Category: Devotions

THE LIGHT AND lists (not capitals because they’re not important)

 

Luke 8: 16-18 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. ¹⁷ For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.¹⁸ Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”

 

Many simply interpret this passage of Jesus with the filter of avoiding sin, secret sin, exposing sin or the judging of sin. I think we have missed what Jesus is saying. I also think when we become so engrossed in eradicating sin from this world through placards and outspoken tweets and enraged arguments then we have lost sight of the Saviour.

Why do so many Church people become fixated with sin?

Why do the world know more about what we are against than what we are for?

Why did Jesus seem to spend more time with sinners and talked more about the sin of those who thought they were not sinners than those he was eating and drinking with?

I truly believe Jesus wouldn’t get accepted in many pastoral search committees.

There’s a Jesus we don’t want.

We all have our own Jesus, made in our own image. (Is that blasphemy?!)

Why do we talk about sin so much? We have lost the smell of sinners in many quarters of the Church. We describe this as purity but I don’t think it is.

Recently I have been discovering a world of hate on twitter. But I have been weeping over where this world is staged, within the kingdom of Christ. Anger expressed over women preaching, anger because someone dared suggest we should love muslims and gay people, such anger that it feels like a kingdom of darkness. Where is the light? Where is the joy? Some of these angry people I would not want at one of my parties that’s for sure!

One of my pet hates is going into a smoke-filled room as a non-smoker because the smell is on my clothes and in my hair etc. Those who are also not smokers will come near me and turn their nose up and say, ‘Paul you stink, have you been smoking?!!’ It is hard to defend because I certainly smell like I have!

The truth is, I took on the effects of sin in that atmosphere. Isn’t that the incarnation? Jesus became one of us and he smelled of sin so much so that when he took on our sins at the cross people accused him of being the worst sinner, cursed by God! You see the true battle with sin is when we embrace the sinner, when we love our way through the pain and effects of sin and we run the risk of being judged by man for being soft on sin. That’s when the battle intensifies. In some places the most ruthless battle over sin is not on the cross as much as at the church door.

So what is this text about? This will help …

“No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a washtub or shoves it under the bed. No, you set it up on a lamp stand so those who enter the room can see their way. We’re not keeping secrets; we’re telling them. We’re not hiding things; we’re bringing everything out into the open. So be careful that you don’t become misers of what you hear. Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes.” (The Message).

It is about the LIGHT not lists. His LIGHT. We don’t have a problem with darkness when JESUS is here. This is how Luke ends the parable of the sower and the reason Jesus gives for him coming to the towns and villages.

Basically it is this …

Jesus is the LIGHT, this amazing new kingdom announcer, revealing a kingdom that no one has known. It is not a hidden kingdom, it is not a cult with secret practices that no one knows. No, it is a wide-open invitation to the whomsoever kingdom. The parables that Jesus tells are the unlocking of the mysteries and secrets of this kingdom. So, if you can hear then Shema! Listen, hear and do. Copy. Give this same LIGHT to others, don’t give them lists of what they cannot do, encourage them into what they can do and who they can be in this kingdom. Let the world know what you stand for. Be generous with what you have. Of course if you don’t have this LIGHT then you cannot give it. If you do have it and don’t share it then you will become poor and it will be taken from you, the LIGHT will die.

So with all my heart I plead with the Church to please put the lists down and shine Jesus

Gospel stories are gracious

Luke 8: 19-20 “His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰ He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.”

Do you really want to be a preacher when you only have 25% chance of any lasting fruit from it?

Do you really want to be a witness when 3 people out of every 4 people will make you feel disappointed?

What Jesus says may at first glance cause some confusion.

Everyone would know he is quoting the prophet Isaiah who was sent to preach to 4 major kings in Judah. Isaiah knew this would not be a successful appointment because of the hardness and apathy of their hearts. In fact his preaching would make it worse, for he would make their hearts even harder.

