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Our varied responses to lockdown

Here we are waiting again for the Premier’s announcement this coming Sunday about a further, we hope, relaxation in restrictions. All this week there has been talk of rolling averages, of whether the criteria for relaxation will change, speculation about what exactly the Premier will say. And there has also been further discussion of the cost of the lockdown to our mental health and to our economy. You might have noticed that the frustration of some has become increasingly vocal, along with expressions of support for the Premier and the Government’s plan. Those responses have brought home to me again just how diverse is our experience of and reaction to the lockdown. For some the lockdown has given more time with the children, more time at home in the evenings with their husband or wife, allowed them to develop better relationships with their neighbours. There have been changes they are thankful for. For others the restrictions have meant they are unable to see family, share their new babies with them, lost work, been isolated and alone, have had their grieving disrupted, have come to fear eviction, or found their mental health issues exacerbated. It has been a very negative experience for them. For many, the experience has been mixed – there have been elements they have enjoyed, elements they have found very tough, and often a profound weariness.

Just as our experience of the lockdown varies, so, like the wider community, our responses in the congregation to the lockdown also vary

And just as our experience of the lockdown varies, so, like the wider community, our responses in the congregation to the lockdown also vary. Some of us are grateful for and reassured by the Government’s management of the crisis. Not perfect but providing clear guidance and rules to prevent the spread of the infection amongst us. Others are frustrated by inconsistency and at being robbed of individual discretion, and still others are angry for the prolonged imposition of restrictions and the failures of the government in the quarantining of travellers and contact tracing, and the destruction that has been inflicted on their businesses and lives as a result. At different times we may have experienced all three responses ourselves – gratitude when we see the increasing numbers in the second wave in Europe; frustration at small and unnecessary restrictions on activity; and fleeting moments of anger at some media revelation.

How should we live with people who have differing views?

These different responses do exist amongst us. How should we express our views? How should we live with people who have differing views?

First of all we have to accept that views among us may legitimately differ, as other people’s experience may be quite different from our own.

Secondly, we have to keep seeing this time in the light of God’s sovereignty and steadfast love. Ultimately this virus is from Him, the One who ‘kills and makes alive, who wounds and who heals’ [Deut. 32:39]. The Lord is working His purposes out through this, whether that is to humble our society, judge our pride, shift the hearts of His people from love of the world to love of Christ, help us to set our hope fully on Him. Whatever we think of the government’s response, our God has a good purpose in this for His people. He teaches us, confident of His grace because we have been justified through faith in our crucified Lord Jesus, to ‘rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, and character hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

While we have food and shelter and many of us have jobs, isolation, loss of freedom, constant anxiety about the effect of the virus, as well as sickness and grief, are forms of suffering, experienced more intensely by some than others. Our confidence in God, in His steadfast love for those in Christ, should be seen in a joyful heart even in our suffering, and we should look for the fruit of endurance and tested character as we keep on trusting our Lord. Anger should not be our predominant response, but joy and a real hope, knowing neither the virus nor the government’s response can take from us what God has given us in Christ. As we go through this we are to keep the big picture, God’s intention to exalt the Son as Lord and save His people, in mind. In the current uncertainty there should be an abiding certainty in God’s purpose, and as our emotions go up and down as they do there should be a constancy to our joy.

In the current uncertainty there should be an abiding certainty in God’s purpose, and as our emotions go up and down  as they do there should be a constancy to our joy.

Thirdly, we need to keep living in relation to the government and to each other in conformity to God’s word. Trust in God is seen in obeying Him when we don’t feel like it, when what He commands goes against our inclinations [Prov. 3:5-8]. A brief passage that teaches both how to relate to government and to each other is Titus 3:1-2

Titus 3 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Trust in God is seen in obeying Him when we don’t feel like it, when what He commands goes against our inclinations

The Scripture is clear. We are to be submissive to the authorities, to comply as we are able with their instruction. That does not mean that you have to agree that theirs is the best or only strategy. It doesn’t mean you can’t be disappointed in some of what they say and do. But it does mean that you should do what they say, out of trust in the Lord Jesus, love of neighbour - for an orderly society is good for all, and a desire to enhance the reputation of Jesus in our community. Love directs us to be submissive, just as occasionally love may make an exception where it does not jeopardise the health of others. But we are not to be self-willed and belligerent, or act without regard for the good of all. In fact we are always to be ready to do good, whether that is praying for our government, sharing meals, meeting someone in the park for a walk or picnic, ringing up your brother or sister to encourage them, supporting those in need like the many who get no government benefit.

Love directs us to be submissive, just as occasionally love may make an exception... But we are not to be self-willed and belligerent, or act without regard for the good of all.

And God says speak evil of no one. When we are angry at someone or feel their decisions are hurting us it is easy portray them and their motives in the worst possible light and to make assumptions about what we don’t and can’t know – like what they are thinking. But God calls us to be gracious, to only speak truth, and to avoid quarrelling. We are to be gentle and show perfect courtesy to each other – even when we disagree – and to all. Perfect courtesy [or humility or gentleness] listens patiently. It doesn’t dismiss, doesn’t speak over, doesn’t shout. It is what we need to engage the world with soft words and hard arguments. We need perfect courtesy.

Paul bases this call for love of the other in all our interactions on our own experience of the ‘goodness and loving kindness of God’, shown to us when we were “foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another”. This gracious love has saved us and transformed us [Tit. 3:3-7]. Trusting our God, knowing His forgiveness and love, secure in His care, means we are to live and speak differently now. It means we look in whatever circumstances we are in to the good we can do [Tit. 3:8] and so adorn the name of our Saviour in our troubled society, and that good in a divided and polarised society includes the way we speak of others, speak of those with whom we disagree.

Trusting our God, knowing His forgiveness and love, secure in His care, means we are to live and speak differently now.

Next week we will consider the changes in the regulations and talk about the plans we are making to help us get back together again in various ways. The restrictions cannot continue indefinitely, and we are commanded to meet for mutual encouragement, and most of us I suspect by now are wanting the encouragement that comes in real, not virtual, meetings. But in the meantime, see in the continuing limits on our freedoms an opportunity to keep exercising faith in our sovereign God, in His steadfast love and faithfulness to His people. And see in our varied responses to the continuing restrictions an opportunity to practice and grow in godliness as we relate to government and each other according to the Lord’s instructions because we trust Him over our own insight and emotions. Listen to Him and live His way, for His way is the way of wisdom and life.

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The power of conviction

In Melbourne we are witnessing, living with, the power of conviction, of what it is to have a firmly held belief. Many in our society, including our premier, are convicted that the Covid-Sars2 virus is both highly infectious and dangerous, particularly to the lives of the elderly, even if they don’t know how any particular individual will respond to exposure to the virus. This is a rationally held belief, based on good evidence from overseas and here. But what I want us to reflect on is the fruit of that belief, the evidence all around us of the power of a genuinely held conviction to shape individual and collective decisions and behaviour.

Sharing this conviction many have been willing to change their individual lives quite radically, suffer inconvenience, experience distance in close relationships. Once gregarious people have shut themselves up in their homes. Others have turned their dining tables into workspaces. Grandparents have not seen their grandchildren. People whose smile could light up a room now hide it behind a mask. This belief has changed people’s lives.

And Sharing this belief our society has collectively radically re-organised itself, with city streets quiet as many work from home, permits for work now carried in cars, holidays foregone, even the football moved interstate. We have even been willing to become poorer.

As a believing society we have also engaged in a campaign of persuasion, informing of both the risks and the required behaviour, making sure the message gets out, urging people to change their thinking and living.

We are witnessing, experiencing, the power of a shared conviction about danger and how to avoid danger, a conviction that has brought change to so much of our lives.

We are witnessing, experiencing, the power of a shared

conviction about danger and how to avoid danger,

a conviction that has brought change to so much of our lives.

The Conviction of Gospel Truth

As a community of believers in Jesus we also have a shared conviction, a conviction about far more than the danger of a virus. It is a conviction of the truth of the gospel, about what brings eternal death, and what will bring eternal life. It is a reasonably based conviction, founded on the witness to the resurrection of Jesus, confirmed by the gift of the Spirit.

Conviction of the truth of the gospel

is a conviction of a great danger.

And conviction of the truth of the gospel is a conviction of a great danger. The gospel clearly says ‘it is given to people once to die, and after death comes the judgment’ [Heb. 9:27], that ‘God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness’ [Acts 17:31], and that the Lord Jesus will gather all the nations before Him and separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats. The outcome of that judgment for those who do not confess Jesus is Lord is not in doubt – in Paul’s words ‘wrath and fury’ for those who ‘are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness’ [Rom. 2:8]; in Jesus’ words the goats, those who have not loved Jesus in loving His people, ‘go away into eternal punishment’ [Matt. 25:46]; in John’s words “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” [Rev. 20:15]. We believe all outside Christ are in eternal danger.

The Uncomfortable Truth of Judgement

Now I find the idea of people experiencing God’s just anger eternally disturbing as there are so many I know who do not confess Jesus is Lord. Our world finds the idea that they could go to hell for their rebellion against God abhorrent. And I also find in myself that In between our own discomfort and the world’s rejection it is easy to go quiet, to suppress, the expression of this conviction, not to urge change to avoid this danger.

But Jesus taught on judgment and hell. The story of the sheep and the goats is a story He told. In His parables of the net and the weeds [Matt. 13:36-43, 47-50] it is He who speaks of the end of the age when ‘the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' [Matt. 13:49-50] It is He who speaks of hell, Gehenna, more than anyone else in the New Testament. [e.g. Matt. 5:22, 29-30, 10:28, 23:33; cf. 2 Thess. 1:7-10, Rom. 2:5].

And uncomfortable as it may be God’s judgment and His anger against our sin are right. His anger is His settled, just and unceasing opposition to our sin, the determination of His holiness to remove from His presence all that misses the mark of righteousness, all that defiles and destroys His good creation. Sin is condemned because it is the opposite of all that is good and righteous and lovely, the rejection of the wise, loving and just rule of our good Creator, the corruption of natures made to love God and care for creation that makes us full of self-love and exploitative of what is entrusted to our care. And God’s judgment tells us how we live our lives matter, and that justice matters in the universe. Judgment and anger at sin are good and right.

And if we are faithful to the gospel we confess God would be right to send me, to send you, to hell – our sin is that serious. I hope that you know that in your heart, as you look at the way you have treated your almighty and good creator, at the contempt you have shown for God in the way you have treated those made in His image. You may be able to think of a particular time when you came to that realisation, but even now our indifference, our thanklessness, our selfish thoughts and words, our lust and anger and envy and pride – which we may be able to hide from others but cannot hide from God, deserve hell.

From Judgement to Salvation!

Yet praise God the gospel is not primarily a message about judgement, but how we can be saved from judgement. Jesus said He ‘did not come to judge the world but to save the world.’ [John 12:48] That salvation is for all who will repent and believe as it says in John 3:17-18 "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

That is why the gospel is so good.

It is a message of life, not death;

of forgiveness, not condemnation.

That is why the gospel is so good. It is a message of life, not death; of forgiveness, not condemnation. It is the power of God for salvation to all who believe [Romans 1:16-17]. And it is a message of the undeserved love of the almighty and holy Creator, for it says He gave His Son to die for sinners, for us while we were still sinners.

Believers confess the gospel message of Christ dying for our sin and being raised with all authority  has saved us from judgement, saved you and I from a hell we deserved. That is why it is so wonderful, and remembering what we deserve for our sin helps us remember that it is wonderful, and that the God we have come to know in believing the gospel is thoroughly good, rich in mercy, is love, worthy of all praise and thanks.

But the experience in our society’s response to Covid 19 of the power of conviction of danger and the way to escape danger to change the way we live makes me ask "How has my conviction of how we can be saved from the much greater danger of judgment and eternal punishment by believing the gospel changed the way I live?”

Our society’s response to Covid 19 ... makes me ask

"How has my conviction of how we can be saved from

the much greater danger ... changed the way I live?"

I think being made to ask that question is one of the useful outcomes of this pandemic experience as we witness what a conviction of danger and away to escape danger will do. Even if we have engaged in that question before, and I know many of you have, we can become weary, tired out by the difficulty of trying to speak to others about the coming judgment and how Jesus saves us from that judgment. Tired, buffeted by rejection and dismissal, we can start to withdraw and live self-contained lives, lives that become more focused on getting on with our own plans than helping others escape hell.

So take the opportunity the pandemic gives to ask yourself:

• How does conviction of the truth of the gospel, of my being saved from hell by the death of the Lord Jesus?
• How does my experience of His gracious love in believing the gospel?
• How does my consciousness that to be like Him is to want to seek the lost?
• How does this gospel given conviction, experience and consciousness shape my life now?
• Does it make me willing to keep trying to persuade others about how they can escape eternal danger?
• Do I consciously pursue a life that keeps this conviction and consciousness at the front of my mind, a life that gives time for confession of sin and thankfulness for a Saviour, time to be reminded of the truth of the gospel?
• And does my gospel conviction make me willing to suffer loss – whether of time, or energy, or money, or popularity, to help others avoid hell?

If they are to hear of Jesus they will

hear of Him from the Christians they know

These are question we all have to engage in for today people won’t hear about Jesus in the media. They are not likely to attend a crusade, or even attend a church.

If they are to hear of Jesus they will hear of Him from the Christians they know, and if they read a gospel it will be because a believer they know has asked them to read it with them, or invited them to go together to a course like Christianity explained.

Are you that Christian? Do people witness the power of your conviction in your life?

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The road to 'rebuilding' 

Perhaps it is the warmer weather, perhaps it is the falling numbers, but I have allowed myself to start thinking about the time we move into the ‘Last Step’ on the Premier’s roadmap. Many talk about this time when we are allowed to meet again in the building [subject to density quotient] as ‘restarting’, as if our life together was put on pause and we just need to press the play button and everything resumes. That will not be possible, not only because the continuing restrictions in the roadmap makes it impossible but because of the impact of the lockdown. Damage has been done to the health of individuals and to the fabric of our relationships, energy has been depleted, momentum lost, finances altered, and for some there has been a rethinking of their commitments and how they want to use their time. Over this time we and our circumstances have changed. Acknowledging this some prefer to think of the time after the start of the ‘Last step’ and beyond as recovery. We have been on life support, restricted in movement and relationship, and now, leaving ICU we need to recover strength, relearn skills, and re-engage. That I think is more realistic, suggesting it will take time to recover our energy for meeting with others and sustaining service.

"Over this time we and our circumstances have changed...

We have been on life support, restricted in movement and relationship, and now, leaving ICU we need to recover

strength, relearn skills, and re-engage."

Lessons from the building project 

But this last week one of my grand-daughters randomly asked me how long it took to build Bundy. That started me thinking, as I reflected on the building project, of the time of the ‘Last Step’ and the months that follow as a time of rebuilding, with the opportunities a rebuild gives to refine and adapt, to make sure that what we do is fit for purpose in our changed circumstances. Further, reflecting on the building project provided me with some helpful insights into how we need to go about the task of rebuilding. Let me share with you five.

