Here are the notes from last nights LightHouse, I'll blog some of the questions we thought about later in the week:
1. What are your hopes and dreams for your children?
2. What most influences the way you parent?
There is no silver bullet, you won't leave here with the secret to perfect parenting or with a programme of behaviour management to put in place which will make you the perfect parent of perfect children. But what we are going to think about is how the gospel transforms first us and therefore because it transforms us how it transforms our parenting. What Paul does in Colossians is get to our hearts and our identity because we parent out of our hearts and our identity. As we realise how the gospel transforms us then we will parent differently.
As with marriage these instructions flow out of the rest of the letter. Paul is encouraging the Colossians to see who they are in Christ; that God has given them, and us, everything they need to live out the gospel and how that affects every area of life, including parenting.
The Gospel means our parenting is concerned with heart change not behaviour modification
There are lots of theories in our society about how to bring up your children, how best to discipline, how best to mould character from Gina Ford to Supernanny. But as those who are in Christ we need to examine all these theories through what God teaches us about ourselves, our children, our world and our future. We need to weigh up and analyse our assumptions and what we have learned about parenting and run it through a gospel filter, there are good things there which will be helpful butwe need to weigh them up alongside what God says.
There are a number of ways we learn to parent, primarily we parent as we were parented either by default or in reaction against how we were parented. We watch others who we respect, absorb the ideas of the culture around us, or parent out of our personality and pragmatism - depending on teh situation. None of us comes to parenting with a blank canvas on which we plan our parenting.
The context for these instructions is (1-17)which examines the distinctive identity of Jesus’ followers. As Gospel people we are changed, transformed, and are to be continually undergoing change and transformation. We are continually applying and reapplying grace to our lives cooperating with the Holy Spirit to change. That applies not just as gospel people but as gospel parents, it must affect us and our desires for our children.
Worldly models of behaviour and childhood studies may have helpful things to say but fundamentally they are flawed because they deal with behaviour not the heart. But in the gospel God gives us a much more robust framework with which to understand ourselves as parents and our children. We live in a broken world where sin is a present reality and influences us all. Sin in our hearts leads us to battle for our kingdom as we want it just as it leads our children to battle for their kingdom the way they want it. And sin exerts powerful pressures on both us and our children; tiredness, illness, bereavement, frustration, fear, all part of living in a broken world and all influences on us and our children.
But fundamentally the gospel doesn’t leave us at the mercy of sin and helpless in the face of it but calls us to realise our new identity, as those renewed and recreated in Christ. Just look at(1) and we see the magnitude of what that means for us. “Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Just notice the scope of the gospel transformation, it affects our hearts, our desires and transforms our thinking. We are those who know God in Christ through the Spirit and who want our children to know that too.
That reality, that identity has to inform our parenting. That means we mustn’t settle for behaviour modification but go deeper and expose the heart, both ours and our children’s. Our primary concern must be to see our children come to know Christ and to change at a heart level.
Behavioural change without heart change will simply produce little legalists, or children with a split personality where they behave one way on Sunday and at home and another at school or with friends. So as our children react with anger or selfishness or whatever we want to try to examine with them where that has come from, to see how their story fits into God’s gospel story.
One of our problems with this is that it is out of our control. We cannot change our children’s hearts but we can modify their behaviour through punishment and reward. Now I am not saying there is no need to do that, we do need to teach our children how to love and care for others, we do need to teach them how to behave, that they are to love others in teh way they treat them. But fundamentally we need to go deeper just as Jesus did to show them their sin and point them to Jesus as their Saviour and their identity and who gives them everything they need to change. We need to help our children wage spiritual warfare just as we help one another do so.
We must also pray, God alone can change hearts, God alone can save our children. And we need to realise that God is for our children he loves them more than we do and he doesn't give us an impossible task, he equips us for it.
We are making disciples not rearing children
That means our children need to see us dealing with our hearts too. This change in Colossians 3, this putting to death of the old self and putting on the new clothes is not something to be done in private it’s a community project. Our heart change, our transformation in the gospel happens not in isolation but in church, in families, in marriages. Our children must see us grappling with our sinful hearts, confessing our failures, our battles with the kingdom of self, and our turning again to Christ for grace and help.
(12-17)Are the marks of gospel living, we are to be kind, compassionate, humble gentle and patient, bearing with one another, quick to forgive and to show the grace we have been shown, ready to love at full stretch and live at peace, to be thankful to God and to have the gospel at work among us as we teach, train and sing it to one another, dealing with one another’s hearts. That is not just a picture of what happens when we are in church but Paul draws that down into the home; that should characterise our homes.
The assumption here is that children will see that ongoing heart change as a result of the power and grace of God, it is the backdrop against which they grow up and naturally they will be invited to share in that. If they don’t see us changing, dealing with our hearts, treasuring God’s word, being thankful, repenting of our sin, valuing God’s people they will rightly conclude that the gospel is irrelevant to everyday life and to them. In fcat God gifts us our children to help us change, to show us our hearts and to apply grace to us and the gospel liberates us to accept that from them with thanks.
The first step to discipling our children and dealing with their hearts is to deal with our own. How is your heart? How are you changing? If we were to ask our children how the gospel affects our homes what would they say?
One of the scariest verses in the bible is Matt 23:15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hyprocrits! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then you make that convert twice as much a child of hell as you are.”
We all make disciples, the question is what sort of disciples are we making? We must be dealing with our hearts, treasuring the gospel being changed by it if we want that for our children.
The best thing we can do for our children is to be concerned for our hearts, to be changing and inviting them to help us change.
Gospel Parenting requires a Church
I want you to notice something here that we might easily miss, raising a child takes a church. All of Paul’s instructions assume the families’ place in church, as part of a gospel community which loves, cares, forgives, welcomes, doesn’t judge, supports and gospels one another. These instructions don’t suddenly become private, raising a child takes a church family. As families in church we are not on show, we are not trying to impress, or win awards as parent of the year. The church is the God given context in which our parenting and growing as a child happens because it is the place where we love and encourage and share. We must be part of the church family, we must not allow our children to be on the fringe of church.
One of the most distinctive things here is that Paul addresses who? (20)The children directly. Paul expects children to be being directly taught this instruction, to be hearing this teaching read aloud to them. He values children as part of the church, people who can be discipled and understand the gospel and be putting to death and clothing themselves and people who can serve. Paul wants them to be changed by the gospel just as adults are and assumes it will be happening in church.
We must have the same view as Paul, children are a part of the church and they need to be taught the gospel and its implications and given opportunities to serve just as the adults are. We must teach children the gospel and deal with their hearts on Sunday, and in the home and family, we must be looking to encourage them and disciple them as we do others. We mustn't teach the childrenm moralism or nice stories whilst we teach the gospel to the hearst of adults.
We must look to build relationships with them and as parents give them opportunities to be building relationships with other children and adults within church. And Paul assumes that the gospel will change their hearts empowering them by the Spirit to obey their parents in everything, not as behaviour modification but as a result of being in Christ and empowered by the Spirit.
(21)Paul turns to fathers because in first century Roman culture the father was responsible for educating and disciplining children, but this to all parents. Paul is clear as parents transformed and being changed by the gospel at work in our hearts our parenting will be different. “do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.” That word embitter means to demean, belittle, deride or nag. That means we are not to try to live our failed dreams through them, or provoke them by belittling them or by being harsh or unreasonable with them. We are not to be impossible to please, neither are we to keep harping on about past failures, or parent comparatively with a sibling or other child, we ought not to set unreasonable expectations for our children, or seek to bolster our esteem or standing as a parent through requiring them to behave a certain way or do certain things.
What will happen to them if we do? “they will become discouraged” they will lose heart. They will conclude they are not loved, welcomed, forgiven, treasured, valued. In short we fail to love as we have been loved. We will fail to model the gospel and the loving grace of God the Father who has not set unrealistic expectations on us. And they will conclude that our Saviour and his grace stands for little. That if their father isn't open handed and hearted them God the Father isn't either. If they do not see us confessing our failures and asking them for forgiveness when we sin they will conclude that sin is not serious and their hearts will become hardened.
Our parenting needs to begin by being concerned with our hearts. Change is the result of our hearts transformation by the grace of Jesus Christ as it comes to rule our hearts.
Showing posts with label gospel living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gospel living. Show all posts
Monday, 11 March 2013
Monday, 11 February 2013
The Gospel and prejudice
Here are the discussion questions and some rough notes from last nights LightHouse:
“For most of us in the UK, it is not the ethnic prejudices of Peter that constrain our mission, but the prejudices of social class and race.” What do you think? How might they show themselves?
As you think about church in the United Kingdom and at SDCC there are a number of groups seriously unrepresented in our churches, whole groups of people we struggle to reach; divorcees, single parents, teenagers, the non-middle class. Why is that? Are we prejudiced? I don’t mean in terms of refusing them entry or hating them but in the very way we do church, the way we share the gospel, the way we meet people. Are we unthinkingly prejudiced in practice if not in our thinking?
Acts 10 is a key chapter in the book of Acts and the history of the church. Were it not for Acts 10 then in all likelihood we wouldn’t be here tonight. It’s importance is reflected in the space which Luke gives to this incident and its results for the church and the world wide spread of the gospel. Acts 10 begins with Cornelius’ vision, then we see Peters’ vision, then Peter goes to visit Cornelius as a result of the vision, and then in 11:1-18 Peter recounts the vision he had to the church in Jerusalem and explains its implications, and it ends with the church rejoicing at the salvation of the Gentiles. From then on we see the mission to the Gentiles really take off. And then in Acts 15 in another key passage as regards the gospel and Gentiles we see Peter recount again this incident from Acts 10 what he learnt and its implications to the church.
This incident is vital for the spread of the gospel, it is also vital that we learn its lessons and think through its implications for us. Because it reminds us that the gospel is for all, that there is no one church culture which the gospel is for.
Why is this so vital? Because sometimes the majority church culture makes it hard for others from different cultures or social groups to hear the gospel and find welcome in church. It becomes a barrier to the gospel itself, and even worse tragically sometimes we assume that our cultural norms are gospel norms when they are not. But we will come to think more about that later. First of all we want to work out the principles we see in Acts 10.
God confronts our prejudices
You may have sat through all of that and been thinking but I am not prejudiced, this doesn’t apply to me, I can switch off, I know the gospel is for everyone. Imagine for a minute that we stepped back into Acts 10 and have a chat with Peter at breakfast before his vision. We ask him who the gospel is for? What do you think he would have said? It was for everyone. We ask him if he was prejudiced against the Gentiles? He would have replied no. If it was only for Jews? He would have said no. In fact I think Peter would have walked us through what he had seen and learnt. He was with Jesus when Jesus proclaimed the Centurion’s faith the greatest in Israel, when Jesus healed the Gentile lady because of her faith. He would tell us about the great commission to make disciples of all nations, and in Acts 1:8 to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
He would tell us about the mixed make up of the early church, he would talk about his visit to Samaria, that he was one of those who appointed Philip through whom, via the Ethiopian Eunuch, the gospel went to Africa. Peter would have thought just as we might be tempted to, and yet God still confronts him with his prejudice. Not a prejudice of thinking but of practice and culture which was a barrier to the spread of the gospel.
Before Cornelius can hear the gospel Peter must be changed because even as the men set out to find him, Peter as he is at breakfast would have refused to go with them because (28)”it is against our law for a Jew to associate with Gentiles or visit them.” Even though Cornelius is a devout God-fearing man he has not undergone the outward signs or full conversion to Judaism, so Peter would not have gone to see him or eat with him. The Jewish traditions of purity would have made Peter ritually unclean, and Cornelius would not have heard the gospel.
And so God confronts Peter with his prejudice in this vision. One of the things I love most about this chapter is its searing honesty about Peter’s stubborn clinging on to his traditions and comfort, how hard it was for God to change his thinking and yet God persevered by grace. This passage is just so realistic about how hard we find it to change our thoughts, cultural norms and expectations. God lets down a sheet with all sorts of unclean foods on and tells Peter (13)”Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” Three times Peter refuses to eat because the food is not clean for a Jew to eat, three times God pronounces it clean “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” And still even after that as the sheet is taken up into heaven **what is Peter doing? (17)Wondering what the vision meant, and whilst he is thinking it through the men arrive from Cornelius(19), and the Holy Spirit tells Peter to “get up and go down stairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”
Don’t you just love the grace of God that you see there; the loving gentle way he challenges Peter to get him thinking, the perfect timing of God, God’s gracious perseverance, and the gentle but blunt direction of the Spirit. God wants Peter to learn this fundamental lesson, to recognise the character of the God he worships because that will change his actions and attitudes.
God will not leave Peter in his prejudice because it affects his mission. In the same way God wants to confront our prejudices. Not just in terms of our thinking but in terms of our action, God confronts Peter and then sends him out, theology into practice.
The church is not to be a Jewish monoculture, it is not for converts to Judaism first. What are our assumptions about church culture? What are our prejudices? Do they limit our sharing about Jesus?
God is prejudice less so is his mission and so should his people be
We see that the penny has dropped for Peter (28)”But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for I came...” (34)I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts those from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”
In one sense there are two conversions here, Cornelius and others are converted to faith in Jesus and Peter is converted to cross cultural mission. Peter realises who God is, and it is not that God is any different than he has ever been. You read the history of Israel and right from the outset with God's promises to Abraham the scope if bigger that just Israel and as God's plan progresses it is full of Gentiles being invited to join God’s people – Rahab, Ruth, and so on. And in Isaiah one of the big themes is that Israel was meant to attract the nations to worship God, it was never designed to be nationally exclusive. Think about Daniel in Babylon used by God to lead Nebuchadnezzar to trust in God. Job is not a Jew and yet knows God. Think about the prophets, Nahum is sent to Nineveh, just as Jonah is. And as an aside don’t you love the geographical link here between Peter and Jonah - both resistant to the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles and both in Joppa when God challenges their prejudice! But both come to learn that God’s grace is for all nations.
God reveals to Peter his character and love for all nations, it is not exclusive and therefore his people’s love is not to be exclusive. The Jerusalem church cannot be monoculture and after this realisation the spread of the gospel round the world accelerates. Understanding that God is prejudice less that his mission is prejudice less makes his people prejudice less.
God leads the church to get over its prejudice of culture so that it can take his gospel to all.
So what does this mean for us? Church in the UK, our church is overwhelmingly middle class. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but the question is are we willing to take the gospel to others? What is there in our assumptions, our church culture, which mean we limit practically who the gospel is for? Are there ways in which we preach what are cultural norms as gospel norms?
I want to suggest a few areas where our church culture may be a barrier to the gospel being for all:
Identity – for most of us our identity is linked to our education and achievements. For those from deprived area and working class areas identity is linked to appearance, dress and respect in community.
Community - For many of us our relationships are network based and are spread out. For those from working class cultures their networks are neighbourhood based. What does this mean for reaching them?
Attitude to learning - We have generally enjoyed learning and school. For others school has been a place of failure and learning has been hard or had little relevance.
Ability to access and be involved in church - We generally prize logic and clear dispassionate thinking. For those from working class backgrounds they value passion and concrete practical teaching.
Use of the home –we regularly use our homes and invite people in for meals and are comfortable with that. That is not the case for many in working class culture and may be a barrier, instead preferring social spaces. Think about LightHouse, Gospel Groups, is this an area we can flex in?
Perception problem – for many the problem is perception, they feel we judge them. Unless we work hard to overcome this and invest in getting to know them we will never overcome this barrier.
I could go on about cultural differences – attitudes to money, people, the future, love, time, family, language, authority and so on.
Whatever differences there are everyone needs the gospel and everyone can find in the gospel the hope of salvation. God is prejudice less, how can we not be.
1. What barriers are there in our church culture to people from differing backgrounds coming to SDCC?
2. How can we flex and bend to overcome that? What things must we not flex over?
3. How do we personally begin to overcome: a. Our prejudices b. the perception problem of others?
“For most of us in the UK, it is not the ethnic prejudices of Peter that constrain our mission, but the prejudices of social class and race.” What do you think? How might they show themselves?
As you think about church in the United Kingdom and at SDCC there are a number of groups seriously unrepresented in our churches, whole groups of people we struggle to reach; divorcees, single parents, teenagers, the non-middle class. Why is that? Are we prejudiced? I don’t mean in terms of refusing them entry or hating them but in the very way we do church, the way we share the gospel, the way we meet people. Are we unthinkingly prejudiced in practice if not in our thinking?
