Matthew 18. 1-14

 

"Who's the greatest?”

We are often obsessed with the question “Who's the greatest?” With matters of status, power, with “winning”. We don't grow up much from being like kids in the playground: measuring each other to see who's the tallest, bullying the kid who is wearing cast-off clothes, or saying “My Dad could hammer your Dad.” The life of kids in the playground reflects the disorder in our hearts. And even at a few weeks old, Georgie Grace is trying to let it be known who's in charge in the Mitchell household!

And that is the problem that Jesus faces even in his group of followers. (v 1) Jesus' answer is to get a child to stand in the middle of the circle (v 2). He knows the kid is not perfect. A newborn will scream the place down for what she needs. A toddler will grab something and insist “that's mine!” Jesus has no illusions about children. He knows what they are. They are simple, emotional, they express what they feel. They are simply, like the rest of us, wired for survival. But this child can teach the disciples something.

The only way

And the first lesson the child teaches is “The way, to be the greatest, in fact the only way even to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, is to turn around – a complete change of direction – and be like a child: not fighting for supremacy, but – well, what? The answer is humility.

It is the humility of the child that Jesus commends. The word “humble yourself” literally means make oneself small. It's a complete “turnaround;” in the adult world we spend so much of our energy trying to “big ourselves up”, when God calls us to “small ourselves down” We complicate our lives. We complicate our thinking. We jockey for position. We manipulate. We argue. We justify ourselves. What Jesus likes in the children is their humility. No airs and graces. Not sense of “I am better than you”. No sense of “I deserve” and certainly no qualms about asking for what they need. Children come with a humility. “Here I am. I have needs: I'm hungry, I’m scared, can you help?”

The complete turn-around to childlikeness, trust and humility are the way into God's Kingdom. That's a lesson we all need to learn.

Welcome

And it follows, that God cares about the children. It matters how we treat them. We need to welcome them (v. 5) That means in our homes. It means in our Churches. And to welcome someone doesn't simply mean we are pleased to have them there. Of course we are thrilled to be parents or grandparents. Of course we are thrilled to have children in our churches. But to welcome them we offer them a hospitable, safe, environment. The Greek word means welcome, accept as an ally, to take note of, and receive.

In the Film Greystoke, when Tarzan comes home to Greystoke, and breaks the rules by drinking his soup out of the plate, the old Earl, his grandfather, does the same and the rest of the guests follow the old man's lead. That's a welcome: every effort made to make someone feel at home.

To welcome someone means to remove the “stumbling blocks”. (v. 6f) The Greek word originally meant a trap spring – the bit of the trap that causes it to catch its prey. It came to be used of these stones that stick up out of the earth, on country lanes, that are so easy to fall over. It's happened to me a number of times – I limp home covered in blood because of some wee stone hidden in the grass. There are things in our lives that trip people up, hinder their journey and endanger them emotionally and spiritually. We need to get rid of these things. The same things often make us stumble as well. (v. 8f) We need to get rid of the baggage we carry around, habits and ways of behaving, that trip and trap other people, and trip and trap ourselves, that make us stumble. We need to rid ourselves of the baggage that hinders our journey, even if that is hands or eyes.

Little ones may be literal children or Jesus may be extending the meaning to include all of the least in society... the poor, the learning disabled, the physically and sensory disabled, minority peoples.

Woe to any who place a stumbling block in the way of little people – that is who make it more difficult to continue their journey. Especially their journey towards faith.

Respect

Secondly, Jesus says, “Do not despise the little ones.” (v 10) Respect. Honour them; listen to them; learn from them. Their angels are constantly able to look the Heavenly father in the face. The Bible says a lot about angels: nations, churches and even the smallest people have their angels who are constantly gazing on the face of God himself. We should treat the little ones with respect.

But Jesus calls God “Father”. I know there's a lot of stuff out there about contacting the angels – a lot of it moneymaking, and will take you into darkness not light. We don't need angel cards, and a whole pile of books and merchandise or some kind of knowledge about who these angel are. Because the angels look our Father in Heaven in the face. He is a father. He loves us just as we are and welcomes us just as we are. In fact all that angel stuff will get in the way. We don't need to know their names. We just need to say “Dad” to our heavenly father.

Then Jesus tells a favourite story of his about a lost sheep. (v 12f) There was only one lost, but the shepherd went out looking for that one. He's teaching us what it means to care for the little ones and the lost ones. And he's teaching us about our Father's love for us. He doesn't want even one to be lost. Respect the little ones. Respect yourself. God is out looking for the little ones; God is out looking for you. That's what the whole life of Jesus was about. (v. 11) God the Heavenly Father doesn't want any of us to be lost. He wants every one of us to come to know him, and trust him, and love him; to enter his Kingdom. (v. 14)

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we know that in your Kingdom, there, there is peace, strength, and forgiveness, and things are made better. We come to you humbly, wanting to enter your Kingdom. Thank you that Jesus came to seek the lost, and that you don't want anyone to be lost. Please receive us now into your kingdom as we turn to you. Amen.

© Gilmour Lilly August  2014

Acts 20. 1-12. Church as if people mattered

Luke continues the story of Paul's third mission journey:  after the riot in Ephesus, Paul heads off to Macedonia, at the Northern end of Greece.  Luke doesn't give us details but in Romans 15. 19 Paul says that he has “fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ, from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum.”  This was probably the time he reached Illyricum (which makes the line for the journeys of Paul in most Bible maps wrong!)   Paul just loved breaking new ground, going to new places and new people with the gospel.  But Paul also loved the Church: and much of what he did in this stage of his third journey was about the Church. Luke doesn’t' give us details of the mission – but does focus on the inner life of he Church. And it's good to do that.  Emil Brunner once wrote “The Church exists by mission as a  fire does by burning”.  Although he was a great theologian, I believe that is a dangerous statement.  It can lead to an unhealthy emphasis on the activities and outcomes of mission, and a productivity-driven and pragmatic vision of Church which undervalues the quality of our life together and the needs of the people who make up the Church.   The Church is both the agent and outcome of mission. Mission and pastoral care go hand in hand. 

