Preaching the Love of God to yourself.

Recently one of my heroes, Mr Andrew Page, has been leading us through Hosea. To which I might add is absolutely fantastic. God's Love and his commitment to us as His people is astounding.

This Sunday (30/05/2010) I heard about the Love of God, again. Every-time it is as if somebody has just given me dose of drugs. It is such a rush, because the Love of God is divine.

So I thought, how could I preach the Love of God to myself all the time? Jerry Bridges another one of my heroes tells us to Preach the Gospel to ourselves every morning! Do we do this? I found that telling myself Colossians 3; we are Chosen, Holy and Loved helps.

But I want to Preach the Love of God to myself everyday too. So I thought with Hosea in mind, I would try to construct something.

Andrew when preaching kept repeating some ideas, which I think help us to do this. Israel rebelled against God, they gave themselves to idols. This is not just having Idols, but they in short had sex with them. They were this involved with them. Israel went after many lovers, and this broke God's heart. Hosea 2:13. Whenever we Christians or not go after other gods. This being Jobs, Status, Sex or Money, we break God's heart. We smash his love straight back in his face. Imagine your Girlfriend/Boyfriend or Husband/Wife goes and has sex with loads of different people.

How would you feel? Do I need to tell you?

God made Hosea marry an adulterous wife, so he knew how God felt.

God is hurt when we turn our backs on Him. We break his heart! How does this make you feel? I wouldn't hesitate to say that perhaps I turn my back on God everyday.

But I gets worse, because when we do this, we basically 'forget' God. In Hosea 2, God speaks about Israel going after lovers and forgetting him. Do we leave God out in the cold? Do we forget him? Have you ever been forgotten? How does that make you feel, or did make you feel? After what God has done for you. Created us, gave us life, died for us and rejoices over us, we forget Him. Its terrible.

So if we remember this as a story of who we are, everyday. Let's look at God's response. Because Jesus took our judgment, rebellion and punishment on the Cross, God treats us in a way that can only be described as Divine.

As we run away from God and forget him, God does something amazing. He woos us back or allures us back. Hosea 2:14.

Even though we leave God and forget Him. He comes back to us, he comes looking for us. He is the one who starts the wooing. Not us. God looks and seeks for the adulterous wife and forgetful people. He comes looking for us and loves us so much that He would die for us, even though we forget about Him and sleep with Idols!!!! What divine love is this? How can this be? God is committed to us as his people.

This is only one story mixed with others of God's Love. But I urge us to preach this to ourselves daily! It will draw us to worship!!

If you don't think you are a Child of God, or part of the people of God. Then I urge you to come to Jesus. He promises that anybody who comes to Him he will not turn away. If you have been forgetting God today or all your life, God still wants to know you and for you to know Him. He wants you to know his Love. A love that can change the very life you have!

Let's preach God's Love for it is Divine and beyond comprehension.

God will not forget you.

Yesterday, I went to St Helen's Church, London. After walking in and getting used to all the coffins in the place and memorial plats on the walls, we sat.
The sermon that night was taken from Isaiah, chapter 49.

Isa 49:14 But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me."

So does God forget, are we fools that wait for the coming of Jesus only to be left waiting here on this earth perhaps forever?
No the servant shall return, and we shall not be put to shame.....

Isa 49:23 ........those who wait for me shall not be put to shame."

God holds us in his arms as His Children, for that is what we are Sons and Daughters of Almighty God, through Jesus Christ.
He tends and spare us, all our hopes and fears he know. In his arm he gently bear us. So therefore as dearly loved Children of God, let us wait for the coming of the Lord and forbid any thought that Yahweh will forget us and our needs on Earth; and banish any thought of Jesus not returning. Because............

Isa 49:15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Amen.

Irenaeus on Adoption

With my studies on Adoption, I came across a very complex yet however amazing quote from a guy called Irenaeus, an early church theologian. He is commenting on the signigicance of the incarnation has to being Adopted as God's Children. I wanted to share it with you. Read it slowly and maybe twice, since it is not the easiest to read.......

"For it was for this end that the Word of God(Jesus) was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of Man, that man....recieving the adoption, might become the son of God. For by no other means could we attain the incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality, unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be swallowed up by the incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that we might receive adoption as sons."

Genius!

Reading Revelation 20 in the Light of the New Testament. By David Anthony.

A very interesting Article by David Anthony. I thought I would share it with you.

