North Springfield Baptist Church
Off Havengore, Chelmsford CM1 6JP UK

Sunday Worship 10.30 am and midweek activities

New website coming soon

Email contact@northspringfieldbaptistchurch.org
Text: 07963166459

Who chose who? The Question of Predestination and Free Will
When people become Christians, is it because they choose to follow Christ or because He chooses them? Ultimately, is it God’s decision, or ours? There are four possibilities.
(1) We have complete freedom to accept or reject God, to become Christians and whether to stay as Christians.
(2) We choose to accept God, but then He keeps us safe once we have trusted Him.
(3) God chooses who will become Christians, but then we have the choice of whether to carry on as Christians or not (so some can be “Saved and then Lost”).
(4) God chooses who will become Christians and also makes sure that no true Christians are ever lost again (so Christians are “Once Saved, Always Saved”).
Large numbers of Christians through the ages have held to each of these options, So it can’t be an easy question. We may not necessarily UNDERSTAND the purposes of God. What matters is WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
We are all separated from God by sin and in ourselves all we deserve is to stay lost: Rom 3:20-23; Eph 1:1-3; Eph 4:17-19.
Without God’s grace we cannot by ourselves do anything good, least of all turn to Christ as Saviour.
We need the Holy Spirit’s help to come to Christ: Rom 8:5-8.
If salvation rested on our choice, choosing God and believing in Jesus would be a kind of good work we could do to earn salvation. On the contrary, we are saved by God’s grace, not by “good works”. Nor does God save people on the basis of Him knowing IN ADVANCE who will accept the gospel or who will live good lives.
Salvation is NOT based on any form of good works: Eph 2:8-9; 2 Tim 1:9.
Throughout the Old Testament, from Abraham to Moses to David, God’s relationship with the Israelites as His special chosen people rested on GOD’S choice, not theirs.
The Bible describes such people as “God’s chosen people” or “the elect”, and it applies the same word to Christians in the New Testament in Matthew and Mark, Colossians, 2 Timothy, Titus and 1 Peter. It was the calling and the destiny of the Israelites to be God’s firstborn, his children. But that wasn’t because of anything in the Israelites themselves which caused God to save them (Deut 7:7-9; Rom 9:15-16). Rather it was because of God’s love. God did not save the Israelites because of their own merits, but because of his steadfast love and mercy, the undeserved grace of God as God fulfilled his promises. Some people think it sounds unfair for God to choose to bless some people and choose not to bless others. But that is what the Bible says happened. Who are we sinful humans to pass judgment on the fairness and the justice of the righteous and holy Almighty and all-knowing God?
The evidence throughout the Bible is in favour of the view that it is God who chooses who will be saved: Matt 11:25-27. How can people get to know God? It is always and only by his grace. This passage is very significant because it brings us the words of Jesus himself. It tells us firstly that spiritual things are hidden from the wise and learned and only revealed to little children, those who come before God with openness and humility and simplicity. Secondly, all things have been committed to Jesus. The Son of God is the only way of salvation.
Thirdly, people can only come to know God when Jesus reveals the Father to them. Matthew 11:27; John 5:21.
It is ultimately God’s choice who comes to know God and to receive eternal life. John 15:16, 19; John 13:18. Jesus said those words to his twelve apostles but John 15 records them because the twelve ae the pattern for all disciples of Jesus. Jesus Himself chose each and every one of us. More than that, we find in many places the idea that the Father gives to the Son those who are going to be saved. John 6:37; John 10:29; John 17:6. This was the understanding of the Early Church in Acts 13:48. Those who were appointed or assigned or ordained or chosen for eternal life believed. It is God’s choice, not ours. Paul uses the word predestination in Romans 8:28-30. These are the grounds for our assurance of salvation. It rests on God’s five part plan: God foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies. Praise God, we don’t even have to understand this glorious passage. Our part is to put our trust in God and receive the free gift of his grace which will never, ever let us go! Paul says the same in Ephesians 1:3-6, 11. We were chosen, having been predestined. It was God’s choice, not ours. Peter says the same in 1 Peter 1:1-2.
So is salvation a case of predestination or of free will? Did God choose me or did I choose God? Perhaps both. From my side, I chose to repent and believe the gospel and follow Jesus. But God sees it differently. From God’s side, He chose us before the beginning of time to have a relationship with us and to transform us into the image of Christ. God the Holy Spirit worked behind the scenes in my life and the world around me to bring me to the point where I would repent and believe and follow Jesus. The Bible tells us in so many places that ultimately it is God’s decision who is saved.
Through the history of the church, some people have been so keen to defend the idea of human free will that they have diminished the Sovereignty of God. Who chose who? Time and time again the Bible makes clear that God is Sovereign. His grace leads some to believe. In other cases the Bible is specific that God hardens some people’s hearts so that they do not believe. Nobody has properly unravelled the dilemma of predestination or free will. But I do want to say that so many times the Bible teaches us that God is God – creator and ruler of all things – God is Sovereign! God is always Sovereign, whether people choose to submit to that sovereignty or not! God is Sovereign even though that gets our heads into a spin about who chooses who is going to be saved – whether we chose God or he chose us. Jesus is not just Lord because we invite him or allow Him to be Lord. Jesus is not Lord only of the people who recognise and submit to His Lordship. Jesus is Lord! Exclamation Mark! God is Sovereign. Exclamation Mark. God is Ruler of all things. God is in control. God is in control of the big things and God is in control of the little things as well. God rules over men and nations, and God rules over the smallest details of all of our lives. So I am persuaded that it is the Sovereign God who chooses us, not the other way round.
If God has chosen us, that implies that those who are saved can never be lost again. Once saved, always saved: John 6:35-40; John 10:27-29. No-one can snatch believers out of the hand of God. Once saved always saved. Who choses who? God chooses us. Just read one final verse which says the same in 2 Thess 2:13.

Today we are celebrating and giving thanks to God for the completion of the extension to our premises!

