What about abraham and lying?

We are taught not to lie ever, but in self preservation Abraham lies about who Sarah is. What is going on?

There is a difference between what the bible records for us and what it recommends. In no way are Abraham's actions recommended, they are simply reported. That God preserves and protects Abraham and Sarah is testimony to his grace and faithfulness to his promises.

In this instance Abraham is not an example for us to follow. We are instead to be like God who does not lie.

The dangers of the tongue

After looking at Matthew 5 and Jesus call for our yes to yes and our no to be no I've been really aware of ho wmuch our world mitigates against us living this way this week.

Its there in the subtle but constant pressure to maintain our image and standing in the eyes of others. Its there in the media and in the permanent massaging of words and images. Its there on the news in the way things are reported and facts chosen which fit with stories. Its in the hierarchy of the workplace whereby we are told things by our seniors which we are not allowed to tell those below us. Because fundamentally it is in our hearts.

Can you imagine a world where only truth was spoken! I guess for some of us that would strike fear into us, because it would need to be a world where love ruled too or we may speak the truth but not in love. In God's gospel kingdom we are liberated to speak the truth by his love for us and by the love and grace that flow from our hearts to others.

We need God to work through his Spirit in us so that our yes is yes and our no no, so that we live as people of the truth not succumb to spin.

Authority

How did that word make you feel? According to post modern commentators on the world that we live in authority is not a feel good word. It is a negative, it is the antithesis of freedom, and freedom is the buzz word.

The big question is how does this affect those around me every minute of every day? And perhaps as pertinently if not more so how does it affect us and our churches?

We assume that we are free. Ask someone if they are free and they are most likely to say that they are, after all we live in a democracy, we can choose who to vote for, what to believe, whether to go to a religious service or not, how to bring up our children, what to watch on TV, what job to have, what hobbies to have, even what socks to wear! But actually are we really free or are those choices an illusion of freedom?

What is it that actually motivates me to do all those things? What motivates so much of it is the tyranny of approval. And that is not freedom I am enslaved to others. I wear what I wear because it is fashionable and fashion says... Or I do this because thereby I gain the approval of my peers or colleagues or family or whoever. When you actually examine our choices they are not choices made by free people. And the root of all of our choices is self, my need of approval, my need of acceptance, my need of popularity, my need to feel good about myself, my need to feel loved, valued, to feel worth it.

Now the follower of Jesus has been set free from this, but sometimes we find ourselves attracted back into living that way again however subtly. We struggle to live set free from self. But the Christian is not freed to live in a vacuum. Romans 6:18 says "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." We are freed from sin to live under God's rule, a rule of righteousness, of right relationship with God.

In our churches we need to reassert the authority of the word of God and teach that we are not free to live for self but to live as slaves of righteousness because only as such do we experience true freedom and life! Churches and Christians must live by revelation not experience. As David Wells says in Above all earthly powers people today are on a spiritual quest, it is personalised, individualised and eclectic. It is focused on making life happy, satisfying, fulfilled and meaningful.

The danger in the church is that we take the very real opportunity that brings and mishandle it. There is a tremendous opportunity there to explain the gospel but we must state that this is the Truth as God revealed, not a truth the we have worked out, or formulated, or have amended to feel comfortable with. We have experienced God but our experience of God is not something we determine but that is revealed in the Bible.

Postmodern society and people have been described as being 'allergic to truth claims' and we cannot surrender this idea of truth without losing the power of the gospel.

Authenticity

There was a great article in the Times on Saturday by Matthew Parris bemoaning the lack of authenticity in Britain today. Everything is spun or perception managed, the truth is covered up by appearance. We live in a world where authenticity has been lost, where appearance is the new reality, where what something really is does not matter as much as what it is perceived to be. So the question now is when is a Lord really a Lord, is it when he or she deserves to be or because they have paid to be? How do I know when a phone-in is a genuine phone in or a fraud? How do I know whether money promised for flood defences is a now promise or a 2011 promise?

It means that we live in a world desperately searching for the truth. It is only found by examining actions and words, if ever there was a society in need of Christians living in the light of the gospel Britain in 2007 is it. As we do so it will provoke questions and confrontations with sin and sinners, but it will enable us to share the great news, to share the truth of our predicament and danger, and the great answer God provides in Christ.

