Northside Church - Sydney
Wallflowers// Living Life from the Sidelines? Week 6: Paul – A Messenger for All
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. We know from week one, when Sam first introduced this theme of Wall Flowers, I could identify with it right off the bat and you exactly what he was talking about even before he started to explain it because I went to an all boys high school here in Sydney up until the age of 16. And before that I'd been to an all boys primary school and I was part of a very small youth group, very, very small youth group out in Wiley Park and there was nobody there I was interested in. So at 16 my experience with the opposite sex had been very limited, let's just say that. And at this all boys school, well meaning parents from time to time and some teachers would organise a dance night, I call it a dance night now because I spent 22 years in South Australia used to call it a dance night, but it's a dance night. And like we're all, all those guys are all Wall Flowers, standing around the edge there trying to be coaxed under the floor to dance with these, like it was very scary. And what sort of thoughts goes through your mind, what if I say the wrong thing, what if I tread on a toes, and she sort of screams, what if I got bad breath, that was pretty the little sort of capture, the little things you can get out of spray. So it was pretty scary. I couldn't trust any of my mates to tell me if that was the case by the way, found out years later that's actually the part of the task of a loving wife to do that. But it was pretty scary to be a Wall Flower, the statement that's recurring in this series in one form or another, and Sam has mentioned it on a number of occasions, is this, the dance at the centre of the universe is underway, and you're being invited to join in. If you remain on the wall continually finding excuses not to participate, you're a Wall Flower, that's who you are, spiritually speaking. The purpose of this series is to challenge you and I to get off the wall and to start dancing. It's to provide us with biblical evidence as to how this can happen. And at the top of the message I describe Paul as the greatest Wall Flower, I said the evidence was compelling when it comes to his dramatic turnaround, it's nothing short of miraculous. If you know the story of Paul, and I guess most of us here do, he was named Saul when he was a great leader in the Jewish faith, and his story is in the book of Acts of course. And as we trace the story of the early church, it's not very long before there's major persecution in the early church, horrific persecution, there's the first Christian martyr, his name is Stephen, and he appears in Acts chapter 7 and he is literally murdered because of his faith in Jesus Christ because of the fact that he's a preacher. And it's a confronting story, check it out, Acts chapter 7. And the man behind this murder, quite clearly, is Saul, this Rabbi, this hard line, hard core leader of the Jewish faith at that time. Look what happened in the aftermath after the murder of this first Christian martyr Stephen. Look at this, look what the word says in Acts chapter 8, Saul, this is Paul before he was renamed it, Saul approved of Stephen's murder, you just get your head around that, this is the guy who wrote Romans, this is the guy who wrote Colossians, this is the guy who wrote Corinthians, this is the guy who wrote about a third of a New Testament, Saul approved of Stephen's murder. And that very day, the church in Jerusalem began to suffer cruel persecution, all the believers except the apostles were scattered throughout the provinces of Judea and Samaria. Some devout men buried Stephen, mourning for him with loud cries, but Saul tried to destroy the church going from house to house, he dragged out the believers, getting a picture here, he dragged out the believers, both men and women, and threw them into jail. That's a remarkable section of Scripture, you know there's something really gut-wrenching about people being dragged out of the safety, the security, the sanctity of their homes. I find it always chilling whenever I watch a documentary on Nazi Germany, when without warning overnight in some cities people started getting dragged out of their homes, mothers, fathers, kids, just because they were the wrong nationality at the wrong time. And we saw it in Bosnia during the so-called ethnic cleansings and in other parts of Eastern Europe, people just dragged out of their homes, taken down the city square, shot to death, whole generation of men wiped out in front of their wives and families. There's something shocking about being dragged out of your home, and it's happening today in parts of Africa and parts of Asia, where people are being dragged out of their homes for the sake of Jesus Christ and their churches are being burned, it's shocking. It's horribly confronting. That was Saul. That's where he sort of enters the scene of the New Testament. I described earlier that he was the consummate wallflower. Why was that? A couple of reasons. He was unwilling to change his ideas and his traditions. He was fanatically wedded to the Jewish faith as it was then, fanatically wedded to his idea of what the dance ought to be. I said that I went to an all-boys school until I was 16, and then we got