Don’t be afraid

Posted on 10/09/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

Yesterday I preached at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church in Dagenham. Before the talk we watched a short clip from the Disney DVD “Winnie the Pooh” to illustrate how powerful fear can be and how it can escalate.

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.

I have as usual included the Bible reading.

Joshua 1:1 – 9
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them–to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates–all the Hittite country–to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Whose ever been afraid?
The English language has many words to describe that feeling:

  • afraid
  • scared
  • fearful
  • frightened
  • terrified
  • petrified
  • uneasy

The Bible mentions the word “afraid” 206 times. “Fear” is mentioned 253 times. So this is obviously an important topic.

I’m sure we’ve all been there. Situations we have to face, things we have to go through. They take us out of our comfort zone and we just don’t like it.

For most of us, its not knowing what’s going to happen, a fear of the unknown that gets to us.

Recently a friend of mine asked me to pray for him as he was having to undergo an unpleasant medical investigation involving a camera. After the event I spoke with him and he told me the worst part was the ½ hour in the waiting room before the procedure.

Our film clip illustrated the point that it is the unknown that is so fearful or frightening. If only Owl had realised that Backson was really “back soon” then they wouldn’t have been so afraid. And look how fear builds upon itself and the characters come up with yet more terrible deeds that the Backson is guilty of doing.

Fear and worry are very closely linked. I am told that the root of the German word for worry is strangle, and sometimes that is exactly what our worries and our fears do to us.

Somebody once described worrying as sitting a rocking chair. It can take a great deal of effort and gets you nowhere.

The American preacher and author Max Lucado in his book “Come thirsty” writes this about worry:
•    40% never happens
•    30% is about unchangeable deeds of the past
•    12% focuses on the opinions of others that cannot be controlled
•    10% centre on personal health which only worsens if we worry about it
•    8% concern real problems that we can influence.

Lucado concludes that 92% of our worries are needless.

I’m going to read a short passage from a children’s book, in fact one that I used to read to my sons when they were very young. You may think that the Mr Men can’t teach you anything but you’ll be surprised.

“It was a beautiful autumn morning. The sun was shining. The leaves on the trees had turned to a glorious red. And the wind stirred gently in the treetops. A single leaf fell gently from the tree right outside Mr Jelly’s house and quietly brushed against his bedroom window as it fell. Mr Jelly awoke with a start.
“What’s that terrible noise?” he cried, “Oh heavens! The house is falling down! Oh disaster! It’s an earthquake! Oh calamity! It’s the end of the world!” And he hid under the bed clothes, trembling with fright.”

God doesn’t want us to live our lives full of fear. Many times in the Bible he tells people not to be afraid, or he says “Do not fear”.

There is a lovely story in 2 Kings 6 which illustrates this:

11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” 12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.” 13 “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. 15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked. 16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

If only we can see situations as they really are, as God sees them. We get so engrossed in our lives that we either forget who is really in control, or perhaps we’ve never actually made that step of faith and placed our lives in the hands of Jesus.

We may have heard about Jesus, we may have even read our Bibles and been to church for years, but we’ve never actually taken that step of faith and put our lives in God’s hands.

We heard a few weeks ago, from pastor Sue Millar, about Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4. The disciples have a practical demonstration that Jesus is the Lord of Creation and that if they are with him they don’t have to be afraid.

So lets look at our Bible passage for this morning.

Joshua has just taken over the leadership of the Jewish people from Moses who had obeying God, led them out of Egypt and through the desert for 40 years.

Joshua had a difficult task.

According to Exodus 12 there were 600,000 men plus all the women and children. Just imagine being in charge of all those people and responsible for them!

Joshua was to get all these thousands of people and all their animals and possessions over the River Jordan and into the promised land where they are to not only conquer every town and city they find but then settle down and live there.

Many of us find it enough just to organise the family holiday or moving house. But moving all these people and animals and then fighting battles to remove the existing inhabitants? That seems overwhelming.

The Jews had had a chance to do it some 40 years previously but had been so overcome with fear that they refused to obey God and miss out on the promised land.

How many times have we felt God prompting us to go somewhere or start a new venture, but haven’t? And we then wonder why things aren’t going so well for us.

In Number 13 we read that Moses sent 12 men to explore Canaan, the promised land. These men came back and reported a land flowing with milk and honey but also the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.  Anak was a legendary giant.

Ten of the spies convince the Jews that its an impossible task, and so condemn themselves to wandering the desert for 40 years.

And now Joshua has to lead the people into the promised land and conquer it. So what does God say to him?

•    v3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.
•    v5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life.
•    v5 As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
•    v6 you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.
•    v8 Then you will be prosperous and successful.
•    v9 the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

And what does God expect Joshua to do?

1.    v7 Be strong and very courageous
2.    v7 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you
3.    v8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night
4.    v9 Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged.

Do you notice that several times God stresses to Joshua he is to be strong and courageous. Often our courage fails us when we have something new or difficult to undertake or we are uncertain of what we are doing.

There are some big challenges ahead for Joshua and his people. The River Jordan to cross and then cities to over run and armies to defeat. If you read Joshua you may think it’s rather unpleasant that God condemns all these people to die, but if you look into the religious practices which included human sacrifices then you would understand how angry God was with the Canaanites.

We all have our own challenges. We have strongholds of the enemy in our lives to be overcome, difficult people to deal with, awful situations to work through, as we make our way through life.  Or perhaps God tells us not to compromise with no believers just as the Jews were not compromise with the Canannites.

And maybe, as we read in Joshua 7, “sin in the camp” prevents us fulfilling God’s plan.  Maybe its our wrong lifestyle or habits that stop us in our tracks. That’s why we need to do as God commanded Joshua in v 7 & 8 of our reading: v7 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you and v8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night.

In our own lives God tells us to do some difficult things. It’s not because God is a spoil sport but because he loves us that he tells us to avoid certain situations or not to get involved with certain people.

Whilst Joshua was alive the Israelites did as God told them and all went well. However after Joshua’s death they decided that they knew best and brought a whole heap of trouble on themselves.

So today as we have new challenges or just restart our everyday tasks and duties lets hold onto God’s promise to Joshua and claim it as our own: Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

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The Kingdom of God is like ……

Posted on 17/06/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

This morning I preached and lead worship at Trinity United Reformed Church in Upminster.

As the church follow a lectionary, I decided to use the gospel reading for the day and so I preached about Jesus comparing the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed.

Mark 4: 26:34
The Parable of the Growing Seed
26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain–first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.” 33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

How do you explain ideas and concepts to people who whilst trying to do understand you, just find it too difficult?

Personally I just wish that many years ago my A level maths teacher would have tried just a bit harder I might have understood calculus and not made such a spectacular failure!

Jesus however starts with what people already know and works from there.
So he starts small and works up using picture language.

Incidentally small is not always the right size even though there was the saying some years back that small is beautiful.

In the course of my ministry I visit many people and hear many stories. This was told to me by a former police officer.

Someone high up in the chain of command, the police had decided to go eco friendly and buy a Smart Car for use as a patrol car. The sort of car our local council use to enforce parking regulations and take photos of offending vehicles. The small two seat car was fitted out and presented to its crew. The crew looked it over and then asked a simple question “Where does the prisoner go?” “And what about the broom, shovel and warning cones and signs?”

broadcasting seeds

In our passage Jesus firstly talks about a farmer sowing seed. He scatters the seed on the ground and leaves it. No matter what the man does now the seed germinates and grows. He doesn’t have to understand plant biology or biochemistry. The seed just does what it is designed to do.

Finally the harvest comes.

Each of us as a follower of Jesus should be going on our way scattering the gospel seed in what ever way we can. Sometimes it is through the conversations we have at the school gate or the office water cooler. Other times its chance meetings we have wherever we happen to be. Or maybe its through the way we treat people be it the cashiers in our local stores, or whoever.

Through my ministry I speak to approximately 14,000 people a year and hopefully some of the words I saw about God’s great love and compassion will be planted in their hearts and eventually grow.

It maybe that we never know the outcome of our conversations or our actions until we get to glory. We are not to worry as long as we have done what we can.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:6 – 8 “ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour. “

I understand that in 1934 the American evangelist Mordecai Ham had a crusade through the southern states of America and one of the few converted was a young lad. In numerical terms it wasn’t a great success.  However God was in control of events as the young lad concerned was Billy Graham.

Our duty is to plant the seed and leave it to God to do the rest. Sometimes our job is to help the seeds planted by others to grow. Likewise others may be in the position to help and encourage those who journey of faith was started by what we said and did.

Its not just the job of the minister and the leadership team. We are all ministers of the gospel and Christ’s ambassadors.

