In a different light

It has always struck me as a great (and regrettable irony): Festus and Agrippa agree that Paul could have been set free (Acts 26:32) but because Paul has appealed to Caesar (Acts 25:11 ), to Caesar he must go. If only he'd held on a little while longer before making that last-ditch appeal, it could all have been so much simpler; still, I'm sure the Lord is able to use it for Paul's and the gospel's good. He is sovereign, after all.

But no; it's much more definite than that, in every sense. Paul has already been told that the Lord is taking him to Rome (Acts 23:11) - the only thing not specified was the how and why of the way in which that journey would come about. The purpose for going was as clear as day:

As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome (Acts 23:11)

So Paul's appeal to Caesar is neither impetuous nor desperate; it arises in the context of the Lord's clear direction and decision to send his apostle to the heart of the empire. And the forcing of Festus' hand is not a matter for regret; it is simply the Lord's time and place for enacting his plan to send Paul to Rome.

I'd never seen it that way before. I do now.

doctrine & competence

Doctrines, then, are profitable for celebrating, communicating, criticizing - and coping - provided they are used competently. The present work sets forth an account of theological competence, which involves more than academic expertise. Theological competence is ultimately a matter of being able to make judgements that display the mind of Christ. Individual Christians, and the church as a whole, have no more crucial task than achieving such theological competence. One of the chief means of doing so is by attending to doctrine - to its derivation from Scripture and its development in the believing community."

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, in the introduction to The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Liguistic Approach to Christian Theology, p. 2

final blessing

God bless you, Dad;
God bless you, Dad.

You've been
a wonderful father,
a good husband
and
a lovely grandad.

You've loved us all so much;
we all love you so much.

God bless you, Dad;
God bless you, Dad.

(the final words spoken to George Myerscough, early morning 30/11/05)

Closure

A year ago
I closed your eyes
after that last, long
gasp of life.
It was the hardest thing I've ever done.

You were there
when my eyes opened in life
and I was there to close yours in death;
your eyes brimmed with joy at the sight,
mine with savage pain.
The colour remained
but not the life.

A year ago
I closed your eyes;
the bruise remains.

resemblance

Some people say
I have my father's
eyes

but I've always known
I had his
heart.

the longest time

For the longest time
your voice has been
silent;
that voice which could boom
out, calling for tea,
while preserving
from sight
a thousand realities.

I've waited to see you
and to hear you
once more
but even the fullest dreams
are empty;

void.

I saw you last
in that morning light;

still and gone.

How John Mark Became Helpful

He was a deserter; a failure. And the cause of a sharp disagreement between two Christian ministers, one of them his uncle. So sharp in fact that they no longer worked together.

Later on, the one who had objected to John Mark's continued presence on the team speaks of him in very warm terms; he has proved himself to be a valuable colleague in gospel work.

So how did the change come about? How was this fallible young man recovered? Who mentored him into being a faithful gospel servant?

Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus. (Acts 15:39)

The one who didn't give up on him, presumably.

Strengthen your brothers

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:31,32 TNIV)

Satan wants to sift the disciples like wheat - he wants to put them to the test, chew them up and spit them out. Jesus tells Simon about this. They are all in Satan's sights. But Jesus has prayed for...Peter, that his faith would not fail him. And those prayers are answered: in the event of Peter's testing, his faith doesn't fail him; in faith, he repents of his sin when Jesus looks at him.

But what about the others? Did they not need Jesus' prayers too? Why tell Simon that they were all vulnerable but that he had prayed only for Simon? The pronouns are deliberate and deliberately disclose that distinction.

The answer is in the commission Jesus gives the soon-to-fall and soon-to-be-restored Peter: when he has turned, he is to strengthen his brothers. Jesus will help them in their vulnerability through Peter, their fallen and restored brother.

We need the community of such brothers and sisters. They are part of the Lord's means of strengthening us in the face of our vulnerability.

Exodus 17:8-16

1. Fightings Without
Israel has been delivered from the terrors of Egypt and has begun to self-destruct in the wilderness. It is often the case that when the heat is off in one direction, trouble looms in another. But they really have no time for grumbling and accusing Moses and testing the Lord - other battles await them and, in this scene, assault them. The Amalekties take the place of Pharaoh and come out to attack Israel at Rephidim.

Although it is early days for Israel, a pattern is being set here. The problem is not just Egypt; it is that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). The battles that Israel face are spiritual in nature; they arise from Satan's opposition to the Lord and his plans to reconcile all things to himself and to heal his fractured creation.

Here is the Christian's life and the life of the church - a life of battle; serious, costly and intense. Israel needs to awake to that reality; they are to engage in a true holy war, a war that will ultimately not be fought with worldly weapons but with the weapons of righteousness and prayer and the word of God.

We must be alert to the reality of our own situation - every day is another day of battle, of warfare. We must do all that we can to avoid internal divisions that inflict wounds within the body and take our place on the true field of battle.

2. Deliverance through human effort and God's help
When Israel was rescued from Egypt and brought through the Red Sea, they stood still and saw the salvation of the LORD. Now, they need to put to use the armour and weapons they left Egypt with. They need to join the Lord in fighting the battles of faith, the battle for the salvation of the cosmos.

