In Depth:  David Jackman

In a world that longs for peace, for multitudes of people daily life is an unremitting round of violence and hostility.

It is seen at its most intense in the apparently insoluble conflicts which continue to engulf Syria and threaten the whole Middle East. But it is also played out in the myriad daily battles from the board room to the playground, and all stations in between, which mar and dominate so many relationships. It is precisely in this sort of world that the Bible tells us, \u2018the fruit of the Spirit is ... peace\u2019 (Galatians 5.22).

‘The fruit of the Spirit is joy.’

If a Christian is defined as someone in whom God’s Spirit lives, then a joyless Christian is a contradiction in terms. Yet we all know that much of life is not characterised by joy, and so we either tend to feel guilty, because clearly we are not ‘spiritual’ enough, or we sigh briefly and then get on with things. But there are those nagging Bible commands. ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice’ (Philippians 4.4). What’s it all about?

More than happiness

The first thing to realise is that joy is not the same thing as happiness. Often people say that joy is much deeper, which has led to the observation that some Christians’ joy is so deep it never seems to surface! The difference is not so much in depth as in duration. Happiness happens — it comes and goes and is largely the response of our emotions and feelings to external events. Nobody can be permanently happy; indeed you only have to set out determined to ‘be happy’ to soon feel quite miserable. So what is the joy that Christians have which is not experienced by those who do not share our faith?

‘If I do not have love’, Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, ‘I am nothing’ (1 Corinthians 13.2). He did not view its acquisition as an optional activity but the bedrock foundation of the Christian life — an absolute necessity. Not surprisingly, when he is describing what the transforming power of the Holy Spirit will look like in practice, he lists a string of qualities which each depend on and flow out of the greatest characteristic of godliness — love.

Chief manifestation

Take a moment to think about this pen-portrait of the growing Christian, from Galatians 5.22-23. ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ At first, this might look like a string of pearls, or a collection of different qualities needing to be added separately to our character. But the best way to understand the verse is perhaps to recognise ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love’ — and the way that love will manifest itself is in the joy, peace, patience and so on, which are its expression in our daily lives and relationships, first with God, then with one another in God’s family and with the watching world.

Your holiness matters!

Put like that, it may sound rather stark. Our hackles may be raised by the word ‘holiness’, with its unfortunate undertones of sanctimonious piety and being ‘holier than thou’. But try it this way. ‘Being like Jesus is the greatest contribution you can make in your life on planet earth.’ And we could well add that it’s the only investment you can make which has eternal currency.

Grateful Christ-likeness

It matters because it is the deepest and most honest expression of our gratitude to Christ for all the love and grace which he has showered upon us in his atoning death and his life-giving resurrection. If we have any real glimmering of what we have been rescued from and what his glorious purposes for us in eternity truly are, then the supreme way in which we demonstrate our faith is by our obedience, and the greatest way in which to show our gratitude is by a desire to be changed into his likeness. But it also matters because changed lives are the currency of heaven here on earth.

Every true Christian believer would love to be a ‘better’ Christian.

In our best moments we echo the apostle Paul’s words: ‘I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Philippians 3.8). We know that the greatest possible value is given to our lives through the personal relationship we have with our Lord Jesus Christ and we long for that to deepen and strengthen, so that we become ‘partakers of the diving nature’ (2 Peter 1.4), reshaped and moulded increasingly into the likeness of Christ. But what does that look like, and how does the desire for progress translate into the reality of everyday life, in a pressured and frenetic world like ours?

The start of this new year provides an opportunity for reflection and resolution on the impact of the gospel on our society.

There is a general malaise which many people feel today, due to the erosion of the values of trust and honesty in our culture, which can provide us with the possibility to build a bridge of relevance for the gospel to travel across.

We are approaching Christmas. It’s the time of each year which provides us with some of our greatest opportunities to talk about our faith with our friends who do not yet share it.

A Christmas carol service is not a difficult ask. Indeed, it can be a very popular one, for all sorts of reasons. But what about after that? It is worth underlining how important it is to get an interested friend into reading one of the Gospels and, if at all possible, to do it together on a regular basis, so as to deal with all the questions they may have. The New Year provides a natural point at which to start doing that, but to get there you may need to be prepared to deal with some current misconceptions about the Bible.

‘It’s not hard to view the world as something beautiful but somehow broken.

‘Institutions have let us down. More effort is spent on blaming others then finding solutions. And today it seems a person’s word has lost its worth. Yet if the fading of these values disturbs us, then surely they must still matter? We still admire honesty, fairness and the courage it takes to speak out against what’s wrong.’ Not the start of an evangelistic sermon (though it might well be!), but the text of a full page colour advertisement in the Telegraph Magazine for September 1 2012, for the home and business insurance firm Hiscox, whose strapline is ‘as good as our word’.

Disciples of Jesus want to make disciples for Jesus.

