Where do we start

Today is the first time we have come together at weekly worship since our senior pastors David and Alison, who established Wharfedale Vineyard just over 10 years ago, have gone on a planned Sabbatical. They will be back in this place in September.

Personally I am very excited as Kate and I have been asked to take the lead over the coming months and it is great that the 2 years or so of planning is now actually becoming reality.

This is a brand new experience and a change for us all. You may have a variety of reactions and emotions. Some of you, who have recently connected with Wharfedale Vineyard, may be wondering who David and Alison are. Yet, within this change, there is a very important constant, that constant that we are following Jesus and to keep relying on him.

But what do we do? where do we start?...how do we follow Jesus? how do we rely on him?, all key questions that we need to ask and keep asking even if we’ve been following Jesus for years.

A key place to start for answers to these questions is by going to our bibles... If you have not brought your bible please use the ones on the table, but more importantly If you do not have a bible of your own we would love you to have one and please take one of the ones on the tables home with you, if you have just dropped tea on it we can give you a crisp new one.

Let's turn to Ephesians, in the new testament, page 826 in the bibles. This is what it says in Ephesians Chapter 3 verses 14-21.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Please do keep that page while I give a little background.

The book of Ephesians is written by Paul who had changed his name from Saul. If you are not familiar with the story, you may detect why he changed his name as we go on. We first come across Saul in an earlier part of the Bible, in the book of Acts. Saul was present at the stoning to death of a man named Stephen who was a follower of Jesus and a key leader in the early church. Stephen had just addressed a meeting of the key Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, he had told the leaders of the Jewish faith, that the messiah they had been waiting for, the fulfilment of their lives, had just been killed. Stephen’s crunch point was when he said that the messiah was actually Jesus, the one that was killed by them. Stephen had said that the very faith they were upholding they had tried to destroy.

The Jewish leaders were not annoyed by this, they were outraged to the point where they stoned Stephen to death.
This is where we meet Saul. He was too young to join in the killing so he looked after their coats, the bible records in the book of Acts "... And Saul approved of their killing him" [Acts 8 verse 1].

Saul was brought up in the Jewish faith and was an expert of the Jewish law. Saul is known as Saul of Tarsus in Acts. Tarsus is a small harbour city on the coast in what is now southern Turkey. It seems likely that Paul's family in Tarsus were working class people. Paul still learnt their trade, tent making, and probably worked in it for a while, supporting the family business. We expect it was only later when they could afford it that his parents decided for Saul to become educated, maybe to become a rabbi, or expert of the law, a position of high standing in Jewish society.

Saul clearly did very well as when we read about him in Acts, he is present in the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council in Jerusalem, the centre of the Jewish faith. It is from here that he is also commissioned by the high priest to destroy the Christian church. So now Saul is holding a position of authority.

What he does next is recorded in the book of Acts:
"Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison." [Acts 8 verse 3]

But then something happened on his way to persecuting the church in Damascus one day. We can read about it, again in Acts 9 verses 3 to 6:

“As he [Saul] neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’
‘Who are you Lord?’ Saul asked.
‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. Now go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’"

A few verses on, after Saul has received the Holy Spirit and been baptised, we are told that Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. Saul was utterly changed by Jesus and his life was radically turned around, so that he went from persecutor of Christians to one of the most effective ambassadors for Jesus in the history of the Christian faith.

This leads me to my first starting point:

Where do we start regarding our past?

Jesus is in the business of radically changing peoples’ lives. That is something we can be part of today. Whatever your upbringing, wherever you’ve come from, however you were parented, or not, Jesus is in the business of taking all that and healing us. Whatever your situation, whether you're married, single, single again, a parent or not a parent, whatever race or colour, wealthy or poor- everyone qualifies and everyone is so so welcome in the Kingdom of God.

Mary Pytches says in her book...”Our future may depend on what we decide to do in the present with our past. The damaged emotions caused by past experience must be healed. We cannot change history, but the feelings surrounding it can be changed by Jesus who is able to transcend time and bring healing to the past. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever” (Heb13:8)””

Paul, formerly Saul, was now what the bible calls ‘a new creation’. He is now ready to begin the greatest adventure of his life. God transforms him, heals him. We can start with the healing of the past.

Now to a second starting point

Where do we start as a community of faith?

What we read now in Ephesians is a result of how Saul not only changed his name to Paul, but his aim in life changed from destroying churches to making disciples- that means telling people who Jesus is, and then helping them to follow Him. As a result he established and planted new churches.

This is the same for Vineyard churches across the country which have the vision to make disciples and plant new churches. The Wharfedale Vineyard holds that vision too, to see people come to know Jesus, learn and develop as a follower of Jesus, and we look to plant new churches.

One of the many churches Paul planted was in Ephesus, and hence this letter to the Ephesians. Ephesus was a major trade port on the Mediterranean coast and we know it as a city in modern day Turkey. When Paul was there it was a fine harbour that was part of the trade route of the Roman Empire from Asia to Europe. Ephesus had a population of about a third of a million people and it was also famous for having a theatre that had the capacity for 25,000 people, that is about the same size of Carrow Road, the Norwich City football ground.

Paul travelled to tell others about Jesus, so Ephesus, a place where many trade routes converge, is a natural place for him to go. When Paul writes to the Ephesians he is in prison, we believe in Rome in AD61. He was imprisoned for telling others about Jesus, and was facing a trial which would most likely lead to his execution, (something he used to be the other side of). Even in these circumstances he still encourages the young churches and wants people to know more about Jesus.

