Bad man gone good

Posted on 16/03/2014 by davidfowlerpreacher

Today was the first time I have preached since I started my treatment for cancer some six months ago. Although the treatment finished three months ago, I felt it right to have a good period to recuperate.

So today I preached at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church as the pastor is enjoyed a well deserved holiday.

Luke 19:1 – 10

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’ ” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

zacchaeus_and_jesus_jpg

How many times have you heard the phrase “Leopards can’t change their spots”?

Perhaps you’ve said it yourselves about someone.

We know what it means – people’s nature doesn’t change. How you are is how you’ll stay.

We tend to think that people cannot change their ways. If you start off life bad you’ll live life bad.

We may even misquote scripture to prove our point after all didn’t Jesus says in Matthew 7:18 “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”

I’m sure that we’ve met people who are permanently bad or villainous.

On the other hand we’ve all heard of good people who’ve gone bad. The news is full of them from TV evangelists who can’t tell the difference between their wife and their secretary, to the recently disgrace head of the Co op bank. Let alone politicians caught with their hand in the till.

But can men and women change from bad to good? Where society says its in someone’s genes, or its their upbringing that makes them bad, can people change?

In Luke 1:37, the angel Gabriel tells Mary “  For nothing is impossible with God.” when she says how can I have a child when I’m a virgin. If God can cause a miracle to happen so that a virgin conceives he can and does cause miracles to happen in the lives of men and women.

In 1 Corinthians 6: 9 & 10 Pauls gives us a list of those who won’t get into heaven. But then in the following verse we read: “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

So there is hope, because on our own we can never be good enough to get into heaven. The prophet Isaiah put it this way in Isaiah 64:6 “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”.. The original Hebrew is more graphic than that and I leave it to you to check it out.

Many times I have been told by people that they are not good enough to go to church. You have to be a good person to go to church, and God certainly won’t want the likes of me.

A bereaved lady I visited recently told me that she had been going to church for years and was her church’s secretary. Her recently departed husband had been the church treasurer. And yet this dear lady had no idea of salvation or of God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. She was convinced that her only chance of getting into heaven was to live as good a life as possible.

She was by the way a member of a spiritualist church and clearly had never read the bible. Instead she had been fed all sorts of false comfort by the church leaders along the lines of it will all be alright at the end, and everyone will get into heaven.

As for people not being good enough for church or good enough for God to want them, its as daft as me saying last year that until I’d cured myself of cancer I was too ill to go to hospital to see the oncologist. Had I come out with that sort of statement you’d have said I was stupid and needed to get myself to hospital to be cured. You can’t cure yourself!

Jesus is the cure for our sins, our bad attitudes and our bad lifestyles. We can’t do it ourselves. Yet we want to.

Today’s Bible reading is the story of a bad man turned good through his encounter with Jesus.

Zacchaeus was not a good man. He may have started off good but we are not told. I can’t imagine that the nice folk at the Jericho synagogue would have welcomed Zacchaeus let alone invite him home for dinner.

He was a chief tax collector and very rich. That’s all we know about him. But he worked for the occupying Roman Empire collecting taxes.

The Romans had effectively put the tax collection system out to franchise. As long as they got what was due to Caesar, they didn’t really care what extra the tax collectors claimed from the people. Most people couldn’t read or write and so they had no easy way of telling whether the amount demanded was correct or not. And it would seem that Zacchaeus was not adverse to bumping up the tax demand.

A bit like the cowboy builders who prey on the elderly and vulnerable charging them thousands of pounds for simple little jobs .

So Zacchaeus had made himself a fortune, no doubt backed up by the Roman soldiers if anyone started to ask too many questions.

We are not sure, but is doesn’t seem that Zacchaeus was a popular man. He might have had wealth but did he have friends? There are other tax collectors mentioned in the Bible and they certainly were not popular men.

We don’t know what prompted Zacchaeus to leave the office that day to go and see Jesus. Having said that, the Holy Spirit does prompt people in various ways and perhaps Zacchaeus felt that emptiness in his life that we all feel when we are far from God. We try and fill that void with all sorts of things but in the end only a relationship with God through Jesus will fill the gap.

Zacchaeus has this desire to see Jesus. So he leaves the office and finds he is unable to see through the crowds as he is described as a short man. But he wants to see Jesus and so he climbs a tree. Not a very dignified thing to do, and I am sure he came in for a certain amount of ridicule from the crowd as he climbed to his vantage point.

Meanwhile the great and the good and others line the streets as Jesus walks into town.

No doubt the nice religious people hope that Jesus will speak to them. Perhaps they hope they can invite them to dinner.

Jesus stops. Who is he going to speak to?

The crowd must have been shocked when they heard Jesus talking to Zacchaeus. Perhaps they hope Jesus will lay into him and tell him what an awful man he is.

But no. Jesus calls him down from the tree and invites himself to dinner.

This is one of the reasons that the Pharisees hated Jesus. He eats with sinners was their complaint. He doesn’t spend his time with the nice religious people.

That short meeting with Jesus has transformed Zacchaeus’ life. He shows how changed he is by the way he not only recompenses those he has swindled but also by giving half his possessions to the poor.

Although Zacchaeus may not have been welcomed by religious people he is definitely welcomed by Jesus.

Jesus comments “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

[At this point I read a story from Jim Cymbala’s book “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”  to illustrate that Jesus came for all men and women, even the ones who we might be tempted to reject. As I am not sure about copyright, I am not reproducing the story here.  However the book is a good encouraging, challenging read and I would urge you to buy a copy and read it your self.]

Many people want to see Jesus. They want to know about Jesus. But when Jesus calls them to come out of the tree or where ever he finds them, its their choice to answer his call. If you answer that call, life will never be the same again and you can be assured that your future in heaven is secure. Amen.

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Signs of the times

Posted on 20/08/2013 by davidfowlerpreacher

On Sunday 18th August I preached at both Trinity United Reformed Church in Upminster and then at Nelmes United Reformed Church in Emerson Park Hornchurch.

As an introduction and mainly for the younger people in the congregation we had looked at Folk Lore and weather sayings, and interestingly one of the more popular weather sayings was even known in Jesus’ day see Matthew 16: 2 – 3.

Luke 12:49 -56

49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” 54 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?”

There are many ideas about Jesus, his personality and his mission.

Once on holiday we heard a Methodist minister start a sermon with these words “Everybody has their own ideas about Jesus and everyone is right!” So I guess if you think that Jesus is the tooth fairy then according to that minister you are right.

But if you read your Bible you’ll find the truth.

Lots of folks don’t get beyond their childhood Bible stories or Sunday school ideas of gentle Jesus meek and mild. And so can’t understand or believe that Jesus said he came to bring division.

There is a picture on the way out of the East Chapel at the South Essex Crematorium showing Jesus as a white man with ginger hair and a ginger beard. Clearly the artist hasn’t thought about the characteristics of people from the eastern Mediterranean area.

Or folk think that if you are a Christian you have to be all fluffy and woolly minded, speaking in a hushed religious voice sounding like the archetypal TV vicar!

And yet if you look through the gospels you’ll find that Jesus talks more about judgement and hell than he does about heaven. That is uncomfortable for many people.

And what did Jesus do about the traders in the temple?

He didn’t turn a blind eye because it was a good source of income for the temple and proved employment for many people. Neither did Jesus call a conference with the temple authorities and the traders to see if there was a mutually agreeable way of peacefully resolving the issue. No, we read this in John 2:14 – 16 “In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle, he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said “Get those out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”

In our reading from Luke 12 Jesus asks his audience “Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth?” You may well say that as Christians we should seek to be at peace with people. And that is what the Bible tells us in Romans 12:18 “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone.”

However as the Bible tells us, mankind is in rebellion against God and there will naturally be a struggle between God and men. Also the devil is determined to not easily let go of the souls of men and women.

The good news of Jesus is not universally accepted joyfully. There is often apathy or even downright hostility. And yet many Christians are surprised at this.

In John 15 Jesus warns his disciples in v20 “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” Also in v23 “He who hates me hates my Father as well.”

The only way you can be at peace with non believers is to not tell them the gospel, to keep your light under the proverbial bucket.

Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. Its as simple as this. As Christians we believe that Jesus is the only way to God. Followers of other religions may be nice, sincere people but they are lost.

Just as not every plane leaving Heathrow airport will take you to New York, only those destined to go to New York will get you there, so not every philosophy or religion will get you to God. Many folk find this offensive and dismiss Christians as intolerant people, as most other religions will happily go along with each others’ views.

A few days ago I was speaking to a young lady minister who was very excited about conducting her first funeral service having recently been ordained. I asked her which church she was from and she replied that she was an Inter Faith minister. She may have been a nice person but she had her feet in so many spiritual and philosophical camps its hard to know really what she believed. Also if you are not a Christian, how can you lead Christian worship and say the Lord’s Prayer as God clearly is not your father.

We read in John 5:23 “He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him. “ So if you do not acknowledge Jesus for who he truly is, then you are not obeying and honouring God.

In our reading Jesus states that he will cause division. Families will be split by the gospel. I am sure we can all think of families where there is great hostility to those family members who have come to faith in Jesus.

I know of one elderly couple where for years the husband has tolerated his wife going to church as long as Sunday dinner is on the table at 1 o’clock. Which of course made it very hard for her if there was anything going on after the morning service.

I’ve known of families where family members have been disinherited or “sent to Coventry” for becoming Christians.

