{"id":45,"date":"2021-01-18T16:26:30","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T16:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/176.32.230.18\/swordmagazine.net\/?p=45"},"modified":"2021-05-12T12:11:32","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T11:11:32","slug":"no-need-of-the-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/?p=45","title":{"rendered":"Editorial – No Need of the Song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some songs are beautiful, but it\u2019s a pity we need them. <\/em>Fix your focus and join the irreversible Church!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which would you rather belong to\u2026 a church that sings Turn your eyes upon Jesus <\/em>\u2013 or a church that doesn\u2019t need to? <\/em>In those early heady days just after Pentecost, it seemed you could catch a glimpse of Jesus of Nazareth on any Jerusalem street. Everyone knew he had died a criminal\u2019s death \u2013 but everyone could also see that everything He \u2018began to do and to teach\u2019 <\/em>was still happening. How could this be? Hundreds claimed eyewitness value as they each related their encounters with Him \u2013 in the flesh \u2013 after his crucifixion. No-one seriously believed the fake news that he had not really died. If the Romans were skilled at anything, it was killing. <\/strong>He had died. <\/em><\/strong>And yet\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His followers were amazing. They should have been the most insecure, nervy, reclusive types imaginable, but they gave no hint of their shame \u2013 quite the opposite. They actually boasted about Him 24\/7<\/em>! They spoke of Him in the past tense \u2013 they were very clear that He was now in heaven \u2013 but they lived and loved and laughed as though He were still present. <\/em>Eyes brimming with kindness and compassion, hands that could touch and heal, confident, gentle voices with time-stopping testimonies that would make you shiver with wonder \u2026and the miracles\u2026! Turn your eyes upon Jesus? <\/em>They had no need of such a song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did these earliest Christians boast an unwavering focus on the Master?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not at all. They also would need reminding to \u201cfix your thoughts on Jesus\u201d <\/em>(Heb 3:1) Even Paul and his companions reached a point where they \u201cdespaired of life itself\u201d <\/em>(2 Cor 1:8) and such were his suffering and hardships that Paul had to filter his attention to keep his eyes always facing the finishing line: \u201cBrothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.\u201d <\/em>(Philippians 3:13-14) But\u2026 for all the distractions of their awesome trials, they left us a thrilling record of the unstoppable church which walks the earth when her Lord is in full view and the things of earth grow strangely dim in His light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider a ludicrous scenario\u2026 assembled are the Prime Minister and his cabinet \u2013 even their shadows from across the aisle. COBRA has been convened too (national security issues) \u2026and SAGE (clinical factors relate to recent crowding and social hygiene). A journalist quickly notes \u201cmassive interfaith implications\u201d as he scans the religious top brass. This is the most high-powered assembly in living memory. The clerk to this hastily convened Court issues the call: \u201cBring in the prisoners\u201d\u2026 One is immediately struck by the sheer \u2018ordinariness\u2019 of the alleged criminals. But for the one-way-system, and the two-metre rule, you might have bumped into them in the supermarket. A mix of men and women (two infants in buggies), wide age profile \u2013 the frailest was offered a seat. \u201cDo you know what you have been charged with?\u201d, the Clerk asks their spokesman. \u201cYes, Ma\u2019am \u2013 street preaching, I believe\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did warn you that it was laughable\u2026 Perhaps \u2013 but it\u2019s merely a modern take on the scene painted by Dr Luke <\/em>in Acts chapter 5. The drama unfolds at verse 17 following the judicial deaths of Ananias <\/em>and Sapphira <\/em>whose corrupting presence suddenly morphed into eternal absence when they thought to hoodwink God as well as His people. No surprise then that \u201cgreat fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.\u201d <\/em>(Acts 5:11) Holy fear is a great asset to the Church \u2013 it cancels fear of anything or anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to see how national and religious leaders would be plunged into a state of panic. The young church was growing not by ones and twos but by thousands \u2013 countless sick people were healed… Even so, unbelievers who clearly respected the apostles were too afraid to join an assembly where the secrets of false hearts could be laid bare \u2013 and death could end all pretence. Such was the popular celebrity status of the apostles that superstition began to dog their steps \u2013 even their shadows were thought to have healing power!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s not forget that after Jesus brought Lazarus alive from the grave, the same authorities who are now troubled by the massive growth and popularity of the church saw Jesus\u2019 popularity as a matter of national (actually personal<\/em><\/strong>) security: \u201c\u2026If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.