The Year of The Lord AD 2007

Yes it is the start of the new year. Been a while since i last posted so here is the latest news and prayer points. Firstly i am moving to emu plains the starting of this new year, where i will be finding a new church to go to and setting in. Secondly i also went to the snowy mountains since the last post and climbed the highest mountain Mnt Kosciuszko, it was great to see God's Creation. Thirdly my Homepage seems like it is no longer, so therefore my old sermons and reviews of conferences have been wiped. The pictures can still be found on my bebo page, find the link in my links. Fifthly me and my friend went to the central coast as well to visit a friend, who we got to know well on mission.

I have been personally encourage by St Hilda's Anglican Church Katoomba over the 5 years i have been there. Their faithfulness to God, their service, their Love, and their willingness to listen to the creators and redeemers voice. It brings me grieve to part with that family, and i hope they will continue to grow in Christ. We should be prepared to Go whether God wants us to be doing whatever God wants us to do. Please pray for this new year, and the big changes i am making.
Lastly it so happens i got to preach on my last day their at all three services. And so here is the full thing :)

Jesus the Life Giver – Sermon (John 5:1-30)

It always amazes me to watch super hero movies. Take for example batman; we know fairly close to the start of the movie that Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne. However to the other characters in the movie, there is a mystery surrounding Batman’s real identity. We also see at times in the movie when people almost get it. The gospels are almost like this as well. Take for example

Point 1: Context of John 5

Both in John’s and Mark’s gospel we have a statement about who Jesus is. So John 1 – In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
At the end of gospels we have someone who gets it. In John’s gospel it’s Thomas. He answers Jesus “My Lord and God!” after witnessing Jesus’ resurrection. In Mark’s gospel it’s the centurion. He response to Jesus “Truly this man was the Son of God” after witnessing Jesus’ death.

And in between there is a confusion to who Jesus is. For example Mark 8, Jesus ask his disciples “Who do the people say I am”, they answer “some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets”
In John 5 things get painfully clear to whom Jesus is and he show who he is through an action and through word. However before we start looking at John 5 lets begin by praying.

Thank you, Father, for making yourself know to us, showing us the way of salvation through faith in your Son. We ask you now to teach us through your word, so that we may be ready to serve you, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Point 2: Jesus’ Power and Authority

John 5, starting from verse 2 – Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which had five roofed colonnades. In these lays a multitude of invalids – blind, lame and paralysed.

The place mentioned here is not the main focus; rather it is that there are invalids here and particularly verse 5, there is one invalid who most likely was crippled for thirty-eight years. When verse 6 – Jesus saw him lying their and knew he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus knew the man’s situation and knowing how long he had suffered he asked him “Do you want to be healed?” Now there is a number of reason’s why he could have asked this question however this question does heighten the expectation that something miraculous is going to happen.

How does this man respond? Well verse 7 – “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me” Their was a belief that only the first person who entered the water after it had been stirred would be healed. This being the case, you can imagine how many were waiting around for the water to be stirred. Due to this man’s disability, he could not get into the water and perhaps hoped that Jesus would help him into the water.

However Jesus tells this man “Get up! Take up your bed and walk” and at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Jesus reveals his glory, which you could not see by looking at him, he reveals his power and his purpose, which is to restore.
A friend once told me that even if you repair in some sense the electrical cables in your body while being crippled for a long time you would not get better. The muscles in your leg, due to being crippled, do no longer work and those muscles which have slowly developed as a child just do not grow back instantly. Therefore this man walking again was clearly the finger prints of the power of God.

It’s a cause for joy and excitement, but some people miss it, verse 9 – Now that day was the Sabbath, “It is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” The Jews which being the religious leaders of the time, all they could see was a man carrying his bed. One of the laws they had on the Sabbath was not removing furniture which meant not carrying a bed. They asked the man who was this person that healed him, verse 13 – The man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn. It’s interesting to note that there is no link between Jesus’ kind acts of healing and some sort of explicit demand so therefore you follow. He will pour out his good gift on the wicked and good, like his father does on the rain and the sunshine. He heals the man, and the man doesn’t even know his name.

Now the story could of ended their, however Verse 14 – Afterwards Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” Jesus says stop sinning; cease sinning, or something more then being a cripple for 38 years will happen. By reading the gospel, as far as Jesus is concerned, far more serious and far more tragic then being disabled and crippled for 38 years is to have your sins undealt with. That is by far the most dangerous problem any of us confront, so Jesus warns this man to stop sinning.
In John’s gospel, sin is not defined so much in terms of moral character but it is our response to Jesus. Jesus himself in John 16 defines sin as “not believing in the one whom God sent”. To remain inactive and unresponsive to this great act of God in Jesus is the heart and essences of evil.

