Jesus is our Past our Present and our Future - A Communion Meditation

The Bridegroom is here. Jesus is here and we are going to share a family meal with him – that family meal is communion. I don’t know what your experience of family meals is or has been, but our Heavenly Father intends for this to be a joyful time, where Christ is present by his Spirit to love on and strengthen his people – the church.

And in this meal, the Bread and the Wine tell the story of the God’s people. That’s us and our brothers and sisters all over the world.

The bread and wine speak of our past, of the crucifixion of our precious Lord Jesus; the bread speaks of his body offered up in obedience to death and the wine speaks of his blood poured out in death that we might be washed and cleansed of all our darkness and that we might stand before God, now and forever, in all purity.

But the bread and wine speak also of Christ’s presence here and now for Christ did not stay dead, but was resurrected and now he intercedes for us before the Father in the power of an indestructible life, and by his Spirit, he pours out that eternal life upon us his people. And so the bread speaks of Jesus and his words being our sustenance, that he is our daily bread, and the wine of him being our victory and our joy so that we need not walk in fear, but in fullness of life.

And yet, whilst Christ is truly present now by his Spirit, he is also truly absent. For today, we eat and drink by faith, but one day, we will finally see God face to face and so the bread and wine remind us of the great wedding feast, when all darkness is finally swallowed up by light, when all tears are finally swallowed up by all joy, when our weak, temporary bodies are replaced with eternal, spiritual ones and when all death is finally swallowed up by life.

As you go up to collect the bread and wine, talk to the Lord, ask him to search your heart and to lead you in the everlasting way, then thank him that he has made all provision for you:

• To stand pure before God,
• To walk daily in his strength, victory and joy
• And to sit down with him at the feast in the great climax of history.

The DNA of Church Life: Sermon Text

If you’re like me then, this morning, you’ll be feeling a bit weird. The Christmas and New Year Holidays suspend the normal rhythms of life. Our bodies have not been through the usual Monday to Saturday routines that we do week in week out and so, we can find ourselves a bit detached and disorientated when arriving here on this first Sunday of the year.

However, whatever we feel this morning, we stand, as individuals, as families, as a church family, as a town and as a nation at the beginning of another year. Whether we want it to or not, the great big wheel of life is about to make another turn as it travels down the road of history. In the coming year, we will do many of the same things again that we did last year, and that’s good. The routines and rhythms of our lives give us a great sense of identity, direction, passion and conviction. They reveal what we truly believe to be important. But there will also be new things in 2016; some we will have planned for, others we won’t have. Some will be in our control, others will be beyond our control. And no matter how cynical you may have become about New Year’s resolutions, it is always important to reflect on where you’ve been and where you’re going.

Take a look at the photo behind me. I’m not sure how easy it is for those at the back to pick out individual faces, but this is a photo of an RFC morning meeting from about 7-8 years ago.

There are many people in this photo who have relocated to new places and new stages of life e.g. Sitho and Miranda being the most obvious here. Those of us who are still around have also change stages of life, James Del Rio has shorter hair and has become a dad, whilst I have more hair, at least on my face and I’m married with a kid arriving imminently . Scott and Bea have children, and Zoe Green, a mere tot in this picture, started secondary school this year.

If you think back to ten years ago, you could cite many things that have changed since that time, but there are no doubt many things that are still the same too. At a very basic level, you’re still eating three meals a day, still sleeping for roughly 8hrs over a 24hr period, maybe still watching Eastenders, or tuning in to the football results, still seeing many of the people you know from back then, a good number of them you saw just this last week.

Healthy human life on every level personal and communal is always a mixture of things that remain constant and repeated and things that are changing.

As a church there are many things that have remained the same, we still meet on Sundays to worship Jesus, teach the Bible, take up an offering, take communion and encourage one another to live faithfully for Jesus in the nitty-gritty of the day to day. Many of us still meet mid-week in small groups of various kinds to encourage one another because once every seven days is not often enough. However, things are also different now, we are gathering a greater diversity of people than ever before at more times and locations than ever before.

And so this morning, at the turn of another year, I want to shine a spotlight on those constant routines, which have be growing and advancing the kingdom of God ever since the church was birthed about 2000 years ago and after me, Ian Anderson will get up and tell us how we are looking to work some of that out in our refreshed small group system and how you can get involved.

Following that, over the next two Sundays, Scott and Andy will further flesh out some of those refreshments to our small groups system by talking about two new kinds of groups that we want to dovetail into the our current way of doing things. The reason we are making those additions is because we live in 21st century Reading, not first century Judea and we want to best serve all of you who come through our doors at each of our three Sunday meetings.
Our hope is that if you are:

1. Currently happy in a lifegroup, little will change,
2. If you are new, you will find it easier to get knitted into our small group community life, and
3. If you are a long term RFC member, there will be something new and invigorating for you to get involved in so that you don’t feel like small group life is more of a treadmill than a joy.

So if you have a Bible, please turn with me to one of the most well-known passages in the New Testament: Acts 2:42-47 and let’s take our noses off the grindstone of the present moment and see what the Spirit of God stirs in us afresh as we read and meditate on it together.

And they [that’s the new believers – the early church] devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42-47 shows us the “DNA” of the routines in the early church. (If you can make it out, it’s DNA in the image behind the text on this slide). Every human being has the same essential DNA, it’s what makes us human as opposed to ants or pigs, or tulips, but every human being’s DNA is slightly different. Some people have blue eyes, others brown, some people have black hair, others blond etc etc. So whilst we aim to have the same “DNA” as the early church, because we live in 21st century Reading, it will look different on the surface.

