Dave's Rave

Fellowship of the unashamed

2011-01-27T14:35:00.001+11:00

A powerful quote attributed to a pastor in Zimbabwe......

I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I ahve the Holy Spirit's
power. the die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. the decision has
been made; I'm a disciple of His! I won't look back, let up, sow down, back away
or be still... I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I ahve stayed up, stored
up, prayed up, paid up and preach up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of
Jesus.

Determined Gospeling

2011-01-04T19:36:00.004+11:00

In case you missed it I will be doing some blogging with some friends this year, you can find it here. Head on over and have a look around, it will slowly be populated with posts from various people - it is all about helping us think through evangelism permeating all structures of the church.
ENJOY!

In the chute conference

2010-12-09T14:40:00.002+11:00

Big things to take out of 'In the chute' conference

Over the last few days I was in Canberra thinking about church planting and growing churches. It was put on by the guys at Geneva Push.

Their website is great and has all the talks up

So here are some things that I took away….

Pursue evangelism, no matter how difficult or die. We want grow by sheer organisational skill. Therefore we have to have lives that touch unbelievers somehow whether it be door to door, letters, radio stations, etc

Keep thinking hard about training people to be disciples of Jesus especially during times of rapid growth

Give ourselves not just to planting but growing churches

Factors to consider in church growth
1. Spiritual: check community, congregational, leadership: are we captured by the gospel and its convictions. Preach with urgency
2. Competency: of leaders in preaching, communication, conflict resolution & people skills
3. Process management: not good at managing the resources that God has given u
4. Need to keep thinking about building capacity: finding people who are vision multipliers, raising the evangelistic temperature

Our evangelistic edge will be lost if WE are not walking closely with Jesus

Know your local area: find the local council employed community worker to find out how we can work in partnership

Work hard at modelling an evangelistic lifestyle – inviting people to church, etc

See your calendar as missional e.g. teach people you have 5 lunchtimes 1 of them lunch with non-Christian

Breaking 200 the leader needs to move from shepherd to rancher (but not too quickly)

You will only fill up to the lowest slat in the barrel (you have to understand the illustration)

More Moving Moody

2010-12-01T14:42:00.001+11:00

For a lot of the time Moody's Mum, Betsey, was Unitarian, however after returning from two years in England Moody went home for some rest and relaxation. He says,

'Cold unitarians….My heart burned to draw them to Christ'

After spending some time in his hometown he was invited to preach and did over a number of evenings

'Betsey came from pride, determined not to budge from her convictions…..A Unitarian till shed died. On the hills, alone or with his friends, Moody wrestled in prayer. Some song, some graphic Bible story pierced her shield of moral confidence, but she gave no sign until on one of the last evenings, when Moody invited those to rise in their places who wished to acknowledge Christ as Son of God and trust in Him as Saviour, "that we might pray for you", Betsey rose. Moody was so overcome that he could barely ask one of the others to lead the prayer. On the last night Samuel (his brother0 stood.

Really enjoying this book…..

Funeral Talk

2010-11-30T15:54:00.002+11:00

A few weeks ago I took a funeral for a young man of 22 who tragically died on his way back from an army exercise. Approx 650 gathered, for a full military funeral, the following is my sermon from the day not because I think it is brilliant but because I hope it points people to the God of great comfort.

The Pain of a Lost Son

Passages: John 14:1-7

Ps 23:1-6

We come together as a community today to grieve

To Frances and her family – today is a testament to a well-loved son, brother, uncle and so much more

And so we grieve with you

We grieve of a man taken far too young from this world

It is clear from today that Stephen loved the Army

On the back of their cars they have blazoned across their number plates – serving the nation

Those involved in the Army serve us, they serve our country

The work of the Army is often not thanked enough in our public sphere – we remember at certain times throughout the year

We owe a great debt to those men and women who fight on our behalf

It is easy to see from today that there is a great and deep respect for you and an appreciation of the work you do

We want to thank you today for your service of this great nation

It is work that would take you to some very dark places

Confronting things that most of us would not even dare encounter

And even sometimes, as the Psalm writer says, into the valley of the shadow of death

The work of the army has won for us many valued freedoms that too often we take for granted

They are freedoms that we enjoy without realising the cost involved

Sometimes it is paying the ultimate cost – the loss of life

It is on this note of cost that the Bible speaks very clearly to us this morning

And it has something for us all to hear and take away

I can't imagine the pain of losing a son

Frances and her family are going through everyone parents' worst nightmare

And today is a time set aside for us to remember him

To grieve together the loss of his life

But then again it is hardly the normal thing for death to be a welcome thing to someone's life

No matter how much we try to fight the ageing process

Death is something that will come upon as all

I can't imagine the pain of losing a son

But God can

He willingly went through the pain of losing a son

Willingly put himself in that situation

so that we could gain freedom

He paid a high price and it was no accident

God deliberately sent his Son, Jesus onto a mission that would cost his life

The mission was one that impacted all of humanity

Each one of us today has been touched by the mission of Jesus

It was about reconciling a world full of people who have rejected him and his ways

Repairing that broken relationship

God knows about paying the cost

God knows what it is to lose a son

God knows what it is to suffer like we are today

God knows the pain of a lost son

THEREFORE

God is a one of great sympathy and comfort

If there is one thing we all need on a day like today is comfort

And God is able to offer it

This is not a false comfort or a just a determination to look on the bright side

As it is said in the Psalm

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me

The Bible never promises a life of no suffering and no pain

It is very realistic about what life can throw at us

Even the events of the last few weeks

The promise of the Bible is not that they will never happen

But of a God who walks alongside us as we walk go through the valley of the shadow of death

Of a God who is not distant and vague

But one who knows and cares and can empathise with us on a day like today

God walks with us

And so we can say with the Psalm

The LORD is my Shepherd

God is like the ancient shepherd

A shepherd is not a weak man

But rather one of the toughest

Accustomed to fighting of thieves and wild animals with his staff and rod

This is the type of shepherd willing to lay down his life for his sheep

Here is a picture of a God able to comfort for he is able to ward off all his enemies for our protection

When Jesus was on earth he came as the shepherd Ps 23 speaks about

He came to guard us, guide us, live for us and ultimately die for us

The cost of the death of Jesus won for us a wonderful freedom

The freedom of forgiveness with God

Jesus asks his followers to demonstrate that same forgiveness in their lives

Frances, I want to thank you for showing and demonstrating the power of what Jesus came to do

For those that don't know

Frances is an active member of our church family

She is someone who knows and loves the Lord Jesus Christ

As I sat with Frances this week she has told me many times that she holds no blame for the tragic accident that occurred

No blame for the driver

But instead offering a hand of forgiveness

I'm sure that there would be many in your situation that would have responded very differently – be it with anger or vengeance – both of which would be unjustified

Frances you have shown the community gathered here today a better way and something important and wonderful and extremely powerful – the power of forgiveness

The story of Jesus is not just to his death on the cross

But Jesus was even raised out of the tomb resurrected from the dead

See it in the words Jesus says to his disciples and Thomas in the John passage as he talks about returning to prepare a place

Showing us that in there is a future place; an age to come where death will be defeated

There is a great and wonderful world awaiting those who walk with the Good Shepherd

Friends take these two passages with you

Comfort and console each other today

However God is the greatest comforter of all

b/c he is the Good Shepherd

Trust yourself to him

He will see you through all your trials

Even the valley of the shadow of death

And you are able to say

I will fear no evil

God is with me

His rod and staff they comfort me

Little ‘Arry Moorhouse

2010-11-30T15:47:00.001+11:00

He was a little guy apparently from England that went to the States in the late 19^th Century to visit D. L. Moody. Moody was sceptical but he soon changed…

Moorhouse announced his text: John 3:16: God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life'. Instead of dividing the text into firstly, secondly, thirdly in ministerial manner, Moorhouse, Moody noted, 'went from Genesis to Revelation giving proof that God loves the sinner, and before he got through, two or three of my sermons were spoiled'. Moody's teaching that it was the sinner god hates, the sinner as well as the sin, lay shattered at his feet. 'I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. This heart of mine began to thaw out; I could not keep back the tears.'

Mooving Moody

2010-10-27T15:31:00.002+11:00

I have started reading John Pollock's biography of a man called 'D.L. Moody' it is a great read so far but the bit I read yesterday was awesome, let me set the context of what I am about to quote. One of the men Moody had working with him doing what we would call a massive kids club in the slums of Chicago had not long to live. This teacher was anxious about his class that he taught, not one of them had turned to Christ. Moody took him to all the homes of the girls in his class and he asked each one personally, 'I have come just to ask you to come to the Saviour'. At the end of the 10 days every girl had accepted Christ as their saviour. But there is time for one more meeting before he dies …….

'You are not going today. Wait until tomorrow and get the whole class together. Bring them all to tea tonight'. Moody said afterwards that if he had known what that meeting would do to him he might have stayed away. All came, the teacher spoke and read to them, and thy tried to sing a parting hymn. They knelt to pray. The man begged God to deepen the girls' new found faith. Moody prayed. 'I was just rising from my knees when one of the class began to pray for her dying teacher.' Astonished, Moody listened to the faltering, extempore prayer of a slum girl whom he had known as an empty headed scoffer. A second besought her God for power to win others to Himself. One after another the girls stumbled into prayer. As Moody heard these genuine, fervent thanksgivings, these earnest petitions, the 100,000 gold dollars of his dreams turned to tinsel, the ambition to build a commercial empire showed up tawdry, transient. Better to spend his years as this dying teacher had spent ten days.

Is there genocide in Joshua?

2010-10-18T11:26:00.001+11:00

How would you counter the argument that Joshua is genocide planned by God?

There are a number of things to say to this question

There is a lot of killing in the book of Joshua, let's not deny it! And the killing is directed by God, the people are directed to put to death all those in Jericho, 'they devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys' (Josh 6:21). This happens to the city of Ai 9 (ch 8), as well as the southern and northern cities (ch10-11).
The idea of 'devoting something to destruction' is from a Hebrew word 'cherem'. Only God has the authority to impose this on any city or people.
The use of point 2 is specifically in the conquest of Canaan. It is not a broad policy with wide applicability and a long record of use. The purpose was to protect the Israelites from idolatry by ridding the land of idol worshippers (see Deut 20:16-18). But all this is still pretty bleak stuff, but there are some more realities to come to grips with:
1. If justice is ever to be done, there are people who deserve destruction. The destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah in gen 18-19 troubles people less because of the debauchery going on. In relation to Joshua it is the Canaanites themselves who initiate the hostilities against the Israelites. Joshua 9:1-2 says,

¹ Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things—those in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Great Sea ^[a] as far as Lebanon (the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites)- ²
they came together to make war against Joshua and Israel.

Even though these people knew the great power of God they still engaged in war with them. This is what Rahab knows about God in Josh 2:8-13

⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea ^[a] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ^[b]
¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. ¹² Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death."

The people of Canaan were not innocent victims of a form of injustice. At least some of them were God's opponents.

It is a difficult thing to be totally comfortable with what transpires in Joshua because of the distance that lies between us and them. We are not an ancient near east culture. I'm guessing few people would respond with a joy and glee over the destruction proclaiming 'that is what they deserve'. In fact the rest of the Old Testament rarely recalls the conquests, doesn't glory in its goriness and never promotes it as a policy for the future. Therefore we cannot ever literally apply the conquest today we just don't and shouldn't have the option today to go and burn down the city hall or local council because of their opposition to us. Joshua is describing what God did not what we should do. God is responding to the Canaanites who perish for resisting Him. Those that do respond with acknowledging the greatness of God and are therefore obedience are saved and receive compassion. This shows that there are those in Joshua who receive salvation in the same way we do in the New Testament but through Jesus.
God is sovereign. If this is true then he owns everything! As the owner he alone has the authority to decide who may enjoy the use of his property. Therefore the very unappealing truth is that God can do whatever he wishes with what belongs to him – even take human lives. (Perhaps this is why the 'fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom')

This is only a very brief defence of God and how he acts in Joshua but it does outline some of the major ideas to work though.

Does Joshua 1:8 teach the prosperity gospel?

2010-10-18T10:17:00.002+11:00

The prosperity gospel is a way of thinking that says 'it is God's will for you to be rich and healthy in this lifetime'. It is often backed up by, in my opinion, misquoting texts and Joshua 1:8 is a favourite.

This question about what is the prosperity gospel flows out of a question about Joshua 1:8 which says

Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Does this text teach the 'prosperity gospel'?

The context of this verse is about inheriting the land that God would give them (v6). The primary blessing under the old covenant was rest in the abundance of the land of milk and honey. Under the new covenant this rest is in the superabundance of heaven (Heb 4:1-11). 'Joshua 1:8 remains a valuable text calling for courage and fidelity to God's word, but its specific promise of material prosperity does not apply to Christians' (Brian Rosner, Beyond Greed, p39). I think the other problem with the prosperity gospel is it has discontentment written all of it – I am not happy with my health or my wealth and I want God to fix it for me now. Rom 5:3-5 is helpful here:

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us

Paul doesn't seem to think that the Christian life is one of health and wealth but of hope and hardship and then he firmly believes that this is what is worth rejoicing in (in fact the word 'rejoice' could also mean to boast)!

Simple Church critique: That’s not how you make porridge

2010-09-01T11:19:00.001+10:00

Things have slowed down on this blog but not quite to a standstill. I have been reviewing the book 'Simple Church' and there is a lot to like from it but in this post I review what I think is the biggest downfall to the book – their use of Scripture.

