Adoption – Becoming a Child of God

Posted on 04/11/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

In early 2000, we preached a series of sermons looking at great themes of the Bible. I gave this talk on “Adoption” at Wennington Parish Church on Sunday 27th February 2000.

Romans 8:14 – 23

“14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “”Abba,” Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

John 1 vv.10 – 14

“10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We are continuing our series of talks looking at great themes of the Bible, and today we are dealing with the subject of adoption.

In our society, with the breakdown of traditional family life, there seems less value than ever placed on a person’s place in a family. With increasing numbers, for whatever reason, of one parent families, cohabitation, loose liaisons etc children easily lose their sense of belonging, their sense of identity. So in a way, adoption seems to be less of an option for children who find themselves without a stable home.

In New Testament times, in many societies, it was important for a person to know his/her family roots, especially if matters of property and inheritance were involved. Hence why in the Bible there are often long involved genealogies going back many generations. It was acknowledged that only children conceived in wedlock could inherit and be considered as part of the family. An exception was made in the case of a child or young person who was adopted by the family. This was possible, but virtually unknown under the very strict Jewish law, but was more common under Roman law.

Under Roman law, a father had absolute rights over his son throughout his lifetime, which made his adoption into another family a very serious business, as it put him into the total possession and absolute control of another man. It also gave him a new name, a different legal standing, and all the rights of an heir in his new family.

All this would have been known to the readers of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Adoption is clearly a major step, and not one to be taken without considerable thought. Whilst the child or young person may have a say in whether he or she wishes to be adopted, it is ultimately a decision of the prospective parents to adopt or not. Even if the child begs them to adopt him, it is still their decision, their choice.

I have some relatives in Canada, who many years ago adopted a boy, Bob and a girl, Nancy. After a few years, they were blessed with a child of their own, Terri. In her early teens Terri decided to be spiteful and pointed out to her brother and sister that they were only adopted. Her sister replied that whilst the parents had had Terri, they choose Nancy and Bob!

And that’s how it is with God. He choose us to be his adopted children. Its part of the “package” we receive when we come to faith in Jesus. Salvation is all of God and none of our doing. When we accept Jesus Christ as our saviour, then he sends his Holy Spirit to be in us, and as St Paul writes in Romans 8 v 15 ‘For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father”. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.’

Isn’t it amazing that the Holy Spirit within us causes us to acknowledge God as our father. Not only that but look at the level of the relationship. Its not a formal austere cold relationship like my father had with his own father. No, the Aramaic word ‘Abba!’ is far more intimate, personal. Indeed it could be translated as ‘Daddy!’ That contrasts with many people’s view of God as an angry old man ready with a big stick to bash them when they do wrong!

Isn’t that amazing; daring to call the Holy Omnipotent God, Daddy. This is exactly what Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him to teach them how to pray, and he gave them “The Lord’s Prayer”. I would suggest at this point, and you are welcome to take it up with me later, that you should only say that prayer if you can acknowledge Jesus as your saviour and hence you are a child of God by adoption.

Its equally amazing to think that we had been in rebellion against God, through our sin, so that we were his enemies. Yet, we can turn to him in repentance and accept Jesus as our saviour and our whole position changes in the twinkling of an eye. We are suddenly transformed into a new person with a new family, not just a forgiven sinner, but adopted into God’s family as a son or daughter!

As a child of God, an adopted son or daughter, you have rights and privileges that others do not have and cannot have unless they too come to faith in Jesus and join the household of faith.

So what do we get as an adopted child of God?

  1. The Holy Spirit. When a person comes to faith in Jesus, he receives through faith the Holy Spirit who comes to make us more like Jesus and reassure us of our place in God’s kingdom. In Galatians 4:6 we are told: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out “Abba, Father”. So you are longer a slave but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
  2. A new relationship with God. He is no longer our enemy, our judge, but our own dear father. The Holy Spirit at work in our lives should bring this reality to our thoughts and emotions, and reassure us of our place in God’s heart. We have to remember that every good father wants what is best for his children and has to discipline or train them in the right way to do things. This is not always pleasant for either parent or child, but is necessary. In Hebrews 12:5 we read ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as a son.’
  3. A new name. As part of a new family we get a new family name, which confirms our identity as part of that family. Paul writes in Ephesians 3: 14 -15 ‘For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family of believers in heaven and on earth derives its name’. There has been a tradition that people coming to faith in Jesus have also changed their names in acknowledgement of the new life they have. Ie Saul became Paul. We have to also take on board that with a new family come many relatives. We have countless brothers and sisters both on earth and in heaven. And as a member of God’s family we should take our brothers and sisters seriously and support, encourage and uphold them, whether they be here in Wennington, or in India, China, South America, wherever.
  4. A life with Jesus as our elder brother. As we grow in our Christian faith, the Holy Spirit enables us to become more like Jesus. Romans 8:29 ‘For those God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.’ In the Roman world, the adopted son was granted full legal status in the family alongside any other natural children. What a wonder it is then that we are given full status in the family of God along with the natural Son of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we heard earlier in our reading from Romans, ‘Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share his glory’
  5. Protection. Many years before Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, the Psalmist wrote: future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able in Psalm 125:2 ‘As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and evermore.’ We as Christians not only have that promise to hold on to, but also have the Holy Spirit himself dwelling in us. As Paul wrote at the end of Romans 8 ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ and ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

To summarise, adoption is an invitation to become part of God’s family. We cannot do it by ourselves, we cannot earn our way into heaven. It is a gift from God. He chooses to offer us this wonderful gift to be not only reconciled with God and at peace with him but to become his adopted son or daughter and a co heir in the kingdom of heaven with Jesus.

There are some Christians who doubt their salvation, who despite all their spiritual experiences, bible studies etc do not know whether they are ‘saved’. Yet the doctrine of adoption makes it perfectly clear that as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ your future is secure and awaits you in heaven as a joint heir with Jesus of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Thank you Father God that you called us through faith in your dear son Jesus to be adopted into your family as your sons and daughters. We ask that your Holy Spirit will continue to reassure us of our place in your family and draw us into a deeper more personal relationship with you and our saviour Jesus. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Who do you say I am?

Posted on 25/10/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

For several years I preached at Polzeath Methodist Church in Cornwall, before it changed to Tubestation (http://tubestation.org/).

This is a sermon I preached on 21st August 2005 and deals with a question that faces us all at sometime in our lives. And how we answer the question not only affects the rest of our life on earth but affects our eternal futures as well.

The Bible reading is Matthew 16 v 13 – 20 and is below:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

In this short passage Jesus asks two very significant questions:

  1. Who do people say the Son of man is? and
  2. Who do you say I am?

The second question is one that each one of us must answer for ourselves. “Who do you say Jesus is?”

The question of identity is very important. We need to know who someone really is, rather than who they say they are, particularly in view of the recent terrorist events in London, where any young Asian male with a rucksack on his back is viewed with the greatest of suspicion.

Sometimes finding out for ourselves who Jesus is can take a lifetime of searching.

A couple of Christmases ago my boys were bought a game which involved discovering which character the other player was pretending to be by a process of elimination. Are you male or female? Do you wear glasses? Have you got a beard? Etc. On occasions the guesswork brings quick results and other times the game goes on for ages.

In our Bible passage Jesus asks these questions at a place called Caesarea Philippi which was north of the Sea of Galilee. This town had been founded by Herod’s son Phillip and named jointly in honour of the emperor Tiberius Caesar as well as Phillip himself. It had originally been called Paneas in honour of the Greek god Pan whose shrine was there. It was therefore a very pagan place. Perhaps you could say that it is like most of our country has become with the spread of different religions and belief systems. Jesus’s first question is about the ordinary folk like you and me. It’s not about the religious rules and regulation people, the Pharisees. After all they have made their minds up about Jesus. He didn’t fit in with their view of the Messiah so he must in their eyes be a fraud, an impersonator, a fake. No, Jesus wanted to know what the man and woman on the street thought.

And who did they think Jesus was? “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Today many people still have either no idea or a totally wrong idea about Jesus and that includes folk who have been going to church for years. Most of the major religions have to account for Jesus – he can’t be ignored.
1 Peter 2:6 puts it this way: “For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” and, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message–which is also what they were destined for.”

CS Lewis that great scholar and Christian writer wrote in his book ‘Mere Christianity’ “Either this man (Jesus) was, and is, the son of God, or else a madman or something worse.”

So how do other religions get round the Jesus problem?

