The Way

Welcome

Good morning, my name’s Craig....

In Acts 9:2, there’s one of my favourite descriptions of the believers in the early church. They’re known as followers of The Way. The Way indicates a decision to live a certain way, it implies difference but definition, a type of life that is other or holy, set apart. It wasn’t known as a way, but the way. Even the early disciples understood that the life of following Christ, Jesus the Messiah, was the only way to live lives in accordance with God’s plan and ordinance.

Journeying along The Way

The church is a nomadic people travelling together. As Tim said the other week, we are all sheep following a shepherd. Even the elders are sheep! I am the lead sheep of the team of sheep who lead the sheep! Fortunately there’s a greater shepherd than me who we follow and His name is Jesus! Christians gather in flocks of believers to follow the chief shepherd together. The local church is a flock of people, who are following the chief shepherd together, under the guidance of the lead sheep, who are together listening for the shepherds voice.

In the middle east where the bible was mostly written, the sheep don’t stay in one lovely lush field, with a white picket fence around it, instead they move from place to place together seeking good food, fresh water, and shelter. As a local church, like these bedouin sheep we are on a journey together, seeking these very same things.

This Summer I am going on a journey. What do I need for my journey? As usual with me, since I love stuff, I thought we could think about some of the things that we need for a journey.

Vision

Any good journey has a purpose, a reason. If I’m going on a journey, I need to know why I’m going. I need to have a vision for why I’m going on a journey. It needs a purpose. If I’m going to the shop to get some chocolate and crisps, I know that I’m going on a journey to the local shop, to get those things. I have a purpose for my journey. I know why I’m going, and it doesn’t take me much to get up the energy to make the journey, because I believe in the vision of the journey. It’s a journey that I’m likely to make, no matter the weather, because to me, fetching crisps and chocolate is a great thing to try and achieve.

A better image would be journeying up Everest. You would need to believe wholeheartedly that climbing Everest was worthwhile, to put yourself through that. Me trekking to the shop for chocolate, doesn’t take much vision or conviction, but if I wanted to climb Everest, I would need a whole lot of belief in the vision. What would happen if I started to climb Everest, but didn’t truly believe it was worthwhile? I’d probably discover that it was too difficult, would consider it not worth the effort, and find the easiest way down the mountain. Without vision, I’d give up and find the easiest route out of that situation.

Proverbs 29:18 says (and I love how it’s said in the King James) - “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” On Everest, if you’re not caught up in the vision of climbing the mountain, it’s almost certain that you’ll perish if you attempt it without full commitment. For any journey, we need to know why we’re taking it, and believe in the cause, commit to it.

As a church, we need prophetic vision from God to journey together. This is why I’m taking my walk from Winchester to Billingshurst. I am journeying to seek God for His vision for this church. In the ESV it says “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint” which can also be translated as the people are discouraged. This past few years has seen encouragement and discouragement in this church, I believe we need prophetic vision, so I am spending time journeying with God to seek it.

When we embark on a journey, we need a reason and a vision to see it through. God’s plan for this church, is the reason for my sabbatical, and my 72 mile walk. We need to have a vision that each of us are seeking to see outworked.

Kit

Once we’ve got our vision of what we want to achieve, there’s some kit that we need to see it come to fruition. Most importantly we need a map. This is my map case, inside it i my compass (just for safe keeping). When we’re journeying from one place to another, we need to know how we’re going to get there, and we need something to help us stay on track. Prophetic vision gives us a destination as a church, but we need guidance on how to get there. We should always check our route to make sure we’re going the right way, as we journey together as a church.

There’s some some basic stuff that we need for journeying together. We need provision of shelter. I’ve got my pack here, and inside is my shelter. I’ve got a tent and a tarp for me and my traveling buddy. In church, if we are to journey through life together, there has to be provision of shelter to weather the storms together. Shelter from storms in the life of the church, is found in God first and foremost, but in community we discover the shelter of God. (psalm 91?) He puts us in the local church for a reason, that we might provide shelter to one another throughout the storms of life. There are people who are today going through storms of life, BFC let’s gather around them and provide help and shelter to those amongst us struggling through storms.

What else do we need for a journey? Just like the sheep, we need good food and water. I’ve got a dehydrated meal and a bottle of water for my walk, I’ve also got some snacks to chew on as I travel. In church life, we need good, sustaining food. We need the Word preached as a regular main meal, and we need to snack between meals! We need to be regularly hearing the reading and the preaching of the Word, as well as reading it in our daily lives, consuming it, savouring it moment by moment. The Word energises us and equips us to do all that we need to do. If we don’t have enough of it as we journey together we will get worn out and not be able to complete the path ahead of us. As we journey together as a church, let us consume the Word in the same way we would a meal, daily and repeatedly. The shepherds job is to lead the sheep to good food, as sheep, our job is to take it in and let it nourish us. The shepherd will lead to good food, but the sheep also check before they eat it, trust the shepherd, but always check!