So what was the DNA of those first Christians?

The passage opens with the phrase they devoted themselves in other words, they made a conscious effort to make the things we’re about to look at a priority. There’s no sense of accident, no sense of “can I be bothered today? No sense of “well if it happens, it happens.” No doubt this devoting meant persevering for the long haul – a kind of “for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health” style devotion, the kind of devotions where they had to give up other things, things that they used to do, because no matter how rich or poor you are, in the wisdom of God we all have only 24hrs in a day.

Now Baby Walker is on the way, Elli and I will have to rethink how this devotion will look for us. Elli has given up paid employment and I have given up extra management responsibility at work so that we can together devote ourselves to the Lord in this new season. Our seasons of life change and with each change, we need to reassess, and devote ourselves again to the important things.

If you are honest with yourself, as 2016 stretches out in front of you, what do you need to give up / or just do less, so that you can devote yourself to the most important things?

To frame that question more positively, what do you need to pick up in 2016? For some of us, there are some things in the list behind me that we’ve never really thought about doing, for others of us, we have done them in fits and starts, in a hit and miss kind of way, for others, we are flying on some of these. But I would be willing to guess that none of us are sitting there thinking that we have all six totally nailed.

My aim, as we walk through this list is not to burden us with huge expectations, and fill up our diaries with more meetings, it is to show you how God wants to share his heart with us and wants you to share your heart with him. He loves you unbelievably – more than you could ask or think and in inviting us into these six things, he is inviting us into his heart.

So, firstly, v46 they regularly met together, both in large gatherings at the Temple and house to house across the city of Jerusalem. There isn’t any detail about how the system worked, only that they wanted to be in each other’s lives a lot. They were a new family, and healthy family life means they made it a priority to be regularly physically in each other’s presence, social media was not enough, and they only used Skype when for a time, they were forced apart by circumstance.
It’s these regular meetings together of various kinds that make the rest of the passage we looked at possible. They didn’t have the internet or books or TV to get what they needed, or electronic giving as a way of helping the needy from the comfort of the sofa. If they wanted to grow in understanding, or meet the needs of others they had to get of the sofa and go and find a real person to do it. And they knew that if they didn’t do it, their hearts would grow cold. (Heb.10:25)

And what did they do when they met together?

Well, second on the list. verse 42 says, they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. What was the Apostles’ teaching? I hear you say. It’s everything that Jesus’ disciples (now apostles)

1. Learned from him as they lived with him during his life on earth (1 John 1:1-2),
2. It was learning how Jesus is the fulfilment of all the Old Testament hope (Lk.24:27) and
3. It was learning how Jesus’ life and work transform everything for the world, now and forever. (Rev. 21:5)

In short, they devoted themselves to understanding what we would now call the whole Bible and what it meant for their lives and they devoted themselves to those who helped them to understand it, because in doing so they got to know God’s heart. Like I said a second ago, the only way they got the vast majority of that teaching was to be in the physical presence of those who were delivering it. They didn’t have the Internet.

Now in our day, assuming we have appetite to know what the Bible says, then beyond the 30min Sunday sermon, we are drowning in all kinds of clever ways and means to get the Bible and its message into our hearts whether through reading, hearing or watching, whether free online or through the purchase of study materials. For us, as we seek to get the solid gold teaching of the Bible into our hearts, we need to ensure:

1. That we are listening to people who teach what the Bible actually says and not to those who are twisting its message - that means using the Bible to make you a follower of them rather than a follower of God.
2. That what we are listening to isn’t making us proud and drawing us away from the local church.
3. That we are around people who help us not only understand it, but put it into practice so we don’t become hypocrites.

How are you doing with getting the words of the Bible into your heart? If you only ate meals, as often as you read the Bible what would your body look like? If the answer is not good or dead, what needs to change so that you can feed and thrive your soul? (If you can’t find anything, let me know, I will do all I can to help point you in the right direction.)

Thirdly, they devoted themselves to fellowship. Fellowship is being united together around a great cause. It’s more than friendship and definitely more than just acquaintance. Friendship is what we do when we need to relax, Fellowship is what we do when we want to work together to make a difference. Chatting about football over coffee after this meeting is nice, but in the strictest term, it is not fellowship. Both friendship and fellowship are needed, because life is a rhythm of work and rest, and we should do our best to embrace both, whilst not confusing or pushing too far one way or the other. The early believers no doubt enjoyed each other’s company, and relaxed with each other, but they also devoted themselves to the fellowship task of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. I consider Sean and Scott both as my brothers in the fellowship of the gospel, but also as friends because I enjoy relaxing with them on the rare occasions we get opportunity for that, like the meal we had together before Christmas.

Jesus reigns and calls us into the mission of carrying his presence to every nook and cranny of the world. Like the Fellowship of the Ring in Tolkien’s books, the fellowship of the church calls us all to unite in and work for a greater cause than our own lives would naturally give to us.
Based on these definitions of friendship and fellowship. How much of your interaction with other Christians needs to shift in focus. I guess some of us need to chill out a bit and take ourselves less seriously – It’s Jesus who is God’s gift to the world, not you or me, but others of us need to step up and take ourselves more seriously – again, Jesus is God’s gift to the world, but the God of Heaven calls all of us to stop lingering in the shadows and get into the task of bringing the Kindgom of God to the whole of creation whether on our doorstep or around the world.