Problems with pre-millenialism and a case for reading Rev 20 in the light of how these terms appear elsewhere in the New Testament.
By David Anthony, March 2010

The key passage in question is Rev 20v1-6. Wayne Grudem rightly states in his Systematic Theology that “it is unwise to base such a major doctrine on one passage of uncertain and widely disputed interpretation.”
It is much healthier to try to build a picture of the end times from the non-Apocalyptic / non-symbolic books of the NT and then read the symbolism of Revelation in the light of that.
Some key questions to ask Pre-Mills:-
1) Who says Jesus is “reigning on Earth”? The passage doesn’t.
2) Why do you take the Millenium as literally a thousand years when you don’t take the 144,000 literally?
3) Why do you not take literally the fact that it says only those who “have been beheaded for the testimony of Christ” will reign with him? Why does this first subtly get changed to “all Christian martyrs” and then this again subtly slips into “all believers”? The passage clearly says “those beheaded”. There are absolutely no rules to your hermeneutics at this point. Some things are literal, some are not, all to back up your case.
4) Why does “meeting him in the air” when he returns from (1 Thess 4v17) get lifted out of the context of the rest of 1 Thess and turned into a whole theology of the rapture etc. when 1 Thess makes clear Jesus returns once to bring final judgement and usher in the new creation?
The real danger for Pre-Mills is that if you are expecting Christ to reign on Earth for a thousand years, you are encouraging Christians to trust and worship someone on Earth claiming to be the Christ. In 2 Thess 2 Paul warns of the deception of people claiming to be the Christ (following Jesus’ warning in Mark 13v21-22). The AntiChrist himself in 2 Thess 2 will claim to be the Christ and rule from the new temple. Who is most likely to worship him? Is it not Christians who believe in Pre-millenialism – they are expecting a Christ to rule on the Earth prior to the final judgement!
Postmills and Amills expect Jesus’ return to be in utter glory and to wrap up this fallen world. No one will mistake him as he returns in glory and brings wrath on all unbelievers there and then (1 Thess 1v10). Postmills and Amills can avoid falling for the deception of the AntiChrist by obeying the simple rule – “anyone on earth claiming to be the Christ isn’t”!!!
So how are we to understand Rev 20?
The millenium
Well the first issue is “what does the millennium refer to?” The first millennium in the Bible was the length of time King Solomon’s temple lasted.
It was completed in around 970BC. Malachi 3v1-3 predicted that the Lord himself would turn up to examine his temple – but who will be able to stand that day? It predicted a messenger who will prepare the way. Malachi 4v5 says this forerunner will be Elijah.
Mark 1 begins with John the Baptist turning up and wearing the same clothes as Elijah – see 2 Kings 1v8. He does indeed prepare the way for Jesus.
Jesus is the Lord and by Mark 11 we see him approaching the temple. Malachi has given us the expectation that he will examine it. What is his verdict? The Jews have turned it into a den of robbers. This incident is sandwiched between the cursing of the fig tree incident. Just as Jesus looked for fruit on that and found nothing so he cursed it and it withered – Jesus looks for spiritual fruit in the temple and finds none – so we expect him to curse it and it to wither. Following even more opposition to him from the Jews in Ch12, Jesus does curse the temple as we expect in Ch13v2. The discussion in 13v1 is all about the temple stones and Jesus warns that not one stone will be left upon another. This is a reference back to Levit 14v39-40. There the priest was to inspect a house with mildew on the walls. If the mildew is still there after 7 days the stones of the house are to be torn down and cast outside the city. Jesus is the great high priest who examines the house of the temple and has found it with spiritual mildew. He is now promising that it’s stones will be cast down. What date was Jesus saying this? Circa 30AD. = 1000 years after it was completed. When will the stones be torn down? In Mark 13v30 (remember the context of the discussion is about the temple) he says this will happen within “a generation”. Biblically a “generation” as with the generation who died out in the wilderness was 40 years.
So we see the temple lasts approx 1000 years. Which suggests the Millenium is to do with the temple. What 1000 year millennium could Revelation 20 be referring to? The NT temple = the church.
What repeating storyline do we expect?
With the first temple Malachi told us the Lord himself would come to visit. This he did in Jesus’ first coming, 1000 years after it was built and he found the temple wanting – hence it was destroyed.
God builds a new temple – the spiritual temple of the church – this time Jesus will return but instead of finding it wanting Rev 21 tells us he will find it as his spotless redeemed bride who we marries / a city fit for him to dwell in. Again we would expect this to be after a millenium, but numbers in Revelation are symbolic - here for "a long time".
