Under The Radar

Pastor Edgar Mayer; Living Grace Community Lutheran Church; Message on Good News Coming; Date: 28 December 2008

For more sermons and other writings check out pastor’s homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar

Under The Radar

One of our national newspapers made this observation – I quote: “ … gloom is competing with good cheer as Christmas approaches [and the New Year]. [Headlines run:] ‘Financial stress on the cards … Sombre retail forecast … Bleak season ahead … Grim Christmas, glum new year … Parties down … Christmas could be a Turkey … Tinsel stays in boxes … Little cheer … Merry credit crunch’ … “ (Weekend Australian, Dec 20-21 2008, Opinion).

“Gloom is competing with good cheer.” How has Christmas been for you and what do you expect for the new year? If you are a family with children or a pensioner, you enjoyed the prime minister’s economic stimulus package – a $1000 gift per child. And the advice was to spend it – to help the economy. This was good (a nice surprise) but then we also know that the combined stimulus package cost more than $10 billion and the fear is that this was the last “hooray” – some brave measure of desperation – before we face budget deficits, recession, the loss of jobs, and so on. Trillions of dollars have been lost world-wide. Imagine the extent of the crisis which made carmakers like General Motors (Holden), Ford and Chrysler face bankruptcy. The US government might have bailed them out for now but imagine the prospect of an Aussie BBQ without at least someone arguing whether the Commodore or the Falcon is the better family car.

In many ways the world is in turmoil. We worry about the climate, the proprosed carbon credit exchange and its impact on the economy, the future of our prosperity.

Yet – and this is another worry for some of us Christians – God seems to be strangely out of touch with the newspaper headlines. First of all, his name does not appear in print – we have other consultants – and – in a way giving up on God – even one of our national church leaders from another denomination (President, Uniting Church) said: “ . God isn’t necessarily speaking to us through this global financial crisis. God is not responsible for every event in the world. God is not trying to make a point [original: punish us]” (http://assembly.uca.org.au/media-centre/18-news/383-hearinggod.html).

What is God doing then? What can you expect from him? What can we as a church expect from him? What is he doing? Maybe – if we balance the reading of our newspapers with more of the good news in the Bible, we gain a different perspective. This is not a new situation. 2000 years ago the people of God experienced even more turmoil than we do now: the capital of God’s chosen nation – Jersualem – was under foreign military rule, thousands of people died under torture, Roman soldiers enforced a crippling tax burden, priests compromised and corruption was everywhere. People were desperate.

Yet, God – again – seemed strangely out of touch. As it turned out later he was not at all pleased with what happened in Jerusalem and the way his own people conducted themselves but – for the time being – he chose not to compete with the corridors of power in Jerusalem. He made do without the backing of the mass media.

Instead – he chose a teenage girl from the country, appeared to her in the form of an angel and said to her – Luke 2:31: “You will be with child … give him the name of Jesus.” Then he appeared to the girl’s fiance in a dream and said – again – through an angel – Matthew 1:21: “ … you are to give the child [original: him] the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” More dreams and visions followed. Three wise men – noone knows who they were – followed a star which announced the birth of Jesus and then later were warned in a dream not to make his birth public. Shepherds in the field experienced a visit by angels. A priest from the hill country had a vision in the temple and two other old people in the temple recognized the baby Jesus as the one that would bring salvation to all people.

God worked through dreams and visions but among the common people – without publicity. The teenage girl – Mary, her fiance – Joseph, the wise men, the shepherds, the old people in the temple, the priest from the hill country – none of them featured in any newspapers back then – even though today we all know them – many millions across the world – reading about them in God’s own paper – the Bible – the best-selling book for centuries.

We may think that God seems strangely out of touch because the news bulletins of the day do not pick up on what he is doing – we may think that he is a little slow to move among us – in our families and in our church – we may feel alone and even fearful – but – you and I: take heart, be of good courage – God does not depend on human channels of promotion. You may not pick up on what he is doing for a while – it may be under your radar – but he continues to bring Jesus into our world – into your family, into this church.

Just one example. At the moment we are uneasy about another headline grabbing agenda: Muslim terrorists – suicide bombers – jihad – and the like. There are headlines like: “Secret Saudi funding of radical Islamic groups in Australia” and even our own USQ has now an Islamic centre while there is not a comparable Christian centre – but what is God doing?

Fuller Theological Seminary's School of International Studies conducted an extensive survey in an effort to determine what factors influence a Muslim's decision to follow Christ. Between 1991 and 2007, Fuller Theological Seminary's School of International Studies surveyed 750 Muslim converts around the world to discover what factors played a role in them coming to Christ. The survey included people from 50 different cultural groups and 30 different countries. In October, authors J. Dudley, Russel Shubin and G. Markssummed up the survey in an article in Christianity Today entitled, Why Muslims follow Jesus.[i]

The authors stated, "More than one in four respondents, 27 percent, noted dreams and visions before their decision for Christ, 40 percent at the time of conversion, and 45 percent after."

