(An imperishable seed cannot die again, it lives forever)
Sunday 31May 2015 Evening Service 'The Cross' members of the congregation spoke for four minutes on the concept of faith with each item and the scripture verse attached to it. I enjoyed listening to each one, and the theme emerged 'prayer' the Holy Spirit enforcing talking to the Lord in prayer.
Items: The Bride, the Russian Dolls (Trinity) Promise to pay the bearer £5, chalice, Bible, card with peace on it, Praying hands, Engagement ring, String of pearls and Prison Week card.
One of a Series of Talks by Dorothy Newton on ‘The Cross’ covering concepts of faith stemming from the cross.
Using the Revised Standard Version (RSV) Bible.
Visual Aids are used in this talk.
A Cross is made of textile material large enough to accommodate items on the following list. I used dried wheat straw, a goblet to represent a chalice and a paper crown.
Letter
Chalice and bread (white or brown bread)
Wheat
Water (bottle)
Bible (small)
Twenty pound note.(£5 or £10)
Engagement ring. (in a box if possible)
Crown
These are placed inside the cross.
Each one is pulled out in turn and its significance explained.
The verses of scripture can be handed out and read at the appropriate time.
Cross ( Pointing to the material cross)
The cross is a symbol of the Christian Faith. It’s a symbol of suffering, hope and love.
Letter (Taking the letter from inside the cross)
Life is often described as a journey and at some point we may be challenged to take a step of faith in the direction of Jesus.
Faith means to believe in some one or something e.g. If we’re feeling ill we go to the doctor, we have faith in the doctor that he will prescribes some medicine that we believe or have faith that it will make us better.
It’s also like sending a letter, we put on the address
pay the price of a stamp required and stick it on
and post it in faith, believing that it will reach its destination. It may be that we expect a reply and sure enough in due course it arrives.
Any body who takes a step of faith and believes that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died on a cross to pay the cost of our sin against a holy God will receive eternal life.
Jesus’ words recorded by John the disciple in his gospel Chapter 3: 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The Chalice and the Bread (Taken from within the cross)
Jesus gave meaning to his death on the cross when he said these words below at the last supper at Jerusalem.
The Chalice
The Chalice holds the wine representing the blood of Jesus, the blood of the new covenant.
”Jesus gave thanks and said,’ Drink this all of you for this is my blood of the New Covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins.’ ”
Matthew 26: 27
The Bread
The bread is representing Jesus’ body.
‘Jesus took the bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ‘Luke 22: 19
By laying down his life Jesus ended the covenant between God and Moses.
In the letter to the Hebrews Chapter 8: 13“In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
The writer of Hebrews was referring to the covenant between God and Moses. The Laws God had given to Moses on Mount Sinai became obsolete when Jesus made the final sacrifice for sin on the cross.
“The Messiah’s Secret” page 93
“At the last supper Jesus introduced the New Covenant through his body and blood, his life laid down for the final atonement, for sins against a Holy God. When a Jew made a sacrificial offering for sin, an offering of an animal, fowl or meal, was brought to the temple, were the person would place their hand on to the head of the animal to be sacrificed. This offering would be accepted to make atonement, reconciliation, and pardon. The meaning of the word atonement is ‘to cover.’ The transfer of guilt to the sacrifice, brought forgiveness to the offender. The sacrifice was regarded as a person’s substitute for breaking the Laws of Moses. Today a person coming to God asking for forgiveness transfers their sin to Jesus, his life laid down, the offering of his life sacrificed for our sin to make reconciliation with God our Father for us. Jesus took upon himself the sins of the whole world.”
The New Covenant was then established in Jesus for all the people of the world. It is through repentance, faith and grace we enter into the New Covenant. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our need to get right with God. It’s then as we come in faith and repentance, saying sorry to God and accepting Jesus’ offering that he made on our behalf for sin. We receive forgiveness for all wrongdoing, all that separates us from our heavenly Father. There is nothing so terrible that God cannot forgive.
Some times our memories are difficult to deal with, perhaps it’s were we need to forgive as well as receiving forgiveness. It might help to talk things over in confidence with a Christian friend and ask them to pray with you about your concerns or alternatively in prayer simply talk to God as you would to a friend.
After taking that step of faith we enter into the New Covenant, God’s nature becomes our nature written in our hearts. We feel how God feels about things like; deceit, immorality, the need to feed the starving or help the poor.
