April Newsletter

Johann and Louise: Training Disciples to Make Disciples in the Netherlands

Francis Schaeffer once said, “If you don’t fight the battle where the battle is being fought, you will only beat the air with your words.” When we moved from Africa to the Netherlands, we encountered a surprising number of people who believed that Europe did not need missionaries. But even a cursory glance at mission statistics will show that less than 3% of Europeans are followers of Jesus. And yet, as the mission agency, Greater Europe Missions states, Europe is the intersection of world cultures with the ongoing refugee crisis bringing many nations to the doors of a Church ill-equipped to deal with the ever-increasing numbers. While the larger cities play host to several principally expat churches, many historic church buildings elsewhere have been converted into apartments, bars, civic centres, or restaurants. So, contrary to popular thought, Europe is in desperate need of missionaries.  Having said that, most people in the Netherlands are very open to the Gospel. With the ongoing war, financial uncertainty, corruption scandals, and general political instability, many are asking tough questions as they search for meaning and purpose beyond that offered by the largely materialistic culture. We have seen that a number of curious folks are more than willing to attend our outreach events if invited. Recently, at our Men’s Day Away, the speaker referred to disciple making in terms of a box of sugar-cubes. All we need to do, is put one sugar cube in at a time until the box is full. One seed at a time…waiting in anticipation for the Holy spirit to do what only he can do.  The most interesting thing to me is the fact that Christ Church, Heiloo is attracting numerous younger families who tend to be, for lack of a better term, counter cultural. While many modern churches seem to believe that the Scriptures need to be revised in order to fit in with an increasingly permissive society, these families want to live according to Scriptural principles. They are not only reading and studying the Word, but they are applying it and living it. They are not ashamed of the Gospel despite the strong temptation to conform to the nebulous spirit of our age. This demands bravery and courage for younger folk to choose not to opt for the easy way…to choose not to compromise…to choose not to slide along in the majority cultural groove…but to have the courage of their convictions to stand firmly on the faith once received and believed by the people of God down through the ages.   But I think what blesses me the most about these young families is their desire to share their faith with their families and friends and acquaintances in a non-judgemental and non-pressurising manner. They simply walk the talk and talk the walk naturally. Their joy, their contentment, and the power of their conviction are attractive and appealing to those who meet them. And, like their parents, the children also quite naturally invite their friends from school to our services with an exuberance and an excitement Louise and I have not witnessed in years. Perhaps the light does shine brighter in the darkness.  But the bottom line is that wherever our folks go as believers and whatever they do as believers, they are actively and intentionally making disciples for Jesus through word and deed. They are what they are unapologetically.  Because of this, I see our role here as mobilisers…we teach, we train, we equip our folks to do the work of the ministry. We are nothing more than tools in the hand of our faithful Father. Everything we do, from our prayers to my sermons to my teaching to our hospitality to my publications, is purposefully designed to lead people into a deep and meaningful and fulfilling and life changing relationship with our compassionate and caring Creator.  Yes, we are small…a mere drop in the ocean of humanity…but the Lord has taught us not to despise the day of small beginnings. Just look what happened when the Holy Spirit was poured into the lives of 120 believers!  And so, we pray, and invite you to pray with us, asking God for the nations as the inheritance of our Lord Jesus.  Aside from our general support, for which we are truly grateful, we also have a special project fund with SAMS-USA to help cover the costs of outreach events (venue, food, utensils, speakers, etc.) such as our Men’s Day Away and our Women’s Retreat and various children’s activities. Christ Church, Heiloo does not have its own building, so whenever we hold special events, we must use rented space. If you would like to contribute to this fund, please do earmark your gift for Vanderbijl Missionary Special Project.  Also, if you are a credit card or debit card donor to our ministry, may we ask that you check your monthly statements occasionally to make sure your gift is still going through? That would be a great help to us. Louise and I will be attending the annual Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) Conference in Switzerland this month. Last year’s conference was held in the UK, but due to several hiccups caused by Brexit and other factors, they decided to host the event on the Continent. We are planning to drive as that is the easiest and least expensive way to get there.  My narrative commentary on Galatians has been submitted to Langham Publishers. Please pray for the various phases the book must go through prior to publication and for the funds to publish and market it. I am currently working on 1&2 Thessalonians. Pray for all who read Breakfast on the Beach: The Development of Simon Peter and For the Life of the World: The Multiplication of Simon Peter. I pray that many with come to know and love our Lord through reading these books.   I have been asked by De Gruyter to write an article on Peter for the Encyclopaedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR). Please pray for me as I attempt to write about Peter from a Majority World perspective. I must confess, I feel a bit out of my depth, but a challenge is always a good thing. It drives me to my knees!  Please pray for the Netherlands and for the continent of Europe. While many speak of a post-Christian society, I prefer to believe that we live in a pre-revival era. After all, where sin abounds, grace abounds even more.  Thank you for praying with and for us. Thank you for standing with and alongside us. Thank you for supporting and encouraging us. We are thankful.  Blessings and love Johann and Louise Support Us Johann and Louise spent two years helping to develop the St. Frumentius Seminary in Gambella, Ethiopia. They then worked in Southern Africa, serving in seven southern African countries, while continuing to work with the Diocese of Egypt, North Africa through engaging in a disciple making movement in order to grow the body of Christ. They are now serving in Heiloo, the Netherlands. We are sent  through the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders, a missionary sending community, engaging in building relationships with the worldwide church to experience the broken restored, the wounded healed, the hungry fed, and the lost found through the love and power of Jesus Christ.  Support SAMS

