or worthy we expect at least a pat on the back if not better. And if we don’t receive it we tend to be a bit miffed, to wonder what was the point.

Did you see the surprise in these verses? God has called these returned exiles to rebuild the temple (ch1), to put him first and start rebuilding rather than building for their own comfort. And they have (1:12-15). Now twelve weeks after they began rebuilding Haggai comes to them with another message from God. But it’s not a well done, it’s not a thank you for all your efforts. God doesn’t give his Oscar acceptance speech thanking all those who worked behind the scenes on his temple. No, God’s message is a warning that the problem of sin still remains, building the temple hasn’t solved the problem of sin.

God through Haggai gives the people questions to ask the priest about the law.

Q1. (11) If consecrated meat is carried in the fold of a garment, as they often did, and it touches some bread, stew, wine, olive oil, or other food does the thing touched become consecrated? In other words is holiness contagious? The answer is no.

Q2. (13) If someone who is defined by touching a dead body touches those items of food does the food become defiled? Is defilement, is sin, contagious? The answer is yes.

God applies that lesson to the people (14) “So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,” declares the LORD, “whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.”

Sin defiles, sin is serious, sin and its effects linger. Ch1 opens with Israel in rebellion against God, with them putting other things before him. Living for their comfort and ease and ignoring God and his discipline. The danger for them now was in thinking that building the temple had atoned for their sin. But it doesn’t and God graciously wants them to be clear about that. He loves his people so much that he is not prepared for them to have false comfort, to wrongly think they are right with him.

A good deed, even a great deed, doesn’t cancel out sin. God isn’t a divine auditor balancing the books. Haggai shows us that God is not how our society so often thinks of him. One of the jobs I had growing up on the farm was to help riddle, weigh and bag potatoes. We had a brilliant set of great big wooden scales, big enough that as children we could stand on them. On one side you’d put a 25kg weight, on the other you would put the potatoes and then put more in or take a few out to get the scales to balance. That is the way our society tragically thinks of God. And as he weighs up our life the big question is are there more good deeds than bad? At funerals you hear that outlook when people say that the deceased was a good man he did this or that or the other, they are weighing the deeds, believing or hoping that God thinks like that.

But God won’t let Israel fool themselves with that thinking, and we mustn’t let people fall into that same muddled thinking. We can never make ourselves right with God.

And God doesn’t want us to be fooled either, because that’s also true for us as believers. When we sin we don’t need to do penance, to try and make it up to God. In fact it’s dangerous if we try, because we are effectively cut ourselves off from forgiveness because we’re trying to do it by our own efforts. And that means we will never run to Jesus and the forgiveness we find at the cross.

Israel cannot atone for their own sin. Sin is too serious, to contagious, to damaging for us to ever make it right. Atonement is all by God’s mercy, that is what the sacrifices at the temple pointed to even as they pointed forward to Jesus.

God wants Israel to be clear so that they will run to him for mercy, not rely on inadequate attempts at self atonement.

We can’t earn Grace(15-19)

But that’s not the only thing about God that Israel need to learn. Three times in v15-19 God calls Israel to give “careful thought to”, or to consider, or think carefully about the events of the past and present. It’s a word that focuses on the heart – weighing the heart, motives, emotions, and reactions, as well as actions and events. First of all he asks them to think back to the events of chapter 1when there was no harvest because of their sin and God’s discipline(15-17). Then in (18-19) he calls on them to think about the present, has the situation changed? Do they have a harvest? The answer is no – there’s still no seed in the barn. The vine, fig tree, pomegranates and olive tree haven’t produced a harvest. It’s 12 weeks since they started rebuilding the temple but still there is no harvest.

Why? After all they are now obeying God, they’re doing what he asked them to do. So surely blessing should follow shouldn’t it. On the day they started rebuilding they should have seen harvest shouldn’t they? Why hasn’t there been a harvest in the last 12 weeks? God’s people have obeyed so they should be being blessed now shouldn’t they?

It isn’t just Israel who are tempted to think about God like that is it? God as divine vending machine, we put our spiritual pound in and expect to get out what we ask for. Sometimes we pray like that. We pray for something and expect an immediate answer, and if not start wondering what we’ve done that’s causing the divine log jam. Sometimes we do it in thinking we can make a deal with God, God if you do this I’ll do that.

