Category: Teachings

Posted on by — 10 Comments

Reconciliation & Transformation: God’s 7 Act Drama of His-Story

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes click on the link:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/reconciliation-transformation-4-gods-story-of-reconciliation/

Introduction: This mini-series of Reconciliation & Transformation is part of ‘fishing the world’ to turn the church outward to engage in social transformation. I’m teaching on this because of the growing racism and polarization in our nation. Plus, the Church ought to be the reconciler and healer in society. I shared my story of crossing the divides in SA under Apartheid to seek reconciliation with brothers and sisters in Soweto. Then we had two weeks of story telling from people representing the major race groups in SA. Our stories of racial consciousness and hurt only find redemption and meaning to the extent they become part of and are interpreted by God’s Greater Story of Reconciliation and Transformation – else we may become imprisoned by anger and hatred.

Reconciliation is to ‘make peace’ (restore Shalom) by removing the cause of alienation and division, thus making the two one again (Matt 5:9). And transformation is a change of heart, attitude and behaviour, by God’s Spirit and our responses to his work in us.

So, here is the sweeping storyline of God’s work acted out in human His-Story:
God’s Seven Act Drama of Reconciliation & Transformation.

Act One: CREATION – God’s Garden of Delight

In the beginning God created all things ‘good’. He then created humanity (Adam & Eve) in his image and likeness (‘very good’) to rule under God over creation through Shalom. Shalom is more than peace: it’s God’s order, wellbeing, harmony & abundance, through right relationship with God, ourselves, each other and creation. The Garden of Eden (‘Delight’) was a replica of heaven on earth: Adam & Eve were ONE with God, each other and creation, in an exquisite eternal dance of delight, love and community. Continue reading Reconciliation & Transformation: God’s 7 Act Drama of His-Story

Posted on by — 4 Comments

The Practice of Evangelism (2) – The How To?

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes click on:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-the-how-to-of-evangelism-part-38-2/

We practice ‘Fishing the World’ by living out our Kingdom vocation (calling) via our daily occupation (work). This naturally leads to EVANGELISM: sharing the good news of Jesus, who saves us through his life, death and resurrection. I’ve repeatedly said, however, who you are, how you behave, communicates much louder than what you say about Jesus. Last week I taught on the What? and Why? of evangelism; now we look at the How?

The Wisdom of Every Believer Evangelism

To be a follower of Jesus is to be his witness (evangelist). Every believer is his messenger of joy sharing The Gospel, ‘fishing’ people into his Kingdom. While some are gifted as evangelists (Eph 4:11), every believer is called to do evangelism… right where we are, and further afield, to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Therefore, we must “always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have… with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3:15, cf. Eph 6:15 & Is 52:7).

To ‘win’ people requires wisdom as Solomon says: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and those who win souls are wise” (Prov 11:30). Those who are wise will lead many to righteousness, shining like bright stars in a darkening world (Dan 12:3). This applies to Jesus’ fishing image: to catch fish you need to be clever, knowing what fish you’re trying to catch, the season, the time and tide, and what bait to use! Because we ignore these factors we often don’t catch fish (people) – besides our lack of motivation and practice. Jesus used other images to teach the same regarding his disciples’ mission and witness in the world: “I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves, therefore be as shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16) – be cunning and clever, yet pure and innocent! To be “the salt of the earth” is to make people thirsty for God’s goodness, while stinging their corrupt conscience; and to be “the light of the world” is to show people the way to God by your good deeds, while confronting and driving back their darkness (Matt 5:13-16). Continue reading The Practice of Evangelism (2) – The How To?

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Fishing the World – The Practice of Evangelism

For the audio teaching on these notes, click on:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-fishing-the-world-the-priority-practice-of-evangelism-part-37/

Our third value of ‘Fishing the World’ for God is practiced as we live out our Kingdom vocation (calling) through our daily occupation (work). This naturally leads to our second priority and practice: EVANGELISM. If we are good news in our workplace, then we will be able (even invited) to speak the good news of Jesus. This teaching answers the What? and Why? of evangelism, and will introduce the How? to do evangelism.