Fourthly, they devoted themselves to the “breaking of bread.” That means, they ate meals together. They ate meals together in each other’s homes and they ate meals together as a church. Moreover, they took communion together – that is bread and wine.
Now this sharing of food together was more than a mere refuelling session – topping up on much needed calories and nutrients, it was a sharing of lives. So long as you’re not all hypnotised together in front of a TV screen, then when you share food together, you share hearts together. When we take communion together, we are sharing a meal with God, and sharing our hearts with him. Whether that is in your home or out and about in Starbucks because living in a shared house setting means you can’t always spontaneously invite people back to your place.

Two quick things about this sharing food is sharing life thing.

1. If you are inviting people to share food with you, remember that these are family meals, not Great British Bake Off auditions. When you invite Christians to your house, just put in front of them what you would normally eat yourself, whether that is a ready meal, beans on toast, pizza and chips or something else. Don’t get caught in that toxic mentality that says you have to cook something, better, impressive or different. Don’t put the cart before the horse, sharing food creates an opportunity to share hearts together. It’s not about you and your clever cookery, so don’t close your heart to offering someone a meal because you can’t so something that in your head looks “good enough.” More than that, if you’re too busy feeling annoyed about the consistency of your chocolate pudding, you’ll become annoying because you won’t be really listening to or engaging in the conversation with the people around you.
2. If you are invited to eat together with someone, say yes (assuming the diary allows of course) and thank them. If you have any dietary requirements, or food you really can’t stand then say so because they won’t want to torture your taste buds or make you ill. When you arrive enjoy what they put in front of you even if it is not what you would make for yourself and thank them for what they have taken time to prepare and thank God that you have a meal to eat. Then share your lives together.

Last year we had the month of meals, where we were all encouraged to get together over food, why not, in the spirit of that, think of someone now that you could invite round for a bite or take them out for a drink or a meal before the month of January is over. And if you do invite them round, remember, it’s ok to give them turkey left overs. ☺

Fifthly, they devoted themselves to prayer. Now when I read the word prayer in that text, I think all of the following happened:

1. Singing songs (Col.3:16)
2. Singing or saying the psalms of the Old Testament together – a practice that the more modern churches have lost in recent decades (Eph. 5:19)
3. Practising the gifts of the Holy Spirit like prophecy, words of knowledge etc
4. Praying for the successful advance of the Gospel (2 Cor. 1:11, Phil. 1:19)
5. Times of fasting (Acts 13:2)
6. People praying on their own
7. People praying informally together
8. Organised prayer meetings

A healthy prayer life, will have all of these elements in it.

Prayer does a number of things:

1. It draws us closer to God and brings the Kingdom of God to earth – on earth as it is in Heaven. (Matt.6:10)
2. It reminds us that it is God’s power that changes the world, not our clever words or organisation (although those are part of it too.)
3. It builds trust. Hearing a person pray helps forge trust between you. (John 15:7)
4. It births in us a generosity of heart to others –It’s hard to hold a grudge against someone you are praying for God to bless. God softens your heart in the praying. (2 Tim 2:8)
5. It reveals to us what our priorities in life really are. You and I will spend our time praying about the things that are most important to you (1 Peter 5:7).

What do your prayer routines say about you? What do they reveal about your priorities? What adjustments do you need to make?

Mention Prayermate App if time.

And finally, they devoted themselves to meeting each other’s needs. You see, when you are family, you cease to draw strong lines about what belongs to whom. This is a hard idea to grasp in our culture, because, even in our sense of family, we are so rabidly individualistic. From their very first steps, our children grow up in an environment, which is always drawing lines about what belong to whom. Many children have their own room where they can cultivate the life long capitalist routine of amassing a stash of stuff they can call “MINE” and mine means “NOT YOURS”

But if like me, you have had the privilege of travelling to far flung places that aren’t so chronically individualistic, you find that families and communities don’t talk in such strong terms of “MINE, NOT YOURS,” but rather they share everything together according to need. They aren’t communist, it’s just that when you are poor and all your family lives in one or two rooms, it’s very hard to develop a sense of entitlement to your own things, like we do in the prosperous West, because poverty and necessity give rise to a common dependency which means people share.

Consider your own biological family. If relations are good between you, then when one of your family member hits hard times, then the other family members do all they can to help them out, even going without in their own lives to ensure the others who have fallen on hard times, for whatever reason, have what they need. And they do it not because they have too, but because they are family and that is what healthy family does. It sticks together supporting one another.

The early church was God’s family, and so when one person got into difficulty, then others helped them out, not because they were forced to, of felt they had to, but because they considered them to be family, like their very own flesh and blood.

Now that happens here in RFC – both formally and informally. Formally, before Christmas, the elders gather info from the church family about who is in need and as a church family we distributed food vouchers various people.

But it also goes on more informally in the day to day, ranging from people helping others out who are in desperate times to people helping others out who just need a hand.

