Author: missionspaul

Chaos

Acts 17: 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here …

Can you imagine this?

It just sounds chaotic doesn’t it?

It’s not exactly seeker-sensitive.

Here is Paul and his team planting a church in Thessalonica and here they are causing mayhem. They would be on their way soon but those new believers, converts to Christianity, would remain to form churches which had their foundations based on persecution. How they would have needed Paul’s letter of encouragement to them later where he commended them for their faith.

We are introduced to Jason. We do not know him except he with others had become believers of Jesus. Their houses were searched, they were manhandled and dragged before the authorities, they were shouted at. Did they sign up for this when they gave their lives to Christ? Yes they did.

I received a text yesterday from one of our Pastors in India: “Amidst great opposition and challenges we had an overwhelming meeting the last two days. The Spirit of the Lord moved mightily and people were delivered instantly.”

Today, as you read this blog, some of our church planters from an Islamic nation who had been arrested last week are being tried for apostasy.  Please pray for them.

I have come to see more and more that God can be found in chaos. In fact He works powerfully in that place.

To those in trouble today, God is with you and we on the banks of safety pray for you.

 

Jealousy

Acts 17:5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.

Be careful of Jealousy.

Jealousy can make you the odd one out. Everyone else can be happy but jealousy means you are not one of them.

Jealousy can leave you needing to make plans for pain. Jealous people do not necessarily know they are jealous and their plans are often seen as just but they bring hurt.

Jealousy can direct you to mix with people you wouldn’t normally be with. Jealousy blinds character.

Jealousy doesn’t mind how much damage it does. The more damage the better because it reflects on the riot within the heart.

Jealousy makes you react quickly. In a short time they had formed a mob, started a riot and rounded up the accused.

You won’t be affected by all of the above but we all get jealous at some point in our lives and it would be good to protect yourself from the above.

 

Seasons of success

Acts 17:4 “Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.”

Some … a large number … quite a few.

Our days are like that aren’t they?

Days where we have some success.

Days when we have big breakthroughs.

Days when it is somewhere in between … quite a few.

The sooner we settle in our minds that this variety is actually okay, the better.

Revival-victory-miraculous-divine-exchange breakthroughs do not happen every day.

In 2 weeks I will be attending my denominations annual conference which I have done so every year since I became a Pastor in 1992. Throughout those years I remember well being prepared to give the answer to people who would hail me down like they were perhaps stopping a taxi cab, ‘how many are in your church now Paul?’ and ‘how many have you seen saved this year?’ Well intentioned questions maybe but it often caught me fumbling between ‘some’ and ‘quite a few’. Often I was tempted to throw a curve ball by lying and saying ‘Haven’t you heard? A large number, too many to count!’ But I didn’t.

You see, the truth is, I didn’t like ‘some’ nor ‘quite a few’. I wanted to be ‘large’. Because that’s success, right? In the eyes of man, yes.

Don’t let man define your success in life. Today may only be a ‘some’ day but it can be a great day nevertheless!

Don’t let man tempt you to exaggerate just so they feel comfortable in your presence.

Know that whatever season of success you are in, it is just that, a season.

 

 

What kind of Messiah do you have?

Acts 17: 3 “… on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said.”

Paul, Silas and Timothy are persuading the Jews that they missed Jesus when he was here because they were looking for the wrong Messiah. Their Christ was political and would powerfully remove the Roman oppression. Jesus Christ came to suffer and die and this was prophesied in their Scriptures but they were blinded to them. The team use those Scriptures to prove Jesus was the Messiah, he was God’s Son and he was before all time. This Jesus HAD TO suffer and rise from the dead. Importantly, this Jesus is alive today.

This was such a difficult teaching to hear because for the Jew their Messiah is not what we understand as a Saviour who lays his life down.  It is impossible that in one sentence the words Messiah, suffer and rise from the dead are together!

Their Messiah is: A political leader descended from King David. A professional of the Jewish law and the commandments within it. A charismatic leader. A military leader. A great judge.

The most important thing is this. The Jewish Messiah is a human being, not a god or a demi-god. He has certainly not come from heaven and once he is dead he doesn’t rise again.

The team were demonstrating from the Jewish Scriptures that Jesus was their Messiah but that he was indeed eternal and so is alive today because he rose 3 days after he died.

The most important thing they were demonstrating was the aliveness of Jesus. He is eternal.

