EVERYBODY IS SEARCHING FOR it

Everyone is searching for it and most people do not know what it is! Those who are searching for it do not know where to look and often look in all the wrong places. The ancient book of Ecclesiastes describes this search and how its main character looked for it vainly in religion, work, pleasure, sex, and even education. The quest for it is additionally hindered because most of those searching for it can not even describe what it looks like — yet, frustratingly, they have a sense that it is something very precious that they have now lost. This feeling is if they have a memory they can not recall. All that they are left with is this gnawing sense that it is now lost and they are now lost without it. What they are unaware of is that their thwarted search is a part of sinister scheme designed to keep them from ever recovering their lost memory and being reunited with it. Just like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth character, Gollum, their ever-present enemy has ensured that are befriended by several Gollum-like friends who continually assure them that nothing is missing, and there is no it. 

But when they sleep at night they dream about it. In their dreams they find it and their sadness turns to happiness; their loneliness turns to the warm friendship and intimate love; their sense of guilt and shame turns to the joy of being forgiven and accepted; their nagging feeling of enslavement to ignorance turns to unparalleled freedom; their awareness of being unclean gives way to an overwhelming delight of being washed and clean. But then they awake and renew their quest to find it.

“You have made us for Yourself,
O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

The it that everyone is looking for is not an it at all. It turns out that what most think of as an it is actually a He. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal Son of God, the Creator of Heaven of Earth and everything within both the visible and the unseen realms. The ancient Greeks suspected who He was and called Him the Logos (John 1:1). The ancient Jews had their prophets tell them that He was the co-equal, co-eternal, co-regent (Isa. 48:16), the prophet who was to come (Deut. 18:15), and eternal Divine King who would become human and there after ever be known as the Divine Son of Man (Dan. 7:13-14).

Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name, and what is His son’s name?
Surely you know!
Proverbs 30:4

He claimed to be The Light, The Life, The Way (John 14:6). He claimed to be the exclusive Source of Living Water for every human soul (John 7:37-38). He declared that He was the One of whom the prophets foretold (John 8:56). He stated that He was only One who could set people free from their bondage (John 8:36). Jesus revealed that the cleansing for our soul that we all long for could only be found in Him as we trusted His Word (John 15:3). He offered lasting friendship to all who would trust Him (John 15:14-15). He is the only qualified to bridge the gap between God and mankind. This is why He became a human being and offered His life (not just His death) as the atonement for our sin and guilt, the ransom to set us free, the payment of our debt to God, the sacrificial offering of His own life to overcome and conquer death itself, and the reinstatement of mankind to our rightful place of vice-regency in ruling over creation. His resurrection from the dead ensures our unimpeded access to God not just in this life – but in the life that awaits us in eternity – if we turn to Him in surrender and accept His offer of forgiveness/cleansing/freedom/adoption/new-life.

Your search is not just for temporary satisfaction. Your search for it is actually a search for Him. And your search has always been an intuitive sense that it is actually He who has been searching for you.

Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you,
and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. 
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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"Like a lamb"

 

The surprising conclusion to the story of God’s plan of redemption and the climax of each of the four Gospels, is that “the Lamb has conquered” (Rev. 17:14) — not by military might — but being killed and then conquering death itself! The introduction of Christ to the world in John’s Gospel was delivered by John the Baptiser when he declared- 

¶ The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me,
because He was before me.’
John 1:29-30