'That's not how you make porridge! You remember those ad's don't you?'Some little Irish guy saying how there is only one way to make porridge, well my last post about Simple Church is that for all the good that comes out of the book the use of Scripture, in my opinion, left a bit to be desired. Let me give you some examples

On p16ff they talk about Jesus as the man who knows simple, he simplified the Law with its myriad of Laws down to a single commandment. While it is true that he did this but is the application of this Scripture therefore that we should simplify everything because Jesus summed up the Law into a single phrase? I'm not convinced that if I was preaching on Matt 24:34 that I would come to the conclusion of a simple church based upon the logic of what Jesus does here.

Then on p18ff they use the story of Jesus clearing the temple as a justification for decluttering anything that gets in the way of encountering the 'simple and powerful message of Christ'. I would have that the main and obvious (read simple) barrier to encountering the message of of Christ is our own sinful hearts as opposed to clutter that invades church programs. Don't hear me wrong on this one, if there are things in church that we do that make it difficult for the message to be heard they need dealing with but Jesus clearing the temple and us decluttering our churches seems like a big theoligical and exegetical jump to make.

On p78ff they talk about Hezekiah (he was one of the good kings!) and when he destroys the bronze snake made by Moses (Num 21:6-8). And perhaps this line is delibirately provocative but they say, 'He got rid of it because it was clutter'. Once again I'm just not convinced that this is the main point of 2 Kings 18 or that if you were preaching it it would naturally flow as a point of application out of the text.

So, what exactly is my beef – well as the litte Irish boy said – it's just not how you use Scripture! The fancy word for it would be eisegesis which is when you read into the text rather than letting the text speak to you.

It is my gut feeling that the ideas in this book are brilliant and as they did their research they have stumbled across something very helpful but then gone looking for some Scripture to back up the 'simple church' idea.

Or maybe I'm not reading some of these passages well enough and not seeing the broader scope of application that may be present.

Is it too easy?

2010-07-19T14:05:00.006+10:00

Chapter Four - Three Simple Stories

I have been working my way through book 'Simple Church' summarising the chapters. Today we hit chapter four, you can find the previous summaries - chapter 1, chapter 2 & chapter 3.

This chapter looks at three churches using the simple method. The basis of the chapter begins with a discussion of Matt 16 when Jesus says

Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades will not
overpower it.

The church is something that is God given and therefore not even Hell can hold back the church, it is a powerful, intense and unstoppable movement. They then illustrate how gates that don't do fulfill their purpose (keep people or cars out or in) are useless. Their point about gates being purely a defensive mechanism is interesting. Therefore, the gates of Hell is always on the defensive never on the offensive - 'the church always has the ball'. The question they then ask from this is: 'how big a dent in the gates of hell will we make?' This chapter is showing us 3 stories that are causing big dents in the gates of hell

Immanuel church in Glasgow

They show that their contention - simple churches grow disciples - is working in Immanuel Baptist Church. There is clarity (connect, grow, serve); movement (through the connect, grow, serve), alignment (all the ministries adopt and actively use and promote the process) and there is focus (they use all their energy and resources into this process).

Numbers wise they have doubled in size from 150 to 300 over 2 years. But there are other benefits they outline - an increased morale, a sense of urgency to move people towards maturity, visible spiritual growth, conversions, better financial situation and and sense of unity.

Christ Church in Miami

Once again (as above) there was a group of pastors committed to simplifying the church and the church has been growing. There is clarity (connect to God, others, ministry and the lost); there is movement (actively seeking to move people to connect to God - others - ministry - lost); alignment (all ministry activities have the same process from the kids through to adults) and there is focus (they eliminated programs that didn't fit over the course of 2 years and it seems they made some tough calls!)

Northpoint Community Church

Northpoint began their life as a church committed to simple and have been the 'epitome of simple'. The church has had immense growth from a handful to sixteen thousand in ten years. They use the analogy of foyer, living room and kitchen. Once again the four elements of clarity, movement, alignment and focus.

The reason Northpoint is able to do things so well is because they have chosen
to only do a few things [...] they refuse to add programs or events that will
distract people from the simple process that God has given them.

These 3 stories have all engaged with a simple process that guides its ministry and is pushing back the gates of Hell.

My thoughts

Each of the above churches seems to be in a very healthy way. People are growing from infants to maturity through a simple process of discipleship. Each church is seeing people come to Christ for the first time. They have all had to varying degrees growth in numbers alone with Northpoint growing substantially. There is a degree of scepticism about large churches in Sydney as we prefer to grow churches by breaking off around the 150-200 mark to begin another church. I am fence sitting on this one at the moment.

But the stories are good, I do wonder if there are the stories of a simple church that is not growing?! But they probably don't sell books.

At this point it is hard to ignore the evidence. But it also seems all too easy a bit like the 'silver-bullet' talked about in various places.

The next portion of the book (Part 2) is about becoming a simple church but before we get there the next post will be about the book's use of Scripture so far.

Simplifying Simple

2010-07-14T14:13:00.004+10:00

Chapter Three - Simple Church: An Extreme Makeover

The guts of this chapter is that there are many churches that need an extreme makeover. Just like in the TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' the team sometimes knocks out walls, sometimes add rooms, or just update the colour scheme or even build a whole new house - the same is true for churches, some need tweaking while others need a total redesign. The redesign is one for discipleship to happen.

They then go on to make the case that church leaders are designers; we give people opportunities to encounter the grace of God. We design churches around the process of spiritual growth. We help provide the right environments to facilitate growth.

They then define what a simple church is:

A simple church is a congregation designed around a straightforward and
strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual
growth.

An unpacking of the above definition follows for the next few pages.

They go back then to the beginning of their journey towards writing the book and embarking on the simple church projects. A lot of the impetus for the book came from the research they did and the results from a survey done by a few hundred churches. The survey was called the Process Design Survey (PDS). The statistician then assured them that they had found something highly significant coming to this conclusion:

There is a highly significant relationship between a simple church design
and the growth and vitality of a local church ... So here is the practical
language: In general, churches that are vibrant and growing are simple. A simple
church strategy is effective and there are four basic elements, they must all be
present

An expanded definition is then given

A simple church is designed around a straightforward and strategic process that
moves people through the stages of spiritual growth. The leadership and the
church are clear about the process (clarity) and a re committed to executing it.
The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the
church (alignment). The church then abandons everything that is not in the
process (focus).

Clarity --> Movement --> Alignment --> Focus

This is the BIG push of the book - these four words are what it means to 'go simple' so to speak. So don't read over there definition too quickly!

Clarity is the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people.

Movement is the sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to greater areas of commitment

Alignment is the arrangement of all ministries and staff around the same simple process

Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process.

My thoughts:
I really love these four words and how they work together. I am sold on the simple strategy however I am wary only because the book is written in an American context. Will it have the same results in the north west Suburbs of Sydney? I would dearly love to 'have a crack'. I would love for us to be in the position were the necessary stands out clearly to people, it means eliminating the unnecessary (most of which will be good things!) and sticking to the best. This is a decision that is constantly being made in ministry - all of life is ministry - we need a strategic and biblical way forward as to what we do and what we don't do.

In my own context at Norwest we don't have heaps of clarity, our movement is implicit rather than explicit to people and even to me. We have begun the process of alignment but it is happening slower than what I ever thought. Our focus needs to be way sharper than what it is now. But I will be commending a basic (simple even!) process to people at a newcomers afternoon tea this Sunday - most likely stealing the idea of a house with a big foyer (3 congregations), moving people to the many living rooms (small group network) and then to the kitchen (serving in some capacity). Next post you will see where I have stolen it from as they survey three simple churches.....

Seeing Simple - Part 2

2010-07-13T11:55:00.006+10:00

Chapter Two: The Simple (and not so simple) Church in Action

This chapter is all about helping us as readers to see the simple and not so simple churches in action. So they begin with a story about just having to be there - they have observed the simple church in action and they want us to be there too. We then get introduced to two churches that they visited - real churches but names changed.

1. First Church

A solid church with great programs. Staff are talented and popular. Church hasn't grown for 5 years, there is no major turmoil or rifts nor is there a crisis to promote any change.

Statements

There is lots - a mission statement, purpose statement, vision statement and strategy statement. Each is different from the next and long. Each ministry department has different statements. There is a degree of influence from Willow Creek in the the five 'M' words. It is unclear how all the statements fit together and unsure of the real focus of the church.

The Pastor

He moves between saying all is ok and looking really frustrated by everything. He hints that the church is disjointed and heading in multiple directions. He doesn't know what his desire for the church is though.

The Leaders

Each leader gives a myriad of responses to the question of what the focus of the church is however not one of them mentions any of the various mission, vision, etc, statements. None of them have been internalised.

The what and the how are very unclear for this church.

Programming
They have 8 major programs in 7 days! That is just for adults and doesn't include youth and childrens. It is clear that the programs are good so much so that the attention is divided. Every program is short on leaders and all complain that their program isn't publicised enough.

Numbers

They look to see how many people are attending each program. Each program is separated from the whole.

2. Cross Church
Only 20 yrs old, less well known on the landscape. People have come to Christ, been plugged into ministry and are contributing to the body of Christ.

Statements

There is only ONE statement, one overarching theme. It is short, it is adapted for each age group - 'loving God, loving people, and serving the world'. But is it the DNA of the church?

Pastor

He indicates that the church stands behind the statement. There is a fascinating dialogue on p38 between the pastor and the author.

Author: So, this is your purpose, right?

Pastor: I guess you could say that

A: Talk to us about your process. How do you make your purpose happen?

P: Love God, love others and serve the world is our process

A: I thought you said it was your purpose

P: It is both. Our purpose is a process.

A: Oh.

Interesting. Genius. Simple. Instead of a chasm of separation between their purpose and their process, the two are one in the same. Their purpose is their process.

They then share some of the history of how this pastor came to this conclusion and moved towards simplifying their church.

Leaders

The vast majority of the leaders speak freely about loving God, loving others, and serving the world. It is clear that it is the DNA of the church.

Programming

All programs are set up to move people through loving God - loving others - serving the world. Loving God is the weekend services. Loving others is to help people connect relationally in small groups. Serving the world has ministry teams engaging people in team ministry. Some focus on the church, others on the community. New people are told not to join if they don't want to serve. There are essentially only 3 main programs correlating with the loving God, others and serving the world.

Numbers

They evaluate people as to where they are at in the ministry process - worship service, small groups or ministry teams. They look at quarterly reports to see each if each process is increasing or decreasing.

The comparisons continue in terms of handling new ideas and staffing but you get the general drift of this chapter. They end the chapter asking, Is your church more like First Church or Cross Church?

My thoughts:

As a Pastor it is so easy to keep adding new things on to the agenda, new programs, new ideas, events but these don't always or even necessarily equate to growth in the life of a Christian or in the corporate life of the church. It is a very real challenge to keep things simple like Cross Church does. Once again this chapter is exciting me for the challenge of simplifying everything. This is not a new thought for where we are at in our church family. We need clarity, movement, alignment and focus which is the focus of chapter 3.

'Simplify man'

2010-07-12T13:40:00.004+10:00

After hearing Andrew Graham briefly mention a book called Simple Church by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger, I decided to have a read. I am almost halfway through and thought it would be good to write down some summaries of the chapters. So far it has been a really stimulating and thought provoking read.

Chapter One - The Simple Revolution has Begun

The opening chapter reassures the reader that this book is not about another church model. They then proceed to sell on the idea that simple is in and complex is out. They refer to some popular brand names to back it up - Apple (an ipod has one big button, the 'plug and play', their artwork is simple, they have cultlike followers), Google (the amount of white space screams simplicity) and he goes on to show other companies providing quality services with a high degree of simplicity.

Then comes a pretty big claim - they got 400 evangelical churches to complete a survey seeing how simple their church is.

Growing and vibrant churches are simple.

Complex churches flounder in growing disciples of Christ.

The qualify the statement by saying they are not looking to change doctrine or conviction. Or that simple is the new style or 'hip'. Simple churches are actually mimicking the world but doing the opposite as our world is complex. Nor is simplicity desired for pure pragmatic reasons.

They then spend some time theologically justifying 'simple'.

Jesus simplified, e.g. commandments down to the greatest. He offered a simple relationship compared to the Pharisees, 'my yoke is easy and my burden is light'. He decluttered the temple.

The conclusion of chapter one - 'perhaps we are losing ground not despite our overabundance of activity but because of it [...] To have a simple church, you must design a simple discipleship process. This process must be clear. it must move people toward maturity. It must be integrated fully into your church, and you must get rid of the clutter around it'.

My thoughts:

I love the ideas that are thrown up in the opening chapter. I think churches do tend towards complexity rather than simplicity and if you asked a group of people to write down what our church is about I'm positive you would get a large variety of answers.

Stay tuned for chapter two.....

Multiplying Ministry

2010-06-28T11:15:00.005+10:00

We have seen in the last two posts a summary of a talk from a conference I went to with Mark Dever last year. So far we have looked 14 blessings of every member ministry and 7 dangers and challenges and today we see 3 ways to go about multiplying ministry.

1. Understanding

We misunderstand leadership, before we require people to do something we need to teach them. We need to help them understand. And teach with clarity.

2. Motive

Avoid involvement through guilt as it saps joy in service. Tell them about God and his glory and the wonderful hope of the resurrection. Love from the one who loved first. Love for others in God's image. Teach the right motivation clearly.

3. Culture

Create a culture of discipling others, don't make it an optional extra because it's not! Helping others follow Jesus is the most basic way way we show love for each other (Jn 13). Teach that the basic package is to inconvenience yourself out of love.

The challenges of 'every member ministry'

2010-06-23T12:06:00.003+10:00

The other day I outlined the 14 blessings that Mark Dever talked about at a conference last year. Today we outline the 7 challenges, dangers or cautions of every member ministry' that Mark Dever put before us.

