5th May 2021 - Pandemic Praise - Redeemed by God

​APC 5th May 2021   Pandemic Praise – ‘Redeemed by God’.
 
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning everyone and welcome to our Wednesday morning worship.  Today we continue with our series ‘Pandemic Praise’ as we reflect on some of the spiritual blessings that God has given us in Christ.  We discover many of these blessings in the opening part of God’s letter to the Ephesians.
So far we have thought about the amazing truths that we have been chosen by God and adopted into God’s family.  Today we are going to be reflecting on the fact that we have been redeemed by God.  But as always let’s begin by stilling our hearts and talking to God, let’s pray…
 
Opening Prayer
Mighty God, we thank you that we can come now before you; that you are here waiting to meet with us and speak to us.  We thank you that though we have no claim on your love, and no right to expect any mercy, you are always reaching out to us, eager to forgive and forget.
 
Gracious God, open our hearts to your love.
 
We thank you that though we repeatedly fail you, and though we resist your will, you go on wiping the slate clean, offering us a new beginning, a fresh start.
 
Gracious God, open our hearts to your love.
 
We thank you that you love and care about each one of us, that for all our faults and weaknesses, you accept us just as we are.  Poor though our faith may be, you are always ready to guide, to help and to bless.
 
Gracious God, open our hearts to your love.
 
Mighty God, help us to open our lives to you, to be honest with you, ourselves and others.  Help us to see ourselves as we really are, the good and the bad, the strength and the weaknesses, the lovely and the unlovely.  Help us to recognise our sins and confess them, throwing ourselves upon your mercy.
 
Gracious God, open our hearts to your love.
 
And so may we receive the cleansing, the renewal and the forgiveness you long top show us.
 
Gracious God, open our hearts to your love.
 
Join with me as we say the Lord’s Prayer together…
 
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.
 
 
Introduction to Bible Reading
Let’s read again that wonderful introduction to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  Despite being imprisoned as Paul reflects on all that God has done for Him in Christ He puts pen to paper and purs out His praise.  He writes…
 
Ephesians Chapter 1 v 1-14
”Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. 11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
Reflection               Pandemic Praise – ‘Redeemed by God’
 
I want to begin by taking you back a few years to the last economic crash that happened here in Ireland around 2011.  At that time ‘Debt forgiveness’ was the talk of the country.  During the recession, many families lost jobs, hundreds of people were failing to meet their mortgage repayments and were in danger of losing their family homes.  All of us were asking “How can we help these people?”
 
As a solution, some people began talking about the concept of ‘debt forgiveness’.  It’s an idea that goes right back to the pages of the Old Testament.  There we find that every seventh year people who were in enforced slavery because they couldn’t pay their bills, had their debts cancelled and were allowed to go free.  This was done to restore equal relations among community members and to prevent ongoing exploitation of the poor by those who were rich.
 
During the recession, people in Ireland weren’t being forced into slavery because of their growing debts, but many were suffering the stress of the prospect of having their property repossessed.  It was a situation that was serious.  It needed to be addressed.  As such, the age-old concept of debt forgiveness had been proposed by some as a possible solution.  The question of who would pay for such support was also hotly debated.
 
 
1      Redemption- The Principle:
 
Whatever our view on ‘debt forgiveness’ it highlights for us a related idea that is woven throughout the pages of Holy Scripture.  It is an issue that doesn’t just affect some of us, but affects all of the people in the world.  It is the issue of ‘redemption’.  This word is found in various forms throughout the Old and New Testaments.  It describes the process of setting people free from a situation where they are powerless to help themselves.  It requires the costly payment of a price by someone else in order for the person to be set free.
 
In the Old Testament we find 4 things that could be redeemed- The first of these was property.  If someone was unable to pay their debts and was in danger of losing their property, another person in that family called the ‘Kinsman Redeemer’ was obliged to buy back the land in order to keep it within the family or tribe.
 
