The Word of God (3)

More than the bible?

First, the word ‘bible’ is from the Greek biblos.  Biblos originally was the word used to describe that part of the papyrus reed used to make the rolls for writing on.  Our English word paper stems from the old word papyrus.  Biblos later came to mean the end result of the writing process, a finished scroll or roll.  When what we know as books replaced the rolls, they became known as biblos.  And since a whole work of writing would often take several scrolls or books (or ‘chapters’), biblos came to mean a collection of books.  Hence our Biblos (Bible) is a collection of books.  It is not an “inspired” word; our bible nowhere refers to itself as a “bible”, let alone a “holy bible”.  That title was given to our collection of writings by man, without reference to the writers of the original works that appear in the bible.  God may have breathed (the meaning of ‘inspired’) the content of our bible books, but man called it a bible and man called it holy simply because it refers to God.

Second, our bibles do in fact refer to writings that are “God-breathed” (what some call inspired).  In Latin, the word is scriptura; in Greek, the word is graphe.  It means ‘the writings’ or ‘that which is written’.  When Paul wrote to Timothy that “all scripture is inspired by God…” (2 Timothy 3:16), he was not saying “the bible is inspired by God”: that is an inference made by man, and in particular by people who want to control other people by keeping them ignorant and in bondage to a religious system.  When Paul wrote that, much of the New Testament was still future; probably the only post-Jesus writings accepted as scripture at that time would have been, at most, one maybe two of the gospel accounts.

Think about the New Testament writer Luke for a moment.  It is generally understood that Luke wrote both the gospel account that bears his name and the book of Acts.  They were apparently written as a set of two biblos for a friend of Luke whose name is Theophilus (which name means ‘lover of God’ or ‘loved by God’).  But it becomes evident when you read Acts that Luke travelled with Paul on his journeys with the good news of Jesus.  He appears to be in part a writer of eyewitness accounts.  The story of Paul ends not long before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70, so Luke’s second book could not have been completed much before that.  And Paul wrote his letters to Timothy while on the road – quite possibly with Luke!

If you mull over that and then put Paul in his context, it is very probable that Paul was writing to Timothy something quite different in fundamental meaning from the meaning we impute to it today.

Paul fought a long and hard battle (most of his post-conversion life in fact) to defend the purity of the good news of Jesus from Jewish religious incursions.  Remember, before his conversion, Paul was a Pharisee, born into a Pharisee family.  He was a contemporary of Jesus, and so it is likely that he was among those who lobbied for Jesus’ death.

When the ascended Jesus got Paul’s attention and knocked him off his horse while he was on his way to persecute more Jesus-followers, Luke records that Jesus asked Paul (named Saul at the time), “why are you persecuting me?”  Paul is a wonderful example of a full 180° repentance conversion.  Those whom he once sought to persecute, jail or kill, he now sought to love and serve as Christ himself would.  Jesus took Paul out for several years and, in that time, God gave him the job of custodian of the revelation of the administration of the new covenant and the ecclesia.  And that revelation left no room – none whatsoever – for a Jewish interpretation of the good news for non-Jews or for the addition of Jewish practices to that good news.  The fight wore on for his entire life, at times leading to violent assaults and even to being left for dead.

Read Acts 15 and his letter to the Galatians (particularly chapters 2 and 5).  Paul would not accept any additions to the good news of the kingdom of God as Jesus taught it and as the Holy Spirit revealed it to him in his time in the wilderness.  The Jews said that when Gentiles come to Christ, they must accept the Law of Moses and they must accept circumcision.  In other words, converts to Christ had to become Jews to be acceptable.  Paul would under no circumstances accept that.  No Gentile need become a Jew to have Jesus; in fact, he taught that “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly” [that is of circumcision and the Law of Moses] (Romans 2:28) and that Gentiles who fully accept Jesus according to Jesus’ own terms are the ‘new true Jews’.  In other words, there is ‘old Israel’ under the old covenant, and there is ‘new Israel’ or “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) under the new covenant.  And in new Israel, there is “neither Jew nor Greek; neither slave nor free; neither male nor female; but all one in Christ.” (Galatians 3:28)