Maybe we don’t face the extremes that people in Muslim countries face if they come to faith in Jesus Christ, where they face being thrown out of their families or even killed for bringing dishonour on the family. Or being prosecuted and imprisoned as Islam is the state religion.

Over the last few days there have been reports on the news of Christian churches being attacked and burnt down in Egypt . Also in Nigeria many Christians have been attack by Muslims in the north of the country.

We should not be surprised at the hostility to the gospel and to the discord it can make between believers and non believers. Jesus says in Matthew 10:34: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”.

Primarily the peace that Jesus brought is what we can have on an individual basis between ourselves and God when we come to faith in Jesus. Having said that there should then be peace between fellow believers.

Except that sadly divisions do occur sometime over things that really don’t matter ie which side of the choir pews the piano is placed or even worse which side of the church the tea urn is sited!

Other times arguments and divisions happen over more drastic problems ie people straying away from the truth of the Bible.

Having pointed this out to his listeners, Jesus turns to the crowd and talks to them about common weather predictions.

People know how to read the sky and predict the weather and and yet Jesus says you can’t see what’s really happening. Jewish people knew their scriptures and so would know the prophecies about the Messiah. They would have seen and heard Jesus and seen that he ticked the boxes on the job description for the Messiah.

And yet they could not see the wood for the trees. For the Jews this was fatal, bringing upon them the destruction of the Temple and indeed the City of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish people.

What about us? Do we read the signs of the times and know how to interpret them?

Are we surprised at what we see in the world?

This is what Jesus warns us in Matthew 24: 4 – 8 “Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, ‘ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

It is a great assurance that whilst we must see and experience these things, all these are under God’s control. And the end is certain, even if only God himself knows that day and time of Jesus’ return.

So today lets pray that God through the Holy Spirit gives us the confidence and the courage to spread the good news of Jesus to the people we meet. Also we need to ask for God’s guidance so that we can safely and faithfully interpret the signs of the times and trust in God who is working out all things for the good of those who love him. Amen.

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The Good Samaritan

Posted on 14/07/2013 by davidfowlerpreacher

This morning I preached at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church in Dagenham.

I realise that in the 20 plus years I have been preaching I have never spoken on “The Good Samaritan”.goodsamaritan2

Earlier in the children’s talk we looked at “Heroes and Heroines” looking at the many examples we can find in the Bible. And in a way the Good Samaritan was a hero given that he came to the rescue of a man who had been assaulted and robbed. How did he know it was safe? that the robbers weren’t waiting to attack any unsuspecting person who came along?

There are many facets to this parable and we concentrated on just a few.

Luke 10:25 – 37

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Do you ever find people you don’t like?

Maybe its because of what they do, like playing loud music into the middle of the night or they drive so erratically and so slowly that a milk float with the motor switched off could over take them.

Often it’s a cultural thing. As I grew up in the 60’s there were the Mods on their motor scooters and the Rockers on their motor bikes. The cultures collided at bank holiday weekends on the seafront.

Later it was “punks” and “skin heads”.

We usually dislike folk because they are different. They are not like us!

Some folks from East London don’t like people from South of the water!

Or if you are a Spurs supporter what do you think of West Ham or Arsenal?

Jonathan Swift in “Gulliver’s Travels” wrote about two arguing, warring factions: The “little enders” and the “big enders”. That was all to do with which end of a boiled egg you opened. The small or the large end!

I heard recently of a church that told a young lady she wasn’t the sort of person they welcomed into their church as her arms were covered with cuts and scars. She was a self harmer.

Many years ago I was brought up in the Church of England. Our rector described the catholic church on the other side of the road as the Bishop of Rome’s mission to Upminster. The catholic priest called the rector “That man over there!” And of course good Catholics were forbidden to set foot in another church because it wasn’t a proper church. I dread to think what that priest would have said about the Baptists.

So here we come to a very familiar story, “The Good Samaritan.”

People love stories and jokes particularly if they are at the expense of another cultural group. Inevitably in this country we have the Englishman, the Scotsman and the Irish man, with the Irish often (but not always) being the butt of the joke.

An Englishman a Scotsman and an Irish man go into a pub. A broad Scottish voice proclaims “I’m buying!”. The next day the newspaper headline reads “Irate Scotsman attacks English ventriloquist”.

I understand that in Canada those from Newfoundland come in the same category. So “why do Newfoundland dogs have flat faces – they keep chasing parked cars”.

In first century Palestine there were several factions in the Jewish nation and they often tried to get one over on each other.

The priests and the Levites were related. The priests were descended from Aaron who was from the tribe of Levi. The priests were needed in the Temple to make the sacrifices laid down in the books of the law, the first five books of the Bible.

The Levites were to assist the priests and to over see the running of the Temple as well as providing the musicians and the choir.

The Pharisees or teachers of the law, thought they were better than anyone else. They didn’t like some of the establishment cooperating with the Romans.The Priests and the Levites were the religious establishment.

the Pharisees knew God’s law and applied in very accurately. So they would tithe even the herbs they grew on the kitchen window sill! The Pharisees may know the law of God and try hard to follow it, but they didn’t know the love of God.

Then there were the hated neighbours, the Samaritans. They were the neighbours from hell, or certainly the ones clearly destined for hell!

The Samaritans were the descendants of people brought to that part of Israel after the Assyrians had conquered Israel and taken away into exile most of the 10 northern tribes who had lived there. The Samaritans had adopted some of the aspects of the Jewish faith, but they didn’t go to the Temple in Jerusalem as all good Jews were expected to do.

As far as many of the Jews were concerned, there were foreigners, who were bad enough, and then there were the Samaritans! Many Jews would take lengthy detours on their journeys to avoid going through Samaritan territory.

Perhaps you can recall the story in John 4 where Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar. The woman is surprised that a Jewish man would talk with a woman, and even worse a Samaritan woman with a terrible home life.

So those are some of the characters we are going to meet as we look at the passage.

A teacher of the law, a Pharisee, asks Jesus “”what must I do to inherit eternal life?” You get the feeling that he knows the answer but wants to test Jesus. People were always doing that, trying to catch him out.

The Pharisee then gives a concise version of the 10 commandments “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”

Jesus commends the man on his answer saying “”You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

The Pharisee however wants to know “Who is my neighbour?” Maybe he hopes that Jesus will say its those Priests and Levites or perhaps just other Jews.

Jesus then tells a story to answer the question.

The crowd listening will know that the journey from Jerusalem to Jericho could be risky and that there was always the problems of robbery. Then as now people wanted something for nothing and robbery was one way of making a living.

This poor man is robbed and left for dead.

The Priest and the Levite both steer clear of the man. They are men with a mission. On their way to the Temple in Jerusalem to play their parts in the worship services there. They have to be ceremonially clean otherwise they can’t do their jobs. It is vital that the sacrifices are made at the correct time of day, that the lamps in the Temple remain lit. These men must be there on time.

So the rules say that they must not come into contact with a dead body. Even if their human nature is to go to the man’s help, their calling as Priests and Levites take priority.

So they walk on by.

Incidentally a Sunday School teacher once taught her class this story and asked why didn’t the priest go over to the injured man? A young boy replied “Because the priest saw the man had been mugged already!”

And now as in most good stories a third character appears to resolve the problem or indeed to be in the punch line of the joke.

The Pharisee probably expects the story to go something like this: A third man comes down the road, a Pharisee a true man of God. He stops, tends to the man’s wounds, puts the man on his own donkey and takes him to an inn where he can be care for.

But…. Jesus doesn’t give the expected resolution to the story.

Who is the hero who comes selflessly to the man’s rescue?

Its not a decent law abiding, religious observing Jew. Oh no! It’s a Samaritan!! They are awful dreadful people, probably sell their own grandmothers and worse. How can he be the hero?

But he is the hero. The Samaritan gives the man first aid and takes him somewhere safe, and also pays for his care at the inn.

It is interesting that the Samaritan doesn’t say anything about I’m not helping him because he’s a Jew. No he just sees the man as someone in need.

At the end of the story Jesus says to the Pharisee “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

I think that the Pharisee was not pleased with the way the story had worked out. You can almost hear the teeth grinding as he replies “”The one who had mercy on him.” He just can’t bring himself to say the word Samaritan such is his prejudice.

And even worse is how Jesus then says “Go and do likewise.”

The question we have to ask ourselves today is “Who is my neighbour?”

Is it the people I like and get on with? Or is it people like me?

I think that Jesus is saying that our neighbour is anyone who is in need, regardless of whether we like them or not.

The Good news of Jesus Christ is for every one. God longs for everyone to come into the kingdom.

Paul writing to the early church in Galatia puts it this way in Galatians 3: 26 – 29 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,  for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Sue Millar in her series of sermons from Acts has brought out that Jesus is for everyone not just for the Jews.

The only ones who won’t be in the Kingdom are those who chose to stay out. Those who don’t respond to Jesus’ invitation because they do not want to change and do not repent of their sins.

But that doesn’t stop us being a neighbour to them.

There is a modern hymn that talks about this, and I quote the first verse:

When I needed a neighbour
Were you there, were you there?
When I needed a neighbour
Were you there?
And the creed and the colour
And the name won’t matter
Were you there?

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You want me to do what!!

Posted on 07/07/2013 by davidfowlerpreacher

Today I preached for the first time at Nelmes United Reformed Church in Emerson Park, Hornchurch. The fellowship there are really lovely people and made me feel at home.

Firstly we have the children’s talk entitled “Bananas” and then we have the Bible reading followed by the talk.

“Bananas”

Let me ask you a question.

This is for anyone, young or old, male or female, so don’t be shy.

Do you going shopping?