In each of the Passover meals that are recorded in the Gospels (where the central elements were the pascal lamb, the unleavened bread, and the unfermented wine) not once is there any reference to the lamb. Even the bread and wine are given new and richer significance by the Very Lamb of God when He announced, “Take eat, this is My body”, and of the wine “This is My blood which is shed for you.” It was the presence of the True Lamb that made any reference to the shadowy sacrificed lamb  absolutely redundant. In each of the three Passovers that Jesus celebrated with His disciples, it was only the last one, on the night He was betrayed, that they celebrated it a day early. This significance of this is often overlooked by many who have not paused to consider just how odd yet profound this apparent wrong-datedness was. On the day that the Passover (“Pascal”) lamb was being roasted, Jerusalem and the houses that surrounded the holy city would have had the smell of thousands of households exuding its smoke from their roasting ovens giving the precinct a cloud with the distinct aroma of barbecued roast lamb. The night before this, Christ met with His disciples and instituted the New Covenant ordinance of the Lord’s Supper (1Cor. 11:20). Thus, the following day, just when each household fired up their roasting ovens, Christ was charged, tried, convicted, condemned, and crucified — as the True Passover Lamb. When Christ was beaten and bloodied and bruised and stripped naked and nailed to a Roman cross and left hanging while pinned with three nine-inch iron spikes to that tree, Jerusalem was progressively being filled with the aroma of thousands of emblematic lambs all pointing to the One True Lamb just outside the city walls (significantly) to the west of the once holy city.

In the eyes of the Jewish and Roman authorities, the “Jesus problem” was now dealt with. With Christ dead the Jewish leaders had dealt with the problem of the One who threatened their power over the people. With Christ dead the Roman authorities had dealt with the problem of the One that tens of thousands of Jews believed was the Messiah-Deliverer. How infinitely wrong they both were!

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.
For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
First Corinthians 5:7

The death of the Eternal Lamb of God which led to His victory over death and the powers of evil itself resulted in the greatest and most decisive military victory in the history of our cosmos! In the closing book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, the One whom John the Baptiser had previously described as the amnos of God (John 1:29), is referred to twenty-eight times in its twenty-two chapters as the arnion (‘little lamb’).

¶ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb [arnion] standing,
as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes,
which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Revelation 5:6

The closing book of the Bible delivers a literary twist that not even the most creative writer could hav ever dreamt of. The mightiest military and combined religious forces of the then known world with all its might, power, and glory, was no match for a little lamb!!!!

They will make war on the Lamb,
and the Lamb will conquer them,
for He is Lord of lords and King of kings,
and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful.”
Revelation 17:14

The Almighty Eternal Omnipotent God and Creator of the Universe entered into space and time and became like a lamb and demonstrated that true power, true greatness, and true might, are not measured by the things that the rebellious world considers necessary! The first Easter established once and for all who was the True Lord, the One True God, and His claim to summon peoples from all lands and languages to lay their lives down in surrendered worship of Him. And this is what we do in constant memory and celebration of the One who is worthy of our adoration, devotion, and worship each Sunday and especially during Easter!

¶ And I saw no temple in the city,
for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb…
But nothing unclean will ever enter it,
nor anyone who does what is detestable or false,
but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation 21:22-23, 27

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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THE START OF A NEW SEASON - Began the day that David could no longer kill giants!

 

I’m heading into a new season. Last Sunday marked the beginning of a new season for our church. I always knew this season was coming. I had just thought that it was still a few years off. When we arrived in Legana in 1995 it was love at first sight. We had lived in a high-density part of Melbourne, just ten minutes out of the city centre, where we had been pioneering a church in a very needy part of the city. When the Lord called us to Tasmania we were initially unsure where we were going to be called. Then it became obvious that the Holy Spirit was calling us to Launceston — where we would be based in Legana (ten minutes north of the city of Launceston). Whenever anyone asked, “If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you really want to live?” My answer has always been the same: “Right here.” Yet, Kim and I always knew that the day would come when we would have to transition into a new season. As I was convalescing and physically battling with what appeared to be chronic fatigue, in my daily Bible reading I read the story of the turning-point in King David’s seasons. He had once been the young “giant-killing king of Israel” who was now the sixty-year-old weary king who was about to be killed by a giant named Ishi-benob. This became the moment when four very young men stepped-up and did what their previous generation thought was impossible: they each killed a giant! 

THE DAY THAT DAVID COULD NO LONGER KILL GIANTS

¶ There was war again between the Philistines and Israel,
and David went down together with his servants,
and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary.
Second Samuel 21:15

Years before David’s season changed, the Philistine’s champion, Goliath, challenged the national army of Israel (under the leadership of King Saul) to come out and face him man-to-man in one-on-one combat. But there was not one Hebrew man who dared accept his challenge! When the sixteen-year-old shepherd boy, David of Bethlehem, arrived with supplies from his father for David’s seven brothers, David did what none before him had dared do: he accepted the challenge of the 12-fingered giant to enter into one-on-one combat. And with God’s help, David defeated him.

