On 29th April 2015, at 12.25am, Pastor Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran and six others were brutally killed by firing squad. They were strapped by the elbows to wooden crosses and sang until their voices were silenced by the fatal gunshots.
Doing Church Differently
‘many are weak and sick among you, and many have died’
[On Sunday I was asked to introduce communion at the church I attend. This is the text of my brief talk].
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When I was given a medical death sentence in 2019, I started to seek God for answers. In addition to studying scripture, I found healing testimonies on YouTube for encouragement.
One thing that stood out was a repeated reference to the taking of communion, how in the time leading up to their freedom from terminal illness – people had been led to take bread and wine daily, in remembrance of Jesus sacrifice.
Why was communion significant to them? I would like to briefly share the answer I found to that question.
(1 Cor 11:24-31) When He had given thanks, He broke the bread and said ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying ‘This is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgement to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep (have died).
This is the only NT reference I can recall addressing a reason for God’s people being sick enough to die. So, what did Paul mean when he wrote about eating and drinking unworthily – not discerning the Lord’s body?
I’ve come across three possibilities, all of which I think have value. Two address how we relate to one another as the body of Christ, but today I’ll look at one that addresses how we relate to Jesus and His sacrifice.
When we eat the bread and drink the wine, what are we remembering?
I suspect that a lot of the time we are thinking of being saved from our sins, having them washed away by His shed blood. Hebrews tells us there is no remission of our sins without the shedding of blood. That is why we drink the wine – the blood it represents was shed to establish the new covenant, bringing about a permanent solution to the sin that keeps mankind separated from God. There is no more need for constant animal sacrifices or journeys to the Temple in Jerusalem to make those sacrifices, that were required under the old covenant.
But what about the bread representing His body, broken for us? The body that Paul says is not being ‘discerned’ correctly, thereby making room for sickness and death?
In Isaiah 53 we read: ‘He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains… He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes (the wounds from scourging) we are healed.’ (Isaiah 53: 4-5)
Here we see Jesus’ suffering and death was NOT only focused on dealing with our sin – it also included the bearing of our sickness and pain, and paying the price of our healing through the whipping that tore apart His flesh.
We have no difficulty remembering His sacrifice paid for our sin, and we have no problem believing that our sins are forgiven. We accept what scripture says to assure us of that. We willingly put our faith in God’s promise alone. That is all the evidence we have and need.
But what about healing? We have physical symptoms as a constant reminder. We allow them to be more real to us than the promises of God’s word and Jesus’ sacrifice for our healing. But shouldn’t we put more faith in God’s word than in what we feel – like we do for forgiveness? Would we so willing deny our salvation if at times we didn’t ‘feel ‘saved?
Andrew Murray wrote over 100 years ago, ‘We see in the accounts of the gospels, that it was more difficult for the Jews at that time to believe in the pardon of their sins than in divine healing. Now it is just the opposite. (Divine Healing, Andrew Murray p 10; – Murray died in 1917, )
Most of us have no trouble believing our sins have been dealt with by Jesus shedding His blood. But many have difficulty understanding that sickness was dealt with through the same sacrifice. Shed blood and broken body working together as a single, all sufficient sacrifice for both spiritual and physical healing.
Psalm 103 gives us an ongoing reminder:
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
Who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
As we eat and drink, let us be sure that we are not forgetting any of the benefits that the bread and wine remind us of. If you want to avoid the weakness, sickness and even death that Paul attributes to eating and drinking unworthily; make some time in your life to search the scriptures to reinforce what Jesus’ sacrifice was ALL about, so we don’t miss any of His benefits through ignorance of them.
Spirit-Filled Suffering – Art Thomas
A look at the forms of suffering a believer will face, and how to respond to them.
Art Thomas makes some very astute and wise observations.
The Reward of His Suffering.
Mars Arrival Imminent.
End Time Deception and protection from it…
“Take heed that no one deceives you”
Deception can take many forms – unfortunately Christian concern about end times seems to create a particularly fertile ground for all kinds of weird and not so wonderful conspiracy claims. If the enemy can’t mislead someone one into complete rejection of the gospel, he will use whatever he can to corrupt the message ill-prepared Christians are believing, and lead them to focus on something other than Jesus and His revelation.
An important protection is the building of a foundation from Scripture – becoming more familiar with ALL of it, and not isolated verses or groups of verses. And knowing what scripture REALLY says instead of using parts of scripture to support claims unrelated to the gospel of the Kingdom.
Scripture builds up the believer’s discernment, enabling them to distinguish things that are relevant and true regarding God, His character and His purposes, from things that are attempting to draw them away to a different path to follow a false agenda.
As mentioned above, Christian concern about end times is one thing that can open the door for deception. And maybe THIS area is one that we NEED to ensure we are seeing from a BIBLICAL perspective and not according to popular culture or increasing ‘prophetic’ claims.
Regarding the end times Jesus warned His followers NOT to be alarmed by events that must happen, and to take care NOT to be deceived, because false christs (anointed ones) and many false prophets will arise and deceive many. Therefore it is essential that we make sure we equip ourselves to distinguish and separate the lie from the truth.
REVIVAL is COMING! Or is it?
I remember the expectation for revival that we had when I first joined a church in the late 70s. Looking back, I can see how that expectation was accompanied by a sense of relief, that it would be so much easier to see my parents become believers, as part of the widespread salvations that would result.
It didn’t happen.
True ‘Revival’ is NOT about short-cuts. It’s not about filling stadiums with worshippers, or making the gospel easier for others to accept. Any genuine expression of ‘revival’ would mean that professing believers stop compromising with the world. It would mean becoming obedient to what Jesus commanded. And it would NOT make believers more accepted by the world so that people flock to us and to church meetings.
Genuine ‘revival’ would be our commitment to Jesus being revived – given new life; and THAT would make believers LESS accepted by the world. More hated and despised; ‘ all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution’.
The ONLY indication of end-time ‘revival’ that I can see in scripture is the statement that the ‘gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations’ – but that outcome is linked to a time when followers of Jesus will be delivered up to tribulation, killed and hated by all nations for His name’s sake. So, any end-time revival will be one where the gospel of the Kingdom is preached as a witness to nations that hate those preaching it.
Followers of Jesus will NOT be filling stadiums, but meeting in homes, meeting in isolated places, meeting in twos and threes (with Him joining them). The unfruitful will be pruned away and remaining branches that remain in Him will bear much fruit.
Any revival before Jesus returns will not lead to a multiplying of megachurches trying to cope with the influx of new converts. It will be more like what is happening on China, Iran, and even Afghanistan – three of the nations currently experiencing the most fruitful spread, and acceptance, of the gospel.
Biblical Bookends
Mishandling the Prophetic
I believe the clips of the false prophets shown in this video show that they are not merely mistaken, not merely speaking according to the flesh – there is a clear, dark spiritual influence behind them and their ‘prophecies’.
It’s a long video, but really worth watching.
Far too many people will have their faith undermined by these false prophets. Not only have their prophecies failed – their prophecies were leading people to follow a false agenda, one of Nationalism – based on a mythical covenant between God and America; and to follow a false saviour, a false ‘son of God’ – in the form of Donald Trump.
“Watch out that no one deceives you. “
“Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.” (Jesus, Matt 24)
Onesimus Files 