Michael Ramsden - Gospel Reliant on God's Power

as I am as I was just getting ready to share with you now just felt led to share this story with you I I have the privilege of working in a basically a four generational team the oldest evangelist I had the privilege of employing and working with is pushing up 80 and then we go all the way down to our younger team in their 60s you know and then the young whippersnappers in their 40s which I'm just about part of you know and then then the guys in their 20s and it's just incredible to to be part of a family like that what one of the guys who I love spending time with I bring him to Oxford every year for a week to speak to all of the students were training to our Center and Oxford's called John Bechtel and I defy anyone to spend a day listening to him speak and not be blessed by the end if you're off you're listening to him speak and you're not blessed then your bless is broken and he his father was the last foreign missionary to be forcibly expelled from China whenever he speaks he always introduced sinces himself by saying like everything else you're wearing I was made in China he's a six foot seven guy if you see a picture have you ever seen that young picture of a guy in swimming trunks carrying an atlas stone on his back have you ever seen that from the site I saw a picture of him when he was in his mid-20s he looks exactly like that exactly like that isn't including but he's a mountain of a guy speaks speaks Chinese so well that he he has fun when he came to my last came to my house he said I won't have Chinese for dinner but I want it find me a Chinese restaurant which is run by Chinese people he picked it up and he ordered on the phone fluent Chinese the entire meal he said now we'll have some fun we walk around to the Chinese takeaway half an hour later and there's all the food sitting on the counter and he says in his very eloquent American accent I believe that's my food and the people behind the counter said no sir that's not yours he said didn't I order there this this this this and this and there like that is definitely not your food he said well I rang half an hour ago and I ordered this is what I ordered where is it and they'll say that's not your food and then he said to them in Chinese are you really sure that's not my food I did bring you 25 minutes ago and they almost collapsed behind the counter they couldn't believe it now for many years he ran something called the demas foundation and one of the reasons he's seen and know so much about mission is the demas foundation was giving away tens of millions of dollars every year all around the world to mission and for 35 years he helped run that and when you've traveled around the world giving away that kind of money you see an awful lot of stuff good and bad but there was one story that really struck when I just want to share with you now when he they got expelled from China they moved to Hong Kong and while he was there he had the vision John did of setting up a camp to work with children so he am praying and asking God to help him secure a venue to run these camps and he he found one venue it was perfect he wanted to buy it they said you need $250,000 he went around doing everything he knew how to raise money by the end of it had $40,000 and the whole thing fell through then he had the opportunity to buy an island just off Hong Kong that would have been amazing the government he met with the governor the guy said I will give you the island all you have to do is brill a jetty you know to land a boat to get the youth off the boat onto the island so he said that well how much is the jetty two hundred fifty thousand dollars this is way way way back he went back to the governor of hong kong he said I have a very interesting idea for this youth camp because we want to really build character and strength so what we're going to do is the boats will set up right coach the island and then the kids will have to jump off the boat and swim ashore well that didn't work then Billy Graham came and I think it was a guy called Walter malloon if I remember the name right he used to work with Billy Graham and John Bechtel took them on a drive around and shared his heart for this camp and that a place had come up for sale I think it was an old boarding school that had closed down was all boarded up and it was perfect sports facilities accommodation teaching blocks I mean everything that you would want for youth and what a malloon when he heard his vision said I'm going to go back to America and I'm going to raise all the money you need to buy this camp few months later John got a letter through the mail he opens the letter inside there's another letter and a note the note says dear John the fundraising did not go as I anticipated in here is a letter I received which is the only gift that I have received towards the purchase of that building so John now opens the second letter and in it there's a one dollar bill and a note dear mr. bechtell I've heard about your desire to buy your camp this is my ice cream money that was given to me I want to give you I'm sending it to you so you can buy the camp to do your home signed Belinda Holmes I remember the name because believe it or not it's my wife's grandmother's name not the same person John was so angry he didn't know what to do and as he was about to throw the whole thing away his wife said to him you haven't read that little girl's letter she said she wants you to use her dollar to go and buy the camp so you go and use that dollar to buy the camp so John went to this place the owner is an abandoned building he found the caretaker he said I want to make an offer on the building guy said that's great and he handed over the note from the girl with the dollar and the guy handed it back and said you must be joking and I think John said was the effect of by law you are required to pass on every offer made on this building to the owners are you the owner no well if you don't pass it on I'm going to report you so he passes on the offer little while later the board got in contact with John and they said we've read the letter from that twelve year