Let Your Light So Shine... (Matthew 5.13-16)

Introduction

Have you ever seen Napoleon Dynamite? It’s a cult film about a teenage nerd from a nowhere town in the Midwest. Napoleon Dynamite is a geek with a wretchedly limited sex appeal. Girls pray he won’t invite them to the high school prom. Amazingly, his name is not in fact the weirdest thing about him. Napoleon Dynamite stands out from the crowd.

One of the problems we have in the church in this country at this time is that many people think it’s only needy losers like Napoleon Dynamite who’d ever want to have anything to do with a church.

They’re wrong of course, but few people know that because only a few ever actually find out for themselves. But the church does have an image problem. Listen if somebody landed at Durham Tees Valley airport and got into a taxi and said to the driver, “Drive me to where the action is,” how many cab drivers would put their foot on the gas and head straight for the local church? Not all that many…

But listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 5.13-16.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus says, “You have got to stand out from the crowd, and for the right reasons.” What we’re going to do tonight is unpack the two images of salt and light and build up a picture of the counter-cultural movement Jesus is calling you to be part of.

Salt: Flavouring, Preservative, Fertilizer and Disinfectant

Have you noticed that we talk about reliable people as ‘worth their salt’. We take random people with a pinch of salt. But if you ask anybody what salt is for, you will tend to get two answers. In fact, this week I asked five people what they thought salt is most useful for and every time I got the same two word answer - in the same order. Food without salt not only tastes horrible, it goes off quickly too. So we use it for seasoning (or flavouring) and for preserving.

Salt is used for flavouring and Jesus said “you are the salt of the earth.” If you and I are true to our calling as Christ’s followers we will make our communities better and less dull places to live.

The biggest complaint from teenagers about church is… what? “It’s boring.” But God’s idea is that churches are put on the earth to brighten up the monotony of life without God! You are the salt of the earth. Your mission is to make what is boring appealing. How did the church in our generation ever pull off the almost impossible feat of making the world even drearier than it otherwise was!

Salt adds flavour to unappetising food, but it also stops it going off. Cured meat like Parma ham, which has had coarse salt rubbed into it, can keep virtually forever.

When Jesus talks about salt he means that the world is decaying. It is going rotten; it is on its way to purifying and stinking. Jesus does not think that the world is basically OK, and that Christians can make it even nicer. Jesus doesn’t think that the world needs improving. He thinks it needs saving.

So it was a Christian called William Wilberforce who worked tirelessly, and in the end successfully, to abolish the slave trade in this country. It was a Christian called Martin Luther King who campaigned against, and finally achieved the outlawing of, racist segregation in the USA 50 years ago. 60% of AIDS relief programmes in Africa today are run by churches. You are the salt of the earth.

Ask yourself this: “Does the rottenness of sinful structures in the UK leave me unmoved? Does the erosion of godly moral values in my city leave me indifferent?” If so, ask the Lord to change your heart! You are the salt of the earth.

But, even though Jesus possibly had seasoning and preserving in mind when he talked about salt, (and they were uses for it in 1st century Galilee) it’s more likely he was thinking of two other uses.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ words are expanded slightly, and the fuller version says this;

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; it is thrown out.” (Luke 14.34).

Jesus is talking about two other properties of salt; ones you would probably not guess. When he talked about salt he actually meant salt as a fertiliser (for the soil) and as a disinfectant (for the manure heap).

What they called salt in those days was, in fact, an unrefined, coarse mixture you still find today washed up on the shores of the Dead Sea. It’s rich in sodium chloride, but it also contains traces of potash and other minerals. You have to dilute it a bit but when you do, it is excellent for the soil and it favours the strong growth of healthy crops.

But if you dilute it too much, it loses its properties, and it becomes useless. That’s why Jesus used the expression “salt of the earth” and not salt of the kitchen. Can you see now what he meant when he said “if salt loses its saltiness”?

Listen, Jesus calls you “the salt of the earth” because he expects you to be in the growth business, actively promoting the increase of his government and peace.

Many of his parables are about growth; the yeast, the mustard seed, the sower, wheat and the tares... In Colossians 1 Paul says, “All over the world the gospel is bearing fruit and growing… and we pray… that you may bear fruit in every good work.”

So let me ask you, are you growing? Are you bearing the fruit that Jesus has commissioned and appointed you for? Are you a giver? Are you promoting faith and joy around you? Are you an encourager? Are you a catalyst for love and good works around you? You are the salt of the earth but, says Jesus, salt can lose its saltiness.

So salt is useful for seasoning, preserving, fertilizing and finally sanitizing. It was a disinfectant, an antiseptic. “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness… it is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap.” There were no drain systems in those days. So people threw salt on the dung hill downwind from the village and it fumigated it, to keep away flies and rats. “You are the salt of the earth.”

The might of the gospel and the power of Christian love can decontaminate even the most pernicious and evil environment.

When insurgents attacked St George’s Church in Baghdad, they had to start holding church services in the safe compound. Andrew White ran Alpha courses in the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office complex.

Many came to faith in Christ, and they even baptized new converts in Saddam Hussein’s palace swimming pool! In the midst of suicide bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, beheadings and general anarchy the church in Baghdad grew and God did amazing things. Salt is a disinfectant.

Jesus expects you to be part of his programme of change for all that is bland and putrid.

Light: Visibility and Distinctiveness

Jesus also says “You are the light of the world.” Be visible; don’t hide away, he says. God expects his church to be a beacon in its community. If we are invisible we are as useful to God as a pocket torch with a flat battery.

The world is used to images of Christians talking amongst themselves in religious buildings. On the whole, let’s be honest, it is not impressed and it’s no surprise that it has little inclination to join in.

Here’s a question for you; how much of what we read about Jesus in the gospels finds him situated outside a religious building? Answer: about 95%. It is time to be a church without walls and get out on the streets where the action is.

Just two weeks from now, Christians from nine different churches in our town will be out and about meeting people on the streets and in their homes. We call it Love Stockton Mission.

