Tawa Baptist

Strengthening Fellowship

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-3

 

Title: Strengthening Fellowship

 

Members Pledge 5: To do all I can to strengthen the fellowship of the church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people.

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • United by Christ, not by likes
  • Strengthening fellowship (Eph. 4:2)
  • The bond of peace (Eph. 4:3)
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

Over the past couple of months we have been journeying through the 23rd Psalm – making reference as we go to the various ways in which this psalm points us to Jesus

  • During May we take a break from Psalm 23 to focus on other things
  • We have a baptismal service next Sunday
  • And for the following three Sundays after that we will give our attention to the annual Tranzsend Prayer & Self Denial campaign
  • We intend to return to Psalm 23 in June.

 

With Ben & Becca Allen being welcomed into membership our message today focuses on one of the members’ pledges…

 

To do all I can to strengthen the fellowship of the Church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people.

 

Sometimes people ask me, ‘why do we have membership?’

  • ‘If I become a member of the church universal when I’m baptised then why do I need to become a member of a local church also?’
  • After all salvation is not by local church membership – it’s by faith in Christ
  • Well, joining yourself in membership to a local church is not something you do primarily for yourself
  • It’s something you do for the well-being of the people in the local church

 

From a legal and financial point of view the church needs to differentiate between members and non-members in order to protect itself

  • In our situation the members are the ones charged with the responsibility for decision making
  • If we didn’t have members with voting rights then, in a worse-case scenario, some other larger group could come along to a church meeting and pass a resolution to take over our buildings & programmes for their own nefarious purposes
  • So the people we allow into membership really need to have the best interests of the local church at heart

 

Therefore, when someone becomes a member of Tawa Baptist they pledge…

  • To do all I can to strengthen the fellowship of the Church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people.

 

United by Christ, not by likes:

Membership isn’t just about providing a measure of legal and financial protection for the local church

  • More importantly it’s about taking care of Christ’s reputation as well as our relationships with each other

Strengthening the fellowship of the church and developing the spirit of love, is essentially about the quality of our relationships together, as a community of faith

 

The church is not a building

  • The church is a network of relationships – like a family
  • In a general sense, a family shares the same heritage, the same blood, the same DNA
  • As a church family we share Christ’s heritage, His blood and His Spirit
  • It is Jesus who unites us and so the primary criteria for church membership is our relationship with Christ as formalised in baptism

 

The church is not a club either

  • A club is a group of people who are united by a shared liking for something
  • So for example, people who like collecting stamps might form a stamp collecting club
  • And people who like shooting guns might get together to form a gun club
  • And people who like drinking wine might form a wine tasting club

 

But a church is not a group of people united by a shared liking

  • The church is united by Christ
  • Therefore the church brings people of different likings, different cultures, different socio-economic backgrounds, different ages and different personalities together

 

Think about the implications of that for a moment

  • Being united by Christ means we don’t necessarily like the same things
  • For example, we don’t all like the same kind of songs
  • Some prefer hymns while others prefer Hill Song music – some enjoy all styles of music and still others can’t wait till the singing is over
  • Some people like interactive worship services – where you get up and move around – others like to sit still and listen to sermons
  • And others aren’t as interested in the sermon as they are in catching up with people over a cup of tea afterwards

 

The point is we all like different things and that’s okay – that’s as it should be

  • Because we are not a club – we are not united by our likes
  • We are united by Christ

 

The main metaphor for the church in the New Testament is family

  • You can choose your friends based on common interests or shared likes
  • But you can’t choose your family
  • You don’t get to choose who else comes to church here
  • You may like different things from the person sitting next to you
  • But you are still committed to their well-being

 

If you like Hill Song music then you still sing hymns for the sake of the person in the pew opposite you who is helped by singing hymns (& vice versa)

  • Or if you prefer the more interactive stuff to the sermon then you still listen patiently to the sermon for the sake of the person here who is fed by preaching
  • In these sorts of ways we strengthen the fellowship of the Church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people

 

C.S. Lewis wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters

  • It’s an enjoyable and thoughtful piece of fiction
  • Screwtape is the name of a demon who writes letters to his nephew, Wormwood – Wormwood is an apprentice tempter
  • Screwtape’s letters are full of advice on how the young demon, Wormwood, might turn a human being away from the Christian faith

 

In one of his letters Screwtape writes to Wormwood…

  • “Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” [1]

 

If you ever manage to find a church which caters for all your likes and avoids your dislikes then you probably aren’t in church – you’re in a club or a bar

  • The opposite is also true
  • When you find yourself not liking something in church then you can probably take it as confirmation that you’re in the right place

 

We are united by Christ, not by our likes

  • And Christ’s Spirit (His DNA) is love
  • Love seeks the well-being of others

 

Strengthening fellowship:

What then does the Bible have to say about strengthening the fellowship of the church?

  • Well, one key passage which sums it up well is found at the beginning of Ephesians 4
  • While in prison for preaching the gospel of Christ, the apostle Paul wrote to the first Century church in Ephesus saying…

 

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

 

Paul gives us 4 or 5 qualities which are essential to strengthening the fellowship of the church – this is how Christians are to treat each other…

  • With humility
  • Gentleness
  • Patience
  • Forbearance
  • And love

 

Humility in this context means ‘lowliness of mind’ or thinking low (not being proud or haughty) [2]

  • Being humble is really an attitude
  • It’s about having an accurate awareness of yourself in relation to others – not thinking too much of yourself
  • Being conscious of the fact that without God our life has no meaning and that without Christ we can do nothing
  • Humility is recognising that we need other people and more importantly the wider community of which we are just a small part needs other people
  • We are not the centre – it’s not all about us

 

A humble person does not think, ‘My team needs me to a score try’

  • A truly humble person thinks, ‘How can I best support my team mates to score tries?’

