Naked and No Longer

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CREATION M4 SERMON NOTES November 8. 2009

TITLE: Naked and No Longer Ashamed

Ken Shigematsu and Lee Kosa

TEXT: Genesis 3: 1-12

BIG IDEA: When we turn from God, we experience a sense of nakedness and a need to be covered by God.

PROP: real fig leaves, blanket (Lee).

When I was working in Japan, I remember our family had an informal family reunion just north of Tokyo at my grandfather’s luxurious country club. Our family had a large oval table by the window overlooking the golf course that my grandfather had designed with Robert Trent Jones. My strict grandfather was at the head of the table in suit and bolo tie. The men at the table were dressed in suits and ties and the women in dresses. I remember my cousin Blaik from Hawaii came to the dinner late… dressed in faded ripped jeans and a T shirt… My grandfather glared at him. Blaik walked over to the table and said (in English) what’s up guys and then walked over to me and my young sister and asked, “dudes… like uh… and I’m a little under dressed?” My sister and I said, “No… don’t worry about it.” We’re lying through our teeth.

Have you ever felt underdressed and ashamed?

Have you ever wondered where our sense of shame for originated?

Mark Twain said, “Man is the only animal that blushes and the only animal that needs to.”

Have you wondered why humans blush?

Today, we’re going to look at why human beings blush and experience shame and how God helps overcome.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Genesis 3:

GENESIS 3: 1-12:

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

4 "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

In Genesis 3, we read that the serpent (the devil) tells Eve that if she eats the fruit of the one tree that God has forbidden, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that her eyes will be opened and she will become wise and enlightened like God (Genesis 3:4). He promises she will be autonomous, free and fulfilled. More fully human.

When the devil tempts us to do something, he always promises that we will benefit in some way and suggests we’ll miss out if don’t go down a particular path.

(Do some of you remember the infomercial for the Ginsu knife set? They said the Ginsu cuts through frozen food like soft butter, chops wood, and cuts through a tin can--and will last forever and it’s only $9.99! The not so subtle sub-text is how could you survive without this?)

When devil tempts us, he always promises we’ll benefit in some way.

But, when Eve and Adam succumb to Eve’s temptation to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, are their lives, in fact, better off?

What actually happens to them? They immediately feel like something has been “taken” from them--they feel a sense of alienation and shame before God.

They also experience a sense of shame before themselves and before each other.

In Genesis 2:25 we read that before they sinned, Adam and his wife Eve were both naked, but they felt no shame.

But, in Genesis 3 we read that Adam and Eve sinned and they feel naked and ashamed.

One of the consequences for us of not trusting God and separating ourselves from his path is that we experience this sense of disconnection and shame between us and God, between us and ourselves, and between us and other people. We’re going to look at how we human beings experience shame and in these three ways and how we overcome this.

First we’ll see how when Adam and Eve eat the fruit, they experience this immediate sense of disconnection from God.

In verse 8 we read:

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

The expression “the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day” is a symbolic way of saying that God was present and drawing close to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

What do Adam and Eve do? They run and hide from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Adam and Eve hide in the trees from God because they feel this sense of shame and alienation before God.

Rudolph Otto, the German theologian and author of the classic book, The Idea of the Holy, did extensive research on religious experience around the world. He discovered that wherever you go in the world you will find people who are both fascinated by God and fearful of God, people who want to both run to and run from God. He termed this feeling of simultaneous attraction and dread to God numinous awe. If you study the history of world religions, you will see in many cultures in many different times, and in many different parts of the world, people make some kind of sacrifice to God or the holy one.

Why is this? Is it because people feel drawn to God on the one hand, but on the other hand they also feel they are not worthy to enter the presence of God. So they feel they have to do something to earn God’s favour.

The stock market takes a catastrophic fall and a stock broker walks into a downtown cathedral and prays, “I’ll stop drinking, I’ll become a better husband and father if only you will help me out of this hole.” A woman is diagnosed with breast cancer and says, “God, bring me through this and I will offer up my life to you.”

One of the radioactive effects of sin is that we human beings don’t feel confident in God’s presence. We feel a sense of shame before God, so we feel that we have to bargain with God. We have to offer him something to be accepted.

So, sin disconnects from God; second, sin also disconnects us from ourselves. When Adam and Eve sin against God, they feel a sense of shame before God, but they also feel this sense of nakedness and shame before themselves.

We read in Genesis 3 of how the devil promises Eve and Adam that if they separate from God and eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil their eyes will be open, they will be wise like God, free and fulfilled—more fully human. But when they separate from God how do they feel?

They feel like something has been taken from them: they feel their nakedness and their shame. They no longer feel at ease with themselves… they feel inadequate. They feel like they need to cover themselves with fig leaves (use PROP), they need to reach for something to give themselves a sense of security and protection.

In Albert Camus’s novel, The Fall, there is a successful lawyer named Clamence, a respected but proud man. Clamence views himself as an upright, decent, and generous human being. He represents widows and orphans as a defence lawyer. He tries to be generous. He never accepts bribes. He sleeps with many different women, but he never hurts anyone… he reasons. All of this changes one night when a young woman attempts suicide by plunging off a bridge into a river, and Clamence does nothing to rescue her. In that moment he realizes who he really is... He notices his selfishness, his cowardice, his hypocrisy... that he is a fallen and broken human being just like everyone else.

Sometimes we feel a deep sense of shame, like Clamence, about ourselves because of something we have not done, or because something we have done.

Sometimes we feel shame before ourselves because we cannot meet the lofty expectations of our parents or someone significant in our lives.

Sometime we feel shame before ourselves because of a sin of someone else has perpetrated against us.

Canadian hockey star Theo Fleury has written an autobiography called Playing With Fire. In that book he describes how he was sexually abused by his junior coach Graham James. The trauma caused him to feel overwhelming in shame. He writes “an absolute nightmare every day of my life.” Fleury says, “The direct result of my being abused was that I became a f—ing raging, alcoholic lunatic… I no longer had faith in myself or my own judgment. And when you come down to it, that’s all a person has. Once it’s gone, how do you get it back?”

And to state the obvious, Fleury’s sense of shame over his abuse was not his fault.

And if you have been abused by someone who had some kind of power over you, you feel shame. It is not your fault.

Sometimes we can feel a sense shame before ourselves not because of things we have done or not done, but because of things that been have done to us.

Sometimes for no apparent reason, as such, we simply feel a sense of deficiency…a sense of lack…a being naked, a tree without bark.

(Because of this sense of shame before ourselves like Adam and Eve, we reach for fig leaf to cover our nakedness and shame.

Madonna, who seems to be always re-inventing herself, says, “I am driven to succeed out of the fear of feeling mediocre and uninteresting.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, said, “I feel driven to achieve because growing up I never felt good enough, or smart enough, or strong enough.” But it is not just Madonna and the governator…

We all have “fig leaves.” I have them. You have them. For some of us our fig leaf is our education. For others it is our accomplishment at work, our popularity, our family, our religious practice, being a good person. But we need something to cover us.)

We human beings feel a sense of shame before God, before ourselves, and, third, before each other. After Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were not only needing to cover themselves with fig leaves because they felt inadequate in and of themselves, but because they felt inadequate before each other. Before they sinned, they were naked and unashamed, and now they are naked and ashamed before each other.

As we read on, we see in this story that trust has broken down between Adam and Eve as Adam blames Eve for eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sin causes us to feel this shame and separation before each other.

As commentators Melvin Hugen and Cornelius Plantinga Jr. put it, after Adam and Eve sinned, “It wasn’t that they merely flinched when their partner’s gaze dipped southward; it was that they had trouble looking into each other’s eyes.” Part of us, instead of wanting to look one another in the face, we want to run and hide.

John Powell wrote a book called Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? “If I tell you who I am, you may not like who I am, and it’s all that I have.”

So rather than risk rejection or being laughed at or someone yawning at you, it may feel safer to reach for a fig leaf and hide, and as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, spin an image of ourselves in the hopes of being accepted. But the problem is that when we spin an image of ourselves that makes us look better than we are, and when someone accepts that image of us, we are not sure that they are accepting us or the image that we have spun.

At this time I invite Lee Kosa to share part of his story with us.

Growing up my family we didn’t record a lot of home videos. In fact I only know of 3.

One is of some random soccer game I was in.

Another is of a Grade 4 school play, where I played Romeo in Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ In the video I have on black tights and look incredibly awkward on stage. This video has somehow disappeared and despite my mom’s frequent accusations that I destroyed it, I have no idea where it went.

The third home video I remember is of my brother’s first haircut.

My brother was about 2 at the time and I was about 7. In the video our whole family is in a room at a barber’s shop. In the room they have a fake horse from a carousel for the little kids to sit on, that is supposed to distract kids from the huge stranger with the large scissors who keep attacking their head. So my brother Jay in on the horse, my mom is holding him, and the barber is trying to cut Jay’s hair and Jay loses it and starts to cry, and my mom can’t console him.

My dad who is shooting the video, say’s something like, “Where is Lee? Lee get up there and sit with your brother.” My dad starts looking around for me in the room, the camera pans around back and forth, and then suddenly pans down, and a small yellow mound enters the frame, and then begins to slide out of the picture. And the yellow mound is me, hiding under my brother’s yellow blanket, looking something like this [sit up against drum kit wall with small yellow blanket over my body.]

I hated being the centre of attention when I was young. I hated having my photo taken, and I hated being in videos.

I just turned 30 two weeks ago, and growing up I used to hate my birthday, because my mom would have a party and I would be the centre of attention. Kids would come over and I would just want to hide. For some reason I felt ashamed to have so much attention turned to me.

In Grade 6 I had a very intense and passionate soccer coach. Whenever someone did something wrong during a scrimmage, he’d have us all freeze and explain what we did wrong and what we should have done differently. Whenever I had to freeze, I’d feel a lump in my throat as a watched the coach walk over to me and I felt the eyes of my teammates watching me. When the coach started talking to me, I’d cry, and I’d just want to hide. For some reason I felt ashamed to have so much attention turned to me.

My sense of shame was a combination my own sin, sin committed against me, and the sin of humanity. The effect of sin in my life gave me the sense that I was unworthy or deficient.

When people got close to me, I’d hide behind a blanket of shyness. When someone looked me in the eye, I’d turn away always afraid that if they looked to close, they might see my brokenness.

When the camera pointed at me, I’d hide as if the photo might reveal the ugliness I felt on the inside.

Even when I got married I couldn’t let my wife look too closely into my soul, because she might see the secret, dark, evil sin that scarred my heart.

When I became a Christian I kept God at arm’s length, or confined him to the Bible, out of fear that he might see how sinful, and full of shame I really was. God became very distant and scary.

I’d hide behind my blanket of shyness, because if anyone, my friends, God my wife got a glimpse of the real me, if they ever heard the kind of thoughts that ran through my head, if they ever felt the deep self-loathing inside of me, if they saw the real, broken me--I was terrified they would reject me as deficient, and unlovable.

So it was hard to get to know me, I was the shy one. If I opened myself up, took off the blanket, and people saw the real me and rejected me, that would have been devastating because the real me is all I’ve got. So It was better to remain hidden… shy, and, unknown, than known, hated, and rejected.

So here I am a shy, scared, shameful, hiding, sinner. Here Adam and Eve are too, shy, scared, shameful, hiding, sinners. And here we are all are. Hiding from one another, each with our different fig leaves, our different blankets. Some us with a blanket of humor, others shyness, others false confidence, others a good boy or good girl personna. You name it, we all have our different blankets and we all hide behind them at times. Isolated from each other, alienated from God.

But while we are cowering in shame, guilt and fear under our blankets, if we listen carefully we can hear God speaking. Can you hear him? Look what he is saying, vs. 9. “Where are you?”

And how do we hear that as sinners like Adam and Eve, hiding under our blankets? Is it WHERE ARE YOU!!!? [read very angrily with hostility]

In your mind do you hear a God is furious, yelling God, who can’t wait to get his hands on you so he can punish you? Does God want to launch into an angry interrogation so he can humiliate you?

That is what I thought for a long time.

But a few years ago I took the biggest risk of my life and began to take the blanket of shyness off, revealing my brokenness to other trusted friends. I exposed my sin to other people. I exposed the sins that have been committed against me… to other people. And as people saw what was behind the shyness, they accepted me. As I told God about my sin and described to him my specific shame, as I told him how deficient I was, he reached out and touched me. Jesus came alongside me. Friends came along side me, me wife came along side me. And as Christ and others have accepted me, the real me—God has brought profound healing and intimacy with others and with God into my life.

Yes, I still sin. Yes at times I still feel shameful. Yes, I still go back pick up this blanket [pick it up] and hide behind it. But now when I’m hiding from others, my wife, my friends, from God, when I’m scared, insecure, and anxious I hear God’s voice calling. “Where are you, Lee? I miss you. Yes, I see what you’ve done. Yes, I see how you feel. Yes, I hate sin too, but I love you more than I hate sin. That’s why I came. That’s why I allowed myself to be despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, I was despised, and seen as worthless. That’s why I took up your pain and bore your suffering. People thought I was punished by God, But I was pierced for your transgressions, I was crushed for your iniquities; the punishment that has brought you peace was on me, and by my wounds you are healed.”

Christ himself was stripped naked and humiliated on a cross, taking into himself our sin and our shame. Because he has taken upon himself my shame and your shame, we can come out from hiding. We don’t need to hide any more. There is no need for this [throw blanket] in God’s presence or in the presence of others.

And yet, we often forget, we get scared, shame washes over us, and we go back to our blankets, [pick it up] and hide.

And today many of us are here, myself included, with our blankets tucked away just in case. Some of us even have them on right now. And this morning, we sit and listen, to the voice of God as he whispers, “Where are you?” How do we hear him? How will we respond?

Let’s pray:

Like the loving father Jesus spoke of in Luke 15, God sees as his son as his daughter and says:

“I miss you. Yes I see what you’ve done… Yes I hate sin too, but I love you more than I hate sin… this is why I became a human being and died for you.

Will you throw away your blanket come out to me?

Will you throw away your blanket and become real before some trusted friends?”

Made for God, Not a god (Nov 1, 09)

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CREATION M3 SERMON NOTES NOVEMBER 1, 2009

TITLE : Made for God--not a god

TEXT: Genesis 2: 8-9; 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7

Ken Shigematsu

BIG IDEA: The essence of sin is to trust something or someone, other than God.

How many of you have rappelled down the side of a cliff?

If you rappel for the first time, your guide will encourage you to walk backwards off a cliff (use a rope as prop), as you step off to throw yourself back almost as if you were doing a “trust fall,” and someone was going to catch you. Your guide will say trust the ropes and your equipment and (show PowerPoint image now) lean back…

But, it doesn’t feel safe to throw yourself backwards over a cliff (even with ropes) and then lean back. So what many first time rappellers will do is hug the cliff (like the cliff is their new best friend), but when a person does that they slide down the cliff and often end up scrapping a knee or their nose.

They key to rappelling is to trust your equipment.

We’ve been in series in the book of Genesis on what it means to be a human being (we’ve seen how part of what it means to be a human being is to be in relationship--it’s in our nature, it’s in our DNA. Last week we considered how part of what it means to be a human being is to represent God by care for a creation that God takes pleasure and delight in) and today we’re going look at how human beings will flourish--or not--based on whether they trust their maker.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Genesis 2:8

Genesis 2: 8-9:

8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2: 15-17:

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die."

Genesis 3: 1-7:

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

4 "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

In Genesis 2: 8-9 we read:

8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In Genesis 1 and 2 we see that God has given Adam extraordinary gifts. He has given Adam a friendship with himself that is open and transparent. He has given Adam great work--great blue-collar work as a farmer working with very fertile soil; great white-collar work as a zoologist, naming all the animals. Adam is surrounded by a gorgeous paradise, and he has exquisite food. Then, finally, God also gives Adam the gift of Eve, a human companion who also becomes his wife.

So God has given Adam and Eve wonderful gifts… In Genesis 2:9 we see that God has also given them, contrary to popular assumption, access to the fruit of the tree of life. The tree of life symbolized that God’s intention for Adam and Eve was good… life in all its abundance…a life of joy…a life of wholeness… a life everlasting.

Then in Genesis 3 vs. 1 we read how Satan, who is also called “the great deceiver,” approaches them in the form of a serpent. Jesus said in John 10:10, while God’s purpose for us is that we might experience life in all its fullness, Satan comes to us to kill, steal, and destroy us. We read in vs. 1 that the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

When we read how Satan approached Adam and Eve in the form of a serpent perhaps we envision a coiled snake with a slithering tongue crawling on its belly. When we read about the serpent here in the early part of Genesis 3, the serpent has not yet been cursed by God (Genesis 3:14) to crawl on its belly all the days of its life because the serpent had enticed Adam and Eve to sin.

Commentators on Genesis have pointed out that the serpent, before it was cursed, was likely a creature of extraordinary beauty. Later in the Bible, we are told that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. When Satan comes to us, he will not come to us in the form of a crawling snake with a slithering tongue. He will glide into our lives in a form that is so attractive and so alluring, and so seemingly attuned to our self-interest, that we may have no idea that the “evil one” is tempting us. (In the movie, The Usual Suspects, Verbal (Kevin Spacey) says, “The greatest trick of the devil is convincing people he doesn’t exist.”)

Notice the way that the serpent comes to Eve because the way he comes to Eve is the way he will come to us. The serpent Satan comes to Eve and begins to ask her in Genesis 1, “Did God really say ‘You cannot eat of any tree in the garden?’ In the original, the Hebrew word translated “really” has a skeptical tone to it. One of the ways Satan will tempt us is through the use of this skeptical and sarcastic “really?” “You’ve got to be kidding?!”

Satan smears God by making him seem so unreasonable.

Satan also smears God by saying, “Did God really say you cannot eat from any tree of the garden?” But, is that what God said? No. God did not say that Adam could not eat of any tree of the Garden of Eden. He said in Genesis 2: 16 that Adam (and later Eve) was free to eat all any trees in the garden, including the tree of life, but the one tree they could not eat of was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan takes something positive that God has said, “You can eat of all the trees, except one,” and twists that singular prohibition into something really negative: “God has said that you cannot eat of any tree.” Satan shifts the focus from God’s abundant provision to a prohibition, from the positive to the negative. You can see in the text that Satan has already had a negative impact on Eve’s thinking because she says, “We cannot eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden.” But, did God say this? No. God tells us that tree of life is in the middle of the garden and they were free to eat from this tree. The one tree that Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat from was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (God said if effect this one tree belongs exclusively to me, trust me).

Then Eve says, “God said do not touch the fruit.” But, did God say, “Do not touch the fruit?” No, God never said anything about not touching it. God said they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan will try to smear God by twisting God’s words. He will not emphasize God’s provision, but his prohibition. He will try to take something positive and twist it so it becomes negative. Satan not only smears God by twisting his words, but he also smears God by attacking God’s character. He suggests to Eve that God is trying to keep her and Adam from a truly free and fulfilling life. He says, “God doesn’t want you to eat of the fruit of tree of the knowledge of good and evil because he knows that when you eat it, your eyes will become open and you will become like God.” Satan says, “God wants to keep you from really living, from really reaching your potential.”

What Satan does is to try to convince us that God is not worthy of our trust… that we are better off living independently from God… that we are better off if we served as our own god. In verse 4 Satan says, “If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely not die.” This is a clear, blatant contradiction of what God said in Genesis 2:17. In Genesis 2:17 God says if they eat the fruit of that tree they would surely die. But, Satan says, “For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.”

Satan is whispering in Adam and Eve’s ear that if they eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they will have the knowledge of good and evil that will make them like God… so that they won’t need God’s guidance anymore; that they can live independently, separate from God--and become more fully human—free…

This is how Satan continues to tempt us today. Satan tempts us by whispering to us that God does not have our best interests in mind; that if we follow God’s way, we will miss out; that we are better off living independently from God; that we will be better off and more fully human if we are our own god. As a teenager, I believed in the existence of God, but I had a suspicion in the back of mind that if I really gave my life over to God, I would miss out on all the excitement of life.

For some of you, what holds you back from giving your life fully to God is the feeling that if you do—you will miss out on in some way.

What Satan tries to do is to smear God’s character. He tries to make us believe that if we give ourselves fully to God, we will miss out on life, and that we are better off living as our own god.

The Book of Genesis and the scriptures show us we were made to trust God… that we were made to trust something bigger that ourselves.

Throughout Genesis and the scriptures we see how human beings were made to live in relationship with God. Because we were built to trust God, because we were designed to place our security, identity and meaning in God, if we don’t, it is not like we will be truly autonomous, as Satan suggests, but we will build our life on something or someone other than God… a substitute god…a pseudo saviour…

In Romans 1 we read:

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…

Because we were made to worship God, when we do not, we will find ourselves placing our security, identity in meaning in something or someone other than God.

According to Romans 1, the essence of sin is idolatry, turning to something or someone other than God for our LIFE. The very first sin of the human race was not adultery or murder or theft, but Adam and Eve choosing to trust something other than God for their LIFE.

The church father Tertullian said that the primary sin of the human race is idolatry--turning to something other than God for our security, identity, and meaning in life.

An idol is whatever we put our primary trust and security in. For some people, their idol is work. There is nothing wrong intrinsically with work. Work is a gift from God. We were made to work. But when we turn work into the thing that defines us, it becomes an idol.

When I was working for a corporation in Tokyo, Japan, when a Japanese salary-man (corporate soldier) would find out that I was a Christian, he would typically respond by saying, “Oh, I am not religious. Japanese people are really not religious.” I would say, “Oh, Japanese people are very religious… (pause)… the religion for many Japanese men is the company. It is what you devote your life to. It is where you get your meaning. Where you find your community. It’s where you make sacrifices.” For many men (and an increasing number of women) in Japan, their religion is their company, their work, their career. Many people in large urban areas like Tokyo (and to some extent even in place like Vancouver) are defined by their work, that’s where they are seeking meaning in life, that’s what they are willing to sacrifice for.

Work can be a very demanding idol. As long we are serving this idol well, things may seem fine for us, but if we are failing at work, if we find that we are out of work, the work idol will make us feel like we are nothing. If we serve the lord of our career well, things may seem like they are going fine. But if we fail the god of work, this god can punish us with a vengeance. The idol can make us feel like our life is meaningless. It can fill us with a sense of despair, and can make us even make us feel life there is no more point to our life.

By the way, how can you tell whether we have an idol, versus something we really value in our lives? If we value something and lose it, we will feel sad, perhaps really sad… But if we idolize something and then lose it, then we will feel like our life is now meaningless, and that there is no point to our life. We don’t know how we’re going to go on.

Do you have something like that in your life? Might you have an idol?

For other people, their idol might be their education. Again, like work, education, in and of itself is a very good thing.

But, if we make education our idol it can crush us. If we serve the education idol well, we’re getting good grades; we’re being admitted to the right programs; it may seem like things are fine. But if we don’t serve this idol well, this idol can be ruthless, as well.

If we don’t get into the right school, the right program, if we don’t distinguish ourself in our program in some way, and if education is our idol… we will feel despair, like our life is meaningless, like we are not sure how we are going to be able to go on… If our education is a we value and we fail in it, we will be sad. But if our education is what defines us, and if we fail it, it will punish us. It will make us feel like our life is worthless, that there is no point to it.

Beauty can become an idol, too. Beauty is a gift from God. As we talked about last week, God made a beautiful earth; he made beautiful people. When my wife was studying painting at Emily Carr she said, if you really look at people, you’ll see that every human being is beautiful. But if we make beauty and idol it can crush us.

Frederick Buechner, the author and pastor writes sadly of his own mother: “Being beautiful was her business, her art, her delight, and it took her a long way and earned her many dividends, but when as she saw it, she lost her beauty… she was like a millionaire who runs out of money. She took her name out of the phone book and got an unlisted number. With her looks gone, she felt she had nothing left to offer the world… So what she did was simply check out of the world, my mother holed herself up in her apartment… then in one room of that apartment, then in just one chair in that room, and finally in the bed where one morning a few summers ago… she died at last.”

If your beauty or youth or health is an idol, and you lose it like Buechner’s mother, once you lose it, you feel you have nothing left to offer the world and there’s a part of you that checks out.

Another idol can be a romantic relationship. If we fall in love with someone, that will sweep us off your feet. That can be a wonderful experience and a gift from God.

But if that person’s love is the one thing that makes us feel worthy as a human being, or valuable, if we feel like I am nobody unless this person loves me, or my life is meaningless unless this person loves me, then we have an idol. And if we fail the idol of romance, we can feel despair, like our life is meaningless, that there is no point in going on in life… (I’ve been there. I’ve been so invested in a romantic relationship that when we broke up, for a while it felt like there no point to life. Looking back that how I know that a good thing, had become an ultimate thing for me—an idol.).

Marriage can be a wonderful gift. But, it’s possible, particularly if you are happily married, to make an idol out of your spouse. If we love our spouse and something compromises the marriage in some way, or if our spouse dies, we will naturally experience great mourning and despair…. But, if our spouse is our god, and we lost our spouse we will feel like there is just is no point to life any more…

Family and children are great gifts, but they can become idols well. In the Christian world, as a pastor mentor of mine says, we tend not to think of family or children as idols, but there are parents who look at their children and in their hearts they are saying “if my children are happy and healthy, if they love me, if they are successful, if they are walking with God, then I know that I am worth something. I am not loser.”

We can even make an idol out of our religious practices.

Praying, going to church, seeking to learn about God, seeking to live a life in alignment with God’s plan for us are good things. But as Tim Keller says in his book, Prodigal God, if we make our religious and spiritual practices, which are good things, ultimate things instead of God, then when we fail at these things, we will again experience despair and feel that life is meaningless. We can feel there is no point to our life.

The essence of sin is putting our security, identity, and meaning in something other than the living God.

The other “god” can be harsh if we fail it, but can also wedge us from the real God, source of all life.

Many people choose not to fully devote themselves to God because they feel they will miss out on life if they do. The irony is that when they do so, they turn to something or someone other than God for their identity, security and meaning, and they find that something is missing in their life because we were made for the living God.

Each of us has a hole in our lives that can only be filled by God.

There is nothing wrong with most idols in and of themselves: there’s nothing wrong with work, education, beauty, or family. In and of themselves these are good things. But if we make them the most important thing in our life, they will occupy our hearts to place in our hearts that only God can fill… and if we fail them they will punish us… EVEN IF we serve them well--they will leave us feeling less than wholly satisfied because there’s a part of our soul that only God can satisfy.

How do we break the power of something good that has become an idol to us?

In the Greek mythology, Homer tells us of the enchanting Isle of Sirens, where there are beautiful creatures that are part human and part bird. The Sirens could sing so beautifully that they enchanted all those who heard them. Sailors who would pass by and heard their singing would hurl themselves overboard and swim to them, but would die on the jagged rocks surrounding the island.

When Odysseus was about to pass the Isle of the Sirens by ship he ordered his men to plug their ears with beeswax so they could not hear the siren’s songs. Then he had them tie him to the mast of the ship.

But, when the great adventurer Jason needed to sail past the Isle of the Sirens, Jason brought the along the incomparable musician Orpheus. When they passed the Isle of the Sirens, Jason had Orpheus play more beautiful music than the Sirens, and they were able to pass by unharmed.

Thomas Chalmers has said the only way to break the power of a beautiful object on the soul is to show it something more beautiful.

It as we gaze on the beauty and the magnificence and the goodness of God, whether through Scripture, silence, nature, art, music, people--the power of an idol can be broken in our lives.

If we gaze on God’s love for us in the face of Christ, we can trust God without reserve.

In the Garden of Eden see how God gave Adam and Eve access to the tree of life, a sign that God’s intention for us is to experience life in all its fullness, joy and peace.

In another garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, we see that God became a human being in Jesus Christ and died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven, so that our shame could be washed away, so that we could be restored to him. As we look at God’s face in Christ, we see don’t see a god who not punish when we fail him, but a God who forgives us. We see the face of the only God who can fulfill us. We see the face of the one who alone is worthy of our entire trust and worship.

Prayer:

Is there something too important to you? Has a good thing that’s become an ultimate thing?

Name it.

Talk to God about this…

(Sometimes I have prayed, “Teach me to care and not care.