Is God testing the genuineness of their repentance? Maybe, after all sometimes we follow God and obey because we want something out of it, building our own kingdom even as we give the impression of building God’s.

But I think God is showing Israel and us something far bigger. That he doesn’t owe us, we can never put him in our debt. Just as we can’t earn his mercy we can’t earn his grace and blessing. Obedience doesn’t obligate God to bless.

God provides everything by his grace, it’s not deserved and earned. One of our big issues as a society is that we think we are entitled; entitled to an education, entitled to health, entitled to food, to comfort, to ease, to wealth. As Christians we’ve assumed we are entitled to live persecution free, to be protected by law, to be free to proclaim the gospel. The problem with entitlement is that we just expect those things, we forget that they are God’s blessings. We have not earned them they are all of God’s grace.

We need to be careful here that we don’t take and twist this so that God becomes an ogre, a divine monster or scrooge who we have to wring blessing from unwillingly. No look at v19, “From this day on I will bless you.” Here’s the question do Israel deserve God’s blessing? No. Yes, they have started work on the temple. Yes, they are rebuilding, but they are still sinners, they are still in debt, they are still spiritually bankrupt. They haven’t done anything to deserve blessing. They are totally dependent on God’s grace.

We desperately need to learn this lesson. God is a good gracious loving God who loves to give. We see that around us every day, when we wake up and draw breath, every moment when we experience good health, or even ill health but medical care. But we never earn it, we haven’t done anything to deserve it, it is purely because of the gracious character of God.

And that ought to humble us. We haven’t provided it for ourselves, even if it may look on the surface like we have. We have been given it, blessed by a loving heavenly father. And that ought to make us profoundly thankful as we experience God’s everyday undeserved grace to us.

Hope in the house that God builds(20-23)

(19)Ends with a promise of present blessing, undeserved but graciously given. (20-23)Lift the people’s eyes and hopes up from present blessing to future blessing. And calls them to live now looking and longing for God’s future. A day when that sin, which infected everything, is dealt with when God’s kingdom will come because his king will come.

Turn to 2 Samuel 7 for a minute. Here David wants to build God a house. But amazingly God says that instead he’ll build David a house. A house and kingdom which never ends. Where a new king of David’s line will rule forever over everything in a new way.

That promise looked in doubt when the Babylonians swept into Judah and carried the people into exile. When the Davidic line was swept from the throne. In Jeremiah 22:24 God is pictured tearing his signet ring off his finger and giving it to Babylon. The signet ring is the king from the line of David who is taken into exile. Now the exiles are back but that promise still looks so tenuous, so fragile – like the petals on a rose in the burning heat of the sun.

But look here at the promise (23), Zerubbabel is spoken of not just as the LORD’s signet ring but as God’s servant, chosen by God. All language used of David and of the Davidic dynasty and king. Zerubabbel is of the line of David and God is saying that he is not finished with the Davidic line and promises yet.

Zerubbabel is God’s signet ring, he has been God’s representative, God’s leader, he has brought Israel back to God, led them to rebuild the temple, against the wishes of their opponents, re-establishing God’s shadow kingdom on earth. But Zerubbabel is just a type, a sign, a foreshadowing of a greater Davidic king, one who will be the Messiah, the king who will bring God’s kingdom.

The one who will shake the heavens and the earth, overturning rulers, throne and powers(22). A shaking which happens once at the cross, when the powers are defeated and finally when he returns and his reign which begins at the cross is established fully. When every opponent will be forced to confess him as the king they refused to bow the knee to. But when God’s a people whose sin has been atoned for will know God’s presence, God’s rule, God’s kingdom.

God’s present blessing is never deserved, God’s grace and mercy are not earned they’re a gift from God. Just as salvation and his kingdom aren’t earned they are a gift from God in Jesus. Live now looking and longing for the kingdom, hopeful and grateful for what God is doing and what he certainly do. Don’t settle for what you do long for what God has done and promises he will do.

Don’t despair, don’t give up or give in. Put your hope in God, in his coming king, in the kingdom he will bring. A kingdom we cannot earn our way into but which is given by God’s grace and mercy shown to us in the king who will die for his people, and rise again guaranteeing our new life.

What are we tempted to think earns God’s favour? 

What stops us being thankful to God? 

God keeps his promises, how can we help one another live in the light of them?

