Proof of Life

This isn't a full manuscript, but you'll get the idea! As usual, go here to get the audio!

Proof of Life

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10

25/02/07

Introduction

One day Jesus was talking to a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus, and He explained to Nicodemus that to be a part of God’s Kingdom, you must be born again. Being part of God’s family isn’t just a change of name or a change of lifestyle; it’s a completely new life that comes from God to you.

As part of that conversation Jesus described the process of how we receive that new life. He said to Nicodemus “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, ^that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Today we are going to be talking about that new life that Jesus was describing to Nicodemus. We are going to explore how we can be sure that we have received it, and how we can help others to discover it.

I want to remind you before we start that this is not just trivia. Jesus went on to say this to Nicodemus: “Whoever believes in me is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.^”

As a Pharisee, Nicodemus already knew that God is going to judge the world on day. Jesus wanted Nicodemus to know that God is going to Judge the world on the basis of what people have done with Jesus. This final Judgement is recorded in Revelation chapter 20. Let’s find out what that will be like:

^11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ^12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ^13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. ^14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ^15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The New Jerusalem

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ^2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ^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. ^4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

So how can we be sure that our names are in the book of life? What can we do to see other people’s names entered into that book, so they too can look forward to Christ’s return instead of fearing it?

(o/h)

Open in Prayer

So what can we learn about this new life that God wants to give us?

(o/h)

^4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, ^

1. New Life starts with a Divine Choice (v 4)

• A choice which is a mystery

• A choice which we may influence through prayer

• A choice which we may enact through witness and response

^5 because our gospel came to you…you welcomed the message

2. New Life is communicated through the message of the Gospel (v 5a, 6b)

our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction…You welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

3. New Life is received through the illumination of the Holy Spirit (v 5-6)

You know how we lived among you for your sake. ^You became imitators of us and of the Lord… you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, ^and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath

4. New Life is demonstrated by a transformed lifestyle

And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. ^The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, ^for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how…

5. New Life results in visible witness

Conclusion

Receiving New Life does not depend on us but on God. Some people think that they are not cut out to be a Christian. Some people don’t think that God is interested in people like them. Some people think that one day they might be like that, but for now they want to “have fun” and do what they want to do. Let me tell you: If God makes you new, all of that stuff just goes out the window. It doesn’t matter what you were like before. It doesn’t matter what you thought or what you did – you will receive a new life that is better than you could have possibly imagined. You will know that you are loved. You will know that you have a future.

Ephesians 2 describes it like this: once we were all just doing what we thought was best for ourselves, but really we were just making a mess of our lives. We were destined for hell. But God suddenly opened our eyes and gave us new life through Jesus.

On Friday night several of the athletes shared about the things that they used to chase after in life, and how messed up their lives were as a result. It doesn’t matter what your “idol” is – girls, boys, drugs, booze, sport, school, work, whatever. None of that will give you the life you really want, the life God created you to have. The life that is destined for heaven not for hell.

If you are listening to this today and you know deep inside that it is true, here’s what you need to do. You need to realise that God is speaking to you. To you it’s not just another boring sermon. You know that God wants you. You know that He wants you to give up all the stuff that you have been chasing after. You know that Jesus died for your sins, and now you need to give Him control of your life.

Sermon - Discovering the Power of Prayer

Discovering the Power of Prayer

1 Thessalonians 1:1-3

18/02/07

Story

George is doing some paperwork in the dining room when he has some interesting encounters with his children.

Steve, his 14 year-old son, walks in from school and dumps some homework on the table. “I need some help with this” he mutters, and wanders off to play Playstation.

An hour or so later Joy, his 16 year-old daughter, comes in after spending time at the shops with her friends. “I hate my skin and my body shape”, she says. “Thanks for the crummy genetics dad” she grumbles as she slips on her headphones.

Just before dinner his 19 year-old son Mark, comes in shuffling some papers of his own. “I’m getting a loan for that Ford GT. I need you to go guarantor for me.” With that he places the papers on top of Georges paperwork and strolls off to the kitchen to find something to eat.

How do you reckon George is feeling right now?

Steve said he wanted help, but he is not taking any responsibility himself. He wants George to make his life easier. What he needs is for George to help him learn.

Joy is feeling low, and she takes it out on her dad. She wants to stew in her misery, and if her dad wants to help he should buy her some nicer clothes or beauty treatments. What she needs is comfort, someone to listen to her insecurities and fears and to care about that. She needs gentle instruction about true beauty, and how inner beauty finds its way to the outside too.

Mark thinks that he needs a hot car, and the GT is just the thing. He needs George to sign on to the loan to have any hope of getting that car. What he really needs is guidance. He needs to talk things through with George to make sure that this really is the right decision to make, and to work out how George is going to support him in doing what is wise.

Sometimes you and I relate to God a bit like Steve, Joy and Mark relate to George. We do to our Heavenly Father what they did to their earthly father. All of us can at times be distant, moody and demanding.

That is not the sort of family life that God wants with His children. And even though like Steve, Joy and Mark we don’t realise it, that’s not the sort of family life that we want with God. We were created for something more. We long for something more.

Prayer

Lord, help us to learn afresh today how we can relate to you as our Heavenly Father. Help us to hear You speaking to us today. Help us to have open hearts and minds to receive what it is that you tell us. Amen.