Islam says that Jesus was one of the six great prophets, but Muhammad was the last and the greatest. Also many Muslims believe that Jesus didn’t die on the cross – he escaped and Judas was crucified in his place! So if Jesus didn’t become the one perfect sacrifice for our sins, we haven’t been and can’t be forgiven, and so we are like all mankind without hope.

Hare Krishna states that Jesus was the son of their god Krishna.

Buddhists regard Jesus as a great teacher.

Hindu’s recognise Jesus as a manifestation of a god. As there are over 300 million gods in Hinduism that doesn’t say much!

Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the divinity of Jesus, his eternal existence and his physical resurrection. They state that the archangel Michael was Jesus in his pre human state. So when they come knocking at your door, keep them talking as it delays them in their mission of deceiving your neighbours, but don’t agree with them as they will lead you astray as well.

The Baha’i faith teaches that Jesus was one of nine great religious teachers who were all manifestations of god. These teachers included Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius and Muhammad.

The New Age movement says that Jesus was a religious teacher to be compared with Buddha and Mohammad.

Many people outside of the church even if they don’t hold to the religions I have just mentioned don’t have a clear idea about Jesus. They know of the miracle baby in the manager and they may know about him dying on Good Friday, but to who he actually is, they haven’t a clue!

That’s what many of the people say about Jesus, but what about you? Who do you say Jesus is?

Have you come to that place where like Simon Peter you can say to Jesus “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”? If so it is only because God has been at work in you through the power of his Holy Spirit. It’s his Holy Spirit working on us and in us that convinces not only that we need a saviour but that the saviour is Jesus.

We can read the Bible and all sorts of helpful books and listen to inspired preachers and not take any of it on board. It is only when the Holy Spirit makes the Word come alive to us or he speaks to us through others or even directly that light goes on and we take our first tentative steps of faith towards Jesus and the cross. I am told, incidentally that many Muslims are seeing Jesus in their dreams and recognising who he is and have subsequently come to faith in him despite the danger of doing so in Islamic countries.

I am sure that you like me have come across folk who have been to church for years, served on church committees and done “good works” yet never met with Jesus or acknowledged who he is and just how much they need him as their saviour.

Yet when you realise who Jesus is and respond to him, then God can start working in your life. This faith is the foundation on which the Lord can begin to build in your life. I will not get into contention over the following verse which many people take as justification for the Roman Catholic church being pre eminent because it was founded by Peter who is described as the first Bishop of Rome: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

Lets look at this at a personal level and apply it to ourselves. Until such time that you come to faith and acknowledge Jesus as your Lord and Saviour then he cannot build anything lasting on and with you. Without faith in Jesus it’s a bit like building out there on Polzeath beach – even if the walls are high enough and strong enough to keep the tide out, the sea will undermine and weaken your foundations of sand and the whole thing will be washed away. If you don’t have that bedrock of faith , a firm foundation, nothing you do will be of lasting value for the Kingdom of God. Yet build your life on this rock, this faith in Jesus and all the forces of hell will not overcome it.

We can see that is true in the work of Simon Peter. Simon was apparently a Greek name which means “Obedient one” or “He has heard”. Yet he becomes Peter the “rock” and despite denying Jesus at his trial, Peter was indeed a rock, a firm foundation of the church. This is picked up by Paul when he wrote to the church at Ephesus (Ephesians 2: 20) describing the church as “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

It’s an interesting thought that with new found faith comes a new name. Simon became Peter and Saul became Paul once he had met with the risen Jesus. Many people over the years have taken a “Christian name” when they have come to faith and been baptised to show that the old has gone and the new has come.

Then Jesus tells Peter “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Of course Peter used those keys to open the door to the Kingdom of Heaven, firstly when he preached that amazing sermon at Pentecost when 3000 Jewish people came to faith in Jesus and then later when at the House of Cornelius he brought the gospel to the gentiles ie non Jews. You can find Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 and if you’ve never read it or it’s a long time since you’ve read it why not have a look at it today. There is a key verse I would ask you to remember as it ties in with the theme of today’s talk. In Acts 2:21 we
read: “ And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

If you recognise who Jesus is and call out to him, you will be saved from your sins. Going to church won’t do it. Neither will doing good works such as running church bazaars or helping the poor, no matter how worthwhile they are. It is only acknowledging your own need of Jesus as your personal saviour that will save you.

So as we finish, two questions for you to think over:

  1. Jesus asks each of us “Who do you say I am?”
  2. To which I would add: And what have you done about it?

If you would like to have someone pray with you about this or any other matter please come forward at the end of the service and we would be pleased to do so.

Let’s finish with a prayer:

Lord Jesus you are the way, the truth and the life. We ask that through the power of your Holy Spirit you would reveal yourself to those who do not know you and help them to come to faith in you and so receive new life in you as their sins are forgiven. And for those of us who know you and love you, we ask that we may be filled with your Spirit and be your faithful witnesses wherever you send us. This we ask in your precious name. Amen.

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When the going gets tough

Posted on 09/10/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

This is a sermon I preached at Chase Cross Baptist Church in Romford on 25th October 2009.  You can find about about the church here: http://www.cxbc.org.uk/

The reading comes from Acts 4: 23 –31.

“23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. “

What do you do when the going gets tough?

You may be facing: unemployment, ill health, relationship breakdown, bereavement etc.

What you hold dear has been taken from you, or perhaps what you built your life around has come crashing down.

Or maybe you are persecuted for your faith. That can happen inside the church as well as out in the world.

Just look in the gospels at how the priests, the really religious leaders treated Jesus and later the early church. They should have welcomed him and worshipped him as their Messiah. But they whipped him and crucified him as a troublemaker .

Throughout church history believers have been persecuted: For example Protestants by Catholics and Wesley by the Church of England. In Rainham men from the parish church set fire to the meeting hall where Wesley was preaching!

Did you know that up to Victorian times you couldn’t work in the Civil Service or hold an officer’s rank in the armed forces if you weren’t in the Church of England? Also you couldn’t build a church or chapel within three miles of an Anglican church!

So what do you do when the going gets tough?

Some people follow the fine example of Corporal Jones from Dad’s Army, and rush around like headless chickens. Or do you hold onto Jesus and get praying?

Whilst it maybe the natural response to run away, it’s not the scriptural way. Ephesians 6:13 tells us “Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

Lets look at an incident of persecution to see how the disciples and the early church dealt with the situation.

We are in Acts 4 and Peter and John have just stepped out in faith , in the power of the Holy Spirit and healed a man crippled from birth. You would have thought that the religious leaders would have been delighted that God was at work healing people. But see their reaction: Acts 4:2 & 3 “They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.” and Acts 4:16 & 17 “”What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

When I was in the Church of England we had an elderly lady who said she had been told off by a vicar for praising God for answered prayers. Apparently she was told that it might upset people who felt their prayers had not been answered!

Perhaps the Jewish religious leaders complained because God wasn’t working to their rules! But then God is sovereign and you can’t tell him what to do!

So Peter and John don’t give into the threats and bullying as we read in Acts 4:18 – 20 “Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John return to the believers and tell them what has happened. At this point they could have decided to give up telling people about Jesus and kept quiet. You know , anything for a quiet life, we don’t want to upset people or challenge their beliefs.

But instead they bring the whole situation to God in prayer. Our reading shows five distinct points:

1 Praise. In v24 “Then they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.”

By praising God we remind ourselves who he is and that he is in control even if we feel out of control and we feel that life is like white water rafting!

2 Tell it how it is. V25 – 28 “You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”

Whilst God knows it all and really doesn’t need us to remind him of our circumstances, it does help us to put things into perspective and say what we need God to do. The disciples have discerned how their situation has lined up with scripture. Just look at Psalm 2 which is partly quoted in Acts 4. As you probably know there are many prophecies about the Messiah or Anointed one in the Bible and Jesus is the only person to fulfil all of them.

3 Request. V29 – 30 “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

We need to be specific in our requests to God and not the “please bless him” type of prayer. We should also pray in accordance with God’s will. Can we discern what God wants in a particular situation? Often Scripture is our guide. For the disciples it wasn’t “Get us out of here Lord!” or “Please make those nasty people leave us alone”. No they asked God for boldness and power to preach the good news. Whether we are in some form of ministry or working in the world in work or at home, our priority should be that of the Great Commission as found in Matthew 28:18 – 20 “ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

4 Receive. V31 “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”.

When we pray do we pray in anticipation that God is going to act? Do we actually believe that our prayers are going to be answered?

