Faith: The Now and the Not Yet (Hebrews 11.32-40)

Introduction

We’ve been looking at what faith is these past few weeks. All of Hebrews 11 is about people who we are told lived “by faith.”

So far, we’ve heard nothing at all about the doctrines they believed in. We don’t know anything really about which theological schools they identified with.

Don’t get me wrong; the content of what we believe is of crucial importance. Churches that welcome and spread ideas contrary to God's word become unhealthy and slowly die. God save us from embracing any other gospel!

But just holding onto correct beliefs is not what living by faith in Hebrews 11 is about. Living by faith is not about the propositional truths you personally assent to, it’s about decisions and practical actions you take in life.

So, as we’ve seen, for Noah, faith meant getting out his tool kit and building an ocean liner in a dry, landlocked country.

For Abraham, faith meant leaving behind a cushy retirement and literally stepping out into uncharted territory.

For Moses, faith meant rejecting his identity as a privileged Prince of Egypt and identifying instead with a nation of slaves. It says he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. “That’s not who I am” he said, and it changed forever the direction of his life.

So faith is much more than something you think. Faith is above all something you do and who you are - and it usually involves adventure and risk.

What are you doing in your life at the moment that requires you to take a step of faith?

Only twice in the gospels do we read that Jesus was astonished. Jesus knows everything – so it takes a lot to surprise Jesus. But he did show amazement on two occasions and both times it’s to do with faith. Let’s have a quick look at them.

Firstly, (Mark 6.1-6) is when he goes to his home town of Nazareth and no one believes in him. There is no faith there at all. There is just hardness of heart everywhere.

“Oh, this is just Mary’s son, we know his brothers and sisters.” They take offence at him. And it says he was amazed at their lack of faith – and that he couldn’t do any miracles there except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.

To be honest, I’d settle for that, wouldn’t you? To lay hands on an invalid, a blind person and a deaf-mute, and actually see them healed straight away is a great Sunday for me. It would all over Facebook!

A normal day for me is when I pray for someone with a bad cold and catch it myself through the laying on of hands!

But sometimes I do see people healed or much improved when I pray for them and when that happens no one is more surprised than I am! On the outside, I try and look calm and humble and give God the glory – on the inside I’m punching the air!

But seeing a few healed is a footnote on a really bad day for Jesus. That’s one of the many reasons we worship him and not me. If ever you think I’m acting a bit full of myself, you have my permission to say to me “John - the Lord has already appointed his Messiah – and it’s not you.”

The second time Jesus was astonished (Luke 7.1-10) is when he meets a Roman Centurion. This time, he is amazed not at the absence of faith, but at the evidence of it.

The soldier’s servant is at death’s door. The Centurion meets Jesus and says, “Look, you’re Jesus, you don’t even need to come all the way to my home to see him. You’re a busy man. Don’t waste your time. You just give the order right here - that’s all it takes. He’ll be fine.”

This time, again in his amazement, Jesus says, “I haven’t found faith like this anywhere.”

If Jesus were to be amazed by meeting you, do you think he would be more likely to be impressed by your great faith or shocked by your lack of it?

Maybe for most of us the honest answer is “it depends what day it is.” That would be my answer, truth be told. I want to learn more about faith and I want to grow in it – I hope you do as well.

The Now Crowd

Hebrews 11 wraps up by introducing us to two contrasting groups of people. It’s not people who had amazing faith and people who had little faith. They all had great faith.

The first group is in v32-35 and these are people who, through faith, saw awesome signs and wonders, amazing miracles and did great exploits.

This is what it says: “I do not have time to tell about Gideon, [he defeated the formidable Midianite army with just 300 losers using bugles, candles and jam jars].

Barak, [he was the first black President of the United States – actually, that was another Barak; this one refused to go into combat without the prophetess Deborah and, acting on her prophetic word to the letter, he won a mighty victory].

Samson, [you know about him from Sunday School] and Jephthah, [he overcame family rejection to become a mighty leader] about David and Samuel and the prophets, [you know about them as well] who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, [that was Daniel] quenched the fury of the flames, [that was his three friends] and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; [there’s Samson] and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies [there's Gideon and Barak]. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.” [Elijah and Elisha both raised widows’ sons from the dead, such was the incredible anointing on them].

We read all this in Hebrews 11, and when we hear similar reports of signs and wonders today, and we can all say “Praise God!”

My friend Mark Aldridge got off a plane a few years ago in Siberia and met the leader of a church where he was going to do some Bible teaching. His first question to Mark, before “How was your trip?” was “How many people have you raised from the dead?” Mark wondered if getting teenagers out of bed might count but he had to admit that he hadn’t ever raised anyone from the dead. The pastor looked at his shoes and said in disappointment, “I’ve only raised five.”

I suppose the most amazing healing miracle I’ve personally witnessed is in the life of a cockney friend of mine called Arthur, who went to be with the Lord a few years ago. But about 30 years before that he was healed of spondylosis. This is a painful condition of the spine resulting from the degeneration of the vertebral discs. Arthur used to be bent over and in constant pain and was only able to move slowly and laboriously. He was prayed for one day in the name of Jesus and he was instantly healed.

