I WAS THINKING 7

Suppose Wesley came back ..!

I once preached in George Whitfield's pulpit. (He was dead then!). Earlier in my preaching ambitions, by way of experiment I thought of memorising and delivering one of this mighty man's sermon. Reading it I soon realised it would suit my congregation like a meal of hard ships' biscuits. I decided to move up a century and I chose one of Spurgeon's 19th century masterpieces. This I managed to commit it to memory and delivered it verbatim.

I waited for amazed reactions to my eloquence. They came - from just one newly converted lady, complaining "Why didn't you preach like you usually do?" Well of course, Spurgeon spoke brilliantly to his own generation. God sent me to do my best for my own generation - well, some of them!

I've heard prayers enough asking God to send another Wesley. (On horseback?) Would he really draw 20,000 miners spellbound at Moorfields again? And no microphone? Time doesn't change, but times do and times change people. That is why I contributed thousands of my old sermon notes to enhance the nation's waste retrieval. My preaching began at 14 - to stoics, bless them! Since then, powerful new influences like sculptors have carved out the shape of modern man - war, technology, education, new culture. Space travel alone has planted a new instinct in us, a sense of wider worlds. My first sermon wouldn't do today!

Have you heard of 'contextualising'? Well, stay with me, but it often means placing the Gospel 'in context' of one's hearers, making it suit them. Of course people alter, so should not the message alter? Actually that is ridiculous because people don't change in that way at all, any more than they change by not needing to breathe. The truth stays the truth and obviously it can't be adjusted because we happen to have been re-shaped. We always need the truth. It is basic to our nature, like water, food, sleep, music, beauty and love.

Human nature can never become so different that the truth doesn't apply any more. Two and two will always be four and we shall never want it to be five. The modern man is a TV and Press brain-washed species, but he is not yet an alien species. God made the Gospel for humans and we are still human. We die without water, and likewise without God we never really live - people only kid themselves they do. It is true for ever that "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God".

The pulpit is where Christian values, morals and belief can be upheld. If not, use it as firewood. My own bookshelf carries temptations to an easier, liberalised Gospel of popular interest. Dr. Thomas Bowdler produced "The Family Shakespeare" a sanitized edition with all words eliminated he thought improper. If we (or our songs) bowdlerise the Gospel, performing excision on words like blood, conversion, redemption, repentance, we would be left with a useless "the whole counsel of God". Preachers can preach aspects of truth but select lines that don't carry the heart blood of the Gospel.

The world's merry-go-round is like a potter's wheel constantly reshaping us all, but we are still vessel of clay made to carry the wine of God's eternal Word. We are stewards of the mysteries of God. How we present those mysteries is left to our wisdom, but the object is to conform the world to Christ. Diplomacy is not our job. Our friendships should not leave unconverted people supposing that any differences between them and Christians is just a matter of viewpoint. We betray them and the truth. "Be ye not confirmed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" Romans 12:2.

Reading articles on 'identity' by Christian leaders there was little about Christianity being human identity with Christ. Baptism pictures it. We are saved by identifying with Him in His death and have life by becoming children of the resurrection. The shame of Jonah was that the heathen shipmen had to wake him up to ask who His God was - he a prophet of God! My late wife used to try to identify born again Christians on television and in real life had a pretty shrew eye. Darkness cloaks the corruption around us, but our faces are towards the rising sun. We should be noticeable.

Sitting in local ministerial fraternals where I knew nobody, listening with one half of my brain and the other part seeking occupation, I wondered which denomination each minister belonged. Neat dress - Anglican. Tweed jacket, Methodist, Jeans and tea-shirt and sandals, URC. The same but with shoes, Baptist, Dressed nicely, Pentecostals and smaller groups wanting to give a good impression among the clergy.

Clothes may or may not tell us what a man is. We are exhorted to 'put on' Christ, which means a positive act, studying to be like Him. We don't like people "putting it on", using an accent which is not theirs, or acting above themselves. But nobody was ever put off by anybody 'putting on' Christ. He is what we aim to be like. They say even a dog becomes in some way like its owner - or is it the other way round sometimes?

The searching question is whether people notice our identity with Christ? Can it be said of us "Thy took notice of them that they had been with Jesus." ?

