Long Distance Ministry

I can't imagine many things worse than being in jail. My liberty taken away, my plans all made for me. It doesn't look like much fun in the 21st century (not that it should be) but it would have been even worse when Paul was there. It would have been hard knowing his friends were risking their lives to feed him, it would have been wearing on those old wounds to always be cold and uncomfortable, but i wonder if what weighed on Paul the most was not being able to see the churches that he loves so much.

Philippians 1:27 seems to come out of that feeling. Paul wants, more than anything, to know that the people he loves are standing firm in the things he's taught them. This was his long distance ministry. Not only a distance of many miles, but of many years. And all ministry, in this sense, is a long distance ministry. All ministry looks five, ten, thirty years into the future, praying that the seeds sown today are still bearing fruit then.

How does a youth pastor think about his effectiveness? Well, not really by how many people come to teen church or sunday school but whether those teens are bring their teens to church in twenty years. What was the fruit of Paul's ministry, not (just) Christians in Philippi, but generations of Christians at Philippi. Not just his readers standing firm as they held his letter in their hands, but standing firm years later.

What does it look like to stand firm? To live a life 'worthy of the Gospel of Christ.' Well thats all of us out right? Well maybe not. What is a life lived worthy of the Gospel? A life with Gospel priorities, Gospel dreams and Gospel hopes. It means the church is strong as people stand shoulder to shoulder in the faith that Paul delivered. It means that the church is striving to reach out to people that don't know Jesus is Lord yet. It means that the faith of the Philippians doesn't depend on Paul who may or may not see them again, but on Jesus. And what joy will fill Paul's heart when he hears of their faithfulness in his absence.

And this is the case whether or not Paul sees them. He doesn't write for his own benefit, he doesn't write to make himself feel good, but he writes so that if he doesn't come, the faith of the church os strong. And we preach, not to draw a crowd, not to build our own name, but so that in years, and generations to come, the church is standing firm.

Mr Edwards, How Should We Preach? (i)

I love to read, you only need to walk into my office, or check my bank statement to see that. I love reading because it means i can talk to people long dead, or people at the very least who i'll never meet. On Saturday evening i listened to Jonathan Edwards preach on justification by faith and on Sunday night i spent a few minutes visiting Perelandra with CS Lewis. I love to read.

Edwards might be the greatest public thinker western Christianity has ever produced. I say 'public' because there's nothing to say that the greatest Christians minds are not currently labouring in tiny churches in Vermont or Venezuela, and 'western' because of men like Augustine and Athanasius. But you get the point. I was introduced to Edwards by John Piper, and the following preaching advice comes from Piper's 'The Supremacy of God in Preaching,' pp 83-105.

1) Stir Up Holy Affections
Edwards' preaching aimed for the heart. Why? Because 'in nothing is vigor in the actings of our inclinations so requisite as in religion.' Edwards didn't just want to produce a mindless expericne, he wanted to raise his hearers affections in tune with the truth he preached. The Gospel should stir our hearts! And he knew that the only true Christian service flows from an affected heart.

2) Enlighten The Mind
When Edwards preached from John 5:35, 'He was burning and a shining light,' his main point was that a preacher must have heat in the heart and light in the mind. Affections that do not rise from an apprehension of divine truth are not holy affections. For this reason Edwards believed that it is 'very profitable for ministers in their preaching to endeavor clearly and distinctly to explain the doctrines of religion.' Brothers, we must shine and burn!

3) Saturate With Scripture
One of the things that strikes me, and challenges me, about reading Jonathan Edwards is how filled with the Bible his preaching and his writing is. This wasn't a man who had a rough idea of a verse, and could fire the keywords into a computer for help. He. Knew. His. Bible! He doesn't read a verse and then give us his opinion on a range of issues, he comes back to the text, again and again. He loved the Bible, and said of it: 'often times in reading it, every word seemed to touch my heart...i seemed so often to see so much light exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing food communicated that i could not get along in reading...' The minister, as Edwards said, must be mighty in the Scriptures.

4) Employ Images And Analogies
Most people Edwards is the morose misanthrope of 'Sinners in the hands of an angry God,' a sermon where images are used to great effect, Who can not be moved by the image of a sinner hanging a breath away from the fires of Hell. But if we are to speak of Heaven and Hell in our preaching, and we must, then we must grope in analogy and images to find a way of communicating what is true. Just like Jesus did! Edwards saw holiness as a pleasant garden with fruit pleasing to God, he saw Heaven as a world of love, he saw illustrations as vital to preaching.

5) Use Threat And Warning
'It is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go to Hell' said Jesus in Matthew 5:20. Jesus wanted people of Hell, and allured people to Heaven. And the preacher must do the same.Good preaching will deliver Biblical images or Biblical warnings of Biblical truths. Edwards preaching was full of the dark colours of Hell, and the rich satisfactions of Heaven, and so must ours be. But you can't firighten people into Heaven, so 'holy love and hope are principles vastly more efficacious on the heart to make it tender and to fill it with a dread of sin than slavish fear of Hell.'

