I am sure that people did something similar when Jesus was born; although they must have struggled to draw any significant comparison with Joseph! However the Bible also tells us about one person who saw the baby Jesus in a completely different light.

Luke chapter 2 tells how Joseph and Mary took their newborn baby to the temple to be circumcised. While they were there they met a man called Simeon, whose reaction to Jesus was quite extraordinary. Rather than ‘coo’ over the baby, as most might have, Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God saying: “I have seen the Saviour you have given to the world. He is the Light that will shine upon the nations, and He will be the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2v30-32)

Wow! That probably was not Joseph and Mary expected. Indeed the Bible goes on to say: “Joseph and Mary just stood there marvelling at what was being said about Jesus” (Luke 2v33)

Why was Simeon so excited? And what did He mean?

Well, the Bible describes Simeon as “righteous” and “devout”. In other words, he clearly lived his life by faith in God. Also the Bible tells us that, “it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Like every other Jew of his day, Simeon would have understood the ‘Christ’ to be God’s anointed one; the messianic figure who would come in the name of the Lord to liberate Israel and establish God’s kingdom. It was what every Jew longed for. And upon seeing the baby Jesus, Simeon knew that the moment had arrived. Indeed he was moved to praise God for sending the Saviour of the world!

Simeon knew that Jesus was a special baby; different from every other baby, ever born. He was the Christ! God’s anointed! The light of the world!

How do we perceive Jesus, today?

Have we reduced Him to a character in a Nativity play and a figure on a Christmas card? Or do we join with Simeon and acknowledge Him to be our Saviour and King?

On Christmas Day, I wish you as much joy and happiness as Simeon experienced all those years ago as the Holy Spirit helped him grasp who Jesus is.

Pastor Tim

Related posts:

1. Pastor’s Blog – Spring 2011
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1. God-enabled possibility: The Bible says, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out… who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:18, 24). God expects change in our lives, but he also enables it, by the Holy Spirit, and by the impact of the Bible’s truth – which clears away the cobweb of lies that haunt the cellars of our problem behaviours. Putting aside despair by believing God does change people and is a vital step in dealing with problems.

2. Personal responsibility: The Bible says, “each one should carry his own load” (Galatians 6:5) and, “make every effort to add goodness to your faith” (2 Peter 1:5). Something powerful happens when we stop blaming others for our behaviour and reactions. We are free to change and responsible to do so.

3. The necessity of action: The Bible is so full of exhortations to action it’s impossible to choose one verse! It’s good to talk, but just talking rarely changes us. We must make plans to change, and take very specific, concrete actions to change our habits and behvaiours.

4. Change in community: The Bible says, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). No-one is an island. Life is too big a thing to handle on our own. Every person needs help from others to change problem behaviours – a listening ear, sensible advice, prayer, rebuke, encouragement. The Bible is full of people who experienced great change through the gospel (Peter and Paul, just to name two). Perhaps thinking through these biblical principles will help you start dealing effectively with the problems of living. You might also benefit from reading Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison (P&R Publishing, 2003), or talking to the pastoral team.

Pastor Matthew

Related posts:

1. Pastor’s Blog – Summer 2011
2. Pastors' blog

For centuries Christians attending church services did not sing; they listened to the clergy chanting in Latin, but they had no voice themselves.  The Reformation of the 16^th Century changed that and gave singing back to the congregation.  Lutherans were fortunate.  Martin Luther, the German reformer, was not only a brilliant theologian; he also had a superb command of the German language and was a fine musician as well.  His hymn, A mighty fortress is our God, words and music by Luther himself, is sung by most denominations.  Catholic priests in Germany even complained that he was singing the people into Protestantism.  Luther’s attitude was that God’s people should use whatever they could to praise him, as long as it was not contrary to scripture.  John Calvin, the Swiss reformer, had a more austere approach.  In his judgement Christians should use only what was contained in scripture; that meant the singing of metrical psalms only, and that became the congregational songbook of English Protestants.

