We had a number of birthdays to celebrate yesterday:



We pray all those celebrating birthdays will enjoy the presence of the Lord and lots of presents from everyone else!

Lately we have been looking at what and how we should remember and recognising that the Lord’s Supper is one of the celebrations of discipline which God has given us. Last night we celebrated Communion in the evening service and Dave preached on this important celebration, stressing that it’s all too easy to do things on ‘auto pilot’ when it comes to the familiar and that we need to remember what we are doing and why we do it.

Looking at Matthew 26:17-30, Dave spoke about the need to examine ourselves before we partake of Communion. Jesus took the Passover celebrations and infused in them a new meaning. The Passover meal was traditionally a time when the Jews remembered God’s deliverance from Egypt, with the Passover lamb a reminder of that tenth and final plague when the firstborn were killed in Egypt – and also a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Before the disciples ate the meal, however, Jesus told them ‘one of you will betray me’, and there was a period of self-examination as the disciples asked, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’ Notice that Judas does not use the word ‘Lord’ in his question, but says ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’ We need to do more than acknowledge Jesus as a wise teacher; we need to own Him as Lord. In that period of self-examination before we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we need to examine our hearts and acknowledge that it was our sin that led to the Crucifixion. As Bach writes in the St Matthew’s Passion, ‘ich bin’s, ich sollte bussen’ (‘I’m the one, I should repent’.) As C.H. Spurgeon remarked, ‘better to look in the mirror than look out the window. Looking out of the window, you see one for whom you are not responsible. But looking in the mirror, you see one for whom you must give account to God.’

When we receive the bread which represents Christ’s body, we see that God comes to us in brokenness. We have to receive Him – that’s all we have to do. The direction of the Lord’s Supper is downward, from God to man. It is a sacrament (a gift from the Lord to His people), not a sacrifice (a gift of the people from the Lord.) We receive Christ’s forgiveness and His redemption.

When we receive the wine which represents the blood shed by Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, we realise that without the shedding of blood, there could be no forgiveness of sins and we remember the words of Jeremiah that the Lord will make a new covenant whereby He will ‘forgive our wickedness and remember our sins no more’ (Jer 31).

When we take Communion, we are reminded that we are recipients, beneficiaries of grace, that God made a promise to us and is faithful to keep that promise. We also look ahead to that next great feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb. There, we will sit in the presence of the Father, without Judas the traitor, without our own sinful hearts accusing us, humbled by our sin and encouraged by God’s grace.

Garry preached from Hebrews 10:14 this morning: “by one sacrifice He has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.”

There is a difference between the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Christ (a completed action in the past) and the ongoing work of sanctification by which we are made holy (in the present continuous.)

Christ’s sacrifice was necessary because there was absolutely nothing we could do to rescue ourselves or redeem ourselves from sin. His sacrifice put an end to the sacrificial system (which was a shadow of His perfect sacrifice) and now God sees us as being perfect; when He looks at us, He sees us wearing ‘the righteousness of Christ.’ There is nothing we can do to add to this work of God – it’s like the bridge which has the keystone in it and which is firmly secure as a result of this.

God works in partnership with us, however, in making us holy (separate from what is profane, cleansed, purified, consecrated to God.) This is an ongoing work of cleansing: we are the workmanship of God and yet we are also team players with God in sanctification. God wants to work with us to purify us (Eph 4:11-16), providing teachers and others to help us to grow, carrying on this great work until the day of completion (see Phil 1:6, 1 John 3:1).

We need, therefore, to rest in what Christ has done for us whilst at the same time being vigorously involved with Him as He works to make us like Christ. We must both rest in the completed sacrifice of Christ and labour towards our sanctification, the goal of which is ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col 1:27)

While we were in Whitby last weekend, we went to the Lifeboat Museum and read so many stories of the amazing rescues carried out by the RNLI on that coast. It was truly inspiring. The general field of search and rescue includes many speciality sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations. These include Mountain rescue; ground search and rescue, including the use of search and rescue dogs; urban search and rescue in cities; combat search and rescue on the battlefield and air-sea rescue over water.

Last year the world witnessed one of the great rescue plans when 33 Chilean miners, trapped down a mine, were successfully brought to safety. Many of us watched on the news or online as each man had to be rescued individually in a rescue plan that involved technology and international aid, not to mention lots of prayer. It was a truly inspiring moment.