Copyright © 2016 Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders, All rights reserved. www.sams-usa.org      Our mailing address is: PO Box 399 Ambridge PA 15003 Attention to: Johann and Louise van der Bijl Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

Overcomers

Colossians 3:1-17                    John 20:1-18

Overcomers

The Medieval mind was essentially orderly and methodical. As C. S. Lewis states in his book, The Discarded Image:  “At his most characteristic, medieval man was not a dreamer nor a wanderer. He was an organizer, a codifier, a builder of systems. He wanted a ‘place for everything and everything in the right place’. Distinction, definition, tabulation, were his delight. Though full of turbulent activities, he was equally full of the impulse to formalize them.” 

It was the age of synthesis as men strove to create a perfect model by which all of life could be explained as a whole and, consequently, ordered as a whole. The compartmentalization of the post-enlightenment era would have distressed the medievalist greatly as, to him, life was a whole…admittedly made up of various parts, but whole, nonetheless. Just like the human body is composed of ten major systems…the skeletal system, the muscular system, the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system, the respiratory system, the digestive system, the endocrine system, the urinary system, and the reproductive system …many systems and yet essentially only one entity. 

In this unified environment, medieval man attained his greatest heights of achievement. Painters, sculptors, writers, philosophers, architects, astronomers, scholars, and theologians all worked together to produce a harmonious picture of reason amid the threatening chaos of the period. These men were overcomers in every sense of the word as they viewed all of life as one unified unit with one meaning and one purpose and one goal.

The biblical authors likewise understood all of life in terms of an essential unity under the Sovereignty of God and thus all was explained with reference to the will and purpose of a God who was intimately involved in every detail and every aspect of human existence. This understanding has largely been lost since the so-called Enlightenment and consequently people have become fragmented in their thinking and in their living. 

This fragmentation can be witnessed in the life of many typical modern church goers. God is designated a spot in the limelight on Sundays and perhaps one other day in the week, while all the other days are lived under the tyranny of any number of man-made rivals.

The result of this fragmented way of thinking is a form of schizophrenia. If there is no unified thought, then life may be expressed and lived in any series of inconsistencies and incongruencies, paradoxes and puzzles, contradictions and contrasts. One may be a pious churchgoer on Sunday and a pompous cad on Monday without any disturbance in the realm of the conscience. 

However, the Enlightenment was not the first to produce such an abhorrent aberration. Ever since the Fall, mankind has always sought to straddle the ravine between irreconcilable differences.  Paul seems to be addressing this tendency in our Epistle reading for today. “If,” he wrote, “we believe that we have been raised up together with Jesus, then why continue to seek the things that are below?” The mind ought to be set on the things that are eternal not on the things that are transitory…on the things that are heavenly not the things that are earthly. 