Help me to be passionate and dispassionate…”)

Pray you would be swept up in the beauty, the adventure, and the mystery of discovering how great and awesome and loving and good God is, and ask that you would be able to trust him.

Perhaps you’d like to pray John Donne’s prayer

Batter my heart, three-personed God…

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor even chaste, except you ravish me.

God's Green Earth (Oct 25, 09)

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CREATION M2 SERMON NOTES OCTOBER 25, 2009

TITLE: Caring for God’s Green Earth

TEXT: Genesis 1; selections from Job 38-41; Revelation 21:1-5

Ken Shigematsu and Brent Chamberlain

BIG IDEA: We are called to care for God’s green earth.

If you were to go to my wife Sakiko’s family home just outside of Osaka, Japan you would notice that part of the home is very traditional. They have the traditional tiled roof and sections of the house with traditional straw woven tatami mats on the floor and sliding doors. Their home is adorned by Bonsai trees.

When I learned that the house had originally been purchased by one of Sakiko’s ancestors from a famous kabuki actor and has been passed down to her family from her ancestors, I feel a heightened sense of respect for her family land.

When we understand where something comes from, our attitude towards it changes.

When we understand the story of where our planet came from, our attitude toward it will change.

In the ancient Babylonian myth of creation Enuma Elish there is an epic battle between the gods, Marduk and Tiamat. In this battle Marduk slays Tiamat and he splits her body in half like a fish for drying. From one half of Tiamit’s body Marduk fashions the heavens and with other half he forms the earth. Then Marduk says to the other gods who were on his side, “Now that we have created the earth, we need someone to do the ‘dirty work’ taking care of it.” So human beings were created as the slaves of the gods to take care of the earth.

The Genesis account of creation challenges the ancient creation myths that claim the earth is a the result of a battle between pagan gods and that the earth is the body of a defeated god.

In Genesis 1: 1-3 we read:

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

(Many people come across a passage like Genesis 1 and ask, “How long did it take to create the world? Or precisely, how did God create the earth?” But these are not the primary questions that the author is addressing here. Genesis 1 was not written as a scientific textbook account of the origins of the earth. Genesis 1 is historical in the sense that it offers real truths about creation, but, as respected Harvard-trained Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke and others have argued, Genesis 1 reveals real truth about creation, but in an artistic and poetic, rather than straight-literalistic kind of way.)

We go on and we read that God created the ground and the seas and called it good (2 slides: mountain and seas). God created the vegetation, the plants and trees (slide of trees), and said, “These are good.” God separated the light from the darkness (orange and white slide) and said, “This is good.” God created all kinds of creatures in the sea and all kinds of birds, and said it was good. God created all kinds of animals (slide of horses) and said it was good.

(SHOW POWERPOINT)

And then God looked at the entirety of his creation, and said, “It is very good.”

In Genesis 1 we do not read about a god who made the earth because he didn’t know what else to do with the defeated body of a rival god. But rather, we read of a God who made the earth and took great pleasure in it by describing it as “good! good! good! good! good! very good!”

In the ancient Book of Job we read about how Job experienced terrible suffering and begins to question God’s goodness and justice. God appears to Job out of a storm and he asks him:

Job 38:4-7:

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand…

6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—

7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels [a] shouted for joy?

God says, “Job, were you there when I laid the cornerstone of the earth and all the stars and the angels shouted for joy?”

Job 38:



32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons [a]
or lead out the Bear [b] with its cubs?

Job 39:

1 "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?

13 "The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
though they cannot compare
with the wings and feathers of the stork.

26 "Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
and spread its wings toward the south?

27 Does the eagle soar at your command
and build its nest on high?

In the Book of Job and the Genesis account we read about how God takes great pleasure in his creation.

As an artist takes delight in their masterpiece, as a mother or father takes delight in their child, so God takes delight in his creation.

We’ve been entrusted with a creation of God that he takes great pleasure and delight in.

At our wedding, my uncle who is a bank executive-turned artist, gave us a painting of a couple who are standing at the end of a brick alley adorned with ivy and green potted plants in Gastown. The sun is streaming onto the couple. My uncle told me this is his favorite painting. Because of that I view it with a different kind of respect and devotion. In the same way, when we recognize that God gifted us this earth to dwell and delight in, we will see it and treat it differently.

And then in Genesis 1:26, as we looked at last week, we read:

26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals…

Last week we talked about how part of what it means to be made in the image of a God who is in relationship is that we were made for relationship—it’s in our nature; it’s in our DNA.

Another part of what it means to be made in God’s image is to that we represent God.

When God in Genesis 1:26 says we were made in God’s image, the word image literally means “statue.” In the ancient world kings would set up statues in remote parts of their kingdom. Before the days of photography, television and the internet, you obviously could not have images of yourself throughout the kingdom to remind everyone that you were the king. So instead, you would set up statues across the kingdom and these images would remind people of your presence.

And so when we read we are made in the image of God in Genesis 1: 26, it is not only a reminder that we are not created as slaves to do the “dirty work” of the gods, as some of the creation myths suggest, but we are actually made in God’s image. We were made to represent God by resembling God in the world.

What does it mean to represent God?

As we read the Genesis account, part of what it means to represent God is that we take pleasure and delight in creation as God does.

Another part of what it means to represent is that we have the privilege of caring for the earth.

In Genesis 1:26 we read God saying:

26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Part of what it means to represent God on earth is that like God we exercise rule or as the older King James version uses the word “dominion” on the earth. Now the word dominion suggests, we, like God, have power over creation. And power can be used to abuse the earth, but power can also be used to care for it.

In Genesis 2 we read God’s creation account from another angle. We get insight into what God meant when he said we are to rule over the earth. We read in Genesis 2: 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

“To take care of” is also used in here Scripture to describe a gardener care for a garden.

A gardener has power over a garden. That power can be used to abuse the garden (I’m going to use my weed eater to mow down the roses), but a gardener can also us his or her power to care for the garden.

This word is also used to describe how a shepherd watches over his flock of sheep. A shepherd has power over his sheep. He can use his power to abuse the sheep (I’m going to yank your ears), but a shepherd can also use his power to care and protect the sheep.

In the movie Spiderman, Spiderman’s uncle says to him, “With great power comes great responsibility.” We humans have been given power and dominion over the earth (in a way the other animals do not have), but with the power comes great responsibility to care and protect for this earth that God delights in).

When we care for and protect the earth, we honour the one who made it.

As I have shared before, when I graduated from seminary in Boston, I was pretty much broke. The first position I took out of seminary was to serve as a pastor of a new church start-up in southern California. The church had no denominational backing and no major financial backing. A couple in southern California, whom I had never met, heard that I was coming to southern California to start this church. The husband called me and explained that he and his wife travelled up to half the year, and asked if I would be interested in living in their home for free in exchange for taking care of their plants and dog while they were away.

They said, “If you need time to think and pray about it, we just wanted you to know that we live in a home that overlooks the ocean in San Clemente, one of the best surfing beaches in North America.” I was like “I do.” My choices were either to be living in the back seat of my car or living in a home that overlooked the ocean. Easy choice!

This couple, John and Carol, the owners of the home, became friends of mine. They were amazingly generous to me in many ways. They not only allowed me to live in their home without charge, but they gave me some really good counsel for the church start-up and even listened to some of the woes I was experiencing with the woman I was dating at the time.

So when they were travelling, I wanted to honour them by taking great care of their plants—their flowers, their cumquats, their shrubbery—and their dog.

When we recognize how God has been so good to us, so generous in providing all that we need…and in many cases more…and how he has offered himself to us in Jesus Christ, by laying down his life on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be restored to him, part of the way we can express our gratitude to him is by caring for this earth that he so deeply loves.

In Genesis we read how God created the earth, and in the final book of the scriptures in Revelation, we read about how God will renew the earth. Of course, there are many people who don’t even believe in God who really care for the earth, but those of us who are followers of Christ have the greatest motivation to care for God’s green earth.

In certain times throughout history there have been Christians who have not taken good care of the earth because they have misread scripture, and believed that it would one day be destroyed and replaced. There are Christians who have believed that one day God would take Christians from the earth and the rest of the world would be “left behind” and destroyed. If the earth would come to an end, they reasoned, there is no point in worrying about trying to stop polluting the planet.

You treat the earth very differently if you believe one day, perhaps soon, it will pushed off a cliff, than if you believe it is going to be renewed by God and used as our everlasting home.

In Revelation 21: 5, we read: 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." God here is not saying “I am making all new things,” but instead, “I am making all things new.” God is not saying, “I am making all new things, but I am making things new.”

The scriptures do not teach that one day the world will be obliterated or just absorbed into the nothingness of the universe as some religions teach, but this earth according to Romans and Revelation will one day be redeemed and made new and restored.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Here Paul says if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. We know that when Paul writes these words he does not mean that when a person gives their life to Christ, God completely obliterates them and then creates a new person; we know that when a person gives their life to Christ much of who they are in terms of appearance and personality traits remain the same. When a person is made new in Christ, it means that the Spirit of God fills them and renews them. The language that is used of a person being made new in Christ is the same language that is used in Revelation of the earth being made new.

If our current world will be renewed at the coming of Christ, then as respected theologian N.T. Wright says, our care for God’s earth is not simply a way to make life on earth a more bearable place until the day we leave it behind altogether, but every act of caring God’s earth will all find its way into the new creation that God will one day make. Our care for the earth is a way of building God’s Kingdom.

Michelangelo’s frescoes in Sistine Chapel in Rome have become mired in grime, soot, and pollution across the centuries so that colours of the paintings had faded and some of the detail lost. A team of art conservators worked together to clean, restore, and preserve these priceless frescoes across two decades during 80’s and 90s. We are called by God to restore and preserve his masterpiece of our planet.

So what can we do practically to honour God by representing God on Earth and work care for and restore his creation?

At this time I want to invite Brent Chamberlain, a PHD student in forestry at UBC, who will be going to Brazil to map preservation areas, to come forward. I have asked him to share how he and his wife Andrea live out their Christian faith by caring for God’s green earth:

Complimentary Piece by Brent Chamberlain

When I look back I think my passion to conserve and manage forests in sustainable ways stems from my fascination with trees as a child. It’s strange though as I reflect on it because 7 years ago when I graduated from university with business and computer science degrees I was not intending to head down this path. But after working a couple years in industry I found myself feeling like I needed to integrate my life more fully with God’s creation.

I am now a couple years away from earning a Ph.D and have had opportunities to work in Brazil mapping permanent preservation areas in the Amazon and engage in a special research project where a group of us are working with UBC and Greenest City Alliance for the City of Vancouver to recommend ways that these organizations can better enable students and citizens to live more ecologically-sound lives.

In the past few years I have seen amazing places like the Serengeti in Kenya, the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Iguazu Falls in Brazil. But I have also seen magical places damaged by our impact including the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic from Prince George to Kelowna and the destruction of the forests in the Amazon. All of these experiences have brought me to realize that the whole of humanity, regardless of faith or culture want to live in harmony with nature and that I want to facilitate that effort…it is just that many of us don’t know how or chose not to.

Andrea too has seen much of this degradation as well as the magical beauty. Some of you may have seen her paintings hanging in the foyer in the east hall many months ago. One way she shares these experiences and love for creation is through art.

Over the last five years Andrea and I have tried our best to align our lives with what our faith tells us about stewardship. This has meant some dramatic changes, but I can assure you that these changes have exposed us to more wonders of creation and created a greater sense of thankfulness for God’s incredible craftsmanship.

For instance, I am thankful for the car we own. We do use it – sparingly – and typically to visit family south of the border. However, our primary form of (when people hear transit in Vancouver they think public transit) transportation is by bike, sun, rain and for me even snow! I think last year Andrea took the bus to work fewer than 10 times and I drove her fewer than that. If someone would have asked us 5 years ago we never would have imagined something this extreme! In fact Andrea didn’t even have a bike until 2006.

A couple years ago we took a two week vacation and cycled from Oregon to Southern California along the coast. This trip challenged and strengthened our relationship, but it also grew our faith and required that we place a lot of trust in God and one another. Through that experience I have learned the joy in slowing down and appreciating the subtleties in nature that can so often be missed in a car.

In terms of consumption we try our best to apply the three R’s, reduce, reuse and recycle. As hokey as it is, it makes sense. My travels have shown me how truly wealthy I am. As our wealth has increased, we also do our best to gain understanding in how to use it according to God’s will. His means that for each purchase we make, we do our best to be mindful of how it will impact people and the environment. In many cases we just choose not to purchase at all.

Now, there are some cases when you just really don’t want to go with without. Take toilet paper for example. I think most of us here would recognize that this is a pretty relevant and important part of our daily lives. If it’s not you may want to think about adding more beans to your diet. Depending upon the brand you buy, there can be huge environmental repercussions. Andrea and I have chosen to go with products that are made from recycled paper and to use them sparingly.

On the other end of the spectrum of consumer goods the engagement ring I bought for Andrea has a white sapphire. We chose a sapphire because it avoided many of the political and philosophical issues we have with the diamond trade. It has given us great opportunities to share our thoughts on environmental and social justice. And besides, we wanted people to see our marriage not by the color and clarity of the rock, but rather in the color and clarity of our love for one another.

Another way my faith and understanding of creation care aligns with my daily life through what I choose to eat. Perhaps the most dramatic lifestyle change I have undergone was when Andrea proposed that we eliminate all meat from our diet. After returning from Brazil over a year ago, we decided to give the “no meat” idea a try for three months – it has stuck since. During that time we explored new recipes, new foods, and researched the ethics of industrial meat production, including reading Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall. We also spent time with friends trying out new meals and buying locally grown products from the winter farmers market. This was such a bonding time and was a great way to encourage healthy accountability.

Being exposed to this alternative diet made me appreciate the amazing variety of foods that God has given us. I can assure you all that it really doesn’t take that much or any meat to sustain incredibly healthy lives and that if we significantly reduce our meat consumption we can make lasting impacts on the ecosystem. One of the things I remember reading during our three month trial was that it takes13,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of red meat and in general that 50% of the grain produced in the world goes directly to animal feed. I just kept thinking to myself that if I cut meat out altogether and others did the same, we could dramatically change our footprint on earth and as my wife says, we would make a whole lot more animals a whole lot happier.

I have never liked seafood myself, but Andrea loves it. It was shocking to learn that globally ¾ all fish stocks in the world are exhausted, depleted or endangered. It may be hard for many of you to eliminate seafood as well, so if you are someone who eats fish or sushi, we have printed out a few “pocket guides” and they are available in the back that explain what fish are more sustainable to consume and which ones you should stay away from. I would invite you to take a look and take one home with you.

I would guess that for most of us here, we can reduce our carbon footprint through alternative forms of transportation like the bus, train or bike. We can change our diet and in general, buy less stuff. Even today, our dollar is buying the products and degrading the land of those unable to defend it. That’s one of the reasons Andrea and I try to buy fair-trade or organic products. I want to have some assurance that what I buy is not negatively impacting the poor who are harvesting it. As a Christian I find it vital to educate myself about the consequences of my actions on creation and people around the world. This resonates with me because it requires forgoing some luxuries if it means extending compassion just a Christ did for me.

Each person here can make a difference and I would stress that these changes should start incrementally, but like Andrea and I, you may find yourself making more transformative changes to your life as you realize the joy you receive by living a life that cares for creation. I also know that doing this provides opportunities to share why you have made these changes. As Christians we have an amazing opportunity to witness Christ’s redeeming spirit by living a life that cares for creation by renewing the earth. I can attest that as Andrea and I have changed our lifestyles we have found greater enjoyment through the things that can be infinitely renewable – creativity, joy, love and relationship all of which tie in beautifully with creation care.


Beginning to caring for God’s green earth can begin with small steps: as Brent talked about we can walk or bike (when we can) instead of driving (it’s ironic some of us will drive 20 minutes to the gym round trip and get on walker for 20 minutes); if we have to drive simply making sure our tires are properly filled can enable to consume less gas (In people in Canada and the US simply had the right amount of air in their tires we would save an estimated 40 million liters of gas is saved per day); turning the lights and appliances off (phantom power electricity used when an appliance is not in use can cut our electricity consumption by up to 25%); and as we progress we take bigger and make sacrifices to care for our earth….

Taking care of God’s green earth as Brent has said will take sacrifice, but we also know as we look to Christ that it is through a sacrifice that the world is saved.

We know that in the economy of God, as we give, we receive. As we spend less time consuming things, we will find we connect more with God’s earth, with other people who are made in his image, and the one who created it.

So as followers of Christ, let’s lead the way in caring the earth because this is our Father’s world.

Madde for Relationship (Oct 18, 09)

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CREATION M1 SERMON NOTES OCTOBER 18, 2009

Ken Shigematsu and Mardi Dolfo-Smith

Made for Relationship

Text: Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 2:18-25

Big Idea: Being made in the image of God means that we are made for relationship.

My older sister works in business, my younger two sisters teach (one is a guidance counselor at a high school, the other teaches literature at a university). My younger brother has worked as a radio broadcaster and as an actor and is now back at school, pursuing a graduate school that will give him the option to teach. I work as a pastor—a vocation that combines some organizational leadership and teaching.

A few years ago as part of our staff retreat, we explored our family trees (as a kind of get to know you exercise). I discovered that on my mom’s side as far back as I could go her ancestors were business people… I found out that on my dad’s side I found at that if you go back far enough his ancestors were teachers (they were Samurai who offered counsel to the Samurai Lord and taught Confucius ethics and literature to the clan (father son, father, father son, father as far back as you can go).

So, I reflected on the fact each my siblings is in business or teaching and I was in a work that combines some organizational leadership and some teaching. I feel we are doing what is in our nature-- what’s in our DNA.

As we look back on our first ancestors Adam and Eve we will discover what is in our nature-- what is in our DNA.

Today we begin a new series looking at creation from texts in Genesis and Revelation. We will explore what it means to be a human being… and what our destiny is.

TEXTS: Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:18-25

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:18-25: 18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam [a] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs [b] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib [c] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man."

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

In Genesis 1:26 we read that God says let us make human beings in our image.

If you read Genesis 1 carefully, you may notice that throughout the entire creation account God is referred to in the singular. God is referred to as either “God” or “He.”

(The use of the pronoun “He” is of course a metaphor. Moses the author of Genesis is using what theologians call anthropomorphic language; i.e., language that attributes human characteristics to God so that we can understand something of who God is in terms we understand. God is neither a “he” nor a “she.” God transcends gender. As we see later in Genesis 1:27, we human beings most completely reflect the image of God through a combination of male and female.)

When we come to Genesis 1:26 where God creates human beings, God changes the way he describes himself. God has been describing himself in the singular, but when he talks about making human beings in his image (in the image of God), God uses the plural “us” to describe himself. God changes the way he refers to himself when he talks about making human beings in his image. Some scholars have argued that when God says “us,” he is referring to the “Royal We.” Sometimes ancient monarchs would refer to themselves in the plural (but don’t see this “royal we” used anywhere else in Scripture). Other scholars believe that when God says “us” God is addressing the angels and the heavenly court. Other scholars believe that God is referring to the community of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (show Rublev’s Trinity icon). But no matter what view you take, we know from later passages of Scripture that God exists in a community of the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit and with the angels as well. Darrell Johnson says, “At the centre of the universe is a relationship.”

A great mystery is that God is one, but God is also a community. God is one, but God is also a Father; he is also a Son (Jesus Christ); he is also the Holy Spirit, and God relates to angelic beings as well.

When God says let us make human beings in our image, part of what God is saying is that we humans, like God, are designed to live in community, in relationship--it’s in our nature, it’s in our DNA.

If all this sounds a little too abstract and theoretical, there is concrete evidence in Genesis 1 that we were made for relationship. God has been creating the world and he has been saying that all that he has made is good. God created the light and said it was good. He created the ground and the seas and called it good. God created vegetation, the plants and trees, and said, “These are good.” God separated the light from the darkness, and said, “This is good.” God created all kinds of creatures in the sea and all kinds of birds, and said it was good. God created all kinds of animals, and said it was good.

And then God looked at the entirety of his creation, and said (in vs. 31) it was very good.

But then God says something in his creation is not good. He says, “It is not good that man is alone.” (Genesis 2:18).

This is a breath-taking assertion because Adam seems to have the ideal life. He has an extraordinary relationship with God: It is transparent and intimate and has not been tainted by sin. Adam also enjoys fulfilling, high impact, work. He also has a great blue-collar job as a farmer cultivating land that is fertile and incredibly responsive. He has a great white-collar job as a zoologist and taxonomist, as he names different animals. He is surrounded by a beautiful paradise. Adam is surrounded by extraordinary beauty. He has great food in the Garden of Eden.

And yet, in spite of all this, God says, concerning Adam, “It is not good that you are alone.” And so, what God is saying, in effect, is that you can have a great relationship with God, great work, live in a place of great beauty, have great food, great coffee, but if you don’t have someone in your life, if you don’t have a human being in your life, something is going to be missing because were made for relationship---it’s in our nature; it’s in our DNA.

It is possible to come to a place like Vancouver and re-create the Garden of Eden: have a relationship with God, pursue a good education, have a great job, be surrounded by natural beauty, have great food, but if we are not in a significant relationship with some other human being (I am not necessarily referring to a romantic relationship), something will be missing because were made for relationship--it’s in our nature; it’s in our DNA.

In June The Atlantic featured an article entitled What Makes Us Happy? The article presented a rare longitudinal study where researchers at Harvard have been following 268 men who entered Harvard College in the late 1930s (which has lasted over 70 years and just by coincidence John F Kennedy was in this class). They tracked them through their experiences of war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood, and grandparenthood, and old age. One of the things that surprised these ambitious, elite men, (now in their early nineties) as they looked back over their lives, was the fact that it wasn’t their careers or their visible achievements that brought them the most satisfaction, but it was their families and friendships.

We give lip service about how important relationships are, and as we look back, many of us consider our most joyous memories are with family or close friends over meals, but we often don’t put a lot of energy and investment in this area of lives. The irony is that we can create a “Garden of Eden” for ourselves by putting relationships on the “back burner.” But, without those relationships there will be something very significant missing in our lives because it’s in our nature to be in relationships--it’s in our DNA.

If you don’t have a few significant, flourishing relationships in your life, is there something you can do to invest in those relationships?

God said it is not good for man to be alone. What does God do next? He brings the animals to Adam. None of them are suitable companions, not even the monkey, the dolphin or the Golden Retriever. Why do you think God, who is always loving, and who says it is not good for man to be alone, and then brings him the animals instead of a human being?

Professor Bruce Waltke, an Old Testament scholar, points out that God makes Adam wait for Eve so he will fully appreciate this gift. He makes Adam wait so he realizes that Eve, this fellow human being, is his most precious gift in all creation. When God finally brings Eve to Adam, Adam breaks out in song: “Bone of my bone! Flesh of my flesh! She shall be called woman for she came from the man.” Adam rejoices over this precious gift that God has given him. He is singing over her. Adam rejoices over this most precious gift that God has given him.

When God says it is not good for man to be alone and brings him Eve, God affirms marriage. I recently saw the movie Away We Go. In this film the main characters (show photo) Verona (May Rudolf Saturday Night Live) and Burt (John Krasinski of The Office) are going to have a baby. They love each other and are deeply committed to each other. Burt wants to get married, but Verona doesn’t. She’s not sure why (though Burt has a theory). She doesn’t ever want to get married. There are people today who never want to get married (even though they are truly “committed” to someone). But, here in Genesis God affirms marriage as something good he created.

Now when God affirms marriage, God is not necessarily saying it is God’s will for everyone to be married. In the New Testament part of the Bible we see through Paul’s teaching that the single life is desirable and, practically, spiritual and advantageous in many ways. The only perfect person to walk the face of the earth, Jesus Christ, was single.

When God says it is not good for man to be alone, it means it is not good for us to be without another person…that when we are alone, we are not complete. We are only complete only in a relationship. The African concept of ubuntu speaks to this idea. Ubuntu means we cannot exist in isolation, but only as interconnected beings: “I am because we are.” We were created in the image of a relational God and were we made for relationships--it’s in our DNA.

(transition)

We made for relationship, it’s in our DNA, but there is something that can isolate us from relationships.

In Genesis 2:25 we read these beautiful words: 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Before Adam and Eve chose to sin in Garden of Eden by choosing to live independently of God, they were not just physically naked in each other’s presence and felt no shame…they were also naked in every other way. They were completely themselves with each other. They were free to be completely transparent with each other, in what they were thinking and feeling.

We were made to reveal the truth of who we are with God and with each other. But because of the choice that we human beings have made to turn from God, which the Bible calls sin, and because of the radioactive effects of sin in our lives, we feel shame before God and each other. Instead of revealing who we really are, instead of using our ability to communicate…to demonstrate our true selves…we tend to use words to spin an image that we want to portray about ourselves, an image that we hope will be accepted. Have you ever exaggerated or distorted a story to make you look better? Or pretended that you knew the meaning of a word in a conversation when you didn’t because you were too embarrassed to ask the meaning of the word or you acted like you had seen a movie or knew a song because everyone seemed to be familiar with the movie or song just so you could fit in?

One of the problems with this, of course, is that if we spin an image of ourselves and we are accepted by someone, we will always wonder whether the person accepts us or the image we have spun. There will be a sense of disconnect because we are not sure whether the other is connecting with us, or an image that we are projecting with the person.

Part of the reason why it is difficult to achieve real connection and intimacy with people and with God is because we feel this sense of the shame. One of the ways we can relate to God and people in a more real and free way is by knowing that we are significant because we know we are loved by our Maker.

At this time I am going to invite my colleague, our senior associate pastor, Mardi Dolfo-Smith, to come and share how we can experience this sense of significance as those who have been created by God.

What makes us Valuable?

We live in a culture that values us for our assets – our looks, our money, our brains, skill, talents and relational connections. The truth is that often we value ourselves based on these things – unfortunately there will always be someone smarter, thinner and richer than us! Ken has been talking about a human tendency to “spin an image of ourselves” – to make ourselves look better than we are. We tend to do this unconsciously when we see our own limitations, our weakness and brokenness – When we feel shame at our lack and try to hide this by– projecting a false self – making ourselves look better than we are. Covering ourselves with the proverbial “fig leaf”.

I grew up in an environment where perfection was expected – we were expected to be well rounded – good at sports, academics and artistic pursuits, kind to each other, our friends and neighbours – never anger, never selfish, never irritable, never.

It didn’t take long for me to realize my own limitations: I was great at math – and could excel at a subject that many found difficult – I even had people lining up at my door in residence for help in calculus– but ask me to analyze the theme of a poem or draw a picture ..

I could excel on a volleyball or basketball team, but you don’t want me to sing in your choir.

I made friends easily, but dealing with conflicts and disappointments in friendships were really hard for me.

Sometimes I was angry, sometimes I was selfish..

I lived in a constant state of feeling inadequate – if I wasn’t able to achieve in everything – then I wondered whether I was a valuable or worthwhile person.

Can you take a few seconds now to think of a time when you questioned your value?

That happened for me. If I ever made a mistake, or hurt someone’s feelings, or got angry with a friend, I felt incredible shame. I dealt with a fair amount of self hatred and regularly reminded myself of how worthless I was.

As I began to develop my relationship with God through the help of a spiritual mentor– God began to speak to me, as I read the Bible and as I prayed.

God spoke to me about where my value comes from

– I had a growing awareness that God had created me with strengths and talents – that he had a purpose for me - but these strengths were not what made me valuable,

That God had also created me with areas of weakness, and I had many areas of brokenness – but these did not decrease my value.

The truth began to hit me - my worth was not based on my assets…

it was based on the fact that I was a child of God. God had created me and God loved me. Loved me even more than my earthly parents.

Through my relationship with God and through the support of my mentor – I began to absorb this new identity as God’s child and my self-hatred began to decrease

– I stopped – the negative self talk and began to truly be able to face my weaknesses and my faults without feeling hatred for myself

Becoming a mother – developed a whole new area for me to examine – I think that I found mothering both fulfilling and revealing – it revealed my lacks but it also revealed a new side of love for me and gave me new insight into the love of God, our creator.