Now, what does the passage say happened when the believers devoted themselves to these things? Well six things happened:

1. v43 they revered God – They began to see God’s words as more important than their own opinions – they put their own self-centred assumptions to one side, chose to do what God said and saw that he was able to do super abundantly more than they could ever ask or think.
2. v46 they had joy – They managed to break free from the lie that we are most happy when we focus on ourselves and came to understand the truth that obedience, far from being the road to slavery and misery, was the road to true liberation and joy.
3. v43 the apostles did miracles - This is a truth that our individualistic culture finds hard to swallow and I am not entirely sure how it works, but due to the obedience and devotion of the whole church - together, certain individuals, namely the apostles were performing signs and wonders. Our obedience, or lack of it, to God, doesn’t just affect the fruitfulness of our own lives, it affects the fruitfulness of the wider church family. Imagine what God would do if we all devoted ourselves wholeheartedly to all these things above.
4. v47 they praised God They saw all that God hand done and all that he was doing and they couldn’t help but burst forth in praise to God. And as per Psalm 67 when the praises and obediences went up, the blessings came down and at this point in the story they came down in two ways:
5. v47 they had the favour of the wider community People were saying – wow – God is really among you! Now whilst the respect would remain, the favour wouldn’t last for long, after the stoning of Stephen at the end of Acts 7 the wider community and especially the authorities, became hostile to the early church favour turned to fear and suspicion, but even they would have still revered them and what is most important in all this is not wider society’s opinion on the church for that changes with the fads and fashions of the times; what matters is that God’s people are faithful to all that he asks of them.
6. v47 People were converted and added into the church God blessed their endeavours, spoke life into dead souls. Whilst we can never turn the word of God into a robotic formula, nevertheless, as they gave themselves to God, God blessed their endeavours with life – new spiritual life.

2016 stretches out in front of us, and God has given us everything we need for life and godliness though his Son and the presence of his Spirit with us, so that we can with confidence devote ourselves the things we have highlighted this morning. Now, Ian is going to come and tell us about how we can work some of this out by getting involved in small groups, as they give us a great opportunity to grow in the likeness of God.

Overtaken by Greater Joy: A Christmas Meditation

Zach and Liz (Zechariah and Elisabeth) were a godly couple who had never been able to conceive a family naturally. No doubt this caused them much frustration down the years. By the time we meet them in Luke 1 they are old and "passed it" and had likely given up all hope of being parents.

So when an angel appears to Zach as he offers incense at the altar and tells him he is going to be a dad, he is no doubt stunned, but there's a question worth pondering. Read the extract below and ask yourself, what was the "prayer that had been heard?"

Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

As painful as the childlessness must have been and no doubt prayers had gone up for that, that wasn't the primary prayer of Zach that the angel had come to announce the answer for. It was that God was finally fulfilling his promise to the world after thousands of years to come to us as one of us.

And yet, in that answer to the prayer of the righteous, the prayer of the ages, the prayer of prayers, God also, in this case, fulfills the very natural desire of a heart for children. Zach and Liz's joy at becoming parents is overtaken by the greater joy that God is faithful to his ancient promise and will fulfill it in their lifetime. This is clear by what Zach says after John is born:

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Zach doesn't burst into song about the handsomeness of his son like many parents would, but about the grace of God coming. Putting it bluntly, Zach waxes much more lyrically about "Mary's son" than he does his own. Little John only gets a look in at the last bit, and he is only the warm up act!!

Whilst their personal, temporal joy is no doubt very great, it is caught up in an eternal, universal joy of what God is doing by uniting himself to us for ever.

So whatever joy (or indeed sadness) you have this Christmas, and I hope you have much deep and profound joy in being with those you love and sharing precious moments with them, there is a greater joy to be swept up into, one that goes deeper, wider, higher and longer than the deep pleasures and sorrows of this life can ever know.

The Incarnation - God becoming like us, is an invitation, for us to become like God for ever.

Merry Christmas.

A is for Acceptance: GRACE Sermon Series Notes

Twelve years ago, I went to Weightwatchers. It was the first time, as a twenty-something man, I had walked into a room where I felt like a total outsider. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to be there and get my bodyweight under control and everyone was very friendly, but all the leaflets I got, all the advice I received and all the motivational hooks, were set up for the majority woman audience. There were even a couple of awkward laughs when the meeting facilitator gave one of those "top tips" and then realized, it wouldn't work for me. I wanted what the company was offering, but the community it fostered, left me cold and awkward. If it wasn't for the fact that I was paying to get weighed and so wanted to drop the weight as fast as I could, I probably would never have gone back. It all seemed nice, but irrelevant, and I was out of place.

I'm sure Weightwatchers meetings have come a long way since the day I stepped across the threshold of that primary school hall 12 years ago. These days every trendy business or charitable cause is seeking to build an accepting and diverse community base; bending over backwards to flaunt and affirm their "accepting credentials" so that no one can accuse them of being bigoted. The church is no different and rightly so.

But whilst we can all talk in wishy-washy, inoffensive ways about acceptance, we also have to recognise that EVERY community has to have a unifying principle that puts people on the inside or outside of that community. If I turn up to Weightwatchers and want to be “in” their community, I have to at the very least pay my fee and agree with their mission that loosing excess weight and maintaining a healthy body weight is a good idea. Otherwise, why am I there? No one would think that Weightwatchers was an intolerant organisation if it kicked me out after turned up to their meeting and started slagging it off for not welcoming people who aren’t interested in living healthily or telling everyone they’re all hypocrites because they haven’t lost any weight that week.

The church is called to demonstrate the love and acceptance of Jesus, but in a cliché-driven and image-saturated culture, what does it really mean to be accepting or loving? What is the unifying principle in the church?

