In the beginning

July 20, 2009 at 7:56 pm · Filed under God the Father, Old testament ·Tagged , ,

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Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden

 

( Sermon preached in the Brecon Presbyterian Church in 2005)

 

Introduction

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”.

These are possibly the most important words in the whole Bible. They tell us that the world did not just come about by chance – that there is an intelligent and creative mind behind it all. These first chapters of Genesis are at the centre of controversy between the Fundamentalists who would insist it must all be taken absolutely literally and those who would want to see how these chapters relate to the findings of science. For example, geologists studing rock strata have deduced that fossils are the remains of creatures that flourished millions of years ago – how does that fit in with the seven days of Creation? 
 
I’m not going into that controversy now except to say that personally I tend towards the scientific approach. We could spend hours discussing the interpretation of these chapters and still miss the point. The message is the important thing here. What does Genesis teach us about God, about the world, about human nature? It conveys profound truths in a few words. The first chapters of Gen. undergird the  whole Judeo-Christian outlook, which is so different from that of other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. 

 

God alone 

(v1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
  – it teaches that there is one God, that he existed before the world and that he created all that is. Also, in the way that it speaks of him, it implies that he is a rational being who thinks and speaks. Indeed it is through his words that he creates the world. 
 
 (v3-4) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
God first made the light. This is more than just a reference to that electromagnetic radiation that stimulate our optic nerves. Perhaps it means energy in general but surely it also refers to light in a spiritual sense. For God always shines his light into the darkness of our souls -

“For God , who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of  God in the face of Christ”.   (2 Cor. 4:6)

The next few verses of Genesis tell us how God spoke and things came into being.  “Stuff happened!”  He didn’t have to make it out of anything – he created it out of nothing. 

 He made a world with all things in order – Sun, Moon, Earth, land, sea, plants and animals. God made all things and gave them all the means of existence and sustenance.  God: the giver of all. To him we owe our very existence. We are required to worship him. 

 

 Caedmon’s Hymn

 Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven’s kingdom,
   the might of the Creator, and his thought,
 the work of the Father of glory, how each of wonders
   the Eternal Lord established in the beginning.

 He first created for the sons of men
   Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator,
 then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,
   the Eternal Lord, afterwards made,
 the earth for men, the Almighty Lord.
(C7th. Old English poem)

 

Mankind 

God said, “let’s make human beings”.
(Gen. 2:7)  the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

 We are indeed made from the dust – from the materials of the earth. Take a handful of  soil and analyse its elements chemically. You will find carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, iron, calcium, magnesium and numerous other elements. Take the same amount of human tissue and analyse it and you will find the same elements. We are made up of the same materials as the earth. And when we die and decay those elements are released back to the earth to be recycled by nature.
“For dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Gen. 3: 19).

 

Breath of God 

 The animals and plants are also made of the same elements but God breathed life into man. Not just the life that all animals have but a divine breath. So there is that divine spark in every human being. 
(Gen 1: 26) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,
-this is is another way of saying the same thing.
 
    So God created man in his own image,  in the image of God he created him;   male and female he created them.
 - male and female – both in God’s image. They were created equal. It is only the fall and the coming of sin that has introduced inequality. 

 

Stewardship 

(Gen.1: 28)   God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God put them in charge of creation.  With their intelligence they have the power to dominate all other species. But what use will they make of this power? Will they rule kindly and justly? Or will they exploit and ravage the world of its resources? Will they mistreat the lower species and abuse them? Will they ruin the environment in which they have been placed by God? I don’t think that I need to answer that question!

In the beginning, though, all was right – man and woman were in harmony with their environment and God gave them work to do.

 (Gen. 2: 15.)  The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Human beings were made to to work – not to be idle. But the work that they were given in the beginning was not irksome toil, it was profitable and creative. It was the task of nurturing, tending, caring, improving the Garden of Eden. Work was never intended to be drudgery in the beginning – that is a consequence of man’s sin and fall. 
 

The Fall

Gen 3 tells how this Fall came about. It was the results of listening to the Evil One. It was the results of doubting the goodness of God. 
Gen. 3: 4 – 5 -  “You will not surely die”, the Serpent said to the woman, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”     In other words, “God’s just a spoilsport!”

So they listened to the evil One, they took the fruit, and suddenly they realised they were naked. They hid from God in the bushes. Now what was there to be ashamed of? It wasn’t the nakedness itself – it was the disobedience that they were ashamed of. There’s nothing sinful in a naked human body in itself but there is something deeply sinful in disobeying and distrusting God .

 

Banned from the Garden

So they were cast out of the Garden and had to make their way in the hard world with toil and suffering.  Immediately everything is messed up. Work is now irksome drudgery.

·  Humans are out of joint with the universe now. No longer are they in harmony with their environment. They start to spoil it and to exploit it.

·  They are out of joint with one another too. Even when they are still in the garden the first thing we see after the Fall is a domestic quarrel. God says to Adam, “What have you done?” Adam says, “She did it, it was her fault!” The woman says, “It was the serpent’s fault!” So this fatal tendency to blame others for our own faults began in the Garden of Eden. 
 
·  Man is now also out of joint with himself  – he becomes a restless being who can find no inner peace.  That can only come if he can get God back at the centre of his life.

·  He is completely out of harmony with God  – and this is the worst effect of his sin, for God is the source of life.  Adam and Eve have shut themselves off from God – they will die.

 
Conclusion 

 But I can’t end this sermon on a negative note. For, after all, we know the Good News:  how one of Eve’s descendants, Jesus Christ, has defeated that old Serpent Satan. He has overcome death.

·  He has dealt with the problem of sin and guilt. He has opened the way to put as right with God.

·  And he has made it possible to know inner peace.

·  He has made it possible for there to be reconciliation and forgiveness among the warring tribes of earth.

·  He has shown as the way of unselfishness so that we can be better stewards of the world’s resources and creatures. By his Cross and Resurrection Jesus has undone the work of the Evil One and reversed the effects of the Fall. Glory be to his name! 
 
But to understand and appreciate what Jesus has done for us we first need to realise the depths to which we have sunk. And the first chapters of Genesis tell us. They tell us who God is, who we are, and what we are really like, and they point us forward to Jesus the Saviour.

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Some thoughts on Evolution and Creation

July 20, 2009 at 7:06 pm · Filed under God the Father, Jesus Christ ·Tagged , , ,

 

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 This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th. anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species. And the television schedules have been full of programmes celebrating this. Some have seemingly put forward the atheistic view that Darwin’s theory has made religion redundant. There have, however, been one or two programmes putting a more balanced point of view. Darwin himself did not claim his theory was contrary to Christianity. Although he was an agnostic towards the end of his life (largely as a result of the death of his daughter) he was not opposed to those who had faith in God. Writing to Joseph Hooker in 1870 he says, “My theology is in a simple muddle. I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design”.

Leaving aside Darwin’s personal views, I think it would be a good thing to clear the air a bit in the current debate with some definitions. It seems to me that there are only a few possible positions one can hold in this debate.

  

 

 The Modern Creationist View

 This is also known as Young Earth Creationism. Adherents of this position insist that the early chapters of Genesis must be taken literally. God created all species of animals and plants by individual acts of creation within a six-day period at some time within the last ten thousand years. The geological record is not millions of years old, and the presence of fossils in strata apparently millions of year old is just an illusion – these creatures can not have lived millions of years ago.

Most creationists would say that the fossils were laid down in the geological strata during the Flood. Under this view God would have created all species of animals and fitted them for various habitats – the giraffe for the grassy plains of East Africa, the kangaroo for the Australian Outback, the polar bear for the Arctic wastes. Noah would have had to bring these animals to the Ark from their various habitats, and after the Flood they would have migrated back to their original regions. Anyone who thinks about the practicalities of this will see great difficulties in this view. For example: how did the kangaroo get back to Australia from the Middle East after the Flood? How did it cross the seas? How did the three-toed sloth, a creature which can hardly walk on land, get all the way to South America?