 

The church at Ephesus was a mix of different cultures – some Gentile, some Jewish

  • While humility was a virtue in Jewish culture, it was not valued in Gentile culture at that time

 

But valued or not, humility is primary to strengthening any fellowship or community

  • Humility keeps our ego in check and prevents us from worshipping ourselves
  • Humility also makes gentleness possible

 

If humility was despised in the ancient gentile world then gentleness is surely despised in our contemporary culture

  • Violence, brute force, power – these are the things which are glorified in our day and age
  • Gentleness is misunderstood as weakness when the truth is: gentleness requires a greater strength than brute force or violence
  • Gentleness requires self-control and skill

 

If violence is the hammer, then gentleness is the screw driver

  • If force is the butcher’s cleaver, then gentleness is the surgeon’s scalpel
  • If power is a drone strike, then gentleness is the kind word which turns away wrath
  • You might be tempted to smack your children into submission but you are more likely to take a gentle approach – to remain calm, wait for the tantrum to pass and lead them to better choices
  • You can coerce a person into grudging obedience to God by threatening them with the fires of hell,
  • Or you can gently remind them of God’s goodness and grace so they want to do His will

 

Humility and gentleness – these are two qualities that Jesus embodies in himself

  • In Matthew 11, verse 29, Jesus says…
  • Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

 

Patience is also needed for strengthening the fellowship of the church

  • An ancient Christian preacher by the name of John Chrysostom said,
  • To have patience is to have “…a wide or big soul” [3]

 

Having a ‘wide or big soul’ means having room for other people in our lives

  • Not being so fixated on our own agenda that we don’t have room for interruptions
  • Now it is not appropriate for us to accommodate every interruption
  • It is important to maintain some healthy boundaries
  • But we don’t want to be so tightly scheduled, so tightly managed and focused that we can’t attend to what’s important

 

The parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates largeness (and smallness) of soul

  • The priest and the Levite were so fixed on their own little agenda
  • (Must get to church on time – must be seen to do the right thing)
  • That they didn’t have room to care for the wounded stranger on the side of the road
  • By contrast the despised Samaritan had a largeness of soul which made it possible for him to put aside what he had planned to achieve that day, dress the stranger’s wounds and carry him to safety

 

Patience is making room for other people when it matters

 

Strengthening the fellowship of the church requires the patience (or the largeness of soul) to make room for each other

  • To sing each other’s songs,
  • To prefer each other’s needs,
  • To listen to each other’s concerns,
  • To help in practical ways where we can
  • Or perhaps simply to be together without any agenda

 

So then, the fellowship of the church (our relationships together) are strengthened by humility, by gentleness, by patience and by bearing with

one another in love  

 

Bearing with one another means putting up with people

  • And love, in this context, means seeking the other person’s well-being

The reality is that other people can be annoying sometimes – they can get on your wick (often it’s the little things)

  • It’s not that they mean to aggravate you – they are just being themselves and it gets under your skin

 

Paul is saying, don’t sweat the small stuff

  • Don’t walk away from the church over some trifle
  • Put up with the little things for the sake of love – that is for the well-being of the whole community

 

I remember the pastor who married us said, “Don’t worry about a bit of poop in the stable – poop is a sign of life”

 

Yea – people will annoy you sometimes but don’t lose sight of the fact they also have qualities which are good and which the rest of the church needs

  • Besides, we all have things about us which annoy others
  • You might think you are being very gracious in putting up with someone
  • But they probably think the same thing about you
  • What we realise as we get older is that we are all difficult in our own way
  • So we all need to show each other grace
  • And we need to learn to laugh at ourselves too

Now this exhortation to ‘bear with one another in love’ needs to be held in balance with verse 15 of Ephesians 4, where Paul talks about…

  • Speaking the truth in love so that we will grow up into Christ

 

There is a time to bear with difficult behaviour and a time to speak the truth

  • If we always graciously tolerate things we don’t like then the other person never really learns or improves and resentment grows
  • The trick is speaking the truth with humility and gentleness
  • Not being too quick in speaking the truth – but checking ourselves first to make sure we have removed the plank from our own eye before pointing out the speck in theirs
  • Making sure that we are motivated by what’s best for others and not just our own comfort or convenience

 

The bond of peace:

It’s been a dry summer and autumn here in Wellington – the weather’s been lovely

  • We’ve had to water our gardens more than we’re used to lately
  • Sometimes when you water the garden you get a kink in the hose and the water flow slows down to a trickle
  • If that happens, what do you do?
  • Do you throw the hose away or do you fix the problem by taking the kink out of the hose?     [Wait for response]
  • Yes, that’s right you straighten the hose to take the kink out – then the water flows properly again

 

 

Paul continues his exhortation to the Ephesians in verse 3 saying…

 

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

 

I’m not sure I fully understand this verse but I’ll share with you what I know

 

Firstly, the Spirit of Christ creates unity in the church

  • We don’t create unity, the Holy Spirit does
  • However, we are responsible for maintaining the unity
  • And we maintain unity through the bond of peace

 

Peace (in the Bible) isn’t just the absence of conflict

  • It’s shalom, it’s abundant life, joy and right relationship in community with others

 

The bond of peace, therefore, is not a bond which stops us from doing things

  • It’s not like hand cuffs or shackles or a leash or a tie
  • The bond of peace is something which connects us to each other in positive ways
  • It is like a hose with water flowing through it – it is life-giving

 

Sometimes the bond of peace gets a kink in it

  • Sometimes our relationships get a bit twisted
  • People misunderstand each other or have expectations which are disappointed, then one thing leads to another and before you know it they’re not talking – the life-giving flow of water slows to a dribble
  • When our relationships get a kink in them we don’t throw the relationship out – we don’t say, ‘Well stuff you – I’m out of here’
  • No – we find a suitable time when we are calm and unhurried to talk it through – we straighten the kink out – we forgive each other

 

We don’t create the unity but we do need to maintain it by taking care of our relationships, by taking the kink out of the hose

 

Jesus encouraged his disciples to maintain the bond of peace with each other by teaching them to pray…

  • “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

 

You see Jesus establishes a bond of peace between us and God

  • He gives us a brand new hose with water running through it
  • Because of Jesus, God forgives us up front and in advance
  • We get given that forgiveness, that bond of peace, for free
  • But we still have to maintain it
  • And we maintain the bond of peace by paying it forward – by forgiving others, just as God forgave us in Christ

 

Conclusion:

This morning we have explored what it means to strengthen the fellowship of the Church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people

 

In short we are to relate with one another in an attitude of humility,

  • With gentleness and with patience (or largeness of soul)
  • We are to bear with one another in love – not sweating the small stuff but at the same time not ignoring those things that need to be addressed

 

In a few minutes we will share communion together

  • Communion is a time when we remember (and celebrate) the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace established by Jesus

 

Now though let’s stand and sing…

 

♫       Brother, Sister, let me serve you…

[1] C.S. Lewis, ‘The Screwtape Letters’, page 81

[2] Klyne Snodgrass, The NIVAC on Ephesians, page 196.

