Missions Paul

“Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. But Peter followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.” (Matthew 26 v 57-58)

After deserting Jesus with the rest of the team, Peter stops in his tracks and turns around and follows again. But the man who was one of the 3, who witnessed the transfiguration, who was called to watch and pray in the garden, is at a distance.

How big is the gap? How far is the distance between the Church and Jesus?

Following Jesus can deceive you into thinking you are doing enough. You are doing more than the others, where are they? They didn’t turn back like you did. At least you are here. However, who are you sitting with and what are you waiting for?

Being in the gallery is not the same as being in the dock. One watches and waits the other receives the interrogation. Being a spectator is not the same as taking part. Cheerleading is done for the crowd not for those in the game. Church is not a place for you to ask ‘what am I getting out of it?’ you are the Church. Narrow the distance.

The programme of the Church reveals the distance.

The lifestyle of the Christian reveals the distance.

Where there is distance it is quite extraordinary who we can align ourselves with. Peter sat down with the people who had captured Jesus.

Our following of Jesus must be far more passionate, fearless and radical. We need to be in hot pursuit not hiding in the shadows. Being on the same path is not the same as being alongside the person. We must narrow the distance. That is the call.

When your enemy presses in hard do not fear; The battle belongs to the Lord
Take courage my friend, your redemption is near; The battle belongs to the Lord

On your worst day. When your world is turning upside down remember that day belongs to the Lord.

“In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.” (Matthew 26 v 55-56)

Jesus mocks the muscle of humanity against the might of the Lord.

That circumstance that you are in right now may appear mighty; the enemy of your soul may flex its muscle at you but you can mock the barking noise. You don’t have to run from your discipleship. If you remain unmovable you will understand that the attempts to frighten you come from a place of fear and intimidation itself.

The enemy of your soul traffics in dark places. Words spoken against you are often hidden. Every day Jesus was teaching in the open but they couldn’t combat his authority for truth silences falsehood. To create a new narrative based on lies then it has to be done in the hidden place to gain strength.

The enemy of your soul traffics in lonely places. During the day it is hard to bring you down. People are around and are engaging with you. He cannot strike within that popularity for fear of being unpopular. So he waits until the crowds have gone and your friends are asleep.

But …!

The battle belongs to the Lord. Your story sits in the plans of God for your life. Your worst day, the full strength of the enemy of your soul. Your greatest attack of intimidation and character assassination. The capture of your life so that you have no control over outcomes. It all sits in the might of the Almighty. You don’t have to fight and you don’t have to run. You just have to realise that God has you and He is in no way surprised. He is in control.

When the Church or its leaders use the wrong weapon it sets itself up against the purposes of God.

With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26 v 51-54)

John’s gospel reveals the servants name was Malchus and that it was Peter who chopped off his ear with his sword (a dagger).

The enemy comes in the darkness and the ‘Church’ rises in the chaos and the confusion. We don’t know what the enemy is doing but we are rattled. We didn’t expect this attack, it feels like an enemy within for this crowd are not the Gentile soldiers, but we are ready. Our daggers are at hand. We have Jesus to protect, our Messiah. We have to stand for true righteousness. The manipulative kiss was unbelievable. But here now comes the pressure of the enemy. So we swing out. We react. We push back.

We hurt because we are hurt.

But wait. Here comes Jesus.

In the darkness He heals the enemies of the kingdom. Jesus heals what the Church harmed.

Jesus doesn’t need a sword. He still doesn’t.

I would probably have run away a few hours previously.

I would probably have asked my real friends to fight for me.

I would have probably tried to negotiate with my betrayer.

Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. (Matthew 26 v 50)

This is such a heart-breaking verse and one all too familiar for us. The betrayal from a friend. The attack from someone you once walked with, shared food with, laughed and prayed together with. When it all unravelled I wonder if the words, “Do what you came for, friend” repeatedly tortured Judas?

Is that where the thought sits? Or is there something more?

The essence of the gospel story is that the worst thing that could ever happen was the very best thing for God’s love to be expressed to the world.  Hold this thought.

Where the betrayal sits is crucially important for you to survive your life. If it sits in the hands of Satan then it is an enemy and begs the question where is God? But if God knows about it beforehand, if He sees it coming, if it sits in His hands where Romans 8:28 is applied then the sinful actions from someone you used to call friend may indeed form the destiny of what your life was meant to be for the glory of God. That sin of betrayal that wounded you deeply has brought you into a whole new purpose of life. I have seen it in my own friends and in my own life. Why? It is because of the realisation of where the betrayal ultimately sat. The betrayer is still guilty, they still have to give an account for what they did but you are free, for the control is not with them or Satan but with you and God. Jesus shows us at this moment He is in control of His own destiny. “Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him,” this had to happen. It sat in the hands of God.

Jesus had said to his disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:14) If you know that God is more in control of your life since you surrendered it to Him than anyone else, then the ‘friends’ of your life are those people who give the opportunity for what is commanded in your life to be revealed. That applies to the good and to the bad. To those who are speaking for you or against you.