As I grew to know my children – I noticed that they too had strengths, incredible strengths and weaknesses – glaring weaknesses – some of them like my own – some of them like my husband’s, and some all their own.

But I also noticed that when I observed these weaknesses – they actually didn’t change my love for my kids. I could actually look upon their weaknesses with a rueful affection.

They were my children, in some sense I’d made them, they’d come from me and I had a kind of grace for them that I didn’t have for anyone else - even my parents or siblings or husband.

It gave me new insight into God the Father/ mother’s love for me, for all of us. God, who created us, is not surprised by our strengths and weaknesses; he does not love us because of our amazing talent nor despise or dismiss us because of out brokenness.

God even continues to look at us with love and affection despite our flaws.

In fact, God, our heavenly father loves us even more, than we as parents love our children, or we as children are loved by our parents. King David the psalmist reminded us of God’s great love for us in Psalm 27 when he wrote– “though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.”

When my youngest son was 3 – he looked at me one day and said, “You guys really love me.” What he said was true, but what thrilled me that he actually experienced our great affection towards him. It’s God’s desire that we, in the deepest place, know that kind of love from God our creator.

What would that be like for us to live in the truth that we are deeply loved?

God longs for us to know that truth – that he really loves us. Not because of what we can do for him or how good and kind we are… he loves us because he is our parent – our father/our mother.

We can truly rest in the fact that we are valuable because we have been created by a loving God. Resting in this love is the beginning – the first thing we need. As we grow to deeply know the love of God, out of this comes our love for God and our love for others. It is God’s love, God’s kindness, God’s grace that enables us to turn towards God and to depend on God.

God’s love is creative and it’s redemptive. It’s based on God’s goodness and not our own.

Experiencing God’s love and acceptance, also enable me to love my friends and family– I have been better able to love and accept others, I have also been able to be more honest with friends - peeling off layers of hiddenness and to become unashamed before them.

God has specifically used marriage to do this for me. It’s hard to be with someone day in and day out for 20 years and them not to see your flaws, your mistakes your weakness. When we were first married – and we had a fight – or I messed up – I kept expecting that to be the end of things – but it wasn’t – Toni kept forgiving me – and I him.

We’ve gone through amazingly great times, and times when we are amazingly disappointed with the other – but God’s love for us has enabled us to see the truth about ourselves, and the other and when we see that truth – to continue to love and forgive.

For me staying stuck in hiddenness – hiding my weaknesses and brokenness did not essentially enable me to see myself as God saw me. Depending on my assets to give me a sense of value – was very limiting.

Engaging with God, bringing all that I am before him – my strengths, my weakness, my sin and brokenness, enabled me to experience God’s love and acceptance. I was loved beyond my assets and my deficits and in turn enabled me to walk away from self hatred. It gave me the courage to engage in real relationship with my friends – allowing them the opportunity to see the real me- offering them an opportunity to honest with me as well – learning to forgive and care for one another.

When we understand in our hearts that we are wholly loved by God—and we see this love most powerfully demonstrated to us through his death on the cross for our sins in the person of Jesus Christ--we can experience healing for our sense of shame and relate to God and people in ways are that are more real, honest, caring, and forgiving.

And will discover that this is what we were made for. We were made for relationship--it’s in our nature; it’s in our DNA.

Prayer and question:

Is there a relationship you are being called to invest in and prioritize in? Pray about this.

Do you need to experience healing from shame? If so, pray you would receive a new sense of God’s love for you.

Soaring with Grace (Oct 04, 2009)

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ACTS M7 Sermon Notes DRAFT October 4, 2009

TEXT: Acts 4:32-37

TITLE: Soaring with Grace

BIG IDEA: When we are generous, we experience the soaring grace of God.

Beth Allinger (tribute )

Moses Pulei is a man I know who is from the Maasai people of Kenya, Africa. When he first visited North America’s Deep South, he went to a restaurant for breakfast. He didn’t know what to order, so the waitress suggested bacon and eggs. When his breakfast came, there were bacon and eggs and some pale mushy stuff on the side of the plate. He pointed to the mushy stuff and asked, “What is this?” The waitress said, “Them grits.” Moses asks, “What are grits?” She says, “They just come.”

That’s the way it is with the grace of God. Like grits, grace “just comes.”

The early church spread like wildfire in its world because it experienced much grace… or much favour from God.

And grace “just comes.”

We see that this grace of God manifesting itself in the lives of the early church as they were radically generously, and as they were generous… they experienced more of God--the grace that “just comes,” or in the words Eugene Petersen more of “soaring grace.”

We see this upward cycle of grace played out in Acts 4:32-37.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 4:32.

32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

In verse 32 we read “all the believers were one in heart and mind.” This seems like a simple statement, but it is remarkable when you think that in Acts 4 we read the church now numbered at least 5000 men (and when you add women and children, that number grows to 15 or 20 thousand), but it is an international community composed of people from around the world. God’s grace is evident as the early church lived as a united community.

We also read in our text how shockingly generous the early church was. “No one claimed any of their possessions as their own, but they shared everything they had.” (These words that describe the radically generous sharing of the early church first appear in Acts 2:44 and 45, and we read again in Acts 4:32)

And then in verses 33-35 we read: “33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

Some people have read these words about how the early church held everything in common with a sense of alarm. Some people are so afraid that this radical sharing might encourage us to adopt a communist (or a socialist) agenda that they actually dismiss these verses by saying that the early church made a mistake in not claiming that their possessions were their own.

But Luke makes it very clear in the Book of Acts that this radical lifestyle of generosity was simply the supernatural result of the Holy Spirit being poured out in a person’s life.

The early church acknowledged that Christ owned them, as well as their possessions.

Tertullian the early church father in the second century wrote:

Though we have our offerings, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. These gifts are . . . not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the needs of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; or are shut up in the prisons… But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another

God’s grace was powerfully at work in the life of the early church and they freely gave to one another. And, as they gave, more grace was poured out to them.

The church fathers tell this story… of two brothers who shared a field and a mill, and at the end of each day they divided the grain they had ground together during the day exactly in half. One brother was single; the other had a wife and a large family.

Now, the single brother thought to himself one day, “It isn't fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have only myself to care for, but my brother has children to feed. I will give him a gift of grain, but if I do so his face will fall in shame.” So each night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary to see that he was never without.

But the married brother said to himself one day, "It isn't really fair that we divide the grain evenly, because I have children to provide for me in my old age, but my brother has no one who will care for him in his old age. I will give him a gift of grain, but his face will fall in shame.” So every night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary.

Then one night under the light of a full moon they met each other halfway between their two houses. They suddenly realized what had been happening and embraced each other in love.

God witnessed their meeting and proclaimed, "This is a holy place and I am pleased to dwell here.

As we receive God’s grace, we give, and as we give we experience more of God’s soaring grace because God is pleased to dwell in a community where people give selflessly.

Even when we are not intending to give, even when we fall into giving by accident, we can experience God’s blessing and grace.

A story a little closer to home Robin Shope shares how she was at garage sale, and she found under a pile of old bedspreads a shiny saxophone. It was vintage, in pristine condition, and selling for $20.

Not being a musician and unfamiliar with the going rate for instruments, she was a little worried, $20 poorer, and the proud owner of a shiny saxophone that might not sell. As she was leaving, an elderly man stopped her. "Can I buy that saxophone from you?" he asked hopefully. "I'll give you $20 more than whatever you paid."

She was thrilled. She thought, “I'd not only recoup my 20 dollars, I'd make 20 more—and within minutes of my purchase.”

[Later that day she said] I sat at the computer, pulled up the eBay homepage, and entered the type of saxophone I'd owned for less than five minutes. To my horror, three exact matches popped up, all selling for over $500.

It was done. Finished. No chance for a do-over. Yet I couldn't let it go. Late at night I sat sleepless, angry with myself… My brain kept replaying the moment I sold the sax, while a bitter little voice whispered that the old man had probably pawned it off.

A few months later as I was perusing a garage sale, I spied my sax buyer hunched over a box, sifting through old sheet music. Feeling the old twinge of regret, I pretended not to see him. But he recognized me and cheerfully called out, "Hello there! Have you found any treasures today?"

"No." …

[And] as I turned to walk away, he caught hold of my arm. "I want you to know that because of you, I rekindled my old passion for the saxophone. Being retired, I now volunteer my time to teach kids how to play." He wiggled his fingers over the keys of an invisible sax. It was then I noticed his frailty, his worn clothes, and his scuffed shoes.

And suddenly I understood. I thought he'd stolen my blessing, when in fact he was my blessing.”

It is a blessing to give, even to fall into giving by accident.

A few weeks ago, I shared stories from our own group community here at Tenth who have experienced the blessing of giving and receiving: stories of small group members helping each other move, bringing food to people who were out of work, comforting each other as members lost a baby or a loved one.

A few weeks ago we looked at what it means to give to each other in our local context. (I hope and pray you experience the joy and grace of giving to people who are right around you. We have a ministry fair right after this service in the Upper East Hall with some amazing ministries many of which are focused on local needs and opportunities).

But, in today’s message, I want to make the shift and explore what it would look to live generously with our global context in mind.

In the book of Acts we see how the early church was generous to people locally as people sold their property and gave to those in need and generous globally and received offerings to support needy people in distant places.

In Acts 13 we read about the church in Antioch. It was an urban, multi-ethnic church (As some of you would know, the church in Antioch has been a model at Tenth.) During one of the gatherings at the church in Antioch, according to Acts 11: 28-30:

28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the believers living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

So we see here members of the early church, as each one was able, providing help for their sisters and brothers living in another part of their world.

As we experience the “soaring grace of God,” like the early church we give generously to those around us, and as we are able, to needy people in some distant place even more of …

I mentioned earlier, in Acts 4 we read that no-one in the early church regarded their possessions as their own. In Acts 11 we read that the followers of Christ in Antioch, each according to their ability, provided help for their destitute brother and sisters living in Judea.

How do we become this generous?

We become this generous by recognizing first, through the help of God’s Spirit working in us, that we do not belong to ourselves, but to God, and that all we possess belongs not to ourselves, but to God. This radical perspective (in a capitalist society) can only be inspired in us as the Spirit of God works in us.

According to the scriptures, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50). A poetic way of saying God owns everything. According to Psalm 24, “The earth and everything in it belongs to God.” God simply entrusts us with resources and gifts, in the same way we might entrust our money to a stockbroker. Now this is a radical idea because it means we do not rightfully own what we have—it is God’s. Therefore, we are called, like a stockbroker, to use our gifts, our money, and our resources, in ways that would honour the owner.

A second way we can become this generous is by becoming aware of the significant resources each of us has been entrusted with.

In the early church many were destitute, but people gave generously based on their ability to do so. In Acts 4 we read that there were no needy persons among them because from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and put them at the apostles’ feet. This was distributed to anyone who had need. In Acts 11we read that the believers in the church at Antioch gave to the impoverished brothers and sisters in Judea, according to their ability.

Most of us in Canada and most of here would not describe ourselves as wealthy, but here’s the good news…. by world standards we are wealthy. The bad news: four out of ten people in the world (2.6 billion) live on less than $2.00 a day (PROP: Toonie)

If you earn $25, 000 a year, you are wealthier than 90% of the people in the world. (top 10%)

If you make $50,000 a year, you are wealthier than 99% of the world. (top 1%)

You are in the top 1%. If you own a car, even if it is an old rusted out clunker (Pinto?), you may not feel rich but 93% of the world’s people doesn’t even own a car. If you have access to a computer with the internet, you are ahead of 93% of the world.

So most of us here by world standards are doing pretty well. And even if you are earning less than $2 a day, let’s say you are a student, the difference between you and the truly poor of the world is that you have choices. Most of us here have some kind of potential to generate income. But many of the poor in the developing world don’t have that option. For most of the poorest people in the world their hard work doesn’t make a difference as it does for us because they are trapped in a web of social and economic system that does not reward their labor.

Many people—NOT all (some people in North America are also trapped in a cycle of poverty)—but for many people in North America can be successful if they have gifts and are prepared to work hard. The people in the developing world often don’t have that opportunity.

Part of the way we can experience the soaring grace of generosity like the early church is by recognizing that we are stockbrokers for God; second, by being aware of our relative wealth; and, third, by responding to God’s call for us to give. According to scriptures in texts like Malachi, the starting point for giving for those who of us follow God is the tithe (i.e., to offer the first tenth of our income to God). When we tithe, we are saying in this symbolic act that we believe that all of our income belongs to God.

One of the most helpful things that I was taught as a new follower of Christ was to offer the first tenth of my income to God. It wasn’t hard for me to do as a teenager because I hardly made any money. When my wife Sakiko became a new believer in her twenties, working as an editor at Newsweek magazine, she was making a very good salary. When she heard her pastor speak on Bible tithing, the idea came as a jolt to her at first, but then she learned the joy of giving.

When I have spoken on giving, some of you asked me (usually in hushed tones) what my giving practice is. Let me just share that with you. Since becoming a follower of Christ, I’ve been committed to tithing to my local church. When we were doing our building campaign, Sakiko and I were committed to tithing to this church (offering the first tenth), and then to giving above and beyond our tithe so that part could help replace the original sanctuary with a new East Hall which had become deteriorated to the point that we had to shut it down. God enabled us to fulfill our pledge. Since we at Tenth have completed the building and paid it down, Sakiko and I will continue to tithe here. We are also committed to giving over and above our tithe to another Christian organization that works with poor children around the world. It is our joy to do that.

Tithing is the starting point and it simply means we give the first Tenth to the work of God, whether it’s through local church, mission, or to the poor...

For many in the world their philosophy, when it comes to money, is “make all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can.” John Wesley was a very prominent minister in the 18th century. He was the founder of the Methodist Church and his motto was “make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can…” he truly lived this out. He figured out what he needed to live on modestly… lived on it and gave the rest away. John Wesley back in the 18th century had rock star status--he made a good living from his speaking and books, but he gave it nearly all away. He donated nearly all of the 30,000 pounds he earned in his lifetime (which was a fortune back in his day). He once wrote, "If I leave behind me ten pounds you and all mankind [can] bear witness against me, that I have lived and died a thief and a robber."

If Christians in North America raised their level of giving to a simple a tithe which is 10 percent (John Wesley had a habit of giving 80% of his income away. He was married, but no kids), which is the standard starting point for believers in Scripture, it could make an enormous difference in the world.

Richard Stearns, one of the World Vision presidents, made the observation that if Christians in North America (the US and Canada) simply tithed, then we would have almost an EXTRA $200 billion dollars available for God’s work around the world.

(To put that in perspective, we spend about 800 billion dollars in the US and Canada on entertainment and recreation). (Can the powerpoint slides on the following… come out progressively point by point, but so that ONE slide is “filled out” with this data in the end?)

If Christians in North America (the US and Canada) simply tithed, then we would have an EXTRA $200 billion dollars available for God’s work around the world.

* we could bring an end to world hunger;
* solve the clean water crises;
* provide universal access to medical care for millions suffering from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis;
* virtually eliminate more the 26,000 daily child deaths (Bono—where a child is born should not determine IF a child lives);
* guarantee education for all the world’s children;
* provide a safety net for the world’s tens of millions of orphans.



If you are here and you still exploring the possibility of belief in God, tithing is not something that you are obligated to do. God calls his followers to tithe. You are not under that particular call, but it’s good for you to hear this because tithing of part of what God will call you to do once you give your life to him. But, living a life of compassion and generosity, as the Dali Lama has noted, is a great gift, so if you do not believe in God, why not consider giving to some organization that does good in the world. It may not be a Christian organization, but some movement that helps to alleviate the poverty and suffering of people somewhere in the world.

Something else we might consider as we seek to become people whose generosity reflects God’s grace to the world is to consider sponsoring a child.

In the movie About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson plays the role of a man named Warren Schmidt (show slide). He retires from a vice president's job at an insurance company, he’s wealthy, but looks back on a meaningless life, and ahead to a meaningless retirement.

One day, while watching television, Warren sees an opportunity to sponsor an underprivileged child in Tanzania. Warren responds to the appeal, and throughout the movie he faithfully sends the $22 a month.

On one occasion after a long road trip, Warren comes home to an empty house. He reluctantly walks in with an armload of impersonal junk mail.

Warren ambles up the stairs and looks disappointedly at the disheveled state of his bedroom. Throughout this scene, the audience hears Warren's voice-over narration of a letter he recently composed to 6 year old boy Ndugu he sponsors. He pours out his intense feeling of emptiness in this letter:

“I know we're all pretty small in the scheme of things, and I guess the best you can hope for is to make some kind of difference, but what difference have I made? What in the world is better because of me? I am a failure. There's just no getting around it. Real soon I will die. Maybe 20 years—maybe tomorrow—it doesn't matter. Once I am dead and everyone who knew me dies, it is as though I never existed. What difference has my life made to anyone? None that I can think of. Hope things are fine with you.

Yours Truly, Warren Schmidt.”

At the end of the scene, the depression on Warren's face gives way to wonder as he stares down at a letter from Tanzania. It is a letter from a nun who works in the orphanage where 6-year-old Ndugu lives. She tells Warren that Ndugu thinks of him every day and hopes he is happy. Enclosed is a picture drawn by Ndugu for Warren—two stick people smiling and holding hands under blue sky and the sun. Warren is overcome by the realization that he has made a difference. He lifts his hands to his tired face and cries…

He makes a difference and experiences gratitude and joy.

Something else we might do if we are able, if we want to become people whose generosity reflects God’s grace to the world, is to serve as part of some kind of mission local or global mission (consider visiting the ministry booths). Kevin Knight, a plumber in our community, recently shared about how next year he intends to live among the poorest in Phnom Pen, Cambodia as he serves with Servants for Asia’s Poor (and they will have a table in the back).

Again, you don’t need to be a billionaire to participate in serving the world. A couple of week ago, I shared how Leon a person who works as the shoeshine guy in a tall office building in Seattle provides water filtration systems that make clean water in places like Bolivia massive flooding (and perhaps now in the Philippines?) where the water has been contaminated because of flooding. How does he do it? As he shines shoes and posts pictures on the wall of places in the world that need clean water. Then when the business people, lawyers, and bankers whose shoes he is shining ask about the photos he says, “I’m raising money for a water filtration machines—would you like to help?

A few years ago Raul Hernandez, one of World Vision’s representatives in Florida, responded to a phone call from an elderly woman in Miami who asked if he could come to her apartment to discuss a gift. He wrote this email afterwards:

The apartment complex was located in a poor Latino neighbourhood of Miami. As I knocked at the door, I noticed the humble surroundings. She opened the door. Ana is a wonderful 91-year-young Colombian lady.

“Come in. You are the person who was sent to receive my gift?” She invited me into her humble one-bedroom apartment. No air conditioning.

I was told about her coming to North America in 1954 with her husband, her struggle to raise up her three children, her long working hours to meet the family basic needs... Then she told me about her terrible time of sickness, almost totally paralyzed, strangled by pain, limited by the mercy of others to move her around. Until she met the Lord and his healing power that sustains her until today.

After sharing more stories, she stood up and said, “Let me bring my gift to the children that World Vision is serving.”She went to the night table and brought an envelope to the table where we were seated. She opened the envelope with care as if it was a ceremony of love. She passed me five clipped lumps of twenty-dollar bills. “Count them. Please. I want to be sure I counted correctly.”

I counted them, and it was one thousand dollars. She then said, “I have been saving this for a long time with the intention to give it to for the poor children in the world. Every time someone gave me a gift for my birthday, or for Christmas, or for New Year, I saved it for the poor children. I am so blessed by the Lord that I want to bless those who are less fortunate than me. I sponsor a girl in Columbia. But I was thinking I will soon start my travel to my Celestial Home, to my Father; I need to do something soon on behalf of those suffering children. My prayer I that as Jesus took two fish and five loaves of bread and multiplied them to fed the thousands, that he will do the same with this, my gift. It’s not much, but it is everything I have.”

I was crying inside, such generosity is only possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. I felt I was blessed beyond my imagination. The humid heat of Miami, in this small apartment without air-conditioning, was totally forgotten under the refreshing breeze I felt coming from above as I enjoyed this visit with Ana. I was wondering, as I drove back home, how maybe she is not a “major donor” she is a heavenly donor.

Jesus said (in Matthew 25), “When you gave to the least of my brothers or sisters you gave to me.”

God’s grace came to the early church and they lived a life of generosity locally and globally, and experienced more of God’s soaring grace, and the work of God grew in their world. When we live this way so will we will experience soaring grace and God will say “this is a holy place and I am pleased to dwell here”… and the Kingdom of God will grow in our world.

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ACTS M7 Sermon Notes DRAFT October 4, 2009

TEXT: Acts 4:32-37

TITLE: Soaring with Grace

BIG IDEA: When we are generous, we experience the soaring grace of God.

Beth Allinger (tribute )

Moses Pulei is a man I know who is from the Maasai people of Kenya, Africa. When he first visited North America’s Deep South, he went to a restaurant for breakfast. He didn’t know what to order, so the waitress suggested bacon and eggs. When his breakfast came, there were bacon and eggs and some pale mushy stuff on the side of the plate. He pointed to the mushy stuff and asked, “What is this?” The waitress said, “Them grits.” Moses asks, “What are grits?” She says, “They just come.”

That’s the way it is with the grace of God. Like grits, grace “just comes.”

The early church spread like wildfire in its world because it experienced much grace… or much favour from God.

And grace “just comes.”

We see that this grace of God manifesting itself in the lives of the early church as they were radically generously, and as they were generous… they experienced more of God--the grace that “just comes,” or in the words Eugene Petersen more of “soaring grace.”

We see this upward cycle of grace played out in Acts 4:32-37.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 4:32.

32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

In verse 32 we read “all the believers were one in heart and mind.” This seems like a simple statement, but it is remarkable when you think that in Acts 4 we read the church now numbered at least 5000 men (and when you add women and children, that number grows to 15 or 20 thousand), but it is an international community composed of people from around the world. God’s grace is evident as the early church lived as a united community.

We also read in our text how shockingly generous the early church was. “No one claimed any of their possessions as their own, but they shared everything they had.” (These words that describe the radically generous sharing of the early church first appear in Acts 2:44 and 45, and we read again in Acts 4:32)

And then in verses 33-35 we read: “33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

Some people have read these words about how the early church held everything in common with a sense of alarm. Some people are so afraid that this radical sharing might encourage us to adopt a communist (or a socialist) agenda that they actually dismiss these verses by saying that the early church made a mistake in not claiming that their possessions were their own.

But Luke makes it very clear in the Book of Acts that this radical lifestyle of generosity was simply the supernatural result of the Holy Spirit being poured out in a person’s life.

The early church acknowledged that Christ owned them, as well as their possessions.

Tertullian the early church father in the second century wrote:

Though we have our offerings, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. These gifts are . . . not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the needs of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; or are shut up in the prisons… But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another

God’s grace was powerfully at work in the life of the early church and they freely gave to one another. And, as they gave, more grace was poured out to them.

The church fathers tell this story… of two brothers who shared a field and a mill, and at the end of each day they divided the grain they had ground together during the day exactly in half. One brother was single; the other had a wife and a large family.

Now, the single brother thought to himself one day, “It isn't fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have only myself to care for, but my brother has children to feed. I will give him a gift of grain, but if I do so his face will fall in shame.” So each night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary to see that he was never without.

But the married brother said to himself one day, "It isn't really fair that we divide the grain evenly, because I have children to provide for me in my old age, but my brother has no one who will care for him in his old age. I will give him a gift of grain, but his face will fall in shame.” So every night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary.

Then one night under the light of a full moon they met each other halfway between their two houses. They suddenly realized what had been happening and embraced each other in love.

God witnessed their meeting and proclaimed, "This is a holy place and I am pleased to dwell here.

As we receive God’s grace, we give, and as we give we experience more of God’s soaring grace because God is pleased to dwell in a community where people give selflessly.

Even when we are not intending to give, even when we fall into giving by accident, we can experience God’s blessing and grace.

A story a little closer to home Robin Shope shares how she was at garage sale, and she found under a pile of old bedspreads a shiny saxophone. It was vintage, in pristine condition, and selling for $20.

Not being a musician and unfamiliar with the going rate for instruments, she was a little worried, $20 poorer, and the proud owner of a shiny saxophone that might not sell. As she was leaving, an elderly man stopped her. "Can I buy that saxophone from you?" he asked hopefully. "I'll give you $20 more than whatever you paid."

She was thrilled. She thought, “I'd not only recoup my 20 dollars, I'd make 20 more—and within minutes of my purchase.”

[Later that day she said] I sat at the computer, pulled up the eBay homepage, and entered the type of saxophone I'd owned for less than five minutes. To my horror, three exact matches popped up, all selling for over $500.

It was done. Finished. No chance for a do-over. Yet I couldn't let it go. Late at night I sat sleepless, angry with myself… My brain kept replaying the moment I sold the sax, while a bitter little voice whispered that the old man had probably pawned it off.

A few months later as I was perusing a garage sale, I spied my sax buyer hunched over a box, sifting through old sheet music. Feeling the old twinge of regret, I pretended not to see him. But he recognized me and cheerfully called out, "Hello there! Have you found any treasures today?"

"No." …

[And] as I turned to walk away, he caught hold of my arm. "I want you to know that because of you, I rekindled my old passion for the saxophone. Being retired, I now volunteer my time to teach kids how to play." He wiggled his fingers over the keys of an invisible sax. It was then I noticed his frailty, his worn clothes, and his scuffed shoes.

And suddenly I understood. I thought he'd stolen my blessing, when in fact he was my blessing.”

It is a blessing to give, even to fall into giving by accident.

A few weeks ago, I shared stories from our own group community here at Tenth who have experienced the blessing of giving and receiving: stories of small group members helping each other move, bringing food to people who were out of work, comforting each other as members lost a baby or a loved one.

A few weeks ago we looked at what it means to give to each other in our local context. (I hope and pray you experience the joy and grace of giving to people who are right around you. We have a ministry fair right after this service in the Upper East Hall with some amazing ministries many of which are focused on local needs and opportunities).

But, in today’s message, I want to make the shift and explore what it would look to live generously with our global context in mind.

In the book of Acts we see how the early church was generous to people locally as people sold their property and gave to those in need and generous globally and received offerings to support needy people in distant places.

In Acts 13 we read about the church in Antioch. It was an urban, multi-ethnic church (As some of you would know, the church in Antioch has been a model at Tenth.) During one of the gatherings at the church in Antioch, according to Acts 11: 28-30:

28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the believers living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

So we see here members of the early church, as each one was able, providing help for their sisters and brothers living in another part of their world.

As we experience the “soaring grace of God,” like the early church we give generously to those around us, and as we are able, to needy people in some distant place even more of …

I mentioned earlier, in Acts 4 we read that no-one in the early church regarded their possessions as their own. In Acts 11 we read that the followers of Christ in Antioch, each according to their ability, provided help for their destitute brother and sisters living in Judea.

How do we become this generous?

We become this generous by recognizing first, through the help of God’s Spirit working in us, that we do not belong to ourselves, but to God, and that all we possess belongs not to ourselves, but to God. This radical perspective (in a capitalist society) can only be inspired in us as the Spirit of God works in us.

According to the scriptures, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50). A poetic way of saying God owns everything. According to Psalm 24, “The earth and everything in it belongs to God.” God simply entrusts us with resources and gifts, in the same way we might entrust our money to a stockbroker. Now this is a radical idea because it means we do not rightfully own what we have—it is God’s. Therefore, we are called, like a stockbroker, to use our gifts, our money, and our resources, in ways that would honour the owner.

A second way we can become this generous is by becoming aware of the significant resources each of us has been entrusted with.

In the early church many were destitute, but people gave generously based on their ability to do so. In Acts 4 we read that there were no needy persons among them because from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and put them at the apostles’ feet. This was distributed to anyone who had need. In Acts 11we read that the believers in the church at Antioch gave to the impoverished brothers and sisters in Judea, according to their ability.