Some Christians just don’t pray because they think there’s no point as he won’t answer me. Or some say that they are not worthy enough to pray directly to God and need an intermediary or a “go between”. Hence the requests that ministers, prayer teams and so on get. Or when you say to someone I’ll pray with you there is a look of panic and a hurried “oh no just pray for me”.

Whilst it can help to have others praying with you, we already have an intermediary who will pray for us to God, his name is Jesus as we find in 1 Timothy 2:5.

We should pray with whatever faith we have in the anticipation that God will answer our prayers.

5 Act. V31 “and spoke the word of God boldly.”

No hanging around. No church meetings to discuss strategy. They just got on with it. To quote Winston Churchill in one of his wartime speeches “Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.”

As a result of the believers’ prayer the early church grew and grew and many people came to faith.

So I think the message from Acts 4 for us today is that when we face trouble and persecution we should pray expecting God to answer us and give us the tools we need to do the work he has given us to do.

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A Work in Progress

Posted on 23/09/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

Many people get confused and think that the church is the building where Christians meet. Others understand it to be the organisation with its hierarchy of ministers/priests etc. Yet the truth is that the church is the people of God.

The following talk deals with this subject and was given at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church on Sunday 16th January 2011.

1 Peter 2: 4 – 12

4 As you come to him, the living Stone–rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him– 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, ” 8 and, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message–which is also what they were destined for. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Where on earth is God’s dwelling place?

Perhaps you could argue that until the events of Easter and Pentecost, God’s address on earth was the Temple in Jerusalem. When we read the Old Testament we read about the specifications of first of all the tabernacle that the Jews had in the desert and then the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem.

This is what we are told happened after Solomon dedicated the temple 2 Chronicles 7: 1 – 4 “ When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “He is good; his love endures forever.”

Then for about the next 900 years, God was worshipped at the Temple in Jerusalem. Agreed it was destroyed when Jerusalem was overwhelmed by the Babylonians and the Jews were sent into exile. It was subsequently rebuilt twice, the second time it was started by Herod the Great just before Jesus was born. According to John2:2 it took 46 years to build.

Finally in 70AD the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and it would seem looting soldiers burnt down the temple to fulfil Jesus’ prophecy that not one stone would be standing on another. See Matthew 24:1 – 2.

If you read the letter to the Hebrews, much of it is taken up with the fact there is no longer any need for sacrifices or indeed for the traditional High Priests, as we have a new High Priest, Jesus who has made the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. So if there is no need for further sacrifices there is no longer a need for a temple.

Indeed Jesus had prophesied this when he talked with the Samaritan woman at the well: John 4:21, 23 & 24: Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

The early church from the days of the apostles would meet in each other’s homes to worship and to break bread. See 1 Corinthians 16:19 “The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.” and also, Colossians 4:15 “Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.”

It was some time later that a church fellowship would have its own specific building where they could meet and worship. It is said that the construction of specific buildings for churches really started when the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian and made Christianity the official religion.

Unfortunately since then there has often been confusion between church as a building and church as the people of God.

In the early 13th century Francis of Assisi got it wrong when he heard Jesus telling him to rebuild my church. He though Jesus meant the ruined church building at Assisi, rather than a spiritual renewal of the people.

Similarly some years ago whilst I was in the Church of England, I went with our church treasurer to a meeting of local church treasurers to talk about finances etc and a very earnest man told the meeting that unless they raised so many thousand pounds, for repairs there would no longer be a church in Hornchurch. What he meant was that the building would fall down, not that the fellowship of believers would fall apart!

So the church of Jesus is the people, you and me here in Becontree and indeed believers throughout the world, no matter what denomination or label you may put on them.

We are being built into a temple. We are a work in progress and whilst individually we shall be perfect in heaven, so corporately we shall be a finished building when Jesus returns.

Many people think that they can be Christians on their own. They try to go it alone. Christianity is not an individual pastime. From many of the families I visit, I do understand why some people have simply walked away from the church because of what has happened to them. But just as you can’t build a house out of a single brick or roof slate so you can’t really be a Christian on your own. We all need our brothers and sisters.

However as we see from our reading, Jesus is the cornerstone on which the church is built. The cornerstone or foundation stone is the one used as a reference point for the rest of the building. If after the service you look at the church hall you will see the foundation stone inscribed with various names, and the rest of the brickwork is laid in line with it.

As Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

To non believers Jesus is a stumbling block something you may trip over like so much rubble on a building site. Often they try and do philosophical somersaults to explain him away or just put him somewhere into the building they are constructing. Yet to believers he is the foundation of our lives and we are built on him. As you can see from history all mankind’s attempts to build upon human ideas and philosophies and manmade religions ultimately fail. It is only lives built on Jesus that survive.

Where churches have forgotten Jesus and strayed from the word of God, they have failed as if the whole building has been shifted away from its cornerstone by an earthquake and down it comes, or it tilts at a crazy angle like the Tower of Pisa.

Just as there are many different materials used in a building so Jesus has a use for each and every one of us in building his church. That is why the Holy Spirit gives us so many different gifts to use alongside our natural talents and abilities.

Romans 12: 6 – 8 “6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

I think we will leave looking at specific Spiritual Gifts for another time. Suffice it to say that they are given to build up the church not for people to show off as they try to be some sort of Super Christian. In 1 Corinthians 14:12 Paul writes “Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.” Also in Ephesians 4:11 – 13 “ It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

However over time our role within the church can change, as if bricks can become windows or floor boards or roof slates or whatever. I caught up with an old friend during the week. When I knew him in the Church of England he had been involved with youth work, my fellow churchwarden, sound technician and occasional member of the worship group. Since moving to a different church he has been worship leader and now heads up the prayer ministry team.

No matter what we do in the fellowship we are all important. If you are not feeling special and loved this morning then listen to what Peter wrote about Christians: 1 Peter 2: 9 – 10 “9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. “

Now isn’t that something? We all belong to God we are part of his royal family and we all have a mission. We are all called to be priests offering spiritual sacrifices to God and declaring his praises.

Sometime we worry that our fellowship is small in numbers or we are aging or we are not making progress like some other fellowships. Regardless of all that we have to remain faithful to God and stand on his word, remembering Jesus’ promises in Matthew 18:18 – 20 “I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

So to answer the question I asked at the start of this talk, “Where on earth is God’s dwelling place?” God lives individually and corporately in the hearts of his people. We are a work in progress but we are being built into a temple fit for God’s own dwelling place.

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He knew all about me!

Posted on 23/09/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

I preached this sermon at Becontree avenue Baptist Church (www.becavebaptistchurch.org.uk) on 17th May 2009. The main point of the message is that Jesus came to save everyone, regardless of who they are or what they have done. No one is excluded from the invitation. It is of course a personal decision to accept or reject the Good News of eternal Life offered by Jesus Christ.

John 4: 4 – 26, 28 – 30, 39 – 42

4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” 13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” 25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.

42They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”

It probably started like any other day for her. Domestic chores, food to prepare, water to collect. Now that was a problem.

Because of her lifestyle – who she was – she was that woman! Because of how she had played the cards that life had dealt her, she just couldn’t go to the well when the other women went. Respectable, decent women went to the well in the early morning before the sun got too hot. Or they went in the evening as things cooled down.

They would make their way to the well and chat and laugh and gossip and then go back home.

But none of the social niceties for her. Oh No! How the other women shunned her, ignored her, talked about her behind her back. Oh they probably watched her as well, just in case their husbands were on her hit list.

She had had five husbands and now lived with a man – a terrible thing to do in polite society. She was most definitely an outcast. A social pariah!

So here she is, in the noon day heat, at the well, collecting water as she has done for many days. But today is different, she had an encounter with Jesus. And as I’m sure you will agree meeting Jesus means you are never the same again.

This man is like no other man she has ever met. He talks to her. Treats her like a human being. Most men have nothing to do with her, or they talk at her. She is used to verbal abuse. She is used to many things but not kindness. Not interest. Not graciousness.

Here is this Jewish man talking to her, asking for a drink. This is so wrong. Jews certainly don’t talk to Samaritans – in fact they try to avoid the area completely. And Jewish men don’t talk in public to women. And proper Jews would never use the same bowls, cups, plates etc that non Jews had used. They feared being made unclean. But not this man – he is different. He is Jesus.

As they talk the woman realises that Jesus is someone special. He is certainly a prophet, but he is also the Messiah!

Then comes something amazing – John 4: 16 – 18 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” Jesus knows all about her – but he doesn’t condemn her or criticise her for her chaotic lifestyle. He just tells her plainly and simply that he knows.