How does this man respond? Verse 15 – The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. What does this man do? He runs off and dobs on Jesus. Therefore Verse 16 – And this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

The Jews at that time were very serious about breaking the Sabbath, It was one of the things that defined their people, some of the religious Jews were willing to die for this issue, and it was not a small thing to break the Sabbath in their world, Jesus response by answering Verse 17 – “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” The only person who was allowed to work regularly on the Sabbath was God. The Israelites knew as some have forgotten that God holds the universe together, he sustains it, he doesn’t just wind up an old clock and let it be, but holds it together, he works on every Sabbath day and Jesus is saying “My father is working, and I am working too.”

The Jews were quick to recognise the implications of Jesus’ response in Verse 18 – For he is calling God his own father making himself equal with God. Jesus continues to show that he is equal with God from verse 19 onwards, however we will see this in next week’s sermon. For the time been though, if Jesus is equal with God, what are the implications of this?

Point 3: Implications of Jesus being Equal with the Father

If you remember in the Old Testament, God is described as the creator. He is also described as the redeemer. In genesis 12 God made a covenant with his people and gave them the law to set them apart, for them to be a holy nation. However due to Israel’s disobedience they were sent into exile. The Jews being the religious leaders of the time of John 5 believed they could still get right with God by obeying the law and particularly keeping the Sabbath holy. However if Jesus is God, he is also the creator and redeemer and the Jews failed to notice that Jesus was setting up a new covenant, a new creation, which we see in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Therefore if Jesus is God, if he is creator and redeemer, what does he offer? Verse 21 – The son gives life to whom he will. The immediate offer is to give life, to give you life. What is Jesus’ ultimate work? V22, The ultimate work is that Jesus has been entrusted with all judgement. So why did Jesus come? Well Jesus came to give you life, not a physical life, although he gave you your physical life, no, his come to give u new life, a new life which he calls eternal life and which is unbreakable and comes to us as a gift not a trophy. Why is he serious about it? V22, He is serious because he has the job of all judgment. When we die we will all face judgment, we will meet Jesus and when we meet him, he will announce in a public way where we will go for the rest of eternity.

This week I had the privilege to go down to the snowy mountains, and climb to the top of the highest mountain in Australia, mount Kosciuszko. Since it was the middle of summer, the snow had melted and the flowers had began to blossom. I was filled with amazement of the beauty of God’s creation. However as nice as it is, it is only temporary, even when the creation falls, the issue of facing judgment still stands and it is very serious and important.

Now you see why Jesus went over to this man, it is because Jesus is the life giver. Now you see why he warns this man, it is because Jesus is the judge. He says to this man, don’t walk away from me; I want you to follow me because I am judge. Something worse then being crippled for thirty-eight years, is to end up in hell. So Jesus offers to us eternal life and the escape from judgment.

Who does Jesus call? Well John 5 is interesting because essentially Jesus is saying that he has called out, he will call out, and he does call out. He has called out in the past; he will call out in the future, and is calling out in the present. Firstly who does Jesus call out in the past? Well he has called out a man who was crippled, and who had a great need with no special reason to help. That really described the world doesn’t it? The world has a very real need, the problem of sin and death and they have no special reason to be helped. When Jesus called out this man, “Get up, take up your bed and walk’, did this call work, was it a waste of breath? No it was not waste of breath, he said get up and he got up. The man was made well when Jesus spoke. In the Old Testament, God was a God who done things by speaking let there be and then there is; Jesus is doing things by speaking as well. The man heard the word of Jesus, he responded to the call. He got up and has new physical life, this is because Jesus is the life giver; he gives the physical life and also gives the eternal life. Here we proof, that when Jesus speaks, it is worth listening to.

Secondly who does Jesus call in the future? Verse 28 – An hour is coming when all will hear his voice. One day he will call out and the whole world will stand in front of him. Just like the crippled man, Jesus is going to speak to everyone; they will hear his word and will stand face to face with him. And with perfect justice v30, he will judge and decide where people will spend eternity. There is not anyone who will not hear his call to be before him, he has called a man in the past and he will call the world in the future.

Thirdly who does Jesus call in the present? He calls everyone, verse 24 – whoever believes him who sent me has eternal life. What does Jesus want you to do? He wants you to hear his word and believe him. When does eternal life begin? Eternal life begins when you hear and believe, when does judgement get lifted off your shoulders according to Jesus? When you hear and believe. This is all possible because Jesus died for you and has risen from the dead.

