We feel fragile, but Christ’s church is not

On Sunday morning, Stephen quoted Tabletalk’s recent ‘Update on the Church in London’ by Paul Levy. It’s an encouraging update in which he writes:

“London is a city that never stops and never sleeps. Yet, God has brought it to a standstill. People have more time to read, to study, to listen. Households have assumed a greater priority. For Christians, family worship has taken on an even greater importance, and fathers are needing to step up and take on the role that God has given them…There have been indications in the past year that people are becoming more open to the gospel. We have had more people interested in the gospel and coming to church over the last six months than at any time I can remember in my ministry. The numbers haven’t been huge, but some have even continued to watch the sermons online.

…What the long-term spiritual effects of this period will be are uncertain. Death, which has previously been hidden in our culture, is now confronting us as a nation, and we pray it is driving people to Christ.

In the midst of all this confusion and chaos, individuals and families are losing loved ones and there is tangible fear. The government thinks that it will have done well if the United Kingdom has a death toll of twenty thousand at the end of this virus. In the congregation where I serve, a father of nine has been taken home to glory in the last couple of days. We have felt the bitterness of death, the pain of separation, broken hearts, the feeling of deep and overwhelming sadness, and the uncertainty of the future. Of course, these things are true in normal times, but COVID-19 has brought these truths home to us so that the pain of this broken world and the preciousness of Christ are more real to us. 

We feel fragile, but Christ’s church is not.”

Hearing of how God is working around the world today is important given the temptation we often face to idolise the past. As the following excerpt from David GIbson’s book Destiny reminds us:

‘When you start asking, “Why was the past better?” you’re denying the reality of God’s presence in the present. If you think things are worse, do you think God is no longer in control? Do you think he hasn’t brought you to the point where you are now and that he no longer loves you or has plans or purposes for you? To ask the question in Ecclesiastes 7:10—“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this”—is unwise, because it forgets God”.
Often when we ask this question, it’s because we’re blind to the good things of the present and ignorant of past evil’.

On the subject of rejoicing in what God is doing now, one of our friends from Casper RPC in Wyoming (where Stephen & Carla spent some time in 2013) wrote this recently:

“We often feel that even if this church plant closes and never takes off, serving in our church has been one of the most growing, stretching, challenging, humbling, rewarding experiences in our lives”.

May we be able to say the same!

Against Evangelical Pessimism

We’ve just begun going through the book of Acts in our morning worship services. It’s a book which the great twentieth-century preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones described as a ‘tonic’ for the church. And we do need a tonic in light of the pessimism which dogs much of the evangelical and Reformed church in the UK at present. Below is the first page of an article entitled ‘Against Evangelical Pessimism’, which Stephen referred to in a recent sermon. It’s written by Jeremy Walker, who spoke at the RP Ministers’ Conference in 2017. It appeared in the March 2019 Banner of Truth magazine:

Here are some highlights from the rest of the article:

We need to hook our prayers on the promises that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against the church of Christ, that God’s word shall prosper in the things for which he sends it, that God shall never lack a people, that his glory, he will not give to another, that the gospel is and must be the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, and that the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.

Secondly, we must have confidence in the purchase of Christ. We must believe that he came into the world sinners to save, and that he did not merely make them saveable, but actually purchased a people for himself - those who had been given to him from before the foundation of the world. We must be assured that we are sent into all the world to preach the gospel of Christ and his finished work and present reign to every creature.

We must be assured that Christ is the bread of life. We must believe that his sheep will hear his voice and follow him. We must believe that, being lifted up on the cross and in the preaching of the cross, Christ will draw all to himself, and he will see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. We must believe that the strongest man has bound the strong man, and is now spoiling him of that which once was his. We must believe that he is reigning on high, waiting until all his enemies are made his footstool, that he is still gathering in his chosen ones from every kingdom, tribe, tongue and nation, and that he will come again to take his people home, that all whom he has loved and for whom he has died might be with him where he is.

Third, we must have confidence in the power of the Spirit. We must believe that the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, the God who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ can shine, too, in the hearts of others. We must be assured that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that, having saved sinners like Paul and like me and like you, he can save others also.

We must believe that he can move the hearts of men and women to call their families and their friends, so that salvation comes not just to the Lydias, and the jailers, and the Matthews and the Zacchaeuses, but also to those with whom they are connected or come into contact.

We must remember that he can ensure that our preaching does not come in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, so that those who hear do not shrug off the words of a mere man, but hear the very Word of God to their souls.

Such confidences must be the fuel of our labours. Such confidences must stimulate fervency in our prayers. We must not allow our expectations to be formed by our fears, but rather fashioned in accordance with faith.

Evangelical pessimism ought to be a contradiction in terms. Such pessimism undermines our confidence, cripples our endeavour, shackles our hope, and dishonours our God. We must fight against it by faith; we must not allow ourselves to be drowned in a sea of doubt and dread dismay. We must trust God’s promises, labour because of Christ’s purchase, and rely on the Spirit’s power.