Night and Day

Exeter Temple Message notes:  Sunday 14^th June 2015

Bible Reading: Acts 12:1-19

Many people may have looked at Peter and assumed that what he possessed was not worth much. Peter of course would have disagreed.  “”For we have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of the Lord stands forever.”  (1 Peter 1:23)

Possessing new life in Christ resulted in a wonderful inheritance which he claimed and used.    

1. The Peace of God                                                                                                      

In the story Peter was able to sleep peacefully in a very uncomfortable place.  The phrase “Peter was sleeping” in v 6 are encouraging because they show that Peter was becoming more and more like Jesus every day. There would have been a time when Peter would have tried to grab the guard’s sword in a rash escape attempt or he would have been tried to talk his way out, but now just like Jesus in the boat during a violent storm, Peter trusts God and sleeps, taking his own advice, “Cast all you anxiety on him (that is Jesus) because he cares for you.”  (1Peter 5:7)

Jesus said that his legacy would be peace.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  (John 14:27)

It wasn’t a trouble free life that Peter had inherited from Jesus in fact Jesus was the reason for Peter’s predicament.  Yet here he was, at peace.     Peace is our legacy too but we do not always do the right things in order to release it into our lives. 

The key is a life of prayer. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-7

“Paul says we should ask God about every area of life. If it matters to you it matters to God. prayer like that will meant that God’s peace, not a Stoic lack of concern but a deep peace in the middle of life’s problems and storms will keep guard around your heart and mind like a squadron of soldiers looking after a treasure chest.”  (Tom Wright)

2. Praying friends                                                                                              

Whilst Peter slept peacefully his friends were up all night praying.   In their praying they did three things

      They prayed together  They could no doubt have prayed as individuals about the situation in the privacy of their own homes but there is something powerful that happens when Christians get together to pray. 

b      They prayed earnestly The word used for earnestly is the same word used for the way Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. It contains the idea of something stretched out to the limits, like a muscle would be during intensive training in the gym.  

c    They prayed with urgency because they were in a crisis situation.  “We have an example in this text of the Local N.T. Church in Jerusalem in prayer during a time of crisis in their church. And we can see also in this text that their prayer was miraculously answered. Anytime a church is not experiencing souls being saved on a regular basis should be considered a crisis time.”  (Anon)

      They prayed specifically The church was earnestly praying for Peter. The Church in Jerusalem didn’t pray; “Lord, be with all who are in prison tonight,” they prayed for Peter who was in prison.

3. The Promises of God

One of the things Peter had learned was that it didn’t matter how bleak things looked it wasn’t necessarily the end of the story. God could turn it around. Peter possessed was a trust in the plan and purpose of God

Peter had seen the crucifixion transformed into resurrection. He had seen the Church’s most ardent opponent, Saul turn to Christ and become a passionate believer. He had seen the Jerusalem Church struggling under persecution not only survive but spread into Samaria and far beyond.

Now he wasn’t too sure what the plan was but he was sure God had one. Perhaps he remembered the promise of Jesus that when he was old, he would have to be guided by others. Peter wasn’t that old so God had something other in mind for him than his head on a block. He believed the promise of Jesus.

For a plane to even take off the ground a tremendous amount has to gone on behind the scenes that way beyond our understanding – whilst we passengers sit comfortably on our seats, we trust the airline to get us to our destination. There are, right as we speak angels who are being directed to accomplish the will of God in our lives. The least we can do is trust Him.

And trust must always be accompanied by obedience.

Peter was given instructions by the angel which he had to obey and whilst the angel kept the soldiers asleep and opened iron doors, Peter had to get up and walk in order to get out. We must like Peter do the things He asks of us in order to be free. God so often opens doors for us which we fail to go through.

This was not the first time Peter had escaped from Prison. In Acts5:18–20 he had been with the other apostles and an angel had let them out with the instruction to go back to the Temple and continue preaching. This time just because God had done it again, Peter did not assume that he should immediately go back into the public eye. The angel gave no such instruction so Peter didn’t do it. He didn’t take his second escape to mean that he was indestructible.

It was the same God who arranged his escape but God didn’t want him to follow the same pattern of activity this time.

It is very important that we do not try to relive past experience. God very often wants to do a new thing in a new day. Peter may have relished the thought of embarrassing Herod by preaching in public, but this time the right thing to do in order that the spread the gospel could continue was to go quietly and inform the believers of his release and then go in hiding for a period.

