Sligo22: Share It!
Ali Calvin leads Christ Church, Kilkeel. She has a heart for seeing people come alive in their faith and relationship with Jesus through the power of the Word and the Spirit. She is passionate about teaching people to hear God for themselves. Ali is leading our Bible Teaching at #Sligo22. Here’s a summary of her final session (NB: notes taken during Week A).
It is hard to believe it is the last morning. It has gone too fast. I hope that you have been encountering God. There have been so many obstacles in the way of this conference but aren’t you glad it happened.
On the first morning we thought about the Holy Spirit and how God’s desire is to fill us with the Holy Spirit. He enables, equips and empowers us to be the people He made us to be.
Yesterday morning we thought about Job. I told you the story of my very dear friend and having to let him go. What I didn’t go on to say is that my dear friend had given his life to Jesus before he knew he was ill. And in those ten months of his illness, he grew in his relationship with God. As we were letting him go, and although it was so hard to say goodbye to his family, for him it was going on to glory. We were joking together that I was a little bit jealous because he got to meet the Lord before I did!
If we were to read the very final bit of Job, it says God restored to him exactly double what he had at the beginning except for his children. He received 10 more children (not 20) because he hadn’t really lost the first ten - they were safe in God’s keeping. God is able to restore!
The word I have for you this morning is “Evangelism.” If we have encountered the beauty, the glory and power of Jesus, who would we be if we don’t share Him with other people.
New Wine is about Local Churches, Changing Nations. Who is the local church? You are! People complain, “There is no love in this church. Nobody makes me feel welcome.” We have a responsibility, if we see something lacking in our churches to ask God, “What do you want me to do? How do you want me to bring change?”
In many places in Ireland, there are small numbers of Christians. We know that wherever we live there are many good people, salt of the earth people, who do not know Jesus. We can lament the fact. We can say that we are desperate for people to come to know Jesus. We can sit in our churches and pray, “Lord save them”. But we need to speak up. The Bible says if we stay quiet the stones will cry out but wouldn’t it be better if they didn’t have to?
Saul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was zealous for the God that he believed he knew. . And so when Jesus came along and claimed to be the Messiah, Saul didn’t know what to do with that. It didn’t fit in his mindset. I think Saul sincerely believed that what he was doing was right when he began persecuting Christians. He dragged them out of their homes because. He tried to get them to renounced Jesus. But nothing would get them to renounce their Saviour
Saul was there at the stoning of Stephen. As he watched as, Stephen lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father forgive them.” What was going on in Saul’s heart and mind?
This passage in Acts 9 starts with the word “meanwhile.” The church of Christ is growing. Why was it becoming such a threat? It is because the disciples who know Jesus, who have received the Holy Spirit, are going out to share that good news. Jesus said, “I will build my church.” And while the church was growing, Saul was breathing out murderous threats. His intention was to stamp out “The Way”. But he did not count on God’s intervention.
For most people a wee whisper from God is enough, a gentle nudge will do. But for some, it takes a bright light and a loud voice. Saul was so set in his ways that he couldn’t hear the gentle whisper. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me.? And Saul asks, “Who are you Lord?”
“I am… Jesus.” In Jesus, Saul encounters, the great I AM. The one he thought he was serving but the one he was actually resisting.
How was Saul persecuting Jesus? Later Saul (as Paul) teaches us about the body of Christ. “If you are persecuting my body, you are persecuting me.” There are many stories of real persecution that is happening today. Christians around the world are being physically persecuted. Thankfully that is not our reality here.
But I was pulled up short on this as I was thinking about it. If each one of us is part of his body then if we persecute one another, aren’t we persecuting Jesus? If I speak nastily about another brother or sister in Christ. If I ignore or reject or put down a beloved son or daughter of Jesus, am I persecuting Him and hurting His body? Perhaps our evangelism would be more powerful if the world could see that as the body of Christ we were united. If Christ lives in you and I speak against you, then I am speaking against Christ.
Saul (Paul) would spend the rest of his life pouring himself out for the body of Christ, building, teaching and bringing new people in. Paul understood what it meant to be crucified for Christ.
When God uses somebody’s name twice, it is to get their attention but there is also a sense of intimacy and love. God is not angry. He is saying, “Saul, Saul, there are things I want to tell you. There are things I want you to do.”
Here is the man who thought he understood everything. He couldn’t see and he had to be led by the hand like a little child. What a humbling. For three days, he was blind. What must have been going through his head? Maybe God needed to physically blind him in order to show Saul his spiritual blindness.
In November, I lost my voice completely. I didn’t even have a squeak. Nothing. I suddenly realised, what a privilege it is to have a voice. To be able to share Jesus and talk about him. How quickly that could be taken from us. I value my voice now before than ever before.
Saul prays and the Lord calls Ananias. If he is Lord of our lives, when He calls the only answer we can give Him is, “Yes.” I love how God communicates. He is preparing these men to encounter with each other. For Ananias it was the man who would have put him in prison! You can imagine Ananias’ response. “Really God? You want me to minister to him?” But the Lord said, “Go.” That is a word for some of us here today, “Go.” Whatever excuses we have, if He says go, then we need to obey.
If God chooses, He uses…
Why did God choose Saul? I have a soft spot for the rebel. They always have so much potential. God could see what Saul would become.
Ananias obeyed and went. He had the spirit of God. He knew that if he stepped out in obedience and placed his hands on Saul, as God had told him to do, then he would see the miracle that God had promised. He said, “Brother Saul.” It is a challenge to learn to call those we find difficult our brother or sister.
God could just have touched Saul and restored his sight but he chose to use Ananias. He makes Saul dependent. “God has sent me so you can see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
The Spirit gives us the power to share the good news. Now the man who was blind physically and spiritually can see both physically and spiritually. Filled with the Spirit, Paul’s very first act is to be baptised. He has to undergo the symbolic washing away of his sin, dying to sin and rising up to new life in Christ. His journey and mission began with the act of humble obedience. He was baptised. He was filled with the Spirit and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
From this point on, Saul’s life is never ever going to be the same. His life is no longer about him. He has encountered Jesus. Now he says, “For me to live is Christ. And to die? That is gain.”
Paul is going to go from place to place with the message of the Gospel. He is not promised an easy road. The man who had come to arrest the Christians now starts to preach the good news. He cannot keep it to himself. This good news has to be shared. We know that Paul has to be lowered down in a basket because they want to kill him. He is also rejected by the disciples because they cannot trust him. He spends 14 years training in obscurity. He goes on to suffer all kinds of trials. Yet I wonder how many people came to faith because of Paul’s ministry and those who were touched because of his writings. How many of those conversions stemmed from the transformation of this one person.
We are called to share Jesus
What is our responsibility under God in all of this? There is a real call to awaken the gift of evangelism in us. There are some people who have a specific gift of evangelism. But Paul tells Timothy, “Do the work of an evangelist.” We are all called to share Jesus. If we know Him and love Him, that will be our desire.
What is the good news that we share? Where should we finish but with the Saviour who loves us? A God who so loved you and your neighbour that He sent His only son. Who faced all the persecution and ended His life on that cross. Who poured out his life blood that you and I might know his freedom, his empowering and his equipping.
There is always a “so that” with God. Jesus’ death is so that, we can be players in the extension of His kingdom. We are called to be on the victory side. The ones who will be involved in snatching people from the jaws of death and hell and bringing them into the kingdom of God because we are allowing Jesus to flow through us.