Congratulations to everybody who has stayed the course and finished reading through the entire New Testament with The Whole Story! And we finish our sermons in this series with 1 Timothy. One thing which leaps off the page as you read this letter by the apostle Paul are the three times where he uses a particular phrase: Here is a trustworthy saying. Most people agree that Paul didn’t make these sayings up. They think he was actually quoting “trustworthy sayings” which were in circulation in the early church and indeed were at the heart of the faith of the first Christians in the days before the New Testament was written. Three Trustworthy Sayings from 1 Timothy.
1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance:
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
Jesus mission was to save people. And since all have sinned and fallen short of God, we ALL need Jesus to save us. There hasn’t been a single human being born apart from Jesus Christ Himself who has NOT needed saving! But Paul was always acutely aware that the mercy of God had stretched down to save not only sinners in general but him in particular – the chief of sinners!
1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
We should never lose sight of the fact that Jesus came to save sinners – and that includes you and me! Even you and me! The whole of our lives should be motivated by gratitude to God that he loves not only sinners in general, but me in particular. We sometimes use prayers of confession to remind us that we are sinners – like the prayer from the Anglican book of Common Prayer which goes like this.
“ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father,
We have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep:
We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts: We have offended against your holy laws: We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But You, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders”
I heard about one man who whenever he prayed that prayer would say under his breath, “I am an offender but I’m not miserable.” We live in a selfish age, and we are often absorbed in ourselves. We offer a prayer of confession like this and are tempted to evaluate the prayer against our own assumptions about ourselves and about God. But prayers like this help us to turn away from self and turn towards Christ. Without Him we will never be anything other than ‘miserable offenders’. If we forget that we are lost forever without God’s mercy and forgiveness, then we are indeed lost forever.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And this saying has something else to say to us. Because it reminds us that although we are all sinners, Paul reminds us that Christ came to save even the worst of sinners. We all need saving, and God saves even us, but there may be people who are even worse than us and they need saving too!
1 Timothy 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Paul the blasphemer and persecutor of the church – he needed saving and God saved him. God cares about SINNERS. We sometimes think that heaven is going to be full of the kind of people we think we are like. Genuine, kind, gentle respectable people who God is happy to welcome into His Kingdom. This saying reminds us that as well as people like us, heaven will be just as full of real sinners.
1 Corinthians 7:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
God cares about all people – not just nice people like we think we are.
Parable of the lost sheep = LUKE157 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
There are many many sinners in North Springfield. Hard people. Rebellious people. Violent and adulterous people. Drunkards and swindlers. Maybe some who have run as far away from God as the apostle Paul had. There are many such people in North Springfield – but very few in church in North Springfield. Because we have not taken the gospel to such people yet. They may cross our paths – although we may spend most of our lives hoping they won’t. But these are the sinners Christ came to die for – just as much as Christ came to die for us. These are the sinners who are lost without Christ. And Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
So on to Paul’s second trustworthy saying. And it raises some questions.
4:9 This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance 10 (and for this we labour and strive), that
we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.
Did Paul believe that everybody would be saved? In what sense is God the Saviour of all people? There are other verses as well in 1 Timothy which might imply that all would be saved.
2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. 7
Paul says here that Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all men. God wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. That is what God wants. That is God’s wish. Indeed if God were to command it, then that would be what would happen. If God were to command it, then everybody WOULD be saved. But there are so many places elsewhere in the Bible which teach us that God has not so commanded. Instead it is clear that salvation is God’s gift which is available to all and offered to all – but not accepted by all. Even elsewhere in Paul’s letters it is indisputable that God’s gift of salvation has to be received by personal faith in Jesus Christ, e.g. in Romans 1.
Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Paul spells this out in Romans 10
Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Those who are saved are those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe that Christ is risen from the dead. It those who call upon the name of the Lord who are saved – and only those.
There is certainly a superficial contrast between what it says about salvation here in 1 Timothy and what the rest of Paul’s letters say. Some people see that difference as proof that Paul himself did not write 1 Timothy. Other people think that because the letters to Timothy were written at the end of Paul’s life that maybe Paul mellowed as the years went by and even changed his mind about who would be saved. I disagree with those ideas. I think Paul himself wrote 1Timothy. And I think Paul still believed what he always believed- that only those who believe in Christ will be saved. Why else would Paul be so concerned to defend the truth of the gospel? Why would Paul have endured so much opposition and suffering for the sake of the gospel, if he believed it actually didn’t matter and that everybody would be saved anyway? But what then does Paul mean when he writes,
we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.
God is potentially the Saviour of all men. He is in actuality only the saviour of those who believe. Which is why we need to proclaim the gospel of salvation boldly – and especially to the worst of sinners!
So here we have two trustworthy sayings, worthy of full acceptance.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.
And Paul has a third trustworthy saying to remind Timothy of. What do you think it will be about? A saying about the righteousness and faithfulness of God perhaps? Or the resurrection of Jesus? Or the call to holy living? Or to love one another? These are all themes Paul majors on in many places. But no, his third trustworthy saying is quite unexpected – although its theme is surely an important reason why the pastoral letters of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus are included in the Canon of Scripture.
3:1 Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.
Paul talks later about Deacons who would be the lay leaders in churches. But he begins by talking about “episcopoi”, the word which different traditions translate as Bishops or Ministers, those who are set apart by the church for full-time Christian service. Later in chapter 5 he talks about Elders who are certainly those who are set apart to work in the church and supported by the church.
5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

And about these Ministers or Bishops or Elders, Paul passes on this trustworthy saying.
3:1 If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.
Paul spells out that tasks of the ministers or priests are preaching and teaching and directing the church. But the qualifications for the task of overseer, Minister or Elder, have very little to do with skills and everything to do with character.
3:2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.
The character of an Elder or Minister is all-important! Prince Charles once described his duties as Prince of Wales like this. “More than anything else, it is a way of life. It’s more than a job. It’s a complete, 24-hour-a-day business, really.” And the same would be true of the work of a Minister. In fact the only skill required of Ministers is the ability to teach, to pass on the faith to others.
Paul’s own ministry, and that of the other apostles, was to teach.
2:7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.
And teaching is to be the heart of Timothy’s ministry too.
4:11 Command and teach these things. 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
Teaching is the one core responsibility of all Ministers and Elders. Preaching the gospel so that sinners can be saved and defending the faith. And so here is Paul’s third trustworthy saying.
3:1 If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.
The church in our generation has discovered the importance of body ministry – the priesthood of all believers – every Christian playing their part. But we should not forget that it has been the ordained ministry or priesthood which has proclaimed the gospel and guided the church over two thousand years. The responsibilities of a minister are many and varied. Directing the church. Pastoral care. Supporting volunteers. In these days running the church as a small business. But the heart of the Minister’s calling is to preach the gospel and teach the eternal truth of God. And in this confused post-modern world, that preaching and teaching is more important than ever.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.
If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.

1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

4:28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.

Why did crowds aim to throw Jesus off cliff??

25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

Because gospel was for unexpected kinds of people! Year of the Lord’s favour was not to punish the wicked but to save them.

4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
The four gospel writers each tell the story of Jesus from their own particular perspective. They choose which sayings and stories to include and which to leave out. Luke takes a special interest in the kinds of people Jesus came to heal and to save. The lost and the sinners. So Luke’s gospel talks particularly about healings. About the rich and the poor. About Gentiles being saved. Naaman the Syrian. And about women – even the widow in Zaraphath.

Because Jesus came to bring freedom for the prisoners, and to release the oppressed. And these were not just people who were “spiritual” prisoners or sin, not just those oppressed by demons. Jesus brought a radical agenda of social justice. To set free all who were imprisoned or oppressed in any way. Jesus brought blessings not only for the rich but also for the poor. Blessings not just for men but for women too!

To understand the gospels as they were read 2000 years ago we need to put ourselves back into a different world. Attitudes of the people of those days were very different from attitudes we all assume today. In many ways we need to look to the Middle East today, or to parts of Africa today, to see the ways in which women were marginalised by society in Jesus’s day.

Because women in the Patriarchal society of Jesus’s time were not treated or respected or esteemed in the ways they are today or indeed have been in any of our lifetimes. Most of my life has been the era of feminism and women’s lib. I remember the essay I had to write for university entrance. “Women need men like fish need a bicycle – Discuss.”

We can forget that women in England have not always been treated as equals by men. Some still to our shame are not. But we must remember that the right to vote on equal terms as men was not given to all women until 1928 only 90 years ago. A retired nurse once told me that when she first bought a house in 1950s the building society required her father to stand guarantee on the mortgage for her because women could not take out mortgages for themselves in those days. Women have fought hard for the rights to equality which they enjoy today.

Some people think that the Bible has helped hold women back. In fact the opposite is true. The seeds of equality in race, religion and gender are there in Scripture. The battle for equality has come out of Bible teaching on equality. And although Jesus did not teach the women’s rights agenda some feminists wish that he had, Jesus’s treatment and affirmation of women was truly radical for its time. And nowhere is this more obvious than in Luke’s gospel. So today we will look at five aspects of the gospel which may seem obvious to us today but were earth-shattering 2000 years ago – truths which still need to be proclaimed in many parts of the world today.
God loves women as much as men

Jesus’s first healing miracle was of Simon Peter’s mother in law. By the way if he had a mother in law he obviously had a wife, as most of the apostles would have done. We then read of Jesus raising a widow’s son from the dead, healing a woman with a haemmorage and raising Jairus’s daughter back to life. All these miracles are in other gospels as well. But the significant thing is that Jesus heals women as well as men. And even raises to life a girl who is only 12 years old.

Other gospels tell us that Jesus was criticised for performing healing miracles on the Sabbath. But it is only Luke who tells us that it was a woman who was healed.

