With the terrorism, the atrocities, the calamities going on around the world today not to mention the trials that each one of us faces in our own life, you can be tempted into thinking that God, if He exists at all, has seriously lost the plot. Yep, you could be seriously tempted.

Yeah a few people have commented to me, ‘Berni, it is a bit of a weird name for a series of messages, When The Lion Roars’. Normally you talk about stuff happening in our own lives, down to earth, real life stuff but now you’ve kind of zoomed out to look at events sweeping across the globe.’ That’s true, that’s exactly what I’ve done.

Many people are concerned, even fearful, over global events. Terrorism, which unlike the super powers slugging it out during the Cold War, can strike very close to home. The rise of religious extremism, in particular the rise and rise of Islam which seems to be impacting hitherto so-called western countries in detrimental ways.

The rise of secularism which is impacting on the religious freedom of Christians. I saw a news article just recently where two Christians in the US were fined $13,000 for refusing to host a same-sex wedding at their reception centre. Well things are certainly changing.

Things are sweeping across the globe which are scaring a lot of middle class people who have lived safely in the comfort that their freedom affords for generations. Okay there have been wars and depressions and recessions but there’s something different about what’s going on in the world today, at least in the western world. It feels more insidious, it feels more threatening than before, it’s closer to home.

A tide has turned and whereas before Christianity represented if not the default religion then certainly the default basis for the morals and rule of law. That is less and less becoming the case and people are worried and in the middle of all that Berni comes along with this crazy series of messages called When The Lion Roars.

Well I’m hoping that it ain’t quite as crazy as it appears because that title makes reference to a passage of Scripture in the Book of Revelation. The one Book of the Bible that comprehensively, beyond any shadow of any doubt, tells us exactly how all this stuff is going to end, in the end. Have a listen, Revelation chapter 5, verses 1 to 8.

Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back sealed with seven seals and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’ And no one in heaven nor in earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Don’t weep, see the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals’.

Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne.

When he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of saints. (Revelation chapter 5: 1-8)

Anyway on it goes to describe the power and the might of Jesus as He brings history to an end as all Creation bows down to Him.

Yeah okay, it’s written in rather vivid picture language, something in our culture we’re perhaps not quite used to. But the point is that in the end Jesus wins, in fact He already has and we’re simply waiting for the end to come. And the truth be known, Jesus foretold great persecutions before the end, exactly what’s happening now.

So let me ask you, ‘Why are we surprised exactly?’ I know that may sound a bit off-handed, particularly to those suffering persecution right now and there are plenty of those people listening in today. But in the end Jesus wins, He won actually on that cross and through that empty tomb when He rose again two thousand years ago.

One of the great litmus tests for how people see the world these days is social media and as you can imagine I connect with more than a few people who would call themselves Christians on Facebook and Twitter. And I receive a lot of emails from people from the four corners of the earth.

And one of the very clear trends that I sense in all of that communication is a sense of foreboding, of fear and in some cases of desperation and a big factor in that is that people feel that they’ve lost control of global events, people feel that there’s nothing they can do. And when I say to them, ‘Well you can pray’ to many, that feels like a cop-out and my response to that is, ‘Really? Prayer a cop out?’ Yeah sure, they say, it seems like a feeble response to the terrible things going on in this world.

And so my answer to that is quite simply this, ‘If in the face of some terrible calamity, some terrible out of control force sweeping your life or indeed the globe, if in that place you are completely and utterly powerless to do anything, ANYTHING except pray then in your prayer, through your prayer, you’ve already done the single, most powerful thing that you’ll be ever able to do on this earth’. Listen to Jesus:

If you abide in me and my words abide in you ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. (John 15:7)

Here’s the thing, when you and I pray it’s not about the eloquence of our prayer, it’s not about the size of our faith, it’s not even about how big the problem is that we’re praying into. No, it’s not about any of those things. When you and I pray – it’s about the power, the might, the love, the compassion of the God to whom we pray. It’s about the right standing that Jesus has purchased for us on that cross which is why we ask in His name. It’s about God joining hands with us through our prayer to see His will being done on this earth as it is in heaven.

