Jesus' Grandfather

Check out this interesting blog on the differences between the genealogies in Matthew and Luke's gospels, posted on the 'Christianity Today' website.

http://bit.ly/6JpClY

Do you find this convincing? How else would you explain the differences in the accounts?

Faith: Part 3

This is my third and final post on faith. In these posts, which focus on the calling of Peter and his friends, I have been trying to assert is that faith is never merely about what we 'believe', as if belief in something can be limited to the intellectual sphere. No - faith must necessarily spill over into what we do, into the essence of who we are as people. This is the lesson of Peter's encounter with Jesus. So how can we become the kind of people who are filled with that kind of faith?

The extent to which we respond in faith will always be the extent to which we know the risen Jesus. We cannot be filled with faith unless we know Him for ourselves and are filled with his Holy Spirit. Derivative knowledge will not do. Our churches are filled with people who leach their pastors faith, believing that they can live 'through' their pastor. They can't and this is why many church-goers' lives look no different to the world's lives. Vicarious knowledge of Jesus is not enough.

But how can we develop such a knowledge of Jesus? Firstly, we need to learn to be in Jesus’ presence. Just to sit with him. We need to become more and more familiar with him through any and every element of our lives. We need to get familiar with him through reading the bible, through developing an active prayer life, through talking with other Jesus followers and through acting on what we think he might be saying. We need to encounter Jesus on every level of the human experience and we need to do it often. We cannot survive on our 'conversion experience' alone. Every day God is waiting for us to meet Him afresh. Faith in God which does not engage the daily experience will soon become academic and stale, losing its vitality.

Jesus himself says this to his disciples in Luke 18.

"¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And 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, ⁵yet 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!' "

⁶And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

Persistence in prayer is one of the key ways we develop faith, because through it we find out about who God is what He is like.

We learn something more on this subject from Simon Peter. In verse 8 we see Peter’s response to the miracle he has just witnessed. He says “go away from me , Lord, for I am a sinful man!” This is typical of anyone who has come into the presence of the living God. Peter sees Jesus for who he really is and in so doing he recognizes who he really is too, a sinful man.

Peter's analysis of the situation is quite wrong at this point. He thinks that his sinfulness means that Jesus won’t want to associate with him. In reality, quite the reverse is true. Simon’s sinfulness is exactly the reason Jesus wants to associate with him. Jesus has come to 'seek and save what has been lost' and that begins with Simon and will eventually be done through Simon. Jesus knows there is something in Simon that is totally untapped and unrealized, and he wants to bring it out of him. He wants Simon to be his disciple. He thinks that Simon can become like him because Simon has the X-Factor - faith and humility. In other words Simon knows what he lacks and what he needs.

Jesus, in interacting with Simon in this way, is saying that Simon is up to the job of becoming just like Jesus. This, too, is his promise to us.

In verse 10 we see that Jesus sees beyond Simon's fear into his heart and ultimately into his future. He calls him, redefining what he has always done and re-directing it for the greater purpose of the Kingdom of God. That’s how Jesus wants to work in our lives too. He takes what we have and directs it for his greater good. Our job is simply to submit and obey. Jesus is not asking us to put a mask on before we come and serve him. In fact quite the opposite is true. He wants us to come just as we are and he will use what we have and multiply it.

Simon's response says it all. He is the representative of his accomplices here, making the same decision they all choose to make. This is the hinge point of their lives. They have seen Jesus do amazing things before this, but they have not yet made the key decision to follow. Here, they unmistakably and irrefutably do just that; “they left everything.” This is the true response of faith and also the test of faith. You know when someone has really given themselves over to Jesus because they choose to leave everything for Jesus.

It’s pretty amazing to think that Simon leaves even the catch of fish, which would have been worth a heck of a lot of money, as well as his business and family behind in order to follow this guy he has only recently met. Simon knows that the financial value of the haul, even the total value of the business is nothing in comparison with the value of being around Jesus. The young men don't even bother to sell the fish!