Paul told the Ephesian Christians that they should use “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19) and one of the very first English pastors to promote the singing of hymns as well as the metrical psalms was the Baptist, Benjamin Keach.  Tailor, turned schoolmaster and then Baptist pastor, Keach insisted on the use of hymns by his congregation.  He split his church over the issue.  Some who left his congregation did so “. . . being dissatisfied with the setting up of a common form of set singing after it had been exploded by the Baptized churches as a human[e] invention.” They disagreed with Keach on the principle of hymn singing.  We could have understood it if they had disapproved of what they were asked to sing.  Up to that time, there were no hymns to speak of in English.

Early attempts at hymn writing were terrible.  One unknown writer attempted his own version of what Jonah might have sung in the belly of the great fish (Jonah 2).  His offering  began:-

Ah me, this is an awesome place,
Without ere coal or candle.
Nothing but fish’s tripes to eat,
And fish’s tripes to handle.

Keach, strong in principle though he was, was equally weak in production.  He wrote several hymns for his congregation.  Here are a couple of his efforts:-

Our wounds do stink and are corrupt,
Hard swellings do we see;
We want a little ointment, Lord,
Let us more humble be.

Repentance like a bucket is
To pump the water out;
For leaky is our ship, alas,
Which makes us look about.

The arrival of the Congregationalist Isaac Watts (When I survey the wondrous cross) and the Wesleys, especially Charles (O for a thousand tongues to sing  . .   And can it be . .) gave the English churches some of the grandest hymns.  Baptists overcame there objections to hymns singing and embraced the hymns of Watts, but were reserved, at first, about Wesley.

Baptists were to the forefront in promoting the principle of hymn singing, but produced comparatively little of worth in the way of hymns, and fewer still that have been adopted by other denominations.  John Bunyan, a Baptist contemporary of Keach and also an enthusiastic promoter of hymn singing, wrote, in his epic Pilgrim’s Progress, the song Who would true valour see, which has appeared in many hymn books.  John Rippon, an outstanding Baptist leader of the 18^th – 19^th century produced a massive collection of hymns and music, but only two of the hymns in his Selection have been accepted by other denominations: All hail the power of Jesus’ name (of which Rippon was co-author) and How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord (ascribed to ‘K’ in the Selection) appear in the The Australian Hymn Book.  “K” was probably Robert Kean, Rippon’s precentor.  (Baptists had accepted hymn singing, but not the use of musical instruments in church.)

It was a disappointment to discover how little Baptists have contributed to hymns of the church.  Perhaps in the next generation, the history of hymn writing will note that Graham Kendrick (Shine, Jesus, Shine and many other popular contemporary hymns) is the son of a Baptist minister.

My disappointment at how little of worth other denominations have found in our Baptist hymn books was modified in watching Songs of Praise one Sunday in March this year.  In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, the programme came from an Irish Catholic Cathedral which was packed with Irish Catholic worshippers.  Appropriately we were given snippets from the story of St. Patrick, there was Catholic liturgy and there were Catholic hymns.  Then came the climax.  That great congregation rose and sang lustily, to the ever popular Londonderry Air (Danny Boy), the great hymn, I cannot tell why he, whom angels worship,.

The author of that hymn was W. Y. Fullerton, the Home Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society. We had made it after all!

G.B. Ball

‘Gerry Ball was Senior Pastor of MOBC from 1984-1990, having served as a missionary with the Australian Baptist Missionary Society in East Pakistan and as principal of Burleigh College in Adelaide. He left MOBC to take up the position of Senior Pastor at Gordon Baptist Church and was President of the Baptist Union of NSW from 1998-1999.’

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Peter Murphy, CEO of Christian Super will be at MOBC’s Sunday morning celebration on 26th July to talk about key issues arising from these economic times and how Christian faith can respond to the
challenges.

Peter writes….

‘For many within the $1.2 trillion superannuation industry the main response to the Global Financial Crisis has been “what is it and how do we manage it?” As CEO of Christian Super, I witness on a daily basis the impact of the global financial crisis from a range of perspectives: government fiscal and monetary policy responses, changes to international banking regulations, economic stimulus packages, declining retirement savings, people delaying retirement or re-entering the workforce, ministries folding from lack of funding, and so on.

