Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 15th Nov 2009
Acts 21v1-36 Heading for Jerusalem!
We live in a shallow age of entertainment.
The couch potato age! 24 hour TV. Nintendo’s, Wii’s and PS3’s!! DVD’s and Bluerays!
Such entertainment has drugged most of us into a zombie like state!
We don’t think anymore! There are no great causes, no reason to protest.
For many people, there is sadly, no great reason to live. Life is shallow and empty.
So when we come to Paul and the early church and this chapter we find it a bit hard to get into. Here we have a man of passion, a man of drive, a man who is willing to suffer!!
A man who is willing to die for the cause!
We have a city that erupts into a riot over the thought of its temple being defiled!
Quite a different picture from both our society and our Christianity.
· Yet in Paul we see what it is to be a true Christian.
Jesus said: “Matthew 16:24-26 (to his disciples), "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Paul said “Acts 21:13 13 "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."”
· So what does it mean to be a true Christian?
1) the true Christian will follow the Lord wherever He leads.
We have seen this with Paul already. He crossed land and see all in obedience to the leading and guiding of Jesus, all for the sake of the Good News.
And now he is heading to Jerusalem knowing that trouble awaits him there.
And he will not be dissuaded!
Two times the people try to stop him – v4, the Christians of Tyre try to stop him.
V10-12 his companions and Agabus and co tried to stop him.
Following Jesus is what true Christianity is all about.
We will only be able to follow if we have given wholehearted commitment to Christ!
You must in your mind be willing to go where ever He leads!
(Note: Watch out for well meaning supporters: often those who try to hinder our following are Christians! People who may have a genuine concern for our welfare but who can’t see the Lord will for us).
Why?
Because He willingly came from heaven to earth for us!
Therefore any leading or guiding that he gives we must be willing to follow.
He asks us to do nothing that he has not already done himself.
Maybe the Lord is asking you to go somewhere, do something, follow in what seems like a hard path? You must go, you must follow!
2) the true Christian will follow regardless of the cost.
The only way discipleship works is if we are willing to give up everything with the aim of following Jesus.
This for many Christians today literally means persecution and death.
We have to be willing to give that.
Paul was willing to do that v13.
He knew that going to Jerusalem would end in trouble: v27-36
How are we to get to the stage where such commitment is given?
That is a bit of a misleading question! We are not to get to the stage of such commitment!
We are to start with it.
Becoming a Christian is too easy if we think all we need to do is believe in Jesus for forgiveness of sins and then go and lead our own lives!
The Christian is someone who gives their whole lives to the King right from the very start.
That is what Mat 16v24 is all about!
The image of people carrying their cross in Jerusalem was a familiar image.
Everyone saw it happening, and it only meant one thing – that person was off to die.
Trouble may come, persecution may come, but that is what we have signed up for.
Why should we follow regardless of the cost?
Because God did not spare his own Son for us! Rom 8v32.
God was willing to pay the high cost of our salvation – the death of His own Son.
We should be willing to follow regardless of the cost to us!
Have you been holding back on the Lord? Not giving your all?
3) the true Christian will follow because it is the only thing that makes any sense!
The cost at the end of the day is irrelevant – what matters is “the Lord Jesus”.
Paul was not willing to sacrifice for no reason. He had thought things through.
The Lord Jesus was the Reason – v13.
In terms of what we have to give there really is no cost!
We give up all to follow Christ and in return we gain everything!
Rather than cost this is the greatest bargain the world has ever known!
Paul knew this to be true 2Cor4v16, all that he suffered and went through he calls light and momentary troubles, that in return were achieving eternal glory!!
So how do we get to the point where we see following as the only logical thing to do?
By thinking it through!
A Christian is not asked to take a blind leap of faith.
We are asked to jump and trust but with our eyes wide open.
Jesus wants people to follow him because they have thought it out.
Think out what is on offer:
Total salvation by trusting and that means following Jesus.
Or; you can choose to carry on living your own life, you will still go through trials and troubles, and in the end you will still die and face God who will ask you why you did not want Him!!
The choice is to live life with God who loves you and wants to live with you,
or to reject Him and live separated from Him, both now and eternally.
Think it through, what do you really want?
The true Christian is the person who really wants the Lord Jesus and will stop at nothing in following Him.
sunday evening 15th Nov 2009
Philippians 4v2-9
Last time we saw Paul call the Philippians to stand fast. They had to do that by pressing on in their individual lives, by pressing on together and by remembering who they were and what they will become.