Recap

Those who were here last week will know that we are starting a series in the book of 1 Thessalonians. Last week we explored the story of the book and we discovered that it really is a good news story. In many of the New Testament letters we hear of problems occurring within churches which need urgent attention. This letter to the Thessalonians is mainly a letter of thanksgiving and celebration, because things have been going so well in the church. The Christians are sticking by the truth of the Gospel, and their lives demonstrate that God is at work within them.

As we approach the text we can ask the question: “What was it that helped this church to be so effective in its life and ministry? What can we imitate today?” We started answering that question last week, but there is more to come. So with that in mind, let’s start reading.

1 Thessalonians 1:1-2

^ Paul, Silas ^and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace to you. ^

^2 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.

^3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The first thing we discover in reading the letter to the Thessalonians that gives us a clue to their vitality is this: they were people who were prayed for.

Paul would later write this encouragement to the Christians in Colossae: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Col. 4:2). This is the lifestyle that he models. This is the lifestyle that the Thessalonian Christians imitated. In verses 5 & 6 we read: “You know how we lived among you for your sake. ^You became imitators of us and of the Lord”

Knowing that the Thessalonians copied the example of Paul and the example of Jesus, we can deduce that like Paul and like Jesus they became people of prayer themselves. In the closing stages of his letter, Paul asks that they continue to imitate him in this respect. He asks them to pray continually, and to pray specifically for Paul and his companions just as they are prayed for by Paul and his companions. You get the feeling that Paul believes prayer is important!

So today we are going to talk a little bit about prayer, and we are going to see if this is an area of our lives that God is going to grow us in this week.

What is Prayer?

Let’s first say what prayer is not! Read Matthew 6:5-8 with me:

^5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ^6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ^7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ^8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

• Prayer is not about impressing People

A lot of people struggle to pray in public for exactly this reason – we keep thinking about what others think of us. There are insecurities that bubble up and stop us from praying freely. There’s pride which causes us to pray to the people instead of to God. We pray or don’t pray because of what we want others to think or not think about us. That’s not the prayer that God is interested in.

• Prayer is not about impressing God

Sometimes people struggle to comprehend a God who genuinely loves us and is interested and involved with us. Like hopeful pagans, they think that there is a formula to prayer that will succeed in getting their wishes granted. In most world religions there are ceremonies or processes that need to be completed before someone can pray to their gods. In a sense they need to earn the right to be heard, the right to receive the attention of their god. That’s not Christian prayer. Jesus says that God is already interested in you and aware of your needs.

• Prayer is about drawing near to God

Remember our study in Hebrews 10 a few weeks back? We described how Jesus has done everything required to bring us into the presence of God, to make us a part of God’s family. Listen again to Hebrews 10:22 “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith”.
That is the essence of prayer – drawing near to God in faith and sincerity.

I came across a great little article on prayer from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. This is part of what it said:

Prayer is the way to renewal and spiritual life. Prayer is aliveness to God. Prayer is strength, refreshment, and joy. Through the grace of God and our disciplined efforts prayer lifts us up from our isolation to a conscious, loving communion with God in which everything is experienced in a new light. Prayer becomes a personal dialogue with God, a spiritual breathing of the soul, a foretaste of the bliss of God's kingdom.

Holy Pascha, April 14, 1985 - Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Prayer is conversation with God. It is speaking and listening. It is growing in intimacy. It is growing in confidence and depth.

• Prayer is about drawing near to others

The Apostle Paul longed to be there for the Thessalonians to support them, but he couldn’t draw near to them in person. However he could draw near to them in prayer. Prayer can never just be about ourselves, it must include others. In fact Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 2:1 “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone”

Paul demonstrates this in how he prays for the Thessalonians. He thanks God for them, he remembers them and their needs. So while physically distant he is spiritually standing side by side with them.

How should we pray?

Let me read to you a little more from the article from the Greek Orthodox Church that I mentioned earlier…

How is one to pray? Only the Holy Spirit can guide us to pray as we should. Just as a child learns to walk by walking, one can best learn to pray by praying, trusting in the help of God. Put your whole soul into your prayer. Think about the meaning of every word you pray. Make it your own personal prayer. Be persistent in prayer. Do not yield to carelessness or neglect. Strengthen your prayer through a lively faith in the Lord, a spirit of forgiveness toward others, and genuine Christian living.

As we pray deeply within our hearts we grow in prayer. By the grace of God we suddenly catch a glimpse of the miracle of the presence of the Holy Spirit working within us. At first it is only a spark but later it becomes a flame freeing and energizing our whole being, provided we do nothing to grieve the Holy Spirit; and if we do sin we repent of our sin immediately and ask for God's forgiveness. To experience the fire of God's holy love, to give it space within us to do its cleansing and healing work as a breath of the Holy Spirit, and to use it as light and power for daily living -- such are the goals as well as the fruits of true prayer.

What I love about this article is that it summarises a large number of Scriptures which talk about prayer, and it reflects the experiences of Christians through the ages.

I am going to give you some practical suggestions to develop your prayer life. Remember that these are not formulas to help you impress God or other people by how well you pray. They are tools that you can use to help you develop a lifestyle of prayer.

· Develop good routines

The first part of a good prayer routine involves setting a time and place. Think about the best time and place for you to be unhurried, uninterrupted and clear-minded.

