milford reformed presbyterian church

Some of you may still have on your walls the calendar we gave out last Christmas. If you do, you should now be looking at this month’s verse which reads:

“Jesus said, ‘I am the way the truth and the life” – John 14:6

It wouldn’t be a very popular truth in the post-modern world we live in. The popular view of truth can best be summed up by the title of the Manic Street Preachers’ fifth album, “This is my truth, tell me yours”. It expresses the familiar sentiment of, “That’s true for you, but it’s not true for me” or “That’s ok for you, but it’s not ok for me”.

It is in itself a rather vacuous phrase. Truth is not a personalised thing. It can’t be ‘MY truth”. It can only be ‘Truth’. Truth is truth. Opinion of course is relative and personal—and utterly worthless unless based on facts.

The inclusion of the word ‘the’ is equally offensive to our modern ears. In today’s western world it is not acceptable to say that there is only one way to God. Those who like to think of themselves as sophisticated and worldly-wise refer to our “different traditions” and knowledgably proclaim that they are all essentially the same.

Of course this is awfully patronising to those of differing religious beliefs who know that each of the major religions is mutually exclusive—each makes its own unique truth claims; all cannot be right. They understand that this sort of apparently broadminded statement is a closet insult—because it refuses to take seriously the claims of your religion.

Those who are happy believing essentially nothing would far rather reduce all other belief to a mishmash of nonsense because it means they don’t have to contend with direct truth claims like Jesus makes here. This sort of thing makes them uncomfortable. It’s far easier to appear magnanimous and broadminded, and that looks good. It doesn’t take any real intellectual effort—you don’t need to know anything about any religion; you don’t have to investigate the competing truth claims.

The irony is that the majority of the world is quite happy with the idea of competing truth claims. They know what to do with them—evaluate them to see which makes sense. However it is here in the western world, where we pride ourselves in our science and knowledge, that we refuse to investigate these truth claims and come up with some sort of stumbling side-step about all ways being equally valid.

We need to recover our intellectual integrity and take Jesus’ claim at face value and start to investigate it. Enough of these claims that we are all on the same pathway. There is only one pathway. Jesus claims to be it.

The question is: Do you believe him? If not, why not?

For those who are looking for the answers to life’s questions, looking for peace, forgiveness, acceptance, let me assure you that you will find them in Jesus. Come and investigate him. Come and trust him. He is utterly reliable.

Defrauded his brother (not once but twice), deceived his father, married twice (at the same time), had two mistresses, had twelve children to the four women, and on the run from his employer.

Having said that, his father tried to do him out of his rightful inheritance, his brother tried to kill him after the second fraud, his wives treated him as a piece of meat, his employer tried to diddle him of his wages, and his father-in-law gave him the wrong daughter (on purpose) at the wedding.

Sometimes we are a product of what others have done to us. And sometimes we have done things to others which have shaped them for the worse. We have been harmed, and we have caused harm.

Is there hope for the harmed and the harming? Where go you go when your life is in tatters?

The man described isn’t a modern day character, yet he could be. In fact he is from about 5000 years ago, and his name is Jacob. You’ll find him in the book of Genesis, and over the next number of weeks in Milford RP Church we’re going to be studying Jacob. Or more particularly we’ll be looking at how God deals with such a mess of a man, and starts to untangle the mess.

And that’s encouraging for each of us because we need help to untangle the mess of our lives, and here is where hope is found. Hope is found in the God who untangles and rescues. Hope is found in the God who can forgive us for the harm we have done. Hope is found in the God who can take the harm we have suffered and turn it for good.

You see, God doesn’t ask us to tidy ourselves up before we come to him. He tells us to come just the way we are, and then he will start to do the tidying. God loves us as we are, but he loves us too much to leave us as we are.

That’s what we see with Jacob.

Perhaps you can identify with Jacob, either as hurt or hurter. Perhaps you identify with some aspect of his life, but not all. Perhaps you don’t identify with Jacob much at all, but you know that you need God as much as Jacob did, albeit for different reasons.

Whatever the case we’d like to invite you to come along and join us for this set of studies over the next 6 weeks or so. We start this Sunday at 12noon at our church building on the Kilmacrennan Road.

I’ve been asked a couple of times in recent weeks what the guy with the John 3:7 banner at the GAA matches is all about. Or more particularly, what the verse is all about. You see him standing behind the goal on most of the televised matches.