to transfer to Perth, as some of you know, and I started going to a school that some north side has went to, Apple Cross High, Joe Lowe, formerly Joe Ong. He was here tonight, he went to that school, so did John Re, there were a number of Apple Cross Highs here, before my time, of course, rather after my time, sorry, after my time, after my time. Whoa, let's get the chronology right. I had to repeat a year because I got distracted. I had a friend in class that said, "What's wrong with you, haven't you ever seen a girl before?" I was close, actually sitting next to me in class and sort of doing biology assignments together and so it was fascinating stuff, and so did I repeat a year, didn't leave high school, I was 18 and a half, and I became a lot more confident in that social setting. It was in the era when a new dance craze was introduced to the Australian scene, and you can ask your father or your grandfather about it. It was called the stomp. Yes, anybody here remembers the stomp. Really? Joy, thank you very much. Beautiful. Now look, I won't go into the actual actions of the stomp. I'll give you the stance. The stance was this. You had to sort of put your hands behind your back like that, separate your legs like that, okay? And it was a kind of an action like this, you know, but you actually had to do it with a lot more. ACDC was born in that era. And so that was the stomp. Yeah, I know you want me to go further, but I'm not going to. No, no, oh yeah, I know. Look, we may later, we may, we may, we may, may not. And here's the thing. There was a place called, and I know Maureen knows this place called the Melville Stomp. It was held at a tennis club, and we used to get in there Saturday nights and dance our hearts out with great confidence. But here's the thing. There were guys there who would not dance the stomp because their form of dancing was more classical, okay? They were more the ballroom dancers, right? You know, the swirly type, which I've never done that. And these guys would, they were warflowers. They would not demean themselves by getting involved in this mindless, formless, primitive form of dancing. Then you had to dance, but they just refused to do this, this type of dancing. Now, see, that was sore, okay? His, his conversion was spectacular. He knew how to dance. He was a man of God in his own, in his own mind. He had a very strong belief in God. He knew about dancing, but not this kind of dancing. And he fiercely was resistant. And this extreme, fanatical opponent of the church became its greatest ambassadore. It is the greatest story of the Bible, the greatest turn around. He describes himself in Ephesians 6, 20 as an ambassadore, an ambassadore for Christ. Not just a Christian, an ambassadore, a number one representative. Look, it'd be like this, if you're trying to get a sense of how radical soul's conversion was. It'd be like a Taliban warlord up in Afghanistan, somebody responsible for the deaths of Australian soldiers, being miraculously converted to Christ and being invited to be the keynote speaker at an Anzac Day memorial service here in Sydney or Canberra. I mean, that'd be very confronting the press or whatever, a field date with that. That's how radical soul's conversion was. Now, guys, what can Paul, as he is, as he became, what can he tell us about getting off the wall? Because he joined the dance in a big way. What can he tell us about getting off the wall? Look, I want to share with you tonight, four crucial characteristics. These were at the heart of Paul's unbelievable success as an ambassador for Christ. Four character traits, if you like. Four features of his life and his leadership style. As I've been trying to do often in the morning service, particularly, I've broken them down into four words that I hope you're going to be able to easily remember. The first one was this. He was adaptable. Paul didn't have a one-size fits-all approach to Christianity. He worked with what he had. He was very sensitive to cultural and social needs and settings and contexts. He was aware of the different kinds of people with him he was dealing at any one time. On one occasion, he spoke of becoming all things to all people. That was his catch-cry. Let me read from the whole quote from 1 Corinthians chapter 9. This is what he says. "I'm a free man, nobody's slave, but I make myself everybody's slave in order to win as many as possible. While working with the Jews, I live like a Jew in order to win them. And even though I myself am not subject to the law of Moses, I live as though I were working with these people in order to win them. In the same way, when working with Gentiles, I live like a Gentile outside the Jewish law in order to win Gentiles. This does not mean that I don't obey God's law. I'm really under Christ's law. Among the weak in faith I become weak, like one of them, in order to win them. So I become all things to all people that I may say some of them by whatever means are possible." A fantastic quote. Our ability to adapt to the context in which we find ourselves to treat people with respect in a way of building a bridge of commonality to them, that is so crucial. As we're going to get off the wall, start dancing and start getting others off the wall as well. I've seen some great examples of that over the years. I've