Today we hosted the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival mosaic project. As part of the festival’s remit to champion creativity and celebrate community, a community mosaic is being created which was started today. Artist Ruth Waterworth made a design for us to stick tiles to so that we could create a beautiful mosaic to be displayed at the arts’ festival on 28th September this year.

We had to stick tiles to the picture/ letter outlines:

We also had the opportunity to let the children have a go at foam mosaic coasters:

Other local community groups will be taking part in mobile mosaic workshops over the next few weeks, making mosaics which reflect their group’s logo or ethos. The finished mosaic will be displayed at the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival on 28th September at Astrea Academy Dearne.

A reflexive verb is where the subject of the verb is the same as the object – or, in other words, where the person (subject) doing the action (verb) is the same as the person receiving the action (object). In English, we usually add -self to show this: ‘I wash myself’ means I’m doing the washing and I’m also the one being washed (whereas ‘I wash the car’ means I’m doing the washing, but it’s the car which is being washed!)

When we’re younger, reflexive verbs are beyond us! We’re not capable of washing ourselves, dressing ourselves or feeding ourselves. We need help with the most basic things. We’re passive and have to submit to others doing things for us.

Spiritually, it can be the same thing. When we first enter the journey of faith, we may feel wholly dependent on other people to feed us, direct us and help us. But there will come a time in every Christian’s life when we need to learn to feed ourselves, pray and seek God for ourselves, not relying on other people to do these things for us – however godly they are.

In 1 Sam 29 and 30, we read of difficult times for David. on the run from Saul, whose jealousy has turned to murderous hatred, he has sought refuge from the enemy – and now even the Philistines don’t want him! Frustrated and disappointed, he returns home to Ziklag to find not refuge and sanctuary, a place to lick his wounds in peace, but loss and devastation. Now even his own men turn on him, talking of stoning him as they blame him for their misfortune.

At this point, there is no help to be found externally. It’s time for David to discover the value of reflexive verbs: he ‘encouraged himself in the Lord.’ (1 Sam 30:5) David found the strength he needed in God.

How? How did David move from being  weary, discouraged, frustrated man who must have wondered when things were going to g his way to being the victor who would not only recapture all that hadbeen stolen from him but who would show compassion to the weary men who could go no further and mecy to a lost Egyptian?

He encouraged himself. Instead of dwelling on his feelings, lacerating himself with doubt and despair, he fixed his gaze on God. He remembered the promises of God, doubtless reminding himself that God had anointed him, so the story couldn[t’ end here. He meditated on God’s word; he focussed on God’s power and strength instead of bemoaning his situation and the attitude of those around him.

The result of this was a turnaround of circumstances for David. He consulted the priest. He sought God. He mobilised a raiding party. He acted decisively and authoritatively.

Once, on a previous occasion, David had needed the encouragement and reminders of Jonathan to set him on his feed agai. But sometimes God wants us to encourage ourselves. Sometimes there’s no one else there to lift us up. Sometimes it’s just us and God.

And at those times, as we learn to encourage oruselves in the Lord, God is there to lift us up, to send us on our way with a clap on the back and a dose of His endless energy which raised Christ from the dead and is surely enough to raise us too.

Preachers are keen to make key points (often using headings or alliteration or other techniques to give people somethng they can easily remember) so that those listening can take hold of what they hear and not let this disappear through their hands like sand.

Peter’s sermon following the healing of a lame man (Acts 3:11-26) has three key points we would do well to remember:

1. Don’t look at us!

2. Look at Jesus!

3. Do Something About What I’ve Said!

We need to ensure that we deflect attention away from us and make sure people are looking at Jesus. Salvation is found in Him alone. We need to learn from Jesus who only did what He saw the Father doing (see John 5:19, 30; John 8:28; John 6:38) As John the Baptist reminds us, He (Jesus) must become greater and we must become less. (John 3:30) It’s only as Jesus is lifted up that men will be drawn to Him (John 12:32). It’s all too easy to talk about church and church activities, but we need to tell people what Jesus has done for each one of us. When God does amazing things, as He did with this healing, we must be careful not to take credit for it, but to give God the glory (Acts 3:12-15)

We must also ensure that people realise there is a consequence to what Jesus has done; there is a response required from each one of us. We are not dealing in historical fact alone or in interesting moral dilemmas. Peter was blunt about the people’s role in the death of Christ and about their need to repent and turn to God. We need to have the same courage so that we make people aware of the need to choose.

In our Sunday morning series, ‘Battles and Blessings’, we are looking at the fact that battles and blessings often seem to be like the parallel tracks on a railway line: we experience both simultaneously in our lives. This certainly seems to have been the case in the early church, when opportunities and opposition went hand in hand.