· Faith in Practice
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus from day to day?
1) it means that we sort out disunity v2-3
One of the biggest problems that the church faces and will ever face is disunity.
Disunity is of course a human condition that will never go away, thus there is always war.
(160 million died in wars in 20th century)
· But the Church is to show forth a new humanity, a new way of doing business!
We are called to unite in following Jesus, called to love God and one another.
Yet the sad truth is that too much of our Christian history is stained by falling out, disunity, schism, split, disruption!
But if we are followers of Jesus the last thing we are to do is to split up!
We will have arguments, we will have different opinions, but our core beliefs should be strong enough to keep us united.
So the question is, what are we to do when we disagree?
a) do all we can to sort it out!
Paul “pleaded” with Euodia and Syntyche! He beseeched, urged, exhorted them to agreement!
And the reason of course was the Lord!
They were in the Lord, they were sisters, they were workers for the gospel!
Effort is required in reconciliation. Urgency is also required.
There is no time to waste when sorting out disunity (Eph4v26).
b) get help if needs be.
Paul asked his “true companion” to get involved in the situation.
Obviously the dispute required some outside assistance to get a resolution!
The ultimate question to ask at the end of all this is the why question.
· Why are we to bother sorting out disputes? Why are we to prize unity?
Because of the Gospel, because of the Lord.
The Gospel is more important than any of our disputes!
We have the Lambs Book of Life to remember. Our earthly disputes will soon be swallowed up into eternity! In eternity we will not be able to do anything about the problems we have caused, we will not get a second chance to do things differently!
2) it means we rejoice v4.
So we are to sort out disunity as followers of Jesus. Next we are to Rejoice!
Followers of Jesus are to display a new united humanity in the world and that new humanity is to be one that is marked by its Rejoicing.
Our rejoicing is to be in the Lord.
When are we to Rejoice?
Just when we feel like it? Just when things are going well for us?
No we are to rejoice always!!
We can only do that as we look to the Cause of our Rejoicing – the Lord!
He is the only one who can give us the cause for rejoicing!
We will not be able to rejoice continually in the ‘world’, just sit down and watch the news! We will not be able to rejoice in how good things are going for us at a personal level because we will go through trouble and hardship!
Thus take time to rejoice in Jesus. Look to him, remember what he has done for you. Remember salvation, the book of life, the good news – all because of Jesus.
3) it means we are gentle v5, prayerful v6-7 and pure in mind and body v8-9.
So as followers of Jesus we are to unite and rejoice. What else?
· Be gentle v5!
This does not mean that we are to be door mats and let everyone walk over us!
It’s meaning is quite diverse but the idea is that we are to be careful with people!
We are to be considerate of others! The Christian is never to be someone who is brash and resentful of other! We are not to be what people call “bible bashers”!
Why are we to respect others in this way?
Because the Lord is here! People are the assets He loves!
He was gentle and lowly of heart! He is our example of what it means to be gentle.
· Be prayerful v6-7!
As we follow Christ we are to be people who are unworried because we are prayerful people! Where we have cause to worry we simply turn that into a prayer!
We talk to God about it!
As we do that God will first of all answer by giving us peace v7.
We may not get our prayers answered. We may not be relieved of the situations we are in, but as we learn to rely upon God and trust him, he will give us peace.
Does that mean that if we are still worried and fretful that God has not answered us?
No, it means that we have not prayed. It means we are not trusting God.
Life is worrying and stressful, but it is what we do with our worries that we are to watch.
· Be Pure v8-9
Our thinking has to be sorted out in the life of following Jesus.
A Christian is someone who moves from thinking about self, the world, and our desires, to thinking about God. What we chose to spend our time thinking about, and where our minds go when we are daydreaming is a good sign of our progress in the faith.
When our minds begin to change and we think more about the glory of God then our bodies and our actions at the physical level will also begin to change! At that point we know that we are making progress!
That is what Paul gets to in v9 – putting into action at the physical level!
Purity of mind will lead to purity of action!
And the great outcome and reason for us to so think and act, is that God will be with us!
We can chose to go the other way, think impurely, act impurely – but God will not be with us in that!
But as we strive to live for God He will live with us!
That’s the gospel – God love us, he has come into the world to be with us, so live trusting Him, relying upon Him, looking for Him!
Following Jesus from day to day is not about religion and “trying to be good”,
It is a united group of followers, rejoicing in the Lord, living with him and for him.
Because He is with us and for us!