WHAT is Evangelism? What is The Gospel?

English ‘evangelism’ comes from the Greek evangelion, with the root angelos, messenger or herald… of good news. Used of Greco-Roman generals and emperors, ‘messengers of joy’ ran to the ends of the Empire telling of their victories in battle, and the good news of the Emperor’s birth, enthronement and reign. Thus, evangelion referred not only to a) the messenger (evangelist) and b) the act of proclaiming the message (evangelising), but also to c) the message itself, called the Evangel – ‘The Gospel’ – the good news.

Seventy Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew (Old) Testament into Greek in 150 BC, called The Septuagint – read by Jesus and his first followers. The translators used the verb evangelizomai (to evangelise, proclaim) in Is 52:7-10: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace and salvation, who say to Israel, ‘Your God reigns!’” (also Is 40:9, 41:27, 61:1, Ps 96:2f)). Isaiah predicted, in 750 BC, that God’s end-time messengers will herald and proclaim the joyous good news of GOD’S REIGN: God will come in his Messiah-King to save the world by defeating evil in all its forms, and make all things new, and will rule and reign over the earth forever.

Continue reading Fishing the World – The Practice of Evangelism

Posted on by — 3 Comments

The Practice of Occupation and Vocation and MONEY!

To listen to the audio of these teaching notes click on this link:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-occupation-vocation-money-part-36/

Last week I taught the first priority that makes ‘fishing people’ for God’s Kingdom a daily practice: learning to live our Kingdom vocation (calling) through our daily occupation (work). This obviously does not mean that we use the work place to talk about Jesus all the time! You have to BE the good news to win respect, so that when you SPEAK the good news – invited by your friends and colleagues – they are ready to listen and receive.

Work is what ‘occupies’ our daily time, energy, gifts and skills (training), in a formal or informal job. But work is also about money. Human resources = time, energy & money. We put our time and energy (labour) to work, in order to earn and generate money for our living (food, home, etc), so that we’re not dependent on others as Paul says (1 Thess 4:11). But money is also for our life and work with God in the world – it’s all from him in the first place! Jesus taught on work and money; e.g. God gives various talents (gifts, money) to each of us, to be used to “occupy till I come” (Lk 19:13, read 12-27). Jesus will call us to account for how we used (worked), or did not use, the resources God gives us. We will be rewarded accordingly, either given more, or loose what we had. So, our relationship to money is our stewardship of resources as a God-given means of ‘fishing the world’ for him.

How should we view money (resources)?

 Many people think that money ‘is the root of all evil.’ Not true! It is a misquote of Paul – he said, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim 6:10). Money is ‘neutral’. The issue is our relationship to money. It’s not what’s in your hand but what’s in our heart that counts. It’s what we do with money that is right or wrong. Money and possessions have no value in itself; it only has the value we give to it by our attitude to it, how we use it, what we spend it on. Some wrong attitudes to money: Continue reading The Practice of Occupation and Vocation and MONEY!

Posted on by — 10 Comments

Fishing the World – The Practice of Occupation and Vocation

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes, click on:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-fishing-the-world-occupation-vocation-part-35/

I introduced our third core value in being and becoming God’s Beloved: fishing the world for God. We live this value by doing four priorities and practices: Occupation & Vocation, Evangelism, Social Transformation, and Church Planting/Missions. Jesus’ generic call to all people, “Follow me and I will form you into fishers of people” (Mk 1:17), was first to fisher-men. If he were calling builders he would form them into builders of people for God’s Kingdom; if mothers, then mothers for the Kingdom, and so on. I.e. Jesus’ call embodies the three core values (follow, form and fish) AND establishes the first priority and practice to fish people: to live our Kingdom vocation (calling) via our daily occupation (work).

