Introduction

At first glance the two readings do not appear to be that closely related, but there is a link. As I read through the Gospel two phrases stayed with me “Love each other” (twice v12 and 17) and “you are my friends” v14. I had read Acts first, but if you read them in the order they appear in the Bible, you can see that the commands that Jesus gives in the gospel reading are being carried out in Acts.

Jesus came from heaven and was born as a man to die on the cross so that he could restore the broken relationship between humanity and God. He came to the place where there were already some who were doing what they could to keep the relationship alive. Jesus came to the people that God had chosen to bring the news of his love to the world. They (the Jews) had not succeeded in their mission so far, indeed they had hardly succeeded in staying faithful to their God. Now though things were to change. Instead of the followers being servants they would be friends. That way they could bring Gods love to others who are yet to know him in a more remarkable and successful way.

We are going to look at the difference between being a servant and spreading Gods love that way, and being a friend and spreading God's love that way. We will do this by looking at some of the stories of incidents in the lives of biblical characters, famous Christians from the past and present, and some ordinary people around us.

As I tell these stories I will mention the love that they show for God and the people around them.

Jonah

Lets first look at the old Testament model – where specific people are chosen as servants of God and given specific things that they must do. We'll look at the story of Jonah

We do not know that much about Jonah. The first two verses of the book are “The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." “ and as to his family and where he was from that is all there is in the Bible. (There's 2 Kings 14:25, but that doesn't tell us anything new). There is other evidence but now is not the time for that. We already have the start of our story.

The word of the LORD came to Jonah "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

God wants them to repent and change their ways. He does not want to destroy them. That is exactly what Jonah is afraid of. “I'll go up there, make all this fuss, they will repent, nothing will happen, and I'll look stupid” He's thinking about himself, not the people of Ninevah. From where Jonah is Ninevah is in the east. Jonah decides to go west – To Tarshish (probably Spain)

He boards a ship– a cargo vessel was the only option in his day as there wasn't a tourism industry. He makes friends with the crew, and settles down to enjoy the journey. A bad storm arrived and Jonah was nowhere to be found. The sailors were praying to their Gods, and wanted Jonah to do the same. They found him asleep at the bottom of the ship. The sailors then cast lots to see who is responsible – and the lot falls on Jonah. If he didn't already know it, he does now – God is on his tail! He volunteers to be thrown overboard. Is Jonah thinking, “I won't be able to go to Ninevah when I'm dead”? The sailors are reluctant to throw him off the ship, but they're scared for their lives, so they do. The storm subsides, and Jonah descends to the deep. He is swallowed by a big fish. In the fish Jonah prays, and again recognises God as the ultimate authority, and kind of promises to carry out his task. The fish takes him to land. This time Jonah keeps his promise and goes to Ninevah. He gives them the whole of God's message, that destruction is to come on them for their evil ways. They repent, nothing happens, and Jonah is very upset “I told you so”.

Peter

The story of Cornelius and Peter in Acts 10 is so very different

Cornelius sees an angel

The Angel says send for Peter @ Simon the Tanners in Joppa

Cornelius did

Meanwhile

Peter is having a vision

Animals on a sheet

The Spirit says “Get up Peter, Kill and eat”

Nothing unclean has ever passed my lips

3 times for Peter to understand

It always is

Then the spirit says “Simon 3 men are looking for you” “ don't hesitate to go with them, I have sent them”

Peter doesn't Hesitate

He goes to Cornelius the God Fearer

Its 4 days since Cornelius saw the angel

Peter goes in, that makes him unclean– he's not done that before

Peter explains what God has done through Christ

The spirit comes on Cornelius, and his friends

They speak in tongues

Peter announces their baptism. - a symbol of their Conversion.

See how different the story of Peter is to the Story of Jonah. Jonah as a servant isn't told by God what's going on, just given the word and expected to act. Sure, he can work it out for himself, but that doesn't mean he's fully committed.

Peter, on the other hand, has been prepared by the spirit, and has accepted what God has said to him. He has learnt that the things of God are not 'unclean'. He has managed to extend the vision of the food to allow him to enter the house of a gentile. Cornelius was known as a God fearer, one who was sympathetic to the Jewish belief, and followed them to an extent, but had not yet committed themselves by becoming a proselyte. When Peter spoke to him, his story was told from God's point of view. So Peter explained what “God did through Jesus ….”.

Then the gift of tongues. They may have been speaking in Hebrew or Aramaic, at this time tongues were not ecstatic utterances (or heavenly languages as some call them) Tongues would most certainly have convinced the friends that Peter had with him. Speaking in tongues was the first piece of evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit they had. They were all Jews at this point. They were part of a Jewish sect known as The Way.

Peter has allowed the fledgling faith to take a mighty step forward. God has shown Peter that there are no races or tribal limitations, no longer is God's spirit restricted to the Jews. It was still Peter's decision though. He could have said at any stage in the process “this is a step too far”. He didn't because he was following God lead through the situations he found himself in. He had been shown that something was going to happen, and by his actions he supported it.

Forget Pentecost. This is the day that you and I should be celebrating. The day God spirit was first given to the a non-Jew. Without this event there would be no Christian church. The name Christian is adopted in the very next Chapter of Acts (11). Peter would be in huge amounts of trouble for this when he got back to Jerusalem. The believers there would insist that Cornelius became a proper Jew before he could join them. But it is a done deal. The Holy Spirit is out and unstoppable.

That is how it has been ever since. God prepares the ground, and the Christians move in and occupy it.

Hudson Taylor

Born May 21, 1832, Died June 3, 1905

The next person I want to look at is Hudson Taylor.