From next week, flyers will go out to homes all over Stockton, Eaglescliffe and Long Newton offering practical help; DIY, gardening, filling in forms, debt counselling, litter picking, walking the dog, shopping and so on.

We will be contacting the BBC and the local press, so pray we’ll get good media coverage as well.

Why are we doing this? Because Jesus said in v16 “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We did this last year in All Saints’ and we found that, as we engaged with people practically with random acts of kindness, God opened up doors to engage with them spiritually.

Here’s an example of what that looks like. Two weeks ago, a man came into the centre in my church grumbling about his back pain. The easiest thing in the world would have been to say, “Ah, well I hope you’re feeling better soon.”

But someone said to him “Well, would you like us to pray that God will heal you?” They laid hands on him, (Do you know, I’m not even sure if they waited for his answer!) They asked God to take away the pain. “Ooh,” said the man, “You know what, I can feel heat on my back pain as you pray.” By the time they had finished praying the pain had all gone. He phoned up later to say “It’s still better, it’s amazing.”

Do you know what I’m finding? God doesn’t do amazing things every time I step out in faith and pray. I wish he did. But that’s his business. But the more I step out in obedient faith, the more amazing things God does.

Light is only effective insofar as it is distinctive from the environment around it. When I read the display on my mobile in a dark room it’s a lot easier than when I try to read it on a sunny day outside. There’s no point in limiting our light shining to church buildings.

I was talking to someone recently and he was telling me how he met his girlfriend. It wasn’t in a church context, it was at work. But he knew she was a Christian. She wasn’t wearing a WWJD wristband, or a cross necklace or have a fish sticker on her car. She didn’t whistle Matt Redman tunes as she worked, or read her Bible in front of everyone at coffee break.

He saw that there was something about her that so reminded him of Christ that he guessed she must be a Christian, and he guessed right. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Now I don’t want to embarrass you, but I want to ask you six questions. I am simply going to ask you to raise your hand if what I say is what you think. And I hope you won’t find that awkward. Here we go.

Firstly, would you please raise your hand if you are confident that you will be admitted to heaven when you die.

Secondly, hands up if you believe that Jesus was really raised from the dead.

Third question, raise a hand please if you think that studying the Bible is beneficial.

Fourthly, hands up if you believe that sending missionaries to lands that know nothing of Jesus Christ is a good thing.

Fifthly - and I’m not taking notes - hands up if you think that Christians should give a generous proportion of their income to the Lord, to support Christian causes and to alleviate suffering in the world.

One last question, raise a hand if you think lay people should have a say in the way the church is run. Thank you.

Jesus said, in v20, a few verses on from our passage tonight; “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Please listen carefully now, here’s the link. We know from the Gospels that the Pharisees and teachers of the law would have raised a hand to all six questions I asked just now - and yet Jesus said you’ve got to do much better than them to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Pharisees were committed to obeying every aspect, every detail, of God’s word, no matter how trivial it seemed to be.

But they criticised sinners instead of making life easier for them. They looked down on others who were struggling but they didn’t lift a finger to help them. They were all mouth, no action. Don’t let the Pharisee spirit raise its ugly head in your life.

Conclusion

So, as I close, can you hear God’s voice calling you to be like salt; bringing a taste of heaven to Stockton, encouraging the growth of his kingdom here and sanitizing all that is foul? Can you hear Jesus saying, “You are the salt of the earth”?

Is he speaking to you about being more visible as a Christian? “Nobody sticks a lamp under a bowl” he says. Is your light hidden away between the four walls of your church?

Has the time come to shine more brightly, to speak out more, to take a risk, to go for it, to be a beacon? When are you going to shine like you know you want to? Can you hear Jesus saying, “You are the light of the world”?

Let’s stand to pray…


Sermon preached at Stockton Baptist Tabernacle, 29th April 2012

New Creation: Beyond Suffering (2 Corinthians 6.1-10)

Introduction

I was sent a link this week from the New Wine website. It was a report about a 23 year old man called Ulrik who was travelling to Stockholm on the train after a training day on healing.

Unknown to him, a well known Swedish actress and singer, who I don't think would call herself a Christian, called Pernilla Wahlgren, was in the same train carriage typing away a new post for her blog on her laptop computer - and this is a translation into English of what she wrote down:

I’m sitting on the train on my way home to Stockholm, and something very unusual just happened in the seats next to me … a young guy is sitting next to an elderly lady and I can’t help but hear how he is telling her about his faith in God. With great feeling he explains how he can really sense that God lives in him and how much God loves everyone. The lady tells him a little about herself and how the pain in her shoulders is so strong she can’t even blow-dry her own hair.

Suddenly the guy asks if he can say a prayer for the lady! She says yes – even though I can hear from her voice that she’s a little hesitant. So he puts his hands on her shoulders and starts praying. He prays that she will feel God’s love and that the pain in her shoulder will disappear. When he’s finished he asks whether she can feel any difference. ‘You mean now?’ says the lady, somewhat bewildered. ‘Yes’, the guy says. Try to lift your arms up now! So she does. And this is when the really strange thing happens. Because the lady, very surprised, lifts her arms high up above her head and doesn’t really seem to understand how it happened. ‘I haven’t been able to lift my arms this high in many years’, she says.

The post continues…

I don’t want to stare at them, but I must say I am fascinated by the whole scenario! After a little while the guy stands up from his seat and offers to pray for everyone in the carriage who feels sick or is in pain. He can feel a ‘tingling’ in his hands, and apparently this is a sign from God that there is someone there who needs help. However, it seems that no one chronically ill is present. Or maybe they just don’t dare to let people know because we’re a little afraid of anything ‘Christian’ in this country aren’t we?