If you don't stand for something...

...you will fall for anything. So went the saying that I was told as I grew up and it is true. If we don't stand for something we are tossed about on the waves of the latest idea or fad. This is true in life generally but it is even more vital when it comes to the truth about God.

God has revealed himself in the Bible and if we want to know him, what he is like, what pleases him then the obvious place is to look in the Bible that he has given us. However, it may be that we find some things there that we don't like or that conflict with out societies values, and that poses a question; what do I do? Do I accept that is what God has revealed or do I seek to mould God into an image of my own choosing reflecting my like and dislikes?

This week has seen many pages of ink spilled debating the schism that is growing in the Anglican communion over the issue of the consecration of practicing homosexuals in the USA. What are we to make of this debate? In the media it is portrayed as a debate between fundamentalists and liberals, or the Western church and the African Church. But it is not, it is a debate over truth, God and sin.

Christianity is not homophobic, some Christians maybe, just as some people in society at large are, but that is not because it is what the Bible teaches. Homosexuality is a sin - in other words it is something that displeases God that will provoke him to judge men and women, just as sex outside of marriage is a sin, just as greed is a sin, just as lying is a sin.

The Bible tells us that as sinners we cannot stand before a Holy God in our sin and expect to live. God therefore sent Jesus to die on the cross in our place bearing our sin and shame, cut off from God so that we never need to be in the most costly act of sacrifice willingly undertaken by Jesus. For those who accept that Jesus Christ has done that for them and who repent of the sins something must happen s a result. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians writes: "Those who have been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need." Likewise those who lied must speak truthfully, it is a glimpse of the affect of repenting, in repenting we turn our life around and instead of living opposed to God we live for him.

That means for the adulterer, they put off adultery because God says it is wrong - they may battle for the rest of their lives with the attraction to other men or women but they are to battle with it. The couple having sex outside of marriage are to get married or stop having sex. The homosexual if he or she repents is to stop practicing though they may battle for the rest of their lives with the attraction. The greedy person must stop being consumed with material possession and would be wise to get rid of many of those possessions and give to the poor though they may battle with greed for the rest of their lives. Why? Because they now live to please God, and what pleases God he tells us in his word the Bible.

One cannot repent and yet keep on willfully doing what is against God's revealed will. That is not to say Christians are perfect, Christians are only ever sinners saved by the grace of God in Jesus, we sin by omission and commission, but the Christian should never deliberately set out to live a life opposed to God or you have to question if they have understood what it means to repent and have eternal life.

Sexuality is not the issue, sin is the issue no matter what that sin is. You cannot be a repentant sinner and yet live a life that is blatantly sinful disregarding what God says - that is not repentance. Repentance is to turn from sin to God in Christ.

Truth is the issue as the Bible delivers it, truth about God and what pleases him and what repentance looks like. To pick and choose what we believe about God is to leave us with God in his image, God who conforms to cultures standards, in fact it leaves us with no God, no salvation and no truth.

But God has revealed himself and repentance means living in the light of what has been revealed; that God loves us so much he sent his Son into the world to die in our place and to call us to repent and then live a life that pleases God.

Hasn't science disproved God?

I loved the 90s cult TV series the X-files. It was all about the search of its two main characters for truth, indeed the tag line for the series was ‘The truth is out there’. Mulder and Scully duly spent their time investigating; searching for the truth which always seemed elusively just out of their reach. Mulder was a man keen to believe, Scully the cool detached scientific one always seeking quantifiable proof, objective and sceptical to Mulder’s fanciful and hopeful. Scully was there to test Mulder’s theories, his beliefs, to keep him honest in the search for truth. He was the easy believer the one with faith, she the logical seeker of tangible truth. He was maybe slightly gullible, she clinical and needing evidence.

It isn’t too much to say that there characters where personifications of the battle between Science and Faith. The series were based on their battles, relationship and struggles. I guess that is how many people view science and Christianity. Christians are the Mulder’s of this world – keen to believe, at the very least suggestible, they have the faith gene they are less logical, they tend not to need concrete proof. Whereas scientists are clinical, logical, relying on, and working with, only hard facts and proven methods. They are the Scully’s of this world who are there to keep the Christians honest, they are searching for proven truth.

