For His Glory

I've just come to the end of two tiring but brilliant weeks of CU missions with RUCU and Surrey CU. Psalm 96 has been on my mind over the past few weeks, since Mo spoke on it so brilliantly at Relay 2, and it really helped me to have the right perspective throughout these focussed weeks of mission. I spoke on Psalm 96 at the launch meeting held by RUCU before their events week, and the text of my talk is below (big thanks to Mo, who did most of the prep!).


Psalm 96

There are lots of ways I could try to get you to tell your mates about Jesus as we head into Events Week (and I think I’ve heard variations on all of these).

I could make you feel guilty – I could remind you that thousands of people on the campus face an eternity without God unless they hear the gospel this week. And I could add that this might be the only chance they’ll get to hear it, and that if they don’t, it’s your fault. But I won’t.

I could demand it – I’m the staffworker, so do as I say and get on with it. OK, that would never work, but I could quote Matthew 28 and say, Jesus said go and get on with it! But I won’t.

I could lie to you – I could tell you that it’s going to be a really easy week, and that nobody will turn down your invitation to an event or disagree with what you believe. But I won’t (mainly because it’s a lie).

I could bargain with you – if you go and do this for God, then God will like you more and he might do something nice for you, but I won’t (because that’s a lie too).

Instead, I want us to really get straight why we’re doing this and who we’re doing it for. And we’re going to do that by having a quick look at Psalm 96.

This Psalm is a call to worship. In the book of 1st Chronicles, David defeats the Philistine armies and brings the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence with His people, back to Jerusalem. And in chapter 16, they quote this Psalm. It’s a declaration of who God is – of His power and majesty and glory - and it’s a call for His people to worship Him.

It might seem odd to read a call to worship at an Events Week launch. Why, oh why didn’t I pick a bit of the Bible that’s actually about evangelism? But can you see how this Psalm is calling God’s people to worship?

Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.

The call is to worship God by singing songs about Him, and by telling people who don’t know how great He is. If “all the earth” is going to sing to God, like it says there in v1, then they need to know about Him! So we don’t just sing to ourselves, but we sing to the world how great God is. Worship and evangelism are bound together, and both bring glory to the one who deserves it.

Obviously I’m not talking about literal singing (some of you will be relieved to hear). I’m not suggesting the band sets up outside Palmer…
It’s like being at a football match (I’m always on slightly dodgy ground when I try to use a football analogy…). I went to a football match once – Southend United (the Shrimpers). It was at Roots Hall, which is their home ground, and we were all cheering them on and singing the praises of Freddy Eastwood. Effectively, we were worshipping. But suppose I went with them down to Swindon with them yesterday and started singing their praises there. Then my worship is also evangelism. I love the Shrimpers, and I want the crowd at Swindon to love them too.

Or it’s like my new favourite TV show Glee, which is amazing (basically High School Musical for grown-ups). If I talk to my friend Andrew about how brilliant it is, then it’s worship because he loves it too. But when I try to convince Dave Kitson how amazing it is, then my worship is also evangelism. And that’s the idea here in Psalm 96. Worshipping by singing the praises of God to people who don’t agree. And that’s what we’re going to be doing in Events Week: Declaring the glory of God to people who don’t agree, so that they can turn and worship Him too.

What are the lyrics to this metaphorical worship song? The song is about God’s salvation. For King David, it was about God rescuing and restoring His people from the hands of their enemies. For us, it’s about Jesus. We “proclaim His salvation day after day” by telling people about the Lord Jesus. We tell them about how God made this whole universe and everything in it, including them. We tell them how they’ve turned away from him, and that the consequences are a terrible eternity without Him. And we tell them that God loved us enough to die for us so that we could be made right with Him. Through the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and only through Him, we’re forgiven for our rejection of God, and we’re welcomed back into God’s family. And one day he’ll come back, and we can look forward to a perfect eternity with Him. That’s the salvation we’re talking about.

So that’s what the Psalmist is calling us to do. But why? The reason why starts in verse 4, with the word “for” (or because), and it carried on for the rest of the psalm. “For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods” (small G).

God is the only one in the whole universe who really deserves our worship. Forget Freddy Eastwood, “great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.” He alone deserves worship. But he isn’t the only one who gets it. People are worshipping other gods. Other things have taken the top spot away from God. The gods of the nations, gods like Asherah or Ba’al or Dagon, or idols. They’re imposters, created by people.

Your friends probably aren’t Ba’al worshippers, and they probably don’t bow down to statues. But if they aren’t worshipping God, then they’ll be worshipping something. Maybe it’s a success god, or a money god, or a sex god or a stuff god. But they aren’t really gods at all. Oh, they demand sacrifice and service and attention, but ultimately they’re powerless and worshipping them is just slavery. Your friends are trapped worshipping this junk, instead of the God of the universe who loves them enough to die for them. Do you see the contrast? Their gods, whether they’re represented by an asherah pole or an iPad, are homemade rubbish. But the Lord made the heavens! So this is GOOD NEWS for your friends. We’re inviting them to worship the one who is really worth worshipping. We’re inviting them to leave behind their slavery to things that are created, and into the freedom of worshipping the creator. This is good news for your friends and it is for God’s glory.

The rest of the psalm is piled high with reasons to sing to the Lord and declare His praises to the world. His glory, His strength, His holiness, His authority, all displayed in the world He created. In the picture painted by the psalmist, even creation sings out in worship – the heavens, the earth, the sea, the trees, the fields. “Let all creation rejoice before the Lord.”

Everything we’ve seen about God from these verses would be enough reason to praise Him, wouldn’t it? But do you see why the whole of creation rejoices in the last verse? Because “he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness” (v13). Creation rejoices, because God is good, and righteous and faithful. He will deal with evil and sin. As you and your friends look around the world and see horrors like the earthquake in Haiti, or a mother killing her two sons and leaving them in the boot of her car, you can look to God and rejoice that he will deal with the sin that disfigures His creation. King David trusted God’s faithfulness, and He knew that one day, God would deliver his people once and for all. For us, it’s all about Jesus. As Jesus died he faces God’s righteous judgment in our place, he paid the price for our sin. And as Jesus rose from the dead, he declared that death is dead for those who trust him. Now we’re waiting for Him to come back and remove every remaining trace of sin from His world. Creation rejoices at the thought of it! Do you? Do your friends?

What ever you think mission week is about, in fact whatever you think the Christian Union is about, this is the heart of it. This should be our attitude towards God all the time, shouldn’t it? But this week we have an unparalleled opportunity to declare God’s glory among the nations, and to call them to worship Him too.

To steal a phrase from John Piper, Events Week exists because worship doesn’t. Christian Unions exist because worship doesn’t. The point of events week is for your friends to hear about the God who made the universe, the God who they’ve rejected, but who did everything to make it possible for them to know Him through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The point is that they’ll hear about Him and turn and worship Him themselves, for His glory. In fact, if we want a three-word reminder of the point this week, that would be it: "For His Glory."

So, as we kick of events week, I’m not going to try to make you feel guilty.
I’m not going to order you around or lie to you.
I WANT TO CALL YOU TO WORSHIP THIS WEEK.

Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.

Life Starts Here: TRUTH (...and where to find it)

After a long absence, here's a talk I gave recently at Reading University during Freshers week...


When I knew I had to speak on this subject, I wasn’t sure where to start, but I started thinking about why the truth is so important. It’s actually a fairly tricky question. Why is truth important? Do we need to even bother thinking about what’s true and what isn’t? So I texted the question answering service AQA. Has anyone used it before? Basically you can type in any question, from “what are the symptoms of swine flu?” to “can a boy swim fast than a shark?” So I texted with the question, “why is truth important?” They replied and said, “truth is important because society cannot function properly without it. All relationships rely on trust, and they cannot survive without it.”

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but that really got me thinking…

Our society is based on the idea that truth is important, isn’t it? At nearly every level, truth is really important. We all value trust in our relationships, don’t we? Truth is the basis of trust – we trust people because we know the truth about them, and we trust them to tell us the truth.

Our legal system is based on truth too, isn’t it? I got stopped and searched for drugs recently (which is a long story). I didn’t have any (!), but I was quite pleased that the policeman searching me was interested in the truth! Imagine if he’d ignored the truth and just decided I’d broken the law.

Without the assumption that truth is a good thing, communication wouldn’t just be difficult, it’d be pointless. And knowing the truth helps us to make the right decisions, whether it’s the truth about the mobile phone you’re thinking of buying, or the truth about the person you’re thinking of marrying. In small things or in big things, truth is important.

