Thinking like a missionary
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
If there is one word we would use to sum up what the church is about it is, “Mission!” Like the Apostle Paul, we need to learn to think like missionaries, always being on the lookout for ways by which we can connect the story of the gospel to peoples lives.
Anyone who is a follower of Jesus is a frontline missionary! Missionaries are not only people slogging it out somewhere in Africa, but all of us are called to be on a mission right where we are.
Mission: the heart of the gospel
God’s sovereign plan is to reach all peoples (tribes, tongues, and nations) through the church. Jesus’ last command was to “Go!” The Holy Spirit was poured out in order that we would be empowered to go. The church exists to make Jesus known.
This Jesus is returning again for a people – for worshippers. The cosmic end game is that the people of God should be gathered in worship before him. And the amazing thing is that we are sent to do the gathering! As Paul puts it in Romans 10:11-15, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
The gospel is blessing! This is good news!
Mission: of Global Importance
The goal of mission is that, “the nations be glad” (Ps 67). We need to get a heart for global mission because mission is of global significance.
It is sometimes hard to feel a passion for what is happening in other nations – it can just feel too far away – but there are things we can do to help stir this passion in us. Reading books about mission, and praying for other nations will help. Giving money to mission will help! Join a mission trip or a Life Change Team. Even going on holiday to a different country can help stir a passion for world mission in you.
As a church we need to be praying for people from other nations to join us, which will help us feel a greater connectedness with those nations. Our expectation should be that we will send out increasing numbers of workers into other nations. We need to be committed to church planting, which is the strategy to reach the nations. And we can be inspired by the example of others. For example, I was challenged by an interview with Rick Warren, leader of Saddleback church in California, in which he said that Saddleback is, “The first local church in Christian history to send members as missionaries to literally every nation.... We have 58 nations left to go to and already have the 2,000 more who've volunteered to go to those before the end of 2010.”
Incredible!
Even if you never go to a different nation, you need to see yourself as part of world mission.
Mission begins at home
While we need a passion for world mission, we need to understand that mission starts where we are!
The apostle Paul was always thinking about the gospel. It didn’t matter where he was or who he was with – the gospel was what he was all about.
This passage in 1 Corinthians shows how Paul did what we now call “enculturation.” Wherever he was, he found ways to connect with people. Paul repeatedly compromised his own culture and comforts in order to never compromise the gospel!
Two striking examples of this are found in the book of Acts. In Acts 17:16-20 we read that Paul shared the gospel in the synagogue, and in the marketplace, and in the Areopagus. These three places represented very different cultures. The synagogue was a place where Paul would have felt at home – with fellow Jews, doing what Jews the world over did. The marketplace was a different story – it was the place where pagan life was in full view, in all its colour and sin. The Areopagus was different again – the greatest seat of learning in the Greek world. But to Paul it didn’t matter – whether he was talking to (in our terms) church folk, or prostitutes, or university professors he was able to connect the story of Jesus to their story.
Another example can be found in Acts 21:17-26. Paul had returned to Jerusalem and agreed to go through Jewish purification rituals in the Temple. As a follower of Jesus Paul didn’t need to do this – but as a follower of Jesus who was also ethnically Jewish he was free to practice Jewish customs. He did this in order not to compromise the gospel.
We need to be more like Paul!
Freedom in the gospel
It was Paul’s freedom in Christ that allowed him to fit in so easily in such different cultures. Paul didn’t engage in peoples sin, but he did engage in their culture.
We mustn’t fear pagans! And we mustn’t go all weird and spooky. We must believe in the power of the gospel. Paul was able to walk confidently through all kinds of cultures and situations – he had beautiful feet and knew the power of God, so he didn’t get freaked out by the idol worshippers and pimps, the MPs and professors. He just got on with talking about Jesus.
If you are a believer you are called on a mission. This is not just for professional missionaries, or pastors or evangelists, but for every Christ-follower.
You might not have Paul’s missionary gift, but you are still called to mission! You are a representative of Christ right where you are.
At Gateway this means we need to be people who do not view culture as dark and dangerous and something to hide from. Neither are we to end up simply reflecting the culture, but redeeming it. We are to be a bible-believing, Jesus-loving, mission-focused, people-loving church. We are to live differently from the world, but not in an adversarial way.
Living like a missionary
Living like a missionary means thinking about the mission! It means being alert to opportunities as well as creating opportunities. It means praying about the mission, and investing time, money, and energy into it.
It means that we don’t just talk about the gospel, but are in on it!
Application for Life Groups
We want our Life Groups to be Communities together on a mission for Jesus.
