Bearing the likeness of the man from heaven.

1 cor 15:35-58

The whole of chapter 15 in Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth is devoted to the question of what happens when we die. In this last post we ask: What is the resurrection of the dead? What sort of bodies will we have? This is a summary from a talk from our Sunday Gathering which can be downloaded here or from iTunes.

Some of the people, like today, have said: Look Paul, don’t be an idiot, dead people don’t rise.

And Paul has responded by saying that the resurrection of the dead is central to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The whole gospel, this ‘good news’ is based around the fact that the tomb was empty. The empty tomb demonstrated that in the words of Paul, “Death has lost it’s sting”. Death itself had been defeated. And the sign of Jesus victory on the cross was the empty tomb. Paul states that without the resurrection, Christianity is meaningless.

What will our resurrected bodies be like?

We spend £500m on cosmetic surgery each year in UK, that’s the same as France, Germany, Italy and Spain put together. We are so desperately unhappy with our bodies that we will pay vast amounts to have them improved. But our bodies will be improved. But not just that they will be renewed and transformed.

The hope of Christians is the future resurrection, it’s the redemption of our bodies and the renewal of heaven and earth. Those who claim to follow Jesus believe that Resurrection is not just something that will happen in the future. It has happened already. It happened on the planet we call Earth and it happened to a man we call Jesus. Because the resurrection happened within our own world, it’s implications and effects will be felt in our own world here and now.

In Jesus, heaven invaded earth. God’s kingdom broke into our own space and time. God’s revolution of love began the overthrow of corruption and evil. What happened to Jesus will happen to us.

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 

Acts 3:15

 

1-2 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the 

ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

3-4Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. 

Col 3:1-4 The Message

Our resurrected bodies become animated by God’s spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. The Holy Spirit lives in us. The giver of life fills us and equips us. It’s like we have a new fuel in us that not only makes us run better but also maintains the whole body. Energized by the spirit of God.

So what?

We will have new bodies in the future, but what about now. Eternal life starts now. Something of the future has broken into the present. God’s reality, His kingdom has arrived into the now. Your present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die. God will raise your body to new life. There will be a new creation. What you do with you body in the present matters, because God has a great future in store for it. To quote Maximus Decimus Meridius;

“What we do in life, echoes in eternity”

Paul states that the resurrection of the dead has now started. One man has risen from the dead. A man who died is now living and he is Lord of the World and we bear his likeness. We are to be like him in our character and our actions.

God’s future for humanity has broken into the present through the resurrection of Jesus. Gods future salvation is happening now all around us. There are signs of the kingdom happening all around you, day by day. Throughout Jesus ministry he brought salvation into peoples lives. The Kingdom was breaking in and rescuing people. These were acts of healing and rescue that Jesus started and his followers continued as recorded in the book of Acts. We act like him. Where we work, in our homes, at the shops. We act like him.

We are saved to be the people God wants us to be. To act in his character to the world around us. We are blessed to bless others. We are saved to save others. We are transformed to transform others.

Not in vain…
What you are doing for the wider world as a follower of Jesus is not in vain. It’s not empty. Your faith is not empty.

Every act of love, gratitude and kindness;
every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation;
every minute spent teaching a disabled child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings, and for that matter one’s fellow non-human creatures;
and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching,every deed which spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation which God will one day make.

Bishop Tom Wright

When Jesus left the tomb on the first Easter he launched a revolution that his followers would take up. On that first Easter, God initiated his new creation breaking into the present from the future.The man who would not die is now Lord of the whole world. And the author and giver of life now calls the people who he has rescued from an oppressive regime to fight against the systems of oppression with weapons of peace, love, mercy and grace.

For further reading check out Tom Wright's: Surprised by Hope.

What does the future hold?

We are obsessed with the future. What will happen to us? But we feel powerless to do anything about it. Paul has shown that without the resurrection our faith and our future are meaningless. Without the resurrection there is no hope. The resurrection is central to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The resurrection is not just good news for each individual Christian. The resurrection is good news for the entire Universe.