seen some shocking examples. I was thinking in preparation for the message this week. I remember an incident back in Adelaide many, many years ago. I was called to the hospital bedside of one of our members, a senior lady, who was dying. I've been called to those scenes many, many times over the years. And it's a sobering moment. It's where you've just got to prepare the family for the inevitable. And this lady's daughter, which of another church, a very fundamentalist church, and her theology revolved around the miraculous. And if the miraculous at what she called America wasn't happening, she couldn't handle it. And she was becoming increasingly agitated as it became clear that this was God's plan for this lady. This was in her 80s. The next part of her journey was to pass over to be with him. Wasn't sad it was a victory. She couldn't handle it. She became increasingly agitated. And her doctor came in, a beautiful doctor who had been working with the family and with me over several hours. And right out of the blue, she said, "Excuse me, doctor, do you believe in life after death?" I was been startled by the question that we all were. He said, "Yes, I do. I'm a Buddhist." She said, "You're a what?" He said, "I'm a Buddhist." She said, "You're a Buddhist." You know what? I'm not sure if I want my mother at this stage of her life being looked after by a Buddhist. This isn't a hospital boy. He very graciously just sort of smiled and sort of withdrew from the room, so I'll be back later. I followed him out and had a chat. It was a very good chat. What an opportunity there was there, just to kind of build a bridge of commonality, just to sort of see how Christians handle, for him to see how Christians handle that very sacred moment of a passing over, of somebody to be with Jesus in eternity. Well, something else about Paul, he was vulnerable. He was aware of his weaknesses. He was very submissive when it came to the need, to draw on God's power and strength. He was conscious of his dependence on God, a bit like the words of that new song. How powerful was that? He once said, "When I'm weak, then I'm strong." This was following his thorn in the flesh moment. You know, if you know your New Testament, you know, Paul had this, whatever it was, some kind of an ailment, a disease, lots of speculation what it was. But he said, "Basically, Lord, I could be a lot more effective for you if I was free of this thorn in the flesh." And he says, "Three times I prayed to have this removed." And once again, in the Lord's providence, it wasn't to be healed. And the word he got was, "My grace will be sufficient for you." You will find that despite this ailment, despite this weakness, you will shine for me. It'll become part of your story. People will be inspired by the fact that it's not holding you back. This life is not all about having everything solved. But life in Jesus Christ is about having the strength to manage even that which is unsolvable. Let me read the actual passage in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 10. He says, "I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Guys, the word from the Lord tonight is, "Look, be thankful for the challenges of life." Like not in some morbid, masochistic way, but be thankful for the fact that life throws at you lots of challenges, lots of problems even because there's no other way to grow. We grow through those kind of experiences. If you've had a chance to look at the back cover of the church paper, I do a little reference to the famous footprints piece where there's two sets of footprints on the sand and then there's one set when the Lord carried us. There's a new version of that. There's a groove in the sand. It's the Lord saying, "That's when I dragged you kicking and screaming." None of us really, I'm not suggesting that Jesus drags us kicking and screaming into anything, but some of us don't appreciate some of the tough experiences of life as marvelous opportunities for growth. Here's something else. He was malleable. In other words, he was teachable. He had been so fixed in his ideas at all, so fixed, so fanatical, so inflexible in his beliefs. But he once said this, "I've learned this secret." I've learned this secret. That word "learn." He was malleable. He's teachable. Philippians 4, here's the whole quote, Philippians chapter 4 and verses 11 to 13. This is what Paul says. "I've learned to be satisfied with what I have. I know what it is to be in need. I know what it is to be to have more than enough. I have learned this secret so that anywhere, at any time I'm content, whether I'm full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little, I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me." Paul was kind of like a permanent mature-age student. He was just learning the whole time. Guys, you can have that approach to life. I hope you've got it tonight. Always learning, always growing, always expanding your knowledge of God, of people, of situations, even in the hard times. I love the saying I came across many years ago. When you fall, pick up something. When you're down, don't make that a worthless, meaningless experience. When you fall, pick up something. What can I learn out of this? Are you growing tonight? Are you learning through what you're experiencing in life? If you're going