December 23, 2007

Morning Meeting

• Hymn 328 – Lord Jesus! to tell of Thy love

• Scripture:

  • John 3:16
  • Matthew 13:45
  • John 17:24
• Hymn 155 – What was it blessed God

• Scripture:

  • Romans 5:6 to 8; 10 & 11
  • Romans 8:38 & 39
• Prayer
• Breaking of Bread
• Hymn 296 – Love divine, all praise excelling

• Ministry:

  • Revelation 21:9 to 12; 21 to 27
  • Revelation 22:1 to 3
• Prayer

Ministry—Gordon Burgess

We were just singing, “Changed from glory into glory, till in Heaven we take our place; there to worship and adore Thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.” I’d just like to take a few moments to consider why the Lord came to suffer such a terrible death on Calvary. This morning, we’ve been thinking about His love. We also read in Matthew, about the merchant seeking pearls. He sold all that he had to buy that pearl; it was love. But He also had a purpose for that pearl; we saw that in John

17. The Lord wants us to be with Him, He wants us to see his glory. I’d just like to refer to some portions in Revelation to look at this glory for a moment. Turn to Revelation 21; read vv. 9–11. This is not a city; it is the Lord’s bride. This will take place when the Lord comes to reign in the Millennium with his bride. V. 11 tells us that we—who were once sinners—will have the glory of God. We will be crystal-clear, as pure as possible. He has washed away all our sins. Read vv. 21–24. The 12 gates were pearls, reminding us that we are that pearl of great price. There is one street, made of transparent gold. We don’t usually think of gold as something we can see through, but God’s eyes can penetrate anything; and what will He see in us? It will be purity, not one sin. There is no temple in this city. God was hidden in the tabernacle or temple, but now He is exposed, and we are with Him. We usually think that we will have everything in Heaven, but there are some things we will have to do without. There is no sun or moon, because God is the light. This is the light that blinded Saul on his way to Damascus; but since we have our glorified bodies, it will not hurt us. V. 24 speaks of the Millennium, when the nations will honour the Lord. Now turn to ch. 22:1 & 2. V. 2 tells us about the Tree of Life. In the Garden of Eden, there was a Tree of Life and a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was by eating of the Tree of Knowledge that Adam sinned; but in Heaven there will be no sin. The leaves of this tree were for the healing of the nations; God will bring all the nations together in peace. We find in v. 1 that there is a river. In Eden there were four rivers; two of them were the Euphrates and the Tigris. It was on the Euphrates that the two tribes were taken captive and on the Tigris that the ten tribes were taken. The four rivers symbolize universality; but in heaven, there is one river, symbolizing unity. And here in Heaven, the Bride and the Lamb will be one, as we saw in John 17. These are just a few of the things that await us. As we ponder the love of God, it is marvellous to realize that the Lord has done this so He can share His glory with us through the Millennium and Eternity. At the end of psalm 16, we read, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.” That is what we will experience. We can say, as in v. 20, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Children’s Meeting—Philip Burgess

EG Hymn 282 – What a friend we have in Jesus,

Prayer

Let’s continue in the book of Acts; we’ll skip ch. 11 and read ch. 12 today. Last time we read about how Cornelius was saved. Now things are going to get exciting; read vv. 1–3. King Herod killed James, the brother of John; and then put Peter in prison, planning to kill him after Easter. He had four quaternions—groups of four soldiers—watching Peter all the time. Peter was also chained, and behind three sets of doors; do you think he would be able to escape? Read vv. 5–11. Our story picks up the day before Herod planned to kill Peter. Do you think you would sleep well if you knew you were going to be killed the next day? No, but Peter was sleeping soundly. That night, an angel came to Peter and had to hit him to wake him up. He told Peter to get up, and when he did, his chains fell off. The angel led him through the gates and out to the street; Peter wondered if this was really happening. When the angel left him on the street that led to the city, Peter realized that God had saved him. Read vv. 12–16. He immediately went to the house of Mary, where other Christians were praying for him. When he knocked, the woman who came to the door, Rhoda, was so excited that Peter was at the door that she didn’t open the door, but ran back to tell the others. They didn’t believe her; they thought she was mad. They didn’t have the faith to believe that God would answer their prayers. But God did answer their prayer. Let’s go back and look at v. 5 for a moment: who were they praying to? God; who prayed? The Christians; how long did they pray? “Without ceasing.” It has been said that “Prayer changes things.” So we should pray believing, not surprised when God answers. God loves to answer prayer, and we should give him the glory when He does.

Reading Meeting

I Peter 3:13–16

The one who wrote these words is the one we just heard about in Acts. He tells us not to fear those who persecute us; he had been through it. Peter occasionally speaks about suffering and here we have that. There are different types of suffering; for example, there is physical suffering. But Peter is talking about when people make fun of us for doing right. We shouldn’t just go with the crowd, but if we do what is right, we will stand out. There are those around us—whether at work or school—that are not doing right. But why should we do right? We want to honour the Lord, who has made us righteous. We also want to have a clear conscience. Those who persecute may be doing so because their consciences are bothering them; they think that if they can get us to act wrongly, they will feel better. When Mr. N. Burgess was in business, he and a number of his co-workers had to keep a record of their company expense account. Mr. Burgess’ account was always the lowest, and the others told him, “Norm, you make us look bad.” This is a small example of how others’ consciences work when they see us doing right. Sometimes, we could do wrong and no one would know—but God. But if we act dishonestly, we may not have the opportunity to speak to others about the Lord.

Persecution is worst in places where it is a crime to be a Christian, or, historically, to shelter a Jew, and so on. Peter is saying that we should be more concerned about honouring God than about conforming to the world. We shouldn’t be afraid of what man can do to us; but this is not always easy.

V. 15 sanctify God in our hearts. What does this mean? To sanctify is to set apart for holy use. We should not only know the Lord as our Saviour, but also have Him in our hearts, to love and cherish Him for salvation. And why should we do this? It is so we can give an answer to others about the hope we have. We have the hope that one day we will be in Heaven. But why? What is the reason of this hope? Read v. 18. The Lord that we have sanctified in our hearts is in Heaven; we have this hope in us. How do we give this answer? “With meekness and fear”; this fear is not an afraid fear, but a reverence. This is not a matter to joke about; it is of eternal consequence and it is wonderful to have assurance of our destiny.

We have spoken about consciences, which are mentioned in v. 16. In the world you might hear, “Let your conscience be your guide.” Your conscience alone is not a guide; it needs direction from the Holy Spirit. Then we can have a good conscience and be a light to others.

EG Hymn 200 –‘Tis the hope of his coming,

Prayer