Many years ago whilst I worked in the bank I had a colleague a young girl called Kelly who had bought a house with her fiancé and moved in with him. The young man, Ian, had an accident and fell off scaffolding and ended up in hospital. Our Admin Manager who made a great song and dance about being a deacon in his local Baptist Church lectured Kelly about how awful she was living with her fiancé and not a word of sympathy for the injured man. On the other hand I simply asked Kelly every morning how Ian was doing and how was she coping.

So the woman in our story rushes into the village telling everyone she can that Jesus is here – he must be a prophet – he told me everything I had done!

It’s a sobering thought that this Samaritan woman is one of the first evangelists – one of the first missionaries. And look at the results of her testimony – John 4:30 & 39 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony

I am amazed when you look at scripture and see how many people of doubtful character are used by God to fulfil his purposes, spreading the gospel and furthering the Kingdom of God. Here’s just a few to think about:

Jacob who was as crooked as they come. He robbed his older brother of his inheritance and did all sorts of dirty deals. And yet he is regarded as one of the great men of faith.

Rahab was a prostitute who hid the Israelite spies in Jericho – There she is mentioned not only in Joshua but also in that great list of faithful men and women in Hebrews. We read in Hebrews 11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

Ruth was a foreigner from Moab and yet she was the great grandmother of King David whom the Bible calls a man after God’s own heart.

In the New Testament we find that one of Jesus’ disciples was Simon the Zealot – a “freedom fighter” or “terrorist” depending on your viewpoint.

Then there was Paul who had been Saul the ultra religious Pharisee and Christian hater. He had men and women imprisoned and stood by approvingly as Stephen was stoned to death. But when Paul met with Jesus on the road to Damascus nothing was ever the same again.

So what do we do? We who have met with Jesus and call ourselves his followers? Do we like the woman at the well go and tell everyone we know about our experience with Jesus?

If we don’t tell people about Jesus how are they going to know about him? We all have different circles of friends, acquaintances, work mates, neighbours and so on. For some people we are the only Christians they will ever meet and if we don’t tell them, no one else will.

Don’t worry about the result whether people respond or not. That’s not our responsibility – it’s their choice to say “Yes” or “No” to Jesus. Our job is to tell them.

So let’s ask Jesus to give us the courage and the enthusiasm to go out into the world and encourage people to come with us to meet with Jesus. Amen.

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“What’s in a name?”

Posted on 04/09/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

This morning (4th September 2011) I preached at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church in Dagenham on the subject “What’s in a name?”

The reading was from Isaiah:

Isaiah 61:1 – 7, 10 & Isaiah 62:1 – 5
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion–  to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called  oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour.  They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.
I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow. You will be a crown of splendour in the LORD’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

“What’s in a name?” This was a question posed some 500 years ago by William Shakespeare in his play “Romeo and Juliet” The two young lovers discover that they belong to rival families who are conducting a bitter feud. The quote goes on “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Scene 11.

And don’t we wish sometimes that life was so very easy. Change the name and solve the problem.

But it goes much deeper than that. Names have a deeper meaning than a mere convenient label. There can be a power in knowing someone or something’s name. Often people going to the doctor or to hospital are relieved when they know the name of the illness that’s afflicting them. You know the name and you know what you’re fighting and hopefully the doctor knows the cure.

Name’s have always been important in the Bible, right from the beginning. In Genesis 2:19 we read “Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”

Names tell us about the person. In days gone by they were chosen carefully to reflect the character or perhaps the circumstances of someone’s birth.

It doesn’t seem to be the same today where parents will name their offspring after pop singers, or footballers or other celebrities. After all a celebrity is someone who is famous for being well known.

I was surprised to hear a report on the radio the other week by Frank Field MP, the government’s poverty czar, that there are many children coming into the school system who do not know their own name. Either cause their parents never speak meaningfully to them or because its buried in a tirade of verbal abuse that’s shouted at them.

Here are some names from the Bible with their meaning:

“Isaac” means one laughs. His parents had laughed at the ridiculous idea of them being parents at their great age. See Genesis 21:1 – 6.

“Israel” means prince of God. Which was quite a turn around for the unscrupulous twister formally known as Jacob.

“Samuel” means heard by God. He was born after Hannah’s heart felt prayer to have a child. See 1 Samuel 1.

“Jabez” means pain. 1 Chronicles 4:9 tells us “ His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.”

“Joshua” means God saves. In the New testament the name Jesus means the same. see Matthew 1:21.

And finally what I think is one of the more amazing names in the Bible in Isaiah 8:3 “Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz” which means “quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil”. You can read the story as to why Isaiah’s son had that name in Isaiah 8.

A few weeks ago Peter Vickers talked to us about Barnabas which was a nick name meaning “Son of encouragement”.

So today we have some verses from Isaiah 61 and 62 written according to most scholars long before the people of Judah were taken away into their 70 year exile in Babylon. Isaiah wrote these prophetic words to encourage people, to help them with their faith in God. And they still speak powerfully to us today.

Isaiah’s audience were people in exile in Babylon. They would have endured the long siege of Jerusalem and its subsequently being over run by the Babylonian army. Jerusalem was a ruin and even worse the Temple had been destroyed. These people would have lost everything they had held dear. They no doubt felt that God had abandoned them. Maybe that’s where you are today at rock bottom and feeling abandoned. If so these verses are clearly for you.

The verses from Isaiah 61 were read by Jesus at the start of his public ministry when he was in Nazareth. I spoke about this from Luke 4 at the beginning of last December. It describes Jesus’ ministry in a nutshell. It talks about finding healing and wholeness through faith in Jesus.

Part of healing of our spiritual and indeed emotional ills comes through realising who we are in Jesus and how valuable we are to him. That we have had our sins forgiven and that can be free of guilt and shame for our past.

Many of us may feel that we are useless and valueless but this is what the Lord says in Isaiah 61:3 “They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour”.  No longer scraggy saplings or trees bent over by the wind or even bonsai, but tall, majestic beautiful trees.

Believers in Jesus are promised an inheritance, in fact Isaiah 61:7 says this: “Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance”. In Jewish law the eldest son and heir received a double share of their father’s property, and so people who come to faith in Jesus are part of God’s family, heirs to his kingdom, not outsiders or strangers.

We have another statement about our value to God in Isaiah 62:3 “You will be a crown of splendour in the LORD’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God “ If you have ever been to the Tower of London and seen the crown jewels you will know how beautiful they are. They contain precious metals such as gold and silver and beautifully cut gem stones. They are items of wonderful craftsmanship and of great value. Just as you can’t imagine the Queen wearing a gold coloured plastic crown with cut glass jewels neither is our God in the cheap replica business. So each and everyone one of us as believers in Jesus Christ are very special and precious to our God.

But do remember diamonds straight out of the ground need to be cut and polished to bring out their brilliance and their true beauty. So God needs to work on us and the trials and tribulations he allows us to go through are not pleasant but the end result will be wonderful to behold.

Isaiah knows what the Jews are going to be called when their country is overrun, their city trashed and the Temple, God’s dwelling place destroyed and its contents looted. The people are going to be called “deserted”. You hear the taunts of the Babylonians almost like school yard bullies “You’re deserted” “Your God didn’t bother to help you” “Not much of a God is he?”. The country is going to be called “desolate” because everything of value has been destroyed or looted and the people taken into exile.

And yet….. God says the Jews are going to be called Hepzibah which means the Lord will delight in you. The country will be called Beulah which means married.

Did you know that God delights in each and everyone of us who have come to faith in Jesus? Never mind what the world says about us. What is important is what God says about us.

Everyone has a name. Some of us may not be called by our official name as found on our birth certificate. We may have nick names or names our families or friends give us. My godmother was named Maud Elizabeth but from the moment her father first saw her he declared she was Queenie and so she was for the next 80 plus years.

But as we go through life we seem to pick up other names or labels, often not of our own choosing. Life can be very unkind and so can people even those you thought were Christians. There is an old saying that “sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me”. Sadly often that is not true. Words can be very powerful and penetrate to our soul or spirit and cause all sorts of pain and injury.

We end up subconsciously wearing name badges or labels such as:
☹    Stupid
☹    Fat
☹    Ugly
☹    Clumsy
☹    Inadequate
☹    Useless
☹    Pathetic
☹    Redundant
☹    Hopeless
and because were are told this at perhaps a vulnerable moment we take it on board and act it out.

