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Concert Reflections

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IMG-20160415-WA0006On Friday night Rebekah and I had the privilege to go to a Stuart Townend concert at Kensington Baptist Church in Bristol for Rebekah’s birthday. Together with musicians like the Getty’s he has written many contemporary hymns and songs that have become classics such as In Christ Alone.

Recently in our readings we came across this passage of celebration, praise and worship:

6 As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.7 And the women sang to one another… (1 Sam 18:6-7 ESV)

Music has played a central role in God’s people worshipping Him for ages. Ever since the creation of angels in heaven beings have been praising the LORD in song.

I am a firm believer that in every age of the Church believers have produced both great pieces and those that are best perhaps forgotten. The very best of our songs of praise from each era rise to the top and stand the test of time.

Often some of the best music in Christian history has been written during periods of revival (think of songs such as Amazing Grace written during the Evangelical Revival in Britain). About a half-century ago, there were few new songs being produced. Then about 30-40 years ago there began to be a surge of new songs (some good, some not so) that added to our repertoire. Sadly surge this coincided with the cultural movement known as post-modernism that emphasizes the subjective. This meant many songs were light on doctrine and while great sounding tended to focus on one’s experience in worship vs. conveying anything enduringly meaningful (and in the most extreme cases failing to overtly remember worship is not ultimately about us at all but the Lord).

There have been in recent years a number of Christian artists that have sought to have as their motto “doctrine+sound.” Such individuals and groups have sought to write songs that blend a robustness that had been lacking in such a way that the sounds also engaged and uplifted. Some names of mention would be the Getty’s, Sovereign Grace Ministries, and Stuart Townend to name a few.

At Friday night’s concert Stuart spoke of different types of songs that can help the church be edified that go far beyond the monotonous repetitions of some worship choruses.

He spoke about songs that:

  1. Teach doctrine and robustly present specific themes
  2. Tell Bible stories

Of songs that go beyond the category of praise to include:

  1. Lament
  2. Songs that help us worship outside the gathered church.

Below is a small sampling of some songs from this concert that capture some of these points:

May we continue to worship the Lord through music and with our lives and may the Lord continue to bless those musicians either professional or congregation who He uses to build up His Church.

The Lord’s Sweetest Blessings,

Pastor Chris

Who was Shamgar the Judge?

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Who was Shamgar the Judge?

As we read through Judges we came across a number of famous individuals with well-known stories such as Samson and Gideon. But right near the beginning of the book, which is overall descriptive of “the dark ages” of early Israelite history, we find this passing reference:

After him [Ehud] was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel. (Judges 3:31 ESV)

Who on earth was Shamgar? Why was he remembered? Why does he receive such sparse attention?

Let’s begin with what we know followed by what he might teach us.

Shamgar’s name in Hebrew likely means “sword.” He was the son of a man (or perhaps of a family group) named Anath meaning “answer” [i.e. an answer to prayer]. Taken together these provide a fitting name that links to his role, as a deliverer and judge (there are also possible overtones in his name to the Canaanite culture, which may indicate how Canaanized the Israelites had become).

He is remembered for killing 600 Philistines. The Philistines consisted of a nation along the Mediterranean coast who had arrived in Canaan about the same time as Israel and represented a continual military threat until they were subdued by King David. In an impressive feat Shamgar was enabled by the LORD to strike down 600 Philistines using only a primitive weapon known as an oxgoad.

oxgoad

An oxgoad, or simply a goad, is used with oxen as a prodding tool. Historic examples include those pointed with metal (or not) and also variants that had an additional point which curved backwards developed to maximize the drivers ability to poke the oxen.

Using only this everyday agricultural tool as a weapon, in one battle or perhaps as a tally of all of his encounters, he struck down 600 Philistines and thus provided a measure of deliverance for Israel (though the nature and extent of that deliverance is not presented).

The only other verse that adds information to this story comes in the song of Deborah who tells us that:

In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travellers kept to the byways. (Judges 5:6 ESV)

Life as Israel had known it, a life of peace and prosperity under the rule of and faithfulness to the LORD, had ceased. In its place had come national insecurity and distress.

What then are we meant to take away from these two verses about Shamgar? There are several possibilities but let me elaborate on just one of them.[i] Shamgar obviously did something very great in Israel to the extent that he was remembered as he was. The modest account we are left with struck me as a great reminder that our motivation to serve the LORD should not be to receive a lengthy entry into the annals of the faith but rather to please the LORD, irregardless of whether such service is acknowledged publically or not.

Jesus said as much in Matthew 6:5-6 (ESV):

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And similarly a few verses on in Matthew 6:16-18 (ESV) He said again:

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Believers such as these are truly “unknown, and yet well known…poor, yet making many rich (1 Cor 6:9).

The Lord uses many means, some secret and some public, to bring about his salvation. To some He affords the honour of their deeds being publically acknowledged, while to others He grants the even greater blessing of acts of service being known only to Him in secret.

The Lord’s Sweetest Blessings,

Pastor Chris

[i] Some others might include that Shamgar used what was available to him to serve the LORD and this was sufficient. It also demonstrates how the LORD in His providence uses ordinary people (a farmer like Shamgar) as means to bring about extraordinary works of salvation.

