P.A.Thatcher

Evening praise

OBSEC

11^th December 2011

Women in the line of Jesus part 2:

Ruth 1:1-22

Ruth a most unacceptable woman:

784 Ye servants of God

Pray

Ruth 1:1-22

493 O come, O come Emmanuel

Notices

Prayer

315 I will sing the wondrous story

Ruth a most unacceptable woman:

We need to have a short history lesson in order to understand why I call Ruth a most unacceptable woman. From the reading of the text she appears to be a most delightful young lady and I am sure that this is the case for her! But she has a clear problem that makes her unacceptable to God Himself.

The problems begin a few years earlier when her people the Moabites are declared by God to be unfit for worship with the people of God. The Moabites are direct descendants of Moab who was the son of Lot’s eldest daughter. After they came out of Sodom Lot and his 2 daughters were in hiding in a cave. The 2 girls realised that there was nobody who could father a child for them apart from foreigners and also their father. They plotted to get Lot drunk and then seduced him; the result being the birth of Moab to his eldest daughter and Ammon to his younger daughter. Even though these two boys were related to the children of Abraham they became enemies of the children of Israel. The Moabites and Ammonites were a constant thorn in the flesh to God’s people. We are told in Deuteronomy 23:3 that a Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord forever. This judgement was not entirely due to their nationality but because they were unhelpful to the Israelites when they went into Moab. They refused the courtesy of giving food to their relatives. They also plotted with Balaam to pronounce a curse upon Israel. They cursed God’s people and consequently became a curse before God for their efforts. Ruth belonging to the people of Moab carried this curse and so was naturally unable to attend the place of worship, she was unacceptable.

As we have already said Ruth was a delightful young lady, she had many great qualities but to God it is not goodness and quality that makes somebody acceptable and so Ruth remains unacceptable to God!

As we consider this passage together we will discover that:

I.            Discouragement is not always a bad thing.

II.            Confession is good for the soul.

III.            Even the worst of people can be made acceptable.

Discouragement is not always a bad thing:

It does well for us to remember that god is in control of all things and Ruth is no surprise to Him. He knew that Ruth would be part of the heritage of the Lord Jesus Christ but with all that we have said before how can this be? How can the unacceptable be made acceptable enough to become a key member of the genealogy of the Lord Jesus?

When we consider what Naomi said to Ruth we are possibly perplexed. Naomi as we considered a few weeks ago was a believer and had clearly taught her foreign daughter’s in law about God. You would think that she would not only want them to be with her in Bethlehem but she goes out of her  way to dissuade the 2 girls. Orpah is convinced but Ruth remains. We will look more closely at Ruth’s confession in a moment but there is an important lesson for us in what happens here. It was logical and sensible for Ruth to stay at home especially as she would know that her nation was unacceptable to God. We would be concerned that to be too much of a damp squib would send a contact packing and lose interest in the gospel. This account teaches us practically what we believe. It is not the influence of God’s people that draws people savingly to Him; it is God by His Spirit that draws men and women boys and girls to faith. We can have as many sentimental prayers and songs at the end of our services as we like but none of them will ever save a single person. We can pray the sinner’s prayer with them and that will do nothing. We can be negative and that will neither put off or impress it is all about God in His sovereignty in calling the unacceptable to Himself. That is exactly what God was doing; He was irresistibly drawing Ruth to Himself in what for many were impossible circumstances.

We do well as we speak to others about the Lord, He is in control and He will influence all that He is calling to salvation.

Confession is good for the soul:

Ruth’s confession to Naomi always impresses me. I was recently watching a comedy programme where the rogue went to confession to receive forgiveness for a crime that he had inadvertently committed. He could not tell the priest what the crime was because he had received the lead from the roof of the church. His confession was conditional on his own comfort. That is not what Ruth does, she in fact is a perfect example as to what true confession is all about. We can go to man and tell him of our misdemeanours but he can never absolve us of sin. Ruth needed to be made acceptable to God in order to fully belong to His people. That clearly was her intention but how does it come about.  Read verses 16-17 there are some key elements in what Ruth says to Naomi. She wanted to be with Naomi and her people. She wanted to associate with a people who were not her own, she was clearly impressed by what she had seen of Naomi and her family and wanted to belong to such a people. As Christians we need to be as impressive and to attract people to join with us. But there is more to it than that.

“Your God will be my God” is the key statement. She was turning her back on the religion of her nation and wanted to worship God in heaven even though He is unattainable to her. She was clearly confessing to Naomi that she wants to be in fellowship with God Almighty.

There is no pretence in what Ruth says here, she is earnestly seeking favour from God and His people.

What we should most desire of all of our witnessing is this effect, those who are called by God and are drawn to Him. We always must remember that it is His work and not ours. Ruth was planned before the foundation of the world to be the father of Obed who is King David’s grandfather and is a direct descendant of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can only do as Naomi did and be good witnesses that attract people to God.

Even the most unacceptable person can be made acceptable:

We see this truth played out many times in scripture. Last week we saw that Rahab was made acceptable, there is also David, Paul, Peter, Zachaeus and so many more to prove the point. But just think of yourself also, how acceptable to God were you before you were saved? The answer is that we were absolutely unacceptable. Ruth was made acceptable through her faith in a Saviour who could deal with sin, she could only know Him in faith that He would come but we know Him as the Saviour who did come. But we are all made acceptable by faith in Him. This is for all who He will call, gladly we do not know who they are and so we must be diligent to declare the gospel to an unacceptable people.

P.A.Thatcher

Morning worship

OBSEC

11^th December 2011

The promise articulated.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

• 163 (Christian Hymns): Behold, the great creator makes Himself a house of clay:
• Pray
• Reading:- Isaiah 52:13-53:12
• 85 (Mission praise): Come and see.
• Offering
• Notices:
• 6:00pm Evening praise: Ladies in the line of Jesus:- Ruth; an unacceptable woman.
• Tuesday 7:30pm Bible study and prayer.
• Friday: 6:00pm Community carol service.
• Sunday: 11:00 am & 6:00pm worship services.
• Christmas day: 10:00am Christmas worship
• New Year’s Day: No evening service but food & fellowship @ Maitor.
• Christmas card: Donations in aid of Edward & Esme’s vehicle.
• 105 (Mission praise): Come, watch with us.
• The promise articulated:

Last time we looked at the promise made. We discovered that from the foundation of the world that it was God’s plan and purpose that the Lord Jesus should come into the world. The purpose of His coming was to deal with man’s sin which has separated him from God since the fall in the Garden of Eden. God promised Satan that he would one day be defeated by a man born of a woman. We also discovered from Isaiah’s prophesy that the boy to be born would have a very special mother. She was to miraculously conceive of the boy by God the Holy Spirit’s influence. Mary herself was never divine or perfect but that which she conceived was God the Son. Satan’s stranglehold on mankind would be defeated by the Son born but how would that come about?

Many today have the idea that Jesus was God’s afterthought in response to sin entering the world. Nothing could be further from the truth, as we have read in Isaiah today the iniquity of man would be dealt with by the Son born to Mary or as the prophet now declares “a suffering servant.” God does not react to man’s antics He has a plan that has been in place from before the world ever began. That plan not only involves a Son to be born but also a Saviour to suffer and die. So what would that Son be like?

1. He was nothing special to look at.
2. He suffered for us.
3. God was pleased with the sacrifice.

 

 

He was nothing special to look at:

Christmas is always a time of great danger but it is not just from the excesses that we see all around us. Our Christmas cards often do a dis-service to gospel truth as do many of the religious paintings in our art galleries. Imagine the scene, the stable with a couple of sheep and cows; a manger spruced up for this very special baby; proud parents looking on etc. But think how the baby is often portrayed; there is more often than not a bright halo shining around the head of the baby Jesus. That is a far cry from what we read in scripture. Isaiah tells us that He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him. There was nothing about His appearance that would cause us to swoon in His presence. He was an ordinary baby who as Isaiah tells us grew up as a tender shoot. You know how tender shoots grow up! They grow up quietly and unassumingly! They do not come out of the ground with a song and dance but gently and purposefully. It was the same with our Lord there was nothing about His appearance as a baby that showed his parents or the visitors anything of His true character. The only real evidence that He was the promised Messiah at this point was the word of God. The virgin had given birth; the place was Bethlehem as the prophet Micah had promised. The baby was born as the angel had promised both of his parents. The shepherds were directed to Him by the word of God as told by the angels and the wise men knew the scriptures and somehow discerned the time and so they also found the promised Messiah. The uniting factor is the word of God directs them to Jesus.

It was exactly the same during His life, it was always the word of God that He used to prove His character, He could have done many more miracles but He always worked according to God’s inspired word. It was not what He looked like nor was it the things that He did that dealt with sin, it was His obedience to God’s word and His faithfulness to death that makes all of the difference. And so when we receive cards with glowing halos just remember that artistic licence does not make good theology.

Another thing that Isaiah teaches is that the spectacle of His death equally has no saving qualities. We are told that as He suffered He was marred and disfigured more than any man. A few years ago the film “The Passion” came out. Certain groupings have a theology that loves to portray the suffering of Christ in some grotesque way in order to affect the viewer to make a decision. Again our art galleries are full of such pictures but Isaiah tells us that the spectacle of the Suffering Servant would only cause people to hide their faces from Him; they despise Him and have no concern for Him. The spectacle of the death of Jesus might cause a certain amount of pity for Him but it never saves people. It is what He suffered that is the key to salvation and not the blood and gore involved.

He suffered for us:

Throughout the promise that God makes through the prophet Isaiah there are many themes but one of the strongest themes is the carelessness of mankind compared with God’s provision. Man will never care for Jesus, we might have an interest in His character or His wisdom or His ability but we will never naturally come to Him for salvation. The Jews had been looking forward to the birth of the son of a virgin in Bethlehem but when He came they did not want this Messiah even though scripture is abundantly clear as to His character and purpose. In fact Jews to this day still do not accept Jesus to be Messiah even though this passage is one of their favourites; they will not see Jesus as the fulfilment of scripture!

Why is that?

 The mission of the Lord Jesus was to be faithful to the command of God. That command was to fulfil all that the scriptures declare of the Messiah. As we saw last week the promise of a Saviour is also declared in the law, the sacrificial system, in the temple, in the nation and in every event concerning God’s dealings with His people Israel. The promise made is that God’s Messiah would be a suffering servant for sinners and that He would die and rise again from the dead and then reign supremely in heaven eternally. The promise is that He would be God the Son, Immanuel or God with us. God neither needs our approval or our support for this; it is simply His sacrifice for us whom He loves that is effective for salvation.

The picture might be a gory one that men and women love to pore over but that in and of itself will never save anybody. Pity for Jesus on the cross never saved anybody but the completed sacrifice is enough for all who believe on the Lord Jesus and repent to be saved. Christmas and Easter are dangerous times for theology because they often depict an unbiblical view of the event. It is not about the spectacle but all about the character. Our God became man and was born in a stable. He wore a robe of flesh that looked no different to you and I but He was also 100% God. It was His sacrifice that was all important and for that He neither needed the help or approval of man. The plan was God’s alone for the people whom He loves. The Lord Jesus Christ came and suffered for us!

 

God was pleased with the sacrifice:

This really goes without saying; Jesus was faithful to death, even death on a cross. The significance of the cross is that it was made from the wood of a tree. To die on a tree was declared to be a curse; the victim was cursed by being executed in such a way. Even that aspect of the life of Jesus was declared before He was born! The curse on Jesus is not about man’s judgement but from God’s perspective; in God’s eyes he has committed a capital offense, an offense that deserves separation from life and eternity. Jesus became that curse! AND GOD WAS PLEASED. It pleased the Lord to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer and even though God makes His life to be a guilt offering it will cause there to be a harvest of souls: Is.52:10. Many through Him will be justified because He bore their iniquities when He died on the cross. With this God is mightily pleased because His eternal plan for the salvation of all who will repent has taken place. Jesus was faithful to the end, the plan is complete and God is pleased not only with Him but also to through His sacrifice save all who will call on His name. When men, women, boys & girls do that then not only do the angels in heaven rejoice along with the church but also more importantly God is well pleased. At creation after a day of creating God looked at his handiwork and said that is good. Man defiled His perfect creation and now through Jesus God is re-creating man to be righteous and every new creation to Him and by Him is declared to be very good! Are you very good before God? It is only through Christ that you can be.

• 165 (Christian Hymns) Child in the manger.

 

P.A.Thatcher

OBSEC

Evening service

4^th December 2011

 

Hymns:

498 O God, our help in ages past

450 I was sinking deep in sin

750 What kind of love is this

Ladies in the line of Jesus:

Rahab.

Joshua 2:1-24; Joshua 6:17 & 22-23; James 2:25-26; Hebrews 11:31 & Matthew 1:5

Rahab is one of three ladies mentioned in the line of Jesus. Leading up to Christmas we will consider Rahab tonight, Ruth next week and then finally Mary. We will discover that Rahab was unacceptable, Ruth was a great surprise and Mary overcame the impossible.

Rahab: amost unacceptable woman.

