Many Hardships, Many Joys (Acts 14.8-28)

Introduction

“The word gospel means 'good news'. But today it's more a type of music. So when Jesus said we should go into all the world and preach the gospel he didn't mean we had to dress up as Aretha Franklin. I know that now.” So said a well-known stand-up comedian recently.

Just in case you’re wondering, I’ve not made the same mistake. Not yet anyway - though you can never completely allow for the eccentricity - or indeed stupidity - of Church of England clergy.

Background

So we’re still following Paul and Barnabas’ first great mission trip. We set off with them at the beginning of the year. Here’s where we have got to so far:

The year is about 48 AD. They start off in Antioch where they get sent out by a praying, fasting, prophetic church and they head for Cyprus. They win people to Christ there, including the big cheese on the island, cause a commotion, then they set sail and move on.

A few days later they arrive on the mainland at Perga, travel up into the Taurus mountains to Pisidian Antioch, preach the gospel in a synagogue, start a little church, start a big riot, and have to move on.

Then we get to where we were last week, down into the valley to Iconium. They preach Christ there as well, do amazing signs and wonders in the power of the Holy Spirit which confirms that what they say is from God, they see people get converted and then narrowly escape a public lynching.

Then they head 25 miles south to Lystra and that’s where we are today. The whole area is called the Province of Galatia, and when Paul wrote Galatians these were the young churches he wrote to.

First Missionary Journey (Acts 13 and 14)

So it’s only about 15 years since Jesus was raised from the dead and already the gospel has roughed up the Roman Empire and made its permanent mark on history. It has made a thorough nuisance of itself in Jerusalem, it has deeply upset the establishment in Judea, it has ridden roughshod through centuries of prejudice in Samaria creating a disturbance there, and is now causing riots and antisocial behaviour to the ends of the earth.

The Offence of the Gospel

There’s a pattern there and it’s not a coincidence. The gospel is good news but people hate it. Always have, always will. People hate it because it’s offensive.

The Bible explains that Jews find it insulting because it can only mean one thing – that they have been barking up the wrong tree for centuries. So they supress it, even today.

An Israeli Christian I know personally called Emil was led out of a neighbouring kibbutz at gunpoint just for handing out a New Testament in Hebrew. Israel is a Western style democracy with freedom of speech. But the gospel is still deeply offensive to Jews.

And the Bible says that Gentiles – people like most of us here – overwhelmingly dismiss the gospel as nonsense. Check that out. You ask people in the streets of our country about sin, the cross and the resurrection (the three main components of the gospel).

You’ll soon see that we Gentiles tend to see ourselves as good people, not sinners; we don’t get why a man dying on a cross changes anything and we are much too sophisticated to take seriously the claim that anyone can rise from the dead. Like the Bible says, we think it’s foolishness and we are offended to be told that we need to be saved.

People have always hated the gospel and they hate it more than ever today. According to an article in The Independent in July last year Christians are the most persecuted people in the world. It claimed that Christians face some form of discrimination in 139 countries, that is almost three-quarters of the world's nations.

80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians and an estimated 100,000 Christians die every year, targeted because of their faith – that is 11 every hour.

So it’s no surprise when we read in Acts 14 that when the gospel first came to Lystra, even though there was a miraculous healing bringing great joy, even though Paul specifically says in v15 “we are bringing you good news,” yet they stone him and leave him for dead.

If you’ve ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you’ll remember the scene with King Arthur and the Black Knight. After King Arthur severs the Knight’s two arms and one leg, with blood spouting everywhere, the Knight hops about still spoiling for a fight, shouting out “I’ve had worse, ‘tis but a scratch, a mere flesh wound.”

It reminds me of the sheer tenacity and stubbornness of the Apostle Paul. They stone him alive and leave him in a heap. Well, they’re going to have to do better than that! He just gets up from having these lumps of rock thrown at him, says “it’s only a slight graze” and heads off to the next town to do the same again.

Christians are like tea bags - it isn’t until we get into hot water that you see how strong we can be. Paul must have been double strength, extra flavour, hardcore builders blend.

Actually, it’s an impressive excuse for not getting to church on time isn’t it? “I was stoned by an angry mob and must have blacked out - sorry I’m late.” I mean it’s a bit more impressive than “it took me five whole minutes to scrape the ice off the car” isn’t it?

When Paul retraces his steps through those towns where they roughed him up and drove him out he says in v22, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” No exaggeration there then.

When young men and women went out to North Africa with the Sudan Interior Mission in the late 19th century, they usually had no support or preparation, they often bore extreme adversity and they took their coffins with them because they did not expect survive beyond a few years of exposure to tropical disease, let alone return.

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Following Jesus is not for wimps.

Healing

Anyway, the episode I Lystra starts out in v8 with a man crippled in his feet. The Bible says he was lame from birth. He had never walked. Imagine what that would have been like. But as he listened to Paul, faith rose in his heart that he would be healed, and when Paul looked at him and told him to stand, he jumped up and began to walk around. It must have been absolutely surreal to be there and see it with your own eyes.

