For those of us in ministry this is a powerful reminder of how we must be careful in managing our days and hours:
A man has no time for which he is not accountable to God. If his very diversions are not governed by reason and religion he will one day suffer for the time he has spent in them. Thomas Watson
So, lets read some bible verses:
1 Corinthians 1:2 says: 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.
What is the calling here?
To be holy.
1 Cor 1:9 says 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
What is the calling here?
To have fellowship with Jesus.
Galatians 5:13 says 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature [a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love
What is the calling here?
To be free from the world and sin.
1 Timothy 6:12 says: 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
What is the calling here?
To eternal life!
So, your calling and my calling, your purpose and my purpose is this:
To be a holy person, living righteous lives, in fellowship with Jesus, using our freedom in Jesus to not indulge in our sinful natures, to be free from the world and to take hold of eternal life which we are called to right here, right now, living for Christ, in Christ and with Christ.
That is our calling.
When we are doing that – then God will use us, guide us, and place us in the situations where we will effect others, help others and minister to others.
So, on one level, it really does not matter what you do – a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a pastor, a construction worker – the point is to do it WITH ALL YOUR PASSION FOR CHRIST.
In fact, much of the time, I don’t think God minds which one of these things you do – should I be a pastor, or a construction worker – does not matter – which ever you do, do it for God and he will anoint you, bless you and fulfill you. There are pastors who are not being blessed because they are not doing what they are doing for Christ.
So, firstly, our purpose and our calling is the same – it is to Christ – and out of that everything else comes.
What is the “everything else comes”?
Ephesians 2:8-10 says: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
When we are in Christ, following our purpose we become a ‘vassal’ for the works that God has for us.
This is not necessarily about trying to figure out what God has planned for you – we have seen that our purpose is to be IN Christ – but then, when we are IN Christ, we become apart of the redemption story – part of the salvation history – partnering with God in declaring and working in HIS sovereign plans for humanity.
And that can look very different for each of us, what we do, where we go and how we live.
I find the story of Winston Churchill fascinating. In almost everything Churchill did, he was a failure – He was undistinguished at school – he failed twice to get into the officers training school for the military – Sandhurst – his father said of Churchill that he lacked cleverness, knowledge and any capacity for settled work. He has a great talent for show-off, exaggeration and make believe.
Churchill became a member of Parliament, but then switched parties and became head of the British Navy only to send it to a catastrophic defeat in the 1st World War, causing him to resign. After being re-elected to Parliament he became Chancellor of the Exchequer and returned Britain to the Gold Standard, which proved financially disastrous and contributed to his resignation from that post.
Yet, as the Prime Minister of Britain during the 2nd World War he shined. In fact he himself said that that was what he was born for – to lead Britain through the war.
After the war he returned as Prime Minister in 1951 only to resign in 1955 because of ill health.
Was Churchill’s purpose in life to be Prime Minister of Great Britain during the 2nd World War?
This morning our aim is to understand that God has a purpose for our lives and that he is working in the events of our lives, including our failures, to prepare us for that destiny.
Before we go any further, we need to establish three old truths:
Who Am I
Who Do I Belong To
Where Am I Going
Who Am I
We cannot know God’s purpose, guidance or calling in our lives if we are not first assured of our place in Christ. And that assurance of our place in Christ begins with the acknowledgment that today, right know, you are a child of God because you have asked God to come into your life.
Who Do I Belong To
This means, then you BELONG to God. Romans 1:5-6:
5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
You are his! And your future is in Him, with Him and through Him.
Where Am I Going
This leads to the fact that our destination is eternity with Jesus.
The most common question and dilemma for many Christians is “What is God calling me to do?” or “Where is God calling me to go?” or even “Is God Calling me?”
What is our purpose and destiny while we live here on earth as followers of Jesus?
My suggestion is that we must start by understanding that our purpose, yours, and mine are the same purpose as every believer. And once we understand this we can then begin to see the unique things God has for us as individuals.
Neb has seen the power of God. He has experienced God’s help in interpreting dreams but he has not yet acknowledged that this God should be his God.
And God is about to bring him to the place of knowing that.
And Daniel knows that the easier why for Neb would be to repent right now – give his life to God. Daniel almost pleads with him to change – v27 Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”
God never judges for the sake of judging – he judges to turn people to him. He judged Israel so that they might turn back to him and he judges Neb in the same way.
The purpose of God’s dealings with Neb was to convince the King that there is NO OTHER WAY TO LIVE LIFE.
The choice before Neb was this – repent, give ALL your life to God, live life for God now, or Get floored by God and then give your life to God.
And God floored this great King by removing everything from him – his power, status, position. To some extent what had happened to Israel and to Daniel happened to Nebuchadezzar – he was stripped of everything!!
THIS IS SO AMAZING BECAUSE IT SHOWS THAT GOD IS JUST AND RIGHTEOUS. HE JUDGES ALL WHO IGNORE HIM, BE IT THE ISRAELITES OR THE KING OF BABYLON, THE CHRISTIAN OR THE ATHIEST.
My question to you this evening is this – Does God need to floor you?
That is a frightening thought. But if we persistently refuse to do what God asks of us and yet we call ourselves believers God will at some point floor us. For Neb it was a full year after Daniel had made his interpretation and challenge.
Neb had reverted back to thinking it was all about him – walking in his garden admiring all that he had made - and God steps in.
God will step in into our lives and floor us if we continue to ignore him.
But the point that God brings Neb too is two fold:
1. Neb realizes exactly who God is and it changes him. This chapter is remarkable coming from the King of Babylon – he says in v34 that he looked to the Most High and he honored and glorified ‘him who lives forever.’ It worked – Neb changed – he recognized God for who he was.
He then goes on to say his dominion is an eternal dominion one and that no one can hold back his hand.
2. That he is not to be the same person – he is to have a different view of authority and power because he knows it comes from God.
Biblical faith is not about letting go of authority or power but about its right use, especially on behalf of the powerless.
Is your life one of serving God and being a servant? Are you one who champions those who are weaker, especially at school – who stand up for truth, who fights injustice. Do you use your position to protect those who are bullied, or those who are ridiculed, or those who are shunned, or those who are friendless.
But, you might say to me, you don’t understand what would happen to me if I do that – people will think I am a dork, or a loser.
SO WHAT. This is not about you – its about God and if you refuse it God will floor you – eventually!
A powerless Daniel, a captive and exile, who has lost everything and whose God is in apparent disgrace stands before the most powerful person on the earth and tells him he is wrong and he needs to repent and that God will cut him down if he does not.
Daniel put his life on the line to do what he must do for God.
No less is the call God has asked of YOU!!
How do you view the world? How do you view yourself? Are you pleased with what you have accomplished in school, sports, music?
Are you popular? Are you liked? Are you unpopular or disliked?
How much of who you are and what you are and where you hope you are going do you think is down to you?
Most of us, if we were truly honest, have had that moment when we have said to ourselves – I am GOOD; I Did it; I am Talented; I am Cool; I am the Man!
What is presented to you by our society is that you can be what you want to be. You can achieve what you want to achieve. You can fly as high as you want.
Is that not the American dream? You have within you all that is needed to make you successful – you just need to try harder!
Also, power, authority and status (and money) are the places to crave – to aspire to. If you have power, authority and status (and money) you are strong – anything else is seen as weakness.