Haggai 1 - God's call to get Building

Here are the notes from LightHouse last night on Haggai 1.

 

Israel and Judah have been taken into exile in Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple have been destroyed. They have been allowed to return, just as God said, by Cyrus and began to rebuild both the city and the temple. But it hasn’t been without difficulty, there’s been opposition and hardship and the people are disheartened and discouraged and have stopped building the temple.

Now it is 520BC and Darius is king and in his second year Haggai brings God’s message to God’s people.

Prioritise God

One of our problems with Haggai is his focus on the temple. We don’t have a temple, the church building isn’t the equivalent, in fact Jesus challenges the role of the temple in his ministry, and in Acts worship moves away from the temple.

But in the Old Testament the temple was hugely significant to the people of God. Turn to 1 Kings 8, here we see Solomon praying as he dedicates the temple, he acknowledges that (27-30)the temple cannot contain God but is a place where God chooses to dwell with his people. It’s a significant sign to God’s people that God hears their prayers(31-32), brings justice(33-36), and forgives sin. The temple was even a place where foreigners could call on God(41f). It was the centre of social, religious and political life for the people of God, and when it was destroyed they were devastated. We don’t have an equivalent, but the closest would be if in one terrorist attack Buckingham Palace, Canterbury Cathedral/St Pauls, and the Houses of Parliament were all destroyed at the same time.

God’s presence was what set Israel apart from the nations around them, what made them distinctive and the temple was the visible reminder and evidence of that. No temple, no sacrifice, no atonement, no identity as the people of God.

Do you see why this was such a devastating blow to the people of God? The issue isn’t about a building. The modern application of this book in its call to rebuild the temple is not to build a church building, or to refurbish it or put a new roof on it. That is trivialise and externalise God’s message and his concern. This book is not about buildings but about the place God occupies in our lives. For us there is no temple to build, no sacred building because in Christ we are filled with the Spirit and become the temple as we meet together as living stones.

But the problem in Haggai’s day is that people have given up building(2-4). God doesn’t just know that they have stopped building but he has heard their excuses for doing so. “The time has not yet come.” We would build the temple but the time isn’t right, we need to wait a bit longer. Maybe they were waiting for opposition to totally stop then they could rebuild safely without any threat to worry about. Or perhaps they were waiting until they were less busy working on their own homes and security, then they’d have time to dedicate to God. Maybe they were waiting to be wealthier, or have more skilled builders so they could do a better job of rebuilding. Or they maybe they were waiting for a sign that now was God’s time for them to continue building the temple.

Whatever the reasons (3-4)God knows that they were just excuses “Is it time for you to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” You see the contrast God is making you have time to build your own elegant, opulent homes, wealth enough to invest in panelling, time enough to give to that, but not to rebuilding the temple.

You see what God is saying don’t you? Time isn’t the problem priority is. They are concerned about the wrong house. They’ve become consumed with their own comfort and prosperity and concern for God has been pushed to the margins. And God highlights his glory and majesty in how he reveals himself to them, he is Yahweh – the I am, the eternal one, the creator and sustainer. But he also reveals himself here as Lord Almighty – that is the God of heavens armies – the one who is glorious. And yet you won’t rebuild my house. You are not concerned to make the most of my promises, my presence, you are unmoved by the chance to return to what you were.

It brings to mind Matthew 7 “seek first the kingdom of God.” We’re prone to the same problem, the problem of distraction. To get taken up with, or find our time and energy consumed by things other than the glory of God. We struggle with exactly what they did, in terms of building our homes rather than God’s kingdom either through preoccupation with work and earning more, or by a focus on our nuclear family, or in a hundred other ways.

And we are just as good at making excuses as they were. The time hasn’t yet come because... the children are too young, I just need to do this first, work is really busy, I need my time off to rest and so on...

In the same way God cuts through their excuses and calls them to think about their hearts and the place they’ve give him he calls us to think us tonight. Whose kingdom am I seeking? Not mentally but when I examine my direct debits and my diary?

Trusting God to secure our Future

We live in a consumer society where we satisfaction is only a purchase away, where there is always something more to get, to attain, to experience, to have. There is always a better way to be satisfied to be fulfilled, and the warning is don’t stop or you’ll fall behind. Security is having the next best thing, be it investments, gadgets, fashion, whatever.