Solomon’s Temple stood in Jerusalem from the tenth century to the sixth Century BC. It took 7 years to build. Estimates on the total cost to construct the temple in today’s money vary between hundreds of millions and several billion pounds, depending partly on just how much gold it contained. That puts our little building project in its place! When King Solomon dedicated the Temple to God the celebrations lasted for 8 days leading into a further six days celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. We trust our more modest celebrations today will still be pleasing to God.
Some people misunderstand the purpose of church buildings. Some people think that God is exclusively or especially present in some places and cannot be found anywhere else. That view is mistaken. The Almighty, All-knowing and Eternal God is also Omnipresent. God is always everywhere. Even Solomon almost 3000 years ago recognised that vital truth. We do not need church buildings to be able to meet with God.
2 Chronicles 6 18 ‘But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple that I have built!
God does not live just in church buildings. God is everywhere all the time. At the same time, human beings have often found it helpful to have particular places to meet with God. Those places assisted the faith of believers that God would hear them.
2 Chronicles 6 19 Yet, LORD my God, give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. 20 May your eyes be open towards this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays towards this place.
So the Jews had their Temple in Jerusalem and later their synagogues. From around the third century Christians also built church buildings where they could meet together and worship God. But it is a mistake to imagine that this means that Christians believe that God lives only in church buildings. The Bible gives us a very different picture of what the church is.
Ephesians 2 says this. 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Christians are people who have been saved by God’s grace. The Bible says that we are all fellow citizens with God’s people. We are all members of God’s household – God’s family. We are part of the Body of Christ. And we are a spiritual building, with Christ as the cornerstone, built on the foundations of the apostles and the prophets and the gospel they proclaimed. We are now God’s Holy Temple, and God Himself lives in us all by His Holy Spirit.
So the church is not the premises. Nor is the church the programme of activities and events we organise. The church is the people of God, indwelt by the presence of God Himself. This is what sets the church of Jesus Christ apart from any clubs or teams or choirs or organisations or bodies or families. This is what makes the Christian church different from any other religious groups. We are unlike ANY other group of people in the world. We are “a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” God is alive and at work in His church. God dwells in His church, in a way that God does not dwell in ANY other group of people in the world!
In the Old Testament God gave the Temple in Jerusalem to his chosen people the Israelites. It was a very special building in three ways. It was the place where God was to be found. God was present and active in the Temple in ways and to an extent which at that time He was not working anywhere else on earth. So the Temple was the place where people met with God. When the time came to worship and to pray, the Temple was the place to go. And then even more important, the Temple was the place where God dealt with sin. The Temple was where sacrifices were continually offered, and especially at the great festivals of the year and most important of all the sacrifices for sin offered by the High Priest once a year in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. The temple was the place where God was to be found, the place people met with God, and the place sin was dealt with. But now the people who make up the church are the new Temple made up of living stones, where God lives by His Holy Spirit. There aren’t special buildings where people go to meet with God any more. The Church of Jesus Christ is not the buildings – it is the people.
So Christians together are the new temple. People who believe in Jesus are the new “building” in which God is especially present. Christians are now the “place” where people go if they want to meet with God. And Jesus Christ the greatest High Priest has offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin. So Christians are the people with the gospel of salvation. We have the good news of how Jesus has dealt with the problems of sin for all who put their trust in Him. Christians are the new temple.
1 Peter 2:4 says As you come to him, the living Stone- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
God does not live in church buildings. Christians are the “dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” God the Holy Spirit lives in each and every believer and God lives and moves and works in us even more wonderfully when we meet together.
Acts 2:42 tells us this about the first Christians. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. They gathered in the Temple Courts in Jerusalem but also met together in their houses. The church is not the building but rather the group of people who gather together for teaching and fellowship and worship and prayer. A fellowship does not need premises to be a church. Today there are many churches in this country and many more in other parts of the world who do not have their own buildings but meet in schools or community centres or even just in each other’s homes. The church is not the building, but rather the people of God. But then what are the functions of church buildings for those congregations who do have them?
Buildings give us a space to meet with God and to worship God. We know that God is not any more present in a church building than he is anywhere else, but many people find it helpful to go to the familiar place where they have met God many times before when they want to meet with Him again. Expectation increases our faith. This element of expectation is true for Christians gathering for their regular times of worship and prayer and fellowship. But many people who are not believers who are looking to meet with God or find out about Jesus also experience a greater expectation by coming into an established church building, even above entering a school or a community centre. And churches who own their own buildings and grounds also have greater opportunities to organise events and activities to welcome people who are exploring the Christian faith. We give thanks and glory to God for all the people who have met with God in this place over the years.
Then again, church premises also offer a space to reach out into the community with the saving love of Jesus. We do so through our Toddler Group on Monday mornings and Drop In on Friday afternoons and through different special events, including the welcome return of our Christmas Crafts Afternoon in two weeks’ time. Many people come into a church building hoping to find practical help and support, and that may be more the case than ever in the hard winter which is coming. Some people come into a church building hoping to find peace and it is gratifying how often newcomers have spoken of the sense of peace and calm they have experienced entering these premises. More than that, some people come to a church building hoping to find a place of safety and even of sanctuary. We give thanks and give glory to God for all the people who have experienced God’s peace in these premises over the years. We must make sure that this space always remains a place of warm welcome for everybody who enters here.
Church buildings also offer spaces to serve the needs of the wider community. We look forward to opening Haven Café again when the time is right. We are very happy to host Chelmsford Tamil Church meeting here every Sunday afternoon. We hope we might welcome groups like Slimming World back in the future too. And we must always be looking for more ways to serve North Springfield we these premises in years to come.
A very long time ago I heard a talk about Baptist Home Mission where the speaker said something which is both very simple and very important. “The function of church buildings is to help the mission of the church”. The reason for having a space to meet with God and worship God, a space to reach out to the community and a space to serve the needs of the wider community, is to enable the church to fulfil our mission of sharing the saving love of Jesus. That is what these premises have always been for.
The whole purpose for the church building an extension to these premises was to help us all to accomplish that vital mission more effectively. It was NOT about providing a legacy for future generations. It absolutely was NOT so that we would be fondly remembered in years to come. We have given and worked to improve our buildings so that we can share Jesus better and we must make certain that we never lose sight of that vital purpose. We have come here today to dedicate the whole of these premises to God once again: the longstanding building and the grounds as well as the new extended rooms. We have come to give thanks to God for the sacrificial generosity of so many people. We give thanks to God for the hard work of many people who have worked as a team to bring this development to reality. Beyond this building project, we thank God for all the generosity and all the hard work by all the members and friends of the church week after week and year after year, which sustains all the activities in the mission of the church.
The church is not the premises. It is not the programme. The church is the people of God in the presence of God. The most important element in the Dedication of the Solomon’s Temple was NOT a celebration of Solomon’s generosity or Solomon’s wisdom. The Temple was not built to glorify Solomon but to bring glory to God. And that is what happened on the day the Temple was dedicated.
2 Chronicles 7:1 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, ‘He is good; his love endures for ever.’

So as we rededicate these premises to God we pray that his glory will descent and fill us afresh. May we all worship and give thanks to God, declaring “He is good; his love endures forever!

“Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.
O, hear ye the word of the Lord.
Dem bones, dem bones gonna’…WALK AROUN’…
Dem bones, dem bones gonna’…WALK AROUN’…
Dem bones, dem bones gonna’…WALK AROUN’…
Now hear ye the Word of the Lord!”
We just heard in Ezekiel chapter 37 how the Lord God took the prophet Ezekiel into a valley full of old dead dry bones and how God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones,
`Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. … 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet- a vast army.
This is a beautiful picture of the way the Holy Spirit the breath of God brings life from death. It was originally a picture from God for Ezekiel to give hope to the nation of Israel. It is also a picture of the way that God the Holy Spirit takes each one of us as individuals, dead as dry bones because of sin, and brings us new birth by breathing new life into us. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit who brings us eternal life is the firstfruits of heaven, the first instalment, the seal, the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance,
“The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little bit of heaven on our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.” (2 Corinthians 5:5 The Message)
The Holy Spirit works inside every believer to prepare us for heaven. And God the Holy Spirit also transforms the church from a merely human organisation into the living Body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. There are many parts, but one body.
The life of the Church doesn’t come from our human activities. The life of the church comes from the work of the Holy Spirit who unites all believers, every one of us, Christians of every denomination and of no denomination.
So Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones is also a picture of the work of the Holy Spirit bringing all of us together as believers into the glorious Body of Christ.
Very sadly, when we look at the state of the church in Britain today, some might think it was pretty hopeless. We could easily be depressed by the spread of secularisation and religious pluralism along with the rise of materialism, consumerism and celebrity culture. We can see post-modern relativism and post truth creeping into the church as they have across society. We see numerical decline even in Baptist churches. And we may be most discouraged by the ways that so many churches are being led astray by false teaching and false teachers, abandoning beliefs held by Christians across the centuries in important issues such as the nature of salvation, the uniqueness of Christ as the only way to the Father, and the nature of Christian marriage.
Sometimes when I look at some churches, and at the denominations, it is hard to see the body of Christ. Instead I am reminded of perhaps the greatest horror story of all time, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In that novel a medical student took spare limbs from dead bodies to make an artificial man which he brought to life with the energy of lightning. This man-made monster has been the classic theme of horror and science fiction films and television. The whole picture is terrifying in its ugliness. A body made up of stray limbs, angular, disjointed, sluggish – a revolting body constructed by a man rather than a body beautiful as God creates and intends bodies to be. Very sadly when we think about the church as the body of Christ, the spectre of Frankenstein’s monster can loom large. As we look at individual congregations and at churches denominations, we can be faced with a disturbing question. Are we really living and working together as the beautiful body of Christ as God intends? Or does the church sometimes seem more like a Frankenstein’s monster? Especially to all the people outside church life, do we appear to be any more than just a jumble of limbs, not fitting together, not working properly. Are we too much a man-made organisation and not enough a God-fashioned organism, more like a business than a body?
The human body is a truly amazing creation. Just think of some of the things a human body can accomplish when all the parts are working together in harmony. Somehow it is hard to imagine Frankenstein’s monster throwing a discus or doing the pole vault or the triple jump. You can’t envisage Frankenstein’s monster playing a violin concerto. The church needs to be the body of Christ and the bride of Christ, not the bride of Frankenstein or some Frankenstein’s monster.
Many people may well think that the church in Britain today looks more like a valley of dry bones than the living vibrant body of Christ. We look much more like the Exiles scattered across Babylon, trying desperately to sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land. Without God’s intervention, the churches are indeed in a hopeless situation. But Ezekiel’s vision gives us a message of great hope.
3 He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Sovereign LORD, you alone know.’
Humanly speaking, the church seems to be, if not long dead, then certainly dying. At best, the church sometimes looks like Ezekiel’s description of the dry bones when God’s salvation was only half way through.
7And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Sometimes the church looks like skeletons with tendons and flesh and skin and bones, but with no breath in them. But nothing is impossible with God. He can bring our dry bones back to life. And he can breathe the breath of life, His Holy Spirit, back into us again, just as he did in Ezekiel’s vision and just as He did for the Israelites in Exile.
’ 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
What the church needs, what we all need, is the Holy Spirit of God to come and breathe life into us again. We need to come to life and stand up on our feet as the vast army of the Lord! We need revival!
13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live,
We need a fresh Pentecost – a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the promises in Ezekiel and in the book of Joel. We need God to renew his church! We need God’s love and power breaking in and sweeping us away! The mighty river of God’s love flowing through us cleansing and refreshing and sweeping aside the barriers in our lives. We need to be rescued from what A.W. Tozer called “the graveyard of orthodoxy … doomed to live out your days in spiritual mediocrity!” (AW Tozer Root of the Righteous pp 55-56). We need the breathe of life to sweep through us. God can bring a valley of dry bones back to life. We need to come to life and stand up on our feet as the vast army of the Lord! Come Holy Spirit. Lord send revival. And let revival begin with me! God can take dem bones dem bones dem dry bones and bring them to life into a mighty army, the glorious body of Christ. So why does it sometimes seem this is not happening?
I usually give you a 3-point sermon. Instead this morning as a special treat I am going to give you my one and only three song sermon. My second song is this.
“Like a mighty tortoise, moves the Church of God.
Brothers we are treading where we’ve always trod.
We are much divided, many bodies we.
Lots of different doctrines, not much charity.
Backwards Christian soldiers, fleeing from the fight
With the cross of Jesus, nearly out of sight!”
Perhaps that’s a rather cynical view – but sadly that’s the way many people outside the Christian faith see the churches. They don’t see the gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation – all they see are arguments and divisions in the body of Christ. We need to be reminded of how far we still have to go before the world sees the Church as we should be, His new creation, the beautiful bride for whom Christ died.
So what can we do to become more the body of Christ and less of a man-made monster? To begin with, the apostle Paul wrote: “We must grow up in every way to Christ who is the head. Under His control all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together by every joint and sinew with which it is provided. So, when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love” (Eph 4:15-16 Good News Translation). If the parts of the body are going to build each other up in love, each separate part needs to be working as it should. Every Christian needs to see himself or herself as part of that body and play the part God has given them to play. Church is not an optional extra for Christians.
Next, Paul summed up what every Christian should be doing to foster and promote the unity of the church in one phrase: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3). Christians do not have to create unity in the church. We already have so much in common which draws us together. “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-6). The word “one” appears seven times in those three verses. “Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness” (Eph 4:6 The Message). All three Persons in God the Holy Trinity are included there. Christians should be united as one because God in Himself is one.
The church is already one. The part which all Christians have to play in God’s cosmic masterplan of salvation is very simple: all we have to do is not mess things up. Keep the unity – don’t break up the unity of the church. This can be very hard. Some people are very difficult to please. We can all find things to criticise and fall out about. We need to work hard to stick together, to move on with God as one body and one family, keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We should be one, as God is one – this is our witness to the world. “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace” (New Living Translation).
So how can this happen? The answer again is so very simple. My third song is one that I heard long time before I became a Christian.
“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes they’ll know that we are Christians by our love.”
I never went to church or had any connection with Christian things until I was 16 years old. But then at that age I met a group of young people. Isn’t it true that sometimes children and young people can show us adults the way? These young people belonged to lots of different churches but they met all together during the week. In their group meetings and in their everyday lives they lived out that song. I knew they were Christians by their true Christian love for each other – and for me. So I became a Christian too.
This is why we need to learn to worship and work and witness together as Christians – for the sake of a world that is rejecting and ignoring God.
In His High Priestly Prayer in Gethsemane in John 17, Jesus prays “that all of them may be one, Father… so that the world may believe that you have sent me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me.
The unity of the church is our witness to the world. May they know WE are Christians by our love. This was Jesus’s New Commandment to his church.
John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
It is the work of God the Holy Spirit to put divine love into our hearts so that Christians can truly love each other as Christ has loved us. We’re going to be together in heaven for a very long time. Let’s start to love each other as Jesus loves us BEFORE we get there! The apostle John tells us, “We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:19-20). God commands us to show His kind of sacrificial love to this sin-spoilt world. And He gives us other Christians to practise on. If we can’t even be bothered to love each other, how can we begin to seek and save the lost?
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. The Holy Spirit is working in Christians to bring us together to be the beautiful body of Christ. But we don’t always look like that. We each need to play our part and to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”. We need to love each other as Jesus loves us, because the church needs to be and the world needs to see the beautiful Body of Christ – not a Frankenstein’s monster!

