Revelation Today

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 – “The Spread of the Gospel”

2010-08-15T23:18:00.001+01:00

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 – “The Spread of the Gospel”

This letter follows on from the hurried flight recorded in Acts 17:1-11 and shows Paul’s great concern for this first church plant in Europe.

1) The Process of Salvation in Lives:
i) God the Father has chosen us (v.4),
ii) The Word of God concerning the work of Christ for us is presented (v.5a),
iii) The Holy Spirit works in His power to bring about conviction of the truth of the Word and the reality of sin in our lives, so we are born again (v.5b) => reality of our election is demonstrated by this occurring (v.4)
iv) We turn in faith from dead idols of sin to the living and true God (v.9) => shows the other aspect of election that it is not fatalism or determinism
v) We become imitators of Christ and mature Christians as we walk in the Christian life (v.6),
vi) This progression through the doctrine of salvation culminates as we await the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection from the dead in our eternal, incorruptible bodies (v.10).

You will notice the different persons of the Godhead are referred to a great deal in these few verses, which emphasises that the spread of the Gospel and salvation is God’s work which we participate in spreading by being living ambassadors of its reality.

2) The Reality of the Gospel:
- v.3 Our working out of faith, labouring in love and endurance/steadfast of hope all flows out of the reality of the gospel in our lives. Real faith produces fruits of good works (it is not dead!); real participation in the love of Christ and a desire to love others in Jesus’ name will produce incredible labours of pain and tears in us as we seek to share it with others; real steadfastness in the face of trouble, attacks, doubts comes from the reality that we have received Christ’s sustaining grace to help us perseverance to the end with the great hope of the resurrection and eternal life with Him. *Also notice this early formulation of Paul’s extolling the three spiritual virtues of faith, hope and love

- v.5 The Gospel comes not only as words or ideas, but in power as dead sinners are born again and made alive to God in Jesus Christ – conversion of souls is something you cannot argue against when you see it! In this sense the Gospel is self-authenticating (but that is to say nothing against the importance of apologetics).

- v.6 There is true joy found through the gospel as the Holy Spirit ministers to us in the midst of opposition and affliction, as we are counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake. This suffering also serves to fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ (Colossians 1:24) – namely that proximately most of the world did not witness His death, but we bring His sufferings to them and show them the glory of the gospel as we share in the fellowship of His sufferings for His sake.

- v.8 the reality of their faith is seen in all the areas around as the gospel breaks new ground in Europe (“Macedonia and Achaia…has gone forth everywhere” v.8) so that the apostles “need not say anything”. People can see that these people have received the gospel and been changed by it in such a dramatic way – they don’t need to be told that something has happened. HOWEVER, they will still need to be told how and what the gospel means for these people in Thessalonica because the gospel needs to be proclaimed and explained.

- v.9 to abandon your idols in this culture was to make yourself a loner in society and an oddity. It would threaten family relationships, friendships, social positions, jobs. To take such a step would take a real belief in some glorious reality, which we do indeed find in the Lord Jesus!

3) Application:
There are three aspects to the Christian life that we all live (Saints, Sufferers and Sinners):

A) We are Saints: new born-again creations in Christ Jesus. We should seek to share the gospel and live out its reality to show the world that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We also should await with anticipation His coming again (v.10)

B) We are Sufferers: we are still in a broken and cursed world. We should seek to experience the true joy that is unspeakable in Jesus, ministered through the Holy Spirit. We should seek to be abiding in Him and walking obediently with Him so our joy may be full (John 15) even in the midst of unspeakable pain. We should also ask for the Lord’s help and comfort and fellowship as we suffer for Him.

C) We are Sinners: there is still the inward battle between our sinful flesh and our new hearts. We should be continuing to repent of sinful idols, by turning from them to the living God. We need to pursue Him and Him alone. All the gifts He gives us should always end in praise and worship of Him – never in the gift themselves. We need to ask Him to help us see our heart aright, and come alongside others who can help us to see what we cannot see ourselves, for our hearts are deceitful.

Ephesians 6:10-24 "Life as a Gospel Warrior"

2010-08-09T07:16:00.002+01:00

Ephesians 6:10-24 "Life as a Gospel Warrior"

We finish Ephesians today looking at the issue of spiritual warfare.

1) The War
- The spiritual battle we find ourselves involved in is done by "being strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might" (v.10), and putting on the "whole armour of God" (v.13) that He provides us with for protection.

- The Ephesian church faced a great deal of opposition from the Cult of Artemis and the pagans of the city (indeed Pastor Timothy would be martyred by them for preaching the gospel during one of their pagan processions), but Paul calls people to recognise that the real battle is a spiritual one: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood..." (v.12). Whatever men and women do in opposition to the gospel, we should remember that they are themselves deceived, blinded and being destroyed by the enemy, Satan who merely uses them for his own purposes.

- "rulers...authorities...cosmic powers over this present darkness...spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (v.12) is a description of Satan's kingdom on earth, which Christ has come to liberate captives from and to destroy at His coming, for He has decisively won the victory at Calvary - Satan's power is now broken.

2) The Armour
- Purpose of the armour: "to stand against the schemes of the devil" (v.11); "withstand in the evil day" (v.13)

- Sometimes we think that the gospel and the church are being marginalised in society, that we are on the retreat...but the truth is that not even the gates of Hell can prevail against the gospel as we press on (gates are a defensive measure, so it is really Satan's kingdom that is under siege). The Church stands its ground and advances through the work and power of the Lord Jesus Christ

- The pieces of armour are all coming from the gospel that God gives us to equip us for our gospel ministry in this world => we are to ACTIVELY "PUT ON" (v.11)
a) The belt of truth => God gives us the truth through revealing to us His Son, who is the truth and giving us the Spirit of truth, and His word which is the truth. This allows us to run into battle easily without being tripped up over confusion of what is actually true.

b) breastplate of rigtheousness => We have received Christ's righteousness, which has been creditted to our accounts and which changes our hearts. We receive this armour to protect our hearts from Satan's attacks, for he hates Christ's righteousness in us

c) shoes of the gospel of peace => Remarkable that our feet are to be a blessing of peace in this battle, for Paul elsewhere talks from the OT about "blessed are the feet which bring good news". Everywhere we walk we can bring good and a blessing, because we are bringing the gospel of peace and offering men and women an invitation to be reconciled to the King.

d) shield of faith => this is our defense against the fast and unsuspecting arrows of Satan who fires doubts, pains, troubles our way from out of sight. We must be prepared to choose to walk in faith and to apply our faith to many situations, because the shield of faith is no use if we do not direct it at the direction of attack.

e) sword of the Spirit => the Word of God is our great weapon for taking on the attacks of Satan, with it the Lord Jesus also fought Satan in the wilderness and was able to properly use the scriptures to disarm Satan's temptations.

f) helmet of salvation => we have been gifted to protect our minds this helmet, which guards our thoughts when it comes to the doubts and attacks of the enemy so we might have assurance (for we cannot fight at all if we doubt we are even saved by the gospel and doubt its truth)

- With all these pieces of armour, it's not just an once off thing putting them on, rather we should be "praying at all times in the Spirit" (v.18) about being equipped with this armour as we seek to serve the Lord in this hostile world, as we never cease to be His "ambassadors" (v.20).
=> given this armour we should pray for one another that we can "open [our] mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel" (v.20)

3) A Balanced Perspective
- "Peace be to you...from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (v.23) => after spending a study thinking about warfare, here is quite the conclusion talking about peace. We often in the West seem to forget about the spiritual aspect of the war we are in for the gospel. However, we must avoid the other extreme of being terrified about the schemes and threat of the enemy. We can have peace even though we face the kingdom of Satan, because we are on the side of God, who is the victor and has secured the victory. That peace comes from Him, firstly for the forgiveness of sins, and also in giving us His spiritual power of protection so we might stand.

4) Applications:
- We need to be asking God consciously in prayer each day to be clothed in this armour
- We should remember that Satan is scheming against us and seeking to discredit the gospel - when we are tempted let's remember what's going on!
- We need to take up and use the shield of faith, by choosing each day to walk in faith and apply it to whatever troubles and situations we face. Faith is lived out!
- We should be praying for all the saints and our brothers and sisters in relation to this warfare we all face
- We need to ask God to help us to be bold ambassadors of the gospel, because even Paul indicates that is not easy!
- We need perserverance from God in order to press on through this life and to reach the end of the course - that perserverance will be given to us (as we cannot lose our salvation) but we should never let that fact dull the fact that we must keep pressing on in the strength and power of God!

Gospel Talk: World Cup Paul the Oracle Octopus

2010-08-03T23:24:00.002+01:00

Room65 – The World Cup Oracles

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

Octopus making predictions (lucky!), Nostradamus (vague), Jesus (was the fulfillment of specific prophecies and gave specific PROPHECY which were fulfilled => culminating in His RESURRECTION 3 days after His death!)

Creation:
Just a few weeks ago the World Cup was being played in South Africa. It was a tournament with many surprises and disappointments. There was the surprising behaviour of France; the lacklustre performance of England; and Spain’s victory.

One story that got my attention was the fun one of Paul, the oracle octopus. Maybe you heard about this creature that correctly predicted the winner of each match. He would choose between food in two different boxes (which each had a country’s flag) and the box he chose was meant to be his prediction of the winning country. I’m not sure Paul’s oracles were very scientific or anything more than good luck, but it certainly got me thinking about predictions.

Maybe you have heard of: Nostradamus. He is famous for making hundreds of so called predictions or prophecies about the future. Most interestingly some believe that he prophesied the rise of Hitler by saying a terrible German dictator would be called Hister and be born on the Danube – indeed Hitler was born in Austria in a village on the banks of the Danube. However, most scholars would agree that all of Nostradamus' prophecies only look convincing with the benefit of hindsight, as they all are so open and vague that they can be applied to various events after they have happened. So while interesting, he also must be dismissed.

Christ:
However, let me tell you about a very remarkable historical character whose whole life was steeped in incredibly accurate prophecy and predictions. Maybe you've heard of him: Jesus Christ.

(Matthew’s gospel focus)
Jesus is the only person whose biography was written hundreds of years before His birth:
- He would be born to a virgin mother, because His father would be God not man.
- He would be born in a small little town called Bethlehem
- He would have a ministry of healing people and showing compassion to the broken and destitute
- He would be a great teacher
- He would be the king over God’s global kingdom of justice, equity and peace
- He would be rejected by His own people and killed for them

If you pick up one of the historical accounts of Jesus' life you will see these prophecies, which we can historically validate as being written hundreds of years previously, were all exactly fulfilled. But that's not where the amazing nature of Jesus ends! Jesus made some incredible prophecies Himself, and one particularly I want us to consider one this evening.

Several times in His ministry He told those closest to Him that when He went up to Jerusalem the week of the biggest Jewish festival, Passover He would be taken prisoner by His own people, He would be given to the Romans who would crucify Him until He died. But then He said He would rise again from the dead three days later: “And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them a third time: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” (Matthew 20:17-19)

Now that's a prophecy:
 It specifies the TIME when the predicted event will take place,
 it specifies WHERE,
 it specifies WHO will do it, who will kill Him,
 the METHOD of His death,
 AND also then says 3 days later a tremendous and impossible event will take place: Jesus would rise again from the dead. This is an event that has never happened before: a man to rise again from death of His own volition and prediction.

What makes Jesus really remarkable is this impossible prophecy was fulfilled. 3 days after His death He was seen again ALIVE! He even appeared to hundreds of people gathered together at one time, so this was no fabrication by His followers. Rather the reason people became His followers was because all of these events convinced people that Jesus was not just any other man, He was actually God come down as a human being - as ONLY GOD could do these things.

That is why I am a Christian - a follower of Jesus - because of these incredible prophecies that He fulfilled that show me that He truly is God. He makes the call which I have responded to, to dedicate my life to following Him.

Choice:
What do you think about Jesus? Have you ever looked into the astounding claim of His resurrection? Can I encourage you to take away one of the historical accounts of Jesus’ life, written by one of His friends Matthew. Read this unique man’s life, see His prophesied death and think about His resurrection. Will you respond by following Jesus?

Gospel Talk: The Scream

2010-08-03T23:23:00.002+01:00

Room65 - The Scream

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

HOPE in a broken and painful world, but how FAITH is the full consummation of hope (as we need to trust God, who is the only one who can make things better, all other sources of hope will fail since only Jesus has conquered the ultimate enemy of death)

Creation:
Edinburgh is a great City of Art and Culture. If you take a stroll through the National Gallery of Scotland on Princes Street then you’ll see many pictures. Pictures evoke different responses and emotions in us. One that has always intrigued me is one by the Norwegian impressionist Edvard Munch, entitled “The Scream”. What makes it stand out is how it evokes despair and horror. He described in his diary in 1892 how the inspiration came as he saw a red sunset one evening and as the sun went down he saw blood and tongues of fire rising above the city of Nice and felt an “infinite scream passing through nature”.

When we look around our world today there appears much to despair and be horrified about in our cities as a scream passes through nature: e.g. financial collapse, unemployment, terrorism, natural disasters.

Against this background of despair and sadness, people look for hope…
… in people e.g. Barack Obama was touted as hope (PICTURE) - sadly he has failed to live up to the expectations
… sometimes people go looking for hope in social popularity, work promotion, or financial prosperity – only to find that when they get there, they are still just as unsatisfied
… sadly others turn to drink and drugs to numb the pain and escape the despair that comes from lacking hope amidst the turmoil of life.

We live in a broken world, we are all victims of that brokenness and we desperately need hope. But the things we turn to for hope only seem to work for a short time, but ultimately disappoint.

Christ:
I want to tell you tonight about a true and living hope: Jesus Christ (PICTURE)

We can only begin to have hope, if we understand the cause of the brokenness! The “infinite scream passing through nature” is the cry emanating from a broken relationship between God and His creation. This broken relationship was caused by sin, that is our rebellion against and abandonment of God. Sin can be described as placing your hopes and dreams in anything but God – to think that something, someone or yourself can give you all that you want so you don’t need to worry about God. The Bible says of our sin that each of us has turned to our own way, a way that is separated from God, living without reference to Him, and a way that will only lead to death and destruction. This extends to eternal death and separation from God after death. Thus, this broken world is actually the best thing going if you do not have God…that is what it means to have no hope!

How can this news possibly be the beginning of hope? Well simply because even though we all have gone our own way without God, God still loves us. He wants to restore us into relationship with Him. We can have hope as we suffer in a broken world if we know we have a good God who can fix the brokenness and bring good.

But you know hope is actually something LESS than what we really need, which is faith. I could live in London and hope to meet the Queen one day, but unless I have a relationship with her or someone close to her I will never get to enjoy the fulfillment of that hope. Likewise, we can hope that a good God will help us and heal us, but we need a relationship with Him in order to experience the fulfillment of that hope. A living relationship with God is something we can call FAITH. Christian hope is not about our wants or desires for the future…it’s about assurance and confidence about the future which comes from knowing the good and living God.

Let me illustrate this all important truth from one of the historical accounts of Jesus’ ministry in Mark’s gospel. Jesus heals a crippled man who had no hope in the world, just begged to try to get by and would have lived an awful life in the gutters and edges of society. This man has hope in Jesus to heal him of his physical brokenness, but He gets so much more. Jesus deals first with this man’s broken relationship with God as Jesus says: “your sins are forgiven”. This shows that the real hope this man needs is only found in having a relationship with God through having faith in Jesus; but this relationship is not possible unless our sins are forgiven. Jesus came to bring hope in the only way possible by dealing with our sin.

Choice:
Do you want to be set free from despair? Do you want to receive the free gift of hope – not only for this life but for all eternity? I want to leave you with this wonderful truth that faith in Jesus is the culmination of our desire for hope in this broken world. And because it is hope in a good God, we can have assurance that our faith will not disappoint.

Gospel Talk: The Most Valuable Gift This World Affords

2010-08-03T23:22:00.000+01:00

Room65 - The Most Valuable Gift This World Affords

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

the Bible is RELEVANT, God's Word is TRUE at all times and places, and it is God's INVITATION to know the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Welcome to Room65 at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Carrubbers is a church that has been working in the community here for 150 years now, and has a prime location between the castle at the top of the hill and the Queen’s palace at the bottom. I don’t know what you think about the British Royal Family, but whatever your views you will probably have heard of Prince William and maybe have a soft spot for him! He and his long-term girlfriend, Kate Middleton, just moved in with each other a few months ago fuelling rumours that the long-awaiting royal engagement is due any time! Now I’m getting married this year, but as much as I love my fiancé, our wedding is not going to be nearly as grand as this royal one!!! This is very exciting because this is the young heir to the throne and this will be his future queen! Let’s think a little bit about the Coronation Ceremony that one day we will witness for this couple.

When current Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey in 1953 at the height of the ceremony she was presented with a book accompanied with these words: 'Our Gracious Queen, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords.”
Imagine that, she is being given a crown worth millions, palaces and mansions all around the country; is the head of the British Commonwealth around the globe…but all of that pales into insignificance compared with this BOOK.

You know, this same Book was once considered the most dangerous book in the world: in England 500 years ago if you were found with a copy of it in English then you would be burnt alive at the stake along with it. Indeed, hundreds of good people lost their lives smuggling it into the country in bags of flour and wool. What book could really be so threatening to those in power?

Well before I tell you, let me add that this Book also makes the most astounding claims: it claims that it contains the Words of Life.

This book is none other than The Bible – the world’s best selling book: HAVE YOU EVER READ IT?

Maybe you’ve heard that far from containing the Words of Life, the Bible is irrelevant to life in our world today. Well do you see these issues as being ones we face today?:

 war
 poverty
 injustice
 love
 suffering
 forgiveness
 relationships
 death

The Bible has much to say on these issues and MANY MORE.

But it is not just the fact that it addresses relevant ISSUES that means you should read it, but also because it contains relevant ANSWERS. Maybe you’re asking though: how can a 2000 year-old book be relevant today? Only because it is authored by and contains the Words of the One who authoritatively knows how this world was meant to work in the first place, the one who is truly the ruling king and creator of all things: God! The Bible claims for itself that it is the very WORD OF GOD.

God is the king over all of creation. He made a wonderful and good creation to rule over with goodness and love. Men and women were meant to love and delight in being members of God’s kingdom…but they would not bow the knee to their king. Instead we all have rebelled against the king’s authority. We have broken His commands, which we find recorded in the Bible. We ignore the King in His own kingdom. Indeed we have decided that we will be kings and queens of our own little lives – which makes us REBELS in the sight of God and His kingdom.
*The Bible is amazing because it INTRODUCES US TO THE KING – WE MAY NEVER KNOW AND MEET PRINCE WILLIAM BUT WE CAN MEET THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS => we all will meet God the King one day at the end of our lives, but the question will be whether we will be received into His kingdom, or are punished as rebels for living in His world ignoring Him and His decrees.

The Bible tells us of Jesus, God’s Son, who was sent into this world to bring peace between the King and the Rebels. The Bible contains the Words of Life because it tells us how we can have life by accepting the invitation Jesus gives us to know God the King and be made right with Him again after our rebellion.

Let me share with you one of the amazing things Jesus says in the Bible: “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE; no man comes to God except through me” John 14:6.
 I AM THE WAY (The record of Jesus in the Bible gives us an invitation to be introduced to the King)
 THE TRUTH (Jesus and the Bible deals relevantly with all the issues we face in reality because it is written by the Creator who made the very fabric of this reality)
 THE LIFE (The Bible not only directs us in how to live, but tells us that true life comes from being restored into a right relationship with the creator King from whom all life comes and by being forgiven for our rebellion: “I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly” John 10:10)

Please take away with you a portion of this book (John’s Gospel) which is the most valuable thing this world has, the Words of God. In John’s gospel (which I quoted from earlier) you can be introduced to Jesus, the king and receive an invitation to receive true abundant life for ever in His kingdom.

Gospel Talk: The Invention of Lying

2010-08-03T23:21:00.000+01:00

Room65 - The Invention of Lying

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

crutches in life and the reality of RESURRECTED ETERNAL LIFE

Creation:
Last year a film starring the world famous comedian Ricky Gervais was released called: “The Invention of Lying” set in a world where everyone only knew how to tell the truth – no matter how embarrassing or difficult. Everyone…other than Ricky’s character, who discovers he is able to say things which are not the truth; He invents lying. He goes on to change the world after spending time with his mother the night she dies. He seeks to comfort her in her pain and fears about death being the beginning of “an eternity of nothingness” – by telling her that after she dies there is a joyful afterlife in Heaven. The doctors and nurses overhear this and he becomes a global celebrity as millions are comforted by this false hope of an afterlife.

There are many people who agree with the philosophy underlying this film’s parody: religion and the belief in life after death is only a fanciful crutch to prop us up against the scary reality of death.

…What do you think?

As a Christian I want to be honest with you tonight, that my faith in God and belief in His promises that there is life after death are a tremendous comfort in a world full of pain, which will end for all of us in the grief of death.

Christ:
Whatever we believe or do not believe about an afterlife, we all know that this life is short and full of struggles – the Bible teaches that we live in a broken world that is not the way it is meant to be. God made a good world where we enjoyed life with Him – as the source and the sustainer of all life. However, a terrible decision has been made by each and everyone of us throughout history (some of us consciously in blatant rejection of God; others in subconscious rebellion against God by simply ignoring Him in the world He has made). This problem of sin is the ultimate cause of the brokenness we see around us; and has only one outcome: death and punishment for us. Many people seek to escape this reality of life in many different ways (television, money, work, success, popularity, drugs, drink, sex). I genuinely believe that all of us are in search of some kind of crutch. But Christianity rather than distract us from the stark reality of life in a broken world, forces us to look the awful nature of death and judgement in the face. It promises us restoration to the source of life, God, if we believe in His Son Jesus for forgiveness.

Comfort is useless unless it is based in reality and truth. We can have false comfort, but it will ultimately fail when we die and have to face judgement for our turning away from God.

The only way we will ever know if there is a reality to life after death, is if someone were to die (unquestionably) and come back to life again to tell us. There is an event in history which beyond a shadow of a doubt establishes it: Jesus’ death and His resurrection back to life three days later. Here we have a man put to death on a Cross – from which we get the word “excruciating” (it was such an awful way to die they made up a new word for its pain). The expert Roman executioners make sure He is dead by thrusting a spear into His side, which causes blood and water to flow out, showing His heart had stopped for some time. Hours later they put Him into a tomb, just another day at the office.

Jesus’ followers didn’t understand what He meant when He claimed to be the Son of God so when these events took place they ran away: their hopes about this Jesus crushed to death, literally. But then three days later they saw the dead man ALIVE. They saw the scars from His horrendous death and finally got it. Here was an event that never had happened before: a conclusively dead man had risen again. They weren’t the only witnesses either, there were 500 witnesses at one time who also saw Him in Jerusalem – those who called for Him to be killed were converted to believe He truly was God by seeing both His death and His resurrection.

These historical events establish that we can have comfort knowing that there is a hope of life after death which is firmly grounded in reality. Indeed the Bible is so confident of this reality, that it states boldly “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). For only if He rose again and we ask Jesus to forgive us from our sins have we any right to take comfort in the belief of life after death. Otherwise all we have is another crutch that will only disappoint us when we face death and judgement:

Choice
So tonight maybe your idea of Christianity only being a crutch has been challenged, but I want to ask you what you’re going to do with what you’ve heard: “If was sick, I would be a fool not to call the doctor because of some perceived stigma attached to not being well. Just so, when I become aware of my sin, it would be folly not to call upon the one who can forgive me and give me life after death.”

Therefore, far from a belief in life after death being the invention of lying; the truth is that God has invented a way for us to have life after death: through the death of His Son on the Cross who died on our behalf for our sin so that we would not have to die eternally.

If you would like to examine the Bible’s account of the resurrection of Jesus, please take away with you this piece of literature…

Gospel Talk: Selling Your Soul to Gamestation

2010-08-03T23:20:00.000+01:00

Room65 – Selling Your Soul to Gamestation

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

Thinking about spiritual realities properly and how Jesus has REDEEMED your sold soul as we all have sold out to sin!

Creation:
My name’s David, I’ve just graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in law. Over the last four years I’ve learnt how important it is to always read the small print. However, most people don’t and to highlight this potential danger High-street retailer GameStation recently slipped into their contracts with gamers that they sold their immaterial and eternal souls to the company. 7500 people without reading the terms and conditions sold their souls – the good news is that the retailer has sent them all a letter revoking any claim they have over their souls.

This fun story tells us a bit about the dangers of not reading the small print, but on a more serious level it makes me wonder if people would care about selling their souls if they knew that term was in the contract. We live in a world where so many people think and care so little about their souls that they would see getting something at the cost of their soul as being a real bargain – as the transaction doesn’t cost them anything materially.

Talking about the “soul” goes against how we often think today, because we are more worried about physical/material things, than we are about spiritual things concerning our souls.

Yet, no matter where you go in the world you will find that people instinctively do care about spiritual things. If you were to go deep into the jungle you would struggle to find people groups and tribes who are atheists like many people here in the West. There seems to be an inherent desire in mankind to reach out to something spiritual, something that is beyond ourselves – even though people are VERY CONFUSED as to what it is! Maybe you don’t think you’re spiritual…but do you not have questions about: what is the purpose of your life, what your destiny is, what lies after death? You see we all have this inherent desire to know our spiritual or metaphysical place in the universe, both in this life and the next.

One writer and thinker, C.S. Lewis, put it this way: we are hungry with a desire for food, because in reality there is a thing called food which can satisfy that desire. And we have a spiritual desire for our souls, because there is a spiritual reality to our existence and there is a God who can satisfy that desire.

Christ:
As Christians (followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of God), we believe that our souls’ desire for God is one of the most important things in this life. Jesus knew people had physical needs which He ministered to: He healed the sick of their incurable diseases, He caused the lame to walk, He fed the hungry, He even raised the dead. But what He emphasised as of the greatest importance were peoples’ spiritual needs saying that if we are to lose our souls then that is the worst possible thing: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:23)

First of all, what is the soul that makes it so important? I have an acronym that doesn’t take a degree in philosophy or metaphysics to understand:
THE SOUL – acronym
THE
Self (with an)
Opportunity (for)
Unending
Life

Our soul is the part of our existence (our “SELF”) that can survive the death of our physical bodies and has the potential for everlasting life. When I speak to older people, they tell me to treasure my youth because life is short – they’re right this life is short, and is incomparably short when measured against the vast, endless span of eternity after this life. Jesus says that if we sell out our souls in this life, then we will have lost them for all eternity! Whatever riches, pleasures you have in this life are not worth the eternal destruction of your unending soul. THE STAKES ARE HIGH IN THIS BUSINESS OF SELLING YOUR SOUL

Selling out your soul for temporary things is something Jesus calls SIN. The Bible describes how all of mankind has decided to turn away from the spring of life found in having relationship with the living God, and instead invested in broken tanks of their own making which cannot hold any water. So we all face the fact that our soul’s spiritual desires are left unsatisfied, and our very lives are leaking away as we face death, both physically in this life and for all eternity. The Soul can only have unending life if it knows the living God but we have sold out and bought death. This is a terrible problem, but Jesus has a solution.

Choice:
Jesus has REDEEMED (bought back) your sold out soul!
Redemption means to buy back something that has been lost – we all have lost of our souls because of our sin. But we can find the true satisfaction for our souls in this life and in the next by coming back to Jesus and receiving a free gift: the redemption of our sold-out souls. All we need to do is come to Jesus and ask for it!

Will you sell out your soul (your Self with an Opportunity for Unending Life)? Or will you take seriously that inner desire you have to know your place in the universe, what is the meaning of life and that desire to reach beyond yourself to know God…if so you need to come to Jesus.

*ask the Room65 team member at your table: ‘What has Jesus done to buy back my soul’

Gospel Talk: Larger Than Life Superheroes

2010-08-03T23:18:00.000+01:00

Room65 – Larger Than Life SUPERHEROES

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

the gospel is greatest RESCUE and action story in history - most heroes always appear as larger than life to save the day; Jesus is God INCARNATE come down into human flesh in weakness to save us (AND far from being fiction it is fact!)

Creation:
Superheroes: we see them in films, books and comics.
• Whether it’s Batman saving Gotham City from the Joker;
• Superman saving the world from the schemes of Lex Luther;
• the list goes on and on: Iron Man, The Terminator.

Usually they are super-human with incredible strength, endurance and even indestructible. They almost always save the world through some daring rescue – sometimes as the climax of the story by giving their own life

Their enemies and dangers to the world come in all shapes and sizes: maybe it’s an asteroid, a rogue nuclear state, terrorists, or just a twisted evil genius.

It makes for a thrilling fictional tale.

However, the Bible tells us the real life story about a divine rescue operation, where God has to save mankind from its greatest danger: itself, and from its greatest universal enemy: death. These two are connected (by sin!) Sin is the word used to describe the self-inflicted injury on mankind’s relationship with God – instead of living our lives loving, honouring and obeying God, each of us have rebelled against Him by ignoring Him and His rules in the world He created. God just, and He must have justice for the crimes and rebellion that we have waged against Him both consciously and unconsciously. But God is also loving and so He did not just leave us to perish and be judged, instead He embarked on the most amazing rescue story for you and me.

Christ:
Maybe you’ve heard of Jesus…he’s a bit of an unsuspecting hero. Here was a Middle Eastern carpenter who came from a small town with a bad reputation, who had lost his father at an early age so had to care for and provide for his family. If you looked at Him, His appearance would not impress you!

Yet this was a young man who had the most spectacular beginnings. His conception was announced time to his surprised virgin mother, his birth announced around the countryside by angels, whose entire life biography had been written hundreds of years before he had even been born. His life was just as amazing as He performed incredible miracles, and taught people like no one else ever had done or has since. He also made an astounding claim: to be God’s son come down to earth on the greatest rescue mission in human history.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16 -17).

Jesus was special because He was the God Man (Emmanuel – God with us)
 not God over us (as a fearful angry judge)
 not God under us (as someone we can treat with contempt and walk all over thinking He will let us off)
 God WITH us (to show us His majesty, power and His love while experiencing the trials and troubles of this life alongside us!)