MUST WE ANALYSE PEOPLE TO SAVE THEM?

One of my seven deadly sins is to scribble comments in the margin of books and magazines. I fell greatly yesterday reading a scholarly periodical. The editor stated that "modern man is seeking an identity". I wrote " I'm not, nor anybody else I know". Well perhaps it was just too scholarly for me.

The commercial world has to form some generic notion of the sort of folk who might buy their products, buyers like you and me. I learned that they class ify us to be either the "explorer-producer entrepreneurial mode", or as "the sensation-seeker/gatherer" type. I didn't know I was either.

Jesus sent us to preach to every creature. Obviously today's people are the product of influences like the high-tec age, universal education and entertainment on tap. John Wesley did not preach to anybody like that. Obviously for practical purposes we must take modern develoments into account/; But evangelism itself, the Gospel message, is unalterable, for all human beings for ever, always relevant.

People remain sinners needing a Saviour. The water boards don't need to consult how what people are like. Everybody needs their 'product'. The NHS too just treat sick people without bothering whether they a modern or old fashioned. We are not technological specimens. We need Jesus. A drowning man, professor or ignoramus needs a lifebelt. The Gospel is for 'every creature', the whosoever, and it works with anybody.

I used to lecture on 'Modern Confrontation", adapting everything, 'worship', buildings, language, music, advertising, to the current styles, using normal English, avoiding evangelical jargon and clichés, and setting our whole general approach to the age in which we live. Myself I had felt this to be a need and at the beginning had studied to find new expressions for religious words, especially 'saved', to give it impact on people today.

We can change the jargon but not the message. By the Gospel God confronts His rebellious world. It is not an anachronism, dated and useless, any more than Euclid's 2300 year old geometry. The Gospel is His Word, not our word. God has 'put us in trust' to say what He wants said. That is our simple obligation, tell it as it is, without fear or favour, in season, whether it increases our congregations or not. It is our right preach it, and we have no right not .

The Gospel was first heard in Roman times. There is a distinct impression that it was designed for that time. It seems that the message was considered highly inappropriate in those days. For example Paul planned to go to the Romans who had just crucified Christ as a criminal and preach Christ crucified! It looked ridiculous. He said "to the Greeks it was foolishness and to the Jew a stumbling block". But " I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ".

Neither was Peter ashamed to preach Christ crucified to the very people who crucified him. He boldly blamed them. In any case the world of the disciples was not substantially different from our world. The great Roman and Grecian civilisations were as pluralistic as ours, nobody then believed in truth and were no different from our postmodern generation. Not a glimmer of truth illumined the old world and today except for Christians people still walk in darkness. Sex obsession dominated the Roman world the same as it does ours. Corruption was typical of every age.

The first preachers went into a world totally devoid of any pre-evangelism or notion of God. They tackled the work head-on, simply proclaiming salvation in the name of Jesus, and they conquered. The Gospel carried power in the first century and carries power in the twenty-first century. Our vision is the whole world for Christ.

A friend drew my attention to seven words in Revelation 19:9 "These are the true sayings of God" and said it refers to the whole of the Scriptures. God speaks by the Word. It is not to satisfy academic interest, nor to answer all our impertinent 'why?' questions. God speaks with a purpose and with effect. . Psalm 119:50, "Thy Word has quickened me". His Word never returns to Him void says. Isaiah 55:11. If He says "Let their be light!", there is light; "Be made whole", we are made whole; "Son, thy sins are forgiven thee", we know they are. He waits for us to speak His word so that He Himself can speak.

The present in-word is 'postmodern', meaning the general mood is to be uncertain. Even science has lost popular credibility.

Leaving the "modern" behind that swore by reason and logic, the mood today is that there are things beyond reason. We believers have always pointed that out, so that sounds fine but anti-modern reactions have now attained sheer imbecility. Many thinkers say that words have no real meanings. One 'thinker' declares that nobody ever wrote a sentence that meant anything. (Oddly, they all write book to prove words mean nothing!) Seventy per cent of Americans are reported to believe that there is not ultimate truth. Anything is true if you think it is. It is relative.

Meanwhile, there's nothing to breathe but air, nothing to eat and drink but food, and nothing to believe but the Gospel. No variation of truth can redeem a soul or save a sinner. All the vast panoply of modern business, modern technology and sophisticated thought must stand aside when a broken soul cries " Lord save me!" Only Jesus saves.