Are you willing to hear and believe, are you willing to get up. If you still haven’t yet responded to Jesus’ call to get up, then let me encourage you to do so. However be warned that there is a day when all will get up and stand before the creator and redeemer, both those who believe and don’t believe will be judged. If you have all ready responded to the call, then are you willing to listen, do you pray and read your bible regularly, if not let me encourage you to do so. Do you share the news of the life giver Jesus with your non-Christian friends? Do you share it with the world? As Ray mentioned last week, the only reason why the judgment has not yet come, is so that as many people as possible would respond to Jesus’ call. So let me encourage you to share this news to the ends of the earth.

As you may know, this is my last day at St Hilda’s. And the time I have been here I have been personally encouraged by your faithfulness to God, your service and your willingness to listen to God’s voice. Let me encourage you to continue staying strong in Christ, to continue to be rooted up in Christ, to continue running the race and to continue listening to the Jesus’ voice who is creator, redeemer, judge and Lord.

Let us pray.
Heavenly father, we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he is the life giver, the judge, the creator and the redeemer. And we thank you for working out your purpose through him so that we may have eternal life. Help us to respond to Jesus’ call, to get up and to follow him. In everything we do help us to trust and obey you by listening to your voice. We ask this through Jesus’ name. Amen.

I hope it is clear and encourages and challenges you. Please dont mind the grammar mistakes, i have not yet had time to correct my computer copy of it.

Anyways i will see you next post :). God bless and i hope you continue remaining strong in the year of the Lord AD 2007.

Laurence.

NTE was a Blast!

Well, I am back from NTE/Mission. It was a great and life changing time like always :)

For NTE (National Training Event) we went down to Canberra. The topic this year was last things first. Both Richard Chin and Phillip Jensen spoke to us on the topic. The talks were great and faithful to God’s word. Richard’s talks came from Colossians and including the topics delivered from darkness, the pre eminent Jesus, fullness in Christ and the heavenly life. Theses talks helped us to get our minds focused back onto God and to live a heavenly life, which gives glory to God. Phillip’s talk were focused on Eschatology and his topics included living in God’s time, living BC and AD (OT & NT), living in the light of the past and living in the light of the future. These talks challenged us to remember that we are in AD (year of the risen Lord) and that our God is also a God of history, the OT does matter, and to get to us from OT we have to go through NT then to us. The talks also encouraged us to go out and proclaim God’s word boldly and faithfully because it is the year of the risen Lord and God has given a delay of the last day so that as much people as possible will come to know him. Here are some quotes from the talk that I for some reason put boxes around during the talk :P

“Gospeling is when we are telling someone about Jesus, Not the Gospel it self”
“Fruitfulness should flow from Gospel”
“God’s will is what God delights in, what he wants for his people and it is plainly seen in the Bible”
“What can we thank God for? We should thank him for dealing our greatest need, the forgiveness of sins”
“Jesus is in the image of the invisible God”
“Reconciliation means bringing out true order where Jesus is Lord!”
“Put to death early things”
“We have already been blessed, every blessing through Christ”
“These blessing are election, predestined, adoption and redemption”
“OT promises find their fulfilment in Christ”
“We are in the year of the Lord 2006. Important thing is AD not 2006. This transition between BC and AD can happen because Jesus died for you. Learn to put last things first”
“We are a creation and covenant religion, History matters”
“We put our faith in the faithfulness of God”
“Build our lives on the faithfulness of the promises of God”
“Our God is the sovereign God of History as well”
“Our task in not to interrupt the bible but to understand it’s interpretation of us”
“Reason that God promises have not reach completion is because God is holding back the judgement to give time for repentance”
“Preach the Gospel to bring his elect under his throne, use the gifts God has given you to do the work of God”
“Those given much, much will be required”

And many more, but that would require lots and lots of pages. We also had a few strand groups which looked at Biblical theology, Systematic theology & ethics. I and group of old friends did the third strand which was systematic theology. We looked at the resurrection which was a really beneficially. We looked at stuff like the resurrection of Jesus, resurrection of the dead, the return of Jesus, and much more. As soon as we thought we had it all covered, one of us would ask a questions, and we were back to the drawing board but was good.The pictures are of the findings we found, the diagrams we had come up with and also a picture of the stand group.
NTE was also a great place to get to know each other better, and after the conferences it felt like we all knew each other for years. It is very joyful to run the race together with our fellow brothers and sisters, and to be both challenged as we wrestled with God’s word.
After we got back from NTE we were off to Port Macquarie Presbyterian church. In Mission we got involved with scripture, youth group, nursing homes, church, Sunday school, walk up, door knocking and carols.