Mike Breen and the 3D Mission movement talks about the balance between invitation and challenge.   Both are needed for a healthy Church and a growing Church.  We need the challenge to be engaging in mission; and we need the invitation to be cared for and loved as God's people. As we've looked at Acts 19 we have been hearing a challenge; now it's invitation time! 

Comfort and encouragement
So we find Paul revisiting the Churches of Macedonia and Greece – to “encourage” them.  Encourage is of course παρακαλέω... the word that speaks of invitation, encouragement , comfort,  motivation; the word that refers to the activity of the Holy Spirit, the “paraclete” – the one called alongside us, who encourages us and comforts us and motivates us as he invites us to the journey of discovering what God has for us. . 

We need encouragement. Some of us are going through difficult times;  some of us have been through difficult times; some of us simply have something in our hearts from god's word, that we hetcan use to “encourage” one another.  That encouragement, that motivation, that accompaniment, is something we need to be able to find within the Body of Christ.  If it's not there, something is wrong.    If all “church” does is make demands, there's something wrong.  If all Church does is purvey sentimentalism, something is wrong.  The word comfort comes from two Latin words: con meaning with and fortis meaning strong.  When people are comforted they are strengthened together.   Real comfort, someone effectively drawing alongside, will give s us the strength to continue the fight.

Teamwork
Paul is surrounded with people.  Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea (a relative of Paul's), Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.  And Luke the physician.  Notice he refers to the group as “we”.  Paul is in a team.  The work he does, whether it involves missionary initiatives, breaking new ground, or pastoral care, is done in a team.   There are  a number of advantages to team work:
1. Witness:  a team of keen believers from all over Asia and Greece, would confirm to the Elders in Jerusalem that Paul really was doing a good work as eh travelled the world.  Having a team means we can can confirm and support one another, whether in discerning God's will or in fulfilling or call, the responsibility is shared. 
2. Accountability:  one of Paul's projects is gathering funds from the gentile church, to help and support the struggling Church in Jerusalem.  Having a team that was pretty representative of the churches that had given the money, meant Paul was accountable: he wasn't going to disappear to Rome and live in luxury for the rest of his life. A team makes us accountable for our actions and how we steward the resources God has given us
3. Protection.  This was a decent sized company of men, some of them at least quite young and presumably fit.  Robbing Paul wasn't going to be an easy matter.  In a team, we look after each other.  “As a fellow team member, “I've got your back.”  I love the image of Marcello kneeling by the injured Neymar and shouting for help.  That’s the role of a team-member.

The Worshipping Community together
Once again Paul is in Troas.  This time, there is a church in the town.  Paul spends a week there and his last full day is the Sunday.  Now, it's difficult to tell whether Luke is reckoning the time by Jewish reckoning that meant a day began at sunset the previous evening, or by the Roman reckoning that meant the day began at Sunrise.  What is important is that the Church met of the first day of the week – the Sunday – in a conscious and deliberate focus on the resurrection of Jesus.  They were the people of resurrection, and the natural day to celebrate that was resurrection day, Sunday.   The time was interesting: it was an evening meeting – when people had finished the day's work.  In a struggling, working class community,  the Church met when people could get there. The convenience and needs of the poorest and most needy people was what mattered. 

Their worship included breaking bread: that  included a meal.  As Paul says in 1 Cor 11.21, some came to church hungry (not surprisingly if they had been working all day).   And at that meal, bread would be broken in remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice for us on the Cross, wine shared in remembrance of his blood shed on the cross.  We need to remember that church is people and to retain the human side of Church.  Communion is not just a ritual but a family meal.

But it took them a long time to get round to breaking bread.  Paul was teaching the people.  Once again, the word Luke uses suggests dialogue.  You remember (from three weeks ago) how we saw Paul having a dialogue in the Synagogue (Acts 19. 8) and in the lecture hall (v. 9).  Well, he is doing the same thing in this upstairs room, with a group of committed believers.  He's teaching them.  He is ministering the word.  He kept talking until midnight.  (The Greek says he stretched out the word until midnight!”)  But the shape of that ministry was conversational. 

We place far too much of an emphasis on monologue – the preacher as lecturer or stand-up comedian.  That has its place, and it is wrong to suggest that people can't listen for more than five minutes these days.  But Biblical preaching was interactive and dramatic, not always a monologue; People learn when they are involved. they learn by action; by being able to ask questions; by answering questions and testing out their own understanding.  We have strayed from the Bible, and from good communication by our overuse of monologue. We need to rediscover dialogue.

Power. 
The conversation went on for so long, the room as full oil lamps which were using up the oxygen, and people got drowsy after a hard day's work.  A young man called Eutychus who was sitting in a window, dozed off, lost his balance and fell from the second floor window to his death.  Luke says  “He was taken up for dead” and as a Doctor,  he gives us the benefit of this professional knowledge.    When Paul says “his life is in him” he is not saying “he survived the fall” but “he has returned to life.”  In other words, Luke is describing a miracle.  Plain and simple.  And that miracle took place in the context of a situation of real need within the Church.  When eventually – at dawn – they took Eutychus home alive and well,  the Church were “Greatly comforted.”  Again, the Greek word is  παρακαλέω which implies comfort, encouragement, stirring up. 

We need to recognise that the Church is not just “there to reach the lost”  it is there: the people of God, and needs to live as though people mattered.  Comfort and encouragement, teamwork, space for our humanity around a table, conversations about faith – and space for the God of miracles to be at work.  And when the Holy Spirit is at work in the church, people are encouraged and comforted. 