But what makes something true? Some of you might be philosophy students, and I guess you spend all day thinking about questions like this. I’m not, I trained as a scientist, so I decided to do some serious research… Wikipedia, obviously.
(Maybe slightly ironic that I should consult Wikipedia on the subject of ‘truth’…)

For a statement or an idea to be true, it has to be correspond to the way things really are. It has to fit with the real world. As you’d imagine, there’s a lot more to it, but I guess that makes sense, doesn’t it? So 2+2=4 because if I’ve got 2 things and I add 2 more things I really do have 4 things. You could say it’s true that I’m going bald by looking at the top of my head and you’d see there’s a lot of empty space. But truth isn’t just an abstract thing for the lecture theatre or library. You have to be able to live truth out. There’s a difference between thinking about whether something is true and actually experiencing it to be true. That will happen in the lab, but it happens in every aspect of life too. There’s a difference between knowing what happens if you leave a fork in the microwave and actually doing it…

Universities are all about this kind of truth, aren’t they. Surely the whole point of Universities is to seek answers and to find out truth about the world, whether it’s the truth about literary criticism or yoghurt? You’re here to study (sorry to break that to you) - hopefully you want to find something out about the subject you’re signed up for. Maybe some of you will even become experts in your subjects and make huge breakthroughs in the search for truth. (Some of you, maybe not…)

But University is also about real life, isn’t it? “Life Starts Here.” That will involve some mundane aspects of life. Eventually your clean clothes will run out, and you’ll need to find a washing machine. Eventually your loan cheque will run out (if it’s even arrived yet), and you’ll need to be creative as you stretch your budget. But it’s more than that. While you’re at University, you’ve got a great chance to ask big questions and make big decisions about real life. What’s life all about? Who are you? What’s important? Where are you headed? And University is possibly the best place and the best time in your life to start to answer those questions. So while you’re at University, make sure you find out the truth about life.

As you do that, I want to suggest to you one truth that you need to consider, because if it’s true then it’s the most important truth in the Universe, and it makes a difference to every one of us. This talk has been put on by the Christian Union, and they didn’t just invite me to ramble on about how lovely truth is for half an hour. As a Christian, I believe that the truth really isn’t just abstract ideas and hypotheses. I believe that the truth about real life is centred on a person, and because of that it is important for each one of us personally. The truth is based on the person of Jesus Christ. And he wasn’t shy about that – so much so that he actually claimed to be the truth.

I want to read you a couple of sentences from the Bible, from an account of Jesus’ life written by his friend John. You can go and have a look at it yourself if you want to – the section of the Bible is imaginatively called “John,” and this is from chapter 14.

“Jesus told him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14v6)

Just take a second to let that sink in – that’s pretty shocking to our politically correct ears, isn’t it? He’s claiming to be “the truth.” He’s claiming to be “the way” and “the life” too. But that’s not a way, a truth, and a life. He’s claiming to be the only way, the only truth and the only life. He follows it up with something even less PC (if that’s possible): “No-one can come to the Father except through me.”

That’s pretty exclusive, isn’t it? But let’s dig into what he’s actually claiming…?

Let’s start with His claim to be the truth, as that’s what we’re focussing on. It’s an arrogant-sounding claim, but what does he mean? Is he claiming to be able to have a new and interesting take on life? Is he claiming to be able to give us some special insight?

Well, yes he is, but it’s more than that. He’s claiming to be the truth about God. His follow-up statement about getting to the Father tells us what he’s getting at. But he’s not just claiming to know the truth or to be able to explain it, but to actually be the truth about God. And the reason he can claim that is because he’s God himself.

The whole of what John has to say about Jesus starts with that premise. Right at the beginning, John starts with the assertion that “the Word,” which is John’s nickname for Jesus, came from God, but also that he’s God himself. Jesus is God-made-human. And so when we look at Jesus we’re looking at the God of the whole Universe. Through the descriptions of Jesus in the Bible we can see what God is like, because we can see what Jesus is like.

If that’s true, then Jesus really can claim to be the truth, in a way which no-one else ever could. Lot’s of people claim to know something important about the truth, but anyone else is just offering there own personal take on what’s true. Jesus can claim to be the truth about God, because he personally reveals God to us. And that has all kinds of other knock-on effects for how we think about the world.

But Jesus makes two other claims, which are linked to his claim to be the truth. He claims to be the way. When he says that, he’s claiming to be the way to God. He’s specific about that. He isn’t just pointing the way. He isn’t just suggesting a philosophy to help people understand God better – he is the way to God.

But why do we even need a way to God? You might think, well, I’m doing OK without him thank you very much, so I don’t really need a way to get to God. But the Bible says that the consequences of being separated from God are severe.

We need a way to God because we’ve ruined things with him. We’ve rejected God, and we’re separated from him. Christians believe that God created the universe and everything in it, so he’s the only one in the Universe who deserves to be honoured and worshipped. But we’ve turned our backs on him. It’s the ultimate offence.

Imagine you meet the Queen, and instead of bowing as you should, you spit on her. There’d be outrage! You’d definitely make the papers. But she’s only the Queen. God is infinitely more important, and so the crime is infinitely worse. And it’s that ultimate crime which stands between us and God. It’s just not how the universe is supposed to run, and it’s damaged the whole of creation – we only have to look around at our damaged world to see the fracture lines. But it has serious consequences for each of us too – in committing the ultimate crime of rejecting God, we deserve the ultimate punishment. We deserve death.

That’s pretty bleak, so far. But Jesus did something surprising to change all that – he died. Just a few pages later, he’s killed. He’s abused and beaten, and then nailed to a wooden cross where he suffocates to death. But in dying, he paid for the offense we caused and opened up the way to God. The barrier that had separated us from God was removed, and the way is open.

Jesus can claim to be the way, because it’s through him, and through what he’s done, that we can get to God. And it’s why he can add the claim that “No-one comes to the Father, except through me.” If his claim is true, then this is arrogant – it’s a simple statement of fact. We’ve got no chance of coming to God unless our offence is dealt with by Jesus.

And Jesus claimed to be the life. He’s an expert on life and death, because he’s been there. We’ve already heard that he died. But so what? Lots of people have. Why should we believe that his death was any more special than anyone else’s?

In a few pages, Jesus is killed, by Roman experts in execution – he was properly dead for three days. But a couple of pages after that, he comes back to life. Death isn’t the end of the story. If it was, we could just go home and forget all about it. But the resurrection of Jesus forces us to take his claims seriously. It also has really important consequences for us. Death wasn’t the end for him, and so it doesn’t have to be the end for us either. Life Starts Here.

This is something else Jesus said about himself, from a little bit earlier on in the same book:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3v16)

When Jesus talks about life and death, we should listen to him, because he’s been there. And linked into his claim to be the life is the offer of life to anyone who will believe in him.

If these claims Jesus makes about himself are true, then they change everything, and we can’t ignore them. If there’s even a possibility that he’s right, then you need to consider it - it’s too important to ignore. I believe it’s true – that’s why I spend my time telling people about him. The Christian Union believes it’s true – that’s why they put on events like this, to help you to explore the claims of Jesus for yourself. But this is more than just finding out that something is factually accurate. This is about what real life is all about. If Jesus’ claims about himself are true, then they change everything. And they affect you, personally.

In one way, the decision quite simple. Jesus won’t just fit nice and comfortably with other suggestions about how we can be close to God. He won’t just sit on the shelf as an option alongside a load of others. His claims are either true or not. And if they are true, then you can’t ignore them. I haven’t told you nearly enough for you to make the decision, but there are loads of ways to find out more about the claims of Jesus. One great one is to sign up to the Glad You Asked course the CU is running – it’s a great opportunity to think about some of these big questions, and also some of the questions Jesus asks of us (which is only fair).

One of the best ways to find out more is the take one of these Free booklets. It’s another account of Jesus’ life from the Bible, this time written by a guy called Mark. Take one of these, read it and really engage with the evidence for who Jesus is and the claims that he made about himself. If you have questions about it, or things you want to say about it, then talk to the Christian Union – they should be delighted to talk to you.

This is something you need to get to the bottom of, and as I said earlier, University is probably the best place in the world, and the best time in your life to do it. Life really does start here, and it’s a great place to find truth. But I’d also say that this is an even better place to find the truth, and Life Starts Here.

Matthew 4v12-23

This is a long post, but here's the text of the talk I gave at RUCU on Thursday. The passage was Matthew 4v12-23, part of a series looking at the encounters Jesus has with different people...


OK, we’re looking at this passage from Matthew 4. It’s part of a series this term looking at some of the encounters Jesus has with people, and how he interacts with them. Here, we’ve got the beginning of Jesus ministry – this is where he goes public with his message.

We’ve got two soundbites from Jesus. I have mixed feelings about soundbites. Apparently we live in a “soundbite generation” – we like to have news or politics or philosophy or whatever boiled down to a sentence or two. I bet you can think of loads off the top of your head. “I have a dream.” “We don’t do God.” “To boldly go where no-one has gone before.”