Just 24 hours later that post had attracted 120+ comments, after which Pernilla added these thoughts:

Thank you so much for all your comments! It’s great to read about the way you look at things like this, and God is a very big subject that you could discuss forever really! But I got a lot of positive energy from your stories! And it was so nice that the believing guy’s mum apparently also read my blog post! Sometimes the world is very small! And to those of you who thought the whole thing was a ‘set-up’, I can just say that it was definitely not! It was just a very nice experience that I was fortunate to watch!

How many of you are encouraged by that?

The Encouragement of Testimony

We Christians are good at sharing encouraging testimonies. We like to speak up about the great things God is doing amongst us. We had a lovely testimony on Easter day about a prophetic word during prayer ministry here about expecting a baby which came true. We had a couple of uplifting testimonies at our APCM service last Sunday.

It’s right for us to do this because there is so much in our culture and media that grinds down the morale of our faith. And therefore we need to be reminded again and again that the kingdom of God breaks through into our reality when we leave our comfort zones and step out in faith. It strengthens our faith to celebrate God’s great and wondrous deeds amongst us.

In fact, the Bible actually says that we become afraid and we lose our confidence in the Lord when we stop remembering his mighty acts. Did you know that?

Psalm 78.9-11 says that the men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle [because] they forgot what God had done, the wonders he had shown them.

So we remember God’s amazing acts and we tell one another what he is doing in our midst.

The Reality of Suffering

But we need to be honest and acknowledge also that our lives, as Christians, are not one long unbroken line of exciting and extraordinary miracles.

If you are told that that is what living as a Christian should be like all the time, and you discover it isn’t, you might end up terribly disappointed. You might wonder if you are really a proper Christian. You might even run the risk of eventually abandoning your faith completely disillusioned and disheartened. I’ve seen it happen.

Let’s take a look at Scripture. How did obediently following Jesus work out for the Apostle Paul?

Here’s how he sums up his CV in 2 Corinthians 11:

“I have frequently been in prison, been flogged severely, and exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, from bandits, from my own people, from Gentiles; in the city, in the country, at sea; and from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and exposed.”

Well that’s what you get when you fly with Ryan Air… Actually, it sounds like he should have checked the fine print before signing up for that New Wine camping holiday!

But seriously, it’s a shocking list isn’t it? It reminds me of what Theresa of Avilla said when she was going through a particularly rough patch in her life. Falling off her horse into a muddy puddle she looked up at the sky and said, “Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, it’s no wonder you haven’t got very many!”

But I want you to notice this, it’s very important: at no stage does Paul ask “Why do bad things (like this) happen to good people (like me)?” Or “If God is all-powerful, why doesn’t he do something about this?”

These questions don’t even arise. Paul takes it as read that God does allow all this to happen to him and he doesn’t see anything untoward.

In other words, God is still in total control. None of this casts any doubts on his sovereignty. He is God. He is not taken by surprise by any of this. Not one raindrop falls to the ground without him knowing about it and being able to stop it. “All things work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his plan.”

Paul seems to have a completely different worldview to the one we grow up with.

People sometimes ask me, whenever something bad happens to them or their loved ones, “Why? Why is God allowing this?”

It’s a natural human response and you can understand the question, but it’s not one we find in the pages of the New Testament.

Unfortunately, sometimes people are given the impression when they get converted that becoming a Christian will make life easier for them. Were you given that impression?

Well, when Paul became a Christian they told him the truth. Acts 9.16 says that the day Paul was converted, a man named Ananias was sent to show him how much he was going to [not be blessed] but suffer for the name of Jesus.

Can I just make it totally clear in case there’s still any confusion? Not one verse in the Bible, not one, ever holds out the promise that life will become easier for you once you are converted.

So, if this is what being a Christian is about after all, why would anyone want to bother becoming one?

If you’re not yet a Christian and you’re thinking of becoming one, it doesn’t look like there’s much in it for you does it? What’s the point?

Christianity Is True

There are two basic reasons why you should be a Christian. The first reason is that Christianity is true.

Why am I a Christian? Basically, and first of all, because I believe the gospel makes sense of the world around me like nothing else. As C.S. Lewis once brilliantly said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

In other words, the Gospel offers the most coherent and most satisfying explanation there is about life, the universe and everything.

So, at the risk of a little detour, let me set out in four very brief bullet points why I think Christianity is true.

Firstly, God exists. The overwhelming scientific consensus on the origins of the universe is that everything that exists came into being, from nothing, about 13.5 billion years ago in what we call the Big Bang.

There is a law in science that says that whenever anything begins to exist it has a cause. The universe exists, therefore the universe must have a cause. And, frankly, what is easier to believe - a) that God made everything that exists from nothing or b) that nothing made everything that exists from nothing? That’s why I think it is reasonable to believe in the existence of God.

Secondly, sin is real. You can travel all over the world and come to the same conclusion; nobody lives a perfect life. We all have within us the tendency or inclination to do what we know is wrong. The human heart, even from the youngest age, seems to be turned away from God towards self. Sin is like a congenital disease - a spiritual disorder that weakens us and keeps us from doing what we know is right. What the Bible says about sin seems to me to be true. We are all guilty of sin and need a Saviour.

Thirdly, Jesus saves. Only someone who was completely without sin would be in a position to save us from our sins. Jesus lived a life just like us but never sinned. Even his enemies admitted they could find no fault in him. And when Jesus was on the cross, the Bible says all our sins were transferred onto him, and he took upon himself the judgment we deserve. You don’t need to carry your burden of sin and guilt any longer, if you open your heart to Christ and trust him alone for your salvation.

And fourthly, Jesus lives. The Bible makes it clear that the resurrection isn’t just a symbolic story like Baloo the bear or Aslan the lion. It actually physically happened! The soldiers who crucified him certified he was dead when they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. But on the third day that tomb was empty, no one could explain it, and later hundreds saw Jesus alive.

He’s still alive today. That’s why people get healed on the train to Stockholm. Jesus is alive. That’s the first, and fundamental, reason why you should be a Christian. The gospel is true.

Christianity Works

The second reason you should be a Christian is that, even though Christians do suffer as much as non Christians do (and in some countries much more) all that is transformed by the resurrection life God gives to all who believe.

