Missions Paul

Yesterday I was again on a zoom call and this time it was leaders from across the world. I caught myself briefly (just in case they read this) not listening to what they were saying but the sound of the birds in the background. It was beautiful and I wanted to be there. Sounds can have that impact. Every time it rains and I am in the conservatory I will say ‘oh this reminds me of caravan holidays’ and I am taken back over 40 years ago to Lake District holidays in a caravan with the rain bouncing on the roof. The sound of the first lawnmower in the neighbourhood and you realise a new season has started. The sound of fireworks. The melody of the ice cream van. The sound of crickets. So many sounds take us places and they often take us back to wonderful memories that we have had.

Of course not all the sounds will bring us pleasant pictures. Let’s read a verse from John’s gospel.

“At that moment a rooster began to crow.” (18:27)

I wonder in the years to come what the sound of the rooster would mean to Peter?

The sound of my impetuosity.

Did it remind him of Malchus? His mind taken back to the night he chopped off the ear of the high priest’s servant. His moment of rashness, when he just didn’t think through a plan and launched straight into disaster.

Do you remember when you hurt out of anxiety?

Do you remember when Jesus healed what you hurt and you stood corrected for behaving more like the enemy than Christ?

Read the verse again, “One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow. (v26-27)

The sound of my denial.

He denies three times and the rooster crows. Three missed opportunities. Luke writes Peter goes outside and weeps. John just ignores him. We know nothing of what happens to Peter until after the Resurrection. The man who wanted to be involved in everything and the first to volunteer for anything is not part of the most important part of the story of Jesus.

Do you remember when you failed miserably and it took you out of the action for a while?

It seemed that God removed you from the place you were in and looking back you know it came as a result of your failure.

The sound of denial can haunt a person for the rest of their life.

But we of course know there is another reminder.

The sound of my new beginning

The rooster crowed and a new day began.

Our lives don’t change on our success but on the trauma of failure, brokenness and repentance.

There is a brokenness that leads to death as Judas experienced. But there is a brokenness that leads to life.

From that moment Peter was moving into a new day. It was recognition that he needed saving. A few days later Jesus would meet him and restore him fully and appoint him a leader.

But he would forever remember the moment (whenever he heard the morning sound) the turning point of his life when he became a broken man that led to new life.

Today,it may not be a rooster. But listen out. God might want you to hear a certain sound again.

John 18 v 15-18, 25-27

^“Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, ¹⁶ but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. ¹⁷ “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.” ¹⁸ It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.” ²⁶ One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” ²⁷ Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.”

 

In the setting of two High Priests there are 2 disciples also having their own experience.

Of course, we know about Peter. He’s the denier. Everyone knows what he did.

• But failing whilst following is better than not following at all.

But there was ‘another disciple’ following also. This man who John just describes as ‘the other disciple’ was known by the high priest and went into the courtyard with Jesus. So when Annas questioned Jesus over his disciples why did he say nothing about this man? He knew him and he knew Jesus had disciples, in fact, others could recognise some of them, such as Peter. It seems to me:

• You can be with Jesus but not known as a follower of him.

But let’s not be too hard on this ‘other’ disciple.

He had the power of influence which we can all step into.

• The power of influence will always be looking backwards, in v16 he ‘came back’. Some are far too visionary, future-driven, always wanting the next chapter that they fail to turn around. In fact looking back is seen as a negative and they have Bible verses to prove it. Those with a pastoral heart are never afraid to return. There are times when you need to influence what is behind you and not what is ahead of you. For often what is behind you is no longer about you but others.
• The power of influence will use leverage, he ‘was known to the high priest (and) spoke to the servant girl on duty.’ There are moments not be missed when we have the advantage. All your experiences of the past work together to give you leverage. John doesn’t tell us how he was known and many have speculated of course. But the longer you live the more leverage you have if you are wise enough to use it and to do so unselfishly.
• The power of influence empowers others, he ‘brought Peter in’. He gave Peter the right to be there. The problem was Peter didn’t embrace that right and the enemy used that weakness to exploit Peter. The questions were said negatively, “You aren’t …” twice and “Didn’t I …” NO! Peter was out of the boat again, he was uncomfortable in his surroundings, he was lacking confidence even before the questions came. Being in a place because someone has got you there is different than being there in your own right. Remember John’s opening words, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (1:12) The battle in our lives is over the right to be who God says we are and moving into places God takes us into. It is confidence and we must win that battle throughout our life. Maybe today you can battle for someone else and bring them in and empower them, build their confidence. Don’t leave them alone with their insecurities for their enemy is near.