13:10: On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
When he was criticised, Jesus said,
Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

In other words, the blessings of God’s Kingdom are for daughters of Abraham as well as for the sons of Abraham. God loves women just as much as men. And no better story illustrates that than the time Jesus was anointed by a sinful woman.

7:36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

The host Simon the Pharisee criticised Jesus because the woman was a sinner, probably a prostitute. So Jesus told the parable of the two debtors. The person who loves more is the person who has received greater forgiveness.
47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” … 50 “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Women are welcomed as disciples exactly the same as men are

The first disciples: Mary mother of Jesus, Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, Anna the prophetess.

2:36 There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

One further example of women following Jesus is found only in Luke’s gospel.
23:26 As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.

Of course all the gospels record how it was the women who prepared the spices to anoint Jesus’s dead body. And all the gospels record that it was those women who first discovered the empty tomb, and after the resurrection Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene, a woman!
Women supported the ministry of Jesus and of the apostles

The author of Luke’s gospel was Paul’s companion on some of his missionary journeys and we have the second volume of Luke’s story of the gospel as the Book of Acts. We can see Luke’s interest in women as disciples in Acts as well.

In ACTS 9 we read of a disciple named Tabitha (or Dorcas) who has died and Peter raised her back to life again.
IN Thessalonica: 17 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
And in BEREA: 17:12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
In ATHENS – 17: 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
And read of Paul’s preaching at Philippi.
Acts 16: 13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

One passage which really leapt out at me concerns an aspect of Jesus’s ministry which I had never ever noticed before and which only Luke records.

8 After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
Without these women – the gospel might not have been preached!
Mary was a model disciple

Matthew tells the story of the nativity from Joseph’s perspective. Luke tells it from Mary’s perspective.
1:26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”
2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
It is Mary who gives the wonderful example of discipleship and obedience.
1:35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
It is Mary’s song the Magnificat which tells of the reversal of the social order in God’s Kingdom
46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

This reversal of fortunes bringing down rulers and lifting up the humble, filling the hungry and sending away the rich, is also expressed in the lifting up of all women to a status equal with all men as children of God together.
Women teach us all about prayer and devotion

Jesus told just two parables where the central figures were women. (Can you remember which they were?) Of interest for today is the fact that only Luke records those two parables. The first was the parable of the lost coin,
15:8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The second parable was about a persistent widow.

18 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.

The example of persistence in Jesus’s story is not of a man, but of a woman.

And our final story of women in Luke is very familiar, but again unique to Luke.

10:38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

Something we usually miss in this story is just how surprising it is that Mary would have been listening to Jesus in the first place! In Jesus’s time and even still in the middle east, and just as much in parts of Africa today, the men would be listening to the Rabbi while the women would all be in the kitchen preparing the food.
“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
It was not only unfair. In those times, Mary’s proper place was with Martha. But unexpectedly Jesus was happy to be teaching Mary. And indeed he affirms her attitude of learning and prayer.

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Mary at Jesus’s feet, as much as the sinful woman who anointed Jesus with oil and washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair – examples of devotion not only for women but for men as well!

God loves women as much as he loves men.
Women are welcomed as disciples exactly as much as men are.
Women supported the ministry of Jesus and of the apostles.
Mary was a model disciple.
And women teach us all about prayer and devotion.

freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, release the oppressed,
The gospel is just as much for women as men!

4:6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

The apostle Paul is at the end of his life. In prison in Rome. Facing execution. His old apprentice Timothy is now leader of the important church in Ephesus. And in the last letter we have of Paul’s, we find him passing on the baton to Timothy to continue the mission Christ had entrusted to him.
1:13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Guard the gospel. Paul’s command to Timothy and God’s command to all of us in these troubled days. Because as Paul warns Timothy, the world is going to get worse and worse.
3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Somebody has said, “We live in a world of invertebrate theology, jellyfish morality, seesaw religion, India rubber convictions, somersault philosophy, and a psychology that tells us what we already know in words which we do not understand.”

Our world is racing ever more rapidly away from God. 30 years ago for Derek Tidball’s Sociology of Religion class I had to write an essay with the title, “why is it the church has good news which nobody wants to hear?” I have watched the answers become more and more true. The world we live in is changing ever more rapidly. People are much more mobile – they may move homes and cities many times. Patterns of employment have changed. Few people expect a job for life. Women are no longer stay-at-home wives and mothers. Family life is breaking down through increasing divorce rates and single parenting. Television has transformed leisure time just as mobile phones, the internet, texting, and instant messaging have transformed communications. All these twentieth century “advances” have produced a much more fragmented society. People’s lives are becoming increasingly insular, self-centred and individualistic. Sociologists saw these changes coming 30 years ago – we have watched them happen!

Enlightenment understandings of the world are being rejected. A so-called “Post-Modern” culture is emerging. There is a distrust of authority and “the establishment” in education, politics and law and order. Certainty is replaced by questioning – the only thing post-modernists are certain about is that you can’t be certain about anything. People reject any idea of absolute truth – everything is relative. Everybody is entitled to their own truths which political correctness insists are all equally valid. Christendom, a culture where everybody shared a common Christian faith and values, is being replaced by a multicultural, multi-faith society where Christianity is only one option amongst many.
4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

So many people are rejecting truth and each choosing for themselves what they want to believe. It was the noted theologian Victoria Wood who said, “Church is what you we did on Sundays before we had garden centres.” That simple statement is a brilliant analysis of how the majority of people regard church nowadays. Church is something you do, an activity. It is something restricted to one particular day of the week. It is something that has been superseded by garden centres, or car boot sales, or shopping malls or, take your pick really, because that is what people can do in our pick-and-mix, consumerist society. Church is now just a lifestyle choice – one option among many.

Contemporary culture is dominated by consumerism. People expect the right to choose and they demand satisfaction guaranteed every time. And these expectations extend to shopping between religions. Our multicultural multi-faith society has become a ‘spiritual supermarket.’ Just 50 years ago, the only choice was what kind of Christian church to attend. Today there is a vast range of options on offer. Christianity is only one stall in the spiritual market place. And faced with the difficulty of making an informed decision about which religion to believe in, many people take the easy option of not believing in anything at all. Ask a friend what they believe about spiritual things. They may say. “I don’t buy into any of that!” Religion has become something people can choose to buy into – or choose to ignore!

Over the last 30 years or so all these changes in the world around have led to a dramatic decline in church attendance. In 2007 TEAR FUND made a detailed survey of Churchgoing in the UK and that study illustrates the enormous challenge we face in reaching those who are not regular churchgoers. In summary:

OHP 1 In the UK 15% of adults can be described as regular churchgoers. They go to church at least once a month. Another 10% of adults go to church less than six times but at least once a year – occasional churchgoers. And another 5% of UK adults do not go to church but they used to attend in the past and are likely to go to church in future. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that all the other people in the TEAR FUND survey describe themselves as not very or not at all likely to go to church, ever. And those people now add up to more than two thirds of the population. 67% of people in the UK who say they are not very or not at all likely to set foot in a church apart for weddings or funerals! And for under 35s that figure goes up to 74%. Three quarters of under 35s say they are not very likely or not at all likely to go to church – ever!

OHP 2 How open folk are to going to church varies with age.

More than two thirds of people over 55 describe themselves as Christian.
Less than a quarter of over 55s say they have no religion.

Only a third of under 35s see themselves as Christian.
More than half of under 35s say they have no religion.

Many of the most successful approaches to evangelism in the 20th Century were based on a pre-existing knowledge and often an acceptance of Christian teaching and morality. In these we could include Billy Graham style rallies and family services where those who had gone to church themselves as children now brought their own children to church. Even the Alpha course uses Christian language and presupposes the authority of Scripture. Those kinds of approaches are bound to be much less effective in reaching folk who are closed to the church – which is three quarters of people aged under 35.

The world is changing faster and faster! So how should we guard the gospel in this changing world. The apostle Paul gives instructions to Timothy which are still as valid and effective today.

He starts by recognizing that the gospel has to be passed down from generation to generation

Guard the gospel – from generation to generation

1:5 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Timothy had learned his faith from his mother and Grandmother.
3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

A simple reminder that as parents and grandparents we are responsible for passing on the faith to our children and grandchildren. That’s not just the job of ministers or missionaries or evangelists. It’s not something we can leave to full time Christian workers. As parents and grandparents WE have to guard the gospel in our homes and with our families. Because our children and grandchildren will see how important our Christian faith is to us. They will see the difference Jesus makes in our lives – or does not make. It has been said that the church has always been only 2 generations away from extinction. “My grandparents always went to church. My parents sometimes went to church. I never go to church.” So we begin to guard the gospel in our own families!

The centrality of Scripture!

3:14 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

We began this series on “The Whole Story” with eleven great reasons to read the Bible
So we can believe in Jesus
So we can enjoy life in all its fullness
To know from eyewitnesses the wonderful things Jesus said and did.
To know what the first disciples believed and taught
The Holy Scriptures make us “wise for salvation”
The Bible is inspired – God-breathed
The Bible teaches us
The Bible rebukes us
The Bible corrects us
The Bible trains us in righteousness
The Bible equips us for every good work

We guard the gospel by remaining faithful to the truth of Scripture!

Teaching

1:13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

2 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

There are gospel truths which need to be passed on. The history of the church and all the blind alleys people have been distracted by shows us that even with an open Bible, people cannot reliably work out for themselves what the Bible says and means. They need teaching. Those ignorant of the mistakes of church history are destined to repeat them. There will always be a need for teaching in the church because the Bible word for Christians and believers is disciples and disciple means “learner”. And every Christian until their very last breath should be on a learning journey. “The Lord has still more light and truth to break forth from His word.” I hope you are still enjoying “The Whole Story” and benefiting from reading the Bible every day. But I also hope that when you come to the end you won’t just breathe a sigh of relief and close your Bible for the next year! I hope you will want to continue to read, continue to learn, continue to study and look for ways to do so! Guard the gospel!