I’m talking about shopping for food, not going round and round the Liberty in Romford, or Lakeside or Bluewater, not even browsing the internet for bargains, but going to the supermarket.

So when you go to Tesco’s, Asda, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s or Waitrose do you look at what people are doing?

Next time you’re shopping watch the fruit and veg aisle. Look at people buying bananas.

They pick a bunch and look it over.

Then rip.

  • That one’s too green.
  • That’s too yellow.
  • Too hard.
  • Too soft.
  • Too Bent.
  • Too Straight.
  • Over ripe
  • Under ripe.

All these bananas are just pulled off the bunch and chucked back on the display.

But aren’t we treated the same sometimes and put to one side or overlooked.

Years ago my niece wanted to be a ballet dancer and had lessons passing all sorts of exams but then in her early teens she was told you’ll be too big.

I know of a church which won’t let girls sing in the choir if they aren’t pretty and slim. Never mind their musical abilities.

We get cast aside because of age or appearance or for a variety of reasons.

But the good news is even if you feel people don’t want you, God is different.

He has a plan for each one of us and he has things for us to do which no one else can.

We will be looking at the story of the healing of Naaman from leprosy later in the service. And you will see that a not very important young girl, a slave, has a significant part to play in Naaman being healed.

Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

So next time you see people pulling bunches of bananas apart remember that God never leaves you behind or abandons you. Not only is there a place for you in God’s kingdom but he has a job for you.

2 Kings 5: 1 –14

1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. 2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” 4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. 5 “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.” 7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!” 8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” 11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. 13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Have you ever noticed how God asks ordinary people like you and me to do extraordinary things? Sometimes impossible or improbable things?

We are going to look at a passage from the Old Testament in a moment.

But firstly just a few words carrying on from our children’s talk.

Maybe you feel like those poor bananas? Perhaps you have been discarded, thrown back onto the display? Through our sinful nature we can be very unkind, if not cruel to our fellow men and women.

Perhaps, like I was some 17 years ago, you’ve been made redundant, or maybe like my eldest son, who is going through divorce proceedings you’ve been told “I don’t want you anymore”.

Well the good news is that God will never do that to you. He doesn’t care about shape, colour, intelligence, status or wealth.

He looks at the heart and your willingness to obey him. Just look at the story of how David was anointed by Samuel to be the King of Israel in 1 Samuel 16. Jesse had all these tall handsome sons and Samuel thought that God had chosen one of them but this is what God tells Samuel “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”.

So if you ever think you can’t do anything for God – “he’ll never use someone like me”; think again! He knows your heart. He has something for you, just ask him how you can serve him and be willing to do so.

We’ve got quite a few interesting characters in today’s Bible passage.

  • A famous and successful soldier who has to let go of his pride,
  • a slave girl who tells Naaman who can heal him,
  • A king of the Jewish people who clearly has no faith in God, and
  • the Elisha a prophet, someone who moves in God’s power.

If  you can open your bibles to 2 Kings 5 we are going to look at vv 1 – 14. A story about a man who said ”You want me to do what?” and yet he did it and was healed.

Firstly a brief history lesson. Naaman was a general in the army of Aram, the country we now know as Syria. Aram had gained its independence from Israel during the reign of King Solomon and until its conquest by the Assyrians in 732 BC was often at war with Israel. Sometime, Judah joined in on Aram’s side and other times Judah went to Israel’s aid. And today, some 2800 years on, Israel and Syria are still enemies. And sadly as we know there is no peace in Syria itself as the civil war rages.

What do we know about Naaman? In our passage we read, “Naaman, the comassyrian chariotmander of the Syrian Army, was highly respected and esteemed by the king of Syria because through Naaman the Lord had given great victory to the Syrian forces. He was a great soldier, but he suffered from a dreaded skin disease.”

Obviously this man was a national hero, perhaps of the standing of Montgomery or Eisenhower. A successful and popular man, no doubt famous throughout the country. Here is Naaman, at the height of his fame and power and military prowess, with the writer of the Book of Kings even attributing his victories to God. This may seem strange, but we know that The Lord used the nations surrounding Judah and Israel to punish and discipline his people when they went astray. Given that the then king of Israel was Jehoram son of the evil King Ahab it is hardly surprising that Israel went through periods of judgement at the hands of its enemies.

So at the peak of his career, highly respected and not doubt well rewarded for his victories, he has a problem. He has leprosy. Even if you dress it up in its modern name of Hansen’s disease, it was and for some still is Bad News. It is only in recent years that a treatment has been available, and that treatment is fairly simple if the disease is caught early enough. However, in Naaman’s day there was no cure, just the gradual spread of the disease and the characteristic deformity caused as nerves died away and opportunistic infections of unnoticed or uncared for injuries take their toll.

For Naaman the outlook was disfigurement, disability and finally death. Once the secret was out, his public life, his friendship with the King of Syria, his career, his family life would end and he would be an outcast driven out of society as leprosy sufferers are today in many parts of the country. All he had worked for would come tumbling down around him. All would be lost.

You can imagine the turmoil in Naaman’s household at the news. What would happen to Naaman? How would the family manage if he had to go away? In the midst of all this, another piece of the jigsaw fits into place. Some would say it was pure chance or coincidence, but when you look at the story as a whole you can see God at work in people’s lives. In v2 we read, “In one of their raids against Israel, the Syrians had carried off a little Israelite girl who became a servant of Naaman’s wife.”

How many of us fail to see why we are in circumstances that are not to our liking? We all too often look at things from our point of view rather than God’s. Here is this little girl snatched away from her family in a Syrian raid and enslaved in a foreign land. Yet she is to play her part for God. Maybe she felt like one of those discarded bananas on the fruit stall – useless, discarded and unwanted.

If we look in Genesis we would see how God was able to use a young man in similar circumstances to save not only his people but also the people of Egypt. That man was Joseph.

To quote the American President Theodore Roosevelt “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”.

Would we do the same? Would we witness in difficult circumstances? In our families or our work? Sometimes if we don’t do what God asks us to do, no one else can or will do it. This unnamed girl played her part and passed on the good news that a cure was possible.

“One day she said to her mistress “I wish that my master could go to the prophet who lives in Samaria! He would cure him of his disease.””

Fortunately Naaman decides to take the advice, perhaps out of desperation rather than hope or belief, but he goes.

I think it is interesting that he goes by the “official” route, almost as if was a diplomatic visit rather than a personal pilgrimage. He has his king’s permission to go and takes with him some amazingly valuable presents. 10 talents of silver i.e. 750lbs and 6000 shekels of gold i.e. 150lbs. The market prices on Friday 5th July make it worth: £2,105,520. Quite a nice little present.

There was also a rather ominous letter for the King of Israel, which really places the onus on the king of Israel to cure Naaman. I wonder if the king of Syria was using the situation to pressure on his neighbour? Look what the letter says: “The letter that he took said ‘This letter will introduce my officer Naaman. I want you to cure him of his disease.’”

There is an interesting parallel between Naaman bearing gifts and seeking a cure, with the Wise Men (Magi) also bearing gifts and seeking a saviour. They all went to the earthly king when they needed to seek out the heavenly ruler.

Anyway Naaman arriving in Samaria the capital city of Israel must have caused quite a stir. To have the commander of a hostile neighbour’s army appear at your palace with what looks like an impossible request or demand must have caused King Jehoram great consternation. He no doubt could see the veiled threat behind the request. We read “When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and exclaimed, “How can the king of Syria expect me to cure this man? Does he think that I am God with the power of life and death? It’s plain that he is trying to start a quarrel with me!””

At this point the second of God’s people in the story makes his appearance. He does not however come to the palace and heal Naaman. No, he sends the following message: “Why are you so upset? Send the man to me, and I’ll show him that there is a prophet in Israel!”

So Naaman and his entourage swept out of the palace and make their way to Elisha’s house which was no doubt in the poorer end of Samaria, given that prophets didn’t seem to have that good a life style. Can you imagine the way Naaman feels he is being treated; firstly being sent to the poor end of town and then insulted by Elisha not even coming to the door to see him, the great commander of the mighty Syrian army. Surely the prophet should have come out and said a prayer, or cast a spell as no doubt the magicians back home would do, or maybe tell him to do some amazing task to achieve his healing. This is what happened: “Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the river Jordan, and he would be completely cured of his disease”.

Poor Naaman now he has injured pride to add to his leprosy. The great man wouldn’t deign to see him. How dare he! Who does he think he is? Why should I go and jump in that muddy stinking river? There are some wonderful mountain streams and rivers back home that are far healthier. Forget it!

Can’t you just imagine his reaction? Maybe that’s how some of us would react in similar circumstances. I suspect that then, as now, there was a personality cult with preachers and healers. After all, many people have been to healing services when there were famous men or women there. Look at the hype when famous preachers like Maurice Cerillo or Benny Hine have come to this country. Rather than accept that God can and does heal through anyone he chooses, we tend to seek healing from the “famous healer”.

For some folk around here it has to be the vicar or minister who visits when they are sick. Apparently no one else will do!

On the other side of the coin I have come across people who boast that they heal people, rather than God graciously healing through them!

Fortunately for Naaman, his servants had more sense than their master, or indeed were detached enough from the situation to be able to see what was happening. “His servants went up to him and said ‘Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can’t you just wash yourself as he said, and be cured?” Don’t we sometimes need someone to be the voice of reason in our ears when we think that God is asking us to do something ridiculous or embarrassing?

