Paul Stewart

Interdependent

"All people are interdependent... Whether we realize it or not, each of us lives eternally 'in the red.' We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women. When we arise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge which is provided for us by a Pacific Islander. We reach for soap that is created for us by a European. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half of the world... All of life is interrelated... Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

A Good Story Will Always Stand Out

In order for a story to resonate it must, on one hand, relate to the culture in which it is told. The audience must be able to comprehend the language and form, believe the characters, and follow the plot. On the other hand a good story will always stand out. The characters will be unique in the way they handle conflict, overcome disappointment and triumph over adversity.

As Christians living in the midst of a dark and broken world we have a different story to tell. We are invited to participate God's unfolding story of love, redemption, and renewal. Yet our story must always relate to it's context. Karl Barth said that the Christian story must contradict the world in a way which is full of promise.

The world is telling a story of jealousy, bitterness and unforgiveness...
We are telling a story of humility, service and grace.

The world is telling a story of intolerance, racism, and hate...
We are telling a story of reconciliation & unconditional love.

The world is telling a story of unbridled consumerism, spending and debt...
We are telling a story of simplicity, frugality and contentment.

The world is telling a story of worry, fear and anxiety...
We are telling a story of faith and hope and rest in the love of Jesus Christ.

Jesus told this story better than anyone who ever lived. Although he was God - he became man - he entered into our story. Spoke our language. Understood the human struggle. And yet his life stood out in radical ways. He touched lepers, welcomed outcasts, rose above the empty ritual and religion of His day and offered a new life full of freedom and grace. 

Although he wanted all to be saved - he was never interested in simply drawing a crowd. In fact, when the crowd was the biggest he called upon them to “eat his flesh and drink his blood”

What was he saying?

He was saying come and die.
Die to the story you’ve been trying to tell.
Die to the ways of this world.
Confess of the sin in your heart.
Turn away from the shallow, predictable character you’ve become.

Instead take my life within you.
Let my story penetrate your heart and soul.
Begin to live in me. In my rhythm. In my pattern. In my beat.
And I will set you free to write incredible stories with your life.

A New Kind of Pentecostal

This week the 54th General Council of the Assemblies of God was held down in Phoenix, Arizona. I was unable to attend, but have followed along from a distance. There were only a few issues on the docket that really seemed substantial but what I am most excited about is the tone coming out of Phoenix. 

There is no question that we are a different movement than we were only four years ago. We are a fellowship that is more gender, race and age inclusive; more compassionate and forgiving; more passionate and strategic; a people full of the Holy Spirit and yet more prepared than ever for Him to move in and through us in new and creative ways. A movement that I believe is both more true to its roots and more relevant for the future.

While the Assemblies of God never completely abandoned issues of justice and mercy - creating such incredible ministries as Teen Challenge, Latin American Childcare and more recently Convoy of Hope - we are now more intentional than ever about social action. In 2009, General Superintendent George Wood led the charge to add 'compassion' as the fourth element in our reason for being—in recognition that Jesus came to glorify God (worship), save the lost (evangelize), make disciples (disciple), but also serve human need (compassion).

I believe this small and seemingly obvious change to our bylaws has already helped our  movement become more true to the whole-gospel message; more aware of the needs of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters around the world (close to 600 million) and more relevant to a new generation of Pentecostal pastors and leaders. 

This week Christianity Today ran “A New Kind of Pentecostal” highlighting many of these changes. In it Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, points out that for decades American Pentecostalism has been predominantly white and rural but it will soon become primarily ethnic and urban. 

Rodriguez also notes that American Pentecostals have traditionally held a vertical worldview of their faith, focusing on personal beliefs and a salvation that prepares one's soul to make the Rapture.

Ethnic Pentecostals on the other hand say, 'I am saved by grace, but I also receive the power of God so my family can be transformed, and so we can overcome social ills and gangs in our neighborhood.' The priorities of this [ethnic Pentecostal] community are issues of life, biblical marriage, education, sex trafficking, immigration reform, poverty alleviation—all under the canopy of the Great Commission."