through a good time, a really good time now, things are going well, you should be learning about generosity. You should be learning about compassion for others. You should be learning about trust. Maybe the good time is born out of complacency. Time to kind of trust to get into the deeper waters, take on a ministry, put your hand up the service, dig a little deeper into your weekly income, and start to show real faith. Some real faith. If you're already going through a tough time, then you know already you're learning about patience. You're learning about dependence on God. You're learning about surrender. You're learning about resilience. Hopefully you're learning about courage as well. Guys, I learn something this week. I try to learn something every day. I learn something this week about the nature of ministry. I've been in ministry a long time. I knew this lesson, but you've got to look beyond that. What are you saying to me in this new experience? I spent some time this week in prison in Long Bay Jail, my first visit to Long Bay Jail. I went there with Chaplain Peter Baines. He is, in my opinion, one of the great heroes of ministry in this city. He's a man. He goes into a secured area, gets a key, and that key, so that Chaplain opens every door of that prison. As far as I can see, he wins with about 16 doors. At one part, I was telling the team, at one part, all I could see were men in green, but no men in blue. Green blue, green other inmates, blue are the guards. I said, "I see a lot of green, and I don't see any blue. Are we okay here?" He said, "Yeah, we were right in the guts of it now." I said, "Okay, all right." We walk through there, and everybody, "Hi, Peter. How are you going, Peter? Good, Terry? Good, Dave. How are you, mate? Going okay as a wife and kids?" That man's intimate knowledge of those prisons in the romance section where I was was unbelievable. The respect they obviously had to that man now, he never gets to stand on a platform. He never gets to see what the lights are like and hear a fantastic band and talk to exciting young people. He's in a ministry, been there for nearly as long as I've been here. I felt the whole experience was just humbling. What is an effective ministry? It's not about numbers. It's about being God's man or God's woman in the place where he wants you to be. I couldn't do that ministry. I wouldn't last a day. He may find aspects of this ministry challenging. That's the beautiful thing about ministry and God's service. He places you in accordance with your gifts and with your abilities and your calling. It was a heartwarming experience to spend time with this great man of God. I hope to introduce you to him at some stage. Here's the final point. Paul was unequivocal. That's a great word. In other words, he was very definite in his beliefs and his convictions. He wasn't vague or uncertain. He wasn't kind of wishy-washy as we might say today. In Colossians, he comes on really strongly. He says, "Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God." Colossians 1, 15 and 16, can I read it to you? It's powerful. It says this, "Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He's the firstborn son. Superior all created things, for through him God created everything in heaven and on earth. The scene and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, authorities. God created a whole universe through him and for him you say, "Well, that's great. He's feeling great." Here we all believe that. Guys, this is against the backdrop of thousands of gods. This is against the backdrop of the Roman Empire where polytheism, multi-gods, they had temples, they had statues. He was prepared to go down this pathway against the background and the backdrop of huge pluralism. Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. That was Paul's real affirmation time and time again in his ministry. He knew what the message was. He knew what the context was. He knew what his mission was. Guys, in 2013, we need to be that clear about our mission. We need to be that clear about our message. Any Q&A fans here? I know there's one at least their own Graham in us right here. Not only a fan, he's a guest. God bless you, Graham. When are you going in again, mate? Oh, don't worry. Oh, mate. Please make it quick. Love your appearances. Q&A, it's not up there with MKA, my kitchen rules. It's not as exciting as that. Let me set myself on fire. Or the block I'm already burning. Home and away, there are the ashes on the floor. It's for the sharp thinker. Somehow, I've got to qualify to look at it. It's a great show. Q&A, Monday nights, 9.30. Recently, there was a guest on John Dixon. Anybody see it? Look at those hands. Thousands of you. Four or five, anyway. Sam, we're going to get a bit more culture into this night. Convocation, mate. That's what I've got to do. John Dixon was on. He's an Anglican minister. I'm not going to tell you which church case you want to go there, actually. He's up at Roseville. He's okay. John's a scientist, and they pinned him against a hardened atheist. That was in classic television. This guy was, the atheist was kind of ranting against Christianity, and John was being very gracious and just firing away at appropriate times, doing a great job. Somebody put across the bottom of the screen. Oh my gosh, I'm