My heartiest apologies, as a man, I lived up to the reputation that we are unable to multitask. I was both the preacher and the guy responsible for pushing the record button, having two tasks to do was evidently one task too much!

But I did say during the sermon that I would put the notes online, so here they are:

Welcoming God, Christian Community and the Work that Must Be Done. (John Usher)

1. Welcome In

1.1 Introduction

“Welcome.” The first thing I wanted to communicate today is that we have a welcoming God. We have a God who is really welcoming when we come before him, arms outstretched, saying God I just give you all: I give you my life, I give you my time, my intelligence, I give my desires, my financies, my hopes and dreams and fears my all. If we do that, it is my conviction, that God will never fail to Welcome us.

1.2 God’s Overall Plan is Benevolent

He’s a good God too. We may suffer, at times, in this life but the glorious good news is that God is good. His original intention for humankind was for us to be happy and in harmony with Him,

“God saw all that He had made…” so the bible says in Genesis 1:31 “...and it was very good.”

It was an outside spiritual enemy of mankind and of God who infected God’s creation like a virus.

But God’s ultimate plan is to restore the earth and for us to be happy again, eternally, because “God shall wipe away all tears, there shall be no more death” [Revelation 21:4] nor sorrow nor crying and we shall never again experience pain be it emotional, psychological or physical.

1.3 More on Welcoming

So God welcomes us when we come before Him, giving Him our all:

• Martin touched on the welcoming nature of God a few weeks ago when he preached on Psalm 24 and referring to verse 3 “who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?” he reminded us that there’s no bouncers at the foot of the hill of the Lord. We are free to ascend.

• I also really like Graham’s retelling of the parable of the [prodigal] lost son. Graham prefers to call it the parable of the “Faithful Father” because it says in Luke 15:20 of the son’s return:

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

• So we can imagine here a Father who goes out to the fields everyday, lifts his hand to his head to shade his eyes from the burning sun and scans the horizon, looking, searching and hoping for his long lost, his rebellious, son to return to him repentant.

He doesn’t get angry with him, his filled with compassion, of course he is because real repentance is horrible. Facing up to and accepting the shame of sin the and guilt of sin is bad enough. God doesn’t tell us not to sin for His sake, He tells us not to sin for our own sake because any pleasure you had at the time will be completely undone when you have to repent.

1.4 “Slow to Anger and Abounding in Love”

But even though “God is slow to anger and abounding in love…” You know that exact phrase appears 7 times in the bible, all in the Old Testament: Exodus, Numbers, Nehemiah, Psalms 86 and 103 , Joel and Jonah. Let that phrase, that merciful characteristic of God as His Word testifies, let it sink into your Spirit, may it just be imprinted on your mind “God is slow to anger and abounding in love…” God is far from always being punitive in the Old Testament, he is “slow to anger and abounding in love…”

He can be hostile, particularly if we act as if we are giving ourselves to Him but actually we’re holding back.

1.4 Occasionally Hostile

• Cain experienced this when God rejected his offering in Genesis 4. We’re not exactly sure why God rejected Cain’s offering of the “fruits of the soil” and accepted Abel’s “fat portions of the first born of his stock” but if I came to your house and you offered me a plate of vegetables with no meat, I’d be annoyed too! Joking aside, what is clear is that Cain didn’t give God his all [Hebrews 11:4; 1 John 3:11-12].

• Ananias and Sapphira also experienced the hostility of God when they sold their property and brought the money to the community of believers in Acts 5. But Ananias was dishonest about the price he got and held back some of the money, he was struck down dead as was his wife who also lied.

But if we are transparent with God and just lay all out before Him, we have nothing to fear.

1.5 I Love the Welcoming Nature of Jesus

Jesus was welcoming to all the wrong types of people in the eyes of Jewish society that is. They must have thought Jesus was mad, if he wanted to gain a following, they must have thought, he better start hanging out with the right people: not sex workers, alcoholics, and tax collectors (or in other words thieves, the puppets the Romans, that unwanted occupying force, oppressing the people, robbing them of their freedoms and of their hard earnings). They probably built a few roads but when has that ever stopped people complaining about taxes. No, the tax collectors were well known for overcharging and then lining their own pockets with the profits.