Jesus is explaining to the crowd what he has been doing. He is scattering seed, but the people need to hear and understand. Yet understanding the secrets of the kingdom hidden in a parable is a work of God in a heart that is willing to be open to receive the truth. For others, Jesus hasn’t come to condemn, so if they reject the kingdom then to lessen their guilt they are actually only rejecting a story that they didn’t understand.

As we scatter seed, let’s not be as focused on our ability and skill in doing so but in prayer that there be a move in their hearts to hear and understand.

Yet in scattering seed we must acknowledge that it will have the effect of the hardening of hearts in some people. So the sharing of the gospel may not bring results but it is always effective because it will at the very least bring judgment. And maybe that is the uncomfortable truth. You share a story of your life to witness to someone the gospel and they receive it gladly, they get it completely. What a great story and presentation! You do exactly the same thing to another person and they look at you with a blank face. Don’t worry, it’s okay, there may be nothing wrong with your presentation, it is just that on this occasion not only did they not take the opportunity to hear and understand they became more entrenched in their position yet they did so in the most gracious way possible, because all they heard was a story of your life, the meaning was hidden from them. Parables are gracious. Judgment doesn’t have to come in hard knock-out blows.

The power of the Seed and Shema

 

Luke 8: 8, 15  “Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown … But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

 

After all that, after seed falling on the path, the rocky ground, the thorny soil, still … it is okay because if you scatter enough seed some will land on good soil.

 

v8 When he said this, he called out, ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’

 

There is power in the seed, power to multiply a 100 times more than what it was when it was sown. That’s like saying if you scatter the seed and it lands on good soil, just one seed, one presentation of the gospel can be enough to produce a 100 member church which then has the capacity to reap a 100 other 100 member churches resulting in a 10,000 movement. One more time and you have won a city for Jesus!

Now that is worth the waste of the path, the rocky soil and the thorny soil isn’t it?!

So where is the good soil? Where are the noble and good hearts? Of course we don’t know at first glance.

But the Shema helps.

The Shema is in Deuteronomy 6:4-9

It’s the first passage children recite. It is prayed twice a day and at the end of festivals.

It starts with the word Shema = Listen or Hear. “Hear, O Israel the Lord your God is one.”

It means to understand, consider, allow the words to sink in and then decide to do something with them.

When Jesus calls out this phrase he was shouting a Jewish idiom. They were fully aware of what he is referring to. They knew their prophets like Ezekiel:

Ezekiel. 12:2 “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.

Listen, understand and then do. That is the Shema. That is the noble and good heart. That is the good soil and this is where we get the most lasting reaping.

The question is can we continue to be Shema disciples and Shema churches.

Are we teachable? Who is speaking into our life and questioning our heart, words and actions?

You know whether you are in an accountability relationship or group when you have given permission to others to question your motives, your attitudes, your words and your actions in a teachable style, in order to be the best you can be in life. BUT you then listen to those questions, you understand, you take them in and make the mental changes and then you go and take courses of action that are then necessary. That’s being accountable.

If someone is above being questioned. If a leader is too big to reach then they are perhaps too big.

A Christian, a Church with good soil is one that is teachable. That means at times they will be wrong, they will make mistakes, they will need to apologise, change their mind and take another course of action. Anything less isn’t accountability. Nor is it Shema. It would indicate they have no ears to hear. Perhaps that is why there is no lasting crop a hundred-fold.

Choking

Luke 8: 7, 14  “Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants … The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.”

 

Those who ‘do not mature’ are the ones who do not reach their true potential. They do not become all that they could.

When the scattered seed fell into the thorny soil it carried within it the life and power to produce a fully grown plant. There was nothing wrong with the seed. Initially it grows but so did other things alongside it. These things are not really bad things, they are at first really small and look harmless enough. Wisdom is not only seeing potential in the seedling but potential in the weed and thorn.

So what are these thorns?

