ministers-messages

THE CROWDS THAT WENT AHEAD OF JESUS AND THOSE THAT FOLLOWED SHOUTED, “HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID!” “BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!” “HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!”                                                   (Matthew 21: 9)

WELCOME TO OUR PALM SUNDAY MORNING WEB-WORSHIP

OPENING HYMN (CH-234): – RIDE ON! RIDE ON IN MAJESTY! Hark! All the tribes “Hosanna!” cry; O Saviour meek, pursue Thy road with palms and scattered garments strowed.

Ride on! ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; O Christ, Thy triumphs now begin o’er captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on! ride on in majesty! The winged squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice.

Ride on! ride on in majesty! Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh; the Father on His sapphire throne awaits His own anointed Son.

Ride on! ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; bow Thy meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, Thy power, and reign.

LET US PRAY:

GLORIOUS, SAVIOUR LORD, we welcome and praise You this day. We lift up our voices in glad hosannas. We joyfully acknowledge You as King of kings and Lord of lords. Yet we know in our hearts, even as we greet You, that our worship and commitment is sometimes as weak and shallow as that which greeted You as You entered Jerusalem long ago. Forgive us that we go on making the same mistakes made on the first Palm Sunday. We profess to follow You but in our hearts follow our own inclinations. We are self-centred, and preoccupied with appearances, looking for what we can receive rather than give. We are ready to serve when life is good, but reluctant when it involves the way of sacrifice. Glorious, Saviour Lord, come to us again, and speak to us as we read familiar words, as we remember familiar songs, as we recall the triumphal entry into Jerusalem long ago, and as we remember all it meant and all it cost. Help us to see that it was not only in the welcome of Palm Sunday, but in the rejection which followed that You revealed Your glory, and so help us to offer You our service: – Hosanna to Him who comes in the Name of the Lord, Glory in the highest, for evermore.    AMEN.

OLD TESTAMENT READING: – ZECHARIAH 9: 8-10).

I WILL DEFEND MY HOUSE AGAINST MARAUDING FORCES. NEVER AGAIN WILL AN OPPRESSOR OVERRUN MY PEOPLE, FOR NOW I AM KEEPING WATCH – SAYS THE LORD. REJOICE GREATLY, O DAUGHTER OF ZION! SHOUT, DAUGHTER OF JERUSALEM! SEE, YOUR KING COMES TO YOU, RIGHTEOUS AND HAVING SALVATION, GENTLE AND RIDING ON A DONKEY, ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A DONKEY… HE WILL PROCLAIM PEACE TO THE NATIONS. HIS RULE WILL EXTEND FROM SEA TO SEA AND FROM THE RIVER TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.

NEW TESTAMENT READING: – MATTHEW 6: 13b.

… FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER. AMEN.

(From the Authorised King James Version of the HOLY BIBLE, dated at London, the 26 day of October 1949).

More than 500 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Zechariah had spoken of the triumphant entry of the Messiah into Jerusalem, asking the Daughter of Zion to rejoice and shout. When the prophet declared that the Messiah should come riding upon a donkey, it was as an indication that He will be the glorious King who brings Salvation to His people. Though being the King of kings, yet He was the Lowly One, – GENTLE – as it is defined in our Bible-translation. But the Hebrew word expresses much more: the condition of a man who has been brought low by affliction and sorrow, possessing in Himself the fruit of this sorrow in lowliness and submission in heart. Jesus applied this character to Himself when said, – Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11: 29). These are clear references of what and how things happened on the first Palm Sunday. Triumphant and celebrating victory, a KING is portrayed as entering the city, gentle and riding on a donkey. A sign that His rule will result in Shalom, peace, for all nations, extending from sea to sea.

