PREVIOUS SERMON  (sorted accordingly,starting from recent )

Some years ago a theologian claimed that the revelation of God in Lord Jesus Christ is partial and incomplete. He said, ‘Lord Jesus presented God a Father but not as a Mother –therefore His unfolding of the Deity lacks universality.’ What nonsense! When we examine the different characteristics of fatherly love and motherly love, we see that the two are blended together perfectly in Lord Jesus Christ. That is to say that Lord Jesus displayed both fatherly and motherly love characteristics very well for everybody to see and behold, He did not demonstrate one and leave the other, No! So there should not be any misunderstanding in this regard. The nature of fatherly love is that it makes demands, establishes clear rules or laws, and takes a firm grip on the one it loves. Motherly love is somewhat different, at its highest level it is unconditional, nurturing, all –protective, and all-enveloping. Our text tells us that in Christ both of these are to be found. He is ‘grace’ and He is ‘truth’. Grace is the motherly characteristic and truth is the fatherly characteristic. In Lord Jesus, the Son, the motherly quality of grace and the fatherly quality of truth come together and are one. When He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, murdering the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a mother fowl gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused!(Matt 23:37), that was the motherly side of God being demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ. He continued, ‘Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate (abandoned and left destitute of God’s help)’ (Matt 23:37-38), that was the fatherly side of God also being demonstrated at the same time. Love and law meet and combine perfectly in Christ for all love is law and all law is love. Our Lord is at one and the same time both tender and terrible, strict and saving, demanding and delivering. A careful examination of the nature of our Lord Jesus leads us to the firm conclusion that in the incarnate Son of God Christ we see both the Fatherhood and the Motherhood of God being carefully demonstrated all through His ministry on earth, it only take carefulness to be able to figure them out as our Lord Jesus Christ ministered along. This same characteristics is meant to be reflected also by all true sons and daughters of God.

For a further day we meditate on the reason why the divine Word (Christ) had to become flesh and dwell among us. Suppose God had decided against an incarnation and instead had given us a book similar to the Bible as His highest revelation –what would be the result? We would attempt to read into those words our highest interpretation or meaning but nevertheless we would be greatly limited if not out of context. Take, for example, the word ‘purity’. If I read into that word my highest experience of purity, which, because of sin and human failure, must be partial and incomplete, I would still emerge with an impoverished understanding of the word. But what if I can see that word exemplified in a divine illustration? Now the word ‘purity’ is elucidated (make (something) clear; explain) by a Person who shares my temptations, minus my failures, and the word takes on a new and precise meaning. The same would happen with other words. Take the word ‘God’. Were it not for the incarnation I would interpret the word in the light of my imagination saying that God is just what you imagine, but now, because Christ has come and lived with men and they touched and ate with Him you can no longer say that God is an imagination, rather I look up through Lord Jesus, the Son of God, and I know without any shadow of doubt what God is like because Lord Jesus said anyone that has seen Me has seen the Father. The apostle Paul reminds us Who Lord Jesus is ‘[Now] He is the [a]exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation.’ (Col. I:15) ‘Lord Jesus, said a little boy, ‘is the best photograph God ever took.’ He is. A lecturer in the Bible College I attended used to say something which startled me every time I heard it, until I pondered it and came to see that it was true. He said, ‘If God isn’t like Lord Jesus I am interested in Him.’ But we need not worry –God is like Lord Jesus. Our Savior has confirmed it. “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say then, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9)

