30TH ANNIVERSARY - ONE THING

Dear Christ our Shepherd Family,

To write that greeting is to be failed with joy because of your love for Jesus, for fellow believers and for the work to which God has called us. However, it causes us, as your pastor, to search my heart and weigh my words before the Lord, so that I pass on to you that which I have received from Him.

Do you sometimes feel a bit like a kindergartener? There is so much to learn, but I want to encourage you! The Holy Spirit will be our teacher, and we will mature together in every facet of our corporate life, and we will graduate one day in the presence of the Lord. The apostle Peter reminded his flock that “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example” .(1 Peter 2:21) The word used here for “example” is the word for a tracing over which young students would write, in order to learn to from their letters and their writings style so that they could communicate legibly. Christ, our good Shepherd, sacrificed his life for our church and in doing so he has left an indelible outline of the truth for every area of our life. Like young children, our attempts to follow this tracing may be a bit wobbly at first, and we conform more closely to his master-line, then our presentation of his life to our community will become more legible and therefore more intelligent. Truly we will become an epistle read of all. When Gavin comes to me and shows me his latest attempt at writing, I love to tell him how proud I am of his efforts.

I believe that the Lord Jesus wants us to know that he is pleased with the way we have begun and that he will continue to help us with any “wobbles” that we may discern in our individual or corporate lives. Father God’s intention is not that we form some thing, but that we conform to someone, that more nearly we become like the Lord Jesus who is the perfect ABC for life.

This morning I read a feature article in The Washington Post entitled,” The Fundamentals of Disillusionment,” commenting on the heartsickness in the nation caused by the combined effects of the PTL revelations, the Iran-scam investigations and the demise of Gray Hart’s presidential ambitions. The author was emphasizing the subversion of trust in spiritual and political leadership that has occurred.

“For many Americans , the air these days is so thick with disillusionment, it ca take one’s breath away…. The aftermath of shattered faith rarely adds up to more than a pervasive sense of despair and gloom.”

The prayers that we offered on Sunday for the leadership of Church and nation must be maintained and amplified. Lets make the heart of this church a resting place for the burden of God’s heart for our nation.

CHRIST OUR SHEPHERD
May 10, 1987 : 2:30p.m

MESSSAGE OUTLINE : Pastor Stuart McAlpine

At a time when there are so many things to do, and they all seem equally pressing, let us heed the Chief Shepherd’s voice and allow his Spirit to remind us of . . .

“ONE THING”

1. “One thing is needed . . . “ (Luke 10:42)
   DEVOTION: developing intimacy

2. “One thing I do know . . . “(John 9:25)
   DISCERNMENT: developing knowledge

3. “One thing I ask . . . “(Psalms 27:4)
   DESIRE: developing affections

4. “One thing you lack . . .”(Luke 18:22)
   DISCIPLESHIP: developing character

5. “One thing I do . . .”(Philippians 3:13)
   DIRECTION: developing perspective

6. “Don’t forget this one thing . . .”(2 Peter 3 :8)
   DESTINY: developing watchfulness

Pastorally yours,

Stuart McAlpine

BECAUSE HE IS RISEN, I...

Dearest Family,

Christ is Risen indeed! However, as I reminded you on Sunday, this confession with all its consequent convictions is not limited to Easter Day on the liturgical calendar. There is no manifestation of Christian life or any gathering of Christians anywhere, that is not premised on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that does not proclaim His living presence. So, what is actually different about Easter Sunday to any other gathering on any other Sunday, apart from the fact that you dress a little bit smarter? In truth, not much at all. But clearly, there is a historic component of this gathering at this particular time of year, at Passover, and there is an apologetic component, that begs to be addressed, that invites us to an annual catechism about some essential spiritual facts. The truth is that every Sunday, every first day of the week, is the memorialization and the celebration of the resurrection, and in fact, derives its very existence and meaning from the history of the “first day of the week” event as it is described in the gospels. The intensity and the authenticity of our worship should be no more or less on Easter day than on any other day.

But doesn’t Easter Sunday deserve and require some kind of special focus? Indeed, it does. Like Christmas Day, this day was once a pagan festival that was spiritualized. The very word Easter is a derivation of Oestre, the pagan goddess of fertility. Also like Christmas-tide, it became a Christian festival, but has now been repaganized, as spring fertility rites replace spiritual liturgies; chocolate bunnies displace sacraments, and the wonder elicited by the re-emergence of cherry blossoms outruns the awe at the resurrection of Christ. The most public expression of the cross is in the mention of hot-cross buns. Having said all that, today does present us with a clear opportunity, without fleshly fuss, finesse or fanfare, to state the non-negotiably true and obvious fact of the gospel – we go unashamedly public with the creedal proclamation of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. But what can be minimally said of such magnitude, such majesty, such magnificence? What I decided to do last Sunday was to remind you of what scripture tells us has happened, is now in effect, is now available, is now descriptive of our lives and deaths, because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.

The very first recorded sermon of the early church sets the pattern and example (Acts 2:22-36) and the core of Peter’s preaching here is repeated by Paul in his proclamation (Acts 13: 26-36). I suggested that you do an Easter devotional, and take time to slowly go through Peter’s meticulous three-point sermon that answers three questions:

1. What actually happened? Historical evidence for the resurrection: “Jesus of Nazareth was … God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of the fact” (v22, 32);

2. What does it mean? The spiritual and theological meaning of the resurrection: “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose … God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ.” (vs 23, 36);

3. How does it relate to me? The personal application: “When the people heard this they were cut to the heart … repent and be baptized.” (vs 37-40).

Christian faith takes history seriously; it takes facts and truth seriously. The objective historicity of the gospels (literally testimonies) and the facts about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and exaltation are foundational to faith. The grounds for belief are important. Present faith cannot be divided from past facts. The Jesus of the heart cannot be divided from the Jesus of history. That is why it is important to have reliable witnesses. To subvert Christianity you have to subvert all the witnesses, which of course includes every professing Christian there has ever been over the last two thousand years. The ball is in the unbelievers’ court. Paul reels off a list of some of these witnesses in 1 Cors.15: the witness of saints, the witness of scripture, the witness of sermons, the witness of sight, the witness of circumstance, and last but not least, the witness of self: “and he appeared also to me!” (v.8) By the way, don’t forget that according to his own testimony, it was the April 18, 2017 truth of the resurrection that led to Paul’s arrest and martyrdom: “With respect to the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you this day” – these were his words to the Sanhedrin. Paul gave his life for the truth about Jesus’ resurrection.

These same witnesses must continue to speak and be heard today, especially as the resurrection inevitably attracts such disbelief and despising from those who believe there is nothing beyond a naturalistic or materialist explanation to anything and everything. There is a wide range of antagonistic or antipathetic responses to the facts of the resurrection, that includes:

• the presentation of resurrection as fraudulent invention, as fanciful imagination, as fanatical interpretation;

• the presentation of resurrection as myth, as magic, as metaphor;

• the presentation of resurrection as an experience of presence, as an expression of potentiality, as an expectation of possibility.

• The attempts and theories to discredit the evidence are familiar: unknown tomb, wrong tomb, hallucination, Passover Plot, resuscitation theory, stolen body, criminal invention.