Some 30 years ago when I was in banking I had a lady come to see me as I had turned her down for a personal loan. It just didn’t seem a realistic proposition. The lady told me the loan was for an operation for her teenage son which the NHS wouldn’t fund. She then said that she was a Christian and had been praying about the matter and felt God had said to apply for the loan as he would provide for her. At the time I was a “church goer” not a Christian. It amazed me that God wanted to be involved in the nuts and bolts of everyday life. I granted the loan application. The young man had his operation and is now involved with a youth ministry in his local church, and his son is an intern with a Christian Organisation, going about spreading the gospel seed wherever he is sent. And for me it was one of the stepping stones on my journey to faith. I later joined the church this lady attended and ministered alongside her for quite a few years in a prayer healing group.

Whenever we say the Lord’s prayer whether its on our own or in church we say these words “Your kingdom come, your will be done”

Do we know what we are saying?

What is the Kingdom of God?

Somewhere in the Middle ages people got it wrong and thought that it was a military kingdom or empire. Or they felt it was the Roman Catholic church ruled by the Pope. So there were the crusades and wars against those of other faiths and belief systems. And yet Paul in Ephesians 6:12 tells us who the enemies really are: “ For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

The Kingdom of God is where God rules in the hearts and minds of men and women and where his will is done. So in you and me, the kingdom of God came to be the moment we repented of our sins and accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

Each one of us has had a different journey of faith. For some the seed of faith was planted and germinated almost immediately and suddenly there we were a Christian, a new creation.

Others, the seed may have laid dormant for many years and to all intents and purposes we were lost for all eternity. But slowly the seed sprouted and our understanding grew until the point came where we realised the true about our lives and the changes we needed to make to be saved.

Either way the result is the same, some one saved and “born again” and destined for eternal life.

To try and help people understand Jesus likens the Kingdom of God tomustard seeds in hand a mustard seed. The black mustard or “Brassica nigra” has seeds that are very small perhaps 1 or 2 mm in size. Yet when planted it germinates and grows quickly to about nine foot or 2.7 metres. So quite a sizeable plant.

The Roman author Pliny the elder writing in about 78AD said “”mustard… is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.”

That sound like a description of the Kingdom of God:tall_mustard

  • Beneficial to mankind’s health
  • It grows beyond man’s control
  • Once started its difficult to stop

Many people over the last 2000 years have tried unsuccessfully to stop God’s kingdom growing on earth. The Roman emperors tried, the French Revolutionaries tried, the Nazis tried and the Communists tried. They have mostly gone but God’s kingdom continues in the hearts of men and women.

Despite more than 60 years of communist rule in China the number of Christians is growing and there is thought to be between 100 and 300 million believers in that country!

Back in 1949 a revival started in the Hebrides. It started small, two housebound elderly ladies who prayed into a promise God had given them and a small group of men praying in a barn night after night for months for a revival. God honoured their prayers and a revival came which swept though the Hebrides for three years.

See: http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/yourti19195.html for a brief overview of what happened in the Hebrides. Its an amazing read.

Or going further back in history we read in Acts 2 of a small group of believers who through the power of the Holy Spirit started the early church. Seeds of the kingdom were sown and on that day of Pentecost 3000 people came to faith.

In Acts 8 we read about one of my favourite characters Philip. Having sown the gospel in Samaria and seen many come to faith, Philip keeps a God made appointment on the desert road with an Ethiopian. Someone else has clearly planted a seed in that man’s heart and Philip through the Holy Spirit is able to help the seed germinate and grow. The man is saved and according to legend goes back to Ethiopia and founds the church which is still there and growing 2000 years later.

The Kingdom of God has been spread like mustard seeds planted in the ground.

And today Jesus commands each and everyone of us to go out and spread the gospel, the good news of the kingdom. Like the farmer who sows the seed we are not to worry about the germination and growing process, that is up to God, but we are to plant the seed.

The results of our labours will astound us just as the fully grown mustard plant astounds those who have only seen the seed.

Our prayer today should be “Your kingdom come and let it start with me”. Amen.

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Signs of the Times

Posted on 07/05/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

Yesterday I preached at Becontree avenue Baptist Church in Dagenham (http://www.becavebaptistchurch.org.uk) as the pastor Sue Millar was at the annual Baptist Assembly.

I felt led to preach about Jesus’ promised return to this earth and about the signs that God has given us. Although no one but God the Father knows the day that this will happen. Many people have tried to work it out and have failed.

However what is very clear is that it is getting nearer every day. So we should be prepared and not completely surprised as the Bible tells us happened to people in the days of Noah.

You can hear a recording of this talk at: http://www.becavebaptistchurch.org.uk/Morning%20service%20recordings/6.5.12%20Message.mp3  This does differ slightly from the written version given below:

Matthew 24:36-42
36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

Have you noticed that there are signs everywhere?
We saw a few minutes ago that there are several types of road signs. Road signs are there to:

Warn us
Inform us
Direct us and
Order us.

Most road signs are there for our own benefit, not just because the Highways Agency or local council want to spoil our fun. Speed limits are there to keep us and other road users safe particularly in built up areas and where the road is considered dangerous.

About a mile out of Rainham as you go through the lanes you come across a sign that says “Road liable to flooding” Most of the time there isn’t a problem but when it rains heavily as it did earlier in the week. the road can disappear under water.

Of course signs are only any good when they are correctly observed and acted upon. You have probably heard the saying that people only read what they want to read.

Up Whalebone Lane North there is the Chadwell Heath Cemetery with a large sign at the gate telling anyone who reads the sign that this is Chadwell Heath Cemetery. The staff there tell me that people drive into the cemetery which isn’t very busy and find the chapel locked. They demand to know when their loved one’s cremation service is going to take place. These dear folk are adamant that they are at the Forest Park Crematorium in Hainault because the sign says “Chadwell Heath Cemetery”.

Of course sometimes people ignore the signs and go on what other people have told them. Years ago in the early days of my banking career I was a cashier at Barclays Bank in Beacontree Heath sometimes nick named “The Fiddlers Branch” because it was near to the infamous Merry Fiddlers public house. I would regularly have customers come into the bank asking for stamps or postal orders or trying to cash their child benefit or pay for their TV licence. I would explain that they would have more success with their transactions in the Post Office who did those sorts of things. In return the customers would assure that their friend got a TV licence stamps or whatever in the bank last week!

The Bible is full of signs, which also can Warn us, Inform us, direct us and order us. God has caused the Bible to be written for our good, so that we can read just how much he loves us and cares for us and also we read about his plan to save us from sin, death and the evil one. God doesn’t want anyone to miss out on eternal life. That does not mean everyone gets into heaven, only those who come to faith in Jesus. The Bible is very clear about that.

But I am sure we all know people who ignore the signs, misinterpret them and go their own sweet way or blindly follow what other people tell them.

The other week 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. 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.”

In our Bible reading from Matthew’s gospel Jesus is talking about his return. At the beginning of chapter 24 he had told his disciples that the temple which had taken many years to build would be destroyed and not one stone would be left on another. This indeed happened some 40 years later when the Roman army conquered the city and sacked it.

Jesus is then asked “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus in the following verses gives his listeners certain signs to look out for. He also warns them about false prophets and those who falsely claim to be Jesus. And of course over the years there have indeed many who claim that they are Jesus and have come back to rule the world.

And we see people try desperately to make all sorts of calculations as to the precise day that Jesus will return. We had last year that American preacher who predicted two days that Jesus would return and got them both wrong.

Similarly the JW’s have given us several dates over the last century that will see the return of Jesus. All of which were false.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So it will do us no good adding up dates and trying to interpret numbers, as we are clearly not to know when Jesus is returning. All that is certain is that he will return and that it is a day nearer than it was yesterday!

We can see from the signs posted in Matthew 24 that we may not have long to wait. As the old gospel song puts it “Soon and very soon we’re going to see the King” For those of us who love the Lord Jesus and have put our trust in him it is going to be a wonderful amazing experience. But for those who have rejected the gospel, or ignored it or indeed decided to go their own way it is going to be an awful day.

Jesus tells us that his return is going to be like the flood that wiped out all but eight people on the earth. He says in Matthew 24:37 – 39 “ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. “

Some people say that the story of Noah is a myth or even just made up. However clearly something catastrophic did happen. After all we all saw the TV news reports of the Indian Ocean tsunami that occurred on 26th December 2004 when a wall of water 30 metres high swept all before it. We have also heard reports of the terrible floods in Pakistan in 2010 when some 307,000 square miles of land were flooded. That’s about 3 ½ times the size of England, Wales and Scotland!