The point of Daniel 4 is that no matter how far you fly, how powerful you become, how good you are, how popular you become God is the ultimate source and determiner of your future and your place.
What you achieve, you do so ONLY because God has given it to you. When we stop realizing this then we are in danger.
This is why, in all we do we must do it FOR GOD and for NOBODY ELSE.
Nebuchanezzar was the ruler of the known world.
He was as powerful as you get – as important as you get. For him he had accomplished a lot. He was the ruler – he was the victor – he was the dude – everyone wanted to hang with him, to please him, to get his attention. He was the center of everything.
He was about to go through a tough lesson.
And it’s a lesson we need to learn, not just for now, but for the rest of our lives – God is Sovereign.
Sovereign means: supreme; preeminent; indisputable: a sovereign right /greatest in degree; utmost or extreme /being above all others in character, importance, excellence.
Which means that there really is only one person you need to worry about, God. But for most of us we only think about God a few times a week, at church or youth group or bible study.
But God is involved in every aspect of our existence.
One of the most famous passages of scripture can easily slip by us in its meaning – Matthew 28 says ALL AUTHORITY IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME.
All authority is God’s and he has given that authority to the incarnate Christ.
This was the lesson Neb was going to learn.
Chp 4 is Neb’s testimony of how he came to change his worldview – how he realized that there was something more about life.
Do you have a testimony of what God has done in your life? Can you write down your testimony of how God has changed you – from the then to the now? A testimony is not just about WHEN you were converted to Christianity because for many the process was a journey which happened over time.
We should have many testimonies – some big, most small, about how God has been involved with our lives, how we have seen him move and act and help us and bless us and encourage us.
That is why I think it is so important to write down the experiences we have – whenever we say “Wow, God showed up” write it down – no matter how small the situation – so that you can look back and see how God has moved in your life.
Neb has a dream and Daniel is called to interpret it. And Daniel knows the gravity of this dream. God is going to do something to Neb which is frightening.
But the purpose of this, Daniel says, is so that Neb will know that GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER THE NATIONS.
I had the privilege of taking our Thanksgiving Service at our sister chapel, Prince Frederick, in Plantersville. The chapel seats about 100 and we had 120. It was a fun time. We used the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. If the recording of the sermon worked I’ll post it here next week sometime.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Dr R.T. Kendall rejects the Reformed teaching concerning temporary faith; those who fall away were never saved in the first place. Kendall holds that a man can be truly saved and yet backslide into apostasy. By taking passages such as 2 Peter 2:21, Galatians 5:4, Hebrews 6:6 &10:26 to refer not to salvation but to rewards in heaven, Kendall claims that the scriptures clearly teach once saved always saved.
Such an interpretation has been widely rejected. We shall look at those who claim that Kendall’s thesis is wrong. Perhaps the most direct attack comes from Paul Helm’s book Calvin and The Calvinists in which he argues that Kendall has misread the puritans completely. The foundation of assurance was indeed faith in Christ and his promises and that saving faith did by saving faith, by its very definition, contains assurance. Helm argues that to say that the puritans separated faith and assurance in not correct. Helm also rejects Kendall’s view that Puritan assurance was a departure from Calvin’s teaching. Helm argues that Perkins and co merely filled in the gaps in Calvin’s thought and developed his (Calvin’s) understanding. We shall examine Don Carson’s important article on assurance, where he examines the biblical and theological importance of this doctrine.
We will analyze the differences between these two positions. We will examine both their weakness and strengths, to see if a conclusion can be reached. Also and more importantly, we shall briefly examine the effects that the doctrine of assurance has had on the church and the effect it should have.
Check this out. Someone has put this video together with a sermon from a friend of mine, Paul Blackham. I have said before on this journal – I think Paul is probably the finest preacher I have heard and one of the best theologians out there.
Check out the whole sermon HERE; 03 D037-02a Why isn’t good good enough
Atheism is no longer simply about ‘not believing’ in a God or an intelligent designer. New Atheism has arrived and it has gone on the offensive. Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and others are now not just refuting the existence of God, spirituality, heaven or hell, they are proclaiming the message that to believe in a God, or in intelligent design is irrational and dangerous. The only sure and true ‘truth’ that can be relied upon is science.
These new atheists are pro-active – almost evangelistic in their zeal. Their mission is simple – to actively turn people away from any form of theistic belief.
This book is a powerful and substantial response to the claims and arguments of the new atheists.
The authors take on Dawkins et-al head on, unafraid of tackling the toughest of subjects including ‘Are The Old Testament Laws Evil’, ‘How Could God Create Hell’, ‘God Evil and Morality’. There are also chapters on ‘Arguments for God’, ‘The failure of Scientific Atheism’, ‘God and Physics’& ‘God and Evolution.’
What I find wonderful about this book is the breadth of the scholarship from Christians, philosophers, theologians and scientists. From Dr William Lane-Craig, a philosopher, theologian and strong apologist of the Christian faith, to Michael Behe, a top scientist in the area biochemistry and Anthony Flew a well known former atheist who have both declared that evolution is not possible without an intelligent designer.
This book is by no means anti-science. Indeed, the aim of this book is to show clearly that the claims and arguments of the new atheists simply do not stand up to intellectual, scientific and philosophical scrutiny. And it succeeds.
God Is Good, God Is Great provides the reader with a wealth of wonderful information that, while scholarly, is readable and most importantly encouraging. But for me, the most impressive thing about this book is that it is incredibly balanced. Each author writes carefully, clearly and logically not making any outlandish statements or rash leaps in their argument.
There is now no need to worry about what Dawkins, or Hitchens or Harris says. There really is no need to be on the defensive when people raise the apparent objects to theism which is advocated by the new atheists. This book will give you the depth, understanding and confidence to respond directly and to the heart of the issues.
This book is for both christians and non-christians, those interested in science, those who have no scientific background, those who simply want to be better informed and those who wish to study the arguments fully and those who want to be apologetically armed.
THEY ARE WILLING TO DIE FOR A GOD WHOM THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW HAS THE POWER TO SAVE THEM – BUT THEY KNOW HE EXITS AND THAT HE IS REAL AND THAT HE IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP!!
What faith!! What faith!!
Here are three things for us to learn about this kind of faith that Shadrach, Meshach and Abedego showed:
1. Our faith needs to be rooted in who God is – not in who we are or where we are. Faith based on our circumstances – hey, life is great, God is good; life is crap God is……. Is not a good place to be. If our faith is based on what is happening to us we will not benefit from faith nor will we be able to group as a Christian. Faith based on a God who is Lord of the Universe even though he seems silent should still be able to give me peace, even when we face our worst fears.
2. Our faith needs to be rooted in BOTH the power of God and in his goodness. God can be trusted. Therefore we need to be able to leave the decision of whether God will protect us or rescue us to Him. Shadrach, Meshach and Abedego say that their trust in God is not based on whether they are save dor not – he is God, he is Good – they trust that!!
3. Our faith should be about loving God for his person not for his performance. Too often we pray to God as if we are sending God coded signals to dictate his behavior like a performing pony. Instead we should approach God like loving parent who will do what is best for us. Can we, WILL we trust his decisions?