How do we live in light of the resurrection? What impact does this reversal and defeat of death by one man have on the way you and I live life? Here's some points reflecting on 1 Cor 15:20-34.

Death
When I was 10 years old I died. I had an to have my adenoids removed because I kept getting ear infections and whilst under the anaesthetic my body shut down, my heart stopped and I refused to breath. For 20 seconds I was gone. The doctors brought me back by pounding on my chest and forcing air into my small lungs. The only evidence of my near permanent fatal experience were the bruises on my chest. I was resuscitated. 

One day I will die and I believe I will be resurrected.

When I was about 18 one of my best friend’s Dad died. Bob was a wonderful man. He taught me a lot about what it means to follow Jesus. He was generous and kind. He was godly and loving. And then he was dead. And my friend had lost her Daddy.

I couldn’t believe how God would let that happen. That was my first experience of how awful and horrible and painful death was.

Recently, I saw this photo:

We can decorate coffins and it may go some way to help those grieving their loss, remember the good things about when that person and what they gave to this world. But it doesn’t change the fact that they are dead. Death is still awful and death is still our enemy.

Death is not just our last enemy. It is God’s enemy as well.

His universe, which he pronounced good. His universe has been marred by the horrible spectacle of death. Death is the unmaking of God’s creation. Resurrection is the remaking of God’s Creation. It is God’s new creation and that is our hope.

The resurrection does not make death less bad. It still awful. But it is a defeated enemy. By raising Jesus from the dead God set in motion the final defeat of death itself. The Christian hope is not some vague form of wishful thinking.

For Paul: “It's resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live.” (vs. 30-33. The Message)

If there's no resurrection, "We eat, we drink, the next day we die," and that's all there is to it. Paul is saying, ”don't fool yourselves”. Don't let yourselves be poisoned by this anti-resurrection talk.

Let the resurrection shape your future.

What will happen when I finish my degree and have to get a proper job? What will it be like when I’m married to this person and share my life with them? Will I do well in my new job? If I can just get this promotion then things will be different? Why do I do this every day? What will it be like to have this new baby in the family? How can I be a good parent to my children? How can I speak to my teenage daughter? Will I have to look after my poorly mother? Will my children have to look after me?

In vs 32 Paul talks about human hopes, wishful thinking, I think what he has in mind are those who were gladiators, the night before they faced wild beasts, enjoying there last moments of existence. In the face of despair people try to numb the pain with stuff.

"Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

To numb the pain and the despair people will turn to things which make them feel alive. What makes you feel alive?

Drinking. Eating. Sex. Shopping. Playing on the Wii. Exercise. TV. Shoplifting. Self-harming. Driving fast.

For Paul, what makes you really live life is the resurrection.

The future is what counts. You cannot change the past. What’s done is done. What was said was said. Stop living in the past. And stop living just in the now. Live in such a way to change your future. How will you affect your future? How will you live tomorrow? What choices will you make to live this life? Live in such a way to affect the future of others? Don’t let your past haunt you and don’t be afraid of the future.

If you live tomorrow, how will you live? What plans for living do you have?

What is the big deal with the resurrection?

Paul has in mind the story of creation as he talks about resurrection. Creation was good, but it always had a future aspect. God didn’t look at creation and say that “it’s perfect” something perfect cannot be improved upon. God said it was good. Now something good can be made even more good, but you need someone who has the same intention and character as God, someone who has the creative flair of the father someone made in his image.

God appoints good stewards humans to oversee and care for the creation. To work in the garden and bring the future into the present.

“Instead of humans being God’s wise vice-regents over creation, they ignore the creator and try to worship something less demanding, something which will give them a short-term fix of power or pleasure” Tom Wright.

Us human always want to reach for something fleeting to give us the high of feeling alive. The result is death. Death was always part of the living process but now it has a spiritual significance. The controlling image of death in most of the bible is found in the language of exile. The first humans are exiled from the garden.