[3] From Chrysostom’s homily on 1 Corinthians 13:4 – referenced in Klyne Snodgrass, The NIVAC on Ephesians, page 197.

Tawa Baptist

Sharing Christ

Scripture: John 7:37-39

Title: Sharing Christ

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Open wells
  • We are the cup
  • Grace & truth
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Today, because we have welcomed people into church membership, we take a break from our series on Moses to focus on one of our members’ pledges:

 

To share with other people the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

To some people sharing their faith comes naturally, but not to all of us

  • For many of us sharing the gospel of Christ feels anything but natural
  • It feels awkward or difficult or scary
  • And while there is risk involved in sharing our faith we need not be afraid

Looking more closely at that statement on the wall, the word ‘gospel’ simply means good news

  • We Christians are not being asked to share bad news
  • We have something positive to share, something life-giving

And the good news we have to share is about a person, ‘Jesus Christ’

  • Sharing the gospel isn’t primarily about passing on ideas or rules or doctrines (although it does include those things)
  • Sharing the gospel is first & foremost about sharing a relationship – introducing others to Jesus, our friend

Open wells:

One of the best illustrations of what it means to share Christ with others is found in John chapter 7 – page 128 toward the back of your pew Bibles

To put you in the picture, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the festival of shelters

  • This is an 8 day festival held at the end of autumn
  • Autumn, in the Middle East, is usually a dry time of year and the people are looking to God to provide rain
  • On each of the first seven days of the festival the priest draws water from the pool of Siloam, then leads a procession to the Temple, where he pours the water onto the altar
  • The people are reminded of God’s provision for Israel in the wilderness after leaving Egypt – particularly the way God made water pour out of a rock in the desert
  • Words from Isaiah may be read as part of the water pouring ceremony
  • “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” [1]
  • Or, “You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” [2]

It is against this background that Jesus makes His statement

  • From John 7, verse 37, we read…

[Read John 7:37-39]

 

May the Spirit of Jesus refresh us today

On the wall here is a picture of the fresh water springs at Petone

  • Most of you would have been to this spring I’m sure
  • Water bubbles up through the ground naturally – and as it passes through the sand and gravel the water is purified
  • Even though people could easily get water by turning a tap on at home they still come to the spring to fill up bottles to drink

 

In John 7, Jesus uses the water symbolism of the feast of shelters to talk about the living water He will bestow

  • The land is dry and the people are thinking of rain and of their own physical thirst [3]
  • Jesus turns their attention to the deep need of the soul and to the way he would meet that need – with the gift of Himself, the gift of His Spirit
  • Jesus is like a fresh water spring (or a well) – and the water He offers is God’s Holy Spirit

With this in mind, sharing the gospel of Christ is best understood as introducing others to Jesus – the one person who can satisfy the thirst of the soul

  • In sharing the gospel, therefore, we are showing thirsty people where they can get a drink
  • More than this though we actually become the means through which Jesus delivers His water

 

Jesus says…

  • “Whoever believes in me, streams of life-giving water will pour from his [or her] heart”

In other words, those who believe in Jesus (those who trust Him and are committed to Him) will become a vessel for God’s Holy Spirit

  • Wow – that’s pretty incredible

A fresh water spring or a well works by being accessible and open

  • People are drawn to a well and they draw from a well

One of the keys to sharing our faith is simply being open & honest with people

  • Listening carefully to what people are saying & letting them enquire of us
  • We don’t need to try and make something happen
  • God will create the opportunities naturally – we don’t need to force anything – but we do need to be open and available

If you look at our organ pipes here you will see they have holes in them

  • Holes in either end and a hole in the front
  • The pipes make a sound precisely because they are open
  • If we were to block up the holes so the air couldn’t pass through then there would be no music
  • Each of us is like one of those organ pipes – we must stay open to strike the right note
  • But as organ pipes we don’t provide the air
  • God is the organist and the wind of His Spirit passes through us

Christian believers are like organ pipes and water wells – we work best when we are open – open to God and open to others

Openness to God and to others could mean accepting an invitation to dinner

  • Or, if someone asks you what you did on the weekend you include the fact that you went to church
  • Being open might mean being interruptible enough to listen to someone or help them with something
  • Those who volunteer to help support a refugee family to relocate in our area (if that is needed) are showing an openness to God & to others

Other times openness means allowing people to draw the water of grace & truth out of us by answering the questions they ask, openly and honestly

Not that we must always wait to be asked what we believe – sometimes it is appropriate for us to take the initiative

  • If you can see someone is thirsty, then why not put a cup of water directly into their hands

We are the cup:

Okay, time for a practical demonstration

  • I need a volunteer to come up the front on the stage with me
  • This would especially suit someone who doesn’t like me that much
  • [Wait for volunteer]

On the table over here we have a bowl of water and a cup

  • I want you [the volunteer] to fill the cup with water from the bowl and stand ten steps away from me
  • Now I’m going to open my mouth and I want you to try and throw as much water as you can from the cup into my mouth, without moving from the spot

[Volunteer throws water, I get wet and dry myself]

 

[To the congregation] what would be a better way to get the water into me? [Wait for people to respond]

  • That’s right, pass the cup to me and let me drink from it myself
  • [Get the volunteer to do that – then ask them to sit down]

For the purposes of this illustration I want you to imagine…

  • The bowl is Christ
  • The water is the gospel – the good news of salvation
  • And you are the cup