Yet Jesus said of the chief priests in Matthew 21:31-32 “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the Kingdom before them for John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did…” [how do we know they believed John, they would have repented and been baptised] “..And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” No one is bad enough, that God will not accept true repentance.

1.6 Welcoming – Community Link

So if God is welcoming, to all sorts, what must we do as a church? We must be welcoming as well. Thankfully, give yourselves a pat on the back, this is something we do rather well here at York Elim. Our Welcome Team, and Tea and Coffee Team, are doing really well.

If I said to you the names: Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas what would you associate them with?

Let me tell you from Acts 6: “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” This proposal please the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas form Antioch, a convert to Judaism.”

Their names have been recorded in the Word and read by Christians for the past two millennia why? Because they “waited on tables”, they distributed bread. Their names are remembered because the Spirit in them helped them to be hospitable.

I want to pray, to speak a blessing over anyone who welcomes on that door or on any door at ths church or any other. That they would be filled with the Spirit, so that when people look into their faces and shake their hands, that even by that small act they will know that they are different because they belong to Jesus. Amen? Being welcoming and hospitable is an expression of the Holy Sprit, it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

2. The Acts Community

Introduction

You know this Acts community was wonderful, Acts 2 says: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” I look at this community that the Acts church lived in and I almost despaired, we’ve strayed so far from it these days.

2.1 We Need Community

I think that this is part of the attraction of things like Elim Festival, camp. I was talking to a guy there this year and he was telling me why he comes back year after year, for some 20 odd years. He said it was because he gets something…spiritually…just by being there and mixing with other Christians and meeting interesting people “like you” he said. He said, “we need that you know.” That community, it does something good and wholesome for us spiritually. We’re designed to live in community, it’s in our spiritual DNA, not in solitary caves.

2.1.A Englishman’s Home

We seemed to have strayed quite a bit from this wonderful style of community that the Acts church had. Particularly in Western individualistic societies. I’m not English (I’m Scottish) but an Englishman’s Home is his Castle. I can imagine the awkwardness that would ensue if we announced that a condition of church membership was that you put your house on the market and put the proceedings into the offering.

I suppose part of the problem is that Christian community living has been tarnished by pseudo Christian cults, living and sharing together is often a mark of these cults. Which wouldn’t be so bad but members are often encouraged to share everything, including their beds. It’s no surprise that the leaders are usually men.

2.2 Communal Welfare Is Now State Controlled

So I look at this and think we’ve strayed so far from this but then I think have we really though? What we’re looking at here is an early form of a Communal Welfare State. We live in England, in a modern Welfare State. Scotsman Keir Hardie, one of the founders of the Labour Party said this: “I claim for Socialism, that it is the embodiment of Christianity in our Industrial system.” We pay National Insurance and Taxes into a common pot so that those who are up against hard times can find support. So that we don’t have people on our streets dying of starvation or poverty or disease. But you know, we didn’t develop a modern welfare state until after The Beveridge Report, produced during WWII (which identified five “Giant Evils” in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease). Where did the poor go when they needed help? Usually, the church.

2.3 Historical Christian Goodness

It’s a pity men like Richard Dawkins fail to take this into account when they write their rants against the church and Christians. Christians have been responsible for tremendous social change in this country. I think Richard Dawkins probably has quite a high opinion of himself, the problem with Richard Dawkins is that he cannot, or refuses to, believe in the existence of a being who possesses a greater intelligence than him! I shouldn’t really make generalisations about him, he has actually stated that he could accept, in principal, the existence of a supernatural force.

But Christians have done tremendous things in the name of Jesus.

2.3.A John Knox

John Knox, that great Scottish reformer who famously made the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots cry. He wrote the First Book of Discipline in 1560 in which he attempted to create a national system to help the poor, which some have said, would have been more effective and more human than modern welfare system. It wasn’t until 1870 the Education Act in this country provided rate-supported schools under local boards where there was a gap in voluntary services. It is without doubt that before then the greatest provider of voluntary schools was the church and Christian philanthropic organisations.