To find Rahab mentioned in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5 “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse”) is to say the least a remarkable inclusion. I cannot think of any great religious leader that would have her name mentioned in their list of descendants especially when it seems to be most unnecessary. It was traditional at the time when Matthew wrote his gospel for there to be a male dominated account. Generally women were not included in such things as genealogies. The problem is not so much that Rahab was a Gentile but her occupation was a little more than dubious. In every Rahab was unacceptable and yet James 2:25-26 tells us that she was righteous and we even find her recommended for her faith in Hebrews 11:31. So let us consider three things about Rahab that will help us to understand why God the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of scripture to include her name as one of the descendants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will therefore consider:

• Her condition.
• Her profession.
• Her salvation.

Rahab’s condition:

I am glad that john Wesley is recorded to have said that “the amassing of treasures on earth is just as much a sin as is adultery!” because when we come to people such as Rahab then we can understand a little better how God views all sin. To us certain types of sin are more extreme than others and that is not wrong. We have to discern between sins that harm only the perpetrator and that which is dangerous for society. To us there is a scale of offence that must be discerned. But for God sin is sin whatever the enormity of it. Wesley’s statement is helpful to us as Christians in that it reminds us that those things which we so easily pass by are just as offensive to God as the things which we abhor. So when we read that Rahab was a prostitute to us it is enormous but to God it is even more enormous but no more so than the delightful little child’s cheeky ways. The tiniest sin our estimation is big enough to totally separate the sinner from the love of God!

Therefore we try to see Rahab through God’s eyes, her condition was desperate not due to her profession but due to her inherent sin! That is not unique to Rahab it is a universal condition, Paul tells us in Romans that all have sinned and fall short of His perfect standard. When we get this into perspective then it makes us wonder how God could ever use anyone. The greatest wonder is not that Rahab is named in the genealogy of Jesus but that there is a genealogy at all! When we consider some of the names mentioned in the long list of Jesus’ descendants we could not imagine a more motley crew! We have Jacob the liar, Judah went with what he thought was a prostitute, David was an adulterer and murderer, Solomon had goodness knows how many wives etc. None were in the line because they were good but simply because our God is Good! None deserve to be there but God has chosen the weak things in order that He brings about His good plan of Salvation. He chose to use such people and so is not ashamed to name them for His glory alone.

The conclusion: Rahab did not deserve to be used by God as a vital descendent of his Son but by Grace she was chosen along with the rest simply because God desired to do so. Equally we don’t deserve any favour from Him, we do not deserve to be used by Him but He has chosen to do so! Or has He? Are you counted as righteous as we shall now see that Rahab was?

Rahab’s profession:

I am certainly not going to talk about what some believe to be the oldest profession in the world. Look at her declaration or profession in Joshua 2:11 “the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” Rahab is saying something vitally important here, she is professing to the spies that their God is the only true God, both in heaven and on earth! It is this profession that makes all of the difference. It is this that separates truth from religion. The bible declares that there is only One True God and that He is Yahweh or God Almighty who lives and reigns in heaven and earth. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that is the God of the Israelites who were amassing at the borders of Jericho and Rahab believed in Him! Therefore she found favour with God and we shall see because of this saving faith she was rescued from God’s judgement carried out by His people!

The sad thing linked to this is the state of the people of Jericho who were under God’s judgement. They were to be totally destroyed due to their wickedness and yet they equally knew that the God of Israel was the One true God. Look again at verse 11 “When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” When the people of Jericho heard of the Israelites leaving Egypt 40 years earlier and also of the stories of their defeating the Amorite kings then they were frightened stiff. They knew that the god of Israel was truly God but yet only Rahab trusted in Him. They belligerently refused to trust in God who had put them under judgement. How sad is that and how mad they were. Our problem today is much the same, our people equally know that the God of the bible is true but yet they do not want Him. There are not many in our land who do not know the stories of Jesus, they have also seen creation but yet they do not want our God and Saviour. They will happily sing away in a manger no crib for a bed but they will never ask Him to be near them. They will sing with great gusto hark the herald angels sing but have no concern that they should be the sinners reconciled to God of whom the carol speaks. People are it seems happy in their state before god even though it is desperate but also found within the passage is a frightening reminder to us. The events that told the people of Jericho that the Israelites God was true happened at least 40 years earlier! They had been frightened of God when the 12 spies of Moses’ day were in the land on reconnaissance, all of the time that ten of them were making the case that the land was unconquerable due to the fearsome inhabitants and all of the time that Joshua and Caleb pleaded to go because God was greater. All of that time the inhabitants were afraid and quaking in their boots. They were not a blasé as they would like others to believe.

Out there in our big wide world we might be frightened of the giants but people are afraid of our God and we should go to them just as commissioned by the Lord without fear and favour. Let us learn a lesson from the Jews of old.

Rahab’s salvation:

The day of judgement came for Jericho, when we consider that the people had been looking over the wall at the display of power and authority that the Israelites showed and knowing also that the God of Israel was with them. The people of Jericho who were afraid of God looked over in mockery at God’s people and ultimately mocked God signed their own death warrant. They rejected God and paid the full price of sin, we cannot criticise God for that for He had given them 40 years of warning. But then there is Rahab and her family, they cried out for mercy and received it! Rahab was faithful to the instruction of the spies, the Israelites were faithful to their word and also to God and Rahab and her household were saved from the final judgement

There is a final judgement that we as Christians will escape because our Saviour, one greater than Joshua will see not a scarlet thread but His own precious scarlet blood which has paid the price and we will be rescued where others who will not be included will fail. I am glad that Rahab was also an evangelist, she was not rescued alone; she was saved with those whom she loved who also came under the saving grace of God. Are we as eager that our loved ones are covered by the scarlet thread of God’s saving grace?

 

31 Amazing grace.

OBSEC

Sunday morning

4^th December 2011

A Promise made.

Sing: 162 From heaven you came helpless babe.

Isaiah 9:6-7

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

Isaiah promised that a child would be born. An amazing aspect of prophesy is that future things are predicted with absolute certainty. Consequently it is often recorded in the present tense and so therefore on the first reading of this great promise it appears to have already taken place and that Isaiah is simply recording the fact. It could almost be a report in the Jerusalem Herald. But the reality is that none of the facts can ever be attributed to anybody but Jesus Christ who was born something like a thousand years later! This of course makes the reading and understanding of prophesy difficult. It was for this reason that the Ethiopian eunuch that we considered last week had to ask Philip who the prophet was talking about. When we understand what prophesy is then we can fully appreciate why the prophet writes as he does. Prophesy is simply the declaration of God’s wholly infallible word! Through Isaiah God was unfolding more details as to how He would redeem the world from its sin. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is His plan for salvation but for the people prior to His birth these truths would be very difficult to understand. But the promise is no less certain, it will happen and so to preach it with certainty as Isaiah does is very powerful indeed! We would do well to remember that today, our preaching is prophetic and therefore is absolutely certain; all that the bible promises will come about without fail. We need to take a lesson from Isaiah who preached with certainty.

So what about God’s promise?

• His promise is not new.
• His promise is for us.
• His promise is great.

 

1: His promise is not new.

We must never be tempted to believe that the Christmas story is simply a nice little happening that God orchestrated because God found Himself in a hole due to the fall. God was never caught out by the fall In fact the scripture tells us that from before the foundations of the universe were put in place Christ was planned to come for the set purpose of saving mankind.

Let me read 1 Peter 1:18-20:

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

Do you see what Peter says; before the world was created the Lord Jesus Christ was chosen for the set purpose of saving you and me. Therefore it is no surprise to find that God at the time of passing judgement upon Adam, Eve and the serpent that He also makes an important promise to mankind that Jesus would come. Let me read to you this earliest promise that God made to mankind:

Genesis 3:14-15

So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this: cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

From this early moment in human history God made a judgement against Satan due to his evil deception and also promised to him and ultimately to us also that the child of a woman even though he will be injured by the devil will triumph over him! This is a brief outline of what would come to pass many years later. The detail as to how this would happen is built upon as scripture is revealed to man. By the time we get to Isaiah’s prophesy we have discovered that not only will Jesus be born of a woman but that she will be a very special woman. She will be a virgin, see Isaiah 7:14

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

The promised child will be a miracle baby boy, a son. The need for the virgin birth is because Jesus’ Father is not a man but is God Himself therefore the conception of Jesus had to be a miraculous. Remember the New Testament teaches that Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit in order to conceive. The baby born was to be both fully man and fully God. We will come to this again in a few moments.

It is important for us especially at Christmas time to be reminded that the coming of Jesus into this world was by God’s fore-planning and purpose. Many today like to deny that but it is reality. We might not understand all of the whys and wherefores but God has revealed it to be true:

• By His own word as recorded in Genesis 3:15
• By His prophets as recorded by Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets.
• By His Spirit as He superintends the prophets to record the scripture.

Because it has been declared we can only marvel at the truth that God before the creation of the world purposed that God the Son would be born of Mary.

Sing: 831 God has spoken by His prophets.

His promise is for us.

The birth of the Lord Jesus is not for God’s pleasure alone even though it is true to say that God was pleased to send Him. We are reminded of the words of Isaiah 53:10. Our modern versions tell us that it was God’s will to crush the suffering servant who is the Lord Jesus Christ! But the AV tells us that it pleased God to bruise Him! It was for God’s pleasure that Christ died but there is another important aspect to the coming of Jesus: “It was for Us!” This is one of the most amazing truths that have been revealed to man. Christ came for us. We are again reminded of John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God so loves sinners that He purposed that the Lord Jesus should come for us who are saved by His sacrificial death. Christmas is all about us as far as God is concerned. Jesus gave up the glory of heaven in order to come into this world simply because God so loves us this makes the ultimate price paid worth it to God.

As we celebrate our Christmas this year and as you are out and about choosing that special present which is just what your loved one needs and deserves just remember that in the courts of heaven long before we can ever imagine our God decided that the greatest gift that mankind could ever have is our Jesus. He died for my salvation did He die for you? Are you saved, He is your personal gift of God for your saving will you accept Him? You would never refuse the presents bought for you by your loved ones; why do you then continue to refuse the gift given to you by your Heavenly Father?

Sing: 697 Thou didst leave thy throne and thy Kingly crown, when thou camest to earth for me!

His promise is great.

Let us now consider what Isaiah says of our Lord. We must not forget what has gone before; remember chapter 7:14 in that verse there is an amazing truth that some love to gloss over. Isaiah tells us that the son born will be known as Immanuel. His “nick-name” will be God with Us. How amazing is that!!! This very truth is the springboard for what follows in chapter 9. He tells us that He will control governments. He will carry them on His very broad shoulders but we are also told that he will have various other titles by which His character will be known. These names fill us with awe and wonder when we consider the implications as to their true meaning. For us to say that He is great is the greatest understatement of all time.

He will be called “Mighty Counsellor.” I get most frustrated by what I hear of modern counsellors. Giving counsel is all about giving good and helpful advice; I cannot see how a person who simply lets somebody speak about the issue without helping with sound advice can be a counsellor of any worth. Isaiah tells us that our Saviour is the Mighty Counsellor; the Counsellor Supreme, the one whose advice is vital and perfect. Proverbs 19:20-21

“Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.” AV

Isaiah promised a Mighty Counsellor the Old Testament credits God to be the only true wise Counsellor. Isaiah by referring to the promised Messiah declares Him to have divine qualities.

Another title used is “Mighty God” Our Jehovah Witness friends would have us believe that there is a comma between the two words but that just makes nonsense of the flow of the passage. The prophet says that the Promised One will be known as Mighty God. We do not have to worry when confronted by those who tell us that the Trinity is something made up in the 2^nd Century we can find Trinitarian references to the character of God throughout the whole of the Old Testament and also the New!

Isaiah tells us that the Lord Jesus is a Mighty Counsellor with who gives sound advice that will stand forever. His advice can be summed up in the gospel call: Repent and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sin.

He also tells us that Jesus has authority because He is God Almighty, who is the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. Jesus said of Himself that He came to bring peace, peace not like the world attempts but He brings everlasting peace between two warring factions. Peace through Christ is achieved between sinful man and our Holy and perfect God. His government says Isaiah will have no end (verse 7) and the throne that David pointed to will be accomplished by Jesus! David’s kingdom was blighted by war, he was a warrior king but the promised One will rule in Peace, justice and righteousness. David was barred from building the temple because he was a man of war. The temple can only be built in peace because it pointed to the place of peace where man is at rest with His God. Jesus by defeating Satan brought peace into our hearts and so we live and reign with Him. Forever and ever!! The people who are redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus are the temple of God which is being built by the Man of Peace; the Lord Jesus Christ who Isaiah promised to come.

Sing: 700 Thou who wast rich beyond all telling

P.A.Thatcher

Sunday morning

OBSEC

20^th November 2011

Are you really saved?