Judges-Ruth

If there's a book that lends itself to a quick reading it's Judges. I'll not lie, and tell you i'm pleased to read it in two days rather then three weeks. The constant refrain about there being no king, the ever downward spiral of (grosser and grosser) sin, the lack of anything beautiful. Get through it quick.

But you get through it quick, turn the page and uh-oh, 'in the days when the Judges ruled the land,' no thank you! At least it's only four chapters, we think, until we dive in and find the greatest short love story ever told. What a breath of fresh air Ruth turns out to be, and what a great companion to Judges it is.

Companion? The warm summers day of Ruth with the bitter polar vortex of Judges? Sure, like a calm sunrise for the storm tossed sailor, the sweetness of Ruth is only increased when you read it along with Judges.

In Judges everyone does what is right in his own eyes. Essentially murder, immorality, private religion and disobedience. Even the good guys aren't much good, Gideon the coward, Samson the, well, maniac. Even for the good these men do, they're clearly not the Judge and King Israel needs. Israel is a mess, the people do what is right in their own eyes.

But in Ruth, one man does what is right in the eyes of the Lord. Boaz owes Ruth nothing, and takes her, and Naomi on at great cost to himself. Why? Because God said so! And because he loves her, of course, but that doesn't explain his meeting at the gate with Mr No-name. The people sing, the hero gets the girl, Naomi is a sweet old lady nursing her grandson, because Boaz did what was right.

Judges shows us who we are. We hate authority don't we? That's why we're always cheering for the bad guys in movies. We don't want to be told what to do. A hundred times a day, when we sin, we despise God's Word. Our hearts run rampant as they pursue every idol of their fancy. Just like in Judges. Sure, there are bright spots, but we trend down, and things end up worse than we could ever imagine.

But in Ruth, we see who we could be. Whose the new girl in my field? Oh really? Well make sure she's looked after, and guys. don't touch her. You're an old man, but it's your wings i want to be under. He loves you, he'll do what's right, he won't let the matter rest. I mean come on! This is the best story ever. Boaz, Ruth and Naomi shows us how to live in the Spirit, how to live with God as our King, a life that says 'the Lord be with you.'

Judges leaves us in Gibeah. Benjamin is not supposed to be the front runner, the leader among God's people. See what happened's in Gibeah Israel? Why will you choose Saul? A King from Gibeah is no King, don't choose him because he's tall and looks like the nations' Kings, says Samuel. And we're faced with that same dilemma every day. Does the church want leadership like the nations? Do i want to worship what they worship?

But Ruth takes us to Bethlehem, to David and to Jesus. Israel, David is your King, and we must unite around him. Look what the men of Bethlehem are like, and compare them to the men of Gibeah. Judah has the scepter between his feet, Judah goes up first. Judah is where Kings comes from. And Judges and Ruth remind us that our king must be from Judah. Our King must be in Davd's line, our King must be from Bethlehem.

Look at what happens when he isn't.

Gratify Your Appetite

On Sunday, my Bible reading plan brought me to the start of Joshua. I've enjoyed reading the Pentateuch probably more than ant any other time this year, but something in me loves to arrive at narrative, at a story. One thing i've noticed about Joshua this year is that the genealogies continue, but they're genealogies of land, rather than people. Kings Moses defeated, Kings Joshua defeated, land conquered and land to be conquered. Why the switch from people to place? Because the story is about God's people in God's place, enjoying God's presence. The lists of place names teach us we're moving on with the story, we've got the people, now let's get the place.

But what about the presence? Well the Temple is built later on, and the glory descends, and the people shout and the priests can't enter. But then, sin. Sin. Sin. And division. And idol worship. And the promised land becomes a wept over memory. We were created for unadulterated communion with God. Enjoyment of God. Pleasure in God. We cram this desire with so much that the world has to offer, slowly slipping further and further from Him, and, in a way, from ourselves.

But it won't always be like this. The hebrews in the promised land refused to enjoy God alone and were exiled, but as Edwards tells us below, that is not something we have to worry about when we reach the promised land. Bathe in these paragraphs, from the end of Edwards' sermon, The Excellencies of Christ.'

'Yes the saints conversation with Christ in heaven shall not only be as intimate and their access to Him as free as the disciples with Jesus on Earth, but in many respects much more so; for in heaven the vital union shall be perfect, which is exceeding imperfect here. While the saints are in this world there are great remains of sin to separate or disunite them from Christ, which shall then all be removed...