© Gilmour Lilly August  2014

Acts 19. 21-41

Revival: a closer look

We saw last week that our experience of God – repentance, faith, baptism in water and the Spirit – is meant to lead to mission, whose  Motivation is love, whose method is a mixture of Conversation and  Demonstration, and whose outcome is Transformation not only in individuals but in communities – what we often call revival.  Luke gives us a deeper insight into the nature of that "revival" transformation as he continues the story... And that "Revival" is somethign we need in Scotland today.   In the five years from 2008-2013, the church in Scotland has declined by 17.3%.
It is structural.  
Its scope is global.  It is more than individuals burning £2m worth of occult literature.  It is individuals changing how they spend their money, their time, what is important to them – and eventually it begins to affect the economy.  Put simply, the silversmiths who have been used to making religious trinkets and souvenirs, mainly little silver niches containing a statue of the goddess, find that trade is slumping.  Less people are buying silver idols – and Christian merchandise, silver crosses and doves and fishes and WWJD bracelets haven't been invented yet!   Some of the guys look like they might go out of business.  We know we have revival, not just when we're packing people in to the churches, but when we are having a positive impact on our community.  When revival begins to bite in the economy, at the ballot box: in Barvas, Lewis, during the revival in 1947, pubs and dance halls closed: went out of business.   In Manchester, Police chiefs reported a fall in crime corresponding to the work of the Message trust on some of the roughest estates: as individuals were transformed, the community itself began to feel the benefits. When British young people stop flying out to dance drunk and naked in Magaluf, when global corporations accept they have a responsibility to pay their workforce a fair wage and a safe place to work, we have signs of revival, when bankers and business leaders are prepared to limit their salaries and bonuses because of their Christian faith, we have signs of revival.  When Russians and Eukraneans can't carry on a civil war because the young men love Jesus more than they love their racial identity, we have signs of revival.

It is supernatural. 
Revival is God not man. "It's not Paul" It may harness and use the gifts of a man or woman yielded to God, but it is not dependent on any one human being.  Revival is the outcome of the whole church living in the life.  This story begins with Paul and his team deciding to move on.  Two key team members have already gone.  Paul himself takes almost no part in this story. The rest of the believers are restraining him for his own good.  It’s not Paul’s doing.  It has got bigger than Paul.  Paul wasn't like the Baptist pastor in a small town church in the Midwest.  It was very out of the way, and although it had a railway line it had no station, and one train passed though a few times each week.  The pastor was very popular, but he had one eccentricity.  Every time the train passed, the pastor was there at the level crossing, just standing there, watching.  Eventually it became talked about round the town, so the Deacons had  a word with him.  His explanation was simple: “I love that train. It's the only thing that comes through this town that I don’t have to push!”  Paul hasn’t pushing.  The people had taken up the challenge and were running with it.  Paul didn't have to push, because the revival had gotten a life of its own.  In Barvas, Lewis, during the revival in the 1950's, Duncan Campbell said seventy five percent of those who turned to Christ, did so before they ever got to the Church. Over a hundred young people were in a  dance hall and the holy Spirit just touched the place, and young men and women fled the place, running to the church, weeping in repentance.  Later that night Campbell and one or two others found a young man, weeping and crying out to God by the roadside.   Seven men who were being driven to the Barvas in a butcher’s van fell under Holy Spirit conviction and were saved before they got there.

It is supernatural. "It's not Politics" The transformation we want to see isn't rooted in any of the world's “isms”: environmentalism, feminism, pacifism, socialism, capitalism  Yes, it's right that we look after the environment, seek peace and justice, oppose racism sexism and exploitation.  But that is not because we buy into movements.  These values flow from the Kingdom of God which, says Paul, is “Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”  The revival in Ephesus began with people trusting Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit. It began with Paul proclaiming the Kingdom of God.  

In fact, the New Testament Church never talked about revival – it hadn’t had the time to get dead.  We we need revival. remember the statistic I quoted earlier.  Do we, or do we not, need to be revived?   I believe that the Biblical word for revival is simply the Kingdom of God.  There is a “kingdom dynamic” to revival.  It involves a visitation by the Holy Spirit of God, whose coming was “messianic”.  It is the work of messiah to baptise in the Spirit.  It involves action as believers engage in conversations and demonstration.  It involves transformation in society.  The Kingdom Spirit comes; Believers become disciples with Kingdom values, taking kingdom action; and the world feels a kingdom impact. 

It involves Spiritual warfare. 
And revival – the Kingdom impacting society – takes us into the realm of spiritual warfare. It is radical. It created a stir.  The world wanted to fight back.  Let's look at the strategies and qualities of the opposition. 
1. Demetrius the silversmith had a complaint.  “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business.”  There was a commercial aspect at the heart of this. 
2. Demetrius appeals to national pride. “The temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited”   When the City Clerk, the senior local official answerable to the Roman Governor, calmed the people down, he said,  “doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis?” Here is religion with a connection to the state, the city.
3. Artemis of the Ephesians was a fertility Goddess.  Her “image which fell from the sky” it thought to have been a meteor which looked kind of like a woman with many breasts.  Because she was all about fertility and reproduction, worshipping her was  an excuse for a lot of sex and wild partying. There was a high level of self-indulgence in the Artemis cult.
4. The City Clerk refers to Artemis' image “which fell from the sky”.  Here is belief that will not stand the test of thoughtful scrutiny.  It's always been like this.  It's traditional.  Don't trouble us with the facts.
5. And this religion, lastly, will fight or coerce to protect its interests.  It is marked by physical and verbal violence, intimidation, and the mob mentality

The Kingdom will always find itself at odds with the world's values and with worldly, pagan religion: with everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.  Interestingly, the Kingdom will always find itself challenging religion.  Sometimes that means direct, in your face paganism; sometime it's a subtle idolatry:  if we worship our kids, our TV, our home or possessions, or our nation, if we allow them to take Gods' place, we have an idol.  The kingdom challenges.    When religion, even if it claims the name of Christian, becomes a commercial moneymaking concern, or enters an unholy partnership with the state, or a matter of self indulgence, or mindless traditionalism, or uses aggression and verbal or physical violence to protect or promote itself, the kingdom challenges.