Acts 8:9-25:

Last time we saw that Philip, one of the seven due to the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem had move to Samaria. He had an effective ministry amongst the Samaritans which was authenticated by miraculous signs and wonders. The whole scene is somewhat confusing in that up until now the gospel had been preached to and affected mostly Jewish listeners. Now it was being preached in Samaria to a people who had turned their backs on orthodox Jewish faith and who were considered by the Jews to be heretics of the worst kind. The confusion is made more difficult by the entrance of Simon the sorcerer.

Simon’s credentials:

The fact that Luke tells us that he was the sorcerer tells us much about this man. He was a pagan. A follower of the occult, involved in magic arts and divination but there is more. Look at his nick name, he was known also as the “Great Power!” This was the name by which the expected Messiah would be known, what Simon declared that he was God’s Messiah! Luke records that he was also known by the people as the divine power. This man by his own estimation and that of many others was divine. He was god on earth; that tells us much about him and helps us to understand what is happening in the passage. The people have been used to seeing him about his business, amazing them with his ability and no doubt his preaching. The people were under his spell and consequently bound by the god whom he served. The devil is the one who claims to be the great power. Simon is also portraying what the devil promised to Adam and Eve in Eden. Satan told them that if they followed his directives rather than God’s then they would become like God or a great power! Simon had fallen foul of devilish influence; he was leading people to hell rather than heaven. We would do well to keep this in mind when we see and hear of people who are caught up with devilish practices, they always point people to hell!

There is something else that is helpful in this passage for us; we do not find Philip treating Simon differently in any way and neither do Peter and James later on. They are not fazed by the man’s reputation. The gospel far supersedes any power that man or the devil might aspire to! Many Christians today feel the need for spiritual jiggery pokery when it comes to dealing with people who are under the influence of the devil. It is right to be cautious but always to remember that “He that is within us is greater than He that is in the world!” The devil is no match to God, the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who will believe and that includes the Simon types! Philip simply proclaimed gospel truth and Simon was affected. The way that he was affected we will deal with in a moment or two but before then we need to remember that whenever the gospel is preached there are many unknown quantities in the congregation and so we must preach the word faithfully without fear or favour whatever we might think of our audience. We offer the gospel simply and faithfully to all, whether rich or poor, old or young, good or bad or even dignitaries or tramps. Whoever they are they deserve the gospel to be preached honestly and fairly!

Simon’s faith:

These really are amazing times, we are quite jealous that the gospel does not seem to be so effective here in Wales. Many had believed in Philip’s preached word and had been baptised. Simon was one of them, but these were confusing times. It was the beginning of the spread of the gospel. Jesus had told His disciples to spread out from Jerusalem into Samaria where Philip was at this time and then to continue into the whole world. The confusion came when Samaritans and Gentiles started to be converted! Samaritans are interested in the truth but is it really a work of God? That was the problem for the church in Jerusalem. They had heard the reports and needed to check out whether this is real or bogus. Peter and John are therefore commissioned by the Apostles to go and check it out.

When they arrive they discover that Simon and many others did believe in the gospel. They had also been baptised as a sign to show that they had changed their allegiance to Christ but there was something sadly missing. Their faith was in the truth of the gospel but it had never been applied to any of them by the Holy Spirit of God. They were simply faithful believers but not yet disciples. Peter and John recognise the confusion and so deal with the difficulty. It is at this point that we have to be very careful. This is not a passage for us to build a doctrine upon, these were confusing times and the confusion is being dealt with. God by His Spirit is at work powerfully through Peter and John. He had given them the authority and the faith to lay hands on these believing people in order that God through them might work powerfully in true saving grace. We cannot be truly saved until God the Holy Spirit makes our hearts His home!  Many on that day experienced God’s grace but clearly Simon did not!

So what of Simon’s faith? The evidence shows that he had no saving faith at all. It is true to say that he was fascinated by the gospel and enjoyed the association which he had with it by following Philip to observe his ability to work miracles. Simon also thought that he could pay for the gift that Peter and John had to impart the Holy Spirit! The “great power” was being somewhat upstaged and so to be at the centre of attention he needed to be able to do just as these men were doing in the hope of eventually upstaging them and once again becoming “king-pin!” Simon’s faith was in himself alone. He was therefore merely a religious man that now believed in Jesus. He may have said the equivalent of the sinner’s prayer, he would have testified to faith in Jesus when he was baptised. He had been baptised as a declaration that he now followed Jesus but he was in reality unconverted! You may consider me to be rather harsh in saying this but bear with me for a few moments and I will show you why I believe that to be the case. Before then we need to consider Simon’s faith and apply it to our situation.

There was a new church being born, people in Samaria were being converted, they were committing themselves to Christ and to the gospel and ultimately to each other as the church. They were becoming one in heart and mind just as the believers in Jerusalem had become. They were trusting God for their salvation and then there is this “all important Simon!” He is different, instead of being under authority he wants to be the authority. There are people just like that in the church, they are involved, probably have been baptised, have a great testimony. But they are unconverted, they are interested in Jesus for their own purposes, they might even have great theology and great bible knowledge. They may orthodox and appear to be model Christians but they are trusting in their own ability rather than on Christ. If you are one of them beware:

Because there is a strong warning from Peter to such people:

Peter’s warning:

Look again at verses 18-23. Let me read them from J.B. Phillips’ paraphrase of the passage:

“When Simon saw how the Spirit was given through the apostles’ laying their hands upon the people he offered them money with the words, “give me this power too, so that if I were to put my hands on anyone he could receive the Holy Spirit.” Today we might be tempted to treat such a thing lightly and with indifference. We often bury our heads in the sand rather than confront error. Peter was not like that, he was horrified at what Simon was saying. Peter recognised that Simon was in mortal danger and he was not afraid to tell him as it really is. Our English translations do not fully reveal what Peter actually said to Simon. They all simply say that Peter says may your money perish with you. That does not have the full impact unless we link it to John 3:16 where it says that God gave His Son in order that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life. The problem is that the word perish has lost its full power because we use the same word for a feeling of cold and a slow deterioration of goods. J.B. Phillips says this: “But Peter said to him, “to hell with you and your money!” In the footnote he also adds “These words are exactly what the Greek means. It is a pity that their real meaning is obscured by modern slang usage!” These truly are strong words that many today would take offence at but equally many would also in Simon’s day. Simon himself seemed to have taken it well but we will soon discover the effect that it really had. Before then, there is a lot more that Peter boldly declared. Listen to J.B. Phillips again: “To hell with you and your money! How dare you think you could buy the gift of God! You have no share or place in this ministry, for your heart is not honest before God. All you can do is repent of this wickedness of yours and pray earnestly to God that the evil intention of your heart may be forgiven. For I can see inside you, and I see a bitter man with jealousy and bound with his own sin!”  Peter did not fall for Simon’s false profession or his apparent zeal to be with God’s people. He was not interested in his money to buy power but he was free with the truth. He did not shy away from telling it as it was. Gospel witness requires straight talk, to treat Simon with kid gloves at that stage would have left him in self-security and also it would have given the church the impression that wrong thinking is ok-ish! Peter simply told Simon “unless you repent you will go to hell and that is where the money you offer deserves to be also.” The church does not need the money of unrepentant people who think that by plying the church with finance then they gain gifts from God. God hates such an approach and so should the church. If you are trusting in what you give whether it be money, time or effort to the cause of the gospel then with Peter the church must say “to hell with your efforts along with you because you are also full of evil intent.” We must also say along with Peter there is hope; you must repent of such thinking. Call on the mercy of God for the forgiveness of your sin and you will be saved.  So what was Simon’s response to Peter’s plea?

Simon’s response:

Verse 24 says it all: “please pray to the Lord for me that none of these things that you have spoken about may not come upon me.” Did he not listen to Peter? Peter said to him “you must repent!” I am sure that Peter and the church prayed for Simon but the prayers of the saints never saved anyone; it is the personal prayer of repentance by an unrepentant sinner that brings salvation to the person. Simon wanted it to be done for him and whilst he continued in that frame of mind he continued living in unforgiven sin he would ultimately walk through life and into hell. Peter was not his priest; he could not intercede on behalf of Simon! We have a Great High Priest in heaven who intercedes on behalf of repentant sinners. He has made the offering which is acceptable to God and by which relationship is made possible! Peter never was and never will be God’s vicar on earth. That is our Jesus!

Peter’s strong words it appears were like water off a duck’s back, they had no effect at all on Simon; but what about you? The church has many strong words for you; will you take notice and do as Christ commands? Will you repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order that you might be saved.

Interestingly after Peter had spoken with Simon he and John left it at that. They left Simon to consider what had been said and they went on their way. Christians we would do well to take notice, at this point it has all been said. We do not need to have classes or debates we simply leave the work to God’s Holy Spirit, He is far more convincing than our little arguments can ever be. Our command is to declare the gospel and to trust god to give the increase. Let us not meddle in the work of the Holy Spirit.

Giving

P.A.Thatcher

OBSEC

Evening service

13^th November 2011

Giving: God owns it all.

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Giving is always a difficult subject for us to speak about particularly if you happen to be the main recipient of the Church’s giving. Probably for that reason I have had to gird up my spiritual loins and seek what the Lord would have us learn from this passage. I assure you that if it was not the next section of this letter I would not choose to consider it tonight. But here we go:

We will consider:

1. Giving is a grace given by God.
2. Giving is limited.
3. Giving is a pleasure.

Giving is a grace given by God:

Look again at verse 1, Paul is informing the Corinthian church about the Macedonian church’s attitude towards giving. We will consider their attitude in a moment but before we do we must consider their motivation to give. Paul tells us that their generous giving is in response to an act of grace given to them by God.  God has given them the grace to give for the cause of the gospel, the recipients in this case was the church in Jerusalem who was in great need. The believers in Jerusalem were being mercilessly persecuted; they were not allowed to work and so were considered to be pariahs on society. Many were out of house and home and destitute. That caused the wider church to share of its comparative wealth in order to ease their burden. God had by His grace worked in the heart of the church and had given the members the grace to help their brothers and sisters in times of need and as we shall soon see. The Macedonian church was a fine example of giving sacrificially.

Considering their attitude to giving we ought to refresh our memories as to the Macedonian situation. Paul tells us that they were also suffering severe trials and were themselves extremely poor. They were being persecuted by the Roman occupiers and also by their own people simply because they were Christians. In fact they had every reason not to give because they had very little themselves and what they had they needed.

But

By God’s grace they gave anyway. Paul is using the Macedonian church as an object lesson for the Corinthian church to learn from and so we look at verses 8-9 in order to see how this works out. The testimony of the Macedonian church is both powerful and inspiring and Paul uses it to great effect in order to inspire his readers.

So what does he say?

• Firstly there is no compulsion to give.
• Secondly Paul wants to test their (our) sincerity of love.
• Thirdly there is a comparison to be made, the Macedonian example versus Corinthian (our) earnestness. Do we match up?
• Fourthly he reminds them of the gift of grace found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He became poor (poverty stricken) and then by His gift we became rich.
• Finally we need to go back one verse to see Paul’s urging for the Corinthian church (us) to not only excel in faith, speech, knowledge, earnestness and love for the saints but to excel in everything including the grace of giving.

The church is not compelled by Paul to give, in fact it is not and should never be demanded by the church; but each Christian in the light of what Paul teaches here should not only look to Macedonia for an example but learn from them and to be inspired by the gift of grace given to us all in Christ Jesus. He gave all that we might become rich in mercy and so He owns all that we have and are and so we like the Macedonians ought to give sacrificially in keeping with becoming more Christ-like!

Is this the motivation for your giving?

Giving is limited:

This might just seem like a paradox considering what I have just said. How can God own everything but yet our giving is limited?

The Old Testament giving requirement is a tithe or 10% of income. The people were expected to bring their gift to the place of worship regularly. That money was intended to pay the wages of the priests and to keep the place of worship in order and also to supply everything necessary for the enabling of worship. Interestingly when it comes to the New Testament teaching there is no such requirement. A tithe in not mentioned and neither is any other amount. We simply have passages like this one in front of us. These are our educators and it seems there is far more than 10% required by God. In verse 7 the Church in Corinth are commended for attempting to excel in everything. This is the key to what is expected from us, we are to give everything to God. I do not mean we are to empty our bank accounts; that might be the emphasis of some who in turn become financially rich by exploitation. That is certainly not what the bible teaches. Paul commends the church for excelling in everything, they gave as much of themselves as they could and that is the yardstick for giving also. Notice the example again of the Macedonian church (verse 3) they gave as much as they were able and much more than was expected; to the point of going beyond their ability. That is a great example of Godly giving; remember the great cost of His giving! But there is another twist to the story, look again at verse 5 the Macedonian church even surprised the Apostle Paul! They were an even greater example than he expected in that they firstly gave themselves to the Lord and then to the Apostles. The church submitted themselves to the authority of their Lord and Saviour and also to His church. In effect they were saying that all that they had belonged to the Lord. They limited themselves to giving everything and recognised that all that they had rightfully belonged to God; that is 100%; you cannot give more than that! We might say that the sky is the limit!