And so Moses tells Joshua to take men and to fight the Amalekites on the plain; for his part, he will go and stand on the hill with "the staff of God" raised.

That action on Moses' part has been the subject of quite a lot of debate over the years. Is it a symbol of prayer? Or is Moses symbolising the Lord as he stands over the battle? Certainly, raised arms are often used in the OT as a posture that signifies prayer. And there can be little doubt but that the whole battle is bathed in prayer and is fought in dependence upon the Lord.

But the clearest aspect of this scene is the sheer effort expended by Moses in keeping his arms aloft and the connection between his raised arms and the progress of the battle. The Lord chooses to involve his people in his battles and that involvement takes courage and effort.

If it is right to see Moses' raised arms as signifying prayer, our own experience would no doubt bear out how tough that can be. How demanding it can be to wrestle in prayer! But this is our calling; we are enlisted as the Lord's servants and must engage in the battle with all our heart, with all our energies, for his glory.

3. Supporting leadership
But however we understand the raising of Moses' arms and the holding aloft of the staff, it is clear that he needs help to do so and Aaron and Hur step forward to give that help. In a sense, this is almost a preview of what transpires in the next chapter where Moses takes Jethro's advice and delegates some of the work to others.

I want to say two things in the light of what we see here.

i) Seeing Moses as a type of Christ - The NT is not shy to make connections between Jesus and Moses, seeing Moses as a shadow and Jesus as the reality. Moses here is seen to be a man of flesh, one who needs the support of others if Israel is to win the day.

In some ways, that picture is replicated in the life of Jesus - he grew tired and needed to sleep; he was hungry and thirsty; and, in the garden of Gethsemane, he asked 3 of his disciples to stay with him in his hour of need and he benefited from the ministry of angels at that time too. Jesus was a real man in all those ways and we should not be afraid to say so.

But, having said that, the NT emphasis is that Jesus won the battle alone; he is the great leader and champion of his people. He is all we need to know victory over sin and death. Moses was faithful as a servant in God's household; Jesus was faithful as a son set over that household (Heb. 3:5,6). Whilst we remember the lives of men like Moses and learn from them, it is Jesus we honour, it is Jesus we worship, it is Jesus we lean all our hopes on. And he will not fail us.

ii) Moses as a leader in need of support - The second thing I want to say about Moses and the help of Aaron and Hur is that it demonstrates to us the very real need of leaders in the church to be supported. All leaders are weak and fragile; however blessed a man's ministry might be, he remains fallen and fragile. Ben is a man called and equipped by God; that is clear and that is crucial. But he will need your support. How can you best give that to him?

• pray for him, but also pray with him - make the prayer meeting a time when he knows that the church is at one in the great gospel battle.
• support by showing that you are seriously engaging with the word he ministers week by week. Talk to him about it; ask him to help you to apply it. Tell him how God's Word has helped you, how it has been relevant in your daily walk. He won't be looking for compliments at the door; it's real engagement with God's Word that truly encourages those whose responsibility is to minister that word.
• encourage him by bearing with one another in love;
• encourage him by being active witnesses to the grace of God in whatever way the Lord opens for you.

In all those ways and so many more you can show your support for Ben - and in showing that support, you demonstrate that your heart is for God and his glory.

4. The LORD is our banner
So the battle is fought and arms are raised to the Lord and the battle is won - the Lord delivers his people. And, just as much as a time of failure such as occurred at Massah and Meribah, a victory of this nature demands to be memorialised. Notice two things:

i) The Lord tells Moses to record this event on a scroll and to make sure that Joshua hears it "because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven" (v.14). That isn't a vindictive gesture but rather the Lord's determination to rid this world of all that oppose his plans to rescue and to restore.

ii) An altar is constructed by Moses and called "The LORD is my Banner". The people of Israel are under his banner and therefore under his care.

The church belongs to the Lord and is his responsibility. He will give the victory and has done so in Jesus. That is to be the source of all our confidence and hope as we do battle in his name. We go out into the daily battles with the Lord as our banner – the God who enlists us into his army to do battle for righteousness, to hold out the word of life, the demonstrate the value and the power of redeeming love.

God grant us grace ever to do so. Amen.

Yahweh's mercy

let me fall into the hands of Yahweh,
for his mercy is very great;
and let me not fall into the hands of men
(1 Chron. 21:13)

David was offered 3 choices as punishment for numbering Israel: three years of famine; three months of war or three days of the Angel of Yahweh bringing death on the people. Three years seems a long time but they might just be able to eke things out; three months against military enemies for a seasoned warrior might not seem too long; but who knows how much damage the omnipotent God could do in just three days?

David opts for the three days, yet only on this basis: Yahweh's mercy is very great. Unlike fallen humanity, in wrath he remembers mercy. And his mercy is very great. It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but faced with the choice between Yahweh's merciful judgement and human cruelty, David chose the former.

Because Yahweh's mercy is very great.

The Holy Scriptures

1.
Oh Book! infinite sweetnesse! let my heart
Suck ev’ry letter, and a hony gain,
Precious for any grief in any part ;
To cleare the breast, to mollifie all pain.