There is nothing new under the sun because that’s exactly where Israel find themselves(6-9). But God has a shock in store for them, they can’t find fulfilment because he isn’t letting them, they can’t find security in having enough because he’s teaching them to find their security in him, to trust him to secure their future.

(5-6)Whatever they do they don’t have enough, life is like a purse with holes in it – isn’t that a great picture – doesn’t life sometimes seem like that?

And the surprise here is (9-11)God says that’s his doing, not because he doesn’t love them but because he does. Barrenness is not because God has left them, it’s because through it God is lovingly disciplining them. He wants their life to be better than they could possibly make it even if their effort succeeded, because true security will only ever be found in him.

In fact God’s discipline has been just as he promised it would be if his people forgot about him in Deuteronomy 28, drought, a lack of harvest and so on. God loves them and wants to bless them but won’t allow them to be satisfied without him – because that wouldn’t be real satisfaction.

Let me just pause there to address the issue of blessing. Sometimes I think we’re a bit squeamish about the idea of blessing as a reaction against the prosperity gospel, but there is a danger in that which leaves us thankless for what we have. Does God want to bless us? Yes God does, and some of those blessings are material. If you have a home, a car, an education above primary level, a job, an income you are blessed. Family and children are blessings from God, leisure time is a blessing from God, your church family is a blessing from God. I could go on. Recognising God blesses us isn’t saying that God wants us to have a Mercedes, a mansion, model wife or husband and a million. What I’m saying is that God’s blessing is in his supplying our needs. Think back to Matt 7 “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Jesus promises that god will provide and as a result of his loving Fatherly nature. Unless we get that God blesses us in our everyday provision we won’t be thankful.

But what God is teaching here is that he won’t allow his people to be satisfied by things that only satisfy temporarily. God delights in a people who seek him, who live trusting him. The key to security isn’t found in work, in our bank balance, in stuff, it’s in knowing God who provides.

That is so counter cultural. Our society seeks security in working harder, longer, smarter, better. But God says re-orientate your living. We will only put God first if we trust that he will provide everything else we need, that he will provide security.

What will this look like?

It isn’t an excuse for laziness, notice (8)God calls them to work. But it is a call to trust God. It might look like turning down a promotion or overtime so that you can go to gospel group, or serve in church. It might mean not taking a job elsewhere in the country because you’re committed to God’s kingdom in this location. It might mean not working Sunday’s on study, or encouraging our children not to do school work on Sundays. It will mean ensuring we encourage our children to read and understand the Bible and serve in the church as much as we teach them phonics times tables or push them at school. Because we know what will bring security is seeking God’s kingdom not trying to secure life ourselves.

What will secure our future and our children’s? Seeking God’s kingdom, knowing that he lovingly will provide.

Putting God firstHere’s my confession, I find it hard as a preacher not to be envious of Haggai. Haggai gets to see in a short time span what pastors and preachers long to see when they share God’s word with people. (12-15)The leaders respond and lead the people to repent, a repentance seen in their recognition that the charge God makes is just and the rebuilding restarting. And notice God encourages their response. It’s as if God is longing for them to respond so much that he is just waiting for them to start and then he stirs them up even more.

God comforts them with his presence with them, as they seek him he will be found by them and be with them. God is like the Father running out to welcome his run away son home again. God works to discipline, call his people and stir up his people and willingly waits to bless, comfort and empower his people. And as they build they find they have everything they need, there was no need to wait.

As we examine our hearts, as we consider we have that same promise but magnified. We aren’t called to build a physical temple but to be living stones being built up into God’s temple where his Spirit dwells as we meet together. This isn’t just a call to individuals to put God first but to commit to a community where we put God first in terms of our commitment to one another and to ensuring one another goes on and grows(1 Peter 2:5).

Putting God first is a call we need to hear. ‘Consider your ways’, look at your heart, look at your actions, commitments, your anxieties, your security. Am I trusting God? Am I putting him first?

Do I need to repent? Do I need to realign my priorities with his? Seeking first God’s kingdom is not an individual task, it’s a communal commitment. We seek God as we hear his word and put it into action in our lives, living equipped with our eyes fixed on Jesus. As we love others by giving generously to meet needs be it of our wealth or time because we love and trust God who promises to provide.