But there is another limit mentioned, this one is more practical and is a great encouragement to us and a guard against unscrupulous demands that some might put on us. It is found in verse 3; the Macedonian church gave as much as they were able. Their ability was dependent upon their circumstance. Paul thought that their ability was much less than what they gave because they set the bar higher than anyone might expect. That was their choice and it was dependent on their own commitments and also the urgency of the need as they saw it to be! They made their own decision to give and the amount that they gave and then they gave by God’s grace! The balance was all to Jesus I surrender and then they gave to the cause of the gospel as they had the ability.

That must always be our view to giving. It is far better to have a church rich in people who are sold out for Jesus than to have a healthy bank balance! Because those sold out to Jesus will make sure that none are impoverished. In fact Paul takes us back to the wilderness as the example. The manna was there for the taking, everyone was expected to gather in for their own needs but some needed it to be gathered for them, the total amount gathered was always just enough for everyone. None went hungry all were equal, their needs were perfectly met. Paul says that the mind-set of the church is that we ought to help each other out in times of need, see verses 13-15. Where some are poor the church should be helped, where others are rich they should out of their riches to ease the burden of struggling Christians. We should desire equality, not communism but equality!

Giving is a pleasure:

God was pleased to give His only begotten Son in order that sin might be dealt with and that  sinners might be saved by grace. Ever since creation we have seen that our God delights in giving good things to His people, we are to be like Him and so giving should be our pleasure. It is now coming up to Christmas when we delight in giving presents to those whom we love. As we give our gifts we are simply being God-like! It should be the same for our giving to God and His people. Throughout the testimony of the Macedonian church we do not even get a hint of coercion or of them giving begrudgingly. They in fact gave happily! Their joy overflowed. We considered the inexpressible joy that Peter talks of in 1 Peter 1:8 in our bible study. We discovered that this is the foundational joy that we have as those who have been redeemed and born again; it is not a manic grin or even the joy that the Macedonians are displaying here. The joy spoken of here is the thrill of being involved with the work of the gospel. It was a delight for them to be involved in giving back to God something from the benefits that they had! They greatly rejoiced in Jesus as saviour and so were happy to do all that they could. They gave generously of themselves and their finances, they pleaded to be part of the giving process and so with overflowing joy they gave out of their own well of richness. It reminds us of the love that God lavishes on us in Christ Jesus 1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!”

Giving is God’s pleasure; it was the pleasure of the Macedonian church also. It is said that Jimmy Saville gave 90% of all that he earned, even that is not enough, God owns all that we are and so we are to give all to Jesus. Paul urged the Corinthian church to give likewise and so also he urges us. Is it your great pleasure; are you overjoyed to give of yourself to the cause of the gospel? If you do then you are truly Macedonian and God-like. If not then you are purely a rebel and are displaying worldly tendencies, or worse are unconverted. Where do you stand?

Remembrance Sunday 2011

P.A.Thatcher

OBSEC

Morning service

13^th November 2011

Remember Me.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

We have been remembering that at times of conflict, when the country has been under attack or when our security is in danger then men and women are willing to fight for our freedom. Some pay the ultimate price in our struggle for freedom. We are greatly indebted to all of them. Much of what we enjoy as a society has been made possible by the sacrifice of these brave people. Our whole country at this time of the year focusses on them in deep gratitude to each one.

All of this pales into insignificance when we consider all that our God has done for us. The writer of Ecclesiastes; thought to be Solomon; has written in sermon form his confusion as to what the purpose of life is all about. I was recently watching a programme by James May about how the universe came into being. The BBC is currently obsessed with our origin and they have a theory which is shared with the majority of modern science. The foundational belief is in the accidental formation of the entire universe. The theory is understandably highlighted by many “don’t knows!” This is understandable because the universe is full of so many mysteries and paradoxes, the problem that modern man has is that he has a somewhat closed mind which comes from his belief that there is no God giving rise to the idea that there must be another logical reason for the existence of the universe. They believe that it has come about by a cosmic catastrophe which has by chance created everything out of nothing. As Christians we appreciate the science but disagree with the basis upon which it is founded. Many scientists (not all by any stretch of the imagination) believe that there is no God and so all that they observe comes from an atheistic basis. The results are therefore very different to those that people of faith come to! People of faith will always attribute all that we see around us to the creating power of God. We will have differing views of issues such as time etc. but the base line is that our understanding of the origins of life is found in God alone. It is certainly not my purpose here to debate these issues but to encourage you as we consider the meaning of life simply to remember our Creator whilst we have breath.

There are really 2 points to what the writer is saying:

• Remember your creator whilst you can.
• Remember your creator before it is too late.

 

 

 

Remember your creator whilst you can:

The writer tells us in the days of our youth to remember our creator. Youth often brings with it arrogance and pride usually in the form of self-sufficiency, pride and selfishness. In our youth we might feel as if we are infallible but the writer tells us differently. He reminds us that we are created beings and that our Creator is worthy of our remembrance in much the same way as our country’s hero’s deserve the remembrance and thanks of us the beneficiaries of their sacrifice.

We have a greater advantage than the writer did because we have the full revelation of God to draw upon. Solomon if he was the writer had an incomplete understanding of God’s purpose but we know that His eternal plan was for the Lord Jesus Christ who is God the Son to come into the world in order to fight the forces of evil and the power of sin over the lives of His people. Jesus was victorious in His mission! His victory came upon a cross where sin was paid for; for all who will believe. This is what we as Christians are to remember! The writer says that the best time to remember God is in our youth. See how he develops the theme in verses 1-5. He wants his readers to Remember God and so he gives a number of pointers.

Remember Him:

• Before days of trouble. Youth has problems but trouble comes as we get on in years.
• Before a time when life has no pleasure left. Normally it is only in old age that people lose the joy of life but illness causes some to be desperate long before then. This simply makes the matter more urgent. We are never sure when life might lose its charm and also when we might lose life. It is therefore imperative that even from youth we must remember our Creator! When we do we will find abundant pleasure in Him.
• Before the brightness becomes dim. One of the disturbing features of old age is macular degeneration. The dimming of the eyes, look around at the reading glasses which are in evidence among us there are a number of us who are on the way to what is being described. It is time to remember God; our glasses should be an aid to remember Him. Our time is coming! Our eyes may be getting dim but one day we shall see Him crystal clear, He will be on that day either our Judge or Saviour.
• Before the storm clouds are constant! Is your life becoming punctuated by hospital visits? When I first came here my hospital record was very slim but now it resembles my figure it is fatter that I would like it to be! One issue or storm may be dealt with only to find that another cloud appears over the horizon. Our medical records also act as a reminder of our fallibility and so should cause us to remember whose hands we are in! Remember your Creator in the doctor’s waiting room, what better place to be reminded of our frailty?
• Whilst you have strength. How many times do you have to admire the view as you come up the hill to the church?  Are you feeling ever weaker? Remember Him!!!! When you do you will rise up as youths do and will rise to great heights as do Eagles.
• Whilst you can chew things over. We can tell the age of a person by the length of their teeth. As we get older our gums recede and the teeth become longer and longer until in very old age they become loose and might even fall out. The old grinders become happier with soft food, crunchy apples become less and less attractive. Yet another reminder to Remember Him! When you next buy your tube of sensitive toothpaste remember your Creator.
• Before you are shut indoors. In old age we simply do not want the high life anymore!
• Before your hearing fades. Is pardon or I am sorry I did not hear that part of your regular vocabulary. Remember Him! Every time you have to ask somebody to repeat what they have said remember your Creator!
• Whilst sleep comes easy. Remember Him in the still small and sleepless hours; you have more time to consider His love for you!
• Before you become afraid of even venturing outdoors. Afraid? Just remember Him!
• Before you die and are followed down the street in your funeral cortege! Remember Him before that day comes!!!!

What the writer has been saying in poetic form is; before you are incapable due to old age and circumstances remember your creator! In the spring of life, when the almond tree of life is in blossom and then when life becomes difficult, illustrated by a grasshopper dragging itself along rather that jumping, whilst the desire is there and before you leave this mortal coil; Remember God!!   It is politically incorrect these days to be so graphic, but God is not known for His political correctness or by His masking of reality in order to make people feel good which is what political correctness is all about! God is perfectly honest in His word and so He says that we are all heading towards the grave and now is the time to remember God and what He has done for us in Christ Jesus!!! Do you remember Him? It is not just a simple thought or act of remembrance; the writer means that you must come to Him as your Creator in submission to Him as your God and Saviour! Have you????

 

Remember your Creator before it is too late:

There is coming a day when it will be too late for you to do anything about it. There is no point in the mourners praying for your salvation then! It is too late! You will not have to remember your Creator at that time you will be face to face with Him. This is what the writer goes on to tell us. He simply says “remember Him before the silver cord is severed or the golden bowl is broken, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring or the wheel broken at the well and the dust returns to the ground it came from and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” Poets always amaze me that they get away with gross repetition at times in order to make their point. This is just what the writer does here; just consider the 6 different ways in which he describes your demise.

• A broken silver cord. Life is precious whilst we have it but it is always hanging on a thread. Who knows what might happen even in the next moment. A silver cord might be beautiful to look at but it is rather precarious to hang onto! If you were clinging onto a cliff face and a rescuer offered to drop a silver cord or a climber’s rope to save you which one would you choose? It would be a fool that chose a pretty cord, but our life is held in place by God by what the poet calls a silver cord. He rightly hints at the fragility of it but also the beauty that it has. Our God gives us a beautiful life but it is entirely in His hands and therefore is His to give and His to take. We do not know the time or hour when He will break the cord of life, therefore before that final day: Remember Him!
• A broken golden bowl. This is a beautiful reservoir of provision from God. All that we have and are is given from His good hand. The golden bowl of blessing that He gives is temporal and one day it will be broken. When that takes place, when oxygen no longer feeds your blood supply, when breath no longer takes place and the heart stops pumping forever, when God’s gracious provision of life is taken away; where will you be then? You will be absent from the body and in the presence of your Creator. Will you see Him as judge or Saviour? Please remember Him whilst the golden bowl of provision is still available.
• A shattered pitcher at the well. Our God is the well of all blessing, whether we believe in Him or not. We all come to His well for the provisions of life itself. The greatest thing on offer at this well however is the water of life. Jesus told us that He is the water of life and if we bring the pitcher of our life to Him then He will freely give water that gives eternal life. What that really means is that He is the fount of every blessing, our lives like a terracotta pot are rather fragile, whilst they are intact they will carry God’s blessing but one day they will shatter and no longer be able to take the water of life. It needs to be taken before that day. When is that day? Nobody knows! Therefore as the bible says “this is the day of salvation, this is the day of God’s good grace. This is the day when the water of life is freely available. Take it and drink of the salvation that is offered through Christ alone.
• A broken wheel. The wheel was used to make it possible to draw water. If it was broken it was impossible for a weak person to draw water. We are infinitely weak when it comes to drawing the water of life. We cannot by our own efforts reach down and draw the water of salvation. It took all of the power of God to provide the water and it takes all of His power to deliver it. Our salvation is purely in His hands, we are powerless to do anything about it but we are required to Remember Him before the wheel that delivers the water of life to us is disabled finally!
• Returning to dust. The writer now very cleverly returns to the Creator, we remember from the creation account that we are made from the dust. The promise of the fall is that we will return to the dust and therefore will be buried. The Creator God requires that we remember Him before that day because then our spirit which He created will return to Him. At this point it will either be as His friend or as unknown to Him. His friends will have a home prepared for them, those who He does not know will be sent away for eternal punishment because their sin has not been dealt with and there is no place in God’s presence for sin! He gave life, we sinned by our own free will and so God sent His Son to pay the price of the sins of all who Remember Him. How do we remember? By repentance which brings forgiveness and all of the blessings that we have been speaking of.

What must you do?

Repent and believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and then you will be saved.

 

P.A.Thatcher

6^th November 2011

OBSEC

Morning service

Paying close attention.

Acts 8:1(b)-8

Last time we saw that Stephen had a message for the Sanhedrin who in turn paid close attention to every word that he spoke. From their point of view it was in order that they might discover words of error and then to try him for heresy. That required their full attention but we also discovered that God had a much higher purpose. The word preached by Stephen would accomplish exactly what God had intended that it should. We therefore concluded that the Sanhedrin heard and rejected the word, Stephen preached the word and was martyred because of the gospel and Saul was being irresistibly drawn by God to Himself!

That is the power and effect of good clear gospel presentation.

We will not be too surprised to find that the gospel continued to have a great effect and that people from all walks of life were paying special attention to what might happen next. I remember a number of years ago being part of a church where there was great blessing especially from the preached word. As a church we were looking forward to Sundays because we knew that God would speak to us and challenge us greatly. I remember reading the passage in advance and trying to pre-empt what emphasis the preacher would bring to us. When Sunday came it was as if the whole congregation held onto every word and savoured the content. When God is at work then people cannot help but to pay attention, even if at times their motives are wrong.

From the passage that we have read we see that there were 2 ways in which special attention was afforded to the church.