old girl we were very moved by it we will sell you the building for $1 now if you want to know more of this story there's a short film made about it because they recently did a reunion of all of the people who came to Christ in Hong Kong to that camp and there's a huge stadium in Hong Kong and you can see the aerial photo of it filled with 80,000 people 25 years later John was speaking in a church in North America and he shared this story and after he'd finished preaching this young lady in her mid 30s came up and said mr. bechtell my name is Belinda Holmes I was the little girl who sent you that dollar now John spoke with the Deacons of the church he sent the madam to the carpark and he says I want you to drag everybody back in and lock the doors don't let anyone leave so he got everybody back into the church and then he introduced them it's the first time he'd met her - this girl who when she was 12 years old sent her dollar to buy that camp he then asked the congregation to give money to send her to go and see what she had helped do now apparently they raised enough money to send her her family and half of the British army back to Hong Kong one dollar all she had to give was one dollar and God used it for his kingdom to see many come to Christ as you sit here today no matter how little you think you bring to the kingdom you need to understand that the little we have when put into the hands of God can change the lives of thousands and that's my plea with you because we need the gospel to go out as never before now I'm so encouraged by the by the opportunity I see in the last seven eight months I've had the huge privilege of speaking to political leaders in the east and in the West and in the Northern Hemisphere in the southern hemisphere the day after the British election which was one of the most bruising political elections in UK history I was invited to speak in the chapel so underneath British houses of parliament to some of the members who were newly elected and also members of the House of Lords who don't need to bother to run embarrass other people and it's a huge privilege I don't think if you know this but the cornerstone the foundational cornerstone of the British houses of parliament is a church underground so it marries under growth and the parliament rests on it so our Parliament in England literally is built on the foundation of a church literally a few months after that I was in Asia in a place I leave unnamed in a closed session with the cabinet and rulers of that country for four hours and a short while after that I was in Australia where I had the honour of being their speaker at their National parliamentary prayer breakfast which was a little bit controversial because I spoke in the morning under one prime minister and after I spoke the cabin asked to meet with me in the afternoon and that evening they threw out the existing Prime Minister and elected in a new one so I'm not doing any prayer breakfast for a while just in case all connection between my message and inadvertently regime change which would be problematic given somewhere or I go here's what's interesting east-west northern hemisphere southern hemisphere every one of those parliamentary groups asked me to address the same question now at the same time I ought to speak with key business leaders in each of those regions there's a informal consortium then what to use it it's not it's not cope it's not a legal entity it's a group of people who between them control something in the region of 14 and a half trillion dollars worth of capital now even if you're a telly evangelist that's a lot of money and I was asked also to meet with them east west north south and they also asked me to address the same question so what is it that both east west north and hemisphere some of the hemisphere what is the issue that they're all asking for and the answer is they all wanted me to speak on the issue of reconciliation that was the theme they all asked me to address why why reconciliation well our world is fragmenting as never before in every country of this world that I'm aware of there's a historical retelling going on of that nation's history and it's ripping them apart in the UK that's not just the fact that Scotland's striving for independence that six independent movements in the UK including Yorkshire which wants to be his own my father's from Yorkshire I can understand that little while ago I read a book by a guy called issue guru and if you've ever read any issue guru he wrote remains of the day which was made into a film with Sean Connery he writes a book about once every four to five years he does a lot of research and he publishes now his latest book was called the Buried giant now it came out to very mixed reviews some people hated it other people thought it was great now it's a fascinating book it's told the stories told at a very slow and plodding pace issue guru imagines early britain early christian britain and a fog has descended on the land a mist and everyone is living in a state of forgetfulness literal forgetfulness people can't even remember if they have families anymore people go missing and within a week it's like it never happened and this elderly couple are talking and as they talk they say they set up the site they'll set out on a quest to cry to recover their family and recover their memory and as they set out on this quest to recover their family and recover their memory they pick up various other people on the way and when they get towards the end right at the end of that book they finally found the source of forgetfulness they finally find what is making everyone forget the past and they have a choice what will they do will they continue to allow everyone to live peaceably in a state of national forgetfulness or will they end the state of forgetfulness and allow everyone to remember their past which way and one of the figures they picked up on route is a warrior and the warrior figure says to them if you cause people to remember what will come when quick tongued men make ancient grievances rhyme with current complaint and fresh desire for land and conquest he says war is inevitable in