140th Anniversary Celebration of shining Jesus!

Introduction

Well, once again, may I on behalf of Christine and myself, give thanks to those who have invited us today for this important event. Thanks for the way in which we’ve found out more about the history of the church and all that, which is really significant. It’s a reminder to us because from the past, we inherit so much. But of course, we’ve got to look to the future and to the present and to the future. I chose those two Bible readings today, especially chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians. We turn there now and particularly say 11:1 where it says, “You should imitate me just as I imitate Christ.” You should imitate me, Paul, that is, just as I imitate Christ.

Let’s start with prayer so that the Lord will bless us. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you’ve not left us in darkness, but given us the light of your word. We pray now that as we think of your word together, the light will shine in our hearts and we may see the face of Jesus. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

I did a little bit of research on Frederick Stretton as well, but not much. I was very glad to hear more about the founder of this church this morning. However, there was an item in the newspaper when he died indicating that he had died and so forth. Part of it said this, “There are few clergymen in the dasis who can show such a record of earnest work and self-denying labor as he has in the things he’s left behind.” Earnest work. That’s an old-fashioned word for you. And self-denying labor. That’s what they saw in him. And if he’s not smiling in the photos, it’s because nobody smiled in photos in those days.

140th anniversary, Thanksgiving. Yes, appropriate. Very appropriate, as long as we also think about where next. And we’re doing that. You could hear that this morning already. Thank God for that. They were faithful in their generation. We need to be faithful in our generation so that we may pass the message on to those who come after us and do so in a way which actually helps a large number of people if at all possible. Vast changes have occurred as we can see. You just look at the building over there and you can see that vast changes have occurred since those old days. Fancy the lights, the electric light being turned on in 1931 or something like that. You think as recently as that, the lights were turned on in that building there. There have been vast changes, vast changes since that day to state the obvious.

But what now? We’ve got the same job. That’s not changed. It consists of building up the people of God. Building up the people of God, that is to say, not building buildings, but building up the people, investing in the people. That almost always means that it’s important to have a building to do it in which suits what we’re trying to do. It is right for us to be thinking at this stage about a new building without doubt, and I trust that it has your complete support. We’ve also got to be constantly thinking of how we pass the faith on, how I pass it on to others, to pass it on to young people in particular, of course, but not just to young people. There are moments when the faith needs to be passed on to people who are dying, people who are elderly, people who are invisible to the ordinary person. We tend to look over them, and yet they’re terribly important to the Lord Jesus, and we need to remember that.

To pass the faith on to young people and others, but also in particular passing the faith on to those outside our ranks, it’s just wonderful. When Christine and I were at Dunside a couple of months ago, and then we’re now here, and Christine regularly goes to Black Town to teach amongst the Sudin people in Black Town, it’s just wonderful to us more inner city types to actually see the real Sydney. Fortunately my daughter lives at Glenmore Park so we see things that to see the spread of the city, to see the beauty of the city, to see the remarkable way and at Dunside there’s a congregation there of Filipinos and a congregation of Indians and so forth. It’s wonderful, and it’s the world we ought to live in, the real world, the world you live in in which there are so many who have come here, and we need to have them in our hearts and to share with them the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord and has saved us from our sin through forgiveness, dying for us on the cross and resurrected from the dead. What good news is that?

The Lost Sheep

Let me just address this briefly by talking about first of all the lost sheep, secondly, experience of the apostle Paul, and then thirdly his call to imitate Paul him and imitate Christ because he imitates him. So first of all the lost sheep. Jesus told a wonderful gripping parable story about the lost sheep. Remember it a shepherd has 100 sheep. One of them gets lost. I guess in these days that doesn’t matter much, but in those days one sheep really mattered. The 99 were locked up for the evening, and then the shepherd goes looking for the lost sheep.