Rodriguez says that recently there has been a shift that has drawn younger Pentecostals to both the vertical and horizontal planes of the Cross.

The new Pentecostals "stand at the nexus of both dynamics—salvation and transformation, covenant and community, righteousness and justice, Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King. 

The Spirit is always moving; always renewing. Our Pentecostal forefathers were able to perceive that and follow the Spirit in remarkable ways. The World Christian Encyclopedia states that in 1900, only seven-tenths of 1 percent of Christians were Pentecostal; today, approximately 25 percent are. 

But how do we maintain this momentum going forward? This is a problem for every institution, but unlike Lutherans or Methodists we can’t look back and find our identity from the writings of our founder. Rather the “identity” of our movement was a common experience of the Holy Spirit by a group of very common people.

This experience can never be passed down through a doctrine. In fact, the key to the Pentecostal movement was never about a doctrine but a passionate pursuit of God for an empowering work of the Spirit to carry forth the Great Commission of Jesus.

Pentecostalism, therefore, only works for one generation. After that it is Pentecostal in name only, unless there is another revival. But revival never looks the same twice. Every generation must experience the Spirit for themselves. The Spirit is always moving; always renewing. 

May we never confine the supernatural move of the Spirit into a simple formula, doctrine or institution. Rather may we continue to perceive the Spirit’s movement in our generation, adapt to Him and join in His renewal of all things. 

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
Isaiah 43v19

James: A Society of Suffering

This year at Gateway we began by exploring the theological meaning and purpose of Christian community (the Church). We then explored the theological meaning and implications of the Gospel and our ultimate hope of restoration and renewal.

This summer we are beginning a new series on the book of James. James is wisdom literature which means it is intensely practical. Unlike Paul, James does not so much break the gospel down to show you what it is, James assumes the gospel and shows you what your life will look like if you believe it.

James is saying if you have had an encounter with the gospel through belief in Christ - this is what will your life should look like on the ground. Practically speaking.The book of James is an urgent warning and demand for a true and full practice of our faith. It is a radical call to live out the implications of the gospel message even in difficult circumstances and to demonstrate to a watching world the distinctive nature of the Christian community. 

The goal of this series is to help us see and understand what the gospel will look like when we live it out together in community.

We began the series yesterday with a message entitled “A Society of Suffering: James 1:1-12.” 

James begins this radical letter with a radical statement: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”

We can decipher from James letter that most of his readers were suffering under tremendous poverty and religious persecution. Rich people who were "slandering the name of Christ" were "exploiting" the Christians and "dragging them into court". In chapter 5, James accuses the rich of “killing” the righteous by withholding wages from them. 

James’ readers were sick, they were lonely, they were bereaved and they were disappointed, which is why James acknowledges that they were facing trials of “many kinds.”

So what does James tell them to do? What should their response be? Consider it pure joy!

At first glance it looks like James is saying be a masochist. But James knows that when you suffer the visceral emotion that you feel is sorrow or anger, not joy. That’s why he says, “consider it joy.” 

In other words, I want you to deliberately take a new perspective on your pain. 

What is that new perspective? 

James says, consider it joy because trials and suffering develop your faith. In fact, nothing helps to develop your faith more than these things. You will develop perseverance, maturity, completeness. Suffering, if you handle it right, will strengthen you so that you will not lack anything, which means you will be equipped for any job.

Suffering equips you to be a good husband, a good father, a good mother, a good wife, a good man or a good woman. Suffering equips you to look more like Christ.

Our suffering feels like it happens for no good reason. It's just wasted time, wasted life, wasted goodness. But Jesus tells us that God can use suffering for good. 

In the gospel of John, the disciples come across a man who had been blind from his birth, and they ask Jesus this pointed question, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 

They wanted to know what we all want to know. Why did this happen? Who can we blame? Let's make sense of this.

Jesus replied, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned...but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him." 

Jesus is saying, "It's not as much about why, but for what."  Not “why this?” but “what now?”