“If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”

The second reason that it’s worth being a Christian, whatever happens, is that Christianity works.

Here’s what I mean; life with God is not trouble free (as we’ve seen) but life with God is trouble proof.

If my watch is water proof it doesn’t mean it never comes into contact with water; it means water cannot damage it.

If my life is trouble free it means I never have problems. If my life is trouble proof it means that whatever happens to me, however tough life gets, however much I suffer, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And this is what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 6.4-10, the reading we had earlier.

Paul gives another inventory of the hardships he endured. Endurance, troubles, hardships and distresses, beatings, imprisonments, riots; hard work, sleepless nights and hunger, dishonour, bad report, regarded as impostors, regarded as unknown, dying, beaten, sorrowful, having nothing.

Was his life trouble free? No. With such a wretched list of circumstances we might expect Paul to talk about discouragement, powerlessness, dismay, worry… but just look at the attitudes Paul inserts into that long list of woes:

But look what comes out of the resurrection life of faith: “In purity, in understanding, in patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left.”

Then look at all the ‘yets’. “Dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”

If you are a new creation in Christ everything bad about that list in 2 Corinthians 6 looks different. Hardship and trouble is transformed by faith.

Listen, for every bit of grim news the devil throws at you, for every discouragement you face, for every body blow you take from the school of hard knocks, God gives you a “yet.”

What ‘yets’ do you need to speak out, in faith to what you are going through today?

Sick yet never subdued, running on fumes yet not running on empty, unemployed yet never unoccupied, depressed yet not despondent, tired yet not tetchy, always giving out yet never giving in, down yet not out. What’s yours? Speak it out in faith.

And finally, there are some of you today who need to hear and receive this word from the Lord:

If you never felt pain, then how would you know that I am your Healer?
If you never had to pray, how would you know that I am your Deliverer?
If you never had a trial, how could you ever become an overcomer?
If you never felt sadness, how would you know that I am your Comforter?
If you never made a mistake, how would you know that I am your forgiver?
If you were never broken, how would you know that I can make you whole?
If you never suffered, how would you know what I went through for you?

Ending

So, as we come to the Lord’s Table this morning, remember that as we share the one bread and the one cup, it is a participation in the Lord’s sufferings.

If you never suffered, how would you know what I went through for you?

Bring your sorrows and trials and disappointments to God, who alone can make something new out of them, who alone can transform them - and transform you.

“Dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 29th April 2012

I Am a New Creation (2 Corinthians 5.17 and Luke 8.49-56)

I had a dream last night that the Grim Reaper came for me, but I beat him off with a vacuum cleaner. Talk about Dyson with death… (Have you heard that one before?)

Scary dream with a happy ending…

Bishop Tom Wright, said something really insightful about happy endings after death in this year’s Lent book on the Gospel of Mark. In the reflection for Easter Sunday, he was talking about the empty tomb and what the angel said: “You are looking for Jesus. He is not here; he is risen.” And Tom said, “Easter is meant to be a surprise. It is certainly not a ‘happy ending’ after the horror of the cross, though, sadly, some churches treat it like that. Mark 16 doesn’t read like a ‘happy ending’. It reads like a shocking new beginning.”

What we’re going to be exploring together over the next few weeks is just that; how the new shocking beginning of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead impacts all of us. One of the ways the New Testament speaks of this risen life of Christ in us is “new creation.” It’s a recurring theme. We are an Easter people and we are being made new.

The book of Genesis says that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. The fact that Jesus was raised on Sunday, the first day of the week, is significant. It means that God has finished resting. He’s gone back to work! The new creation has started. He is at work today bringing new things into being in Christ.

If you are a Christian, you are a new creation. Christians are brand-new people on the inside. You might say, I don’t feel it this morning, but it’s true. You tend to really feel the difference when you are a new Christian. There’s a surge of joy. There’s a sense that you’ve come home. You feel brand new. You feel cleaned up and that life suddenly has a whole new purpose and meaning. That’s the Holy Spirit at work in you. It’s what we call the excitement of first love (and in fact becoming a Christian does feel a bit like being in love).

But new Christians don’t always stay full of joy. In fact, the euphoria usually wears off. Why? Does it mean that you have lost your salvation because you don’t feel like you did when you were converted? Does it mean that you aren’t a new creation anymore? No. It just means that you are not filled with the Holy Spirit anymore and you need to get filled up again.

But you are a new creation in Christ. You are a new person on the inside. The Holy Spirit has given you new life. You are not the same as you were.

Being a Christian doesn’t just mean that you are reformed or rehabilitated or re-educated or rebranded. It’s much more than that. It’s not about just turning over a new leaf or having a quick life makeover.

You have been recreated. The Bible says you are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. You have begun a new life.

I love the story we had read to us from Luke’s gospel and that we saw so beautifully portrayed in the little film clip.

A little girl is terribly unwell. Anyone who has had a very ill child knows just how worrying it is. You just feel sick with anxiety. Most parents would happily trade places with their little ones when they are seriously ill.

So we all know how Jairus felt don’t we? His little girl has been ill for some time. And she just keeps getting worse. He pays the best doctors. Nothing works. He gets a second and third opinion. No improvement…

He is afraid – afraid of losing her, afraid of death, afraid of the unknown.

He is confused; Why her? Why us? Why isn’t she getting better? What’s wrong? Why can’t the doctors fix her? Why isn’t God answering my prayers?

And as he watches her getting weaker and weaker, paler and paler, all the life draining out of her, he feels without hope. “It’s no good. Nothing is working. There’s nothing I can do now.”

Jairus finally goes and seeks Jesus to ask him to intervene. It’s his last shot. Why do we so often turn to Christ, turn to prayer, last of all?

Jesus, of course, agrees to go and see her but he gets a bit sidetracked on the way. And while he is delayed, the little girl dies.