PREACH? Preach what?

The Dean (ex army Captain) shouted up the stairs of my student quarters, "George, go to Reading tonight and give 'em something to get their teeth into".

That constituted my total college tutoring on what 'to give 'em".

I had had church history, systematic theology, Romans and Acts, and crowd psychology to handle our congregations, but what was the point of my six times a week job of talking to a congregation? I arrived at my first church appalled at the prospect of speaking at all kinds of meetings and occasions. What was I suppose to say? I blanched at the though as if hearing a sentence of penal servitude.

I studied furiously but in those days of limited books and tools I was reduced to spending six Bible Studies nights to prove that the 'sons of God' in Genesis 6 did have children by earthling women. People still came, to my astonishment and admiration. But beyond Pentecostal premises, preachers are known to say whatever they think about anything - Thatcherism, the environment, the health service, or whatever happens to be in the news.

Now I had a keen interest in church history and looked to see how this preaching business began. Services followed the synagogue pattern, Scriptures read and members commenting, as shown in Luke 4 and other Scriptures. Paul took advantage of synagogue readings and propounded the new Gospel message. Gentiles followed theatre styles and preaching took its cue from public orators like Demosthenes, with applause and handkerchiefs waving. Appolos was judged as a more able orator than Paul.

The apostles preaching was to establish the original teaching of Jesus. They were the true authorities although hundreds of others undertook the same task. The letters of apostles were treated as Holy Writ.

The apostles taught converts in the things of God. But they needed help, auxiliaries, men who reliably brought the Word and could move from church to to confirm believers in the faith. These were the 'prophets' named in Ephesians 4. There are several kinds of prophets and not all prophets prophesied supernaturally. Ephesians links "apostles and prophets' as the vital workers on which the church was founded in the beginning, that is by their teaching. This type of itinerating teacher-prophets is not needed under modern conditions.

The 'schools of the prophets' in the Old Testament were similar. Ancient Israel had almost no public means of communication, not even synagogues until after the captivity. But the schools of the prophets aimed to keep the law of the Lord before the people. Their work was not particularly supernatural.

"Preaching" in Scripture is not sermonising, Sermons today may be Bible teaching or exhortation, but are often a kind of church entertainment justified by the hope of doing some good. To preach (Gr. 'kyrussein') is strictly 'to proclaim'. We may sermonise the proclamation but proclaim it we must.

An address of some sort is the main feature of all church services, so considering its importance I am surprised how little the subject is studied. The only preparation for it usually are courses in Bible introduction, systematic theology, church history, which have little to do with the pastor's obligation to keep everybody happy several times a week with his pronouncements from the platform. What should he talk about?

I've listened to many perorations, my soul open for some enheartening word from God. Much of it is good, but I still feel that preaching is an indefinite subject. The pastor will always say something but is it what must be said? Before I hardly knew the Bible I had to give Bible studies every week (imagine that!), For six weeks I fed my sheep on Genesis 6 regarding "the sons of god" having children by earthling women.

There are certainly different ideas about the job. Some mount the pulpit to crack the whip and say 'do as I tell you!' or to get at people they are not happy about, or to challenge their hearers, or amuse them, or inform them.

If a preacher only opens his Bible to find something to say, his own soul will be too starved to help anybody. What to preach means knowing the leading of the Spirit and familiarity with the whole Book. Our of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. They drew wine at Cana only because they had worked hard bringing in water.

Pastors are not oracles on every subject and people don't come to church for his opinions on the environment, government policy, or welfare. They want a word from the Book.

"TIMES OF REFRESHING" - WHAT'S THAT?

The first Pentecostal meetings I attended as a boy were held in a large hall accessed by a narrow wooden stairway and heated in winter by one huge combustion stove. That was before the days of fire regulations!

I caught the general spirit. We were all keenly aware of the Holy Spirit. In our innocent theology there was more Spirit present sometimes than others. The hall was lighted by single bulbs with warehouse shades, hanging from the high ceiling on very long flexes. Sometimes they would begin to swing, no doubt due to the rising currents of warm air. But in that faith-filled atmosphere it was a sign of the power of God.