Acts 10 is a key chapter in the book of Acts and the history of the church. Were it not for Acts 10 then in all likelihood we wouldn’t be here tonight. It’s importance is reflected in the space which Luke gives to this incident and its results for the church and the world wide spread of the gospel. Acts 10 begins with Cornelius’ vision, then we see Peters’ vision, then Peter goes to visit Cornelius as a result of the vision, and then in 11:1-18 Peter recounts the vision he had to the church in Jerusalem and explains its implications, and it ends with the church rejoicing at the salvation of the Gentiles. From then on we see the mission to the Gentiles really take off. And then in Acts 15 in another key passage as regards the gospel and Gentiles we see Peter recount again this incident from Acts 10 what he learnt and its implications to the church.
This incident is vital for the spread of the gospel, it is also vital that we learn its lessons and think through its implications for us. Because it reminds us that the gospel is for all, that there is no one church culture which the gospel is for.
Why is this so vital? Because sometimes the majority church culture makes it hard for others from different cultures or social groups to hear the gospel and find welcome in church. It becomes a barrier to the gospel itself, and even worse tragically sometimes we assume that our cultural norms are gospel norms when they are not. But we will come to think more about that later. First of all we want to work out the principles we see in Acts 10.
God confronts our prejudices
You may have sat through all of that and been thinking but I am not prejudiced, this doesn’t apply to me, I can switch off, I know the gospel is for everyone. Imagine for a minute that we stepped back into Acts 10 and have a chat with Peter at breakfast before his vision. We ask him who the gospel is for? What do you think he would have said? It was for everyone. We ask him if he was prejudiced against the Gentiles? He would have replied no. If it was only for Jews? He would have said no. In fact I think Peter would have walked us through what he had seen and learnt. He was with Jesus when Jesus proclaimed the Centurion’s faith the greatest in Israel, when Jesus healed the Gentile lady because of her faith. He would tell us about the great commission to make disciples of all nations, and in Acts 1:8 to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
He would tell us about the mixed make up of the early church, he would talk about his visit to Samaria, that he was one of those who appointed Philip through whom, via the Ethiopian Eunuch, the gospel went to Africa. Peter would have thought just as we might be tempted to, and yet God still confronts him with his prejudice. Not a prejudice of thinking but of practice and culture which was a barrier to the spread of the gospel.
Before Cornelius can hear the gospel Peter must be changed because even as the men set out to find him, Peter as he is at breakfast would have refused to go with them because (28)”it is against our law for a Jew to associate with Gentiles or visit them.” Even though Cornelius is a devout God-fearing man he has not undergone the outward signs or full conversion to Judaism, so Peter would not have gone to see him or eat with him. The Jewish traditions of purity would have made Peter ritually unclean, and Cornelius would not have heard the gospel.
And so God confronts Peter with his prejudice in this vision. One of the things I love most about this chapter is its searing honesty about Peter’s stubborn clinging on to his traditions and comfort, how hard it was for God to change his thinking and yet God persevered by grace. This passage is just so realistic about how hard we find it to change our thoughts, cultural norms and expectations. God lets down a sheet with all sorts of unclean foods on and tells Peter (13)”Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” Three times Peter refuses to eat because the food is not clean for a Jew to eat, three times God pronounces it clean “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” And still even after that as the sheet is taken up into heaven **what is Peter doing? (17)Wondering what the vision meant, and whilst he is thinking it through the men arrive from Cornelius(19), and the Holy Spirit tells Peter to “get up and go down stairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”
Don’t you just love the grace of God that you see there; the loving gentle way he challenges Peter to get him thinking, the perfect timing of God, God’s gracious perseverance, and the gentle but blunt direction of the Spirit. God wants Peter to learn this fundamental lesson, to recognise the character of the God he worships because that will change his actions and attitudes.
God will not leave Peter in his prejudice because it affects his mission. In the same way God wants to confront our prejudices. Not just in terms of our thinking but in terms of our action, God confronts Peter and then sends him out, theology into practice.
The church is not to be a Jewish monoculture, it is not for converts to Judaism first. What are our assumptions about church culture? What are our prejudices? Do they limit our sharing about Jesus?
God is prejudice less so is his mission and so should his people be
We see that the penny has dropped for Peter (28)”But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for I came...” (34)I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts those from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”
In one sense there are two conversions here, Cornelius and others are converted to faith in Jesus and Peter is converted to cross cultural mission. Peter realises who God is, and it is not that God is any different than he has ever been. You read the history of Israel and right from the outset with God's promises to Abraham the scope if bigger that just Israel and as God's plan progresses it is full of Gentiles being invited to join God’s people – Rahab, Ruth, and so on. And in Isaiah one of the big themes is that Israel was meant to attract the nations to worship God, it was never designed to be nationally exclusive. Think about Daniel in Babylon used by God to lead Nebuchadnezzar to trust in God. Job is not a Jew and yet knows God. Think about the prophets, Nahum is sent to Nineveh, just as Jonah is. And as an aside don’t you love the geographical link here between Peter and Jonah - both resistant to the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles and both in Joppa when God challenges their prejudice! But both come to learn that God’s grace is for all nations.
God reveals to Peter his character and love for all nations, it is not exclusive and therefore his people’s love is not to be exclusive. The Jerusalem church cannot be monoculture and after this realisation the spread of the gospel round the world accelerates. Understanding that God is prejudice less that his mission is prejudice less makes his people prejudice less.
God leads the church to get over its prejudice of culture so that it can take his gospel to all.
So what does this mean for us? Church in the UK, our church is overwhelmingly middle class. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but the question is are we willing to take the gospel to others? What is there in our assumptions, our church culture, which mean we limit practically who the gospel is for? Are there ways in which we preach what are cultural norms as gospel norms?
I want to suggest a few areas where our church culture may be a barrier to the gospel being for all:
Identity – for most of us our identity is linked to our education and achievements. For those from deprived area and working class areas identity is linked to appearance, dress and respect in community.
Community - For many of us our relationships are network based and are spread out. For those from working class cultures their networks are neighbourhood based. What does this mean for reaching them?
Attitude to learning - We have generally enjoyed learning and school. For others school has been a place of failure and learning has been hard or had little relevance.
Ability to access and be involved in church - We generally prize logic and clear dispassionate thinking. For those from working class backgrounds they value passion and concrete practical teaching.
Use of the home –we regularly use our homes and invite people in for meals and are comfortable with that. That is not the case for many in working class culture and may be a barrier, instead preferring social spaces. Think about LightHouse, Gospel Groups, is this an area we can flex in?
Perception problem – for many the problem is perception, they feel we judge them. Unless we work hard to overcome this and invest in getting to know them we will never overcome this barrier.
I could go on about cultural differences – attitudes to money, people, the future, love, time, family, language, authority and so on.
Whatever differences there are everyone needs the gospel and everyone can find in the gospel the hope of salvation. God is prejudice less, how can we not be.
1. What barriers are there in our church culture to people from differing backgrounds coming to SDCC?
2. How can we flex and bend to overcome that? What things must we not flex over?
3. How do we personally begin to overcome: a. Our prejudices b. the perception problem of others?
Monday, 21 January 2013
The Gospel and... Loving One Another
Here are the notes from last nights LightHouse:
Scenario A
You are due to meet a friend from church for coffee, you wait and wait but they don’t show or let you know they won’t be able to make it. It’s not the first time they have done it and they never apologise or even acknowledge that they have let you down. What do you do?
Scenario B
You give your testimony at church in the service. Afterwards someone comes up and asks you a number of questions about it. You feel like you’ve been a bit grilled by them so you ask them why they wanted to know. They say; “I just wanted to check you really were a Christian, because you didn’t mention a number of key things in your testimony.” They walk away, what do you do?
Scenario C
You have someone new to church over for a Saturday afternoon, after the children have gone to bed you sit and chat. A while later, and a bit out of the blue, they confess to a having a problem with self harm. It began at uni, and though it has been better lately it is still a problem. How should we react?
Scenario D
You are chatting to someone from church and they start being critical of your children and their behaviour in church. They basically say church is not for children and you should be keeping your children quiet so other people can worship God. What do you do?
Scenarios discussion.
When faced with these types of situations we have two normal responses. One is to go into confrontation mode and challenge the other person about what they have done and fight our corner. The other is to simply take what they say. One looks more godly than the other but both are ultimately destructive.
The first one simply escalates the conflict and can result in a downward spiral of recrimination or sniping. Our concern when we react that way is not grace or love or even the relationship it is getting across my point of view, defending or excusing my actions or feelings. It rarely ends well.
The second way of dealing with it looks better, at least on the surface, there is no heated exchange, no angry words or confrontation. But if we never deal with the issues, it will fester and rot and produce bitterness and resentment. Long term it will poison the relationship and potentially other relationships in church.
As we look at the gospel and loving others tonight we are going to focus on 1 Peter 4:8, but we need first of all to understand why this is so important.
I hate Big Brother because it is car crash TV, 12 people in a small confined space forced to live alongside people hand-picked by the producers to clash and provoke one another. Why do people watch it? Because they like the fly on the wall perspective, the cliques forming, dislikes and clashes playing out in public, sides being drawn, fall outs escalating and causing division. And in such a small group they can have serious consequences quickly.
Peter writes to small churches scattered across an increasingly hostile empire. To people who have been made un-family because of their faith, who have been ostracised and isolated by society because they follow Jesus. (1:6)They are facing trials and griefs, (2:11)they are foreigners and exiles and feel it, (2:12)they are being falsely accused, (3:16)spoken maliciously about, and (4:6)abused. But they have found a new family in the church, a new community forged by the gospel and distinguished by its committed love, love which they have experienced from God by grace and which then flows through them to others in this new family.
Four times in the letter Peter exhorts these beleaguered believers to love:
1:22 ”love on another deeply, from the heart, for you have been born again...”
2:17 “show proper respect for everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honour the emperor...
3:8 “finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble...”
4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
These believers need the church as they seek to live for Christ in a hostile world fighting sin, doing good, enjoying God, proclaiming and modelling the gospel. It is where they are trained, equipped, encouraged and loved. And in order for the church to thrive and grow it must be marked by love. In fact Peter says it is vital, it must be a priority in the church. So what does it look like to love deeply?
What is love?
A sociologist has written a book called ‘Liquid Love’. On the front cover is a heart drawn on a beach in the sand and the tide is coming in. That front cover captures the central idea of the book; people today want togetherness and companionship, we want to express and receive love. But we don’t want the burdens that come with commitment, and we certainly don’t want to be trapped or caught up in other people’s problems. We want a liquid love.
But the love that Peter is calling believers to show one another is the exact opposite of liquid love. It is a love like God’s love. The word ‘agape’ usually describes the active love of God for his Son or his people and their active love for him and one another. It is not a naturally occurring love, it is different from the love between parents and children, or husband and wife, or brothers and sisters. It is the result of experiencing God’s love for us which we see demonstrated supremely in Jesus incarnation, living, dying, resurrection and current interceding for us. We respond to that love with love for God but also with love for others, an active love which sees God and his people as our treasures.
Peter describes how believers are to love one another, their love is to be “deep” or earnest. That isn’t calling for passion or fervency, it is about commitment, depth and perseverance. Peter is saying they are to love one another at full stretch. It is not an easy love this is a love that will challenge us. It is not just a love for those people we get on with and find it easy naturally to love. This is a love which stretches both in terms of what it will do but also in terms of who it is shown to. This is a love that pursues those who we naturally find it hard to love. It is a love beyond our natural resources, and that is why the church is so amazing God’s marvel of gospel engineering declaring his praise and glory to a watching cosmos. You can only love like this if you have experienced and daily enjoy the experience of being loved by God like this, and come to a God who delights to give his people a love like this for others.
Do you feel the challenge of such a love? I think we do ok at loving those like us in church but what about those not like us? How are we at stretching to love those we naturally find it hard to love? Who do you naturally sit and talk to on a Sunday, is that exclusive? Are there people in the congregation who you have never spoken to? Don’t hide behind the excuse of ‘I’m not an outgoing person’, they might not be either. Love is active, love seeks, love stretches to build relationships with those we may find it hard to get on with naturally, but that is the beauty and wonder of the love the gospel generates within us.
But why do we need to love like this?
The purpose of love
“because love covers over a multitude of sins.” Peter isn’t saying that loving others when they sin means that God forgives them, as if somehow it atones for it. Nor is he saying churches should be so soppy and sentimental that anything goes, and they never confront sin but cover it up. We dare not do that.
So what is he saying such love does? Why do we need to love each other like this?
Turn to Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.” Do you see the contrast, love does the opposite of hatred. Hatred causes an unending downward spiral of bitterness and recrimination. Hatred creates never ending feuds and enduring stony silences. Love does the opposite; it covers the wrong not by just swallowing it but by forgiving it, by stretching to love as God loves and showing grace.
Turn to 1 Peter 3:8-9 and we see clearly that this is what Peter hard in mind. Peter calls on them to stop the cycle of evil and insult, to meet evil with blessing, both inside the church and outside the church.
We are to limit the destructive potential of sin to destroy the people God has called us to be church with by forgiving quickly and loving elastically. The gospel creates a new community marked by love and grace. Where hurts and sin are dealt with not covered up and where forgiveness and grace are always readily available. Where love for others not self dominates because that is how God has loved us in Christ.
So what?
We need to be loving one another actively. (9-11)I think Peter details some ways for us to do this. We are to be open with our homes, generous with the gifts God has blessed up with, and ready to speak to encourage others. Peter there isn’t talking about preaching but the general everyday spiritual encouragement we can all give one another. How do we love deeply? By being open hearted with what God has given us, by looking out for ways we can bless others with relationship, acts of service and encouragement.
We must be forgiving one another readily. In the world there are various currencies which operate – money, possessions, favours, pay back etc... In the church there is to be one currency love. There will never be anyone we need to forgive as much as God has forgiven me. There will never be someone who has wronged us as much as we have wronged God. But we are also liberated from debts to others, if people serve us because of grace then we do not need to pay them back, we do not keep a mental or physical ledger of debts and debtors.
I want to push this on a bit though because I think one of our problems is that we isolate ourselves from these challenges. We don’t open ourselves up to these kind of hurts, we build relationships with those least likely to hurt, offend, wrong or sin against us. Love at full stretch challenges that thinking, it calls us to love those who potentially will sin against us, but to be ready to forgive them and not allow recrimination to build. It call us to love those who are very different from us.
What is the quickest way to destroy a church? It is not to love. You can have brilliant bible teaching, fantastic music, amazing youth work, but if people do not love like this then you will get bitterness, recrimination fighting and a downward spiral of sin and a disintegration of the church that may never be fixed.
Why must we love like this? Because this is the only right response to God’s love which is like that but on a greater scale than we can ever imagine. Because God loves his church, his people and says above all love one another because I have loved you, and made you to need one another.
But we can’t berate ourselves, or manipulate ourselves, our screw up our efforts and just decide or try to love others. It is a love that only flows from understand who God has made us to be and experiencing his love that transforms us calling, enabling and equipping us to love others.
Discussion Questions:
1. What are the barriers to loving like this?
2. What opportunities do you have to love others like this? What can you do to develop and maximise those opportunities?
3. This love for others is to extend beyond the fringes of the church family, how might we show love to those outside?
Scenario A
You are due to meet a friend from church for coffee, you wait and wait but they don’t show or let you know they won’t be able to make it. It’s not the first time they have done it and they never apologise or even acknowledge that they have let you down. What do you do?
Scenario B
You give your testimony at church in the service. Afterwards someone comes up and asks you a number of questions about it. You feel like you’ve been a bit grilled by them so you ask them why they wanted to know. They say; “I just wanted to check you really were a Christian, because you didn’t mention a number of key things in your testimony.” They walk away, what do you do?
Scenario C
You have someone new to church over for a Saturday afternoon, after the children have gone to bed you sit and chat. A while later, and a bit out of the blue, they confess to a having a problem with self harm. It began at uni, and though it has been better lately it is still a problem. How should we react?
Scenario D
You are chatting to someone from church and they start being critical of your children and their behaviour in church. They basically say church is not for children and you should be keeping your children quiet so other people can worship God. What do you do?
Scenarios discussion.
When faced with these types of situations we have two normal responses. One is to go into confrontation mode and challenge the other person about what they have done and fight our corner. The other is to simply take what they say. One looks more godly than the other but both are ultimately destructive.
The first one simply escalates the conflict and can result in a downward spiral of recrimination or sniping. Our concern when we react that way is not grace or love or even the relationship it is getting across my point of view, defending or excusing my actions or feelings. It rarely ends well.
The second way of dealing with it looks better, at least on the surface, there is no heated exchange, no angry words or confrontation. But if we never deal with the issues, it will fester and rot and produce bitterness and resentment. Long term it will poison the relationship and potentially other relationships in church.
As we look at the gospel and loving others tonight we are going to focus on 1 Peter 4:8, but we need first of all to understand why this is so important.