I’ve been reading a book lately of eyewitness testimonies from the Azusa Street revival from 1906-1910. It is so encouraging.

From that revival, four years of heaven touching earth, a wildfire spread round the world and gave birth to the Pentecostal movement. There are perhaps 500 million Pentecostals in the world today and it is still the fastest growing expression of Christianity on earth.

Here’s an extract which reminded me of the incident in today’s reading. “A young man… had a club foot and, when he entered the building, tried to hide his disfigurement. He explained… that he didn’t want people feeling sorry for him... Brother Anderson began to pray for him. To their astonishment, shortly after prayer, the foot didn’t just pop out, but rather it just started to slowly move outward. In a matter of minutes, the young man was jumping, running and shouting. The foot had been deformed since he was a young child and it had just got worse as he had got older. Yet in just a few minutes, the foot was healed and perfectly formed.”

Here’s another. “Sometimes [William Seymour, the pastor who led the church at that time, that’s him on the left] would go to a certain section of cots – the cots [we’d call them stretchers] were for people who had been carried in from the hospital. Seymour would point at them and say ‘Everyone on the cots or in wheelchairs, you’re healed in the name of Jesus.’ Everyone on the cots or in wheelchairs would get up and walk around fully healed of whatever malady they suffered from.”

Here’s one more. One time, “four or five blind people were brought in from a home for the blind. Sister Lankford walked up to them and announced that God was going to work miracles. Brother Lankford ran over to them, covered their eyes, and prayed for them, laying hands on each of them. Every time he removed his hands the results were the same: they could see! Instant healings! The whole place erupted in shouting and dancing.”

Do you want one last one? I’ve saved the most astonishing till last. “Seymour asked a one-armed man ‘Can you work with just the one arm?’ ‘I’m just given minimal paying jobs and I barely make enough money to even eat.’ Seymour shook his head and responded ‘That’s not good. Are you married?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Got kids?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘This man needs to be able to make a living. This man needs to be able to pay his tithe. Will you tithe if I pray for you and God gives you your arm back?’ Seymour said teasingly. ‘Yes!’ [I read this to a local church leader and he said, “That’s my kinda healing!] Seymour burst out laughing. ‘I’m just having fun.’ He then slapped his hands on the shoulder itself and commanded the arm to grow out. Almost instantly it grew out. The healed man stood in total shock, then started moving his arm and feeling it with his other hand, awed by the miracle. A few weeks later the man came back bringing about 200 people with him, telling many at the meeting that he had got his old job back.”

You do wonder if it’s real. You do think “Hang on, what if someone embellished this or totally made it up, it’s so astounding.” But there were hundreds of people there, and that particular miracle was corroborated by several independent sources. There is no record anywhere of anyone accusing the witnesses of Azusa Street of smoke and mirrors or any kind of fraud. This kind of signs and wonders occurred daily at 312 Azusa Street, Los Angeles over about four years before it suddenly stopped. God, in his sovereignty moved on.

Jesus said “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

There’s a great prayer in Habakkuk 3 that says “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.” That’s my prayer.

That’s why I never miss Prayer Breakfast. That’s why I will be at Ablaze Prayer tonight, no matter what’s on TV, what’s for tea, no matter how cold and dark it is or what the weather is doing. I would so love there to be a passion for prayer here. I believe we would see greater things than we do if there was.

Heidi and Roland Baker are seeing wonderful things today in Mozambique, particularly the restoration of sight to the blind. Here’s Heidi’s testimony:

“After about a year of praying for the blind [you hear that? a whole year of praying] - and not getting good results - we were in one of our little mud hut churches when a lady who was blind approached us. This little beggar lady’s eyes were completely white… As I held this lady in my arms, I felt a tremendous compassion for her.

God completely transformed her with his glory, and she fell to the ground and began to scream. As I watched her eyes, they began to turn from white to grey and then to brown. She could see! Everyone around us started yelling and screaming… The next day, I went to a mud hut in Dondo. There I prayed for another lady who was in her thirties and had been blind since she was eight years old. As I was holding her and feeling God’s heart of love for her, she began to scream, ‘You’re wearing a black shirt!’ She saw my shirt! She could see!”

Those were the first two blind people healed in that ministry. Now there are dozens. There’s power in prayer! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And this is the same Jesus that was proclaimed that day in Lystra.

Give God the Glory

What happened after this miracle seems a bit strange to us – they try to worship Paul and Barnabas as Zeus and Hermes. What is that about? Maybe a bit of background information will help.

It goes back to an old legend in Lystra that Zeus and Hermes once visited the region disguised as mortal men but no one welcomed them, no one except one elderly peasant couple in Lystra who did offer them hospitality despite their great poverty.

Later, according to the legend, the gods rewarded this little old couple for their generosity. And so, from this myth, a kind of superstition grew up in that place. Recently, two inscriptions have been found on a stone altar in Lystra to those two gods and that is why.

So when the locals from Lystra see an amazing miracle, you can see why they would react the way they do. Of course, Paul and Barnabas try to stop the crowds bowing down to them. In v15 they basically say “We’re just two nobodies trying to tell everybody about Somebody.”

