We continued looking at the subject of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in our Bible study tonight, looking at what the New Testament letters of Paul teach about this. There are references in most of His letters; tonight, we looked at Romans 13:11-14, Philippians 1:6, 10; 3:20-21, 1 Cor 1:7; 4:5; 11:26; 15:51-57, Col 3:4, 1 Thess 1:9-10; 2:19-20; 4:13-18; 5:1-11, 23.

There are common themes in these letters. For Christians, Christ’s coming is something to be eagerly anticipated; it is something which informs how we live now (serving the Lord and waiting expectantly) and it gives us hope for the future, a future that includes resurrection of our mortal, lowly bodies into something immortal and glorious. Christ’s resurrection acts as the guarantee that we too will be resurrected; death is not the end. We have a hope that transforms grief and gives us confidence for the future. Christ rescues us from wrath; when He appears, we too will also appear with Him in glory. We can, therefore, endure all that life can throw at us, confident in His judgment and justice to come.

In these passages, Paul paints a picture of hope and encouragement inextricably connected to the return of Jesus Christ.

• Jesus will rescue us from coming wrath.

• We will be ‘holy and blameless’ in God’s presence when He returns, ‘preserved complete, without blame.’

• We have a hope for all who have died before us – none will be forgotten; all will be raised.

• We don’t know when this will happen, but we know that it will happen.

• We live in the light of this coming; it informs how we live each day.

• Hope fuels our daily journeys (including the painful journeys of persecution or grief).

Phil Wickham’s song ‘Your Arrival‘ captures something of the anticipation and hope we have as we wait for Christ to return:

‘Here in the final hour, hope lifts the tired eyes.
Here now, we are waiting for You to arrive.
Great things are set in motion.
The sky breaks where the trumpets sound
You call all Your children to meet You in the clouds.

We are waiting, anticipating
Your arrival, Your arrival,
Voices raising, celebrating
Your arrival, Your arrival.’ (‘Your Arrival’, Phil Wickham)

This Sunday (27th March) is Mothering Sunday and we will be welcoming Tim Walker from Christians Agains Poverty to our morning service at 10.30 a.m. Our evening service will be at 6.00 p.m. as usual.

There’s a lot happening in April as we approach Easter.

• Our Lent Bible studies will continue on 1st & 8th April at 11.45 a.m., starting with lunch and then studying readings from ‘Sharing The Easter Story’ by Sally Welch.

• The funeral service for Eileen Cowley will be at GPCC on Monday 4th April at 1 p.m. We will be at Ardsley Crematorium after the service (2.10 p.m.) and will then return to GPCC for refreshments. If you can help on that day at all, please see Julie.

• Our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer meeting will be on the 2nd Saturday in April (9th April, leaving GPCC at 10 a.m.) Join us to walk around Goldthorpe and pray for our community.

• We will be joining with other local churches and community organisations at the Spring Fair on Saturday 9th April between 12 and 3 p.m. at Goldthorpe Railway Embankment. We will be telling the Easter story at 12.30 p.m. and 2.00 p.m. and will be doing crafts on an Easter theme. There is lots happening at the Spring Fair, so do come along and join us!

• We’ll be back at the Railway Embankment on Wednesday 13th April as part of our Easter Fun Day. We’re planting flowers at Thurnscoe Park at 10 a.m., then planting at the Embankment at 11.30 a.m. and will then go to Furlong Road Methodist Church in Bolton-on-Dearne for lunch and craft activities (12.30-2.00 p.m.) Join us for one or all of those events by booking in with Julie (07729 421405 or email julie@gpcchurch.co.uk)

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• Our Good Friday service (15th April) will start at 5 p.m. with a fellowship meal followed by a service remembering the life-changing events of that day when Jesus died for our sins.

• On Easter Sunday (17th April) our services will be at 10.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m.

Today’s reading calls us to reflect on Psalm 22. This psalm, the beginning of which (‘My God, my God, why have Your forsaken me?’) was quoted by Jesus moments before He died on the cross, completing the work of salvation, speaks of a dark place, a place where God seems absent, a place of anguish and unanswered prayer. Alone and stricken, the psalmist nonetheless remembers all the ways God has intervened on His people’s behalf in the past and ends in hope that God will draw near once again. As he trusts in God, his rock and his deliverer, the psalmist can turn lament into praise. This can be our experience too.