  

 

 The Old Creationist View

 The Young Earth Creationist position is a fairly recent one. Before the 1960s most creationists held to the Old Earth Creationist view. According to this position the fossil record really is millions of years old and dinosaurs did roam the earth before Man ever lived. But that world was destroyed (in some undefined way) before Man was created in the Garden of Eden. I have to say, to the scientific mind this seems incredible.

 

 The Darwinian View

According to this, all creatures came into existence by a process of natural selection working on genetic mutations and the process took millions of years. This is the standard scientific theory taught in schools today. Please note: it makes no statement about the existence or non-existence of God. It is simply a description of the mechanism by which species developed from other species. Increasingly, evidence from genetic research is backing up the Darwinian view.

Now science can not make judgements about God. These belong to the realm of faith and theology. But if we are looking at evolution theologically, what positions is it possible to hold? The main theological/philosophical positions are:

· Intelligent Design,

· atheistic evolution,

· theistic evolution.

  

Intelligent Design
 
 This has recently come to the fore in the USA with attempts to have it taught in schools alongside Darwinian evolution. To a Christian, at first, this seems an attractive position. After all, we all as Christians believe in the Creator. He is the Designer, the Architect of all things. But we have to be careful with our terminology here. “Intelligent Design” (when spelled with capital letters) is a term used in a very specific way. According to the adherents of Intelligent Design, evolution proceeds mostly according to natural laws but at certain key points some intelligent being intervenes and alters its course. For a Christian who believes in Intelligent Design that Being is God. He would have intervened at key points in the evolution of creatures to bring about the situation we see today. This is what is meant by the term Intelligent Design – not just the fact that God is the Designer of the universe. That truth is surely best expressed by the theistic view outlined below.

 

 Atheistic Evolution 

This is the view propagated by the likes of Richard Dawkins. According to the adherents of this view, everything happened by chance and there is no God. There is no Creator who framed the universe and ordered its laws. Obviously no Christian can hold this view.  

 

Theistic Evolution
 
 This is the the position I believe a Christian with a scientific outlook can hold. To my mind it is perfectly compatible with an evangelical faith. According to this view, God created all things. He made the universe out of nothing (possibly by means of the “big bang”). He created time and space itself. He framed the laws of nature which made it possible for life to evolve on our planet. These same laws also made it possible for human beings to evolve from the animal kingdom. Rather than saying that God intervened at certain steps along the way ( the view held by the adherents of Intelligent Design) we would say that he controlled the whole process by the laws of nature. We believe in a God who knows about the movements of every atom and subatomic particle in his universe – nothing happens by chance. He doesn’t bring the world into existence and then leave it to run down – like an absent-minded clock maker.

In the words of the Apostle Paul:

Everything was created through him (Christ) and for him.He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together
 
 

 

(Colossians 1: 16-17, New Living Bible)
 And in the words of the writer of Hebrews:
He (Christ) is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
 (Hebrews 1: 3, English Standard Version)
 God is the Creator who goes on creating because he maintains all things by the word of his power, he holds everything together. If he were to cease to do so for even one second, the whole universe would cease to exist.

   

 

Conclusion

 

I have written this article in an attempt to clear up some of the muddle and confusion. For the evolution debate often produces more heat than light! I remember when I was a young biology student in Cardiff. I had only just come to a real faith in Jesus Christ. Religion was one of the many topics we would discuss together as students. Often the discussion would start off with talking about God and Jesus, but then so often, it would veer off down the path of evolution versus creations, and we would never get back to talking about Jesus. Now to me, Jesus Christ is central – our relationship with him is the most important thing in the universe. How sad if we only talk about evolution and never talk about Jesus!

In my ministry I have often deliberately avoided discussing matters of evolution because it alienates some people. For example,if a preacher is a creationist and he or she preaches on that they will alienate many sincere Christians who believe in theistic evolution. If on the other hand the preacher does believe in theistic evolution and preaches it he or she will alienate equally sincere Christians who are fundamentalists. A preacher who speaks about the ideas of Intelligent Design will probably alienate both groups!

As believers in Jesus I think we can agree to concentrate on the main issue – our faith in Christ – and agree to differ on the matters which are not central to our salvation. We can all agree to reject the propaganda being put forward by the like of Richard Dawkins. Whatever some people may say, science does not promote atheism. It can not, and never will be able to disprove the existence of God.

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John Calvin

July 18, 2009 at 7:56 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

 

Introduction

You may or may not know that the official title of our denomination is the Calvinistic Methodist or Presbyterian Church of Wales. On the English-speaking side of our Connexion we tend to use the term Presbyterian, but on the Welsh-speaking side the term Calvinistic Methodist is still often used. In Welsh “Calvinistic Methodism” is translated as Methodistiaeth Galfinaidd – or “Galvanized Methodists” as one elderly Welsh lady called them in English! (Oh, that we were indeed galvanized Methodists – electrified into action by the power of the Holy Spirit! ) But we are, in fact, Calvinist, not galvanized Methodists.

All Presbyterian churches are Calvinist (in name at least, if not always in doctrine). It was Calvin who first set up the Presbyterian system of church government in Geneva, with the church controlled by a group of elders rather than just one minister or priest.

Another word which is used as a synonym for Calvinist or Presbyterian is “Reformed” – as in Dutch Reformed Church, or United Reformed Church. Our Presbyterian churches sprang out of the Reformation, and in particular the Calvinistic Reformation centred in Geneva . (How we, in Wales, came also to be Methodists is another story, for another day! )

 

500 years of Calvinism

But why am I talking about Calvinism and Presbyterianism? Well on the 10th July 1509 John Calvin was born. That means that two weeks ago we celebrated his 500th. anniversary.

 [ For information about Calvin's life may I recommend the article in the July Treasury by by Rev. Dr Eifion Evans. http://www.ebc Presbyterian Church of Wales.org.uk/en/publications/treasury/09-07-01.pdf ]

Last year I gave a sermon on Luther and the Reformation, so we can’t let Calvin’s anniversary go by without reference to him also. He was just as important as Luther – although perhaps he does not feature so much in the public mind. This is partly because Calvin was a self-effacing man. He was also rather reserved and perhaps a bit distant in his manner. (Luther, on the other hand was very much a man of the people, even a bit crude at times, he was quick tempered and had a pretty interesting and eventful life.) Calvin’s life was less exiting to read about.

But Calvin was a man of influence, whose thinking has tremendously influenced our modern world. We have heard a lot about Charles Darwin over the last few months as the media have been celebrating his 200th anniversary. There is no doubt that Darwin is a highly significant figure, and worth commemorating. He has changed the whole aspect of biological sciences. But what about Calvin? I don’t recall seeing even one television programme about him, yet Calvin’s influence has spread far wider than even Darwin’s.

Calvinism has greatly shaped our modern world. The early Pilgrim Fathers and most of the first settlers in America were Calvinists – either Puritans, or Dutch Reformed Church, or Scots-Irish Presbyterians. The so-called Protestant work-ethic ( by which we mean largely, Calvinist, work-ethic) has made possible the Industrial Revolution and the commercial success of Britain as a nation.

Modern science and technology owes a great deal to Protestant influence. Where would science be if we still had to look to the Pope to tell us whether or not the Earth went around the Sun. Galileo was persecuted by the Catholic Church of his time. He wouldn’t have had that problem had he been a Calvinist! ( Galileo was born in 1564 – the year in which Calvin died.) There might not have been modern scientific advance without the Reformation.

Yes, Calvin has been very influential but the world takes very little notice and generally ignores Calvin. I did an Internet search for Calvin and came up with:

· Calvin and Hobbes, the cartoon characters

· Calvin Klein, the underwear designer

· and finally, John Calvin the reformer.

 

 And when the world does take note of Calvinism it is usually in a hostile way. The stereotypical view is of the dour Wee Free in the Highlands of Scotland or the bigoted Ulster Protestant. The word Calvinist, to most people, suggests someone who wants to stop you enjoying yourself.

So is this true? What was Calvin really like?

Is it possible to be a moderate Calvinist?