other words when we remember our past when we remember the past that built up our Nations and we recall the in grievances and the injustice will rip ourselves apart and in that sense the book is a very powerful narrative of what's going through almost every country in the world today we're all discovering our historical narratives we're retelling them in a fresh way we're making them rhyme with ancient grievances the result is literally a breaking apart of the nation's as we know them and that's true everywhere I go I don't know if any of you are from a country which isn't doesn't have some kind of independence movement within it to take some part of it out of it if you are you're in the minority it's very complicated and the investors with all this money they're not so much bothered about the fact you can't make money if there's war you can you just sell arms but you can't invest in car dealerships and shops and that kind of business because that you will lose all that money that's why they want to know about reconciliation is it genuinely possible as we remember the past to be brought together now at the same time it's not just that we're looking at this national forces pulling us apart is happening personally within us to another one of last year's our most talked about novels was written by an American author called Franzen issue guru was Japanese but Franzen is American and he wrote a book called purity and there's it's fascinating line it happens I don't know her first couple of chapters in the heroine of the novel meets this guy and she likes him really likes him and she thinks in her head shall I dare I risk the intimacy of friendship or shall I retreat into the relative safety of casual sex that one line gives you so much insight into how young people are living and acting today do I risk the intimacy of friendship where I can get hurt because I've been hurt so much or shall I just retreat into the casual safety or is it the relative safety of casual sex where I could have a need met but no strings attached and these the reconciliation that we're looking and need isn't just within Nations it's within our own hearts we're looking for a way to be brought together now we have to recover both the power and the compassion of the gospel colleague of mine Dan Rangel who he studied with us about 18 months ago did a one-year program with us in Oxford is now part of our team I am I was with him a couple of weeks ago and maybe what what three four weeks ago he was at a British university I'll just leave it unnamed and he decided he'll give an evangelistic talk on sex and the largest auditorium in the university was packed to capacity as a matter fact were people standing outside now his opening line was very clever he said no doubt you've all come here today in such large numbers to hear a Christian say who and who you can't sleep with and when and where you can and can't do it and everyone started nodding it is a no doubt you feel it's going to be very repressive what I have to say he says because when you talk to people in this world about sex they'll tell you two things it's a purely physical thing that's all it is and commitment doesn't matter he said but when you listen to the songs of our nation they say something very different when they sing about sex it's more than physical take me to your heaven take me to your church take me to the eternal they sing about it as a more than physical thing and they are definitely looking for commitment they're hungry for it and says in what I want to say to you today is that one half of what our culture is saying is correct Jesus Christ wants to affirm one half of what our culture is singing about it's more than physical and commitment is necessary now the way he ended it up I thought was fascinating he made an appeal to the men directly and he said to the men in the room as much as you men will come to me at the end of this talk and tell me that you treat women as equals and you treat them with respect we all know you're addicted to porn we all know you're sleeping around and we all know that as every woman you see on this campus you give her a score out of 10 depending on how much you want to sleep with her and then he said and we also know that this room is filled with sexual shame both men and women and we live in a culture which is driven by shame and when Christ went to the cross he was clothed in our sin and our shame and through his cross and the resurrection he's clothed us in white and in His righteousness and that's he ended on that note and then he came down to allow people to write out questions to ask questions so there's like a ninety second break and then he came back up towards the platforms that do Q&A as he's walking up onto the platform the captain of the boxing team the shooter comes running up to the front and says to him I can't stay for the Q&A but what must I do and Dan just thinking on the spot said you have to bend the knee now he hasn't got a clue why he said that it was just the first phrase that popped into his head so the captain said okay I'll go back to my room and bend the knee and he starts walking off and Dan's like wait a minute um leave your email address I'll talk to you tomorrow he does the Q&A at the end of the QA the captain of the rugby team want to be careful what I said I just want to betray any caution but the captain of the rugby team said to his friend who'd just been on an international tour I want to be followed up but I want to speak to the speaker so at the end of that event Dan and this guy they go out for lunch they sit down opposite the table the captain the rugby team says I'm in a hole he says I identified with everything you said and it's true by the way 38 people gave their lives to Christ then and there that meeting at the end of the Q&A okay just in case you're wondering how the talk was received by the audience so now he said opposite the captain the rugby team and the captain the rugby team says I'm not interested in God and I'm not interested in Jesus stuff but I'm in a hole he says I can't get out of it you understand it and I want you to help me understand what's going on