“AND DAVID GREW WEARY”

Years later, David is now much older – probably close to 60 years of age. He no longer has the youthful vigour that he once had. “And David grew weary” the unnamed prophet writes. And what nearly happened next nearly changed the course of human history!

And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants,
whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze,
and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David.
But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and
attacked the Philistine and killed him.
Then David’s men swore to him,
“You shall no longer go out with us to battle,
lest you quench the lamp of Israel.”
Second Samuel 21:16-17

WHAT DAVID COULD NO LONGER DO
– COULD STILL BE DONE –
EVEN MORE EFFECTIVELY!

After this episode, the unnamed narrator includes a remarkable series of giant-killing tales that actually greatly honoured David (2Sam. 21:22). Four young men, Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Sebbecai the Hushathite, Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, and Jonathan the son of Shimei (David’s brother) each slew giants as big as—if not bigger than—the original Goliath that the young David had slain!

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him.
Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.”
¶ After this there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Saph,
who was one of the descendants of the giants. And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob,
and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite,
the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. And there was again war at Gath,
where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot,
twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel,
Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down. These four were descended from
the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
Second Samuel 21:17-22

David had been fighting battles, that no-one thought could be fought – let alone won, for many years. He was not just weary – he was battle-weary. But in the process of being present, courageous, faithful, and fearless, he inspired a generation of young warriors to step up and enter into the fray with the confidence that they could. What their parents and grand-parents thought could not be done, and what they had never witnessed anyone even brave enough to try, these four young men serving David dared to believe was also possible with God’s help — just as David had once done. While the day came that David could no longer kill giants, it came on the same day that four young men were inspired to believe that they could!

It would be a nice way to conclude the Biblical story of David’s life with this honourable tribute of his inspiration of the next generation, but sadly, this is not where it ends – and even sadder for the memory of King David is the narration that the shepherd-turned-warrior King did not handle his lack of military-identity with the required humility needed for such a high royal office. The Scriptures reveal that there are certain life-changes which require a good deal of humility to be able to enter well, and even though David, the once humble shepherd boy, had been selected by God precisely because of his humility, toward the end of his life he did not maintain it as well as he had when he started. This reveals that there are some great and difficult lessons for those of us who are ageing to learn from this and to recognise and accept when a season changes we must too.

Change is never easy. But it is necessary, even for churches. There is a tragic aspect to church history that reveals those churches that forsook Christ’s mission and refused (or were unable) to change, ended up dying. The challenge before us as a church is to embrace change and recommit ourselves to our God-given mission to know Jesus and make Jesus known. It is my hope that we can all work together and cheer on the next generation of “giant-killers” and that: (i) parents of primary-school aged children will prioritise getting their children to Kids Church each Sunday; (ii) the parents of teens will encourage their teens to commit to our youth group each Friday; and, (iii) each of us will get a fresh revelation from the Spirit about the times we are now living in and why gathering together as a church family each Sunday and in our Home Groups, is now more important than ever before!  As we heard from several people last Sunday who brought prophetic words, we are now heading into a new and greater season of anointing and harvest! 

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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EMPTY JARS, SHOVELS, OIL, HOLES, and MIRACLES

 

I believe in miracles! Last Sunday night, several people gathered to pray for me and anoint me with oil for healing, including the Bishop of Tasmania Dr. Richard Condie, and Anglican archdeacon Bob McKay. Years ago, when Pastor Phil Hills was preaching, he said something that I wrote down in my Bible and have often repeated it to Kim, “Before God grants a miracle, do everything in the natural to make it possible!” As soon as I had heard this it seemed to have the Spirit’s anointing of truth all over it. As I read through the Scriptures I now see this principle often associated with God’s miracles. A poor widow had to do the possible to receive the impossible. Isaac’s servants had to dig a well in order to ‘miraculously’ find water. Peter had to get out of the boat and put his feet on the water before he could walk to the Lord. The bewildered disciples brought to Jesus the only solution they had to feed 5,000 people. And we must pray for miracles while we roll up our sleeves and do what we can in the meantime.