Had Peter been impetuous, as in the old days, he could have triggered the wholesale slaughter of Christians. As it happened GOD dealt with Herod Himself, once and for all. Peter didn’t have to engineer anything, just be obedient, which he was.

God bless 

Alan and Carol 

A New Day

Exeter Temple Message notes: Sunday 7^th June 2015

Bible Reading:  Acts 10

That people other than just the Jews would understand and receive the gospel of Christ was always on God’s heart but Peter found it hard to let go of his preconceived ideas, become open and to realise that it was a new day.                                                                                                                                      1.  Upsetting Convention                                                                                            

It may be hard for us to understand how earth-shaking the events of Acts 10 were. The changes God brought to pass reverberated in the early church for the next 50 or 60 years.

From their birth Jewish children were taught about what food was permissible and what was forbidden. The vision told Peter to eat what was forbidden. To do that was so against the grain that the command was given three times. “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  As Peter went to meet the Gentiles who had turned up looking for him he began to realise that God’s words were not just about food but about non-Jews. 

All his life Peter had been taught that everybody that wasn’t a Jew was unclean. Now God was asking Peter to share the gospel with them and he was full of reservations as it went against all his conditioning and training.  When he arrived at Cornelius’ house he made sure they knew that he was obeying the Holy Spirit but he was acting against his natural inclination.

Today must be prepared to look for and follow the verdict of the Holy Spirit and be prepared for the Holy Spirit to overrule our conventions and attempts to confine Him to our restrictions.

Convictions and conventions may not be the same thing. The Holy Spirit may lead us out of our convention but he will not lead us out of true Bible based convictions.

The Holy Spirit in leading Peter to Cornelius was not contradicting Scripture but the prejudice that had grown up around it.

This is a good guide for us. 

There may be occasions when we sense an inner voice telling us to do something. If it is the Holy Spirit it may go against our preferences but it will not be contrary to the teaching of the Bible. 

2.  Embracing the unknown

Peter was not called to come to an intellectual conclusion that the message of Jesus can be passed on to Gentiles but he was given immediate opportunity to put theory into practice.

For Peter this was to embrace the unknown and to cross a barrier he had not been across before.  It would take as much faith to preach the gospel to Gentiles as it did to get out of a fishing boat and walk on water.

We may find it hard to admit even to ourselves that we might have prejudice in our hearts.

Is there anyone or are there a group of people that you have excluded from your life?

If God is prepared to welcome them, so should we.  He wants us to embrace that person or those people with His love because just as Peter found out, God equally loves us and everyone else on this earth.

Changing your belief system and view of the world as you have been taught is a dramatic challenge for most.
From time to time it’s good to ask our Lord Jesus to search our hearts to see if there is any sin of prejudice there. If it is, then we need to be willing to let the Holy Spirit dissolve the prejudice. 

3. Risking Criticism

Obedience to God in this matter would not be just a matter for himself but other people. We cannot pretend that our decisions won’t make a difference to other people or that other people won’t have their own opinion about what we are to doing.  Peter knew that if he went to Cornelius house he would be criticized and when he did he took 6 Jewish Christians with him. He knew that his action would be closely scrutinized by the Church leaders in Jerusalem. 

After Peter returned to Jerusalem from baptizing Cornelius & his household, we read: “…the circumcised believers criticized him, and said, ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.’” Acts 11:2-3

In the past Peter had worried about the opinions of other people and that had led to his denial of Christ.

It hurts us when we lose favour, love and recognition of people, especially of those whose respect is important to us.  We often make every effort to please others but when we do that sometimes we are in danger of losing favour with God and Peter had come to the point in his life now, where he would make a  decision to do what God says even if people around him might be displeased.

When we risk obeying God’s prompting we receive God’s commendation and that is worth everything. It means we can fully receive the love of God. This is actually our deepest longing, even though we don’t always recognise it as such.  However hard they try people cannot give us as much love as God and we will never be satisfied by “people pleasing.” 

Whilst obedience to God always leads to his blessing but we can never be sure of getting love from people because we fulfil their demands. There are too many people to please and also people change their expectations of you. God is the one person we can rely on. 