Sometimes people tells us things that act as curses and bind our lives. We can even do it to ourselves:
☹    “I’ll never be happy”
☹    “I’ll never be able to do anything”

Or you can be unfavourably compared. I sure my mum didn’t mean it but I was told often that I wasn’t as good at various things as my next brother. I finally had to remind my mum that I was David and not my brother.

An elderly friend of ours had complained about something at his church. His minister made an announcement about the issue the next Sunday morning and told the congregation that our friend was just a confused old man. Which he clearly isn’t. Perhaps fortunately our friend was not there to hear it.

The good news is that you don’t have to wear that label. God is the one who tells you who you are. The Bible reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Past sins have been forgiven and no longer do you have to put up with the guilt and shame of the past. Only the devil wishes to remind us again and again about the past. If its forgiven its gone and so you do not have to be concerned about it.

We are a work in progress which is why sometimes the past can still affect us. Rather like the story of Lazarus in John 11 being raised from the dead and having to be helped out of his grave clothes so we can still have the entanglement of our past around us even though we know we are born again.

Just as Jesus commanded those who witnessed Lazarus’ return to life to help him to be free of those grave clothes, so Jesus commissions us to help bring healing or whatever is needed to our fellow believers.

Maybe today you sitting there thinking about the label someone has put on you. Perhaps you’ve believed it and now act accordingly. You don’t have to live with it anymore, if you don’t want to.

Shortly we are going to move into a time of prayer and lets take the opportunity to ask God to act through the Holy spirit to bring us healing and freedom from the names and labels we wear. Maybe God wishes to tell you a new name, one more in keeping with your position as an adopted child of God.

Father God we thank you for the promises you gave to your people through the prophet Isaiah. We now in faith claim those promises and pray that they will became true for us this day through the power of your Holy Spirit. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and saviour. Amen.

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Lost and Found

Posted on 07/08/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

This morning I preached at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church in Dagenham,  on the subject “Lost and Found”.

At the start of the service, I asked the question “In what book in the Bible would you expect to find your name?” The answer comes in my talk.

As usual we start with the Bible reading:

Luke 15:1 – 10
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
 1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
The Parable of the Lost Coin
    8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

No matter what sort of background we come from, we will at some point have lost something. Sometimes it’s a trivial item other times its vital like our door keys or our bank card or our mobile phone. Or maybe its of great sentimental value such as jewellery or photos. Some losses we get over and others can make us inconsolable.

Before we look at the reading, I would just point out that throughout the Bible we have opposites, things that are either one thing or another and not anything else. For example good and evil, truth or lies, saved or unsaved. And of course: lost and found.

Today we are looking at the two stories that Jesus told dealing with the loss of something that is precious to its owner.

ShepherdTo the shepherd, his sheep were his livelihood and indeed his wealth. We know from the 23rd psalm about the care a shepherd would take of his sheep.

Last week when Peter Vickers preached, we sung the old hymn “All people that on earth do dwell”  which is based on Psalm 100. This talks about God’s people being the sheep of his flock.
In several places in the Old Testament God’s people are described as his inheritance. That’s how he regards us, those who believe and trust in his Son Jesus Christ. We are so precious to him that we are his inheritance. This is from Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.“

And what about the woman with the silver coins? Turkoman woman wearing dowry

Most likely the silver coins were her dowry, the wealth from her family that she brought into the marriage. The coins were often worn on a headdress. The coins in this case were probably drachma and each coin was worth about a day’s wages. In this country the Office for National Statistics states that the average wage is around £500pw ie £100 per day. So the woman has lost something precious not only in monetary value but also sentimental value.

Both the shepherd and the woman search diligently to find what is lost. Never mind that the rest is safe, it’s the concern for the lost which is paramount for them. And the rejoicing when they are successful in their search.

But not everyone seems that concerned over their possessions. Perhaps we in the west are so economically blessed that losing something doesn’t matter so much. Just look at the list of lost property from London Underground.

False teeth, False eyes, Replacement limbs, Breast implants, Two-and-a-half hundredweight of sultanas/currants, Lawn mower, Chinese typewriter, Four-foot teddy bear, Theatrical coffin, Wheelchairs, Crutches, Stuffed eagle, 14-foot boat, Divan bed, Outboard motor, Water skis, Park bench, Grandfather clock, Bishop’s crook, Garden slide, Inflatable doll, Jar of bull’s sperm, Urn of ashes, Three dead bats in container, Gas mask, Tibetan bell, Stuffed puffa fish, Vasectomy kit, Harpoon gun, Two human skulls in a bag.

However when people lose their pet cat or dog they put up posters detailing the animal that has been lost, often with a picture and sometime offering a reward for the safe return of Snuggles the Cat.

Ever since what the Bible calls “the Fall” when sin came into the world and spoilt God’s relationship with mankind, God has been looking for us, to bring us back to him.

God is holy, that is separate from everything else. He can’t abide evil and sin. Mankind’s sinful nature ie the selfish, hurtful things we say and do, prevent us being in God’s presence. He cannot turn a blind eye to sin. There are sadly many people who think that because God is love, (and we know that to be true because the Bible tells us), God will at the end of the day let everyone into heaven. These people think that murderers, rapists, abusers etc will just walk straight into heaven and God will smile and say “you were a bit of a rascal when you were on earth. But I don’t mind.”

Many of the people I visit in the course of my work automatically assume their recently departed loved ones will be in heaven. It will be business as usual. Never mind how good, bad or indifferent people have been here on earth, whether they believed and trusted in Jesus, they’ll all be in heaven.

I have to say that is very wrong.

In the gospels, Jesus talks more about hell than heaven. He warns us about judgement. He longs for people to avoid the penalty for their sins. He longs for the lost to be found.

The Bible is the story of God’s search for men and women who have lost the close personal relationship they were intended to have with God. It tells of God’s rescue plan to find us and bring us home to him.

The two Bible stories have an interesting point. Neither the shepherd who still had 99% of his flock or the housewife who had 90% of her dowry were happy. They didn’t say “Well I’ve got most of it. That’s fine. I’ll worry about the rest later”.  No, they didn’t rest until they found that which was lost.

Searching for the coin was time consuming and it cost. ncd04866The woman had to light a lamp which would use valuable oil and then she searched thoroughly and carefully for the coin. She did so until, oh joy of joys, she found the coin.

Similarly the Shepherd goes off to search for his missing sheep. It may be caught in bushes, have fallen down a ravine, or been attacked by wild animals. It doesn’t matter to the shepherd. He just goes after that sheep and searches until he finds the animal and brings it safely home.

And our wonderful, amazing God is the same. He continues to look for us, to call out our names, to try and bring us home. And he will keep trying until the day we die or until Jesus returns. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.”

He never gives up on anyone, despite those who tell you that God can never love them, or they’re far too bad for God to care for them.

What nonsense! How they limit God’s love for mankind. Just look at John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” There are no conditions except you have to believe in Jesus. Doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, well educated or ill educated, or where you come from, this offer is open to all.
Jesus described his mission as this, in Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Jesus came to bring mankind back to God. There’s no need to worry about being good enough, as we never can be. Jesus by his death on the cross has paid the price for our sins. If we ask his forgiveness for our sins and put our trust in him, we can be forgiven and have new life, with a restored relationship with God. We can know him as a loving caring Father. And absolutely no one is beyond redemption, if they want to come to Jesus.

signpostOver the years many people have tried to find their own way home to God. But not every road leads us home.  The Beatles in the late 1960’s got into eastern mysticism,  various famous Hollywood actors have gone down the road of scientology , whilst poor Amy Winehouse turned to alcohol and drugs. Others deny the existence of God possibly thinking if there is no God they can’t be lost.

Other religions do no help us to find our way back to God. There is only one way to God and his name is Jesus!

The good news is that we don’t have to find our own way.  We just have to listen to Jesus’ call to us to “Follow me” and obey it.

The worship songs and hymns today mainly deal with this. We sung this earlier:

Once I was lost, I had nowhere to go,
My life was just a lonely round of sin.
Till Jesus said to me,
By My blood shed on the tree
I’ve paid the price,
Bought you back, you’re Mine.
Oh what a friend!

And what about John Newton, the man who wrote “Amazing Grace”? He had been a slave trader but God had found him and saved him in the midst of a violent storm at sea. He knew it was God’s grace that saved him, nothing that he had done himself. And so he wrote:

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but know I see.