I wonder how different this earth would be if you and I got really serious about that sort of prayer, I just wonder. But, but, but, I hear some people say, but, but, but, look at the persecution of Christians going on in this world today, I’ve prayed and look, it’s not working.

Almost in the very next breath after Jesus said that thing about praying this is what He said to His disciples.

If the world hates you be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belong to this world the world will love you as its own but because you do not belong to this world but I have chosen you out of this world therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master’, if they persecuted me they’ll certainly persecute you, if they kept my word they’ll keep yours also but they will do all these things to you on account of my name because they do not know him who sent me. (John 15:18-21)

Persecution is precisely what Jesus predicted would happen. Whether it’s the atrocities happening to Christians in some parts of the world or whether it’s the creeping secularism, political correctness and threat of religious extremism that’s disturbing those who are living comfortably in democratic western destinations.

It’s exactly what Jesus said would happen. It’s exactly what the Bible says would happen to usher in the end. Why are we so surprised? My friend your prayer has so much power because the God to whom you pray is a God of enormous power. And He’s a God who answers our prayers.

And remember this, in the end Jesus wins. In the meantime, He’s calling for His people to pray. And when you do, when you ask the Father for His will to be done in Jesus name you are doing the single, most powerful thing that you could possibly ever do to change the course of history.

So will you, will you pray in Jesus name?

Out of every one hundred people you know out there one, just one will read a Bible and ninety-nine will read your life. In fact your life may be the only Bible they ever read, now there’s a scary thought.

Yeah I know that this world is crazy out of control and I know that you and I are infinitesimally small blips in the sweep of world events in history. And I know that you and I can feel powerless to change even the course of a single life, let alone the history of the world. But any person, any man, woman or child who belongs to Jesus is filled with a power, the power of the Holy Spirit which is so much more than anything we can ever imagine, that we can have a huge impact in this world.

So why don’t we? Well in part it’s because those of us who believe in Jesus don’t have a really good handle on the immeasurable greatness of His power that He’s placed within us.

I want to share a story with you today, just something that came up as I was reading my Bible in my quiet time yesterday, a story that really leapt off the pages and into my heart. It happens after Jesus has ascended into heaven and the Apostles are busy kicking off this new thing that today we call the Church.

Stephen has just been stoned to death, egged on by Saul who later became the Apostle Paul. And through this great persecution the believers in Jerusalem flee and they’re scattered throughout the known world. As a result of that great persecution, the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus starts to spread.

In particular a guy called Phillip ends up in a place called Samaria. Now the Samaritans were the sworn enemy of the Jews, related but they were considered to be the dregs. And Phillip proclaims the Gospel to them and they accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Here’s what happens next, Acts chapter 8, verses 14 to 17.

Now when the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them, they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now I know that this whole thing of receiving the Holy Spirit, whether it happens at the moment you believe in Jesus or at some later time, has been the source of such great division across the Church. Just quietly what I see in the Bible is that sometimes receiving the Holy Spirit happens at the moment you believe as it did for Cornelius and his family. You can read about them in Acts chapter 10, and other times it happens at a later point in time.

Do I believe that everybody who believes in Jesus has the Spirit in them? Yes I do because that’s what the Bible says, Romans chapter 8, verse 9. But if you ask me, has everybody who has the Holy Spirit received the Holy Spirit then my answer would be no, because it’s as plain as the nose on my face that there are a whole bunch of people who call themselves Christians who haven’t received the Holy Spirit into their lives.

The Holy Spirit brings the power to be holy. The Holy Spirit brings the power to be patient. The Holy Spirit brings peace and faith and hope and generosity and the list goes on. Now am I suggesting that everybody who has received the Holy Spirit is perfect? No, not at all.

I have been filled with the Holy Spirit and yet I fall short of the glory of God every day of my life. What’s different about me though now is that my heart yearns to honour God. I don’t always do that but in my heart I long to please Him and to honour Him. That’s what changed for me after I received the Holy Spirit.