These stereotypes have led some people to say science is the only search for truth.

But how do we answer this sort of stereotyping? Where the Bible says we find truth.

Science is an immensely useful field of study. It has helped my two boys be born safely; it has led to me being able to cook food using a microwave, to driving my car, to typing my sermon, to improving my healthcare. Science has brought us many advances and dramatically improved our lives and I am immensely grateful to science and scientists. But there is a limit as to what science can tell us. Science is about the B-Y of the universe, the Bible reveals to us the A and Z, it tells us about it beginning and its end, about its purpose and its destination.

Revelation 1 tells us that: 1. God knows beginning 2. God knows end 3. God reveals himself

1. God knows the beginning
The first letter of the Greek alphabet is Alpha. “God says I am the Alpha” in other words I am the beginning, the origin, the start. Turn back to Genesis 1 here is God the beginning “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If we want to know about the beginning we should ask the one who created it.

Ah but you say, science has disproved this, what about the Big Bang and evolution. The Big Bang is theory, evolution is a theory. But don’t take my words for it here are the words of possibly the greatest scientist that has ever lived, Albert Einstein: “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of nature, a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”

The Bible says here is the answer. The Bible tells us why the universe is here – because God made it.

It also tells us why we are here, because God made us and placed us on the earth.

Even Richard Dawkins in a recent article in The Times said: “Well, I’m convinced that future physicists will discover something at least as wonderful as any god you could ever imagine.” Why not call it God? “I don’t think it’s helpful to call it God.” OK, but what would “it” be like?
“I think it’ll be something wonderful and amazing and something difficult to understand. I think that all theological conceptions will be seen as parochial and petty by comparison.” He can even see how “design” by some gigantic intelligence might come into it. “But that gigantic intelligence itself would need an explanation. It’s not enough to call it God, it would need some sort of explanation such as evolution. Maybe it evolved in another universe and created some computer simulation that we are all a part of. These are all science-fiction suggestions but I am trying to overcome the limitations of the 21st-century mind. It’s going to be grander and bigger and more beautiful and more wonderful and it’s going to put theology to shame.” (10th May, The Times)

2. God is the end
“I am the…Omega” the last letter in the Greek alphabet, its final point, its end. God knows the end.

Hollywood has made millions of dollars because of our fascination with how the world will end. From meteor impacts in Armageddon and Deep Impact to the effects of climate change in precipitating another ice age in The Day after Tomorrow. Many of these films are a result of science and papers that have been published by scientists. But how will the world end? Will it be extinction because of a global killer meteor or because of an ice age or a deadly virus? The reality is science cannot tell us.

But the Bible does, this little phrase is there to bring comfort to God’s people the future is secure because it is God’s hands. Take a look at verse 7 – the world will not end with a global killer meteor or an ice age, it will end when Jesus Christ comes again. That is when time will stop; it won’t be a low key incarnation in a back water town attended by a few shepherds and some men from the east. It will be the return of the king.

I don’t know if you have seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy but it ends with Aragon restored to his throne, the king has returned and he is thronged with people. Few knew he was the king, not his friends or those he fought alongside, but finally he is revealed and everyone sees who he really is.

This is a greater image than that – this is the whole earth, every eye seeing and recognising who his. It will be the end, the return of the glorious conqueror to begin his reign and rule. At which point we will all have to face him and give an account of our lives.

3. God reveals himself
So the Bible tells us about the bookends of history, the beginning and end. But how do I get ready for the end? How can I know that when the end comes I will be on the right side? I don’t know if you remember the advert but Polo’s used to be advertised as the mint with a hole in the middle. It was supposed to make it taste better.

God is not the polo God, the God with a hole in the middle. He isn’t like a distant clock maker who makes the universe then winds it up and leaves it until it runs down and he finally comes to wrap everything up.

The phrase ““I am the Alpha and the Omega”, says the Lord God Almighty” encompasses not just those two letters but everything in between. In other words in so describing himself God is saying he is the beginning and end but he is also working in between. That is emphasised by the phrase “who is, and who was, and who is to come” that appears in (v4, 8)

(5-6) Show us God active and present in history, in fact it shows us more than that it tells us that God has chosen to reveal himself in his Son Jesus Christ.