God gives us people to support us but there are needs in us they cannot meet and we shouldn’t expect them to.  But no other human being can create happiness for us.   Paul said, “My God shall supply all your need according to this riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:19)

God wants you and I to discover a life of true fulfillment based on what you are as a person in Christ and not on the moods and whims of people around you.

It is not that we shouldn’t be concerned about how others see us or be so arrogant that we never listen to other people but it is telling us to care more about what God thinks than what man thinks.

The purpose for our lives is to please God. We were created to serve him.

4.  Leading people to Christ

God did not set all this up just so Peter would overcome racism, although that was a good outcome.  At the heart of this story is a man and his household who were searching for God and for salvation. The good news  of this story is that God cared enough about this man to send Peter to tell him about Jesus.

The good news is that God is still in the business of meeting with men and women who seek after him today. Many people today can testify to how God sought them out, sent people to them to help them find their way.

Of course God cannot enter a heart that refuses him entry. Jesus says, “Here I am I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in.”

Cornelius eagerly invited God to come to him through the ministry of Peter.  I pray that we would all be as eager to receive as he was.

And there was Peter, God’s servant who reminds us of the necessity of keeping open to God’s Spirit for the new things he wants to achieve through you and I. 

We are reassured that if we step out of a closed mind, a closed heart, a closed restricted service for God he does not simply kick us out into the open and say get on with it he takes us by the hand and leads us out and stays with 

Be challenged enough to let God deal with barriers in your heart and life. Be fired up to tell others, who need to hear the glorious news that Jesus Christ, died and rose again for them

Contrast the gradual opening up of Peter with the eagerness of Cornelius. He receives a vision and a command and immediately acts upon it.  He sends two servants and a soldier to find Peter and when Peter arrives he says “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us” (Acts 10:33)

He was eager to receive, eager to enlarge his understanding of God.

Some children playing on the beach got occupied with a pond one of them had made by blocking a tiny stream.   One little boy suddenly looked up to notice that the tide had come in and shouted to his mates   “Come on you lot this ain’t the ocean, that’s only a pond.”  

God wants all of us to experience God’s ocean of love and power.

Will we. like Cornelius run eagerly towards it?

Blessings 

Alan and Carol 

One Day

Exeter Temple Message notes: Sunday 31^st May 2015

Bible Reading: Acts 3:1-4:4

This story of Peter and John gives us snapshot of one day in the life of the early church.  It involved responding to need, a healing miracle, preaching the gospel and getting arrested.

1. Life in the Spirit means any day can be a day for a miracle                     

 The day started out as routine as Peter and John were on the way to prayers at the Temple and the lame man was begging as usual. But when Peter and John and the lame man met, the disciples abandoned the prayer meeting and the lame man gave up begging forever!                             

What turned this routine day into a day of miracles?                                          

It was the fact that the disciples had begun living a life in the Spirit and life in the Spirit means any day can be a day of miracles.  The lame man had camped at the Temple gates and nothing changed year in year out. There seemed to be no power in the religion of the temple but it was found in Peter and in John.  

One of the recognizable results of being filled with the Spirit is inward assurance.  The assurance of the presence of Christ and the assurance of our position in Christ mean we can act with authority. 

The secret of good street charity collecting is to achieve eye contact with passers-by but in this story it is not the man who is asking for charity that is seeking eye contact.  It is Peter, the passer by who says to the man, “Look at us!”  We know that Peter had no money so his invitation for the man to turn his attention towards himself and John is either mean or this voluntary contact with the man was an act of great confidence that despite his having nothing material to give Peter was confident that he and John could help him.  “Look at us”, invites the man to hope in them for something.

Jesus had told the disciples that “All power authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:18-19)

Likewise if we are filled with the Spirit and know the presence of Jesus and our position in him then we too need to recognize that we have the authority to advance God’s Kingdom.  Jesus’ authority is available to His church to complete the mission that He sent us on!   

2. Life in the Spirit means any day can be a day we are called upon to share our faith                                                                                                           

Peter and John did not plan the evangelism they engaged in that day but when an opportunity arose to share their faith they took it. 

Once again Peter is put in the position of explaining something that was already happening to a crowd that had come to see what was going on.  The problem in the church today is that we ask a crowd to come so that something will happen, whilst if something powerful and life-changing was happening among us, we would have no trouble getting a crowd. 