I hate Big Brother because it is car crash TV, 12 people in a small confined space forced to live alongside people hand-picked by the producers to clash and provoke one another. Why do people watch it? Because they like the fly on the wall perspective, the cliques forming, dislikes and clashes playing out in public, sides being drawn, fall outs escalating and causing division. And in such a small group they can have serious consequences quickly.
Peter writes to small churches scattered across an increasingly hostile empire. To people who have been made un-family because of their faith, who have been ostracised and isolated by society because they follow Jesus. (1:6)They are facing trials and griefs, (2:11)they are foreigners and exiles and feel it, (2:12)they are being falsely accused, (3:16)spoken maliciously about, and (4:6)abused. But they have found a new family in the church, a new community forged by the gospel and distinguished by its committed love, love which they have experienced from God by grace and which then flows through them to others in this new family.
Four times in the letter Peter exhorts these beleaguered believers to love:
1:22 ”love on another deeply, from the heart, for you have been born again...”
2:17 “show proper respect for everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honour the emperor...
3:8 “finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble...”
4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
These believers need the church as they seek to live for Christ in a hostile world fighting sin, doing good, enjoying God, proclaiming and modelling the gospel. It is where they are trained, equipped, encouraged and loved. And in order for the church to thrive and grow it must be marked by love. In fact Peter says it is vital, it must be a priority in the church. So what does it look like to love deeply?
What is love?
A sociologist has written a book called ‘Liquid Love’. On the front cover is a heart drawn on a beach in the sand and the tide is coming in. That front cover captures the central idea of the book; people today want togetherness and companionship, we want to express and receive love. But we don’t want the burdens that come with commitment, and we certainly don’t want to be trapped or caught up in other people’s problems. We want a liquid love.
But the love that Peter is calling believers to show one another is the exact opposite of liquid love. It is a love like God’s love. The word ‘agape’ usually describes the active love of God for his Son or his people and their active love for him and one another. It is not a naturally occurring love, it is different from the love between parents and children, or husband and wife, or brothers and sisters. It is the result of experiencing God’s love for us which we see demonstrated supremely in Jesus incarnation, living, dying, resurrection and current interceding for us. We respond to that love with love for God but also with love for others, an active love which sees God and his people as our treasures.
Peter describes how believers are to love one another, their love is to be “deep” or earnest. That isn’t calling for passion or fervency, it is about commitment, depth and perseverance. Peter is saying they are to love one another at full stretch. It is not an easy love this is a love that will challenge us. It is not just a love for those people we get on with and find it easy naturally to love. This is a love which stretches both in terms of what it will do but also in terms of who it is shown to. This is a love that pursues those who we naturally find it hard to love. It is a love beyond our natural resources, and that is why the church is so amazing God’s marvel of gospel engineering declaring his praise and glory to a watching cosmos. You can only love like this if you have experienced and daily enjoy the experience of being loved by God like this, and come to a God who delights to give his people a love like this for others.
Do you feel the challenge of such a love? I think we do ok at loving those like us in church but what about those not like us? How are we at stretching to love those we naturally find it hard to love? Who do you naturally sit and talk to on a Sunday, is that exclusive? Are there people in the congregation who you have never spoken to? Don’t hide behind the excuse of ‘I’m not an outgoing person’, they might not be either. Love is active, love seeks, love stretches to build relationships with those we may find it hard to get on with naturally, but that is the beauty and wonder of the love the gospel generates within us.
But why do we need to love like this?
The purpose of love
“because love covers over a multitude of sins.” Peter isn’t saying that loving others when they sin means that God forgives them, as if somehow it atones for it. Nor is he saying churches should be so soppy and sentimental that anything goes, and they never confront sin but cover it up. We dare not do that.
So what is he saying such love does? Why do we need to love each other like this?
Turn to Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.” Do you see the contrast, love does the opposite of hatred. Hatred causes an unending downward spiral of bitterness and recrimination. Hatred creates never ending feuds and enduring stony silences. Love does the opposite; it covers the wrong not by just swallowing it but by forgiving it, by stretching to love as God loves and showing grace.
Turn to 1 Peter 3:8-9 and we see clearly that this is what Peter hard in mind. Peter calls on them to stop the cycle of evil and insult, to meet evil with blessing, both inside the church and outside the church.
We are to limit the destructive potential of sin to destroy the people God has called us to be church with by forgiving quickly and loving elastically. The gospel creates a new community marked by love and grace. Where hurts and sin are dealt with not covered up and where forgiveness and grace are always readily available. Where love for others not self dominates because that is how God has loved us in Christ.
So what?
We need to be loving one another actively. (9-11)I think Peter details some ways for us to do this. We are to be open with our homes, generous with the gifts God has blessed up with, and ready to speak to encourage others. Peter there isn’t talking about preaching but the general everyday spiritual encouragement we can all give one another. How do we love deeply? By being open hearted with what God has given us, by looking out for ways we can bless others with relationship, acts of service and encouragement.
We must be forgiving one another readily. In the world there are various currencies which operate – money, possessions, favours, pay back etc... In the church there is to be one currency love. There will never be anyone we need to forgive as much as God has forgiven me. There will never be someone who has wronged us as much as we have wronged God. But we are also liberated from debts to others, if people serve us because of grace then we do not need to pay them back, we do not keep a mental or physical ledger of debts and debtors.
I want to push this on a bit though because I think one of our problems is that we isolate ourselves from these challenges. We don’t open ourselves up to these kind of hurts, we build relationships with those least likely to hurt, offend, wrong or sin against us. Love at full stretch challenges that thinking, it calls us to love those who potentially will sin against us, but to be ready to forgive them and not allow recrimination to build. It call us to love those who are very different from us.
What is the quickest way to destroy a church? It is not to love. You can have brilliant bible teaching, fantastic music, amazing youth work, but if people do not love like this then you will get bitterness, recrimination fighting and a downward spiral of sin and a disintegration of the church that may never be fixed.
Why must we love like this? Because this is the only right response to God’s love which is like that but on a greater scale than we can ever imagine. Because God loves his church, his people and says above all love one another because I have loved you, and made you to need one another.
But we can’t berate ourselves, or manipulate ourselves, our screw up our efforts and just decide or try to love others. It is a love that only flows from understand who God has made us to be and experiencing his love that transforms us calling, enabling and equipping us to love others.
Discussion Questions:
1. What are the barriers to loving like this?
2. What opportunities do you have to love others like this? What can you do to develop and maximise those opportunities?
3. This love for others is to extend beyond the fringes of the church family, how might we show love to those outside?
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Developing an evangelistic lifestyle Pt 4 - Colossians 4:2-6
What do you find hardest about being a Christian?
Two of the most common struggles for Christians are prayer and evangelism, which is ironic as in the New Testament both seem to be second nature for the church.
As we look at our last session this morning what does Paul call on the Colossian believers to do; pray and evangelise. Don’t let the separate heading in your bibles fool you, when we look at the heading; ‘further instructions’ we can find ourselves mentally drawing a line under what has gone before and think, new heading new section. The headings and their placement aren’t part of the original inspired text.
These instructions continue from ch3, they flesh out, in part, what it means to live with hearts and minds set on things above. What it means to live as part of the new creation amidst the old creation, to be a new Kingdom ambassador in the old kingdom, what it means to be a disciple.
Being heavenly minded brings about transformation by God’s Spirit, it transforms our perspective, our personality, and our living. These are all marks of the truly spiritual person, of the wise person. This section contains two further marks of the disciple, seen as two instructions.
1. Passionate about people, dependent on God(2-3)
How can you tell if two people are devoted to one another? Constant companions, rarely apart, and miss each other when they are, they constantly text each other.
Paul’s first instruction is “Devote yourselves to prayer”. We know we should pray, we know it’s a privilege, but we find it hard. Some of our problems with prayer are practical and some are theological, our most common feeling, and some of you will have experienced it this morning already, is guilt.
Prayer is based not on what we do but on what God has done and revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Prayer isn’t dependent on how good we are, or even how good our praying is but on the perfect work of Jesus who makes us God’s children by faith. God gives us his word and his spirit to teach us how to pray as children coming to our loving and perfect heavenly Father.
As ambassadors of God’s kingdom what and how should the Colossians pray? “Being watchful and thankful” They are to pray alert and aware of the days they live in, that Christ is coming again, and given the situation with the false teachers in Colossae, aware of their salvation by grace alone that frees them to approach their Father in heaven. Freed from the ceremonies and religious rites the false teachers are so bound to, they have access to God by faith and they are to be thankful for that.
Paul also asks for prayer for his team, whilst modelling prayer for the Colossians and us. He asks for prayer for two things; what are they? Opportunities and clarity.
It is an amazing prayer from Paul. He is imprisoned but he asks them to pray that God would open doors for the word – the gospel which led to his arrest. He isn’t down hearted, he hasn’t been put off; he wants to see the kingdom grow. He knows that he can’t manufacture opportunities to share the gospel but that God gives them.
The second thing he asks for prayer for is clarity, isn’t that an encouragement? Paul the evangelist extraordinaire, church planter, gospel preacher, asks them to pray he would make the gospel clear or intelligible as he should. The only chains Paul feels aren’t physical but his call to make the gospel intelligible.
We need to echo this prayer? One of the dangers of our subject this weekend is that we treat it as how to training and we go back thinking if I live like this then opportunities will follow, cause and effect. But Colossians reminds us of our dependence on God both for opportunities to share the gospel, and that our explanations would be intelligible, because no matter how clear we are, how hard we work at it the gospel is unintelligible to those God is not working in by his Spirit.
But notice too that is as far as Paul sees his responsibility as going – he cannot save, he cannot win the lost them with the cleverness of his arguments, the brilliance of his presentation, or the emotional draw of his pleas. His responsibility is to pray for opportunities and to take those God given opportunities and explain the gospel clearly. God saves.
How is your praying? Are we praying this for others, for ourselves? Are we dependent on God in our evangelism? We need to be where unbelievers are, we need them to be seeing our discipleship lived out, we need them to see the difference Jesus makes and our passion or people, but we need God to be at work.
Part of developing an evangelistic lifestyle is dependency on God as we engage as his disciples with the world and people we are passionate about.
I use a little evangelism prayer card, I’ve got some spares, to remind me prayer is essential, to keep me dependent on God.
2. Real mission – Missional living(5-6)
What do you think of when you hear the word mission? Far flung places, a concentrated week, a big event…
There is a danger with that. Mission becomes something you do, short term or long term, and at a distance, or on a certain date, but it’s easily put in a box. Missional living is different – it says that everything I do is mission, everything commends the gospel.
It’s what Paul calls the Colossians to(5-6)“Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders…” to be wise in hip and lip.
Notice that Paul makes an assumption that they will be engaging with those outside the church, and not fleeting contact either but that they will be living their lives out in front of them and be involved in conversation with them. Here again is that call to beware the Christian rabbit warren. Paul is calling for real engagement, for believers to live out their faith in view of a watching world not underground.
We thought in the last session about friends – people we were committed to doing life deeply with. People we are close enough to that they see the transformation the gospel makes and is making, who you’ll pray for God to give you opportunities with?
How do we live missionally? It affects both hip and lip. What does it mean to live wisely? Wisdom is found in Christ, so we need to look at Jesus actions towards outsiders.
In Luke 4-5, we saw Jesus practical care for Peter, heal his mother-in-law and then engage with him personally and when Peter realises his sin - once the mystery of who Jesus is, is revealed to him – he calls him not to fear but to follow and join Jesus mission.
Or take Levi; the Pharisees judged, quarantined and isolated tax collectors, not Jesus; he deliberately engages with Levi, cuts through social conventions, the worries about what others may think, and calls him to follow in response to his message. What you see next is even more amazing Jesus isn’t just after one spiritual write-off he is at Levi’s house engaging with a whole house full of spiritual write-offs.
Jesus is wise towards the outsider, he shows compassion for them, he engages with them where they are lets them see his life and hear his words and calls them to start living for him. Jesus lived differently – people were his passion, not laws or traditions but he does it all without sin.
Live wisely engage with the outsider, let them see you are different, that you have been changed by following Jesus and make the most of every opportunity – be ready when the questions come.
Are you ready to take every opportunity. We need to be alive to opportunities, the other week a friend of ours rang to say her sons homework was to find out why people either believed or not in God. What a great opportunity – my wife was able to text loads of people and ask the mum herself. Make the most of every opportunity.
Being wise also affects our lips. Our words are to be grace filled, winsome and loving, they must be seasoned with salt – that means relevant and worth something. The Colossian believers speech should be relevant and witty, it should be appealing and loving but also truthful – not ducking the reality of judgement and sin but calling people lovingly to repent. Always ready to answer when God gives an opportunity.
That means practically we need to be thinking about what the issues are where we can engage with people. We need to understand people’s problems with church and faith and be able to articulate them better than they can and be ready to discuss them. For example hypocrisy, bad previous experiences, reliability of the bible, biblical morality, suffering.
We also need to be interrogating culture so that we understand where people are:
• What do people spend their time/money on?
• What is free time spent on?
• What do they fear/dream about?
• What do they care passionately about?
• Where do they shop?
• What music/films/DVD’s/books are they into?
• What do they find funny?
• How do they think of themselves(Christian, atheist, agnostic, spiritual, etc...)?
It’s been said that the great commission has become the great option. Evangelism is hard so we duck it, leave it to the evang sec, or committee, or the visiting speaker, or someone who is ‘gifted’ in it. But Paul doesn’t give the Colossians that option. Live missionally he says. We are living speaking missionaries in our homes, our corridors, our lecture theatres, our seminars, wherever and whenever we are.
“The believer must blend wise living with a sense of reckless urgency that exhausts every opportunity to share the gospel with others.” That’s the idea behind(5) make the most of every opportunity – it’s of a bargain hunter buying back, redeeming the time he has been given.
Are we praying for opportunities for ourselves and for others? Does God’s kingdom feature in my prayers? Do we pray that we are clear in explaining the gospel?
Am I living missionally, redeeming the time, making the most of those God given opportunities? How is our living? How is our speech? Are we ready to answer?
Living with our hearts and minds set on heaven matters because it enables us to live this way. It means we don’t worry about popularity when an opportunity arises, that we live in ways that are costly to ourselves. It makes us more concerned with the kingdom to come than with this one, it makes God’s priorities ours.
For some of us after this weekend we may need to change our diaries so that we live missionally. It may mean we need to do something to build relationships with others. Take up a hobby, invite people round for a meal – do it. Make resolutions this morning and ask others to hold you accountable for them.
For some it may mean working out how to answer questions, ensuring we are clear on the gospel. For all of us it will mean praying.
Maybe you are here and you aren’t a believer, and you are thinking; Why tell people? Isn’t religion personal? Imagine I told you this morning that I had found the cure for AID’s. What would you expect me to do with it? **What if I said I didn’t want all the fuss and was going to keep it quiet? You would conclude I didn’t love people, that I was supremely selfish and you’d be right. The gospel is the good news that Christ has died for our sins so we can have life. Sin, rebellion against God brings death and eternal separation from God, Christ is the cure.
Developing an evangelistic lifestyle is not something for keenies, or for the evangelism team, it is not something to put in our diaries. It is normal discipleship. Where a disciple of Jesus authentically lives out their developing, maturing discipleship in the context of, connected with and engaged in the world around him or her dependent on God their Father.
Two of the most common struggles for Christians are prayer and evangelism, which is ironic as in the New Testament both seem to be second nature for the church.
As we look at our last session this morning what does Paul call on the Colossian believers to do; pray and evangelise. Don’t let the separate heading in your bibles fool you, when we look at the heading; ‘further instructions’ we can find ourselves mentally drawing a line under what has gone before and think, new heading new section. The headings and their placement aren’t part of the original inspired text.
These instructions continue from ch3, they flesh out, in part, what it means to live with hearts and minds set on things above. What it means to live as part of the new creation amidst the old creation, to be a new Kingdom ambassador in the old kingdom, what it means to be a disciple.
Being heavenly minded brings about transformation by God’s Spirit, it transforms our perspective, our personality, and our living. These are all marks of the truly spiritual person, of the wise person. This section contains two further marks of the disciple, seen as two instructions.
1. Passionate about people, dependent on God(2-3)
How can you tell if two people are devoted to one another? Constant companions, rarely apart, and miss each other when they are, they constantly text each other.
Paul’s first instruction is “Devote yourselves to prayer”. We know we should pray, we know it’s a privilege, but we find it hard. Some of our problems with prayer are practical and some are theological, our most common feeling, and some of you will have experienced it this morning already, is guilt.
Prayer is based not on what we do but on what God has done and revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Prayer isn’t dependent on how good we are, or even how good our praying is but on the perfect work of Jesus who makes us God’s children by faith. God gives us his word and his spirit to teach us how to pray as children coming to our loving and perfect heavenly Father.