Forget the problems posed by: the Roman guard, a two-ton door, an empty tomb, 100lbs of spice and an absent body. Ignore the overwhelming circumstantial evidence: hundreds of eye-witnesses, changed disciples, worship, eucharist, baptism, mission, the church. But above all the rationalistic and agnostic chatter comes another voice: “I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?” (Jn. 11:25)

It is Jesus’ own testimony about His resurrection that is most crucial. You cannot have the rest of Jesus’ teaching without His words about His resurrection. His view of His own mission, His prophecies about his own death and resurrection, are both rooted in earlier prophecy but also corroborative of those prophecies. Jesus' prophecies of His Resurrection litter the gospels.

Jesus not only predicted His Resurrection but He also emphasized that His Resurrection from the dead would be the prophetic "sign" to authenticate His claim that He is the Messiah! Yeshua HaMaschiach! On Sunday, I reminded you that at every step of the story of Holy Week there was a repeated phrase: “that the scriptures might be fulfilled.” So the key issue on Easter day is not about what a pastor should say about the resurrection, but what does the scripture say?

So why is the resurrection central to faith? What does scripture say are the consequences of the resurrection for us, for all, for now and forever? I asked you a question at the beginning of my message: what difference does the resurrection actually make to your present life? I gave you over 40 scriptural answers that complete the sentence: BECAUSE JESUS WAS RAISED, I… How many of them can you remember according to scripture? Search the scriptures yourself, or in homegroup. (OK, or download the message!) It might just make for a “happy day”!

With rising expectations,

Stuart

THE SUBSTANCE OF OUR HOPE

Dearest Family,

I really want to encourage you, so here goes! The Lord is coming soon and will come down from heaven and we will be with the Lord forever. I also want to encourage you to know that the day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. The reason He died for us is so that we may live together with Him when He comes. I really hope you felt built up by that because that’s what Paul said the outcome should be (1Thessalonians 4:18; 5;10). What is interesting is that Paul prefaces his teaching about our going and His coming (titles of my last two messages during Lent) with the words: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). These convictions are the fruit of the resurrection, which is why I have been arguing the last two messages that this is such an important part of the Easter message. You will need to listen to the message to get all the content. I gave three main points so was really encouraged when someone told me afterwards they got the four points! Someone else told me that they wanted my notes as I was going too quickly. Actually, they confessed that their mind was not as absorptive as it used to be.

Fundamental to a Christian’s hope in a hopeless culture is the truth about the next Advent, the second coming of Christ. Just read the ways it is described throughout the NT. It is “our joyous hope” (Rom.5:2; 12:12); a non-disappointing hope (Rom.5:5); "our comforting hope" (Rom.15:4); “a righteous hope” (Gal.5:5); “our glorious hope” (Col.1:27); "our good hope" (2 Thess.2:16). It is “our hope” (1 Tim.1:1); it is “our blessed hope” (Tit.2:13); "our eternal hope" (Tit.3:7); "our assured hope" (Hebr.6:11); "our sure and steadfast hope” (Hebr.6:19); "our better hope” (Hebr.7:19); "our living hope” (1 Pet.1:3); "our gracious hope” (1 Pet.1:13); "our defensible hope" (1 Pet.3:15) Just a study of all those adjectives will tell you all the fruits you can experience in your present life as you anticipate that future coming: joy, confidence, righteousness, glory, goodness, assurance, steadfastness, grace, protection and on and on.

Let’s make the foundational point. It is impossible to be a Christian without a conviction and passion for this hope. Why? Well, you have to understand the nature of our salvation. The scriptures say that “in hope we are saved” (Romans 8:24). From the moment, we were saved it was unto this hope. This is not an additive, and not just something for the keen types. Future hope is what our salvation is all about. How is it that it so easily slips off the radar? How can anyone live a Christian life without being aware of this future, and being aware of this future, not be changed from glory to glory?

If you like, we are experiencing Salvation Part One. Now Part One is glorious enough, and it is hard to believe that there is even more, but there is so much more. By faith we have indeed been justified, we enjoy the forgiveness of our sins, and revel in the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the evidence of all his fruits and gifts and transforming works. We have already obtained so much but there is also much that is yet to be attained. There are two particular areas of incompletion.

• The first has to do with our continuing tendency to sin, and our longing to be free of our sin in every possible way.

• The second has to do with the nature of our physical bodies. Paul says we groan in these tabernacles, and of course, some groan more than others!

So, there are two things we long for, and these two things will be realized when our salvation is complete. When we see him we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. We will experience the glorious liberty of the children of God and with the freedom we have longed for, render God our perfect service. Our mortal bodies will be quickened by his spirit, we will be raised a spiritual body: in other words, our bodies will be the perfect match for our spirits.

This hope for God’s future, for the fulfillment of all that we were created to be and know and experience forever, came with the very reception of the Holy Spirit when we were first saved. Hope came. This is why we are always longing, always believing, rightly, that there is more than we have tasted, always experiencing more, as the Lord draws us deeper into the experience of His kingdom come, and His kingdom coming. From the moment we were saved, this promise of fulfillment was secured for us, and in fact, so sure is it, that we actually live as if it has already been obtained. So, despite the limitations of our tendency to April 4, 2017 sin, the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit that prepares us in holiness for here, is preparing us but for what is to come, and this is our daily victorious experience; and despite the limitations of mortality, the power of God is at work to transform us, to heal our bodies and deliver us, as the kingdom of God comes to us now, expressing the nature of God’s eternal love and power towards us. Our healings and deliverances are incredible expressions of this hope, and it is interesting the way that all such encounters with God deepen the longing for that which is to come. This is so important in that our hope protects us from ever making our miracle or deliverance a stopping place, as if that’s all there is to it. Jesus came, but Jesus comes now, even as surely as He will come again. On the basis of the first advent, Jesus came, Jesus comes to us now because of his finished work, by the power of the Holy Spirit that he left for us; and that same Spirit fuels our hope for that which is still to come – Jesus will come again.

Romans 8:23-25 is an important passage. “We ourselves who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved.” Here there are no less than five affirmations that we are hoping for in the fullness of our coming salvation, which Paul tells the Romans is nearer now than when we first believed.

1. First fruits: this is what Paul describes to the Ephesians as the down payment, the first installment that is the guarantor of what is to come, the foretaste of future glory.

2. We groan inwardly: the presence of the Spirit is a reminder of incompletion, as we long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling (2 Corinthians 5:2-4)

3. Wait for adoption as sons / redemption of our bodies: we are going to be fully revealed as His children and our bodies are going to be like His glorious body.

4. In this hope we were saved: saved in hope of complete freedom

5. We wait patiently: the Christian posture is one of waiting. Patience is an organic intrinsic necessity. It goes with the territory. Aren’t you relieved it is a fruit of the Spirit? That is built into our backbone as it were. We are by definition “waiters”. We live between the times.

This expectation of the second coming, absolutely dominated the vista for the early Christian community.

• Jesus Himself spoke of it: Mark 8:38 “when he comes in his Father’s glory with his angels”; Mark 13:26 “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.”; Matthew 25:31-32: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne, and he will separate them from one another”; John 14:1-4 “I will come back and take you with me.”