The second part involves a routine of content. Include time for reading your Bible, as prayer involves listening and not just speaking. Use an outline such as ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication) to help you develop a well-rounded prayer focus.

The third part involves a routine of response. Learn to respond prayerfully to all the situations of life. Talk to God about what you are doing, how you are feeling, what you need help with or whatever. Eventually it will become second nature to you. Our responses to circumstances are learned behaviours. That’s why psychologists use therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to train people to respond better to things that are going on in their lives. Christians are in training too. We are not training to sort out a few problems in our lives or to be more successful. We are training to live in close relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. I have a saying which goes like this: “Circumstances are not God; God is God”. Too often I see and hear people (including myself) live as though they do not have a choice about what they do and how they feel. We do have a choice, and we make that choice in how we respond to the circumstances of life. When we respond prayerfully, we keep God on His throne in our lives.

• Surround yourself with reminders

Put verses like Colossians 4:2 up on posters around the house. Put a prayer journal by your bed. Do cross-stitch or whatever else you can to have reminders around you to jog your mind to be drawing close to God in whatever you are doing through the day. Listen to Christian songs, radio, messages or the Bible on CD. Surround yourself with things that will stimulate you to be moving through your day in conversation with God.

• Recruit a support team

We’ve talked a fair bit in recent weeks about the importance of the church. The Thessalonians learned prayer by imitating Paul and Paul’s companions. We learn prayer by doing it with each other. Get yourself into a group that prays. Commit to pray for someone else as a prayer partner. Ask someone to check on you sometimes to see how you are going in prayer. Learn to talk about what you are praying about and share answers to prayer.

Conclusion

There’s a church in South Australia called Paradise Community Church. It is one of Australia’s largest churches, with a membership of around 6,000 people. It is the church that launched Guy Sebastian on the road to being an Australian Idol.

Some of you may have heard of Andrew Evans, founder of the Family First political party. In 1970 he was invited to be the pastor of an Assemblies of God church in Paradise, Adelaide, which at that time had an attendance of around 200 people. Prior to that he had been working as a missionary in the East Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, which is not far from the areas I travelled through on my visit last year. Andrew relates how hard he tried to grow the Paradise church when he began pastoring, but nothing seemed to be working. They tried doorknocking and expensive crusades and other strategies, but the church was actually shrinking. One time he was meeting with a husband of a couple who were struggling through marital problems. Andrew had invested hours in counselling to little apparent effect. The husband wanted direction, but Andrew felt lost – he didn’t know what to say.

It’s funny how God sometimes brings us to the point of hopelessness so that we can learn to depend on Him. The Apostle Paul couldn’t do a thing for the Thessalonians except pray for them. Andrew Evans was feeling like a failure as a pastor – he couldn’t grow the church and he could solve people’s problems. Theologically, we know that this is always true, but sometimes we place too much importance in our own efforts.

Andrew agreed to help the man if he would agree to meet every Saturday for prayer and fasting. They prayed for the marriage, for the church, for the community and so on. After 8 months this grew to include other members of the congregation. They had 31 people who set aside one day a month each for prayer and fasting – every day of each month was covered. By 1992 there were 300 people who were on the intercessor’s group – people who give one day a week to prayer and fasting. Andrew observed that whenever members are slack in their commitment to prayer, it is felt in the church.

Adapted from an article in Renewal Journal

(c) Renewal Journal #2 (93:2), Brisbane, Australia, pp. 37.

http://www.renewaljournal.com/

A lot of people look at churches like Paradise Community Church, and wish they had the slick worship teams, expensive equipment, great facilities and programmes and money. They think that these things are what make the church grow. Sure, they all play a part. But methods themselves are useless without spiritual power to make them effective. Even things that might look successful on the outside aren’t necessarily that successful in God’s eyes. If we genuinely want God to change lives and save souls, we must be serious about prayer.

If you want to be challenged more about the importance of prayer, read this book – Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala.

Disillusioned with Church

The first part of this week was crammed with some of the very best and worst of what the local church can be like. If you have been involved with church family life anywhere you will probably know how wonderful it can be and how much it reeks sometimes. Sometimes God feels powerfully present, and sometimes completely absent.

I read a short article from LeadershipJournal.net which was an interview with Sarah Cunningham, author of Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation. I really liked this quote from the interview: "I think disillusionment is a timeless issue just like suffering. Disillusionment is a response to suffering: "This is not matching up to what I expected, so what do I do?" The word disillusionment comes from "dis" which means "away from" and "illusionment" which means a "false impression of reality." We need to move away from our false impressions of religion, and move toward the ideals of the faith and true followership, which involves day-to-day community and life-on-life witness."

Sometimes the stuff we get caught up in as local churches are a false impression of what church should actually be all about. We have false impressions about one another and even about God. The church is not what it ought to be.

A local church is a community of people who are drawing closer to God and to each other in ways that produce transformed lives and vibrant witness. This sounds simple, but the truth is that relationships are messy! It's easier to run a church than to pastor people (for people like me anyway - see Haphazardly Intent by Eugene Peterson). It's easier to judge someone than to go talk to them with an open heart and mind. It's easier to withdraw than communicate. It's easier to do something than to pray. It seems that people like me find functional things easier than relational things, and from my experience it seems that the Church is full of people like me!

The heart of the gospel though is that it is all about relationships. It's about where we stand in relationship to God and what He has done to restore us to loving, eternal community with Himself and His people.