Our Kingdom vocation is the call to follow Jesus in relational intimacy, being spiritually (trans)formed into his image through his local community/family of followers, in order to fish people to follow Jesus, beginning where you live and work. How do we do THAT in and through our occupation – defined as that which occupies our daily time and energy, i.e. our work, job, trade, career, profession, etc? What is God’s view of occupation/work? Continue reading Fishing the World – The Practice of Occupation and Vocation

Posted on by — 13 Comments

Fishing the World for God!

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes click on
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-fishing-the-world-part-34/

We’ve come to our third core value – fishing the world – which helps us be and become God’s Beloved Child(ren). To fully appreciate the meaning of this third value we need to re-look at Jesus and his essential message and mission: The Kingdom of God.

Jesus and the Kingdom of God (read Mark 1:14-20)

Mark’s text summarizes Jesus’ ministry: Wherever he went he proclaimed and inaugurated “The Kingdom of God.” What did it mean? It was the dramatic end-time (“eschatalogical”) socio-political announcement of The End & New Beginning: The climax of Israel’s destiny and world history has come – both judgment and salvation – God is now becoming King in fulfillment of the prophets. It meant confrontation: The kingdom (rule and works) of evil is being judged and people are being saved into God’s Rule & Reign of Love. The promised future age of God’s Kingdom was breaking into this present evil age, changing everything!

How do we escape judgment and enter God’s Kingdom? “Repent and believe.” To repent is to turn from sin to God, changing your mindset. Believe means opening yourself to God’s great works of salvation, entrusting yourself to his Rule & Reign in Messiah Jesus. “Repent and believe” in practice meant “Come, and follow me.” Jesus embodied God’s Kingship, his presence and power. To follow him was to be delivered from Satan’s rule and enter and experience God’s Kingdom of Heaven here on earth… in Jesus of Nazareth. Continue reading Fishing the World for God!

Posted on by — 36 Comments

State of the Nation (South Africa): A Pastor’s Response

To listen to the audio teaching click on  http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/state-of-the-nation-a-pastors-response/

Since January 2015 I’ve had a growing number of people expressing serious concern over the state of our nation, asking: how must we respond as Christians? The chaotic Opening of Parliament on 12 February has increased the volume of concern. Some want to emigrate. As a pastor I feel pressed to respond by giving our local church some (biblical) perspective and guidance. This is a big issue to address in one talk; hence this headline overview.

I’m a pale-male middle-class South African, fully aware of the (historical) baggage that it represents. But that doesn’t disqualify me from addressing this issue. Besides, to do a little ‘foolish boasting’ as Paul did (2Cor 12:1f), I spent 12 years involved in Soweto working in the name of Jesus for justice and reconciliation (1983–1995), repenting from my racist conditioning and putting my body on the line, taking a strong stand against Apartheid. My book Doing Reconciliation tells the story, with the biblical theology and praxis, of those years. Since 1994 I’ve continued to take a consistent prophetic stance for reconciliation and righteousness in society, in our body politic, without fear or favour.  Continue reading State of the Nation (South Africa): A Pastor’s Response

Posted on by — 11 Comments

Forming (in) Community: The Practice of Equipping

For the audio teaching of these notes, click on:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-equipping-the-saints-forming-in-community-part-32/

Intro: Equipping is the fourth priority and practice in forming – and being formed in – Christ’s covenant community. The practices follow on from each other: relationship leads to healing, and healing leads to discovering and practicing servant gifts in the Body, which leads to ongoing equipping and training for life and ministry in Christ. We look at what is ‘equipping’ and then how we practice it.

WHAT is the practice of equipping?

John Wimber made Paul’s words, “Equipping the Saints” (Eph 4:12, King James Version), a ‘mantra’ in Vineyard Churches. This is what he wanted to be known – the phrase is on his tombstone! It’s meaning was reduced to ‘equipping the saints’ for healing ministry: that all believers can lay hands on the sick, not just leaders. But Paul meant that the gift ministries of Christ are to equip the saints for LIFE and ALL kinds of ministry. This priority & practice of equipping/preparation for life and ministry is part of spiritual warfare: God’s Church is his ARMY that enforces evil’s defeat, already suffered at the hands of Jesus.