Can you be a Calvinist and enjoy yourself?

 Is Calvinism relevant to the modern world?

I shall attempt to address some of these questions now. In doing so I know that many of you were not brought up as Presbyterians. You come from Baptist, Methodist, Anglican, Roman Catholic, or Pentecostal backgrounds. You may not feel that you are Calvinists.

The same could be said of many who were brought up in our Connexion. As a denomination we have never made a great deal about being Calvinists, and most members of the Presbyterian Church of Wales probably would not be able to say much about Calvinist theology.

So first of all, an outline of his life:

 

John Calvin

John Calvin (10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564), né Jean Cauvin, was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530. After religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland, where in 1536 he published the first edition of his seminal work Institutes of the Christian Religion. In that year, Calvin was invited by William Farel to help reform the church in Geneva. The city council resisted the implementation of Calvin and Farel’s ideas, and both men were expelled. At the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg, where he became the minister of a church of French refugees. He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and was eventually invited back to lead its church. Following his return, he introduced new forms of church government and liturgy, despite the opposition of several powerful families in the city who tried to curb his authority. (Wikipedia)

 

What did Calvin believe?

The priesthood of all believers

Calvin believed that all Christian believers have access to God through Jesus Christ, without having to go through a priest.

 

The Presbyterian system

He believed that the local church should be run by a group of elders who are all equal in status. One of the elders is the minister who has special role of teaching and pastoral care. This is the Presbyterian system of church government. There is no hierarchy as there is in the Episcopal churches. Ministers, officers, elders and members are all equal in status – they just have different roles with regard to leadership.

There are no bishops. In the Presbyterian Church of Wales, for example, we have a Moderator and we also have a General Secretary – but in no way do I regard either of these people as my boss! We are equal in status.

 

God’s grace and man’s depravity

Calvin believed in the grace of God and in the complete sinfulness of human nature. Without God’s grace there is no way we can please God. Human beings are made in the image of God, but that image was spoilt by sin. We are unable to find God by their own effort, we need God’s grace in the first place to even begin to seek him. We can not reach up to God by our own effort – he has to reach down to us to raise us up.

 

Election and predestination

Calvin believed in the sovereignty of God and in the eternal security of those who believe truly in Jesus. Like the Apostle Paul Calvin believed in predestination and the election of those who believe.

( Romans 8: 28 – 30 ) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

This is a very knotty and controversial topic which I do not intend to go into now. Suffice to say that it is found in the Bible, in the writings of Paul, and that it requires quite a lot of theological and philosophical subtlety to discuss this topic in a way which is not over simplistic.

 

The Great Exchange

These are some of the themes that Calvin and the Calvinists stressed but what was at the very centre of Calvin’s faith may be seen in these words:

“This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, He has made with us;

· that, becoming Son of man with us, He has made us sons of God with Him;

· that, by His descent to earth, He has prepared an ascent to heaven for us;

· that, by taking on our mortality, he has conferred His immortality upon us;

· that, accepting our weakness, He has strengthened us by His power;

· that, receiving our poverty into Himself, He has transferred His wealth to us;

· that,taking the weight of our iniquity upon Himself (which oppressed us), He has clothed us with His righteousness.”

 

Conclusion

If you were to ask me “Are you a Calvinist?” I would say, “Yes, but a Christian first. Then a Calvinist, then a member of the Presbyterian Church of Wales if you were to ask me, “Do you believe everything Calvin taught?” Then I would have to say, “No”. And that is true probably of most Presbyterian Church of Wales ministers. For Calvin, and for us, the most important thing is to be a Christian, a follower of Christ.

 

[Sermon preached at the Brecon Presbyrian Church, 19th. July 2009 ]

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Möbius strip

July 15, 2009 at 9:50 pm · Filed under God the Father, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , ,

A Möbius Strip

 

Talk (A)

Produce three paper loops.Demonstrate cutting in two longitudinally:

·  simple loop    =    results in two separate loops
·  loop with one half twist =     results in one large loop
·  loop with two half twists   =     results in  two linked loops

 

Application:

 
·  Two loops: God and us, we are separated from God by sin, self-centredness. Every human being is like this by nature.

·  One big loop:   Jesus. He is different . The only man who never sinned. He is perfectly at one with God. “I and the father are one,” Jesus said  (John 10: 30). “then they took up stones to stone him” for blasphemy.

·  Two interlocking loops:  this is us, linked to God for eternity. When we believe in Jesus, when we turn away from evil, when we ask Jesus to rule our lives,  then we are linked to God. Our sins are forgiven, we become new people and we share in the life of God’s
eternity.  Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  ( Romans 8:35–39)
Recap: two loops – we are separated from God
  one large loop – Jesus is one with God
  two interlocked loops – in Jesus we are joined to God.

 

  

Talk (B)  Möbius Strip

 

[show Möbius strip]
This kind of loop is called a Möbius Strip.  It is a loop with a twist in it.

Can anyone think of somewhere where you can see a Möbius loop in everyday life?  How about at the recycling centre?
The universal symbol for recycling is a Möbius loop in the form of a triangle:

See full size image

 

 Why is it called a Möbius loop? after August Ferdinand Möbius, a German mathematician. he discovered it and studies its amazing mathematical properties. (I’m afraid  we haven’t got time to go into all those equations, etc! )

Let me just  show you something strange: If I draw a line along the strip it comes back to where it was at the beginning. So what? That would happen with any loop. Yes,  but look: the line seems to be drawn on both sides, but it can’t be. I did not allow the pen to cross over the edge! I only drew on one side. If an ant was walking along this strip it would have gone right around the whole strip without once crossing over he edge.

You see: a Möbius strip has only one side – even thought it is a 3-dimensional object!
Most things have got more than one side. A sheet of paper has two, a book has six (think about it). What about a ball? That’s only got one side. (Unless it’s hollow then it’s got an inside and an outside.)
So a Möbius strip is like a sphere,even though it looks very different. Like a sphere it has only one side.Now here is the mathematical symbol for infinity:  

See full size image 

But some people  think the Möbius strip is an even better symbol. You see, it just goes on and on, and never ends Also, it includes both side in one. It is a bit like God! He is infinite and eternal, he goes on for ever. He also covers everything. He is everywhere and he combines in his nature various attributes that we might think are opposites.

For example: God is perfectly good and holy, he can not look upon sin and evil,  but at the same time he is perfectly loving and forgiving.
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  (1 John 1:5) 
 - that refers to his holiness. He can not tolerate evil.

But at the same time:
“God is love”  (1 John 4:16).
- God loves us and yearns for us to come to him and know his forgiveness.
One part of his nature has to punish our sins but another part has to forgive our sins. These two seem to be in opposition.  How can God forgive the sinner and punish the sin at the same time?
Well, in Jesus he has done it.  He has done the seemingly impossible. Just as the Möbius strip brings together two sides into one, so Jesus brings together God’s holiness and his mercy. When Jesus died on the cross he took our sin upon himself. He was punished in our place. At the cross God’s holiness and God’s love come together.

Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.    (Psalm 85:10, New American Standard Bible )

 

 

 Talk (C)  The Holy Trinity

[Demonstrate cutting a strip with three half turns in it. Straighten it out into a trefoil knot.  (Girl Guides should know this!)

 

See full size image

 

 

 

 

 

It's just one loop, but it is knotted in such a way that it looks like three interlocking loops. Amazing, isn't it? And our God is amazing too. Far more amazing than this. For he is three Persons in one God.

So this trefoil knot is a symbol of the Holy Trinity. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are three distinct persons. But they are only one God.  Just one Being. You can not separate them. They are bound together eternally in love and holiness. And such is the love of our God, the Lord, the Holy Trinity, that he actually came into our world in the person of the Son.  Jesus came to bring salvation to us.

[Recap the first talk with the various loops.]

This talk was given in the Brecon Presbyterian Church at a service of worship for all ages.