Most of us in Canada and most of here would not describe ourselves as wealthy, but here’s the good news…. by world standards we are wealthy. The bad news: four out of ten people in the world (2.6 billion) live on less than $2.00 a day (PROP: Toonie)

If you earn $25, 000 a year, you are wealthier than 90% of the people in the world. (top 10%)

If you make $50,000 a year, you are wealthier than 99% of the world. (top 1%)

You are in the top 1%. If you own a car, even if it is an old rusted out clunker (Pinto?), you may not feel rich but 93% of the world’s people doesn’t even own a car. If you have access to a computer with the internet, you are ahead of 93% of the world.

So most of us here by world standards are doing pretty well. And even if you are earning less than $2 a day, let’s say you are a student, the difference between you and the truly poor of the world is that you have choices. Most of us here have some kind of potential to generate income. But many of the poor in the developing world don’t have that option. For most of the poorest people in the world their hard work doesn’t make a difference as it does for us because they are trapped in a web of social and economic system that does not reward their labor.

Many people—NOT all (some people in North America are also trapped in a cycle of poverty)—but for many people in North America can be successful if they have gifts and are prepared to work hard. The people in the developing world often don’t have that opportunity.

Part of the way we can experience the soaring grace of generosity like the early church is by recognizing that we are stockbrokers for God; second, by being aware of our relative wealth; and, third, by responding to God’s call for us to give. According to scriptures in texts like Malachi, the starting point for giving for those who of us follow God is the tithe (i.e., to offer the first tenth of our income to God). When we tithe, we are saying in this symbolic act that we believe that all of our income belongs to God.

One of the most helpful things that I was taught as a new follower of Christ was to offer the first tenth of my income to God. It wasn’t hard for me to do as a teenager because I hardly made any money. When my wife Sakiko became a new believer in her twenties, working as an editor at Newsweek magazine, she was making a very good salary. When she heard her pastor speak on Bible tithing, the idea came as a jolt to her at first, but then she learned the joy of giving.

When I have spoken on giving, some of you asked me (usually in hushed tones) what my giving practice is. Let me just share that with you. Since becoming a follower of Christ, I’ve been committed to tithing to my local church. When we were doing our building campaign, Sakiko and I were committed to tithing to this church (offering the first tenth), and then to giving above and beyond our tithe so that part could help replace the original sanctuary with a new East Hall which had become deteriorated to the point that we had to shut it down. God enabled us to fulfill our pledge. Since we at Tenth have completed the building and paid it down, Sakiko and I will continue to tithe here. We are also committed to giving over and above our tithe to another Christian organization that works with poor children around the world. It is our joy to do that.

Tithing is the starting point and it simply means we give the first Tenth to the work of God, whether it’s through local church, mission, or to the poor...

For many in the world their philosophy, when it comes to money, is “make all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can.” John Wesley was a very prominent minister in the 18th century. He was the founder of the Methodist Church and his motto was “make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can…” he truly lived this out. He figured out what he needed to live on modestly… lived on it and gave the rest away. John Wesley back in the 18th century had rock star status--he made a good living from his speaking and books, but he gave it nearly all away. He donated nearly all of the 30,000 pounds he earned in his lifetime (which was a fortune back in his day). He once wrote, "If I leave behind me ten pounds you and all mankind [can] bear witness against me, that I have lived and died a thief and a robber."

If Christians in North America raised their level of giving to a simple a tithe which is 10 percent (John Wesley had a habit of giving 80% of his income away. He was married, but no kids), which is the standard starting point for believers in Scripture, it could make an enormous difference in the world.

Richard Stearns, one of the World Vision presidents, made the observation that if Christians in North America (the US and Canada) simply tithed, then we would have almost an EXTRA $200 billion dollars available for God’s work around the world.

(To put that in perspective, we spend about 800 billion dollars in the US and Canada on entertainment and recreation). (Can the powerpoint slides on the following… come out progressively point by point, but so that ONE slide is “filled out” with this data in the end?)

If Christians in North America (the US and Canada) simply tithed, then we would have an EXTRA $200 billion dollars available for God’s work around the world.

* we could bring an end to world hunger;
* solve the clean water crises;
* provide universal access to medical care for millions suffering from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis;
* virtually eliminate more the 26,000 daily child deaths (Bono—where a child is born should not determine IF a child lives);
* guarantee education for all the world’s children;
* provide a safety net for the world’s tens of millions of orphans.



If you are here and you still exploring the possibility of belief in God, tithing is not something that you are obligated to do. God calls his followers to tithe. You are not under that particular call, but it’s good for you to hear this because tithing of part of what God will call you to do once you give your life to him. But, living a life of compassion and generosity, as the Dali Lama has noted, is a great gift, so if you do not believe in God, why not consider giving to some organization that does good in the world. It may not be a Christian organization, but some movement that helps to alleviate the poverty and suffering of people somewhere in the world.

Something else we might consider as we seek to become people whose generosity reflects God’s grace to the world is to consider sponsoring a child.

In the movie About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson plays the role of a man named Warren Schmidt (show slide). He retires from a vice president's job at an insurance company, he’s wealthy, but looks back on a meaningless life, and ahead to a meaningless retirement.

One day, while watching television, Warren sees an opportunity to sponsor an underprivileged child in Tanzania. Warren responds to the appeal, and throughout the movie he faithfully sends the $22 a month.

On one occasion after a long road trip, Warren comes home to an empty house. He reluctantly walks in with an armload of impersonal junk mail.

Warren ambles up the stairs and looks disappointedly at the disheveled state of his bedroom. Throughout this scene, the audience hears Warren's voice-over narration of a letter he recently composed to 6 year old boy Ndugu he sponsors. He pours out his intense feeling of emptiness in this letter:

“I know we're all pretty small in the scheme of things, and I guess the best you can hope for is to make some kind of difference, but what difference have I made? What in the world is better because of me? I am a failure. There's just no getting around it. Real soon I will die. Maybe 20 years—maybe tomorrow—it doesn't matter. Once I am dead and everyone who knew me dies, it is as though I never existed. What difference has my life made to anyone? None that I can think of. Hope things are fine with you.

Yours Truly, Warren Schmidt.”

At the end of the scene, the depression on Warren's face gives way to wonder as he stares down at a letter from Tanzania. It is a letter from a nun who works in the orphanage where 6-year-old Ndugu lives. She tells Warren that Ndugu thinks of him every day and hopes he is happy. Enclosed is a picture drawn by Ndugu for Warren—two stick people smiling and holding hands under blue sky and the sun. Warren is overcome by the realization that he has made a difference. He lifts his hands to his tired face and cries…

He makes a difference and experiences gratitude and joy.

Something else we might do if we are able, if we want to become people whose generosity reflects God’s grace to the world, is to serve as part of some kind of mission local or global mission (consider visiting the ministry booths). Kevin Knight, a plumber in our community, recently shared about how next year he intends to live among the poorest in Phnom Pen, Cambodia as he serves with Servants for Asia’s Poor (and they will have a table in the back).

Again, you don’t need to be a billionaire to participate in serving the world. A couple of week ago, I shared how Leon a person who works as the shoeshine guy in a tall office building in Seattle provides water filtration systems that make clean water in places like Bolivia massive flooding (and perhaps now in the Philippines?) where the water has been contaminated because of flooding. How does he do it? As he shines shoes and posts pictures on the wall of places in the world that need clean water. Then when the business people, lawyers, and bankers whose shoes he is shining ask about the photos he says, “I’m raising money for a water filtration machines—would you like to help?

A few years ago Raul Hernandez, one of World Vision’s representatives in Florida, responded to a phone call from an elderly woman in Miami who asked if he could come to her apartment to discuss a gift. He wrote this email afterwards:

The apartment complex was located in a poor Latino neighbourhood of Miami. As I knocked at the door, I noticed the humble surroundings. She opened the door. Ana is a wonderful 91-year-young Colombian lady.

“Come in. You are the person who was sent to receive my gift?” She invited me into her humble one-bedroom apartment. No air conditioning.

I was told about her coming to North America in 1954 with her husband, her struggle to raise up her three children, her long working hours to meet the family basic needs... Then she told me about her terrible time of sickness, almost totally paralyzed, strangled by pain, limited by the mercy of others to move her around. Until she met the Lord and his healing power that sustains her until today.

After sharing more stories, she stood up and said, “Let me bring my gift to the children that World Vision is serving.”She went to the night table and brought an envelope to the table where we were seated. She opened the envelope with care as if it was a ceremony of love. She passed me five clipped lumps of twenty-dollar bills. “Count them. Please. I want to be sure I counted correctly.”

I counted them, and it was one thousand dollars. She then said, “I have been saving this for a long time with the intention to give it to for the poor children in the world. Every time someone gave me a gift for my birthday, or for Christmas, or for New Year, I saved it for the poor children. I am so blessed by the Lord that I want to bless those who are less fortunate than me. I sponsor a girl in Columbia. But I was thinking I will soon start my travel to my Celestial Home, to my Father; I need to do something soon on behalf of those suffering children. My prayer I that as Jesus took two fish and five loaves of bread and multiplied them to fed the thousands, that he will do the same with this, my gift. It’s not much, but it is everything I have.”

I was crying inside, such generosity is only possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. I felt I was blessed beyond my imagination. The humid heat of Miami, in this small apartment without air-conditioning, was totally forgotten under the refreshing breeze I felt coming from above as I enjoyed this visit with Ana. I was wondering, as I drove back home, how maybe she is not a “major donor” she is a heavenly donor.

Jesus said (in Matthew 25), “When you gave to the least of my brothers or sisters you gave to me.”

God’s grace came to the early church and they lived a life of generosity locally and globally, and experienced more of God’s soaring grace, and the work of God grew in their world. When we live this way so will we will experience soaring grace and God will say “this is a holy place and I am pleased to dwell here”… and the Kingdom of God will grow in our world.

Download the original attachment

ACTS M7 Sermon Notes DRAFT October 4, 2009

TEXT: Acts 4:32-37

TITLE: Soaring with Grace

BIG IDEA: When we are generous, we experience the soaring grace of God.

Beth Allinger (tribute )

Moses Pulei is a man I know who is from the Maasai people of Kenya, Africa. When he first visited North America’s Deep South, he went to a restaurant for breakfast. He didn’t know what to order, so the waitress suggested bacon and eggs. When his breakfast came, there were bacon and eggs and some pale mushy stuff on the side of the plate. He pointed to the mushy stuff and asked, “What is this?” The waitress said, “Them grits.” Moses asks, “What are grits?” She says, “They just come.”

That’s the way it is with the grace of God. Like grits, grace “just comes.”

The early church spread like wildfire in its world because it experienced much grace… or much favour from God.

And grace “just comes.”

We see that this grace of God manifesting itself in the lives of the early church as they were radically generously, and as they were generous… they experienced more of God--the grace that “just comes,” or in the words Eugene Petersen more of “soaring grace.”

We see this upward cycle of grace played out in Acts 4:32-37.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 4:32.

32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

In verse 32 we read “all the believers were one in heart and mind.” This seems like a simple statement, but it is remarkable when you think that in Acts 4 we read the church now numbered at least 5000 men (and when you add women and children, that number grows to 15 or 20 thousand), but it is an international community composed of people from around the world. God’s grace is evident as the early church lived as a united community.

We also read in our text how shockingly generous the early church was. “No one claimed any of their possessions as their own, but they shared everything they had.” (These words that describe the radically generous sharing of the early church first appear in Acts 2:44 and 45, and we read again in Acts 4:32)

And then in verses 33-35 we read: “33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

Some people have read these words about how the early church held everything in common with a sense of alarm. Some people are so afraid that this radical sharing might encourage us to adopt a communist (or a socialist) agenda that they actually dismiss these verses by saying that the early church made a mistake in not claiming that their possessions were their own.

But Luke makes it very clear in the Book of Acts that this radical lifestyle of generosity was simply the supernatural result of the Holy Spirit being poured out in a person’s life.

The early church acknowledged that Christ owned them, as well as their possessions.

Tertullian the early church father in the second century wrote:

Though we have our offerings, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. These gifts are . . . not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the needs of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; or are shut up in the prisons… But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another

God’s grace was powerfully at work in the life of the early church and they freely gave to one another. And, as they gave, more grace was poured out to them.

The church fathers tell this story… of two brothers who shared a field and a mill, and at the end of each day they divided the grain they had ground together during the day exactly in half. One brother was single; the other had a wife and a large family.

Now, the single brother thought to himself one day, “It isn't fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have only myself to care for, but my brother has children to feed. I will give him a gift of grain, but if I do so his face will fall in shame.” So each night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary to see that he was never without.

But the married brother said to himself one day, "It isn't really fair that we divide the grain evenly, because I have children to provide for me in my old age, but my brother has no one who will care for him in his old age. I will give him a gift of grain, but his face will fall in shame.” So every night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary.

Then one night under the light of a full moon they met each other halfway between their two houses. They suddenly realized what had been happening and embraced each other in love.

God witnessed their meeting and proclaimed, "This is a holy place and I am pleased to dwell here.

As we receive God’s grace, we give, and as we give we experience more of God’s soaring grace because God is pleased to dwell in a community where people give selflessly.

Even when we are not intending to give, even when we fall into giving by accident, we can experience God’s blessing and grace.

A story a little closer to home Robin Shope shares how she was at garage sale, and she found under a pile of old bedspreads a shiny saxophone. It was vintage, in pristine condition, and selling for $20.

Not being a musician and unfamiliar with the going rate for instruments, she was a little worried, $20 poorer, and the proud owner of a shiny saxophone that might not sell. As she was leaving, an elderly man stopped her. "Can I buy that saxophone from you?" he asked hopefully. "I'll give you $20 more than whatever you paid."

She was thrilled. She thought, “I'd not only recoup my 20 dollars, I'd make 20 more—and within minutes of my purchase.”

[Later that day she said] I sat at the computer, pulled up the eBay homepage, and entered the type of saxophone I'd owned for less than five minutes. To my horror, three exact matches popped up, all selling for over $500.

It was done. Finished. No chance for a do-over. Yet I couldn't let it go. Late at night I sat sleepless, angry with myself… My brain kept replaying the moment I sold the sax, while a bitter little voice whispered that the old man had probably pawned it off.

A few months later as I was perusing a garage sale, I spied my sax buyer hunched over a box, sifting through old sheet music. Feeling the old twinge of regret, I pretended not to see him. But he recognized me and cheerfully called out, "Hello there! Have you found any treasures today?"

"No." …

[And] as I turned to walk away, he caught hold of my arm. "I want you to know that because of you, I rekindled my old passion for the saxophone. Being retired, I now volunteer my time to teach kids how to play." He wiggled his fingers over the keys of an invisible sax. It was then I noticed his frailty, his worn clothes, and his scuffed shoes.

And suddenly I understood. I thought he'd stolen my blessing, when in fact he was my blessing.”

It is a blessing to give, even to fall into giving by accident.

A few weeks ago, I shared stories from our own group community here at Tenth who have experienced the blessing of giving and receiving: stories of small group members helping each other move, bringing food to people who were out of work, comforting each other as members lost a baby or a loved one.

A few weeks ago we looked at what it means to give to each other in our local context. (I hope and pray you experience the joy and grace of giving to people who are right around you. We have a ministry fair right after this service in the Upper East Hall with some amazing ministries many of which are focused on local needs and opportunities).

But, in today’s message, I want to make the shift and explore what it would look to live generously with our global context in mind.

In the book of Acts we see how the early church was generous to people locally as people sold their property and gave to those in need and generous globally and received offerings to support needy people in distant places.

In Acts 13 we read about the church in Antioch. It was an urban, multi-ethnic church (As some of you would know, the church in Antioch has been a model at Tenth.) During one of the gatherings at the church in Antioch, according to Acts 11: 28-30:

28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the believers living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

So we see here members of the early church, as each one was able, providing help for their sisters and brothers living in another part of their world.

As we experience the “soaring grace of God,” like the early church we give generously to those around us, and as we are able, to needy people in some distant place even more of …

I mentioned earlier, in Acts 4 we read that no-one in the early church regarded their possessions as their own. In Acts 11 we read that the followers of Christ in Antioch, each according to their ability, provided help for their destitute brother and sisters living in Judea.

How do we become this generous?

We become this generous by recognizing first, through the help of God’s Spirit working in us, that we do not belong to ourselves, but to God, and that all we possess belongs not to ourselves, but to God. This radical perspective (in a capitalist society) can only be inspired in us as the Spirit of God works in us.

According to the scriptures, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50). A poetic way of saying God owns everything. According to Psalm 24, “The earth and everything in it belongs to God.” God simply entrusts us with resources and gifts, in the same way we might entrust our money to a stockbroker. Now this is a radical idea because it means we do not rightfully own what we have—it is God’s. Therefore, we are called, like a stockbroker, to use our gifts, our money, and our resources, in ways that would honour the owner.

A second way we can become this generous is by becoming aware of the significant resources each of us has been entrusted with.

In the early church many were destitute, but people gave generously based on their ability to do so. In Acts 4 we read that there were no needy persons among them because from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and put them at the apostles’ feet. This was distributed to anyone who had need. In Acts 11we read that the believers in the church at Antioch gave to the impoverished brothers and sisters in Judea, according to their ability.

Most of us in Canada and most of here would not describe ourselves as wealthy, but here’s the good news…. by world standards we are wealthy. The bad news: four out of ten people in the world (2.6 billion) live on less than $2.00 a day (PROP: Toonie)

If you earn $25, 000 a year, you are wealthier than 90% of the people in the world. (top 10%)

If you make $50,000 a year, you are wealthier than 99% of the world. (top 1%)

You are in the top 1%. If you own a car, even if it is an old rusted out clunker (Pinto?), you may not feel rich but 93% of the world’s people doesn’t even own a car. If you have access to a computer with the internet, you are ahead of 93% of the world.

So most of us here by world standards are doing pretty well. And even if you are earning less than $2 a day, let’s say you are a student, the difference between you and the truly poor of the world is that you have choices. Most of us here have some kind of potential to generate income. But many of the poor in the developing world don’t have that option. For most of the poorest people in the world their hard work doesn’t make a difference as it does for us because they are trapped in a web of social and economic system that does not reward their labor.

Many people—NOT all (some people in North America are also trapped in a cycle of poverty)—but for many people in North America can be successful if they have gifts and are prepared to work hard. The people in the developing world often don’t have that opportunity.

Part of the way we can experience the soaring grace of generosity like the early church is by recognizing that we are stockbrokers for God; second, by being aware of our relative wealth; and, third, by responding to God’s call for us to give. According to scriptures in texts like Malachi, the starting point for giving for those who of us follow God is the tithe (i.e., to offer the first tenth of our income to God). When we tithe, we are saying in this symbolic act that we believe that all of our income belongs to God.

One of the most helpful things that I was taught as a new follower of Christ was to offer the first tenth of my income to God. It wasn’t hard for me to do as a teenager because I hardly made any money. When my wife Sakiko became a new believer in her twenties, working as an editor at Newsweek magazine, she was making a very good salary. When she heard her pastor speak on Bible tithing, the idea came as a jolt to her at first, but then she learned the joy of giving.

When I have spoken on giving, some of you asked me (usually in hushed tones) what my giving practice is. Let me just share that with you. Since becoming a follower of Christ, I’ve been committed to tithing to my local church. When we were doing our building campaign, Sakiko and I were committed to tithing to this church (offering the first tenth), and then to giving above and beyond our tithe so that part could help replace the original sanctuary with a new East Hall which had become deteriorated to the point that we had to shut it down. God enabled us to fulfill our pledge. Since we at Tenth have completed the building and paid it down, Sakiko and I will continue to tithe here. We are also committed to giving over and above our tithe to another Christian organization that works with poor children around the world. It is our joy to do that.

Tithing is the starting point and it simply means we give the first Tenth to the work of God, whether it’s through local church, mission, or to the poor...

For many in the world their philosophy, when it comes to money, is “make all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can.” John Wesley was a very prominent minister in the 18th century. He was the founder of the Methodist Church and his motto was “make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can…” he truly lived this out. He figured out what he needed to live on modestly… lived on it and gave the rest away. John Wesley back in the 18th century had rock star status--he made a good living from his speaking and books, but he gave it nearly all away. He donated nearly all of the 30,000 pounds he earned in his lifetime (which was a fortune back in his day). He once wrote, "If I leave behind me ten pounds you and all mankind [can] bear witness against me, that I have lived and died a thief and a robber."

If Christians in North America raised their level of giving to a simple a tithe which is 10 percent (John Wesley had a habit of giving 80% of his income away. He was married, but no kids), which is the standard starting point for believers in Scripture, it could make an enormous difference in the world.

Richard Stearns, one of the World Vision presidents, made the observation that if Christians in North America (the US and Canada) simply tithed, then we would have almost an EXTRA $200 billion dollars available for God’s work around the world.

(To put that in perspective, we spend about 800 billion dollars in the US and Canada on entertainment and recreation). (Can the powerpoint slides on the following… come out progressively point by point, but so that ONE slide is “filled out” with this data in the end?)

If Christians in North America (the US and Canada) simply tithed, then we would have an EXTRA $200 billion dollars available for God’s work around the world.

* we could bring an end to world hunger;
* solve the clean water crises;
* provide universal access to medical care for millions suffering from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis;
* virtually eliminate more the 26,000 daily child deaths (Bono—where a child is born should not determine IF a child lives);
* guarantee education for all the world’s children;
* provide a safety net for the world’s tens of millions of orphans.



If you are here and you still exploring the possibility of belief in God, tithing is not something that you are obligated to do. God calls his followers to tithe. You are not under that particular call, but it’s good for you to hear this because tithing of part of what God will call you to do once you give your life to him. But, living a life of compassion and generosity, as the Dali Lama has noted, is a great gift, so if you do not believe in God, why not consider giving to some organization that does good in the world. It may not be a Christian organization, but some movement that helps to alleviate the poverty and suffering of people somewhere in the world.

Something else we might consider as we seek to become people whose generosity reflects God’s grace to the world is to consider sponsoring a child.

In the movie About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson plays the role of a man named Warren Schmidt (show slide). He retires from a vice president's job at an insurance company, he’s wealthy, but looks back on a meaningless life, and ahead to a meaningless retirement.

One day, while watching television, Warren sees an opportunity to sponsor an underprivileged child in Tanzania. Warren responds to the appeal, and throughout the movie he faithfully sends the $22 a month.

On one occasion after a long road trip, Warren comes home to an empty house. He reluctantly walks in with an armload of impersonal junk mail.

Warren ambles up the stairs and looks disappointedly at the disheveled state of his bedroom. Throughout this scene, the audience hears Warren's voice-over narration of a letter he recently composed to 6 year old boy Ndugu he sponsors. He pours out his intense feeling of emptiness in this letter:

“I know we're all pretty small in the scheme of things, and I guess the best you can hope for is to make some kind of difference, but what difference have I made? What in the world is better because of me? I am a failure. There's just no getting around it. Real soon I will die. Maybe 20 years—maybe tomorrow—it doesn't matter. Once I am dead and everyone who knew me dies, it is as though I never existed. What difference has my life made to anyone? None that I can think of. Hope things are fine with you.

Yours Truly, Warren Schmidt.”

At the end of the scene, the depression on Warren's face gives way to wonder as he stares down at a letter from Tanzania. It is a letter from a nun who works in the orphanage where 6-year-old Ndugu lives. She tells Warren that Ndugu thinks of him every day and hopes he is happy. Enclosed is a picture drawn by Ndugu for Warren—two stick people smiling and holding hands under blue sky and the sun. Warren is overcome by the realization that he has made a difference. He lifts his hands to his tired face and cries…

He makes a difference and experiences gratitude and joy.

Something else we might do if we are able, if we want to become people whose generosity reflects God’s grace to the world, is to serve as part of some kind of mission local or global mission (consider visiting the ministry booths). Kevin Knight, a plumber in our community, recently shared about how next year he intends to live among the poorest in Phnom Pen, Cambodia as he serves with Servants for Asia’s Poor (and they will have a table in the back).

Again, you don’t need to be a billionaire to participate in serving the world. A couple of week ago, I shared how Leon a person who works as the shoeshine guy in a tall office building in Seattle provides water filtration systems that make clean water in places like Bolivia massive flooding (and perhaps now in the Philippines?) where the water has been contaminated because of flooding. How does he do it? As he shines shoes and posts pictures on the wall of places in the world that need clean water. Then when the business people, lawyers, and bankers whose shoes he is shining ask about the photos he says, “I’m raising money for a water filtration machines—would you like to help?

A few years ago Raul Hernandez, one of World Vision’s representatives in Florida, responded to a phone call from an elderly woman in Miami who asked if he could come to her apartment to discuss a gift. He wrote this email afterwards:

The apartment complex was located in a poor Latino neighbourhood of Miami. As I knocked at the door, I noticed the humble surroundings. She opened the door. Ana is a wonderful 91-year-young Colombian lady.

“Come in. You are the person who was sent to receive my gift?” She invited me into her humble one-bedroom apartment. No air conditioning.

I was told about her coming to North America in 1954 with her husband, her struggle to raise up her three children, her long working hours to meet the family basic needs... Then she told me about her terrible time of sickness, almost totally paralyzed, strangled by pain, limited by the mercy of others to move her around. Until she met the Lord and his healing power that sustains her until today.

After sharing more stories, she stood up and said, “Let me bring my gift to the children that World Vision is serving.”She went to the night table and brought an envelope to the table where we were seated. She opened the envelope with care as if it was a ceremony of love. She passed me five clipped lumps of twenty-dollar bills. “Count them. Please. I want to be sure I counted correctly.”

I counted them, and it was one thousand dollars. She then said, “I have been saving this for a long time with the intention to give it to for the poor children in the world. Every time someone gave me a gift for my birthday, or for Christmas, or for New Year, I saved it for the poor children. I am so blessed by the Lord that I want to bless those who are less fortunate than me. I sponsor a girl in Columbia. But I was thinking I will soon start my travel to my Celestial Home, to my Father; I need to do something soon on behalf of those suffering children. My prayer I that as Jesus took two fish and five loaves of bread and multiplied them to fed the thousands, that he will do the same with this, my gift. It’s not much, but it is everything I have.”

I was crying inside, such generosity is only possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. I felt I was blessed beyond my imagination. The humid heat of Miami, in this small apartment without air-conditioning, was totally forgotten under the refreshing breeze I felt coming from above as I enjoyed this visit with Ana. I was wondering, as I drove back home, how maybe she is not a “major donor” she is a heavenly donor.

Jesus said (in Matthew 25), “When you gave to the least of my brothers or sisters you gave to me.”

God’s grace came to the early church and they lived a life of generosity locally and globally, and experienced more of God’s soaring grace, and the work of God grew in their world. When we live this way so will we will experience soaring grace and God will say “this is a holy place and I am pleased to dwell here”… and the Kingdom of God will grow in our world.

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ACTS M7 Sermon Notes DRAFT October 4, 2009

TEXT: Acts 4:32-37

TITLE: Soaring with Grace

BIG IDEA: When we are generous, we experience the soaring grace of God.

Beth Allinger (tribute )

Moses Pulei is a man I know who is from the Maasai people of Kenya, Africa. When he first visited North America’s Deep South, he went to a restaurant for breakfast. He didn’t know what to order, so the waitress suggested bacon and eggs. When his breakfast came, there were bacon and eggs and some pale mushy stuff on the side of the plate. He pointed to the mushy stuff and asked, “What is this?” The waitress said, “Them grits.” Moses asks, “What are grits?” She says, “They just come.”

That’s the way it is with the grace of God. Like grits, grace “just comes.”

The early church spread like wildfire in its world because it experienced much grace… or much favour from God.

And grace “just comes.”

We see that this grace of God manifesting itself in the lives of the early church as they were radically generously, and as they were generous… they experienced more of God--the grace that “just comes,” or in the words Eugene Petersen more of “soaring grace.”

We see this upward cycle of grace played out in Acts 4:32-37.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 4:32.

32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

In verse 32 we read “all the believers were one in heart and mind.” This seems like a simple statement, but it is remarkable when you think that in Acts 4 we read the church now numbered at least 5000 men (and when you add women and children, that number grows to 15 or 20 thousand), but it is an international community composed of people from around the world. God’s grace is evident as the early church lived as a united community.