The Wheat (Taking the wheat from within the cross)
Jesus’ disciple John wrote in Chapter 12: 23,24
“ Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
“The Messiah’s Secret” page 35
“One of the secrets hidden in Jesus’ parable of the Sower had its fulfilment after the resurrection of Jesus. The seed, Jesus had to die and become the first fruits of the resurrection. One of the amazing facts of life is that a seed has to die before it can start to grow and in the fullness of time the plant produces many seeds after its own kind.”
Jesus died on the cross to produce the seeds of his eternal life. It was after Jesus’ ascension there at Pentecost when Jesus was for the first time proclaimed by his followers that he was the Messiah. These words about Jesus are the seeds containing eternal life.
Jesus’ disciple Peter wrote in his first letter Chapter 1:23 “You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God.”
The Holy Spirit bears witness, showing us within our being, our mind and conscience of a change that has taken place through receiving into our heart the words that tell us of what Jesus has done for us on the cross and in his resurrection. These words are the imperishable seeds of faith that germinate within us transforming our heart, the way we think, and our way of life, we become ‘Christ-like’, a Christian.
Contained in the seed is the complete makeup of a wheat plant, its colour, height etc.
“The Messiah’s Secret” page 145. “The seed of faith sown in the heart is complete in itself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It contains the potential to grow to its fullness.”
The Bottle of Water (Taken from within the cross)
Water represents the Holy Spirit.
John the disciple records in Chapter 7: 37-39
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus
stood and proclaimed, ‘If any one thirst, let him come
to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the
scripture has said, Out of his heart shall flow rivers of
living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, which
those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet
the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not
yet glorified.”
The Holy Spirit convicts us of the truth concerning Jesus, that God raised Jesus from the dead by the power of his love. The Holy Spirit reveals the Love of God as he is the Spirit of God. God is love and he dwells within us through faith in Jesus. Our thirst is satisfied, as the Holy Spirit gives us guidance and empowers us working through the anointed natural gifts and the gifts that he has established within us. The use of these gifts are like the words of John 7 ’ rivers of living water flowing’ out of the Christian.
God is Love (short prayer by Dorothy Newton)
Blessed are you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You made the world in your love.
You redeemed the world by your love.
You sustain the world with your love.
May we ever abide in your love,
and give ourselves to you in love.
Blessed are you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The Bible (Taken from within the cross)
The Bible is a book that gives us the revelation of our God and creator through the lives of God’s chosen people, Abraham and his descendants and through Jesus, his disciples and the church.
The Bible has words with meanings that have remained the same over thousands of years, words like; faith, righteousness, repentance, forgiveness, grace, love and many more.
Throughout the Old Testament, we read of the need to seek and get right with a Holy God. The law was brought in to make known to us, the way in which to live our lives that would please God. The law was impossible to keep so God promised to send a Saviour, the Christ. Christ means the Anointed.
Messiah has the same meaning, the Anointed One.
Prophesies relating to the Messiah have been fulfilled in Jesus. It’s in the New Testament in the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Letters and Revelations where we read about these prophesies being fulfilled in Jesus and have been witnessed by his followers.
In Acts of the Apostles Chapter 3: 17, 18. Peter speaking to the crowd in Solomon’s Portico said, “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.” The whole of Isaiah Chapter 53 prophesies the suffering of the Messiah. But God had hidden these prophesies from the Jewish leaders. It wasn’t in God’s plan that the leaders of Israel should accept Jesus as their Messiah before his death.
In the book Acts of the Apostles in Chapter 13 we read about Barnabas and Saul, who was later called Paul on their first ministry tour. When they reached Antioch in Pisidia they entered the synagogue. Paul proved to them and us that God had hidden the death of the Messiah from the leaders in Jerusalem.
“ For those who lived in Jerusalem and the rulers, because they did not recognise Jesus or understand prophesies given to the prophets, they fulfilled them by condemning him to death.” Acts Chapter 13: 27
Some believed and others rejected Paul and Barnabas’ message that Jesus was the Christ.
“The Messiah’s Secret” page 125
“Even after his (St. Paul) transformation when he preached that Jesus was the Son of God, the Christ, his message didn’t change the minds of the leaders of the Sanhedrin in accepting Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.”
At some point in early church history the realisation that the Jewish leaders had acted in ignorance when they crucified their Messiah has been disregarded, maybe lost in the fact that the same leaders rejected the Apostles message at Pentecost. The Jewish race since have suffered as a result.
