Missions Paul

Mission believes in renewal. What was good in the past can be experienced again.

Acts 3
v11

Solomon’s Colonnade was a roofed walkway supported with large stone columns located just inside the walls of the temple courtyard. In John 10:23 we see that it says:
‘and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.’

Jesus had spent a lot of time here. He was familiar with the place. He had walked through often and was comfortable there.
But now Jesus was no longer there. The place was empty of Jesus’ presence. They had crucified him, they’d disowned him and denied him.
Jesus was not walking through Solomon’s colonnade any longer.

The beautiful thing we see in this passage in Acts is that although Jesus was no longer to be found at Solomon’s Colonnade, suddenly the crowds see him again. In this instance, the crowds are able to witness Jesus at work within the life of the beggar, healing him, and working through the lives of Peter and John. Jesus is back on the scene. He’s revisiting the place where he once dwelt. People weren’t expecting it. They were not expecting Jesus to be working through 2 ordinary people.

Whatever God did in the past He can do it again.
Now what did God do in the past …?

The Spirit birthing mission
Acts 2
The visitation came from heaven, it is the only thing that will satisfy this earth.
There are times of realisation that earth and everything on earth will not and can not give to you what you need.
There is not a shortage of evangelistic projects and mission programmes. For we want more people in our churches. We want a regular stream of visitors. We have had high hopes that we would see churches filled to capacity again. We anticipate that new churches would be birthed here in the UK and overseas. that. But we need a certain visitor to come, the Holy Spirit.
This visitation on the day of Pentecost was from heaven

There was no warning. It could not be advertised, no time to make plans, if you weren’t there you had missed it. Can you imagine missing this church meeting?
So is their an environment which will prepare us for a visitation? Yes!
v14, They were praying for the gift that they were to receive, the Holy Spirit baptism. They were asking for what was to suddenly come upon them. Believing prayer has always preceded a visitation from heaven.

It was a violent wind. Not a gentle breeze. We have settled for gentle breezes and not violent gusts. It would seem frightening, fleshly, demonic – sadly that’s how some react to the visitation from God.

There was a sound. Luke was writing about the effects of the Holy Spirits visitation.
When God visits you will hear Him powerfully upon a church, a community as people come under His power.

The was the visual.
Fire always denoted the presence of God.
The visitation of the Holy Spirit was visible as well as audible.
They began to speak in other tongues, and this would become the hallmark as they moved into the mission fields of the world.

Are we ready for His visitation?

The right place and the place of prayer are the best place for mission.
Acts 1

What they did in these 10 days before Pentecost set the stage for the Holy Spirit to come in the way that He did.

They made a decision

V4 Do not leave Jerusalem
They made the decision to return v12
The key to progressing as a Christian is your attitude to return to the place God has called you for. What has been served in this life to you may have led to defeat or disappointment but those experiences have no hold over you if you can still decide to return.

The great verse in the parable of the prodigal son is this: – I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you’. I will set out and go back. These two things are important. It means that I have got to come away from this life. I am going to set myself out from that situation. What I have become and how I have lived my life, the way I do things, the way I speak – everything that would define me right now, what people think of me and what I think about myself, I have decided today right now I am coming away from this. I am setting out and secondly I’m returning.

They prayed together
V14
There is a move from the church before they see a move from God.
When a church finds the numbers in its prayer meetings increasing then get ready something is about to happen.
There was a revival in 1858 in New York. But this was preceded in September 1857 by a man called Jeremiah Lambfear who began to call people to pray with him during their lunchhour.
1st meeting = 6 people; 2nd = 14; Next week = 23; then 65; then 200. Until they had to go to 5 days a week. Within months 6,100 men and women were meeting to pray. 7 months later something happened, people began to find Christ all over New York. In fact 10,000 a week were being saved. The Scotch and Irishmen visited and took back to Ireland the passion and hunger for God. In 1858 there came the Ulster revival.