And they say that God never leaves himself without testimony. There’s always somebody somewhere who knows God and can tell someone else from personal experience about his goodness. And if that person doesn’t live near you, you can tell it anyway from the natural world.

Notice that they start where the people are. Anyone can do this. They talk about everyday things that ordinary people can relate to; like the rain that falls from the sky, the harvests that spring up year after year, the food you enjoy on your plate every day - all this comes from God. When you look around you, you can see plentiful evidence of God’s lavish goodness, and that’s why Romans 1 says that there is no excuse for not believing in God just because you’ve never read the Bible.

I once heard the testimony of a former British Airways pilot. He was a senior Captain, at the very top of his profession. He was one of the first pilots to fly the prestigious Concorde when it came into service. He had a fantastic salary. He had a lovely family. He had a dream home with a nice garden. He had a top of the range car. He went to exotic places on holiday. He had all the toys. But he said, “The one thing I didn’t have is someone to whom I could say thank you.” And then he met Jesus...

Paul and Barnabas then travel on to Derbe, win a large number of people to Christ, manage to avoid massive social disorder for the first time in months, then retrace their steps.

They go back through the very towns where they had been beaten to within an inch of their lives to appoint leaders in the new churches before sailing back to Antioch with the First Century equivalent of a missionary slideshow for their sending church. Simples.

Ending

Here’s what I conclude as I round up this morning.

1. We may think that the day of miracles is past. In reality, there has never been a 'day of miracles,' there's only a God of miracles and he never changes. Pray for a new Pentecost, for signs and wonders and for people to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

2. If you’re a Christian and everybody absolutely adores you you’re probably not doing it right. As the American rapper Trip Lee said, “Don’t be deceived. You cannot follow Jesus and be liked by everybody at the same time.” My friend Andy Griffiths qualifies that by saying “True, but equally if everyone finds you obnoxious, your discipleship may have slipped a little too.” Nevertheless, the Bible means what it says when it states “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” And Jesus said that in the last days “Everyone will hate you because of me.”

3. Few of us will be called to leave our home town, train in theology and take the gospel to the ends of the earth. But every one of us should be able to say to our neighbour in plain English why we believe in God and why we think Jesus is alive.

And you don’t even need to dress up as Aretha Franklin either.

4. Finally, if you are not yet a follower of Jesus, you can become one today. Most people don’t feel like they need God. But in reality, we do, and eventually our spiritual poverty will catch up with us.

It may not happen until we face death. But the result is always the same: If we turn our backs on the only one who truly loves us and can save us, Jesus warns, “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”

Face honestly your need for God. Begin by committing yourself to Jesus Christ today and ask him to become the foundation of your life.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 25th January 2015

Jesus Revealed to Nathanael (Genesis 28.10-22 and John 1.43-51)

Introduction

We have been thinking at the beginning of this year about the ways Jesus is revealed to people.

I saw you while you were still under the fig tree (John 1.48)

There was a man approaching middle age who felt empty inside, and longed for something more. So he joined a monastery to have a revelation of Jesus. The chief monk told him that it would be very difficult. He would have to give up all earthly possessions, pray all day and only be allowed to say two words very five years.

Five years go by and the Pope comes to visit. “How’s it going?” he says and the man replies “Bed hard.”  So the Pope says, “Terribly sorry, we didn’t know. We’ll take care of that.” Five years later the Pope comes back again. “How are you my son, is everything OK now?” The man replies, “Food cold.” So the Pope says, “Right, we’ll sort it out for you.” Five more years pass and the Pope comes back a third time. “Is everything OK now?” The man says “I quit.” So the Pope says, “Well, I’m not surprised. You’ve been here 15 years and all you’ve done is complain!”

Everyone here, at some point in their life, has had some kind of revelation of Jesus – at a moment in time, you became conscious of this figure from history unlike any other and hopefully you have become aware at a deeper level that he is still alive today and that it is possible to encounter him personally and know him.

That happened for me first of all when I was very small. My parents had me baptized as a baby, I was taken regularly to Catholic Mass when I was small and I then went to a primary school run by nuns. I learned stories from the gospels about Jesus – Jesus was revealed to me.

But when I was 17, he was revealed to me at a whole deeper level – the level of the heart. It changed my life. It was like a Damascus Road conversion; before, Jesus was simply a historical figure who said wise things and did amazing tricks (as I understood it).

But after my deeper revelation of him I knew life would never be the same again. I discovered that he is alive today, at work in the world, mending shattered lives, healing broken hearts, and restoring fractured relationships.

Humble Beginnings

The Gospel passage we just had read tells us how the church got going. It started small; it was just four people who decided they would follow Jesus. But now there are millions of us on every nation of every continent. Only God knows how many of us there are. One day, Christians of all generations, past and present will join together in a great multitude that no one can number.

Not only did it start small - it started low. Our Gospel reading is situated at the very lowest point on the earth’s surface, the lower Jordan valley – it’s the only place on earth where you can get a pilot’s licence for learning to fly a plane below sea level. The church stared low but one day it will finish in the highest heaven, seated in the heavenly realms in Christ.

