No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man

“in Gashonga archdeaconry. The missionaries are doing well and the church is growing. I have baptised over 100 new members”, our friend Pastor Ephraim 18/5/17

By 6 pm on the first Good Friday something had changed, in fact the world had changed. Jesus’s death on the cross had caused the defeat of the Kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ had begun (from NT Wright’s book, “The day the revolution began”). 

 This powerful and self-giving event is the powerhouse from which we can work out our mission to “see lives transformed by the love of Christ”, first in ourselves, then in our Church community, then outwards into our neighbours in Lewes and on into the wider world.

 On the cross, Jesus’s blood was poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins; it was the place where the power of all the evil forces in the world were destroyed, and it was the place where heaven and earth were reunited and the rule of the Kingdom of God came with power. He took on Himself all the power that death could throw at Him: humiliation, rejection, scorn, pain and the deepest sorrow. Having all this laid upon Him, he demonstrated His victory as the love and dynamic power of the Father raised Him to new life, showing that the final enemy, death, had been decisively defeated. 

It was the place where the self-giving love of the Triune God was powerfully demonstrated by the suffering servant who poured out His blood to purify us from our sins, re-creating us as His witnesses on earth to proclaim that love, as we allow God’s Holy Spirit to work in our lives, to remake us in His divine self-sacrificing image.     

Binding the strong man

Come to this table, not because you must but because you may, not because you are strong, but because you are weak. Come, not because any goodness of your own gives you a right to come, but because you need mercy and help. Come, because you love the Lord a little and would like to love him more. Come, because he loved you and gave himself for you

‘On the last Sunday that we were in Rwanda we were sat in a Pastor’s house after a wonderful service followed by a wonderful traditional African meal. When the Pastor, Charles, who most will know who have visited Rwanda, spoke about a new threat which he felt was threatening the country and the church. After many years of reconciliation and mutual forgiveness the country had worked through the worst of the problems created by the genocide but he saw a new evil which was not so easily dealt with. That was a growing materialism and lack of Love for Christ, which was manifesting in a falling away of Sunday observance and the disintegration of marriages and unfaithfulness particularly on the part of the husband even in Christian circles.  This was especially true in the capitol with its increasing wealth and materialism. Sadly this is being imported from the wealthy countries such as our own where materialism is so widely entrenched that we hardly notice it as a problem.

In the Sermon on the mount Jesus presented us with a stark choice we either love God or money he used the term the god Mammon. 

Recently Steve preached   on the fruit of the Spirit and how we overcome our evil desires. Our problem is that we tend to love ourselves There are many things in our lives which are not ultimately bad but the problem is that we love them too much.

Ultimately the issue is who do we love and who or what do we worship.

While we are alive we have a mighty battle on our hands, but we can choose our battle ground. Jesus does not want us to feel guilty and defeated by our lack of love for Him. If we stop trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstrings and focus on worship and adoration of Jesus, inspired and assisted by the Holy Spirit we find ourselves drawn more and more into His love. 

If we meditate on the love and self-sacrifice that Jesus showered onto us by His loving self-giving of His own life on the cross for each of us as individuals, we will be drawn into the circle of perpetual mutual self-sacrificial love, which the three persons of the Godhead have for each other.

As the old hymn has it :

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
  In the light of His glory and grace.