God’s plan of restoration is to bring people out of exile and back into relationship. That is the Kingdom of God’ it’s what God wants to happen. God’s desire is that you and I would be back in relationship with him and back in relationship with the people and the world around us.

What has been accomplished by his death and resurrection?

For Paul, it’s all about the Kingdom of God.

Like all Jews, Paul would have grown up longing for the Kingdom of God to come. Most Jewish people expected that God would become king again over the whole world, restoring Israel and defeating those who were oppressing them, and after this people would live in peace again with God.

Now Paul is saying that it had started to happen but it wasn’t going to be how people imagined. Paul is saying this resurrection of the dead has now started. One man has risen from the dead. The coming of God’s kingdom was going to happen in two phases. It’s the now and the not yet. We pray “your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Paul uses a Greek poet called Meander to make an ironic point in 1 Cor 15:33-34. The Corinthians were allowing the surrounding culture to influence the way they viewed life and their values for living. Their future was being shaped by their circumstances rather than their relationship with God.

Who is influencing your future? Does God hold your future? Is your future shaped by God and his Kingdom?

When you go into work tomorrow what will influence the way that day pans out? How will you work this week as a follower of Jesus? How will you let the kingdom of God break into where you work and affect your future and the future of others.

The point of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is that this present life is not meaningless just because you and I will die. The point is that God will raise your life into new life. To quote T Wright again:

What you do in the present – by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbour as yourself – all these things will last into God’s future.

We don’t do these things to make life a bit nicer for everyone. We do these things to build God’s future kingdom in the present.

An Empty Message?

Does it really matter what happened to Jesus? Does it matter if Jesus' body was resurrected from the dead?

Here is how Paul argues his point in 1 Cor 15:12-19
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Six points:

1. Many people agree that Jesus was a good moral teacher. But to say any more than that and you’re going to start offending people. The resurrection declares Jesus to be unique. The resurrection of Jesus Christ distinguishes Jesus and distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. Jesus is different than every other religious founder because of his resurrection. The bones of every significant religious leader who ever lived are still buried in the ground. Christianity is about entering a relationship with a person who was dead and who is currently bodily alive because he is resurrected from the dead and his name is Jesus Christ.

2. If Jesus did not rise from the dead than our message. The message of the Kingdom of God and ultimately all of the teaching of Jesus is futile.

3. If you say that Jesus was not raised from the dead, then you are forced to say that the apostles, and all the writers of the New Testament, were liars when they claimed that Christ was resurrected. The apostles ran around the Roman Empire claiming to be eyewitnesses. They said they saw Jesus die, with their own eyes. And then they said they saw with their own eyes, Jesus, having been raised from the dead, in a glorious, transformed, incorruptible body.

4. All of us have done things which we know have hurt others. Far too often we hurt others knowingly, we’ve said things, or done things which have harmed others. Every one of us here can probably think of something we’ve done and feel guilty about it. The only people who don't struggle with guilt are the criminally insane - psychopaths and sociopaths. Normal people all feel guilt about things we have done wrong. That is why we defend ourselves so vigorously. That's why we feel the need to make excuses for our behaviour. How do you deal with your guilt? What do you do with it? The Bible says that the person we have ultimately sinned against is God. That when we de-humanise another human by our treatment of them, we insult the one in whose image they have been made. The Bible says we can take our sins to the cross - that Jesus' death on the cross fully pays for our sins. The Bible says that the way we know that Jesus' death on the cross really did take care of our sins is the resurrection. The resurrection is proof that Jesus did not die for nothing.

5. The philosopher, Bertrand Russell, says that death is omnipotent. Death has the final say. Taking from us our loved ones and ourselves, cutting the string, turning us all back into various bits of matter that fertilizes the ground. If Christ is not risen, that's all there is. If there is no resurrection then the best we can hope for is either; complete anhialation which in the words of Dylan Thomas causes us to shout to those dying, “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage, against the dying of the light”. Or reincarnation, hoping that we can have another go and do things better next time to eventually be assimilated into some mighty consciousness.
What do you say in the face of death? Our answer, without the resurrection has to be, stay alive as long as possible. Eat right, stay fit, have surgery cheat death. But no scientific breakthrough can save us from the inevitable. You and I will die.