1. Proioritise evangelism and discipleship

Firstly, we – and I say we because this was a whole of congregation project as some of you will remember and I will comment on further below – we prioritized evangelism and discipleship in both the design and execution of the project. The building was designed to be a safe and welcoming space for individuals and families, a place where whatever their age they could hear the Word of God taught. You can see that for example in the learning level with its multiple Sunday School rooms, in the auditorium with the acoustic priority given to being able to hear the spoken word, and in the provision of good creche and cry room spaces. We wanted people to be able to come and listen together to the gospel, to be able to encourage each other to learn to do all that Jesus has taught us. The priority given to making disciples was also seen in the execution of the project, by the way the pastors were spared to keep on preaching and teaching by others accepting the responsibility to supervise all aspects of the work. There was no pause in normal ministry.

As we rebuild after this prolonged and unprecedented shut down making disciples of Jesus through calling people to repentance and faith in Jesus and then teaching all that He has commanded, encouraging each other to continue to grow and persevere as disciples, must continue to be our priority. That may mean keeping on doing many of the things we were doing together before, and it may also mean doing some things differently. For example, some of you have shared how you have had more time with your neighbours, deepened those relationships. For you that commitment to making disciples may mean prioritising those relationships over some other activities, including prior church activity. Another example – we will try to have a continued expanded on line presence, and in some contexts where it makes it easier for some to participate we will continue to run online courses and groups. For others this commitment to being and making disciples may mean continuing diligently with daily devotion, deepening your personal relationship with the Lord and your prayer. It might also mean a renewed commitment, where many have experienced loneliness or stress in their family, to teaching about marriage and family life, to showing that a commitment to living Jesus’ way is better.

The experience of the pandemic has and will bring change to us and our society, but one thing that never changes is Jesus’ call for His disciples to make disciples and the need for people to hear the gospel and call on Jesus for salvation, and that must remain our collective priority as we rebuild.

2. Be Patient

Secondly, in building the building we were patient. It didn’t happen overnight or in a rush. We first started thinking about it in 2005 when we applied for a share of the Thompson bequest, but the first service in our new building was not held until August 2012. There had been years of consultation and planning, and even in 2012 it was not all finished. To avoid debt we deferred completing the mezzanine until we could fund it, and so it was completed over the next two years. Patience not only gave us a better outcome, it preserved our relationships when things became a little stressful, as they do in any building project.

Patience with each other, and graciousness towards each other, recognising that all our circumstances are different, will lead to a better outcome and preserve our relationships as we rebuild. There will be frustrations about regulations, cleaning, different levels of confidence in face to face meeting, debate about what stays the same and what could helpfully change. With patience and graciousness we will get a better outcome, and all get there in the end.

3. Be Generous

Thirdly, in building the building we were generous, with our time, energy and money, and that generosity came freely from the heart. It was so encouraging. Many of us are now in changed circumstances – less time because we have small children, less energy, changed finances. But with a similar generous attitude where we are willing to give of our ourselves because we know and trust Christ’s generosity to us, we will regain momentum. And I am hoping that those of us who are well provided materially, having seen the uncertainty of riches in the threat one small virus is to the share market and property prices, will set our hope fully “on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” and in doing that be eager to ‘do good, be rich in good deeds, be generous and ready to share’ as Paul commands in 1 Tim. 6:17-18, so that gospel work is sustained amongst us and beyond.

4. Work together

Fourthly, in building the building, we did it together. I am talking about more than coming together for working bees, although we did. The building project was never one person’s idea. We together decided that a building would serve the work of making disciples, together we committed to it, and working together with the gifts God gave us in each other, by God’s grace we completed it. The building project gave me a new appreciation of the truth of 1 Corinthians 12, that the Lord through His Spirit gives His people the gifts they need for the functioning of the body. Rebuilding our life together will happen where we decide that our common life, our meeting together and sharing in ministries together, serves the work of the gospel and sustains us in being and helping our children and each other to be disciples of Jesus. Having decided and then committed ourselves to rebuilding I am also confident that the Lord will give us by His Spirit all the gifts we need to sustain and grow our common life, to rebuild it effectively.

5. Remember that God can and will provide for his church

Fifthly and finally, on a personal note, the building project helped me grow in conviction of God’s faithfulness and exposed how little my faith is compared to the trust He deserves. While I confess that all the wealth of Creation is at our Father’s disposal, and while I take continual comfort from the story of how Jesus fed the five thousand with the disciples’ five loaves and two fish, multiplying the disciples meagre resources so they could do His will, seeing the Lord provide the $3.6 million dollars and the team of people needed to build the church building amazed me while filling me with thankfulness. In that amazement I realised how far my faith in my Lord falls short of the faith He deserves, the Lord who has promised that “whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” John 16:23 Having seen this year our plans for the church disrupted and momentum lost; as we feel our own tiredness now, we should not doubt that He will work this experience for our good, that He will hear our prayers where we are about His business, the business of making disciples, and that He can provide all the resources we need for that task. In His love and wisdom that good may well involve things looking a bit different as we together give ourselves with renewed energy and urgency to calling people to repent and trust Jesus. That good may well take time to be seen clearly, but our Almighty God has promised and He is faithful and deserves our wholehearted trust.

"Having seen this year our plans for the church disrupted and momentum lost; as we feel our own tiredness now, we should not doubt that He will work this experience for our good"

So whatever our circumstances as, Lord willing, we come to the ‘Last Step’ let us pray that we learn to trust Him as He deserves to be trusted, and in that trusting find the courage and strength to live together faithfully as we rebuild our common life and common witness in our community.

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I feel the falling number of cases should have put more of a spring into my step, but with uncertainty about how limited or generous the relaxation of restrictions might be on Sunday and one day not being much different from the next in isolation I confess to feeling rather flat at the end of the week – what might be more colloquially called ‘blah’. I suspect that all of us have had days like that during this lockdown. We’re not down, we’re not up, we just find it hard to work up enthusiasm for any of our daily tasks.

It was in this state that I recognised a new sympathy for the Israelites in the wilderness and a renewed awareness of a temptation that faces many of us at this time – grumbling. Think of those Israelites. Doing a lot of work every day to get nowhere in particular. And every day the same menu – manna! Miraculous as it was you can understand them saying after a year of it;

“Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing to look at but this manna!” [Numbers 11:4-6].

And before the provision of the manna we can understand them being anxious – anxious about what they would drink in the desert, anxious about what they would eat, and not certain about how things would turn out. It was under these circumstances that they began to grumble against Moses and Aaron, and grumble against God [Ex. 15:24, 16:2-3, 17:3]. That grumbling [or ‘murmuring’] then reached its height when they came to the border of the promised land and the spies brought back a bad report about what they had witnessed.

“And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” [Numbers 14:2-3].

They were basically in all their grumbling saying to the LORD 'You don’t care. You don’t know what you are doing. You are not for us and intend ill for us. We would have been better off not listening to you in the first place.' They were despising the LORD.

And in my ‘blah’ days, when I feel there is no progress and yet see accumulating loss and damage to individuals and society, I can sometimes sense those kinds of murmurings rising in my own heart. ‘I know you are in charge of all things LORD. So what are you doing? Why is it going on without relief? Why are you allowing so much damage to be done to individual lives and to the church’s life? Where are you taking us in all this? Do we need to go – I liked things the way they were.' And as I see jobs being lost along the way and the government’s support reducing I can sense an anxiety about provision, about what we are to eat and drink, or have to pay our rent or mortgage. I sense those murmurings and know I must address them for God warns us against grumbling.

"We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come." [1 Corinthians 10:9-11]

As I see jobs being lost along the way and the government’s support reducing I can sense an anxiety about provision, about what we are to eat and drink, or have to pay our rent or mortgage. I sense those murmurings and know I must address them for God warns us against grumbling.

Israel’s experience should teach us not to grumble. You see grumbling is faithless.

The Psalmist reflecting on Israel’s behaviour in the wilderness wrote

Then they despised the pleasant land,
    having no faith in his promise.
They murmured in their tents,
    and did not obey the voice of the Lord. [Psalm 106:24-25]

Faithlessness gave rise to grumbling, and grumbling to the disobedience that caused that generation to fail to enter the promised land

Believers in Jesus have good promises given to us by God’s grace, and we know He loves His church.

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. [Matthew 6:31-34] 

We can say confidently, says the author of Hebrews “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me? [Heb. 13:6]

We should trust our Lord. He knows us, and He will provide.

And we see the Lord had a good purpose in Israel’s wilderness wandering. Just before they entered the promised land Moses surveyed their time in the wilderness and said

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. [Deuteronomy 8:2-5]

He has a good purpose for us, a purpose Romans 8:28-30 tells us He works in all things. He is humbling us to teach us to rely on His Word just as His Son the Lord Jesus did in His own need [Matt. 4:4], to rely on His word, not on our own plans, or abilities, wisdom or wealth. None of those will raise us from the dead. We are assured He is disciplining us in these trials as a loving Father disciplines His children [Heb. 12:3-11], training us to know He can be trusted and that believing and obeying His word is the way to life, the way to come to our inheritance, to rise with Jesus in the new heaven and earth. Whatever our trials we should trust Him to know best how to help us grow as His loved children, to bring us to His goal that we are conformed to the image of His Son and share His glory. While that goal slips sometimes from our own minds, it never slips from His.

Whatever our trials we should trust Him to know best how to help us grow as His loved children, to bring us to His goal that we are conformed to the image of His Son and share His glory. While that goal slips sometimes from our own minds, it never slips from His.

Trusting that He is at work in us and for us and so not grumbling also allows us to stand out, to shine as lights in an anxious and fearful world [Phil. 2:12-16], to witness to a hope others can come to share by coming to know the true God by trusting the Lord Jesus.

Paul finishes his encouragement to learn from Israel in the wilderness not to grumble with both a sober and encouraging word

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. [1 Corinthians 10:12-13]

We can over estimate our spiritual strength, an over estimate that times like this can expose. Trials come and we find ourselves easily shaken. Our goals or plans are frustrated and we find ourselves quickly becoming discouraged, and those murmurings questioning our God’s goodness and might quickly arise – despite that fact that as believers we say that God has loved us so much that He gave His Son to give us eternal life and peace with Him. It is almost embarrassing to have to acknowledge the frailty of our faith.

But it is better to acknowledge it so that we don’t try and tough it out on our own. We make use of the way of escape the Lord provides. I have found when the temptation is grumbling that way of escape will include remembering, remembering both the gospel and its promises – that Christ has died for my sins and He lives and reigns now with all authority and will raise me up, and remembering His faithfulness and care for me over many years – that He has been to me the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23; giving thanks for all His mercies, but especially for that love which I could never deserve, and a Saviour who will never fail; and the fellowship of the Lord’s people, being upheld in hope by the fellowship of brothers and sisters who are also looking for the day when the Lord returns, the day that is closer now than when we first believed

We make use of the way of escape the Lord provides. I have found when the temptation is grumbling that way of escape will include remembering, remembering both the gospel and its promises.

I hope you don’t have many blah days, but when they come don’t give way to grumbling. Remember the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and that love has a great goal for His beloved people our loving God is working in all things. Give thanks and keep joining with the Lord’s people to both encourage and be encouraged to persevere to our goal..

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Our shared convictions

Last week I spoke of the pressure the continuation of restrictions, especially the restriction on our meeting, places us under as individuals but especially as a congregation. I suggested that if we are going to endure that pressure, escape the danger of disconnection, we needed to draw on our shared convictions for strength and direction. One fundamental conviction we share as followers of Jesus is the need to love one another and I know, like the New Testament, I return to that often. But as I have talked before on persevering in love during this time, today I will speak about another of our shared convictions, the need to keep hearing God’s Word, the Bible, read and taught. Prior to the lockdown anyone who visited our Sunday service, or who participated in any of our ministries, would soon recognise that hearing the Bible taught so that we could understand what it says, believe and obey its teaching, was central to our life together. Why was that? And how does our conviction about the Bible guide us at the present time?

The Bible is the living God's word, for us!

The bible is central to our life together because it is the word of the living God, spoken for us. The Christian starting point is that the gospel, the word the apostles were sent by Jesus to preach, is the word of God. When we believe the gospel we believe God has forgiven our sins, that God will raise us up when we take up our cross to follow our Lord Jesus and God will give us eternal life. It would make no sense to believe these things unless it is God who promises them, unless it is His word we are hearing in the gospel. And that is what Christians have believed from the beginning. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers

“We also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God,  which is at work in you believers.” - 1 Thess. 2:13

Believing the gospel to be the Word of God is where we start, and then we find that the Jesus we meet in the gospel as the Lord, God with us, and the apostles who bring us the gospel, teach us to receive the Scriptures of the Old Testament as the Word of God [e.g. Matt. 5:17-18, Matt. 19:4-5, Mark 7:6-13, Luke 24:26-27, 44, John 10:34-35; Romans 9:25-29, 2 Tim. 3:15-17, Heb. 1:5-13, 3:7, 2 Peter 1:19-21]. Listening to Scripture we are listening to God, listening to the Word He has given to us.

And the Lord assures us that His word will do its work in our lives. It is living and active [Heb. 4:12-13], with power like the power of the word that first brought light into existence to bring His life giving light into the darkness of our lives [2 Cor. 4:1-6], the power of God to save [Romans 1:16-17]. It is the word that always achieves God’s purpose in speaking it – as the LORD says in Isaiah 55

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. - Is 55:10-11

As Paul calls Timothy to the work of preaching and teaching this word he reminds Timothy of what that purpose is in the lives of God’s people.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. - 2 Timothy 3:14-17

The Scriptures bring us to trust Jesus for salvation, and they are given by God to equip us to live as His people, a work Timothy knew in his own life even as he shared them with others. It is through the reading and preaching of the Scriptures applied to our lives by the same Spirit who gave the Scriptures that we grow and persevere as disciples of Jesus, people who are taught to do all that He has commanded us [Matt. 28:20, Romans 15:4].

It is because we only continue as Jesus’ disciples where His gospel word is heard, believed and obeyed that teaching that word and the Old Testament word that speaks of Jesus is central to the ministry of those appointed by Jesus to shepherd His people, and central to our ministry to each other. Elders are to be ‘apt to teach’ [1 Tim. 3:2, Titus 1:9], and Timothy is told to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.” [2 Tim. 4:2]. This is the word we know will do God’s work in our lives and in the lives of all His people, the word through which He will call His people to Himself [John 10:3-4, 16; 17:20], strengthen them to persevere, mature them to live fruitful lives as His followers.

How does the Bible guide us now?

So how does our shared conviction about the Bible guide us at this present time?

