Discipleship Series on Stott Book Continues

Every Sunday before 11am worship, we gather at 10am for discipleship with a book study of John Stott's Basic Christianity. The discussion each week is quite invigorating. This past week we discussed the first chapter in the part on Man's Need.  That's right: we discussed sin.

This coming Sunday we will discuss chapter 6: "The Consequences of Sin." By taking small bits of the book at a time, we can be more thorough, have livelier discussion, and allow people to come and go through the sessions. All are invited, even if you can only make one of the sessions. Please contact me to get a free book to use.  We also have experienced discussion with one or more people having not read the chapter of the week at all.  This makes no difference.  The question and answer oriented format of the discussion allows anyone to bring their thoughts to the table, and the discussion is always lively.

We gather in the chapel area, behind the glass doors on the left as you enter His Dream Center, and we will meet for 40 minutes, so that we can have 20 minutes to prepare our hearts for worship in the main sanctuary. At the same time, Sunday school for the older children (over 5) has resumed, and childcare is available for children under 5, so feel free to join in the discussion, even if you have kids.

The format of the sessions will be as follows: we will each read part of the book on our own, and then come to the session on Sunday morning with questions. I will have questions, too, so that we can get the discussion started. This way we can all take the conversation to the places where we each most need Christ's discipleship. Hope you can participate in this first discipleship series in our new location!  I am looking at books for the second series, and will make a decision soon on what comes after Basic Christianity.

Abiding in Love

Last week we talked about true evangelism being something God does, and our only job is to bend our wills to him, to submit our wills to his will—get out of the way, so to speak—so that we aren't creating obstacles to God's evangelizing work. It's not that we are more powerful that God, it's that if we do not submit to God, we are not allowing him to use us for his work. It's not that cannot use us, it is that he is not willing to use a vessel that is going to send mixed signals to a potential child of God.

If I'm preaching the gospel to you, and then I launch into an expose on how great a secular TV show is, where I'm describing whole scenes for you, and they aren't emulating God, I'm sending mixed signals to you. I need to focus wholly on God, to accept his Spirit working in my life, to submit to his will, and then I can give you the pure Gospel, without distractions, or heresies thrown in.

Complete submission is possible. God helps us achieve it. There is not hard work required on our end. It says in Romans 6: “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for unrighteousness.” What is the key verb in that passage? “Present”: we offer ourselves as an insufficient sacrifice to God. He does the work, but what we are doing is presenting ourselves. It does not require hard work. It just requires us to submit, like slaves, to God's will. It's getting all our garbage off the table: clearing the desktop and only allowing God's jobs to be on our desktop.

Jesus said this last week to us, when he said, I am the vine and you are the branches. Abide in me and I in you, and you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. We are presenting ourselves to the vine. Jesus is grafting us onto himself. He blood flows through our veins. We bear more and more fruit, due to Christ's blood in us. These fruits bear seeds and the seeds are planted in others' lives, combining to bring that lost souls back to the Good Shepherd.

This is what Christ means when he tells us to “Abide.” Abide isn't an active verb, it's an accepting verb. It's all about accepting God's will in our lives. It's about “presenting” ourselves to God as slaves. It's about submission. Now, in this week's passage, which appears right after last week's, we get another command to abide, but this time it is abiding in God's love.

What does it mean to abide in God's love. If we look at what we've just been talking about, it means to accept God's love. It's about presenting our love to God. It's about submitting to God's love. God's love is a love of submission, and that's what makes it so unpredictable.

The Greeks have four different words for love. We have one. They have four. The first is storge, and it means affection. It is the love that you might have for a pet. The second is philios or friendship. Philadelphia is brotherly love. We're getting closer to true love. Then we have eros, which means romance. It's the love between husbands and wives, when the two of you just NEED to be together. It's an achy love.

Now, agape is the last love, and it used to be thought of as the lowest love. It means charity, and ancient Greeks thought of it as giving alms to the poor. It was not thought of too highly. But God showed us what agape can be. As we read in today's passage: “There is no greater love than this: that one lays down one's life for one's friends.” Agape suddenly moves from the lowest love to the highest love. Whenever we watch a movie or read a story in which someone lays down their life for a friend, we are moved, because we are seeing true agape love in action. We are watching the love of God played out before our eyes. In the movies this happens all the time, but in real life, we flee, because of our sin, because of our unwillingness to submit, to abide, to present. We fail at this kind of love.