 

 

 

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The Prayer of Jabez

June 27, 2009 at 10:48 am · Filed under Old testament, Prayer ·Tagged , , ,

 

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request.  (1 Chronicles 4:10 )

Some years ago I was in a Christian bookshop in Cardiff, browsing the shelves, when I saw something that caught my attention – “Prayer of Jabez Plaque”. I thought, “Whatever is that?” I looked at it, read the prayer on it from 1 Chronicles 4, and thought, “That’s nice”. Then I looked around and saw a whole shelf of merchandise linked to this prayer of Jabez – book-marks, plaques, key rings – all sorts of things. I thought, “There’s something going on here.” Little did I realise that this was the biggest thing in Christian publishing and merchandising for a long time.

 

Prayer of Jabez coffee mug!

 

How strange! Until recently, hardly anyone had heard of Jabez. All we know of him is in a few verses in 1 Chronicles. Now he has suddenly become the centre of a vast enterprise .  Bruce Wilkinson is the man behind it all. He wrote a book on the Prayer of Jabez which became an international best-seller, topping the New York Times best-seller list and selling nine million copies. It has been embraced by Evangelicals, Catholics, Fundamentalists, and even by non-christians!

 

A prayer or a mantra?

Here is the full text of this prayer from 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

Jabez was more honourable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, I gave birth to him in pain. Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request.

 
A recipe for success?

Bruce Wilkinson has taken this simple prayer from the Old Testament and used it as a basis for a whole philosophy of life.  I think I can see why  this  is so popular, and why so many people use the Prayer of Jabez as a kind of good luck charm.

The Jabez Prayer is a cry to God for success and to be delivered from pain and evil. It is very natural to want to pray this kind of prayer. (And Jesus did tell us to pray to be delivered from evil.) But some people see the prayer of Jabez as a recipe for success in life -  and not just spiritual success. Jabez prayed that God would increase his territory and God answered his prayer. Some people think in terms of increasing their material wealth.

 
Vain repetition?

Jesus did teach his disciples to pray for their daily needs, as well as for God’s Kingdom to come, and that they might be delivered form the power of the Evil One. So it’s not wrong to pray, asking things for yourself. But Jesus also warned his disciples against using any prayer  as a kind of mantra – something you repeat over and over again, hoping it will bring success.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.   Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.       (Matthew 6:7-8)

The trouble with much of the literature associated with the Jabez Prayer is that it encourages people to do just that. To keep repeating the same prayer over and over.

 
A formula for blessing?

In the preface to his book Wilkinson writes:
“I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief – only one sentence with four parts – and tucked away in the Bible, but I  believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God … I challenge you to make the Jabez prayer for blessing part of the daily fabric of your life. To do that I encourage you to follow unwaveringly the plan outlined here for he next thirty days. By the end of that time you’ll be noticing significant changes in your life, and the prayer will be on its way to becoming a treasured lifelong habit.”

In other words, the claim is  that if we just pray the Prayer of Jabez, word for word, every day for a month, then we’ll see Gods power released in our lives. Was it that Jabez stumbled upon the right formula for asking things of God? I don’t think so -  prayer is not a matter of getting a technique right. Prayer is all about our relationship with God. It’s a matter of learning to wait on God and to experience his help and power in our lives. The working of that power might indeed bring worldly success and wealth, but then it is just as likely to involve a life of poverty or persecution. Indeed, to judge by the general tenor of Jesus’ teaching, you could say it is more likely to be the latter.

 

 

A pattern of prayer

Now, I’ve been negative so far in what I’ve said about how some people use the Prayer of Jabez but I don’t want to give the impression there is anything wrong with the actual prayer itself.  Far from it, it is a gem  of a  prayer, and all the more precious in that it is set in the midst of all these dry-as-dust genealogies in 1 Chronicles!

I think that for many of us, brought up in the Presbyterian Church, nurtured in a Calvinistic way of looking at things, there is no danger of getting bogged down in prosperity teaching. The danger is the opposite. Perhaps some of us have been taught to believe that it is wrong and selfish to pray for ourselves, that you should never ask things for your own benefit. I have heard that view expressed. Well, the Jabez Prayer can perhaps help us to see that it is not wrong to ask things for ourselves. ( Although we should be able to see this from the Lord’s Prayer.) If we put God first in our lives surely we do have the right to believe that he will provide all that is needful for us to serve him.
What then can we learn from the Prayer of Jabez?

 
1) Jabez was more honourable than his brothers

The word could mean more “distinguished”, or even more “honoured”, than his brothers. However I think it might mean that he had a greater concern for the honour of God. He asked great things from he Lord because he believed that the Lord was  a great God.

Once there was a philosopher in the court of Alexander the great. He was of outstanding ability, but was very poor. So he asked Alexander for financial help, and was told to draw whatever he needed from the Imperial Treasury. So he asked the treasurer for an amount equal to about £30,000 in our money. Of course the the treasurer refused. But Alexander said, “Pay the money at once. This man has done me a singular honour. By the largeness of his request he shows that he has understood both my wealth and my generosity.”
One hymn writer says:

Thou art coming to a King;
Large petitions with thee bring.
For his grace and power are such
None can ever ask too much.      (John Newton

Jabez also had that kind of faith. Have we?

 

 

 2) His mother had named him Jabez, saying, I gave birth to him in pain.

She had named him Jabez because he had been born in pain – she had had a terrible time in labour. Jabez, in the Hebrew language, means “he causes pain”.

Such a name would have been seen as a very bad omen in those days. The Hebrews had an almost magical understanding of the effect of names. To be called Jabez ( he causes pain) was almost like a curse. But by his faith Jabez turned the curse into a blessing. That’s why he is mentioned in 1 Chronicles.

 
3) Jabez cried out to the God of Israel

He cried out to the God of Israel no doubt in his concern to avoid making a disaster of his life, and thus fulfil the meaning of his name. He was also concerned for the honour of God. He cried out, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!”

In these words we are reminded of the prophet Isaiah:
Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.   (Isaiah 54:2)

In Christian terms this can be seen as a prayer for the extension of God’s Kingdom. Both texts have been an inspiration to many pioneer missionaries, eager to extend the Kingdom of Christ. Do we cry to God like this?
“Oh that you would extend the borders of your Kingdom Lord! Oh that more people would come to know Christ’s love and power! Oh that the people of this city would turn to you!  Oh that the Church would grow in numbers and in spiritual depth!”

Do you pray like that for your city, for your church, for the members of your family? That they will come to know God?

Jesus taught us to say: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done”.  Do we pray that way.

 
4) Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

Matthew Henry comments: He prayed that God’s hand might be with him. God’s hand with us to lead us, protect us, strengthen us, and to work all our works in us, is a hand all-sufficient for us”.

“Free from pain” – this is a very natural thing to pray for. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
“Do not bring us to the time of hard testing” is an alternative translation.
Jabez was very concerned that he might suffer harm and pain because of his name.

 Matthew Henry comments:  He prayed that God would keep him from evil, the evil of sin, the evil of trouble, all the evil designs of his enemies, that they might not hurt, nor make him a Jabez indeed, a man of sorrow. God granted that which he requested. God is ever ready to  hear prayer: his ear is not now heavy.”

 

 

5) And God granted his request

This is the whole point of the passage. Jabez and his prayer feature in the book of Chronicles because something amazing happened in his life. This prayer is spiritual dynamite! Not in the way that some people would want to use it - as some kind of mantra to be recited - but as an inspiration to faith.

In the nineteenth century John Hyde the missionary was inspired by this verse to start a life of faith and prayer that resulted in him being known  by the nickname “Praying Hyde”.

Are we also prepared to be inspired by the Prayer of Jabez?

 

[Sermon preached in Park End Presbyterian Church, Cardiff, June 16th. 2009]

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The Serenity Prayer

June 27, 2009 at 9:59 am · Filed under Christian living ·Tagged , , ,

 

 Proverbs 8:1-12, Luke 10:25-37,  James 1:1-8

Introduction

Today I want to look at a prayer which is very popular. It’s not from the Bible but you see it everywhere – on plaques, on cards, on bookmarks.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

This is usually known as the Serenity Prayer. It was written by Reinhold Niebuhr as part of a longer prayer.