His point is that we cannot live fragmented or compartmentalised lives if we are in Jesus. We are either for him or against him…either in or out…either above or under. Consequently, certain things are to be put away and others embraced as we seek to bring the whole of our lives in harmony with the reality of his total sovereignty and authority over all things in both heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). If we have been reconciled to the source of all life through Jesus, then it follows that we ought to live that life according to his terms and not our terms, or, indeed, the terms dictated to us and expected from us by the world, regardless of how “rational” or “pragmatic” or “appealing” they may appear to be. Jesus is either all and in all, or he is not at all.

Resurrection Sunday is not merely a story to be told once a year at the appropriate time. No, rather it is a revolutionary force in the life of all who believe. Because Jesus is risen, we too are risen in him, and because he has overcome, we too will overcome. The disciples on that first Easter Day understood this only in part and so we find them dejected and defeated at the empty tomb. If Jesus was dead and not risen, and his body stolen and irretrievable, then any kind of faith was simply pathetic and they of all people were greatly to be pitied. All of life has no meaning with a dead saviour. 

For this reason, they turned away from the empty tomb and went home. What else was there to do? All hope had died on that Roman Cross. Purposelessness and meaninglessness had set in, and desolate despair was the rule of the day. 

Yet, for whatever reason, Mary Magdalene could not dismiss her Lord that easily. While she too, no doubt, could not fathom all that had transpired since Passover, she could not walk away. So, she stood, not knowing what to do…baffled, perplexed, and overwhelmed by grief and yet hoping against hope that she might at least be able to complete the burial rites for the Rabbi she had loved and followed for the past three years. 

The Scriptures do not give us any reason to think that her faith in the Lord’s teaching about his resurrection on the third day was any better or clearer than that of Peter and John, but it does tell us that her heart rebelled against this apparent disorder in the life of one who had been so ordered…one who had never been out of step with the will of the Father…who moved only according to divine direction. And so, she waited to be given some reasonable explanation for what seemed to be so unreasonable. 

Mary Magdalene knew first-hand that God controlled all things…she knew that ever since the day Jesus had freed her from bondage to seven evil spirits. She had forsaken her earlier way of life for this very reason and, I believe, it was this first-hand experience and knowledge of his power and authority, coupled with what she witnessed in his life and ministry…purpose, design, and meaning…it was this belief that kept her focus from being blurred by what appeared to be so painfully obvious. She stood despite reason and despite peer pressure…the men thought the women were mad or hysterical…but she stood her ground and so it was Mary Magdalene who was rewarded with the first resurrection appearance of Jesus. 

It is this kind of thought that Paul developed into a full-blown lifestyle. No deviation ought to be permitted as the authority of Jesus permeates every area of existence. 

The resurrection brings life, but not a life that is to be had and not lived. This is because the life we have in Jesus is preceded by a death to the life that we had before. As Paul said in Colossians 3:3, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” And therefore because of this death, Paul first calls us to put to death our members that are on earth, and then he gives us a general list of behaviours that are unacceptable for those who have a new life in Jesus. 

But it is not death that renders these behaviours unacceptable…it is life. We have put off the old man, Paul says, and we have put on the new man. A new way of living is required for the new man and consequently the old man must be discarded. 

But note that the logic behind this is the fact that Christ is all in all. There is no room for compromise…there is no room for anything contrary…he is either Lord of all or not Lord at all. He will not share us with a rival. Every area of our new life must be surrendered to him and controlled by him. And so, Paul listed several things that are incompatible to life in the Kingdom of God from verse 12 on. 

This wholly closed system presents a problem for modern humanity as we like to shove God into one pigeon-hole among many others which allows us to live multiple lives depending on the situation at hand. This is why many believers can wear Jesus like a thin coating of sugar on a bitter pill. They live as if we can mix and match the old and new as easily as one mixes and matches clothes for work or play.

To them, sexual deviation, uncleanness, fleshly passion, evil desire, and covetousness present no problem. They simply cannot comprehend why these two sets of behaviour are mutually exclusive and incompatible…totally incongruous and contradictory. Many live segmented lives with apparent ease. Remember, even the goats argued at God’s throne that they had done nothing wrong in their own estimation and were therefore not worthy of censure or condemnation. 

