Pastor Nigel

CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS.

For our tour devotions on Sunday afternoon in Fresno we discussed 2 Corinthians 5.14-20. Earlier in the day a bunch of us had attended Cornerstone Church which was very close to our venue, but nevertheless we gathered later for a devotional time with bands and crew.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 

Here are some of the points we noted:

1. Our lives should be motivated by the love of Jesus, because in His death we have all died to sin.

2. We no longer live a self-centered or self-focused life but instead live lives that are for Christ.

3. Not only our lives, but our very thinking and outlook has been transformed by the death of Jesus-we are no longer worldly in our judgments and attitudes.

4. This 'new creation' has been achieved not by ourselves but by God through Jesus.

5. Along with the 'new creation' we are given the responsibility of having 'the ministry of reconciliation' and of sharing 'the message of reconciliation'.

6. God has chosen us to be in the privileged and responsible position of being His ambassadors- He has given us license to be His representatives with His authority.

7. There is an urgency in this ministry and this message- we noted the many areas of life in the world today that need reconciliation- it's needed between countries, races, religions, rich and poor, husbands and wives, political parties. 

Someone once said that the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart and the problem is that so many people live lives, make decisions, and bring pain to others, because their hearts are not reconciled to God. We ended our devotional time together praying not just for reconciliation across the world, but for reconciliation in our own lives and the lives of those around us if there were areas of breakdown in relationship with people or with the Lord. We committed again to be ambassadors for Christ and to live and speak a message of reconciliation.

THE IMPACT OF THE FIRST EASTER.

I'm back in Cardiff, Wales for some time with my family over Easter, and back in local church life for a couple of weeks before heading back out onto the REVELATION tour for the California shows onwards.

If you have some time to reflect on the significance of Easter on the lives of some of the people Jesus encountered on his way to and on the cross, then read about these folk-none of whom deserved to encounter Jesus, and most of whom you and I would have rejected completely:

The High Priest's servant- Luke 22.49-51

Barabbas-Luke 23.18-25

A crowd of women-Luke 23.27-31

A thief on a cross-Luke 23.39-43   - you may want to listen to THIEF while reading this.

A Roman centurion-Luke 23.47

All of these are seemingly small and insignificant people in the Easter story, but even on his way to death and in the process of dying,Jesus noticed them and gave of himself - try to put into words what you think he gave to each. Be thankful that Jesus offers you all of those things as well, and determine to live sacrificially-offering yourself to others even when you might be weighted down and pre-occupied by hardship and walking a difficult journey.

HOSANNA.

The last time we played at West Point, the Army Academy, I led a communion service and had Max Lucado and Michael W. Smith as my communion stewards! Today, one day before Palm Sunday and the last concert before a break for Easter, I again led a tour communion. Brandon Heath sang a number of songs focused on the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus, and we read John's gospel version of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. A great crowd gathered around Jesus- those in the city for the Passover Festival and those who had been traveling with him and recently seen him bring Lazarus back to life. Everyone's expectation was that this victory parade would herald the arrival of Jesus as a conquering king. In one way they were true, but the victory of Jesus first needed the suffering, humiliation, love and sacrifice of the cross. As the crowd shouted out 'Hosanna' -literally 'save us now'-they would have had little idea of how Jesus would actually go about offering that salvation to all mankind. Before long, the palm branches that had been waved at Jesus became symbols of victory. In Revelation, John pictures them again:

 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a mighty shout, “Salvation comes from our God on the throne and from the Lamb!”  Revelation 7.9-10.

Our prayer was that we would welcome Jesus again into our lives this week, and that we would know victory where previously there had been defeat, would know light where previously there had been darkness, would know life where previously there had been death.

CONTRACT OR COVENANT?

Before the start of this tour I had been a guest at the National Prayer Breakfast for Wales, in Cardiff, where the main speaker was a man called Roel Kuiper, a senator from the Dutch Parliament.

He made a fascinating comment about the difference between contract and covenant. His point was that most business transactions are based on contract, but that Christians should be living by covenant.

So for our band Bible study and discussion last weekend we focused on Romans 4.13-25 from the Message translation, which includes these words:

 If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That’s not a holy promise; that’s a business deal.  A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God’s promise at that—you can’t break it.  Romans 4.14-15 The Message.

 

Contract is legalistic and self-serving, whereas covenant is relational and values the interests of the other person. In our study we explored this further especially how it related to the way God deals with us, the way we relate to other people, the way we relate to everyone else on a tour, and especially how we do business in Christian music. It sparked off a lot of honest appraisal of our personal mind-sets, a realization that this was a very difficult but necessary area to explore, and was exceptionally timely in regard to one or two 'tour issues' that had arisen. As far as the Bible passage goes:

Paul argues that the essence of covenant is promise. What can we do to respond to the promise of God? Only one thing. We are to believe the promise and consider God’s Word trustworthy. We are to consider God’s Word so trustworthy that we step out to act on what he says.It was this faith that saved Abraham, long before either circumcision or law was introduced. It is faith alone—faith in Jesus, the seal of God’s new covenant—that saves us today. That new covenant is an unconditional divine promise to unfaithful Israel to forgive her sins and establish his relationship with her on a new basis by writing his law “on their hearts”—a covenant of pure grace.

Most of us want to treat other people from the point of view of contract, but want people to treat us from covenant.