Missions Paul

The Church is ready … surely?

Luke 12: 41 “Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

Jesus doesn’t answer the question. Peter had wanted to know who Jesus was teaching. Them or the crowd? Maybe he had wanted to know whether he should pay attention or not!

Peter wants to know:

Who are the servants waiting for their master’s return from the wedding banquet?

Who will be reclining at the table when the master serves them?

Who needs to be ready?

Surely the disciples are ready for His return because they follow him?

Surely it is those people who don’t know Jesus who need to be careful, it is the crowd who need to get ready?

In a world which has no thought for Jesus, surely it is to them who run the risk of failing in service and not having their lamps burning.

Surely Jesus is not thinking we are not ready for His return?

Surely we do not need teaching on His return?

Surely we know that this truth is for everybody else, not us?

We are ready aren’t we?!

Surely our vision and mission statements prove that?

Surely our programmes, plans and purposes reveal we are ready?

The Church … not ready? That can’t be, can it?

Surely, not us, not I?

What’s in you diary today?

Luke 12: 35-40 ““Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶ like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. ³⁸ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. ³⁹ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰ You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

 

On my Facebook newsfeed this morning I woke to a headline: FILM DISTRIBUTOR DROPS JOSH HARRIS DOCUMENTARY AFTER AUTHOR ANNOUNCES HE’S NO LONGER A CHRISTIAN.

The article goes on to explain how Josh Harris who had written a book in 1997 called ‘I Kissed Dating Goodbye’ had been working with Exploration Films on a documentary based on the book but had not disclosed his battle with the faith. On Instagram he wrote, “By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.”

Sad news.

Josh Harris no longer dressed ready for service and whose lamps are no longer burning.

Today the whole world will do the same thing, we will get dressed and get ready for whatever today holds.

We understand this process.

Having told them not to worry about things Jesus is running ahead of his thoughts and is not only thinking of when he leaves them but when he comes back. He wanted them to be ready for His return. He doesn’t want anyone to fall away.

It will be good if we have not fallen away when Jesus comes back (v37). If we are waiting for Him and He comes to a brightly lit house it will show Him that not only are we desiring Him but we are living for Him, we are indeed seeking His kingdom as He asked us to do.

How much do you long to see Jesus?

Why will it be good for us if we are ready when Jesus come back?

In a most unusual twist to the scenario, the master of the house becomes the servant.

Can you imagine your boss arriving into the office today and says “Listen, I would like to do your emails today. I would like to answer your phone calls. Don’t do my diary, let me help you with your diary. Can I make you a cup of tea?” Now who would like their Boss to do that today?!

The master dresses down, gets ready to serve to wait on them as he makes sure they sit around the table relaxing.

Whatever this is actually going to be. It may well be the best feast we have ever had. It will certainly be a table-turner. When Jesus comes back he will turn everything upside down. Remarkably He will honour us.

However, we will never know when this is, we just need to be ready/

So along with how much do I long to see Jesus, the questions also is, am I ready to meet Him?

Perhaps we think there is a greater chance of us dying and then meeting Him than meeting Him when we are still alive. If that is true then we need to be more ready. For it could certainly happen, even today. Jesus will return when we least expect it and for many of us we are not expecting it today, we actually don’t have any room for the return of Christ in our diary today!

Don’t worry we have a good Father

Luke 12 v 32-34 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 

Continuing with the theme of not worrying, there is a further fear and one perhaps that is greater than that of gain. It is this: the fear that God somehow is not pleased with you. He might bless us but it is for His purpose not for His pleasure, not because He really wants to.

This morning Jesus calls God ‘your Father’. Pause.

We have already read Jesus’ words, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (11:13)

How much more will your Father …

Growing up in the Salvation Army I was always moved by a hymn that the songsters would sing:

If human hearts are often tender,
And human minds can pity know,
If human love is touched with splendour,
And human hands compassion show,

Then how much more shall God our Father
In love forgive, in love forgive!
Then how much more shall God our Father
Our wants supply, and none deny!

How much more!

Jesus calls his disciples little flock. He is painting a picture to them that not only are they small, weak sheep but that the Father is their Shepherd God and He is pleased to give them this overwhelming, all-powerful, authoritative Kingly rule. This kingdom power which has put the stars in place and holds everything together that can be seen and not seen has been given to them with pleasure!