It also started simple. There was no elaborate marketing campaign, no organised mission, no gathering of crowds – it was just one person telling another who then tells another.

Archbishop William Temple once wrote a book on his knees as he read through John’s Gospel day by day. He published it as “Readings in St John’s Gospel” and when you open the book you find the Bible text on one side of the page and Temple’s thoughts on the other.

Often the thoughts are quite long and deep but next to v45 which says “Philip found Nathanael and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about” Temple wrote down one simple thought; “The greatest service one man can render to another.”

The greatest service you can render to any other is to introduce them to Jesus. This is something we will be learning a lot more about this year.

Jesus, Nathanael and Jacob

Well, it’s a rather puzzling passage. Philip introduces Nathanael to Jesus and there is a conversation between them that doesn’t quite make sense.

Jesus sees Nathanael approaching and says “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

Nathanael’s reply shows that he’s a bit sceptical. “How do you know me?” he says. “What makes you say I’m an Israelite in whom there is no deceit? We’ve never even met before now.”

That’s fair enough. If a stranger walked up to you and said “I like you, you’re really honest and authentic” you’d think “What do they want?” wouldn’t you?

So Jesus replies, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree, before Philip called you.”

So Jesus has seen Nathanael before. But they are not acquainted as such. And yet that answer is all Nathanael needs to go from indifferent sceptic to full-on follower. He’s convinced! “Rabbi” he says, “You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

That’s a bit of a riddle, isn’t it?

The shade offered by a fig tree was used in Bible times for meditation and prayer. If you said that someone was sitting under a fig tree, people would understand that they were engaged in personal devotions. And it seems that Nathanael was thinking and praying about Jacob, the figure from our first reading.

Jacob, grandson of Abraham, father of the twelve tribes of Israel, was a scheming, conniving, double-dealing, devious, treacherous, wily, deceitful cheat of a man. The National Association of Used Car Dealers would expel him from membership for conduct unbecoming of the profession!

Honestly, he conned his brother out of his birth right. He deceived his father. He tricked his father in law out of a fortune. Several times in his life he had to escape as a fugitive from the wrath of those he had double-crossed.

I think Nathanael was deep in thought, puzzling over this man Jacob while he sat under his fig tree. How could a rogue such as Jacob ever receive God’s blessing? How could God choose such a dishonest, fraudulent, deceitful man as patriarch of the nation of Israel? Why didn’t he choose someone more morally respectable?

Of course, we know it’s grace. The truth is that God chooses us not because we are good, but because he is good. But good people, morally upright people are usually the ones who find that most difficult to accept.

Jesus knows exactly what Nathanael is thinking about when he is sitting under the fig tree. So when Jesus says to Nathanael “Here’s a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit; I saw you – under the fig tree, remember?” Nathanael realises that Jesus knows his every thought. He also knows that Nathanael, unlike Jacob, has an honest heart. It’s a revelation. That’s why Nathanael bursts out with his response “You are the Son of God, the king of Israel.”

And the last verse clinches it. Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

He’s talking about the dream in our first reading – Jacob’s ladder with angels going up and down on it. He’s saying I’m the fulfilment of it all. I am the ladder between heaven and earth, the way by which sinners can reach heaven. It all points to me. Can you see it?

Seeing Is Believing

I hope you can, because this section of John’s Gospel is all about seeing.

It starts before our reading when John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him and says “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Then Jesus is baptized and John says “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven like a dove and remain on him.”

A couple of verses later two men ask Jesus where he is staying and Jesus replies “Come and see.” So they do.

(That’s such an important verse. People often complain about the Church, sometimes with justification. But we need to tell people “Look at Christ and tell me what you find wrong with him.”)  

Then into our passage, when Andrew, Peter and Philip say to Nathanael that they’ve found someone pretty special, Nathanael asks Philip “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” And they too reply “Come and see.”

When Jesus and Nathanael meet Jesus says “I saw you while you were under the fig tree.”

And finally, when Nathanael has confessed Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus says “You will see greater things than that.”

Ending

You see, people need to see Jesus.

The humanist H. G. Wells was once asked: “What single individual has left the most permanent impression on the world?” Wells immediately said “Jesus of Nazareth. [I] cannot portray the progress of humanity honestly without giving him foremost place” he said.

But not only do people need to see Jesus, he also sees us. There’s nowhere you can go where Jesus does not see you and know you. He sees everything you do and say, he knows you through and through – and he still loves you.

He sees you – and he wants you to see more of him.

Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 18th January 2015

Serving God's Purposes in Our Generation (Acts 13.13-43)

Is that all?

Introduction

At 7:00am on Friday, November 7th last year Zach Zehnder, the 31 year-old pastor of a church in Mount Dora, Florida, stood up to preach and he did not stop until 12:18pm the following Sunday,  setting a new world record for longest ever sermon. It lasted 53 hours and 18 minutes, spanned Genesis to Revelation, using 200 pages of notes and over 600 PowerPoint slides.