and how I can get out of it Dan said well this is take a moment what do you believe I mean what do you think about God is like we're not going there I'm said I'm not interested in that when there's no way of it but get me out of the hole I'm in two hours later Dan looks at the ganses can I pray for you the guy said yes so Dan took his hands started praying for him and then felt that prompting in his spirit and without looking up just said to the guy if you want to pray with me repeat this prayer quietly after me and led him in a sinner's prayer looked up to see what the reaction was and there were tears streaming out of the guy's eyes first words out of his mouth thank you thank you thank you next phrase this is better than ecstasy then he says I feel like I'm being changed somehow and Dan says what we call that being born again and he's like it's like I'm being made new so then Dan says I mean again tomorrow the guy says I want you to meet the whole rugby team we'll meet tomorrow morning so in the morning Dan gets uh into the locker room as they're all changing and the captain of the rugby team says this guy's this is Dan I want everyone to come here so the whole team come he says Dan says some interesting things yesterday he'll now share them with you Dan go ahead maybe not the most helpful way to set up that particular so now there he is everyone standing around in towels or maybe without towels I don't know I didn't ask and he gives a 20-minute summary of the talk members of the Roper team come up stop pummeling him with questions and he leaves a few of them to Christ as he's walking out his phone rings is the captain of the boxing team I need to speak to you now are you free for lunch Dan says yes I'll see you there he walks into the restaurant and there's the captain and the five other members of the boxing team in a chair for him Dan sits down the captain the boxing team looks at the guy at the room he goes guys we all know the truth we're all addicted to porn we all treat women like dirt they're throwing themselves at us we are totally empty inside all of it is meaningless and this guy is going to tell us what we need to do about it an hour later after he's spoken to them one of the members of the boxing team says what do I need to do and the captain says I know the answer to that question we need to bend the knee and they all get down on their knees in the restaurant and give their lives to Christ the problems that we talked about in the morning session all of them have a thread that runs back through that problem back to the God back to God in the cross and it's where our culture is broken it's where our culture is hurting people are literally dying they are killing themselves in the pursuit of pleasure and they're finding themselves broken on it's emptiness and we have to find a way with compassion and also with conviction to say things as they are and also point to the hope that there is in Christ and it is only through the gospel of Jesus Christ that I know that can be done I just simply don't don't know of any other way that it does okay now we need to be careful I'm not talking about turning rudeness into a spiritual gift which seems to sometimes have happened we're talking about the compassionate sharing of the gospel and that's what I want to biblically just look out with you in the fume um in the little time that we have left we're going to be in Luke chapter 14 in verse 15 onwards and again we're taking something very familiar and have to rescue truth from familiarity when I was converted having lived most of my life in the Middle East I was very blessed the guy who who I prayed with to accept Christ he was the area director for Youth for Christ North Africa and Middle East I used to meet with him once a week he used to help disciple me he also introduced me to the director of wam Middle East I used to meet with him once a week he helped disciple me there was a guy who used to run an organization called Miko Middle East Christian outreach Edina they still exist they still exist anyway Len Rogers I used to meet with him once a week to get discipled there was a guy called dr. Kenneth E Bailey who taught me my Greek my Hebrew and all of my script drives to meet with him twice a week and he gave me a passion for Scripture and taught me everything that's worthwhile knowing about the Bible when I was a new Christian and then I used to go to church and so every night you know I was on this rapid discipleship program and what Ken did for me was he had the most incredible teaching gift cuz whenever he taught scripture all I wanted to do was read it I can remember taking my wife to hear him first time she ever heard him was up in the cypress mountains in a small Anglican Chapel right up on Mount Rhodos Troodos there were six people in the church a guy called David Huggett was leading the service a lady called Joyce Huggett was leading the prayers Ken Bailey was the preacher um there was a guy at the door who had the key my wife arrived well at that point my and she could play the organ when they found that out she became the worship leader and then I was the member of the congregation and my wife and I we listened to Ken preached and at the end of it and this is what I did every time he preached I remember going out sitting on a bench overlooking the Troodos valley and we read scripture out loud to each other for an hour and a half because whenever we talked the scripture it just inflamed a hunger within me for the Bible it was the most incredible gift I'm just so grateful for it now one of those things that that we I remember talking about was how to understand Jesus Christ vision for mission that's what I want to talk about now how does he understand what is his own vision for mission and the gospel and it's so important we get this Jesus talked about salt and light now those are two images for the gospel but the thing about salt is you can bring salt this close to a piece of meat if it never makes contact it doesn't do anything it has to come in contact we have to just recover that that passion to remake contact with our society does that make sense it doesn't matter