Here are the discussion questions we discussed afterwards:

1. What stops us putting God first? 

2. Do you think of yourself as blessed, why or why not? How can we be more thankful? 

3. What does it look like to seek God’s kingdom?

Loving the Church as God Does: A Loving Family (1 John 4:7-12)

Here are the notes and discussion questions from yesterday:

What are the blockers that stop us loving one another?

1 John is written to a church riddled with doubts. False teachers have been active (2:26) teaching and leading people to leave the church and follow them. Leaving the rest of the church confused and bewildered. Are we saved or not? Do we have the truth or not? Did Jesus come, was he the Messiah, was he God made flesh? How do we know if we are saved or not? What does following Jesus look like? What should we believe? What does that look like lived out? Do Christians sin? Does it matter? How should we react when we do? What should a church look like?

John writes to clear up confusion and strengthen the weak and battered. He explains that false teachers were always coming, that naturally light and darkness cannot co-exist together so those influenced by false teachers left the church. He explains that following Jesus means living distinctively from the world, being different. And as John strengths the weak, comforts the doubting, and teaches the confused. The truth of the gospel isn’t rebuilding individual it is actively rebuilding a community.

As he does so we see some distinctive marks of the Church, not just this church but every church, our Church. A church that is distinctive from the culture around it, a church which is built on knowing Jesus as the Messiah and having experienced God’s love in Jesus by the Spirit loves one another. Truth and love are the two pillars upon which John seeks to rebuild this church. Truth about who Jesus is and how that calls us to live alive in the truth. And love for others seen in 1001 little everyday actions and reactions.

We are going to focus tonight on love, how we as a church are called to love each other and how we can grow in this love, and express this love to others.

Twice in these verses (7, 11)John calls the church to love one another. But notice something he isn’t calling them to do something he isn’t. How does he start both verses? “Dear friends,” the word he actually uses means dearly loved, or beloved. John isn’t saying you need to do it, John writes to a people he loves to encourage them to love one another just as he loves them. John models this love. It’s one of the contrasts the Bible makes again and again between false teachers who don’t love anyone but themselves and are out for what they can get and genuine bible teachers who love and serve as Christ did.

But we need to stop and ask what is this love? When we talk about love we instantly filter it through social lenses – family love, romantic love and so on. What love is this?

The word used comes from the root word ‘agape’, and it’s a distinctly Christian love. It is the love which God has for his Son and his people which is active, and it’s the love which God’s people return to him and show to one another. It isn’t an emotion, though it isn’t emotional less. But it isn’t a love that depends upon how we feel, it’s not to be a love flickers on and off depending on how I feel. It is a love which is determined, decisive, active and takes the initiative.

But how do we love like that? John begins by showing the church and us how we are loved.

See how you are loved
John doesn’t tell us to love and then explain the consequences if we fail to. What John does is tell us to love and then show us how loved we have been. In effect he’s trying to light a fire and uses two sources of fuel to set our hearts on fire with love.

a. God loved us(7-8)
This sort of love is distinctive and comes from God. God is love, God in Trinity has always loved, there has never been a time when God did not love, when the Father didn’t love the Son and the Spirit, and the Son love the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit love the Father and the Son. God has always loved from eternity past to eternity future, love lies at the very core of his being, it is perfect it delights in the truth, in justice, in righteousness, in relationship.

And wanting to share that love and joy is what led Father, Son and Spirit to act in creation. God isn’t stingy, God didn’t need us to make himself complete, or because he wanted to be loved a little more. God is love and so he created to share love and so that he could give away of himself, to invite us to share in his love, to taste it, to enjoy it, and pass it on.

Do you see how you are loved! God is love! And we are able to love others this way because we know this love because we know God. In fact says John if we don’t love its the key indicator that we don’t love God, because you can’t know God and not know love. If you think you know God and yet don’t love then you only know a God of your imagination! Not the God of Trinity, of the bible, of love.

b. God’s love displayed (9-10)
But God doesn’t just write his love in creation around us and leave us to discover it for ourselves. God shows his love in God the one and only Son becoming human, coming into the world. God’s love is seen in the Father sending, and the Son coming, and the Spirit working as Jesus draws that first breath filling his lungs, as he cries when he experienced pain and sickness, when he wept as his heart broke at death, sickness, illness, rejection, fear. Every moment of Jesus life is God’s shout of God’s love.