Kathie and I are witnesses of the before and after. When I went to see him, he looked at me with a big grin and said “Watch this.” Then he ran up and down the stairs of his house shouting “Look, I’ve been ‘ealed, ve Lord Jesus ‘as ‘ealed me!” It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

People sometimes say that the day of miracles is past. But in reality there has never been a 'day of miracles.’ There's only a God of miracles; he’s been doing them since the beginning of time when he spoke a word and made everything out of nothing. He’s still at it today, and he says in Malachi 4 “I am the Lord and I do not change.” Hebrews 13 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

The Not Yet Crowd

But, as Louie Giglio says, “When you get to the New Testament, most of the good guys die, and those who don’t suffer terrible persecution.”

Starting with Jesus – they tried to kill him as soon as he was born. Several times in his ministry people tried to kill him. People actually got together and looked for a way to do it. In the end they did kill him.

Stephen was the first follower of Jesus to be killed – stoned to death.

According to the most reliable traditions we have, all but one of the twelve disciples were murdered. Paul was beheaded. Dozens were thrown to the lions in the Coliseum. Others were used as human torches to illuminate Nero’s palace garden at night.

And in Hebrews 11, after talking about great signs and wonders, the tone changes abruptly. Verses 35-38 are about the second group of people who, by faith, get absolutely battered and who die violent deaths. No sign and no wonder delivers them from peril.

It says, “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawn in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated - the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.”

A group of 12 Syrian followers of Jesus working with the Christian Aid Mission were serving Christ in villages near Aleppo this summer and, despite the obvious dangers, they all chose to stay in order to provide aid in the name of Christ to desperate people in that city.

Their ministry director wrote a few weeks ago, “I asked them to leave, but I gave them the freedom to choose. As their leader, I should have insisted that they leave. Every time we talked to them, they said, ‘We want to stay here – this is what God has told us to do. This is what we want to do.’ They just wanted to stay and share the gospel.”

The team leader on the ground led nine house churches and he helped to establish all of them. In a place like Syria – that’s one anointed guy. His son was two months away from his 13th birthday.

On August 28 this year, some Islamic State militants found them and asked them if they had previously renounced Islam for Christianity. They said that yes they had. The militants demanded that they return to Islam. They all replied, including the boy, “We will never renounce Jesus Christ.” That sealed their fate.

They were separated into groups of four and eight. Before a gathered crowd, they cut off the boy’s fingertips one by one and beat him severely. Still the boy refused to deny Christ.

They told the boy’s father they would stop if he returned to Islam. He refused too. So they tortured and beat him also and the two other ministry workers. The three men and the boy were then crucified and left on their crosses for two days. No one was allowed to remove them. They died beside a placard branding them as infidels.

The eight other ministry team members, including two women, were taken to another site that same day and were asked the same questions. The women, aged 29 and 33, said “We are only sharing the peace and love of Christ.” They were then publicly raped. They didn’t stop praying aloud during their ordeal. So they were beaten all the more.

As these two women and the six remaining men knelt before being beheaded, they were all praying. Some were exalting the name of Jesus, others were praying the Lord’s Prayer, and some of them lifted their eyes to commend their spirits to Jesus. After they were beheaded, their bodies too were hung on crosses. This happened just over two months ago.

The Kingdom of God Is Now and Not Yet

Why is it that there are, at one and the same time, extraordinary advances of the gospel and nauseating atrocities like this?

It's because the kingdom of God is both now and not yet. When Jesus came, he spoke about the kingdom of God. He said it was close. He said it was at hand. He said it was all around. And he said to pray that it comes more and more.

The kingdom of God is a way of talking about God’s sphere of influence. When that is total and complete, as it will be one day, then there’ll be no more sickness and no suffering at all. That’s the future aspect to the kingdom.

It’s not yet here in its fullness. It will be when Jesus returns. He’s coming back one day. There are about 300 references in the New Testament to this. It’s going to happen.

And the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8 that it’s like this: “We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our redemption.”

We know this world needs sorting out. We know things aren’t meant to be this way. We know there’s something more. But that will only happen in the future. That’s the future aspect of the kingdom.

But, Jesus says, that the kingdom of God also has a present aspect. It’s like you get foretastes of what is going to happen one day.

Last March there was a really warm sunny day. Everyone was walking around in t-shirts and summer dresses, there were one or two butterflies and it felt like summer had come. But it hadn’t; the following day it was cold and wet again. It wasn’t summer; but you knew it was on the way. It was a foretaste.

And when God does something amazing; when someone is dramatically healed, or when there is an extraordinary answer to prayer – that’s a foretaste. It tells you what it’s going to be like all the time one day, and that day is coming.

This is what we call the now and not yet. This is the environment today in which we live out our faith.

You see this man? He’s an Iraqi Christian. Look at his emotion. Look at the passion in his expression. What's this picture about? Is he mourning another atrocity against his people? No.

He is taking part in a 100 hour continuous prayer and worship meeting organised about ten days ago by a group called Burn 24-7. Five days non-stop... He’s praying for the salvation of the jihadis of Islamic State. When v38 says “the world was not worthy of them” this is what it means.

Ending

I want to end by telling you about a man called Mehedi Dibaj. Mehedi was an Iranian Pentecostal pastor who was arrested in 1985 and imprisoned for nine years, where he was systematically beaten and tortured.

In 1994 he finally went on trial for apostasy and his written testimony to the court was widely circulated at the time by the underground church he had led.