This means that our LGs are not just a meeting in the week, but something that gives Christlike shape to life. Life Groups are places where friends introduce their friends to our greatest friend – Jesus. Life Groups are places where we share in the blessings of the gospel together.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Get in the Game, Part 2, One-Anothering
‘One-another’
The Bible contains many instructions for Christians to ‘one-another’ one another! These include the following:
• Love one another
• Encourage one another
• Instruct one another
• Live in harmony with one another
• Welcome one another
• Greet one another (with a holy kiss!)
• Care for one another
• Comfort one another
• Agree with one another
• Serve one another
• Bear one another’s burdens
• Bear with one another in love
• Be kind to one another
• Be tenderhearted towards one another
• Be forgiving to one another
• Sing to one another
• Submit to one another
• Teach one another
• Admonish one another
• Exhort one another
• Stir up one another to love and good works
• Confess your sins to one another
• Pray for one another
• Show hospitality to one another
• Serve one another
• Show humility to one another
These ‘one-anothers’ are not lovey-dovey or soft, but robust. And they are not, ‘Its all about me’. Rather, they illustrate that Christianity is a team exercise. The aim of these instructions is that the body (the church) should be built up – the health of the body is always in view.
Today we are looking at a passage that emphasises the ‘us’ and ‘we’ of being a Christian.
Hebrews 10:19-25
Jesus Our Priest (vv19-23)
The writer to the Hebrews says we can be confident when we come to God. Confidence makes a big difference to performance. In sport, confidence is hugely important – who wins out of two roughly matched individuals or teams often comes down to which is the most confident. Confidence creates an atmosphere of freedom. Paul says something similar in Ephesians 3:12 where he tells us that in Jesus we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Because of what Jesus has down we are now free to enter the holy places. The comparison being made is between the old priestly system and the new covenant. Now we can come right into the presence of God, whereas before the people of Israel had to make animal sacrifices and were separated from the holy place by a thick curtain.
The blood of the sacrifice demonstrated the seriousness of sin. Sin is so abhorrent to God that it is only solvable by death. And Yahweh was understood to be so dangerous that people had to be kept out of his presence – just as you wouldn’t want to enter a nuclear reactor, no-one wanted to go beyond the curtain where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
But Jesus turns everything upside down!
Jesus is our priest! He is the one who has stood in our place and been our substitute. He died for our sins so that we don’t have to. It is Jesus who intercedes before his Father for us. It is Jesus who makes it possible for us to come into the presence of God – with confidence! Now, we can come close to God because Jesus has cleansed us. He gets to work on us, body and soul, and makes us presentable to God, inside and out.
In response to what Jesus has done, and the promises he has made, we are to persist in our faith. As a community together we are to hold on to the faith and faithfully follow our great high priest. In fact, it is only possible for us to do this as part of the body – it is in the communion of God’s people that we are held in faith.
Provoking One Another (vv24-25)
What Jesus has accomplished for us has then to be worked out by the way we do life together.
The word that is translated as ‘stir’ or ‘spur’ in our English Bibles could also be translated provoke. The Greek word is ‘paroxysmos’, which only occurs in the Bible here, and in Acts 15:39. There is it used to describe the ‘sharp disagreement’ between Paul and Barnabus that led to them separating from each other.
‘Oxys’ means goad, so what the writer to the Hebrews is saying is that we are to spur/stir/provoke/goad one another into doing the right thing. He tells us that we are to consider how we are to do this – that is, we need to think about it!
The truth is that often we need goading into showing love and doing good deeds, because we tend to get passive, and we tend to be selfish. We all need the body around us, helping us to be healthy members of the body.
Because Christianity is a team exercise we have to meet together. If we are to provoke one another we need to be together in order to be provoked! I would say that coming on Sunday and attending a small group is the minimum amount of meeting together that any believer should do.
This a very clear instruction from the Bible: Meet together! Why do we need to do this? In order to encourage one another. Why do we need to do this?! Because life is tough!
Meet together; encourage one another; help each other to live for Jesus.
Application to Life Groups
How – practically – can we spur one another on to love and good works? How can we help each other be fruitful?
Life Groups will help us!
The first thing to understand is that pastoral care happens through small groups. Pastoral care doesn’t primarily happen by one pastor running around after everyone, but is an exercise in community. We are meant to care for one another, so if you are not in a Life Group it is going to be hard to look out for you.
There are many practical things we want Life Groups to do in order to spur one another on. It might be that someone in the group needs financial help, and you can give them some money. It might be that you encourage one another to invite your unchurched friends along to a Life Group social event, or to church on a Sunday. Life Groups will hopefully be places where there is honesty and a godly correction of one another. And we want spiritual gifts to flow in these groups – prophecy is very useful in encouraging and spurring us on!
We want our groups to be communities together on a mission for Jesus where together we help one another live faithfully for the gospel and the good of our neighbours.