In Acts 3:1-10, we read of an amazing, astonishing miracle: the healing of a man lame from birth. Then Peter gives a sermon explaining what has happened and further testifying to Jesus being the Messiah, disowned and killed by the crowd and the authorities (Acts 3:14-15) but raised to life by God and therefore capable of healing, forgiving and restoring not just one man, but the whole earth. (Acts 3:15-26) This was clearly a great opportunity for witness, which Peter seized with gladness and boldness, but the result was not unmitigated blessing. Instead, Peter and John were arrested while speaking and were jailed. (Acts 4:1-3) As John Stott puts it, “This comprehensive testimony to Jesus as rejected by men but vindicated by God, as the fulfilment of all Old Testament prophecy, as demanding repentance and promising blessing, and as the author and giver of life, physically to the healed cripple and spiritually to those who believed, aroused the indignation and antagonism of the authorities. The devil cannot endure the exaltation of Jesus Christ. So he stirred up the Sanhedrin to persecute the apostles.” (‘The Message of Acts’, John Stott, P 95)

Paul reminds us that we are engaged in a spiritual battle, not one against flesh and blood (Eph 6:10-18). Life will not always be easy, and there will at times be opposition, even from those we counted as friends (Jesus was betrayed by a disciple, not an outsider, and many of the Psalms recount the pain of betrayal and hurt at the hands of a friend.) Our response when opposition comes can vary. More often than not, opposition shakes our faith, causing us to question God. We feel forsaken and wonder why a loving God can ask us to endure such things. But the response of the apostles was very different. Ultimately, they rejoiced ‘because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.’ (Acts 5:41) If we can learn to do the same, we will seize the opportunities God gives us as Peter did and endure the opposition we face with confidence and unswerving devotion to God.

In Peter’s sermon following the healing of the crippled man, he tells the crowd, ‘Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.’ (Acts 3:19) This gives us a clue as to how we may move from judgment to blessing.

Repentance is the first step, but repentance itself has several steps. To repent means:

1. We see our sin as sin, not just as a ‘mistake’ or a ‘problem’. Rom 3:10 tells us firmly that no one is righteous; Paul goes on to remind us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). It’s one thing to accept this in a general sense, but to repent means we have to see our sin, not someone else’s (see Matt 7:3-5). We have to be able to ask, ‘What have I done?’ and accept the answer, even when it is devastating.

2. This correct view of sin leads us to sorrow over our sin. We don’t treat it lightly, but are broken and ashamed of it (see Ps 51:17, Jer 31:19). There is a difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow, between remorse and repentance (see 2 Cor 7:10).

3. We are frequently urged to confess our sins. Our Protestant heritage tends to shy away from confession to people, but James 5:16 reminds us to do this. Confession to God is essential (1 John 1:9), but all too often, we shy away from letting others see our sins, which can simply be another way of hiding our sins or allowing pride to have the last word. Confession is not only personal, but we need to learn to identify with and confess the sins of our nation (see Dan 9:4-8, Ezra 9:1-6; Neh 1:6-7)

4. We learn to hate sin as God hates it. Jesus frequently spoke of loving God more than anything else (see Luke 14:26) and we cannot love God fully while we tolerate and condone sin. This does not mean hating people, but we must learn to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. (Rom 12:9)

5. We turn away from our sin. John Piper says, ‘Repentance means little if it does not result in reformation.’ We have to learn to renounce that which we previously embraced. This may mean changing our habits (what we watch, listen to, eat, allow into our bodies, what we say and do) and forming new ones.

The blessings promised from repentance far outweigh the difficulties in turning around, however. Peter speaks of ‘times of refreshing.’ Isaiah spoke of salvation consisting of ‘repentance and rest’ (Is 30:15). We need both physical and spiritual rest to function well, and this is made possible by the ‘clean slate’ Jesus gives to us through the forgiveness of sins (see Eph 1:7, Col 1:13-14, Is 43:25). Refreshing also comes from the fellowship we now have with God’s people (see 2 Tim 1:16) and from the spiritual quenching Jesus brings to us (John 4:13-14). We can see that far from being a negative view of life, repentance and rest lead us into spiritual blessings and refreshment which strengthen us and put a spring into our step!

Peter’s sermon in Acts 3:12-26, as in Acts 2:14-41, arises from unusual happenings which arouse the attention of a large crowd. Both sermons seek to explain what has happened and both point to Jesus Christ. Peter directed the crowd’s attention away from both the healed cripple and the apostles to the Christ whom men disowned by killing Him, but God vindicated by raising Him, and ‘whose name, having been appropriated by faith, was strong enough to heal him completely.’ (‘The Message of Acts’, John Stott, P 92) This Christ-centred preaching is the key to success.

Jesus said, ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’ (John 3:14-15) John the Baptist gave us all great advice when he said, ‘He must become greater; I must become less.’ (John 3:30) Instead of boasting about how he had healed a lame man, Peter firmly deflects attention away from himself by saying, ‘Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?’ (Acts 3:12) He then goes on to remind people what has happened: ‘The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.  You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.’ (Acts 3:13-15)

Peter again uses Old Testament references (even naming God as the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers’) to substantiate his claim that Jesus is the Messiah, the suffering servant of Isaiah 52 & 53 (Acts 3:13) and the prophet of whom Moses spoke (Acts 3:22-23, referring back to Deut 18:15, 18-19). He is adamant that it is faith in the name of Jesus which has resulted in the man’s healing and this has a consequence for all people: ‘Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.’ (Acts 3:19-20)

Peter’s message was clearly powerful, even if interrupted (Acts 4:4 tells us that many believed, with the number of men growing to about five thousand.) It was probably not easy for people to hear of their own involvement in the death of Jesus Christ, even if this was out of ignorance (Acts 3:13-15, 17). There will always be this negative side to preaching, for people need to be convicted of sin before ever they see their need for God. But Peter also point out the blessings available to all who believe: rest, restoration and cleansing. Having our sins wiped out (obliterated, erased, blotted out) as ink could so easily be wiped from a papyrus is something to rejoice over. David spoke of this blessing in Ps 32:1-2 and Ps 103:3, 11-12). May we too know this blessing and point others to Jesus, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Eph 1:7)