Easter isn't Easter without the Cross

Here is a reminder that our three Easter Services are at Rosalie School this year

1. Palm Sunday Family Service 1st April 10am @ Rosalie School "Are you the King of the Jews?" GP

2. Good Friday Service 6th April 9:30am @ Rosalie School "Father, Forgive them" KDR

3. Easter Sunday Communion Service 8th April @ Rosalie School "He is not here for he has risen" KDR

Please take the opportunity to bring a friend or a family member.

There are a number of jobs in which you can help us set up too! We want to set up the school at 3pm Saturday afternoon for Palm Sunday, and 7pm Thursday night for Good Friday. We are also letterbox dropping the invite to the local area if you can help....

For more information contact us at the church office 9381-2640

office@stmattsshentonpark.org.au

See you there GP

Snakes Alive: A picture debrief

We had an excellent time at snakes alive!

Minute 4 Mission: Sixty seconds in Maddington

Ray and Lyn Arthur at Maddington Anglican thank you for your partnership in the Gospel. Your faithfulness in praying for ministry at Maddington is greatly valued and your financial assistance is very generous. Your active support is greatly appreciated.

In the past 2 years: We have made many contacts through activities with the community, particularly through Playgroup ‘Mites and Minders’ & Kids’ club. We have had opportunities to take people further with a discussion group "Focus" – 1x each month – We are looking at a new format after Easter.

In the last 12 months: Our small groups have increased from 3 to 6 – representing 30% of the congregation. "Introducing God" has been a useful tool to introduce people to Jesus. Youth Group continues to be a point of contact–made up of local children contacted through Kids’ club, mostly non-Christian families

As a result of your prayers we also see our contacts with non-Christians leading to people becoming Christians or having their Christian lives fanned into flame. A couple of weeks ago a man in his 30’s gave his testimony at our Men’s Breakfast and his wife will be baptised at the end of April, possibly including their son . This family became Christians a little over 12 months ago. The NCLS survey revealed 2 significant figures for St Luke’s. In the last 5 years we have grown numerically by 60% but more significantly our average age has dropped by 10 years. Since the survey our Sunday School has doubled in size and our 9.45am service has increased by around 20%.

Things to pray for:
· The Introducing God group – 4 families
· Easter outreach
· Energy and wisdom for Lyn (children’s worker)
· Next year’s provision for leadership, we praise God for Brian and Annie.

I praise God for your partnership in the Gospel, thank you. Ray Arthur

"I don't know him..."

Jesus speaks challenging words in Luke 9 "If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory"

Peter feels the weight of them in his own experience.

Luke 22:54-62 After seizing Jesus in the Garden, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance... Peter sat down with them.

Observe Peter's three responses to inquiries into his identity:

"This man was with him."... "Woman, I don't know him,"

"You also are one of them."..."Man, I am not!"

"Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean."

"Man, I don't know what you're talking about!"

Do you know the temptation to be ashamed of Jesus?

V.61 records Peter's moment of truth.

The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.

A look from his Lord confronted his temptation to denial.

A few hours earlier after the Passover Meal Jesus had said: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." But he replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death." Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me."

Peter's struggle with denial is an encouragment to us all. It was not final.

Peter did return to Jesus and led the apostles in the mission of the early church.

30 or so years later he writes to encourage the churches...

"For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty".

What do you learn from Peter's struggle not to be ashamed of Jesus?

What does not being ashamed of Jesus look like in your situation?

Stand firm! GP

"Take this cup"

The olive tree grove of Gethsemane is still on the

Mt. of Olives today.

Luke 22:39 records that Jesus, after the last Supper, went out as usual to the Mount of Olives to pray, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed...

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 

Notice a couple of things

1. The Son prays to his heavenly father in a time of anguish

It is only the Son who knows the Father intimately
It is only through the Son that we can know the Father
Obedience to the Father’s will is the choice of the son.