The Bible contains many instructions for Christians to ‘one-another’ one another! These include the following:
• Love one another
• Encourage one another
• Instruct one another
• Live in harmony with one another
• Welcome one another
• Greet one another (with a holy kiss!)
• Care for one another
• Comfort one another
• Agree with one another
• Serve one another
• Bear one another’s burdens
• Bear with one another in love
• Be kind to one another
• Be tenderhearted towards one another
• Be forgiving to one another
• Sing to one another
• Submit to one another
• Teach one another
• Admonish one another
• Exhort one another
• Stir up one another to love and good works
• Confess your sins to one another
• Pray for one another
• Show hospitality to one another
• Serve one another
• Show humility to one another
These ‘one-anothers’ are not lovey-dovey or soft, but robust. And they are not, ‘Its all about me’. Rather, they illustrate that Christianity is a team exercise. The aim of these instructions is that the body (the church) should be built up – the health of the body is always in view.
Today we are looking at a passage that emphasises the ‘us’ and ‘we’ of being a Christian.
Hebrews 10:19-25
Jesus Our Priest (vv19-23)
The writer to the Hebrews says we can be confident when we come to God. Confidence makes a big difference to performance. In sport, confidence is hugely important – who wins out of two roughly matched individuals or teams often comes down to which is the most confident. Confidence creates an atmosphere of freedom. Paul says something similar in Ephesians 3:12 where he tells us that in Jesus we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Because of what Jesus has down we are now free to enter the holy places. The comparison being made is between the old priestly system and the new covenant. Now we can come right into the presence of God, whereas before the people of Israel had to make animal sacrifices and were separated from the holy place by a thick curtain.
The blood of the sacrifice demonstrated the seriousness of sin. Sin is so abhorrent to God that it is only solvable by death. And Yahweh was understood to be so dangerous that people had to be kept out of his presence – just as you wouldn’t want to enter a nuclear reactor, no-one wanted to go beyond the curtain where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
But Jesus turns everything upside down!
Jesus is our priest! He is the one who has stood in our place and been our substitute. He died for our sins so that we don’t have to. It is Jesus who intercedes before his Father for us. It is Jesus who makes it possible for us to come into the presence of God – with confidence! Now, we can come close to God because Jesus has cleansed us. He gets to work on us, body and soul, and makes us presentable to God, inside and out.
In response to what Jesus has done, and the promises he has made, we are to persist in our faith. As a community together we are to hold on to the faith and faithfully follow our great high priest. In fact, it is only possible for us to do this as part of the body – it is in the communion of God’s people that we are held in faith.
Provoking One Another (vv24-25)
What Jesus has accomplished for us has then to be worked out by the way we do life together.
The word that is translated as ‘stir’ or ‘spur’ in our English Bibles could also be translated provoke. The Greek word is ‘paroxysmos’, which only occurs in the Bible here, and in Acts 15:39. There is it used to describe the ‘sharp disagreement’ between Paul and Barnabus that led to them separating from each other.
‘Oxys’ means goad, so what the writer to the Hebrews is saying is that we are to spur/stir/provoke/goad one another into doing the right thing. He tells us that we are to consider how we are to do this – that is, we need to think about it!
The truth is that often we need goading into showing love and doing good deeds, because we tend to get passive, and we tend to be selfish. We all need the body around us, helping us to be healthy members of the body.
Because Christianity is a team exercise we have to meet together. If we are to provoke one another we need to be together in order to be provoked! I would say that coming on Sunday and attending a small group is the minimum amount of meeting together that any believer should do.
This a very clear instruction from the Bible: Meet together! Why do we need to do this? In order to encourage one another. Why do we need to do this?! Because life is tough!
Meet together; encourage one another; help each other to live for Jesus.
Application to Life Groups
How – practically – can we spur one another on to love and good works? How can we help each other be fruitful?
Life Groups will help us!
The first thing to understand is that pastoral care happens through small groups. Pastoral care doesn’t primarily happen by one pastor running around after everyone, but is an exercise in community. We are meant to care for one another, so if you are not in a Life Group it is going to be hard to look out for you.
There are many practical things we want Life Groups to do in order to spur one another on. It might be that someone in the group needs financial help, and you can give them some money. It might be that you encourage one another to invite your unchurched friends along to a Life Group social event, or to church on a Sunday. Life Groups will hopefully be places where there is honesty and a godly correction of one another. And we want spiritual gifts to flow in these groups – prophecy is very useful in encouraging and spurring us on!
We want our groups to be communities together on a mission for Jesus where together we help one another live faithfully for the gospel and the good of our neighbours.
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Get in the Game, Part 1: Friendship
Launching Life Groups
We want the Life Groups we are starting this autumn to be built around five core values, which are represented by the acrostic FOOTBALL: Friendship, One-anothering, Outreach, Teaching & Body Life.