I know at this point some people are thinking, ‘Berni are you getting all Pentecostal or charismatic on us?’ And you know what I don’t like labels, I just want to open the Bible and share with you what’s in it. And in this case when Peter and John laid hands on these Samaritans and they received the Holy Spirit the tense of the original Greek verb ‘received‘ tells us that it’s repeated, it’s an ongoing, continual action not a one-time event. In other words they went on receiving the Holy Spirit over and over and over again.

I for one need to keep on receiving the Holy Spirit over and over and over again because if He overflows out of me into the lives of other people around me I need to be continually filled with Him so that I can overflow some more. And that’s exactly what the Apostle Paul says later on to the Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 18 where he uses that same tense for the verb. He writes:

Keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Think about this, if your life is the entry point of the power of the Holy Spirit into this world, if He drenches you so much which by the way is exactly what the word ‘baptise‘ means which is why the Bible talks about being baptised with the Spirit, if you are soaked full of the Spirit, completely transformed by His presence then when you’re saturated He’s going to overflow out of you into the lives of the people around you. That is very deliberately the picture that the Bible paints.

So forget about splitting hairs about what we call it or when it happens, let me ask you, ‘Are you drenched with the Holy Spirit? Are you continually receiving Him into your life so that His goodness and love overflows out of you?’ Because when we come to the realisation that we are completely helpless to change this world apart from Him then we are absolutely in the right place, we’re exactly where Jesus wants us, dry and hungry and thirsty and ready to be filled with the Spirit.

If you believe in Jesus but you feel that dryness and that thirst I want you to rejoice today and ask the Holy Spirit to drench you literally, as the Bible says to baptise you. I’m not talking of any out-of-body experiences here or anything weird. Just a simple prayer for Him to fill you afresh today and again tomorrow and again the next day because now, all of a sudden, your life will be filled with the power to make a difference, a real difference in this world.

No, not all of us are called to be national leaders or hotshot preachers or TV evangelists, whatever, that’s not what I mean. Some of you have the gift of compassion, a pastoral gift that I could never ever have because that’s not how God made me. And when the Holy Spirit flows out of you that gift, your unique gift with which He’s blessed you and anointed you, then watch out, things will start changing in you and around you. God will start making a difference in the world through you.

Let me come back to what I just said at the beginning of the program, if you believe in Jesus then your life maybe the only Bible people around you ever read. How you speak, how you behave, how you live your life speaks of the authenticity of this Jesus to people around you.

The very same is true about how I speak and how I behave and how I live my life. And doing what I do my life is closely watched by the people around me and rightly so. They should expect a higher standard of a teacher of God’s Word. I can preach until I’m blue in the face, I can preach the best most powerful sermon that’s ever been preached since Jesus but if my life doesn’t back it up then it’s completely worthless and the same is true of you.

The first, the most important, the only sermon you and I preach that will ever really matter is the one that we preach with our lives and when we’re filled with the Holy Spirit, filled to overflowing then our lives are going to tell a new story, a different story, a story that is so compelling, a story that rings so true that people will be asking you for some of what you’ve got.

The single most powerful thing that you and I can do to change this world is pray. The next most powerful thing that you and I can do to change this world is to live a life that is continually being filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. And the more He works in us and through us the more we will be amazed as we see the Holy Spirit change the course of the lives of the people around us.

Remember in the end Jesus wins – in the end the Lion roars. In the meantime, He’s looking for the likes of you and me to make that truth real in other people’s lives.

So let me ask you something; in this crazy, out of control world where so much is going wrong, where so many people’s lives are out of control, can a single person, someone let’s say …like you … can a single person really make a positive difference? I mean really?

Well over the last couple of days on the program, we’ve chatted about what I believe are the two most powerful things that you and I can do to make a difference in this world. The first is to pray because when we pray, we’re joining hands with God to get His will happening here on earth just as it does in heaven. Isn’t that how Jesus taught us to pray?

And the second is to live a life that is filled with the Holy Spirit, not with the rubbish that this world dishes up to us. Have a listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote about that very thing to his friends in Ephesus, Ephesians 5: 18-20.

