Mark preached last night on how Jesus used His eyes, ears and mouth. We began by looking at different artistic impressions of the face of Jesus, a few of which are shown below:











Eyes to see

In John 6:5, Jesus looked up and saw the great crowd coming. He saw the need of the people and met it (by feeding their hunger). Do we see people’s needs?

In Matt 14:14, Jesus saw a great crowd and was moved with compassion. This time, the need was for healing and He healed them.

In Matt 9:2, Jesus saw the faith of the friends who brought a man needing healing to Jesus. What do we see when we look at people?

In Luke 19:1-5, Jesus looked up and saw Zaccheaus. He befriended him and offered him the opportunity to change his life. Do we judge people and condemn them when we see them, or do we offer them friendship and allow them to reach the potential God has put in them?

In John 17:1, Jesus looked up to heaven. His eyes were always fixed on God. Do we look to God for direction?

Mouth to speak

The use of words is always very powerful. Jesus (in Luke 9:1) used words to call disciples. The words he used had power and authority which he conferred on the disciples.

In Mark 4:2, Jesus used words to teach people.

In Luke 9:42, He used words to rebuke an unclean spirit.

In Luke 4: 4, 8, 12,18, Jesus used the word of God to resist temptation.

In John 6:11, Jesus gave thanks to God.

In Luke 11:1-4, He used words to pray.

When we open our mouths, what comes out? Do we speak words of wisdom, authority, thanks, prayer and encouragement or do we speak ‘utter drivel’, discouragement and condemnation?

Ears to hear

In Matt 8:10, Jesus heard the centurion’s words and recognised from these words his faith. He listened to what the man was saying. Listening is a very important skill.

In Matt 20:29-34, Jesus heard the blind men calling Him and He responded to that call by healing them.

In Matt 4:1, Jesus heard the voice of the Spirit calling Him into the wilderness. He always listened for the voice of God. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, He heard God speaking and recognised that He needed to submit to God’s will.

What do our eyes see? What do our ears hear? What do our mouths say? Let’s be led by the Spirit so that we see, say and hear the right things, led as always by the example of Jesus.

Aaron Shust, one of my favourite Christian songwriters, has just released an album called ‘This is What We Believe’.The title has made me consider yet again exactly what we do believe.

(If you want to know more about the album and the trying circumstances concerning his son’s health which gave inspiration to many of the songs, you can listen to the interview about this here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pezD7TPtAWw)

In Anglican churches, the Apostles’ Creed is recited most weeks by congregations:

1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:

3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:

5. The third day he rose again from the dead:

6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:

7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:

8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:

9. I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:

10. The forgiveness of sins:

1l. The resurrection of the body:

12. And the life everlasting. Amen.

This is the classic summary of the Christian faith, the ‘bare bones’ of what we believe.Graham Kendrick has put it to music in his song, ‘We Believe’, which you can listen to here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iADJlSXDYbw

If you’re interested in the history of the different creeds which have grown up over time, including the Nicene Creed or the Creed of Chalcedon and how these show us how our basic doctrines were described and expounded, Gerald Bray has written a classic called ‘Creeds, Councils and Christ’ which is a fascinating account of this.

Most churches also have a ‘statement of beliefs’ or ‘statement of faith’ which expands on the Apostles’ Creed. Ours says:

“The doctrinal basis of the Church shall be founded on Scripture and shall include belief in:

• One God, the Sovereign Creator of the Universe, who has revealed Himself in three co-equal and co-eternal persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• The complete humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, sinless life, atoning and substitutionary death for all men as the only means of salvation, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the Father, and His personal return.

• Repentance for sin and the acceptance by faith of Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, and the consequent obligation upon all believers to present this gospel of the mercy of God to all people.

• The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Birth, His indwelling and baptising the believer, and the validity and exercise of His gifts today.

• The Bible as the inspired and infallible Word of God, the final authority in all matters of faith, conduct, and church order.

• The guilt and depravity of man by consequence of the Fall, rendering him subject to the wrath and condemnation of God, who is Holy and Just.

• The Baptism by immersion of all believers and the regular observance by believers of the Lord’s Supper.”

Belief can never just be head knowledge, however. As Rich Mullins says in his song ‘Creed’ (the word ‘creed’ comes from the Latin ‘credo’ which means ‘I believe’),

“And I believe what I believe

Is what makes me what I am

I did not make it, no, it is making me

It is the very truth of God and not

The invention of any man”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LR2hFP1yb4

What we believe is, indeed, absolutely crucial to who we are, to the decisions we take every day, to how we live our everyday lives. We need to know what we believe, for it will surely be tested in difficult times. But in those times we can find, as Aaron Shust has, that there is hope and peace that passes understanding:

“My hope is in You, Lord, all the day long

I won’t be shaken by drought or storm.” (Aaron Shust, ‘My Hope is in You’)

http://www.youtube.com/user/aaronshustube

This morning we looked at some of the age-old questions to do with suffering, justice and God’s ways discussed in the book of Habakkuk. One of the minor prophets, we know little about Habakkuk himself, but the questions he asks of God echo through the ages. Where is God when suffering seems to abound? Why is there such injustice in the world? What is God going to do about such things?

Habakkuk’s raw honesty shows us that we can approach God with our questions, no matter what they are – but we have to be prepared to be taken-aback by His answers! Israel at this time was suffering greatly, but that suffering was exacerbated in Habakkuk’s eyes by the fact that a godless nation, the Babylonians, were the ones doing the punishing. Bad enough that society had broken down and injustice and wrongdoing were everywhere. But how could God be serious in saying that He would use the Babylonians as agents of His wrath?

