In Rev 22:6 and in Rev 21:5 we are told that God’s words are ‘trustworthy and true.’ It can be hard for us to trust God’s words. We are used to hearing lies on a daily basis: the lies of politicians, the lies of well-meaning people who nevertheless do not follow God’s ways, the lies of our own hearts and the lies of the enemy (whom Jesus described as a thief, liar and murderer, lies being his native language.) We don’t always even realise that lies are being fed to us; lies can seem so plausible, rational and reasonable, and without the yardstick of God’s truth, we can easily believe lies and not even recognise them as falsehood.

What God says, on the other hand, upsets our natural way of thinking. The gospel message of unearned favour, outrageous grace, radical forgiveness and unconditional love, not to mention God’s absolute purity and holiness, upsets our sensibilities and becomes the stone which makes us stumble (see Rom 9:33, 1 Pet 2:8). No wonder that John is reminded twice that God’s words are trustworthy and true. Even when they seem fantastical or hard to understand, we can build our lives upon these words (Matt 7:24-27) and can, therefore, have confidence and hope when life is difficult and bewildering. We can build our lives upon God’s words and remain strong even in the storms of life.

Grace is a word which runs throughout the Bible and is a theme which probably best sums up the whole good news of Jesus Christ. It’s not a word that’s used much in general: we may speak about a graceful dancer or saying grace before a meal or talk about gratitude (with its etymological roots in grace), but overall, the world doesn’t focus much on grace. It’s more concerned with earning our way to good fortune, with a quid pro quo mentality and with what you deserve. Grace is all about undeserved favour and therefore can’t really be understood if we are looking through the viewfinder of meritocracy.

Grace is a unifying theme in the Bible, which tells the story of God’s love and favour to people who, frankly, don’t deserve such things. God created a perfect world with few limitations, but Adam and Eve chose to disobey and wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil. As a result, that perfect world was broken, and we have lived with the consequences of sin ever since. But God, because of His great love for us, shows mercy and grace and made a way for us to come back to Him through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. The New Testament abounds with references to grace; most of Paul’s letters start with phrases such as ‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Rom 1:7, see also Eph 1:2, 1 Cor 1:3, Phil 1:2, 1 Thess 1:1).

It’s significant, therefore, that the last word in the Bible goes to grace. Revelation 22 ends with the words, ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.’ (Rev 22:21) Grace is there at the start of our relationship with God: ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.’ (Eph 2:8-9) It’s there every day of our lives to sustain us, given freely by a generous God. (Eph 4:7) Here, in the last book of the Bible, grace is only mentioned twice: at the very beginning (Rev 1:4) and then here at the very end. Grace is like bookends, keeping us safe and at peace with God. The only real way to understand God and life itself is to see it through grace. Grace, God’s wonderful gift to us, will be with God’s people forever, even into the new heaven and new earth, even as we taste of the free gift of the water of life. (Rev 22:17) What a glorious hope we have!

This evening in our series on ‘The Miraculous & The Mundane’, we looked at Easter Saturday, ostensibly the day of no miracles. This day, sandwiched between the despair and desolation of Good Friday and the glorious hope of Easter Sunday, is only mentioned in Matthew 27:62—66, and seems to be the epitome of the mundane, when nothing much seems to be happening and God seems strangely absent. We all know about the highs and lows of life, but what do we do about the humdrum and the routine, which seem to comprise the majority of our lives? Where is God in those ordinary moments?

Easter Saturday is the time when we are stuck between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’, when the heaviness of living in a sinful world weighs upon us, and when living by faith seems beyond us. In that sense, it’s symbolic of the vast majority of our lives, because we are all in that limbo period between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His second coming, when He will judge the living and the dead. We are all anticipating that final battle and we long for the day when ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ (Rev 21:4) But on Easter Saturday, there is no sign of the final outcome, the solution, the end to suffering. There is simply darkness, pain, confusion and bewilderment.

Just because we do not see God at work in miraculous ways does not mean He is not working, however. Peter tells us, ‘After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits – to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.’ (1 Pet 3:19-20) It seems that when it looked like nothing was happening, Jesus was still busy, proclaiming to all who had previously died the good news of the gospel.

The ’day of no miracles’, as we are calling Easter Saturday, does not mean a day of no God. God is still there, working, even when we cannot see Him. Jesus said, ‘My Father is always at His work to this very day.’ (John 5:17) Where was God when Joseph was in prison all those years? He was there beside him, helping him to win favour and do good to others. Where was God when the Israelites were wandering around in the desert? He was there, leading them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Where was God when the Babylonians came and took Israel captive? He was there, calling His people back to Himself in repentance, speaking through the prophets, declaring His faithfulness and steadfastness even as people turned to other gods and expected a life of comfort and ease.

God is there with us, ‘Immanuel’, whether we feel this or not. He is there in our boredom, in our misery, in our brokenness, in our wrestling, in our questions, in our doubt. He is there in the highlights of our lives and in the lowlights and in everything in between. We can be certain of this not because of our righteousness, not because we deserve His presence, but because He is faithful and true. We can be certain of this because God is not human, that He should lie. (Numbers 23:19) Easter Saturday reminds us that we must live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7), that ‘there’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.’ (2 Cor 4:18, The Message) The challenge is for us not to be put off by the everyday and the mundane. God is still the Almighty One, the maker of heaven and earth, the victorious king on Easter Saturday as well as on Resurrection Day. Our unchanging God is still working to this very day, and therefore we have hope. Easter Saturday isn’t the end of the story. Sunday is still coming.

We always like being involved with community events so were pleased to offer free crafts, drinks and crisps at the Bounce Into Summer event in Goldthorpe yesterday, organised by Goldthorpe Development Group. We had an unexpected meeting with Snappy, the Snap Tin dinosaur!

Children enjoyed painting rocks, fruit and people as well as decorating plant pots and purses and love hearts.

It was good to have four churches attending the event, with helpers from the Salvation Army, GPCC, Furlong Road Methodist Church and St Helen’s present.

There was lots of other things for families to do, including inflatables, Hook-a-Duck, donkey rides and many community stalls.

Dave spoke tonight from Luke 17:30-32, where Jesus told the people to ‘remember Lot’s wife’ Lot and his family lived in Sodom, a wicked city, and God sent messengers to rescue Lot from that place. They told them to flee and not look back, but Lot’s wife did indeed look back and was turned to a pillar of salt.

What can we learn from such a bizarre story? We don’t know why Lot (Abraham’s nephew) was living in Sodom in the first place, whether he met his wife there or chose to live there despite its reputation. It is clear by this time that the influence of the godly Abraham on his life was waning and it’s possible that Lot was out of touch with God. God, however, was not out of touch with Lot and sent angelic messengers to help him. We need to remember the words of prophecy God has spoken to us and take heed of them.

Lot appeared to want to negotiate with the messengers and his wife was tempted to abandon where God was leading them, looking back. Looking back can be very dangerous. We can view the past with rose-tinted glasses, but need to understand that God wants us to move forward. We don’t hear much more about Lot in the Bible after this and we don’t know if he followed God’s plan for his life. What we need to consider is that when God moves, will we move with Him?