Naaman did as Elisha had commanded him. But think about what was involved in this. As a general he rode in a chariot whilst the common soldiers walked. He had to get down from his chariot and strip off all his fine clothes before wadding into the river, not knowing with any degree of certainty if he would be cured.

He is at a place where his status, represented by his fine chariot, and all his possessions and achievements, represented by his clothes and war gear have to be put to one side and he has to come to God just as he is. All this stuff does not impress God, it might impress our fellow men, but not God! It is as Isaiah said “All our righteous deeds are as filthy rags.”

Naaman finally does as God wants him to and he ducks under the water seven times to emerge healed. Praise God!naaman healed

If we had read the next verse in this chapter we would have heard something amazing from someone who up to know had been a non believer and an enemy of God’s people: “He returned to Elisha with all his men and said ‘Now, I know that there is no god but the God of Israel.’” I wonder how many of us thank God when our prayers are answered, and then tell others how God has worked in our lives? Shouldn’t we testify to God’s goodness?

So what lessons are there for us in this story?

I think the major point is that there is a parallel between Naaman’s condition and that of mankind. Man is suffering from an apparently incurable disabling, disfiguring disease called sin. Where leprosy kills off the nervous system, sin deadens our conscience so that we are not aware of the damage we do to ourselves by the way we live, the choices we make.

There is a cure for sin as simple as the cure for Naaman’s leprosy. It too can restore the damage done to a person’s life. But from man’s point of view, God’s cure for sin is just as improbable, as we all want to do it our way, just as Naaman wanted to do it his way.

Just as there were three stages to Naaman’s healing there are three stages to our healing from sin.

Naaman was told:

  • Go
  • Dip
  • Be healed

We are told:

  • Confess
  • Believe
  • Be saved

Romans 10:9 puts it this way “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death you will be saved.”

Do you need God’s cure? Do you need God to come through in your life situations? If so, like Naaman you need to:

  • Shed your pride, you cannot save yourself because of who you are.
  • Recognise that your human achievements really mean nothing to God and they must be dropped as Naaman dropped his uniform.
  • Be obedient to God.

If you feel that like Naaman you have a problem that is beyond man’s help bring it to the Lord today and when he tells you what to do just obey and see the Lord work in your life. Amen.

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I’ve got a job for you

Posted on 05/05/2013 by davidfowlerpreacher

Over the last few weeks at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church, Pastor Sue Millar has been, in her sermons, talking about the Resurrection and the disciples’ reactions to this momentous event. In particular she has been focusing on Peter, how his life has been turned around and how Jesus gave him the job of pastoring his fellow believers.

You may able to find her recent talks here:http://www.becavebaptistchurch.org.uk/Morning%20services%20messages%20library.htm

So today I preached about what in many Bible is called “The Great Commission” the task that Jesus gave to his followers to spread the good news of Jesus through out the world.

For a few weeks you can listen to this talk here: http://www.becavebaptistchurch.org.uk/Morning%20service%20recordings/5.5.13%20Message%20Matt%2028%20v%2016%20to%2020.mp3 It is slightly different to what you can read below.

Matthew 28:16 – 20

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Have you ever been given a special job to do?

Maybe it was something simple but important. Or perhaps it was very difficult and you wondered how you could ever do it.

A long time ago when I was in what is now called Year 2 in the Infants school, I had my turn at a very important job. We all took it in turns with a friend to report to the school secretary’s office just short of 9 o’clock. We would then be give the school bell. The two of us would then go into the playground to find the teacher on playground duty. At what she judge to be the appropriate moment you got to ring the bell for all you were worth!

When I was still quite young, I recall that it was approaching tea time and my mum decided there wasn’t enough bread to feed the horde. Well, including mum and dad there were seven of us. So I was sent with what appeared to me to be a king’s ransom, to the baker’s shop at the end of the road. It was probably just further than here to the Manse. I arrived somewhat nervous and asked the lady behind the counter for a sliced white loaf and parted with the money: 1/1 ½ d (That’s about 6p now). Then I went home having completed my commission.

Years later two of my friends helped me with a very difficult task. A piston in my car engine had cracked and broken, resulting in the need to have the car towed home many miles from home. As Gaynor and I were saving up to get married, my friends said, it would be cheaper for us to do the repairs ourselves. So we hired a block and tackle and a gantry and proceeded to take out the engine. I was the one underneath the car disconnecting bits and guiding the engine out. I was on my back looking up at several hundredweight of engine suspended over my head. It was at that point that my friends tell me this is the first time they have ever done anything like this before! Amazingly we replaced the broken piston, replaced the engine, connected everything back together and it started first turn of the key!

As Christians we all have jobs to do for Jesus. Being a Christian is not a spectator sport, we are all called to do our part in spreading the gospel. The journey of faith is not like being a passenger on a bus, just sitting down to enjoy the ride.

For the last few weeks we have been looking at the Easter story and the events that followed Jesus’ resurrection. In particular Sue had been focussing on Peter and the way his life was changed and turned around. Its amazing to read that despite the way Peter had failed, and we all fail, Jesus tells him to look after the other disciples, to be their shepherd.

Today we are thinking amongst other things at Jesus’ ascension into Heaven.

Jesus has been seen on several occasions by the disciples and many of his followers. Indeed Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:6 “ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

And now 40 days after Jesus rose from the dead, he is about to go back to heaven. He had already told them before he was arrested that he would be going back to God. But he would not leave his followers alone as God would send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter to lead them.

We tend to think of a Comforter as someone who soothes and consoles people. Maybe as a child when you’ve been ill, mum or dad will have put their arms around you and comforted you and made you feel better.

And yet there is another meaning to the word. In the famous Bayeux tapestry is a scene where the Norman soldiers seem to be flagging and William the Conqueror is shown almost jabbing his troops into action with his sword. The caption states “William comforts his soldiers”.

So we should be prepared for the Holy Spirit not only to console us but to encourage us and stir us up for action. We heard last week what happened to Peter in Acts 2 after the Holy Spirit came to be with the disciples. He becomes this bold preacher and in a day brings 3,000 to faith.

Here in Matthew’s gospel is “The great commission”, a job for all Christians not just for the pastors and leaders.

Jesus says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

This command is given to simple men who in all probability have never left the country they were born in. Very few people travelled in those days. The ordinary folk would go to Jerusalem for the major Jewish festivals and the year Jesus was born they had to go to their original home town for the Census. But other than that travel was rare. No exotic holidays or Easy Jet or Euro star, or a quick trip to the seaside. It just didn’t happen.

Yet Jesus wants his followers to go into the whole world with the good news.

Today things are different. Travel is more commonplace. I suspect there are very few people here today who have never left Dagenham. Quite a few of you were born abroad.

If you were one of the early followers of Jesus how would you feel learning that you’ve just been given the task of spreading the gospel all around the world?

The world is a big place. It was thought in Jesus’ time that there were 153 nations in the then known world. Hence why the other week we read about the disciples bringing the net ashore with 153 fish in it. Perhaps they would then remember when they first met Jesus, and he called them to be fishers of men. What also amazed the disciples was that the net didn’t break, which gives the message that there is room for many many people in the kingdom of heaven.

It really is a big task and on our own its beyond us.

In one of his books, the Christian author Max Lucado describes a make believe town where people climb into their cars, start the engine, slip the hand brake off and then get out to push the car to their hoped for destination. They come up with all sorts of excuses as to why they don’t use the engine to propel the car. They are exhausted and make hardly any progress.

And that’s why God has sent his Holy Spirit to help us, inspire us, guide us, encourage us and give us the tools to do the job. He stirs us up into action. If we don’t allow the Spirit to help us we are like those folk pushing their cars.

God even arranges circumstances to put us in places where we may not ordinarily expect to be, to meet people we wouldn’t normally meet.

We don’t have to be eloquent Bible teachers or preachers to tell be people about Jesus. We just need to be ourselves and follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Several years ago, an elderly lady at a previous church I attended, broke her hip and went into hospital. Quite a few people were despairing about Win. But God had a purpose for her. In hospital she was able to pray with people, read the Bible to them and comfort them.

We just have to follow God’s prompting.

Whilst we read in the Acts of the Apostles that the disciples were spreading the good news of Jesus in and around Jerusalem, it took a major shake up to get them out of their comfort zone. And this happened when the early church was persecuted by the Jews and the believers fled Jerusalem. And of course everywhere they went they formed relationships and told those they met the good news.

Not everyone of us is called to go abroad as a missionary. For many of us our mission field is our street, our school or college or our workplace or the club we go to, or where we shop.

Our responsibility is to tell people about Jesus. It is God through the Holy Spirit who convinces people and brings them to faith.

It’s our job, wherever we go to spread the good news like the biblical farmer scattering or broadcasting seed across the field. We may never see the seeds germinate and take root, that could be someone else’s job. To be honest in the work I do as a funeral minister I must share something of God’s love with about 14,000 people a year, rarely do I see the same people again or have the opportunity to see how they are doing. I’ve done my job.

A long time ago at a previous church a member of the prayer ministry team arrived at my door with a scripture for me, Ezekiel 3:18 – 20 “When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.”

We just have to deliver the message, and not worry whether the recipient believes or not. That’s God’s part.

Our job is to do our job.

We may think we don’t have the qualifications for the job or we are the wrong age.

Moses was 80 when God commissioned him to get the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Jeremiah the prophet told God he was too young for the job. God knew otherwise.

Gideon was afraid when God gave him the task of freeing the Israelites from the Midianites. You can imagine him answering God and saying “Here I am Lord, send someone else!” And yet, Gideon became a powerful man of God.