By the Spirit we are adopted into the family of God.
By the Spirit we too cry, “Abba Father” Romans 8 or Galatians 4

What do you learn about the relationship between the Father and the son from this Gethsemane prayer ?

2. The request to take the cup

The cup is OT picture language to describe receiving the full outworking of the judgment of God. The OT for example....

Psalm 75 for in the hand of the Lord is a cup with foaming wine well mixed
And he pours out from it and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs
Isa 51 Wake yourself wake yourself stand up Jerusalem
You have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath

Jesus agonises over over the necessity of drinking the cup of God's judgement for us so we might have forgiveness and life in him.

What's your response to the agony of Jesus? what's your response to his act of drinking the cup for you at the cross?

3. Heavenly refreshment in a time of anguish

An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 

Don Carson reflecting on Gethsemane says "...Jesus went to his death knowing that it was his Father’s will that he face death, completely alone as the sacrificial, wrath averting, Passover Lamb. As his death was unique, so also his anguish: Our best response to it is hushed worship”

When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Are you sleeping? Wake up, Pray that you will not fall into temptation!

Here is a scene that deserves our hushed worship

Hallelujah What a Saviour!

GP

Minute 4 Mission: Sixty seconds in Myanmar

11th March, 2007 was the Global Day of Prayer for Myanmar or Burma as some of its nationals still call it., a country with promising missionary beginnings, especially with the Baptist work pioneered by Adoniran Judson from 1813 onwards.

But since Independence in 1948 it is a divided and troubled land, still suffering under a military regime which has crushed the National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, disallowing its landslide election victory in 1990.

The Anglican Church has stayed there through thick and thin, Perth’s late Archbishop George Appleton being a missionary there in his younger days, and recently Archbishop Roger keeping up connections with a visit. The WA church has welcomed displaced and migrant families, many of whom now form an integral part of our Victoria Park parish.

Other links with WA include visits by Michael Lush of Scripture Union, training youth workers and Sunday School teachers; and also Peter and Louise Snowsill, who lived there with their children for Interserve, training teams for village development.

But tragically, many of the large ethnic minorities, who contain the majority of Burma’s Christians, are currently being brutally suppressed, because of their desire for autonomy within their own states. Villages are torched, children abducted and – and now Thailand has closed its doors to refugees.

Last month Dr Summerville told our 10.00 o’clock congregation of his regular trips to Thailand, to teach health care to tribes people from North Burma.

Dr Mitch Ryan goes on forays across the border into the jungle world of the Karen with the Free Burma Rangers. He takes medicines for malaria, TB etc, and teaches prospective health workers how to relieve suffering. The team also has a Karen pastor/counsellor and a human rights reporter with a simple video camera, whose footage sometimes gets on our TV screens.

Let us pray for the church in Burma.

Five reasons why Aussie men hate church

At the Blokes Breakfast I mentioned a Web Article that caught my attention titled "Five reasons men hate church." This was an aussie response to Alaskan, David Morrow's Book " Why Men Hate Going to Church. Five issues for Aussie blokes were identified:

PROBLEM NUMBER 1: Church meeting styles are ‘feminine.’ It’s singing that has received the widespread comment. Author David Murrow writes, “Think of the mental gymnastics that must take place inside a man’s subconscious mind as he sings lyrics … using words no man would dare say to another, set to music that sounds like the love songs his wife listens to in the car.”

PROBLEM NUMBER TWO: Church leadership model is weak and not compelling. To put it crassly, author David Murrow thinks a key reason men hate church is that too many pastors are gutless wimps who present a ‘girlie’ message blokes don’t care to follow. “Christ’s bold, masculine command, “Follow me!’, is now ‘Have a relationship with me.’ We’ve recast Jesus’ offer in feminine terms. Men want a leader, not a love object...”

PROBLEM NUMBER THREE: Church is boring and safe. There is no risk.
One of the key conclusions of David Murrow’s book Why Men Hate Church is that the church has let men down: that men are drawn to risk, challenge and daring, but our
“Men like adventure as a rule,” he said. “Men warm to challenge and to leadership and to responsibility.” Andrew Cameron describes the problem as our church’s culture of ‘niceness’.

