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.

We Know Christ is the True God

Finally, we know that Jesus is the true God. As Jesus Himself tells Peter, flesh and blood did not reveal this to us, we didn’t work it out ourselves, but God showed us. Remember my favourite verses in the Bible, the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ has shone into your hearts. We know Jesus is the true God, this is supernatural knowledge. John says that He has come, and that He has given understanding. He doesn’t leave us ignorant but He helps us grow. He was and He is. Christianity is practical, helpful and real, because Jesus was real! Why did Jesus come? So that we might know. Isn’t that good. Jesus came to eradicate doubt, to stop us doubting our salvation, to give us assurance. And we can trust Him, because He is true. That Jesus us true, and The Truth is vitally important in a world filled with the lies of the devil. Who can you trust in a world filled with distrust?

Jesus. Because Jesus is true, and we know He is the true God. To know these things, to have assurance of our salvation is the greatest gift that God can give us.

John finishes with the command, ‘little children, keep yourselves from idols.’ Why does he end with this? Well, partly because Ephesus was filled with idols, just like Greenville, but partly for another reason, All through the letter John has painted this black and white picture. There’s no middle ground, it’s either Jesus, or idols. It’s not whether you’ll worship, it’s what you worship. Anything we think more of in our heart than Jesus is an idol. Keep yourselves from idols.

We live in an uncertain world, but Jesus gives us the gift of certainty. If we’re saved, we know that Jesus is the true God, we know that we belong to God, and we know that we have victory over sin. As we live and grow as Christians, God gives these things to encourage us, assure us, and light our path.

We Know We Belong To God

Look at 1 John 5:19. We know that we belong to God. We are in the world, for the world, not of the world. We know that we are from God. A Christian is someone who has been miraculously , spiritually reborn. We were born the first time of the world, and the second time of God. Guys, we know that if we have been saved, we are God’s child, by birth and then adoption. We know that God loves us as a Father, we know that Jesus loves us a brother, we know that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and that He is the greatest gift God can give. If you’re saved, you belong to God, there’s no reason to doubt His love, no reason to fear that He will turn His back on you. You are His and He is yours.

It’s a different story for the world. Again, world here means the corrupt and sinful world system that is hostile to God. Not the people in the world, but it’s culture, it’s philosophy, it’s atmosphere. All of it is hostile to God because they lie in the power of the evil one, in the power of the devil. Again, John is tough, and black and white. It’s either the power of Jesus, or of the devil. You’re either born of God, or born of the devil. There’s no middle ground or third option. It’s not whether we worship, but what we worship.

But we know we belong to God. We don’t need to fear the devil, we don’t need to be seduced by his power, we don’t need to worry about his attacks or lies. We know that we belong to God.

We Know Victory Over Sin

John finishes his first letter, by telling us what we, as Christians, know. Four times in these four verses Jesus uses the phrase, we know. We know we have victory over sin. We know that we belong to God. We know that Jesus is the true God. There’s an idea in some Christian circles that doubt is a virtue, doubt is a good thing. That the more we doubt, and the less we know, the better it is. That’s a pretty stupid idea, and John smashes it here. We know, we know, we know.

So, look at verse 18 with me. We know we have victory over sin. Why? Because Christians can not keep living in an unbroken pattern of sin. When I say ‘unbroken pattern’ I mean sin that is never repented of, a sin you’re happy to indulge in, a sin you keep going back to with no battle or remorse. Christians don’t live with sin in this way, because Christians love God’s law and can not live, and don’t want to live in violation of it. Christians look like Jesus, and Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, came to destroy sin. Christian’s don’t continue in unbroken sin because the Holy Spirit lives in us, and slowly but surely gains more and more control over our heart.

That’s not to say that Christians ever get to the point where they never sin. That’s why John tells us to confess our sin, and that Jesus advocates for us when we sin. We still sin, but we are not slaves to sin, sin does not own us. Jesus owns us.

So that’s what victory is, how do we know we have it? Look at the rest of verse 8 with me, ‘He who was born of God protects Him, and the evil one does not touch Him.’ Who is the one who has been born of God? Jesus! If you’re a Christian, Jesus protects you! Isn’t that an incredible truth! Jesus protects you. He prays for you, advocates for you, represents you, and He protects you from the devil. Remember what Jesus told Peter, the devil has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. That’s Luke 22:31-32. Jesus protects us so that the devil can not get his claws into us. This is an amazing thing to know. NO matter how weak you feel, no matter how insignificant you feel, your faith will not fail, because Jesus protects you. Paul wrote in Phil 1:6 that ‘He who began a good work in you will perfect it.’ Wow!

