Dale Appleby

Free with the Truth ...

Free with the Truth

Living in the Last Days involves a lot of contact with lies and deception. Sometimes in the church itself and a lot of the time outside it. Jesus encouraged his hearers to obey what he taught. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8.31-32)

Tricking Christians is often done by other Christians. Nowadays there are many media that share deceptions about the Christian faith. The preventative, according to Paul, was the truth of the gospel shared among the believers.   Read more ....

Heart Problems Psalm 51

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Heart Problems Psalm 51

Sermon  preached by Dale Appleby  for All Saints Jakarta  Sunday September 5, 2021

Bible Readings:  Psalm 51

YouTube video of this sermon can be seen here

A written text of the sermon can be found here.

Confident Hope: Terrifying Fear ...

Confident Hope: Terrifying Fear...

The prophet Habakkuk saw a time when what looked like a disaster would come. It is easy to identify with his feelings of fear and uncertainty.  It is possible also to identify with his confidence. Confidence that God was still in control of everything. Listen to Habakkuk:

16 I heard and my heart pounded,

my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

and my legs trembled.

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Whose Truth?

Whose Truth?

"What is truth?"

"You can't handle the truth!"

"The truth shall set you free."

How many truth quotes do you know? And is the statement of Epimenides the Cretan true, "Cretans are always liars."? (Titus 1.12).

Truth is increasingly cancelled out these days in favour of the views of whichever dominant voices shout the loudest. Does this matter? Can ideas become accepted by the old fashioned method of warfare. Whoever is loudest and strongest wins? It does seem so.

It is part of the idealogical battle being fought in western countries at the moment. A battle that unsettles many because, just like a civil war, one always has to be on one's toes to see how the battle is going and which side to side with. This is made worse by the continuing changes in the issues that the battles seem to be about.

For the battle is not just about any one issue. It seems to be a battle about unsettling all claims to truth, and even personal opinion, in favour of a culture dominated by an unstable Mind. Or a destabilising Mind.

The battle takes away the foundations of reason and truth in favour of a free-floating opinion world. It hijacks important social questions and cancels out any rational or civil discussion of them. It uses loud shouting that makes people feel guilty without the opportunity to a fair hearing. It is a slave society.

Christians on the other hand know true truth from Jesus. We know his gospel as freedom that sets people really free. How do such claims to truth survive in a culture that rejects truth? They survive and have power because of the Creator.

The world we live in has been made by the Creator with a purpose. It has been made for humans to live in and enjoy. We have been made to be friends with the Creator.

So we expect that when things go the way the Creator intended, life will be better and happier. And when the Creator’s purposes and ways of living are rejected then life will be unhappy and messed up.

When the truth shines into the messed up place, it makes sense because it fits the world God created. The undermining of rationality doesn’t change the real world. The truth of Jesus fits the world in a way that the unstable culture doesn’t.

So we don’t need to be afraid, or uncertain, about the gospel. It makes sense because it brings people to know the one whom God has made the ruler of this world. It is an exact fit for people who live in the real world.

Becoming disciples of Jesus is the start of true life.

Dale

Face to Face Psalm 27

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Face to Face Psalm 27

Sermon  preached by Dale Appleby  for All Saints Jakarta  Sunday August 22, 2021

Bible Readings:  Psalm 27

YouTube video of this sermon can be seen here

Trails and Temptation

Trials and Temptations

They have changed the Lord’s Prayer! Many Christians can say the Lord’s Prayer from memory. But every now and then it is changed. The most recent change is in the line “... lead us not into temptation.”

But changes in the prayer go back 2000 years. Compare Matthew 6.9-13 with Luke 11.2-4.

Some changes were made in the modern translations. For example the ending “For thine is the kingdom ..” is omitted in some modern translations and placed in square brackets by others. Only the NKJV retains it in the text. The reason is that the King James version was based on a set of manuscripts that contained later additions to the text (such as this one) which are not found in older and more reliable manuscripts, most of which have been discovered since King James’ day.

However it is the question of God not leading us into temptation that has puzzled many.

The alternative translations include: “...save is from the time of trial”(APBA); “do not put us to the test” (REB); “Do not bring us to hard testing” (GNB); “do not bring us to the time of trial” (NRSV); “Save us from the time of trial” (ELLC English Language Liturgical Consultation).

The difference here depends on how to translate the Greek word peirasmos. Both noun and verb are used a lot in the New Testament (more than 50 times). The word covers a range of meanings.  See link below.

Often it refers to trials. For example Luke 22.28 “You are those who have stood by me in my trials.” Or John 6.6 “He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.” Or John 8.6 “They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.”

It has some unusual meanings (Acts 9.26; 2 Cor 13.5). Its other main use is “temptation”.

To understand this it is worth comparing the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6.13) with the exact same phrase in Matt 26.41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” What temptations were about to face the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane? It is this scene that helps us understand the connection between testing and temptation. The test is to remain faithful to the Lord in the face of the coming arrest. The temptation is to respond to the test by running away.

The New Testament was written in a time of trouble and trial. The pressures and threats they faced tested their loyalty and trust in the Lord. The tests all came with a temptation – to deny the Lord.

One passage that comes closest to a traditional idea of temptation is in 1 Cor 10. It concerns idolatry and sexual sin. But the pressure to live that way came from their world as well as their background. Should the key word here be translated “tempt” or “test”? Especially in verse 9.

Clearly there is an overlap between the two meanings. Testing brings with it a temptation to disobey the Lord. Where the context concerns opposition, pressure, persecution, we should hear the idea of “testing” in the word.

And we who face many pressures as Jesus’ followers can pray this prayer with confidence. Jesus, who faced many trails, urges us to pray to our Father in heaven that he will not lead us into the place where we are tested and tempted to turn away from him. And even when we are, we can trust that “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.” (1 Cor 10.13).

Dale

Here is a list of the verses where the word is used in the New Testament