By the time Jesus gets to Jairus’ house, there is an almighty racket going on. This doesn’t really come out in the film clip the way it would actually have been in real life. Loud weeping and emotional wailing were customary when anyone died in the Middle East. And when you look at the news you notice it is still the same today.

A minute’s dignified silence and discreet wiping the tears when someone dies are what we do here. But that is seen as terribly disrespectful and bad-mannered in that culture. In Britain today we pay Funeral Directors to ensure a bit of decorum at a time of bereavement but in those days and in that land you hired women to wail and howl and beat their chests and play mournful pipe music. So as Jesus arrives there’s all this going on.

That’s why, incidentally, they find it really easy to stop crying and they begin to laugh when Jesus says “Stop wailing. She is not dead but asleep.” The fact is they were not emotionally involved – they were just hired mourners.

They laugh. You know how that feels, don’t you? We all know people who just roll their eyes and laugh at what Jesus says, which seem ridiculous to them. Most, if not all of you, have put up with a bit of mockery when people have found out that you are a Christian.

If that hasn’t happened to you yet, by the way, or if it hardly ever happens to you, you’re probably not witnessing enough. But whenever you are ridiculed for believing in Jesus by people who imagine they are more sophisticated than you, just remember – they laughed at Jesus too.

Jesus’ words to Jairus in the middle of the biggest crisis of his life must speak to us as well. Hear the Lord say to you this morning, “Don’t be afraid, just believe. Don’t be afraid, just believe.”

You see, in Jesus’ mind, there is hope, there is promise, there is power, there is always the possibility of grace breaking in and changing everything.

The next time you feel utterly powerless and without hope or afraid or anxious, or confused or bewildered – and especially if that’s where you are today – try and look at your problem from Jesus’ point of view. Try and see your life with Jesus’ eyes. It’s a great viewpoint.

Jairus didn’t come to Jesus for help until his daughter was dead. It was too late for anyone else to help. Have you ever had that sinking feeling that you’ve left something too late? That you’ve blown your last chance?

But Jesus simply goes to the girl and raises her! It’s never too late to ask the Lord to do something new in your life. Even when it seems too late for anyone else to help, the Lord can change everything with a word.

He brings healing in broken relationships that seem beyond repair (and indeed are beyond repair without a miracle from God). I’ve seen it, many times now. For example, about 6 years ago a couple come into my office in Paris, having been away from God for ages, their marriage in tatters. “We’re desperate. Can you help?”

Listen, any two people can find reconciliation and love again as long as they are willing together to put God first. They got back together, they renewed their covenant, they even had another child even though the doctors told the wife there was no chance. They’re still together today and God has blessed them.

If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

God brings profound release from addiction where all rehabilitation programmes fail.

Jackie Pullinger works amongst drug addicts, gangsters and prostitutes in Hong Kong. In her book about her work called Chasing the Dragon she writes this, “I prayed in tongues 15 minutes a day asking the Holy Spirit to help me intercede for those he wanted to reach. After about six weeks of this, I began to lead people to Jesus without trying. Gangsters fell on their knees, sobbing in the streets. Women were healed. We opened several homes for heroin addicts and all were delivered from drugs painlessly because of the power of the Holy Spirit.”

If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

God brings forgiveness and restoration to heal the deepest and most distressing emotional scars.

Remember Gram Seed; never knew his father, in and out of jail for numerous crimes, addicted to drugs and alcohol, living on a bench in Middlesbrough town centre, in a coma and about to have his life support machine switched off. Now a husband, father, evangelist, holding down a regular job and driving a fancy car that he hasn’t even nicked!

If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

Name a situation that looks hopeless to you. It’s not hopeless for God. Nothing is impossible for God. He just says a word and great galaxies, with billions of stars, light years across, appear from nowhere and have their being. He laughs at his enemies.

And the gates of hell start to shake when Christian people, his new creation, gather together and pray with faith.

Our reading from Luke’s gospel probably represents the thing we feel most powerless to stop; death. We all know really that you can’t really fend it off with a vacuum cleaner can you?

Some people I know just cannot cope with the thought of death. They just want to change the subject as soon as it comes up. They live in denial. But death is inevitable, and it doesn’t away just because you ignore it.

But we are a new creation, and death has no stranglehold over us - because Jesus Christ has conquered it.

Death came into the world because people rebelled against God - which is what the Bible calls sin. But by his resurrection Christ smashed the chains of sin and he broke down the doors of death. We don’t need to fear death any longer; Christ has overcome it! The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Some people say to me, “Well, I don’t believe in life after death. As far as I’m concerned this life is all we’ve got, and once it’s over that’s it. We might as well enjoy life while we can, and stop kidding ourselves that we’ll be happier once we die.”

Woody Allen is an atheist. But his fear of death is well known. He once said, “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality by not dying.”

What do you say to someone who says that when we die that’s the end? Maybe that person is you?

Well, last Sunday, millions of Christians all over the world celebrated the one event in human history that assures us that there is life beyond the grave: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14.19).

Think of it this way: How could you ever know - really know - that death is not the end, but that there is something much better after we die? The only way would be for someone to die - and then come back to life and tell us what awaited us after death. This is what happened with Jesus.

Many hundreds, perhaps thousands, witnessed His death on the cross outside Jerusalem, and watched as his body was taken down, after which it was placed in a sealed and guarded stone tomb. But on the third day, the tomb was empty, and during the next 40 days hundreds of eye witnesses saw him alive.

Their lives were totally and thoroughly changed, because now they knew that when they died they would be in God’s glorious presence forever.

Don’t go through life living only for the moment and never understanding why God put you here.

Instead, discover the joy that only comes from knowing Christ. Turn to him in faith and invite him to come into your life. Please don’t leave this building until you have settled that with God!

If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15th April 2012
Acknowledgement: Billy Graham's 'My Answer' for some of the material near the end.

He Is Not Here: He Has Risen! (Mark 16.1-8)

Of all the characters in the New Testament, Joseph of Arimathea is one of the most mysterious.