Don’t get drunk with wine because that’s debauchery but be filled with the Spirit as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs amongst yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s what we talked about yesterday on the program. The tense of the verb, the original Greek word used there by Paul which we translated as ‘filled’ literally means ‘go on being filled‘ with the Holy Spirit, because when we live a life that’s based on prayer, the sort of prayer backed by a faith that knows that God’s in control, and when we live the Spirit-filled life that the Bible commands us to live, then our lives are going to weigh in and count for Jesus in a whole new way.

Holiness – which is what the Holy Spirit progressively brings into our lives as He transforms us from glory to glory – holiness is the most powerful form of mission to a lost and hurting world that you will ever find because it proclaims Christ through your life. It speaks of the authenticity of Jesus in your life into this world and it prepares people to receive the Good News into their hearts. And the more people who receive Jesus, the more this world is going to change and the more the will of God is going to get done here on this earth as it is in heaven. Amen?

But … and of course there’s always a but, isn’t there? … at some point, those people out there who have never accepted Jesus, they need to hear the Good News; they need to hear the story; they need to hear the Word of God.

By and large people don’t become Christians via osmosis. That’s not to say that God doesn’t do some totally mind-blowing and amazing things. So many Muslims are coming to faith in Christ now and many, many report having seen Jesus in a dream. Jesus does break through powerfully as and when He needs to. But more often than not, much more commonly, He speaks through other people.

Most people in this world are completely ignorant about the Bible, about Jesus, about what He promises and the new eternal life that He offers as a free gift of grace. Oh they think they know, but most often their understanding is that if you follow a whole bunch of rules, of you participate in a whole bunch of rituals and if you live basically a good life, then hey you’re in, heaven is assured …well sort of, maybe …

That’s the gospel of this world and it’s a false gospel because it completely misses the point of grace, the free gift of eternal life that comes through Christ alone. It’s why the Apostle Paul writes this to his friends in Rome, (Romans 10:12-17):

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, the same Lord is the Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have never believed and how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard and how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him and how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?

As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news’. But not all have obeyed the good news for Isaiah says, ‘Lord who has believed our message?’ So faith comes from what is heard and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

So people need to be told the Good News, someone actually has to tell them.

Now I’m a preacher, so my tendency is to want to kind of race out there and tell the people I know, about Jesus. But who wants some Bible-bashing guy that you want to run away from and hide as a friend? You get my point?

So how does it work? Do we tell people about Jesus or don’t we? And if we do, when should we and how should we? And what if they reject us or laugh at us or you know, think less of us?

This series of messages that we’re in at the moment is called ‘When the Lion Roars’ referring to the Jesus in Revelation Chapter 5 where He is referred to as the Lion of Judah. One day, each one of us will be subjected to His judgement as every knee in heaven and on earth will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Those people who we love, those people who are our friends, even our enemies, will each stand before Christ in judgement, as will you and I. And the only question will be, ‘Do you believe in Jesus or not?’ Everybody’s eternity hangs on their yay or nay answer to that question. So at some point they need to hear about Jesus.

But how?

That’s why we first talked about prayer and the Spirit-filled life before talking about this subject of actually telling people about Jesus. Sure if you and I want to make a real difference in this world, if we want to see lives saved and communities transformed and ultimately nations at peace, we all need to tell others about Jesus. But unless the Holy Spirit has gone ahead of us, it will be a complete waste of time. That’s where prayer is so important.

Yu may have heard me once or twice in the past, tell you of a couple who prayed for eighteen years for me to come to Christ.

Ultimately the Lord brought about the impossible circumstances that were required for that to happen. But prayer is what brought me to that point and then, led by the Holy Spirit, those same people shared their faith with me. Prayer, the work of the Spirit and the timing, eighteen years, that’s amazing! That’s amazing patience.

We’re not all called to tell every person we meet about Jesus. Perhaps God will use my prayer in that person’s salvation and in another person’s life, maybe some witness or impact from my life. something I did. And then He’ll use your prayer and your Spirit-filled life in different ways in other people’s lives. And as we pray and as we’re led by the Spirit, eventually He will bring us to what is, for many Christians, a fearful place of telling maybe one or two or three or ten other people about Jesus.

And at that point, we so need the grace and the sensitivity and the courage of the Holy Spirit because it is only He who can reveal God to another, not you or I.

