Why we serve

I don't know if you've had cause to browse lists of job advertisements lately. How does this one take your fancy? "For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake." (Acts 9:16).

That, of course, is the apostle Paul. "I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily", he wrote to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:32). "For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you." (2 Corinthians 4:11-12).

That was Paul's service. He was a disciple of Jesus Christ, the cross-bearer. Jesus taught that if anyone wishes to be his disciple, then he must take up his cross - to die to self - daily. Cross-bearing is not a special event in the Christian life: it is the Christian life. The Christian says "today, I choose to give away my life for others, for Jesus' sake". Ship-wrecked, stoned, naked, hungry, in constant danger, exhausted, beaten, imprisoned for years, etc.: this was the life Paul chose. Death worked in him: but what glorious life has worked in so many others, because of the choice he made.

I was touched by this in reading Acts 13 this morning:

"⁵⁰ But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. "

There it is: more death. Expelled from the reason. The great ones of the region against them, and they had to leave and go elsewhere. But what about two lines later?

⁵² And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Ah. That's why we serve.  That's why we choose, each day, to give away our lives. Death works in us: but life in you. Lord, it's hard, it's very hard. But, it's not the hard life of living still for self: that's the other sort of death. The sort without any resurrection in it: just barren death, leading to eternal death. We who take up the cross see Jesus, the risen one. After the cross, there was the resurrection. And we know as well that one day we'll be where he is. Death worked in him: and because of that, life works in us too. 

People who want to live their dreams cannot be Jesus' disciples

 These are very challenging words from the mouth of God's Son, recorded in Luke 14:25-33:

²⁵ Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— ²⁹ lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? ³¹ Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. ³³ So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Note that Jesus is not talking about how to advance to a higher level of discipleship. He is not giving tips on growing as disciples, upon improving and maturing. He is talking about an absolute requirement to be a disciple at all. Those who fail this test are not simply those who are inferior disciples, or immature disciples; according to Jesus, they are just not disciples. If Jesus is not supreme above those with the greatest claim upon your love and devotion, be it parents, be it the one to you are united in the marriage union where God puts two together (and let not man part them), be it your own dear offspring: if what they claim from you clashes with what God demands from you (and we are thankful that in the ordinary paths of daily  duty, the  two usually coincide), then you cannot put any other claim above that of Jesus.

You cannot be his disciples unless you live the crucified life, taking the beams of wood to the place of death so that your own  desires for pleasure, for fame, for wealth, for success, for achievement, for pre-eminence, for recognition, for comfort, and whatever else, are put to a brutal and shameful death, and instead Jesus is served. Unless you forsake all that you have, and give it to Jesus, then you cannot be his disciple. You cannot gain your life unless you first give it away.

How quick we are to want to clarify this, and explain what it "really" means - which so often in effect seems to mean turning it on its head, and explaining that Jesus was wrong, and that we can seek and prioritise all of these things. How strong is the desire to domesticate and tame what Jesus has proclaimed, so that following him can be reduced to a nice orderly package, a collection of well-constructed and striking doctrines that we nod our heads to, whilst remembering that there are in fact  many ways to have the best of both worlds, to have our cake and eat it after all. How readily, in the service of having orderly churches, orderly programmes, orderly routines  that allow Christianity and its outward institutions to flourish peacefully in society, we reduce all that Jesus said with the caveat "but of course, if your pattern of life is something else, then Jesus is full of grace and will understand."

Jesus will understand? Will he? What do we mean by that? Why would we want to find out the answers to those questions anyway? Jesus tells us plainly, in advance, several times that there are many who are going to be surprised to hear the fearful words one day "I never knew you". 

The happiest man we know in the Bible after Jesus was the apostle Paul. As he tells us in Philippians, he had learned the secret of contentment in every situation. To him, to rejoice in the Lord was not an idea to be admired, but the reality of his experience. He lived with joyful hope, looking for the coming of his Lord. And he also said, 1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die daily".  Those two things aren't contradictions. They're the same thing. The person who dies daily to self, rises also with Christ.

If your Christianity is respectable and safe, a gentle routine, beautiful, elegant ideas and comfortable familiarity, then that's very sad. If you're building a church that looks beautiful to the world, polished music, finely nuanced doctrines, so orderly, but without the daily struggles of crucified people who can say they've gone through and are going through the war with the flesh as they again and again give away their own lives for the sake of Christ, then that's a sorry thing. You need to be converted. Then you can know what Paul meant when he said (Galatians 2:20) "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." If you are not yet crucified with Christ, and are not then responding by taking up your cross daily, then you are not yet Jesus' disciple; but if you'll go to Calvary with him, you can be.

If the Western church is full of disciples with Jesus, then why are there such a small proportion of its adherents whose lives resemble what Jesus said was fundamental to even being a disciple at all? Why does "my aim as a Christian is to give my life away, so that others can receive life" characterise us so little? Brothers and sisters, let us not take our standards from what passes as respectable around us. Let us listen to what Jesus actually said, and then do it.