Think about what you had for breakfast this morning. And the lunch you are looking forward to today. Where does our food come from? Adsa, or Sainsburys, or Tesco, or Aldi, or Lidl, you may say. Think again. Where does our food come from? From Essex, or Kent, or Wales, or France, or Spain, or Africa, or America or even from New Zealand, you may say. Most of our food has only reached our plates after a journey to reach us which could be hundreds or even thousands of miles. Although some of us may grow some of our own vegetables or herbs, almost all of our food comes from farms and farmers not just in England but around the world. Just under half of the food on our plates is grown in the United Kingdom and that includes the majority of all the wheat, oats, meat, dairy products and eggs, potatoes and sugar. Half of our vegetables are grown in this country but only one sixth of the fruit we eat. And we learned something interesting our son-in-law Tom who is a sheep farmer in Wales. Lamb which has travelled 12,000 miles from New Zealand is cheaper than lamb produced in Wales – that’s a whole lot of food miles and a pretty big carbon footprint on your Sunday joint.
Where does our food come from? Think once again. Look beyond the supermarkets and the transport networks and the farmers and the land, because what I want us to grasp hold of this morning is one simple fact. Our food ultimately comes from God. We are grateful to shopkeepers and supermarkets and restauranteurs and chefs. We are grateful to delivery drivers and hauliers and warehouse workers. We are grateful to farmers. But the truth is that all the foods we eat and all the drinks we enjoy are examples of God’s gracious provision for human beings. It was God’s perfect design in Creation to give us so many different kinds of food in such abundance. And it is God’s continuing provision of sunshine and rain which bring the harvests we all enjoy. Our food comes from God. God provides us all with everything we eat and drink.
1 Timothy 6 17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
It is indeed God who generously provides us all the good things we need and enjoy. When the entered the Promised Land God made this wonderful promise to the Israelites.
Deuteronomy 11 13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your corn, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
At the same time God’s gracious provision is not just for Israel but for all people everywhere.
Psalm 104 14 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.
Paul reminded the people of Lystra about God’s goodness to us all.
Acts 14 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: he has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.’
Three simple things we can do to recognise that God is our provider.

1 Remember to say thank you
Psalm 103 1 Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Forget not all his benefits. Sadly we often forget God’s goodness and take for granted all that God provides for us.
Luke’s Gospel tells us of the occasion on the border of Galilee and Samaria when Jesus healed ten lepers.
Luke 17 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?

Ten were healed but only one came back to give thanks to Jesus. We need to follow that one man’s example of gratitude. God is our provider.
Psalm 103 2 Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
God is our provider. In our offering prayer I often say, “Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth. All things come from you and of your own do we give you.” Those are not empty words. We acknowledge the truth of the words we are going to sing in our harvest hymn.
“He only is the maker of all things near and far;
he paints the wayside flower, he lights the evening star;
the winds and waves obey him, by him the birds are fed;
much more to us, his children, he gives our daily bread.
All good gifts around us, ALL good gifts, are sent from heaven above;
then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love”

2 Praying the Lord’s prayer
Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread”. “Give us today our bread for today.” Every time we pray that prayer it reminds us that God is our provider. It teaches us not to take things for granted but to receive them with gratitude. The Lord’s prayer expresses our complete dependence on God for all the good things he gives us so richly to enjoy. We should count our blessings, name them one by one. We have so many things to thank God for.
FOOD – we enjoy such a wonderful variety of foods available to satisfy our appetites. Right at the beginning of the Covid lockdown I had what I can only describe as a surreal experience when I went food shopping late one evening. I went looking for a list of 30 essential foodstuffs, but found half the shelves in Sainsbury’s empty. I came back with only five of the items I went looking for, no main meals at all and instead a dozen bizarre things selected from whatever happened to still be there on the shelves. There and then I made myself a promise that I would never ever take for granted all the foods which in normal times are waiting on the shelves for us.
WATER – again we take a free supply of fresh water for granted, never being thirsty, working bathrooms, etc. Floods and homes destroyed remind us just how fragile our lives are.
And as well as our food and drink we have so many more blessings we should thank God for.
HOME, SHELTER, warm in winter, dry in rains, safe from predators
FAMILY AND FRIENDS
TRAVELLING – in many parts of the world every journey begins with a prayer for travelling mercies and ends with thanksgiving for a safe arrival, because for very many people so many journeys are hazardous, if not impossible.
COMMUNICATIONS – first there were only messengers, then letters, then telegrams, then landline telephones, then radio and television and videos. Now we have the internet, mobiles phones and text messages, smartphones Zoom, and Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Youtube.
CHURCH, FELLOWSHIP, BIBLES – we appreciate these all the more when we learn about the sufferings of the persecuted church.
POSSESSIONS – luxuries and necessities. Especially living in a society where we regard as necessities things which so many people in the world would view as luxuries, if they had access to them at all, it is very important that we don’t take all these different kinds of blessings for granted but receive them with gratitude. Asking every day for our daily bread reminds us of our complete dependence on God, day by day and into the future. God is our provider!
The third suggestion is so obvious and simple that I shouldn’t need to mention it. But I will.