Matt Redman’s song ‘Where Would We Be?’ arose from that rescue, but points to a greater rescue:
“You came to search and rescue
In love, the Father sent You
Broke through the darkest night
You came to seek and save us
You came to liberate us
Jesus, You heard our cry
Jesus, You heard our cry”

As we studied in Romans 9, the truth is that without God’s rescue plan, we would all still be lost:
“Where would we be without Your love?
We’d still be lost in darkness
Where would we be without Your cross?
You made a way to save us
Oh, Your love, oh, Your love.”

Moreoever, our studies in Romans have pointed out inexorably that there was nothing we could do to save ourselves; we desperately needed rescue from a God who would take the initiative:
“We couldn’t escape the sin and the shame
That kept us bound
We couldn’t break through, we couldn’t reach You
So You reached down”

The next time we feel we are struggling to accept God’s sovereignty, we need to focus on our desperate plight without God and respond with grateful thanks to the fact that His plan of salvation was such a thorough and comprehensive search and rescue plan! “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10). Hallelujah!

http://www.myspace.com/mattredmanmusic/videos/story-behind-the-song-where-would-we-be/108021704

Last night we finished looking at Romans 9, a chapter that talks about God’s sovereignty and man’s submission. These are not easy concepts for us to grasp – or, if we are honest, to like. As the end verses remind us, “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall,and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” (Rom 9:33, quoting Isaiah 28:16).

God’s ways are higher than our ways and we have to learn to submit to our Creator. As Paul says, “who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” (Rom 9:20-21) So often, we think we know best, wanting to be like someone else, wanting to be somewhere else, not content with who God has made us to be or where He has placed us in life. But ultimately, ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Tim 6:6) and there is great peace in accepting ourselves and in submitting to God’s sovereignty.

Man is fiercely independent and likes to think he can make it on his own. Jesus came to remind us forcibly that that is not true: we are helpless to save ourselves and need His help. As Michael Card piercingly writes in his song ‘Scandalon’,

“The seers and the prophets had foretold it long ago
That the long awaited one would make men stumble
But they were looking for a king to conquer and to kill
Who’d have ever thought He’d be so meek and humble?

To some He is a barrier, to others He’s the way
For all should know the scandal of believing.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S2odJT8wb8

May we all know the ‘scandal of believing’ and all realise He is the only way to God.

Some of you may remember that I did a sponsored swim (for Marie Curie Cancer Care) back in April, when I swam 5 km (200 lengths of a 25 metre pool). That was a first for me and initially I doubted that I could last that distance. Egged on by some good friends who goaded me into increasing my original aim from 2.5 km to 5 km, I learned the value of aiming high.

Inspired by that, I decided to do another Sponsored Swim, reasoning that since I was swimming anyway, I might as well have an aim to keep me focussed and raise money for a worthy cause at the same time. So I looked around and discovered a charity called Aspire http://www.aspire.org.uk/home.aspx, which helps people with spinal cord injuries and which runs a ‘Channel Swim’ event (http://www.aspire.org.uk/aspire-channel-swim.aspx) whereby you swim the distance of the English Channel (22 miles) in the safety (!) of your own pool. There is no set time period for you to complete the swim, but again, looking at aims and being inspired by the charity’s name (aspire means ‘to have a great ambition or ultimate goal; desire strongly; to strive towards an end’), I decided to complete this challenge within 12 days (11 swimming day, 1 day of rest). So far, I’m on 564 lengths in 4 days.

Yesterday (27 July) was the yearly countdown to the London Olympics. There was plenty of publicity about this, with some of the venues being ‘showcased’. Whatever your views about the Olympics, there’s no doubt that a lot of people have aimed high in getting to this stage and for a lot of competitors, many goals and aims revolve around the competition next year. It takes commitment and effort to win!

It’s good to have goals. It’s good to aim for things – the old adage ‘if you aim for nothing, you’ll definitely hit it’ is, sadly, true. Our beliefs and world view will undoubtedly shape our goals and aspirations. Matt Redman captures this idea in his song ‘We Could Change The World’:
“Could we live like Your grace is stronger than all our faults and failures?
Could we live like Your love is deeper than our hearts could fathom?
Could we live like this?
Could we live like Your name is higher than every other power?
Could we live like Your ways are wiser than our understanding?
Could we live like this?”

When we live with a right view of God and then of ourselves, the possibilities are endless:
“Yes, our God is
All He says
All He says He is
Jesus, in Your name we could change the world
We stand in Your love
In Your power
All You say we are
Jesus, in Your name we could change the world.”

Let’s all continue to aspire to great things, for in His name, we could change the world.