That's not the same thing as saying that suffering in and of itself is a good thing, but Jesus insists that God uses even the worst pain and heartache for good. 

He can use it to refine our character and help us grow.  He can use it to bring people closer together in authentic community. God can even use our pain to bless others, and He does this all the time.

The Great Commission and The Great Example

Just before he ascended into heaven, Jesus gives his disciples the Great Commission.

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1v4,8).

Jesus essentially says, “It’s time for me to leave, but don’t worry because something even greater is about to happen! I am sending my Spirit, the Spirit of God, and just as God’s glory once filled the Temple, I am about to fill your hearts with so much love, joy, peace and compassion that it will literally overflow from your lives out into the city and on to the ends of the earth!”

So the Holy Spirit is given for mission. We are to be witnesses.

But what does that mean? Everyone grab some gospel tracts and head out?

We get a clue in His commission to his disciples. Jesus didn’t issue individual assignments. He didn’t move one by one down the line and knight each individual. Instead he said, “You (collectively) will be my witnesses”. The Holy Spirit will create and empower this new community.

But to really understand the Great Commission we have to look at the Great Example in Acts 2. There we read that the disciples were gathered together in one place when the Holy Spirit arrives and Jesus promise is fulfilled in this incredible communal experience.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who 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 favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47).

The Great Commission is followed by the Great Example of the early church.

This is fascinating to me. Rather than run out and start “witnessing”, they formed this new, Jesus-kind of community. They began living out the values of the Sermon on the Mount together in community. And the people in their neighborhoods, schools and homes began to notice. They saw these people living out these incredibly upside-down, yet beautiful practices and they began to realize that they were “witnessing” something amazing. Something incredible. Something supernatural.

In Seth Godin’s book, The Purple Cow he writes, "If you aren't remarkable you're invisible." No one ever notices or talks about a brown cow, but a purple cow? That’s different. 

The Church needs to paint itself purple. But this is not about gimmicks or just being different for difference sake. It’s about making such a remarkable difference in our communities that we are un-ignorable.

Brown churches sit on the sideline and invite the community to come to them. Purple churches are always going and compelling. They are making such a big difference that they become a highly visible part of their community.

When the Holy Spirit comes he doesn’t just empower us as individuals to go out and “witness” - he comes to fill us collectively. To empower us to live with one another within the Divine community and to display for a watching world a picture of God’s remarkable kingdom.

Karl Barth said, “The church exists to set up in the world a new sign which is radically dissimilar to the world’s own manner and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise”

The church is to be a holy nation. A people who are both distinguishable yet visible in the world. Not because of our programs or buildings. Not because of the way we vote. But as a people who are faithful to their promises, love their enemies, tell the truth, honor the poor, suffer for righteousness, and visibly testify to the amazing community-creating power of God.

The Love That Can Not Be Required

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite did not stop despite the many biblical commands to help a countryman. But no one expected the Samaritan to stop and give mercy.

Tim Keller says that one of the reasons that Jesus puts this Samaritan in the story is that he, by virtue of his race and religion, has no obligations at all to stop and give aid. No law, no social convention, no religious dictates. 

Yet he stops. Why?

In Luke 10v33 Jesus tells us that he was "moved by compassion."

In other words, the Samaritan was moved to do something that the law requires but can not effect. Or as Edmund Clowney has put it, "God requires the love that can not be required."

So what is the solution? 

There are people who have a very low view of God's law. In this view, all Jesus did on the cross was to exhibit God's love for us. There was no punishment to be taken or penalty to be paid. There was no "divine wrath" to be appeased. But the classic Christian doctrine is that on the cross Jesus actually saved us by standing in our place and paying our debt to the law of God.

So if the Lord takes his law so seriously that he could not ignore our disobedience to it, that he had to become human, come to earth, and die a terrible death - then we must take the law very seriously too.

The law of God demands equality, justice and mercy. In fact, it is so magnificent, just and demanding that we could never fulfill it. 

But Jesus did.

