Author: Jefferson Vann

photo by Jachin Mandeno

You have reached the Newsletter of Jeff and Penny Vann, missionaries with Advent Christian General Conference, currently serving in New Zealand as pastors-at-large with the Advent Christian Conference of New Zealand (ACCONZ). We serve as teaching pastors at Takanini Church of Christ, and Christian LIFE Church, Takanini, Auckland.

Our friend and fellow pastor David Burge fell asleep in Christ on July 4th. David had a disease that he knew was likely to take him in the prime of his life. Before the leukaemia started taking up his time, he had the chance to step back from the busyness of life and concentrate on the things that were important to him. But even those months he had, are not enough. It is unfair that we have to say goodbye to David at all. Our only consolation is that we are not saying goodbye for good. We are only saying goodbye for now.

Dave’s funeral was held on Saturday, July 10 at a local Baptist Church. Hundreds joined us as we gave tribute to this man of God. The message Jeff shared focused on the resurrection of believers, and is available on his web log: http://jeffersonvann.blogspot.com/2010/07/in-honour-of-david-burge-1968-2010.html

photo by Jachin Mandeno

God’s timing is so awesome. While preparing for Dave’s funeral, I (Penny)had a sudden thought that I had better resend my cell phone numbers to my sister so in case something happened Stateside she could contact me. For whatever reason the email was delayed a couple of days. She got the numbers one morning and had to use them THAT afternoon to tell me of my dad’s heart attack. She called back an hour later to tell me he had died. It was 12:30pm here when the call came and I was at the airport ticket in hand 4 hours later. I flew back to Connecticut for his funeral. But, while in the States, I was able to visit Connie in Massachusetts, and be there for the birth of our newest grandson.

Simon Dean Shaw was born on July 22nd, 7lb. 5oz, and 22 in. He and his parents (Steve and Connie) are doing fine.

3 days after returning to New Zealand, Penny taught a one-day seminar on the Old Testament. The insights she shared helped us all to see the big picture of God working through thousands of years of history to bring about his purpose of calling the nations to himself.

photo by Jachin Mandeno

Our short trip to the South Island took place August 10-13. We visited some friends we met while Jeff was in seminary. One of the highlights was a trip to a lamb farm, where we saw thousands of newly born lambs.

See a video of the lambs: http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8QUBWMDoi-tNjBhODg1ODEtYzljZi00OGFkLWJkZWEtZDY1ZWI4OTE3ZjQz&hl=en

Life in New Zealand (A Yankee’s perspective). It has been winter here. Winter in Auckland is NOT like winter in New England. The grass is still green and I have not seen one flake of snow. It mostly rains and is rather a raw cold. So we go to coffee shops
to chase the dampness away. Coffee shops act as the local social hang out. The other thing one notices here is most Kiwi’s don’t have central heating in their homes. They rely more on space heaters or wood/coal stoves for their heat. The reasoning is, “why heat a room you are not in?” They also keep the rooms cooler than most American homes. The idea is if your cold put on a jumper (sweater). It is actually not a bad idea, and one I grew up with in the 70’s during the oil embargo.
I often feel like I am trying to speak two dialects at the same time. I (Penny), being from New England, don’t have to try as hard as Jeff does having the “eh?” and “wicked” already down and being used to people dropping their “R”s. There are still differences, like a jumper-sweater, a pinafore-jumper, supper-night-time snack, while tea or dinner-supper, you get the picture. This with idiomatic differences is enough to keep us on our toes.

Please Pray:

1) For Penny’s family as they face the loss of her father.
2) For David Burge’s family as they adjust to life without him.
3) For The Takanini church that they make wise plans for present and future ministry.
4) For Penny and Jeff, that they continue to serve the LORD in New Zealand.

Galatians 4:21-31 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

We have been meditating on Paul’s letter to the Galatians for the past few months. Paul was dealing with a problem that had developed not only in the Galatian region, but in many places where new Gentile churches had been established. A group of people from Jerusalem had infiltrated these Gentile churches and suggested an alternative to the Gospel of salvation by grace that Paul preached. Their alternative involved trusting in Jesus for their salvation, AND following the Jewish customs and traditions.