I personal got involved with scripture, Sunday school, walk up and carols so I’ll review them mostly. Scripture was great, we did 3 schools with two sessions each which were about 40 minutes each. We did a play based on Jesus rising Lazarus, had a song and a talk. I was privileged to have to do the talk at two of the schools. The talk established the link between Christmas, Easter and the story of Lazarus. That the baby born in a manger was just not a little small baby but the King, the King who defeated death by dyeing on a cross and raising up as Lord and through whom we will also be raised up. My friend did the talk at the last school, and I was encouraged from the likenesses and differences in the talk he gave. For Sunday school, I had to write another talk. I got the kids to act out the story of the little girl (Talitha) and then explained to them that we will also be raised up but unlike the little girl, we will be raised up eternal with the King who is Jesus. Walk up was great, I went out with a friend and we ran into a guy who was really interested. He was up for a holidays to get away from work. We shared two ways to live with him, and he wanted to live God’s way but never had the time to look further into it. So we encouraged him to think about it and gave him our contact details. I also managed to get along to the early church service, and the team did a wonderful job to proclaim Jesus at the church service. The sermon was really solid and encouraging as well. I also heard that the sermon at the nursing home went well, and even though some of the old people their, were really hard to talk to, they did a great job. Lastly the carols they gave me the job of setting up the sound equipment and mixing/singing. To be honest I have no idea how to set up sound equipment even though I’ve done it a number of times. Most normal professionals know what things are called and how they plug in together. However I don’t know any of the technical names, but I somehow managed to plug things together and get them working, and all the instruments working smoothly together, thank God :). The carols went well; the sermon went well even through kids running around during it. I head about 300 people came through the service, Christian and non Christian.

But other then the formal things we had to get done. We also did a lot of social things together. We had dinner all together, went to the beach. I was personally really encouraged and had bought me joy that the team was faithful to God’s word and worked together. Also for the care and love for each other, even when things seemed down or hard. Keep strong guys & girls!
The hosts I stayed with were the loveliest couple I ever met. They were a missionary couple with an outward focused. They took us in as their own children and looked after us and their prayers have encouraged me. I also stayed with a friend their and it was great, we got to sing most nights, pray together and encourage each other. The location was in the bush, on a dirt road with plenty of wild life. We saw lots of birds, kangaroos and spiders. Each night we had to fight our way through a few spider webs and spiders to get to the door, was great fun :).
Below is a photo of the team that went to mission and NTE.

On a funny note, we finally went to Telstra/Telecom tower after years of suggesting it. We boys went up at night time to the top. When we got to top, one of the leaders suggested that we just bush wack through the bush to get to the bottom. So we started heading down the bush, a little further we found a sign that told us to turn back, that the road was under repair. But since it was knocked down we choice to kindly ignore it. Anyways on the way down we had to jump a few fences, one with barb wire on it and we came up to this sign. The sign read “Caution Venomous snakes traps in progress” It has to be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. We continued down the track and came up to a gate. The gate had about 8 pad locks on it; clearly someone didn’t want people to go through it. However right beside the gate, there was a rather large hole were people could fit through it, so we continued on. We ended up inside the CSIRO science laboratories, not sure how we could just freely enter the place, but we ended up getting through them and back to the university where we were staying.

On a sad note, two of the leaders and a few students are leaving this year, so it was great to be in partnership in the Gospel at mission. I will miss them greatly and it does grieve me that they are grieving, but they are going into something bigger. One of the leaders is going to bible collage next year, and I’m really glad to see him furthering in his knowledge of God. Anyways where ever they are, I hope they will be able to continue strong and serving God, giving him glory where ever they are.

One big thing I need prayer for is during NTE, our home got sold. Over the past two weeks I have been making a decision to if I would stay with my parents or live away from them. I have come up with conclusion that living away would be the most wise but most hard option but will be greatly beneficial to my ministry. At the moment the place doesn’t concern me too much however I would like to stay in Katoomba, my heart still lies in the ministry their, and to that family. The big prayer point I need is that my parents are doing everything they can to get me away from doing ministry, and not leaving any thoughts on my behalf to what I will be doing for the rest of my life. Although this is only a little thing, house being sold, it actually sparks off the thing of doing full time ministry. So please pray that I will have the courage and strength (in Christ strength) to tell them that I am considering full time ministry in the future, and that I would like to live away from them for a while. I’ve actually only got to Saturday to tell them, so please do pray because I am weak.

Anyways didn’t realise that I’ve already wrote 1,882 words, woops sorry guys, please do continue to pray and thank God that NTE/Mission went well. Pictures are finally up, you can find them by clicking on this link http://PapL.bebo.com. God Bless.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Laurence