In addition to the preaching series I am doing, we have a set of daily bible study notes prepared to run alongside this series. These are available here.
We want Life Groups to be a place to grow friendships, because we all need friends.
Sometimes people take fairly extreme steps to try and find friends. The son of 88 year-old Jack Hammond advertised in his local Post Office for a friend to take his father to the pub. This ‘job’ paid £7/hour, and not surprisingly got a lot of applicants.
Hopefully we don’t need to pay people to sit and drink beer with us, but we need to see how friendship is possible for all of us because of what Jesus has done.
John 15:12-17
The awesomeness of God
Friendship with God is the most remarkable thing. Too often our view of God is too small – we have a shrunken, shrink-wrapped Jesus. Because we live in a casual culture, where we call everyone by their first names and don’t stand on ceremony we are in danger of reducing Jesus to our ‘mate’.
In the Old Testament only two were people described as a friend of God: Abraham (2 Chr 20:7; Is 41:8; Js 2:23) and Moses (Ex 33:11). No-one else! Not David, or Elijah, or Samuel. This should make us stop and think…
The people of Israel lived with an awareness of God’s awesomeness. They were so afraid of over familiarity that they wouldn’t even say the personal name of God (‘Yahweh’) when reading out the scriptures, for fear of profaning it.
So, what changes with Jesus?
The Cross changes everything
This passage comes just before Jesus goes to the cross. It was at the cross that God made his plan for the salvation of the world clear, and it is the revealing of this plan to the disciples that enables them to be described as friends.
Abraham and Moses had unique revelation of God; now the plan of God has been made clear to all his people.
Paul describes this in Ephesians 3:9 as the The mysterious plan brought to light; and in 1 Corinthians 2:16 says that we now, have the mind of Christ. Disciples of Jesus are no longer kept in the dark, as servants are, but have been let into God’s plan, as friends are.
How has this happened?
The gulf between sinful humans and an awesome God is indescribably huge. Recent images from the Hubble space telescope reveal something of the enormity of the universe, but the gulf between us and God is even more huge.
The good news of the gospel is that God reconciles us to himself. We are sinners deserving God’s wrath, but this wrath was dealt with at the cross, so we can be at peace with God: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).
Because of the cross we stand in this new position where God calls us friends.
Being a friend of God
Even though God calls us friends, we still need to know awe at who God is. This is not a relationship of equality! It is Jesus who calls us friends; not the other way round. It is Jesus who chooses us; not the other way round.
We are still slaves of God! But slaves to whom he has revealed his plan. We are slaves who stand in a place of friendship with our master.
What does this friendship with God result in? Jesus gives us two answers: Love for his people, and fruitfulness. Jesus’ command is that we love one another and he chooses us in order that we might be fruitful.
How does this work out?!
The challenges of friendship
There are several challenges to building friendships in the church.
Some people are EGR people (‘extra grace required’). But the reality is that most of us require extra grace at times! All of us have the potential to irritate and upset others. Church can be messy, because we are messy people.
Another common problem is that we buy the lie that “no-one cares about me.” If we start to believe this lie it makes it very hard for others to reach out to us and demonstrate care.
We can also have expectations that are too high, while our efforts at making friends are too low. It is easy to think that being part of a church should mean our every need and concern will be taken care of, which won’t happen! At the same time we can be so focussed on whether other people are meeting our needs that we fail to meet the needs of others.
There is also the reality that it tends to get harder to make friends as we get older. As we get older it takes more effort to reach out to new people, and many people stop bothering.
And then there is the challenge of building biblical community in 21st century Britain. We live in an individualistic culture, and often in a very isolated way. It is hard for us to be open to other people because it is not what we have been conditioned to do.
Expectations for Life Groups
What, then, are our expectations for friendships in Life Groups?
First, we must begin with a theological understanding of what Jesus has done for us.
Because God has reconciled us to himself, we can be reconciled to one another. Jesus has crossed unbelievable barriers to reach out to us – by his grace we can cross the much smaller barriers that would separate us from one another.
We want Life Groups to be a place for friendship, more than intimacy. Intimacy is good, but it takes a long time to develop. Most of us can probably count ourselves fortunate if we have half a dozen truly intimate friends over the course of our lifetimes – people who really know us inside out. Jesus only had three – Peter, James and John. Also, the thought of ‘intimacy’ can actually be very off-putting to many people – it just sounds too intense. So lets pitch at friendship instead.
We want Life Groups to be a place to have fun! As God is revealing his manifold wisdom through the church, the church should specialize in multicoloured living! We should know how to celebrate and enjoy life. Life Groups should be places where we can tell our stories and listen to the stories of others. And Life Groups should be places where we eat a lot of food together, because that is what friends having fun do!