Simon has been made aware of the fruit of obedience and now he chooses to follow with everything he has. He, John and James now know that it will be totally worth their while. Meeting Jesus has put everything else in perspective for them. Even their livelihood has now taken second place to the call of Jesus. Their faith in them has led to greater obedience to what he wants for them. They could not bear to be without him after what they have seen.

What impact must this have had on the crowd watching? Surely it shook them to their core? What impact would it have on the places we live and work if we were known as people who would gladly follow Jesus even if it meant leaving behind all the trappings of the world? What kind of world would we inhabit have if those of us that believe in Jesus gave up everything for him, even the things that hold us back and stop us from being totally abandoned to Jesus? What would our gospel look like if we held it out especially to those who are fully aware of their inability to make it on their own - to the least and the poorest?

Jesus used these fishermen to change the world! He can do the same with us!

How much are you willing to give up for him to do that?

Faith is an event and a process; it is a departure point and a journey. Some of us have set off on the journey and are now walking with Jesus and keeping in step with His Spirit. For us, we need the encouragement to keep on walking and obeying as we go. Others have not yet set off. We need to make the decision to begin walking and trusting in Jesus with all we have, knowing that He will bring along what we lack. Others have walked with him before but have stopped walking. They need to begin again, knowing that there is enough grace for them to stand up and re-start the journey.

There is room for all of us in a story as big as this and there is grace for all of us too. Jesus says the same thing to one and all, 'come and follow me'. This is our duty but it is also our destiny. Only in following him do we discover who we are and what we were born to do.

Faith: Part 2

In verse 4 we see that Jesus finishes teaching. He hasn't finished working though. In fact, the greater work of testing and calling Simon is only just beginning. Jesus is not content merely to work in the supposedly 'spiritual realm', with things like teaching crowds. No, he is innately relational. There is as much in that sphere for him as in any other element of his ministry. He is perfectly well balanced in his priorities. No one element of his work takes precedence over the other and all are in submission to his relationship with God the Father. This is the model he lays down for the lives of all who follow him. 

Yet this will involve a certain amount of laying down other priorities, processes, even relationships if we are to re-order our lives in line with his. We will often need to learn to say 'no' before we can properly say 'yes'. This will come as each of us make the step of personal obedience to listen to God and to obey what says. 

This is exactly the same attitude that we see in Simon, Jesus’ first disciple. After Jesus has finished speaking he looks to Simon and asks him to begin fishing. Where does Jesus get this idea from? It must be that he has heard it directly from the Father, otherwise it is lunacy. There is absolutely no worldly sense in this request. There is no reason whatsoever that Simon should obey him, other than through recognising who Jesus really is by faith. Faith is the only reason that Simon would even allow Jesus to say something so preposterous. How can a carpenter advise a fisherman on fishing? Simon has been fishing all night – which is when you fish – and has caught nothing. If nothing has been caught at night then fishing in the day is hardly going to help.

But this act is not merely about Simon’s faith, it is about Jesus’ faith. Jesus is the one who has started this event through his hearing God and knowing that God was not finished with him once the sermon had ended. Jesus obeys what he hears his father saying. And it Jesus’ obedience that gives Simon the model for his own obedience.

Simon knows that what Jesus is asking him makes little sense, and in a gentle way he tells Jesus so. “Master…” In spite of this Simon doesn't ask for a sign or even an explanation, he simply obeys.

Jesus’ authority comes from knowing that his Father has told him to do this. Jesus is perfectly obedient to what God is asking of Him…and so is Simon. He knows it doesn’t make any sense to do what Jesus is asking Him but he trusts it all the same, simply on the basis of his faith in Jesus. He doesn't even know Jesus that well. But he trusts on the basis of what he does know, and he does not allow what he doesn't know to stand in his way. Simon has already seen his mother healed and he trusts that something good will come of this even if he doesn’t know what. He doesn't know everything but he knows enough, and this is enough for him for now.