Once again we come to Christmas –a day when we joyfully celebrate the coming of our promised Savior Lord Jesus Christ to this earth. The message of Christmas is this: there is only one way that God can be found and worshiped and that way is through Lord Jesus Christ, the Babe of Bethlehem. Some try to find God through nature –the nature worshippers. Some attempt to find Him within themselves –the ‘ego’ worshippers. Still others attempt to find Him through teachers and gurus –the men worshippers. But if you want to find God –to really find Him –then you must come face to face with His Son, Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus is God approachable, God available, God lovable. A little boy, when asked what he was doing, answered, I’m drawing a picture of God.’ ‘But no one knows what God is like,’ responded his mother. ‘They will when I’m finished,’ said the boy with an air of finality. All attempts to draw or tell what God is like are childish. Except one –the revelation made by Lord Jesus. As we saw some time ago, “No man has ever seen God at any time; the only [a]unique Son, or [b]the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known].” (John 1:18). A woman I knew in Wales even in some other parts of the world who had gone from one psychiatric unit to another, and had experienced several bouts of severe depression, stood one Christmas morning in a hospital ward and looked at the Nativity scene which had been created by the nurses. As she gazed at it the Holy Spirit spoke directly to her heart and brought home to her the real meaning of Christmas. Later she testified saying, with my heart, ‘I looked into the face of Lord Jesus and I found a joy that cannot be put into words.’ Today she is a radiant Christian and has led many others to know her Savior. If you have never found God in similar ways then you can do so today. With your heart in faith look into the face of Lord Jesus and live.

There’s a War On! Exodus 17:1-7: “So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” (v4)

Remember in one of our sermons sometime ago we talked about the experience of the children of Israel at Rephidim, where they were attacked by the hostile Amalekites, this attack is an analogy or a comparison of the different types of spiritual warfare in which we, God’s people, find ourselves constantly engaged as we move ahead in our Christian lives. Rephidim is a Hebrew word that means "place of rest" or "resting places". In the Bible, it refers to a camping site where the Israelites rested during their 40-year journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Bible mentions Rephidim five times, from Exodus 17:1 to Numbers 33:15. Despotism means the exercise of absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way. The name Rephidim in Hebrew means place of rest as said above, as seen in Exd. 17:1, 8 and 19:2, a place which literally lies in the march of the Israelites from Egypt to Sinai in the broad valley about 25 miles from Jebel Musa (that is Mount Sinai). You remember one of the miracle event that happened in Rephidim, the miracle of water flowing out from a rock as seen in Exd. 17. You know that the battle of Refidim or Rephidim took place between the Israelites and the Amalekites on their way towards their Promised Land. This goes to show that there is always a battle in life especially in the real areas of life; hence we hear that there is nothing good that comes easy! Consider for a moment the striking contrast between what happened at the Red Sea and what happened at Rephidim. At the Red Sea, when the Israelites were delivered from Egypt’s bondage. God’s command was, ‘Fear not; stand still (firm, confident, undismayed) and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians you have seen today you shall never see again” Exodus 14:13. This illustrates beautifully God’s work in our salvation. In bringing us into the Christian life God alone is the agent fighting against the forces that does not want us to embrace Christianity. The Israelites could do nothing to secure their salvation at the Red Sea –God did it for them by helping them to resist the Egyptians who do not want them to crossover and go to where their God has promised them. But having been delivered from Pharaoh and introduced to a new life free of bondage and suffering, they soon discovered that there was a warfare in which they had to engage; and so it is in every sphere of life, there is always a battle to fight in life in other to actually and realistically be free. All Scripture has a purpose; it is inspired by God to teach and instruct us in the art of effective Christian living as seen in 2 Timothy 3:16, “16 Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action)”. The experience of the Israelites at Rephidim, described in Exodus 17, serves to remind us that once we come into Christian life we must recognize that we are thrust right into the middle of a spiritual battle between the Church and Satan and his forces. For too long many Christians have neglected this all important fact and have been enjoying a peaceful coexistence pact without a sense of being alert, with the archenemy, the devil. We have adopted this attitude of being careless with our alertness towards Satan: ‘Don’t bother me and I won’t bother you.’ The war between Satan and us is not a ‘cold war’ but a real hand–to-hand combat, waged in the power of the Spirit. We should never forget this fact of a spiritual and physical war between us and Satan if we really want to be safe. Did you now get it; that living life on earth is a battle between good and bad, between good living and wickedness, between life and death: so the solution is Christ Who helps us to battle and fight against these forces for us! So let us always live our life in a way to give advantage to Christ living in us for Him to always fight and war on our behalf knowing that Satan’s aim is to render us carnal and fleshy so that our being empowered by our union in Christ which is also our Spiritual Armor will be very weak unable to draw our strength from Him resulting to a very great difficulties in His guiding us in life in Christ which is His main aim of indwelling us by His Holy Spirit so that in life we will be able to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil.