"We Have Jesus" (Luke 10:1-20)

Sunday, September 8, 2019

            An author recently made the point that people leave church “because too many churches are about things beyond or instead of the work of Jesus Christ.”[i]  I disagree.  Beyond the work of Jesus or instead of the work of Jesus; I agree many churches serve their own agendas instead of God’s, I just don’t know if that’s why people leave church and stay away from church.

            As Luke chapter 9 ends, Jesus is frustrated with people who are moving away from him because they don’t want any part of his agenda.  “I’ll follow you Jesus, but first let me go and bury my father” (9:59).  Jesus responds, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  Jesus’ reaction doesn’t sound very sympathetic.   Hey Jesus, how about, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry your father is dead.’  Let the dead bury their own dead?  What kind of response is that?  Maybe the Lord of creation and the Savior of the universe needed to spend a semester in a basic pastoral class? 

            Or, maybe Jesus knew something about the guy who wanted to hang out at the graveside when it was time to hit the mission field.  To the guy who wanted to say goodbye to mom and pop first, Jesus says, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

            Reading the Gospels in their totality, we know that Jesus cries at funerals and says his goodbyes.  The point here is not that he was cold to people who were in grief or who had to make big decisions.  The point Jesus wanted his followers to see and wants us to see is the decision to follow Him is the biggest decision a person will ever make.  Once you say, “Jesus is my Lord,” then He truly is; Lord of your marriage and your wedding day; Lord of whether you decide to marry and whom; Lord of your kids and your job.  We say “Jesus is Lord,” but do we understand what we are saying?

            There may be some people who stay away from church because people in the church have agenda’s that are different than God’s and the church misrepresents Jesus.  I think just as many people stay away from church because they sense what Jesus wants from us – our very lives; and they don’t want to give Him that much control.

            Turning the page from Luke 9 to Luke 10, Jesus has moved on from the hesitant disciples.  He’s got 70 who are ready to go wherever he says to go.  This is all before the resurrection, before his followers realize that He is God in the flesh, Messiah and Savior, and Savior for not just Israel but the entire world.  The 70 were Jewish disciples traveling in Jewish territory to announce that in the coming of Jesus, the Kingdom of God has come near.  What we see in Luke 10 is a prelude to the Great Commission Jesus will give his followers after resurrection; after he rose from the grave he sent them to Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  As Luke 10 shows us, even before the crucifixion and resurrection, to follow Jesus and to be one of His own is to be sent to tell the world about Him.

            There’s no such thing as a Christian who is not sent.  If we want the title ‘Christ-follower’, then we embrace the commission to go and tell about Jesus.  Maybe you are sent to the neighborhood where you live, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, or Durham.  Maybe you are sent to your workplace.  You do your work with great effort and integrity.  In that setting, God will open the door to spiritual conversations with co-workers; in that moment you share your faith.  Maybe you are sent to UNC’s campus or to a particular group on campus, a fraternity or gathering of students with a particular major or a dormitory.  That becomes your mission field.  The moment we say “Yes” to God, “Yes, I want to receive forgiveness of sins and give my life to Jesus;” in that moment, we are called to go and tell.  We are all sent.

            In upcoming weeks, we will look at the ways God equips us as we set out on the mission he lays before us.  God doesn’t just say to you or me “Go get ‘em, Tiger!”  God gives Spiritual gifts; this is mentioned in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and briefly in 1 Peter 4.  God works in the opportunities we have in life; we see this in the stories of Peter, Philip, and Paul, all told in the book of acts.  God uses skills and talents we develop in life as He did with the artisan Bezalel in the book of Exodus, and the song writer Asaph whom we meet in Kings and Chronicles.  God speaks through our individual personalities.  Think of  the shy, timid Timothy or Barnabas, the encourager.  Spiritual gifts, personality, skills, experiences, and heart’s passion – God looks into your life, takes what you bring to the table, enhances it, and speaks through you to the world. 

            Our mission at HillSong is to follow Jesus, love others, and share hope.  We do that through ministries here at our church, ministries our church does out in the community, and through God at work in our members as we go about our lives.  You have a part to play based on the unique combination of traits that make you who you are.  Whether you have been in our church for 20 years or today is you first day with us, you have a part to play in the way God brings good news of salvation to Chapel Hill through us. 