What does this equipping mean? Paul’s word katartizo in Eph 4:12 is used in Mark 1:19, to “prepare” fishing nets as in knotting the strands. To equip means to prepare people by joining them in right relationships – God’s big fishing net – that the saints can serve in their gifts, to “do works of ministry so that the Body of Christ may be built up.” So, this equipping for all kinds of ministry is about developing one’s gifting, lifting the level of skill and excellence in doing ministry, to best serve God’s people – for his glory! Continue reading Forming (in) Community: The Practice of Equipping

Posted on by — 7 Comments

Forming (in) Community – Practice of Servant Gifts (3)

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes, click on
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-servant-gifts-3-part-30/

Recap and Intro: Paul’s earliest teaching (54 AD), on what I called ‘The Manifestations Gifts’ of the indwelling Holy Spirit, is in 1 Cor 12. Though he lists nine such gifts in vv.8-10, it’s clear from vv.28-30 that it was not a fixed and final list of spiritual gifts. Let us look at some of those other gifts that he mentions, from Rom 12:1-8 (‘The Motivation Gifts’ in the Body of Christ) and Eph 4:7-13 (‘The Ministry Gifts’ of the ascended Christ). Once again, they’re ALL servant gifts, given by God via each member of Christ’s Body, to heal, form and grow us to maturity. The gifts represent THE ministry (service) of Jesus Christ: it’s not ‘my ministry’; we’re doing HIS ministry! Each of these texts teaches the key of relational inter-dependence and unity for the gifts to function effectively – next week’s teaching.

Motivational Gifts of the Body of Christ in Rom 12:1-8 (written in 57 AD)

The context: Rom 1–11 is Paul’s ‘theology’, his breathtaking vision of God’s plan and work of salvation. Rom 12–16 is his ‘praxis’, his practical application: how THEN do we live and behave for God’s sake? He begins with, “Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God… which is your spiritual act of worship” (12:1). The rest that follows – all that we obediently do in our bodies – is our worship of God. Continue reading Forming (in) Community – Practice of Servant Gifts (3)

Posted on by — 8 Comments

Forming (in) Community: Practicing Servant Gifts (2)

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes, click on this link
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-servant-gifts-2-part-29/

Recap on Servant Gifts (1): I made three basic points regarding the practice of servant gifts to form – and be formed in – Jesus’ community: 1) The local church is Christ’s Body, that operates organically by spiritual gifts (charisma, “enabling graces”) given through each member. 2) The right motivation (heart) and context (attitude) for the operation of the gifts is servanthood. The gifts are service (“ministry”) in Jesus’ name to one another; thus we speak of servant gifts. 3) The model of servanthood is Jesus, the Servant of YHWH who, in his service, suffers our sin and brokenness in love, to cleanse, enfold and heal us into his life and community (as he dramatically enacted in John 13).

Peter summarises this well: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Pet 4:10). God’s graces fall into two categories: supernatural gifts (by direct Spirit inspiration) and natural talents (by birth and training). Both are spiritual gifts because they are all God-given. The challenge is: are we faithful stewards of God’s multiple enabling graces, that come through each other in all their rich diverse forms, to heal and grow us to maturity in Christ?

Paul on Servant Gifts in the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:1-31)

Paul gives specific teaching on spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12 (“manifestation gifts”, written in 54 AD), Rom 12:1-8 (“motivational gifts”, in 57 AD), and Eph 4:7-12 (“ministry-gifts”, in 60 AD). I examine each of these passages in that order to reflect Paul’s developing thinking.

The context of 1 Cor 12 is Paul’s teaching on public worship services – when the church gathers together (see 11:33, 14:26) – from chapter 10 to 14. It’s essentially about the local Body of Christ functioning organically in relational harmony through spiritual gifts. Continue reading Forming (in) Community: Practicing Servant Gifts (2)