First of all we believe like Paul that ‘the word of God is not bound’ 2 Tim. 2:9. Its power and efficacy is not in any way limited by our inability to meet. It is through His unchained word that the Lord will continue His good work in our lives. And at this time of trial we need more of the word, not less, so that we are like that tree planted by streams of water, sustained in life and fruitfulness by meditation on God’s instruction [Psalm 1]. That is why we have encouraged you to use this time to be renewed and refreshed in the habit of reading and meditating on God’s Word daily by publishing the devotion. And that is why we have retained at the centre of our livestream the preaching of God’s word. We want you to keep engaging with God in His word, the big God we encounter in the prophets, whom all creation serves, including viruses, who rules the affairs of nations, including Australia, and who can comfort and sustain His people, including us; The big God, who can, in the words of Isaiah ‘give power to the faint and to him who has no might increase strength.’ [Is. 40:29]

But it is not just in what is generated, what is written and spoken, that our common conviction is expressed. If it is a shared conviction it will also be expressed in how we receive that word – giving ourselves to daily reading His word, and keeping on listening to it as it is preached, at whatever time we can tune in to the livestream. It is only as the bible as God’s word given for our good is our common conviction, the conviction that guides the behaviour of us all through this time, that our individual and common life as believers will be sustained by it. While the pastors work hard to make the word clear, and covet your prayers for us to that end, in the parable of the sower the fruitfulness or otherwise of the word is determined by how it is heard. Responsibility is placed on each of us as listeners. So as we experience some of those trials [Matt. 13:21] or know more of the cares of this world [Matt. 13:22] that can make the word unfruitful, recognise that what these test is how you are hearing the word, whether you will be good soil, the person who hears, understands and puts the Word into practice. Be that good soil; act on what is our shared conviction about the Bible – keep on reading and reflecting, listening and learning. Connection with the Word will sustain our connection with each other and our fruitfulness through and beyond this pandemic.

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I am glad that I am speaking to you at the end of the week and not at the beginning. These few days have given me time to engage both with what the Premier said last Sunday and my emotional reaction to his roadmap. It took me some time to work out that behind the disappointment, deflation and anger I felt on hearing the announcement was sadness, sadness for what this means for us individually and communally. My sadness is both for the continuing loss and for the absence of relief from the pressures we are under that this timetable, with what can most charitably be called its ambitious targets for case number reduction, guarantees we will experience well into November and probably beyond.

Continuing loss. Individually we continue to experience loss, whether it is an inability to visit family or friends – new babies, parents, brothers and sisters, some who may be experiencing sickness – or an inability to grieve together, or loss of work, or loss of some time away from the pressures of schooling and work from home. Loss of freedom to travel, or of confidence to plan. If we are young that inability to see friends, to play together or hang out together, coupled with the loss of structure and structured activity, is particularly hard.

When I think of our life together that loss is experienced most in our inability to meet together. Take Sunday. Good as our livestream is, the thought of many months more of livestreamed services just brought home to me how much we had lost in not being able to gather on Sunday. Our Sunday gathering is what could be called a thick experience. There was singing, catching up, the children seeing their friends, age appropriate learning, being able to hear the bible talk without distraction, many conversations that allowed us to stay in touch, the energy of being together. The livestream is decidedly thin, two dimensional. Our experience of the livestream is individualistic, not communal – just myself and my family or housemates; if we have younger children it is distracted, not peaceful; and it throws a lot more responsibility on the listener to engage, but engaging with a screen is harder. We work hard at the livestream and trying to maintain connection through it – seeing different faces in the songs, readings and prayers, and zooming together at the end – but compared to the feast of our gathering it is survival rations. We can be both thankful for it and all those who work so hard to produce it and at the same time feel sad for what it is not, for the loss of regular Sunday gathering we will continue to experience on this timetable for months to come. But that is only one loss. The leaders of our ministries – for example Growth groups,  playgroup, mainly music, kid’s club, youth group to name the more prominent – are all working hard to keep us together, but we still feel the loss of not being with each other in person, and again many of our young people feel it profoundly.

I also felt sad for the pressure the timetable continues to place us under with its deferred relief and the continuing uncertainty of its numbers dependent steps. While, for example, some are planned to go back to school with the commencement of term 4 [depending on numbers] the timetable for years 3-9 is uncertain. So many will continue to work from home and do school from home, and do it without the help of others. And relief from loneliness, the capacity to meet friends is also numbers dependent and strung out over months. By the 26th October you can meet with ten outdoors and have an indoor household bubble with another household, but only by the 23rd of November can you move to 20 people in your home, if the numbers – no new cases state wide for fourteen days - allow it. This may or may not be necessary for Covid control, but it maintains the pressure of isolation for many more weeks. Telling people there is no other way and making these relaxations dependent on ambitious targets only increases hopelessness. And pressure can be destructive, exposing the cracks and weaknesses that are already there in relationships and patterns of life. This pressure – whether it is of tiredness, or loneliness, or anxiety about finances, or an inability to escape – is cumulative. With this announcement I felt sad for the continuing and accumulating pressure it continued to put many individuals and families under.

The danger of not being able to meet

And the timetable puts our common life under continuing pressure, exposes us to danger. Local churches thrive on commitment and relationships of loving service. Being committed to a local church though is often the product of conviction, concessions, and compromise, for we do not belong to a perfect church. So we have convictions, many – that we should meet together to encourage each other, for the Lord expects us and commands us to meet [Heb. 10:24-25]; about the need to hear God’s Word read and taught, for that is fundamental to our continuing life as disciples of Jesus, being taught to do all that He has commanded [Matt. 28:20, 2 Tim. 3:15-17]; about the need to bring our children up together as disciples of Jesus; about the need to love one another, and through that love show to the world what it is to be a disciple of Jesus; that we receive the gifts the Lord gives for His peoples continuing health and growth through our ministry to each other; that we do the Christian life and maintain our witness in the community better together. We have common convictions, but we come from many backgrounds and none of us are perfect in our life and ministry. There is always compromise and concession. Some of us, for example, would prefer more or less music, or music of a different style; some longer or shorter bible talks; some to have our children in through the service, and some out; some more creativity, some more routine. And at times we can find fault with the execution of anything that happens on a Sunday. None of us, and that includes me, has found the goldilocks church, or at least not every Sunday. But when we meet, the good of what we have together week by week, the wonder of knowing and being known by others as disciples, of ourselves or our children being served with a forebearing love, of hearing timely truth in the talk or conversation, even of finding what irritates us one week compensated for the next week, keeps us going on meeting together and stops us searching for the mirage of the perfect church. In fact in the context of committed love the differences and the discontents we have can help us all do better in the long run.

But not being able to meet puts that commitment under pressure, and that is the danger we face collectively. The medium of the live stream – the screen experienced in the isolation of your own home – is individualistic, consumer and entertainment oriented, and competitive. At home the need to make concessions and compromises is less. You can surf the world for the service that suits you perfectly – whether that is in teaching, or music, or time, or children’s program. The medium starts to determine the message and prioritise production values and media presence over content. And compulsory isolation can start to become voluntary withdrawal from others. Our danger is disconnection – disconnection from our brothers and sisters whom we are called to love, disconnection from a local community witness we are called to sustain, disconnection from relationships with those who teach in which we can test the truth and reality of what is taught. That is a real danger as restrictions continue, and seductive at first for it seems to conserve our low energy, make less demand on us, liberate us to live without compromise. Longer term such withdrawal, that loss of connection, is destructive to our Christian life individually and collectively, destructive to our witness and our discipling.

The effect of continuing sadness

Last Sunday I was saddened at the thought of this continuing pressure being applied to our common life and I speak to you of my sadness because I suspect many of you also feel sad. Acknowledging sadness helps us recognise its presence and its impact on our lives. Feeling sad, feeling grief at loss, tires us, it consumes energy. Many said the announcement was deflating, sucking energy out of their lives. That effect can continue even when we get over the initial disappointment. Where we feel we are struggling already that loss of energy can make us irritable and impatient, especially with those we feel are making it harder for us – whether that be those we live with, or the government, or with those who put demands on our attention on a Sunday morning. And continuing sadness is an uncomfortable state. We might feel we shouldn’t be sad. We might feel we can’t keep on feeling sad. Those feelings can then express themselves in all sorts of ways – whether it is looking for quick fixes in unhelpful places like alcohol or online porn, or a lack of motivation to stay in touch with others, or even withdrawing from those close to us, or anger which is just there waiting to focus on someone or something, anger which is often out of all proportion to the offence. Just the step of acknowledging our sadness can help us, helping us to begin to deal with the cause of other feelings and behaviours that trouble us. It will also help us resist the pressures that our continuing loss places us under individually and collectively.

What to do with continuing sadness

Seeing my sadness told me I needed to turn first of all to the Lord Jesus, for He is the only one in whom I can find lasting comfort and hope. He is ‘the shepherd and overseer of our souls’ [1 Pet. 2:25]. He knows us and knows what we are going through, He cares for us, and He has the power to keep us. He is gentle and lowly in Spirit and says He can give rest to our souls [Matt. 11:28-30]. And He loves His people, His bride [Eph. 5:25-27]. He will care for His church. Many seem to be putting their trust in politicians and their decisions, but we put our trust in the LORD, we wait for Him [Ps. 27:14] and take courage, for He is vigilant in His care for His people. There is a lot of comfort in reading Psalm 23 or Psalm 121, of knowing our help comes from the Lord who is the maker of heaven and earth.

Secondly recognising sadness tells me we must draw on our convictions, not our feelings, for guidance on how to live through this time. So we keep making the effort to stay connected –  we make calls, we pray for one another, we contribute where we can to our common life, and we hear together the word taught. Those who preach, including preaching on Ezekiel, preach with you in mind, and I will be talking on Sunday about why Ezekiel is the book for this moment even if it seems tough going. Depending on our circumstances that may mean listening to the service at a later time in the week, but we fight to counter disconnection. As restrictions are eased we think about how we can use what is permitted to encourage someone else. For example, from this Monday you can have two hours outdoors with another person, not exercising. Is there someone you could sit and talk with? But we will need to use these permissions wisely. At the third step, unless it is changed, we will be allowed to form a ‘household bubble’ with one other family but doing so could be divisive and exclusionary. Perhaps then it would be better to use the permission for outdoor gatherings of 10 more actively. And we must continue to be guided by our convictions in relating to those in authority, our conviction that our God instructs us in His word for our good. I have spoken before [August 7th] about Scriptures teaching on relating to government and I commend that talk to you. This is a time for showing our trust in Jesus and growing in our trust by doing what He says.

Thirdly, as we are embodied people recognising our sadness tells us to be disciplined, for the sake of others, to sleep, eat well and keep on doing healthy things we enjoy – whether that is exercise or playing games with the family.

One of the old Anglican prayerbook responsive prayers was from Psalm 28:9: “Save your people, and bless your inheritance.” The verse continues “Be their shepherd and carry them for ever.” This is a good prayer for us, and a comforting thought in our sadness – that our Good Shepherd will carry us for ever.          

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Well the lock down continues and next week I anticipate engaging in this talk with the contents of the Premier’s Sunday announcement and hopefully the ‘roadmap’ out of restrictions.

But not this week. This week it has been more of the same with one exception. The Tour de France has started and a little bit of French sunshine streams into my living room each day, and with it all the images of a highly sophisticated marketing strategy. There is the Tour marketing – the yellow banners, the little cyclist logo, the distinctive category jerseys, even the stuffed lion. And each team has its easily recognisable team colours and logo’s on jerseys, helmets, bicycles and buses. It is so easy to see which team a cyclist is on, and in which race they are competing. Instant recognition.

And it made me think - When you look at a crowd can you spot who is on team Jesus? With some faiths its easy. Sikhs with their turbans, Buddhist monks with their saffron robes, ultraorthodox Jews with their black coats and hats. But Christians? Jesus didn’t give His followers any instructions about distinctive dress or jewellry or even bumper stickers. But He did say there was a way people would be able to know who was on Team Jesus in the great race of life. On the night before He was crucified He said John 13: 34-35

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Team Jesus are marked by love for one another

At first you might think from a marketing point of view – not great. It’s hard to spot love when surveying the crowd. To see love between Jesus’ followers takes time, relationship, a community. But as the distinctive mark of Jesus’ people it clearly conveys what it is to be a follower of Jesus. To be a follower of Jesus is to know that you are loved, for the love Jesus commands us to show is the love we have first experienced from Him - just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Jesus’ love is the love that lays down His life for His friends [Jn. 15:13], lays down His life to give us life.

In loving we are responding to and being sustained by Jesus’ love for us, and it is no small thing in this world to know that you are loved, loved by someone who is always true, always faithful, always there, thoroughly committed with His whole being to your good. And to be a follower of Jesus is to be willingly commanded by Him, to trust Him as the One who has the authority to direct our lives, to trust Him even when what He asks is difficult. And it does cost to love our brothers and sisters as Jesus has loved us. It will cost us time and resources, as we share with those in need. At the moment it costs us energy, the energy required to think beyond the confines of our own little bubble, to ring up, to discipline our selves to pray, to drop over a meal. For some of us that can require a lot of effort. And this love costs us in dying to our own self preoccupation so we are not taken up entirely with our plans, our needs, our hurts or joys, but we create space in our lives for others. As we come out of these restrictions to love will mean paying the cost of re-engaging with each other, helping each other start to address some of the wounds restrictions have left. And this sign of belonging to His followers also tells the world that to be a follower of Jesus is to be transformed, for we do not naturally love as Jesus has loved us. This love testifies to the power of Jesus’ Spirit to change us to become more and more like Jesus.

Better than any form of dress this team marker shows to people the substance of being a follower of Jesus. In doing this it is also attractive, showing how good the Jesus we follow is. He does not engage us in the selfish and lonely pursuit of our own spiritual perfection. Love for Him is not a love that excludes the love of others – rather it calls for it. Devotion to Him makes us other person centred, because He is other person centred, always acting in love. And for those thinking of following Him to see this love amongst His people tells them that even if they lose family in following Jesus, even if they come to experience the world’s hatred, they will not be alone, but embraced in love.

More, this marker is able to be universally practiced and universally recognised. Clothing is culture and climate specific. But there is never a time or place where love cannot be practiced, and where the watching world cannot recognise the care believers show for each other, cannot see the good of thoughtful love. Jesus has given a mark of recognition that all His followers throughout the world and throughout history can practice, and through its practice show to their community the reality of following Jesus.

And in choosing this as the mark of His followers Jesus was seeking to protect people from counterfeits and believers from self deception. It is easy to pull on a jersey. Easy even to get baptised, give a testimony, make a membership profession. But in making love of our brothers and sisters the mark of being His follower Jesus has chosen an attitude and practice that is ongoing, not once off, that flows from within, a transformed heart, not just an external change. Those outside have been given by Jesus a mark that distinguishes His genuine followers from empty talkers and believers now have a continual test of the reality of their profession of trust in Jesus – as John says 1 John 4: 19-21

"We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother."

