05/09/2011

Devoted to The Apostles' Teaching

‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’ Acts 2:42

I will begin this week with The Apostles’ Teaching.

Before I focus on The Apostles’ Teaching, why this verse?

Two things:

Firstly…. we read also…. ‘The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved’. This was a growing community of Christians. If we wish to see our numbers grow, there are lessons to be learned here.

Secondly, there is a vital word in this verse that we are studying; if we are not careful we can miss it and it is absolutely key to all that we will be speaking about and studying, it is central to our worship and witness. Without it we become what John Wesley most feared the Methodist People might turn into…. ‘a dead sect, having the form of godliness but without the power’. The word is ‘devoted’.

‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’


The word is devoted, not committed. What is the difference? Think about it.

Do you get the impression that these four things were something they had to do, or something they wanted to do, because there is a difference. When Jesus said ‘Where your heart is, there will be your treasure also,’ he wasn’t just talking about money!
I tell you this;
when our hearts… yours and mine… can say with the Psalmist, ‘As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for you, O Lord.’,
when it is our deepest desire
to know God’s word so we can obey it,
to share in fellowship with complete love for one another,
to break bread with broken and contrite hearts,
to pray as 19th century preacher William Arthur calls us to, for the power of the Holy Spirit; ‘Prayer, prayer, all prayer – mighty, importunate, repeated united prayer’…. If we can reach this devotion to the things of God, we won’t need to worry about Church growth because we will become as a powerful magnet is to steel.

The apostles’ teaching, then.

What is this teaching to which the early Christians devoted themselves?

Well, it includes the teaching of Jesus himself. In the great commission Jesus calls his apostles to make disciples, baptise and ‘teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matt 28:20.
The teaching of the apostles is primarily the gospel or Good News, which was centred around his death, burial and resurrection.
vv 23-24 of Acts 2:
This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Acts 3:15 : You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
Acts 4:10 : then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 :. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

The apostles’ teaching was a unique teaching in that it came from God and was clothed with the authority conferred on the apostles
2 Cor 13:10 —the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.

1 Thess 4:2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

Today, the apostles’ teaching is of course available to us in the books of the New Testament.
We do well to study them.
In recent weeks at the Mens’ Meetings we have grappled with The Sermon on the Mount, so very important, crucial to our Christian living !

What are the ways in which we can devote ourselves to The Apostles’ Teaching? How can we read, mark, learn and inwardly digest God’s word. Well I’ve been doing it for 40+ years, and I can tell you there is no easy way.
It takes time.

1. Try and follow a Bible Reading programme to read the Bible in a year.
2. Read a whole chapter or read the whole book of Ephesians for example.
3. Meditate on one verse, take it into the day with you. One verse I worked through by learning it before breakfast and thinking about it all day was this: ‘Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ever ask or imagine according to His power that is at work in us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever. Amen.’ Eph 3:20-21, and the same night when I was on Crossline duty I was able to help a struggling Christian over the phone.
Abbreviate it to learn the central phrase: He is able to do immeasurably more than we can ever ask or imagine according to His power that is at work in us. Eph 3:20

Meditating on God’s word is never a waste of time.
When the devil came to tempt Jesus he resisted him using the words of Scripture (see Matt 4) So must we.
4. Another way we can learn theology is through hymns and songs. This is what the early Methodists did. Many couldn’t read or write, but they could learn hymns easily, so they knew the gospel in its simplest form. This is a good tradition (not all hymns are good….not all traditions are good!) which has been handed down to us. Though we can all read and write, we still love to sing and it is a way of memorising the truths to be found in Scripture.
Look at the words of some of the songs* I have chosen for today.
Let’s page through them:
My God full of mercy
Only by grace
To God be the glory *
I’m special *
You’re the Word
Praise to the Holiest *
In Christ Alone *
Lord I’m grateful *

Use songs and hymns then to learn the truths to be found in Scripture.