What binds us together is the love of God. But that love has a definition and that definition isn’t my feelings. It is the person, words and actions of Jesus Christ – the Son of God. Just as our words and actions are the evidence of the kind of love that is in our hearts, so Jesus' words and actions are the evidence of the kind of love that is in God's heart (Luke 6:45) because Jesus was and is God.

Receiving the love of God and receiving the words of God is one and the same thing. You cannot receive the love of God, separate from the words and actions of God. (John 1:17)

Jesus effortlessly moved amongst all ranks of society, meeting with the ruling elite, the common folk as well as the excluded outsiders - the lepers and the tax collectors. No one was left out in the cold. He loved them all, without distinction with his words and actions. He loved everybody and he challenged everybody both those who looked good on the outside as well as those who looked chaotic and messed up.

This love of Jesus brings hope to the down cast, but it also calls us up and out of ourselves and calls us into a much bigger reality than we ever realised was possible.

The reason he did that was because on little cross on a hillside outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago God removed EVERY barrier between us and him. EVERY BARRIER.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 1 Peter 3:18

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

God has said that there is no barrier left. At the cross, God removed ALL the barriers that stopped God from uniting himself to the human race. Nothing that can separate us from the love of God, not our sin against him or against others nor other people's sin against us, not our shame, nor our self-loathing, not any demonic power nor our any human government, not our ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or nationality, not our weakness nor our illness, not our lifestyle choice nor the place that we live, not our education nor lack of education, not our political preferences nor our lack of it, not our body shape, not our past, our present or our future, not our ignorance nor our hypocrisy... NOT EVEN being polite, successful and middle-class.

God in Christ, throws his arms out wide to you, without qualification, he has accepted you and me with all our foibles and inconsistencies and hopes and fears. Nothing can stop him from doing good to you and for you. Will you now receive him, receive his words into your heart? The only reason anyone might possibly be rejected by God is because they continually refuse to receive him and put themselves beyond his welcome.

The problem is that even after we have been welcomed by Jesus and welcome him into our lives, are filled with his Spirit and desire to be like him, sharing what we have received from him with others, we still make a hash of it in all kinds of ways. There are many accusers both in and outside the church who are quick to remind us when we mess up.

The good news is that Jesus is not surprised or fazed by the laziness, fecklessness or even the plain nastiness of his people. If you have a bible, turn to Luke 18:35-43

Jesus has for a while now, been going around announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of God, teaching people, healing people, casting out demons etc. Things like that don’t happen every day and his reputation precedes him. So when a blind beggar, sitting at the side of the road going into Jericho city, hears that the man who is the long awaited Messiah of the human race is passing through, he is not going to be passive about the possibility of receiving his sight.

But an incredible thing happens. Even though everyone knows that Jesus is a healer, something in the hearts of the crowd closes up and instead of saying… “Friend, what a great day this is, let us lead you to Messiah that you might receive your sight,” they tell him to shut up! What kind of heart does that?

• Did they have a misplaced sense of purity that let them to think that – unlike them – the blind man was unclean and unworthy to come to Jesus? (Lev. 21:16-24)
• Did they have a misplaced sense of order – that Jesus wouldn’t like it or would be thrown by it?
• Did they not really understand the blessing of sight? – “Sight is overrated?”
• Were they hypnotised by the fear of missing out? A noble desire to receive from Jesus becomes a dark and twisted thing as they pushed the weak and needy out the way just in case Jesus only had a limited amount of “power” to bless them with.

Do we have the same attitude as that crowd at times?

• Do we due to some misplaced sense of purity in our hearts, think there are people who are too unclean and unworthy to come to Jesus?
• Do we have a misplaced sense of order – that Jesus or church life would somehow be thrown off course by welcoming others?
• Do we misunderstand the goodness of the gospel? – “Jesus is overrated?”
• Are we so fearful of missing out, or just so plain selfish at times that a noble desire to receive from Jesus becomes a dark and twisted thing as we push others out of the way so that we can get a blessing.

But the guy is not silenced. Peer pressure will NOT stop him from getting a blessing from the Lord of the Universe.

On the surface, it probably looked like any ordinary crowd, but Jesus, fully aware of the dark dynamic going on, intervenes because he orders to the crowd to bring the man to him.

Jesus asks him what he would like, not because he doesn’t know, but because he wants him to confess faith. The blind man addresses Jesus as LORD –he knows who he is talking to, and the LORD of all creation gladly grants him his request.
The crowd go wild with joy at this miracle.

Notice that Jesus doesn’t rip into the crowd for trying to keep the blind man away from him. He doesn’t say “You stupid, wicked, sinful, heartless people, why did you try and stop him from coming to me?” Jesus would have been within his rights to do so. But grace rarely speaks of rights, it speaks of kindness and generosity to the undeserving. He knows that we are all weak, stupid, dark and fallen creatures who need his love and his help whether we look like it on the outside or not. We need to stop pretending that we have it all sorted and receive his words, and receive his love. The only perfect person around when any group of people gather, is Jesus.

Over a thousand years previously, after the Israelites had annihilated this Jericho, Joshua pronounced a curse over it (Josh. 6:26). Hiel of Bethel did rebuild it, and suffered as a result, (1 Kings 16:24) but in the miracle of that day, Jesus announced that he was reversing the curse on the city. No wonder it was a day of celebration.