Everyone needs to discover what kind of Messiah they have or are searching for?

Even the Christians! Some are so earthly focused that they have reduced their relationship with Jesus to all about what happens here and now. But the offer of Jesus is to discover and live your life through the filter of eternity.

Jesus had said many things to the Jews that had got him into trouble but his claim of pre-existence was the one they balked at the most. Especially when he said he was alive before their ancestral father, Abraham, was born.

John 8:58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

This was the most incredible, confrontational and boldest statement Jesus ever made.

We cannot contain Him to a time and a place and a nation. We cannot hold on to Him, He is beyond our grasp, we cannot understand all that there is to know about Him, He is beyond our capability to think. He is pre-existent, before Abraham was born, I am!

There have been no accidents in your life, neither your birth, nor your death, nor anything in between. He knows the beginning and the end for each one of us.

We can invite Jesus into our existence – but there is a far greater invitation: for us to live our lives in His pre-existence in knowing that He knows everything there is to know about us in the big picture of life. He left His pre-existence to enter our existence so that we can live our lives in the light of our own eternal existence with Him.

That is the Messiah we explain and prove by words and our life.

Strategy needs intentional practices.

 

Acts 17:2  “As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures”

 

What ways do you have? Why do you do the things you do? Some people don’t know they have customs. They don’t know they have routines. But they do.

The key for strategy is intentionality.

Habits are formed randomly and often without intention. Customs are formed with purpose.

Paul would always go to the synagogue first. It was the Jew first. This is why he went there in Thessalonica, because he always did.

 

What customs do you have? Why do you do what you do? Ask someone to name a few of your customs. Then see how surprised you are. You should be able to name some of them yourself because if you are being strategic in life then you have set customs in place intentionally.

“In order for me to do that I need to regularly do this”

 

 

Strategy

Acts 17:1 “1 When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.”

 

Today I am in Chennai with colleagues who have been training Pastors and leaders. Over the last few years we have trained thousands of leaders. There are thousands still waiting. We have been talking how best to do this with limited resources of personnel and finance. We have been talking strategy.

 

Recently I was talking with a missionary who was struggling with the passion needed for where they were placed. It happens. Thankfully at the end of the Skype call the missionary was already beginning to be energised again. How? We talked strategy for the next 12 months.

 

We move into a new chapter today and we read how Paul, Silas and Timothy travel over 100 miles to Thessalonica. They pass through 2 cities which were apparently beautiful and significant. Nothing happens in these 2 cities. They seem uninterested to do any gospel work there. Why? I believe because of strategy. Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, a major seaport and trade route. It was here where the gospel could be taken to the whole province.

The point is sometimes you have to walk past what is beautiful and significant in order to be strategic for what is best.

How far and how wide can you see? Look further. How will you impact your world? How will you fulfil your Father’s will? How can you do more? The answer is always strategy. Find some paper and pen and get a plan today.

 

Appreciating Luke

Acts 16:40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.

So here is the new fledgling church that Paul and Silas came to encourage before they departed the city. The members of that church were probably the slave girl, Lydia the business lady and her household, the jailer and his household and likely others. Plus Luke!

“Then they left” Luke writes. Obviously they left without him. Luke stayed to help, maybe to bring some more vision and organisation to the church. Certainly it was to help them.

Mission involves people who go but also people who stay so that others can keep going.

I have just come back to my hotel room having been at the most amazing service here in Chennai. The Church rents out a very large auditorium and the work that is needed comes from a group of dedicated members who just make it happen. The Pastor doesn’t do this work. His ministry is different. He is the visionary leader and has an expanding ministry to several nations. It is the people he has trained up who keep the Church functioning with their celebration services. Of course they are not the exception. Around the world this can be replicated every day of the week.

Why do I mention this? Simply because although my role as International Missions Director is to encourage people to GO into all the world and I am working towards seeing a global church planting movement in every nation of the world, I also know the huge importance of those who stay behind.

We need the ‘Luke’ who will say “It’s okay you keep going I will stay behind and help structure the Church, lead the Church, strengthen the Church and encourage the Church. I will help the Church.”

In whatever capacity, if you are a ‘Luke’ today, thank you, the Church needs you, you are indeed very important to the future. Thank you for staying.

When it all goes wrong …

Acts 16:39 “They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.”

They came to appease but Luke doesn’t say Paul and Silas were appeased.

Sometimes saying “Oh it doesn’t matter” is the wrong response.