1. It is difficult to manage: there is a unorganised nature to it.

2. Divisiveness

3. Reductionist: can simply reduce Christian life to ministry. New members need to attend first and then do ministry later

4. Busyness: lose all our time in church

5. Narcissism: wrong type of individualism in it

6. Be a steward of your gift/talent/desires but remember you are also called to minister in a way in which the local church needs it.

7. Rebelliousness: authority needs not to be oppressive

I think No 5 & 6 are interesting.

No 5 because there is a sentiment and feeling out there that 'everything is important'. Every announcement or piece of information is THE one to listen to and we then have lost perspective on the big picture. And everything is important then it communicates the nothing is important, everything just flat lines as being REALLY important and nothing stands out. The other consequence is that we are busy doing the wrong things that actually don't produce any Christian fruit (by which I mean Christian growth or new conversions). Churches are already busy and complex beasts to manage at times which can sap people from spending time in relationships with other people with the result being, 'I'm too busy to spend time with non-Christians (or in other valuable relationships) because I have too much church stuff to do'. When we have achieved this attitude then I think we have failed.

No 6 was particularly challenging for me. I am a big believer in people using their specific gifts in service of the saints. The question that remains is, for example;

'What if there is no one who desires/gifted/talented to read the Bible at church, should we not do it?'

Or should someone 'have a go' because the church needs it to happen? This relates across all our ministries that we do - how far do we keep stretching people who are not gifted to fulfill particular ministry roles but do it because it is an area of need? Dever's thoughts were definitely challenging for me.

The Blessings of 'every member ministry' thinking

2010-06-21T13:14:00.004+10:00

One of the things I have been trying to create a buzz about this year is 'every member ministry'. The unashamed goal is for everyone to know and think that they are as much a minister as someone with a Rev in front of their name. In our context of middle-class suburbia I want our people to think 'we are ministers in the urban jungle; we are missionaries to the Parish of Norwest'. I want people to get to the point were they feel equipped and ready for the task of being a missionary and I see my job as one of helping them for this task. As Eph 4 says

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and
teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building
up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ,

As I was shifting through some notes from a conference I was at with Mark Dever last year I came across his 14 blessings of every member ministry. I haven't got explanations for them all unfortunately.

1. Blessing of perspective: especially to the Pastor to know it is not all up to him
2. Blessing of fellowship: encourage others in ministry
3. Blessing of growth: there is a new completeness in the believer
4. Blessing of relationship: a depth
5. Blessing of seriousness
6. Blessing of obedience
7. Blessing of service: from consumers to 'where is that person?' How can I follow them up? A move to contributors to the gathering
8. Blessing of maturity
9. Blessing of resources:
10. Blessing of priesthood: it takes seriously the 'priesthood of all believers'.
11. Blessing of efficiency
12. Blessing of corporate responsibility
13. Blessing of witness: the more people are involved the greater the witness. Don't underestimate the power of corporate witness. I remember the story he told of a Professor in Sociology who became a Christian at his church because of the way the people related to each other.
14. Blessing of perseverance

Looking back on them now, I wish that I had taken better notes!

The Wise Words of Sheens

2010-06-21T11:11:00.002+10:00

It's time to start listening to the Australian coach, Tim Sheens, and put Robbie Farah into the NSW side for Origin 3. Read the wise words, here.

Getting to Grips With Your Identity in Christ - An Introduction

2010-06-18T15:49:00.004+10:00

I have written a short booklet on Christian identity that came out of two talks I did for Russ Smidt at Epping. Here is the introduction...... do you want to keep reading?

Introduction

It is a joy to be human. This is especially true when we compare ourselves to our canine friends. I, for one, am glad that I am not a dog. A dog can’t reason like humans can. A dog can’t prize things for their real worth. A dog doesn’t contemplate the universe. A dog can’t think about things in relation to God. And a dog certainly doesn’t reflect upon their identity. So, aren’t you glad you are not a dog?

But if you’re not a dog then who are you? How on earth do we figure this out? Our natural tendency as human beings in this world is to look around at the creation to figure out an answer to this perplexing question. It is my hope that in reading this you will come to see something extraordinary, something truly amazing, and something that will cause you to again reflect upon your identity.

God has revealed who we are in Christ.

This is the central truth that I am communicating. In order to help us we will concentrate our efforts from the book of 1 Peter. Why chose 1 Peter to focus on?

The main tension that runs behind 1 Peter is how much do the readers conform to the culture and dominant values of the day? As well as, what are the boundaries of maintaining a Christian distinctive in a hostile society? It is fair to say that the tension of these original hearers is our tension too. Our Australian society is not one where we easily accept the uniqueness of Christian characteristics but we are all for conforming to the Australian culture. Who wants to be branded un-Australian? It is into this type of melee that 1 Peter is written and has much to say to us even today. Peter’s response to these questions is to re affirm who they are in Christ and in doing so shows us as readers 2000 years later who we are in Christ.

There are only two chapters in this book. The first outlines how we see ourselves and the second flows out of it, how we see other people. The two are intimately connected as we will see in the course of our journey together.

Weekend Away Talks

2010-06-18T15:36:00.003+10:00

Unfortunately the outlines haven't moved in the last few days but I did get some books from the Moore College library to keep me thinking.
I've also got a 2,000 word exegetical on Titus 1 due next Friday so it's going to be hectic.
Here is the text of Titus 1.

What do you think are the big ideas in this chapter?
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began 3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; 4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. 5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you- 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. 10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

I'll give my thoughts tomorrow (hopefully!).

The Holy Spirit - Part 1

2010-06-15T18:30:00.004+10:00

So after a day of reading and discussing how to communicate the Holy Spirit here is what I have so far. There are 4 talks. Talks 1 & 2 are really one LONG talk :)

The Spirit connects us to Jesus - Part 1
Big Idea: The Spirit connects us to the work of Jesus

1. Clearing the floor
a) Understanding the Holy Spirit within the Trinity
b) The inseperable nature of Word and Spirit
c) The Spirit in the Old & New Testaments
d) The Spirit (ual) Fulfilment

2. Connecting to Jesus
a) The art of connecting
b) The work of the Spirit is faith
c) Faith and the work of the Spirit

3. The strength of the connection
a) Why it is really strong
b) Why it is sometimes weak

The Spirit connects us to Jesus - Part 2
Big Idea: Exploring the nature of the connection in relation to doubt and assurance
(Don't want to give too much away before the weekend!)

1. If we are connected to Jesus, why do we doubt?

2. If we the Spirit connects us to Jesus we have great assurance!

The Spirit gives us new life - Part 3

The Spirit gives us a great deposit - Part 4

More to come on part 3 & 4 hopefully tomorrow.

Love to hear your thoughts.

The Holy Spirit

2010-06-14T18:17:00.003+10:00

June 25-27 is our evening church weekend away. I have given myself a big task. I am speaking about the person of the Holy Spirit and looking to specifically apply it to the issues of doubt and assurance.

I have 3 statements and looking for any feedback, good illustrations to blatantly steal, any articles worth reading, etc.

Here are my three statements.

1. The Holy Spirit unites us to the work of Jesus

Thinking specifically in this talk about the benefits of union with Christ.

2. The Holy Spirit gives us new life (regeneration)

In this talk working over why we need new life and the joy of being regenerate.

3. The Holy Spirit is a deposit/seal

Talking about getting the Spirit which is something that belongs to the new age.

Got anything for me?

He's not a traitor

2010-06-13T17:36:00.003+10:00

Benji stays strong amongst those who are deserting league. Cough, cough ... Israel Folau.

With a name like "Israel" he was never going to be faithful. Huh, huh, get it?? .... yeah ok, maybe it wasn't as funny as I first thought.

New layout

2010-06-11T22:15:00.001+10:00

So, what do you think of the new background and layout?
Too black and white :)

Hosea and Marriage

2010-06-11T21:45:00.005+10:00

This post is written by Luke Thomson who works with me at Norwest

Implications for Marriage from Hosea 1-3
Hosea chapters 1-3 form a pivotal point in the Bible for our understanding of marriage. The story of Hosea & Gomer help us to bridge the gap in our understanding between the institution of marriage in Genesis, and the New Testament understanding of marriage. Here, I will very briefly explain some of these important links. (There is much more to say on this topic to do it justice. I highly recommend Christopher Ash’s book “Married for God”)

Genesis
The account in Genesis 2 of Adam and Eve establishes a foundation for how we understand marriage in the Bible. After all, it’s the very first marriage. In creating Eve, God says in verse 18 “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Eve is to help Adam in his task in caring for and ruling over God’s creation (1:28, 2:15). We are told at the end of Genesis 2 in verse 24 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh”. We see in this chapter, some of the basic elements of marriage – it is an exclusive relationship, with the intended aim of serving God in fulfilling his purposes.

Ephesians
Skip over to the New Testament. Ephesians 5:22-33 has a lot to say about marriage, but one significant theme runs through it: the marriage between a husband and wife is to be based on the love Christ has for the church. The whole passage intertwines these two images – marriage and church – in such a way that it’s easy to lose focus on which Paul is talking about in any one particular sentence. In his mind, so linked are the ideas of marriage and of God’s relationship with his people that he can jump back and forth between the two images.
In verse 31, Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 – which we know to be about marriage between a husband and wife. But then in the very next verse Paul says “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” In other words, Paul sees the very creation and institution of marriage as talking about God and his people. Marriage is to be a display of God’s covenant of grace with his people. Paul calls it a ‘profound mystery’ because this has always been the purpose of marriage, but only in Jesus do we see the full purpose of marriage displayed clearly.

Hosea
Hosea fits in between these two significant passages we have looked at on marriage. Chapters 1-3 have shown us that God called Hosea in a marriage relationship that would reflect God’s relationship with his people. The idea is best captured in 3:1, where God tells Hosea to love his wife once more, even though she has been unfaithful. God says “Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods”. The purpose of Hosea’s marriage is to help Israel (and us!) understand God’s covenant relationship with his people. Hosea’s marriage points us towards, and helps us understand what Jesus has done.

Marriage
The ultimate goal of any marriage is to display what God’s relationship to his people is like. Marriage is fundamentally more about God than it is about us. Marriage was created in the pattern of God’s relationship with his people, and its purpose is to display the pattern from which it came. Our marriages best serve God by pointing towards Jesus and his relationship with God’s people. Hosea is an amazing picture of this reality.

How might this look in practice?
• We should strive to make our marriages an example of God’s love for his people, knowing that we will be imperfect reflections because of our own sin.

• Husbands must see themselves as the spiritual leaders of their homes. They are to diligently lead their wife and children in knowing God and helping them to live out their faith. It will mean sacrificing other desires and opportunities for the sake of their family’s godliness. This is the most important task that husbands are called to.

• Wives should gently encourage their husbands in their role, and help them to lead the family.

• Marriage is for making disciples of Christ… whether that be your own children, the children of others, or even other adults.

• Marriage provides many opportunities to show forgiveness and grace. As we experience the challenges of marriage, we ought to remind one another of how great it is to be forgiven and graciously rescued by God.

• Our language of marriage should be positive. Marriage is a wonderful gift that helps us understand God’s love, not a burdening restriction of our freedom. Whilst being honest in its challenges, we must uphold the positive value of this gift that God has provided.

• We must be careful not to make marriage the goal of life. Marriage does not ‘complete’ a person as their ‘other half’ (thereby rending the unmarried ‘incomplete’). A life of singleness is equally as valid and complete.

I have stolen...... a question!

2010-06-10T14:07:00.004+10:00

OK, look I know this blog is sporadic at best and my apologies for that.
But I have stolen this question from over here

“What segment of the community that surrounds your church would seriously miss you if you suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth over night?”

If you normally just read and don't post a comment I would really love to hear from you. Even if you're not Christian or you don't go to Norwest, your thoughts on this question would really interest me. Even if the answer is the church wouldn't be missed at all - that's still an answer. So go on, have a go! You can do it

Allegiance to Jesus: Priorities & Shame

2010-05-25T16:16:00.006+10:00

A couple of weeks ago at church I finished a 4 week series on 'Discipleship'. I had way too much in my last talk and so I cut out my last two points. So here they are in summary form. If you want to listen to the talks go to http://www.norwestanglican.org.au/sermons/

The main point of the whole talk was that Discipleship is about your allegiance to Jesus.

And we are unpacking the radical nature of following Jesus on our lives and the text is Mark 8:34-38 and we have just seen that following Jesus is an all or nothing deal.

Priorities
Jesus doesn’t want to be 2nd in your life
He hits hard us to what I prioritise in my life
This passage keeps telling me
Jesus is number one
And he deserves to be number one.

A little later after Luke’s account of this incident he writes
Lk 9:57-62
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

Doesn’t it get any clearer than this?
Jesus sounds harsh and confronting
You want to follow me?
Then he goes first in ALL things

You don’t make up what it means to follow him
‘I will follow you, but first let me go and do this and this….’
or
'If I follow you then I'll still get to do this and this, won't I?'

There is no going back
Following Jesus is about leaving the old world behind
The old person behind
Denying all those things
And walking the road to the cross behind our Lord Jesus
And pursuing these priorities FIRST
will start to unpack for you what it means to 'take up your cross'

The priorities can be explained like this
What profession do you do?
Whatever it may be
You are not that first
You are a Christian first and your job second

Even amongst our church family
A great question to ask ourselves as a church is
What is our priority?

I am arguing and have been for the last 4 weeks
that our priority as a church family should be about discipleship and all that it entails

An ashamed disciple?
This can be a big one for a lot of people
V38 can pack a massive punch
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels

Think of how Peter took them as he denied knowing Jesus later

The founder of McDonald's, Ray Krock, was asked by a reporter what he believed in. "I believe in God, my family and McDonald's," he said. Then he added, "When I get to the office, I reverse the order."