This problem was not unique to the first century AD. For two thousand years the Church of Jesus Christ has had to constantly re-evaluate and reform itself because human traditions keep crowding themselves into its doctrines and practices.
We have depended upon the Bible as God’s standard for what it means to be the Church. Each successive generation has had to re-look at the Bible to see if we have added some new human traditions and crowded out the simple truth of the gospel.

Fortunately today the Bible is not hidden from us. We no longer have to depend on professional clergy to tell us what the Bible says, or to interpret its message for us. Those of us who speak English have dozens of well-prepared Bible translations available for us to read. We even have access to the original languages in which the Bible was written. Nothing keeps us from getting a clear message from God, and responding to that message in faith.
Nothing, that is, except laziness or presuming that we already understand the Bible!

Today’s text offers us an opportunity not just to re-examine the Bible, but to re-examine ourselves, and the choice that we have made that puts us in this church building today. Paul was writing to people who claimed to be true Christians, but he argued that they had substituted the true faith that they had received for a false faith, a faith in both Christ and themselves.
As we examine Paul’s argument in Galatians 4:21-31, we need to be asking ourselves what choice we have made as well.

Here is the story that Paul was alluding to in today’s text. In Genesis 15 God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, but he was childless.
Genesis 16:2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
Genesis 16:15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

Now let us pick up the story 14 years later:
Genesis 17:15-19 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
It turns out that Abraham was wrong to go behind God’s back and do his miracle for him. I think this is the point that Paul is making: We are in danger of asking God to bless us with salvation, then taking the task back on ourselves.

God offers us something supernatural – something only he can do. He has an Isaac in store for us. We assess our situation, and, like Abraham and Sarah, we decide God needs a little help. After all, God helps those who help themselves, right?
Actually, that’s one of those statements that lots of people quote, but it is not in the Bible. The truth is, God can only help those who realize that they cannot help themselves. Having Ishmael was the wrong choice. It was, in biblical terms, “of the flesh.”

Having introduced faith to the Gentile Galatians, he also introduced to them the power that would enable them to live out their salvation. Paul asks them in Gal. 3:3 “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” And that is exactly what the Judaisers wanted. They wanted to replace the Holy Spirit with the Mosaic Law as the means of sanctification.
But it doesn’t work that way. Paul says in Galatians 3:21-22 “… if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

Paul asks the Galatians to think of two places: Mt. Sinai in Arabia or the heavenly Jerusalem. He is trying to get them to see for themselves that only one choice leads to true freedom.

The people at Sinai had the same choice.

Exodus 24:3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.”

They should have said, “We cannot follow the rules, we put ourselves at your mercy and trust in your grace.”

If freedom is going to come to us, it is going to be the work of heaven, not our work.

So Paul quotes Genesis 21:10 where God orders Abraham to expel Hagar because Ishmael will not share in Isaac’s inheritance. Hagar is called “the slave woman.”
Paul has been using this allegory to point out that the Galatians have a simple choice. If they want to inherit the blessings of Abraham they will have to make the choice Abraham did. They have to take God on his terms, not their terms.

Now, you and I have to make the same choice. We can decide to do our best, and hope that God accepts it. That is the choice of Hagar, of Ishmael, of the letter, of Sinai, it is a choice to enslave ourselves.
Or, we can take God on his terms. We can say, God, I cannot do it myself. I trust in Christ and his finished work on the cross. I trust in your Holy Spirit to guide me in the Christian walk. And I trust in You, heavenly Father, to bring me into the inheritance you have planned for me.

Galatians 4:8-20 ESV
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. 12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of the blessing you felt? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

We have been studying Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. We have seen that the Galatians had been deceived by some false teachers. They were being tempted to identify themselves with Jewish traditions, with the assumption that in so doing they might enjoy God’s favour and the blessings associated with Abraham.

Paul has been arguing that going to Judaism is going backwards, not forwards.

In 3:10-14 he argued that Gentile Christians are already redeemed by what Christ did.

In 3:15-29 he argued that Gentile Christians are already recipients of God’s promise to Abraham.

In 4:1-7 he argued that all Christians are adopted equally into the family of God.

In today’s text Paul goes back to what the Galatians were like before they heard the gospel. He says that they were all enslaved to demons. The Galatians did not need proof of the existence of demons. They had been under demonic bondage until they found freedom by responding to the gospel in faith.

In this culture demons are not taken seriously, but the New Testament takes demons very seriously.