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and pastor in the early part of the last century. In 1915 the Mission Board of his denomination (the Evangelical and Reformed Church) sent him to Detroit as a pastor. He served there for 13 years, during which time his congregation grew from 65 to nearly 700. (The increase was no doubt partly due to the tremendous growth of the automobile industry in Detroit.) Niebuhr composed this prayer in 1932. In 1939 it came to the attention of a member of Alcoholics Anonymous who liked it so much that it was taken up by the AA. Cards were printed and passed around and this simple prayer became an integral part of the AA movement.

 The prayer is today so popular that it might seem to be a bit trite, yet it is actually very profound.

 

 God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

Now serenity is not the same as complacency. It is all about accepting that there are certain things in life we are not meant to change. Maybe, in his divine plan, God intends someone  else to change them. Maybe they cannot be changed by any human agency at all.

The Apostle Paul had learned this kind of serenity when he wrote:

 I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.     (Philippians 4:11-12 )

What sort of things we can not change? The weather, the financial markets, international affairs. Indeed we have very little direct influence over these things. You know, some people live in a state of constant forboding. The weather forecast is bad for today so they expect foul weather. But often the expected bad weather doesn’t materialise. Or they get depressed with the news.

I knew a lady in North Wales – her name was Hannah. Hannah was housebound and spent a lot of time watching daytime television and listening to the radio. Every hour there was a news bulletin reminding her of the terrible things happening in the world. Hannah used to get really upset. I think it is a good thing to take a rest from the news sometimes. Remember: there are many good things happening in the world that you don’t hear about on the news.

In a perfect world everyone who worked hard would be rewarded with the appropriate exam results, job prospects and family happiness. In reality we know that those who work hard are not always rewarded. Sometimes those who just happen to be in the right place at the right time reap the reward. So often it is just by chance. A pop singer is discovered by a talent scout and becomes a great star. But there are hundreds of other performers just as good who never made it.

The Bible has something to say about this phenomenon:

The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.       (Ecclesiastes  9:11)

There is really nothing we can do about this but accept it philosophically and trust in God. Perhaps we should avoid the kind of fatalism seen in other religions. In Islam people just say “It’s the will of Allah” and accept it. Perhaps we should avoid that kind of fatalism, but nonetheless there has to be some kind of acceptance of those things that can not be changed.  “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change”.

I think we need to also realise that we can not change people.

A bride was very nervous just before her wedding day. At the rehearsal, the Vicar said to her, “Now don’t worry, you don’t have to remember a lot. Just come down the aisle on your father’s arm, stand by the Groom at the altar, and then we sing a hymn. Remember Aisle – Altar – Hymn.”

Well she practiced these words over and over again. As she came down the aisle in her nervous state the Bride was repeating the words to herself: “Aisle – Altar – Hymn. Aisle – Altar – Hymn.”  Or, as it sounded to the Groom, “I’ll alter him!”

Well it’s true, often people get married to someone who has faults or habits they don’t like. They think they will be able to change them after they are married. But it doesn’t work like that. You have to love a person as they are. Otherwise it can lead to disaster.
Often people say that we ministers ought to do more telling people how they ought to live their lives. “Tell them the right way to live, then that will sort out their problems”  Isn’t this  a very superficial view? Experience shows that simply telling people makes no difference at all. the Holy Spirit has to work in their, hearts convincing them, before they will change. God can change people – we can’t.

It is one of the great points of the Calvinistic branch of Christianity (to which we belong) that we believe in the Sovereignty of God. His the one who makes the changes – we are his instruments and his co-workers. How often have we heard people say, “I was converted by Billy Graham”  – or some other evangelist. that person’s life was indeed changed,  but it wasn’t Billy Graham who did it – and he would have been the first to say so.

As preacher I can’t convert people. I can’t pressurize people to come to church – I can’t change people’s habits. But God can. I need to learn the lesson of serenity – to accept the things I can’t change. Do you?

 
Courage to change the things I can

What is often seen in eastern countries, where the prevailing philosophy is Hindu or Buddhist, is the idea that you must not intervene when you see a needy or suffering person. what is happening to them is supposed to be the result of their Karma. They have to suffer to expiate sins committed in a previous incarnation. Don’t interfere with the will of the gods.

Now Christianity is the opposite of this. If you see a needy person you should try to help them – to do what you can. Not to even try is to fail as a Christian, according to the teaching of Jesus in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Some things you can’t change, but a great many other things you can. The Samaritan couldn’t stop the man being attacked. He couldn’t stop the Jews and Samaritans hating one another. But he could at least care for the injured man. And it takes courage to be a Good Samaritan.

It takes courage to change things. It takes courage to stand up for truth and justice. It takes courage to speak out against evil.

·  In the Old Testament, Daniel and his friends had this kind of courage.

·  In our day we see this kind of courage in people like Aung Suu Kyi, the democracy campaigner in Burma. And Christians in Saudi Arabia who are prepared to go to prison for their faith.

Some things in life can be changed – by campaigning, by protesting, by praying.

It was protesting and praying that brought down the Iron Curtain. And the apartheid regime in South Africa. There are things we can do to change the world. We can, for example, support the movement for Fair Trade.

Over the centuries social reformers have campaigned to abolish slavery, to stop children going down mines and up chimneys, to improve prison conditions. Almost all these reforms were carried out by Evangelical Christians with a strong belief in prayer and the sovereignty of God, and in the life hereafter. But that didn’t stop them campaigning to improve things in this life too.

There are things we can change. We ministers can’t change people, but we can preach the Gospel which, under God’s sovereignty, can change people.

You can’t convert your neighbours to the Christian faith, but you can be a good neighbour to them and help them in any need. That might open the door. yes, there is a lot we can do to change things, and often it requires courage.

 
Wisdom to know the difference

How essential this is. I could give you a list of things, as long as my arm, that I think need to be changed in the world. And you could give me an equally long list. But we could both be wasting our time. God has got works for each of us to do – so I must concentrate on what he has for me. We need to discern God’s will for us. We need wisdom.

Many people fret about things that they can’t change. They waste time and energy in trying to change them. Others fail to act when they can. They can’t see what needs changing. They have become complacent. Wisdom can save us from  both these errors.

The Apostle James writes:

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.   ( James 1: 5-6  )

 

 
Conclusion

May God give us all serenity, courage and wisdom to make a difference in the world in which we live.

Let us pray:

(the full version of the Serenity Prayer)
 
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will.

That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with him forever in the next.   Amen.

[Sermon preached in Park End Presbyterian Church, Cardiff, June 16th. 2009]

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With Jesus in the boat

June 22, 2009 at 7:27 pm · Filed under Jesus Christ, New Testament, Suffering ·Tagged , , ,

 

 

Mark 4: 35-41

Introduction

“With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm, Smile at the storm, Smile at the storm, With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm, As we go sailing home.”         (Children’s chorus based on this incident in Mark.)

 

A storm at sea

Jesus had been working hard, teaching the crowds, healing the sick. He was exhausted. So he said to his disciples, “Let’s get in a boat and go to the other side of the lake”. That was the Gentile side – he knew it was unlikely that any Jewish people would want to go there. Jesus climbed into the boat just as he was and lay down on a fisherman’s leather cushion at the stern of the boat. Within a short while he was fast asleep – worn out. And so they set off in their boat, and a few other small boats with some other followers of Jesus went with them.

Now, weather conditions on Lake Galilee are treacherous. The hillsides and valleys all around the lake funnel the winds. Sometimes a squall can blow up out of nowhere, with no warning. That’s what happened here. One moment all was peaceful and calm, the next they were struggling against strong winds and huge waves. The waves were breaking over the boat and they were in danger of being swamped. The disciples panicked – but there was Jesus, fast asleep! One is reminded of Jonah fast asleep, below deck on the ship to Tarshish. The difference is that in Jonah’s case, his sleep was an escape from a guilty conscience. In the case of Jesus it was sheer physical and mental tiredness. He was asleep and he was at peace.