I believe they were praying for what Jesus promised them. “Come Holy Spirit” “Come fill us with power” “We want to be your witnesses”.
How desperate are you for God to visit you with power? You can live your Christian life with little or no room for the power of God. Or you can be hungry and thirsty enough to pray. To pray every day. To pray at work, home, shops. To attend prayer meetings.
They had returned and were found in the right place and the Holy Spirit found them. It was the commencement of mission, it still is.

Missionaries that run away.
John 21
For all kinds of reasons people find themselves running away.
Some geographically but more and more people run thinking no one can see, for they run away from things that are private, from devotion to God, from enthusiasm for witnessing, from energy for worship, they back away from fellowship that’s too vulnerable. And yet even though they think only they know, the truth is eventually everyone knows. The missionary has run away.
Peter who replied when Jesus asked ‘who do you say I am?’ “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”
Peter who promises “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” Now says “I’m going out to fish.”
What about you?
Has the devil declared over your life, “Run away because of people’s unkindness, running because of fear, running away from obedience, running because of guilt of your past failure”.

Like Peter we need to bring back the missionaries to their calling.
Peter returns but in hiding, v7.
Why put a coat on when you have to jump in the water to run to shore 100 yards away? It will become heavy with the water and slow you down.
However you would do this if that coat was Peter’s pathetic way of covering up. The denial was still at the forefront of his mind and Jesus has not discussed this, in fact no one has talked about it since it happened.
What did Adam and Eve do when they heard God’s footsteps? They dived for cover.
The accuser will always convince you to cover up.
The reinstatement always happens at the fire. For Peter it was a fire of reminder
The first thing Peter sees as he races from the water is a fire of burning coals with fish on it and bread by the side. Where did Peter deny Jesus? John 18:18 “around a fire”.
And here on the lakeshore Peter is facing a fire with Jesus behind it. It’s a gentle reminder of his sin. No one says anything, it is silent. But the reinstatement has begun!
The missionary is home.

Not seeing but still going
John 20

She presumed Jesus was the gardener. Earlier the disciples on the road presumed Jesus was a visitor and the disciples in the house presumed he was a ghost and Thomas presumed the disciples were lying.
Sometimes when we ask the question where is God, we are looking for a certain type of aspect of God. We are conditioned into thinking of God in one way, and so look for him in that way.
Mary didn’t expect to see the risen Christ, because she had never seen him that way before, so would presume a man standing there was a gardener.
How many of us in our journey ask the question where is God?
God is there all the time, but perhaps we don’t recognise him, we are conditioned into seeing him in a certain way.

When Mary does see Jesus, he immediately tells her to GO from him. This is so important.
We ask the question where is God? But maybe the question should be: Where are we? Because in every case we have looked at today, Jesus was there. He was actually the one seeking them. It didn’t matter whether they were in hopelessness and confusion, fear and doubt, anguish and presumption, on a road, a house, a garden.
Where are you? How would you describe your situation?
All followers struggle to see Jesus at some point. The sick can’t see the healer, the confused can’t see the shepherd and the fearful can’t see the protector.
What’s important to Jesus is that we know our purpose, we live by the power of God, and we are his witnesses even unto death.
Don’t stress that you can’t find God in your situation. Seeing him won’t take you forward. But know you are purposed, commissioned, acknowledge you can’t see him but know he is still there.
The road, the house, the garden – these are just places we find ourselves in and we don’t have to be able to see Jesus to keep going, that’s what Jesus was saying.

Without the cross there is no mission.