TEACHING – NOT QUARRELING

2:23 Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24 And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will

In this postmodern world where political correctness insists that everybody is entitled to their own opinions it can be easy to get dragged into arguments. If this happens to us as Christians, it can be very easy to win the argument but lose the war. We may tie people in knots with our understanding, but drive them away from God. So Paul wisely says no arguing – just gentle instruction and of course lots and lots of love and prayer! Guard the gospel.

Preaching and evangelism

4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

4:5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

We need to be a church which believes what it preaches and preaches what it believes. To take every opportunity to tell everybody we possibly can that God loves them and that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and that Jesus Christ is Lord of all! Our little book of testimonies of “The difference Jesus makes” will be just one small way of sharing the gospel with family and friends and neighbours. Preaching in season and out of season! Guard the gospel.

Preaching – whatever the cost

In prison and facing death, Paul knew from personal experience that preaching the gospel carried a high cost!

1:8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life

2:3 Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

3:10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Proclaiming the gospel will cost! Whatever the cost we must still guard the gospel.

Don’t be timid!

It would be so easy to be discouraged by the scale of the task the church faces. To put our heads in the sand and give up.

1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

We should not be scared. God has given us His Holy Spirit – power to be witnesses for Jesus. All the resources we need to guard the gospel!

But how good a job are we doing?

I heard the story of a visitor in a strange city who was returning from supper when a spectacular sign in a shop window caught his eye. It read “Chinese Laundry.” He made a mental note of the location because he had been away from home long enough to have need of a good laundry service. The next morning he arrived at the store with a bag full of clothes. He piled all the clothes on the counter but the attendant was shocked.
“What’s all that?” she asked.
“It’s my laundry,” the man replied. “Chinese laundries always do an excellent job.”
“But we aren’t a Chinese laundry,” the assistant explained. “We’re a sign shop!”

We proudly display the sign of the cross. The sign of the gospel which brings life to the dead. We need to be a church which does what the sign says. How well do we do at guarding the gospel??

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a licence for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

“The Sin and Doom of Godless Men,” and the need to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” Most of the letters of the New Testament were written to churches in trouble – and the letter from Jude is no exception. The difference is that in most cases the problem is some kind of wrong teaching leading the church astray. We have seen the heresies exposed in 2 Thessalonians and 2 Corinthians. But Jude is not addressed to a specific church, but to Christians and churches in general. The warnings in Jude are not so much against specific wrong teaching, but against godless people in general. Warnings against people whose false teachings lead the church into sin, into immorality or even into rejecting the Lordship of Christ. “By their fruits will you know them,” Jesus said. And in just 25 verses Jude gives no less than NINE warnings against the dangers of godless men “secretly slipping in” whose errors were revealed by their behavior. And the first is found in verse 5.

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

1. The unbelieving Israelites

They were people who had been rescued by God from Egypt by passing through the Red Sea, but then rebelled against God during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. They committed all kinds of sins, but their underlying problem was simply lack of faith.

1 Corinthians 10 …. our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

Matthew Henry comments: “They had miracles in abundance, the parting of the Red Sea, manna for daily bread, water from the rock, the gift of the Ten Commandments, yet even they perished in unbelief. We have much greater advantages than they had; their so fatal error should be our awful warning.” The warning from the unbelieving Israelites who failed to put their trust in God. And the second warning comes in verse 6.

2. The rebellious angels

6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

Scholars believe that the letter of Jude was the source for very similar passages found in 2 Peter, partly due to various stylistic details and partly because Jude is the shorter letter. Both have passages which talk about the fall of those angels who sided with Satan and rebelled against God and were thrown out of heaven, which we also read in about Revelation chapter 12. Those rebellious angels were kept in darkness, bound in everlasting chains – what a terrifying picture of God’s eternal judgment on all who rebel against him and lead others astray to do the same.
2Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; ….. 6 ….. and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ….. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

The sin of rebelling against God’s authority. And Jude and 2 Peter lead on to the third warning.

3. Sodom and Gomorrah

7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Gen 18:20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
Sodom and Gomorrah – bywords for sexual sin and for the fire of God’s judgment on sinners across four thousand years! They are the warning Jude gives to his readers about the dangers of sexual temptation. Then comes the fourth warning, which is easier to understand when we know the background Jude is assuming when he talks about

4. The good example of the archangel Michael

Jude 8 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

There were a number of books called the pseudepigrapha written in the times between the Old and New Testaments. One of them is “The Assumption of Moses” which talks about the Archangel Michael arguing with the devil about the body of Moses. Jude quotes from that book to give a good example to follow, the archangel who showed proper respect for celestial beings. That is in contrast to the behaviour of godless men..

10 Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.

Speaking abusively. Blind criticism, abuse rather than logical argument – the fourth sin to avoid. Then in verse 11 we have three warnings in just one verse, three well-known names.

11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

5. The way of Cain

Genesis 4:2 Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favour on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

Instead of offering the sacrifice God was expected, Cain had offered to God what was easiest for him. That made God angry. And then Cain was jealous of his brother Abel so he murdered him. Giving God less than the best he could offer. Jealousy and murder! The bad example of Cain.

6. Balaam’s error

We read in Numbers 16 how Balaam the prophet was summoned by King Balak of the Moabites who tried to bribe him into putting a curse on the Israelites. Balaam was only kept on the straight and narrow by his faithful donkey talking to him and saving him from the Lord’s angel who would otherwise have killed him.

Balaam’s sin was to say what people wanted him to say and do what they wanted him to do just for the money – rather than to deliver God’s messages as a prophet should.
2 Peter 2:15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
As we saw in 2 Corinthians, the lure of wealth and possessions leads many Christian leaders astray. Balaam gives this sixth example from history of a sin to avoid.

7. Korah’s rebellion

Numbers 16 Korah ….. Dathan and Abiram, … became insolent 2 and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 3 They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron. ……
The end result was the earth opened and swallowed up these rebels alive, because, says moses, they treated the Lord with contempt by refusing to respect God’s appointed leaders Moses and Aaron. Disobeying authority – a clear seventh mark of ungodly men.

Ungodly men can slip secretly into the church and do untold damage. Just listen to the powerful images Jude uses to describe these false teachers.
12 These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm, shepherds who feed only themselves. – instead of the good shepherd who takes care of the flock leading them to feed in green pastures besides still waters, these false shepherds only care about themselves.

They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; in a hot country, which needs water to survive, clouds without rain are a bad thing. Like ungodly men they promise much but don’t deliver anything.

autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. No fruit in the past, uprooted so no hope for the future – twice dead – “as much use as a chocolate teapot!”

13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; as much use as the waves beating on the shore

wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved for ever. Wandering stars – no use for navigation, no use for light,

Jude uses all these dramatic pictures as vivid warnings that false teachers should expect the worst of punishments in this world and the next. That doesn’t meant everyone who teaches by mistake anything that is not exactly true. If that were the case, nobody would ever dare risk teaching anything from the Bible even in Home Groups let alone from the pulpit! But the warning is that all ungodly men who lead others astray to exploit them or profit from them will face the judgment of Almighty God.

Seven warnings from Israel’s history. So many different ways of sinning! So many ways to provoke God’s judgement. Jude uses all of these to describe the false teachers who lead churches astray. And he has two more warnings to come

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

8. The warning from Enoch

This is a direct quote of a prophecy from another inter-Testamental book called the Book of Enoch which was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It says that God is coming
“To convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way”

Jude spells out their specific sins. 16 These men are grumblers and fault-finders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

Grumbling and finding fault. Boasting and flattery. Following their own evil desires rather than doing God’s will. And Jude ends with a warning not from the Old Testament but from the teachings of the apostles.

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

9. The warning from the apostles

A warning against people who cause division in the church, mocking truth and rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit. Rejecting God and teaching others to do the same. The book of Proverbs tells us, “The fool says in his heart there is no God” and “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Mocking and scoffing are the ninth mark of ungodly men.

What a catalogue of sins to avoid! Unbelief, rebellion against God’s authority, sexual immorality, blind abuse, jealousy and murder, greed for profit, rebelling against God’s chosen leaders, grumbling and finding fault, mocking and scoffing. Nine signs of false teachers as we hold fast to the true faith once and for all delivered to the saints. But Jude also wants to be positive, so he finishes with good examples to follow.

20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith – the challenge to keep on growing, not to stand still but to be built up! If we think we are standing still we are actually slipping backward.

and pray in the Holy Spirit. – prayer led by God, the heart of our relationship with God.

21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. We keep in God’s love by faith and holy living: trust and obey!

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; the call for every Christian to support and encourage each other in the faith, especially those who are having tough times.

23 snatch others from the fire and save them; that is what outreach is all about! When we preach the gospel we aren’t just offering other people a better more fulfilled life – we are rescuing them from a burning building, saving them from certain and eternal death.

to others show mercy, mercy and love and forgiveness to everybody!

mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. We need to take sin seriously – to treat sin like a poisonous snake, not a cream cake “naughty but nice”.

This may all sound very hard. But Jude has some wonderful encouragement for us! It’s ALL GOD’S GRACE. He started his letter by reminding us of who we are as Christians.

1 To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: We are kept by Christ – by a love which will never let us go! Safe in God’s hands! We don’t have to save ourselves – which is just as well because we never could save ourselves. We just trust ourselves to God’s grace. And Jude ends his letter with that same grace.
21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
We arent relying on our own good works or our own righteousness or on our own efforts to stay close to God and to be saved= our hope and our confidence are in God’s almighty power, the One who is able to save from the guttermost to the uttermost!

24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy
God is indeed more than able to keep us from falling!! If we trust in his grace and rely on Him instead of ourselves. Indeed he is able to purify us from all our sins and bring us into his glorious presence! With great joy!! With GREAT joy!