Beholding Is Becoming

I joked the other week that the best thing a young preacher can do is get married, because married life opens up a plethora of new sermon illustrations. I was joking, of course, in some ways. You really should get married, to a woman who loves Jesus more than you, and doesn't complain when you construct the world's busiest calendar for the first half of 2013 but off all the wonders of married life, sermon illustrations come well down the list, but on they are on the list.

Last week, after a girls 'soccer' game (I coach our high school team) I came home, and the very first thing I did was put on a load of laundry. It was a tough game against a team we should have beaten easily, but only scraped by with a goal about thirty seconds from time, occasioning a 20 yard sprint and fist pump display from yours truly. I needed a shower, I wanted some time to process the win and what it meant for our season - we've since lost in the play offs - but instead I was doing laundry.

Why?

Because beholding is becoming. As I've lived with Rachel for the last nearly four years, my priorities have changed. I can see the benefit in hovering, laundering and washing up. I load the dishwasher when it's time, I make sure Rachel's clothes are clean, folded and out away. Now, none of this may last beyond the first week of the summer holidays, when Rachel is freed from third grade, but the point remains, it happening now. As I have beheld, as I have loved, I have become.

And we behold Jesus in the Bible, as we love Him in His perfections, in His condescension and in His life, death and resurrection, we become. God's voice changes our categories, it changes our priorities, it changes our desires. We want to go the church, we want to give our money, we want to live the good life of obedience. The light of the Gospel has shone in our hearts, and chased away, destroyed, the darkness.

This is part of the mystery of discipleship. This is part of the exposure of discipleship. Even though discipleship must never be reduced to meeting and mechanics, discipleship does happen in meetings, whether 250-1 or 1-1. As we're exposed to our wives, we become like them, as we're exposed to our saviour we become like Him.

Sadly, it's not just good things that in beholding we become. It's also idols. Psalm 115 tells us that idols have eyes but do not hear, hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk. They are deaf, dumb and insensitive to the beauties of Christ. And those who worship them will become like them. Isn't that what happened to Israel in exile? A kind of living death, cut off from the land and the promises? Isn't that life today without Jesus? Cut off from anything worthy of the name of love, life and hope?

One way or another, for better or worse, we behold, and we become.

On Discipleship

All Christians are disciples.

All people are disciples because everyone follows someone.

Discipleship is following Christ, because disciples follow their Lord. So how best to think about Christian discipleship? I think there are two words that capture it, mystery, and exposure.

Discipleship is all about exposure, Christian growth is all about exposure. 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 teaches us this. We all with unveiled face are being change as we look on the glory of God in the face of Christ. That verses teaches us the goal of discipleship, change, and the route to that goal, beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ. Christians become what they behold, we really are what we eat. If the goal of discipleship is change, incremental, lifelong, change, then the mechanics of discipleship must involve getting people to look at Jesus.

This must happen individually. We can wander round aimlessly hoping that God will speak through a song, or a sunset, or a waterfall, or we can open the Bible and actually listen to Him! And see His glory in the face of His Son, and be changed. If Christianity really is a relationship, then this is where the relationship happens. We speak to God in prayer, He speaks to us, and changes us through His Word.

This must also happen corporately. When the church is gathered the Word must be preached, or whatever just happened wasn't church. The word must be preached and sung, and eaten and drunk. Meetings doesn't equal discipleship, but discipleship happens in meetings.

If you really want to be disciple, you must be looking at Jesus, and looking at Him so hard and so long that eventually you see the whole world through Him. And if we want people to be disciple, we must be setting up these encounters.

And discipleship is a mystery. We can't just 'do it.' It doesn't just happen, mostly. Jesus tells Nicodemus that the wind blows wherever it wishes, and we hear it's sound, but we do not know where it comes from, or where it goes. So it is with everyone who has been born of the Spirit. We don't see the Holy Spirit, but we see His effects. John 3:8 is a death knell to anyone who believes that discipleship can be programmed, it can't be. As we're exposed we expect to see growth, but it doesn't always follow.

The mystery is sometimes this growth is incremental. It's slow, and you see it over a number of years. And if we accept that discipleship is for life, we're ok with this. Incremental growth won't please those who are looking for the thunder and lightening, for the microwave effect, but this is how it happens most of the time. You look over a course of two years, and see you've changed, but there was no lightbulb moment, it just happened.

Sometimes it happens in a flash, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all, because the Holy Spirit blows where He wishes.

We need to be exposed. We need to be looking at the light. And as we're exposed, we need to trust in that gradual, lifelong growth. We need to trust that results will come as the Spirit has His way. This is counter cultural, because it's slow. But it's Biblical, and it should be happening in our churches.

