The word became Flesh. John 1. 1-18

Last Talk of 2013 on the subject  "The word became Flesh" from John 1. 1-18. 

1. What is a word?
Interaction time.  Discuss in family/friend groups what a word is and write on a “post-it” note.  Then we will collect the answers and collate them.
I'm looking for two elements in the answer: 
(a) A basic idea, thought or feeling. Something inside a person's head.
(b) A basic form of expression.  Something “out there”.
A word is the most basic way of getting something from “inside our heads” to “out there”. 

2. Who is “The Word”?
Basically, Jesus!   He was “in the beginning with the Father.”  John deliberately takes us back to Genesis 1, and shows us that “The Word”, Jesus was there.

He was “with God.”  Not just “inside God's head” but alongside God.  That shows he is more than just an idea or a thought that came from inside God's head.  He is a person.  The Message translates it “the Word present to God, God present to the Word.”  

Nothing was made without him.  Everything that exists, came because of Him.   That shows that this “Word”, this Truth that was present with God, is powerful.  He was and is God.

When we are talking about “The word”, we are talking about Jesus.  Whenever we are talking about Jesus, we are talking about this amazing, powerful, mysterious “Word”!

3. How does ”The Word” come”
He came in flesh.  That amazing, mysterious Word, who has always been there, spoke, shouted, cried, whispered, sang, in human form, into human ears, so that could hear.

That is amazing.  John loves to talk about opposites, like “light and darkness”, “life and death” or “Flesh and spirit”  (He begins to do that in verse 13, and does it more in chapter 3 v 6.  Paul says “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God...”  (1 Cor 15. 50) Isn't that amazing?  Jesus took on something that cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, in order to bring us into the Kingdom of God.   Then he took on something else that cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, our sin.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5. 21)

The “Word” became flesh.  Incarnate.  God reveals himself through and in the midst of ordinariness.   The Christmas story is full of ordinary people doing what ordinary people do – but always with God's surprises added in.  So a teenage girl is told she's going to have a baby; That's where her young life was expected to lead to – but she knew this wasn't just ordinary so she asks “How can this be?” (Lk 1. 43)  Joseph is trying to get out of a relationship that looks as if it's gone wrong.  Priests are opening up the temple and burning incense day by day. Shepherds are out looking after sheep.  Eastern mystics are tracking the movement of the stars, government is gathering statistics (and generally ruining people’s lives!; soldiers are obeying orders.  And in all of that, God breaks through. The Word became flesh.

And as the Word comes, two things happen
(a)    Creation: to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God –  born of God.  The Word brings an amazing transformation in to the lives of those who put their trust in him.
(b)     Revelation: No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son,  has made him known. The Word Enables us to know what we need to know about the God who is too big for us to understand.

4. Do you hear the “The Word?”
Last week Pam and I visited a church member in a nursing home, who hadn't got hearing aids in.  This person couldn't hear what we were saying.  Now I have a special voice I use on these occasions.  I hope that by speaking very loud, and very deep, and very slow, and using familiar words from Scripture, or perhaps sharing communion, the listener may be able to understand some of what I am saying.  It's a great way of speaking out the Gospel in residential homes!  God doesn’t shout the word. He becomes flesh.  Do you hear the Word? 

Do you hear the Word spoken to us in Christ?  Do you really hear it? Do you listen to it?  Do you understand it? Do you respond to it?    John tells us what we need to do....

Receive him, “to those who did receive him, to those who believed...” (v. 12)
That is a key word of John's. It means “take by the hand, welcome someone, or to accept hospitality; to conceive a child, or to eat food”. He uses variations of the word “Receive” in verses

• 5, “darkness hasn't received, caught, grasped, understood, or tied up the light”
• 11, “his own people didn't receive, associate with him”
• 12 “to those who did receive him, welcome him, accept his welcome...”
• 16.  “From his fulness we have received, welcomed, grace upon grace.”

Sarah learned a poem at School, that my Grandpa used to say to me when I was little. It's called “The boy on the train”.  He's going to Kirkcaldy to see his Gran and one couplet says
I'll sune be ringin' ma Gran'ma's bell, 
She'll cry, 'Come ben [come in], my laddie'

I love that line – that speaks of wide open arms and welcome.  We need to say to Jesus “Come away in...”  and to make him welcome in our lives. 

To be transformed.   In receiving The Word, living, powerful and creative into our lives, we allow him to work out his new creation in our lives., to transform us.   Jesus was scathing about people who are hearers of the word and not doers.  

And Pass it on!  John  “came as a witness to the light”.  We want to be witnesses to Jesus.  We want to speak out “The Word” who was in the Father with God.  And because we are new creatures  we can make God's Word incarnate in the ordinariness of the lives we live today in the surprising ways that God's spirit leads in our lives.

And so we go... we have friends leaving today for Iraq.  We pray for them, as they go to serve there.  In the ordinary things of life, God's surprises come.  “Love incarnate”.   And so we go...  out to our own neighbourhood of Rosyth.  Through our ordinary lives, we expect God' surprises to happen.  “Love incarnate”

There was a report on “The Sunday Programme” this morning about Food-banks.  One volunteer from Nottingham talked about her own life.  She had drifted away from faith, but now she's a regular at Sunday worship and helping out at her Church's Food bank. Why? Because during the year when she hit rock bottom financially, the Food bank. was there for her.  Ordinary things, but God is at work.  “Love incarnate”

Matthis is a five-year-old boy who lived in Montpelier. For a year his Grandfather had been taking him to Church.  Then one  day he walked in with his Dad, Mum and baby brother. His parents were obviously finding faith in Jesus.  Our friend asked the boy's Mum what made the difference.  She answered “Matthis.  All year we have been sharing our lives with a boy who always talks about his friend Jesus, prays to him, sings to him.  That got to us in the end.” Ordinary people, ordinary things, and an extraordinary God.  “Love incarnate”.  And so we go...

© Gilmour Lilly December  2013

Advent 3: “Love”

Readings: Jeremiah 31. 1-6;  1 John 4. 7-12 and 19-21; John15. 9-17;
See also John 3. 16; Philippians  2. 1-11

The third advent Candle is about God's LOVE.   That Father’s love is fixed and certain.  It is not a maybe love.  It is not a conditional love.  It is not a vague, wishy-washy, theoretical love.  It is a clear, definite, demonstrated love.  God calls us to show the Father’s love.  Because God has loved us.  He has demonstrated his love.  Love focussed into a historic event.  “I have loved you”.

This is how we know what love is:  This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (1 Jn 4. 9) God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (Jn 3. 16)

I have loved you...
Visible love, with arms and legs.  Love through history.  Love through a person.  Love through incarnation.  Love through sacrifice.  The birth, the life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus, all show us God's love.  We need to pause and think about the way Jesus loved during his thirty-three years on earth, rather than jumping quickly from Bethlehem to Calvary.  Jesus didn't.  He walked from Bethlehem to Calvary.

Remember where he came from.  He was in the form of God.   That doesn't mean Jesus “looked like God”.  (After all, what does God look like?)  It means he was totally God-shaped.  Not so much that he is “shaped like God” but rather, he is the Shape, the physical form of the God who is spirit. When God takes shape, that Shape is Jesus.  He is the same kind of being as the Father.  Paul  says in Colossians 1:15 he is the image of the invisible God, the first-born over all creation.

In his birth, he had … nothing of kingly security, comfort, or prestige.  He was born to a peasant girl, in an occupied country, during an enforced journey, in a manky corner of a crowded room; not long after his birth, he was a refugee.  He came to his own and his own received him not.  He emptied himself,

When he was baptised, the one who prepared the way, John the Baptist, was surprised.  “Jesus, why are you coming to me to be baptised?”  And Jesus insisted “It's the right thing to do.”   In love, he placed himself right alongside us.  “Taking the form of a servant...”  And he walked right alongside us, healing the sick and broken; challenging the proud and the hypocrite, feeding the hungry, accepting the outcasts, washing feet.  “Taking the form of a servant...”

And then at the end of his ministry, he was arrested,subjected to a mock trial, falsely accused, ritually humiliated, cruelly tortured to death, then buried in an act of desperate kindness, in someone else's burial plot.  Obedient unto death, even death on the cross.   Herein is love...