Your friend maybe someone who has totally misunderstood the mission God has given you. Your friend maybe someone who has handed you over. Behind your friend the enemy maybe at work but because of what this has and is producing in you so that God can be seen then perhaps this friend really is a friend even if you no longer walk with them!

The disciples believed Jesus was a different Messiah than he actually came to be. They had heard his words of love and sacrifice but actually were still expecting him to lead a rebellion and overthrow the Roman Gentile oppressors bringing victory to God’s people. They still believed this even after the resurrection in some form. They had swords they carried and were ready to use them.

“While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.” (Matthew 26 v 47-49)

Why didn’t Judas just point out who Jesus was? Why didn’t he just go and stand with him and indicate this is who needs to be arrested? Why the kiss?

Judas’ betrayal wasn’t trying to end the ministry of Jesus (though that is what Satan who had entered Judas wanted to do). It was to provoke it to move faster and become the revolutionary ministry that everyone wanted.

A kiss can be manipulative. It can create a spell that has undying allegiance. He will do what I want.

The kiss was Judas showing the same cultural respect and love for his leader. “I am with you, I am one of your team, look at who is here, they have come to arrest you so now let’s fight, let’s do this, let’s overcome the oppressors, let the revolution begin!” Jesus received the kiss but rejected the manipulation. Later, realising that Jesus was actually going to go through with what he said and willingly die, he couldn’t cope with what he had done, he realised he had badly misunderstood his friend. Manipulation never ends well even the failed attempts of it.

“So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!’” (Matthew 26 v 44-46)

He was not calling them to run for their lives. This was not a call to escape, ‘let’s get out of here!’ No, this was a call to run to the confrontation. Gethsemane gives such a determined approach. He has sacrificed his fears and has been strengthened in prayer and rises with determination to face the enemy, to be taken, to suffer and to die. The betrayer and the enemy do not spring on him as in an ambush. He knows. He understands the time and the season. He knows the moment.

Gethsemane will crush you. The oil-press determines whose path you follow, yours or His. To survive the experience is not to just come out of it but it is to submit to the destiny on your life.

In contrast to the closest friends of Jesus falling asleep three times we see what the writer of Hebrews understood, “he learned obedience from what he suffered”.( 5:8)

“He went away a second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.’ When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.” (Matthew 26 v 42-43)

There is a cost to discipleship and it is called learned obedience. Here are 5 steps in that journey:-

Learned obedience is to do all you can to align yourself with the Bible. Jesus has Isaiah racing through his mind where the prophet is alarmed at Gods people drinking the cup of terror (51:17). He knows he will drink the cup of wrath and judgment in order to create the new covenant made with his shed blood.

Learned obedience can be the realisation of a slight but important change from “if it is possible” (v39) to “if it is not possible” (v42). From what you want to what He has purposed is a distance of great pain. It is the prayer of adjustment to what He wants.

Learned obedience is to believe God’s plan is greater than yours even if it feels like it isn’t. It is a prayer of faith: let it be. Amen. It is so. I agree. May your will be done.

Learned obedience is not just to accept one’s fate but to embrace the plan God has. It is to say, ‘Bring it on!’ It is a prayer of conception. I am here, my mind understands, my heart receives, my body is ready, use me.

Learned obedience is to have eyes on ‘My Father’. This is the Almighty, the all-powerful One, Him who placed the stars in the sky and created the gardens of Eden and Gethsemane. The Father of all but importantly yours. ‘My Father’, who is in control despite your circumstances and world falling apart.

When you are walking through your oil-press with a loved one who is praying for you then you know you are going to make it! Everyone needs someone to keep watch for them. Who are you watching out for today? Text them and let them know. It is amazing how strengthening that will be. `qc

They called Australian retired salesman Don Ritchie “the watchman.” Each day, he sat in his favourite chair at his cliff-side home, he would look up and scan the precipice that took the lives of approximately 50 suicide jumpers each year, trying to discern the intentions of visitors.

When somebody seemed to be lingering too long at the cliff, he walked out to talk to him.

“You can’t just sit there and watch them, you gotta try and save them. It’s pretty simple.”

According to official estimates, Ritchie and his wife Moya saved 160 lives during the 45 years they lived near the Gap Park, a famous cliff frequented by sightseers that affords a beautiful view of the Sydney Harbour. However, the unofficial tally is closer to 400, according to newspaper reports.

Although he occasionally used force over the years, his usual approach was friendliness and persuasion, which often ended in an invitation to join himself and his wife at their home for a cup of tea. A former salesman, he saw himself in a different line of sales at the Gap.

“I used to sell kitchen scales and bacon cutters, then I was state manager of a life insurance company,” he told a reporter. “At the Gap I’m trying to sell people life.” Ritchie didn’t pry or preach, but rather smiled and listened, a technique that often worked, though not always. He lost many to the cliff, but saved more than he lost, and didn’t suffer feelings of guilt for his failures. “You can’t do much about it,” he said.