So what was Paul saying to Timothy in 3:16?  Given this background and the fact that Paul was adamant about the ecclesias he worked with being exclusively new covenant fellowships, I believe his meaning was something like this:

The Torah (roughly our Old Testament scriptures) is a) God-breathed and b) profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness – so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work; but it is definitely not your “holy book” like the stone tablets and the scrolls of “the law and the prophets” (see Romans 3:21).  Don’t be tempted to take the Jewish line [remember Timothy had a Jewish mother and a Greek father] and put the old writings (scriptura) in place of the Holy Spirit and the freedom of the good news of the kingdom of God in Christ.  Those old writings were for Jews under the old covenant, and you are under the new covenant not the old, and many are not Jews – not even half-Jews as you are.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Kevin.

The Word of God (2)

What is the Word of God?

A few years ago, ministry group and eBook publisher AllAtHisFeet.com produced a series of ten small books.  They are brilliant reading if one has a heart for going on deep into the things of God and being church (ecclesia) rather than attending church.  This series embraces these titles: The Hammer; The Plow; The scales; The Crucible; The Sickle; The Trowel; The Sword; The Chisel; The Anvil; The Plumbline.

I mention this not simply because I love their work, but because I see that, in our day, each of these ten things can legitimately be seen as a metaphor for the word of God.

But before we go any further, let’s all be clear that when I speak of the word of God, I do not mean the bible.  We’ll get to that in a moment.  For now, let me be clear that what I am saying is that the word of God (in its proper understanding) can legitimately be seen and experienced metaphorically as each of these ten implements.

And let me also be very clear: the bible itself makes no claim to be the word of God, and it nowhere says anything that gives us justification or permission to call it the word of God.

For new covenant believers – especially Gentiles – the word of God is inscribed on our hearts and minds, according to the bible.  And no-one knows the word of God like the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is God’s gift to those who are born again.  To settle for the bible when the Holy Spirit is available is a bit like winning the lottery and settling for just a refund of the price you paid for your ticket.  And it is an affront and an insult to God.

Or it’s a bit like settling for a toy scale model of the real thing.

 

 

In keeping with modern Western society’s fetish for over-simplification, christians in the West tend to want one simple idea and one simple word for more complex ideas where the New Testament uses multiple words.  We use the term “the word of God” where the New Testament uses three, perhaps four, words to speak of four separate and distinct ideas.  However, the biblical idea of “the word of God” is more complex and much deeper than any one of these words – indeed, possibly more than all the words combined.

Whether we are talking Old Testament or New Testament, God’s idea of “the word of God” is God communicating with His dearly beloved children.  When the heroes of the Old Testament were meditating on the word of God, they were probably not reading a text but mentally and spiritually recalling things God had said and done.  A word often inserted into the Psalms by their writers is (in English) Selah.  It was an instruction to “pause and reflect”; to stop reciting or reading and think for a while about what has just been said.

This is the basic idea of meditation.  It is the process in which we respond to the speaker or writer internally, sometimes silently, sometimes by muttering.  My wife is a sign language interpreter and I often catch her thinking and talking to herself in sign language; it’s one of the ways she ‘meditates’: mulls things over.

It is the process by which we mull over the implications and applications of what has been heard or said; it is how we process the information or instructions we get from hearing and reading.  Some people liken it to mastication; the word used to describe a cow chewing the cud.  We “chew over” things to work out what they mean and how, when, why they might apply to us and our circumstances.

Of course, the crucial question is what are we meditating on, mulling over and processing?  And to many the world over, it is the bible.  To me, the bible is only a part of it.  If we in fact receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, then we can have “the word of God” in full and abundant measure, not just the sixty-six or seventy-three books traditionally nominated as “the word of God” by men.  And it’s not just to me: none of the characters in the bible had the 66 or 73 books we now have.  For instance, most of the record of Acts in the New Testament was written on the basis that ‘scripture’ was the books of the Jewish Torah.  And what was King David meditating on?  It certainly wasn’t “The Bible”.  And even for King David, the scrolls of the Jewish Torah were not public documents to be read by anyone who so chooses.