For once, on Palm Sunday, the MAN OF SORROWS was honoured on the earth, for once the “despised and rejected by men” was glorified as KING and POWERFUL SAVIOUR. As the Paschal Lamb was brought out ritually and solemnly on the first day of the Holy Week, so now the True Paschal Lamb entered Jerusalem to die. He was welcomed by the Jews as the conqueror of the Romans; they did not understand that in fact He was the conqueror of sin and death. How soon the feelings of the people changed, how short-lived were their praises. Let us learn our lesson from the waved palms. Many people are willing to acknowledge Jesus as King and Saviour, but reject Him as Man of Sorrows. If He were to tell them to sit down on His right hand, and be proud of their religion, to condemn others, to believe themselves righteous, they would cry, HOSANNAH! But if He tells to be gentle, to judge not, to take the lowest seat, that enemies must be forgiven, and that blessed are they who mourn, – then they would cry,- Crucify Him, Crucify Him! Let us learn from this to avoid a form of religion which is only lip-service; it is very easy to talk about sacred things with pious talk, but that is not real FAITH. We must show forth our faith not only with our lips but in our lives. Jesus is leading us, as He led people on Palm Sunday, towards His Kingdom, by His Power, into His Glory, forever. And here we are: at the Doxology “attached” to the Lord’s Prayer; TO REMEMBER AND NEVER FORGET, TO WHOSE KINGDOM, AND POWER, AND GLORY WE BELONG … FOREVER.

FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER. AMEN. This last part of The Lord’s Prayer is often considered an “attachment”, but it is found in the majority of the Greek manuscripts, the Greek Textus Receptus (Accepted as original text), and in the early English versions, the KJV, and the NKJV. It is not found in most of the modern versions, but traditionally we end the prayer with the doxological closing phrase, so I cannot omit it from this series on the Lord’s Prayer. The oldest witness, which outdates all Greek manuscripts containing Matthew Chapter six, is the DIDACHE (otherwise known as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles). This ancient catechism was written around 100 AD, and contains a form of The Lord’s Prayer: -(…thus pray:) Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our needful bread, and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for Thine is the power and the glory for ever. –( Thrice in the day thus pray). I mention this for your personal interest only, so let us have a closer look at the doxology of The Lord’s Prayer, according to the Authorised King James Version of the Holy Bible. Biblically, the doxological closing phrase is similar with King David’s prayer before his death as given in 1 Chronicles 29: 10-11, saying, Praise be to You, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all.

The six petitions we direct toward God, and we do so confidently because – or, as the prayer says: For, – Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. This concluding “postscript” gives us the whole reason why and what we ask. We can ask big things because we have a Great God. The conclusion to The Lord’s Prayer uses four words to make the point: Kingdom, Power, Glory, and Forever.

KINGDOM. We have encountered this word already. Jesus’ pattern for prayer instructs us earlier on to pray that the Father’s kingdom come, and here is this word again: Thine is the Kingdom. It asserts God’s right to do three things. He has the right to control, to demand, and to determine. We have to believe that God controls every aspect of His Creation as Creator of All. He also demands loyalty and submission from His subjects as Sustainer of All, and as part of it, He has full authority to determine the course and the outcome of events. By saying, Thine is the kingdom, we acknowledge that God has authority to exercise sovereignty over all things.

POWER. It is the ability to do what is desired, and implies the strength to do it. Does God lack the power to supply our needs day by day? Shall He promise and then be unable to deliver what He has promised? Does He lack the power to forgive sins? Shall He teach us to pray for pardon and then be short on mercy? Shall He teach us to pray for protection from the evil one, securing His sheep but in the end be taken by surprise by the thief who comes … to steal and kill and destroy (John 10: 10) ? NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT!  HE IS ABLE to exercise with POWER His Fatherly Love towards us as He promised; as the Bible says, He is able to save completely those who come to God through Jesus, because He always lives to intercede for them (Hebrews 7: 25). His is the kingdom and the power.

GLORY. We all know that it is right to glorify God. We all ought to glorify God, but God does not need us to glorify Him. We need to do it, but God does not need us to do it. The Bible tells us that God is self-existent and self-sufficient. He is not accountable to us or anyone else. He is not dependent on any of His subjects. Then why praise Him? Remember, it is our need that is in this Prayer, not His. We benefit when we praise God, when we acknowledge His Glory. Let me remind you a line from a famous hymn, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation; O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation…(CH-9). Not to recognize this has a damaging effect – not on God but on us. When we neglect to assess His magnitude with awe and wonder, we simply exclude God from our lives and needs. When we exalt ourselves in our own eyes, the bigger we grow, the smaller God becomes than He actually is, and deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1: 9). But when we praise God for who He is and what He has done, it is the sign that we have all the reasons to be thankful to our heavenly Father.