3 We can say grace.
The word “grace” in the practice of “saying grace” before a meal does not mean the same as when we talk about the grace of God, or when we pray the blessing which we usually use at the end of our services, which begins “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In those contexts the word grace is talking about the unconditional mercy and love which God pours out on us. The root of “saying grace” is a different word which comes from the latin phrase gratiarum actio, or “act of thanksgiving.” Saying grace is not really about asking God to bless our meal or to bless us. Saying grace is much more about thanking God for all his provision for us, not least our food and drink. You may be familiar with the Anglican grace which we all had to recite before school dinners at primary school, “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful.” At university, the dinner at formal hall was always introduced by one of the scholars reciting the college grace, which had been used for hundreds of years. It was in Latin of course, and it began “Quidquid appositum est, aut apponatur”. “Whatever is placed before us, or is going to be placed before us, Christ has deigned to bless.” Anything and everything we get to eat comes from God. Saying grace is a way of reminding ourselves that God has provided everything we need for us to richly enjoy. We need to remember to say thank you.
In his book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, William Law wrote,
“Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice, but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness, and has a heart always ready to praise God for it.”
All our food, and everything we have, ultimately comes from God. We should give thanks to him and not forget his benefits. We should acknowledge our dependence on God’s gracious provision for our daily bread. And we can do that so easily just by remembering to say grace before our meals. God is our provider.

It had been 30 years since Jesus had been born in a stable and laid in a manger. 28 years since the family had returned from exile in Egypt to their home in Nazareth. 18 years since the boy Jesus had gone missing only to be found in the Temple in Jerusalem – His Father’s house. Jesus had spent 30 years preparing for the day when God’s salvation would be revealed. Also in anticipation of that day, God had sent John the Baptist to prepare the way
Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
‘A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” ’
John the Baptist had begun his revival meetings on the bank of the Jordan.
Matthew 3 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the River Jordan.
So Jesus also came to be baptised by John because the time had come for Jesus to begin His ministry. It was the beginning of three momentous years – the beginning of the road to the cross of Calvary. Jesus’s baptism was unique, But at the same time Jesus’s baptism was the pattern for all baptisms of all Christians. So as we look at Matthew’s account of how Jesus was baptised by John we can also understand what baptism as believers means for us. And the first thing to say is:
Baptism is A NEW BEGINNING
A new beginning for Jesus:
A few weeks ago we thought about the way Jesus grew from being a baby.
Luke 2 40 … The child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
We saw Jesus at the age of 12 remaining in Jerusalem after his family had left, listening to the teachers and asking them questions in the Temple, which he called “my Father’s house”. After that incident we read,
Luke 2 52 … Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
So Jesus grew until the age of 30 when John the Baptist began his “get right with God” campaign. The time had come for Jesus to leave his trade as the carpenter’s apprentice in Nazareth. That was the right time for Jesus to take up his destiny and begin his own ministry of preaching and healing and driving out demons. When Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan that marked a new beginning in Jesus’s life.
For us too – baptism is a new beginning
Believer’s baptism marks the beginning of the Christian life. It is a declaration that a believer has been saved. Some people think that a person has to achieve a certain level of holiness or Christian maturity before they can be baptised as believers. That view is mistaken. Christian baptism is the mark of the BEGINNING of the life of faith and discipleship. As soon as a person puts their faith in Christ they are ready to be baptised. This was the case for the first Christians on day of Pentecost and the pattern for the Ethiopian Official who met Philip the evangelist in the desert. Jesus himself defined baptism as the sign that people were becoming his disciples.
Matthew 28: 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Make disciples and baptise them. Being baptized is the outward sign which Jesus himself has commanded which shows that a person has become a disciple of Jesus.
Baptism is confirmation of God’s love
For Jesus
16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’
Luke’s recording of the voice from heaven is even more glorious. “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
We talked a few weeks ago about how Jesus grew up to know more and more that he was actually the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us. The words God spoke when Jesus was baptized confirmed to Jesus and to those who were watching that he was truly the Son of God. “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
For all Christians
Baptism is the confirmation of God’s love as well. As they are baptized as believers some Christians experience a new depth of God’s love, or discover more of God’s joy, or receive a new sense of God’s peace.
Baptism is EMPOWERING FOR SERVICE
Empowering for Jesus
16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’
The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the image of a dove and landed on him. This was a visible sign that God was empowering Jesus for his ministry. John the Baptist had said this about the ministry of Jesus.
Matthew 3 11 ‘I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Jesus the Messiah came to bring cleansing to Israel, in the power of the Holy Spirit and of fire. Jesus himself explained that he did not work all his amazing miracles of healing and deliverance in his own strength but by the the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 12 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism it was to equip him for his ministry.
Empowering for service for all Christians
Someone has said, “baptism is ordination to the principal order of ministry”. In other words, baptism commissions and empowers every Christian to serve God in the church and the world. And that is for EVERY Christian! Many Christians find that when they are baptized God fills them with the Holy Spirit in all kinds of ways equipping them to serve God in the church and the world. It is the Holy Spirit who transforms us to be like Jesus and Who gives us power to be witnesses for Jesus.
Baptism is also identification with God’s people
In Jesus’s baptism He identified himself with the nation of Israel as their Messiah.
For all Christians our baptism is identification with the church. Every Christian is a member of the church – part of God’s family, a member of the body of Christ. It is good to express that by being identified with a local expression of the church and having your name on the membership list of the church. But whether we choose to join the church in that way or not, every Christian IS a part of the body of Christ and being baptized marks that joining of the church.
Baptism is a witness to the world
For Jesus
We read this about John the Baptist in John’s Gospel.
John 1 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
God had sent John to prepare the way for Jesus and he had told John what to expect.
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”
God had told John in advance about the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove. And God had declared that this person would indeed be the Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This was how John the Baptist would know who Jesus was, and this was the message John declared to his followers. In this way, Jesus’s baptism demonstrated who Jesus was.
Bapsism is a witness to the world for all Christians
When a person is baptized as a believer they confess their faith in Jesus as saviour and Lord. These words of testimony, and the act of being baptized, are their witness to the world of the saving power of Jesus.
Jesus’s baptism was the pattern for all baptisms of all Christians. Believer’s baptism marks a new beginning. It is a sign of God’s love and at the same time an empowering for service. Baptism is identifying with God’s people and it is a powerful witness to the world. Jesus’s baptism was the pattern for all baptisms. And at the same time the baptism of Jesus was unique.
Baptism marks the forgiveness of sins – for everybody except Jesus
The baptism John the Baptist brought marked forgiveness of sins for the people of Israel.
Matthew 3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
luke3:5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the Jordan River.
The act of baptism symbolised washing and cleansing and forgiveness. In the same way
Believer’s baptism marks forgiveness of sins for all Christians
Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Believer’s baptism is God’s appointed outward sign of the inward reality that a person’s sins have been forgiven and they have been born again to eternal life.
Baptism signifies FORGIVENESS OF SINS – FOR EVERYBODY ELSE BUT NOT FOR JESUS
Jesus was without sin. He never once did anything wrong or said anything wrong or even thought anything wrong. The apostle Peter said about Jesus “He committed no sin.”
Hebrews 4: 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
Jesus was not baptized for the forgiveness of his own sins – he had no sin. Instead Jesus identified himself with the sins of every other human being. Three years later, on the cross Jesus took all the sins of the whole world on his shoulders. By being baptized, Jesus was identifying with all the lost sinners he came to save.
So Jesus did not need to be baptized as a mark of forgiveness of sins, why then was Jesus baptized?
“To fulfil all righteousness”
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” Then John consented.
Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. In other words. Jesus was baptised because it was the right thing to do. Because God had commanded it. Baptism for Jesus was supremely an act of obedience to his Father. In the same way, Christians are baptized as believers because it is the right thing to do.
May I share my own experience of believer’s baptism. Growing up with no contact with any church, I became a Christian when I was 16. The first church I became involved with was a United Reformed Church and there I became a church member but they didn’t offer believer’s baptism. Soon after I became a teacher and moved to Watford I became a member of Bushey Baptist Church who again welcomed me into church membership without raising the question of being baptized because I had been a church member with the URC. After a couple of years, I had become a Home Group leader and also a lay-preacher around Baptist churches in Hertfordshire, and I first began to consider the possibility of training to become a minister. At that point the minister asked me whether I would like to be baptized as a believer. I had been a Christian for 8 years. But then that was the time when it seemed right for me to be baptized. For me, my baptism was not so much to show that I had become a Christian, but more as a preparation for the next stage of Christian service. Being baptised as a believer just seemed to be the right thing to do at that time. That is my story.
So what could Believer’s Baptism mean for you?
A new beginning – start of Christian life
Confirmation of God’s love
Empowering for Service
Identification with God’s people
A witness to the world.
A mark of the forgiveness of sins
Jesus didn’t need to be baptized. If anybody ever did not need to be baptized it was Jesus! But
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.”
Jesus was baptized as an act of obedience to God. Should not we who are his followers, his disciples, do the same!

