2. A Great Church!?
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Revelation 2:1-7
These opening verses of Revelation 2 seem, in many ways, to be the opening of a letter to a church that many of us may want to join. The people who make up the church at Ephesus are not afraid of hard work, they are not, it seems, like many churches where most of the people are happy to leave most of the work to a few of the people!
As well as being hard working, the people are not the kind who give up easily, they are known for their perseverance, for carrying on and being faithful even when it is tough. This perseverance has not been easy, they have had to deal with ‘wicked people’ and some who falsely claimed to be apostles. Through these, and many other challenges and hardships, the church at Ephesus has not given up – it has persevered – what a church!
As I think about the church at Ephesus that received this letter, I find myself reflecting upon numerous churches that I have worked with all around the world. So many of these churches are similar, in so many ways, to this church. They consist of hardworking people who, often against many challenges, never give up but ‘keep things going’.
I am not sure how this compares to the church that you are part of or how it may compare to the church that you wish you were part of.
There is though a deep question that needs to be asked about this church and the question is something like:
“In spite of all the hard work and commitment to the church, is this church joining Jesus in His Mission?”
Clearly, they were doing many things ‘right’ but is it possible that they were missing out on the most fundamental purpose of their existence as a church?
It certainly seems that this was the case because in spite of all of these admirable qualities, the message of this letter is not to affirm the church but to challenge them to the very core.
We will look at this challenge next time but I encourage you, this week, to reflect upon the church that you are part of and consider ways in which the things that you are doing may be a help or a hindrance to joining Jesus in His Mission.

2. Give up!

The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:

In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said:

“LORD, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

I was cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah 1:1-11

Do you ever look at all the things that are happening in the world and think about how it could be reached with the good news? If you do, how do you feel as you think about ways that this might happen? Do you feel a deep sense of optimism, or a crushing sense of pessimism? Does the task seem impossible?

When Nehemiah heard about the things that were happening in his world, he ‘gave up’, but not perhaps in the way we might think:

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

The things he heard could have filled him with despair, he was told that:

“Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

What a mess! How on earth could such a situation be improved!

So, Nehemiah GAVE UP to SELF. Rather than focusing on his inability to do something about what seemed an impossible situation, he focused on God, the God who we know, as Christians, is able to do far more abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.

Nehemiah realized something that many us fail to see, ‘With God nothing is impossible’ and if the mess is ever to sorted out there is no sense us relying on our ability to solve it because we can’t BUT God can!

Nehemiah put himself into a place where He could see things from God’s perspective, not his own. To do this, he wept, mourned, fasted and prayed!

As you consider the great challenge of seeing your street, city, or nation changed, I encourage you, like Nehemiah, to GIVE UP! Not by focusing on your inability and therefore doing nothing but by putting yourself in a place where you will see what Nehemiah saw:

“LORD, the God of heaven, the GREAT and AWESOME God…………

3. God loves sinners!
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14,15
God loves sinners! This simple statement is so easy to make but it is so important that we grasp the full implications of the truth that lies behind these words if we are to passionately join Jesus in His Mission.
It is clear that as Jesus brought ‘The Kingdom of God near’ it was ‘sinners’ that He went to.
Luke writes:
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2
As I read these verses, they create a picture in my mind, and the picture I see exposes a deep contrast into the way that people understood the mission of Jesus. The ‘Tax collectors and sinners’ were all gathering round Jesus because they wanted to hear him speak about the Kingdom of God that he was welcoming them into ‘even though they were sinners’. I visualize the faces of these sinners as they hear the Good News and I see the filled with joy and wonder at the most remarkable truth that they can be welcomed in!
But then comes the stark contrast! ‘The Pharisees and teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them”. Again, I see a picture in my mind, I see these religious leaders ‘muttering’. The word mutter means: ‘say something in a low or barely audible voice, especially in dissatisfaction or irritation’.
I see these religious leaders, dressed in their religious clothing and, as they witnessed Jesus bringing Good News to the sinners, did not have faces filled with joy and wonder. They did not rejoice in the Good News that Jesus shared, they put their hand over their mouths and muttered their dissatisfaction to one another. It is interesting that the title Pharisee means ‘separated one’. The pharisees did not want to associate with sinners, they stayed away from them because they thought that by making contact with them it would result in them being tarnished.
For the Pharisees, the message that Jesus lived and preached was unthinkable, in their view, sinners should be condemned and avoided, not be the recipients of Good News!
As I reflect upon the picture that I see in my mind as I look at these verses, I find myself thinking about the sad reality that, in so many churches all around the world, this attitude exists! It is so easy, as a person who spends a great deal of time with other Christians, engaging frequently in church related activities, to become like the Pharisees, to consider ourselves as ‘separated’ from ‘the sinners’ and, like the pharisees, to try to stay away from them and even disapprove of Christians who try to reach them!
Such an attitude is the opposite of what Jesus commands His followers to have, we, like Him, should be taking ‘Good News’ close to the sinners because, as the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst”. 1 Timothy 1:15
Paul’s grasp of the purpose of Jesus Mission is perhaps most clearly understood by him because he had experienced such a deep transformation. He had been a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee, yet, because he had encountered Jesus, he knew that it was because Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners, that he could know God, not because of his own self-righteousness or goodness.
Do you, like me, find that the same view that the Pharisees expressed in their mutterings can be a view that you have to? Do you sometimes forget that the Good News is that God loves sinners and find yourself wanting the church to be a place where the good people go because there we can separate ourselves from the sinners?
If so, this week, I urge you, as you seek to join Jesus in His Mission, to open your heart to God about the views that you have, perhaps in secret, and ask Him to transform you so that, like Paul, you can rejoice in the fact that the Good News is for sinners. When we truly know this, we can join Jesus in His Mission!
Dennis