5. Most of all, let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Always ask his help as you open the word.
Joyce Hugget uses 5 ‘R’s to help us.
This links beautifully with the word devotion, doesn’t it:? How might we read the Bible ‘God’s love letter’?
READ
RECEIVE/REPEAT
RESPOND
REST
REFLECT

May we devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, the precious word of God.

05/08/2011

….and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever Ps23:6b

One of the reasons Ps 23 is so popular at funerals is the twofold promise in the Psalm regarding the valley of the shadow of death… that God is right with us there….. but also in this last sentence ‘I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever’. Psalmist David writes of both death and life here.

So what have we to look forward to? There are many clues in Scripture, but as I wrote this sermon one came to mind, the promise of Jesus to the dying criminal nailed to a cross beside Him, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’. Paradise in scripture is a garden, a place of bliss and tranquillity and rest.

Whatever picture we may try to paint,however, our language falls short.
C.S.Lewis concludes his famous Narnia Chronicles suggesting that the things which happened to his characters after the books ended were so great and beautiful that he could not write them. He writes, ‘All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia (and what adventures.. have you read them?) had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no-one on Earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.’Elsewhere Lewis described earthly life as being the Shadowlands. This life, the colours we see, the good we experience, the joy we have, the pleasures we know… these are as minor shadows compared to the extraordinary colour, beauty, joy and delight of heaven.

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

In the book of Revelation, too, every chapter is more thrilling than the chapter before.
Joyce Huggett writes:
Reading Revelation at one sitting (I don’t think I ever did that) is as tantalising as hearing the sound of running water when climbing a mountain on a hot summer’s day, and as thirst quenching as drinking long draughts from such clear crystal streams. Each promise is precious; the promise of a new Heaven and a new Earth, the promise that God will wipe every tear from our eyes, that death shall be know more, and never again will there be sorrow or crying or pain. (21:1-4). But the greatest thrill of all is that we shall see the beloved face to face. He will make his home with us and we with Him. For the first time in our lives we shall be set free to truly worship,

Listen to this: Rev 7:9-17

9 After this I looked, and there in front of me was a huge crowd of people. They stood in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb. There were so many that no one could count them. They came from every nation, tribe, people and language. They were wearing white robes. In their hands they were holding palm branches. 10 They cried out in a loud voice,
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne.
Salvation also belongs to the Lamb."
11 All the angels were standing around the throne. They were standing around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces in front of the throne and worshiped God. 12 They said,
"Amen!
May praise and glory
and wisdom be given to our God for ever and ever.
Give him thanks and honor and power and strength.
Amen!"
13 Then one of the elders spoke to me. "Who are these people dressed in white robes?" he asked. "Where did they come from?"
14 I answered, "Sir, you know."
He said, "They are the ones who have come out of the time of terrible suffering. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 So
"they are in front of the throne of God.
They serve him day and night in his temple.
The One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
16 Never again will they be hungry.
Never again will they be thirsty.
The sun will not beat down on them.
The heat of the desert will not harm them.
17 The Lamb, who is at the center of the area around the throne, will be their shepherd.
He will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."


In this life God’s felt presence is, at best, fleeting, intermittent, transitory. Not so in heaven: there we shall enjoy a permanent intimacy with God…. Beyond the bounds of time and space into regions of eternal light, far removed from any evil or imperfection.
Words fail us as we try to express the inexpressible.

Paul tried to deal with a question from the Corinthians as to what our bodies will be like in heaven. Even the great apostle struggles with this. He describes our life like a seed which when we die flourishes like a plant into new life.

One caterpillar said to another as they gazed at a butterfly, ‘You’ll never get me up in one of those!’

That's a good illustration of the contrast between the earthly bodies we occupy for a time and the new body we will occupy forever in heaven. Hard to get your head around isn’t it? That’s why the stories of Jesus after He rose from the dead are so important. Because they tell us that He ate and drank. He walked and talked. He could be touched and hugged. This is the pattern for what life in heaven is. Heaven will be physical.
We won’t be disembodied ghouls drifting around unable to communicate or recognise each other. Far from it. We will immediately recognise each other and enjoy each others company.
One of the main pictures Jesus uses of heaven is of a banquet. Jesus characterises heaven as a place of celebration, parties, dances and feasts, a beautiful garden, everlasting bliss. Wow! We certainly aren’t going to be bored or unfulfilled.