What Peter needed to do was to explain a few things. 

-          Who had healed the man:  Jesus 

-          Who Jesus was

-          What the response to Jesus should be

Peter acknowledged that what happened to the man and their own actions can only be explained by referring to Jesus.

Does it take Jesus to explain the reason we are the kind of people we are? We often come across people who are insecure, or aggressive or ambitious and we try to explain their attitudes and behaviour.  We say that they are like that because of nature, because they belong to this or that family. Or we might say that they behave a certain way because of an event or a circumstance which the person is attempting to compensate for.   All this may be true but a life of holiness is explained by one thing. Jesus. 

These days however it is not enough just to mention the name of Jesus because people’s ideas of who Jesus is and what is like are all over the place.  They need to be educated, told the truth about him, just as the people in Jerusalem did.  Some of the hundreds of people there that day may not have heard of him at all, others will have only heard that Jesus was a revolutionary or a failed travelling preacher who taught blasphemy.   With many people understanding of Jesus only fleetingly grasped maybe from brief references on TV people need help to understand who he is.   They also need to know what to do with the knowledge.  They may have been attracted by the activity of Jesus, given attention to his person but that is not enough there comes a point where there needs to be an acknowledgement of his claims upon their lives.                                              

This all may happen in a day, more often it happens over time.  But we mustn’t give up too soon. 

3. Life in the Spirit means any day can be a day we meet opposition

When God moves there is always opposition. The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came and confronted Peter and John about what they were doing and by the end of the day they two disciples were in jail.

It wasn’t the miracle that disturbed these religious leaders. They were "greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead" (4:2).  It was giving Jesus the credit that rankled with the religious authorities in Jerusalem.  You can work miracles all day long, but don’t associate the miracles with life that is in Jesus. Don’t  tell people that the miracle is proof that Jesus is alive and able to forgive sins and set people free.

In the Western world, Christians rarely face persecution to the levels we see in other parts of the world.  That does not mean we haven’t been opposed.  Satan instead has used other tactics. He has attacked the western church with worldliness, selfish pride, and compromise for status and acceptance.  It is a very successful tactic. A martyr can impress unbelievers with his courage and faith; the self-centred, compromising Christian thinks he will win the world by being like the world only to find that the world despises him for his spinelessness. 

If worldliness and compromise have made us weak, we need to repent and get back to Pentecost to be restored into the fired up and passionate people we are meant to be and then whatever the world says and whatever the enemy says we will speak of Christ.   Though the Sadducees could successfully arrest the apostles, they were unable to arrest the influence of the gospel. The number of Christians kept increasing; growing to 5,000 from 3,000 at last count (Acts 2:41). Opposition did not slow the church down at all.

What a day it was; miracles, crowds, evangelistic results, and preachers in jail.  We don’t have many days like that, these days but maybe we could if we lived more in tune with the Spirit of God. 

-          When we truly live in the Spirit, any day can be a day for a miracle.

-          When we truly live in the Spirit any day can be a day to speak for Jesus.

-          When we truly live in the Spirit any day can be a day when we might have to sacrifice our own comfort for the sake of the gospel.

-          When we truly live in the Spirit any day can be a day when people accept Jesus as their Saviour.

God bless 

Last Days

Exeter Temple Message Notes: Pentecost Sunday 24^th May 2015

Bible Readings: Acts 2:1-21 (Joel 2:23-32)

Peter explains that the events of the Day of Pentecost are the fulfillment of Joel 2:23-32

1.       The beginning of the last days

God’s plan to rescue people from sin and to restore a fallen world is unfolded through history in stages.  Stage 1 was the establishment of a people of God, who were to be a light to the nation, stage 2 was to send a Saviour.  By the Day of Pentecost Stages 1 and 2 were in operation.  Now Peter declares it was time for the final stage, the “last days” to be ushered into history.

 Before this last stage the Holy Spirit had been given to particular people at particular times for particular tasks but in the last days the promise is as Peter declared in Acts 2:39 for you and your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

 The Last Days outpouring of the Holy Spirit will not be confined to a small group of men....it will cross all lines of sex and age! 

 We are still in the time of the Last Days.  This means that the promise of Acts 2:39 includes us, you and me.  We are the people who are the sons and daughters, the servants, the men and women to whom God wants to show the wonders of heaven.