But in Noah’s day people were not paying attention to God. This is condition of mankind in Genesis 7:5 & 6 “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”

They were just carrying on with life as if the party was never going to end. Just paying attention to themselves and never mind what God is saying. Sounds like society today.

Whilst this was going on Noah listened to God and built the ark. I don’t know how he felt about leaving the rest of mankind to their doom. But he obeyed God, built the ark, collected the fodder and then brought the animals into the ark. You wonder if his neighbours and friends asked him what he was doing and why he was doing it. Perhaps he told them and they laughed at him or just ignored him, much as folk today often do when presented with the good news of Jesus.

Often people tell me that they don’t like to talk to others about their faith because they are worried that the person may reject the message. Our job is to tell people about Jesus and not to worry about whether they accept or reject the message. As long as we play our part which is to tell people about Jesus we have done what is asked of us.

Because we have freewill everyone when presented with the gospel has the choice to say “yes” or “no”.

Just over 100 years ago the Titanic set out on her one and only voyage. She was her builders claimed unsinkable. Yet she hit an iceberg and began to sink. My friend Tony Ward wrote in the online magazine “Christian Today”  (http://www.christiantoday.com/article/the.fascination.with.the.titanic.draws.its.power.from.the.gospel/29657.htm)   about this last month and I’m just going to quote from his article:

One of the secrets of the magnetism of the Titanic episode is its parallels with the Gospel. So many of the events on that fateful night mirror the spiritual peril that faces a world seemingly oblivious to where it is heading. Even after the Titanic struck the iceberg, the crew couldn’t persuade passengers to take to the lifeboats when they had paid enormous sums of money for luxurious accommodation. After all, only days earlier the ship’s builders had boastfully told reporters that “God Himself couldn’t sink this ship”. The Titanic symbolised the world’s sense of achievement, enterprise, invincibility and arrogance. Confidence in human ability and technological prowess convinced people to believe in the ‘unsinkable’ rather than the ‘unthinkable’. As a result, many of the ship’s lifeboats that were designed to hold up to 60 people left the ship with only a quarter of that number aboard.

And there is a parallel today in that people don’t see the need for a saviour. All is well and its business as usual. But as in the days of Noah God sent the flood, so some time soon Jesus is returning to put and end to the current system.

You’ll find in Genesis 7:16 “Then the Lord shut the door behind Noah.” So God decided when the time was right and he will decide on the day when Jesus will return. On that day those who have come into the kingdom through faith in Jesus will be saved and those who for whatever reason are outside will face eternity without God.

Sobering thoughts.

God has given everyone the chance to be saved through faith in Jesus, to come into the ark. Many have come but sadly many chose not to do so.

If there is anyone here today who hasn’t come to faith in Jesus don’t leave it for another day as we may not have another day.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

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Redeemed

Posted on 01/04/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

As I write this we have just celebrated Palm Sunday when we recall Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and cheered on by a vast crowd who threw their garments on the road in front of him and waved palm branches in the air and shouted God’s praises. And yet barely five days later the crowd on what we call “Good Friday” were shouting “Crucify him!” Such is the fickleness of the crowd and our sinful human nature.

The following sermon was preached at Wood Lane Baptist Church in Dagenham on Sunday 25th March 2007 and deals with our need for a Saviour, someone who could and would pay the price for our sins. The Bible indeed tells us plainly that Jesus did that for us on the cross that first Good Friday.

As an illustration of the fact we can’t save ourselves, I had some of the young people of the church help out by playing a highly modified version of monopoly in which the cost of landing on any of the squares was well beyond the assets any of the players possessed. It became obvious as the game progressed that the players needed someone to rescue them and settle their debts.

As usual we start with the Bible reading:

Colossians 2 v 13 – 15

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

We saw from the game of monopoly we just played with our young folk how it was impossible for them to get themselves out of jail. They couldn’t pay the price to buy their freedom. Neither could they play the perfect game to avoid getting into trouble.

I don’t know if anyone here has been in financial difficulties when you owe so much money there is just no way you will ever repay the debt. This can happen through all sorts of reasons including unemployment, redundancy, illness, death of spouse let alone through our own stupidity, ignorance and dishonesty.

In years gone by people used to be put in jail till they could pay. The debtthisiswhathappensors’ prison was well known right up to Victorian times. The father of the famous author Charles Dickens spent time in Marshelsea Prison in Southwark. Indeed one of Dicken’s more famous characters Mr Micawber from the novel David Copperfield was imprisoned in the Kings Bench Prison. If you were in the infamous Fleet Prison, you had to pay for your keep and to have the warders remove your leg irons.

How could you ever hope to pay off your debts if you are locked up in prison?

The Bible tells us how God regards sin and how we are enslaved to sin. On our own we cannot rescue ourselves from the consequences of our sin. We can’t repay the debt and buy our freedom. In reality on our own we are in that debtors’ prison. How can we ever pay the price of our sins and free ourselves? And we know the ultimate fate for those enslaved to sin. Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin are death” and that is a spiritual death for ever separated from God after our physical death.

Some people think that if you live a good life and are nice to everyone then you’ll make it into God’s good books! You may be amazed at the number of people who tell that their loved one is bound to be in heaven as he/she was such a good person!

Maybe you think you can earn heavenly brownie point by going to church or taking part in religious activities. Amos 5:21 tells us what God things about religious people. This is from the Message translation: “I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? “

You cannot earn you way into heaven. Even our best efforts are futile. Isaiah the prophet puts it this way: “ all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”.

Back in the 1980’s the singer Kate Bush had a song about making a bargain with God. The trouble is you can’t. What have you got that you can use as a bargaining chip with God? Romans 11:35 says: “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?”

Some people think they can hood wink God and get away with it. I spent many years working for a major bank and indeed my last years with them were in Debt Recovery. We had this lady who owed a considerable amount of money and she had lied and twisted all along. However the bank got serious with her and sent an enquiry agent to find out what assets she possessed so it could be established if she really was unable to repay the debt. The agent arrived on the appointed day to find the house freezing cold and furnished with old worn out furniture and thread bare rugs. The lady herself was dressed in clothes that most jumble sales would reject. The problem was that the agent being an ex Marine Commando had done a recce the previous day and seen the lady and her husband stripping the house of all the good furniture and carpets as well as opening all the doors and windows to cool the house. She was dressed in expensive designer clothes that day.

In case you are tempted to wriggle out of things, the Bible warns us in Hebrews 4:13 “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

So if we can’t save ourselves, we need someone to do it for us. We need someone to rescue us, someone to pay our debts and set us free. We need a redeemer.

Years ago, people were used to the idea of redeeming property and possessions. Anyone here have relatives or neighbours who used to “go and see uncle?” ie the local pawnbroker? Many hard up family would pawn the family silver or even the old man’s Sunday suit on a Monday and redeem it on a Friday evening or Saturday morning once they had been paid. The word “pawn” is descended from the Latin word for pledge. To get back the pledged item you had to pay back the loan and the interest due. If you couldn’t within the allotted time the item was forfeited.

How many have literally sold their souls in to slavery through sin? If you don’t do something about it before you die, its too late.

The Bible tells us that there will be a day when everyone has to give an account of their lives: Revelations 20:12 “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

And of course all our sins will be recorded there like a bank statement that is horribly overdrawn. How are we going to clear our debts?

If you can’t redeem yourself, you need someone to redeem you.

We know that we cannot save ourselves so who will redeem us? Clearly no man or woman is good enough. But God in his foreknowledge knew this and all through the Old Testament are prophecies of the coming redeemer often referred to as the Messiah. The events of Good Friday and Easter Day exactly fit with the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus.

Yet when Jesus came the very people who should have known about him and recognised him failed to do so. God also told us through the prophets that this would happen and what fate would meet the redeemer.

The hymn writer Mrs CF Alexander got it right when she wrote in the hymn “There is a green hill far away”:
“There was no other good enough To pay the price of sin;“

Or as it is written in 1 Peter 1:18 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”

So Jesus paid the price for our sins by his sacrificial death on the cross at Calvary 2000 years ago. But Jesus did much more than that through his death. He not only redeemed us from the power of sin – our debt he also broke the power of the evil one and destroyed for ever the power of death over us who believe and trust in him.

So to our reading which talks about a written code. “He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross”

This in fact refers to a statement of account or indebtedness. But on the cross Jesus in dying for us has not only paid our debts but in evidence of this he has written “paid in full” on that statement so it longer has any hold over us.

Many of us are familiar with the gospel accounts of the crucifixion especially John’s gospel. In John 19: 30 we read “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” A more literal translation would be that Jesus said or indeed shouted “Everything is done!” or “Paid in full” again referring to the payment of our sins and our redemption.