One of Jesus’ ministries when he walked this earth was casting out demons. He actually presented his work of casting out demons as evidence that the kingdom of God had arrived. If demons were a fairy tale, Jesus would have exposed it. Instead, he spent much of his valuable time delivering people from their control. He took them seriously, and so should we.

Paul told the Corinthians that demons were behind pagan idolatry. Those gods of wood and stone had enslaved people because there were real spirit beings using them for that very purpose. For that reason he warned the Corinthians not to have anything to do with the idols – not because the idols are powerful, but because the demons behind them are real.

In fact, Paul told the Ephesians that in our Christian life our real battle is not with human enemies, but with these demons. We wrestle against the spiritual forces of evil. These forces are real, even though normally we can’t see them. They work in four ways: they tempt us to sin, they deceive us in our thinking, they accuse us in order to render us powerless through guilt, and (if all else fails) they intimidate us by manifesting.

James takes the devil and his demons seriously as well. He tells us to resist the devil. Resist is a defensive word. It suggests that the devil is on the attack. If we don’t take him and his demons seriously, we will be sitting ducks.

So Peter tells us to be on the watch, because just because you chose to ignore the spirit world does not mean that you cannot become a victim of it. Satan is real, and he is looking for his lunch. Peter says “be watchful.” Don’t become lion lunch.

So Paul continues his chronological argument by reminding the Galatians that when the gospel came, they accepted it gladly. Even though Paul had some kind of sickness when he came to their area, they still flocked to him. He had the answer to their problem. By trusting in Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord, these Galatians found freedom from their bondage to demons. They were set free. They found out that they did not have live in fear of these spirit beings anymore. That is good news.

So what happened? What turned these victors in to victims? It was pride. Yes, that’s right… pride. In verse 17, Paul says “They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.” The “they” are the troublers, the Judaizers. They came to Galatia as “super-Christians.” They said to the Galatians “Hey, you overcame your bondage to demons. That’s good. But now it’s time for you take the next step. Become super-Christians like us.

But Paul knew what was really going on. He realised that the temptation to pride was coming from the same place that the demonic bondage had come from. The Galatians were being enticed to go forward when in fact they would really be going backward.

This was the very thing that kept many Jews from receiving the gospel in the first place. They wanted praise from others, and were not willing to humble themselves and put their trust in God alone.

But God chooses to save those who cannot say “I can handle this.” He chooses the low and despised in the world. There are no self-made men in the kingdom of God.

By grace. Through faith. Not your own doing.

This is why the message of Galatians is so important: Anyone who hears the gospel is at risk of abandoning it – while still remaining outwardly Christian.

God has a righteousness available, but those who seek to establish their own will never submit to it. It is an either-or choice. God will not tolerate someone giving their life to him, and then taking it back.

So Paul told the Galatians to turn around because they had gotten turned around. They were going the wrong way. They had abandoned the gospel that they had received. In order to reach them for Christ, Paul had become like them. Now he was asking them to become like him: a person who lives by faith (12).

Paul had given birth to them by bringing them to Christ. Now he is in labour again so that the life of Christ can be formed in them (19).

He wants them to be crucified with Christ. He wants it to no longer be the Galatians who live, but Christ living in them. He wants them to follow his example of living by faith.

John Piper describes that life this way: “Faith is the assurance that what God will make of you, as Christ is formed in your life, is vastly to be preferred over what you can make of yourself. Faith is the confidence that the demonstration of Christ’s work in your life is more wonderful than all the praise you could get for yourself by being a self-made man—or woman. Faith is a happy resting in the all-sufficiency of what Christ did on the cross, what he is doing now in our heart, and what he promises to do for us for ever.”

Now this message applies to us today. It is possible to remain in the church while abandoning the gospel. It is possible to escape one form of demonic deception and then fall for another form. The Galatians had abandoned their idols, but now they were tuning to pride and self-reliance.
———–
LORD, help us to live by faith in the Son of God who died for us. Help us to rest in the all-sufficiency of what Christ did for us on the cross, what he is doing now in our hearts, and what he promises to do for us for ever. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Galatians 4:1-7 ESV

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

We have been studying the book of Galatians for the past several months. The churches in the Galatian region consisted mostly of new Gentile believers. The churches traced their origin to Paul’s evangelistic ministry, but they had been under their own control for some years. Some “troublers” had come to the region, preaching that Gentile Christians need to follow the Mosaic law and Jewish traditions. Paul’s letter to the Galatians is his attempt to undo the damage that those troublers had done.

