Pastoral Letter 54

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Grace and peace to you all.

After a successful Sunday worship service last Sunday, we have officially reopened our doors for worship and fellowship, within the restrictions of our COVID-safe plans. We are glad that the government has announced further easing, which allows us to sing during worship services with masks on.  We will enjoy the long-missed Morning Tea and fellowship time.

The church premises are being cleaned and sanitised weekly on Saturdays, ready for use on Sundays. Still, we need to keep records in line with the COVID Safety plan. Upon arrival, the door rosters will check your temperature and register your name and details, as required by the government, or alternatively you can register with the QR. Hymn Books will not be handed to you and you are required to sit on the allocated seats. The seats that are marked by stickers are the ones not to be used. You will not find Bibles on the pews.

If for any reason you are not able to join us for the service, please join us on Sunday morning for worship, light a candle, following the Order of Service. I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow as we share the Lord’s table.

We have recommenced Pizza/Movie Nights every first Tuesday of the month. We will also resume Time4U, starting this Wednesday 10 March 10:00 am and onwards only on Wednesdays.

In the meantime, please continue to pray, remembering those who need our care, support and love.

Here are some prayer points for this week:

1. Pray for our Service tomorrow as well as for the services during the Lent season.

2. Pray for Armenia as the nation goes through a difficult time with the political unrest.

3. Continue to pray for Esther’s family, as they go through a difficult time of pain and sorrow.

4. Pray for those who are vulnerable and going through difficult and turbulent times.
3. Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.

Please let me know if you have any prayer requests and we will pray together.

Krikor

Destroy and I Will Raise it Again!

John 2:13-22

Baptist pastor and author Dr. James Allan Francis commenced his ministry at the age of twenty-one. He wrote several books based on his sermons. His most renowned written work is the short essay titled “One Solitary Life,” which was taken from one of his messages in 1926, later revised in a condensed version and published retrospectively which is the composition most are familiar with today. This popular piece is usually associated with the Christmas and Easter time observances and is usually read at church services, printed in bulletins, appearing on blog sites and gracing the cover of greeting cards.

The essay reads as follows:

One Solitary Life

“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself…

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centrepiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”

Naturally, Dr. James Allan Francis was referring to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Son of God, who came to this world to die for our sins, to save us and make it possible for us to become the children of God and heirs to the Kingdom of God.

We are in the third Sunday of Lent and continue to look into the events of Jesus’ life, leading to the time of His passion and crucifixion, death and resurrection. We are in the seven weeks of preparation and self-examination and renewing our commitment and reinforcing our faith.

In our reading from John, we read the following:

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

I was looking at these verses this week and was reminded of this promise and how great to know that Jesus meant what He said and said what He meant. He is the One, who could do this.

As we look to the passage read today, we see four main points:

I. The State of the Temple

This was the first time after the beginning of His ministry that Jesus went to Jerusalem to observe the Passover (vs. 14). When He arrived, He found the Temple in disarray.

1. The market was going on in the outer courts of the Gentiles. The animals for the burnt offerings, which included cattle, sheep and doves, were sold there to save the inconvenience of individual Jews bringing their offerings from a distance. Some have even considered that the corrupt priests were insisting that the only clean animal was those that were purchased from them.

2. The moneychangers were there, to exchange foreign money for the half-shekel of the sanctuary. The abuse consisted in making God’s house, a house of merchandise, in which the priests themselves profited (vs. 16)

On a personal thought, if we are coming to worship, perhaps we may need to look around and see if there is a need to clean some things up in our own lives.

It is so easy to point at others and show them what they need, but it may very well be that it is us who are in the greatest need.

II. The Temple Cleansed (vs. 15-16)

Too often is the lowing of oxen and the bleating of sheep heard, and the tables of the money changers planted, within the boundaries of God’s house. Jesus made a whip

Made of small cords, this whip was made as an emblem of authority, and also for the purpose of driving from the temple the cattle which had been brought there for sale.

There is no evidence that Jesus used any violence to the men engaged in that desecrated traffic. The word implies that these “cords” were made of twisted “rushes” or “reeds” – probably the ancient material for making ropes.

I love the passion that Jesus shows toward His Father’s House. How much we lack such belief and acceptance that it is the house of God.

I realize that today many people symbolize the church house as “the Fathers House.” But that is not true.

Yes, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of what the Lord has given us. We care for this place we call church, but I am reminded that the real church house is not made with human hands. In fact, Jesus gives us the very answer to that thought (vs. 19).

How often still the Father’s house is so desecrated! People pollute it with their worldly pleasure and ungodly acts. We are speaking of our bodies, not this gathering place, that we would consider where we allow our minds to wander and our feet to follow.

III. Who Do You Think You Are? (vs.18)

The parties were the authorities of the Temple who promoted the cause of the traffickers and sellers.

“The Jews require a sign,” and for the want of one to their liking, the Gospel was here as ever a stumbling block. There was nothing unreasonable in the request.

The cleansing brought a Messianic stamp; but the request was made in anger at the disappointment that their gains had been hindered with, and not with desire to receive information.

No one likes when we are caught doing what we should not be doing.

The very cleansing ought to have been a sufficient sign, but they asked a question and Jesus gave them the answer.

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” (vs.19)

It was very apparent that they were thinking on two separate plains.

Jesus was speaking of the Body as the Temple of God and they were thinking the Temple where they worked was the place where God resided.

How true that is still today.

Many believe that if they go to the church house and if it is decorated the right way and with a steeple on top surely the Lord is in this place.

God does not dwell in a place made by hands. He dwells in the heart of His children. This was accomplished at Calvary.

IV. Their Eyes Finally Opened (vs. 22)

When He was risen from the dead… This saying of our Saviour at that time seemed obscure. The disciples did not understand it, but they treasured it up in their memory, and the event showed what was its true meaning.

We learn from this, also, the importance of treasuring the truths of the Bible now, though we may not perfectly understand them.

They believed only “after” He rose from the dead.

I cannot say that every one of the Disciples of Jesus, except Judas of course who was cursed, knew Jesus as Saviour before the crucifixion.

But I know that the memory of this moment came rushing back when they saw Jesus face to face.

Aren’t we glad that we have the Bible to remind us what Christ did on that fateful day?

God poured out His wrath on His very Son because the price of sin was so high that the blood of animals was never enough.

Salvation is free for us because Christ paid the price. Jesus did just what He said He would do. He rose Himself up.

John 10:18 “No one taketh it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and authority to take it up again. This commandment I received of my Father.”

What a promise. A promise, like the one God did make many years ago to Abraham, Moses and David.

All those promises were completely fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, we can say that Christ is enough.

Because He promised to raise it again and He did with His own resurrection.

Amen!