He is the Victor And all that, so that the stuff that impedes and opposes God's Kingdom in our lives, our sin, could be dealt with.  We have everlasting life.  He is the sacrifice that deals with our sin.  He is the Victor over sin, and death and hell; he is the Victor over oppression, greed, injustice... he is the Victor over  inequality, exploitation war;   He is the Victor over sickness, and brokenness, insanity and the demons.  All of these things shall come to an end.  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  (Phil 2. 9-10)

Maybe we need to think about some of the way-marks along Jesus' journey: the manger  at Bethlehem, the river Jordan, the cross of Calvary, and see him there... and see afresh the father's love.  John says with delicious daring : “God is love”. 
 

Everlasting love
So I want to ask you, “Do you feel loved today?”  Are you basking in the reality that  your Heavenly Father loves you today?  God says “I have loved you with an everlasting love” and, no, he hasn't changed his mind: “...with an everlasting love”

When Jeremiah wrote these words down, Israel was going through an experience that made them wonder about God's love. In 722 BC, King Hoshea of Israel refused to pay tribute to Assyria, so the whole country was destroyed and thousands were taken captive to Assyria.  That was a  disaster at three different levels.  Politically it was a new development for Mediterranean history, and would set the scene for hundreds of years: Empires, first Assyria, then Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome; a new, expansionist dictatorship.  Personally, it brought pain and loss to every Israelite: deportation, separation from loved ones, enslavement, poverty, humiliation the loss of homeland, freedom,  security,  income, family life...  And spiritually, the prophets were saying this was the result of their sin: those who accepted that must have felt a deep sense of grief and guilt.    Maybe your circumstances make you wonder: does God really love me?

As we rush, or stumble, or stagger, or drift, into the Christmas season, the majority of the world's population struggle with grinding poverty, toil and suffering. The angels sing but “man, at war with man, hears not The love-song which they bring” During the last century, 170 million civilians died  due to the actions of dictatorships: bombings, gas-chambers, beatings, executions, starvation. That’s 3 people every minute of the last century.  Where was God in all of that?   Yet the message of Christmas, the message of the Cross, is that all the sorrow, all the aching wrings with pain the heart God.  Our world is broken, fallen, spoiled; God's Kingdom is still awaited.  But the message of Christmas and the message of the cross, is that God has entered fully into the suffering of his world. He has borne it, carried it in himself, and his Kingdom will come.

As we rush, or stumble, or stagger, or drift, into the Christmas season, we carry our own scars: the losses, the worries, the physical pain.  Does God understand? Does he care?  The coming of God into the world, to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, tells us that he does care.  O little heart of mine, shall pain or sorrow make thee moan, when all this god is all for thee, a father all thine own.

As we rush, or stumble, or stagger, or drift, into the Christmas season, knowing what we are, conscious of sin, failure, and perhaps all too used to feeling utterly worthless... can God love me?  “Bethlehem, Calvary, and the journey in between, scream at us, “Yes, a thousand times Yes”.  “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

And in response...

"It would be a strange God who could be loved better by being known less." says Frank Sheed.  As we get to know this God, who has come to us so generously in Christ, we know that he is pure distilled love.  We respond to his love, with love.  Firstly, our lives become an outpouring of gratitude and adoration to such a wonderful heavenly Father. We love God.

Secondly, we love one another.  be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Have this mind among yourselves. (Phil 2. 1-4)  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.   Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  (1 John 4. 7, 11) My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.  (Jn 15. 12)

Love our neighbours.   We show God's love, in the world God so loved.  Our commission from God is to be “Learning to show the Father's Love.”  That hasn't gone away.  We may have lost sight of it.   We may feel pessimistic about it.  But that remains what God has called us to.    Big-hearted living that responds to and reveals the character of an amazingly big-hearted God.


© Gilmour Lilly December  2013

Grace... The Ongoing Meal Guest talk by Andrw Hyde

Hymn before the sermon: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.
Title:
Grace... The Ongoing Meal
Our ongoing living in grace with Christ and with one another.
Dramatic story-form retelling of David‘s grace actions towards Mephibosheth - from 2 Samuel 9:1-13.  This story gives us an incredible picture of God's grace to us -- as indicated by the word 'kindness'.  There are many lessons that we can learn about Grace from this story...
* God’s Grace will find you – it remembers, pursues and carries us.
* God’s Grace is where you abandon your crippled past and your crippled mentality.
* God’s Grace is where you discover who you were born to be – a new position of intimacy, an ongoing perpetual position.
What I want to focus on is another aspect of God's grace towards us: that we come into a continual experience of that grace as is illustrated by Mephibosheth leaving Lo-Debar (No pasture) for Jerusalem so that he could "always eat at the King's table" "like one of the King's sons."

Point 1: The Ongoing Meal....
We continue to live & stand in Grace. 
“Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the king’s table, and he was crippled in both feet.” (2 Samuel 9:13)  Many people are aware that grace is required when we begin the Christian life (Eph 2:8) - but what is
not so well understood and appreciated is that God brings us into a lifelong experience of His grace.


NT pointers to this: 'Jesus Christ came full of grace and truth - of his grace we have received one blessing after another' (John 1:14-16) - or another translation has it as 'we have received grace upon grace.' Also Romans 5:2, Acts 13:43.
We are continually receiving and being strengthened by His grace - whether that is in our Christian walk, our sanctification, the spiritual gifts are designated as grace gifts, and our service. Even for church leadership - that is a work and role that has to operate from God's grace: Romans 15:15-16, 1 Corinthians 15:9-11, Ephesians 3:8.

So we have in the Mephibosheth story - a picture of the need to live in grace -- as seen as the place of the "ongoing meal" between David and his family and Mephibosheth – at the King’s table.  Christ invites us to an ongoing meal. Revelation 3:20 tells us that He will come in to eat with us, and we with Him. So opening the door and receiving Christ into our lives means that we enter a
continual and ongoing ‚meal‘ of fellowship and friendship with the Lord. There is a restored relationship that is shown by "having a meal together." There can be continual feasting - our fellowship with Christ.

The basis of this is the Cross - where enemies are brought to peace and strangers are made into friends. The cross shows this through the two directions of the pieces of wood that comprise it: the vertical trunk - that shows us the reconciliation between God and Man - but also the horizontal trunk
that shows us the peace and reconciliation is made possible between people - but only through the cross. Ephesians 2:14-18.

In the OT, agreements or covenants were sealed by the eating of a meal - a symbol of that newly-found peace and harmony. Meals in the Bible are powerful images of intimacy and unity.In Kurdistan today, meals form a very important part of making agreements and covenants - it is the way that friendships are bonded together and deals are sealed. We have found the Kurds to be a
very hospitable people - they are always inviting us for meals -- so that it will demonstrate and deepen our friendship & fellowship together. One family wants to have us over for a meal monthly!

There is also an Arab custom that demonstrates this. After a meal with Arabs, they will often say,  "Salt and Bread - we have shared salt and bread." This illustrates the concept that: we have eaten together - of the same salt and bread - so let there be no kind of emnity between us into the future.

So we have the idea of The Ongoing Meal.... we continue to live & stand in Grace.  But in our own situation as a church, there is more to grasp here.
For we are ALL equally Mephibosheths that have been saved, restored and being blessed continually by the Lord. We ALL have weaknesses and failure (as illustrated by Mephibosheth ongoing disability and crippledness in both feet) but we have ALL come to continually enjoy the King's Table.

So what does it mean that we continually share the King's Table TOGETHER?

Point 2:  The Ongoing Meal....
Developing and deepening grace relationships (friendships) within the body of Christ.

“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” (Acts 2:46)   So this perpetual grace is ours, relationship and fellowship have been restored in Christ - there has to be peace, harmony and wholeness (Shalom) in eating together - but we must apply this to the relationships with our fellow-believers at the King's Table.

We must seek to develop and deepen relationships and friendships within the body of Christ.  We see in the Book of Acts that the believers regularly met together both for spiritual purposes (being taught, prayer, communion, as well as regular worship at the temple) but they also gathered regularly for eating with one another - “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad
and sincere hearts.”

In fact this pattern is seen frequently where "Meeting" and "Eating" are often seen synonymously in the NT - gathering in people's home (requires that the host provide some refreshments), and love feasts where the Lord's Supper was also celebrated as part of the love feast.

As we have seen, eating together provides the way that 'family relationship', and a sense of 'bondedness and covenant' between the different people can be cemented and deepened. It is a very important aspect of church that isn't always followed up on. The opposite is also true - that where relationships between church people are weak or non-existent, then the likelihood of destructive disagreement and conflict is increased dramatically.  In addition, one study has shown that where church members have less than five friends in a
congregation then there is little incentive for the person to remain in the fellowship when minor traumas and disappointments come across their pathway from others in the church (or from leadership, or from church style and procedural issues etc.).