Peace at what cost?

If there was an injustice then call it so. No matter if everything sits under the sovereignty of God and all things work together for good to them that love God. The all things are not the good things for they wouldn’t need to work together for good. The all things are the bad things that happen to us. Let us call them bad. Often the perpetrators only seek appeasement because they fear they themselves may be in trouble. They apologise for what they have done but with hidden agendas.

Were Paul and Silas appeased? We do not know. Maybe they did not care for apologies and restoration. There was no comment and perhaps that is the best approach.

They escorted them from the prison as that is what Paul had ordered.

Paul and Silas were dragged into prison bleeding and battered from the severe flogging. They exited heads held high.

Order your parade. The past may have looked like a defeat but today can be your victory walk. The march out of the prison was one of purpose. They had not been defeated. They were not broken. I can imagine their chests inflated as they let the crowds know they were children of a majestic King.

They requested they leave the city but they couldn’t command them to.

They would leave the city, but they would go when they wanted and not at some request from those who had injured them.

Shake the dust off your feet still applies today. Walk on. Don’t look back. It is time for a new season.

The presence of God in your life means that some people do not want you around. They are intimidated by you. They know they cannot control you.

When it all goes wrong how you respond to the closure of that chapter becomes very important to the overall story.

So, be careful what you say, walk tall and move on in your own time.

Let us alarm the enemy

Acts 16:38 “The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. “

Power, rights and authority, this is what Paul and Silas had as Roman citizens which they now only make known after they have been severely flogged and thrown into a dark prison cell fastened to stocks. They legally should not have been flogged nor thrown in prison and the magistrates who ordered it now knew it. Worse than that, those who ordered the punishment without a fair trial were now in danger of punishment themselves. They were alarmed and they needed to be.

The enemy of your soul knows that you are a citizen of heaven. Paul states we have such a citizenship in Philippians 3:20. The whole of the New Testament is a journey of the revealing of that citizenship. It contains teaching regarding:

• We are new creations in Christ
• The Holy Spirit is living within and we are His Temple.
• We are being transformed to be more like Jesus
• Our attention is on eternal things not the temporary earthly things.
• We are ambassadors to this earth, it is not our home nor our destiny.

Literally there is no end to the list regarding our citizenship. However it can be understood in those 3 elements of power, rights and authority.

What alarmed the magistrates was not just that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, but that Paul and Silas knew they were and were apparently beginning to talk with that citizenship firmly in mind.

That is exactly the same today. The enemy of your soul does not get alarmed at who you are in Christ. But what alarms him is when you begin to voice this, move in it and begin to declare changes because of who you are. This is what alarms him!

We hide our rights

Acts 16:37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

 

Paul had become a Roman citizen by birth. Although he was born into a Jewish family because this was in the city of Tarsus, a province of Cilicia, it granted him true citizenship because of its status by Rome. There were only 2 other ways you could gain citizenship: by giving a huge amount of money or by military service.

As a citizen Paul had the right to vote, the right to make legal contracts, have property and be immune from some tax duties. He also had the right to insist on a legal trial if he ever needed it and he could even appeal to Caesar himself.

Paul was protected because he could never be tortured or flogged and never receive the death penalty unless it could be proven he was guilty of treason. As a citizen he would probably carry around with him a birth certificate or a certificate of citizenship. Later on chapter 22 we will read how Paul would use his citizenship to prevent him being flogged in Jerusalem.

So why am I reminding you of this?

It is because Paul did not declare his citizenship until after they had been severely flogged and thrown into the prison! He kept it hidden until now, until he was going to be released.

He kept silent and surrendered his Roman right. By doing so he shared in the sufferings of Christ, he was beaten like his Lord and Saviour, he was carrying his own cross.

We have a citizenship in heaven. We have been born again, a new birth, new creations in Christ Jesus. We have been given power, rights and authority.

There are times when we will choose to move in those elements and we will know the protection and the power of God against circumstances that are unbearable.

But there are days when we need to surrender our rights. There are times when we know it is the right thing to do, when our immunity from suffering is waived, when we become dust again and we know the pain of living.

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day

(Casting Crowns)

It is then as a citizen of heaven coming under the attack of the enemy that we truly know the fellowship of sharing in the sufferings of Christ, we know Him, we are on purpose, in destiny for something perhaps we do not yet know, but it is well with our soul because we know Him in a way we have never known.