The Disciplines of the Father  7. Unfolding the Plan

Reading https://youtu.be/FfRVgilc9sY

Eph 1:1-10  [] = excluded from verbal presentation * = read footnote

Introduction

Since “the Lord God does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7cf. Rev 19:9-10), we [the Church in Perth[1]] should expect Jesus[2] to be continuously unfolding his vision for the fulfilment of the Great Commission for us to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18) [in his own time and space[3].] How then, is the Lord planning to express his kingdom rule in our city? Theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper[4] famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” (x2) How might Christ’s claim to rule all the spheres of creation be put into place[5] in a city like ours[6]. It is clear that since “judgement begins with God’s household” (1Pet 4:17) the Lord always works first in his Church[7], as he originally worked in the life of his Son. Before exaltation there must always be humiliation (James 4:1-10; 1 Pet 5:6). In prayer early one morning recently, I had a very rare personal experience of shame. I believe I was prophetically sharing[8],[9]* in the shame of the Church in Perth. This is a biblically plausible thing to say. John exhorts his Christian hearers, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” (1 John 2:28), as Jesus warns the Ephesian Church in Revelation [commonly compared with the contemporary Western Church], “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Rev 3:17)[10]. Whilst shame should not be a normal state of the believer’s conscience,  many Christians mould their lives to be outwardly acceptable to church culture[11], [that this is evidence that the Church in Perth is under divine discipline[12].] Though only a tiny remnant is consciously ware or this, [a sure sign of the depths of our problem.]  the failure of the people of God to pray with zeal, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20 cf. 1 Cor 16:22), exposes the true state of our lives. We do not want Jesus to come back soon and interrupt our life schedules. Our lack of prayer and inability to pursue mission with authority shows we are in a condition of toxic shame. The one remedy for our problem is to be clothed in Christ.

Clothed with Christ

Paul’s exhortation to the Romans (13:14), “[Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy.] But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”, needs to be paired with the visions of Revelation, ““These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (7:14 cf. 7:9, 13; 22:14). The covering of the Church by the blood of Christ that turns away all divine judgement[13] will come upon us only through a deep humbling of the present leadership of the Body in recognition that our heavenly Father longs to cover his people’s  sin[14]. The topic of the blood of Christ points to our need to suffer for the gospel.

Whilst the shedding of blood receives pride of place in the biblical witness to saintly suffering[15], martyrdom is broader than suffering unto death. The word translated as “martyr”[16], simply carries the basic meaning of “witness”, something to which we are all called as Christians. [Whilst some forms of witnessing are unlikely to qualify as martyrdom,] any form of painful obedience carried for the sake of God’s kingdom shares in the “spirit of martyrdom”[17]. In our audaciously sexual[18] and murderous[19] Western cultures, where earthly-minded people “glory in their shame” (Phil 3:19)[20], the Lord has a precise plan to release the revelation of which Paul speaks, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3:1-3).

The Spirit of the Father (Matt 10:20) has been alerting me to a pattern embodied in the life of Paul in his imitation[21] of Christ, who boldly proclaims, “be imitators of me as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1 cf. 2 Thess 3:7, 9; Heb 13:7; 3 John 11). Despite all external differences, the spiritual situation we are facing in the discipleship crises of the whole Church today, shares the challenges Paul’s mission team faced amongst the Gentiles in the first century [of what became known as the Christian era]. If Paul’s ministry and letter writing took place in the period between the events recorded in the Gospels and their first being recorded in print[22],[23], his life was all the foundational evidence his first hearers and the recipients of his letters had of the identity and significance of Jesus. This uncomfortable reality presents a great challenge for us.  For despite the ever-increasing number of English translations on the Bible[24], and countless books on Christian spirituality, our discipleship crisis faces us with the same sort of gross ignorance of the image and likeness of God in Christ that Paul faced. As Paul was the living gospel image to his churches[25], so today we need God to raise up Paul-like = Jesus-like men/women as icons of his glory. How might this happen?