“God, you chose Babylonians for your judgment work?

Rock-Solid God, you gave them the job of discipline?

But you can’t be serious!

You can’t condone evil!

So why don’t you do something about this?

Why are you silent now?

This outrage! Evil men swallow up the righteous

and you stand around and watch!” (Hab 1:12-13)

So often, we complain ‘It’s not fair!’ and want God to bring justice into play. But God reminds Habakkuk in chapter 2 that the problem of sin affects everyone. What we really need is mercy, for if it were not for God’s mercy, we would all be condemned, damned, eternally separated from God. We are all able to approach a holy God only because of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. Without God’s grace and mercy, we would not be here at all.

Habakkuk 2 talks about ‘the righteous shall live by faith’ – key verses which Paul will go on to expound in Romans and in much of the New Testament. And God, in His answers, shows us that His ways are far beyond our understanding (Is 55:8-9). God doesn’t always give us answers to our questions – and sometimes, as with Job, even when we do get answers, we don’t fully understand them! What He does give us, however, is Himself.

Habakkuk is awed as he realises who God is. And the journey he has made is the same journey we must make: we come first of all to God with all our questions, all our confusion, all our frustration and all our pain. We hide nothing from Him – what’s the point? He knows our every thought even before it makes its way to our mouths! But as we listen to His answers, we will come to recognise that what we really need is not just justice, but mercy. We come to the cross and there we find ‘mercy there was great and grace was free/ pardon there was multiplied to me’. We are ‘stopped in our tracks, down on our knees’, like Habakkuk, for we see not only God’s power and might, but we find in Him grace and mercy. And somehow, in ways we can’t fully understand or explain, we receive new strength and hope.

What does steady, loyal, believing faith actually look like? I think Habakkuk summarises this for us in Hab 3:16-18:

“I heard and my heart pounded,

my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

and my legs trembled.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity

to come on the nation invading us.

Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will be joyful in God my Saviour. (Hab 3:16-18)

This is the ‘even if’ faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego which will not waver, even if there is no visible evidence of God. It’s the faith that will bless God’s name ‘when the sun’s shining down on me’ but also ‘on the road marked with suffering/ though there’s pain in the offering’ (Matt Redman, ‘Blessed Be Your Name’). We are not called to understand God. We are not called to like what He does. We are not called to demand fairness. Instead, we are offered grace and mercy and love and are called to worship God, as Job did, whether God gives or takes away. We are called to say ‘blessed be Your name’ in all circumstances, ‘always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Eph 5:20) because we know that God is in control. Habakkuk ends by saying ‘Counting on God’s rule to prevail I take heart and gain strength’ (Hab 3:19). If we do this, we will have feet like a deer and be able to go on the mountain heights.

Harold Rubin was a versatile musician. Michael Morgan said of him, “Rubin’s versatility was legendary. You had the feeling he’d played everything in the world at least once and knew all the music he hadn’t played … He was absolutely one of a kind.”

I think the musicians at our church are going for a similar record. Certainly here we see their fondness for swapping instruments over!







And when the music was over, they swapped the instruments for toys!:

We had two things in particular to celebrate last night.

One was a birthday:



One was an engagement:



The latter was definitely cause for a party!

Getting ready for the party:





Enjoying the party:







The proud grandparents:



The happy couple:



The willing washer-uppers (including the happy couple!):

Dave preached last night from John 1:43-51, looking at the call of Philip and Nathanael. In recent Bible studies on Romans, we have been looking at the question of predestination and free will (doctrines which have sadly in the past split the church.) Predestination teaches predominantly about God’s sovereignty, that God is in control and has a plan for our lives: taken to extremes, however, it can lead to the view that people are mere puppets of God. Free will, on the other hand, says that we are given a choice to follow Jesus or not and are not mere robots or puppets. Taken to extremes, it can virtually render God powerless.

As always, we need to have balance in our beliefs. Scripture teaches us that God has chosen us. It also teaches us that when we hear God call us, we have a choice as to whether we respond or not. This passage in John shows us Jesus calling disciples to follow Him; it also shows us the response of those disciples.

Philip and Nathanael are not the best known of Jesus’s followers. We do know quite a lot about Philip, though. An eminently practical person (see his response to the feeding of the five thousand or to the arrival of the Greeks who wanted to meet with Jesus), Philip hears Jesus’s call to ‘Follow me’ and responds to this. Others chose not to follow (the rich young ruler or the man who wanted instead to bury his father, for example.) Philip was both chosen by God and chose to follow. We find him later on in Acts doing exactly the same thing as in John 1, seeking to introduce others to Jesus.

Philip, having decided to follow Jesus, goes to tell others, giving them the same choice. He goes to his friend Nathanael, who responds very cynically to the idea that anything good could come out of Nazareth. Philip is not put off by this rebuff, however. He persists, urging Nathanael to ‘come and see’ for himself. That is what our response to others should be. We should urge them to ‘come and see’ for themselves.

The ultimate aim is that we introduce people to Jesus – not necessarily to ‘church’ itself but to the Lord. There are numerous ways our church seeks to introduce people to Jesus, many of them not apparently evangelistic in aim. The community outreaches we hold (coffee mornings, youth meetings, Mums & Toddlers etc.) may not seem to mention Jesus all that much, but at the heart of all we do is the longing that we may befriend people and introduce them to the best friend we have ever met. What people then choose to do as they hear that call from Jesus is their responsibility. Our responsibility, like Philip’s, is to seek to introduce our friends and acquaintances to Jesus. They then need to hear His call and choose for themselves.