Friendship results in fruitfulness because the Christian life can’t be lived alone. All the things we have been called to do as disciples of Jesus we can only do alongside other believers, as part of the Body of Christ. Like Jack Hammond we need friends, but Life Groups mean we shouldn’t have to pay people to befriend us. We want Life Groups to be, Communities together on a mission for Jesus, where we love one another and are fruitful.
We want the Life Groups we are starting this autumn to be built around five core values, which are represented by the acrostic FOOTBALL: Friendship, One-anothering, Outreach, Teaching & Body Life.
In addition to the preaching series I am doing, we have a set of daily bible study notes prepared to run alongside this series. These are available here.
We want Life Groups to be a place to grow friendships, because we all need friends.
Sometimes people take fairly extreme steps to try and find friends. The son of 88 year-old Jack Hammond advertised in his local Post Office for a friend to take his father to the pub. This ‘job’ paid £7/hour, and not surprisingly got a lot of applicants.
Hopefully we don’t need to pay people to sit and drink beer with us, but we need to see how friendship is possible for all of us because of what Jesus has done.
John 15:12-17
The awesomeness of God
Friendship with God is the most remarkable thing. Too often our view of God is too small – we have a shrunken, shrink-wrapped Jesus. Because we live in a casual culture, where we call everyone by their first names and don’t stand on ceremony we are in danger of reducing Jesus to our ‘mate’.
In the Old Testament only two were people described as a friend of God: Abraham (2 Chr 20:7; Is 41:8; Js 2:23) and Moses (Ex 33:11). No-one else! Not David, or Elijah, or Samuel. This should make us stop and think…
The people of Israel lived with an awareness of God’s awesomeness. They were so afraid of over familiarity that they wouldn’t even say the personal name of God (‘Yahweh’) when reading out the scriptures, for fear of profaning it.
So, what changes with Jesus?
The Cross changes everything
This passage comes just before Jesus goes to the cross. It was at the cross that God made his plan for the salvation of the world clear, and it is the revealing of this plan to the disciples that enables them to be described as friends.
Abraham and Moses had unique revelation of God; now the plan of God has been made clear to all his people.
Paul describes this in Ephesians 3:9 as the The mysterious plan brought to light; and in 1 Corinthians 2:16 says that we now, have the mind of Christ. Disciples of Jesus are no longer kept in the dark, as servants are, but have been let into God’s plan, as friends are.
How has this happened?
The gulf between sinful humans and an awesome God is indescribably huge. Recent images from the Hubble space telescope reveal something of the enormity of the universe, but the gulf between us and God is even more huge.
The good news of the gospel is that God reconciles us to himself. We are sinners deserving God’s wrath, but this wrath was dealt with at the cross, so we can be at peace with God: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).
Because of the cross we stand in this new position where God calls us friends.
Being a friend of God
Even though God calls us friends, we still need to know awe at who God is. This is not a relationship of equality! It is Jesus who calls us friends; not the other way round. It is Jesus who chooses us; not the other way round.
We are still slaves of God! But slaves to whom he has revealed his plan. We are slaves who stand in a place of friendship with our master.
What does this friendship with God result in? Jesus gives us two answers: Love for his people, and fruitfulness. Jesus’ command is that we love one another and he chooses us in order that we might be fruitful.
How does this work out?!
The challenges of friendship
There are several challenges to building friendships in the church.
Some people are EGR people (‘extra grace required’). But the reality is that most of us require extra grace at times! All of us have the potential to irritate and upset others. Church can be messy, because we are messy people.
Another common problem is that we buy the lie that “no-one cares about me.” If we start to believe this lie it makes it very hard for others to reach out to us and demonstrate care.
We can also have expectations that are too high, while our efforts at making friends are too low. It is easy to think that being part of a church should mean our every need and concern will be taken care of, which won’t happen! At the same time we can be so focussed on whether other people are meeting our needs that we fail to meet the needs of others.
There is also the reality that it tends to get harder to make friends as we get older. As we get older it takes more effort to reach out to new people, and many people stop bothering.
And then there is the challenge of building biblical community in 21st century Britain. We live in an individualistic culture, and often in a very isolated way. It is hard for us to be open to other people because it is not what we have been conditioned to do.
Expectations for Life Groups
What, then, are our expectations for friendships in Life Groups?
First, we must begin with a theological understanding of what Jesus has done for us.
Because God has reconciled us to himself, we can be reconciled to one another. Jesus has crossed unbelievable barriers to reach out to us – by his grace we can cross the much smaller barriers that would separate us from one another.