But I don’t want to spend much time on this, since most of the people reading this are not Jews, and we are no longer under the promises and the blessings and curses, or the terms and conditions, of the old covenant.  For us as Gentiles, we need to understand that we cannot have Jesus and the old covenant way.  In relation to us, God vacated the old covenant when He established the new covenant in His Son Jesus the Christ.  And in that new covenant, the word of God is all God communicates with His beloved sons – Jesus the unique first-born, once-born son, and all those (male or female) who put their trust in Jesus who thus become the “many sons” He brings to glory as in Hebrews 2:10.

The word of God is not just the bible.  In fact, the bible itself, as I said, uses three words to convey a richer and deeper meaning of the idea of “the word of God”.  And even then, the idea is larger in several ways than the combined meanings of these words.  So let’s think about it for a while – let’s meditate on it; let’s mull it over; let’s ‘chew the cud’; let’s process the information God has permitted us to have concerning this matter of His word to us.

Cheers,
Kevin.

The Word of God (1)

Does God Speak Today?

One of the most fundamentally important issues of the day is highlighted by the question “does God speak today?”  We’re not talking about whether or not the bible is the word of God or whether or not prophets are for today.  I have no doubt there are prophets today, but that is a different question from the one I have just posed.

Does God speak today?  The question immediately demands some explanation.  What do you mean?  Do you mean “what is my theology on the subject?”  Do you mean “have I experienced God speaking to me?”  Just what do you mean by the question?  Wherever we may stand in terms of our Christian affiliations, it is a very important subject - especially for these times. 

It seems to me that, whether we like it or not - whether we admit it or not - we have to say yes. 

If God doesn’t speak, He is dead. 

We may be listening for something quite different from the “sounds” He makes; we may be tuned to a different “frequency”; but if God is who and what He has chosen to reveal to us through creation and through scripture, He is not silent - not ever.

There may be times for some when all the screaming in the world will bounce off what someone once called a “brass heaven”.  Does that mean God is silent?  No.  At the same moment, somewhere in the world, someone else is listening to God and revealing in the wonder of His revelation.  In this situation, God is “silent” only in the sense that, for whatever reason, we do not have the ears to hear what He is in fact saying.

God had it written for us many times over in scripture that it is he who has “ears to hear” who will hear what He speaks.  Further it is very often recorded that it is the Spirit who speaks.   Hence: “let him who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

I believe that we can neither prove nor disprove that God speaks.  In fact, I am convinced God doesn’t want us to waste precious time trying to do either.  God is not some theory which only matters if it can be either proved or disproved.  We’re talking relationship here, not science.  Do my daughters have to prove that I speak before I matter?  The truth is, I mattered long before they understood even the words I was speaking, let alone the theory of listening and speaking.  I mattered because I am their father.

You matter because God is your father, not because you can prove that He speaks.  But does He speak?  Of course!  How do I know?  He is my Father!  He speaks because He is God.  I know He speaks because I am connected relationally to Him like my daughters are to me.

There are times when I choose not to speak to my children.  Usually it is because I have already told them what they need to hear.  I am “silent” not because I don’t speak - that’s impossible, I am their father.  I am “silent” because I want them to remember what I have already said and respond to that.  Perhaps the most important question we need to ask in these days is: “Do I remember what God last said and have I obeyed?”

 It seems to me that “having ears to hear” is really a matter of preparedness to obey.  Does God know that when He says something, you will do it?  Can He trust you enough to give you something as precious as His revelation, in full confidence that you will carry it through?  Has God called and gifted you (perhaps even from birth) to be a bearer of His revelation - regardless of whether it is perceived by us to be “good news” or “bad news”?   Have you (or I) learned the lesson of silence in His presence?  Is His agenda the one we work to in His affairs?  Yes answers to these questions give us an idea of what it means to have ears to hear.