It’s 1,300 words long, so I can’t read it all, [a link to the full statement is here] but I want to pick out a couple of paragraphs because they are really powerful.

“With all humility, I express my gratitude to the Judge of all heaven and earth for this precious opportunity, and with brokenness I wait upon the Lord to deliver me from this court trial according to his promises. I have been charged with apostasy. An apostate is one who does not believe in God, the prophets, or the resurrection of the dead. We Christians believe in all three! They tell me, "Return!" But to whom can I return from the arms of my God? I owe him so much for his fatherly love and concern. The God of Daniel, who protected his friends in the fiery furnace, has protected me for nine years in prison. And all the bad happenings have turned out for our good and gain, so much so that I am filled to overflowing with joy and thankfulness. May the shadow of God's kindness and his hand of blessing and healing be and remain upon you for ever.”

He also clearly articulated the gospel, called the court to repentance and faith in Jesus, and testified to miracles he had seen God do.

This testimony was leaked to the world’s media, there was a global outcry, and amazingly he was released in January 1994. Five months later, he mysteriously disappeared and his body was later found in a park in west Teheran.

That’s “the not yet.” But here’s “the now”: in the 22 years since Mehedi went to be with the Lord, more Iranians have become Christians than in the previous 13 centuries put together since Islam came to Iran.

In 1979, there were an estimated 500 Christians of Muslim background in Iran. Today, there are hundreds of thousands, some say over a million.

In fact, last year the mission research organisation Operation World said that Iran is now home to the fastest-growing church in the world. The second-fastest growing church is in Afghanistan - and Afghans are being reached in part by Iranians.

That is why we live by faith. Because God is good, and Jesus is alive, and he’s coming back. Satan wins many battles, and they can be absolute carnage, but listen; Jesus wins the war!

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Don’t let setbacks and discouragements knock you off balance. They’re part of the story. We’ve read the end of the book – and Jesus wins.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 6 November 2016

Salvation Today (Luke 19.1-10)

Introduction

There’s a story about a fitness club that was offering a £1,000 prize to anyone who could show that they were stronger than the manager. Here’s how it worked. The boss was a great hulk of a man and he would squeeze an orange until all the juice ran into a glass, and then hand the orange to a challenger. Anyone who could squeeze out even one more drop of juice would win the money.

Many people tried; weightlifters, hod carriers, firefighters, front-row rugby players, vicars, professional wrestlers, and all failed to produce a single extra drop.

But one day this scrawny, weak-looking man signs up for the contest. A crowd assembles and the puny challenger steps up to the stage. After the laughter dies down, the owner grabs his orange and starts squeezing. When he’s done, he hands this bone-dry pulverised ex-orange to the skinny challenger.

But the crowd’s laughter turns to gasps as the man clenches his bony fist around the orange and six drops fall into the glass. The crowd goes wild, and the boss coughs up the prize money. He asks the little guy “What do you for a living - lumberjack, builder, or what?” The guy just smiles and says, “Actually, I work for the Inland Revenue.”

Background

Like the character in Luke’s gospel today… It’s one of the best-loved stories in the Bible; for years, children have sung songs in assemblies and Sunday school about it. “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he…”

He lived in a place called Jericho, one of the oldest settlements in the world. It is called the city of palms because it’s built around a spring of water. It’s a garden city, surrounded by desert. It was also on a key trading route called the King’s Highway that connected Syria, Israel and Egypt - and because of its lushness and its location it was, and still is today, a prosperous place.

Being a strategically located oasis city, Jericho was also a major customs and excise post. You had to pay duty on anything you transported through that place. And because of that, it was an absolute gold mine for the tax man. It was, in fact, the tax capital of Israel in Jesus’ day.

At that time of course the Romans were in charge – almost everywhere. Their Empire stretched north/south from Hadrian’s Wall to the Sahara Desert, and west/east from Portugal to the Caspian Sea. And it is well-known that they imposed a heavy tax burden on all populations under their control.

Nobody likes paying tax. Not just Coffee Shops, and Internet multinationals. You don’t want to pay more than you have to - and neither do I. But the Jews at this time hated paying it even more because these taxes propped up an immoral and arrogant government with pagan gods. It led to frequent uprisings and revolts.

This is why tax collectors were the most unpopular people in the country. They did Rome’s dirty work and were considered traitors. Everyone thought they were scum; fat cats ripping off their own people.

But no one is beyond the reach of God’s love and grace. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, or where you’ve been. Jesus came to show that with God there is always a way back.

Zacchaeus - Before

What about Zacchaeus; what do we know about this particular tax collector? Well, he wasn’t just on the staff – v2 says he was a chief tax collector. Top dog. He gave orders to all the collecting agents in town and took a commission from them. He was in charge of one of the three largest tax offices in the country, and may well have had the best job of them all. 

Not surprisingly, he had become wealthy. He was top of the tax collection food chain. And like all tax inspectors at that time, he was lining his own pockets before he sent the required taxes off to Rome.

He was also a man with a curious mind. He had heard about Jesus because he was talk of the town all over Israel. Everywhere Jesus went there was a big crowd.

Which is when Zacchaeus saw he had a little problem. Danny DeVito claims he is 5’ tall. In fact, he is 4’10”. That was the trouble. He couldn’t see over the crowd, and they wouldn’t let him push to the front, so he climbed a sycamore fig tree which you’ll know if you’ve ever seen one, has low branches and is quite easy to climb.