The Obediance Test (1 John 2:15-17)

From Saturday's Teen Discipleship, studying the tests of faith in 1 John

The more I read the New Testament, the more convinced I am that very early in the history of the church, a false teaching arose that claimed it didn’t matter how you lived, as long as you believed. In Romans 6 Paul wrote that some people taught that it didn’t matter whether or not we keep sinning, because we’re saved by grace alone. Paul calls these people condemned. We know that James says that faith is dead without works. We must have right belief in Jesus, but that’s not all we need. We need right living too. Right belief is confirmed by right living.

We see this in 1 John 2:15-17, read that with me.

John says is very clearly to start in verse 15. He’s not messing around, but he says ‘do not love the world.’ Now, you might think right away, well God loved the world, surely it’s ok for me to. In John 3:16, we’re talking about God’s love of the people in the world. In 1 John 2:15 we’re talking about the corrupt and sinful world system, or ethics, or philosophy. The world that will be condemned at the end of time, like we’re reading about in Revelation at the moment. This verse means, don’t love money, don’ty love success, don’t love pride. Don’t love the world or the things in the world.

Then John tells us why. If you love the world, then the love of the Father is not in you. Ouch! Spurgeon says that if there is no divorce between you and sin, there can be no union between you and Jesus. If you love the world, you don’t love Jesus. If you love the world, in all its sin, all it’s pride, all its opposition to God, you can’t love Jesus. But what’s this got to do with obedience? Well, John is saying that what you love will determine who you obey. If you love the world, and follow the world, and worship the world, then you’ll obey the world. You’ll go to the college with the best chance of getting a good qualification, regardless of how it helps you spiritually. You’ll date or marry based on how it looks to the world, or how your partner makes you fell, regardless of what their heart for God is like. If you love Jesus, if you believe in Him savingly, you’ll love Him, and obey Him. That’s the first reason we shouldn’t love the world, because the world is opposed to God, and you will not obey God if you love the world.

We see the second reason in verse 16. Because the desires of the world do not come from God. We need to follow God’s will, not the worlds will. Look how John describes the world in this verse. Full of wrong desire. Desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, pride in possessions. We know what the desires of the flesh are. 1^st century Ephesus was an immoral city, and so is 21^st century Greenville. How amazingly patient and gracious is God that the sun rose over such an evil city this morning. The desires of the eyes and pride of possessions talk of a different sort of lust, lust for things, lust for money. All these things are the exact opposite of Godliness, purity and contentment. If you are lusting after the flesh, if you’re lusting after material things, you are not going to obey Jesus. You just won’t be able to. You obedience to God’s commands prove that you don’t love the world. Your obedience to the world’s commands prove that you don’t love Jesus. Good children obey their father, they’re not led astray by what looks pretty and tempting, but is ultimately deadly. So reason number one not to love the world is that it prevents us from loving the Father and obeying Him, and reason number two is that the world is totally opposed to God.  

We see the third reason in verse 17. Look at that with me. Again, John pulls no punches. Why should you obey God not the world? Because the world is dying. And so are the desires that go along with it. No materialistic pride in Heaven. No immorality in Heaven. No obeying the world in Heaven. It’s passing away. We need to remember this, this is something we need God to remind us of every day. The world doesn’t look like it’s passing away does it? It looks pretty permanent. Not only the buildings and the cities, but the ideas. We’re constantly being told by culture that we are moving forward, things are getting better and will continue to get better without end. No one in world leadership is focusing on the end of the world, and preparing their followers to be ready. But that’s what Jesus was always doing, and that’s what John is doing here. The world is not on an infinite cycle, it’s not an unstoppable machine, it has a definite end. And only one thing will last forever.

The children of God. Those who obey God, they live forever. Those who do what God does, those who love Him and obey Him not the world, they live forever. Not the great cities or ideas or institutions, people who obey God. It’s simple. This world will end. In the other one of John’s books that we’re looking at at the moment in Sunday School we see very clearly that there is a set time when Jesus will return and wrap up the world. Don’t build your life around what will be washed away. Don’t build your house on the sand, be the wise man, who builds his house on the rock, by obeying God’s Word.

So do you obey the world, or do you obey the world. Look at 5:1-3 with me as we finish up. ‘this is the love of God, that we obey His commandments.’ John is so tough and so straightforward. This is loving God, obeying Him. You can believe all the right things, but it doesn’t count for anything, it doesn’t matter at all, if what you claim you believe doesn’t prove itself with obedience to God. Like the kids song goes, ‘obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.’ It really is.

The Magic Gospel Bullet

Which famous Christian celebrity would you like the be discipled by? Paul? Augsutine? Calvin? Piper? Or how about Jesus Himself.

Of course, that's a bit of a false dichotomy, but in Mark 8:22-10:52 we find Jesus' private discipleship lessons, remembered by Peter, recorded by Mark, and given to us. Think of it! In these chapters we get to wander around Galilee with Jesus, listening in to some of His most intimate and important teaching, before striking off south, face set to Jerusalem.