Thou art all health, health thriving, till it make
A full eternitie: thou art a masse
Of strange delights, where we may wish and take.
Ladies, look here; this is the thankfull glasse,

That mends the lookers eyes: this is the well
That washes what it shows. Who can indeare
Thy praise too much? thou art heav’ns Lidger here,
Working against the states of death and hell.

Thou art joyes handsell: heav’n lies flat in thee,
Subject to ev’ry mounters bended knee.


2.
Oh that I knew how all thy lights combine,
And the configurations of their glorie!
Seeing not only how each verse doth shine,
But all the constellations of the storie.

This verse marks that, and both do make a motion
Unto a third, that ten leaves off doth lie:
Then as dispersed herbs do watch a potion,
These three make up some Christians destinie.

Such are thy secrets, which my life makes good,
And comments on thee: for in ev’ry thing
Thy words do finde me out, and parallels bring,
And in another make me understood.

Starres are poore books, and oftentimes do misse
This book of starres lights to eternall blisse.

(George Herbert)

Professional Daydreamer (Over The Rhine)

Part of me
You are a part of me
I never want to lose
Hard for me
This is too hard
Maybe I can't get through
What will I miss the most
Pray that I'm haunted by your ghost

Listening
You're always listening
I don't know what to say
Why don't you turn and run at break-neck speed
Just to get away
And when you catch your breath
Pray I said every word I meant

Alright it's alright now
Alright it's alright

Broken down
We're all so broken down
Bandages on our wings
I know I don't have to tell you
Only broken hearts can sing
I'm hoping for a sign
Pray that I'm anything but fine

Some things are never gonna change
You ought to know by now

*******

words: Bergquist/Detweiler
music: Bergquist

Exodus 17:1-7

Israel are well and truly in the wilderness and have been for some time now. The problem for them is that the wilderness “is no longer simply a place but a state of mind” (Fretheim). They are caught in- between promise and fulfilment and that poses significant challenges to their faith.

We, too, are like Israel, in the in-between – having been saved and yet being saved; called out from the world into the Lord’s kingdom but not yet in the fullness of all that will mean. And when you’re in the wilderness, it is often difficult to sort out what is perception and what is reality. In this passage, we see Israel still struggling with that.

1. Being Led
Israel, for all their faults, do at least display here some semblance of obedience, in that they respond to the Lord’s leading – they set out “as the LORD commanded”. The road of discipleship is a case of ‘one step after another’ and the hymn-writer was right that ‘each victory will help you some other to win’.

But you’ve got to keep putting one foot in front of the other, which is what Israel fails to do here. They are led to Rephidim but there is water there and, instead of seeking God in faith, they once more complain. But this is even worse than before; the term used here is very strong – they quarrel with Moses and again accuse him of having led them out simply for them to die in the desert.

The mistake Israel makes here is to assume that being led by the Lord means a life without difficulty; as one writer has helpfully said, “God’s leading does not always move directly toward oases” (Fretheim). To encounter difficulty and hardship is not proof that we have been mistaken is terms of the Lord’s leading – we must not think that we have taken a wrong turn if we encounter challenging situations.

In fact, it is part of God’s purposes to lead his people into this difficult situation, just as we see the Spirit leading Jesus after his baptism into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. That may have seemed a strange choice on the Lord’s part but he knows what he’s doing.

The end in view in all the leading of God is fullness of life and joy in his presence but there are many turns to be taken along the path that leads there and some of those turns will be into darker times in which the Lord’s purpose is to cause his light to be seen more brightly, for his grace to be seen as all-sufficient, for us to be built-up in our most holy faith.

But Israel has yet to see that. They test the Lord in their unbelief, making their continued belief in him to rest upon a demonstration of his power and provision. What they’re doing is trying to turn faith into sight – and, sadly, we can find ourselves unwittingly doing the same.

The Lord leads; it may even be into times of difficulty but his purpose is not to crush but to conform us; he wants us to know the riches of his love in the wastelands of this world, the delights of his grace in the darkness of a world in sin. We can trust him; he’s proved that he’s worthy of that trust in the cross of Calvary.

2. Being Gracious
When the people quarrel with him, Moses asks why they’re testing the Lord and then goes in person to the Lord for help, asking what he should do with the people. Whether we’re in leadership in some capacity or whether we’re not, Moses’ example is a good one to learn from – take it to the Lord in prayer.

The Lord doesn’t directly answer that question but instead tells Moses to take his staff and to take the elders with him and to go to the rock at Horeb where the Lord will stand before him. And at Horeb, with the elders as witnesses and with the Lord before him, Moses is to strike the rock and water will flow from it. The same staff that struck the Nile and brought about judgement is to strike the rock and bring relief and blessing.

So that is what Moses does and that is what we see – the Lord acting in mercy and grace, bringing the blessings of creation into the wilderness. Here is a beautiful demonstration again of why he has brought Israel out of Egypt – his plans are to heal creation and make fruitful that which is barren.

In the light of the fact that the people are now quarrelling with Moses (and hence the Lord), it’s all the more remarkable to see God’s patience with them here. This is the third time they have reacted badly and once more the Lord bears with his people and meets their need.