Jesus was only 12 years old when he went missing. You can imagine how worried Mary and Joseph were when they couldn’t find him anywhere.
46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Even by the age of 12 Jesus had come to realize that he had a unique relationship with God. To Jesus the wondrous Temple in Jerusalem was simply “My Father’s House”. But we shouldn’t imagine that Jesus as a baby was necessarily aware of who he really was. Something I said in a Christmas service a few years ago struck a chord with many of you when I pointed out the obvious truth that Jesus was once a child. The baby-hood of Jesus. There was a time when Jesus was a baby. A time when he was a toddler. A time when Jesus was a teenager. For any age up to 33 years old there was a time when Jesus was that age. He was a baby and then he had to grow up – just as we all do!
“Lo, within an manger lies He who built the starry skies
He who throned in height sublime Sits amid the cherubim”
There are 100 billion stars in the average galaxy and 100 billion galaxies. God knows every star by name. Jesus was the Son of God yet at the same time Jesus was also a human being. So I don’t think it was the case that the baby Jesus in the manger in the stable in Bethlehem knew the name of every star yet. Over the years, Jesus needed to grow as a human being.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.
I believe that Jesus needed to grow up to realize his eternal and divine nature. Let’s think for a few minutes this morning about what it meant for Jesus to grow up as the Son of God.
As He grew up Jesus came to realize he had a unique relationship with God the heavenly Father which no other human being has.

KNOWING the Father’s CHARACTER
For Jesus, being the Son of God meant discovering a unique knowledge of God.
John 6: 44 “No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 … Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No-one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
John 8:54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him.
Jesus had a unique relationship with God the Father. And Jesus realized that His ministry was to reveal the Father to human beings – to share His unique experience of God with us:
John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
9 … Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. … 10 … I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;
In the prologue to his Gospel, John puts it this way.
John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
Jesus the Son of God had a unique relationship with God the Father. He came to reveal God the Father to lost human beings. He did this in different ways.
SPEAKING the Father’s WORDS and deliver God’s messages
John 12: 49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
DOING the Father’s WORKS
Jesus did not do all his wonderful works of salvation in his own strength or according to his own plans. As a faithful and obedient Son, He simply did what His Father commanded.
John 14: 31 but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
As Jesus was talking to the woman at the well the disciples brought him some food. When they came back and offered the food to Jesus he said to them,
John 4:32…. “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Doing God’s will is food and drink to me – it sustains me, it’s my bread and butter, it keeps me going
John 5:16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Jesus did not do his miracles in his own strength but in the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He told a little parable to explain his relationship with God.
John 5 19 Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.
Here is the parable of the Son, the apprentice. The Son was the Father’s apprentice. Jesus had learned from Joseph how to be the carpenter in Nazareth. So also Jesus the Son of God learned from His heavenly Father how to do the works of the Godhead.
These works of the Father which Jesus performed included GIVING LIFE
John 5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
The works of the Father also included BRINGING JUDGMENT
John 5 22 Moreover, the Father judges no-one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him.
As he grew up, Jesus had been learning about his destiny to give life and to bring judgment.
John 5 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
Giving life and bringing judgment – this was the mission Jesus would accomplish. But I don’t think that, as a baby in the manger, Jesus necessarily understood all this. He grew up through the years.
Luke 2:52 Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.
As the baby in the manger, Jesus did not necessarily knew who he really was. But as time went on, Jesus grew up into an increasing awareness that He was no less than the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us. So in the end Jesus was able to say,
John 10: 30 I and the Father are one.”
Just before he was crucified Jesus the Son of God could look back on the life he had experienced in glory before he had become a human being.
John16:28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
In his High Priestly Prayer in John 17
John 17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed:
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
I don’t believe that as a baby laid in a manger Jesus was necessarily aware of his eternal nature. It is impossible to imagine how any human being could be truly human with that kind of knowledge. But as the years went by Jesus certainly came to realise who he truly was and that he had existed forever.
We can see from these events and sayings at different points in the life of Jesus that he grew in his understanding of what it meant for Him to be the Son of God. But what does this mean for us?
WE ARE GOD’s CHILDREN TOO
John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
So we have a relationship with God as God’s children
As Jesus said to Mary in the Garden after the resurrection
John 20:17 “‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Jesus’s relationship with God as His Father is the pattern for our relationship with God as our Father – knowing the Father, speaking God’s words and doing God’s works.
KNOWING GOD as Father
We need to God to reveal Himself to us so that we can know him better. We need God to reveal to us what it means for us to be His Children!
Ephesians 1 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
We all need to grow in our relationship with God, to know him better.
SPEAKING the Father’s WORDS

Boldly delivering the Good News about Jesus to a world which is lost without Him.

DOING the Father’s WORKS
The 7th Beatitude says, Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Matthew 5 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Doing God’s works will even include bringing miracles of healing and deliverance as Jesus did.
John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
As Jesus grew up he learned more of what God His Father was like. And Jesus God’s apprentice learned how to serve God better and to speak the words and to do the works of his heavenly Father better.
52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.
Just as Jesus grew, each one of us also needs to grow in our faith. To know God as our Father better – to deepen our personal relationship with God. To speak his words and to do his works in the church and in the world. He is our childhood pattern. Day by day like us he grew.