Unlike superheroes He didn’t have incredible strength or indestructibility (and that’s what makes Him special because He has suffered in everyway the same way we do) => that is what is absolutely remarkable, that God who needs nothing from anything else, who is all powerful, all knowing…He became a baby, He felt pain, and hunger, and cold. He suffered and experienced everything that you and have and ever could experience. He even experienced death.

Coming into this world as a human in terrible humility and weakness, Jesus showed us God’s INCREDIBLE LOVE for people who are rebels against Him, who deserve nothing but judgement and death, but in His love He came to RESCUE us. *Usually heroes rescue good people, but Jesus came to rescue people who were not good, we are sinners. That makes this rescue mission incredible!

He took on mankind’s greatest enemy who is an enemy to each and everyone of us: death. By dying on the Cross He took our punishment we deserve for our sin, so we would be rescued from the judgement to come. Jesus is also the true basis for all these other copycat superheroes who give up their lives to save the world. But Jesus’ true victory was in that the grave could not hold Him and instead He rose again to life. Now all of us who trust in Jesus, who are forgiven of our sinful rebellion against Him also receive His victory over death and so we will have eternal life for the grave will not have power over us either.

Call:
All the superheroes we watch, and read and enjoy, they are all FICTIONAL and larger than life. But Jesus is real and far from being larger than life, He was God come down into our lives to rescue us.

Jesus was not larger than life: Jesus is the way for us to have life.

So let’s look at that verse again: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” – you can be rescued. Will you believe and trust Jesus to save and rescue you from your sins?

If you want to read and learn more about His love and saving rescue then please take away this little booklet which will tell you more about it.

Gospel Talk: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

2010-08-03T23:17:00.000+01:00

Room65 - The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

Jesus did not come as a teacher, a liar or as a founder of ritualistic dead religion; rather the REAL JESUS came to restore us into a living RELATIONSHIP with God

Creation:
You may be familiar with the international best-selling author Philip Pullman, or some of his award winning books like the “His Dark Materials” trilogy. They happen to be my favourite modern works of fiction.
He released a new book, after he was asked why he had never written about Jesus Christ – despite having written much which was anti-Christianity. He entitled this book: “The Good Man JESUS and the scoundrel CHRIST” and it is a mythological version of the historical accounts in the Bible concerning Jesus Christ.

The myth sees Jesus and Christ as two twin brothers. Christ wants to make his brother Jesus into a messianic figure at the head of a global institutional church. However, Jesus just wants to be an idealist and a teacher of people calling them to sort their lives out and stop living in a way that displeases God. Christ writes down all he sees and hears of Jesus and edits these stories to leave a better legacy than the facts of his rash and abrupt brother’s life would leave. Christ goes so far as to say the resurrection of his brother Jesus was a staged cover-up and lie in order to try to inspire people to set up a powerful religious organisation; thus why Christ was a scoundrel and a liar.

Christ:
Now I am not going to try to show you tonight how Pullman is historically wrong …he admits on the back cover: “THIS IS JUST A STORY. However, this book is onto something: RELIGION is a problem!

It seeks to do good but often ends up alienating people and hurting them; it puts burdens on them and turns what is meant to be a living relationship of love between you and God, into one of drudgery and ceremony. VERY SADLY religion can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, and actually have totally misrepresented what Jesus actually said and is like.

It is true Jesus established a community of people called His “Church”, but the church is not an organisation, it is not a fancy building, it is a meeting on a Sunday with ceremonies and rituals. No the church is made up of individuals who LOVE and FOLLOW the living son of God, Jesus Christ - it is not just dead ceremony and ritual!

Why do we as Christians love Jesus and why do we obey what He has to say? Well it comes back to why Jesus came => He came to rescue sinners from themselves and give them an opportunity to come back to God to have abundant life.

Sinners don’t need religion, they need Jesus, so both religious portrayals of Jesus Christ in Pullman’s myth misrepresent what the REAL Jesus was about:
=> Jesus of moralism (preaching at you to live a good life and standing over your shoulder telling you not to do things) is the wrong focus because we never can be good enough for God in the first place – it will only ever lead to self-righteous pride or despair
=> Christ of institutions (building a dead religious organisation) is wrong because religion is about doing rituals and things so God owes you something, it’s about having power to manipulate God to our own ends – rather than about having relationship with Jesus.

The truth is we all are in rebellion against God: some people go wild rebelling against His authority, other people go religious wanting to manipulate His authority. One wants to ignore God; the other wants power over God – the effect is the same: SIN, SEPARATION from God, and DEATH!

In Matthew’s gospel, the REAL JESUS told a story of two brothers: one went off wild wasting all his father’s wealth, the other sat at home being obedient to his father but always because he wanted to get his own way in the home. The first was a prodigal sinner, the second was a religious sinner – Jesus concluded that both were in need of salvation!

We are all dead in sin, the prodigal outwardly looks like they need Jesus; but the religious can appear to be ok on the outside yet inside are just as dead as Jesus warned: “you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matt 23:27-29). That is what religion often can be like, and I am sorry if that has been your experience.

BUT the REAL JESUS came to free sinners from the burdens of religion and consequences of their rebellion. He shows sinners grace by giving them a free gift of what they never deserved: forgiveness for their sins! I have sinned both rebelliously and religiously! But now I am a Christian - I have true peace, because I have relationship with Jesus and know He has saved me. It doesn’t depend on me, my morals, my consistency, my giving money, my attending church – it all depends on His loving death for me on the Cross when He was punished for my rebellious and religious sins so I could be forgiven and made right with God.

Choice:
I do not know where you have come from tonight, whether you go to church or not, or what your experience is of Religion. But I would like to suggest to you to take away this Gospel with you tonight. Read for yourself about Jesus Christ, see what He did, hear what He taught, see His great love for you which He demonstrated by dying on the Cross to save you and forgive you from your sins.

Come meet the REAL JESUS, who was not a myth, was not just a religious figure and not an ethical teacher. He is God!

Gospel Talk: AVATAR

2010-08-03T23:16:00.000+01:00

Room65 - AVATAR

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

AVATAR: focus on creator not creation; not oneness with the universe but RECONCILIATION with God the creator

Creation:
Perhaps you have seen James Cameron’s epic 3d film AVATAR. This film was more than 15 years in the making. The film is set in 2154, when humans mine a precious mineral and treasure called unobtainium on Pandora. The richest deposit of the mineral is beneath the settlement of the native Na’vi race, who would have to be destroyed to get to it. The human hero Jake unites thousands of Na'vi in a bid to repel the humans. Jake prays to Eywa and spiritually connects with her at the Tree of Souls, she is believed to be a nature goddess present in all living things, to intercede on behalf of the Na'vi in the coming battle. During this important battle against the humans, who hope to destroy the Tree of Souls to cripple the Na’vi religion and culture, the Pandoran wildlife suddenly join in to overwhelm the humans, an event we are meant to interpret as goddess Eywa answering Jake's prayer.

Tonight I want to talk about two prominent themes in AVATAR. You see AVATAR is not just a fun film with lots of cool graphics and action, it is a film with a message trying to communicate the writer’s worldview.

1) Focus on the goodness of natural creation: the film portrays nature on Pandora as an exotic natural treasure. This is in contrast to the human corporations who seek to devour the natural treasures of Pandora to fuel their industries which only pollute and corrupt the good creation.

2) Oneness with nature and the spiritual forces of nature: throughout the film, Jake learns about how he can bond with nature and the exotic animals of Pandora, becoming one with them and finding unity with otherwise wild nature and the spiritual force of the goddess Eywa throughout all nature.

Many people today have a worldview with ideas like this, maybe you’ve heard of the New Age movement, which is a repackaged form of the ancient idea of pantheism and promoted by Oprah. Pantheism believes that God is everything and everything is part of God – we need to experience our oneness with the energy of everything and realise that we are God. Until then taking care of nature to preserve its purity and beauty, respecting all life because we are all from the one source with nature. => ourselves and all of creation becomes a false god.

Christ:
BUT I want to take a few minutes to present to you an alternative worldview which is presented to us in the Bible:
AVATAR’s worldview in personifying nature misses the personal God who is the creator. Scientists say that our Universe had a beginning called the big bang, when all the matter and time came into existence – but they cannot tell us what caused it. However logically it’s impossible for something like this universe to just happen out of nothing, so there needed to be an intelligent creator behind it. Science cannot tell us about Him, so it depends on Him to reveal Himself to us which I believe He has done through the Bible and His Son Jesus Christ who He sent to Earth. God created all the wonderful things in nature as pure and good, and to display His beauty and His creativity in all the incredible wonders we can see under the sea, on the land and up in the sky above at night. Rather than His creation being the thing deserving worship (which is idolatry); His creation displays His worthiness of being worshipped by us.

This worldview also misses the fact that while nature was created to be a good thing and should be properly respected, that it should not be our focus or something that we worship because it is cursed. Scientists also agree that this universe has a problem with the energy in it winding down (it’s called entropy) and that this will eventually mean the universe collapses. All the death, deformity, mutation, cancers and decay in this natural world is a sign of the brokenness that penetrates all creation, including ourselves. Both humans and all of nature are dying!

The cause of all this brokenness is because we have chosen to take the gift of this wonderful world, and ignore the giver, God. In a sense we worship the created things, and refuse to worship the creator. We ignore His created order and rules for how it is meant to work: the most important rule is to love God with all of our hearts (something none of us have ever done)… instead we are idolaters. Either we care more about “green issues” than God issues (environmentalism) or we worship the creation as a god and seek to become one with it (pantheism), rather than worshipping the one who created all things and know Him. The outcome for this idolatry can only be judgement and death, as God punishes us for our idolatrous sin.

However, the good news is that there is a way for us to come back to God, and to be RECONCILED to Him. Jesus came not for us to worship a cursed creation and to become one with it, rather He took the punishment for our idolatry when He died on the Cross. Jesus has made it possible for us to be forgiven, so we can be RECONCILED to God and so the creation can be RESTORED from its brokenness.

Choice:
The film’s treasure was unobtainium, but the gospel treasure is obtainable through believing in Jesus the restorer of creation and reconciler of humanity to God.

I would love you to take away with you tonight a copy of Matthew’s gospel, where you can learn more about Jesus and his plan for reconciling you to God and restoring creation.

Praying Series #27 Constant Prayer

2010-07-27T12:55:00.001+01:00

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)

Week 4 – Paul’s Prayers: We finish our month of prayer and daily messages on prayer today. Thank you for praying and reading! We finish with an instruction for Paul which I think is very significant for us in the month of mission we are about to embark upon together at Room 65. We are right to be excited about the next four weeks of mission, because we are filled with hope for what God is going to do through us and all the people we can share the life changing message of the gospel with. Let’s pray we never lose that incredible hope and trust in the power of God to save people and change lives. We will need patience for times when we are struggling physically, emotionally, mentally from our busy lives and busy time of mission (and even spiritually suffering from sin and the enemy’s attacks). There will also be times of difficult conversations, difficult visitors to the café, and difficult situations (sadly even among us as a team of saints who continue to struggle with sin). Let’s pray for God to help us to be loving and patient with one another and everyone else in those times of tribulation. We will need to be constantly going to God in prayer, because we are 100% dependent on God for all things – Room 65 stands and falls with God sustaining, working, providing and moving. If there is one thing I hope and pray we have learned this last month, it’s that we need to be constant in prayer – not just during Room65 but everyday of our lives in this world! What if His People Prayed?...let’s see what happens because His people prayed!

Listen to this worship music today before you come to God in prayer.

Sign-up for the free Room65 Pod-cast on ITunes for regular updates and features over the next few weeks.

Pray today and join us tonight at 530pm in Carrubbers praying for Room65:
• Pray that the Lord will help and convict you of the need to be constant in prayer
• Pray for Week 1 of Room65 starting tomorrow evening
• Pray for everyone taking part in the teams in Week 1
• Pray for yourself that the Lord will equip you and give you opportunities to serve and minister at Room65

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twenty-Seventh Lesson – “Christ the High Priest”
- Read online
- Listen online
If you have been reading/listening to Murray then there are a few more chapters left to read, so please finish them off if you can - they will be a real blessing to you!

Praying Series #26 Gospel Ministry

2010-07-27T12:53:00.002+01:00

“We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3)

Week 4 – Paul’s Prayers: Paul often talks about faith, hope and love as being the badges of true followers of Jesus. Here he writes and prays for a young church plant and their witness in a city full of opposition to their gospel witness. He prays that all their gospel work will flow out of the reality of their faith in Jesus. All of their gospel ministry and outreach is produced by their FAITH in the loving God who has shown His love in His Son. All their hard work, sweat and tears in labouring for the gospel comes from the LOVE they have received from Jesus and subsequent love they have towards the lost in their community. Then their endurance and long-suffering in the face of trouble was their HOPE in the coming of Jesus one day to receive them to Himself, deliver them from the darkness of the present world, and restore creation in the New Heavens and New Earth. Let’s be praying for our gospel ministry at Room 65 (and the rest of the year too), asking God to help us to be motivated in all we do by the gospel’s message of faith, hope and love. The gospel is not just the message we proclaim as followers of Jesus, the gospel is now our lives and work itself!

Listen to this worship music today before you come to God in prayer.

Sign-up for the free Room65 Pod-cast on ITunes for regular updates and features over the next few weeks.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Wayne’s Office praying in Thanksgiving:

Give thanks that God has given us faith, shown us His love, and enables us to persevere in the hard work of gospel ministry because of the sure hope we have in Jesus Christ
Give thanks for God’s providence in giving the vision to Moody of having a building on the Royal Mile, which now is at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival and able to reach thousands with the gospel
Give thanks that God will bring in many hundreds of people in many different stages of the Lord’s work in their lives
Give thanks for all of the people serving on teams at Room 65 who the Lord has called and supplied for His work
Give thanks for the American team who are coming to serve and bless the mission for the last week of August

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twenty-Sixth Lesson – “Christ the Intercessor”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #25 Gospel Partnership

2010-07-27T12:51:00.002+01:00

“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:4-6)

Week 4 – Paul’s Prayers: Paul always remembered in his prayers that he was a member of a team of gospel workers, made up of every member of the body of Christ. We are all together in gospel partnership with each other and other believers. Carrubbers is part of a gospel partnership with other churches at one level; but more fundamentally each of us are in partnership with each other – true fellowship is this serving and worshipping the Lord together! We should remember that as we pray for each other, and as we live and serve together. Let’s be praying that we will bring one another joy by encouraging each other in our walks with the Lord, by carrying each other during the hard times, and by celebrating with each other in the good times. But let’s also remember that our gospel partnership is most importantly with the Lord Jesus Himself. He who began the work of saving men and women will carry it on until He has saved all the people He has redeemed for Himself. He has saved us already and will continue the work of making us sanctified until the day when He takes us to be with Himself, delivering us from the presence of sin and evil forever. Until that day we get to join in His gospel mission of delivering the good news of salvation, calling lost men and women to repent and be reconciled to God.

Listen to this worship music today before you come to God in prayer.

Sign-up for the free Room65 Pod-cast on ITunes for regular updates and features over the next few weeks.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Wayne’s Office praying for Managing Team and Spiritual Warfare:

Give thanks that God’s good work in our lives and in the lives of those He is going to save is assured to succeed and be completed
Pray for the managers of each week as they seek to co-ordinate all the different teams
Pray that they will have attention to the little details of things in the café which need sorted throughout the nights
Pray against the attacks of the enemy on Room65 during the evenings and all us serving throughout the week
Pray for us all as we engage in spiritual warfare for the souls of men and women

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twenty-Fifth Lesson – “The Holy Spirit and Prayer”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #24 Thanksgiving

2010-07-27T12:50:00.001+01:00

“And we pray…giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:12-14)

Week 4 – Paul’s Prayers: Paul understood that he had a lot to be thankful for: having been a persecutor of the church, he understood God’s grace in saving and forgiving him. In his prayer today he simply offers thanksgiving to God for the gospel. We often spend so much time in prayer asking God for things; let’s just be content to worship God in prayer through thanksgiving today, and let’s seek to always have a balanced prayer life involving thanksgiving worship. Let’s be thankful for the gospel and His entrusting it to us as jars of clay so that its light might shine out through the cracks. Let’s be thankful that we have been delivered out of the dominion of darkness where we were slaves to sin and objects of wrath, and instead have been set free to be servants of God’s kingdom where we find forgiveness, hope and grace to overcome the continuing presence of sin in our lives. Let’s be thankful for the great inheritance we have been grafted into sharing with all the church as the bride of Christ. Let’s be thankful for the opportunity to bring the gospel to others at Room65.

Listen to this worship music today before you come to God in prayer.
Sign-up for the free Room65 Pod-cast on ITunes for regular updates and features over the next few weeks.

Pray today and join us tonight in Wayne’s Office at 8pm praying for the Production/AV Teams:

Pray that this prayer of thanksgiving is one which we can teach to many new believers who are rescued by Christ through Room 65
For the technical equipment to work smoothly without any errors or break downs
For skill in setting up each night to get opened up at 8pm
For the clarity of sound, that people can pick out the words of the songs when they listen.
For the over-all balance of volume in the café. This can be very challenging, as people will have different perceptions of what's loud enough/ too loud!

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twenty-Fourth Lesson – “The All-Prevailing Plea”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #23 God's Power

2010-07-27T12:48:00.002+01:00

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Week 4 – Paul’s Prayers: Paul prays in this amazing doxology that God's glory will be displayed through His mighty acts of power in the church. This is one of Paul's great desires as an apostle and church planter: that people will be saved by God's power, they will be discipled bringing about maturity in Christ, and that God's glory will be proclaimed to the world as it looks at His gospel community. These themes flow through all Paul's letters and his prayers - and they are things that we can learn to be praying for too. It is God's incredible power that can change the heart of a rebel sinner into a heart that loves Him; it is God's incredible power working within us which sustains us as gospel workers and transforms us each day more into the likeness of Christ; and it is God's incredible power (demonstrated in creation, healing, blessing, and crucially the resurrection of Jesus) that displays His glory to the world. It is God's power that is at work in us as we come to serve at Room 65. We cannot ask too much of Him to bless the work, to save people, to give us the stamina to do the work. When we realise the greatness of God in this way, then our prayer lives can become alive because we realise that we can be bold in what we pray for, we can pray in expectancy and confidence that we will see God answer and do incredible things for His glory in this world and in our lives. Let's ask God to move in power in our lives and Room 65 and let's give thinks that He'll probably surprise us as our imaginations cannot even begin to fathom His power!

Listen to this worship music today before you come to God in prayer.

Sign-up for the free Room65 Pod-cast on ITunes for regular updates and features over the next few weeks.

Pray today and join us tonight in Wayne’s Office at 8pm praying for Street Reach and Our Confidence in the Gospel:

Give thanks that we have Almighty God, who we cannot ask too much of, on our side in all that we do for His glory and kingdom in Room 65
Pray that we all would be convinced of the life changing reality of the gospel and live it out as we serve at Room 65
Pray that there'll be enough people on the team for us to go out! – pray that God will give you the courage to join us for a night!
Pray that people would stop to listen and God would open hearts to understand their need of Jesus

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twenty-Third Lesson – “Obedience the Path to Power in Prayer”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #22 Overflow of Love

2010-07-26T19:15:00.002+01:00

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Week 4 – Paul’s Prayers: Paul prays that the church would be assured with the knowledge of God’s inexhaustible love shown to us in the person of Jesus Christ; that His love would be the motivation for our new lives of obedience and holiness; and that it would continually cause us to come in reverent awe of God as we realise how incomprehensible that love is to our finite minds. The all conquering love of Jesus is one aspect of the fullness of God, and we are to seek to allow God’s infinite fullness to saturate every area of our lives, filling us to overflowing. John Piper has said that true love for people is the overflow of our hearts filled with the joy of the Lord, which is found in our living relationship with Him. If we are to be displaying Christ in our lives at Room65 this needs to be our prayer, that people who see us will see the fullness of God manifested and overflowing from our lives. Therefore let us strive to be vessels filled with Christ’s love: seek, knock ask for it more in prayer; seek to feed upon it in scripture and meditation upon the Word; remember all that Christ has done and how much He has forgiven you; wait on the Holy Spirit in expectation of a fuller understanding and filling of Christ’s love that comes from that communion with Him in Spirit and Truth.

Listen to this worship music as you come asking to be filled with the love and fullness of God.

Sign-up for the free Room65 Pod-cast on ITunes for regular updates and features over the next few weeks.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Wayne’s Office praying for Table Conversations:

Give thanks for the incredible love of God shown in Jesus which we are to pursue a greater understanding of, but which we can never get our minds around!
Pray you will be filled up with God’s inexhaustible measure of love to the point where you cannot help but overflow that love to others
Pray for the Lord to be preparing the ground of the hearts of people who He will be bringing along to Room65
Pray that the seeds sown through these conversations might yield a crop of repentance and salvation as the Lord continues to work in the lives of those we meet
Pray that the Lord would provide answers to hard questions

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twenty-Second Lesson – “The Word and Prayer”
- Read online
- Listen online

Ephesians 5:21-6:9 "The Gospel Lived Out: Marriage, Family and Work"

2010-07-25T23:32:00.002+01:00

Ephesians 5:21-6:9 “The Gospel Lived Out: Marriage, Families and Work”

The last three weeks have considered how the gospel affects how we live the gospel in this world, with a particular focus on living in a way that pleases God in that vertical relationship we have. The focus this week is primarily horizontally focused on our relationships in the home and workplace. V.21 sets out the general principle for the Christian life which is that we are to submit to one another, that is to look to each other’s good and interests, rather than ourselves, in reverence to Jesus. He has set us free from our selfish old self, and given us a new self which is self-sacrificial in love as we seek to be incarnational in our gospel living.

1) The Gospel Shaped Marriage (v.22-33)
*It is crucial to see that every time Paul says that a husband or wife should do something in such a way, it is always followed up by saying: “as to the Lord” (v.22), “even as Christ” (v.23), “submits to Christ, so also…” (v.24), “as Christ” (v.25), “in the same way” (v.28), “just as Christ” (v.29), “refers to Christ and the church” (v.32). It is as John Piper says in his book “This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence” the purpose of the marriage relationship in this life is not to stay in love; rather it is to put on display God’s love and covenant faithfulness to the world. This has always been the purpose of marriage, but it was something hidden in the Old Testament only to be fully revealed in the New, thus why Paul says (quoting Genesis) the one flesh union of man and wife is a “mystery” (v.31-32).

A) Picture for wives:
• submits to her husband as a picture of how the church submits to Christ. The church lovingly and willingly submits to Christ, because of the incredible love and care He has shown her in His self-sacrificial offering of His life so she might have life. Likewise a wife is to love her husband and willingly submit to him as he seeks to care for her and lead.
• Submitting also involves submitting to authority, because Jesus has authority over His church. The husband’s authority comes from Christ and is “in everything” (v.24) [in fuller context of scripture and pastorally-minded, provided it is not contrary to scripture, violating her God-given conscience, or leading to sin]. The husband is given a God-given responsibility as her “head” – just as Christ is the head of the church (v.23). This does not mean a dictatorship, but rather than he has the primary responsibility to protect, provide and lead the relationship according to God’s will – just as Adam did in the original creation *this is a principle of creation, not a matter of culture! (See 1 Corinthians 14 for more on this)
• Stott’s commentary says: “whenever the husband’s headship mirrors the headship of Christ, then the wife’s submission to the protection and provision of his love, far from detracting from her womanhood, will positively enrich it”.

B)Picture for husbands:
• is to self-sacrificially love his wife as Christ has given up Himself for the church (a very high calling and demanding responsibility men!) (v.25).
• this works out as having initiative (not necessarily doing everything all the time though), as the head has the initiative that causes and leads the rest of the body to respond and act.
• This also works out as leading spiritually so that he is involved in his wife’s sanctification by seeking to lead them both before the Lord in prayer, scripture study (v.26) and serving in the church. Husbands are stewards of their wives; who ultimately are the bride of Christ. Husbands are part of Christ’s means of working through the Holy Spirit, so that He might present the church and wives to His father as holy and blameless (v.27).
• Another call against ill treatment, dictatorship or despising his wife is the saying that we are to nourish and cherish (v.29) our wives as we do our own bodies (v.28), for this is a very practical illustration to us to show us the very minimum of what our self-sacrificial loving authority is to be like
*A really helpful observation shared in the group was that this picture of marriage makes the temptation to go out with a non-Christian fade away, because this picture is only possible between two followers of Jesus.

*It was also remarked that given the seriousness of marriage and relationships, it is not something to worry about being single and not being in a relationship as that gives time for undivided service of the Lord

So these two pictures are reciprocal, the husband initiates the sacrificial love and the wife responds in love and submission.

2) The Gospel Shaped Family (v.1-4)
There is another reciprocal picture here: children have the duty to obey their parents (v.1), which means the parents have the right to expect obedience. But parents have the responsibility not to provoke their children to wrath (v.4), which gives the children a right to be well treated.

It is said bluntly and simply: “for this is right” (v.1), which then is expanded by saying it is one of the Ten Commandments (v.2-3)– since these are given by God as His intended order for life in this world then it can be simply stated as being right, for God is perfectly righteous and so is His law.

The gospel motivation here is that Jesus was entirely obedient to the will of His Father in going to the Cross, even when it was hardest in Gethsemane he said: “Not my will, but thine be done”. So we are to be obedient like Jesus. Also in His earthly life He was obedient and honoured His parents in all times – even when He ran off to the Temple at the age of 12 He honoured and respected His parents when they found Him and were annoyed at Him for scaring them. Even though He was right to be in His Father’s house, He did address His parents with respect and obeyed them by going home at that time. Likewise the gospel motivation for parents is the patient, forbearing love of the Father who overlooked the past sins in patience waiting to deal with them on the Cross – His grace is immense when we consider that we all deserved to perish with Adam and Eve without ever being born.

How this works out in a non-Christian context is more difficult, because this teaching is to Christians who are called to live according to the gospel. Do we have to always obey our parents if they command us not to attend church? Not to read our Bibles or pray? Again this is a situation where our allegiance is always to be to God first. However, how that allegiance works out depends on factors of age and circumstances we concluded. So as John Stott suggests a young child ordered not to go to church might need to obey that command until they reach the age of majority, but they cannot accept an order not to pray or read their Bible. *Although as stated this is not the final word and each situation must be approached individually.

Also we concluded that age does not change the fact that we are to always honour our parents, as the commandment says. This involves more than obedience, it involves including them in our decision processes, looking for their input, caring for them in old age, supporting them financially, giving them love and encouragement as they have given so much to us. Also in unbelieving families it means loving them so much that we battle through the difficulties to share with them the gospel so their souls may be saved.

3) The Gospel Shaped Workplace (v.5-9)
Finally another reciprocal relationship is to be found in the workplace: the worker (slave here or servant, although not the doulos, as here is pictured slaves who have limited rights and some pay, and also the hope of being released from their slavery) is under a duty to serve their master, but the master has the duty to treat their workers properly and kindly (v.5, 9)

The worker is not just to perform when being watched by their master or just to please people half-hearted. The master is not to be cruel imagining that their special position of authority and wealth gives them any right or power to do what they wish with their servants. The gospel motivation for both is that the worker is to remember they are under the watchful eye of Christ in their work, and that they are to remember they are rendering their services to Him. So they ought to seek to please Him from their hearts by doing their best. This also will potentially have the effect that people will see the hardwork and dedication of Christians in their work, and think well of Christ and the gospel as they think that there is more to faith than they imagined if we are just as conscientious in our studies and serving for the gospel. *Our workplaces are incredible places for living out the gospel.
The master also has to remember that while they are in control now, they ultimately must face the king of kings and answer for all they have done, and He will show no partiality.

So our whole working lives should not be seen as inferior to church or gospel ministry, rather our workplaces are a place for gospel ministry (not just in our conversations but in our very work itself, for we will be but hypocrites if the standard of our work does not measure up to our talk).

In application, we concluded that most of us are not in Christian workplaces, but even though we cannot control others or make them live up to these ideals we can do our bit, according to the purpose and plan of God trusting He will bless it, and it will make some difference and bring in the gospel’s salt and light.

Gospel Talk: Idols

2010-07-25T13:50:00.000+01:00

World Cup illustration: Spain won the world cup – I wonder what it must feel like to win on the world stage with millions around the world watching and cheering you on. Alex Ferguson said after winning the treble with Man United a few years back that the feeling of jubilation and victory lasted only for the day, then it was gone and it was back to training to do it again. *All the work, for a fleeting feeling and then seeking to reach that high again…all in vain seeking something great…always being disappointed by it when they get there.

Look at the stories of footballers like Maradona, Gazza…or golf player Tiger Woods. How sad! These are men who tried to reach the top but never found what they were looking for there.

People do this same thing with drink, drugs, sex, gambling…these things seem good for a short time, but then they consume everything, and you are constantly trying to reach that first high again, that first exhilaration and enjoyment. But it always seems to dull and seem more elusive.

The problem we have is that we make these experiences, feelings, achievements into idols. These are things we pour our lives into and love, they are things that we essentially WORSHIP. We worship ourselves. This is a terrible thing in itself because it is really very stupid – the Bible is God’s word and in it He tries to show us the folly worshipping idols:

Isaiah 44:12-17: verse about dead idols and the folly of human idolatry.
We don’t make idols out of stone and wood today and bow down to them – but our lives are testimonies against us for our idolatry when we love, pursue and worship anything other than GOD. All of us have these idols

The bad news is GOD HATES IDOLS. Idolatry is the greatest offence in God’s kingdom and carries a capital sentence. If we are idolaters we are God’s enemies (we cannot say we love God if we worship idols of any kind; likewise I cannot say I love my wife and be sleeping with other women behind her back), we are under His wrath and judgement – we will suffer death and eternal death in Hell

This is an awful consequence of being separated from God’s love for eternity and only being under His wrath. But also these idols will also ruin our lives in this world too. Dead idols will only hurt us: they leave us unfulfilled, they drain our energies and passions; they consume our money and resources; and they will only disappoint – they are DEAD.

GOD HAS COMMANDED WE HAVE NO IMAGES OF GOD. WE WOULD ONLY END UP WORSHIPPING THESE VISIBLE THINGS AND IGNORE THE REAL GOD WHO IS NOT VISIBLE.

But God has given us an image…His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the image of the living God. We cannot see God, but we can see Jesus in history and in the Bible.