As the cup you have no ability to manufacture the water by yourself

  • The most you can do is be filled with the good news about Jesus so that others can drink from you

Sharing Christ, sharing the gospel, doesn’t really work from a distance

  • It doesn’t work to throw the gospel at someone
  • You have to get close to people to share your faith
  • Introducing others to Jesus is an intimate thing
  • It will inevitably require us to make ourselves vulnerable

Making yourself vulnerable means demonstrating trust in others

  • In Luke 10, when Jesus sent out 72 of his followers to share the gospel, He said to them, “Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals… When you enter a house… stay in that house eating and drinking whatever they give you…”
  • In other words, don’t go in strength, go in weakness
  • In that situation, Jesus wanted his disciples to trust themselves to the mercy and hospitality of strangers
  • Talk about making yourself vulnerable

If you go up to someone cold, on the street, and say to them…

  • ‘You’re going to hell unless you repent and accept Jesus’
  • Then that’s not making yourself vulnerable
  • That’s like throwing water in their face
  • I guess God could use that as a wake-up call for some people
  • But I expect most people would be turned away from Jesus by that sort of approach – it would just make them feel angry and like you’re trying to manipulate them

We need to be careful with the way we represent Christ and His gospel

  • Yes, there is a judgment which we must all face one day
  • And yes, there is a hell which we want to avoid
  • And yes again, Jesus is our hope of salvation
  • But trust needs to come first – faith is the foundation
  • And it’s a far stronger foundation than fear and guilt

We are the cup, we are the container – we don’t manufacture the water, we simply hold it for others to drink

  • But people quite often need to trust the cup before they will drink its contents
  • If the cup is dirty then people will be less inclined to drink from it
  • We need to keep the cup of our soul clean

So what does it mean then to keep the cup clean?

  • Well, in a word, integrity

What we do needs to match what we say

  • It’s no good speaking about faith in Jesus and then ignoring those in need
  • As James says, ‘What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.’ [4] 

We need to share Christ with our words and our deeds

Integrity (or keeping the cup clean) also means keeping our motives pure

  • Our motivation for sharing Christ with others needs to be love
  • Love for God and love for our neighbour
  • If your motivation is fear or guilt or self-interest then people are less likely to trust you
  • They won’t want to drink from your cup
  • Even if you what you have to say happens to be true

Grace & truth:

There’s a wonderful movie which came out a few years ago called ‘The Bucket List’, starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson

  • Carter, the character played by Freeman, is a believer
  • But Edward Cole, played by Nicholson, is not
  • Carter is always trying to put the cup in Edward’s hand, but Edward is reluctant to drink

 

You can put the cup of water into someone’s hand but you can’t make them drink – people need to be thirsty before they will drink

One of the things I like about Freeman’s character in this movie is that he is honest – there is truth in his conversation with Edward – truth with grace

  • Freeman’s character (Carter) does not deny his faith in any way – he accepts Edward without bending to accommodate him too much
  • Carter is honest about who he is and what he believes – and through that honesty trust grows between the two men
  • Then, as the trust grows, Carter begins to challenge Edward
  • Because Edward is actually very thirsty – he just doesn’t know how to satisfy that thirst

Although Nicholson’s character (Edward) is closed to God at first, Carter helps Edward to find the joy in his life

  • In the end Edward’s heart is opened – opened by truth and grace

As we have already noted, the living water Jesus talked about in John 7 is the Holy Spirit of God

  • The key characteristics of the Spirit are truth & grace
  • When the Spirit of Jesus is in us, our words and actions will communicate grace and truth

In John chapter 4 Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well

  • He does the culturally inappropriate thing of asking the woman for a drink of water
  • The woman answers, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan – so how can you ask me for a drink?” (Jews won’t use the same cups as Samaritans)
  • The woman is taken aback by the grace Jesus shows here – the grace of acceptance

And Jesus replies with truth, “If only you knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him and he would give you life-giving water… ”

As the conversation progresses Jesus asks the woman to go and get her husband

  • But she says, “I haven’t got a husband”
  • And Jesus agrees, “You are right when you say you haven’t got a husband. [The truth is] you have been married to five men and the man you live with now is not really your husband.”

By saying this Jesus reveals that He is a prophet

  • And as a prophet Jesus has put His finger on an inconvenient truth – the woman has a chequered past and is currently living in sin
  • But the woman stays in the conversation with Jesus, even if she does change the subject to talk about where God should be worshipped
  • In the end though Jesus reveals that He is more than just a prophet – He is the Messiah
  • The woman believes in Jesus and tells those in her town about him – many of whom believe also, because of her testimony
  • She has become the first missionary to the Samaritans

 

Conclusion:

To share with other people the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.

  • This is one of the most important reasons for us being here

The good news is about a person, ‘Jesus Christ’

  • Sharing the gospel is first & foremost about sharing a relationship – introducing others to Jesus, our friend

In sharing Christ we are not selling anything – we are giving something away, by keeping ourselves open and accessible to God and the world

  • We are not trying to prove something
  • We are putting the cup of the gospel (a cup of grace & truth) into people’s hands and letting them decide for themselves

Let’s pray…

[1] Isaiah 12:3

[2] Isaiah 58:11

[3] Leon Morris, NICNT ‘John’, page 373.