He had followed Jesus from afar. He was a secret disciple. He had never quite nailed his colours to the mast, because he was afraid of the consequences. It was dangerous to be seen in public with Jesus. Everyone knew that authorities were seeking a pretext to kill him. So Joseph kept a low profile to save his skin… until Jesus died – when Joseph put his head above the parapet and donated his own tomb.

I love to imagine a conversation between one of the religious leaders and Joseph of Arimathea. ‘Tell me Joseph, why have you given up your own tomb, carved into the rock with such expert craftsmanship, to this common rascal, this Jesus of Nazareth?’ And I love to picture Joseph shrugging his shoulders and saying, ‘Well, the thing is, he was just borrowing it for the weekend!’

A few years ago Kathie and I went to see a film by David Lynch, for which the critical reviews were very positive. ‘A masterpiece! Wonderful! Lynch at the height of his powers!’ We were so excited to see it and not at all surprised that there was a long queue outside the cinema. Let me tell you it was a total disappointment! Mulholland Drive remains, to this day, the most bizarre, the most absurd, the most pretentious film that I have ever seen. It was experimentally weird to the point of being completely unfathomable. The plot, or plots, were incoherent, the dialogue was random, the roles were blurred and interchangeable, and the ending was ambiguous. We had to ask each other when the titles came up ‘Do you think that’s the end?’

Have you seen a film like that? Or read a book perhaps that ends just suspended in mid air? Well, there’s a book like that in the Bible, and it is called the Gospel of Mark. The ending for Mark’s gospel says literally, in v8, ‘They ran out and fled from the tomb, bewildered and upset. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid of...’

No one knows why Mark’s gospel ends so abruptly. Most Bibles have a footnote explaining that the best manuscripts do not contain the v9-20. So several endings are offered to tidy it up.

Why do the oldest manuscripts end in mid-sentence? Was Mark just finishing his gospel when the police burst in and arrested him? Was the edge of his scroll burned and lost in the great fire in Rome? Did the original ending offend someone in the early church – Peter or John – who tore it off to save face? We will never know. But we do know that the early Christians tried repeatedly to put some order into the ending to make it more coherent. Someone rounded the story off with what they knew from the other Gospels, and Acts, undoubtedly confirmed by their own experiences and their observations of the early church.

So far from being suspect and doubtful, v9-20 are the best confirmation possible that signs and wonders regularly accompanied the message of the apostles in the first century.

Just like in the gospels, before the passion, where as much space is given to Jesus’ healings as his teaching, the postscript of Mark shows clearly that signs and wonders were, with the proclamation of the gospel, a twin expression of authentic Christianity – and should be for us.

I see Mark 16.9-20 as a bit like a DVD bonus section. I like those ‘Making Of’ features - they add something extra to the film for me. They complement and amplify a film even if they aren’t part of the original work.

But the first half of this chapter, the oldest part (the bit we read earlier) describes, like the other three gospels, the electrifying events of that first Easter Sunday.

Three disoriented women head to a tomb at dawn to embalm a body; something forbidden by Jewish law on the Friday night because the Sabbath had already begun at sunset. It is only on the way that it dawns on the women that the small matter of moving the great stone in front of the tomb is going to be an issue for them. All you ladies will relate to their dilemma: ‘Oh, no! Who will help us move the stone? There’s no way any man will be up at this hour!’

Shock number one: They arrive at the tomb and see that the huge millstone has already been rolled back, and the entrance is open. That’s odd! They enter the tomb expecting to find the corpse already decomposing and starting to smell, lying there and covered with a sheet, ready for embalming.

Shock number two: They see a young man sitting down. No wonder Mark says that they ‘were seized with fear.’ In fact, the language that Mark employs to describe the emotion and the helplessness of women is very expressive. ‘Alarmed’, ‘trembling’, ‘bewildered’, ‘they said nothing’, ‘afraid.’

Efforts have been made to try and recast the accounts of the resurrection as myth or fable, as if it doesn’t really matter. “Oh,” people say, “but it doesn’t really matter if Jesus really rose physically or bodily from the dead. What matters is that he lives in our hearts as a kind of inspiration for living a good life.” A bishop of this diocese famously expressed such a view, in the 1980s, ridiculing the notion of a literal resurrection.

Oh, but it matters a lot!

I don’t care if an angel from heaven tells you that the resurrection is just symbolic - if Jesus is not truly risen, bodily, from the dead, then the Christian faith is a fiction, a fantasy, a folly and a fraud.

If Jesus is not raised, the church is no better than a scandalous snake oil racket.

If Jesus is not raised, you are wasting your Sunday unnecessarily, and you are throwing your hard earned money away by putting it in the offering.

If Jesus is not raised, you are sadly deluded and grievously misled.

If Jesus is not raised, I have completely wasted my career and my life.

On the other hand, if the resurrection of Jesus really happened, then his teaching, his life, his miracles and his saving death are confirmed as true. If the resurrection of Jesus really happened then life after death becomes plausible. If the resurrection of Jesus really happened then Jesus is alive today and God really exists. If the resurrection of Jesus really happened then Christianity stands as the only true faith there is - if Jesus is truly risen.

The good news is that the circumstantial and investigative evidence for the resurrection is extremely sound. Consider the following six points.

1. The resurrection of the suffering Messiah had already been prophesied in Isaiah 53 centuries before the birth of Jesus.

2. On several occasions Jesus had himself predicted his own resurrection while teaching his disciples – who just didn’t get it until it actually happened.

3. According to many witnesses, the tomb was empty but there was a shroud. Why would someone steal the body, but leave the burial cloth? If the Jewish authorities or Roman guards had moved the body, why did they not exhume it to put an end to the excited proclamation that Jesus was alive? This public preaching was annoying for them. But they were powerless to stop it because they could not produce the body.

4. The eleven surviving disciples, without exception, were completely transformed individuals and the resurrection was at the heart of their message. These people had fled like cowards when Jesus was arrested. What happened to them? Only something totally out of the ordinary, like a resurrection, stands as an adequate explanation.