We want Life Groups to be a place for friendship, more than intimacy. Intimacy is good, but it takes a long time to develop. Most of us can probably count ourselves fortunate if we have half a dozen truly intimate friends over the course of our lifetimes – people who really know us inside out. Jesus only had three – Peter, James and John. Also, the thought of ‘intimacy’ can actually be very off-putting to many people – it just sounds too intense. So lets pitch at friendship instead.
We want Life Groups to be a place to have fun! As God is revealing his manifold wisdom through the church, the church should specialize in multicoloured living! We should know how to celebrate and enjoy life. Life Groups should be places where we can tell our stories and listen to the stories of others. And Life Groups should be places where we eat a lot of food together, because that is what friends having fun do!
Friendship results in fruitfulness because the Christian life can’t be lived alone. All the things we have been called to do as disciples of Jesus we can only do alongside other believers, as part of the Body of Christ. Like Jack Hammond we need friends, but Life Groups mean we shouldn’t have to pay people to befriend us. We want Life Groups to be, Communities together on a mission for Jesus, where we love one another and are fruitful.
Sunday, 6 September 2009
VISION SUNDAY
It felt good to be back in the saddle at Gateway today, even if after ten weeks of not preaching I was a little rusty. Numbers are a long way from being everything, but it was encouraging to have the largest congregation in attendance since I joined the church – especially as this is the day on which I try to spell out what we are aiming for over the next few months. And what a joy to consider the vast scale of what God is calling his church to from Ephesians 3:8-12…
v8
It is grace to be able to talk about Jesus! This is a message for all nations, and the very least Christian can help preach it.
What we preach is unsearchable in the sense that it is beyond measure. It is like looking into the skies and trying to count the stars – simply too vast for us to get our minds around. The trouble is that when we think of ‘riches’ we tend to think too narrowly. We imagine riches as owning a Ferrari, or a football club, or buying our dream house, or being able to have an exotic holiday whenever we want. But compared to the riches of Christ, these things are like comparing a street light to the stars.
We mustn’t have a shrink-wrapped Jesus! What we have to preach about him is the most important and precious message in the world.
v9
God is working out a plan! This plan has been in planning since the creation of the world.
Planning is good, but our plans inevitably never work out as we plan them to! As Dwight D. Eisenhower put it, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
The difference between our plans and God’s are that not only is God’s plan good, but it is working out perfectly.
God’s plans were secret but have now been made public. In the build up to Overlord in the Second World War (the plan to retake occupied France from the Germans) everyone knew something was happening, but not when or how or where. In a similar way the angels knew God was forming a plan of salvation, but they had no idea of its vastness – that it should reach even so far as to touch someone like me.
v10
Why is it that God is unveiling his plan? Paul tells it is so he might show his manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities. To describe God’s wisdom as ‘manifold’ is to say it is like the facets of a diamond, which make the stone shine with a brilliant and unique light. God’s wisdom is brilliant!
Who, then, are the rulers and authorities to whom God is displaying this great wisdom?
The Christian lives in a world of both physical and spiritual reality. We live in a fallen world, which is under the power of the devil, and all around us we see the evidence of his rule. But we are also citizens of the new world – where the victory of Jesus is already assured.
This means our experience in this life is one of both victory and difficulty. We are ‘more than conquerors’ (Romans 8:37) but we also flesh and blood, who still sin, and still get hurt.
The “rulers and authorities” Paul speaks of are those spiritual powers that are still fighting against the inevitable victory that is Christ’s.
So how does God show his wisdom to these powers?
Through the church!
Now this is weird! It is not at all the method that we would choose. We are far too aware of our failings! Surely it would be better to choose something more impressive than the church?
But God’s choosing of the church reflects the upside down rules of the kingdom of God. God chooses the unlikely, the weak, the despised, to make his wisdom known. His wisdom is different from worldly wisdom, and he uses different weapons to win his battles.
The reality is that simply by being the church we are engaged in spiritual warfare. We don’t need to address the spiritual powers; but we do affect them.
v11
It was always God’s plan to do it this way! It was in order to work out God’s plan that Jesus’ came into the world – there was nothing random about it. All of history was always leading to the cross, and all of history now is an outworking of the cross in the life of the church.
v12
As members of the church, we have free access to God. We can be bold and confident, the qualities of a good soldier. We need the qualities of good soldiers because we are engaged in battle; and we can be bold and confident in this fight because we are on the winning side!
Application to Gateway
What can we apply from this to our situation at Gateway Church?
Lets plan, but not worry too much if our plans don’t always work as expected! Lets trust God to help us through whatever difficulties we face. Lets see ourselves as members of the bigger plan that cannot fail. Lets worry less about our weakness and wonder more at his grace. Lets live multicoloured, wisdom displaying lives. Lets recognizing the darkness and pain of the world around us but live fully, as new creations in Christ Jesus. Lets commit ourselves to living lives of Adventure, Purity and Compassion. Lets love the cross, and love the church. And lets be bold and confident because of his grace, rather than our performance.