• His disciples were promised that “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Apostolic preaching continually made the point: Acts 3:19-21 “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything.” Acts 17:31 “He has set a day when he will judge the world by the man he has appointed.”

• References in the epistles are numerous. Paul reminded the Philippians that “our conversation is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20 NAS; compare1 Corinthians 15: 51-54; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, 2:19, 4:13-18; 1 Timothy 6:14). Christ “will appear a second time… to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28 NRSV).

• Revelation begins and ends with a reference to Christ's return. “Behold, he cometh with clouds” (Rev. 1:7). “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

The substance of the hope which will be realized in the future is described in so many different ways. Christians will “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21 NRSV); realize their hope of “righteousness” (Galatians 5:5); be “transformed into his likeness” (2 Corinthians 3: 12-18 REB; compare1 John 3: 1-3); acquire possession of the inheritance (Ephesians 1:14), and experience the resurrection of the body (1 Corinthians 15:21, 1 Corinthians 15: 15-25) Well, that’s the introduction and now you need to go listen to the message! This hope effects three things for us: it is cleansing, it is comforting and it is committing. Do you have this hope in you? Are you cleansed by it? Are you comforted by it? Are you committed by it? Are you free of fear about your eternal destiny and destination?

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our savior – be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. (Jude 24-25). May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom.15:13).

Eschatologically yours,

Stuart

CONFORMED OR TRANSFORMED

Dear Family,

On Sunday, I was arguing that you cannot deal Christianly with present culture unless you do so from the perspective of our future heavenly culture. For many believers, it is one thing to find a way to think biblically about the issues we are facing and address them; it is another to avoid the process of personal and communal accommodation, leading to assimilation, where we are the ones being shaped by culture, not shaping it. Richard Niebuhr spoke of a professing church that would end up presenting “a God without wrath bringing men without sins into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” There is a big difference between being culturalized, in the sense that you understand present cultural issues, and are informed and engaged as a Christian, with a Christian mind, and being enculturated, essentially marked and influenced more by culture than by Christ.

Faith has been deemed increasingly irrelevant as a result of a process that we call secularization, and a religion that we call the philosophy of secularism. The dynamics of rationalization, reason replacing revelation, are the order of the day. Sadly, we have witnessed an evangelical community, whatever that term means now, that has functioned for decades without a Christian mind and consequently become increasingly this-world minded, or just plain worldly. For all the sadness and danger of our culture wars and societal breakdowns, the dismantling of the fusion between Christianity and Americanism is to be welcomed. America, the Republican Party and Capitalism are not the holy trinity of the kingdom of God. Continuing to hide behind the excuses that always blame the adversarial nastiness of the liberal media (and it is nasty!) will not do if we are to engage our culture effectively. Guinness writes: “Failing to think Christianly, evangelicals have been forced into the role of cultural imitators and adapters rather than originators. In biblical terms it is to be worldly…” Add to that a charismatic and Pentecostal community that sadly put apart what God intended to function together, namely spirit and mind. The consequent anti-intellectualism was just another form of worldliness. As John Stott put it: “To denigrate the mind is to undermine foundational Christian doctrines.”

We must heed Paul’s injunction to the Romans, not to be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind. To love the world is a blatant denial of the life that is in us, and is a commitment to what has a shelf life and is passing away. C.S.Lewis once said: “A man should never give all his heart to anything which will end when his life ends.” I just mentioned mortality – hold that thought. At a time when we are seeking as Christians to think carefully and prayerfully about matters related to present culture, Lewis’ statement is important. It has been the teaching of the saints throughout history that the essence of worldliness is simply living as if this world and its culture is all that there is. So, at a time when we are considering how our faith relates to present culture, it would be wise to acknowledge that the relation between this world and the next is arguably more important than only understanding how we relate to this world. The epistles address the question of our responses to challenging cultural issues. Paul thinks rightly about these circumstances and gives the reason why we should not lose heart amidst such opposition and cultural decline. “Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.” What’s the link here? He is drawing attention to one of the great evidences of unspiritual thisworldliness, that lives and functions as if this life is the real thing, and the life to come is ethereal and ephemeral and abstract. We treat present life as if it is so material and substantial but in fact it is the shadowlands. We are the ones who appear to the angelic hosts as unreal and vaporous and incomplete. A final word from Lewis again: “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

This was how I was trying to set-up my meditation that had relevance to how faith relates to present culture, that related to Bo’s series on judgment, and that related to Lent, that includes mortality on its curriculum.

• For a Christian, our considerations of present temporal culture must be made in the light of what is yet to come that is eternal.

• That future raises the issues of judgment.

• Lent begins with a consideration of mortality and the next life as well as a consideration of judgment against sin.

• Easter is the celebration of the triumph of the eternal over the temporal, of life over death, of an eternal future when death too shall die

Now you can download the message!

Maranatha,

Stuart

(2017) ANSWERED ASKING PT. 3

Dearest Family,

No one is surprised when the problems of unanswered asking are raised, but given that answered asking far exceeds what is unanswered, perhaps we should be surprised at how weak our response often is to these answers, whether measured by little gratitude, limited worship, by a lack of appreciation for what was effected and what it took to effect it, or by a lack of consideration about what further responses these answers require of us. The pain of what is unanswered usually shouts louder than the praise for what has been answered. This lack of response to asking when it is answered should be as significant a concern to us as our unanswered asking, and on Sunday, I suggested that we need to stop and take stock once in a while. The first thing that should move us, and uncork our gratitude, is how gracious God is in answering us at all, given the inconsistency and infrequency of our asking, what Spurgeon described as “the intermittent spasms of our importunity.” Just to realize that our weak asking got such a strong response, because of the strength of the One asked, not the one asking, should be sufficient to unstop the wells of worship of the character of God, particularly His kindness and grace. I covered a lot of ground on Sunday, and shared significant meditation from an OT and NT passage: 1 Samuel 1 and Luke 17. I have no space to rehearse all the points, so why don’t you take these passages and make them the subject of your own meditation in homegroup this week, and ask the question: what are the returns of answered asking? The Samuel passage is a brilliant insight into this, illustrating that our answers are not about our gratification but God’s glorification.

We are familiar with Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers, only one of whom “came back” (Luke 17:11- 19). He is described as “praising God in a loud voice.” Given the responsiveness of our Father to what we ask of Him, He should be hearing a lot more noise! I have argued in teaching over many years for a ‘return of asking’ (bringing back specific asking) but what I emphasized on Sunday was that there should be a ‘return’ from our answers, in the same sense as a return on an investment. The words of Jesus have a disturbing echo: “Was no one found to return” (Luke 17:18). If this incident was a rough guide to the returns of our responsiveness to our answer, to the return God gets out of all that He invests in us, then we are all, including God, in a place of sad deficit. Someone might look at this and say, ‘Hey, one in ten ain’t bad – that’s a 10% return on the invested healing power of God!’ Unfortunately, it’s nothing of the kind. They were all healed. It should be seen as a 90% loss. The thought that only one in ten God-given answers may provoke a volley of God-worthy thanksgiving, and God-pleasing returns, is hard to take and unacceptable. The nonreturn of the other nine lepers was an awful and unacceptably bad return on the answer.