Soundbites don’t usually go well for me. As many of you know, I have a talent for saying things which get quoted badly. Apparently Surrey CU are compiling a list of incriminating quotes to give to Nay (my boss) if I step out of line…

But here we’ve got two great soundbites which capture some really important aspects of why Jesus came and what he had to say. There’s a general one, and then one to his followers.
“Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
“Follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.”
We’re going to look at this passage in two chunks around each of these soundbites. If you like headings, the first section is “Repent,” the second is “Follow.”

Soundbite #1: REPENT

At the start of this passage we’re told that John the Baptist is in prison, and Jesus takes this as his cue to begin his public teaching ministry. But the first thing he does is move house!

Some of you will think this is a really boring details. Personally I developed a bit of an obsession with property programmes like “To Buy or Not to Buy” over the Easter holidays. But either way, this is one of the most important changes of address of all time!

If you look back over chapter 2, this isn’t the first time Jesus has moved house. Every time he does it’s significant, because it fulfils a promise God made about him. Now Jesus moves house to Capernaum, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

This move fulfils another of God’s promises, and this one is MASSIVE! Matthew quotes a chunk of Isaiah chapter 9 (it’s a traditional Christmas passage). This is a huge promise through Isaiah, written 700 years earlier, that God would send someone who would bring joy, freedom and peace. That someone would be Wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. God himself stepping in to sort things out. And Matthew is declaring Jesus to be the great light – the Messiah has come! The wonderful counsellor is here. The wait is over, God’s promised one has arrived! It’s massive.

Jesus begins to preach. We’re given an overview of his message here. Not the whole thing – like I said, it’s a soundbite. (The next bit of preaching we get covers 3 chapters). But this is a summary; it’s the essential heartbeat of Jesus’ message.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Again, if we’d read Matthew from the beginning, it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard this. Look at 3v2 - John was preaching the same thing. So is there any difference?
We need to look again at these Old Testament bits Matthew adds.
He called John, “one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
But when he talks about Jesus, he says, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.”

John the Baptist was the messenger, the one sent ahead. He was saying repent and get ready because someone is coming – the wait is almost over.
But Jesus was the one they were waiting for! He is the light that has dawned.
So he’s saying: ‘Repent because I’m here, no more waiting, the kingdom of heaven is here!’

OK, now I think we need to tease out what repent actually means. It’s not a word we use very often, even amongst Christians. So what does it mean?

The way the Bible uses it, repent means turn back to God. So John the Baptist was calling people to turn back to God because God was about to do what he’d been promising all along.
Now Jesus is calling people to turn back to God, because God’s doing it.

So that’s what it means, but what does it look like? How does it work out in real life.
I think it’s really important that we see there are two parts to repentance, and both parts are critical.

Let me explain what I mean. To do that, we’re going to have to depart slightly from Matthew, but we’ll end up back here…

To understand properly how we turn back to God, we need to think a bit about how we’ve turned away from God. We need to think about the situation we’re in to begin with. Look with me at Jeremiah 2v13 (keep a finger in Matthew 4 though, because we’re coming back).

"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

God’s people had turned away from Him. But as if that wasn’t bad enough, they turned to other things to fill the gap. It was like ignoring a stream of fresh, life-giving water which never runs out, in favour of a leaky hole in the ground which never holds enough water. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?

It should be the easiest game of “Would You Rather” ever! But throughout the Bible, that’s what people do. People who’d known God’s goodness to them in real, undeniable ways. But at every opportunity, they turned away from him and put their trust in other things instead. Sometimes it was idols made of wood or metal. Sometimes they ran off to the governments of other countries and trusted them for help (which they never did). Time and again, God’s people turned away from him and turned towards idols – they worshipped and trusted other stuff.

It’s easy to think they were stupid for worshipping lumps of wood. But think about how your own life compares. You don’t have to think for very long to realise that this is exactly what we do too.

We’re designed to worship; we’re designed to worship God, the God who made everything and sustains everything, including us. When we reject and ignore God, we don’t just worship nothing. We do what we’re designed to do - we worship. We put something else in God’s place.

And this applies to people who aren’t Christians, but even worse it applies to people who are, people who should know better. We say God is number 1, but we so easily push him out of the way and put other things in his place.

They may well be things which are good on their own. But they will always be rubbish compared to him, and they will never satisfy us. They will always be like a leaky hole in the ground. The thing with a leaky cistern is that you go to it to be refreshed and to have your thirst quenched, but when you get there you just find dust. So you have to fill it with water before you can drink – you end up slaving away to fill it up. And that’s what happens with these stupid things we put in God’s place – we end up slaves to them.

There’s an easy way to found out what your God-replacement might be. What is it which makes your life worth living? Or what couldn’t you possibly live without? If I could take it away, life wouldn’t be worth living. It could be all kinds of things. Success. Money. Sex. Friends. Possessions. Anything which becomes more important than God.

So there are two parts to our rejection of God, our sin. Turning away from God but also the things we put in his place. So there have to be two parts to repentance, because it has to tackle both of these. It’s turning away from the things we’ve been worshipping, and turning to God.

If we just turn to God, then it’s impossible to worship God fully because we’re still giving other stuff top spot in our hearts. And God won’t just sit happily next to your boyfriend or your iPhone or your degree certificate. We need to stop worshipping ridiculous God-replacements.
But if we just concentrate on just turning away from stuff, then repentance becomes just a list of stuff you can’t do – who would want to do that? Repentance is about turning to the awesome God who made us and loves us!
We need both.

This is the heart of Jesus’ message for the world. “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near. The wait is over, the gates are wide open, so come on in. But leave your idols at the door!”

There’s one really obvious application from this. There’s one really obvious way we need to put this to work in our lives. Here it is:
“Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Do as he says!

Maybe you need to repent for the first time, if you’re here and you aren’t a Christian, or you aren’t sure. You need to turn around. You need to turn around from your life without God, worshipping other things that will never satisfy you, and turn back to the God who made you, and who loves you.

But you might be thinking, ‘how can God possibly accept me after I’ve ignored him.’ And you should. It means you’ve realised how serious the situation is – we’ve destroyed our relationship with God by ignoring him. The great news is Jesus has made it possible. Jesus didn’t just come bringing a message and dishing out demands. He can say this because he also brought the means for it to happen. He died to pay for our rejection of God, and for our detestable worship of stupid things. And so when we turn back to God, he will accept us with open arms, because Jesus has paid for the offence we’ve caused him. So turn around.

But as I said earlier, this is not just for people who aren’t Christians. Repentance isn’t just a one-off, once in a lifetime thing. It’s amazing how we can turn over our lives to God, but then so easily turn back to worshipping stupid replacement gods. Believe me, I know.
So repentance has to be an ongoing thing. We need to be constantly turning away from stupid imitations and back to God. And the great news is that there is always more grace. There is always more forgiveness, because of what Jesus has done. So repent.

And, of course, if what we’ve seen is true – that the kingdom of heaven has come near, that Jesus is the one God sent to sort everything out, if we have turned away from the God who made us, and if Jesus has made it possible to turn back, then we need to tell other people. We can’t keep this to ourselves!

But remember we’re calling people to repent because the kingdom of God has come near. An eternity with the almighty creator of the universe, who made us and loves us, is on offer. So yes, we call people to turn from their old ways, but it’s because we’re calling them to a new way which is infinitely better. Make sure you get the balance right!

Second soundbite: FOLLOW ME
Cut to Jesus out for a stroll by the lake. He meets a couple of fishermen, Andrew and Simon, about their business. Verse 19 records one sentence of their conversation: “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” Again, I’m pretty sure this isn’t his entire sales pitch, but it’s the gist of what he said. And they immediately accept. They don’t say, ‘OK, just let me finish this.’ They drop the nets and go with him. Later on he meets two more, James and John. He makes the same offer and he gets the same response – they leave their dad with the boat, and off they go.

Jesus calls these guys to follow him - to go where he goes, to do what he does. But, in particular, he promises them that they’ll still be fishing. Only this time, they won’t be fishing for fish, they’ll be fishing for people. A lot about the process will be the same – they’ll go out to where the people are, and bring them in. Only this time they won’t be trapping people in a net and hauling them in. They’ll be proclaiming Jesus’ message about the kingdom of heaven being open and drawing them in. Instead of a trap, it’s a rescue!

In the last section we heard a summary of Jesus’ message to the world – Repent. Here, we’ve got Jesus’ call to those who would follow him – it’s a bit more personal, and a bit more specific. But the two commands, ‘repent’ and ‘follow me’ are linked (we’ll see how in a second).

On the face of it, this seems really simple. But what I want to do, just to finish, is to open up this one sentence a bit. And I want us to see three things about what it meant for these fishermen to follow Jesus, and what it will mean for us to follow Jesus. So here they are:

1) The call to follow Jesus is for everyone.

