Acts 13. 13-52

The Speaker

Luke the storyteller doesn't waste words or bore his readers by repeating the same speeches over and over. Instead he gives us key speeches, like this one, as an example of how Paul preached in the synagogue... and it was Paul who was the preacher! Not Barnabas. In fact, Luke has already started referring to “Paul and his companions.” There's something very gracious and lovely about someone like Barnabas who was prepared to step back and allow the younger Christian, the less experienced and less proven one, flourish. There is something lovely about having the honesty and humility to admit “I don't have the gifts for this, but my younger brother has”. Barnabas had that wonderful quality. Son of Encouragement.

The Strategy:

Pisidian Antioch in the middle of modern Turkey was not a huge place – but it was a strategic place, on an important road. They go to the Synagogue on the Sabbath day; as visitors and maybe with a reputation for knowing the Scripture, maybe identified as Rabbis, they are asked if they have a word of encouragement for the congregation. That is their cue to talk about Jesus. The strategy was to begin with their natural contacts. And note that it became one of Paul's hallmarks, to do so.

The Speech

Look at the message Paul preaches in the Synagogue. Paul preached a narrative sermon telling the story of God's people and then the story of Jesus. There are two main themes Paul speaks about: firstly, Jewish history; and secondly, Jesus himself. But why does he start with the history of Israel? Why does he go back 1400 years, to before Moses? He has two reasons:

Firstly, Theological

Starting with the history of the Nation identifies Jesus as Messiah, the Coming King from David's family, the “Promised One” sent to fulfil prophecy.

It's as if there was a huge treasure chest of promises, that Israel waited for God to open up. In that chest there are

• Freedom from oppression;
• Healing;
• justice,
• peace,
• the Spirit poured on all kinds of people;
• knowing God personally,
• the forgiveness of sins.

These word Israel used for the contents of this treasure chest, is “The Kingdom of God” or “the Kingdom of heaven”. The expected their Messiah to bring this “Kingdom”.

Paul refers to the work of John the Baptist, preaching “repentance”. He is quite clear that it is sin that keeps that treasure chest locked up. Preparing the way for Messiah to come, means turning from your sin, from the wrong stuff inside you. Sin is the padlock that keeps that treasure chest locked up, and its treasures, the Kingdom beyond our reach.

And then Paul talks about Jesus. By tying the Jesus story in as clearly as he does with the story of Israel, Paul is saying “Jesus is the One who brings the promised Kingdom, Jesus is Messiah”... He announced the Kingdom. He demonstrated the Kingdom. By his death he deals with the sin that keeps the Kingdom out of our reach. In his resurrection, he proved that he is Messiah, showed that he is the Victor, that sin is dealt with and the Kingdom is an open reality now and for all eternity, for those who know Jesus. Jesus came and lived, and died and rose again, so that you can enjoy what is in the Treasure Chest... Or to put it another way, eh has two main things to say about Jesus. Jesus brings the Kingdom, and Jesus deals with our Sin. He is the Change-bringer and he is the sin-bearer.

That is important. You may run into people who want to say “Jesus was great, he was all about justice and peace and the Sermon on the Mount; and Paul was rubbish, banging on about sin.” And you may run into other people who want to say “The only thing that matters about Jesus is that he was God the Son who died for our sins and rose again.” Both of these views are wrong. Neither of them get Jesus right. Neither of them properly understand Paul. You can't have the Kingdom without the forgiveness of sins. And you can't have the forgiveness of sins without repentance and the Kingdom of god. You cant have what's inside the box, without using the key. And you have to be a wee bit daft, to have the key and not open the box.

In fact the gap between Jesus and Paul is a false one. Paul doesn't have much to say about the Kingdom of God. But he does tell us about Jesus the “Change-bringer” in different ways: “life in the Spirit”, our riches in Christ, Jesus the Victor; the New Creation, being the Church.