All this is a major reason why we are focussing a lot of our energies on our small groups this year. More on that some other time!

Series in 1 Thessalonians kicks off

Last Sunday we began a series in the book of 1 Thessalonians. To really appreciate and benefit from any book of the bible you need to get to know its story, so on Sunday we explored the story of the Thessalonian Church. I didn't write a full manuscript for this one, and there was a glitch recording the audio, so this summary will have to do!

Basically, the story can be found by reading Acts 17-18 and the first 3 chapters of 1 Thessalonians, but let me sum it up like this:

• Paul & his companions rock in to Thessalonica & start to teach about Jesus in the synagogue.
• Quite a few Jews and God-fearing Greeks (with special mention to some prominent women of the city) put their faith in Jesus
• Other Jews were very hostile, and organised a riot! Paul and his friends were smuggled out of the city during the night. Some of the new Christians were put on good behaviour bonds.
• Paul and his friends move on, but Paul's heart is anguished over the fate of the young church in Thessalonica. He longs to visit and find out how they are going. While he is in Athens, he sends Timothy to check on the church and support them.
  
• Timothy and Silas catch up with Paul in Corinth, and Timothy is able to relate to Paul how well the church in Thessalonica has been doing, which is a huge encouragement and relief to Paul. Paul writes a letter to express his thankfulness and to address a few issues that had arisen in the church.

I really enjoy the way that Paul reveals his heart for the Christians who have believed in Jesus through his message. Paul has such a tenderness and concern for his spiritual children. Sometimes that is expressed positively, like in 1 Thessalonians. At other times it is seen in how strongly he expresses himself, such as in several of his comments to the Galatians and Corinthians for example. He wrote so strongly because he cared so deeply for them, and was alarmed and anguished by reports he received about them. But on this occasion, there does not seem to be any cause for anguish or alarm, but for thanksgiving and joy.

How was it that these baby Christians were able to flourish in a place of such hostility, when Paul was not there to support, strengthen and guide them? Why was their conduct so exemplary? Why had they not become confused and misled about the gospel, as Christians in other places had from time to time?

The letter itself makes it clear: Their hearts were receptive to the truth of the Gospel. They did not receive it as the words of men, but of God. They took it deeply into their hearts, and it transformed their lives (see Rom 12:1-2). This was evidence of the fact that God had chosen them for salvation.

At the beginning of a series into a book of the Bible, it is a good reminder to us of the power of the gospel (See Rom. 1:16, Matt 7:24-27). What is our attitude toward hearing and receiving the words of God? How do you listen to sermons? How do you read your bible? What other ideas does the bible sit alongside in your mind (ideas from friends, common sense, talk shows, counsellors, magazines...)? Does it have unique authority in your life? Does it have permission to address every area of your life?

Paul wrote in chapter 1:5 "our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction."

The second aspect of that challenge is this: "How are we giving people around us to experience this conviction through the Holy Spirit in their own lives? How are we communicating the message of the gospel? The fact that God had chosen these Thessalonians to be a part of His family was demonstrated in how they responded to the message Paul brought to them. As Romans 10 states, how can people believe if they have not heard, and how can they hear unless someone preaches to them?

Here's a quote I got from the SermonCentral Newsletter today:
One day a lady criticized D. L. Moody for his methods of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord. Moody’s reply was "I agree with you. I don’t like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?" The lady replied, "I don’t do it." Moody retorted, "Then I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it."

SOURCE: James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 178.

Hmmmm.

The stuff that this post addresses is not rocket science, just very basic reminders about core principles of the Christian faith. What matters is the individual leading of the Holy Spirit - that deep conviction - that causes us to do something about it.

I wonder what that will look like for you today? Will it be something to do with how you receive God's Word, or will it be something to do with how you share it?

Book Club Initiation

Last night was my first taste of being in a book club. I'd read the book (Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima, by Stephen Walker) and really enjoyed it. It brings up a huge number of topics to talk about, and everyone in the group found it really opened their eyes to the incredible history surrounding the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. If you are interested in history, or physics, or war, or ethics, or aviation, human drama and even a little bit of romance; you will enjoy this book. The ethical issues that it raises are particularly interesting, and it was fun to toss these around a little bit in the group last night. These ethical issues are very relevant for us today when considering conflict around the world and even in our own personal lives. Particularly our tendency to dehumanise those we are in conflict with - we don't think of them as people but as savages or fanatics or whatever. And because we don't think of them as people with feelings and families and histories and hopes...people just like us... we are excused in treating them in ways that we ourselves would not wish to be treated. We forget the words of Jesus that are described as the Golden Rule - treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. The great tragedy of war is that it is an arena in which living by that rule is almost impossible. In fact the event of war is brought about by the forsaking of that rule by those in power. "Forward he cried, from the rear, and the front ranks died. The Generals sat, and the lines on the map moved from side to side." - from "Us & Them" by Pink Floyd.

I felt that Stephen Walker did a good job of reflecting the moral and strategic complexity of the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima (and later, Nagasaki) without seeking to represent his own personal views too strongly or even go down the line of a debate on the issues. I had only a slight grizzle, which was that I felt that the characters tended to be identified a little too strongly with their particular idiosyncrasies (like the repeated mention of General Groves' weight and love of chocolate), almost to the point of caricature. I felt that maybe that didn't represent those people quite fairly, but as Gary pointed out last night, we tend to remember people by their idiosyncrasies, so I guess that it was only natural for this to be reflected in the book.