So if you have come to Jesus and acknowledged him as your redeemer, the one who died for your sins, are you telling others about the good news that they too can be free of the burden of sin?

But if you have not yet accepted Jesus as the only one who can set you free, why not come to him today? Tomorrow may be too late. If that’s you come and speak to me at the end of the service or if not me than there are others here who would be delighted to talk with you and help you.

Lord Jesus thank you that you have redeemed us and set us free from the debt of our sins. Help us Lord to remember just how wonderful that is and to share this good news with those who do not yet know you and who need you to set them free. This we ask in your wonderful name. Amen.

paid in full

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Comfort for the Past and Hope for the Future

Posted on 02/01/2012 by davidfowlerpreacher

Here we are at the start of another year. Many are anxious as to what 2012 will bring us, as we watch the TV or listen to the radio or read the newspapers. Its all gloom and despondency – the euro crisis, rising unemployment, famines and wars abroad and the ever present threat of terrorism at home.

At the end of 1939, the late King George VI in his broadcast to the nation quoted the following poem:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!”

And he replied:

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

To be honest there is no safer place to be than in the hand of God. He doesn’t promise us an easy road but he does promise to be with us every step of the way.

The following sermon I preached at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church on Sunday 3rd January 2010.

Isaiah 40: 1 -11

“Comfort my people,” says our God. “Comfort them! Encourage the people of Jerusalem. Tell them they have suffered long enough and their sins are now forgiven. I have punished them in full for all their sins.” A voice cries out, “Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God! Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it. The Lord himself has promised this.” A voice cries out, “Proclaim a message!” “What message shall I proclaim?” I ask. “Proclaim that all human beings are like grass; they last no longer than wild flowers. Grass withers and flowers fade when the Lord sends the wind blowing over them. People are no more enduring than grass. Yes, grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.”

Jerusalem, go up on a high mountain and proclaim the good news! Call out with a loud voice, Zion; announce the good news! Speak out and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah that their God is coming! The Sovereign Lord is coming to rule with power, bringing with him the people he has rescued. He will take care of his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs together and carry them in his arms; he will gently lead their mothers.”

At this time of year, we tend to look back at the past and forward to the New Year. The media is full of retrospective programmes and articles ie Sports Personality of the Year. Also we have the New Year’s honours list rewards people for past deeds and acts of public duty.

Then we have TV & radio pundits who try to look into the future to tell us what the year ahead holds for us.

The looking back is sometimes happy; holidays and joyful family events such as weddings and births. However sometimes our memories are tinged with regret for failures, for things that didn’t go right; or perhaps we look back with sadness for the losses we endured during the year. Maybe we have lost a loved one, or lost our health or our work or something equally significant.

Perhaps we’ve seen our dreams and aspirations come crashing down around us like so many buildings being demolished.

The past can be very painful and if we look back too long or too hard we can like Lot’s wife get frozen in time. We cannot change the past but we can with God’s help change how we feel about it and how we view it.

Many people tend to forget that the whole of creation is moving towards that great day when Jesus will return. Lets see what in says in Romans 8:19 “All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his sons. For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope that creation itself would one day be set free form its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.“

Nothing stays the same, though many of us wish that it would do so. Even organisations such as churches are subject to change and decay. Just compare the church today with how it started out in Acts 2.

Some years ago in a previous church we had a members’ meeting to discuss proposed alterations to the building. We sung the hymn “In heavenly love abiding no earthly change I fear” and then the vicar told people what was going to happen, and did they fear the earthly changes? Oh yes they did!

And we ourselves are subject to physical changes and the ageing process.

Also we should remember that God appoints a time for everything, and just because we start something it doesn’t mean it will go on forever exactly as we started it. Ecclesiastes 3 starts like this: “Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses. He sets the time for birth and the time for death…”

Many people think that their influence or what they build will last and last. They think that their immortality will be through their own works.

Often these words from Isaiah 40 are read at funeral services:

“Proclaim that all human beings are like grass; they last no longer than wild flowers. Grass withers and flowers fade when the Lord sends the wind blowing over them. People are no more enduring than grass. Yes, grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.”

As the only thing that will last forever is God’s word, we should really pay more attention to it than perhaps some of us do. Whether we like it or not, even our traditions will pass away.

It all sounds very depressing doesn’t it?

Yet Isaiah the prophet gives to us living in 2010 a message of comfort and hope.

“Comfort my people,” says our God. “Comfort them! Encourage the people of Jerusalem. Tell them they have suffered long enough and their sins are now forgiven. I have punished them in full for all their sins.”

The Good News is that actually the punishment for our sins has been taken by Jesus so that we can have our sins forgiven. None of us is good enough to earn our way into heaven. All our good works mean absolutely nothing. The only way we can get right with God and have our sins forgiven is to put our faith in Jesus.

Our past can be dealt with and then forgotten by both God and ourselves. All we have to do is to accept the forgiveness Jesus offers us and the slate can be wiped clean. Jesus can heal our spiritual and emotional wounds and set us free from the affects of the past if we ask him.

Will you let Jesus comfort you and heal you of your past hurts?

Once we have accepted Jesus as our Saviour and allowed him to deal with our past, we can turn our back on the past and look to our future.

How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans for your future.

God is in control and he has plans for us. Jeremiah 29:11 “I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.”

How do you look at the future? Are you anxious? Do you worry about your eternal future?

If you have come to faith in Jesus, what the Bible terms being “born again” then your ultimate future is certain.

The Christian’s hope for the future is in Jesus. Hebrews 6:19 says “We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and sure, and goes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary. On our behalf Jesus has gone in there before us, and has become a high priest for ever...”

For some people “hope” is wishful thinking. You know the sort of thing “I hope West Ham win today” or “I hope I’m not late again” or “I hope that he doesn’t preach for too long”.

However the hope talked about in the Bible is a certainty; it’s absolutely guaranteed and underwritten by God himself.

So hope for the Christian is a certainty that we will receive what God has promised although we do not know the exact timing. We just have to wait.

What is the hope for us in this bible passage we are looking at today?

Isaiah 40: 9 – 11 “Jerusalem, go up on a high mountain and proclaim the good news! Call out with a loud voice, Zion; announce the good news! Speak out and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah that their God is coming! The Sovereign Lord is coming to rule with power, bringing with him the people he has rescued. He will take care of his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs together and carry them in his arms; he will gently lead their mothers.”

God is coming.

We are given this picture of God as not only a strong all powerful King coming to rule but also a gentle caring shepherd. Both these pictures are good news.

God will come to bring justice and will rescue people enslaved by sin. We know from the gospels that when Jesus returns he will act as God’s judge. Matthew 25: 31 “When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people on his right and the others on his left.”

We are of course familiar with the idea of God as a shepherd, as I am sure most of us know the words of Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd…” Jesus said about himself in John 10 :11 “I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for his sheep.”

The shepherd of Bible times led his sheep and was always with them. He cared for them and made sure they not only had food and water but that they were kept safe from danger. The injured ones and the lambs he would carry to safety.

Whilst the sheep would follow the shepherd, the goat was a totally different character and would try to find its own way. Indeed I understand that if you find an animal carcass in the rocky wilderness of Judea it will be a goat that chose to go its own way. So the goats represent those folk who don’t accept Jesus as their shepherd and decide to go their own sweet way. They may be nice sincere people, they may even go to church and do all sorts of good works but they have not come to Jesus.

Do you know Jesus as your Shepherd?

Have you entrusted your life to his care?

So, who is to proclaim the good news?

In the Old Testament, Jerusalem and Zion were terms often used to refer to God’s people. So it’s down to all of us to pass on the good news of Jesus. This is news that everyone needs to hear. As Jesus commanded his followers before he ascended into heaven (Mark 16:15 & 16) “He said to them ‘Go throughout the whole world and preach the gospel to all mankind. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.’”

We have quite a task but we don’t have to do it in our own strength, because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit in us to help us.

So lets just summarise what we’ve learnt from this passage:

1. God longs to comfort us. If we come in faith to Jesus, our sins can be forgiven and the hurts and failures of the past can be healed. We can move on into the future unburdened by guilt and shame.

2. God offers us Hope for the future. As the worship song says “We have a hope that is steadfast and certain”. Our hope is in Jesus.

3. If we are God’s people we are to announce the good news. To speak out and not be afraid.

Father God as we come to you at the start of this year, we bring to you all our past hurts and failures and disappointments and ask for your healing. May your Holy Spirit bring us the healing we need and the strength to go on into the new year in the confidence of the hope we have in Jesus. And we ask dear Father that those who do not know you may be drawn to you and receive the new life and forgiven that Jesus offers to all who come to him. Finally for ourselves we ask that we may be bold in our witness to the world of your wonderful love and of the good news of Jesus. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Are you ready?