When the saints shall see Christ's glory and exaltation in heaven, it will indeed posses their hearts with greater admiration and adoring respect, but will not awe them into separation but will only serve to heighten their surprise and joy when they find Christ condescending to admit them to such intimate access and so freely and fully communicating Himself to them. So that if we choose Christ as our friend and portion we will hereafter be so received by Him that there shall be nothing to hinder the fullest enjoyment of Him to the satisfying of the upmost cravings of our soul. We may take our full swing at gratifying our spiritual appetite after these holy pleasures. Christ will then say as in (Song of Songs) 5:1 'eat, o friends, drink yea, drink abundantly o beloved.' And this shall be our entertainment to all eternity! There shall never be any end of this happiness, or anything to interrupt our enjoyment of it, or in the least molest us in it!

Christ has brought it to pass that those whom the Father has given Him be brought into the household of God; that He and His Father and His people should be as one society, one family; that the church should be, as it were, admitted into the society of the blessed Trinity.'

The Complete Works of Jonathan Edwards, P689

The Hero of Genesis

Any way you cut it, the story of Noah is odd.

A man who has never seen rain, much less a flood, spends decades building a boat, because God told him to. When it starts raining God shuts the door, and Noah and seven of his family are safe from the water. Then, when Noah arrives back on dry land, or maybe better, when dry land arrives back on Noah, he builds an altar, then plants a vineyard, get's drunk, gets naked.

I mean, what now? It's another part of Genesis that would never pass the censors as a tv miniseries, and if it did, would suffer the ire of noisy evangelicals.

So what's going on? Well, naked man sins with fruit, we've been here before right? In fact that's how the story started to go wrong. Adam and Eve took the fruit, it opened their eyes and they knew that they were naked. Blood was shed to cover them, and they were promised that one would come from their union who would crush the serpent, so it's with expectation we meet Cain and Abel...but no, and Seth...but it wasn't him. And then things get worse and worse, until the moment the LORD regrets making man. That's pretty serious.

But along comes Noah, a righteous man. Maybe Noah will crush the serpent, maybe he is crushing the serpent under the weight of the waters. But then we end up just where we started, the head of the human race sinning with fruit.

Why? Because Genesis isn't a story about Adam or Noah, or Abraham or Joseph, it's a story about Jesus. As we read of the misadventures of these men, it should make us look beyond them, beyond ourselves, to Jesus. He really is our only hope. The LORD started everything all over again, decreation, flood, one man. And look what happened, exactly the same thing.

The answer to the world's problems isn't in human leadership, it's not in human ideas, it's not in human strength. That's gets us sinning with fruit. But Jesus was faithful in the face of temptation, Jesus came out the water and obeyed God. Don't look at Noah, or Shem, Ham and Japheth to crush the serpent. Look at Jesus.

And also, when you look at each other, don't make room for judgement or jealousy. Adam's fruit sin caused him to put clothes on, Noah's caused him to take clothes off. Sin doesn't treat John the same as Jane, it doesn't look the same in everyone's life. Don't be jealous of the man with clothes, he's got his own struggles. Don't judge the naked man, you're no better.

Look at Leviticus

Leviticus has been called the 'widow maker' of Bible reading plans. You get through Genesis and Exodus with excitement and determination, and then, Leviticus. A huge chapter on skin diseases, old ceremonies that we don't perform any more, men being stoned to death. Can't we just skip it? I get much more out of James.

I think part of the answer is the read it quickly. I don't think it lends itself to twenty seven separate sittings, anything familiar seems a long way off after nearly a month. If you have thirty five to forty minutes each day you can read it in three chunks, which helps the flow, and helps you keep the big picture in view.

But whether we read Leviticus a chapter at a time, or ten chapters at a time, i think there are three things to look for that will help us as we make our way through.

Look for Separation

One of the main themes of this book is that man and God can't live side by side. It's not entirely safe for Israel to have the Tabernacle in their midst. It's not even safe for Aaron and the rest of the Levites. Something has to be done for man and God to have a relationship. Something has to happen for The LORD to stay amongst His people without wiping them out. And we have the same problem. You and I can't just stroll up to God and thump Him on the back. Our sins have separated us from Him.

Look for Substitution

Leviticus is the story of God making a way for sinful man. It's the story of blood, but not man's blood. Goats blood, sheep's blood, turtledoves blood, and failing all that, cups of flour. Sin has to be paid for either by us, or by a substitute. For unintentional sins, there is a way, God has made a way to cover His people in blood. And substitution is all of grace. You couldn't have made your way to worship holding a dove in your hand without realising how gracious God is. You and I can't, shouldn't go to worship, eat at the table, or read our Bibles without realising how gracious God is.

Look for Satisfaction

When blood is shed, God is pleased. When blood is shed men are safe. Leviticus then, holds our the heart of the Gospel. Men are separated from God, but can come near because of the blood shed by a substitute. God stays, men live in relationship with Him, they can feast and celebrate, and once a lifetime have the year of jubilee. Because God is satisfied with the blood that has been shed. He's satisfied not because a goat can pay for a man, but because that blood paints a picture of the blood His Son would shed, blood that faithful hebrews were looking towards.