The second thing that could be redeemed was animals.  In the Old Testament the first born males of all livestock belonged to God.  But donkeys and certain other animals could be bought back from God by the owner by paying a sum of money into the temple treasury. 
 
Thirdly, people could be redeemed.  If you had a bull that killed someone else, you could be put to death unless you paid an agreed fine to the family of the person who was killed.  Similarly if you sold yourself into slavery in order to pay back your debts, at some time in the future you could buy back your own freedom.  A relative could also do this for you. 
The fourth and final thing we find being redeemed was the nation of Israel.  God delivered them from slavery in Egypt and from exile in Babylon.  In this case the price that was paid was not money.  But we still read that it cost God a huge amount in terms of the exertion of effort and Divine power in order to set His people free. 
 
 
2      Redemption- The Predicament:
 
As we move into the New Testament the concept of redemption remains the same but the focus of its emphasis is shifted.  In the New Testament we find that the word redemption is always made in reference to people.  Just like in the Old Testament we find redemption refers to people who are in a bad situation, a situation they can’t free themselves from.  We also discover that they can only be redeemed by someone else paying a costly price.  But a major difference we find in the New Testament is that the problem that people need redeemed from is not physical or material it is moral and spiritual.  We also find in the New Testament that the price that has to be paid is not money, it is the atoning death of Jesus Christ.  What is even more important is that the people that are referred to in the New Testament are not people in another country or even other people in our family- they are people like you and people like me.
 
You see the New Testament reveals to us that all of us are in need of redemption.  All of us are in a situation that is bad, a situation that we can’t free ourselves from.  That situation is the fact that we are all sinners.  We all say and do and think things that are wrong and that are against the instructions of God.  What is more, believe it or not the bible teaches that we are all in slavery to sin!
 
In the Ancient world there were 3 ways that you could become a slave.  You could be born a slave if your parents were already slaves.  Then you could fall into slavery if your country was invaded by another country.  Thirdly, you could become a slave in order to pay off your debts.  It’s just the same for us when we think about the fact that we are slaves to sin.  The bible teaches that we were born in sin.  That just means that we are born with an inner bias to say and do and think what is wrong.  That’s why you don’t have to teach children how to disobey their parents- it’s already there, built in.
 
The bible teaches that we are also captive to sin.  That just means that sin has us in its power.  There are certain aspects of our lives and characters that we cannot change in our own strength.  Only a greater power, God’s power, can help us to change in those areas of our lives.
 
Thirdly we also owe God a debt because of our sin.  In his letter to Christians in Rome St Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.”  That just means the just reward for a life of disobedience to God is death.  The problem is, all of us have sinned.  All of us have broken God’s laws.  All of us are under the curse of the law.  In other words we all stand guilty before a Holy God and are in danger of being judged by Him forever because we are sinners.
 
 
Spiritually, this is our greatest problem in life.  We are guilty of sin.  We are slaves to sin, unable to overcome the hold that it has on us in terms of our actions and attitudes.  We are in danger of being judged by God forever because of our sin.  Worst of all, we are unable to get rid of our own guilt or unable to overcome sins power by our own efforts.  Like the people who lost their jobs in the last recession and were unable to pay their mortgages, we too are in need of redemption for our sins.  We need someone to step in and pay the debt that we owe to God.  We need someone to set us free from the guilt and the power that sin has over our lives.
 
The good news is someone has made it possible for us to be redeemed.  Someone has paid the price to set us free from the guilt and power of sin and give us back to God.
 
That someone is of course the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
3      Redemption- The Price:
 
But the deliverance that he has paid for us didn’t come cheap.  It isn’t something that was easy for him to do.  It cost Him everything that he had.  There was the cost of His incarnation- God becoming man.  For that to happen God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ had to give up all the splendours of heaven and come to earth.
 