I recall Francis Schaeffer’s works: one he titled “The God who is There”.  Another he called “He is there and He is Not Silent.”  Amen! 

The issue is not whether God speaks today.  He spoke in the past and He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He does not change like the shadow of a sun-dial.  The issue is whether we have ears to hear?  Are we true “sons” of our Father?  (Refer Hebrews 12:5-11)  Can we be trusted?  Are we ready to put our flesh and blood (and perhaps our “reputation”) into His revelation?  Has God called and gifted you to bear His revelation - regardless of the cost?  Have we learned to be silent long enough to hear Him?  (Remember, He is not impulsive, precocious or impatient.)  Do we approach Him with our hands deliberately emptied of our lists and agendas and ready to be filled with Himself?

This issue is not one of God’s speaking but of our listening.  Even today, there are prophets and prophetic ministry.  Even today, the Spirit is saying things to the churches.  It is sheer pertinence to debate a theology of whether or not God speaks today and how He does it.  Ours is to shut our mouths and listen until He opens our mouths.  Then when He opens them, they will be like the door opened to the church of brotherly-love (Revelation 3) - ONLY HE CAN SHUT THEM!  Hallelujah!

 Let him who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Have you ever been in the situation where you have discovered that God has said the same things to someone else, often a long distance away, as He has said to you?  The first few times I experienced that, I referred to it as “amazing” or “incredible” or something like that.

As God has continued to speak, I’ve had to put my hand over my mouth to silence my loose tongue.  It’s not amazing; it’s not incredible; it’s normal - for God.  From the perspective of eternity - or heaven, if you prefer - what’s a little bit of geography?  What’s a few thousand kilometres? 

It takes a bit of getting used to, but the simple fact of the matter is, it is not second-hand, borrowed from another country.  Neither is it borrowed from another age or epoch of history.  It is God giving expression to His passionate love-affair with Australians.

The ministry of the prophet and other types of prophetic ministry are emerging on Australian soil, springing up from Australian souls.  Some of this ministry is very personal.  By that, I mean that God is ministering to persons for their own personal spiritual growth.  Personal prophetic words are being given and received with rapidly increasing regularity and accuracy.

Some of the ministry, however, is not personal in that it is intended for “churches” - actually ecclesias - (as in “...what the Spirit says to the ecclesias”).  Frequently now, God is entrusting His revelation for ecclesias to trustworthy souls whom He has prepared and called and now gifted and sent to go and reveal what He has given.

One of the incidents I referred to before happened to me some time ago when I discovered that God was using the same scripture passage to call and commission certain saints into service of a type not often seen in the past 50 years.  The scripture: “...Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.”  (Hab 2:2)

God has seen fit to speak today using this verse to call both writers and heralds to step into the full and real expression of their commission.  Note that He is not calling them into service, since they’ve been “in service” for a long time.  They’ve been, like prophets of old, hiding away in the caves for fear of their lives.  This single Old Testament verse has become a clarion call of God and those to whom He has given the ears have heard it and are eagerly and slowly, timidly and excitedly stepping forward into their vocation - to write down the revelation and make it plain and, in the case of some, to run with it.

A simple clarion call from heaven is causing the earth to rattle and the ecclesia of God to awake from slumber and sleep.

But consider for a moment what usually happens.  Look back at the history of Israel recorded in the Old Testament.  There are around 20 'prophets of the Lord' of note in the Old Testament.  Some don't have whole books that bear their names - like Nathan and Micaiah for example.  Yet if you read the history of just one King of Israel, Ahab, he had 200 'prophets' he would call on to advise him.  They were by far the majority and they were usually wrong.