And he does so in person – Moses may strike the rock but the Lord is right there before him. When Paul reflects on this incident in the NT he tells us that the rock was Christ, the Messiah – the people are given physical drink but, more than that, they are drinking from the spiritual rock that is Christ (1 Cor. 10:1ff).

Just as the manna points forward to Jesus, so this water also reflects that perspective. Yet it is more than that; the people drink of Christ himself – God is present with them and feeds them with himself and satisfies their thirst in ways that are deeper than the physical.

That is the measure of the grace and the provision of God for his people. He gives not just gifts but himself – that is at the heart of his mission. That is to be our goal and aim too – to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.

3. Being named
The Lord is gracious to his people but that doesn’t mean he is indifferent to their sin in quarrelling with him and testing him in their unbelief. And so this place is memorialised as Massah and Meribah, ‘testing and quarreling’.

In time, this incident came to stand as one of the chief evidences of the hardness of the people’s hearts – they had been recipients of great mercies, blessed so signally by the Lord and yet they failed him so badly. And so the failure was marked down and used as an object lesson for generations to come, just as we have seen Paul using it in 1 Cor. 10:1-4.

Maybe there are places in our histories that also deserve just such a name – times and places where we have quarrelled, where we have made our hearts hard and distrusted the Lord. If we know that there are such places in our own history, does that mean we can no longer walk with the Lord?

Such places are named not in order to shame but to teach, to humble and to encourage fresh faith and obedience. Israel would always remember Massah and Meribah and would be exhorted to listen and to learn from this incident.

As we look at our own stuttering discipleship in the light of Israel’s failure, we need to take to heart their example and humble our hearts. We also need to do what they singularly failed to do: look to the Rock in faith and trust.

The message they heard and that they witnessed in the great exodus events was not combined with faith; if we’re Christians this morning, we have come to faith in Jesus and we share in the true exodus in him, but we must make sure that our faith is an ongoing reality, that our trust is living and real.

And take heart from Paul’s words in 1 Cor 10:13 – “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

May God work in us what is pleasing in his sight. Amen.

Election and Covenant

"The Sinai event is a kind of axle for holding together two basic realities: one, everything God does involves me (election); and two, everything I do is therefore significant (covenant). Because I am chosen, I have consequence. Election creates a unique identity; covenant describes a responsible relationship. Election is the declaration that God has designs upon me; covenant is the description of how the things I do fit into those designs."

Eugene H. Peterson
Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work

Ruth

"is the inconsequential outsider whose life is essential for telling the complete story of salvation."

"is the instance of a person uprooted, obscure, alienated who learned to understand her story as a modest but nevertheless essential part of the vast epic whose plot is designed by God's salvation."

Eugene H. Peterson
Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work

Exodus 16:1-36

A desert is a hostile environment. Even for those used to living there, life in the wilderness poses severe challenges. And that is a picture the Bible often uses to describe the Christian life.

Here, we see Israel is a physical desert but it is also more than that. For them, it is a place of spiritual challenge. And in the scene before us, a food crisis turns into a faith crisis.

1. Community challenge
We have already seen the people face an issue similar to this one but there is a key difference in how this chapter opens and then continues: four times we read about the “whole community” (vv.1,2,9,10).

They have been brought out of Egypt by the Lord to be a real community, to be the first-fruits of a whole new society, a people belonging to the Lord. And in that community they are to help and support each other, they are to encourage and strengthen one another as they journey on with the Lord.

But it is just at this point that they singularly fail. Instead of urging each other to remain faithful to the Lord they complain and grumble as a whole community.

It’s all too easy for us to be guilty of something similar, of failing to stand for faith in the face of difficulties. The days we live in are full of challenges that demand a robust faith from the church as the church. We all have a part to play in that; it is vital that strengthen each other to face those challenges. The last thing the world needs is a church that falls like a house of cards under the first breeze of trouble.

Are you looking to be an encouragement to others? Do you pray that others’ faith will not fail them? Our calling is to be faithful as a whole community.

And it is at that point that Israel failed here so badly. They judged their lives (and their God) by their appetites; all that mattered was getting food and the lack of it signified to them a lack of care.

We are very physical creatures and have been made that way by the Lord but we must not allow our appetites to govern our thinking about the Lord and his purposes for us. He does not intend to harm us; his reason for calling us to be his own is not in order to keep us chained in misery. The lesson they had to learn (and learned painfully slowly) was that people do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God’s mouth.

And because they judge their God by their bellies they end up making a preposterous charge against Moses and Aaron (v.3b) and presumably think the same about the Lord too. It’s almost laughable but we might see something of ourselves in their words if we look closely enough. Have there been times when you have thought that the Lord had it in for you, that he didn’t want you to prosper, that for some reason (usually because you weren’t holy enough) he needed to treat you harshly?

We need to tell ourselves to grow up. The Lord is not like how we portray him in our thinking. Such attitudes and fears on our part are deeply immature and tragically insecure. How can we ever think he is variable and his love for us unstable once we have truly seen the cross?

2. Testing and teaching
As before, the Lord’s amazing response to such immature thinking and behaviour is to be patient with his people and to graciously provide them with food – with manna and quail.

The reason the Lord does so is stated in two ways. Having given his people manna, the Lord is going to test them, to see if they will follow his instructions (v.4). But alongside the testing of the people – and, perhaps, in this context more prominent – he is going to teach them. They will “know” that the LORD brought them out of Egypt (v.6) and they will “know” that the LORD is their God (v.12).

There is more that we can and will say about that teaching in terms of its details but we need first to grasp what is being said here because it is utterly vital to genuine and healthy Christian living. We are called to know the Lord and he will do all that is necessary to bring us every more deeply into that knowledge.
Here we get to the heart of why he called Israel out of Egypt – that they might know him, that they might be restored into relationship with the Creator and, in that relationship, that they might then be a witness, a light, to the nations.

We need to know that it is the LORD who has rescued us and that the LORD is our God. We need to know that he is not a tame God but the self-existent, eternal and all-glorious God. There is no rival to him and we need to know that afresh and ever more deeply.

And we need to know that this God of glory has pledged himself to be our God, to be our Lord, to take complete ownership of us and responsibility for us. We need to know that more deeply and more truly. Grasping those points will greatly enhance our walk with him, encourage our faith and make us a blessing to others.

3. Further lessons
But this incident allows us to go further into the nitty-gritty of knowing the Lord and responding to his ways with us (it was, after all, a test for them). I want to say a number of things quite briefly on this point.

ii) Having enough – In a way that is not explained, they all collected just enough for themselves. None had too much; none had too little. Quite how it happened, we aren’t told – it just did. But when Paul refers to it in the NT, he uses it to encourage those who have much to share with those who have little (2 Cor. 8:13ff). That’s how a growing maturity shows itself.

ii) Having enough daily – The LORD provides for his people daily and so they are to trust him every day. This, of course, is the lesson Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s prayer – “Give us today our daily bread”. We are to rely on the Lord not periodically but perpetually; it is not maturity to think we can somehow go beyond that.

Some of the people test that out and get a shock – the manna has gone off. The Lord has tested them and they have failed the test. They want to do things their way; they want to go the road and God’s promises plus their own efforts. It doesn’t work for them and it won’t for us either.

iii) Having enough daily within God’s rhythm of work and rest – The Lord tells the people to collect extra on the 6th day and they’ll have enough not to need to collect any on

Whatever your take on the whole Sabbath issue, whether it continues into the NT unchanged or is modified (and I think it’s the latter), this scene at the very least shows us that as people created in God’s image we need to live within the pattern he sets for work and rest.

This incident comes before the giving of the law on Sinai; it is clearly linked to it but it is also linked backwards to creation and the Lord resting on the 7th day – which is just what he does here. They aren’t to try to collect manna on the Sabbath because there won’t be any – the Lord is resting from that activity.

The rhythms of work and rest are important for us as the Lord’s people. He has made us that way. We do well to learn that lesson.

iv) Passing on the lessons – All this is taught in the specific situation of Israel is the desert needing to be fed and the Lord responding in grace through manna and quail. When the situation changed (entering the promised land), that provision stopped (v.35).

But while the situation is specific, the lessons learned are suitable for every generation to reflect on. And so a sample of the manna is kept as a kind-of exhibit for future generations to learn from.

Some say that we have to learn from our mistakes; no doubt we do. But alongside that, we can and should also learn from the mistakes and the experiences of others. The manna in the jar would allow future generations to be taught important lessons about knowing and trusting the Lord – they would need to make those lessons their own but they ought to help them not to make the same mistakes.

The NT says the same to us as we read the OT. God grant us grace to do so. Amen.

The best questions

about heaven are usually those to which the answer demands a sustained and creative reflection upon our current life in this world.

For example, will I be able to paint well in heaven? My artistic ability with paints is very limited, if not entirely absent. But will everything not be perfect in heaven? If yes, surely I'll be able to paint and paint well? Me and Rembrandt (should we both be there) would be on a par.

Given that part of the way in which humanity is created in the image of God is the diversity of people and their gifts, I wonder if there will still be differences between us when glorified? If everyone was perfectly capable of doing everything themselves, would that not also militate against true community and our mutual dependency, which again seems part of living in the image of God.

Maybe others will be able to teach me how to paint. Maybe I won't be jealous of those who can.

And maybe not.

Acts 17:16-34(ii)

Athens in Paul’s day was strikingly similar to our own society. All views were welcome; none were right, none were wrong. It was a society with every shade of belief. As Paul went round the city, he noticed it was “full of idols” and he was “deeply distressed” at what he saw. His response was to engage with it in two ways.

Firstly, he went into the synagogue to preach to those gathered there. They were, in a sense, a captive audience with a biblical heritage he could draw on. Secondly, he went into the market place, where the ordinary Athenians were, and reasoned with them too. There he came into contact with some Epicureans and Stoics who were very keen to debate and to listen to new ideas.

They wanted to know what he babbling about so they asked him to appear before the Areopagus. Here is a great opportunity to explain the gospel to some of the leading figures in the town! We’re going to look at how Paul approached that situation, in order to learn something of how to handle what is a similar situation in our own society.

This account is clearly a summary of what Paul said; his actual speech may have lasted as long as a couple of hours. Each point here would have been greatly expanded and explained. We can see how he may have expanded the points by reading his letters which have many of the same points (e.g. Rom 1).