And here is the crucial element, he acts. Much of the church has tried to separate faith and action as if they could be held apart. They can’t. To have faith in Jesus is to trust in what he is saying and to demonstrate that by following him. Sometimes that means that we will end up doing some really stupid things. Sometimes we won’t have a clue about the outcome until we are halfway through the story. Sometimes we won’t know how God has used us until afterwards. Sometimes we will have to wait until heaven!

“Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Simon’s trust is not in the advice Jesus gives but in the person who is giving it. He has faith in Jesus and he acts out that faith.

And the fruit of obedience is abundance. Simon’s nets are so full that he has to bring his partners James and John into the equation to help. Even then both boats are sinking under the load of the haul of fish.

What has happened here is in no way normal. What has happened here is totally miraculous. Simon has learned a key lesson through this; when we are fully obedient to the powerful words of Jesus we see our lives bursting with fruit. There is nothing that can stand in the way of the obedient disciples of Jesus. This has to be true for us too. Sometimes the blessing of faith, the abundance, will be the faith itself. Sometimes it will be material. We don't choose. All we can do is receive and be thankful.

Those of us who follow Jesus know that what we want to see happen in the world is so much greater than anything we could imagine on our own and anything we could grow. It's an agenda born out of hope, not rationale or even experience. We want to see this creation transformed by the love of Jesus. We want to see God’s Kingdom spill out of us and touch the world that we encounter day by day. We want to see people fall so deeply in love with Jesus that their lives are changed forever. We want to see addictions forgotten, demons cast out, people healed and the name of Jesus become synonymous with our city, state and country – and we want to see radical faith filled communities sending other churches out into the world for this to happen elsewhere.

 We are only ever going to see this happen if we hear and obey the word of Jesus. There is no short cut to this. Hear and obey. Hear and obey. We believe in the one who has all we need because we know we can't do it on our own.

In the final blog in this series we will look at how we can position ourselves for this kind of life.

Faith: Part 1

How do we follow Jesus into the job of changing the world? What do we need in our proverbial locker if we are to see God’s Kingdom come to change and heal this hurting and broken world through us? We need to have an intimate relationship with the living God by His Holy Spirit for one. This will lead us to a genuine love for others too, which is crucial; but we also need faith - and lots of it.

Despite his many shortcomings, I see Peter as a fine model of faith in the gospels. He gets some things wrong but he gets a heck of a lot right too, so I thought I would spend the next few blogs going through Luke 5.1-11, where we see Peter being called to follow Jesus. This is how the story goes...

1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

 5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

 6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

 8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

   Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him."

We begin with a description of the scene, but without much of an explanation for it. Why was Jesus standing by the lake? The implied explanation given is simply that he was there to teach. That is what his ministry is about in some part. He has just laid out the multi-faceted nature of his ministry in Luke 4 - his own manifesto as it were - drawn from Isaiah 61, and now he has begun to work it out in public. He has already healed one man with an unclean Spirit, a woman ( Simon's mother) from a fever and has cast out many demons - no sickness is too big or too small for Jesus - and now he continues to teach. His teaching can never be separated from his healing and vice versa. They are inextricably linked as they both form a part of his composite announcement of the reality of the Kingdom, which has drawn near in his own self.

The crowd is pressing in on him. They know why they are there. They have seen something in him up to this point that they have never witnessed in anyone before this point. Even in this short time of his active ministry they know that this man Jesus is unique and they want more. They want to hear what he has to say. There is something about this man that marks him out from the others, even in an age where there are many opinions and leaders. 

He has authority (Luke 4.36).

What the crowd see is a man filled with the Holy Spirit (4.1) and empowered by the Holy Spirit (4.14) to do the very works of God. How could the crowd fail to see that? They can! That’s why they’re there. His teaching is different (4.15) because it is active and it draws people. This is reminiscent of Paul's approach in Corinth (1 Cor 2.1-5). It is the only sound basis for the preaching of the gospel. 

