One of the Chairman of Assemblies of God Singapore, Anthony Phua spoke for us this morning. He is also the uncle of a student who has been with York Elim for three years.
What a terrific day Sunday was! Initially we were only baptising five but three more felt they had procrastinated enough and wanted to be baptised also. On top of that we said “Hello” to our new pastor and his family and “goodbye for the summer” to some students with a Church Lunch and book stall. With sixteen baptisms in three months, I sense growing momentum among us. Exciting stuff.
Sunday 22nd June is Elim’s World Missions Sunday which is always the Sunday nearest to the anniversary of the Vumba Massacre which took place on 23rd June 1978 in Zimbabwe. On that day nine Elim Missionaries and four of their children were brutally attacked and killed. If you want to find out more, download the Vumba brochure from the Elim Missions Website. On World Missions Sunday please pray for the families of those who lost their lives. Pray too for all our missionaries and national workers that they will receive a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit to enable them to reach people with the gospel.
NORTH KOREA
Please join Christians worldwide for a Global Week of Prayer for North Korea from 23rd-29th June to pray for change in this nation. North Korea is one of the most repressive and isolated countries in the world. Opposition to the gospel is extremely harsh and from a young age North Koreans are taught to worship their leader. Those who escape to China are forcibly returned to suffer torture and even execution. Pray that:
· the enforced idolatry will be broken and there will be religious freedom
· God will uphold believers living in this hostile environment and give them strength and protection
· Christians who do manage to escape will not be detected
· those seeking to take the gospel to North Korea will be protected and the Holy Spirit will guide them and give them wisdom in all they do
· the gospel will spread and the church grow
EAST AFRICA
Pray for Paul Hudson, West & East Africa Missions Director, who will be visiting East Africa 23rd-27th June. Pray for safe travelling and good meetings.
ELIM MISSIONS SHORT TERM TEAMS
A training day for those going to Romania and India takes place on 24th June in Manchester. Pray this will be a good time of fellowship and learning for those attending.
WEST ASIA
Pray for the K family who have returned from West Asia to settle back in the UK. Pray that all the good work they did in the country they were in will bear fruit in the days ahead. Pray for the family as they settle back in and that they will find the right accommodation, work and schools quickly.
SOUTH KOREA
Jonathan and Sungjoo Aird are the proud parents of a son, Lawrence Irenaeus, born 18th June, a brother for Elizabeth, Amethyst and Jesse. Continue to pray for Amethyst who has been diagnosed with scoliosis and may need surgery. There has been some improvement, pray this will continue.
HONDURAS
Some great news just received. Walter and Valerie Huezo have been holding youth meetings over three days and 30 young people have been saved and set free by the power of God. Pray that they will grow in their new faith. Walter and Valerie believe that God will move mightily through the youth of Honduras.
TURKEY
Thank you for your prayers for Phil’s mother. After two months of not been able to get out of bed and eating very little, she has recovered really well and is out of bed, eating and talking. Pray that this answer to prayer will bring Phil’s family to know Jesus as their Saviour.
ZIMBABWE
Only God can change the situation in Zimbabwe and together our prayers can make a difference. If you are able, please join with us at either 8 am, 1 pm or 8 pm each day for just one minute to pray for change in Zimbabwe. Thank you.
This morning, Matt gave a short presentation in honour of the anniversary of the Vumba Massacre. Vumba, Zimbabwe, was where missionaries including small children and a baby were martyred for being Christians. As their murderers assaulted them, the missionaries prayed for their forgiveness. Eight of the men from the platoon that attacked the missionaries later became christian ministers.
A short one this week based on 2 Corinthians 3:3.
Members of our church were martyred in 1978 in Zimbabwe. The event is being remembered in an Early Day Motion. See below.
Simpson, David
That this House notes that 23rd June 2008 will mark the 30th anniversary of the Vumba Massacre of British missionaries by members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army in the former Rhodesia that resulted in the murder of nine missionaries and four children; further notes that all were associated with the Elim Pentecostal Church..