[4] James 2:14-17

Tawa Baptist

Spread the Nets

Scripture: Acts 11:1-18

Title: Spread the Nets

Key Idea: Spread your nets to receive from God

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Receiving the vision
  • Receiving the Word & Spirit of God
  • Receiving the other
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

The headline for this year’s Tranzsend Prayer and Self Denial campaign is: ‘til the nets are full’

  • We have certainly known about the fullness of water this past week
  • Anyway, ‘til the nets are full’ is a reference to the story in Luke 5, where Jesus said to Peter…
  • ‘Now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets to catch some fish’
  • When Peter did this they caught so many fish their boats were on the verge of sinking. Afterwards Jesus says to Peter…
  • “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be a fisher of men.”
  • In other words, ‘Peter, I’m calling you to catch people for me – to bring men & women into the kingdom of God’

This story from Luke forms the back drop of Tranzsend’s Prayer & Self Denial campaign this year

  • Today’s sub heading is “Spread the Nets”

Please turn with me to Acts 11 – page 164 toward the back of your pew Bibles

  • 2000 years ago, when the Christian church first began it was comprised pretty much entirely of Jews
  • Over the past 2 weeks we have heard how the Spirit of God led Peter to spread the net of the gospel wider, among the Gentiles
  • On hearing this some of the Jewish Christians criticised Peter
  • Acts 11 describes how Peter responds to this criticism.
  • From verse 1 we read…

Read Acts 11:1-18

 

May the Spirit of Jesus help us to receive God’s Word

On the wall here we have a picture of four things…

  • A TV aerial, an ear, a net and a softball glove
  • Who can tell me what these four things have in common?
  • [Wait for people to respond]
  • Yes, that’s right. They are all used for catching or receiving things
  • A TV aerial receives a signal
  • An ear receives sound
  • A net receives fish
  • And a softball glove receives the ball

 

When we think of mission (and Christian service generally) we tend to think about giving and making sacrifices and going out into the world

  • And while giving & going out is certainly integral to the work of mission
  • Receiving is just as important
  • In fact, without first receiving, we find we have nothing to give

After being criticised by his own for spreading the net of the gospel wider (to include the Gentiles) Peter responds by retelling the facts of what happened

  • And what we notice in Peter’s retelling is there is lots of receiving going on in this mission
  • Peter receives a vision from God
  • The Gentiles receive the Word & Spirit of God
  • And the Jewish believers back in Jerusalem are faced with the challenge of receiving the other – that is, those different from them, the Gentiles

Receiving the vision:

From Peter’s perspective it started with receiving a vision from God

  • The vision was of a sheet containing all sorts of animals, both clean and unclean, both kosher for eating and not kosher
  • Some commentators reckon the sheet represents the church which will contain all races and classes without distinction [1]

This vision of an inclusive church is not entirely new

  • It actually goes back to the time of Noah

Richard Rohr observes how God tells Noah to bring into the ark all the opposites: the wild and the domestic, the crawling and the flying, the clean and the unclean, the male and the female of each animal…[2]

  • God puts all the opposites together and holds them together in one place
  • The ark is kind of a metaphor for the church where God brings opposites together: male & female, sinners & saints, conservatives & liberals, Jews & Gentiles, the socially acceptable & the outcastes
  • Perhaps God wants us to learn to live with dirt & difference

So Peter’s mission to the Gentiles begins with him (personally) receiving a vision from God

  • Interestingly none of the other believers receive this vision – just Peter
  • And Peter acts on this vision without consulting the wider Jewish church in Jerusalem
  • Yes, he takes six Jewish believers along with him as witnesses and helpers but essentially Peter doesn’t involve the church congregation or even the church leaders in the decision

This is quite different from the traditional Baptist way of doing things

  • We are highly consultative in our decision making process
  • We regularly find ways to listen to the congregation

And we do this for a number of reasons

  • Firstly, we believe God speaks through the congregation
  • We figure if God wants something to happen he won’t just speak to one individual – he will speak to many
  • Secondly, we are keen to bring the congregation along with us
  • We don’t want to alienate people if we can help it and so we discuss things (sometimes at length)
  • It is probably also fair to say we are influenced by our social & political environment and therefore we favour a democratic approach

But, if Peter had asked his congregation to vote on whether he should visit Cornelius they would have said ‘no’

  • God’s ways are not always our ways
  • God does not always speak through the congregation
  • God isn’t always democratic
  • Sometimes the majority are wrong
  • Sometimes God speaks in ways we may not be expecting

Peter certainly wasn’t expecting to receive the vision God gave him

  • Going to the home of a Roman Centurion was probably furthest from his mind – I imagine it made Peter feel really uncomfortable
  • But Peter obeyed God, in faith, and was criticised for his efforts by people from his own church
  • After hearing Peter’s minority report though, the Jerusalem Church recognised God’s hand at work
  • The Gentiles had received God’s Word & His Spirit so they were legit

Receiving the Word & Spirit of God:

On the wall here we have three pictures

  • One of a rain gauge attached to a post
  • Another of a man opening a door from the inside
  • And a third of a man hugging a tiger

The rain gauge receives water passively – as it falls from the sky

  • The rain gauge does not make a conscious decision to receive water
  • That just happens without the rain gauge’s awareness or consent

By contrast the man opening the door is actively receiving someone

  • Likewise the other man actively receives the tiger by hugging him

To receive the Word of God is an active thing, not a passive thing

  • For Cornelius, receiving the Word of God meant believing the message Peter was preaching – putting his faith in Jesus

Likewise to receive the Spirit is an active thing – like opening the door to let someone into your home, or like hugging a tiger

  • When Cornelius believed the gospel message he opened the door of his heart to the Spirit and the Spirit came on him
  • God’s Word and God’s Spirit go together

You may be wondering why I used a picture of a tiger hugging a man when talking about receiving the Spirit

  • Well, the Spirit is like a wild tiger in the sense that he is more powerful than us and we can’t tame him – he is free to roam where he pleases
  • However, the Spirit is not like a tiger in every respect – the Spirit would never force himself on a person much less maul them

The point is, receiving God’s Word and his Spirit is an active thing, not a passive thing

If we read the Bible passively, without really letting it in – so the words roll off our soul like water off a ducks back – then we aren’t really receiving God’s Word in any meaningful sense

  • Or if we study the Bible as if it was just another historical artefact or an interesting piece of literature, without connecting the words to our own experience or situation – then we are missing the point

God’s word and God’s Spirit go together

  • The door of our heart may be closed when reading the Bible or listening to a sermon but the Spirit can still knock on the door

Receiving the other:

In verse 18 we read how, after hearing Peter’s account of what had happened in Caesarea, the Jewish believers stopped their criticism and praised God saying…

  • ‘God has given the Gentiles also the opportunity to repent and live”