As ambassadors of God’s kingdom what and how should the Colossians pray? “Being watchful and thankful” They are to pray alert and aware of the days they live in, that Christ is coming again, and given the situation with the false teachers in Colossae, aware of their salvation by grace alone that frees them to approach their Father in heaven. Freed from the ceremonies and religious rites the false teachers are so bound to, they have access to God by faith and they are to be thankful for that.
Paul also asks for prayer for his team, whilst modelling prayer for the Colossians and us. He asks for prayer for two things; what are they? Opportunities and clarity.
It is an amazing prayer from Paul. He is imprisoned but he asks them to pray that God would open doors for the word – the gospel which led to his arrest. He isn’t down hearted, he hasn’t been put off; he wants to see the kingdom grow. He knows that he can’t manufacture opportunities to share the gospel but that God gives them.
The second thing he asks for prayer for is clarity, isn’t that an encouragement? Paul the evangelist extraordinaire, church planter, gospel preacher, asks them to pray he would make the gospel clear or intelligible as he should. The only chains Paul feels aren’t physical but his call to make the gospel intelligible.
We need to echo this prayer? One of the dangers of our subject this weekend is that we treat it as how to training and we go back thinking if I live like this then opportunities will follow, cause and effect. But Colossians reminds us of our dependence on God both for opportunities to share the gospel, and that our explanations would be intelligible, because no matter how clear we are, how hard we work at it the gospel is unintelligible to those God is not working in by his Spirit.
But notice too that is as far as Paul sees his responsibility as going – he cannot save, he cannot win the lost them with the cleverness of his arguments, the brilliance of his presentation, or the emotional draw of his pleas. His responsibility is to pray for opportunities and to take those God given opportunities and explain the gospel clearly. God saves.
How is your praying? Are we praying this for others, for ourselves? Are we dependent on God in our evangelism? We need to be where unbelievers are, we need them to be seeing our discipleship lived out, we need them to see the difference Jesus makes and our passion or people, but we need God to be at work.
Part of developing an evangelistic lifestyle is dependency on God as we engage as his disciples with the world and people we are passionate about.
I use a little evangelism prayer card, I’ve got some spares, to remind me prayer is essential, to keep me dependent on God.
2. Real mission – Missional living(5-6)
What do you think of when you hear the word mission? Far flung places, a concentrated week, a big event…
There is a danger with that. Mission becomes something you do, short term or long term, and at a distance, or on a certain date, but it’s easily put in a box. Missional living is different – it says that everything I do is mission, everything commends the gospel.
It’s what Paul calls the Colossians to(5-6)“Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders…” to be wise in hip and lip.
Notice that Paul makes an assumption that they will be engaging with those outside the church, and not fleeting contact either but that they will be living their lives out in front of them and be involved in conversation with them. Here again is that call to beware the Christian rabbit warren. Paul is calling for real engagement, for believers to live out their faith in view of a watching world not underground.
We thought in the last session about friends – people we were committed to doing life deeply with. People we are close enough to that they see the transformation the gospel makes and is making, who you’ll pray for God to give you opportunities with?
How do we live missionally? It affects both hip and lip. What does it mean to live wisely? Wisdom is found in Christ, so we need to look at Jesus actions towards outsiders.
In Luke 4-5, we saw Jesus practical care for Peter, heal his mother-in-law and then engage with him personally and when Peter realises his sin - once the mystery of who Jesus is, is revealed to him – he calls him not to fear but to follow and join Jesus mission.
Or take Levi; the Pharisees judged, quarantined and isolated tax collectors, not Jesus; he deliberately engages with Levi, cuts through social conventions, the worries about what others may think, and calls him to follow in response to his message. What you see next is even more amazing Jesus isn’t just after one spiritual write-off he is at Levi’s house engaging with a whole house full of spiritual write-offs.
Jesus is wise towards the outsider, he shows compassion for them, he engages with them where they are lets them see his life and hear his words and calls them to start living for him. Jesus lived differently – people were his passion, not laws or traditions but he does it all without sin.
Live wisely engage with the outsider, let them see you are different, that you have been changed by following Jesus and make the most of every opportunity – be ready when the questions come.
Are you ready to take every opportunity. We need to be alive to opportunities, the other week a friend of ours rang to say her sons homework was to find out why people either believed or not in God. What a great opportunity – my wife was able to text loads of people and ask the mum herself. Make the most of every opportunity.
Being wise also affects our lips. Our words are to be grace filled, winsome and loving, they must be seasoned with salt – that means relevant and worth something. The Colossian believers speech should be relevant and witty, it should be appealing and loving but also truthful – not ducking the reality of judgement and sin but calling people lovingly to repent. Always ready to answer when God gives an opportunity.
That means practically we need to be thinking about what the issues are where we can engage with people. We need to understand people’s problems with church and faith and be able to articulate them better than they can and be ready to discuss them. For example hypocrisy, bad previous experiences, reliability of the bible, biblical morality, suffering.
We also need to be interrogating culture so that we understand where people are:
• What do people spend their time/money on?
• What is free time spent on?
• What do they fear/dream about?
• What do they care passionately about?
• Where do they shop?
• What music/films/DVD’s/books are they into?
• What do they find funny?
• How do they think of themselves(Christian, atheist, agnostic, spiritual, etc...)?
It’s been said that the great commission has become the great option. Evangelism is hard so we duck it, leave it to the evang sec, or committee, or the visiting speaker, or someone who is ‘gifted’ in it. But Paul doesn’t give the Colossians that option. Live missionally he says. We are living speaking missionaries in our homes, our corridors, our lecture theatres, our seminars, wherever and whenever we are.
“The believer must blend wise living with a sense of reckless urgency that exhausts every opportunity to share the gospel with others.” That’s the idea behind(5) make the most of every opportunity – it’s of a bargain hunter buying back, redeeming the time he has been given.
Are we praying for opportunities for ourselves and for others? Does God’s kingdom feature in my prayers? Do we pray that we are clear in explaining the gospel?
Am I living missionally, redeeming the time, making the most of those God given opportunities? How is our living? How is our speech? Are we ready to answer?
Living with our hearts and minds set on heaven matters because it enables us to live this way. It means we don’t worry about popularity when an opportunity arises, that we live in ways that are costly to ourselves. It makes us more concerned with the kingdom to come than with this one, it makes God’s priorities ours.
For some of us after this weekend we may need to change our diaries so that we live missionally. It may mean we need to do something to build relationships with others. Take up a hobby, invite people round for a meal – do it. Make resolutions this morning and ask others to hold you accountable for them.
For some it may mean working out how to answer questions, ensuring we are clear on the gospel. For all of us it will mean praying.
Maybe you are here and you aren’t a believer, and you are thinking; Why tell people? Isn’t religion personal? Imagine I told you this morning that I had found the cure for AID’s. What would you expect me to do with it? **What if I said I didn’t want all the fuss and was going to keep it quiet? You would conclude I didn’t love people, that I was supremely selfish and you’d be right. The gospel is the good news that Christ has died for our sins so we can have life. Sin, rebellion against God brings death and eternal separation from God, Christ is the cure.
Developing an evangelistic lifestyle is not something for keenies, or for the evangelism team, it is not something to put in our diaries. It is normal discipleship. Where a disciple of Jesus authentically lives out their developing, maturing discipleship in the context of, connected with and engaged in the world around him or her dependent on God their Father.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Developing an Evangelistic Lifestyle part 3: 1 Peter 2:11-12
As we have looked at Jesus living there are a number of questions that arise. Firstly; is this normal? After all Jesus is the Son of God on a very specific mission so are we to live like this? And secondly what about when we face opposition, how are we to react to hostility and aggression?
The pattern of authentic evangelistic living we have seen in Jesus is not to be unique to Jesus we glimpsed that with Levi and the disciples as after they were called they engaged in telling others about Jesus and as we read the epistles and Acts we see that it is to be normal Christian living, normal discipleship.
Do you remember the definition of an evangelistic lifestyle we started off with: ‘Where a disciple of Jesus authentically lives out his or her developing, maturing discipleship in the context of, connected with, and engaged in the world around him or her.’ It is normal Christian living.
We see it clearly in 1 Peter as Peter writes to encourage ostracised and alienated believers that they are God’s chosen and privileged people, the new Israel, living for God’s purpose: “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”(9) They are experiencing rejection and hardship just as Jesus did because they are not citizens of the world but aliens, exiles, foreigners living differently. From 2:11-4:11 he practically applies that as he teaches them what that different living will look like in different areas of life. He begins by establishing the principle in v11-12 before fleshing that principle out in relation to government, work, and marriage.
1. The Principle: Exiles fight sin, replace sin, and call sinners
How does Peter describe the believers he is writing to? “foreigners and exiles” In the context of their day that meant someone who was not a citizen of the place in which they lived. Citizenship mattered, if you were a citizen you had rights and privileges, you shared in that societies practices and values. If you were a foreigner you didn’t have those rights, you didn’t share those practices and values and you were viewed and treated with suspicion.
One of the big themes in 1 Peter is that as believers they are different and what makes them different is that they are God’s elect, chosen by God, sanctified by the Spirit and sprinkled with Christ’s blood. The Kingdom of God is where they have their citizenship but for now they live scattered in a world where they are foreigners and exiles – against the backdrop of the world they will stand out.
Peter writes in the rest of the letter about what that non-world kingdom citizenship means in terms of the way believers live; they are to think, respond and act differently to the world around them. They abstain from sinful desires, they don’t let appetites rule them, they submit to authority, live out God’s pattern of marriage, dress differently, love their wives differently, respond to suffering differently, love each other deeply, offer hospitality to one another, serve one another, resist the devil and so on. Why? Because they are different; they are God’s people living in a fallen world but they are not of the fallen world.
Discipleship is living out the reality of our Kingdom citizenship on earth now.
Disciples are not to be chameleons, they are not to blend in they are to stand out in society.
How?
a. Fight sin(11)- What does Peter urge them to do? “abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul”. The language is deliberately confrontational. Keep away from sin, why? Because sin wars against your soul. You are part of a battle, you will be tempted to sin, to give in to your desires, to play with sin, to fondle it, don’t! Fight sin.
We tend automatically to think of this as an individual thing – that is the way society moulds us; I am to fight sin. We don’t think of it as a group instruction. But Peter is writing to churches, to the people of God, to living stones being built together into God’s new temple where he is, to “Dear friends”. This instruction is to the new people of God – fight sin.
If you had to think of an image to sum up church or CU what would it be? Here the image is of a fight club where sin is the enemy, or it’s of a barracks or training camp where soldiers are given weapons training and equipped to do battle with the enemy. As God’s people we are to be equipping one another to fight sin.
Live counter culturally, there are loads of areas where we can stand out but here are a few:
- Drunkenness – don’t do it.
- Pornography – cut it out. It damages you, it degrades your future wife or husband (ladies don’t think this is just a guy thing), and it will mortgage your sex life in marriage.
- Sexual immorality (Porneia any sexual activity outside of marriage) – stop. Don’t be prudish about sex – the bible has lots to say about sex, about its design, its wonder and how amazing it is in marriage. Look at God’s plan and refuse to accept the twisted half truth the world peddles.
- Greed – be generous with what you have, determine what you give not with a calculator but by looking at the cross. It may not be a problem now but establish principles now so when you have money you are not ensnared by it.
Fight sin – be a community which is fighting sin.
b. Replace sin(12) – But notice that they aren’t just to not sin but they are to replace it, what are they to put in its place? “Live such good lives”. The gospel is to change who they are and how they live, to overflow and that overflow is expressed in good living – not good by the world’s standards but pleasing to God – righteous, being holy as God is holy, being God’s ambassadors in exile.
Now this really matters, because often we simply approach sin with the radical extraction method – we take Jesus instructions in the Sermon on the Mount to gouge out our eye if it causes us to sin and we think we will just cut it out of our lives, we are to just stop doing it, but it leaves a vacuum. Peter says that we are to replace the sin we fight with something good, or pleasing to God, in fact when you read the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety that’s also what Jesus is saying – don’t stop at just cutting sin out replace it with pleasing God.
Turn back to 1:13 “Therefore with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” Changing our thinking is the place to start – what are we to think about? the hope we have, we are to focus on the cross, our salvation and the glorious future that is ours in Jesus, that one day we will have no battle with sin, and we will be with God forever. Take the things you are struggling with to God in prayer and look again at what he has given us.
Understand that we are freed from sin in Christ and given a new heart and God’s spirit so that sin is no longer an inevitability for us. And overflowing from the grace we have experienced is grace shown to others because God is our greatest treasure.
How do you replace pornography, or drunkenness, or Sexual immorality or greed? Begin by calling it what it is – it is sin. But also see it for what it is – it is putting you as your greatest treasure. Your wants, your reputation, your popularity, your desire, your gratification. We sin because we make ourselves our greatest treasure, we can fight and replace sin when God is our greatest treasure.
What is the arena is which they do that? “among the pagans” It is not good living in church but in the hostile world, where it is most distinctive. Believers are not to cut themselves off from the world in order to achieve holiness, they are to be set apart, to be holy in the world, to be different in the midst of the battle. And our unbelieving friends around us are to see the fight we are engaged in, to see us changing.
c. Call sinners(12) – You can imagine these believers looking up at each other and saying ‘But if we do that we will get even more flak that we are getting at the moment!’ And Peter acknowledges that, they will criticise and slander you but some will see the change, the affect the gospel has, and will repent and put their faith in God. Some sinners will be saved as you live the gospel.
Maybe you are thinking yes but the guys on my corridor would just rip me if I lived like that, or you don’t know the hostility I face from friends and family. Peter knew the hostility these believers were facing. It wasn’t overt physical persecution, it was being ostracised, it was name calling, it was exclusion, and it was discrimination and suspicion. In short it was exactly what we face and we meet it by fighting sin, replacing sin and calling sinners – be a disciple not a chameleon.
5 mins fill out concentric circles diagram. Talk through the diagram
Your friends are those who will see you fight sin, replace sin and call sinners most intensely. How many non-believing friends see that? If there aren’t many then you are not “Living such good lives among the pagans”. The answer isn’t to pick 5 people to get to know, the answer is to go back to the gospel to see God’s passion or people understanding of sin and grasp of grace and pray for him to change your heart. We are to love people not engage in projects.
So practically how do we build friendships?
• Be in the community you are in don’t hide from it.(you may need to be instrumental in forming a community, your house mates, sports teams, seminar groups)
• Identify community key gateways (pub, bar...)
• Develop community habits (use local shop, join local gym and say hi to those people)
• Serve your community (how can your CU/small group serve your hall or university)
• Serve individuals (stop to help people, be generous with your money)
• Change your diary (avoid Christian rabbit warren) be deliberate
• Join a club where people will be
• Get other Christians to introduce you to their friends
• Walk places and be ready to say hi and smile to people
• Make use of meal times – people talk over food!!!
• Don’t take an iPod or listen to music on public transport
• Live out your faith openly, don’t keep it private!
Do you see the principle: Fight Sin, Replace Sin, Call Sinners, that is basic discipleship, it is normal Christian living and it is to be lived out among the pagans.
But you may say I’m not strong enough, I will fall. That’s why these are community instructions – Christians are not lone rangers, you are part of a church, part of a CU, part of a small group. That is your support network, that is who is to keep you accountable, who you can pray with, who can challenge you.
Fight sin, replace sin, call sinners.
The pattern of authentic evangelistic living we have seen in Jesus is not to be unique to Jesus we glimpsed that with Levi and the disciples as after they were called they engaged in telling others about Jesus and as we read the epistles and Acts we see that it is to be normal Christian living, normal discipleship.
Do you remember the definition of an evangelistic lifestyle we started off with: ‘Where a disciple of Jesus authentically lives out his or her developing, maturing discipleship in the context of, connected with, and engaged in the world around him or her.’ It is normal Christian living.
We see it clearly in 1 Peter as Peter writes to encourage ostracised and alienated believers that they are God’s chosen and privileged people, the new Israel, living for God’s purpose: “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”(9) They are experiencing rejection and hardship just as Jesus did because they are not citizens of the world but aliens, exiles, foreigners living differently. From 2:11-4:11 he practically applies that as he teaches them what that different living will look like in different areas of life. He begins by establishing the principle in v11-12 before fleshing that principle out in relation to government, work, and marriage.
1. The Principle: Exiles fight sin, replace sin, and call sinners
How does Peter describe the believers he is writing to? “foreigners and exiles” In the context of their day that meant someone who was not a citizen of the place in which they lived. Citizenship mattered, if you were a citizen you had rights and privileges, you shared in that societies practices and values. If you were a foreigner you didn’t have those rights, you didn’t share those practices and values and you were viewed and treated with suspicion.