This is the type of faith we are called too. Resilient, (able to cope in tough situations) adaptable (able to survive the unexpected in life) and strong, able to face even our worst fears knowing that God is God.
There are times when we will want God to show up so badly, but we will say or try and think that it does not matter if that prayer or desire is not answered – when in fact it does matter and we silently get angry with God – and there are the times when we have prayed and then the things we asked for happens and we are totally stunned God showed up
Sahrach, Meshach and Abedego held the tension between “it really does not matter whether God shows up” and “we are totally shocked that he has shown up.”
They really didn’t care either way – it would not effect their thinking or decisions.
As the three are thrown into the fire, Neb sees a fourth person in there with them. God shows up and the three guys don’t faint shocked that God did rescue them.
Now if I was one of the guys I would popped my head out of the furnace and gone – “Nanananana”.
Who was the fourth person in the fire? Jesus.
And this was not just for the benefit of the three guys, although I am sure the three were vaguely happy to see God. Jesus showing up is for the benefit of Neb. Here was the second encounter he has had with the followers of Yahweh. Daniel not only interprets Nebs dream but tells him what the dream is and Neb is impressed and acknowledges Daniels God to be powerful. Here, he sees three followers of Yahweh completely protected from the fire, in a miraculous way and his response is good, but it is still not the right response. Neb says that the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abedego should be praised – but he still has not bowed the knee to God and that was the reason for this miracle. Sharach, Meshach and Abedego could have died and gone to be with God, but God is chasing Neb’s heart.
It is the kind of faith which these three Hebrews showed that allows missionaries to continue to try and lead Muslims to Christ. It is this type of faith which will help us when we stand up for those being bullied, or picked on, or beaten up, and it is the kind of faith which will help us to stand up for truth.
Is this the faith you have? Is it the faith you want.
You know, the true reward of faithful witness to God is not to be found in its results but in the experience of knowing the presence of God in the midst of the struggle.
Life will through at you some hefty knocks – some bad situations – times when your so sad you will hurt – and times when you will be SO happy you wish it would never end.
Living life with the faith of Christ – the faith that Shadrach, Meshach and Abedego had – will help you pass through the hardest and the best of times knowing that God knows what is happening and all things are in is hands.
Recently, two American missionaries in England were stopped from handing out tracks to Muslims in a Muslim area of England. They were accused of a hate crime. In England it has become improper for a Christian to try and convert a Muslim because it will OFFEND THE MUSLIM! So Christians are discouraged to try and lead an ethnic minority to believe in ‘Christianity.’ Part of that is because Christianity is seen as western, white, religion, but also because it is politically incorrect. Our Culture says that no-one has the right to tell you that they have THE truth.
And that alone, challenges Christians to compromise aspects of our belief in God.
Christians are seen as bigoted, or fundamentalist, or unloving, intellectually stupid and even weak for believing in and trusting what scripture has to say and so we step back, and do not say the things we should say or do the things we should do because we are afraid of the consequences or what people will say to us.
If you see someone al getting beaten up, abused or shouted at do you step in between them and stand with the person getting beaten? Or would you just slip by? Hey, wait a minute, you might say, that’s not fair. I could get beaten up – I would lose my reputation – I couldn’t make a difference – but you WOULD be making a difference to that one person and for most of us stepping in is just too much trouble for us.
So, what is it that makes Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego NOT worship Nebuchadnezzar’s statue?
How easy it would have been to just bow, shout and make believe that they were worshipping the statute.
Yet their action in NOT worshipping it is so noticeable that some of the dudes they work with tell the King that they are not obeying the command to worship the statute.
Now notice something here – they are ratted out by the people they work with. I don’t think Sadrach, Meshach and Abedego were the cool kids on the block – part of the gang. There seems to be some jealousy here. They were looking for a reason to drop the three into something that would get them into trouble. Maybe the three were vocal about their trust in Yahweh. Maybe they were known as the geeks or the egg heads because they did everything to the best of heir ability.
What ever it was they are not liked by their peers.
You know Jesus said something very interesting – he said in John’s gospel, that if the world hated him, its going to hate us. Does the world love you or hate you. Most of the time the world loves us because we really love, or at least like the world – that is not God’s way.
Now, as an aside, why does Neb decide to build this huge statue? It would have looked a little odd – ninety feet high and 9 feet wide – tall and skinny.
Remember the dream Neb has about the big statue with the head of Gold and the body of different metals and the feet of clay that Daniel interpreted?
Daniel’s interpretation of this dream, as we saw a few nights back, was telling Neb of the inevitable future.
Yet Neb here seems to have built this statue in an attempt to unify Babylon. The statue is not of different metals but of all gold – unified, one metal – and he demands that ALL worship it – a monotheistic religion – a one, unified idol to worship.
Yet our three guys refuse – they do not love the world - and they are brought before the King.
I do not know what your greatest fear is. What is the thing that will wake you up in a cold sweat? Disease, death, drowning, burning alive, spiders, snakes.
But imagine being brought face to face with your greatest fear. How would you respond? Would you pray? Would you acknowledge God’s power and love? Or would you break down weeping and crying like a baby, and try to get away?
Sahrach, Meshach and Abedego are faced with certain death.
And yet their answer is one of the most remarkable answers in scipture because it is filled with Faith – a faith that is a Christ based faith – a faith that we need to learn from and begin to live out.
Now V17 in the NIV translation is not that good. But the excellent NET Bible and HCS Bible bring out the real sense; if our God whom we are serving exists, he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”(NET) …..&… If the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”
Please notice something – these translations leave room for doubt – IF THE GOD WE SERVE EXISTS AND IS ABLE TO DELIVER – I find that so cool. Here are three men who have seen their country destroyed by Babylon, are captive and have, according to their culture, seen their god defeated. They are expressing normal, expected doubts – our God has been silent and so we are not sure he even exists or can save us – AND HERE IS THE AMAZING PART – despite not being sure of all of these things - THEY STILL WILL NOT WORSHIP THE STATUE.
Maybe ‘creamed’ is too tough a word, but I have just watched Chris Matthews from MSNBC HardBall lay into Bishop Thomas J Tobin regarding abortion. The Bishop has reportedly asked Congressman Kennedy (son of the late Ted Kennedy) to stop taking Holy Communion because of his position on pro-choice.
In the interview (watch it here) Matthews makes a powerful point – one which the Bishop is obviously reluctant to answer. He asks the bishop if he thinks abortion is murder, what penalty should a woman receive for the murder of her baby – what law, as a churchman, would he write to punish woman who commit murder.
Now, as one who is not pro-choice – I believe abortion to be wrong – it really is a fascinating question. And it raises the important question of Christians and politics. What would the church see as acceptable punishment for the murder of a baby? Matthews point is that if the catholic church demanded one minute of prison time for women who have abortions they would be laughed out of town.
God is present with Daniel in Babylon and God is present with us here in the 21st Century America.
We live in a world and a culture that is walking away from God and yet is still terrified of what the world, and nature can throw at it. The world, the culture has no explanation of why hundreds of thousands died in a devastating cyclone in Myanmar – or why thousands have died in the earthquake in china, or why kids get cancer or why moms die when their children are young. The world, the culture has no answer for disaster, except to blame a God they do not believe in and use it as an excuse not to believe in God.
“I could never believe in a God that would allow something like that to happen.”