We also read in our text how shockingly generous the early church was. “No one claimed any of their possessions as their own, but they shared everything they had.” (These words that describe the radically generous sharing of the early church first appear in Acts 2:44 and 45, and we read again in Acts 4:32)

And then in verses 33-35 we read: “33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

Some people have read these words about how the early church held everything in common with a sense of alarm. Some people are so afraid that this radical sharing might encourage us to adopt a communist (or a socialist) agenda that they actually dismiss these verses by saying that the early church made a mistake in not claiming that their possessions were their own.

But Luke makes it very clear in the Book of Acts that this radical lifestyle of generosity was simply the supernatural result of the Holy Spirit being poured out in a person’s life.

The early church acknowledged that Christ owned them, as well as their possessions.

Tertullian the early church father in the second century wrote:

Though we have our offerings, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. These gifts are . . . not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the needs of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; or are shut up in the prisons… But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another

God’s grace was powerfully at work in the life of the early church and they freely gave to one another. And, as they gave, more grace was poured out to them.

The church fathers tell this story… of two brothers who shared a field and a mill, and at the end of each day they divided the grain they had ground together during the day exactly in half. One brother was single; the other had a wife and a large family.

Now, the single brother thought to himself one day, “It isn't fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have only myself to care for, but my brother has children to feed. I will give him a gift of grain, but if I do so his face will fall in shame.” So each night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary to see that he was never without.

But the married brother said to himself one day, "It isn't really fair that we divide the grain evenly, because I have children to provide for me in my old age, but my brother has no one who will care for him in his old age. I will give him a gift of grain, but his face will fall in shame.” So every night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary.

Then one night under the light of a full moon they met each other halfway between their two houses. They suddenly realized what had been happening and embraced each other in love.

God witnessed their meeting and proclaimed, "This is a holy place and I am pleased to dwell here.

As we receive God’s grace, we give, and as we give we experience more of God’s soaring grace because God is pleased to dwell in a community where people give selflessly.

Even when we are not intending to give, even when we fall into giving by accident, we can experience God’s blessing and grace.

A story a little closer to home Robin Shope shares how she was at garage sale, and she found under a pile of old bedspreads a shiny saxophone. It was vintage, in pristine condition, and selling for $20.

Not being a musician and unfamiliar with the going rate for instruments, she was a little worried, $20 poorer, and the proud owner of a shiny saxophone that might not sell. As she was leaving, an elderly man stopped her. "Can I buy that saxophone from you?" he asked hopefully. "I'll give you $20 more than whatever you paid."

She was thrilled. She thought, “I'd not only recoup my 20 dollars, I'd make 20 more—and within minutes of my purchase.”

[Later that day she said] I sat at the computer, pulled up the eBay homepage, and entered the type of saxophone I'd owned for less than five minutes. To my horror, three exact matches popped up, all selling for over $500.

It was done. Finished. No chance for a do-over. Yet I couldn't let it go. Late at night I sat sleepless, angry with myself… My brain kept replaying the moment I sold the sax, while a bitter little voice whispered that the old man had probably pawned it off.

A few months later as I was perusing a garage sale, I spied my sax buyer hunched over a box, sifting through old sheet music. Feeling the old twinge of regret, I pretended not to see him. But he recognized me and cheerfully called out, "Hello there! Have you found any treasures today?"

"No." …

[And] as I turned to walk away, he caught hold of my arm. "I want you to know that because of you, I rekindled my old passion for the saxophone. Being retired, I now volunteer my time to teach kids how to play." He wiggled his fingers over the keys of an invisible sax. It was then I noticed his frailty, his worn clothes, and his scuffed shoes.

And suddenly I understood. I thought he'd stolen my blessing, when in fact he was my blessing.”

It is a blessing to give, even to fall into giving by accident.

A few weeks ago, I shared stories from our own group community here at Tenth who have experienced the blessing of giving and receiving: stories of small group members helping each other move, bringing food to people who were out of work, comforting each other as members lost a baby or a loved one.

A few weeks ago we looked at what it means to give to each other in our local context. (I hope and pray you experience the joy and grace of giving to people who are right around you. We have a ministry fair right after this service in the Upper East Hall with some amazing ministries many of which are focused on local needs and opportunities).

But, in today’s message, I want to make the shift and explore what it would look to live generously with our global context in mind.

In the book of Acts we see how the early church was generous to people locally as people sold their property and gave to those in need and generous globally and received offerings to support needy people in distant places.

In Acts 13 we read about the church in Antioch. It was an urban, multi-ethnic church (As some of you would know, the church in Antioch has been a model at Tenth.) During one of the gatherings at the church in Antioch, according to Acts 11: 28-30:

28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the believers living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

So we see here members of the early church, as each one was able, providing help for their sisters and brothers living in another part of their world.

As we experience the “soaring grace of God,” like the early church we give generously to those around us, and as we are able, to needy people in some distant place even more of …

I mentioned earlier, in Acts 4 we read that no-one in the early church regarded their possessions as their own. In Acts 11 we read that the followers of Christ in Antioch, each according to their ability, provided help for their destitute brother and sisters living in Judea.

How do we become this generous?

We become this generous by recognizing first, through the help of God’s Spirit working in us, that we do not belong to ourselves, but to God, and that all we possess belongs not to ourselves, but to God. This radical perspective (in a capitalist society) can only be inspired in us as the Spirit of God works in us.

According to the scriptures, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50). A poetic way of saying God owns everything. According to Psalm 24, “The earth and everything in it belongs to God.” God simply entrusts us with resources and gifts, in the same way we might entrust our money to a stockbroker. Now this is a radical idea because it means we do not rightfully own what we have—it is God’s. Therefore, we are called, like a stockbroker, to use our gifts, our money, and our resources, in ways that would honour the owner.

A second way we can become this generous is by becoming aware of the significant resources each of us has been entrusted with.

In the early church many were destitute, but people gave generously based on their ability to do so. In Acts 4 we read that there were no needy persons among them because from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and put them at the apostles’ feet. This was distributed to anyone who had need. In Acts 11we read that the believers in the church at Antioch gave to the impoverished brothers and sisters in Judea, according to their ability.

Most of us in Canada and most of here would not describe ourselves as wealthy, but here’s the good news…. by world standards we are wealthy. The bad news: four out of ten people in the world (2.6 billion) live on less than $2.00 a day (PROP: Toonie)

If you earn $25, 000 a year, you are wealthier than 90% of the people in the world. (top 10%)

If you make $50,000 a year, you are wealthier than 99% of the world. (top 1%)

You are in the top 1%. If you own a car, even if it is an old rusted out clunker (Pinto?), you may not feel rich but 93% of the world’s people doesn’t even own a car. If you have access to a computer with the internet, you are ahead of 93% of the world.

So most of us here by world standards are doing pretty well. And even if you are earning less than $2 a day, let’s say you are a student, the difference between you and the truly poor of the world is that you have choices. Most of us here have some kind of potential to generate income. But many of the poor in the developing world don’t have that option. For most of the poorest people in the world their hard work doesn’t make a difference as it does for us because they are trapped in a web of social and economic system that does not reward their labor.

Many people—NOT all (some people in North America are also trapped in a cycle of poverty)—but for many people in North America can be successful if they have gifts and are prepared to work hard. The people in the developing world often don’t have that opportunity.

Part of the way we can experience the soaring grace of generosity like the early church is by recognizing that we are stockbrokers for God; second, by being aware of our relative wealth; and, third, by responding to God’s call for us to give. According to scriptures in texts like Malachi, the starting point for giving for those who of us follow God is the tithe (i.e., to offer the first tenth of our income to God). When we tithe, we are saying in this symbolic act that we believe that all of our income belongs to God.

One of the most helpful things that I was taught as a new follower of Christ was to offer the first tenth of my income to God. It wasn’t hard for me to do as a teenager because I hardly made any money. When my wife Sakiko became a new believer in her twenties, working as an editor at Newsweek magazine, she was making a very good salary. When she heard her pastor speak on Bible tithing, the idea came as a jolt to her at first, but then she learned the joy of giving.

When I have spoken on giving, some of you asked me (usually in hushed tones) what my giving practice is. Let me just share that with you. Since becoming a follower of Christ, I’ve been committed to tithing to my local church. When we were doing our building campaign, Sakiko and I were committed to tithing to this church (offering the first tenth), and then to giving above and beyond our tithe so that part could help replace the original sanctuary with a new East Hall which had become deteriorated to the point that we had to shut it down. God enabled us to fulfill our pledge. Since we at Tenth have completed the building and paid it down, Sakiko and I will continue to tithe here. We are also committed to giving over and above our tithe to another Christian organization that works with poor children around the world. It is our joy to do that.

Tithing is the starting point and it simply means we give the first Tenth to the work of God, whether it’s through local church, mission, or to the poor...

For many in the world their philosophy, when it comes to money, is “make all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can.” John Wesley was a very prominent minister in the 18th century. He was the founder of the Methodist Church and his motto was “make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can…” he truly lived this out. He figured out what he needed to live on modestly… lived on it and gave the rest away. John Wesley back in the 18th century had rock star status--he made a good living from his speaking and books, but he gave it nearly all away. He donated nearly all of the 30,000 pounds he earned in his lifetime (which was a fortune back in his day). He once wrote, "If I leave behind me ten pounds you and all mankind [can] bear witness against me, that I have lived and died a thief and a robber."

If Christians in North America raised their level of giving to a simple a tithe which is 10 percent (John Wesley had a habit of giving 80% of his income away. He was married, but no kids), which is the standard starting point for believers in Scripture, it could make an enormous difference in the world.

Richard Stearns, one of the World Vision presidents, made the observation that if Christians in North America (the US and Canada) simply tithed, then we would have almost an EXTRA $200 billion dollars available for God’s work around the world.

(To put that in perspective, we spend about 800 billion dollars in the US and Canada on entertainment and recreation). (Can the powerpoint slides on the following… come out progressively point by point, but so that ONE slide is “filled out” with this data in the end?)

If Christians in North America (the US and Canada) simply tithed, then we would have an EXTRA $200 billion dollars available for God’s work around the world.

* we could bring an end to world hunger;
* solve the clean water crises;
* provide universal access to medical care for millions suffering from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis;
* virtually eliminate more the 26,000 daily child deaths (Bono—where a child is born should not determine IF a child lives);
* guarantee education for all the world’s children;
* provide a safety net for the world’s tens of millions of orphans.



If you are here and you still exploring the possibility of belief in God, tithing is not something that you are obligated to do. God calls his followers to tithe. You are not under that particular call, but it’s good for you to hear this because tithing of part of what God will call you to do once you give your life to him. But, living a life of compassion and generosity, as the Dali Lama has noted, is a great gift, so if you do not believe in God, why not consider giving to some organization that does good in the world. It may not be a Christian organization, but some movement that helps to alleviate the poverty and suffering of people somewhere in the world.

Something else we might consider as we seek to become people whose generosity reflects God’s grace to the world is to consider sponsoring a child.

In the movie About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson plays the role of a man named Warren Schmidt (show slide). He retires from a vice president's job at an insurance company, he’s wealthy, but looks back on a meaningless life, and ahead to a meaningless retirement.

One day, while watching television, Warren sees an opportunity to sponsor an underprivileged child in Tanzania. Warren responds to the appeal, and throughout the movie he faithfully sends the $22 a month.

On one occasion after a long road trip, Warren comes home to an empty house. He reluctantly walks in with an armload of impersonal junk mail.

Warren ambles up the stairs and looks disappointedly at the disheveled state of his bedroom. Throughout this scene, the audience hears Warren's voice-over narration of a letter he recently composed to 6 year old boy Ndugu he sponsors. He pours out his intense feeling of emptiness in this letter:

“I know we're all pretty small in the scheme of things, and I guess the best you can hope for is to make some kind of difference, but what difference have I made? What in the world is better because of me? I am a failure. There's just no getting around it. Real soon I will die. Maybe 20 years—maybe tomorrow—it doesn't matter. Once I am dead and everyone who knew me dies, it is as though I never existed. What difference has my life made to anyone? None that I can think of. Hope things are fine with you.

Yours Truly, Warren Schmidt.”

At the end of the scene, the depression on Warren's face gives way to wonder as he stares down at a letter from Tanzania. It is a letter from a nun who works in the orphanage where 6-year-old Ndugu lives. She tells Warren that Ndugu thinks of him every day and hopes he is happy. Enclosed is a picture drawn by Ndugu for Warren—two stick people smiling and holding hands under blue sky and the sun. Warren is overcome by the realization that he has made a difference. He lifts his hands to his tired face and cries…

He makes a difference and experiences gratitude and joy.

Something else we might do if we are able, if we want to become people whose generosity reflects God’s grace to the world, is to serve as part of some kind of mission local or global mission (consider visiting the ministry booths). Kevin Knight, a plumber in our community, recently shared about how next year he intends to live among the poorest in Phnom Pen, Cambodia as he serves with Servants for Asia’s Poor (and they will have a table in the back).

Again, you don’t need to be a billionaire to participate in serving the world. A couple of week ago, I shared how Leon a person who works as the shoeshine guy in a tall office building in Seattle provides water filtration systems that make clean water in places like Bolivia massive flooding (and perhaps now in the Philippines?) where the water has been contaminated because of flooding. How does he do it? As he shines shoes and posts pictures on the wall of places in the world that need clean water. Then when the business people, lawyers, and bankers whose shoes he is shining ask about the photos he says, “I’m raising money for a water filtration machines—would you like to help?

A few years ago Raul Hernandez, one of World Vision’s representatives in Florida, responded to a phone call from an elderly woman in Miami who asked if he could come to her apartment to discuss a gift. He wrote this email afterwards:

The apartment complex was located in a poor Latino neighbourhood of Miami. As I knocked at the door, I noticed the humble surroundings. She opened the door. Ana is a wonderful 91-year-young Colombian lady.

“Come in. You are the person who was sent to receive my gift?” She invited me into her humble one-bedroom apartment. No air conditioning.

I was told about her coming to North America in 1954 with her husband, her struggle to raise up her three children, her long working hours to meet the family basic needs... Then she told me about her terrible time of sickness, almost totally paralyzed, strangled by pain, limited by the mercy of others to move her around. Until she met the Lord and his healing power that sustains her until today.

After sharing more stories, she stood up and said, “Let me bring my gift to the children that World Vision is serving.”She went to the night table and brought an envelope to the table where we were seated. She opened the envelope with care as if it was a ceremony of love. She passed me five clipped lumps of twenty-dollar bills. “Count them. Please. I want to be sure I counted correctly.”

I counted them, and it was one thousand dollars. She then said, “I have been saving this for a long time with the intention to give it to for the poor children in the world. Every time someone gave me a gift for my birthday, or for Christmas, or for New Year, I saved it for the poor children. I am so blessed by the Lord that I want to bless those who are less fortunate than me. I sponsor a girl in Columbia. But I was thinking I will soon start my travel to my Celestial Home, to my Father; I need to do something soon on behalf of those suffering children. My prayer I that as Jesus took two fish and five loaves of bread and multiplied them to fed the thousands, that he will do the same with this, my gift. It’s not much, but it is everything I have.”

I was crying inside, such generosity is only possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. I felt I was blessed beyond my imagination. The humid heat of Miami, in this small apartment without air-conditioning, was totally forgotten under the refreshing breeze I felt coming from above as I enjoyed this visit with Ana. I was wondering, as I drove back home, how maybe she is not a “major donor” she is a heavenly donor.

Jesus said (in Matthew 25), “When you gave to the least of my brothers or sisters you gave to me.”

God’s grace came to the early church and they lived a life of generosity locally and globally, and experienced more of God’s soaring grace, and the work of God grew in their world. When we live this way so will we will experience soaring grace and God will say “this is a holy place and I am pleased to dwell here”… and the Kingdom of God will grow in our world.

Facing Persecution Without Falling Apart (Sep 27, 2009)

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ACTS M6 SERMON NOTES SEPT. 27, 2009

TITLE: Facing Persecution Without Falling Apart

TEXT: Acts 4:1-13

BIG IDEA: Suffering is part of our call as followers of Christ and a means for us to witness to the reality of Christ.

When I was in grade 8, a girl named Julie who had moved here to Canada from England cameinto our class part way through the year. She was pretty and had an elegant, British charm. Because of her beauty and charm some people in class were attracted to her and wanted to be her friend and others in the class resented because her and because she posed a threat to them.

In Acts 2 we read that the early church was astonishingly generous, wise, and courageous and that they enjoyed the favour of the people…

But, as we read Acts 3 and 4 (like the girl Julie from grade 8), we see that some of the very factors which caused people to be attracted to them (their generosity, wisdom, courage, and their growing influence) also caused them to be resented by others.

And so it will be for us. If we decide to truly follow Christ, we will be filled with His Spirit, his spirit, and we will begin to manifest a new beauty and strength in our lives which some people will be attracted to, and others will resent.

(If we follow Christ, we will experience priceless gifts, but also pushback and even persecution. But God will give us the power to face that persecution with such courage and grace that people will be drawn to God through you.)

This morning as we continue our series in the Book of Acts, we are going to look at Acts 4. We are going to be looking at why the early church faced resentment and even persecution and how this opposition became a catalyst for the growth of the early church.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 4

Acts 4:1-13:

1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest's family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.' 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved." 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus

In Acts 3, we read how Peter and John, two of the key leaders of the early church, were used as channels of Jesus Christ to heal a man who was over 40 years old and had been crippled his whole life. This man who had been paralyzed whole life, through the power of Jesus Christ, stood for the first time and began to walk and then went into the temple courts, and he began jumping and praising God with all his might. This healing occurred about 3:00 in the afternoon as the people were making in the temple to pray. The people who saw this man healed were astonished and gathered around Peter and John and look at them as if they are Greek gods. Peter takes the opportunity to preach an impromptu sermon where he explains that the healing they had just seen did not occur because of Peter’s own power or virtue, but through the power of the risen Christ. Because there was so much excitement, certain religious authorities in charge of the temple had Peter and John arrested by the temple guard.

In verse 3 we read: 3 They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.

Who initiated Peter and John’s arrest and imprisonment? It was likely the Sadducees. The Sadducees were highly-educated, wealthy Jewish elites who denied the supernatural activity of God. They did not believe in miracles. They certainly did not believe God would raise anyone from the dead. So they did not believe in that God raised Jesus from the dead. The Sadducees did not believe in a personal messiah (or saviour figure).

Because Peter and John were undeniably used as instruments of healing in the life of this forty- something year old man who had been paralyzed from birth, and because they proclaimed that Jesus had risen from the dead and that Jesus and none other (Acts 4:12) was the promised saviour of the world, the Sadducees became very agitated. According to their teachings, healings did not happen. God did not raise people from the dead. There was no savior figure.

So Peter and John were unintentionally undermining the authority of the Sadducees. Part of the reason the Sadducees had Peter and John thrown into prison was because they were a threat to their power.

The reason that followers of Christ were later persecuted by Rome was because of their declaration that Jesus, and not Caesar, was (kyrios) Lord. That was a threat, of course, to the Roman emperor and to those who were close supporters of the emperor.

When you decide to follow Jesus and are filled with the Holy Spirit, when you experience a new power, a new courage, and a new wisdom. These are the very qualities that will cause some people to be attracted to you as a true follower of Christ…

But your new power, courage, and wisdom may also be the same reasons why others may resent you because you pose some kind of threat to them.

Even though India is officially a secular state, it has been a country where Christians have been violently persecuted. About a year ago in India’s Orissa state, Christians were targeted by an extremist Hindu group and some 15 Christians were killed and 25 churches were torched or damaged and 500 Christian homes were set on fire.

Why has this kind of persecution happened? According to Joseph D’ Souza who was born into India’s upper class (into the Brahmin caste), people from India’s most powerful class have been violently opposed to Christians because Christians proclaim that all people are equal in the eyes of God and this teaching threatens to disrupt India’s ancient hierarchy where the elites can abuse and exploit untouchables.

Most of us are not going to have our houses set on fire because we follow Christ, but we may experience push-back from others because of our decision to follow Christ because following Christ may pose a threat to someone in our world.

(In response to Christ’s call to care for the poor, our church began a feeding ministry to the poor here at Tenth and a sheltered some them overnight. Most people would that’s a good thing. But, it created pushback from our neighbors, who saw the homeless people as a threat to their property—and to their property values. )

Part of the reason Peter and John commanded by the Sanhedrin, Israel’s Supreme Court, in vs. 18 and made threats against if they did not stay silent in vs. 21 was because many of the members of Israel’s supreme court were Sadducees and they did not believe God would miraculously heal someone, they did not believe God would raise someone from the dead, and did not believe in a personal savior figure for the world.

Peter filled with Spirit in vs. 10 proclaims Jesus Christ miraculously healed this man, that he was the one who they crucified but whom God raised from the dead, and that Jesus Christ was the savior of the world. Peter boldly proclaimed that Jesus was the one who brought physical healing to the paralyzed man and was the only one who can offer us spiritual healing from our sin and bring us into a right relationship with God.

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved."

Because this message was such a threat to the members of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court, Peter and John were threatened and commanded never to speak of Jesus Christ again.

When we experience the healing grace of Jesus Christ in our lives and conclude that he is the Saviour of the world, people may push back against us because they may not have that kind of certainty in their own lives.

In our culture many people say, “I am spiritual, but not religious.” It seems acceptable to raise questions and to pursue some kind of spiritual connection, but less acceptable to claim that we have found truth.

Some people assume that if you claim to have found the truth in Jesus Christ that must be arrogant, intolerant, and exclusive. It is true that some who claim to be followers of Christ are arrogant, intolerant and exclusive. But people who enter into a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ and are filled with the Spirit become far more inclusive. (I’ve said in this series that the reason Christianity spread like wildfire in the first century when they were “competing” with thousands of other mystery religions is because Christianity was the most inclusive movement the world had ever seen. It was the first movement in history that brought together people from every race and culture, people from all socio-economic background, proclaimed the equality of men and women.)

But when we experience Jesus’ healing grace in our lives, and we conclude that he is the unique Saviour of the world, other people may perceive our confidence in him as arrogance or naiveté and while we may not be violently assaulted… we experience pushback and perhaps ridicule by some.

A little like the Sadducees of old, someone might roll their eyes and say you believe in Jesus Christ rose from the dead? I thought you were smarter than that. (Obviously there are very intelligent people throughout history like Augustine, Pascal, Isaac Newton, and C.S. Lewis who were devoted Christians. Whether you are a fan our prime minister or not, whether you like the president of the country south of us or not, most people would agree these men are intelligent people and they both describe as committed Christians. But, there are also very intelligent people who Christians are not Christians as well. So being a Christian isn’t an issue of being intelligent or not, but experiencing disdain from someone because we are a Christian can feel like persecution.)

A woman named Courtney writes:

When I attended graduate school for English, there were many occasions when my fellow students openly ridiculed the name of Christ. I stayed silent. I was quite vocal about my belief in Christ at church and with my friends, but I was terrified of what might happen to my reputation if the people at my school found out I believed in Jesus. … Most of them were just ignorant about who Jesus is. Several of them had never even met a Christian before and assumed that all Christians were the uneducated, judgmental stereotypes we sometimes see in the media. Yet, I was still afraid.

One day a fellow student asked me flat out—right before class, when many other students were around—if I was a Christian. I took a deep breath, and, with God's help, I said a soft, shaky, "Yes." The student looked at me for a second, skeptically. "Interesting," she said. "I always thought that Christians were like circus freaks…but you're smart!"

Following Jesus Christ may also pose a threat to someone we work for. If we are not a follower of Jesus Christ, we are free to make our company our de facto God--our idol, but we will not do that if we truly following Christ and there may be pushback because of that.

When we become followers of Christ, we will be conscientious and dependable employees, but the company, the school and no single person, not even a family member will occupy the most central place in our lives. That place is reserved for God alone. When there is a clash between loyalty to our company and our loyalty to God, and we choose God, then we may experience pushback or even persecution.

George Galatis was someone who studied at same graduate school as me in Boston.

George Galatis had been an engineer at Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford, Connecticut, when he discovered something was wrong.

The nuclear power plant was illegally dumping radioactive nuclear waste materials into pools and threatening the lives of thousands of people who if exposed to this radiation and would be more likely to contract cancer and or some kind of genetic disease.

The company leaders shrugged turned a blind eye this illegal dumping of radioactive waste thought was putting thousands of lives in jeopardy because they were saving millions of dollars because of these shortcuts.

When Galatis urged plant managers to stop the hazardous practices, but they refused.

Galatis began to seek for God's guidance. He awoke early in the morning to pray and read Scripture. During lunch breaks, he drove to a secluded place to pray and search the Bible. It was during one of these prayer times that Galatis believed God whispered to him, "Will you die for me?" Though he feared for his safety, Galatis realized there were many ways of dying: his livelihood, his reputation, and the well being of his family were at all stake….

Feeling like he answered to God, Galatis became a whistler blower.

He suffered great anguish as a result: When he sat down in the cafeteria, coworkers left. Co-workers spread false rumors that he was an alcoholic… He was called a troublemaker. He was told, "Shut up and keep your job." His performance evaluation became negative.

As a result of being a whistle blower, a criminal investigation was launched and Millstone forced to shut down 3 of their plants and make upgrades that cost the company over one billion dollars.

As Galatis fight became public (cover story in TIME Magazine: show image), the pressure on him and his family felt overwhelming. Galatis ended up leaving the company and entered graduate school to pursue another vocation.

When we follow Christ, we answer finally, not to our company, but to God. Of course, when we believe that we answer to God, most of the time, we will be considered an asset to our company—we’ll be conscientious, dependable employees. But when the dictates of a company clash with God’s call on us, then, if we choose God, we may experience push back and even persecution.

Sometimes in the context of our personal relationships and personal choices, we can even experience push-back if what God calls us to do clashes with what someone else wants us to do.

(I know people who have committed themselves to Christ and are in the midst of a dating relationship. As a result of their commitment to Christ, they want to commit themselves to reserving sex for marriage believing God, and, as you can imagine, there can be strong push-back from their partner who does not share that vision. I know people who have committed their lives to Christ who then respond to God’s call to give 10% of their income away. There is push-back from other family members.)

When we become followers of Christ and are filled with his Spirit, then we find that God, not the company, school, not money, not anything, or even any person, is at the very centre of our being.

And this can be perceived as a threat to others, especially if they feel their agenda or they are no longer at the center of your universe and there may be pushback and even persecution…

When what Scriptures describe as the spiritual forces of darkness are pushed to the edge of our lives, there can be push back from the “darkness” as well.

The Scriptures teach that just as there is a spiritual source of good in the world, what we would call God; there is also a spirit source of evil in the world as well. Evil in our world can the result of human nature and social environment, but it can also evil is also further by the spiritual darkness in the world (and this is topic for a future sermon). When spiritual forces of darkness are pushed the edges of lives, there can be pushback from the darkness.

One of my mentors and teachers, Tim Keller, a pastor in New York, says, “If we are followers of Christ, at some point along the way we will experience persecution.

Jesus said if they hated me, they will hate you (John 15). The apostle Paul said that anyone who lives a godly life will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).

If you are a follower of Christ, if you are always persecuted, it may not mean that you are just like Jesus, it may mean that you are just obnoxious.

But if you are followers of Christ and are never persecuted, it may mean that you are coward. It may mean that your manifesting much of Christ’s presence in the world.

If you’re always being persecuted, it may you have to ratchet thing down.

If you’re never persecuted, it may mean you have to ratchet things up.

Spend more time with Jesus and filled with more of Jesus and his Spirit that you might live a bolder life. According to Acts 4:30-21 after Peter and John had been put on trial for healing some a man in Jesus name and then warned to never speak of him they joined with other followers of Christ and prayed

30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Some of are being called to pray to be filled with the Spirit to become bold ambassadors for Jesus.

(I know may seem bad to experience persecution for doing something good, but it’s ennobling to have some good that you are so devoted that you are willing to suffer for and even die for it. If you something for which you are willing to suffer and die for, you have something for which to truly live for.)

(transition)

Those who were looking at Peter and John coming under persecution for their proclaiming Jesus as savior were amazed at their poise under pressure.

According to Acts 4 verse 13, they recognized that Peter and John were ordinary me (fishermen)… unschooled, and yet they saw, according to verse 13, their courage. They were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus

As result of Peter’s proclamation of Jesus, AND also the quality of Peter and John’s, courage and wisdom, poise, see in Acts 4:4 that the church grew from about 3000 to about 5000.