It's easy to be ashamed of Jesus
It's easy to deny you are a Christian at work, school, uni, wherever
B/c people will assume you are somewhat normal
But say to people that you love Jesus
You live your life in total service of Him alone
People think you are weird
And no one is really putting up their hand to take on that job description
Wanted: one weird dude

Do we lack the courage to do it?
Are we scared?
Are we ashamed of Jesus?

Our tendency is to go towards acceptance and the status quo
But following Jesus is normal for Christians
It is my prayer that we would be rocks in this area
That when we walk away from our church family and friends
Go to work on Monday
That we wouldn't change
That we wouldn't be ashamed
That we would openly and freely confess our allegiance to Jesus

'Be strong and corageous brothers and sisters'

Conclusion
As I said at the beginning I feel like I’ve been saying the same things over the last few weeks
Just in different ways

So let me summarise
A disciple is someone who
Loves the Word
Loves others
Bears fruit
And puts Jesus first

What can you do now?
Work on your allegiance to Jesus

What lack I yet?

2010-04-28T11:55:00.003+10:00

Question: What was the 'one thing' the rich young ruler lacked?

You can find the account of the rich young ruler in Lk 18:18-30, Matt 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-31. The following answer is stolen from Bonhoeffer's book "The Cost of Discipleship" (p30).

The young man has now been twice brought face to face with the truth of the
Word of God, and there is no further chance of evading his commandment. It is
clear there is no alternative but to obey it. But he is still not satisfied.
'All these things have I observed from my youth up: what lack I yet?' Doubtless
he was just as convinced of his sincerity this time as he was before. But it is
just here that his defiance of Jesus reaches its climax. He knows the
commandment and has kept it but now, he thinks, that cannot be all God wants of
him, there must be something more, some extraordinary and unique demand, and
this is what he wants to do. The revealed commandment of God is incomplete,
he says, as he makes the last attempt to preserve his independence and
decide for himself what is good and evil. He affirms the commandment with one
hand and subjects it to a frontal attack on the other.

The guts of Bonhoeffer's answer lies in the words:
The revealed commandment is incomplete and seeking to preserve his independence and decide for himself good and evil.

Bonhoeffer then goes on to add that what he really lacked was (p32):

He had great possessions. The call to follow means here what it had meant
before - adherence to the person of Jesus Christ and fellowship with him. The
life of discipleship is not the hero-worship we would pay to a good master, but
obedience to the Son of God.

It's good stuff - thanks Mr Bonhoeffer!

God's Building Project

2010-03-19T21:46:00.004+11:00

One of the books I worked on last year was Haggai. I got a chance to preach it at Stanhope Anglican's Weekend Away in October 2009.

The talks can be found here

Giving myself a wrap!

2010-03-12T18:19:00.002+11:00

Izaac things that I'm onto something with T-shirts and theology.

Check out my t-shirt collection over at his blog.

Do yourself a favour!

2010-03-06T23:24:00.004+11:00

I recently listened to a stimulating sermon on work by Tim Keller. In it he refers to an article by Dorothy Sayers called 'Why work?'

I have tracked down the article here

She has three propositions:

The first, stated quite briefly, is that work is not, primarily, a thing
one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the
full expression of the workers faculties, the thing which he finds spiritual,
mental and bodily satisfaction, and the medium which he offers himself to
God.

My second proposition directly concerns Christian as such, and it is this.
It is the business of the church to recognise that the secular vocation, as
such, is sacred. Christian people, and particularly perhaps the Christian
clergy, must get it firmly into their heads that when a man or woman is called
to a particular job of secular work, that is as true a vocation as though he or
she were called to specifically religious work.

My third proposition; and this may sound to you the most revolutionary of
all. It is this: the workers first duty is to serve the work.

As I said, do yourself a favour, sit down and read the whole article and ask yourself like I am - is she right? Does she reflect Biblical teaching? Has she understood work from a Biblical Theological perspective?

Why application is more about Jesus than you!

2010-03-03T10:08:00.003+11:00

Question: Is it wrong to want application in a talk?

Let's put the question in context. I was speaking from Luke 18:9-14 which is the story about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. They are two very different approaches to God - one comes on his own merits and the other throws himself at the mercy of God. As I have mentioned previously our hearts tend towards wanting to be seen good by God on our own merits not of those of Jesus Christ.

So, how does this get to application?
A common complaint, a criticism of Sydney Anglican preaching is that it lacks solid, practical application. (I personally having spent the last 18 years have never really found this to be true.) And when I surveyed the evening congregation at Norwest one of the responses was people wanted clearer and more specific application. My comment in my talk was that sometimes our strong desire for application or perhaps the bottom line, what it is that the Scriptures want people to do is driven out of legalism.

That is sometimes our desire for the good of application and the 'practical part' feeds into our faulty thinking that we are saved by what we do.

So, is wanting application wrong?
NO!
But it is when you walk away thinking you are saved by what you do.
But it is when you walk away thinking you are saved by your own efforts
But it is when you walk away thinking the Christian life is all about you
But it is when you walk away without the gospel of grace as the framework for ALL application

As I was preparing this talk I read a great article by Phillip Jensen, here is a snippet:

People do not need to hear the lie that they are fundamentally good (with a
little sin problem). Nor do we need more teaching that puts us, instead of
Jesus, at the centre of God's world and plans. 'God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life' maybe true but places us at the centre of God's
existence instead of God at the centre of ours. Christian preaching must be more
than spiritualised self help. Such sermons promise help but effectively lock us
into our failures and increase our guilt without relief.

What we must proclaim and hear is of our Creator and his wonderful grace
shown to us in his Son Jesus. What the church and world must hear is of the
victory of Christ in his death, resurrection and ascension and heavenly
rule. What we need to know is the love of God in the forgiveness of sins
and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit bringing new birth. We need
to know the grace of God that takes our sin seriously by paying for it while
extending the acceptance of forgiveness. The gospel truths relieve and revive
but more morality and legalism are but the burden of death to us.

I think I get the vibe - application is more about Jesus than it is about us. What do you think?

What do you think?

2010-02-23T16:12:00.003+11:00

I came across this quote somewhere by Ed Stetzer, do you think it is true:

Passive listeners at church will make for passive Christians in the
world

If it is true, what do you think helps people to get 'active' in church?

I'm outraged - again

2010-02-17T16:13:00.003+11:00

OK, so while I'm here I may as well get something off my chest.
Just how little regard does Phillip Nitschke have for human life. You can read the report from SMH here and here
I have spoken before at various places (Weekends away at Norwest Anglican & Cumberland Unichurch; Parramatta City Bible Talks and Norwest Bible Business) about his stance on Euthanasia, none that have been recorded though. I may post snippets of my talk if people want to see it.
But to see his diseased view on life now invading people in their 20's disgusts me (as does his view of life for people in their 80's or 90's). In the second article he describes these young people as 'casualties' in a quest for the greater good.

There will be some casualties - but this has to be balanced with the growing
pool of older people who feel immense wellbeing from having access to this
information

WHAT! Why are we tolerating such rubbish?
God values all life. The great news of the resurrection changes how we think about human life and suffering. Nitshke needs to know about Jesus urgently!

1 Thessalonians

2010-02-17T15:54:00.004+11:00

We have begun a new series on 1 Thessalonians called, 'The life that pleases God'. It is such an awesome book.

There is a free blurb (which has some info about who Paul is, where Thessalonica is, what the book is about, the main themes and books I found helpful) with bible studies available here.

Sermons can be found here

PS: apologies for the lack of updates - life has been busy working up material for 1 Thessalonians and currently playing 'senior minister' for an indisclosed time. So updates will be sporadic at best!

Something totally random

2010-01-29T08:46:00.003+11:00

Things I've learnt about handling kids vomitting

#1 Always face them outwards - hugging them affectionately will result in pain for you and them

#2 Don't try and catch it to save the carpet

#3 A bucket is your best friend

#4 Teach them the value of 'running' for the toilet early

I'm sure there are many more lessons to learn.......or that you have learnt?

Live out the gospel of grace

2010-01-11T11:59:00.007+11:00

The following question came through via email:
As I thought the application of Luke 18:9-14 to those who are now followers of Christ, I tried changing the parable (NIV with changes in italics) to:

"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The tax collector stood up and prayed about himself: `God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this Pharisee who fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all he gets.'

But the Pharisee stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Q1. Does changing it this way change the purpose for which the Lord Jesus used the parable?

Q2. If it does not essentially change the purpose of the parable, does it (either as it stands in the text or with my changes) apply to me as one who is already justified by grace alone though faith alone and therefore knows he does not earn God’s approval by his works?

Answer
Two interesting questions here!
The purpose of the parable seems to be grounded in v14
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he whom humbles himself will be exalted

So, on the one hand, no the purpose of the parable doesn't change if you swap the Pharisee and Tax Collector around. But, on the other hand, Jesus uses these people for a particular reason. The Pharisees were at least known for their rigorous pursuit of the law and in a way that placed there trust in it. For example

Luke 11:45ff

One of the experts in the law answered him, 'Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also'. Jesus replied, 'And you experts in the Law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not life one finger to help them . . . When Jesus left there, 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.

Luke 16:14

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, 'You are the one who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

Or in Philippians 3:4ff

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more; circumcised on the 8th day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law,a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

It seems this problem of being confident in their own righteousness and looking down on people was a particular Pharisee problem and therefore Jesus is directing this parable towards a faulty view of salvation and justification which these people hold. Jesus corrects it by using a 'filthy' tax collector being justified before God.

Which brings us to question number two - does the parable apply to you who know salvation by grace through faith?

A wholehearted YES! For two reasons

1. All Scripture is applicable to our lives!

2. It is a common enough problem in my experience of Christian ministry that people always default back to their own merits and righteousness to describe their relationship with God and to describe how God thinks about them. I have sat with some people in the last few months who are struggling in their Christian life and one told me that God doesn't approve them or is angry with them. Another, when I've asked them whether they are going to heaven they have told me they are not good enough. And these are people who have articulated the gospel of grace to me at one time in the past.

And not to mention them but it can easily be a position I find myself thinking and feeling before running back to the Scriptures and to the cross of Christ. So, while we know in our heads the truth of grace alone and faith alone - living out these great truths in our daily Christian life as we struggle with sin and temptation from the Devil is not always easy. So, I think, we constantly need to be reminded of the life of grace.

John Piper says it way better than I ever could:

Therefore, what we need in the church is not front-end regulations to try to keep ourselves pure. We need to preach and pray and believe that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither teetotalism nor social drinking, neither legalism nor alcoholism is of any avail with God, but only a new heart. The enemy is sending against us every day the Sherman tank of the flesh with its cannons of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. If we try to defend ourselves or our church with peashooter regulations, we will be defeated even in our apparent success. (Brothers we are not professionals, p155-6)

Somewhere on my sermon notes every week I put the words - 'preach grace'. And I pray in God's strength that I do.

Where is John 5:4?

2009-12-31T11:09:00.004+11:00

Question: Why is John 5:4 not there except for the italics down the bottom?

Answer:
The answer to this question lies in how the New Testament is put together. There are many manuscripts that make up the New Testament as we know it. Lots of manuscripts agree with each other over the overall content of the New Testament which SHOUTS to its reliability as a document.

However there are some minor discrepencies between manuscripts and here in John 5:4 is one of them. Hence the note at the bottom of the NIV, b3.

Some less important manuscripts .... and then they add in v4 the piece of text from those other manuscripts.

In each case you have to weigh up with it should be included in the narrative or not by looking at whether it fits into the the book (internal evidence) and then whether it matches up with other manuscripts (external evidence) e.g. is it the only manuscript with this rendering. The NIV sometimes puts it at the bottom but most of the time it is totally unseen in the English translations.

I've got the joy joy joy down in my heart! Where? Down in my heart!

2009-12-02T12:47:00.008+11:00

Question: What does it look like for God to be the object of our joy? Is it wrong to get joy from the things that God has blessed us with (material, positions, friends, so forth)?

(I have just got the Flanders kids singing the above title in my head - now it's in yours!)

For those reading who did not hear what I was talking about on Sunday I said two things about joy.

1. God is the object of our joy

2. God is the giver of our joy

These questions get down to the 'nitty-gritty' of God as the object of our joy. Maybe to rephrase the statement will help: Does knowing God personally bring you joy?

God does indeed give us many good things in this life and in the here and now. But even in the best of times with those things there joy is only momentary. Even in friendships or a marriage relationship - if the place where I always and only look to joy from is in them, then when their sinfulness inevitably shines through that joy is halted. So, it is not wrong to be thankful for them and yes some of them may bring joy, the Scriptures at various points warns against making any of them into idols.

Realising this then helps us to see how God is the object of our joy. I think (which means I haven't done the work to really justify this) but joy and satisfaction are linked together. Think about a time when you hung out with good friends and ate a wonderful meal - you were satisfied. You have that feeling inside that 'all is good'. You know you are well fed and you know that you have good friends this satisfaction consequently leads to joy. One follows the other so to speak.

The same is with God, if we are satisfied with where God has placed us in this life (and I guess flowing from this is a complete and real trust in his sovereignty) and with what he has given us will lead to joy. God has given us something worth rejoicing over - his Son. Let's examine Scripture to see how this is overwhelmingly true:

Luke 1:14 when the angel speaks to Zechariah about Jesus' birth

He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his
birth

Luke 1:44

As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb
leaped for joy

Luke 2:10

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all
the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is
Christ the Lord

John 3:29

The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom
waits for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegrooms voice. That joy
is mine, and it is now complete.