A proper understanding of Jesus as Future bringer, gives a purpose and a point to the forgiveness of our sins. The gospel is NOT that we can have our sins forgiven so we get to Heaven. The Gospel is that we have our sins forgiven so we can begin to live the life of he Kingdom of God in the here and now and continue to live in it for all eternity. The nature of the Kingdom, the reality of the reign of God, is what we are saved for. We are saved because God so loved the world. We are saved because God wants his world to live in his peace; to know his presence.

Secondly, Missional,

Paul is making the point about the Kingdom as well as the Cross. But there’s another reason why begins with history. He speaks as a Jew who knows Israel’s history, to other Jews who shared that history. He want to speak in a way that helps them turn to Jesus. He points (v. 27 )out that “the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus” and wants his hearers not to miss the boat. When he spoke to Pagans in Athens, he took a different approach. There he began with “an unknown God”, what God is like, where we fit into the divine scheme of things. (Acts 17. 22ff, Luke's next record of Paul's preaching.) Now the message is the same. Jesus is the “Change-bringer” and the “Sin-bearer”. But the context is different. The unchanging Good News is contextualized, or presented differently to different contexts. Without changing it, we need to communicate it in a way that resonates with the culture we are talking to.

The four Gospels are an example of contextualisation. Mark was written first simply to tell the story to ordinary people. Matthew was clearly written fro mainly Jewish Christians, in a church that was just getting to grips with the idea that maybe the Gospel was for gentiles too. Luke was written for non-Jewish listeners, to tell them the story of Jesus and be able them to be part of this developing Church. John is the result of deeper reflection, written for thinking, culture-crossing people.

So, what does the Gospel sound like in your context? How do you talk about God? How do you talk about the mess the world is in? How do you talk about God having a better plan? How do you talk about God as the God of transformations? How do you talk about Jesus being change bringer and the sin-bearer?

The sequel

1. The conversation continued both formally (v. 42) and informally (v. 43) Many who had been listening continued to hang around and were encouraged to press in to discover God's grace for themselves. As the team focussed on those who wanted to listen – the Gentiles – they found ready listeners who were open to put their faith in Jesus.

2. Conflict was caused. Jealousy, blindness to the truth, arguments, abusive talk (v. 46), and before long, others manipulated into causing trouble (v. 50). Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet as a warning to those who were digging their heels in in opposition to the Gospel. There will be conflict. There will be opposition. The enemy will do what he can to prevent the Good News from being preached, being received, and acted upon.

3. Churches were created and encouraged. Paul and Barnabas moved on, to the next big city, Iconium, look what they left behind. A group of Disciples who were “filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” (v 52) The Good news of the kingdom and the Cross, of Jesus the Change bringer and sin bearer, results in men and women becoming disciples, but it results in Kingdom communities of faith being formed. What a wonderful thing to leave behind: a Church full of joy and of the Holy Spirit!

© Gilmour Lilly January  2014

Acts 13 – Heart of worship; heart of mission.

Heart of  worship
Coming back to the heart of worship.   Worship that changes the world!
Luke brings us back to Antioch in Syria, and mentions five worshippers by name: Barnabas who took the Gospel so seriously that he had sold a piece of land in Cyprus to provide for the poor in Jerusalem, and who had been one of the first to welcome Saul into the Church at Jerusalem.  There was a black guy called Simon: a Jewish name and a black skin suggests mixed race.  Lucius of Cyrene, another man with African connexions – though a Roman name.  Manaen (or Mehahen) who was related to Herod Antipas: high-born, from the not very religious part of Judaism.  And Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee who had been dramatically converted.  An interesting, mixed, well-travelled bunch, who “happened” to be in Antioch.  They were all “men of the word” . And they were worshipping.  It;s just possible that Luke mentions them because they were the church leaders and the the whole Church was worshipping; in fact it doesn't matter who were worshipping.  What is interesting is that they were worshipping: Luke uses the word “liturgy” here, which originally meant something a person did at their own expense, as a service to their community.  If someone paid for a water trough in the street, that was liturgy.  It was public service of worship to God.  If there were only five of hem, they were doing the same as the whole Church did.