So don’t be put off by all these warnings of ways in which we can be deceived. Don’t be discouraged by the challenges. Instead stand firm in your faith! God can and God WILL keep you safe in his love.

24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore! Amen.

The Church in Corinth was established around 51 AD through the preaching of the apostle Paul. We read in Acts 18 how Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla and worked with them in their tentmaking business. Every week for 18 months Paul preached in the synagogue that Jesus was the Messiah. Crispus the leader of the synagogue and his entire household became Christians and many others were also baptised and the church in Corinth was born.
Some years later Paul received a letter from Corinth telling of all kinds of problems in the church there with the church dividing into factions. We don’t have that letter, but we do have Paul’s reply and we know that as his first letter to the Corinthians. In that letter he teaches them many things about the church as the body of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. He answers their moral and ethical questions and teaches them about true worship, the meaning of the Lord’s Supper and many other things. We looked at 1 Corinthians in Home Groups last week.
The Corinthians answered Paul with another letter which again we don’t have but we can work out what they said because we do have Paul’s reply and that is 2nd Corinthians. In a nutshell the Corinthians challenged Paul’s authority to teach them. Since he had moved on from Corinth, other men had come along claiming to be apostles bringing false teaching leading which was leading the church astray. These so called “super-apostles” claimed special revelations from God. But Paul describes them like this.
11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
So the second letter to the Corinthians is first and foremost Paul’s defence of his own ministry against the claims of the false apostles. How do we distinguish a true apostle from a false apostle? How do we know which preachers to trust and which to reject? How does a church choose its minister and how does a denomination know who should be accredited as a minister and who should not be?
These are things I have talked about with different churches when I served them as a Moderator guiding them as they were looking for their next minister. I have talked through the same questions with newly accredited ministers with whom I am serving as Mentor. And these are the issues a number of us are wrestling with as we are in the process of creating the new professional organisation for ministers, the College of Baptist Ministers. What are the true marks of ministry? So how does Paul defend his own ministry? What evidence does he put forward to demonstrate he is a true apostle?

The things we will look at here should be true of all Christians. What we are saying should apply at some level to every one of us. But these things should especially be true of those who are called to serve the church and lead the church as Ministers, Evangelists, Youth Workers, Missionaries and Deacons. 2 Corinthians points us to at least 3 marks of ministry.

The servant of God is an Ambassador for Christ
5:14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. …. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
A minister should be an ambassador for Christ. All Christians are ambassadors for Christ, but Ministers, Pastor-teachers, Missionaries, Evangelists are especially set apart by God to be his ambassadors. They represent Jesus, they speak on his behalf and listen on his behalf. They are Christ’s messengers, his go-betweens. Not just the preaching and teaching, but every aspect of a minister’s life, should reflect the Saviour he represents. Like the apostle Paul, ministers have been especially entrusted with the message of reconciliation. They carry the message of how God puts people right with Himself. So a mark of a minister is that under their ministry people come to faith in Christ and their lives are touched by Christ.
I have conducted probably approaching a hundred funerals but one a few years ago will always stick in my mind. At the end of the thanksgiving service before we moved on to the Crematorium the granddaughter of the lady asked me to pray with her. I thought she might just have been very distressed by grief. In fact the young lady wanted to recommit her life to Christ. She had realised during the service just how much she needed God in her life. Ambassadors for Christ.
We could all name literally hundreds of famous people. Monarchs. Politicians. Sports people and entertainers. The influence of ambassadors representing our country is enormous, I can only name one. He is Andy Sparks, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Nepal. We happened to be at college together, incidentally alongside our BMS Missionary in Nepal Jerry Clewett. Most of the time we haven’t a clue who our country’s ambassadors are. The glorious task of an Ambassador is to draw attention to the one they are representing, not to themselves. So equally a minister will not want draw attention to himself or herself. The Minister’s task, the Missionaries’ task, the Christian worker’s task is to point to Christ.

The servant of God is not in it for the money

2:17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.

11:7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.
You sometimes hear people introduced on TV or radio or on the platform of some Christian conference as “a great servant of God”. That is an oxymoron, a self-contradicting statement. A person can be a servant of the great God! But by definition servants are never great – they are simply servants.
We live in an age of celebrity. People listen to what a “Big name” says and follow what he or she teaches because they are famous, not because what they are saying is true. There is a dreadful temptation to judge the truth of a message just on the basis of how popular or successful the preacher or the author may be. Christians must beware of being dragged into believing that best sellers are more true than more obscure books. Dan Brown – the Da Vinci Code – need I say more. I was speaking last week at the Christian Union at Writtle College and somebody mentioned Rob Bell and his ridiculously popular book, “Love Wins.” Rob Bell argues that God’s love is so great that ultimately He will never allow anybody to go to hell. Many Christians look at the fact that “Love Wins” sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the first few months and conclude that what the book says must be true. That is nonsense! While God sometimes blesses Christians with prominence and wealth and prosperity that is not always the case. In particular when we look at ministers and preachers who are rich we need to remember what Paul made abundantly clear to the Corinthians – ministers should never be in it for the money!
In this age of celebrity, being successful and famous is a two edged sword. Too many of today’s so-called great and famous evangelists and preachers are led astray by the money! Paul asks
11:7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?
Paul has aleady discussed the situation of apostles and Christian ministers in 1 Corinthians 9. He has taught that the Corinthians do have an obligation to meet the needs of those who serve them as ministers.
1 Corinthians 9:14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
But then Paul goes on to explain that he is also entitled to waive those rights. So the church should not listen to an apostle or a minister just because they are paid, or reject a ministry because the minister does not demand to be paid.
15 But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast. 16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.
So a true minister of the gospel isn’t in it for the money! This applies of course to all church leaders, Missionaries and Evangelists and even Deacons as well.
1 Timothy 3 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. …. 8 Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain.
Not a lover of money! Popularity and success and wealth are not evidence of truth. Marks of ministry – the servant of God is not in it for the money!

The servant of God is a suffering servant
We live in a world which worships success. But ministers of God follow Jesus Christ, the suffering servant who gave up his life as a ransom for many. The servant is not greater than the master. They persecuted Jesus and they will persecute any true minister of God. So when Paul seeks to defend his ministry he does not talk about his successes. The number of churches he has planted. The number of people who became Christians as a result of his preaching, surely in the thousands and including the founder members of the Corinthian church themselves. Paul doesn’t even mention to the Corinthians what he talked to the Galatians about. No talk here of his commissioning to be the apostle to the Gentiles by the appearance of the Risen Jesus Christ Himself on the Damascus Road, a unique experience none of the “super-apostles” could ever claim.
Instead Paul talks about his sufferings. The proof that his ministry comes from Christ the suffering servant is that Paul Himself has suffered and continues to suffer for Christ.
4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
Paul says, we have to die so that people see Jesus living in us and through us. Often when Christians suffer illness or persecution or rejection or even just accidents we ask, why me? And in very many situations the Bible answer is that it is only as we experience a tiny glimpse of the suffering which Christ endured for us that his resurrection life can shine through us.
In the third century, Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, wrote to his friend Donatus: “It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found a joy and wisdom which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians… and I am one of them.”
For the apostle Paul, suffering is not a sign of failure but a mark of ministry.
6:4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Suffering is a mark of ministry and in a broader way a mark of Christian faith. So many of the books of the New Testament are written to encourage Christians to hang on to their faith in difficult times! As well as so many places in 2 Corinthians we could think of James chapters 1 and 5, 1 Peter chapters 1 and 2, Hebrews chapters 11 and 12, Romans 8 and of course the whole of the book of Revelation. Suffering is part of human life and it is part of the normal Christian life and as believers God calls us to put our trust in him and rely on his grace in our times of weakness. Paul speaks about one particular aspect of his suffering, the thorn in his flesh. We don’t know what that illness or disability was. Some people think it may have been very poor eyesight..
2 Cor 12:7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The message of 2 Corinthians is that God WILL give us his grace and his power, but only through our weakness and our times of suffering. If we are Christians we will suffer for Christ. Even more, those who are called to serve and lead the church can expect to suffer. The false apostles in Corinth were exploiting the church. So Paul’s defence of his ministry is the catalogue of the ways he has suffered for Christ.
11:19 You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! …. 23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27 I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. … 30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” How much more is this the case for the ones Christ calls to be ministers and evangelists and missionaries!
So here according to Paul are the Marks of Christian Ministry:-
The Servant of God is an Ambassador for Christ
The Servant of God is not in it for the money
The Servant of God is a Suffering Servant
The marks of every minister – and in many ways the marks of every believer too!

WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit!O what needless pain we bear!
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer.

“The problem with prayer” is very simple. James 4:2 = “you do not have because you do not ask”. The only real problem with prayer is that we don’t do enough of it!!!! The letter of James, the brother of Jesus and leader of the Early Church in Jerusalem, covers many topics but he has plenty to say about prayer.
Why should we pray more? – because God answers prayer!!!
1. ASK GOD WHO GIVES GENEROUSLY

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

Many successful people have acknowledged in their memoirs that whenever they came to an impasse in their work and were completely baffled, they sought wisdom from the Lord.
This was true in the life of the inventor of the telegraph, Samuel F. B. Morse. In an interview, George Hervey inquired, “Professor Morse, when you were making your experiments at the university, did you ever come to a standstill, not knowing what to do next?” “I’ve never discussed this with anyone, so the public knows nothing about it. But now that you ask me, I’ll tell you frankly — I prayed for more light” “And did God give you the wisdom and knowledge you needed?” Yes He did,” said Morse. “That’s why I never felt I deserved the honors that came to me from America and Europe because of the invention associated with my name. I had made a valuable application of the use of electrical power, but it was all through God’s help. It wasn’t because I was superior to other scientists. When the Lord wanted to bestow this gift on mankind. He had to use someone. I’m just grateful He chose to reveal it to me.” That is why the first ever message sent over the telegraph by its inventor in his own Morse Code was: “What hath God wrought!”