A California magazine recently published the results of a survey of over 600 ex-Muslims who now follow Jesus. The survey said: “Although dreams appear to play a minor role in the conversions of Westerners, over a quarter of those interviewed [as former Muslims] emphatically confirmed that dreams and visions played a vital role in their conversion, and helped them in difficult times.”

Others have found the percentage higher. Karel Sanders, a missionary in South Africa, reported that among African Muslims, “42 percent of the new believers come to Christ through visions, dreams, angelic appearances and hearing God's voice.” According to Dawn's Friday Fax, a website that focuses on missionary reports, Arabic-speaking moderators explain supernatural experiences such as dreams, visions and healings through prayer to Jesus. They quote one missionary as saying: “This is a hot topic in our region. People from all over the Middle East call us, telling how they were healed through prayer in Jesus' name. Muslim listeners often call to tell us about dreams and visions of Jesus, wanting to know what that means for them.”

The California publication states: “A follower of Jesus from Guinea tells of a person in white who appeared to him in a dream, calling him with outstretched arms. This sort of dream, in which Christ appears as a figure in white, is a frequent pattern in missionary work among Muslims.” The examples are many. A Muslim from Malaysia saw her deceased Christian parents in a dream, celebrating in Heaven. Jesus, in a white robe, told her: “If you want to come to me, come!” She did.

Another convert, this one again from the Middle East, said he was lying in bed with a severe headache. A white figure with a wonderful, peaceful face appeared, laid his hands on his head three times, and the following morning the intractable headache had ceased. A man from western Africa saw a religious Muslim in hell, and a poor Christian, who could not even give alms, in heaven. A voice explained that the decisive point was not the alms, but the faith in Jesus. Meanwhile, a missionary working among the Tausugs, the Philippines’ largest Muslim group, reports that a number of faithful Muslims “saw Jesus” in their dreams following last Ramadan (this again according to Dawn's Fax). One man dreamed of Jesus killing a huge dragon in a duel and the following day had the same dream again – which opened him to the Gospel.

How do these reports strike you? Did you know this? Only a few weeks ago a few colleagues of mine and other Lutherans went to a conference where the speaker (Wolfgang Simpson) shared with them that some missionaries in the Islamic world simply go up to people and ask them whether they have seen a man – dressed in white – in their dreams and whether they would like to know who he is. Many have and many come to faith.

It may be under the radar of the world governments and media but – as it happened 2000 years ago – God does not depend on human channels of promotion. Dreams and visions and healings make a way among the common people first – hidden from the public glare. One in four or sometimes even two in four converts from Islam have come to faith through these means and just in case that we think that this is never going to happen among us: Only about five weeks ago we had a young woman come to faith at Living Grace because she heard God speak to her audibly. And then we also have people who have seen Jesus in their dreams and people who have seen angels – according to the Bible promise – Acts 2:17-18: “ … God says … I will pour out my Spirit on all people … your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy … “

Let me give you some more statistics. Iraq: more than 5,000 new Muslim converts to Christianity have been identified since the end of major combat operations, with 14 new churches opened in Baghdad … Egypt: some reports say 1 million Egyptians have trusted Christ over the past decade or so … Afghanistan: only 17 Muslim converts to Christianity before 9/11/01, but now more than 10,000. Dozens of baptisms every week. Kazakstan: only 3 known Christians in 1990, but now more than 15,000. Uzbekistan: no known Christians in 1990, but now more than 30,000. Sudan: more than 1 million Sudanese have converted to Christianity just since 2000, and some 5 million have become Christians since the early 1990s, despite a radical Islamic regime and an on-going genocide that has killed more than 200,000 … Iran: in 1979, there were only 500 known Muslim converts to Christianity, but today Iranian pastors say that there are more than 1 million Iranian believers in Jesus Christ, most of whom meet in house church movements.

December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on a live interview on Aljazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. “In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity,” Al Qataani warned. “Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity.” Did you know this?

This is what God is on about. Our newspapers may write that gloom is competing with good cheer over the Christmas holidays in 2008 because we have mismanaged our money (we’ve run into problems with institutionalized greed) and there are other worries and God may seem to be out of touch but this is not so. God is not out of touch. He only pursues a slightly different agenda and he is happy (and we may become happy as well) because his strategy is bearing results.

2000 years ago angels told shepherds in the field – Luke 2:10-11: “ … I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today … a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” 2000 years ago angels brought good news to shepherds and these shepherd may have been no-name people (just as Mary, just as Joseph, just as the baby Jesus himself) but the same good news – the same joy – the same favour – is announced to us – available and active among us: “ … I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today … a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Last Sunday Jen gave a testimony about her autistic child Bronte. Doctors said that she would never talk but then – one Sunday – after we preached on healing in our worship service, we prayed for her and God answered by giving Bronte her first word and the word was “joy” and she said it 452 times in one week with wonder-struck parents counting every instance. You didn’t read about it in the Chronicle and it wasn’t on TV but God was and is in touch with what we need. And by the way – after Bronte said the word “joy” 452 times in one week (and at the time I did not know about this) the theme of next Sunday’s message was “joy”. God is speaking this over our church: “Joy … I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people … “ Exercise faith in joy. It’s coming. We have a promise from God.