This is not the life of the new man…this is not life in Jesus. In his first epistle, John said that if we claim to be in Jesus that we then ought to be like Jesus…in other words, if we have life in him, we must live like him. If we say we are in the light, we cannot walk in darkness. Followers of Jesus do not only call him Lord. Followers of Jesus obey him as Lord. Followers of Jesus stand steadfast despite worldly wisdom and worldly peer pressure. Followers of Jesus unapologetically acknowledge that all of life is subject to the sovereign will and rule of God. Followers of Jesus live all of life as one unified entity with one meaning and one purpose and one goal.

And so we return to Medieval thought…or, dare I say, Hebraic thought…a synthesis of the whole organisation of our “theology, science, and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe”. (Lewis) All of life must be interpreted with reference to the will and purpose of a good creator God who is lovingly and intimately involved in every aspect of human existence. 

The resurrection of Jesus is a call to a new kind of life from what we lived before we believed in him. Through his resurrection, we too have been raised to where he is, seated at the right hand of the Father. And so, according to Paul, we must seek the things that are above where Jesus is, and, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, we are to clothe ourselves with a new manner of living in which the love defined and demonstrated by God himself governs our actions. 

By God’s amazing grace inclining our minds towards good desires and good decisions, and by his continual help in causing us to bring the same to good effect, we too may triumph in Jesus over Satan, sin, and death, and subsequently in Jesus, we too may enter through the gates of Paradise. So, as we come to his table this Resurrection Sunday, may we, like Mary Magdalene, embrace our living and life-giving Saviour, so that we also may be sent out to announce that he has overcome all and that, in him, we too may become overcomers.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023

Toward the New Horizon

Hebrews 2:8b-11                 1 Corinthians 15:20-28                       John 3:22-36

Toward the New Horizon

Life is full of transitions. From conception to resurrection, every human being goes through changing phases. When at first the male seed fertilises the female egg, the multiplying cells look very little like the baby that will be born after nine months of multiple transitions in the womb. The baby, in turn, despite what doting grandparents might claim, looks very little like its adult parents. But there will be modifications and transformations taking place inside the developing child that will eventually produce something that looks very different from those first two cells. 

The life of a frog is another wonderful example. From an egg, something emerges that looks more like a fish than an amphibian. And yet, as time passes, the tadpole that at first appears to be nothing more than a little blob with eyes and a wiggly tail, grows legs, first at the back and then in the front and then it loses its tail and begins to look more like a frog.

Or think about a butterfly. This transition is perhaps even more dramatic than the frog as it is the crawling caterpillar that becomes a flying work of art. 

We tend to take all these sorts of transitions for granted, but when you stop to think about it for a moment, it really does blow your mind. As different as the forms may appear, they will always be the same organism…transitions are just different stages of the same life. A baby human is always a human being even when it is a fertilized egg or an embryo or a foetus. A frog is always a frog even when it is a tadpole. A caterpillar is simply a butterfly in the making. 

As with life itself, there is a movement in the Scriptures that sweeps us onwards towards something that at surface level appears to be different. From the dividing cells in the opening pages of Genesis, we go through different stages as history travels forward towards fulfilment. The Scriptures speak of a great transition – from an individual to a collective body…from symbol to reality…from national to international…from localized to globalized…from old to new…from broken to restored…from estranged to reconciled. 

Just as the developing embryo presents us with glimpses along the way of what is to come, so the Old Testament grants us images, verbal and material, of a glory yet to be revealed. 

In many ways the Old Testament can only be fully understood when seen through the lens of the New Testament…and, if truth be told, the opposite is just as true. The New Testament can only be fully comprehended once we fathom the depths of the firm foundation upon which it is built. They are inseparably linked even though they seem to be so different. Just like the foetus and the mature person they will become…the caterpillar and the butterfly…the tadpole and the frog. They may seem to be dissimilar and yet, in essence, they are the same.