All this was too much for the disciples. “Master don’t you care if we drown?” they cried, as they tried to rouse him. Jesus rubbed his eyes, got slowly to his feet, and in a loud clear voice said, “Quiet, be still!” Jesus spoke to the storm just as you might command a barking dog to be quiet. And the wind just petered out, the waves died down, and calm came over the sea.

“Why are you so frightened?” he said to his disciples. “Do you still have no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and fear. “Who is this, even the wind and the waves obey him?” It was fear that had led them to awake the master. Now he is awake it is replaced with a much more profound awe and fear. Who is this man?

At the beginning of this incident we see a very human Jesus. He lies down in the stern of the boat just as he is: unwashed, unfed, totally worn out. He seeks the oblivion and restorative power of sleep. This is a very human Jesus. He is so obviously a man, and we can all identify with him. But when he calms the storm they see his divine power. Here is a man who can control the weather with a single word of command. We see no magic mumbo-jumbo here, no incantations, no spells. Not even an invocation of the name of Jehovah. By his own power Jesus stills the storm, with a word of command. And the wind and waves obey him.

Who is this man? He’s more than just a man. What then, an angel? A semi-divine being? No, something more than that. For the disciples this was the beginning of a steep learning curve that will lead ultimately to Thomas’s great words of faith: “My Lord and my God!” The recognition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

 

Storms of life

Now we, as followers of the Risen One, also believe that Jesus is Lord and God. We also believe he has power to calm storms. Like many preachers, and commentators, and hymnwriters of the past, we can see a parallel with the storms of life which Jesus can calm.

“Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?

When the strong tides lift and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?

“We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,

Fastened to the Rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.”

 

And:

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake To guide the future as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.”

 

what do we mean by “the storms of life”? Well, I suppose, all the “heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to”, as Shakespeare says in Hamlet.

We are thinking of all the trials and difficulties we face at times. For one person it might be financial crisis of debt. For another: life-threatening illness. Or it could be bereavement. It could be be pain and disability. It could be rejection and opposition, perhaps persecution for one’s faith, or because of one’s race. Some might suffer slander and backbiting. Others might be worried about loved ones: their safety, their heath, their moral or spiritual well-being. It might be the burden of broken relationships or divorce. It might be the pressure of work or the stress of responsibility. It might be the loss of a job or the pain of long-term unemployment. It might be the intolerable burden of caring for someone else. This is a far from comprehensive list. I’m sure some of you could add to it from your own experience.

 

With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm

Whatever the storms of life may be, we know we are safe if the Lord is with us. Those disciples were safe as long as Jesus was in the boat with them, even when he was asleep! God would look after him: it was not his destiny to drown in Lake Galilee. Rather, he was to go on to die at Calvary. That was God’s plan. Yes, “With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm”.

But notice this: Jesus has to be in the boat with us. Have we got Jesus on board?

Our church, the Presbyterian Church of Wales, faces many storms at present – have we got Jesus on board with us? If we are seeking to glorify him, then we will weather the storms.

We have storms in our lives too. Ask yourself: “Have I got Jesus on board? Is he the Lord of my life? Does he rule my actions? Do I know him as my Saviour? If the answer is “yes”, then I can face the storms of life that come at me. The Lord is in the vessel of my life, I need not fear the storms. And if, perchance, he does not calm the storm, then he will give strength to endure it. If we have Jesus on board, then we can face the storms. But if we don’t yield our lives to him, then there is no way we can expect his help in our lives.

 

Conclusion

So, once again, the call is to follow the Risen Christ, who is Lord and God in human form. “Immanuel: God with us.” He will be with us in the boat as long as we have invited him on board.

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The Holy Spirit in the Church

June 8, 2009 at 7:43 pm · Filed under Christian living, The Church, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , , ,

 
 
 

 (based on a sermon outline by Roger Campbell, p179 in Preach for a Year # 1 )

Acts 11: 9-14, 2: 1-8, 42-27

 When God’s Son came into the world, the world did not know him, even though the world was made by him. That was the coming of God’s Son into the world. After he had returned to heaven he sent the Holy Spirit, and it was the same old story. The world did not recognise him. Indeed, on the Day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, some people just said they were drunk!

And since then in the history of the Church there have been times when people have not recognised the Holy Spirit. And they have forgotten about him. They have gone about the Christian life as if it were just a matter of keeping laws, man-made rules and regulations in one’s own strength. The Holy Spirit is in the Church, and the Church was made by the Holy Spirit, but at times the Church knows him not.

What a difference it would make to our Christianity if every individual member of the Church were to be filled with the Holy Spirit! We can look into the Book of Acts to see what that situation would be like. What is a church like when it lives in the renewing power of the Holy Spirit?

We can note three things:

 

1)  From weaklings to witnesses (Acts 1:8)

The early chapters of Acts show us the followers of Jesus, just after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Just before he ascended to heaven Jesus met with his disciples and they asked him some questions:

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (V6)

In other words: “Is it now time for us to go out in your name and bring in the Kingdom of God?”

Jesus said, “Not yet.”

“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you (v7-8)

You must wait first until the Holy Spirit comes upon you – you will not carry out this work in your own strength.

 

When we consider the weakness of that first group of disciples we are amazed at what they were able to achieve in the power of the Holy Spirit.Remember just who they were:

· There was Peter who had denied his Lord in a moment of crisis.

· There was Philip whose faith was weak, who had asked, “Lord show us the Father and then we will believe.”

· There was Thomas who doubted the Resurrection of the Lord.

· And there were all the other disciples, cowering behind locked doors for fear of the Authorities.

These are the people Jesus took, and filled with his Spirit, and used to turn the world upside down.

However weak we may be in our own human strength we will be witnesses to Christ when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

 

2)  From faction to fellowship  (Acts 4:32)

There was the possibility of all kinds of faction and division in the early Church. Those first followers were such a disparate group of people. Some had been fishermen: others tax gatherers. Some had been Zealots, fighting against the Romans: others had worked for the Romans. Some had lived highly moral lives others had been crooks or prostitutes.

Before the death of Jesus his disciples had quarrelled about who was going to be the most important in the Kingdom. After the Resurrection there was still the question of Peter’s denial, Thomas’s lack of belief, the other disciples forsaking Jesus at his arrest. Yes, there were plenty of possible causes for recriminations and dispute.

But after the coming of the Holy Spirit they are united in heart, mind and will

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed any of his possessions were his own, but they shared everything they had.” (Acts 4:32)

The Holy Spirit had united them with a bond of love that was far more important to them than mere possessions.

It is always so with the Holy Spirit. When he is at work he brings unity and love among the members in the local church. When the Christians truly love one another, then their work of outreach is not compromised. But if there are divisions in the church, how can they expect to be able to bring in others?

Sadly some of the very churches which make the greatest claims about the work of he Holy Spirit are riven by internal divisions. Such division between groups of people who both believe in Jesus is a sure sign that the Holy Spirit is not being given his rightful place. However much lip-service may be paid to the work of the Spirit – if there is division, then he is not being given his rightful place.

 

 

3) Growth without gimmickry (Acts 4: 33)

In the Book of Acts, every time we see the Holy Spirit at work in the church we also see growth.

· 3000 people were converted on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 41)

· After Peter and John had been arrested, the number of believers rose to 5000 men (not counting women and children). (Acts 4: 4)

· After the incident with Ananias and Sapphira, multitudes were added to their number. (Acts 5: 14)

· “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6: 7)

 

This was church growth in New Testament times.

· It was not the result of a strategy drawn up by a committee.

· It was not attained by adhering to “church growth principles”.

· It was not the result of massive evangelistic rallies with world-famous names on the platform.

· It was not the outcome of natural gifts and abilities.

· It was not brought about by gimmicks.

Such things are often used today to try and whip up revival. But without the power of the Holy Spirit none of these things will produce real growth. And by that I mean growth in depth of faith and love, as well as growth in numbers. And the Book of Acts shows us that the Holy Spirit does not need any of these things to produce revival!

Aren’t you tired of gimmicks? I am.

