The Preacher Says 'come with us...'

Warren Wiersbe said that ministry is the overflow of our relationship with God. Simply, that if 'ministers' in particular, and Christians on the whole, are in the business of offering Christ to others, they can not offer what they do not have. Someone else, i forget who, said that the problem with so much preaching is that preachers are like starving chefs who barely lick their own fingers. No heart warming ministry will flow out of a heart that has not been warmed.

On Thursday morning i read Numbers 9 and 10, Psalm 45 and Acts 17, and i saw some of this in action. The opening verse of Psalm 45 is 'my heart overflows with a pleasing theme...' What is that pleasing theme? The Handsome, God-blessed victorious King, who reigns forever and whose bride enters his presence with joy and gladness. This instructional love song was written and sung for the new son of David sitting on the throne of Judah, and is fulfilled the final Son of David, sitting on the throne of the universe.

This is a 'pleasing theme.' It's good to think about Jesus! It's good to stop and look at the sunrise on a cold, clear winter morning, good to stop and watch a cardinal pick about in your garden, good to slowly wallow in the truth of the Gospel. And this theme overflows. The Psalmist can't keep it in any more, praise is cascading from his lips for the king, and for The King. He invites others to sing with him, as they consider the beauty of this great King.

Moses does much the same in Numbers 10. It's nearly time for the camp to set out, and he wants his brother-in-law to go with them. Partly because he knows the lay of the land, he's a wilderness expert, and can help them on the way. But Moses is far more concerned about Hobab, at least at first. He says 'come with us, and we will do good for you...' Come to Israel, come to the LORD, come to Canaan. Abandon your false gods. Yes, for objective reasons of truth and helpful reasons of guidance, but more, come with us because we will do good to you. It will be good for you to be in relationship with the LORD and His people. It will be good for you to enjoy the promised blessings of Canaan, it will be good for you to rejoice in the atoning blood of the lamb as we celebrate Passover.

The LORD's goodness is a pleasing theme that overflows from Moses lips. He's tasted and seen, and now he says come and see. Is our preaching, our evangelism, the same? Do we offer a 'get out of Hell free' card, or do we offer a love stronger than death? Do we offer a new set of rules, or a king that will ruin our hearts for other lovers? Do you offer the Gospel to law-breakers, or to adulterers?

Paul's Mars Hill address in Acts 17 is the cornerstone for people who think that unless we offer a Gospel wearing a nose stud and laden with expletives we're doing it wrong. Look, Paul goes to Athens and meets them on their own terms. He doesn't really though does he? Hey, Athenians! God doesn't live in these temples you've built, God doesn't need your service, God is not unknown. If he was trying to be culturally sensitive at the cost of Biblical faithfulness he didn't do a very good job!

What does Paul actually say? Consider the God who loves you enough to give you the rain in it's season, who loves you enough to reveal Himself to you, who loves you enough to go to the grave and defeat death on your behalf. Not like the Greek gods, who were just bigger and more powerful people, with their jealousies and sins writ large, but a God who is fundamentally not like us. Paul says 'come to Jesus, and He will do you good.'

The Psalmist's heart, and Moses's heart and Paul's Gospel warmed heart overflowed with a pleasing theme, do our hearts do the same? As our hearts overflow, do our voices say, 'come with me, taste what i've tasted, see what i've seen, and it will do you good.'

The Pendulum of Christian Liberty

Is there a right way to 'do' church? One of the most interesting, and at times, frustrating elements of the New Testament is that Paul nowhere outlines what Sunday mornings looked like in his churches. Is this because his people already knew? Or simply because it wasn't important?

I think Acts 21:17-26 is really helpful in thinking through this question. Paul had been among the Gentile churches for a few years now, and he returns to Jerusalem. James hears about God's work among the Gentiles and rejoices, Paul hears about God's work among the Jews in Jerusalem and rejoices. As an aside, 'many thousands' in Jerusalem at that time must have been a significant minority, if not a majority.

Then, at the end of verse 20 and into 21 comes the showdown. James tells Paul, 'listen, in Jerusalem our Christians are zealous for the law, and they've got a bad idea about your approach to the law. What are we going to do?' Basically James is telling Paul that nothing has changed since Acts 15. What would you expect Luke to tell us next? That Paul opposed James to his face, like Peter in Galatia. But instead, he takes a vow, purifies himself, and goes to the temple. What ever is going on here? Surely Paul is not selling out?

First of all, we have to see that as long as the Gospel was believed, observance of the Old Testament law was not an issue. This wasn't akin either to idol worship, or the ice cold legalism in Galatia. It didn't swing either into licence or legalism. The culture of law keeping had submitted to the Gospel. James rejoiced that Gentiles were being saved, he knew they weren't keeping the law which shows us that these Christians did not believe that their law keeping saved them.

Secondly, and what struck me the most, was the example that Paul gives us about Christians and culture. We can keep any part, of any culture, as long as it doesn't counter the letter to the Gentiles in Acts 15. That is, any part, of any culture that isn't idolatrous, immoral or inhuman. Any loveless part of culture, or any part that might cause us to stumble is out. The problem in Galatia was that the law had become and idol, the problem in Corinth was that the cults had prostitutes. Neither of these things are an issue in Acts 21.

This is why i should, shouldn't and do, wear a coat and tie to church. There is no one culture that Jesus would show up in tomorrow and say 'yeh, this is it,' not even here in the Bible belt. God is no respecter of persons. At the loving, warm, mission minded, conservative Baptist church that i serve at at the moment, it's broadly expected that the men, particularly the leaders, wear a coat and tie on Sunday morning. Not everyone does, not everyone has to, but because of Acts 21, i do. I used to go to church in shorts and flip flops. was that wrong? A thousand times no. Does Jesus love me more now i dress like a lawyer on a Sunday morning? A million times no.