I thought, I could beat that. But maybe not today. You see, for the record to be valid, there had to be at least ten listeners at any one time. And who would volunteer to listen to me non-stop for over two days? You see, no hands raised, as I expected…

Anyway, asked about what was most difficult, Zehnder answered “Eating. I didn’t eat enough the first 24 hours but I got more comfortable eating in front of people while talking. I got so comfortable that I even ate steak and lobster at hour 36 while preaching through the Sermon on the Mount! It doesn’t get better than that.”

I think, for the congregation, it probably does get better than that!

I’m not going to be long at all this morning, certainly not record breaking. I just want to say a few words about our reading from Acts 13 and try and relate it to where we are at All Saints’ at the moment.

So we’re continuing with Paul and Barnabas’ mission to take the gospel further than it had ever been before.

They arrive at a place called Pisidian Antioch and are invited to say a few words as guest speakers at the local synagogue.

So Paul, because he was the one with the mouth, stood up and preached. You’ve heard his sermon already so I’m not going to re-preach it. He talked mostly about Jesus. Jesus lived about 33 years – but Paul only talked about three days.

He talks from v27-41 only about Jesus’ death and his resurrection.

His death, because that’s how we get our sins forgiven, our guilt lifted and our conscience cleansed.

His resurrection because, without it, we would go to our deaths as forgiven people –which is great for this life- but we’d stay dead and that would be the end of it. But because Jesus was raised from the dead, he has conquered the grave for everyone who believes in him.

By his cross he saved us from sin. By his resurrection he saved us from spending eternity, dead as a doornail. That’s why our message is the empty cross.

But the two things that stood out for me when I read Acts 13 this week were what he said about David.

A Heart for God

Firstly, in v22 God says, “I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart” or as  the Good News Bible puts it, “he is the kind of man I like, a man who will do all I want him to do.”

A healthy church is just ordinary people who have a heart for God. Have you got a heart for God? Not for the church building. Not for its history or its heritage. Not for its structure or systems – these are good things but they’re for our heads. But what about your heart, what you care most about, where you direct your affections, what you are passionate about – do you have a heart for God?

What does it look like to have a heart for God? Kris Vallotton put it this way, “I want to be so full of God that, if a mosquito bites me, he flies away singing ‘There’s power in the blood.’”

That is what God is looking for because in v22 he says “I’ve found David – a man after my own heart.”

Serving God’s Purpose in Our Generation

The second thing was in v36. “David served God’s purpose in his own generation…” I love that expression. The full verse says, “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; [he died] he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.”

It may not thrill you to have me remind you of this but, unless the Lord returns first, every one of here will die and our bodies will either decay in a tomb or be burned in a crematorium.

I would say that the majority of us here will have had a positive influence on the world by the time we come to leave it. The aggregate of good things and bad things we say and do will be positive for virtually everyone here. That’s not what we’re here for though. The question to ask is, “Will my impact on the world help it look more like Jesus wants it to look?”

Will we serve God’s purpose in our generation?

As we look to redefine our vision as a church, that is basically the question we are asking.

Strands Coming Together

As the MDT and PCC sifted through the feedback from Bishop Paul’s weekend last year, and tried to discern what God was saying to us through it, there were recurring themes that resonated with people. Here’s a bullet-point list of things that we felt God was particularly highlighting to us as important.

Two overall priorities

• Transform our community
• Saturate everything in prayer

Two requests to stay focused

•  Give regular ministry updates in Sunday services
• Regularly review how we’re doing so we ‘hold the vision high’

Two aspirations for our relationship with our parish

• Prayerfully walk round its streets
• Relaunch Community In Touch

But most of us live outside the parish so if our vision is going to be relevant we need to look up and see further. We saw that “communities” rather than “parish” seemed to be the word people used.

So, two desires for our communities:

• Know who are the neediest in our area
• Share good news as it relates to people’s felt needs

We need, in other words, to scratch where people itch - but we also need to scratch the people who itch the most.

But that’s not all. Because two significant and separate developments have emerged in parallel with our search for a new vision.

Firstly, there are changes taking place in the Deanery of Stockton. For a few years now, delegates from All Saints’ have been meeting with people from other local Anglican churches to explore new ways of working together. That will come to a conclusion with the morning on January 24th. Basically, we’ll be working more as a team of churches and sharing resources.

We felt that was significant because one of the most effective ways God uses All Saints’ is as a resource church. Whenever we give ministry and resources away some of our DNA gets passed on and it acts as a catalyst for new life and growth elsewhere. We’ve seen that in Long Newton, in central Stockton and now in Egglescliffe – people sent from here, having been nurtured here, are transforming communities beyond our little parish.

Secondly, Bishop Paul has been defining what our Diocese is about; “from the Tyne to the Tees and from the Dales to the Sea, blessing our communities in Jesus’ name for the transformation of us all.”

We think that fits us absolutely perfectly.

How Do We Bless Communities?

As we looked at what it means to “bless our communities” we asked the question “how does that work?” and we happened upon an obscure verse in Leviticus 9 which answers that question.