Posted on 21/12/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

The countdown to Christmas is well underway. The shop tills are merrily ringing up the sales, the internet is buzzing with online shopping, post men are delivering mail by the ton and delivery drivers are frazzled by the volume of what they have to deliver, and I wonder if you are ready?

I don’t just mean the physical preparations for our celebration of Christmas but what about  your soul, your spirit? The person that is you?

What do you think about on the run up to Christmas? Do you wonder at the Christmas story, Jesus the Son of God born as a helpless baby in Israel some 2000 years ago? Does it make you think about how much God loves you?  John 3:16 says “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.”

But this pre Christmas season, Advent, is also to remind us and prepare us for the fact that Jesus will return to this earth. This time he will come in great glory to judge each and every man, woman and child who is alive or has been alive. No exemptions, no exceptions.

This is what I preached about on Sunday 2nd December 2007 at Wood Lane Baptist Church in Dagenham.

Matthew 24: 36 – 44

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

This time of year, the church has traditionally looked forward. Firstly to Christmas when we celebrate Jesus’ first coming to the earth – born as a helpless baby in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire. Hardly anyone noticed his arrival, just it would appear a few shepherds and some Persian astrologers.

But we also look forward to the time Jesus returns. When he comes again he will return in great splendour and majesty. No one alive will miss it or be able to avoid it.

Matthew 24: 30 30“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

To quote the hymn writer Charles Wesley

“Every eye shall now behold Him Robed in glorious majesty; Those who set at naught and sold Him, Pierced and nailed Him to the tree, Deeply wailing, Shall their true Messiah see.”

Not everyone will be glad when Jesus returns but everyone will know he has returned and one way or another everyone will recognise his authority and majesty: Philippians 2: 10 & 11: “ at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

So I thing we have three questions we need to consider this morning:

  1. When is Jesus returning?
  2. What is he going to do?
  3. How does that affect us?

When is Jesus returning?

Many years ago when I was at grammar school there was a completion run by the school to raise money in conjunction with the summer fair. A stopwatch was wound up with a random number of winds and looked away in the school safe. The competition was to guess when the watch would stop. Even if you had an idea of how much it was wound up it was very difficult to know when the watch would stop.

Our Bible passage makes it clear that no one on earth or in heaven knows when Jesus will return. Not even the angels or Jesus himself know, only God knows. Hence Jesus tells us “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Throughout the bible there are various prophecies as to what will be going on at the time that Jesus comes back. Particularly in Isaiah, Daniel and Revelation. Earlier in Matthew 24 we have a few hints:

4Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6You 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. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

Also Jesus warns us of false messiahs – people who claim to be Jesus and may do all sorts of “miracles” even healings yet if you examine them in the light of scripture they clearly are not Jesus.

23At that time if anyone says to you, `Look, here is the Christ!’ or, `There he is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect‑‑if that were possible. 25See, I have told you ahead of time. 26“So if anyone tells you, `There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, `Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

We have seen in our own times many people claiming to be the Messiah. Many cults such as the Jehovah Witnesses have tried to predict the exact date when Jesus will return. This has been stated to be 1873, 1878, 1914 and 1975. Later they modified their prediction to the thought that the generation alive in 1914 would not pass away before the Second coming!

Back in history people believed that Jesus would return in 1000 AD as Europe was suffering persecution from the Vikings and it really seemed like the end of the world.

Yes we can look at all the wars going on and the catalogue of natural disasters that seem to be occurring with increasing regularity but all we can say with any certainty is that Jesus is a day nearer returning than he was yesterday!

What is Jesus going to do when he returns?

We are told that Jesus is coming to judge the world, as the creed says, the living and the dead. Judgement is one of those difficult subjects that many preachers try to avoid and many people sitting in church squirm about.

However throughout the gospels, Jesus warns people that judgement is coming. He talks more about judgement and hell than he does about heaven. Judgement is going to be black and white with no shades of grey. You are either saved or not. There is no Tony Blair style “third way”.

In our passage Jesus puts it like this: A39 That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”

In Matthew 25 there is a simple but striking illustration about how judgement is going to be.

31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34“Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 41“Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 46“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

So you are either a sheep or a goat. No camels or llamas or even hybrids. Either you are saved or you are judged, it is as stark as that.

We are judged on our relationship with Jesus. Have we turned our backs on our old life and accepted forgiveness for our sins, our wrong actions and lifestyles? Its not good enough just to come to church, even every Sunday. Being a Christian is not a philosophy or a way of life or a set or rules and regulations. You cannot claim to live as a Christian without a personal relationship with Jesus. That’s like sugar free candyfloss.

Just as there is a world of difference between recognising the queen=s picture on a bank note and actually knowing her as a friend there is a difference between hearing about Jesus and having a living relationship with him.

If you haven’t come to that place where you can say that you have accepted Jesus as your Saviour and know he has forgiven you for your bad actions, your sins, then you have to answer for yourself on the day Jesus returns. All the good deeds in the world won’t save you.

No other faith system will save you, despite what people may tell you. Jesus is the only way, and no one comes to heaven any other way. You either love God exclusively or you don’t. Just as you can’t be legally married to two or more people, or be married to one and carry on an affair with someone else, so you cannot carry on with false gods, other religions, the occult, black magic etc and claim to be a Christian. God simply won’t put up with spiritual adultery! As Hebrews 4 v13 states: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” You maybe able to fool yourself or me or the pastor but you cannot pull the wool over God’s eyes.

So if you want to be follower of Jesus you have to give up every other religious activity and belong exclusively to Jesus.

And so to our third question: How does this affect us?

We have to be ready. We know he is coming, but we are not sure of the time. So whilst we carry on with our lives we should be looking forward to when Jesus comes. We have to ensure that we are not so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.

How would we live today if this was our last day on earth? What is there we need to put right?

Bearing in mind that Jesus likened his return to the flood that suddenly overwhelmed the world in Noah’s day, should we be warning people about what is going to happen? Yes I believe that it is imperative to do so. After all Jesus gave the great commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel that we are to go and make disciples of all the world. And if you or I don’t tell people who will? You know people I don’t know and maybe you are the only Christian who can reach certain folk.

In the ministry I undertake I find that I am in 99% of the time too late – the person has died and I am talking with the mourners who cling on to the fact that granny always watched Songs of Praise or was kind to animals.

It is not your fault if you try to tell people about Jesus and they don’t listen. They are answerable for their choices. You have done your job. Just as in Noah’s time people will have had the opportunity to talk to him and find out what was going to happen, they chose not to, so now many folk just don’t want to know about what will happen if they don’t do something now about their lives.

Often I challenge telesales staff when they badger me about why I don’t want what they are trying to flog me. I say I will answer their questions if they answer me one question. My question is normally “Do you know what is going to happen to you when you die?” Only one person so far has every expressed curiosity over their eternal future. I invited him to phone back so we could have a chat about his destiny but sadly he hasn’t as yet!

Many people take no care about their lives either now or in eternity. And yet for many people alive today they may not have a tomorrow on this earth. Their next Tomorrow may find them facing judgement, and so may we.

So not only do we have to be right with God but we also have to be busy spreading the good news of Jesus however we can. In Philippians 2:14 we are instructed: “Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16as you hold out the word of life–“

I would urge you today just to remember this: “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

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He comes the prisoner to release

Posted on 15/12/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

We are presently in the season of Advent. A time when Christians look forward firstly to celebrating Christmas but also we look forward to Jesus’ return. No one knows when he will come again. many have tried to work out the date from the Bible and other sources. Yet Jesus made it perfectly clear that only God, our heavenly Father, knows the date. However it is certain that we are a day nearer to Jesus’ return than we were yesterday.

I preached the following sermon on Sunday 5th December 2010 at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church.

Luke 4:16 – 21

“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “”The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Every year through December Christians look forward to not only celebrate Christmas, Jesus’ birth but we also look forward to when he comes back in great glory. And when he returns many of the old testament prophecies which were partially fulfilled when he was on earth, will be completely fulfilled.

This morning’s reading from Luke’s gospel is at the start of Jesus’ public ministry and we find he is reading from Isaiah 61 a wonderful chapter of hope and comfort. In fact you could say it’s Jesus’ job description. In 1 John 3:8 we are reminded that “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”.

In these verses quoted from Isaiah, Jesus is talking about spiritual issues. Yes as Christians we should have compassion on the physically poor and needy and have care for prisoners especially those who have been dealt with unjustly. And definitely we should take care of the disabled and the sick in our communities. But Jesus is speaking about spiritual issues.