And then (10) God the Son, back torn and bloodied, rejected, hated, spit dribbling down his head and beard mixing with blood and dust, hangs on a cross. By the Spirit offering himself to his Father crying out “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Taking our sin, making us right with God, showing us his love not as some grand romantic gesture but as the most costly, but necessary, rescue ever.

God’s love is concrete, it’s his character, and is displayed in history, you can’t ever doubt it for long, at the cross God has shown once and for all decisively that he loves and the length to which his love would go. The empty cross strands as an eternal declaration of God’s love. That’s why when someone is struggling to see that God loves for them we supremely need to teach them the gospel, help them rediscover the wonder of the cross and the empty tomb for themselves, just as John does here.

John writes to this bruised and battered, confused and conflicted church and says you are loved. Don’t doubt it, look at God and his character, look at the cross. Feed, and feast on the love of God.

The most amazing thing of all: Called to love as God loves (7,11,12)
Having piled the fuel on the fire, or set up the banqueting table for this church to feast on. John shows them and us perhaps the most amazing thing of all. When the church meets together it’s never ordinary, it is never mundane, but always extraordinary. (12) “No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

Isn’t that a mind boggling statement? If we love each other as God has loved us two things happen; God is made visible through us to the world and his love is perfected and completed in us together. As we love one another like this, as we forgive, serve, and give of ourselves for others, as we live self-sacrificially, graciously, mercifully the unseen God lives in us and is seen.

As we love one another in the local church it’s as if the circuit board of God’s love is made complete and the neon lights can come on displaying God’s love to the world and beyond. And the church was designed by God for just that to happen, God’s love reaches its goal as united in the truth of the gospel and filled by the Spirit we love each other like this.

But notice that it is conditional, “if we love like this...” It is possible to meet together and fall short of this. In fact in a church bruised and battered, feeling raw and sore then this is a real challenge isn’t it? There’s George whose best friend has left the church having been lead away by false teaching, unsure if he wants to open up to run the risk of getting that hurt again. There’s Sam who feels so guilty that everyone knows she nearly lost her faith and was almost led away and isn’t sure she wants to open up in case she is judged and rejected. There’s the Smith family who actually think they may just be better off doing family devotions everyday than being with this church of basket cases, there is just too much rawness, won’t it just be too hard love such broken people. And finally, John who is unsure whether to stay because there are so many doctrinal truths that need the foundations relaying, so much confusion, wouldn’t he be better somewhere else?

But John says see how, just as you are, you are loved, just feast on the love God has for you, kneel again in amazement at the cross, know that God loves you and cares for you. Know that he isn’t done with you. Be amazed, have your heart warmed and fed by the sheer scale, cost and majesty of God’s love and out of the overflow you will love others.

So how do we love like this?
a. See God rightly – we must fight in a culture that sees God as killjoy, as boring, as harsh and judgemental, or senile and irrelevant, to see God as he really is. We must fight in a national church context where there is so much legalism and so many misunderstandings about God’s holiness and love to know God as he really is. If we don’t see and know God as loving we won’t joyfully live and love others, because God will never be more than a tyrant and his love will never thrill and warm and overfill our hearts.

In CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters a senior demon writes to a junior demon: “One must face the fact that all the talk about his [God’s] love for man and His service being perfect freedom, is not mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with lots of loathsome little replica’s of Himself – creatures, whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like his own, not because he has absorbed them but because their will freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over.”

That’s why the bible must be taught in a way that leads us back again and again to the truth of the gospel.

b. We can’t manufacture this love only catch it – This is God’s love spilling out of our hearts to others, that means we can’t simply whip ourselves up to love like this. Instead as we feed on the love of God for us we will then be enabled to love others. As we understand how unlovely we were and yet how loved, how we broke God’s heart and yet he healed ours we will be able to love and forgive others even when they have broken our hearts. And it is maximising the flow of this gospel of grace in the church that will enable us to love.

c. This is a community love – You can’t love yourself like this, you can only love others like this. That means we need to commit to be together, not just in the good times but the hard. We need others to love actively, to serve, to grow alongside of, who will love us enough to want to see Christ formed in us as a community together.

Discussion Questions:
What does not loving others say about us?  How can we help one another love?

Think really practically about our context, how can we better love one another?

Loving the Church as God does: God’s people growing Ephesians 4:1-16

Here are the notes and discussion questions from lightHouse:

What is God’s purpose for the church?