One friend once counselled us: “Where there are conflicts on a team, work on building up good relationships and friendships between each other.” This would be the way to ensure that personalissues are taken out of the equation and that subsequent conflicts can be handled in a constructive fashion rather than destructively.

So how do we build up these relationships together?

It requires that personal 'one-on-one' or 'couple-on-couple' time is taken to get to know each other better. So that there is an opportunity to discover the other people in the church.

• "Let's get together for a coffee."
• "Come over for your tea (evening meal)"

In the 1920's, the evangelical churches were against the 'social gospel' - and rightly so, because at that time it meant the message of liberalism in the churches - that by doing good deeds alone one could work one's salvation - and that God was only seeking Christians to do good works.

But the times have changed from then! We are preaching a 'social gospel' - a gospel that reminds us that Christians are brought into the Body of Christ and that there must be good social relationships between them without partiality! We are called to live in friendship and brotherly love with one another - this is the ministry of the Body to one another (and without regard for the Body of Christ,
the church members, there will come judgment from the Lord - 1 Corinthians 11:29-34).

Key to this is to regain an awareness of the practise of hospitality (Philoxenia - love of strangers).  Cf. Matthew 25 "I was a stranger and you invited me in..."
"When did we see you a stranger and invite you in?" 
"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers (and sisters) of mine, you did for me."

The Bible teaches that we must practice hospitality and offer hospitality to one another (Romans 12:13, 1 Peter 4:9) and that it should be a normal characteristic of those in leadership (1 Timothy 3:2). How can we define hospitality: "a conscientious pursuit of welcoming strangers and friends into
our homes and lives, so as to make them feel truly loved and accepted."
Again, hospitality doesn't only mean food - it means taking time with people, having a welcoming attitude, and undertaking any shared activity where there is scope for truly meeting one another and discovering about one another.

Humourous slide: picture of two hamsters eating. The family that eats together ... stays together.  Application: We should want to see that there is an aspect of having "an ongoing meal" with one another - that can only be strengthened by physically sitting down together over a tea/coffee or over a meal, or participating together in a shared physical-social activity (e.g. going for a forest walk together).   This means that we each do this - both with people we already know in the church, but more importantly, with those that I/we don't know so well within the church family.  This will mean young adults sitting with older church members - and 'established' church members sitting beside and engaging with newcomers etc.

Point 3:  Our attitudes for the ongoing meal
"Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
(Colossians 3:12-14)

How can we do this hospitality? How do we overcome our reserve and unwillingness?

It works both ways - young people can also be unwilling to lift their eyes from the various screens that they are looking at in order to engage with other people!

We do this by God's strength and grace. Colossians 3:12-17.  "A significant measure of the Christian life is found in how we treat people and the quality of our relationships with them."

What does the Lord say to us? "Clothe yourselves" with certain qualities and attitudes.  So what do we have to put on in the pursuit of good relationships with one another?

• Compassion - "I will be conscious of the other person's distress and have a concern for them and I will have a desire to alleviate this distress."
• Kindness - "I will respond to God's grace, kindness and mercy by showing you the same attitudes!"
• Humility - "I will consider our equal status before the Lord."
• Gentleness - "I will not dominate, manipulate or coerce you for my own ends."
• Patience - "I will persevere in my love response towards others."
• Bearing with each other - "I will not be filled with resentment towards the weakness and sins of others."
• Forgiving one another - "I will be ready to own my mistakes and faults to say, 'I want to apologise for...' or to say, 'I'm sorry that....'" and "I will also quick to say, 'You are forgiven' and 'I've forgotten about it already'"
• Love - "I will consider my neighbour's good - as dear as my own, and give all that it takes!"

This is God's word for us as a church at this time ... we must show the Father's love to each other in these ways. Whereas, complaining and grumbling are destructive tools - used by the Enemy of Souls.

God has called us to the "ongoing meal" of fellowship and peace within the 'House of Grace' - and we live out these attitudes of Grace in order to love, accept, help and encourage one another.

We must cultivate certain graces ...

• The grace of acceptance - cf Romans 14:1 - 15:7 (esp 15:7)
• The grace of listening - to understand and appreciate the other person.
• The grace of openness (open communication) - we should have the courage to speak openly about our personal beliefs, opinions, preferences, feelings and concerns ... to express one's hopes, fears and aspirations.
• Lastly, the grace of submission ... as an evidence of the filling of the Holy Spirit "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."

Personal testimony from Andrew about relinquishing control of situations that were inappropriate for me to think that I have to control it - one recent experience at our staff conference - and another situation when we would love to control the kind of people and influences coming among the kurdish churches - but it is God who in control of these things. „God you are in control – and I am not!“

Application:
Rembrandt Picture of the Prodigal son – the son is received by the father into an ongoing grace relationship - but what is the response of the older brother?? We aren’t told how he responds to his father’s entreaties that he will join the party. But what will our response be to those ‚strangers‘ in the church and those new people coming into the church?

© Andrew Hyde December  2013

Luke 1 67-80 Advent 1 – “Hope!”

The story behind this prophetic praise hymn, is of Zechariah and Elisabeth longing for a child until they became too old and gave up hope; then God sent his angel to tell Zechariah it was going to happen. Zechariah didn't believe it, so was struck dumb until, sure enough, Elisabeth became pregnant and eventually gave birth to a baby boy who was called John. In the meantime, Elisabeth 's young cousin Mary had arrived, saying that she too was expecting a baby; but this baby was the son of God. When John was named, his father Zechariah 's speech was restored and this psalm of praise giving a divinely inspired commentary was the first thing Zechariah said!

The point
In the events of the last nine or ten months, Zechariah sees not just a miraculous answer to his own prayers over years of desperation, but God at work to “visit” his people. It's happened! The time has come!   God has “Visited“,  come to take care of his people  “Israel”.  It has happened.

There's a verse in Psalm 119 where the writer talks about feeling like a “wineskin in the smoke” (Ps 119. 83). New wineskins would be cured for a while by being hung up in the rafters of the house, where smoke from the fire would drift around them and preserve them. And used wineskins that were being kept would be stored in the same place. To anyone looking up at them they looked abandoned and useless. Zechariah and Elisabeth waiting for a family to come along must have felt like “wineskins in the smoke”, and those waiting for God to “visit” his people, must have felt like “wineskins in the smoke”

Photo by G Lilly 

But that waiting time is over. God has done it. He has visited his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation. All the strength of a bull or a ram is focused in its horns, to lethal effect. So the Old Testament idea of a “horn of salvation” refers to a person or persons in whom all the strength and power of God is concentrated. This wasn't Baby John: Zechariah's family were not from the house of David. But Zechariah obviously knew about Mary's pregnancy and the predicted birth of her baby, the Messiah.

The first thing Zechariah expects as God “visits”, is “salvation from our enemies” (v 71, 74). The first thought on many minds as they heard these words, would be political: the obvious enemy was the Romans. But as Marshall says, “Political need and spiritual need are closely linked.” These enemies prevent Israel from “serving God without fear” (v. 74)

But it's not just a matter of freedom from the Romans. The tone of the song changes in verse 6. This is where baby John comes in. He is to be the “One crying in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord.” ( Isa 40:3 ) As he lived and grew and served and preached and baptised, he fulfilled that prophecy. Not the One who would save, but the one who would prepare the way... level the paths, get a people ready for their God.

The Second thing Zechariah expects as God “visits”, is a cleansing and forgiveness process. God's people experience “the knowledge of salvation” (not just head-knowledge) “through the forgiveness of their sins” (v. 77). Because the hope and vision of Israel was nationalistic. and narrow; because they saw that hope in terms of political rescue from national enemies... because they were smug and blind to their own sin, they needed someone to prepare the way, to cause them to face up to the reality of their own sin and the possibility of salvation. And this,  in repentance, and a refreshing, enlivening experience of God's forgiveness and grace, is where we always have to start in any experience of revival or renewal.