Before we look in detail at what he said, notice what he did as a whole. Having been attentive to the situation as he walked around Athens, Paul is now creative in how he shares the gospel with them. He counters their telling of the big story and conveys the Bible’s big story. He didn’t trot out a pre-planned formula for telling the gospel but engaged creatively with them.

One thing he did was use terms his audience were familiar with, words that meant something in how they told the big story of life, even quoting one of their poets. But he gave those terms a new twist. We need to learn how to do the same with today’s buzz words and use them to convey genuine reality.

1. God the Creator
Given that he is dealing with people who believe that there is a god (or gods), Paul counters their views by conveying the biblical reality of God. What is especially important is what he says about this God; he declares that he is “the God who made the world and everything in it”. He focuses on God as Creator.

He didn’t argue with his hearers about how God created the heavens and the earth, a subject on which they held many views. What he did was stress the fact that God is Creator of all. That’s an important difference. The creation debate can regrettably downplay the fact that God is the Creator by concentrating too much on the way in which he created. Scripture never does that; the emphasis is always on the fact that he is the Creator, on theology and not science.

Paul then goes on to assert that the God who is Creator of all is also “the Lord of heaven and earth”. There is no rival to the one true Creator God. There isn’t a pantheon of gods in the heavens; there isn’t a great struggle going on between rival deities; there is one God who made all and who is Lord of all.

Furthermore, God is entirely self-sufficient. He is “not served by human hands, as if he needed anything”. He is not in danger of going hungry if we don’t feed him; nor can he be manipulated by the offer of a bed for the night in some temple or other.

He is the God who does not need us. He is not enriched by our serving him; we can add nothing to him and can take nothing away from him. Here is God in his self-existent glory!

And this is the God Paul proclaims: one who made us and is in every respect above us. But although above us, he is not uninterested in us; he is not remote in that sense. Rather, he “himself gives all men life and breath and everything else”. He is involved with us on a daily basis.

So much of this is contrary to how Athenians thought and so vastly different to how so many think today. Either God is so far away he can’t be bothered with us or else he’s simply there at our beck and call, a kind-of heavenly emergency service.
If people are to be challenged with the gospel, they’ll need to know about the true nature of God. Years ago this wasn’t so necessary; if people didn’t believe in God, it was the Christian God they didn’t believe in. But now all sorts of things are doing the rounds and we need to get across a truly biblical picture of the one true God. Maybe we need to dwell more upon this ourselves in order to share it with others.

2. Man the Creature
With that understanding in place, Paul moves onto its natural corollary: if God is the Creator, man is his creature. In vv.25-28 Paul shows that we all utterly depend on God for everything. He is sovereign over the whole of history and over the ordering of the world. Far from being absent, he has been intimately involved in his world. As such, he is the only legitimate God of all peoples.

And why has he done what he has done? “So that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him”. Not only does that show us something of God’s heart and the destiny of all history, it also hints at mankind’s great problem: we’re adrift from our Creator.

We need to know who God is and what he is like; we also need to know who and what we are: creatures in need of their Creator but estranged from him by sin.

3. Jesus the Judge
And here Paul moves into more direct confrontation with his audience. Ignorance of God is not simply a personal tragedy; it is an assault upon the one true God. Such ignorance is not neutral; it is utterly sinful, since it denies God his place and his praise. To pick up Paul in Rom. 1, all people are guilty since “what may be known about God is plain…because God has made it plain”. Ignorance of God is culpable.

Their profound ignorance of God was highlighted in their altar “to an unknown god” in their thinking that “the divine being in like gold or silver or stone”. The fact that we are his creatures should make us realise how foolish such ideas are. And yet we don’t! Still today gods of silver and gold are worshipped, albeit in different forms.

Here is the desperately ugly nature of sin: it is first and foremost idolatry, the de-godding of God. And this is what we need to get across to people in our treatment of sin. It doesn’t simply ruin society and the lives of individuals (an atheist could make that point). It is a denial of the one true God in his glory; it is an outrage against him.

And as such, sin invites judgement: “he has set a day when he will judge the world by the man he has appointed”. Hard as it may be to share, the gospel message is not simply about how we get to be happy but about how we get to be saved from destruction.

This is why we need someone to reveal the one true God to us and to reconcile us to him; this is why we need someone to die in our place and to rise from the dead in triumph over sin and evil.

This is where Paul begins to speak of Jesus (v.31). He doesn’t start with him because he needs to do the groundwork first; they need to understand about God and themselves in order to see where Jesus fits in. Many who we meet today are in the same need. We must be careful to lay that foundation.

4. Response
But declaring the resurrection gets Paul short shrift. These folk wanted to escape the physical world, not be brought back to it! Faithfully telling the gospel in ways that are relevant and compelling will invite rejection. We need to be prepared for that and cling to the non-negotiables of the gospel.

But there were some who followed Paul and began to walk the road of discipleship. It was worth the effort and the ridicule. What counted was not the esteem in which the philosophers of Athens held Paul but whether any of them would respond to the gospel message and be saved. And, praise God, some were.