He Went Until He Found It

There’s a word in there that I particularly want you to notice. Jesus said he went looking for the lost sheep until he found it. He never gave up. He found that one sheep, and he didn’t just say, “Get up you little blighter,” and kick it along. He actually picked it up, put it on his shoulders, and carried it home. That is a perfect picture of what the Lord does and does for us. He looks beyond us, beyond the 99. He looks beyond us and he seeks out the others that he wants to bring home, and he does. As we now know too, he uses us in that process. He doesn’t need to, but he does, and we ought to be very thankful for that. So that’s the first thing he went until he found it.

The Word Until Hides Something

There’s another thing about that word until that I learned many years ago from a speaker. He said the word until hides something. He said it hides the cross, because when you relate this to Jesus and what Jesus did, his search until meant he died for his sheep. He laid down his life for his sheep at the cross. That’s what the till meant to him.

The Experience of the Apostle Paul

Turning to Paul and his experience. If you know the story, Paul is anti-Christian. He’s been persecuting the Christians. He’s been even responsible for the death of some Christians. He hates Christians. Then he meets Jesus on the road to Damascus in a special encounter. His whole life is now transformed, and he becomes an apostle even of Jesus Christ and lives his life as serving the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to do that, he became a preacher of the gospel for the world. He went all around the world. It’s easy for us. We just hop on a plane and travel to Turkey or something like this. Not quite so easy when you have to walk the whole way. If you didn’t walk, you might get a ride on an unruly animal, but you might also have to go by a fairly uncertain ship.

Paul’s Achievements

The apostle did those things, and he didn’t just go locally. In the end he was aiming to get to Spain for a start, but we know he got to Rome, and he really did travel the world. He would preach about Jesus, a church would form, and then he would care for that church even though he’d moved on to other places. When people went round boasting about their achievements, and he had pretty strong achievements he could write on his CV, he was no mean scholar and he was no mean this that and the other. He had all the achievements that you could write on them. When people went around boasting about their achievements, these are the achievements that he talked about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, he says, but I have served him far more. I’ve worked harder. I have been put in prison more often. I’ve been whipped times without number. I have faced death again and again. Five different times the leaders gave me 39 lashes. That was the number that you gave a bad person. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent an entire night and day a drift at sea. I’ve traveled on long journeys. I have faced danger from my river from rivers and from robbers. I faced danger from my own people as well as the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but aren’t really. I have worked hard, endured many sleepless nights. I’ve been hungry and thirsty and gone without food. I have shivered in the cold without enough clothing to keep me warm.

Imitate Paul and Imitate Christ

You should imitate me. I’ve never actually felt called to imitate him in some of those things I have to say. But he says you should imitate me. What’s he mean? What’s he getting at there? He tells us in the same passage what it’s about. He says we’ve been set free. He talks about our freedom. We have been set free. Free. What’s that mean? He meant free from the burden of sin, free through forgiveness, free because we now have eternal life, free because we have assurance. We’ve been set free. Free too because when he grew up as a Jewish person, a Hebrew, there was the heavy burden of all sorts of laws upon your shoulders from the Old Testament, including, for example, food laws. One of the worst of those food laws, in my opinion, given to us by God, nonetheless, was that you weren’t allowed to eat pork. I don’t know how you feel, but I wouldn’t like to live in a world where you can’t eat pork myself. Used to go to the show because I love seeing the pigs, you know. Made me hungry. Anyway, you weren’t allowed to eat pork.

Set Free From Burdens

When you become a Christian, those old rules used to point forward to Jesus. Now Jesus has come. They no longer apply. He was set free from these burdens. One of the reasons for them was to make sure that the people of God were separate from the world. Now when Christ has come, instead of being separate from the world, they are sent forth into the world to tell people about Jesus. He says, “I have been set free and I can eat and drink.” He says, “I can eat and drink any food. I thank God for the food.” He says, “I thank God for the food and I enjoy it. Why should I be condemned for eating it?” He says, “Okay, so he and yet he was. People would criticize him for eating food, eating pork or eating or sometimes if food had been offered to an idol, someone would say, “Oh, you know, Paul, you’re eating food offered to an idol. I thought you were preaching about God.” He said, “But I’m free. I can do it. I don’t believe in the idols. Doesn’t worry me. I like a good meal instead.” But he said, “Don’t do it.” Why on earth would he say, “Eat anything. God’s provided everything. You’re all good. Eat on.” Then, “Don’t eat.” Why? He tells us it’s out of love for the other person. It’s because you want to be of service to the other person. Whether the other person is a believer with a sort of a conscience about the past or whether the person is an unbeliever, don’t eat. Give up your freedom so that you may best serve the other person.