Many people are spiritually poor. Thy have a hole in they lives which nothing but God can fill. People try everything to fill the hole, that aching that only God can truly satisfy. Drink, drugs, sex, gambling, work, possessions, false religions are just some of the things people use to fill that hole. But to be truthful nothing works. You can have a sackful of monopoly money or a big bag of chocolate coins but you can’t do your weekly shop in Asda with them.

You can even come to church, but unless you have a relationship with Jesus its as much good as standing in the queue at the bank and not actually having an account. When you get to the cashier you can’t take any money out because you don’t have any.

Put it another way. Say you need to buy a washing machine. You go to Curry’s or Comet or some similar store and look at the machines, even speak with a salesman and come away with a brochure. Its no good returning to the shop with your laundry basket, standing there for a while and taking the full basket home with you. Its no good if you do that every day. You are only going to get your washing clean when you make that decision and buy the washing machine and use it. Until you come into a relationship with Jesus nothing will happen to get your life sorted.

But Jesus came to bring good news to the spiritually poor in effect to say that they can have an account with him with so many blessings in it that its inexhaustible. Jesus gives us so much that we can never be overdrawn!

Now I taking these verses out of order. But what about the spiritually blind? Those who can’t see Jesus for who he is. Maybe they’ve left him as the cute baby in the stable at Christmas. Or maybe they have in their great wisdom decided he was a good man, but one amongst many good men. Many of the world’s religions attempt to deal with Jesus. They say “He was a prophet but not as great as mohammed” or “he is another reincarnation of our particular god”. Some people just don’t see the need for a Saviour “I’m a good man, so I’ll be alright with God when I die”. Some even declare that there is nothing after death, so why worry about the future and whether the consequences of our actions catch up with us, as we just cease to exist.

But Jesus came to bring sight to the spiritually blind so that they can see him for who he is, and indeed they can see the world properly. Saul of Tarsus, a very religious man, was blind until that day he met with Jesus on the Road to Damascus. Then he could see the futility of his life fighting Jesus and relying on rules and regulations.

When you see the world from God’s perspective things begin to make sense. You realise what is important and what is trivial. As an hymn writer put it “passing soon and little worth are the things that tempt on earth”. You can also see the truth in Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

In Luke 4: 19, Jesus states he has come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. Way back in the Old Testament, when God instructed Moses how the Jews were to live when they came to the promised land, he set out the Year of Jubilee. You can read about this in Leviticus 25. Every 50 years, loans were to be written off, mortgaged property returned to its rightful owner and slaves would be set free.

You may say that we now longer have slavery in this country thanks to William Wilberforce and other Christians of his era. And in the main, that is true.

But what about addictions? If you are addicted to something then you are a slave to it. It owns you rather than you own and control it. People can be addicted/enslaved to all sorts of things. Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, gambling, sex, computer games, shopping to name but a few. Life revolves around their addiction. They live for their next “fix”. Last Monday I conducted the funeral service for a young lady of 40 who would drink at least a bottle of vodka a day. That’s 40 units of alcohol when the recommended maximum for a woman is two units a day. She left behind two young daughters.

Some time ago I tried to counsel a man who clearly had a drink problem. He couldn’t leave the house before he had drunk at least one can of strong lager, which probably put him over the limit as he drove off in his struck. When I saw him in the early evening he’d had five cans of lager before I met him! It was clear who ruled his life.

In this country many addicts are taken off heroin and put onto methadone. But whilst it is less harmful than heroin it is many more times more addictive. I was listening to a radio programme about a lady who runs an addiction clinic in this country and she said that one of her clients had been on methadone for 30 years. That is how the health service cared for him. Ever day he would go to the chemist for his dose of methadone. He is enslaved by that small measure of green liquid that looks just like Fairy Liquid.

But Jesus has come to set people free, to proclaim their freedom.

Maybe you’ve heard of Jackie Pullinger a missionary in Hong Kong whom God is using mightily to set people free form heroin addiction.

Also “the year of the Lord’s favour” talks about returning property and entitlements. So when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you get back all that the enemy has taken from you and especially the close relationship with God whereby we can truly call him Father and we become his precious sons and daughters. Lets face it many non believers don’t feel that they are precious and loved and have no idea of their value.

And so to verse 18 “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners...” Have any of you every been in prison or in police cells? Many years ago a friend of mine spent time in Pentonville. It wasn’t as clear cut as the court report would have you believe and indeed one person could have spoken for the defendant to set the record straight and save him from incarceration. But that man decided not to as he didn’t want to cause trouble. So my friend was banged up and he found that he wasn’t master of his own destiny. He was not free. Although, we prayed for him and he was out in six weeks rather than the six months he was sentenced to.

When you are in prison you can’t live life as you should. Your choices are extremely limited and it is highly unlikely that you can free yourself. Those miners in Chile were imprisoned underground for months until they were rescued. They couldn’t set themselves free.

So what can imprison us? Surely in Christ we are free? As a Christian we have the ultimate freedom that when we die we know we will go to heaven to be with God and with Jesus and all the other believers. But here on earth we can still be imprisoned or restrained by many things.

There is an old saying that “sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me”. Well, that is not always true. Words are very powerful and can act as a curse on our lives. Here are just a few of the words that not only condemn us but bind and imprison us:

☹    Ugly
☹    Stupid
☹    Fat
☹    Useless
☹    Redundant
☹    Clumsy
☹    Hopeless

Maybe comments have been made about us: “you’ll never be any good”, “Who would want to go out with you?” “Nobody wants to listen to you” “you’re not as good as your brother” Even, I’ve heard of people leaving a church being told that they’ll never be happy at their new church.

Or how about when we curse ourselves by saying words like “I’ll never forgive myself”, “God can never forgive me for what I’ve done”

The list is endless but we curse ourselves and other people often without realising it.
We can be imprisoned by our sins and indeed the sins of others. I’ll call her Kathy. She had been sexually abused in teenage years and felt so unloved and undervalued that she participated in all sorts of sinful activities and was so emotionally and mentally damaged by others that her psychiatrist told her she would never cope in the world on her own and never hold down a job. But my friend Jean, a Christian counsellor, stuck with her for some seven years showing her God’s love and praying for her and with her. Eventually Kathy went to college and got a full-time job and more importantly came to faith in Jesus. And was set free.

We can also be imprisoned by our worries and our concerns.

And the good news today is that as the hymn writer put it when talking about Jesus: “He comes the prisoner to release in satan’s bondage held. The gates of brass before him burst, the iron fetters yield”

Jesus can and does set people free, not only from their own sins but from anything else that imprisons them. If you are a Christian then you should have the desire to do what Jesus did. The idea of a disciple was that he saw what his rabbi did and then did the same. And Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to live in each and every believer so that we not only become more like Jesus but also we can exercise his power and authority.

And in case you think that setting people free and delivering them from the evil one is only for “special” Christians and not for you then this is what Jesus says in John 14:12 – 14 “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. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

So today if you find that you are enslaved or imprisoned or we are spiritually poor or blind, the good news is that Jesus came to redeem you and release you. And we are to bring this good news to the world and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. Amen.

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Where do I look for help?

Posted on 04/12/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

Today I gave a short talk at a Bereavement Service organised by a local funeral director BF Mulley & Son and held at Trinity United Reformed Church in Upminster. I am grateful to the minster Rev Phil Nevard for inviting me to take part in the service and give the message.

The Bible reading is Psalm 121 and is given below:

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot slip– he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD watches over you– the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD will keep you from all harm– he will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

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. Something, we in fact share with all humanity regardless of race, religion or status. 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 at times.

But we all have suffered a loss. We have all grieved or are grieving the death of someone of significance to us. Someone far wiser than me once said “Grief is the price we pay for love”. You could say it’s the flip side of the coin with love being the head.

Maybe 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.

I was visiting Jane a couple of weeks ago and she said to me how unreal it all seemed. She had just lost her dad and whilst for her, the world had stopped, everyone else just carries on with life. Business as usual. Jane wondered why no one seemed to care or even notice that she was grieving.

Just look at all the preparations for Christmas. The shops crowded with people eager to spend their money. The internet is humming with online shopping. Houses and shops groaning under the weight of Christmas lights and decorations. Adverts on the TV pushing images of happy families enjoying themselves without a care in the world.

Perhaps you are thinking “How can I enjoy Christmas when he or she isn’t here with me?”

I suspect the thought of actually enjoying Christmas and celebrating the birth of Jesus is fairly low in the list of priorities.

Quite understandably life has lost its sparkle.

And then we have the practical concerns of life to negotiate, perhaps for the first time on our own. Things we didn’t worry about, because he or she always did them. Getting the shopping, writing cheques and paying the bills, wiring a plug or mowing the lawn. For some this is unknown territory.