Let me tell you about John. He had been a professional musician, a talented man until alcohol got hold of him. But through the love and care of people at the church he came to faith, repented of his sins and was born again. Sadly the years of drinking had taken their toll and he died. At his funeral the final piece of music was by a band called Blind Faith “Can’t find my way home” I was able to tell the mourners that that was a lie because John through his faith in Jesus had gone home.

So earlier on I asked a question about which book in the Bible should we be in. The answer is found in Revelation 21:27 “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

This is God’s book of those who have been found, who are no longer lost.

I have to ask: are you lost or found? namewritten_textmedium

If you haven’t come to faith in Jesus, don’t think that you can find your own way home because there is only one way home and that is through Jesus as he said in John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. “

If you feel that you hear God calling you to come home, come and speak with me or one of the leadership team after the service and we will be pleased to talk and pray with you.

And if you are “found” what are you doing to help find the lost? At the very least we should be praying for them. I realise that our family and our friends are often resistant to the good news of Jesus, but we mustn’t give up. After all God never gives up on people till their final breath. We should never write someone off even though you think they are the last person who would ever come to faith.

We heard from Peter Vickers last week about the wonderful work being done by Teen Challenge in Ilford http://www.tclondon.org.uk/  in reaching out to addicts, not only helping with the addiction but also helping young people come to faith in Jesus.

In Matthew 28:19 & 20 we read “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So there’s our job description to help the lost be found. But we can only do that if we have come to faith in Jesus and rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us, encourage us and empower us.

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Dry Bones

Posted on 04/07/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

Today I preached at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church in Dagenham (http://www.becavebaptistchurch.org.uk/)

Ezekiel 37: 1 –14

1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet–a vast army. 11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’ “

Today we are going to talk about life and death. Not just our physical experiences but also our spiritual life, that which continues after our physical bodies have returned to the dust from which we have come!

As  you may know I conduct many funerals services and often I read these wonderful promises of Jesus:
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 11:25 & 26 “ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;  and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

I wonder if any of you know the Natural History Museum in South Kensington?

Last time we went there, a few years ago, there was a major exhibit of dinosaurs.

Very carefully all these dead dry bones had been put together to hopefully give the outline of the skeleton of these ancient animals. You can get an idea of the sheer size and power of these creatures and realise perhaps how frightening it must have been to be hunted down by Tyrannosaurus  Rex.

However despite the over powering size they are just a pile of dead bones. Apart from if they fall on you, they have no power to hurt you.

In some of the exhibits, the museum has done its best to reconstruct the dinosaur and put it into a diorama to show what its surrounding may have looked like. Yet here again it is still either dead bones covered in some material or it is just a model.

Some of the more modern exhibits ie creatures that still exist today are actually preserved specimens. But despite the taxidermist’s skill they are still dead even if they have skin, fur, skeleton etc.

Without that vital spark of life they are dead no matter how well preserved they are. Even the amazing models used in the BBC TV series “Walking with Dinosaurs” were just that – models, despite the appearance of life.

Several years ago during our summer holiday we visited Pendennis castle in Cornwall and one of the exhibits was a reconstruction of one of the gun rooms in the main turret as it would have been in King Henry VIII’s time. The cannon was attended by life size model gunners. There were recorded commands to the gun team, loud explosions to simulate the cannon firing and smoke emitted by a smoke generator. Yet it was all a fake, it was dead. The smoke was chemical smoke –  it didn’t smell of burning gunpowder. The figures weren’t alive despite how realistically they had been made and posed.

So we come to our Bible passage where Ezekiel is presented with a vast pile of dry dead bones it seems that they have fallen in battle and have not been buried. Very obviously completely dead. No flesh left, just bones and hence beyond any hope of coming to life. For a priest like Ezekiel it must have been a terrifying sight as priests were not to touch dead bodies or go near them, hence the reaction of the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Even the thousands of helpless muslim men and boys murdered by the Serbs in Bosnia in the 1990’s were buried and not left to rot and be picked clean by scavengers!

In the Old Testament there were several examples of the dead being brought back to life soon after death ie the son of the widow of Zarapheth in 1 Kings 17 vv 17 – 24, and the son of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4 vv 18 – 37. But no record of bodies so obviously long dead being brought back to life.

What does God say to Ezekiel?

Ezekiel 37 v3 He asked  me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, `Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ “

At this point, can I ask you; What would you do if you were Ezekiel? If God told you to step out in faith like this? Do you know God well enough to trust his faithfulness? Or would you say that this in not for me. This isn’t what being a believer is all about.

Fortunately we are told that Ezekiel got on with the job.

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet–a vast army.

There are several stages involved in the bringing to life of these bones.

  1. Ezekiel listened to God
  2. Ezekiel was obedient and did as God commanded. But that wasn’t enough, so
  3. Ezekiel asked the Holy Spirit to come and complete the miracle by bringing life.

We need both the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring things to life. Without the power of the Holy Spirit breathing life into these bodies they are still dead. They might now have flesh and skin on them and all the bones are joined together but they are still dead.

What application does the story of a pile of old bones have for us in 2011?

I think that this can apply to individuals and to churches. We can be at any of the three stages:

  1. Are we a pile of dead dry bones?
  2. Or a lifeless body?
  3. Or are we filled with the Spirit and alive?

The church like a pile of dry bones has no real life in it, neither really has the church which is like the lifeless body.

The later is a bit like a working museum. Perhaps you’ve visited one of these places on holiday where quaintly dressed people re-enact either industrial processes of the Victorian age or pretend they are the servants in a great country house.

Going back to Pendennis castle, when it was in action in World War 2 defending Falmouth harbour against German e-boat raids, it had modern weapons to deal with a modern enemy. It didn’t rely on traditional but outmoded cannon.

Some times we can get so caught up on tradition; how we have always done things that it can actually choke the life out of us.

You may have heard this before but:

How many church members does it take to change a light bulb?
None. It’s impossible for church members to ever change a light bulb. There is always a member of the Church who will say “My mother donated that bulb, and you touch it over my dead body.”

Some churches can so major on tradition at the expense of everything else and have a beautifully preserved building which takes up most of the finances and most of the time of the church members, but have nothing to attract people to Jesus.

Or they can have amazing programmes and be so busy being busy that they neglect to have Jesus at the centre and have no real spiritual life.

Remember that nowadays that whilst most people claim to believe in God they do not know him or Jesus, and many have never been to church. Quite often when I conduct funeral services I am the only one who knows the Lord’s Prayer. To be blunt many see Christians as belonging to a holy club and regard the church as quaint and mainly irrelevant.

Many people are spiritually hungry. Where are they going to find the only person who will satisfy that hunger? The only person who can make them spiritually alive.

But to the unchurched some churches can be unwelcoming places, where they fail to find Jesus.

Sadly some churches still think they are alive when in reality the Lord may being saying what he said to the church in Sardis (Revelation 3 v1) . I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up!

I was brought up in a “traditional anglo catholic” church and we had more ritual and traditions than you could shake a stick at. But I didn’t knowingly encounter Jesus there through out the 20 plus years I attended. It might be comfortable and you may like the style of worship but if you personally are not growing spiritually then something has to change. I am very thankful that Gaynor and I were by God’s grace brought to a church that was alive and where we could meet with Jesus.

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the Acts of the Apostles? But you can read about a style of church which should be our model in Acts 2. What was it that changed an apparently lifeless bunch of apostles into a living dynamic growing church? The coming of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit breathing life into the believers the church just wouldn’t have happened. When at the end of Peter’s sermon that first Whitsun the crowd asked what they must do to be saved. What did Peter reply?

Acts 2 v38 “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” To many it sounds far too easy, no rules and regulations to follow and for those immersed in the Jewish tradition it would mean eventually turning their back on the system of sacrifices in the temple as you can read in the Letter to the Hebrews.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit and listening to God can be uncomfortable. As well as bringing spiritual life, the Spirit brings action to our lives. Look at Acts 8. Phillip had gone to Samaria and preached the Word and established a growing church there. He was doing good work there and yet God told him to leave it all behind and go into the desert. He went – we don’t know if he was happy about it, but he went. His meeting with the Ethiopian official lead to the gospel being spread to Ethiopia and the church is still there to this day.

Just think about this. What would have happened if Abraham had decided he was so comfortable in Ur that he wouldn’t listen to God and go off to find the land of Canaan?

We ourselves don’t know what we are missing out on if we refuse to move when God says “Move”. We do not know who God wants us to met or who may come to faith through us.