We don’t have to be gifted communicators. Just telling our story is what often counts. Some years ago I  heard a very powerful woman of God called Leisl Alexander whom God used mightily in bringing people to faith and bringing them healing. She just gave her testimony of how God had turned her life around and then prayed with people and God did the rest.

Do note that Jesus commissions us to make disciples, not church goers or religious people or just believers but disciples, people committed to follow Jesus and his teachings come what may.

And the final point to the great commission is that Jesus promises us to be with us right to the end. So we may feel we are on our own and there is no one to help us, but Jesus is there for us, the one who elsewhere in the Bible promises to never leave us of forsake us.

As we go from here back into the world lets pray for that presence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit so that we can do our part in fulfilling the great commission to make disciples in all the world. Amen.

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The Price of Love

Posted on 24/03/2013 by davidfowlerpreacher

Today I preached at Elm Park Baptist Church in Rosewood Avenue Elm Park.

As it was “Palm Sunday” I concentrated on the events of the First Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and then moved on to look at the price he paid, the price of love.

Assisi-entry

 

The Bible reading comes from Luke 19 v 28 – 40:

After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, `Why are you untying it?’ tell him, `The Lord needs it.’ ”
Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “The Lord needs it.”They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!””I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Do you ever get a song or a piece of music going round and round in your head for hours or days at a time?

I believe that these are known as “ear worms”.

Sometimes it’s a snatch of a hymn or worship song, other times a pop song or a jingle form a TV advert. Whatever it is it can stick around for ages.

Well for the past few weeks every time I have been thinking about today’s sermon I have heard in my head the song originally by the Everly Brothers called “the Price of love” which of course deals with romance and the relationships between men and women but seems to be a reminder of the events of Holy Week and especially Good Friday:

“That’s the price of love, the price of love
The debt you pay with tears and pain   
The price of love, the price of love
Costs you more when your to blame”

Not entirely accurate as we know how much it cost God and he was not to blame.

The Bible is full of people who knew the price of love. Much earlier in Luke’s gospel (Luke 7:33-43) we come across the “woman who had lived a sinful life” who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair before pouring very expensive perfume over them. A woman letting her hair down in public was not done and just think of what those feet had trodden on and in on the dusty roads of Judea! That’s the price of love for this woman. A similar incident is recorded in John 12 when Judas Iscariot says that the perfume used could have been sold for a year’s wages.

Today, we start on the great roller coaster of Holy Week, with its amazing highs and its despairing lows in the depths of human sin and iniquity. On Good Friday we realise the price of love. Just how much God was willing to pay for us because he loves us so much.

We start on a high as Jesus enters Jerusalem proclaimed as a saviour by the crowds. We will go through the depths of betrayal on Maundy Thursday, the sheer horror and agony of Good Friday the anxious wait of Holy Saturday and the wonderful unbelievable dawn of Easter day and the resurrection of Jesus.

We are today nearly at the end of the series of processions we see Jesus lead through the New Testament.

Firstly we have the quiet sedate journey of Christmas as Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. This is followed by the flight to Egypt, the pilgrimage to the temple when Jesus was a young boy.

Then comes the three years travelling around the Holy Land followed by crowds wherever he went. The arrival at Nain causes almost a collision with a funeral procession out of the town. The result is death is defeated and the young man restored to life.

Coming into Jericho, Jesus called a man down from a tree and brought him to salvation – Zacchaeus.

Jesus’ final earthly procession will be on Good Friday when he leads the way to Calvary and his crucifixion.

The final procession mentioned in the Bible that Jesus leads is in Revelation 19 but this time Jesus is on a white horse and we read “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war…. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

That is for the future. Lets see what was happening on that first Palm Sunday.

Lets start with a brief history lesson. Israel was then part of the Roman Empire, it had been for quite a few years. Even though Herod Antipas was king over part of the area, he was only there with the permission of the Roman Emperor. He was a descendent of Herod the Great, the man who had tried unsuccessfully to kill Jesus by massacring the boy children in Bethlehem. By the way, Herod the Great was not a Jew even though the Romans gave him the title “King of the Jews” and he had started the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

I guess the same is true today that just because people do things for the church it doesn’t mean they are believers.

Like many kings and rulers, Herod was desperate to hold onto power and would imprison and murder anyone who might pose a threat to his rule. He had imprisoned and subsequently beheaded John the Baptist who had dared to criticise his lack of morals. John the Baptist knew the price of love. The price he had to pay being faithful to God.

So Herod was likely to see Jesus as a threat not only because he was popular with the people but, as we shall see Jesus was showing himself to be the rightful king descended from the Jewish royal family.

Most of the Jews hated the Romans. However a few, like the tax gatherers such as Zacchaeus and Matthew, had done very nicely thank you.

People were waiting for a liberator, someone to drive the Romans out of the land and restore Israel to its former glory. The Zealots couldn’t wait and carried on a guerrilla campaign against the Roman Army of occupation. Indeed one of the Zealots, Simon, was a disciple of Jesus.

I have to say that many people outside of the church are waiting or looking for a liberator. Someone who will set them free from the tyranny of sin, the disasters of broken relationships, the awfulness of addiction and everything else that ruins life here on earth.

Perhaps people in Jesus’ day felt that God had forgotten them. The last prophet Malachi had died more than 300 years ago and people seem not to have heard from God. There were many who claimed to be the Messiah or the one sent by God, to bring liberation and restore the kingdom. Yet they had all proved to be fakes.

But suddenly onto the scene comes this preacher from Nazareth. He talks like no one else. He heals the sick, drives out demons and performs miracles. He is popular with the ordinary people and he deals with the Pharisees and religious leaders who have made life so miserable with their dead religion and their endless rules and regulations.

Could he be the Messiah? The Liberator? Is he the one to lead the revolution and get rid of those hated Romans?

Those are questions which the events of Holy Week would answer very clearly. We however have another question to answer:

What’s all this with the donkey?

The military and the rich used horses and chariots. Everyday folk had the humble donkey. But the answer is deeper than that.

Way back in the history of the Jews was a man called Jacob. He was the grandson of Abraham and the father of the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel. When he was an old man, dying in Egypt he called his sons into his tent and gave each one a blessing. This is what he said about his son Judah and his descendants. It is recorded in Genesis 49 v 10 & 11:

“The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch“

The Jewish people knew their scriptures and understood this to be a prophecy about the coming Messiah, the Messiah who would be rule as the rightful king over the nation of Israel. And by taking a colt that’s tethered, Jesus is symbolically applying this ancient prophecy to himself.

Now look at the circumstances at how he gets this colt in vv. 30 – 34. It’s possible that Jesus had made preparations ahead of time in this village to have a colt waiting. But it’s also possible that what we have here is an example of what’s called “the royal right to transport” in the ancient world. A king or other high ranking ruler had an inherent right to seize a horse or other animal for official transportation if he needed it. This right is similar to what we see in the movies when a police officer flashes his badge to commandeer someone’s car to chase a bad guy.

In the ancient world, as long as the animal was eventually returned to the rightful owner, a member of royalty had the legal right to seize an animal for transportation. That’s likely what’s happening here, which is why Jesus tells his followers to say, “The Lord needs it.” Obviously the Lord here is Jesus. As the royal Lord, the rightful king of Israel, Jesus exercises his royal right to transport by borrowing this colt. Its not certain whether this is a miracle or if Jesus has  made prior arrangements. But the point seems to be Jesus as the rightful king exercising his  royal right of transport.

So Jesus mounted a donkey and rode into the city, amidst loud acclamations by the crowd. Some of the city’s residents, usually numbering 30,000, but probably swelling to over 200,000 because of Passover pilgrims, strew blankets and cloaks, others palm branches, before the animal Jesus rode on.

Giotto_di_Bondone_013

You may not realise how much it cost those people to praise Jesus that day. The scriptures I don’t know how many coats you have, but most people in Jesus’ time had one coat which had to last for years. The coat was very important as it not only kept you warm and dry during the day, but served as a blanket at night and could also be used as security for a loan. These people wanted to praise Jesus and were willing to pay the cost. After all, could they guarantee finding their coats after the procession had passed and goodness knows what condition they would be in having at the very least been trampled on by many feet…talk about the sacrifice of praise. Praise costs!

How many of us would rush off home now and put our bedding and the contents of our wardrobes out on the road for Jesus to ride over?

Now Jesus riding into the city of Jerusalem on a colt also had incredible symbolic significance to the people of Israel. One of the ancient prophecies about the coming of the Messiah looked forward to just this. About 500 years before the birth of Jesus, the  prophet Zechariah had predicted this very thing.

“Rejoice, rejoice, people of Zion! Shout for joy, you people of Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you! He comes triumphant and victorious but humble and riding on a donkey – on a colt the foal of a donkey. The Lord says, I will remove the war-chariots from Israel and take horses from Jerusalem; the bows used in battle will be destroyed. Your king will make peace among the nations.. (Zechariah 9:9-10)

Jesus is purposefully acting out this prophecy, and by doing so he’s claiming that he’s the true king, he’s the one who’s righteous and who brings deliverance to Israel. He’s the one who will bring God’s peace to all nations and rule as king not just in Israel, but over the nations. Jesus is symbolically acting out this prophecy.

But what a lot of people don’t realize is that this prediction of Zechariah also looks back to an earlier event from 200 years prior to the prophet Zechariah. You see Zechariah is actually predicting that what happened at King Solomon’s coronation as king back in 790 BC would one day happen again when the Messiah comes to rule as king. The book of 1 Kings describes Solomon’s coronation this way:

Zadok the priest, [and] Nathan the prophet…put Solomon on King David’s mule and escorted him to Gihon. Zadok the priest took the horn of oil…and anointed Solomon. Then they sounded the trumpet and    all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon.” And all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing greatly (1 Kings 1:38-40 NIV).

