What is the church?

Some people think church is like a shellsuit; utterly unfashionable, completely outdated and you wouldn’t be seen dead in one. For other’s going to church is like visiting the dentists; You don’t go very often but when you it’s always painful, you’re made to feel guilty, and you leave thinking you should try harder.

But last week I saw something and I thought “That’s what the church is really like!”.

I saw a sculpture made of thousands of lost and broken objects that nobody had any use for: earrings, hairclips, zips, nails, paperclips, and many more. The artist had painstakingly searched high street pavements collecting them and had carefully threaded them together so they made a huge and beautiful piece of art. It was something completely new and exciting, made out of things fit for the rubbish dump.

That’s what the Bible says the church is really like: A huge group of people from all sorts of backgrounds and who were all lost and broken by sin, but who have been sought and saved by Jesus Christ. Jesus is now carefully at work in their lives, transforming them and building them together to make something glorious. In reality the church is never outdated, it is never about trying harded, it is something completely new and exciting made out of people fit for the rubbish dump.

Ephesians 5: 25 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Are you part of the true church: the church that Jesus died for?

What can't you just shut up?

Last year I went to a folk concert. The atmosphere was very quiet and respectable, the audience politely applauded the female singer-songwriter as she gently played her guitar and sang sweetly. However one guy in the audience kept calling out for the same song, which the singer obviously didn’t want to play. This guy kept going on and on, he was so irritating that eventually the singer got so fed up that she punctured the nice polite atmosphere by yelling at the top of her voice: “SHUT IT!”

I reckon, deep down, that’s how most people feel about Christians. “Why can’t you just shut up?” Why do have to keep going on and on about Jesus?” You believe what you like, why do you have to involve every one else?” “All your talk about sin, hell and needing to repent is so irritating, are you determined to make us all miserable?” In short, however polite people may appear, the underlying message is “SHUT IT!”

Well, here’s the reason Christians can’t shut up, the reason we at Townhill Baptist will always keep going on and on that you need to repent and believe, the reason that Jesus is and will always be the most relevant person to your life:

“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there’s no other name give to men by which we must be saved”. (Acts 4:12)

The shocking truth is that if tell Jesus to shut up, you block out the only person who’s able to do you any good. Are going to turn and trust Him?

A New Year's Resoloution

Well my New Year's resolution is to have a crack at reading Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, and to my surprise it's not a chore but thrilling stuff. Here's a few passages that have grabbed my attention so far, and a picture of the man himself and his famous namesake:

Calvin on how awareness of our own poverty of spirit and moral bankruptcy should lead us to seek God:
"From the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and- what is more- depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in the Lord alone. To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to be displeased with ourselves."


Calvin on how there can be no true knowledge of God without piety:
"I call piety that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces. For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him- they will never yield him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to him."

Searching stuff hey? Does your knowledge of God come from a true assessment of yourself? Are you dissatisfied with yourself? Are you persuaded that your complete happiness and every good resides in him alone?

Twas the week before Christmas....

Well it's the week before Christmas, and so far it's been good. We had our Children's Christmas party on Saturday which was rowdy (I nearly lost my voice) but we had about twenty there and it went well. On Sunday I preached on 2 Timothy 4:1-8 in the evening, which was a real stretch, it's a text I felt like I collapsed under the weight of. I almost phoned Alan up to tell him I couldn't preach. But God is good.

And now it's the week after Christmas. It was great to be in Townhill on Christmas day, Rachel and I had beef dinner and went and visited our parents. We got back to Townhill, and went to our friends Alison and Dave's wedding. On Sunday I preached on the second half of 2 Timothy 4. This week I'm doing some prep, finishing my essay on Job, and doing some thinking about how to door to door in a way that works in Townhill. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Tuesday 12th December

Phew! Just finished the last Pure course this morning, so no more having to be down the uni for half seven.

The last session was called pure forgiveness and I had to do a talk on the cross and sexual sin. Struck by a few things. The worst thing about sexual sin, indeed about all our sin, isn't just our side of it (guilt, the mess it causes, letting ourselves down), it's the fact we have grieved God. God is hurt by our sin, and I wonder if you and I really dwell on this? I was struck again that the cross is for God as much as it is for us, if not more. The blood of Christ is for God to see, to show that his righteous anger has been satisfied. All our sin and the hell we deserve dealt with in that instant on the cross. How much I need to take this in!

Sunday night's sermon came as a real wake up call: especially convicted about slackness in repentance. We sit on a whole mound of sin: habits, thoughts and attitudes. There's the subtle sins and the respectable sins. Yet we just don't see it, and I don't see that all sin no matter how small grieves God. Left with the challenge am I willing to be exposed? Am I willing to be shown up for what I am? If I'm convinced that, in the words of Richard Sibbes, 'there is more grace in Christ than there is sin in me' then I'll be willing to be as bruised and shown up as possible, just as long as it is dealt with.

This week I'm preparing a sermon for Sunday, doing Waffles, leading Prayer Meeting on Wednesday, and contacting Sunday school parents about the Christmas party. Oh yes and there's the calendars to go out as well.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

I was reading John 14 ('I am the true vine'), verse 9 struck me: 'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love'. What does it mean? How has the Father loved the Son? How has the Son loved us? What is the relationship between the two and what difference does it make to me?

Well Jesus explains it in the next verse : 'If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love'.

How has the Father loved the Son? In their exclusive and eternal relationship, the Father has shown the Son all of his commands, all of who he is and what his plans are. The Father shows the Son his plans for salvation through the cross. Jesus has already stressed this special relationship earlier in the gospel (5:17, 5:20). The Son abides in this relationship by his obedience to all the Father plans and wills.

How has the Son loved us? In exactly the same way. Out of sheer love he has revealed Himself to us, who he is, his purpose in the cross, what his commands are. And we are to abide in this relationship by obedience. And it's Jesus' will that the same joy that sustains him in his obedience to the Father, would sustain us in our obedience to him and would overflow. (15:11)

The impact this has on me is to make me see the in incredible position that I'm in as a Christian: in the same way the Father loves the Son, so the Son has loved me. And it makes me see that obedience isn't some joyless extra tacked on to the Chritian life but it is how we grow. Oh for fuller and complete obedience! How amazing to be sustained by the same joy that was in Christ. I want to know that kind of joy and obedience.

The week commencing Monday 4th December...

I've got an essay on Job due in this month, so I'm looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into it and getting a better grasp of its message.

This week I've got usual things Pure, Mothers and Others, The Talking Shop, Volleyball, Waffles and going out on the street with Allan. Meeting up with students: looking at John's Gospel with Will, Christian Beliefs with Phil, and starting the Pursuit of Holiness with Jon and Jamie.

I'm going to spend some time thinking about the Christmas services, let me know if you have any ideas about stuff we could do in them. Oh yeah, getting the calendars out as well. And on Thursday I'm meeting up with Chris Rogers my theological tutor, to get stuffed full of theology (and twixes). I'm preaching a couple of times this month, please pray I would have something to say.