 

John 18 v12-14, 19-24

“Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him ¹³ and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. ¹⁴ Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.” ¹⁹ Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. ²⁰ “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. ²¹ Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.” ²² When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded. ²³ “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” ²⁴ Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Annas, the High Priest, had been demoted by the Romans in AD14 but he remained the people’s choice and why Jesus was taken to him first. Annas was the one who secretly controlled things even without the official title. He engineered the Romans to appoint his sons and Caiaphas, his son-on-law to be the next High Priests. But of course these were just puppets on a string held by Annas. They spoke and people took notice but behind their leadership was Annas. He pulled the strings.

THE HIGH PRIEST standing before this narcissistic, manipulative and controlling high priest is a picture which has the starkest of contrasts.

Annas questions Jesus about his disciples, he wants to know how many he has, who are they, where are they? Basically he wants to know how big a problem they have. Will this be over when this so-called messiah is killed? He then asks about the teaching of Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t speak about his disciples. He doesn’t blow the cover of Peter and the other disciple in the courtyard. He knows where the rest of his disciples would have run to, the homes they would be cowering behind, but he doesn’t speak of them. He speaks of his teaching only.

I have never spoken behind the scenes in secret. (Unlike you Annas who continually speaks as a high priest though you are not).

Everyone has heard me (Unlike you Annas who portrays a silent persona to the Romans).

I’m the one speaking (Unlike you Annas who is telling the other high priests what to say).

John in his gospel paints a tense scene and in the centre of it all a reminder that this was God’s plan as he takes us back to chapter 11 when Caiaphas prophesied that it would be better if Jesus died for the people. It would be better.

Whatever we may be going through today. You may have experienced controlling and manipulative people or circumstances are such. But you are in the plan of God. He knows. What can you do?

Do what Jesus has done.

I will not speak in hidden places. I will not align with the manipulators. I will not try and control others, it matters not who is with me or against me, I will be who God has created and purposed me to be. I will be heard openly. I know who I am. I will find my own voice. I will not be silent. I will stand in the place of truth.

Can you prayerfully declare the above today?

You can stand up and face the fear. You can speak what you want to speak and not what is being demanded of you. You don’t have to comply to fit in. You can do all this because you know you are in the centre of God’s plan for your life.

Two High priests, but there were also two disciples and that’s for tomorrow ….

During this season of lockdown we have more time to re-evaluate our faith and our practices as a follower of Jesus.

Today I finish chapter 17 and ‘the church I see’ centred around the prayer of Jesus as he talked to the Father hours before his death.

John 17 v 23-26 “I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. ‘Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you^[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Jesus prayed it because he wanted it. He still does.

I see a Church … that loves.

The love that demonstrates a sacrificial life. The gospel tells of the sacrifice of the Father to send the one He loves to people who are rejecting Him.  It is also the sacrifice of the son to be sent. The Father sends and the son dies.

The church wants to live, God wants the church to die for the world. That’s the gospel.

Richard Wurmbrand was 14 years in a communist Romanian prison, he said, “A man really believes not what he recites in a creed, but only the things he is ready to die for.” Come to Jesus and he will fix all your problems is not the gospel. The love from a sacrificial life is a cause, a purpose which needs devotion, focused and disciplined Christians.

The love that demonstrates our identity.

He is the Father of Adoption. Romans 8:15 “you received the Spirit of adoption.”

You have an enemy who is trying to get you to believe what he is saying to you. For what you believe you are is what you are and who you think you are is what you do. Why did sin happen? Adam didn’t know who he was and he tried to become someone he wasn’t. The accuser said “If you do this then you will be like God.” He should have said “stupid snake I am already like God. Why try and become what I already am?” But he didn’t and he became what God had not intended.

You are a child of God, belonging to Him, adopted to Him.