If we are alive through the power of the Holy Spirit then we have to move when our Lord says “follow me” even if we don’t like where we are being sent or indeed if we like Lot are taken out of our familiar surroundings. We have to be so careful not to be like Lot’s wife looking back on the past that we get turned to stone, effectively frozen in time and hence left behind.

A church is an organism not an organisation, and as such it should be alive, active and growing.

I assume that all of us want to be in a church that is a living body, moving, growing and active. That being so we should ensure that not only do we know the Word of God and obey but we are also full of the Holy Spirit to bring that Word to life in our hearts. As without both the Word and the Spirit a church will be like a museum and just as irrelevant to the people outside who need to find Jesus.

On a personal level, unless people have come to faith in Jesus Christ and have been born again through the Holy Spirit, they are just “dead men walking”. They might be “the salt of the earth”, give generously to those in need, never have a cross word for anyone, love animals etc etc. But none of this means a thing on the Day of Judgement. Jesus made it perfectly clear in John 3:5 when he said “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”

So have you come to faith in Jesus Christ? Have you been born again? Do you like the Jews in our reading need to be brought out of your spiritual graves and given new life?

And what about our loved ones, our friends, neighbours work mates? Are they spiritually alive or just “dead men walking”?

I am sure that we all know someone who needs to come to faith in Jesus. We need to pray for them that the Holy Spirit will break down the walls so that they may hear the word of the Lord and live.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit on your people gathered here today and so help us to hear and obey your Word. Lord may we be willing for your sake to move from our comfort zones so that we can bring others into your kingdom. We also pray for our family, friends neighbours and workmates who don’t know you. Lord may they hear your Word, your spirit’s prompting and accept new life through faith in Jesus. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

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I Don’t Believe It!

Posted on 01/05/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

Today I was invited to preach at Trinity United Reform Church in Upminster (http://haveringurc.wordpress.com/trinity-church-upminster/who-are-we/).

As we are still in the Easter season, I preached about people’s reaction to the resurrection of Jesus Christ on that first Easter Day.

Firstly a young people’s talk dealing with believing things that seem too strange to be true and then the main sermon with the Bible reading.

Do you believe it?

Have you ever been to see a magician or conjurer at work?

They produce silk hankies, rabbits, doves and so on apparently out of thin air.

Or they find the playing card you’ve just put back in the pack.

Or their assistant walks into a cabinet and disappears to appear somewhere else in the theatre.

And we say “I just don’t believe how they did that!”

Some things we find really hard to believe.

This is a conversation from Alice in Wonderland:

“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.

“Can’t you?” the queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Let’s see if you believe any of these:

Do you believe its possible to eat more than 40 slices of pizza in 10 minutes?

Californian Joey “Jaws” Chestnut eat 41 slices in 10 minutes on 6th June 2010

Do you believe you can drink a bottle of ketchup in under a minute?

Guinness Rishi drank his way through a giant 490 gram bottle of ketchup in just 39 seconds.

Do you believe its possible to eat 20 pickled onions in a minute?

Peter Dowdeswell eat 24 in one minute

Do you believe that someone could eat 275 Pickled Jalapeno Peppers in 10 minutes?

Patrick Bertoletti did this on 2nd May 2010

Do you believe that someone can turn their head through 3600 ?

No. It can’t be done

Do you believe that someone can eat Six Pounds Baked Beans in under two minutes?

Don Lerman managed it in One Minute, 48 Seconds!

Do you believe its possible to put your left hand where your right hand can’t touch it?

Yes it is. (Demonstrate)

Do you believe that people came come back from the dead?

Well, Jesus did. And according to Paul, Jesus appeared not only to the disciples but to some 500 people at one time.

Just because something is hard to understand doesn’t make it impossible to believe!

+++++++

John 20:19 – 31

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Life is full of incredible events. Things we find hard to believe let alone understand.

We thought about a few with the young people a few minutes ago.

People believe all sorts of things which are weird or wacky or just plain daft and yet when it comes to a known historical event such as the resurrection of Jesus Christ that first Easter Day, its beyond their understanding. When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth he listed people who had seen the risen Jesus mainly between Easter day and the day Jesus ascended into heaven: 1 Corinthians 15: 4 – 7 ” that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.”

When I was in my teens, the books to read were by Erich von Däniken who said amongst other things that God was an alien who had visited earth in his spaceship and hence kick-started civilisation.

Or people happily go to spiritists or mediums to seek their guidance or to make sure that Granny is okay in heaven. Or slavishly follow their horoscopes in the newspapers or magazines.

Others quite happily apply feng shui to their house to improve the harmony in the home. Or they believe in the healing powers of crystals but they just cannot believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. Its a fairy tale to them.

In the gospels we find the reactions of a wide cross section of humanity.

The chief priests wouldn’t believe it. They were determined that no word of it would get out. So we read in Matthew’s gospel that the chief priests bribed the Roman guards to say that Jesus’ disciples had come at the dead of night and stolen the body. That’s in Matthew 28:11 – 15. This was a high risk strategy for the priests as well as the Roman Soldiers. The guards were going to admit that they had fallen asleep at their post which was a serious offence in the Roman army. They would be risking certain punishment or imprisonment. It must have been one heck of a big back hander for the soldiers to take that risk.

The chief priests’ decision to deny the resurrection has far reaching consequences. Not only are they totally ignoring all the weight of scripture that predicted who the Messiah would be and how he would die and rise again but they had stirred up the population to curse themselves and their children when they had proclaimed in Matthew 27:25 “All the people answered, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” “

Who knows how history would have turned out for the Jews if their leaders had faced the facts that Jesus who they had had killed had come back from the dead? Maybe the terrible fate that came upon them in 70AD when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed could have been avoided. But then they would have to admit they were wrong and that Jesus truly was the Messiah the son of God. They were afraid that they would lose their power and influence, so they dare not admit to belief that Jesus had risen!

What about the women who followed Jesus? We read in the gospels that they went early to the tomb and met with an angel who told them what had happened. Mary Magdalene stays behind and she meets with the risen Jesus. She is overwhelmed with joy that Jesus is alive.

The women simply believe. I’m not sure whether they understood the “hows” and the “whys” but they just believed.

How many people here have ever switched on an electric light?

Any of you researched exactly what goes on when you throw the switch? Did you look into how the power station works to generate the electricity and the intricacies of the electrical distribution system involved in delivering the juice to your home?

Anyone proclaim to their spouse or children “As I am not sure how power generation works, I really don’t think I can try to switch on the light right now” ?

God calls us to believe that his mighty power has overcome death and that Jesus the son of God has risen from the dead. He doesn’t call us to understand the mechanism of how it happened.

The women believed and they told the disciples, who according to Mark 16:11 didn’t believe them. One of the problems of living in 1st century Palestine was that women were regarded as unreliable and hence could never be called as witnesses in a court of law. So from a cultural point of view the disciples wouldn’t believe them.

We know that some of the disciples went to the tomb to see for themselves. Luke 24:10 – 12 says”10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”

You could say that the disciples didn’t believe because they couldn’t believe it. They knew something had happened but what?

If it had been grave robbers or someone malicious, would they have taken the time and trouble to unwrap the corpse there and then? There was not only the linen grave clothes to consider but what about the 75lbs of myrrh and aloes put around the body when Jesus was buried as we are told in John 19:39.

So here we are in John’s gospel and its the evening of the first Easter day, with the disciples hiding in an upper room, afraid of the Jewish authorities. You can understand it. The Jews have already killed Jesus, their leader, so who’s next?

But Jesus appears in that room. I think I would be more than surprised if I had been there. And maybe the disciples were frightened, they certainly were according to Luke’s gospel 24:36 – 40.

But Jesus proves to them who he is, by showing them his hands and his side. And they believe In fact our reading from John, says they were overjoyed.

Jesus gives them a commission in 21 – 23 ””Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.“”

And now we come to the subject of Thomas, often called “Doubting Thomas” who wasn’t there with the other disciples. We know from previous mentions in the gospels that he is the one who says what the others are thinking but dare not say. Back in John 14 Jesus had talked about preparing a place in heaven for his followers. He said, talking of heaven “You know the way to the place where I am going” And Thomas the man who had been with Jesus for three years, who had been taught by him and no doubt familiar with Jesus’ teachings and indeed the scriptures says “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus’ reply was very simple “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

There is only one way to God and that is though faith in Jesus, no matter what well meaning will tell you about how sincere other religions are, they are not the way to heaven.