One of the big themes in 1 Peter is that as believers they are different and what makes them different is that they are God’s elect, chosen by God, sanctified by the Spirit and sprinkled with Christ’s blood. The Kingdom of God is where they have their citizenship but for now they live scattered in a world where they are foreigners and exiles – against the backdrop of the world they will stand out.
Peter writes in the rest of the letter about what that non-world kingdom citizenship means in terms of the way believers live; they are to think, respond and act differently to the world around them. They abstain from sinful desires, they don’t let appetites rule them, they submit to authority, live out God’s pattern of marriage, dress differently, love their wives differently, respond to suffering differently, love each other deeply, offer hospitality to one another, serve one another, resist the devil and so on. Why? Because they are different; they are God’s people living in a fallen world but they are not of the fallen world.
Discipleship is living out the reality of our Kingdom citizenship on earth now.
Disciples are not to be chameleons, they are not to blend in they are to stand out in society.
How?
a. Fight sin(11)- What does Peter urge them to do? “abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul”. The language is deliberately confrontational. Keep away from sin, why? Because sin wars against your soul. You are part of a battle, you will be tempted to sin, to give in to your desires, to play with sin, to fondle it, don’t! Fight sin.
We tend automatically to think of this as an individual thing – that is the way society moulds us; I am to fight sin. We don’t think of it as a group instruction. But Peter is writing to churches, to the people of God, to living stones being built together into God’s new temple where he is, to “Dear friends”. This instruction is to the new people of God – fight sin.
If you had to think of an image to sum up church or CU what would it be? Here the image is of a fight club where sin is the enemy, or it’s of a barracks or training camp where soldiers are given weapons training and equipped to do battle with the enemy. As God’s people we are to be equipping one another to fight sin.
Live counter culturally, there are loads of areas where we can stand out but here are a few:
- Drunkenness – don’t do it.
- Pornography – cut it out. It damages you, it degrades your future wife or husband (ladies don’t think this is just a guy thing), and it will mortgage your sex life in marriage.
- Sexual immorality (Porneia any sexual activity outside of marriage) – stop. Don’t be prudish about sex – the bible has lots to say about sex, about its design, its wonder and how amazing it is in marriage. Look at God’s plan and refuse to accept the twisted half truth the world peddles.
- Greed – be generous with what you have, determine what you give not with a calculator but by looking at the cross. It may not be a problem now but establish principles now so when you have money you are not ensnared by it.
Fight sin – be a community which is fighting sin.
b. Replace sin(12) – But notice that they aren’t just to not sin but they are to replace it, what are they to put in its place? “Live such good lives”. The gospel is to change who they are and how they live, to overflow and that overflow is expressed in good living – not good by the world’s standards but pleasing to God – righteous, being holy as God is holy, being God’s ambassadors in exile.
Now this really matters, because often we simply approach sin with the radical extraction method – we take Jesus instructions in the Sermon on the Mount to gouge out our eye if it causes us to sin and we think we will just cut it out of our lives, we are to just stop doing it, but it leaves a vacuum. Peter says that we are to replace the sin we fight with something good, or pleasing to God, in fact when you read the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety that’s also what Jesus is saying – don’t stop at just cutting sin out replace it with pleasing God.
Turn back to 1:13 “Therefore with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” Changing our thinking is the place to start – what are we to think about? the hope we have, we are to focus on the cross, our salvation and the glorious future that is ours in Jesus, that one day we will have no battle with sin, and we will be with God forever. Take the things you are struggling with to God in prayer and look again at what he has given us.
Understand that we are freed from sin in Christ and given a new heart and God’s spirit so that sin is no longer an inevitability for us. And overflowing from the grace we have experienced is grace shown to others because God is our greatest treasure.
How do you replace pornography, or drunkenness, or Sexual immorality or greed? Begin by calling it what it is – it is sin. But also see it for what it is – it is putting you as your greatest treasure. Your wants, your reputation, your popularity, your desire, your gratification. We sin because we make ourselves our greatest treasure, we can fight and replace sin when God is our greatest treasure.
What is the arena is which they do that? “among the pagans” It is not good living in church but in the hostile world, where it is most distinctive. Believers are not to cut themselves off from the world in order to achieve holiness, they are to be set apart, to be holy in the world, to be different in the midst of the battle. And our unbelieving friends around us are to see the fight we are engaged in, to see us changing.
c. Call sinners(12) – You can imagine these believers looking up at each other and saying ‘But if we do that we will get even more flak that we are getting at the moment!’ And Peter acknowledges that, they will criticise and slander you but some will see the change, the affect the gospel has, and will repent and put their faith in God. Some sinners will be saved as you live the gospel.
Maybe you are thinking yes but the guys on my corridor would just rip me if I lived like that, or you don’t know the hostility I face from friends and family. Peter knew the hostility these believers were facing. It wasn’t overt physical persecution, it was being ostracised, it was name calling, it was exclusion, and it was discrimination and suspicion. In short it was exactly what we face and we meet it by fighting sin, replacing sin and calling sinners – be a disciple not a chameleon.
5 mins fill out concentric circles diagram. Talk through the diagram
Your friends are those who will see you fight sin, replace sin and call sinners most intensely. How many non-believing friends see that? If there aren’t many then you are not “Living such good lives among the pagans”. The answer isn’t to pick 5 people to get to know, the answer is to go back to the gospel to see God’s passion or people understanding of sin and grasp of grace and pray for him to change your heart. We are to love people not engage in projects.
So practically how do we build friendships?
• Be in the community you are in don’t hide from it.(you may need to be instrumental in forming a community, your house mates, sports teams, seminar groups)
• Identify community key gateways (pub, bar...)
• Develop community habits (use local shop, join local gym and say hi to those people)
• Serve your community (how can your CU/small group serve your hall or university)
• Serve individuals (stop to help people, be generous with your money)
• Change your diary (avoid Christian rabbit warren) be deliberate
• Join a club where people will be
• Get other Christians to introduce you to their friends
• Walk places and be ready to say hi and smile to people
• Make use of meal times – people talk over food!!!
• Don’t take an iPod or listen to music on public transport
• Live out your faith openly, don’t keep it private!
Do you see the principle: Fight Sin, Replace Sin, Call Sinners, that is basic discipleship, it is normal Christian living and it is to be lived out among the pagans.
But you may say I’m not strong enough, I will fall. That’s why these are community instructions – Christians are not lone rangers, you are part of a church, part of a CU, part of a small group. That is your support network, that is who is to keep you accountable, who you can pray with, who can challenge you.
Fight sin, replace sin, call sinners.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Developing an evangelistic lifestyle part 2 - Luke 7:36-50
We were thinking last night about how Jesus is the example of an evangelistic lifestyle lived out. How he has a passion for people an understanding of sins seriousness and an expansive grasp on the grace and wonder of the gospel. Have Luke 7 open in front of you, because here we see two different ways of living, in fact we see two different lifestyles, and two different approaches to people, sin and God.
And there is a warning here for us, which of these two fits most closely with how we live. Not which would I nod along to and agree with, but which of these do I live out?
It’s not what you say you are you are it’s what you are you are! Sometimes we know something but we fail to live it out, sometimes we know the theory but fail to put it into practice. Here we see two approaches to living, one is evangelistic one is religious.
1. Our biggest danger - religious slavery
Look at this description – who do you think it is of?
“They have a very high view of scripture, they study it, memorise it, and seek to interpret and apply it to every day life. They want those around them to walk with God not just talk about him. They seek to live lives in such a way that it pleases God. Dissatisfied with the corruption and half heartedness of contemporary worship they designed a new way of worship focused around prayer, public reading and exposition of the scriptures. They pray often, fast, value fellowship, hate sin, pursue holiness, give generously and are active evangelists.”
It is actually of the Pharisees of Jesus day. Its why they are our greatest danger, why we must use this teaching like an MOT to test our hearts.
The scene is set for us in (36)Jesus is eating in the home of Simon, a Pharisee. When suddenly the conversation, which Luke tells us nothing of, stops and everyone turns, open-mouthed, to look at this infamous woman who has just walked into the room. There is some muttering and shuffling of feet as people press themselves up against the wall moving out of her way as she walks with her head bowed low and carrying a jar in her hands right up to where Jesus is reclining at the table.
Then the shock deepens as her tears begin to drop onto Jesus’ feet, she loosens her hair and begins wiping away her tears with it. Then she breaks the jar she was carrying so carefully and pours the perfume on his feet.
How does Simon react? He is horrified, not only at the woman but at Jesus welcome of her. What does he expect Jesus to do? Draw up his feet and have nothing to do with the woman, or condemn her and tell her to go away.
Why? Because that was the Pharisees approach to sin, they are rightly very concerned with pleasing God and with avoiding sin but they avoid any contact with those considered sinful. It is like quarantine, and Simon is amazed Jesus doesn’t share his point of view(39).
Simon is judgemental both of the woman and of Jesus – he concludes that he can’t be a prophet as a prophet would know this woman is a notorious sinner and would not allow such a woman to touch him.
There is a danger that we think the Pharisees weren’t interested in winning converts, they were Matthew 23:15 Jesus says “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then you make that convert twice as much a child of hell as you are.” They are phenomenally sobering words – the Pharisees are passionate missionaries but their zeal is misdirected, they call people not to relationship with the God of grace but to religious slavery, to judgementalism, to separatism, to joyless drudgery.
And Simon, presentable, good, nice, religious, hospitable Simon is our greatest danger. Because we can be just like him.
Maybe you are saying I’m nothing like Simon – let me explain why Simon is our greatest danger to us and our gospel needing friends.
Separatism – Simon avoids sinners, so can we. We would never say it, we know we need to reach the lost. But our actions reveal reality – we can live in a Christian rabbit warren. Have you ever sat and watched rabbits in a field. At the first sign of a stranger what do they do – they dart for the rabbit hole, all the stranger ever sees is the whites of their tails bobbing up and down. There is a Christian rabbit warren and all others see of us is the whites of our tails as we dash from CU meeting, to prayer meeting, to hall Bible study, to lunch with our Christian friends...
Or our separatism is seen in our never going where the lost are comfortable, but always inviting them to where we are comfortable. We hold evangelistic meetings where we are comfortable but do not go where the unbelievers hang out, we saw from Luke 5 last night Jesus goes to the Synagogue, he will eat in a Pharisees home but he will also go to the Tax booth, and into Levi’s home, into Zacchaeus’ home.
We can be judgemental just as Simon was – he/she is too great a sinner, or they are too into whatever it. Or it can be seen in our judgementalism of other Christians who are going where unbelievers are. A few years ago I helped organise what we called the Oasis project – a group of our teens, myself and a few others went into Doncaster on a night and gave out water to clubbers and pubbers, looking to get into conversation and share the gospel with them. **Guess where the opposition came from? Inside the church – it is a waste of time, it is too dangerous, you will never win anyone there and so on...
We can have mixed motives in our evangelism – often we engage in evangelism not because we have grasp teh gospel and the seriousness of sin, not because we are passionate about people but because we are prompted by guilt or grudging obedience.
Do you see how the Pharisees are our greatest danger:
The problem is that the longer we go on as Christians the fewer non-church friends we have. There are a number of reasons for the decline in contact with non-believers. For some it’s seeing friends come to faith, for most of us it is that we can become too involved in CU or church things and therefore have no time for anyone else. For some it’s simply a lack of effort, they are neither serving in the church nor involved in the world. (Kind of makes you wonder how effective the church would be if TV had never been invented!!!) For others this decline is a result of poor teaching or understanding of the Bible which leads them to separate themselves and isolate themselves from the unbelieving world.
So if that’s danger what is the alternative?
2. Be just like Jesus
Luke again shows us Jesus passion for the loss and his expansive grasp and grip on the grace of God and the reach of the gospel. It’s worth noticing where Jesus is, in ch5 he was eating with whom? Tax collectors and sinners, but now who is he eating with – the religious, the good people. Why? Because everybody needs salvation and the gospel can reach anyone as Jesus makes clear to Simon.
Jesus has a reputation for welcoming sinners, this woman(37) notorious though she is knows she can go to Jesus for forgiveness. It would be great wouldn’t it if that could be said of us or of our CU’s or churches?
And Jesus doesn’t turn her away because he knows the depth of her sin in a way Simon didn’t, he also knew what it would cost him to forgive her in a way Simon didn’t and yet he knows the gospel is a call for all those who repent to come and find forgiveness.
(41-47)We see Jesus understanding of the gospel as he tells this story to Simon. What do you notice about the two men? They both owed money and neither of them could repay it – they are the facts both are debtors both are incapable of meeting the debt they owe. These are not insignificant sums of money a Denarii was about a days wage – so one man owes two months wages and another about a year and three quarters.
The shock in the story is in how the money lender reacts. Imagine phoning the Student Loans Company when you get back and you discover that have run up about £20,000 of debt. You tell them you can’t pay it and the voice on the other end of the line says ‘Ok then we’ll just write it off.’ I guess we wouldn’t believe it, we’d want to check it out, we’d want written proof, because things like that just don’t happen. It was the same in Jesus day, yet these two men are forgiven their un-payable debts.
We live in a society that loves to compare don’t we. We compare houses, we compare children’s achievements, there is even a website so you can compare salaries with other people, and we even do it with morality.
It’s a bit like a ladder (slide) we put people like Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King near the top, then at the bottom are people like terrorists, murderers…
Where would you put yourself? When we have to think about where we put ourselves, we go through a process like this; I’m better than so and so, but not as good as them.
That is exactly how Simon is operating here. He would be up here and she would be down there. But do you see what the biggest shock is here? Wherever you put yourself Jesus says the debt is un-payable – “neither could pay him back.” Simon’s little sin leaves him just as lost as the woman’s big sin, just as incapable of rebalancing the scales.
Jesus words were shocking then and they still shock now, it tells us we owe a debt we cannot ever repay, that being right with God is not comparative with one another. So what is the answer?
Well the answer is sat round the table with Simon, it is the one who welcomes sinners, it is the one who can say to this woman “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Do you noticed how Luke emphasises the forgiveness that Jesus gives? (47-50) twice Jesus says she is forgiven, the guests question his forgiveness but he sends her away saved by faith in him. Jesus cancels the un-payable debt, he forgives sin.
A great sinner needs a great saviour. We can never be too bad for God, but it also warns us we can never be good enough not to need saving either. That it is only by faith in Jesus that we will be saved.
Jesus welcomes sinners because he knows the power of the gospel to save everyone and he has a passion for people.
Do you see how Simon is our greatest danger? But do you see how Jesus is the one we are called to follow with his biblical view of sin, his expansive grasp on grace and his passion or people.
If we are just like Jesus we will:
• Take the initiative in seeking out sinners
• Go where they are comfortable
• Be authentically ourselves
• Value and care for people
• Be ever aware of God’s grace as our motivator
And there is a warning here for us, which of these two fits most closely with how we live. Not which would I nod along to and agree with, but which of these do I live out?
It’s not what you say you are you are it’s what you are you are! Sometimes we know something but we fail to live it out, sometimes we know the theory but fail to put it into practice. Here we see two approaches to living, one is evangelistic one is religious.
1. Our biggest danger - religious slavery
Look at this description – who do you think it is of?
“They have a very high view of scripture, they study it, memorise it, and seek to interpret and apply it to every day life. They want those around them to walk with God not just talk about him. They seek to live lives in such a way that it pleases God. Dissatisfied with the corruption and half heartedness of contemporary worship they designed a new way of worship focused around prayer, public reading and exposition of the scriptures. They pray often, fast, value fellowship, hate sin, pursue holiness, give generously and are active evangelists.”
It is actually of the Pharisees of Jesus day. Its why they are our greatest danger, why we must use this teaching like an MOT to test our hearts.
The scene is set for us in (36)Jesus is eating in the home of Simon, a Pharisee. When suddenly the conversation, which Luke tells us nothing of, stops and everyone turns, open-mouthed, to look at this infamous woman who has just walked into the room. There is some muttering and shuffling of feet as people press themselves up against the wall moving out of her way as she walks with her head bowed low and carrying a jar in her hands right up to where Jesus is reclining at the table.
Then the shock deepens as her tears begin to drop onto Jesus’ feet, she loosens her hair and begins wiping away her tears with it. Then she breaks the jar she was carrying so carefully and pours the perfume on his feet.
How does Simon react? He is horrified, not only at the woman but at Jesus welcome of her. What does he expect Jesus to do? Draw up his feet and have nothing to do with the woman, or condemn her and tell her to go away.
Why? Because that was the Pharisees approach to sin, they are rightly very concerned with pleasing God and with avoiding sin but they avoid any contact with those considered sinful. It is like quarantine, and Simon is amazed Jesus doesn’t share his point of view(39).
