Post on 12-May-2015
Session 1
[Strange Kingdom]
In 165 AD, a devastating epidemic swept through the Roman empire, killing 1/3 of the population, incl.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius…
In 251 AD, another
plague hit the empire,
this time both rural and urban areas were affected…
“Most of our brothers showed unbounded love…never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another…Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ…drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains…”
Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, AD260
“The heathen behaved in the very opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape.”
Bishop Dionysius
Result?
‘Miraculous’ healing
Huge Conversions
Growth of Christian population
Spread of Christian love/principles throughout
empire!
What do we need to awake from?
What do we
need to awake to?
What forms of crisis do we face today?
The kingdom of God is like a team of resistance fighters, plotting goodness
The kingdom of God is like flying jet-planes of love into towers of hate
The kingdom of God is like a cigarette smoker…feeling fresh air in her lungs
The kingdom of God is living in Wonderland…where everything is upside down
Jesus’ strange kingdom…
• It’s “weak” and “foolish” (1Cor 1:18-27) • It’s lowly and despised…it’s something
that is NOT (1Cor 1:28-29)• It’s not of this world (John 8:23)• It fights with crazy ‘weapons’, e.g. love,
forgiveness, etc. (Luke 23:34)• It’s perfected in our weakness (2Cor 12)
Session 2
.Weak Power.
“In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12: 7-10)
God withholds His power UNLESS we rely on Him
God’s Discipline
• God knows our arrogant easily-hardened hearts
• God knows the importance of destroying pride; our human nature ‘naturally’ longs to rely only on ourselves
• Gods wants to prove to us that our own efforts are insufficient
• Good news: He is always there at the ‘end’ of the road
We cannot experience God’s power unless we feel we need to rely on Him
God’s Frame
• Our pride tends to view our successes as resulting from our own efforts
• We need to see events with the eyes of Christ (and our weakness ‘forces’ us to see!)
• We don’t need miracles; we need believers
• Good news: He is already there even when we don’t know it
God’s power truly requires us to be weak
God’s Self-Limitation
• We are intimately connected to God’s power via our weaknesses (strength from weakness is like the irrevocability of freedom)
• Faith really moves the hands of God – why? Because God decided that it will.
• Good News: Weakness is raw material for greater faith - asking for more faith is itself an act of faith!
How do you add soya
sauce to your meal?
“Jesus could do no deed of power
there…he was amazed at their
unbelief.”
(Mk 6:7)
God’s power always takes the form of weakness
God’s Hiddenness
• God wants to teach/show us another kind of power, one the world doesn’t understand
• God’s power “looks like” weakness, so our power also expresses itself through our weakness
• God’s power cannot but appear weak to a sinful world
• Good News: Whenever there is weakness, we know (contra appearances) that God’s strength is being perfected
Special Ordinary
But what we really need is…
The Purple Pill
Can we see the truth within illusion, the authentic embedded in the superficial, the wonder inside the ordinary, the miraculous of the banal?
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:2-3)
Parables of Jesus
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness.”
Session 3
+Crazy Love+
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”
James 2:14-16
Indulgences
We feel bad…thus we need to make ourselves
feel worse in order tofeel better
‘Bad’ Faith…
• Glorifies the act of believing i.e. it’s believing in believing
• Is purely mental assent (like selecting boxes, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?”)
• Ends up with false beliefs (because divorced from learning)
• Is a deferred form of faith; we believe because others believe and thus is often contradicted by practice
‘Bad’ works
• Are purely ‘instrumental’ and thus a form of bribery (like vote-buying)
• Are irrational and neurotic (“feeling worse to feel better”)
• Are ultimately about the self, not others
True Faith & Great Work
“By this all men will know you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35
Loving Faith-Work
• Believes because of love i.e. we trust and relate to God as a form of love
• Insists on truth as a vehicle of love; we even judge out of love
• Pray, work, serve and learn out of love and for love
Who is God?
There are more than
1.5 million galaxies!
Why?
1 x 1 x 1 = 1
The best model I can think of thus far…
love is
7/24
Miracle Type Mark Matt Luke John
In all four gospels
1. Feeding of 5,000 nature 6.35f 14.15f 9.12f 6.5f
In three gospels
2. Walking on water nature 6.48f 14.25f 6.19f
3. Peter's mother-in-law healing 1.30f 8.14f 4.38f
4. Man with leprosy healing 1.40f 8.24f 5.12f
5. Paralyzed man healing 2.3f 9.2f 5.18f
6. Man with shriveled hand healing 3.1f 12.10f 6.6f
7. Calming the storm nature 4.37f 8.23f 8.22f
8. Gadarene Demoniac(s) exorcism 5.1f 8.28f 8.27f
9. Raising Jairus' daughter revivification 5.22f 9.18f 8.41f
10. Hemorrhaging woman healing 5.25f 9.20f 8.43f
11. Demon-possessed boy exorcism 9.17f 17.14f 9.38f
12. Two blind men healing 10.46f 20.29f 18.35f
In two gospels (Mark, Matt)
13. Canaanite woman's daughter exorcism@distance 7.24f 15.21f
14. Feeding of 4,000 nature 8.1f 15.32f
15. Fig tree withered nature 11.12f 21.18f
In two gospels (Mark, Luke)
16. Possessed man in synagogue exorcism 1.23f 4.33f
In two gospels (Matt, Luke=Q?)