Jesus is putting together his crack team of followers who are going to go with him on his critical mission, calling people to repentance. Imagine you were putting this group together – who’d be in your J-Team? Surely you’d have the top people you could find. You’d have a few really clever people on their. Maybe some academics, or a few entrepreneurs. Maybe you’d want a few politicians or some celebrities as crowd pullers.

But that isn’t the logic Jesus used. These fishermen were ordinary blokes, they had ordinary jobs. They weren’t rich, they weren’t powerful, they weren’t well educated. And the rest of the group who join later aren’t much different – collaborators, doubters, rebels, even a traitor.

But this little group of followers is a mixed bag because the kingdom of heaven is a mixed bag. The call to follow Jesus is for everyone. But that isn’t because there are no standards. This is for everyone because it doesn’t depend on anything you or I have done. I said earlier that Jesus makes it possible for us to turn back to God, by paying for the offense we’ve caused Him. Because it’s about him, and not about you, then it doesn’t matter who you are, or what you’ve done. It doesn’t depend on your status or your upbringing. It doesn’t depend on your wealth, or your exam results. It depends totally on Jesus, who died to bring us back to God. So the call to follow Jesus is open to everyone, including you, right now.

2) The call to follow Jesus is a call to sacrifice.

When Jesus calls these guys to follow him, they leave their nets behind and go. But these guys weren’t out fishing for fun. This was their livelihood – it kept a roof over their heads and food on the table.

Following Jesus may well involve giving stuff up. Maybe it will involve putting off buying that new TV or car because Jesus wants you to follow him in how you use your money? Maybe it will mean breaking off a relationship which you know isn’t honouring to God, because following Jesus is more important? Maybe it will mean passing up a well paid job to serve God, maybe overseas?

Jesus calls us to follow him – to do what he does and go where he goes. And what did he do, where did he go? He went to the cross, to his death. He gave up not just his comfort, but his life for those who’ll trust him.

This won’t be an easy ride. It wasn’t for his original followers, and it won’t be for us. But they dropped their nets because they realised it was worth it – and they barely knew him at this point. Any sacrifice we have to make pales into insignificance compared to what he’s done for us. It’s completely worth it.

3) The call to follow Jesus is a call to speak for Jesus.

Jesus wasn’t just calling the fishermen to follow him so they could keep the kingdom of heaven to themselves and have a cosy life. He called them so they would call others. It was part of the deal right from the start – follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people. That was the whole point of them following him around – they got to know him and understand him and his message, so they could go out and preach it – while he was around, but also long after he returned to heaven.

The fact we’re sitting here in HUMSS JCR is part of the fruit of that. Someone told someone who told someone over and over for two thousand years, and now here we are.

And that’s what the CU is here for. The CU is a group of people who’ve responded to the “follow me” bit, and now we’re being sent out to fish for people. So this has another fairly simple outworking, and it’s the point I want to leave you with. Tell people! Tell people that the light has dawned. Tell people that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Tell them that they need to turn around and go back to the God who loves them. And, most importantly, tell them about the one who made it all possible. TELL THEM ABOUT JESUS!

New Word Alive Highlights

I've been meaning to write this for about a fortnight [edit - more like 3 weeks now], but thanks to one of the less-desirable souvenirs I brought back from Pwllheli (ie the worst cold I've ever had in my life), I haven't really felt up to blogging until now. But Word Alive was quality, so I thought I ought to mention my highlights. Lots of other people, like my friend Peter and my new (facebook) friend Krish, have aleady given their thoughts. Here are my highlights, in no particular order:

Dan Strange on Engaging with Culture I loved the way Dr Strange helped us to really see what is going on in the culture around us, and the idols people worship. I also felt affirmed in my love of pop culture! These seminars were also the source of one of my most hilarious moments at NWA - explaining "romantic comedy" to the couple sitting behind us...
"Oh, I see. So, like some of Ibsen's plays?"
"Erm..."

Vaughan Roberts on 1 Corinthians 1-7
He was just brilliant, explaining some complicated bits clearly and warmly. The last two were the best, and his explanation of 1 Corinthians 7 was probably the best I've ever heard. I've definitely got lots to think about, and to put into practise, from these talks...

Chillaxing with the studes
It was great to spend time with some of my students, and some I'd never met before. Whether it was impromptu theological discussions late at night, or hanging on the beach, it was fun to be with them.

April Fools Shennanigans
I hate April Fools Day slightly more than I hate Comic Relief. And I'm not very good at it. Surrey CU well and truly made a fool of me by tricking me into believing someone was giving out free Vimto by the main marquee. It's a long story why they chose Vimto, but I stupidly asked them whether it was still of fizzy. Well done Surrey. I'm not sure whether Reading respect me too much, or if they just didn't think of it...

Question Time with Don Carson
I love this guy. Suffering from jetlag and having just spoken on the main stage, Don sat and answered questions on all kinds of topics. Personal favourites included predicting the outcome of a fight between certain evangelical heavyweights, and his recommendation of the TNIV Bible, which I've just started using.

New Word Alive - Part 1

My contribution to the inevitable flurry of blog posts about this year's excellent New Word Alive conference will hopefully follow tomorrow. But until then, check out these quality videos made by some friends of mine... Not only are they brilliantly made, but they really helped to get us thinking as we looked at the Bible each evening.





And check out the unofficial "Making Of" video on JG's facebook page (you might need to add him as a friend first I guess...).

I ♥ Surrey too...

Apparently I blog disproportionately more about RUCU than I do about Surrey CU. So I thought I'd add this slightly gratuitous post about them to keep them sweet.

I spent yesterday with the committee, talking about their aims for the coming year. Sadly that meant I had to miss Saturday Kitchen, but I think it was worth it. It was exciting to hear them think in a Christ-centred, gospel-focussed way about what they currently do and what they can change. And it was a real joy to see their desire to be united in the gospel.





There were some amusing moments. I'm still shoecked at the amount of delight a bag of Kinder eggs can generate. And I think I proved myself a force to be reckoned with in the banter stakes... Basically, I love these guys!*





[* For the record, I love my other CUs too, obv.]

The Lost Month

OK, so the blog has been on something of a hiatus for the past month. Basically, it's been crazy. Missions, training weekends, more missions... So much has happened that I can't write it all down. But it's been quality, so I thought I'd give you some highlights:

RUCU Events Week (a.k.a. Marquee, Mark and the Funky Bunch!)
You heard about day one. Things carried on pretty well for the week. We had lots of people to lunch bars each day, and we refined the soup-making method so that by Friday, it was quite nice. And we had some really good evening events too (like the curry night, pictured left, where Will interviews Olympic silver medallist and Christian Debbie Flood!) And, most importantly, lots of people got to hear about Jesus during the week! One person decided to follow Jesus during the week, and lots more are looking at Mark's gospel to find out more.

RUCU Small Group Leaders' Training Weekend
I had a great weekend with the small group leaders from RUCU at their weekend away. It was a real privilege to be able to kick of the weekend with a reminder of just how great the good news of Jesus is, and the riches of his grace. And I loved spending time helping them think through how to prepare Bible studies. My aim was to get them excited about being able to study the Bible, and to aim to get their small groups excited too.

Highlight:The Amazing Magical Bible Colouring Book Trick and waking up the chaps with some choice S Club classics. And some pretty spectacular banter too. I love these guys.

Surrey CU FREE Week
Within hours of returning from the weekend away, it was off to Surrey for their FREE week. I have to admit, my expectations were blown out of the water on this one! I arrived at the lunchbar to find a packed out lecture theatre, with about 30 non-Christians present. Attendance stayed at 70-80 all week, and at one lunchbar there were nearly 50 non-Christians there! Al MacInnes did a great job of presenting the gospel clearly at each event, and lots of people came back each day. On the Tuesday I took part in the Grill-a-Christian - not the funnest Tuesday I ever had, but it definitely forced me to rely on God's grace! Lots of people heard the gospel message during the week, and lots of people are studying Mark with friends or going along to Alpha! The whole week was a real challenge to my attitude, and it was also a LOT of fun.

Highlight: Introducing Hot Vimto to Surrey CU, and Wednesday's epic lunch!

South East New Leaders Weekend
This is probably my favourite weekend of the year so far! How could it not be? We basically got together a whole load of CU leaders from the wonderful South East region, mixed in our lovely UCCF team and other invited friends, had some great teaching from Michael and Rosemary Green, and had lots of fun too. I led seminars on being an administrator (possibly one of the coolest spiritual gifts if you ask me, or any of the people in my seminar!) and on being Motivated by Grace - good times!
Highlight: Also, Midnight Badminton accompanied by a soundtrack of showtunes and Disney songs...

'Favourite' Quote (courtesy of Becky): You remind me of humour... Humour Simpson.

