Christmas Peace and where to find it

Well here we are again. Christmas Eve. Another year gone. It hardly seems possible does it? Have you noticed how the pace of life seems to accelerate as we grow older? True, people seem to live life at a much faster pace these days more than ever before. And it is infectious isn’t it? Think about it; how did Kwik-Fit get to be the world’s leading tyre, exhaust and brake specialist? By promising to fit quickly. How did Proctor and Gamble become the number one seller of shampoo? One reason – by putting shampoo and conditioner in the same bottle. Remember all those years when you had to shampoo and then rinse, then condition and rinse. Now it’s just all in one bottle. “Wash and go” is their slogan. Number one.

And if you are old enough to remember, it was 1974 when a new kind of restaurant became very popular in the UK. For the first time in human history a restaurant sold food not on the basis of its quality, nor even on the basis even of its price, but on the speed of service. And we coined a phrase for those kinds of restaurants. We called them “fast food.” Fast food. Not good food, not even cheap food. Just fast. But even with fast food restaurants, you still had to park the car and get out and walk all the way inside and order the food and sit down and eat it. And all of that took time. So we invented drive-through lanes, so that families could eat in cars as God intended us to. And the beautiful thing about this is that if you haven’t got time to stop at a fast food restaurant, the children can just scrounge around in the cracks underneath the seats for cold potato chips and lost gummy bears. Continue reading →

Arthur Christmas Meets Jesus

Arthur Christmas Meets Jesus from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

They say there are four phases in life. In the first phase you believe in Father Christmas. In the second phase you don’t believe in Father Christmas. In the third phase you are Father Christmas. In the final phase you just look like Father Christmas. The blockbuster film in the cinema’s this week, from the makers of Wallace and Gromit, is aptly titled “Arthur Christmas”. It includes a grandfather, father and two sons, who embody at least three of these phases in life. The film at last reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child’s question: ‘How does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?’

But after 70 annual deliveries, Father Christmas, whose real name is Malcolm, is nearly ready to hand over the red cloak to his oldest son and heir, Steve. Malcolm is now merely the figurehead of what has become an ultra-high-tech global package-delivering corporation hidden beneath the North Pole. Steve seeks the glory of the position of Santa Claus, not the joy of bringing happiness to children around the world. He runs Santa’s headquarters like a military command centre, with thousands of commando elves at his disposal, and a goatee cut in the shape of a Christmas tree. Continue reading →

To Us a Child is Born (Isaiah 9:1-7)

If you were the Father Christmas and you happened to visit a few hundred thousand churches today on a pre-Christmas dry run, I suspect you would find a common theme running through many sermons preached this morning. The question is – how to achieve it? Reading the news this week it struck me that the assumption often made is that regime change will lead to peace and prosperity. The Arab Spring blossoming across much of the Middle East brings the hope of freedom, peace and prosperity through regime change. And this desire is not limited to countries with despotic rulers. Another eight countries wish to join the European Community in the belief that a regime change from Communism to Capitalism will bring peace and prosperity. But will it? It may bring EC subsidies but, as we have seen this week, it will also bring more centralised financial regulation. But before we think the problem is only in Europe or the Middle East, let’s remember how badly we sometimes long for regime change here in Britain. Whether from one political party to another, or one leader to another, we are sold the idea that regime change in Parliament will bring lasting peace and prosperity, at least during the election campaigns every four years. And it is not only limited to the political realm. In the City, whenever there is a loss of confidence on the stock market or share dividends, Boardroom changes are inevitable.

The world of sport is the same. A seat in the chairman’s box or the coach’s bench is closely linked to goals, attendances and league performance. I could also mention the Church of England but let’s not get too personal. The desire for regime change affects us at every level of life. The mistake, however, is to imagine that if only we can solve the crisis in Afghanistan, in Europe, at No 10, in the City, or even in Canterbury, we could then enjoy a peaceful Christmas this year. The reason we can’t is because the desire for regime change goes much deeper. I suspect many of us have wondered whether regime change closer to home would bring us peace and happiness. Think about your neighbours, your relatives, your spouse, parents or children. Ever been tempted to think that regime change would solve your problems? It won’t, because the problem doesn’t lie out there, but lies in here. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. And nothing we do to change our circumstances, economics, marital status or social life will bring the peace we so badly need. Continue reading →

Christianity Explored: What must I do to inherit eternal life?

