Sermon on May 17 by Pastor Roland Eskinazi

Scripture: Hebrews 13:1-8

 

 

We are changing and living in a changing world. How do we navigate all these changes now and in future months?

When the world is changing faster than you would like:

1. BE CERTAIN – JESUS IS BEYOND ALL TIME! ‘Jesus is the same…’

‘God lives in timeless eternity in which everything that happens is present to Him, known by Him, and determined by one fragment of knowledge which He has in His grasp’ (Liam Goligher)

• ‘I am the same as I was then’
  What God was to Abraham and Moses, to Paul and the apostles, to Reformers and missionaries, Jesus is to us today.
• ‘I am the same as I will be after’
  The Hebrew Christians were missing their leaders who had died. But Jesus is alive and, in the future, before we get there.

2. BE CALM – JESUS CAN’T GET ANY BETTER! ‘…yesterday, today…’

• Jesus can only be, not become
  You are a being and can become something, not because God can become, but because He is.
  If Jesus cannot become better, is there any other Person whom we can trust in life and death and for eternity.
• Jesus can only be reliable, never rash

In the course of a human life, tastes and outlook and temper may change radically; a kind man may turn bitter; a person of good will may grow cynical and callous, but nothing of this sort happens to the Creator. He never becomes less truthful, or merciful, or just, or good, than He used to be’ (J.I. Packer ‘Knowing God’)

You and I have potential, but not Jesus. He can never be better than He has been and can never improve on His holiness and mercy.

3. BE COURAGEOUS – YOUR ROCK WON’T ROCK YOU! ‘…and into the ages (forever)’

• Face any changes – the Rock is rocking them
  Jesus is not static, like the Rock of Gibraltar. He is so dynamic and active, that no change in Him can make Him more active.

‘…they drank from the rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ’ (1 COR 10:4)

As Christ, the moving rock, was with God’s people in the wilderness, so He is moving and with us in wilderness days.

• Flourish through the changes – and make much of Jesus
  These are opportunity days, where God is enlarging the eyes of our heart to see just how big Jesus is.

‘…but every year you grow, you find me bigger’ (Aslan, the Lion, to Lucy in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’)

Remember!
We will all be older when we come through coronavirus days, but will we be wiser?
Keep your eyes on Jesus and your hopes in Jesus; He is keeping you in His unchanging faithfulness and love.

 

THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION AND PRAYER

1. How do you deal with change? What are some of the changes that unnerve you most in these days?
2. What changes did the Hebrew Christians face? What were some of the anchors in their lives that they missed?
3. We become, but Jesus simply is. What does this mean for the gospel, for our planning and our confidence in changing days?

Learn Hebrews 13:8 by heart, meditate on it during the week and pray for courage in the changes you face and will face.

 

 

Photo credit FreeImages.com/Artyart