All we need is what those first disciples had: we see it in Acts 2 as they waited in the upper room.

They joined together to pray and to worship God in the name of Christ. They waited on God with a humble spirit.

Are we prepared to do this?

 

If we are, then we too can be:

· changed from Weaklings to Witnesses,

· our relationships can be mended as we go from Faction to Fellowship,

· and converts will join the Church as we experience Growth without Gimmicks.

If only we will trust God for his power.

 

 

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Pentecost Power

June 5, 2009 at 6:12 pm · Filed under New Testament, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , ,

 

Acts chapter 2

(Sermon Preached in Brecon Presbyterian Church on Sunday 31 May 2009)

Today is Pentecost Sunday – although I don’t ever recall it being called that when I was a child in Park End Church, Cardiff. I can’t remember it being called anything but Whit Sunday. In those days Whitsun was a bank holiday and Whit Monday was always the day for the Whitsun Treat. I remember us as children clambering onto a lorry with Sunday school benches roped to it. We clung on to those benches for dear life as the lorry climbed the steep hill out of Cardiff,  up to some farmer’s field, where we had games and a picnic. There didn’t seem to be any Health and Safety regulations in those days!

I think, to most of us, the the religious significance of Whitsun was completely lost. We must have been taught about it in Sunday School but I don’t ever recall hearing about the coming of the Holy Spirit. For children today it probably has even less significance. It’s not even called Whitsun now, it’s the Late Spring Bank Holiday, and it doesn’t always happen on Whit weekend.

By the way, if you’re wondering about the origin of the phrase Whit Sunday, it comes from the time when confirmations were always held at Pentecost. The candidates for confirmation all wore white robes and dresses: hence White or Whit Sunday.

 

Rumours

But how can we get back to the true meaning of Whitsun? It helps a bit, I think, to call it Pentecost because that reminds us of the events we read about in Acts Chapter two. On the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, when Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims from everywhere Jews lived, the Holy Spirit came. He came upon an obscure group of Galilean fishermen and ex tax-collectors who were followers of Jesus of Nazareth -  Jesus who had been crucified seven weeks previously. On that day, Good Friday, the Sun had been darkened, there had been an earthquake and the heavy curtain in the Temple had been torn in two  – momentous and apocalyptic events.

A week later there were rumours going around that Jesus had risen from the dead and had been seen by his disciples. His tomb was empty and his body gone – the Jewish and Roman authorities didn’t know what to make of it.

And still the rumours kept coming. More and more people said they had met with the risen Jesus – on a mountaintop, by Lake Galilee, in Jerusalem behind locked doors, in the village of Emmaus. Jesus kept popping up everywhere! But despite these appearances of the risen Lord his followers seemed to be pretty intimidated. They were scared of the authorities. They didn’t want to risk facing jail and crucifixion, so they met in secret. No doubt the authorities hoped all this religious enthusiasm would die down. After a while surely people would realise Jesus was dead. And then his followers would disperse – going back to their old lives as fishermen, etc. That’s what the authorities hoped, but how wrong they were!

About six weeks after the Passover there were more rumours rumours going round. This time it was claimed that Jesus had gone back to heaven. Some of his followers even claimed to have been at his ascension. It all seemed too ridiculous to be true to the authorities, but his followers continued to believe in him. They started holding daily prayer meetings in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem. They were waiting for something to happen – the coming of that mysterious power Jesus had promised them.
“Do not leave Jerusalem,” he had said, “but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”      (Acts 1:4)

And that’s what they were waiting for.

 

 

A storm of spiritual power

Then, ten days after the Ascension, it happened. On  the Day of Pentecost there was a sound like a rushing wind, something that looked like tongues of flame resting on each follower of Jesus. Every one was filled with the Holy Spirit, They felt a new joy and peace and love, a new power. They started praising God in strange tongues. It all happened at once. That quiet little upper room in Jerusalem suddenly became the centre of a veritable storm of spiritual power. People outside heard the noise and came running. And the disciples spilled out into the street proclaiming God’s glory in a variety of languages. And so the Christian Church was born.
Imagine a news report of the time might have looked (if they had had them).

 

AMAZING EVENTS IN JERUSALEM AS RELIGIOUS HYSTERIA HITS THE CITY

Yesterday a tremendous wave of messianic fervour hit the Metropolis as crowds of followers of the prophet Jesus rampaged though the streets. Jesus of Nazareth was a messianic pretender who was crucified by the Romans seven weeks ago, during the Passover festival. Now his followers claim he is alive again. They have been seen in the streets shouting out in many different languages that Jesus is the Messiah and praising him as the Son of God.

Why do the authorities tolerate such blasphemy? Why don’t they just produce the body of the imposter Jesus and put paid to these claims? And how did these ignorant men become proficient in so many different languages – Parthian, Elamite, Phrygian and Egyptian among others?

In an astonishing further development it appears that about 300 people publicly joined themselves to the new Jesus sect yesterday.

The man Peter seems to be the ringleader of the group. Yesterday he harangued the crowd and publicly accused them of responsibility for the death of Jesus. Then, in an unprecedented turn of events, instead of lynching him, the crowd asked how they too could become followers of the so-called Messiah! Will this madness never end? Will it take over the whole world? Can the authorities do nothing?

 

Well, we know it didn’t stop there – and it is still taking over the world. Here, in the West, we get despondent when we see the decline of Christianity in our society, as well as the increase in other religions such as Islam. And yet the Gospel is spreading like wildfire in many parts of the world. Even in the Muslim heartlands of North Africa thousands of people are turning to Christ.

Here in Wales – formerly known as “the Land of Revivals” – we have a situation which makes us feel despondent. Our clinging to outworn traditions and basking in our knowledge about the great revivals of the past have made us complacent. We somehow think revival will come automatically, like the ebb and flow of the tide. 

  • But will it come if we don’t pray?
  • Will it come if we don’t spread the Gospel?
  • Will it come if we don’t repent of all evil in our lives?
  • Will it come  if we don’t seek reconciliation with our brothers and sisters?
  • Will it come if we don’t open our hearts to the work of the blessed Holy Spirit.

(close with prayer)

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Joseph and his brothers

May 18, 2009 at 7:52 pm · Filed under Old testament, Suffering ·Tagged , ,

 

 Joseph Recognised by His Brothers, by Peter Von Cornelius 

 

[Talk given at a Family Service in the Brecon Presbyterian Church]

Joseph had ten older brothers and one younger. His older brothers hated him because he was the favourite of their father Jacob. One day Joseph’s father gave him a very special ornamented robe with long sleeves. It was the sort of garment only worn by an important man. Jacob was treating Joseph as if he was the head of his brothers. And Joseph also used to tell tales on his brothers when they did wrong. So they hated him.

 

The dreamer

And Joseph was a dreamer. One day he told his brothers how, in his dream, they had been binding corn in the field when suddenly all his brothers’ sheaves bowed down to his. And in another dream the Sun and Moon and eleven stars had all bowed down to him. This was too much even for Jacob. So he said, “Will I, and your mother, and your brothers all bow down to you?”

One day Joseph was sent by his father to see how his brothers were getting on with tending the flocks – he was sent to check up on them. When they saw him coming from a distance they said, “Here comes that dreamer, let’s get rid of him”. Some wanted to kill him, but eventually they just grabbed him and threw him down a pit. It was a dry water cistern. Joseph cried for help but the brothers ignored him and sat down to enjoy their lunch. Eventually they sold him off to some traders who were on their way to Egypt.

 

In Potiphar ’s house

So Joseph ended up in the slave market in Egypt. He was bought by Potiphar , the chief of the palace guard. Joseph had had a hard time, but in Potiphar ’s house God blessed him. He was so good a servant that Potiphar put him in charge of the whole household. Everything went smoothly and Potiphar prospered. But after a while Potiphar ’s wife began to notice Joseph – he was a very handsome young man of about 18. She was filled with desire for him. “Come to bed with me!” she demanded. Now Joseph could have done this. He would have been well treated as Potiphar ’s wife’s “toyboy”. No doubt he would have got away with it. But Joseph knew in his heart it was wrong. “My master trusts me with everything. He has kept nothing back from me, except you because you are his wife. And it would also be a sin against God.” Potiphar ’s wife was persistent – every day she pestered Joseph and tried to get him to lie with her.