5. Many eyewitnesses, over 500 people, saw Jesus alive after his death. They saw him moving, they heard that his voice was genuine. Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 15. “If you don’t believe me,” he said, “go and ask someone who saw him; most of the 500 or so eye witnesses are still alive and they’ll tell you it’s true.”

If I said to you that my Uncle Reg really existed, you might or might not believe me. I could show you a photograph of him, but you might say it could be a picture of anyone. OK. If I said to you that I know a handful of people who knew him, you could say that I set them up to deceive you. But if I told you that I could call about five hundred people who knew him, who spoke with him, who ate and drank with him, who worked with him on his farm - and that you could meet them for yourself if you want - you would have to conclude that what I was saying was true. That is the standard of evidence we have for the resurrection of Christ.

6. Millions of men and women today testify to the power of the living Christ that has transformed their lives. Jesus has changed my life.

So the resurrection of Jesus Christ stands up to examination because it is historically attested and because it still affects people’s experience. Has Jesus changed your life? If not, is it time you let him do so?

Let me finish with this thought. Everyone knows where Jesus was at the time of his arrest; in the garden of Gethsemane, just outside Jerusalem. Everyone knows where Jesus was at the time of his resurrection, three days later, again in a garden near Golgotha, where tombs carved into the cliff were located. For Friday and Sunday his location is clear. But what about on Saturday? Where was Jesus then?

That’s a question that the Bishop of Sheffield asked some school children a few years ago. “Where was Jesus on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?” Silence ... Then a girl got up to give a quite breathtaking answer. “I think he was deep in hell, looking for Judas, his lost friend.”

I don’t know if that answer is entirely theologically correct. The Bible doesn’t say it quite like that. The first letter of Peter does say that he was in Hades, where he preached to the spirits in prison...

But I think that little girl’s answer shows a true appreciation of the scope of the love of Jesus.

He is the Good Shepherd who goes off in search of the lost sheep.

He is the Saviour who forgives and restores the nastiest, the vilest, the most fallen. It is he who saves completely every sinner who turns humbly to him.

He is the Healer who raises up the sick, who renews the strength of the weary, who gives hope to the hopeless and binds up to the brokenhearted.

He is the one we meet in Holy Communion. Come as you are.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, Easter Day 8th April 2012

Why Be Baptized? (Acts 2.22-39 and Romans 6.1-8)

Introduction

There’s this drunken old man who is walking along by the river one Sunday afternoon and he stumbles upon a baptism service. He walks down into the water with a bottle in his hand and stands in the water.
The minister turns and notices the old drunk, spots a good opportunity for evangelism and says, “Are you ready to find Jesus?” The drunk looks back and says, “Yeah all right.”
The minister then dunks the man under the water and pulls him back up. “Have you found Jesus?” the preacher asked.  “No, not yet!” said the drunk.
The preacher then dunks him under for a bit longer, brings him up and says, “Now, have you found Jesus?”
“No, I have not Reverend.”
So the preacher holds the man under for at least 30 seconds this time brings him out of the water and says, “Have you found Jesus yet?”
The old drunk wipes his eyes and says to the preacher...”Look, are you sure this is where he fell in?”

Katy and Emma, have you found Jesus? Actually, that’s the wrong question. The evangelist Reinhard Bonnke once said: “Christians like to say ‘I found the Lord.’ Well, OK, but the Lord was never lost! We were lost and Jesus found us.’”

Thank God Jesus has found you. You, like all of us here today, were lost and God found you in Christ.

He was looking for you long before you were ever searching for him. He loved you ages before you ever even thought about him.

He had a good and perfect plan for your life way before the first time you ever wondered what you might like for breakfast.

Anyway, congratulations! We are so happy for you today. We celebrate your new life in Jesus and we salute you for the brave stand you have made this morning as two young people who want the whole world to know that you belong to Jesus and you want to follow him all your days.

Following Jesus is a great adventure. But I want to say that it will not always be easy for you. I think there will be times when you will find it hard.

I’m going to ask the rest of the congregation to answer me honestly now.

Raise your hand please,
· if you have ever had times of doubt about God’s love for you
· if you have ever felt that the joy in your faith has disappeared
· if you have ever been ridiculed by other people for your faith in God

That most of you for each question. You probably will be teased and laughed at. People will say you’re “holier than thou” even though you’re not, just because you’re a Christian. Sometimes it will feel lonely and sometimes you will wonder if it’s all worth it.

You definitely will have ups and downs but I want to say this: ups and downs are a sign of life. If you don’t believe me, look at the picture on the screen. Would you rather have ups and downs or a nice comfortable straight line?

So I just thought I’d start with a little word of encouragement for you…

Well, what is baptism and why do we do it? What, if anything, do we get out of it?

I want to say that baptism is five things and just to help you remember them they all begin with the letter B; baptism is a banner, a burial, a beginning, a bath and a badge.

1) Baptism is a Banner

What do I mean when I say that baptism is a banner? A banner is something you hold up with a message on it. Unhappy people raise banners on protest marches. Football crowds hold up banners to show support for their team (or to call for their manager to be sacked).

When you hold up a banner it’s to tell anyone who’s looking “this is what I believe.” You’re making a stand. You aren’t keeping your thoughts to yourself. You’re nailing your colours to the mast. You’re letting the whole world know exactly what you think.

There was a young teacher who explained to her class of small children that she was an atheist. She asks the class to raise their hands if they are atheists too. So, because young children tend to want to please the teacher they all put their hands up. Except one. A bright young boy called Fred doesn’t go with the crowd. So the teacher asks him why he is different from the rest of the class.
“Because I’m not an atheist” he says.
“So what are you then?” asks the teacher.
“I’m a Christian” he says.
The teacher looks a little surprised and asks why he is a Christian.
“Because I was brought up to know and love Jesus. My mum is a Christian, my dad is a Christian. And I accepted Christ as the Lord and Saviour of my life.”
The teacher puts her hands on her hips.
“That’s not a reason!” she says. “What if your mum had been an idiot and your dad had been an idiot too. What would you be then?”
“Well, miss” he says, “I suppose I’d be an atheist like you!”