What is a Baptist? We may want to know the answer to that question for ourselves, and friends and neighbours may well ask us. What is a Baptist? What are the differences between Baptists and Methodists, or Church of England, or Roman Catholics or Pentecostals? It is good to be prepared to answer questions like that. What is a Baptist? Many folk outside the churches and even some Christians of other denominations view Baptist Christians with suspicion, and some even with fear. Many people would not know from the name alone that Baptists are even Christians at all. Some people think that Baptists follow John the Baptist instead of following Jesus.
At the core of our faith, Baptist Christians believe the same as every other Christian tradition. We believe in God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. We believe in Jesus Christ God’s only Son, our Saviour and Lord, who died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again on the third day to give his followers eternal life. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Giver of life who lives in every believer transforming us into the image of Christ. We believe the Bible is the Word of God, reliable and sufficient for all matters of faith and practice. So how are Baptists different from any other Christians?
We need to start with a bit of history. Back in the 16th Century Christians in Western Europe rediscovered the gospel truth that salvation comes from God’s grace alone, and is received through faith alone. This was the dawn of the Protestant Reformation growing from the teachings of Martin Luther. The Protestants broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, but although some of their beliefs were different, most of these new Protestants kept most of the structures and practices of the Roman Catholics. In particular they kept understanding the church as a hierarchy led by bishops, and they kept infant baptism followed by confirmation as the way of entry into the church. Cutting a long story very short, these Protestants in Europe turned into the Lutheran Churches, and in England the Church of England.
But at that time some New Protestants went further than others. They went back to the Bible and realised that they needed to be even more radical than everybody else. They saw that there was no mention of infant baptism in the New Testament. In the New Testament baptism was a sign that a person had become a believer and an expression of personal faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord. And so these radical Protestants began to baptise each other as believers, even though they had been baptised as infants usually as Roman Catholics. They became known as Anabaptists – because they “baptised again”.
Many radical Protestants also saw that in the New Testament the church was never a hierarchy but only a gathering of believers. The word for church ekklesia never implied an organisation or institution but simply a meeting of those who were called out, or called together by God. So they rejected the established structures of church and recognised any gathering of believers as a self-sufficient self-governing church in its own right. They became known as Congregationalists.
Over time some of these new churches recognised that the commitment of Anabaptists to believer’s baptism led logically and theologically to the Congregationalists’ commitment to the independence of each congregation. Similarly many Congregationalists realised that their understanding of church as a gathering of believers rested on believer’s baptism to distinguish who was actually a believer and therefore part of the believers’ church. Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries out of the streams of Anabaptists and Congregationalists, Baptist Churches emerged.
Those are our Baptist roots. And they continue to define and unite Baptist Churches across the world into the third largest grouping of Christians after the Roman Catholics and the Pentecostals.
At the heart of the beliefs of Baptist Christians is the conviction that the supreme authority for all faith and practice in the Christian life is the Bible, God’s inspired Word. Whatever the relativising Post-Modern world around may say, Baptists are committed to the authority, reliability and sufficiency of Scripture. We are committed to understanding the Bible as it would have been interpreted by the early Christians, rather than through the historical traditions of the churches through the centuries which all Protestant churches rebelled against. This approach to the Bible leads Baptists to two conclusions I have already mentioned.
Firstly, the way a person should demonstrate that they are a Christian is by being baptised with water as a believer. The method of baptism, whether by being immersed in water or merely sprinkled with water, is not the most important thing. What matters is that the person being baptised has demonstrated their personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. In the New Testament Baptism is for exclusively for believers.
In the New Testament, “Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality”. Baptism is like a wedding ring; they both symbolize things that have happened. A wedding ring symbolizes a marriage which has taken place. Baptism symbolizes salvation which has been received. Wearing a wedding ring does not make you married any more than being baptized makes you saved. But even nowadays if a woman is not wearing a wedding ring you can often assume that she isn’t married. Equally in New Testament times, if a person had not been baptized, it was fair to assume that he or she was not a believer. The New Testament way for people to show they wanted to become disciples of Jesus was to be baptised.
Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Baptism is a sign of salvation. In fact it represents the two sides of being saved – God’s side, and our human side.
OUR HUMAN SIDE OF SALVATION
We respond to God’s love revealed to us in Jesus Christ by REPENTANCE and by FAITH.
Then there is GOD’S SIDE OF SALVATION
God forgives our sins, he gives us the wonderful free gift of eternal life, and he puts his Holy Spirit inside us.
Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So a person is saved when they share in the death and the resurrection of Jesus. We are UNITED WITH CHRIST through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 6 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
So we have our human side of salvation: repentance and faith. We also have God’s side of salvation: forgiveness and eternal life, union with Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. These are symbolised by the act of believer’s baptism. And then there is a third side to salvation (which we often neglect) and a third side to baptism. That is,
A SIGN OF JOINING THE CHURCH
Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality: God’s gifts of forgiveness and new life and the Holy Spirit are received by repentance and faith. At the same time these bring a person into God’s forever family, the church.
This is the understanding of believer’s baptism which is shared not only by all Baptist Christians, but some other churches as well. This is different from the traditional understandings about infant baptism practised by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches as well as Anglicans, Methodists and the United Reformed Church. They all consider that infant baptism is a declaration of God’s promises, so it is a symbol of God’s side of salvation. Then years later they have a service of confirmation, or reception into membership, where the person declares their repentance and confession. When a person who has been baptised as an infant becomes a Christian in later life, these denominations will NOT baptise them as a believer. They believe that their combination of “infant baptism plus confirmation” is equivalent to the New Testament baptism of believers. Baptists disagree. We don’t believe that it is valid to separate God’s side of salvation and our human side of salvation over many years in that kind of way.
In the New Testament, baptism in NT is a sign of an inward change which has already taken place. It does declare God’s promises of salvation. But baptism in the New Testament, and in church history for the first hundred years at least, was only ever given to people who had already expressed in their lives the conditions for our human’s side of salvation – sincere repentance and saving faith. Baptism is for believers, not babies.
Baptism is a SIGN of salvation. Baptism does not BRING salvation. We do not believe that a person is saved at the moment they are baptised. Rather, a person is saved at the moment that they first truly believe. But the New Testament pattern is that somebody will demonstrate that saving faith by being baptised at the earliest opportunity. Most Baptists do not believe that believer’s baptism is necessary for salvation. But believer’s baptism is the normal sign that a personal has been saved. Unless there is a very good reason why not, the New Testament expects that a Christian WILL be baptised as a believer.
Some time during the first century that pattern was modified. The church discovered that too many people who had been baptised were turning away from Christ later on. So the Early Church introduced baptism preparation classes, to make sure that those who were baptised really did understand what baptism was all about and so to try to make sure that all who were baptised were truly born-again believers. But baptism was still always only for people who believed in Jesus for themselves. Baptism was an outward sign of an inward reality – a salvation which had ALREADY been received, a new life which had ALREADY begun. I don’t believe that baptism is necessary for salvation, but it was normal, And being baptised as a believer does bring many unique blessings. Baptism, like communion, is a ritual ordained by Christ Himself for our benefit. They are both “means of grace” – ways that God promises to bless us. They are also expressions of obedience “do this in remembrance of me”, “repent and be baptised”. A person can be a Christian without ever taking communion, but they miss out on so much if they do. Equally a person be a Christian without being baptised as a believer, but if a person has experienced the inward reality, WHY NOT have the outward sign as well?
So going back to the Bible the first thing our Anabaptist ancestors recognised was that Baptism in the New Testament s always believer’s baptism. The second thing the Bible teaches is that the true church is the gathered community of all true believers, those who are “called out” of the world to be the Body of Christ which is made up of all who are truly saved. The church is the Living Temple, the Family of God and the Household of faith. The true church is the fellowship of true Christians. It is “the Believers’ Church.” In this life, we may not be able to tell who actually is saved and who is not, who is a true believer and who is not. The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds tells us that we will not know for certain who is saved until the final judgment. The Parable of the Sower tells us that some who initially seem to be strong Christians actually will prove not to be so. Nevertheless, the true Church is defined and delimited by the company of true believers. Let me expand briefly on this point.
Many denominations still regard the church as an institution with an identity of its own apart from the lives of its members. Someone may “belong” to such an organisation (perhaps after infant baptism or confirmation) even if they never participate in worship or other activities. But we Baptists believe, on the basis of the New Testament, that the church is instead a “gathered” community of individuals who themselves must be active Christians, joined together by a covenant (or agreement). We believe that the church is only the sum of its members and each Baptist congregation is therefore independent, under God’s rule, with no hierarchy of Bishops or Moderators above it. Baptist Churches join together in Association to support each other in fellowship and mission. North Springfield Baptist Church belongs to the Eastern Baptist Association and to the Baptist Union of Great Britain. But apart from ensuring that each church follows its trust deeds and so remains a Baptist church, the Association and the Union have no control over the local church.
All members of North Springfield Baptist Church have the right and indeed an obligation to attend and when led by God to speak at the Church Members Meeting. The Church Meeting appoints our own Deacons and Church Secretary and Treasurer. The Church calls their Minister to lead the church. The Church Meeting has over-all control of the activities of the Church. To become a member, a person must be accepted at a Church Meeting. The Minister and the Deacons serve us all by guiding the church’s spiritual life and at the same time carrying out the charity trustee responsibilities. But Baptist churches are congregational churches – ultimately governed by the church meeting.
The label “Baptist Church” tends to be used by churches which belong to one of the Unions or Associations of Baptist Churches, like the Baptist Union of Great Britain with around 2000 churches, or the Grace Baptists or the Strict Baptists. Across the world The Baptist World Alliance is a fellowship of 245 conventions and unions in 128 countries and territories made up of 49 million baptized believers in 173,000 churches. Our core beliefs include Believer’s Baptism and Congregational Government. But as I mentioned before, there are many churches which don’t call themselves Baptist which agree with everything I have just said. Most Brethren churches and independent evangelical churches would. Almost every Pentecostal church, Brethren and independent evangelical churches and most of the New Churches like New Frontiers believe the same. ALL of these Churches are “Baptistic” in that they share our faith and practice.
So, what is a Baptist? These are some answers we can give if anybody asks us, “What is a Baptist?” A Baptist is a Christian who is committed to the authority of the Bible over the traditions of Church History. Following on from this, Baptists believe that being baptised is an expression of personal faith and should be reserved for believers. And then Baptist churches are congregational churches, not an institution but gathered communities of believers.
So, the final question would be, are you a Baptist? I know many people run away from labels and prefer to say, “I am simply a Christian”. But are you a Baptist Christian? Do you share these beliefs which are distinctively Baptist. Don’t worry if you haven’t been baptised as a believer yet. There’s time for us to fit a baptism service in before Christmas. And if you aren’t on the membership list of North Springfield Baptist Church there is plenty of time for you to become a church member. Are you a Baptist?

Tonight I am going to talk about working together with other churches. Even before I became a minister I have always been committed to working with Christians from all the other denominations. After growing up with no church contact at all I became a Christian through the witness of the interdenominational youth work Crusaders, now called Urban Saints, and then in the years while I was a schoolteacher I went on to be a local group leader and a speaker for Crusader holidays. At University I worshipped at the Anglican College Chapel and a charismatic Anglican Church as well as at a Baptist Church while I served as a leader of the interdenominational College Christian Union. I trained in theology at the evangelical London Bible College where many of my contemporaries became Baptist, Methodist, Anglican and Pentecostal ministers and academics.
In my first church I served two terms as President of the 26 churches of the Tunbridge Wells Council of Christian Churches and was also chairman of Nightstop, the churches’ homelessness shelter. In my second church we worked alongside a struggling Congregational church and established Elstree Free Church, a church plant by adoption. There in Borehamwood I enjoyed especially close relationships with all the clergy in the town. In my third church I served six years as Moderator and then three years as Secretary of the 45 churches of Churches Together in Brentwood. Since coming to North Springfield I have served three years on the Steering Group of Churches Together in Chelmsford and also nine years on the Council of the Eastern Baptist Association, all helping churches to work together.
Over the decades I have also had responsibilities in a number of ecumenical organisations, from running Billy Graham Livelink Missions and On The Move East Missions, to helping lead Harvest For The Hungry and The national Churches Network for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma. I have enjoyed many wonderful friendships with ministers of all the denominations as well as spending time working very closely with Methodists, Anglicans and Pentecostals in Bulgaria, Uganda and Zambia and Roman Catholics in France.
Here are some words from my Presidential Address to the Tunbridge Wells Council of Christian Churches back in 1989.
“Why does unity in the church matter? Sometimes folk stop caring about the church being united because it seems like too much hassle with not enough benefits. But what WE get out of church unity doesn’t matter. The most important reason for unity isn’t even the fact that division within body of Christ grieves Holy Spirit of God, the fact that division grieves Christ the Head of the Body, the fact that division grieves the Father heart of God. We don’t need unity for its own sake. We may not feel we need be united for our own sake. We may not even care about unity for God’s sake. But unity within every church is VITAL for the sake of the world, that the world might believe.”
I still believe every word of what I said then about the importance of church unity. Nobody has any grounds to question my commitment to working together with other churches wherever possible. Tonight I want to explain the principles I have always held to when it comes to working with other churches. Because there can sometimes be tensions when it comes to cooperating with other churches in outreach and mission and evangelism. Our cooperation should not be unconditional.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus warned all his disciples not to judge each other. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1). We should not begin to take the speck out of our brother’s eye until we have taken the plank out of our own eye. When it comes to disagreements over ecclesiology, we should not take the bishop out of our brother’s eye until we have first taken the church meeting out of our own eyes. We are not to judge other Christians.
But at the same time Christian leaders are all called to show discernment in matters of faith. There are some matters of theology and doctrine and ethics which are not negotiable. Some things are true and some things are false and wrong does not become right just because lots of people believe it. The New Testament is full of warnings about false teachers who seek to deceive the church from inside the church. Jesus himself warned against false prophets who would lead his followers astray. We saw this in a number of our sermons from the Letters to Timothy and Titus. Christians and especially church leaders have a solemn responsibility to “guard the gospel”.
2 Timothy 1 13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Church unity is no optional extra for Christians. It should be at the heart of our agenda because it is at the heart of God’s agenda. (John 17:20-23) But difficulties can arise in practice when it comes to working out church unity. It is too simplistic to say that we are obliged to cooperate with everybody who calls themselves a Christian. It is not appropriate for individual Christians to make judgments about whether other people are truly saved. However, it is absolutely vital for churches and church leaders to know what the Bible teaches and to defend the truths of the gospel against any deception or dilution. We must avoid the traps of pride and self-righteousness, but we must also make sure that we are faithful, in love, to the truth as we have received and believed it. We should be prepared to enter into dialogue with any others who call themselves Christians. But we must hold fast to our convictions. Not all who claim to be Christians are actually Christians. Conscience demands that we only work in mission and outreach and evangelism alongside others who worship the same Lord and preach the same gospel. We are obliged to show discernment.