how close you bring it it has to touch so luke 14 15 when one of those at the table with him that's Jesus heard him say this he said to Jesus blessed is the one who will eat at that feast in the kingdom of God so let's give the context if you read earlier their talk uses talking with a group of people and Jesus says if you do this you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous okay the banquet that God will hold at the end of the world and someone says Wow it is the person who has a seat at that table at the resurrection of the righteous now the the language in your Bible and what you've translation you've got there is no seat and there is no table right it just says he who reclines literally supremely happy is the one who reclines at the top table at the resurrection of the righteous that's the way to interpret it to make sense imagine being the guest of honor at the banquet when the resurrection of the right just takes place right that's the phrase that's what they that's not what this Jewish leader says and so when Jesus heard him talk about the resurrection of the righteous he tells this story so that's the setting for the story examining since we're talking about the banquet of the resurrection of the righteous and Jesus says a certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests now if you can't see the parallel on the analogy here hey you need glasses alright the resurrection of the righteous okay there was this man who had a great banquet and invited many people now notice that the preparation of the banquet and the invitations go out simultaneously now you need to understand the cultural cues here in the West if I were to say to you you know Steve Jones you wanna come and have dinner with me tonight and see if said yeah sure that sounds good and then about an hour after this meeting he says actually you know what I'm a bit tired I don't feel like having a late-night meal that's perfectly okay does that make sense he would feel very peaceable ringing me up and saying actually you not can we do it some other time let's planet you know in a couple of weeks however if I said to him hey two months ago let's have a late-night meal after I finish speaking tonight and now he wants to back out it's harder isn't it he's more committed well in the Middle East it's in Reverse okay if you promise to go a long time an event Avance you don't have to go but certainly in a culture where there's no refrigeration and where it's embarrassing for the host to prepare food you invite people as they say they will come you keep preparing food you make sure there's more than enough food to in order to give all of your guests and you're counting on your guests showing up and if your guests don't show up you can't put it in the refrigerator there isn't one okay it's hot everything goes bad and you throw it away so it's a matter of honour for the host a to make sure he has more than enough food for the guests and B that the guests actually show so you have to understand the dynamic in the parable the invitations go out they say yes we're coming and the preparation goes which is why Jesus says at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who've been invited come for everything is now ready the servant isn't going out to say would you like to come to dinner the servants going out to go ding-ding-ding dinner served you see that everything's ready you said you were coming and so the people who said they were coming to the banquet for whom this guy has prepared a feast and now making excuses first one says I've just bought a field I must go and see it please excuse me now here's the problem with this excuse it's impossible it's impossible the buying and selling of land takes a long time it is impossible between having been invited to dinner say you were going to dinner and then when dinner is actually ready to have gone out on board a field you know we can't go on eBay and like click click click ok I mean the nearest modern equivalent I could think of would be somebody saying look I've just bought a car I don't know if it's a Skoda or a Bentley so I'm just going to go and have a look at it now I mean what kind of would do that now the English word comes from the Greek word do you know that it means to be a this is ridiculous it simply not couldn't be true okay it's like a boy saying oh my dog was walking with me to school and ate my homework while I was on the way here that may sense it's just you know you just out and when Jesus told this people would have laughed with the dinner table I mean this is just unbelievably stupid this guy has not engaged brain yeah mouth is moving brain is in neutral it's just simply it cannot happen but that's what he says that's the excuse he gives not to come now the second guy says I've just brought five yoke of oxen on my way to try them out please excuse me is this credible ladies and gentlemen if we just thought we heard the most moronic excuse in the world in number one we now have a new number one because we've actually met someone who's even stupider than the first guy you buy oxen in pairs okay the seller of oxen they have a little pen with the oxes in them you have a strip of land the seller prepares and a yoke you take the yoke you put two oxen on it you plow a line you see do they pull to the left they pull to the right two they carry the yoke equally you take one off you put another one on you go back the other way and you keep them you keep repeating that process till eventually you buy one pair so for someone to say I brought five yoke of oxen and I'm now going to try them out impossible that would be like saying my dog ate my homework and the teacher says but last week you didn't do your homework cause your dog died do you know I mean I mean it's just we're not even in the in the realm of fantasy reality it's just simply not possible now the next excuse the next excuse is more interesting it seems sometimes to cause people some trouble the guy said I've just got married I can't come now look some people say ah you have to under Sun the Old Testament if you're newly married you're excused from certain things like serving