So the millennium in Rev 20 is the period of the NT church temple being built. That began at Pentecost and will carry on until all the elect are gathered. (Mark 13v27)
So the devil being bound for this thousand years is referring to the church age where the church grows throughout the world, less hindered by the devil.
So where do the beheaded martyrs coming to life and reigning fit in then along with first resurrections and second deaths?
Well this is a perfect example of not reading Rev 20 in isolation from the rest of the NT. What else do we find about “heads” and “reigning” and “resurrections”? John didn’t just pluck this out of the air and create a brand new theology. No this dovetails perfectly with everything Paul teaches in his letters.
1st Resurrection
In Colossians 2v12 Paul tells us that all Christians have been “buried with (Christ) in baptism, in which you were also raised with him”. There it is crystal clear – all Christians have already gone through a death and resurrection- we have “come to life” (Rev 20v4) i.e. the blessed first resurrection of Rev 20v6. Death in the Bible is primarily spiritual – not being in right relationship with God. So coming to life = being in relationship with God. i.e. All Christians have been spiritually resurrected from the dead.
Non-Christians have not gone through this spiritual death and resurrection in Christ – so they will have to suffer death as a punishment for their own sins rather than be united to Christ’s death and so be forgiven.
Beheading
Look on to Colossians 2v19 where Paul warns the false teachers “are not holding fast to the Head”. All the way through Paul’s letters e.g. 1 Cor, Ephesians, he refers to Christ as the Head and the church as the Body.
Was Christ always our head? No. Adam was our first head. But now as Christians we are united by faith to our new head – Christ. What do you call someone who loses their first head? “Beheaded”.
Hence John is not creating some Elite Business class section of heaven where there is a special privilege for martyred Christians or beheaded Christians. No he is using symbology (as he does all the way through Revelation!!!!) to talk of simple spiritual truths. All Christians have been beheaded from Adam. John is talking about all Christians being beheaded (when they got converted). We now have a new head and reign with Christ in the church age – the millennium.
Reigning
So where does reigning come in? (Nowhere in Rev 20 does John say Christ is reigning on Earth, yet this gets slipped in neatly by Premills.) Rather John’s emphasis is on us reigning with Christ. Where does Christ reign from? Heaven. John is not saying anything new here. Paul in Col 3v3 says we are hidden with Christ in God. In Ephesians 2v6 we are “seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. And in Romans 5v17 it says all Christians “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ”. This last one is critical. It is not saying Christ reigns. The wonder of the gospel is that we reign through him too. When is this? Now according to Romans 5. Paul’s whole argument is that we are no longer slaves to sin, but reigning in life now, free to live to please God.
So again when John talks about reigning in Rev 20 he is not talking about the future. He is talking of the church age, where all Christians reign with Christ in the spiritual realms (hence why we have authority in prayer etc.).
Rest of the dead
So Rev 20v5 where it says “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended” is simply talking about non-Christians. They are dead from God’s perspective. Again this is nothing new. Eph 2v1 says “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…” These non-Christians whether they are the walking dead or the dead dead, will be raised to new life at Jesus’ return in judgement – in order to serve their eternal prison sentence in hell in their new bodies.
Holy
Rev 20v 6 ”Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.”
John is just declaring the gospel here in v6. You and blessed and HOLY if you have shared in the first resurrection – i.e. been united to Jesus in his death and resurrection by faith – that is how you become holy. The simple gospel.
Second death
Over such the second death has no power. This is the wrath to come. Death has lost its sting for Christians – for us physical death just ushers us into being with Christ forever!
Priests
“They will be priests of God” = exactly how Peter describes all Christians in 1 Peter 2v9. Again John is not talking of some elite class of Christian.
Do you see how time and again John is not saying anything new but just repeating the same gospel preached by Jesus and all the other apostles in the NT?
Do you see how we safeguard ourselves from all kinds of strange confusion by reading the non-symbolic NT letters and getting our systematics and doctrine clear from them, before we try to delve into how John talks of the same things using symbolism?

Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit at a Glance
The Holy Spirit is God. He is a Person. He is God’s presence on Earth. He loves us. There are many aspects of the Holy Spirit that seem to be muddled and confused and this has been the case since the dawn of the Christian Church.
Is there any controversy? I think yes? Should there be? No, of course not. I think personally that even though there is controversy; but yet we still see clear workings of the Holy Spirit in the Church and the Wider World, is evidence that God’s plan for Salvation is unhindered by us. It’s a clear sign of grace to us as Children of God. I plan to discuss briefly the facets of the Holy Spirits Ministry, both areas with wide mainstream agreement and disagreement. The danger some ideas bring, and the glories of others.
Firstly, the Holy Spirit is a great gift. Not only to Christians but also Non-Christians. The Holy Spirit gives life, both New Life (John 3:6-7) and sustaining of old/first life (Ps 104:30). He gives and sustains life, both for the Child of God and for the Unregenerate. No matter how ignorant some may be of God in creation, and that it displays his glory, it is truth.
Sanctification
When we become Christians, I believe we are sealed with the Holy Spirit immediately. This is a direct result of a true repentance and being Born Again. (Eph 1:13-14, 1 Cor 12:13) Now I plan to return to this argument later. Whatever your opinion on receiving the Holy Spirit, we cannot argue that it is He who sanctifies and brings forth the purposes of God in our lives. (Tit 3:5, Rom 8:28-29). We are washed and we are sanctified in the Spirit (1Cor 6:11). As Children of God we now have the will and power(Spirit) to resist Sin and no longer be slaves to it, (Rom 6:12-13). We all as true Christians will be sanctified by God. From what Paul says in Romans, we are to continually fight against the power of Sin and no longer will ourselves to it. It is a continual process; in fact it is lifelong process. A process not ending till the LORD returns, a process of continual striving to be Holy, (Heb 12:14). Now we come to our first disagreement. Many argue that we can attain sinless perfection on this earth and use seemingly Biblical contexts to enforce this. “Perfect as the Father is Perfect” Matt 5:48 and “No one who abides in Him sins” 1 John 3:6. Here are just two prominent verses that suggest perfection must be obtained here on earth. But lets have a look closely as these. Jesus in Matthew is clearly showing us the level we should be aiming at. It is the level that God will hold us to account. Just because we can’t meet it, does not mean the bar should be lowered. The same goes for Paul when he writes to the Churches. It’s the goal he desires them to reach. If it were possible to achieve ‘perfection’ in this life, then surely the whole Christian Church should be a deemed a ‘write off’. John also says the same, but paraphrasing it, he is saying, “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning”. He can’t go on in sin. Also if this was to prove sinless perfection, surely then John would be contradicting himself or better yet lying when he writes, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” 1Jo 1:10. Also as a conclusion James, the brother of Jesus I might add states this in his Epistle “We all make many mistakes” Jam 3:2. If the brother of Jesus can say this, they we can jolly well too. The very fact of denying this boasts us to a level pride beyond all others. So therefore sinless perfection is not Biblical, but it is an aim we all should have as Children of God and strive to obtain it, knowing full well it will be complete at the Throne.
So…. what part do we play? Are we passive or active? First let us look at the role of God. It is He who sanctifies. “May the God of Peace himself sanctify you wholly” 1Thess 5:23. God also disciplines us as his Children, (Heb 12:5-11). Also finally Paul writes to the Philippians “God is at work in you, both to will and for his good pleasure” Phil 2:13. God is at work in us, changing our very hearts, souls, minds and wills. What about us? What part do we play? To be honest the answer is that we are both to be passive and active in this. We are dependent on God to do this work in us, but striving also to obey the Word of God at the same time. Paul writes to the Romans that we should “Yield ourselves to God……….” Rom 6:13. Also “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live Rom 8:13. We to be dependent on God to help us achieve these fatal blows to Sin in our lives. Subsequently many would use this as an excuse to be completely passive. Yet if we look closer at Romans 8:13 again, we see the word ‘You’ pop up. So by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body. Here in this verse is direct scriptural evidence of Us and God working in partnership to achieve sanctification and become more like Jesus; to which this is the final goal of God for his Children (Rom 8:28-29). We are to as Children of God to abstain from evil since “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality…….” 1Thee 4:3. We are to walk in Spirit (Gal 5:25), we too be in communion and to hold close to Him, fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2). We are too cleanse ourselves (2 Cor 7:1) and make every effort (2 Peter 1:5) to grow in godliness, to put on the character of God with Love, Hope, Joy and Forgiveness etc? The language used by both Peter and Paul here suggests, toil and endeavor. It is a hard process, but we have the very Spirit of God within us. God himself, the creator of the Universe lives with us and works with us in this task. God has moved in to live with us John 14:23. God is now decorating, he has chosen the colours of the walls, (Snow White, pardon the pun), are to help paint the walls with him. We get tired and weary. God does not. The work of Sanctification is partnership and a glorious partnership it is. From whence came in the stench of Sin, He in his great Love and Mercy chose to fix rather than destroy.