Can you see the similarities between Solomon’s coronation in 790 BC, Zechariah’s prophecy two hundred years later in 520 BC, and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in about 33 AD? You might remember who Solomon was: He was the Hebrew King David’s rightful heir to the throne. So Zechariah was looking forward to another rightful heir from David’s dynasty to one day rule in Israel, and Jesus is symbolically applying that claim to himself.

The crowd cries out “Hosanna!” meaning “Lord, save us!” and with the words of Psalm 118:26 “Blessed is who comes in the name of the LORD!” Secondly, our Lord’s entry was a political statement. In the ancient world, when a conquering king entered a city after a battle, he rode on a stallion or something even more impressive. Judas Maccabeus, after having driven the Syrians from Jerusalem in 163 BC entered the city on a majestic stallion. The residents of the city came out and waved palm branches as he entered, and shouted,  “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Julius Caesar had returned to Rome in a golden chariot harnessed to 40 elephants in 45 BC.

But whenever a king entered a city in peace, he rode on a donkey.

Perhaps the modern day example would be the pictures we see of TV of military rulers riding triumphantly into captured cities on a tank, or the American president in his armoured limo. Yet Jesus has the equivalent of the delivery moped from Pizza Hut, hardly a threatening way of riding into town.

Jesus entered Jerusalem amidst adulation, clapping, shouting, smiles, and dancing. You may recall in 2003 seeing on the TV news the reception the US Marines got from Iraqis as they entered Baghdad at the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

For Jesus it was a day of cheers, but the cheering wouldn’t last. This same crowd would less than a week later shout, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” before Pilate’s judgment seat.

The crowd was fickle, because our human hearts are fickle and untrustworthy. Napoleon and his army were once marching through Switzerland and were receiving thunderous applause wherever they went. The crowds shouted: “Long live the king! Viva la France! Hail to the emperor Napoleon!” But the general was unimpressed. An aide asked, “Isn’t it wonderful to hear the roar of the crowds and the love of the people?” Napoleon replied, “The same people that are cheering me today would cheer just as loudly at my execution.”

The human heart is sinful and fickle and until we are born again we cannot truly respond to Jesus.

How do we respond when Jesus asks us for something as he asked to use the donkey?

How would react if like those two disciples we are told to go and take someone’s donkey? Its risky. As is saying to the owner “The Lord needs it”.

Are we prepared to give up our possessions, our time or even our positions and titles for Jesus? Or do we hold on tight to them as they are ours!

Are we willing to make a sacrifice to praise Jesus? It cost those people in Jerusalem a great deal that first Palm Sunday. Are we prepared to pay the cost? After all Jesus sacrificed himself for each one of us.

As we contemplate the events of Palm Sunday and look forward to Good Friday and Easter Day lets reflect on the words Paul wrote in his letter to The Philippians. In chapter 2 we read:

The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had:
He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to become equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant, He became like a man and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death – his death on the cross. For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. And so in honour of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees, and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So today are you prepared to fall on your knees before Jesus and proclaim him Lord of your life?

Are you, like Jesus, prepared to give up all you have and be obedient to God no matter where that path may take you?

Jesus paid the price of love for each and everyone of us. Indeed for everyone in the world. Every time we gather around the Lord’s table we are reminded of the price of love, Jesus’ body broken for us and his blood shed for us.

Lord Jesus, Through the power of your Holy Spirit set our hearts on fire with love for you that we may truly praise and worship you, our King. May we be ready to give you what you ask of us when we hear that the Lord has need of it. Amen.

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What good news!

Posted on 23/12/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

Today, the Fourth Sunday in Advent, I preached at Trinity United Reformed Church in Upminster.

Before the sermon I had talked to the young people about “surprises” and how not all surprises are good ones. We also explored how people in the the “Christmas story” were surprised by what happened. And yet the Old Testament part of the Bible gives us 365 prophecies about the Messiah, who he will be, where he will be born etc. This website, Bibleprobe,com  lists all the prophecies complete with New testament references to where they are fulfilled by Jesus.

And so to today’s sermon, with the Bible reading:

 Luke 1:39 – 45

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

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Life is full of surprises.

We talked with the young people a few minutes ago about surprises and here in our Bible reading from Luke’s gospel we have two surprised people.

Elizabeth whose name means “My God is abundance”, was getting on in years. She and her husband  Zechariah had no children. Luke 1:7 says “But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.”

In those days there was immense pressure to have children and so not to have a family was a not only a disgrace but people would say that you were perhaps cursed by God. Maybe you were terrible sinners and that’s why God had withheld children from you. And of course it was always the woman’s fault that there were no children.

Perhaps Elizabeth had asked “why”

Why have I not conceived?

Why do I not have the privilege of experiencing the joys of motherhood?

Why them and not me?

Why is my desire so strong but remains unfulfilled?

Why does it seem like I am not receiving all that God has promised?

WHY me? WHY not? WHY?

I’m sure we’ve all known people who have longed to have children and its just not happened. They undergo tests and IVF and still nothing happens.

After our eldest son Tom was born my wife Gaynor developed an over active thyroid and she was told by her consultant that she would not be able to conceive whilst she was on the medication which could be for many years. However we started praying into this problem and had others intercede on our behalf. One night we went to a prayer meeting at the church that one of my brothers attended (All Saints, Woodford Wells) where the Holy Spirit was powerfully at work. And so some nine months later our second son Alex was born. Gaynor’s thyroid went back to functioning normally and we were later blest with Sam and Josh.

Whilst our prayers were clearly answered, I accept that God is sovereign and that the answer can be “no” rather than “yes”.

Maybe Elizabeth and Zechariah had prayed and prayed for children. Maybe they had given up praying and hoping. Yet Zechariah meets an angel in the Temple one day as recorded in Luke 1: 8 – 23. This is just part of the conversation: “11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve seen an angel, although I’m sure that on occasions God has sent them to keep me safe. Once when I was taking my son Alex back to university in Manchester we found that a van was on a collision course with us and to this day I don’t know how our car maneuvered out of the way just in time to avoid the accident. I maintain that the Lord sent an angel that day to keep us safe.

So I think I would probably have reacted as Zechariah did when he was suddenly confronted with an angel.

The angel’s words came true and Elizabeth became pregnant. Here is an encouragement that our prayers don’t go unheeded. God does answer in his time.

This is what Elizabeth says in Luke 1:25  “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Elizabeth’s son John was later described by Jesus in Matthew 11:11 “I tell you the truth, John the Baptist is greater than any other person ever born.”

John was the last of the prophets of the Old Testament showing the way to Jesus who brings us a New Testament or covenant with God.

And the second lady in our story with a surprise, Mary. Not the mature woman pictured in religious art, but probably a young girl of 13 or 14.

A girl no doubt looking forward to her planned marriage to Joseph the carpenter. She like all brides to be probably had her dreams about life with Joseph, her hopes and aspirations for their future.

The Bible doesn’t tell us if there was anything unusual about Mary. I am aware that some Christian traditions say that Mary was herself miraculously conceived, but the Bible doesn’t tell us about it. Luke who wrote this gospel was a doctor so no doubt he would have written about it in his gospel if there was any evidence.

I understand that many young women of Mary’s time would wonder if they might be the mother of God’s chosen one, the Messiah.

But what a surprise for Mary when the angel Gabriel appears to bring her such astounding and amazing news. Perhaps we can imagine what goes on in Mary’s mind. Her hopes and dreams and aspirations come crashing down around her as she contemplates this offer.

She could say “No. I’ve got my life mapped out. I know where I’m going. So thank you but no thank you”. “Any way, whose going to believe me? They’ll say I’ve been a bad girl and probably stone me to death.” No, would have been the easy option.

But Mary doesn’t do that. Luke records her as saying in Luke 1:34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will perform a miracle.

To some people miracles are the things of legend and were simply explanations given to superstitious folk who knew no better.

To others, miracles may have happened in New Testament times, but there is no need for them in modern enlightened times. They may well argue that the Holy Spirit was with the early believers until the full canon of scripture was written. He then packed his bags and went home, as we have the Bible to rely on and don’t need any further proof of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

And yet Jesus clearly states in the John 14:11 – 14 “11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

So according to the Bible if we are men and women of faith we can expect to see miracles.

The Virgin birth is oft times a stumbling block to people. But there is evidence that virgin births do occur. The technical name is “Parthenogenesis”.  However the medically recorded events of this result in a female child. Jesus is the only recorded male child.

And if we believe in God whom we affirm in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed is ”the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible”, can’t he bend the rules and intervene when and where he wants?

Luke, a doctor, has no problem with this and accepts it as true.

We don’t have to understand things to believe in them.

So we have two women, one too old to have children and one a young virgin who is preparing to get married. Both are expecting unexpected babies. Both have been surprised by God and how out of all the Jewish women in Israel he has chosen them. Yet both are prepared to say “yes”to God and play a part in his rescue plan for mankind.

We can only imagine what Mary in particular had to sacrifice for God. But she simply says in Luke 1:38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.”

The two women meet and the unborn John leapt for joy in his mother’s womb. He knew that he was in the presence of the Son of God.

I think that the message for us today is that we are never too old or too young for God to use us. Our circumstances don’t stop us being a part of God’s plan. The only thing that stops us, is our unwillingness to say “yes” to God and to trust him.