In Ephesians Paul expands our thinking about who we are in Christ. In terms of what’s ours, what church is, what God’s plan and purpose is, and where we’re headed. (1:3) We have every spiritual blessing in Christ. (1:10) God’s big plan is to unite everything in heaven and on earth under Christ. (1:23) Having been saved we are made part of Christ’s body, the church, and there we find and enjoy the fullness of Christ. (3:10) The Church is vital to God’s plan, to his being glorified, because it displays his glory and wisdom to the cosmos. (3:21) In the church God is at work powerfully to bring glory to himself.

Is that how you think of church and its purpose? Paul writes to a church split by racial tensions and lifts their eyes up to see what God has made them, what he’s doing in them, and what that will achieve. Paul spends 3 chapters looking at this glorious image of God’s church in Christ filled with the Spirit.

I wonder what you make of that? Many of us look at the ideal and struggle to match that up with what we see in our church. For some of us that’s because of bad experiences of church, or because we’ve been hurt by Christians in the past and we have the spiritual scar tissue to prove it. For some it’s because we mistakenly think this vision of church is about big and we aren’t big. The problem if we find ourselves thinking like that is cynicism, and it is the result of a gap in expectation between the ideal and the real. And often that means we settle for less, we don’t want to be hurt so we think of church in a lesser way than the bible does, we participate in a lesser way. What we’re effectively saying is God you’re wrong, that’s the ideal but we live in a world where that could never happen.

As we come to ch 4-6 God through Paul wants to ensure that this great vision of His church in Christ doesn’t just stay as an unreachable ideal, but that it becomes real there in Ephesus. And here at Grace Church. How is that possible? We see two key things that make this ideal reality:

From ideal to real: united and driven by grace 
The film Enchanted plays with this idea of the ideal v reality. A Disney princess is sent from her fairy tale world to New York where her ideas of life lived happily ever after clash with the real world cynicism of a divorce lawyer. It’s dangerous if we think like that about the church and what we read here in Ephesians. Because Paul isn’t writing about an unreal Church but real church, we see that (1-6). Believers are called to live together as those saved by grace in Jesus, reconciled and united by the Spirit. You are a new people live like a new people, is the call.

What that will look like is fleshed out in ch4-6. And it isn’t unrealistic instead there’s a gritty realism even in these opening verses. It means applying the grace and love you’ve experienced in Christ to everyday life together. The call (2) to live humbly, gently, patiently and bearing with one another in love is just so real. Paul is saying you will need to do all these things, and you are called and equipped to do them. It takes the ideal of Church and makes it real.

Just think about the church in Ephesus, Jews and Gentiles united together. Different viewpoints, social expectations, manners, ideals, habits, dreams, and so on. God isn’t unrealistic he doesn’t expect Church to be a place where sparks don’t fly. God knows the power of sin but also the even greater power of grace and love. Sin means there will be miscommunication, misunderstandings, culture clashes and just plain old sin in the church, and every individual in church. But the wonder of the church is that it’s a place where we expect such things. Not in a defeatist way, but because we have a right view of sin and the human heart. And we have an even bigger view of the gospel of grace so we meet sin with forgiveness and love.

Those attitudes in church liberate us to take our masks off and be real about our sins and struggles. It frees us to slay the dragon of pride as it rears up in our hearts because we know we will find forgiveness not fault finding. It frees us from the enslaving fear of being misunderstood or rejected. And instead encourages us that we can share because the other person will always love, assume the best of and accept us.

God’s church is a place where each member values others and actively seeks their best interests above their own. Where we lay aside our rights not fight for them. Where we permit failure, endure wrong and apply grace and forgive. Where we love others as God loves and forgives us. That doesn’t mean we let sin run unchecked, but we discipline sin applying love and grace and aiming for restoration and reconciliation. We combat sin with grace and love.

Just think about what church would be like if it wasn’t like this, if we were called to live the opposite way:  'As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live as if the gospel call you received makes no difference. Don't be humble rather put yourself first in every situation, trample others, insist on your rights, get your own way. Don't suffer fools or forgive those who sin against you, instead be bitter and vengeful, telling others what they have done to you. And above all remember that the hard won peace Jesus secured between you isn't really worth fighting for, just settle for arms length relationships if that’s easier.

