Simon Introduced David Devonish, our guest
speaker today. David planted Woodside church (Bedford) in the 1970s; leads
Catalyst, a network of churches which is part of New Frontiers; and has a mission
to Russian-speaking, Islamic-majority, and now Chinese parts of the world. (David has also been asked to help advise
Kerith, looking with an outsider’s eye on what Kerith does and making
suggestions to the leadership team).
David explained that his approach is to
connect us with what God is doing around the world in communities who don’t
know God. He started with news from the Crimea where a group of about 30
churches have been trying to reach Crimean Tartars, a Muslim group in that
area. For a long while there was no
breakthrough, but recently God provided one through the miraculous recovery of
a Tartar lady who was in a coma following a medical mistake during the birth of
her child. She had been declared brain
dead, but when her husband came to agree to that her life support could be
switched off, she had made a full recovery.
She thanked and described the doctor who had healed her, but no-one
could recognize the person she spoke of, until she pointed to an icon of Jesus
above another patient’s bed, and said ‘that’s him’. Today, through those evets and through her, there
are 3 or 4 churches planted and growing amongst the Tartars.
This is just one example of stories of the
kingdom of God; stories of Jesus coming into this world and changing things, to
prove he is indeed the King. In Matthew,
Jesus tells this parable of the Kingdom of God:
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of
heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was
sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When
the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir,
didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and
pull them up?’
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the
weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the
harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and
tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my
barn.’” [Matthew 13 24-29]
Note that although the weeds became
apparent, they were left until the harvest – because the roots of weeds and wheat
are intertwined, and there is no way of pulling up the weeds without also
uprooting the wheat. The enemy, the
weed, is at work too, things can get better and worse at the same time! We are
sown for Kingdom purposes – the field is the world whatever you do and wherever
you are.
On another trip Russia, someone once asked
David “do you think the world will get better, or worse, before it ends?” Based on this parable, David answered “both”
– because both the weeds and the wheat will continue to grow until the harvest
comes.
The Ukraine is a case in point. A couple of years ago, things there were
going well – in the east of the country there were 30-40 churches so active in
social justice that perhaps 70% of the total social justice provision was
though their work!
Then the tanks rolled in. Today, 50% of those congregations are refugees;
far from providing social justice, 50% of them are on feeding programmes. And yet … there is a church in a town right
on the front line, subjected to nightly bombardments. 90% of the congregation fled. But the Kingdom of God is still growing. The church stays open as a place of refuge,
and the congregation now is as big as it ever was. There is even a call for the pastor to become
mayor!
So be encouraged – despite a mixed-up
world, Jesus is sowing future believers through us. That parable was written 2000 years ago, but
2000 years is not long in God’s eyes, nor should it be in the eyes of those who
serve him:
·
The cathedral in Notre Dame
took nearly 200 years to complete (1160AD to 1345AD)
·
Gaudi, the architect of the
Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (which years after his death is still being built),
famously said ‘my client is not in a hurry’.
·
We encourage children to plant
acorns … but the oaks that grow won’t reach maturity for another 200 years.
In the same way, reaching the unreached is
not a quick work. Most find that it
takes years before the first person in a new region comes to Christ, and in an
age of quick fixes some churches have been known to withdraw their workers
before any results are seen. God,
however, takes the long view.
Ephesians 4 speaks of the gifts of
leadership, given to the church:
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ
apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high, he took many captives and
gave gifts to his people.”
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also
descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended
higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ
himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and
teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ
may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of
the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the
fullness of Christ.
Is this just about equipping the church?
Its normally taught that way. But look
at the text – the context is the Kingdom of God in the world (more precisely,
the universe!) not just the church – so we serve as wheat not just in the
church but in the world, as students, parents, plumbers, teachers, accountants
– whatever gifts we use and wherever we are.
Gods gifts are to all, and the calling is to all.