As a Christian, I also see another side of this event: families coming together to support their parents, churches depending on God to provide, unemployed people realising their significance is in God and not their job, people connecting their faith with their wallets, charities receiving increased donor giving, and the church playing a greater role in local communities than it has done for years, supporting people in tough financial situations.  From a Christian perspective now is the time to re-establish (or in some cases establish) good stewardship principles that will empower us to cope with any fluctuations in our economy. The Bible exhorts us to live lives transformed by our connection with a living God who has given us great principles contained in His word on how to live including stewarding the resources that He has given us under His charge.’

About Peter Murphy:

Peter Murphy is the relatively new CEO of Christian Super (since early 2008) driving a fast growing team of professional investors and customer service staff supporting nearly 19,000 members. Previous to his appointment to Christian Super, Peter held several senior management roles within Christian faith based organizations and prior to that spent 8 years in funds management with Macquarie Bank.

Peter knows firsthand the complex environment and challenges that Christian ministries, schools and institutions face as he has served as a Director,  Company Secretary and Business Manager for 3 large schools.  Peter also has knowledge of the Aged Care sector from his role as Company Secretary for Baptist Community Services.   One of Peter’s previous roles was as a finance director of a Christian ministry and Peter has also served in a voluntary capacity on a number of denominational Boards.  Presently Peter is on the Advisory Committee for Crossover Australia.

Peter’s greatest joy is being marred to Edwina who is a Church History Lecturer at Morling College and his two energetic children, Joel & Lara.

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Here’s a starter for ten:

If God has a heart for people in need then what are God’s people to do?

The Bible makes clear that God has a heart for people and that those of us who would imitate him must share this concern. Indeed a passion for social justice and a commitment to social action are integral to the discipleship process.

So how are you responding?

MOBC has a long history of community involvement. In the not so distant past it ran the ‘JAM Centre’, where locals could drop in for coffee, a chat, some support and practical advice. Today it operates a not-for-profit community pre-school, a craft group, a Friendship group, an English for Living program, midweek clubs for children, a youth group, and is often found donating to community needs.

Most recently MOBC has developed new initiatives including a support group for parents of children with additional needs. Also we have agreed to fund an additional needs teacher, working one day per week in a local primary school.

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‘Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen travelled as far as Phoenecia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the good news only to Jews. Some however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord…The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.’ Acts 11v19-21&26 (New International Version)

These verses reveal that a Christian is someone who has responded to the good news about Jesus with repentance and faith.

The good news about Jesus is that He died instead of you! On the cross He shouldered the penalty for all the wrong things you have ever done, making it possible for you to be forgiven and to enjoy a lasting relationship with God.

According to the Bible all people are separated from God by sin; and no amount of good works or moral behaviour can compensate. However Jesus died to pay the penalty of sin and because He did God offers peace and eternal life.

God offers this as a free gift that may be received by repentance and faith.

Repentance involves being sincerely sorry for the wrong things you have done and being willing to change. Faith is accepting that Jesus is your Saviour and choosing to follow Him. Here is what those people in Antioch did all those years ago. Will you?

If you would like to become a Christian then here is a simple prayer you can pray:

Dear Father God,
Thank You for the good news about Jesus. Thank You that by dying on the cross Jesus paid the penalty for sin.
I am sorry for the wrong things I have done. Please forgive me. I am willing to change and ask your help to turn from everything which I know is wrong.
Here and now I put my faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and choose to follow Him as Lord.
Please fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me grow in my newfound relationship with You.
Amen

If you prayed that prayer and meant it then you are now a Christian.

Having become a Christian you will want to grow in your understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ, so make sure to do the following:

• Talk to God in prayer. Talk to Him at any time, from any place about everything that matters to you.
• Read the Bible. Start with the Gospel according to Mark, followed by Philippians, and progress from there.
• Get involved with a good church that will help you grow in the faith. (For help finding a church near where you live submit a request via the Contact page.)

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