Some of the most moving words in the Bible = Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother … Jesus saw his mother there. John 19:25-26
When was the last time you got alone with the perfect sacrifice?
When you got alone, you didn’t tell anyone, you distanced yourself from distraction and you gazed on your crucified Lord, you drank his blood and ate his flesh and appropriated the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ for your life and situation.
This is mission.
We know the message of the cross is foolishness to the world. 1 Cor 1:18
There are times when we have to face the feelings of foolishness for ourselves. Where is God? I can’t feel Him anymore? I can’t see Him in this.
This is mission.
Crying, grieving for what has been lost.
Crying for God to intervene.
Crying over your own sin and identifying with the sin of others, pouring it all on The Rock Jesus Christ.
This is mission.
· Many were near the crosses of the 3 crucified; some were near the cross of complaint and some the cross of hope, but Mary was near the cross of sacrifice. It is at this cross where mission is found.
· From this moment on Mary’s son would become Mary’s Lord. She moved from being Jesus’ mother to His Dear Woman. Your relationship to Jesus will always determine your mission.
· Mary stood in her defeat and her belief. She did not crumble. The enemy may have taken everything from her but it would not take her dignity. Missionaries stand.
· Mary was not alone; she had her sister and her friends with her. Together in Mission.
· Here at the foot of the cross Mary’s mission changed to care for John. From that time on … mission is progressive and we need to be flexible to flow with it.
There is no mission without the cross.

When the journey of mission is paused…

John18
I was too small to be able to see what was happening at the front of the church. But I could see people disappearing as they were being prayed for. They seemed to be falling down. It was weird but nice.
This was my first experience of such a response.
However, it was always with nice music and a great atmosphere.
Not what we have here in John 18.
600 soldiers waiting to capture Jesus and he had to once again use the ancient name, “I am he” and the soldiers fell to the ground.

When was the last time you fell to the ground?

Way back in Exodus God instructed Moses to tell people His name is I AM.
Jesus embodied the I AM.
I am the bread of life John 6:35;
I am the light of the world John 8:12;
I am the gate for the sheep John 10:7;
I am the good shepherd, John 10:11;
I am the resurrection and the life, John 11:25;
I am the way and the truth and the life, John 14:6;
I am the true vine, John 15:1.

The soldiers fell under revelation of the name above all names. Maybe also we should voluntarily fall at the sound of the I AM?

Let’s make Him known.
Mission is not complicated.
John 17
It is to know God, v3
It is to know the One He sent: Jesus, v3
It is to know the love of God, v23

So let’s get this simplified.
In your home, work and leisure:
Are you knowing God, welcoming Jesus and receiving His love?
And …
Are you making known God, being sent by the sent one and sharing the love of God?
Mission is this.

The world is full of missionaries.
John 16
The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God, v2.

According to a recent report at least one in four of the estimated 2,000 foreigners fighting for ISIS in Syria and Iraq is British – and half of those are already back in the UK.
That means there are now almost three times as many British Muslims fighting for Islamic State than there are serving in the UK military, an MP has claimed. Another report reveals how girls as young as 14 or 15 are travelling mainly to Syria to marry jihadis, bear their children and join communities of fighters, with a small number taking up arms. Many are recruited via social media.

We are living in a time where young people are becoming missionaries in unprecedented ways. In service to God they are offering their lives, often sacrificing them for the cause of wickedness.
How someone can commit horrible crimes thinking they are serving God is beyond us. Their God is not God.

However we do not despair. We rejoice that this is simply a copy of what our God is doing. For we are also seeing droves of young people sign up to lay their life down not to kill but to serve, to love and pour mercy on those who need it the most in our world.

For Elim, over the next few years we are going to see hundreds of young people sign up for the Missionary Apprenticeship Programme. They will think they are in service to God and they will be. Whatever Satan is doing in the world it is just a faulty copy of what God is truly doing. Watch this space!

Mission with friends

John 15
Take friends with you along the journey.
Everyone should have one friend.
“You are my friends”, v14.
The blind humanitarian, Helen Keller, once said, “My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges, and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my deprivation.”
Jesus said:
A friend lays their life down ,v13
A friend does what they are asked to do, v14
A friend can be trusted with secrets, v15

What friends do you have in mission today? Call them and thank them for being that friend.