Simon is judgemental both of the woman and of Jesus – he concludes that he can’t be a prophet as a prophet would know this woman is a notorious sinner and would not allow such a woman to touch him.
There is a danger that we think the Pharisees weren’t interested in winning converts, they were Matthew 23:15 Jesus says “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then you make that convert twice as much a child of hell as you are.” They are phenomenally sobering words – the Pharisees are passionate missionaries but their zeal is misdirected, they call people not to relationship with the God of grace but to religious slavery, to judgementalism, to separatism, to joyless drudgery.
And Simon, presentable, good, nice, religious, hospitable Simon is our greatest danger. Because we can be just like him.
Maybe you are saying I’m nothing like Simon – let me explain why Simon is our greatest danger to us and our gospel needing friends.
Separatism – Simon avoids sinners, so can we. We would never say it, we know we need to reach the lost. But our actions reveal reality – we can live in a Christian rabbit warren. Have you ever sat and watched rabbits in a field. At the first sign of a stranger what do they do – they dart for the rabbit hole, all the stranger ever sees is the whites of their tails bobbing up and down. There is a Christian rabbit warren and all others see of us is the whites of our tails as we dash from CU meeting, to prayer meeting, to hall Bible study, to lunch with our Christian friends...
Or our separatism is seen in our never going where the lost are comfortable, but always inviting them to where we are comfortable. We hold evangelistic meetings where we are comfortable but do not go where the unbelievers hang out, we saw from Luke 5 last night Jesus goes to the Synagogue, he will eat in a Pharisees home but he will also go to the Tax booth, and into Levi’s home, into Zacchaeus’ home.
We can be judgemental just as Simon was – he/she is too great a sinner, or they are too into whatever it. Or it can be seen in our judgementalism of other Christians who are going where unbelievers are. A few years ago I helped organise what we called the Oasis project – a group of our teens, myself and a few others went into Doncaster on a night and gave out water to clubbers and pubbers, looking to get into conversation and share the gospel with them. **Guess where the opposition came from? Inside the church – it is a waste of time, it is too dangerous, you will never win anyone there and so on...
We can have mixed motives in our evangelism – often we engage in evangelism not because we have grasp teh gospel and the seriousness of sin, not because we are passionate about people but because we are prompted by guilt or grudging obedience.
Do you see how the Pharisees are our greatest danger:
The problem is that the longer we go on as Christians the fewer non-church friends we have. There are a number of reasons for the decline in contact with non-believers. For some it’s seeing friends come to faith, for most of us it is that we can become too involved in CU or church things and therefore have no time for anyone else. For some it’s simply a lack of effort, they are neither serving in the church nor involved in the world. (Kind of makes you wonder how effective the church would be if TV had never been invented!!!) For others this decline is a result of poor teaching or understanding of the Bible which leads them to separate themselves and isolate themselves from the unbelieving world.
So if that’s danger what is the alternative?
2. Be just like Jesus
Luke again shows us Jesus passion for the loss and his expansive grasp and grip on the grace of God and the reach of the gospel. It’s worth noticing where Jesus is, in ch5 he was eating with whom? Tax collectors and sinners, but now who is he eating with – the religious, the good people. Why? Because everybody needs salvation and the gospel can reach anyone as Jesus makes clear to Simon.
Jesus has a reputation for welcoming sinners, this woman(37) notorious though she is knows she can go to Jesus for forgiveness. It would be great wouldn’t it if that could be said of us or of our CU’s or churches?
And Jesus doesn’t turn her away because he knows the depth of her sin in a way Simon didn’t, he also knew what it would cost him to forgive her in a way Simon didn’t and yet he knows the gospel is a call for all those who repent to come and find forgiveness.
(41-47)We see Jesus understanding of the gospel as he tells this story to Simon. What do you notice about the two men? They both owed money and neither of them could repay it – they are the facts both are debtors both are incapable of meeting the debt they owe. These are not insignificant sums of money a Denarii was about a days wage – so one man owes two months wages and another about a year and three quarters.
The shock in the story is in how the money lender reacts. Imagine phoning the Student Loans Company when you get back and you discover that have run up about £20,000 of debt. You tell them you can’t pay it and the voice on the other end of the line says ‘Ok then we’ll just write it off.’ I guess we wouldn’t believe it, we’d want to check it out, we’d want written proof, because things like that just don’t happen. It was the same in Jesus day, yet these two men are forgiven their un-payable debts.
We live in a society that loves to compare don’t we. We compare houses, we compare children’s achievements, there is even a website so you can compare salaries with other people, and we even do it with morality.
It’s a bit like a ladder (slide) we put people like Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King near the top, then at the bottom are people like terrorists, murderers…
Where would you put yourself? When we have to think about where we put ourselves, we go through a process like this; I’m better than so and so, but not as good as them.
That is exactly how Simon is operating here. He would be up here and she would be down there. But do you see what the biggest shock is here? Wherever you put yourself Jesus says the debt is un-payable – “neither could pay him back.” Simon’s little sin leaves him just as lost as the woman’s big sin, just as incapable of rebalancing the scales.
Jesus words were shocking then and they still shock now, it tells us we owe a debt we cannot ever repay, that being right with God is not comparative with one another. So what is the answer?
Well the answer is sat round the table with Simon, it is the one who welcomes sinners, it is the one who can say to this woman “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Do you noticed how Luke emphasises the forgiveness that Jesus gives? (47-50) twice Jesus says she is forgiven, the guests question his forgiveness but he sends her away saved by faith in him. Jesus cancels the un-payable debt, he forgives sin.
A great sinner needs a great saviour. We can never be too bad for God, but it also warns us we can never be good enough not to need saving either. That it is only by faith in Jesus that we will be saved.
Jesus welcomes sinners because he knows the power of the gospel to save everyone and he has a passion for people.
Do you see how Simon is our greatest danger? But do you see how Jesus is the one we are called to follow with his biblical view of sin, his expansive grasp on grace and his passion or people.
If we are just like Jesus we will:
• Take the initiative in seeking out sinners
• Go where they are comfortable
• Be authentically ourselves
• Value and care for people
• Be ever aware of God’s grace as our motivator
Monday, 8 November 2010
Luke 5 - Passion and perspective
I was away this weekend with some CU's from the North East looking at Developing an Evangelistic Lifestyle, I'm going to post the rough notes from each session over the next few days. Here's the first:
An evangelistic lifestyle is simply that of a disciple living as their master did.
Where a disciple of Jesus authentically lives out his or her developing, maturing discipleship in the context of, connected with, and engaged in the world around him or her.
This is not anything it special it is normal discipleship!
Luke ch4-5 show us Jesus on his mission; proclaiming, telling, teaching that the kingdom of God is here now, that he has come to bring freedom and favour with God(4:18-19). Ch5 shows us Jesus proclaiming that message and outcasts responding, those made outcasts by leprosy or illness or by demon possession. But here Jesus is confronted with another outcast, a social and moral outcast. And as Jesus deals with Levi we see the example of evangelistic living.
“When I meet Jesus one day in heaven, one question I plan to ask is, ‘What about you was so attractive to worldly people?’ Why was Jesus on the guest list when secular parties were being planned?...What did Jesus have that caused local sinners to seek out his company?”
Tom Hovestol.
“How did he, the only perfect person in history, manage to attract the notoriously imperfect?”
Phillip Yancey.
1. A Passion for People
(27) “Jesus saw a tax collector” Jesus spots Levi and homes in on him, this is deliberate. Jesus knows he is a tax collector, where is he sat? “his tax booth”. He is obviously a collaborator with the Romans and that therefore an outcast, a sinner, morally beyond the pale and yet Jesus sees him and zeroes in on him. And the question is why?
Because Jesus is passionate about people, he loves them. Jesus wants this morally dubious, religious no hoper to know God’s favour, to experience grace.
That in itself is amazing, but maybe it is just a one off? What happens next? (29)Jesus and his disciples go at Levi’s invitation to share a meal with him and his socially dubious, notoriously immoral friends. Jesus engages with and welcomes religious outcasts.
He takes time out to share a meal with “a large crowd of tax collectors and others”. Because he has a passion for people, he cares for them. He will risk opposition and complaints from the religious leaders about who he spends time with because he didn’t come to engage in social niceties, to be popular with the religious but to proclaim God’s kingdom, to preach freedom. He hasn’t “come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (32). Jesus comes to save the outcast no matter the cost to his reputation because salvation matters, lost people need saving.
If you read through Luke’s gospel you see it again and again, ch4 he’s in the synagogue preaching that the kingdom has come, ch5 he’s calling Peter, James and John, healing a man with leprosy, forgiving the sin of a paralysed man before he gets to Levi a pattern of behaviour, priorities and passion is established – Jesus is passionate about people, later on when Jesus has seen another rogue Zacchaeus saved he says this about his mission “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
And do you notice something else, Jesus passion for people is contagious. Jesus calls Levi and what does Levi do straight away? He calls his friends to meet Jesus! Levi engages in the same mission as Jesus – notice he doesn’t wait to do a course, or to be at a certain stage where evangelism feels comfortable.
Jesus is passionate about people, therefore Jesus followers will be passionate about people! They are fishers of men, are we passionate about people?
2. A right perspective on the problem of sin and the power of the gospel.
Jesus isn’t just passionate about people, however, he is also clear about the problem of sin and the power of the gospel.
Jesus gives the illustration of what he has come to do as being like what? a doctor. He has come for those who recognise they are sick and want healing. Except the disease that Jesus comes to deal with isn’t diabetes, cancer or any other physical illness it is sin. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus has come to deal with sin but what is it? Sin is rebellion against God. We mustn’t confuse the symptoms of sin with the actual problem. We tend to think sin is the things we do: swearing, anger, gossip, greed, lust and so on. But Jesus is much clearer about what sin is than we often are.
The real problem of sin isn’t the symptoms but what they reveal – all the things we do that we label sin are the result of a heart problem.
If I wake tomorrow and have a sore throat, temperature, runny nose and aching limbs what do my symptoms reveal? I have flu. My symptoms aren’t the problem, they reveal the problem a virus. I may treat the symptoms but that won’t cure me.
Sin is like that – anger, bitterness, lust, lying, pride, etc aren’t the problem they are the symptoms of a deeper problem. Jesus diagnoses our problem as being a heart defect - we want to decide right and wrong for ourselves. We don’t want to think of a creator we are responsible to, we want to be free to decide for ourselves what we do and how we do it. That is sin – our determination to be God for ourselves, our ousting the creator from his rule of his world through us and doing it our own way.
Jesus diagnoses the problem of sin and comes to deal with the cause of the problem not the symptoms. Jesus doesn’t deal with the symptoms – we mentioned Zacchaeus earlier Zacchaeus was an embezzling cheating tax collector, but Jesus doesn’t lecture him on morality or greed. Rather as a result of being saved and his heart being changed by grace Zacchaeus is freed from greed. Jesus isn’t into religious behaviour modification he brings radical heart change.
The sickness that Jesus speaks of is a very serious one, sin is serious because it leaves us spiritually dead before God and facing judgement for our refusal to worship him. But Jesus passion for people means he seeks the lost, he is the doctor for the sick, he comes to provide a heart transplant, but he also comes to take the penalty for their sin. Rejection of God must be judged and punished because God is just – Jesus though innocent takes our punishment.
All the way through the gospels you see Jesus forgiving sin and calling sinners but you don’t see the price being paid and the Pharisees are horrified because only God can forgive sin and only when something dies to atone for sin. But Jesus never makes an atonement sacrifice, until you get to Calvary.
It’s a bit like a credit card as Jesus forgives and calls Levi the bill is mounting up and at the cross the bill for forgiveness has to be paid and Jesus pays the price. He dies in the place of those who have rejected God, he bears God’s anger for our sin, and amazingly we get his perfect record. Jesus understands the seriousness of sin.
But we must notice something else, who are the two groups Jesus speaks of? The righteous and the sinner. What does righteous mean? It is someone who fulfils God’s demands regarding right living – love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind strength and love your neighbour as yourself.
That is how the Pharisees see themselves, but they do not live like, just look at their attitude to Levi and friends. Jesus doesn’t think they are righteous he knows their need that’s why he proclaims the good news in the synagogues. Jesus knows that even those who look good, who are religious have a heart problem, sin is still their problem they just try to be very, very good to make up for it, but that goodness just produces different symptoms – self righteousness, lack of love, judgementalism.
Jesus knows the seriousness of sin for both groups but he also knows that the gospel can save both groups. That’s why he approaches Levi; he knows Levi isn’t a hopeless case that he is not beyond the gospel. But he also knows the religious need the gospel and that it can reach them which is why he preaches in the synagogues to the religious.
Maybe you are here this weekend and you haven’t yet decided to follow Jesus, maybe you see yourself as an interested spectator, you want to know what all this Jesus stuff is about, why these people have welcomes you and care for you. They care for you because they are following their master – Jesus is passionate about people and so are they. Jesus understood the power of sin and so do they, and Jesus knew the power of the gospel to save them and so do they.
Maybe you are here and you relate to Levi – you feel the wrong things you have done, you look back on all the screw ups, the relationships ruined because of your selfishness, or the mistakes made because of your faulty definition of right and wrong.
Or maybe you are very good, you’re a nice person, you go to church but as you’ve listened you’ve realised there is something missing.
(27-8)Levi recognises his need, that he is far from God that he has a problem and when Jesus says follow me what does he do? “Levi got up left everything and followed him.”
Levi repents, he leaves everything, everything that held him back, that he’d been living for, that was about him and his rule of his life and he makes Jesus the priority in his life. That is repentance; a radical repositioning of priorities.
Jesus understands the problem of sin and the power of the gospel.
Developing an evangelistic lifestyle begins as we look at Jesus and share his perspective and passion, as we see the seriousness of sin, as we learn to love people as God loved us and as we understand the power of the gospel to save anyone.
An evangelistic lifestyle is simply that of a disciple living as their master did.
Where a disciple of Jesus authentically lives out his or her developing, maturing discipleship in the context of, connected with, and engaged in the world around him or her.
This is not anything it special it is normal discipleship!
Luke ch4-5 show us Jesus on his mission; proclaiming, telling, teaching that the kingdom of God is here now, that he has come to bring freedom and favour with God(4:18-19). Ch5 shows us Jesus proclaiming that message and outcasts responding, those made outcasts by leprosy or illness or by demon possession. But here Jesus is confronted with another outcast, a social and moral outcast. And as Jesus deals with Levi we see the example of evangelistic living.
“When I meet Jesus one day in heaven, one question I plan to ask is, ‘What about you was so attractive to worldly people?’ Why was Jesus on the guest list when secular parties were being planned?...What did Jesus have that caused local sinners to seek out his company?”
Tom Hovestol.
“How did he, the only perfect person in history, manage to attract the notoriously imperfect?”
Phillip Yancey.
1. A Passion for People
(27) “Jesus saw a tax collector” Jesus spots Levi and homes in on him, this is deliberate. Jesus knows he is a tax collector, where is he sat? “his tax booth”. He is obviously a collaborator with the Romans and that therefore an outcast, a sinner, morally beyond the pale and yet Jesus sees him and zeroes in on him. And the question is why?
Because Jesus is passionate about people, he loves them. Jesus wants this morally dubious, religious no hoper to know God’s favour, to experience grace.
That in itself is amazing, but maybe it is just a one off? What happens next? (29)Jesus and his disciples go at Levi’s invitation to share a meal with him and his socially dubious, notoriously immoral friends. Jesus engages with and welcomes religious outcasts.
He takes time out to share a meal with “a large crowd of tax collectors and others”. Because he has a passion for people, he cares for them. He will risk opposition and complaints from the religious leaders about who he spends time with because he didn’t come to engage in social niceties, to be popular with the religious but to proclaim God’s kingdom, to preach freedom. He hasn’t “come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (32). Jesus comes to save the outcast no matter the cost to his reputation because salvation matters, lost people need saving.
If you read through Luke’s gospel you see it again and again, ch4 he’s in the synagogue preaching that the kingdom has come, ch5 he’s calling Peter, James and John, healing a man with leprosy, forgiving the sin of a paralysed man before he gets to Levi a pattern of behaviour, priorities and passion is established – Jesus is passionate about people, later on when Jesus has seen another rogue Zacchaeus saved he says this about his mission “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
And do you notice something else, Jesus passion for people is contagious. Jesus calls Levi and what does Levi do straight away? He calls his friends to meet Jesus! Levi engages in the same mission as Jesus – notice he doesn’t wait to do a course, or to be at a certain stage where evangelism feels comfortable.