May it please him to give us the same wisdom and boldness that Paul had and to have the joy of seeing many saved in our day too. Amen.

Acts 17:16-34(i)

1. Setting the Scene
For those who want to share the gospel, which ought to mean every Christian in one way or another, we live in strange times. A while back, it could be assumed that ours was a nominally Christian society but that's no longer the case.

There are still some who go to church and who might think of themselves as 'religious' people but the rest of the picture is much more confused. Today, religion is out and spirituality is in. Precisely what that means is another question but a lot of people have some kind of yearning for it.

Whether they're into spirituality or a card-carrying atheist, all people have a way of looking at the world, all people have a 'big story' to tell about life and its meaning (or lack of it). And in this day of multiple ways of looking at the world, we're told that none are wrong and all are right, if they're right for you.

This situation poses great challenges to us as we seek to share the gospel. We're probably all more comfortable trying to speak to someone who perhaps went to Sunday School and has at least some background. But all the time there are less and less people with that kind of heritage. The recent census may have shown that 71% of people in the UK call themselves Christian but the reality is that most of those haven't a clue as to what it means.

In our country, not only has the tide turned but it is running out at an alarming rate. We face a situation in which there is massive biblical illiteracy and an aggressive commitment to a pluralism that won't allow for genuine debate over truth.

Facing such a situation, this passage is a great help to us, not least because the situation Paul faced was remarkably similar. In the synagogues he encountered religious folk and in the market place and in the Areopagus were others who held widely divergent views on life. Athens was a place where you could find most flavours of first-century spirituality.

In particular, Paul encounters two groups of thinkers, the Stoics and the Epicureans. The Stoics refused to be ruled by their passions because the gods were not and they espoused a godlike principle of reason. The Epicureans on the other hand thought the gods so far removed from us that it doesn't matter what they're like. They dwell in the spaces between the atoms in a state of calmness and that's what we should be looking for too.

But although the Stoics and the Epicureans had quite different ways of seeing reality, the one thing you couldn't do was to say 'This way is right and this way is wrong'. Which just goes to show that there is nothing new under the sun!

Paul had to deal with people who had some background in the scriptures, just as some folk today have some degree of Christian heritage we can connect with. But he also found people who were biblically illiterate, with no background in the Bible and with their own ways of telling the story of what life is all about.

Our situation is not new; the challenges we face have been faced before. There is much we can learn from this highly important account of Paul's visit to Athens.

The one significant difference is we face a certain boredom with Christianity, the sense of having 'been there, done that'. That brings additional challenges in terms of showing the abiding relevance of the good news about Jesus. There is a degree of apathy that needs to be overcome that wasn't present in Athens.

2. Reacting to Idolatry
This passage shows us how he handled those different needs, focussing in particular on those who were biblically illiterate. Before we look at the details of that, we need to notice how he responded when he got to Athens.

He begins by taking a tour around this famous old city, which by now was way past its heyday but still with a big reputation. Was he just playing the part of a tourist until his friends arrived? It seems not. His tour is more like Nehemiah going around Jerusalem to inspect the damage to the walls. Paul is taking in the kind of situation that he faces. He is using his eyes and ears to get a feel for the situation.

And on his tour, he noticed that the city was full of idols and seeing them "he was greatly distressed". He could have easily been impressed by the architecture or intimidated by the city's reputation but he is neither. He is deeply and profoundly upset by what he sees. Why? Because he has such passion for God's glory and compassion for the people who are living in such darkness.

His reaction is a challenge for us. How do we react to what we see? Are we impressed by man's achievements or intimidated by PhDs? Are we blind when it comes to today's expressions of idolatry and arrogance? Do we see all culture as being somehow neutral and without much spiritual significance?

In his speech to the Areopagus, Paul lays bare the desperately sinful nature of idolatry; it is that understanding which fuels his passionate response to what he sees. We perhaps need to recapture something of that same understanding.

3. Engaging Others
What does Paul do about what he sees? He engages both with those who have some heritage and those with none.

In the synagogue he takes the opportunity to convey the message that Messiah has come and he is Jesus. But in a sense that was the easy option. They were a fairly captive audience, with a biblical background, who were meant to be waiting for the Messiah. What about the rest of the city?

Paul engages them through direct encounter: "in the market place day by day with those who happened to be there". And that led him into direct contact with some Stoics and Epicureans, followed by an opportunity to speak before the Areopagus.

He didn't wait for them to come to him. He went to where they were and engaged them directly with the gospel. That is an extremely important lesson for us and one that needs to be carefully worked out. It has the most serious ramifications for those who have been set apart to the work of evangelism and teaching God's Word but it doesn't stop there. As a church and as individuals we need to ask serious questions about how we reach those who haven't heard the gospel.

It is not enough to wait for them to come to us; we need to create (rather than contrive) gospel opportunities. For many of us, those opportunities abound in terms of our daily contact with people at work or in the neighbourhood. But if the opportunities are there, they need to be taken. We need to be looking out for some way in, praying for some opening that will provide a natural way of introducing the gospel.

But when we get that chance, what are we to say? How do we approach the complex and confusing situation where anything goes and just about anything is believed? Paul's speech has much to teach us on that score and we'll look in detail at it next time. Let me close today by asking you to take time this week to pray about how you might both encounter and engage unbelievers with the gospel. And to ask God to give you the wisdom and the courage to take those opportunities.