A love that is overdue and overwhelming breaths through our town. The curse is done away with at the cross, the way to God is open, and life and blessing flow to all who will receive the words of Jesus.

Jesus has done what we could never do and brought the love and acceptance of God to us. He has filled us with his Spirit so that we might be transformed and come to a place where we can share what we have received from him with everyone.

Jesus-shaped acceptance can often look like the kinds of acceptance we see in the wider culture, but it is not the same. This is how he welcomes us and this is how with his help, we can learn to accept others.

1. Jesus is not non-judgmental, he accepts us on the basis of truth (reality) and he full of wise judgement. He knows how bad we really are, but he knows also that he has the power to make us fit for his presence. (John 8:11)
2. Jesus isn’t bothered about superficial behaviours or micro managing people’s lifestyle choices (Luke 15:2). He is most interested in our hearts and its allegiances and so his acceptance of us goes to the very deepest level and he has no problem sitting with people in seemingly “impure” settings.
3. Life poured out of Jesus, (John 7:37-39) so he didn’t fear pollution by association with the non-Christians of the day and he wasn’t up tight around them. Neither is he fearful that moving towards us in love will somehow taint him. When he comes into contact with us, he joyfully transformed them, not the other way round.
4. Jesus went looking for opportunities to bless people because his acceptance was not about maintaining a status quo but about looking to see what the love of God can do in the hearts of people. (John 10:16) He sent someone to speak the love of God into our hearts, and we can have the privilege of doing the same.
5. We are not entitled to anything from God and Jesus doesn’t just tolerate those he accepts, he welcomes them as his very own family – he can’t wait to get to know them. (John 15:15)
6. Jesus would be justified, as God, in feeling a sense of superiority about his acceptance of others, but he doesn’t – he is naturally humble (Matt. 11:29) and happily serves and sacrifices himself for the sake of others.
7. Jesus is patient and enduring (Mark 9:19, Hebrews 12:2) – he accepts us with all our mess because he knows the future, the glorious new world that is coming, and the power of God that will be demonstrated in that time that will translate our weak, and floored bodies into glorious eternal ones.

Some of the Deacons put Jesus shaped acceptance this way:

“Having open arms to all, just as Christ has opened his arms to us.”

“Accepting others as we have been accepted ourselves by God.”

“Awareness of times when we focus our time and energy on those ‘like us’ – proactively step out of cliques to engage with those unlike us.

I can think of no better way of ending a message like this than with communion.

God the Father welcomes as his very own Family, all those who have welcomed Jesus into their hearts as Lord. Communion is not a funeral, it’s a family meal and just like any family meal, the dynamics can be messy, some members of the family can be happy, others sad, some family members can be grumpy and nasty to each other. But each has a place at the table and just as the Father welcomes us to his table, so we come to join him, not because we have earned our place, but because by God’s incredible kindness we have been given the right to come as his children.

So come, eat, drink and celebrate God’s love and welcome and accept one another as God has welcomed and accepted us.

Questions for Reflection:

1. When have you ever felt out of place? Why?
2. What do you think about the statement that the love of God/Jesus and the words of God/Jesus are the same thing? How does it change your view of God's love?
3. Do you agree with the statement that receiving all the words of Jesus is the only qualification for coming into the presence of God. How does that change your view of the Christian life?
4. What do you think of the crowd in Luke 18? Do you ever exhibit the same tendencies?
5. What do you think of Jesus' (non) reaction to the nastiness of the crowd? What does that tell you about him, and about us?
6. Jesus publically (by his actions) reverses the curse laid on Jericho over a thousand years earlier, what do you think that means for the place where you live?
7. Communion is a family meal time. How does this statement help us to understand how we should interact with each other and our Heavenly Father as we take bread and wine together.

Sermon Notes on Daniel 3

Nebuchadnezzar turned his kingdom of Babylon into the world superpower of the day gobbling up much of what is known today as the Middle East. His foreign policy was familiarly multiculturalist - to take the brightest and best of the nations he conquered, retrain them and put them into service in his empire. As a result, Babylon became the centre of the world at that time. If you wanted to see the latest technology, art and architecture, hear the best music or taste the best food, the place to go was Babylon.

The book of Daniel is (amongst other things) the story of Daniel and his friends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were four Jewish boys taken (albeit by force) under the wing of the Babylonian empire.

Read Daniel 3.

Rulers often have a god-like status and Nebuchadnezzar, even after acknowledging the power of Daniel's God who interpreted his dream (see Daniel 2), sets up an enormous idol as a testimony to the supremacy of his reign / Babylonian power / Babylon's god(s). He clearly believes that his empire is the "meaning of history" as he issues a decree that officials from all the nations of his realm, be brought to Babylon to admire all that has been achieved, pledge allegiance to the king and ultimately bow the knee in worship of Babylon's god/idol. (Note, Daniel himself is curiously absent from this story and we are not sure why. Off on international business? Already got a "get-out-of-jail-free" card from chapter 2? Who knows?)

With such shock and awe tactics at play, our heroes Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to have very clear wits and strong convictions about loving God and about the purpose of human history so as not to be carried along with the herd, bowing to the gold statue. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his idol for the people, but in their hearts, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (like Moses in Heb.11:24-26) looked by faith to the greater reality - to the God who would establish his eternal Son as the object of worship for all people, (Phil. 2:9-11) through a promise made to their forefather Abraham (See Gen. 22:18, see also Dan. 7:13-14 and Rev. 5:9-10).