By now we may have picked up that God pursues different priorities from us. We need Jesus before an economic stimulus package. We need Jesus before a carbon trading scheme. We need Jesus before a promotion, before good health, before a good marriage, before anything. When God commits himself to bring great joy to us he is not dealing with mere symptoms – he is not handing out band-aids or placebos – but is fixing us and our world for good.

As long as we remain unchanged, our behaviour will remain unchanged and therefore our problems will remain unchanged. As long as we are without a Saviour, our newspaper headlines will remain the same: more war, more abuse, more greed, more injustice, more adultery, more corruption, more suicides, … These problems will not be fixed unless we ourselves get fixed – the human heart – as Jesus himself said in the Bible – Matthew 15:16-20: “ . the things that … come from the [human] heart … make a person ‘unclean’. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a person ‘unclean’ … “

Jesus came – a Saviour was born – to fix the human heart. The Bible says about Christians – Acts 15:9: “ … God [original: he] purified their hearts by faith.” God wants to purify your heart by faith in Jesus Christ. This is more important than anything else.

How does it work? The Jesus that was born in a plain country town ended up dying in the capital city with almost everyone involved in his death. The Roman governor, the Jewish king, the chief priests, the people – all of them worked hand in hand – driven by a common sinful human heart – to nail Jesus to a wooden cross and then watch him die a slow and painful death. Jesus hung on that cross for hours and you can imagine that during this time he watched the people in return and – imagine – while he was hanging there, he was also seeing you and I. He knew that he would die also for our sin and our sinful human heart.

Even at that time Jesus knew that his death would be the sacrifice which would release God’s forgiveness and healing power into our lives – if we chose (nudged by the Holy Spirit) to put our faith in him. We do this today – now: trust in Jesus, believe in Jesus, hand over our lives to him, let him touch our hearts – experience salvation. The unnoticed country boy died for the redemption of the world. This is good news of great joy – a tsunami of joy – which ultimately – according to God’s design – cannot remain hidden – cannot continue to be ignored by the media – like (for instance) at the moment none of our printed media picks up that there are worship services in Africa and India and other places which attract more than one million people. The time comes that the good news becomes part of the daily news of a city and a nation. Jesus is Lord and he has power to forgive sins and he has power to change hearts – and therefore our lives. Anything else – any economic stimulus package or other measure – pales in comparison.

Even when Jesus was only eight days old an old man prophesied over him in the temple – Luke 2:34-35: “ … my eyes have seen . salvation .. This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against … “ According to these words Jesus would not always remain hidden but rise to prominence. While there would be many that would not want their hearts to be challenged and changed – who likes to have their sins pointed out to them – when he died, he was the news item number one in the capital and after he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, his prominence only increased. On the day of Pentecost alone three thousand people were baptized and as the Bible says – Acts 2:47: “ … the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” When two Christians healed a blind man in Jesus’ name, the authorities grumbled – Acts 4:16: “What are we going to do with these men? Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it.” In desperation the authorities put the Christian leaders in jail to silence their voices but – Acts 5:19-20 – I read from the Bible: “ . during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. ‘Go, stand in the temple courts,’ he said, ‘and tell the people the full message of this new life.’”

God was always determined – and he remains determined – to take over the headlines. Only a few hours after their wondrous escape from prison the authorities summoned the Christian leaders again and charged them again – with a fair level of frustration – saying – Acts 5:28: “We gave you strict orders not to teach in Jesus’ name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching … “ Yes – and Jerusalem was only the beginning. There are now Christians all over the world and Towoomba – Australia – will also come into another season where we pick up the Chronicle or the Weekend Australian or the Financial Review or whatever and read about Jesus – good news. This is what he said to his disciples in the Bible – Luke 24:46-47: “ … The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness will be preached in his name to all nations … “

Right now we may read in some papers that gloom is competing with good cheer. But – not so for us. We know that God is not out of touch. Right now much of what he is doing may be “under the radar” but Jesus is coming and his name is going to be made great – even here among us.

We “welcome” the new year. We are with him. We are with our God and hasn’t he already given us glimpses that he wants to rise in prominence even at this time? Here at Living Grace over this past year we’ve seen prayers answered, tumors healed, demons driven out, people being filled with the Spirit, spiritual authority increasing, the lost being found, … God has given us glimpses of what he is preparing and as we are looking on with the “eyes of faith” are we not getting excited about what is happening – what is stirring – “under the radar”? God is purifying our hearts by faith and – before we know it – standing on the promises of God – expecting God to burst through – we fill this city and region with the teaching of Jesus Christ.

You and I: prepare to make the news. Amen.