1. The authorities paid special attention to the church.
2. Onlookers paid special attention to Philip.

 

1)      The authorities paid special attention to the church:

We are reminded that Saul was present at the murder of Stephen; it seems to be that he was both in charge and fully in approval of proceedings. He meant ill towards the church and seemed to be winning the day. Stephen had died, the enemy of the church seemed to have gained the upper hand and so they used their authority to deal yet another blow to the church. Luke simply records that great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem and that this caused all but the apostles to be scattered far and wide throughout Judea and Samaria. Whilst all of this was happening Godly men were paying special attention to the memory of Stephen. They firstly buried him and they also mourned for him. Stephen’s death did not simply pass by as just another event in the growth of the church; it was not something that was simply to be expected. The church had lost a great man who served them with wisdom, care and compassion.  The church had lost one of its best and most respected leaders. Therefore they paid special attention to do the right thing even though they were under the cosh at the time.

On this occasion it seems that the Apostles were not the centre of attention. It was the members of the church that were under attack. The authorities had not been able to demoralise the church by attacking the leaders alone. They had dealt a severe blow by killing Stephen and straight away they deal a body blow. They hit the body of the church in order to take the wind out of them. They persecute them greatly! We can only imagine what that might mean. For a people who could mercilessly stone an innocent man to death anything is possible. We do not need to be fanciful but we do know how a totally depraved crowd could quickly sink to the depths of evil!

Example:

Derren Brown programme where the audience were allowed to make decisions for a victim. They had 2 choices to make for each of a series of situations the man would find himself in. One choice was to do the man good and the other was to do him harm. The audience were all wearing masks to make themselves of equal standing and anonymous. The first choice was really nothing but a bit of fun, a trick or a treat. The majority went for the trick and so the man suffered some indignity. The events worsened and by the end almost all were in favour of the man being harmed until it showed the man in trying to escape being knocked down by a car and possibly having died. The object was to prove that man will always, as a pack seeks to do harm to innocent victims. It worked perfectly!

In a similar way the authorities persecuted the church, seeking to do them harm but Saul began to pay extra special attention to the church. He went about his business of destroying the church, banging on doors and dragging out believers, he did not care about gender both men and women were imprisoned by Saul. The church was being paid special attention and it was not pleasant.

Wherever God blesses the church there will always be opposition. We recently passed by Tintern abbey and wondered at the magnificence of the building and how that so many years ago they were able to build such lasting structures. But of course Tintern Abbey is derelict now because it had been destroyed by Oliver Cromwell. Many see this as pure vandalism and a blot in our history but we need to have a true perspective of events at the time. The people who were in charge of such places were just like the authorities that we are considering; they were severely persecuting the believers. They were destroying the true church and Cromwell was fighting against their persecutions. He destroyed their buildings in order to stop their destroying God’s people. I know which I prefer to be preserved.

When the church receives special attention from the authorities then generally difficulties are just around the corner.

The result was that the church was scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. The aim of the authorities was that the ever growing church be displaced and made impotent?

2)      Onlookers paid special attention to Philip:

Philip is another of the men along with Stephen who had been chosen by the church to care for the widows. Now he is the subject of special attention, this time from the crowd. We remember the command of the Lord Jesus to the church: His disciples are to go out into the entire world and preach the gospel, beginning in Jerusalem and from there to go into all of Judea and then Samaria and then to the whole world. It is amazing to think that all of Jerusalem so quickly had heard the gospel and that now the authorities that are causing the church to fulfil the commands of the Lord, they are actually assisting the spread of the gospel rather than preventing it! Persecution is aiding the spread of the gospel because rather than making the believers afraid to preach, it empowered them to preach the Good News wherever they were. Luke chooses Philip as an example as to what was generally happening. Philip had gone to a city in Samaria where the Spirit of God worked mightily through him. We are rightly cautious as to how we portray what happened in this un-named city because so much is made of the miraculous today. We will return to this next time but it is right to say that what happened in Samaria at that time was a one off event that brought the gospel to Samaritans and many were converted and filled with the Spirit of God. God authenticated this new work of His Spirit by signs and wonders. The crowd paid close attention to Philip and evil spirits and sicknesses were dealt with. That unsurprisingly brought great joy to the city. It is how this came about that is of vital importance for us today, the crowd saw the miracles and were enthralled but we must notice that the miracles came after the preaching of Christ! Philip proclaimed Christ and God blessed the people. Verse 12 tells us that many believed and were converted.

If we pre-empt next week’s passage a little we find that a number of Samaritan’s believed when Philip preached and then they committed themselves to the faith. Many were baptised in obedience to the word of God. These were not just a set of numbers recorded in some church growth survey; they were real people with real issues that had been affected by the preaching of the gospel. The miraculous signs, healings etc. were an integral part of the events of that day but we must always recognise that they were secondary next to the greater miracle of people being saved by God’s good grace. Many today look for the secondary’s and are not too interested in the primary function of gospel witness which is the salvation of repentant sinners. I would like to add that the reason we do not see the signs and wonders as the early church did on this occasion is simply that we are now in very different times. As I have said before and as is clear from the passage before us; the signs were present to prove that this truly was a work of God’s grace in a time of great confusion. The gospel was going beyond the borders of Israel. The great question in the mind of the Jews was “is this allowable by God’s perspective?” God’s purpose was always to extend the borders of grace and so He proved to the people that this was His work. We are under no such confusion, we know that the gospel is for all people of all nations and so we do not need authentication but we desperately need the application of the preached word into hearts and lives. Our prayer should be the blessing of salvation in lives rather than the healing of a body that will die one day and if its owner is never converted will go to hell.

In a way we are like the early church each week, we are scattered all across our area with the gospel of grace in our hearts but it needs to be on our lips because it is by the preaching of the gospel that our contacts will be saved if God so pleases. How can they be saved unless they hear? The challenge for us today is to be like Philip and all of the scattered believers and to take Jesus to those who we are in contact with. Then perhaps there might be some who pay close attention to what we say and bring great joy into the church here at Ogmore-by-Sea.

P.A.Thatcher

Sunday Morning

OBSEC

30^th October 2011

Stephen’s defence of the faith.

Acts 7:1-60

Our last look at Stephen revealed a contrast between his accusers and himself. His accusers were happy to employ whatever means that they could in order to bring Stephen to justice as they saw it. The result in their thinking should never be in doubt. They knew wanted to have Stephen executed on trumped up charges of blasphemy. That was their desired end and so they began their business of entrapment. The reason was that Stephen had something which they did not have and of which they did not understand. It is right at this point to remember that amongst the number of accusers was Saul of Tarsus. He was one of them and so he was part to all of the proceedings and was in full agreement, but from his testimony we know this incident would have had a profound effect on him. Before we even look at the content we learn that we can never tell what God’s purpose is in all circumstances. For Stephen it was an extremely difficult experience but God’s purposes were far more than anybody could expect.

Last time we saw that Stephen to his accusers appeared to have the face of an angel. We remembered that an angel is a messenger of God and so it is no surprise that:

1. Stephen is asked to speak.
2. Stephen’s message is powerful.
3. Stephen’s message is effective.

Stephen is asked to speak.

As we discovered last week Stephen having the face of an angel was displaying the purpose for which he was sent. His accusers thought that they were in control of the situation but God was about to speak powerfully and effectively to them through His servant Stephen. For that to happen Stephen needed and audience and when he got their attention they were captivated by what they heard. I am sure that as soon as Stephen started to speak they would have been most confused because instead of being defensive of his position Stephen gave a history lesson. He revealed his orthodoxy in what he believed about the nation of Israel and how God had separated them for Himself. He could never go wrong by speaking truthfully about the fore-fathers of Israel, and that is what he did. Stephen; beginning with Abraham and God’s promise to Abraham of a people who would have their own land. He moved on through Isaac and Jacob and to the 12 sons of Jacob. He speaks of God’s provision for Israel which came through great personal suffering for Joseph who was their saviour at that time. Israel were kept safe and provided for in Israel until in God’s providence another king who knew nothing of Joseph became ruler of Egypt. Israel then suffered greatly at the hands of the Egyptians but this was the unfolding of God’s plan for them. Moses was being raised up under the noses of the Egyptians and he would be the deliverer or saviour of his people from slavery. Moses would lead Israel through the wilderness and eventually to the doorstep of Canaan. Whilst in the wilderness God was present with His people in the Tabernacle which was the tent/temple of its day. David wanted to build a permanent temple but due to the fact that he was a king of war the temple was eventually built by his son Solomon who was the king of peace. Stephen then reminds them of scripture which says that God does not dwell in buildings of man’s construction and also by using Isaiah 66:1-2 he declares that God is as always residing and ruling the earth in heaven. This was all good stuff and I can imagine his accusers wondering where Stephen is going. He has been accused of blasphemy and yet seems to believe all of the right things. It is only when Stephen utters his final 68 words that they react. We will come to that soon but before then we have here a perfect example of what we discussed last week. God had a message for the men of the Sanhedrin, He had a message directly for Paul and Stephen was God’s messenger.

Just as they had looked intently into Stephen’s face earlier they now hung on to his every word. Their motive for doing so was to trap Stephen by his own words but in order to do so they needed to be fully attentive. We are reminded of Isaiah’s words in chapter 55 which says that God’s word will go out and will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it. The immediate result seems to have been to worsen the situation but we never know what God is doing in hearts and lives when the gospel is being preached. How often we hear of people being affected by the gospel when it has been directed elsewhere. E.g. Alan Jordan’s RAF friend!

Stephen’s message is powerful.

As we have discovered the majority of what Stephen speaks of is the history of the nation of Israel. There could not possibly be any fault found by his accusers until those last 68 (in our English translation!) words! It had all been historically accurate, theologically sound and proclaimed passionately but it ends with a pointed application. This is the sting in the tail!

The power of what Stephen says is not from his own thinking or imagination but is directly from the word of God. God’s word has been given to revive the soul, to make the simple wise, to give understanding and in the keeping of it there is great reward as David says in Psalm 19. But the word of the Lord also acts as a judge which passes sentence on all who reject it. Therefore the words of scripture are as sweet as honey is in the mouth to a believer, they are the words of life itself but to the unbeliever they are the sentence of death, they are odious to the heart and totally without blessing. Stephen’s hearers were readers of the scripture and lovers of the rules even though they did not fully obey God’s commands. When Stephen addresses the Sanhedrin he speaks biblically and so they could not help but understand and agree with what he was saying.

In his application Stephen quotes from Exodus 32:9 and refers to the Sanhedrin as a stiff necked people. Those were God’s words to Israel who were guilty of making a golden calf whilst Moses was on the mount receiving the commands of God. Again in Exodus 33:5 the Lord told Moses to tell the Israelites that they were a stiff necked people and consequently under God’s wrath and judgement. Straight away the whole Sanhedrin understood the implications of Stephen; the accused one is accusing them of ungodliness! That is just the first clause of his application. Stephen continues by quoting Leviticus 26:41 where God speaks of His disobedient people as being uncircumcised of heart. That done in the body was not evidence of the reality of the heart! In Deuteronomy 10:16 Moses instructs the people upon their receipt of the commands a second time around to “circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff necked any longer.” To be uncircumcised in heart is equal to being an unbeliever. Stephen is saying to the religious authorities you just like the Gentiles are rank unbelievers. But Stephen says that it is not only a problem of the heart but that their ears are shut also. They might be attentive to his every word but they will not listen and change! Their fathers were bigots and so are they. The Holy Spirit of God is resisted by them. God’s Spirit interprets and applies truth to their hearts but they resisted it. They were acting just like their fore-fathers who had killed God’s messengers in the past. The prophets declared the coming of the Righteous One and yet they were killed because of their message; and to cap it all Stephen accuses them of having killed the Righteous One. They have had the law handed down to them which had been put into effect by angels (God’s messengers!) but they have not obeyed what it demands. Stephen in a bold and powerful way is saying, you might judge me but the word of God judges you to be bankrupt of faith and out of relationship with God. That of which they were most proud (being God’s special people!) was not the reality.

There are many of us here today, most if not all appear to be good bible believing Christians. But is this true? Do you really trust in Jesus Christ for salvation? Or are you playing the hypocrite just like Stephen’s congregation?

 

Stephen’s message is effective.

We quoted Isaiah 55:10-11 earlier but here it is in full: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” 

God had given Stephen the authority to speak, He had given him the audience and He had given him the message. Just as rain accomplishes all that it is meant to so also the word that Stephen had that day accomplished all that God desired to achieve! The immediate result was their rage and anger! But Stephen’s message was not finished yet! He could see the glory set out before him. Being filled with the Spirit of God he saw God in all of His glory, he saw Jesus standing at His right hand and he declared this to his hearers. Look he said but they could not see. Stephen could see heaven open, ready for him to enter!! He saw the Son of Man, the title used of the Messiah! They knew that he meant Jesus; or the Righteous One and where is He? Standing at the right hand of God, equal with God in authority! This was impossible for them to agree with.