Why did Zacchaeus want to see Jesus? I think there are three reasons.

Firstly - the obvious. Why do people go to a firework display? Jesus was a sensation. He was box office. The end of the previous chapter tells us how Jesus had just healed a blind man on his way into Jericho. Zacchaeus would have heard the commotion outside so he left his desk to see what was going on.

Secondly - I’m guessing here, but I think his distant memory of a godly mother and father prompted him to find out more. You see, the name Zacchaeus means “good, pure, righteous, upstanding.” I imagine two parents who loved God and named their boy after their hopes and dreams for him, before he became greedy and rich.

(Alexander, by the way, means “defender of men.” I’m sure you want him to have the courage to stand up for what’s right, to have great strength of character. Or maybe you just like the name…)

But I think that Zacchaeus’ parents planted a desire in his life to be good, to be honest, and he lost his way, but when the chance came along to make amends he took it.

Some of you have children who have wandered away from the path you intended for them to take. It’s painful. Where did it all go wrong? Why? After all you did for them? But keep praying for them, keep loving them. It’s never wasted. Your spiritual care is never forgotten.

I think Zacchaeus longed to get back to what his godly mum and dad had always dreamed for him, and that’s why he was determined to get to Jesus. He was ambitious.

You don’t get to be head honcho of the biggest tax office in the land by lacking ambition. When he made up his mind to do get to Jesus, he did it. Listen, anyone who is determined to find God will find him.

There are a hundred things that can get in the way; work, family, leisure, the golf club, even church can get in the way. For Zacchaeus, nothing got in the way. He had to see Jesus for himself. He had to push through whatever it took.

The third reason he was so eager to see Jesus, is this. As we see later in the story, everybody hated him. He was a capitalist, a crook, a collaborator and a cad.

He had fleeced the entire population of Jericho to line his pockets and live in a flashy mansion. He had no friends. But none of his life of luxury made him happy. He was empty inside.

150 years ago, the writer John Ruskin said, “Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.”

More recently comedian Russell Brand said this: “Drugs and alcohol are not my problem. Reality is my problem. Drugs and alcohol are my solution to fill up a hole inside of me.”

Zacchaeus knew about this – and some of you know about it too. Zacchaeus had a gaping void in his soul. He was miserable. All his chasing after the next luxury – at the time it looked so attractive, it seemed so compelling. But his relentless pursuit of money was his ruin. He looked around his flashy villa with its luxury furnishings and it seemed like dust. It left him with a sense of gnawing emptiness. And then Jesus walks into town.

There are six things that happen next that shock the crowd: Jesus noticed Zacchaeus in a leafy tree, Jesus actually spoke to him, Jesus knew him - by name, Jesus called him, Jesus accepted him just as he was and Jesus even befriended him.

Jesus still notices, speaks to, knows by name, calls, accepts and befriends anyone who seeks him.

Zacchaeus – After

“Come down now Zacchaeus” says Jesus. It’s been said that he was converted before his feet hit the ground. He hurried down and welcomed Jesus gladly. Jesus is still looking for people who will welcome him gladly into their lives.

Zacchaeus knew that now was the time and he seized the day. I love his eagerness. And I love it that he’s all or nothing.

Many people want a bit of meditation, a bit of reiki, a little statue of Buddha in the garden, some purple crystals and maybe the Lord’s Prayer as the cherry on top. It won’t do. It is Jesus or nothing; it’s all of Jesus or nothing. That’s what Zacchaeus understood. He couldn’t hang on to his old life and he didn’t want to. It had to go.

Look at the immediate difference between before meeting Jesus and after. Instead of hostility there is hospitality. Instead of grabbing there is giving. It’s instant transformation. It’s not “I will give”, it’s “I give” – Zacchaeus is already writing the cheques and doling out the moneybags.

I was queuing up at a supermarket checkout once. My trolley was brimming over with stuff. As usual, my queue - though visibly the shortest - proved to be the slowest. As I was waiting, the checkout assistant came over and stuck a magnetic sign over my checkout. The sign said ‘10 Items maximum’. She looked at me and said “after you it’s limited items only.” But then, other people came along with three yoghurts in the basket and joined my queue. They started to mutter their disgust to each other about my trolley and how I was out of order. I felt so guilty – but that’s false guilt.

But there’s also such a thing as real guilt, and I feel that also from time to time as well. Jesus came to deal with all our guilt. This is the amazing news: God loves you. You are loved. It’s the most important thing to take away from this morning: you are loved. God loves you.

And he came in the person of his Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for you and for me. And he took all of our guilt, all of our bad stuff, in your place, in my place, in order that we should be free to enjoy life to the full.

This is the most stunning, wonderful news. And to me when I first discovered it as a nerdy, self-conscious, anxious seventeen year old with zits and a brace on my teeth, it was totally life-changing.

Today

Three times in Luke’s gospel the word “today” is found. The first you hear at Christmas – “Today a saviour has been born to you; Christ the Lord” say the angels.

The second you hear at Easter – “Today you will be with me in paradise” says Jesus to the dying thief.

And the third is right here. “Today salvation has come to this house… for the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

Are you lost? Do what Zacchaeus did. Come to Christ today! Why put it off?