Finally, it makes sense.  
Did you ever stop to ask yourself why Luke alone of the four gospel-writers, wrote a part 2, the story of the early church?  One of his reasons for writing was evangelistic.  He hoped that some people who were not yet Christians would read his books.  He hoped they would agree that Jesus was amazing; they would see that, in the life of the Christian Church, all this stuff about Jesus, worked out, and worked out well.  He hoped that they would want their sins forgiven; the Holy Spirit and a taste of  the Kingdom Jesus preached in their lives.

This City Clerk wasn't a believer: he was still a worshipper of Artemis. Yet what he says shows an important, educated man who doesn't need to accept the extreme things that people were saying about the Christians: “They are just trouble makers.  They are all off their heads.  Irrelevant, dangerous, foreign, subversive.”  Luke is at pains to record those moments when sensible, respected people out-with the Church  agreed that the Way “makes sense”.   In the same vein, he name-drops, letting us know that Paul had made friends with the Asiarchs (locally elected rulers).

Today we might be dismissed as “Stupid, bigoted, narrow-minded, middle-class, self-interested, fantasists.”   Revival isn't meant to make the rich richer, the state stronger, and the church more comfortable. It's meant to make the Good news make sense.

The Church in Revival, the Church experiencing the realities of the Kingdom, is supernatural; it may find itself in conflict with the world. It may on occasions be counter-cultural and counter-intuitive.  But it isn't anti-intellectual, illogical, inconsistent or escapist.  It makes sense.   


© Gilmour Lilly August  2014

Acts 19 v 8-21

 So you area a disciple.  You have turned from your old life and trusted in Jesus, been baptised, expressing a faith in what god is doing; you've been baptised in the Holy Spirit and begun to move in the gifts he give.  What are you going to do with it?  Look at what Paul does with it...

Motivation
This is Paul's last big evangelistic campaign; he still has other things to do, but it will take a different shape.  As usual, he begins his preaching in the synagogue, among the people he knows and understands best – the Jews.  As usual, conflict happens; discussions give way to insults as people  close their minds and hearts to the Christian message.  Why does Paul keep doing this?  Why does he always go back to the same thing of starting in the Synagogue?  I think the answer can be found in Paul’s letter to the Romans where he says this:  Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. (Rom 10. 1)   His motive is completely unselfish; it is not about being vindicated; it is not about winning the argument; it is not about building up the church; it is not about control.  It is about compassion, it is about love.  Paul cares so much for these people that he says  “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race.”   (Rom 9. 2f)  Paul cares more about he souls of his fellow Israelites than he does about his own.  “If my sacrifice – losing eternal life – could help bring them to know Jesus, it would be  worth it.”

Saviour of men our humanity sharing, give us a passion for souls that are lost.   Emotions are connected with thought and beliefs. So if that passion is missing – could it be because we have wrong beliefs – like somehow it is all predestined anyway; or like it’s all about recruiting people for the Church; or that we don't really believe our right beliefs: what I mean is, if we really believed in our hearts, that people need to know Jesus personally in order to go to Heaven, maybe we would ha a greater sense of urgency about making sure they hear the Gospel!

Conversation
What is Paul doing in the synagogue?  What is he doing in the schoolroom belonging to Tyrannus?  He is engaged in a a dialogue about  Jesus.  The NIV says (quite unhelpfully) that Paul “argued persuasively” in the synagogue (v 8) and “had discussions” in the lecture hall (v 9).  The Greek actually uses the same word, διαλεγόμενος, in both verses.   Both in the synagogue and the lecture hall,   Paul's approach to sharing the Gospel is about dialogue.  It is conversational. 

Declaration is meant to be done through dialogue. We can bring what Paul brought to this kind of conversation:
1. Conviction.  Paul spoke boldly – freely – about what Jesus meant to him
2. Story.  Paul had was not afraid of telling his story.  Se need to have a story to tell
3. An understanding of  our faith.  W need to know what we  believe and why.
4. A listening ear. We need to understand people's needs and be able to respond to them.
5. Persistence.  Paul kept at this for two years, daily.  We need to be present with people.

Demonstration
What is this business about cloths and handkerchiefs?   I know this practise has sometimes been turned into a “product”.  You know the kind of thing.  “Send $50 and we will rush your prayer cloth to your address!”   Or else the  cloth becomes associated with a magical sense of “transferable anointing” as thought the power came from the evangelist, into the cloth, then on to the sick person.

This is an “unusual work of power” and needs careful understanding.   Luke says “through the hands of Paul” which is one way of separating power and the healing from Paul's genius and knowledge.  What was it about Paul that God used? His hands!   And the clothes were carried to the sick.  They were not sent; they were carried.

The prayer cloths were  a way of involving ordinary men and women, believers, in ministry.  They were a  away of focussing faith and making the prayer and ministry activities of individuals an expression of the ministry of the wider church.  It meant that any other, obscure, un-named believer, could be involved in Paul’s ministry.  And it meant that when someone took a prayer cloth to her sick mother, she was ministering as part of the church.

Because it was god, it was done through loads of people in the Church.  You can be involved in a ministry that demonstrates the love of God to broken people.

And demonstration involved deliverance; demonstrating “Who's in charge.”  When they saw demons being driven out, seven “Sons of the Jewish priest Sceva” tried it.  Nobody knows for sure who these guys were; Sceva probably claimed to be a “high Priest” to gain respectability for his activities – kind of like a snake-oil salesman or someone selling expensive alternative remedies on the internet calling himself “Doctor.”  With no personal connexion with Jesus, they tried using the name of Jesus as a magic spell.  The demons weren’t fooled.  “We know who Jesus is; we even know who Paul is.  But who are you lot?” and the possessed man beat them up.  That sort of little event – not something Paul or the Church went out looking for – simply underlined the point: “Who's in charge!”   Jesus is Lord.  HE has unique power over the created order.  Remember what the disciples said when he calmed the storm?  “Who then is then; even the wind and the sea obey him?”   He has unique power and authority over spiritual forces, even those that have ranged themselves against God and against humanity made in God's image.  Who’s the King? Jesus!