Sunrise at HuaLo by Handyhuy

The Third thing Zechariah expects as God “visits” is captured in the words “the rising sun will come to us from heaven” (v. 78f) The word translated rising sun (NIV) or dayspring (AV) or Sunrise (NASV, Message) literally means anything that rises or grows upwards or springs forth: it can mean the sunrise or it can mean the shoot of a plant. It looks as if Zechariah has at the back of his mind prophecies like Jer 23. 5: “I will raise up for David a righteous Branch” but is mainly thinkin
g of Mal 4:2 (NASV )  “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” Salvation isn't just political or personal, it's total. It brings healing, (cf Isa 53. 5)  “by his wounds we are healed,”  It renews strength Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength (Isa 40.  31) and freedom and joy. It starts with forgiveness; but it doesn't stop there. It brings with it peace, "shalom", that is not just the end to war but the experience of salvation in every department of life. (“Peace, peace, to those far and near,”) ( Isa 57. 1 9)

That is what's happened. That, says Zechariah, is the salvation that has arrived. Not waited for any more. No more are God's people like wineskins in the smoke. God as visited his people. It's happened. Boom.

But there's a problem.
This “promise” is for Zechariah entirely a Jewish thing. It's focussed on “Israel” (v. 68); what God has done “for us” (v. 69); he has remembered his holy covenant (v. 72) with “our father Abraham” (v. 73), and plans “to give his people the knowledge of salvation” (v. 77) and to guide “our feet” (v. 79).   Zechariah has no interest in anyone else. He does not take the Gentile world into account.

The Difference ...
How wonderful that Luke the Gentile can write so lucidly about this very Jewish event! The thought is Zechariah's. Its very Israel-centered nationalism is its mark or authenticity. But the language is Luke's. For example, referring to God speaking through "the mouth of” the prophets (v. 70; cf Acts 1. 16; 3. 18, 21; 4. 25; 15. 7). He uses forms of language that just subtly remind us that he's there.

Luke understands then whole of gospel history, from before the birth of Jesus to beyond the birth of the church, including the life ministry death resurrection of Jesus and the coming in power of the spirit, as the arrival of the kingdom, the beginning of the fulfilment of the messianic hope, to be completed when Jesus returns.   It's as if he is looking back at this event, able to understand and smile tolerantly at the dullness and narrowness, because he knows that God's plan was bigger than Zechariah could ever imagine.

Maybe the hope of Israel was, at the time of Zechariah's prophecy, quite limited and nationalistic. That didn't prevent them from having a hope, however narrow; and it didn't prevent God from having his plan and purpose, however large. If we will let him, God will respond to our little narrow vision and hope, by sending his vast, broad, vision and hope!

So what does that look like?   It means
Confidence.  We live expecting the interventions of god as though they had already happened.  That's not a shallow optimism but a statement of faith.  Desmond Tutu " I am not optimistic but I am hopeful"   Jurgen Moltmann is a German theologian who came to faith in Christ in a PoW camp in Kilmarnock. He says “Only abandon hope at the gates of hell"
Cleansing  We know and experience repentance and forgiveness process; that does not mean wallowing in our sin and failures; but letting God deal with our rubbish!
Connecting.  We live a “joined up” life that recognises  the effects of salvation in every department of life. We connect with all the healing, strength, joy and peace of god's Kingdom.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spent many years in a Soviet labour camp. There is a story of how one day he reached the point of feeling he could go on no longer, threw his shovel down and waited to be beaten to death: it had happened to other prisoners. But before the guards responded, another prisoner ran over, scratched a cross on the ground, and went back to work. Somehow Solzhenitsyn found the strength to pick up his shovel again. When the Gospel touches us it changes all of life.


Moltmann says "The knowledge that Christ alone is Lord cannot be confined to faith. It must encompass the whole of life."

What does your hope/vision look like?

© Gilmour Lilly December  2013

Acts 11. 19-30 “Business as usual”

1. There's always a sequel
Stories never really stop.  There is always a sequel in real life: every person's story is related to other people's stories and everyone leaves a legacy for good or bad, like the London Olympics have done and the Glasgow commonwealth games are going to do.  At this point in his story of the early Church, his “Acts of Jesus part 2”, Luke sees a number of individual stories – apparently finished – but each has contributed to the Church getting to where it is today...

(i)  Historically, Luke connects this event with the persecution that started at the death of Stephen: people have travelled as far as Cyprus and Antioch in Syria, telling their fellow Jews all about Jesus.

(ii)  A fanatical young Pharisee called Saul of Tarsus has been stopped in his tracks, turned from hating the message of Jesus. to preaching it; and God's call on Saul’s life is to bring the Gospel to the gentiles (Acts 9. 15).

(iii)  Peter has been to Caesarea, preached to, baptised, and  shared fellowship and food  with the Roman officer Cornelius and his household.... led by the Holy Spirit, to break down the old barriers of “clean” and “unclean”  and welcome Gentiles into God's kingdom.  As we learned last week, that was all so radical that Peter had to explain to the Apostles before they accepted that this must be from God.

2.  From Moment of Vision to Movement for Mission
I wonder if news of that had begun to spread around the Christian groups... some of the believers who found themselves in Antioch, didn't wait for dreams or divine coincidences, they just went ahead and told “hellenists” (not meaning Greek speaking Jews but people from a Greek-influenced rather than a Jewish culture.

These stories come together – those of the believers who left Jerusalem; of Saul; of Peter and Cornelius – and it can't be business as usual!  You can't hear from God, you can't learn the truth; you can't have an encounter with the Holy Spirit and experience supernatural guidance or power, then go back to “business as usual”.  Yet there have been too, too many who have thought “what a wonderful testimony”; or “hat fine teaching” or “What miracles, what manifestations!”  But it's business as usual.

In Antioch, the testimonies, the point of the stories, the miracles and the teaching, had become embedded in their lives.  A moment of vision had become a movement in Mission.  God speaks; he still speaks today directly as well as through the Bible.  God still acts today.  Isn't it just a wee bit cheeky to say to god, “I'll only do what you have told us all to do, if yo come and tell me direct!”We need to reflect on the things God has said and done, and act upon them, so moments of vision become movements in mission.

3. You can only sell ice-cream to so many Eskimos
The effect of this new strategy, telling gentiles the Good News, radicalised the Church in Antioch.  For a start, loads of people became Christians.  And that growth seemed to keep on going (see verses 21, 24, 26)  Humanly speaking, the dynamic is simple. You can only sell ice-cream to so many Eskimos.  Some will say “I'll try that stuff”... others will say “ice-cream? I don't see the point!” If you want to sell ice-cream and the Eskimos aren't buying, try selling it to someone else!     Once you start speaking to those who have never heard the message, there are going to be people who are ready to respond.  Factor in the God perspective:  God had planned it that way.  It's an impressive fact that the great teaching Paul gives about “predestination” is in the context of God's purpose for Israel...  His purpose and plan and call is to every nation  And God empowered it that way.  This was the Holy Spirit at work.   If God isn't saving the people you are desperately trying to reach with the Gospel, maybe he wants you to reach somebody else. 

4. Grace is something you can see
News travels.  The Apostles heard what was happening and sent Barnabas to Antioch.  Barnabas was not one of the “twelve” but was recognised as a good guy.  He was a Greek speaker, born in a Jewish home ion Cyprus.  His official name was Joseph, but eh was called “Bar-nabiya) (son of prophecy) in Hebrew, or Son of encouragement (periklesis – comfort, exhortation, advocacy_...) in Greek.  What he brought with him to Antioch was a reputation for responding to the prophetic word, walking alongside people, modelling the kind of discipleship that has arms and legs. He was the one who sold property on Cyprus to make money available for the poor (Acts 4. 36f).  he knew that the grace of God was all about: he lived it:  he was  a guy in whose life God's Redemptive Activity in Christian Experience could be seen.  So when he came to Antioch and the grace of God was visible, Barnabas recognised it.  And Barnabas was ready to encourage, prophesy, and teach so that the pathways of grace could multiply in the Church in Antioch.. That is exactly what happened.

And as the work grew, Barnabas felt overwhelmed – so he left – not running away but to find Saul, the former Pharisee with a burning thing in his heart about the Gospel for the Gentiles.  Together they built up the Church in Antioch for a  year; and the crowd keeps getting larger.  Finding Saul, bringing him into the team, was part of God's grace in Barnabas. But the team was more than just Barnabas and Saul (or Saul and Barnabas!)  it was the whole Church in Antioch!  A living body in Christ.  God is a team: father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct persons in perfect active unity and living relationship.    Building a team was part of the grace of God in Barnabas' life.  He lived God's grace; he looked fro God's grace and he led others to show God's grace.  

Grace starts with being free and undeserved but it doesn't stop  there.  It is powerful, life-transforming, gracious, graceful, pleasing, thanks-inspiring.  When God is at work, it is never “business as usual”.  Grace can be seen,  touched, experienced.