6. What do you say to those who have sacrificed so much for Jesus ?
If Jesus isn’t raised, then all the people who have given up good jobs to work amongst the poorest of the poor are imbeciles. If Jesus isn’t raised from the dead, then the people we should admire are the manipulators and those who can step on others and get ahead and look out for Number One. If Jesus isn’t raised, then if you can get away with it in this world, go for it.
Exploit others, there is no ultimate justice. As Tom Wright puts it:
In a world of systematic injustice, bullying violence, arrogance and oppression, the thought that there might be a coming day when the wicked are firmly put in their place and the poor and the weak are given their due is the best news there can be.

East of Easter: Part 1 

The Message of Hope and Grace

What happens when the sun goes down after Easter Sunday?

How do we live life in the light of Easter?

What difference does the resurrection make to how we live life?

Like Mary, on that first Easter Sunday morning we don’t stand in the moment dumbfounded. The moment with Jesus in the dawn of the new creation moves us. It propels us into action. There is work to be done. There is a message to be announced. There is good news to proclaim. The one who was dead is alive.

How do we apply one particular chapter (1 Corinthians 15) to our lives?

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. 1 Cor 15:1-11(TNIV)


What is the gospel?

A gospel is a declaration of the good news of a new reality. At the time Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, the world was ruled by the Roman Emperor, probably Nero at this time.

In the context of the world of Paul and the church in Corinth, Caesar’s gospel was, “Rome is here! Caesar is now your king! Now you can be under the rule of the greatest government, military, and economy in the world! Does anyone have a problem with that, because if you do we have weapons of mass destruction and crucifixion to make you comply.

One popular statement of C. Augustus was this, there is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved than that of Caesar.

The disciples went around saying “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved than that of Jesus." See Acts 4:8-12

The good news that Jesus proclaimed, was centered in Jewish expectations of return from exile. When Jesus came proclaiming the good news he said:

"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1:15

For Jesus, the good news was a proclamation of an inbreaking reality (the kingdom of God is near) and a summons for people to revise how they were living their lives by placing their confidence in Jesus and his way (repent and believe).

For the apostle Paul, he would claim: “God is king! Jesus is the Messiah hoped for by Israel and therefore, the Lord of the whole world! Now you can be citizens of a kingdom that will outlast even Rome!”

Essentially both Jesus and Paul were saying, “look there is hope for the situation you find yourself, there is a solution to the oppression and evil that you face, there is a freedom to the slavery you are experiencing”.

If we view our hope as christians as “going to heaven” or as “salvation” from this world and new life away from this world then any sort of hope we have for the existing world will be unrelated and minimised. If we see ourselves as people who are going to check out one day from this disappointing and grimy motel of a world and check into the luxury mansion hotel we call heaven. Then our attitude towards the world around us and the people who share this space and time with us will be tinged with a sense of despair and sadness, and life in the words of one biblical writer will be meaningless. (Ecclesiates 1:2)

The good news of the Kingdom of God is the solid ground on which we stand and base our lives on. And this is what Paul wants to remind the church in Corinth. This is the gospel by which they were saved, but saved from what?

Salvation starts as we live in present. The point of the cross isn’t forgiveness. The point of the cross, the victory of Jesus death on the cross is more than forgiveness. It’s restoration and it’s reconciliation. Salvation comes for a reason. Being saved from our sin is just the start. It’s about God restoring us. Making us into the humans he originally had in mind when he first made us. Salvation starts at the cross but it leads us to become more and more the people God wants us to be. More loving, more generous, more compassionate, more merciful, more human.

For Paul, he understood that death was not the end. The central element of Jesus message is that death is not the end. This life is not all there is.


What is the resurrection?