But think about this: the 200 were in circulation in Israel and regularly seen and heard in the court of the king.  The one 'prophet of the Lord' whom the 'prophets' hated but who had the genuine word of God (Micaiah) was not so lucky.  In obscurity and unwelcome in the congregations of Israel, he stayed in tune and in touch with Eternity and was in the right place at the right time when the need arose.  Pretty much the same today: many church 'advisors' in circulation and seen and heard in the congregations, while ecclesia's genuine prophets languish in obscurity, unwelcome in the congregations of the church.

I think the far more pertinent question is: does God ever get tired of speaking to us when we silence his prophets and ignore what He is saying because we don't like the message?  Reminiscent of old covenant Israel, and Ahab - and Micaiah!

Cheers,
Kevin.

God Without Religion

Today I am announcing a new and additional blog.  I have called it God Without Church.  I wanted to call it God Without Religion, but somebody beat me to the punch and that title is already in use.  So sad!  No, not really.  It does demonstrate, however, that others are thinking along a similar track.

It has long been my concern that religion, church and a certain fetish for our bibles is both hampering the progress of the good news of Jesus and possibly standing in the way of Jesus' will and plan.  As I talked about in the last 19 or so posts, Jesus said, “And this good news of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”  Has Jesus returned?  It wouldn't appear so.  Why?  Is it because Jesus was a fraud?  Let apostle Peter answer that: 2 Peter 3:3-9:

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”  When they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word [logos] of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by this same word [logos] the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.   But do not let this one thing escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.  The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

So my question remains: why are we still waiting for Jesus' return?  One of the answers, I believe, is that which I discussed in the series "This Good News" here in this blog.  But I believe there are multiple reasons.  And another reason is that the way we live our lives and the preaching we do and our religious practices all loudly communicate the idea that God can only be had along with the trappings of religion and church and a holy book.

The biggest problem I have with this is that I actually use the bible and I find within it several key things that cause alarm bells to ring.  If the bible is God's book, why doesn't God say in His book that new covenant believeres in Jesus need to add to God three things: religion, church and the bible?  Why doesn't God say that? - because God cannot lie!    The book specifically says we do not need these extra things.  For us to add them to the word of God is to put human words in God's mouth and have Him saying things that are not part of His will and purpose.  I'm not sure why many others aren't hearing and heeding the warnings.  Perhaps they are: perhaps they are hearing and don't know what to do or where to turn.

For a start, I find that many have turned the bible into an idol.  They actually worship it ahead of the Holy Spirit as if the new holy trinity is Father, Son and Holy Scripture.  The Holy Spirit active in our lives is valued far less than the literal words of the bible and their book, chapter and verse numbers.

This same bible nowhere advises or instructs people to live by it; in fact, it actually says that true disciples of Jesus live according to the Spirit.  The bible tells us that God's word is what God speaks at any point in time and it is written on our hearts in the new covenant, not in a book.  The bible tells us that all scripture is God-breathed and profitable for a number of uses, but nowhere says it is a sacred text.  And the bible nowhere says that non-Jews have to live by Jewish law.  In fact, apostle Paul made it quite clear this is not the case.

I stand with people like Greg Boyd ["The Myth of a Christian Religion"] and we testify that it was ga ood thing to lose our religion.  As the popular song says, "That's me in the corner; losing my religion".  Once I lost my religion, I was transported into a beautiful revolution as Boyd calls it: the beautiful revolution that is Jesus, the kingdom of God and the good news of the kingdom of God.

What I and many others in our day and throughout history can soundly testify to is the same as what Paul taught the Ephesians: "In Jesus and through faith in Him we can approach God with freedom and confidence."  We do not need any other mediator besides Jesus.  In fact, only Jesus will do.  We do not need religion and rites and rituals; we do not need organisations and institutions; we do not need law and written code; we do not need some sacred guidebook.

Despite the fact that many will object and disclaim and protest and vilify, it remains manifestly true that any person, in any part of the world, at any time, in any culture, in any language, in any condition can have a perfectly functional and beautifully satisfying relationship with God WITHOUT RELIGION, WITHOUT CHURCH and WITHOUT BIBLE.

This is the best news we have never heard!  Be my guest and enjoy the grace of God in Jesus!