Luke 10:17, 20

The seventy two returned with joy and said, 'Lord, even the demons submit
to us in your name....(v20) Jesus replied, 'However, do not rejoice that the
spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.'
This is a key verse in seeing that joy flows from our redeemed nature. Luke 15 shows this with 'rejoicing in heaven over repentant sinners'

Joy flows out of being 'in Christ'. Maybe this doesn't always seem the case because we often forget (me included) what a remarkable thing it is to be a Christian. To remember again what are sinful state means for us and how great and wonderful an act of God it was in sending Jesus to be the 'saviour of the world' (John 4:42)

Even as you look at the book of Acts and the early church you see that joy is found in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Acts 2:26 (quoting Psalm 16)

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live
in hope

Interestingly David's joy in the Psalm is ultimately grounded in Jesus Christ.

Paul shows us that joy is not static but a daily practice - Phil 3:1, 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice!

Peter says something similar - 1 Pet 1:8

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see
him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious
joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your
souls

Over and over again we see that our joy is because of the great acts of salvation in Jesus Christ.

John Calvin says,

Joy is a quiet gladness of heart as one contemplates the goodness of God's
saving grace in Christ Jesus

So, what practical advice can I give you to discover this joy - it must be to discover Jesus Christ, not just once but again and again, every single day, always.

Next post: we will see how joy is also future looking as we answer the question - what does it mean to rejoice through thick and thin?

A religious experience

2009-11-17T14:10:00.004+11:00

The Question:

When Dave talked about a religious experience, I was just wondering what he meant by that?

Let's put it into context, I was talking about what being born again is not and so as part of my talk I said 'being born again is not having a religious experience'.

Many churches around the world and indeed in our own backyard can produce a gathering that only aims to produce a particular experience or feel that would make someone believe they are born again just by being part of that experience. There are some groups that operate whereby they take away your watch, keep you up late and have emotionally, intense and draining preaching just to produce in you a particular experience.

But my question is what is the substance of being born again? As I said on Sunday it is a radical transformation from the inside out (or you could say that it is change in attitude to Jesus as LORD). It is God working to produce in us a new identity, a whole new person. 2 Corinthians 5:17

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has
come!

How does this come about?

The experience that is worth seeking out is an experience of the Word of God. It is only through this 'experience' that someone can be transformed, not by music, not by raising hands, not by any other means but by the Word of God. Pushing further we see that this is the work of the Spirit, which is what Jesus goes onto say in John 3 anyway:

Spirit gives birth to Spirit

New birth (regeneration, being born again whatever you want to call it) is wholeheartedly connected to the work of the Spirit. But how does the Spirit work? Scripture seems to clearly tell us that the Spirit and the Word are intimately connected (in fact I would say that you cannot and should not cut them off from each other!). Take for example Ephesians 6:17

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God

To divorce these two has the potential to land us in danger of misunderstanding the Spirit and the Word. Hopefully this clarifies to a certain degree what I meant by 'being born again is not a religious experience'. It is an experience but not in the sense most people would say it is

Born Again: Water and Spirit

2009-11-17T12:41:00.003+11:00

The Question:
What does the 'water' in John 3:5 refer to? Is it human birth?

Great question!
Firstly we can see that John has repeated this phrase from v3

I tell you the truth that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is
born again

And v5

I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of
water and the Spirit.

There are a raft of interpretations put forward by various people but only two seem main contenders:
1. The water can refer to human birth (as in the question) then it becomes a reference to the amniotic fluid that happens at childbirth. So, consequently there are two births, one natural and the other supernatural. However, this connection is not supported by any other places in Scripture to make it a viable option. Due to the close connection between v3 & 5 the water and Spirit need to be taken as a reference to the 'born again' (or as the footnote in the NIV says 'from above')
2. Water may refer to Christian baptism. A lot of commentaries go down this line and understandably because of the various references to baptism that surround this passage. However if the water = baptism and therefore a necessary role in entering the kingdom of God it is surprising that it is never mentioned again. But that is not to completely right this off altogether, there may be some allusion to baptism.

Having seen that neither of these two options are completely satisfying the third option seems to be the go
3. We have to take seriously the parallel with v3 'from above'. There seems to be a unity in how the words are put together that show that water and spirit are talking about the origin of regeneration (that is being born again). And Nicodemus is in trouble as Israel's teacher for not getting it, so the answer must lie somewhere in the Old Testament.
The Spirit in the Old Testament is God's principle of life and there will be a time when it is poured out upon all. It is a source of righteousness. Water is used figuratively to refer to renewal or cleansing. The two ideas come together in Ezekiel 36:25-27

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse
you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new
heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh. And I will pour my Spirit in you and move you to
follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws

This seems to depict individual and corporate regeneration (born again) was an idea presented strongly in the Old Testament. Regeneration that was of water and of the spirit. That is cleansed pure by the metaphoric washing of water and by the very real presence of the Holy Spirit (although not until Jesus returns to the Father read John 14-16 to see this).

The Word

2009-11-03T15:28:00.003+11:00

Question: I still find the concept of 'the Word' confusing!

John 1:1-18 introduces the reader to 'The Word'. Why would John use such a concept to describe Jesus?

There are a number of reasons put out there as to why:
1. It could be capturing some thoughts of that current day. Some people, called the Stoics, understood the word to be the rational principle by which everything else exists. That is everything that was on this earth was the seed of the Word.
2. Another group of the day were those who believed in Gnosticism although this is less likely
3. Some think John was leaning on a guy called Philo who made a distinction between the world we can see and the ideal world. The world we can see is a copy of this ideal world. And the word was the ideal man from which all other human beings are derived from.
4. However none of these seem to be the forefront of John's mind, the place to begin is the Old Testament. It is there we see God's word connected with

The powerful activity in creation
Revelation of himself
Deliverance
Judgment
Healing
Rescuing from the grave
The Word is personified in Proverbs (see 8:22ff)

To quote Don Carson from his commentary on John

In short, God's 'Word' in the Old Testament is his powerful self-expression
in creation, revelation and salvation, and the personification of that 'Word'
makes it suitable for John to apply it as a title to God's ultimate
self-disclosure, the person of his own Son.

And again,

The term had a semantic range so broad that they could shape the term by
their own usage to make it convey, in the context of their own work, what they
knew to be true of Jesus Christ.

So, it seems that John takes a term commonly used in his era and uses it convey something of the majesty and glory of the revelation of the Father in his Son, Jesus Christ.

Cumberland Unichurch

2009-11-03T15:10:00.002+11:00

During my years at Moore College I helped begin a church for university students at Cumberland College in Lidcombe called Cumberland UniChurch. My old pal Izaac is blogging about some of the history so I thought I would give it a plug
http://izaacta.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the read.

A heavenly & earthly distinction

2009-10-28T11:26:00.004+11:00

The question:

What is the difference between heavenly unity and earthly unity?

The question stems from my talk on 'The Wider Body'.

This is best answered by seeing firstly what is this heavenly unity and secondly what is the earthly unity before turning to specifics.

Heavenly unity

The Bible describes Christians as people who are already gathered in heaven.

For example, Colossians 1:18

And he is the head of the body, the church

Ephesians 1:22

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over
everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills
everything in every way

It seems that when someone becomes a Christian they become part of the ever increasing body of Christ. They become part of that great multitude that no one can count on the last day; part of the group of the group gathered around the throne of God and 'the Lamb' giving them eternal praise, glory and honour.

This is what awaits us but there is also a sense in which this heavenly reality has begun.

Earthly unity

The Bible also describes Christians who gather in the here and now.

For example, 1 Thessalonians 1:1

Paul, Silas and Timothy. To the church of the Thessalonians in God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This letter is addressed to those Christians who gather in the town of Thessalonica

John

2009-10-20T13:56:00.005+11:00

On Sunday night we began a new series on the book of John. One of the things I said but didn't justify was the centre of the prologue (John 1:1-18) is v12:

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become the children of God

Why is this the centre?
My answer is based around the structure of John 1:1-18. Many greater minds than mine (and that includes most!) see a chiastic structure to these verses. A chiasm is a literary device used to highlight a centre point of a piece of writing. For example, as my friend Tibbsy showed me, Hickory Dickory Dock is a chiasm.

1. Hickory Dickory Dock
2. The mouse ran up the clock
3. The clock struck one
2. The mouse ran down
1. Hickory Dickory Dock

The centre of this nursery rhyme is 'the clock struck one'. This same structure is seen in the opening 18 verses of John.

v1-2 (God coming into the world)
v3 (Through Jesus comes - creation)
v4-5 (Divine blessings)
v6-8 (John the Baptist)
v9-10 (God becoming a man)
v11 (Not about being a Jew)
v12 (Children of God)
v13 (Not about being a Jew)
v14 (God becoming a man)
v15 (John the Baptist)
v16 (Divine blessings)
v17 (Through Jesus comes - grace & truth)
v18 (God coming into the world)

So there you have it? This is the reason I chose to focus in on v12.

And it is a far cry from how he describes us later in 8:42ff (he is talking to the Jews but it applies to us as well):

If God were your Father, you would love me, for I cam from God and now am
here. I have not come on my own, he sent me. Why is my language not clear to
you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the
devil, and you want to carry out your fathers desire. He was a murderer from the
beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies,
he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

What a privilege it is to be changed from a child of the devil to a child of God:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not
know us is that it did not know him
(1 John 3:1-2)

Denominations

2009-09-20T20:25:00.005+10:00

Today I preached on the 'Wider Body' in our series on church. We looked at Eph 4:1-6 to see that we have a deep unity with other Christian believers all around the world. One of the implications was what to do with denominations? I skipped over this and said pretty much nothing, so as per Craig's request - here are some thoughts. (I was helpfully served by 3 Briefing articles by John Woodhouse on this topic)

So here goes....................
What was missing from the above list in Eph 4:1-6? It says nothing about denominations. So what does that mean for denominations?

Aren’t we united by the fact we are all Anglicans?
The answer is a yes and no!

Firstly, a denomination can promote unity
A denomination is an association of some churches and does not include all churches.

Unity can be promoted by allowing a certain freedom of conscience in relation to matters that do not go against the unity of the Spirit. So things like:

What we think of the saving work of Jesus and his resurrection

Who we think God is and how he reveals himself to us

These things are matters of the utmost seriousness to us. We could not in good conscience have fellowship with people who denied these core things and there are churches around here that deny some of the central truths.

But those who did hold fast to the gospel core truths we would have freedom to allow them to express it their own way. And so we would have fellow believers who don’t believe in infant baptism but yet we are still united with them.

Unity can also be promoted through cooperation especially in the pooling of resources for a common task. Places that provide a link for fellowship between churches feed this cooperative spirit. I think of organisations like Anglicare or CMS.

Secondly, denominations can hinder unity
Denominations do not tell us who has been called to part of the body. To belong to the church does not equal belonging to your local Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian or Uniting church.
None of these are 'the' church. Denominations can bring dangerous false assurance. Belonging to the body is about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unity is also denied in Anglicanism when people love being Anglican more than they love God’s church. So much so they hang on to Anglicanism when there may be reason to break from it. Thankfully we are not in this situation in Sydney but for other people in the world it is a live issue.

There is heaps more to be said and as I am just about to head off on 3 weeks holidays I have rushed over stuff. I will blog in more depth about some of these things when I get back if there is interest, but if you want to keep reading then go to those articles mentioned above.

Big Questions

2009-08-05T21:14:00.006+10:00

We are having three weeks in August answering some of the 'Big Questions' people ask about Christianity.

If one of these have ever been one of your questions why not come along and listen.

For those in the business of praying I would appreciate your prayers over the three weeks.

(I am speaking on the 16th & 23rd and Luke Thomson our Youth Minister is speaking on the 30th)

A 'fitting' for the bride of Christ

2009-07-20T16:20:00.007+10:00

The Question: Dave & Chris, from the passage tonight, in verse 40, what does it mean by everything should be done in a fitting/decent way?

This question stems from our series called 'Lets get spiritual' from 1 Cor 12-14 and in particular ch 14. (You can listen to the talks here)

Paul has been speaking since v26 about what happens when the 'bride of Christ' gathers. And Paul is saying that there is an order in the gathering.

The structure of the passage is as follows:

1. Each person has something to bring - but for it to be spoken it must be edifying for all people

2. But then he goes on to tell various groups to be silent for the sake of order

Tongue speakers: only 2 or 3 if no interpreter then they are to be silent

Prophets: only 2 or 3 if a revelation comes to another then the first is to be silent

Women: While the prophesy is being weighed they are to remain silent

The two key verses in this section are v33

For God is not a God of disorder but of peace

And v40

But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way

God's nature is always to have order. Ever since he created the world his ordered nature has been on show. He has made creation in a certain way to work a certain way and this includes relationships between men and women.

The question is about fitting and orderly. Are these two words the same?

The word fitting is about doing things in a decent way; behaving in a way that depicts our respect for each other.

The word order is what helps us to achieve our proper behaviour.

So, the two words are very similar with only a small difference between them.

To sum up: 1 Corinthians 14 is all about what is 'fitting' for the bride of Christ when we gather together.

God's dwelling in our dwelling

2009-07-07T15:08:00.007+10:00

The Question: Jesus' name means God saves. It says this in Matthew 1. It also says at the end of Matthew 1 that he shall be called Immanuel which means God with us. Please explain.

One of the great truths of heaven is stated in Revelation 21:3

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God
is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God
himself will be with them and be their God.

In fact this has been God's promise ever since the beginning of creation ultimately finding its fulfilment in Jesus. Let's look at this truth and hopefully it will unpack and answer the above question.