            In talking about this – being on mission, being called, being equipped – why do we start with Luke 10, the story of Jesus sending 70 out?  Why not begin with standard spiritual gift lists in 1 Corinthian 12 and Romans 12?  Why start here?

            The gifts are important but we don’t start there because we don’t people to become “gift-obsessed.”  Is my gift serving?  Oh my gosh!  I thought I had the gift of prophecy!  Now what do I do?  I can’t speak truth to power.  I can’t prophecy.  I have to stay in my spiritual gift lane but I don’t like the lane God assigned me.  We don’t want that.  We believe great joy comes when we serve God in the church in our areas of gifting and strength.  But prophets can serve; just read the stories of Elisha in 2^nd Kings.  And servants can prophesy.  Ask Amos.  We want to know our gifts but not be gift-obsessed.

            A bigger reason to start our conversation about being equipped to do God’s work with the story of the sending of the 70 in Luke 10 is what Jesus does there for the disciples.  It’s more important than Spiritual gifting.  The Spirit of Jesus goes with them.

            He sends them with no provisions.  They are workers sent to harvest the souls of people who respond positively to God’s invitation.  Do you want your sins forgiven?  Do you want to follow Jesus?  The workers are sent to tell everyone how important this invitation is.  We workers are to guide people to Jesus so they can be born again and see His glory in their lives. 

            Sent without provisions or supplies, Jesus tells them they will face opposition.  “I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves.”  When we step out on mission, two types of wolves await us.  There are evil forces, demons, and temptations from Satan.  This is supernatural opposition.  It is real and will confront us when we step out in Jesus’ name. 

The second type of wolf is the spirit of fallen humanity.  People and institutions give in to temptation to sin.  They declare that they don’t need God and you don’t either.  These are the builders of the tower of Babel.  This is humanity’s willful rejection of God.  Both types of wolves will draw us away from God and down the path that leads to our destruction.

            How can we possibly succeed?  What chance does a sheep have in conflict with a pack of hungry, snarling wolves?  Just one; we survive if we stay connected to the shepherd.  Before we take stock of our spiritual gifts we have to establish that link with Jesus. 

            This means we are so committed that we’d be willing to follow Jesus even in the midst of mourning a lost loved one.  We’d answer his call even if we missed the chance to say good bye.  Jesus would not lead us to hurt our families or be hurt by them.   But our commitment to Him puts him absolutely first in our lives, so we would do whatever he asked no matter what it is.  We move forward trusting that he is with us and that he will only ask us to do life-producing things and to go places where we can share love.  And we trust that’s he with us every step of the way.  Before we have spiritual gifts, talents, or other attributes, we have Jesus because he has us.

            The seventy Jesus commissions in Luke 10 go unnamed.  We could speculate that some of these are the heroes of the faith we later meet by name in the book of Acts.  In Luke they are anonymous believers that trust Jesus.  So, he sends them.  How does it go? 

            Luke 10:17, “The seventy returned with joy.”  It sounded ominous, “I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.”  But they trusted him.  The put their hand to the plow and did not look back.  To Jesus, they proclaimed with wonder, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”  In Jesus name.  Jesus joined them in their triumph.  He tells them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.  See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you” (10:18b-19). 

            When they headed out, they didn’t need supplies.  They had the one thing they needed: Jesus.  Snakes and scorpions and demonic enemies and human temptations all await us when we head out to do the work of Jesus, whether it be in our church, on campus, in our town, or on the job.  Multiple manifestations of evil oppose the advance of the Gospel.  Starting now, we have what we need to step out boldly.

            No, not “what” we need; we have who we need.  When we turn to Him in faith, we have the Holy Spirit of the Resurrected Christ in us, before us, and holding us so that no threat is as powerful as the one who sends us and walks with us.  What do sheep need to face ravenous wolves?  The shepherd!  We have the shepherd, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.

            I don’t know why people stay away from church.  I do know the Spirit that draws each one of us to God’s embrace also sends us into the world in Jesus’ name, stays with us as we go, and rejoices with us when we return.

AMEN 

---

[i] https://matthewtennant.org/2019/09/04/decline-of-christianity-growing-churches/

Safe, New, Sent (Matthew 20:16-20)

Sunday, June 3, 2018

            Who we are supposed to be as individual believers and as a local congregation comes from who Jesus is.  We get to know him in the stories we find in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The Bible is the authority to which we must conform.  The Bible is not to be adjusted in order tos fit in with our lives, with modern day sensibilities, or with current trends.  We adjust our thoughts and our lives to what we understand the Bible to be saying.  We submit ourselves to the God we meet in the Bible. 