The love that demonstrates the Father’s passionate love. The story about the father and his lost son is an example of a Jewish custom called the Kezazah ceremony.

This ceremony was performed when a Jewish man absconded from the community and went and lived with the Gentiles. When he came back, he would go to the city gates and the older men would throw down a pot in front of the young man – symbolising the broken relationship that now existed between the community and this ‘sinner.’ This separated him from his family, his community, and his faith.

So in the story of the Prodigal Son why do you think the father ran to his returning lost son?

He ran to get there before the judging community. He embraced the sinner.

A Church that loves runs and embraces the offensive sinful people before the religious condemn them.

Identity offends like nothing else but the greatest offence is found in Gods people when they see their God stepping into these offensive identities with love and grace.

But when a Church has gone through a crisis, like a pandemic, when they have lost loved ones and felt incomparable grief, when they have been stripped back so that what remains is what has survived the refiner’s fire then that Church loves like at no other time in its history.

I see a Church that loves. You would think that is the prerequisite for a Church. We can all love people who we like or who are similar to us. Loving the unlovable is another thing completely! Post lockdown may we all emerge in the power of the love of God.

I see a Church … that is united and powerful.

During this season of lockdown we have more time to re-evaluate our faith and our practices as a follower of Jesus.

I have been thinking of the desires of Jesus in his prayer, hours before his death.

John 17 v 6-26

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. V22-23

Jesus prayed it because he wanted it. He still does.

I see a Church … that is united and powerful.

All the connectivity that has gone on in lockdown will prove dividends later. Those who have remained self-centred throughout this crisis will look very odd indeed afterwards.

The self-centred grumbler live their lives as if they are the most important person and everyone should centre their life on them. I’m tired of such a person. But during a crisis, persecution, a pandemic when a nation’s heart has been wounded with grief the self-centred grumbler loses their friends. Those who grumble and complain that their life is difficult because of the impact of lockdown will not be heard by those who have lost their loved ones through it. I’m not speaking about the person in the street but in the pew. How can the Church come out of this time with their eyes only on themselves? It will be very difficult, okay not impossible, but the Church is going to have to work hard to become like it used to be. I think past decline of the church has because it has scored too many own goals. I see this unity spilling over into pour neighbourhoods.

A church that is united is a church where community is important, where people matter. It is not just the community of those who attend church. But those who are yet to do so.

• Inviting the neighbour for coffee will become as important as inviting them to church.
• “Where brothers live together in unity there the Lord commands a blessing” Psalm 133, will become a verse important not just for the church but for the workplace or neighbourhood or wherever.
• We will embrace the ‘incarnation’ as never before. We live in a world that is closer together than it has ever been and yet driven apart at the core. The incarnational God left his safety, his glory and got caught up with our mess and failings and history. He did it because He cared.

Togetherness means we will leave our comfort zones, our glory and get burdened and involved with the problems of the world. Their problem becomes our problem.

You are called by God for people. Its others before you. It is putting people ahead of you. Serving others, reaching others, others all the time, every time. It is never about us. Never, never entertain the thought, ‘Well what about me? What about what I want? How I feel?’ for they are destructive thoughts.

I believe in the Church. The Church bears all the hallmarks of God. The Church has His Word, His provision and we are the chosen appointed people of God.

We are the presence of God, the Holy Spirit is manifested through us, the Church.

I don’t believe in the church that has political and power controlling disputes. But I do believe in the church that has Christ as the head over all things.

I don’t believe in the church that has masochist tendencies, beating itself up. But I do believe in the church that is the body of Christ.

I don’t believe in the church that is full of pride, greed and selfishness. But I do believe in the church that is the fullness of Christ.

I don’t believe in the church that plots its own course regardless of anyone else. But I do believe in the church that is part of God’s eternal purpose.

I don’t believe in the church that grabs for its gold, polishes its silver and self-congratulates its own achievements. But I do believe in the church where the glory of God can be found.

I don’t believe in the church that will not die to self and submit to one another. But I do believe in the church that is loved by Christ who willingly gave himself up for.

I don’t believe in the church that is riddled with physical and spiritual abuse. But I do believe in the church that is continually washed and cleansed by Christ.