The Heart of the Father

Whilst the letter to the Hebrews openly testifies to the indispensability of Fatherly discipline, Paul’s reference to this reality in his own life is harder to locate[26]. In the midst of a long list of personal hardships the apostle describes himself, “as punished, and yet not killed” (2 Cor 6:9 ESV). Here Paul identifies himself with the righteous sufferer in the Old Testament who to outward appearance seemed rejected by God but was actually a subject of the most intimate penetrating Fatherly care[27]*. The word used here for “punished” is paideuein (to educate a child) meaning that Paul recognised that the ultimate source of all his trials (cf. Heb 12:5-13; Rev 3:19) was God the Father. The opponents of Paul’s Christlike way of life saw his suffering as infallible evidence that he was under God’s judgment, whereas he was actually immersed in the love of God. He was re-enacting the crucifixion of Jesus*[28]! Cf. JY and pastor who defiantly said to me that that a genuinely born again Christian could not suffer depression (contrast “we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” 2 Cor 1:8)*[29]. When he says a few verses later, “Our mouth is open unto you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged.” (2 Cor 6:11) we are not to suppose that his readers can directly see inside him, but that the testimony of the trials of his life he has just shared[30] manifests what is in his deepest being.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer*[31] says the Church “must not under-estimate the importance of human example [(which has its origin in the humanity of Jesus and is so important in Paul’s teaching)]; [it is not abstract argument, but example,] that gives its word emphasis and power….it is something that we have almost entirely forgotten.).” We have ignored the fact that just as Christ took the Church (representatively) with him into Gethsemane[32], and that there were many witnesses of the crucifixion[33] [but not the resurrection event[34]]. We fail to understand that Jesus’ comprehensive defeat of the evil powers to which Paul testifies, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in it (the cross).” (Col 2:15), must involve the public humiliation of the Church. This is exactly what the cross meant for Jesus and the history of the Early Church. Transparency in and through God-given traumas is the key to revival[35].

Conclusion

Imitating Paul as Paul imitated Jesus requires great humility and brokenness. There have never been 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership[36] nor 7 basic principles of a successful Christian life, [not because there is confusion about numbers, but] because we worship an ever-living God[37] who imparts his life to us just as he imparted it to Jesus. “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”” (Luke 24:26). If the cross was a shameful scandalous public spectacle (Luke 23:48), so is the apostolic testimony (1 Cor 4:9)*[38]. God’s means of triumphing over the powers of evil involves the seeming public defeats of the Church which display the wisdom of divine weakness[39] whilst releasing divine power in Christ (1 Cor 1:24).

Our dilemma is that we are deeply deceived by the powers of evil in ways very few of us can discern. On one side there are still traces of the era of Christendom, when the Church was one of the pillars of society and expected to be treated with privilege. On the other side, the repeated failures of the political representatives of Christianity to resist the gay lobby, euthanasia and abortion etc. leave many believers feeling powerless in the “public square”. A small minority/remnant is dissatisfied with the avoidance of pain paraded by the megachurches of today, but simultaneously acutely and painfully aware of their own inability to live in the breakthrough power of the kingdom of God.

This series kas attempted to bring a message that any follower of Jesus can live a life worthy of imitating. The key to releasing such a breakthrough-life begins with a realisation/revelation that the “confidante”/confessor of your personal inner struggles is not limited to your spouse, your spiritual advisor/mentor or therapist, but is the whole Church as the new and eternal family of God. (Remember that on the Final Day of judgement all your sins will be revealed, as forgiven sins.) The gospel frees us from trying to present a façade that we have it all together. This was the discovery provoked by the gospel carried by the triple denying Peter, the disciples who had abandoned Jesus and the man who unhesitatingly describe himself as “the foremost of sinners”, Paul (1 Tim 1:15).  As believers walking without shame[40]* they necessarily planted and led congregations where people confessed sin to one another in the expectation of healing and resurrection life (Acts 2:44-46; James 5:15 – 16; 1 John 1:9)[41]  [42].

Following the pattern of the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus so famously expounded in Phil 2:5-11, Paul goes on to instruct us: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:11-13). The Father’s never failing good pleasure[43], is to glorify ordinary people, through suffering. See yourself in Christ living a “way of life/faith” (Heb 13:7) worthy of imitation. The Church in Perth is called to become a Body living according to the apostolic pattern, “Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” (Phil 3:17 cf. 1 Pet 5:3). Submitting to the disciplines of the Father will release you to become living influencers for the glory of God. Amen.