PROBLEM NUMBER FOUR: Church doesn’t relate to a man’s world
As Andrew Cameron puts it, our churches treat most men as if they are ‘spiritual incompetents’ (see article below). Pastors are failing to teach men the skills they need to become the ‘theological expert’ for their own field of endeavour.

PROBLEM NUMBER FIVE: Blokes like to get their hands dirty

Andrew Cameron believes that if churches pursued a range of mission activities that gave men – especially working-class blokes – something to do, ‘we might not have to change Sunday meetings much’.

The article went on to suggest a number of solutions for each problem, tell me if you think they got it right...

“Five reasons men hate church” http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/indepth/articles/five_reasons_men_hate_church/

“Why men hate church”

http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/community/viewtopic.php?p=61502#61502

minute 4 mission: Sixty Seconds in Sudan

Do you recognize these people - Greg and Sandra Lewis. They were members of St Matt's years ago, indeed were married in the old building in Keightley Rd. They were regular members here until they went to Queensland for Greg to do his Ph. D in Ag Science. They aimed to serve the Lord in some overseas location but were held back by persistent health problems. When they finally got a clean bill of health they applied to Pioneers, the same Mission that Jeremy and Annie Chappel went with.

They visited us here at St Matt's and told us that they were going to the Sudan to engage in developmental projects with a group called Across. They have been there for about two years living in a little town close to the Ugandan border. They live very simply with a minimum of conveniences while Sandra works with local Christians to develop discipleship materials for the local churches. Greg also works with local believers to prepare radio broadcasts to encourage and teach isolated believers. They are a joyful, prayerful and very committed couple who see their whole future spent in the Sudan.

We hear a lot about Sudan in the news and realize the great suffering that the Sudanese people have endured. Many refugees from the Dafur region are flooding into the south where Sandra and Greg are. There are 2.5 million people on the move looking for peace and security. 200,000 have been killed in the last four years. The human need is heart-rending. Let us pray for Greg and Sandra and let us pray that the Sudanese Church will grow in godliness as they suffer for Jesus' sake.

Let us also pray that Australians will have compassion on the resettled refugees as they live among us in a culture so totally different from what they have known. Pray for churches like Girrawheen Baptist where about 50% of the people come from the Sudan.

Godly dead guys (Generic) #4: Anne Askew

Anne Askew, Confidence in the face of suffering (1520-1546)

Anne Askew was martyred in the later years of Henry VIII for refusing to deny her Biblical beliefs. Anne died for her faithfulness to Jesus ten years before the more famous Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer. During her trial she spoke of her saviour Jesus, declaring his words "I am the door," "I am the the vine." "behold the Lamb of God" "that Rock was Christ"...

She was a brave woman, as history testifies, and turned for support and comfort to Christ, and found strength to bear her trials with Christian fortitude and meekness. She was imprisoned, interrogated, tortured on the rack, and finally at the age of 25 burnt at the stake. She gave her life gladly for Christ and has her great reward at the banquet table in heaven.

"Who is Greater?"

When the Kingdom comes....

Luke 22:24-38 records a dispute arose among the disciples, after the last supper, the passover meal, as to which of them was considered to be greatest.

1. The Kingdom comes through service and humility

Jesus teaches them about the character of the kingdom coming.

Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.

26 But you are not to be like that.

"Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. 28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials."

How does worldly thinking shape the way you serve God ?

What does servant heartedness look like in your circumstances?

What warning is there here for us ?

2. The Kingdom comes through the suffering of the servant king not the sword.

The Kingdom of God does not come by lifting up a sword against unjust social structures but through the Suffering servant of Isaiah 53.

Jesus anticipates a season of suffering, He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." (This ought to be read figuratively to describe the upcoming period of conflict.)

Anticipating his suffering, Jesus applies the words of Isaiah 53 to himself, "It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors' ; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed....