People around us need to see that we are not all about dogma; that our words translate into actions.  We are as a Church committed to “learning to show the father’s love.”  That hasn’t gone away.  We need to show love and we need to show that the Kingdom of God does have power.

Transformation
The result of this was dramatic to say the least.  A number of things happened in Ephesian society
1. Fear of the Lord and honour for his name.  .
2. Many believed and produced fruit of repentance, confessing their sins and cleaning up their lives.  They were experiencing personal transformation at a very deep level.
3. A number who had practised sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. One drachma was approximately one day's pay for one man.  Fifty thousand of would pay a crew of 136 for a year. Or put it anther way,  a day's labouring is worth about fifty quid.  That makes the pile that was destroyed worth a cool £2½ million.  That is a significant amount of money; that suggests something deep was happening not only in people's lives but that there was an impact on society.
4. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and  grew in power. .  We are not talking about political power but about influence.  We area not talking about the kind of power that comes from being attached and backed up by the state; we are talking about a respect and influence that is people's spontaneous response to something they recognise as good, worthy and important. The word of God became public truth.  Society began to be transformed, spiritually, morally, psychologically.

It looks very much like revival.  And THAT is what we are supposed to be doing with our  discipleship, our repentance, turning life over to Jesus, our faith in what god is doing, our baptism in the Holy Spirit and our gifts?  We want to see Scotland changed?  Scottish Christians do too much moaning about standards in society.  We need to be overwhelmed with a passionate love for the people around us; we need to engage in conversations; and we need to face the challenge of demonstration, learning to show the Father's love – and the transformation will come.

© Gilmour Lilly July  2014

Acts 19... Discipleship, Baptism, Spirit and Church

Acts 19...   Discipleship, Baptism, Spirit and Church

Discipleship:  Incremental, incomplete Discipleship.
Paul is back on his travels, making a third journey in Turkey, heading to the big and important city of Ephesus; you remember he made a brief visit there on his way home from Corinth and promised to revisit...   This time he found a situation that had developed in his absence... the story begins with a wee group who seem to be Christians but when Paul met them but they had not encountered the Holy Spirit, nor been baptised in the Name of Jesus.  I want to look at their story this morning... These guys lived in the melting pot of ideas that had found their way to Ephesus: people like  Apollos had come and taught about Jesus and although he taught well he missed some things out.

How far on were these people in their Christian journey?  As Paul sits with these guys, he becomes aware of things that make him uncomfortable, maybe.  They knew about John the Baptist. They knew that Jesus was the coming “One, who was greater than John...”  They understood about repentance. Did they know about the completed work of Jesus? Did they know about forgiveness of sins? Did they know Jesus had risen from the dead?  They had not yet received the Holy Spirit, and denied any knowledge of who the Spirit is. So there were gaps  in their understanding.

But Luke records two things about them: (1) They were Disciples.  Always in Luke “Disciple” means “Christian.”   If Luke meant that these guys were just disciples of John the Baptist, he was using the word in a very unusual way.  (2) they had “believed”.  The tense indicates a simple factual event.  These guys had clearly believed in Jesus, take some sort of step to put their trust in him. 

That tells me that Discipleship is not something to be neatly packaged up. We can draw an invisible – or sometime a very visible – circle around ourselves, and say “These people are in and these people are out.”  But we might have difficulty deciding whether the people in this story were in or out.  If Christianity were simply about “who is going to heaven?” maybe these questions would make sense.  But Christianity isn't just about buying the ticket; it's about making the journey. Christianity is Discipleship: discipleship is learning: learning is a process.  We are all incomplete disciples. John Drane says “Discipleship is messy because life is messy”.

The Diverse Church.
Luke adds a wee observation: there were about twelve men in all.  This wasn't the entire Church in Ephesus. There was at least one other group – that had the godly Aquila and Priscilla in it and had written a letter of recommendation tor Apollos.  And there may have been others.  What we have in this story is a picture of a  small group, which apparently had not very much contact with the other Christian groups in their city;  the Ephesian Church consisted of unconnected or loosely connected local groups.  This was one of the Ephesian House churches – but Paul was investing in them. 

Paul recognises the diversity of the Church.  Just as discipleship is a journey, messy round the edges, so church is open at the edges, consisting of divergent groups of people.  We often think that the only right way to run the church is something like what we are experiencing this morning – a group of people who meet to sing hymns and songs, to be taught from the Bible, and so on; it has office-bearers, a pastor, a music group, kids work. But the Church in Ephesus consisted of house churches, and some of them were small, struggling, slightly mixed up groups of people who got things wrong.   And that's OK, because Paul still invested in this small, muddled group of believes.   Mike Breen says if we emphasise building the Church, we will probably not make disciples, but if we focus on making disciples, we ill build the Church.  

Jesus-centred Baptism
Paul discerns that they have no experience of the Spirit. We’ll come back to that; first it leads to another question:  “What kind of baptism did you receive?”  “Well, you know how John baptised people who wanted to clean their lives up?  We were kind of baptised that way.”     To our Western minds, it may seem a bit like splitting hairs, but that's  where Paul begins in sorting things out.

John's baptism was about repentance, turning from sin; but that was to be ready for Messiah coming, for Jesus.   John's baptism was about expectation rather than fulfilment (says F F Bruce)   
John could whet people's appetites.  The fulfilment came and comes through Jesus.    He brings God’s reign, ; he brings forgiveness, cleansing, new life.  He has taken our sins away, conquered death; and risen again.  He is the Baptiser in the Spirit. The Spirit comes to bring us the kingdom. 