This strikes me as a little ironic really

  • Repentance is about transformation and conversion
  • It means a change of mind and a change of behaviour
  • The first Jewish Christians would not associate with Gentiles – now the Spirit was knocking on the door of their heart with an invitation to receive the other – which in their case meant the Gentiles
  • It seems the Spirit was also giving the Jewish believers the opportunity to repent and live (even if they weren’t quite ready to admit it)

Emmanuel Levinas (a 20th Century Jewish philosopher) notes how the Biblical tradition says that truth is not found in abstract concepts, but in an encounter with otherness

  • According to Levinas it is “the face of the other” that transforms us, converts us and gives us our deepest identity [3]

For example, Moses’ life was changed through an encounter with Yahweh

  • As was David’s through an encounter with Goliath
  • Jonah was confronted with the truth about himself through an encounter with the people of Nineveh (his enemies)
  • Jesus’ deepest identity (as God’s Son) was revealed through his encounter with Satan in the wilderness
  • Peter (a Jew) realised the broader more universal truth of the gospel through his encounter with Cornelius (a Gentile)
  • And the apostle Paul experienced conversion through his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus

We are not changed by being in a room with people who are the same as us

  • We are transformed and come to know our true selves through encounter with others who are different from us
  • What this means is that true religion isn’t really about arguing over ideas and abstract concepts
  • Nor is evangelism & Christian mission simply about communicating four spiritual laws which people must know (in their head) to be saved
  • True religion, real evangelism (the kind that brings authentic change for the better) is about encounter and presence and relationship

When I look around this room I don’t see everyone being the same

  • This is a room full of people who are different from each other
  • God designed the church that way
  • Christianity isn’t just a good idea
  • Christianity is face to face encounter, it is felt presence – it is relationship
  • That is why we gather – that is why coming to church on a Sunday and meeting each other during the week is important

Perhaps the best way to get this across is by telling a story

  • Oscar Wilde wrote a piece of short fiction called the ‘Selfish Giant’
  • I’m not sure what meaning Oscar Wilde intended but to me this is a salvation story
  • It’s about being transformed and coming to know our true self in the face of the other
  • We don’t have the time to read the whole story this morning so I’ll give you an edited version…

Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant’s garden.

     It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit…

     One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his friend the Cornish ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. When he arrived [home] he saw the children playing in the garden.

     ‘What are you doing here?’ he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away.

     ‘My own garden is my own garden,’ said the Giant; ‘any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.’ So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice-board.

 

TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

 

He was a very selfish Giant. The poor children now had nowhere to play…

 

     Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only, in the garden of the Selfish Giant, it was still Winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom.

The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. ‘Spring has forgotten this garden,’ they cried, ‘so we will live here all the year round.’…

.

     ‘I cannot understand why the Spring is so late in coming,’ said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden; ‘I hope there will be a change in the weather.’

     But the Spring never came, nor the Summer. The Autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant’s garden she gave none. ‘He is too selfish,’ she said. So it was always Winter there…

 

     One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music… It was only a little linnet singing outside his window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the world. Then… a delicious perfume came to him through the open casement.

‘I believe the Spring has come at last,’ said the Giant; and he jumped out of bed and looked out.

          What did he see? He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. In every tree that he could see there was a little child. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms, and were waving their arms gently above the children’s heads…

 

It was a lovely scene, [except] in one corner it was still Winter. It was the farthest corner of the garden, and in it was standing a little boy. He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering all round it, crying bitterly…

     The Giant’s heart melted as he looked out. ‘How selfish I have been!’ he said; ‘now I know why the Spring would not come here. I will put that poor little boy in the tree, and then I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children’s playground for ever and ever.’ He was really very sorry for what he had done.

     So he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly, and went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became Winter again.

 

The little boy did not run [though], for his eyes were so full of tears that he did not see the Giant coming. The Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. And the tree broke at once into blossom, and the birds came and sang in it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and flung them round the Giant’s neck, and kissed him.

 

When the other children saw that the Giant was not wicked any longer, they came running back, and with them came the Spring.

‘It is your garden now, little children,’ said the Giant, and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall…

     All day long the [children] played, and in the evening they came to the Giant to bid him good-bye.

     ‘But where is your little companion?’ he said: ‘the boy I put into the tree.’…

     ‘We don’t know,’ answered the children; ‘he has gone away.’ …

     The Giant was kind to all the children, yet he longed for his first little friend, and often spoke of him…

 

     Years went over, and the Giant grew very old and feeble. He could not play about any more, so he sat in a huge armchair, and watched the children at their games, and admired his garden.

‘I have many beautiful flowers,’ he said; ‘but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.’

    

One winter morning he looked out of his window as he was dressing. He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was merely the Spring asleep, and that the flowers were resting.

     Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and looked. It certainly was a marvellous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved.

    

Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass… [toward] the child. But when he came close his face grew red with anger… For on the palms of the child’s hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet also.

     ‘Who hath dared to wound thee?’ cried the Giant; ‘tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.’

     ‘Nay!’ answered the child; ‘but these are the wounds of Love.’

     ‘Who art thou?’ said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.

     The child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, ‘You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.’

     And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.

We are changed and come to be our true selves through encounter with Christ

  • Funny thing is, Christ is often present to us in the face of the other

[1] Rackman, cited in John Stott’s commentary on Acts, page 194.

[2] Richard Rohr, ‘Things Hidden’, page 36.

[3] Refer Richard Rohr, ‘Things Hidden’, page 61.