So Thomas is not content to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead just because his fellow disciples tell him its happened. He wants proof . And that is what Christianity is really about. Its having a relationship with the risen Lord Jesus. Merely adopting Christianity as a philosophy or even a lifestyle is not it.

Some time ago I was talking with a man who’s aunt’s funeral I was going to conduct. He assure me that auntie lived a Christian lifestyle. She hadn’t made a public profession of her faith or had a believer’s baptism or indeed indicated any faith in Jesus, just she lived a Christian Lifestyle.

The man ran a bike shop. So I asked him if I adopted a biking lifestyle ie wore a spandex cycling suit and a cycle helmet and made pronouncements about my preferred gearings etc did that make me a cyclist? Well of course not. Until I got on a bike and rode it I was not a cyclist.

Until we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he died for our sins and then he rose from the dead, we are not Christians. Even if we are in and out of church like nobody’s business.

Thomas is fortunate. The risen Jesus appears to him and shows him the wounds and Thomas believes. This is what we read in John 20:29 “Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.””

So for Thomas “I don’t believe it” becomes “I believe” and from the stories of the early church it is understood that Thomas took the good news of Jesus to India where he was martyred for his faith.

I doubt that any of us have physically seen the risen Jesus although many of us here know him and love him and follow him. So our job is to present Jesus to people, so that they too can believe in him.

All of us know and meet people that perhaps no on else here can reach. So we each have a responsibility to take the good news of Jesus wherever we go and through the power of the Holy Spirit help people turn their “I don’t believe it” into “I believe!”

Amen.

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He is risen!

Posted on 25/04/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

As I was not required to preach this Easter Sunday, I am giving below a sermon I preached last Easter Day (4th April 2010) at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church in Dagenham.

Luke 24:1 – 12

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

The late Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of this country, once said that a week was a long time in politics. In the history of the world the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Day is probably the most amazing seven days the world had seen apart from the Creation.

For those intimately involved it was a real roller coaster of a week.

We start with the excitement and anticipation of Palm Sunday as Jesus rides into Jerusalem. Is he the Messiah the one who is going to over through the hated Romans and restore the Kingdom of Israel?

We have the events of what we call Maundy Thursday, the last supper, the betrayal by Judas, the arrest of Jesus, the running away of the disciples, the mock trial.

Then the horror and shear awfulness of Good Friday as Jesus is crucified. As if the physical pain wasn’t enough Jesus who had been with God for all eternity suddenly felt abandoned by God. The awfulness of what it is to be totally alone in the universe. He cried out some words from Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet his final words from the cross were “It is finished!” Not as some would suggest a resigned “that’s it” or as Bugs bunny and his cartoon friends would say “that’s all folks” but more the sort of thing that would be written on an invoice or statement “paid in full”.

The disciples and the other followers were probably thinking it was the end of everything. All their hopes, dreams, aspirations gone with Jesus’ final breath. Nothing left to live for. I am sure we’ve all had disasters and broken hearts and we know how painful they can be. So just imagine how it must have been for the followers of Jesus.

I wonder how they felt. Had they held on to any of Jesus’ teaching about how he was to be put to death and then would rise again?

When talking to the Jewish leaders Jesus had said about his body in John 2:19 “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.“.

Do you find that when things go terribly wrong you forget all God’s promises and go into survival mode? Perhaps that what Jesus’ followers were doing.

And so we come to the end of this remarkable week. It’s the early hours of Sunday morning and women arrive at the tomb. And there he is: gone! The four gospels have slightly different versions of events but they all point to the fact that Jesus has gone. The stone rolled away and the grave clothes neatly stacked. If the tomb had been robbed and people had made off with the body, they wouldn’t have taken the time to remove the clothing and neatly fold it. You just don’t do that when you’re in a hurry particularly as the body would have been very sticky with the 75lb of spices and ointment used when it was put in the tomb. Also good Jewish people tried not to touch dead bodies – the Bible was very clear on not doing that!

And then there are these two angels who give the women the most amazing news “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” This surely is the most important news ever and I am sure the women grasp the significance of it particularly as the angels remind them of Jesus’ words: “Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ “Then they remembered his words.”

The women rushed back to the disciples to tell them the good news. Some people would say that the reaction of the men was typical: “But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Do remember that at this time a woman could not be a witness in a court of law as they were considered unreliable.

How often today do we try and share the good news with someone who just cannot believe what we are saying? They will believe all sorts of strange and wacky things: astrology, UFO’s magic crystals etc, but Jesus rising from the dead? No, that’s too much to be true. Paul had the same problem when talking with the philosophers in Athens as you can read in Acts 17.

People need evidence. Recently an intelligent widely read young man approached me as all his adult life he has been searching for God. Sadly he has looked at Eastern religions and mythology. He has even talked to church ministers but felt that he had not met with God even though several of these folk were sincere and well meaning. He needs to meet with the risen Jesus to experience that Jesus is a reality and there waiting to be his friend, his saviour, his God and his King.

In our Gospel story Peter rushes to the tomb sees the evidence and goes away wondering what has happened. The other three gospels are slightly different but it’s not until the disciples meet with Jesus and recognise him that the penny finally drops. Jesus is alive. He has risen from the dead and he is not a ghost.

Just in case you have seen some of the learned articles that suggest that it was all wishful thinking or a hallucination bought on by grief, we have the words Paul wrote to the early church in Corinth where he lists the people who met with the risen Jesus before he went to heaven: 1 Corinthians 15:3 – 8 “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also…”

The Bible tells us that Jesus paid the price of our sins by offering himself as the one perfect sacrifice on that first Good Friday. Not only that but by rising from the dead, he proves that to those who put their faith in him, death is not the end, it’s the transition from life on earth to everlasting life.

There is one short but significant statement in three of the gospels. This is from Mark 15:37 & 38 “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” The curtain divided the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple, and only on the Day of Atonement was the high priest allowed through the curtain into God’s presence. But the curtain tearing from the top indicates it was God’s doing, showing that Jesus had opened the way to God. Because of Jesus people were no longer kept at arm’s length by God.

Jesus had paid the price of each and every sin we have committed and will commit in our life time if we accept him as our saviour. Hence why he shouted “it is finished!” as he died. He has cleared your debts and saved you from spiritual bankruptcy and the eternal debtors’ prison!

Many years ago I used to work in the Debt Recovery Dept. of a major Bank and we dealt with people who got into trouble for all sorts of reasons. Whether greed, dishonesty, stupidity or misfortune they were all in trouble. Occasionally we would have someone approach us to clear a person’s debt but they mostly wanted to negotiate to get their client/friend off the hook as cheaply as possible. Very rarely would someone volunteer to pay the whole debt. But my friends, that is exactly what Jesus has done for each and everyone of us. No negotiations, no conditions, he just did it out of love. Hallelujah!

Jesus proves that he was more than just a good man or a prophet. He was indeed the son of God as the centurion at the foot of the cross commented when he died.

Jesus now sits in heaven at God right hand interceding for us. We have a friend in high places. In Hebrews, Jesus is said to be our Great High priest who knows everything we go through and can sympathise with our trials and temptations. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way, so nothing that comes your way is unknown to Jesus. He’s been through it.

Jesus is not only the son of God, Our Great High Priest, our redeemer but also he is our friend and he is with us always through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what he promised his followers shortly before he died: John 15:12 – 14 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. 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.”

Some people accept that Jesus is their friend but they think he has left them to get on with life as best as they can and he’ll see them in heaven one day.

Others think that Jesus has left them the Bible so they can make their own way to heaven almost as if the Bible is a sort of map book.

However if you look at John 14:15 – 17 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever– the Spirit of truth.” Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever. Better than a road map, better than a Sat Nav, its having someone in the car who knows the way and indeed will do the driving for us and will bring us home to heaven at the end of our journey.

This is part of a prayer that Paul has for the church in Ephesus and just listen to how he describes the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 1:18 – 20 “ I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…”

The same power that broke all the laws of nature and brought Jesus back to life is available to you and me if we have put our faith in Jesus.

And what do we have to do? Many people even Christians think they have to earn their way to heaven. One of my friends is a pastor at a church in Bristol and several people have complained that his preaching is too simplistic. But the good news is simple: We don’t have to earn our way to heaven, we just have to trust in Jesus. In Romans 5:6 – 8 we are told: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 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.”

So today as we celebrate Easter Day lets thank God for Jesus and all he did for us on the cross and that through rising to life again he shows us that we can live a new life on this earth and be assured that death is not the end but only the start of eternal life when we leave this earth behind.

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