            We meet God in story – primarily in the story of Jesus.  There are numerous examples. This morning we’ll look at a few.  First, Mark 3:1-6. 

[Jesus] entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ² They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴ Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

            The man’s withered hand was for him a deformity and a disability.  He could not work.  His condition would be attributed to sin in his life – God inflicted him with a useless, withered hand as a punishment.  Thus, he could not do manual labor and he lived as a social outcast. 

            Jesus welcomed this rejected man.  Jesus interrupted normal Sabbath routine to help him.  What could be better than working a miracle that would ease the man’s pain, restore his social standing, enable him to participate fully in community worship, and empower him to go to work and make a living?  Jesus changed this man’s life, and verse 6 says the powers that be were enraged.  They had constructed a system of rules that marginalized the man instead of coming together as a community to help the man.  The synagogue and the synagogue leaders magnified the suffering the man went through due to his infirmity.  They were the opposite of “safe” for him.  Whatever difficulty he endured in life was increased by the religious leader were supposed to care for his spiritual life.  And churches through the ages have inflicted similar suffering on people.  People already going through various kinds of pain go to church for hope and instead are judged in a way that makes things worse.

            Jesus welcomed the man, loved him, and restored his life. 

            Jesus also condemned the Pharisees who showed no love to broken people and lost sinners.  Verse 5 says Jesus was angry at their attitude.  It also says, he grieved in his heart at the spiritual condition of that synagogue.  If we love the most broken people who come through our doors, we’re safe for them, the way Jesus was.  If we push to the margins people who already feel like outcasts, we cause Jesus grief and he’s angry at us.

            This is what he says in Matthew 23.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.^[a] 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell^[b]as yourselves.

           

            One more example shows how Jesus was safe for the wounded, the outcast, the lost, the confused, and those in great pain. 

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. ²⁵ Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. ²⁶ She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. ²⁷ She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” ²⁹ Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰ Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² He looked all around to see who had done it. ³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.

            Like the man with the withered hand, this woman suffered a physical ailment that also left her socially outcast and financially ruined.  In every way imaginable, she was down and out.  Jesus was on his way to heal the dying daughter of a very important man.  He stopped walking to the house where girl lay, just as we early saw him stop the synagogue worship.  To him, the person in front of him with great need was not a distraction.  Showing love to that person was the mission.  This woman was labeled unclean, but he called her daughter, healed her, and restored her.

            The first principle of our church’s philosophy of ministry is to embody the way Jesus is safe for people.  Are you full of questions?  This is a safe place for you to ask them.  Have you done some bad things in your life, and now come seeking forgiveness?  It is OK for you to tell your story here.  Is the world an unsafe place for you?  Come into the arms of Jesus.  That’s what we want to be for you.  One of our top priorities must be to be a safe place for people who need a safe place. 

And sometimes, the one who needs the safety of Jesus is someone who’s been coming a long time.  You don’t need to have it all together.  Even deacons and elders and pastors need the church to be that safe place.  Come and meet Jesus in this place.  Come as you are.  Come into the arms of Jesus.

Once we’ve established that we are a safe place, as Jesus is safe, and we have to constantly work on this, then we pray that people will meet the Holy Spirit in our midst.  In meeting God, we are made new.  In the bulletin, it says, “Transformed.”  That word and “made new” are interchangeable.

Listen to this exchange Jesus has with the fishing brothers, Andrew and Simon Peter. 

As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (Matthew 4:18-19).

            Jesus takes them as they are, a couple of fishermen in the process of fishing.  However, Jesus tells them there will be changes.  Their lives are fixed in that region right along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  He says that’s going to change.  “Follow me,” he tells them, and it is clear he’s on the move. 

            They’ll fish again.  In the Gospel of John, we see them fishing after the resurrection.  Fishing will always be part of their lives, but it is no longer the top priority.  Job, family, marriage, relationships, physical fitness, career – whatever we put at the top of the priority list is moved down a notch when we do what Jesus invited Andrew and Peter to do, follow him.  Following him means he becomes Lord.  He is master of our lives. 