For Paul and his listeners the word resurrection, never meant simply, “life after death”. It wasn’t used to describe ideas about what happened to people after they die. It was a specific term which described how people who were already dead would be given new bodies, and would them have a new embodied life similar to what they had had before.

What Paul is describing is the life we will have after the new state of existence we find ourselves in after death. He is describing a life after life after death. In this resurrected life people will be given new bodies, empowered by God’s spirit and would have a new life with a new body, yet similar body, to live in God’s new heaven and earth. (more on this later)

As Tom Wright puts it: “If Jesus has been raised, that means that God’s new world, God’s kingdom, has indeed arrived; and that means we have a job to do. The world must hear what the God of Israel, the creator God, has achieved through his Messiah.” (Simply Christian, 2006, p98)


What is our response?

For Paul, the death and resurrection of Jesus changed his whole life. Hi response was to spend his whole life on living and communicating the beauty, hope, grace and love of the Kingdom. He too became an announcer of the message, convinced that Jesus was alive. The grace of God compelled him to rethink his life and share the message of the good news of the kingdom.

The grace of God is never to be earnt, we cannot earn it, but because of the grace given to us, there is effort on our part. Remember that quote from Tom Wright: “…We have a job to do. The world must hear.”

Those who have not heard about the grace and hope of the message of the kingdom of God need to be told. The grace of God causes us to change how we live our lives and the sort of people we are becoming. The grace of God makes us wake up from our sleep and become people of action. And it is the resurrection of Jesus that lies at the heart of God’s grace and love for humanity.

I wonder what is the message you believe?
I wonder how will you share the message of the good news of God’s kingdom to others? Can you do that this week?
And I wonder: Are you changing on the inside as this message of hope and grace grabs hold of your life?

We've been discussing resurrection and so I thought I might resurrect this blog beginning with some stuff from our Sunday Morning Gatherings.

A tale of four gardens.

Heligan

A couple of years ago I went with my family to The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall. There’s a great story about this amazing place. It started following a devastating hurricane in 1990, when two men exploring the ancestoral home of a country estate in Cornwall called Heligan, found a tiny room under the fallen masonry in a forgotten corner of one of the walled gardens. In this tiny room there was a motto etched into the limestone walls in barely legible pencil which read "Don’t come here to sleep or slumber" underneath were the names of those who worked there with the date - August 1914.

These two men were “fired by a magnificent obsession to bring these once glorious gardens back to life in every sense and to tell, for the first time, not tales of lords and ladies but of those "ordinary" people who had made these gardens great, before departing for the Great War.”

And so on that first Easter Sunday two men came to a little tiny room. After the devasation of the previous 48 hours they look into a dark and empty tomb. These men wake up, they are fired by the magnificent obsession of the Kingdom of God. As they leave, Mary stays, overcome with grief and despair she stays at the empty tomb.

Eden

The relationship between God and humans begins in a garden. The first conversation between God and humans happened in a garden.

God and the first Adam would spend time together in the garden. In the cool of the day God would come, his presence would be there with Adam in the garden.

One day God looks for Adam but Adam is not there. Adam believes a lie and betrays God. The first humans turn away from God in a garden. Instead of the fruitfulness of the garden, the ground now produces thorns and thistles. Death and decay, drought and disease enter the world.


Gethsemane

The betrayal continues into another garden. Whilst the second Adam, as Paul calls Jesus, prays, he is betrayed by one whom he would spend time with together in the cool of the evening.

In the garden of Gethsemane, Judas, a friend of Jesus comes with violent men looking for Jesus in the darkness. Men with weapons come looking for Jesus.

Jesus asks them “who are you looking for?”

And that’s the big question. Who are you looking for?

God came looking for Adam, who hid because he was ashamed.

Men come looking for Jesus, to arrest him and hand him over to be tortured, to have thorns pushed on to his head and to be nailed to a piece of wood and killed.

The Easter Garden

And now in the garden on that first Easter Sunday, a woman comes looking for the dead but finds life.