Worry. The Bible is full of instruction not to, yet it doesn’t seem like a command when we are concerned about something. Worry can seem responsible. It can make us feel like we care about what is going on in the world. But it deceives because worry is not that at all. Worry consumes, it can make a person slow down and it can even make a person ill. Why worry when you can pray?

Riches. Jesus says more about money than perhaps anything else. He called it ‘Mammon’ referring to it as a false god which tries to offer you what only God offers, security. It wants you to pursue it with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Yes it is trying to copy the worship of God.

Pleasures. What is it that you think you cannot live without? I talked with my daughter yesterday about the power of a certain chocolate bar which we had recently discovered. I won’t tell you what it is called because it has this powerful ability to give you a good feeling. It is simply amazing! It begins with P and ends in C and it is what we call an activity where we carry our food to some beauty spot and then put the rug on the ground, sit down and eat as a group. Oh my goodness! What a pleasure! If only a chocolate bar was a thorn. For some it may be! But there are pleasures or habits that we just cannot shake loose. They do have a hold over our lives. It leaves us with the reaction, ‘I must have that thing.’ Cravings can choke us.

These 3 things prevent us reaching our true potential.

I wonder if it’s possible that a whole church can become choked because of the thorns. Is that why they enter a decline? ‘Come to Jesus and he will satisfy you with all that you need, you will have no troubles when you receive Jesus, he will give you riches and he will satisfy your every longing.’ That’s not the gospel because it not only isn’t the good news, it just isn’t true. Initially we can get converts with this and the church grows. But soon these converts realise that actually it is right to worry because recently some of their prayers haven’t been answered the way they had hoped. They get made redundant or for other reasons enter into some financial difficulty and they wonder why when Jesus was meant to be improving their life. So they turn to their pleasures again. Pleasures plus Jesus leads to just pleasures. Yes it is true, a whole church can become choked.

It can become choked by going through seasons where everything is filtered through a worry. Prayer meetings are intensified, preaching is centred around the topic of whatever is wrong in the world, the tough challenges we are facing, the atmosphere is heightened, red alert, this is a battle, the forces of evil are banging on the church door trying to get in, maybe they are already in, we need to get them out. The leaders maybe thinking they are being spiritual but the guy in the pew is just worried and the church chokes.

It can become choked by wealth. When the leaders of a church are desiring a project then they need to lead the church to give. How they do this needs wisdom. Sometimes out of their frustration and perhaps lack of faith they are wanting to tip every church member upside down through manipulation and brute force to get whatever is in their pockets into the offering plate. Let’s have more offerings! We need to preach and teach about money but it becomes difficult to do so when you are at the same time wanting the money from people you are speaking to. Give me £10 for a soul. 5 dollars for a healing. There are online prophecy ministries where you can get an instant prophecy or a long range forecast, for a fee. Other churches preaching wealth as a prize for the walk with Jesus have done more damage than anything else in the church, they ask for a seed from you with the thought that if you seed into them then you will prosper. What happens is that they get a sack full of seeds so that they become rich and you have lost sometimes what is far more than a seed.

It can become choked by pleasures. The pleasures of politics within church, in-fighting, gossip, spiritual abuse is pleasurable to those that abuse, ambition, Pharisaic religion, sin, going to sleep etc. The list just goes on. Pleasures abound in many forms.

Yes it is true a whole church can become choked as much as individual Christians.

Is the fault with the one scattered the seed? Should Jesus not be sharing the kingdom to the whosoever? Should we first not have some rigorous application to make sure that this is not thorny soil. No, let’s scatter. There will be pain but there are times when we simply cannot tell the quality of the soil, we will find that out later. But for now the whole world needs to hear of Jesus.

Pentecostals, flakiness and steely determination against all the odds.

Luke 8: 6, 13 “Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture …Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.”