My appeal to you was to continue to ask of the Lord, regardless, as all ten lepers did in their need. They were all motivated to be obedient and satisfy the requirement of the law to show themselves to the priest. Of course, grace outran the obedience to the law, and they were all cleansed on the way. But was this going to be a compliance, that obtained for them the answer they wanted, namely their health, or would it be a spiritual obedience that would secure for the Father what Jesus hoped the answer would bring – namely His glory? Goodwin sums it up: “A thing obtained by prayer, as it came from God, so a man will return it to God, and use it for His glory.”

My appeal on Sunday was that we observe and consider the meaning of His answers, as much as we express concern over apparently unanswered prayers. Let us savor and steward the grace January 17, 2017 of His answers, with the expectation that this grace will abound in us more and more, so that our asking and God’s answering will be ceaseless, and all the ‘returns’ will be to His glory, with thanksgiving. Thomas Goodwin was clear: “If you observe not his answers, how shall you bless God and return thanks to him for hearing your prayers? ... The reason you pray so much and give thanks so little is that you observe not God’s answers.” To put it another way, the answer is never the end of the story. The answer that may have ended our need, is but the means to re-introduce us to what our Father God needs of us.

The leper who did offer a return on the answer he received, was referred to by Jesus as a “foreigner” because he was a Samaritan. He should not have qualified for attention, for access to ask. That is a second reason why Jesus should have had nothing to do with him. There are as many good reasons for why Jesus should not answer our asking, as there were for this man. He was a leper so Jesus should have stayed away from him. There was a distance that they shouted over, but believe it or not, Jesus can answer from a distance – even when we are more distant because of our spiritual unhealth. Realize that when he returns to give thanks to Jesus, he is already healed. Yet Jesus says to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (17:19). This was not spoken to any of the other nine, who equally got healed and thus got their answer. I think this is telling us that it is not just all about the answer we wanted and received. That is not in fact the end of it. Only in this returning one, was there the returns of faith, and a personal deepening of relationship with Jesus. The return here was that the ex-leper, in throwing himself at Jesus’ feet, worshiped Him for who He was, not just thanked Him for what He did in the answer He had given.

Nine of the ten did not steward their answer, were not changed as they could and should have been, and their return was simply to life without a deeper revelation of Jesus, to life as was considered normal, or life as it had been before that need. I referred to such ‘bad returns’ on Sunday that can happen after we have received the grace of God’s answers. Having asked for and received the answer of:

• forgiveness, let there not be a return of unforgiveness in towards others, or a return to the confessed sin; 

• revelation let us not return to willful ignorance; 

• blessing on our life let us not return to cursing on our lips; 

• mercy let us not return to mean-spiritedness; 

• joy let us not return to self-piteous misery; 

• assurance let us not return to anxiety;

• faith let us not return to unbelief; 

• cleansing let us not return to compromising; 

• humility let us not return to pridefulness of heart; 

• deliverance, let us not return to a “yoke of bondage”; 

• guidance, let us not return to a pattern of self-direction; 

• provision, let us not return to any indiscipline that accounted for unnecessary lack; 

• wisdom, let us not return like a fool to his folly; 

• escape from ungodly cultural influences, let us not look back like Lot’s wife.

These are clearly bad ‘returns’ on good answers. It is the primary return of thanksgiving that one of the lepers experienced and expressed that is the obvious first response to answered asking, the first return, completing the circle of asking that began with “asking with thanksgiving” (Phil. 4:6). Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” (17:17) Who knows what they returned to, and what returns there were on their miraculous answer. For the nine, there were no Godward returns apparently. Equally, the Lord says to us, “Have you not all received answers to your asking? Where are the returns?”

Inquiringly yours,

Stuart

(2017) UNANSWERED ASKING PT. 2

Dear Family,

Just like us, C.S.Lewis wondered why some of our asking goes unanswered. He wrote: “I have no answer to my problem, though I have taken it to about every Christian I know.” However, although he felt that part of the problem was perhaps his lack of faith, this did not leave him skeptical or cynical about asking. On the contrary. Why? Because he did not actually believe that the refusal of asking, the unanswered asking, was the main issue, as there were so many other possible reasons for unanswered requests. But are there enough reasons to close the gap between our asking and God’s apparent non-answering? Lewis suggested a couple: asking for what is not good, and asking for something, the granting of which, would involve the refusal of another’s request. Though unanswered asking is a permissible discussion, I would argue that there are not enough reasons to close the gap completely. Though I agree with some that there is a reason for every unanswered prayer, I do not believe that they are all discoverable, or that it is even necessary to discover them. The faith that we need to ask is the same faith that we need to be operative when an answer is not forthcoming. Reasons alone will never close the gap.

That agreed, on Sunday I gave a very compact and intense presentation (six messages in one!) of some possible ways to understand unanswered asking that were not intended to be definitive or prescriptive, but an attempt to point out some of the ways of ordering our understanding of unanswered asking, without it being an inflexible classification. There is no way I can do justice to the content of the message in this form, or the range of reference that I employed. Suffice it that I just list the different points.

1. Unlistened to not unanswered (disqualifications) I am referring here to asking that is not answered by God because it is not listened to by God at all, for the reasons given in scripture for a divine refusal to listen, including: choosing other lordship, willful disobedience, meaningless religion, living a double life, refusing compassion to others, disregard for injustice or a denial of justice, appearance without reality, unconfessed and unrepented sin, deliberate rejection of God’s commands, pride, idolatry, ritualistic repetition, unforgiveness, disunity, enmity, hypocrisy, double-mindedness, broken marital relationships, condemnation, not asking according to His will and word, asking with wrong motives, from wrong sources, for wrong things – failure to ask at all.

2. Inappropriate to ask (disavowals) Just as it is allowable to study possible reasons for unanswered asking, it is also sometimes advisable to give a little more forethought to what we are actually asking about, to ensure that what we are asking for is not going to be subject to a divine disavowal, according to the revealed will and word of God. Sometimes, there are more questions we should perhaps ask before asking, that ascertain what to ask for, how to ask, why we ask. Spurgeon thought that: “Some prayers would never be offered if men did but think … See whether it is an assuredly fitting thing to ask.” In response to something asked of Him Jesus said: “You don’t know what you are asking.” (Matthew 20:22) This suggests that there may be much of our asking that would never make it to the official request stage if we had considered more carefully and thoughtfully the ways and the will of the Lord for our lives. God can take no responsibility or give any support to something asked which is inappropriate, which is non-sense or which contravenes God-given laws of nature, or which contradicts His own nature and character, His will and His word.