God will generously give wisdom to all who ask. Not only for wisdom of course. God always gives generously. Listen to these promises in Matthew 7:7-11 – promises James may have heard Jesus himself make in the sermon on the mount!

New Century Bible Matt 7:7 Ask and GOD will give you what you ask for!!!
NEW LIVING MATT 7:7 “Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks. 9 You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
God WILL answer our prayers. God will give US good gifts – if we ask Him!

So James goes on:-
James 1:6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

The secret of answered prayer is faith. Faith is NOT some kind of good work we have to do to earn enough heavenly brownie points so that God will answer our prayer. Faith is that simple trust in God and in His love for us which opens us up to a relationship with God – and it’s that relationship which is the basis of all prayer. Not some vague optimism that God is there but the certain trust that He is, and that He WILL answer.

Asking faith receives answers to its prayers, as long as we ask “in faith, nothing wavering” (James 1:6). We need a faith which doesn’t shrink away from “the promise of God through unbelief; but…strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20)
ROMANS 4:18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

When we trust God, that opens US up to asking from Him and receiving from Him.
`Unbelief puts our circumstance between us and God, but faith puts God between us and our circumstances.’

One striking example of faith from more than a century ago was George Muller, an evangelist in Bristol and founder of an orphanage which over the years cared for and educated more than ten thousand children. Muller also founded 117 schools which together educated more than 120 thousand children. Here is just one answer to their prayers.
Things looked bleak when it was time for breakfast, and there was no food In the dining room, long tables were set with empty plates and empty mugs. Muller prayed, “Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.” Immediately, they heard a knock at the door. When they opened it, there stood the local baker. “Mr. Muller,” he said, “I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you had no bread for breakfast, so I got up at 2 o’clock and baked fresh bread. Here it is.” Muller thanked him and gave praise to God. Soon, a second knock was heard. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. He said he would like to give the children the milk so he could empty the cart and repair it. Source Unknown.

Ask God who gives generously! Then in chapter 4 verse 2 James sums up our problem with prayer very simply:-

2. YOU DO NOT HAVE BECAUSE YOU DO NOT ASK

James 4:2 You do not have, because you do not ask God.

R. A. Torrey lamented the average believer’s indifference to prayer by writing: `How little time the average Christian spends in prayer! We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little… the power of God is lacking in our lives and in our work. We have not because we ask not.

I came across a terrifying statistic . The average pastor or minister in America spends – how long do you think – each day in prayer? 3 hours? No! 30 minutes? No! The average pastor or minister in America spends only 3 MINUTES in prayer each day!! You do not have because you do not ask!

We should ASK – God DOES answer prayer and this is the best reason I can offer for praying more – GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS!

Shortly after Dallas Theological Seminary was founded in 1924, it almost came to the point of bankruptcy. All the creditors were going to foreclose at noon on a particular day. That morning they met in the president’s office with Dr. Chafer for prayer that God would provide. In that prayer meeting was a man by the name of Harry Ironside. When it was his turn to pray, he prayed in his characteristic manner: “Lord, we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are Thine. Please sell some of them and send us the money.”
While they were praying, a tall Texan with boots on and an open collar stepped up to the business office and said, “I just sold two carloads of cattle in Ft. Worth. I’ve been trying to make a business deal but it fell through, and I feel compelled to give the money to the seminary. I don’t know if you need it or not, but here’s the check!”
A little secretary took the check and, knowing how critical things were financially, went to the door of the prayer meeting and timidly tapped. When she finally got a response, Dr. Chafer took the check out of her hand. It was exactly the amount of the debt! When he looked at the name, he recognized the cattleman in Ft. Worth, and turning to Dr. Ironside said, “Harry, God sold the cattle!”

But James goes on with an important warning: We have to be careful and respectful about what we ask for and why we’re asking!!!
3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Sometimes the reason our prayers aren’t answered is that we’re asking for the wrong things, with wrong selfish motives. Prayer is asking for what GOD wants , not what we want – Not my will but YOURS be done. Prayer is asking God to do things for HIS glory, not for our glory, and not just for our comfort.

Agnes Sanford in ’The healing touch of God’: ’Prayer is not a matter of getting what we want the most. Prayer is a matter of giving ourselves to God and learning His laws, so that He can do through us what He wants the most’

F. B. Meyer (who wrote lots of hymns) was pastor of Christ’s Church in London at the same time that G. Campbell Morgan was pastor of Westminister Chapel and Charles H. Spurgeon was pastor of the Metropolitan Chapel. Both Morgan and Spurgeon often had much larger congregations than did Meyer. Meyer was troubled by envy, and later confessed that it was not until he began praying for his colleagues that he found peace in his heart. “When I prayed for their success,” said Meyer, “the result was that God filled their churches so full that the overflow filled mine, and it has been full since.”

If you have prayers that haven’t been answered just pause and reflect – are you certain you are asking for the right things and for the right reasons?

But if you ARE praying for the right things for the right reasons, then pray with faith and with boldness, because God does give generously to ALL who ask!

And then James gives us even more reasons to pray in chapter 5.
3. PRAYER BRINGS MIRACLES

James 5:13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

Some people think of prayer like a door we have to open so that we can go through to do whatever we want to do next. But prayer is much more like a light switch. One simple press and we release the mighty power of electricity which can light a whole building, or cause a lift to take us up to the top floor, or achieve countless things we in our own strength could never achieve. Prayer releases the power of Almighty God!

In 1540 Luther’s good friend and assistant, Friedrich Myconius, became sick and was expected to die within a short time. From his bed he wrote a tender farewell letter to Luther. When Luther received the message, he immediately sent back a reply: “I command thee in the name of God to live because I still have need of thee in the work of reforming the church — the Lord will never let me hear that thou art dead, but will permit thee to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God.” God apparently the prayer. Although Myconius had already lost the ability to speak when Luther’s reply came, he soon recovered. He lived six more years and died two months after Luther.
John 14:12-14;
John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

We need to discover more of the Almighty power of God through our prayers! Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance but laying hold of God’s willingness! So we should pray more! James says so! We looked recently at the life of the prophet Elijah, and this is what James says about that great man of prayer.

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

A challenging example for us to follow. But we shouldn’t be discouraged because we don’t pray like Elijah – yet! The purpose of these verses and this sermon is to encourage us to press on! To pray more and more!

I started putting together a list of some of the things we do not have – perhaps because we do not ask enough: or we have not yet learned to ask.

Packed services!!!
Peace in a troubled world
Lots of new Christians !!!!
A sense of the nearness of God
Miracles and healings!!!
That the whole of North Springfield will be saved!!!

But you will have your own list.What is there that you have not received – because you have not asked!

We should ASK GOD WHO GIVES GENEROUSLY – we should pray because PRAYER BRINGS MIRACLES – but too often YOU DO NOT HAVE BECAUSE YOU DO NOT ASK.

Galatians 1:6. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel l- 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
The word `gospel’ appears 13 times in Letter to Galatians. Paul writes to Christians in Galatia to defend the gospel, to stop them from missing the point or being sidetracked. For Paul the gospel is neither a discussion nor a debate. It is an announcement about a person – Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah There can only be one gospel because there is only ONE Jesus – the Son of God who was raised from the dead! Jesus in Himself was unique. And so was His glorious resurrection. Dead people stay dead – thats the way it works! But God raised Christ from the dead to DEMONSTRATE his uniqueness.
And that Gospel brings us
Galatians 1:3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
Peace is not just an absence of conflict but a deep inner wholeness and contentment which comes from being reconciled to God. And all God’s blessings come by grace – the free gift of God, from “the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins” (verse 4)
Oswald Chambers: We say that Jesus preached the gospel, but he did more. He came that there might be a gospel to preach.
The gospel is not only about who Jesus IS and what He has done for us – but HOW He has accomplished such a great salvation. – by His death on the cross. Some people preach an anaemic Christianity. They leave out the cross – they ignore Christ’s blood poured out as a sacrifice for you and for me. But Christ’s CROSS is the centre of the one true gospel! Christ gave himself for our sins. Christ died, Paul insists, to rescue us from the present evil age. Whether people realise it or not we ALL need rescuing!!! And gospel is the the only lifeline we have! How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation!!!! Yet the Galatians were being led astray.
Gal 1: 6. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
This gospel which Paul had preached and Galatians had gladly received is ONLY way of salvation – for them OR for us! This good news of Jesus Christ who is alive today, risen from dead, Jesus who died for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, to offer us grace and peace – if only we will accept it!!.
In the first three chapters of this letter Paul gives FOUR reasons why this gospel he is preaching is the one true gospel and the only way of salvation. And the first TWO reasons we find in chapter 1 are wrapped up in the way that Paul first received and experienced the gospel. Paul did not hear the gospel from other Christians. And Paul certainly did not invent the gospel himself. The truth is that Paul’s gospel came directly from his Damascus Road experience.
Paul insists
Gal:1 11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

That revelation came to Paul when he met with the Risen Jesus Christ on the Road to Damascus. Paul’s experience has become a figure of speech in all areas of life. When a politician has changed his mind we say he has had a “Damascus Road Experience.” There have been many theories to explain the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Hallucinations. Lightning. Epilepsy. When someone told the famous London preacher Joseph Parker that Saul’s conversion was caused by epilepsy, the London preacher replied: “Fly abroad, thou mighty epilepsy!”
When we think about the Paul’s Damascus Road experience there are two things we need to hold in tension.
Firstly, Paul’s Damascus Road Experience was UNIQUE. Saul of Tarsus was the only person to be converted going along Damascus Road in the mid 30s AD by seeing a vision of Risen Christ! All the other apostles, all the other historically significant eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus had also been with Jesus during his earthly ministry. Paul was the only one who met Christ only after his resurrection. So there was a HISTORICAL PECULIARITY to Paul’s conversion experience.
In Acts 26 we read of Paul giving his testimony.
Acts 26: 13 About noon, O King, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions.
14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, `Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
15 “Then I asked, `Who are you, Lord?’ “`I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.