Gateway Goals
On this Sunday last year I set out a number of goals that would act as signposts, helping us to gauge whether or not we are making progress. Today is a good opportunity to review those goals.
1. Small Groups
Relaunching our small groups system is something we have wanted to do for a long time, but it is also something over which we have wanted to take our time. We are finally launching new groups – Life Groups – in October, and I am planning to spend the next five weeks preaching into this.
Launching Life Groups also helps us in one of our other goals of wanting to see more leaders develop, as we need lots of leaders to lead the groups.
2. Youth
It is a year since we put new leaders in charge of our youthwork, and over that time we have seen some significant progress. Our young people were particularly impacted by Newday and we want to build on this by seeing a number of them baptized in the coming weeks.
We have also now moved all our youthwork to Friday evenings.
3. Membership
Over the past year we have put a renewed emphasis on church membership, and so far 79 people have done at least some part of our Finding Your Place course.
4. Prayer
Prayer is an act of spiritual warfare, and over the past year the prayer temperature of the church has risen a few degrees. It can still be much better though! This week we have three evening prayer meetings, and as well as attending these I would encourage you to fast this week as we seek God’s blessing on us.
5. More weddings & babies
We are still low on weddings! Part of the long term strategy to change this is our desire to reach out to students – many of whom will hopefully settle in this area once they graduate, get jobs, marry, and have children.
Over the past year we have seen our student group grow from virtually nothing to 15-20 and today we are setting a new goal to see a group of 30-40 students with us over the next year.
We have done better with seeing more babies born! And this Friday we are launching a new toddlers group – Little Gators – which is an exciting development.
6. More salvation & baptisms
This is still an area in which we need to do better! We have seen a number of people respond to the gospel, but baptism is the point at which I really like to count them.
Between September 2007 and August 2008 we had nine baptisms. In the same period for the last year we had seven. My prayer is that we see the line on this graph going upwards from now on!
7. More training
We have had a large number of church members attending various training courses to deepen their understanding of scripture and theology. This has been great! And we want to see it continue.
8. More money
Pretty much everything we do costs money, and the good news is that we are doing better in this area.
On the previous years giving figures we had predicted a deficit budget for this financial year of £38,000, but so far this year our income is meeting our expenditure. It would be wonderful to get to April next year with a balanced budget!
9. Big news
The big news in 2008 was our change of name from Alder Road Baptist Church to Gateway Church. There is nothing quite so dramatic this year, but our big news is that from January we are planning to go to two morning services.
We are doing this because we want to grow, and we just don’t have the physical space to do that at the moment. It is something we have been discussing as elders for over a year, and it is something that people we respect who have visited us have advised us to do. It has its risks, but we want to trust our plans to God, knowing that his master plan cannot fail.
In all these things we want to act with boldness and confidence over the next 12 months, because of our faith in Jesus!
v8
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ
It is grace to be able to talk about Jesus! This is a message for all nations, and the very least Christian can help preach it.
What we preach is unsearchable in the sense that it is beyond measure. It is like looking into the skies and trying to count the stars – simply too vast for us to get our minds around. The trouble is that when we think of ‘riches’ we tend to think too narrowly. We imagine riches as owning a Ferrari, or a football club, or buying our dream house, or being able to have an exotic holiday whenever we want. But compared to the riches of Christ, these things are like comparing a street light to the stars.
We mustn’t have a shrink-wrapped Jesus! What we have to preach about him is the most important and precious message in the world.
v9
And to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things
God is working out a plan! This plan has been in planning since the creation of the world.
Planning is good, but our plans inevitably never work out as we plan them to! As Dwight D. Eisenhower put it, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
The difference between our plans and God’s are that not only is God’s plan good, but it is working out perfectly.
God’s plans were secret but have now been made public. In the build up to Overlord in the Second World War (the plan to retake occupied France from the Germans) everyone knew something was happening, but not when or how or where. In a similar way the angels knew God was forming a plan of salvation, but they had no idea of its vastness – that it should reach even so far as to touch someone like me.
v10
So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Why is it that God is unveiling his plan? Paul tells it is so he might show his manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities. To describe God’s wisdom as ‘manifold’ is to say it is like the facets of a diamond, which make the stone shine with a brilliant and unique light. God’s wisdom is brilliant!
Who, then, are the rulers and authorities to whom God is displaying this great wisdom?
The Christian lives in a world of both physical and spiritual reality. We live in a fallen world, which is under the power of the devil, and all around us we see the evidence of his rule. But we are also citizens of the new world – where the victory of Jesus is already assured.