Here is what the Apostle Paul prayed for and asked others to pray for in the face of much persecution and opposition in proclaiming Christ. Ephesians 6:20,21:

Pray also for me so that when I speak a message maybe given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel of which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly as I must speak.

Yeah, sharing the Good News of Jesus with someone needs to be preceded by much prayer and yes, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit. But at some point it’s time for us to stand up and be counted. At some point it’s time for us to lay everything on the line, our reputation, the risk of being sneered at, the risk of an angry reaction, the risk of rejection and sometimes even our very lives in order to tell someone about Jesus.

At some point, you and I, if we truly believe in Jesus, if we truly believe that He wants to work through us and for His Spirit to overflow out of us into the lives of others, we need to stand up and be counted – stand up with boldness and having the courage to tell them, because unless they hear about Him how can they believe in the One of whom they’ve never heard, hmm?

We live in a world, in a day and age where the truth seems to be up for grabs. As I watch and listen to the news each day and read my newspaper as I do, what I see is a whole bunch of people clamouring for the right to declare that their truth is true. Hmm things aren’t quite as simple anymore as they used to be.

A couple of thousand years ago when he was torn between the demands of justice and the demands of a crowd baying for Jesus blood, a man by the name of Pontius Pilate asked this question, ‘What is truth?’ That, as it turned out, is a very good question and if Pilate were still around today and asked that same question again he’d be right there up with the issues of the times.

Truth – used to be considered as something that’s absolute. It’s either true or it isn’t. But these days it’s become a fluid concept, your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. And if it works for you buddy that’s great, go for it but don’t try to foist your truth on me. And that last statement has become the mantra of our times as it supports the twenty-first century ideology of pluralism.

Have you ever wondered exactly what pluralism is? Well my dictionary tells me that it’s a theory or a system where two or more states or groups or principles or sources of authority can co-exist. Pluralism is a religious doctrine of the times. In fact it’s the religious doctrine of the times and the moment you step over its boundaries, the moment you insist on absolute truth you’re considered a conservative, a bigot, an extremist.

There are all sorts of stereotypes and labels to describe someone who commits the most heinous crime of this time by insisting that truth, far from being relative and pluralistic, is absolute. Consider the assertions of atheism and secularism towards the Christian faith: How dare you insist that your God exists or that He’s the only God or that the outdated morals of the Bible apply to us today. How dare you insist that Jesus is the only way. How dare you.

And so confronted with what today seems like a relentless onslaught on the very foundations of their faith. Christians around the world and yes, even Churches around the world are getting a bit wobbly about their God and who He is and what He stands for. Christians are retreating from the marketplace of thought and debate and legislation and culture into enclaves to protect their faith. A bit it seems like Custer’s last stand circling the wagons for one last time.

But oddly enough there are still places in this world where truth is absolute, objective and immovable. Let’s start with my dictionary which tells me that something is true if it is in accordance with fact or reality, if it’s real and actual, accurate and exact. The Bible definition of truth at least hasn’t changed.

There’s another place where you find absolute truth or at least where you expect to find absolute truth and that place is in our courts. I remember some years ago when I was engaged as an expert witness in a civil litigation in the Supreme Court. I was asked to give my expert opinion on the failure of the implementation of a very large and complex Information Technology system, based on my review of some 1.1 million project documents in discovery.

And as I wrote my expert report, six hundred thousand words and worked with the lawyers on the case they were consistently challenging my conclusions. ‘Prove it,’ they said, the Court requires you not just to say something but if you say it, to demonstrate that it’s actually true based on the evidence in those discovered documents.

But in our society, in our culture people are somehow successfully managing to water down the truth, to turn black and white into fifty shades of grey in order to justify every perversion and evil under the sun.

So here I am, I believe in Jesus. I believe that one day He will return to judge the living and the dead. I believe that I have the free gift of eternal life because Jesus died for me to pay for my sins and He rose again to give me a new life.

Those are the things that I hold dear and true and yet the world wants to hound me down and tell me that I’m not being liberal enough or open-minded enough or pluralistic enough. While all at the same time the world is going to hell in a handbag and tearing itself apart through the evil and the strife and the morals that are destroying families, that are robbing children of love and tearing communities and nations apart.