If we like Mary say “I am the Lord’s servant, May it be to me as you have said.” God will do the rest and we will be surprised and amazed at what he will achieve through us as we faithfully serve him. Amen.

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How we long for peace

Posted on 11/12/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

On Sunday 2nd December 2012, I helped with a Bereavement Service at Trinity United Reformed Church in Upminster. I was asked to give a short talk, which I now reprint below.

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.”

It’s good to see so many of you here this afternoon. We come from a variety of backgrounds yet we all have one thing in common: we have all at some point lost someone we love. For some it is a recent loss and really hurts. For others, the loss happened a while ago and yet the pain is still there. But we all have suffered a loss.

We may be men and women who have a strong faith in God and in Jesus. Or we maybe folk who are just hanging on by our finger tips, or there again we may truly wonder where God has been recently. Jesus actually said that we only needed faith the size of a mustard seed to see wonderful things happen. We don’t need great faith in God, we just need faith in a Great God!

Often we find it strange that life goes on around us as if nothing has happened, as if those outside of our little world don’t know what we are going through. Life continues. Christmas approaches, the shops are full despite the financial situation, the TV is full of the build up to Christmas and everyone seems to be having business as usual.

Many years ago a man suffering after a terrible trauma wrote this:”Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me,” Maybe you can agree with him. He was a man called Jeremiah and he wrote those words as he sat in the ruins of Jerusalem ( Lamentations 1: 12).

May be we find that friends and neighbours cross the road to avoid us. Folk who were always good for a chat, pass us by with a muttered “Hello” or “How are you?” Hoping that you don’t really say how you are. Often its because people don’t know what to say or how to behave. They are embarrassed as they may open their mouths and put their feet in it! Perhaps that are afraid that if you tell them how you feel they won’t know how to handle it. So its better to walk on by.

Perhaps we are haunted by the “if onlys” or the “what ifs’”. If only I had called the doctor. If only he hadn’t insisted on driving that night. If only I had realised how ill she was. We’ve all been there, struggling with our regrets.

Or it could be the shame of how our loved one meet their end. Perhaps it was alcohol or drugs that was the problem. Or maybe our loved one committed suicide. I am wearing a red ribbon today because yesterday was World Aids Day. My brother in law Nick died from an AIDS related illness. Sadly some of his family could never say what he died of. The shame of it.

Or maybe it’s the silence of the house once we are at home for the evening. You can cope with the day, there’s places to go and people to meet. But as winter evenings draw in we can feel isolated. And doesn’t the house make some strange noises in the small hours as we lay there unable to sleep?

Often we have to deal somehow with experts who are full of “You should”. You may well have come across them. They are full of good advice: You should move to a smaller house. You should get out more. You should join a club, buy a pet etc etc.

Many years ago my friend Kevin lost his dad who was only in his 40’s. Kevin’s mum was told at the funeral by a close relative “Never mind, I’m sure you’ll soon find another man” I hope this hasn’t been your experience.

Oh how we long for peace. How we want the “if onlys” and the “what ifs” to go away. How we wish the expert with their suggestions to leave us alone. We want to stop making that extra cup of tea or cooking that extra dinner. How silly we feel when momentarily we go into autopilot and forget that he or she is no longer with us and turn to them to discuss something that’s on the TV.

And that brings us to our short Bible reading. This is one of the traditional readings many churches have at their Christmas carol services. Isaiah is writing some 600 years before the birth of Jesus telling us about him and what he will become. And in this list of titles comes the one most of us here today want to hear about. Jesus is to be Prince of Peace.

We may look at the world today and say that we don’t yet see much evidence of peace, with all the terrible wars and conflicts that occur and the violent crimes that stalk our cities at times. Yet we can have peace at a personal level to calm the emotional storms that rage in our spirits and to help us in our daily lives.

In John’s gospel, his account of Jesus’ life, he records what you could call Jesus’ last will and testament. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, amongst other things promises to those who follow him, his peace. It’s an inner peace that helps us in all the storms of life when we are in turmoil.

Jesus says to followers: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

It is my prayer to day that we would all know the peace that Jesus brings.

Loving God, we long for peace; peace to leave our loved ones with you, peace to strengthen us for today and tomorrow, peace with ourselves , with each other and with you. Grant us that peace which the world cannot give; through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.

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Thoughts of Heaven

Posted on 21/10/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

Today I preached at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church.

Often the talks are recorded at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church, so this may be available on the website for a few weeks as an “mp3” that you can download and save to your computer. The Morning Service Message Library is the place to look.

I chose two readings from the Bible which are given below:

Revelation 4:1 – 11
1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. 6 Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the centre, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honour and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Hebrews 4:14 – 16
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.Revelation 4

Do you ever think of heaven?

If so what are your ideas of Heaven?

Is it the traditional wearing a white robe, sitting on a cloud and strumming a harp?

Here are some children’s thoughts on heaven that I found through a search of the internet:

☺    “There will be no sin in heaven. You can ask Jesus all you want to, and he won’t get annoyed,” says Abby, 8.

☺    “I think heaven will be peaceful,” says Mackenzie, 8. “We will never see darkness again. Also, we will never fight, and everybody will be happy. Nobody will be weak or tired, not even the grandparents. We will see Jesus!”

☺    “Heaven is a place that is so beautiful, you would think it was make-believe. It’s perfect,” says Molly, 9.

☺    “You will be beautiful. Clouds are floating. Kids are laughing and praying with Jesus. You get everything you want, and you have beautiful voices to sing for God’s glory. Sunflowers are everywhere. Streets are made of gold! And it smells heavenly.”

☺    What is heaven? “It’s where girls get turned into angels . . . and then God tries to do the best he can with the boys.”

Its interesting, to listen to people at large and their thoughts on heaven.

Firstly they assure you that all the family will be there, regardless of their belief and trust in Jesus Christ. Often I am assured a vague belief in God is enough to gain you entry into heaven.

And what do they think it will be like?For some it will be a non stop knees up. For others it will be like Sunday tea with Granny, complete with Aunty Ethel playing the piano and Uncle Ernie singing popular songs of his youth. Even the nasty viscous dog everyone hated will be there, apparently.

The entrance criteria are so flexible that all their loved ones are admitted but not nasty people. It reminds me of the paintings you see inside the pyramids of the pharaoh’s heart being weighed on a set of scales to see if he is good enough for heaven and surprise, surprise even though he was a murderous, cruel, adulterous man he passes the test!

Some folk will tell you that everyone gets into heaven. After all, they argue if God loves everyone, he’ll turn a blind eye to all our bad behaviour and like an indulgent parent just open the doors of heaven and let us in. So it really doesn’t matter, according to them, what sort of life we live or how we treat our fellow human beings. It will be alright on the night.

One dyed in the wool atheist told me that God would understand the way he had written off Christianity and bad mouthed Christians as he had been trying to find his own way to God.

And yet the Bible tells us this is not so.

We have to remember that God is Holy. He cannot abide sin and as we can read in Genesis 3, God had no choice but to evict Adam and Eve from his presence once sin had infected mankind.

In the New Testament, Paul writing to the early church in Corinth lists the types of people who won’t get into heaven. That’s in 1 Corinthians 6:9 & 10 But the next verse gives us the good news of how we can be put right with God.

God in his character is Holy and pure. He is just and his integrity is beyond doubt. He will not compromise with sin. You can’t as Kate Bush sung many years ago “Make a deal with God”. You can’t bribe your way into heaven. Its not like greasing the wheels of commerce as people do in some third world countries. God cannot be bought or bribed. After all what can you possibly give the creator of all things. He owns it all. Job 41:11 reminds us: “No one has ever given me anything that I must pay back, because everything under the sky belongs to me.”

However God has not left us out in the cold. The Bible clearly tells us that if we have faith in Jesus Christ then when we die we will get into heaven. John 11:25 & 26 Jesus tells us: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will have life even if they die. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

A vague belief will not do. Even the devil believes in the existence of God. Its about trusting in Jesus Christ and accepting that our sins have been forgiven through his death on the cross. Its about being born again made spiritually alive through the work of God’s Holy Spirit.British Bank Note

If I show you a British Bank Note you’ll be able to tell me who’s picture is on the note. We may recognise the Queen’s picture but how many of us know her as a personal friend? Many people have heard about Jesus, but that is different to knowing him and acknowledging him as our Lord and Saviour.

And so to our reading from Revelation 4. It gives us a word picture of heaven. I am sure that if any of us had been in John’s place that day when he received this vision of heaven we would find words completely inadequate to describe the amazing scene portrayed for us here. He uses words to describe the wonderfully indescribable.

This is just one of the pictures of Heaven in the Book of Revelation. In others we read about the vast number of people who are in Heaven, who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. Revelation 7:9 – 12 tells us:  “9 After the vision of these things I looked, and there was a great number of people, so many that no one could count them. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language of the earth. They were all standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. 10 They were shouting in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures. They all bowed down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, 12 saying, ‘Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honour, power, and strength belong to our God forever and ever. Amen!’ “

There is no limit on the number of people who can get into heaven. Its not just 144,000 as the Jehovah Witnesses will tell you. Its everyone who wants to be saved and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Those who have known and loved the Lord Jesus for many years or those who have come to faith almost at their last breath. All are welcome.

I have  assured folk that you have to your last earthly moments to come to Jesus. Its only too late when you have died without taking that step of faith. Luke 23:42 & 43 records a conversation between a criminal and Jesus both dying on a cross “ Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. ” 43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

I don’t think that Heaven is going to be boring, or the worship tedious. Its not going to be as Rowan Atkinson’s character Blackadder described heaven as a place for those who like talking to God and watering pot plants.

