For those of you familiar with TV programmes, we ran our own version during the family service: Burgin’s Real Deal! Stephen brought three valuable items to be auctioned: an ornament of a baby, a large, dusty family book and a necklace. These items, representing the baby Jesus, the Bible and a gold cross, had to be bid for by the congregation.

In the end, though, an unexpected (!) telephone call changed the outcome of the bidding, as we were reminded that these things are of inestimable worth and that it cost God everything to bring us back into his family…

Mark began his sermon today by playing a word association game with us: he gave us the word ‘lamb’ and the associations were all to do with food! (Mint sauce… lamb chops… donner kebabs etc… It’s good to see what we’re all thinking about on a Sunday morning!)

More seriously, we looked at John 1:29 where John the Baptist declares ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ John the Baptist, who recognised Jesus even when still in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:39-45), declared the real identity of Jesus to all who would listen, including the principalities and powers. In choosing to name Jesus as the ‘Lamb of God’ – rather than focussing on any of His other qualities – John recognised the sacrificial nature of Jesus’s ministry and destiny. As Isaiah says, Jesus ‘was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.’ (Is 53:7) The lambs used in Old Testament sacrifices had to be perfect and spotless; so too Jesus was sinless and perfect, chosen by God to be the perfect sacrifice who once for all took away (removed totally) the sin of all the world. As a result of this, all our sins can be forgiven and we can have right standing before God; now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)

What a Ssviour!

Mark was recently on holiday in Turkey and managed to visit Ephesus, which was obviously very relevant to our study of Ephesians. This week at the prayer meeting we also looked at some photos of Ephesus and learned more about the history of the place. The size of the ruins of the temple and amphitheatre was truly astounding.

The arches were made with a capstone, reminding us that Jesus is the church’s capstone and foundation:

The mosaics on the floors were amazing:

Telling stories through pictures:

This picture gives some idea of the scale of things:

Garry started a character study looking at the apostle Peter this Sunday evening. Peter is the disciple mentioned in all 4 Gospel accounts about whom the most information is given; highly vocal, often impetuous, his life is one with which we easily identify.

Garry looked at Peter’s first meetings with Jesus and how he gradually became aware of who Jesus was. His was a gradual dawning of understanding: first, his brother (Andrew) introduced him to ‘the Messiah’ (John 1:41), but even after he had witnessed miracles of healing, he was still more interested in cleaning his fishing nets than in listening to Jesus’s teaching. Only after the miraculous catch of fish recorded in Luke 5 does Peter become aware of his own sinfulness in relation to who Jesus is and hears the call of Jesus to give up his life as a fisherman to become a ‘fisher of men’.

All of us, at some point, face that moment of decision, when we either heed the call of Jesus or walk away. Some (like the rich young ruler) choose to walk away. Peter chose to follow Jesus. May we too learn what it means to put Jesus at the centre of our lives and follow Him whole-heartedly.

This Sunday morning we were not at GPCC… we were visiting Steve and went to his church, Holy Trinity Platt, in Manchester. Steve James, the rector there, preached from Mark 4 on the parable of the sower, the sermon being entitled “The Seed of the Kingdom”.

Jesus’s strategy for spreading the good news when faced with the hard ground of those who were hostile to him or those who were fickle was to talk about sowing seed – apparently a sermon on agriculture! The seed in the parable, the Word of God, has immense creative and recreative power – not the ‘mechanical’ power of outward conformity to religion, but the ‘organic’ power of spiritual life. The Word works by going in deep. The four different types of soil described in the parable – which Steve likened to the four different audiences who heard the message, namely the Pharisees, the crowds, Jesus’s family and his disciples – determine, to some degree, the effectiveness of the seed in that environment.

Jesus taught in parables to challenge us to seek Him. Parables are not obvious; they are a little like riddles and require us to come to Jesus for clarification and understanding. If we come with the attitude of ‘I don’t want to understand… I don’t want to believe’, we run the risk of being unable to believe, rather like Uncle Andrew in C.S. Lewis’s story ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ who, although recognising that Aslan’s creation song was, in fact, a song, disliked it so much that he pretended it was not a song, just the ordinary growl of a lion, until eventually he did “hear nothing but roaring in Aslan’s song.” (see also John 12:37-40). If, on the other hand, we seek God, we will find Him. (Matt 7:7-8)

May we know the power of God’s Word in our lives and constantly seek Him for understanding, that we may see in our lives the fruit of this powerful seed.

We finished the Bible study on Ephesians this week by looking at Ephesians 6. Famous for its passage on the armour of God, this chapter has much to say about Christian conduct as well as Christian conflict, with Paul finishing with closing comments to the church.

Christian Conduct
The first verses continue looking at relationships. The submission discussed in Chapter 5 continues by looking at the relationship between children and parents and between slaves and masters (or, in a more modern context, the wider relationship between employees and employers.) Equal value doesn’t necessarily mean equal roles, but the key here is the mutual respect which results from submission to God.

We looked at the limits of obedience (‘in the Lord’) and at the meaning of words such as ‘honour’, ‘exasperate’ and ‘training and instruction in the Lord’. Parents should not be dominated by their children, nor should children be dominated by their parents – love and respect have to be the motivating forces. In an increasingly secular society, the role of parents in teaching and leading by example can never be underestimated; moreover, this teaching should be as much by example and lifestyle as by words.

Similarly, in a work context, whether we are subordinate or in a position of authority, we should work honestly and treat people with respect because ultimately we are all working for the Lord. There really is no such thing as a ‘sacred’ job compared to a ‘secular’ one: all we do is unto the Lord and God has prepared works for each one of us to do.

Christian Conflict
The conflict all Christians are engaged in is real and is not just for zealots. We are all involved, whether we like it or not – maybe not as ‘front line soldiers’, but as Dave reminded us, in the Second World War, even civilians were engaged in working to help the war effort and were attacked by the enemy. This war is not like the ‘Cold War’ where weapons were stockpiled but never used; God equips us with weapons because we need these weapons to be able to stand against the enemy!

The enemy is not people. We have a spiritual enemy who has both strengths and weaknesses, but we have a God who has won the victory and who has equipped us to stand firm.

Closing Comments
The final verses show us that Paul requested prayer for himself (to make known the mystery of the gospel fearlessly… if even the apostle knew fear, then we certainly need to pray for ourselves and others to be given the words to speak out boldly!) and that prayer is something we are called to do all the time – living prayer, constant communion, ‘practising the presence of God’ in all situations. We also looked at Paul’s final words and realised that if we have peace, love, faith and grace, we have all that we need.