Ending

Let me draw to a close. When the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912, the ship’s owners, the White Star Line, placed two noticeboards outside its offices in Liverpool. They were marked “Known to be saved” and “Known to be lost.” As each passenger’s fate was confirmed, their name was added to one or other of the boards. The same is true eternally for a world drowning in guilt: either your name is in God’s Book of Life (known to be saved) or it is not.

If this day, God forbid, were to be your last, would you be known to be saved or known to be lost?

I watched a video this summer on an online news site about a petty criminal called Arthur Booth in a Miami court for burglary. And the Judge Mindy Glazer says to him, “One question for you, sir. Did you go to Nautilus for Middle School?” And he looks at her and recognises her and just loses it right there. He breaks down and starts sobbing, saying over and over again, “oh my goodness!” 

She says, with a smile, “I always wondered what happened to you. And looking around she says, “This was the nicest kid, the best kid, in middle school. I used to play football with him. And look what’s happened to him.” Then she shuffles her papers, looks right at him and says, “I hope you’re able to change your ways. Good luck, you’re free to go. Live a better life.”

That’s what Jesus does every day. This is a little booklet called Why Jesus? There are copies in the foyer and on the information stand. Please do take one. It’s free. And there’s a prayer in the back, which you can pray and through which you too can encounter Jesus - today.

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 16 October 2016

Leadership in the Church (1 Timothy 3.1-13)

Well now, in a week that has seen appalling lewdness in the private conversations of a candidate for the US presidency, and our main parliamentary opposition party is largely declining to serve under its leader and two British members of the European parliament reportedly had a scuffle that put one of them in hospital, the theme for today’s talk is leadership.

The New Testament has little to say about the qualities necessary for political leadership. But it does say much about the qualities required for leadership in the church. And the letters to Timothy and Titus is where we find a lot of what it says.

A vicar was leaving his parish and he was saying farewell to his congregation at the church doors for the last time. He shook the hand of an elderly lady called Mavis as she walked out. She said, "Your successor won't be as good as you." This was, he thought, the first encouraging word he’d had in all his ten years in the parish.

But it was a nice thing to say, and he was very flattered. But vicars have to be modest and self-effacing don’t they? They can’t let praise go to their heads. So he said, "Oh, nonsense Mavis!” "No, really", she said, "Your successor definitely won't be as good as you. I've had five different ministers since I’ve been here, and each new one has been much worse than the last."

We’re looking at Paul’s first letter to Timothy again this morning and we’re particularly interested today in what it has to say about leadership.

Listening to some of my clergy colleagues I sometimes get the impression that the secret of leadership is to keep the four guys who hate you away from the five who are still undecided.

Trip Lee once said “You cannot follow Jesus and be liked by everybody at the same time.” Which is true, but giving gratuitous offence just because you’re the vicar doesn’t always help either!

In the letters to Timothy and Titus, Paul uses four different words to describe church leaders in the earliest churches. The words in Greek are -

Apostolos, episkopos, presbuteros and diakonos.

The apostoloi were church-founding pioneers, who never stayed in one place all that long. Their job was to get a church started, appoint leaders, then move off and start another one somewhere else. They always worked in apostolic teams and in our Bibles they are called apostles.

The episkopoi were spiritual supervisors of a local congregation and are always referred to in the plural because they too always worked in leadership teams. In our Bibles they are called overseers.

The presbuteroi were also spiritual leaders of one congregation and, once again, they only worked in leadership teams. In our Bibles they are called elders. It doesn’t mean they had to be old and decrepit; it means they had experience and were mature in outlook.

In point of fact, episkopos and presbuteros were one and the same thing; the two words describe the same people; episkopos describes what they do (they provide oversight) and presbuteros describes what they’re like (they are mature Christians of good character).

Finally, diakonoi were also recognised leaders who excelled in practical tasks. They too were always local church based and, yet again, always worked in teams. In our Bibles diakonos is translated deacon.

These terms (apostle, overseer, elder and deacon) all sound rather official but, in fact, these words were not theological-sounding titles. They were every day, non-technical terms, which simply meant envoy, supervisor or foreman, mature person and helper or support.

Greek	NIV Bible Translation	Basic Meaning
apostolos	apostle	envoy
episkopos presbuteros	overseer elder	supervisor/foreman mature
diakonos	deacon	support worker

There are two important things to say about all these words.

Firstly, all New Testament ministry, without exception, was team-based. There is not the faintest hint anywhere in the New Testament of one-man or one-woman ministry. Jesus sent his disciples out in twos. Paul was always with Timothy, or Silas, or Barnabas; never alone. Every church had several leaders. Healthy church leadership means teams.

One thing that should be said to every newly ordained minister as soon as the Bishop’s hands have left his or her head is this: “God has already appointed his Messiah, and it’s not you.”

In fact, I am so against this one-person-doing-it-all model that I decided to write a poem against it. 

 

Mary had a little lamb, 'twas given her to keep,

It got ordained a parish priest, then died for lack of sleep.

The sermons that it preached each week were a total waste of bleating

And Mary's lamb spent endless hours attending every meeting.

It preached and sang and cooked and typed and cleaned and served the Lord

Not seeing there were other lambs available and bored.

So when your vicar’s burning out and splitting at the seams

Show him the New Testament, how they always worked in teams.