What exactly do I do with all of that? Those people need to hear about Jesus but they’re shouting me down, they don’t want to listen.

Isn’t that how many Christians think? Isn’t that what’s going through so many hearts and minds? So what’s the answer?

Well the answer quite simply is this, that despite the fact that the world rejects the God of the Bible which by the way is nothing new, after all they crucified Jesus right? God’s Word is still true. Jesus will still return, Jesus will judge the living and the dead and that compels you and me and anyone else who believes in Jesus to get out there and share His truth.

The truth of freedom and salvation in Christ alone with a world that’s heading for the judgement of God but how do you do that when they don’t want to hear? Well actually the Bible tells us exactly how, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 12 to 15:

We must be no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming but speaking the truth in love we must grow up in every way to him who is the head, into Christ.

And again 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 24 to 26.

The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth and that they may escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do his will.

See the answer is to speak the truth in love and correct with gentleness. I’ve heard so many Christians out there condemning the world and shouting hatred at people. Hey Jesus never did that. In fact those so-called Christians are no better than the gun-toting, bomb throwing extremists of other religions.

The way to change the world is to speak the truth in love. God’s unwavering, unchanging, unfailing truth – speak it in love so that God may perhaps grant that some will repent and come to a knowledge of the truth, His truth, the one truth that saves.

There have been so many times in history where group think has taken over and evil has reigned and all, almost all were led astray. Look at the Nazi regime that sparked World War 2. Go back as far as the Roman Empire whose symbology and methods Hitler drew on. Time and time and time again people like lemmings have flocked together only to plunge to their death and destruction.

And as I said the other day on the program all that is required for evil to prosper is for good men and good women to stand idly by and do nothing and say nothing.

Well if you and I believe in Jesus that’s just not an option for us. Jesus said:

I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

And then to prove it He died for you, He died for me so that His truth, written in His blood, would be spoken into our hearts through the love of sacrifice. There, right there is the model, the approach for us to follow – to speak the truth in love, to correct with gentleness. Not with guile and hatred and vitriol and finger-pointing and condemnation as some do but with love, the sublime love that is so vividly painted on that cross in crimson red, in the blood of Jesus.

And no matter how dark the thoughts and beliefs and practices of our times may become all that it needs is one small glimmer, one small flame to shed the light of the truth into this world and that one small glimmer, that one small flame – that’s you.

Nothing, NOTHING so testifies to the truth and the power and the objective reality of the love of God in Jesus Christ as a believer, a disciple who is prepared to sacrifice their life for the sake of sharing that Good News, that Gospel with another.

Well a few weeks back we kicked off a series of messages called When The Lion Roars because despite all the terrible things going on in this world, despite the attacks on our faith and on the God of the Bible, despite how hopeless things may appear as global events of terrorism, of secularism and all the other ‘ism’s’ under the sun sweep the globe, one day, ONE DAY it will all come to an end.

One day the Lion of Judah, Jesus will roar. One day, He will return to judge the living and the dead and those who have placed their faith in Him will have eternal life and live in glory. That’s an objective fact, how do I know? Because that’s exactly what Jesus says will happen. That’s exactly what the Bible says will happen.

It is a desperate world hurtling towards judgement that has rejected the God of the Bible, that has rejected the truth of the Bible, that has rejected the love of Jesus.

When God speaks you know, it’s not advice, it’s not an opinion – it’s truth. Well God has spoken, He has spoken to us through His Son who is the way and the truth and the life. He’s the only way, He’s the only truth and He’s the only life. And it’s only when we know that truth that the truth can set us free.

Yesterday on the program, we spent a bit of time taking a look at the reality of the objective truth of God in the face of today’s relativism and pluralism and secularism and whatever other ‘ism’ you’d like to name. The question is though, how exactly do we get that truth across to a world that’s intent on going to hell in a handbag?