We have a Saviour who knows what it is to suffer, who has shared in the darkness of humanity as well as in our joys. ‘We trust in the God who has already redeemed us, who has shown his care for us in the past and who continues to love us. We trust in the Son, who shares our suffering, bearing his wounds willingly for our sake. We trust in the Spirit, whose life-giving breath infuses every moment with hope, offering the certainty that this suffering will be redeemed and transformed. We are invited to call out to God in the darkness, to trust his eternal and love response and to praise him.’ (‘Sharing the Easter Story’, P 113)

In Titus 1:7-9, Paul lists the qualities needed for leadership in the church; it’s interesting to see that these qualities have more to do with character than competence. As always with God, being must come before doing. One of the qualities listed is being able to hold ‘firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught.’

It’s important for us all to realise that the message of the gospel is trustworthy, because God Himself is trustworthy (i.e. worthy of our trust.) There are many trustworthy words in the Bible (e.g. ‘Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ 1 Timothy 1:15); we are told that ‘all Your commands are trustworthy.’ (Ps 119:86) John tells us twice in the book of Revelation that ‘these words are trustworthy and true.’ (Rev 21:5, Rev 22:6) We live in a cynical age which finds it hard to trust anything that is said, but a life of faith must involve us holding firmly to the trustworthy message we have been taught.

A man went to a psychologist and said, “Doctor, sometimes I feel like a Tepee and at other times I feel like a Wigwam.” The doctor thought about it for a moment and then he said, “I better treat you for anxiety. You’re two tents!”

Anxiety and stress are no joke, however. As Charlie Brown once put it, ‘even my anxieties have anxieties!’

There is always something to worry about, and with the current situation in Ukraine and the past two years worrying about Covid-19, anxiety and stress are at an extremely high level. Dave reminded us on Sunday morning, however, that Jesus’s response to this was ‘do not worry.‘ (see Matt 6:25-34) We may feel this was unreasonable of Him, but in fact, He reminds us all that there is more to life than the material and that God is our Father who cares for us and looks after us.

If we are going to conquer worry, we must come to the realisation that God loves us and that He will take care of us but so many people are simply not convinced of this fact. Many of them are Christians. But if you really believe that God is in charge, and that He loves you and will meet your needs, then you can relax in faith. If for some reason you do not believe that God will take care of you, then you will be unable to relax. You will feel that it is up to you to take care of all your needs, physical, emotional, and even spiritual.

Jesus calls us to seek God’s kingdom first and to live one day at a time. If we do this, then we find we have strength (and grace) for each day and can live without the crippling burden of worry. We are ultimately faced with a simple choice: will we trust God or not? We can choose to borrow trouble from tomorrow and live life as if God is not there, or we can trust Him and seek Him with all our hearts. If we will do this (see Prov 3:5-6), we will find an alternative to anxiety and stress and will be able to praise God in all circumstances, as Habakkuk did (Hab 3:17-18).

This week’s Lent theme is ‘trusting’. We start with quite an unusual passage, the story of Naaman’s healing. (2 Kings 5:1-3, 9-15). Naaman was a commander of the army of the king of Aram, a person with high social standing, but his life was blighted by a skin disease. In desperation, he listened to the word of his slave girl (taken from Israel) and went to the prophet Elisha, seeking healing. It can’t have been easy for him to trust the word of a slave, and when he got to the prophet, he was offended by the fact he did not come to meet him personally but simply gave him instructions to wash in the river Jordan. Naaman had to let go of his pride in order to trust this word from God’s man; the result was cleansing and healing.

Listening to the words of other people and trusting them enough to act on them are not easy things to do. We have to open our hearts to the words of God, being prepared to listen for them, whatever their source (for God can use anyone to speak to us, even a donkey in the case of Balaam!) and then act on them. Trust is not easy for us, but if we can let go of our pride as Naaman did, we can see healing and deliverance.