Daniel did not know why God had given Israel over to Babylon, but he did know that God was still in control.
Do you really know that God is in control? How can I know this you might ask? The same way Daniel knew – BY HIS WORD. The Bible tells us to TRUST in God – To do what he says and then to trust that God knows what he is doing.
God is not is heaven multi-tasking and saying “Gosh I hope that works out – ooooh Andy, you nearly messed that up= ahhhhh, John stop that!”
How is God in control?
The dream Neb has shows us.
Too often people get hung up about what the dream represents, and its details – to do that is to ignore its point – the thing that the dream teaches us is NOT the details of the course of events in history BUT that the fact that HISTORY is UNDER GOD’S CONTROL and that it has a purpose.
What is the purpose?
That all the kingdoms of the earth, Babylon, Assyria, Rome, Great Britain, America will not and cannot stand against the breaking into the midst of this world the Kingdom of God.
Nothing can stop it. Nothing can stand in its way. THE KINGDOM that is to come – the Kingdom of God, will eventually smash every kingdom.
And, by the way, as an aside – you do realize that if you are a believer in Jesus you will not be spending eternity in heaven. Our vision of heaven is some cloud and us sitting there with a harp.
Oh no. Eternity for us will be on a NEW EARTH – a perfect earth. 2 Peter 3:13 says But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
Revelation 21:1, Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” [ Isaiah 65:17] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
Paradise, life forever will happen on the new earth.
But this begins now – the Kingdom of God has broken into our world through Jesus.
And that is the message that we – YOU are called to tell people in your schools, homes, neighbor hoods – wherever you are.
Are you strong enough to give this message?
You can only give this message – you can only live in this world as a follower of Jesus if, like Daniel, you are willing to listen to your culture but have not been assimilated into the culture.
There is nothing that is hidden from God or that God does not understand – NOTHING. In the end, this fact should be more important to us, God’s people, than anything else.
When we realize this truth about God’s knowledge, we should be comforted as well as have the courage to go on even when life seems dark, when we are confused by the shocks of life and wondering what is going on and why.
What overwhelms you? What stresses you out? What worries do you have? Maybe some these worries, or concerns, or stresses are about your life, your future, your family, the state of the world, global warming, wars.
A lot of life is out of your control. You have no idea if you will get a serious disease, or whether someone will crash into your car and kill you, whether a world wide recession will effect your future education or college or even your parents future.
Daniel had no control over whether he was taken captive and sent to Babylon.
He had no control over his physical state, but he did have control over his inner state.
Now, Daniel could have fretted, worried, despaired, been fearful, given up, but he didn’t. He kept going forward. He lived in the place that God had put him to live.
And this is the key – he lived in the PLACE GOD HAD PUT HIM.
God had placed him in Babylon. And I think that this was the attitude Daniel came to live by. Yes, he was now having to do things he didn’t want to do, learn things which he didn’t want to learn, but his loyalty and his focus remained on Yahweh He learnt to live in Babylon with as much faithfulness to God as he would have if he had remained in Jerusalem.
And here is the radical point. Just as Daniel was in Babylon because God had placed him there, so was Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon because God had placed him there.
Here was Daniel, captive of the largest most feared kingdom in the known earth and yet it too was completely at the mercy of God, and of God’s people.
Neb has a dream which is so troubling to him that he is willing to kill every wise man in the kingdom unless they tell him the dream and then the interpretation. The dream was so powerful that Neb knew that if he told the dream to his wise men they would then just give him a load of meaningless interpretations – Neb wanted to now exactly what this powerful dream meant.
Babylon was at the mercy of God.
And Babylon was also at the mercy of an insignificant little Jewish guy – Daniel – who then tells the most powerful king in the world what God of the Universe was telling him.
God is involved with our earth. He has not abandoned it. He has not left it. There is no part of the world that is out of God’s hand or out of his control.
Hear this – nothing happens in the Universe without God knowing about it and allowing it to happen.
That is what the Bible says – Jeremiah 20:4-5 says:
For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. 5 I will deliver all the wealth of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon.
Jeremiah 25:12: “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, [a] for their guilt,” declares the LORD, “and will make it desolate forever.
Jeremiah 27:11: But if any nation will bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let that nation remain in its own land to till it and to live there, declares the LORD.” ‘ “
And here is a big one! 1 Samuel 16:14-15: Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil [a] spirit from the LORD tormented him.
15 Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.
Why are their earthquakes in China, or war in Africa, cyclones in Asia? I don’t know – but the message here in Chap 2 of Daniel is that while we may not have an answer as to why something has happened – WE MUST REALIZE THAT GOD STILL KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING!!
Daniel realized that God was a portable God – He came to Babylon with the Israelites.
Daniel was re-trained, re-educated and re-named – everything about them changed – externally – but the one thing the Babylonians could not do was change them internally.
And what you are like Internally depends upon what you have feed yourself with in the past – it rings to the surface what you truly believe to be true.
Daniel had been a good jew – he had been diligent in studying the torah – he knew the words of God – he knew the words of God SO well that they were a part of his DNA.
And so when EVERYTHING else about his faith was taken away he still was able to fall back on what knew to be true – and that the Babylonians could not change.
This meant that Daniel could LEARN all the Babylonian philosophy, all the Babylonian religion, all the Babylonian law – he learns them with excellence, but they mean nothing to him. He was not assimilated by it nor changed by it – it was knowledge, not life.
So, I ask again, what would happen if all the externals stuff of our Christianity was taken away from us – could we survive as a Christian. Or would the culture engulf you, assimilate you.
To some extent you and I are like Daniel. We live in an alien culture – its alien compared to the words and commands of God. It is alien because it does not recognize the supremacy of Jesus. And not to recognize the supremacy of Christ is not to be fully human. Life cannot be lived to its fullest without Christ at the center.
And we have a choice in how we live as believers in this culture – we can either be assimilated by it or we can understand it but do not let it become apart of who we are.
In the one area that Daniel was able to show loyalty to God he does – food – he does not defile himself but eats vegetables.
In this culture, in the culture of iphones and Macs and Wii’s and playstation 3, of what clothes you must wear to be cool, or what shoes to have, or msic to play, were are you taking the stand against culture – where are you showing yourself to be loyal to Yahweh?
Where?
Or are we so assimilated into the culture that we have become unrecognizable? Because if that is true then we have lost
If you claim to be a believer in Jesus Christ then you must be 100% committed.
Now when I say 100% committed I do not mean that you are perfect. When people say are you 100% committed to God it sounds an impossible task for there are days when I do not feel 100% committed.
But I heard a story which helped me get a better understanding. There was a teenager who at school was a good student: A’s and B’s. Then all of a sudden they started to slip and they started to get 70% in tests and the teach took the student aside and said “hey, whats the problem, you’re a great student, you can do better than this – give me a 100%.”
Well, the student did not get better, and sadly the teacher watched a great student get mediocre to bad grades.
About 10 years later that Student, who was now a writer for Time Magazine, saw his teacher at a reunion and went over and said to her, “Thank you for all your encouragement. But you know, when I was in your class, my home life was a bad place. My dad had left home and my mom was an alcoholic and I had to look after my little brother at night time and couldn’t study. I tried my hardest. the 70% was, at that time, my 100%.”
Is our 70%, or 80% or even 65% the 100% of what you have NOW!