I don’t believe in the church that will not feed physically and spiritually the hungry and the poor. But I do believe in the church that is nourished and cherished by Christ.

How will we emerge after lockdown? We cannot and must not go back to the things that were wrong before. The fall-outs, the bickering, the gossip, the self-centred victim mentality. We must spring out of this lockdown with thoughts for unity and being the powerful Church that we are in God. The world will need us!

During this season of lockdown we have more time to re-evaluate our faith and our practices as a follower of Jesus.

I have been thinking of the desires of Jesus in his prayer, hours before his death.

John 17 v 6-26

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” V17-19

The Message: “Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I’m consecrating myself for their sakes So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission.”

Jesus prayed it because he wanted it. He still does.

Set within these verses is a desire of Jesus that we are sanctified. The word is ‘Hagios’ which is usually translated as ‘holy’ but the basic meaning is separate as in ‘different’.

I see a Church … that is different.

We are different in 2 ways:

1. Set apart for a special task.
2. Equipped with the qualities of mind, heart and character necessary for that task.

The disciples had been chosen for the spread of the gospel, mighty witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus.

God has chosen us and has set us apart for service. That service is firstly to love Him and then to love others.

This is our purpose.

We are different because God is different. So what does that mean?

In Deuteronomy 10:17-18 God says He, “defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the immigrant giving him food and clothing.”

This is one of the main things he does in the world. He identifies with the powerless, he takes up their cause. It is this that sets our God apart from all the other ancient gods whose power was always channelled through and identified with the elite of society. Our God was and is always on the side of the powerless and of justice for the poor, needy and vulnerable.

Most people who are downtrodden by abusive power are those who had little power to begin with, God gives them particular attention and has a special place in his heart for them.

Now if God’s character includes zeal for justice that leads him to have tender love and close involvement with the socially weak then what should God’s people be like? If God is so different then surely we should be as different as well? We must be people who are as passionately concerned for the weak and vulnerable as He is. Issues of poverty and injustice must matter, in fact all the many challenges of society are the challenges that the church should embrace. We are not separated from the world but separated/different so that we can engage with a broken world.

May we all know we are separated/different for the special task of loving others.

I see a Church … that is different.

In lockdown we have been amazed by what is possible in terms of the human kindness to one another. We are called to be different. Set apart for good works. To give to the least. To prioritise the last. To find the lost. That is what makes the Church different.

I see a Church …

During this season of lockdown we have more time to re-evaluate our faith and our practices as a follower of Jesus.

I have been thinking of the desires of Jesus in his prayer, hours before his death.

John 17 v 6-26

 “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them” v10.

Jesus prayed it because he wanted it. He still does.

I see a Church … which knows how to bring glory to Jesus through worship.

Glory has come to me through them. An incredible thing to say!

May our lives be filled with His beauty and character, the Chabod, the weightiness, so that when we lift up His name in honour and praise Jesus receives all the glory.

Of course we can glorify Christ in many ways but the Bible associates worship as the main way we glorify Him. All of our lives is worship but the activity of centring our hearts and minds totally on Jesus in a corporate song or prayer has no compare.

The Bible if full of exhortations to call on the Lord and sing to Him, to praise, to bless and to lift up His Name.

Psalm 29 v2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name; worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.

Psalm 115 v1 Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

I am sure we are all missing being together, singing songs of worship and bringing glory to the Lord. It is quite difficult to do that on zoom!

However during this lockdown and being away from our buildings we have an opportunity to think again about the worship we offer Him. I wonder if the Church has become quite boring. Is it possible that the spiritual discipline of worship has not changed in our lives for some time? There has been no variety. Could it be that the picture of our Church worship has only consisted mainly of standing, sitting, singing and clapping our hands for years? Is the majority of our worship only found in a building?

Now of course worship comes from the heart otherwise it isn’t worship at all. But look what Paul tells us in in Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?”
“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

And we all cry out AMEN at Paul’s exuberant worship. But then he follows on with this: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (12:1) At a time when heresies like Gnosticism was attacking the church with its belief that the spiritual is good but the physical is bad. Paul says offer your bodies. They are to be used as worship to God. Worship is not just that of the heart and mind, it involves the body. Incarnational worship bringing glory to Christ.