When He met with the Risen Jesus, Paul realised TWO vitally important truths.
1. That JESUS IS ALIVE AND therefore 2. that JESUS DIED FOR SINS
Paul had been wrestling with a problem. Jesus had been crucified. That meant that he was cursed by God and therefore Jesus could not have been the Messiah, NOT the CHRIST. But solution to that mystery lay in the RESURRECTION Jesus is RISEN from the dead. Therefore Jesus IS LORD, therefore Jesus died for OUR SINS not His own, Jesus IS the CHRIST! This Double Whammy- the resurrection (implying that Jesus is Lord) and the cross (where Jesus died for our sins) this is what transformed Paul’s life. And the realisation of the cross and the resurrection should turn OUR lives upside down as well.
Paul’s gospel came from his encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. Some Muslims today suggest that Christianity did not come from Jesus but was invented by Paul. But that is nonsense – the gospel Paul preached came from Christ Himself. And lots of the other teaching we read in Paul’s letters also came directly from his experience of the Risen Christ, or from other visions and revelations Paul experienced .
Paul’s experience was unique! So we shouldn’t impose that pattern of conversion on every new Christian!! There are no 1st class and 2nd class conversions: crisis conversion as distinct from a pilgrimage of faith. NOT ALL CHRISTIANS will have a dramatic conversion as Paul did!
Paul’s Damascus Road experience was unique. But at the same time Paul’s Damascus Road experience was also TYPICAL. By that I mean that Paul’s conversion was a type, a pattern, a paradigm. Paul’s conversion DOES show us the difference Jesus makes to a life. Paul’s Damascus Road experience is indeed a pattern for the difference God makes through the transforming power of Christ.
Galatians 1 shows us the before and after of the transforming power of Christ.
BEFORE 13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
AFTER 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.’ 24 And they praised God because of me.
Sinner to saint. Opponent of Christ turned into missionary! Because the Risen Christ then immediately gave Paul a job to do. He sent him on a mission!
Acts 26: 15 “Then I asked, `Who are you, Lord?’ “`I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 `Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
So Paul’s Damascus Road Experience was both UNIQUE and TYPICAL – typical because not all but certainly very MANY Christians have encountered the Living Jesus Christ and experienced lives changed. These countless Damascus Road experiences of other Christians are evidence that helps us all trust in the reality of Paul’s experience, and the truth and certainty of gospel he proclaimed and we proclaim. THIS is the gospel entrusted to us – the gospel we believe and proclaim. God’s grace will transform our friends and neighbours, if they see Jesus alive in us – and if we explain to them the gospel of Christ’s cross and resurrection!
So here are the first two reasons Paul gives why the gospel he preached is the one and only true gospel. That gospel was revealed to Paul directly by God in that encounter on the Damascus Road. And that gospel changed Paul’s life and the lives of countless Christians since – including us who believe here today! Galatians 2 begins by giving us a third reason why we can be certain that Paul’s gospel is indeed the one true gospel. Paul’s gospel was confirmed by the rest of the early church.

Galatians 2 1. Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
6 As for those who seemed to be important- whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance- those men added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.
So Paul claims that the leaders of the Early Church confirmed that the gospel he preached was true. And we can rely on this claim for al least two reasons:
Firstly, if some meeting like that had not happened at some point then the apostles or other church leaders would certainly have stood up and opposed Paul publically – Paul would never have been accepted into the Early Church;
Secondly, if Paul’s gospel had not been confirmed, then letters like Galatians would never have been widely read and collected and added into the New Testament. If Paul’s gospel was not true then his letters, like so much rubbish which was floating around in 1st and 2nd Centuries, would have been condemned by the churches as heretical and gathered up and burned.
But the fact is that alongside the four records of Jesus’s life by Matthew Mark Luke and John, Paul’s letters formed the heart of the faith of the growing churches. So we need have no doubts – the gospel Paul preached was accepted and confirmed by the rest of the Early Church. It is indeed the true gospel!
And Paul fourth defence of the truth of his gospel comes in Galatians 3. There he points to his readers’ own experience. It is God the Holy Spirit who brings to Christians every experience of salvation, from first to last! It is all the work of the Holy Spirit! And the Galatians themselves had received the Holy Spirit precisely at the point when they had believed Paul’s gospel!
2 ,,, Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
Can you see what Paul is saying here. His whole argument rests on the presumption that
receiving the Holy Spirit, being born again and beginning the Christian life is a VISIBLE experience – something so evident, so dramatic, that it can be used by Paul to demonstrate that HIS gospel is true. That was the case for Paul on the Damascus Road. It was true of very many believers in the Early Church. When Peter and John prayed for people and laid their hands on them in Samaria in Acts 8, or when Paul prayed for the Ephesians in Acts 19. When the Holy Spirit came into people’s lives that was evident by speaking in tongues or words of prophecy or overwhelming joy or a peace which passed understanding in the midst of persecution and suffering. In the Early Church the work of the Holy Spirit was very often spectacular and public, visible and evident to all. For Paul receiving the Spirit is something people would recognise and point to! Paul even links receiving the Spirit and the working of miracles. He slots them in the same sentence almost as if they are referring to the same events in the experience of the Galatians.
Galatians 3:5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
In the early church the arrival of the Holy Spirit is often expressed in miracles of healing and of deliverance from the demonic. Such events were frequent and normal. So everybody would know when somebody had received the Holy Spirit! That was the case throughout the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. It should really be called the Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The witness of the early church was very simple. Time after time God did something extraordinary in their midst, the people around asked “how did that happen?” and the first Christians simply replied, “God did that!” All kinds of signs and wonders. “God did that!”
God’s wonderful salvation and this gift of the Holy Spirit came to the Galatians when they believed the gospel Paul had preached. And this is the gospel which has released the power of the Holy Spirit into our lives even today.
So if anybody asks us why we are sure that the gospel we believe is the one true gospel, Galatians gives us four answers. We can be sure because this gospel was revealed directly by God. It is the gospel which transformed Paul’s life and which has transformed our own lives too. It is the gospel believed and confirmed by all the first Christians, the whole of the Early Church,. And this is the gospel which released God the Holy Spirit into the lives of the Galatians and which still releases the power of the Holy Spirit into our own lives today. With such a wonderful gospel, we should be the people who are not afraid to believe what we preach and to preach what we believe!

Does anybody here like mysteries? I love a good mystery! And I am going to share a mystery with you this morning. But I may be misleading you a little. Because when people use the word mystery nowadays they are usually talking about detective mysteries, Sherlock Holmes or Chief Inspector Morse – puzzles to be solved. But I am using the word mystery in its original sense. Something hidden. Something mysterious. Something waiting to be revealed. This morning we are going to talk about what the apostle Paul calls God’s mystery. Something God is doing in secret which at the moment is concealed but in the fullness of time will be revealed to everybody. We could call it “God’s cosmic masterplan.” That is the heart of the message of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: God’s cosmic masterplan. And that masterplan is all wrapped up in the Church, God’s new community.
One body for God’s glory SLIDE 2
This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel,
members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. (3:6)
In the Old Testament all of God’s purposes were being fulfilled through His chosen people the nation of Israel. But when Christ came all God’s promises were offered more widely to reach every person of every race and every nation. So anybody can be blessed with
the unsearchable riches of Christ, (3:8)
Indeed the blessings God has given us in Christ are unsearchable – we will enjoy God’s love throughout eternity and still have only experienced a tiny fraction of all that God has for us in Christ. But God hasn’t just planned to bless us as individuals.
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (3:10-11)
God’s masterplan is to reveal His wisdom to the whole of Creation – through Christ and through the church. But for us the most obvious expression of his mystery is in
All the blessings God gives us SLIDE 3
every spiritual blessing in Christ. (1:3)
he chose us in him …
“You did not choose me but I chose you” Jesus said

.to be holy and blameless in his sight. (1:4)
We see our own faults, imperfections, our failures, our wilful sins, but God does not see these things! He only sees Christ on the cross in our place paying the penalty for us. God makes us holy and blameless.

he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, (1:5)
Salvation is God’s gift. There is nothing we could have done, not even saying yes to god’s gracious offer of eternal life, which can contribute to our salvation. It is all of God’s wonderful grace. And God the eternal heavenly Father adopts us into His family and makes us His beloved children!
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, (1:7)
God has redeemed us – He has bought us back! Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven! Who like me His praise should sing?
the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (1:8)
Grace – God’s riches at Christ’s expense. God has lavished on us every spiritual blessing in Christ!
If only we could see ourselves as God sees us!
In eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, the root of problem is that the person looks in the mirror and sees a distorted picture of themselves. They see themselves as too fat, or too thin. So they starve themselves or binge eat to compensate. If only they could see themselves as they really are they would not do these things!
Many Christians suffer from spiritual anorexia – they just don’t see themselves as God sees them! We need to remind ourselves that what matters is not how we feel about ourselves but how God feels about us. What matters is not what we say about ourselves but what God says about us. The Bible shows us how God sees us in Christ! The Bible is God’s mirror that shows us what we are truly like in God’s eyes, just how precious and special we are to God!!

And the wonderful truth is that each one of us who has trusted in Christ as our Saviour has received EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING IN CHRIST! The sadness is that for most of the time we just don’t realise it!!
There was once a rich man who read about a very special and precious painting. He saw a photograph of the picture, liked what he saw and wanted to own the original. So he sent his staff out to buy it for him. For months they asked around and looked in all kinds of places. In the end the report came back. The painting had been wrapped up and tucked away in the rich man’s own house. He already owned it!! But just wasn’t enjoying it! In the same way so many Christians do not enjoy so many of the blessings they have already received in Christ!! We are already so richly blessed!