This means our experience in this life is one of both victory and difficulty. We are ‘more than conquerors’ (Romans 8:37) but we also flesh and blood, who still sin, and still get hurt.
The “rulers and authorities” Paul speaks of are those spiritual powers that are still fighting against the inevitable victory that is Christ’s.
So how does God show his wisdom to these powers?
Through the church!
Now this is weird! It is not at all the method that we would choose. We are far too aware of our failings! Surely it would be better to choose something more impressive than the church?
But God’s choosing of the church reflects the upside down rules of the kingdom of God. God chooses the unlikely, the weak, the despised, to make his wisdom known. His wisdom is different from worldly wisdom, and he uses different weapons to win his battles.
The reality is that simply by being the church we are engaged in spiritual warfare. We don’t need to address the spiritual powers; but we do affect them.
v11
This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord
It was always God’s plan to do it this way! It was in order to work out God’s plan that Jesus’ came into the world – there was nothing random about it. All of history was always leading to the cross, and all of history now is an outworking of the cross in the life of the church.
v12
In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
As members of the church, we have free access to God. We can be bold and confident, the qualities of a good soldier. We need the qualities of good soldiers because we are engaged in battle; and we can be bold and confident in this fight because we are on the winning side!
Application to Gateway
What can we apply from this to our situation at Gateway Church?
Lets plan, but not worry too much if our plans don’t always work as expected! Lets trust God to help us through whatever difficulties we face. Lets see ourselves as members of the bigger plan that cannot fail. Lets worry less about our weakness and wonder more at his grace. Lets live multicoloured, wisdom displaying lives. Lets recognizing the darkness and pain of the world around us but live fully, as new creations in Christ Jesus. Lets commit ourselves to living lives of Adventure, Purity and Compassion. Lets love the cross, and love the church. And lets be bold and confident because of his grace, rather than our performance.
Gateway Goals
On this Sunday last year I set out a number of goals that would act as signposts, helping us to gauge whether or not we are making progress. Today is a good opportunity to review those goals.
1. Small Groups
Relaunching our small groups system is something we have wanted to do for a long time, but it is also something over which we have wanted to take our time. We are finally launching new groups – Life Groups – in October, and I am planning to spend the next five weeks preaching into this.
Launching Life Groups also helps us in one of our other goals of wanting to see more leaders develop, as we need lots of leaders to lead the groups.
2. Youth
It is a year since we put new leaders in charge of our youthwork, and over that time we have seen some significant progress. Our young people were particularly impacted by Newday and we want to build on this by seeing a number of them baptized in the coming weeks.
We have also now moved all our youthwork to Friday evenings.
3. Membership
Over the past year we have put a renewed emphasis on church membership, and so far 79 people have done at least some part of our Finding Your Place course.
4. Prayer
Prayer is an act of spiritual warfare, and over the past year the prayer temperature of the church has risen a few degrees. It can still be much better though! This week we have three evening prayer meetings, and as well as attending these I would encourage you to fast this week as we seek God’s blessing on us.
5. More weddings & babies
We are still low on weddings! Part of the long term strategy to change this is our desire to reach out to students – many of whom will hopefully settle in this area once they graduate, get jobs, marry, and have children.
Over the past year we have seen our student group grow from virtually nothing to 15-20 and today we are setting a new goal to see a group of 30-40 students with us over the next year.
We have done better with seeing more babies born! And this Friday we are launching a new toddlers group – Little Gators – which is an exciting development.
6. More salvation & baptisms
This is still an area in which we need to do better! We have seen a number of people respond to the gospel, but baptism is the point at which I really like to count them.
Between September 2007 and August 2008 we had nine baptisms. In the same period for the last year we had seven. My prayer is that we see the line on this graph going upwards from now on!
7. More training
We have had a large number of church members attending various training courses to deepen their understanding of scripture and theology. This has been great! And we want to see it continue.
8. More money
Pretty much everything we do costs money, and the good news is that we are doing better in this area.
On the previous years giving figures we had predicted a deficit budget for this financial year of £38,000, but so far this year our income is meeting our expenditure. It would be wonderful to get to April next year with a balanced budget!
9. Big news
The big news in 2008 was our change of name from Alder Road Baptist Church to Gateway Church. There is nothing quite so dramatic this year, but our big news is that from January we are planning to go to two morning services.
We are doing this because we want to grow, and we just don’t have the physical space to do that at the moment. It is something we have been discussing as elders for over a year, and it is something that people we respect who have visited us have advised us to do. It has its risks, but we want to trust our plans to God, knowing that his master plan cannot fail.
In all these things we want to act with boldness and confidence over the next 12 months, because of our faith in Jesus!
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