Missions Paul

We celebrate today on this Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the crowds cheering but who had totally misunderstood the scene. Jesus’ response was this: ‘I’m not that kind of hero’. I’m here as a different king to the one you are used to.”

They missed it then and we still do.

“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit …” Romans 8 v 9

We see everything through a different lens now.

Daily we make the choice not to approach life the way the world does and not be governed by the desires and the longings that humanity has. We now know ‘the man on the donkey’ moment could well be God in Humility, the Suffering Servant and so we don’t dismiss or try to misinterpret what we see. For we train ourselves away from the domain and sphere of humanity to that of the Holy Spirit.

In doing so we step into the atmosphere of the Spirit where He breathes, moves, lives and acts through our lives, as we align ourselves with Him.

I’m sorry if that sounds offensive! I don’t mean to be rude.

I wonder how many years of our life we have spent devoted to ourselves. Preening in front of the mirror, weighing ourselves, exercising because our clothes have shrunk. Or what about our thought-life? Mulling over the offence given to us, struggling to hold back our frustration at what we should have said or planning on what we will say given half the chance. Our life has consisted of either beating ourselves up or boasting so that others can see us in a different light. Perhaps attention to ‘ME’ has not helped me at all?

Paul has come a long way from being the “wretched man I am!” (7 v 24) to now living and walking in the power of the Spirit (8 v 1-4). Here is how he does it:

“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8 v 5-8)

Every day is an opportunity to take our eyes off ourselves and to train our thoughts to think on the Spirit.

That’s the decision we have to make every day. We either try in our strength or we live in the Spirit’s power.

We have that choice.

Our minds set on … (our minds) governed by … the Spirit are therefore not in the ‘realm of the flesh’ but in the sphere, rule, influence and authority of the Spirit and therefore can and do please God because we learn to focus our entire lives around what the Spirit desires.

What does the Spirit think about me?

Is He comfortable living with me?

Is He in charge or do I use Him?

How much time do I spend thinking about the Spirit in me?

I’m not saying don’t look into the mirror, that could be disastrous for people like me. But let us decide today to think more on the Spirit and less on ourselves.

We love chapter 8 of Romans don’t we? Especially the opening. And rightly so!

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 

² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 

³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 

⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8 v 1-4)

NO CONDEMNATION, we don’t face spiritual death, NO FEAR. (v1)

BECAUSE …

The authority and the power of the Holy Spirit has freed us from the law of sin and death, of trying to please God by our own efforts. (v2)

How?

Jesus Christ did not sin though he looked like us (sinful flesh); instead he offered himself to take our place for the judgment of sin. (v3)

WHY?

So that the law of God might be totally fulfilled as we live and walk in the power of the Spirit and not by our own efforts.

That’s the decision we have to make every day. We either try in our strength or we live in the Spirit’s power.

Today I can choose to walk in the Spirit’s power and not my own strength. So let’s talk to the Holy Spirit today.

On your best day, when you have truly been that good Christian, you haven’t sinned (too much!) and you feel a sense of satisfaction that today was better than yesterday, why is it you still feel less than perfect? Why do you feel you could have done more? Maybe that’s just how it was meant to be if we were left to our own strength to become what only God could make us.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful naturea slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7 v 14-25)

The law of God is holy, just, good and spiritual.

But this law cannot change you. It is spiritual and we are fleshly. This godly lifestyle that you want to achieve will not make you godly because you are ungodly.

The law of God cannot help you into freedom. Left to ourselves we cannot obey God’s laws and even God’s law cannot get us to obey them. Even though we know God wrote His law, even that doesn’t impact us enough to be able to keep it.

The law doesn’t make me free rather it imprisons me.

So if it is pointless to try to keep a godly lifestyle; if the godly lifestyle only tells me I have failed; if I become even more trapped by this godly lifestyle: why bother? Who will rescue me …?

It is always and only and all of Jesus who leads us into freedom and who through the Spirit of God lives, breathes and works through our lives. If we fail then the blood of Jesus continues to deliver us!

Today are you going to try and be the best Christian you can ever be? Why? You now you will fail!

Why try and be what you already are?

Why try to do what He has already done for you?

“What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” (Romans 7 v 7-13)

When you try to achieve God’s law the result is always failure, “I am a sinner”.

People with no knowledge of the law may know they have done wrong but they do not know it is sin, the law tells them that it is.

Whatever part of the godly lifestyle you set your aim on it will only show you how far short you have failed to keep that standard.

The law of God was never meant to be a means of salvation but always to establish guilt for sin.

So why try to become free through effort to keep what we will never be able to keep? Why become enslaved again by trying? Why say we have tried when Jesus has died for our freedom?

Don’t set yourself up to fail. Live in freedom He has won for you.

So instead of trying and failing to please God we have stepped into a whole new way of life. Paul calls it the “new way of the Spirit”.

“But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”(Romans 7 v 6)

We allow the Spirit the freedom to move in our lives, to breathe, grow and bear fruit.

We focus on being and the Spirit focuses on the doing.

The result is that the Spirit declares the righteousness of God in our lives in a greater way than all of our trying.

We are released to serve by simply being. Come Holy Spirit!

How many times do you try to be good but fail?

How would your life be if you never felt discouraged by your failure to be good?

“Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7: 1-6)

Our old life, the life we lived before Christ has died (this first husband). What was that like? It was a life of trying to be good, trying to keep the commandments of God but breaking them, trying to be someone who God is pleased with but never feeling successful. But something happened: But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.The commandments/law of God has not died, it still declares the lifestyle that pleases God, but we are dead to trying to please God by trying to live up to that lifestyle. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.We have come away from and out of that control of trying to keep what we could never keep and trying to be good when we never could.

How do we know this to be true? So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ.

Jesus Christ was born under the law of God, lived under the law and died by the law becoming a curse of sin and death. (Galatians 4) The cross of Christ has been placed on top of the law of God. The law is still relevant and Paul has many lists of do’s and do not’s in his several letters. However, our attempts of trying to be good are filtered through the death of Christ. We have died in Christ and we have been made righteous. The evidence is not our achievement but Christ’s.

Let me tell you about my week last week. But first …

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life inChrist Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

The saddest part of my week last week was sitting down with a preacher and his wife as he confessed to being a serial adulterer. His marriage was dying, his ministry had died, his credibility, testimony and trust had died and his children’s relationship with him was dying and would die as they grew up to realise their father was not the man they thought he was.

I sat in the place of death, it stank, it was depressing, it was the wages of sin.

The best part of my week last week was hearing once again of one of my churches that in the last 18 months has grown from zero to 30 people on a Sunday. I was told of a young couple who had just committed their lives to Christ and were being baptised (this church has had more baptisms in the last 18 months than it had for a decade!) and opening their home for a small life group to be held there. As I listened my heart was encouraged listening to the gift of God and the eternal life being experienced in that place right now.

Because God did we do.

Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

Can you imagine Christians experiencing this? Can you imagine a different global Church than the one we see now?

Can you imagine a Church that does not grieve the Holy Spirit set in the context of how we treat one another?

Can you imagine a Church that copies God and loves like He loved us at the cross?

Can you imagine a Church which pleases the Lord?

Can you imagine a Church that truly knows the will of the Lord rather than what benefits it?

Can you imagine a Church filled with the Spirit?

Can you imagine this for you?

Two years ago as we entered into the lockdown I wrote this prayer for the Church. It is still my prayer as we are emerging out of this season.

We want to move not drift.

We want to step into purpose not be stuck in the default.

Renew us for radical mission.

Reform us to unlock the possibility.

We commit to the pathway of the gospel.

We commit to carry the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We come down from the victorious mountain to the valley of compassion.

And as we do we ask for the renewal of the 5-fold ministries so that the lives of men and women, young and old, are equipped and the body of Christ is built.

We are in times of:-

Clarity so open our eyes

Urgency so open our doors

Flexibility so open our stubborn hearts

Opportunity so open our understanding

This is YOUR time

This is HARVEST time

This is the SPIRIT time

This is OUR time.

We are ready to change

We are ready for a new Kingdom positioning

We are ready for the advance

You call our name and we say YES to your call.

Amen.

My desire is for that prayer to be answered; for the formation of Christ to be seen and known in our lives and for the Churches to emerge transformed from this lockdown season.

It was Paul’s desire:

^“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6 v 19-23)

What are we pursuing? How are we offering ourselves?

I know a Church which is sadly losing members weekly. They are resigning and walking away from their friends and ministries because the Church no longer provides for their needs. They might have good reasons to feel this way but their actions are not justified.

We need to stop pursuing through manipulation our personal gain and benefit.

We need to stop promoting ourselves as being the most important.

It is hard to be a slave of righteousness when I am the centre of attraction.

If being a slave to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness is in other words living a life where I am focused on Me. Then being a slave of righteousness is when I am focused on Him.

What would it look like if every decision a Christian made was not for their gain but for Jesus Christ and other people? Why can’t we resign gain to the place of being freely blessed, a grace favour, rather than something we have grabbed, desperately manipulated for or made a prophetic grab at? We could and if we did then perhaps we would see holiness and eternal life.

Be careful today is April 1^st! The world celebrates April Fool’s day. No one knows why though they speculate, however, many will try to play tricks, pranks and jokes on one another today. Even on broadcasts such as in 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees. Not everything you see and hear today is accurate so be careful!

But let me tell you what is true, accurate and as relevant today as the first day it happened.

Jesus Christ has set you free. There is an eternal declaration in heaven and hell, written in the blood of Jesus Christ that says, “The sinner is officially free.”

When was it made? At the empty tomb.

How was it made? At the cross of Jesus Christ.

God has declared the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work on the cross.

It isn’t a process it is an act on a given day.

God does not make us righteous He declares we are.

You are free.

From every power of sin, the flesh, the world and anything the devil will throw at you.

You are free from every addiction.

You are free from every fear.

You are free from all guilt and shame.

You are free from your past.

You are free in the present.

You are free tomorrow.

Whether you feel this or not it does not matter. It is a binding contract, an act of God, it is true, sustaining and finished.

Now let’s read our next verses:

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6 v 16-18)

Obedience is so important. But it doesn’t flow towards freedom it flows from freedom. It flows from what God did and has given. “Thanks be to God …” We “…used to be…” trapped, enslaved into a life of sin but we are not there anymore. Our allegiance was “claimed” and we live our life for Him from Him who has done it all.