"1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

This kind of preaching, in itself, requires great faith. Jesus has that kind of faith and he inspires it in those he meets.

Jesus observes the situation he is in and he sees more than meets the eye. An opportunity not simply to teach the crowd but to draw disciples to himself. Jesus is able to focus on the large scale and the small scale at the same time. He does not get so enamored and distracted by the crowd that he loses his focus on the individual. Nor does he become so intrigued with the personal that he withdraws from the corporate. He has bifocal vision. He sees the purposes of God in both and has a big enough picture to honor God in both.

He climbs aboard and begins to teach the crowds. He does not ask permission, he simply does it. He is demonstrating his authority in action. He has also 'paid his way' in some measure by healing Simon's mother in the  previous verses. There is some relationship already stirring between Simon and Jesus. 

Jesus is totally free to ask Simon to do what he says. He has no fear of offending Simon, no worry about putting him out. Simon obeys him word for word by 'putting out a little way from the sure'.  Jesus is 'testing the water' of Simon's heart, so to speak. He is working out whether this is the kind of guy he would like to have with him. Simon doesn't know he is at a job interview, which makes his obedient response all the more impressive. 

Notice this. Simon does not alter Jesus' request at any point. He simply hears and obeys. This is the response of faith, that we hear and we obey. Simon is about to demonstrate this again, although he does not know it yet. 

We'll move onto this in the next post.

A quote

You must wait and listen for the sound of the genuine that is within you. When you hear it, that will be your voice and the Voice of God.

- Howard Thurman, American author, civil rights leader, and theologian (1899-1981)

Pastor is as Pastor does

I have observed a worrying trend in much of the church, which is that pastors are no longer willing or able to live up to their calling as pastors, instead choosing to be 'entrepreneurs' and 'visionaries'. I see the same trend in my own heart too. It is a sickness born of the desire to be significant before being obedient.

Reading from the introduction to 'Working the Angles' by Eugene Peterson;

"The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper's concerns - how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that customers will lay out more money.

"Some of them are very good shopkeepers. They attract a lot of customers, pull in great sums of money, develop splendid reputations. Yet it is still shopkeeping; religious shopkeeping, to be sure, but shopkeeping all the same.

"The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades."

'Pastor' is not a job title, nor is it a designation of the level one has reached in the organisation of the church. The Pastor is the one who serves the flock, who even lays down his own life for the flock. The true Pastor is the one who knows what the sheep need and is able to go to God with and for each flock member within his pasture to attain it.

It is not that we don't need teachers, visionaries or entrepreneurs. In fact, we need them all in greater measure. However, these gifts and roles are not, in my humble opinion, what is most important in the life of the church. The most pressing need in the church is for Pastoral care to emerge which will help 'average folks' become the saints that God has ordained them to be. God provides the growth, of course, but we are still told that Paul planted and Apollos watered (see 1 Cor 2). One of the things I most enjoy about the church I work at currently is that there is a sustained emphasis on the need to care for and train people to live out their life in Christ on a day-to-day basis. Even with such an emphasis it is a tough job. Imagine how things go when this emphasis is lacking!

Loving people is not something we do if have the time. It's not an optional extra in the mix of Christian leadership. It is, in fact, the primary requirement. If we can't act pastorally we should wonder what we are doing in the church at all. It is something that all of us are commanded to do by Jesus himself. If we are not doing this we are not Christians, never mind Christian leaders. It really is that simple. Let the visionaries first be pastors. Let the teachers be pastor-teachers and let the church entrepreneurs know that unless they do their work in love it will be as a 'resounding gong and a clanging cymbal' (1 Cor 13).

Yes, let us build the most innovative and exciting church the world has ever known. Let us work as hard as we can in this regard, but let us build it on the foundation of faith, love and care. And let those of us in leadership surrender our agenda for greatness to the greater gospel agenda of love, that we might 'present everyone mature in Christ.' (Col 1.28)