God’s “mystery” = cosmic masterplan SLIDE 4
the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, purposed in Christ, (1:9)
God doesn’t just plan to bless each of us as individuals. God has a mystery, a secret cosmic masterplan to bless the whole of Creation. That plan is this:
to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (1:10)
God’s purposes are not complete when individuals are saved. His masterplan is to unite the whole universe in Christ. He has begun this already when Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead. We have been
brought near through the blood of Christ. (2:13)
Jesus has brought us back to God. And all who are brought back to God in Christ are also brought closer to each other – in Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one (2:14)
Christians talk a lot about the peace of Christ. Can the world see that peace in our church relationships? Within the Body of Christ there is plenty of room for diversity of gifts, but underlying that diversity is a very special unity which comes from Christ Himself.
His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, (2:15)
The world is divided by so many things: race and colour, riches and poverty, even religion, Jews and non-Jews. God’s cosmic masterplan is to heal division by bringing peace through Christ. All who come to Christ are united in His body, the church.

God’s new community the church SLIDE 5
When any person is saved they become part of God’s new community, the church. They are
no longer foreigners and aliens,
but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, (2:19)
This is God’s cosmic masterplan – we are all united in Christ.
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. (2:20)
Each of us are the bricks God is using to build a new kind of temple.
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (2:21)
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (2:22)
The old Temples were built of stone. The New Temple is made of living stones and God lives in us!
So what part do we have to play in God’s cosmic masterplan? It’s very simple. God is creating a new community, all one in Christ Jesus. All we have to do is not mess things up!

Don’t break that unity! SLIDE 6
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (4:1-6)
We have so much in common that draws us together – so much which we share as Christians which this lost world does not share.
4 There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
We have SO MUCH in common. All the blessings God has poured out on each of us as Christians as we saw from Ephesians chapter 1. God’s wonderful grace which we haven’t even looked at from chapter 2.
2 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
As Christians we share all these blessings. We have so many things in common – we HAVE to learn to live with each other. We are one body – says Paul. Think about your body. Is there any part of your body you don’t like? Your ears? Your nose? Your feet when they play you up? But is there any part of your body you dislike so much that if you could you would have the doctors chop it off? I very much doubt it. We are the family of God! Think of your human family – your relatives – is there any member of your human family you wish was dead? Wish they were cut off? Wish they just weren’t part of the family any more? Of course not! Christians should never ignore other Christians or treat them as if they aren’t part of the family of the church.
Keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace can be very hard. Some people are very hard to please!!! We can all find things to criticise and even fall out about!
The wife of one hard-to-please husband was determined to try her best to satisfy him for just one day. ‘Darling,’ she asked, ‘what would you like for breakfast this morning?’ He growled, ‘Coffee and toast, bacon and sausage, and two eggs — one scrambled and one fried.’ She soon had the food on the table and waited for a word of praise. After a quick glance, he exclaimed, ‘Trust you to go and scramble the wrong egg!”
We can always find things to criticise. We need to work hard at preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. God has already created the unity – in Christ. All we have to do is not mess things up! Because when we do we are getting in the way of His cosmic masterplan!
Two porcupines in the freezing north country of Canada huddled together to keep warm in the snow. But because they were pricked by each other’s quills, they moved apart. Soon they were shivering again and had to lie side by side once more for their own survival. They needed each other even more than they needled each other!
Members of any church sometimes rub up against each other and needle each other. But we DO NEED each other even more than we needle each other! But we need to work hard to stick together, to move on with God as ONE body, ONE family.
To dwell above with saints we love,
That will be grace and glory.
To live below with saints we know;
Well that’s another story!
At the end of Ephesians 4 Paul explains in practice what we need to do to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Eph 4:29 Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you. 30 And do not make God’s Holy Spirit sad; for the Spirit is God’s mark of ownership on you, a guarantee that the Day will come when God will set you free. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
Forgive others as God has forgiven us. A great general once said to John Wesley, “I never forgive and I never forget.” To which Wesley responded, “Then Sir, I hope you never sin.” When we reflect on how much God has forgiven us, it makes our own little grudges against others seem rather petty.
Here is God’s mystery. His cosmic masterplan is to bring the whole of Creation together in one body, His new community, even in Christ. And we who have received every spiritual blessing in Christ are part of that masterplan!

G.K.Chesterton once said, “When people stop believing in God the problem is not that they believe nothing. The problem is that they will believe anything”
That is the world we live in today. Most people have stopped believing in God. But only a few would call themselves atheists and say they believe nothing. The danger is that people will believe all kinds of weird and wacky things! And so the words of Paul in 2 Thessalonians are particularly relevant to us today.
2 Thess 2:3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way!
As we will see as we read the New Testament week by week over the course of The Whole Story, most of letters in NT were written to correct wrong teachings. If we want to understand the letters we start by trying to identify the false teaching which is being challenged. This week we are going to start by looking at what was either the first or the second letter in the New Testament ever to be written. Around 50 AD some members of the church at Thessalonica had got hold of the wrong idea that the Jesus had already returned, that the Second Coming had already happened. So the apostle Paul wrote the letter we know as 2 Thessalonians to put them right.
2 Thess 2:3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. Don’t be fooled! Here is an important up-to-date warning for Christians today!
The Jews in Jesus’s time were expecting God to send the Messiah, the Christ, to save his people. But at the same time they were expecting opposites to Christ, human rulers who would be opposed to God’s people. So the first Christians shared that expectation – that many would come pretending to be Christ in order to deceive God’s chosen people. And Jesus himself gave that warning.
Matthew 24:4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no-one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ….8 All these are the beginning of birth-pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. …. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
So from the very beginning Jesus warned his disciples against those who would deceive them – false prophets – anti-Christs. And we find similar warnings elsewhere in the New Testament.
2 John7 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
1 John 2:22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.
Here in 2 Thessalonians Paul uses a different title to warn young Christians not to be deceived by “the man of lawlessness.
2 Thess 2 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
This “man of lawlessness” or “man of sin” will be a human being. He will not be the devil but the devil’s human representative. He will oppose God and God’s people. And he will be a religious figure, claiming to be God.
Some people think Paul and Jesus were referring to the Emperor Caligula. Like many Roman Emperors, Caligula claimed to be a god, and demanded that his subjects worship him as a god. In AD 40 Caligula had a statue of himself placed in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. But Paul was almost certainly writing to the Thessalonians around AD50, after Caligula. So it is better to understand that there will be a number of fulfilments of this warning, a number of antichrists through the centuries. Some would say the Roman Emperor Nero, who lit his gardens with the bodies of burning Christians. Hitler? Stalin? A succession of evil men who set themselves up against God.
Listen carefully to how Paul goes on to describe this “man of lawlessness”.
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
“All kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders and every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.”
We must be on our guard because not everything which is supernatural comes from God – quite the reverse.
There is an explosion of interest in the supernatural in these days. But people aren’t looking for answers in the church, but instead to the New Age and to the Occult.
All kinds of occult practices are now spreading like wildfire. It is curious really, since the word “occult” means “hidden” and for centuries these things were kept hidden for the inner circle of practitioners. But nowadays the occult is getting more much more free publicity than ever before. Films like the Exorcist, TV programmes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the X-files and Charmed, books like Harry Potter, all making evil seem “cool”. Ordinary people and especially children are being introduced to all kinds of occult practices. Psychic fayres and New Age shops will sell you anything you need to do all kinds of things from casting spells to contacting the dead. And the world wide web is luring curious people deeper and deeper into evil.
In Britain today only a quarter of people now believe in a personal God. Less than a quarter believe that the Bible is the unique Word of God. Almost half believe instead in some kind of spirit or life force, like the idea of The Force described in ‘Star Wars’, an impersonal “Force” controlling destiny and events. In the 2001 census the fourth most popular named religion was “Jedi Knight.”
Around seven out of ten people think we have a soul and a quarter of the population believe in reincarnation. The proportion of people who call themselves atheists has remained constant at around 8%. But in 1990, more than half the population considered themselves “religious’. Over the last 20 years that figure has halved to LESS than a quarter! A third of people now prefer to call themselves ‘spiritual’ but NOT religious and just as many believe they can find their way to God outside of organised religion. One in six have tried astrology and just as many have tried fortune telling or Tarot cards. For many people the most important religious festival of the year is Halloween!
Be warned! Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way!
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
So many fantasy stories are based around magic. Whether it is Harry Potter or Merlin, or Charmed, books and television and films present magic and witchcraft as harmless and even exciting. But the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy warns of the dangers of supernatural knowledge and different forms of The Occult.
Deuteronomy 18 9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no-one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
We should be on our guard against dabbling in the Occult. Witchcraft, magic, spells, voodoo are ALL evil!
So also are all forms of fortune-telling or divination. Crystal balls, tarot cards, runes, crystal gazing and palm reading, reading tea leaves (etc), Astrology and horoscopes, dowsing, psychometry. These are all dangerous deceptions, doorways into danger. CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO with any form of fortune telling
The same is true of SPIRITISM or SPIRITUALISM
Attempting to communicate with the dead: we find that in films like Ghost, What lies beneath, and TV programmes like “Medium”.
Séances, Mediums, Ouija boards, table tipping, automatic writing, trances, spiritualist so-called “churches”or spiritual healers. These also are all dangerous deceptions, doorways into danger! CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO with any form of spiritualism.
Remember that the Old Testament commanded the death penalty for mediums and any form of spiritualism. ALL dangerous because they bring people into contact with the demonic
Of course there are the fakes, the frauds, or the illusionists like Derren Brown who use very clever trick to entertain people. But what about the paranormal? What is the truth about psychics and mediums, extrasensory perception (ESP) telepathy, clairvoyants, second sight or déjà vu, or “unexplained” phenomena like ghosts and poltergeists.
These things might appear real when you watch series like Twilight Zone, Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, or films like Indiana Jones or The Librarian or X-men. X files says “the truth is out there.” But what is the truth?
The Bible teaches us very clearly that ALL supernatural knowledge is either good or evil – from God or from the devil and the demonic! There is NO neutral ground, no “special powers” which some human beings have and others don’t. No “paranormal phenomena” which are morally neutral and therefore safe to dabble in. There is only good and evil. Either it’s from God or it’s from the devil – make your mind up!
We mustn’t rule out messages from God. God still speaks in his church through ordinary people and the spiritual gifts of prophecy and words of knowledge and words of wisdom. But the Bible gives us criteria for testing prophecy to see if it comes from God.
Deuteronomy 18 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
If predictive prophecy does not come true, then it was not from God. But the corollary of that statement is NOT that if it does come true it must have come from God. There are dangers from magic and the occult in the world around. But there are dangers of being deceived even in parts of the church too. We must be on our guard for false teaching.
2 Tim 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
We must continually check out what we are taught by comparing it with the timeless truth of God’s Word the Bible. As we read last week.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
The devil can know the future. And demons CAN produce miracles! Healings through witchcraft or voodoo or spiritualism. If we see what appears to be a miracle, that is not necessarily proof that it is God at work!
So we must not be distracted by the miracles reported even in churches. I passionately believe that God still works miracles of healing and deliverance in the church today. I have seen God work such miracles and I have experienced miracles of healing in my own body! But we must also be on our guard against being deceived.
2 Thess 2:9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
Again – when we see miracles even in churches, we must be on our guard. A genuine miracle of healing or deliverance is God’s gift to the person who is healed – it is NOT proof of that every word the preacher says is true. Genuine miracles can happen in a church where those who God heals and others around are believing Christians – even if the evangelist or preacher is far, far away from God, and some American so-called evangelists and preachers spring to mind. God still works despite the sins of men.
We need to be on our guard so that nobody deceives us in any way! We need the spiritual gift of discernment, because the devil is out to lead Christians astray even more than ever.
There have been so many false teachings though the ages leading the church astray: Christ wasn’t truly God, Christ wasn’t truly human, God is too loving ever to punish sinners, we can be saved by good works, we can be saved by generous giving,
And there are so many wrong ideas in the church today – health wealth and prosperity teaching. All religions lead to God. Success is proof of truth. These are wrong ideas – don’t be fooled!
But also, finally, don’t be worried! God will be victorious!
2 Thess 2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming.
Christ will have the final victory! But until He returns, be warned – be on your guard. Don’t be fooled! Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way!