The guy’s name is Frank Hogan, he’s from Limerick, and loves his Gaelic. The first time he displayed the John 3:7 banner was at a hurling match in Croke Park nearly 25 years ago. Since then he has carried the banner the length and breadth of Ireland to hurling and football matches. He is almost as much a part of the establishment as the game itself.

But why? The answer lies in Frank’s own story which I came across on a website:

Frank’s parents had six children. Like his three brothers and two sisters, Frank was baptised and confirmed. They attended church regularly. One day Frank was confronted with the fact that because of his sin he was separated from God, and church membership or sacraments couldn’t deal with the problem. These could not reconcile him to God and save his soul.

September 28th, 1976 was a landmark day. Frank found out that getting right with God isn’t about belonging or performing; it’s about what Jesus did on the cross. He discovered that Jesus had died on the cross as his substitute, and by doing this had paid the penalty for his sins. At 11 pm, in the front room of his home, Frank turned from his sin and asked Jesus for forgiveness. He put his trust in Christ, believing that Jesus had purchased a pardon for his sins through His sufferings and death on the cross.

But what’s that got to do with John 3:7? The verse reads: ‘Jesus said, “You must be born again”’

The verse simply reflects what Frank found he needed to experience. All of us are like a soiled page before God. Our own efforts at cleaning only rub the stains in deeper. We need a fresh start, a new page to our lives. And this fresh start is not something that comes from within us, but something that comes from God. It is not something we work up in ourselves by effort or devotion.

When Jesus said “You must be born again” he was speaking to a deeply religious man, and he was seeking to show him that his religiousness wasn’t enough. The problem is more deep rooted than we realise and therefore the solution has to be more radical than we first think.

‘John 3:7’ points us to the good news. It tells us that a new start is wonderfully possible. God can bring about a change of heart in men and women. Jesus can give you a new birth, a new start and a new life. He died on the cross to make the new start possible. He is alive today and can deal with your sin and give you a new start if you will admit your need and seek after Him, like Frank did.

When we turn from our disobeying or ignoring of him, and we put our trust in Jesus for acceptance and forgiveness—then we find God’s fresh start. And when that happens you want people to know. And Frank’s way of raising folk’s curiosity is to hold up his banner that points people to this verse.

Next time you see his banner I hope you will understand it better.

Late in the afternoon of June 20, 1944, Admiral Mitscher of the US Navy had dispatched a bombing mission against the fleeing Japanese fleet during what became known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

Aboard the USS Yorktown, Captain Jennings sat looking out into the darkness in front of the bow. It was pitch black and pilots’ fuel supplies were running dangerously low. First one plane and then another dropped into the sea from lack of fuel. At last the remaining planes approached the carriers. But in the darkness, the pilots could not make out which ships were carriers and which were not. Unless something was done many good men were going to be killed trying to landing the darkness. Slowly Admiral Mitscher got up from his seat and gave the order, "Turn on the lights."

These four words were deadly in meaning. Lighting up the fleet would enable the American pilots to find their way home, but it would also help Japanese pilots and submarines to find the US Fleet. Still, the Admiral believed that it was worth the risk. He had promised he would get the pilots home safe, and he was going to keep his word.

The ships quickly turned on all their lights. High in the air the pilots could not believe their eyes. One returning flyer described the scene as a “Hollywood premier, Chinese New Year's, and Fourth of July all rolled into one.” Here below them were dozens of ships with thousands of men aboard endangering their lives to save slightly over two hundred men and planes. Incredulous, but grateful, the pilots looked for their respective aircraft carriers, but it was confusing. This time Admiral Mitscher broke another rule. He sent the message, "Land on any carrier."

Quickly, pilots jockeyed for landing positions. Still planes had to ditch into the sea for lack of fuel. One pilot approached the USS Yorktown and as his plane caught the arresting wire and came to a stop, it died from lack of fuel.

Of the 40 planes the Yorktown had sent out on June 20th to attack the Japanese fleet, 14 made it back to their own ship, 13 landed on other ships, 11 landed in the sea nearby and their crews were picked up. 38 of the 40 had made it back to the ship. Figures were similar for the other aircraft carriers. All because of Admniral Mitscher’s order to “Turn on the lights”.

When Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness” (John 8:12)—this is something like what he was getting at. Except, he went one better. We live in a world where there are no safe places to land. He came and, instead of putting himself at risk to guide people home, he gave his life to guide people home, to give us a safe place to land. He took all the enemy fire so that there would be none directed at us.

Perhaps you feel like a pilot running low on fuel, and you are desperately searching for a place to land. Jesus says to you, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.”