The Greatest Gift of All

He says I’m allowed to do anything, but not everything is good. You say I’m always allowed to do anything, but not everything is beneficial. Don’t be concerned for your own good, but for the good of the other. Put the other person first. Even though I have to give up some. Does Paul have the credentials to say that? You heard his CV. He does have the credentials to say that. Indeed, he says, I become all things to all men. He says, I too try to please everybody. I don’t just do it for the best of me. He’s not a man pleaser. I do it what is best for others so that they may be saved. Why is he doing that? That they may be saved. The greatest good of all. It’s interesting, isn’t it? A friend of mine who works in palative care told me recently that she can tell the difference between those who are believers in Jesus and those who aren’t at this last stage of their lives. I said, “What’s the difference?” She said, “Hope.” She said, “Believers have hope.” Why would we have hope? We’ve got conscience. We’ve done many things wrong. Why? Why? Why would we look forward to meeting our maker? Because our maker has met us. He’s the one who’s gone looking for the lost sheep. He’s the one who’s laid down his life for us. We are going to meet him. Friend of mine died last Monday in his 90s. During the week before he died, he kept saying, “I want to see Jesus.” That’s what he wanted. He had hope to see Jesus.

Whatever gift you give at Christmas, whatever gift you give anybody for their birthdays, whatever gift you give to any person, the greatest gift must be the gift of coming to know Jesus and being saved and being granted hope through forgiveness. Not because you’re a good person, forget that, because you’ve been forgiven by God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s love. That’s the message we need to share. We need to share with friends, not because we want big numbers in our church, but because we want people, as he says here, that they may be saved. You should imitate me. He said, you should imitate me. Do you understand that? You should imitate me in my work of helping people to come to know the Lord. He doesn’t just say that. You should imitate me just as I imitate Christ. Never mind about Paul. He was sinful like the rest of us. You imitate him because his life was based on the life of the good shepherd who went and looked for his sheep until he found. That’s what should drive us as well that we wish to be like Christ, loving others, loving loving them in all their needs, but especially loving them in their need to know forgiveness.

Now What?

It’s the 140th anniversary. Thank God. But now what? How are you going to love? You should love each other for a start. I trust you do. You should build each other up in the faith. That’s not just the responsibility of the minister. That’s the responsibility of every Christian person in the church that we build each other up in faith, speaking the truth in love to each other, strengthening, caring, all that. Love others, but as well as others out in within our ranks. We need to be open to those who are outside our ranks and open to this vast area around us. 60,000 people. This church may be just a drop in the ocean when it comes to that. 60,000 people, many of whom need to know about the Lord Jesus.

What can you do? You do it together and you do it singly on your own with your neighbor, reaching out to those who need to know about Jesus. I would say four Ps. Pray. Pray for those around you. Pray for the person who serves you in Aldi or whatever. Pray for people you just meet. An elderly friend of mine, Francis, who was in her 90s, and was pretty immobile, used to sit in a chair at the supermarket, one of those seats, and just pray. Pray that someone would sit beside her that she could talk to, and they did. Pray. Plan. Prepare. Prepare by growing yourself in your faith and strength and then preach it. I just was talking about the minister. I’m talking about us all here. You’re sharing the gospel, preaching the gospel, bringing the good news to people who need to know the good news.

I just do trust that I’ll be invited back at the 150th. I may write from my nursing home or even from above and say I’m sorry I can’t come. Nonetheless, Christine will make it. That’ll be really good. In the meantime, I want to hear great things going on in your church. I can’t tell you how delighted I am to see you all here this morning. It’s great and great news.