A bigger grasp of grace - that is foundational to discipling others well. Turn to 2 Timothy 3v10-11. I want to camp here for a few minutes and see some principles.
“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings – what kind of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from them all.”
Paul says Timothy “You know…” Timothy you and I have enjoyed a great friendship, an intimate friendship. I’m an open book to you. You know all about me. Timothy knows how Paul lives. He’s been with him watching him, listening to him. He knows what gets Paul out of bed in the morning, what makes him tick, what he loves, what he lives for.
He knows what Paul’s belief in Jesus translates to in terms of action. He knows what Paul treasures, what and why he’s endured, his struggles, his battles, his sufferings. He’s been with him in the trenches of Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. He’s seen him preach the gospel and face rejection, preach the gospel and see conversion, and establish healthy churches in those places.
How many people know you like that? Is there someone you can say that of? Someone who knows what makes you tick? Someone who has been by your side through thick and thin, through good and bad? Who’s been with you in the depths and on the heights? Be honest, is there?
It’s something we long for but are also terrified of isn’t it? It’s why we do dating like a second hand car salesman sells cars. We want to show the polished side not the just got out of bedside. We show the chirpy upbeat not the grumpy and bad breathed. That’s why the reality of marriage is often such a shock, unless stupidly we try to do the same! We’re too often like that in church too. We approach church like the second hand car salesman. Selling our good points, covering up or glossing over the struggles and brokenness and battles with sin. We long for friendship like this but we’re also terrified of it.
But Paul can be this open because of the gospel. The gospel tells us that God has fully known everything about us, every dirty dark sin that we hide from others. What you do on your laptop in the early hours of the morning, your struggle with porn, your romantic longings after someone who’s married, your chequered sexual past. Your struggle with greed, your past hatred of Christians, your frustrations with your marriage. You’re battle with post-natal depression or with the loss of an unborn baby. Your envy of others who have what you long for be it a spouse, a child, disposable income, the car or job of your dreams. The abuse you’ve caused, the abuse you’ve suffered. God knows it all and at the cross Jesus pays for it all. Paul is well aware of his past, but he knows Jesus has stamped it paid in full.
And that means he can live life openly. He’s neither trying to appear good enough nor wallowing in sin untransformed. He’s pressing on, growing in holiness, resting in God’s grace. And that liberates him to be honest and open with others who know God’s grace. Because if they’ve experienced God’s redeeming grace then they won’t judge him, they’ll love and welcome him just as Jesus does, just as they’ve been welcomed with their failings and struggles. They’ll invest in his growing holiness and transformation into the likeness of Jesus.
I often talk with new leaders or young leaders in our church about cultivating an un-shockable face and an un-judging heart. There should be no sin someone can confess to me that shocks me because when I truly understand the horrors lurking in the corners of my heart I will know that could’ve been, at times has been, me. And my heart should be un-judging because it has drunk deeply of the grace of God when I deserved judgment.
We have to keep the gospel front and centre in our thinking as we engage with brokenness aware of our brokenness and the gospels lavish grace.
Making disciples that last begins with us grasping the staggering depths of our sin and the amazing magnitude of God’s grace which knows and covers every sin. A grace so deep that it frees me to be open with others about my sins and failures and be a safe pair of hands and lips when they open up about theirs. Pointing one another to the cross and grace again and again and again. Discipleship begins with me having a continually bigger grasp of grace.
Showing posts with label eternal life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eternal life. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 May 2018
Wednesday, 22 July 2015
What do you make of Jesus words?
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." That is Peter's confession as Jesus asks if they want to desert him too. They are words that we read easily, know readily, and yet wrestle with often.
In the context of the passage Jesus turns to the twelve and asks them if they want to leave too because the crowds have reacted with hostility. At the start of ch6 there are well over 5,000 but by the time Jesus asks the twelve there are only the twelve left. Many other disciples have left Jesus along with the crowd. Why? Because they find his words offensive. Peter's confession comes in that context, when everyone else gives up following Jesus Peter and the others continue to follow Jesus because they believe Jesus alone has the words of eternal life, he alone satisfies, he alone gives life meaning, he alone reconnects us with life as we were made to live it - knowing God and enjoying him as our Father.
That has to be our conviction too if we are to follow Jesus and live life listening to his words. Jesus' words clash with out societies words and claims often. The question as we are faced with these two competing claims is which do we believe brings eternal life? As we read the Bible and it clashes with societies morals and norms we face that same question which do I believe brings eternal life?