\u201d <\/em>(John 11:47-48) Imagine their envious fear. This brand-new Church was \u2018Jesus in multiples\u2019 <\/em>\u2013 extraordinary ordinary folks armed to the teeth with divine love and power, \u201cterrible as an army with banners\u201d<\/em>. The leaders\u2019 worst nightmare had returned \u2013 to the power of infinity! Time for another kangaroo court\u2026 there has to be a way to stop this kindness <\/em>pandemic\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Bible subhead reads \u2018The Apostles Arrested and Freed\u2019 \u2013 but the narrative (begun in chapter three) says they were re-arrested, freed by an angel to resume preaching then rearrested before being beaten and released with threats. <\/em><\/strong>As we would say, these believers were \u2018known to the police\u2019<\/em>. But they were known even more to the \u2018unrighteous religious\u2019 <\/em>who used the temple police and even the Roman occupiers to persecute Jesus and his Church. Their indignation was not in the service of the people, far less of God, as one might expect from a priestly class. No their motive was as base and ignoble as good old-fashioned JEALOUSY: \u201cthe high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison\u201d <\/em>(Acts 5:17-18) It was jealousy, not law-keeping that gave the police their remit. Let\u2019s remember this as hostile skies darken above UK Christians today. Too many churches work on the assumption that the best Christian witness is to be law-abiding. It may not always be so. The apostles, in order to serve God\u2019s purpose had to break man\u2019s law. Bishop JC Ryle<\/em>, ever clear-headed, spelled out our Christian position: \u201c\u2026when a believer feels he should disobey his government, he must be sure it is not because the government has denied him his rights but because it has denied him God’s rights\u201d<\/em>1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notice that even God\u2019s messenger did not set them free to go into hiding but to \u201cstand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.\u201d <\/em>(Acts 5:20) \u2018This Life\u2019 – what a glorious angelic shorthand for the mind-transforming, self-forgetting, love-pursuing, enemy-loving, others-preferring, suffering-embracing, grave-mocking, Jesus-proclaiming new creation that is the Gospel! What\u2019s to hide?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we must face questions of our own\u2026 Has God changed? Does He ever? Is Jesus Christ no longer the same yesterday, today and forever? Are we indwelt by a cut-down version of the Holy Spirit who comes with courage and boldness (and power) as bolt-on options (not available for delivery to the UK, Europe and the USA<\/em>)? \u2013 or is it we who are cut-down versions of discipleship?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did the first man and woman become cut-down versions of humanity? Was it not by the subtle strategy of distraction? The Adversary, <\/em>himself a cut-down version of angelic splendour, seduced them to \u2018exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator\u2019 <\/em>(Romans 1:25). And in that moment, when they shifted their focus from God to themselves they were instantly diminished from lordship over creation <\/em>to slavery under sin<\/em>, their own union shattered as they blamed each other. Self-isolation became their \u2018new normal\u2019 as the pandemic of sin took hold \u2013 they even socially distanced themselves from God! <\/em><\/strong>The plague swept through the race, making a murderer of one son and a victim of another. Even creation fell into mourning \u2013 and all from a moment\u2019s distraction!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apostles could not be distracted in those early days, because they were preoccupied \u2013 with Jesus: \u201cwe cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard\u201d <\/em>(Acts 4:20). Their accusers complained: \u201cyou have filled Jerusalem with your teaching\u201d <\/em>(Acts 5:27) by which they meant \u201cproclaiming in Christ Jesus the resurrection of the dead\u201d. <\/em>(Acts 4:2) The apostles could not be politically correct because they were holy <\/em>\u2013 you can be one or the other. They did not belong to the state but to God and must, like their Master, be \u2018about their Father\u2019s business\u2019. <\/em>This unswerving focus explains the extraordinary authority of the Church to forget self and resist ungodly dictatorship, to lift the burdens from the oppressed, to release the prisoners of sin and to open blinded eyes to the hope that does not disappoint. A focussed Church is the Bride who has eyes only for her Bridegroom. A focussed Church is under His authority <\/em><\/strong>and therefore possesses His authority <\/em><\/strong>to challenge evil and fill whole towns with heaven\u2019s light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Day of Pentecost, believers rushed out of the Temple proclaiming the praises of God and, by subsequent word and deed and lifestyle, they never stopped!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, it\u2019s clear that the preoccupation of much of the western church and of many individual Christians is not with Christ but with COVID <\/em>\u2013 they appear to be just as frightened of the pandemic as unbelievers. Let me spell out something about which I fear no future contradiction. At the end of history \u2018BC\u2019 will still mean \u2018Before Christ\u2019, not \u2018Before Coronavirus\u2019! History will not turn on a microbe; it will not be shaped in a petri dish and it will not be redeemed by mass vaccination. History\u2019s crisis has already happened. <\/em>The decisive event took place when the Master of the Universe, Jesus, the One without whom nothing was made that has been made, humbled Himself, wore our flesh and walked our streets spreading the fragrance of God\u2019s mercy amidst the stench of our pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If every Christian today talked as much about Jesus as they talk about COVID, Brexit and the multiple threats to our Christian freedoms these situations might remain unchanged \u2013 but the people fretting about them would not! So how do we change our focus? Repentance is the obvious starting point. Learning from the folly of our first parents, it\u2019s clear that we can\u2019t afford the luxury of distraction. Praise is the unassailable preoccupation of the Church. Here\u2019s <\/strong>Horatius Bonar: <\/em>\u201cFill Thou my life, O Lord my God, in every part with praise, that my whole being may proclaim Thy being and Thy ways\u201d. <\/em>Do we see what praise does? It rescues us from our morbid self-preoccupation \u2013 making us the temples of the living God we really are and rendering us inhospitable to hell\u2019s subtle infiltrations. You can always Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus <\/em>\u2013 but it\u2019s wiser not to need the song!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 <\/strong>Biblical Answers to Tough Questions.<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some songs are beautiful, but it\u2019s a pity we need them. Fix your focus and join the irreversible Church! Which would you rather belong to\u2026 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,72],"tags":[42],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}