It describes Moses and Aaron entering the special place where they met with God at the time when Israel was in the desert before entering the Promised Land. As soon as they had met with God, Moses and Aaron blessed the people – and then the glory of the Lord appeared to them all.

Everyone here by faith in Christ can meet with Almighty God and enjoy his transforming grace. That’s why we come here on a Sunday.

And the truth is that we cannot bless anyone unless we have ourselves been touched by the holy presence and awesome glory of God in Christ. But when we have been there, when we’ve been touched by grace, I believe we will be a blessing to others and his glory will be revealed.

So that’s where we’ve got to.

Do you want to be part of a church that is not only blessing its local community but also other communities all over the town, wherever we are living and working?

Are you willing to soak in the presence of God so deeply that it transforms you and so that when you bless others they see the glory of the Lord?

That’s the feel of where we’re going – but it's still quite general. There’s more work to do. We need to define things more sharply, own it as a church and then commit to it.

This week, we’ll be putting up a long sheet of paper at the back and I’m inviting you to write on it over the next six weeks what your dreams and aspirations are as a member of All Saints’. What do you yearn to see God do amongst us? We’ll also have a few more presentations in our services like the five we had today to help us see more possibilities and dream more dreams.

I’d like to encourage you to talk amongst yourselves, over coffee, while you take a walk together, whatever – what are the things you’ve heard today that excite you?

The week after half term, 23-27 February, we’re going to have a week of prayer and fasting to come before God as a church and seek his will for us.

And at the end of that week, Saturday 28 February, we’ll have a vision morning together in which we will aim to pin down in one or two sentences what our new vision is.

This is not just me or a few cronies deciding what we’re doing - anyone can play. Let’s look to the Lord, hear from him, agree where we’re going and then get on with the job.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 11th January 2015

A Nearly Infallible History of Christianity

A Nearly Infallible History of Christianity

Being a History of 2000 Years of Saints, Idiots and Divinely-Inspired Troublemakers

Nick Page, Hodder and Stoughton

Here's a little review of the best book I read last year.

It takes a lot to get me interested in church history. At Bible College, I was so bored and exasperated by lectures on it that I passed the hours away by drawing sketches of my tutor and fellow students. So the prospect of reading a 450 page book that tells the story of church history from New Testament times to the second decade of this century did not have me salivating with relish.

However, the subtitle of Nick Page’s book “Being a history of 2000 years of saints, idiots and divinely-inspired troublemakers” offered some hope. Could it be that this was a Horrible Histories approach to the long, often lamentable but sometimes exhilarating story of the global expansion of Christianity? I only had to open the first page to find that the answer was a resounding yes.

It’s got a fast-moving narrative, hilariously captioned cartoons, character portraits of key people that include the all-important question “Could you have a drink with him/her down the pub?”, maps of the Roman Empire that always seem to include Milton Keynes and hundreds of puns and witty footnotes. There is also a recurring grumble about the unfathomably dominant place the organ has occupied in church music down the years. Nick Page writes in an airy, tongue-in-cheek style that entertains but, make no mistake, this book is very well researched, really instructive and deeply perceptive. I lost count of the “Ah, so that’s why…” moments.

Some of it is quite depressing of course. There have been so many diabolical popes and rotten bishops living in fine palaces, fathering illegitimate children, whilst inflicting unnecessary councils, stupid wars and vicious purges on good people that you just despair. That’s not Nick Page’s fault of course. But if some of what has passed for Christianity down the ages doesn’t make those who call ourselves Christians seriously indignant we should be given 100 lines for just not caring enough.

The saving grace - literally - is that, in every century, God raises up radicals, charismatics, prophetic misfits and Spirit-filled pests who blow the dust off the Bible and raise awkward questions, often at the cost of their lives. “So why did Jesus live in poverty, oppose organised religion and tell people to love -not kill- their enemies then? Why does your joyless ecclesiastical bureaucracy seem to have absolutely nothing in common with the church in the apostolic era, Your Holiness?” In every generation, some inspired and courageous soul brings Christianity back from the brink of irretrievable ruin by pointing at Jesus and loudly saying "ahem".

Page shows that, from the beginning, Christianity has flourished best when it eschews all that ridiculous pomp and worldly influence and gets back to being the counter-cultural revolution of love that Jesus always intended it to be.

This Nearly Infallible History is the exciting tale of simple faith that keeps rising again just when it seems dead and buried for good. Just like at the start of the story…

To the Ends of the Earth (Acts 13.1-12)

Introduction

The regional director of New Wine for the North, Ian Parkinson, was sharing recently about what happened when he was learning to drive. This is what he said: “My biggest problem, when I began to learn to drive, was steering the car in a straight line. It’s a fairly important skill to master if you are going to be a successful (let alone safe!) driver. I was determined to sort it. So, in my second driving lesson, I concentrated extra hard… but still found myself wandering all over the road. My driving instructor spotted the problem and suggested that if I took my eyes off the car bonnet and looked up at the road ahead, I might have more success in pursuing a straight course. This seemed like a very dangerous suggestion. Where might the car end up if I took my eyes off it? But his advice was spot on, and I never had any further problems.”