The extravagant Jesus scatters his seed in such a way that seems careless to the many. He doesn’t seem bothered where it lands. There is no limit to the gospel. There is an endless supply of the seed. It can be wasted, no panic, it is okay. Let us enjoy the joy while it lasts. For some it will be short-lived others will make it for the long haul.

I have been astounded often by finding out the ones I thought wouldn’t make it because I thought under the test of life they would fall away. Whereas the ones I would have betted on them lasting the course didn’t last a year in the Church.

Happy Pentecost everyone!

One of the accusations thrown at the Pentecostal is shallowness. That underneath there isn’t much. At the surface it is just froth and bubble, unconventional behaviour which is contrived, indulgent, bizarre, over-emotional and alarming.

Acts 2:13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

Yet, today, there are 600 million Pentecostals in the world.

• 92 million denominationalPentecostals (or “Classical Pentecostals”).
• 234 million Charismatics. This includes Catholic (177 million), Orthodox (4.2 million), and Protestant (35 million) Christians.
• 259 million IndependentPentecostal/Charismatics.

(source: https://www.andrewkgabriel.com/2017/09/26/how-many-pentecostals/)

Taken as a whole, Pentecostals (in the large sense of the term) make up over 25% of all of the world’s Christians. So Pentecostalism is large! And it will continue to grow. By 2025 scholars expect over 30% of Christians will be Pentecostal-Charismatic.

So the answer is, ‘No, these people are not drunk, as you suppose. It is only nine in the morning!’ (Acts 2:15)

Do they survive the testing, do they fall away because they have no root, no depth? Just ask those in Eritrea where the Pentecostals are hunted down and are persecuted the most.

In 2017 a report titled “In Response to Persecution,” which was a new study from the Notre Dame’s Under Caesar’s Sword project, stated that the Pentecostals in the world were targeted far more than any other in the Church. It concluded, “The word martyr is derived from the Greek for “witness” and those who die for their faith “embody the fullest expression of Christian freedom, testifying with their lives to the ultimate triumph of the God in whom they hope.”

So, not so much flakiness in that report.

Acts 2: 16 “No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people …”

Peter scattered the seed of the gospel and 3,000 souls came into the kingdom that day. Amongst them probably some of a rocky soil, some who wouldn’t last the testing. But that’s okay. That’s just how it is.

The joy of the gospel

 

Luke 8: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.

 

V11-12 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

 

But it’s a path! Seed won’t germinate on a path! If that is so obvious then the only reason why we risk seed landing there, is because we love the gospel so much. We love the message of Christ’s love.

Just speaking it is a joy in itself.

As a child I was in the Salvation Army and every Sunday we would be out doing an ‘open-air’. I haven’t seen one of these for years but the band and sometimes the songsters (the choir) would go on to the streets in the neighbourhood and we would gather in a circle and have a meeting outside. The band would play, there would be soloists and then the very important testimony and also a short sermon. There wasn’t a lot of results from those open-airs. That wasn’t the point. The reason was the gospel was going out. We were in love with the gospel and we loved the community so much that we needed to be there. As we scattered the seed some fell along the paths, the people hanging out of the windows of the block of flats, they heard the music and the testimony, but then they closed their windows and went back to their lives till next Sunday, no change, just entertainment.

When I moved from the Army into the Elim Church it was quite a culture shock in many ways but they shared the love for the gospel. This involved street evangelism, not quite the open-air of the Army, we had sketch-boards and flannel graphs, we didn’t have brass instruments but we did have guitars and drums and we did have testimonies. We also had the Gospel service on a Sunday evening. Everyone had a Gospel service at that time. It was great. It was all about scattering the seed. Testimonies, songs, dramas, engaging gospel sermons, I remember my father would often take some story from the newspaper, he would even bring it into the pulpit, the bible and the Daily Mail and would thread it together into a gospel message. Perfect! All we had to do was to get people into the church service to experience this. That’s where we began to hit a difficulty. Churches began to struggle and realised that the Gospel services were not working because they were just ‘preaching to the converted’ so they were stopped and everyone had family time on Sunday evenings because that’s what God wants.