            He tells them, “I will make you fish for people.”  They have no sense of what this means, we might not either.  This call to evangelism has led many in Christian history into the damaging idea that we are supposed to change people.  Not so!  We don’t change people.  We help them meet Jesus and find forgiveness of sins in Him.  Once people meet Jesus, they are transformed.  When we “fish for people” as he said Andrew and Peter, we are transformed from the lost and the broken to disciples who know the Lord and who work at sharing his love with individual people who are lost and dying in a world that is lost and dying. 

            This is what our church is all about.  We are a safe place where people can come as they are and be loved.  Once here, in our community, they meet Jesus, and upon meeting Jesus, we do not remain as we are.  We have a relationship with the God who created the universe.  That’ll change a person.  We are made new, transformed into the perfect image of God.  We become new creations.

            Safe!  New!  There is a third and final anchor for our philosophy of what a church, what our church, is called to be: Sent! 

            In Luke 10:1-11 we see the first example of what Jesus will constantly do – send his followers into the world to announce the salvation he brings.

The Lord appointed seventy^[a] others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. ² He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. ³ Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. ⁴ Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. ⁵ Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ ⁶ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. ⁷ Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. ⁸ Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹ cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’^[b] 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹ ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’

A

            Like those earliest disciples, we are sent.  Each week, we are sent from worship into the world to be witnessed who share the Gospel in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and surroundings towns.  This is our Jerusalem.  Sometimes, we send members of our church out on mission trips.  And, when people have to leave church to move and live in other places, we pray over them  We pray a commissioning prayer, a sending prayer that says, ‘go with God’s blessing; go on mission for Christ.’  We live our lives as called people – called to give witness to the goodness of the Kingdom of God.

            Our church is to be a safe place where people are welcome and loved, and then, here they meet Jesus.  In meeting him, we are made new, transformed, and born again.  As new creations we are sent into the world to be the body of Christ sharing the love of Christ with all people.  This is what Carrboro Baptist Church is called to be.  This is who HillSong Church is.  Whatever future names we operate under, in essence, we are the body of Christ, at work, spreading his word in a world that desperately needs Him.

            This construct for church is easily seen in Matthew 28:16-20 – the passage known as the Great Commission.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

            “Go therefore,” Jesus says.  They are sent.  Faith does not sit in one place.  God’s mandate for the church is that we move into the world, the entire world, that all may know Jesus.

            “Make disciples … baptizing them;” we tell the story so that people will hear it, believe it, and give their lives to Jesus.  We are made new and then we try to help others discover new life in Christ.

            “And I am with you always.”  The safest place to be is with Jesus and He is always with us.  Because he is always with us, we are to be welcoming, inviting for other people.  Are people afraid of you because of your knowledge, because of your sense of self-righteousness, of because of a judgmental or intimidating spirit you give off?  That cannot be so, not if you or I want to be Jesus’ disciples.  People must feel safe and welcome approaching us just as Jesus puts people at ease. 

            Safe-New-Sent; our church aspires to this.  Spend time this week praying for our church, that our church may live into this calling God has given us.  We need your prayers.  We are entering a season where we re-discover this identify and in discovery, we live into it.  Pray for us and pray for God to show you your part in this church family.

AMEN

Die to Self

I continue to be grateful to the church I serve, for allowing me a 4-month Sabbatical in 2017.  This week, I looked back at my journal from that time.  On one of the early days of my time away from the church, searching for a passage to be a theme verse for the Sabbatical, I stopped at Matthew 10:38, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Jesus here, and in other passages, talks about this idea of dying to self.  At our church, the three foundational pillars of ministry philosophy are safe space, to be made new, and sent into the world.  The “safe” pillar is our commitment to being a welcoming community that loves people “as they are.”  We say, “All are welcome.” 

The “sent” pillar is our commitment to carrying the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ to a lost and hurting world.  When we think of the term ‘evangelical,’ we do not have in mind how you vote or what your politics are.  We mean evangelistic people, people who go out into the world motivated to help people they meet become followers of Jesus. 

The middle pillar, “be made new,” is where I lived during the Sabbatical.  It is what I think is happening in Matthew 10:38 when Jesus commends losing one’s life.  One of the things I have heard from people a lot is this question.  Can I follow Jesus and still be my “whole self?”  The answer from Jesus is “No, you can’t.”  Jesus promises to love us as we are, but when we follow Him, we do not remain as we are.  We don’t come to Jesus hoping to be our “full selves.”  When we come to Jesus and follow Jesus, we die to self.