Well you might recall that we talked about speaking the truth in love and correcting people in gentleness rather than trying to ram truth down their throat. Love is the key because love always ultimately triumphs over evil. Love is the only thing that will defeat satan in this world. Love is the only thing that will woo the lost to Jesus. Love is what triumphed over evil on the cross of Christ and set you and me free to live out eternity with our God. Love is the key because love rings true to us made as we are in the image of God who the Bible tells us is love. Love attests to the truth and nothing attests more to love, in turn, than sacrifice.

If you love someone, I mean truly love them, then you will sacrifice for them. And when you do that the reality of that love will ultimately soften the hardest of hearts. That’s exactly what Jesus not only said but did, John chapter 15, verses 13 to 17:

‘No one’, he said, ‘has greater love than this, than to lay down your life for a friend. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I don’t call you servants any longer because the servant doesn’t know what the master is doing but I’ve called you friends because I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father. You didn’t choose me, I chose you and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another’.

And with those words Jesus went to the cross willingly and without complaint to die for you and me. His disciples, each one of them so far as we know, ended up dying terrible deaths – Peter, Paul, John and all the others were all martyred because they proclaimed the risen Christ and salvation in Him alone, the life eternal that is only available in Jesus.

Now do you think, do you imagine for one minute that those guys would have laid down their lives for a lie? No. They experienced the love of God through the crucified and then the risen Jesus and then out of that love they poured their own lives out to the very end, to the very last drop to tell others about Him.

Love testifies to the truth. It declares that the truth is true and sacrifice testifies to that love and that my friend is the key that opens even the hardest heart. When you and I are prepared to sacrifice our lives for the difficult people who curse us, who reject our faith, who belittle us for believing in Jesus, when you and I are prepared to lay down our lives for those people even whilst they sin against us, just as Jesus laid down His life for us while we were still sinners against Him, then and only then will we be a part of God’s great plan to win the world back to Him.

Is it hard? Absolutely it is. That’s why Jesus said it wasn’t about hanging on to our own lives because if we live life like that ultimately we lose. Now the Jesus plan is about taking up your cross, your own brutal cross and following Him because those who lose their lives for His sake will surely find them.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who through His death came to take away the sins of the world. It is that sublime love that you and I are called to share through our own personal sacrificial laying down of our lives so that others too might be saved.

And Jesus is the Lion of Judah who one day will roar in judgement separating His own, those who put their faith in Him, their very lives in His death and resurrection – from the evil doers who rejected Him.

And today you and I are His hands and feet, you and I are His heart of love, you and I are His voice to speak His love and His truth to a generation that’s gone astray. The people in my life who have the greatest license to speak hard truths to me are the ones who earned that right by sacrificing themselves for me and serving me and loving me when I didn’t deserve it.

Those people have influenced me so greatly. Those people are the very reason that I’m here with you now sharing with you the Good News that your King reigns, that you King is calling you to live a life of sacrificial love. And you and I too can earn that right to speak into the lives of others through sacrificial love. You and I can be the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah to the lost around us. That, after all, was always God’s plan.

Yes, this world does seem as though it’s crazy out of control. Yes these are dark days when our faith in Jesus is tested in the extreme but in the face of all that the Lion roars. God laughs at men and their petty schemes. Listen to this, Psalm 4, verses 2 to 6.

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take council together against the Lord and his anointed saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us’. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord has them in derision, then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying, ‘I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill’

God is above all the powers and all the rulers and all the situations and all the persecutions and all the terrorism’s and all the evil events that this world has conjured up.

Your King reigns and one day the Lion of Judah will roar in Judgement. In the meantime, to those who love Jesus, to those who have set their hearts like flint to follow hard after Him wherever He may lead, He has one simple command. Listen to His Words to you and to me and let the Spirit of God write them on your heart. Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 to 20. Jesus says:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you and remember, I am with you even until the end of the age.

Get out there, share the truth, share the love, the power of Jesus with the people around you, make disciples of them, teach them to love God by obeying Him. And remember Jesus is with you unto the ends of the earth, unto the end of this age.

In the face of all the darkness that threatens to overwhelm this world, you and I are the light of the world. You and I are the ones called to go. You and I are called to sacrifice our lives to this cause.

You and I.