At this the word of God powerfully worked in their hearts, they would not listen, they shouted at Stephen stopping their ears just like children do to stop them from hearing what they are being told! It might be funny in children but for these men it was disaster. They lost all sense of decency, grabbed Stephen and stoned him. We have to say here that the word achieved for Stephen what God desired for him. He was promoted into heaven a few moments later. But not before he prayed! His prayer echoed our Lord’s Prayer from the cross, “do not hold this against them!” At that Stephen fell asleep, absent from the body present with the Lord which is far better. Stephen died, the Sanhedrin showed their true colours and God’s purposes were accomplished. BUT look again there is somebody else there a young man called Saul in charge of proceedings. God is working in his life also. Stephen’s word did not fall entirely on deaf ears, Saul would have to get much worse before he meets with Jesus on the road to Damascus but he was being irresistibly drawn to God.

God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform

He plants His footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.

 

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign will.

Are you listening or are your ears stopped up? Are you putting your spiritual fingers in your ears declaring “I will not listen to this?” If you are then remember this day because God’s word has been declared to you. It is powerful and active; it is empowered by God’s Holy Spirit and if you reject it them you are as guilty as the Sanhedrin were on that day. The choice that you make is separation from God!

 

 

P.A.Thatcher

23^rd October 2011

Sunday morning worship

OBSEC

An ordinary Christian.

Acts 6:8-15

As Christians we often hide our poor Christian life and effort behind the reputation of some whom we might believe to be Super-Christians. The Apostle Paul is one such character, who can ever match up to what he was. There is much truth in that but we need to keep a balance also. Remember it was Paul who wrote Romans 7:15-20:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Paul also elsewhere refers to himself as the least worthy and chief of sinners. Paul was under no illusion that he was better than the rest. All of his achievements he attributed to his Lord. All of his authority and understanding came from the Lord and all of his resolve was of the Lord.

It is right to get this into context before we consider Stephen another of the church’s super-heroes. Before the mention of his name for the first time in Acts 6:5 to the reader of the New Testament Stephen was an unknown quantity. He was chosen by the church because he had the required qualities for the role of servant of the church. If you remember the qualifications laid down for the choosing of these 7 men who were to care for the widows of the church was that they be full of faith and the Holy Spirit. That is a description of all believers! Remember since our repentance and conversion we are a new creation, gone are the old ways. Our sin has been replaced with righteousness given by God and the gods of our former life (Satan and self) who solely occupied our very heart have been replaced by God Almighty through His Holy Spirit. Therefore these are the credentials of all who are born again of God. The church then had the responsibility to choose 7 men who were exemplary in their faith. We can of course see quite clearly that some people are in closer relationship with God than others are and so the shortlist for the 7 was made smaller. But then the job at hand needed to be done and so those suitably equipped would be shortlisted further just as we do when interviewing for any specific job. The job at hand was quite specific, it was all about caring for people in difficulties and so Stephen was by reputation chosen because he was good at such things. The church had to make pragmatic decisions for a spiritual work. That was the work of the church membership. But what of the man himself and what was it that the church recognised in him?

• He was obvious.
• He was powerful.

He was obvious.

The very fact that it was obvious to all should never go without saying. The greatest testimony that can ever be made is that of other people. There are so many autobiographies written these days that tell of the wonderful things that “I” have done. They often tell it warts and all but it is always with a bias that will only disclose truth and error as far as they want to. But when somebody else speaks of us if they are truthful they can only record the reality of what can be observed. Luke in his research for this book records that Stephen was a man full of God’s grace and power. What he saying by this is; Stephen was a most impressive Christian. He did not gain favour by being relevant or trendy or even by having the right theology. It was not his character that set him apart although I am sure that it was impressive in itself; after all the Greek believers trusted him with the welfare of their widows. These are the attributes that we generally look for in people fit for service, it is not wrong to do that but there are higher qualities that are even more important. A note of caution here is necessary Stephen was not so High minded that he had no earthly use. He was clearly respected for his human values but he was also a Godly man of the first order.

He was Full of God’s grace, he had many of his own graces but to be full of God’s grace is truly both impressive and important. It was impressive because others saw it in him. It was not just the Greek believers that entrusted him with their widow’s welfare but the Jewish believers did also. That in itself is amazing, both factions are pleased with all 7 appointed men including Stephen.

If ever there was a time when grace from God was necessary it was then. How does a church deal with such potentially explosive issues? The leaders needed great wisdom and Stephen was wise. They needed much grace to deal with the issues and God is who full of grace, it was He who had empowered Stephen for such a time as this!

As we have read Stephen was unfairly arrested, the members of the Synagogue of the Freedman (there is not much known about who these are but they are thought of consist largely of freed slaves) opposed the gospel and picked an argument with Stephen. His wisdom confounded them and the Spirit of God by whom he spoke defeated them publicly! As we all know a cornered rat is a dangerous animal it will attack violently. These Greek Jews did what they best could, they summoned up a group of liars and made false accusations against Stephen. It is oh so familiar! They gained support from the crowd and also the elders and the teachers of the law on trumped up charges of blasphemy which just happened to be the emotive subject of the day. These upright religious guys had no scruples about false witnesses. Their theology was that the end justifies the means. In other words it does not really matter how dubious or wrong your efforts are as long as it all turns out well for you. Sounds so modern doesn’t it!!! The charges of course soon get enlarged and from firstly being a charge of blasphemy it becomes a charge of constantly criticising the temple and the law and of making wild claims of Jesus destroying the temple. To cap it all they accused him of changing the customs of Moses. They in effect were claiming that Stephen was attacking the very core of society and culture.

As they sat in judgement they looked intently at Stephen! What did they see? They were clearly surprised at his calm; he was not shouting injustices or claiming his rights as we might. There is no evidence of his being downcast and hurt. He simply is there being observed. Earlier they could not stand against his wisdom which tells us that his claims were fair and with authority. Stephen was truly a man who was wise in difficult circumstances.

In this he is a great example to us today, we do not have to stand before kangaroo courts of theologians’ intent on destroying us but we do have a critical people out there who would love to destroy our witness. They will use all manner of unfairness to destroy our witness. Remember how not long ago a group of parents in the village made unfair claims about what we taught the children. We were reported as telling them that they were dirty rotten sinners. That was totally unfair but as with Stephen’s accusers it was based on the truth. What they accused Stephen of saying was true to a point. Christ and the church will destroy the old form of faith but not in the way that his accusers implied. We also must not shy away from truth, the bible tells us that all have sinned and that includes small children. Even King David admitted that he had been sinful since birth! We are expected to teach truth to old and young alike. We do teach universal sin to the children but it is never our place to apply the depths of their personal sin to them and neither do we!  We of course to some are the most evil people because of the misrepresentation. What do we do about it?

We learn a lesson from Stephen! We must simply and accurately and without fear declare the truth as it is. We will see next time just how Stephen achieved that and what resulted from it!

A final lesson from Stephen:

He was powerful.

Remember that those sitting in judgement were looking intently at him! They saw much more than his wisdom. The saw his real power, Luke reports their understanding. Stephen to them had the face of an angel. At this point we have to get rid of all of our mythical understanding of what an angel is! We are about to enter a most dangerous time in the calendar when the whole country seems to go Christian mad! There will be cards coming through our doors with the most bizarre representations of what angels are. We will see little baby-like creatures with wings and blowing trumpets. This is a soppy and wrong interpretation of the reality! Whenever angels appear in the scripture they bring fear and trembling to their hearers, certainly if not at first they do before they depart from their subject. They often come with a sword to speak of their authority or with a trumpet to give a clarion call. For our information the trumpets if they ever were with the angels at the declaration of the birth of Jesus would have been to make the clarion call from God that battle has begun. The Lord had set His plan to go into battle against the devil: His warrior Jesus was now at war! That is the implications of the event. The angels came with a set purpose from God to declare His plan for them.

That is always the case with angels; they are warriors for the Lord with a message to the people from God! What the accusing of Stephen saw was certainly not a baby faced being! They saw wisdom and power from God! They also had a word from God to listen to, which is what angels do! They speak God’s word with power to those whom God has sent them. It is therefore no surprise that they then invite Stephen to speak. More of the message next time! But as we will discover they listen for 52 verses to Stephen’s interpretation of what their history is all about! In the end they choose to ignore it and to execute Stephen but they did listen. Why did they see Stephen to have a face like an angel? Because God had sent him to them with a message! Stephen at that point was an angel: a messenger of God. To a point we are all angels. Remember in the first few chapters of Revelation the Lord Jesus addresses the angel of various churches, if you study it a little you will find out He is speaking to the one with the message in the church. We are all messengers of God; called to declare the gospel message to all that we know. To them we are angels and our message has great authority. It might well be rejected but it comes with the full authority and power of God.

Stephen was an ordinary Christian just as we are but yet he was powerful when he declared his message. We are equally powerful when we declare the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder if our hearers ever notice the power that we have in the Lord.

They never will if we are never God’s angels to them! Ordinary Christians at times are angels to others; our message has great authority and power from God for them at that time.

 

We should pray for the opportunity to be an angel to somebody; they should in turn see us to be full of God’s grace and power. I wonder what you might say to the next person who unwittingly asks that you be an angel to them.

P.A.Thatcher

OBSEC

Sunday morning

16^th October 2011

A problem solving exercise.

Acts 6:1-7

As we have seen over recent weeks the church was growing at a phenomenal rate. The Lord was blessing her greatly and that caused many problems for her. She was experiencing persecution from the authorities but also as we have read there was an undercurrent within the membership.

The church has been commended for the way that they cared for each other; property had been sold in order to help any in need. We have no real way of discerning the timespan between those events recorded in chapter 4 and chapter 6 but the impression we get is that it is only a short space of time. In this period there has developed unrest amongst the members. It was a dangerous situation and it needed to be deal with swiftly but carefully. The way that the church dealt with it is a great example for us as a church today. This morning we will consider:

1)      The problem.

2)      The proposal.

3)      The result.

 

1: The problem:

The problem began with the church growing. We could say that they were experiencing growing pains but that would be far too simplistic. The reality was that amongst believers a racial tension was in evidence. From our studies of the New Testament we know that racial issues are a constant battle. The Jews were a very proud people; proud of their heritage as the nation singled out through whom God would bless the whole world. When a person is converted the scripture tells us that he is a new creation, the old sinful nature is dealt with and a new Godly nature replaces it. That might suggest that sinless perfection results and so consequently that person will from then on never transgress again. Some believe that it is not only possible for Christians to attain such perfection but that it is an expectation. But the evidence of the bible is that this is never the case. In fact we will one day be made perfect but that is when we receive our glorified bodies in the presence of God in heaven. Until that day we battle against the old sinful nature and so in the words of scripture we need to crucify the old nature and work hard at living a holy life. As we know that is easier said than done. In our passage Luke records the church displaying this very problem, they are guilty of letting the old nature raise its ugly head.

Racism is becoming a problem. The Grecian Jews are in their opinion not being treated as well as the Hebraic Jews. The very thing that we commended the church for just a few weeks ago is now a failure. Inequality has become a part of the church. From being all equal now some are feeling marginalised and unfairly treated. As with all such problems it is not absolutely certain where the truth lies. It might well be true that the Hebraic Jews were receiving preferential treatment but equally it could be true that it was a perceived favouritism on behalf of the Grecian Jews. That does not really matter; there was a problem that if not dealt with would soon split the church. Church history is littered with splits due to lesser issues than this one that we are considering today!

The problem was important, the widows of the Greek section of the church felt that they were being overlooked by the food bank. Their perception was that the Hebrew widows were being cared for properly and their widows were not! Therefore a real tension was building up the result being that they were complaining amongst themselves!

Application:

If this situation were to continue then real problems are just around the corner. Jealousy soon would destroy the fellowship! I am glad that this issue is recorded by Luke. It is a great encouragement to me that the early church was just like us, they did get things wrong. Human nature causes all sorts of problems especially when a number of people are together for any period of time. It would be so easy at this point to get all stewed up and to let emotion and hurt take over and to react in a way that is detrimental to the church and its witness.

We will undoubtedly experience our own unique problems; in fact there are probably issues within our fellowship now where some might feel marginalized for all sorts of reasons. The important thing for us is: what we do when we feel like that!

We have a great example before us as to how we should deal with such issues.

 

2: The proposal:

We are not told how the Apostles came to know about the problem but it had clearly come to their attention and they immediately took it seriously! It is too easy for us as leaders to bury our heads in the sand when we see problems, but as we all know when we do then the problem amplifies very quickly. The Apostles acted quickly and efficiently.

First they addressed the problem publicly. This was a church issue and the whole church was consulted as to the remedy. Information is always encouraging to those going through difficulties. Often in news reports we hear of some incident that prevents public transport having to delay their journey. One of the great criticisms the public has is that they do not know what is going on. The church on this occasion could not criticise its leaders for a lack of communication. We would do well to take note of this point; there should be no secrets from the membership as to what is going on in the church. There will obviously be matters of confidentiality when working with people but for the smooth running of the church and for matters of organisation then information is vitally important for all!