I went recently to listen to Singer Helen Shapiro she told us her life story. Helen is of Jewish decent born in London in 1946. At the age of six she went to a state school. She told us of how she remembered a child coming up to her in the playground and saying, ‘You killed Jesus.’ She was devastated and never forgot those hurtful words. In the late 1980’s she discovered Jesus as her Saviour and the Messiah promised to the Jews.
Twenty Pound Note (Taken from within the cross)
If you look closely at the note, printed on it are these words, ‘I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of twenty pounds.
Andrew Bailey,
Chief Cashier of the Bank of England.’
The twenty pound note has this promise that must be honoured by the Bank of England.
Jesus has given to us very great and precious promises these promises are honoured by God. We can trust in and act on the promises that the Lord Jesus has given to us.
The promise is to all comers who believe in Jesus as their Saviour.
“But to all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” John 1:12
Some promises come with a condition that we are actively engaging with the word of God.
Jesus said “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7
Some promises simply require faith,
”If you can! All things are possible to them that believe.” Mark 9:23
Some don’t depend on us at all
“I will never fail you, or forsake you.” Hebrews 13: 5
Engagement ring (Taken from within the cross)
In the Bible we understand that Israel is known as the wife of God. In the New Testament we understand that Jesus, the Son of God is betrothed, engaged to the church. The marriage between Jesus the lamb of God and his church, the bride, has yet to take place.
In Arnold G Fruchtenbaum book ‘The Footsteps of the
Messiah’ he writes, “To fully understand the background of the ‘Marriage of the Lamb’, one must first understand the background of the Jewish marriage system which was present in that day and which involved four distinct steps.
1. The father of the groom made the arrangements for the marriage and paid the bride –price. Sometimes it occurred when both children were infants, and at other times it was shortly before the marriage itself. Often the bride and groom did not even meet until their wedding day.
2. Fetching of the bride, this could have occurred weeks years or decades after the first step. The bridegroom would go to the home of the bride in order to bring her to his home.
3. The wedding ceremony, to which a few would be invited.
4. The marriage feast, would follow, and could last for as many as seven days. Many more people would be invited to the feast.”
Almost 2,000 years have passed since the first step, the betrothal, the dowry, representing Jesus’ death on the cross.
The next step is the fetching of the bride which is the church. Christians are to be in readiness for Jesus’ return when he comes to fetch the bride and to take her home to his Father’s house.
Crown (Taken from within the cross)
St John the disciple whilst he was living on the Island of Patmos wrote the book Revelation. He was given visions about the second coming of Jesus. He also indicates that those who keep their faith to the end of their life are given a victors’ crown. “Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming upon the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. Those who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God;”
Revelations Chapter 3: 10, 11.
In Arnold G Fruchtenbaum book ‘The Footsteps of the Messiah’ he writes, that there are two words in Greek meaning crown.
The crown of a sovereign – diadem
The other – stephanos which is the crown given to an overcomer, a victor, one who has won a race.
The race Paul talks about is the life long walk of a Christian. The race is won through our being faithful to what we believe in about Jesus, that he is our Saviour and Lord and that we love God and love one another. Then we may obtain the stephanos, the victors’ crown.
God is Love (Dorothy Newton January 1995)
Love participates in unity
bending the will to love another.
Love doesn’t hide itself or shy away.
Love takes hold of the prickly thorn
and caresses it.
Love picks up the bruised heart
and cherishes it and makes it it’s own.
Love gives off a radiance like the
heat of a summers’ day.
Love its fragrance enriches unity,
time stands still.
Love has a strength all of its own.
Love gives in to love.
Love is a safe place without any walls,
no barriers of fear and wars.
Love prepares to serve all human
weaknesses.
Love bears the pain of love,
rejection grieves the lover.
Love ceases not to love,
Love is God our Saviour.
On September 29th 2013 Evening Service
Readings chosen: Isaiah 53. Colossians 2: 8-15
At our service of 'Evening Prayer' I used the cross with its' contents: a candle, a towel, a Bible, Chalice and bread, engagement ring, a box containing 3 Russian dolls(one inside the other representing the Trinity), a picture of a door, two cards: Make me a channel of your peace and the other card 'Peace' with an inscription, a £5 note with the promise from the Bank of England Cashier to pay £5 to the bearer, an angel, and a silver paper crown.
Each item had with it the appropriate scripture.
I invited some of the members of the congregation to chose from the items taken out from the cross and to say a few words on it, this replaced the Sermon by one person. I found that it worked really well and we were blessed by each other in what was said.