To sum up, a very good read. 4 stars.

Building God a Temple - Haggai chapter 1

Building God a Temple
Haggai 1:1-15
4/02/07

Introduction –
Does the concept of a Temple have any significance for us today? Do we care about what the temple was and what used to happen there? What relevance could it have for us? That's what we are going to discover!

What is the Temple?

The Temple in Jerusalem

• Brief recap from last week
• Key Idea: The Shekinah glory of God dwelt in the Most Holy Place. The Temple was God's House.
  

The Coming of Jesus – Jesus Himself took over the role of the Temple – He was God’s physical presence with His people.

John 2:19-22 – straight after Jesus has cleansed the temple area.

^18 Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” ^19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” ^20 The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ^21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ^22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

The Coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost – the Temple is now the Church (corporately and individually).

Ephesians 2:19-22

^19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, ^20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ^21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ^22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

^19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ^20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

(So the Bible depicts the Church as God’s Temple, and also our own bodies)

This is a key concept for us to understand: The tangible presence of God with humanity has moved from being resident in the Temple in Jerusalem, to being in the Person of Jesus Christ, to being in the People of Jesus Christ - the Church. The Church is God's Temple.

This is important:

• To understand our relationship with God and each other (hence Hebrews 10:19-25)
• To understand our role as God’s people
• To understand and apply the Bible to our lives
  

Case Study – Haggai 1:1-15 (read)

The Message for the Israelites Back Then

“Give careful thought to your ways. You have neglected my temple and have laboured for your own satisfaction. I have frustrated all your efforts in order to show My displeasure, so now come and labour for My house and My glory as you ought to.”

Remember the significance of the Temple – without the Temple the Shekinah glory of God had no place to reside in Israel. Effectively, God had no place in the nation.

But is this rebuke and command from God fair? I want just for a few minutes to put ourselves in the shoes of the Israelites who God is speaking to, to know a bit more about their circumstances and how they might feel about what God is saying to them through the prophet Haggai.

The Jews had been allowed to return from Exile in Babylon and surrounding areas about 18 years earlier. There were about 50,000 Jews who returned to Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. When they returned, rebuilding the temple was a top priority for them.

I want you to understand how daunting a task this would have been for them. It had taken a full-time work force of 153,600 men 7 years to build the original temple. Some estimates place the value of the gold used in the original temple at 50 billion dollars at today’s prices!

Put yourself in the position of the 50,000 men, women and children who also need to rebuild their own homes and farms, as well as rebuilding all the infrastructure of the nation. You can see how this would be a daunting task. And they could never hope to be able to restore it to it’s former glory – they just didn’t have the resources.

Nevertheless they begin. They clear away the rubble from the temple site and rebuild the altar. Despite their fear of the people around them, they re-establish sacrifices and feast days. For 6 years the work goes on, and the foundation for the new temple building is laid.

But a couple of things happen. Those who remember the former temple are distraught as they realise that what they are building could not compare to the glory of what was destroyed. They become despondent and discouraged. Opposition from the surrounding peoples also increases, with threats made to the Jews and counsellors employed to find ways to stop the Jews from completing their task. Discouragement from within, and opposition from without work together to stop the people from doing what they needed to do in order to glorify God and proclaim Him to the nations. Instead they become a people who have no sense of God’s presence with them.

For 10 years the nation is in this condition. They are spiritually shackled, and as we learn in our passage, they are also frustrated materially. They work for little reward, and life is just all-round frustrating and depressing.

How would you feel if you were in this situation, hearing Haggai’s rebuke?

Imagine being the governor, Zerubbabel. What might he say to God? “Well I did try! I worked hard, I put all my personal resources into it. But all I got in the end was discouragement and opposition. What could I do? The old people kept complaining that what we built wasn’t as good as what used to be there before. The surrounding people kept harassing us and threatening us. What choice did I have but just to let things slide for a while?”

But do you know what Zerubbabel did? He allowed God’s rebuke to stir up his heart to obedience. God worked in him and the rest of the people to renew the work. They wanted God’s presence in their nation. They wanted to experience God’s blessing in their lives once more.

So they start work again. Sure enough what they are doing gets noticed and the Persian officials come to find out what is going on. But God looks after the people, and instead of the Persians calling a stop to the work, as the enemies of the Jews were hoping; the King of the Persians actually told his local officials to pay the expenses for the project, and provide all the priests needed in order to restore temple worship.

So instead of experiencing God’s chastisement, the people start experiencing His provision for them. It didn’t happen though until they heeded His voice and responded in obedience and faith.

The Message for Christians Today

I’m going to ask a series of questions to find out how we should apply the message of this story to our own lives.

1) Do we as Christians have a responsibility to build God a Temple?

(Remember the verses earlier – the temple is God’s Church, every local church and every individual believer that makes up the church. God lives within his people.)

Ephesians 4:11-13

^11 It was he [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ^12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ^13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

2) Have we experienced God’s chastisement because of our failure to be concerned for God’s Temple?

Haggai 1:6

^6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

Types of chastisement:

· Physical – lots of effort, but a lack of results! God is not blessing their efforts, instead He is frustrating them. Would He do this to us?