Eastbourne Mission Week
And I spent 3 days last week down in Eastbourne helping with their mission week. One highlight was the 5-a-side football tournament, where 50 lads sat and listened to the testimonies of two guys in CU. Another was Pirate Adventure Golf with Ben and Nick. Technically, Nick won, but the hole-in-one I scored meant I won the moral victory!
On the Friday night I spoke on the cross from Mark 15. I'd prepared a pretty full-on talk, thinking it would be in a room in the Union. In the end, it was moved to the bar (the bar lady didn't look too pleased when I started describing crucifixion in detail...). One guy looked uncomfortable all the way through, but I kept going. I thought he was desperate to leave, but after the talk he chatted to two of his friends in the CU, and then went for a walk to think about it all. So if praying's your thing, then do be praying for him, and for the copies of Mark's gospel that were given out.

So, that was the month that was. To be honest, I still can't quite believe I have this job!

Marquee, Mark and the Funky Bunch! (a.k.a. RUCU Events Week 09) Day 1

The first proper day of Events Week has been encouraging, although fairly hectic. So much so that I only remembered to take one photo. Here it is...



This picture was taken at prayer breakfast - we had a pretty good turnout considering the 8am start (although it was still dark when I got up, so no-one could really moan!). We spent the morning sorting out the tea stand, the question board and various things, including tucking into a Super Seven breakfast.

Finally we got everything on track, and the lunch bar started. We had about 50 people there, with about 1/3 non-CU people. There were some good discussions going on, and at least one person signed up already to study Mark's gospel. Hopefully numbers will grow as the week goes on...

Right now the small groups are holding events in their halls. I didn't get invited to one :( but I'm giving my testimony tomorrow night, and a series of international invitations (slightly more detailed invitations at Small World Cafe, with a few hints about the talk to entice people along). So I'm sadly not taking the night off! I'll let you know how the hall events went tomorrow.

Marquee, Mark and the Funky Bunch! (a.k.a. RUCU Events Week 09) Day 0 - Launch Day

RUCU Events Week 2009 finally kicked off this evening. After a few moderately stressful (or humorous, depending on whether you're the student or the staff worker) teething problems, the marquee is finally put up, wired up and (periodically) warmed up and ready to go. We had our launch meeting this evening, which was a great opportunity to focus on why we're doing what we're doing this week.

It's a pleasure to have my friend Michael Ots around for the week as our speaker. He explained 2 Corinthians 5 for us, reminding us that we have a real, solid hope for the future, which should motivate us and reassure as as we head into Events Week.

People seem really up for it, which is great. The CU Guests seem like a fun lot (an essential criteria for CU Guests) too. I think I'm up for it too, although I'm really conscious of my need to depend completely on God this week. As I said last time, if praying's your thing, please do pray for us this week.

Here are a few pics to give you a taster of Day 0!


Lots of people! Woo!


Will attempts to unravel the song words...


Author and evangelist, Michael Ots!

The Gospel Way

This morning I read a prayer in an excellent book I bought this week - Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan Prayers. With my thoughts almost completely on RUCU's Events Week this week, I found a prayer called, "The Gospel Way." I think it's quality, so I decided it was worth sharing (and the effort of typing it out).

Blessed Lord Jesus,
No human mind could conceive or invent the gospel.
Acting in eternal grace, thou art both its messenger and its message,
lived out on earth through infinite compassion,
applying thy life to insult, injury, death,
that I might be redeemed, ransomed, freed.
Blessed be thou, O Father, for contriving this way,
Eternal thanks to thee, O Lamb of God, for opening this way,
Praise everlasting to thee, O Holy Spirit,
for applying this way to my heart.
Glorious Trinity, impress the gospel on my soul,
until its virtue diffuses every faculty;
Let it be heard, acknowledged, professed, felt.
Teach me to secure this mighty blessing;
Help me to give up every darling lust,
to submit heart and life to its command,
to have it in my will,
controlling my affections,
moulding my understanding;
to adhere strictly to the rules of true religion,
not departing from them in any instance,
nor for any advantage in order to escape evil,
inconvenience or danger.
Take me to the cross to seek glory from its infamy;
Strip me of every pleasing pretence of righteousness by my own doings.
O gracious redeemer,
I have neglected thee too long,
often crucified thee,
crucified thee afresh by my impenitence,
put thee to open shame.
I thank thee for the patience that has borne with me so long,
and for the grace that now makes me willing to be thine.
O unite me to thyself with inseperable bonds,
that nothing may ever draw me back from thee, my Lord, my Saviour.

Marquee, Mark and the Funky Bunch! *

FREE comes to RUCU starting tomorrow, and I'm excited.

This week, people showed up for three lunch times to think through how they can introduce their friends to Jesus via Mark's gospel. People have been praying lots, for the big stuff, but mostly for their friends who they really want to be able to share the gospel with. And, after a 24 hour delay, a huge marquee went up today. It was looking a bit iffy yesterday morning, but after the heroic efforts of a few RUCU peeps, some help from the SU and a lot of praying, it finally went up to day. We'll be practically living in the marquee (although we aren't allowed to sleep there, praise the Lord) as we put on a shed-load of events to help students meet Jesus for themselves. Bring it on!

I'll try to update the blog throughout the week, so do check back to find out how things are going. And I guess Motsy, our speaker for the week, will be doing the same. And if praying's your thing, please do remember us this week!





* In case you aren't as engaged with popular culture as some of us are, Marquee, Mark and the Funky Bunch is a play on name of the rap outfit which featured Marky-Mark, the alter-ego of actor Mark Wahlberg. We've got a marquee, and we're using it to explain Mark. Get it? That would make RUCU the Funky Bunch. I probably should have saved it for a weightier post, but it occurred to me today and I thought I should use it before anyone else thought of it.

Here we go...

The RUCU video geeks have been at it again...



Events Week starts Monday!

Surrey vs Reading: Round 1!

The CUs I work with are a talented bunch. A few weeks ago I posted RUCU's FREE week promo video. Now Surrey have followed suit, and have produced their own. In a characteristically diplomatic manner, I think both are great.

So first, hot off the press, here's Surrey's sterling effort...



And here's Reading's...



In the interests of healthy competition I thought I'd make things interesting - there's a poll on the right-hand side of my blog >>>. Watch both, and see which is your favourite! (You can vote for more than one, which I obviously have because I think they are different but equally good in different ways).

[Update: I felt a bit mean having the poll, so I removed it. I think I have a lot more FaceBook friends from Reading than Surrey, so it wasn't exactly fair. Let's call it a draw...]

Seriously though, if praying is your thing, then pray for both CUs. The FREE project is going to be a massive opportunity for people to find out for themselves who Jesus is. As the videos explain, we're going to be giving away copied of Mark's gospel, and giving people the chance to explore what it has to say. So please do be praying for us if you can.

Live for Jesus, Speak for Jesus... and Pray Lots!

Here's the text of a talk I gave at Reading University CU's houseparty last week. It's based on Colossians 4v2-6, with a brief look at some other bits of Colossians too. I gave it on Sunday morning, from a jumble of scribbley notes and crossings-out. It ended up rather long, but here's roughly what I said...


Well, it’s been a busy weekend, hasn’t it? We’ve heard some great stuff from Acts, haven’t we? We’ve heard about huge opportunities for the gospel, but also about the inevitability of persecution. And we’ve been challenged to think about how we engage with our friends and our world for Jesus.

So I wonder how you’re feeling, now it’s Sunday morning. Have you been challenged by what you’ve heard? Have you been inspired? Have you been encouraged or rebuked? As we think about going back to Reading later, are you excited and raring to go?

The truth is, it would be really easy to go away from here and leave it all behind. It all sounds great while we’re out here in the countryside, surrounded by Christians, maybe with a slightly rosy view of university. But it’s not much use unless we take it back with us. What we need is a take home message. Like the piece of birthday cake in a partybag, we need to wrap up what we’ve learned so we can take it home with us.

We’re going to do it by looking at Paul’s closing remarks in his letter to the Colossians. As you can see, this passage comes at the end of Paul’s letter. The way my Bible sets it out, this looks like a few random thoughts at the end before he exchanges a few hellos and signs off. I actually think it’s the end of the beginning, rather the beginning of the end.

Paul is writing to a church he’s never actually met – his friend Epaphras set it up. But he still prays for them constantly. And his main concern is that they’d understand what it means to live with Jesus as their Lord. Which is why he reminds them of the good news about Jesus which they’d heard and accepted. (We saw that yesterday in Colossians chapter 1).

He reminds them that Jesus is God himself, who made everything and keeps everything going. Every millimetre of creation, whether we see it or not, belongs to him. Including us. Jesus is superior to everything – and yet he died for our sake. He died so that people like us, people who hate God, could be reconciled to God (1v20, 22).