So far from being irrelevant to we sophisticates living in 2014, Leviticus is as relevant as we can get. We, in 2014 are far from God, and we can only be brought back by a graciously provided substitute shedding His blood.

The God Who Doesn't Keep Score

In Teen Church this month we're heading into Hebrews 11. A great way to start the year, as we hold up the diamond of faith and examine it through the lenses of the Old Testament saints. I'm looking forward to studying and preaching it, and i'm hoping it whets the appetite of some of our teenagers to read more deeply in the Old Testament.

Hebrews 11 has been described as faiths hall of fame, as the Westminster Abbey of faith. And who can disagree, who doesn't well up inside when they read about men of whom the world was not worhty, men who lived in caves and were sawn in two for their faith. The KJV rendering of verses 36-38 are among some of the most powerful words in the English language.

As providence would have it, i've also been reading through Genesis recently. Meeting daily with men like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. With Judah and with Joseph. With the men who, according to verse 2, had faith and received a reward. But what an odd collection fo men they were. Abraham is commended twice in Hebrews 11 for his faith, and rightly so. He left everything to follow God's call, he bound his beloved son and held the knife over his chest. And yet, Abraham was the man who twice lied about the identity of his wife to save his own skin, and spent most of his life worshiping the moon.

We're reminded of Moses, and his preference to be mistreated with the people of God than enjoy the riches of Egypt. And yet, this is the same Moses who killed a man, ran away, argued with God, and didn't make it to the Promised Land. As i read Genesis one thing stuck out to me again and again, the patriarchs are hardly posters boys of 'good clean Christian living.' Neither's David, or Solomon.

So what are we to make of this? Is Hebrews 11 just a whitewash, a history told by the winning side? No, Hebrews 11 reminds us that God doesn't keep score, He doesn't keep count. We don't turn in our homework for Him to make checkmarks and ugly red lines on. He looks at us, sees our faith in His Son, and is pleased. He is pleased when He sees a reflection of Himself in us, no matter how dim. He's pleased when He sees us forsaking all other gods and following Him. He's pleased when we come to the end of ourselves, and cry out in faith through His Son. He's pleased as we do this, as He was when the men and women of Hebrews 11 did.

I think in some ways Hebrews 11 functions for us as Genesis did for the wandering Hebrews. As they were about the cross the Jordan, Moses reminded them of their father's failings, but of God's faithfulness. Don't rely on yourselves Hebrews, rely on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As we face trials and temptations, Hebrews 11 reminds us that God doesn't keep score, but He sees our faith and is pleased.

Green Living

International travel is a discombobulating thing. You wake up in the oldest parish in the Kingdom, and you go to bed in the Bible belt. One day you're at Tescos in a small but perfectly formed market town, the next, you're pondering BBQ pigs feet. The only thing that really stayed the same was the hideous weather both sides of the Atlantic, weather that we avoided thanks to the quick thinking and re-routing of a very helpful United check-in man.

But for all the thousands of miles clocked up above an ocean since 2008, it's always been crossing the border that's been the most fun. Before i got my green card early last year, i had a visa for entry into the USA, and i was often pulled into secondary, as i came back from England. Secondary is the place where you spend time proving to the TSA agents that you are who you say you are, and wonder when you'll be let through those door to carry on your life as normal. Now i've got a Green Card i don't need to do that any more. I line up with Rachel, and the border agent takes my finger prints and lets me though. There's nothing to worry about. I live here, they're expecting me, i'm home.

But still i get nervous. They start building as i get off the plane and build to a crescendo as i join the back of the line. It's daft and it's pointless. 'Permanent Resident,' the card says, remember who you are.

Remember who you are. Isn't that the point of discipleship? Remember that in Christ you are looked on, loved, and listening to as God's own Son. Remember that He stands there, speaking for you, defending you. Remember who you are, permanent resident, remember who you are born again son.

Remember who you are and quit panicking as your cross the border. Remember the forms and the background checks? Remember who you are, and stop doubting God's love for you Christian. Remember His blood, His resurrection.

So discipleship becomes remembering, and reminding others who you are. Your spiritual equilibrium has been knocked sideways by sin? Well, you knew you were sick when you came to the doctor right? Your joy is being sapped by disobedience? Then remember who you are, and go, sin no more.

Bible reading becomes a feast at the family table, not a to do list. I stop worrying how i can be like the Patriarchs and realize they were basically sinful men whose only hope was God. I've got that covered!

 If we are to grow and thrive in 2014, it must be a year of remembering who we are. Empty by ourselves, but filled in Him. Dead by ourselves, by alive in Him, outside by ourselves, but brought in and welcomes by an eternal life, despite ourselves, because of Him.