I have relearned the depths of this concept over and over in my own life as a Christ-follower.  As a thoughtless college student whose brash words hurt others, I had to repent and apologize to those I hurt.  That repentance included dying to self.  When I was single, badly wanting to be married, I had to learn to be content in Christ.  In my marriage as significant challenges have arisen, both my wife and I have had to be humble before God and each other and this included dying to self.  In the privilege of leading a church, HillSong, that is full of strong leaders who will not sycophantically bow to the lead pastor’s will, I have to constantly die to self. 

In this past Sunday’s sermon, I talked about Daniel who refused to let his Babylonian overseers dictate his identity.  In their hands, he did not allow himself to be unmade.  I hope that as I unfolded the story of Daniel’s boldness, it was not lost that at a deeper level, Daniel and each one of us is in fact clay to be molded, just not the world’s hands.  We are in God’s hands and God stretches us, pounds us, hardens us, and shapes us.  Mixing metaphors, we also realize God prunes us, a painful process, but for our good.  Sometimes we don’t understand the creator’s work, but we are the creatures.  We submit to His will not because it is easy but because it is good.  There are no self-made men or women in the Kingdom of Heaven, only God-made men and God-made women. 

Are you ready for this kind of life, one lived in absolute submission to the will of God?  Are we prepared to answer the call to be disciples of Jesus?  Read Paul’s letters.  The disciple life is full of joy and wonder.  But, read all the letters, including 2 Timothy.  The disciple life includes weary days, uncertain seasons, and disciples sometimes have long nights.  No, we don’t say to Jesus, “Take me as I am.”  We say, “You, Jesus, are the Lord, the Savior, the Master.  Here I am.  Make me what you will.  Show me who you will create me to be.”

Almost 4 months removed from Sabbatical, I am grateful I went back and looked at the Sabbatical journal, which directed me back to Jesus’ words in Matthew 10.  My prayer now is the same as it was back in May.  Lord, here I am.  Make me your New Creation.  I hold this prayer up not just for me, but for anyone who would follow Jesus as a part of the church I lead.  

When We Dream (Joel 2:28-29)

Sunday, November 22, 2015

          We have prayed that God would grant wisdom and give revelation to HillSong Church.  These seven weeks have had an inward focus.  Our direction is Godward.  We have collectively, as a family of worshipers, as brothers and sister in Christ, pointed our faces toward the Lord.  We have joined voices and together asked God to speak.

          In the process, we have reflected upon who we are God’s people.  There is a sense of what a Christian should be.  We describe, generally speaking, what a church should be.  We have emphasized what HillSong Church is called to be in the first quarter of the 21^st century. 

          These prayers will not cease as we conclude this church-wide emphasis on discernment.  Understanding who we are in Christ is a constant process.  However, it is now time to reflect on what has been revealed; this is also the time to cast our gaze down the road and ponder where we are headed and also to see who, from afar, is coming toward us.

          We have talked about HillSong being safe place.  We strive to be a place of welcome where one can come and be loved and be encouraged and nurtured.  This will always tested as we who make up the community are born-again, spirit-filled yet also tempted by our weaknesses and by the devils’ wiles.  We, the people yearning to create safe space, sometimes are the ones who make it unsafe.  But we press on, we try again, as we welcome the next one through the door.

          In the safe space, our community, we worship.  In worship, our hearts are laid bare before the Lord and we pray that we actually meet God in those encounters.  In meeting God, we are forever changed.  We are made new – new creations. 

As new creations, we are then sent into the world to announce that something has happened.  God has done something.  God has come in human form, in the flesh.  That’s Jesus!  He is God in the flesh and in Him the Kingdom of God has come near.  In Him, people have forgiveness of sins and rescue from death.  We are sent to proclaim that He is Lord and King and people can have life in His name.  We are sent to help people become His disciples.

“Safe-New-Sent;” these words have become a mantra at HillSong.  But this is not all God has revealed.  Relationships matter.  We are a relational people.  Watch what happens when the worship service ends today.  People don’t flood to the exits.  I have been in church services where when the final song is over, people head for the exits like the building is on fire.  Here, people linger to talk, laugh, and embrace.  We love each other.