A baptism based on expectation, preparing the way, is inappropriate, now that the fulfilment has come.   A baptism of expectation is centred on us – our repentance, what we are doing to be ready for the one who is to come.  That is inadequate.  The fulfilment has come.  We need a baptism  of fulfilment.  A baptism of fulfilment is centred on Jesus, on what he does, what he has accomplished on the cross and what he wants to do in your life.  It goes beyond repentance (which is what we do) to a confident faith in what God does: by faith we welcome the presence of Jesus, the new life he gives, the power of the holy Spirit.  So they were baptised in water, in the Name of Jesus (or, Mt 28,   “of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”) Basically it's the same thing. To know Jesus as Saviour and Kingdom bringer, is to know him as “one with the Father” and as “baptiser in the Spirit”.  We need to articulate a faith that is not just about what we do but about what God does.

Lastly,  The indispensable Spirit.
Paul's first question: “Did you receive the Spirit when you believed?” tells us two things. 

(1) Paul observes the absence of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit “Seals” us as belonging to Jesus and a seal was something you could see.  There were things Paul was looking for as evidence of the Spirit: gifting, awareness of sonship, freedom, fruit including love.  The idea that the Holy Spirit comes to us as this vague, imperceptible influence that may just make us feel a wee bit better deep inside, is not how the New Testament understands the Holy Spirit. He was there at the beginning of time.  The book of Genesis says “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep.”  His action caused the prophets to know and speak God's word; his action caused the virgin Mary to conceive and bear a child.  He is God at work.  

(2) The coming of the Spirit rightly belongs with believing, with discipleship.  The Spirit is for every believer, every disciple.  Some people use this text to prove that every believer should seek to receive the Holy Spirit after they come to faith.  But that is turning the truth on its head.  It makes receiving the Spirit an add-on to the Christian life.  But Paul is not asking whether they have had a second experience; he is asking whether the experience that is the natural consequence of believing has happened.  He's not talking about an add-on; he's talking about something that is central to the Christian life.  It's not a optional extra; it is part of the package. God never planned for there to be some Christians who are “Spirit-filled” and others who aren't.  HE never planned it for there to be some Christians who have an experience of the Spirit and others who are just normal.  He planned it for every Christian to have an experience of the Spirit.  Spirit filled Christianity is just normal Christianity.  David Pawson says “The Normal Christian Birth” involes repentance, faith, water baptism  and receivign the spirit. Baptism in the Spirit – being immersed in the Holy Spirit,  overwhelmed by the Spirit  – is not an add-on; it is normal Christianity.  Paul is not offering the “Next stage” for these disciples.  Instead, he is sorting out what is missing in their discipleship. 

So, this passage doesn't prove passage that every Christian needs a second experience when they are baptised in eh spirit.  What it does prove is that every Christian is supposed to have  a vital, vibrant, living experience of the Holy Spirit.  He is indispensable.  If that overwhelming and baptism with the Spirit is not part of your Christian experience, it is meant to be.  And like these disciples in Ephesus, God wants to make your  Christian birth complete by baptising you in the Holy Spirit.

© Gilmour Lilly July  2014

Acts 18. 18-28: “Teamwork!”

Acts 18. 18-28: “Teamwork!”

When Neymar was injured in the Colombia match newspapers were asking questions like, “Can Brazil win the 2014 World Cup without Neymar"” and “Who will pick up the slack in Neymar's absence"”; and another question, “Could Neymar’s injury have been avoided"”   It looks very much like Brazil had become dependent of Neymar; they had forgotten how to play as  a team and their fence was in tatters against Germany.   There's a lesson there for the Church:  we need to play as a team, rather than building everything around one or two “star players.”

Eventually Paul knew it was time to move on from Corinth.  He had pioneered with the Gospel in Greece; he had made a bit of a change in strategy: he spent a “considerable time” in Iconium (Ac 14. 3) which means he was delayed there for a while, but he actually settled for over 18 months at Corinth.  It was the longest he had stayed anywhere on his journeys so far.  How were they going to manage when he moved on?  As we said last week, they did mess up quite badly – at every opportunity – and needed ongoing support.   Paul spent 18 months in Corinth, but continued to be concerned and exercise a leadership ministry, through his letters.  Elsewhere, his visits were shorter yet he still wrote when there were issues to sort out.  Paul saw himself as part of a team.  Almost al of his letters were written from Paul and one or two others, or else included greetings from others.  The shape of ministry in this growing, developing New Testament church movement, was totally flexible, and totally corporate.  It was always teamwork.

 The idea of the “One man Ministry” where someone is appointed by a local church to serve its needs and further its objects, is a modern development of a mediaeval idea: the Parish priest. The earliest Church supported ministry, releasing good teachers from the need to earn an income in order to minister the Word.  But it also saw those teachers and leaders raised up from amongst the local community.  I wonder whether in our post-modern world we need to recover the flexibility of the earliest Church.?

Team Prayers
So Paul left Corinth, taking Aquila and Priscilla with him; but before getting on board ship, he – had a haircut! Although Luke – the Gentile doctor – was a bit vague about this it was obviously important enough to mention.  All Luke knows is “it was some sort of vow”.  What is that all about?  It was likely a “Nazirite” vow, which Paul had taken: this would involve a commitment for a period of time, to drink no alcohol, and neither to shave or have a a haircut.   Samson was the classic Old Testament example of a Nazirite, although he was one from birth and for life.  His parents were told to brig him up from birth, abstaining from alcohol and never having his hair cut... You know the story.  From his long hair – or rather because of his obedience to  what God had said about him – he had this amazing strength. (You can read about Samson in Judges 13-16) 

Jews would take a “Nazirite vow” for different reasons: often, either in thanksgiving for something God had done, or to express particular urgency in prayer.   Luke doesn't tell us which Paul was doing, but the fact that he had his hair shaved off before leaving Greece, suggests that it may have been a way of expressing his commitment to mission in Greece, or perhaps specifically in Corinth.  Or of praying for the Jews who had rejected the gospel in Corinth; or of praying for the salvation of the Corinthians...