A famous professor of surgery died and went to heaven. At the entrance he was asked by the gatekeeper: ‘Have you ever committed a sin you truly regret?’ ‘Yes,’ the professor answered. ‘When I was a young intern at the Hospital of Saint Lucas, we played soccer against another hospital team, and I scored a goal. I was actually off-side but the referee did not see it. The goal won us the match. I regret cheating now.’ ‘Well,’ said the gatekeeper. ‘That is a very minor sin. You may enter.’ ‘Thank you very much, Saint Peter,’ the professor answered. ‘I’m not Saint Peter,’ said the gatekeeper. ‘He is having his lunch break. I am Saint Lucas.’ “If God were to say to you: ‘Why should I let you into heaven? Why should I give you eternal life?’ what would you say?” In Mark 10 we meet someone who really wanted eternal life. I hope you do too.

The Ideal Candidate for Eternal Life: Good

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him.” (Mark 10:17-20)

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Christianity Explored: Why did Jesus Rise?

I needed to renew my health insurance last month. I was offered up to 15% discount on my premiums if I completed an online interactive questionnaire about my health, my lifestyle, diet, and fitness regime. I wish I hadn’t. There were about 100 multi-choice questions. Things like, do you exercise regularly? One hour a day, two hours a day? Two hours a day? How far do you jog a day? Jog? One mile? Two miles? Are you serious? How much do you drink and how often? I thought that was a trick question because red wine is supposed to be good for you. A bottle a day is not as good as abstinence apparently. Do you smoke? Is there a history of cardiovascular problems, mental illness, diabetes, etc. in your family? Well we are all damaged good’s aren’t we? How much do you weigh? Truthfully or aspirationally? Before or after the full English breakfast? Do you eat saturated fats? Saturated fats apparently are things like spinach, carrots and Brussels sprouts, don’t go near them, they’ll kill you. What is your waist measurement? Well that depends doesn’t it? When I breath in or out? Then you factor in your height (without shoes), your marital status and age and then the programme will calculate your likely chances of needing medical treatment in the next ten years. A virtual doctor even gives you advice on improving your health and how to reduce your premiums still further. Staying healthy can become a full time occupation if you are not careful. It was depressing.

I managed to squeeze 5% off my premiums with a few nods, winks and promises. After I finished the survey, I ate salads for a whole week with no French fries. I went to the gym twice and got to bed earlier. It nearly killed me. Fortunately it did not last. Life insurance companies, and even retirement homes, use something similar called the countdown calculator to work out how long clients are likely to live and therefore their liability. Premiums are adjusted accordingly. Whatever my insurance premiums next year, I know for a fact that, unless Jesus comes first, I will die one day. I don’t know if you realise but we all have a sexually transmitted disease. It is called life and the fatality rate is 100%. But because of what we read in Mark 16, the ultimate terror of death is removed. Our theme in this series entitled Christianity Explored is “The Resurrection : Why did Jesus Rise?” Let’s find some answers from Mark 16. Continue reading →

Seven Biblical Answers to Popular Zionist Assumptions

After extensive field testing in the UK, USA and in the debate with Dr Calvin Smith on Revelation TV, “Has the Church Replaced Israel“, I have revised and enhanced my paper ‘Seven Biblical Answers to Popular Zionist Assumptions’ The pdf version contains additional illustrations.

1. God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel

Promise	Fulfilment
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3).	“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ… There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:16, 28-29)
“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore… and through your seed all nations on earth will be blessed…” (Genesis 22:17-18)

This popular assumption is based on Genesis 12:3. First, note that the promise was made to Abram (that is, Abraham) and no one else. Second, there is nothing in the text to indicate God intended the promise to apply to Abraham’s physical descendants unconditionally, or in perpetuity. Third, in the New Testament we are told explicitly that the promises were fulfilled in Jesus Christ and in those who acknowledge Him as their Lord and Saviour. God’s blessings come by grace through faith, not by works or race (Ephesians 2:8-9). Continue reading →

Christianity Explored: The Cross – Why did Jesus die?