In this lockdown we are not in our church buildings. We are at home. Perhaps we have an opportunity to worship in a way we haven’t for a long time and certainly what we don’t usually do in our buildings on a Sunday.

We know the Bible encourages us to SING: Speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, Ephesians 5:19. It suggests joy, honour and gratitude in our hearts for God. We also know the Bible encourages us to CLAP OUR HANDS: “Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy” Psalm 47 v1. We do it to applaud God for who He is and what He has done. We also know, using the same verse, that the Bible encourages us to SHOUT acknowledging our victory in God. We know the Bible encourages us to STAND: “Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up.” Nehemiah 8:5. We do it to show respect to God.

But what about the other Biblical positions of worship?

I am a HAND-RAISER but only when I sing songs not when I pray (see Nehemiah 8 v6). It is a sign of deep reverence to His authority. I have an African close friend who I have never seen pray without holding his hands up. I very rarely do that at home in private either. Why don’t I do that?

At home I have no problem KNEELING down, it shows I am bringing a petition with humility to God. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalm 95:6. The Bible encourages us to take up such a position but the Churches I attend we do more standing and sitting than kneeling. Why don’t I do that publicly?

If I am going to feel nervous kneeling in public worship when everyone else is standing then I am certainly not going to LAY PROSTRATE on the floor. I wonder how many would even if the worship leader instructed us to.  We would get down there but probably not get up! But the Bible encourages us to do so (Ezekiel 9 v8). I will do it at home as it signifies vulnerable and humble submission to God, but it’s not a regular Sunday morning occurrence for me in a Church building.

What about SHOUTING? “Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart” Psalm 32 v11. To acknowledge our victory in God. Home or Building? Maybe neither?!

What about DANCING (more than swaying or toe tapping!) to indicate great celebration? “Let them praise His name with the dance ..” Psalm 149 v3 Home or Building?

Finally a big one! What about SILENCE? “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” Habakkuk 2:20 Moving into inner peace, free of all distractions. Home or Building? We certainly have that opportunity in lockdown.

Of course some of these positions of worship are more suitable to corporate settings. For example when I am singing along to some praise song at home I don’t think I ever clap my hands. Clapping for me seems better suited in a gathering. But I’m probably wrong.

But maybe if we practiced some new positions of worship at home in lockdown then come the time we are in our buildings we could be making Sunday services quite different indeed!

I see a Church … which knows how to bring glory to Jesus through worship.

Maybe the good thing about this lockdown is that it gives us all an opportunity to try something new with our bodies because no one is watching us. To worship God with a new position and maybe with the significance in mind could bring further glory to Jesus. Perhaps when we get back to our buildings worship will look different. Maybe that’s a good thing.

I see a Church …

During this season of lockdown we have more time to re-evaluate our faith and our practices as a follower of Jesus.

Over the next few days I want to pause and think a little more of this prayer of Jesus, hours from his sacrifice. I think I can see 5 desires of Jesus in his prayer that are for us today. Let us look at one each day.

John 17 v 6-26

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world” v6.

“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” v26.

Jesus prayed it because he wanted it. He still does.

I see a Church … That knows the Father.

The ministry of Jesus was to reveal the Father. As people looked at the lifestyle of Jesus, saw his personality and character, they saw the beauty of the Father. Do people see the Father in us? Christ’s passion hasn’t changed now that he is in heaven. It is still his desire for our lives that we know the Father. What kind of Father do people experience from the Church? From you and me?

Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church and said, “Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” 1 Cor 4 v15.

When the Father is known and when people see the Father in the Church they are soon made aware that He is a sending Father. John has made it clear throughout the gospel and as we will see when we get to the verse in John 20:21 “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

There are two different uses of the word send in verse 21. The first one is in the past tense, meaning, “I have been sent once and for all.” This action has been taken once and is not repeated. Jesus has come once and for all. The second sending is in the present active indicative, meaning a continued action—“I am sending you, and I will keep on sending you until the work is completed.”

He continues to send today. The sending responsibility of the church is not optional or expendable. It is to continue until Christ comes.