Jesus fulfils our lives, because He is life: He says I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. Jesus says He has come so we may have LIFE AND HAVE IT TO THE FULL. We are dying because we sinners (idolaters!) cut off from God who is the source of all life; Jesus can restore us to God giving us life. The Bible pictures us as people in a desert: we have turned from the spring of eternal life and built broken sewers that can hold no water which we go to and which will only poison and disappoint us.

Jesus rather than take everything from us and destroying us like idols; gives us all that we do not deserve: HE LOVES US, HE FORGIVES US, HE GIVES US ETERNAL LIFE, HE MAKES US RULERS OF HIS KINGDOM, HE ADOPTS US INTO HIS FAMILY. That’s the wonderful gift of God’s loving GRACE! He forgives us for our having forsaken Him in favour of dead idols. That grace and forgiveness came at a great cost, of Jesus having to die on the Cross – dying in our place, taking our punishment for our sins, so we could be given. The great news is He rose again proving He was God and proving that God was pleased to accept His offering on our behalf so we can now be forgiven. But the terrible warning in the Bible is Jonah 2:8 "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

Jesus warns us: What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his own soul…what will it profit you to get your idol but for you to perish for all eternity.

This morning you can turn from your dead idols, and come to know the living God, experience His love and forgiveness in your life, and receive the wondrous gift of eternal life. This life is short and can be taken without warning you don’t know how long you have. My friend’s young dad died just on Thursday; my fiancé’s dad was told last month he has only a few more months to life. Life is short…don’t wait around, don’t miss this opportunity to receive God’ grace, love and forgiveness by coming to Jesus today, turning from your idols, coming to the living God!

Praying Series #21 Knowing God Better

2010-07-25T13:45:00.001+01:00

“I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” (Ephesians 1:16-17)

Week 4 – Paul’s Prayers: So often our prayer lives are consumed with us asking God for things: asking to be delivered from hardship; given favour with our employers; peace with friends we have fallen out with; help for raising children; energy serving in the church; provision of our various material needs. These are all right and proper things we should pray for, knowing that all things come from God’s gracious hand. But above all these things, I hope that we would pray like Paul - for ourselves and for each other in Carrubbers - that we would know the Lord Jesus Christ better. Through Jesus (the image of the invisible God) we see God as our Father, having been adopted into His family; we also receive the Holy Spirit who enables us to be made ever more like Jesus, to know His mind and to be in constant fellowship with Him through prayer. To know God is eternal life, and we should want to deepen our experience of the reality of eternal life through our relationship with the living God. That is a great thing to be asking God for in prayer, and to be asking for each other as we seek to help and encourage one another to grow up into the full maturity of Christ, as brothers and sisters in the gospel community of His body the church.

Listen to this worship music today as you prepare to spend time in prayer getting to know Jesus better.

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Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in focused prayer for the Set-Up Team and Unity:

Pray that you will grow to know God better in the coming month and everyday thereafter, through the Spirit He has given us to make Himself known in our lives
Pray especially for Paul and his team this week as they seek to put together all the set for Room65 and transform Carrubbers into an amazing live music café experience
Pray that all the little things will come together smoothly and quickly so that things are ready on time
Pray that all the teams will be united as we seek to be the body of Christ, working together in this gospel mission to bring glory to God and bring the gospel to the lost

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twenty-First Lesson – “The All-Inclusive Condition”
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- Listen online

Praying Series #20 Incarnational

2010-07-24T16:38:00.000+01:00

“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26)
Week 3 – Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer: We come to the end of Jesus’ prayer today. Jesus says that He has made known the Father’s name – that is His whole character, words and works – and commits Himself in prayer to continue to proclaim this through His immanent death on the Cross, so that His people might be saved for the glory of God. He also prays that we would come to share in the love that exists in the Godhead: the all conquering love which has no height, depth and which no power can separate us from.

We are now in the age following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, in answer to His prayer we have received the knowledge of God, and have received the blessing of God’s love which has come to dwell in our lives through the work and person of the Holy Spirit. As a further answer to Jesus’ prayer, it is now through us, the Church, as Christ’s ambassadors that His name is continued to be made known. As we seek to proclaim the gospel, and demonstrate to people the grace of Jesus in every area of our lives, then there is a sense in which we are incarnating the truth of Jesus’ love to the lost. Paul speaks of this incarnational ministry when he implores people to repent and be saved as if it were Christ making His appeal through him to be reconciled to God. We are all gospel workers and ambassadors continuing to make known the name and love of Jesus. Yet we do not do gospel work alone; rather it is the knowledge and love of God incarnated in our lives by the risen Jesus who is with us which enables us to make known to the lost the wonderful news of the gospel.

Listen to this worship music today as you prepare yourself to come to God in prayer.

Pray today and join us at 530pm in Carrubbers café to pray for Room65

Give thanks that Jesus, our great High Priest, continues to make known His name in this world and in our lives
Give thanks that we get to participate in the incredibly great love that the Father has for His Son
Pray for Jesus to bring many men and women out of the dominion of darkness and into His kingdom through Room65
Pray for God to be preparing the heart soil of all those who will come in through the doors and have gospel seeds sown
Pray specifically in your group for people who you have invited or want an opportunity to invite from your work/school/neighbourhood/family/friends

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twentieth Lesson – “The Chief End of Prayer”
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- Listen online

Praying Series #19 Unity

2010-07-23T13:58:00.000+01:00

“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:22-23)

Week 3 – Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer: Jesus prays for the unity of all His followers throughout history, that they may display a unity that reflects the unity there is within the Godhead, between Jesus and His Father. The same binding love that the Father has for His Son in glorifying Him is the love that we get to participate in now if we are united to Christ. The church is the living picture of God’s love for His Son and a living demonstration of the reality of the gospel. The gospel has not only healed our vertical alienation from God, but it also enables us to be horizontally reconciled to one another. It is because God has loved us, freeing us from our selfish sin nature and promising to provide all we need in His grace, that we are freed to love one another as we love ourselves. This means that all the barriers that cause segregation and division in our world do not exist in the church: there is no division between Jew or Gentile, culture, colour, gender, social class, profession or age. We are all together the living body of Christ on earth and when the world sees this love between us (which they can see no where else between such diverse people) then they can know that it is because of the reality of Jesus and His love. [Summer Index has been learning all about this recently in Ephesians if you want to read more] Let’s pray with Jesus today that Room65 as people see all of us serving together as one body and loving each other that they will see the living embodiment of the gospel they hear about through song, conversation and talks.

Listen to this worship music as you pray in thanksgiving about Jesus’ love and enjoy it as you meet Him in prayer.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers to pray particularly for the Catering and CE Teams:

Pray that our unity and love for one another at Room 65 would flow out of our being united to Christ and being filled with His love
Pray for the team to have stamina and the Lord’s enabling strength, as they are often first to arrive and last to leave Room65 each night
prayer that the coffee counter staff can witness in small ways
Pray for a right attitude, energy and encouragement standing for hours with coffee pots
Pray for CE that people would come along on Friday lunchtimes to chat with one of the team about Christianity and any questions

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Nineteenth Lesson – “Power for Praying and Working”
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Praying Series #18 Sanctified

2010-07-22T13:23:00.001+01:00

“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:15-17)

Week 3 – Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer: Jesus’ prays for us as God’s ambassadors of light left in a hostile and dark world. He prays that we will be protected from the enemy, and we can rely on His power to protect us since He has already triumphed at Calvary. But I think the real concern here is that Jesus prays we would not lose our distinctiveness, as His light and salt in a dark and corrupt world. He prays that we will be distinctive (“sanctified” means to be blessed and set apart as holy) and that this distinctiveness will come through the truth, His Word the Bible. Jesus says that He has dedicated (“consecrated”) Himself for the purpose that the truth that sets us apart would be none other than the living Word incarnate, Himself, in our lives. Bible-believing and Jesus-loving Christians are the fulfilment of Jesus’ prayer. As we commune with God in the fellowship of prayer and as we submit ourselves to obeying His Word in scripture (which is our act of thankful love to Jesus), then we will be sanctified (made more holy like Jesus) through the inner working of His Holy Spirit who He has left us with in this dark world. We allow ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit continually if we allow the Word of God to richly dwell within us through time taking in the truth of the scriptures and spent with Jesus, who is the truth and the living Word.

Listen to this worship music today as you come to commune with God.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers to pray for:

Pray for loving boldness to approach people with invitations into the café
Pray for good weather as they are out on the street all evening each week
Pray for the Speakers Team as they prepare their talks, thinking through how to establish a bridge with people in culture to then engage them with the gospel, and present them with Christ
Pray that we would see men and women saved by hearing the gospel preached at Room65
Give thanks for the protection that the Lord gives us and Pray that we will be daily made more like Christ as we are changed by His Word in our lives

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Eighteenth Lesson – “Prayer in Harmony with the Destiny of Man”
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Praying Series #17 Revealed Identity

2010-07-21T13:36:00.000+01:00

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.” (John 17:6-8)

Week 3 – Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer: Jesus reflects in thanksgiving prayer to God for the work that has taken place in the disciple’s lives. These men who struggled to understand Jesus’ identity had finally reached the point where they understood He was the promised Messiah, the son of God incarnate in the line of David – even though His mission was still not properly understood. This realisation came only from God revealing it to them, as they received Jesus’ teaching and saw His ministry pointing towards His true identity. While in context we are not in immediate view in this passage, we do see a pattern here of how Jesus prays: He prays giving thanks for the work that God does in our lives to reveal the truth of the gospel to us, convict us of our sin, and cause us to trust in Jesus for salvation. If Jesus is thankful that to the Father for having enabled us to receive the gospel, then we all the more should be banging down the doors to run to God in prayer and be thankful for having been saved and brought into the kingdom and family of God as His children. We also want to be praying that as we deliver the words of truth about Jesus to people at Room65 in our loving actions, conversations, talks and songs that God would bless it; and do a work in their lives so they would believe in who Jesus really is, see His mission for them and obey His call to repent of their sin coming to Him for salvation.

Listen to this worship music today as you thankfully reflect upon the glorious truth we have received and believed. [please note the line “…He descended into Hell…” is not Biblically correct, nor found in the original version of the Creed]

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm to pray for Music Team 3 and the American Team:

Give thanks that faithful ministers of the Word brought to us the words of truth about Jesus and that God has enabled us to believe in Christ for salvation – pray that He will use you as a faithful minister in Room65
For healing for Jonathan who has glandular fever.
For the musicians, that they get to grips with all the music.
That God would be glorified through the week and that our efforts would be pleasing to Him.
Please pray that God would provide each of us financially with exactly what we need, and that we would each trust Him completely to be our Almighty Provider.
We are praying that all we do on each night of Room 65 would be a very profitable compliment to your ministry, and that our free time would also be used to aid the mission of extending the love of Christ toward the people who walk the streets of Edinburgh during The Fringe!

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Seventeenth Lesson – “Prayer in Harmony with the Being of God”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #16 Eternal Life

2010-07-20T15:41:00.006+01:00

“For you granted him authority over all people to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:2-5)

Week 3 – Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer: Jesus gives thanks that His Father has granted Him authority over the entire human race and to give eternal life to those He has foreknown in His electing love. [Recently there’s been a lot of chat around Carrubbers on election - can I suggest these small books to anyone with questions: “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God” D.A. Carson; “The Sovereignty of God and Evangelism” J.I. Packer] God’s sovereignty in salvation is such a wonderful encouragement to us in our evangelism, because it means we can pray and sow gospel seeds in the confidence of knowing that God’s purposes to save men and women will succeed and cannot be thwarted by anything. If we are by nature dead in sin, in rebellion, children of wrath and lost in the darkness; then it is great to know that God has the power and authority to change this hopelessness by giving new birth to save people from themselves (as we can not save ourselves: by our works-righteousness, or by any ability of decision on our part to believe). As we pray for the souls of men and women visiting Room65, we pray to Jesus who has the reigning authority and who will save the people that He has redeemed for Himself. We pray that they might meet Jesus Christ, see the all sufficient work He has done on the Cross and that they would trust in Christ to receive eternal life – a living and intimate relationship with God, who we have fellowship with each day through prayer. Let’s pray for souls and let’s enjoy the real experience of eternal life through spending time with Jesus today in prayer.

Listen to this worship music today as you come to fellowship with God, which is what it means for you to have eternal life now.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers in focused prayer for:

Give thanks that you have been restored into a relationship of knowing God and now can be involved in the work of introducing men and women to Jesus in hope that they may receive eternal life
Pray we wouldn't spend so much time trying to get things done that we neglect our own walks with Him
Pray for continued good health for all in the team, and safe travel back from holidays etc.
Pray we can make a good connection with our listeners, especially those who may be local; that they will want to return to hear more.
Pray people would experience something of what God is like, rather than the imperfect people providing the music!

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Sixteenth Lesson – “The Power of Persevering Prayer”
- Read online
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Praying Series #15: God's Glory

2010-07-19T23:09:00.000+01:00

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1)
Week 3 – Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer: The time of Jesus’ crucifixion had come, His whole life had been building up to this work of atonement, when He would give His life to rescue sinners. We rightly talk about God’s love for each of us demonstrated in Jesus dying for us on the Cross, but also Jesus’ prayer shows us that His foremost desire was for loving and glorifying His Father. Jesus prays that the display of God’s love through His self-sacrificial death on the Cross would be blessed by His Father, so that it would display the glory of God throughout the world. That glory sets out the wisdom of God’s will, displays His justice and mercy, and shows a full picture of God’s glorious character. We read that it was for the joy set before Jesus that He endured the Cross. That great joy was found in redeeming a people for relationship with Himself, who He could love and who loved Him in return. Our own salvation and our mission at Room65 to see others saved is the continuing answer to Jesus’ prayer for God the Father to be glorified by glorifying His Son’s work of dying to save sinners. Let’s work and pray that we will see that number added to, bringing joy and glory to Christ. Let’s also remember His focus was on that glory, no matter what the cost to Himself – never cease to remember that for the Son of God to take on flesh and die is an unimaginable cost! So let’s be praying for God’s glory to be manifested in our lives and witness to a lost world, no matter what the cost to us.

Listen to this worship music as you come in prayer giving glory to God and praying that He will be glorified through Room65.

Pray today and join us tonight at 730pm for Activ8 Missions Prayer:

Pray that we might be like Jesus in seeking to glorify God no matter the costly sacrifice it is to us
Pray especially for the set-up teams now preparing the building for the launch, and also for the musicians and speakers preparing their contributions
Pray for the Lord to prepare the hearts of all who will come into the building, that they might listen to the lyrics, talks and conversations and hear of God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in Him for salvation
Pray that the Lord will provide enough team members each week to staff Room65 properly
Give thanks for this amazing opportunity to reach thousands with the gospel on our doorstep

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Fifteenth Lesson – “The Power of United Prayer”
- Read online
- Listen online

Ephesians 5:1-21 “The Motivation for the Gospel New Life”

2010-07-18T23:33:00.000+01:00

Ephesians 5:1-21 “The Motivation for the Gospel New Life”

This was a hard study this week, but by God’s grace may He still bless this to us all.

1) What we are called to be:
We noticed that there is a big focus on how we are to be active in seeking to live out the new people that we have been made in Christ, rather than sitting back expecting it to happen magically.

- imitators of God (v.1a)
- beloved children (v.1b)
- walking in love like Christ loved us in dying for us (v.2)
- thankful (v.4b)
- children of light, producing the fruit of light (v.8-9)

2) What we are called not to do:
- defiling ourselves in sexual immorality, which includes all sorts of impurity or lust (v.3) – why this great focus? Probably because as Jesus says when we are made a new man, when we are sexually impure it is like we are joining Christ to what is sexually impure.
- defiling our speech with foolish or filthy talk (v.4)
- not to be partners with the “sons of disobedience” who incur God’s wrath in their rebellion against Him (v.6)
- taking no part whatsoever in the unfruitful works of darkness (v.11)

3) The Motivations to live this new life:
We read of four motivations to practically live out the new life in our Christian experience:

a) We are recipients of God’s love, as demonstrated through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (v.2), so want to live in a way that is pleasing to Him in thanksgiving (v.10)

b) We have been made God’s light in a dark world (v.7-14): Jesus said that we are the light of the world and we should let that light shine. We are called not to take part in the acts of darkness instead we are to expose and bring to light sin with God’s truth through our lives in that truth (v.11). The sin of people can be made visible by the contrast of our lives in God. But that is not the only function of our light, because Paul also says that “anything that becomes visible is light”. John Stott suggests this: ‘this may mean that Christians who lead a righteous life thereby restrain and reform evildoers, yes, and even convert them…for it may bring people as they see the ugliness of evil to conviction of their sin and so to penitent faith in Jesus.’ (J. Stott, The Message of Ephesians pp.200-201) => the quote introduced as “therefore” in v.14 while appearing close to Isaiah 60v1 is suggested to be an early church hymn sung at baptisms (which is a picture of the death of the old self with Christ on the Cross, and the new self raised into new life with Christ in His resurrection) which is fitting if it is the culmination of this idea of our light also leading to people being saved.

c) We have God’s wisdom so should make the most of our time to make a difference for the gospel in a dark age (v.15-17). Walking in wisdom means conducting ourselves as the new creation in Christ Jesus in a proper way before the world, because if we act unwisely in sin then we will only be seen as hypocrites and will never lead the lost to Christ. But wisdom also involves understanding “what the will of the Lord is”, which comes from our relationship with God, for as we grow closer to Him and are changed more into the likeness of Christ (with the renewing of our minds) we will better know and live out wisely the will of God.

d) We are filled with the Spirit (v.17-21). God doesn’t expect us to do the new life on our own, He offers us His Holy Spirit in incredible measure. We read: “be filled with the Holy Spirit”, which should literally be read: “continually let yourself be filled with the Holy Spirit”. All what comes after that (the thanksgiving, singing, encouraging one another in psalms) filling is simply the overflow of what happens when we live a life that is constantly letting God fill us to overflowing with Himself. The new life is in Christ and having Christ in us and having Christ overspill out of us into this world. Rather than being drunk with wine (which Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones says is a depressive substance that reduces our higher mental functions of man reducing us to animalistic functions), we are to be filled with the Spirit (which creates and conforms us more into the likeness of the true and perfect man, Jesus Christ).

Praying Series #14 Our Great High Priest

2010-07-18T12:58:00.002+01:00

“I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father … When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said…” (John 16:28, 17:1)
Week 3 – Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer: On the eve of the Cross, Jesus took aside His disciples to encourage them and to pray for them, as they would be the instruments in His redeemning hands. This prayer was immediately for them, but He also expanded it to envision all who would be His followers throughout history. Jesus' work was almost finished; His hour to make atonement for sin had come. Jesus is the true High Priest, He was coming before His Father as sinless and pure, so He did not need to wash Himself to become ceremonially clean like the other priests. He did not come bringing the blood of an unblemished lamb, for He Himself was the perfect lamb. He came with the intent that this was the culmination of all the sacrificial system, because He was the once and for all time sacrifice necessary to take away sin. He was about to come into the presence of His Father to sprinkle His blood in the true Holy of Holies behind the veil in heaven, which the earthly temple was only a copy.

But before He performed this incredible work He offered up fragrant prayers for His people, just as the high priest burned incense (which we read elsewhere in Revelation is a picture of the prayers of the saints in heaven) to perfume the Holy Place each year on the Day of Atonement before going behind the veil. Now because of our great High Priest’s prayer and work of atonement we are set apart as holy to God. And the way into the most holy place through the torn curtain is open for us to come into God's holy presence in prayer. This week we can learn much from what Jesus prays for us, but today let us be thankful that we have “a great High Priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me”!

Listen to this worship music to prepare yourself for coming before God with the help of Jesus.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers for the Security and Welcome Teams:

Give thanks that we have a great High Priest who has made everlasting atonement for our sins and has left us with the Holy Spirit to empower and enable us for ministry at R65
Pray that they will be warm and friendly to everyone who passes through the doors; whatever their shape, colour, smell
Pray for their discernment about certain characters and whether to allow them in
Pray that they will be protected as they seek to protect us
Pray for them as they keep the toilets and hallways clean as part of their service welcoming people

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Fourteenth Lesson – “Prayer and Love”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #13 Temptation

2010-07-17T15:16:00.002+01:00

“…lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Week 2 – The Lord’s Prayer: Jesus teaches His disciples and all of us that our prayers are part of God’s means for shielding us against the temptations of Satan and our own sinful desires, which persist even though we have been freed from the dominion power of sin through the Cross. I suspect that part of the reason Satan engages in spiritual warfare against God’s people, using his master weapon of temptation, is to impede our walking rightly with God because then he succeeds in undermining our prayers. Sometimes I forget how important our prayers are and how powerfully God moves when we pray – however Satan is always aware of the power of God in answering prayer. He desires to disrupt it and even make us so ashamed that we do not feel able to go to God in prayer. Our own wills have never been reliable enough to overcome temptation – that is the absolute testimony of human history! So we need to call out to God to rescue us from the temptations we face each day as Jesus shows us here.

We need to recognise that temptation comes in more ways than disobeying God’s moral commandments. We may have days when we don’t lie, don’t get angry with people, don’t hold grudges, or don’t have wrong thoughts about people. However, there may be a more subtle temptation at work in which we are relying upon ourselves to get through life and do the Lord’s work. This subtle temptation can grow into an idol in our lives, where we use our gospel works and obedient lives as spiritual self-justification (that is to usurp God’s grace and our dependence upon Him for all things, attempting to make God owe us). That is a terrible temptation, but thanks be to God who has given us this prayer to be delivered from it. Let’s cry out to God to be delivered from all the different forms of sin which Satan and our flesh throw our way, so we can stay walking rightly with God an in constant communication in effective prayer.

Listen to this worship music as you come in prayer today asking for help to resist temptation.

Pray today and join us this afternoon at 530pm in Carrubbers Café to pray for Room 65:

Pray for God to continue His work of sanctification that is making your new heart which seeks to please Him, stronger against your old-self’s fleshly desires
Pray against sinful temptations from the enemy which seek to undermine our witness and burden us with guilt, and ask God for help to stand firm in those hours in His armour, with His protection
Give thanks that we can trust God to lead us in straight paths (even though they may be hard and rough ground!) and who will not tempt us
Pray against temptations to rely on ourselves, to do Room65 for our own selfish purposes, to think that we are earning self-justification by our gospel works – pray that we would throw ourselves into this work in, by and through God’s grace

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Thirteenth Lesson – “The Cure of Unbelief”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #12 Forgiveness

2010-07-16T22:29:00.000+01:00

“…forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…”
Week 2 – The Lord’s Prayer: Here Jesus instructs us in dealing with a terrible hindrance to our prayer lives. The “debt” pictured here is figuratively something being owed because of moral fault i.e. SIN. Unrepentant sin harms our prayer lives. Yes, we come into the presence of Almighty God our Father clothed in the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus - He is the once and for all time sacrifice necessary to deal with our sin in the sight of God and to make us acceptable to a holy God. Yet, this legal standing we have with God is not the end of the story. We now have a relationship with God, and we are called to live holy lives seeking to please Him as our act of loving thanksgiving and worship. When we sin, we are bringing in idols and impure things which interrupt that loving fellowship. Sometimes that idol is us indulging in our sinful passions; other times that idol is us setting ourselves up as more important than others and seeking power over them by holding a grudge (forgetting that we have been forgiven of far more by God – and forgetting the warning in the parable of the wicked servant about the dangers of not forgiving others from our hearts). This does affect our relationship with God in prayer, if we are not walking faithfully with Him.

We can rejoice with John that as we walk in the light as Christ is in the light then we find there is forgiveness for our stumblings back into sin – but we still have to go and receive that forgiveness each day! This is just as important an issue in daily prayer for the Christian as it is to pray for our physical and spiritual needs. This repentance is not a one time only thing – it’s the whole of the Christian life: turning from sin, turning to Christ and being turned ever more into the likeness of Christ as we walk in obedience and are sanctified by His Spirit within. Let us not neglect it in our prayer lives!

Listen to this very challenging worship music as you come before the Lord asking for forgiveness for continued sin today.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers to pray for the American team in Week 4:

Pray that there would be nothing hindering our prayers due to sin on our part or failure to forgive others from our hearts – rejoicing in light of the Cross where we find forgiveness in Christ!
For August 20th-30th. We are praying that all we do on each night of Room 65 would be a very profitable compliment to your ministry, and that our free time would also be used to aid the mission of extending the love of Christ toward the people who walk the streets of Edinburgh during The Fringe!
For Justin (Caitie's husband). His job as a Los Angeles Police Officer may prohibit him from coming on the trip. We've purchased his plane ticket, in hopes that his boss will be gracious. Please pray that God might see fit to allow everything to fall into place for Justin to go.
For finances. Please pray that God would provide each of us with exactly what we need, and that we would each trust Him completely to be our Almighty Provider.

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Twelfth Lesson – “The Secret of Believing Prayer” - Read online - Listen online

Praying Series #11 Daily Bread

2010-07-15T19:39:00.000+01:00

“…give us this day our daily bread…”
Week 2 – The Lord’s Prayer: last week we considered our dependence on God to equip us for the good work He has prepared in advance for us all to walk in. However, Jesus teaches us here that we have a far more fundamental need which we ought to be praying for: the very basics we need each day for both spiritual and physical sustenance. When Jesus spoke these words, His people must have thought back to how God fed His children, Israel, in the wilderness for 40 years on the manna bread from Heaven. This bread had to be collected each day afresh and any attempt to store it up (other than for the Sabbath) would end in failure as it rotted.

We depend on God to provide for our needs each day with food, water, shelter – He knows we need these things and if He provides for the birds, then all the more He promises to provide for us. Let’s be thankful for that in both the good days and the hard! But more importantly we depend spiritually on His sustaining grace ministered through His Word, His Holy Spirit and through meeting with Jesus Christ (who is the bread and water of life in John 6) in prayer. One day’s feeding on His grace won’t stretch for the next and is really us attempting to get by on our own strength, which won’t ever be able to get through Room65. Not even our prayers for July are enough to get us a lump of God’s grace to get through the next month of mission! Instead, every day of Room65 we must come asking for that day’s portion from the Lord for our souls, so we might be strengthened, encouraged and filled up to overflowing in our love and ministry to the lost. Let’s also be praying this for one another throughout this month and the next!

Listen to this worship music as you come before God with a thankful heart and tongue in prayer.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers to pray for the Speakers Team:

Give thanks to God that we can depend on Him to provide everything we need each day, and for His provision for us throughout Room65
Pray for them as they prepare their talks, thinking through how to establish a bridge with people in culture to then engage them with the gospel, and present them with Christ
Pray for great follow-up opportunities at the tables and in other conversations between teams and café-goers
Pray that we would see men and women saved by hearing the gospel proclaimed at Room65

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Eleventh Lesson – “The Faith That Takes” - Read online - Listen online

Praying Series #10 His Kingdom

2010-07-14T20:09:00.000+01:00

“…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”
Week 2 – The Lord’s Prayer: Last week we considered how confident and effective praying comes from praying in accordance with God’s will for His glory, which we can learn a little more about today as we learn about His will for His kingdom. Our reason for praying is not just for the technical and practical aspects of Room65 so that it will be a flawless 4 weeks of mission. Our reason for praying is because we earnestly desire to see God’s kingdom come in the lives of those who are lost in this world, as we await the return of Christ to establish His physical kingdom. We want to see the people who come to Room65 delivered out of the kingdom of darkness, where they are alienated and without hope as rebel sinners, and brought into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ who grants forgiveness. The Gates of Hell are a defensive measure against attack, but Jesus promised that even they would not be able to stand against His kingdom and He would set free many captives from their bondage to sin in their lives. We want to see many people forgiven of their sins by trusting in Jesus and then living transformed lives of obedient thanksgiving to God. As God’s will for salvation and people living in loving obedience to Him is accomplished then He is greatly glorified, so this is something that we should make a priority in our prayers.

Listen to this worship music as you come in prayer for God’s kingdom to come.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers in focused prayer for the Tables Team and Conversations:
• Pray that each evening the Lord will supply enough helpers to chat with people visiting the café
• Pray that the team would have a genuine love, interest and concern for people
• Pray that the Lord would give them wisdom about how to use opportunities in conversations to bring in a discussion about the gospel and where the person is at spiritually
• Pray that the Lord would provide answers to hard questions
• Pray that the Lord’s kingdom would come in the lives of those we meet at Room65, so they are delivered out of the kingdom of corrupt darkness and live obedient thankful lives to bring glory to God!

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Tenth Lesson – “Prayer Must Be Definite”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #9 The Name

2010-07-13T17:39:00.001+01:00

“…hallowed be your name…”
Week 2 – The Lord’s Prayer: We are to come before God who is our Father, but let us never forget that our Father is Almighty God. His name is hallowed; it is due reverence and respect; it is to be lifted up and exalted for being the glorious Name reflecting the glorious character of God. We should be careful to take time at the start of our prayers to think deeply upon the majesty of God, for He is greatly to be praised. We can be so quick to rush to our wants and needs, and prayer becomes simply our “wish list”, rather than being a time when we come before God in reverent awe and fear. I fear some of our complacency with regard to prayer stems from a failure on our parts to recognise who we are coming to, because if we (consciously or unconsciously) have a light view of God’s majesty then we will treat meeting with Him lightly and not with great importance or urgency. We would not count lightly an invitation to spend time with earthly Kings, so all the more should not neglect a much greater open invitation and call to meet with Almighty God, our Father. Also, we must soberly remember that it is a costly blessing that we can call upon the Name of God, for the way was only opened through the blood of the Lord Jesus who has reconciled sinners to a Holy God and clothed them with His righteousness. We should respect such a costly gift we have received of being able to pray to Almighty God. Therefore, daily pause at the start of your prayers, think on His glorious character, praise Him for it, remember our lives are about glorifying Him, and then proceed to present your requests.

Listen to this worship music today before coming reverently in awe before the Father.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers for the Catering Team:
• Give thanks for all the wonderful names of God reflecting His character: provider, almighty, healer, lord, sanctifier, peace, our shepherd, our righteousness, deliverer
• Pray that we will remember the majesty of God as we come before Him and always be in awe of His greatness, so we do not become complacent in prayer
• Pray for the team as they seek to serve hospitality to all who come into the café, so people might see their smiling faces, feel welcomed and loved here in a way different to any other Fringe venue
• Pray for the team to have stamina and the Lord’s enabling strength, as they are often first to arrive and last to leave Room65 each night
• That all the logistics work (no breakages of dishwasher etc..)