· Spiritual – same deal! Lots of effort, but little in the way of results. Answers to prayer? Effective witness to the lost? Joy and peace and hope and love and contentment… where are they? Perhaps a lack of fruit in these areas signal God’s chastisement.

Today I speak as a teacher, not a prophet. I do not feel compelled to say “God says I am chastising you!” the way a prophet might. As a teacher I say, “the Bible urges us to ask ourselves this question: “Is God chastising me?””

Are you experiencing the consequences of a lack of concern for God’s Temple? Is there a lack of concern for the church as a local body of believers, or for yourself as someone who God dwells within through His Spirit?

3) What are the things that hold us back from working on God’s Temple?

• Discouragement from Within
  The people became disheartened and lost their zeal for the work. That happens today as well. We become disheartened when we encounter criticism. We become discouraged when we do not feel cared for. We become discouraged when we feel let down. We become discouraged when we doubt the value of our own efforts. We become discouraged when we forget that it is God who works through us, that it does not depend on our resources alone. The best way to counteract discouragement from within is to choose to be an encourager. That was the message of Hebrews 10 last Sunday. Consider how you can be someone who encourages others in their walk with God and their service for Him in building the Church. That encouragement starts with your own commitment to the body of believers.
  
  
• Opposition from Without
  Just as there were enemies outside the Jewish community who wanted to stop them from glorifying God, experiencing His presence and being witness to the nations; so there are enemies who want to frustrate the Church in those endeavours. We need to recognise that Satan and the systems of this world are actively trying to stop us from being the temple that God has designed us to be. If we allow them to, they will stop us. Dealing with spiritual opposition is a big topic for study, but for today we need to mention it and be aware of it. We need to resist the Devil, flee from temptation and pursue a holy lifestyle. Pray for one another, and especially for leaders, because we all need God’s help to stand firm.

• Confusing the external realities with spiritual realities
  Remember the older people who were able to remember the previous temple that stood over 70 years earlier? They were discouraged because they thought the new temple could not match the glory of the old one. They were mistaken. A little later in the book of Haggai God tells Zerubbabel that the glory of the new house would actually be greater! Those people who were discouraged were looking at the external glory – the beautiful architecture, the professional choirs, the opulence of the building and courtyard areas. They forgot that what made the temple glorious was the fact that God’s glory was inside it!
  
  Was it wrong to grieve? No, of course not. But their attachment to the past stopped them from moving forward with faith and hope and joy.
  
  We can just as easily look at the external trappings of our worship life, and get caught up in them. We can focus on the place, the type of teaching, the style of music, the structure of worship, the instruments used, the events and programmes run and so on. What matters is the presence and leading of God!

Conclusion

I hope this study on the Temple and our passage in Haggai has helped you to understand these important topics more fully. I hope that over the last 2 weeks you have come to more fully appreciate the significance of God’s presence within you and within us as a group of believers. I hope that God has challenged you with what it means to be designed for His glory, just as the Temple was designed to bring Him glory; for you to be designed to experience His presence, just as the temple was designed to contain His presence. May we see God glorified more in us, and in people who do not yet know Him, so that more people may come to experience His presence in this life and the life to come.

Are you discouraged from within? Are you struggling with opposition from without? Have you confused external realities with spiritual ones? May God work in you to guide you to respond in obedience and faith today.

I'm now the parent of a school-kid!

This morning Tim wore his school uniform for the first time. It's amazing how grown up a kid looks just by donning school clothes. We wandered over to Kindy together and settled Tim in - he was looking pretty serious as he learnt about where to put his lunch and hang his bag and so on, but he was also very excited to see his friends there. Some of the mums came to our house after dropping their kids of - sort of a support group!

It's such an interesting feeling having your child start school. I hope he has a great time, I hope he feels comfortable and enjoys learning and playing. I hope he gels with the teachers well. I hope nothing happens to bruise his confidence. I also hope he represents his family well!

I reckon one of the biggest challenges in parenting are the stages of letting go. Of not taking his teacher aside to explain how Tim learns and listens best, and what sort of correction he responds to best, and what he enjoys and what he struggles with....; but just to let them find their own way together. The natural protectiveness of the parent says "I need to be in control to keep my child safe. No-one else can do it like I can." When our kids are first in our care, that works fairly well. But from infancy on begins a process of gradually relinquishing that control. Failure to do so just stunts our children's and our own growth.

It's hard at times, but we just need to trust. Trust the babysitter (grandparents or whoever), trust the daycare staff, trust the teacher, trust the other kid's parents, trust the sports coach, the friends, the boy/girlfriend, the husband/wife, the in-laws... and of course, trust our children themselves.

Most of all, for those of us who are Christians, we trust God. After all, God loves our children even more than we are capable of. Hard to believe, but it's true!

Psalm 139 is a personal favourite of mine. It reminds us that God has been interested and involved with us even before we were born. He has a plan and a purpose for us, and uses even the dark, lonely and difficult experiences of life to shape us to be all that He intends us to be - if we will allow Him. As parents, we need to give God our blessing to shape our kids, and not try to protect them too much from the things that God will use to shape their character. At the same time, God has given us our role to protect them from things that will harm. It can be tough to discern the balance. My experience in youth ministry affirms that it just gets tougher as kids get older. As a father, my hope is that I will be a person who trusts, but also a person who knows when my kids need my protection.