Not only did the Apostles take the issue seriously and address the church but they also assessed it rightly. The Apostles had a mandate as to what their role was. It would have been easy at this point for them to muddle along and attempt to deal with the problem. They were of course the leaders and might have felt that they should roll their sleeves up and sort it out. But that was the role of another group of believers. You see the Apostles main role was to pray and to minister the word! That was enough for any man at that time. To get involved with other issues would have resulted in their ministry being compromised. It is so easy for leaders to want to meddle in all of the issues of the church! There are various ministries in the same way as there are various parts of our bodies and just like an eye is specially made to see things and a hand to feel things then within the church there are various members who are especially equipped to perform the many necessary tasks of the church. The last thing that the church needs is a one man ministry or even few member ministries! What we do need is a full body ministry where all members are mobilized and about their own special ministry in the fellowship. There should be no back-benchers or retired members, we are all vital to the cause of the gospel here!

So what did the Apostles do? They made an important proposal!

Choose 7 equipped men and appoint them to the task of serving the church. The equipping required was that they be full of the Holy Spirit and wise. The church knew exactly which men to choose and presented them to the Apostles who then set them apart by praying for them and anointing them (or laying hands on them) and then letting them get on with the job.

Application:

We need leaders who take their role seriously and who deal with all of the issues of the church swiftly and fairly. We need the leaders to do the job that they are appointed for and to appoint equipped people to perform the tasks with which they are especially equipped and then to leave them to do the job for which they have been appointed!

So often the leaders are everything in the church leaving the rest of the members feeling impotent. Equally just as Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas were both available and willing to be involved so we need all members of the church (Christian attenders!) to be willing and available for service! The church is an all member activity and not a work for the elite few!

3: The Result:

As we have seen before church growth resulted from good church practise! Look at verse 7; the result of serious leadership is the spread of the Word of God. But not just the spread of the Word but God was also pleased to bless the Word being preached. The Apostles prioritized rightly making themselves available to preach the gospel and God gave the increase. The number of disciples grew rapidly and also at the same time the enemy is being decreased! A large number of priests were converted; simply because the church would not bow to the authorities when they demanded that the gospel should not be preached and also due to the faithfulness and obedience of the church and its leaders in the internal issues of the church.

Notice that it is God who convicts and converts; that is His work! BUT the spread of the gospel is our responsibility. Just as the early church did we must take that duty seriously and the church must all work together in order that the gospel might be preached widely. Where there are problems they must be dealt with speedily with great efficiency but also with great care and wisdom. Problems should not hinder our gospel work but should be dealt with swiftly thus making the church more gospel efficient. Then we MUST pray that the Lord  gives the increase. We do not need plans and church growth schemes we simply need to be biblical and obedient!

 

 

 

 

 

9^th October 2011

OBSEC

Sunday am

Acts 5:17-42

The church under attack

Last time we considered the signs and wonders that authenticated the beginning of the church. We concluded by making the point that this very thing brought about a jealousy and opposition from the leaders of the Jews.

The issue at hand for today is why did the leaders object so violently and how can that benefit us here today?

Let us first of all consider the opposition:

Who were the leaders?

Luke seems to be rather condescending towards them when. he introduces them as the high priest and his associates. The high priest and his gang or cronies is what we might say today.

The high priest was supposed to be God’s representative to the people. His position was appointed by God and his role was to make relationship between God and the people possible. He could in actual fact do nothing by his own ability because before God he was no better than the people to whom he was ministering. It has always and always will be the case that all have sinned and all have fallen short of God’s perfect standard. The problem was that the high priests did not believe that. In their own estimation they were a cut above the people, they were arrogant and proud and believed themselves to be righteous in every way. They were all important and God was privileged to have them as his co-workers. Remember Jesus story of the Pharisee and the sinner in the temple! The Pharisee had no problem with claiming superiority over the repentant man at the back. That was the very mind-set of the high priest and all of his mates.

But there is more to the issue than meets the eye. As always there are a number of contributory factors. Luke simply records that they were members of an elite grouping. They were all Sadducees, what that means is that they were all theologians. They studied their theology and made dictates in line with their own particular understanding of who God is!

This is where the rubber really hits the road! Good theology is of vital importance, it is the vehicle that helps us to understand the things of God. This bible of ours is a book of theology but as we are all too well aware it can easily be misread, misinterpreted and abused! That is exactly what the high priest and his associates were guilty of and in a way it is what made them tick.

One of the main doctrines of the Sadducees was that they did not believe in the resurrection, the Holy Spirit or of angels and miracles. They had the same Hebrew scriptures which are our Old Testament and which was read and taught in the Temple and also the synagogues of Judea but yet they would not believe in all of the truths contained within. It now starts to become clear as to why they reacted as they did! They were seeing mighty miracles happening, they had previously seen similar miracles performed by Jesus whom the hated and plotted against. They could not sanction what was happening theologically and so it was in their estimation an abomination.

There is also another point to consider, they were convinced by their own hyper spirituality and so why did these things not happen for them and so they were jealous because they were not the focal point.

All of these things are a recipe for disaster and the dis aster unfolded very quickly as we have read. They acted quickly in arresting the apostles:

Application:

We often scratch our heads and wonder why there is so much opposition to our gospel and to the church and its teaching. The high priest and his friends are a perfect example as to why. The majority of people are just like them; they have their own theologies, are equally self-important and self-righteous and in the same way want to be the centre of God’s attention.

We should not be surprised that such people hate it when we speak of our own personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ who died for our own personal benefit. They will hate such a message. They might not in Britain arrest us and beat us simply because it is not the “done thing” here!  In other lands there is no such protection.

We should always take heart and even rejoice when we are attacked for the sake of the gospel for the same reasons that the early church did: We are being counted as worthy of suffering disgrace for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Lesson:

Opposition is cause for rejoicing rather that the depression that we often have when negativity come the way of the church. It should not come for what we have done but because of what God has done in Christ Jesus!!

 

How can this benefit us?

Just consider what happened simply because there was opposition. The church experienced God’s mighty hand at work! The authorities are against the church and the gospel, they might have clever ideas and negative comments but God is with His people. He promised never to leave them or forsake them. They are for a second time thrown into prison but this time one of God’s special agents is sent to the rescue, during the night he opens the door, brought them out and locked up behind them; when the jailor came the next day the prison was securely locked! Not only does God send a rescuer to them but he is also a messenger.

The message from God: “Go into the courts of the temple and declare salvation through Jesus Christ to all of the people. A reminder that whatever men might say the gospel must be preached by His people.

We would do well to take notice in a day when we are encouraged to speak in any other name than Jesus. The gospel must be preached by us to all of the people!

The apostles are obedient to God’s instruction and early in the morning go to the temple and began to teach.

The high priest and his mates call for the apostles but of course they are nowhere to be found, they are all puzzled because the prison is locked up. Until word comes to them, “they are in the temple courts teaching about Jesus!!” Fearfully they are brought to the high priest and then taken before the government. They are reminded of the previous instruction made not to speak in the name of Jesus and then accused of teaching all of Jerusalem. That is effective gospel witness! Then we see what threat the high priest appeared to be under. You are even blaming us for this man’s death. How hypocritical can they be? They were guilty; they had sat in judgement and approved of all that had happened to Jesus.

Peter along with the other apostles waste no time, he goes straight for the jugular:

• We must obey God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God whom the high priest and his friends misrepresented!
• God raised Jesus from the dead, how painful that must have been to a people who did not believe in the resurrection.
• Jesus was dead because you killed Him on a tree, thus making Him a curse. They would have known full well the scripture that speaks of the one who died on a tree as becoming a curse!( Dt21:23) Not realising that this was God’s way of dealing with sin the innocent one becoming a curse before God on behalf of those living under the curse of sin.
• He is now exalted by God and is the Prince of heaven and the Saviour for all who will repent.
• We are witnesses of these events along with the Holy Spirit given by God to all who will obey Him.

I am not too sure what they expected but they received the full anger of the High priest, and do not forget how much authority and influence this man had but Gamaliel was there. He was the voice of reason and common sense. He was a Pharisee with good old common sense at a time of crisis. He reminded them that if this was a work of God they would not be able to prevent it but if it was not then they soon would know! That was just what they needed, an excuse to back off a little and to keep face. A good old flogging was dealt out and the apostles released with the renewed command not to speak in the name of Jesus.

That command was as good as useless. A rejoicing group of apostles left and continued with the great commission. Nothing would stop the apostles doing what their Lord had commanded.

 

Question:

What stops you from speaking in the name of Jesus?

Application:

The threat of pain and death would not deter the early church from fulfilling its mission. We do not seem to have the same resolve today even though it is far less dangerous for us today to stand up for Jesus.

Why is that?

A Happy Christmas to you.

Are you ready for the big day?

That seems to be the question at the forefront of our thinking at this time of the year. Christmas is coming and yet there is so much to do. Will I ever be ready?

The snow is on the ground; the present stack is growing. Cards are being written and postal deadlines are closing in. It is such a busy time for all of us.

Will we ever be ready?

As we travel around we see that local authorities have decorated the streets. The shops are prepared and some houses even have their Christmas trees in place. I have even seen Santa climbing a chimney.

Christmas is almost upon us!

But: are you ready?

It seems from our newspapers and televisions that nature is ready. We are already in the grip of an icy winter. There is snow on the ground, the bookmakers are hoping for many wrong guesses in order that they might make a good profit from those who bet on the chances of it being a white Christmas. The children are practising their Nativity plays; the restaurants are enticing us in with their Christmas fare. The mulled wine and mince pies are readily available. They are all ready!

BUT ARE YOU?

Christmas is a delightful time of the year. It is a great time for the family, a bright oasis in the dull days of winter. It is a time when all of the preparations are completed that we can relax and enjoy the season. I really do hope that this Christmas is a good one for you. I am looking forward to it immensely. But I wonder if you have ever considered the preparations that were necessary for that first Christmas?

It would be easy to think that the birth of Jesus was just an afterthought by God and that He made a simple decision to do something in order to give a helping hand to poor unfortunate mankind due to Adam and Eve’s transgression. This could not be further from the truth.

God was ready!

The bible tells us that God is omniscient, which simply means that He is all knowing. In being all knowing He had a plan for our rescue. Adam’s transgression might seem small to us but to God a complete break of trust over which He grieves greatly. He created man to be His friend and to be in fellowship with Him. A broken rule damaged that for all time.

We have inherited Adam’s rebellion and need God to do something on our behalf to restore what we have lost!

God was prepared for this.

From before the world was formed our All Knowing God prepared for Jesus to come at a specific time in order to rescue all who will repent and put their trust in Him. If you consider the Christmas account you will soon discover that Mary was fore-warned that Jesus would be born as was Joseph. Matthew in his gospel goes to great length to tell us that the Old Testament speaks of Jesus to come!

God was fully prepared.

He declared to His people through the Prophets that a Saviour would come. Isaiah said: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace.”  We see these words on Christmas cards relating to Jesus. You see that at just the right time:

God was prepared

And so He sent Jesus, born of Mary! This is not only a miracle of birth that we as Christians wonder at but it is a far greater miracle. It is a miracle of God’s grace in that He was prepared and willing to do something of great value for mankind. By His grace He has gifted the world with His Son Jesus who gave Himself as a sacrifice for us that sin might be forgiven.

God was fully prepared to do this for you but are you prepared to accept His gift of Jesus. We celebrate His birth. Why not consider Him as saviour?

We invite you to come to any of the services published in our card but would especially invite you to join with us for the “Community Carol Service” to be held on Friday 17^th December at 6:00pm. During the service we will take up an offering; the proceeds will go to the Shoebox appeal which is organised by Blythewood Care.

Once again I wish you a very happy Christmas.

23^rd November 2010

 

The Lord’s Supper

Terms used:

The Lord’s Supper is often known as the Eucharist or Holy Communion. Some refer to it as the Blessed Sacrament or even Sacrament on the Table.  It is also known as an ordinance of the Lord.  So what do these terms mean and are they accurate or useful descriptions of the celebration that we know?

It is largely the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches which would use the Blessed Sacrament and Sacrament at the Table terms.

• A sacrament is simply a symbolic religious ceremony.
• An ordinance is a decree or an order which on this occasion was given by The Lord Jesus.
• Eucharist is derived from the Greek word eucaristw  (eucharisto) which simply means “thanksgiving.” In 1 Corinthians 11:24 eucaristhsas  is the word used for “when he had given thanks.”
• Communion is derived from koinwnia  (koinonia) which simply means fellowship, sharing or as in the AV:  communion. In 1 Corinthians 10:16 “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”
• The Lord’s Supper is the term that we are probably most comfortable with. This comes from 1 Corinthians 11:20-21. Paul in this passage, by way of rebuking the Corinthian for drunkenness and greed at the Lord’s Supper tells them that it is not the Lord’s Supper that they are celebrating.

Due to an abuse of these terms we have understandably reacted against some of them. We should however not be afraid of them; they are all good biblical terms. Perhaps it is time that we claimed them back for the use for which they were intended.

The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament around a table. It is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus in which we give thanks together in fellowship as we eat together.