 So we do not just commemorate Pentecost, we are invited to participate in and receive the promise of what God is doing in these last days.   

2.      The pouring out of the Spirit

 V 17 and v 18 “I will pour out my Spirit” These verses follow a picture Joel paints about harvest and rain.

Joel 2:24 “The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.”   It is a picture of harvest.  A good harvest requires rain. In Israel that meant spring (or former) and autumn (or latter )rains

 God will give a harvest, because the latter rain will come.

 Joel 2:23 “Be glad O people of Zion rejoice in the Lord your God because he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers.” 

 After referring to autumn rains producing a harvest Joel talks about the Holy Spirit being poured out and the harvest would be a people who once again would have a vision, a knowledge of God and who would turn to him for salvation.

It was easy for Peter to think about harvest because Pentecost was the first of three Jewish Harvest Festivals. As Peter looks around him, at people energized and declaring a vision of God sees that it is raining. The “latter rain” of the Spirit has come!

 Some people remained untouched by what was going on and sneered. For them God was in the law and the prophets, not in the wind and in the tongues of fire. God was in the Temple, not in the street outside. God was where they always thought God would be and nowhere else.

Do we think like that sometimes?

Do we keep God locked up or assigned to those places where we’ve always known Him to be, our church, our prayers, our hymns, our narrow thinking and so forth?

3.      Pentecost means a universal invitation to salvation (v. 21)

At Pentecost, the believers were given the ability to speak the gospel in foreign languages so that everyone could understand.

 The list of nations represented links to the continents in the then known world.

It would have been amazing if fellow human beings bothered enough to speak to them in their own language but the attention of the believers was upon God.  It began to dawn upon the crowd that it was God himself who was making a point of bothering to speak to them in their own language. 

 All of this is brought together when Peter quotes Joel 2.32:

"And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

It was as if Peter was saying, “God has opened up the communication channels to you today, now if you, in turn call upon him you will find salvation!”

 Here we have once again the graciousness and wideness of the mercy of God. Whoever, calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  That’s good news and it is the message we are called to proclaim in the power of the Spirit.

Questions

1.      What part of the story of Pentecost appeals to you the most?  

       

      What stands out for you in this passage?

2.       

      Imagine that as you sit together in a worship service  waiting to hear from God that all of a sudden you heard a sound like the blowing of a violent wind from heaven and it filled the whole house where you were sitting. Then imagine that you all saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of you. All of you were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled you. What would go through your mind?After reading this account and imagining your reaction to it, how do you feel right now about asking God to pour out His Spirit on you? Why?

4.      

       Not everyone was positive about what was happening. What are some ways that we can limit the effects of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

5.      

       What would you say to someone who asked you how they could be filled with the Spirit?

 God bless

 Alan and Carol 

40 Days

Exeter Temple Message notes: Sunday 10^th May 2015

Bible Readings: Matthew 28:16-20 Acts 1:1-26

Jesus spent about 40 days on earth after his resurrection just as he had spent 40 days enduring temptation before his public ministry.  Now in the Jesus displayed his supremacy. These 40 days were of immense value to the believers in establishing the reality of his victory.

1. Re-instatement

Jesus’ instructions to his disciples after the resurrection ca seem confusing.  Matthew says Jesus instructed the disciples to go Galilee. Luke says Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem.  There is not real conflict. Jesus initially told them to go back to Galilee and then when he had completed his ministry with them there, ushered them back to Jerusalem.  Jesus had a two-fold plan in this instruction.

Before the disciples were ready to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, they first of all had to be convinced that his resurrection victory was their victory too and that they were needed to continue his work.  He probably took them to Galilee do this to remind them of their original calling and was letting them know that all they learned in Galilee was still valid and essential to what they were to teach in Jerusalem and beyond.                   Jesus took them back to Jerusalem because they needed to remember that their mission could not be confined to Galilee and that they would be equipped for the task he was giving them.                                                          

The disciples could have rebelled against going to either place. To go back to Galilee, still unsure of the reality of Jesus’ resurrection was to face people who might feel the disciples had betrayed them and Jesus. If they told people Jesus was alive and that wasn’t really true, they faced further rejection. Equally staying in Jerusalem was dangerous as to the Jews they were friends of a blasphemer and to the Romans, friends of a revolutionary. 

Yet the disciples did what Jesus asked them to do and the joy and hope joy of a Resurrected Jesus was enough for them to take the risks and not run off the Egypt or Samaria.                                                                                         

For us Galilee stands for the restoration of calling and ministry.  When we feel that we have failed as disciples Jesus takes us back in our minds and in our hearts to the place of our calling and reassures us that his call still stands.  His victory over death, tells us that there is nothing that cannot be overcome by him. Jerusalem stands for the place where we need to trust in the promise that God gives all the power we need to fulfil the calling.  2. Reassurance                       Acts 1:1-11

 a) With evidence that he was alive  v 3

If there is no resurrection our faith is futile. Christianity is nothing but another religion among many others. The resurrection was God’s declaration that Jesus is everything He claims to be.

The word translated proof is from the Greek legal word “tekmeerion” and refers to proof that is irrefutable and indisputable.  

“Is the resurrection of Jesus “of first importance” to you? If we’re not careful we develop an ego-centric mentality that hinders our understanding of the Bible. The resurrection of Jesus is more important than whether you get that promotion at work or meet that special someone or pay all your bills this week. God cares about all those things in our lives but first things first. Are you rejoicing this morning that Jesus conquered death and hell and rose from the dead? All your future depends upon that. Your hope of glory depends upon that? Your power for victorious living depends upon that. It is the risen, ascended Christ Who has sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to live for God and fulfil His will in our lives.”  (Richard Tow)

 b) The promise of the Father          v4-5    

Luke 24 and Acts 1 show us that without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit we are not fit to do the mission God has given us to do. It’s not a matter of more information, teamwork or effort but the necessity of a power beyond our own.

c) The possibility of fulfilling their calling   v8                                                       

Jesus is convinced that his disciples who have been so weak and unbelieving will be transformed by the Holy Spirit and become good witnesses. “you will be “ is a great phrase.                 

Witnesses of the risen Jesus can be sure of three things.  Their experience of the risen Jesus is real. They are testifying to a reality.  They will be given the courage and the ability to give witness and finally they will be called upon to testify.

3. Re-adjustment                                                                                                         After all the lofty statements found at the end of Matthew and the beginning of Acts electing a apostle could have seems a side issue.

But they need to face their anger, confusion, pain and grief over Judas. How could they offer themselves to the Great Commission and at the same time harbour bitter angry thoughts about Judas?  Much has been made of the fact that the Holy Spirit came when the believers were all together in one place, the inference being that when God’s people are united then the Spirit can be poured out more readily.  “How good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity and it goes on to say, “For there the Lord bestows his blessing even life forevermore.” (Psalm 133) 

Failing to face up to the issue of Judas and making the decision about who would replace him could have become a real source of division between the followers of Jesus. Instead they dealt with it by referring to the word of God and saturating their decision-making in prayer.  As a result the disciples were freed from the past and the leadership team was reinforced. 

We must beware of defining activities and issues into spiritual and non-spiritual.  Finding a successor for Judas was as crucial an element in the 40 days preparation for Pentecost as Peter’s conversation with Jesus with Jesus on the beach.

It is easy to be distracted by trivia and we often need to resist non-essential issues but if a seemingly less important matter keeps coming to mind whilst we are praying then the Lord is probably leading us to deal with it.  It is often true that practical, organisational issues have real heart and mission issues attached to them. 

Those 40 days were crucial days. The period of time is not always the same, but there are days when the Lord wants to take us back to our Galilee, to our beginning, to our first love, to reveal his Risen presence and re-call us to follow him, with renewed passion and faith.  There are days when we need to let him speak his promises to us again, 

“I am with you always even to the end of the age.”

“You will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses.”

There are days ahead that will be freer, fuller and more fruitful if when the Lord shows us what we should deal with, we act rather than delay.  May God give us courage to make the re-adjustments he calls us to make.

God bless

Alan and Carol 

Purity

Exeter Temple Bible Message Notes:  Sunday 26^th April 2015

Theme:  Understanding holiness - Purity

Bible Reading:  1 John 1:5-7

Purity is a word that has lost some of its edge in a society that is so impure. God desires a pure life, heart and mind within in.