3. The waiting game (delays) This is such a common experience that I spent most time on it, and you will have to listen to the download to get all the points made, both about its challenges as well as its fruits. Scripture records something that is often asked of God by psalmists and by prophets: “Lord, how long?” The reason that delayed answers get labeled so quickly as ‘unanswered’ ones has to do with the difficulty of waiting. Is anything happening when nothing’s happening? We can relate to the voices of scripture: “How long must your servant wait?” (Psalm119:84) “How long O Lord?” (Revelation 6:10) They were told to “wait a little longer”! “How long till you restore the kingdom?” (Acts 1:6) It is interesting that the last thing the disciples ever said to Jesus was this unanswered question. Waiting requires patience and therein lies the rub. Scripture exhorts us to “eagerly wait.” John Stott puts it perfectly: “We are to wait neither so eagerly that we lose our patience, nor so patiently that we lose our expectations, but eagerly and patiently together.” There is no question that delays can be dangerous to spiritual health. Spurgeon warned his congregants that they had an enemy who opposed their relationship with the Lord and would sponsor any wedge between them: “But we must be careful not to take delays in prayer for denials … We must not suffer Satan to shake our confidence in the God of truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers. Unanswered petitions are not unheard.” Yes, he acknowledged that delays were great “trials of faith” but he was as eager to point out, as we must, that delayed answers also “give us support to honor God through our steadfast confidence in Him.”

4. Taking no for an answer (denials) Unlike ‘disavowals’, I am talking here about asking which may be denied even though it is likely be an appropriate desire, a legitimate request given present perceptions, a reasonable inquiry given current understanding. It is the apparent acceptability and desirability of what is asked for that makes the acceptance of a denial so difficult. Although it is true that delays are not denials, it is easy to understand why an interminable delay will be assumed to be a denial. Having said that, there seem to be denials. Scripture presents us with some examples. What is interesting is that they were all experienced by stellar saints, one of them being the saintliest of all, Jesus. Check the message to refresh your mind on the examples I gave, not only of Jesus, but of Moses, David and Paul. If denials were the membership qualification for this alumni group we would perhaps be less concerned about them.

5. Assented to but not answered (deferrals) Some unanswered prayers are perhaps better understood as divinely willed deferrals. Our asking is necessary and timely as it is being ceaselessly expressed, but it is being ‘stored’ to be answered another day, or another time that is even beyond our sojourn on earth. Answers are about timing (the moment) as well as substance (the matter): “in an acceptable time have I heard you.” (Isa 49:8) In Scripture we observe that what is often perceived as unanswered asking is in fact a matter of God’s timing: “in the fullness of time … at the right time … when his time has come…” (Gal. 4:4; Rom. 5:6; 2 Thess. 2:6) In the incarnation narratives after 400 years of unanswered asking, this phrase litters the text: “This took place to fulfill …” There are those deferrals that will await their activation in future ages. This has been such a provocation to the asking church through the centuries, as it asked for God’s kingdom to come, as it pleaded for generations yet unborn, as it cried, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.” We could argue, as Thomas Goodwin did, that the denouement of history is going to be the fulfillment of millions of unanswered because-deferred prayers. “That may be one reason why God will do such great things towards the end of the world even because there has been so great a stock of prayers going, for so many ages, which is now to be returned.” Who would have thought that the return of our Lord was related to the return of our deferred asking. Again, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”

6. Creative ‘unanswers’ (deprivations, discretions, diversions ) It is never the heart of God to give us less than His goodness determines for us. These deprivations may feel like withholding of an answer but they are not the withdrawal of God’s presence. On the contrary, when we feel there is no response, it is the responsiveness of love that seeks desired relationship not just desired request. Peter Grieg affirms this: “Sometimes He may deprive us of something in order to draw us to Someone.” There is a saying that suggests that sometimes the answer to our asking is not rejected but redirected. Divine discretions do not deny the requests but apply their intentions and desires to different applications and outcomes. After our asking has pitched the way that things need to be, it is as if God says, “You are on the right track, but how about we do it like this not that?” Some times these redirections feel like radical diversions. Abraham’s prayer for Ishmael was answered in Isaac. What Moses asked for himself was to be fulfilled in Joshua. David’s prayers for the child who died revert to Solomon. David asked to build the Temple, but again, the answers were reserved for Solomon. Though the specific thing asked for was not delivered in the terms in which it was asked, nonetheless, this asking was not ‘unanswered’ but applied in a way that advanced God’s glory, fulfilling his renown more than just my request.

It is one thing to learn to plead the case, and another to learn when to rest it. We plead God’s character and covenant; we plead His will and His Word; we plead the precedents both biblical and historical; we plead Christ. We do so with all the cognitive and affective means available, with godly knowledge and godly emotions, and with all the best understanding and information at our disposal. But when all that is done there is one thing more that is needed for our asking to be effective, especially if we have concluded our asking with an ‘Amen’ thus declaring ‘Let it be.’ We need to rest the case and know how to submit to the divine deliberations and decisions of the Judge who will always do what is right, by all parties: the asker, the asked of and the asked for. As Goodwin concluded: “When a man hath put up prayers to God he is to rest assured that God will in mercy answer his prayers; and to listen diligently and observe how his prayers are answered.”

Yes, there are disqualifications and disavowals, there are delays and denials, there are deferrals and deprivations, discretions and diversions. There is no fear in recognizing these, though there may be pain in acknowledging them. However, I will choose to put my tears in bottle before I put my unanswered asking in the trash can. I will rest my case, and despite being presently unanswered, wait patiently and rest assured.

Pastorally and patiently yours,

Stuart

APOSTOLIC WOMEN

Dearest Family,

For the last few months we have been studying the text of the Acts of the Apostles. At first sight it would be easy to assume that this is referring to the Twelve disciples, who were indeed a particular apostolic group. To be one of those kind of apostles, as we see in the election process for Judas’ replacement in Acts 1:21, you had to fulfill specific qualifications: having been with Jesus from His baptism to His ascension and a witness of his resurrection. But the fact is that apart from Peter, these Twelve are not mentioned in the main narrative at all. Peter is prominent, together with Apostle James (not the oneof-the-twelve James) and he shares the stage with an apostle who did not qualify for the Twelve, yet he was an apostle nonetheless, who said, “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle.” (1 Cor. 15:9) Then, as the story of the church unfolds in the New Testament, we encounter other apostles like Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Timothy. Paul refers to Epaphroditus as the Philippians ‘apostle’ (2:25) The delegation that was sent to Jerusalem in 2 Cor. 8:23 are described as apostles. What I am saying is that though the Twelve are acknowledged at the beginning of Acts they cannot be the only apostles referred to in the title. They are not. It is a much broader company, and although the narrative seems at first sight to be dominated by male apostles, women were integral to the apostolic ministry and were apostolic themselves. They were neither also-rans nor add-ons.

On Sunday I referred to the long and entrenched history that had cast a shadow over women’s lives and ministries in the church. But it is not only to the Garden of Eden that we go for answers, but more importantly to the Garden of the empty tomb, that liberates us to work out, discover, and experience the implications of this mighty redemption for men and women, equally the image of God, who in Christ become God’s new humanity. My point in Sunday’s message was to assert the importance of the Acts narrative in honoring the spiritual ministry and leadership of women, both consistent with what preceded it in the gospels, and ground-breaking in its expectations of what would be normative in the church.