Not exactly Tennyson, but it made me feel much better...

The second important thing to say about these words is that there is no hint whatsoever that New Testament church leaders were ever called, or considered to be, priests. In fact, the Apostle Peter made it crystal clear that all Christians, not just the leaders, are equally part of a new, royal priesthood.

The word episkopos evolved into our English word bishop, and presbuteros morphed into our English word priest, that’s why we still use that word.

But I am not a priest in the sense of an intermediary standing between God and the people. I have been ordained a priest in the sense of "elder;" an experienced, mature leader. Speaking amongst friends, if I'm totally honest, I think it's a confusing and misleading business and, if I had my way, we would ditch the word "priest" for all ordained ministers today. I never use the word. And while I'm at it, I also think we should scrap calling bishops "My Lord." There is only one Lord - and his name is Jesus.

What is clear is that God calls leaders to serve in his church and they are each given authority to provide direction and organisation.

The emphasis in the New Testament is on church leaders, not controlling the church, but releasing it, so that everyone can excel in using the gifts they have been given by God.

To finish my poem on a happy note:

Mary had a little lamb, who trained the local church

So all the lambs could use their gifts, not one was in the lurch

Everything grew wonderfully, the flock was doing fine

And Mary's lamb lived to the ripe old age of ninety-nine.

As you must have noticed in the reading, 1 Timothy 3 sets out some qualifying criteria for church leadership. There is no mention whatsoever of natural talents. (You might be thinking, “Well, that explains a lot!”) There is nothing here about academic qualifications either. All the qualities listed here are about good character. That’s what God is looking for.

In v1 it says it is good to have an ambition for church leadership. It is a noble task. It is an excellent thing. It certainly is. Two years ago, The Office for National Statistics compared hundreds of different careers and occupations. Vicar came out as the number one occupation for job satisfaction, the most enjoyable and rewarding occupation of all. Incidentally, pub landlord was rock bottom at 274th out of 274. 

In v2-7, the personal qualities include integrity, moderation, insight, an open home to people with needs, and the ability to teach. Negatively, it says that a leader in church should avoid four “a”s. They should not be alcoholic, aggressive, argumentative or avaricious.

That’s personal qualities. There are domestic qualities too: leaders in church should, if married, have a married life that is in line with God’s pattern, be respected outside church, be seen to be able to manage the more limited sphere of the family first, and not be recent convert – lest they let it go to their heads and become proud.

Those are the kinds of qualities you should expect to see in bishops and clergy.

In v8-13 it talks of deacons, or servant helpers in church. Again, it is all about character. They should be serious (that doesn’t mean lacking a sense of humour, it means not flippant). They should be sober, satisfied with their lot, discreet (not gossips), stable, trustworthy and have a sound grasp of Christian teaching.

That’s an impressive list. But it’s not an impossible standard. It may be demanding, and it should be, but it is not unattainable. You don’t have to be the Archangel Gabriel to qualify.

Let me end by talking about the ancient Romans and a tradition they had because it illustrates very well the serious responsibility and the humble servanthood that I think characterise Christian leadership.

Whenever one of their engineers constructed an arch, as the capstone was hoisted into place, the engineer assumed responsibility for his work in the most profound way possible: he stood underneath.

May the Lord bless his church with leaders who build carefully, do a proper job, take responsibility for their work and give Christ the glory.

Let's pray...


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 9 October 2016

Faith: Sure of What We Hope For (Hebrews 11.1-7)

Introduction

There was a very cautious man who never travelled fast.

He wouldn’t risk a step of faith; it was safety first and last.

And when, one day, he passed away, his insurance was denied,

For since he’d never really lived, they claimed he’d never died.

I don’t know who wrote that poem, it’s anonymous, but it’s perfect for opening this series on faith. We’re going to be going through Hebrews 11, on and off, until the end of November.

Why a series on faith? We’ve all got faith, haven’t we? We hear every day about faith but it’s not the faith God is looking for. There’s talk of faith communities, faith schools, interfaith initiatives, faith-based charities and all the rest of it, but that’s just a new way of saying “religion.”

Someone said to me this week, “The answer to the question ‘do all religions lead to God?’ is no. Not because some do and some don’t, but because no religion leads to God.”

When we talk about “faith” over these next couple of months, we’re not talking about belonging to a religion. We’re talking about daily trust in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life.

People say, “I haven’t got much faith; it’s all very vague for me.” But faith is not clarity, it’s not sight, it’s not knowledge. Faith doesn’t know the future, but it knows the one who does.

Hebrews 11 is all about faith. The word appears 27 times in this one chapter and you find the words “by faith” 22 times. Hebrews 11 is a guide on the sort of thing living by faith involves.

If I had to sum up Hebrews 11 in a few lines, I’d say it’s all about people in the Old Testament; seventeen are named personally, who were given the land of Canaan but were never content with it. They were yearning for a better country. They were hoping for something more. They were looking ahead into the future to something - or someone - who would fulfil all their spiritual longings, and when Jesus came, he was it. None of them lived to see him, but they never gave up looking until the day they died.

We too, as Christians, are people who long for more. Many Christians say that they don’t quite feel at home on this earth. We don’t totally belong. We’re misfits. People think we’re a bit weird. They’re probably right!

I have a brother called Richard and a sister called Fran, neither of whom are Christians. I feel like a spare part whenever I’m with them. They don’t understand me and I never feel at home in their company. In many ways, I feel a closer family tie to you and all Christians worldwide. You’re my family, and this is home.

I’ve got a United Kingdom passport. So this is where I’m from, and there are things I like about my country, but I don’t feel I completely belong here. My patriotism feels stronger for God’s kingdom than for the United Kingdom. Hebrews 13.14 says, “We do not have [on earth] an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”

So it’s as if I’m just passing through here. I’m like a traveller with no fixed abode. Is it just me? Do you ever feel like that? Well, faith gives us rights of citizenship of a heavenly country.

Definition

Hebrews 11 starts (v1) with a definition of faith. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

You might be saying to yourself “I’m never sure or certain about anything. I’m riddled with doubts.” Do you ever say that?

Martin Ayers wrote a really good book on dealing with doubt called Keep the Faith. And in this book, he asks you to imagine that you’re on jury service for an important trial.

“You arrive on the first day and you sit there with other members of the public. You see all the same things and hear all the same evidence. Speeches are made, witnesses are called, exhibits are passed around, and right from the start, you think it’s fairly clear. The defendant is guilty.

Each day of the trial leaves you more and more convinced. The evidence is overwhelming – stacked against him. By the time you listen to the closing arguments, you think it’s a dead certainty. And then comes decision time. You and your eleven fellow jurors gather in the jury room. As you sit down, people are already saying what you expected them to say. “Well, it’s fairly straightforward isn’t it?” “No question in my mind.”

But then a shocking truth begins to dawn on you. Everybody else is convinced the other way. Every one of them thinks he didn’t do it... You pluck up the courage to say what you think and mention that you think he’s guilty, and the others gaze at you with astonishment. A few of them appear angry – they’re aghast at the way they think you’ve misread the facts.”

That’s a bit like how it feels to be a Christian in the modern world. Everyone else seems to think you’ve lost the plot. Such is the overwhelming tide of opinion against Christian truth, the environment we live in can feel daunting. No wonder we wobble!

But faith is being sure of what we hope for. The word ‘hope’ in English is a tentative, abstract kind of word. Is it going to be sunny tomorrow? I hope so. In England, that means, “who knows?” Basically, “I hope” is indistinguishable from “I wish.”

But the New Testament (in Hebrews 6) describes hope, not as a lottery ticket, but as an anchor. Anchors are never made of porcelain or papier maché; they’re usually cast iron; they’re weighty, they’re solid, they’re built to endure. They’ve got to be up to the job of securing a 400,000 ton fully-loaded super tanker from being dragged off its mooring by powerful tides and currents.

If someone asks you, “Are you going to heaven?” how would you reply? Some people say, “I hope so, fingers crossed, touch wood, if I’m lucky, we don’t know, do we?” Ask a ship’s crew if they think their vessel is going to stay where it is after they winch down a 30 ton solid steel anchor and sink it into the sea bed!

Faith is being sure of our anchors. It’s not optimism, or positive thinking. It’s not about being sure of ourselves, it’s being certain of what we don’t see; it’s about trusting in God.

Faith is not, “I’ll wait and see how things turn out before I decide whether I believe or not.” Faith is “I’m going to believe now, I’m going to give my life to this, even though I can’t see absolutely every consequence.”

Faith in Creation

Verse 3: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

Where did everything come from? What’s it for? How did it get here? The answer is we don’t know; we weren’t there. Even John/Bill wasn’t there. Creation has never been replicated so we can’t analyse a repeat occurrence of it. These are facts beyond our ability to know for sure, so we have to take someone else’s word for it.

Imagine someone suddenly threw a ball into this space from the narthex behind you and ran off before you noticed it. With science you could calculate the distance the ball travelled and its rate of deceleration before it stopped. You could gauge the height it bounced, you could weigh it and measure it, and you could determine what it was made of. But you couldn’t tell who threw it.

This is what scientists have worked out about our origins:

About 13.75 billion years ago, in a spontaneous explosion called the Big Bang, everything came into being from nothing. Nine billion years later, the Earth formed when masses of very hot matter got pulled together by gravity to form a sphere.

It cooled down over time and now happens to be the optimal size for a life-sustaining planet. The earth’s mass has enough gravitational pull to support an atmosphere, but if it were much bigger its gravitational force would press mountain ranges down submerging the entire landmass under water. Our planet spins at just the right speed, is just the right distance from the sun, and has just the right mix of gases in the upper and lower atmospheres to allow flora and fauna to co-exist, and has a powerful enough magnetic field to deflect harmful solar wind.

Over a vast period of time, and by the most unlikely chain of lucky breaks, the heap of diverse elements, scattered chaotically over the world’s surface when it formed, somehow got it together. It just so happened that there was an ideal environment at the right temperature and the right atmospheric pressure for all this to give birth to something.

By a series of extremely complex chemical reactions, primitive cells eventually formed, each one made up of a million, million atoms, all in just the right arrangement. Amino acids and enzymes just happened to develop together at the same time and in the same place. Not only did these cells form, they also began to successfully reproduce themselves.

Even this ultra-primitive life had long and highly complex genetic information. Francis Crick, who co-discovered DNA, said, “The origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.”

That’s what science knows about the origins of the earth. It’s brilliant. It’s ingenious. But it can’t tell you what or who brought it all about.