One day she came into the house while Joseph was doing his household duties. There was no one else there. She grabbed hold of his robe and said, “Come to bed with me!”Joseph ran off, leaving the robe in her hands. Then Potiphar ’s wife was angry – she had been rejected. She screamed out to the servants and told them that Joseph had tried to rape her. When she told Potiphar, he was angry, and had Joseph put in prison.

 

In prison

But in the prison God was still with Joseph. The prison warder, when he saw how competent Joseph was, put him in charge of the whole prison. Joseph did all the administrative work and the everything ran smoothly. The story of Joseph is full of ups and downs. We’ve already seen some of them. But there are a lot more to come!

Reading: Genesis 40:1-8

 1 Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.     2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,    3 and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined.

    4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them. After they had been in custody for some time,    5 each of the two men— the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison— had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.

    6 When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected.    7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, Why are your faces so sad today?

    8 We both had dreams, they answered, but there is no-one to interpret them. Then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.

Genesis 40:1-8 (New International Version – UK)

 

We’ve just heard how the cup bearer and the baker of Pharaoh had dreams they could not interpret. With God’s help Joseph was able to explain the dreams. The cup bearer had dreamed of a grape vine with three branches which budded and blossomed before his eyes and then produced grapes. Then, in his dream, he took the grapes, squeezed the juice and gave the cup of grape juice to Pharaoh. Joseph saw that this was a sign that the man would be forgiven by Pharaoh and restored to his high position. When that happens, Joseph said, “Get Pharaoh to let me out of this prison. I haven’t done anything wrong!”

The baker, when he heard the favorable interpretation, eagerly told Joseph about his dream. He had dreamed of three baskets of cakes which he was carrying on his head. And the birds were coming down and pecking at the cakes. Joseph said, “In three days time Pharaoh will lift up your head – but not in the good way he lifted up the cup bearer’s head. No, he won’t restore you to honour. Instead he will lift up your head on the gallows! And so it happened just a Joseph had predicted: the cupbearer got his job back but the baker was hanged.

But when the cup bearer got his old job back he forgot all about Joseph and left him there in the prison!

 

Pharaoh’s dream

Joseph spent two more years in prison before something else happened. Pharaoh had a dream, a very strange one. Seven fat cows came out of the Nile, followed by seven skinny ones. And the starved and skinny ones swallowed up the fat and sleek ones. Again he dreamt. This time seven plump ears of corn were followed by seven withered and blasted ears. And the withered ones swallowed up the plump ones.

Pharaoh woke up with a start! He didn’t like these dreams one bit, even though he couldn’t tell what they meant. He called or all his wise men and magicians, and not one of them could interpret his dreams. Then, at last, the cup bearer remembered Joseph. He told Pharaoh about this Hebrew slave who had predicted everything that happened to him and to the baker. “Call him at once,” said Pharaoh . So they hurriedly brought Joseph out of the jail. They gave him a wash and a shave and put clean clothes on him, and brought him before Pharaoh .

“I hear you can interpret dreams,” said Pharaoh.

“No, not I, but God can explain them,” said Joseph.

So Pharaoh told his dreams and Joseph explained them with God’s help. The seven fat cows and seven fat ears of corn represented seven years of plentiful crops. They would be followed by seven years of famine. And the years of famine would be so severe that they would eat up all the harvests from the good years.

Joseph said, “Pharaoh should find a wise man and put him in charge. He should collect one fifth of each of the good harvests and store away the grain as provision for the bad years which will follow. “What a good idea,” said Pharaoh, “And who is better fitted to do it than Joseph?”.

So Joseph was made the second in command over the whole land of Egypt. He had full authority to implement the famine relief strategy.

 

Ruler of Egypt

So Joseph became a great man and married the daughter of one of the priests and ruled the land of Egypt under Pharaoh. And then it came about as Joseph had predicted. And Joseph so organised things that there was no starvation in Egypt. But the neigbouring counties were hard hit by the famine and people flocked to Egypt to buy the surplus grain.

One day some Canaanites came to Egypt on donkeys with bags of silver to buy food. Joseph immediately recogised them as his brothers – but they didn’t recognise him. After all, he was now a full grown man in his thirties and he was wearing Egyptian clothes and was clean shaven. He didn’t look like a Hebrew at all. And he was speaking Egyptian and communicating with them through an interpreter.

Joseph was disturbed in mind – he had mixed feelings. On the one hand he was glad to see his brothers and he desperately wanted to hear about his father. On the other hand, could he trust them? They had sold him as a slave. They had even talked of killing him. How could he know whether he could trust them? Testing his brothers So Joseph decided to test them. He accused them of being spies and put them in prison. Then he sent them home but kept one of them – Simeon – as a hostage.

Later, when they returned with Benjamin the youngest brother, Joseph played a trick on them. He planted a silver cup in the neck of Benjamin’s sack of grain and then accused him of theft. The brothers were aghast. They believed that this had come about as punishment for what they had done to Joseph almost twenty previously. Judah offered his own life as a slave in exchange for Benjamin. How could they return to their father Jacob without Benjamin the youngest? It would break Jacob’s heart which had already been shattered after the disappearance of Joseph.

Now Joseph could stand it no longer. He ordered out all his servants and he wept loudly before his brothers as he told them he was Joseph. They were stunned and shocked. They couldn’t believe it. How could this man be Joseph? And if he was, what then? Would he not now take his revenge on them?

 

Reconciliation

But Joseph said, “Don’t be upset, it has worked out alright. God has sent me to Egypt ahead of you so I could save the lives of all of us. Go back to my father. Tell him I am alive and now in charge of the land of Egypt and then come and live here in this land where there is plenty of food.”

 Pharaoh was pleased when he heard about Joseph’s brothers. He invited them to go home and bring the whole family to Egypt. And so Jacob came at last to Egypt to meet his son who was now such an important man. And he saw his two grandchildren, Joseph’s sons. And he was presented to Pharaoh and lived the rest of his life in the land of Egypt. After Jacob died his body was embalmed after the custom of the Egyptians and carried back to the land of Canaan for burial. And then Joseph’s brothers were afraid that he would now take his revenge on them – now that their father was dead. So they sent a message to Joseph saying that Jacob, before his death, had asked that Joseph would forgive them.

Joseph wept when he heard this – he had already forgiven his brothers years before. He was grieved that even now they didn’t trust him. They didn’t believe him when he said he had forgiven them. Joseph said, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good! He brought me to this position of power so I could save the lives of many people”. So he spoke kindly to them.

 

Conclusion

What do we learn from Joseph ? Life is full of ups and downs but God is in control. He was even in control when Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave, and when Potiphar’s wife accused him, and when he was forgotten in jail. God was still in control and brought good out of the situation. Like Joseph we have to learn to trust God. if we are faithful to God he will be faithful to us. He is the Faithful One.

Theres a little song in the old Scripture Union hymn book “Sing to God” – No. 130

Joseph had eleven brothers

 Joseph had eleven brothers, and they wished him far away. Sold him for a slave in Egypt for some silver coins one day.

Refrain: He remembered the Lord in the land of Egypt and the Lord remembered him.

He worked very hard for his master and was treated like a son. Until he was thrown in prison for a crime he hadn’t done.

He worked very hard for the warder and took care of all the men. He explained their dreams but he longed to have his freedom back again.

Pharaoh had two dreams that bewildered him till Joseph made them plain. He was given power and appointed to take charge of all the grain.

 Joseph’s brothers travelled to Egypt; no where else could they buy bread. They didn’t know this great man was Joseph; they were sure that he was dead.

He discovered that they were sorry for their cruelty and greed. Told who he was and forgave them and he helped them in their need.

(Sister Oswin)

We have to learn to forgive – just as Joseph did.

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