“As @hughbo taught us this morning, harvest is more than baked beans..”

I hope the message was a little more profound than that, but it does contain elements of truth. It was Harvest Sunday this week, at least it was in our church. Due to staff shortages I ended up preaching on Psalm 65. I’ve never done Harvest before, not since I was a kid. It brought back memories of Harvest suppers, produce auctions and competitions to see who had the biggest marrow.

I guess in short, my attitude to Harvest is fairly flippant. Especially in Hove, it doesn’t really seem all that relevant. But God’s word was so relevant… Psalm 65 is an awesome song of praise at the Harvest festival. We saw:

• God’s Grace
• God’s Greatness
• God’s Goodness

“If other people knew you the way God knows you  your failings; your thoughts; your sins what secretly goes on in your mind that no-one else knows about; would they trust you with the kind of work that God trusts you with? God has supreme confidence in His Grace. He’ll take the likes of you and me and Paul and give you the privilege of being His saints and fellow workers.”

• Sabbath Year – looking at the theme of Rest

• Jubilee Year – looking at the theme of Redemption

• Grace – looking at how we respond to God’s grace…

You can listen to the sermon here - download MP3

You can see my notes here - download PDF

You can see my Powerpoint here - download PPT

On Saturday night at Bible by the Beach we welcomed Terry Virgo from Newfrontiers to speak, he spoke on Jesus walking on the water… here was his basic outline:

Mark 6:45-52

He sends them into the storm – he loves you just as you are, he loves you too much to leave you as you are.

He saw them in the storm – all is laid bare before him, he sees even through the darkness.

He saved them in the storm – he took the initiative, walking on water (this is truly God).

You can purchase a video DVD, an audio CD, or an MP3 download of the talk at the Bible by the Beach website.

John 20:1-3, 10-18

The connection between the death and resurrection of Jesus is faith. The cross wasn’t enough to bring people to faith, because the people don’t get this act of love, but the resurrection triggered saving faith.

1. Faith rests in truth
Jesus said he would rise from death (that’s why they put guards on the tomb), but the disciples didn’t get it, it was the 3rd day! This defeats the chronological snobbery of modernists – these people didn’t believe in resurrections either! But they did believe, he convinced them by showing himself – at least 11 times, to over 500 people. The first witnesses are women! The evidence is powerful to break through any worldview. Christianity is true for everyone, and therefore fulfilling and relevant.

2. Faith comes by grace
Mary thinks she is utterly alone, but angels are in front of her, and Jesus behind her – if the resurrection happened then the Lord is close, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Who does Jesus choose? Mary is the first messenger – a woman with a dark past – it has to be about grace!

3. Faith works through love
Let the resurrection convince your mind and your heart. Do not hold onto me – Christ will ascend but he will dwell intimately with his people.

Then we got to hear from an ex-drug dealer who loves Jesus – awesome! John 19:23-37, I spoke on this at Global Cafe last night… I think TK might do a better job!

1. How he died – in accordance with the Scriptures
Easy to over look, but John makes a point of reminding us. v.28 Jesus does what he does to fulfill the Scriptures. Jesus throughout his life relies on God’s word and does what he does so that it may be fulfilled. When you’re under stress the real, instinctive you comes out – his instinct is to go to the Scriptures for strength and direction. Bathe yourself in the word of God.

2. Why he died – to be our substitute
v.29 Why a hyssop? It’s how they spread the Passover blood. v.36 Not a bone broken – like a perfect lamb.
In the wilderness the Rock is struck and water comes out – like Jesus.
Jesus is the ransom – it is finished. The common theme is substitution!
All love is a substitutionary sacrifice – if you don’t have atonement you don’t have love. You can’t love hurting people without you giving them strength and you hurting yourself. What about the Fugitive? If you take them in you loose your safety and security. All love is substitutionary sacrifice. Refers to a sermon, Christ’s agony – Jonathan Edwards, the garden is where you see Christ’s love – this is the point he could have walked away, it’s them or you.

3. What he offers – the Water of Life
Thirst is a metaphor for agonizing spiritual emptiness. Everyone craves something at the centre of their soul, but anything other than God will leave you spiritually dry. Dying of dehydration is a little picture of hell, and Jesus takes that spiritual thirst on the cross (v.28). You know and experience this water, it changes you, it becomes the centre of everything.

4. How it changes
It is finished. Take Jesus’ pardon then move on, don’t add to his finished work. You’re welcome now! Let the cross change your attitude to yourself.You’ve been at the cross, that’s what you have in common, let he cross change your attitude to others v.26-27. Tale of two cities: Are you dying for him? Sidney is a sacrifice and gives courage to others.

Cheers Dan Green.

“The very act of setting out Calvinistic soteriology [the doctrine of salvation] in the form of five distinct points (a number due, as we saw, merely to the fact that there were five Arminian points for the Synod of Dort to answer) tends to obscure the organic character of Calvinistic thought on this subject. For the five points, though separately stated, are inseparable. They hang together; you cannot reject one without rejecting them all, at least in the sense in which the Synod meant them. For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made in the field of soteriology: the point that God saves sinners.

“God – the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing.

“Saves – does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies.

“Sinners – men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot. God saves sinners and the force of this confession may not be weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and making the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedalling the sinner’s inability so as to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with his Saviour. This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology which the five points are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its forms to deny: namely, that sinners to not save themselves in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen.”

J.I. Packer, Introductory Essage, in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, by John Owen (London: Banner of Truth, 1959) 4-5.

HT: Scott Thomas

I’d never heard of this lady before, so thanks to Adrian Warnock for blogging it.