Newsletters Galore!

I've added a link to the "Resources I find helpful" list, pointing to the subscription page for the Christianity Today newsletters. There's a whole bunch of free newsletters that you can subscribe to, which are well worth checking out. I get a lot out of the ones I receive each week, which are: Building Church Leaders, Leadership Weekly, Christian History Connection, CTWeekly, Today's Christian Weekly and Church Laughs. There's a whole stack of others targetted at particular audiences & themes, but I find that these give me a good variety of insight and info without getting overloaded.

Some of the newsletters keep me up to date with what's going on around the world, others challenge me as a Christian and as a Christian leader. They all provide me with good material for illustrations etc.

I'll let you know about some other resources I use bit-by-bit as the blog continues! I think it's so vital to be receiving good input from a variety of different sources and streams of Christianity - I know it's been valuable for me.

Drawing Near to God and Each Other

This sermon is basically Hebrews 10:19-25 unwrapped for people who aren't familiar with Jewish Temple worship. Some of the phrases in the passage really come to life when you know a little more about what was in the minds of the people who originally read this letter. I didn't write a manuscript for this one, just some notes to jog my memory. If you are interested, check out the audio version at: http://members.westnet.com.au/m.c.birch/

It's interesting how a lot of our worship material (lyrics in songs etc.) is drawn from the Old Testament, and relates a lot to the temple and how worship was conducted there. Knowing a bit more about that stuff can add some insights into how we worship today.

Australia Day Honours

Carolyn and the kids are in Perth for a family wedding, so I'm home alone for a few days... well, I haven't been alone all that much - I went to Merredin yesterday with a friend and his boys, and this morning was the Australia Day Breakfast at our local pool. The shire puts it on every year to thank the volunteers in the community with a free bbq brekkie. Each year the Citizen of the Year is named, based on long-standing voluntary contribution to the community.

I've got to admit that I'm someone who loves recognition. I'd love to win "Citizen of the Year". After all, I do HEAPS of stuff for the community :-). (for those who don't know me there's a bit of tongue-in-cheek there!)

The desire for recognition can be a problem for all of us in vocational ministry or volunteer service. I was chatting to someone recently who has a colleague who always seems to want to hog the credit for stuff - I know I've worked with people like that!

Sometimes in a my situation it is easy to justify that desire with excuses like: "I'm trying to raise the profile of our church", or "It's a good witness".

Some time ago God challenged me with this question: "If I asked you to serve me in total obscurity for your whole life, would you do it?" I realised that God was putting His finger on something dangerous in my heart. Often when I dreamed of the future, the dream had more to do with my success or status than a genuine desire to love and serve.

It's a question that after some self-examination I was able to answer "yes" to, but I know that question is going to have to be asked of me over and over again.

When you serve out of ambition rather than out of love, there is a hypocrisy to it. People get the vibe that you only seem eager to help when you get the credit or attention. You are not serving them, you are serving your ego or agenda through them.

Matthew 6:1-3 is a good heart-check:

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

^2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ^3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ^4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

The point is not to be a secrecy freak, it is care more about serving than about recognition or remembrance of your service. Don't keep score yourself, and don't expect others to. Enjoy and be encouraged by positive feedback, but don't serve just to get that.

That way, when someon else gets honoured as "Citizen of the Year", you will be genuinely happy for them and not wish it was you up there!

Sermon - Choosing a Life of Blessing

Here's my sermon from last Sunday. If you'd rather listen to it, check out my church website instead.

Choosing a Life of Blessing
Deuteronomy 30:11-20

21/01/07

Introduction – the importance of choice

Imagine yourself at a Y-junction – a point in the road where you can veer to the left or to the right, and you need to choose which way your going to go.

There’s a sign post at the junction which describes what is ahead. To the left, it says: “Bumpy, windy, smelly, rough, treacherous track to certain destruction”. To the right it says: “Good road with beautiful views, tough going at times but worth the effort to a glorious destination.”

Which way are you going to go?

• Do you trust the truthfulness of the signpost?
• Does one part of you want to take the awful road just to see if it really is that bad?

There’s a choice that you need to make that is going to have a huge impact on the quality of your journey.

Today we are going to be looking at the issue of making good choices in life. We all face hundreds or even thousands of choices every day, choices about where to go, what to do, what to say, what to think, even how to feel. The Bible naturally has a lot to say about the importance of making the right choices in life, and how we should go about that. The Bible stands as a signpost to show us the right way to go, but how much attention are we paying to it?

Illustration – The frustrations of being a parent!

Many of you know what it’s like to be a parent. As a parent you want your children to make good choices. It makes you feel great when they do, but it can be worrying and frustrating when they don’t (or when you think they don’t).

As a parent you learn to recognise some of the things that stop your children from making good choices. When young children are too tired, they often make bad choices. When they are too hyped up on red cordial or lollies or when they are over-excited by something their choices aren’t the best. Good manners can go out the window and listening to parents seems impossible.

As children get older you begin to recognise the influence of peer pressure on choices, the influence of changing hormones, the influence of popular culture and so on.

Today I want us to picture God as our parent, our Heavenly Father; and He wants to talk to us about the choices we are making, and the choices we need to make. He recognises that there are things which affect each of us, and affect the things that we are choosing in life, and He has something to say about that.

Read: Deut. 30:11-20.