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Ninth Lesson – “Prayer Provides Labourers”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #8 Our Father

2010-07-12T18:26:00.001+01:00

“Our Father in heaven…”
Week 2 – The Lord’s Prayer: The Lord Jesus teaches us His disciples and all His followers throughout history how to approach God in prayer. It begins so simply, but also so incredibly: “Our Father in Heaven”. Let us never forget who God is: He is the Creator of all things; He is everlasting from everlasting; He is the unrivalled Almighty; He is the Rock of Ages; if we saw Him now we would be consumed; He dwells in unapproachable light. This is our God…this is our FATHER! How awesome it is to call upon God as our Father, to be His beloved chosen children! So when we come in prayer, although He knows all things (all what we need, all what we are about to say, all that is going to happen in our lives) yet He lovingly listens to His children as they come to His feet on their knees. He delights to spend time with them in prayerful fellowship. He is pleased to generously grant us our requests and to bless us with all things in accordance with His will. I know that some of you may have troubled or conflicted thoughts when thinking about fathers, but God is the true and perfect Father who will exceedingly make up for those memories. Others may need to expand their imaginations because their earthly fathers in all their goodness are still only a dim reflection in the mirror of the true almighty Father we have in Heaven. Let’s take time today to come to our Father and let us seek never to get too used to this incredible gift from God of not only having access to speak to Him, but to do that as His beloved children!

Listen to this worship music to prepare yourself for talking to Almighty God, thanking Him for sending His Son in love to save us.

Pray today and join us tonight in Carrubbers at 8pm to pray R65 CE and Follow-Up:
• Give thanks to God the Father, that He has adopted us into His family, making us co-heirs with His beloved Son Jesus Christ, and for the incredible love He has shown us in sending His Son to save us and sending His Holy Spirit to empower, seal and dwell within us
• Give thanks for the CE course material and the opportunity to introduce people to Jesus in Mark – pray for teens at Wallyford doing CY; other gospel partnership church courses running over the summer; pray for the CE guys in London rewriting the course so it can be used better internationally
• Pray that visitors would come along on Friday lunchtimes to chat with one of the team about Christianity and any questions or doubts they have
• Pray that you would have opportunities over the summer to witness to friends/ colleagues/ tourists and locals, leading to folks coming to Room65, guest services, PASSION FOR LIFE and CE.

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Eighth Lesson – “The Boldness of God’s Friends”
- Read online
- Listen online

Ephesians 4:17-32 – “The Gospel Brings New Life"

2010-07-11T23:03:00.001+01:00

Ephesians 4:17-32 – “The Gospel Brings New Life"
Last week we looked the unity of the new gospel community, this week the focus is purity.

1) The Old Life
- v.17 “this I testify in the Lord” => Paul speaks and issues commands in the name and authority of Jesus the King

- .17-19 => unbelievers have a hardness of heart due to their sin nature, which as they choose to ignore God and rebel against Him then they grow in darkness of their minds, ignorance, futility and are alienated from the life of God => this also hard heart and mind against God then translates into sinful acts of them choosing to give themselves over as slaves to all kinds of sin and impurity.
=> parallel text to see this development of hardness and rebellion in the old sinful nature self is Romans 1:18-28.

2) The New Life
-v.20 “BUT this is not the way you learned Christ!” => there has been a break with this former way of sin, ignorance, hardness of heart and impurity by Christ having liberated us from our slavery under the dominion of sin.

- v.21-24 the way that we have learned Christ in the past is altogether different (Paul is not telling non-believers these things, rather they are Christians who need a reminder and call to purity, so this applies to all of us today. Paul is calling the Christians to have behaviour consistent with the new life and identity they have Christ – he is not being moralistic, rather is calling us to live holy lives because we have been and are being made holy by God)
=> in contrast to the unbelievers futility of mind, Christians are renewed through their minds to see and know God and worship Him; our conduct then in daily life needs to be examined with this new mind from Christ so we live consistently with who we are
=> we are to be involved in co-operation with the Holy Spirit in “putting off” the old self and “putting on” the new self.

v.24 the new self is in true righteousness and holiness => so essentially the new life is not just about the things we do differently from when we were unsaved, the new life is about putting on Christ, abiding in Christ, growing in Christ, being made more like Christ through sanctification as He alone is true righteousness and holiness and He alone can bring that to be a reality in our lives. The fact He gives us this new life and all these new things in true righteousness and holiness is all of grace!

-v.25-32 Paul then goes from the lofty theology of how we have been made a new person in Christ to practically show us 5 examples of what that looks like (all of this is application of the theology – see next section).

- v.30 the Holy Spirit can be “grieved” – He is a person (not just a force, energy or thing) with emotions and a gentle character. He can be grieved by our sin and living inconsistently with our new life in Christ, as a Temple of the Holy Spirit (which means are lives are called to be set apart from sin and all that defiles that holy place).
=> remarked how when Jesus was baptised the Holy Spirit came and “rested upon Him” like a dove. The Spirit rested on Jesus who lived a perfect life, never grieving Him. However, we don’t! The Spirit is promised never to leave us, but we still can hinder His work and grieve Him.

3) Application
Based on our understanding of God has saved us through the Cross of Christ and the grace we have received, being made new people in His new holy community we are to live changed lives. We will never be able to perfectly achieve these things and this is not about us trying to live in such a way to impress God or make Him love us more (nor does He loves us less when we fail), because we live by grace and not by law – but that grace we have received and our new identity should spur us on to want to live pleasing obedient lives to His honour, praise and glory:

    a) speak the truth (put on) and do not lie (put off)
Why don’t we tell the truth? Sometimes because we want to protect ourselves, sometimes to protect others…but the real heart of the matter is (as Tim Keller says) that we love something or ourselves more than we love Jesus! *Our new life in Jesus as His bride means we need to battle our tendency to spiritual adultery and loving other things more than we love Him! His grace for our evil idol-factory hearts is no license to continue with our sin!

    b) be angry and do not sin
There are things which it is good to have righteous anger (false teaching, sin, injustice, etc.) but we are not to judge, for that alone is for God. Often our anger is sinful because we judge and condemn the person, forgetting that we ourselves are no better and are only recipients of God’s grace and have received pardon of our sins, which God offers for this life to that other person too. Sometimes we have totally selfish reasons for our anger (simply people have inconvenienced our agenda), which shows that something is not right with our anger.

    c) no longer steal (put off), rather work to give (put on)
Our new life in Christ means we must have integrity in all parts of our lives and do honestly to receive earthly blessings, and the focus of those earthly blessings must always not be to accumulate treasures for ourselves, but to bless others and take care of the needy as part of the compassionate work of Christ.

    d) no more evil talk (put off) only that which builds up and gives grace (put on)
This is a very hard and challenging calling, but if we are to be ambassadors of Christ and the reality of this transformed new life in the gospel, then it is crucial that we speak only in a way that reflects His perfections and beauty; rather than speaking sinfully and corruptly. Our tongues are dangerous, as James 3 warns us!

    e) no more bitter and divisive attitudes (put off) but rather be kind and forgiving (put on)
Paul’s words cover a lot of attitudes here: quarrelling, sour spirit, passionate rage, speaking evil of people, and wishing ill on people. We need God’s help to deal with these wicked heart attitudes of the former self. But we are called to strive as much as we can to be kind (the Greek word is Chrestos, which is a worldplay on Christ – so we are to be kind like Christ was kind even to His enemies) and forgiving (literally in the Greek: giving grace to one another) since we have already been forgiven infinitely more by Christ in His giving grace to us!

Praying Series #7 Assistance

2010-07-09T14:49:00.001+01:00

“We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

Week 1 – Principles for Prayer: the final principle concerns God’s assistance of our endeavours in prayer. Prayer is a wonderful gift from God, but praying is hard! Have you noticed that when you try to pray that suddenly ‘stuff’ comes up; your mind gets distracted; or you become very aware of time pressures? Often we can find our flesh does not want to pray, although our spirit knows we desperately need it. Added to this the enemy fears God’s people praying (for He knows the power and effectiveness of it) and desperately wants to stop us. Other times circumstances are such that we just don’t even know what to pray or where to begin…but that’s why Jesus left us with the Holy Spirit to be our Helper. Indeed, Paul tells us here that the Spirit is our assistant, who intercedes for us at all times, but especially when we are lost not knowing what to pray or are struggling to pray as we ought - in Spirit and Truth, and according to the will of God. It is wonderful to know that God has not left us to work out prayer on our own (as we will learn the rest of this week how Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s prayer), nor to do it on our own strength, instead at all times the gracious Holy Spirit is silently praying in intercession for us and helping us in our efforts to pray as we ought. Prayer is hard, but God is good and should be thanked for giving us His Holy Spirit to enable us to undertake this hard but amazing task of meeting with Him in prayer each day.

Listen to this worship music to prepare yourself for time in prayer with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers for focused prayer for Production and AV Teams:
• Give thanks that God has supplied us with the helping Holy Spirit as we undertake the hard and holy task of prayer
• Pray for the clarity of sound, that people can pick out the words of the songs when they listen.
• Pray for the technical equipment to work smoothly without any errors or break downs
• Pray for wisdom on how to best organise the programme each evening

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Seventh Lesson – “The All Comprehensive Gift” - Read online - Listen online

Praying Series #6 Abiding

2010-07-08T16:46:00.002+01:00

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (John 15:7-8)
Week 1 – Principles for Prayer: the penultimate principle for prayer concerns abiding. Following on from thinking about praying in accordance with God’s will yesterday, today we can think more about how that is possible. Jesus here instructs His disciples that after His death and resurrection they will be left on earth to bear fruit for Him, but that they (and we) cannot do this on their own. No, instead we need to abide in the vine, which is Jesus Himself, as His branches or else we will not be able to bear fruit for His glory nor see our prayer being effective.

Think about a vine, do you think of the branches separately to the central vine? No, it is all the one vine and one branch is just as much a united part of the whole. Likewise we have been so intimately joined and united to Christ in His death and resurrection that we can talk about being ‘in Christ’ today and experiencing His fullness in our lives. His desires become our desires ever increasingly; His prayers for the lost and vulnerable become our prayers; His heart of love becomes ever more ours too. Furthermore, the fullness of Christ now works its way into our hearts and souls, to be worked out as glorious fruit displaying the Father’s glory in our lives. If Jesus is the life, then if we abide in Him, our sometimes dead prayer lives can be nourished and restored into glorious life. If we want to be growing in prayer and praying in God’s will to receive from Him, then we need to be seeking to abide in Christ, in His words, in fellowship with Him daily.

Listen to this worship music as we prepare to come to pray to our wondrous redeeming God!

Pray today and come tonight at 530pm to Carrubbers Café for focused prayer for Security Team and the Spiritual Battle:
• Give thanks we have been made a part of the life giving vine of Jesus and can bear fruit for His glory
• Pray for peace and security within the building, for the sake of those in the café and those serving
• Pray against the attacks of the enemy on Room65 during the evenings and all us serving in the weeks

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Sixth Lesson – “The Infinitude Fatherliness of God” - Read online - Listen online

Praying Series #5 Correspondence

2010-07-08T16:04:00.000+01:00

"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” (1 John 5:14) “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3)

Week 1 – Principles for Prayer: The fifth principle for prayer is correspondence. Thankfully, God in His grace will not give us everything we ask for. Think back: have there been times when your ideas of what was best for yourself or a situation were far from being the best thing that God was actually doing to work together all things for your good? That’s my experience! Sometimes we just ask for the wrong things or the right things with the wrong motives and desires, so we cannot have confidence in such prayers. However, we can have confidence if we are praying in correspondence (or agreement) with His will.

A simple test for our prayers is asking yourself if you could add to your prayer: “Lord, I want this…for your glory and to advance your purposes”. Sometimes we develop a self-centred mindset without realising – we think all too much about God’s plans for blessing us and our lives, but we forget that really we should be thinking about how we fit into God’s plans for blessing others and advancing His gospel. But this is not the only thing, I am convinced that as we mature as believers in knowing the Lord through daily-walking with Him in prayer, the scriptures, and the work of His Holy Spirit making us more like Christ, that we will come to know what is the will of God and be more effective in our prayers. This is a tremendous freedom that God in His grace gives us as we pray, because as we are walking with Him, being sanctified by Him and obeying His revealed will in scripture, then we have the freedom to do so many things confidently praying that they correspond to His will and are pleasing to Him.

Listen today to this worship music to think about praying in correspondence with God’s will.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers for an hour praying for Welcoming People:
• Gives thanks that God does hear our prayers and pray that we will increasingly learn how to pray in accordance with His will and with the right heart motives, so we might glorify Him!
• Pray for the Welcome Team’s important role in encouraging people to take away literature from Room65, so they may read more about Jesus and His great love for them
• Pray for us all that we will be convicted of the great love of Jesus towards each person and show them it
• Pray that we will all go out of our comfort zones to reach people with an invitation to know Jesus

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Fifth Lesson – “The Certainty of Answer to Prayer” - Read online - Listen online

Praying Series #4 Dependence

2010-07-07T13:39:00.000+01:00

“The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." I said, "Ah, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord. Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth.” (Jeremiah 1:5-9)

Week 1 – Principles for Prayer: the fourth principle is dependence. Culturally, the concept of dependence is negative – it goes against the self-confidence and pride we are encouraged to cultivate in our lives. However, just as we needed to recognise our inability to save ourselves and instead were fully dependent of the loving grace and forgiveness of Jesus; likewise we need to recognise our inability to do the Lord’s work of bringing the gospel to the nations and those around the corner on our own. Like Jeremiah, the task and the calling appears too great. The job of convicting men and women of their sin and causing their dead stony hearts to become soft and receptive to the gospel is one beyond us – but not for Him. The great news is that God does not call us in grace and then leave us to do His work from there, as if it depended on our efforts. No, God in His grace also equips those He calls!

We are in a different context and calling to Jeremiah, but the testimony of all scripture is that it is God’s equipping, enabling and empowering which His servants need to walk in the good works He has prepared in advance for them to walk in. Thus, His servants need to pray in dependence, asking to be equipped! Prayer is our means of acknowledging our humble dependence on God for all things; it is a means of praising Him for His gracious working through us as His instruments to share the message of the gospel; and a way of thanking Him for the fact that He is with us to help and rescue us as we serve Him.

Listen today to this worship music to prepare yourself for time with God in prayer:

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm in Carrubbers for more time in focused prayer for the Street Teams:
• Give thanks for our opportunities to literally speak to the nations at Room65 and that God never calls His servants to do anything without equipping us in His power!
• Pray for loving boldness to approach people with invitations into the café and for encouragement even when they are turned down or ignored
• Pray there'll be enough people on the Street Reach team for us to go out! – pray that God will give you the courage to join us for a night!
• Pray that God would guide our words so that we present the Gospel faithfully and boldly; and tat people would stop to listen and God would open hearts to understand their need of Jesus

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Fourth Lesson – “The Model Prayer”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #3 Confidence

2010-07-07T12:52:00.000+01:00

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

Week 1 – Principles for Prayer: the third principle for prayer is that we are to pray in confidence. Think of the story of Esther; how she had to risk her life in order to enter into the King’s throne room to intercede for the lives of her Jewish brothers and sisters. Imagine the thoughts and emotions of fear going through her head. The glorious throne room of God must be all the more impressive and fearful to enter into! Yet we learn here that because of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf, that we can approach God’s throne with confidence. He has gone before us; He has torn the veil of separation in two so we can enter into the Most Holy Place where God’s presence is. It is no longer a place of judgement but rather a place of acceptance, because we have been reconciled to God through the blood of His beloved Son.

Let us strive to never cease to be amazed at this blessing that flows from the gospel. In prayer we are coming before God’s throne, a place where we can find mercy (no matter how far we have fallen or strayed, or how long it has been we have neglected coming) because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ; it is a place where we can receive His grace to sustain, comfort, provide for, and help us in both the good times and in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Let us strive not to take this privileged invitation to come daily before the throne for granted, let’s not neglect it. And when we come let’s come as confident people who know we are loved, accepted and can expect to receive from our Almighty Father, who we know is there ready to listen and can do more than we can ever ask or imagine.

Listen today to this worship music to prepare yourself for coming before the throne of grace. before the throne of god above!

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm at Carrubbers for more time in focused prayer for all the Music Teams:
• Give thanks for the Lord Jesus having opened up the way into the throne room for us to receive find to help us in Room65 and in all things
• Pray for strength and enthusiasm as we rehearse in preparation for our week of singing/ playing.
• Pray that we can remember we are performing for God and His Glory and not our own.
• Pray for stamina during our week on, that we won't burn out.
• Pray especially for our voices that they will last and not get tired and strained.

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Third Lesson – “Alone with God”
- Read online
- Listen online

Praying Series #2 Worship

2010-07-06T22:40:00.004+01:00

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

Week 1 – Principles for Prayer: The second principle for prayer is that prayer involves worshipping God. Someone once told me that ‘worship’ is “praying to God, without asking for anything but Him”. I thought that was interesting and helpful. When we pray we lift up and praise the Lord for who He is and what He has done. We want to offer acceptable worship, and Jesus explains to this Samaritan woman (looking ahead to the time after His ascension and pouring out of His Spirit which we now occupy) that the true worship God desires is “in spirit and in truth”.

Prayer is in spirit, in the sense that it is not just something we do at certain times or places (like Jerusalem or Samaria) but is to be our whole lives - just like our whole lives are meant to be lived “in the Spirit” and “filled with the Spirit”. This is possible only through God’s grace in pouring His Spirit into us, who enables us to call upon Him as “Abba Father” and give pleasing worship. Prayer is in the truth, because it is only through our great High Priest and interceder, Jesus Christ, (who is the way, the truth, and the life – for truth is not an abstract concept, it is ultimately a person!) and His enabling Spirit of truth that we can come before God to offer acceptable prayers of worship.

Listen to this worship music to prepare yourself with meeting with God in prayer today.

Pray today and join us tonight at 8pm at Carrubbers for more time of prayer for the Set-up Team:

Pray that we can offer acceptable worship to God in Spirit and Truth in all the things we do in preparation for and during Room65
Pray for a safe and successful setup of Room 65 in time for start, and that all the different organisational facets will come together in a timely fashion.
Pray for adequate numbers of helpers to serve in the different teams at Room65 in August

Learn more today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: Second Lesson – “The True Worshippers” - Read online or Listen online

Praying Series #1 The Harvest

2010-07-05T23:24:00.005+01:00

“And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” (Luke 10:2-3)

The first principle for prayer in our series is that it is about asking God to work and move. Jesus teaches His disciples to pray for gospel workers to be sent out to spread the good news of salvation through faith in Him. In the history of salvation, Jesus taught the disciples looking ahead to their work in Israel, but must also have had all the future harvest fields where the seeds of the gospel would be sown and souls reaped. We are part of the answer to this prayer because we have been reaped by the Lord’s labourers He taught the disciples to pray for here and to be themselves. We can learn here to pray for the Lord to send out His workers to Room65 and also be those very same gospel workers in whatever we do. “The harvest is plentiful,” and Room65 gives us so many opportunities to sow gospel seeds, but pray that God might also allow us to see a harvest too.

Listen to this worship music to prepare yourself for prayer

Pray today and join us tonight at 730pm at Carrubbers for more time of prayer:
• give thanks that you are one of those who have been saved through the Lord sending workers out into the harvest fields
• ask God to show you where you can serve as a gospel labourer at Room65, using your gifts for His work
• pray for God to move in His power in August at Room65 and to save people so we can see a great harvest for His glory

Read today: Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”: First Lesson – “The Only Teacher”
- Read online
- Listen online

Ephesians 4:1-16 – “The Unity and Diversity of Gospel Community Gifts"

2010-07-05T08:17:00.001+01:00

Ephesians 4:1-16 – “The Unity and Diversity of Gospel Community Gifts"
We noticed that the passage has a circle, it begins talking a lot about unity with a focus on what we are to do in order to maitain a spirit of unity within the gospel community. It then deals with how there is unity in our diversity of giftings. Finally, it describes how we are all growing up into Christian maturity and Christ-likeness as part of His body which He holds together and causes to be unified.

1) Community Unity (v.1-6)
- "walk in a manner worthy of the calling"(v.1): based on all the previous studies unpacking the gospel's meaning, Paul says therefore this is to be our great aim. What an exhortation, but what does that look like? Paul helps us unpack it with some directional instructions in how we should walk:

in humility
in gentleness
with patience
bearing with one another in love
eagering seeking unity

While this is how we ought to be working, this is one of those cases in scripture where there is a tension between the fact that it is both God working in us and us needing to submit/obey Him to allow this working. But Paul reminds us that our unity is based on the the unity of God and the unified purposes of all He has done in the gospel:

there is one hope
one Lord
one faith
one baptism
one God and Father of all

2) Community Diversity (v.7-11)
Having emphasised unity so far, Paul introduces this new idea with "But" in v.7 to say that God's grace (charis) gifts (charismata) have been given to each believer in a different way, according to the measure of Christ's generosity.

-v.8 => we had a long discussion about the use of the OT quotation from Psalm 68:18 in the NT. Paul appears to quote out of context (a Psalm about Israel's victory over her enemies and receiving the gifts of spoil and tribute from them) and changing the meaning as he says that there was a giving of gifts instead.
=> God's Word is infallible (it will not lead us astray) and inerrant (it is authoritative and accurate in all it reports)
=> far from having tampered with the Word or quoted out of context (making it up), Paul here has been faithful to be meaning in the Psalm which widely was speaking of having brought a spoil from victory - which meant that the victor both received the spoil from enemies and gave it to their people. The receiving and giving in the Psalm are indissolubly linked, so Paul is being faithful to the original text in rendering it merely giving.
=> So Paul is not saying Psalm 68 was prophetically looking forward to Christ's ascension, giving of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. No he is using an analogy of the triumphany Israel as an illustration to show that Christ having triumphed through His Cross has stormed Satan's dominion, freed captives and given them gifts from His spoil of victory.

v.9 "...he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth" => we had another long discussion about what this meant and concluded it meant that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is Christ having come incarnate into this world. This is not teaching that Jesus descended into Hell, which is an erroneous doctrine arising in the 2nd century and should not have been added later in the Apostles Creed (nor appear in Robin Mark's hymn: The Lion of Judah)

v.11 lists some of the gifts God has given to His community to bless and help them:

Apostles => the foundational period of the church had these men who were called by the risen Jesus
Prophets => again the foundational period had prophets who wrote inspired scripture. We agreed any gift of prophecy still continuing is something a bit different, because it is not on-par with scripture and is always having to submit to its higher authority for testing.
Evangelists => interesting that this is an office, but we are all called to in some part do the work of an evangelist (so we can't use this as an escape clause from evangelising!)
Shepherds and Teachers

3) The Purpose or Outcome of Community Gifts (v.12-16)
The purposes of these gifts to His church is our spiritual growth in Godliness and maturity in Christ. If we do not keep our focus on these things then we will lose sight of why we are doing anything and what these gifts are for.

"equip the saints for the work of ministry" => the ministry in focus here is the widest possible one (not just restricted to a clerical class or institutional church) we are all ministers as believers, we all have a work of ministry towards one another, to serving in the church community, to witnessing to others about the gospel. We are a priesthood of all believers.
"the knowledge of the Son of God" => how important it is that our gifts are not meant to be the focus themselves, but rather are meant to be there to cause us to grow in our knowledge and relationship with the Lord Jesus
"to mature manhood" => the standard for Christian maturity is not other Christians, instead it is the "stature of the fullness of Christ" => so we've all got a long way to go. But thanks be to God, that it is His work and not our own!
"no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" => we need to be equipped with the truth so we know what is right and wrong about the CHristian faith and the world in which we live.
in contrast to the "crafty and deceitful schemes" of the world; we are to "speak the truth in love". We cannot just tell people the truth (we will only be a clashing gong as in 1 Cor.13) but we must always speak that truth in love. Truth is a person (not an abstract concept), the Lord Jesus and His Spirit and His Word (He is the Word incarnate); and that person is full of love. So if we are to speak of Him we must speak of His whole person of truth and love!

Paul finishes saying that God causes these things to happen in our lives through these gifts He has given to His church, but also see how he says this "makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love". When these things are happening in the gospel community then excitingly we start to be united by nature and to love each other properly by nature - because the unity and love of God is renewing our hearts and minds and making us more like Christ, so we His body better reflect and grow up into that.

Ephesians 3:1-21 – “The Mystery and Ministry of the Gospel”

2010-06-28T08:08:00.002+01:00

Ephesians 3:1-21 – “The Mystery and Ministry of the Gospel”

Paul suffers imprisonment for the sake of the ministry of the mystery of God’s gospel.

1) The Mystery (v.1-6)
- “Mystery” here refers to something which was veiled in the Old Testament but which has now been made known; namely, that the Gentiles would be grafted into the tree of Israel and become dominant in the church, while many Jews fell into unbelief for a time. For Jews, who hated Gentiles, this message was of great offence and so they sought to have Paul imprisoned (as seen the in latter portion of Acts).

2) The Ministry (v.7-13)
- “Minister according to the gift of God’s grace” (v.7) is an interesting way to describe evangelism. We see it more as a duty or responsibility (sometimes an unpleasant burden), but here we see Paul imprisoned because of his evangelistic activities describing it as a gift of God’s grace. This is perspective shaping.

- This ministry is done through the power and strength of God (v.7b) and we are not just left on our own to accomplish it, rather we have “boldness and access with confidence through our faith” to the reigning King Jesus to help, comfort and carry us throughout the many hardships and rejections that must necessarily come as gospel ministers.

- Purpose is to “preach” and “bring light to everyone” what is God’s plan and purpose in the gospel

- The theatre for the gospel is i) this-worldly with bringing the gospel to unbelievers who have previously been in ignorance of God’s plans (like the Gentiles), and also ii) other-worldly since now God’s wisdom is being “made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (v.10) so that all the angelic creation might marvel at God’s plan of redemption in His loving grace (something they do not participate in, as those who have fallen have no hope of salvation)

- The focus of this ministry is God’s “eternal purpose” (v.11), not just to save us individually for our own purposes but rather that we might fit into His eternal and cosmic purposes. Let’s not make the gospel so small that it’s just about us!

3) The Ministers (v.14-21)
- Paul prays a long, complex, one-sentence prayer for the individual ministers of the gospel.
- In summary, He prays for their growth in the Christian life (their sanctification) which is made up of being strengthened in their inmost parts by Christ taking up His dwelling/residence within and as they yield to Him daily that He will more and more fill them with His fullness (perfections) and know the incredible, inescapable, incomprehensible, unconquerable love of God. Jesus in our hearts is renovating our being, His dwelling, for Heaven by making us more like Himself through His great power that works within us.
- All the stages that Paul prays for is fuelled and accomplished by an attribute of God’s character and being – we don’t need to make ourselves better by our efforts, we need Him to come and work in us.
- A great reminder in v.20 of God’s incredible power to do more than we can ask or imagine – what a great God we have!

4) Application:
- Paul’s desire to preach the gospel to the Gentiles is still relevant today with many still to hear, but now also there is the need to call to unbelieving Israel to be saved. - -

- What a challenge also to be outward focused and selfless no matter what the cost and consequences to ourselves, just as Paul was in his ministry and imprisonment for the gospel!

- Paul while in chains prays for the Ephesian church that they would grow as Christian believers, which is a challenge for what our prayer life should be like for others and the priorities for prayer!

- We need to be letting Christ dwell in our hearts and be daily surrendering to Him in every area. This also means to cease the many areas of rebellion in our lives which hinder and quench His work through His Spirit, like sin and complacency.

- We need to be heavenly focused on God’s eternal purposes which are the most important, that we might be saved and sanctified. We so easily spend most of our time and energies on things which are far from these purposes.

- A constant reminder of the majesty and awesome love and character of God which is revealed throughout the passage, of His incredible love, strength, grace, abundance, wisdom, purposes, power.

Ephesians 2:11-22 "The Gospel of Reconciliation"

2010-06-19T20:42:00.002+01:00

Ephesians 2:11-22 "The Gospel of Reconciliation"

1) What we once were, when alienated from God as Gentiles (v.11-12):
- separated from Christ
- alienated
- strangers to the promises of God
- having no hope
- without God in the world

2) How Christ has made peace and reconciled us (v.13-18):
- through His blood
- through His flesh (death on the Cross) which has:
*broken down the wall of hostility between God and us; and between Jews (God’s covenant community) and Gentiles; likewise all worldly barriers of inequality class, race, gender have been broken down and overcome in Christ – He is the only way for unity
*abolished the condemnation coming from the Law by fulfilling the moral law, and becoming the one and only sacrifice necessary for atonement, thus abolishing the cermonial law (v.14-15a)
*made a new man and new humanity united to Him (v.15b)
*reconciled us to God in His body (v.16)
- granted us access to the Father through His Spirit (v.18)

3) What Christ's new community looks like (v.19-22):
We are given three pictures of what the church is to look like:
- fellow citizens with the saints (v.19a); citizens belong to a state or kingdom - we are members of God's kingdom, with all its attendant rights, privileges, protections and status
- members of God's household (v.19b) ; members of God's family as children
- a Temple built on the foundation of Christ for Him to dwell in and be glorified in; we ARE the place where God receives praise and worship in Spirit and in Truth. We are living stones of His temple, we are indwelt by His Spirit who fills His temple; and we are built up upon the key foundation stone of Himself.

4) Application:
- The church as God’s new community should be a place of unity amongst diversity. Instead of seeking to make everyone the same, the church should be a place where unbelievers see an incredible unity among people who otherwise should never be able to get on by worldly understanding. The truth of the gospel reconciling work of Christ can be displayed by the local church in this way.

- Citizens have many rights, but they also have responsibilities for participation in kingdom life – let us seek to be active servants and workers in God’s kingdom, since we are His workmanship created for good works and to represent His kingdom wherever we go, and whatever we do.

- Citizenship so often in the world has come out of a struggle for equality of status between unequals (think of Rome's struggle of the Plebians for recognition as citizens equal with the wealthy and powerful Patrician class); in a similar way we are equal with all the saints, even the greatest of Christian examples who we look up to we have the same basic spiritual equality in God's economy and the same potential to be used by God through the working of His mighty power in us.