Many folks still struggle with this. To them the Old and the New Testaments are mutually exclusive and, perhaps, John the Baptist’s disciples were struggling with something similar in our Gospel passage for today. We are told that Jesus and his disciples were somewhere in Judea, spending time together and baptising people. Now while it is true, as John tells us in the very next chapter, that it was the disciples who were baptising, not Jesus…he clearly did not object to the practice. It is only later that we learn that this preparatory baptism is no longer sufficient, and that believers need to be baptised into Jesus, in the Name of the Triune God. Remember, John the Baptist’s baptism pointed people forward to the kingdom while Jesus’ baptism points people back to the fact that the kingdom has come. Here is yet another transition from preparatory to fulfilment.

But John’s baptism itself marked another moment of transition. Remember, John was a priest and as a priest he would have done the tasks priests were meant to do…and one such task was baptism. We think of baptism as an exclusively New Testament rite, but it has its roots in the Old Testament. Baptism in the Old Testament had to do with ritual cleansing before a believer could come into the presence of the Holy God…and that’s exactly what John was doing. Calling people to repentance and applying the ritual signs of cleansing as he prepared the way for them to meet their Messiah. 

As I said earlier, John’s baptism transitioned into Jesus’ baptism, but all preparatory things must continue until the time is right. If the butterfly is released from the cocoon too early, it will die. If a human baby is untimely removed from its mother’s womb, it will die. All through his earthly ministry, Jesus was very conscious of time…he moved according to God’s timeline, not his own. Throughout the Gospels he repeated over and over again that his time had not yet come, right up until just before Holy Week.

All things must end at some point, but there is such a thing as a transitional period. The caterpillar spins the cocoon for the butterfly to emerge. The movement from John’s preparatory ministry to Jesus’ fulfilment ministry is gradual. But change always seems to be difficult for humans, and John’s disciples were no different.

What is interesting to note here is the identity of the instigators of this dispute. John simply called them Jews, which usually indicates Jews who did not believe in Jesus and who were often in opposition to his ministry. This seems to be a tactic the evil one uses to this day. The world comes and plays off one church against another or one believer against another believer…and the saddest part about this is that we all too often fall for it. 

Listen to this: “Rabbi,” John’s disciples complained, “that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan – the one you testified about – well, he is baptising, and (here it comes) everyone is going to him!” I think this statement carries the full weight of a satanic attack. John the Baptist was just a man…a remarkable man…but just a man nonetheless with doubts and fears and feelings like all of us. In this particular passage, he sounds so sure of himself, but later, remember, when he was languishing in Herod’s prison, he began to wonder if he had been right after all. If Jesus was the Messiah, why wasn’t he doing what was expected of him? No one was expecting a suffering servant type Messiah…everyone was expecting a warrior king like David. 

Now, I’m sure everyone of you have faced doubts like this. When God didn’t do what you expected him to do, didn’t your faith waver, even just a little bit? Many have faced spiritual earthquakes that have shaken the foundation of their belief. 

But this is what I love about the Bible…it doesn’t present us with a gallery of superheroes. No, it clearly shows us that there is only one who is without sin and that is Jesus…the rest of the characters are people just like us. Failures, stumblers, sinners saved by the amazing grace of God. We all make mistakes…we all give in to temptation from time to time…

And here, for John, the temptation was to be jealous…just a little bit envious. “I had a great ministry growing until he came along. Now my popularity is dwindling.” You know, I think older folks often feel that way when the younger generation begin to climb the ladder so to speak. They feel they are no longer necessary…that they are superfluous…unneeded…unwanted. Remember, all humans want to be wanted…the need to be needed…they love to be loved. How often haven’t we asked the all-time favourite question “why”? Why are they advancing while I am not? John could have taken that approach, but he didn’t and there’s a lesson to be learned from his response.

First, he acknowledged that all of humanity is under the sovereign control of Almighty God. We can only receive what is given to us from heaven. John knew that he was who he was because he had received his ministry from God. He also knew that Jesus was who he was for the same reason. 

Jesus said something similar to Pontius Pilate during his trial…that he (Pilate) would have no authority over him unless it had given to him from above. We need to remember that. God raises up different people at different seasons for different roles and different reasons…some for blessing, others for judgement. Our reaction to these people may reveal what we think and believe about God…that God is either impotent, indifferent, or wicked and therefore not worthy of our loyalty. But John teaches us, that this is not the case. God is in control of all things, whether we can comprehend that or not. 