5. Ancient future faith
And this is how visible God's grace was. Luke says  in verse 26: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”  These Hellenists, Greek-speaking, Greek thinking, former pagans, knew Jesus. as “ho Christos” the anointed One.  That's the Greek word for “Ha Meshiach” – the Messiah.  The idea came straight from the Jewish promises of the One who would bring God's Kingdom.   But they didn't get called “Messiannoi” but “Christianoi.” because the referred to Jesus as “Christos,” and that is their natural everyday language: Greek.   The big truths of the Gospel –  including who Jesus. is as the “messiah”, the bringer of the Kingdom, are important, and are meant to go global, to impact every  Christian in every nation.  But they are also fully translatable: it is not only possible but necessary that these truths are rendered into the language of every nation.  They understood Jesus as the Christ.  And they couldn't keep quiet about it!   We need to articulate Christian truth in the language of our people today.  Who is Jesus.? What does his anointing mean?  How do we tell our neighbours that he is the Messiah?  And what does it take to get so obsessed with Jesus that we don't have to call ourselves Christians (or whatever!)  but we are given some wonderful nick-name that defines what we are and brings glory to Jesus.  Not “business as usual” but the whole of life redefined.

One last bit of the story. After a year, some prophets came down from Jerusalem, and there was a prophecy about famine and hardship.  So these Gentile Christians, got their chequebooks out and sent Barnabas and Saul off back to Jerusalem with a substantial gift to support their brothers and sisters there. This new “fresh expression” of Church in Antioch, wasn't about to forget about their Jewish roots or their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.  This wasn't “business as usual.”  This was the one, truly international Church, taking shape, and one part of it honouring and loving the other. 
As time went on, the centre of gravity would move away from Jerusalem; sending – mission – was going to happen from Antioch rather than Jerusalem, and when the Gospel got to Rome it would spread from there through the empire...  But in so doing, the Church would defend rather than losing its sense of unity.  

So...
Jerusalem couldn't be the hub from which everything happened.  That would be bureaucratic and stifling.  When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon he said “That's one small step for a man; one giant step for mankind.” English...  but Armstrong was American: Britain hadn't got the resources to put a man on the moon but the nation that Britain planted did.  There are people we can't reach with the Gospel – but maybe some of the people we do reach, will be able to reach people we can’t reach. 

The Church of Jesus Christ can never go back to “business as usual”... unless “business as usual” means being ready, in the power of the spirit, to go anywhere, do anything and tell anyone this wonderful life changing message of grace that can be seen.

© Gilmour Lilly November  2013

Acts 11. 1-18: “Critical moments.”

The circumcision: Luke writes from a non-Jewish, grown-up church perspective. He's able to look back at the story he tells from the perspective of just a few years later. By that time, “the Circumcision” was just one part of the Church. His worldwide Church was circumcised and uncircumcised, Jew and Gentile, African and European, slave and free. So he quite deliberately injects an anachronism into his telling of the story. It's a bit like describing the Pilgrim fathers as the “First Americans” or saying “Up until the time of James VI, the United Kingdom had two kings.” But Luke is making a point of showing what the Church had become in the years after this incident. .

But that is not how the Jerusalem Church saw things. They weren't “the circumcision”. They were “the Church”. Their Church was a sect of Judaism, the fulfilment of Messianic promises that they weren't able to see as pertaining to the whole world. For them, anyone who wanted to join “the Church” had to join the Circumcision, the Jewish Church, becoming not only a believer in Jesus but also part of the Jewish community.

Criticised: διακρίνω = to separate one from another, to distinguish, to settle, decide. It can mean, as it does here, fault-finding. It can (and usually does in the end) mean division, or it can mean exercising discernment. It can be a good thing or a bad thing: Paul talks about discerning of spirits (διάκρισις – same word!) The enemy can counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit. He can counterfeit the gift of “Discernment” that allows us to know the difference between what is from God and what isn't.

Here is Acts 11, is a false discernment at work. It was simply a shallow, narrow view on issues of what and who really are “unclean” in God's sight. We need the gift of discernment: but I have problems with much that professes to be the “gift of discernment” today, that I see matches exactly the judging that happened in Acts 11. Things that don't fit our predetermined world-view are dismissed.

There is real anger, deep division, and harsh judgement present in this line of questioning. It resulted in people finding fault with Peter for going among the gentiles, and both its roots and its shoots were division You see, by the old paradigm, Peter had done something terribly wrong. “You went into a Jewish home, a Roman Officer's; and you had dinner? I suppose they had a hog-roast for you?”

This was more than a critical moment for Peter. It was a critical moment for the Church. Was the old Jewish paradigm on the whole of life, that divided clearly between “Jewish” and “non-Jewish” to continue to control their thinking? Or will there be something new? There is judgement, and there is the beginning of a separation, the potential for a real severing and splitting up of the worldwide Church, at this point in time.

In response, very briefly, Peter tells his story.  Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: Literally, from the beginning, he laid it out in order (or gave a blow-by-blow account)... “Orderly” is the same word Luke uses to describe his own work as a Gospel writer (Luke 1. 3). Telling the story “in order” is a great way of clearing away the rubbish: the “fragmentary and garbled reports” that seemed to have got back to Jerusalem before Peter did. Before we enter into judgement we need to clear the rubbish away and get the facts.

As Peter tells the story, from his own point of view, he simply pulls out one or two details to show that it is a “God story” and make his point. He had this dream-like experience challenging his ideas of what was “unclean”. That would have been enough on its own. But then, lo and behold, a delegation come to see him, asking him to go and minister to a gentile. And the Spirit says, go with them without making a distinction. (NIV says “hesitating” but the word is the same as in verse 2.) When he arrived as Caesarea and preached the Gospel, the Spirit came upon them “As he had come on us at the beginning” – the experience Cornelius' household had was an exact match with the experience of Pentecost. Peter identified this as “Baptism with the Holy Spirit”. God had taken these outsiders, and given them a taste of the Kingdom of God; he had joined them with Jesus the King and made them part of the Kingdom community. It demonstrated that God accepted Cornelius and his household as already “Israel” and reminded the Jerusalem Church that part of their Holy Spirit Experience was a breaking down of language (and therefore racial) barriers. If God had already accepted these people, what could Peter do? What could the Apostles do?

I believe there is great strength and virtue in the honest telling of our story, especially if we can tell that story in a way that is both down to earth, blow-by-blow, and clearly as a “God” story, a story that demonstrates in some way that God is at work. We need doctrine; but we need doctrine that is not just theory but is facts, that grows working arms and legs in our historical situation; that bears out, and makes us reflect upon the truth of God's word; that may even challenge some of the ways in which we have interpreted that word. You see, Peter could have got his Old testament out, and gone to verses like

• Genesis 18.18 and all nations on earth will be blessed …
• Or the story of Ruth the Moabitess
• or the wonderful shortest Psalm, 117 which says

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.
For great is his love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.

And that's it. No “House of Israel, praise him”; it calls all nations to praise the Lord because he is good to us all – all nations including Israel.

• Isaiah 56:7 my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations

He could have made a doctrinal case. The Story doesn't contradict the doctrine – it confirms it. But sometimes we need the story not the doctrine!

Silence! When they heard this, they had no further objections. Literally they were silenced. The story evokes a generous response, that arises out of an inner stillness. We need to hear people's stories, and let God do what God wants to do. This was a critical moment – not just in terms of the things that were said to Peter, but for the entire life and mission of the “Church” worldwide. Was it going to maintain a sense of cohesiveness; was it going to remain “one”? Were the new believers gong to be part of this historic thing with its roots in God's promises of a coming Kingdom? Or was the Church going to fracture only a few years into its existence? Were the circumcised Christians going to continue to see themselves as the only true believers? Were these new fellowships going to be cut off to become some “Jesus movement” unconnected with the Kingdom promise and the Old Testament story?

The step that they took in accepting what Peter said, was vast. Remember that the division between Jew and Gentile was bigger, much bigger, than anything that comes between us in today's Church. It was bigger than “Worship wars”, bigger that Denominational differences, cultural clashes, and so on. This was fundamental. For the respectable, right-living Jew, gentiles and their ways of living were to be avoided if at all possible. Eating with a gentile was something so bad as to be disgusting. These people had to start taking their barriers down, and it was a painful and difficult thing for them to do. They didn't know where it would all lead. It would put the growth and development of “The Way” maybe a little bit beyond their control. As Catholic Missiologist Vincent Donovan says, when the Gospel is given to a new tribe, it becomes in a sense “theirs” and it is up to them how they receive it and what they make of it. New people need to be allowed to give new “shape” to the “wineskins” of church structure and religious activity. Honouring others; honouring others who do not share our preferences, is a challenge, but a necessary one.