in the army and so on that's true the guy's not being asked to kill anybody he's been asked to dinner he said yes he said he would go the guy says dinner is ready look at there's no way between the invitation that morning because it was taking all day to prepare the banquet and the bank without evening he could have got married now though we could be a hundred percent sure of this because the the way the town is described in the Greek of Luke 14 means a city without walls so walled cities were huge places like Jerusalem don't see the pictures of Jerusalem I mean it is vast a huge walled fortified city or you can have smaller walled cities but smaller towns you can't have two banquets clash it's impossible well when I got married in the UK we had my wife wanted to have your wedding here that's fine we had something like 200 guests or so you know for dinner that was considered a lot of people to feed if we had the wedding in Cyprus okay in my family's hometown minimum number of guests would have been ten thousand minimum now I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get married in Cyprus because in Cyprus when you get married you take over the village square that's the only place big enough to accommodate everybody you know there's no hall for ten thousand you dance around and people pin money to you and so they seem like you know ten thousand guests it seemed like to me like a good idea anyway you take over the village square you close all the roads into the village okay no long everyone has to park in or out or you go all the way around you can't drive through it Hey all of your female relatives arrived three days before the wedding to peel potatoes do you know how many potatoes you need to feed ten thousand people it's a lot of potatoes all the men come three days early to prepare the meat and then cook the meat it's the only time in the culture they do any cooking because they can use fire you know and you know this is going to be good and it goes on all day it's impossible to have two great banquets clash you just it can't be done what this guy is saying is yeah I know I said I've coming to dinner but I've changed my mind I'm going to do something else tonight it doesn't involve you but it involves my wife and this excuse is crass it's rude there's no honor in that excuse whatsoever so the servant goes back and reports to the master and the owner of the house became angry when of course he becomes angry everyone said they were coming and now they start excusing themselves and their if their excuses a ridiculous their insults their lies they can't possibly be true they don't even have the decency to make up a good excuse that's why the master is angry and he ordered his servant go quickly into the streets because the emphasis on speed okay the banquet is ready it's there so you go quickly and you find the poor they don't go buying fields they've got no money to buy them the lane they don't go proving oxen they can't walk the blind no one marries them because they're not economically productive you go find them and you bring them here and the guy goes out and as he comes back the servant begins to capture something of his own master's vision permission because as he comes back he says sir what you've done has ordered has been done but there's still room and the servant is beginning to realize something the master will have every place at the banquet filled there won't be a single empty spot not one so the servant is now okay master what are you to do next what I said is is being done but there's still room and then the master looks at the servant now for a Jewish audience listening to this parable go out within the community that means you know about admission to the Jewish community that's within but now you go out into the highways and byways you go a long way away that's to the Gentiles that's largely you and I and you compel them to come is what it says compel them now during the time of the Spanish Inquisition this somme somme this passage was used to justify an interesting missionary strategy compel them to come make them come so you find a non-believer and you attach them to a rack and you be in stretching them and as they're pulled apart their eyes are open to the love and glory of God and they repent and they walk out of the room both Christian and taller now hopefully we question the reality of what went on with that conversion that's not what this means when it says compel them make them come well it's basically saying is look this invitation sounds unbelievable it will sound do you mean a man I've never heard of is throwing a great banquet I don't even know where he lives and he wants me to come doesn't that sound unbelievable to you you're going to have to be compelling you're going to have to repeat it more than once my one of my my eldest our uncle married this a English woman very very brilliant mathematician and their first Christmas in Cyprus was a disaster she cooked all of this wonderful food and said to everyone go help yourself which is what you do and everyone help themselves everyone took a little bit and they sat down and they ate then she said does anybody want any more and everyone said no so she cleared all the food away and came back with a big cake and everyone sat there in stony silence why well because culture requires you to refuse here you can't say yes straightaway you look greedy and you only can take a little bit up front because if the host runs out of food then that's dishonouring to the host so everybody takes a little bit everybody eats a little bit then you say would you like any more they go right no no no then you say a second time please have some more and they have to say no no really I couldn't the third time please have some more I'm begging you oh oh okay and everyone has five times more than they had been round one that's how it works you can't just give a casual invitation you have to beg them eat the food I'm begging you eat eat eat you have to be compelling so some people some people going to feel unworthy of the invitation why would someone so great and so wonderful want me how's that possible why in the Middle