I speaking of the Lord’s Supper; the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) Basis of Faith states that it is a “commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice offered once for all and involves no change in the bread and wine. All of its benefits are received by faith.” As an FIEC affiliated church we wholeheartedly subscribe to this statement but a more full declaration can be found in for example the declaration of faith of the Elders of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis where John Piper is the pastor. This declares that: “We believe that the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord in which gathered believers eat bread, signifying Christ’s body given for His people, and drink the cup of the Lord, signifying the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord, and thus proclaim His death until He comes. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ’s body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace.” This concise statement is clear and helpful and is probably something that we should adopt as a church for our own doctrinal basis.

Some useful points for us to understand what we are doing when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper:

1. It is the Lord’s Supper. It was given by the Lord for a set purpose. It is not our supper and therefore we cannot do as we please. Even though there are very few instructions concerning the process we are not at liberty to make more or even less of the ordinance than is prescribed in scripture; in particularly 1 Corinthians 11: 17-34. The rules are to be obeyed, the Corinthian church were guilty of abusing the celebration and were rebuked by the Apostle Paul who declared their ritual to not be the Lord’s Supper, it may have looked like it but it was false and therefore unacceptable to God. 1 Corinthians 10:14-17
2. It is the Lord’s Supper. It is a meal with all of the benefits that a meal has. Due to the abuse made by the Corinthian church as recorded in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22; where the people were being greedy with both the bread and the wine; the meal has become a token or symbolic meal. Because the meaning of it is spiritual rather than physical, it was never intended to be a feast but a memorial! We therefore break one loaf signifying Christ’s body given to us and drink of one wine (fruit juice) signifying the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood. The Old Covenant was ratified through sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood, see Exodus 24:8. This Covenant required the death of an innocent victim (an animal) which pointed forward to a more perfect sacrifice. A New covenant was to come. Jeremiah speaks of this in chapter 31:31-34:“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they  broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put  my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  This New Covenant finds perfect fulfillment in Jesus, it is His death and resurrection that brings about all that Jeremiah foresaw. This Lord’s Supper that we celebrate states this most clearly. It is our Passover meal.
3. It is a Remembrance. The Lord said to do this in remembrance of him! Whenever we eat and drink we must remember Jesus; it was He who came from the glory into this world as a baby with the set purpose of accomplishing salvation for His people. But who is He? He is Immanuel which means “God with us.” Matthew 1:23. He is the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” John 1:29 He is the Son of God whom the Father loves: Mark 1:11 He is the Creator: John 1:3 He is God come into the world, made flesh: John 1:14.   This same Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We are made right with God through His death and resurrection. This is what we remember when we celebrate this supper.  It is not  a morbid occasion as some make it out to be. It is not about our feelings or sentimentality it is a celebration of all that our God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
4. It is a Declaration. 1 Corinthians 11:26 tells us that whenever we celebrate this supper we are declaring something of great importance about Jesus; He will come again. The great promise of the New Testament is that Jesus is building His church (a nation of people that are set apart by Him!) Matthew 16:18 and that there is coming a day when all that are to be saved will be complete. At this time Jesus has said that He will return from glory and gather His saints to be with Him forever: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. Whenever we have this communion we declare that fact to each other (and to observers!) this will serve as an encouragement. Paul in 1 Thessalonians concludes the promise of Jesus’ return with the instruction that believers are to encourage each other with this great promise.
5. It is Recognition. We are by the taking of the bread and wine saying that we recognise him. In 1 Corinthians 11:29 Paul warns those who do not recognise the body of the Lord are bringing judgement upon themselves. If we eat and drink in a way that takes Christ from being the focal point; then the blessings dry up and the church becomes weak and sickly. That is exactly what had happened in Corinth. They were guilty of eating and drinking wrongly and the clear results were that the church had become were sick. The evidence being that they of immorality amongst the leaders! This should be a salutary warning to us as a church. It is clearly important that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper correctly; the consequences of not doing so are serious!
6. It is a Communion. In 1 Corinthians 10:16 Paul tells us that not only do we give thanks and  that we remember we also take part. As we take the bread we have a participation (NIV) or communion (AV) with Christ. The letter that Paul writes is to the church at Corinth and in this he is saying that when the church eats together (there is great emphasis on togetherness in the passages concerning the Lord’s Supper) then they are in communion with the Lord Jesus. John Stott said: “Jesus did not only break the bread; he gave it to the disciples to eat. He did not only pour out the wine; He gave it to them to drink. He was not content that they should watch and listen; they must eat and drink. So the service is a communion as well as a commemoration.” This leads me to the conviction that the Lord’s Supper is intended for the gathered church and is not really available for individuals or for small group participation. (That I am sure will promote much discussion in certain quarters.) Our problem is that poor traditional teaching and wrong understandings have infiltrated the church. Rome teaches that the Mass must be celebrated for entrance into heaven, we might not believe that, but it has certainly left an unhelpful mark within the church. The New Testament clearly teaches that the same blessing as is received from celebrating the Lord’s Supper can be gained through hearing God’s word. The communion is a special “means of grace” by which God imparts blessing to the gathered church. It is not a “means of special grace” as some believe, by which special and more important blessings (usually expected just prior to death) are given by God through the hand of the participating priest. The very fact that these leaders claim to be priests is a good hint at what they believe. The mass as they would call it is a regular offering for sin given on behalf of the people by the priest in charge. Jesus Christ is our great High Priest who sacrificed Himself once for all. His shed blood is sufficient for the forgiveness of sin for all who believe on Him. He is the only Priest that we need.

 

This Lord’s Supper is so much more than a ritual that we do regularly. If we add to it as some have, then we are guilty of devaluing its true meaning. It is all about Jesus and nothing else. Equally if we take away from it then we are also guilty of depriving ourselves of its true meaning. We in effect devalue the purpose for which Christ instituted it and are guilty of celebrating something other than the Lord’s Supper. It might look the same but if celebrated wrongly then we are guilty before God. Our celebration is a sham: Corinthians 11:27

We should therefore examine ourselves and our motives and recognise who it is that is symbolised in the bread and wine: 1 Corinthians 11:28-29

The result of not celebrating truly is weakness in the church and a falling asleep. A dead and formal church with no life and power! We must guard against such a thing; we need our church to be full of life for the Lord’s sake, for our spiritual health and for the gospel benefit of those with whom we are involved!

What is happening?

More to the point we ought to ask “what is not happening” when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Certain groupings e.g. the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches believe in a miraculous changing of the bread and wine upon the blessing by the officiating priest (transubstantiation). They believe the bread to miraculously become the actual body of the Lord and the wine to become His blood. They then feast upon His body and drink His blood in a literal fashion. This they believe to be the true food and drink that Jesus spoke of in John 6:53-59 But is this what Jesus meant when He instituted the Lord’s Supper?

The first thing that we must remember is what the occasion was that Jesus was celebrating. It was the feast of the Passover, part of which was the ceremonial breaking and sharing of bread and the drinking of wine together in celebration of God’s deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt. The cost of their freedom was the death of the firstborn son in each family. God graciously accepted the sacrifice of an innocent victim on behalf of the firstborn son in any faithful family. That victim was to be a male lamb without any blemish. The parallel to Jesus is plain for all to see! The firstborn did not have to pay the price but an innocent victim did. It is no coincidence that it was on the night of the celebration of the Passover that Jesus was betrayed and would be arrested and made ready for execution.  The head of the household would take unleavened bread and as they broke it would liken it to the bread of affliction that their forefathers had eaten on their exodus from Egypt: Exodus 12:17ff. Jesus with this in mind as He broke the bread declared that He fulfilled all that it spoke of. He said this bread speaks of my body given for you. Now when you do this do it in remembrance of me! Luke 22:19. In other words the Passover takes on a whole new meaning. The lamb of the Passover is perfectly superseded by Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Then when He comes to drink the Passover wine He declares as we have already considered it to be the New Covenant in His blood which is poured out for you: Luke 22:20 Bread and wine had always been an emblem, a picture of the reality. They were always used to remind the participants of the reality, there is absolutely no reason why for the Lord’s Supper that it should change. In actual fact to insist on it becoming the actual sacrifice acted out before our very eyes takes away the importance of the One Sacrifice made on behalf of sinners once and for all! 1 Peter 3:18

There is however a danger that we over simplify what is happening in our communion with God. There is much made in scripture of this being food for our nourishment, but the Lord makes it plain that this is dependent upon our remembrance of Him. C.H. Spurgeon said: “we not only eat of His bread, but symbolically we feast upon Him.”  Vaughan Roberts in his book True Worship says on page 96 “In this there is a real presence of Christ at the Lord’s Supper but it is located in the heart of the believer and not in the elements themselves. Communion occurs by faith.” Article 28 of the Church of England helpfully states: “The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the supper only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the supper is faith.”

Therefore as we eat in remembrance and faith our souls are fed by Christ. This is so much more than a lesser miracle of bread and wine changing their substance could ever be.

 

Who is it for?

Again we need to look at the beginning. As we have already discovered, the Lord’s Supper is a celebration of all that the New Covenant achieves. The New Covenant in Christ’s blood brings freedom from sin. The Passover meal of the Old Covenant was a celebration of freedom from human slavery in Egypt. The meal was for those who had benefited from God’s gracious deliverance. Anybody could enjoy the meal and the spectacle of it but only those who were truly grateful for what God had done really took part in its true purpose. Therefore it is logical to say that it is for the children of Israel only. It is exactly the same with the Lord’s Supper, many can eat bread and wine but only those who have benefited from the forgiveness of sin through Christ’s sacrifice achieved on the cross really commune with God in the partaking of the memorial meal. The Lord’s Supper therefore is for believers alone. It is a glorious reminder to them as to the graciousness of our God, the cost which He paid in Jesus His Son for the salvation with which we benefit and the great promise of eternal life found in and through Him.

The Lord’s Supper is for believers alone, to others it is merely a ritual that speaks of Christ’s sacrifice if only they will seek the full truth contained within.

Sadly due to wrong thinking there has become a sentimental element attached to the celebration. Comment concerning the communion can often be heard as to the beauty or the wonder of the celebration. It can so easily become an emotional occasion that almost fosters pity for what Jesus went through. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus endured the cross due to the pleasure that would result from its indignity and curse. Tears of pity are not required as we partake but it should cause heartfelt praise, worship and thanksgiving to God for the sacrifice made. It is not a solemn occasion but a celebration of deep joy in the same way as the Passover was to Israel. That is why the Lord Himself said that he had eagerly awaited that meal with His disciples: Luke 22:14. His imminent suffering was about to accomplish all for which He had come. As we gather for our regular Communion we must come as the Lord came: Eagerly!

Helpful Hints.

The signpost found at a crossroads can be a helpful reminder as we celebrate communion. The signpost has 4 different instructions upon it. It points from one focal point to 4 different destinations. The Lord’s Supper can be likened to a crossroads. The signpost there reminds us to:

• Look back:  Remembrance. When we see a signpost to Cardiff we do not stop there content that we have seen evidence of Cardiff. It spurs us on to travel to Cardiff and enjoy the pleasures found within. The bread and wine are a signpost pointing to Calvary. Do not stop and admire the sign but remember the place of ultimate sacrifice made on your behalf.
• Look up: Communion. Not only do we look back on what has been achieved but we are to look up to the One who achieved full and free salvation. It is Him we are communing with and are being fed by. As we eat and drink we are reminded of the cost but we are declaring once again that our trust is in Him alone.
• Look around: Fellowship. We are eating and drinking with like minded people; look around and appreciate them because they too are part of this great church gathered by the Lord Jesus. As we look around we should see that the even greater fellowship is found in God Himself. We are part of the family of God.
• Look forward: Hope. We are declaring Christ’s death until He comes. Until that time we have hope for the future but when that day comes then the church will be gathered in fullness; in perfect communion; in the presence of God Almighty.

 

Conclusion:

The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” The apostle Paul adds: “For whenever you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes!”

“We believe that the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord in which gathered believers eat bread, signifying Christ’s body given for His people, and drink the cup of the Lord, signifying the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord, and thus proclaim His death until He comes. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ’s body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace.”

Tribute to Mary Pells Cocks

The thanksgiving service for the life of Mary held on Tuesday 27th July at 12:00 was well attended (approximately 80 people.) Peter led the service. There was a family tribute to Mary from 2 of her nieces. Mary’s son David read the scriptures and Meirion Evans led the congregation in prayer. The transcript of the service has been posted on Pastor’s blog. Please follow the link within the website links page.

The service was followed by interment at the cemetry in Porthkerry this was led by David Pells Cocks. 

For Mary

Mary and Denis had a grand vision:

They responded to Our Lord’s commission.

To plant a church here was the Lord’s desire,

Setting the local people’s hearts on fire.

They opened their ears so that they could hear

The Lord’s still small voice which was calm and clear.

Mary prayed to her dear Lord each day long;

With God’s help she knew what was right and wrong

When you walked into Church without a friend,

On Mary’s kind welcome you could depend.

To help folk understand she was able

To give them their own Gideon’s Bible.

The Lord now holds her in His arms’ embrace

And pours upon her His bountiful grace.

Mary, though you have moved to pastures new,

You’ll stay in our hearts for we all loved you.

Wendy A. Nottingham July 2010