See the British Parliament website for the rest of the Early Day Motion
What’s the fruit of an apple tree? An apple? Nope. Dave brought us some refreshing and exciting teaching that really challenged us about our understanding of the most basic principles of Church.
His website AppleTreeDNA.
On Thursday the 5th June, at 12.00 noon, two mini buses full of students from churches all around the city of York set off for London. The event? Passion London. There would be a well known American Speaker/Pastor/Evangelist there, Louie Giglio but for most they just didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see three great musical acts for £5! Normally, it would cost at least three times as much to see Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin or Dave Crowder Band as individual acts but £5 for all three it was an unmissable opportunity.
Six hours later and we were there! There were huge queues outside the Apollo theatre in Hammersmith London, hundreds long. Some of us arrived a little later than the 7.00pm start time because we wanted to grab a bite to eat. It was an overwhelming experience walking into the theatre with nearly 3,000 people all worshiping with one of the best worship leaders around, Chris Tomlin.
Passion had requested that everyone bring a bath towel and three pairs of socks for man, woman and child. These were to be given to the needy in London. About 1300 towels (and three times as many socks) were collected! My favourite act of the evening was probably Dave Crowder Band. Even secular music critics rate his music highly. I really like the simple, yet beautiful, poetry of the following lyrics from “He Is Our King”:
“And what was said to the rose to make it unfold
Was said to me, here in my chest
So be quiet now, and rest
So be quiet now, and rest.”
You can hear the whole of “He Is Our King” on the Dave Crowder Band myspace page. For the What? Who? Where? And Why? of the Passion Conferences, it’d would be best just to direct you to their website, here. It was an unforgettable night, I got home to York at 5.00am! There’s a few pictures below and a youtube video of Dave Crowder band here. I shot the video with my phone so it won’t win any oscars for cinematography, considering this it’s pretty decent anyway.
Graham used a mock powerpoint presentation this morning, you can see it for yourself here.
It is in open format. MS Office users may need to install the Plugin.
Notes are below. The material is made available so that any may use it, adapt it and preach it.
“Fragrance”
This letter to the Corinthians is written in an age of the Holy Spirit, to a church who placed the work of the Spirit in a position of prime importance, and it is follows a letter which made the Holy Spirit a main topic.
See:
1 Corinthians 1:18 where Paul speaks of “power”.
1 Corinthians 2:4 “demonstration of the Spirit’s power”
1 Corinthians 2:10 where Paul speaks of revelation by the Spirit
1 Corinthians 3:16 the Spirit living in a believer
1 Corinthians 4:20 “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
1 Corinthians teaches about gifts imparted to the believer by the Spirit’s and the use of the gifts in chapters 12,13 & 14.
Now in 2 Corinthians, the letter’s grand opening in chapter 1is teaching concerning the work of the Holy Spirit, this time in his role as as the Comforter.
Why then should a reader of this matter of “the fragrance of the knowledge of him” interpret it as merely meaning some sort of communication of information or knowledge, like some sort of Bible study?
What then can it mean, this “fragrance of the knowledge of him”?
Death. To some it will aggravate as we bring the smell of judgement. Don’t be intimidated by their conviction.
Life. I think this fragrance to others is a whiff of life and hope eternal, resurrection and new life.
See Acts 23:6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.
And, 1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
It is more than any of our good moral deeds, it is the impartation of the Holy Spirit, and the things he carries, into the lives and circumstances of others we come in contact with.
An illustration (the spoof presentation)
Do we strive to learn the umpteen steps to bringing someone to Jesus Christ or is there a better way. I suggest we offer to pray for them (then and there) and we encourage them to pray to God themselves. Either this stuff works or it doesn’t!
“The world is not impressed that people attend church on Sunday mornings. If anything, such a habit is viewed as a quaint waste of time. But imagine if every Christian in the world were living as a little Christ.” From “The Gospel According to Starbucks” page 50.