It’s by faith, not by sight, we understand that something was made out of nothing, “that the universe was formed at God’s command.” It’s by faith that we understand that God had only to speak for energy and matter and time to come into existence.

When I used to do homework with my children, they would sometimes struggle over something. As long as it wasn’t long division, which I still can’t do, I tried to explain as best I could, but I could sometimes tell that I wasn’t helping much. So I would try to explain again in a slightly different way and then, suddenly, there’d be a lightbulb moment and they’d understand what I meant.

That’s what it’s like with creation. You understand with your mind as the Holy Spirit gives you understanding. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

With the illumination of the Holy Spirit, it is no big deal believing that God created everything out of nothing. Once you know God, it doesn’t really surprise you at all. “Creator God of earth and sea and sky, our awesome God.” He is grand scale, almighty, omnipotent, all-powerful, and pre-eminently supreme. It’s what you’d expect of him.

I think all the science points compellingly to a creator. The more I read science, the more it strengthens my faith.

Justin Brierley, writing in Premier Christianity magazine in April wrote this about the science of our origins: (You have to concentrate a bit to get what he’s saying).

“Some 30 or so fundamental numbers, such as the force of gravity, the rate of the expansion of the universe and the ratio of electrons to protons in the universe, are so exquisitely balanced that the tiniest fluctuation from their actual value would mean that a life-permitting universe could not exist.

The odds of the finely tuned universe we live in coming about by chance are so unlikely that it’s difficult to conceive of the astronomically large numbers involved.

US Physicist Hugh Ross gives a helpful analogy for visualising the ratio of electrons to protons as sensitive to the degree of one part in 10³⁷. ‘Cover the entire North American continent in dimes all the way up to the moon, a height of about 239,000 miles. Next, pile dimes all the way up to the moon on a billion other continents… Paint one dime red and mix it in the billions of piles of dimes. Blindfold a friend and ask him to pick out one dime. The odds that he will pick the red dime are one in 10³⁷.’

These then are the odds of the correct ratio of electrons to protons arising by chance. [And without the ratio being exactly so, life cannot exist.] When you combine all the other (even more improbable) odds of the [30 or so] other fundamental forces together, it becomes difficult to believe that our life-permitting universe is a product of chance.”

I love this stuff! And we need to understand that faith doesn’t contradict reason. Reason can coexist with faith but you cannot argue someone by brilliant logic into the kingdom of God. You can help them overcome some intellectual obstacles, but you can’t make someone believe by force of argument.

Faith in God at Work

Verse 2 says that the ancients were commended for their faith and then there’s a whole list of people, most of whom were very fallible, and had major crises of faith. The whole Bible is like this. God has chosen to reveal truth mostly in narrative, in real situations, through people’s triumphs and failures - not in philosophical platitudes.

I have about two dozen biographies of great men and women of faith at home; books about Smith Wigglesworth, John Wesley, Thomas Cranmer, and William Tyndale.

I’ve got books by, or about, more recent giants of faith like Rachel Scott and Cassie Bernall (who were shot dead in the Columbine High School massacre after refusing to deny Christ), and Brother Andrew, Bilquis Sheikh (a Muslim woman of noble birth who met Jesus in dreams) and Jackie Pullinger. These too were, or are, ordinary people but their lives inspire me to live with greater faith. I’d commend reading a good Christian biography to encourage your faith.

Faith is as old as humanity. There was faith in the first family. If Adam was the first to lose his faith, his son Abel (v4) was the first to find it. Abel lived by faith because he had a right attitude towards God, unlike his brother Cain. Is your attitude right towards God today? Are you open to him working in your life?

Enoch lived by faith (v5). He didn’t just live for God. He walked with God. There was intimacy, friendship. Step by step, every day, Enoch knew experienced God beside him. Would you describe yourself as a friend of God? Do you need to grow closer to him?

Then it says (v6) “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Noah lived by faith (v6). He built a ship in dry desert miles from the sea and where it never rained. But he believed that when God said, it would happen. Half-hearted Christians never live by faith. They structure their lives so that they never have to.

Jesus said that what happened in Noah’s day is going to happen again. When he returns, he said “people will be busy going about their lives, mostly ignoring God.” Jesus is coming again to judge the living and the dead. Do you believe him?

Ending

I’d better end. Maybe I should close with an encouragement.

Jesus’ 12 disciples exasperated him practically daily. They walked around with Jesus for three years, watched him feed the 5,000, saw him walk on water, heal the sick, turn water into wine, restore sight to the blind, cleanse lepers, calm a storm, get paraplegics back on their feet, raise the dead and do the same things themselves, even then they ran away at his arrest, denied him at his trial and refused to believe when he rose from the dead. No wonder Jesus often castigated them for their lack of faith. They were champions of doubt and unbelief.

But he never gave up on them. You haven’t seen half of what they saw. And he won’t give up on you either.

So without faith, it is impossible to please God. But acts of stepping out in faith do please him. He loves it. Whenever Jesus did see faith, he commended it and power was released. “Woman, you have great faith” he said to the Caananite woman, and signs and wonders followed.

Faith is what sets us apart from the rest of the world. What, specifically, are you doing in your life that requires you to take a step of faith?

Let’s go for it – and ask God to release his power as we step out.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 2 October 2016