Second, the Baptist repeats his previous public declaration. He had told his disciples and other that he was not the Messiah…that he was a voice, a messenger, a forerunner, a herald. He knew his calling…he knew his vocation and he was not about to deviate from the path God had given him to follow. He knew his ministry had a sunset clause etched into it. John was the friend of the bridegroom…he knew that when the bridegroom arrived, he would need to step out of the picture. I believed that John knew that the transitory phase of the Old Testament was coming to a head and as such the decline of his ministry was inevitable. But there were no retirement hysterics…no tantrums…no sulks…no crisis…just simple trust that God would bring to completion what he had begun.

You see, the Baptist’s trust was founded squarely on the holy Scriptures. I do not believe that John ever came to grips with the divinity of Jesus as we understand it (if we really understand it)…but he did believe what was written…he believed what was revealed about his temporary role in salvation history, and that was enough. He knew that Jesus had to become greater, and he had to become less. 

But while the Baptist may not have understood that Jesus was God incarnate, the author of the Gospel did and so he continued to explain the difference between John’s ministry and the ministry of Jesus. Jesus was the one who is from above and therefore is for all eternity above all. John the Baptist was from the earth and consequently he and his ministry were temporary. John quoted from the Word, but Jesus is the Word and, as such, he spoke directly from God and as God. John baptised with water, but Jesus baptised with the life-giving Spirit. 

Like the prophets of old, the Spirit of God was with the Baptist for a season. But Jesus is the dispenser of the Spirit and, as such, his ministry is for all time. A ministry, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, that will continue until he has placed all his enemies under his feet…and then the end would come when Jesus, as the victorious second Adam, would give the kingdom to his Father. 

There is a bond between the Father and the Son that can only be described as love. There is a mutual giving and receiving…an interdependency…that we sometimes struggle to understand. The Father loves the Son and gives all things into his hands. The Son loves the Father and gives his life in obedience to the Father’s will. And God loves the world that he gives his only Son and the son willingly gives his life to remove the barrier of sin between us. That is the goal of Jesus’ ministry and the goal of his body, the Church. To love all creation back to God…God was in Jesus reconciling the world to himself and has subsequently given us the ministry of reconciliation. Another transition has occurred…Jesus has ascended and is enthroned as universal king at the right hand of God the Father…and he has poured out the promised Holy Spirit to empower us to continue to announce to the world what he has accomplished for the world. Salvation and eternal life for all who believe in Him.

As it was with John the Baptist, so it is with us. We are messengers…he announced that Jesus was coming, we announce that he has come. John was not the focal point of his ministry…nor are we…Jesus is the focal point. Like John, we live as witnesses so that Jesus might be known.

The consummation of all things is coming as sure as the sun rises in the East. True, we do not see all things under his feet yet. True, we struggle to understand how he will bring all things to completion. It is hard for us to comprehend the new creation when all we see with our physical eyes is brokenness and destruction. But by faith in what God has spoken in his Word…what he has promised and fulfilled, we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. By faith we acknowledge that it is by the slow but steady advance against the very portals of hell of those who are called by his name and filled with his Spirit, that this momentary and transitory phase of human history will pass into the glorious fullness of redemption. 

Like John the Baptist, we too must realise that we live in a period of transition. At times we too might feel like that butterfly straining to escape from the cocoon of struggle and strife, but as we press onward and upwards toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus we will understand our role in the great sweeping movement of salvation history, the end of which is as certain as the Word of God.

We are all part of one great historic, salvific drama. Each and every one of us has a role to play. We are all part of this one great movement towards the new horizon. So, like John, let us not be tempted to be jealous or despondent when our ministry seems to be less important than another’s ministry…when we are not as successful as others…when we seem to be diminishing while others are rising. Let us use the gifts God has given us, not thinking too highly or too lowly of ourselves. We are who we are in the scheme of things, but big or small, the focal point of our existence is Jesus. And he must always increase. 

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023