Then of course there was the cost of the atonement.  In order to redeem us, Jesus had to go to the cross.  There he took the curse of the law that we deserved.  In other words, He bore the judgement of God the Father upon Himself- The judgement that we deserved for every sin that we will ever commit.   He paid the debt that we deserved with the price of His own precious blood.  Paul puts it like this in his letter to the Ephesians-
 
“In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”
 
When we read that Jesus shed his blood, it means that he died.  But why did he have to die?  Well, because the wages of sin is death.  God’s just judgement upon us for all the ways that we have disobeyed Him is death.  The amazing truth is that God Himself in Christ, paid the debt that we owe Him out of His own pocket.  He shed His blood, He died, so that we might be forgiven.  3 days later He rose again so that one day we too will rise to a new and perfect life forever.
 
May we never become so familiar with what Jesus has done for us that we forget how much it cost Him to redeem us from our sin.  It cost Him His glorious home in heaven for 33 years.  It cost Him the cruellest of deaths known to mankind.  It cost Him having to bear the full anger of God the Father in our place.  It cost Him His very life so that through His death we might be set free from the guilt and power of sin.  Not set free completely of course in this life, but set free in a way that now enables us to know that we are forgiven and to know that with His help we can become more like Jesus every day.  Set free with the assurance that one day in the future we will be completely perfect and we will enjoy a renewed and redeemed universe together with God.  Paul never forgot about this.  If these thoughts could cause Paul to rejoice even though he was locked down in a Roman prison then I’m certain they can bring us great encouragement in these days of pandemic.
 
 
4      Redemption- The purchasing Rights:
 
The last thing I want to say about our redemption in Christ is this: Because Jesus has bought us with His own precious blood, He owns us.  We belong to Him.  He is our Lord and Master.  That’s what keeps me going in ministry when I’m tired, when I’m weary and when God asks me to make yet another sacrifice.  It’s this thought- “If, in God’s eyes, I am worth the blood of Jesus, then is Christ not worthy of my service?
Surely the thought of what it cost our Saviour to redeem us should motivate all of us to live each day in a way that will please Him and cause others to think well of Him.  Surely the thought of what it cost our Lord to redeem us will motivate us to keep coming to church and keep praying.  Surely the thought of what it cost our Master to redeem us will motivate us to play our part in church life and be committed to sharing this good news with as many people as we can.
 
Let us pray…
 
Prayer for others
 
Loving God, we pray for those who are denied access to the things in life we take for granted- food and clothing, work, a basic education,, proper housing, mobility,, health, companionship, love, human rights, liberty, freedom of speech, justice and peace
 
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
Prosper the efforts of all who fight for their rights, all who labour to give them help and hope.
 
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
Lovo9ng God we pray for those who feel themselves denied access to you, separated by guilt, doubts, past mistakes or lack of faith.
 
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
May all who seek your presence, all who ask for your forgiveness, and all who long for your love, find in Jesus Christ, the Way, the truth and the life.
 
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
Take a moment now to remember one or two people in your own prayers and again we think especially of the people in countries affected most severely by Covid like India and Brazil especially those who are poorest…
 
All these prayers we offer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer, Amen.
 
Closing Words
 
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today.  Thanks again for logging on.  I hope you’ve felt inspired and blessed as we’ve reflected on the reality that in Christ we have been redeemed. 
 
The exciting news is that the government has confirmed a date of 10th May for the reopening of Masses and church gatherings.  Since that is a Monday we will be reopening on Sunday 16th.  Again we are allowed two pods of up to 50 people in each.  We’ve also upgrade our AV system during lockdown so that all songs can be displayed on the screen in the back hall as well as in the church.  So if you would like to book a place at church on Sunday 16th May please do text Aleida as soon as possible.
 
This Sunday marks the beginning of Christian Aid week.  So we will be reflecting on the consequences of climate change and considering how we might play our part in helping those who are most affected.  But first, let me share the benediction, after which I invite you to say the grace together…
 
Benediction
So go back to the daily round of life and may what we have shared here, transform all you do and experience there.  And
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and for evermore, Amen.”