Online Meeting Sunday 19th April 2020

Lee Street Church

Notes of on-line meeting held on 19^th April 2020

1. We welcomed about 24 people on-line, including our speaker William Fleming and his wife Dorothy.

2. Sue led the worship time, beginning with a reminder about all the evidence around us of new life – blossom and leaves on trees, bluebells in the woods.

3. Spring Song:

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,

It speaks of His greatness and it sings of His love,

And the wonder and glory of the first Easter morn,

Like the first Christmas night when the Saviour was born,

Are blended together in symphonic splendour

And God, with a voice that is gentle and tender,

Speaks to all hearts attuned to his voice,

Bidding His listeners to gladly rejoice

For He was born to be crucified

Arose from the grave to be glorified

And the birds in the trees and the flowers of spring

All join in proclaiming this heavenly King”

4. 1Peter 1 v 3 - 5

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Chcist from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvationthat is ready to be revealed in the last time”.

5. Song: Come people of the risen King (Video - Stuart Townend)

6. 1Peter 5 v 13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”

7. Psalm 33 v 22 “May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You”

8. Psalm 119 v 114 ”You are my refuge and my shield. I have put my hope in your word.

9. Song: My hope is built on nothing less” (Cornerstone)

     10.Prayer Time

Thanksgiving for:

• Promised relaxation of lock-down rules for children in Spain (Jon & Clare’s family)

• Horley Foodbank coping with double the normal demand for food

• Nationally, some hotels are being opened up to house homeless people; folk helped by R&B Night Shelter (Renewed Hope Trust) have been found accommodation.

Pray for:

• Safety of Foodbank volunteers

• Those members on their own during Covid-19 lock-down

11.Reading.. - Luke 24: 13 – 35

12. Talk by William Fleming (Camberley)

Some thoughts from William’s talk

1. When something appears to be too good to be true, it generally is.

2. The 2 people (Cleopas and probably his wife Mary) were returning from Jerusalem to their home in Emmaus. They had witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus – his execution by professional killers – and his burial in a borrowed tomb. They knew he had died. And now they were just making themselves more miserable as they talked together about these events.

3. They had heard stories of people seeing Jesus, but that seemed to them to be too good to be true.

4. Do we have a knack of making other people miserable? Are we just fair-weather Christians? How are we in not-so-good times? Remember the words of Habakkuk 3:17 – 18 “Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vine,………,.,.yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour”.

5. The 2 had lost hope – all they had hoped for in Jesus had been dashed.

6. They were then joined by a stranger – it seems Jesus in his resurrected body was not recognisable unless he chose to be.

7. So Jesus joins in their conversation, in order to break their despair. He asks them some questions.

8. Do we hear the Holy Spirit questioning us at times? Questioning our actions, our thinking, our response to others?

9. He asks them what they are talking about, and their response was in effect “How could you not know what’s been happening in Jerusalem?”

10. They went on to say what they knew about Jesus – who he was, and their hopes for him to redeem Israel. They acknowledged that some woman had reported that He was alive.

11. They knew what the prophets had spoken, but had failed to apply it to these events. So Jesus reminds them of some of the OT scriptures which spoke of the suffering of the Messiah.

12. On reaching their home, the risen Lord sits down for a meal – they may have seen the nail-prints in his hands and feet – and they at last recognised Him – he was the risen Lord.

13. Their encounter with Him changed them – they excitedly returned at once to Jerusalem to share the good news that Jesus was alive. They now knew it wasn’t too good to be true!

14. What is our response to an encounter with the risen Christ? The bodily resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of the gospel. 2Timothy 2:8 reads “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead,…. . This is (the) gospel”.

  13. In closing, we sung “Faithful One, so unchanging”