So people who have a strong belief in the doctrine of justification by faith alone will also have a high regard for God's law and justice. They will be passionate about seeing God's justice honored in the world.

Mercy is commanded, but it cannot come as the response to a command. Rather, it is an overflowing of generosity as a response to the mercy of God which we have received. 

So That

we are saved by grace so that we can be gracious to one another.

we were loved while we were still God’s enemies so that we can love our enemies.

we received mercy when we were least deserving so that we can give mercy to the “underserving” poor.

we have received God’s lavish generosity so that we can give generously.

we have received the good news so that we can preach the good news to the poor.

we have been healed so that we can heal the brokenhearted.

we have been liberated so that we can proclaim liberty to the captives.

our eyes have been opened so that we can provide recovery of sight to the blind.

the more we receive grace the stronger we can be in giving it

The Combativeness of Christmas

In the birth stories of Luke and Matthew, only one person seems to grasp the mysterious nature of what God has set in motion: the old man Simeon (Luke 2:25-35), who recognized the baby as the Messiah and instinctively understood that conflict would surely follow.

This text tells us so much about the meaning of Christmas, and yet it is very seldom ever brought up. This time of year we often think of little baby Jesus laying in a manger, but the Bible shows us that actually, Jesus Christ came at that first Christmas to stake out a claim. An enormous claim.

Simeon says, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

There is a combativeness about Christmas. There is something very, very uncomfortable about it. It is in the carols, the hymns, and the Christmas texts but people just sort of blandly, sweetly listen to them, almost like white noise.

Take Handel’s Messiah for example. Who doesn’t love taking in a performance of this incredible work around the holidays? But how well do we really know the Hallelujah chorus? Do we really listen to it?

Did you know it is based on Revelation chapters 11 and 19? 

“Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”

In Revelation 19 Jesus is portrayed as this incredible figure coming down from heaven on a white horse. He is wearing blood-drenched clothes, coming in as a general and He is demanding supreme lordship over all other kings and all other faiths and all other people!

Jesus is coming as King of Kings and Lords of Lords.

Every inch of the universe is His.
Therefore he comes to divide. 
He comes to cause conflict. 
He comes to pick a fight.

But isn’t He the prince of peace? 
Yes… But He brings peace through the sword.

Look at some of his teachings: Jesus says, “the one who believes in me is not condemned, the one who does not believe in me is condemned already.” When he talks to the rich young ruler in Mark 10 he says, “I have to be more important to you than your wealth or anything else, or else you’re lost.” Jesus says, “I am so important that if your eye or your hand keep you away from me, cut your hand off, pluck your eye out.”

Think about it, if anyone else said these things, we would all be utterly repulsed. And many people are. But if you listen to his claims, there is no middle ground. He demands adoration. He demands allegiance. As Simeon prophesied, you will either have to rise or fall.

But people don’t want to have to choose. They want to be mild. Sort of Christian, kind of religious. They want to believe that Jesus was a nice guy. Listen to Christmas music and attend church around the holidays.

People don’t want to have to choose between the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and an absolute sham. They don’t want to rise or fall.

But this little baby lying in the manger doesn’t give us that option.

Dorothy Sayers on Faith & Work

"In nothing has the Church so lost her hold on reality as in her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the world’s intelligent workers have become irreligious, or at least, uninterested in religion.” - Dorothy Sayers

Owner to Steward

Remember the final scene of “It’s a Wonderful Life?” George is in trouble, and people just come streaming in and say, “Here. Take my stuff.” One person gives a watch, and the officials who are supposed to be arresting him begin to give their stuff.

This is what the church is like. A church is not just one more organization. Organizations often are concerned with fundraising, and it doesn’t really matter where the funds come from. If you can get one person to give all the money, that’s fine.

A church is different. It is about becoming a community of stewards. Every time that transition happens in another person, the community becomes a little stronger.

Every time one person crosses from the “owner” category to the “steward” category - whether they have a lot of money or not - a supernatural dynamic is released in the community, because the heart of the community is becoming a little more like the heart of God.