Those who follow the Tour de France know that in the race there are some pretty tough sections, either because of the gradient, or the cross winds, or the road surface. In our race there will always be tough sections, like the lockdown is for many. And coming out of lockdown will also be challenging – the challenges of uncertainty, continuing anxiety about infection, reconnecting, keeping a common mind on what to do and when. Let’s make sure people see we are in this race as Team Jesus in our dealing with these challenging times, can see the practice of a continuing thoughtful love, where no one is left alone and no one is left behind. Keep on thinking of others, speaking with others, giving of yourself to others. The Lord who commands us to love loves us, and He can sustain us by His Spirit in doing His will, in being His true followers even in weariness.

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Grappling with disturbing passages in Ezekiel

Ezekiel is a book different in many ways from the other prophets. In its location, its visionary experiences, its clear dating, and its language. The language is powerful as God tries to get across to a people who did not want to hear the reality of their sin and its consequences.

That language, as we heard last week in the description of what would happen when the people of Jerusalem experienced the covenant curses for their rebellion against God, can be disturbing. For example we read Ezekiel 5:9- 10 “Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.”[NIV]

That language is disturbing for all of us, intentionally so. But it represents a particular challenge for those of you who are watching the livestream with your children now we have moved the reading to be heard before the children’s talk. As there are other passages in Ezekiel with confronting language I thought today I would talk about how parents might engage with those readings but what I have to say will be useful for you all.

In our normal church services this would not be an issue as children would have gone out to Sunday School before the reading. But in the livestream we moved the readings to before the children’s talk as a result of the feedback we received from parents who wanted the children’s talk to relate to the passages being preached on. That relationship is more clearly seen where the reading is heard first, and having the children’s talk on the same theme hopefully will make both conversation about what was learnt and, for older children, engagement in the sermon, easier.

Perhaps when you gave that feedback you were not thinking of Ezekiel, but the themes covered in Ezekiel of sin and judgement, the faithfulness of God to His word, His desire to save, His patience, the glory of His salvation, knowing the LORD in His declaration and then performance of both judgement and salvation, are all very important for our children and us all to grasp. There may well, however, be passages that young children don’t have the capacity to process and hearing them may disturb or puzzle them, and put you on the spot as you try and explain them. What to do?

Preparing your children for the content in Ezekiel

Firstly, read ahead so that you are prepared.

Cat has prepared a schedule of the coming readings and also the particular verses that the children’s talk will focus on. As you read try and anticipate the questions your child might ask as they hear the bible reading or might come up in the passage preached.

For example, this week we will cover in the talk, not the reading, Ezekiel 9:6 which is part of the LORD’s instruction to the ‘executioners of the city’. The LORD says “Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark.” That is confronting for us all, a prophecy of what the Babylonians will do when they conquer the city for the LORD will execute His judgment through them. The emphasis is on the totality of the destruction. Like the flood in genesis 6 all are carried away in this judgement, but Ezekiel 9 also mentions those who will be spared. All are caught up in God’s judgments, children included – remember the flood is a type of the judgment at the end [Matthew 24:36-39] - so it would be good to be prepared to talk of how we can be amongst those spared judgment.

If in your reading you anticipate questions that you will find hard to answer, then get in touch or even video the question and send it in for Andy or someone else to answer in the new Q and A segment of the livestream.

There may be some passages that even with preparation you would rather young children not hear.

The only one of our readings this would apply to is Ezekiel 16 which speaks of Israel’s sinning in terms of sexual promiscuity and unfaithfulness, and also includes mention of child sacrifice. Ezekiel 23 is even more graphic. When we come to it on the 6th September we will be thinking about why God has chosen to communicate in this way, for it is the word of the LORD, but you may decide that the language and the explanation is beyond your young children at the moment. The great thing is that you can press the mute button while that is being read, or for the parts you think particularly difficult, and then tune in again for the children’s talk. Of course if you do press the mute button be ready with an explanation of why you are doing that for it will prompt your children’s curiosity.

Many years ago I glued together the pages of the picture bible that covered the book of Revelation. It was not so much the scariness of the images that prompted that action. I was disturbed by the translation of verbal images and symbols that appealed to the verbal imagination into concrete two dimensional pictures that lost the point and the power of the text. I learnt some years later that the sole outcome of that act of censorship was to ensure that the children went and unglued the pages and had a good look at them. So be ready to deal with the curiosity your action will incite.

The importance of reading all of scripture

The rest of us though should listen attentively to those passages. It is the word of God and it is important we listen even if we are shocked, even if we think no polite person would ever talk that way. We should be asking why and what – why has the LORD had to give that word, and what does it say about us that we are so slow to see the offence of our idolatry that we must be confronted in this way. More, what does it say about the LORD that He is willing to humble Himself to communicate to us in ways that might embarrass many of us. And when you are thinking this through remember that at the heart of our faith is a great obscenity, something that should truly offend and shock, and that is that the eternal glorious Word become flesh, the Son of God, should come into the world and not only does the world made by Him not recognise Him but it kills Him. Our world, humanity in rebellion against its Maker, takes one who is good, who always acts in love, who always speaks the truth, who is kind to the weak and young, compassionate to the suffering, who brings wholeness and peace, and it crucifies Him, exposes Him to the shame of a criminal’s cruel execution, an execution designed to be painful and humiliating. Isn’t that an obscene and shameless action on the part of humanity, and aren’t we glad that our God humbled Himself to endure the cross, to confront in this obscenity our sin and through it to bring us purity and righteousness, a life that is holy and noble. We should not flinch from seeing our sin as it is, as God presents it in Ezekiel, so that we can be humbled in our pride for ‘God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble’ [James 4:6]. Ezekiel, all of it, is given for our good.

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The long road to recovery

The numbers are thankfully slowly going down.

There is more talk of a vaccine, of vaccine candidates progressing to stage three trials, even of agreements to manufacture vaccines here in Australia.

As we come to the halfway point of the lockdown that is encouraging news. Although the next three weeks will continue to be tough and any realistic impact of a vaccine many months away, probably well into next year, we seem to be heading in the right direction.

But it is still a long road to recovery. I am longing to be able to see and talk with people face to face, to be able to meet together again in the building, to get back to what we have considered up till now to be normal, but things won’t just return to the way they were when, we hope, stage 4 restrictions are lifted in September. In the coming months we might be able to start having small groups in our homes. We might start to be able to have small numbers in our building, with facemasks. But getting back to normality will take many months and Staff and Session are continuing to engage with that. Already we are thinking about how to do our Christmas events on line and how to run GSF as a program delivered, not in the church, but in your home. To help us manage that long recovery, and also to free Andy up to produce more on line resources, especially evangelistic resources, the Board have voted to employ Cat Camilleri for extra hours. She will be using her administrative and IT skills to facilitate both our current on line services and our gradual return to the building. We are grateful for the extra help.

But planning is not a substitute for enjoying. To get back to some semblance of normal – to be able to travel freely, have family and friends over, to play games with others outside, or watch others playing games, to even to be able to visit people in hospital or to see weddings resuming, is something I, and I suspect many of you, long for.

The continued absence of God in our world

But if normal means returning to the public absence of God I don’t want to go back to that. Pre-covid our politicians and media promoted the plausibility of God’s absence from our world. They do not talk of God as if He is real or acts in the real world. In our society’s public conversation we are the sources of our own prosperity just as we are the sources of our own salvation from this pandemic. We look to our collective action, or to our medical professionals, or to science, to solve our problems but we do not look to God in public life. Talk of God, if we must talk of God, is confined to religion, and religion has a place as a private human activity or a pressure group to be either appeased or ignored depending on the circumstances. It is not a response to anything or anyone who does things in the world.

Prayer, and I have heard the Premier mention praying, is something to turn to after everything else, a kind of prayer of the gaps when all your own resources seem inadequate, a kind of wish without confidence that it will be heard, or that there is anyone to hear it.

The plausibility of the living God’s absence has affected our public response to the pandemic. God’s word says that pestilence is one of the weapons in God’s arsenal by which He can carry out His just sentence on sin [e.g. Ezk. 5:17, Rev. 6:7-9] and we see how easily God can bring a society to a halt and drive away its prosperity with a small virus. The experience of the pandemic, and of the drought and bushfires before them, should make us think how terrible it would be to live in defiance of the living God, to have Him against us, for this virus is just a fraction of His might. We should, and previous generations have publicly, turned to God for mercy. But God’s absence from the world has meant that in our public response there is no humbling ourselves before God. I suspect it has never occurred to our current leaders to do so. That is tragic. Disciplined collective action, medical knowledge and skills, science, are all good gifts of God, to be received with thankfulness, but they cannot substitute for the Giver. Nor can they reverse God’s judgments. As Proverbs 21:30 says "No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD.” If the LORD in His justice is determined to take away a nation or a people’s prosperity, to humble their pride, nothing will stop Him. We should recognise that and turn to Him but having driven the Creator God from public life our leaders do not know how or where to turn to Him, or are afraid in a multifaith society of acknowledging the Christian God as the true God.

Promoting God's presence to our world

If God in His mercy, as we pray, does turn aside the pandemic, bring its effects to an end, restore to us some of our freedoms and prosperity, I do not think the promotion of God’s absence in public will change unless God turns the hearts of many to Him. So many have a vested interest in their own autonomy, in being able to pursue their sin without fear, to worship their idols without confrontation with the true God, that they do not want to hear of the living and true God. But believers must be different. We must promote, individually and collectively, in word and deed, the presence of God in our world, the plausibility of believing in the God of Christians, the God, as Paul said to the sophisticated Athenians, who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, and who gives to all people life and breath and everything [Acts 17:24-25]. How do we do that?

• Give heartfelt thanks to God

We practice habits of thinking and speaking that always acknowledge our dependence on him. So we give heartfelt thanks to God for His gifts, including our prosperity and health. We acknowledge they come from Him, just as our life does. And when, Lord willing, the corona virus recedes from our lives, we give thanks to the LORD for that, publicly. In daily life, when our family are gathered, when our friends are in our homes enjoying life with us, we say grace for meals. When we welcome a new baby, we give thanks. In getting a job, or getting married, we give thanks.

• Turn to God first for help

And we turn to God first for help. In 2 Chronicles 16 we read of the sad end of the reign of King Asa of Judah, an otherwise good king. Having turned to God in trouble earlier in his reign [2 Chronicles 14] when threatened with military invasion by the northern kingdom of Israel towards the end of his reign he entered into an alliance with the Syrians to defeat Israel without seeking God. God sent His prophet Hanani to rebuke him for not relying on the LORD which angered Asa and landed Hanani in the stocks. And then we read “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians.” [ 2 Chron. 16:11] Prospered by the LORD Asa had become used to wealth and power, to relying on the means God had given him and not on the LORD who had given Him those means. Living in such a rich society we can become like Asa, like our society – relying on the means – our wealth and knowledge, turning to them first and not turning to the LORD. Yet the LORD is the giver of those means. From him comes knowledge and the skill to use it, and He determines their effectiveness [Isaiah 54:16-17]. We pray first, for the LORD is the one who kills and makes alive, who wounds and who heals [Deut. 32:39]. Our lives are in His hands.

• Say "Lord willing" publically when making plans

More. We refuse to play by the conversational and linguistic rules that would exclude God and His rule. So when making plans, business or study or personal plans, we say in public 'Lord willing' [James 4:13-17]. That is reality. We talk of husbands and wives, not partners, for marriage is God’s gift and this is God’s world, and He gave marriage between a man and a woman. We don’t acquiesce to use pronouns that confuse humanity as created male and female. It is about more than politeness – it is about acknowledging us as created beings, sustaining a world view in which God is Creator. We speak of our God where we can, of His will as guiding our decisions and choices, of our trusting Him in our trials, of the comfort we receive from His promises in our grief. This should flow naturally from our lips because Christ is in our hearts.

• Invite conversations about God with others

But if we want to speak of our God, then we must be willing to listen to others speak of their gods. We want freedom to speak, not control of what others say.

Inviting others to speak first of what they think and believe may open the door for further conversation about the true God, and if you are interested in how even as restrictions are slowly eased we can start having conversations with our neighbours about the Lord, about how together we can invite our non-Christian friends to leave the world where God is absent and enter the real world where Jesus is Lord, I would encourage you to read Sam Chan’s Evangelism in a Sceptical World. It has been promoted before, and if you want to get a taste of what you will find there Sam has a podcast on the TGC US website, and the link is in the transcript. 

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/tgc-podcast/how-to-share-the-gospel-for-all-to-hear/

Keep praying that the Lord would be merciful and bring the virus and its effect to an end. Pray for each other to be sustained through this time. But pray for more. Pray that people would repent and come to acknowledge the LORD as God, to whom they owe life and everything.

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The encouragement of seeing others serve

As I was waiting at the food drop off on Tuesday, chatting to people as they brought in their donation, I wished all of you could enjoy the many encouragements I have received over these past weeks. One of the effects of this isolation is that you don’t get to see or enjoy the good that so many of you are persevering in. I don’t see it all, but I do see more than most. For example, even if you brought food to the drop off – and we will have the gate opening fixed by the next drop off - you might have only seen one or two people. But I got to see many more of you who had set aside time and groceries to show kindness to the La Trobe students, a pretty constant stream of vehicles and shopping bags. I went home giving thanks, as Paul does for the Thessalonians, for “your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus.” [1 Thess. 1:3]

But it is not just at foodbank drop off that I see your faith, love and hope. I have recently looked at the three meal trains that are running, discussed with the deacons support of the Iranians, hear as I speak with some of you of the other conversations you are having, the calls you are making.

I meet with the Elders and BOM who are labouring faithfully at serving the congregation, with the BOM I receive monthly financial updates and know your consistent generous financial support,  week by week.

I meet with the staff and learn of their own work and the work of others, whether that is in producing the services, sustaining growth groups, organising the women’s conference or just staying in touch.

I am thankful for these many encouragements, many reminders of the work of God’s Spirit in His people as He moves them to love and sustains them in service. I want you to know of these encouragements because we all need encouragement in the face of the discouragements of this time.

Let me share some more.

The encouragement of God's family

We can feel we are alone, but those phone calls and meal trains keep reminding us that we are together part of a larger family, a family God has called us into through the gospel of Jesus, a family our Lord has said is to be marked out by love. We may not be aware of all that the family is doing, may be conscious of what is happening only in the small circle of people left to you by the restrictions, but you and I are part of the Lord’s family and that family is continuing to serve in love.

Another encouraging example for you: many, well over one hundred, are praying diligently for you and other members of the congregation day by day using the names given in the daily devotion. When we feel alone it is encouraging to know we are part of a larger loving family, a family that can be called on in need.

The encouragement of Jesus' protection

We can become anxious about the church not being able to meet, and feel we are losing a sense of the whole. There is sadness in not meeting together but we don’t need to be anxious. The Lord Jesus has said the gates of hell will not prevail against His church so don’t think this interruption will do long term damage. We have learnt in Ephesians that the Lord Jesus, who is exalted over all rule and authority and power and dominion, exalted above every name that is named [Eph. 1:20-22], is the head of His church. We believers, His church, are joined to him and He can keep us safe and secure, collectively as well as individually. The church’s health and security, its present and future, depends on Him. Isn’t that encouraging? We just need to be faithful, to trust His promises and direction and do what He says, and when we know His love and power that trust is not difficult just as a child trusting a good parent is not difficult. It is the inclination of hearts convicted of His love in saving us by His death while we were sinners.