It may seem silly or embarrassing to confide in family or neighbours that you haven’t a clue what to do.

One of my brothers and his wife had to make numerous trips to North Wales to teach father in law how to use the washing machine, how to cook and basically how to look after himself. He’d never had to be involved in domestic affairs whilst his wife was alive.

Grief can leave us feeling so lost, even if we can do the basics of life. When we lose someone significant such as our life partner, parent, sibling or indeed a good friend, we can find ourselves literally clueless as to what to do next.

Who do I turn to? Who do I ask?

And this is where our Bible reading comes in. Many of the psalms were written by David a man who had at times been through the mill. He had done some terrible things at times. He had known loss and tragedies. He had been wrongly accused and persecuted and yet despite all the awful things that had happened to him he could write this:

“I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

In a shifting landscape David recognised the one certainty in life that God is there. People may let us down or we may not want to bother them yet again. We are told we should be strong and independent yet its not always possible.

Some people have a wrong idea of God that we are not good enough to approach him or indeed to ask him for help. Yet he loves each and everyone of us so much that he sent his son Jesus to bridge that gap between us and God so that we can know him and seek his help in times of trouble.

And the good news is God is there for us 24/7 if we ask him. The psalm says “he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” God doesn’t take the day off or have 40 winks or leave you speaking to an answerphone. You can speak with him any time in the knowledge that he listens.

There are people here who will confirm this to be true from their own experiences. And I am sure that you can talk to myself or to Phil after we have finished if you would like to know more.

So this afternoon it is my hope that if you wonder where you can turn to for help you will like the writer of the psalms look to God and accept his love and comfort knowing that if you do so he will watch over you forever more.

Let us pray:

Eternal God and Father, look in mercy on those who mourn. For our loved ones the trials of this world are over and death is past. Accept from us all that we feel even when words fail us; deliver us from despair and give us strength to meet the days to come in the faith of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Greater love has no one than this….

Posted on 17/11/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

This year my wife Gaynor and myself were at one of our favourite churches, Tubestation in Polzeath (www.tubestation.org) for Remembrance Sunday. It is quite a few years since I have been called to preach on Remembrance Sunday.

The following sermon is one I preached on 10th November 2002 at Wennington Parish Church.

John 15:12 – 17

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

It has been said that history repeats itself because its lessons are never learnt. Perhaps it would be appropriate to add that what lessons are learnt are not always remembered.

Maybe you have seen the film of JRR Tolkien’s book “The Lord of the Rings”, which is an epic struggle of good against evil. In the opening sequence of the film after an heroic battle in which the evil Sauron was defeated and the ring of power was not destroyed as it should have been, the narrator states “some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend; legend became myth…”

Most of the problems suffered by the people of Israel detailed in the Bible were brought on themselves because they forgot their history. They consistently forgot the amazing things that God had done for them in the past, as well as the instructions and warnings he had given them through the law and the prophets. Just look what their forgetfulness, their failure to remember God, lead to; the Northern Kingdom, Israel, was overrun by Assyria and disappeared for ever as they went into exile. The Southern Kingdom, Judah, was conquered by Babylon and its people sent into exile for 70 years.

With these thoughts in mind, it’s good to remember those who fought for our freedom in the great conflicts of the past. Not only those who gave their lives but also those who survived, sometimes living with the physical, mental or emotional scars of war for many years.

I realise that as each year passes there are fewer people alive who actually took part in the major conflicts we tend to remember. According to the Imperial War Museum there are now only 39 British combatants left alive from the First World War. So for many World War 1 is now part of history and the stories of the awful conditions in the trenches fade into myths and legends. Many of us alive today have no concept about how awful it was to be there, despite TV programmes such as “The Trench” and school excursions to visit the Flanders battlefields.

Sadly the conflicts did not end with the “war to end all wars” as World War 1 was styled. Since then we have seen many wars and armed conflicts and we are faced now with global terrorism following the events of 11th September last year. And there is also the possibility of war in Iraq again because the coalition leaders who fought Iraq some 12 years ago failed to remember the lesson of finishing the job they had started. They should have read the story of Saul in 1 Samuel 15.

In all of these conflicts, amongst all the horrors of war, the carnage and destruction there are acts of heroism and sacrifice mostly done by quite ordinary people. A distant relative of mine ran a machine tool company and yet for his deeds of bravery and heroism in World War 2 he earnt the Military Cross.

It is as Jesus said “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Old soldiers will tell you about the comradeship and friendship in the height of battle and that they fought for their friends survival more than fighting for the generals and politicians.

This was illustrated as we witnessed the unfolding events in New York last year and saw the heroism of the emergency services’ personnel as they risked their own lives to rescue those trapped in the World Trade Centre’s twin towers.

The fact that some one is willing to lay down his/or her life for their friends is amazing enough and maybe we would be willing to do that in certain circumstances.

There maybe those of us who have children or grandchildren or are just young at heart and have seen the animated film “Ice Age” in which a strange collection of animals including a mammoth, a sloth and a sabre tooth tiger,  having rescued a baby boy attempt to return him to his tribe. At one point the tiger is about to fall down a cliff into a lava flow when the mammoth saves him at the last moment. When the tiger asks the mammoth why he put himself into danger to save him, the mammoth replies that that is what you do in a herd, you look after each other.

Perhaps we would even go as far enough as to put our life at risk for complete strangers. But what about our enemies? Would we be willing to die to save those who hate us? Those who perhaps seek our own destruction?

Just look what Paul wrote in Romans 5: 7 “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

If you have not made the decision to accept Jesus as your saviour and to do things God’s way, as opposed to your way, you are in rebellion against God; regardless of all the good deeds you do or how often you go to church. If you haven’t made that step of trusting in Jesus for your salvation, you are opposing God. Put simply you are doing what Frank Sinatra sang about “ I did it my way!”

Yet the truth is that Jesus died for us all. The moment we, as rebellious sinners. acknowledge that and tell him that we are sorry for how we have lived and that we now want him in our lives, we in effect change sides and are no longer God’s enemies but his friends. How wonderful!

Jesus called his disciples his friends. At that time, Rabbis or teachers would regard their disciples more as servants, particularly as the disciples would have chosen to follow a particular rabbi. Yet we are told in this passage from John’s gospel several reasons why Jesus regarded his disciples as friends:

  1. “You are my friends if you do what I command“
  2. “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you“
  3. ”You did not choose me, but I chose you”

What was Jesus’ command to those whom he called his friends? Well v12 tells us “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

I think that is a very difficult command. Think about the bunch of men Jesus had chosen: Simon a terrorist, Matthew who collaborated with the hated Romans, Judas who would sell him for 30 pieces of silver, Peter who would deny him, and James and John who were keen to have the best places in the kingdom of heaven..

We tend to find it hard enough to like each other, but to love each other when there are so many things to dislike in each other and get annoyed with? Although I am sure we don’t have any terrorists in our fellowships, there maybe people who we won’t choose to be with. After all some who like traditional hymns just can’t cope with those who like those “happy clappy” modern worship songs. They in their turn can’t stomach those zombies who just sing those awful Victorian dirges. And so it goes on. Just remember in the Bible are examples of both exuberant praise and more reflective worship.

Perhaps it would be sensible to just have a definition of the type of love Jesus was talking about. Love is giving without measuring the cost or seeking personal advantage.

Can we love like that? It is difficult and it can be costly. After all it cost Jesus his life.

Jesus states that servants don’t know their master’s business – they are kept in the dark about what is really going on unless they need to know to do their jobs. However as friends of Jesus the disciples were told as much as Jesus knew they could understand and then once he had gone to heaven the Holy Spirit was sent to guide and inspire Jesus’ followers. Check out John 16: 13 & 14.

And thirdly, Jesus chose his disciples not the other way round. This was not the accepted tradition. Why did he choose them? John 15:16  “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name“.

Remember that as Jesus’ disciples we have been chosen by him for a purpose, not just to be a holy huddle. We are chosen to go and bear fruit for Jesus.

This is something I believe will be unpacked in Judy’s sermon next week so I will not steal her thunder by majoring on this right now, but I will just say that as well as discipling others and bringing them to God, we should have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Galatians 5: 22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”. These are not qualities that we can normally produce on our own, but come as we submit to Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. If we are obedient and becoming more Christ like then God our Father will answer our prayers.

The object of discipleship is to become like Jesus and so we should follow his example of sacrificial love and remember “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Perhaps in this country we will not be called to be martyred for our faith, but it happens in many places though out the world. I understand that in the last century on average 100,000 Christians a year died for their faith.