And the Apostles praised God, saying, ‘So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.’. Narrow thinking, closed minds, exclusive-ism, that attitude that says “we are the Church, If you want to be part of it yo have to become just like us” will rob you of something: quite simply, it will rob you of joy. But the openness to move on from narrow, exclusive, critical religion, will mean that, as you get a handle on what God is doing – for surely he is at work in our day – you experience a surge of praise! Religion on the defensive is such a poor, joyless, sad thing. Religion that is on the crest of the wave, seeing what God is doing, is by contrast so full of joy.

© Gilmour Lilly November  2013

Acts 10: Oh , how he loves us...all.

Acts 10

Introduction:
This is one of he longest single stories in the book of Acts.  And it is told twice, in this chapter and the next.  It is obviously very important.  And within the telling of the story, Luke repeats some things a number of times.  He hammers some truths home again and again.  Let's listen to the story. 

Read Verses 1-8
When I preach on this passage I always want to tell the story from Peters standpoint... Luke begins as we should, with the perspective of the outsider, from Cornelius' point of view.   And when we do so we discover that God is already at work by his Spirit, out on the world. Here is someone “spiritual”.  Someone who is seekign God.  He is devout, god-fearing, generous to the poor, and prayerful. He may not understand all the ins and outs of the Jewish religion; but his experience among the Jews has at least convinced him – like so many others – that the “one god” of the Jews makes better sense than the many gods of the Greeks and Romans.   We too often think the world is a "bad place" - a place of opposition, sin, persecution, a Godless environment. And to some extent we are right; but we are still called to be in the world, and we should be there, as agents of hope, not of despair.  We need to be in the world with the realism to accept that the world is in rebellion towards its creator... always has been; always will be until Jesus comes back.  We sometimes talk about Scotland or Britain having turned away from God. Nonsense.   Britain never turned to God properly in the first place!  But we need to be in the world with the faith that the world is still the territory in which the Holy Spirit is at work.

Read verses 9-29
 And as Luke tells the story, it is obvious that it is not only a gentile story, it is a God story.  It is God who is prompting Cornelius to send to Joppa for a man called Peter. It is God who is speaking to peter.  Three times, Peter has the same dream-like experience.  Now at a human level, maybe he dreamed about food because he was hungry.  Maybe he was working out, in the back of his own mind, what it meant to be out in Joppa, by the sea, living in the house of someone whom the Pharisees considered “unclean.”   I guess we shouldn’t be fussy about the means God chooses to use. IF God uses natural means for his own purposes, it's still he who does it.  Last week we talked about healing, and suggested that healings like that of Aeneas or Tabitha, have their place in mission today.  But God sometimes chooses to heal people through medication or surgery or a change in their lifestyle. And these kinds of healing  are every bit as much “Divine healing”.    But this wasn’t simply a dream in sleep but a vision in an “ecstatic” experience,  a clearly supernatural event!  God was involved in this, not just quietly behind the scenes, but powerfully, dramatically, centre stage.

The dream is about treating as unclean  what God has declared  clean. God cancelled the distinction between clean and unclean food, through the ministry of Jesus. See Mark 7 19; “nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)”  cf Romans 14. 14.  It's repeated three times because it's really important.  And it is not allegorical. "The Lord's command frees Peter from any scruples about going to a gentile home and eating whatever might be set before him.”

It's at exactly that moment that the messengers from Cornelius arrive.  And Peter knows he must go with them.  When he arrives, he brushes aside any attempt by Cornelius to treat him as special: “never mind kneeling at my feet: I'm just another human being...”  and talks with Cornelius as an equal as they walk into the house.  And the house is full of family, slaves, friends. 

So Peter speaks openly (v. 28) about the learning curve he is on, as he applies the lesson about “clean and unclean” to the people around him: Jews and Gentiles.  It seems ungracious, to us, but it's honest, and humble, and these are good traits to bring to evangelism.

Read Verses 30-48
When Cornelius tells his story, Peter realises fully that “God has no favourites” - nobody is singled out for special treatment. We all get special treatment.  We all get judged because of our sin. We all are offered grace through Jesus.  (v. 34f)   Nobody gets less because of race, gender, culture, ability.  Nobody gets more because of race, gender, culture or ability.   Do we believe that?  Because if we do, it must affect the way we preach the Gospel. 

We begin where people are.  So much evangelism is busy answering questions people aren't asking.  Peter begins with what these people know... but maybe their knowledge is sketchy or incomplete.  So Peter supplements Cornelius' scanty knowledge of Jesus.   They know a bit about Jesus coming to Israel; Peter identifies him as “Lord of all”; talks about how the Spirit's power in his life and the ways he demonstrated the Kingdom. (That word again.  I didn't pull the idea of  demonstration, “Showing the father's love”, out of thin air. It comes from Jesus!)  He speaks as an eyewitness of Jesus death and resurrection; and as one commissioned by Jesus to declare his victory and announce forgiveness to all who trust in Him.   “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (v 43)  the same point again.  The offer is made to everyone. Nobody's excluded. 

I used to read the sermon Peter preached as a bit of stalling for time – as though he didn't want to bite the bullet of welcoming Gentiles into the faith.  I now believe he was doing an important job by presenting the facts.   The right way to share the Good News, if we believe that “God has no favourites” is like Peter did.  We start where people are.  We focus on Jesus, his life, his kingdom, his death and resurrection; forgiveness of sins becomes not just a commodity we need to get, but a privilege that opens up a new relationship and wraps us up in the eternal purposes of god.  Jews could feel they were part of those purposes.  So could these Romans; so can we; so can our neighbours and families. 

And it's at that point, when they understand who Jesus is; when they understand that he came to bring God's Kingdom, died for sin and rose again to give us new life, that there's yet another God moment in the story.  Because as soon as Peter says  “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” the Holy Spirit comes, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied, as they had at the beginning, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 11. 15).  In that moment, Cornelius and his guests knew that they believed this story of Jesus.  So the Holy Spirit “came upon them” .  The Greek word means seized or embraced them.  Isn't that lovely.  These men and women from the outside, who had come together to hear what Peter had to say about finding God; who had just begun to believe in Jesus, were taken hold of and embraced by the Spirit of god in a wonderful Holy Spirit Hug.  John Mark McMillan put it like this...

He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy...

And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss 

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest … 

Oh, how He loves us, oh Oh, how He loves us, how He loves all 

And once the Holy Spirit of God had come and overwhelmed these outsiders, had embraced them; once they had spoken out in tongues and prophecy, what could Peter do?  As Marshall says, “if God had welcomed the gentiles it remained only for the church to do so” … the right thing was for them to be baptised, welcomed, instructed. Baptism is the church's way of echoing what the Holy Spirit of gdo has done for these guys; and wrapping them up in a welcoming embrace.   God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.  God has no favourites. 

Conclusion
If you're tempted to think God couldn't possibly love you, Cornelius' story tells you God has no favourites. If you're tempted to think you don't need God's grace, that you're good enough for him already, rememberGod has no favourites.    And if we're tempted to think God has favourites, if we're tempted to to see anyone as common, impure or unclean; if we struggle to “show the father's love”,  we need to have our hearts enlarged, by the love of God. We need, once again,  to be overwhelmed by God's love.  Oh, how He loves us, oh Oh, how He loves us, how He loves all.

© Gilmour Lilly October  2013

Acts 9 . 32ff Miracles and Mission

Acts 9 . 32ff
After telling the story of Philip (chapter 8) and Saul (chapter 9 v 1-31) Luke suddenly focuses our attention back onto Peter.  Peter is centre stage and, taking advantage of the season of peace, travels to the coast to give leadership input to the new groups of Christians that have sprung up after Philip the Evangelist turned up in the area (8. 40)

All the signals are now giving green lights, to the gentile mission that God has already started (through the conversion of the African official).  Philip is moving among clearly “Greek-speaking Jews (remember the source of the division that occurred in the Church in Acts 6?)   Luke knows where he is taking this story. He knows where God has already taken the story.  But isn't it just a wee bit sad that  - and we shall encounter this problem again – what God is doing by his Spirit and has said in his word, sometimes has to wait for the approval of the Church? 