Daniel had no middle ground to walk it was either total assimilation or total commitment to God. I am sure he had doubts, and was angry and sometimes confused and may have wanted to give up. But he gave God what he had.
Give God what you have!
We must stop having one foot in the Kingdom of God and one foot in the world. We need to stop putting our relationship with God third on our list of things to do – we need to stop spending our money on what we want and instead on what God wants – we need to stop thinking we can get way with the private things we do that we know God is not pleased about and start to REALLY live a life open and honest before god and before our culture – and that means at school as well!
When my first, very small book, was published, I had to learn that not everyone would like the book. People had different reasons; from dislike and disagreement to indifference. However, you soon learn and have to accept that if you put your personal thoughts into print and make it public you have willingly opened yourself to other people’s response and opinions. You also have to remember that people are speaking about what they have read and the content of the book, not about YOU or who you are as a spouse, parent, friend etc.
I say this because as I read this book for review for Thomas Nelson I knew it would be a very unfavorable review. What I am going to say is about the content of the book, not about the person.
This book is the authors experience and reflection on Holy Communion. It is almost a spiritual journal.
The problem is that it is theologically awful. Her understanding of God the Father, Jesus Christ, Communion and the gospel cannot be called historic Christianity. It is not what scripture teaches on these issues.
As a Priest in the Episcopal Church I really cannot endorse the views in this book.
Gallagher’s view of Communion is something “devised cleverly by and for human beings, to help us get in touch with the Holy.”
Devised by human beings? I think not. Communion and it’s practice comes from God himself, Jesus Christ, God as a human being, illustrating to his disciples the night before his death the significance of what is about to happen, and for this reason we are to remember it.
Gallagher’s view is that Jesus’ words, “Do this in remembrance of me” was meant to be taken “by the disciples and everyone who came after him to remember what they had together. What they made together. What it meant to be together.”
No, that is not what it means. The words are not meant to be a call to the benefit of community. It is about the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the world; by the breaking of his body and shedding of his blood to free us from the dominion of sin.
More worrisome is her assertion about sin. She says that there is “too much focus on personal sin and especially sin having to do with sex… Sin has to be about larger matters, Jesus didn’t spend a lot of time talking about personal conduct (obey the commandments was his general rule); his teachings were more about justice.”
I am sorry, but the Sermon on the Mount is about personal conduct. Matthew 19 is about how we act with others and conflict resolution. There are so many more examples, but I’ll stop there.
Finally, I believe Gallagher’s view of who can take communion is unbiblical. She says that “Communion is so important to me that I don’t think there should be rules about who can take it and who cannot… [And then, speaking in terms of feeding people in a soup kitchen where no questions are asked about who the person is or what they have done before they are fed she says] “It was not up to us to ask questions and be the judges of who should be fed. And this is true for communion as well. Jesus practiced a radical faith: everyone was welcome at his table.”
Really? Really? Yet scripture says “for the one who eats [the bread] and drinks [the cup] without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself” (1 Corinthians 11:29).
There is a complete lack of the gospel message in this book. Jesus, Gallagher asserts, is a person of compassion, acceptance and the upholder of justice – which is true. But there is no mention of the other side of Jesus’ message – that people MUST repent or experience darkness and the gnashing of teeth. This Jesus says that one not dressed correctly for the wedding banquet will be thrown out. If you are unprepared, like the 5 unwise virgins, you will not be known by Jesus. The point of Jesus’ ministry – of the incarnation – is to show people that they are trapped in sin, in a darkness which will destroy them - but there is good news. If people repent, turn to Christ, confess their sins, and give their entire lives to Jesus they will find the love and reconciliation of the Father in Heaven and the promise of eternal life.
I do not recommend this book.
I recently was asked to go and speak at one of the local episcopal churches. Trinity Episcopal Church is a great church, pastored by two friends who are passionate for Jesus and the gospel – Rob Sturdy and Iain Boyd. Click on their names to check out their blogs.
Anyway, for anyone interested (mom!) here is the link to the video of the talk:
There was a survey done in England about teenagers and cell phones. They took ten teenagers and took away their cell phones for one week.
What do you happened? Their lives degenerated into chaos. They were unable to communicate with each other – they did not know where to meet each other – their lives literally fell apart.
They would arrange meeting places and meeting times only minutes before they got together – sometimes changing the meeting place or time by text. Their life was so flexible that without a cell phone you would be unable to know where your friends were going to meet.
They had come to rely completely upon their cell phones – much more than they thought.
This got me thinking – What would happen if we had no computers, or if televisions stopped working – what would we do.
Think about the times when the power goes out, maybe in the middle of your favorite show. How do you feel when there is no power in your house. Helpless – frustrated – nothing works, no tv, no internet, no air, no lights. We kinda grind to a halt and wait for the power to come back.
We have become reliant upon things haven’t we.
But what about our faith in Jesus.
What do we rely on for our faith? What keeps our faith going?
For some of us its youth group – for others it’s the Bible – for others it’s social events – friends – family – church – trips – music – diocesan events.
What would happen to our faith in Jesus Christ – to our Christianity – if we were not allowed to read our Bible, or to go to Church or to go to youth group or to any diocesan events?
Would we be able to sustain our faith for the next 25 years?
Would we be able to still know God, worship God, pray to God and recite scripture and grow in our faith without church, youth group, a bible, devotionals, worship music, Christian videos? What would happen if all the props of Christianity were removed from our life?
What would happen if everything was stripped away and all that was left was US and our RELATIONSHIP with God.
Would we discover that actually our faith in God is tied up with needing a Bible, to going to youth group, to going to church or going to Camp or having devotionals, or listening to music. Might we discover that these extra props of our life as a Christian have become the source of our faith rather than tools of our faith.
This is exactly the question that Daniel discovered when his country was attacked and taken over by Babylon.
Daniel was suddenly faced with a life where everything he had relied upon religiously was gone – his temple was gone – his ritual was gone – his sacrifices was gone – his way of life and daily devotions were gone as was his freedom!!
Not only that, but Daniel’s whole world had been shaken because when Babylon defeated Israel – it appeared to have defeated God – Yahweh. A smashed Israel equated with a smashed Yahweh.
In Daniel’s day when a country beat another country the underlying message was – “My god has beaten your god – nanananana”. If your country prospered then your god was strong – if your country did not propser and was weak then so was your god.
He had to wear new cloths – he was given a new name and he was in a place where all trace of his belief and faith were GONE!!
He was an insignificant minority in a culture that saw his belief system as a waste of time.
How would our faith hold up to that?
That’s what Daniel and his friends faced as they were force out of their country into a new life.
But Daniel discovered something about God as he began to live away from everything he had known – he came to realize that God was a God 2 Go God. That God was able to exist outside the temple, outside the ritual, outside the daily devotions.
It was not until 1529 that the two sides where brought together.. Philip of Hesse, a vigorous supporter of the reformation, brought both Luther and Zwingli to Marburg to try and sort out their division. Bucer attended the meeting and urged the two of them to settle their differences, suggesting that differences should be tolerated among evangelicals provided they agreed to recognize the Bible alone as the normative source of faith. Agreement was reached on everything… other than the Eucharist. The meeting failed. Bucer continued to walk the fine line between the two parties.