I believe there are at least three areas at the heart of our faith which are indisputable and NON-NEGOTIABLE.
1 We should only work with other people who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and God within the Holy Trinity.
1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
The Jehovah’s witnesses, the Mormons, the other world faiths and even the Jews have got it wrong because they have wrong ideas about who Jesus Christ is. The earliest declaration of faith is simply this – Jesus is Lord! We don’t pass judgement – but we must exercise discernment. We cannot worship in spirit and truth alongside those who worship different and false gods. So called “multi-faith worship” is completely off-limits – that is not Christian worship.
2 We should only work with other people who submit to the Bible correctly interpreted as the supreme authority for faith and practice.
Remember Paul’s final address to the Elders of the Church at Ephesus.
Acts 20 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
We should be on our guard against false teachers – savage wolves. Churches need to stand firm against theological liberalism and wooliness and the post- modern political correctness which says that the only thing we can be certain about is that we can’t be certain about anything!
In our beliefs and in our practice I believe it is right and important to be (to borrow a phrase) “tentatively definite” – that is to proclaim boldly and defend vigorously the truth as we have currently grasped it, whilst remaining humble enough to recognise that God may always teach us something new (probably through a Christian from a very different tradition) which will cause us to re-examine and even change our position.
We don’t pass judgement – but on the authority of Scripture we must exercise discernment.
3 We should only work with other people who recognise the fallen-ness of humanity and the need for personal repentance and faith in order to receive God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life, which comes through grace alone on the basis of Christ’s atoning and substitutionary death on the cross.
The Bible is very clear. Every person either is a Christian or they are not Christian. A Christian is somebody who has been born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). They have passed from death to life (Romans 6:13, 1 John 3:14). They are in Christ and there has been a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). Either a person has been brought from darkness into light (1 Peter 2:9) or they have not. Either they have received mercy and become part of the people of God (1 Peter 2:10) or they have not. Either a person is a believer or they are not. Just as either they are in England or they are not in England, but they cannot be in some strange place in between.
In this life, we may not be able to tell who actually is saved and who is not, who is a true believer and who is not. The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds tells us that we will not know for certain who is saved until the final judgment (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). The Parable of the Sower tells us that some who initially seem to be strong Christians actually will prove not to be so (Matthew 13:1-8, 18-23). From our human perspective we will not be able to be certain whether another person is truly a Christian or is not. It is not our place to judge. But in God’s sight they are either alive or dead. They cannot be “on the way to being alive.” Either they are saved or they are not saved. Either Christ is in them and their destiny is to spend eternity with Christ in glory, or it is not.
Jesus was very clear. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)” The Bible teaches us everywhere that Christ is the only way to God! I believe we must stand opposed to any ideas of universalism. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Don’t believe and you are doomed. It really is a matter of life and death. We don’t pass judgement – but we must exercise discernment!

The Letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 show how even before the end of the first century some churches had wandered away from God. They had watered down ideas of sin. They were tolerating immorality. They were promoting other ways of salvation. In working with other churches, the other obvious tension which has been arising over the last decade or so is over matters of Christian ethics. Some ministers and some clergy have abandoned the classic understanding of Christian marriage as a lifelong relationship between one man and one woman. In essence the question is whether certain actions which the churches have historically and universally regarded as sinful have now become acceptable to God. I have always remained firmly convinced of the truth of what is usually called the traditional or orthodox or conservative understanding. This remains the position taken by the vast majority of Christians across the world. As a result, I would be very uncomfortable working alongside clergy whose own lifestyles reject the classic Christian understanding of marriage. We must not judge but we should show discernment.
God does not want all churches and all denominations to look and act the same. God’s plan is for church unity in diversity and in community. The differences between denominations and between congregations have evolved for all kinds of reasons. Some are historical, some theological. Some are just matters of taste and preference, others of emphasis and perspective. Some differences are down to different interpretations of particular Bible passages. In most matters, differences in interpretation are entirely legitimate. But the Bible itself puts boundaries on the limits to acceptable interpretations. Church leaders and theologians are obliged to do the hard work necessary to identify those boundaries. When we believe we have discerned what the Bible is teaching, there are some areas where we must not compromise.
Let me say one more thing about how I think should work out in practice in our relationships with other churches and other ministers. When it comes to worshipping with other churches, I am comfortable with any of the traditions of all the main denominations. I am happy to worship alongside everybody who calls themselves a Christian in almost any style of worship. I may not share the same understandings with some Christians over all kinds of things, but if we love and serve the same God then we can worship side by side. Our worship cannot be tainted by other people worshipping alongside us, whatever they do or don’t believe.
More than that, I am very happy to engage in dialogue with all other Christians and all other ministers even if we disagree on the interpretation of many issues. We can still enjoy rich fellowship together.
The rubber hits the road when churches are planning to work together in some form of united outreach, mission or evangelism. In that situation, I ask a simple question. Suppose a person comes to believe in Jesus through that witness: would I care which church they settled in? Am I happy that the person would receive the same loving welcome and pastoral care and reliable teaching in that other church as our own church would hope to provide? If I am, and I almost always have been, then I am very keen to cooperate with that church and that minister in any ways we can. But on the other hand, there have been rare churches and ministers where I have sadly felt that I would be unhappy for a new convert to settle into that church. This has never been to do with their denomination but always to do with specific beliefs and practices of that particular church or the lifestyle of that particular minister. If I would be uncomfortable if a new convert settled in a different church, then I do not believe it would be right to cooperate with that church in outreach, mission and evangelism.
Acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord and God within the Holy Trinity. Submitting to the Bible correctly interpreted as the supreme authority for faith and practice. Recognising the fallen-ness of humanity and the need for personal repentance and faith in order to receive God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life, which comes through grace alone on the basis of Christ’s atoning and substitutionary death on the cross. When it comes to these things we don’t pass judgement but we must exercise discernment! We are called to guard the gospel. The quest for church unity does not oblige us to compromise.