What that tells me is that Paul's spirituality was kind of diverse.  Unlike his hair, it wasn’t all that “cut and dried”.  Of course, as Disciple of Jesus, he had no reason to feel he “had to” keep these old laws; he knew that God had already given him “every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus”, that he who had given his only son would with him give all that Paul would ever need in his ministry and mission. But I suspect it still helped Paul to go back to his Jewish roots and there to find resources that helped him focus his prayers.  We too often define “prayer” as “talking to God”.  We read our Bibles (and expect God to talk to us) and we talk to God (saying we are sorry for our sins, praising him, asking for his help).  We have forgotten that Jesus gave us bread and wine; we have forgotten that Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit, who gives gifts that transcend the human mind – like speaking in tongues.  We have forgotten that God made us with five senses and calls us to draw close to him with each of these senses and in ways that go beyond our senses.  So, if it helps you to fast, then fast.  If it helps you to look at a cross, or hold a cross, then do so. If you commune with God through being out in the countryside, or in the garden, be there and expect God to eb there too. 

So Paul is heading for Caesarea so he can visited “the Church (meaning the “Mother Church” at Jerusalem).  And while in Jerusalem, he would also visit the temple and make the sacrifice that went along with finishing his Nazirite vow.   Then after that, he would go “home” to Antioch, the adventurous, creative centre in Syria that had sent him out in the first place.  This homeward journey, with its haircut, its visit to Jerusalem and its final destination of Antioch, shows us a lot about the inner life of Paul.  It shows is someone who prayed, and who relied on the support of other people – traditional Jewish Christians like those he found in Jerusalem, and the more adventurous missionary church in Antioch.

Team Players
But first, he broke his journey in Ephesus, which was where Aquila and Priscilla were going.  Stopping off like that was  a normal thing in the ancient world. And Ephesus was another important centre, where he had a good time preaching in the synagogue.   God was at work there, but Paul had another journey to make so he promised to come back if possible, and off he went.  But ministry and mission were continuing.  Aquila and Priscilla were in Ephesus already, and there may have been a few other believers.  Then, along came Apollos. a Greek-speaking Jew, who had been living in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria was another “University town”, a respected place of learning, so Apollos knew his Old Testament and had learned about Greek philosophy, and how to argue a case in public.  he had natural gifts that could be harnessed by the Holy Spirit.  But he hadn't got everything right.   He was well-read; he knew about Jesus, and trusted Jesus.  But there were gaps in his knowledge; he only knew about John's baptism.  It seems that the version of Christianity that had reached Alexandria was not 100% right and that Apollos had picked up some messed up theology.  

So when Apollos turned up in Ephesus, and started preaching in the synagogue about Jesus, Aquila and Priscilla heard him,. They realised that there were gaps in his understanding.  (They knew a thing or two: they had been on on Paul's team for a year and a half!)  So they (both of them – Priscilla as well as Aquila!) invited him to their home and straightened out his ideas.  I like that:  Christian discipling and teaching, taking place in someone's home, presumably around good food. 

Eventually, Apollos wanted to go off and preach about Jesus elsewhere: eh wanted to go to Achaea (Southern Greece), so the Church encouraged and supported him, sending him off with a  letter (to prove he was a genuine believer with a ministry.)  and off he went, making a difference in places like Corinth, by debating with the Jews about Jesus, and proving from the Old testament that Jesus was the Messiah.

Now Apollos' ministry was different to Paul’s.  Paul was an all-rounder, a Church planter.  Apollos was a specialist: today we would call him an apologist.  His gift was giving people reasons for believing.  Some people in Corinth thought he was marvellous: probably many came to faith in Jesus through his debating skills.  And some in Corinth thought Paul was marvellous. I guess they were dong the same as we sometimes do: they were trying to narrow down Jesus, to narrow down the Gospel, to tie it up into categories that are easy to package.  Eventually Paul wrote to them "I planted, Apollos watered, but God kept everything growing." (1Co 3:6)  Paul was a team player.  He recognised and was not threatened by the gifts and ministry of others in the team.
God was sovereignly at work, in Paul's absence, through people like Apollos, Aquila, Priscilla.  A little Church group at Ephesus was already getting established, probably meeting in Aquila and Priscilla's house.  And there were other groups, that probably met separately.  Guess what? God was at work in them all, in different way and in different stages.    There is only one Good News.  But there are many ways of expressing it; many ways of coming to faith in Jesus; many ways of praying, many shapes and that ministry can take. We are all called to be team players.

 


© Gilmour Lilly July  2014

Acts 18. 1-17: Mission like Jesus

 Acts 18. 1-17: Mission like Jesus

Here's a wee puzzle.  Why would Paul only spend a few weeks in Athens (remember – the “Edinburgh” of ancient Greece? A city of education, culture, refinement.  A city with the reputation for being the smartest university in the Roman world) and spend over a year and a half in  vulgar, promiscuous, brassy, commercial Corinth?  Even the Jews in Athens hadn't given Paul much bother.  

The Place.
For a start, Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia (Southern Greece).  It was a port,  with a suburb called Lechaeum facing west towards Rome, and 5 miles away the East-facing harbour of Cenchrea.  And there was a paved road between the two harbours allowing cargo –  and sometimes whole ships – to be pulled from one side to the other avoiding the stormy southern tip of Greece.  Quite a place.  So it was a strategic place for mission.  A lively, healthy Christian community in Corinth could be a hub for sending the gospel all the way to Rome.  People were always passing through; as they did so, they could hear about Jesus.

And Corinth was a place of challenge. It was "Sin City" As a port, with a constantly moving population, lots of people without roots there, lots of money to be made, and spent, Corinth developed a reputation for wild, drunken, promiscuous lifestyle.  In fact the Greeks (who were not famed for being quiet, sober, clean-living types) had a word for being particularity debauched: Korinthiazein “to behave like a Corinthian”...  When he went to Corinth and settled there, Paul was being like Jesus, who was known as “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Lk 7. 34) and who welcomed,  and received the kisses and perfume of a weeping prostitute (Lk 7. 36-39).  Being grace-bearers, out of our comfort zone, among the last, the lost and the least, is the Jesus way to approach mission.

