Stars and Sand: Roger Aubrey

You can't 'get revelation'

Biblical revelation is not the same thing as human discovery. We don't 'get revelation' - we receive it only as God gives it. It's true that we are urged to seek God and thus find him; but we can only do that as he reveals himself to us. Revelation is a precious jewel and not something to be squandered or discarded. Once we receive revelation we then become responsible for the revelation we have received.

In order to receive more revelation from God we have to be obedient to the revelation we have already received and continue to walk in the light of what God has revealed to us. Revelation is progressive: it builds on itself. If we forsake something that we have declared to be a revelation from God - covenant, restoration, the kingdom of God, the nature of God and the church, for example - then we put ourselves in great danger and our people have the right - and the responsibility - to question us intensely. We might have forfeited the right to lead them. How can they, and why should they entrust their lives to us, if we strip away from them things we have taught them as being truth received from God? To discard the light we have received brings darkness and darkness is the dwelling place of confusion, uncertainty and unbelief.

This does not mean that our doctrines remain static and our theology never moves. Since revelation is progressive our doctrines and theologies by their very nature are constantly filled in and filled out. But they are never tossed out like a broken piece of crockery that once was valued as a precious gift from a loved one. Never treat truth that way.

No contest

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood...so put on the complete armour of God. (Ephesians 6:12-13)

In this passage Paul combines two images that his readers would be very familiar with: wrestling, which was a major sport of the time, and a Roman soldier, fully armed and equipped. His readers would realise straight away how ludicrously one-sided such a contest would be: an unarmed man dressed in very little against a tough Roman soldier in all his battle gear. The wrestler wouldn't stand a chance! He would be mincemeat in just a few seconds as the soldier cut him down while being fully protected in his armour.

The Christian life is not a lifelong struggle against an unseen enemy who tries to get us in headlocks or pins us to the ground to get us to submit. It's not a constant grapple with an equally powerful foe. We wrestle as fully armed soldiers against an enemy who is not only at a distinct disadvantage: he has already lost the contest! The wrestle is not engaging in close quarter holds; it is destroying his lies with the Word of God while being fully protected by faith, truth and righteousness. Jesus' victory over Satan becomes ours when we are born again into the kingdom of God. It really is an unfair fight; and one we should enjoy winning! That's why every time I read Romans 8:37 - 'in all these things we gloriously overcome as conquerors - I have a little chuckle as I'm reminded that my enemy really doesn't stand a chance!

No beggars here

God's plan for the Church

Reconciled!

I've just returned from Sri Lanka where together with my friend and co-worker Mick Walford, I was speaking at a week-long conference we held for 200 church leaders. It was a powerful time as we taught on the kingdom of God. One of the most poignant moments was on the last day when delegates gave testimony of what the Lord had done for them during the week. For many it was a healing time: for many years Sri Lanka was torn apart by war between Sinhalese and Tamils. In the conference men and women from these people groups sat together as one, and broke bread with each other in peace. The man pictured  - a Tamil - lost his wife and four of his children in a bomb blast. He spoke of how, despite his awful loss, God has restored him and now because of being in the presence of God last week he was strengthened to move on in peace.

Another man - a Sinhalese - told me that for twelve years he'd been a soldier and had killed Tamils. Now he found himself in a room with his former enemies, able to call them brothers and sisters and worshipping God together. The kingdom of God destroys enmity and hatred. We should always remember that the kingdom is peace in the Holy Spirit. I saw it first hand just a few days ago in Sri Lanka.

The inbetween time

Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

The time between his resurrection and ascension was vitally important for Jesus. He could not sit back, basking in the victory of the moment. He couldn't take time out, visiting the family back in Nazareth. He didn't arrange a 'Resurrection' tour ('c0me and see the miracle man!') He focused himself on the next step of the great purpose for which he had come. Jesus had only forty days to spend on earth after being raised before he went to heaven. This was a pre-determined time, not a moment longer or shorter (the Old Testament makes that clear; study the various feasts and you'll discover he would ascend forty days after he rose again).

What did Jesus do during this inbetween time? He spoke to the disciples about the kingdom of God; that was his priority. Even when they tried to distract and divert him to their way of thinking by asking about restoring the natural kingdom of Israel (which shows they still hadn't understood), Jesus refused to enter into dialogue about secondary or peripheral matters. Nothing would distract him. He concentrated on the important, the vital, the essential. He didn't allocate to the disciples their ministries or titles. He didn't tell them to arrange or attend conferences or instruct them regarding their preaching schedules. His resurrection had launched the next phase of God's eternal purpose, and his ascension would be the prelude to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Jesus had far bigger fish to fry than indulging the whims and personal agendas of the disciples. It was time for them to get in on his plan - so he spoke to them about the kingdom of God.

Now that Easter is over and everybody is filled with chocolate and hot cross buns and sung their resurrection songs, for many the Church tends to slip back into its own sub resurrection existence in which people live as if Jesus were still in the grave or had never reached the Cross. The world carries on as if nothing of significance has happened. That is because we reduce the resurrection to an event we remember on the calendar instead of living in the power of the Jesus who is alive today and present in us through the Holy Spirit - as he is so are we in this world (1John 4:17). The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us! (Romans 8:11). Let's not put Easter on the shelf as if it really makes no difference to the way we live. Jesus spent those forty days in intense focused activity in which he knew that he had that small window of time in which he would impart to these apostles their future destiny. He didn't waste it on the trivial things we so often see as the essential - his priority was the kingdom of God. That is why Jesus said: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness - make the kingdom of God your priority' (Matthew 6:33).