17. Roman Centurion's servant healing@distance 8.5f 7.1f
18. Blind, Mute, and Possessed man exorcism 12.22 11.14
Only in one gospel (Mark)
19. Deaf mute healing 7.31f
20. Blind man at Bethsaida healing 8.22f
Only in one gospel (Matt)
21. Two blind men healing 9.27f
22. Mute and possessed man exorcism 9.32f
23. Coin in fish's mouth precognition/nature? 17.24f
Only in one gospel (Luke)
24. First catch of fish precognition/nature? 5.1f
25. Raising Widow's son at Nain revivification 7.11f
26. Exorcism of Mary Magdalene exorcism 8.2
27. Crippled woman healing 13.11f
28. Man with dropsy healing 14.1f
29. Ten men with leprosy healing@distance 17.11f
30. High Priest's servant healing 22.50f
Only in one gospel (John)
31. Wine miracle at Cana nature 2.1f
32. Official's son at Capernaum healing@distance 4.46f
33. Sick man at Pool of Bethesda healing 5.1f
34. Healing of the Blind Man healing 9.1f
35. Raising Lazarus revivification 11.1f
36. Second catch of fish precognition/nature? 21.1f
Parable of the Prodigal Chinese Mum
What about God’s judgment?
The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon— to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task. (Isaiah 28:21)
The Pattern of God’s Judgment
• Clearly and specifically fore-warned• Characterised by patience and reluctance• Happens only after repeated warnings and
chances to repent! (e.g. Noah’s time, Pharoah, etc.)
• Involves rescuing / preserving a righteous remnant
Hell?
“Love is patient. Love is kind,
Love does not envyLove does not boast,
Love is not rudeLove is not self-seeking
“Love is not easily angered,Love does not keep records of
wrongs,Love does not delight in evil,
Love rejoices in the truth
“Love…Always protects,Always hopes,Always trusts
Always perseveres.
“Love Never Fails”
(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
We see crazy love in…
• God’s creation (e.g. language and science)
• God’s sacrifice and mercy (the life and love of Jesus)
• God’s judgment• God’s plans for His people• God Himself
Session 4
^Crucified King^
Columbine (USA) – April 99
Colorado (USA) – July 2012
Destructive Power(of Violence)
Deceptive Power(of Desire)
Black Friday
Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory
You MUST enjoy!
Do it NOW!
You BETTER enjoy!
It’s your DUTY!
Q: How do modern lifestyles address the question of the meaning of life?
A: By ensuring that it never arises.
Political / Social Power(of Influence)
< But what is true power and authority? >
"You know that those who are regarded
as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant”
Mark 10:42-43
"For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest ”
Luke 9:48
This is true power…
“If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love…historians will say, ‘There lived a great people – a black people – who injected new dignity into the veins of civilisation.”
Marin Luther King, Jr.
"The time for you and me to allow ourselves to be brutalized nonviolently has passed. Be nonviolent only with those who are nonviolent to you. And when you can bring me a nonviolent racist, bring me a nonviolent segregationist, then I'll get nonviolent. But don't teach me to be nonviolent until you teach some of those crackers to be nonviolent."
Malcolm X
True power is the power of serving and suffering love…
What happened on the Cross?
“Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering an sacrifice to God”(Rom 5:6, 8:3; Eph 5:2)
“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”(John 1:9, John 17:1)
“He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.“(Isaiah 53:5, 1Peter 2:24)
“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”
(Matt 20:28, Mark 10:45)
“This is why the Son of God appeared, to destroy the works of the Devil” (1John 3:8, Eph 6:10-18)
‘Deeper Magic’
What other metaphors?
• “Christ is the ultimate anti-virus that cleans our OS”
• “Christ is true 1-Malaysia that unites all the races of Malaysia”
• “Christ clears the flood waters…”
• ??
Session 5
Foolish Wisdom
“I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak to her heart” (Hosea 2:14)
"If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
(Matthew 4:3)
3 Reasons Why Jesus Should’ve Made Miracle Bread
• He was hungry, what’s so bad about using His power to feed Himself?
• He had already fasted for quite some time
• He can eat now, then focus on other things later
Sin is the ‘Cutting Short’
of a kingdom process!
"If you are the Son of God…throw yourself down. For it is written:
'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone”
(Matthew 4:6)
4 Reasons Why Jesus Should’ve Jumped
• He will obtain supernatural proof of God’s protection
• He can show Satan how much power He has
• He can ‘flex His muscles’ and have sensational news to tell of
• He can build confidence
'He will command his angels concerning you…”
Thou shalt not BLACK-MAIL the Lord your God!
“All this I will give you!”
"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
(Matthew 4:9)
3 Reasons Why Jesus Should’ve Bowed Down To Satan
• He was going to rule the world anyway!
• It would save SO MUCH trouble and pain
• He can always ‘pretend’ to worship Satan, then later repent
Idolatrous ‘victories’ are
the worst defeats
The 3 Temptations
• It’s foolish to go to the desert for wisdom• It’s foolish to not use your power to get
what you want/need• It’s foolish to not demand for ‘proof’ • It’s foolish to seek easier ways to get what
you’ve already been promised
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
1st Cor 1:18
Foolish Message• It’s ‘foolish’ to put our trust in a man hanged on
a cross• It’s ‘foolish’ to see our weakness as the
perfecting of God’s power• It’s ‘foolish’ to give ourselves for people and the
world• It’s ‘foolish’ to rely on the power of service and
forgiveness (and to believe that this is true power)
• It’s ‘foolish’ to place ourselves in God’s hands when there are ‘easier’ ways to get things done
Power of God• It’s powerful to live on the basis of Christ’s work
for us• It’s powerful to draw on God’s strength even
when it requires our weakness• It’s powerful to serve, to forgive, to love – for
only then are hearts truly changed• It’s powerful to let God’s work be complete in
us, to not short-circuit God’s soul-building process
• It’s powerful to follow God’s (‘slow’ and ‘painful’) approach
• It’s powerful to worship God
Comfort
Dreams
Luxury
Security
Care-Free
DIVINE INTERRUPTION!
<God Bless You>