Just one thing I want to mention here.
It always bothers me when we talk about having lost someone.
I was reminded of a joke, hardly fitting, but I’ll risk it:
‘My grandma took up running when she was 65. She’s 90 now and we have no idea where on earth she is.’ (Grandma’s lost in other words).
The point I want to make is… it is all too easy to allow our thinking, when we talk about having lost someone, to drift to some kind of concept that they are ‘lost’. Ours is the loss, not theirs.
An old hymn goes:
‘Rejoice for a brother deceased, our loss is his infinite gain’
Wesley in trying to compare Earth to heaven uses the best word he can find, ‘infinite’.
How much better is it to be with the Lord?… infinitely.Far from being ‘lost’ we are truly found when we’re in heaven.

The lost are those who reject Christ…. When we believe, and accept Christ as Lord and Saviour, we have eternal life. John 3;16.
In 1Peter1,Peter states that thanks to Christ’s resurrection we have an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade… kept in heaven for us.
Wow.
‘I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’
‘One thing I have asked of the Lord, and this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.’


The fear of the process of dying is humanly perfectly understandable. But we should never fear what lies beyond if we trust in Christ.
Rather we should look forward with eager anticipation.
Paul… ‘for me… to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far….’

The good old Spirituals were all about the heavenly hope. Life on earth for the African slaves was miserable, but the way they kept going was by singing about the life to come. ‘Deep river…, ‘Steal away…’

And so, in anticipation of living in the house of the Lord forever, how should we live in the here and now?

The first and most important reply to that is to put your trust in Christ. He has died to pay the price of sin and open the door to life eternal for all who believe in Him.

How then should we live?
Selwyn Hughes says we should live each day as though it’s is our last on earth, and work for God as though we’ve got another hundred years.
Jesus encourages us not to live as if this life were everything. While this present life is important, it’s not all important. We don’t need to store up stuff in the here and now, He tells us, but we can be free to be generous, realising that to give money and share possessions is laying up special rewards in heaven.
Jesus is in heaven, where He reigns, where He prays for each of us, and also where He has a place ready for us. There He waits to welcome us with joy.

So are we, like David, looking forward to living in the House of the Lord forever?
Whatever the world may throw at you, it cannot affect the certainty of future reality in Christ’s presence for all who believe in Him. And so, in anticipation of living in the house of the Lord forever, live in the light of eternity.

‘This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through.’

17/03/2011

Temptation Lent 1

The subject on the first Sunday of Lent is Christ’s temptation in the wilderness.
We’re going to look at that, and then consider how we may resist and overcome temptation.
I have had a DVD of the Last Temptation of Christ (1988) for a couple of years. I don’t know where it came from, but I had not watched it. As I was destined to preach to you on the subject of Christ’s temptations I decided to watch it. I recall the controversy surrounding the film back in 1988, which may have put me off…. but now it was time to find out what it was about. Directed by Martin Scorsese the film is based upon the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, whose written introduction, given to us at the beginning, indicates his own struggle in his life between the flesh and the Spirit. So, a very human Jesus is portrayed. Far from the Jesus I read about in the Gospels, he confesses his sins, he is driven almost to insanity, he wonders if he is no more than a man, and with each healing he anguishes over those whom he has not healed. He seems to vacillate between demanding love for all people, and joining Judas (who is portrayed as a Zealot) in encouraging armed rebellion against the Romans. In his final temptation, the subject of the film, as he hangs on the cross, Jesus apparently latches onto the taunts, ‘If you are the Christ come down from the cross.’ and what appears to him and us as an angel calls him to come down and live. Up to this point the film is rather rambling, but now it begins to reach its climax. Jesus imagines what his life might have been like as an ordinary man. He pictures himself marrying Mary Magdalene, having kids and growing old. But remembering that all this is a temptation he is experiencing as he hangs on the cross the dream takes him to where he is dying an old man in his bed. Judas turns up to reproach him for abandoning his special mission, shows him that the so-called angel that persuaded him to come down from the cross is in fact Satan, and he snaps out of it to his final suffering on the cross, crying ‘It is accomplished’. So, although Kazantzakis takes Christ’s humanity too far, making him fall into sin and fail, he does seem to get the story right at the end.