Mark bookends these lessons with two stories of Jesus healing the blind. First of all in chapter 8 there's the man who sees trees walking. This was a real event that really happened, but it's also a parable. When the disciples looked at Jesus, they saw a tree walking. They saw Him feed five thousand men with a boys lunch, and then worried about where they were going to get bread. They looked at Jesus and didn't get it. If He's the Messiah, where His sword? More importantly, if He's the Messiah, where is our sword?

In this section Jesus predicts His death and resurrection three times, and three times the disciples misunderstand. Peter is often at the forefront of the misunderstanding, at least initially. It seems Jesus closest friend was not one to retweet compliments. Jesus says i'm going to be handed over to men, who'll treat me shamefully. The disciples argue over who is the greatest. Jesus says He'll be mocked, spat on and flogged. James and John wonder if they can sit either side of Him when He turns the Temple Mount into the centre of His earthly Kingdom. They don't get it. Even after Peter's great confession, even after the transfiguration, they still look at a man, and see a tree.

I wonder if Jesus was frustrated with them. He was certainly indignant when the twelve tried to turn away a child. Here's the great encouragement for me from these verses. Jesus was in charge of these guys discipleship, and they still grew slowly. They still misunderstood, they still didn't get in. Very shortly the leader of their group would cut a guy's ear off! Next time, when i feel like i'm failing in the same area for the hundredth time, or helping someone else who has, i need to remember that.

Everyone's Christian growth is normally incremental. Sure, there are times when growth occurs like a bolt of lightening across the night's sky, but it's more often like the sunrise. I was thinking yesterday how much i wished there was a magic bullet for Christian growth, but how, at the same time, i'm glad there isn't. As Jesus keeps teaching slowly their eyes opened as they learnt to depend on Him. The final increment didn't fall into place until the ascension, but their eyes opened in the end.

And so will everyone's eyes, yours and mine included. One day, we won't look at Jesus and see a tree, one day we'll be like Bartimaeus, the living example of what Mark 10 is about. Committed enough to stand out from the crowd, humble enough to ask for help, his only ambition to follow Jesus into the last week of His life. Slowly but surely, as Christ Himself disciples us, God's Word will do God's work, our eyes will be opened. We'll see, and we'll follow.

Pass The Baton

The Gospel, and thus the local church, is only ever one generation away from disappearing from the face of the Earth. If no Christian alive today taught his children, or reached his friends with the Gospel, then there would be no church for our grandchildren to attend. It is one of the most remarkable, and overlooked, miracles that the church today still possesses and proclaims the apostolic Gospel.

How does that happen? We pass it on, we tell people about Jesus. We reach out to those who don't know Him, and we reach over, to help those who do know Him to know Him better. Paul shared this concern with Timothy in his final letter to him. If 2 Timothy 1 is about the protection of the Gospel, then 2 Timothy is about the propagation of the Gospel.  Paul tells Timothy to remember the Gospel he preached. Paul's not talking about a private conversation here, a ministry insight he shared with Timothy over coffee one day, but something that happened 'in the presence of many witnesses,' maybe at Timothy's ordination, or maybe just on a normal Sunday. Timothy's apostolic authority remained as long as he was faithful to the apostolic message. Paul didn't tell Timothy to reinvent the wheel. He didn't tell him to remember what the people in Ephesus liked, he simply told Timothy to remember the Gospel he had heard.

Then Timothy was the 'entrust' that message to others. He was to pass it on to 'faithful men.' This could've happened then and can happen now in a variety of ways. Firstly, it had to happen from the pulpit. As Timothy looked out on a Sunday morning at his people, he knew part of his job was to preach the Gospel to them, to help them remember what they had heard from Paul. But it had to happen elsewhere as well. When Timothy met with a troubled family, he had to remember the Gospel, when he married people, he had to remember the Gospel, when he went to buy bread, he had to remember the Gospel. And he had to pass the Gospel on. He had to find the faithful men in his church who he could train and disciple, the men to whom he could entrust the message. He had to meet with them, spend time with them, and love them, just as Paul had with him.

One thing i love about being a Youth Pastor is when i see someone's eyes opening to the joys of the Bible for the first time. The Bible stops being something their parents read, and becomes their's. It stops being something for Sundays and starts being food for the day. It stops being a chore and becomes a delight. I love seeing that and hearing that. I love passing it on.

At the moment, it's my responsibility to pass on what has been given to me. And soon it will be theirs. What a responsibility all of us, whether in paid ministry or not, have to find faithful men and women and teach them, the Gospel, so that they can pass it on in years to come.