So, Peter goes to encourage the new believers in Lydda, on the way to the Mediterranean coast. It was an ancient city, had belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, had been governed by Samaria for a time and had  a strong Jewish population: after the fall of Jerusalem it became a place where Rabbis gathered.  In Lydda, among the believers, Peter found a man called Aeneas, who had been crippled for eight years, and said:

Firstly, “Jesus Christ heals you” or “Jesus Christ is healing you.”  Peter can see what Jesus is doing, and participates in that process by speaking it out.  That's a good model for the healing ministry: seeing what Jesus is doing and joining in. 

Then: “get up and make your bed...”  And what does that remind you of?  Compare Lk 5. 17-26.  What Peter does is closely modelled on what Jesus did.  It's just possible that the implication of “making your bed” as opposed to picking up your bed, was that that the couch was to be covered with a cloth to be reclined on for a meal; so Peter could be advising Aeneas to have something to eat,

As a result of this miracle, many people in Lydda turned to the Lord.  It's important to understand the way this process worked.  Aeneas was probably indoors.  His bed or couch was there, needing to be made up (the word means “spread” not rolled up! The NIV is wrong!) The healing wasn't' a highly public event. The conversions weren't the result of people seeing the miracle happen followed by a powerful Gospel message.  The healing wasn't used as “proof” that forced people to listen to a message.  Rather, people in the course of the next  few days or weeks, saw Aeneas, healed and active, and began to ask questions. Healing is not associated with aggressive evangelism.  Rather, Peter lets “the results of his actions embark on their own natural course.” (according to Jewish scholar Joshua Schwartz.)   And that, gentle, tentative approach to healing, is much more in tune with the way Jesus worked: instead of allowing a fanfare drawing attention to the healings he did, Jesus tried to play things down, even to keep the miracles a secret.

While all this was happening in Lydda, another story was  being played out eleven miles west, in the seaside town of Joppa.  A Jewish Christian called Tabitha (her Hebrew name, which translates into Greek as Dorcas and English as gazelle) took ill and died. She was obviously one of those very special ladies, a skilled seamstress, and a generous giver.  When she died her body was washed and laid out in a quiet, airy upstairs room; and as they knew Peter was only down the road in Lydda, they sent for him urgently. Maybe they thought that Jesus had to come back before anyone died of natural causes; maybe they simply recognised the anointing that was upon Peter at that time; whatever the reason they showed some sense of expectation that God was still on Tabitha's case.  They had some faith for a miracle. 

When Peter arrived, he went into the room, put everyone else out, (does that remind you of another story?) and prayed, before saying “Tabitha, arise.”  Now Luke, being a Greek, doesn't give us the Aramaic words.  But we know that these words were “Tabitha, coum.”  Just one letter different from what Jesus said to Jairus' daughter in Mark 5. 41. The words came, an echo of the words of Jesus a few years before.  Then like Jesus he took Tabitha by the and and lifted her up. Indeed the whole of this incident is reminiscent of the healing of Jairus's daughter.  It looks like Peter got called into this situation, through the faith of the Joppa Christians; he asked himself “What did Jesus do in this sort of situation?” 

And,  as in the healing of Aeneas, the  raising of Tabitha “became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.”  Again, the miracle wasn't used as an intellectual cosh to beat people into believing the Gospel, but was allowed to start a process of reflection that resulted in many conversions.

Conclusion
E M Blaiklock heads this little section “Peter uses the keys”.  The keys were those of the Kingdom.  Peter was stepping into the authority that Jesus had given him.  I believe we need to step into the authority Jesus has given us, and like Peter – who was not a Pope but a representative of the Church – to reach out to touch broken people with the Love and healing of the Kingdom, the reign of God.  As a Church our mission statement is “Learning to show the Father's love”.  The healing ministry is one way in which we can demonstrate God's love to others.

And if we are going to do that, then we need to learn from the master. We need to engage in any healing ministry, the Jesus way.  And Jesus way treats each person as unique: like Aeneas and Tabitha, no two are exactly the same.  What  do we  see Jesus doing in situation?  That is what we do.  Clearing away the cynics and voyeurs. Speaking words of tenderness and authority.  Taking people by the hand.

And we need to have the values of Jesus.  The supernatural is meant to have a missionary impact.  That was the Jesus way.  But that impact was not forced, not coercive but compassionate; not based on proof but on demonstration of Father's love, on having the confidence and faith to let the Spirit who heals, also convict and convert. 

So Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon:  a Jew but one who because he worked with animal carcases would most of the time be considered ritually “unclean”. And from that address in Joppa, he will springboard into the next big step in mission, an Apostle preaching to gentiles.  The healing ministry that shows us God's compassion, beckons us to show God's compassion inclusively to the whole of the world, to reach out in adventures of mission.

© Gilmour Lilly October  2013

Acts 9 v20-31: living in two worlds...

Acts 9 v20-31: living in two worlds...
Suddenly, Saul finds himself living in two worlds.  There is the Jewish, Pharisee world of the Synagogue, the temple, the Nation, the Law; and there is this new world of “The way, the Kingdom, the Disciples, the Gospel.”  For every Christian, the new birth marks means we have to live in these two worlds.  And how we  do that is a vital part of Christian discipleship.  It's too easy to hide ourselves away in the Christian ghetto. We need to know how to live in the world. 

The “regular” world
Although Saul knows he is one of the disciples, he also knows he needs to be in the synagogue. Types are reversed: the anti Christian polemicist is now the Christian apologist.  Wherever Saul/Paul went, he began his ministry in the synagogue.  So as he heads back to his old synagogue friends and tries to persuade them about Jesus being the Messiah, he is establishing a pattern for life. 

It is good to be among the disciples, but we also need to be present in the possibly hostile environment of the synagogue, pub, classroom... The synagogue was at that time, and to a certain extent remained, a place where Saul was with people to whom he identified, related and communicated.  It was the place where he spoke the language; it was the place where he shared a sense of nationhood, a common culture. 
Someone recently said “Jesus died to take away your sins, not your mind”... and I would want to add, and not your nationality, your culture, your identity. 

Identify  Yes, we are going to be different; we are “new creatures” in Christ, and our identity is in something more than being Scottish, fifer, dockyard, Pars supporter or Rangers supporter.  But we should be able to identify with some of the struggles, joys and fears of the people around us.

 Relate  Saul went back among his brother Jews.  Less than a week before they had been putting their heads together to get rid of the Christians.  They were family, tribe.  He loved these guys, even although now his understanding of truth had taken a giant leap forward.  We need to be among the people with whom we have natural, unforced relationships.  And among those people, whether they be family, friends,  or a rugby club, we need to share the God news of Jesus.  

Communicate   Now there may be aspects of the language of your  office or factory that you don't want to copy!   But in general we should understand the spoken and unspoken signals of the everyday word, and do our best to communicate the love of Jesus in the same spoken and unspoken ways. 

We don't all need to learn how to speak “Christianese” … I have a problem with so much of the language we use in and around Christians.  We sit on pews, listening to sermons and singing hymns, then go to the hall for fellowship;  we appoint deacons, elders, pastors.  (Many years ago someone who was told I was the “Pastor”  thought I had something to do with Italian cookery!) 

Saul's relationship, his identity, his understanding of the language, his command of the arguments, are all impressive.  The Damascus Jews are baffled by all this; for many, that led to anger and rejection.  They start plotting to kill Saul off: the hunter is now the hunted.  Even when we do make our best efforts to get alongside people, to lvoe them and communicate with them simply and clearly, we may still find ourselves rejected, criticised, and even hated. 

The Christian world. 
That's where the new, Christian world kicks in.  When his Christian brothers realise the danger Saul is in, they decide to get him out of the situation. What their plan lacked in dignity ti certainly made up for in ingenuity, and it shows just how risky life was for all of them at that time:  because the gates of the city are being watched all day, every day,  they let Saul down the city walls in a basket one night.  We need a church life where we look after one another in the context of dangerous mission.  That doesn't mean we are all desperately trying to keep each other out of the “big, bad world”. But we are aware of the dangers (too many nights in the pub; the lure of an ungodly lifestyle; the risk of crowding out any time with God) and we watch each other's backs so we are safe from the dangers. 

There is a problem in this passage: Luke tells us Saul went from Damascus to Jerusalem.  Paul tells us (Gal 1. 16ff) that he went from Damascus to Arabia, then back to Damascus and then on to Jerusalem.  Luke uses the word “made havoc”.  The only other time that word is used in the NT is in Galatians 1, so we can presume  Luke got his information from Paul: but they didn't see the problem with their narratives which suggests there's a simple answer.  The first thing to say is that “Arabia” isn't Saudi Arabia as we know it today but the desert areas wrapped around Israel on its western and southern sides (Arabia Petraea) where Saul could easily have gone for a short time. When Luke says Saul was in Damascus for “many days”  we should not  assume this means a “countable” number of days. When Paul says he was in Damascus for three years, he probably used counted“inclusive reckoning” that each year or part of a year as “one year”. 