Tawa Baptist

Into the Deep

Scripture: Acts 23b-48

Title: Into the Deep

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Peter approaches Cornelius as an equal
  • Conclusion

Watch the Week 2 Self Denial ‘Into the Deep’ DVD clip…

https://www.tranzsend.org.nz/week-2-video-prayer-and-self-denial

Introduction:

The headline for this year’s Tranzsend Prayer and Self Denial campaign is: ‘til the nets are full’

  • This is a reference to the story in Luke 5, where Jesus taught the crowds from Simon Peter’s fishing boat
  • When Jesus had finished speaking to the people he said to Simon Peter…
  • ‘Now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets to catch some fish’
  • When Peter did this they caught so many fish their boats were on the verge of sinking. Afterwards Jesus says to Peter…
  • “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be a fisher of men.”
  • In other words, ‘Peter, I’m calling you to catch people for me – to bring men & women into the kingdom of God’

This story from Luke forms the back drop of Tranzsend’s Prayer & Self Denial campaign this year

Today’s sub heading is “Into the Deep”

  • Please turn with me to Acts 10 verse 23 – page 164 toward the back of your pew Bibles
  • In this passage we read how Peter ventures into the deep to preach the gospel among the Gentiles
  • This was a fishing spot Peter hadn’t imagined God would use – but one which would become very fruitful

You may remember from last week how Cornelius had sent 3 of his men to invite Peter to his home in Caesarea, after receiving a vision from God

  • God gave Peter a vision as well, assuring Peter he should go with them
  • We pick up the story from the second half of verse 23 – top of page 164

Read Acts 10:23b-48

 

May the Spirit of Jesus give us understanding

Peter approaches Cornelius as an equal

There was a Scottish farmer who did not believe the gospel story

  • The idea that God would become a man seemed absurd to him
  • His wife however was a devout believer and raised their children in the Christian faith
  • The farmer sometimes gave her a hard time, mocking her faith and belief
  • “It’s all nonsense”, he said. “Why would God lower himself to become a human like us?”

One snowy Sunday evening his wife took the children to church while the farmer stayed home to relax

  • After they had left the weather deteriorated into a blinding snow storm
  • Then he heard a loud thump against the window
  • Then another thump and another
  • He ventured outside to see what was happening
  • There in the field was the strangest sight: a flock of geese
  • They’d been migrating south & had become disorientated by the storm

The farmer had compassion on them

  • Wanting to help he opened the doors of his barn and stood back, hoping they would find their way in for warmth & shelter – but they didn’t
  • So he tried to shoo the geese in but they scattered in all directions
  • Perplexed, he got some bread and made a trail into the barn but they didn’t catch on
  • Nothing he did got them into the warmth and shelter of the barn

Feeling totally frustrated he exclaimed…

  • “Why won’t they follow me? Can’t they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm? How can I possibly get them to safety?”

He thought for moment and then realised they wouldn’t follow a man – the only way would be for him to become a goose

  • If he were like them he could speak to them in their own language and they would trust him and follow him anywhere

At that moment the farmer realised the implication

  • “If only I could become like one of them, then I could save them”
  • At last he understood God’s heart towards humankind [1]
  • God became a man (in the person of Jesus) in order to save us

In the Tranzsend DVD clip we saw earlier, Richard & Sally told us about Nondita – a young woman who had graduated from their Bible school and made the decision to work in a garment factory, from the bottom up

  • Nondita did this to understand the way the garment workers think, to fully appreciate where they are coming from
  • This is very much the incarnational model of Christ

That word ‘incarnation’ essentially means that God became a human being in Jesus

  • In other words, God approaches us on equal terms or on an even footing
  • He puts himself in our shoes, not talking down to us in a language we can’t understand, but walking & talking with us (alongside us) as one who has entered into our experience and shared our suffering and knows the joys and pains of being human

As a Bible College graduate I imagine Nondita had options, but (like Jesus) she laid her options aside and chose to approach garment workers on an even footing, on equal terms, as one alongside

We see Peter take a similar approach in Acts 10 with Cornelius

  • From verse 25 of Acts 10 we read…
  • As Peter was about to go in, Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and bowed down before him. But Peter made him rise. “Stand up”, he said; “I myself am only a man.”

John Stott observes here that…

  • Peter refused to be treated by Cornelius as if he were a God
  • And he refused to treat Cornelius as if he were a dog. [2]

In other words, Peter approaches Cornelius on equal terms

  • Peter does not look down on Cornelius and he does not allow Cornelius to think of himself as inferior
  • Peter makes it clear that the ground is level at the foot of the cross
  • Evangelism (telling others good news) is simply one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread
  • Peter has the humility to understand that they are both beggars and God is the baker
  • Just because Peter knows where the bakery is doesn’t make him superior to Cornelius
  • To the contrary, it makes Peter responsible to pass on the good news

As Richard Rohr points out, Jesus referred to his followers as salt and light

  • Salt is not the whole meal and light illuminates something else [3]
  • Peter knows he’s not the whole meal – he is simply there to illuminate the way for Cornelius

Peter says, “You yourselves know very well that a Jew is not allowed by his religion to visit or associate with Gentiles. But God has shown me that I must not consider any person ritually unclean of defiled.”

  • Now, from a Gentile point of view, that might seem offensive to us
  • It kind of comes across like Peter is saying, “I’m better than you”
  • But I don’t think Peter means it like that – he’s not being offensive
  • Actually he’s taking responsibility for one of the excesses of his own people, the Jews
  • He’s basically admitting that the Judaism of his day had got it wrong by becoming too exclusive

Now let me be clear – a certain amount of exclusiveness is necessary to maintain cultural identity and purity of worship

  • If we become too inclusive we end up losing our distinctiveness and blending in with everyone else
  • The Jewish exiles needed to work very hard at being distinctive from the nations around them in order to stay faithful to Yahweh
  • They just took it too far
  • The Jews were meant to use the light they had been given to illuminate the way for the Gentiles, but instead they hid their light under a bushel
  • We hide our light under a bushel when we don’t associate with people who are different from us – when we don’t let others see our light

Of course it’s not just the Jews who have made the mistake of becoming too exclusive

  • Different branches of the Christian church have done the same thing at various times over the past 2000 years – including the Baptist movement

A little exclusiveness is necessary then, to maintain our distinctiveness from the world

  • But inclusiveness is also needed for people to taste the salt & see the light

After Cornelius has explained his reason for inviting Peter, Peter then goes on to give his sermon and he begins by saying…

  • “I now realise that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis. Whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him, no matter what race he belongs to…”

The implication here is that Cornelius’ Gentile nationality is acceptable to God and so Cornelius has no need to become a Jew [4]