This is not a matter of duty; it is the overflow of the life of Christ within us. Experiencing the love of God revealed to us in Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross, we long that others will come to share God’s mercy in the personal knowledge of sins forgiven and peace with him. The joy that is our daily refreshment, as we trust Christ and walk with him, is something we long that others will share, in our culture of doom and gloom. The sure and certain hope of Christ’s return, in power and glory, to bring in his eternal kingdom of new heavens and a new earth, so transforms our prospects and outlook that we want many others to come to know this undergirding, shaping reality for life in the here and now.

In a month when many of us will have some holiday time, I have been thinking about the benefits of rest and refreshment.

Four words in one of the most famous chapters of the Old Testament, Psalm 23.3 reads: ‘He restores my soul’ and it is a wonderful summary of what we should pray for ourselves and for one another as the outcome of our summer breaks. Here are blessings which are constant and long-lasting even if the current monsoon rains were to extend throughout the holiday season!

‘Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever’

(1 Corinthians 9.25).

This month of celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is an appropriate time to think about one of the most important aspects of discipleship — perseverance.

We are all rightly amazed at the quality and sheer consistency of her reign and should be thankful to God for his answers to many prayers in providing us with such a devoted and dependable sovereign. The secret is not, of course, in the outward ceremonies and trappings of monarchy, in the image portrayed or the privileges enjoyed, but in the inner resolve to do her duty, by serving God and her peoples. Dedicating her life to this vision more than 60 years ago, the Queen’s life has demonstrated the fulfilment of that resolve, year by year, day by day.

This month we are thinking about the value of the Old Testament for us as disciples of Jesus.

Often, we think of the Bible as a two-part book with the emphasis very much on the second part for us, because Jesus has come into the world, died on the cross for our sins and risen again in power and majesty. Why do we still need the 39 books of the Old Testament today?

ONE LORD, ONE PLAN, ONE PEOPLE
A journey through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation
By Rodger Crooks. Banner of Truth. 465 pages. £8.50
ISBN 978 1 848 711 372

Written ‘to give access to the Bible’s contents so that you can significantly increase the extent of your Bible knowledge’, this book is highly successful.

Let’s continue to think about how to improve and develop our Bible study abilities.

We saw last month that questions about the text, which move beyond the ‘who, what, where’ enquiries to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ issues, will help to take us deeper into the meaning of Scripture. Whenever we stop and say, ‘That seems odd to me’, we are likely to encounter the text freshly, make new discoveries and see better how the truth applies to our lives.

Last month we looked at starting a regular pattern of Bible study.

It’s a great discipline to cultivate, so that we constantly have input from the Lord into our thinking. Paul talked about the value of Scripture in terms of teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness in 2 Timothy 3.16 and we all need all these ministries as we seek to grow in our knowledge and love of God. But no Scripture exists independently of the whole.

Many Christians find regular Bible reading difficult and the idea of study quite intimidating.

Alongside prayer and evangelism, Bible reading is one of those areas of our Christian lives which we think we ought to be ‘better at’ than we are and so we tend to feel guilty for our failures. It is a sure–fire winner for the preacher to launch those guilt-inducing rhetorical questions from the pulpit: ‘Are your reading your Bible (or praying, or witnessing) enough?’ To which the answer can only be, ‘No, probably not’, accompanied by a quietly despairing sigh. It’s another load I can’t shoulder very well.

‘Happy New Year’ is the wish of a thousand greeting cards and a multitude of personal messages.

It’s an expression of friendship, or aspiration and hope, not at all to be despised. But what would a truly happy 2012 look like for a disciple of Christ?

Many of us find ourselves with mixed feelings about Christmas.

On the one hand, it should be a time for unstinted celebrations, as we remember how God broke in to our history of time and space, with the beginning of the fulfilment of his great eternal plan for the salvation of the world. Unto us is born a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord! Yet on the other hand, the annual celebrations of Mammon, which began way back in early October, reach their manic climax, in an avalanche of must-haves, must-dos and must-gives, which leave us on the wrong foot. We don’t want to be Scrooges, negative and ungenerous; we don’t want to withdraw into a holier-than-thou piety; but we don’t want to be drowned in the tidal wave of the winterval festival which is Xmas.

Let’s continue our thinking about the local church, in God’s great purposes.

It is very easy to give up on enthusiastic involvement, because it isn’t what we would like it to be. Some Christians become disappointed because, in spite of all their input, in service, prayer, money and time, the results they have hoped for just don’t come. So, they quietly withdraw, concluding that church isn’t worth the hassle. Others see only faults in the organisation, the preaching, the music — especially the music! — and 100 other variables. If I can’t remake the church in my image, the way I want it to be, I’m not playing — I’ll take my bat home.

The visiting preacher was asked by the minister’s precocious offspring, over lunch: ‘And what abomination do you belong to?’

The wry smile produced by such an enquiry indicates how much we all struggle with the cultural expressions of ‘church’ in our society. Archbishop William Temple once suggested that the biggest hindrance to the spread of the Christian church is the Christian church, and one can see why, when the record of the past and the mistakes of the present are examined.

How contented are you? Content with your job and your income? Content with your family relationships and friendships? Content with your involvement in your church?

All the consumer surveys tell us that we live in an age characterised by discontent, though, of course, the marketers have a vested interest in stimulating that mindset to boost their sales. But should we be content? Might it be a close cousin of complacency in the family of inactivity and even sloth?