agreeing with a Christian. Get an ambulance. This has never happened before. At the end, I was waiting for it because I know John Dixon, and I was waiting for it. He produced The Christ Files, by the way. That may be the kind of Channel 7 play these every Easter marvellous series on the life of Jesus. And here's what John Dixon said to the atheist and to the viewing audience. He said, "You know what? I can accept most of the science. I've got no problem with your science." He said, "I'm going to lose some of my creation in six days, people out there, but I've got no real problem with your science." He said, "But I've got Jesus as well, along with the science." He said, "Why wouldn't you have both if you can?" He said, "Well, I've got that." And then of course, they're right on cue, the company said, "That's all I've got time for tonight." But at least John Dixon got any beautiful answer. I can handle the science. A man who's in touch with the current context and the current culture, but still really staying strong and true to his faith in the risen Christ. Wow, that was powerful. We need more Christians who can mix it with the world like that. We're of the culture, cognizant of the contemporary issues, clear and resolute in the Christian response. I don't want to surprise or shock him. I believe Sam is such a person in terms of communication in the modern culture. He has a way of articulating the gospel in terms that people can understand. I believe he's going to get a lot more exposure in that setting. But you don't have to be upfront to be like this. Some of you, by virtue of your study, by virtue of your personality, by virtue of your fluency, you could develop more than you perhaps realize this skill of being a spokesperson for Jesus, not being thrown, being unequivocal, but being all the rest as well, you know, teachable, malleable, all those as well, but being a strong spokesman. Gosh, we need that. In today's scene, more than ever. Okay, here's the last thing. Paul has a message for all of us tonight. It's a message that hit me this week and I think it's going to hit all of us. It comes in Ephesians. He's been talking about the dance, okay? What it means to be involved in mission, what it means to be involved with Jesus, getting off the wall, getting rid of your preconceived ideas, getting involved with the dance. He talks about it in Ephesians and this is what he says in the sixth chapter. He says, "Wake up sleeper and rise from death." He's talking about spiritual death and Christ will shine upon you. He's using a quote from Isaiah at that point. "That really hit me. Wake up sleeper. Get with the program. What's stopping you? Get off the wall. Get with the dance." Like, to me, responding to Jesus Christ is not sort of an odd thing. It's the most natural thing in all the world. I have a friend in Perth, John Bond. He's a great preacher and he developed a way of handing people many years ago when it would become known that he's a Christian. They say, "Bondie, are you a Christian? You're a father of Jesus?" And he used to respond very assertively, "Wait a minute. Hang on. You're telling me you're not? Are you serious? Have you looked at the Bible? Do you know what this is about? Are you telling me, honestly, as a thinking person, you're not? I can't believe that." So he sort of switched around and they sort of started dialogue. Guys, what's the next step for you? Some of you have been listening to this series on the wallflowers and, you know, deep down. That's where you are. You're still on the wall. And it's pretty scary to get off the wall because you might try on some of these toes or you might say the wrong thing or you might live up to the stand. You might look a bit goofy. I had my goofy moments on the dance floor, I'm sure. Even more so these days were dead dancing, which I seemed to have perfected. It's a bit scary, but that's where you need to be. Jesus Christ lovingly invites you to get off the wall, get on the floor, become part of the dance. You might want to respond tonight in terms of the prayer ministry. You can kill one of us tonight. I want to receive Jesus. Somebody said to me last Sunday night, I want to take the first step to becoming a Christian tonight when you pray with me and I prayed with her last week. It could be that some of you, for some of you, this next step is, as Sam was saying earlier, baptism. You know, baptism is a beautiful symbolic way of expressing an inner conviction. There's beautiful symbolism in baptism, the death of the old life, the rising to walk with a new perspective, a whole new existence in Christ. It's incredibly powerful, the symbolism. It could be that that's your next step in the journey. It could be you could take baptism as your way of declaring to everybody. I'm getting fed in again. I'm off the wall. I'm on the dance floor. Just like marriage, you declare, you don't fall in love at the front of the church. That's already happened, we hope. I've had a few, I'm not too sure, but that's where you declare it. So you might have already fallen in love with Jesus Christ, you need to declare it. Make it really known, baptism is a great way to do that. So we're here tonight, guys, be feeding him with Jesus tonight. Just responding whatever way God is calling you to. Let's be impressed, shall we?