Born into a Christian family, he was moving away from the faith when at seventeen, after reading an evangelistic tract pamphlet, he professed faith in Christ, and in December 1849, he committed himself to going to China as a missionary. This was an answer to his parents prayers.

What is most impressive to me about Taylor is his preparation. He was not in regularly good health, so tried to toughen himself by taking long walks and sleeping on hard mattresses.

He knew that he would need more than preaching once he got to China, so put his background as a Chemist to good use and started training with an uncle who was a doctor in Hull.

It was there in Hull that Hudson first learnt his lessons of personal faith. Having moved out from his Uncle's so that he could learn to live on little, and give most of his wages away, Hudson one evening was asked if he could go and pray for an Irish labourers wife who was close to death. When he arrived by her side he found that her weak state was a result of child birth and severe hunger. He knew he should do more than pray, but he didn't have the money - only half a crown which he needed to live on. Yet he was aware that God had sent him to help this woman and unless he did what he could how could he expect God to take notice of his prayer. So he gave his money to the husband to buy food and trusted God to provide for his own needs. The following day the Lord provided half a sovereign through a gift from someone. This was the start of Hudson's life of faith.

He founded the China Inland Mission, a society dedicated to reaching out to inland China, not just the areas around the coastal towns that the other missionary societies were concentrating on. Hudson's missionaries wore Chinese cloths, and built their churches in the Chinese style. They allowed women to be missionaries (a first), and were non-denominational.

The Mission is supported entirely by the free-will offerings of the Lord's people. The needs of the work are laid before God in prayer, no personal solicitations or collections being authorised. No more is expended than is thus received, going into debt being considered inconsistent with the principle of entire dependence upon God.

It has been said of Hudson Taylor that no-one other than St Paul did more to spread the gospel over a large geographical area than he did.

The spirit had prepared the ground in China, the country was opening up to foreigners. Mostly though they had only managed to have any influences around the major ports. Hudson saw what God was doing and ensured he was best equipped to take part.

Jackie Pullinger

Jackie Pullinger on the other hand, was singularly unprepared. She had been trying to be a missionary for a long time, and had received many rejections. Thankfully for us, and for many in china she spoke with a godly Parish priest who saw something of God in her and told her just to go. Can you imagine giving that sort of advice now? - or ever? She had just enough money to get her to Hong Kong on a cargo vessel. So far as I know there were no bad storms on the way. On reaching Hong Kong she was almost turned away. She worked for a while as a primary school teacher in Kowloon Walled City. The city was not policed, and was controlled by the Triads who used heroin to control their members. She started a youth club. Taking heroin is called Chasing the Dragon. Many of the inhabitants barely scratched a living with many in extreme poverty.

She says “I could walk down the street and see a hundred people chasing the dragon. You had to climb over their legs. I wanted something real to offer them… not just treatment in a centre.”

Despite the power of heroin and opium addiction, the boys weren’t only kicking their habit, they were leaving it behind completely. They put this down to their commitment to Jesus. Many addicts who prayed for Jesus’ help found themselves freed of their addiction without going through any kind of withdrawal. Jackie opened a home for those who needed help and was soon inundated with pleas for help and a place to stay.

Not all of the addicts reformed immediately. Jackie started to realise that becoming a Christian didn’t automatically heal you of your addictions, or immediately reform you after a lifetime in the underworld. But the signs were good.

Several reformed addicts joined Jackie in her work. One day she had a meeting with a Triad leader who had offered protection for the house she was in.

She told him simply that she wouldn’t help the boys escape their addictions purely for them to become gangsters again. If they were to be followers of Jesus, they had to leave the gangs altogether. To her astonishment, the gang boss still offered to guard her house, and renounced all claim on those boys who chose to become Christians. It was unprecedented in Hong Kong gang culture, where people were bound to the Triads for their entire lives.

Jackie had decided to be a missionary as a child, before she even knew what a missionary was. She had intended to go to Africa, but after a dream had switched her destination to Hong Kong.

She realised that the people were so desperate that they didn't even know how to ask for help, or that they needed it. When she started she didn't know what to expect – she was just following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Jim

All of us as Christian should be following the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Not all of us are called to foreign places, but some are. A friend of mine believed that he was being called to become a clergyman. I agreed, and became convinced that he would leave England at some point – probably for Africa. He went through all the usual channels – first to his vicar. Yes, he too believed that Jim may have received a call. Then to the Diocese. Jim had not been a good student at school and didn't have any qualifications. He had to get 'A' levels before he could be considered. The next step was evening classes. He passed the necessary qualifications. He was accepted by the diocese and sent for training. After training and ordination, he became a curate. Then after serving his time as a curate announced that he would be working with the ex-pat community in France. There, with his young family, in a huge European Parish he lead the church of England, providing a spiritual home for those who were working away from their own home, or those on holiday

He has not spread the gospel to a different race, founded a missionary society, or seen hundreds of miraculous healings, but he has followed the Holy Spirits Lead. He has spread the gospel, to the people he meets, and encouraged them to do the same.

Conclusion - Me

Each of us is called in some way. Tom Wright in his commentaries on these passages suggests that we may only be called for one thing, or one other person. I disagree. We are given gifts and prompts by the Holy Spirit in how to use them. We may have one main mission for our lives, but there are hundreds of little things we can do on the way, or afterwards. As someone whom Jesus calls a friend, I'm always looking for ways to join in with what he's doing. Some of us will need training – I've spent four year of specific training (evening & weekends only) to get to where I am now. Some of us will just go, like Jackie Pullinger.

God is preparing the ground, the Holy Spirit is readying the prompt. We have to listen and decide how best to respond.

Where next Lord?