In 17th century Scotland the King was forever sticking his nose into the affairs of the church, seeking to strategically place ministers who would support him and gain the ear of the people. The people however, in many instances wouldn’t have it, and resisted attempts to have clergy foisted on them.

One such instance was in 1615, when a young man called Alexander Henderson was appointed as minister at Leuchars in Fife. He wasn’t a Christian, as the Bible would define ‘Christian’, and the people of Leuchars didn’t want him as their pastor.

On the morning of his ordination the people locked all the doors of the church so that no-one could enter. The presiding ministers and Henderson were obliged to break in by a window before they carried out the ordination. Few people came to hear him preach.

He wasn’t there long when a godly minister Robert Bruce came to the area to preach. Henderson was struck by how many would eager listen to Bruce’s sermons and set out himself to hear him. He donned a disguise and slipped into a dark corner of the church.

Bruce entered the pulpit, and after a solemn pause, in his usual manner, he read these words from John 10:1 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber”.

Understandably these words hit Henderson like a thunderbolt. The ensuing sermon was so searching and unsettling that his conscience was deeply convicted.

Where do you turn when your conscience is deeply troubled?

Just a few verses later Jesus says, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9). Henderson turned and put his trust in Jesus and found the truth of this promise, and found his ministry transformed because he had been. He went on to play a key role in the history of Christianity in Scotland.

That’s where we need to turn to, not just to ease your troubled mind so that you can get on with life—Jesus isn’t a headache tablet. The turning to Jesus is a personal thing, not a ritual thing—that’s what Henderson found. It’s about the whole person recognising that they’ve been going the wrong way, and turning Godwards looking for forgiveness and help to keep going in a Godward direction. That’s entering in at the gate. It denotes starting out on a new path—the path of a transformed heart.

(Based on the calendar given out by the church)

On our calendar the verse for June is the words of Jesus:

“I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

Jesus, in saying this was picking up on imagery familiar to his listeners. But it also linked into their musical history in Psalm 23, which, for us, is perhaps the best known ancient song. How many other songs 3000 years old do you know?

I was thinking what Psalm 23 might be like if it had been written by someone today. It sets up quite a contrast with the original.

I am my own shepherd
I am always in need.
I stumble from one task to another,
bombarded by demands and mobile phones,
I don’t have a moment’s peace.
I wander in paths of busyness
seeking identity but never finding it.

When death casts its shadow over my life,
I crawl through the valley,
and I am afraid,
despite all my friends I am desperately alone;
all their gaiety
doesn't comfort me.

People around me trample over me,
in the rush to be first.
I anoint my headache with aspirin;
I drown my doubts in an overflowing Guinness.

Peace and contentment are strangers to me
most of the days of my life
and I will dwell in low self-esteem
for the rest of my life.

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever.
Thankfully, although times have changed, Jesus hasn’t. And he still offers to be the good shepherd to all who come to him and put their trust in him. Shall busyness, or family, or work, or pleasure lay down its life for me? Can they bring ultimate lasting peace and contentment, a certainty of goodness and mercy?

Which shepherd do you have?

The calendar we gave out this year deals with the all important theme “Who is Jesus?”. Many voices down through the centuries have made all sorts of claims and promises. Many voices in the present make their claims and promises too. They clamour for our attention, call us to follow, believe and commit. How are we to know which voice to listen to?

Each month we look at one of Jesus’ claims about himself. This month it is from John 8:58

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

At first glance these words seem simple and innocuous – perhaps even verging on the unintelligible. Surely Jesus should have finished the sentence with “before Abraham was born, I was” – meaning I have existed from before Abraham.

Was he just bad at grammar? Or is it the fault of the translators?

To the Jews of Jesus day this was not evidence of a poor education, but of a startling and boldfaced claim. You see, the phrase “I am” used in this way harks back to the way God introduced himself to Moses at the famous burning bush – “Tell them, ‘I am has sent you’”. God was saying to Moses that the always-existing one was sending him. What Jesus is doing is claiming to be that always existing one. He wasn’t simply in existence before Abraham like some angelic figure; rather he has always existed. Even the Jewish listeners understood this to be a claim to be God, for we are told in the next verse, “At this they picked up stones to stone him” – the penalty for blasphemy.

But what difference does it make to us?

There’s something immensely comforting to go back to a place and find it hasn’t changed, or to meet an old friend and find they ‘haven’t changed a bit’. That’s part of the comfort that lies behind the unchanging nature of Jesus.