Reconciled is one of my favourite ways to talk about the gospel. When we talk about being reconciled, we mean a relationship has been restored. So it explains in a word what the gospel is all about. First, if reconciliation is needed, then a relationship has been broken. Our relationship with God is broken – we’ve rejected him, we’ve turned away to worship other things. But it also tells us what Jesus achieved in dying for us, because we can be reconciled – the relationship we destroyed can be put back together. We did nothing. God himself did everything to repair our relationship with him. Through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Colossians were reconciled to God, and so can anyone who trusts him.

This is foundational to what Paul says in the rest of the letter (and it’s foundational to the rest of what I’m going to say. So I think it’s appropriate to say that I don’t know most of you. It’s possible that some of you aren’t Christians. If that’s you, then let me say it’s great to have you here, and you’re really welcome. But I guess the houseparty has probably been a bit weird. We’ve been talking and singing about sharing this message, but you might be wondering, “why?”

The good news of Jesus is foundational to everything the CU does. It’s what we live by, and it’s what we desperately want everyone else on campus to know.

If you’re here and not a Christian, everything else I say this morning is basically irrelevant to you, because it will just be moralising and doing nice stuff. But it won’t do you any good at all. You need Jesus as your crucified Lord. Can I plead with you to think about where you stand with Jesus. And maybe the challenge from this weekend for you is whether you’re going to keep being Lord of your own life, or if you’re going to hand it back to him?

I’ve said already, the Lordship of Jesus is foundational to everything else Paul has to say. He urges them not to get talked into following religious fads or human rules. Instead, they need to know Jesus better. He tells them it’s as if their old self died when Jesus did – so now they should focus on the right things, and live under the Lordship of Christ. Just before the bit we read, he gives them some practical examples of what that looks like, when he talks about husbands and wives, parents and children, and slaves and masters.

And so we get to this section. But I don’t think it’s a random addition – Paul is carrying on. This is more of what it means to live a life worthy of Christ. And in particular, this little chunk encourages the Colossians to be outward looking – it’s all about people hearing the gospel, whether from Paul or from the Colossians.

So we’re going to look at 3 things he tells the Colossians to do. Actually, we’re going to look at three things he tells them to BE. And as we reflect on the weekend we’ve had, as we think about going back, and particularly as we look towards the FREE project, these things apply to us too. These are three things we can take away with us as we think about reaching our mates with the great news about Jesus. The 3 things are:

• Be Prayerful
  
• Be Wise
  
• Be Ready

Be Prayerful (2-4)
Paul tells the Colossians to “continue steadfastly in prayer” or “devote” themselves to prayer (v2). And you don’t have to read much of Paul to see that he modelled this himself. He prayed for the Colossians constantly. But what does it look like? Does it mean that if we ever stop praying, then we aren’t devoted to prayer? Well no, it doesn’t mean that, otherwise how would Paul have found time to write a letter? What it means is giving prayer the right priority. This isn’t so much about the quality of our prayers, but more about the quality of our lives. He isn’t saying that prayers will only work if you arrange it so someone is praying 24-7. This isn’t about the quality of our prayers, it’s about the quality of our lives, which should be marked by prayer.

Paul knows prayer is wildly important because he knows who God is. He knows God’s part in reaching people with the gospel, and he knows Paul’s part in preaching the gospel. And he knows that Paul’s part is useless if God doesn’t do his part. It’s God who opens blind eyes and shines light into people’s hearts. It’s God who stirs people up and brings the dead back to life. Without God, everything Paul does would be fruitless. So prayer is the foundation of everything he does, and the same goes for all of us too. That’s why he prays steadfastly for other people, and why he tells the Colossians to pray.

He fleshes out more of what he means with the words “watchful” and “thanksgiving.” Which sounds straightforward, but you’d be surprised. “Watchful” for what? Giving thanks for what? People have lots of different suggestions as to what Paul means. But I’ll tell you what I think he’s getting at here. Basically, be alert when you pray. It’s possible to pray and not be alert. Your heart isn’t really engaged, you aren’t really very interested in what you’re praying about. But don’t be like that, Paul says, be alert.

We need to be engaged in prayer, not asleep on the job. Prayer is a serious business, and we need to be alert. Be alert to the needs around you, to the things you have to pray for. Be alert! We need to pray in a way which is connected to the world we live in, to our campus, and to the lives of our mates.

And we need to be thankful. Being thankful is connected to being watchful, in that we have to be on the lookout for God answering prayer, and be thankful. But I think it’s more than that. It needs to be rooted in grace. When we realise that we’re sinners who have been saved by grace, it will grow a grateful heart in us, and that will change the quality of our prayer.

A grateful heart realises that everything we’ve got come from God. A grateful heart knows that without him, we’d be alienated from him. And a grateful heart won’t stride arrogantly up to God with a shopping list of demands. A grateful heart will humbly ask God, out of the riches of his grace and mercy, to give us more of what we could never deserve. Do you see how that will change things?

Now I feel hypocritical even as I say this stuff, because I don’t think I could describe my life like that. And I guess a lot of you feel the same. But what we shouldn’t do is look at Paul and feel discouraged. We should look at him and realise what a difference really being prayerful will make.

There are loads of practical steps we can take. Praying with other people is a great thing to do as we try to be like this together. Whether that’s prayer breakfast, or just getting together with a couple of friends to pray for your non-Christian friends, praying with others is a massive encouragement and stimulus to pray steadfastly. But this is about our lives, not just about being in public. What can you do to help yourself pray steadfastly? Don’t think, “I’m going to pray for 3 hours every day” if you aren’t praying for 3 minutes! Be realistic. But here are two key things:
Be inspired by Bible prayers: Look at the prayers or Jesus, or Paul, or David, or whoever. Soak up Bible prayers, and it will help you to pray.
Pray God will help you to pray: It sounds silly at first (like a solar-powered torch), but it’s not. It’s a heart thing. Ask God to change your heart so you can pray the way you should.

So that’s how Paul tells the Colossians to pray. But he asks them to pray for him (and Timothy), and specifically for two things. Both of them are about reaching people with the gospel:
“that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ,” (v3)
and
“that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (v4)

Again, this is God’s part and Paul’s part in proclaiming the gospel. He asks them to pray for what’s going on out there (that a door would open for the message), and also for what’s going on in here (that Paul would proclaim the message properly). The two things have to go together. Paul’s attitude is irrelevant if there’s no chance to speak. And he could have all the opportunities in the world, but they’re useless if he talks nonsense. They’re different, but they go together. And they both need God to work, either in the hearers or in the speaker. So Paul asks the Colossians to bring both before God.

As we look forward to the FREE project, surely we need to follow Paul’s example and be lifting both of these to God too. We need to pray for doors to open – pray for your mates, for the people on your course, that there would be chances to tell them the truth about Jesus. And pray for Michael Ots, that when he comes to speak, he’s speak clearly, and explain the gospel well. But pray for yourselves too, that you’d be able to do the same.

So, be prayerful. Be steadfast in prayer. Be watchful and thankful. And pray there’d be opportunities to share the gospel, and that we’d take them and use them well.

I’ve spent ages on prayer, because I think it’s crucial. And please don’t think we’re leaving it behind as we move on. Paul turns his attention specifically to their evangelism, but he still wants them to be prayerful. Don’t think of these things as separate!

Be Wise (v5)
He tells them to conduct themselves wisely towards outsiders, making the best use of the time (v5, you might have “every opportunity” or something similar). An outsider is someone who is outside God’s people – it’s someone who isn’t a Christian. So this is about Christians relating to non-Christians. But what does he mean by “wise”? Does he mean be clever? Or be really good at apologetics? Or plan really carefully when you’re going to speak so that you get your friends in exactly the right mood?

I don’t think so. This is about living wisely as you relate to people who aren’t Christians. Paul opened the letter with a prayer that God would fill the Colossians with “the knowledge of God’s will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives…,” with the aim that they would live lives worthy of Christ. Paul’s already explained that, through Jesus, the quality of our lives will be different. And he’s applied it throughout the letter – the way their new life in Christ will affect how they live. Now in chapter 4 verse 5, he’s taking all of that and applying it to people on the outside. As people look in, they’ll see the results of the gospel in the wise choices you make.

I guess this prompts the question, “are you being wise in the way you act towards outsiders?” Are you making wise choices which allow people to see the gospel at work in you? Or does it make no difference to you. Would your friend look at you and see no difference between them and you? Sometimes as Christians we make a lot of effort to fit in with our friends (and to an extent that’s good). But if we get to a point where there’s no difference between us, then we’ve pushed it too far. What will your friend think of Jesus if you get hammered at the weekend just like they do? What will your friend think of the gospel if you sleep around just like everyone else? What will your friend think if you lie or cheat? Be wise.

It sounds like Paul has one eye on the future here. “Make the best use of the time.” There’s a sense of urgency in the words Paul uses. When time is limited, it becomes important that we use it wisely. We need to use the time we have to tell people about Jesus.

Are you making “the best use of the time”? Are you using it wisely? That will mean looking for opportunities – the open doors we’ve already heard about. Are you on the lookout for chances to tell people about Jesus. Hey, wait, here’s one [at which point I produce a FREE gospel]!
Or it will mean making opportunities. Like, for instance, getting an allotment so you can get to know the other people who have allotments. (Which is what I’m in the process of doing). OK, that’s probably not practical for you lot – I just wanted to mention my allotment. But what opportunities are there? Do you ever invite people round for dinner? Are you too busy to go to the pub with people from your course? Make the best use of the time.
And, of course, all of this depends rather heavily on actually having contact with outsiders. Being wise is irrelevant if your only ever wise hiding in your bedroom or at a CU meeting! Be wise.

This is all linked to the final verse, verse 6. Paul has told the Colossians to be prayerful, and he’s specifically asked for prayer for his evangelism. Then he’s told them to be wise, to live out the gospel for outsiders to see, and making best use of the time that remains until Jesus comes back. But once they’re doing that, Paul says, they need to be ready.

Be Ready (v6)
Again, we can ask “How?” Do I need a PhD? Do I need to read all the books on the bookstall? Do I need to become a Relay worker?

They’re all good ways to be prepared to talk to people about Jesus (particularly the last one), but knowledge and training aren’t Paul’s priority here. He’s more concerned about attitude.

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (v6). Your version might say “full of grace,” but I think this gets the sense about right. He’s still talking about being wise towards outsiders. Part of that is about making the best use of the time. But another crucial element is speaking to them properly when you have chance. Basically, you need to be gracious in the way you speak to outsiders.

I think this can only properly flow from experiencing grace ourselves. When we realise that God should have hated us for what we did, but instead he loves us enough to die for us, that has to transform us. And in turn it has to transform the way we treat people especially outsiders.

That’s what Paul is getting at when he talks about salt. If you look at the other ways salt is used to refer to Christians, it’s used as an illustration of the difference between Christians and the rest of the world. Our conversation should be seasoned with salt – it should be tasty. There should be something different about the way we speak which makes it attractive to outsiders. And that difference comes from being transformed by the gospel, and showing it in the way we live and the way we speak.

So what will it look like?

• Speech which is gracious isn’t aimed at winning an argument, but about helping people to see the hope you have in the gospel.
  
• Speech which is gracious isn’t about showing how much you know, but about showing people the Saviour you know.
  
• Speech which is gracious sometimes means being silent and listening, rather than trying to shout someone down.
  
• Speech which is gracious and seasoned with salt cares more about the person you’re talking to than your reputation.

The fundamental point is that with this attitude, you put the person you’re talking to before yourself. That’s the principle Paul’s been trying to get the Colossians to see in the family situations he mentioned, and it’s the same here. It’s the heart of what grace is all about. The Lord Jesus put our welfare above his own and died for us. That’s what will make our conversation gracious. That’s what will make out conversation tasty.

And this isn’t something we just wheel out when we spot a non-Christian in the room. “Let your speech ALWAYS be gracious…” This should be our default setting. So no matter who we’re talking to, whenever the opportunity arises, we’ll be ready to respond in the right way.

Is this what your speech is like? Do you need to pray that you’d be more gracious in your speech? Do you need to pray you’d appreciate grace more so that it would overflow in your speech? I’ll leave that for you to think about…

We’ve seen a lot in this passage, haven’t we. Be prayerful, Paul says. Be wise in the way you act. And be ready by being gracious in the way you speak. Have you noticed what I noticed? (And I didn’t do it on purpose). If you want a summary of this passage, it’s basically “Live for Jesus, speak for Jesus. And pray lots.”

That was Paul’s take home message for the Colossians. That was the cake in their party bag, and I think it can be ours too. Live for Jesus… Speak for Jesus… And pray lots.

Introducing... FREE @ Reading

I am very excited about this! These guys possibly have too much time on their hands, but you have to admit they make a classy video!



Bring it on!

Aren't you glad it's about faith, not works?!

Wow, I've managed to miss an entire month. Oops. Well, here's a super-post to make up for it. This is a talk on Romans 4 I gave at RUCU last night. I don't normally post entire talks on here, but it's easier than putting it on my website...


If you went out and asked people around campus, “what is Christianity all about?” what do you think they’d say? If you asked people, “What is the heart of the Christian message?” what kind of answers would you get? How would you answer that questions?

I suppose you’d get all kinds of answers. But you’d probably get a lot of people saying it’s about being a good person, doing good things, so you can get to heaven. You probably know people who think that. You may even think that yourself…

Well, if you’ve been here in previous weeks, you’ll have seen already that we have a serious problem, and something has to be done about it. You’ll know that Romans is a letter, written by a guy called Paul to a group of Christians in Rome (hence the name). And as you read it, this letter gets really uncomfortable really quickly. In the first couple of chapters Paul explains how we’ve rejected God, how we’ve turned away from him to worship other things instead, and how we face the just punishment for it. And he explains that we’re all as bad as each other. Moral people or religious people are no better – we’re all in the same boat. It’s pretty grim reading to begin with.

But then, in chapter 3, Paul explains that we can be made right with God, we can be justified, through Jesus.

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

(Romans 3v22-24)

It’s like a light going on against the background of the first couple of chapters. Jesus died in our place, so that our sin could be paid for. And now instead of seeing us as sinners, God considers anyone who trusts in Jesus to be righteous, and we can be reconciled to the God who made us. It’s what the Bible calls GRACE – it’s God’s undeserved goodness to us.

That’s incredible news, isn’t it?! That although we’ve turned our backs on God and we deserve to be cut off from him, he’s made it possible for us to be made right with him, through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.

But the message Paul presents would probably have provoked some questions. Paul said it applies to everyone equally – all have fallen short no matter who they are, everyone needs this rescue plan no matter what they’ve done, and everyone has access to it. But the Jewish people were God’s special people, and they’d been observing God’s law for centuries. That was how they related to God, by keeping rules and offering sacrifices as payment for their failures. So it’s understandable that they’d have all sorts of questions about how doing stuff fits into this idea of grace – being made right with God simply by trusting that he’s sorted it out through the Lord Jesus.

Paul answered some of those questions at the end of ch3. God justifies everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike, he makes everyone right in his eyes through faith in the Lord Jesus. But Paul needs to convince his readers of that. And so he does that here, in chapter 4, by going right to the roots of their faith. What about Abraham? He’s the acid test – if this doesn’t apply to Abraham, then forget it.

As we go, I hope you’ll see that this whole chapter is about God’s grace – the grace we’ve already seen in chapter 3, which Paul colours-in in chapter 4. It’s all about God’s undeserved but overwhelming goodness. You might look at this chapter and think, “that’s lovely, but I’m not a Jew living in the first century,” and you might think it’s not particularly relevant. But let me tell you that it really is, and you’ll see how as we go along. In this chapter we’re going to see God’s grace to Abraham. Then we’re going to see how God’s grace to Abraham extends to every single person who share’s Abraham’s faith. And then we’ll see how the massive extent of God’s grace applies to every single one of us here.
If you like subheadings, you can use those:

• God’s Grace to Abraham
  
• God’s Grace to All
  
• God’s Grace to Us
  

I really hope you won’t be able to get to the end of this chapter without being blown away by God’s grace to the whole of humanity, but especially to you personally. Let’s see shall we…?

God’s Grace to Abraham (v1-8)
Paul asks the question, “what about Abraham?” Abraham was basically the first of the Jewish people. He was the one God picked out, and all of Israel descended from him. So he’s the crucial test case. As Paul points out, if Abraham was justified by works, then he had something to boast about. But if he was justified by works, then everything Paul has said falls apart. It would mean it is possible to be made right with God by being good. This is important. So he turns to the Bible, and asks: “What does the Scripture say?” The Scriptures say (v3):

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Paul’s quoting Genesis chapter 15, where this promise was made. I think we need to have a proper look at Genesis 15 so we know what we’re talking about. Turn to Genesis 15. (Abram is the same person – God adds an extra ‘ha’ to his name later…)
[Read Genesis 15v1-6]

God promises to give Abraham a son, and through that son he would have more offspring than all the stars in the universe. Abraham’s response is to believe God. And God credited it to him as righteousness.

But what does that mean, to believe and have it credited to you as righteousness? We need to go back to Romans 4 for the answer. Paul explains the principle, and then he backs it up with another Old Testament example.

Look at verse 4. “Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.”
Who here has a job, or has had a job? When you go to work, you expect to be paid. Your boss doesn’t just give you a gift out of the kindness of his heart. But that isn’t how it works with God. If you trust God, who declares wicked people right with him, then you’re declared right before God. Not on the basis of anything you’ve done, but because of faith. But don’t misunderstand this. It’s not because of the faith in itself, but because of the one you’re putting your faith in. And that’s GRACE – that God would rescue people who hate him.