  • This does not mean that Cornelius’ own righteousness was adequate for salvation – if it was then Cornelius would have no need to listen to Peter

Peter continues his sermon in this affirming tone, acknowledging what Cornelius and his household already know

  • Verse 36: ‘You know the message… of peace through Jesus’
  • Verse 37: ‘You know of the great event that took place…’
  • Verse 38: ‘You know about Jesus of Nazareth…’

This is quite lovely of Peter really

  • It’s like Peter is saying to Cornelius, you’re not starting from scratch here mate, you already know much of the background
  • It’s a way of acknowledging what Cornelius brings to the conversation
  • In doing this Peter is finding common ground
  • And the beautiful thing is Jesus is the common ground

Having acknowledged what Cornelius already knows about Jesus, Peter then goes on to talk about what Cornelius doesn’t know – in particular…

  • Jesus’ healing ministry
  • Jesus’ death and resurrection
  • Jesus as judge of the living and the dead
  • And Jesus as the means of salvation
  • For as the prophets (of the Old Testament) said…
  • …everyone who believes in him will have his [or her] sins forgiven.  

As Peter spoke the Holy Spirit came down on all who were listening and they started speaking in strange tongues, praising God’s greatness

To receive the gift of the Holy Spirit is to receive something of God himself

  • The gift of the Spirit is proof of God’s acceptance of us personally
  • It’s sort of like God’s authenticating signature on the portrait of our lives
  • Or His water mark on the currency of our soul
  • Or, to use a more 21st Century analogy, His electronic identification chip in the passport of our heart

There is more to the person of the Spirit than that of course, but you get the point – the gift of the Spirit seals the deal. Nothing trumps the Spirit.

Speaking in strange tongues in this context means speaking another language (one you don’t know)

  • Like being a native English speaker and then suddenly being able to speak fluent Cantonese or German or Afrikaans or whatever

Speaking in strange tongues is not the only sign of the Spirit

  • God’s Spirit can express Himself through us in any number of ways
  • But on this particular occasion God’s Spirit expressed Himself through tongues, most likely for the benefit of the Jewish believers who were witnessing it
  • You may remember in Acts 2 how God poured out His Spirit on the Jewish believers and they started speaking in strange tongues too
  •  Acts 10 is sort of a repeat of the Pentecost of Acts 2, only it is the Gentiles’ Pentecost this time

Peter had already said Cornelius and his household were on an even footing with him – now God confirms it with the gift of the very same Spirit & tongues

  • God couldn’t be more clear – He accepts people of all nations
  • Peter recognises this and orders the Gentiles to be baptised with water in the name of Jesus

Throughout the book of Acts Christian conversion normally involves 6 things…

  • The gospel about Jesus is preached, in particular his death & resurrection
  • The listener is convicted of their sin
  • And they put their faith in Jesus to save them
  • There is baptism with water (in the name of Jesus)
  • And the Holy Spirit is given to seal the deal
  • The new believer also starts sharing life with other Christians – they become part of the church in other words

These things don’t always happen in the same order and they don’t necessarily happen on the same day – they may happen over weeks, months or even years

The text of Acts 10 implies that Cornelius’ conversion happened over the course of a number of years

  • It appears that Cornelius felt a conviction of sin well before he met Peter
  • Cornelius lived a very pious life, praying and performing acts of charity, which suggests to me he was conscious of his wrong doing and wanting peace with God
  • Cornelius’ faith is seen by his obedience to God in asking Peter to come to his home and in listening to Peter’s message
  • That Peter preaches the good news about Jesus to Cornelius is quite clear in today’s reading
  • Next comes the gift of the Holy Spirit
  • Closely followed by baptism in water
  • And then they share life together as Cornelius invites Peter and the other Jewish believers to stay a few days
  • Eventually (as we shall hear next Sunday) the Jewish church in Jerusalem also accepted the Gentile believers as part of the wider Church universal

That’s the way it happened for Cornelius

  • Maybe it happened a different way for you?

Perhaps you were baptised as an infant but didn’t really begin to live out that baptism until much later in life when God made Jesus real for you by His Spirit

Or maybe your conversion is still a work in progress

  • Maybe you have prayed the sinner’s prayer and asked Jesus into your heart but have never got around to being baptised in water
  • Maybe that’s something to think & pray about?

Or perhaps, like Cornelius, you have lived with a feeling of guilt (the conviction of sin) for many years and you long for peace with God

  • As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied
  • Maybe God wants you to lay down your burden, to stop doing your penance and put your trust in Jesus
  • If that’s you then there will be someone to pray with you at the front by the water cooler after the service this morning     

 

Conclusion:

Today we have heard how Peter ventures into the deep by approaching Cornelius on equal terms

  • Peter won’t allow Cornelius to feel inferior
  • Instead Peter makes it all about Jesus
  • And God confirms the Gentile believers’ equality with the Jewish believers through the gift of the Holy Spirit

One thing in all of this (which is pretty obvious but still needs to be said) is that the initiative with conversion is always with God

  • God got Cornelius to invite Peter to his home
  • And God changed Peter’s point of view so that Peter could see it was a good idea to go to the home of a Gentile
  • Peter preached, but God interrupted Peter’s sermon with a message of His own – the gift of the Spirit
  • The initiative was always with God – Peter was just doing his best to keep up

The application for us is we need to wait for God

  • If we go out into the deep of mission work without God we are courting disaster
  • If we try to rush people into making a decision for Christ before they are ready we can do more harm than good

By the same token we don’t want to lag too far behind God either

  • When God calls us out into the deep then we must act
  • What we learn in the process is that God owns the deep
  • When someone is ready to receive Christ (as Cornelius was) simply sharing our story of Jesus will probably be enough

The question for us is: what is God doing and how can we work in harmony with Him?

Let us pray…

[1] This story comes from J. John & Mark Stibbe’s book, ‘A Bundle of Laughs’, page 39.

[2] Refer John Stott’s commentary on Acts, page 189.

[3] Refer Richard Rohr’s book, ‘Things Hidden’, page 44.

[4] Refer John Stott’s commentary on Acts, page 190.