It is as we spend time with Jesus, and pray and are filled with the Holy Spirit, then we can become people who are like Jesus—and become bold ambassadors for Jesus in the world. As people see this boldness and courage in us, and when they see us willing to suffer with courage, faith, hope and love, they may well be drawn to the Jesus that we follow.

Part of the reason that the Christian movement spread like wildfire is because the Christians lived better and died better than other people in those years.

They faced died facing the lions better than others.

In the year 202 AD, the Roman emperor has decreed that there shall be no new Christians. Conversions are forbidden on pain of death.

Yet, in ancient Carthage, as all over the empire, men and women still come to Christ, risking execution for doing so. Among the new believers is a young 22 mother named Perpetua with an infant son. When the Roman soldiers swoop into the peaceful meeting they arrest all the new believers who are preparing for baptism, and arrest Perpetua….

Through her diary, Perpetua leaves a written record of their ordeal and the many ways the Lord comforted them: She experiences great joy when she is allowed to keep her baby in prison. She has visions, including one confirming one that she will be martyred, but will have victory over death with eternal life in heaven… Though many urge her to sacrifice to the emperor to preserve her life including her dad, she refuses and she faces mouths of wild animals in the arena at Carthage who wound, but don’t kill her. An executioner, then takes his sword and thrusts into her, but she didn’t die. The man who is a novice executioner can’t bring himself to lift stab her again… and so she raises his sword to her neck to help him… and she’s killed.

People are come to Christ because her poise and courage in face of suffering.

Tertullian said, The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

A story a little bit closer to our time, the story of Ruby Bridges.

In 1960, a federal judge in New Orleans ordered the city to open its public schools to black children. The white parents decided that if the court let black children into their schools, then they would keep their children out of school. They made it clear that any black children who came to their school would be face trouble. So the black parents kept their children out of school too. All except of the parents of a six-year-old black student named Ruby Bridges. Her parents sent her to school, the first, and for a while, the only black child to enter a white New Orleans school.

Every morning Ruby walked through a heckling crowd to an empty school.

The white people, young and old, lined the street and shook fists at her and threatened to do horrible things to her if she kept coming to their school.

But every morning at ten minutes to eight, Ruby walked with her head up and eyes ahead through the mob with two US Marshals ahead of her and two behind her. Then she spent the day alone with her teachers.

A white teacher described what she saw when Ruby walked into school:

A woman spat at Ruby; Ruby smiled at her. A man shook his fist at Ruby; Ruby smiled at him. Then she walked up the stairs and she stopped and turned and smiled once more. You know what she told one of the marshals?

She told him she prays for those people every night before she goes to sleep.

Harvard Medical School Professor of Psychiatry, Robert Coles, tells Ruby's story in his book The Moral Life of Children. Coles spent time with Ruby Bridges and her parents.

Professor Coles asked Ruby about her prayers. "Why do you pray for these people?"

"Because they need praying for," answered Ruby.

Ruby's mother told Coles that Ruby had been taught in Sunday school to pray for them. The pastor of the black church to which Ruby and her family belonged also prayed for the hate-filled crowd publicly, every Sunday.

Coles asked Ruby's mother if asking a six-year-old to pray for these people who hated her was not expecting too much of Ruby, given their violent intent. Her mother replied: but we think that we all have to pray for people like that and we think Ruby should too.

Looking Dr. Coles in the eye, Ruby's mother asked, "Don't you think they need praying for?"

Ruby’s parents and Sunday School helped shape her, and the pastor and civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was an inspiration to her and her family.

Listen to King’s words of exhortation to those who persecuted him and his family.

We need not hate; we need not use violence. We can stand up before our most violent opponent and say: … Do to us what you will and we will still love you … throw us in jail. We will go in those jails and transform them from dungeons of shame to havens of freedom and human dignity.

Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities after midnight hours and drag us out on some wayside road and beat us and leave us half-dead, and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Go around the country and use your propaganda agents to make it appear that we are not fit culturally, morally, or otherwise for integration, and we will still love you.

Threaten our children and bomb our homes, and as difficult as it is, we will still love you.

But be assured that … one day we will win our freedom, but we will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and your conscience [by our love] that we will win you in the process. And our victory will be a double victory.

Though our adversity we face may not be as dramatic, if we are followers of Christ we too face pushback and persecution. But in the midst of the pushback, God will enable you to stand with courage and grace and poise… and as was true of the early church people will drawn to Christ…

Communion lead in (Dan and Lee).

How can we become a person who suffers with courage and grace? By receiving the one who when unfairly beaten and nailed to the cross said, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do.”

Spirit Filled Communiry (Sep. 13, 2009)

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ACTS M4 SERMON NOTES SEPT. 13, 2009

TITLE: Spirit-Filled Community

TEXT: Acts 2:42-47

BIG IDEA: The early church was filled with the Spirit and committed to learning, liturgy (worship), and to loving.

Some people who come to Tenth express with surprise, “There are people of all different ages here, but a LOT of young adults.” (We weren’t expecting to see so many younger people in church).” And some have said with some wonderment (especially if they are from the United States), “There are people from different races and cultures here. We’ve never seen this before in a church.” When people probe into what we are involved in here at Tenth, they also sometimes comment with some surprise on how committed we are to working for social justice.

When people have asked me, “What model of church are you following?” Sometimes they anticipate that I will name some large church in Illinois or southern California—(I’ve lived in both places). But, I say, “We have an ancient model here at Tenth that goes back 2000 years ago.” If there is one church that we are trying to emulate (though we do it far from perfectly), it’s the early church described in the Book of Acts.

This morning as we continue our series in the Book of Acts, I want us to look at Acts 2:42-47, because this passage clearly describe the character of that first church.

Acts 2:42-47:

42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone who had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

We are not going to cover every characteristic of the early church, but we will consider three.

In verse 42 we read that “they,” that is, the early church, devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. The early church was passionate about learning. Most of the original leaders of the early church were unschooled, fishermen. Most of the people in the early church were from the “working class” and not highly educated by human standards.

And yet, because the Spirit of God powerfully worked in this early church, they developed this intense hunger to learn about the things of God.

So those first followers of Christ eagerly sat under the teachings of the apostles, that is, the original disciples of Christ, as they taught the scriptures and the teachings of Christ. One of the things that will happen to us as a community as the Holy Spirit works in our lives is that we will have a growing hunger to learn about God.

As I have shared before, as a boy I hated reading. I grew up in a blue collar neighborhood in North Surrey, and where studying was not especially valued, but my mom tried to get me encourage me to read. She made me write book reports, before I was allowed to go out to the cul de sac in front of our house and play street hockey. With tears streaming down my face, I would stare out the window as I saw the other kids playing hockey. My mom would later say that every book review that I would write--was exactly the same.

But when I gave my life to Christ as a teenager, to my great astonishment the scriptures really came alive to me, and I loved reading them and sensed God speaking to me through them. I even committed some of those passages to memory, like sections of the Sermon on the Mount in from the Gospel of Matthew and Psalm 103. When a person becomes a follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit will stir a new a passion for learning in that person.

A couple of weeks ago, Kevin Knight a plumber in our community shared how he met Christ here almost 2 years ago and as a result became really hungry to learn about God: he joined the Alpha course, signed for Perspectives a course on the mission of the church, became part of a small group.

When the Spirit of God is at work in our lives, we not only have a passion to learn about God and a deepening desire to bring our lives into alignment with what God has reveals to us.

When we are “interested” in someone, when we are growing to care for and love someone, we really are interested in them (and hence the phrase, “I am interested in ________.” When we are interested in someone we want to find out about them; we become curious about the little details of their lives… When I was interested in pursuing Sakiko, one of our mutual friends said one of her favorite topics is dogs, and that suddenly became an important topic to me…

When we are really interested in a person, we will also find out what pleases that person. We want to bring our actions into line with what we think would please them. In the same way, when we become “interested” in God and grow in our love for God, we will become interested in knowing about God, and in knowing what pleases God.

One of the most helpful pieces of advice that I received before getting married came from one of Dr. John Gottman’s books. He simply said, “Let your spouse influence you.” When you allow your spouse to influence you in your decision-making, how you use your time, how you manage your money, you are sending the message we love and respect and honour our partner.

One of the ways that we show deep love and respect for God is by letting God influence us and shape our direction. There is a difference, of course, between letting our spouses or friends influence us and allowing God to influence us. Our spouses, our partners, our friends are fallible human beings, but God is perfect in wisdom. When we allow God to influence us and shape us as we bring our lives into alignment with his wisdom, we are not only loving and honouring and we are respecting love to God, but we are also loving, honouring and respecting ourselves. His commandments are consistent with our good.

So as the Spirit of God worked in the early church, they had a passion for learning about God and about God’s world, and a desire to honour God and his Word in their lives.

That is our vision here--to be a community where the Holy Spirit is so at work that we will develop a passion learn about God and his world and then to bring our lives in alignment with his purposes for us. I’ve often prayed God give me a love for your word and commit to a regular rhythm of reading the Scripture often using the One Year Bible. And as a student especially in the fall as classes begin, I’ve prayed God give me a love for learning…

Here at Tenth we have a vision to be a community where we are transformed through our learning about God.

We see that the early church was also a church that not only learned together, but worshipped together as well.

In verse 42 we read that the early church devoted themselves to “the” breaking of bread together which likely refers, because there is a definite article “the” before breaking of the bread, to their celebration of the Lord’s Supper (or what’s also called Holy Communion).

When Luke mentions in vs. 42 prayer (literally "the prayers"), he doesn't have private prayer in mind, but rather prayer in community—as God's people came together for worship.

Last week I said, sometimes people ask me why there is so much focus at Tenth Church on this person named Jesus Christ. It’s strange. I typically say, “When you discover more of Christ, you’ll find how awesome Christ is--you will understand why there is so much emphasis on praising Christ here at Tenth.”

When we experience something extraordinary, whether in music or art or in sports (say we’re watching figure skating or an amazing goal in a hockey game), part of what we want to do is to express gratitude and appreciation for what we have just experienced.

C.S. Lewis says that when we praise something, it not only enables us to express what we feel, but it also completes our joy. Have you ever been on a mountaintop somewhere and you saw an incredible vista? Or you have been at the beach and you saw a stunning sunset?

If you believe in God, perhaps at that moment you wanted praise God.

Or perhaps you wished that you could express your sense of wonder with someone you were close to.

An older friend of mine, who had a heart attack, was climbing to the top of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina (we had climbed that mountain several times before together). When he got to the top, he was so exhilarated and elated both for the fact that he made it to the top of the mountain after recovering from his heart attack and because of the extraordinary view, he called me with his cell phone. He said, “Ken, I just want you to know that I am on top of Grandfather Mountain here in North Carolina. Wish you were here to see this view.” There is something about expresses praise not us express what we feel, but helps us to complete our joy. There is something about offering our praise to God that helps us to not only express our wonder of God, but to also helps us complete it. And when we do that with other people, it just seems to intensify our joy and sense of gratitude we have in something. This is part of the reason why people want to gather to watch sports (when they could watch the sporting event on TV) or to go to a concert, even though they could listen to the music on an mp3. They experience an intensified level of joy and gratitude in community.

So it was with the early church. They engage worship of God in community and their joy in God was made more complete. When we as a community in large or in smaller groups in homes like the early church and express our praise to God, it completes our joy in God--it deepens our gratitude and our sense of adoration.

Here at Tenth we have a vision to grow as a community of worship.

The early church was passionate about learning, about worship, and passionate about caring for each other.

We read in vs. 42 that they devoted themselves to the fellowship. This is the Greek word koinonia.

The word koinonia means to share in common. The early church shared a common life in two senses. First, they shared a common life in God because they were connected to God, their common Father, and therefore they regarded each other as brothers and sisters—they a new definition of family.

Religion in the first century tended to divide people along the lines of class, education levels and ethnicity. The mystery religions catered to the rich and had high entrance fees, Greek philosophy appealed to the highly educated and cultured, pagan deities tended to connect with nations and regions with a particular people, and 2 of Christianity competitor religions appealed almost exclusively to men, but when people were filled with the Spirit of Christ they loved people across the lines of class, educational levels, culture, and race, they affirmed both men and women.

A large part of the reason that Christianity became the most influential movement in a world where there were thousands of other religions and philosophies competing for influence is because the Christian church was the first movement in history to bring together Jews and Gentiles, men and women, rich and the poor.

Our vision here at Tenth as we see in the book of Acts is to serve as a community where people of all different races, cultures, social economic-backgrounds can come together. Several years ago, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said that Tenth has become a resting place for of all walks of life.

The word koinonia means that the early church shared a common life in God, but also means that the early church shared what they had with others.

The early church shared what they had with one another. Koinonia is the word that Paul used for an offering that he was organizing for the poor at the church in Jerusalem.

Here in the Acts, Luke emphasizes how the early church practiced koinonia by sharing with others, by through contributing, and giving.

The early church also demonstrated extreme generosity to each other as they saw each as family, as brothers and sisters in Christ. (One of my friends, Eric from Pennsylvania, whenever he sees me he says, “How’s my brother from a different mother?” It’s true. When we belong to God, we will see other people as our brother and our sister, though perhaps we belonging to a different biological mother or father.) The early saw each others as brothers and sisters and they so they were extraordinarily generous with each other.

In the text we read (v. 44 and v. 45) that no-one was in need: 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he or she had need.

In church of the second century leader Justin Martyr in writing to the Roman Emperor Pius, explained the dramatic transformation that Christ brings to believers. He said, “Before we became Christians, we used to value above all else money and possessions. Now we bring together all that we have and give to those in need. (The early Christians had a practice that when they did not have enough food for the hungry people at their door, the entire community would fast until everyone could share a meal together. This kind of love had never been seen before!) Formerly, we hated and killed one another. Now we live in peace. We pray for our enemies, and seek to win over those who treat us unjustly.”

How did this happen? The early followers of Christ, were filled with the Spirit of Christ and therefore, like Christ, were extraordinarily generous and because they knew they had a common father in God, they saw each other as brothers and sisters.

As I have gotten ready for this message, I have come across numerous stories from our own small groups where people have supported each other tangibly: helping each other move, offering their homes as place to stay for a time while someone was in transition, comforting someone when a couple lost a lost their baby or a loved one.

One man wrote:

I had to go back home (a long way away—different continent) as my father was very ill and he passed away. When I eventually returned, after about a month, an amazing hamper of all sorts of wondrous treats was awaiting me. From my small group. It was very touching.

One woman from another small group wrote:

I quit my job shortly after I started with my small group and have been underemployed pretty much this whole year and a half… There have been a few times in the last year and a half when I was close to quitting the group, partly because I felt vulnerable. But I have become more accepting of myself this past year and aware of my need for community and also the gifts I bring to others.

My small group have had potlucks for me this past year when I had no food, they had a birthday party for me and each brought me a small gift when my birthday was on study night. I also appreciated that they didn’t lecture me when I bought a camera I couldn’t afford…

Some who just went on our 3rd service retreat last weekend wrote:

"I had been coming to Tenth for about a year and did not know anyone and prayed a lot about whether or not to come to the retreat. Everyone was so open and amazing and I feel, for once, like I am part of a church. Fellowship is something that I have been so much in need of for so long!"

“I love feeling like I am becoming connected in this church, it's amazing how much better I feel - spiritually, emotionally, even physically ( I can't stop smiling haha!!) in the past little while since the weekend!”

I talked to a woman in our community recently and she has given me permission to share her story she had thing kind of community around her?

She and husband and children is part of a small group here at Tenth. Some years ago they were going through a financially challenging time. As Christmas approached, people in their small group and some of their Christian brothers and sisters, and even friends who don’t know Christ, but loved them, gave them gifts and they were able to celebrate Christmas together.

Their small groups got them toys for their children and things this couple considered extravagant, given like tickets to the opera. They love art and the opera, but because of the financial situation in which they found themselves, they would never have indulged in such luxuries.

This couple, as they have always had a habit of doing, had what they call an “orphan Christmas dinner,” something we, and perhaps you, have done, as well. Around Christmas time they have seek to invite people who have no family in the area. That year in the midst in the midst of their own financial challenges they had 26 people over for Christmas dinner in their relatively small home (I have been there a few times).

Their story, both in terms of being able to both receive and to give freely, embodied the life of the early church.

This is the kind of thing that brothers and sister would do for each other.

Many people in Vancouver love the fact there are so any recreation options, but people also talk about how it can be difficult to connect with people here, how lonely it can be. Do you have friends who could support you in a time of need? You may have hundred friends on Facebook, but how many of them would pick you at 3:00 a.m. if you were stuck somewhere?

Are you in relationship with “brothers and sisters” who could circle the wagons for you if you were in need? If not, is there a step you could take to move in this direction? If you’re not part of one already, perhaps you’d consider being part of a small group here at Tenth.

When people care for each other as brothers and sisters not only are they blessed, but outsiders are drawn to the source of this love—Christ.

As I shared a few weeks Chris was drawn to Christ because the love he saw emanating from his neighbors, Rose and Bruce for his wife Patti when she was very ill.

When I was living near Chicago, there was a man who was part of a church I attended from time to time who had been a journalist for the Chicago Tribune. He was assigned to report on the struggles of an impoverished, inner-city family during the weeks leading up to Christmas. A devout atheist at the time, he was surprised by the family's attitude in spite of their circumstances:

The Delgados—60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters, Lydia and Jenny were living in a tiny, two-room apartment on the West Side of Chicago.

The reporter wrote, I couldn't believe how empty it was. There was no furniture, no rugs, nothing on the walls—only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That's it.

In fact, 11-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way.

But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked joyfully about her faith in Jesus.

The journalist completed his article. But when Christmas Eve arrived, he found his thoughts drifting back to the Delgados and their unwavering faith in God… In his words: “I continued to wrestle with the irony of the situation. Here was a family that had nothing but faith, and yet was seemed happy, while I had everything I needed materially, but inside I felt as empty and barren as their apartment.”

In the middle of a slow news day, the reporter decided to pay a visit to the Delgados. When he arrived, he was amazed at what he saw. Readers of his article had responded to the family's need, filling the small apartment with donations: new furniture, appliances, and rugs; a large Christmas tree and stacks of wrapped presents; bags of food; and a large selection of warm winter clothing, even a generous amount of cash.

But it wasn't the gifts that shocked the reporter, an atheist in the middle of Christmas generosity. It was the family's response to those gifts. In his words:

As surprised as I was by this outpouring, I was even more astonished by what my visit was interrupting: Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied in halting English: "Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do."

"This is wonderful; this is very good," she said, gesturing toward the largess. "We did nothing to deserve this—it's a gift from God. But," she added, "It is not his greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus." and something made me long for what they had.

In time, this reporter named Lee Strobel went on not only commit his life to not believe in God, but commit his life to Christ and has become a an author encourage people to put their faith in Christ.

People here have been drawn to God through the love they experience in our community too, it was true of the early church and that’s why we read that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

A central part of our vision is to serve as communities that reach out in love to others, especially in our small groups. As we are filled with the Holy Spirit and we find we have a new passion to learn, and engage in the worship of God, and love others as family… we become not only a sign of God’s love, but we come body of Christ in the world… we become Christ’s hands, feet, and voice in the world… and the work of God grows…

What I have, I Give. Sep. 20. 2009

Acts M5 Sermon Notes September 20, 2009

Title: What I Have, I Give, Text: Acts 3:1-10

Big Idea: When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, each of us has gifts that can bless others.

I recently saw the movie, The Soloist. The Soloist is based on a true story. Steve Lopez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, has had a bicycle accident in which he has gashed his face. One day as Lopez is walking out of the Los Angeles Times building and thinking about some possible story ideas, he discovers Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man with extraordinary musical talents.

Show clip….

Steve Lopez: What's your name?
Nathaniel Ayers: Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, Jr.
Steve Lopez: You only got two strings.

Nathaniel Ayers: I've had a few setbacks.
Steve Lopez: Me too.

Ayers once attended the prestigious Julliard School of Music in New York City, but dropped out during his second year because of his mental illness and ended up playing the violin on the streets of LA.

Lopez begins to write a series of acclaimed articles about Ayers, and becomes friends with him, as well. He does what he can to advocate on behalf of the 90,000 homeless people in Los Angeles. As he gives, he finds that he also receives.

Today as we continue our series in the Book of Acts we are going to see how Peter and John, two of the disciples of Jesus that emerge as key leaders of the early church, encounter a man, who in the words of Nathaniel Ayers, has been through hard times, as well. He is a man who over 40 years old and has been crippled from birth. We are going to look at how Peter and John respond, and what happens to the man, and also what happens to Peter and John in the process as they give what they have to give and become a channel of God’s love.

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at a time of prayer at 3:00 in the afternoon.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Acts 3:

1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6 Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Devout Jews would go to the temple at 9:00 am, 3:00 pm, and in the evening to pray. Peter and John were walking in the midst of the crowd making their way to the temple for the 3 o’clock prayers. They come across a paralyzed beggar, a beggar who has been crippled from birth… He has never taken a step.

This particular beggar may not have been able to walk, but he was savvy. He had street smarts because he asked someone to carry him to a very strategic place to beg. He is being carried to a gate called Beautiful which stretched some 75 feet high, had double doors and was covered in bronze. It was a spot which was on route to a temple where religious people, for whom giving to the people was considered a good work, would pass by.

When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get some money from them. Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!”

Taking the man by the right hand, Peter helped him up. Instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and he began to walk. Peter makes it clear that the reason the crippled man is healed is because of the work of Jesus Christ.

When Peter says, “In the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk,” he is referring to the fact that Jesus Christ, is risen from the dead, is alive, active and able to heal and deliver us.

In Acts 3: 11-12, we see that after this miracle, people who witnessed it, were astonished and came running to Peter and John.

11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: "People of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?”

In verse 16 Peter makes it clear that it is through the work of Jesus Christ that this man has experienced complete healing, that the healing does not come directly from Peter or us, but through Peter and us from Jesus.

16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

And though physical healing is not the primary of focus on this message, I want to say that Jesus Christ continues to heal people today.

Just under a year ago, James Ricard, a member of our community who works as an electrician, collapsed on the job because of a large, unknown tumor in his brain. The tumor was so large that he was given in his words, “a death sentence” by the doctors. He underwent surgery and radiation, and that coupled with, what James clearly believes is the grace of God, he has emerged strong and healthy. He has been given a clean bill of health, and just started back at work last week.

He knows he has been spared and healed for a purpose. And so, he is saying to God, “Here I am. Take all of me and use me for your purposes.”

1) Liz, God did something remarkable for you. Can you share your experience with us?

In November 1989 I’d just started at University in the UK, living in a residence, when I got sick with flu.

Unknowingly I was sharing a kitchen at the time with another student suffering from infectious hepatitis. Unfortunately the vaccination I received to prevent the hepatitis spreading through the residence compromised my immune system and I never recovered from what had been a very ordinary flu.

I spent the next five years struggling: to find a diagnosis – eventually given as a severe case of chronic fatigue, some treatment –there was no cure, and some purpose to my life that was now being spent mostly lying in bed, reliant on others for the even the most basic things such as washing my hair, and even on occasion feeding me. Sometimes I was well enough to leave the house in a wheelchair.

Well meaning Christians came and prayed with me, but their frustration that I didn’t leap out of bed instantly healed was very evident. Perhaps more helpfully, others came to visit me and made meals!

After almost five years of sickness, in August 1994, I was at a Christian camp for a week with my husband Tom. Tom was teaching waterskiing while I wasn’t well enough to be left at home alone. While we were there, I was praying with another leader Andy about some completely different subject. Andy suddenly stood up and walked over to me, and I absolutely knew in that instant that he was going to pray for my healing and perhaps even more incredibly I knew even before it happened that I was going to be healed. Andy prayed a very simple prayer, inviting the presence of the Holy Spirit and saying “in the name of Jesus be healed” and I was.

One day I was being pushed around camp in a wheelchair and the very next morning I was playing in the worship team having helped carry the PA up to the third floor of the building.

1) God also used you to bring an extraordinary gift to someone else? Can you share that with us?

I’ve got lots of great healing stories I’d love to share over a post-service cup of tea some other week when I don’t have to dash off, but this is one that happened not too long after I was healed.

I was working for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, which is made up of 150 teenagers who get together on residential courses three times a year to perform to professional standards in the major concert halls in the UK. The kids in the orchestra are by definition high achievers, practising 8 hours a day whilst keeping up with their academic workloads.

We were snowed in on a Christmas course when disaster struck one of our violinists. During a prohibited snowball fight, he’d slipped on ice and fallen on his elbow. After an emergency visit to the hospital, Hugo came to find me, knowing I was a Christian, to tell me the dire news that while the doctors were sure his arm would heal to a certain extent, there was no way he’d be able to play the violin to a professional standard again.

Even while Hugo was still telling me the news I felt that same gift of faith – that same absolute certainty in my spirit – that Jesus was going to heal him. My only problem was getting the child to stop his hysterical panicking long enough for me to pray. When I could finally get a word in edgeways, I laid hands on his arm and prayed for him to be healed.

I googled Hugo this week and discovered he is now a Fellow of the Royal Schools of Music in the UK, and is teaching violin at the music academy in Stockholm.

Praying for someone feels like the most natural thing in the world – talking to a friend about a friend. It’s only when I stop to think about what actually happens in the physical world when we pray that it totally blows my mind. God is just so much MORE than we are, in every way.

It’s an awesome story, but really I am just an ordinary Christian, but I have an extraordinary God. Do you?



There is healing through the person of Jesus Christ. Why some are physically healed and some are not is a mystery. Though this would be a topic for a different sermon, we know that there are times when God allows a person like Joni Erickson Tada, a young woman who as a teenager dove into Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and snapped her neck, and ended up becoming a quadriplegic. She later he gave her life to Christ… prayed for healing… had famous “healers” pray for her, but she was not healed. But God has done a greater work in her life and through her life as a result of her disability.

But this particular man in Acts 3 experienced physical healing through the touch of Jesus Christ. He was ecstatic about it. In verse 8 we read how he jumped to his feet and began to walk, perhaps at first like a toddler or a drunken sailor, then walking straighter… But we read he ran up into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. What a remarkable moment for this man! He had been healed and he was experiencing the beginnings of a new life because of Christ healing him. What joy! What a sense of wonderment he must have felt! This was an amazing experience for this man who for all life, and was over 40 years of age, to be walking and jumping for the first time in his life—joy unspeakable!

But it must have ALSO been a wonderment moment for Peter and John, as they witnessed how they were able to channel Jesus’ healing for this paralyzed man. There is joy in receiving, as this healed man could attest to, but there is also joy in giving. Our greatest joy and fulfillment comes in giving ourselves to God and others.

In The Soloist, which, as I said, is based on a true story, you feel a certain ache for a Nathaniel Ayers. He has so much talent, went to Julliard, and yet because of his schizophrenia, and now because his lack of a proper musical instrument (he has a violin, but it only has two strings), and his concert hall audience being a noisy tunnel in LA, he is not able give all that he has to give to the world. Later, a reader of one of Steve Lopez’s LA Times columns reads about Nathaniel plight and ends up donating her cello to Nathaniel. He is then able to give more to the world.

Our greatest joy comes in giving.

As Peter and John are walking by this person who is begging and asks, “Gentlemen, spare change?” Peter says, “Silver and gold I do not have.” But he does not stop there. He says, “But, what I have I give you.” We face a need or some opportunity in the world, we often fixate on what we don’t have.

Peter and John were part of the early church which had many members with financial needs, and as we see in Acts 2 the people were voluntarily selling off their possessions and money and giving away what they had to give to those who were in greater need than they were. So Peter and John had presumably given away what they had. They did not have silver or gold to give to this man, but they did not fixate on what they did not have to give, but what they did have.

It is easy to fantasize about scenarios of what we might do if we had more than we currently have. I think of the story of the two farmers. One farmer asks the other farmer, “If God were to give you 500 cows, would you give 250 of them to the Lord?” And the other farmer said, “If God were to give me 500 cows, I would give half of them back to him.” And then the farmer asked, “If God were to give you 200 horses, would you give 100 to the Lord?” The farmer said, “Yes, if God were to give me 200 horses, I would be willing 100 back to him.” And the farmer asked, “If God were to give you 2 chickens, would you give one chicken back to him?” The farmer became mad, “You and I both that is not a fair question, because you and I both know I have 2 chickens.”