We can feel that we are just marking time, putting life on hold. But your persevering faith, love and hope is a sign that our heavenly Father is not marking time. He is through this time continuing to nurture the life He has planted in us, continuing to mature in us Christlikeness of character, and it is encouraging to know that.

The encouragment of God's committment to us

And God’s continuing work in us points us to its origin, God’s initiative to save us, His electing choice. After Paul had written to the Thessalonians of the thanks he gave to God for their faith, love and hope he continued: “For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you.” Paul could give thanks to God for their faith, love and hope because he knew it was the fruit of God’s choice, God’s call, God’s work in them. That choice of the Thessalonian believers was first manifested in their reception of the gospel with full conviction and joy given by the Spirit even as they suffered for believing in Jesus. But it continued to be seen in their persevering faith, their loving service of their brothers and sisters, and their steadfast hope.

Election, the reality that our salvation in Christ through grace and faith on the basis of Christ’s death is the result of God’s choice, of His eternal will and purpose to save individuals, is often tiptoed around as if we ought to be embarrassed by God getting all the praise and glory for our salvation. Yet, as the Anglican Prayer Book says, ‘the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons.” [Article XVII]. That is true.

Isn’t it comforting to know in times of trial that, as Paul writes in Ephesians 1, we are believers because God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him? That it is His purpose that we be adopted as His children and that He has provided through the death of His Son all that is needed to bring this about? [Eph 1:3-10]. Isn’t it comforting to know as Paul says to the Thessalonians that ‘God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him.” [1 Thess. 5:9-11]    

 God has committed Himself to saving us. He has done it freely, out of His own mercy and love, not because of any deserving on our part. Depending on His love that commitment is sure. In our struggles, under trial, we are not left to our own devices to do the best we can on our own. As Paul says in Philippians having begun a good work in us our God will ‘bring it to completion at the day of Christ” [Phil. 1:6].

We are frail people, often of little strength in ourselves to withstand the upsets and disappointments of life. But our hope does not rest on our abilities or our work for God, but on His love and almighty power, on His work for and in us, a work that is the outworking of His predestining will to save His people in Christ. God never fails in His purpose, and isn’t there encouragement in that, a reason for confidence in the present and the future.

Convicted of that eternal purpose of God Paul writes in Romans those words which have been a comfort to so many.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." [Romans 8:28-30]

Take encouragement in these days where you can, but don’t neglect to meditate on our God, and His revelation of His eternal, sovereign and gracious purpose to save His people in Christ, a purpose He is continuing to work out for us through these times.

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Having spent Wednesday evening filing out the Permitted Worker Permits for the staff and those involved in the live streaming of the service I spent some time on Thursday re-reading passages in the New Testament that speak about the believer’s relationship with governments and authorities. You see I am appalled at the thought that while going about my lawful business I could be pulled over by a police man or woman to see if I have the permission of the state to go about my work. And as the week has unfolded my concern has grown about how quickly the State becomes totalitarian in thinking and reach, where it claims the authority to tell me how long I can spend outside, whether I can work or not, whether I can have people inside my own home, where I can go, claims the authority to control my movement and associations, and denies innocent activity to protect its power. For example, I normally drive Jayne to work at the Austin. It keeps her off the train in these times and as I never get out of the car it poses no risk to anyone. But it is now forbidden, not because there is any harm or wrong in it, but because the State must remove cars from the roads to protect its capacity to police its regulations. With that move to greater State control is a troubling disempowerment of individual responsibility, whether that is for our own health or for our own financial provision, a disempowerment that can pave the way for greater dependence on the State in the future.

And I am disturbed and distressed by the real harm the State’s directives are doing, whether it is to people’s mental health or their livelihoods and by the arrogance that says it can do harm because the state has it in its power to heal the harm. I am not convinced at all this is the case.

What am I to do with my upset and concern, with my distress? What am I to do with the disturbing demands of the State, enforced by threat of punishment, for conformity to a rule which overreaches its capacity? As some, perhaps many, may share some of these reactions to the State’s response to the Covid 19 outbreak and are struggling with complying cheerfully I thought I would share how I have worked through my response to our present circumstance.

The limitations of government and the wisdom of God's Word

Events make clear the State Government is not all wise nor all powerful. There is so much it cannot control, whether quarantine or nursing homes, so much of the impact of its decisions on individual lives that it cannot reckon with let alone compensate for. And the State is often in conflict with itself. For example, the expressive individualism it has nurtured in its ideological support of sexual diversity it must now suppress amongst those who oppose these regulations, with all the anger such inconsistency and unequal treatment of so-called ‘rights’ generates. There is no comfort in thinking the State has got it right, for I cannot be sure if the cost being paid is worth it. I do not submit to the State because I agree with its decisions and rulings, think they are the wisest and best responses that could be made, or trust it to be able to save my life.

Yet there is One who is all powerful and all wise, our God. More, unlike the State He knows me individually and He cares for me deeply, loves me so much that He has given His Son to save me. He calls me by name in the gospel of Jesus, and says even the hairs of my head are all numbered, and will most definitely save me for He has given His word in the gospel to keep me and all believers in Jesus in life and death. In my distress I can turn to His word for guidance and direction, and embrace it knowing He has given that word for my good. And so I turned again to Romans 13, Titus 3 and 1 Peter 2. Let me read these with you, starting at Romans 13.

Romans 13:17

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed." 

Romans is very clear. I need to submit myself, despite my doubts about the state’s wisdom, to its authority. In particular I should avoid the bad behaviour the State by these rules is trying to prevent, in our case the congregation of people and the transmission of the virus.

And the governing authorities Paul is speaking about to the Romans were no better than our authorities. Roman rule was self interested, often arbitrary and inconsistent, changing with the changing of governors and other officials. Sometimes it was corrupt, and the rule of the empire was always verging on idolatrous claims from the time of Augustus who was proclaimed as the saviour of the world.

Yet believers were to submit as part of love of neighbour for as the ancient world knew, order was better than disorder, government better than chaos. And Romans says that if I have a problem with government I should take it up with God for the ruler is His servant. Concern with the direction our rulers are taking is a matter for prayer, not grumbling

In Titus Paul reiterates the point.

Titus 3:1-2

"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people."

Here he also reminds us to speak evil of no-one. When we are anxious or angry our language can become inflammatory and we can think and say the worst of others, especially those who seem to be making our lives more difficult or who disagree with us. We should not speak in that way, especially of those who are labouring with a very difficult and for them unprecedented problem. None of us has a right to vent our anger and frustration in slandering others. And the ‘all people’ to whom we must show perfect courtesy includes the police who may pull us over, or the person on the end of the phone trying to answer our questions about regulations.

And it is not just Paul who tells us to submit. Listen to Peter.

1 Peter 2:13-17

"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor."

We are, says Peter, free people, people who have been adopted into God’s family. But our freedom is found in serving God who calls us to be subject for the Lord’s sake to our rulers.

Applying God's Word

So what am I to do with my upset and my distress at the harm I see being inflicted on the alone and the vulnerable, the stress brought into the lives of those trying to both work and do school from home, the anger I occasionally feel at the restriction of innocent freedoms?

Although I may feel those things deeply, and have serious concerns about the effects of the government’s strategy, this too is an area where I must die to myself to do the will of God, to submit to authorities, to show courtesy, and not grumble. To die to myself because I trust Jesus who is able to keep and provide for His people who seek first His kingdom and righteousness, who conform their lives to His good teaching.

So for the Lord’s sake, as a free person serving my good God, I will fill out forms, pursue clarification of unclear directions, re-arrange meal trains, seek to find ways to mitigate the harms I see being done through isolation and fear, and endure trusting the Lord who rules over all things.

And I will pray for those in authority as I am commanded in 1 Timothy 2, pray that their decisions will give us that peaceful and quiet life where we can live godly lives that testify in word and deed to the Lord Jesus. I will pray that in the Lord’s will He prospers their efforts to control the spread of the virus. And I will pray for them as stressed humans, for who of us would want to have to make the decisions they are being called upon to make, pray that they would humble themselves to seek the King of kings who alone can bring plans for good to fruition, the one in whom they can also can find comfort and wisdom as they turn back to Him.

And I will dare to hope that this experience will prompt a re-think. That people will turn away from  locating all authority and hope in either the state or the individual, from the allure of both totalitarianism and expressive individualism, to confess that the authority to rule our lives lies with the living God, to see that His rule alone, a commitment to His righteousness and justice, in the end preserves both our freedoms and good order, and that He alone is our hope.

And brothers and sisters, the path of denying myself, dying to myself to do the Lord’s good will, is the path for us all at this time.

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WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT

Concerned for my well being in locked down Victoria, my out-of-state elder sister, rings me from time to time to check on me. The conversations are wide ranging and last time we spoke of how good it would be to see each other face to face, hopefully before the end of the year. But then I added – "Of course, I might be dead by then".

That was not morbid, just a statement of reality. The Lord knows the time of our death [Psalm 139:16] but none of us knows the time of our death and for mortal creatures dying is always a possibility at any time. Perhaps dying before the end of the year is even an increased probability in this time of Covid for those of us who are older. It is in the Lord’s hands.

How should I think about dying? How should you?

Is it a great personal disaster to be avoided at all costs?

Or is it something that I as a believer can look forward to, not dying in itself, but, in Paul’s words ‘departing to be with Christ’ which he goes on to say is ‘better by far’ [Phil. 1:23]. Better by far!

So today I want to talk about dying, about your dying. It is too late when you are dialling triple zero because of shortness of breath for you to get ready to die, to get ready for what has always been inevitable. Now is the time, and I would hate any of you to come to death unprepared, not at peace with God, to come to that time without the confident hope Christ died and rose to give believers.

Death is not the consolation prize

Believers in Christ do have a wonderful and sure hope, being with Christ when we die and then sharing in the resurrection to eternal life in the new heaven and earth. [1 Cor. 15:12-56]. That is the hope every believer confesses month by month in the Apostle’s creed. We believe, we say, in the resurrection of the dead.

Yet my impression is that for many believers this is not what they are longing and living for. Rather they see it as the consolation prize if somehow they are unlucky enough to die. You know the consolation prize. That’s the prize you weren’t in the competition to win. Many seem to have embraced the Christian faith for what they think it will deliver in this life – for those affected by false prosperity teaching that is health, wealth, success, but for many orthodox believers the focus is still on the present blessings of the gospel: a life with meaning, guidance, present forgiveness, a way of life, a family culture – and the Christian hope is a kind of afterthought, that part of the software suite that came with the computer that you don’t think you will ever use, an extra functionality for the real nerds.

Yet in the New Testament the Christian hope is front and centre of a believer’s vision. Consider Paul speaking in 2 Corinthians. Having spoken of his present sufferings Paul goes on to say:

'So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.' [2 Cor 4:16-5:8]

Paul is under no illusions about this present life. He knows it is marked by mortality, by wasting away, by affliction. The present is transient, and a place of burden, groaning and grief. He longs for his heavenly home, his eternal home; for death to be swallowed up by life. He would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Being with Christ in the resurrection body is not the consolation; it is the goal. It is not something reluctantly accepted but looked forward to. It is his preference, not his fall back. And it is guaranteed to us now by God’s gift to us of His Spirit.

This sure and longed for hope is then something that gives direction and purpose to his present life.

'So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.' [2 Cor 5:9-10]

To see the Christian hope, being with the Lord and rising with Him, as the consolation prize betrays our worldliness, that our minds are fixed on and we are caught up with the things of this world – our plans, even our plans for the church or evangelism; our business affairs, our present loves, our present pleasures – and we are not living in all things with the single minded desire to please Jesus. If we were, we would see the world as He sees it, and we would be longing to be with Him, longing for the fulness of His promise.

More, to see the Christian hope as the consolation prize robs our neighbours of the opportunity to be challenged by our hope. Death confronts them, they live with the fear of death and there is no hope in saying ‘well then you just rot’. That is a statement of infinite loss, for life and death are infinitely separated. And there is no hope in the ‘maybe’s’. Maybe I will have a better rebirth. Maybe I will prove good enough when my behaviour is weighed in the scales of God’s justice. There is in the ‘maybe’ only fear of judgment, fear of the unknown outcome, fear of hell for those who know their own sinfulness.

Dying is not a disaster for the believer 

Dying for the believer is not a personal disaster. To depart and be with Christ is better by far. It is not a disaster for the believer’s family who share her faith, nor for their church which is loved by the sovereign Lord.

There will be grief, for death in this life is a horrible breaking of bonds, a permanent absence, loss without compensation. Death is an ugly oppressor of our race, and grief is the ever-present chorus to our lives, the constantly returning refrain to everyone’s tune.

There will be grief, but comfort for those who know your hope, that you were not just accepting but looking forward to being with the Lord, looking forward to enjoying the blessedness of those who die in the Lord and rest from their labours [Rev. 14:13]. More, others seeing the reality of your hope in the way you live now for Jesus might ask you of its source, and you can share the truth of Jesus with them so that your hope can become their hope.

In a world where all die make sure you are ready to die by having made peace with the living God through repentance and faith in His Son Jesus, by believing His gospel that He has died for our sins and risen to live forever, risen with authority to forgive and judge and then living to do His will. Turn away from worldliness to become someone who lives for Jesus now and longs to be with Jesus because you love Him and your heart, your will, is given to Him. Be someone who can say and genuinely believe with Paul that 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain' [Phil. 1:21], someone for whom death does not bring the consolation prize but ushers in the satisfaction of the longing of their soul and the fulfilment of their hope.

WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT

Heading into the long haul

We are all wearing masks when we are outside now and with that development I guess we all know now that we are in for the long haul as a community in dealing with the virus and the disruption to our lives that brings.

There is a disappointment in that recognition. For some it compounds their grief and anxiety at the major disruption of losing work and the prospect of being out of work for many more months. For many of us the disappointment is in the myriad of ‘small’ disappointments and inconveniences the response to the virus brings – new mothers whose husbands will be restricted in their ability to be with them in hospital, birthdays whose celebrations will be muted, working from home while trying to manage schooling from home, grandchildren or grandparents who cannot be visited. While ‘small’ in the big scheme of things these can have a large impact on how we feel. Even the necessity of wearing masks outside works as a constant reminder of the loss of things we value, our openness and freedom as a society.

Dealing with those disappointments and inconveniences takes energy. We can’t park our lives like Qantas jets in the Mojave desert, idle until needed. We can’t hibernate. We, individually and collectively, must live through this energy depleting time, find a way to sustain our lives in such a way that we come out well on the other side. And there will be another side, an end to this – even if we feel that end slipping further and further into the distance.