What does “worship”  suggest to you?  A little group of people, going through the motions of religious observance?  They know what to do.  First a hymn, then a prayer, another hymn, a reading from scripture,  Or maybe they made the words up as they went along. Maybe the lifted their hands up to Heaven as Jews did in their prayers.   Maybe one or two of them spoke in tongues... 

We struggle with our different expectations of “worship” today.  Some Christians get involved in “Worship wars”  over the style and content of worship.  But what is all that about?  Why do we do it at all?  What's the point?  What difference does it make to a watching world, how we worship?  I suspect that for many people who don't have faith, church is seen as simply some weird, archaic mumbo-jumbo, singing and repeating meaningless words and symbolic actions. Whether it's solemn or joyful, the problem is it's still a fringe activity with little purpose or connection with the real world.   We walk in, we do the routine, we walk back out again.  The philosopher Soren Keirkegaarde, famously told a story about the Duck Church. “The ducks waddled into Duck Church, and sat on the pews.  The duck preacher waddled up to the pulpit and said 'Ducks – you have wings. Ducks, you can fly'.  And the ducks all said “Amen”, and waddled home. 

So these five men of God were worshipping.  They were hanging out with god.  They maybe wanted some guidance but they weren't simply “praying for guidance.”  They had a concern for the nations but weren't simply praying for the nations or for revival.  They were worshipping.  And they were fasting.   That tells me some that they meant business with God. It tells me they were serious about it.  They wanted answers to their prayer; they wanted to hear God; they wanted to be led by the Holy Spirit.  So they worshipped and they fasted.

 Worship is first of all about “presence”.  It is about wasting time with the Almighty.  Anything else, guidance, power, healing, conviction of sin, answers to prayer, flow from exactly that: when we are prepared to give the Lord that time of Presence. Sacrificial, needy, thirsty, hungry presence.  Worshipping God is spirit and in truth. 

Coming back to the heart of worship.   And from that heart, God speaks: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  Now maybe they already had a sense of call and this was the Spirit's moment to confirm that.  Maybe they had to find out what that work was.  “OK God, what are you calling us to do?”    But the call was to mission and evangelism.  Luke often uses “Work” in that way.

That moment when you realise “Hey there's a world out there”.  That's why worship changes the world. Such realisation is part of the purpose of the Prophetic work of the Missionary Spirit.   That – the turning inside out that orientates us towards mission – is part of the desire of the Holy Spirit in our lives.   To hang out with God is to begin to catch his heartbeat for the last the lost and the least.

Heart of mission
And so a fragile little “team” was sent out after more  fasting and prayer with laying on of hands.  Saul and Barnabas (two of the five best men in the Antioch Church) along with the young “helper” John Mark.   So off they went to the nearest port, Seleucia, and got a ship to Cyprus.  Why did they choose Cyprus?    It was a strategic island: prosperous and industrial with copper mines; Roman governed, Greek influenced and with lots of Jewish immigrants. And it was already familiar territory to  Barnabas. 

What is our mission-place, how do we know and how do we get there?  Sometimes God's strategy is to send us to the place we know well. 

As they journey through Cyprus, they meet a guy called BarJesus (“Son of Joshua”) or Elymas the sorcerer.  He was involved in all sorts of dark powers and probably fooled people into thinking he was more powerful than he really was.  He had influence: the Roman Governor used his services.  When Sergius, the governor, began to find out about Jesus, Elymas – or the spirits that were in him- saw trouble ahead and tried to stop Sergius from even hearing the Gospel.   We will face struggles, spiritual warfare, as part of mission.  Sometimes political, sometimes manipulating and undermining, sometimes brazenly supernatural, the enemy will try to Distraction, Discouragement and Deception to derail mission. 