In Genesis 1 & 2 we are given a great picture of God being with his people. However all goes 'belly up' in Genesis 3 when Adam & Eve disobey God's good word to them. They are then punished for their rebellion by being cast out from the Garden. God no longer dwells with his people.

The story from here on in is about reversing the effects of sin and therefore restoring the dwelling of God with man.

This theme is picked up again strongly in Exodus where Moses is told to build a tabernacle or temple. Interestingly the word tabernacle means 'dwelling place'. It is where God dwells with his people.

As the story of Israel progresses the tabernacle becomes permanently located by means of a temple in Jerusalem. But in Ezekiel 10 we see something disturbing - 'then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped over the cherubim' (v18). God's glory departs from the temple. Historically this is seen when the Babylonians come in and destroy, ransack and pillage the temple.

The exile is a terrible punishment upon God's people for their continued rebellion to his good word. God once again does not dwell with his people.

But God's promise to once again dwell with his people is seen in the prophets that are around post the exile. Take for example Haggai, this is what he says in chapter 2: 6-9

This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more
shake the heavens and earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations,
and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with
glory', says the LORD Almighty. 'The glory of this present house will
be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty.
'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty.

Haggai says that this new temple will be of greater glory than the former and a place of peace. But he is not talking about mere bricks and mortar.

Fast forward a couple of hundred years - a bloke walks into the temple courts in Jerusalem. He upturns tables, scatters stuff everywhere and then says:

Get these out of here! How dare you turn by Father's house into a market!
His disciples remembered that it is written: 'Zeal for your house will consume
me'. Then the Jews demanded of him, 'What miraculous sign can you show us to
probe your authority to do all this?' Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple,
and I will raise it again in three days.' The Jews replied, 'It has taken 46
years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?' But
the temple he had spoken of was his body. (Jn 2:16-21)

Jesus becomes this new and greater temple promised long ago. He becomes God dwelling with us and among us. And so when you look at Matthew 1 and Jesus is called Immanuel (God with us) he is picking up upon promises made many years before and is saying they find fulfilment in me.

How does God see you?

2009-07-02T15:25:00.006+10:00

The Question: What is a reference for God seeing us 'through' Christ vis - 2 Sam 22:@5? i.e. Christ's righteousness as ours.

On the surface this seems like an easy question but it is also one that has been and will continue to be embroiled in controversy over the years. The reason for this is because the question is one that touches on one of the cornerstone statements of faith, namely 'justification by faith' (JBF).

Let's briefly examine why this is such a central aspect to Christianity. The cross is the central point, the pivotal saving point; JBF is also at this point. To distort JBF is to distort salvation and
faith is the instrument of salvation.
a) Faith in Jesus Christ alone as presented in the gospels therefore we preach Christ in a JBF kind of way because there is no other way
b) Faith arises from the Holy Spirit in rebirth and so is evidence of regeneration, but not merely evidence, it is the means and instrument which we we grasp Christ and his benefits
c) Its effective in Jesus in dealing with sin on the cross, our righteous actions can’t acquit us. He totally bore sin and justifies the ungodly
d) Faith is ‘reckoned’ for righteousness (account something). Faith in Jesus Christ that is counted as righteous. Whose righteousness is it? God’s given by JC
e) Faith alone makes Jesus Christ Lord, but this makes faith never alone
f) Only faith makes Jesus Christ Lord, this is truly exalting Jesus
g) Faith alone gives us access to God (Ro 5:1-11): constitutes the ongoing basis of access to God.

Having seen the importance and centrality of justification by faith let's turn to the Scripture. There are many references that answer the initial question:

Rom 3:22

The righteousness of God through faith in/of Jesus Christ for all who believe

Rom 6

The whole idea of being united to Christ

I cannot stress just how important the idea of union with Christ is. Martin Luther in his famous treatise "On the freedom of a Christian" was expounding on what it means for us to be united with such a wonderful bride in Jesus. Listen and rejoice in Luther's words:

It is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid
upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her Husband Christ a
righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up with
confidence against all her sins, against death and hell

Union with Christ gives the Christian great assurance. Being united with Christ gives victory over sin and death. As Luther goes on to say;

Our sins are unable to destroy us, Christ the righteous husband, takes on
the needy and impious harlot and gives her all his good things

Those who belong to Christ have died with him to sin and death, and now live to God and to righteousness.

Rom 13:14

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Gal 3:27

For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ.

It seems clear to me that when God sees us his perspective is that we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And as a result of this he declares us to be righteous.

Is this how God sees you - if not, probably time to do something about it? Time to get some God given faith!!

Do we really love sin?

2009-06-15T11:53:00.004+10:00

The Question:

"We love sin" - isn't it also just put down to the fact that we are sinful beings? I think we sometimes do it unwillingly just because we are sinful, rather than loving it...

I think both sides of the coin on this one are true, what do I mean? John Stott has some very helpful words to say from his commentary on Ephesians, he is commentating on 2:1 'And you he made alive, when you were dead through trespasses and sins in which you once walked'.

The death to which Paul refers is not a figure of speech, as in the parable of the Prodigal Son, 'This my son was dead'; it is a factual statement of everybody's spiritual condition outside Christ. And it is traced to their trespasses and sins. These two words seem to have been carefully chosen to give a comprehensive account of human evil. A 'trespass' is a false step, involving either crossing a know boundary or a deviation from the right path. A 'sin', however, means rather a missing of the mark, a falling short of a standard. Together the two words cover the positive and negative, or active and passive, aspects of human wrongdoing, that is to say, our sins of commision and of omission. Before God we are both rebels and failures (p71).

I only presented half the picture of sin, the half that crosses the known boundary. This type of sin is what I was talking about when I said, 'we love sin'. And I will stand by my words of us loving this type of sin in some way. If we really truly hated it we wouldn't do it, just like if you really truly hate brussell sprouts you don't eat them. It is what Ephesians 2:3 talks about when it says 'Gratifying the desires of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts'. Sometimes it is hard to look in the mirror and see ourselves for who we are as sinners and deserving of God's wrath. But don't forget the great BUT of v4-6!

But, there is the other side as Stott points out the one of being a failure which is more our falling short of God's standards, and this is the more passive aspect of our sin.

Both aspects of sin need to be held together to get a complete picture of our humanity.

Cracking the whip??

2009-06-10T20:35:00.005+10:00

The Question: 2 Sam 7:14 'I will be his father , and he will be my son. When he (Jesus?) does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men'. 2 Samuel 7 is talking about Jesus isn't it - so when did Jesus sin?

2 Samuel 7 is definitely one of the great passages of Scripture. It talks of great and extravagant promises that are made to David. They particularly focus around building a house and the arrival of a son. These promises are initially founded in the surrounding chapters of 2 Samuel. Who will be this 'Son of David' who will fulfill the promises? The narrative from 2 Sam 9-20 and 1 King 1-2 is often called the succession narrative which is the search in some ways for this promised son. And we see God fulfilling his promise as he punishes the sons of David for the wrongdoing. You just have to look at Amnon and Absalom to see that this is true. When Solomon comes to the throne in 1 Kings the question is - could he be the promised one? But alas he fails us and is punished by God. This question remains until the arrival of Jesus.

Jesus does NOT sin. And so, on the one hand, he is unlike any of the other 'sons of David' and is not punished like them for God had no reason. But on the other hand he is punished by God even though he did no wrong, he did get punished by floggings and even death. For Isaiah says,

Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and thought the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

(53:10)

Jesus was inflicted with punishment he did not deserve to pay the penalty for the sin of you and me.

Amazing Love

2009-06-03T15:39:00.008+10:00

The Question: Why did Jesus descend/experience hell when he did nothing wrong?

Firstly, we must understand sin. Sin is our rebellion against God. It manifests itself in every one of our lives in so many different ways - pride, lust, envy, theft, etc. God must be just in this situation and therefore every sin must be dealt with. The punishment set for sin is death.

So, why does he care? Why doesn't he leave us in our sinful state?

This question drives at motivation.

The answer that the New Testament drives at over and over again is love. And it is a love for his creation that springs forth from Gen 1 & 2. We belong to God. He is grieved, angry in fact, over our rebellion and loves drives him to do something about it.

Rom 5:8
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Eph 2:4-6
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

1 Tim 1:14
and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Titus 3:4
but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,

1 Jn 3:16

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

And the list could go on.....

So, then Jesus experienced hell on the cross for us. That is the just anger of God needed to be satisfied and he himself provided the sacrifice. God was not angry with Jesus. God was pouring out his wrath and just judgment on our sin but the beauty, joy and sheer scandal of the gospel is that we were not there - Jesus was!! He provided his one and only Son. As we sing "In Christ Alone"

And on that cross as Jesus died

The wrath of God was satisfied

That Son, Jesus Christ, bore on the cross everything that was coming to me - his just anger which should result in death and exclusion from his kingdom.

BUT WHY? Why would he do something like that?

God was driven by his great love as we see in those earlier verses.

And again: Gal 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Song of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

What person wouldn't want to believe this??

How to motivate your prayer life

2009-05-10T20:33:00.004+10:00

This question came in after last weeks talk.

"Dave I would say 'we should' pray and that we 'must' is legalism rather than 'we should' statement. Thoughts?"

This is a great question and one I thought A LOT about before giving the sermon (2 Sam 6 & 7) so as you'd imagine I have a few of thoughts:

1. The nature of communication
Communication is a funny thing. What you say is not always what is heard. So when I say we should then it could easily be heard as you must. So on that basis happy to say the perceived lighter thing, in that we can prayer, rather than command it just made more sense to me.

2. Motivation by grace not by command
I still have the outline of my talk on my whiteboard and I written next to the section on prayer - motivate by grace. I think I could have easily said you must - you must - you must but rather I wanted to have the motivation that we can and see prayer as a wonderful thing that we can now do because of Jesus' work. So in light of this I really wanted to steer away from laying a burden upon people. One of the really great things this week at preaching conference was seeing how Paul motivated people towards obedience to Christ, he doesn't command but rather appeals to people on the basis of Christ's work.

For example Rom 12:1

'Therefore, I appeal to you in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices.....' And again in Philemon 8-9,

'Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do I appeal to you on the basis of love.'

So, my goal is to get people to pray - how do you do it? By a command or an appeal on the basis of Christ's work? I chose to make it an appeal on the basis of Jesus has done and his grace and this I think is the vibe of the New Testament.

3. Prayer is not necessary for salvation.
Praying is an outworking of our faith so therefore it is not a should or a must. And since as I said already the language of should and must is not always heard as distinct people may hear you saying what you don't want to say about praying and salvation. When we are converted it is solely through the work of Jesus - not by praying a prayer at the end of a talk but by faith. Once we are saved we have the opportunity to bring things to him in prayer

A step by step guide to winning friends with your money!

2009-04-19T14:18:00.005+10:00

Well it's not actually, this question came in ....

What is Luke 16:1-13 on about? Especially that stuff around v8 about commending dishonesty?.

Luke talks a great deal about money, wealth and how to use it. Luke 16 falls into Jesus’ teaching on this topic. The point of Luke 16 is easy to discern. Be generous and responsible with your resources.

Some initial observations
The parable is about a steward who is accused in v1:
There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.

This idea of wasting his money is like that of the previous story of the Prodigal Son who wastes his Father’s inheritance. It is clear that this type of mismanagement of money requires a response. It can’t be left unchecked.

I guess this shows us our first lesson. We need to be good stewards of our money. Money is a tool. When used properly it is an excellent resource. It can also be a great danger and like all good things that God gives us we can use it serve our own needs and desires.

So, what exactly is the steward doing when he ‘wastes’ the money?
Is the steward inept in his management, just a bad manager or is he siphoning off funds for his own consumption from transactions made? The answer to this question will help make sense of v8:
The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

Is his dishonesty what he does in v5-7, letting people pay him back less than what they owe him? Or is his dishonesty siphoning off funds?

V3 tells us of the manager’s pickle – he can’t do anything else but be a manager. So his plan is seen in v4:
I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.

His plan is to counter cultural for any banks or governments – he introduces a deflationary scheme: a 50% & 20% reduction in bills.

There are 3 options to consider what is going on here;
1. The steward just lowers the price and therefore the master later praises the steward for his shrewdness and recognises his dishonesty. This view says that v8 is about v5-7 not v1. View 3 challenges this position.
2. The steward removes the interest charged from the debt in line with Mosaic Law. This doesn’t really hold up though because of the different rates of reduction
3. The steward removes his own commission. This would make the most sense of the master’s commendation in v8. Who is going to commend someone who has actually just cheated them? The steward has reduced what is owed to him and at the same time been faithful to his master as well as making his master look good. Jesus also commends the steward for his behaviour and he would not commend immoral behaviour. This would that the dishonesty mentioned in v1 is about him siphoning off stuff for himself – that is the reason for his subsequent sacking.

Some applications of this text:
The steward sacrificed what he could have taken now and has given it to others so that he can receive gain later. The moral about the use of resources is exactly the application Jesus makes in v8-9
For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings

Jesus’ point is that the people of this ‘age’ give thought to how they use their resources – even if they misuse it they think about it! They think about the short and long term benefits of what they acquire.

We, as well as his disciples should honour and serve God with our resources thinking through the short and long term benefits of our actions. So to gain friends by means of money is to use money in a way that others appreciate you for your exercise of stewardship, your kindness and generosity.

1 Peter

2009-03-14T20:38:00.002+11:00

We have been studying 1 Peter for 1st term of 2009. There has been a lot of work that has gone into producing a booklet, bible studies and recording of the talks.

You can access them all for free here

Do we need to rethink men's ministry?