Jesus is passionate about people, therefore Jesus followers will be passionate about people! They are fishers of men, are we passionate about people?
2. A right perspective on the problem of sin and the power of the gospel.
Jesus isn’t just passionate about people, however, he is also clear about the problem of sin and the power of the gospel.
Jesus gives the illustration of what he has come to do as being like what? a doctor. He has come for those who recognise they are sick and want healing. Except the disease that Jesus comes to deal with isn’t diabetes, cancer or any other physical illness it is sin. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus has come to deal with sin but what is it? Sin is rebellion against God. We mustn’t confuse the symptoms of sin with the actual problem. We tend to think sin is the things we do: swearing, anger, gossip, greed, lust and so on. But Jesus is much clearer about what sin is than we often are.
The real problem of sin isn’t the symptoms but what they reveal – all the things we do that we label sin are the result of a heart problem.
If I wake tomorrow and have a sore throat, temperature, runny nose and aching limbs what do my symptoms reveal? I have flu. My symptoms aren’t the problem, they reveal the problem a virus. I may treat the symptoms but that won’t cure me.
Sin is like that – anger, bitterness, lust, lying, pride, etc aren’t the problem they are the symptoms of a deeper problem. Jesus diagnoses our problem as being a heart defect - we want to decide right and wrong for ourselves. We don’t want to think of a creator we are responsible to, we want to be free to decide for ourselves what we do and how we do it. That is sin – our determination to be God for ourselves, our ousting the creator from his rule of his world through us and doing it our own way.
Jesus diagnoses the problem of sin and comes to deal with the cause of the problem not the symptoms. Jesus doesn’t deal with the symptoms – we mentioned Zacchaeus earlier Zacchaeus was an embezzling cheating tax collector, but Jesus doesn’t lecture him on morality or greed. Rather as a result of being saved and his heart being changed by grace Zacchaeus is freed from greed. Jesus isn’t into religious behaviour modification he brings radical heart change.
The sickness that Jesus speaks of is a very serious one, sin is serious because it leaves us spiritually dead before God and facing judgement for our refusal to worship him. But Jesus passion for people means he seeks the lost, he is the doctor for the sick, he comes to provide a heart transplant, but he also comes to take the penalty for their sin. Rejection of God must be judged and punished because God is just – Jesus though innocent takes our punishment.
All the way through the gospels you see Jesus forgiving sin and calling sinners but you don’t see the price being paid and the Pharisees are horrified because only God can forgive sin and only when something dies to atone for sin. But Jesus never makes an atonement sacrifice, until you get to Calvary.
It’s a bit like a credit card as Jesus forgives and calls Levi the bill is mounting up and at the cross the bill for forgiveness has to be paid and Jesus pays the price. He dies in the place of those who have rejected God, he bears God’s anger for our sin, and amazingly we get his perfect record. Jesus understands the seriousness of sin.
But we must notice something else, who are the two groups Jesus speaks of? The righteous and the sinner. What does righteous mean? It is someone who fulfils God’s demands regarding right living – love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind strength and love your neighbour as yourself.
That is how the Pharisees see themselves, but they do not live like, just look at their attitude to Levi and friends. Jesus doesn’t think they are righteous he knows their need that’s why he proclaims the good news in the synagogues. Jesus knows that even those who look good, who are religious have a heart problem, sin is still their problem they just try to be very, very good to make up for it, but that goodness just produces different symptoms – self righteousness, lack of love, judgementalism.
Jesus knows the seriousness of sin for both groups but he also knows that the gospel can save both groups. That’s why he approaches Levi; he knows Levi isn’t a hopeless case that he is not beyond the gospel. But he also knows the religious need the gospel and that it can reach them which is why he preaches in the synagogues to the religious.
Maybe you are here this weekend and you haven’t yet decided to follow Jesus, maybe you see yourself as an interested spectator, you want to know what all this Jesus stuff is about, why these people have welcomes you and care for you. They care for you because they are following their master – Jesus is passionate about people and so are they. Jesus understood the power of sin and so do they, and Jesus knew the power of the gospel to save them and so do they.
Maybe you are here and you relate to Levi – you feel the wrong things you have done, you look back on all the screw ups, the relationships ruined because of your selfishness, or the mistakes made because of your faulty definition of right and wrong.
Or maybe you are very good, you’re a nice person, you go to church but as you’ve listened you’ve realised there is something missing.
(27-8)Levi recognises his need, that he is far from God that he has a problem and when Jesus says follow me what does he do? “Levi got up left everything and followed him.”
Levi repents, he leaves everything, everything that held him back, that he’d been living for, that was about him and his rule of his life and he makes Jesus the priority in his life. That is repentance; a radical repositioning of priorities.
Jesus understands the problem of sin and the power of the gospel.
Developing an evangelistic lifestyle begins as we look at Jesus and share his perspective and passion, as we see the seriousness of sin, as we learn to love people as God loved us and as we understand the power of the gospel to save anyone.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
The Gospel problem
If you are a christian you make an assumption that you understand the gospel. We all think we understand the gospel, and sometimes dangerously that can lead people to think they need to move on from the gospel. But the rest of our lives is spent understanding, applying, re-understanding and reapplying the gospel to our lives.
Last night I was looking at Mark 2 as confrontation begins between Jesus and the Pharisees, often we write the Pharisees off but I think we tend to do so too quickly. But there big problem is that they codify holiness and can't, won't or don't know how to fit Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom he brings into their framework. Fascinatingly I think we have the same problem - though for us it is that we take our eyes off the gospel and focus instead on fence building.
A genuine desire to be holy means that we put up all sorts of fences to protect us from every sinning. Where we go, who we spend time with, what you can buy, what you can read, watch and so on - we put fences around everyone. Now the motive is good we want to live differently, we want to please God but we aren't applying the gospel to our lives just putting up fences. And as we do so we have taken our eyes off the gospel and fixed them on religion as a means of pleasing God.
Last night I was looking at Mark 2 as confrontation begins between Jesus and the Pharisees, often we write the Pharisees off but I think we tend to do so too quickly. But there big problem is that they codify holiness and can't, won't or don't know how to fit Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom he brings into their framework. Fascinatingly I think we have the same problem - though for us it is that we take our eyes off the gospel and focus instead on fence building.
A genuine desire to be holy means that we put up all sorts of fences to protect us from every sinning. Where we go, who we spend time with, what you can buy, what you can read, watch and so on - we put fences around everyone. Now the motive is good we want to live differently, we want to please God but we aren't applying the gospel to our lives just putting up fences. And as we do so we have taken our eyes off the gospel and fixed them on religion as a means of pleasing God.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Never stopping
I have been reminded again and again over the last few weeks through articles, books and Bible reading and preparation of the need to be changing. Not just to change once but to ongoing in changing. That is what God is looking for, that is what brings him glory, it is what the gospel calls us to and it is what the Spirit works in us to produce.
It means that every so often it is helpful to stop and think about what God is calling us to change now, what facet of my character is he challenging as he makes me more aware of the gospel and its height, depth and breadth.
Conversely if I am not changing then I am not apprecaiting the gospel and its call to be repent and live repenting, its call to be re-born and therefore to be being changed into a new creation.
It means that every so often it is helpful to stop and think about what God is calling us to change now, what facet of my character is he challenging as he makes me more aware of the gospel and its height, depth and breadth.
Conversely if I am not changing then I am not apprecaiting the gospel and its call to be repent and live repenting, its call to be re-born and therefore to be being changed into a new creation.
Monday, 16 February 2009
The Christian and Money - Part 4
Implications
So having looked at what the Bible has to say about money we need to work out what this means for us. The first thing is straight forward but is foundational to everything that follows. Everything we have is Gods given to us to use for his glory. This means that being wealthy is not wrong, but that it also isn’t a sign of being right with God. And the inverse is true, being poor is not wrong neither is it a sign of not being right with God.
Secondly; what we do with what God gives us is what matters, we are to be those who use wealth with a view to eternity. This means that no matter what economic sphere we move in we will stand out among our neighbours. This Christian millionaire uses his or her money differently, as does the Christian struggling on benefits or a low income. In the early church we see that this love is worked out by alleviating the poverty of others, helping out when there is a need we can meet.
Should we tithe? In Luke 11:42 Jesus doesn’t say it’s wrong to tithe, as he deals with the Pharisees he approves of there tithing but calls them to additionally meet needs of justice and love that they come across. What Jesus attacks is not their giving of tithes but their failure to love others and seek justice as well as giving tithes.
If God gives us everything giving back 10% is actually economically a good deal. If on the other hand we regard it ours then it is more difficult. The Bible consistently tells us that giving is a privilege and we need to learn to view it as such. Giving tithes is not a rigid rule, nowhere is that expectation set out in the New Testament, but it is not condemned either. For some of us maybe it would be a good starting point to help us think about what we value and whether we are living for now or in the light of eternity. Though for some it would be impossible for many of us we are in a position to give much more.
One denomination worked out if each of its members lost their jobs and became unemployed and then each gave 10% of the benefits they received the churches giving would go up by £1 per head on average.
Fourthly the Bible would warn us about greed, that the love of money is a real danger in our society should come as no surprise to us. We need to learn to adjust our thinking to need not greed. It is also helpful to look at what our needs our, we are so moulded by our culture that often what we need is the result of advertising and assumptions based on the lives of those we live alongside rather than on Biblical principles. We need to evaluate our needs in the light of the Bible.
The way to stay free of it is to give money away. The Bible would encourage us to be generous with what God has given us to invest for him. We can do this if we live with an eye on the future. 1 Timothy would teach is that in our giving we need to ensure that we do not to become a burden on others, that we are providing for our families health and safety, and that can continue to do good by exercising hospitality and the like.
For many of us in the West the biggest challenge come sin the area of assessing our need and thinking beyond the Pharisees, to go beyond tithe if we can. What drives us is not the calculator but the cross where God gave his all for us.
So having looked at what the Bible has to say about money we need to work out what this means for us. The first thing is straight forward but is foundational to everything that follows. Everything we have is Gods given to us to use for his glory. This means that being wealthy is not wrong, but that it also isn’t a sign of being right with God. And the inverse is true, being poor is not wrong neither is it a sign of not being right with God.
Secondly; what we do with what God gives us is what matters, we are to be those who use wealth with a view to eternity. This means that no matter what economic sphere we move in we will stand out among our neighbours. This Christian millionaire uses his or her money differently, as does the Christian struggling on benefits or a low income. In the early church we see that this love is worked out by alleviating the poverty of others, helping out when there is a need we can meet.
Should we tithe? In Luke 11:42 Jesus doesn’t say it’s wrong to tithe, as he deals with the Pharisees he approves of there tithing but calls them to additionally meet needs of justice and love that they come across. What Jesus attacks is not their giving of tithes but their failure to love others and seek justice as well as giving tithes.
If God gives us everything giving back 10% is actually economically a good deal. If on the other hand we regard it ours then it is more difficult. The Bible consistently tells us that giving is a privilege and we need to learn to view it as such. Giving tithes is not a rigid rule, nowhere is that expectation set out in the New Testament, but it is not condemned either. For some of us maybe it would be a good starting point to help us think about what we value and whether we are living for now or in the light of eternity. Though for some it would be impossible for many of us we are in a position to give much more.
One denomination worked out if each of its members lost their jobs and became unemployed and then each gave 10% of the benefits they received the churches giving would go up by £1 per head on average.
Fourthly the Bible would warn us about greed, that the love of money is a real danger in our society should come as no surprise to us. We need to learn to adjust our thinking to need not greed. It is also helpful to look at what our needs our, we are so moulded by our culture that often what we need is the result of advertising and assumptions based on the lives of those we live alongside rather than on Biblical principles. We need to evaluate our needs in the light of the Bible.
The way to stay free of it is to give money away. The Bible would encourage us to be generous with what God has given us to invest for him. We can do this if we live with an eye on the future. 1 Timothy would teach is that in our giving we need to ensure that we do not to become a burden on others, that we are providing for our families health and safety, and that can continue to do good by exercising hospitality and the like.
For many of us in the West the biggest challenge come sin the area of assessing our need and thinking beyond the Pharisees, to go beyond tithe if we can. What drives us is not the calculator but the cross where God gave his all for us.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Passion for Life
We spent some time last night discussing what we find difficult about sharing the gospel with people we work with, living alongside and spend our free time with.
So often we kept coming full circle and returning to the importance of relationships. Relationships matter, both our relationships with people and our willingness to help people build other relationships. Too often we operate in different spheres; so there are work colleagues, there are neighbours, there are friends, and there is church. Rarely do any two let alone all of them intersect and when they do it makes us nervous.
We were thinking last night about ways to bridge the gap. Ways to build relationships between friends so that an invitation to church is less awkward so that people see the community of grace at work and marvel at it and want to see more of it.
There was nothing earth shattering about the suggestions we made:
So often we kept coming full circle and returning to the importance of relationships. Relationships matter, both our relationships with people and our willingness to help people build other relationships. Too often we operate in different spheres; so there are work colleagues, there are neighbours, there are friends, and there is church. Rarely do any two let alone all of them intersect and when they do it makes us nervous.
We were thinking last night about ways to bridge the gap. Ways to build relationships between friends so that an invitation to church is less awkward so that people see the community of grace at work and marvel at it and want to see more of it.
There was nothing earth shattering about the suggestions we made:
- Meals matter - we need to use these more wisely and get friends to meet each other and enable them to see grace relationships.
- Time matters - we need to make time for friendships and church should facilitate this. Just a couple of examples we are going to look at a men's walking weekend in the lakes or further afield, some of the ladies are going to host a tupperware party.
- Everyday opportunities - we don't need to put on loads of extra things but we do need to get our worlds to colide more often, trusting God to work and the gospel to be visible.
- We need help to talk about our saviour in every day situations.
As I said nothing earth shattering. The gospel is what makes the church unique, we need to get people to see the affect the gospel has one people and on relationships and God has graciously in his wisdom given us our churches to advance his gospel and change lives one at a time.
Having seen it small scale they will be more likely to come to church where every week they will hear the gospel proclaimed and see it animated and at work in our lives.Thursday, 29 January 2009
The Gospel community
Sometimes God hammers home lessons by simply putting it across our path at every turn. Yesterday lunch time I was involved in an interesting discussion about community and how the gospel at work in church communities is attractive to the outsider. Then in the afternoon as we looked at passages we had prepared a number of times the theme of community came out again and again. It is there in Colossians 2:1-5 which I am preparing for Sunday as Paul struggles with all Christ's energy for the community of grace at Colossae and warns them of dangers they face.
Then yesterday evening in another meeting community was again the focus as we looked at Acts 20 and Paul's parting words to the Ephesian elders warning them to protect the community of grace and love and shepherd the flock. Then ended the day by reading Isaiah 65 where the picture is of a redeemed community, of the gospel community fully realised.
This morning I read the following on Tim Chester's blog about the rhythms of a missional church and what it looks like in practice for them:
"B. We bless - Each week we aspire to bless others in our Christian community and local neighbourhood in word, action or gift at least three times.
L. We listen - Each week we aspire to listen to God, looking for him to guide us through his word and Spirit. And we listen to people around us to understand their stories and the story of our culture.
E. We eat - Each week we aspire to eat or have a drink with people outside our immediate family at least three times, offering friendship and community.
S. We speak -Each week we aspire to tell people the story of Jesus and our story of Jesus, making Jesus a normal part of our conversations. And we speak to God through prayer, recognising our dependence on him in all things.
S. We sabbath - Each week we aspire to spend time in rest, praise, play, partying and creativity."
To say we live in a missional community as the church is to misunderstand and mis-speak. If we live in a missional community we only do so when we are in it. No, we are a missional community - whether we are gathered together corporately, on a small scale, or individually. But we need to be calling others to come and experience that community.
Next term we are going to try to hold at least one if not two or three 50:50 meals. Meals where we get friends together to share food and company, where we invite friends we love who know Jesus to spend time with friends we love who don't know Jesus. Why? Because as people see the gospel at work in our relationships they will see what a difference the cross makes and that we are not just odd and alone, but that Christ is the answer to every ones need.
Then yesterday evening in another meeting community was again the focus as we looked at Acts 20 and Paul's parting words to the Ephesian elders warning them to protect the community of grace and love and shepherd the flock. Then ended the day by reading Isaiah 65 where the picture is of a redeemed community, of the gospel community fully realised.
This morning I read the following on Tim Chester's blog about the rhythms of a missional church and what it looks like in practice for them:
"B. We bless - Each week we aspire to bless others in our Christian community and local neighbourhood in word, action or gift at least three times.
L. We listen - Each week we aspire to listen to God, looking for him to guide us through his word and Spirit. And we listen to people around us to understand their stories and the story of our culture.