Perhaps we wonder, “Would he forgive me?” We should listen to his words of forgiveness to Peter who denied him. He hasn’t changed. There is forgiveness for all who come to him in repentance like Peter did.

Perhaps we despair at circumstances. We should stand with the disciples in the storm tossed boat and look at the One who has just told the waves to be still. He hasn’t changed. He still calms storms. There is hope for all who come to him.

Perhaps we find it hard to trust Jesus. We should cry out to Jesus, “I believe, help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:23-24) and see Jesus do just that. He hasn’t changed. There is rescue for all who trust in him.

Perhaps we think it doesn’t really matter what we believe. We should listen to Jesus, “I am the way the truth and the life, no-one comes to the father except through me” (John 14:6). He is the unchanging one.

April’s Verse
Within the Christian tradition there is a tendency to think of Jesus as the dying Saviour – for some he is always on the cross. There are images and statues and crucifixes all displaying Christ on the cross. Now, while this is a key aspect of what Christ came to do, it is not the focus.

Jesus did not come to evoke our pity or even our admiration at his suffering. He came to rescue a people who would then follow him in glad-hearted surrender. But you can’t follow a corpse.

He came to rescue a people so that they could joyfully live for him because they knew that he lived to transform them and take them to be with him. You can’t live joyfully for a corpse, not for the long run.

If we think only of Christ on the cross it fosters a kind of sour-faced guilt – look at what I have done. It keeps the focus on me and my sins. It robs us of the strength to joyfully live for him here and now.

That’s not how Jesus wants it – if he had, he wouldn’t have risen from the dead. Neither would he have appeared to John the Apostle and had him record for all time these words which appear on our calendar as the verse for April:

“I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever!” (Revelation 1:18)

The Christians that John was writing to were facing savage persecution, and Jesus knew that what they needed was a reminder that he was no longer dead but alive, and alive forever. And if he was alive forever then that meant that he would triumph, and that death was not the end. It is a relationship with the risen triumphant Christ that transforms Christianity from a guilt-ridden ensnaring religion to a joyful freedom-giving reality.

His triumph means I can triumph. His triumph means I can be forgiven. His triumph means strength for today. His triumph means I can defeat sin. His triumph means I can have hope. And that gives joy.

Yes, we must go via the suffering saviour on the cross and have our guilt dealt with, but we are not called to stay there. We are called to follow and live for the risen Christ in glad-hearted delight. “I was dead, and behold I am alive forever.”

The calendar we gave out at the beginning of the year deals with the all important theme “Who is Jesus?”. Many voices down through the centuries have made all sorts of claims and promises. Many voices in the present make their claims and promises too. They clamour for our attention, call us to follow, believe and commit. How are we to know which voice to listen to?

March’s verse is Hosea 14:4 “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely.”

Hosea is one of God's preachers in the Old Testament. He is a man who hurts much because his wife runs around after other men and everyone knows it.

And Hosea is called by God to demonstrate a faithfulness and patience that is utterly beyond the call of duty. He is to wait, he is to love, he is to rescue his wife. Out of his own pocket he buys her back from another man – paying for the one who is rightfully his.

Hosea’s life is a real life parable of God's love for his people in the Old Testament – They were his people, he showered love on them, but they rejected him over and over again. They chose false gods rather than the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. And yet he didn’t wash his hands of them, but waited, pursued and loved them.

This verse comes at the end of the book where Hosea’s wife has returned to him, and God is now speaking about his own unfaithful people, and he says, “I will heal their waywardness, and love them freely.”

Perhaps you feel that your chequered past excludes you from God's love. Not so; God says here that he will welcome anyone who turns to him, no matter if they have paid as scant attention to God as Hosea’s wife did to Hosea. And more than that, God says he will pay the price to rescue you, and he will love you with a love that is beyond measure.

There are no hopeless cases with God.

God said to Moses, “Tell them: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)

This year’s calendar deals with the all important theme “Who is Jesus?”. Many voices down through the centuries have made all sorts of claims and promises. Many voices in the present make their claims and promises too. They clamour for our attention, call us to follow, believe and commit. How are we to know which voice to listen to?

Moses had the same question about 3500 years ago. Out minding sheep, he saw a bush on fire – not an uncommon event in the desert, but the fire wasn’t burning itself out. As he investigated, a voice spoke to him from the flames, commanding him to leave his job and rescue the Israelites from Egypt.