Although it was difficult for him to remember all of the faces he had seen at the cliff during his decades of residency there, he often recalled a woman who had taken off her shoes and had scaled the small fence bordering the ledge, where she sat with a look of confusion on her face. After talking to her and inviting her in for tea, the woman explained that she suffered from depression, and that the medication she had been given was not working. Ritchie and his wife suggested that she ask for a second opinion. Months later, she sent them a bottle of French champagne, and then a Christmas card thanking them for their help.

For his decades of effort to prevent suicides, Ritchie was awarded the Order of Australia, which is the country’s second highest honour, in 2006, and he and his wife were named citizens of the year by the local city council.

Dianne Gaddin, an anti-suicide activist whose daughter killed herself at the cliff in 2005, thought Ritchie may have talked her daughter out of previous attempts and told a reporter, “It takes an enormous amount of courage just to go up to a person who is going to jump. Don has a charisma about him. He makes people feel safe, secure, and calm. I really think he is one special man.”

“Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked Peter. ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’” (Matthew 26 v 40-41)

Don carried on being ‘The Watchman’ until his death in May 2012.

You may not be living on a cliff-face, but where you are right now is the appointed place and all around you are people who God loves and is trying to reach.

Pray and don’t give up: Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up… And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? Luke 18: 1-7

Pray with listening: I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Habakkuk 2:1

Pray with an awareness of the battle: Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5: 8

Get to your appointed position today. Your friend needs you. They need to stay.

One step at a time.

Going a little further, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’(Matthew 26 v 39)

Paul says in Philippians 2:8 “and being found in appearance as a man He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

What took Jesus home to be with His Father was just sheer obedience: pure, unadulterated obedience.  No compromise, no deals, no negotiation.  “going a little further.” Obedience is exactly that; it means going a little further.

Are you willing to go a little further?  

You may have done a lot and come a long way in your walk with God but still the call comes from the Holy Spirit – will you go a little further?  If you will you are going to experience pain – for every time someone decides to go a little further there is a stage of pain that they need to break through.  A stage of discomfort; an area of feeling ‘I’ve never been in this place before in my life.  I feel so uncomfortable right now it is on the point of the pain barrier and I am not sure if I can go any further’.

He has taken His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane and has said to the majority of them ‘Will you stay here because I need to go a little further’.

He takes Peter, James and John and as He goes a little further He tells them ‘my friends, I need to tell you something – we are going a little further and there is something about me that you need to know. I know that you are with me but My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. My soul, that inner being, right now, is being swamped. I am so overwhelmed I can hardly breath – it almost feels as though I am going to collapse and die right now.  I am not sure if I want to go a little further but I want you to be around me and I want you to help Me go a little further right now’.

And He went a little further.

The unbelievable thing at that moment in time was this. He gets an understanding that He still needs to go a little further.  He says to Peter, James and John ‘You stay here, I’ve got to go a little further’.   Doctor Luke is more detailed, ‘being in anguish He prays more earnestly and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.’ (12;44) He went a little further.

You want to be like Jesus?  Will you go a little further?  Not everyone will come with you.

There is a certain obedience that can never be found in groups.  

I know a man who went through an oil-press. He lost everything. It was taken from him. As a friend I watched and prayed. But it was only him who had to walk out the path of obedience. He had to do that alone. I watched he walked.

There is a certain obedience that is only for one.  That is what God is calling you to do so that you get to a place where there is only you and God and there is no one there to soothe your pain but you are being obedient to the point of death and crucifying your flesh and all your earthly desires and all the strong temptations and the pulls of the paths of life and you are dealing with it. It is the oil-press.

There is an obedient place in God that is solely reserved for one.  Loneliness is not a bad thing, sometimes we are afraid to be lonely, but Jesus knew the times of loneliness on the mountain and in the garden of Gethsemane. There is safety in groups and sometimes that’s the problem.

Can you go further? Or do you go a little while and then it has fizzled out and you go back to how things were because it’s just too difficult to keep going further, to walk with God; to walk with God in holiness; to walk with God in such a way is so hard.

Today, go further.

“He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matthew 26 v 37-38)

The 3 functions of our soul: the will, intellect and our emotions must be directed by our spirit which was created to be in direct contact with God. In the order of God’s kingdom our souls direct our bodies but our spirit (which God constantly moves upon) masters our soul. This is why the Bible is essential to keep the order of God in our lives. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit …” Hebrews 4 v 12

If the primary focus of my life is my soul (my will, intellect and emotions) then not only will that dominate my body but it will negatively impact my spirit (my contact with God). Jesus reversed soulish living so that it is possible to be restored to the original kingdom order. But to do that his spirit, soul and body took a battering for us.

Jesus is anticipating 2 deaths. He knows the pain his body will go through but he is also anticipating being forsaken by God the Father. His spirit will soon lose contact with his beautiful union with God. The result is, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death …” The soul of Jesus was beginning to rule his life through grief, pain and hurt hours before he lost contact with God (his spirit) and his body killed.

He did that for us. Why?

So that our souls are submitted to our spirit and our spirit is in direct contact with God and we live as the nail-printed body of Christ in the world today.