Unsurprisingly, they are soon denounced for their treachery, by others from their own (envy-driven?) ranks and find themselves in front of the king. Nebuchadnezzar is clearly enraged by what he sees as high treason; he has spared their lives, brought them to Babylon, educated them and given them status and a salary in the greatest empire in the world. How could they be so ungrateful now and disobey the king's command? It is true that Nebuchadnezzar had given them everything - on an earthly level, but when he demands the allegiance of their souls, he commits a spiritually fatal overreach.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are not ungrateful, rude, defensive or arrogant, but neither are they apologetic to the king for what they have done. They simply point out that forsaking their God to worship an inanimate lump of gold is something they can't and won't do and in so doing remind Nebuchadnezzar of his place in the order of the universe, that he like them, is only a man - he might kill their body, but he cannot take their soul (Matt.10:28). Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego display utter confidence, that however limited and fallible their own perspectives, they will obey and entrust themselves to God who has shown them a better way and will deliver them from the king's hand either by a miracle or by martyrdom.

Nebuchadnezzar is so enraged by this challenge to his authority that he orders the furnace (a symbol of his unrighteous fury) to be made white hot, so hot in fact, that his own men die delivering Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to the flames. But wait, in the midst of these flames, what does this "son of the gods" (a title of Nebuchadnezzar) see? The true Son of God, coming to strengthen, comfort and deliver his servants from the unjust anger of Nebuchadnezzar.

In fact, the presence of Christ with them in the fire is so sweet, that Nebuchadnezzar has to call Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego out of the furnace. They are in no hurry to leave!!! He then gives praise to their God and promotes them immediately. But notice what Nebuchadnezzar doesn't do - he doesn't dismantle his golden statue, nor does he personally convert, he just gives Jews special status. He likes having godly people about to benefit him and his empire, but he doesn't humble himself before the Living God.

So what do we learn?

1. Whilst this scenario may have taken Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego by surprise, it didn't take God by surprise. He loves his people and is organising history so as to test and refine their hearts. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego proved faithful, God was honoured by their faithfulness and they are raised to new heights of glory in the Babylonian empire and new heights of spiritual authority and maturity as a result of their obedience. (Matt. 25:21)
2. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego managed to withstand the anger of the king because they loved God and knew God's purposes for human history. They saw faithfulness to God as more worthwhile than the accumulation of temporary riches (Luke 12:15). In the time of trial, could the same be said of us? (Matt. 6:21)
3. We are to honour our families (Eph. 6:2) and those in authority over us (Rom.13:7), but there will be times in our lives when our friends / family / partners / spouses / bosses / government overstep their boundaries and expect an allegiance from us that they have no right to require. In those moments, a clear head and a pure heart that come from knowing and experiencing the goodness of God are needed to keep us from giving in to their illegitimate demands. Yes we must give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but we must also first give to God, what belongs to God - Matt. 22:21. 
4. If people betrayed Jesus up to death, we should not be surprised if those who we thought were our friends end up forsaking us (Luke 21:16-19).
5. Should we go through a fiery trial because we choose faithfulness to Christ over whatever else, then he promises to be with us so closely in it (1 Pet. 4:14)  that we will be content to live long in the trial and to bring good out of it (James 1:2-4). 

Finally, if we find ourselves in a place where we have been faithless, we can take heart from the testimony of Peter, who due to fear, denied knowing Jesus three times, (see Luke 22). Yet he was graciously restored by Jesus after the resurrection (see John 21). Whilst the memory of that denial was no doubt painful for Peter to the day of his death, it didn't disqualify him from the purposes of God. If by fear we have been faithless, we should not lock ourselves up in pride, but humble ourselves and seek his restoration in our lives.

Questions for reflection

1. Is there a person or institution in your life expecting a level of allegiance from you that they have no right to? In the light Daniel 3 how would you respond to them?
2. Do you expect a level of allegiance from someone else that you have no right to?
3. Sometimes we can "start well" in a trial, but as time goes on we look to things other than God to get us through or get us out. Are you / Have you been in a situation like this? What do you need to do?
4. How can you build yourself up in the knowledge and love of God (Jude 20-21) so that when these conflicts of allegiance come across your path you can not only stand your ground, but flourish in the trial?
5. Have you been unfaithful? What do you need to do? How does Peter's story in Luke 22 and John 21 give you hope?

Sermon Notes: Who is the Holy Spirit? What does He do?

Today sees us beginning a new sermon series revisiting the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian and the gathered church. We feel that in the busy-ness of making RFC work, we have lost something of this and we want to return to and strengthen it as it is one of our founding values being part of Newfrontiers. To be clear, we want to pursue God, not the merely supernatural, for not everything that is supernatural is of God. And we want this not just for our meetings, but for our everyday lives - no dividing walls.

Here are seven foundational things we want to tell you / remind ourselves about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The list is by no means exhaustive for that would take ages.

1. The Holy Spirit is God - Genesis 1-2, 2 Corinthians 3:18, John 14:23

The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Bible introduces us to the Living God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit - three distinct persons, all fully, eternally and equally God in their nature. The foundational picture that God has given us in creation to help us begin to get our heads around this is the first created human family in Genesis - a father, mother and children. Each person is distinct and unique, yet all are equally and fully human. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of the Father and the Son (John 15:26, Gal. 4:6), he eternally proceeds from them both in a similar way that you and I and our brothers and sisters all proceeded from our fathers and mothers. He is the life, love and infinite creative diversity of God who flows eternally between the Father and the Son and from the Father and the Son out into creation.