East if you are invited to a banquet and someone of high-status invites you you are required to say no you're not worthy of the invitation even to this day you can see people literally being dragged into wedding feasts ok because the host will say I really want them to come you go get them and they will literally be pulled in and everyone can see that you're not presumptuous enough to think you deserve to be there there are people in this world who feel unworthy their life is so messed up there is so much shame it can't possibly be true they need to be compelled they need to know we need to wrap our arms around them lovingly and with a little bit of Middle Eastern force drag them to the room for others is intellectually ridiculous how could this be true what possible rationale could there be behind this and the servants going to need a compelling story a strong narrative this is why he wants you he told me to find people just like you he wants you imagine them thinking well it doesn't sound realistic is it going to like some kind of big joke I walk a couple of days I go into this town as I walk in everyone starts laughing going hey there's that idiot who thought he would come no you have to do have to know it's true here we're beginning to see something of Jesus Christ's own vision for mission some people think they've got their ticket stamped they were baptized as babies they were born in the right country there are good people of course God's going to have them and they're in for a shock just as the religious people in the time of Jesus room for the shock as Jesus announces the king them of Gordon says everything is ready they start excusing themselves from going and then Jesus finds sends out his servant and this story pushes us all to a single response you see the servant caught the Masters vision that the place would not be empty a couple of years ago when I was training the guys in Oxford I said to them what's going to happen at the end of the world it's an interesting question to ask and it was amazing to me the answers well they were all true but it took them five minutes to get where I wanted them to get to you know there'll be judgment yes new heaven new earth yes you know and they went on and on and on and on and I kept saying there's something else there's something else you're missing something very important eventually one of them said who there'll be a banquet I said great what kind of banquet they said a wedding banquet what happens before a wedding banquet Oh a wedding look imagine you're having dinner with someone in Starbucks or coffee and as they're drinking their coffee they look at their watch and they go is it nine o'clock it's today Thursday I'm getting married this evening I completely forgot now imagine that what would you make of this guy what do you think there's something seriously wrong what does it say of us as a church if the last thing that comes to mind when we talk about the end of the world is that we will be married to Christ what does it say we've forgotten our wedding day we've forgotten we're betrothed to the Church of Christ and we're going to be married I mean it's not a big deal I mean what does it say if it's the last thing when we're asked what happens at the end of the world if that's the last thing we think about that's the thing that have you ever met people who are in love and they want to get married you can't shut them up about their wedding even if you beg them you could get on your knees and say stop telling me about the wedding they can't help it you change the subject to the weather within 30 seconds actually their eyes radiate like the Sun I know I mean that's what it's like that's normal that's healthy if you're a good middle Easterner the banquet is almost as good as the wedding itself food is important right yes every time Jesus taught something of theological importance food was right there anyway I have a I have a prophetic word for some of you life is too short to be thin anyway there's gonna be a wedding banquet and there's going to be a wedding that's amazing Jesus is asking us to invite as many people as we can have you seen the vision have you seen the empty spaces are you catching something this master will not have the place empty every place will be taken the entire place will be full there's going to be nothing is going to go to waste and he wants servants who will go out who will catch this vision who will say we will go to the highways and byways we won't be compelling we will bring them in we're all to be involved in that in to some degree it's the only thing I know that's going to change this world it's the only thing I know that's going to bring the reconciliation we're looking for so your only thing I know that's going to bind up the brokenhearted and bring us all back together it's the gospel it's the cross in I made reference to 1 Corinthians earlier after Paul talks about all the division in the church in society reminds them of souls Denise how much the gospel changed him he then he then goes into this amazing speech it runs from 1 Corinthians 1:17 down to 2 Corinthians 2:2 okay it's poetical instruction if you read any technical commentary on Corinthians they will say this is Paul's most poetical writing why well he starts off in 1 Corinthians 17 for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel not with wisdom and eloquence that's the cross of Christ be emptied with its power and he sums it up in 2 Corinthians 2:2 okay when I came to I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I but came to you the testimony of God for our results know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified so in 1 Corinthians 1:17 he talks about his coming the use of lofty words the proclamation in the cross and in 2 Corinthians 2:2 he talks about his coming the use of lofty words his Proclamation on the cross can you see the repetition and then in right in the middle okay I'm right slap-bang in the middle he said as we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks but for those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks is the power of God for the wisdom of God so you have