What was Saul doing in Jerusalem?  Did he want or need the approval of the Apostles?  I don't think so.  He wanted to have fellowship with other believers.  He wasn't looking for credentials or recognition.  He  was looking fro brothers and belonging. What are we looking for from the  church?  If we are looking for credentials, for validation, for the opportunity to be someone important, we are looking for the wrong thing. We should be looking for brothers and belonging.

What happened next was really, really embarrassing. Saul had been a believer for a couple of years... from the perspective of the Jerusalem Church, he had simply disappeared off the map.   It should never have happened! Wouldn't you have been a bit embarrassed a few years later, when reports came back of Saul traveling the worlds to preach the Good News, to remember "I didn't even believe he was born again!" We need to learn how to be brothers and sisters to one another; to develop a culture of welcome and inclusion. It's right that we protect ourselves form those who want to harm the work of God.  But more harm is done by self-seeking exclusivity than by risk-taking inclusivism. 

It was Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, who recognised the truth of Saul's conversion story; the reality of his call to preach the Gospel, and the significance and potential of his gifts, and not only encouraged the ordinary believers to accept him, but got him an introduction to Peter and James.

So, what sort of world is this “Christian world” that we also live in?  Its atmosphere is grace. Its bedrock is the truth of who Jesus is. Its life source is the Holy Spirit of God.  It's a world where we find brothers and belonging; it's a world where we look out for one another; where we welcome one another. It's a kaleidoscope world where we value difference; it's a world of growth where new life is celebrated and where gifts are released so we all fulfill our God-given potential.  Maybe our local Church be such a world, a place where the Kingdom, the reign of God, is experienced.

© Gilmour Lilly September  2013

Acts 9. 1-19... God knows what he is doing.

The book of Acts – the “Acts of Jesus, Part 2” – is a wonderfully woven, rich fabric of different colours and textures...

like the Harris tweed Kenny is weaving in the picture.  In Chapter 8. Luke has been telling us about the spread of the Gospel outwards, away from mainstream Jewish people, to reach Samaritans; and then, with the conversion of the official from Ethiopia, the gentile mission had already begun.  But then the shuttle goes in the opposite direction: this story is firmly planted in Jewish territory.  Saul is a keen young Pharisee, who believes he is doing the right thing by persecuting the disciples: he's 100% dead against Jesus. And even the Christians who support him are Jewish in background: Ananias is a Semitic name as is Barnabas. 

God takes the initiative.   Saul the persecutor (vv. 1 and 2) believed he was right in what he was doing; that the message of Jesus was a poison that needed to be removed from the world.  Persecutors always believe that.    Saul had been there when they stoned Stephen.  He had been a driving force in persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem.  But when they scattered, he decided to root them out wherever they had gone, so he got an arrest-warrant valid for Damascus in Syria. Damascus was an important city, 150 miles from Jerusalem.  It was self Governing under Roman authority and there was a strong Jewish population there. Saul went there, muttering about what he would do to the Christians in the the city,  when he caught them. This is the guy Luke now focuses on.  This is the guy God is now reaching out to. This is the life God is now going to reach into dramatically.  You see, God hasn't given up on this guy. He will later refer to himself as “the chief of sinners.”  While he is far away, God reaches out.  God takes the initiative.  All the bitterness, all the resistance to what he had seen (the amazing way Stephen went to his death for example), all the determined cruelty towards the believers... but God hasn't given up on him. 
When Satan tempts me to despair; reminds me of the guilt within;
upward I look and see him there, Who made and end of all my sin.

Let's be encouraged.  God takes the initiative, even when people are far away from him.  And God doesn't give up on us, no matter how badly we mess up.  That should encourage us when we fail, to know that God is still for us, still on our case.  And it should encourage us, when we are tempted to despair over someone.  It should encourage us as we pray for our society.  Nobody is beyond the pale.  Jews had given up on Jesus.  But Jesus hadn't given up on them.   We can't understand the relationship between God's initiative, people's freedom to choose or reject Jesus, and our desire to see them saved.  But we need to bring the three together in our prayers. God knows what he is doing.

The conversion Drama.  And it is dramatic!  As he gets near to Damascus, suddenly, a light from heaven flashes around him.  He falls to the ground and heard a voice speak to him.  Bright light, falling to the ground, and a voice from heaven are signs of God at work.

(Michelangelo tells us that in his own way in his painting!)  They are signs of God directly revealing Himself to someone.  The Voice says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” In other words, this Voice was saying “Saul, you think you're just giving a bunch of wierdos a bad time, but you're not, you're persecuting me .” Saul asks the Voice who it belongs to. The Voice answers “I'm Jesus, the One you're persecuting.”  Saul realises that the One he has been hating and persecuting (thorough persecuting his followers) is One with a Voice from heaven. 

Just in case he was tempted to tell himself next day that none of it actually happened, when he shakily gets to his feet and the light disappears, he's in total darkness. He can't see a thing.  The crew with him have to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus.  And so he can't shake the experience off, or tell himself he's been working too hard, or got sunstroke in the mid-day heat,  those with him heard the voice.  Saul is a totally broken man.  This isn't a calm, quiet, realisation that there is something in this Jesus business. This isn't merely an intellectual recognition that the Jesus Way is truth.  This affects Saul at every level of his existence.  Intellectually, emotionally, physically, socially.  That’s what conversion is.  It's dramatic!  It's God at work. “I am am new creation! No more in condemnation!”

Saul's response to that encounter, is to sit, in silence, or to lie on the floor, crying with groans too deep for words, neither eating nor drinking. He's seeing a vision of someone ministering to him so he gets his sight back. His life had been completely turned upside down.  He would have to learn to live the rest of his life upside down.  Conversion is about rethinking Jesus, recognising who he is; it's about encountering Jesus personally; it's about trusting Jesus totally; it's about surrendering to Jesus absolutely, letting him be Lord of our lives.  

Be Part of it.  Meanwhile, somewhere else in Damascus, a Jewish Christian called Ananias has a vision. God speaks to him by name and tells him to go and pray for Saul.  A matching vision to the one Saul has. (you can be confident about pictures and visions when one or two people have “matching visions”!)  God even gives Ananias Saul's temporary address. God knows what he is doing.
Ananias does what you do when God speaks to you in a vision – he argues back...  Sometimes, we think, God can be a bit forgetful.  He's a bit too busy to be aware of all the details of our lives.  He hasn't noticed there's been a financial crisis for the past five years.  He hasn't noticed that we're getting older.  But God knows all that.  He also knows some other things that we haven't noticed.    God knows what he is doing.   “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (v. 15f)  God knows what he is doing.

So, to Ananias' credit, he goes.  He sees that God knows what he is doing, as he meets Saul.  He ministers the laying on of hands.  (I wonder if Ananias' hands were shaking in that ministry? God can use shaky hands, that are stretched out in obedience to him, even if we are scared.) He speaks: “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Isn't that lovely?  It's relational – Saul is now a Brother. It's Jesus-centered.  It's part of the conversion bundle.  It's generous, going beyond what God told him, to minister the obvious thing, that Saul be filled with the Holy Spirit. 

And, as Ananias steps out in obedience, eh has his part in the amazing big picture, that Luke is weaving together in his book; Ananias is part of the big picture that God is weaving together in salvation history: the mission to the whole world. And this Saul of Tarsus, who is crying out to God in Judas' spare room in Straight Street, will prove to be god's chosen vessel to take the gospel to the Nations., to further again the Gentile mission.  God knows what he is doing. And when we step out in faith and obedience, we can be part of it.

Conclusion: There are two kinds of people in this place today, symbolised by the two main characters in this story.  Some of us – like Saul – don't know Jesus personally. We may be really against Christianity or all faith; or we may be kind of tolerant and think Jesus was a really nice guy; but we don’t' know him personally.  And some of us – like Ananias – do know Jesus. We  may be afraid to talk about him; we may be fumbling and faltering; we may be eager to change the world; but we do know him as Saviour and Lord. And for all of us, Jesus is knocking at our doors.  If you don't yet know him, you're not too bad for him to love you; you're not too far away for him to reach you.  And if you do know him, he wants you to know that he knows what he is doing. And he wants you to be part of it. 


© Gilmour Lilly December  2013