Any priority that is not the kingdom of God is a complete waste of time and bears no relationship to the purpose of the resurrection of Jesus. I pray that we all focus on Jesus' priority - the kingdom of God.

Step forward

Jesus fully realised all that was going to happen to him. Stepping forward to meet them, he asked, 'Whom are you looking for?' (John 18:4)

     Jesus knew exactly what awaited him that fateful evening in Gethsemane and the following day; nothing about it would take him by surprise. He had known about this moment from all eternity; he had planned the Cross in the council of the Godhead together with the Father and the Spirit. It was the reason why he had come into this world thirty-three years earlier. Those who had come for Jesus that night would not have to drag him kicking and screaming to his fate. He would not even resist passively as an advocate of non-violence. This was his moment, the time when the plan of the Father to sow his Son and reap a family of sons (Isaiah 53:10) was about to come to its climax. For the joy that was set before him he was willing to endure the appalling physical agony and degradation that was heading his way. He was prepared for death itself and separation from his beloved Father. And he knew that on the other side, three days later, he would stand victoriously and gloriously alive!

 So Jesus stepped forward; and you became his inheritance.

 

The right side of the Cross

Easter is one of my favourite times of the year. It usually means winter has finally passed (although these days the seasons seem to have a mind of their own), and the long summer evenings are fast approaching. However, the main reason why I love Easter so much is because it was on Easter Sunday back in 1966 that I met Jesus and surrendered my life to him as my Lord. It remains the best thing I ever did.

In the ensuing years my understanding and appreciation of what happened to me that day has grown immeasurably. My initial reason for getting saved was that I didn’t want to go to hell and so asked Jesus to forgive my sins and save me, which he most graciously did. However, I have come to realise that Jesus didn’t die merely to take my sins away and give me a passage out of hell and into heaven, as wonderful as that is. He died – and more importantly – rose again from the dead so that he could come to live in me as Lord and live his resurrection life in me through the Holy Spirit – who raised him from the dead (Romans 8:11).

That’s why I have learned to live on the right side of the Cross. For many years I concentrated on the death of Jesus and limited my Christianity to the fact that he died for me. But Jesus’ death has no meaning whatsoever without the resurrection; he might as well be a dead martyr for all the good that would do. Jesus’ resurrection gave power and meaning to his death; it proved that he is the sinless Son of God who conquered death itself so that we may live – or better still – that he may live in us and fill the earth with people who are just like him!

I look forward to our Good Friday meeting at All Nations when we will break bread together to remember Jesus’ sacrifice of love. But for me it won’t be a sentimental time remembering a dead Saviour. It will be an occasion to thank my living Lord, who stormed out of that grave in victory over all his and our enemies. On Easter Sunday we will join together to worship Jesus who is very much alive and now ascended on high as King and Lord over all. And what is more: I live every day in that reality, on the right side of the Cross!

The Fool

I've just taken the funeral of the father of a lady in our church. I didn't know him personally; it's one of the things we do as shepherds of the flock. Today is a beautiful, warm spring day and the cemetery was bathed in sunshine and oddly peaceful. The eulogies were well delivered and everything was done with dignity. Yet it was all wrong.

Every time I go to a funeral or bury a member of the church, I am reminded that we were never meant to die. God made humanity to live forever, without sin, sickness and death. They are unnatural and contrary to all that God created us for. Adam was such a fool wasn't he? Deciding to ignore his Father's command and leading his wife Eve into sin was the most stupid act any man ever carried out. Every one of us born into the world ever since that act of supreme insanity has lived - and died -with the consequence of Adam's idiotic choice.

It's at times like today, when I stand beside a coffin and read about the resurrection of Jesus as conqueror over sin and death that the power of the Gospel hits home again. Jesus was dead and buried, but death could not hold him. All the forces of hell tried with all their might to keep him in the grave; they were doomed to fail. The power of his indestructible life raised him from the dead to a resurrection life in which he will never die again. And for those of us in Christ, the future is the same. Even though we will die physically until he returns, our resurrection is assured - we will live forever! The real power of the Gospel is not that Jesus died: it's that he rose again and is alive today.

Don't look back

    The Church of the New Testament was not the perfect model some mistake it for. Therefore, we must not accept God’s intention for the Church only on what we see in the pages of the Acts of the Apostles, no matter how exciting and challenging they might be. Neither is restoration an attempt to return to the innocence and purity of the Garden of Eden. Let me emphasise this: we are not restored to the original condition of Adam and Eve before they sinned. Restoration is all about looking and moving forward to what has not yet been. Abraham looked forward to a city (Hebrews 11:10); the book of Revelation speaks of the restored Bride of Christ in terms of a Garden City, not the Garden of Eden restored (Revelation 21 and 22). Restoration is advancement to the fullness of God’s pre-Fall original intention for the earth and for a humanity created in his image which has yet to be fully realised in and through the Church. In the words of Bryn Jones:

Restoration is the action of God to accomplish his purpose of bringing all things back into total harmony with himself, and his moving everything in heaven and earth forward to the fullness of his original intention for them.

     Therefore, restoration must not be viewed as a work of God that affects only the Church; restoration is a purpose that embraces all the prophets spoke of concerning things in heaven as well as earth: it is the restoration of all things.