Sometimes it is easy to fantasize about what we would do if we had more, instead of asking God, “What do I have and what could I give?”

A friend of mine was talking to his grandson. His grandson, I think, was about 8 years old at the time. His grandson said, “If I had as much money as Bill Gates, I would go down to a poor place in Mexico and I would give everyone a $20 bill.” The grandfather said, “You are not Bill Gates and you can’t do that, but what could we do to help the poor? Would you be willing to take some of your allowance money, combine it with my money and sponsor a child through World Vision with me?” The grandson Benji agreed to do that.

What can we do? What can we give?

We may not be Bill Gates, but we all have something that we can offer the world. We have certain gifts, certain talents… certain abilities. God has given us a unique character and personality. If we have Christ, and his Spirit is living in us, we have the greatest gift that we can offer the world—we have Christ.

What talents do you have? (It may not be the violin as it is for Nathaniel)

What kind of character or personality do you have?

What kind of resources do you have?

Do you have Christ?

God wants to shine his life through your gifts, character, and personality.

Richard Stearns, in his book, The Hole in Our Gospel, shares the story about Leon, who works at a shoe shine stand at a large office building in Seattle.

Several years ago, while traveling in Mexico, Leon met a woman who told him a story that changed his life. The woman had hosted a North American tourist in her home. The tourist, when using her bathroom, noticed that the bathtub was filled with water, so he pulled out the plug to drain it, thinking he was doing the woman a favor. When he told the woman what he had done, she began to cry. He had drained the only clean water she would have for a month.

Leon returned to Seattle, determined to learn as much as he could about the crisis caused by a lack of clean water in the developing world…

Following a spate of flooding in Bolivia, Leon approached World Vision to see if the organization could use a certain water filtration machine to assist the thousands displaced by floodwaters there. World Vision said it could, but they would need Leon to donate the machine and pay for its transportation and ongoing technical support and maintenance.

He remembered that he was shining the shoes of some top lawyers, business, and bankers in the city. So he taped pictures of the flooded Bolivian community on the walls of his shoe shine stand to stimulate conversation, and then began to talk to his clients about his dream about to help bring clean water to communities that didn’t have it.

It worked. Through his shoe shine contacts, Leon was able to fund his first machine for Bolivia. World Vision Bolivia staff were so impressed with it that they soon ordered 15 more and Leon is now setting his sights on helping other countries that struggle for lack of water.

Leon works as a shoe shine person, but like Peter, what he has (what he earns and raises), he gives and he experiences joy.

Peter and John literally didn’t have silver or gold, but some of us like Leon can give financially to the work of God if we are working.

Many of us can see our work or what we do in our life as a means of offering God’s life to the world.

There is a young man in our community who works as a physiotherapist and he is committed to Christ. In his medical work he sees himself as an instrument of healing.

Craig Gourley is a friend of mine who is an obstetrician/gynecologist, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. When my wife Sakiko and I experienced pregnancy early in our marriage, Craig invited us to check in with him at any time. When we went through a complication in that pregnancy, Craig was right there for us, offering us counsel, support and love. He would pray for us on the phone, too. (And I want to say that our obstetrician/gynecologist here, who worships here at Tenth, was also a great gift to us, as well.)

Craig, has a habit of asking women, who are about to deliver their babies, if they would like him to pray for them. Most of them say, “yes.” Craig is a gifted obstetrician/gynecologist and a very close friend of Jesus, so it is just a natural thing for him to pray for his patients who are about to give birth. I guess what he does in terms of praying with mothers is somewhat unusual, even in Charlotte so a local ABC News affiliate ran a feature TV story on him called “The Doctor Who Prays.” With Craig, part of the way he mediates the love of God in his work as a doctor is by praying.

What Craig has, he gives.

Craig has the love of Christ in his life. What he has, he gives and he experiences joy in that.

Is there a way you can give to others through your work or through what you do? It might be by praying with someone, it might not be. Is there a way that you use your work or what you do as a means as a means to share what God has given you?

Is there something that we can do in our volunteer life that would enable us to give? As we assess our gifts, our experiences, our personality are there things that we can do to serve others?

Many people invested in me when I was a younger leader, so one of the things I do now as a volunteer for the Leighton Ford Ministries is to voluntarily mentor an international group of young emerging Christian leaders from different parts of the world.

I have had some leadership experience, and I also have a growing heart for the poor. Some of you serve the poor in a very direct way by volunteering with Out of the Cold, feeding the homeless, sleeping with them in shelters, serving at Oasis drop in. Part of the way I have been to serve the poor in a small way is by using some of my experience in leadership and governance to govern with World Vision as one of its trustees (it is a volunteer role).

Is there a way you could serve through volunteering? It doesn’t have to be at Tenth, by any means, but as we have begun new sites in Kits there are needs in Kits and here at Mount Pleasant and you could make a difference.

In your program there is small card which says:

"Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you” Acts 3:6

What do I have that I could give in service to God and others?

(skills, talents, time, resources)


If you think that your gifts could connect with something we are doing here at Tenth, please contact Jade (Pastor of Community Life): jade@tenth.ca or Dan or Lee

Sometimes our voluntary work is unofficial. We might not even call it voluntary work. We might simply call it “this what we do.” Is there something we can do in our neighbourhood or in our world?

I was deeply moved by Sherah Brodie’s friendship with her friend Paul. Sherah is a member of our community. She attends our third service and she had a friend named Paul who was dying of AIDS. She would regularly drive over from her place in Vancouver’s West End out tog Abbotsford--just simply to be with him, care for him and support him. He didn’t have many friends. If he fell, sometimes he wouldn’t be able to get up. Sometimes, he would crawl over to the phone, call Sherah and ask her to support him and she’d come help him move.

Sherah had some challenges of her own. Sherah had an issue with her foot. She her right toe amputated. She had in a cast on her leg. So it would hard to drive. Yet she didn’t let that stop her. She would hobble out to her car and drive out to Abbotsford to be with Paul and helped him move all his stuff (with some people here) to his new apartment in Abbotsford. Paul died not long ago, but he died in the knowledge that he was loved by God, a love that was mediated through Sherah. Though his death was hard for Sherah, Sherah has the peace of knowing that she gave what she could for her friend Paul.

What Sherah had, she gave.

She had Christ’s love and she gave it.

At the end of the movie, The Soloist, Steve Lopez, the LA Times reporter he says.

“There are some people who tell me I helped him. According to some mental health experts, the simple act of being a friend can alter his brain chemistry and improve his functioning in the world. I can’t speak for Mr. Ayers in that regard. Maybe our friendship has helped him…but maybe not. But I can however speak for myself. I can tell you that by witnessing Mr. Ayers’ courage, his humility, his faith in the power of his art, I have learned the dignity of being loyal to something you believe in, holding on to it above all else, and believing without question that it will carry you home.”

Steve Lopez

What Steve and Nathaniel had they gave.

What we might offer is friendship, a listening ear to neighbour, helping to rake someone’s leaves.

Peter and John said, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

There are things we do not have, to be sure, but there are also things we do have. If we have Christ in us, and his Spirit is living in us, we have the greatest gift that we can offer the world—we have Christ.

The greatest gift that we can offer the world, as Peter and John offered their world, is the gift of ourselves--or rather Jesus, offering through our life and our unique set of gifts and personality, his joy, his peace, his well-being, his shalom to world…

You have something unique and special to offer the world--as you give yourself and what you have for God and for others.

With Peter and John will you say, “What I have, I will give”?

The Fire Spreads (09/Sep 06)

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ACTS M3 Sermon Notes C Sept. 6, 2009

Title: The Fire Spreads

Text: various selections from Acts 2

Big Idea: The work of God grows in an individual and through a community as people turn to Christ and the Spirit shines through them.

Do any of you wear Hush Puppies? Perhaps you think of Hush Puppies as a shoe brand for older people and for years they were. But then a small group of cool young people start to wear them to the clubs and bars of downtown Manhattan, then the cool kids copied them, and the less-cool kids copied them, and so on and in two years, sales of Hush Puppies had exploded by a stunning 5,000%, without a penny spent on advertising.

Malcolm Gladwell argues that for something to reach a tipping point, i.e., an unstoppable movement, it requires a group of people to get behind it with a rare set of social gifts which enable them to influence and persuade others.

We have begun a series at Tenth in the Book of Acts, and we have been asking the question: How did the early church spread like wildfire in the first century?

The early Christian movement was not led by a hip group of young adults who hung out at trendy night clubs of Jerusalem. It was led by a group of people, who were for the most part, uneducated fishermen who had no power, no clout, no money. And, the early church was just one movement in the first century in a world where there were hundreds of other mystery religions, philosophies, and political movements competing for influence, and yet it was the Christian movement that ended up revolutionizing the Roman Empire and creating a movement which today numbers 2 billion. The movement now claims one in every three persons out of a world population of about 6.7 billion people.

How did this happen?

Kenneth Scott Latourette who taught at Yale University, said of the early church movement:

The more one examines the factors which would seem to account for the extraordinary victory of Christianity the more one is driven to search for a cause underlying them all. It is clear that at the very beginning of Christianity there must have occurred a tremendous burst of energy virtually unparalleled in history without which the future course of the religion is inexplicable.

What was the tremendous burst of energy that empowered the early church to take off? The Book of Acts tells us that it was power of the Holy Spirit.

The presence of the Holy Spirit shone through those early followers of Christ, enabling them to bear witness to the reality of Jesus Christ… as they reflected the love and courage, the wisdom and power of Christ in their world.

Today, we’re going to look at what happens when the Holy Spirit begins to shine through a person, and then we’ll look at how to become a person through whom the Spirit shines (2x).

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 2:1.

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, [b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

The Day of Pentecost simply refers to the 50th day after the Sabbath of Passover Week, and it celebrates how God gave his people the law on Mount Sinai. Jewish people (and converts to Judaism) from around the world would gather in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, and so Jerusalem is crowded with people from around the world who speak different languages in Jerusalem at this time. The setting is very international (not unlike Vancouver).

On this Pentecost Day the Holy Spirit is poured out on the followers of Christ.

We read in verse 3 that what seemed to be tongues of fire came to rest on each on the followers of Christ and they began to speak other languages (tongues) as the Spirit enabled them.

People who had gathered from around the world heard the followers of Christ praise God in their own languages (let’s say you were visiting remote village in China where no one spoke English. Suddenly a power came over someone enabling a person to praise God in perfectly English. That would be startling). They were amazed… some were perplexed and wondered if these people had had too much wine.

Peter responds to the charge that followers of Christ have had too much wine. Peter says it’s only 9:00 in the morning. Peter says what is happening here is a fulfillment of what the prophet Joel prophesied hundreds of year before (2:17): “In the last days God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy; your young men will see visions; and your old men will dream dreams.’”

In Joel’s day and in former times the Spirit of God might rest momentarily on a few people. But now, from the Day of Pentecost forward, the Spirit of God could now shine through all of God’s people.

When the Spirit of God begins to shine on person what happens to them?

According to Acts 2, at least 3 things happen: one is that the person who receives the Spirit also receives some kind of new power and capacity.

For these followers of Christ on this Day of Pentecost that new capacity was to speak in a language that they had never studied before. (When the Spirit of God comes upon person, one of the possible signs (though not the only possible sign) might be that a person is given a new prayer language, a capacity to praise God in a new “heavenly” language. In some rare instances it might different an earthly language, but it is more commonly some kind of heavenly language.

When the Spirit shines upon us, we may experience some kind of new power: it may be a new power to lead, a new power to discern, a new power to care for the hurting, a new power to overcome an addiction.

When the Spirit of God shines on us we also receive a new capacity (as we see in verse 11) to praise and worship God. One of the signs that the Spirit has entered us and is working in our heart is that we have a new love for God and a passion to praise him. Sometimes people have asked me, why is there so much focus on praising Jesus here? When the Spirit of God shines upon a person, he or she wants to praise Jesus.

A third sign that the Spirit of God is shining upon us is that we are become more inclusive and accepting of people who are different from us. Commentators have pointed out how God pouring out his Spirit and enabling people to speak in different languages in effect reversed the curse of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11 we read how human beings spoke a common speech, but they became egotistical and proud and thought that they could build a tower that reached to the heavens.... But God confused their language so that they were not able to understand each other and scattered them all over the earth. At Pentecost we see how God, causes his Spirit to shine down on people, transforms and unites them by enabling to speak in different languages.

When the Spirit shines down on us we have a new capacity to love people who are different from us. Religion in the first century tended to divide people along the lines of class, levels and ethnicity. The mystery religions catered to the rich and had high entrance fees, Greek philosophy appealed to the highly educated and culture, pagan deities tended to connect with nations and regions, but when people were filled with the Spirit of Christ they loved people across the lines of class, culture, and race. As I have quoted before, a pagan priest wrote to Emperor Julian and said, “The reason the Christians are growing so quickly is because Romans love Romans, Hebrews love Hebrews, Africans love Africans, Greeks love Greeks, but those Christians they love everyone.”

When Spirit of God shines through a person, they have a new power, a new love for God, and for other people. As the Spirit shines through a person, other people begin to wonder what they are missing and people are drawn to God. Thousands of people in Jerusalem see the Holy Spirit shining through the lives of the first followers of Christ. This sets the stage for 3000 people to be added for the church numbers and for the church to grow 26-fold.

Would YOU like to become a person through whom the Holy Spirit shines? A person who shines with a new power and love for God and people? Many long to be people who shine more with the Spirit of Jesus…

When I was 15 years old I attended the Firs, a Christian Conference Center on Lake Whatcom, in Bellingham (where we had our annual church camp earlier this year). There I met and spent time with our camp counselor from California whose camp nam was Bam Bam. He drove the ski boat that week, played basketball with us, and took us to a place where we rappelled down the side of a cliff. The love and joy of God shone through him, making me think, “He has something I don’t.” I was drawn to God through him.

How do we become a person through whom the love of God shines?

Peter explains.

He calls the people who gathered in Jerusalem and us to Christ and to experience his forgiveness and the filling of his Spirit.

Peter proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth was not just a carpenter, but the Messiah, the Savior figure that God had promised for the world.

In Acts 2 verse 22, Peter says: "People of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. “

Jesus was born in the tiny town of Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, another small, obscure village, he had no formal education, had been a carpenter…. And according to Isaiah, he had no outward beauty or majesty that would draw a person to him. But God did all kinds of miracles through Jesus—turning water into wine, opening the eyes of the blind—something that had never been done… even raising the dead.

Many of the people who hear Peter speak that day would have witnessed (or least heard about) the miracles that Jesus had done. Peter explains that these miracles were signs that Jesus was the Messiah, the long-awaited Savior-figure who had been promised by God…

In verse 23 Peter says: “This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

The idea that the Messiah figure, the Savior of the world, had been crucified was a huge stumbling block for the Jewish people. The Jewish people regarded anyone who was nailed to a cross having been guilty of the crime and cursed by God. The scriptures say “cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree,” (Deuteronomy 21), but Peter explains that this was part of God’s purpose and plan. God intended Jesus to act as our savior by being crucified on a cross, bearing in his body our sins and shame--the curse we deserved for our sin--on the cross so that we could be forgiven and set free from our sins.

In the movie, Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood plays the role of a retired Ford factory worker and Korean War veteran, who still totes a gun. An Asian immigrant family, from the Hmong people, live next door. They have a shy young teen named Thao. Walt Kowalski, played by Clint Eastwood, develops a friendship with Thao, who calls him Toad.

Thao is pressured to join a local Hmong gang led by his cousin and they turn violent when Thao decides not to join the gang. The gang shoots bullets into Thao’s home, and they physically and sexually assault his teenage sister Sue. Thao is furious, and urges Walt, a war vet to take vengeance with him… Walt decides he will confront the gang by himself. Night falls and Walt walks up outside their home (warning I’m giving away the ending here—so you can cover your ears if you want). The gang members pull out their guns. With cigarette in his mouth, he asks the gang for a light, and then deliberately reaches under his jacket. The gang member riddles his body with bullets thinking he was reaching for a weapon. Walt falls dead to the ground; a lighter tumbles out of his hand…

The Asian gang members are arrested and imprisoned and Thao and his family can live in peace.

In at least one of the reviews of the movie, someone has written that in Clint Eastwood’s younger days, he thought that the best way to deal with evil was to confront evil with evil, violence with violence (a la Dirty Harry). Clint Eastwood now as an older man realizes that the only way to confront evil in a way that can destroy it, is through some kind of sacrifice, some kind of deep act of love where evil is absorbed.

This is what Jesus Christ has done for us. He has absorbed in his body our sins, so that we that sins could be forgiven and so that we could be set free from sin and become clean channels of the Holy Spirit.

The way that we know this actually happened, that Christ took our sins upon himself, as part of God’s foreordained plan, is that God raised him from the dead.

Peter points out in verse 24: “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” And in verse 32: “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.”

In Peter’s day, because Jesus had appeared over a period of 40 days to many people (and at one time to more than 500 people) many of his hearers would have known that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead…

We read in verse 37 that when the people heard this message they were cut to the heart.

Why were they cut to heart?

Peter had said in verse 23 that “God handed Jesus over to you and you, along with the help of wicked men, presumably the Romans, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Yes, while it was the Romans had actually executed Jesus, but as Peter points out, his fellow Jews were complicit in putting Jesus to death and so he says you put him to death. And there is a sense in which each us put Jesus on the cross in the same way the Hmong family’s situation caused Clint Eastwood to die. Our sins required Christ to go to the cross, and when we realize that our sins put Christ on the cross, we are cut to the heart (like those first hearers)—we are convicted of our sins, but we are also comforted and healed. (When we are cut by Christ, we are not cut with an enemy’s sword, but the cut a surgeon’s scalpel. The cutting will ultimately lead to our healing.)

When the people ask, “What should we do?” Peter replies, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter says, “Turn to God.” Repent means turn from your sins and to God and you will receive the forgiveness of God and the Holy Spirit.

The Hebrew counterpart for the Greek word for “repent” is naham. It can mean to comfort one’s self. It indicates what we experience when we come to God.

When we come into the presence of God, we will be cut, cut over the fact that we have sinned before God, that our sins made Christ’s sacrifice necessary for us. But, at the same time, ironically, the very thing that cuts us is the very thing that comforts us--knowing that Christ died for our sins will convict us, but also comforts us like nothing else (It’s like finding out that a friend has paid off a debt of hundreds of millions of dollars for us—we are cut, but also comforted). When we come to Christ and are convicted of sins and then forgiven and comforted, we are in a place where the Spirit of God can shine through us.

There is a person in our community, Kevin Friesen, who has worked on our staff helping to manage our building and helping to oversee our custodial care here. At our staff retreat earlier this year we went kayaking together. He told me part of his story. I have asked him to come and share part of his story with us today.

KEVIN’S TESTIMONY

In 1993 I joined the military. I thought I would live the adventure. I learned a lot in military, how to obey an order, how to polish my boots and how to drink excessively. When I got out I moved to Vancouver with high hopes of becoming a stunt man. Through stunts I fell in love with the art of acting. Actually it was many years before I would fall in love with the art of it, back then I was in love with the thought of being rich and famous. So I did what most aspiring actors do, I served tables. This led to bartending which led to bartending in the clubs. These choices affected who I was hanging out with and what kind of drugs I would do. While I was only a mild alcoholic when leaving the military I found myself, a short few years later, a raging one, with a strong addiction to pot and cocaine. I had done acid, mushrooms and ecstasy to name a few. I don’t really know when it happened but I went from being a young man with loads of potential to a young man so far-gone there wasn’t much hope left. I found myself in a place of total despair. I didn’t really have a reason to live. That’s when I started asking some pretty big questions like: Why am I here? What is the point to all of this? Is there a God? I was in the worst point of my life, totally addicted to drugs, asking questions that I was pretty sure had no answers. I was checking out many different Gods at that time, Buddha, Hari Krishna, Dalai Lama, whatever I could find or come across. I was trying these meditation things, checking out my horoscope daily, just trying to find some sort of answer to why I exist. But nothing, there was no answer and I just kept killing myself with drugs every night. I was raised as a roman catholic and when my mom finally gave me the choice to go or not go, I was outta there! I never thought to look this God, to Jesus as the answer, I mean why would I? I knew that God as a kid, or at least I thought I did, and he doesn’t exist right? Wrong. One night after throwing loads of coke up my nose and smoking a few joints I really started to trip out. I went up into my room and closed the door. I was so out of it that I ended up standing right behind the door as I closed it and didn’t move. I just stared at the back of the door for along time, until, Whap! The door opened and hit me in the face. It was one of my room-mates. He asked me why I was standing behind the door in the first place? I looked at him kinda dumbfounded and said “ I don’t know”. He asked me if I was alright? I said “No”. He then just left the room. He didn’t say another word, its like he knew something was going on that was bigger than him. When he left I looked up and cried out “Jesus, if you are God, then you need to save me.” At that moment I felt compelled to kneel beside my bed and ask for forgiveness. I began to weep. As I prayed to Jesus through my tears of pain, I recall saying “Jesus if you save me I’ll even give up smoking.” I guess I felt that I needed to bargain with him. I then got up on my bed and continued to cry and cry. Then the light above me began to get brighter and brighter. I felt as if though God himself was in the room. He began to say to me “Everything is going to be ok, everything is going to be ok.” Then he just held me like I was an infant in his arms and repeated that same line over and over again. My tears turned to tears of joy and I lay back in his arms and went to sleep, completely sober and completely loved. When I awoke the next morning at 8am, something you just don’t do when you’ve been high on coke the night before, I felt amazing. I felt like I did as a teenager, before I had ever even done any drugs. I jumped out bed and clapped my hands. This was going to be a great day, I said. I went and tried to get anyone of my room-mates up to go out and enjoy the day with me, but I was met with the same response from each one of them. I’m sure you can figure out what was. So I left. I don’t remember too much about that day other than it was the best day, I said hello, to a lot of people and was met with many smiles that day. I will always remember that there was so many smiles, it was like God was saying he loved me in every smile that I passed. I was clean. I moved out of the drug house I was in within 2 weeks. I quit drugs, cold-turkey, no withdrawal no side-effects. It was like it never happened, except that it did. One of my room-mates, the one that hit me in the face with the door, in fact, also left that house with me. He too quit drugs and re-dedicated his life to God. Turns out he was a Christian that walked away from God. There was five of us in that house, 3 of us made it out alive and free from drug addiction thanks to the power of Jesus Christ. That was over 10 years ago now, and believe me, it doesn’t even feel like it ever happened. No matter the situation, Jesus is the answer, I’m living proof of that.

When Christ comes to us, as he came to Kevin and to those people on the Day of Pentecost, we will feel cut by Christ--convicted of our sin, and called to repent, i.e., to turn from our sins and to God. But we will also feel comforted knowing that we are forgiven by God…

When are forgiven by Christ we will also find like Kevin that Holy Spirit is now shining through us, radiating more of God’s power and love in the world….

But it all begins with coming to Christ, letting him cut and comfort us… forgive and fill us with His Spirit.

Prayer of commissioning for Dan and Carla.

Discerning God's Will (Aug 30, 09)

ACTS M2 Sermon Notes August 30, 2009

Title: Discerning God’s Will in Times of Waiting



Text: Acts 1:12-26

Big Idea: We discern God’s will through prayer, the scriptures, common sense and the Holy Spirit.

I was living in southern California working to plant a new church and also part-time for one of the Orange County newspapers and my work visa expired. I returned to Canada. I was living in White Rock and ended-up living with a childhood friend of mine. Though we lived in this beautiful condo on Marine Drive not far from the pier overlooking the ocean, I was restless. There was a part of me that was anxious… eager to discover the next step I was supposed to take.

Have you ever been in a waiting time?— waiting to for a job to open up, waiting to be admitted to school, or waiting to begin a relationship, waiting to begin a family, waiting to retire? Waiting can feel like a frustrating “in between” experience.

We’ve just begun a new series in the Book of Acts. We are looking at how the early church expanded through the work of the Holy Spirit. As we see how this happened, we will find nourishment for our own spiritual journey, but also for our journey as a church as we grow into Kitsilano on September 13 and into places like Cambodia as well.

Today we are going to look at the early church in a waiting time.

In Acts Chapter 1 we saw how Jesus (in his last words) said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before the eyes of his followers and a cloud hid him from their sight. In Acts 1 vs. 9 we see that Jesus has ascended…. but the promised Holy Spirit has not yet come upon his followers. Then we read in Acts 1:12 how the disciples returned to Jerusalem. What do they do during this waiting time in Jerusalem?

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 1:12.

12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk [a] from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, "Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry."

18 (With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

20 "For," said Peter, "it is written in the Book of Psalms:
" 'May his place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in it,' [b]
and,
" 'May another take his place of leadership.' [c]

21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection."

23 So they proposed the names of two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

How does the early church act in its waiting times?

They weren’t passive. They respond to Jesus’ call to wait for the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem. But they don’t simply wait idly twiddling their thumbs and restlessly channel surfing. They unite in prayer in the upper room. In vs. 14 we read: 14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women (presumably the women included the 3 named in the Gospel of Luke: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna) and Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus with his brothers.

In verse 15 we read there were about 120 joined in prayer community. The 120 included 11 of the original disciples. (They had lost one—Judas). In Jewish law a minimum of 120 was required to establish a community with its own council; so the group of those following Christ, though small in number at this point, was large enough, by the standards of Jewish tradition, to form a new community.)

These 120 people, we are told (in vs. 14), joined together constantly in prayer. They were following Jesus’ call in Luke 18 to pray and not give up. Jesus himself modeled this through his own consistent praying. Before the major events in his own life, Jesus prayed. He stayed up all night praying before choosing his disciples. He also spent the night praying before accomplishing his greatest work—his sacrifice for our sins on the cross. If it was important for Jesus as the unique son of God to pray and receive direction, how much more important is it for us.

We read in verse 24 that as the early church was discerning whom to choose as a replacement for the disciple Judas, they prayed specifically for direction.

As we spend time in the presence of God praying and we are drawn close to his heart, we find ourselves in a posture where we can be led by him…

As I have shared a number of times, when I was in that waiting time in White Rock, between southern California and Vancouver, I spent a five days fasting and praying for direction. And in that time of fasting and prayer, on day 3 God seemed to say, “Tenth Avenue Alliance Church…” and on day 5 “Senior pastor.” Now God does not guide me that dramatically most of the time. In fact, it is only a handful of times where I have sensed God speaking to me almost audibly. But like spending regular time in conversation with a friend, as we engage in prayer with God, we are positioned to know what is on God’s heart… to know what is most important to him. We are therefore in a better position to discern what God’s will is.


So, while we wait we can pray for direction.

In verse 15 we see how Peter, emerges as the leader of the early disciples:

15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, "Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry."

18 (With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

20 "For," said Peter, "it is written in the Book of Psalms:
" 'May his place be deserted… (Psalm 69:25)

" 'May another take his place of leadership. (Psalm 109:8).

Judas betrayed Jesus to the Jewish authorities for 30 pieces of silver. Afterwards Judas felt remorse over it and he took his own life. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 27, he went away and hung himself and then apparently, when some someone cut the rope, his body had decomposed and burst open.

Peter speaks about the need to replace Judas as one of Jesus’ disciples so that there would be twelve disciples. Some commentators have observed how in Israel there were twelve tribes which represented the people of God; and so it was important for there to be twelve apostles, who would represent the new family of God, composed of people of every tongue, tribe and nation, that God was bringing together through his son Jesus Christ.

Peter turns to Scripture. He quotes Psalm 69 (“May his place be deserted”) and Psalm 109 (" 'May another take his place of leadership.'), explaining that Judas’s betrayal had been prophesied in Scripture, and that they were to replace him.

(Though Luke clearly names Judas’s sin of betrayal and subsequent suicide as wrong, he also makes it clear that even in sin and family dysfunction, as we saw so clearly in the series on the life and family of Joseph, God can weave these things for his purposes.)