What does God want to say to us this morning about choices? Firstly..

1. Choices have Consequences

As Moses speaks to the people as God’s messenger, he makes it very clear. If you choose to love and obey God, the result will be that God will bless you. But if you decide to turn away from God and disobey His commands the result for you will be certain destruction. When you look at the history of the nation of Israel you can see that God carried through on that promise. But there’s something interesting about that, which I want to describe by telling you a little bit about a king of Israel named Jeroboam the second. We read about Jeroboam in 2 Kings 14:23-29 (read).

The most successful (and what some people might call “blessed”) period in Israel’s history, since they split off from the nation of Judah, was under an evil king. He promoted idol worship in Israel, just as the first king by the name of Jeroboam had done 150 years earlier. The very thing that Moses warned the people about before they entered the promised land. But from a historical point of view, he was their most successful king, and he brought the nation renewed prosperity.

What’s with that?

Well, just 30 years after Jeroboam II’s death, Israel was totally wiped out by the Assyrians. Only 30 years after being at their most powerful and prosperous, Israel was no more. It’s a valuable lesson for us to consider.

Sometimes doing the wrong thing seems to have good consequences. People who are dishonest and greedy get rich. People who are bullies get their own way. People who tell lies and rumours stir up trouble for others.

But in the end, what God has said will happen always happens. Sometimes consequences are immediate, sometimes they take a while to arrive. But every choice carries consequences. We need to learn to think about the consequences of our choices.

Simple example: When enjoying a movie or T.V. programme late into the night, learn to think “I’m going to be too tired tomorrow, I’d better switch this off.”

Don’t decide on the basis of what you feel like doing now, think about what consequence you prefer. Watch the show and be tired, or get a good sleep.

For myself, I’d rather play a computer game than read my Bible any day! But the consequences of each are so different. After playing a computer game, I usually feel nothing except maybe my eyes might be a bit tired. After reading my Bible my mind is alive with truth – I feel energised. If I do what I feel like doing, my spiritual life is barren. If I do what I know will be best, I come alive.

When you are talking to someone, think about what the impact of your words will be. Who will be affected by what you are saying? How will they be affected? Learn to think about consequences.

Many of us know what sort of life we want to lead. We want to live as Jesus would. We want to have character which is Christ-like. We want to be a good witness so that people around us may come to believe in Jesus. What choices do you need to make that will produce that kind of result? None of that stuff will happen by itself. Those things are consequences of good choices carried through into action.

2. Our Choices Reflect our Heart for God

Verse 17 tells us that a choice to disobey God comes from a heart that turns away from Him. A heart that considers other people or other things more important or more desirable than God. The choices we make in life are a good litmus test of where we stand in relationship with God, which is why the Apostle John writes so strongly in his first letter to the churches. 1 John 5:3 says “This is love for God: to obey His commands.”

As a parent, I often explain to my children the consequences of their actions. I try to get them to make good choices based on the consequences to those choices. “If you eat any more plums, you’re going to get a sore tummy”. However sometimes my kids either don’t believe me or don’t care about those consequences, and they make the wrong choice. Sometimes I have to say more strongly “Don’t do that.” or “Do that.”, and as their father, I expect them to obey. They obey me because that is the nature of our relationship, I am the Dad, they are the Children. Choosing to obey me reflects how much they love and respect me as their father. Sometimes that decision is based on little more than a fear of punishment, but I would like to think that most of the time the fear of punishment isn’t an issue.

As a preacher I am well aware that some people respond to certain types of teaching and certain types of teachers, but not so well to others. On any given Sunday someone might love a sermon I do while someone else really struggles with it. For a while I was part of a church where I didn’t get a lot from the preaching. Other people seemed to love it, but I just thought it was terrible. It felt to me like there wasn’t much point being there. So the consequences for me of choosing to be in church didn’t really motivate me to make that choice. What did motivate me was the desire to honour God anyway. I learned to ask God to speak to me despite my difficulties with the style of preaching. I learned that being there with a good attitude and a desire to bless others was an important part of worship. I didn’t do it well every week, but my choice about how to participate in my church reflected my heart for God and my submission to Him.

If we want to make right choices; choices that bring life and goodness instead of death and destruction, we need to learn to consider the consequences of those choices; and even more importantly, to evaluate the condition of our hearts toward God.

Conclusion

I want to close by looking again at verse 11, where Moses says: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

The Apostle Paul seemed to disagree with this when he wrote in Romans 7: “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

But a few sentences later on in chapter 8 he writes:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ^{ 2} because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ^3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, ^ God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. ^ And so he condemned sin in sinful man, ^{ 4} in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

We can make all sort of excuses and give all sorts of reasons for the choices we make. We are all affected by different things, just as our children are affected by various things at various times.

But in Jesus God has paid the price for all our sins – our wrong choices in life. He has forgiven all those who have believed in Jesus as the One who has saved us and is our rightful Lord. He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us to make right choices and to carry them out.

Remember 2 Peter 1:3: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness^”

There is no excuse for the Christian, to make consistently bad choices about how they live, or to act as though they don’t have any choice in the matter. We have been given everything we need in order to live the lives that God has called us to live.

Our choices always have consequences, and they always reflect our heart for God. May God challenge you about the choices you make today, this week and this year. As a church may our choices prove the truth of who God is and what He means to us.