When we see God as he really is, I think our natural reaction will be to fall down before him in worship and adoration.

The worship leader Tim Hughes wrote the following song:

I can only imagine what it will be like
When I walk by your side           
I can only imagine what my eyes will see
When your face is before me
I can only imagine
Surrounded by your glory what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine when that day comes
And I find myself standing in the Son
I can only imagine when all I will do
Is forever, forever worship you
I can only imagine

You can hear the song on YouTube.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:9 “”No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” so what we find in heaven is just going to be too wonderful for us ever to describe.

A few weeks ago Gaynor and I went to visit Kensington Palace or at least the part that is open to the public. We went up a very grand staircase and through an ante chamber into King William’s audience chamber. The guide book told us that the guards would have prevented people coming into the King’s presence if they were not properly dressed. To go further into the royal apartments you would have to be known to the King, perhaps a member of the royal family or a friend or one of the King’s advisors. The public, the great unwashed, certainly wouldn’t get in.

And this is how it used to be for people approaching God. The layout of the Temple in Jerusalem gave an idea of the difficulty of mankind getting into God’s presence. The high priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies once a year. Everyone else was outside.

But we read in Matthew 27: 50 & 51 “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”  Jesus’ death on the cross, that one perfect sacrifice, paid the price for our sins and the barrier between man and God was opened.

And this is where our second reading (Hebrews 4: 14 – 16) comes in. Jesus was not only the sacrifice but also the High Priest involved in the sacrifice and now he is our friend in heaven who vouches for us and intercedes for us.

We are urged to approach the throne of grace with confidence. We can easily come into God’s presence knowing that we are accepted by God, our sins are forgiven and we are adopted into his family. Jesus, the son of God, is not only someone who understands all the trials and temptations of human life but in effect says to God “its okay they are with me”.

But, and this has to be said, if you have not come to faith is Jesus, then the throne in heaven is one of judgement, not of grace.

So through faith in Jesus, not only can we come to God in prayer, secure in the knowledge that we will be heard and indeed answered, but we know that when our lives on earth are over we too can join that great crowd worshipping God in Heaven. Amen.

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“God so loved the world.”

Posted on 16/09/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

This morning I was preaching at Trinity United Reformed Church in Upminster. I chose the readings from the Revised Standard Lectionary for the feast of the Holy Cross which was on Friday 14th September.

1 Corinthians 1:18-24
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

John 3:13-17
13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven–the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Any one who reads the Bible will know about the huge gap that there is between mankind and God. Genesis tells us the story of the fall, how sin entered the world ruining the relationship between man and God as well as the relationships between mankind itself.

To be honest even if you don’t read the Bible you know that there is something wrong. All is not right though often people can’t put a name to it.  A young man I know has been trying to fill that void, to find what is missing in his life. For various reasons he has turned his back on Christianity and gone in the direction of eastern religions and meditation.

Ever since the fall men have used their wisdom and their ingenuity to try to bridge that gap.

In all honesty our manmade attempts are about as successful as that hapless Wile E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons. We have complicated schemes and rituals and convince ourselves that this or that will get us into heaven. But the reality is that we fail just as that poor coyote always fails to catch the Road Runner despite all the wonderful equipment and devices he buys from the ACME company.

In Genesis 11 we read about one such attempt, the building of the Tower of Babel.

Of course there are those who argue that all our efforts will take us to God. They say that there are many paths up the mountain. So whatever you do leads to God. Well, I have heard it argued, they are such nice, sincere people so they must be destined for heaven.

One of my friends from my Church of England days got really angry with God about this. She knew many sincere people of other faiths and just couldn’t understand that they could be wrong and not destined for heaven when their lives on this earth were over. It was so unfair of God. She was an educated lady and perhaps relied more on the wisdom of this world than on God.

Other folk will tell you that if you say the right prayers in the right order then that puts you right with God. That reduces things to magic, rather than a relationship with God. If we say the spell then the genie appears! But God is far above all this and you cannot order him around.

An example of this approach is the Cargo Cult out in the Pacific. Islanders observed the vast amounts of food and equipment that the American forces flew in to the islands in the 2nd World war and thought they were in contact with the gods. So once the Americans left the area the islanders constructed replica airfields and air planes out of tree trunks in an effort to persuade the gods to bring them the goodies.

Other people assure me that whilst their recently deceased loved one wasn’t a Christian they lived a Christian lifestyle. One man who told me that ran a bike shop. So I said that I could lead a cyclist’s lifestyle, wear spandex shorts, T shirt and cycle helmet and make pronouncements about different types of gears and strutting around waving a plastic drink bottle. But until I get on the bike and pedal away I am not a cyclist. So until you put your trust in Jesus Christ you are not a Christian. You may be a regular church goer but you are not a Christian and you are not saved until you take that step of faith.

The Bible tells it how it really is.

A few weeks ago I took my eldest son Tom and his wife Layla to Gatwick airport. They were flying to Orlando for a holiday. The departure board listed all the flights and their destinations. It was no good boarding a flight to Rome or Ibiza or any of the many other destinations, even if you declare to every one on the plane that we are going to Orlando. Only the flight to Orlando would do.

Similarly the Bible informs us that there is only one way to God, through faith in Jesus. All other religions and philosophies may be fine sounding and involve you in lots of religious activities and good works but the bottom line is as Jesus said in John 14:6 “ “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”.

But I am often told he/she was such a good person, surely they are in heaven? The prophet Isaiah stops us in on our tracks assuring us in Isaiah 64:6 “…our righteous acts are like filthy rags”. People think they are dressed up in their Sunday best, with their good deeds, but in God’s eyes we are dressed in filthy rags and as such not fit for his presence. We are only accepted by God through our faith in Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us that we are all sinners in God’s eyes. Romans 3:23 reminds us “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Its not like the recent GCSE English exams where the grade boundaries can be fiddled to suit political circumstances. You either sin or you don’t sin. No sliding scale, no shades of grey. Its as simple as that.

That being the case, how are we put right with God and how do we bridge the gap between us and God?

Our reading from John 3 gives us the answer so simply. We read: “14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

If you recall your old testament history the Jews in the desert rebelled against God who sent a plague of deadly snakes upon them. The snakes bit the people who began to die. God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and place it on a pole so that anyone bitten by a snake could look to the bronze serpent and be saved from death and the effects of the snake bite.

All mankind has been bitten by the deadly serpent of sin and Jesus offers mankind the cure. Look to him, put your faith in him and his death on the cross to cure you.

Many people see God as hateful and vindictive and yet these verses show him in a true light. God doesn’t want anyone to perish, he wants to save everyone but not everyone wants to be saved.

The Jews can’t understand the cross , it’s a stumbling block and they can’t get round it or over it. The death of the Messiah on a cross doesn’t fit their criteria for a saviour King. After all in Deuteronomy 21:23 we are told “ anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.”

Perhaps the Jews of that time were so looking for a military solution to their problems. They were looking for a King like David to put everything right and restore the Kingdom of Israel. And yet there were the prophecies of men like Isaiah who under the influence of the Holy Spirit wrote about the Messiah as a suffering servant being brutally treated.

But as a whole the Jews seemed to ignore those prophecies. They had them to read as we know from Luke 4 when Jesus read from Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth.

It seems that they just couldn’t bring themselves to accept it. So the Jewish leaders did what they thought was right for their religion and in doing so they fulfilled the scriptures and allowed the Saviour of the world to be put to death.

And what about the Greeks?

They were well know for their wisdom and their philosophy. They had over the years made great contributions to mathematics and the understanding of the natural world.  They were very clever thoughtful people.

We read in Acts that Paul took the good news of Jesus to Greece. In Acts 17 Paul addresses the Areopagus, the council of the leading men in Athens. They listen to him until he tells them about Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection. Many of them sneer at him as it just doesn’t fit in with their thinking and their understanding.

Maybe we know people who are just too clever for their own good. They can’t accept something if they can’t understand it.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:14 says “ The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

If we reject things because we don’t understand them, how many of us would use a mobile phone without understanding how electronics, wireless technology and the android operating system work? Or would we ever switch on a light at home if we didn’t have a working knowledge of electrical generation and power distribution via the National Grid?

We take many things on trust, that we don’t really understand and yet people cannot accept that Jesus has died on the cross for them. They don’t have to do anything apart from accept the offer of forgiveness and new life made possible by his death on the cross.

But they can’t understand it – its foolishness to them.

The message of the cross is so simple. Its freely available to everyone who wants to be saved. There are no conditions. You can come to Jesus just as you are. You don’t have to be clever, or good or religious, you just have to follow what it says in John 3: 14 – 16 ““Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. “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. “

I thought it would be good to read the words of a modern worship song by Matt Redman that talks about the cross: (You can view it on YouTube here).

JESUS CHRIST, I think upon Your sacrifice,
You became nothing, poured out to death.
Many times I’ve wondered at Your gift of life,
And I’m in that place once again.
And I’m in that place once again.

And once again I look upon
The cross where You died,
I’m humbled by Your mercy
And I’m broken inside.
Once again I thank You,
Once again I pour out my life.

Now You are exalted to the highest place,
King of the heavens, where one day I’ll bow.
But for now, I marvel at this saving grace,
And I’m full of praise once again.
I’m full of praise once again.

Thank You for the cross,
Thank You for the cross,
Thank You for the cross, my Friend.

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