What we see in Acts 21 is the pendulum of Christian liberty swinging both ways. Christian liberty means, as long as you have Gospel central, and right, everything else is negotiable. Turn the lights down and the amps up if you want, or put on a tie and open up your hymnal. As long as the Gospel is central and preached, love Jesus and do what you want.

The centrality of the Gospel is important above all things. James rejoices of the salvation of law breaking Gentiles. Paul observes the law in Jerusalem. In all things they are bound only by the Gospel. In all things we must, must, be bound, only by the Gospel...

Happily Ever After

We love stories don't we? I wonder if one of the reason the Olympics Opening Ceremony was better received than the Closing was that it told a story. We like stories because we're caught up in one, and despite post modern attempts to deconstruct it, we need to be involved in one.

Stories, as any five year old can tell you, need a beginning, middle and end. The Bible's full of stories will endings, but some of them stop, well, they just stop. What do we do at the end of Jonah, with the shorter ending of Mark or the way Luke stops telling us about Acts? I think those books finish in that way to turn the attention to the reader and make us think about our response.

Jonah
Jonah tells the story of a disobedient prophet who enjoys and shares the grace of God despite his best efforts. In chapter 4, just after Nineveh has repented and God has turned His anger away Jonah sets up on a hill to watch the action. He makes a booth out of a plant the shade him, but God sends a worm to kill the plant. Jonah stamps his foot and gets upset about the loss of the plant, and God looks at him and asks whether or not He should pity Nineveh. We never get an answer from Jonah, we're supposed to work it out for ourselves. What do we do with God's challenge to Jonah? Do we care about the lost or not?

Mark
If we take the shorter ending of Mark as the end of the original text, then it ends with the women at the tomb being terrified because they had been told Jesus was risen. Douglas Moo offers a couple of a couple of alternatives, maybe the last page of Mark was torn off and lost, or that Mark died before writing the end, or this was where he meant to finish. Why? To turn around and look at us. Mark wants us to consider who Jesus is, and this is the final part of his evidence.

Acts
The way Luke finishes Acts is sort of out of character with the rest of his work. His Gospel and his history are so well organized that i can't believe he'd end it like that. So what happened? Maybe he died, maybe his plan was to write another installment later, or maybe he meant to turn the spotlight on us. The Gospel had reached Rome. It had gone from Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Are we going to join in? Jesus had led Paul to Rome, the Gospel was at the heart of the world, now what about you, reader? Will you take part in Paul's mission, in Jesus' mission to spread the Gospel around the world?

The Faith That Doesn't Save

The middle of Acts 8 recounts the first impact of the Gospel in Samaria, paying particular attention to Simon the Magician. Simon had bewitched the locals with his magical powers, which led them to ascribe to him the power of the 'great god.' Then Phillip showed up, started preaching, and Simon was apparently saved a baptised. Great right? Well love hearing and telling those sorts of stories. The great Gospel opponent in the town has been baptised. Except here, all is not as it seems. Luke's account ends with Peter saying, in effect, 'to hell with you and your money.' Not a textbook way to handle a new convert. Luke ends to story without telling us whether or not Simon was really saved, but there are a couple of reasons to belief that his profession was false.

Simon was more concerned with power than holiness.


You get the impression that Simon was the only show in town. Certainly he was the biggest and best show in town. Then here comes Phillip preaching the Gospel, and performing signs and miracles, and his head is turned. He's amazed by thew power that flows from Phillip's hands. Perhaps this is why he came forward at the end of one of Phillip's messages. He wanted to be where the power was, he wanted to be a leader of the pack. So, like the rest of them, he got baptised. Then when Peter and John showed up it got even more impressive. he laid his hands on some guys, and they received the Holy Spirit. This is a power that Simon had to have!

Simon wanted the show, he wanted the power to make people say wow. Nowhere does Luke tell us he wanted to honour God, nowhere do we read about him wanting to grow in holiness. He wanted to draw and impress a crowd. That desire never changed, just the source of the power.

Simon was more concerned with Earth than Heaven.


Simon offers to buy the power of the Holy Spirit, and Peter does not mess with him. He even tells him 'your heart is not right before God.' So what does Simon do? He doesn't repent, he just asks Peter to pray for him, that none of the dreadful stuff that Peter just mentioned would befall him. He didn't tear his clothes, he didn't fall to his knees, he even seems quite casual about it. 'Just pray for me Peter, that doesn't sound like much fun.'

We can so easily fall into that trap can't we? If i'm getting a raise, making my car payments on time and going on vacation it must be because God is pleased with me right? It's a crazy thing to think since one of the ways the Devil tempts Christ is with riches! The Devil will give us the easiest, richest life we can imagine, as long as it keep our hearts away from Christ. We must fight tooth and nail every day for Heavenly reward, forsaking Earthly reward when we need to. Simon missed this. He wasn't humbled by his sin, he didn't understand the role of the Holy Spirit and he never grasped his need for salvation.

Ultimately, Simon's problem was that he considered faith to be an outward thing, not an inward thing. Repentance was adding Jesus to what he already had, not turning from one thing to God, which is fully orbed, Biblical repentance. This is the faith that does not save. A faith that strives for earthly reward, a faith that minimizes sin and isn't interested in holiness.

The Gospel coming to Samaria was a great and glorious chapter in the history of the church. But the church still had to be on the look out. There was still a faith that didn't save, and Luke was good to warn us about it...