In praise of United Beach Missions

https://www.ubm.org.uk

Whether you have, or have not, previously come across United Beach Missions ("UBM"), let me commend them to you!

Firstly, it's an organisation in which the purpose is to serve others, and particularly, to serve the lost by reaching them with the gospel. There are many fine Christian organisations in the world, and the work of the Great Commission involves many different tasks. Nevertheless, all armies and nations are especially grateful for those on the front-line. Without the front-line activities, nothing else would or could exist. UBM makes it easy for busy people to get to the front-line, and take part in the work of Jesus Christ, coming and being where lost people are, showing love to them and declaring him to them.

Taking part directly in such work, even if it's just one or two weeks a year, is very good for our souls. Life is full of many responsibilities once you reach the adult world, and faithful servants must be careful to remember the primary and direct purposes that their Master has given to them in their service. The Master has given us many helps in this: the local church, its worship, his word, prayer, the Lord's Day - and these are all things that UBM stands for. Team members are not only given service opportunities, but service opportunity in the context of the local church, worship, teaching, training, fellowship and prayer within the team, and the Lord's Day is honoured.

As such, I find it very much preferable to most Christian camps for teenagers and young people. I don't want to denigrate them: it's surely infinitely preferable to go on a camp where there's teaching in a Christian community setting led by godly people, rather than to spend the time at home gawping at the world's media. And no doubt on all camps there is some measure of service as you do the washing up and clean the camp toilets (though I think some misguided souls have eliminated even these minimal duties). But UBM reflects the fundamental principle of how Jesus taught his disciples (and indeed, what wise people do in pretty much every walk of life): learning by doing. Learning by working alongside the experienced folks who are not simply telling you what should be done, but doing it too, leading by example, encouraging and showing.

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 8. It's too easy for one's Christian life to drift into focussing upon comfortably accumulating knowledge at a distance. Alongside the teaching of the church, there are books, conferences, podcasts - all available from our preferred celebrity pastors, and glowingly endorsed by all the big-wigs who inhabit their particular circles to assure us that we're in the right place. But in the end, we may end up resembling the overweight armchair sports pundit who knows everything about his preferred sport, and can explain in detail exactly how the game should have been won, but hasn't done any exercise for years and whose confident proclamations have no beneficial impact on anyone, anywhere. The Christian life turns into an intellectual game, in which the aim is to be more right than others, to stake out our position better than others do. Meanwhile, our actual spiritual muscles atrophy, and we're good for nothing except illustrating the folly of knowing our Master's will but not doing it. (The New Testament tells us directly, many times, that this policy will have disastrous results for us on the final day). Jesus spent his time with needy people, and gave up his life for theirs. The church today has built vast "comfort zones" where Christians can live their whole lives in ease and only rarely come into contact with the lost. In the "secular" West, of course, there are often many barriers to making meaningful contact, and it can take a long time to move from "building bridges" to actually driving something across them. Many give up along the way. UBM makes it easy: it's a straightforward Christian mission (it's there in the title), which is up-front about what it's doing, whilst forcing nobody to be involved in anything they're not comfortable with. Moreover, there are pathways through its associated organisations to keep on serving in various ways, at whatever stage of life.

Another way in which UBM keeps you humble is the other Christians that you'll meet. It is easy for us to become "wise in our own conceits". We have worked out all the details of the Christian life, and are wiser than the ancients, or so we think.... until such ideas are best exposed by reality. There are many Christians with fine knowledge and reputation, who serve little. But at the front-line of service, there are many Christians at all kinds of stages, holding many beliefs we find strange, dubious or flat-out wrong, who love the Lord and are full of zeal to serve him in all sorts of difficult circumstances. They resemble Christ and remind us of him. We are reminded of  what the Spirit of Christ is really like, and led away from the pride that had started to grow, that all the best Christians are found in our own circles and look quite like us and hold our opinions. In fact, we begin to see things differently: there are lots of us who have every advantage, but are going in the wrong direction... but others who, despite many disadvantages, are doing a lot better than us with what they have. God's wisdom, and God's choices of who he uses, humble and correct us. Moreover, by being actually exposed to people who see things differently (and not only exposed to people who already agree with us who describe the beliefs of others), we might find out that in fact we were wrong!

UBM is not perfect; unfortunately every person involved is a son or daughter of Adam. But, it does have a track record of serving on the front lines whilst simultaneously giving people (both young and old) opportunity for evangelistic service, fellowship and growth. May God keep and bless them for many more years to come.

(Footnote: my parents encountered UBM on a beach on a holiday when I was a child and found that in one of God's "coincidences", that the team leader lived in our home town. Later again "coincidentally" meeting the same church in an "in the park" service, we began attending there. Not long after that a visiting evangelist, strongly associated with UBM for many years, came to our church and talked to all the Sunday School classes. That day the Lord saved me through the gospel of Christ which he explained. Over a decade later whilst at university my first UBM team week was led by the same leader as on the original beach; and indeed the visiting evangelist spoke at my first UBM annual reunion).