School’s out and holidays are here!

For many of us August is still the month in which we can get away from it all and enjoy a well-deserved break — a bit of rest and relaxation. The month to switch off; put the tent up, put your feet up and hope that there won’t be too much rain to make the sandwiches soggy.

But should Christians have holidays? If we take time off, shouldn’t that become ‘time on’ for Christian activities, like Bible clubs and beach missions, camps, conventions and mission trips? In a world which so much needs the gospel, can we ever really justify taking time out? Well, yes and no!

Why did you become a Christian?

Theologically, the answer is because God, in his grace and mercy, ‘made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions’ (Ephesians 2.5). It is indeed by grace that we have been saved! But, at the level of our human perception, there are many different factors which bring men and women to repent and believe the good news. Of course, the expectations with which we became believers may have to be refined biblically, as we go on in the Christian life, and this can be a painful experience of adjustment to spiritual reality. Evangelists sometimes promise heaven on earth! What God promises, however, is the wonderful adventure of being transformed into the likeness of Christ, the perfect image of himself.

Divine nature

There’s an interesting section at the start of the apostle Peter’s second letter, where he speaks about God’s divine power and his ‘very great and precious promises’, enabling Christians to ‘participate in the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1.3-4). Of course, Peter is not saying that we mere mortals can become divine. Scripture is clear that there is only one Son begotten of the Father, and experience clearly explodes any pretensions we might be tempted to have about our divinity. We are still all too finite, weak, sinful and mortal. So what does Peter mean?

Among the many distinctive traits of 21st-century global culture is our confidence in technology.

To every problem there must be a solution which technology can supply, if only the science is advanced enough and there is money enough to apply it. And in many areas of our human experience that has been proved to be true, so that we can all be profoundly thankful for the benefits of scientific research in making us healthier, more comfortable and (perhaps) happier than our forebears.

The growing business

Welcome to this new monthly column. Several years ago, I spotted a garden centre delivery van, which ran the strap-line, ‘Our business is growing’. It seemed a slogan that could readily be adopted by any individual Christian, or church, or ministry.

The double meaning is both clever and important. We want to see the gospel growing, in our land and locality, as well as around the world, as God adds new members to his church. But we also have a responsibility to be growing ourselves, as followers of Jesus, in many dimensions and all sorts of areas of our lives and personalities. That’s our business as believers.

PREACH THE WORD
The call and challenge of preaching today
Edited by Greg Haslam. Sovereign World. 624 pages. £24.99
ISBN 1 85240 443 4

This is a large and substantial volume consisting of 49 chapters, in which many different aspects of preaching are covered from a wide variety of perspectives and standpoints.

THE GREAT GIVEAWAY
Reclaiming the Mission of the Church
By David E Fitch. Baker Books. 263 pages. £5.41 (Amazon)
ISBN 0 80106 483 X

Written out of frustration with the North American church scene, the thesis of this book is that evangelicalism has ‘given away being the church in North America’.

I have always been intrigued by Mark's comment, at the end of his account of the last supper. 'And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives' (Mark 14.26). What words were ringing in the ears of Jesus and his disciples as they went out to his betrayal and passion? Almost certainly it was Psalm 118.

The reason is that the group of Psalms 113-118, known as the Egyptian Hallel ('praise'), traditionally concluded the Passover celebration; but their message was reaching a much deeper level of fulfilment on that momentous night. The words of verse 26, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!' had greeted Jesus's triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. The words of this psalm were to ring out in the temple, as he hung on the cross at the very moment the Passover lambs were slaughtered. Josephus tells us that over 200,000 lambs were killed and that for two hours the blood was carried to the altar, as the Levites sang the great 'hallel'. But on that Friday, it was all redundant. The temple curtain had already been torn in two from top to bottom, by the very hand of God himself. The Lamb of God had already suffered and died on the cross, as the atoning sacrifice, to 'take away the sin of the world' (John 1.29). Psalm 118 takes us, then, to the very heart of the greatest events of human history, which we celebrate again this Easter, with great 'hallelujahs'.

The fourth conference of 'Essentially Evangelical' met at High Leigh in mid-June, attended by a wide range of evangelicals. Here is a summary of the vision-setting address given by David Jackman, Director of the Cornhill Training Course, at the end of the consultation.

'Essentially Evangelical' was born in 1997, at a conference in Bawtry Hall, which drew together a number of leaders across the spectrum.

There was once a time when the adjective 'evangelical' before the noun 'Christian' was a sufficient and adequate description of a clear and defined theological position. But then the definition of the noun became so diluted and neutralised that the adjective had to stand on its own.

All sorts of other adjectives now compete to qualify the new noun. So an 'evangelical' can now be conservative or liberal, open or even post. It's all very confusing since some of the descriptive terms seem to deny the meaning of the noun, at least the meaning it used to have as an adjective - if you see what I mean! A couple of years ago, I met a minister who described himself as a 'liberal catholic evangelical', though on further discussion the noun seemed to mean little more than that he thought church growth was better, on balance, than church decline.