Jesus said “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18). That is not a command to Christians to build the church. That is a promise. Jesus will build his church. But what is this church which Jesus is building? Over the last couple of years we have looked at different pictures which the New Testament uses for the church of Jesus Christ. The church is the body of Christ, and God’s forever family, and the bride of Christ. The church is the new temple where God lives through the Holy Spirit, made up of the living stones of the lives of believers. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and God’s special possession. The church is the household of faith, the family of God, God’s forever family. Those are eight of the pictures which the Bible uses for the church. This morning I want to give you four more words which describe how people think about the church. And to keep things simple, all four words begin with the same letter. The first is
PREMISES
When folk who are not Christians use the word church, they are most often thinking about buildings. There are around 40,000 church buildings in the UK. Starting almost 3,000 years ago the focus of the Jewish faith and religion was the Temple in Jerusalem. But from Pentecost onwards, Christians mostly met in each other’s homes. The Bible and later Christian writings over the first few centuries A.D. never use the word “church” to refer to any buildings. The earliest church buildings only date from the first half of the third century. Today many like us do own or rent premises to use for their worship services and for their other activities. A building can be very useful to help the church fulfil its mission. But we need to be very clear, the church is not the premises. So what is the church? When they think about church, many people think not of the premises but of the
PROGRAMME
Sometime in the week ahead somebody may ask you, “how was church on Sunday?” “It was fantastic,” you’ll doubtless say. “The sermon was brilliant.” (Well, even ministers can dream!) Alternatively, some people might say, “I didn’t get much out of church this week”. Perhaps all they really mean by that is we didn’t sing their favourite songs this week. The sermon wasn’t very exciting and the coffee was a bit cold. If we ever think like that, we are assessing our experience of church solely on the basis of the programme.
The programme of a church doesn’t just refer to the contents of the Sunday services of course. It includes the whole package of midweek activities, special events and so on. Often people will say “I like this church, but I don’t like that church” when what they really mean is they like the programme one church offered but the other church’s programme didn’t appeal as much. The programme wasn’t to their taste, wasn’t as enjoyable, wasn’t as uplifting. In truth, many people choose the kind of church they attend or join, not on the basis of the theology of the church, whether it believes and preaches the Bible, whether it is open to the power of the Holy Spirit, but simply on the basis of the kind of programme the church follows – whether there is an organ or a music group, whether they use a prayer book or go forward to kneel at the front for communion, or even whether the minister wears a tie or a dog collar (or a skirt).
Over the centuries churches have put enormous effort into trying to improve their programmes. They have changed the times and even the days of their worship services. They have changed the prayers their use and the hymns and songs they sing. Some ideas work, some don’t. Some programmes prove to be more popular than others. But the church is not the programme. The future of any church does not rest on improving the programme, on “liturgical engineering”, or following the latest fashions in worship or gimmicks in evangelism.
We find details of the programmes the first churches followed in the Book of Acts and especially in our reading today from Acts chapter 2. Those first Christians were saved (verse 41) they were steadfast ( verse 42) they were sacrificial (verses 44-45) they were serving (verse 46) and they were spirit-filled (verse 47). And we read about the things they did when they were being church together.
Acts 2 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The first Christians built their programme around the apostles’ teaching. Learning how to believe in Jesus and how to follow him. We saw last week how Jesus had commanded his apostles to make disciples of all nations, baptising them and teaching them to obey his teaching. They devoted themselves to fellowship: sharing a common life together, caring for each other, sharing life and bearing one another’s burdens. The first Christians shared in the breaking of bread: joining together in worship and especially breaking bread together in communion. And they devoted themselves to prayer. Probably not set prayers, not just one person from the front praying but ALL praying together.
The programme of the Early Church involved meeting together not just once a week, but every day!
46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
Those first Christians did much more than meeting all together in the Temple courts for teaching and evangelism. They met in smaller groups in each other’s homes breaking bread together as well. They never had church buildings. Their programme was simple: teaching, fellowship, worship and prayer. Because of course there are at least two elements of church which are much more important than the premises or the programme.
You have probably already heard about the man who one Sunday discovered the most marvellous church. The worship was heavenly, the teaching inspiring, the fellowship warm and uplifting. (Modesty forbids us naming North Springfield Baptist Church). But when he went back the next day, the church had gone – vanished – he couldn’t find that church anywhere! Of course not! Oh, he found the building – but he couldn’t find the church – because the people weren’t there!
The third and much more important way of looking at church, of course, is in terms of the
PEOPLE
There’s a repulsive American phrase which has crept in over recent years: “doing church” I hate that phrase!! The important issue is not “doing church” or “running church” but BEING church! The people are more important than the programme! The programme is just a means to an end, not an end in itself.
When people talk about “church” and “going to church” they are usually only thinking about the times when Christians gather together for worship on Sunday. But church is NOT what we DO on a Sunday all together. Church is what we ARE, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We don’t need new ways of “doing church”. What Christians do need to discover is more and more of what it means to “be the church”, to be the people of God and Christ’s body here on earth.
As North Springfield Baptist church we meet together on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. But we also gather for prayer on Tuesday evening. We meet in homes on Tuesday morning and Thursday evening. And we also meet together in twos and threes on lots of other occasions. When we gather the important thing is not the programme we follow, the hymns and the prayers and the Bible readings and the sermons and the Bible studies. What matters more when we gather together is that we should experience “being the church” together. Not racing through a programme so that we can then run away home as fast as possible! The purpose of the programme should be to help us get to the point where we can begin to trust one another, begin to care for each other and share our lives with each other and bear one another’s burdens. If we go home after church services without talking to each other there is a risk that we are just “doing church”. We can experience bits of worship and teaching and prayer but there is a danger that we will miss out on the fellowship which is a big part of what “being church” is all about.
It may just about be possible to be a believer as an individual. Not ideal, but possible. But church is not something any of us can be by ourselves. Church is a corporate thing. We encounter God in each other. Church worship is a corporate thing. We worship him together – of course as individuals, but also joining in worship together, When it comes to “being the church” the people are much more important than the programme. This is why only coming to Sunday services isn’t enough for a normal Christian life. Meeting regularly in small groups like Home Groups or Prayer groups is not an optional extra for super-keen Christians but an essential part of what is means to be “church”. EVERY Christian will benefit from meeting with other believers at the very least for fellowship and prayer during the week as well as all together on Sundays. The emphasis here isn’t on “holding a meeting” but on BEING the church – not meetings but friendships, sharing our lives together.
May I just say a few words directly to the many friends who are joining in with this service on Facebook or YouTube, especially if these videos are the only link you have with a church or with other Christians. We would love to get to know you better. Do feel free to get in touch, through comments online or through Facebook Messenger or through email. Let us know if there are things we can pray about for you, or ways in which we can encourage you in your faith. If anybody would be interested in getting together from time to time over Zoom to pray or to study the Bible or just to chat, just let me know. Don’t be a stranger.
In church the people are more important than the programme or the premises. But none of these is the most important thing in what it means to BE the church. That vital factor is of course the
PRESENCE of GOD
Matthew 18 19 ‘Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’
That is what the church is – two or three people gathered in the name of Jesus with Jesus in the midst of them.
A.W.TOZER wrote, “the presence is more important than the programme! Whether it was worship or evangelism or fellowship the Early Church never relied on any programme but always gathered together in the greater glory of the Presence of God.” Tozer warns that in these days all too often “the programme has been substituted for the presence. The programme rather than the Lord of glory is the centre of attraction.” Tozer goes on, “If we make Christ the supreme and constant object of devotion the programme will take its place as a gentle aid. If we fail to this then the programme will finally obscure the Light entirely. And no church can afford that!”
As we go home after a church service, the most important question we should ask is not “Did I enjoy that service?” It’s not “Did I learn something new in that sermon? ” It’s not “Were our worship and prayers pleasing to God today?” It’s not even, “Did we have a good time of fellowship over the coffee today?” The most important question we should ask is “Did we encounter the presence and reality of God today?” We should ask the same after home groups or prayer meetings or any time we meet together formally or informally as Christians. “Was God with us as we met?” If we have met with God as well as each other then we will please God as we worship, we will learn from the sermon, we will enjoy our experience of “being the church” together. But if God isn’t in our midst then it isn’t church at all.
It is the presence of the Holy Spirit which turns a group of people into the body of Christ and into the new Temple built out of living stones. The church is the people in the presence of God.
Ephesians 2 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
It is the presence of the Risen Christ in the midst and the activity of God the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers that stops a group of Christians just being a religious club and makes us into the church. Again A.W. Tozer put it very well. “Eleven dead men don’t make a football team.”
The Greek word for church is ekklesia – which literally means those who are called together – called into the presence of God. The whole purpose of the programme, the reason why we gather together as the people of God, is to experience an encounter with the PRESENCE of God.
We read this about the First Christians.
Acts 2 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
The presence of God was not only demonstrated in signs and wonders. Lives were transformed, God’s love was revealed and the Holy Spirit spoke in powerful preaching, dreams and visions and words of prophecy. But God was certainly present in signs and wonders too. The present reality of God the Holy Spirit in supernatural as well as natural ways is not just for “charismatic” or “pentecostal” churches. It is the Holy Spirit who makes each of us Christians. And it is the Holy Spirit who turns a group of people who trust and follow Jesus into His church. Without the Holy Spirit there IS NO church!
If any of us want to move on in our Christian lives, we need to be open to the working of God the Holy Spirit. And if any church wants to move on with God as a church it will not be by building better premises, or adopting better programmes, nor even by growing closer and loving each other more as people, although these are good things to do. The only way forward will be to open our lives and press on to know more of the power and presence of God the Holy Spirit in everything we do together, in our discipleship, in our fellowship, in our worship, in our praying, and in our witness to a lost world.
The holiday season is upon us. Some people will spend days on the beach and play in the sand. Some may even build sandcastles. Some people build sandcastles to be intricate and beautiful. Others build sandcastles to be strong and stand up to the waves and the tide. Jesus is building His church to be both beautiful and strong. When I’m on a beach I don’t usually make sandcastles. What I enjoy is to find a stream and build a dam. I like to build a dam which will change the course of that stream, not just for one afternoon, but to change the course of the stream so that if you come back weeks later the stream is still taking the path I’ve chosen, long after the tide has washed the dam itself away.
Jesus said “I will build my church”. Jesus is building His church to be that kind of dam against the tides of evil, to change the course of human history. Not so much to be beautiful and strong, but to change the spiritual direction of society. To do that we don’t need new premises or new programmes. We need to focus instead on the people who make up the church, and even more than that, to experience more and more of the presence of God!