Naturally enough you’d have questions, like “Why’s there a voice speaking from a flaming bush?” and “Who are you that the Israelites should listen?”. The voice answered in cryptic fashion, “Tell them: ‘I AM has sent you’.”

What sort of an answer is that? God explained to Moses that he was the great never-changing God who had always existed, who had promised to make a great nation out of Israel, and how this never-changing God was coming to make good his promise.

The name ‘I AM’ came to sum up that eternal, never-changing, promise-keeping character of God. Down through the centuries of the Old Testament the Jews treated the name with great respect, not even daring to use it for fear of dishonouring it.

Then there appears a man making great claims about rescuing people, about being the promised one. Naturally enough people want to know who he is. And in answer to their questions, he takes the long unspoken name and utters it about himself – “Before Abraham was born, I am” – John 8:58. Many of the Jews thought it was blasphemy, that he was a con artist. They ignored the evidence of his life and his miracles. He used the same power that was seen in the rescue from Egypt: he controlled the sea, he provided miraculous food for the hungry crowds.

We mustn’t make the same mistake. Jesus is the great never-changing, promise-keeping God who has come to rescue people and take them out of slavery and death to a promised land, just like he did so long ago through Moses.

Over the last number of weeks, some of you may have received a calendar entitled “Who is Jesus?”, either from ourselves or from one of several other local churches. This is our first year to give it out, and we started small, so if you didn’t get one and would like one – let me know.

Every month a verse from the Bible sets out the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. Many voices down through the centuries have made all sorts of claims and promises. Many voices in the present make their claims and promises too. They clamour for our attention, call us to follow, believe and commit. How are we to know which voice to listen to?

Every month a verse from the Bible sets out the uniqueness of Jesus Christ – the only ‘voice’ to live, die and rise again; the only ‘voice’ to offer to take our place before an angry God. Throughout the course of the year I intend to explain a little of what each month’s verse means.

January’s verse is found in Revelation 1:8, ‘“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”’

Sometimes people say, “Christianity is OK for you, but it’s not for me. You can believe it, but I’ve got my own beliefs.” That would be fine if the final day of reckoning was like an airport check-in hall, with all the different religions each having their own check-in desk, with their own little deity and his staff seeing to those flying with them.

If this verse tells us anything, it tells us that it will not be like that. There is one God, not many. He is all-powerful. He has been in existence, and will always be in existence. There were no gods in existence before him, and none have come after him. Alpha and Omega refer to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – it is a way of saying that Jesus is before all things, after all things. He is the all-encompassing one, with whom all mankind will have to deal. He is sovereign. And he is coming back.

This verse also means that Jesus is what life is all about. Life is not about getting all you can, or even giving all you can. It’s all about Jesus – that’s what we’re here for. If our lives haven’t been about Jesus, then we aren’t ready for him coming back. Does he pervade your life in every aspect, or is he left on the periphery?

If you would like to know more, or would like a calendar, just get in touch.

A few years ago I got one of those photo-mosaic jigsaws for Christmas – you know the ones where a big image is made up of lots of little tiny images. What a killer! Probably the hardest jigsaw I’ve done. That type of image was in fashion for a while. You used to see them on advertising hoardings, and as you walked past all you could see were the individual images. You had to get away back from it to see the big picture.

So often it’s the same with the Bible. There are a lot of individual stories that we are familiar with: creation, David and Goliath, the birth of Jesus, his miracles, the crucifixion etc.. But how do they all go together? Or do they even go together?

A jigsaw is always easier to understand when you can see the big picture on the box. And so it is with the Bible. It isn’t just a collection of random unconnected stories. Even though it is a library of 66 different books, written by around 40 authors over the course of 1600 years in three different languages, there is a single plot line that runs through it from beginning to end.

Each of the small pictures, or stories, fits into this greater picture. Quite simply it’s all about the King and his Kingdom. Once you get the big picture then you can understand why each of the stories is included. For example, Jesus’ miracles are no longer just random acts of kindness, but each one displays in a different way the power of the King.

Have you tried to read the Bible and found yourself getting monumentally lost, and eventually setting it aside in frustration or boredom? That’s understandable. It’s a bit like trying to do a jigsaw without having the picture on the lid.

Over the next 6 or 7 Sunday mornings at Milford Reformed Presbyterian Church we are going to be looking at this big picture, and seeing how everything fits into it.

If you have wondered what the Bible is all about, why not come along and find out for yourself? We meet from 12noon to 1pm at the church building on the Kilmacrenan Rd.