Those very early days were led by little Pentecostal experience. It was all new. Schoolboy as I was the preaching fascinated me. We often heard sermons about things that provoked God's displeasure. We had no doubt that the quality of blessing in a service depended on how God felt about us, and that how we went on could encourage or discourage the favour of His presence. I learned early about, "sin in the camp", perhaps a secret smoker, or 'bobbed hair' of the young ladies, for example, and the Spirit would be absent. It was dangerous doctrine breeding suspicions unless the church was being very successful.

However our sense of the Spirit was not all uneducated imagination. Power did descend sometimes, After being in services practically eight times week for two years, one night unexpectedly I had an Acts 2 experience, nobody 'helping', just as I took communion. But most Pentecostals can recall occasions when they have sensed that God had 'drawn near'. For me sometimes it was as if I was being baptised in the Spirit again.

God is God and odd phenomena is surely not unlikely? More than once I have closed a meeting and nobody moved, as if glued to their seats, perhaps 200 people, with people white faced under Holy Spirit conviction. "Falling under the Spirit" may sometimes be dubious, but during the war it took place when I was preaching, and I did not approve at all, putting it down to nerves and nonsense. I told people to get up again.

One such experience was so powerful it changed my ministry to this day. My work now is mainly as a writer exploring for Bible truth. In that very way the strange grip of the Spirit comes sometimes suddenly upon my mind. Some occasions are different. Talking to the late Duncan Campbell, who led the 1949 Lewis 'revival', he told me of unusual evidences of God's presence, especially people being deeply convicted of sin. He also mentioned hearing the angels singing, and in my own church we had had the same experience, but only once. In Birmingham a pastor told me that everyone in the meeting saw Jesus literally standing before them.

The subject is very practical. Why do these special occasions happen and can we pray for them? What is the 'theology' behind them?

Are they 'special' at all? I am sure we are not to interpret them to mean God is unpredictable. We may see these events as odd, unusual, but God doesn't . He doesn't do odd things as He fancies. Some put it down to His 'sovereignty' - meaning that He just made up His mind suddenly and for His own inscrutable reason to do something abnormal. I don't like that definition of sovereignty. God is faithful, never erratic.

Our basic theology about God is in the hymn "Great is thy faithfulness. His faithfulness is not just to His promises, but to the revelation of Himself in His the Word. The purpose of the Bible is to reveal His disposition, character, nature, that is, His essential heart. He Himself never changes and never does anything which conflicts with His nature. That we can lay down as true. He never acts in an uncharacteristic way. What He does, we can say 'That's Him!"

So how do we account for times when to us He seems to excel Himself, and something greater happens than usual? What does it mean?

We must see from Scripture, and from experience, that God is not tied down to any routine. He will do the exceptional, but it is all part of His ongoing purpose and will. In anyone's career they will have to go beyond what they usually do, but it is a necessary for their general objectives.

God is a living God, not a machine that will do exactly the same things all the time. He is not only living, but personal, with eternal purposes beyond our present awareness. In fact we should rely upon His doing the unusual when the situation calls for it. He doesn't open the Red Sea every day. He sent the Spirit with fire and wind, only once to signalise age of the Spirit. He opened prison gates a couple of times - it was essential then. We cannot so define God as to predict everything He is likely to do.

Nevertheless when God acts, it is as Spurgeon said "a sign and promise" of what He will do. When God told Abimelech to ask Abraham to pray for his healing, that's God, right from the start, and He has never been any different about sickness.

I've noticed that when something special happens, people want to cling to it to happen some more. A church I knew had had a wonderful burst of glory one prayer meeting that continued for two more nights. Bu ever after they looked around and wondered why it wasn't like that all the time, feeling their must be something wrong among them. There was no need. The three days were their mountain experience seeing Jesus, but like the disciples work awaited them in the valley.

What is not the normal to us, is normal to Him. His immutability, His changelessness, is not that of a mountain glacier. He comes as a living visitor. He describes Himself as a fountain, a constant uprush with ever changing beauty and form. I have fine a water feature in my garden. I notice people stand and watch it and it never seems to bore anyone as the same old thing. A fountain is a constant up-rush of water, but it is a new explosion of cascading beauty every second. God is the infinite author of all change and activity. We see His changelessness in His constant love and kindness.