Cheers.
Kevin.

This Good News (19)

Does any of this have a bearing on what we do in the 21^st century and how we do it?

My answer is, how can it not?  I began this journey by wondering if maybe the end has not yet come because “this good news of the kingdom of God” has not in fact been proclaimed, announced and spread abroad in all the habitable world as a testimony to all the nations.  What if we think we have been doing that when, in reality, we have been preaching a church gospel that Paul would describe as “another gospel” that is not the original at all but a poor replica and facsimile?

What if John was right and we, like the Laodiceans of his day, are “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” while all the time deluding ourselves that we are “rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing”?

Well, personally, I believe we are very Laodicean; and that we have been neglectful and arrogant concerning this matter of proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.  As a teacher and prophet in ecclesia, I have a responsibility to “do what I know”.  This was God’s challenge to me in 1983 when I was struggling to function as a rural Baptist pastor.

For a while I was like a character in a popular song: That’s me in the corner, losing my religion.  But, like Greg Boyd said, “Religion just isn’t my thing.  Some religious folk consigned me (and still consign me) to the fire.  But over time I’ve come to see my religious failure as a tremendous blessing.  Because, when I lost my religion, I discovered a beautiful revolution.”

And that revolution is the kingdom of God, the good news of the kingdom of God and proclaiming, announcing and spreading abroad the good news of the kingdom of God.  That is my gifting, calling and commission; and whether anybody joins me or not, this commission is where I find the freedom and the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Does it have a bearing on what we do and how we do it today?  As far as I’m concerned it changes everything and that puts me in mid of Brian McLaren’s book, Everything Must Change.

The official spiel for this book says:

Acclaimed author and emergent church leader, Brian McLaren states, "More and more Christian leaders are beginning to realize that for the millions of young adults who have recently dropped out of church, Christianity is a failed religion. Why? Because it has specialised in dealing with 'spiritual needs' to the exclusion of physical and social needs. It has focused on 'me' and 'my eternal destiny,' but it has failed to address the dominant sociological and global realities of their lifetime: systemic injustice, poverty, and dysfunction."

McLaren asks, "Shouldn't a message purporting to be the best news in the world be doing better than this?" What he sets forth in this provocative, unsettling work is a "form of Christian faith that is holistic, integral, balanced, that offers good news for both the living and the dying, that speaks of God's grace at work both in this life and the life to come, both to individuals and to societies and the planet as a whole."

Praise God for Brian McLaren; praise God for the work of the Holy Spirit in the world through willing bond-servants of Jesus.

Christianity the religion has failed; first because it could never succeed because it is an oxymoron.  But it also failed, as McLaren says, because it has specialised in dealing with ‘spiritual needs’ to the exclusion of physical and social needs, something Jesus and the first apostles never did.  The kingdom of God is nothing if it is not about the whole person, body, soul and spirit.

Church and its ‘gospel’ focus on me and my eternal destiny, but they have failed to address the dominant sociological and global realities of our lifetime: systemic injustice, poverty, and dysfunction.  The good news of the kingdom of God goes to the heart of these issues with a two-edged sword.
 

I sincerely hope that this discussion thoroughly changes what we believe.  And I sincerely hope and pray and work towards the reality of the people of God becoming much more integrative people who closely align beliefs with their words and actions.  If we do, the world will change because what we do and say and how we do and say it will be transformed by the Holy Spirit from church-gospel-preaching-heaven to ecclesia-good news-announcing/ sowing-kingdom of God.

 

Cheers,

Kevin.

This Good News (18)

What is Proclaiming?

B.  What response does the good news call for?

When Peter proclaimed the message the Spirit of God gave him on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, at the critical point, the people respond with an urgent question. Luke records, "Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”

When the good news of the kingdom of God was announced and sown, what response does it call for from those who hear and experience it?

Well, to a significant extent, that depends on the recipient and the situation he or she is in.  The first example is the very first ‘miracle’ of Jesus recorded in John 2.