God’s Scriptures can provide an important guide for us.

I know that for some followers of Christ reading the scriptures can feel like a bit of an obligation. And when you get to certain parts of the Bible, like the Book of Leviticus, the book of Numbers, the description of the temple or the genealogies (Adam begat Seth, Seth begat Enosh, Enosh begat Kenan….) --those part can feel about as inspiring as a wide yawn. But if we are regularly in the Scriptures provide us with the gift of guidance.

My own mentor, an older Presbyterian minister named Leighton Ford, tragically lost his son Sandy when he was just 21 years old. Sandy was a bright student at the University of North Carolina. He was an athlete and deeply devoted to Christ. He was actively involved with Inter-Varsity ministry on his school campus. He was hoping one day to become a minister of the Gospel. When he was only 21 years old, he died of a rare heart disease. It was a time of great grief for faith and his family, as you can imagine.

At the time, Leighton was the vice-president of the Billy Graham Association. He was speaking in large football stadiums around the world, and was Graham’s heir-apparent One day Leighton was reading in the Book of Isaiah 43:19 how God was about to do a new work: See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert.and streams in the wasteland. He sensed that this “new thing” applied to him and that he would be called to a new ministry. Not long after, he was reading in Isaiah 49:2 where God said, “I will make you into a polished arrow, concealed in my quiver.” And then in verse 6: God says:


"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."

These verses, combined with the loss of Sandy, led Leighton to begin something new, what is called “The Arrow Leadership Program,” which helps develop young, emerging Christian leaders in North America, around the world and other mentoring communities. I have been a part of these programs both as a student and as a leader. But it was a scripture that spoke to Leighton and guided him in a very significant way, time of grief.

My wife Sakiko, before we were married, had no vision of living outside of Japan because she loved her family, her job, her church, her country. But God spoke to her through John 15 where Jesus says, every branch in me that bears I prune and Sakiko didn’t know exactly how this would apply to her specifically, but she sensed that God wanted to prune something very significant in her life, that there would be some cataclysmic change. Then I came into her life and asked her if she would be open in leaving Japan (just before I was planning to propose to her)…. She said, “No…” to the possibility of her living outside Japan and then, as she reflected on John 15, she sensed that God was going to prune and guide her into a new chapter in her life… leave Japan, and that text prepared to do what she never imagined--marry and then move to Canada. Scripture guided her.

When I first came to Tenth I was guided in a time of prayer, but I was also encouraged through Scriptures. I heard just some stories about Tenth that made me wonder about our future viability. People talked about Tenth as a church with its glory years behind it…a church that had shrunk from over 1000 to under 200 at its lowest points. As a new pastor here, the secretary came into my office one day and said, “If everything sinks now, everyone will blame you because you were the last person at the helm.”

A long time member of our church named Elaine Salmond (who still attends,), shared with me a verse that she felt God had given her for Tenth—Isaiah 62… let me quote part of it (paraphrasing).

Because I love Tenth,
I will not keep still.
Because my heart yearns for Tenth,
I cannot remain silent.
I will not stop praying for her
until her righteousness shines like the dawn,
and her salvation blazes like a burning torch

And Tenth will be given a new name
by the Lord’s own mouth.

Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight”[c]
and “The Bride of God,”[d]
for the Lord delights in you
and will claim you as his bride.

O Tenth I have posted watchmen on your walls;
they will pray day and night, continually.
Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.

Tenth will be called “The Holy People”
and “The People Redeemed by the Lord.”
And Tenth will be known as “The Desirable Place”
and “The Place No Longer Forsaken.”

Those verses encouraged me. A few years later at the end of an elders’ retreat, we were in Elaine and Lorne Salmond’s home. I said, “Elaine, I want you to tell the board about the verse you felt God gave to you for Tenth years ago.” So she paraphrased Isaiah 62. And she said, “Years ago I felt like Tenth was like a woman who had lost her beauty, but now that beauty has been restored.” Isaiah 62 was a prophetic call for us as a community to pray and seek God, but also a promise that we would be a redeemed people, that we would be sought after…no longer called “deserted,” but “desired.”

The gift of regularly being in the word, I personally use the One Year Bible (with daily reading selections) is that we can receive guidance from God.

So we see in the text how in the in-between time for the early church they prayed. They turned to the Word for guidance. And they exercised common sense. The early church, based on scripture and Judas’s defection, felt that it was necessary to appoint another apostle so that there would be twelve apostles, perhaps so that like the children of Israel who had 12 tribes this new family of God being created by Christ would also have 12 apostles. And so, according to verse 23, they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias.

Then they prayed for guidance. But, we see here the early church used their common sense. They felt that since all the apostles had actually been eye witnesses of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, it made sense in to their minds and hearts that the next apostle to be someone who had also actually witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. They prayed, used Scriptures, but also exercised their God-given judgment here.

When we are in waiting times we can pray, meditate on Scripture, use common sense.

We can ask, “What kind of gifts do I have that could serve others? What kind of needs are there in the community? Where do I experience joy in serving? How might I be stretched through serving?

Why have we chosen Kitsilano as a place to launch to? We are getting set to launch our new site in Kitsilano in response to Jesus’ call to make disciples of all people. But it makes sense from a common sense perspective, as well. The Canadian census shows that Kits is a community that shares the distinction of being one of the “least religious” communities in Canada. Yet, we have a number of people who attend here and live in Kitsilano. Kitsilano is also filled with people of all ages and is especially popular among the young. We are a multi-generational church but many newcomers express surprise at how many young people there are here (which is rare for churches, in general). So, there are a number of factors that make Kitsilano seem like the right place for us to launch… The leadership feels that to quote Acts 15:28 it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us to launch in Kits. It seems good to you, come! Come and attend and come and serve. There are opportunities to serve in the areas of ushering, hospitality, kids ministry, set up… and many other areas. There is never the perfect time to serve….


Sometimes in our church life and in our personal life there are times when we will be concretely guided by God; and other times when it just makes sense in our minds and our hearts and as a result of spending time with God, we feel a sense of peace, and this way seems good to us and to the Holy Spirit.

When I was nearing a waiting time between seminary, and what to do next, I recall talking to a mentor about what I ought to do. There was no concrete guidance from God at that point. I had two opportunities before me—one was to take an administrative role in an international leadership organization, and another was to go out to southern California with a friend to start a church there.

I remember my mentor saying, “If you don’t have a clear and compelling sense of call what to do, and you need to make a decision, just make the decision. Think what you want to be at the end of your life and make a decision that will take you one small step in that direction, and trust that God will make it right.”

Some times we need to move based on what seems to good us, and from what we can discern, to the Holy Spirit as well. Pastor Earl Palmer has said, God cannot steer a parked car… sometimes we have to step out and trust that God will guide us….

Finally, we see here, when the early church discerns whether to choose, Joseph called Barabbas (v. 23) (also known as Justus), and Matthias. They prayed and asked the Lord to show which of the two the Lord had chosen. Then they cast lots (the lots may have been pebbles with names of Joseph and Matthias on them which put in vase and shaken and then the one whose name fell out first was chosen.) The lot fell to Matthias, and he was added to the disciples. Lots were used in decision-making in a variety of circumstances in the Old Testament (Leviticus 16:8-10; Numbers 26:25-56, etc.). In Proverbs 16:33 we read “A lot was cast and the decision was from the Lord.”

It is interesting to know, however, this is the last time that the use of lots in making a decision was used in the scriptures. The disappearance of casting lots in the scriptures is likely related to the coming of the Holy Spirit who is now, according to Jesus and Paul in Romans 8, the great guide for believers. Now we do not need to rely on the casting of lots for direction, but the Spirit.

Throughout the Book of Acts, we see how the Spirit led the early church in sending people like Paul and Barnabas. In Acts 13 we see how during the time of worship that Paul and Barnabas were set apart for the missionary work to which God had called them. In Acts 15 we see that the Holy Spirit guided the early church on gaining clarity on certain theological and ethical issues, like whether eating food that was sacrificed to idols and abstaining from sexual immorality. In the Book of Acts 16 the Spirit guides Paul to go to Macedonia, instead of Asia.

In our community life here at Tenth and in our individual Lives, and waiting times and at all times, we will also be guided and directed by the Holy Spirit. I recently spoke with Kevin Knight, a member here at Tenth, about his sense of how God has guided him.

Kevin is a plumber by trade and he first came here almost 2 years ago. He was not a believer in Christ at the time. He had a sense that there was a huge void in his life. He sat in the back of the church here one Sunday and when he was at the service, he felt deeply impressed that God wanted him to go to Cambodia. He sat in the back of the church and wept. A vision that he had two years before came to him: a prior vision of digging a ditch in arid soil…. which he now sense was Cambodia.

After a significant time of prayer, reflecting Son biblical teaching, he ended up going to Phnom Penh last December as part of a Tenth missions trip. Kevin is now preparing to go to Cambodia long-term with “Servants with the Asia’s Poor.” (I may interview Kevin.)

Kevin story illustrates how God can guide us directly by his Spirit, but and also that God’s plan for us may not be easy….

Richard Stearn’s story also illustrates this. Rich Stearns is one of the presidents of World Vision, the Christian development organization. Richard Stearns grew up in a poor and broken family. His father had been an alcoholic, his parents divorced.. Though his family had no money to send him to college, by working very hard in high school, Richard ended up attending Cornell University, an Ivy League college, on scholarships and student loans. He later graduated from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. At the end of his time at Cornell, Rich committed his life to Christ, but his goal had been, and still was, to become a corporate CEO and become financially prosperous. When he was 33 years old, he became president and CEO of Parker Brothers, and then the CEO of Lenox, the fine tableware company. His salary and bonuses were in the 7-figure range.

He was happily married, had 5 kids and lived in a 10-bedroom house on 5 acres outside Philadelphia. He had a brand new company car, a Jaguar, and then through a series of extraordinary events, none of which Rich initiated, Rich was asked to serve as the president of World Vision. He was confronted with a very hard choice—to quit his job, one that he had worked 20 years to attain, take a 75% pay cut, sell his house, move his family across the continent to Seattle where he didn’t know anyone, and accept the job he didn’t want. He felt there was a strong likelihood that he would fail and become unemployed a year later.

As he was wrestling through the decision, the words of Jesus’ from the gospels came to him. “Rich, you lack one thing—sell everything you have and give it to the poor, then come follow me. Are you willing, Rich? Will you do this for me?” The next verse in the passage of scripture was devastating to Rich: “The rich man when confronted with the same question could not do what Jesus asked. He went away very sad because he had great wealth.”

In June 1998 Richard and his family moved to Seattle, and Rich has been serving as the president of World Vision ever since. He has been working on behalf of the poor, advocating for their physical, social, and spiritual well-being.

Most of us will not be called to do something quite so dramatic with our lives. But are we open to doing what God calls us to do? God will speak to us individually as a community through: as we pray, search scripture, through our common sense, and through a sense of the Spirit’s leading.

Most of us won’t be called into full-time ministry as missionaries like Kevin is being called, or into full-time Christian work like Rich Stearns, but we are called to do something--to consider our gifts and the needs in the world, and serve, as I said earlier. There are many opportunities to serve Kits in the areas of ushering, hospitality, kids ministry, set up… and many other areas and, as people go, many opportunities to serve here, too.

When we respond affirmatively to the call of God in our life, as was true of Matthias, no doubt as Kevin and Rich, we will find ourselves stretched or challenged, but also deeply fulfilled and discover and live out God’s call for us.

Several months after Rich had taken his position at World Vision, he was in his six-year-old minivan with his son high school-aged son Andy running some errands. They pulled up at a traffic light beside a shiny brand new Jaguar XK-8, just like his company car he had. Andy looked at his dad and sighed wistfully, “Dad, have you ever thought about getting back in the game for one last kill?” Rich replied, “Andy, for the first time in my life I feel like I am in the game…in God’s game.”

Not everyone will be called, as I said, to work in full-time Christian work, as Rich and Kevin have been called. But when we are open to the discerning God’s will through prayer, the Word, common sense, and the Spirit’s leading and then responding affirmatively we will find that we are in the greatest game of all—we are participating in the eternal work of God.

Prayer for the benediction:

A Spirit-shaped Witness (Aug 23, 09)

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Acts M1 Message Notes August 23, 2009

Title: A Spirit-shaped Witness

Text: Acts 1:1-11


Big Idea: The remarkable growth of the early church was empowered by the holistic, Spirit-filled witness of Christ’s followers.


In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell, the popular Canadian author, asks how hockey players, computer geniuses like Bill Gates, and rock groups like the Beatles become outliers (i.e., people who achieve success so they are now outside of the range of normal of human experience and statistically “off the charts”).

Gladwell challenges the popular assumption that great hockey players, people like Bill Gates, and rock groups like the Beatles become immensely successful because they are self-made. Gladwell writes about how outliers had unusual opportunities, because they were born in the right place and the right time and were therefore able to take advantage of some unusual opportunity. He points out that NHL hockey players tend to be born in January, February, or March because the earliest birthday for a child to eligible to play in a league in Canada is January 1. If you’re born earlier in the year, then you’re older and likely slightly more physically mature than kids born later in the year, and so you are more likely to be streamed into elite programs and will get to practice more, play more, and get better.

Bill Gates, is successful because he's very bright, but also because he had access to a powerful mainframe computer in high school at a time in the 1960s when few other people did and was able to practice programming for 10,000 hours before he went to college.

The Beatles became very successful because they had great musical gifts, but also because they had Hamburg, a series if gigs in Germany in the 1960s that enabled them to play to all week long and up to 8 hours a day…. They too were able to rack up 10,000 hours of playing time which enabled them to perfect their music.

When you think about the life of Jesus Christ, he was the ultimate outlier (i.e., someone outside of the range norm of human experience—statistically off the charts). He was born into an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. Never went to college. Never held an office. But, as one poet has said, All the armies that ever marched and all the navies that were ever built and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of Man on Earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

When we think about Jesus, we have the ultimate outlier (someone who was “off the charts” like no one else)—the most influential person who has ever lived. But Jesus is in a category all of his own. He was after all, Christians believe, the unique, Son of God.

But his twelve disciples became outliers too. The source of their success isn’t quite as obvious.

We read in Acts 4:13, the disciples were ordinary people, uneducated. A number of them were fisherman. As you read the gospels, you will see that disciples had many of the same human frailties that we have: they were prone to disbelief, anxiety, and bailing out when things got hard. Jesus’ disciples Peter, James, and John assured Jesus that they would be willing to suffer for him.

But, when Jesus was arrested, they and all the other disciples of Jesus bailed on him. They went into hiding cowering behind locked doors, afraid for their lives. Yet, it was these very people who had fled for their lives who become fearless leaders of the Christian movement—a movement that would revolutionize the Roman Empire in which they lived and then much of the world. Christianity now composes some 1/3 of the human race, some 2 billion followers out of a world of 6.7 billion people.

How do we explain the success of the early church when it was led by such frail, ordinary people? The Book of Acts provides us with the answer to that question.

Starting today and for the next couple of months we’re going to be exploring the Book of Acts, and we’ll be seeing how the early church grew in the face of great challenges in the first century. The wisdom that we glean from the Book of Acts will be important, not only as we seek to grow in our own spiritual journey, but also as a church as we expand into Kitsilano on Sunday September 13.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 1, beginning at verse 1.

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

In Acts 1:1 we read:

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, and also the author of gospel that bears his name: “Luke,” was likely a gentile by birth. He was a physician, and quite possibly a slave. Physicians in the first century in Greco-Roman world could be slaves.

We know from the gospel of Luke that the recipient of the Book of Acts is a man named Theophilus. His name means “one who loves God.” In the Gospel of Luke he’s described as “most excellent Theophilus”. So Theophilus is apparently a person of high standing in the Roman Empire, possibly a Roman official, who knows and loves God. The Book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke were intended for the development of Theophilus’ relationship with God and the faith of all people who would come in contact with these books which describe the origins and the early growth of the Christian Church.

How did the early church achieve its outlier (off the charts) status? How did it grow so quickly? How did it spread like wildfire with no political power, no connections, no money?

We read in verse 3:

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

One of the reasons, according to verse 3, is because after Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead, he showed himself to his disciples and gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to the disciples over a period of 40 days.

In the culture of Jesus’ day, like in ours, people simply would not have believed that someone had risen from the dead. (In fact, people in Jesus’ day would have been more resistant to that idea that someone would rise from the dead than people are today). Some of Hebrew people of Jesus day were expecting a general resurrection at the end of time, but no one anticipated that a person would be resurrected during the normal course of history.

So people in Jesus’ day would have needed convincing proofs that he had risen from the dead and was alive. Jesus gave them convincing proofs by appearing to them over a 40 day period.

Those first disciples were convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead. The reason we know that is because they were completely transformed after they saw Jesus risen from the dead. They went from being fearful cowards who fled for their lives when Jesus was arrested on Thursday night, the eve of Good Friday, to being fearless proclaimers of the message that Jesus had risen from the dead the following Monday. From Thursday to Monday they went from being zeroes to heroes. All of those early disciples of Jesus, with the exception for John, died for their belief that Jesus rose from the dead. The only plausible explanation for this radical transformation in their lives was that they believed that Jesus actually rose from the dead. When you are not afraid to die, you become very powerful--think about a social activist or a revolutionary who is unafraid to die—he or she is a powerful force.

But the fact that these disciples who had been cowards lost their fear of death because they believed that Jesus had risen from the dead was not the primary reason for the explosive growth of the early church.

Notice verse 4: “On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.” The gift that Jesus referred to here was the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What empowered the movement of the early church, with extraordinary vitality enabling it to achieve outlier (“off the charts”) growth status is the fact that God through his Holy Spirit was working through these people who were following Christ.

In verse 8, Jesus says these last words to his followers… 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

In Luke 24:45-49 Jesus similarly said: "This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

The key to the explosive growth of the early church was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit clothed those early disciples with the power from on high, the power of God. As a result, the early followers of Christ became bold witnesses to Christ’s death on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and his rising again from the dead, first in Jerusalem; and then the movement spread to Judea and Samaria, and then to places like Asia Minor, Greece, Rome and Spain; and later through their spiritual offspring the gospel would go to the ends of the earth.

The kingdom of God is spread through the Spirit-empowered witness of its followers. The word “witness” then, as now, simply means that a person experienced some event and then talked about it. When a person is filled with the Spirit of God that person bears witness to the reality of God through what they say and by who they are; and other people begin to experience the reality of God and the movement of God spreads in the world.

A couple of years ago CBC radio broadcast a story on how difficult it is for the typical Canadian person who has some kind of faith to actually talk about his or her faith in their workplace. When we are filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we will become increasingly free to talk about the reality of Christ. As we grow closer to Jesus Christ and grow deeper in our love for him, the more natural it will be for us to speak about him.

My wife Sakiko sometimes says that when she meets someone (referring to women primarily outside of this community, so don’t be self-conscious), she can get a sense after a few conversations as to how close they are to their husbands, or to their partners (if they are married or in a relationship), if after a few conversations that woman (she says she’s not sure if this true of men) never mentions their significant other, she just wonders how close they are. But if the person is really in love with their husband or their partner, then that person comes up pretty regularly and naturally into the conversation.

And so it is with us. When we are filled with the Spirit of Christ and growing in our love for Jesus, it will be increasingly natural for us to talk about Jesus (not out of a sense of obligation, but out of a sense of overflow).

There is a person who is important to me here in Vancouver. I have known her for about 7 years. She is not a church-going person. We have been in each others’ homes regularly. It would be rare for a week or two to go by without having some kind of interaction with this person. This person recently lost a very significant loved one in her life and came by to talk about it. Not long after, I dropped in just to see her to see how she was doing. She knows I am a Christian pastor and though there was some hesitancy on my part… I talked about my belief in God, in Christ rising from the dead, and the hope we can have because of his rising



I asked her if I could pray for her. I sat in her living room and prayed with her (and the tears streaming down her cheeks). It was very meaningful moment to her. I don’t know that she had ever been prayed for before. She didn’t fall on her knees and say, “I now want to become a follower of Christ.” She was able to experience in some small way the reality of Christ by my simply naming him and praying for her. That is what we are called to be and do. We are called to be witnesses to the reality of Christ.

Perhaps one way to begin to serve as witness is to ask the Holy Spirit to so fill us that we would be willing to talk about Jesus naturally, as we would any other important person or pursuit in our lives.

I was at dinner with about 10-12 people honoring a prominent political leader in the city. He was receiving The Order of Canada award. During the dinner he asked each one of people seated around the table guests to share for a few minutes something we were passionate about. There was a part of me that wanted to talk about a safer topic like my love of sailing or running through endowments lands with the Golden Retriever, but I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to share part of my spiritual journey. I said,” I’m pastor of Tenth Church here in the city. People often ask why I choose enter the somewhat unusual vocation of a Christian minister.” Then I said, “As teenager, I had troubled years. I was involved in taking and dealing drugs, shoplifting, and joyriding. My dad was concerned about me. So, he took me to a prison, and later he said, ‘I just wanted you to see your future home… ‘ and he figured to try something even more radical--he took me to a Christian youth conference. At that Christian conference I discovered I could have a new beginning and my life was radically changed me for the better. So one of things I am passionate about is seeing lives changed by the power of God.”

A starting point in serving as a witness is to pray that we would be filled with the Spirit and free to talk about Christ like we would any other person or pursuit in our lives.

As are filled with Spirit we will witness through our words to reality of Christ , but as Bryant Myers points out we will also point to reality of God through our lives, our deeds, and through signs and as this happens the work of God spreads.

One of key reasons the early church spread like wildfire in the first century was because they were filled with the Holy Spirit and as result reflected the integrity, wisdom, and love of God in their lives. In Acts 4 we read how astonished people were at the courage and wisdom that the disciples Peter and John had even though they were ordinary, uneducated people, and they noted they had been with Jesus.

I said before, my grandfather was very, very hostile to Christianity. He was a corporate CEO. Arrogant. Powerful. He had been hostile toward Christians in general. One time I had a copy of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis sent to him in Japanese. He had his secretary reduce it to a one page summary. But there was a person in his company that he described with a glow in his eye as a “true Christian.” This person was an individual of extraordinary integrity, capable, trustworthy. I don’t know if he ever explicitly tried to persuade my grandfather to become a Christian, but he was open about his faith. My grandfather deeply respected him and part of the reason my grandfather committed his life to Christ late in life—i.e. in his 80s--was because of someone who gave witness to the reality of Christ through his life.

Another reason the early church spread like wildfire in the first century was because they were filled with God’s Spirit and witnessed to the reality of God through their deeds. In Acts 4 we read how the early followers of Christ shared their possessions with one another so that there was not a single person in need among them. People in the Roman Empire often were stingy with their money, but promiscuous with their bodies. But observers remarked of those first Christians, they share bread with others, not their marriage beds.

Pastor Ourng serves a church of 83 members in Cambodia (where we intend to invest for 10-15 years as a church). He said, “Several years ago, World Vision came to the community and set up a TB clinic to care those suffering with that disease. They helped us improve our schools, and taught us better agricultural methods to increase our crop yields. Since the genocide in Cambodia, I did not trust strangers. I was suspicious of the World Vision people. Why would these strangers help us? I wondered. One day I confronted the World Vision leader and demanded to know, ‘Why are you here?’ The leader said, ‘We are followers of Jesus Christ, and we are commanded to love our neighbours as ourselves.’” The Cambodian asked, “Who is Jesus?”

They gave him a Bible and then introduced him later to a Cambodian Christian. Ourng became a follower of Jesus and then pastor…

A story a little close to home:

Rose Smith, is an active member of this church, she has given me permission to share this story. Rose lives here in Vancouver (She is married to Bruce who serves as the chair of our Board of Elders).

Rose met her friend Patti 28 years ago last Tuesday (August 18) when Rose’s daughter Heather and Patti’s son Mark were born at BC Women’s’ on the same day. Six years later Patti, her husband Chris and their family moved 3 houses away from Rose and Bruce. They’ve ended up being close friends for over 20 years.

Four years ago Patti was diagnosed with cancer in her appendix. Her cancer spread into her abdomen and into spine. For four or five months, Rose organized friends to spend the day with Patti. This gave her husband Chris a much-needed break.

One day when Rose was with Patti in Palliative Care when she between medications, and in excruciating pain. Rose was in hospital holding her (Dec 06). The pain was coming and going like as if Patti were in heavy labour…

And just before Patti died, Rose was stroking her head and then her arm, prayed for Patti and said, “It’s OK. It’s O.K, time to go… you’re going to a better place...” (Patti, though she had not been attending any church at the time, had placed her faith in Christ, but her husband Chris was not a believer in God.) Chris told me this week, “I knew then that they were in touch with a reality of which I knew nothing, and thought, “What am I missing?” That was two years ago. On July 1 2007, Patti died.

As a result of seeing love that Rose had for Patti, by seeing how Patti was able to let go because of her faith in the reality of God, made Chris think that there was some kind of reality that he had not experienced. Rose and Bruce invited Chris to Tenth and he has been attending Tenth and has been coming for the last two years, and a few months ago took his first communion here. (As a result of Chris a good friend of his has started coming, a friend of his friend coming, and someone who is not regular churchgoer has joined the small group they are part of.)

Like the early church, as we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can witness to Christ through word, life, deed, and also through sign. In the book of Acts we see how the early believers experience certain “signs”: the ability to speak in tongues they hadn’t studied before, healings, supernatural deliverances from danger—that could only be plausibly explained by God.

When we are joined to Christ and filled with His Spirit, we will bear witness to the reality of God through some kind of sign in our life.

I was born in a country where most people are Buddhist or Shinto. People ask me if other members of my family are Christian. The Christian stream of our family began with my great uncle. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis when it was considered a terminal illness. There was no medication. He was given 6 months to live. Someone gave him a Bible. He read it. He came to the part in the Gospels where Jesus healed people. He prayed for healing and was miraculously healed. As a result of his healing, my mother came to faith in Christ. And as a result of that, I came to know Christ.

Our may not be as dramatic a change as that, but is there some kind of sign in your life that would point to the reality of God that those who know you might see God at spiritual at work in you?

In my own story my own sign was not nearly as dramatic as in my great uncle’s experience, but it was enough to spark the curiosity of my grandmother.

My grandmother remembered me as a little brat (which I was). I was always asking, “How can I become rich when I grow up?” When I went to work in Japan for the Sony Group, I also started volunteering in a little church in northeast Tokyo. My grandmother was really intrigued. When she heard I was going to speak at church one Sunday my grandmother was intrigued. On a rainy Sunday morning, she decided she would come to church for the first time in over 20 years to hear me speak. I gave a little message about the power of the cross to change us. At the end of the message I invited the people who wanted to give their lives to Christ to come forward. My grandmother to my great surprise came forward. She was in tears, and I said, “Are you OK?” She said, “Am I OK? Today is the happiest day of my life. I thought I had been a Christian all my whole life, but today for the first time I really understood why Jesus Christ died for me.”

This is how the kingdom of God spreads in the world--as followers are filled with the Spirit of Jesus and they witness to the gospel—through word, life, deed and sign.

Dorothy Day said, “Live a life that is so mysterious that the only adequate explanation for it can be a living and loving God.”

The way that we become people who preach the gospel through our lives and our words, and live a life so mysterious that they only explanation for it a living, loving God is that we are filled with the Spirit of Christ.

As we are we are filled with the Spirit of Christ, we will become witnesses to the reality of Christ… in fact we will becomes Christ’s “voice” and Christ’s “touch” and (in Paul’s words) “the body of Christ” in our relationships, as a community in places like Kitsilano (as we launch our new site there on September 13), and as we are led to Cambodia, and around the world.

But, being an outlier in the most important work of all, the eternal work for Christ, isn’t primarily being born in the right place and the right time or having the most persuasive argument, but the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ—being clothed with power from on high. When that happens, we will naturally—or supernaturally--become witnesses to the reality of Christ and become his “voice” and “touch” in our world. We will find ourselves partners with God in creating the eternal kingdom of God.

Prayer:

Would you like to be filled with the Spirit? You can pray that now.

As you pray that perhaps you’ll also say, “God I am available in the coming week to serve as witness for Christ through what I say, who I am, what I do, or some kind of sign in me.”