We know that Jesus has already said to the Pharisees “But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.” (11:41).

Here is our Father being incredibly generous, massively good-hearted to us lesser created beings. He demonstrated gracious generosity to us.

Jesus then calls the disciples and us to live in the light of that.

He is not telling us not to have possessions but He is telling us to not to be afraid to give to those who have less than us. If we have truly understood the Father’s pleasure in giving us His kingdom then we will not be afraid to live a simpler life so that we can give more.

The possessions we have or desire can all come to nothing.

They get old and wear out, moths can destroy them and thieves can break in and steal them. The maintenance on what you possess is constant. But there is a treasure in heaven that will not tire or get old. What is that treasure? It has to be people.

Last night I sat with a group of elders and one of them was telling me how she was helping 4 new converts to Christ. She was so excited as she described the discipleship process they were on. Her excitement was infectious. This was treasure.

Heaven is a real place and laying up treasure is to invest in people so that they get there. Be generous, gracious, big-hearted to those who have less than you, to the poor, that they may find the pearl of great price, the finest treasure, heaven!

Don’t worry it is inside you

Luke 12: 22-31 “Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! ²⁵ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life^[b]? ²⁶ Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? ²⁷ “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. ²⁸ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! ²⁹ And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. ³⁰ For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

 

Consider the Ravens, does God actually feed them?

A quick research shows this: As intelligent as dolphins, in tests of logic a raven had to get a hanging piece of food by pulling up a bit of string anchoring it with its claw. Ravens have pushed rocks on people to keep them from climbing to their nests, stolen fish by pulling a fishermen’s line out of ice holes, and played dead beside a beaver carcass to scare other ravens away from a delicious feast.

Consider the wildflower meadow: does God paint each flower beautiful? A wildflower is any flower that is not planted by intentional human intervention. They can be seen in deserts, forests, meadows and fields. They are so beautiful here in the UK most gardeners actually sow a wildflower patch.

No, God doesn’t hand-feed the Ravens or paint each and every flower. But within them both is the ability to do what they need to do and be the best they are created to be. Survive and be beautiful.

So do not worry about stuff.

What you will get and what you will look like. Stop fussing over those things. Stop making life all about worrying whether you will have enough and look your best.

Just like the Raven and the Wildflower you have built into you what you need. The ability and the creativity to live and the beauty inside that is more important than any make-up or designer clothes to wear.

Our focus is His kingdom, His rule, His Lordship over our lives then all will be well.

anapauó

Luke 12: 16-21 “And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’  “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Jesus tells this parable after ignoring the man who wanted justice from his brother and to gain from an inheritance.

In the centre of all that Jesus says are 3 words, well 1 word actually, anapauó which is translated ‘take life easy’.

The ground of a rich man gives him an abundant harvest – take life easy.

The barns of this now abundantly rich man were too small, so he worked only because he wanted to take life easy.

He built bigger barns to take life easy.

But he was a fool to take life easy.

That night his life was taken from him too easily.

Anapauó

This man actually was a poor man.

Those who have most usually appear to have the least.

Those who are powerful struggle to get on the floor.

Those who have done it all don’t usually do it now.

Those who treat others harshly have lost grace for their own lives.

Death is closer to life than we realise.

Live for self and there is no legacy when life is soon over.

Instead of taking life easy make life easy for someone else and you will know what it is to be truly rich.

Jesus: “I’m not interested”

Luke 12: 13-15   “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ Jesus replied, ‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

I wonder if you have ever heard Jesus say this to you, “I’m not interested”?

I am sure not! I mean Jesus is bothered about us yes?

What concerns us concerns him.

What upsets us upsets him.

What makes us angry makes him angry.

What we want he wants.

That’s right isn’t it?

Or maybe …

What I think is important actually isn’t.

What I am attracted to is a distraction.

“ … my … me” prayers hide God from our lives.

Who I am is more important than what I have.

Let us make sure our prayers are more about Him and others than me and mine.

Let’s keep Jesus interested.

DISCIPLESHIP: The benefits of being a friend of Jesus.