2009-03-14T20:17:00.005+11:00

A website that I check fairly regularly to see what is happening with current trends and thinking especially for Gen X & Y is McCrindle Research
I came across his study of Australian Men
Lots of interesting stuff:

We take better care and more interest in our appearance

We don't meet at the pub anymore - it is at a cafe or restaurant

Competitive sport is second to going to the gym or Pilate's

We wear speedos at the beach

Women don't know what to think of the change

The typical Aussie male is under threat

We have a deep need to reclaim what it means to be a man. If only we had the designers plan, we could ask him or better yet he could reveal it!

If you have a spare hour then listen to Driscoll on being a Biblical Man. I promise you it will be worthwhile - he says some really good stuff.

But it did get me thinking about reaching men - are men's breakfasts done and dusted? Are even the meat crazed evenings of St Augustine's still living in the past? How do we best reach those Aussie blokes based on this information? What are you doing to reach men?

In the hands of a potter God

2009-02-26T09:48:00.004+11:00

Question: My husband and I were reading Romans 9. In v22, it speaks of some being created for destruction. Is this non-Christians or Pharaoh or Judas, etc who God puts in those positions to bring glory through their wickedness?

In order to answer this question properly we need to delve into the argument that Paul is mounting in Romans 9. Paul begins by expressing his deep anguish that many Jews have turned their backs on Jesus Christ. But this does not mean Israel has no place or that God has been unfaithful in anyway. To be a Jew does not automatically make you part of the people of God. He uses the example of Esau and Jacob, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated' (v13). The call of God was never because of something we had done but his sovereign choice before the creation of the world. God will show mercy on whom he wishes in order that there will never be a reason for us to boast and no human will or effort will ever thwart or distract from his purposes. But if this is true, how can humans be blamed for anything? It is the context of this question that v20-23 fall.

Here is Rom 9:20-23 (from the ESV) in case you don't have it handy.
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-

Paul tells us quite clearly that human beings have no right to question the sovereignty of God. Like the potter has authority over the clay so to God has authority over us. Indeed God has even ordained some to be vessels of destruction so that his glory may be made known. So, is this all non-Christians? Or just a select few?

A couple of things to note about the 'vessels of destruction'. Firstly, he has endured them with much patience. Secondly, unless you believe in annihilationism (which I don't) then the destruction of here is about 'eternal exclusion'. God doesn't make something just to destroy it. And, thirdly, God prepares them for destruction (it is a passive verb) they don't prepare themselves. In light of this I think these vessels of wrath are the unresponsive Jews.

But it is also true to say that Paul is picking up on v17

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

Yes, it is Pharaoh, it is Judas and it is the unresponsiveness of the Jews and their may be some non-Christians who particularly fit this case. But in all of this we need to remember it is God's sovereign choice and we are nothing but clay.

That he chooses some at all shows his mercy and his love.

Made for destruction?

2009-02-25T20:55:00.004+11:00

Question: Why did Jesus pick Judas as a disciple knowing how he would end up? It seems like all the other disciples went into ministry until death.

There a couple of things to say in response to this question that draw out the tension.

Firstly, we should not doubt the sincerity of the call of the Lord Jesus. Jesus views him as a follower and a disciple. You see this in Mark 3: 13-20 as Jesus names his 12 disciples. So, we can say that yes Jesus did pick Judas, he called him to follow him.

Secondly, Judas fell from apostleship. He was lost because he was never saved. Some people draw attention to the fact he never called Jesus Lord only 'Rabbi' (Matt 26:25). And so he leaves the gospel story a doomed and damned man as that is what he chose and God confirmed him in that dreadful choice. And we can also say then, that even though he was called he did not follow because he chose not to.

Both of these things need to be held even though they feel contradictory!

Does that make the call of Jesus in some way ineffective? I keep having Hebrews run around in the back of my head and the warnings it lays down for Christian people. Ch 6 especially talks about those who have 'been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of this coming age'. Surely these people are Christians yet it talks about them falling away. So, we know that it is not once a Christian always a Christian.

But this doesn't rob us of assurance either. Hebrew 6: 19

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Interestingly, this verse comes straight after the writer talking about falling away. We can have assurance of our salvation. We can confidently say that we are chosen by God if we confess that Jesus Christ is LORD. But to begin the race is good to finish the race is even better and only those who are chosen will finish. Those chosen will continue to heed the warnings of Scripture to love God and obey him.

The exhortation in Hebrews 6 is that,

'we want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure'.

We can only go on what people tell us, we need as JC ryle (I think) said, gracious assumption.

Can we stop saying 'Catholic'

2009-02-25T20:39:00.002+11:00

Question: Why do we say we believe in the Catholic church during the Apostle's Creed?

For those not versed in the Apostle's Creed
It says;
I believe in the Holy Spirit;
The holy catholic church;

This is a common question. When we say the word Catholic we don't mean Roman Catholic.
But rather it just means universal. So, when we say it in the Creed then we are saying that we believe in the universal church of Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately people today say Catholic to refer to the Roman Catholic church these days and so it becomes confusing for people. My personal opinion is rather than fight to reclaim the word Catholic we should change it to say:
I believe in the Holy Spirit;
The holy universal church.

Out with the old and in with the new

2009-02-25T20:19:00.003+11:00

Yes, yes I know this blog has been severely neglected for the last 10months. Partly it lacked purpose. Thanks to Mr Purpose himself, Tom!

BUT I have been thinking about how to revamp it in a helpful way.

And it starts tonight!!!

Part of what we do at Sunday at 6 (http://www.norwestanglican.org.au/) is fill in a communication card. And I encourage people to write questions they have from the talk or questions about things they have been reading either from the Bible or from a Christian book.

So, when people write a question - I will answer their question/s here.

This is my plan and it is my plan to stick to my new plan ... it's not an evil plan to take over the world but maybe, just maybe......

Let's play movies instead of preaching...???

2008-10-27T19:29:00.002+11:00

“The question of how to connect with that generation is a primary question of the church and has been for a number of years,” said Troy Messenger, who teaches at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan and focuses on the use of media in worship. “Biblical texts are in such another time and culture, it can be very difficult to translate to our life. A two-minute movie clip can do so much more than two minutes of sermon.”

From here
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/nyregion/26journey.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=nyregion

Is this true? Should I just play video clips and then go .. 'well there you go' that says way more than anything I could ever say'? (And is there more than just a little irony in the guy who teaches media in worship a Mr Messenger?) So many questions, but no answers. Can you help me?

A little worrier

2008-10-09T15:35:00.003+11:00

Over dinner our family has been reading through Matthew. Last night we read in Chapter 6

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Now Emily has a routine where she lays out her clothes for the next day before she goes to sleep. And being 3 1/2 it can be stressful as to what to wear (I can't imagine what this is going to be like as the years go on!). She is my little worrier in so many ways. So, we were trying to get her to realise that it is good to trust God - she doesn't have to worry about her clothes or lots of the other things she concerns herself with. There was much nodding of the head on her behalf and we prayed as a family, Em, then Mum, then Dad and the family said AMEN.

Immediately then,

Emily: "What can I wear tomorrow?"

Will continue to pray.....

The good, the bad, the ugly and the very good

2008-08-20T15:50:00.001+10:00

What a terrible thing it is to be under the curse of God. Genesis 3 paints a picture of a transition from blessing to curse as mankind is punished for their rebellion against their loving Creator who had created a good world. ‘Cursed are you….I will increase your pains……cursed is the ground’. So bad is the situation and such is the power of this action that it will take a great blessing for it to be undone. Yet it was in God’s plan.

The great blessing begins in Genesis 12 where the word ‘bless’ occurs 5 times. Those promises to Abraham are hefty and lofty in their content yet God is faithful. The story of the Bible is of the one unfolding plan of God. All these promises find their fulfilment in Jesus Christ. As 2 Cor 1:20 says, ‘For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ’. God’s plan was designed to show his glory through his one and only Son. Yet it was ugly, it was through the death of an innocent man on a cross – this is ugly no matter how nicely you try to put it.

Our small group has been studying Revelation over the last little while and on Tuesday night we finished it! There was a verse that rung in my ears, especially in light of what is written above – ‘No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him’ (Rev 22:3). No curse! The curse is finally over; the slavery to sin – OVER! The presence of sin – GONE! The power of sin – VANISHED! This is better than good, this is very good.

What a great and glorious kingdom that Christ has won for us!
What a magnificent God we have who has worked this out since the beginning of time!
What a wonderful new creation!
What a hope we have!
What joy we have in being assured of our place in heaven!
What an immense thing to have every spiritual blessing in Christ!

With such a breathtaking vision of the riches and splendour of the new creation, it is no wonder that the book finishes with a plea for Jesus to return: ‘Come, Lord Jesus’. I don’t often pray for Jesus to return but I have been encouraged to this week and into the future.

Grappling with marriage

2008-05-08T07:19:00.002+10:00

The debate over whether to legally recognise gay relationships with a marriage continues in todays Sydney Morning Herald. Read the article here http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/gay-unions-accepted-but-not-symbolism/2008/05/07/1210131061925.html

There are a number of interesting points
1. He continues this stream of thought that there should be a wall between church and state and that the two should never cross paths but remain like train tracks. He needs to read Andrew Cameron's lecture on this topic. Read it here http://www.newcollege.unsw.edu.au/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfs/NCLs05Cameron1.pdf

2. He struggles to see that marriage is a institution that is for all people but was given to us from God for the proper expression of a man and woman's relationship. This objective reality of marriage continues to hamper those who want to make it something it isn't. They have not grasped the purpose of marriage. Those who want to change it want it to be something that it is not - how could a chair be used as a microphone? A chair's purpose is for sitting! The purpose of marriage is for a man and a woman.

On the issue of relationships

2008-05-06T07:50:00.002+10:00

There is an interesting article in today's herald about families being strangers to there teenagers by not seeing them for a year while they are at boarding school. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/families-becoming-strangers/2008/05/05/1209839554193.html

A quote from the article
'The problem was not PLC's alone but shared among schools throughout Sydney and around the world, he said. "To earn enough money to make it, we haven't stopped to think what we are losing to do that," he writes. "If we are losing family values and community welfare, something needs to be done about that.'

It is a great thought, what are we prepared to lose to make it in the world? We are sacrificing relationships in order to be successful in the eyes of the world! It begs the question of who we are trying to please in the world? It also reminds me of a verse - What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? (Mk 8:36) Relationships are not the only thing that are being left by the roadside, it seems the soul has been trodden on and run over by the Range Rover!

The Environmental Divorce Rate

2008-05-06T07:47:00.003+10:00

Having dinner with some friends on the weekend and we were talking about global warming and climate change and he commented, 'if we spent as much time trying to fix the climate as we did trying to repair relationships, in particular the divorce rate, that would be a better world to live in.' True, true...

Reading Revelation Right

2008-05-06T07:36:00.002+10:00

Last Tuesday night at Bible Study we read through the whole book of Revelation in one sitting. It was a really valuable exercise (well at least I thought so!). I'm assuming when the recipients of the letter received it they didn't sit down over 9 weeks to read it but read it out in one hit. It helps to give the big picture of the book even if you don't understand everything John is writing about. It is an exciting book that is aimed at giving great hope to anyone by unveiling, revealing to the reader a marvellous vision of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:1 'The revelation of Jesus Christ'). It is ONE revelation it is not the book of revelations (it bugs me when people ask about the book of revelations!). Why not take an hour to sit and read it? I promise you it will be a worthwhile time spent......

I've lost something

2008-05-04T20:24:00.003+10:00

And so ends an enormously frustrating day! Lots of people talking to me but alas I was unable to talk back, my voice resembling the Godfather gone wrong i.e. LOST, gone, vanished, nowhere to be found. It did show me just how valuable a resource my voice is in ministry and how important it is to take care of it. Not that I think I was abusing my voice by attempting to imitate a Jimmy Barnes or Chris Cornell scream or anything like that. It did also make me appreciate my voice in general and how much I take it for granted, I can only imagine what it would be like to not be able to speak for a lifetime and the constant frustration that must be - I mean I couldn't even go and order take away after church tonight!!

It also makes me appreciate that God is someone who does communicate to us through his Scriptures. He is not dumb, he SPEAKS! But not only does he speak but does so with clarity. After all he invented language and what God would he be if he was unable to communicate to us using the language he invented?

Relationships and Work

2008-04-16T15:31:00.004+10:00

I have been working my way through a series on relationships and work over the past 4 weeks at church. It has been tough but very rewarding. One of the great things about doing this is seeing the way in which the two topics overlap.

Firstly, we established that relationships are other person centred as we looked at how the Trinity relates to each other. Broughton-Knox's book 'The Everlasting God' was an enormous help for this section.
Secondly, we saw that work is sharing God's good gifts to promote communities that care for each other.

Work then became another opportunity for expressing our relationship. Work is an other person centred activity. Our work is an opportunity to contribute to society. There is not the sphere of our lives called relationships and another called work, they overlap and interlock with each other - we can't compartmentalise these two big topics.

Marriage and the Christian life

2008-04-06T17:03:00.004+10:00

Marriage is about leaving and cleaving. As Gen 2:24 says...
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

We leave behind our previous family unit and be united in one flesh to our spouse. Paul reveals in Eph 5 that this passage was ultimately talking about Christ and the church.
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

As Christians we are part of the church, we are betrothed to Christ and await his return as the groom awaits his loving bride to come down the altar. But, I wonder whether this idea of being 'married' to Christ, that is cleaving to him, can also translate to the leaving part of the marriage idea. What is that we leave behind? Jesus' reassuring words to Peter when he wonders who then can be saved in Mk 10 say,
I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters of mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in the present age and in the age to come, eternal life.