- We should be moved and broken for the lost who are spiritually destitute, alienated and having no hope in this world. There is hope available through the work of Christ!

- We should be pursuing holiness in this new community and as this new humanity in Christ, since we are to be Christ’s holy temple

- Instead of focusing on the failings of the local church and its many problems, we should see the vision for what God wants this new community to be like and playing our part in asking God to use us in building up His temple established upon Jesus. The fuller context of this text is the incredible grace of God which infuses His church and covers our many failings to live up to the 3 pictures of God's community in this fallen world.

Ephesians 2:1-10 “The Gospel of Grace and The Old Life”

2010-06-19T17:09:00.000+01:00

Ephesians 2:1-10 “The Gospel of Grace and The Old Life”

1) Characteristics of The Old Life (v.1-3)
- dead (v.1)
- in trespasses and sins (v.1)
- lacking purpose, blindly following the crowds of the world, which are ultimately led by Satan (v.2)
- disobedient (v.2)
- lived indulging the passions and desires of the flesh (v.3)
- by nature children of wrath (v.3)

2) Christ’s Rescue (v.4-7)
- God’s kindness, rich mercy and great love has motivated Him to save us (v.4) => what incredible grace it is to save and love those who are enemies and unlovely
- in contrast to the death of the old life, has made us alive with Christ in a new life (v.5)
- raised us up and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places (v.7) => our position and standing in Christ is in glory. As Christ sits and rests for His redemptive work which was completed on the Cross; likewise our endeavours to earn favour with God can cease since we sit and rest on the completed work of Christ on our behalf which has been given to us in His grace (v.6)

3) The New Life of Grace (v.8-10)
- The new life begins and continues in faith of what Christ has done for us
- The new life is a gift, which we need to live in thankfulness for having received it
- Instead of being children of wrath prepared for destruction, we are made God’s workmanship, we are His masterpiece
- We have a purpose: to walk in good works that He has prepared for us

4) Application
- We begin the Christian life in faith and we must continue to walk in faith. Never is the Christian life about our works, our earning greater favour with God, or us needing to impress Him by doing things ourselves. He does the work to save us, He prepares the work for us to walk in, and He gives us the power and enabling to do His work.

- We need to consciously seek to live and apply grace to our lives and ways of thinking; rooting out any of the spiritual pride and self-righteousness that so easily creeps in to detract from God’s work of grace in saving us.

- We need to turn from following the crowds of this world, recognising that that is the way of destruction led by Satan and instead seek to live as God’s workmanship going the other direction

- We need to remember this new life is in Christ, was given by Him and is secured by Him who sits on the throne in Heaven today. We must seek to live holy lives fit and glorifying Him for the grace He has given us; not to say “I owe you” (which is moralism and legalism) but that says “Thank you, I love you” (which is obedience in the face of God’s glorious grace).

Ephesians 1:13-23 “A Gospel-Driven Life of Praise”

2010-06-19T17:08:00.000+01:00

Ephesians 1:13-23 “A Gospel-Driven Life of Praise”

1) In light of the incredible spiritual blessings we have received, which are for “the praise of His glory” (v.14), Paul prays:
- In thanksgiving for the faith of the Ephesians and how it works out in their love for one another in God’s community and Paul’s work (v.15-16)
- Asks they may have a spirit of “wisdom and revelation” so they can
*know Christ better having their hearts enlightened (v.17-18a)
*know the great hope of the gospel (v.18b)
*know the riches of their glorious inheritance (v.18 referring to v.13)
*know God’s immeasurable power working on their behalf, by Christ who has died, risen and reigns at the right hand of the Father with all power, authority and dominion over all things (v.19-21)

2) Application:
- Receipt of the gospel is to work out in our lives as praise to God and love towards others

- After having received the gospel, we still must press on and pray to know God all the better and have our hearts enlightened in the knowledge of Christ

- Need to set our minds on the great future hope and Spirit guaranteed inheritance we have in Christ as we run the race

- Remember in the midst of trouble that God’s great power and authority is on our side, and it cannot be defeated by all the works of the enemy

- We as the church (the new gospel community) as Christ’s body are to seek to be filled with Him and be His fullness in this world to bring Him praise and declare His praises (v.22-23)

Ephesians 1:1-12 “An Overview of the Gospel’s Blessings”

2010-06-19T17:07:00.000+01:00

Ephesians 1:1-12 “An Overview of the Gospel’s Blessings”

1) We have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (v.3):-
- chosen to be made holy and blameless (v.4)
- lovingly predestined for adoption as God’s children (v.5)
- blessed us with His grace and with the same love the Father has for the Son (v.6)
- redemption from our slavery to sin and alienation from God (v.7)
- forgiveness of our sinful rebellion against God (v.8)
- an inheritance in Christ Jesus

2) What is the purpose of these spiritual blessings?
- so that we would be made a new people, holy and blameless for God (v.4)
- according to the purpose of God’s will (v.5); the mystery of His will (v.9); to work all things together according to the council of His will (v.11)
- to praise and glorify the riches of His grace (v.7) and His glory (v.12)
- to make known God’s wisdom and His richness in lavishing them on us (v.8)
- to achieve God’s purposes of uniting all things in Himself (v.10)

3) Application:
- These blessings form our new identity in Christ, we should live according to who we are now in Christ

- We should seek to live in awe and wonder at what God has done

- We should be praising God’s grace, glory, wisdom and purposes in the Gospel

- To be involved in God’s work of uniting all things to Himself by making known these wonderful blessings in the world

The Gospel: New Life in a New Community

2010-06-19T17:05:00.003+01:00

This summer with the students and young workers at Carrubbers we are studying:

"The Gospel: New Life in a New Community - Ephesians + 1 Thessalonians"

I will post here summaries of the Bible studies which I prepare for each week. A summary of the programme can be seen in the picture below also:

Privileges of God’s Children – Israel and the Church

2010-06-19T14:54:00.001+01:00

Privileges of God’s Children – Israel and the Church
(Ephesians 1:5-14)

INTRODUCTION
Introductory illustration: Think about your family for a moment. What sorts of things do you think of?

• love
• relationships
• disputes
• conversations around the fire place
• burdens
• weddings (I’m getting married so learning lots about this and families)
• bereavements
• holidays

We all come from families – for better or for worse, in this fallen world. God gives us pictures of spiritual realities in some of the things He has made and earthly families are to varying degrees an example to us of what it means to be included in the family of God. No matter how amazing our family or even how disappointing, the reality of the family of God is far superior.

This opening section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians deals with the many spiritual blessings that come from being a partaker of the Gospel of the New Covenant! So one of the great themes in these spiritual blessings is the fact that there is no longer simply a legal relationship between God and His people mediated by Moses and the Law; now there is a familial relationship open only through His Son. When Paul lived and taught in Ephesus for a few years he spoke to both Jew and Gentile concerning the gospel. It is recorded for us in Acts that he spoke first to the Jewish synagogue, holding out to them the good news that the Messiah had come and that it was now possible to have peace with God through faith in His Son, who had fulfilled the Law and the priesthood sacrifices. Sadly not all Jewish people would accept Paul’s message:

*God has always known who His children are: Romans 8:28-29 (“those whom He FOREKNEW…”) so what is happening now with regard to unbelieving Israel is no surprise to Him
*Paul says that God’s purpose is that Israel might be made to be jealous of what He has done among the Gentiles in ingrafting them into the Church as His children and the privileges that entails. Maybe if we were people who were excited by these truths and who lived lives declaring them, maybe that would be a Godly means for drawing Jews to their Messiah and Redeemer. This is what I want us to explore in God’s Word today as Paul rejoices in the great spiritual blessings God has lavished upon His children.

(1) THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING ADOPTED (v.5-6)
“In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (v.5-6)

Firstly, you will notice how our passage describes how we have been chosen for adoption into God’s family.

i) What is adoption?
It involves bringing a stranger into an existing family relationship and granting them both the legal + relational status of being a son or daughter. We must understand that we are by nature far off from God, we are strangers alienated from Him because of the sinful natures we have inherited from our fore-parents Adam and Eve. Instead of being children of God; “we are by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). Paul in our passage today tells us that the only way to be members of God’s family is if we have been chosen to be adopted through Jesus Christ. We do not deserve to be in God’s family, our sins both conscious acts of rebellion and the unconscious pattern of our lives in ignoring Him in the world He has made render us entirely alienated from Him and worthy of condemnation. However, it is into this situation that God has sent His beloved Son in His glorious grace. This grace is God’s undeserved love and mercy towards His enemies, us! Jesus commands us to love our enemies, and we get a picture of how demanding that really is by how Jesus loves His enemies in dying for them so they could be brought into His family. He was forsaken, so that we might be embraced; He became sin, so that we might be declared righteous. That is an incredible blessing. God not only saves us from our sins, but He also brings us in to His family.

**Means we can call upon God as FATHER, (Romans 8: His Spirit in us enables us to cry out: Abba Father – with all it’s meaning of closeness and intimacy *we can call the Almighty God who dwells in unapproachable light: FATHER) and we can trust in His faithful provision for us in this world because we know that He will give us good gifts that we need, just as an earthly father would as a shadow of the full reality of God as our Father.

In addition, we receive a legal status equal with Christ as heirs “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17). I cannot get my mind around how I have been made an equal heir of the kingdom of God with Christ. This is incredible stuff and is the reason why we will spend all of eternity gathered around the throne singing a new song, declaring that worthy is the Lamb who was slain, and we will declare (as Paul says in this passage) the praises of His glorious grace. God purposed in eternity past that we would be adopted for this praise and demonstration of His glory, majesty, grace and love!

ii) What is the Significance of Adoption for Israel and the Church?
God’s purposes have always been to create a people for Himself whom He would dwell with and who would bring Him praise and glory. He created Adam and Eve to live in Eden with Himself until they rebelled against His rulership over their lives. God chose in His grace Abraham and His descendants, Israel, to be His people. This was in a form of adoption. *Interestingly Hosea is a book which relates God’s relationship with Israel to that of familial matters and her failure to be faithful to her covenant obligations is compared to that of a husband married to a prostitute. Indeed, in Hosea, God explicitly refers to Israel: “Out of Egypt I called my son [Israel]” (Hosea 11:1) - later applied to Jesus by Matthew (Matthew 2:15). However, the form of adoption that Israel had under the Old Covenant is now superseded by the far greater adoption in the New Covenant. God gives His Spirit to His children now to indwell them, to give them new hearts, new desires and the help to resist the sin nature. While the law brought death due to sin, this adoption in grace brings us life in His family.

Paul as a Jew under the New Covenant wrote this passage in Ephesians to a church which had a mixture of Jews and Gentiles in it. He also wrote in Romans 11 that the Church is to be careful not to get arrogant towards Israel believing that somehow the Church has now replaced Israel in God’s family. * Israel first is the first to be God’s children and now we share in that also. Instead Paul uses the analogy of the church being the unnatural branch grafted into God’s promises to Israel.
*Illustration: I am getting married so in a sense I am being adopted/grafted into a new family to which formerly I did not belong, because of Kirsty’s family’s kindness in accepting me and giving me their daughter. It is not that I have replaced Kirsty’s family, rather it has been expanded to include me and I am now a participation in the blessings of their family.
Israel received the Old Covenant with its form of adoption, the New Covenant’s fulfillment of adoption in Christ was first given to Israel. Not all Israel received it, indeed much of physical Israel was like the natural branch broken off. The Church as an unnatural branch has been grafted in to be included with believing Israel – contrary to nature, by God’s grace that His purpose was to have a people from all tribes and nations in the world – but the broken off part of unbelieving Israel still have God’s promises for them to be restored into the natural tree too.

iii) Application:
*Key point: We are brought into the family of God, which shows our intimate relationship with God – family is part of our identity rather than as a status (it is not something we can put on or take off; nor is it something that can be taken away from us) =>We are IN Christ
=> likewise Israel is an important part of God’s family and He has purposes to restore unbelieving Israel and adopt them also as sons one day soon. This promise and identity as God’s people cannot be taken from them, nor replaced.
*We participate in the same love that the Father has for His Son – that is an everlasting and unending love. How assured we should be as believers!

(2) THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING JUSTIFIED (v.7-10)
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (v.7-10)

Secondly, the passage leads us to consider how Jesus has saved us into His family; the privilege of being “justified”.

i) What does it mean to be justified?
Sometimes we describe our actions as being “justified” – in that we did the right thing in the situation and so are not responsible or blameworthy for anything. In criminal law we have a class of defences called “justificatory defences”, which say that an action we normally consider to be wrong (e.g. attacking someone) was the right thing to do in the circumstances (e.g. if you are attacked by someone you can defend yourself back in self-defence which is one of these defences).

But let’s step back and look at our lives. Can any of us say that we have done the right thing consistently and perfectly in our lives? Have we loved God with all our hearts, have we loved our neighbours as ourselves, have we ever been angry at someone (which Jesus tells us is the kind of spirit that leads to murder), have we ever coveted what someone else has (which is the kind of spirit that leads to theft), have we ever lusted after and desired someone we shouldn’t (which is the spirit that leads to adultery and all kinds of sexual immorality). I would submit to you today that we all stand guilty of consistently doing the wrong thing and without a defence to say it was justified.

But that is where this passage meets us and speaks to us!

“In Him we have REDEMPTION through His blood, the FORGIVENESS of our trespasses”.
Jesus in His love and grace has declared us to be justified – that is standing without any guilt for sin – because He has taken the penalty and punishment for us by paying the redemption price for us (which was to undergo the wrath of God at our sin for us on Calvary’s Cross), so we could be forgiven. Since God’s justice has been satisfied in sin being punished, we stand forgiven – we stand declared to be not blameworthy. But on the other side of that same coin, we stand as being declared to have done the right thing in our lives…why? Because Jesus fulfilled all the Law, He lived the perfect life none of us ever could and so He declares us to be righteous by crediting/imputing to us His perfect obedience.

This is wonderful truth of the gospel: that God has done what we never could do and has given us what we never could have deserved – all in and through the work of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!

How does this relate to us as being part of God’s family and as being His children? Simply that without God’s justice being satisfied through the proper dealing with our sin and without us being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we could never come before our Heavenly Father. Redemption and Justification accomplished on Calvary is what makes it possible for us to be changed from children of wrath to children of God. The rest of the passage links Christ’s work on Calvary with His “plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” – this uniting all things, the rest of Ephesians goes on to show, is the uniting of:
- Lost sinners and God (2:1-10)
- Jews and Gentiles (2:10-3:13)
…all into the family of God if they will place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has made a peace between all these former enemies. Paul elsewhere describes this uniting made possible through the privilege of justification: “that through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20).

More importantly, the fact that we now stand in God’s family clothed in the righteous of Christ because we are justified by Him, means that we live by grace and not by law. We are not to live obedient lives to try to earn favour or standing with God – we will always fail and fall horrifically short. Jesus calls us to cease our legalistic labours, and instead embrace Him as Saviour and family. Instead, we live obedient lives to glorify and say thank you to Him for His incredible lavishing of grace upon us! This standing in grace means that even though we continue to stumble, to fall and to sin that God’s love for us and how He sees us is unchanged. I know that our families are not perfect; when there is wrong done in the family it hurts people and while ideally that family bond of love and of “blood being thicker than water” would mean that a child would always be loved as a child whatever they did – I know that in a sinful fallen world that it does not always work this way. However, in God’s family those who have trusted in Jesus, received Him as Saviour and Lord, no matter how they stumble and fall they are His, and are clothed in His righteousness. No matter how guilty we sometimes feel about how we have sinned, and we might be reluctant to go to God to talk to Him about it; there is always that open way into His presence through Jesus, and we have the privilege of always being declared justified, forgiveness and righteous because of what Christ has done.

ii) How is this a better privilege than experienced by Israel?
This justification brought by Christ is the culmination of all the Old Covenant was about.
The OT moral and civil law was designed to show us how God intended this world to work, He gave it both to restrain sin and to expose sin. The moral law was never about people earning their salvation through their obedience to it. This is a common misunderstanding today. Rather, its purpose was to be a tutor to lead people to Christ, by exposing the evil machinations of sin that it takes God’s good law and uses it to put us to death by rousing in us all sorts of sinful passions and desires, so that we incur the penalty of disobedience (Paul discusses this in Romans 6-7). The law in showing us that our sinful nature will always prevent us from living perfectly as God requires, then leads us to throw ourselves upon the promised Saviour. Israel did this by the ceremonial law which was absolutely packed with types and depictions of the Messiah, how He would have to suffer and die as an innocent in the place of sinners, so that His blood might cleanse and remove sin from us. Now the church stands on the other side of history and looks back to see how Jesus came and fulfilled all these types and figures, and was our paschal lamb – now we enter into these very precious privileges of being God’s justified children!

In my studying of Jeremiah recently I came across this wonderful passage in Jeremiah 23 which prophetically describes 600 years before Jesus, how a righteous branch from the line of David would come as king of Israel, and His name would be “The Lord is OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”. What a promise that was, that the Messianic King would provide all the righteousness – that’s what justification is all about.
It was all there in the OT, Paul’s understanding of the gospel, of our need to be justified by God alone and our need for a righteousness coming from Him who alone could declare us justified – it was always there.

(3) THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING SEALED (v.11-14)
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (v.11-14)

Finally, we come to the matter of how we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit for an inheritance in Christ Jesus. This is an inheritance altogether different from the ones we see in the world. When you trust in Jesus you receive an inheritance of salvation and eternal life because of His death, but we know that Jesus is alive today following His resurrection and He gives us this inheritance from Himself. But also we have a future inheritance which WE RECEIVE when we die (usually we are the ones who give it to others at our death) of spending eternity with the Lord praising Him, seeing Him face-to-face and enjoying the pleasures that are at His right hand forever. Eternal bliss with our Lord and Saviour, the Lord God Almighty – what a blessing that is as a child of God!

Knowing of such a glorious inheritance, wouldn’t it be a terrible thing if we were to lose it? Is that possible?

Many people do worry about losing their salvation and their inheritance of eternal life in God’s family. We could spend a very long time dealing with this issue, but today we only have some time to touch upon it based upon what we read here in this passage. Our focus is on how we are privileged to be sealed as God’s children.

We put sealing on things to keep things in or keep unwanted things out. I lived in a flat here for two years where my windows lacked any good sealing and during the winter it would get very cold because 1) the cold air and wind got in, and 2) the hot air was lost. In our text, the word “seal” has this meaning of keeping the contents sealed in from being interfered with; it also means picturing a letter in an envelope sealed by a drop of wax with a signet ring, which identifies who it belongs to. In the past, people would write their will stating what inheritance they were leaving to their families, and then seal it in this way with their signet ring which showed who it belonged to and that it had not been tampered with by anyone else. Likewise God’s seal is to keep us from being stolen by the enemy or becoming lost; it is to keep us for Himself; and to show that we belong to Him.

I love the words of the hymn “Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing”, the fourth verse reads:
“Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.”
I identify with that, do you? Do you find yourself so prone to wander and stray from the Lord; to wind up in the mire of sin that so easily entangles? This prayer set to music expresses a desire for God to take things out of our hands and to seal our hearts for Himself and our inheritance in the world to come. The great news in our passage is that God has already sealed our hearts and sealed our salvation for Himself.

This sealing is accomplished by God giving us His Holy Spirit, who the passage says is “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it”. The Holy Spirit’s indwelling us is an assurance in the form of a deposit/guarantee/mortgage that God will make good on His promised inheritance to us that we will be with Him for all eternity.

When I have counselled some of our students on these things in recent times, I have started off by reminding them of how they came to be saved rather than dealing directly with whether it is possible to lose salvation. In the passage today we have read many times that we have been: predestined, chosen, that this was all according to the purpose, mystery and counsel of God’s Will – we learn from this that we did not stumble into salvation, rather we were chosen and elected (as God chose and elected Israel) and through Christ’s work we can never stumble back out of the New Covenant either!

God will never disown His children –Sometimes this is explained as our salvation does not depend upon us holding onto God’s hand, but rather upon our hand being in His, and His other hand being clasped around ours so that even if we let go that He has us safe and secure still. However, the reality is something much deeper and more intimate: To be a child of God means: we are in Christ, we are His body, we are indwelt by His Holy Spirit, thus we can take comfort knowing: “if we are unfaithful, he abides faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).

How is this better than the privileges given under the Old Covenant?
Under the Old Covenant, the blessings and the inheritance of a land, people and plenty depended entirely upon Israel’s obedience to the covenant obligations. So the receipt of the promised inheritance was CONDITIONAL upon their covenant faithfulness. When they failed to do this then they did not cease to belong to the Old Covenant, rather they received the covenant curses instead which culminate in exile into foreign nations. We have seen this happen in history. This was God’s discipline upon a stiff-necked rebellious people, but they were still His stiff-necked people and He disciplined them in love and with a eye to calling them to repentance. God in those covenant curses promised to bring back His people in unbelieving Israel. There is still great hope for them, but what they now must return to is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant in Jesus Christ – the Lord Jesus awaits for His people to say: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”. All Israel will be saved, and perhaps it is being made jealous of the privileges God gives to His children in the New Covenant. Unlike the conditional Old Covenant, with Jesus, the receipt of the promised inheritance is unconditionally provided through the Spirit.

Though even if Israel’s inheritance was conditional under the Old Covenant, God’s love was not, nor was His faithfulness to His promises. Believing Israel’s importance in God’s plan and its place in God’s family is sealed for all eternity, no matter how far they fall or wander. The covenant began with grace, even exile was within grace (discipline) and is secured and sealed by God’s gracious promises to His unfaithful chosen ones.

CONCLUSION
Let us conclude now by thinking about some big picture implications and applications of the truth of these three privileges of being God’s children:
• the privilege of being adopted
• the privilege of being justified
• the privilege of being sealed

Applications:
• For new believers: seek to grow, seek to know God as your Father, seek to deepen your relationship with Him by spending the time with Him. Sometimes we take our families for granted, let’s not take our spiritual family for granted. Meet and fellowship with your earthly family in the church, Christ’s body, who can help show you how to live a life saying THANK YOU and giving glory to God. There is great creativity in how you can give glory to God – like with earthly families, we’re all created differently with different gifting and abilities, so serve God and glorify Him as He has made you in the places He has placed you.

• For struggling believers: rely upon God’s wondrous grace, it SAVED you, it will SAVE you, it will SUSTAIN you. God not only has sealed you, but He offers to “lavish His grace” upon you. You have been JUSTIFIED, so your efforts (even if they’re failing) are not what is decisive, rather it is the fact you are His now. So seek to glory in that and live in light of that truth.

• For mature believers: Don’t let this message and these truths ever get boring or be complacent about them – seek to live in wonder of this incredible passage which tells us of how we have been made participants in the New Covenant, how we have been made members of God’s family. God’s purpose is to unite ALL things in Heaven and Earth, that is a vision and a work that has not yet been exhausted so be involved in it.

• For unbelievers: there are only two families in the universe, the family of God and the family of Satan. They both have places prepared for them: “If I go I will prepare a place for you [believers]”; “depart from me you accursed ones into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels”. Which place will you make your home? Right now you stand as a member of the enemy’s family, but God seeks to rescue you and adopt you into His family. Will you throw yourself trusting into His arms to save you?

• For Israel: see these privileges that were promised to you, which you turned your back on, but which God still has for you and will grant any of you who return to Him. Taste and see that the Lord, your God, Yeshua Ha’Meshiach is good!

The Beatitudes: How The Gospel Blesses Christians

2010-06-19T14:51:00.002+01:00

The Beatitudes: How The Gospel Blesses Christians
(Matthew 5:1-12)

INTRODUCTION
If you were to stop someone in the street today they might struggle to tell you what they think about Jesus. They might say he was a good man, or a wise teacher – many would not understand very much of what the Bible teaches about His life, death and resurrection. This was brought home to me when I read in the newspaper recently how in a GCSE RE exam paper last month one of the questions (which was considered of moderate difficulty) was to correctly identify Mary and Joseph in a picture of the Nativity Scene…if that’s representative of the teaching a majority of young people today are receiving about the Bible then there is an incredible need for people to learn about what the Bible has to say of Jesus.

Nonetheless, many people who know a bit about Jesus would like to reject Jesus’ claim to be Lord and the exclusive way to have eternal life. But they would love to hold Him up as a symbol of ethical human teaching. Their favourite passage is not John 3:16 with its exclusive claims about Christ, but rather the Sermon on the Mount with what they see as Jesus’ good ethical teachings. They might call themselves “Christians” on account of their approval of what they perceive this passage to be about. However, they would be wrong. The Sermon on the Mount is addressed to people who have surrendered to Jesus as Lord and who embrace His exclusive gospel. The Sermon on the Mount is the gospel itself.

The Beatitudes are the opening of Jesus’ Sermon, teaching His followers what a life driven by the Gospel looks like. It has two aspects to it:
(A) How the Gospel leads to the Christian Life
(B) What the gospel-shaped Christian Life looks like
Those who are favoured (or “blessed”) by God are those who have received the gospel and been saved.

A. HOW THE GOSPEL LEADS TO THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

(1) THE POOR IN SPIRIT => theirs is the kingdom
What does Jesus mean by referring to the “poor in spirit”? => “spirit” here refers to the part of man by which he perceives, reflects and feels. We live in a world which encourages us to think confidently about ourselves and perceive that we can do anything. However, the Christian life must begin with the realisation of our helplessness in spiritual matters.

Right now we are going through an economic decline on a global scale and credit-crunch, with many people becoming worried about whole countries going bankrupt which would be a world-changing situation. However, there is a much greater bankruptcy mankind should worry about: the spiritual bankruptcy of our sinful condition. The gospel has the effect on this part of a man which prompted by the inward work of the Holy Spirit perceives the true extent of its sinful bankruptcy in light of a Holy God and His just wrath at their sin.

How can such a realisation be a blessing? => Simply because it is not until God breaks a man’s sinful rebellious heart under the weight of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that there is any hope that they might be saved from captivity in the kingdom of Satan and rescued into the kingdom of His beloved Son.

(2) THOSE WHO MOURN => they will be comforted
Recognising our bankruptcy as sinners will lead us to mourning and sorrow. To see how we have offended and rebelled against the most lovely and gracious God, and how horrendous our sin is to Him that it requires the punishment of death to satisfy His justice will lead us to mourn. Mourn our rebellion, mourn our pursuit of temporary pleasure at the cost of offending our Creator by ignoring Him in the world He has made; mourn how as Jeremiah says we have “forsaken the spring of life and built for ourselves broken cisterns which can hold no matter”. We also mourn the fact that we see ourselves for what we really are, broken, destitute and unsightly sinners who have been corrupted from the high estate that God created us for and to enjoy.

However, our sorrow at the sight of our sin is not without hope. Jesus came and spent His life on earth ministering comfort to broken sinners. We read great words that spoke in advance of Jesus: “he would not bruise a broken reed, or quench a smouldering candle wick” (Isaiah 42:3 – applied in Matthew 12:20) – rather than leave those who mourn in the depths of their misery at their sin, He came to raise them up and comfort them deeply.

(3) THE MEEK => they shall inherit the earth
This hope of comfort requires that we put to death any sense of self and any sinful impulse of pride which believes we possibly can contribute towards our salvation.

People spend their lives trying to climb the ladder of social popularity, work promotion, and financial prosperity – believing that at the top they will earn all the great things of the world and be content in their own efforts. Sadly for souls like this, the Lord might say to them: “you fool, your soul is required of you this night” (Luke 11:20) and their barns and material gains will only be taken by another. As the Lord Jesus warned: “What will it profit a man if he were to gain the whole world but lose his soul” (Mark 8:36) *Instead in God’s economy it is those who abandon all their ideas of self and humbly look to God who will receive an inheritance that they did not deserve.

Jesus cries out to those who are trying to earn their estate: “Come unto me all who you are weak and heavy laden, for I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). As we see in Revelation 5 Jesus is the Lamb Worthy to claim the scroll representing the title deeds to the earth – and Romans 8:15 tells us that the meek who trust alone in Jesus become co-heirs with Him of God’s kingdom on earth. Truly the meek will receive through God’s grace a great inheritance.

(4) THE HUNGRY & THIRSTY FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS => they shall be satisfied
It is not sufficient however for a soul to realise its sinful bankruptcy, to be sorrowful at their sin and to realise the solution for their peril is beyond themselves. This can merely create a distraught and depressed person, but this is not the Christian. The Christian is not only aware of their absolute lack of righteousness, but desires (as a man lost in a desert desires food and water) to be right with God. This desire is entirely proper because mankind was created to have a right relationship with God. Adam walked with God; Adam talked with God, showing us what kind of relationship mankind was created to have with God. However, when Adam died spiritually and became a depraved sinner he lost this crucial connection and relationship with the source and giver of all life – he became a spiritually deformed and disabled creation. We crave the medicine and cure for our wretched condition by being restored to knowing God, which can be the only true satisfaction for our souls.

But we can never know a holy God when we lack all righteousness, and even our most righteous of deeds are so polluted by sin that they are as filthy soiled rags to Him. Instead, the depraved sinner aware of their wretched condition must cry out to God to clothe them in a righteousness not coming from themselves, to restore them into a right relationship with God and cause them to be born-again as a new creation alive to God with a new heart desiring to live righteously for the glory of God.*“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) and “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you us God” (1 Peter 3:18) talking of Christ dying the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God!

Conclusion:
So we see here how these first four beatitudes, are a narrative account leading us through how the gospel blesses the sinner by leading them into salvation which means we as Christians are brought into the kingdom of God, made heirs of it, comforted in our sorrowful repentance, and satisfied by being restored into a right relationship with a righteous God. How incredible gracious and undeserved blessings these are!

B. WHAT THE GOSPEL-SHAPED CHRISTIAN LIFE LOOKS LIKE
The gospel then becomes not something the Christian simply believes in their mind, or something that they use to guide their behaviour; rather Jesus speaks of these following characteristics of the gospel as exemplified in the life of Christ as being aspects of our identity now. The Christian is someone whose life is the gospel being brought to life and acted out as a witness to a lost world!

(1) THE MERCIFUL => they shall receive mercy
What does it mean to be merciful? We understand it best when we compare and contrast it with “justice”.
- Justice is when we repay someone what they deserve for the wrong they have done.
- While Mercy is to hold back and not give someone the punishment they deserve.