Luke 21:25 - The Roaring and Tossing of the Sea
My lecturer for a module I’ve just taken “The Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts” had this great way of motivating us. He would ask us really simple questions about the content of Luke. I’m sitting with ministers and guys who have done undergrads in Theology but everyone’s afraid to answer because none of us know each other and we don’t want to sound stupid. In fact our silence was probably worse than giving the wrong answer so I went away and I read the book of Luke in one sitting.
One verse really jumped out at me but we’ll read the whole section before I go into more detail about that verse. Read Luke 21:5-28
Luke 21:25: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.”
We have to, each one of us, decide how we are going to respond to these incredible apocalyptic prophecies of Jesus. We know that in 70AD the Roman general Titus and his troops did destroy the temple, that part of Jesus’ prophecy came true! But focusing on one verse in particular this morning, Luke 21:25 I’m going to talk about:
1.The Symbolic/Metaphorical Interpretation
2.The Literal Interpretation
3.The Response of the Faithful
1. The Symbolic or Metaphorical Interpretation
I need to rewind a little bit for us to understand this interpretation, right back to the first chapter of Genesis where it says this: Read Genesis 1:1-2 & 9-10. For the Israelites or anyone in the Ancient Near East the sea was the place of chaos, the embodiment of Chaos. So, these few verses in Genesis would have really witnessed to the Israelites of God’s great power in creation, this crushing defeat of chaos.
The sea was a place to be avoided, they were frightened of the sea, it was a place synonymous with the Leviathan or Rahab the anti-creation sea monster. There are numerous verses stating God’s defeating of this beast or God’s mastery over the seas.
“You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them. You crushed Rahab like one of the slain; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.” (Psalm 89:9-10)
“He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.” (Job 9:8)
“By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent.” (Job 26:12-13)
“In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1)
The Israelites were not the only ones to believe in the taming of this sea creature of chaos. No, similar myths existed in other places to name but a few: India, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Greece. But we know the Israelites believed in one God and in one God only. Why were they talking about this sea creature as some kind of contender with God? The answer is they were not borrowing the theology of the pagan nations around them but they were borrowing the imagery.
What does this mean for an interpretation of Luke 21:25? Well, assuming a symbolic interpretation of the sea as chaos it could just mean massive political and social instability. A violent change and emergence of a new order. Some theologians do take this view.
But there are a few problems with this view,
Number 1. Apocalyptic literature is not always symbolic, in fact there are many who would say that Apocalyptic literature is primarily literal.
Number 2. It is generally held that Luke was not a Jew but a gentile christian who may very well have not had the same understanding of the sea as the Jews.
Number 3. The probability of a literal fulfilment is not insignificant.
2. The Literal Interpretation
One of the reasons that this verse jumped out at me is because of climate change and in particular rising sea levels.
What is climate change?
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping heat from the sun in the atmosphere. This is a good because it the earth warm enough to live on. But for one reason or another most scientists would say: burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere trapping more of the sun’s heat in and temperatures are rising.
“Sir David King, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, has called climate change ‘the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism’.”
“Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the UK Meteorological Office and co-chair of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), wrote in the Guardian in 2003, ‘the impacts of global warming are such that I have no hesitation in describing it as a “weapon of mass destruction”
The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. They say, the evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.
We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitats, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.
Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide. The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
Do you think Jesus will return in your life time? My answer..I don’t know.. but the next 50 years are really going to be very different: environmentally, technologically, politically and economically. So that’s the bad news but what’s the good news? My third point:
3. The Response of the Faithful
“On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.”
Anguish (means “excruciating or acute distress” it’s worry and fear), Perplexity the greek suggests finding no solution to their embarrassments; being at one’s wit’s end, at a loss how to proceed, without resources.
But then if we read on in Luke chapter 21 verse 28 “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” The good news is that Christians won’t be in anguish or perplexed, why? because our redemption draws near! We’ll be the observers. I’m not suggesting we’ll be detached from the suffering of the world, no. But we’ll be lifting up our heads, not being caught off guard because we already know it’s coming, for our redemption will be drawing near.