For some, the calling of the gospel will mean leaving behind some family and cleaving to Christ.

For others it is leaving behind the pursuit of wealth (as the previous bit in Mk 10 says to the rich young ruler) and cleaving to Christ.

For others it is leaving behind promising careers and cleaving to Christ.

For others it is leaving behind destructive lifestyles and cleaving to Christ.

For others it is leaving behind unfulfilled sporting dreams and cleaving to Christ.

This profound mystery of being 'one flesh' with Christ incorporates both leaving and cleaving. It is a verse for all Christians not just the married ones. And just like marriage relationships have an exclusive nature so it is with Christ, we are to remain faithful to him and not commit adultery.

I'm sure there is more that could be said about this typological relationship between Christ and the Church and marriage and singleness. Over to you......

Daylight Savings

2008-04-06T06:57:00.004+10:00

What better way to spend my extra hour then to have a whinge about an extra hour.....

I am almost sure that Daylight Savings was not an issue in the Garden of Eden. God did not create us to mess around with time. I implore all of us to write to the Government to stop this great and grievous sin!

OK that may not work, here is another suggestion. Children should be programmed like my mobile phone - to automatically change with daylight savings.

Your choice, either is fine with me.......

Does ALL Scripture points to Christ???

2008-04-05T08:03:00.002+11:00

I have been having a discussion with a friend about Luke 24 & John 5 about whether we can truly say that these popular passages are actually a mandate to take every passage of Scripture to Christ. There aren't many, if any, commentaries that actually see these passages saying that all Scripture points to Christ. It has been an interesting discussion! I have grown up thinking that to do Biblical Theology correctly passages need to be applied to Christ before being applied to us - however is this the case?

I have been encouraged to think about 2Tim 2:16-17 which says:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

The Scriptures that Paul is referring to is the OT. Paul thought it could be applied directly to us.

What are your thoughts? Can we apply the OT directly to us?

Fooled...

2008-04-02T07:31:00.002+11:00

Thanks to Luke for pointing out that to me that the article that got under my skin was an April Fool Joke....got me and got me good!!!

DOH!

Getting under my skin.......

2008-04-01T13:57:00.002+11:00

John Sandeman's article on sydneyanglicans.net has got under my skin! You can read it here - http://http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/indepth/articles/our_april_column/

I believe he is trying to get us to see a blind spot in our community amongst the rich - and I agree that this is a blind spot and yes the rich are hard to reach, but he should have stopped at that point!

He goes onto to make two massive understatements in my view about university ministry and private schools ministry.

Firstly, this is what he says about universities:
“Charles Simeon is a great example, a founder of the evangelical movement,” says one desperate parish nominator. “He did not just concentrate on visiting the poor and obscure villages. He also preached to the University as well. I wish we could get someone to do that, I am sure if someone tried we could plant a small church near one of the campuses”.

John, we are doing this!!! Planting churches alongside the great work of AFES ministry in universities is a strategy that has been going on for some years now. Think about Crossroads church in Canberra (linked with ANU), Hunter Bible Church in Newcaste (linked with Newcastle Uni), Matthias (linked with UNSW), Barnies at Broadway (and its historic link with Uni of Syd), Cumberland Unichurch (linked with Lidcombe campus of Uni of Syd). And this is just in Sydney and off the top of my head but it is a pattern that is repeated across the nation.

Secondly, he then moves onto private schools:
Here’s an idea: why don’t we start a youth ministry especially targeting the private schools? Too radical you say. But I am a dreamer.

John, we are doing this!! Crusaders ministry has been around for at least 70 years. It has significant ministry in a lot of private schools. Your not a dreamer, but you could try being a researcher! What do you want the diocese to do John? It seems that stuff is happening

As I said, he got under my skin..........

The sheer audacity of Jesus! I mean, really, hasn't he read funeral etiquette 101?

2008-02-25T22:18:00.004+11:00

I was reading through Mk 5 today and every time I read it I am struck by the way in which Jesus conducts himself at the funeral of Jairus' daughter. She is dead, the narrative makes it crystal clear....
35 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.

People had begun to mourn for her
38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

But then in walks Jesus,
39 And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why are you making a commotion and weeping?

I'm sorry Jesus, it is natural to weep and have a bit of commotion at a FUNERAL!
The child is not dead but sleeping." 40 And they laughed at him.

Not sure if I would laugh or be outraged by this outrageous comment!
But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise." 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.

This incident is the climax of events that begins in 4:35 with Jesus' demonstrating his authority firstly over nature, seconldy over the supernatural in the curing of the many demons and finally here over death. It is no wonder that the question that reverberates through this part is the question -WHO IS JESUS? His actions around this dead girl are mind boggling....it is certainly not good funeral etiquette! A full revelation of his identity is not until ch8, but we the reader have already glimpsed his identity from the opening verse and his baptism.

Giving up the drink .........

2008-02-25T21:51:00.004+11:00

'Hi my name is Dave and it has been 6months since my last soft drink.'

It's true! On the 1st September 2007 I gave up drinking soft drink and I have not had one since. It started out as something to keep healthy and now I can't go back. Initially, It was a real battle and now temptations come in intermittently, especially when I'm tired and really want a Coke hit.

There is a similarity between giving up the 'drink' and sin. We as Christians have given up or to use Romans language, 'died' to sin. However, it is a constant battle to stay sober from sin. Temptation hits us when we are tired and frustrated and really want a hit of good old sin. However, it is in these times that we can recall Tit 2:6,

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

The word 'self-control' is about thinking sensibly, about being wise and thinking who we are in Christ before 'losing control'. It sounds easy but we all know that giving up sin is a lifelong struggle and has more allure than a can of coke (even with their powerful marketing campaigns! Yes, i am aware that it is the real thing!). Combating this allure is to remember that sin has been overcome as 1Jn 2:14 says,

I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

I will decide ... OK! Got it! Good...

2008-02-25T10:19:00.004+11:00

The censorship issue over games is on the cards at the moment. I was reading an article about it, see this link - http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/22/1203467345267.html. Apparently the gaming industry opinion on censorship is:

'The games industry has long argued that the censorship regime is unnecessarily draconian and prevents adults from making their own decisions as to the type of content they consume.'

Ah, there it is, the nugget in the middle, we are being prevented from 'making our own decisions'! I always new I was being held back by those 'draconian' bureaucrats! Get off my back would you!

This is just another example of people not wanting to be told what to do whether it is about gaming, sex, abortion or God, etc.. For who decides what is 'good' for us? Surely it is me, did you hear me, ME! The technical word for it is voluntarism. It represents peoples inner longing to be in control and if someone else invades my personal decision making process then WATCH OUT!

It is just as obvious when talking to people about Jesus being their King. Woh! Slow down there cowboy! Sure he may have died on the cross and rose again but who said anything about him being King of my life? Living with Jesus as King (he demonstrated his kingship by dying and rising again)means obeying Him and submitting to what he says is good for us, it means He is intimately involved in your decision making - in fact, decisions should be about honouring Jesus as King. I know that I want to obey God, who created us, because surely he would know what the 'good' is- not my sin stained desires.

Understanding the times - doubt

2008-02-13T21:21:00.003+11:00

To grab hold of and understand a biblical understanding of 'eschatology' is an enormously worthwhile exercise for Christians. The arrival and life of Jesus was an event that has no parallel in all of earth's history. It was unique in that the divine 'incarnated' himself to become flesh but also in that Jesus rose from the dead. This resurrection is described as the firstfruits of many in 1Cor15. Romans describes us as being united to Christ in his resurrection by faith. So, this means that we can say that we are NOW with Christ in heaven BUT our experience tells us that us that we do NOT YET know that this is not the case as we live in our earthly bodies struggling with sin. This helps us to understand the times we live in! Helps us to understand why we can say with Paul that we are dead to sin and also be exhorted to not let sin reign in our mortal bodies (Rom. 6).

This is particularly helpful in thinking about the issue of 'doubt'. Doubt is a common Christian experience and while there are many books that offer help there is little theological work done in understanding it. There is a tension that arises from our justification as based in our union with Christ and our fallen human nature. The tension is eased as we discover an 'eschatological' framework for understanding sin from Romans 6 (as seen above). It is from this perspective that we see doubt as a conflict between our justification and our sanctification. Doubt is the double mindedness; it is having a foot in ‘both-camps’, one in Christ and one in Adam. Having understood this we can avoid two theological errors of not taking doubt seriously enough or taking it too seriously. Not only does it help with these pastoral questions but this perspective aids in understanding the many Scriptural references to doubt that occur in the New Testament.

It is this divided-heart that underpins all the Scriptural references to doubt. James 4: 8 shows the double-mindedness of doubt. ‘Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded’ (James 4:8). You can see the internal division of a person when the resurrected Jesus confronts them. ‘And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts’” (Luke 24:38). You can see the divided heart so torn by its options that it cannot make up its mind. “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him (Mark 11:23).” You can see the double-mindedness of doubt in peoples’ reservations: ‘And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted’ (Matthew 28:17).

I haven't fleshed out some of the pastoral implications of this but the groundwork and framework for thinking about doubt has been laid and hopefully in the future I can post something fleshing out some more implications - but at the very least we can say that doubt is a common Christian experience.

The Kingdom of God in Mk1:15

2008-01-31T12:13:00.000+11:00

'The time has come', said Jesus. 'The kingdom of God is near.' (NIV) There has been much discussion about this verse and whether the kingdom arrives with Jesus or only at his death; the focus seems to always fall on time. I was reading 'Divine Government' by R.T. France and he puts it well (that is I agree with him and he says it better than I ever could!).....

But in so far as the debate has focused specifically on the kingship of God, it has too often proceeded on the basis of of the misconception we considered above, that the kingdom must refer to a particular situation or event within a chronological scheme. But when it is recognised that the NT is not talking about a thing called the kingdom, but about God reigning, the whole question loses its focus [...] The main point of Mark 1.15 is not the precise timescale, but the fact that it is in the coming of Jesus that we are to see God's revolution taking place. Indeed, it is in the Jesus that we are to see God coming as King.

Jumping on Jesus

2008-01-13T21:01:00.000+11:00

Do we in Sydney have a problem? Has our preaching on the Old Testament left behind the original setting, culture, geography and meaning for those to whom it was originally written? Are we too quick to 'jump to Jesus'? It could mean that our Old Testament preaching in Sydney becomes all too predictable and boring! I totally agree that 'all Scripture points to Jesus', but what does this mean? Is it every sentence, every paragraph, every chapter or just the vibe of the thing? (The answer is another post altogether!) The question is one of methodology or hermeneutics (that is how we interpret the Bible). Biblical Theology is a hermeneutical tool and the man leading this charge is Graeme Goldsworthy. I was fortunate enough to do Hermeunitics subject with Graeme at Moore College and when asked whether he would go to Jesus for every sermon on say a series on Exodus he said, 'No'. However Graeme was quick to say that too often his work has led people to go too quickly to Jesus' death and resurrection or to focus on his work, not his person. The Scriptures testify to ALL of Jesus' life. I'm not saying that all preachers jump all over Jesus too quickly this but there are certainly some people out there who believe we have a slavish desire to go to Jesus and fail to explain the text in a rich and meaningful way - and I think they have a point! What do you think.....

Real Tough Blokes

2008-01-01T09:37:00.000+11:00

A strange thing happened to me the other week - I was taking my kids to the swings when a man walked by the his dog (a beagle). The dog came straight up to my 16mth old daughter and took the biscuit out of her hand! I was shocked, the man was very embarrassed and chastised his dog verbally. Later that day I was cleaning the car when the same man arrived in his car carrying a plastic shopping bag and apologised and said sorry for his dog's actions and gave us a whole bag of chocolates! But how does this relate to 'tough blokes'? I reckon it takes a huge effort to admit your fault and say sorry because it is a hit to your pride. Especially blokes! So, this man, who never told me his name, is a real tough bloke in my mind. He was able to swallow his pride and admit his mistake - I wonder whether he has done that before God yet? Yes, it is a hit to our pride to admit that we no longer run our lives and willingly submit to the will of God. It also makes me think of the cost of forgiveness for Jesus, chocolates for one hiccup, death for the other ......

Toy Story

2008-01-01T09:21:00.000+11:00

A big part of my life at the moment is my 2yr old's obsession with the movie Toy Story (1 & 2). There is a moment in Toy Story 2 where Buzz asks Woody the philosophical question of the movie and it has to do with purpose - where Toys created to be played with or to live in a museum? Woody seems to have lost the plot thinking that the museum is his destiny but eventually sees the light. It reminded me of a conversation I had with an agnostic who has been coming to church lately. He has no problems with us being sinners, in fact he thinks that we were created sinners and therefore can lay the blame for all his wrong doings on God because that is how we were created! But this is not true - Gen 1 & 2 clearly show that sin was not part of the the original creation: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Gen 1:31). For how could God declare someting good if it was originally tainted with sin. Our purpose or telos is to be in perfect relationship with God, for this is 'good'. My friend fails to see that Jesus forges this relationship through his person and work and bears the punishment of our rebellion. It seems that the blame game should fall on us not on God.

The Apprentice

2007-12-23T22:08:00.000+11:00

I was thinking about the TV show 'The Apprentice' I was writing a talk today and thought about how 20000 people applied to become the right-hand man for Donald Trump and forge ahead with a successful career. At Christmas time we hear that Jesus is called the LORD (Lk2:11), but very rarely do dwell upon the fact that he is the LORD of our lives. Why not this Christmas ponder the idea that we are 'apprentices' to the real master who promises more than a successful career? It is a promise where you will never hear the words .......'You're fired!'