30th April 2024

30th April 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Hebrews 13v8)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


The week of our 250th anniversary has finally arrived but I trust that we won't succumb to the temptation of telling each other what a good job we have done. If Edengrove (Lissara too) started 250 years ago and still exists then it is only be the grace of our God. This week may our constant cry be "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!" (Psalm 115v1)


Although much has changed in the years since our congregation's birth, we can say without fear of contradiction that the Lord Jesus remains the same. This is what the Apostle once told us in Hebrews 13v8 where he wrote that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. I suspect that when we consider Jesus we very much tie Him to that time and place in the Middle East some two thousand years ago.


But to think that Jesus is merely thousands of years old is entirely unbiblical. Christ's "yesterday" stretches back into eternity and He has been the same throughout that unimaginable period. John once told us that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1v1) Here we understand that Christ was not created but in the beginning was God and with God. Furthermore, all things were made in the beginning by Jesus and for Jesus (Colossians 1v16). As we rejoice this week may we remember that our Saviour is timeless, He is eternal and just as He once spoke the planets into existence, so too He once birthed the congregation that we call home.


The Christ who Abraham fell before (Genesis 18v2) is the Christ who Joshua met (Joshua 5v14) and the Christ who did not burn in the flames (Daniel 3v25). The Jesus who we proclaim is the same Christ who in the fullness of time took on flesh (Galatians 4v4-5) and who willingly and obediently died upon a cross for our sake.


The world has moved in extraordinary ways since our forebears first gathered as a church called 2nd Ballynahinch. If those first worshippers could see modern technology they would be awestruck. Nevertheless, we are linked to those men and women by faith in the unchanging Christ. Jesus always has been and always will be. He has not changed at any moment throughout eternity because He cannot change. He is immutable and if Jesus was faithful 250 years ago then He remains exactly the same today.


Brothers and sisters, take time to consider Jesus this week. He is greater than we can possibly imagine. He is the same yesterday, today and forever and so we sing "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!" (Psalm 115v1).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q26 How doth Christ execute the office of a king? Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
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