Jesus commands us to love one another—to agape one another—to lay down our lives for each other. Yet we fail. Back to Romans, chapter 5, we read, one of us would scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps foe a good person one would dare even to die. Sin keeps us from being able to die for a good person or a righteous person.

But here God demonstrates agape love: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We cannot bring ourselves to die for a good person. Jesus died for us while we were still enemies. His is perfect agape love, perfect self-sacrifice. The only way we can do likewise is to completely submit ourselves to God, become his slave, present ourselves as an offering to God, for him to do with us as he wishes, without us kicking against him, wanting to be our own person. The only way we can show true agape love to each other is to completely abide in his love.

Paul writes in Philippians that Jesus was in the form of God, and could have chosen to stay where he was, living as God, but instead he made himself nothing, he took the form of a servant, a slave, a submissive one, an abiding one, born in the likeness of a man. And then it goes downhill from there. After that complete submission to humanity, he completely submits to love. Jesus humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death—something we are unable to do, but the perfect man can—and he died on the cross for us. He showed true agape love.

And what follows is exaltation: as a result of this agape submission, God highly exalted Jesus and bestowed on him the name above all names. We refuse to submit, because we would rather exalt ourselves. Now, who would you rather exalt you? Yourself or God almighty? Exalt yourself and God will humble you. Humble yourself—submit, abide, present—and God will exalt you. Only through abiding in agape, can we be made more life Christ in this world.

Seeds of Evangelism

We've been talking about witness as a part of the gospel, and over the last few weeks, we've been talking about what it means to be a false witness, and also what it means to be a false leader. Let's go positive, and talk about what it means to be a good witness. Let's talk about successful evangelism.

So, how many people have YOU led to Christ? Does anyone have a number? Has anyone led one person to Christ? I was asked that on a survey once. How many people have I led to Christ? And the answers were “between 1 and 10, 10-30, 30-100, over 100”? Really? Is that what makes an evangelist? Let's see, I led that person to Christ, but I'm not with him. I guess I should call that person up and see if they are still with Christ, because if not, then that wouldn't be a successful “lead.” Do you see how ridiculous this is? We cannot put a quantity on evangelism.

If we look at John 4:36-38: “The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.” There is no single person leading someone to Christ. This is not notch-on-the-belt stuff. This is a team of people working on bringing people to Christ. Well, we may say, let's assemble a team of evangelists, and one can be the sower, and another can water, and another reap, and another can store in barns, and another can package, and another can set prices, and another can take to the grocery store, and another can buy, and another can eat.

This isn't team evangelism, either. This is “God is doing the evangelism” evangelism. Jesus is trying to dispel the myth that we are the ones who do this. We are tools in God's utility belt, nothing more. We don't know who sowed seed, or which seeds were the ones that took, or which seeds were the one that fully grew up. God doesn't want us to say, “I led someone to Christ,” or even, “Jim and I led someone to Christ.” God wants to fall on our knees and say “Wow! Lord, look what you DID! I never could have done that!”

Our Acts passage dramatizes this point clearly. Did Philip know where to go? No. God sent an angel to tell him where to go. Why was the eunuch reading Isaiah? Did Philip put the scroll in his hands? No. Where did he get the scroll from? Someone else. Do we know that person was? No. How did that other person get the scroll in the eunuch's hands? Did he just say, “read this?” No. A third person must have planted a seed somehow motivating the eunuch to get the scroll. There's probably eight-sixteen people in the line of evangelists between that unbelieving eunuch and Philip. Do they know each other? No. This was an Ethiopian. He had no reason to be reading Isaiah, and he wasn't a Jew. He may have converted in Ethiopia, but that would have been done by yet another person in his home country. Isaiah hadn't been written at the time of Solomon, so the Queen of Sheba certainly didn't have a copy.

How did Philip know to go over to the chariot? The spirit told him. Did Philip take the eunuch through the book of Isaiah line by line? No. He only interpreted the one line the eunuch was already reading. And then he was able to preach the whole gospel from there. Philip didn't need to manipulate anything. He didn't need to say, “Isaiah is a good book, but you really need to be reading Deuteronomy. Go find Deuteronomy and then let's set up a coffee date. I'll meet you at Front Porch Cafe at 9:30am sharp!”