Jesus said that we need to be refreshed with the water of the Spirit, He tells us that if we drink the water He gives us, that we will never be thirsty. For my journey I’m taking some water with me, but is it any good if I keep it bottled up? Of course not, I need to drink of it regularly so I don’t get dehydrated. We need the food of the Word, and the refreshing continuous filling of the water of the Spirit. For my walk, I’m also taking a camelback water bladder (other brands are available). These are great because they reduce the effort needed to access the water. Ready access to water is proven to help us stay hydrated. Let’s make sure to seek to be hydrated with the Holy Spirit as much as we are able. How do we get filled repeatedly with the Holy Spirit? We rely on Him daily, we keep drawing on Him, we don’t keep water bottled up or spread out as a puddle because it either goes stagnant or evaporates. We need to be people regularly drinking in the water of the Spirit by seeking God in prayer together, worshiping together and having fellowship together. We need to be seeking to be obedient to the Spirit’s lead in our lives, and that way the water is repeatedly replenished. As a church we need living water, and the Word of God together. (Bible verse about filling or living water?)

For our journey as a church, we need shelter, we need a vision and a map, we need food and water. Everything else is pretty much an addition to these things that makes the journey easier.

Journeys in the bible

Throughout the bible there are records of people going on journeys from one place to another. Abram, later Abraham, journeyed from Ur to Haran, and on to what would be the promised land of Canaan. Moses went on a journey of exile from Egypt to Midian, before then leading the people of Israel from the land of slavery in Egypt, towards the promised land. Later in the life of God’s people, they would journey up to Jerusalem for important festivals, they would go on pilgrimage to a sacred place. I love how in the psalms there are psalms about pilgrimage and psalms about ascending the hill of the Lord. As I’ve already said, the Christian life is a life of journeying, a life of walking in The Way; walking with God is often used as a picture of the Christian life. 20 or so years ago it wasn’t uncommon for people to ask about your walk with Jesus, whereas today people might ask about your relationship with Jesus.

Walking with Jesus is about relationship, but it’s not a relationship that’s static; instead it is active, it changes with the terrain, but even though it changes, the fact remains that the walk is still with Jesus.

In the last chapter of Luke, we have this wonderful picture of these two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus when they are joined by the resurrected Jesus, but they don’t realise it, their eyes are closed to the reality. As they walk they discuss with Jesus what has happened in Jerusalem, they tell Him all about what He had done. He joins them for a meal that evening and when He gives thanks for, and breaks the bread, their eyes are opened to His true identity. I love their response when they realise what’s happened in Luke 24:32: ‘They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”’

If we wonder what it’s like to walk with Jesus, I think there is an interesting thing here. When I was a younger Christian, people would talk about ‘knowing that you know’. It spoke of a full assurance of the truth, an understanding, perhaps even having had your eyes opened to the truth, even revelation. Something had been revealed. And there’s an excitement in this. I know that when I’ve faced situations where I’ve had to choose God’s way or another way, that when I’ve chosen God’s way, there was a fire within me that meant that I knew that I had walked with Jesus in that moment. A knowing that He was with me, even though I may not have noticed until after the event. When we’re walking with Jesus, we discover an assurance that He is with us. There is a knowing.

I have to wonder, how many of us this year have missed this knowing? Maybe in the past you knew it, you knew that Jesus had been walking with you, but as church shut down and things became static, people became depressed, anxious and dry. As we were out of fellowship, walking in the Way became harder and harder. We lacked encouragement, we lacked seeing the faith of others at work, we were unable to share our faith as we might like, we couldn’t see anyone. It was harder to operate in the things of the Spirit, to share the good news.

I found myself tired and lazy, lethargic towards the things that would do me good and instead caught up eating dry food that was no good for the soul, rather than good food that satisfies all the senses, that fills and leaves us content. When we are tired out, having been eating rubbish, we discover that our journey is going nowhere. We need revitalising, we need to get away from dry food like cream crackers, and get onto succulent salads and meat, fresh vegetables, glorious oils and wonderful fats, all balanced up together. We need to get up and get on and walk with Jesus. Choose to start the journey afresh today. Don’t let lethargy stop you, instead gather with your brothers and sisters and know their encouragement, as well as being an encouragement by being present with them.

Closing

I have been so encouraged by those who have gathered with us these past few weeks. I’ve found that gathering like this has been refreshing, especially given everything we’ve been through since March last year.

Let me encourage you for your own walks with Jesus, get back to church, get back to gathering with the family of God this Summer. Get off the sofa, stop watching from home and gather as we are called to gather.

After all, we are sheep. And sheep are strongest as a flock rather than alone. When the flock is together, the flock flourishes. It finds good food in the Word, it is filled with the water of the Holy Spirit, and in following the chief shepherd together, the flock discovers a security and burning knowledge that they’re walking with Jesus as they shelter the storms in the protection of God and the flock.

This summer, enjoy time with your families and friends who you haven’t seen for a while, but I implore you, make your church family a priority, don’t give up meeting together as some are accustomed to doing (as the writer to the Hebrews says), indeed, if you have, make it a priority to get meeting up with people from church again. This summer homegroups are continuing to meet in different ways, there are loads of opportunities to look out for each other and to be looked out for, so grab them.

Followers of The Way journey the path together, so I encourage all of us here, to do the very same.

Let’s pray.