Many Christians were outraged by the film and considered it blasphemous, which it was if you judge it by the standards of Christian orthodoxy. Blockbuster refused to carry it. But what clearly outraged and threatened many Christians was the notion of a fully human Jesus who experienced bitter trials and temptations just like you and I do---torment, doubt, loneliness, nagging questions, fantasies, confusion, despair, and even sexual struggles. The last temptation includes making love to Mary Magdalene. For many believers that sort of temptation was, well, way too tempting, which is to say, way too human and hence the backlash to the film. For me, however, that was not the problem with the film …as he is seen to resist the temptation in the final analysis.

In the Gospel reading from Matthew this week we read that Jesus was tempted or tried: (read Matthew 4:1) The Spirit of God descended upon Jesus in baptism, and then the Spirit of God cast him into the desert for trial and temptation.

Trying to decipher the psychology of Jesus is risky business, but we should not miss the point that Jesus was tempted and tried by Satan. Matthew and Luke specify three temptations: turning stones to bread, throwing himself down from the temple, and accepting the glories of earthly kingdoms. Interpreters have variously categorized these three temptations…. but does that matter so much because we know these were not Jesus’s only temptations. Luke writes that at the end of the forty day trial Satan left Jesus only “until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). The EvilOne came back, again and again, those next three years. Jesus’s ultimate temptation, and the ultimate despair anyone can experience, was the sense of feeling forsaken by God in Gethsemane.

We can safely say that Jesus was tempted not only in the desert but throughout his entire earthly life. The writer to the Hebrews says as much, but he makes a very important statement in it.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are---yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16, NIV).
1. yet was without sin….. ‘there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin’. A fallen Christ could not have been a sufficient sacrifice.
2. Let’s just look at that again, thinking about temptation….I find it hard to take on board that Jesus was truly tempted and tried like I am.. But this is what the writer to the Hebrews tells us; Jesus was tried “in every way,” it says, “just as we are.”
3. It is because of these two things put together…. that he is able to help us. He could not have helped us had he sinned. But he has experienced that temptation AND was without sin.

What this means is that the God who loves us is fully aware of and empathises with all the ambiguities, complexities, trials and temptations of our lives. He is not a distant disinterested god. Quite the opposite. If you have felt weak, then remember that Jesus is not condemning you but sympathizing with you. If you experience trials and temptations, then don’t forget that he has too, perhaps far more than we ever will. When you feel forgotten and forsaken by God, Jesus knew what that was like. If your trials tempt you to despair and turn away from God, Jesus encourages us to do the opposite, “take confidence, come to me for grace and help because I have experienced what you are enduring.”

Having been tempted and tried himself, Jesus is the friend of sinners, not their enemy. One of the more remarkable characterizations of Jesus in the Gospels is that he was “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34). We read that social and moral outcasts flocked around Jesus, attracting the fury of the religiously righteous. They clearly felt safe with Jesus, accepted, embraced, and welcomed by Him.
As the friend of sinners who suffered trials and temptations, “he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). He is for us, not against us.
…and as we read 1 Cor 1013 the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.



To conclude then:

No matter how desirable, alluring, appealing, tantalizing, or inviting the sin may be, we must not commit it. We cannot get sucked into Satan’s web of deceit. Nothing in this world is worth ruining our reputations, and far worse ruining our fellowship with our Lord.

We must say "no" to temptation; we must say “no” to sin!

…and to enable us to resist, we are to rely on the strength of God:

 (Eph. 6:10-11) “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
That verse from Hebrews again:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are---yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16, NIV).
So, this morning we come again to that throne of grace.