Our Participation In The Gospel
Series: Other Speakers
Sunday am 8th July 2012 – Riaan Sinden & Shane Egypt
John 11:38-44; Genesis 2:16-17; Matt. 6:9-10; Phil. 1:3-7; Matt. 16:13-19-Message
Riaan: When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go” (John 11:43-44). Jesus being the Son of God could have made the grave clothes fall off and disappear but He did not, He wanted to demonstrate a principle. You can watch somebody doing something without really paying attention, but as soon as you are asked to participate, your attention is immediately focused.
When the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray” and Jesus said, “When you pray say these words, ‘Our Father who art in heaven’” (Matt. 6:9). In that He reconciled man to God, giving man back the identity he had lost. God is not just Lord or Master but He is our Father. That is what Jesus came to do, to reconcile man to God. In one line Jesus taught the disciples how to respond and relate to Him who they previously only knew as God. But He didn’t stop there, He said, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). God’s Kingdom coming on earth is not just something that will happen when Christ returns, it was a mandate to the disciples to live their lives and demonstrate His Kingdom on earth.
When Jesus died it was a finished work. He died so that we can live; He became sin; He took our place and it was finished. If it is finished what is it that we still have to do? Lazarus was alive but he was wrapped up, Jesus asked the people to unwrap him. There are a lot of Christians who are alive but they are wrapped up in all kinds of things, religion; condemnation. By bringing an accurate word from God we can unwrap one another. Religion will draw our attention away from what we are really born to be. God has put everything into place, but there is still something that we must do, we need to run this race. In running this race we need to be the free person that God has created us to be. We need to participate in this gospel by unwrapping one another. We need to participate in stripping away old mind-sets.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me (Phil. 1:3-7). Your identity is in Christ, your identity is that you are a son of God; we are created in His likeness, in His image. Just like in Genesis when God created man He said “let Us create man in Our image, in Our likeness.” It is still the responsibility of the sons to create men by the words that we speak, by our actions to bring people into alignment with the Word, an accurate representation of who He is. If we want to see our brothers walking in this word then we need to start unwrapping them. The call is to a complete Son, a corporate Son, a Son who God can look down on and say, “This is my Son corporately, in whom I am well pleased.” That’s why we are supposed to participate in unwrapping one-another. In Philippians 1 the call is really going out to all of us, to rise up, to stop being passive, to stop dragging along.
There are things that we need to participate in, things that will make the load lighter, the burden easier on the father of this house. We expect him every Sunday to come and bring a pure word from the heart of God. We sit here and we ask God for circumcised ears wanting a pure word from God, but, there is extra baggage put on him of having areas that are short staffed and underfunded. We always assume someone else will do it, but today why not make that somebody ME! This is not a one man show, the father of this house cannot do it without us and we need to hold his hands up high. In that we will receive great victory.
Shane: We are in a period of transition from a church in the wilderness to a church that inherits the Promised Land. God has rolled away the reproach of Egypt from His people and He decisively dealt with their past. If He has taken away the ‘old man’ and has removed it, what then is your frame of reference? My frame of reference now is that I am a Son of God. I am created in His image and His likeness and the old is gone. If you say you are not confident, that is not who you are. If you are a Son of God you are confident, your frame of reference is the firstborn Son and that is Jesus. He knew who He was, He was comfortable in His skin, He was not threatened by anybody because He was on a mission, and He wanted to see what His father was doing and do exactly that. So shouldn’t that be the new man and our new frame of reference? In this transition it is very important that you know what you frame of reference is. It has been said over and over that God’s word comes and we start discovering who we are. We need to align ourselves to that frame of reference; that you are a new man, a new person in Christ.
It is not the real you if you are insecure, if you have hang-ups, if you have stress, if you have depression. All of those things come your way but that is not who you are; that is the flesh and the flesh must be crucified. You died with Christ and you are raised again as a new person. Let us start seeing that God created everyone in the earth and everyone belongs to Him.
Of the twelve tribes I want to focus on one tribe this morning; the tribe of Judah. Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. Three tribes received their inheritance according to Moses, but there were seven tribes that did not. Joshua became old and there was still a lot of land that needed to be possessed because it was already given to them. Joshua asked the question, “What are you waiting for?” The spirit of God comes to us and asks, “What are you waiting for?” Must God again raise up men? The sad thing was that when they inherited the land they were disobedient to God. In Judges it says another generation came and they knew nothing about God, so then God had to raise up judges and prophets. When are we going to come to the fullness and the knowledge of the Son of God? The people of God had to ensure when the land was conquered that the enemy was driven out from among them because they started influencing God’s people. Then the people of God turned to their gods and their frame of reference started changing and they slipped back into their old ways. Once you slip into your old ways you cannot walk in the purposes of God for your life.