When we lived in Brisbane, it was quite common to see a biplane following the course of the River with a message in large letters on a clear background trailing behind it.
For at least some of Expo 88, a small plane would fly over at night with a message written in lights scrolling underneath its wings.
Did you hear about the Council that dropped tens of thousands of leaflets from a hot-air balloon as part of their publicity for a cleanup campaign?
At a more mundane level, our letterboxes get stuffed several times a week with uninvited advertising material. We call it "junk mail", though I am sure the people who prepare it and send it out don't regard it as junk! That was one of our practical questions when we were preparing drop Christmas and Easter invitations into letterboxes in the North Buderim area - what are we to do with letter-boxes marked "NO JUNK MAIL"? A real issue there - while we don't regard our Christian leaflets as "junk mail", nobody else regards their printed material as "junk mail", either!
And that is all part of the wide communication problem - there
are so many other individuals and organisations with information
that they think everybody "must" know! But there is
a big difference between us and them - they may think their information
is important, but we know that our information is the most important
there could ever be for every man, woman and child in the whole
world! Do you really believe that? If you do, it will be reflected
in your interest in and support of the work of the Lord, in the
tithes and offerings you bring week by week, in your thirst to
grow in your Christian faith and practice, in your desire to be
a better-equipped witness for the Lord…
For the last words of Jesus before he ascended out of our sight into heaven were, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age."
Why the big urgency to get the message out? Well… there really is a God out there! How do we know? He has been making himself known. He hasn't left us to guess. Why? Because he wants us to know him - not just to know about him, but to know him! In fact, he wants us to be part of his family.
For centuries he had been revealing himself to the Jewish people. A stubborn lot - they didn't always follow up on what he said! Officially they knew that there is only one God. Privately quite a number of them worshipped other gods. But the revelation was there. The evidence was in their history - in the whole course of what happened to their nation. And the record of God's revelation of himself was written in a book -a whole library of thirty-nine books actually, known to us as the Old Testament.
Of course, this problem of the Jews setting up their own values and going after other gods was part of a much bigger problem - the problem of wanting to live without reference to the true God. That goes back to the very dawn of the human race, to the time when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, even though they had known him very much as part of the life of the Garden. They felt ashamed and hid from God. Already they felt a distance between themselves and God - before God spoke to them and closed the Garden of Eden to them.
That big problem has a little name - sin. It sums up all the ways in which we seek to live autonomously - without reference to God. Psalm 1.1 speaks about "evil men", "sinners" and "those who have no use for God" (GNB). Sometimes sin is seen in violence and crime. Sometimes, in selfishness and meanness. Sometimes we are just aware that we are never as good as we know we ought to be. And that's the big problem about sin - we are all sinners, even those who are trying to do good. Here is what Paul wrote about it, "I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead do what I hate… I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do…" (Rom.7.15,19).
So the big problem of sin created a whole host of other problems - we can read about many of them in the papers every day. Our relationships with other human beings in society and in our own homes is deeply affected by the choice to live without reference to God. Society just doesn't work as it should. There have to be a whole lot of rules to keep us out of one another's hair - and a penal system and police force to make us keep them! Those are the things we see in the news. But the most serious and basic effects of sin are in our relationship with God himself. Paul wrote that "sin pays its wage - death" (Rom.6.23a). We don't like to think of consequences, but the consequences of sin are as serious as that! Jesus spoke about the suffering of Hell.
We need to be forgiven, but that's going to be costly because the consequences of our sin are costly! We also need the presence of God within our lives so that this time we will be able to keep "on track". Here is one of the promises of God from the Old Testament times - "The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. None of them will have to teach his fellow-countrymen to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken" (Jer.31.33-34). Notice the importance of "knowing the Lord," and the two things that will make that possible - the forgiveness of their sins and the law of God written on their hearts.
So if we are to know God, two important things have to happen. A moment ago we put it this way - "We need to be forgiven, but that's going to be costly because the consequences of our sin are costly! We also need the presence of God within our lives so that this time we will be able to keep 'on track'."
It makes just so much sense to believe that there is a Supreme Being, a Creator, a Lord of all. But if we are to know him in any close sense, if we are to know this God who is behind everything in a personal way - as a heavenly Father - we will also have to know him as Saviour and as spiritual Helper.
The young minister had recently come through College where he had been impressed by the awesome majesty of God. On his first Sunday in his new parish he was praying, "God, you are almighty! You dwell in eternity! Absolute in your power! Unreachable in your purity! Perfect in your holiness! Living in unreachable light… By what name may we call you?" The helpful voice of a little old lady was heard to call out, "We call 'im 'eavenly Father 'ere, Sir!"
And isn't that basic truth just so important for us all? That's what it's all about - knowing God, belonging to his family. But the Jews still felt a distance between themselves and God. In their best moments they worshipped the one God, but had no knowledge of God the Father. That could only happen when Jesus came - when God the Son came into human history to reveal the Father and to die for human sins so that we could be forgiven. And it could only happen when God the Holy Spirit was made available to every person who believes in Jesus so that they are "born again", brought into the family and enabled to live there.
The new covenant that Jeremiah spoke about - in which we would know God, have our sins forgiven and God's law written on our hearts - this new covenant is only possible because the one God has revealed himself in three personalities as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
That knowledge of God's love and experience of God's forgiveness and power in our lives gives us the good news that is so urgent in this world. It is not something personal and private that we can keep to ourselves. The love of God is reaching out to all people! Jesus has given his life for all people! The transforming and enabling power of the Holy Spirit is available for all people! So - "go to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples!"
Here is the beginning point of our mission. This is where we begin! And all around us is where we are to go to from here! Let's get cracking!
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