Sunday mornings became crucially important for teaching because it was the only service when the Church were together. Street evangelism became rare as licences were needed to be on the street and lives became really busy anyway. The result was that the gospel message, the seed, stopped being seen as much. The Church became uneducated to the gospel and lost their first love for the gospel and a generation went by who had not only led anyone to Christ but had not given a gospel presentation to anyone. The seed had stopped being scattered.

When the seed stops being scattered joy soon leaves. The Churches that are struggling with political infighting the most, the Churches that are declining the most are the ones who are not scattering the seed. Yesterday a leader was sharing with me how his friend who Pastors a church recently told him that only 1% of his 70 size church were true disciples. Seems a bit low to me! What I do know is the key to discipleship is gospel sharing, it is mission, it is the scattering of the seed, the Word of God.

This week I was asked what I thought a Pentecostal was. Tomorrow is Pentecost and what a great day to celebrate! A Pentecostal is a disciple who is saturated by the Spirit of Got to be empowered to share the gospel to the lost people of this world.

We need to fall in love with the gospel of Jesus Christ again. First love preaching. First love testimonies. We need our first love back. We need the joy of the gospel. Fall on us Spirit of God!

Let’s just scatter …

Luke 8: 4-5 “While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable:  “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed …”

The crowd that came with Jesus containing the 12 apostles, the women who had transformation testimonies and many other disciples arrived into town. The numbers were increasing as word got out that a miracle worker, a teacher, a rabbi called Jesus had arrived. People from neighbouring towns were arriving, this is now becoming a large crowd of people. They were wanting to know what Jesus was doing, what he would do, had they missed something, ‘we got here as quick as we could!’

Jesus teaches a parable.

Nothing unusual. Even today, we tell stories, some that are part of our lives, some historical, some crafted just for the occasion.

Perhaps Jesus tells this parable because it shows what he had been doing. Luke had written, “Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.”

“So do you know what I have been doing? Do you want to know what I am doing here right now?”

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed …”

“Oh we see, you’re scattering seed Jesus. Yes we get it!”

Maybe in 2019 we need to get this also.

We have become so used to mechanically sowing, carefully not wanting to waste anything, wondering what would happen if the gospel is rejected. We must go on courses first, we must know what we are going to do and we must become better at sowing. We have so many frightening stories of the random no–thought gospel approach. We need to plan. We need to strategise now. There are questions to ask. We need to be careful not to upset or offend. If we take the gospel into a place where it has already been heard then that’s a waste of time. If we plant a church and there’s a church already there in that town again what a waste! So let’s take time, don’t rush, we need answers to these questions before we go. So we don’t go. We don’t sow. And people are starving because there is no food. I get it if what we are doing is setting up Bible study groups or worship centres. But I am talking about the gospel.

• I believe in training. I believe in courses. I believe in equipping. I do.

But maybe we should just encourage more scattering. It sounds a whole lot more fun! Just throw it out. Go everywhere. Find lots of ways to share the gospel. Mobilise the church. Get out there. Set up new things for the gospel sharing. Make everything about scattering the seed of the gospel. There will be waste, we won’t get the results that match the effort of the scattering, but maybe that isn’t the point. Maybe the point is to scatter. Maybe the Church needs to be mobilised more. Maybe we need to create movement again. Maybe we need a Pentecost!

You are on Jesus team, so let’s go!

Luke 8: 1-3

After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Yesterday we were imagining Jesus visiting our town or village. But can you also imagine being a member of the crowd that came with Jesus? Sometimes it is referred to as a large crowd as when Jesus entered the town of Nain (7:11), here Luke writes ‘many others’.