 

THE MIRACLE OF CANCELLING THE WIDOW’S DEBTS

¶ Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbours, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
Second Kings 4:1-7

Sometimes we pray for a miracle and miss the means by which God often wants to bring it about it. The story of the poor widow (who was the wife of “one of the sons of the prophets”) had been borrowing money since her husband’s death to keep her and her two young sons alive. But she had no means to repay her creditors. Through the prophet Elisha’s instruction, God did an outstanding miracle. I’m sure God could have just ‘magically’ made money appear for this widow to pay her creditor and protect her sons from being forced into indentured servitude. But the means of her miracle involved enterprise. She had to borrow empty jars. She had pour what little oil she had out of her existing jar into these empty jars. She then had to report back to the prophet Elisha. Finally, she had to go and sell the oil in the jars. Opportunities are most often God’s initial answer to our plea for a miracle!

 

THE MIRACLE OF WATER IN A FRESHLY DUG HOLE

That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well
that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.”
Genesis 26:32

Isaac had inherited wells from his father, Abraham. But these were sabotaged by the neighbouring inhabitants of Canaan. While water is essential anywhere on earth, it is rather prized in dry, arid, parts of the world where Isaac and his companions were. Our lives sometimes ‘get dry’. We too pray for the ‘ground’ to not be so hard and for God to give us some ‘water’. In praying for water though, God often provides a shovel. Isaac’s men used their digging implements to dig. It would be a very odd picture indeed if while holding a shovel someone prayed to God for a hole in the ground without ever using that shovel to start digging!

In times of spiritual drought sometimes we pray for rain instead of digging a well.

¶ “Behold, God is my salvation;I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,
and He has become my salvation.”
¶ With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
And you will say in that day:“Give thanks to the LORD,
call upon His name,
make known His deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that His name is exalted.
Isaiah 12:2-4

As a church we are digging ‘a well’ from which parched and thirsty people from around our distract will be attracted and invited to drink deeply. Attracted. We can pray that people will be attracted to the ‘well of salvation’ but we must be prepared to dig. Attracted. Perhaps there’s nothing more attractive than an invitation. Perhaps for some the attraction to the well begins by driving past our facility and noticing the care and love that has been put into our lawns and grounds by Alan Harris and Lydia Braam. For others it might be the attraction of our brightly coloured painted building that Tom Nielsen has so masterfully gifted us with. For others it might be that they see the dozens and dozens of cars in the carpark each Sunday parked in a neat and orderly fashion because someone has painstakingly taken the time each week to gather the scattered white pebbles and carefully place them back in their neat markings. We don’t just pray for revival rain, we also dig “wells of salvation”!

 

THE MIRACLE OF THE GOSPEL’S POWER

The greatest miracle of all (apart from the incarnation and resurrection of the Christ) is when a lost soul is born-again by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit through the agency of the preaching of the Gospel. During my brief absence from being with you, Kim and I have been praying for souls to be saved each Sunday in our worship and teaching service. But it is not just about our church, our postcode, our church roll, or even our city—God’s heart for the lost extends across our State and beyond. So Kim and I pray each Sunday in particular that every church in our valley would see at least one person choose to follow Christ! We digging in prayer! But we are also digging by inviting. (In a couple of weeks when I return I will share with you some of the extraordinary mail that Kim and I have received from non-churched people who have written to us about their experience of being attracted to our church and how it has begun something in them.) This is why we dig each Sunday by sharing a salvation testimony of the Gospel’s power to transform a life. It’s why we dig by putting so much effort into our Livestream. It’s why Lois Kidmas and her team dig each Sunday by discipling the children of our church. We want to see more miracles – especially the miracles of seeing lives won to the Saviour. That’s why we dig because that’s how we get oil, water, provision, and salvations! Let’s dig together!

 

Your Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.