That’s taking a stand isn’t it? Your baptism today is a stand of obedience to Christ’s command.

2) Baptism is a Burial

Secondly, baptism is a burial. This is language that the New Testament uses several times.

In Colossians 2:12 we read “For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized.”

What does this mean? It means that when you are baptized you are saying, “I am leaving my old unbelieving life of sin behind. The old me that didn’t care less about God and was only interested in me is finished, it’s done with, and I am not going back. There’s a me I used to be - but since I gave my heart to Jesus Christ there’s the new me. I am not going back to the old me – it has no spiritual life in it at all. It’s lifeless so today I am digging a hole six feet under the ground, putting the old me in a cheap coffin and giving it a decent burial. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, amen!”

But the burial thing means a little bit more than that. It’s not just us saying goodbye to our old self. It’s also a spiritual connection to what Jesus did on the cross.

Romans 6.3 says this: “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism.”

So when you get baptized you are saying that what Jesus did on the cross is of supreme importance to me.

3) Baptism is a Beginning

Thirdly, baptism is a beginning.

In Colossians 2:12 it says this: “You were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to a new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.”

When you came up out of the water you left your old life behind - but you showed that life goes on. When you’re under the water you can’t breathe – you’re spiritually dead. But when you come up afterwards, you start to breathe again. You’re alive but it’s not the old you. You have decided to let Christ live in you. It’s a brand new start, a clean slate, a new page.

Romans 6.1-2 say “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? No way! We have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” And then it goes on to say “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

People get upset sometimes when I say that baptism does not in fact make you a Christian. That goes right against the grain for many people.

Some people say, “Now look here. I was baptised by the Reverend so and so when I was 4 months old.” “I had a Christian upbringing.” “I was educated by nuns.” “I'm Church of England.” Or whatever. But none of that make you a Christian. Baptism isn’t magic. Only faith in Jesus makes you a Christian. So why would you want to get baptized if it doesn’t actually make you a Christian?

Put it this way, baptism is a bit like a wedding ring. Wearing a ring on this finger doesn’t make you married. It is a symbol. For a married person their wedding ring reminds them of the promises they made that meant from the moment they first put it on things were going to be different.

The day Kathie put my wedding ring on this finger my life changed. My wedding ring reminds me that “From 28th May 1983 my future was bound up with hers.” Baptism is like that. It says, “From 1st April 2012, my life is bound up with Jesus and now I live for God.”

4) Baptism is a Bath

Fourthly, baptism is a bath.

The water in baptism speaks of cleansing and, by faith, your soul is washed when you go down under the waters of baptism.

1 Peter 3 talks about this saying it’s not about “the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.”

Titus 3 talks about “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

In our Acts reading today Peter said, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2.38)

Now then, you’ve been sitting down for a while so I am going to ask you all to stand... Turn 90 degrees to the left. And now turn another 90 degrees so you are facing the door you came in. Stay right there. Thank you. Now, the Bible word for that is repentance. OK, you can turn back and face the front again now.

You demonstrated just now that repentance literally means to turn round.

“Repentance” is a religious sort of word these days, but in New Testament times it was just an ordinary, everyday word which just meant “make a u-turn”.

So repentance of sins means that we admit that we are travelling in the wrong direction on our spiritual journey, then turning round and correcting our course.

Repentance is all about changing our minds about God. Somebody once said; “the one way to prove you have a mind is to change it.” And the truth is that changing your mind about God is the most intelligent thing you will ever do.

“I repent of my sins” is one of our baptismal pledges. We commit ourselves to do it. And we pledge to repent because the Bible says it.

There is a retired church leader, who says that whenever a stranger at a party asks him what he does for a living, he replies, “I'm in the recycling business.”

I can tell you that whenever you say you’re a vicar at a party people do two things; 1) they apologise for all the swearing they’ve just done and 2) they smile weakly and it goes awkwardly quiet and they head off to fill up their glass again.

So this vicar tells people at parties that he works in the recycling business. People are always more interested in the environment that they are about church. So people sometimes say “Oh, that’s interesting, what do you recycle then?” And he says “People”.

“First of all,” he says, “in order to be recycled, people need to be salvaged (or saved), and then, like most recycling processes they go through a kind of intensive washing experience that, in my company, we call baptism. The total recycling process typically lasts many years, but the end result is that they are always made useful again for God, thus avoiding the rubbish dump of rust, decay and eventual destruction, known in the trade as 'hell'.”

So your baptism today is the early washing stage of your lifetime recycling process.

5) Baptism is a Badge

Last of all, baptism is a badge. What do I mean by that? I mean it’s like a badge of membership. Here’s a Tufty badge.

I always wanted to have one of those when I was a boy. I’ll be honest with you, I never got to be a member of that club and I have never quite got over it.

But seriously, everything I’ve been saying up till now has been about Katy and Emma as two individuals; their relationship with Jesus, their future, their sin, their new life. That’s all good – but when you are baptized you are baptized into Christ’s body, the church.

Here’s a picture of the Archbishop of York doing immersion baptisms outside York Minster – which he does every Easter Sunday.

In the early days of the church, baptism was how you identified with that group of people who were called Christians who were despised and hated.

To be a Christian meant persecution, maybe death; it meant being ostracized from your family and shunned by friends. As long as you just met with Christians socially, the authorities left you alone, but when once you got baptized, you declared to the whole world, “I belong to this dangerous group.” You could be a believer and keep it strictly a secret and avoid the hassle, but once you submitted to public baptism you had burned his bridges behind you. No going back.

Ending

Emma and Katy, that’s where you are today. I have decided to follow Jesus. Never mind the cost. The reward is far better! No turning back!


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 1st April 2012