Pastoral Letter 7

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

Grace and Peace to you all in the name of the Father, the God of Love and Power, the Son, the Good Shepherd and the Lord of Grace and the Holy Spirit, the Source of our Peace and Comfort.

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter, not in the usual way we used to do, but instead, on our own or with our spouse and household. I am sure it felt a little strange, but I hope it was a time of coming before God as we are, with our pains and sorrows, but at the same time with joy and gratitude. Pain and sorrow, because we are still living in fear and panic of the pandemic and the harm it has brought to us and to the world. But with joy and gratitude, because we are still well and safe and because He, the Almighty, is with us, as we walk through the dark times, as the world around us is under immense threat.

Though we have some good news here in our country compared to others, that the curve is slowly flattening, but we still have a long way to go. We are still in the dark tunnel, but we have great hopes that we will have light on the other side. Our trust and hope is only in our All-powerful, Almighty and Omniscient God, who is in full control. Thanks be to Him.

With this my seventh pastoral letter, I remind you of the events of our Lord, Jesus Christ, after His resurrection when He appeared to His disciples and followers, including men and women, as well as the doubting Thomas, inviting them to have faith in Him and believing in Him. The words of one of the songs we sang last week remind us that He is the One, in whom we should trust and believe. The song says:

He is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead and He is Lord. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

So, with this email and the attached Order of Service, I ask you to follow the Order on Sunday morning at 9:30am as you have done in the previous weeks, by reading the script, the Prayers, Responsive Reading, Bible Readings and sing the hymns and think about all those who are worshiping with you at the same time. I am attaching the hymns in music and video format, to make it easy for you to sing along.  And a final one, courtesy of Jan Cartwright, to listen at the end and enjoy. Just double click on the attached file and your computer will do the rest.

Please remember to make your offering, which is one of the best ways to express your gratitude and thanks to God for keeping you safe and being with you in this very challenging time, as day by day, week by week it is becoming more difficult.

I am grateful to all of you for your wonderful words and beautiful messages that keep coming, which encourages me and assures me that we are together in these challenging times. Your prayers and support mean a lot to me, and I keep doing my best as we move forward together through these uncharted territories. Please keep writing and keep communicating with each other, with phone calls and keep everyone informed with any new developments that happen with you, your family or any congregation member that you know is having any problems.

Keep on praying and leave everything in the hands of our great God, who is our refuge and strength.

Krikor

Your Minister

NOTE:

Midday Monday, I will be conducting a Funeral/Cremation Service for Avak Avakian, an Armenian man, a member of the community, who passed away earlier this week. The family has asked me to conduct the service.

Pray for his widow and son, as well as the family and friends.

Message Summary

Doubt Vs Faith

John 20:19-31 and 1 Peter 1:1-12

After His victorious resurrection, on the evening of the first day of the week, Jesus appeared to His disciples in the upper room, where they were gathered with doors locked because of their fear of the Jews and uncertainty about what was going to happen to them. Thomas, one of the disciples, was not with them when Jesus appeared that first time. When Thomas returned to the group, they were all so excited about their encounter with the risen Christ. But Thomas looked at his colleagues and made the claim: “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe”. (John 20:25)

A week later, when the disciples were in the house and Thomas was with them, Jesus appeared again, and He directly confronted Thomas’ doubt by telling him to touch the mark of the nails. Thomas believed and said: “My Lord and my God”. Jesus reprimanded Thomas for believing only after he had truly seen, stating that we are truly blessed when we believe without seeing. And He said:

“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20.29)

Faith is powerful and it is what we are required to have in our Christian walk with Christ with the guidance of the Holy Ghost. We have faith in the fact that Christ was and is God Himself.

The writer of the Epistle of Hebrews states in 11:1 and says: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”.  And then he gives a long list of people, who did what they did by faith. He mentions Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and then goes on saying that he doesn’t have time to talk about Gedeon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword. Women received their dead raised back to life again (probably referring to Mary and Martha, whose brother Lazarus Jesus raised from the dead, and the woman whose son was dead, and Jesus raised him). And the list goes on.

These were men and women of faith. Yes, for sure they had their doubts and questions, but they believed in the power of God and trusted His promises.

We, as Christians, are expected to have faith in God and believe in Him. And yet we have our doubts and fears, as Thomas had, but doubt could easily be the first step of faith; a strong base on which we can build up our faith.

1 Peter shows us the three things that we must have for our Christianity to be real and lasting. Three things, which could be stepping stones, as we take our steps of faith, building up our conviction and trust in God. Three things, to do with our faith in God.

1. Faith in God’s Power and Providence

Providence – the protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power. (v.1-4)

A. God knew us and chose us long ago. Some of the best examples of God’s providence from the scripture are Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Jeremiah and many others.

B. He makes us holy. We obey Him and are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Peter says for being obedient may God give us more and more grace and peace. It is through our obedience that we prove to be followers of Christ and gain more grace and peace. Belief and obedience are faith.

C. God has given us a priceless inheritance. God is to receive all of our praise – it’s because of his great mercy that we have been born again. God raised Jesus from the dead. Peter says, now we live with a great expectation! Expecting the coming of Christ and we should be expecting to inherit the Kingdom of God!

2. Faith in God’s Protection (v.5-9)

A. Through our faith God is protecting us. God protects by His power until we receive salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see!

B. There is wonderful joy ahead. It is our promise! God has promised to be with His people, as well as Jesus, who has promised us to be with us until the end of the world.

C. Genuine faith is like fire. Trials show that our faith is genuine. Our faith is being tested in our trials just like fire tests and purifies gold. Our faith is much more precious than gold. When our faith is tested and we remain strong in our faith, we will receive glory and honour on the day when Jesus is revealed to the whole world!

D. Trust in the unseen and the reward is great. We love Him even though we haven’t seen Him. Though we don’t see Him, we trust Him. We rejoice with joy and the reward for trusting Him will be salvation for our souls!

3. Faith in God’s Salvation (v.10-12)

A. Even the prophets wanted to know more about salvation. They realised that His salvation was so graciously prepared for us because we did nothing to deserve it. They couldn’t quite grasp it.

B. They wondered about the time and situation. They couldn’t understand how God told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and His great glory afterward. They couldn’t understand how His beginning and ending would be so different. Coming to suffer and die but reigning in Glory forever and taking us there with Him.

C. The prophet’s messages and the good news preaching are for us! The Good News has been announced to us by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen because these things are so wonderful.

So have…

Faith in God’s Power and Providence

Faith in God’s Protection

Faith in God’s Salvation

Because…
True Faith equals Salvation and should replace the doubt.

This is the realm of faith. You can doubt, but at some point, you must make your stand. You have got to believe.

Jesus tells Thomas to reach out his hand. The Greek word for reach is fero. It means to be carried, to be borne with the suggestion of force or speed.

That is what we need to do. Reach out toward Jesus, our Rock and Salvation. Our only hope, who went to the cross to be sacrificed on our behalf and rose again to give us hope. He opened the way for us to reconcile with God. He showed us the way.

Reach out with faith for the risen Christ and know His power beyond all doubt.

Let us put our trust in Him and be assured that He is with us and will be with us all the way, even if we pass by the shadow of death, we should not be afraid, for He is with us. Just let’s have faith in Him

Amen.