October birthday
We had a belated birthday to celebrate tonight.
Sowing with tears
Dave spoke this evening from Ps 126:5-6 on ‘sowing with tears’, reminding us that even Jesus wept (John 11:35). So often, we are indifferent to the fate of those who do not know the Lord; the doctrine of eternal punishment is not one we like to speak about nowadays, but we need to understand that God wants us to sow with tears. Great preachers from the past spoke often of the tears they shed as they implored people to come to Christ. We often look as though our tear ducts have been cauterised, but we need to understand that tears are ‘liquid prayer’ and that God wants to give us all wet eyes…
Jeremiah spoke of a ‘fountain of tears’ and is known as the prophet of lament and weeping (see Jer 9:1) and Paul spoke of many tears as he considered those who lived as enemies of God (Phil 3:18). Jesus Himself is known to have wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) as well as over sin’s wages (death) when Lazarus died (John 11:35). Heb 5:7 tells us that Jesus ‘offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears‘, and we too need to weep over lost souls. Brokenness is necessary if we are to see God move in power in our church.
As adults, we often believe that crying is childish. Tears are certainly our first language, speaking of pain and hurt. It is not spiritually healthy to suppress tears, though we need to avoid crocodile tears (being hypocritical in our display of sorrow.) We need to meditate on Jesus’s teaching on hell (see Luke 16:19-31) and understand that a right understanding of eternal punishment will leed us to care for those who do not know God (see Rom 9:1-3, Gal 4:19). Birth pangs need to be experienced before the church will see new life and as any mother will tell you, the pain of labour is intense!
If we want to know Christ’s heart and weep His tears, we have to spend time with Him, opening our heart’s door to Him (Rev 3:20) and allowing Him to share the burdens on His heart with us. Tears are the glue which make salvation stick; we need to learn to seek God with tears and to show compassion to all.
God’s Ministry Gifts – Evangelists, Pastors & Teachers
‘So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph 4:11-13)
Evangelists
Evangelists are people who bring good news, who proclaim the gospel. The word itself is only used three times in the New Testament: Philip is called ‘the Evangelist’ in Acts 21:8 and Timothy is exhorted to ‘do the work of an evangelist’ in 2 Tim 4:5. Philip certainly was good at proclaiming the good news: Acts 8:4-40 talks of his powerful ministry of evangelism in Samaria and to the Ethiopian eunuch.
An evangelist is someone who is particularly effective at communicating the gospel message to people and who is used by God to bring many people to salvation. In modern days, we have seen Billy Graham and Luis Palau work as effective evangelists in large crusades, but we need to understand that whilst some are gifted in this area, all of us still have a duty to share the good news with people on a one-to-one basis. We mustn’t ever think that these gifts Jesus gives are always for other people and leave us with nothing to do! These gifts are given to equip us for works of service: to train us as well.
Pastors
The word ‘pastor’ means ‘shepherd’, one who serves as a guardian or leader. It’s a very familiar title in the Old Testament (see Jer 10:21, Ezek 34:2-10; Nahum 3:18, Zech 10:3) Peter writes to leaders to be ‘shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.’ (1 Pet 5:2-3) Those verses give us some insight into the role of a pastor: looking after the sheep willingly, being eager to serve, being examples, not working for financial profit but with a shepherd’s heart. Jesus also famously demonstrated the care of a shepherd when He told the parable of the lost sheep, demonstrating that the shepherd cares about the individual, not just about the flock. Pastoral care nowadays has that connotation of listening to an individual and working through life’s problems with them, listening to the person and listening to God at the same time. Our prayer is that we can be good shepherds here in Goldthorpe, caring for people and bringing God’s word into people’s lives.
Teachers
Teachers are those who are involved in the ministry of the Word. In Acts 13:1, we read, ‘Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.’ Teachers are mentioned in the ministry gifts listed in 1 Cor 12:28, and clearly teaching can be combined with other roles, for Paul said, ‘of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.’ (2 Tim 1:11) A teacher will explain and expound the Word of God and will link this to all the things Jesus has taught us: ‘teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ (Matt 28:20) Teaching can be both to a congregation, to small groups (such as Sunday school groups and home groups) and to individuals.
God’s Ministry Gifts – Apostles & Prophets
‘So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph 4:11-13)
These ‘ministry gifts’ are not there to do all the work while the rest of the church acts as spectators. Attending church is not a spectator sport; being church means being part of the body of Christ and each part having its own gift, function and talent. Paul gives us insight, however, in the role of leaders whose job is to help all Christians to be equipped for works of service.
Apostle
An apostle is one who is sent away to achieve an objective: a delegate, an envoy, a messenger. In the early church, apostles were individuals sent with Jesus’s personal authority to establish His church. The original apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus’s ministry. (Acts 1:21-22) However, other apostles are clearly named in the New Testament, including Matthias, Paul, James, Barnabas, Adronicus and Junias, so we are not just talking about the original twelve apostles.
An apostle is someone who often is a pioneer, a visionary who perhaps travels around churches and has leadership over more than one church. They are people who, like Paul, want to preach about Christ where He is not yet known and whose ministry often involves signs and wonders. They may well travel abroad and be involved in missionary work. An apostle is a gift to the whole church, bringing a sense of positive vision and an initial thrust motion which results in people being saved and churches being established.