I think if Paul was writing to The Wharfedale Vineyard today he would likewise want to encourage us. What would Paul be saying if he was here this morning:

"I had a great welcome this morning, thank you for the welcome pack. It has a free CD. I’ll listen to that in my campavan." (As a tent maker by trade, I think that may be the car he would drive.)
I think he would say, the website looks interesting, I will sign up on that. I am sure he would encourage us in the activities we do and how we look to reach out and bless people’s lives and be a community of faith.
I think Paul would be really excited about the Alpha course, not just because of the relaxing surroundings of Costa Coffee. Paul loved these types of discussions and questioning,
I am sure he would love to be part of the welcome course where he can find out more about the Wharfedale Vineyard and give him an opportunity to get to know some housegroup leaders.
To someone like Paul, housegroups - places where people can know and be known, learn about God, worship, pray for each other and have a mission focus to help others - would sound great.
Then it is important to highlight some really important things; finding a place to serve, leaving well if you have come from another church, giving financially and praying for Wharfedale Vineyard.

He would probably say that we should be encouraged, encouraged because these things point to Jesus.

As a community, where do we start? I think in many cases we are off the starting blocks already but the essential component is that as a community, all that we do, plan, talk about, comes from a posture of humility, of being on our knees before Jesus – in all that we do and say.

When we do Healing on the Streets, we start the time on our knees in submission to the Lord, asking Him to come. Jason and Gwen before they went out to give out Easter eggs last Saturday spent the previous Thursday night praying and asking the Lord to come.

Kate and I will make mistakes over the next 4 months, you will perhaps have disagreements with each other. We want the response of this community to pray, to get on their knees and pray for us, for the leaders, for those that you disagree with, and approach all this with humility.

As we do that imagine how great it is when broken relationships are restored, people are freed from debt, families are supported, people are healed from illnesses and injuries, people are freed from dependencies and addictions. This is what we are part of as the church, as Wharfedale Vineyard.

We should take on board this encouragement from Paul in Ephesians 3 v 16 – 19

I pray that out of these glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and you know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Isn’t this amazing what we have on offer to us, to know love that surpasses knowledge, to be filled with the full measure of the fullness of God, to be strengthened by God, being rooted and established in love. These are all things that are available to us through faith and a decision to follow Jesus with our lives.

We have talked about where we start with regard to our past, as a community of faith.

Finally where do we start personally?

What does our personal involvement look like, where do we start as me, Ben or you Beryl or Julia or Mike?
Let’s start with some practicalities here. Some basics that can help us all: read our bibles, learn more about who God is, pray not just for yourself but for others, and importantly spend time listening to God.

I would encourage you to take an active part in housegroups where you can “know and be known” and learn about how to live this life of following Jesus and also come together like we have done this morning to be together, worship together, learn together and pray for each other.

But it is not just this, there is more... we read on

Ephesians 3, verses 20 – 21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Paul now talks about how Jesus can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, and his strategy of doing this is through the church. That means people like us, this actually means you and I. Jesus wants us to be strengthened in him, be rooted and established in love, to grasp his love for us, to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, to then go and do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

Just think about those early Christians who were being persecuted by Paul, do you think they were praying immeasurable prayers that Saul would become a great church planter instead of church pesticide? Yet look at what God did there. How much can he do here today in Leeds and beyond?

Are we praying and acting on more than we can imagine? Do we want to see our neighbours, our work colleagues, our relatives, friends, people we meet on the streets, come to know the love of Jesus? I would love for my neighbours to know and love Jesus, work colleagues from BT to know Jesus, for relatives and friends and people I meet to know the love of Jesus. I know to do this I need to make time for them and show them love, the love of Jesus. Personally I know I also need to start, like Paul, with Jesus, committing my life to him, receiving his Holy Spirit.

So in Summary

• Where do we start regarding our past? ..... humbly before Jesus
• Where do we start as a community? ..... humbly before Jesus
• Where do we start personally? ..... humbly before Jesus

So I would like to start this way humbly before Jesus.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father”

I kneel before God and in front of you this morning because it is my prayer for each person in Wharfedale Vineyard that we will also know Jesus in a deeper way. He will dwell in our hearts and things will happen that are beyond your imaginations.

Here, humbly before God from whom every family in Heaven and on Earth derives it’s name:
Lord I pray that over the next months I will grow deeper in your love, Jesus. Lord Jesus I pray for the privilege of seeing the life of somebody transformed, through your love, beyond my imagination. Amen

Response:
In a few moments I would like to give you all an opportunity to respond with this prayer together, and so can I ask the band to come up to the front again.

The opportunity I would like to give to you is to kneel before the father and make this prayer we have looked at in Ephesians this morning our prayer today and come before God, knowing that is where the power comes from and it is a great place to start.

I would like to challenge you to find places this week to kneel and ask “come holy Spirit” or read the Ephesians passage. The staff team will be praying every day this week to make space for God and pray this prayer in Ephesians.

On the website you will find a forum where you can report on the places you have knelt to pray.
Look at the prayer activities you can be part of on the website.
Meet together with others in twos or threes
Pray on your own
This is a great place to start, start humbly before our father.

Ben Newman, 14/04/2010