Eleven Great Reasons to read the Bible

“Bibles which are falling apart usually belong to people who are not”.
But why read the Bible??? Let’s look together at three short passages of the New Testament which together give us ELEVEN great reasons for reading the Bible.
FIRST READING John 2030 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Of a ministry of 3 years or more than a thousand days, only 50 days are recorded of Jesus’s ministry. The Apostle John selected to tell us just a few of the things Jesus said and just a few of the things Jesus did. But these accounts are sufficient to achieve his twin aims.
“that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
1. So we can believe in Jesus
Romans 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ……. 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
In order to believe in Jesus we have to know about him. We have to hear the message!

2. So we can enjoy life in all its fullness
“God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in Him will not die but have eternal life.”
It is as we believe in Jesus that we receive and experience eternal life.
Read the Bible. Free gift inside
Last Sunday evening :-
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (NIV)
We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust. (The Message)
The great Scottish Bible expositor Alexander MacLaren once wrote: ‘We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank and told to help himself, and comes out with only one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor?”
God has given us his “very great and precious promises” “our tickets to participation in the life of God” everything we need for life and godliness, life in all its fulness, eternal life which begins right here and now and which not even death can take away from us.

SECOND READING Luke 1:1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eye-witnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

3. To know from eyewitnesses the wonderful things Jesus said and did.
A man who loves his wife will love her letters and her photographs because they speak to him of her. So if we love the Lord Jesus, we shall love the Bible because it speaks to us of him.
John R. W. Stott (1921– )
The apostle Peter said to Jesus, “Where else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” We want to know the things our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said. His teaching. His parables. His claims. His words of wisdom and encouragement and challenge.
And we want to know the wonderful things Jesus did. The miracles of healing the sick and driving out demons and feeding the 5000 and calming the storm and even raising the dead. Eating with sinners and even forgiving their sins.
We want to know the details of the things Jesus said and did because it is these words and actions which bring us new life. And in the New Testament we have not one but four parallel accounts of the life of Jesus based on eyewitness testimony.

4. To know what the first disciples believed and taught
so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. How can we be sure that we are understanding the things Jesus said and did correctly? Because we have the teaching circulated and received in the Early Church. We have the letters mostly written by the apostles themselves explaining the Christian faith as they themselves received it from Jesus Himself. We can be sure that the understanding we have of Jesus passed on to us through the ages by his people the Church is correct, because it comes to us from the Early Church in the things the first Christians wrote and believed and preached.

THIRD READING 2 Tim 314 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

5. The Holy Scriptures make us “wise for salvation”
Only a couple of months ago we were asking the question – “What is salvation?” We were thinking about the wonderful forgiveness God gives us through Jesus’s death on the cross putting us “right with God.” We thought about how we share Christ’s resurrection life, life in all its fullness, eternal life, which begins here and how and which not even death can take away from us. We thought about love and joy and peace and the gift of God the Holy Spirit living inside us. We thought about the privilege of prayer and of belonging to God’s forever family, the Church. All the blessings of salvation. We know about those blessings and we come to experience them through God’s Word the Bible.
The Bible is our “handbook of salvation”. If you have a car it probably came with a handbook which tells you how to start it and how to open the windows and maybe even how to change a wheel. But other handbooks for cars are available which tell you how to service them and repair them and fix them if they get damaged and get them running better than they did when they came from the factory. If you have ever had to repair your own car, as I did when I was an impoverished minister in training and couldn’t afford garage bills, you have probably come across “Haynes manuals”. They take a car apart piece by piece and then put it together again taking photographs at every stage to show you how to do the same.
The Bible is our “Haynes Manual” for the Christian life! Everything we need to know is in there – it makes us “wise for salvation.” Our handbook for salvation.
George Mueller said this about God’s word: “The viguor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts. I solemnly state this from the experience of 54 years. The first 3 years after conversion I neglected the word of God. Since I began to search it diligently the blessing has been wonderful. Great has been the blessing from consecutive, diligent, daily study. I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the word of God.”

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

6. The Bible is inspired – God-breathed

Inspiration is not the SOURCE of the Bible’s authority for us. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Those words have authority and power in our lives precisely because Jesus said them, not just because the gospel-writer was inspired when he wrote down John 11:25. The authority comes from the Lord Jesus Christ who spoke those words. But the inspiration of Scripture is the guardian of that authority. We can trust that Jesus really did make all the wonderful promises we read in the Bible, because Matthew and Mark and Luke and John were inspired in their recording of what Jesus said. We can trust that Jesus really did DO all the wonderful things we read about, because the gospel writers were inspired. And we can trust that our understanding of who Jesus was and what he accomplished is correct because all the other New Testament writers were inspired to write exactly what God wants us to read.

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Scripture is useful, older translations say “profitable” and Paul now lists five areas of our Christian life where the Bible is useful and even profitable for us..

7. The Bible teaches us

The New Testament word for Christian is disciple, and disciples are learners. We can learn everything we need to know about our Christian life and faith from reading the Bible and understanding it correctly. We learn about God the Father, about Jesus the Son of God, about the work of the Holy Spirit. We learn about salvation and heaven and hell and love and holy living. We learn about prayer and worship and Christian service and witnessing and church. Jesus said “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” The Bible teaches us the truth which sets us free.
8. The Bible rebukes us

The Bible challenges our wrong ideas and our wrong behaviour. When we go astray it brings us back to Jesus
You cannot criticize the Bible- It criticizes you.
Sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will keep you from sin. — Dwight L. Moody

9. The Bible corrects us
The Bible puts us right when we are going wrong, correcting false doctrine and understandings, as well as wrong behaviour.

10. The Bible trains us in righteousness
The Bible shows us how to live righteous and holy lives.
“Other books were given for our information, the Bible was given for our transformation.” DL Moody
A young believer was discouraged in his attempts to read and remember the Bible. He said, “It’s no use. No matter how much I read, I always forget what I have just read.” A wise pastor replied, “Take heart. When you pour water over a sieve, no matter how much you pour, you don’t collect much. But at least you end up with a clean sieve.”
Don’t let the world around squeeze you into its own mould, but let God remould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” (Romans 12:2 in J.B.Phillips)
11. The Bible equips us for every good work
We want to know how to please God – the Bible teaches us. We want to know how to serve God in the church and in the world, the Bible shows us how. We want to know how to pray and to worship, the Bible will tell us. We want to witness for Jesus and share our faith, the Bible tells us how. If we want to be USEFUL Christians, the Bible equips us to be useful for God.
So there we go – 11 great reasons for reading the Bible.
• So we can believe in Jesus
• So we can enjoy life in all its fullness
• To know from eyewitnesses the wonderful things
Jesus said and did.
• To know what the first disciples believed and taught
• The Scriptures make us “wise for salvation.”
• All Scripture is God-breathed
• The Bible teaches us
• The Bible rebukes us
• The Bible corrects us
• The Bible trains us in righteousness
• The Bible equips us for every good work

If we want to enjoy all these blessings which the Bible will bring us, Scripture itself tells us in many different places what we must do.
We must read it; We must feed on it and take it into our very being; We must bathe in it for spiritual cleansing; we must look into it like mirror to see our true self; We must meditate on it; We must commit it to memory ; We must study it; We must teach it to others; We must talk about it; and we must preach the Bible and sow its seeds of truth in the field of the world.

Read the Bible – free gift inside!