the cross at the beginning you have the cross in the middle of the cross at the end now I don't have time to expound the rest of it to you you have seven steps that go between 1 Corinthians 1:17 and that middle verse then you have seven steps repeated in reverse order reflecting exactly the same theological themes you have the ABCD of the coming and the lofty words the preaching on the cross and you have the same repetition at the end the ABCD hey it has this beautiful structure to it but let me read to you that middle verse in the Greek here's what he says and Jemez is steak ruse or men Christon s-stay rumor non you de s men scandal on eighth nason Dame or rayon now did you hear it it rhymes that's why it's called Paul's most eloquent writing as he's inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this infallible word the guy breaks out into rhyming prose he's a Hebrew thinker writing in Greek they're two very different language structures you know how amazing that is come on look slightly impressed it's impressive but here's the point otherwise we miss it because there's an irony isn't there wait a minute doesn't Paul say he did not use eloquence and lovely words when he preached the gospel and doesn't he repeated and 2 Corinthians chapter 2 that he didn't use eloquent words and lofty things speech and here's the guy writing in rhyming verse whoever thought about this before is fascinating isn't it what's the guy doing well I wish I had time to explain it to you better but the most famous speech in the ancient Greek world was written by a Roman general called Pericles now he built the Parthenon and Pericles led the Greeks to one of their greatest military victories against the barbarians and the end of the first year of battle of the Peloponnesian War I'm thinking the translations trying to translate Peloponnesian War ah but hey Pericles leads this great victory and the rulers of Athens are so this is such a significant moment they ask all of the great auratus to come up with speeches well my colleague oz Guinness he studied oratory and he had to read Pericles his speech it was required reading for everyone at university he was interested in rhetoric that speech was so famous if your English if I were to say to you we will fight them on the beaches how do you know that I only gave you we will fight them I gave you four words and the answer is well every kid gets taught that in school or at least there used to when we had proper education system if you're American and I say four score and seven years ago how do you know that well it's one of the most famous speeches it short everybody knows that speech every Greek speaker knew Pericles his speech by heart the speech was so moving it made grown generals weep out loud the it was so moving the government's official the city officials ordered the speech to repeated to be repeated every year on the anniversary of this great victory and every year it was repeated and every year they'll pick some great orator to give it except a few years later Athens was destroyed by the barbarians so this great eternal victory they had won actually proved to be empty now Aristotle writing on Pericles s speech says when I read Pericles his speech it calls is my spirit to saw like an like an eagle I know it's not true but he says the power of Pericles is rhetoric gives meaning to those words they don't otherwise have that makes sense okay historically it's meaningless but the rhetoric gives it power now if you take Pericles is speech and you take this speech in 1 Corinthians 1:17 there are 67 points of parallel between them and that's far too many to be coincidental he's writing to Greek speakers remember but see what Paul does Paul makes it clear the power of the gospel does not rely on eloquent and lofty words and being clever it's not my speech that gives power to the gospel rather it is the gospel which gives power to my speech that's what he's saying here now Paul is poetical he's a poetical man as the Holy Spirit falls on him it doesn't obliterate his personality God's Spirit is expressed through it and it comes out like that the great temptation in life is to rely on our own strength when it comes to preaching the gospel and then use God when we get stuck rather than allowing God to use us or incense and relying on his power it is not you that gives power to the gospel there's not your stories your eloquence your wisdom your lofty words if you rely on that the preaching of the gospel will become vain there is no compulsion in it and it changes nothing so if you left school at the age of 12 and you've been preaching the gospel ever since you're going to have an authentic voice that when the Holy Spirit lands on you that's going to be you you will sound like that the only sense if you're a natural born poet when you stand up and speak and the Holy Spirit falls on you're relying on him is going to come out that way that's fine it's going to be different we're not called to copy anyone else we're just called to give ourselves over to God in the proclamation of the gospel and the power will change people that's what will happen the servants that God Commission's each have an authentic voice and when the Holy Spirit Falls it feels sounds slightly different every time but it's the power of the gospel that will change it can change and it will change how does God want to use you where are you stepping out to engage with the people around you it could cost you everything it's the most exciting and thrilling thing to be part of God's gospel changes this world we're reliant on him and not on us my prayer is that all of you all of you may personally know the joy of leading someone to the Lord this year because you're just so determined to share your faith of someone else and that all of you will encourage people to rely on God and see the gospel go forward with great power it's been a privilege being with you thank you for listening to me now

Channel: Salt & Light International

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Keywords: ilc16

Id: QyuJ_mWZlyQ

Length: 55min 18sec (3318 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2016