And our relationships are expanding.  New people come all the time.  Now, new congregations are in the fold with Zion Karen Baptist Church and Iglesia del Amor de Dios meeting in our buildings.  When our elders and deacons met a month ago, one of the observations we took away from our conversations was God is bringing the nations to HillSong.  And we are thrilled about that.

As a relational people living in fellowship with a divine calling to welcome the sojourner and seek out the lost that we might help them find the way to salvation, where do we go from here?

I appeal to the words of the prophet Joel.  He spoke of judgment and called a sinful people to repentance, but then, God showed him a new day dawning.  Here’s what God says through the prophet Joel.

^28 [a] Then afterward
    I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹ Even on the male and female slaves,
    in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

          The dreams that come don’t originate with us. God says, “I will pour out my spirit.”  God’s Spirit visits us, and then the dreams come.  The good in our lives, the purpose which drives us to live and to live in a certain way comes from God.

          Joel shows that we dream God dreams.  To be people of faith, to follow Jesus, is to believe in visions and to experience dreams.  What’s more, this is all of us.  This is not reserved for the spiritual superheroes among us.  Nor is this purview of the privileged or the experienced or those more honored than others.  Children prophesy, senior citizens see things they’ve never seen before, and slaves dream and show the truth of God.  The revelation of God is generously shared as God desires to give it.

          But, what in the world does this mean?  The prophecy from Joel is beautiful and inspired and incomplete, because it doesn’t seem to ever become reality. 

          Then Jesus.

          Jesus comes along, and then Joel makes sense.

          In the book of Acts a series of events takes place.  First, Acts picks up right after the resurrection.  Jesus, who died and was buried, is walking about in his body resurrected.  The disciples see Him depart.  He goes to Heaven, to the right hand of the Father.  Then, after 40 days, the Holy Spirit rains down in tongues of fire on the disciples gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost.   As they are filled, they speak the languages of all gathered there.

          It doesn’t make any sense.  These are Galilean fishermen, not educated linguists.  Yet with unmatched eloquence, they tell the story of God coming in the person of Jesus, dying, and offering salvation to the world.  The crowd, astounded, doesn’t know what to make of it all.

          That’s when Peter stands and says this.

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵ Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams.
¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
        and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above
    and signs on the earth below,
        blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,
        before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

          Peter’s way of making sense of all that happens is to appeal to scripture – the prophecy of Joel.  But Joel only makes sense when understood in terms of the resurrection.  Why can Peter say that the spiritual phenomena that happened at Pentecost is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy?  Because Jesus was raised.  That spirit was and is the Holy Spirit of the Lord filling His people.

          Joel’s prophecy continues to be fulfilled as we gather, worship, glorify God in Jesus Christ, and band together as His people.  In this context, the church together, the Spirit pours new revelation and calls us to the work of holy living and holy love in the midst of a hurting and dying world. 

          Where do we go from here?  We worship – together.  We give and receive forgiveness – together.  We passionately discuss the issues of our day.  Sometimes those conversations heated, but it is for the sake of the Gospel because when we go over the issues of the day, what we are really talking about is how sin continuously wounds men and women.  When discuss, because we are Spirit-filled Christ followers, our discussion always comes back to figuring out, in the power of God, how we help heal the wounded.  This too is something we do together.  We live into the calling God has placed on us.

          An issue pressing the world right now, shows this point.  I have been in a number of conversations, debates, about how a nation like America ought to respond to the attacks in Paris and to the crisis of thousands of displaced Syrians.  Some argue that sound foreign policy is to send those Syrians elsewhere.

We don’t even think about sound foreign policy.  We know that our security is in the Lord, not in our government.  We want those who hurt at our doors so we can love them and help them.  Refugees who cannot find a shore?  This is our moment.  To care for them is to live into our calling.

Also, this morning, we have seen where we go from here.  In Baptism, in new members sharing their stories, our fires as a relationship people called together are rekindled.  The newly baptized believer and the newly welcomed member sharing there are hearts as we open our hearts to them and to all who come – this is what we are about.  This is who we are.

Next is Advent, that season in which we remember the coming of Christ and anticipate His return and the final, complete establishment of His Kingdom when Heaven and Earth come together. 

I pray that you will dream dreams the Holy Spirit plants in your heart.  I pray each of us will see our individual relationships with God become deeper, more real, and richer in the season ahead.  I pray God will shape HillSong Church so that in this place His love rules, and people grow into a full understanding that we are His.

AMEN