Bertram Russell the philosopher and cynic once said, “most people would rather die than think… and most people do.” He went on to say, “When I die I rot”, which may have been true in his case, but not the whole truth. The reality is most people would rather not think about the one certainty in life. Yesterday I went to see the World Press Photo exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall. The annual competition takes entries from photojournalists, picture agencies, newspapers and magazines across the world. The winners whose photos are on display were selected from more than 100,000 entries. I was struck by two things as I walked round: How many of them portrayed people about to die, in the act of dying or afterwards. Second, by how those visiting the exhibition stood in silence, mesmerised by the photographs. Too much reality is hard to cope with, even in black and white. It’s the same with the biographies of famous people isn’t it? Biographies always dwell on their life achievements but invariably give little or no space to their deaths. That is why it is so striking to discover that in the biographies of Jesus dedicate about one third of their space to the last seven days in the life of Jesus and specifically to the subject of Jesus’ death. Clearly, Jesus was an amazing individual. But why spend so much time dwelling on his death? And further, why is it that the mode of his death—the cross—has become the universally-recognized symbol of Christianity?

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Christianity Explored: Why did Jesus Come? (Mark 2:1-17)

The song popularized by Louis Armstrong ‘What a Wonderful World’ is a beautiful song that celebrates nature: Trees of green, red roses too, they bloom for me and you; Skies of blue, clouds of white, bright blessed day and dark sacred nights. Nature is marvelled at and I’m sure you have experienced that and felt the same wonder. It’s a song that also celebrates friendship, and above all it celebrates falling in love: Friends shake hands saying, ‘How do you do?’ What they are really saying is, ‘I love you.’ It’s a great song about the fantastic gifts of life: creation; friendship; falling in love. But as we saw from the pictures, there is something wrong with our world.

But in Mitch Markowitz’s film Good Morning Vietnam while the song says one thing the pictures say another. As we are told ‘the roses bloom for me and for you’, we see a bomb going off. As we hear the words ‘the colours of the rainbow so pretty in the sky’, we see protesters being beaten. And, most poignant of all, the chorus of ‘I say to myself, what a wonderful world’ is accompanied by images of the little child’s sandal. That’s the world we live in. It should be so good and yet there is something desperately wrong. The film’s artistry is very clever because it shows us that the world is not the place it ought to be. It should be a wonderful world, but all too often it is spoilt by people. The film is summed up by the Vietnamese girl with whom Robin Williams has fallen in love.

She says that so many things do not happen the way you want them to. The Bible actually goes deeper than that. The Bible says that so many things don’t happen the way we want them to because people are not what they should be. People are sick, indeed dying, says Jesus, and we so desperately need a doctor. The tragedy is, most people do not realize their condition is fatal. Before we realize how desperate we are, we need to realize three things: who Jesus is, why he came and how he alone can make us well again.

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Has the Church Replaced Israel? Revelation TV Debate

“Has the Church Replaced Israel?” A debate between Calvin Smith and Stephen Sizer broadcast on Revelation TV 9th November 2011.

Dr Calvin Smith, Principal of Kings Evangelical Divinity School,and I debated the question “Has the Church Replaced Israel?” live on Revelation TV. It was a good natured discussion and on many issues we were in agreement. The programme is available for purchase on DVD from Revelation TV. Calvin and I introduced our positions at the beginning of the programme. Here is my opening statement.

Revelation TV Debate

The question I want us to consider tonight is this: Was the coming of Jesus the fulfilment or the postponement of the promises God made to Abraham? Is the Church central to God’s purposes today or a parenthesis to God’s continuing purposes for the Jewish people? Briefly let me ask three additional questions that may help us find an answer.

1. Who are God’s Chosen People?

The assumption that the Jewish people are God’s “chosen people” is so deeply ingrained, to question it sounds heretical or anti-Semitic. Yet both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures insist membership of God’s people is open to all races on the basis of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 56, we see the Lord anticipate and repudiate the rise of an exclusive Israeli nationalism.

“Let no foreigners who have bound themselves to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.” … And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants … who hold fast to my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain… for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”” (Isaiah 56:3, 6-7)

In the New Testament the term “chosen” is used exclusively of the followers of Jesus, irrespective of race.

“Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (Colossians 3:11-12)

2. What is the Significance of the Promised Land?

Contrary to popular assumption, the Scriptures repeatedly insist that the land belongs to God and that residence is always conditional. For example, God said to his people, “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.” (Leviticus 25:23).

The scriptures insist, residence was open to all God’s people on the basis of faith not race. Indeed, the writer to Hebrews explains that the land was never their ultimate desire or inheritance any way.

“By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God… These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:9-10; 39-40)

The land was only ever intended as a temporary residence until the coming of Jesus Christ. Our shared eternal inheritance is heavenly not earthly.

3. Does God have a separate plan for Israel apart from the Church?

Many believe that God has a continuing covenant with Israel, separate from the Church. This is usually base this on passages like Romans 9-11, although the context is often ignored. In Romans 2:28-29, for example, the Apostle Paul defines ‘Jew’.

“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.” (Romans 2:28-29)

That is why in Romans 9, the term ‘Israel’ is limited to those who acknowledge the Lord Jesus.

“It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” (Romans 9:6-8)

In the letter to the Philippians, Paul explicitly identifies the church as the true ‘circumcision’ (Phil. 3:3). This is entirely consistent with the Old Testament, where, as we have already seen, citizenship of Israel was open to all ‘those who acknowledge me’ (Psalm 87:4). And here is the clue to understanding Romans 9-11. Of course God has not rejected the Jewish people. His covenant purpose for them, as with every other race, has always been ‘that they may be saved’ (Romans 10:1), to create one people for himself, made of both Jews and Gentiles (Romans 11:26). God’s covenant purposes are fulfilled only in and through Jesus Christ. This is most fully explained in Ephesians 2.

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” … remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one … His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2: 11-16)

To summarise, in the New Testament we are told explicitly that the promises were fulfilled in Jesus Christ and in those who acknowledge Him as their Lord and Saviour. God’s blessings come by grace through faith, not by works or race (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ… There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:16, 28-29).

It is not an understatement to say that what is at stake is our understanding of the gospel, the centrality of the cross, the role of the Church, the nature of our missionary mandate, not least, to the beloved Jewish people.

For more resources see:

Zion’s Christian Soldiers? The Bible, Israel and the Church
Seven Biblical Answers to Popular Zionist Assumptions
Seven Biblical Answers Interactive Bible Studies

Who is Jesus? (The Sum of all Fears)

He was a professional thief. His name stirred fear as the desert wind stirs tumbleweeds. He terrorized the Wells Fargo stage line for thirteen years, roaring like a tornado in and out of the Sierra Nevadas, spooking the most rugged frontiersmen. In journals from San Francisco to New York, his name became synonymous with the danger of the frontier. During his reign of terror between 1875 and 1883, he is credited with stealing the bags and the breath away from twenty-nine different stagecoach crews. And he did it without firing a shot. His weapon was his reputation. His ammunition was intimidation. A hood hid his face. No victim ever saw him. No artist ever sketched his features. No sheriff could ever track his trail. He never fired a shot or took a hostage. He didn’t have to. His presence was enough to paralyze. Black Bart. A hooded bandit armed with a deadly weapon.

He reminds me of another thief-one who’s still around. You know him. Oh you’ve never seen his face, either. You couldn’t describe his voice or sketch his profile. But when he’s near, you know it in a heartbeat. If you’ve ever been in the hospital, you’ve felt the leathery brush of his hand against yours. If you’ve ever sensed someone was following you, you’ve felt his cold breath down your neck. If you’ve awakened late at night in a strange room, it was his husky whisper that stole your slumber. You know him. It was this thief who left your palms sweaty as you went for the job interview. It was this con man who convinced you to swap your integrity for popularity. And it was this scoundrel who whispered in your ear as you left the cemetery, “You may be next.” He’s the Black Bart of the soul. He doesn’t want your money. He doesn’t want your diamonds.
He won’t go after your car. He wants something far more precious. He wants your peace of mind-your joy. His name? Fear. His task is to take your courage and leave you timid and trembling. Fear of death, fear of failure, fear of God, fear of tomorrow-his arsenal is vast. His goal? To create cowardly, joyless souls.

Last week we began a new series “Christianity Explored” We want to discover who Jesus is and why he came. For answers we are reading the Gospel of Mark together. Continue reading →