So just in case you’re having a few problems driving in line with the bends in the road there’s a decent tip for you. I think that’s good advice to start the New Year with. Not because I think we might need driving instruction particularly but because this is also true spiritually.

Here’s what I mean: the only way we can steer a straight and true course as disciples of Jesus in the year ahead is by keeping our eyes fixed ahead, on him who is the Way, not on ourselves or our possessions or our immediate environment. C. S. Lewis once said “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” Do you believe that’s true?

As we begin 2015, are your eyes fixed on Jesus, going ahead as the pioneer of our faith? That is the only perspective that will help you make good choices in life and keep you from veering off the road of faith.

Let’s lift our eyes to the road ahead, to the bigger - and better - picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul

Well now, I’d like you to imagine this is some years hence and you are considering candidates for a new vicar. You have looked at the profiles of several promising candidates when a new file lands on your desk.

You open it to find, first of all, a physical description of your potential new minister. I quote: “He has a small and contracted body, crooked and bow legged. He has a little head and strange eyes; his eyebrows join together; his hook nose is bent and somewhat long; his beard is thick and he has a sprinkling of grey hair on his otherwise bald head. His face is pale and looks rather old.”

OK, it’s not George Clooney - and certainly not Angelina Jolie! But not to be swayed by what are, after all, superficial matters, you read down his CV and check his references and find the following facts.

·         He rarely stays longer than twelve months in one place

·         He usually upsets people every time he opens his mouth

·         He is often hard to understand

·         He is by his own admission an unimpressive public speaker

·         He is known to be publicly argumentative with colleagues

·         He has often found himself in trouble with the police

·         He is frequently in court

·         He has spent several terms in prison

·         He has been known to hear voices

·         He spends his day off earning a bit of money by making camping equipment

I wouldn’t blame you if you replied to that particular applicant “We’ll let you know.”

But you’d be turning down the Apostle Paul. The physical description is the earliest we have and dates from the second century and every word of the biography on the CV is taken from the Bible.

Paul of Tarsus was perhaps the least promising candidate imaginable for ordained ministry (as we call it) but he was one of the greatest ever Christian leaders.

If ever there was a perfect demonstration of the truth that man looks at outward appearances but God looks at the heart, the Apostle Paul is surely it.

Calling and Sending

Today’s reading from Acts, picking up where we left off in November, describes how Paul’s travelling ministry and therefore his letter writing all started. You see, Paul didn’t wake up one morning and decide on a career move. He didn’t say “I’ve got an idea. I know; I think I’ll be a missionary.” Not at all.

I’m always cautious when people say they think they’re called to this or that ministry when absolutely no one else in their church has ever had the same view.

Here’s how it worked in the New Testament era: people were raised up by the Holy Spirit and then formally recognised with the laying on of hands only later when the church could see that God had clearly equipped them for a ministry. They had a track record behind them of Spirit-filled service.

I think it’s a scandal that some people, not many - but it does happen -  some people get selected for ordained leadership in the Church of England having never once shown any leadership initiative, preached a single sermon or ever shown so much as a hint of pastoral interest in other people their whole lives. What are we doing? It’s completely mad.

What we see here in Acts 13 is Paul and Barnabas being sent out with the blessing of their church only after it was clear to the church that they were both called by God and had been proved capable. That’s the way it should be. So when you say “I feel called to do this or that” ask yourself “Does anyone else see it?”

Paul’s sending church was in Antioch, a city quite some distance north of what we call the Holy Land. Up to this point, believers in Jesus were just considered to be eccentric Jews. But in this church, most of the believers were not Jews but Gentiles. So the question arose, what should we call these people? It was, in fact, the locals who gave them the nickname ‘Christians’ and it’s obvious why.

As J. John once said, “If you take ‘Christ’ out of ‘Christian’ you’re left with ‘Ian’. And Ian isn’t going to get you to heaven!”

From the descriptions of the leaders in the first few verses it’s clear that there was a diversity of religious upbringing, country of origin, culture, ethnicity, and professional training in that church in Antioch. That’s healthy in any church.

But these verses also tell us about the diversity of their spirituality. Four distinct features are mentioned; two of which are instantly recognisable in today’s church and two of which have sadly fallen into disuse.

If you worshipped in that church you would be used to a blend of teaching and prophecy. We know what teaching is. Teaching is the proclamation of biblical truth that is valid at all times and in all places. That’s what I’m doing now.

But prophecy is distinct from that. It’s inspired words from God for local situations and at specific times. You have to weigh it. We see less of that today perhaps but we need both ministries if the church is to be healthy.

The Bible says, “Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” It says, “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good.” Do you eagerly desire to prophesy? Do you treat prophesy with contempt or are you saying “we need this, let’s pray for a new release of prophetic ministry here?”

We’re also told they prayed and fasted. We know about prayer. It needs no explanation. Fasting is one of those things that all of know the meaning of, but fewer of us have an experience of. We all know that it is a denial of the physical appetite. But how many of us really understand that the point of fasting is to sharpen our spiritual hunger?