Acts 17:1-15

It's sometimes said that a person's reputation has gone before them. That certainly seems to be true in this passage for Paul and his friends. They are described as "These men who have caused trouble all over the world."

In some cases a reputation, whether good or bad, is deserved. Why does this crowd make such a claim? We're going to see that the answer lies in a confrontation that challenges us and is the forerunner of further conflict.

1. Confrontation
It all begins when Paul and his friends arrive in Thessalonica from Philippi. When they got there, they went as usual into the synagogue to speak to the Jews there, along with non-Jews who had attached themselves to Judaism.

During the course of 3 Sabbath days, Paul "reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead" (vv.2,3). And having shown that, he told them, "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ."

He has a message that the Jews could follow, based on their own scriptures. He endeavoured to explain the text and show how the OT prophecies about the Messiah had been fulfilled in Jesus, the one who had died and rose again.

There is nothing here to suggest that Paul was whipping the crowd into a frenzy, that he played on their emotions or tried to exploit them. So why the accusation about causing trouble? Why the big scene in the town?

The trouble arises on 2 scores that are, in essence, the same. Paul's message confronts both the Jews in the synagogue and the non-Jewish crowd in the town. In terms of the Jews, Paul is explaining that God's promised Messiah had come. He is able to show quite definitely from the OT scriptures that the Messiah had to die and rise again. This was God's plan to rescue a world lost in sin. And the Jesus he is proclaiming fits the bill perfectly.

This is confrontational because the Jews and those who had given their allegiance to the Jewish faith were waiting for the Messiah. If he had really come, then they needed to pledge their allegiance to him. But for many of them, this picture of the Messiah didn't fit with their expectations.

And there's the rub. What would they do with the one who God had shown was the true Messiah? To hear this message left them with a profound choice. Some responded positively to what they heard. But some of the Jews decided this Messiah was not for them and went to make trouble for Paul and Co.

On one level, this looks like just another argument over religion and further proof you shouldn't raise the topic in polite company. But if this is simply about religion, why is the whole town in uproar over it?

The crowd clearly sees what has been said by Paul as having deep implications for them too. Listen to what they accuse them of: "They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus."

You see, this is not simply about religious preferences. The coming of Jesus and his dying and rising again has profound relevance for the whole world. In raising Jesus from the dead, God has declared him to the rightful ruler of the whole universe and so the gospel message calls all people everywhere to turn from their own ways and to worship him as Lord.

Why is this so upsetting to the Thessalonians? For some time, the Roman Emperor had been venerated as a god and, since he brought a certain amount of peace and prosperity to the empire, he was declared to be a saviour. His rule had brought a lot of material prosperity to Thessalonica.

The message about Jesus as Lord and Saviour directly challenged that whole way of thinking. The town was worried that any challenge to Caesar's rule would bring trouble, disturbing their peace and robbing them of their properity.

The message about Jesus confronts Jews with the promised Messiah and confronts all peoples with one who stakes a claim as rightful Lord of the whole universe.

But this confrontation is not limited to the first century. Each of us is being called today to follow Jesus as Lord and to turn away from all that challenges his lordship, whether that is material security or human relationships. The true Lord must come first; genuine peace and prosperity are only found in him as the one Saviour of sinful men and women.

But to believe this message and to genuinely embrace Jesus as Lord means trouble. It upsets the status quo, at work, in the home, in society at large. Each of us is confronted with the same choice that the people of Thessalonica faced: will we put our faith in human beings to bring us peace and prosperity or will we trust Jesus as Lord and so find in him genuine peace and a prosperity that is more than material?

2. Challenge
That confrontation brings a real challenge with it: will you take the time to evaluate what is being said? Will you come to this message with an open mind, ready to check out the claims of Jesus? No message could be either more demanding nor more rewarding.

We need to learn from the example of those in the next town Paul visited, Berea, who "were of more noble character than the Thessalonians". What that is saying is that they were more willing to learn than the others had been.

We live in the information age and all too often suffer from information overload. It's easy to dismiss something we aren't all that interested in. Please don't reject this message out of hand. It deserves your closest attention. You owe it to yourself to investigate it personally. Why not try reading one of the gospels and asking God to show you the truth about Jesus as you read. Are you willing to take that challenge?

3. Conflict
If you are willing, I need to be very straight with you from the evidence not simply of this passage but of the whole NT. All who see that Jesus is the rightful King and only Saviour and put their trust in him won't have an easy ride in this world.

That was true for Paul and his friends and, when Paul wrote to the young church in this city, it's clear that they too had suffered at the hands of their neighbours (1 Thes. 1:6). Maybe for some it had been at work, for others at home. But wherever it was the suffering was real.

It's the same today. If you're going to follow Jesus as Lord, you need to count the cost of doing so first. But that cost pales beside the wonder and the glory of knowing God personally, of knowing that Jesus died to save you and that in him you have genuine peace and eternal prosperity.

May the description Paul gives of the response of some in Thessalonica be true for each one of us: "You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead - Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath." (1 Thes. 1:9,10)