In the crowd were of course the Twelve apostles. The chosen ones, appointed to be sent into all the world. They constantly heard the parables being taught, day after day, often the same messages, so much so that they could repeat them verbatim. They could even teach them the way Jesus taught them they had heard them that often. The lessons of the teaching of the kingdom went deep into their soul. They knew the way Jesus spoke. They saw how he lived. They watched him pray, eat and sleep. They could recognise his laugh, his voice when he sang and his favourite Scriptures. They saw many healings, in fact every disease they could think of they saw healed. They saw that many that they knew nothing was impossible for Jesus.

In the crowd were many others, all at different levels of faith perhaps, disciples who were following, learning as they went. Others perhaps just tagging along, looking for excitement, they would soon disappear when Jesus spoke some tough teaching, but for now they are there.

Jesus made sure he took with him certain people. Woman who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases.

Women like Mary who they simply called Magdalene, probably her nickname given by Jesus because she came from Magdala. Can you imagine being given a nickname and that being your home town or county? I was born in Norwich and in that county you are called a Norfolk Dumpling! Or if you’re from Birmingham, Jesus would simply call you Brummie!

Mary came from Magdala, now modern day Migdal but she had been a deeply troubled woman. There is no mention of a husband, so perhaps she is unmarried or a widow. But can you imagine seven different life-controlling, oppressing demons that were owning this woman’s life? Now imagine her testimony of what Jesus had done for her! She was definitely an asset for the gospel trips!

“What Jesus has done for me he can do for you.”

Women like Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household. Here is a woman who was also healed or delivered, we are not told. But a woman from perhaps a completely different privilege. Chuza, her husband, most probably a man of intelligence and ability because of his position as manager of Herod Tetrachs household.

Women like Susanna. Again someone who had been transformed by Jesus. It must have been very shocking at that time to see women being given such prominent positions in the team, to be part of the disciples, to be on mission with Jesus. Luke places this detail immediately after the incident between Jesus and a woman known as a sinful person in Simon the Pharisees house, where he misjudged badly the pure encounter that Jesus had with the woman.

Luke says that these women were the financial backers of Jesus’ mission. We don’t know how much it cost for this evangelistic team to travel around the nation with the gospel. The need for food, clothing, accommodation, there were constant bills needing to be paid. These women continually gave and provided for Jesus. They had access to money and they made sure the mission continued. Perhaps we need to make sure we have on our gospel teams the financial supporters that are necessary to keep going. If you are one of these people, you need to see your role as important as the Twelve. So important that actually you will remain so close to Jesus that you are there at his greatest need, the foot of the cross (John 19:11) and the greatest experience of power, his resurrection (Luke 24:10).

Can you imagine being part of the Jesus team? Can you imagine travelling from city, town and village? Can you imagine learning from Jesus every day and seeing wonderful things he was doing? Can you imagine carrying a testimony of the work of grace in your life? Can you imagine getting the opportunity to tell people about what Jesus has done for you? Can you imagine it? Yes you can! Today is another day of gospel work. Let’s go!

 

Keep on moving, keep on speaking, keep on changing lives.

Luke 8: 1 “After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.”

“He continued according to plan, travelled to town after town, village after village, preaching God’s kingdom, spreading the Message.” (The Message)

 

Jesus was on the move. Every day he was up and about. Constantly travelling. He wasn’t spending months in one place and then moving on to another place. No, Luke is describing what seems to be a plan to visit as many places as possible.

Can you imagine being a resident in a town or a villager and you are going about your normal business and then suddenly Jesus with his entourage turn up?

This place where you live has been dull for too long! It is about time something exciting happened. Exciting it was!

Jesus preached. It wasn’t about how bad the Romans were. It wasn’t stirring people up to revolt and to take action against authorities. It was good news. It was positive preaching. The focus? That God’s kingdom is not like the kingdom of this earth, it is so much better than that. More importantly God’s kingdom has come, it is here, amongst them. It was here for those who are poor (Luke 6:20); it is for those who will be determined to follow (9:62); it is influential though looks small (13:18-19); not everyone will enter this kingdom (13:28) and yet it is open for everyone (13:29); it will cost the individual who enters it (14:33); and it begins within a person’s life (17:21) as they receive the kingdom like a child would (18:17); this kingdom is here now but it is also coming soon (21:31).