If I’m wondering if I left the gas on while I pray, it’s distracting. Fasting clears the decks to pray with focus. Like prophecy, fasting is somewhat neglected in the contemporary church. But again, we need to both pray and fast if we are ever going to see the kind of spiritual power they had in the Acts of the Apostles.

So Paul was sent out with his co-leader Barnabas and they went to Cyprus, where Barnabas was from, and they travelled the length of the island.

Who to Tell?

What a mission! Proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth! Where did they start? They started with those who were already nearest to God. They went to the synagogues and explained what the Old Testament says about Jesus, that it all points to him.

They started with people who believed in God but had not yet seen the fullest revelation of him in Christ. And as it happens, these are the best people to share faith with in our country.

In fact that covers most people. A recent YouGov poll on attitudes to faith in this country showed the following results:

I am an Atheist 16%

I believe in God 28%

I believe in “something” but am not sure what 26%

I am Agnostic (I can’t know if there is a God) 9%

I would like to believe and envy those who do - but can’t 5%

I don’t know 3%

I haven’t given it much thought 10%

Other 3%

If you take away those who say there is no God and those who say it’s impossible to say, there are still 75% of people with whom you can have a proper discussion about your faith.

Put it another way. Judy Hirst from our diocese was telling the Long Newton MDT a few months ago that society is, broadly speaking divided into 5 categories.

10% are churchgoers – at least once a month. That’s us.

A further 10% are the fringe. That’s those who come occasionally, or who attend Toddlers, Treasure Seekers or the Lunch Club service. They are on the edge of church life, they like us and are “on our side” but can’t really be considered as members.

A further 20% used to come to church but don’t anymore. Maybe they got too busy. Maybe they moved and didn’t settle in a new church. Maybe children came along and there was nothing really for them. Judy called them “open de-churched.” They would be open to coming back – but just haven’t got round to it.

A further 20% also used to come to church but don’t anymore. However, these ones are definitely not coming back. They’ve had a bad experience. Someone upset them. The vicar got their mum’s name wrong at a funeral. The church got rid of the pews or whatever. They took offence and are determined to never come back. These are “closed de-churched.”

And the final 40% are “unchurched.” They have never been to a Sunday service. They have no idea what the church is like, what it stands for or what it does. It just does not feature in their world at all.

Which do you think are the most strategic groups for sharing our faith?

Surely it’s the fringe and the open de-churched people. They’re already part way there. Well, that’s where Paul and Barnabas started out.

Eventually, their greatest opportunity arrived when they were invited to Governor’s Palace.

Billy Graham was unknown in Britain when he first came. Then was invited to Windsor Castle to meet the Queen – and his ministry took off. They must have got on well. This picture was taken years later in Sandringham where she asked him to preach when he was over another time. I sometimes wonder if our Queen’s clear and confident Christian faith that she talks about every year in her Christmas Day address was affected in some way by that first meeting.  

In any case, a similar meeting with a VIP opened up for Paul and Barnabas only this time it was the Roman Governor of Cyprus. We don’t know how but it did. Listen, the doors Jesus opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. It doesn’t matter what obstacles are in your way. Jesus has the keys that unlock the most impassable doors and he also has the keys that give you ultimate security.

The good news of Jesus and the dark world of the occult never peacefully coexist. Whenever Jesus met a demon-possessed person it always kicked off and it did here when Spirit-filled Christians met the personal clairvoyant of the governor of Cyprus.

When the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of hell clash it’s like a warm front colliding with a cold front up in the atmosphere – the only possible outcome is an electrical storm with spectacular results.

When Paul and Barnabas met spiritual resistance there was a threat to the progress of their mission. But they had a praying and fasting church behind them. There was plenty of spiritual capital in their heavenly bank account.

I believe it’s because there was a covering of prayer that when difficulty came, instead of stalling, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and equipped to deal with the problem before them.

We know about the miracles of opening the eyes of the blind. But there is also the miracle of closing the eyes of the seeing. It happened to Paul, then called Saul, you’ll remember in chapter 9.

The result is that the Governor came to Christ. Pray that men and women of position and influence in our town come to faith in Jesus. Pray for your MP, for the Mayor, for the Town Council, for the Police Commissioner, for bosses in industry and business leaders.

Verse 12 says “When the governor saw what had happened he believed.” Seeing is believing. Eaglescliffe and Teesside are waiting to see the evidence of what we say is true.

Our town will never believe until it sees Jesus in the lives of ordinary Christians, feeding the poor, healing the sick, loving the unloveable, doing signs and wonders, transforming society.

Ending

When that happens, even if we have bow legs, hooked noses and bald heads, even if we have a CV that’s only good for the shredder, a sceptical world will look past us and see Jesus.

So we’re back to where we started; Ian Parkinson’s driving lessons. When our communities look at this church, they see us, like a driver looking at the bonnet of the car.

But when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, like a driver looking up at the road ahead, when our communities look at this church, they will see Jesus. That is my prayer for this year ahead.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4th January 2015