Not the Old Testament again

 This week we've started a new Sunday morning teaching series called 'An unchanging God in an ever-changing world'.

The Old Testament is not always the easiest part of the Bible to read and teach from. Not that is is necessarily difficult to understand - although at times it is - but we often come across parts that are: 

• hard to read - maybe it's a story about God's people killing a whole people group including women and children,
• hard to apply - what have ancient laws about mildew or wearing clothes made from cotton and polyester got to do with my life in 2020,
• hard to reconcile with the nature of God that we see in the New Testament in the life of Jesus.

But when Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16 about all Scripture being God-breathed and useful - the only Scripture Paul had was the Old Testament.

Jesus' understanding of a compassionate and gracious God came from his reading of the Old Testament.

If you just look at your Bible you will see that about 3/4 of it are the Old Testament and therefore it is really important that we engage with this part as well as the bit we might be more familiar and comfortable with.

This is one of the reasons why, here at CBC, we return to the Old Testament for a term every year. Since 2014 we have spent each Autumn working through the story of Israel's history from their escape from Egypt in Exodus through to the division of the kingdom in 1 Kings and the encounters between Elijah and Ahab. And this term we're picking up where we left off at the start of 2 Kings.

Over the last few years, there have certainly been passages that I would not choose to preach from. They have not been easy. But if we believe that 'all Scripture' is inspired by God then we need to engage with all of it - and the discipline of working our way through the books of the Old Testament in this way is a good one.

(We won't be doing 1 Chronicles next year though - for reasons that will become clear in this series.)

Whilst the story of 2 Kings happened a long time ago, in a culture very different to ours, to people who had a very different view of the world to us, if we believe that all Scripture is inspired and we believe that the Bible is a living word then these stories will speak to us as the Holy Spirit takes them and applies them to our lives.

And, what is more, these stories will speak to us in our current context - living through a global pandemic with all the medical, financial, social etc implications and impact that that brings.

You'll find the first talk in this series, from 2 Kings 2 below.

Who's really pulling the strings?

In a normal year, today would have been the first day of our annual Holiday Club. Obviously, this is not a normal year, and therefore we have not been able to prepare and deliver a normal Holiday Club. But we have been able to produce a virtual Holiday Club. This is a mix of daily YouTube videos and Activity Packs that were delivered in advance. We launched the first video today and have had a great response. It has been good seeing the children send in their photos and videos.

There is lots that I enjoy about Holiday Club - including the fifteen minutes where the team get together before the children arrive to reflect briefly on the passage/story for the day and pray together.

This year we're looking at the story of Daniel, and today the focus was on the captivity and Daniel's training from Daniel 1.

For Daniel, his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, and for many others this would have been a traumatic experience. No doubt they saw people brutally killed during the attack on Jerusalem and throughout the cruel march to Babylon. The Temple was ransacked and much of the city detroyed. For most people, these events were evidence that Nebuchadnezzar's god was bigger and stronger than the God of Israel.

And yet the author of the book of Daniel wants us to see things differently. Whilst it might look as if things were out of God's control - three times in this chapter we see a different perspective. 

It was God who handed Judah into Nebuchadnezzar's hands (verse 2). It was God who caused hardened Babylonian officials to show favour to Daniel (verse 9). And it was God who was the source of Daniel's learning and wisdom (verse 17).

Daniel knew that he could trust God because ultimately God was in control.

However bleak things might look for us today - God is ultimately in control - and therefore we can trust him.

Why one and not the other?

Today is the final assembly in my online series looking at the life of Peter. We've reached the point in Acts where Peter moves into the background, being based mainly in Jerusalem, and Paul comes to the fore as the good news of Jesus spreads far and wide.

But there is still one more dramatic story in chapter 12 although Peter was involved in the Council at Jerusalem in chapter 15. Whilst not material that lends itself to a primary school assembly, the events of chapter 15 are certainly significant in the progress of the church as it became increasing Gentile in makeup.

Back to chapter 12 and Peter's miraculous escape from prison.

We're currently heavily involved in preparation for our virtual Holiday Club - on the story of Daniel (the first half at least). And many of the teaching points revolve around statements like 'we can trust God because he is able to save us from...' And whilst that is certainly the case for Daniel and his three friends, we know too many examples of where that has not been the case.

Here we read about Peter's miraculous escape from prison, and whilst there are modern-day stories of Christians miraculously escaping from prison, there are also stories of Christians who aren't released from prison. Christians being martyred for their faith. Christians dying of Covid-19. 

It's interesting to note that chapter 12 starts with the imprisonment and execution of James - who would have been a close friend of Peter. Why did God rescue Peter and not James?

I wonder what the Christians gathered in Mary's house were praying. Were they praying for Peter's release? If so, they didn't seem to have much faith given their surprise at his presence at the front door. Or were they praying for his strength to remain faithful to the end - which was surely only hours away? He certainly seemed to be at peace - fast asleep in his cell.

There are so many questions that we are simply not going to be able to answer. 

Peter clearly didn't expect God to rescue him, and yet that didn't stop his ongoing obedience and faithfulness. He was prepared to face prison and execution without the expectation that God would intervene every time to keep him safe and well. 

Very little of the Bible makes much sense without the big picture - not just the big picture in terms of the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church, but also the big picture in terms of eternity. Clearly, God had more work for Peter to do in the life of the church in Jerusalem. But both Peter and James knew that even death was not the end of the story. 

They would have both known the book of Psalms - many of the Psalms they would have known off by heart. Psalm 56:11 says, 'In God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?'

The answer to that question is not 'nothing'. But no doubt Peter and James read this Psalm in the light of Jesus' words, in Matthew 10:28, 'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell'.

Obviously, I didn't go into most of that in the actual assembly.

Getting ready for Sunday

This Sunday, as we continue our series on Paul's Prayers, we're thinking about what it means to 'live a life worthy of the Lord' - a prayer that Paul prayed for the Christians in a place called Colossae. 

For a bit of background to this church and Paul's letter to them here's a helpful video from the guys at the Bible Project.