2. He loves to glorify the Father and the Son - Matthew 5:16, John 16:14

All the members of the Trinity are self-forgetful because they find their joy in the other. They aren't interested in getting attention for themselves. The Father loves to glorify the Son: "Look at Him, isn't he wonderful?!" The Son loves to honour the Father: "He is worthy of all glory!" The Father and Son have sent us the Holy Spirit to be our constant and eternal companion. Like a best man, joyfully and unobtrusively organising the logistics of the wedding day on behalf of the Bride and Groom, the Spirit longs to shine the spotlight on Jesus and His Father and help us to glorify the Son and honour the Father as we go about our lives in the world. Abraham's chief servant, Eliezer (see Gen. 15:2) exemplifies this gospel truth about the Spirit wonderfully in Genesis 24.

3. He brings new life to the dead - John 5:25, 1 Corinthians 6:11

The Bible shows us that not only are we unable to save ourselves, but moreover, that we don't want to be saved. The Holy Spirit is the one who awakens a person to the reality of their need before God, that we are guilty in our rebellion and high treason, clothing ourselves not in the glory of righteousness as image bearers of God, but in shame that comes from that rebellion and thus ironically becoming naked and held captive by the Devil. As the gospel is spoken over a person, the Holy Spirit enables us them to hear and receive the words, he cleanses us from all this guilt and shame and takes us from the captivity of the Devil and places us into the family of God.

4. He testifies to us and in us of our adoption and betrothal - Galatians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Revelation 22:17

When we find ourselves forgetting, doubting, faltering, or indeed when we are speaking / singing out truth, it is the Holy Spirit, who in those moments speaks to our spirits in a way that is greater than the sum of any words and reminds us that we are truly God's child and that as part of the church, we are truly Christ's bride. Fasting is a great way of preparing our hearts for these kinds of moments, but God can bring them any time through people, creation and circumstance, but he especially reminds us of this when the Bible is read or in the gathered church.

5. He empowers us for the obedience that flows from faith in Christ - 1 Peter 1:2, John 14:15, 1 Corinthians 14:5

Paul introduces his letter to the Romans by saying that God set him apart for calling the Gentiles into the obedience that is by faith. Christians are not expected to remain as they are on the day they got converted but to grow in maturity. That maturity comes the same way they got converted, by hearing, believing and obeying (aligning with) the truth. The hearing, believing and obeying that began their spiritual life is the same process that continues to sustain and flourish it. Hearing, believing and obeying is like taking, chewing and swallowing food. Food is only any good to us if it is eaten. God's truth is only any value to us if we will take it into ourselves and act on it. The goal of all this is that we become more like Jesus, or to put it another way, to take on the family likeness by bearing the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts. It is also by the Spirit that we exercise the gifts of the Spirit which are both “natural and supernatural” (more on this in the coming weeks), engage in spiritual warfare and transform the world, taking down everything that sets itself up in opposition to God. And it is by the Spirit that we not only obey once, but persevere, in that obedience to the very end growing continually in the likeness and work of God. When we disobey God, we grieve the Holy Spirit, who is standing / sitting / lying with us in the same room.

6. He is the great stage manager of history - 2 Peter 1:21, Matthew 10:29-31, John 14:23, Revelation 21:3

Like a stage manager working under the authority of the director to ensure the show happens the way it should, not only is the Spirit at work in the lives of individual believers, he is at work orchestrating all human history according to the Father’s will so that all people might see the excellence of Jesus the Son. We see this in clearly in the Bible where he gives prophecy and then fulfils it, but his influence on history didn’t stop when the Bible was completed. He is also moving human history towards its great conclusion – that God is preparing the earth to be a home where he can live with his people forever. In Genesis 1 we see the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters partnering with the Son, under the Father's instruction, bringing light into darkness, life out of death, order out of chaos and beautiful, multi-coloured diversity out of boring singularity. As a climax to it all, God plants a garden where he can be at home with human beings. Human history is the story of God moving house, from temporary dwellings with Israel to a final home with all his people who, through the life and death of Christ, have been gathered from every people group in the world - from Garden to Tabernacle to Temple in the Old Testament through to human hearts and eventually the whole creation in the New Testament. God isn't setting up home in our hearts to prepare us for "going to Heaven," God is preparing our hearts and the whole creation through both the mundane and the miraculous, to be a place where he can live with us - forever.

7. He is preparing the world for metamorphosis - Romans 8:21, 2 Peter 3:12, Revelation 22:17

That moving house will happen when Jesus returns. At that point, all those who have refused to love and obey the truth will be driven from the earth into outer darkness, The church, both dead and alive will, by the Spirit, rise to meet Jesus in the air like a bride watching and waiting for the bridegroom, and running down the drive to meet him when he comes, and she will take him into his new home - the earth, which having been refined and renewed, will have become a fitting home for God to live in with his people, and the prayer that they have prayed ever since Jesus commanded will have finally been answered for it will truly be"on the Earth as it is in Heaven."

Are you ready for this? If not, what do you need to hear, believe and obey?

Rowan Williams' Excellent 5mins on Prayer

Probably the best 5mins I have ever heard out of the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Filmed by my cousin, and posted on his website here.