Every book in the New Testament was written by a sent missionary. Every letter in the New Testament that was written to an individual was written to a convert of a sent missionary. Every letter in the New Testament that was written to a church was written to a sending missionary church. The one book of prophecy in the New Testament (Revelation) was written to seven sending missionary churches of Asia. The only authoritative history of the early Christian church is a sending missionary book (Acts). The disciples were called Christians first in a sending missionary community (Antioch). The map of the early Christian world is the tracing of the journeys of the first sent missionaries. Of the 12 apostles chosen by Jesus, every apostle, except one, became a sent missionary. The other became a traitor.

The aim of a mission sending father and a mission sent son is to make known the father. It is to make known the ways of the Father. A way is not just a thought, or a perceived attitude about something, it is how one lives their life. It is the customs, institutions and achievements of a particular nation, people or group, it is called culture. I see a Church that understands the culture of the Father that absorbs His character ours.

If the Church wants to know the Father and be known as the Father’s house, then it needs to send again. There are trapped sons today. The fathers will not send, they keep, they want to build empires, to preserve their name. Sons want to honour but they want to go.

John would later write in 1 John 4:14 “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.”

May the world see a Church that knows the Father!

Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light, Like a little candle burning in the night;
In this world of darkness, we must shine, You in your small corner, and I in mine.

A beautiful children’s song written well over a century ago and sung throughout has that last line played out in church life and it flies in the face of what Jesus prayed for his us.

Church can end up being something like this: We all try our best at being Christians during the week, then on a Sunday we come together to sing, hear a talk and give, then we go home again. Some Sundays are good, some are not up to expectations and we don’t know if we will go again. Now that we are in the season of digital church we can fast forward bits of church that we don’t like and even delete so that we can get on with our own lives.

You in your small corner and I in mine is not the answer to the prayer Jesus prayed.

John 17 v 6-26

V11 “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one… V20-23 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me… V26 “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

The answer was the second Advocate, the Holy Spirit, falling on the Church at Pentecost and the result was that the people were devoted to one another, Acts 2:42. The actual words are, ‘they continually devoted themselves.’ There is a need to continually devote ourselves to each other because things do go wrong. The way devotion is seen is how Jesus demonstrated it for us. The cross. In order for unity someone has to go on the cross and it is usually the one who isn’t in the wrong.

Who would you not lay your life down for? Jesus did it.

We don’t like sacrifice, it goes against our human nature, our understanding and it seems pointless. It seems weak, there is no return and it just feels like the other person wins and we climb down from what is true. Sacrifice is not a nice word.

The New Testament knows nothing of isolated believers. Wherever you find believers you find them in community. They were certainly not perfect and they needed challenging at times to keep gathering because they tended to drift away (Heb 10:24-25).

Has someone hurt you? Who are you separated from?

Some betrayals need to be allowed to go the way of destruction. Some denials can cause the beginning of a far better relationship. Some desertions can be understood.

We all have the stories of pain.

John Ortberg tells a story of a girl called Beth, she attended a new school when her family moved into a new home, she was desperately searching for a new friend.

In a vast field of isolation Beth found the pearl of great price – a friend; a best friend. Joanne was funny and bright and warm, and in the mysterious alchemy of human beings, two gawky 14 yr olds were alloyed in friendship. That year, Beth writes, the world became a different place for her. She belonged. The cafeteria of the new school was no longer a no-man’s land; someone was saving a place for her. Four years went by; birthdays, pizzas, projects, makeovers and sleepovers. Because of her friend, Beth writes, she learned the music of that era, she learned about boys and secrets and other people’s families and the fine art of passing notes in school.

She told Joanne everything, as best friends do. Her senior year, Beth told Joanne her biggest secret; She had fallen in love. It was an impossible crush. He was a blond haired, back of the bus Big Man on Campus who hardly knew Beth was alive. At best, he would occasionally grunt hello. Still, every night after school, after homework, Beth would call Joanne to tell her the details: where she had seen him, what he had worn or said, whether or not he had acknowledged her with a terse greeting. Joanne was always encouraging: ‘Maybe he likes you?’

‘Really?’

Beth wanted so badly to believe her friend, to think this hero might feel for her some echo of what she felt for him. Beth could not stop hoping, even though he gave her so little reason, even though he didn’t seem to notice her and never said more than a grunt. She could not stop hoping, she writes, until the night Joanne showed up with him at the Prom.