Gifts
Gifts are given to Christians for the equipping and encouraging of the Churches Ministries across the world. This area is probably the most variant in the working of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian is given one or more Spiritual gifts 1 Cor 12:7,11. See to it that Paul states in 1 Cor 12:4-5 that there are many gifts for different acts of service. The gifts are to be used in terms of service, not for selfish gain.
So God in his wisdom has assigned gifts to men. The gifts are different and varied, to build up the Church and advance the Kingdom. This is why some may ask or note that the Spirit can and does work in different ways. I would argue however that he uses the Body of Christ in different ways. He himself remains the same, the unchangeable God. He purposes remain the same. So the answer to the above discussion, The Holy Spirit works in different people in different ways, is true in the essence of his gift allocation, but anything else noted to be different I would be sceptical off. So yes, works in different people in different ways in terms of gifting.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit
This is most likely to be the strongest of the controversy, in terms of what this is? Does it still happen? Is it Biblical? Baptism of the Spirit is considered an event that happens post conversion. Prayer, evangelism, worship and study have become more exciting and alive. They argue that Jesus’ disciples were born again before Pentecost and I would agree. Also Jesus in Acts 1:5, said that they would be baptised with the Holy Spirit. So what is the argument for this? Basically people in the Church today, particularly in the Pentecostal and Extreme Charismatic Movement would claim to have this ‘second’ experience. Most if not all would claim to have a “Deeper Presence and Excitement” and this ‘second’ experience. This is being achieved through deep commitment to God in prayer. A result of a true heartfelt repentance and an asking for God to change them deeply and passionately. A heartfelt cry to God for transformation. Now this is a good and great thing, and surely if all this happened in a true heart state of mind; then of course a deep love and fellowship with God is going to happen! But I would argue still, it is not a ‘second’ experience. I believe it is a filling, I shall however come back to this. But why did this happen to already born again believers in the first century? Whilst the disciples were with Jesus, the Holy Spirit would not come to them. Jesus tells them is in Jhn 16:7 "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you”. The Holy Spirit will not come unless Jesus goes to the Father and is send by Jesus. So the disciples were in a unique position, unlike any of us. The same goes for Pentecost; for both Jew and Gentile were there. This happened so that then people would know Joel’s prophecy had come true and the Holy Spirit was outpoured on all people. There was no divide between men anymore. Logically then the Apostles being he highest authority in the Church, under Christ, they in an act of God’s providence were able to pray for the Spirit to come upon people. There is a danger of the Doctrine of Baptism of the Spirit, simply because it promotes a two-class Christianity; the Baptised Christians and the Ordinary Christians. This is scandal and robbery of the Christian Gospel and the famous verse “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”, Gal 3:28. There is no baptised and non-baptised Christian all are one Christ Jesus. Do you see the scandal and potential damage this two tier Christianity can do? Paul concludes the argument by saying “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves for free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit”, 1 Cor 13:13. The word all is repeated twice, we ALL have been baptised into the Spirit. There is no special Baptism. There is however filling! This is the mix up I believe the enemy has inflicted upon us to disrupt unity and love between us. I believe that ‘second’(or third, forth and hundredth) experiences can be described with what Paul says in Ep 5:19-20 when he writes about being Filled with the Spirit. He also says to be continually filled, suggesting a repeat experience, often resulting in further sanctification. In Acts 4:8,23, we see this repetition happening. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and then again later filled once more. It is a repeated event to which I believe is the common misconception with Baptism, since we all all Baptised anyway, but we become more and more filled with the Spirit. Already full of the Spirit, yes, but more as we are able to hold more. The same goes for a balloon, it is full of air, but can hold more air, but it is still full; so you expand the balloon to hold more air, both times the balloon is full of air.
In conclusion I believe therefore that the statement “The Holy Spirit works in different people in different ways; the controversy over His work and place in the church arises out of the work he is doing” does indeed work in different ways according to the allocation of gifts, but in other ways I would argue not. I do understand that I did not take into account the grieving or quenching mentioned in Eph 4:30 and 1 Thee 5:19. I do accept that this affects the working of the Spirit, but only purely down to our sin and rebellion. His work is the same and always has been; Conviction of Sin, repentance and faith in Christ and Sanctification. No matter what vocabulary is used to describe this, this is the working of the Spirit. The very fact and truth that He works even when we describe what is happening in a wrong way His grace is massive and His love remains and therefore resulting in His mission staying the same. Praise God.