This has always been the plan. It isn’t just something that God had to throw together because he suddenly realised the law wasn’t working out. Justification by faith has always been the plan – it’s who God is. And to prove it, Paul explains something King David wrote. King David was the greatest king Israel ever had, but he wrote the words which are quoted there in verses 7 and 8.
“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
Those words are taken from Psalm 32 – don’t turn there now, but read it later if you have time. The whole of Psalm 32 is about sinners who trust God and are credited as righteous. Not because they earned it or deserve it but because they trust a merciful God who will forgive sin.

Paul has made his point. Abraham had to trust God to make him righteous. It wasn’t because of anything Abraham did, but because of the faith he placed in his gracious God.

Take a second to let that sink in. Aren’t you glad that being made right with God is based on faith, not on works?!

If we’re honest, this goes against how we think the world should work, doesn’t it? We’re brought up to earn what we need, and get what we deserve. If we’re going to realise how great this is, then first we have to swallow our pride. We’ve got nothing to be proud of, just like Abraham had no room to boast.

But aren’t you glad that we’re justified by faith, and not by works? It’s great because we’re rescued where otherwise it would have been hopeless. If it was based on stuff we do, we’d have no chance.

But it’s more than that. It’s SO much more than that. It’s a whole different kind of relationship. A relationship based on grace is completely different to one based on working.

I was shocked to hear about a previous vicar of the parish church near where my parents live. Apparently he used to tell people, “I don’t really understand God, but we have a good working relationship!” I think he was basically trying to admit that he wasn’t a Christian. But at the very least that’s really sad, isn’t it? He certainly hasn’t understood Romans 4.

If our relationship to God was based on keeping the law, then the responsibility lies with us. And everything we get from God would just be him fulfilling some kind of obligation to us. Only we’ve seen that we’re rubbish at following the law, so we’d never quite manage to live up to his impossible standards. Basically, we’d be slaves if it worked that way.

But it’s based on faith in a gracious God, which changes things completely. The initiative comes from him, as he reaches out to bring us back to him. All we have to do, all we can do, is trust him, like little children have to rely on their parents. Do you see the difference? Aren’t you glad it’s by faith, not by keeping the law?

Paul doesn’t end there. He goes on to ask, “does this just apply to a certain group of people?” This is an obvious question, given that he went to such great lengths to point out that we’re all as bad as each other. Does this rescue only apply to one group? And as Paul tackles this question, we start to see God’s grace to all…

God’s Grace to All (v9-17)
Look at verse 9. Here’s the question: “Is this blessedness just for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?”

Circumcision, for those of you who don’t know, is a minor operation performed on boys, where a certain piece of surplus skin is removed. Circumcision marked out a man as a member of God’s people. Remember that promise we looked at in Genesis 15? After God makes the promise, he makes a covenant with Abraham. He basically makes a contract. And to show that he was living in this covenant with God, Abraham was circumcised, along with every Jewish male since. When foreigners wanted to join God’s people, the men had to be circumcised too. Being circumcised and being part of God’s people were basically inseparable. So the obvious question arises: what about those who aren’t circumcised? How are they counted as righteous? Does this grace apply to them too?

Paul’s answer clear: it applies to everyone! He goes back to Abraham to show why. Abraham believed the promise, and then he got circumcised to show it. Abraham was circumcised because he was counted righteous, not the other way round.

Think of it like a marriage. When two people get married, one proposes to the other. Then they exchange vows, and exchange rings as a sign. When God made the promise to Abraham, he basically proposed marriage – to Abraham and all his millions of descendents, even though none of them deserved it. In faith, Abraham accepted, and God made a covenant between them – they exchanged vows. Then just as a married couple exchange rings as a sign of their marriage, Abraham was circumcised as a sign that he belonged to God.

So this is still all about grace. Membership of God’s people isn’t about having an operation, it’s about faith in our gracious God. Anyone who shares Abraham’s faith becomes one of his offspring, and part of the promise. “He is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.” (v12). Faith, not works. Being circumcised doesn’t get you in, and being uncircumcised doesn’t keep you out.

The next couple of paragraphs reinforce his point. He explains that if being part of God’s people depended on keeping rules, then we’d never be able to trust the promise. Instead, the promise comes by grace. If the promise comes by grace, then it doesn’t depend on our achievement, it depends on God who is infinitely more dependable than us. So the promise can be guaranteed, and guaranteed to everyone! Circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew or non-Jew.

Aren’t you glad it’s about faith, not works? Because this is based on faith in a gracious God, not on keeping rules, membership of God’s people is thrown open to everyone. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, the door is open.

This is crucial if you aren’t a Christian. You need to know that there’s nothing you could have done which puts you outside of God’s grace, because it’s not about what you’ve done. It’s about what he’s done. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, God’s grace covers you.

But please don’t think this stops being important once you’re a Christian. Once you’re a Christian by God’s grace, don’t try to make it about doing stuff. There’s still nothing you can do to earn it. Don’t fall into the trap these Jews did, and start thinking that it’s rule keeping which keeps you in. They were thinking, “I don’t have a foreskin, so I’m OK” – maybe not a mistake you’re making. But are you thinking, “I go to CU every week, so I’m OK.” “I give money to charity, so I’m OK.” “I don’t swear so I’m OK.” Those things themselves aren’t bad – it’s the I at the beginning of the sentence which is the problem. When we think like that we’re making it about us, and shifting the responsibility back onto our shoulders. That’s not how it works! And the truth is, once we get into thinking like that it’s a crushing burden to carry, and life as a Christian will just be a slog. Don’t abandon grace. Become a Christian by God’s grace, and stay a Christian by God’s grace.

This is really important as you think about reaching out to the rest of the campus too. Isn’t this the most phenomenal news you could possibly have to tell people?

But you need to be getting it yourself if you’re going to share it with others. And you need to realise who this applies to. It applies to every single person on campus. There isn’t a single person who isn’t covered by the scope of God’s grace. It doesn’t matter what someone’s done, what they look like, what their lifestyle is like. Does your CU, the way you treat people, the things you do, communicate that to everyone, no matter who they are or what they’ve done?

God’s Grace to Us (v18-25)
So we’ve seen God’s grace to Abraham, and then we’ve seen how that applies to all, regardless of anything they do. But then Paul makes it personal. He brings it back round to us, and (more importantly), he brings it back round to the Lord Jesus.

The promise to Abraham was eventually fulfilled, but at the time it looked ridiculous. “Against all hope,” Abraham ended up with millions of descendents. It was ‘against all hope’ because God had promised Abraham a son, even though he was old – 100 years old in fact. His body was as good as dead. And Sarah was long past the age of having children. But Abraham didn’t waver – in fact, his faith got stronger. And eventually he did have a son. But the promise to Abraham wasn’t fulfilled through his son, or his grandchildren or his great, great, great grandchildren. The promise would be fulfilled through one man…

We’ve already seen that righteousness by faith wasn’t just for Abraham, it was for all of us who share his faith. And the last few verses spell out what that means. The words “it was credited to him as righteousness,” apply to all of us who “believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

Our justification depends on the Lord Jesus. God declares us righteous based on what Jesus has done. He was “delivered over to death for our sins” – he died on the cross to pay for our rebellion against God. And he “was raised to life for our justification.” Through his death, the sin which stands between us and God is cleared away, and his resurrection proves it. Through his victory over sin, displayed in the resurrection, we’re declared right with God.

So we trust in the same promise Abraham did, because it’s ultimately all about Jesus. We can be made right with God thanks to the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And we join a long line of people who’ve done the same since Abraham. We look back on what Christ did and trust him. Abraham was looking forward to the same promise.

So do you see how this is massively relevant to us? We can’t just say, “he’s a Jew, and I’m not.” It’s all one story, one plan, with Jesus as the ultimate fulfilment of it, the ultimate expression of God’s grace. That God so loves us and wants us to be reconciled to him that he delivered his own Son over to death in order to forgive us and make us right before him.

This is the fundamental reason why it has to be based on grace and not on works. It’s all been done by Jesus. There’s nothing else we could do, even if we wanted to. This is what it took to sort things out – the death of God himself. What work could ever come close to this? The cross shows just how ridiculous our attempts are to earn our way back to God.
The almighty creator of the universe gave up his life and died on a wooden cross.
What have you done?

Can you think of an answer to that question that isn’t pathetic?
“I let an old person sit on my seat on the bus.”
“I read my Bible every day this week.”
“I gave a talk at CU.”

Ditch your pride, because it’s stupid. Don’t try to earn God’s love and forgiveness. Instead, throw yourself on his mercy, and trust in the Lord Jesus. If you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian, maybe now’s your chance to do that for the first time. But if you are a Christian, live the reality of this. Live at the foot of the cross, live in God’s grace, and enjoy getting to know the God who loved you enough to die for you, to put things right between you and him

Aren’t you glad it’s based on faith not works?