Briefly, we looked at the gospel record that preceded Luke’s Acts narrative, and in particular noted the continuity in Acts of his emphasis in his gospel, especially when it came to the way he featured the role of women, first in Jesus’ personal life and then in the life of His body, the church, beginning from the opening verses of Matthew’s genealogy, all the way through to the end of John’s account where the first word out of the angel’s mouth at the tomb was “woman” and the first word that the resurrected Christ spoke was: “Woman!” (Jn. 20:13, 15) The first name he addressed was a woman’s: “Mary!” (Jn. 20:16) Less than 20 written verses later in his two-volume work, he describes the women in the upper room, who were equally initiated by the Holy Spirit into an experience of tongues of fire on their heads and new tongues in their mouths, and equally commissioned to the nations.

I suggest you listen to the download to get the quick survey that I did of strategic moments in the Acts narrative that serve to instruct us by the examples of incredible apostolic women, beginning with Mary in the first chapter, all the way through to Philip’s four prophesying daughters toward the end of the story. Luke was an impeccable historian and is deliberate in what he draws our attention to. He takes us as readers into a world of fulfilled prophecy, from which advantage point it is understood that Jesus has brought salvation to the entire world, absolutely no exclusions. No less than 23 times in Acts, he draws that attention to a group that had previously experienced exclusion. You cannot miss them - they are called women. But yet we do often miss them, or treat them as minor characters in a play, or as extras on a film set, as the headline of the narrative seems first to be Peter’s mission and then Paul’s. At first look, there doesn’t seem to be a woman apostle in sight. Luke would be really discouraged if October 12, 2016 we missed them. His immediate mention of the women present in the first chapter is in total keeping with the prominent place he gave women in his writings. One commentator observes: “Given the culture’s usual down-playing of women’s public roles, the equal participation of women is noteworthy, especially their apparent mixing with men.” (Keener BBC IVP) It is that equality of togetherness that is the first presentation in Acts of the church. It was foundational, not concessionary or supplementary. Indeed, Luke’s descriptions about the roles and responsibilities, the integrality and influence, the local ministry and international mission of women needs to be understood against a cultural backdrop of patriarchalism, but much more importantly and positively, as evidence of the power of the gospel to break separating walls of prejudice that deny and destroy the truths about the equality of humanity, dignity and responsibility - in the image of God He made THEM! “Male and female He created THEM … let THEM rule over … God blessed THEM … I give you … they will be YOURS …” (Gen. 1: 26-29)

I often say that Jesus was a man’s man and a woman’s man, in that he equally knew and holily loved both men and women. The Acts of the Apostles were the acts of both men and women. The text includes the stories of apostolic women. From the beginning in Acts 1, they had an equal place in the gathering, and received an equal share of the Spirit’s dispensation and anointing. They would have participated in the decision-making processes when the text says that the church discussed something and made a decision. They were equal in status, they were equal at the place of prayer, they were equal as candidates for spiritual empowerment, they were equal as converts and members of the church, they were equal in serving, in leading, in church planting, in spiritual gifts. They were treated equally when it came to accountability and responsibility. They were equally in the priesthood of all believers.

It is unconscionable that Paul should be accused of being a misogynist. There is an untold story of deep sadness and brokenness in his life, for although he appears as a single in the narrative, to be a member of the Sanhedrin, he must have been married at one point. We do not know what happened or what pain he bore, or what decision he made to commit himself in his singleness to the cause of the gospel. I can hear a great tenderness in his voice when he writes about marriage. But I also think that when he was radically converted on the road to Damascus, he had to deal in his repentance with his sin against women-believers, many of whom had died and had been imprisoned as a result of his hostility and persecution. The fact is that when the Lord stopped him on the road, he was going to Damascus to persecute those who belonged to the Way “whether men or women.” Women had been his victims. In the Acts narrative time line, women as well as men were being incarcerated and martyred for their faith in Jesus. I’m saying this to point out that of all the equalities that the narrative presents, the equality of suffering has to be acknowledged. I think the redeemed, delivered, forgiven Paul was as aware of this in his ministry as anyone, and consequently always sensitive to the extraordinary spirituality of the women he knew, always respectful of their spiritual influence in the church and their contribution to the Acts of the Apostles, not simply as secondary players who sent the men mission care packages, but as frontline apostolic messengers, fearless witnesses, formational disciplers, generous financiers, just and merciful workers, foundational church planters.

“Also some women … along with the women …” (Lk. 8:1; Acts 1:14) There couldn’t be more weighted understatements. Yes, Acts is a story about apostolic men, but it is equally a record of apostolic women. And the history of the church has not changed in these dynamics, and the history of this church, which incidentally was birthed in a prayer meeting organized by a woman, has been no different. I offer you Sunday’s message as a meager contribution to the Acts series, in praise of God, and in honor of his spiritual daughters, my sisters – and in praise of the acts of godly apostolic women!

Pastorally yours,

Stuart

MISSIONS AND THE ANTIOCH GROUP

Dearest family,

Sunday was definitely all about justice and the nations. It was good to be able to identify with IJM’s Freedom Sunday through Ruthie’s and Anna’s presentation and also through Andrew’s for World Vision. It was appropriate that we had a James 1:27 lunch after church, eating Mexican fajitas to raise money for a Russian orphanage outreach. Thank you to all of you who ate and gave. We raised just over $2000. We need as much as possible so if you were not able to give you can send your tax deductible gift to The Antioch Group at the church office.

I did not have much time for much teaching but I did direct you to two biblical discussion points that were related to the DNA of the day. The first was about the nature of the church at Antioch, after which our COSC mission outreach is named. The second was about the biblical presentation of justice and the recovery of shalom for God’s creation on God’s terms. I mentioned that after our launch service of COSC as a new church plant in May, 1987, the first sermon I preached was titled “First at Antioch” as we sought to identify some key characteristics of this NT church in Acts of the Apostles that became the springboard for mission to the nations, in the hope that we could have the same DNA. Briefly, I mentioned that the following were some of these:

• The priority of worship and all of its constituent elements: praise, prayer and preaching. 

• The plurality of leadership: a commitment to elders not one-man ministry. 

• The parity of membership: every member is gifted and serving, and there is an equality of service, no status attached. 

• The purity of fellowship: they were in Christ, in the Spirit and in community. 

• The practicality of stewardship: they stewarded people and possessions.

That was a recipe for openness and generosity, that meant a flow of their life outside their own borders of fellowship into their community and the nations.

I then made a few comments about biblical justice and mission, emphasizing that our convictions must be grounded first in the nature of God, not the need of man. I suggested four truths that have to be received in order to act justly:

1. The character of God

2. The concern of God

3. The command of God

4. The condemnation of God\

These should get our attention. We noted that the zoom lens kept magnifying until we could not miss the personal call to obedience in just living. Intercession has to be integral to intervention. We need to just ask and ask justly, in order to then act justly. Justice has a way of re-arranging our personal prayer lists and values. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it like this: “Our being Christians today will be limited to two things: prayer and doing justice among men.” Ever thought of coming to the monthly TAG prayer meeting?

Pastorally yours,

Stuart

APOSTOLIC AFFECTIONS

Dearest family,

It is impossible to read the book of Acts without being impacted by what I will call apostolic actions. From the outset, Acts 2:43 tells us that “wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles” many of which are recorded in the next 26 chapters. After all, the text is called ‘The Acts of the Apostles.’ These apostolic actions attest to the power of God, to their dependence on the Holy Spirit, to their faith. However, on Sunday I drew your attention, not to the obvious actions but to what begins in a hidden place, the heart, before it is expressed in public, not as actions, but as affections. Our subject was ‘apostolic affections’.