 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8)

 “Jesus did not come into the world simply because we had some bad habits that needed to be broken. He came into the world because we have dirty hearts that need to be purified.”  John Piper

1. Design of God

‘If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9)

The verse needs to be read in its entirety. The message we proclaim is not just about forgiveness of sins but is about restoration and transformation of God’s design for our lives. 

God loves us too much to rescue us from sin and leave us contaminated by it, so that it still has power over us. He also wants to purify us so that He can restore us to what He intended us to be. He loves us too much to leave us as we are.

We are told in Genesis that God made us in His image. And by that I mean He has made us to be holy and loving like Him and have relationships just like He has.  It is like our lives are supposed to be like a mirror. We were made to reflect our creator. However just like the mirror in the bathroom gets clouded with steam, covered in finger marks, and smudges so sin has put marks on the mirror of our lives. When a mirror is clouded or smeared with dirt it no longer reflects an image properly and man because of sin no longer is a true reflection of His creator.

 2. The Depth of Purity

The Bible continually reminds us that purity was more than skin deep. Jesus reserved some of His harshest words for those involved in religious “mask management.”

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”  (Matthew 23:25-28)

They mistakenly thought their religious acts made them pure but it was really just a show.  Purity has to reach the hearts of men and women. When the Bible speaks about the heart it means the centre of the human personality. 

“The heart is the point at which thought, will and feeling meet.” 

(Frederick Coutts)

A person with a passion for purity is one who has been cleansed in character so that the way he or she looks in public is the way he or she is in private.

 “Character is what you are when no one is looking.” (Anon)

After David had sinned with Bathsheba he asked God not only to remove the specific thing he had done wrong but also allowed God to deal with the crookedness that had led to them and he prayed, “Create in me a pure heart O God.” (Psalm 51:10)

“The whole point of what we’re urging is simply love- love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God.” 

(1 Timothy 1:5 The Message)

The essence of sin is a life turned in upon self-interest. This is the fundamental barrier to purity.  Not only does our mirror need to cleansed, it needs to be repositioned.  We’ve turned it around so that we reflect our ego, our interests. We need to turn back to focus the whole of our life on God where Paul says we have a life open to God.

Now we have all met people whose diaries are so chock full that you have Our lives are taken up with so much else, other than God.

Another meaning of the word pure in the Bible is single-mindedness.  “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded.”  James 4:8

 “Purity is to will one thing.”  (Soren Kierkgaard)  

3. The durability purity brings

Jesus was strong, not just physically but in that he never swayed from his purpose, even under immense temptation and suffering.   

In John 14:30 there is a link between His purity and His strength. Jesus is speaking to His disciples preparing them for His death.  “I will not speak with you much longer for the prince of this world is coming He has no hold on me but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what the Father has commanded me”

Jesus was incredibly strong because he was pure. Jesus said about the devil, “he has no hold on me”

There were no strongholds of sin in His life, no wrong attitudes, no faulty thinking processes in Christ’s mind. 

Purity always breeds strength, impurity always breeds weakness. When disloyalty steals into our souls the energy begins to leak from our determination. The way to make our character more steadfast is by making it more pure. It becomes stable as it becomes clean.

“We are washed into strength.” Anon

“People have no idea what one saint can do for sanctity is stronger than the whole of hell.”  Thomas MertonThe strongest people in the world are people who have nothing to keep quiet about and nothing to hide.

Many times the Church cannot get on with the business of winning the world because all their energies have been expended on maintaining the elaborate systems we have developed to prevent people seeing the real us.

If we want to begin to be strong we must be clean. If we want to be clean we must be honest.

“If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His son cleanses us from all sin.”

The call to purity can appear very daunting and impossible.  We can feel  like the writer of Proverbs 20:9 "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin?'"

It is important that we remember that every command of God is accompanied by the promise of God. Jesus also said this, “With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

Holy living in human strength is unattainable as Paul found out and cried out in despair that he found himself doing what he knew he shouldn’t and not doing what he knew he should.  Even though he strived harder than probably anyone else in his generation to live a life free from sin he found he just kept on blotting his copy book as it were. 

If we are going to be pure then we need power beyond ourselves to clean us up.  And that is what we have through Christ.

 “For he gave himself for us all, that he might rescue us from all our evil ways and make for himself a people of his own, clean and pure, with our hearts set upon living a life that is good.”

(Titus 2:11 JB Phillips translation)

God bless

Carol