And it seems as if the people Paul connected with at Corinth were the poorer, weaker, less able ones. In fact Paul wrote later to the Corinthians, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.”  (1 Cor 1. 26f)...  Corinth was a place of Simplicity.  Paul wrote more letters to Corinth than to any other church: four letters in all.  They got in such a  mess about sex, about Communion, about food laws, about taking each other to court, about who was the best preacher, about the gifts of the Spirit.   Their great tendency to get things wrong was the down-side of their simplicity.  The more positive side was that they were able to have a very simple faith.  So Paul had come to them, not with clever words but, like Jesus, “with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (1 Cor 2. 4)

The People
At Corinth, Paul made two new, special friends: Priscilla and Aquila, fellow Jews and tent-makers, and probably already believers when they met Paul (although I like the idea of Paul sharing life with them before they trusted Jesus for themselves!).  They were refugees from Rome, where Claudius had ejected the Jews recently – incidentally, because of a disturbance among the Roman Jews about Christianity.  These comparatively new, previously unknown Christians, then, were Paul's team, his support group in the earliest days in Corinth. Together they worked at their trade, kept open home, talked about Jesus.  It is the natural thing to share resources, spend time and learn together with brothers and sisters. Paul received from them and imparted something to them. They eventually moved on with Paul when he left town: could it be that they caught the “mission bug” from Paul?

Then, when Silas and Timothy arrived, bringing gifts from the Macedonian Churches (2 Cor 11. 9; Phil 4. 15), Paul was able to give up making tents and focus all his energy on preaching the Gospel.  Last week we had BMS Sunday; and this week we have had news from Andrew and Maria.  I was really challenged by what we heard last Sunday: God is doing amazing things through the BMS worldwide; we have mission partners who are wonderful men and women of faith. They are our brothers and sisters, our family – as are those who trust in Jesus and work with them in Tunisia, or Iraq.  Supporting “overseas mission” is not about giving money to some “organisation” that does stuff on our behalf.  It is a people thing.  It telescopes our life as a Church, out in our case into the Arab world,,, and blessings come back to us as a result.  Let's engage with the people who are out there.  They are part of us.

This “people” thing is fundamentally, inseparably part of what it means to be church.  Church was never intended to be a “religious organisation”.  The Church is people.  It is humanity, in shared relationship to god.  From that “Sonship” we become “family” with each other. As “Family” we share our lives, share our resources, with each other, support each other, build each other up.
 
The pain
The Jews:  it seemed like “same old same old...”  it had happened before in Thessalonica and Berea.   Only in Corinth there seems to be a particularly nasty edge: “became abusive” is literally “Blasphemed” .  Now it could be that there were many Jews in Corinth who had already been part of the trouble in Rome: like the terrorism in Syria, these things have a habit of spreading. It may be there was a certain fear in response to growing anti-Semitism of the Empire. To i9llustrate that, about fifteen years later, Nero came to power, and decided to build a canal across the Corinthian isthmus – using 6000 Jewish slaves.) There may have been resentment as many Jews were turning to Jesus.  Whatever sharpened the opposition in Corinth, it was painful, and Paul (again like Jesus) “shook out his clothes” as he left the synagogue, to preach to the gentiles.  But Paul did not do this lightly. He knew that he, too, had been a blasphemer (1 Timothy 1:13).  It's kind of too easy to say “these people are hard... we've tried and failed to give them the Gospel; so lee’s give up trying.”    So Paul left the Synagogue, but the Jews continued to cause trouble, trying to bring the Christians to court.  There is pain in “trying and failing”; there is pain in seeing someone make the same mistakes you have made; there is pain in being misunderstood and misrepresented. 

The possibilities...  
It isn't all bad.  When Paul moved his meetings to Titius Justus' house, the synagogue rules, Crispus, comes along with all his family and and trusted in Jesus.  God is at work!  God is on the case!

Now Paul admitted that when he came to Corinth he was “in great fear and trembling” (1 Cor 2. 3).  He needed all the encouragement he could get.  So God encouraged him: Paul saw a vision of Jesus, who promised protection and success: “I have many people in this city” implies “they are not yet believers but I am on their case!”  The Jesus Way is fundamentally about immediacy, about relationship.  As well as being about walking with each other, it is about walking with God.  It is about a God who speaks; it is about a God who sends his Spirit; it is about a God who intervenes, who is always present.   That doesn't mean we have a God who will always give us an easy time.  When he speaks, he challenges and stirs; when he moves, he calls us to move, too; to be active as His people.  He looks on us with love, but he is looking for fruit!  However,  he is at work; he sends his Spirit; he speaks.  He has many people in this garden City – they are not yet believers; but he is on the case!

And at the end of the story, after the Jews have tried to get Paul arrested, and Governor Gallio has sent them packing, the new synagogue leader, Sosthenes, got beaten up.  It's difficult to tell who did this: it may have been an anti-Semitic attack; more likely the synagogue turned on him for not persuading Gallio to arrest Paul.  Was Sosthenes at variance with the majority in the synagogue because he thinking about becoming a Christian?  I don’t know.  But in 1 Cor 1.1 Paul mentions his “brother Sosthenes” and  Sosthenes is not a common Greek name; it's almost certain this same Sosthenes who was leader of the Synagogue, also trusted in Jesus.  So in the midst of confusion and pain, God's Spirit is at work.  God is on the case!

So, at Corinth, Paul's mission was strategic, people-centred, generous, compassionate, courageous, supernatural. Very much like Jesus!  We finish, as we  started, with a question.  “In our mission, who are we like?”

© Gilmour Lilly July  2014