Accompanying this preaching and in order to demonstrating the kingdom many miracles were done. Cripples were healed, the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the landscape was beginning to change across a whole region of this nation. Jesus had come. He was here now.

Can you imagine this for your city, town or village? Isn’t it time to wake our nation up? Okay perhaps too grandiose! Let’s keep it small. Isn’t it time to impact the home you live in, the street you walk on, the places you go today? Our message:

1. Jesus rules all things, is above all things, Lord over all things, Sovereign over all things.
2. Jesus rescues people from the destruction of sin that is outside of them and even within them and disempowers the fear of death.
3. Jesus is here but he is also coming soon to establish a new heaven and new earth and make all things new.
4. Jesus’ kingship is seen in his crucifixion and the laying down of his life, this is the surrendered life he calls us all to follow.
5. Jesus’ kingship is proven by his resurrection of which the same power that raised him is the power that is in us, the Church.

The same message passed down the generations is as powerful today as when it was first given.

Let us not be moved, swayed or distracted from this message. Nothing else matters than the gospel. But let us be moved by its importance. Let us move today and keep moving. Let us cover as much ground as we can. Everyone needs to hear. The plan is to scatter this message liberally, almost wastefully, to everyone. I think there’s a parable about that coming up soon!

Jesus covered as much ground as he could. Not everyone received him with open arms but he kept moving. The Church needs to move across the nations of the world, to find ways to reach, to make an impact, to influence.

Last night I received this from a friend in a Muslim controlled nation which is regularly on the news for its persecution against churches:

“It was Ramadan celebration today across the Muslim world, marking the end of the fast. Praise God we had in our village church over 70 heads of families (households) all Muslims who came to us for the lunch and stayed on for fellowship and chats for nearly 3 hours. We praise God for this bridge building opportunity we have every year and despite the current security concerns. Please pray for us for wisdom and to understand (in being good stewards) of the times as the sons of Issachar in 1 Chronicles 12:32. Please pray indeed for hearts to repent and reconcile to God. Please also celebrate and praise God for we have currently at least 2 or 3 baptised believers from each of these households. Thank you for praying.”

 

They are moving. They are preaching the good news of the kingdom. Let us keep on doing what we all can do today.

 

The sin of not being thankful

Luke 7: 36-50

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them …

 

Jesus was invited to a Pharisee’s house

There was no greeting kiss – a polite customary acknowledgment.

There was no washing feet – which was mandatory before a meal

There was no olive oil – for a refreshing welcome

This was intentional offence, there was no appreciation, no thanks for coming, it created an immediate tension.

In this public meal where anyone was free to come and watch, there is a woman who has somehow been taken into prostitution. That day she had met Jesus and heard his teaching. She had heard that God loved her. This message so impacted her life that when she heard Jesus would be at this evening dinner she just had to be there no matter what people thought.

She watches how Jesus is treated, no thanks, no appreciation, no gratitude and she runs. She kisses his feet and looks up and sees eyes that do not condemn and she cries her tears and they fall on his feet, she lets down her hair and wipes them. She has an alabaster jar full of perfume, maybe it was what she used for her trade. She pours perfume on his feet.

Simon the Pharisee stands aghast with total unbelief that Jesus cannot see that this is a sinful woman.

Jesus tells a simple story and the message is simple:

The one who is forgiven much loves much.

The one who is forgiven little loves little.

There is a forgotten sin. The sin of not being thankful.

Lips that will not kiss.

Knees that will not bend.

Eyes that will not weep.

Hands that will not serve.

Perfume that will never leave the jar.