At Cana in Galilee Jesus’ mother was attending a wedding and Jesus and his disciples were invited.  They ran out of wine so Jesus’ mother says to Jesus, “They have no wine.”  It’s possible Mary was in charge of catering for the event.  I’m not sure what she was expecting, but I guess Jesus was her firstborn, so he would be the obvious choice to solve this problem.  In our English translations, his response sounds terrible to us, but he used a Hebrew idiom that only has cultural translations.  Today, we would probably say something like, “What’s that got to do with you or me?”

But Jesus adds, “My hour has not yet come.”  I suggest this shows that Jesus’ mother, knowing her son as she did, was expecting a miracle and Jesus was not that keen to launch into his miracle ministry yet, so he deflected the issue to something like, ‘what’s that got to do with us, let them sort it out.’
 

But Mary didn’t leave it there.  I suspect she turned and walked away with a subtle smile on her face – and a clear strategy in her head.  As she leaves, she says to the servants, “Do whatever he says to you.”  She knows her son.  She knew he would do something – just what, she wasn’t sure.

Jesus looks around and sees 6 large water pots used for washing ceremonies.  He instructs the servants to fill them with water, which they did – to the brim, we are told.  His next instruction was to draw some out and take it to the head waiter, which they did.  The groom was praised for leaving his best wine until last!

The kingdom of God came near that wedding on that day.  It was there in the person of Jesus and Jesus took the opportunity to sow the seed of the kingdom by turning water into the best wine.  What response was called for?  “Trust me and follow my instructions.”  The bible calls this “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5 and 16:26).

Faith is never the simple act of believing – at least not in the Hebrew mind.  Faith is a composite of background knowledge, mental assent to that knowledge and commensurate action that fits with the belief and the knowledge.  That’s the faith that gets results.  The servants knew Jesus and his mother and his disciples and decided he was worth trusting, so they did what he said.

In this case and in all cases the response called for is living faith – faith that takes action commensurate with what is known and believed.  It’s a little bit like the circles illustration earlier:  Believing is one circle of three; faith is all three circles converging – knowledge, belief and what I call trust: the obedience of faith.

Listen to how Paul concluded his letter to the Romans: “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my good news and the proclaiming of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.”

All the elements I’ve been discussing are here in a simple farewell message.

But go back to the servants for a moment.  Imagine if you will Jesus calling some Pharisees and Sadducees to carry out this crucial miracle – after all, they are the equivalent of our Pastors today.  Do you think they would have done what Jesus asked the servants to do?  Personally, I doubt it.  They probably would have expected to be the ones issuing the instructions, and I doubt their religious sensibilities would have allowed them to use the ceremonial washing urns for the job.

Somehow, the servants had changed their minds about Jesus.  As I said, they decided Jesus could be believed and trusted, probably because of the integrity I spoke about earlier radiating from his person.  Note I said they ‘changed their minds’ from one of unbelief or scepticism to one of belief and trust.  That’s repentance.

The response called for, as always, is repentance and faith – but not a religious charade or show like the Pharisees (and many today) too easily fall into.  No religious fanfare and no public displays of remorse and devotion; just change your mind and act accordingly.

Search this out for yourself if you don’t believe me.  In each case of so-called miracles, the recipient of the good news of the kingdom had to change their mind from unbelief and scepticism to belief and trust and then put that trust into action – the obedience of faith.

Then of course there’s the proclamation events.  Perhaps the best example of this is the event of Acts 2 and the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

I reckon it is very difficult to imagine the extraordinary events of this one moment in history.  Try to imagine it.  Luke records that there were about one hundred and twenty persons gathered in an upstairs room of their accommodation in Jerusalem.  They were there to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  They were also there because Jesus had instructed them to gather together and to wait in Jerusalem until they received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The eleven disciples and their women, Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Jesus’ brothers, and the first clutch of disciples they had made.  They trusted Jesus and they followed his instructions.

The first thing they did was elect a replacement for Judas Iscariot: Matthias.  Then the unimaginable happened.