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”  Mark 1:14,15

1.      GOOD NEWS.

If we are to join Jesus in His Mission, it is vital that we understand what His mission was and is.  I think this is so important because there is a great deal of misunderstanding about Jesus’ mission both inside and outside of the church.

Many people inside of the church see ‘mission’ as being focused on the ‘church building’, a place where we engage in activities and run programmes with the expectation that if people are going to hear the gospel, they will join in with what we are doing.  Put simply, we are ‘doing what we do and waiting for people to come to us!’

Many people outside of the church know nothing about why Jesus came.  All they have is a vague impression that the church is for ‘religious people’ who frequently consider themselves to be morally superior to those outside.   This leads many to believe that church is a place for people who think they are good. 

The tragic result of this misunderstanding on both sides is that in a world where less and less people are attending church, more and more people have no idea that Jesus came to the world to announce, and to be, GOOD NEWS!

The reality is that there are millions upon millions of people around the world who have no intention of attending church but, without even knowing it, they are waiting for us to go to them!  This is because God, the Holy Spirit, is active in the world and in the lives of people who are not coming to church.

As the scripture says:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

Please note the two simple words from this sentence ‘Jesus went’.  He did not ‘wait’ He ‘went’!

Over the next few sessions I will focus more on what this ‘Good News’ is and how we can Join Jesus in His Mission by imitating Him. But, as we begin this short series, I want to encourage you to consider a significant question:

‘In what ways are you bringing GOOD NEWS to people that are close to you but far from God?’

Take some time this week to think about people that you know who have not heard the GOOD NEWS and ask God to help you to be willing to go!

SPECIAL NOTE
On 1^st March 2019, I will be beginning the ‘Joining Jesus’ Podcast and be launching a new ‘Joining Jesus’ discipleship process that will be available at The Rooftop Academy www.therooftop.org

As such, to avoid having too many, and possibly confusing ‘titles’ I thought it would be best for the weekly email that I send to have the same title. Therefore, ‘Stay On Mission’ from now onwards will be titled ‘Joining Jesus’.

If you are being helped by these emails, from 1^st March, please feel free to find out more about the podcast and discipleship process.

Here is this weeks article.

3.  It has to be ‘SUPERnatural”.

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.  Matthew 16:21-24

Jesus laid down His life so that His mission could be completed, and this mission is at the very heart of God. Luke records Jesus’ words:

“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”.  Luke 15:7

And a little later:

“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  Luke 15:10

It is clear from these words of Jesus that God’s priority is that sinners will repent, is was for this reason that Jesus came to earth, leading sinners to repentance was His Mission:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”  Mark 1:14,15

In order for the ‘good news of God’ to reach the ends of the earth, Jesus calls people to follow Him.  In the New Testament, the word used to describe these followers is ‘disciples’ and it is really important to note that the word ‘disciple’ doesn’t just apply to a select group of followers who are ‘super-committed’ followers of Jesus.  If we are to truly follow Jesus and join Him in His Mission we must take serious note of the words that He spoke to His followers:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

These words are challenging to the very core because they speak of something that none of us can do on our own strength.  What Jesus requires of a disciple can only happen as a result of God’s supernatural intervention.  Left to our own devices we, like Peter, miss the point of what Jesus is calling His followers to do.  He is passionate about the mission that He came to complete and He wants people to follow Him, share in His passion and tell the ‘Good News of God’ to the world.

For this to happen, Jesus says that something miraculous needs to take place in “Whoever wants to be my disciple”.    The miracle will require that every disciple must “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”.

Self-denial and the willingness to suffer are contrary to our natural instincts and each of us will avoid these things if we can.  Self fulfilment and comfort are far more attractive to us!  Even as Christians, it is possible that we view Jesus as the one who blesses us and ‘makes our life better’.  However attractive this may seem, it is not what Jesus offered!  He knows that if we are to ‘Join Him in His Mission’ we will have to step outside of our comfort zone and, like Him, seek and save the lost.  This will require sacrifice and suffering.

The choice we face every day of our lives as we live among people who Jesus came to seek and to save is ‘will I put Jesus Mission before my desire for comfort?’  To be able to say yes to this we need a supernatural intervention, or, as the word of God says, we need the Holy Spirit.

This week, I encourage you to reflect on the verses below from Paul’s letter to The Romans.  As Christians we are not left to ‘do the impossible in our own strength’ but to recognize who we are in Christ and allow Him to do a supernatural work in us!

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  Romans 8:15

‘Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory’.  Romans 8:17

Dennis