God’s mercy is one of the central characteristics of the gospel. There would be no forgiveness for sins if God was not merciful. He holds back His just punishment of our sins and instead punishes His Son in our place.

Only a person of whom the first four Beatitudes are true can be really merciful. The reason we sometimes struggle with forgiving and showing mercy to people who have wronged us is because of our proud and sinful self. When wronged it seeks to assert itself over the other person, regain its standing and pay the offender back with some evil in return. Only a person who has realised their spiritual poverty in their accounting before God and is humble in realising that in themselves there is nothing that can add credit to their account, can be someone who will be able to lead a consistently merciful gospel-shaped life. To see something of how we are seen by Almighty God and then to experience His incredible mercy to us, transforms how we then treat others in this world.
- We can endure any insult …
- We can suffer any wrongdoing without taking revenge…
- We can forgive any betrayal…
…all because we have been forgiven of infinitely much worse by our loving Heavenly Father, by Jesus taking all our wrongdoing upon Himself so that we could enjoy God’s grace and mercy. We see the reality of having been born again and given new hearts and our being transformed into the likeness of Jesus, by our giving mercy to those who are undeserving of it in this world.

(2) THE PURE IN HEART => they shall see God
Purity and holiness are two descriptions of the majestic character of God. It means that He is set apart from all things, all defilements, all corruptions, all darkness: “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). He can have nothing to do with impurity and those who are impure with sin. If sinners were to see God in all His holiness and purity they would be consumed. When God descended upon Mount Sinai to give the Old Covenant Law it was with fire in a cloud to shield the Israelites from being consumed. When Jesus came to inaugurate the New Covenant of grace He came in human flesh, to make sinful humans clean who they could see and know a holy God. He makes it possible for us to look forward to seeing God in the eternal city, as written in Revelation 22:4.

Our sin formerly blinded us to the things of God and it is only by God’s work in our hearts and His revealing Himself to us that we now can know Him. It is only His work in our hearts which convicts us of our spiritual poverty, our sad sinful condition, and the wretched condition of our proud self-reliant selves. This self distracts us and prevents us from seeing God – we are constantly looking at and caring about seeing ourselves, and others seeing us that we cannot see God. We are blinded by self-conceit.

But the Christian is altogether different, he says with Paul “it is no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me and the life I live in the flesh is for the glory of God”. They see God incarnate (“the image of the invisible God” – Colossians 1:15) in their lives, they see His mission in this world, and they see their destiny with Him – they seek to be undivided, unclouded and undefiled in their walk with Him and relationship with Him. *They are made pure in heart, because He is in them – such grace! **Only God Himself can communicate and cultivate holiness to and in us!

What a blessing it is to see God and His Son, and to be rescued from the corruption that formerly separated us from His holiness and purity.

(3) THE PEACE MAKERS => called “sons of God”
The concept of peace is in Hebrew “shalom”, which means far more than the absence of conflict. It means a total state of harmony and unity. Jesus came to make peace between sinners and God: “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:20). This reconciliation – which literally pictures two enemies sitting together again in fellowship – is such a deep and intimate thing that we not only become friends of God, but we become His sons and daughters. This is one of the greatest blessings the gospel brings: The church is the body and the family of God. Such is the intimacy of relationship that has been brought through the peace-bringing work of Jesus.

The church is meant to be demonstrating the peace that comes from Christ like this: all class, social, racial, age differences which cause so much strife and conflict in this world are overcome by a gospel that transcends all these things. There is a harmony and a unity among all these differences in the church, which is God’s family. Jesus’ gospel transcends the barriers of Jew and Gentile, Master and Servant, Clean and Unclean.

We show our connection to God and Christ by continuing this work, and calling men and women to cease their rebellion and war against God as their enemy, and to embrace Him as Saviour and Lord. One of the pieces of the armour of God in Ephesians 6 is the foot armour of the “gospel of peace”. The Beatitude addresses us as Christians as people who ARE evangelists, equipped by God to call men and women to be reconciled to God who has made this peace possible. Evangelism is not an activity, it is part of our identity as Christians. And what a blessing it is for God to choose to work out His message of peace through us and build His kingdom through our speaking as His ambassadors.

(4) THOSE PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS => reward is not this life but in Heaven
Jesus was persecuted and rejected by this world, even by those who were His own people and family. The gospel call for the Christian is to go against the crowd of this world, and to suffer like the Lord Jesus. All of scripture testifies to this call for the righteous to suffer and endure persecution. The great chapter of Hebrews 11:36-38 which lists many who have suffered and describes them: “others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed apart, murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (the world was not worthy of them)”. They did this because of their strong faith in God’s precious promises of salvation in receiving a righteousness coming from God (and not themselves) and eternal life! These were people who had not seen Christ come into the world, but now we as Christians who look back and see the fulfillment of all God’s promises should be all the more like them in trusting faith.

Notice how the passage exhorts the Christian to have an attitude of rejoicing – why? because they understand their home is not this world! The gospel shaped Christian life means we can rejoice in the midst of persecution, because we understand that we have received an incredible blessing in receiving an inheritance of mansions in glory with the Lord God Almighty. We have joy because being rejected by this world is no loss to us, when we know our home is with Him. Indeed, we like the Apostles can rejoice because: “they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41). Furthermore, it also allows us to know Him all the better as we suffer with and for Him and His righteousness: “I might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10).

C. CONCLUSION
The gospel saves us and the gospel is the Christian life. Jesus did not come to teach good things about how to live an ethical life. He came to call us to trust in Him for salvation. If we do this then no matter what things we face in this world and life, we have a blessed life in the gospel with the Lord Jesus:
- Who rescues us into His kingdom
- Who comforts us in our conviction of sin
- Who delivers us from our proud self
- Who satisfies our need for a righteousness coming from Himself
- whose mercy we receive
- whose face we can see by the purity He gives
- whose name (son of God) we share
- whose reward we share in

Hearing the Voice of God

2010-04-06T09:16:00.004+01:00

Hearing the Voice of God: 1 Kings 19:1-18.

David J. Nixon (06/04/2010)

Good evening, I want to share from the word this evening something which I came across in my quiet time a few weeks ago and which is very relevant and important to us – if you’ll turn to 1 Kings 19:

Scripture Reading

Introduction:

We speak and value communication, because our God is a personal and speaking God – not only does He speak and can be heard by us; but especially He can hear us when we speak to him (thus the whole premise for why we bother to come out to pray this evening). It is exciting that we have a God who speaks and communicates because that act of communicating with us demonstrates His desire to have relationship with us and demonstrate His love towards us.

*We can look at this OT passage and learn about hearing from God because God as a personal and speaking God is an unchanging attribute of His character – and so is still relevant and true 3000 years later.

We see in the passage how Elijah leaves the heights of seeing God and His power on Carmel to fleeing through the Desert to Mount Sinai to escape Jezebel. Often we leave church on the Sunday where we have felt the heights of God speaking to us and changing us and moving us, but then throughout the week we fail to hear Him speaking to us and seem to be dry spiritually. How can we see God speaking to us?

*To hear God, is to know when and where to be listening which means knowing how God speaks to us.

*The FOUR ways God speaks to Elijah in this passage:

*TWO are INDIRECT (messengers and might acts) and TWO are DIRECT (His Word and His Voice)

INDIRECT

1. God speaks through His messengers (v.1-8):

Notice how (v.1-3) Jezebel sends a messenger with murderous threats that she is going to kill him in retribution for his defeat of the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. Now this woman is renowned in Israel for having put to death many of the Lord’s priests and prophets in Israel when she and her husband King Ahab came to power a couple of chapters earlier. She will crush anyone who gets in her way, especially now that Elijah has destroyed her false prophets. So despite Elijah seeing God’s incredible display of power and His defeat of the false religions, in the face of this dangerous woman he understandably gets scared and runs away. He runs away in fear, not necessarily wanting to hear from God because later on when asked twice by God why he has come to Sinai he answered that he’s the last faithful prophet in Israel – so in his eyes at this moment the deck is stacked against him and he just needs to get away. Although with our distanced perspective we can say that Elijah may have missed the point in doing this, God in His gracious mercy sends him help.

So in (v.4-8) God sends an angel with a message of sustaining comfort to keep him going on the long journey ahead. Even though Elijah is running the wrong way, God is going to provide for and look after him before sending him back into Israel. While Jezebel threatens to take his life; God sends a clear message that He cares for and will protect Elijah’s life by ensuring he won’t die in the wilderness. It must have been a wonderful surprise to him to awake to find this food and caring angel waiting for him. And it must have encouraged him to know that God was with him and providing for his throughout this time. When we hear God speaking to us, especially at difficult times, then we are reminded that our personal and loving God knows our situation, has mercy even though we may be dealing with it badly or going the wrong direction, and that He will still care for us. If He did not care, then He would be indifferent towards us and would not bother speaking to us – some religions worship a god they say is like that, totally transcendent and indifferent – but the true living God sends messengers to remind us of these wonderful truths.

The word: “Angel” simply means messenger. Not everyone sees angels. I know of only one or two people who have what I consider a credible account of having met an angelic messenger from the Lord – one very close to home in my family who came to warn and to comfort at a time of terrible trouble. But God not only has angelic messengers, but also His people who can speak words of comfort, edification and truth into our lives at all times. We should seek to be used by the Lord to speak such words and be His conduit for speaking into the lives of His dearly beloved children here in Carrubbers each time we meet together. It is my prayer that we would be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and prompting and be confident in trusting that we can be used in this way.

Application:

· Will we put ourselves out there and be willing and sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading to come alongside and speak words of truth and life and hope and encouragement into peoples’ lives?

· Will we be His messengers to those who are lost? We speak as: “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5v20)

2. God speaks through His mighty acts (v9-12):

Secondly, in this account when Elijah reaches Sinai he speaks with God, who proceeds to perform a number of mighty acts of power. There is a terrible gale ripping apart the mountain, a great earthquake and finally a fire storm – however, the text remarks that God was not in any of these things. (We’ll get to Him being in the still small voice later.) However, this passage is not teaching that God does not ever speak through these mighty acts of power. In fact, in context, this passage follows on immediately after one of the most incredible displays of God’s power over and against the false gods of Jezebel. When the fire came down on top of Elijah’s altar on Mount Carmel, God declared that He was the living one and only true God of Israel. This sent a message to all of Israel that they need to fear Him and worship Him alone.

There are other examples we can think of God sending messages through His mighty acts of power. For example, God self-authenticates His existence through His act of creation (Romans 1:20). This is one which I love to talk about with my friends, the very fact that we exist at all and we live in a universe which displays beauty and also careful design to allow life demonstrates that there had to be a creator.

So God can speak through these great acts, but in this text He chose not to. Why not?

God here was making the point that His plan to deal with the corruption and evil in Israel’s monarchy with Ahab and Jezebel would be dealt with not through great signs (like those on Carmel or these great events on the mountain) but through His providential control over other political events which Elijah is sent to prepare the way for which would take years to unfold (v.15-17). It may not always be obvious what God is doing and we often might wonder why He has not miraculously stepped in to save the day or change a situation, but that does not change the fact that He is at work and in control in all circumstances.

Likewise, God can speak to us and be working in our lives when He sends tumultuous events into our lives like personal earthquakes, firestorms or gale-force winds (think of redundancy, bereavement, heart-break, sickness), although we may not understand why at the time. Elijah knows God is there as he’s just seen what happened on Carmel; instead God wants to teach Elijah that he’s safe and secure and that God is still in control even when He’s not doing the spectacular things but rather is working out His providential plan through natural people and events. What an encouragement today when we rarely see miracles in a grand way but can know God is sovereignly working all things together in His plan leading to Christ’s return.

Application:

· When the great and exciting things happen in our lives will we see that as God communicating His goodness and kindness and express our thanksgiving?

· When the difficult times come will we likewise go to Him and be seeking His will in the situation and walk closely with Him?

DIRECT

There are two ways in which God speaks directly to Elijah in this passage. We see this when we contrast v.9 with v.12+13. In verse 9 it says “And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him…” which indicates to me that this was a clear, unmistakable audible voice to the prophet; while in verses 12-13 it says: “And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said…”. This second time of God speaking came through a low whisper which was hard to hear and needed to be sought out and I believe there is a relevant distinction to be made for us between God’s clear Word and His still quiet voice as He speaks to us.

3. God speaks through His clear Word (v.9):

Elijah was a prophet and heard God speak often, as that was what it meant to be a prophet. What God spoke to them, they wrote down under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We today have God’s clear Word to the prophets, and indeed the Apostles, recorded for us in the Bible. When I want to hear God’s words clearly and know His will then I will go to the written Word in scripture! I hope that’s not too much of a stretch in this passage this evening.

I don’t know about you, but I am excited by the truth that God’s Word is living and active. It is not simply a dusty old manual for life, rather it is able to always speak relevantly and truly into all our lives. Rather than just giving rules, the Bible asks questions of us as we read it, it searches us and exposes all the pretensions and false faces we present outwardly to others. Here the clear Word of God challenges Elijah about why he fled rather than stay trusting in God’s protection. Furthermore, it feeds and nourishes us spiritually – if there go a few days when I have neglected my scripture reading, then when I return to it I often come away feeling so refreshed because I needed to hear God’s word. We may not realise it, but our souls desperately need to hear and be filled with the Voice of God which has been recorded for us in the Scriptures and as we read and meditate upon it, He makes it come alive and applies it to us.

One of the most exciting things about God’s Word is that Jesus is the living Word! (Hebrews 1:1-2 God has spoken in various ways in the past but now at the culmination of the ages He has spoken to us through His Son). All the scriptures are about Christ, the OT looks forward to Christ with much of the Old Covenant being a foreshadowing of what was to come; the gospels show us the person and work of Christ; and the rest of the NT applies Christ as we look forward to our being with Christ in the New Heavens and Earth. When we read the Word and spend time meditating upon it we are communing and meeting with Christ. Many of us have busy days meeting with lots of people - when you sit down for your quiet time, do you think of it as your scheduled meeting time with Christ? In the last few years I have seen many lives changed and transformed through meeting with Christ in reading the gospel of Mark at CE. Seeing such changes convinces me of the incredible power of hearing God through His clear written Word – we marvel at the fire on Carmel, but God’s word and the living power of Christ lights a fire inside of us which is just as great!

God’s clear word however does not answer and guide us in all specifics e.g. who to marry. How can we get such guidance from the Lord… because God speaks through the silence (next section)

Application:

· Let us be careful not to let the act of doing the Bible reading plan be enough…let us be seeking to mediate on scripture, hear God speaking to us, obey Him and go to Christ through His Word

4. God speaks through the thin-silence (v.12b-18):

Fourthly, and finally, we come to the best known part of this passage as Elijah hears a “low whisper”, “still small voice”, or “a thin-silence”. It is through this means that God then delivers a message of hope to Elijah about what His plan is for Israel at this time and how Elijah is not alone, because God has spared many other faithful followers in hiding away from Jezebel’s power.

When I read this, I was thinking about what exactly that would have sounded like. I never know how best to explain to my non-Christian friends about how it is God speaks to us – without them calling for the men in the white coats to come take me away believing the law study has finally driven me insane. I actually found the ESV footnote’s translation “a thin-silence” to be the one which resonated with me the most. When I pray and I wait for God to answer or speak or lead me, then the best way to describe some of the times He has spoken in my heart is that He has spoken through a thin-silence. There is no audible voice that anyone could hear, it is an internal quietness in which words form. It is not a deep silence for He is there and His voice is there, but it is not audible rather He forms words which speak to my heart. That is probably an awful description but maybe you *just know* what I’m talking about, maybe you can’t describe it either but you know and recognise the same experiences of what it is like when God is speaking to you in this way. I love how one hymn writer puts it: “In the rustling grass, I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere” (This is my Father’s World).

Let me be clear, that what I’m talking about here is not about any particular spiritual gift of prophecy which Paul discusses in the NT epistles. That is a whole different and somewhat-controversial subject which I do not want to touch on this evening. Anyway, this means of God speaking to us through the thin-silence is not a gift accessible for only some believers, rather I believe that God’s voice is there to be heard and communed with and obeyed by all believers.

Maybe God speaks and leads you to certain scriptures in answer to your prayers (as ultimately God’s written revealed Word is what we should always seek to rely upon and test anything we believe is being spoken to us through the still-silence), maybe He gives peace and assurance to you about future plans that you have laid before Him. Maybe He silently explains something of what He is doing in your life at that time. These are a few examples that I have experienced of hearing His voice through the still, thin-silence.

Application:

· What do you have to do in order to hear silence? You have to shut down all the other sounds first! What things hold us back from hearing that still quiet voice of the Lord speaking to our hearts? Let us examine ourselves and take note of these things in our lives, be aware of them and ensure that we get past them to hear from God

o Our sin: Jesus has opened up the way for us to hear God’s still quiet voice, by His death on the Cross for us. Now He credits to us His righteousness so that we are seated with Christ in the Heavenlies, that we are presented before the Throne of God, and we can cry out to God as our Abba Father and hear His voice. Jesus commands us to pray and instructs us on how to pray to the Father – prayer is a two way communication with God, so Jesus implicitly instructs that we can hear from the Father.

o the self (reliance): failure to recognise our absolute dependence on God by seeking His will

o the world: the cares, concerns and troubles which drown out God

o the enemy: he is desperate to disrupt God’s communication lines with His children and soldiers on the front line in this world

o the failure to take the time to wait: we can be so impatient and unwilling to sit waiting upon the Lord in the silence, thinking it’s enough to talk to God in prayer but not allow the other side of the conversation happen.

Conclusion:

God speaks in many different ways: His messengers; His acts; His Word; His Voice

Are we listening? Are we striving daily to hear? Are we obeying when we hear that voice – there’s little point in not obeying when we hear from the Lord and hoping it will go away. Hopefully this evening will remind us of these truths and focus our minds to be looking for God’s voice in these different places.

There remains a rest for the people of God

2010-02-07T23:22:00.006Z

Hebrews 4:1-13 “There remains a rest for the people of God”

David J. Nixon (7^th February 2010)

We live in a fast paced world which is always on the move. I don’t know about you but it seems that the older I get the faster time seems to fly by. I remember as a child how two months off school in the summer seemed like an eternity which I got bored in; now as a student with four months off university some years I sometimes feel that if I blink I will miss it!

Besides the speed of passing life, there also are many worries that can weary and burden us. Worries like: success, health, finances, family, friends and loneliness. These are but a few of the difficult issues which face people in our communities today. Into this mess of busyness, worries and troubles steps the Lord Jesus who says: “Do not be anxious about your life…do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:25-34) ... “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you … and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).

The passage we read today speaks about a rest that awaits us as God’s people. In the midst of life today, isn’t it comforting to read these words central to the passage: “So then, there remains a rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9).

We’re going to work our way through this passage and consider:

- what initial rest Joshua brought to the people of

Israel

;

- what complete rest Jesus offers to all people; and

- how we can enter into that rest today?

1) What rest did Joshua bring to the people?

The whole theme of the book of Hebrews is how Jesus is superior and the culmination of everything else in God’s plan that came before Him in the Old Testament. Our passage looks back to one of the great events in the Old Testament - the 40 years wandering in the Wilderness coming to an end as Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, a place they could rest and settle down in the land of milk and honey. There is a clever play on words in this passage, because in Hebrew the name Joshua and Jesus are spelt exactly the same (remembering that Hebrew doesn’t have written vowels). So this passage is saying that “Yeshua’s” (Jesus’) rest is superior to “Yoshua’s” rest, when he led the Israelites into the land of Canaan.

We can think back to the incredible and mighty deeds God did in bringing the people into the land; how He caused them to overcome all the obstacles and problems in their paths; even bringing the mighty walls of Jericho crashing down. With this in mind, this passage wants us to think about how Jesus and His accomplishments through His life, death and resurrection are even greater than these things in the past. Thus the rest that Jesus brings is something to be excited about!

The Promised Land was only an incomplete rest because our passage says: “If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on” (4:8). Why was this rest incomplete? Again the passage gives us the answer: “they were unable to enter because of unbelief” (3:19); and again “those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience” (4:6). The Lord brought them into a land of plenty, a land with good soil to grow their food, and guaranteed them both victory and protection from their surrounding enemies. He promised to always be with them and to honour the everlasting promises He had made to their ancestors. After all God had given them and had done for them in delivering them from captivity in Egypt; for His patience during their rebellion in the Wilderness; and His faithful providing them with the manna and quail to sustain them; you would think that the Israelites would be grateful towards God. This gratefulness was meant overflow into joyful obedience to the things He had set down for their lives in community together and with Him. Yet time and time again the people failed to seek God and be obedient to God’s covenant commandments!

When the Israelites were not in a right relationship with God, due to their disobedience, they could not experience true, complete and lasting rest!

But let’s not be too harsh in judging the Israelites before we first take the log out of our own eyes. Often times we deny ourselves the sweet rest that Jesus offers because of our disobedience in the face of His incredible loving-kindness which He has lavished upon us:

God has chosen us and given us His only begotten Son to deliver us from our captivity under sin;
He has patiently endured our trespasses and sins which rebel against Him and mean we do not merit or deserve to be saved;
He faithfully provides us with His Holy Spirit to strength us and minister His sustaining grace to us in our lives.
We have so much more to be thankful for, and yet we too fail to worship Him through thankful loving obedience and by seeking Him at all times in our lives.

Let us not be like those that the writer of Hebrews warns of: “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened” (4:1-2)

The writer quotes David’s Psalm 95 whose theme is calling the people to learn from the rebellion and disobedience of the Israelites and instead obey the Word of God. In verse 7 the writer emphasises the word “Today” (4:7) to say that the message of this Psalm still applies to those reading his letter. Today there is still a need to respond to God’s incredible goodness and loving-kindness through obedience to Him, and only by responding in this way can we enter into this rest. It is a response of faithful obedience. Let me be clear that this is not legalism, nor is it works-based salvation; rather it is all faith, but true saving faith (as the book of James tells us) motivates us to action in thanksgiving response to what God has done for us. Our failure to obey might suggest that we risk failing to reach it altogether, for it suggests we are not united in faith with those who do truly believe. We must examine ourselves and ensure that we are not disqualified from enjoying Christ's perfect rest!

2) What rest does Jesus bring?

What is the perfect rest that Christ brings?

The passage in v.4 speaks of God’s perfect rest from creation, that seventh day when Genesis says that He rested from creating all things in the beginning. Yet Genesis 1 does not say that seventh day of rest ended (normally there was the refrain: “there was morning and evening, the X day…”), thus the writer of Hebrews says that this day still stands for us to enter into it. However, Genesis 3 tells us that mankind cannot enter into that rest and the presence of almighty God, because of our sin. Our sin has made a separation between us and God. We not only cannot come into the presence of God and His rest; but we also deserve eternal punishment as the just satisfaction for our sinful rebellion against Him (in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity).

To make the way for us to enter into God’s rest, the Father sends to us His Son Jesus. And we read elsewhere in Hebrews: “After making purification for sins, he [that is Jesus] sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). When Jesus had suffered God’s righteous and just wrath at our sins on the Cross, taking our place, then He entered into His rest at the right hand of the Father where He is exalted as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has prepared a bride for Himself, His church, whom He purchased their redemption at the cost of His own life and blood. For all eternity He will lavish upon them His gracious love and kindness, and they will worship and adore Him in obedience in thanksgiving to the worthy lamb that was slain.

So Christ brings us eternal rest in His presence and this has four implications of rest for both now and then:

Rest from our labours for favour with God by resting in Christ's work for us. “

· Jesus declared: “Come unto me all who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest”. In context He was speaking to those who were burdened with religious legalism, and were striving to make themselves right with God but constantly falling short, only to have the burden of more rules put on them. Jesus’ yoke is not like that of religious legalism. Instead He says, “if you love me keep my commandments”. So our obedience is not out of fear or legalism, but instead we are freed to serve and obey with joy in loving thankfulness to Christ, because we know that all God’s favour comes from what Christ has done, rather than what we do or can do for Him now.

Rest during the worst storms of this life:

· We can know God’s sustaining grace and help during the hardest difficulties and sufferings we face in this world. When people ask: Where is God when bad things happen, I point out to them that He’s there with them and is able to sympathise because He’s already suffered in everyway like us when He was on earth. We can look to the fact that this is not our home, that our home is in that eternal rest with Christ which will we one day go to be with Him.

· Hudson Taylor’s favourite hymn which he often sang and whistled in times of great trouble and testing while in the mission field in China was: "Jesus I am resting, resting, in the joy of what thou art, I am finding out the greatness of thy loving heart". Oh that we would be like him and be encouraged by looking to Christ and resting in Him during the dark days of life.

Rest from all the cares of this life which busy and weary us:

· When we do work and serve then we should look to the story told of Mary and Martha. We should seek to rest from the cares of this life by being like Mary by spending time resting with the Lord at His feet, hearing His voice and being ministered to Him; rather than being like Martha in being busy trying to do things all the time and missing out on the richness of resting in the presence of Christ.

Rest for eternity enjoying the pleasures at God's right hand, and ultimately the greatest blessing He has ever can ever bestow: His Son the Lord Jesus.

These are but four examples of the rest which Christ has bought for us and leads us into. We see in v.3 that it uses both the past tense "we who have believed" and the present tense "enter", to show that this is not a future rest only but rather it is something in process of being fulfilled now. Thus three of the four examples I used just moments ago were aspects of this rest that we can enjoy and enter into today.

3) How can we enter into that rest?

I want to enter into both that rest now in my daily life and also enter into that eternal rest in glory one day too when the Lord decides my time on earth is done, or if He should decide to return again before then. The question is how can we enter into it.

Well there is the exhortation in v.11 "let us therefore strive to enter that rest", which shows that we need to actively pursue and appropriate this rest today if we are to enter into it. What was it that denied the Israelites their entrance into the Promised Land and God’s perfect rest: their disobedience and unbelief! Therefore, for us today, actively pursuing and appropriating this rest involves us not allowing disobedience or unbelief prevent us from entering into it, as it did the Israelites.

v.12-13 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” These words are a well known and well loved in the church, but have you ever stopped to wonder why they come at the end of a particular line of thought in Hebrews about God’s rest? It really didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me when I was studying the passage. However, v.12 begins with the linking word: “For”, which follows on from talking about “the same sort of disobedience” perpetrated by the Israelites. What was the problem of the Israelites: they did not believe and did not obey God’s word to them through His servant Moses and later through the revealing of His Law. The focus then is unbelief and disobedience to God’s Word, and then v.12-13 talks about the great power of that Word:

it is living and active, it’s not just a dusty old book which is out of date and irrelevant
it is sharp, it is piercing, it will challenge you to the very most inward part of your being – the division of your soul and spirit
and it discerns your thoughts and intentions, so it will expose your most hidden sins, desires and motives behind even what might seem like the most righteous of deeds. All things, all pretensions, all false faces, they are exposed before the eyes of God through His Word and we must all give account to Him

Thus let us strive to obey God’s Word in the Bible. Let us strive to read it daily, to meditate upon it. We need to have His Word in our hearts and in our minds throughout the day as it will guide us through this life. It will comfort us when we are struggling, suffering or just feeling tired of this life.

But moreover let us be striving to obey and feed on the Living Word of God, the Lord Jesus, the one of whom it was written in John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men”. We need to be thirsting and hungering after Him in our daily lives and be seeking to be subjecting all areas of our lives under His Lordship and control. He will expose the areas of sin in our lives that need His regenerating and transforming work. When we love Christ and we place our full trusting faith in Him, then we cannot help but be motivated into action to obey Him as our act of worship in thanksgiving for what He has done for us. When we have Christ abiding in our hearts and our lives then we will begin to enter into that rest that God promises.

So in Christ we have a rest that we can enter into now and that spans throughout the endless ages of eternity. This rest is one entered into through faith and obedience to Christ. It is Him and His Word that we need to pursue and laid hold of in order to enter into His rest. Let us not be like the Israelites and Joshua by failing to enter into the perfect rest of God, that He has enjoyed since His Creation Week Sabbath, but let us encourage one another to love Christ through obeying Him and His Word so that we might experience this rest both now and for eternity. And until that time when we enter into that eternal rest let us also be about His work in this world, praying for the lost so that they also might be able to enter into that rest and find salvation and the forgiveness of their sins in Christ.

Amen

Haggai: God's Temple and the Believer's Life

2009-11-12T10:47:00.003Z

It's a great joy to be able to return to speak to my friends at the Edinburgh Messianic Fellowship this Saturday and bring this word.
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Haggai: God’s Temple and the Believer’s Life
David J. Nixon

Introduction:
The year is 520BC; the nation of Israel has begun to return from captivity in Babylon under decree of King Cyrus. He was a foreign king whom God had chosen long in advance and told the people about through the prophet Isaiah through whom God says of Cyrus: “he shall build my city and set my exiles free” (45v13).

Around 50,000 Jews returned to the land in 536BC and laid the foundations of the Temple in Jerusalem in 536BC, however Ezra records that opposition from adversaries in the land meant for 16 years the work stopped. It is at the end of this 16 year period that Haggai comes in, when He brings God message to the people about the need to rebuild the Temple. Since they have neglected His Temple, they have broken His covenant with them and He has allowed drought, famine and a poor harvest to afflict the people. He sends Haggai to declare His message that they need to return to Him and worship Him.

We’re going to work our way through the four visions and see what the Lord had to say to the people of Israel then, and think about what He also has to say to us today.

1. God’s Temple and Life’s Priorities: (1:1-15)
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say that the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord…Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withhild its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast and on all their labours (v.2-11)

The peoples’ neglect of the Temple while they built their houses, planted their crops and lived their lives spoke of how they were neglecting the foremost priority in their lives: the Lord their God! The Covenant the Lord made with the Israelites said that they were to love Him foremost with their hearts, minds and strengths.