Much of what we have talked about in the months before has been about sustaining our lives as believers. It means focusing, not on our lifestyle and compensating for lifestyle loss, but on our relationships – our relationship with our heavenly Father, our relationship with those we live with,  our relationships as a congregation. I hope that you have found seeking our Father in prayer and reading God’s word, remembering Who He is and what HE has done for us in Christ, to be refreshing, not burdensome, at this time, light in our gloom. And practicing what He commands in our homes – thoughtful love of others, speech that builds up and encourages, a habit of thankfulness, a humility that can say sorry and a grace that can forgive, self control – will leave our relationships stronger. And we must also sustain our relationships as a congregation.

Our livestream services - changes in light of the survey

A large part of sustaining our collective identity as a congregation is maintaining our livestream service. Many have let us know they are appreciating the service and we have been encouraged by the responses to the survey, especially by the numbers tuning in week by week and being disciplined in setting aside that time on a Sunday to meet, even if virtually. Knowing now that the Live stream will continue for many months to come we have been thinking about how we can both continue to improve what we do in light of the feedback received and also make the service sustainable for those who produce it. Those two goals – sustainability and improvement – will mean that you will see some changes in the livestream over the next few weeks, and the rest of this talk is about those changes.

Some changes have already been made.

• The new log-in that allows us to know who is watching and who might need more encouragement.
• Continuing incremental improvements in the technical aspects of recording and live streaming as we become more used to recording and talking to camera.
•  The use of the time before and after the service for some of our more routine announcements.
• Expect continuing changes to announcements as we seek to use the announcement time in the service to highlight one or two key announcements and move the rest, the reminders, to before or after the service. Those reminders will also all be able to be found on our web page at bpc.org.au/live.
• We will also be seeking to have the bible reading text on the screen alongside the reader, and to be identifying participants in the service along with the congregation they come from.
• We will be retaining the mix of live and pre-recorded elements, which may vary week by week depending on whether anyone is in quarantine.
• In relation to the service leading expect to see the Pastors doing a little more of the leading. It is good to see many faces and all our leaders do a good job but we are keen for the connection and the opportunity service leading gives to pastor you.

Inteviews, Children's Talks & Music

The new elements of the service – e.g. interviews and children’s talks – have been appreciated. We will continue to work on those and some of the opportunities that the pre-recorded medium gives us. Sometimes you will see Psalms at the beginning of the service, and around the announcement time or elsewhere in the service there will be either interviews, testimonies, or a short answer to some questions either your children or others might ask. We will be trying to be conscious of the children’s presence in the lead up to the sermon and during the sermon as many have told us they are watching the service with their children.

In relation to the children’s talk from the start of the Ezekiel series – which starts on August 16th – we will be relating the talk to the content of the sermon, and it will follow the bible reading with a song now coming between the children’s talk and the sermon. Some of you have indicated that finding and using resources to help your children learn through the service can be a very mixed experience, so we will produce outlines and activity sheets that the children can use and that relate to sermon series. Nurturing our children through this time is something we have to do together, so if you have good ideas – share them with us and other parents, and keep giving feedback about what is working and what is not.

The whole music/singing experience is very varied on livestream. Some find it difficult to sing on their own, and some love it. Recording music is also very time consuming. To help the sustainability of the service we will be reducing the songs from five to three in both services. This will also help us manage the length of the service. We are aware that for many, especially if you have young children, sitting in front of a screen and trying to concentrate is not easy for any length of time, so we will be trying to keep the services to about seventy minutes except on the Sundays where we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Having said that you will recognise that we are not perfect people and there will, at times, be a gap between aspiration and achievement.

If I am honest that gap will probably be on display when I start preaching on Ezekiel. It is an important book that we will be trying to cover in 12-13 weeks by looking at key chapters.

Ezekiel sermon series

In Ezekiel we will meet the God who does the unthinkable, whether in judgment or salvation. It is at times shocking. I have always preached on the basis that if God has bothered to speak to us, we should listen to Him, and that listening to His word is so important that it should not be subject to artificial constraints that are largely culturally determined. God’s Word always has priority and so I have laboured more to be clear than to be brief, to say what is there in the text rather than select what I think people need to hear. But I am aware that listening to someone speaking on a screen is often harder, so you might pray that I can to some extent accommodate to the medium. I would encourage you, especially with Ezekiel, to prepare to listen by reading the passage and praying about it beforehand so you come ready to engage with the text, with what God in His kindness has been pleased to say to us. It is in many ways an unusual book so I am looking forward to having questions in the Zoom meeting afterwards.

We have put a summary of responses to the survey on the website. It also canvassed views on when we might return to meeting face to face. All that seems a little academic at the moment but your responses will help us when the time comes to revisit the question. A large majority were in favour of continuing the livestream in some form after we return to meeting in the building. Session has heard that and has committed itself to continuing the livestream. The details – whether subscription or public, from which service, privacy issues – are still being discussed, but we have months for that discussion.

Finally in relation to sustainability just a reminder that Clinton, Chris and I take Monday off, and Andy Thursday off.

Yesterday morning I read “The LORD takes delight in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds.” Psalm 149:4-5. I have talked about sustaining our lives as believers, individually and collectively. But our hope is in the LORD who delights in His people. We can be confident He can sustain our life, sustain a joy that sings. He is our good shepherd who promises His flock will not want, who can restore our souls, who promises us goodness and mercy all our days. We trust Him for the days ahead and so despite disappointments are of good heart. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with us all.

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The gift of God's word to give us words to pray

Have you been giving thanks over this period of Covid lockdown with its weariness and anxieties for the gift of words? The gift God gives us in His Word of words by which we can address Him, bring our hearts to Him? I have. When I am tired and weary I often find words to speak to God hard to find, or hard to give them any structure or flow. I want to pray but find it hard to start, hard to fashion the thoughts and words I need. When I am anxious and preoccupied I can easily find myself unable to see beyond the present concern, fixated on my troubles, almost imprisoned in them in my prayers. I can lose sight of God’s greatness, or of others and other concerns that are equally deserving of my prayers. At these times the words God has given us to pray to Him I have found so helpful in bringing my heart to my heavenly Father and in addressing my heart, so that my soul is encouraged and refreshed. Let me share some of this gift with you, so that these words can also serve you in your need.

The Lord's Prayer

Take the Lord’s prayer that I pray every day. ‘Hallowed be thy name’. First and before everything else I am praying that my Father would cause me to treat His name, His revelation of who He is, with all seriousness. I am asking God to move me in all that is happening to believe everything He has said about Himself – His might and His steadfast love, His holiness and mercy. More, that I would believe all His promises, heed all His warnings. And in this prayer, with its ‘our’s, I am praying that not just for me but for every believer I know. In this petition the Lord has given me words to ask for my greatest need at any time, but particularly at this time, the need to know my God and live as one who knows Him. And then my heart is turned away from the world to focus my longing on the coming of our Lord Jesus in glory – ‘Thy kingdom come’. God has a plan and that will climax in the exaltation of His Son when every knee bows to Him and the new heaven and earth is established. Longing for that time is so health giving, and to orient my heart to that great goal gives me perspective on what I experience now.

 In every line of this prayer Jesus gave His followers I can express my present need and concerns, not just for me but for my brothers and sisters. ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ – we can commit our concern about our livelihoods to Him and be assured He has heard us in our concern. And if you have been blessed as I have with more than sufficient provision, in this phrase we can ask for grace to use what He has entrusted to us well at this time, to share that daily bread with those in need. I won’t go through the other lines as I want to draw your attention to the other God given words of address, but if you are weary, or you are finding it hard to structure your longings and needs, try these words, the words of the Lord’s prayer, that can encompass all our relationships and needs.

The Prayers of Paul

But we do have other prayers. Take Paul’s thanksgivings and prayers, found at the beginning of so many of his letters [Romans 1:8-10, 15:30-33; 1 Cor. 1:4-9; Eph. 1:15-23, 3:14-21; Phil. 1:3-4, 9-11; Col. 1:3-4, 9-12; 1 Thess. 1:2-3, 3:11-13; 2 Thess. 1:3, 11-12]. We know this is a time to be praying for one another, but what to pray as you look at those names in the daily devotion or in the directory. What to pray is a challenge if you don’t know that brother or sister or their circumstances well. God gives us words in His word. I turn to Paul and am encouraged to give thanks for your faith and love. For me, that thanksgiving is a reassuring reminder even when I can’t see you of God’s work in you that will keep you and grow you.

Then, for example, taking Paul’s words in Philippians I pray that your love would abound in knowledge and discernment so that you will approve what is excellent and be kept pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness. And isn’t it good to seek this for each other from God. It is easy at this time for our love, like our engagement with others, to shrink, not abound. And it can be perplexing with all these restrictions to know how to love, and especially to know what is best – we need knowledge and discernment. And with the temptations of isolation to selfishness and indulgence we need to be kept pure and blameless. These words God gives us to pray bring us to pray for each other what we really need.

Or consider Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 that we would grow in knowledge of Christ’s love for us. When we are enduring trial as we are, isn’t this a wonderful thing, a most necessary work of God, to be able to seek from God for each other, for each of your brothers and sisters. Knowing the love of Jesus is the source of joyful endurance and thankful perseverance in following Jesus, a driver of transforming growth to be like Jesus. To pray that our brother or sister would know more of that love is timely, loving, service of them.

The Psalms

But the biggest collection of words that God gives us by which we can address Him is found in the Psalms. Here we find words that match all our circumstances. There may be times when you are longing for relief. God teaches you to pray “How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” Psalm 13. You may be facing trouble, the hostility of others, and you are conscious of your own weakness and frailty. “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses” the Psalmist prays in Psalm 25:16-17. Or perhaps you are conscious of the distance that has entered into your relationship with God because of your sin, and you fear that, fear being cut off forever – God has given you Psalm 51.

This is just a small sample of the great treasure the Christian heart has in the Psalms. One more example. I am often full of needs, my own and others, and forget praise and thanksgiving, or find it hard. The Psalms help and correct me. This morning I read/prayed Psalm 147 out loud – “Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God.” It was good, good to praise my God and in the process be reminded of the greatness of His might and love, that He is the God who rules over nature – sending the rain and snow, and the God who heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds [Ps. 147:3].

We are a society that loves novelty and that suggests that if the words are not your own your prayer or praise is not genuine. That is not true where our heart is in the words we have borrowed from others. Yet that is a belief that can frustrate our praying, burden us further when we are already weary. God has given us a great gift in giving us in His word words by which we can pray to Him. Use them so that your prayer life can be enabled and enriched at what is a testing time for so many of us. Use them so that you too can be thankful to our gracious God for the words He has given us to come to Him and receive from Him His mercy and grace in our need.

And as a postscript. Thank you again to all those who have filled out the survey. The staff and session have been discussing the responses and how they inform the development of our livestream over the coming months. We hope to publish the survey responses and the conclusions of our discussion next week, Lord willing.

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Disappointment and weariness

Like you I have spent the week digesting the Premier’s announcement on Tuesday of the re-imposition of Stage 3 restrictions in Melbourne. That re-imposition makes a tangible difference to our services which you will witness this Sunday, with only five allowed in the building for the production of the livestream. In the coming weeks we will go back to having more elements pre-recorded and less live from the building, with all the work that involves. Stage 3 restrictions also means that sadly we are unable to have visitors in our homes.

But it has been the emotional impact of the announcement that has struck me, articulated by many in terms of disappointment and weariness. Disappointment, not in the premier for making the call to re-impose restrictions, but in the growth of transmission that made the call sadly necessary. We were enjoying the easing up of restrictions, starting to hope that we would escape the more severe health and economic impacts of the virus, becoming more confident of a future we could plan and prosper in. But the Premier’s announcement reminded us that the threat to our lives and livelihood posed by the virus is real, it remains, and it will be a long time before we return to pre-covid normality. Confidence has again been replaced by doubt and uncertainty about our futures, and with the disappointment of our hopes many are feeling very weary, weary at the thought of again being restricted, again living with disrupted lives, and possibly, for those with children, again dealing with their schooling. That weariness, that loss of energy, can in turn make daily tasks more burdensome, daily relating more strained.

In this time of disappointment and weariness I want to encourage you to three things that will sustain you and renew hope.

Firstly, to continue to humble yourself under God’s mighty hand.

Secondly, to continue to look to Jesus

And thirdly to see your Father lovingly at work in your life for your good in these events.

Humbling ourselves under God's mighty hand

When encouraged by his wife to vent his anger and disappointment at the loss of all his property and children by cursing God, Job says to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” [Job. 2:10]. For Job, God was in control, He knew what He was doing, and He had a right to do what He was doing, because He is God, the Creator, just, all knowing, almighty. Job humbled himself before a God who is not accountable to us and whose thoughts are above our thoughts more than the heavens are above the earth – that is they exceed our grasp. That is the perspective of the faithful in Scripture.

The author of Lamentations, again confronting a loss far greater than ours in the destruction of Jerusalem says

"Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come?
Why should a living man complain,
    a man, about the punishment of his sins? [Lam 3:38-39]

The Lord is in control, and He has a right to do what He has done.

In fact he sees in what has happened a call and an opportunity for a sinful generation to return to the Lord

"Let us test and examine our ways,
    and return to the Lord!" [Lam 3:40]

And don’t we pray that our generation also sees this reminder of their mortality and frailty as an opportunity to turn back to the true God.

Firstly, In the face of this disappointment we humble ourselves under the sovereign God’s rule over all things.

Continue to look to Jesus

Secondly, we continue to look to Jesus. As the author of Hebrews says

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." [Heb 12:1-3]

The author points us to Jesus’ example of persevering trust in God. So confident was He of His Father’s love and promise that He endured the cross and came to what the Father had promised Him [Ps. 110:1], exaltation to rule over all. Jesus’ example tells us God is faithful and His purpose for us is good. It is worth persevering in obedience to His will – trusting Jesus, obeying His command to love, giving thanks. But when we ‘consider Him’ we need to consider not only His example, but also our Lord’s promises and achievement.

He has promised rest to the weary.

"Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." [Matt 11:28]

A rest found in taking on His yoke, that is trusting Him and obeying His teaching instead of man made Pharisaical rules. He has in John 7 promised us His Spirit, the Spirit who is an ever renewed spring of life.

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive," [John 7:38-39a]

We should look to Jesus in our weariness for the rest and life He promises. And we should look to His achievement. In enduring the cross He has atoned for our sins. We are forgiven, reconciled, at peace, with God.

Know that your Father is lovingly at work for your good

And that means, thirdly, that in these events you can know that your Father is lovingly at work for your good. We have thought of what the author of Hebrews says about God’s discipline before, but it is worth reminding ourselves of it again.

"Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.'" [Heb 12:5-6]

Discipline, while involving correction and reproof, is in the main training. It is shaping habits and character by constant work.