...She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" 
 Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary." 
 She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.  John 20:14-18

This is the first day of the week. There is a man and a woman in a garden.

John (one of the men who first looked into that empty tomb) is telling the story of the new creation. Throughout his book he has given signs pointing to Jesus. Pointing to the man who would bring reconciliation between God and all humanity. He’s saying in the words of Pontius Pilate, “Here’s the man!” This is the one you are looking for.

Mary stands outside the tomb. If you can imagine it: stand there with her. Feel the loss the grief and the hurt. Stand there and think of someone who is hurting and alone, stand with Mary and identify with the bitterness that she feels.

Then step into the silent tomb. Don’t turn away. Step into the cold dark void.

Hear the question: “Why are you crying?” Why are you crying? What have you lost? What’s been taken away from you? Where does it hurt? Face the truth, feel the pain. Think of the answer to that question that might come from people around the world.

They’ve taken away my Lord, my home, my friend, my rights, my dignity, my brother, my sister, my father, my mother, my children, my dignity, my hopes, my dreams, my vision, my life. Where has the darkness seeped into your life? What’s been taken from you?

Now turn and see who walks towards you. Behold the man. Who is he? He’s the gardener he’s the one who removes the weeds and the thorns. He’s the one who digs up the past and brings fruitfulness. He’s the one that brings life and order out of barrenness and chaos.

Listen as he speaks. Listen as he says your name.

Listen as your healing comes. Listen as you see the light dawning. Listen as the mist clears and you see his face. Look and see the face of the one who has defeated death.

Don’t stand there dumbfounded. This moment won’t last forever. This moment propels you into action. There is work to be done. There is a message to be announced. There is good news to proclaim. The one who was dead is alive.

New creation has broken into this world. The old has gone. Today is the beginning of a new week. The beginning of a new life.

If anybody isn't in a housegroup yet and would like to be in one, there's plenty room in ours. Please get in contact with Nick T or Gemma (gem.l.wright@googlemail.com). We meet every monday at 8pm and this week we are looking at the book of 1 Timothy.

Holy Spirit: Power to change the world

Chapter 4: The mission of Jesus

The relationship between God and the people he has chosen, the Israelites, is like a love story. God is faithful to Israel but time and again they are unfaithful. They reject his love and his presence.

So what will God do about it?

Jesus comes, the man that was called Immanuel, “God with us”. At his Baptism heaven is ripped open and the Holy Spirit, God’s divine presence fills him and anoints him.

Jesus spoke about the good news of the Kingdom of God. He spoke a message of liberation and freedom. He demonstrated his message with action. Jesus did things that showed people what the Kingdom of God was like. He claimed to be anointed to:

“proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 

and recovery of sight for the blind, 

to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Luke 4:18-19

And he proved the anointing by:

Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom to the poor
Freeing people who were imprisoned
Giving sight to the blind S
etting the oppressed free
Proclaiming God’s favour.

Jesus did show and tell. He was the new Moses. He stood before the Pharoah of the world, Satan, and said “Let my people go.” Jesus did the work of the Kingdom and then he trained up his disciples to do the same things he did.

"When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." (Luke 9:1-2)

"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." (Luke 10:1-3)

"You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:48-49)

The apostle John records how Jesus breathed on his disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew 28, His dsicples are told to go into all the world and continue the mission. Then Jesus came to them and said,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Matt 28:18-20

You and I have been given a mission a great Co-mission to work with God in bringing his life-giving love to the world. We have been commanded by Jesus to continue the things of the kingdom. He gave us a mission, a partnership with God to do something about the pain and hurt, the injustice, the poverty and the desperation in the world. He gives us the authority to go out in his name. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. And he sends us out under his authority. We become emissaries: Someone who goes with the authority of the king. Where an Emissary goes, it is as if the King is there in person.

We are given the Holy Spirit to bring God's presence and reality to the world around us. This is is why we pray "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done"

I wonder, whether you feel equipped to do the things Jesus did?
I wonder, how have you seen God move in your life?
I wonder, what He wants you to do in His name?

