Pastor’s Message

We have just had a significant baptism, and I have felt that it's important for us to understand baptism more, especially from the gospels. This will lead us to the temptation of Jesus, which happens after the baptism. The most important reason for us to be baptised is that Jesus was baptised. Here is Matthew’s account.

This is a significant emergence of Jesus from His many years of obscurity. These first works in His public ministry carry great meaning in understanding the rest of His ministry. Jesus realised that he needed to be baptised so that he could identify with sinners from the beginning. The purpose was for Jesus to completely identify Himself with sinful man. This is exactly what He did in His birth, His upbringing, and His death. So here, as John allowed Him to be, Jesus stood in the place of sinful man.

FF Bruce, a New Testament theologian, observes that “There is also a sense in which this was an important new beginning for Jesus; not in the sense of turning from sin, but in making a break with His previous life. “In accordance with the symbolic significance of the rite as denoting death to an old life and rising to a new, Jesus came to be baptised in the sense of dying to the old natural relations to parents, neighbours, and earthly calling and devoting Himself henceforth to His public Messianic vocation.” 

After Jesus was baptised, God the Father affirmed it publicly. It was important for the Father to publicly demonstrate that Jesus’ baptism was not just like anyone else’s. It was not a display of repentance, but instead it was a righteous identification with sinners, motivated by love, and it was well pleasing to the Father.

More importantly, God affirmed his son before he had started his ministry. This affirmation comes because of Jesus’ obedience. This public affirmation from the father begins the public ministry of Jesus, and it was both a sign and a conclusion. John the Baptist’s testimony in John 1:32-33, when he said that he saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and He remained upon Him. Jesus was about to begin His public ministry, and He would do it in the power of the Spirit of God. “It was the Spirit of God who gave success to Jesus Christ’s ministry.” (Spurgeon)

I would like to draw a parallel from this event, which we miss many times. God affirms us just as we are, with our strengths, with our weaknesses and in the environments he puts us in. We do not need to find our worth in what we do or what people think/feel about us. Our worth is based on God's affirmation and our willingness to obey his word and direction. We are now co-heirs in Christ, as Ephesians 1 has told us. It is possible for God to also say about us, "Well done, good and faithful servants."

Have a faithful week.

Mato.

We are onto chapter two of Ephesians. Here is a summary of chapter 1.

Tim took us through Ephesians 1. Ephesians is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-3 talk about who we are, and Chapters 4-6 talk about how we live.

Ephesians 1:1-14 In Christ

Every good thing v3

• Loved by the Father v4-6

• Forgiven by the Son v7-12

• Held by the Spirit v13-14

The second part of Ephesians talks about Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church.

There is a purpose… Verses 13-15 Paul is commending the Ephesian church for changing their allegiance from idols to the person of Jesus and loving each other as they do it. The question for us was, where do our allegiances lie? Where are our idols? Is it politics, our intellect and planning, or the institutions we have created, including the church?

There is a petition…vs 16-18 for knowledge and understanding. Paul uses the Greek word 'epignosis' (ἐπίγνωσις) for knowledge/revelation/understanding, which means a deep transformative spiritual insight that is overflowing. He also asks that the eyes of the Ephesian hearts be open. In scripture the heart is the command centre of your inner life. Not just an organ or a symbol of your emotion, intellect (thinking & memory), will & choices, or the essence of who you are.

Finally, there is Proof vs 19-23. When the Holy Spirit helps you understand the deep, transformative truth of who you are in Christ, and when your whole essence is directed towards Christ, something beautiful is UNLOCKED!!

It's like we are BORN AGAIN!!! How people see you; how you see/treat people; how you see the world; how you interpret events in your life, positive & negative; and how you carry fewer burdens.

This week, we are in Chapter 2 of Ephesians… 

This is the last week of term, which means it’s the holidays next week. During the holidays, we usually have a combined children’s programme. The children still go out, but they do something together, instead of breaking up into the three groups that they usually have on a Sunday morning.

We would like to say thank you to our children’s volunteers this term and the parents who have been helping as well. We really appreciate you all!

It is also the last week of youth group this week, after which we will take a two-week break. This week we are doing bowling together with the Cashmere Project group as our end of term activity.

We welcome everyone to our midwinter Christmas dinner. This is an opportunity for us to catch up over good food and a very exciting and engaging quiz. We start early to give the young families an opportunity to join us and enjoy both the food and the company.

The event will be at Beckenham Baptist, and there will be more details regarding logistics and cost. For now, please save the date.

Here is an encouragement for all of us. We always pray and believe God, and I believe that God is always working in all areas, even in the small things. We would like to celebrate these testimonies during the service. A short testimony of where you have seen God and how God has come through for you may encourage someone or give someone a reason to believe. So I am encouraging us to start sharing our testimonies even more and more now, as we continue to pray for each other.

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Halswell Community Church

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