Our problem with church isn’t idealism unrealised and leading to cynicism, but not grasping the Bible’s teaching on the power of sin and the even greater power of grace. Only holding those two together will we keep on growing in our love of Christ and our application of the gospel of grace together.

And as we live like that constantly putting to death self then we’ll be making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. Notice that we don’t create unity in the Church. God has done that by the Spirit, but we work to maintain it. The Spirit has broken down the dividing walls, he has joined us together, the call is to live out that identity, to maintain unity.

What is the only thing that can destroy the church? It’s not Satan, it isn’t governments or powers, it’s Christians who bite, fight and devour each other. Christians who put the gospel on the shelf rather than to work in relationships. Christians who fail to repent and love and bear with and live out grace. God unites us by the gospel and gives us the Spirit to keep the gospel active among us so that we continue to live out that unity.

Do you see the realism of this glorious vision? Doesn’t your heart long for it? How will we make it happen? By confessing, by repenting, by loving.

From ideal to real: equipped to love
If (1-6) stress the need to maintain unity by living by grace, then (7-13) emphasise that God hasn’t just left us to get on with it, but he gives us his Spirit and Christ gives the church gifts to enable us to make the ideal real.

(11) Details some of those gifts, the apostles and prophets are the foundation on which the church is built. Evangelists and pastor-teachers teach and apply that word to God’s people. But notice that it doesn’t stop at teaching. Christ didn’t give gifts so people taught the gospel of grace. Christ gave the church people with these gifts (12) to activate and equip the whole church to serve, so that together the church becomes mature and united, and more like Christ.

Again one of our problems with church is our individual mindset, we think of maturing as an individual thing. That’s wrong, the bible says it’s a corporate thing. We grow as we love and serve others, as we give more and more of ourselves to see Christ formed in others.

As a church we mustn’t just be focused on being bible teaching, but bible learning and applying. The fruit we want to see isn’t people saying thanks for the talk, or even discussing it, good though that can be, but changing together. Serving, using their gifts humbly for the good of others, meeting needs they see, forgiving quickly, reconciling readily, not letting anything cause division.

And it is vital that each (16) part does its work. All equipped to serve and love, but also all equipped to speak the truth in love to one another. That’s why God gives the church people with teaching gifts. So that we are all trained and equipped to use our practical gifts and speak the gospel to one another. So that the gospel is active among us.

This isn’t the image of an uneasy truce, it’s not the cosy country club, or the friendship where certain subjects are out of bounds. This is a real, robust loving commitment to one another’s good, to want to see Christ formed in one another. As we’ve already said, sometimes it’ll mean sparks fly. But because humility, love, grace, acceptance, forgiveness are the foundation of the church then we’re free to speak and listen knowing we love and are loved.

Let’s just stop here and draw some applications from this:
Church isn’t an optional extra its God’s means to make us more like Jesus. We won’t become more like Christ on our own. We need to be in a gospel community.

Church is all about relationships. You can be in church but not be in church. We need to be making the most of getting to know people so that we can speak the truth to one another.

Bible Talks aren’t enough. Listening to the bible being taught isn’t enough. It’s a starting point, it’s the launch platform. It is what we do with it together that will see us grow. So how can we make what we hear active. Could we discuss it together with our family? Could we meet in the week to talk honestly about how we are getting on putting it into practice? Can we be sharing what God has encouraged us with, challenged us with?

Grace must be the theme of our relationships and teaching. We fear this sort of church, why? Being exposed, people knowing my sin and failing, but we forget the other side continually having grace applied to our lives would be liberating not crushing. Having my sin exposed but being pointed beyond myself to Jesus doesn’t bring grief but joy. If grace isn’t the language we teach and speak to each other the church will rip one another apart. To speak the truth without love destroys.  Sometimes we settle for speaking the truth without the love, or we love and think that means not speaking the truth.  Only grace allows and calls us to hold the two together.

Think of church a bit like an engine, what happens if there is no oil in the engine, it grates and rips and tears itself apart. But if grace is being taught and applied and is the oil in the engine, then the friction produces momentum, and movement forward towards maturity. If there is no grace there is grinding and tearing and destruction.

There are a number of right responses to seeing this vision of church:
- Repent of lack of love
- Confess and ask forgiveness for the way we have failed in the past
- Praise God for his glorious vision
- Pray for his help to live like this
- Commit to building these relationships
- Listen to the gospel taught and apply it again and again and again.