It is not possible to be saved, to be filled with the Spirit and have blah affections. That doesn’t mean we are loud or suddenly become extroverts but it does mean that we are related to how God feels, as well as acts. We are affected by what affects the perceptions and receptions of God’s love. We are not emotionally disconnected from what moves the heart of God. Not surprisingly, the apostles were men of passion and affection. The narrative is a historical record of what happened, what was seen by “eyewitnesses”. Volume 1 of Luke’s history, his gospel, was explicit about this. He was writing an account of “those who from the first were the eyewitnesses.” (1:2) So the emphasis is on the exterior acts.

Although there is no self-revelation of the characters about what is going on in their emotions, in the form of soliloquy, or by way of self-confession, or by way of a story-teller’s description of their emotional expressions, or by way of recorded conversation, once in a while, evidence of their affections surface through tiny cracks, but Luke does not draw any particular attention to them or comment on them: the affections behind the pleading and warning of the preaching, the gladness and encouragement of the fellowship, the sincere love and worship of the community. There are evidences of affections that were not so comfortable or comforting of self and others: “troubled” (16:18), “sharp dispute and debate” (15:2), “sharp disagreement” (15:39), “shook out his clothes in protest” (18:6), “greatly distressed to see the city full of idols” (17:16). We know they were tempted to the emotions of real fear or why would they be told not to be afraid (18:9).

It is when we get to read the epistles that we feel the currents of affection in these apostles’ hearts. Re-read the epistles of Peter and John and feel those affectionate appeals yourself. But the main person of attention in Acts, apart from Jesus, is unquestionably Paul. He gets a bad rap from so many, who regard him as if he is some hard-hearted doctrinaire character. He is accused of being tough and rough confrontationally, of being a misogynist, of being unpastoral or unsympathetic. He seems to have no problem going head to head with folk. Some see him not as compassionate but dispassionate – all of which of course is a nasty demonic PR attempt to discredit and subvert his teaching and his gospel. This could not be more wrong.

When you read his epistles, it is the Paul of Acts, in some cases expressing his affections to the people he was teaching and reaching in the missionary journeys that Luke records in the narrative: the Galatians (16:6), the Philippians (16:12), the Thessalonians (17:1), the Corinthians August 30, 2016 (18:1), the Ephesians (19:1), the Romans (28:11). Whenever Paul talks about the affections of Jesus that are characteristic of life in the Spirit, he is talking about the affections of his own heart. He knows those affections of “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience” that he exhorts the Colossians to have (3:12); “the sincere love” that he asks of the Corinthians (2 Cor. 6:6) Sometimes his appeal to another’s affections is to simply give his own as an example, as to Timothy: “You know about my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance.” (2 Tim. 3:10) There is no way in this letter I can repeat the range of references that I gave you so I suggest you listen to the download of the message. We looked at the range of his expressed affections including: joy, gentleness, fatherly and brotherly love, longing. But as strong and encouraging as these affections are, Paul could not spare himself the pains that come from deep affection, and the damage that affections have to endure. This is why he describes himself and his affections as being of “patient endurance” (2 Cor. 1:6) We noted the words he used to describe his affections: fear, jealousy, conflict, trembling, grief, affliction, anguish, sorrow, tears. It is that mention of tears that captures the heart of Paul’s apostolic affections.

“I served the Lord with great humility and tears… remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears” (Acts 20: 19, 31) This chapter marks the end of the missionary journeys and the beginning of the final season of Paul’s life, with his arrests that lead to his eventual house imprisonment and martyrdom in Rome. In a way, this is Paul’s epitaph, his most concentrated self-description. There are hundreds of books written about Paul’s preaching and teaching, his praying and his missionary journeys, but as important as all of these aspects of his life are, what about these tears? May his weeping not have been the reason for his reaping? Did not Ps. 126:5 say, “Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy”? Paul’s private tears are as essential an explanation for much of the Acts narrative as Paul’s public miracles, and they have something important to teach us as their flow connects us with the stream of God’s heart for the church and the world.

Paul is indeed walking in the footsteps of Jesus, who was the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus offered his prayers and petitions “with loud cries and tears.” (5:7) The gospels reveal the times that His own affections could not be contained. He shed tears when he encountered: a refusal to accept his revelation (Bethany): a refusal to accept his requirements (Rich young ruler); a refusal to accept his relationship (Jerusalem). Basically, we love and are inspired by the effectiveness of the acts of the apostles and covet them for our own context, but we are less desirous of their affections. But he wrote to the Corinthians “with many tears”; he warned the Ephesians day and night “with tears”; he reminded the Philippians “with tears” that “many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” Is this just Paul being emotional? No, this is Paul being like Jesus. Here is a theology of tears based on conclusions drawn from just about every reference to tears in scripture:

1. Tears are an appropriate response for the people of God: to backsliding, to sin, to unfaithfulness, to spiritual adultery. “My eyes fail from weeping because my people are being destroyed… the people will go in tears to seek the Lord… “(Lam. 2:11; Jer.50:4)

2. God responds to tears of repentance and brokenness: “I have heard your prayers and seen your tears. I will heal you… the Lord has heard my weeping… (2 Kg. 20:5; Ps. 6:8)

3. Tears are God’s call and desire sometimes: “Return with fasting and weeping… the Lord called you to weep… You strum away like David but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph… Grieve, mourn, wail… (Joel 2:12; Is22:12; Amos 6:5; Jm. 4:9)

4. Tears are the experience and expression of the Godhead:
   a. God: “I drench you with my tears… My heart laments, my inmost being… Is there any sorrow like my sorrow? (Isa. 16:9; Isa. 16:11-12; Lam. 1:12)
   b. Jesus: “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief… prayed with loud cries and tears… (Isa. 53:3; Hebr. 5:7)
   c. Spirit: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit… (Eph. 4:30)

In summary, in scripture tears express: the grief that God feels, the grief that God requires, the grief that God responds to, the grief that God’s people experience and express as they respond to God’s heart.

David asked God, “Put my tears in your bottle.” (Ps. 56:8) We too have a choice in personal and national circumstances: are we going to chuck our hope in the trash can, or are we going to put our tears in a bottle? Someone commented: “It is amazing there are so few tears when there is so much to weep about.” Maybe we need to ask why there is so little apostolic affection? We don’t have any? We have it but are afraid to show it? We have it but don’t know how to show it? We’re too governed by secular social codes and their protocols of social politeness, dignity and decorum? A wrong and deficient view of God? A lack of understanding of what we received at salvation, including a new heart and the affections of God. Does our temperament control God’s affections in us and through us? Is there a deficiency in our desire?

We want to see the actions of God but we also need to express the affections of God. Would it ever be said of us that we “served with humility and tears”?