Science is about discovery, the pursuit of knowledge, the search for truth. The gospel is about truth revealed. God chooses to make known reality supremely by sending his Son. God tells us not just the beginning and the end but how to be prepared for it.

Science can tell me what I am molecule by molecule; it can diagnose what is wrong with me physically and in most cases heal me. But it cannot tell me where I stand before God, why I struggle with guilt, why I have this nagging sensation that there must be more to life.

Jesus is God answering those questions. Here are the answers

a. Our need
“has freed us from our sins” – Jesus as he lived on earth dealt with people who had guilty consciences.

Here is a woman stood by a well about to draw water, she is there in the full heat of the day, why? To avoid the stares, the whispered conversations, the pointed fingers, the confrontations. She has been married 5 times and now lives with someone who isn’t her husband. What would you expect Jesus to say to her?

Jesus explains to her that he has come for the guilty and outcasts to forgive them. Or the woman dragged before Jesus caught in the act of adultery, the crowd are baying for blood, for justice. What do you expect Jesus to say? He sends her away with these words ringing in her ears “neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

What does Jesus reveal? We are all trapped in a web of sin. We are born enslaved to it. Jesus comes to free us. Do you live with guilt? Do you recognise that you have lived life as you wanted and that as you survey the wreckage it has caused there must be a better way?

b. the answer
“has freed us from our sins by his blood”. Not only does Jesus reveal our need but he is also the means of rescue.

Have you ever had to go to a scrap yard? I once spent a great afternoon at the scrap yard salvaging bits for my old mini. A badge here, some door seals there, second hand windscreen wipers etc… What was their future well if I hadn’t rummaged around to find them, if I hadn’t bought them they would have been destroyed.

That is the image of our salvation. We are heading for destruction – we have to face God and his anger at how we have lived but Jesus salvages us. He searches us out and he has paid the price- his death on the cross - to redeem us for his purposes, to be put to use in his kingdom.

c. The decision
All through the gospel Jesus gives people two options. Accept or reject. There is no third way; there is no sitting on the fence. How do I prepare for this end that is certain? I accept who I am a rebel who has rejected God and lived my own way, I accept who Jesus is and that he had to die to pay the price for my rebellion, and I decide to follow him.

d. A purpose (6)
But we are not just saved for nothing. God give us something science cannot, he gives us a purpose.
“and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father”

We are saved at a cost and we are to live our lives in the light of that cost. Jesus died to redeem us to live the way God intended, to enjoy life in all its fullness and that means to be his people to live with him as king and to worship him as he requires. A life lived in service to God is the only fitting worship in the light of such an offering.

Has science disproved the bible? No, science has not disproved the Bible, nor does it set out to do so. While science shows us the B-Y, God reveals to us the A-Z and how to be prepared for it.

Are you prepared for it this evening? Science is all about discovery, about a genuine search to prove a hypothesis. Jesus Christ died and rose again to save you – will you undertake the search to prove it is true. If you have found it is true live a life of worship that proves it is true.

The poster in Mulder and Scully’s office – declared “The truth is out there”. There was a challenge in those words that they took up. The Bible says the truth is in here – will you take up the challenge to look. It may be you want some help to do so, speak to someone who will happily study the Bible with you, you may want to explore it in a group again speak to someone.

“”I am the Alpha and the Omega”, says the Lord God Almighty.”

Can a spade ever be anything but a spade?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The tolerance of intolerance

Tolerance is the in thing isn't it. You tolerate my views and I'll tolerate your views. Unless that is you happen to be a Christian, this week saw Christians phoning in to express their views on adoption belittled and ridiculed on a BBC radio phone in show. It appears we, as a society, tolerate anything unless you happen to disagree with certain things.

What does the Bible have to say about it? Expect it! It is normal for those who hold out the word of life, who share the gospel, who seek to stand up for what God has revealed about himself and us and the best way to live to be treated like that. It makes me wonder why I am always so surprised by others intolerant reactions, rather than seeing it for the encouragement that it is.

We are not to provoke intolerance, we are to be gentle and loving in the way we do things but we are to stand for truth and we are to expect a reaction against that truth.