Of more challenge to us here and now is that maybe God is asking us to be prepared to give up or sacrifice something we value to help our fellow believers or indeed those who have not yet come to faith.

And so this Remembrance Sunday let us pray that not only do we remember those who fell in the wars that kept us free, but also we remember Jesus’ supreme sacrifice for us which shows just how much he loves each one of us: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Prayer: Father God, this Remembrance Sunday help us to remember with thanks those who sacrificed there lives and their futures to safeguard our lives and futures. Also Dear Lord we thank you for your son Jesus who lay down his life for us his friends and commands us to love each other. We ask that through the power of your Holy Spirit you will help us to love each other. In Jesus name. Amen.

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Don’t You Care?

Posted on 04/11/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

Often when people find themselves in difficult situations  they do wonder where God is and whether he cares about what is going on?

I preached about this on 13th January 2002 at Rainham Parish Church.

The talk is based on John 11:1 – 45

I wonder how many of us would own up to finding God frustrating particularly when he appears not to answer our prayers?

Do we even sometimes think that he hasn’t heard us?

I know that when we either don’t get answers to our prayers or not the answer we expect, there are all sorts of excuses given which aren’t necessarily correct. Regardless of what earnest people tell you; such as you are lacking in faith, or your spouse is a non-believer so God can’t possible answer your prayers, or any of the many other platitudes I’m sure you’ve heard, the truth is more complex. Though of course, sometimes we are the problem because of our own wilfulness or our hardness of heart or our own embittered attitude.

In Isaiah 55 God says “ As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “

Put it another way God knows far more than we do and seeing things from an eternal perspective he knows what we really need. That being so his timing is perfect and inevitably his answer comes right on cue. Often he has something far better in mind than we can ever imagine.

When my brother in law Nick was dying from AIDS we prayed as did many other people. I am utterly convinced that God could have physically healed him. But he didn’t. As it turns out God did something even more wonderful. He brought Nick back to faith and then called him home quickly. As that lovely old hymn puts it:

“Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me,
And on his shoulder gently laid,
And home rejoicing brought me.”

Nick by God’s grace was saved some of the nastier aspects of AIDS such as dementia and blindness.

Faith is about trusting God even when we can’t see what he is doing and things appear from our point of view to be hopeless.

So what was happening in this story about Lazarus?

Lazarus a good friend of Jesus was ill and his sisters Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus no doubt in the hope that either he would come in person or would heal Lazarus at a distance.

Yet even though it is clear that Lazarus was a very special friend of Jesus, he didn’t rush to Bethany to be at his friend’s bedside. I suspect that most of us would have gone as quickly as possible to Bethany. Yet Jesus listened to his Father rather than to his friends and stayed where he was. Is there a message for us? Do we react to events and situations emotionally rather than prayerfully and thoughtfully?

Can you imagine what Mary and Martha must have thought? You can imagine then looking anxiously up the road to see if Jesus was coming. Hours drag into days and still Jesus hasn’t come. Why? Doesn’t he care? Doesn’t he realise how serious this illness is? Then the awful moment arrives and Lazarus breathes his last and the sisters were grief stricken and probably angry with Jesus who had let them down. You may have said to God in the midst of your troubles “Don’t you care?”

So they prepare Lazarus and have him buried, no doubt in accordance with Jewish custom by sunset of the day he died. Jesus isn’t even there to comfort them as they bury him. If he came now, it would in their opinion, be too late. But then they only have a human perspective.

Jesus does come but four days after Lazarus has died. Why the delay? Jesus says in John 11 v 4 “The final result of this illness will not be the death of Lazarus; this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the Son of God will receive glory.” That just makes it sound as if the illness is not as serious as the messenger has said. But do note that the illness is being allowed so that God’s healing when it happens will cause Jesus to be glorified and indeed it will bring others to faith, as we shall see. It is rather as Paul stated in that famous verse from Romans 8 “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”

As Jesus and the disciples prepare to go to Bethany, Jesus tells them “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I will go and wake him up.” Initially, the disciples think that Lazarus is actually asleep, but Jesus is using a euphemism and has to explain, “Lazarus is dead, but for your sake I am glad I was not with him, so that you will believe.”

Jewish tradition said that the soul stayed near the body for three days after death, in the hope that it may be brought back to life. So by delaying for four days, it will be absolutely obvious that Lazarus is dead and beyond human hope of coming back to life. When Jesus goes to Bethany to wake up Lazarus there will be no mistake that this is a miracle, bringing Lazarus to life after he has been in the tomb for four days.

I don’t know what you would have said if you were in Martha’s place when Jesus arrived in Bethany? Maybe you would have had a go at him or just ignored him. Martha firstly brings out her criticism but then shows her faith in Jesus. She says, ” If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died! But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Perhaps she is beginning to see the answer to the question posed to Abraham in Genesis 18 v14 “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Can you answer that question truthfully? Can you say with Martha “I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask”?

I think it worth hearing again the rest of this conversation between Jesus and Martha as he encourages her in her faith.

“Your brother will rise to life,” Jesus told her. “I know” she replied, ”that he will rise to life on the last day.” Jesus said to her “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes Lord,” she answered, “I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world“.

How about us? In the midst of all our own sufferings and disappointments and let downs can we make a statement of faith like this? Do we really believe that Jesus is the resurrection? That new life is possible not only after physical death but also here and now for us who have been spiritually dead through our sins?

What about Mary who from the story in Luke 10 appears to be the more spiritual and thoughtful of the two sisters? We can’t tell whether her comment to Jesus is made out of disappointment or anger or despair. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”

Many people have thought that when Jesus saw the grief of Mary and the others he was moved to tears out of sympathy and this could well be true. But there is also the thought that it was their lack of faith in him that brought him to tears. Some of the Jews were heard to doubt him “He gave sight to the blind man, didn’t he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from dying?”

So we now follow Jesus to the root of the problem; Lazarus dead and buried in the tomb.
Jesus knows what he is about to do, but look at the excuses and the reticence of people to let him deal with the problem.

“Take the stone away!” Jesus ordered. “But Lord” Martha, the dead man’s sister, answered, “There will be a bad smell, Lord. He has been buried four days!” Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believed?”

How many of us try to put God off when he offers to deal with our problems and hurts?

Oh no! Its been going on too long for me to be healed!

It’s very painful and unpleasant to talk about. Let’s leave it alone!

My past stinks so I don’t even want Jesus to see it!

I don’t know if that’s how you have reacted when the Lord challenges you about something, which needs his healing. Do the greengrocer’s shutters come down around your mind because you don’t want to hear what Jesus is trying to say to you?

Fortunately for Lazarus and indeed for us, Jesus takes no notice of the excuses and once the stone is out of the way, he calls in a loud voice “Lazarus, come out!” “He came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave clothes, and with a cloth round his face. “Untie him,” Jesus told them “and let him go.”

How amazing; the dead coming back to life at Jesus’ command. Lazarus must have been a frightening sight wrapped in his grave clothes rather like a character from a Hollywood horror film. However removing the grave clothes completed the healing.

When Jesus touches people’s lives and brings healing and new life, there are quite often the trappings of their former lives and problems to be taken care of. These are our responsibility to help remove. It isn’t always pleasant, but we are doing the Lord’s work in this matter so we have to obey when he tells us to remove the grave clothes from someone he has brought to life. The Lord once sent me an ex male witch to counsel and pray with. Removing his grave clothes and untying him was not easy or pleasant but that was the Lord’s command to me for this man’s healing.

What was the reaction of those who saw what happened at the tomb in Bethany? Some saw and believed and put their faith in him. But for others, even the raising of the dead did nothing for their faith. Many of the religious people were outraged because Jesus was a threat to them and their established view of God.

Isn’t that the same in this day? Some see God at work through the power of the Holy Spirit and believe; yet others, even Christians, sadly reject him and disbelieve the evidence particularly if it threatens their view of how God should be. It is particularly sad when you find people in churches praying against those sent by God to do his work. Perhaps they like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day don’t realise that they are actually opposing and rejecting God by their actions.

Is Jesus calling you this morning to come out of your tomb? Many things, illness, bereavement, our past, our unrepented sins, and unforgiveness can entomb us. We get wrapped in all sorts of things as our grave clothes: our sins, the way we have been rejected, the hurts we have suffered, the way our parents mistreated us, our own unforgiveness to name but a few.

Jesus is having the stone taken away and the light of his love is shining in on you. He is calling you to come out and be set free and live again. You can receive his healing and his freedom today.

Shall we have a prayer?

Lord Jesus help us to hear your call this morning, to rise up and leave our tomb whatever that tomb may be. Help us to receive your healing and live new lives for your glory. And help us to participate in the healing of others as you command us. Amen.

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