All Philip had to do was know that the scriptures are about Jesus. He knew this, because that's how God works in us. We are able to see Jesus throughout scripture. We look at the world—at life—through Jesus tinted lenses. God got the scripture into the eunuch's hands through many people. God got the right interpretation into Philip's mind through the Holy Spirit. Then all God had to do was get the eunuch and Philip together. Everything just happened. As the phrase goes, “it just worked itself out.” What happens after the eunuch is baptized? Philip is whisked away. No time to get the eunuch in an Alpha program or find the right home church for him. Nope, God doesn't want Philip to screw anything up. Your job is over! On your way, now!

God does everything. We are his resources. The best metaphor for this is in our gospel reading. “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” We are members of Christ's body, and we can do nothing of or by ourselves. We allow ourselves to be used by the vine. We are grafted onto the vine. The lifeblood of the vine flows into the branch. Christ's lifeblood is in us. We bear fruit, not because we are trying very hard, but because we have the fruit-bearing lifeblood in us. I bear fruit and the fruit falls to the ground and bursts open and the seeds inside help God's kingdom grow. You bear fruit and your fruit falls to the ground and bursts open and the seeds inside help God's kingdom grow. Together the seeds from our fruit interact in a way that God wants. The Father is the vinegrower. He is the only one who sees how the seeds of the fruit are going to interact to grow his kingdom. But if we aren't bearing fruit, we get pruned. We have to willingly submit to the vine so that Christ's lifeblood is running in our veins. Otherwise we are useless, and we get cut off.

When Paul lists all those witnesses in 1 Corinthians 15, it's not just to say, “look at all these witnesses!” It's also to say, “look at the different kinds of witnesses!” Someone might read about the risen Christ appearing to James and think, “Wow! That's the brother of Jesus, who didn't believe during Christ's entire earthly ministry, and then, when he witnesses the risen Christ, he believes! That's enough for me, I'm a believer!” And the seed gets planted. But another person may say, “James doesn't do it for me. I'm a believer because of the 500 witnesses! That is the power of mass witness!” Each of us will get a different seed out of different things in scripture, history and relationship, and as these seeds build up, as the witness becomes overwhelming, we all reach the same goal—a relationship with the risen Christ. He is the one constant in evangelism. He is the destination. He is the goal. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever. No matter what seeds of evangelism get us there, he is waiting at the end of the line.

Donate a Bicycle to His Dream Center

If you have a bicycle, even a damaged one, that you would like to donate to His Dream Center, we will accept it.  Rev. David Daniels and his team will fix the bike and lend it to an international student to get around the OBX over the summer.  Call me or just bring a bike by His Dream Center (205 E Baltic, Nags Head) if you have one to donate.

Hired Hands

Last week we talked about what it means to be an unbelieving witness. As part of the gospel, we are all called to be witnesses to the risen Christ, and it is possible to be a false witness. As believers in an unbelieving culture, our unbelief grows the more time we swim in the culture, and when we witness the glory of God in the world, our immediate reaction is to think of that glory as being man's, or of being part of a philosophical or religious system that is not Christian. By immersing ourselves in scripture, the writings of the saints, and prayer we quench that unbelief in us.

Chapter Ten of the Gospel of John is quite interesting, because Christ makes three analogies to himself. He refers to himself as the shepherd of the sheepfold, who calls the sheep by name and they know his voice. Then, he refers to himself as the gate itself, through which the sheep pass into the sheepfold. No one can get into the sheepfold except through him. He then refers to himself, in the passage we read today (John 10:11-18) as the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. These are powerful images of Christ, but I want to focus on the three alternatives he gives to the gatekeeper, the gate, and the shepherd. I especially want to focus on the last one, because it is another example of unbelieving witness.

First, Jesus is the shepherd as opposed to a . . . stranger. The shepherd calls the sheep by name and they follow him, because they know his voice. As followers of Christ, we hear his voice and follow him, and we can tell his voice from that of a stranger. A stranger's voice, we wouldn't recognize, and we would not follow. When we encounter alien faiths and philosophies, as Christians, we find something wrong with them, something amiss, and we don't follow the sound. When Christ finds us, his lost sheep, he gives us his word, so that we can understand what his voice sounds like, and we can tell his voice from a stranger's voice.