E. We eat - Each week we aspire to eat or have a drink with people outside our immediate family at least three times, offering friendship and community.
S. We speak -Each week we aspire to tell people the story of Jesus and our story of Jesus, making Jesus a normal part of our conversations. And we speak to God through prayer, recognising our dependence on him in all things.
S. We sabbath - Each week we aspire to spend time in rest, praise, play, partying and creativity."
To say we live in a missional community as the church is to misunderstand and mis-speak. If we live in a missional community we only do so when we are in it. No, we are a missional community - whether we are gathered together corporately, on a small scale, or individually. But we need to be calling others to come and experience that community.
Next term we are going to try to hold at least one if not two or three 50:50 meals. Meals where we get friends together to share food and company, where we invite friends we love who know Jesus to spend time with friends we love who don't know Jesus. Why? Because as people see the gospel at work in our relationships they will see what a difference the cross makes and that we are not just odd and alone, but that Christ is the answer to every ones need.
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Community of grace
Steve Timmis' interview over at 9 marks yesterday got me thinking about why it is that we don't introduce our friends outside of church to our friends in the church:
- Fear - we are afraid that someone will say something offensive, that they will so offend our friends that they will never speak to us again.
- Boundaries - we keep our world boxed off, there are friends at church, there are work colleagues, there are friends at the school gate, there are friends I relax with, there are the neighbours. And rarely (weddings and funerals) do they meet and when they do it can be uncomfortable.
- Time - We are very protective of our time with different people maybe because we rarely get quality time with them so when we do we want them to ourselves.
There are loads of other possibilities but I think analysing my heart they are the three biggest. But when you boil it down actually they are all a failure to love people and they are all intensely selfish and embarrassing and yet we harbour them.
God's new community, the grace filled church that he has placed me in is the community God has put in place to reach my friends with the gospel, to cause them to long for grace filled relationships. I need to be drawing those who need the gospel together with thsoe who model the gospel.
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Ready willing and enabled
On Sunday night we looked at Colossians 4:2-6, i found it both a great encouragement and a great challenge.
Why is evangelism so difficult in Britain? I was recently asked that question, I wonder what answer you would give? Just think about it for a minute. So what do you think? Maybe you would say that it is because we live in a secular society, where you religious beliefs your faith are meant to be kept private. Or maybe it’s the rise of aggressive atheism, bad experiences people have had of church, perhaps it’s the relentless pressure of the new so that people reject anything they perceive as old. Or maybe you think its multiculturalism, or materialism or the rejection of the idea of truth. The truth is it is probably a combination of all of those factors and some others which makes sharing the gospel with people so hard.
There is a danger as we come to look at these verses that we just write them off. ‘Oh that’s OK for Paul he was gifted in evangelism that was his job. Or it’s OK for the Colossians but they don’t face the pressures and difficulties that we have today.’
In fact I think there are lots of parallels between Colossae in the 1st Century and Britain now. Colossae was a multicultural and multi-faith society, it was driven by commerce, people were keen to be spiritual, and little was known about the Bible and Christianity, and what was known was often based on wrong assumption, and the idea of one God and one faith would have been as odd then as it seems to many now.
As we look at these words this evening don’t turn off, don’t take the easy way out and excuse yourself. As Paul writes to the Colossians one of his concerns has been that the church reaches maturity in Christ. A maturity found in the gospel and that is shown in living in the light of what Jesus has done, that impacts family, work and everything that goes on around it. And here as he begins to wrap up his letter to this church he gives them some final instructions about how they are to make Jesus Christ known.
1. Rely on God
What would it look like to be devoted to your dog? Or to your family? Or to your team? It would mean that they are first and foremost in your thoughts and actions. So the dog would get walked, played with, etc… They would be a constant companion whenever opportunity permitted, you would spend time with them, communicate with them...
Paul begins by calling the Colossians to be devoted to prayer, he wants them to pray consistently and frequently, whenever the opportunity presented itself. Why pray? Because it is a sign of dependence on God. Notice that Paul adds that as well as being devoted we are to be watchful – in Colossae this was important as there were false teachers trying to twist the gospel, and thankful – that God has freed them from their sin through Jesus by faith and brought them into his kingdom.
So we are to give thanks to God and stay alert as we pray, but what are we to pray for? Paul asks the Colossians to pray for him and his companions and I think this is a model prayer for the believers there to use for themselves. They are meant to pray this for Paul and recognise it is what they are to pray for themselves.
Pray for opportunities
That is the first thing Paul says they should pray for. He doesn’t assume that these will just happen, he wants them to pray for them also that God will provide opportunities. Paul knows that you can’t force people to hear the gospel, God has to open up doors for the gospel, so that he can reveal the mystery that God sent his Son to die to pay for our rebellion.
That is a great prayer for us to pray for one another as churches isn’t it? That God would open up doors for the message of the gospel. In fact that is one of the things we have prayed for one another and God graciously has done just that for us as schools have invited us in, as individuals have asked questions, as people have come to faith. It’s a great thing for us to pray for one another as individuals too, and to pray for ourselves. Can you think of someone tonight that you will pray for God to open a door for you to share the gospel with?
But notice that Paul doesn’t just ask for prayer for opportunity. Paul asks for prayer for:
Clarity of proclamation
I don’t know about you I find that a bit of an odd thing for Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles to pray for. I guess we tend to think that Paul had it all sorted, an evangelistic talk for every occasion. But he asks for prayer that as he should he will make the gospel clear, isn’t that an encouragement?
That is a prayer again that we should echo for one another as churches – that the gospel would be preached faithfully but also clearly, both from the front and when God opens opportunities for us with friend, family, work colleagues, and neighbours. We need to pray that our explanations of the gospel aren’t fuzzy, long winded, jargon filled or superior. But pray that we would be clear so that the gospel and its implications are obvious and are accepted or rejected on its content alone.
Will we pray that for our churches, for each other, and for ourselves?
2. Ready to live for God
Having asked for prayer for gospel opportunities and clarity and modelled what the Colossians are to pray for themselves Paul now exhorts them to live like Jesus.
“Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” Notice here that Paul assumes they will be involved with outsiders – those outside the church. And his concern is for how they live, his teaching here links in with the previous chapter where he has been explaining what a gospel lifestyle looks like, the changes that believing in Jesus Christ brings, and with what he just said on prayer – if you pray for opportunities you will be living aware of such opportunities.
Why are they, are we, to be wise in the way we act? Because we are a walking advert for the love of God and the transformation that the gospel brings. What does such wise action look like? It means you follow the model that has been given you.
Look at 3:5-14. **What does wise living look like? Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience…
We have been working through Luke on Sunday mornings and what you see there is Jesus actions towards outsiders. At the start of chapter 4 Jesus is alone in the desert, then he is rejected at Nazareth but by the end of ch6 there are two groups the disciples – those who follow him - and the crowd – those who come to see and listen.
In chapters 4 and 5 I think Jesus gives us a great model of being wise towards outsiders. Take Peter, Jesus practically cares for him in healing his mother-in-law and then engages with him and when Peter realises his sin - once the mystery of who Jesus is, is revealed to him – he calls him not to fear but to follow and join Jesus mission.
Take Levi, whilst the Pharisees judged, quarantined and isolated the tax collectors Jesus rather than walking past deliberately goes and engages with Levi, he cuts through all the social conventions, all the worries about what others may think, calling him to follow as a response to his message. What you see next is, I think, even more amazing Jesus isn’t just after one spiritual write-off the next thing you see is he is at Levi’s house engaging with a whole house full of spiritual write-offs.
Jesus is wise towards the outsider, he shows compassion for them, he engages with them where they are and he calls them to stop living for themselves and start living for him. Jesus lived differently – people were his concern, not laws or traditions.
Live wisely Paul says – engage with the outsider, let them see you are different, that you have been changed by following Jesus and make the most of every opportunity – be ready when the questions come.
He then addresses there words, as part of living wisely “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Your words should be grace filled, they should be winsome and loving. We live in a world where words are cheap, where promises don’t matter, where words are weapons used to knock others down. But not for you, says Paul to the Colossians, your words are to reflect what is in your heart – they are to full of the grace that overflows from there.
But Paul doesn’t stop there, he isn’t saying we are just to be nice. Our words are also to be seasoned with salt. Impure salt was worthless and tasteless. Paul is saying being gracious but also let your words be worth something, don’t duck the issue, answer with integrity and honest, let your words mean something. It means we don’t downplay the significance of the gospel, we don’t accept it as one way among many to get to God or a truth, we tell people of the significance of the gospel and the decision they must mark regarding it.
Having prayed for God given opportunities and clarity, having lived and spoken to provoke questions about the gospel be ready Paul is saying.
Can I ask you are you ready? If we have prayed for opportunities we need to be ready to be clear when God gives us them, to have thought through how to graciously and saltily answer the question that is asked of us about suffering, or other religions, or what we really believe, or what difference it makes to us to be a Christian.
When you walk into the office tomorrow morning have you thought about how you will answer when someone says “How was the weekend?” Or “What did you do yesterday?” How do I answer that question in a way that is full of grace?
What about if someone shares with you this week about a family illness or death? Have you thought through your answer? Does our response model the grace that is overflowing from our heart?
Paul writes to the Colossians and urges them to pray because gospel opportunities and clarity depend on God preparing others and enabling us. That is a real encouragement isn’t it. Depend on God and with both lip and hip tell others about the gospel – the great news that Jesus came down and took our place and we can know peace and relationship with God.
Why is evangelism so difficult in Britain? I was recently asked that question, I wonder what answer you would give? Just think about it for a minute. So what do you think? Maybe you would say that it is because we live in a secular society, where you religious beliefs your faith are meant to be kept private. Or maybe it’s the rise of aggressive atheism, bad experiences people have had of church, perhaps it’s the relentless pressure of the new so that people reject anything they perceive as old. Or maybe you think its multiculturalism, or materialism or the rejection of the idea of truth. The truth is it is probably a combination of all of those factors and some others which makes sharing the gospel with people so hard.
There is a danger as we come to look at these verses that we just write them off. ‘Oh that’s OK for Paul he was gifted in evangelism that was his job. Or it’s OK for the Colossians but they don’t face the pressures and difficulties that we have today.’
In fact I think there are lots of parallels between Colossae in the 1st Century and Britain now. Colossae was a multicultural and multi-faith society, it was driven by commerce, people were keen to be spiritual, and little was known about the Bible and Christianity, and what was known was often based on wrong assumption, and the idea of one God and one faith would have been as odd then as it seems to many now.
As we look at these words this evening don’t turn off, don’t take the easy way out and excuse yourself. As Paul writes to the Colossians one of his concerns has been that the church reaches maturity in Christ. A maturity found in the gospel and that is shown in living in the light of what Jesus has done, that impacts family, work and everything that goes on around it. And here as he begins to wrap up his letter to this church he gives them some final instructions about how they are to make Jesus Christ known.
1. Rely on God
What would it look like to be devoted to your dog? Or to your family? Or to your team? It would mean that they are first and foremost in your thoughts and actions. So the dog would get walked, played with, etc… They would be a constant companion whenever opportunity permitted, you would spend time with them, communicate with them...
Paul begins by calling the Colossians to be devoted to prayer, he wants them to pray consistently and frequently, whenever the opportunity presented itself. Why pray? Because it is a sign of dependence on God. Notice that Paul adds that as well as being devoted we are to be watchful – in Colossae this was important as there were false teachers trying to twist the gospel, and thankful – that God has freed them from their sin through Jesus by faith and brought them into his kingdom.
So we are to give thanks to God and stay alert as we pray, but what are we to pray for? Paul asks the Colossians to pray for him and his companions and I think this is a model prayer for the believers there to use for themselves. They are meant to pray this for Paul and recognise it is what they are to pray for themselves.
Pray for opportunities
That is the first thing Paul says they should pray for. He doesn’t assume that these will just happen, he wants them to pray for them also that God will provide opportunities. Paul knows that you can’t force people to hear the gospel, God has to open up doors for the gospel, so that he can reveal the mystery that God sent his Son to die to pay for our rebellion.
That is a great prayer for us to pray for one another as churches isn’t it? That God would open up doors for the message of the gospel. In fact that is one of the things we have prayed for one another and God graciously has done just that for us as schools have invited us in, as individuals have asked questions, as people have come to faith. It’s a great thing for us to pray for one another as individuals too, and to pray for ourselves. Can you think of someone tonight that you will pray for God to open a door for you to share the gospel with?
But notice that Paul doesn’t just ask for prayer for opportunity. Paul asks for prayer for:
Clarity of proclamation
I don’t know about you I find that a bit of an odd thing for Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles to pray for. I guess we tend to think that Paul had it all sorted, an evangelistic talk for every occasion. But he asks for prayer that as he should he will make the gospel clear, isn’t that an encouragement?
That is a prayer again that we should echo for one another as churches – that the gospel would be preached faithfully but also clearly, both from the front and when God opens opportunities for us with friend, family, work colleagues, and neighbours. We need to pray that our explanations of the gospel aren’t fuzzy, long winded, jargon filled or superior. But pray that we would be clear so that the gospel and its implications are obvious and are accepted or rejected on its content alone.
Will we pray that for our churches, for each other, and for ourselves?
2. Ready to live for God
Having asked for prayer for gospel opportunities and clarity and modelled what the Colossians are to pray for themselves Paul now exhorts them to live like Jesus.
“Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” Notice here that Paul assumes they will be involved with outsiders – those outside the church. And his concern is for how they live, his teaching here links in with the previous chapter where he has been explaining what a gospel lifestyle looks like, the changes that believing in Jesus Christ brings, and with what he just said on prayer – if you pray for opportunities you will be living aware of such opportunities.
Why are they, are we, to be wise in the way we act? Because we are a walking advert for the love of God and the transformation that the gospel brings. What does such wise action look like? It means you follow the model that has been given you.
Look at 3:5-14. **What does wise living look like? Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience…
We have been working through Luke on Sunday mornings and what you see there is Jesus actions towards outsiders. At the start of chapter 4 Jesus is alone in the desert, then he is rejected at Nazareth but by the end of ch6 there are two groups the disciples – those who follow him - and the crowd – those who come to see and listen.
In chapters 4 and 5 I think Jesus gives us a great model of being wise towards outsiders. Take Peter, Jesus practically cares for him in healing his mother-in-law and then engages with him and when Peter realises his sin - once the mystery of who Jesus is, is revealed to him – he calls him not to fear but to follow and join Jesus mission.
Take Levi, whilst the Pharisees judged, quarantined and isolated the tax collectors Jesus rather than walking past deliberately goes and engages with Levi, he cuts through all the social conventions, all the worries about what others may think, calling him to follow as a response to his message. What you see next is, I think, even more amazing Jesus isn’t just after one spiritual write-off the next thing you see is he is at Levi’s house engaging with a whole house full of spiritual write-offs.
Jesus is wise towards the outsider, he shows compassion for them, he engages with them where they are and he calls them to stop living for themselves and start living for him. Jesus lived differently – people were his concern, not laws or traditions.
Live wisely Paul says – engage with the outsider, let them see you are different, that you have been changed by following Jesus and make the most of every opportunity – be ready when the questions come.
He then addresses there words, as part of living wisely “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Your words should be grace filled, they should be winsome and loving. We live in a world where words are cheap, where promises don’t matter, where words are weapons used to knock others down. But not for you, says Paul to the Colossians, your words are to reflect what is in your heart – they are to full of the grace that overflows from there.
But Paul doesn’t stop there, he isn’t saying we are just to be nice. Our words are also to be seasoned with salt. Impure salt was worthless and tasteless. Paul is saying being gracious but also let your words be worth something, don’t duck the issue, answer with integrity and honest, let your words mean something. It means we don’t downplay the significance of the gospel, we don’t accept it as one way among many to get to God or a truth, we tell people of the significance of the gospel and the decision they must mark regarding it.
Having prayed for God given opportunities and clarity, having lived and spoken to provoke questions about the gospel be ready Paul is saying.
Can I ask you are you ready? If we have prayed for opportunities we need to be ready to be clear when God gives us them, to have thought through how to graciously and saltily answer the question that is asked of us about suffering, or other religions, or what we really believe, or what difference it makes to us to be a Christian.
When you walk into the office tomorrow morning have you thought about how you will answer when someone says “How was the weekend?” Or “What did you do yesterday?” How do I answer that question in a way that is full of grace?
What about if someone shares with you this week about a family illness or death? Have you thought through your answer? Does our response model the grace that is overflowing from our heart?
Paul writes to the Colossians and urges them to pray because gospel opportunities and clarity depend on God preparing others and enabling us. That is a real encouragement isn’t it. Depend on God and with both lip and hip tell others about the gospel – the great news that Jesus came down and took our place and we can know peace and relationship with God.
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