In 1530 the “four cities” confession was produced by the ‘Zwinglian’ cities of Strasbourg, Contance, Lindau and Memmingen. It affirmed that the “true body and true blood were truly eaten and drunk”, not mere bread and wine. Between March and May of 1536 Bucer and Luther, Melanchthon and Bugenhagen drew up the Wittenburg Accord. Regarding the Eucharist, the accord stated that body and blood were “truly and substantially present” and received during communion.
Now, this was clearly moving away from a Zwinglian position. Yet in Bucer’s explanation of the articles of the accord he defends his agreement with the statement that the body and blood are truly and substantially present. He affirms that “these things take place truly, essentially and effectually, not merely figuratively or in imagination.”[1] However, he goes on to say that the actual bread in itself cannot be the Lord’s body (as Luther does). In other words Bucer believed that the truly and substantial presence of Christ could be a Spiritual presence. It was as valid as a bodily presence. Does this agree with Calvin’s position?
Over the past few weeks I have been reading and listening to an old English preacher by the name of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He ministered in London between 1938 and 1968. One set of messages he preached has particularly grabbed me and challenged me. It was on Spiritual Depression.
His point is very simple. Are we happy, joyful Christians? Are we living in the reality of what Jesus Christ has achieved for us through his death and resurrection? Do we say each morning Halleluiah; I am glad and rejoice in the Lord. Or, are we depressed, sad Christians. Are we living each day still haunted, or enslaved in our past? Lloyd-Jones writes;
“If you look at your past and are depressed, it means that you are listening to the devil. But if you look at the past and say ‘Unfortunately it was true I was blinded by the god of this world but thank God His grace was more abundant. He was more than sufficient and His love and mercy came upon me in such a way that it is all forgiven. I am a new person.’ then all is well… . Rise up and realize the truth about yourself, [that if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ] all the past has gone. You are one with Christ and all your sins have been blotted out once and forever.”
So which are we? Are we enslaved to the past? Are we depressed spiritually? Have we lost the joy of our salvation? Or are we joyful? Are we joyful that God’s mercy is all-sufficient for us? Are we joyful that our past has been dealt with, covered in the blood of the lamb? It is only when we do this that we can truly be joyful, knowing and living each day in the wonderful truths and promises of Christ and the Gospel.
What does your family see when they look at you, depression, sadness or joy? What do your work colleagues encounter when they see you each day? Do we exhibit the rejoicing and gladness of someone who knows they have been truly rescued from the dominion of sin and death?
As we approach Advent and Christmas, let us prepare ourselves not in a glum, sad, depressed manner, but in a joyful expectant way. Let us radiate hope to those around us. Let us share the joy of knowing Jesus and rejoice in the gift of life which comes through the eternal Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
LISTEN HERE Sermon Sunday 1 November 2009
Or read it below:
ALL SAINTS Revelation 7v1-17; Matthew 5v1-12
Christianity is about radical change. When we encounter the living God, we cannot but be changed and not just in our morals or in how we act but deep down inside of us – in our spirit – in our very character. But, it is a change we could never manufacturer ourselves. It is a change beyond our comprehension – it is truly a divine change.
What we are looking at today in our gospel reading is what people call the Sermon on the Mount –teaching which Jesus gave to his Disciples – those who were following Him – and we are Jesus’ disciples today and so this teaching is for us.
What Jesus talks about here are eight aspects of the character and conduct of a Christian? When we put our trust in God we become a citizen of heaven. And as a citizen we are called to put God first in our motives, actions, language, thoughts and priorities. These characteristics are not talking about different people, but about one person and how they are inter-connected.
ALL LIFE COMES UNDER JESUS’ ROYAL CONTROL. As a believer and follower of Jesus our Government, first and foremost, is the Government of Jesus Christ – that is what the kingdom of God means – the government of Jesus Christ, and that is the government we are to obey and follow first, above any other government.
Jesus is teaching our disciples on what we call the beatitudes.
The first three beatitudes speak of the Christian foundation of experience.
The first thing he says is blessed are the poor in Spirit.
What does the word blessed Mean?
It means, “Made happy by God”. Jesus is saying that life in the Kingdom of God with Him is a life of profound joy – a joy no circumstance or person can take away.
And that JOY should start now, here, on earth. Joy is not something that we get once we die and go to heaven – heaven begins on earth – and so joy begins here as well.
The first step in being happy is to acknowledge that we are spiritually poor – that we do not have in ourselves what it takes to be the person we were created to be.
Once we have realized that we are spiritually poor and that there is nothing we can do about it we are then to mourn.
The original word for mourn describes a mourning of the dead – to grieve with a grief which so takes possession of the whole being that it cannot be hid.
This is to be our response to knowing we are spiritually poor.
We come to the realization that we so desperately need God.
This will then lead us to become meek, or as some translations put it gentle. Meekness is not about being weak or spineless, but about free submission to Jesus and acknowledging him to be God over our whole life. To be meek is to know that we cannot claim any merit before God. We must stop trusting in ourselves, or in our abilities, or our skills. God is the one in whom we are trust explicitly and completely.
As we look back over these few verses, notice the promises that come with such characteristics.
Such Christians get the very best promises – the poor WILL inherit the Kingdom of Heaven – the mourners WILL be comforted – and the meek WILL inherit the earth. The world does not look at the poor in spirit, the mourning and the meek in this light. Indeed, they see poverty in spirit, mourning the lack of God in our lives and meekness as something to be despised. Riches, confidence in our own abilities and arrogance are seen as strengths in our world. But not so in the kingdom of God.
The person who has faced their poverty of spirit, who mourns that poverty, who submits themselves meekly to Jesus on earth discovers what life on earth is all about. They discover that all the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven are available to them
The next three beatitudes speak of the features of Christian Experience.
Who are the blessed?
Notice that it is not the righteous who are blessed but those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
To hunger and thirst is to long for something that we do not yet have. The evidence of Jesus Christ in someone’s life is not that they are righteous, but that they hunger and thirst for it – that they have an appetite for it. DO WE HAVE AN APPETITIE FOR GOD – FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS? Appetite is not self-produced. You cannot will yourself to be hungry. They are symptoms. The source of this appetite is to acknowledge and mourn the poverty of our spirit, to be meek and submit to Jesus. Only then will this hunger and thirst for righteousness come.
And as we hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God we will begin to change in how we deal with people.
As we encounter the merciful heart of God and as God places his heart and his mercy in us we will then begin to extend mercy to those whom we encounter.
And this will lead to us to having a pure heart.
Now, the word pure here does not mean moral purity. It means unmixed. In other words our hearts would be unmixed, having a purity of purpose – one goal, one direction, one priority – Jesus Christ.
Not that one is not interested in anything else in life – just that Jesus comes the prism, the lens, the foundation from which everything else, our jobs, our vacations, our pursuits come from.
And when that happens we will SEE God – not necessarily physically but in all our circumstances – we will see his presence, his work, his guidance, his sovereignty, his protection, his love and his work in our lives.
The last two beatitudes speak of the fruit, or impact, of the Christian experience – what kind of impact is such a person going to make in the world?
The problems in the world stem from sin – greed, selfishness, anger, violence etc. Humanity – you and I are the problem. We have the ‘I’ disease – not the type that needs glasses – but the I of selfishness.
And the power and destructiveness of sin remains while humanity is alienated from God.