The noise of a violent rushing wind filled the whole house; tongues of fire distributed themselves to rest upon each one present; the Holy Spirit filled all of them and they began speaking in the languages of the many visitors to Jerusalem – Jews who had come from every region around to celebrate Pentecost; from every nation under heaven it says.

This is not about ‘speaking in tongues’ as many would have us believe.  The speaking in tongues was the means to the end.  The end in view here was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God to an audience that spoke many different languages.  Supernatural ability to speak those languages was God’s idea and God’s gift for the occasion.  The kingdom of God came right into that room, into those 120 people, then, by their proclamations, out into the 3,000 other people – all without any fanfare or fuss.

We’re not told if the 120 moved out of their room into a larger space when this happened, but sound of this cacophony drew the crowds and they came together in wonder and amazement.  Here were ordinary Galilean Jews recounting a story – a history in fact – in all the languages of their homelands.

The multitude marvelled, it says:  “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that we are hearing them speak in our birth languages?”  Even Arabs, it says.  Everybody was perplexed: “what does this mean?” some said; others mocked, suggesting they were drunk.  Then comes Peter – again.

“We are not drunk as you suppose, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning.  What you are seeing is a fulfilment of what was spoken by the prophet Joel.”  He recites Joel and finishes the quote with the verse I looked at earlier: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Peter then, inspired and with great pleading, recounts their recent history regarding this man Jesus the Christ.  “This man”, Peter proclaims, “delivered up by the pre-determined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death.”

Doubtless there was some uneasy shuffling and probably some muffled protest and scoffing, but Peter is undeterred.  He presses on, declaring their history and the part this multitude present played in those events.  His punch-line is Acts 2:36 – “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified!”  Messiah to the Jews, Lord to the non-Jews.

This cut them to the quick and they called out to Peter …  [imagine that happening in a modern church gathering!] … ‘What are we to do?’  Now here comes Peter – again.

Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, upon the name of Jesus Christ, leading into forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is to you and to your children and to all those afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

Luke goes on, “And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation”.  So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand persons.”

God chose to call out 3,000 people on that day.  What is ecclesia?  God’s ‘called-out’ company.  Ecclesia got a turbo-boost that day.  Whereas ‘church’ in the form of the Pharisees etc. was staying at a safe distance awaiting its time to pounce.

For this amazing response, there had to be a deep and powerful change of mind (repentance) by the people.  And Peter calls them to be baptized upon the name of Jesus – not in or into, but upon.  For that to happen, there must be faith.  And were the elements of faith present?  You bet.  If the people came to Jerusalem ignorant, they were ignorant no longer.  Peter took care of that.  They had the knowledge; they had changed their mind from unbelief and scepticism to belief and trust; they asked the apostles what they should do and when they were instructed, they followed the instructions.  They were added to the number of God’s household and kingdom.

Peter had just proclaimed and announced the good news of the kingdom of God, and people were pressing to get in as Jesus predicted.  Only this time, the other two elements critical to what became ‘normal christian birth’ in the first century became evident.  Previously we saw repentance and faith; now we see baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.

As we have seen in scripture and in life for over two thousand years, it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to be present in our lives without his being clearly evident in various ways.  The three main categories of evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit are sanctification (Philippians 1:6), ‘bearing fruit’ (reproduction and the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ in Galatians 5) and spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and others).

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was evident in the tongues of fire and the gift of the ability to speak in languages unlearned previously; and in what happened to those who repented and turned to Jesus on that day (Acts 2:43-47).
 

When the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed announced and spread abroad, eternity responds in unimaginable ways and in predictable and unpredictable ways and lives are changed.  The most evident change is the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit as he carries forward the salvation, redemption, righteousness and justification Jesus has secured into new dimensions of the light and love of God and His abundant mercy and grace towards us humans.

Next, my final question: Does any of this have a bearing on what we do in the 21^st century and how we do it?

 

Cheers,
Kevin.