So having preached on Leviticus 25 recently, I was thinking about what I should have said, which I didn’t… How does this stuff apply to non-Christians? How do you teach it evangelistically? Primarily this stuff is for God’s people, and I think that’s how it should be applied first. But even in the passage it’s said that this Sabbath stuff should be applied to “the temporary residents living among you” – ie. people who don’t belong to God…

So how does the Sabbath and the Jubilee apply to non-Christians?

I think that Rest is something that we all crave… we all at some point find our work frustrating, we all get tired, we all love (at least in theory) holidays and days off… and I know that a lot of my non-Christian friends “live for the weekend” - either because they can play/watch sport, or because they can go to town and get drunk.

I think evangelistically this is a great place to start… agreeing that we all have a longing for Rest.

First… Where don’t you find Rest?… playing sport is great fun, it’s a great rest from work, but it leaves you tired still and you can’t play forever… going out is good fun, it gives you a buzz, getting drunk is great escapism… but you wake up feeling far from rested! Living for the weekend gives a pretty depressed outlook for the rest of the week… can’t we find a way to enjoy the rest of the weekend, but also find rest throughout the week?

Second… Jesus offers Rest! He offers rest from the burden of sin and from the burden of religion. He offers rest in eternity, but rest that starts now in relationship with God.

Well it looks as though the fuss over the Lockerbie bomber, Ali al-Megrahi is slowly dying down. But while it’s still in the news I wanted to pen a few thoughts that have been brewing over the last few weeks, that perhaps show some inconsistency and hyperbole in what’s going on:

• I wasn’t on the jury that convicted al-Megrahi (surprisingly), but the evidence presently looks somewhat tenuous…
• If al-Megrahi was indeed guilty, then it seems likely that he was sponsored or in some way directly or indirectly supported by the Libyan regime. With that in mind is it fair to make al-Megrahi a scapegoat while we make friends with Colnell Gadaffi…?
• Ronnie Biggs (a Great Train Robber) was also released from a prison sentence earlier this year on compassionate grounds… sure he didn’t kill 270 people, but he was English and didn’t upset any Americans, which also helps his case. But no-one that I heard claimed it was wrong to release Biggs.
• There’s talk of Brown making concessions to Libya for oil and trade deals… David Cameron came out stronly against this, saying he wouldn’t have released al-Megrahi. The reality is that if this was the case, Cameron would have, and he would have been right to if it was in the interests of the UK.
• Why should mercy be contradictory to justice?

“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.”  -  Zechariah 7:9

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face”  -  Psalm 89:14

The Mercy and Justice of God is most wonderfully displayed at Calvary… Jesus is crucified, he dies, taking the punishment for your sin and my sin – justice is served, but it’s also merciful, God pours his just anger at sin on himself, letting you go free into new life! Amen

Matthew 24:1-35 is a pretty difficult passage to understand, but I had to get to grips with it as I was down to preach on it at church this last week. There’s a lot of debate about ‘when’ Jesus is talking about… have a read, see what you think?

I suspect your initial reaction is to say, “Jesus is talking about the end of the age”… that was my first reaction too. But, I think the answer is not that simple…

Here’s the context:

• Verse 2 – Jesus says the temple will be destroyed.
• Verse 3 – the disciples ask two questions; when will the temple be destroyed, and what will be the sign of your coming / end of the age.

My understanding is that Jesus answers the first question in verses 4-35. The rest of the chapter, and chapter 25 is devoted to answering the second question. I have 3 reasons for saying this:

1. Jesus is speaking to his disciples, therefore ‘you’ means the disciples
2. In 3 places Jesus speaks of false Christs, and not believing them, the point being that Jesus isn’t returning yet
3. Verse 34 – Jesus says that all these things will happen in the disciples generation

HOWEVER, there are some difficult verses to deal with, which make you think that it is actually talking about the end of the age…

• Verse 30  -  it sounds like the end of the world, sun darkening, stars falling, heavenly bodies shaken! But Jesus is quoting Isaiah 13 and Isaiah 34  -  in this context it is not the end of the world being spoken of, but the judgement of a city by an army… this is a picture to describe a military attack.
• Verse 31  -  ”the Son of Man coming on the clouds in power and glory”  -   again, sounds like the end of the age! But this picture is from Daniel 7:13-14, it’s not Jesus coming to earth, but Jesus coming into his Father’s presence. Or look at Matthew 26:64 – Jesus says that the Sanhedrin will see this.

Check out David Field’s blog for more thoughts on this – cheers Anthony!

I came across Kevin De Young’s blog the other day… which is cool because I’m dipping into one of his books at the moment – ‘Why we’re not Emergent…’

So one thing I didn’t know about him is that he’s a paedobaptist, and he’s written a great, simply defence of his position:

One of the best things I get to do as a pastor is to administer the sacrament of infant baptism to the covenant children in my congregation. Before each baptism, I take a few minutes to explain why we practice infant baptism in our church. My explanation usually goes something like this:

It our great privilege this morning to administer that sacrament of baptism to one of our little infants. We do not believe that there is anything magical about the water we apply to the child. The water does not wash away original sin or save the child. We do not presume that this child is regenerate (though he may be), nor do we believe that every child who gets baptized will automatically go to heaven. We baptize infants not out of superstition or tradition or because we like cute babies. We baptize infants because they are covenant children and should receive the sign of the covenant.

Read the full explanation here.

Myself and my good friend ‘Pove’ have been engaging a little bit with Christopher Hitchens recently, looking at his debates on Youtube and checking out his book – “God is not great – how religion poisons everything”.

When Hitchens debates/writes he’s really annoying…

1. Every sentence includes a word that no one else understands – he lords his intellect over people
2. On intellect, he is an intellectual snob, assuming that anyone who lived more than 100 years ago is stupid (oh except Darwin)
3. Every argument is actually at least 3 different arguments all splurged together
4. He doesn’t honestly engage with Christian beliefs and evidence – rather he just picks on fundamentalists, and makes straw men
5. Oh… and he never answers questions… just transfers a different question back

One of my favourite debates is with Doug Wilson, he gets Hitchens on the back foot and exposes some bad arguments and holes in his worldview. The best bit is when they talk about the Amalekites

DW:  ”Neither one of us has a problem with killing Amalekites. I don’t have a problem killing the Amalekites because God told them to do it. You don’t have a problem because ‘the universe’ just doesn’t  care what happens to Amalekites.”

CH: “No that’s not true, what if I was an Amalekite?

DW: “You’re not ‘the unviverse’”

Check out this bit from about 6:30 mins into the video. Doug gets him!

“It is not my calling to help you to have chipper feelings while the whole of creation groans. My job is to put the kind of ballast in the belly of your boat so that when these waves crash against your life, you will not capsize but make it to the harbour of heaven – battered and wounded but full of faith and joy”

John Piper, Spectacular Sins [pg. 28]