...he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah looks to the future ministry of the suffering servant who in accordance with the purpose of God becomes our substitute, our atoning sacrifice. Jesus applies these words to his ministry.

What's your response to Jesus, the suffering servant?

(mine is "Hallelujah what a Saviour, Have mercy on me a sinner....")
What does Isa 53 teach us about the significance and meaning of the death of Jesus?

but still the disciples don't quite get it ....

"See, Lord, here are two swords."
"That is enough," he replied.

"Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done" GP

CBF Talks on Love for City Workers

City Bible Forum is just about to start a 5 week series at on the surprising book of the Song of Songs. I wondered why I was so unfamiliar with the Song of Songs - until I realised it was in the sealed section of the Old Testament!

The Song of Songs is one of those books that is a bit hard to understand on first reading. As you read through the book, however, you will notice a repeated phrase:

2:7 Daughters of Jerusalem,I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field:Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

3:5 Daughters of Jerusalem,I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field:Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

8:4 Daughters of Jerusalem,I charge you:Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

This repeated phrase is a ‘structural marker’ and breaks the Song of Songs into four main sections (1:1–2:7; 2:8–3:5; 3:6–8:4; 8:5–14). At which point you might be wondering: so what is the big deal?Well, it helps us see that the Song of Songs is as much about waiting for love, as it is about finally enjoying that love. A message about ‘waiting for love’ sounds foreign to the ears of our culture. For our culture despises waiting for anything, let alone the passion of physical love.


Likewise for Christians, passionate love is not to be controlled or denied, but it is to be ‘waited for’: that is, enjoyed in the way that God wants and in the time that God brings for each of us.At the same time, a message about ‘waiting for love’ can help us as Christians who wait for Jesus who we haven’t yet seen, but whom we love (1 Peter 1:8). And as we wait, the Song of Songs helps us understand the extent of God’s love for his people.

City Bible Forum 12:30 pm Wednesday, Central Park Seminar Room

For more info email Nigel Gordon nigel@ecom.org.au

"Do this in remembrance of me..."

Passover, Last Supper, Lord's Supper!

Luke 1:1-23 bring us to the Thursday evening of the Passover festival in Jerusalem. The hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And Jesus said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer... ."

The extraordinary thing about this Passover meal is the way Jesus applies the significance of Passover to himself. There is plenty to observe here, let me note three things:

1. The Last Supper looks back to celebrate God's rescue of his people out of slavery in Egypt. The Hebrews are told when your children say "what do you mean by this service? you shall say "it is the sacrifce of the Lord's passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of israel in Egypt when he struck the egyptians but spared our houses." See further Exodus 12:1-32. The judgement of God passes over the doorposts daubed with the blood of lambs.

2. Jesus applies this Passover teaching to himself as he teaches his disciples at the Last Supper that in his death, he becomes the Passover Lamb for us.

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

The Apostles testify to this later on:

Paul: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" 1 Corinthians 5:7

Peter: "You were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" 1Peter1: 18-19

John: "In a loud voice they were saying: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" Rev 5:12

How does the Last Supper call you to respond to Jesus?

3. Jesus initiates an ongoing ceremony for his people to remember the significance of his death in this passover context. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:25 "For as often as eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Regardless of the simplicity or intricasy of such a celebration, the Lord's Supper is only effective as it points us back to the significance of the death of Jesus, our Passover Lamb.

Don't make the Lord's Supper anything more than it is...

Don't make the Lord's Supper anything less than it is...

A celebration with God's people of the ongoing significance of the Lord's death for us until he comes again.

"Behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"

GP

National Church Life Survey

Last October The St. Matt's congregations particpated in the National Church Life Survey. The results are in! NCLS put together a very informative and helpful analysis of the snapshot of 10am church. To view the entire report (which I highly recommend) go here, and enter Profile Number 8ZTHDX


http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?sitemapid=6118

There are a number of interesting insights for us to discuss (in future posts).