Mary Jones Walk Video

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Last Thursday to Saturday eight of us from the chapel visited Snowdonia to do the Mary Jones walk. 28 miles is a long way to walk in one day but our retreat was fulfilling nonetheless. We have put together a video so that you might share in our experience so far as it is possible. We pray our walk and the content of our study will encourage you to seek after the Lord with renewed dedication and hunger for His word.

Evidence for Easter

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The sum of your word is truth (Ps 119:160a)

It is a known fact that Christianity hangs or falls on whether the events of that first Easter were indeed true as Christians claim. When looking for evidence to build ourselves up in the faith or in seeking to share what the Bible says with sceptics (apologetics-defending the faith) it is helpful to examine the evidence for Easter.

Popular apologist Lee Strobel (author of the Case for… series, including the Case for Easter), helpfully gives us 4 bite sized snippets to encourage and to share:

the 4 E’s of Easter

  1. Execution
  2. Early Accounts
  3. Empty Tomb
  4. Eye Witnesses

 

Hanging on His Words

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Palm Sunday is now behind us and we have entered into Holy Week, the week where Christians remember the week of Jesus passion (or the events leading up to His death).

We were reminded of the Easter story by a storyteller who visited us last night to share Barabbas: An Easter Story and as I introduced us to the passage we will be studying this Easter at chapel, Isaiah 53. We also put up a giant cross at our local intersection to remind others that this coming week and holiday weekend are not merely about nicer weather coming (though we are grateful for that) nor simply a coming vacation but rather a time to remember and be affected by the work of Christ.

One that note I wanted to recommend a spiritual discipline that I will be taking up this week in addition to our chapel chronological Bible reading plan. Perhaps this will be something you might choose to join in on our do something similar in the week after Easter focusing on Resurrection passages.

Beginning yesterday with Luke 19:28-40 and the triumphal entry I began reading and meditating upon a passage from Luke’s Gospel that builds up to the cross. To get it all in I have roughly broken these chapters of Luke into a morning and evening reading plan.

Last night’s reading included Jesus cleansing the temple and I was struck by the fact that while the religious leaders’ annoyance of Jesus had grown to a breaking point, still they could do nothing for all the people were hanging on his words (Lk 19:48).

In whatever way you are able to buck the trend of not focusing on Christ this Easter, may we as His people be different from the world, and set the example, in whatever way we choose to observe it, by hanging upon all that Christ did that first Easter.

The Lord’s Sweetest Blessings,

Pastor Chris

Isaiah 53

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This Easter we are going to be studying Isaiah 53. Whether you are a Christian yet or not this chapter should change your life forever! Here is why. It is the best known Old Testament prophecy written about the coming Messiah. Though written hundreds of years before He ever lived, died or rose again, it predicts the life of Jesus and the events of Easter perfectly. What are the odds of that!
Speaking of odds did you know that the odds of …Odds
 Becoming an astronaut are 13,200,000 to 1
 Becoming a pro-athlete are 22,000 to 1
 Being injured by fireworks are 19,556 to 1
 Getting a hole in one are 5000 to 1
 Having twins are 90 to 1

But the odds that only eight of these prophecies from Isaiah 53 were fulfilled in Jesus are 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 to one, or 1 in 1017! That is incredible! It would take the same number of two pound coins to cover the state of Texas. Now imagine walking out into the middle of the state and picking up the correct coin. What would be the odds?
Jesus said He did all He did to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah so we might come to acknowledge he was crushed for our transgressions for all we like sheep have gone astray.
That Jesus fulfils this prophecy against all odds attests to the Divine inspiration of the Bible and confirms that Jesus was who He said He was, the Son of God and Saviour of the world.
As we approach Easter may this divine precision cause us to marvel at God’s plan of salvation in Jesus Christ. May the believer marvel and the sceptic come to believe. The fulfilment of this prophecy against all odds makes up the undeniable case for Easter and a sure reason to celebrate.
Happy Easter!
Pastor Chris

Video Resources

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As we have journeyed through Leviticus and Numbers we have shown two teaching videos to help give an overview of the books. If you did not see them or would like to review them, then here they are!

Leviticus:

Numbers:

The Sabbath

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The Sabbath[1]

As we read the through the Old Testament numerous things are bound to challenge us, because they are unfamiliar, complex and sometimes because we have avoided reading them and now are confronted by them. I would suggest the latter is true of a reading from Tuesday’s passage on the Sabbath (today known as the Lord’s Day). This is especially the case today as many Christians and churches dismiss the Sabbath as no longer being authoritative for the Church (while inconsistently upholding the other 9 of the 10 commandments).

The challenging passage read:

A Sabbathbreaker Executed

                While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the LORD commanded Moses. (Numbers 15:32-36 ESV)

Inter-tangled in this passage is both a moral law (keep the Sabbath) and a judicial law (stoning). While Israel’s judicial law is no longer authoritative[2] Christians have always taken seriously the principles behind them and often structured western laws upon them. The law does underscore the importance of the Sabbath as part of God’s law and puts it forward as a foundational element of fostering a healthy relationship with Him. It has been instituted—for our benefit—as a chief means of grace to bless humanity and the Church.