We need to see these as Spiritual conflict, a “power encounter”.  We need to make them “power encounters”.  Look how Barnabas and Saul handled them: 

The power of the Spirit.  Many people are “Spiritual” but not at all committed to the Christian faith.    Some of their reasons fro avoiding faith are bad ones: there's something attractive about experience without dogma or demands.  But we are seen as peddling dogma and making demands without the experience.   There is a lot of paranoia about false gifts: Jesus said if we ask for a fish we will not be given a snake.  If we ask for the Holy Spirit  that is what Father will give us.  The enemy is smart.  He delivers up forgeries in the form of spiritualist healing, witchcraft, horoscopes etc. False healings, miracles and prophecies.  But listen.  Nobody ever forged a £4 note.  We have the reality of the Spirit's power and presence. We need to get out there!
 
Spiritual authority:  Direct challenge.  This is not the recommended way of talking to people about Jesus. It's not how they spoke to Sergius who was a genuine enquirer.  We want to win people not arguments.  But there is a point when we need to “shake the dust off our feet” when people are clearly unwilling to engage with the Gospel and are – and this is the crucial point – making an effort to prevent others from engaging with it either.

Word of faith:  not presumption.  Not arrogance; not simply interpreting things that happen “God got even with you there!”)  but speaking a faith word into people's lives, whether in prayer, or in prophecy

The result of all this, was that the Proconsul was saved! EH was genuinely looking for truth and could see the sense, in what Barnabas and Saul said, backed up in the power of what they did. 

And when we do come back to the heart of worship, we encounter the heart of god.  And when we to, we find he's a big hearted God.  We find we are pointed to the heart of mission.

© Gilmour Lilly January  2014

Matthew 2. 1-23 – What are you looking for?

Matthew 2. 1-23 – What are you looking for?

There must have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of people from Greece to India, from Ethiopia to the frozen wastes of Northern Europe, looking at the stars, trying to understand, predict, and control events in their world. Most people believed in astrology in the ancient world. But God tells us in His Word, not to have anything to do with attempts to consult the dead or foretell the future. Astrology, witchcraft in all its forms, divination in all its forms, is not how God wants us to get information. Hear what God says specifically about astrology:

Do not act like the other nations, who try to read their future in the stars. Do not be afraid of their predictions, even though other nations are terrified by them. (Jer 10. 2 NLT cf. Isa 47. 13f NLT)

How gracious of God, despite that, to speak into people's darkness, using exactly the tools they were used to: the movement of the stars. Despite the fact that they were looking for truth the wrong way, God spoke, possibly through the planets Jupiter and Saturn crossing paths. Jupiter was the royal planet and Saturn had for a long time represented Israel. This happened three times in 7BC and is consistent with the story as Matthew tells it. These wise men could read the message – a king of eternal significance, born in Israel. God is a God of grace who welcomes all nations. “Mission”, the Gospel for the Gentiles, is one of the big themes in Matthew – who wrote for Jews at a time when Gentiles were beginning to pour into the Church.

Yet why did only a few wise men from the East – an unknown number from a tribe of mystics in Persia – find their way to Bethlehem? Their search was not just frivolous. They weren't looking to know whether it was a good time to buy camels. They were the ones seeking truth, meaning, understanding. And, crucially, they were prepared to pay the price. It's amazing that men “with so little to go on should venture so far. God promises his people – and I think all people can call in on this promise – “you shall find me when you seek me with all your heart”. (Jer 29. 13)

The Magi, then, were looking for truth, knowledge, understanding. Their study led them to understand that something important was happening, and they felt they needed to be there. They were looking for a sense of connectedness with something bigger and more important than themselves. May God enable us, in 2014, to be people who are looking for truth: not just dry facts, but deep truth, truth that is understanding; truth that brings meaning into out lives.

Herod by contrast was looking out for himself. He was looking for power, and searching out threats to that power. Half Jewish, half Idumean (Edomite) he had come to power in a blood soaked coup. When he became king he killed the remains of the previous dynasty, including his own mother and sons; and slaughtered half of the Sanhedrin. The death of a few dozen babies in Bethlehem was nothing to him. He was a man of ruthless cruelty, paranoid about his own position. That was what mattered to him: his own prestige, comfort, ….