Holy Spirit: Power to change the world

Chapter 3: Liberated to be liberators.

After Joseph, the people become known as the Israelites. And they stay in Egypt, not in the land that had been promised to them, The people whose land they are living in oppress them and make them slaves, putting the people of God to forced labour. The Israelites are persecuted mercilessly. The people cry out for freedom.

God calls Moses and tells him that he has a mission for him: to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. There’s a plan. God has heard the cries. God will bring freedom. And God says that he will be with him, Moses, present. God and Moses begin a conversation, Moses will lead them out so the people can be with God. So God can dwell with them again. He chooses a human, someone who will be the message.

The people are brought out of Egypt, and into the desert, to return home to the land God had set aside for them. God leads them, his spirit, his presence is with them, day and night. They arrive at the mountain at which Moses first heard God:

'Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' (Ex 19:3-6)

They are all to be priests, people who reflect the image of God. When other nations see them they will be seen as a people who are filled with the presence of God. The people were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

He rescues them for a mission. They have been liberated to be liberators. To bring God’s mission to the world. If you want to see what God is like you look at the priest.

Moses is given a guidebook on how the people should live, called the Law. It outlines social responsibility and ethics and morals of how God intends them to live with him. God also gives detailed instructions for a tent called the tabernacle, a physical structure that will be placed in the centre of the Israelite camp in which God’s spirit will dwell.

God is going to move from the mountain and dwell with the people. But whilst Moses is getting the instructions from God, the people mess up. They get bored of waiting and choose to make their own gods to worship. Again humans reject God. [Ex 32]

As a result God tells Moses that he will send an angel to guide them, but will not go with them himself. Moses pleads with God and reminds him of the promise made to Abraham, he intercedes for the people of Israel and asks that God presence will go with them.

The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" [Exodus 33:15-16]

God reveals more of his character that he is “compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” Ex 34:6

The tabernacle is built; the place where God’s presence dwells, this is the tent of meeting. Later, the temple is built by Solomon and this becomes the focal point for the people of God in which the glory of the Lord dwells, the place of the presence. This is what distinguished the people of the Israel, the presence of God, dwelling amongst them.

They understood that the God who created everything could not be contained or constrained within a tent or a building but they understood the revelation that God chose to be present among them by his Spirit.

Once again the People choose to follow a different path, they choose to follow lesser gods, gods who are evil in nature and not abounding in love. They choose gods like Baal, Ashorreh and Molech. They even bring these idols into the temple of God and worship them their.

So the glory of the Lord leaves the temple. The presence leaves. And the people are left with the idols that they have made and chosen over God. The people of the presence become the people of exile again as they are beaten and captured by different nations. God leaves them to the gods they have chased after. But he leaves them with a promise:

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 put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezekiel 36:25-30

I wonder, what is oppressing you, what's holding you back?
I wonder, how can you and I better reflect God's character?

Holy Spirit: Power to change the world

Chapter 2: God’s mission

So what’s going to happen? God has a plan.

God would not leave the people he loves to suffer and to be oppressed and harassed by evil. God would give these people an inheritance, a promised land, a place that he could be present again with humans. This was the plan that God had put together for his people. This is the mission for God to dwell with the people he loves.

God’s mission:

• To reconcile humanity.
• To restore relationship.
• To remove pain and suffering.

God calls Abram. He calls a man to start a journey with God. God will bless Abram and Abram will be a blessing to others. All people on earth will be blessed through him. Gen 12:1-3 reads:

The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation, 

and I will bless you; 

I will make your name great, 

and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, 

and whoever curses you I will curse; 

and all peoples on earth 

will be blessed through you."

God spoke to Abraham. He made a promise that he would be with him and would bless him. Why? To be a blessing to all people. My understanding of 'blessing' is to support and encourage someone, to stand behind them and to stand up for them. I would argue that the difference between blessing and cursing is the difference between sailing with the wind behind you or sailing against the wind. Believers in God should reflect his love to fellow humans. God initiates a journey with a human, a conversation and dialogue begins. There is a plan and a purpose and a promise.