The fact that they neglected the Temple said the following about their hearts and spiritual lives:
- They were unconcerned about the central place of worship, where they would gather together to praise the Lord who had given them this promised land, and recently returned them to it after 70 years of exile
- They were unconcerned about having God dwell in their midst, as He had done in the Tabernacle and then later in Solomon’s Temple. In the Wilderness, in fact, all the tribes of Israel camped around the Tabernacle which was at the very centre, and they would only go where the cloud of the presence went and stop when the cloud of the presence above the tabernacle stopped.
- They may even have begun to neglect the sacrifices made at the Temple to cover the sins of the nation so they could have communion with a pure and Holy God. If they did not appreciate the problem of sin then they risked a spiral into unrepentant sinful living which could lead them into another exile

The people’s neglect of God as the priority in their lives has left them unsatisfied in all that they do. The Lord says they:
- eat but never are full,
- drink but never have their fill,
- clothe themselves but are not warm,
- sow much but harvest little,
- work hard to earn but have it disappear easily.
They were unsatisfied because they were on the receiving end of God’s judgement for their neglecting of worshipping the Lord. Here was a people who had been given so much, and who had seen God move in their midst and answer their prayers by restoring them to their ancestral promised homeland. However, still they neglected to give Him all the praise, glory and honour in their lives that He is due.

It’s a terrible spiral: As the people busy themselves even more in trying to satisfy their own desires and look after their own lives, it just gets harder for them to succeed and they have to keep trying all the harder to get something out of very little. God labours the point that they are working reliant on their own strength by repeating the words “you” and “your”. They miss the simple point that all they have to do is stop their labouring and restore their serving and worshipping of the Lord as the priority in their lives. Then they will again experience His abundant blessing in the land and their lives.

God is patiently stopping the rain, stopping the growth and allowing the frustration in the lives of the people as part of His judgement to beckon His people back to Himself and to give Him the place in their lives that rightly gives glory to Him and satisfies us. He then pronounces His call for them to turn and return to Himself through Haggai on this appropriate date (1st day of 6th month (Aug. 29)), which as the first of the month, was meant to be the day of a new moon festival of public worship. He calls for them to return to worshipping Him and restore Him as the priority in their lives.

People’s response: (v.12): 1) they obeyed and began working on the Lord’s Temple; 2) they feared the Lord.
Because of this obedient response God came to them and promised to be with them now: “I am with you, declares the Lord” (v.13) and He stirred up their hearts (v.14) so they would be divinely enabled with the desire to get on with the work. When we have the Lord as the priority in our lives in reverent fear and awe, and serve in His work then He provides the help, sustenance and enabling through His grace that we need. He does this so that He gets all the glory. When we try to deny Him that glory then it will not go well with us and we will experience the same frustration and eventual burn out.

The Israelites in this passage are an example relevant to us as New Covenant believers today. Do we as followers of Yeshua not often behave like the Israelites did? Here are some questions to reflect on:
- Do we have Yeshua as the foremost priority in our lives?
- Do we, like the Israelites, forget all too easily His constant goodness and try to do things on our own?
- Do we drown Him out with the cares of this life and our grand designs for ourselves?
- Do we experience pain, disappointment and frustration, simply because we think that who we are and what we are doing is more important than making God the core of our lives?

We don’t have a Temple today rather Yeshua told the Samaritan woman that there would come a day when true worshippers of the Lord would not go to Jerusalem to worship at that place, but rather would do so in Spirit and in Truth. This is where we are at today; we are to worship God in our lives all the time in Spirit and in Truth wherever we find ourselves. We are now Temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16) and have a Great High Priest, who intercedes on our behalf and has presented once and for all time His blood as the propitiatory sacrifice taking away our sins and given us His Holy Spirit. He is our great mediator who stands in the presence of God all the time and hears all our prayers, petitions and thanksgivings.

Yet despite these incredible truths, we still so easily live our lives without reference to God. We end up just burning out, having our wells run dry and being unable to continue. Yeshua so easily drifts down our list of priorities and does not receive the worship and adoration He richly deserves. We think that somehow we can do just fine in this life by getting up in the morning and getting on with our work, without having taken the time to go to Yeshua for help and asking Him to bless the things in the day ahead. I know there are so many days when I get up a bit later than I should do, and just go straight to my desk to work, thinking it’s more important that I get through my law studies for that week, than to spend time with my Saviour and my Lord. To put anything before Him, is to make an idol - and Yeshua hates all idols!

If you have let God fall down your list of priorities, then this morning He is calling for you to return to Him and give Him the place of honour in your life. He wants to have communion with you – He became man and went to the Cross of Calvary to remove all the barriers - and He wants you to glorify Him because that is the very least that He deserves in response to the incredible love He has demonstrated to us in forgiving us of our sins.

2. God’s Temple and His Blessings: (2:10-19)
§ 24th day of 9th month (Dec. 18): This oracle came during the time for sowing seed. God people are just planting their crops and the Lord promises that an abundant harvest will come now they have obeyed Him.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: if someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garments and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?” The Priests answered and said, “No”. Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said “it does become unclean”. Then Haggai answered and said “So is it with this people and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you far? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord” (v.11-17)

Before the Israelites began the Temple rebuilding project they had a problem. Their misplaced priorities made them not right with God and their uncleanness before God was corrupting all the things they did, like their planting and harvests of their crops. God’s judgement was to frustrate these things to draw the people back to Himself. Even building God’s holy temple would not make the people holy. Rather it was a heart issue, so if they did not change their hearts towards God then they would only corrupt the building project of God’s holy temple too.

From this, I want to draw the point that it’s not doing the Lord’s work which makes us holy, it’s our relationship with God – if we let that be neglected we will end up just doing the Lord’s work legalistically and for reasons which will not glorify Him or satisfy us! By restoring the Lord’s temple and restoring Him and worship of Him to the centre of their lives then God says the former problems, plagues and disappointments are gone and instead God promises blessing: “Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider: is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you” (2v18-19)

The very best we can muster to give to God falls woefully short of the glory of God and the perfect standards of His holiness. All we can do is present to Him our dirty rags of good works and even they are shut up under the condemnation of sin and death because we contaminate it with our unclean sin. What we need is that relationship with God through Christ, who cleanses us from all sin, who comes to dwell within us to transform us into creatures with new hearts which are soft and desiring after the things of God, and to be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. When we are clothed with Christ, then all the things that we do are no longer seen as being corrupted with sin and under condemnation. Rather when we are clothed with Christ, God sees us as holiness, blameless and beyond reproach. The day we turned from sin, threw ourselves on the mercy of God and let Him be the Lord of our lives, that was the day when we entered into the blessings of God.

The Israelites in restoring God to the centre of their lives and restoring His Temple in their midst entered into days of blessing, however, we now have received even greater blessing for we have peace with God, adoption as sons and gifted with the rights as the co-heirs of the kingdom. The Israelites had God’s presence dwell in the Temple, we today have God’s Holy Spirit dwell within us and look forward to the day when we shall see Him face to face in glory!

There was a veiled warning for the Israelites here because while their prioritising God meant blessing, if they were to neglect Him again and fall away then it would likely result in judgement again. Yet even for us who are clothed in Christ there remains the same choice: discipline or blessing. Will we continue to walk with the Lord closely with Him as the foremost priority in our hearts, minds and lives? Or will we take our salvation for granted and dethrone Him from the place of honour in our lives that He alone deserves? If we choose the latter then we can be sure to miss out blessing and incur His discipline as our loving heavenly Father.

We are called to live our lives as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), but the problem with a living sacrifice is that it wants to keep crawling off the altar. We have to choose to stay there when times are challenging, when the Lord is walking with us through the valley of the shadow of death, and especially when the Lord is bringing us through green and pleasant pastures – because I find that is when I stop clinging to the Lord desperately, and allow Him to fall down my list of priorities.

When we do crawl off the altar then the Lord will bring us back through His discipline, but we ought to be striving to remain on that altar and to be giving our all to God as a thanksgiving offering because He has wonderfully saved us by His grace! We choose to worship, prioritise Him and obey Him not to use God to get blessing, but because we realise that we have been bought at the incredible price of Yeshua’s life and wish to glorify Him in our lives now.

3. The Latter Glory of God’s Temple and the Coming King: (2:1-9; 20-25)
a) The latter glory of the Temple
“Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts” (v.3-9)

The Israelites look at the structure they are building and realise that it will not be nearly as grand or beautiful as Solomon’s Temple, which causes some of them who remember it to despair. However, God gives this word through Haggai to encourage them that He is with them and that the latter glory of this Temple will be greater than it was in the past.

In doing this, God encourages the people that His plans for Israel, Jerusalem and the promised Davidic king still stand following the Exile. God has restored His people but reassures them that their former disobedience has not disqualified them for the great plan He had revealed through the prophets. Rather His plan for Jerusalem, the promised Messiah and His glory to be manifested in the world was still there and would come to Israel.

The Latter glory is not the building or the materials that go into making it; nor the riches which are stored inside it; it is rather who comes to it: the Messiah at both His comings who brings God’s glory to it. Indeed Malachi 3 prophesies that it is the Messiah Himself who will come suddenly to this Temple. This is looking ahead to Yeshua’s first coming!

Yet the full fulfillment of this prophecy concerning the latter glory did not take place at Christ’s first coming but rather at His Second. When the prophets of old were shown things head, they did not always see exactly how they would take place. They looked at things head-on which appeared to be “one” but when we see them from the side-on we see there was a separation of years. It was not immediately clear that there would be the first coming of Christ in Isaiah 61 to declare the year of the favour of the Lord and then a separation of many centuries until the day of judgement. Likewise when Haggai saw this latter glory He did not foresee that temporary hardening of Israel until the times of the Gentiles was fulfilled, as Paul explains in Romans 11. It is once those times are fulfilled that the latter glory of the Temple will be fulfilled. While there is no Temple today, there will be one built and it will be the throne of Yeshua when He returns.

There is a description of such a Temple in Ezekiel 40-48 and how God’s glory returns there from the east (ch.43). From this new Temple in Jerusalem there comes a stream to bring life to the world (ch.47) with a new division of land to the tribes of Israel with this Temple at its centre. This is NOT a description of the temple that was being built in Haggai’s day. In fact, Yeshua the Messiah pronounced God’s judgement on this Temple and Jerusalem in AD33 looking ahead to AD70’s destruction by the Roman armies. Nor is this the new heavens and new earth for Revelation 21:22 says of the New Jerusalem: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” Rather this must be a Temple still to be built in Jerusalem where Christ will reign for 1000 years at His Second Coming in the Millennial Kingdom.
He will dispense justice from Mount Zion. The river following from this Temple is the living water which Yeshua will give to the world to heal it and bring it life when He comes to His Temple and establishes His throne there in Zion. Of this Zion, Zechariah prophesied that it would be a place without walls because “I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (Zechariah 2:5)

Micah 4:1-3 shows what it will be like: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: ‘Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths’. Four out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

We have so much to look forward to as we await that coming latter glory. We are living in its days before we see its full consummation when all Israel is saved and Christ returns.

b) The Signet and Promised Davidic King
“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of the kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts” (v21-23)
This final prophecy is clearly apocalyptic and eschatological in nature as it refers to the concept of the Lord’s shaking the heavens, earth, and earthly kingdoms and judgement upon the unbelieving armies of the nations.

The signet ring was the king’s way of showing his authority and what this seal appeared on represented the person whose name it bore. Thus, the one who was God’s signet ring represented God’s rule and ownership in the world. Zerubbabel as the leader of the Jewish people was God’s signet. Jeremiah 22:24-27 describes how God in judgement of Israel’s wicked monarchy removed them as His signet ring and handed the Davidic line of kings over to their enemies in judgement. This judgement is reversed here in the prophecy to Haggai by God calling Zerubbabel “My servant” (used of David and the ideal Davidic king coming: Ezekiel 34) and restoring that status as God’s “signet ring”. So Haggai encouraged the Israelites that God’s promise to bless the nations through the house of David still stood.

Furthermore, Haggai’s contemporary was Zechariah who prophesied about someone he called “the branch” which he said was Zerubbabel, who would complete God’s work of rebuilding the Temple. But later he also spoke of another future character called “the branch” who would rule as both a priest and king from God’s temple. This talk of “the branch” also relates to Jeremiah’s prophecy about the future Davidic messianic king who will rule in justice and righteousness (Jeremiah 33:15). So, while Haggai is addressing Zerubbabel in part, it also has the future promise of looking forward to Christ coming. He will be the one who will shake the heavens and earth. He is ultimately the Lord’s chosen, promised and anointed signet!

When Yeshua returns He will establish God’s just and righteous reign on the earth from Jerusalem and His Temple. Then He will show all the world God’s immense glory and will minister life and healing and peace to all the nations which will come to worship at Jerusalem.

Conclusion:
As we await that day eagerly, Haggai teaches us that we need to be ensuring our priorities in life are focused foremost on the relationship of love and worship we have towards God; and the need to seek to live obedient and worshipful lives towards God in thanksgiving for what He has done for us in sending Yeshua to save us! If we merely work without prioritising our relationship with the Lord, then our continuing sinfulness will only contaminate all we do and we will incur the Lord’s discipline. Let us beware this! And let us stir one another up to live lives focused on the Lord and pray that He will send Yeshua back soon to Jerusalem to save all of Israel and establish His throne in Zion!

Israel in the Last Days and Today

2009-09-05T15:09:00.002+01:00

Israel in the Last Days and Today
Revelation 12-13: Three Visions Shaping Israel’s End Time History

Introduction:
Let me share briefly, as we begin something of my testimony. While I had grown up in a strong Christian home all my life, the faith was not my own until one day 6 years ago the Lord spoke to my heart one Thursday at the end of May: “David, I’m coming again and you’re not right with me”. It was that day that I surrendered my life to the Lord and received forgiveness of my sins through faith, and it was also the day I began my fascination studying biblical prophecy of the final days. Like the apostles I begin to ask: what are the signs of your coming Lord? One of the first big issues I had to consider was whether God’s promises to Israel in scripture were still literally true today. And let me cut to the chase: I believe that the scriptures from cover to cover teach that Israel - geographically, politically and spiritually- is at the core of God’s plan for the last days. He will fulfil all those promises and prophesies.

Today we live in some of the most exciting times in human history. We stand on the threshold of seeing the kingdom of God come to reign physically on the earth from the city of Jerusalem in Israel. From there the king of kings and lord of lords: Jesus Christ, will dispense justice and minister healing to all the nations. When Christ returns it will be to save His people, the lost flock of Israel. They will see the one whom they pierced and they will recognise and worship Him for who He is: the promised Messiah who would bring salvation, peace and God’s kingdom on Earth.

However, before we see these kingdom days come there are many things which must take place. All the remaining unfulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament prophets and the book of Revelation are going to be fulfilled. These events appear to be aligning themselves for imminent fulfillment in our world today! What exciting days we live in! Furthermore, these events concern Israel in a very real way. Jesus declared to Israel: “You will not see me again, until you say: ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’, so the conversion of Israel to believe in Christ as Messiah is the key event which will usher in the second coming and establishment of the kingdom.

Revelation 12-13: Three Visions Shaping Israel’s End Time History
Today we are going to look at what the Bible says is going to happen in Israel’s future prior to the Lord’s coming again, because if we are going to talk about living in the last days we must do so within a clear Biblical framework. Our text is going to be chapters 12 and 13 of the book of Revelation.

1) First Vision: Satan’s Campaign Against Israel and the Promised Messiah
Revelation 12:1-6
We will begin trying to understand this vision by considering the identity of the characters in this vision:
The woman: “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth” (v.1-2). There are two indications of the woman’s identity:
1) the symbolism: the sun, moon and 12 stars seems to mirror the dream that Joseph had back in Genesis 37 about his family, the children of Israel . This identifies the woman as being Israel. However, even if we missed this symbolism there is another indicator.

2) the pregnancy: the pregnant woman gives birth to a male child in v.5 who it is said will reign with a rod of iron (well Revelation 19:15 says of Jesus that he returns to reign with a double edged sword from his mouth, describing the piercing word of God, and a rod of iron to rule, judge and discipline the nations) and who was caught up to God’s throne. This can only be speaking of Jesus Christ. He is the promised one whom Israel had been awaiting all those years and is the one whom much of Israel must still have revealed to them.
Thus we can conclude the woman is the nation of Israel.

The dragon: “a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns on his heads and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.”
1) The identity of the dragon is explicitly revealed to be that of Satan later in this chapter: “the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (v.9)
2) It was earlier described in Revelation 1:20 that stars can represent angels, so this vision suggests that when Satan fell from grace into rebellion against God, he also led a third of all the angels with him. This is his demonic horde which he sends out to wage war against God’s purposes in this world.
3) Why the dragon is depicted with 7 heads and 10 horns is the object of much debate and speculation which I will not go into other than suggesting that the horns may represent his strength and power and the number of 7 represents the seven heads represents the totality of the world system headed by Satan.

This vision shows one thread of human history: Satan’s war against the seed of Eve. When mankind rebelled against God and fell in the Garden of Eden, God made the promise that He would provide a saviour who would crush Satan’s power over this world. Satan had to try to stop the Messiah coming by destroying Israel, the line through which He would come, thus we see the dragon waiting for Christ to be born. This brings to mind his efforts to pollute the line which would lead to Christ and his efforts at Christ’s birth to have him destroyed at the hands of evil men like King Herod. All these efforts by the dragon failed and instead Christ was raised into Heaven triumphant over sin and death, having sealed the certainty of Satan’s kingdom’s defeat in His death and resurrection as was promised.

2) Second Vision: Satan’s Campaign in the Heavenly Realms (Revelation 12:7-17)
Revelation 12:7-12
The scene then moves from looking at the dragon’s earthly campaigns against God’s anointed one to a war taking place in the Heavenly realms. Scripture does not often give us an insight into the ongoing battle in the heavenly realms between the demonic forces of Satan and the angelic servants of the Lord, although we are told there is a great spiritual battle going on between these spiritual principalities and powers in numerous places. This vision gives us an insight into an escalation in this spiritual conflict which culminates in Satan being permanently barred access to God’s throne where it is said in scripture he stands accusing the saints. Thus the angels in heaven rejoice that he no longer can stand slandering God’s people, but declare woe for the earth as Satan has come down in wrath and seeking vengeance.

Question: When will these events happen to Israel?
To find the answer we need to read Revelation 12 in the full context of the rest of Bible prophecy and go to a few places to learn the answer.

One of the most important places we must turn to in order to understand the book of Revelation is the apocalyptic visions of the prophet Daniel. In the Jewish scriptures Daniel appears in the writings section, but ironically he is one of the most important prophets for Israel in these last days. Daniel’s book sets out God’s grand plan for the nation of Israel and the establishment of His kingdom on earth.

In Daniel 9, Daniel prays to God in confession of Israel’s sin and in petition for forgiveness of the nation and their restoration as the 70 years of their exile prophesied by Jeremiah draw to a close. Daniel then receives an incredible answer to prayer in the form of the angel Gabriel who declares God’s great plan to establish His kingdom, atone for sin and bring in everlasting righteousness. This was to take place over God’s time table of 70 weeks – a week simply being a period of 7 time units. Looking back at history we can be confident that each “week” represented a period of 7 years in history; thus the whole prophecy chronicles 490 years of Israel’s history. This time table predicted the length of time necessary for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem from the date the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued by Persian King Artaxerxes; as well as the exact time of the coming and death of the Messiah. It also predicted that after the Messiah was cut off in Jerusalem that the city and Temple would be destroyed. These events comprised a total of 483 years, which leaves a remainder of 1 week or 7 years which awaited fulfillment. The events of this 70th Week culminating in the ending of sin and establishing of God’s kingdom on earth never saw fulfilment and remains outstanding to still take place in the final days we now live in.

Daniel 9:27 describes a pivotal event during this final 70th Week where the sacrifice and offerings in the rebuilt Temple are stopped and an abomination is set up in the Temple half way through the remaining 7 years.

This event is referenced by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24 when He describes a future event called the Abomination of Desolation which he says was spoken of by Daniel. This phrase was used to describe the desecration of the Temple by the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanies in 167BC, a long time before Jesus. So the event Jesus is talking about is not this event but must rather be referring to the Daniel text we have just considered which also described a yet future event of the Temple being defiled. Jesus says of this time that “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (let the reader understand) then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains…For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” (Matthew 24:16, 21-22). This event fits with the vision we have been studying in Revelation 12 because Satan turns against Israel who we are about to see must be protected in the desert for a period of 3.5 year.

The Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 also seems to describe this crucial end time event prior to the Lord’s second coming when he talks about the man of lawlessness who will take his seat in God’s temple and declare himself to be God.

So we see from studying prophecy in context that we can have a greater understanding for this vision in Revelation 12. We also can make a few observations: these events were not possible before this time in history when Israel is back in the land, for there must be the nation of Israel in possession of the land and Jerusalem and there must also be a Temple rebuilt there – an event we are still awaiting to see happen, although there are continued preparatory efforts going on so if they can get permission they would be able to have a functioning temple again in a very short space of time.

Let us continue to look at the remainder of this vision now: Revelation 12:13-17.
During this 3.5 year period of Great Tribulation Satan must try to stop the Messiah returning by again destroying Israel, and he is desperate to do this because he knows his time is short. When he is finally barred access to the throne to accuse the saints, Satan realises that his final days have begun and he has only a limited time to destroy Israel before she confesses Christ, meaning God’s glorious kingdom will come to destroy Satan’s dark rule over this world. Thus the greatest campaign of anti-Semitism ever seen will be unleashed by Satan against Israel (v.13). However, the Lord rescues Israel by providing a means of escape into the desert. Frustrated by this, Satan then turns against the believers in Christ in the rest of the world because he hates all the people of God (v.17)

3) Third Vision: Satan’s Campaign in the Great Tribulation (Revelation 13)
The dragon, Satan, is depicted at the end of Revelation 12 as standing on the sea shore at the start of his war against Israel and the believers. This war will be waged through two characters he will raise up to serve him during the Tribulation and this vision introduces us to them.

a) The Beast out the Sea – “the Antichrist” (Revelation 13:1-10)
Let us unpack this vision as we look at what the verses say:

The kingdom of the Antichrist (v.1-2)
In v.1: similar description of this beast as having 7 heads with blasphemous names on them, which we have already said may possibly represent the totality of Satan’s kingdom raised up in opposition to God. The 10 horns on these 7 heads are significant when we look at the book of Daniel again, which I believe is one of the most significant context passages when we look to understand this first man of Satan. In Daniel 7 there is a description of the final world empire prior to the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth which is governed initially by 10 horns, representing 10 kings, out of which arises one little horn who boasts and blasphemes against God and is given authority to rule for 3.5 years (Daniel 7:24-25). We read in Revelation 13:5 that this beast also is given authority to reign for this exact period of time.
v.2’s description of the beast furthers my belief that Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 speak of the same person because the beast out of the sea has the words: beast, leopard, bear and lion used to describe various parts of it. Back in Daniel’s vision of the world empires these same animals were used to denote in order: Babylon the lion, Medo-Persia the bear, Greece the leopard and finally the Roman Empire as the beast which had 10 horns on its forehead. My understanding of Daniel’s vision comes from both the commentary provided in that chapter by the angel, and also Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 which involved a statue representing these same world empires. The final part of the statue was its feet with 10 toes which were made out of the same iron material as the fourth empire, the Roman Empire, but mixed with clay. It was this empire which was targeted by the rock which represents God’s kingdom in the vision and would cause the whole world system to collapse when it came to fill the earth with justice and righteousness. Likewise it is from this fourth and final beast in chapter 7 which the 10 horns come from so in some way the final world empire will likely come from vestiges of the old Roman Empire, brought back together in the last days.

We have to remember that there were two legs to the Roman Empire (just as there were to the statue in the dream), the eastern and the western empires after a division in the 3rd century AD. Today there are two schools of thought which believe the Antichrist will reign over some revived Roman Empire based on the visions in Daniel 2 and 7. There are those who believe he will come from the west in Europe from some federation like the European Union today, and those who believe that he will come from the east as a coalition of Muslim nations in the Caucus region around Turkey. Both schools have done a lot of research to present their positions and there are events taking place in our world today which would give credibility to either being the preparation for the rise of the Antichrist out of this future revived Roman empire.

The power of the Antichrist
The power of the Antichrist comes from Satan directly, as it says in v.4 that the dragon gives him authority so that the people of the world may be deceived into worshipping him. We learn more of this deception in v.3 where apparently the Antichrist suffers a mortal wound which he then recovers from. Many interpreters of this passage believe this to be an indication of Satan staging a false-resurrection of the Antichrist to amaze the world into worshipping him as god. Indeed in wider biblical context, Paul describes the Antichrist’s rise to power: “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).

v.5-10 says that the beast is allowed to make war with the saints and to conquer them for 42 months (which is exactly 3.5 years) and Daniel 7:21 also says he was given authority to make war against the saints and also authority over all those whose names are not written in the lamb’s book of life – that is all those whose salvation has been secured from before the foundation of the world. These verses are terrifying in that they show the incredible power and reach of the Antichrist’s kingdom that most of the world will follow him into eternal destruction.

Israel during Antichrist’s campaign:
The final 7 years of Daniel’s prophecy begin with the Antichrist making a 7 year covenant with Israel, it is then half way through this covenant that Antichrist reneges on it and turns violently against Israel.
His campaign in Israel is described in Daniel 11:41-45. Then immediately after in Daniel 12:1 says from this time there would be: “a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time” which again sets this in the context of Jesus’ words concerning the Great Tribulation following the abomination of desolation and before His second coming.

The passage describes a conquest of Israel which results in the deaths of a large number of Jews but also that there are places nearby in modern day Jordan which are kept from Antichrist’s power – it is likely this place which earlier we looked at in Revelation 12 where the Lord will bring the survivors of Israel after the abomination of desolation to be kept for 3.5 years. The Old Testament prophets seem to indicate that it will be Bozrah or Petra in the hills of Edom where there will be a significant conflict when Christ returns to save Israel from her enemies and this fits with the area that Antichrist is prevented from controlling because God has brought His people there for safety.

At the same time as Antichrist’s campaign Daniel 12 continues to say: “But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever”. There will be a great deliverance of Daniel’s people, the people of Israel in these days by the hand of God. Indeed this passage contains a description of a resurrection event and this fits with the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:15 saying that when Israel comes to saving faith it will mean: “life from the dead”.

So we see that through the fires of the Great Tribulation, God will call His people Israel into saving faith and it will mean all of the remnant Israel is saved. What a day for the world that will be!

b) The Beast out of the Earth – “the False Prophet” (Revelation 13:11-18)
We then come to consider the final part of the vision with the second beast, the Beast out of the Earth:

v.11 says that this character has the appearance of a lamb but it speaks like the mouth of the dragon. False teachers are often described as hiding in sheep’s clothing. Of all the false teachers and false prophets that have arisen in human history, this person will be the very worst and will be teaching the world the deceptive blasphemies and lies of Satan.

v.12-15 explains that this beast will perform great counterfeit signs and wonders in order to deceive the world into worshipping the Antichrist as god after the counterfeit miracle of resurrection is performed by Satan. The power of this second beast comes from the authority given to the Antichrist by Satan. Essentially what we have is an unholy trinity set up to mimic the operation of the holy triune God – this is the culmination of Satan’s campaign against God’s people and also is probably one of his very greatest perversions.

All who refuse to worship the Antichrist and his idolatrous image (which is likely the abomination set up on the wings of the Temple Daniel describes in 9:27) will be put to death. We read later that this method of killing likely will involve decapitation in Revelation 20:4.

v.16-18 Satan is not content just to have people sit on the fence as atheists, nor to worship idols but instead demands that all worship him outright so he can lead them all into destruction with himself. This will mean the False Prophet will set up a single world religion centred round the worship of Satan through the person of the Antichrist. All the efforts of ecumenism to create dialogues between different faiths will find their conclusion and fulfillment in this abomination in the last days. We see today prominent figures like former prime minister Tony Blair setting up a global Faith Foundation to get different false religions co-operate together and call upon the true faith in Christ compromise its exclusive claims in order to be more ‘tolerant’ of these other belief systems. The reason we should beware of such efforts is that they are laying the groundwork for what Satan is going to do in the final days and we should not support their aims. Rather these other false religions need to hear the truth of Christ, God’s only son and the only way to be saved from a lost eternity in Hell.

Further to this one world faith, the False Prophet will institute a system of identifying people with a mark on their right hand or forehead to symbolise their allegiance to Antichrist, whose name or the number of his name the mark will display. Only those who have this Mark will be allowed to participate in the world commercial system. I believe there is a deep significance behind Satan choosing to make his followers wear this mark. According to some Old Testament scriptures the Feast of Passover is to act as a reminder of God's covenant relationship with man, like a metaphorical symbol on the hand and forehead (Exodus 13:9), and the Israelites were commanded to bind the words of the first commandment to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind like a sign on the hand and forehead (Deuteronomy 6:5-8). It seems that the Antichrist will again ironically have the symbol of allegiance and worship placed in these Biblically significant areas to show the literal sign of peoples' allegiance to him and Satan.

Today, our technology for the first time has reached the stage where the global economy can be electronically controlled to exclude people who refuse to take the Mark. An entire industry has been built up to produce tiny RFID (radio frequency id chips) which are smaller than a grain of rice which go under your skin and can contain credit card info, your medical history and anything else about you which are then scanned to get the information.

The consequences for those who take the Mark of the Beast are terrible as it prompts an angel to be sent across the Earth declaring the warning: "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name" (Revelation 14:9-11).

The end of Antichrist and False Prophet:
The end of these two characters is revealed in Revelation 19 when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to rescue Israel from the campaign of Antichrist. As Jesus returns in the air He will be met by “the beast and the kings of the earth gathered to make war against Him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured…thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse” (Revelation 19:20 -21).

How are we going to get to this final stage in God’s plan for Israel?
Let us conclude by summarising a few of the things that are needed for these things prophesied to unfold immediately prior to Christ's Second Coming to establish His kingdom and save Israel:

1) There must be the nation of Israel in the Promised Land. Ezekiel 37 describes the rebirth of Israel as a nation in the final days as the prophet sees the valley of dry bones being restored: this very event happened in 1948 and they have controlled Jerusalem since 1967. I mention Jerusalem because it is a crucial location in prophecy and indeed Zechariah 12:1 prophesied it would become an issue which would preoccupy all the nations in the final days. Consequently, any other signs of the times which may have appeared more general in Jesus’ Olivet discourse in Matthew 24 find greater significance in these days when Israel is in the land!