As those who follow Jesus, who've seen who he is, who know and believe that he is the Holy One of God who gave himself for us because of love we will choose his words. That choice in one sense is often not easy, though it seems like it should be as I write this post, but that has to be our deep settled, deeply held conviction. Jesus words alone bring eternal life.
In the context of the passage Jesus turns to the twelve and asks them if they want to leave too because the crowds have reacted with hostility. At the start of ch6 there are well over 5,000 but by the time Jesus asks the twelve there are only the twelve left. Many other disciples have left Jesus along with the crowd. Why? Because they find his words offensive. Peter's confession comes in that context, when everyone else gives up following Jesus Peter and the others continue to follow Jesus because they believe Jesus alone has the words of eternal life, he alone satisfies, he alone gives life meaning, he alone reconnects us with life as we were made to live it - knowing God and enjoying him as our Father.
That has to be our conviction too if we are to follow Jesus and live life listening to his words. Jesus' words clash with out societies words and claims often. The question as we are faced with these two competing claims is which do we believe brings eternal life? As we read the Bible and it clashes with societies morals and norms we face that same question which do I believe brings eternal life?
As those who follow Jesus, who've seen who he is, who know and believe that he is the Holy One of God who gave himself for us because of love we will choose his words. That choice in one sense is often not easy, though it seems like it should be as I write this post, but that has to be our deep settled, deeply held conviction. Jesus words alone bring eternal life.
Monday, 23 April 2007
Hope
This week I'll attend the second funeral I've been to in two weeks, it would be three in two but for the fact another is on the same day. Whilst funerals are never enjoyable they are not without hope for those who believe in Jesus Christ as their saviour.
It is at the grave side that you are confronted with the big questions of life that we try so hard to insulate ourselves from in our everyday lives - what's the meaning of life and what happens when we die?
The Victorians big taboo was sex, they didn't talk about it and any evidence was hidden away. In our society we have gone to the other extreme and sex is on everything, you don't have to spend too long watching day time television or adverts or listening to the breakfast shows on the radio to realise that. Our taboo is death, the Victorians dealt with death much more matter of fact way than we do, but we hide it away and try to isolate people from thinking about it. Mention it in conversation and it suddenly goes very quiet. Lose someone close to you and people don't know what to say to you, in fact so often they choose to avoid you altogether.
I wonder if that's why people no longer think about the big question; 'What happens after we die?' I'm not sure my friends would appreciate me even asking the question, yet it is one that is pushed at us every day as we watch the news and hear of more deaths in Iraq or of the Virginia tech shooting, or another teenager killed in London.
Its a question that Jesus seems to address frequently in the gospels. With Nicodemus he talks about the need to be born again if you want eternal life - life after death, with the rich young ruler that is the issue under discussion, in Matthew 24 and 25 again it is life after death that is the subject.
When Paul writes to the Corinthians life after death features (chapter 15) and then to the Thessalonians (chapter 4:13) he writes "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you grieve like the rest, who have no hope..."
If the New Testament answers that question about life after death then it is a question that man had and still has, and it is a question that we must pose of those around us.
It is at the grave side that you are confronted with the big questions of life that we try so hard to insulate ourselves from in our everyday lives - what's the meaning of life and what happens when we die?
The Victorians big taboo was sex, they didn't talk about it and any evidence was hidden away. In our society we have gone to the other extreme and sex is on everything, you don't have to spend too long watching day time television or adverts or listening to the breakfast shows on the radio to realise that. Our taboo is death, the Victorians dealt with death much more matter of fact way than we do, but we hide it away and try to isolate people from thinking about it. Mention it in conversation and it suddenly goes very quiet. Lose someone close to you and people don't know what to say to you, in fact so often they choose to avoid you altogether.
I wonder if that's why people no longer think about the big question; 'What happens after we die?' I'm not sure my friends would appreciate me even asking the question, yet it is one that is pushed at us every day as we watch the news and hear of more deaths in Iraq or of the Virginia tech shooting, or another teenager killed in London.
Its a question that Jesus seems to address frequently in the gospels. With Nicodemus he talks about the need to be born again if you want eternal life - life after death, with the rich young ruler that is the issue under discussion, in Matthew 24 and 25 again it is life after death that is the subject.
When Paul writes to the Corinthians life after death features (chapter 15) and then to the Thessalonians (chapter 4:13) he writes "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you grieve like the rest, who have no hope..."
If the New Testament answers that question about life after death then it is a question that man had and still has, and it is a question that we must pose of those around us.
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