"It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 

If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." [Heb 12:7-8]

All God’s children participate in discipline. We should, if we are God’s true children, expect Him to use the circumstances of our life to turn us away from sin and nurture in us godly habits and character. We should not expect a trial or trouble free life. And he reminds us that we should welcome this discipline for our heavenly Father disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. Even though

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, we can be sure that later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." [Heb 12:11]

Hearing this it is worth reflecting on what sin your Father may be helping you confront by the trials of these times, and what habits He is trying to nurture in you. Is He training you not to see life through your feelings but through the promises in His Word? Is He helping you not to put your confidence in earthly treasure but in Him? Is He cultivating in you the health giving habit of daily thankfulness? Is He teaching you not to be self reliant in your planning but to truly submit your plans to His will, to truly say “Lord willing”? In your felt weakness is He teaching you to rely on His grace? Is He challenging you, even when all you feel like doing is withdrawing, to love your brothers and sisters, and so to find the joy of faithful service?

A lot more could be said about how we think through and live through our current circumstances, and I will be saying a little more, particularly the children, in the service on Sunday morning. But for now I would encourage you to reflect on the Scriptures mentioned and in your disappointment and weariness find encouragement and strength by continuing to humble yourself under God’s mighty hand continuing to look to Jesus and in these events continuing to see your Father, your Heavenly Father, lovingly at work in your life for your good.

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Thinking about ourselves in the current Covid crisis...

I have signed up to get the Corona Virus daily updates issued by the Chief Health Officer and they start by giving the number of new cases diagnosed in the previous day – 64 Tuesday, 73 Wednesday, 77 Thursday. I am sure these are numbers you are well aware of, numbers that concentrate the mind, numbers that have prompted the ‘lockdown’ of ten postcodes. Daily updates, hourly news bulletins, constant talk of the virus on the radio can have a kind of mesmerising effect where your thinking is full of the virus, your anxiety increased and your fears refreshed. Even the way we think of ourselves can become distorted. Who are we? We are the people threatened by/isolated by/ infected with/being tested for/in combat with – the virus!

But that is not who we are as believers in Jesus. We are people who, with the apostle Paul, boast of nothing other than the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ [Gal. 6:14]. That may not be how you are thinking of yourself right now and that language may sound a little abstract. But learning to think of yourself as you are in Christ will be a source of strength, comfort and hope – it is health giving in a sick world. Let me show you.

What does it mean to boast in the cross?

First of all, what did Paul mean when he spoke in Galatians 6 of boasting in the cross? In Galatians 6:14-15 Paul writes

“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

Paul is contrasting himself with those who were trying to make the Galatian believers become circumcised and keep the law of Moses. These people wanted to avoid persecution for the cross and wanted the Galatians circumcised so that they could ‘boast in [the Galatians’] flesh.’ That is the Galatians being circumcised would both show the success of their mission and zeal for the law [helping them escape persecution by their fellow Jews] and reinforce their privilege as Jews and reliance on law keeping to be right with God. They were committed fundamentally to being proud of their human achievements, of their works to keep themselves as God’s people. Not so for Paul. He was committed to having only one boast, being proud of only one thing, and that is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ here refers not just to the event but to Jesus’ crucifixion as the way of salvation for sinners. Paul’s pride is in what empties him of pride, his boast is in what removes all boasting in human achievement. The cross itself is shameful and offensive, confronting to our sensibilities. To boast in the cross is to say that you are a sinner unable to save yourself, rightly condemned by God’s law to hell, and only Jesus dying in your place on that shameful cross can justify you – cause you to be declared right with God in the judgement [Gal. 3:13-14]. More, it is to say we come to be saved by Jesus’ death only by faith in God’s promise, in God’s gospel. It is a gracious gift to those who will repent and believe, who have done nothing and can do nothing to earn that gift. They can only receive what Christ has done for them.

And the cross changes everything. Paul, boasting in the cross, is done forever with the world, this present unredeemed creation, this place of reliance on ourselves and boasting in our own achievements. The world is crucified to him, exposed as weak and shameful, just as the world thinks Paul is weak and shameful in rejecting it for reliance on Jesus. But Paul does not mind for trusting Jesus crucified means he is qualified to share in the new creation as God’s child [1:4, 4:1-6] and the old distinctions have no relevance.

Now you might be thinking – that was a few minutes of solid theology, but how is it helpful? How does boasting in the cross inform our present experience? In four ways.

The helpfulness of boasting in the cross

Firstly, boasting in the cross reminds us of the character of the world we live in. It is a world populated by sinners under judgment. It will never be heaven on earth. We should not be surprised when people live selfishly and our lives are impacted by that selfishness. We should not be surprised that God is still active in the world in judgment, judgments that are deserved and which should humble our pride. The cross reminds us of the reality and seriousness of sin, of how out of order a world is that hates and wants to murder, its Maker. It helps us understand our times, and that our world is passing away.

Secondly, boasting in the cross reminds us that we can be confident of our relationship with our heavenly Father. Trusting in Jesus crucified, joined to Him in His death and resurrection by faith, we are justified – forgiven, reckoned as those who have no debt to His law. We are adopted as God’s children who call out to Him Abba, Father [Gal. 4:4-6]. In all that happens we are not experiencing His anger but are being treated with Fatherly love. That doesn’t mean my life won’t be disrupted by Covid. It does mean that in that disruption I can be confident my Father is working His good Fatherly purpose for me, disciplining me in love so that I come to all that He has promised me. When you are lying awake at night thinking about your finances or your health or your child’s disrupted education it makes a difference to be confident that you are the almighty God’s loved child – not because you have earned it, but because of Jesus and His death.

Thirdly boasting in the cross reminds us that what matters now, in these present trying circumstances, is living as we now are as those saved through faith in Christ’s death. We are to live as God’s children, living lives of faith active in love as we keep in step with God’s Spirit in us [Gal. 5:6, 22-25]. So boasting in the cross orients me away from myself and a preoccupation with my own concerns to considering others, to practice the one anothers in the power of God’s Spirit. Free – freed from earning salvation, and freed from fear of death and condemnation, we are, in Paul’s word, to ‘serve one another in love’ [Gal. 5:13-14].

Fourthly and finally, boasting in the cross means we are confident of the future. The cross of Christ has gained us entry into the new creation. Forgiven, we have a sure hope, a hope guaranteed to us now by the gift of the Holy Spirit. What happens to us now is not final, and we do not invest anything here with permanence. Our home is in heaven now, and we are journeying through life to the heavenly city and will have a sure welcome there because of the cross of Jesus.

So believer, be someone who every day boasts in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is proud to confess themselves saved by the death of Jesus, justified by faith, by grace, on the grounds of Christ’s death for our sin. Such boasting will give perspective on your current circumstances, assure you of your Almighty Father’s love, focus you on living a life of love now and sustain you with a confident hope. It will sustain the health of your soul in an ailing world.

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Dealing with dissappointment 

Were you disappointed and a little disheartened this week by the increase in community transmission and the consequent re-imposition of stricter limits on gatherings in your own home and the failure to further ease restrictions on public gatherings? I was. It wasn’t a particularly conscious reaction. I just felt deflated, felt the return of that nagging uncertainty about what will happen. Intellectually I know Australia has embraced a suppression strategy and that means there is always the possibility of local outbreaks requiring vigorous response from the health authorities and the need for continuing vigilance by us all. But what I had allowed myself to hope for was that we were past the danger and were on the steady, smooth, predictable path to normality – that the economy would re-open, people would start to return to work, and we could plan for more face to face contact. And we were planning – talking with growth group leaders about changes possible with the permission to have twenty persons in your home, starting to think about a term 3 with Kid’s Club and Youth Group and daytime ministries in the building. All that is now shrouded in Covid uncertainty, the smooth path looking more like saw’s teeth, and the dark cloud of economic damage growing larger on the near horizon. Disappointment of our expectations, even of unarticulated hopes, and the return of uncertainty and anxiety about an unknown future, can drain us of energy and motivation, get us down even if there is little external change in our lives. How do we deal with it as believers?

Dissappointment in the bible

If there was ever a person who was entitled to feel let down and disappointed it was Joseph in the prison in Egypt. The story is there in Genesis 37-50, and especially chapters 40-41. Joseph, having been sold into slavery by his brothers and transported to Egypt, was now in prison after being falsely accused of attempting to take advantage of his master Potiphar’s wife. While in prison, after ‘some time’, he meets Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and baker who one morning are troubled by dreams they have had. When interpreting the chief cupbearer’s dream as showing that the he will be restored to Pharaoh’s service in three days Joseph says “When all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness: mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.” Joseph had done nothing to deserve being in prison, and now he had a hope of getting out. You can almost feel Joseph’s expectation of release from this unjust, unfair, and miserable prison existence growing. And it would be easy for him to see the hand of God in it. It was a God given opportunity, for God had sent the butler, given the dream, and given the interpretation of the dream. Wasn’t this God hearing his prayers and releasing him?

But it was not to be. Joseph’s interpretation of the dreams was proved true but Genesis 40 ends with these words: “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.” And Genesis 41 starts with these words “After two whole years ….” Two whole years. Two whole years of being confined to the guard house, of being engaged with menial service, of being unable to experience freedom. That is a good length of time to let disappointment grow into anger and hatred of the person who forgot him and all the others – his brothers and Potiphar – who had landed him in goal. Plenty of time to let disappointed expectation grow into doubt about God’s interest or care, or doubt about whether it is worth living His way because doing the right thing hadn’t got Joseph anywhere but into difficulty.

We don’t know the inner workings of Joseph’s mind. But we do know Joseph in his disappointment gave in to none of those temptations. When after two years the chief cupbearer finally remembers Joseph and commends him to Pharaoh as an interpreter of dreams Joseph is still confident in God’s power and in his relationship with God. He responds to Pharaoh’s request for interpretation of his dream by saying “I cannot do it but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires [41:16].” For Joseph God gives dreams, God is in charge of the climate – what the coming years will bring, God determines the outcome of history, and God in His goodness gives an opportunity to prepare for what is to come. Then after nine years, when Joseph’s brothers are in his power, he does not seek vengeance but to do good because he can see the Lord’s hand in all that has happened. When he reveals himself to them as the brother they knew they had sold into slavery he says to them “Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. …… God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. [Gen. 45:5-7 ESV]”

What prevented Joseph from being overwhelmed with disappointment and growing distant from God in those two years? What prevented Joseph when he had great power from exercising it in vengeance? Promise, Presence, and a grasp of providential rule. For Joseph the dreams that earned him the anger of his brothers were God making a promise about his future [Gen. 37:1-11]. His confidence that God spoke through dreams is a prominent and consistent feature of his whole life. He had a promise from God, and he believed God would keep His word. Secondly, the LORD was with Him, and ‘showed him steadfast love’ [Gen. 39:21]. Just as He was faithful to God so the LORD was faithful to him, and never abandoned him [39:2, 9, 23]. Joseph’s responses to requests for interpretation of dreams shows that Joseph’s was a conscious dependence on God. He knew the LORD was with Him, and he knew the LORD who was with Him. And thirdly, he knew he was not God but the LORD who was God ruled over all things. There was no reason why things should work out the way Joseph wanted. He was not in charge. But the LORD was in charge, and what we see in Joseph’s story is that the LORD being in charge is good. If Joseph had been released on Joseph’s desired timetable, the day or the month after the chief cupbearer had been released because the cupbearer had been the reliable and grateful friend he should have been, Joseph would not have been there to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. Two more years in prison meant he was in the right place at the right time not only to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, but to be elevated to be in charge of Egypt over the coming years so that Egypt would be able to survive and prosper through the coming seven lean years. Two more years in prison therefore meant that Joseph was in a position to be the Saviour of his family when those famine years drove them to Egypt to find grain. Joseph trusted the LORD’s rule over history, over the events of human life, and his life showed that the LORD ruled over history to fulfill his good promises and purposes for His people. That rule encompassed even the thoughtless, incompetent, and sinful actions of people. On Jacob’s death he could say to his fearful brothers, terrified that Joseph had only been delaying vengeance for the sake of their father, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear .. . [Gen. 50:19-21]."

Joseph dealt with disappointment because he had faith in the faithfulness of God to His promises, he knew the presence of God, that God was with him, and because he had confidence in the rule of the almighty God to govern human affairs to achieve His good purposes, purposes bigger and better than his own plans and desires.

When dissappointment comes...

For us this is an up and down time, and the coming months might see more reversals of the progress to normality we hope for, more times when we will feel a little deflated and down. But we should deal with them like Joseph. We should remember the good promises of God to us, that we are His children and that He will work all things now for our good, our conformity to His Son Jesus [Rom. 8:28-29] and will bring us to reign with Jesus [Rom. 8:16-25]. We should know and be confident that God is with us, for He has given us His Spirit to dwell in us and the Lord Jesus has said He is with us always. And we should trust our almighty Father’s providential rule over all things, including over who gets the virus and when. His purposes are bigger and better than our plans and desires, and we will be released from restrictions, return to meeting, at the time that is best for His people and the gospel mission, best for the fulfilment of His purposes in Christ.

And knowing God’ promise, purpose and providential rule we should walk by faith and not be driven by our feelings. So let’s not give in to frustration but keep on submitting to government and their directives to slow the spread, let’s not give in to fear about health or finances but keep on loving our neighbours as we have opportunity, and let’s not give in to anxiety but keep on rejoicing in the Lord as we commit our cares to Him with thanksgiving that our heavenly Father, who rules over all things, hears us, loves us, and will only give us good things [Matt. 7:7-11].

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Neil has also breifly written about resuming use of the building and a survey about the livestream which are NOT included in the audio transcript. To read these updates please click here. 

WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT

Pray big prayers to our great God.

Someone said to me after the prayer meeting that it had changed a little from our first meeting. They weren’t referring to the fact that we were on Zoom, but to the content of our prayers. From the outset our monthly prayer meeting was to pray for big things – for the salvation of our neighbours, for the repentance of our nation, for the Lord to raise up many gospel labourers who would speak the gospel clearly and boldly amongst us and throughout the world, for the holiness and purity of His church as we live in the world, for the return of our Lord. But with Covid 19 and the isolation and disruption it has brought more of our prayers have been understandably directed towards sustaining the life of our scattered congregation and for mercy on our nation. This is quite proper – that we should approach the throne of grace for mercy and grace to help us in this time of need – and the observation wasn’t a criticism.

But I want to encourage you to keep praying those big prayers. One of the effects of the pandemic and the government response to it has been to restrict our engagement with others, and with that has come a narrowing of our focus – to ourselves and those with whom we are in close contact – and a limiting of our horizon – to the next few weeks, or the next few months, with all that follows enveloped in a cloud of uncertainty. Our subjective world has shrunk, and that can be reflected in our prayers. Yet our God has not shrunk. What challenges us is no challenge to Him. What exhausts us does not tire Him [Psalm 121]. What perplexes us, disorients us, does not perplex Him. It is good to remember how big our God is. He is, as He said to Abraham, God Almighty. Nothing is too hard for Him, whether it is giving a child to the barren Sarah [Ge. 18:14], rescuing the remnant of Judah from captivity in Babylon [Jer. 32:17, 26], bringing us a Saviour born of a virgin [Lk. 1:37] or saving into His kingdom men and women like the rich young ruler enslaved to their love of wealth and self [Mk. 10:27]. Nothing stops our God from doing what He wills to do. As the Psalmist says “Our God is in heaven, He does all that He pleases [Ps. 115:3],” for He is the only God, the Creator, and He has no rivals who can challenge Him or overthrow His rule [Is. 42:5-9, 43:13, 45:5-7, 18-23]. We can keep asking for big things for saving people in and through a pandemic, working good for His people in and through a pandemic, is no problem for Him.