2) There needs to be a reconstructed Temple for the Abomination of Desolation: The Temple Institute in Israel have recently begun building the main sacrificial altar necessary for the temple and have spent several years preparing the various instruments, garments and breeding cattle necessary for the resumption of Temple Worship. They estimate that if given the go ahead then they could have the Temple operational in Israel within a year. Currently while most Israeli's are not practising Jews, I believe that there will be a revival bringing people back to Temple worship when God miraculously delivers Israel from an attack of Russian, Iranian and Muslim nations as described in Ezekiel 38+39. These chapters describe a surprise attack on Israel in the final days when she dwells securely in the land. We already see the alliances in place between Russia, Iran and other nations for strategic and military purposes which could lead to this war which will cause God to intervene to save Israel from destruction. Seeing this, the end of Ezekiel 39 seems to describe something of a national awakening in Israel which could lead to them caring about the Temple.

3) There is going to be a significant development with a final world empire forming with 10 kings or nations heading it who will give their power to the Antichrist: we already see developments in both western and eastern Europe towards the development of such a superpower kingdom or alliance of Islamic nations which will be the power base of the Antichrist. He will enter into a 7 year agreement with Israel and this will herald the beginning of the final 7 years before Christ returns and an unparalleled time of God's judgement on this unbelieving world.

4) Finally there will be continued growth in the efforts to unify the world religions into a single force which will turn against believers in the one true God. This world religion will then be turned to worship Satan through the Antichrist in the final days. The technology necessary for the False Prophet to institute the Mark of the Beast as part of this system of Satan worship is already readily available and could be implemented today. There is also a growing sense of intolerance towards exclusive or fundamentalist religious beliefs which could very well lead to an all encompassing and every man pleasing one world religious organisation, which will persecute believers in the true God and which Revelation describes as the harlot of Babylon that Antichrist will use until he grows jealous of her and betrays her to take all the worship himself.

Conclusion:
We live in exciting days and I do believe that the Lord Jesus is returning soon for His bride. I believe there is a strong chance we could see Him in our lifetimes. Let us seek to live lives which glorify Him and testify about Him in the days we have remaining so many people will be saved!

Amen

Peter’s Last Words: "Grow in Godliness”

2009-08-30T22:29:00.002+01:00

“Peter’s Last Words: Grow in Godliness”
2 Peter 1:1-15

Introduction (v.12-15):
Imagine you knew you were about to die and were given a sheet of paper to write one final letter to your loved ones. What would you say to them and why?

2nd Peter was written by the Apostle Peter in the final days of his life before being executed in Rome. This helps explain why it is a very emotive letter because these are written by a man facing imminent death and he has a deep pastoral love and concern for the Church of Christ which he sees is facing dark times ahead.

Peter’s purpose in writing is revealed in verses 12-15. His purpose was to remind them of important truths, which were being undermined by false teachers, and the need to grow in godliness while he still was alive and able to do so. He concludes the book with his final words of exhortation recorded in scripture: “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3v18). Peter’s life was transformed by meeting and spending 3 years with Jesus Christ, culminating in seeing the resurrected Lord. So in death he now wants all believers to seek after knowing Christ like he did. He was also concerned that people not forsake the true gospel, the gospel which has the power to save souls, but rather cling onto the truth and pursue devotion to God, who is the truth.

1) Know where you have come from: (v.1-2)
“Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (v.1-2)

There is no where more important to begin when thinking about growing in godliness and resisting false teaching than with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

We are all sinners in the court of a holy and just God. God in his loving mercy and grace has given us an incredible gift that none of us deserve: the forgiveness of our sins and pardoning of our eternal sentence of death in Hell. This was all achieved through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ who died upon the Cross of Calvary, to lovingly take the punishment our sins deserve on our behalf so we might be saved, to bridge the separation between a holy God and sinful mankind;; and to restore us into relationship with God by adopting us into His family so we can now worship and know God as our Father in Heaven through faith.

Without the gospel and being saved we cannot grow in godliness because we can only grow closer to Him if we are cleansed by and clothed with the righteousness of Christ!

It is so important that we remember the gospel, what Paul calls the good deposit entrusted to us, which has changed our lives through its truth and we stand up for it against all the false teachers who seek to pervert it. Because only in the gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth of eternal life and the power for sinners like us to be saved, and it is the gospel which drives us to live godly lives now in response to what Christ has done for us.

2) Know where you are now: (v.3)
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

Peter tells us that God has not just stopped His gracious blessings when we were born again, rather He continues to give us everything we need for living the born-again life in a way that glorifies God. God doesn’t save us by His power and then say: ‘alright guys it’s up to you now to live the Christian life’ – although we sometimes behave like that don’t we?!

When we have Christ, that is all we need; we do not need some additional experience, blessing or revelation. Indeed, Peter uses the word “everything” which in Greek emphasises God’s incredible generosity that He has given us everything when we are saved. We all have the same opportunity to live godly lives because we all have received everything from God necessary to do it. Peter understands this, he wasn’t particularly special, educated or wealthy; he was a fisherman in a backwater town in northern Israel where not a lot happened. But then Jesus comes along and by His power Peter’s life was transformed.

The fact it says “life AND godliness” doesn’t mean Peter is talking about two things which can be separated – indeed Paul says we no longer live but rather Christ lives in us and our life in the flesh is for the glory of God. Thus when we talk about “life” it necessarily is talking about our living in a God glorifying way.

All that we need for living a God glorifying life now is explicitly said to come through our knowledge of Christ. The Greek word used in this verse for “knowledge” is epignosis – it’s a word used to describe an acquired personal knowledge which goes beyond just knowing things about someone. But how do we come to have this deep knowledge of Christ when we are saved; well I want to suggest to you that the principle in scripture is to live by walking in faith with Christ. Rather than trying to live the Christian life on our strength, we should live and serve with the strength the Lord provides and He says He has given us everything necessary.

I know it’s hard to see the “everything” Peter says been given, but that’s where faith comes in: “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). If it is true that we have been given everything necessary for godly living then maybe that should inform our prayer life because if we don’t believe that’s true we need to be asking for more faith so we will live actively trusting this truth. We need to build up strong faith muscles by exercising this faith in all areas of life. Are you walking with Christ in a way that says you believe that He’s given you everything necessary for life and godliness? When you’re suffering do you walk on in trusting faith that He’s given you everything you need to live through this and bring praise to His name? When you are tempted by sin do you stand firm knowing He’s given you all you need to resist and live a holy life?

Let me illustrate this point, referring to the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water during the storm. Peter stepped out of the boat and began to walk towards Jesus until the storm around unnerved him so much that he began to lose faith - that was when he started to sink. Maybe we need to hear the Lord’s call: ‘Come to me on the waves’, and we need to get out of our boats in trusting faith that He has given us all we need to heed that call even though it is hard to believe it when we see the wind and waves of life. We need to live standing upon that truth in all the different areas of our lives, even when it’s really hard to see it. Peter had seen Jesus perform many miracles and because he knew Jesus he got out of the boat; this was even before his confession of Jesus as the Messiah. Now all these years later after the resurrection Peter knows Christ all the more and knows that if Jesus has given a command then He would also provide the means necessary too, thus he encourages us step out in confident faith in our lives.

3) Know where you are going: (v.4)
“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

So if God has given us all we need for godly living now, then Peter shifts our focus to where are we going based on God’s great promises to us who believe. Well quite simply we are being made more into the likeness of Christ so that we become holy as He is holy – holiness is one of the key natures of God’s character. The evil desires and the sin nature which still battles in our flesh is being battled by the Holy Spirit of God who now dwells in us and He will continue to put to death the corruption of sinful desires until we are made perfect when Christ calls us home in death or returns again.

While things in this decaying and corrupt world are tough, we have the precious promise of eternity in a restored creation with Christ. Right now we are part of His kingdom, bringing a foretaste of what is to come when He returns in splendour to establish His physical reign on earth.

If we fix our eyes on where we are going and what we will be like, then it means that although things can be dark, troubling and challenging now, we can look ahead to see what God has in store for us by trusting is very great and precious promises. Thus as Peter is on the threshold of death, he is looking ahead to being with Christ and rather than feeling sorry for himself he writes to these people in love desiring them to also be there with him and not be led astray nor to lose their confidence in their future with Christ. He derives such great comfort and peace because He knows how great these promises are. Thus, He tells them to press on to know Christ, so that they too will be with and made to be like Christ by receiving these promises!

4) Knowing these things, seek to grow in the knowledge of Christ: (v.5-7)
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” (v.5-7)

Peter continues his letter saying that because of these promises that we are going to be conformed to the likeness of Christ and escape the corruption of sin, we should make an effort to add to our faith and grow in our knowledge of Christ by living in various virtuous ways. This is not Peter suggesting that our salvation is conditional upon us doing good things, but rather that if we have been born again as new creatures in Christ and have been released from the destruction of sin, then we should not want to live in the old ways.

Furthermore, Jesus said that if we love Him then we should seek to obey His commandments and let us not forget that one of the most demanding commands for us to be holy like Christ is holy. Thus if we are to seek to grow in our knowledge of Christ then we must be seeking to grow in that relationship through both faith and obedience to Him. Relationships grow through effort and we must seek to grow in our relationship with Christ by actively co-operating with the Holy Spirit as He transforms us into the likeness of Christ.

This list also is similar to others in the New Testament, often used by Paul in his writings. It is likely that this list has been edited by Peter to directly counter the lifestyles of the false teachers, because when we read the next 2 chapters he specifically notes things about the false teachers which are the opposite of virtues in this list.

Let me briefly just comment on each aspect of the list and share a thought of practical application on each point about how we can seek to grow in our knowledge of Christ by seeking to live in these ways:
• Goodness – this word is used when talking about desirable character qualities. We are not talking about reformation of character; we are talking about radical character transformation which is only possible by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If you want to know what a good character is, then look to Galatians 5:22 at the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The Christian is to be characterised by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, faith and self-control. It is the Spirit who conforms us and sanctifies us into the image of Christ by producing these fruits in our lives, for His glory. If you want to grow in the knowledge of Christ, pray for these things and yield and surrender to His work in your life.
• Knowledge – the word Peter uses is about an intellectual knowledge of the truth. We need to learn God’s truth if we are seeking to grow in faith and relationship with the Lord Jesus. Learn your Bible. In it are the words of life and Jesus prayed that we be sanctified (made holy and set apart for God) in the truth, which is the word of God (John 17:17). God speaks to us through His Word, makes Himself known and it challenges us to live holy and Christ devoted lives. Let me encourage you to read your Bibles and learn scripture daily, then walk in obedience to it!
• Self control – it appears from later in Peter’s letter that the false teachers were those who advocated liberty to do anything. It is said that they have “eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin” (2 Peter 2:14); “they promise people freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19). These are words of warning to us. We must beware of the continued sin in our lives because if there is a particular sin which we allow ourselves to be constantly overcome by, then it is like we are enslaved to that sin. We really need to pray to the Lord, asking for help as we exercise self control to put to death the sins of the flesh by the power of the Spirit.
• Perseverance – even more tough times are coming for the believers Peter is writing to and he writes to encourage them to cling to Christ. If you remember the parable of the house built on the rock, the storm crashes against its walls but it stands firm because its foundations are strong. The Christian life is not easy, we are told to put up our cross and carry it daily, and that if they rejected Christ then they will reject us too. We are called to persevere no matter how hard things get because we trust in faith that God is doing all things for our good and we walk knowing that we can grow to know Christ in His sufferings and suffer for His sake.
• Godliness – The word here means: devotion to God. Are we devoted to God as Christians, do we desire Him and performing His will above all else in this life? Can you say with Paul: For me to live is Christ? Peter has learned about devotion to Christ: he denied Him three times and then was forgiven. Since, he has given his life and been rejected by his people because he is devoted to Christ and knowing him. Peter was not content to just trust Jesus for salvation alone, but rather gave every part of his life to serve and worship Him in response to the gracious love of God shown towards Him. If we understand this incredible love of Christ better then we will be driven to greater devotion to Him in all areas of our lives.
• Brotherly kindness – Our faith must not only affect how we deal with our selves, but rather it must also affect how we treat other people. You will recall that Jesus says the two commandments which fulfil all the law and prophets are that we are to love God with all our being and to love our neighbour as ourselves. John warns that we are inconsistent to say we love an invisible God if we do not love our visible human brethren. Jesus will say to people at the judgement seat, that as we serve and care for even the least of people around us then we are serving and caring for even Him. If we are to grow in the knowledge of Christ we must seek to minister the great grace and love He Himself has towards humans.
• Love – Finally, Peter says that we should seek to add to our faith, love. Peter is a shepherd who loves the flock of God, but he sees the danger of false teachers who are selfishly using the believers for their own gain. He wants us to behave in all things in a completely selfless way and let love govern all we do. Loving people is hard, especially when they are not particularly nice to you or grateful for it. But we are to emulate the love of Christ who loved and died for us even while we were His enemies as sinners (Romans 5:8). The love of God is a pursuing and enduring love; this is the love which should characterise our lives together as faithful believing followers of Christ

5) Why seek to grow in these ways? (v.8-11)
“For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (v.8-11)

Finally, in closing, having considered these practical exhortations from Peter; let me reiterate that his purpose is not to merely instruct believers on how to live better lives; rather our living this way is to be driven by the desire to grow in our relationship with Christ so we may glorify Him in every aspect of our lives.

A year or two ago I was part of a group of people who all were praying for a closer and better relationship with the Lord Jesus. I wish I had found this text back then, but the answer to this very legitimate and important question about how we grow closer and more deeply in the knowledge of Christ is our growth in godliness. Peter says that by growing in godliness we will not be ineffective or unproductive in our relationship with and knowledge of Christ. As we learnt earlier, it is interesting that the means for our growth in godliness is already provided for us by God who has given us everything we need. However, the question is will we be like people who have a garden shed full of all the tools we need to keep a good garden but sit back and allow it to become overrun with weeds? God has given us everything, but will we live in faith, seeking to increase in these ways to be more Godly Christians?

It’s not just our relationship with God which is made effective and productive by growing in Godliness. In 2 Timothy 2:21 Paul says that if we see to be cleansed from the impure and dishonourable sins in our lives then we will be “set apart as holy, USEFUL to the master of the house, READY for every good work”. God wishes to use us to reach this world with the gospel of Christ, but if we do not desire to be godly then we are not ready and we will not be useful for His purposes for our lives! Peter says it would be like we have forgotten that we are saved in the first place, if we are content to sit back and be stagnant in our faith.

Instead he calls us to be EAGER to confirm that we are really God’s chosen people delivered from the corruption of sin by seeking to glorify God by growing closer to Him in trusting faith, and being made holy through the work of His Spirit and our active co-operation with Him in putting to death sin. If we do these things how glorious it will be to enter into the Lord’s sacred rest in His presence for eternity, because we will know Him so well already but then have the joy of meeting Him face to face and giving Him pure, unadulterated worship forever.

It is my prayer that Olivet Evangelical Church is a place where people heed Peter’s last words and seek to grow in godliness as you hold onto the truth in this challenging world where even many in the church are abandoning the true gospel, so you may know Christ all the better in your lives and serve His purposes all the more in this world which so desperately needs Him.

Amen.

Room65: The Pursuit of Happiness

2009-08-04T17:28:00.003+01:00

It's Edinburgh International Festival outreach time again and I'll be speaking at Carrubbers' outreach event: Room65 throughout the month. Two of my talks can be viewed here:
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The Pursuit of Happyness
Room65 – August 2009

Good evening and welcome to Room65 at the Edinburgh International Festival!

This is an event put on by a church which has been built on the High Street for the last 150 years helping the community around us.

I want to take a few minutes to talk to you about one of my favourite films starring the actor: Will Smith. It’s called the “Pursuit of Happyness” and is based on a real life story about the journey a father and son take to find happiness. In the film, Will Smith’s character is struggling to make enough money to pay his bills and care for his family by selling medical machines. One day he is outside a stock exchange business in New York and sees all these wealthy people, who he comments: “look so happy”. He sets out to climb the ladder of success so he too can be wealthy like them in hope of also being happy with his son!

Along the way there are many upsets and set backs, but the father/son relationship grows stronger and they are a comfort to each other at the hardest of times. By the end of the film Will Smith gets employed by a big New York firm and is very hopeful for the future. The film finishes with a scene of the father and son walking along the street joyfully telling jokes to each other.

Some people might take this film to say that if you get a good job with prospects of making lots of money, then that’s the key to happiness. However, I would disagree because I think the film is showing that true happiness for the characters is found in their relationship together, regardless of how much or little they have materially.

We all can identify with the issue raised in this film: we all want to be happy!

The mighty nation of the United States of America was founded upon many wonderful principles concerning human freedom and dignity, but among these principles was the right to pursue happiness. Will Smith’s character comments that the founders of America were wise to talk about the “PURSUIT” of happiness, because to him it seemed it was only something we could seek after, but never actually obtain.

In our world today, there have never been so many freedoms to do things and have new experiences; but yet we are not any happier for it all.

It seems that we are in an endless pursuit of happiness!

But is that all that life represents: an unfulfilling pursuit of the dream of being happy?

As a Christian, I believe we can know the answer to this important question about life, because God who gave us this life has spoken to us through the Bible and His son, Jesus Christ.

God created this world and mankind to live happily in relationship with Himself. The Bible records that we originally had a direct relationship with God, but that this was broken by man’s rebellion against God’s loving authority. We thought we could be happy doing things our own way, ignoring what He had to say. We were wrong! Our rebellion against God, which the Bible calls sin, has affected every area of our lives and our world. Sadly we’ve discovered the hard way that the only one who truly knows how life can be lived right, is the one who created life in the first place.

People spend their lives in an endless pursuit of happiness because they are looking in all the wrong places. Where is the right to place, you may ask?

Jesus Christ made the incredible claim that He was God become man with the purpose of dealing with sin and restoring the broken relationship between us and God. He demonstrated that He truly was not just any other man: He healed diseases, caused blind people to see and ultimately Himself rose again from the dead 3 days after being killed on a Cross. Among these wondrous deeds, He made many incredible statements, including these two: “I have come that you may have life, and have it in all its fullness”; “I am the way, the truth and the LIFE, no man comes to God except through me”.

What a claim for someone to make! Jesus is saying that by knowing Him - knowing God - is the only place where we find true happiness and meaning in life, because it is only by trusting in Jesus that our problem of sin can be dealt with! My experience and experiences of billions of Christian people around the world has shown the truth of what Jesus said: that knowing God through Jesus is truly is how life has meaning and happiness. This is true no matter how hard our individual circumstances may be.

Will Smith’s character was part of way there realising that true happiness was in a relationship with someone, but I wanted to tell you tonight the full way by telling you who that someone is: Jesus.

Our world is in an endless pursuit of happiness; and a happiness that is endless is possible, but only through having relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

If you would like to learn more, we would love to talk with you and would love to invite you to take away one of the accounts of Jesus’ life written by his best friends. This is the gospel of John and the claims of Jesus we’ve looked at tonight are taken from it. Please do take one to read for yourself what He has to say and how He has made it possible for all of us to have a restored relationship with God.

Thank you for listening!

Room65: Reflections on the Death of Michael Jackson

2009-08-04T17:25:00.004+01:00

It's Edinburgh International Festival outreach time again and I'll be speaking at Carrubbers' outreach event: Room65 throughout the month. Two of my talks can be viewed here:
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Reflections on the Death of Michael Jackson
Room65 – August 2009

Welcome to Room65 at the Edinburgh International Festival. It’s great to have you all here with us tonight and I hope you are enjoying the music. This building is a church which has been working for 150 years to serve the people in the community around us. I’m a student at the University of Edinburgh and just want to take a few minutes of your time to share a few thoughts about a topic you’ve probably heard a lot about in the news recently.

Do you recognise this big news story? *Picture: Newspaper “Michael Jackson, king of pop DEAD”

Michael Jackson, one of the biggest selling music artists of all time died in June in very murky circumstances. Just yesterday the autopsy reports were sealed pending the outcome of a police investigation into whether foul play resulted in his death. Whether you loved him or hated him, everyone knew who Michael Jackson was! His album “Thriller” in the 1980s was the best selling commercial record of all time. Even in death he made an impact on the world, as his funeral was watched by almost 1 billion people – that is almost 1 in 6 people in the world!

Michael Jackson was someone who never wanted to grow up but wanted to remain a child. If he didn’t want to grow up, then he certainly didn’t want to die! So I wonder what his last words would have been as he faced the scary end of his life. Death is something that every human being faces; it is just a fact of life that one day we will all die! There have been many people throughout history, who have commented on death and the last words of many famous people have been recorded for us. Let me share a few famous quotations with you tonight:

Ø Charles Darwin: “I am not the least afraid to die” (a great scientist who refused to believe in God)

Ø Winston Churchill: “I'm bored with it all. I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” (a great leader who believed in a creator God but was overly confident about himself)

Ø Spike Milligan: “I told you I was ill” (…a funny comedian…)
Probably the most famous person in all human history – more famous than even Michael Jackson – was Jesus Christ. He has been celebrated and worshipped by billions of people for almost 2000 years. As a Christian – which means “a follower of Christ” – He is someone who has greatly affected my life and I want to finish this evening by sharing with you some of what He had to say about death. Jesus said: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies” (John 11:25-26). Jesus is saying that even though all of us are going to die, that it is possible for us to have life after death, but only by believing in Him. That’s a very bold thing for anyone to claim!

But that was not the only thing Jesus said about death, because He even made repeated predictions about His own death. He said to his friends and followers numerous times that He had come to die and in a few weeks time was going to be crucified in Jerusalem on a Cross. They were understandably shocked at this teaching, but even more astoundingly in response Jesus told them that 3 days after these things He would rise again from the dead!

Why did Jesus say that He had to die? He claimed to be the son of God in flesh who was coming to die in our place so we could be forgiven of our sins. What is sin? Well sin is our rebellion against God, demonstrated by us not acknowledging God rightfully as God (like Darwin did), or thinking so much more of ourselves that we fail to love God as He deserves (like Churchill did). History records that Jesus was surprisingly accurate in His prediction about the circumstances of His death because He went up to Jerusalem where after several days He was betrayed by one of His followers and executed by crucifixion on a Cross.

All this happened just as He said it would. Closing:Yet that’s not the most incredible bit!

Jesus Christ, who died upon the Cross also rose again 3 days later, just as He said He would! This is the only time in all of human history that there is a publicly verifiable historical event of a man rising again from the dead…we know that this does not happen normally. So it must necessarily lead us to question whether Jesus was ever just a man? As a result, I believe He truly was God, as He claimed, and is the only way to have life forever after death, because He is the only person who has died and rose again from the dead. Jesus truly is the resurrection and the life!

I don’t know what you think about the possibility of life after death, some may think it’s just a fanciful belief, but the only way we would know for sure is if someone could come back from the dead and tell us that it’s real – as I’ve been telling you tonight, Jesus Christ did just that!

If you would like to learn more about this Jesus, famous for being the only person to die and rise again from the dead then we would love to talk with you this evening. We would also love to give you one of the account’s of Jesus’ life written by one of His close friends, John. The quote I used earlier is taken from this book and in it you can read more about His life, death and resurrection from the dead.

Thank you for listening!

How can I trust the Bible and believe in Jesus?

2009-08-04T17:24:00.001+01:00

As part of the "What is Christianity" page for the EUCU website I've also got a short "gospel apologetics" primer, which otherwise made the gospel page too long.
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How can I trust the Bible and believe in Jesus?

You hear the name “Jesus” thrown around a lot today - usually for the wrong reasons. However, have you ever stopped to consider who he is, what he did, why people are still talking about him 2000 years later and why 2 billion people globally are reported to worship him?

Jesus is the central character in the whole Bible. The Bible is a collection of books written over a period of 1500 years by men who claimed to be receiving the Word of God. Some people find the Bible suspect to claim such authority, yet when studied it is incredible how a book written by over 40 different authors, from all walks of life, could write a coherent, consistent and non-contradictory document. It is almost as if there was only one true author: God! The Bible makes the incredible claimed that all its words were breathed out by God. Try to talk without breathing – you’ll find it’s impossible. The writers of the Bible were given God’s Words (His breath) and while they each spoke with their own accent and style it was God who enabled their recording of His Words. This ancient document stands up to stringent scrutiny and spoke hundreds of years in advance concerning events which were later exactly fulfilled in history – most importantly about the coming of Jesus.

Think about it: who else in human history was written about for 100s of years beforehand in precise detail which set out how he would be born of a virgin in the small backwater town of Bethlehem, descended through a particular family line, where he would grow up, what his personality and character would be like, what he would do in his life, how he would die and the means of that death (crucifixion which was only invented by the Romans was unknown 700 years previously when the Prophet Isaiah and Psalmist described in explicit detail this method of execution which would be inflicted on Jesus)? It gives you something to think about surely?

In his life on Earth, Jesus not only fulfilled all 200 of the prophecies made in advance concerning him, but also spoke prolifically claiming to be the “son of God”. He also predicted numerous times that he was going to die on a Cross in Jerusalem and rise again from the dead three days later. This was an astounding claim. The Bible boldly recognises that the death and resurrection of Jesus is the acid test for everything it says: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17 – literally it puts all its eggs in this one basket. Either Jesus truly died and rose again as a publicly verifiable event in history, or he didn’t and Christianity is all a lie.

However, if Jesus was telling the truth that he was going to die and rise again (something which no one else has ever done) then it is very compelling evidence that the rest of his claims to be God were also true, which were further attested to by mass miracles and his fulfilling of his biography written long before he was ever born.

The very reason Christianity grew and flourished in the same city that Jesus was rejected and killed, was because hundreds of people saw him die on the Friday, saw him alive again 3 days later. They were the witnesses to the event and as the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life were written and circulated these same witnesses were able to confirm the veracity of the accounts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

If you are interested in asking more questions we would love to hear from you, so please contact us to ask your questions or arrange to meet with someone for a coffee. Also you may be interested in looking at a website specially designed to help people like yourself looking for answers to some of these more thought provoking issues: www.bethinking.org

What is Christianity All About?

2009-08-04T17:22:00.002+01:00

I was asked if I could write a gospel presentation to be placed on the University Christian Union website and this is my humble attempt to solidly, clearly, simply and engagingly present the gospel
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What is Christianity all about?

Every story has a beginning...

Some of the most exciting stories told in films are about someone saving the world. Whether it is from evil geniuses, asteroids, rogue nuclear states, or from sentient robots, the basic story framework is the same. The Bible tells us the real life story about a divine rescue operation, where God has to save mankind from itself.

Every story must have a beginning and the Bible gives us the answer to one of the deepest questions we can ask: 'Where do we come from?' God tells us that He exists outside of time, because when He created this universe and all that is in it He also created time - an idea which we now recognise in physics today. In the beginning, all was good and right in the world. Mankind lived happily in relationship with God, enjoying all the good things in the world He had given us to look after.

...However, this paradise was lost...

Mankind chose to believe a lie, that God was keeping something from us which was holding us back from godhood. Our first parents used their free will to rebel against God’s loving care to make our own way in this world, regardless of the good order in which He created it to operate by. This shattered and separated us from having relationship with God! This decision has resulted in disaster throughout human history as we each have inherited this rebellious nature against God. This rebellion against God which manifests itself in all our lives is called “sin” and it represents man’s refusal to acknowledge God’s rightful rulership over His creation, and consequently our desire to supplant Him with ourselves.

Now just as we have a broken relationship with God, we too have broken relationships in our world with one another, with violence, discord, suffering, selfishness, and all other kinds of wickedness running amok as the good creation unravels. This is a corrupted world of our own making.

...This is not the end of the story though...

The second big question of life is: "Where are we going?". God is the embodiment of justice - the great principle that the heroes in these films always stand up for and defend - and He must punish the rebellion of mankind, as that is what we deserve. To be right before God we must be perfect, and we all know that no matter how good we think we might be that none of us are perfect! It might seem that we are all destined for judgement and punishment because of this fact. The answer to this big life question is that if we die we will have to face judgement for all eternity because of our rebellion.

However, the amazing thing about God is that He is also the embodiment of love. He loves humans and desires to be reconciled into relationship with them again as there was in the beginning. God has not just turned His back on us allowing us to destroy ourselves and this world, rather He has embarked on the greatest rescue mission ever known to show us both His love and His just character.

The Bible records the words of Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16 -17).

God chose to become a man by sending His Son, called Jesus Christ, into this world. He chose to suffer in this world as we all do, although He did not have the same sinful rebellious nature that we each have inherited, which meant He could live the perfect life that none of us can live. Because Jesus was a man like all of us but yet a perfect man, it meant that He could become a substitute for us by bearing God's just wrath against our sin. Jesus was the hero who out of love self-sacrificially laid down His life to save us humans from ourselves. By taking the penalty for our sinful rebellion upon Himself, we can now be restored into relationship with a loving God whose justice has been satisfied by His own divine rescue efforts on our behalf. The truth that our sins have been forgiven because of what Jesus has done was confirmed by the fact that Jesus rose again from the dead 3 days later and appeared alive to His friends and hundreds of other people who saw Him die just a few days before. This is how the Christian Church began: seeing the dead man walk - although of course He couldn't have been just a man if He rose again; He was God!

Now He calls Christians to walk in obedience to what God has said, according to the pattern of life which the Creator knows to be the best way for things to operate. He also calls us to be involved in reaching this broken world with His loving truth and seeking to see reconciliation and restoration of the brokeness that is all around us, by having relationship with Him restored. He will one day return to create a fully restored world, free from all sin and suffering, but until then He calls Christians to live lives which show and minister to the world a taste of what is to come, if they will trust in Jesus for salvation

... But what does all this mean for me?

Jesus Christ is the culmination of God’s divine rescue plan. The only question left is how will you respond to Him? Unlike going to the cinema to watch this incredible story on the big screen and walking away; this is real life and this demands a response in our lives because it is fact, not fiction. We all have the choice to accept the forgiveness offered because of Christ taking our punishment for us so we can be restored into relationship with God enjoy life after death in a restored world with Him. Alternatively, we can refuse to accept what Christ has done and stand condemned and suffer the punishment ourselves. The stark warning that continues in the quotation from Jesus we began reading earlier says: “Whoever believes in Christ is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

As Christians, we at Edinburgh University Christian Union have chosen to follow Jesus, to trust in Him for the forgiveness of our sins and to live for Him in this world, so that people like you reading this can also have the opportunity to be rescued for eternity! If you want to chat with us more about what you’ve read on this page, please get in touch as we would love to sit down over a cup of coffee!