Luke 12

V4 “I tell you, my friends …”

Disciples who become friends of Jesus are formidable. If there has to be a falling away then friends will be the last to leave the room way after the followers have gone. I am a Manchester United follower but I am not a very good one. I mean, I couldn’t even give 11 names of the team. There are times I just don’t even want to watch them. In years gone by I have actually wanted them to be beaten by a non-league side because I have hated their arrogance. Yet every single day I am treated like a friend. They write an email to me every day, my MU app on my phone sends me updates throughout the day of something that is going on that they want me to know about and every year they send me a pen. How nice they are to me! Every day I feel important to Manchester United!!

I am not wanting to use MU as an illustration of me and Jesus, but I have done.

You see, there are days we are not good disciples and followers of Jesus and yet he calls us his friends. He is committed to us each and every day in our weak following of him. Jesus uses the lesser-greater argument to show us the benefits of that friendship with him. (If the lesser is true then how much more is the greater true?)

1. There’s no need to fear people.

V4-5 “… do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”

Maybe like me today you have something to do that you really don’t want to do. We have to make purposeful decisions not to fear people. We have to decide not to be bullied into silence. The Religious Pharisees and experts of the Law held the ordinary person in a vice of threat. Follow us, do what we say and all will be well for you. Jesus blows them out of the water. Jesus says there is only one to be feared, obeyed and followed directly. God. People have no eternal authority over your life. When we pass from this life we will not be facing that religious bully, we will face God.

2. There’s no need to feel worthless.

V6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

God knows how much things cost. He knows the market value of things, even insignificant things. Does God know the value of a budgie? YES. Jesus is saying to his friends that God knows every detail of their life. He has weighed them and has decided they are of great value.

 

3. There’s no need to worry about eternity.

V8-9 “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God.”

I hadn’t heard from this person in a long time and then he called me. “Am I going to hell?” He wasn’t that concerned about the lives he was tearing apart now. But he was very concerned about the consequence of that. My response was “I think it sounds like you are already in hell.” On earth as it is in heaven. What happens here happens there. I’m not the perfect Manchester United supporter but when asked I never say I am a Manchester City supporter, I always own up, even when they laugh or roll their eyes. I am not wanting to use MU as an illustration of me and Jesus, but I have done it again!

As a friend, there’s no need to worry about eternity. It is safe. You will be known in heaven.

 

4. There’s no need to feel condemned

V10 ^“And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”

In the most misunderstood verse in the Bible perhaps, Jesus simply tells his friends that their sins will be forgiven unless they purposely continually slander the God they know.

Friends look for forgiveness and friends receive it. Friends are not condemned, not the friends of Jesus.

 

5. There is no need to be powerless.

V11-12 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

So we find ourselves back to point 1. We can stand today before anyone because we never stand alone. The Holy Spirit, the power of God stands with us.

 

Jesus calls us his friends! Walk in that today! Look at those 5 benefits today and have a great day as a friend of Jesus!

It will all come out in the wash.

I love these sayings that are found all over the world. This one means the truth will be known soon.

Luke 12: 1-3

Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

Hypocrisy tries to hide who you really are not what you have really done.

There are things that we have done which actually no one will ever know.

No one knows that for the first 6 months of me being a minister I preached a whole box of my dad’s sermons verbatim, well, the ones I could decipher his hand-writing!

No one knows of when I got caught speeding at 96 mph up the A6 heading to a suicide bid and was taken to Penrith court and fined £100. No one knows because my case was first in court and the journalist hadn’t arrived by then!

No one knows that on one of my first Mission trips overseas on filling in an immigration form, not knowing where exactly I would be staying, I panicked and made up a complete false address and telephone number.

No one will ever know things I have done! (With the exception of God of course!)

But hiding who I really am is not that simple. It seeps through eventually.

The truth is I get nervous if in an awkward silence, so I will make inappropriate jokes if I can. I have been accused publicly of being frivolous.

The truth is I desperately want to succeed in what I do, so I will work long hours. I have been accused publicly of being a workaholic.

The truth is I long to know God more than I do and I love the Bible more than any other book, so I will get up very early in the morning to read it. I have been accused of living an unsustainable life.

There are things I have done that no one will ever know, but who I am keeps coming through time and again and people either read or misread my actions.