Pastorally yours,

Stuart

GREAT GRACE

Dearest family,

On Sunday, I lingered in the text of Acts 15 that Bo high-lighted in his narrative approach last Sunday, because of its pivotal declaration from Peter that they could not put a “yoke” on the disciples’ necks: “We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved, just as they are.” (15:11) I spent the time giving a compacted overview of the operations of grace, the strongest theological undercurrent in the narrative of Acts. The opening of Luke’s Volume 1, his gospel account, describes from the very get-go how God’s work is to remove disgrace and bring His favor. The grace of God was upon Jesus, who John declared was “full of grace” from which we have all received “grace upon grace”. From the beginning to the end of the NT, Jesus and grace are synonymous. Grace is in Him, grace is through Him. No wonder then that the evidential and essential mark of the early church was that “great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). Luke establishes the character of the church as the character of Jesus.

So what marked the greatness of the early church? The word “great” pops up all the time in the text: “great boldness… (4:29) great power…(4:33) great numbers… (11:21) great wonders… (6:8) great joy… (8:8; 15:3) great persecution (8:1)” However, there was something else that was “great” that explained all these. In 4:33 we read that “great grace was upon them all.” It described:

• the character of the leaders like Stephen: “full of grace and power” (6:8) 

• the good things that were happening: “what the grace of God had done” (11:23) 

• discipleship: “they urged them to continue in the grace of God” (13:43) 

• the very nature and essence of the gospel: “the message of His grace” (14:3) 

• the experience of God’s care and nurture: they were “commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.” (15:40) 

• the experience of salvation: Christians were those who “by grace had believed” (18:27) 

• the mission and call: “the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (20:24) 

• the communication of both written scripture and spoken teaching: “the word of His grace” (20:32) Indeed, great grace was upon them all. No wonder it is!

“Grace is the sum and substance of NT faith” (Packer) “Everything is of grace in the Christian life from the very beginning to the very end.” (Lloyd-Jones) Why? Because it is the sum of the nature of the Godhead: “God of all grace… Spirit of grace (Hebr.10:29) … the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15:11). The whole of NT theology is summed up in it. It has been said that what justice is to law, and love to marriage, grace is to Christianity. In Acts, euphemisms for Christians were grace soaked: they were those who “continued in the grace of God” (13:43); they were those who “by grace had believed” (18:27) What they believed was the gospel described as “the grace of God…the gospel of grace…the word of grace” It was a synonym for anything that was good, that was God no less in his dynamic and delivering, passionate and purposeful, fathering and favoring, birthing and blessing, saving and sanctifying power.

Teachers are always looking for ways to take a wide range of points, of scriptures, and bring them together in a summarized and more easily assimilated form. The simplest ordering when it comes August 16, 2016 to the subject of grace is often traditionally presented in the two categories of common grace and saving grace. John Wesley was the one who first spoke of three main identifiable workings of grace: Prevenient (preparing) grace, Accepting (justifying) grace, Sustaining (Sanctifying) grace.

In doing my own scriptural summary on Sunday I had more than two or three points I’m afraid, so in keeping with my promise to put them in the letter this week, here they are for you to use as a prayer list for the operation of grace in your own life and experience, circumstances and relationships.

1. Saving grace: “saved through grace” (Acts 15:11) Part of this experience of saving grace is the instruction we receive for the totality of our lives. Listen to how Paul describes it to Titus (2:11): “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say NO to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

2. Securing or strengthening grace: “this grace in which we stand” (Rom.5:1-2) …the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.” (1Pet.5:12) We could probably also call this strengthening grace: “the word of his grace which can build you up” (Acts 20:32)

3. Sanctifying grace: this is grace’s work in growing, maturing, promoting, encouraging and effecting our progress in faith and godliness, in pleasing God. Writing to the Corinthians Paul describes his conduct and character: “We have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relationships with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.” (2Cor.1:12)

4. Serving or stewarding grace: “Use your gifts to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace.” (1 Pet. 4:10) “The grace God gave me to be a minister” (Acts 15:15). This is the enablement to minister with the charismata, the grace gifts. His summation of ministry in his farewell to the Ephesians elders says it all: “If only I may finish the race and complete the task…of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:24)

5. Sharing grace: “Grace given to me for you…” (Eph. 3:2) “all of you share in God’s grace with me…” (Phil. 1:7)

6. Sending grace: It is grace that both calls and commissions “God called me…by his grace and was pleased to reveal His Son in me.” (Gal. 1:15)

7. Supplicating grace: “Spirit of grace and supplication…” (Zech. 12:10) “Throne of grace…find grace to help us in our time of need…” (Heb. 4:16) The result of the church’s prayer was “much grace was upon them” (Acts 4:33)

8. Supporting or supplying grace: In Acts 9:11 Paul was prepared by prayer for the reception of grace through Ananias, so the Spirit of grace both prepares us for this supply and then provides grace’s support.

9. Speaking grace: “grace those who listen” (Eph.4:29) “Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt.” (Col.4:6) Favor as well as flavor! So crucial that this grace is expressed through us in a culture of contempt and anger.

10. Singing grace: “With psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, with grace in your hearts to God.” (Col.4:16) The work of grace becomes the gratitude in worship. Lack of worship is always little. Great grace produces great worship.

11. Sustaining grace: (strengthening grace) this is about special times of need: “My grace is sufficient for you and my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2Cor.12:9); “Let us approach the throne of grace…and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebr.4:16) “God gives grace to the humble.” (1Pet.5:5)

12. Staying grace: By ‘staying’ here I’m not referring to the idea of an abiding grace, that always stays with us, though it does, but in the sense of staying the hand of judgment. The grace of God is not just manifested in what He does do, but in what He doesn’t - for example, delay judgment. Yes, God’s grace is manifest in what He gives and allows, in what He provides, but it is also in what He disallows and prohibits. The word that commands us not to, is a staying word of grace. Stop! Halt! No further! Do not transgress! Do not move that boundary! Thou shalt not! It is crucial to understand the law as an expression of God’s grace. He loves us so much that he commands us not to engage that which He knows will destroy us and separate us from Him. In Genesis: all the trees (provision) except (prohibition). They were equally evidences of grace. There is grace in the giving, but also grace in the staying of things, the with-holding or taking away of those things that are not going to promote spiritual growth in grace.

13. Suffering grace: grace often brings God’s goodness in a way that doesn’t at first feel good to us. Phil.1:29: “It has been granted (literally-graced) for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in him but to suffer for him.”

14. Suffusing (well up from within) grace: “the grace that is in me” says Paul. This indwelling spirit of grace that rises within us, “overflows” to use Paul’s language. This grace that changes us, makes us overflowingly gracious.

15. Sovereign grace: “grace might reign through righteousness...” (Rom. 5:21)

Clearly, just these few scriptural quotes that I have given are sufficient to dispel any notion that grace is sweetly benign, or is something that is helpful now and again. Grace is not a commodity, a thing – but the very active and engaging presence and personality of God in our lives and circumstances. Invasion, infusion is what we should be thinking about. Grace’s power, its penetration, its communication – every expression is proactively an expression of the nature of God ministering to the needs of man – it is strong grace according to the NT. It is a strong brew, and those who experience it are grace intoxicated, but more importantly, God-centered and God adoring. Whoever would choose a yoke of bondage for their necks over a garland of grace?

May this “great grace” be on you all too!

Stuart