Jesus is also the gate itself. No one can get to the Father except through him. This is opposed to . . . thieves and bandits. We have advanced from stranger to thief. The sheep do not listen to thieves either, but whereas a stranger does not cause the sheep harm when it refuses to follow, a thief comes after the sheep to kill and destroy. The sheepfold is everlasting life, and so we obtain that through the gate himself.

Finally, we have our passage today. Jesus is the GOOD shepherd, as opposed to the hired hand. Now a hired hand does not seem worse than a thief who wants to destroy the sheep, does he? Well, actually he is worse. Whereas the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, the hired hand will . . . sacrifice his sheep to spare his own life. When he sees the wolf coming, he runs away. He is only a hired hand, he does not own the sheep, like the good shepherd does, and so he has nothing invested in the sheep.

Think of all the hired hands we have in the world. The president. Congress. Our governors and rulers. They will not lay down their lives for us. They will run away and sacrifice us to the wolves. Only Christ will lay down his life—and he HAS laid down his life—for us. We mentioned those world leaders, but here I am. I'm a hired hand, too, and my job is to lead you to the good shepherd, but many times we preachers are tempted is to run away and leave everyone to the wolves.

The reason we have such conflict in the churches, denominational and non-denominational splits, schism, and strife, is because they are run by hired hands, who are not leading the sheep to the good shepherd, or they are pretending to be good shepherds themselves, but they lie. We can take a lesson from Israel if we look at Ezekiel 34:

Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.

Leading the sheep astray, running away when the wolf comes, scattering them and leaving them for the wild animals, that is worse than being a thief or a robber. At least the thief has the identity of a thief. The hired hand is supposed to be the helper of the good shepherd, but he turns out to be a self-serving scoundrel PRETENDING to be a helper. The deceit makes the hired hand the worst of the lot. We see this all throughout scripture. Look at Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;” The ungodly are strangers, the sinners are thieves, and scornful are false leaders.

So this week the problem is not unbelieving witness but unbelieving helpers. The unbelieving hired hand who runs away when the danger comes and sacrifices all the sheep to the wolves. What is the solution? If we study this whole passage of scripture we find that Christ gives us the answer. It's another “I Am” statement beyond gatekeeper, gate, and shepherd. After Jesus tells the Pharisees these three analogies, the Pharisees respond in verse 19:

Again the Jews were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, ‘He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?’ Others were saying, ‘These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’ What is this about opening the eyes of the blind? Well Chapter 10 of John is the second half of Chapter 9, where Jesus opens the eyes of a man born blind. Because this is the Gospel of John, each miracle Jesus performs is a visual illustration of an I Am statement Jesus makes about himself. In this case, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” Look at John 8:12:

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.'” The next chapter, Jesus demonstrates this in a miraculous way by giving someone WHO WAS BORN BLIND sight. We have been walking in darkness from the beginning of our lives, and Jesus is the only way, we can have light.

Is this the solution? That Jesus is the light of the world? In a way, it is. When we look at the words of Jesus, he opens our eyes. When we read scripture, it opens the eyes of the heart. How do we tell a hired hand who wants to lead you to the good shepherd as opposed to a hired hand who wants to lead you astray and run away when the wolves get ya? To answer that, you know this book inside and out, and you know that Jesus is the light of the world. You know that God's word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths. You know from the first letter of John how to test the spirits:

1 John 4:2: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” Jesus Christ, the messiah, the anointed one of God, has come in the flesh. Who do the pharisees say that Jesus is? Do they say that he is the Christ, the messiah,the anointed one of God? Back to John 10. The Jews were divided. Many said that he has a demon, but others were saying not. The ones who said he had a demon were hired hands who would lead people away from Christ. The others probably became Christians.

Jesus asks Peter, who do you say that I am? Peter responds as a hired hand who will lead people to the good shepherd. You are the messiah, the holy son of God. Jesus is the light of the world. God's word is a lamp unto our feet. Know this. Blessed is the man, who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord—today we have the complete word of God at out fingers, so we can read: but his delight is in the Word of the Lord, and in his Word he meditates day and night.