Worship led by Brian Legg
We are here to acknowledge God as our creator and sustainer, and Jeus Christ as our Saviour and Lord – the only one who is truly worthy of our praise.
He is the only hope for our troubled world – let’s declare our trust in him as we sing our first song
1385 Jesus, Hope of the nations
You are the hope, the Rock, the light – in whom we trust.
Prayer
Because of who He is, our reaction should quite rightly be one of worship to Him. Some like to worship by raising their arms in the air - much as football supporters do on the odd occasion when their side scores a goal. Others prefer to quite literally bow down as a sign of honour and respect to their God. Whatever our preferred stance, and there is no problem with us remaining seated if we so wish, the important thing is that we pour out our worship from truly thankful hearts. Our next song today is:
34 At your feet we fall
“We now see the glory of your wondrous face”
These words got me thinking about people’s faces. The one principal thing that is unique about you, unless perhaps you were born as one of identical twins, is of course your face. Whether you like it or not, it is how God made you. It identifies you, and it’s no use trying to be someone else, because your face will give you away. Some people sadly go to ridiculous and costly extremes to change their facial appearance, often with tragic and unwanted outcomes.
Your face also tells other people a lot about you and your state of mind, how you are really feeling today. Someone asks “How are you?” – you politely reply “Fine, thanks” – but so often they can see in your face that you are anything but. Yes, our faces speak volumes about us to others. They can only too easily see if we are angry, worried, or if we don’t really want to talk with them at all. Hopefully, they can also see when we have an active interest in their well-being, and genuinely want to talk about their own situations.
There are many verses in the Old Testament about “seeking God’s face”. Psalm 105:4 says “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always”, Maybe you are planning some new venture, so you tell a trusted friend about it – and you can in an instant see by the look of their face whether they think it’s a good idea on not. How we need to seek God’s face day by day, to discern his ways for our lives,
895 Lord, I come to you
Lord, unveil my eyes, Let me see you face to face.
We read about Moses that he spoke with God “face to face” – this was how he was enabled to lead the people of Israel. How we all need to get into the habit of seeking God’s face – morning, noon and night, as we confront various issues in our lives, so that we can with God’s power know more of Him in our lives.
392 More love, more power
“I will seek you face” – let each one of us take that declaration of intent forward with us in the coming week. To seek God’s face anew, as we confront old and new challenges in the coming week.
It’s sometimes good for us to ask the question “How do others see me”? What do they see about us in our faces as well as our actions?
There’s an old song which really should be a prayer for each of us, as we seek to be witnesses for Jesus to others around us.
“Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me – all His wonderful passion and purity. O thou spirit divine, all my nature refine, ‘til the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”
Jesus drew men and women and children to himself in their thousands – such was his compassionate and loving nature. Our prayer should be that people will see some reflection of Jesus in our lives, and so be drawn towards Him themselves.
Our last song is a favourite of many, and ws specifically requested by Mike Heseltine watching us on Zoom last Sunday.
97 Father I place into your hands
Look at the words of the 3rd verse – and may each of us make this our prayer, as we seek God’s face for the coming week.
Breaking of Bread
Part of our worship is to respond to the command that Jesus gave to his disciples to Remember Him. He gave them his instructions before his death and resurrection, which at that time was all a bit of a mystery to them – as it was only after the resurrection that they truly comprehended all that he had been saying to them.
As we remember the Lord in the bread and wine today – and all true believers are invited to take part and share in these emblems together – we do so with the benefit of knowing much that the gospel writers recorded for us about the nature of Jesus real sufferings on the cross, as he was rejected by men.
As one hymn says, He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good. That we might go at last to heaven, saved by his precious blood.
What a price our blessed Saviour paid, to set us free, to open up the way to come into the presence of our loving God.
Let’s remain seated and bring our own individual worship and thanks to God in the words of
544 There is a Redeemer
Message by Linz Daun
Marks of a Healthy Church - Endurance
- We are at a point when the early church is growing rapidly.
- Preparation time has happened:
- Acts 1 - Jesus gave them instructions, and told them to wait until they had received the Holy Spirit.
- And that once they had - they would have the power to be His witnesses.
- Acts 2 – we see the Holy Spirit come as promised at Pentecost
- Since then they’ve been meeting together as church, and preaching the gospel with accompanying signs + wonders, and the Lord has been adding to their numbers.
- Sounds like plain sailing right? Let’s see:
Read Acts 5:17 - 42
- Any thoughts of early church being plain sailing are well and truly gone then!
- Let me encourage you - plain sailing might feel good – it’s comfortable isn’t it. But I’m not sure that a comfortable church is a healthy church.
Growth under Persecution
- Researching where in the world the church is growing the fastest
- Iran, Afghanistan, China = places where the church is persecuted the most.
- E.g. In Iran:
- converting to Christianity is illegal.
- Illegal to own a copy of the bible.
- People meet in secret house churches.
- Christians get imprisoned for any of those things…
- …But their numbers are growing exponentially.
I Will Build My Church
- Makes me think - Jesus said to Peter ‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’
- Persecution almost seems like a catalyst to growth… Why?
The Acts church is clearly a healthy church. And it’s no coincidence that they are a great example to us of enduranc
- There’s a pattern:
- what man does against the church
- how God responds
- and how the church responds.
V18 - 19
- Man tries to stop the church – arrests and imprisons.
- But because the gates of hell shall not prevail against… …we get a ‘But God’ moment.
- Man arrests + imprisons. But God sends an angel to spring them out of prison.
- The enemy imprisons but God sets free.
- But the apostles are obedient – and courageous – and off they go again to preach Jesus.
V26 – 32
- We see that man tries to stop them again.
- They get re-arrested and hauled before the council.
- They again preached Christ crucified and resurrected.
- This is either incredible obedience + boldness or foolishness?
- Remember the Luke 12 passage where Jesus said 8 “…everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
- He also said 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
- So what do we see here:
- man re-arrests and accuses before the council
- But God gives them a defence
- And the result is the church preaches Jesus – to the very authorities accusing them!
V33 - 42
- God raises up a man called Gamaliel to bring peace.
- Incredible - one man’s words stopped an enraged murderous group.
- Jesus said Jn 16:33 – in me you may have peace – In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart I have overcome the world.
- And here we see the Prince of Peace in action -Man enraged and murderous – God intervenes. And again the gospel is preached!
The Pattern – do we follow it?
- Hopefully we all know the pattern now:
- Man tries to stop the church
- God intervenes
- Jesus is preached.
Beaten - Rejoiced
- The apostles were flogged.
- But their response is incredible. Before they went on and endured in preaching Jesus, they REJOICED! V41 - They left the presence of the council rejoicing
Challenge
- When we hear the word endurance what does it mean to us?
- Do we live out the pattern seeing man’s persecution, God’s deliverance and us the church enduring to ‘preach Jesus’?
- Or do we live for a quiet life – avoiding persecution.
Persecution in the West
- Because the bible says if we are living a godly life we will be persecuted.
- Maybe not - physical violence + imprisonment yet in the west - but I hear all the time of Christians - sticking to the Word + risking their livelihoods.
Rejoicing in sufferings
- What a challenge it is, that after they suffered the apostles rejoiced.
- And the Romans verse I read at the beginning says the same:
- we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope
Boldness
-
- If you are a follower of Jesus you aren’t waiting for the Holy Spirit – he moved in the moment you believed.
- In Acts 4 – just before our passage – the believers prayed for boldness and do you know what happened? V31 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
- In the pattern we saw - it was God who rescued, God who set them free, God who saved.
- AND now we are reminded it is God who gives us the power to be witnesses.
- Courage doesn’t mean you don’t feel afraid. It is feeling the fear and doing it anyway:
- knowing that the same power that resurrected Jesus lives in us.
- knowing that Jesus promised he would be with us til the end of the age.
Humility
-
- Endurance requires humility.
- The apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name of Jesus.
- Church – we need to endure our sufferings for the joy set before us.
- But we don’t endure alone. We have the Holy Spirit – remember Romans 5?
- we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 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.
Conclusion
- Pray for endurance – humility – boldness – Holy Spirit.
NOTICES
- Wednesday morning at 10.30am – Church Prayer Meeting
- Next Sunday 16th February – speaker at 10.15am will be David Reeves (Reigate Baptist Church}.