2.3.B (Ig)Nobel Prize vs Philanthropy

In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that there are more atheists who have won the Nobel prize than Christians or theists. We do of course have Alfred Nobel to thank for the Nobel prize and what was that other thing he invented?…oh yeah…dynamite. Thanks Alfred. I don’t want to knock the Nobel Prize too much because in many cases it is very well deserved but what about:

• Lord Shaftesbury – (philanthropist, anti slave, ragged school)

• The William Wilberforce – (anti slave)

• The Elizabeth Fry – (Prison reformer, social reformer)

• The Dr Barnardo – (Children’s Homes)

• The George Muller - (Orphanages)

• The Samuel Morley – (Philanthropist)

• The Seebohm Rowntree – (Philanthropist, Social reformer)

• Even the Cecil Polhill- (Philanthropist)

The list goes on and on.

They didn’t invent dynamite, the prefrontal lobotomy or the atom bomb no they were humane. Why? They did it all out of religious conviction. They never received the Nobel Prize, they received something much greater the “crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12)

2.3.C We should still be challenged by Community

So we live in a welfare state but obviously that doesn’t that mean that we ignore the poor of this country. Besides poverty isn’t just a case of being able to afford food now, being on the bread line is not enough. There is such a thing as relative poverty and deprivation, people need to have enough money to socially engage, have decent clothes and decent furniture etc. That’s why I really like the Besom Project. If you have an old tatty piece of furniture that you want to get rid of, please don’t call the Besom Project because they’re not interested but if you’ve got something decent that you don’t use anymore and you’re prepared to hand onto it and pray until someone with a need comes along then give the Besom Project a call. We absolutely do need to be looking for opportunities to help the less fortunate and we certainly need to welcome them as well. Community is so important. My mind turns to Pakistan and what people need more than ever in that land now is each other. Can you imagine if all your money, property, job and quite possibly your family had been swept away in a flood? You’ve got no way of helping yourself, you need to rely on aid, aid from others. They need to rely on each other.

3. A Deeper Work

So, God can welcome us but that’s not all that needs to be done. If we come to God, we’re just in the Outer Court a greater work needs to be done if we want to enter into the Holy of Holies.

We all have or have had a problem, a problem which has prevented us from being acceptable before God. A kind of Spiritual malfunction and God really needs to deal with that. God needs to turn us into something else altogether. Have you ever heard C S Lewis’ illustration of the Obstinate Tin Soldier? He says this:

“Did you ever think, when you were a child, what fun it would be if your toys could come to life? Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. It would involve turning the tin into flesh. And suppose the tin soldier did not like it. He is not interested in flesh; all he sees is that the tin is being spoilt. He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything he can to prevent you He will not be made into a man if he can help it.

What you would have done about that tin soldier I do not know. But what God did about us was this. The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself was born into the world as an actual man - a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular colour, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a Woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.

The result of this was that you now had one man who really was what all men were intended to be: one man in whom the created life, derived from His Mother, allowed itself to be completely and perfectly turned into the begotten life. The natural human creature in Him was taken up fully into the divine Son. Thus in one instance humanity had, so to speak, arrived: had passed into the life of Christ. And because the whole difficulty for us is that the natural life has to be, in a sense, ‘killed,’ He chose an earthly career which involved the killing of His human desires at every turn - poverty, misunderstanding from His own family, betrayal by one of His intimate friends, being jeered at and manhandled by the Police, and execution by torture. And then, after being thus killed-killed every day in a sense - the human creature in Him, because it was united to the divine Son, came to life again. The Man in Christ rose again: not only the God. That is the whole point. For the first time we saw a real man. One tin soldier - real tin, just like the rest - had come fully and splendidly alive.”

In Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

In Romans 12 is says we are “to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

In 2 Peter 1 says that through his “very great and precious promises,”.. we are to “participate in the divine nature.”

Sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it hurts being transformed into the likeness of Christ, into something real and eternal. Once we have supped of the Living Water, we will never thirst again. So the road to true life is open to all, we are welcome but it is narrow and hard but anyone who finds that road will not easily stray from it. Because we can be confident of this “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6