It is RECONCILIATION WITH GOD THAT BRINGS PEACE WITH GOD.
Paul says in COLOSSIANS 1:19-20:
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
One of the biggest privileges of being reconciled to God, of becoming a Christian and coming to peace with God is that we can lead others to this peace. WE BECOME A PEACEMAKER – we actually SHARE in the ministry of Jesus Christ.
And when we do this there will be those who will accept the peace of God and there will be those who react and persecute us. Why would people persecute a peacemaker? Because a Christ centered peacemaker does not resolve conflicts it is to tell people to come to repent, to turn to their God and lead them to a relationship in Christ.
To be a Christian is to be a PEACEMAKER in the Kingdom sense that will mean we will be persecuted at some point and some time in our life – and if we are never persecuted for being a Christian it may be because we are not opening our mouth when we should be.
Persecution, is not something we should fear – we must never hold back in this process of becoming a such a Christian because we are afraid of persecution, for if we have not done this journey from recognizing our poverty of spirit, to being reconciled and finally to becoming a peacemaker, then we have not traveled the journey of becoming a believer, because we have not walked the path that the prophets and indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ walked.
To finish this morning I want to briefly take us to our New Testament reading from revelation because it is here that we can see the destination of this path from acknowledging our poverty of spirit to reconciliation with God and active service in his kingdom as a peacemaker.
Our reading from Chp 7 of revelation comes after the description of the judgment of God upon his enemies. Chp 7 tells us what happens to God’s people during this time.
For those who have walked the path of Matthew 5 – giving our selves to the Lord Jesus Christ – recognizing that we need him and him only, then, we will have our sins, our filthy rags, washed in the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice, making our robes white, clean, and where we will be overshadowed by his presence, sealed for eternity under his ownership and his protection, where the enemy satan can never snatch us out of his hand.
Revelation 7 shows us that when we undertake the journey of faith of Matthew 5 our eternal safety is guaranteed – to be among the multitude in heaven worshipping our God and as our passage says we will:
hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on us, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be our shepherd, and will guide us to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from our eyes.”
Have we made this journey yet? Have we acknowledged our desperate and utter need of God? Have we given up trusting in ourselves and long to trust in Christ alone- do we hunger and thirst after righteousness – do we want to receive mercy so that we can give mercy – do we long for unmixed motives, a purity of heart – do we desire to be reconciled to him – to become a peacemaker in the kingdom calling others to be reconciled to the God of the universe – do we want to rejoice and be glad – do we want to be sealed for eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ…
If we are here this morning knowing in your heart that we have not made this journey then do it today – ask God to come and meet with you – confess your need for him. Do it today. Do it now.
RECAP:
Paul, last week, took us through chapter 7 and the incredible story of Stephen. Stephen is a man whom the scripture describes as full of the spirit, wise, full of faith, full of grace and full of power. We saw that while he was assigned the role of making sure that food was distributed fairly he was also a preacher and declarer to the word of God. He had an amazing understanding of the Old Testament and was able to out argue some the Pharisees – even Saul. He exposed their history to them showing that they had consistently failed in their walk with God, rejecting the prophets sent to them, rejecting the spirit and rejecting the messiah. They’re the ones, not him, who have blasphemed God. Such was his brilliance, and his boldness in preaching what Jesus had taught he was killed. As he died, Saul looked on with approval.
READ 8:1-25
WHEN DID THE PERSECUTION BEGIN?
On that day! The day of Stephen’s killing.
WHY DO YOU THINK STEPHEN’S DEATH WAS A CATALYST FOR PERSECUTION?
The line was crossed – the barrier was broken. The Jews had retrained themselves up to this point but Stephen caused such rage that they over-stepped the mark and killed him – but by killing once the gate was opened. Not everyone was part of the persecution – some devout men came and buried Stephen.
WHAT WAS SAUL’S STRATEGY?
To destroy the Church. The enemy is now adopting an unsubtle approach – lets just violently take the church out. The verb destroy, lumaino expresses a brutal or sadistic cruelty. Saul does not spare women in this and his passion was to see these people killed (9:1, 22:4, 26:10).
WHAT GOOD COMES FROM v1?
The great dispersion leads to the fulfilling of the great commission – the sending out of the church into Judea, Samaria and the entire world. It’s the dispersion of the New Israel.
Stephen’s speech was prophetic – Jerusalem and the temple now begin to fade from view as Christ calls his people out and accompanies them.
WHAT IS SIGNIFICANT ABOUT WHERE PHILIP GOES?
Philip goes to the despised and hated Samaritans – they were hybrids in both religion and race. It shows the change in people like Philip. Also Peter and John, who come later (remember John was the one who said to Jesus, regarding a Samaritan village, “shall I call fire down from heaven on these people”), are about to have their cultural thinking changed. We know Jesus’ compassion and love for the Samaritans through the Gospels but now the disciples have grasped it.
ANYTHING INTERESTING ABOUT PHILIP’S MESSAGE?
He preaches about the Messiah – the Samaritans were expecting a Messiah and so the Gospel was ideal for them. HE also performs miracles and signs and the people pay attention.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS STRANGE MAN SIMON THAT GAVE HIM HIS AUTHORITY AND POSITION?
He performed some magic/sorcery and proclaimed himself to be someone great.
HOW DOES THIS CONTRAST TO PHILIP’S APPROACH?
Philip does not proclaim himself but Christ. Philip declares himself to be nobody – he only declares Jesus Christ.
That is what all preachers should do – proclaim Christ not themselves.
DOES SIMON CONVERT OR NOT?
WHAT IS THE IMPLICATION OF THIS IN TERMS OF CONVERSION AND BELIEF?
John Stott says that there is no need to support that he was only pretending to believe – nor that he exercised saving faith because Peter in v21 declares his heart was not right.
Calvin would argue for temporary faith.
Simon believed in God but he did not believe God – he did not believe to submission. Hence his desire to pay for the Holy Spirit – he did not have the transformational experience of the Spirit.
Many in the church are in Simon’s position.
WHY ARE PETER AND JOHN CALLED TO COME AND INSPECT WOULD HAD HAPPENED?
WHAT IS SIGNIFICANT THEOLOGICALLY ABOUT V15 & 16?
Theologian Howard Marshall: the most extraordinary statement in Acts, especially in light of Acts 2:38 “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The visit of Peter and john to Samaria was exceptional. Samaria was the first occasion on which the gospel had been proclaimed post-resurrection, not only outside Jerusalem but inside Samaria. The Samaritans were a kind of halfway house between Jews and Gentiles. The conversion of Samaria was like the first fruits of the calling of the Gentiles.
It happens twice more but not on this scale: Cornelius’ conversion where the apostles ask Peter to explain what happened (11:1-18) and when the Greeks turned to the Lord in Antioch Barnabas is sent to scout out what happened (11:20-24).
READ v26-40
WHAT DOES THIS ENCOUNTER BETWEEN PHILIP AND THE ETHIOPEAN TELL US ABOUT GOD?
God is concerned about an Ethiopian eunuch, who is a probably convert to Judaism who is reading Isaiah in his chariot.
God send Philip some 60 miles to make sure he encounters this man so that he can explain a passage in Isaiah, lead him to conversion in Jesus and then baptize him.
God’s compassion for us means he arranges some incredible appointments so that we can be exposed to Jesus.