He knew enough about the Jewish faith to understand the hope and promise of Messiah coming. But he wasn't interested. Even if the Bible said it, even if God had promised it, even if God Himself were fulfilling his promise, he was going to put a stop to this. If he ended up fighting God, he wasn't too much bothered.

I hope none of us will start this year simply looking for our own interests. What a desperately sad way to live your life. How sad to see what God is doing, and deliberately set yourself against it.

The Chief priests and teachers of the law were looking for – precisely nothing! They were able to rattle off from Micah 5, 2-4, that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. (Fulfilment of Kingdom promises was another of Matthew's themes) Yet there was nothing of anticipation, nothing of hope; no excitement. No overwhelming desire to set out for Bethlehem. Nothing. They had their books; they had their knowledge and their information. They could dish up the facts, but they were neither acting upon them nor anticipating any God-action upon them. Their perceived “job” was to keep the temple open, to keep the tithes coming in, to make sure everyone kept the law, and to avoid rocking the boat. Maybe they were sold out to Herod. Maybe they were protecting their own skins. Maybe they were too diffuse a group of people to have a shared aim.

Sadly, there will be some who are looking for – nothing. It is tragic to be full of knowledge and information, able to rattle off chapter and verse, yet neither be changed by it nor expectant as a result. I wonder why that might be? It may be a matter of perspective.

For some of us, we don't know enough about God's word. How many of us never open the Bible between Sundays? How many only read a verse at day? I love “Word for Today”, but if you only read the verse and the comment, it's a bit like chocolate buttons: on its own it's not a healthy diet. You really need to do the “bible in a year” thing as well! How many of us have ever read the Bible from cover to cover? If you don't know God's word, if you are not absorbed by it and absorbing in into yourself, then the rules of perspective work: it's just too far away from us.

But how many of do read the Bible every day, have read it all, know it well, yet read it without any curiosity; without any passion, without any excitement. We're simply gathering ammunition, confirming our own prejudices, instead of begin curious about the meaning and excited about the direct voice of god? How many of us have the information at our fingertips – yet there is other information ready to hand as well – our tradition, our fears, our personal comforts and preferences are bigger, louder, closer than God's word. When Elijah had battled the prophets of Baal, Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him, and “And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life” (1 Kings 19. 3 AV) The enemy loves to make us “See” what he plans to do: his works of destruction seem close up, huge and loud.

Ass a result of turning the volume down on God's word, or allowing it to be drowned out by other voices, we can live without expectancy. We can live without obedience to the Word. We can be looking for nothing. That's not how God wants us to be.

And lastly, what about Joseph? Joseph had already made the journey from “looking for a quiet life” but he couldn’t have that with Jesus in his family! As he takes Mary and the infant Jesus to Egypt, and back to Bethlehem and then to Nazareth, he was seeking the well-being of Another and for the fulfilment of his own calling. Here was a man who had, despite the immense cost and pain, stepped up to the plate, suppressed his doubts about the girl he loved, followed God's guidance in dreams, and married the already pregnant Mary... This carpenter was now a man with a mission. Did you ever notice that Matthew traces the ancestors of Joseph, the husband of Mary, although Joseph wasn’t Jesus' father? That's because Matthew is interested in law, not biology. And legally, Joseph took on the responsibility of a Father to Jesus. That was his mission. This was Joseph's call: to ensure that whatever Herod or anyone else did, this Child who had been thrust into his life, would in turn grow up to adulthood to save his people from their sins. And to that call, he devoted his time, spiritual gifts, his opportunities and energy. This upright, good man, with a carpenter's eye for detail, is developing an openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit through these dreams. When God says “go” he is willing to go.

This year, we need to be people who are like Joseph. People who are seeking the welfare of Another. People who are not living for ourselves, but living a life defined by the Servant King. And we need to be people who are seeking to fulfil God's call upon our lives. “What is God calling me to do? Because that, however costly or uncomfortable or embarrassing, I am going to do!”

I'm going to give the last word to “Word for today” for 31 December: “So, ‘hats off to the past and coats off to the future!’ Roll up your sleeves, go to work, and expect great things from God.”

© Gilmour Lilly January  2014