Last month we looked at chapter 3, in which Paul explained that Gentiles who put their faith in Christ receive the same promise that Abraham did, are redeemed by the same blood of Christ, and have responded correctly to the same Gospel message.

Paul continues in chapter 4 to show the Galatians that they do not need to turn to the law to be recipients of Abraham’s blessing. In today’s text, he uses the metaphor of adoption to get that point across.

Verse 6 begins with the words “And because you are sons.” By that Paul is saying that the Gentile believers who have put their faith in Christ are already sons of God. Being a son of God means that you have been forgiven, and that you now represent God as a member of his family, and that you will inherit the blessing he has promised.

Paul had told the Galatians “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” He had told the Romans something similar:
Romans 8:19, 23 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

So one of the outcomes of our being adopted now is that when Jesus comes we will be a part of his restored creation. We will be immortal and glorious.

But the important message for the Galatians was that the adoption has already taken place. It is not something that we have to wait for, and it is certainly not something that we have to work for. The only work that needed to be done to make us sons of God was the work of Christ on the cross. And that is a finished work. Jesus said on the cross “it is finished.” Because of what he did then, we are sons of God now.

Note that Christ was sent, and redeemed us “so that we might receive adoption as sons ” (vs. 5).

But this is the point that Paul is making relating to the problem the troublers have caused: Believing Jews were also adopted into the family of God on the same basis: faith in Christ.

In verse 3, look at the words “we also.” Who are the “we” that Paul is talking about? The answer is in verse 5: “those who were under the law.” In verse 4 he said that Christ was “born under the law.” We have already seen in Gal. 3 that the law became a curse for all those who tried to keep it in their own strength, but couldn’t.

So Gal. 4:1-5 is autobiographical. In it, Paul is saying that he (along with a whole bunch of other Jews) had been enslaved by the law. He was trying to use the law to become righteous like God, and it wasn’t working. The “elementary principles of the world” (I believe these are demons) used the law to keep him in bondage.
Then Paul met Christ. Paul realized that Christ fulfilled the law, and believing in Christ is what would make him righteous. Finally he was free!

Here was the problem for the Galatians. They started out in bondage. They were under the power of demons who pretended to be gods. When they responded to the Gospel that Paul preached, they were freed from that bondage, and adopted as sons of God. But the troublers came, introducing another type of bondage. Because they wanted to please God, they were being tempted to exchange their freedom for that bondage. But Paul told them that the good news stays good news. God did not trick them into a new kind of slavery.

Instead, being adopted into the family of God takes away your burdens, and substitutes benefits.

The first benefit is redemption. Paul says “you are no longer a slave (7).” Gentiles are redeemed by the same blood of Christ that redeemed believing Jews (5).

The second benefit is relationship. The Holy Spirit within us enables us to cry out to God (6), and the blood of Christ, having cleansed us, enables God to hear us, because it has reestablished redeemed humanity to the status of sons of God.

The third benefit is reward. We are now heirs. We will inherit the kingdom of God, immortality and will keep our status as sons throughout eternity.

The questions that Galatians asks of us are the same ones that Paul asked of the Galatians. Since you responded to the Gospel and received his salvation by faith, have you changed your mind. Since you surrendered the reins of your life to God’s grace, have you taken them back again? At some point have you decided “I can obey the ten commandments,” “I can read my bible,” “I can pray,” “I can give my offerings.”

Whenever we are tempted to think that we can handle the Christian life in our own strength, we are being demonically tempted the way the Galatians were. The Christian life is not just introduced by faith it is by faith from first to last.

So Paul told the Galatians that Christ did not set us free for us to fall back into bondage, even the bondage that the troublers were offering. When we do the right things in order to be saved, we are turning against the Gospel of grace. We are putting our trust in our own works, rather than the finished work of Christ. So Paul encouraged the Galatians to stand firm, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. The same is true of us. Our actions should result from our relationship with God, empowered by his Holy Spirit.

HEAVENLY FATHER, help us to stand firm in our faith in Christ alone.
Help us to walk in freedom as the adopted sons that we are.
May our lives give you glory because they manifest love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that comes from freedom.