WHAT IS REMARKABLE ABOUT THIS CONVERSION?
Chrysostom compares this to Saul’s conversion. The Ethiopian, unlike Saul, sees no wonders, or miracles, or visions. He believes purely on the word of God – from the scriptures. He is like you and I – we hear, then we believe, and then we experience the Spirit.
So what is Dr Kendall’s position [of the doctrine of assurance]? He argues that it is completely rooted in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Taking Romans 10:9f as his foundational text, Kendall believes that a person who confesses with his lips that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead, is saved. This salvation is not based on works, either before the confession, or after the confession, but by faith. Hence, if salvation is based upon faith alone and is completely devoid of works, then works, either good or bad, will not effect your salvation. Your assurance is found in your saving faith. The only thing a saved person can lose is his reward in heaven, never his salvation, regardless of his actions on the earth. Therefore a Christian who backslides, or falls into apostacy is still saved. Kendall rejects the notion that such a person was not a true believer, or had temporary faith. Such positions, Kendall argues, depart from justification by faith alone.
My paper will examine Dr Kendall’s challenge to the puritan tradition, as well as examining the strengths and weakness of each position. To begin with it is vital to see how the doctrine of assurance developed. Starting with John Calvin, we shall see the seeds of the puritan doctrine sown and how William Perkins developed it. The place of the Syllogism, practical and mystical as well as the reflex act. A question that needs to be answered is whether William Perkins moved away from Calvin’s position and set the agenda for the puritan understanding that was radically different from Calvinism, or had Perkin’s merely built on and developed naturally on the foundation laid by Calvin? Also the issue of temporary faith and limited atonement need to be addressed both theologically and pastorally.
We shall then consider Kendall’s understanding. Is he correct in saying that the Puritan view of Assurance was a departure from Calvin and was in fact no assurance at all. Does Puritan assurance come within a hairs breath of justification by works as Kendall claims?
My last principle is that without a single exception it is the rediscovery of the cardinal doctrines that has led ultimately to revival. There is always a preliminary to revival. It appears to come suddenly, and in a sense it does. But if you look carefully into the history, you will always find that there was something going on quietly, there was a preliminary, a preparation unobserved by people. And the preparation, invariably, has been a rediscovery of these grand, and glorious, central truths. Take for instance, the history of the Protestant Reformation. It was only after Martin luther had suddenly seen the grand truth of justification by faith only that the protestant revival came. It was the getting back to that truth, in the epistles to the Galatians and the Romans that prepared the way for the out pouring of the spirit… . There are certain truths which are absolutely essential to revival. And while these truths are denied or are neglected or ignored, we have no right to expect the blessing of revival.
Martin Bucer’s first attempt at reconciling the two sides comes in his 1526 Apology. This was a response to charges laid against him and other reformers of Strasbourg, as well as Zwingli, in the Swabian Syngramma. This was a document made up by Lutheran clergy who adopted a formula devised by Johannes Brenz[1] defending the real presence of Christ in the eucharist. Luther was in such agreement with this document that he wrote a preface in German. Bucer in his Apology gives a straight forward account of his beliefs. Bucer’s intention in clear when he recounts his first letter to Brenz writing, “I strongly urged harmony concerning the eucharist, since it is intrinsically most unworthy for the symbol of supreme unity and concord to be made the focus of dissensions and the see-plot of animosities.”[2] Later, Bucer directly asks Brenz and the other Lutheran clergy to consider the “merits of Oecolampadius and Zwingli, lest the Christ in them be despised, and the churches disturbed.” He goes on to say that Zwingli’s teaching on the eucharist does not “conflict with the scriptures.”[3]
Bucer’s own theology of the eucharist does appear to try and balance Luther and Zwingli. Bucer (as Luther does) sees two realities in the eucharist; an earthly one, the bread and the wine which remain unaltered in their mature substance… and a heavenly one, the true body and blood of Christ, that is the Lord himself. But Bucer goes further. He says that Christ does not leave heaven, neither is he naturally mingled with the bread and wine, but, “gives himself to us there after a heavenly manner,” which is very close to Zwingli’s view of a spiritual presence of Christ.
[2] D Wright Martin Bucer (Sutton Press 1972) pg316
[3] Ibid pg 317
This volume (and the companion volume on the Atonement) is made up from the notes of the late Thomas Torrance, comprising of over 25 years of lectures given to students in Christology at New College Edinburgh.
Edited into the final book form by Robert Walker (and Torrance’s nephew) it reveals the deep and rich thinking of this great modern theologian. Through this book you encounter a level of interaction with the topic of the personhood and life of Christ rarely seen. Lecturers can (and most do) just regurgitate other scholars views and thinking giving overviews and comparisons, peppered with a little of their own thoughts. Reading this book, you realize that this was not Torrance’s method of teaching. He lectured from the depth of his own thinking and study, which makes him original. Yet it is not ‘original’ thinking in the sense of new, or divergent ideas that take you on strange and unfamiliar paths. No, it is rooted in scripture and orthodoxy and ultimately in Christ himself, God who became man. And so, on another level it is not original thinking. Torrance’s skill is to draw you into the ancient, established and eternal truths of Christ, but he does it in such a griping way as he weaves through each topic and chapter like a master weaver. A very simple and brief example of this is seen when Torrance writes:
Any Christological approach that starts from the man Jesus, from the historical Jesus, and tries to pass over to God and so to link human nature to God, is utterly impossible. In fact it is essentially a wrong act: for it runs directly counter to God’s act of grace which has joined God to humanity in Christ. All attempts to understand Jesus Christ by starting off with the historical Jesus utterly fail; they are unable to pass from man to God and moreover to pass from man to God in such a way as not to leave man behind altogether, and in so doing they deny the humanity of Jesus.
It’s almost poetry!
This is not a book for beginners. It is definitely hard going and it’s a book that you need to work at. It will stretch your thinking and your brain. But, if you are willing to make the investment of time and energy, you will reap a wonderful return in terms of understanding the person and life of Christ and the incarnation.
I am reading a series of sermons that Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached on Revival way back in 1959. I am going to post some quotes from the book over the coming weeks:
We must cease to have much confidence in ourselves, and in all our methods and organizations, and in all our slickness. we have got to realize that we must be filled with God’s Spirit. And we must be equally certain that God can fill us with his Spirit. We have got to realize that…the power of God in infinitely greater, that what we need is not more knowledge, more understanding, more apologetics, more reconciliation of philosophy and science and religion, and all modern techniques – no, we need a power that can enter into the souls of men and break them and smash them and humble them and then make them anew. And that is the power of the living God.
The job is to kill the flesh. The strength we have is the spirit in us. And God has given us tools to finish the job. Yet to the flesh delight most christians are ignorant of the power of these tools and how to use them. Some attack the mountain with their bare hands and die in their folly. Others sit in the shadow of the mountain side polishing their tools till the rocks fall on them and crush them.
God has given us the tools to protect himself against deceit. When you use them the law of sin is flattened before uyou.
These great tools of the mind are: meditation & Private prayer
You can see what a mess deception makes of obedience. If your mind is persuaded to believe a sin is good for your soul and your affections work up an appetite for it, your will gives its consent – the dominos fall and the flesh bears its putrid fruit in our life. pg 56