Prophets
We’re familiar with the Old Testament prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah and Elisha, for example – and understand that a prophet is someone who ‘speaks forth’ what God says. In the New Testament, John the Baptist is called a prophet (Matt 11:19) and Jesus Himself is called a prophet (Matt 16:14). Other prophets are said to have gathered at Antioch (Acts 11:27, Acts 13:1) and Judas and Silas are named as prophets. (Acts 15:32) One prophet named Agabus predicted a famine (Acts 11:28) and prophesied about Paul’s imprisonment in Rome (Acts 21:10), and there is often that sense of ‘foretelling’ as well as ‘forthtelling’ in prophecy. One definition of the gift of prophecy is, “the special ability … to receive and communicate an immediate message of God to His people through a divinely-anointed utterance.”
Paul makes it clear that the gift of prophecy is available to God’s people and that we should earnestly desire this gift. (1 Cor 14:1) That doesn’t necessarily make us a prophet, however. A prophet seems to be someone who habitually speaks forth messages from God, someone who does this on a regular basis, whereas the gift of prophecy may be used more widely but less frequently by others in the church. Nonetheless, we need both the gift of prophecy and prophets in our churches today, for we need people who can communicate God’s mind to us directly and we need to hear the word of the Lord spoken with boldness and sincerity. Incidentally, it’s clear that both men and women can prophesy, because Acts 21:8 tells us about Philip the evangelist and his four unmarried daughters who all prophesied!
The Blessing of Body-Building
In our series ‘Battles & Blessings’, we looked this morning at ‘the Blessing of Body-Building’ – not, as some of you may think, the kind of body-building done by people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the kind Paul describes in Eph 4:7-16, where the body of Christ builds itself up to become mature and stable. This body-building involves every part of the body of Christ as it grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph 4:16) It’s a body-building where God has given gifts to the church, ministry gifts to help build up the body of Christ – gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers – to prepare each one of us for works of service. (Eph 4: 11-12) It’s a body-building that isn’t dependent on steroid drugs or weight-lifting or healthy diets for growth, but is dependent on the grace God gives out as He decides. (Eph 4:7) Most of all, it’s a body-building which leads to maturity so that we can all grow up in Christ and not be tossed around by every wind of teaching or led astray by people’s scheming. (Eph 4:14) It’s the kind of body-building which Paul says we should pursue for the sake of ‘mutual edification.’ (Rom 14:19) This kind of body-building helps the church to grow and people to mature, with love as the lubricating oil which helps us all to work together. If we want to see our church grow and flourish, we need this blessing so that we can see the body of Christ built up.
We need always to be very aware that Christ is the head of the church and that He gives grace-gifts as He sees fit through His Spirit (Eph 4:7, see also 1 Cor 12:11, Rom 12:6, 1 Pet 4:10) Christ is qualified to give these gifts to His church because of His death, resurrection and ascension to heaven, as Paul’s reference to Psalm 68 in this passage makes clear. He is in total control and has made it clear that He will build His church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matt 16:18) This gives us confidence, because Jesus is Lord over all (see Eph 1:19-23, Eph 4:6). Our part is to be involved in works of service as we are built up by the ministry gifts God gives to the church, so that ‘the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work’ (Eph 4:16)
God’s aim for each one of us that we grow up and become like Christ. This is done as we speak the truth in love, rejecting lies and falsehoods, not being taken in by people’s scheming. It’s done as we allow Christ to be the Head of the church, directing us, leading us and guiding us. It’s done as we all take responsibility for our part in the body, not assuming others will do everything, not thinking we have nothing to give. We all have a responsibility for our own spiritual development, but we also have a responsibility for each other, to some extent. Paul tells us to ‘carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.’ (Gal 6:2) That means getting alongside each other and sharing our loads: our joys, our sorrows, our anxieties, our griefs, our hopes and our dreams, and looking how we can build each other up. It means being prepared to get involved.
Summer Fun feedback
Local church leaders had a meeting with the Dearne Area team this week to review the Summer Fun days held in July and August. We are profoundly grateful to them for their collation of statistics and all the hard work they put into getting funding for these fun days and into organising the days with us.
There is far more to such events than mere statistics, but it is still wonderful to know that a total of 427 children attended these 6 events, with a total number of attendances at 593.(Some enjoyed the days so much they came to more than one event!) 58% of all school-age children who attended receive free school meals, which was one of the funding criteria from organisations such as Feeding Britain. A total of 994 meals were provided at these 6 Summer Fun events.
Part of the aim of such fun days is to give people an opportunity to volunteer (to ‘do something’ in their communities), and the ‘social return on investment’ (worked out by how many volunteer hours were used and giving this a commercial value) equated to a staggering £4,215.12. Put another way, this is how much it would have cost to PAY people to do the amount of work church members and other members of the community gave voluntarily to their communities. You are all amazing!
Other organisations attended the fun days to let people know about the services they provide in our local area; it was a great opportunity for networking. Dearne and Thurnscoe Family Centres received over 45 new registrations from the Summer Fun events, for example.
The events also gave the Dearne Area team the opportunity to ask local people what they like about their area and what they would like to see introduced, information from which is used to plan future events and target future funding. Not surprisingly, children want outdoor spaces and parks to be improved and looked after and are keen to see a variety of youth provision in the area. All of this information will be used to inform future planning.
In the meantime, we look forward to helping with other fun days in the new year and to showing God’s love to our community through such events. Truly, we love where we live and are with God in the community, with God for the community!