From Abraham comes Isaac, and then Jacob who becomes Israel. And then comes Joseph who ends up in Egypt, the superpower of his day.

I wonder, what have you been called to do?

Holy Spirit: Power to change the world

Hi well, we're back from a week camping it up in the sunshine at New Wine! I thought it might be good to post some notes from the 2 seminars I did on "The Holy Spirit: Power to change the world". My aim for these talks was to challenge people (me included) to live life the way God would have us live. To have a greater understanding of God's mission and how we get involved in God’s revolution of love? Many of us feel powerless to do anything about the pain and suffering we see around us. I would argue that God has given us His Holy Spirit to empower us to bring God’s rule and reign to a broken world. I think it's essential that we understand and explore the power that God has given his people: the church.

Chapter 1: The promise of the presence

The Bible says a lot about promises. God makes a lot of promises and keeps all of them. The Bible is all about the presence of God. God dwelling with his people. Creator God being with humanity that he created in his own image. The people of Israel understood themselves to be the people of the presence, the people among whom the eternal God had chosen to dwell on earth. Presence is such a deep and rich word. As I’ve spent time in the presence of my wife, Vicki, I’ve got to know her. There’s intimacy in the prolonged presence of another. We have freaky moments when we realise we share mannerisms, expressions or say the same thing at the same time.

When you lose someone, it’s their presence that you miss the most. The message of the Bible is all about the presence of God. The relationship between Humans and God. When the presence of God is missing people notice. God chose a people to be present with. And he made promises to them.

We start with the beginning, with creation and the spirit of God hovering over the waters. The picture here is of a bird brooding over the watery abyss. At the beginning of planet Earth, at the foundation of creation is the Spirit of God. His presence. The Ruach, the breath of life. The Holy Spirit. God breathes or blows over the waters. The breath is life and it is life-making. This breath becomes words. We read that God spoke, "let there be light … " We then read that God breathed life into the first humans. God breathed into man the breath of life. Without God’s spirit there is no life. Without God’s spirit there is nothing. Life is empty.

Man is different from the rest of creation. In humans something of heaven and something of earth are brought together to make a new being. A being dependent on something else for life: dependent on God. We read that the first humans shared the presence of God in the garden. That God was present with them. They felt no shame, there is peace, there is wholeness. There is shalom : a mystical union between God and humans.

And then something happens. These people choose to believe a lie about God and choose to do their own thing. Sin enters the world. People are banished from the garden in which they used to enjoy the presence of God. They go into exile: Away from his presence. In Gen 6 we read that humans are detached from God. God saw the wickedness of humans, only evil all the time. When we move away from the source of life, away from the presence of God it changes us on the inside, evil is allowed to flourish. You and I know that from our own experience, when we are far from God, our thoughts and actions change.

I wonder, how present is God in your life at the moment?
I wonder, does He feel close or far away?

This morning our housegroup helped a lady in Bell Green by removing the wallpaper off her stairs and landing. Here's a during and after picture:

David and his mighty men: when ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Imagine the scenario: Some Badduns, a bit itchy on the old trigger finger, have taken over your local branch of Costa or Starbucks. They’re high on Caffeine and sugar. They are threatening your way of life and preventing you from reaching you soul-enhancing Latte (Grande, triple-shot, extra hot, skinny, with cinnamon). What are you going to do? You have the choice of 4 Action Heroes. Who will you send? The A-team are busy.

Who will you choose? John McClane, Jack Bauer, Batman, Bourne, Bomd, Arnie, Stallone, Norris, Van Damme, Eastwood, Chan, Li, Lee, Seagull? Difficult isn’t it.

Thankfully this is just fiction. It isn’t real. It never happened. But what if the local Oasis at En-Gedi was under threat, who would King David send?

For more on this see the talk from Sunday here.