And nothing takes Him by surprise. Our plans might have been disrupted, but not His. He knows the end from the beginning [Is. 46:9-10] for it is His purpose that is established. He knows us through and through, even knowing our words before they are spoken [Ps. 139:1-6]. He is not overwhelmed with detail. As our Lord says ‘Not one of these [sparrows] will fall to the ground apart from your Father. Even the hairs of your head are all numbered [Matt. 10:29-30]’. He does not make mistakes in ordering the circumstances of our individual lives to achieve His good purposes for us, turning us to Christ and transforming us to become more and more like Christ in our character as His children.

Our God is great, and He has revealed a great purpose which He is bringing about in Christ. We know that purpose – to bless all the nations in Abraham [Gen. 12:3], to bring people from every nation and tongue to praise Him for saving them through Christ [Matt. 28:18-20, Rev. 5:9-14], to bring the day when all see that it is through the crucified Lord Jesus that He fulfills His plan for the fullness of time [Eph. 1:10], the day when every knee bows to the one who humbled Himself to die on the cross [Phil. 2:9-10]. This is a big purpose, one that encompasses all people, all time, all creation. It is for the fulfilment of this purpose that we pray our big prayers, trusting not only in God’s great power and wisdom but also in His great love and rich mercy. Like His power and wisdom that love and mercy exceeds the limits of our understanding. It exceeds our own small love of others and can encompass a world living in determined rebellion [John 3:16, Eph. 2:3-5], encompass those we find difficult to love.

So because our God is the LORD, Father, Son and Spirit, the only God, we should be praying big prayers for the salvation of others, big prayers for the repentance of our nation, big prayers for the exaltation of Jesus as Lord amongst us and His revealing at the last day. And we mustn’t be discouraged when we can’t see how God can answer them, can’t see how it is possible to undo the tangle of lies that has trapped many of our neighbours or break their slavery to sin, can’t see how we can even gain their attention. Our God can bring water from the rock, give sight to the blind, make the deaf hear, raise the dead. He achieves His big purpose in surprising ways, ways we would never think of. The cross of Jesus has taught us that. So don’t be discouraged if our programs for evangelism and discipleship have been paused or thrown into disarray and relationships disrupted. Don’t be discouraged if you think you can’t answer all the questions family and friends might have. Don’t even be discouraged by your awareness of the painful inconsistencies in your own life that you fear will turn others away. Speak of the Jesus you know in the gospel, scatter that gospel word around you, and be asking God who can do all things, who has said His power is made perfect in weakness [2 Cor. 12:9-10], to do the big things, to do what is impossible for us, and to give life to those dead in sin we know and long to see saved.

A prescription for refreshment in wearying times and a correction for small views of God – Read Isaiah 40 out loud.

Resuming Building Use.

The BOM has been making plans for the resumption of use of the building by ministries and growth groups as restrictions are further eased. We anticipate groups e.g. youth group or Explorers, will be able to start using the building when term 3 starts. In conjunction with the office staff they have developed guidelines for building use, for using the kitchen, and for cleaning. If you visit the building you will see signs displayed giving the allowed number of people in each room and what you have to do to clean that room, as well as a log to record your presence.

Building users will need to apply through the office for use of the building. Even if you were regularly using the building before the shutdown you will need to contact the office before you resume using the building.

The ministries resuming using the building will have an increased cleaning load both before and after their ministry time. We are hoping to recruit teams of volunteers to relieve them of some of that burden by coming in and cleaning after the ministry has finished. For example, a team of people to come into the building in the middle of the day after Explorers has finished so the already tired leaders don’t have to clean while also supervising their children. Or a team to come in after Kid’s Club and before Youth Group on a Friday evening. Being on a cleaning team is a simple but very encouraging way of loving your brothers and sisters who are giving of their time and energy to run these ministries of evangelism and discipleship. It is also a way of getting out and meeting others as you serve. Think and pray about whether this is a service you can perform and click here if you'd like to volunteer.

Survey of use of Livestream.

Next Monday regulars will receive a separate email inviting you to participate in a survey of your experience of our live streamed services and also asking some questions about when you might feel comfortable in returning to the building. It will help us in planning those live-streamed services, and also in thinking about resuming face to face services. If you could open the email, click on the link, and complete the survey it would be much appreciated. 

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT

I often feel that in these communications I am either sharing our responses as a congregation to changing government regulations or exhorting you to perseverance in the face of the restrictions and anxieties we are living with. Both are necessary but as I look out the window at God’s beautiful winter sunshine, the light highlighting the colours in Jayne’s geraniums, I thought I would talk about what has encouraged me this week, besides the sunshine, in the hope that it might also encourage you to keep on living the thankful life of a follower of Jesus.

The Service of Others.

I have been encouraged throughout the week by the service of others. By the faithfulness of Paul, Andrew and Jeremy as they show up every Sunday to livestream the service at 10 and 5, and by all those who participate in the service, often showing thought and making a great effort [think recorded children’s talks] to teach and edify us. But it is not just the service of those who bring us the Sunday Services that has encouraged me. This week I have had the great pleasure of meeting [on Zoom] with our Growth Group leaders and the leaders of Explorers and Mainly Music. It is their efforts that have kept so many of us connected with each other and engaged in living through this time as disciples of Jesus. It is their preparation, planning, prayers and persistence in staying in touch that many of us benefit from each week, and I find their love of Jesus’ people because they love Jesus a great encouragement.

Many of you will know their work, but there are also brothers and sisters labouring away that you do not see. Last night I met with our Board of Management to discuss the steps involved in opening up the building. Their service and their different skills are a reminder to me that the Lord provides us in each other all the gifts we need for sustaining our life together as we use our gifts in love. The outcome of their work and the work of the office is that we will have guidelines for cleaning the building, guidelines for recording attendance, and guidelines for the use of the kitchen and food that will allow even now some growth groups to start using the building for face to face meetings, and allow other larger groups [e.g. youth group] to commence activities again in the building in term 3 if restrictions are further eased to allow groups of up to 100 to meet indoors. The BOM also manages our finances, and that brings me to my second encouragement – your generosity.

Generosity.

As part of meeting with the BOM I learnt that in May you have given $15,080 for the hardship fund, and this was extra to your continuing generous support of the ministry of the church. Your trusting generosity [2 Cor. 9:6-11] at a time when it is easy to be anxious about the country’s and our own economic position is very encouraging to the BOM, the staff and the deacons who are dealing with those in need. What is particularly encouraging for me is knowing that you have been listening to Jesus and trusting Him as He calls us to store up treasure in heaven, serve God only, and seek His kingdom first [Matthew 6:19-34]. Such trusting obedience is encouraging for I know that you will have the joy of finding Him faithful.

Constant Encouragement

In addition to these encouragements I have also known encouragement from that permanent reservoir of life-giving refreshment, the Scriptures. Listening to Clinton preach on Ephesians 2:11-22 last Sunday morning and Chris on Psalm 51 on Sunday evening was a reminder of the great gifts we have in Christ – peace with the living, holy, righteous God and inclusion in His people, and the wonder of being forgiven through the death of Jesus. It is so good to be lifted out of present concerns and anxieties and remember that the living God is gracious and for us. Knowing this I can be confident that He is working out His good purpose for me, and for you, in these events, whether that is turning us away from trusting in worldly wealth, teaching us patience, refining and teaching us to value our hope in Christ, or giving us the experience of trusting Jesus in trial and finding Him faithful to keep us.

And it is not just the Scriptures preached but the Scriptures read and meditated on. It was balm to my soul to be reminded from 2 Timothy 2:9 that the word of God is not bound, that no restrictions restrict the word of God from doing its work in saving the Lord’s people. And as some of you know I have been reading Galatians where the Lord has encouraged me to remember that I should not grow weary of doing good [and isn’t that a temptation where all our contact with others must be so intentional] “for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up [Gal. 6:9].”

More, in Galatians are Paul’s extraordinary words, all the more extraordinary because every believer can share them, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me [Gal. 2:20].” To unpack those words would require another, much longer, communication, but let your mind linger on the last sentence. You may be weary, anxious about the future, burdened with loneliness, troubled by a sense of failure, or just down like many are at this time – but if you are a believer, who believes and confesses the truth of the gospel that Christ has died for your sins and been raised from the dead to reign forever, these words are equally true for you, as they are amazingly true for me. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, the one through whom and for whom all things were made, the glorious King with all authority, not only knows me – and that in itself is extraordinary – but He loves me, though my love for Him is so small, and my service so meagre. He loves me and has secured me for Himself for ever by giving Himself for me, so that I am now justified before the holy God and will share in the new creation. For encouragement turn that sentence around in your head, wonder at it as you consider the loveliness and the greatness of Jesus, and the reality of your own smallness and sin. Know it to be true, not because of anything you could ever expect or do, but because God has said it, and God has given His Son to save you.

God has given me a lot of encouragement this week – in His people, and in His word. And the encouragement of His word is there for you as well. I hope in these thirsty times you are drinking deeply of the refreshing water of His truth.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT

“You have heard of the steadfastness of Job" (James 5:11)

I hope so because steadfastness, or endurance, or perseverance – the Greek noun can have this range of senses – is one of the virtues that the Lord has been helping some of us develop in this time of disruption and isolation. I say some of us because we have amongst us those who are outstanding models of endurance, those who have persevered in trusting Jesus for many years under the trial of chronic illness and pain. But for many of us this time where we have lived under circumstances that we do not like, even resent, but cannot change has called for an unfamiliar endurance.

For most of our lives we have been able to live the life we more or less wanted to live – to go where we wanted, to do what we wanted, to change our circumstances where they became unpleasant, to purposefully pursue improvement. But for these few months we have been stuck, living under restrictions we did not choose for ourselves, living with fears and anxieties that we are not familiar with, living separated from people and activities that have refreshed us and brought us pleasure. And we have just had to endure, for it was not within our power to change those circumstances. So even as restrictions start to ease I want to talk with you about the necessity and value of endurance so that you can be thankful, amongst the many things we have to be thankful for, for the Lord helping you to learn or grow in endurance through this time.

Endurance is necessary.

Our Lord, speaking of the trials His followers will face in a world that has rejected his rule – war, earthquake, famine, pestilence as well as betrayal and hatred, even from those close to us [Luke 21:10-17]- says “By your endurance you will gain your souls." [Luke 21:19] [cf. Matt. 10:22, 24:13] It is only as we endure, as we  keep on holding fast to Jesus, trusting Him by believing His promises and doing what He commands in all the circumstances of our lives, that we will be saved in the end. Paul writes “If we endure with Him, we will reign with Him." [2 Tim. 2:12] There is no other way to be saved than by persevering in faith in Jesus even as we endure trial for faithfulness to Jesus. But endurance is not only necessary for salvation, it is necessary for fruitfulness. In Luke’s telling of the parable of the four soils Jesus says that the good soil are those “who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop." [Lk. 8:15 NIV] It is only as we keep on keeping on in the Christian life that we bear fruit, both the fruit of growth in Christlikeness and the fruit of a consistent witness to Christ in others turning to Him. As the author of Hebrews writes “You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised". [Heb. 10:36]

Endurance is Purposeful.

But sometimes, perhaps often, when our suffering in trial is great we can wonder why God our Father doesn’t just end it all now, or at least our time on this earth. Why can’t we just skip the need for perseverance by going to be with the Lord straight away. In those times we need to remind ourselves that endurance is modelled by Jesus and one of the means by which God furthers His good purpose in our lives, His purpose to help us grow in Christlikeness. In Hebrews we are called to look to Jesus ‘who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross’ and to ‘consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself’ so that we may not grow weary or fainthearted [Heb. 12:2-3]. The author goes on to describe the hardship and trial we might face as followers of Jesus as discipline and says “It is for discipline that you have to endure”. The need for endurance is a sign that God is treating us as sons and through endurance disciplining us, that is training us, so that we have the character of His sons, training that ‘yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness’ [Heb. 12:5-11]. There is an enduring good being worked in us through our endurance. Paul takes up the same theme. “Suffering” he writes “produces endurance, and endurance character, and character produces hope". [Romans 5:3-5] We cannot develop that tested life that has found God faithful to His word and so grows strong in hope without enduring trial. Our heavenly Father trains us in godliness of character and nurtures in us a confident hope, a hope that in its turn is lifegiving in the darkest times, through endurance. But the good our God works through endurance does not just end with us. The comfort we receive from God as we endure trial equips us to comfort others [2 Cor. 1:3-7] and just as it was for Paul our endurance, our perseverance, can commend our ministry to others so that they will receive the word of grace [2 Cor. 6:4].

Endurance needs to keep good company.

Endurance, however, is not to stand alone, a grim, isolated tenacity. In 2 Peter 1 it stands amongst a list of qualities that a believer is to pursue – knowledge, self-control, godliness, love and more [2 Peter 1:5-8]. And in Romans 12 Paul sandwiches endurance between joy and prayerfulness – "Rejoicing in hope, enduring [‘patient in’ ESV, NIV] trial, faithful or constant in prayer" [Rom. 12:12] Both hope and prayer turn us away from ourselves to look to our God, and that is the stance of our endurance. We endure because we look to our God, we are confident in His faithfulness to His promises, and we trust His good and loving purpose in our lives. James, after drawing our attention to the perseverance of Job continued “and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful" [James 5:11]. Just as endurance produces hope, hope in God, "the God of endurance and encouragement" [Rom. 15:5], produces endurance. It is the hope that has its foundation in the truth of the gospel that Christ has died for our sins, so we are sure both of His love and of our forgiveness and peace with God, sure that He who did not spare us His own but gave Him up for us all will graciously give us with Him all things [Rom. 8:32]. He will bring us to all that He has promised, so we eagerly look forward to that hope through ‘perseverance’ [Rom. 8:25].

What is for most of us a small hardship is a time to welcome and be thankful for our heavenly Father nurturing endurance in us as we practice faithful obedience in circumstances we don’t like but cannot change. As we each day decide to ‘rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything’ [1 Thess. 5:16-18] even if being isolated makes us feel flat and down, as we each day decide to make the effort to love others because our Lord commands us to even when we just want to withdraw, as we confess we are loved, no matter our loss of work or of company, because Christ has died for us, we are learning perseverance by practicing perseverance. Remember, that perseverance has a great outcome, the salvation of our souls. So like Paul pray for each other that we might “be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light" [Col. 1:11-12].