And a friendship that blossomed for 4 years, with the only best friend she ever had, was silenced for 20 years.

 

Maybe you know a similar story. Maybe the ones who you did no harm to but you helped the most were so ready and available to hurt you. Maybe you remember those who betrayed you, who harmed you. Some of those people are now dead, some you do not know where they are living if they are, some are close by but they would not have a clue what you were talking about if you brought it up. But all of them can be found in the deepest parts of your heart. If the moment came, if you were so stirred up, it would still be possible to still feel something of the pain that you had back then. How can it be still painful? How can it still have an effect? It’s the work of Satan. He can cause the greatest harm by using people.

He has a reconnaissance on you. In every community that you live in, in your work, home, neighbourhood, friendship groups, He wants to know where you go and what you do, the people you mix with, your gifts. He is following your movements. The more you love people and value people, the more he hates you and belittles you. The more you are positive to people and influential in their life the more he wants to right you off. He wants you out of the action and in the corner and he will use people to get you there and their words to keep you there.

Will you be the answer to the prayer of Jesus or the fulfilment to the desire of the enemy of your soul? Come out of your small corner.

John 17 v 6-26

For 3 years Jesus and his disciples journeyed together. He had formed them into a band of love. They had shared their hearts, laughed, cried, travelled, worked and argued. Now literally only hours away from Jesus being taken from them, he prays for them.

When Jesus prays He is praying the Father’s will. He is not twisting His Father’s arm. He is not hoping the Father will do what He prays. He prays the answer. When you hear the prayer you hear the promise.

Over the next few days we will see the promises that are in the prayer of Jesus.

Jesus is our protector.

Simeon lived in around the year 390AD and was the pioneer of what was known as the Stylite Saints, a group of extreme monks.

Simeon first lived in a commune but he needed to get away from it all so moved to a solitary life.

But even living on his own he found he was still being distracted from God by his world.

So he lived on a hill tied to an iron chain for 5 years.

But still he wanted to be closer to God and away from it all.

So he built a pedestal and lived on it for 2 years.

Still it wasn’t good enough, so he built a column and then a higher column and then a higher column.

But still he needed to be away from his world so he had a 50 foot column built and he lived on it for the last 30 years of his life. He died having found a way of escaping from his world.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it (v15-16).

“This shouldn’t be happening to me.” Ever thought that?

The world with all of its problems; the sickness, heartache, disappointments, the greed, pressure, accusations, it is all around us. We live in that world and Jesus prays, ‘Father, don’t take them out of those conditions.”

Do you think of escaping sometimes? Do you fancy building a column?

We do need those quiet, alone times with God, to be still, to silence the noise of our world and to worship Him.

But the world we are called to live in is a world of hunger and pain, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head, there are times for jumping in the boat and sailing into the storm and times for jumping out of the boat and walking on the water. Tough days are part and parcel of life. You were never meant to withdraw from the pain.

Jesus prayed that we would live in the world and that means facing troubles but with Him.

V11-12 “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”

A news app that I have has a story of an American Pastor who has kept his church services going through the covid-19 crisis because “the virus will not kill you.” The truth is it does and it has and it will. Whether or not you’re a follower of Jesus or not, the protection that Jesus prays for is not the protection over not dying.

Hebrews 11 v37 “Some (believers) were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were put to death by the sword.” Three horrendous types of death.

Some of the followers of Jesus get promoted to glory like Elijah, who just walked away and no one ever saw him again.

Some go the way of Stephen and become martyrs of the faith.

Some go the way of Covid-19 etc.

So where is the protection?

It is from the destruction not the disease. The followers of Jesus have a home that is protected. The enemy will never touch your eternal status.

Jesus has already told the disciples that they are going to face trouble in the world. In a few days he would be telling Peter that he would be crucified.

However, nothing, not even the schemes of Satan can damage our eternal security. Those who die in the faith die in hope and die in peace. There is no fear of what might happen when we close our eyes. The first person we see when we open them is Jesus.

That is our protection. That is what Jesus prayed. What a beautiful promise this is!

So don’t bother building a column. It will all be okay. You can face your world.