Given that we are reading the Old Testament we have come across the Sabbath a lot and will continue to do so. Indeed the Sabbath (not “sabbath”) is a central theme in the Bible. We recently came across the Sabbath in Ex 20:8-11 (did anyone notice the greatest stress in length is applied to this command?). In this week’s morning sermon Stewart Heap also drew our attention in Lev 26 to three things that we essential for either bringing blessings or curses to the Israelites: 1) not making idols, 2) keeping the LORD’s Sabbaths and 3) upholding His statutes and commandments.

Have you ever wondered about the relationship between the 1st and 4th commands in the 10 Commandments? Why is the Sabbath on the “God side” of the two tablets? Why did the prophets dwell so often and so particularly on these two commands? “The answer is uncomfortable but important. Here was the reason: the Sabbath reveals our idols. The prophets knew that where there is idolatry, there you will find a people struggling – if even trying – to keep the Sabbath; and where the Sabbath is a burden, there you will find a people caught up in all kinds of idolatry. What is it that keeps them from obeying the Sabbath? What is it they find hard to give up? What is it they would rather be doing? There it is. Now you know their idol.”[3] But do we take this all as seriously as the passage suggests?

When we are not delighting in the Lord and His Sabbath (Isa 58:13-14), we are delighting in something else, which in turn weakens our relationship with Him and the overall health of the Church. Delighting in God and delighting in the Lord’s Day go hand in hand. Are you delighting in the Lord’s Day, if not what idol does this reveal that needs to be addressed so you can honour His day and Him?

This was something understood by the Enlightenment thinker Voltaire. He said, if you wish to destroy the Christian religion you must first destroy the Christian Sunday. While subversive it was a wise and truthful observation.

God, in His grace, gave us His day for countless reasons that cannot fit within this blog, however, chief among them was to combat idolatry and to draw us towards a greater delight in our relationship with Him. Isn’t that what every Christian should want?

Let me impress this point by closing with an example from history. In recent decades many western Christians, following societal trends instead of God’s word, have followed suit by casting off the “burden” of the Sabbath. The largest point in case to the aforementioned conversation and to the divine authority of the Lord’s Day comes by asking the question, has it helped the cause of Christ? In history, however, our gospel forebearers knew how vitally important keeping and spending a profitable Lord’s Day was to their own spiritual health, that of their local church and the cause of authentic Christianity across the land.

William Wilberforce, abolitionist, evangelical and Sabbatarian commended the day in the following way and is but one of many famed evangelical examples that would include the Puritans, John Wesley, George Whitefield, John Newton, Rowland Hill, Charles Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle… Their views on the Lord’s Day cannot be divorced from other things for which they are remembered for. Wilberforce said in two separate letters:

There is nothing in which I would recommend you to be more strictly resolute than in keeping the Sabbath holy…. I can truly declare to you, that to me the institution of the Sabbath has been invaluable…. I have said a great deal on this subject: it is because I am deeply impressed with its importance.

…I don’t say it lightly, I believe the contempt into which the Sabbath has fallen, bids fair to accelerate the ruin both of church and state more than any other single circumstance whatever; and it is the bounded duty of every friend to our civil happiness no less than to our religious interests, to hold up its authority… it is one of those things wherein the duty is so obvious and binding, that in doing it there can be little exertion; in leaving it undone, great blame.

 

May we delight in Him,

Pastor Chris

[1] This is a massive subject. I would love to chat about it more for anyone who is interested and provide further resources if you are care to studying the subject further.

[2] An example of this would be Eph 6:1. Here Paul continues to urge children to honour their parents but he drops the threat of stoning.

[3] Credited to a good friend of mine.

Mary Jones Training Walk

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Mary Jones Walk

On Saturday eight of us walked 13.2 miles in preparation for our coming chapel Mary Jones Mary Jones“pilgrimage” in Wales on April 1. As we live in South Gloucestershire (William Tyndale country) we took the opportunity to use two locations as natural bookends. We began at St. Adeline’s Church where Tyndale pastored from 1521-23 and closed our walk at the Tyndale monument which stands above the community in which he was born in 1494. The monument also commemorates his martyrdom on October 6, 1536, outside Brussels where he was burned alive so that the English plough boy might find salvation through the Word of God.

IMG_2827 (1)

Over the course of our walk we reflected upon these words from Psalm 19:

[7] The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
[8] the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
[9] the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.
[10] More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
[11] Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Verse 10 helpfully captures how Tyndale and Mary Jones valued God’s word. They were both willing to go to great lengths to obtain something beyond value. Our physical perseverance helped focus our attention on that lesson.

Once at the monument we concluded with a short, albeit windy, service. We read Matthew 7:24-29 from Tyndale’s 1526 New Testament and concluded with this prayer:

Give to your people, O God, grace to hear and keep your word, that, after the example of your servant, William Tyndale, we may not only profess your gospel, but also be ready to suffer and die for it, to the honour of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN!

20160220_140145

We had some other chapel folk join us for the end.

On our coming Mary Jones walk we will be reflecting upon Psalm 119.