But if I pretend to be someone who I am not then eventually it will catch up with me.

At some point the make-up will run (not that I wear it; that will never be a confession!).

It will all come out in the wash. Who I am will surface.

Discipleship is first

Do you know those crazy days when you feel bombarded by many things, tasks, people and your ‘to-do’ list looks impossible? How can you accomplish all that is demanding your attention? How many times do end the day wishing the day was longer because we haven’t done what we thought was most pressing? Never think that days with Jesus on earth were quiet ones.

Look at these verses:

Luke 11:54-12:1

When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say. Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples …

Can you picture the scene?

Jesus leaves the house of the Pharisee having offended the religious who come chasing after him. Fiercely, besieging him with question after question. Luke writes skilfully helping us to see the pressure Jesus was under. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were hoping Jesus might respond but he didn’t. They wanted to catch him out so these questions were as difficult as they could muster. Confrontation was demanding his attention but Jesus kept going.

At the same time as that, ‘meanwhile’ a crowd gathered, not a small one either, Luke says thousands and in fact it was becoming unruly and dangerous, people were getting hurt. The confrontation with the Pharisees and the experts would have to wait for surely the fact that people were in danger was far more pressing? The hysteria was filled with many hidden agendas, for example, one man would shout out later from the crowd about an argument with his brother over finances. History only repeats itself in telling us how self-centred people are.

So what is on your to-do list today? Some loud voices demanding attention and you know they are not going away? Is it the success of your life wanting more time from you? Are things needing to be done because they are getting out of hand?

Jesus began to speak first to his disciples …

1. Choose that which follows God. You might need to see past the religious and the crowd for that.
2. Choose who has a greater investment in you. The disciples had left everything for Jesus.
3. Choose to disciple ‘on the hoof’ (meaning without proper preparation) in the chaos of life and not only in the classroom. Discipleship doesn’t need you to carry a flip chart of principles around with you.
4. Choose discipleship first in your own life. This whole section from Luke starts with “One day Jesus was prayingin a certain place” 11:1 and will end at the end of chapter 13 with Jesus focused on Jerusalem “Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” 13:35. Jesus pursued His Father and the will of His Father. That is discipleship at its core.
5. Choose what comes second and third etc. If it’s not discipleship it may be important and it will get done, but it will be so that discipleship is further encouraged and built.

Be generous in the pursuit of God.

Luke 11 v 52-54 “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say.”

Be generous in the pursuit of God.

The Pharisees knew their Scriptures. Well, they had memorised huge chunks of the Old Testament, if not all of it. Yet in this 6^th and final woe Jesus says they lacked knowledge. He says to the so-called experts in the Law of Moses that what they have memorised they have failed to understand. Worse than that, with all their man-made rules surrounding the Law, they have prevented others pursuing that understanding.

Many years ago I attended a meeting that was only for a few certain Pastors that had been invited by another Pastor. There were around 7 Pastors sat with this Pastor listening as he described a new model of Church that he had discovered and had entered into the revelation of. (The sooner we realise there isn’t anything new under the sun the better!).

As we sat around the table, the said Pastor described a little of this model/revelation of Church, but he said that we were not ready to understand the full revelation of it. I said, ‘Give us everything, get it all on the table, because this doesn’t sound all that special, what’s the missing treasure?’ He became offended that I had asked such a question and this served to show him that what he had learned which was that the mainstream church would never accept what he had now become a follower of. His response was, “I have it all. It is right here in my briefcase. But I won’t show you. Because you are not ready yet. Your heart isn’t right.” We did plague him a bit for having something in his briefcase. It sounded rather spooky to the rest of us.

He wasn’t very generous in the pursuit of God.

Being generous means this. I am on the way to finding God and understanding what this life on earth is about. I haven’t got there yet. As I get older I seem to know less and want Him more. Join me. Together is better.

The experts still exist. They outwardly proclaim special revelation and look down on those who don’t see things the way they do or they wrap it up in complexities that no one would ever truly understand.

That day we left the table and went home. We never got to see what was in his briefcase.

Luke describes how Jesus left the table and went outside. He leaves the meal.

Hostility will always rise when Jesus leaves the table. If we lose His presence we have lost it all.