FOREVER. The fourth word is a Reminder. We may think forever will be a long time in coming, but the truth is, we never know, and if we are not ready for forever, then what about faith in the Risen Christ? If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sin. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men ( 1 Corinthians 15: 17-19). The glory of eternal life is our godly token.

The Lord’s Prayer is not just something we say to God. When we pray it, it says something about us. It tells where our priorities are. It tells where our provisions are found. It tells what the core value in our lives is. It tells who God really is to us – and it tells who we really are to Him. HOSANNAH ( Help us now!) is always at hand, as well as glorifying Him, who comes to us in the name of the Lord again this Sunday before Easter, enabling us to find peace and rest for our souls even in this long-lasting global pandemic.                        AMEN.

LET US PRAY:

OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN, You entered Jerusalem in quiet humility, taking the form of a servant, even to the point of death on a cross, emptying Yourself so that we might be filled. You came not as a king mighty in battle, but as the Prince of Peace, the promised deliverer, sent to heal and restore our broken world. We thank You that Your Kingdom is not of this world, that You rule not as a dictator but as a servant, winning the hearts of Your people, who can call You Our Father. When You look at our lives, the weakness of our faith and the frailty of our commitment, You must grieve over us as surely as You wept for Jerusalem. You offer us salvation, our daily bread, forgiveness of our sins, deliverance from evil, yet we so easily let it slip through our fingers. Help us to confess always, that Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Come afresh to our troubled world, with all its needs, its despair, its anxiety, its problems, and its evil. Bring healing, as only You can bring, into this Coronavirus-infested humanity. We have struggled for more than a year now to contain this pandemic, and despite all our efforts and apparent successes, neither our plans, nor the vaccines are perfect. We need You, Your almighty power and love to set us free. We ask You to bring hope where there is despair, joy where there is sorrow, confidence where there is uncertainty and fear, strength where there is weakness, healing where there is sickness, and comfort and life where there is death. We thank You for signs of hope in the world today, for the desire to make this planet a safer place; grant that a spirit of trust and co-operation may develop among all; bring the unity that You alone can bring. We pray for all Christians in the world who celebrate Palm Sunday today. May the praises and hosannahs reach Your heights and glorify Your Name. We pray for our Church of Scotland in all its presbyteries and congregations, for all who belong to our church here in Portree, for our loved-ones and ourselves, through Jesus Christ our Lord.              AMEN.

THE LORD’S PRAYER: – OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN …

CLOSING HYMN (CH-9) – PRAISE TO THE LORD, the Almighty, the King of creation; O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation; all ye who hear, now to His temple draw near, joining in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth, shieldeth thee gently from harm, or when fainting sustaineth; hast thou not seen how thy heart’s wishes have been granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee; surely His goodness and mercy shall daily attend thee; ponder anew what the Almighty can do, who with His love doth befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore Him! All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him! Let the Amen sound from His people again; gladly for aye we adore Him.

GLORY BE TO THE FATHER, AND TO THE SON, AND TO THE HOLY GHOST; AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING, IS NOW, AND EVER SHALL BE, WORLD WITHOUT END. AMEN.                                                                                      (CH – 344)

Sandor, your Minister.

Please see the News and Intimations page for information about the church re-opening for Sunday morning worship from today, 28 March 2021 

(JESUS PRAYED AND SAID)-THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE: THAT THEY MAY KNOW YOU, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, AND JESUS CHRIST, WHOM YOU SENT… MY PRAYER IS NOT THAT YOU TAKE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD BUT THAT YOU PROTECT THEM FROM THE EVIL ONE.(John 17: 3, 15)

WELCOME TO OUR SUNDAY MORNING WEB-WORSHIP.

OPENING HYMN (CH-65) – LORD, FROM THE DEPTHS TO THEE I CRIED. My voice, Lord, do Thou hear: unto my supplications’ voice give an attentive ear.

Lord, who shall stand, if Thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquity? But yet with Thee forgiveness is, that feared Thou mayest be.

I wait for God, my soul doth wait, my hope is in His Word. More than they that for morning watch, my soul waits for the Lord;

Redemption also plenteous is ever found with Him. And from all his iniquities He Israel shall redeem.

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, The God whom we adore, be glory, as it was, and is, and shall be evermore. Amen.

LET US PRAY:

ALL-SEEING AND ALL-KNOWING GOD, You call us through Christ to go out into the world, to share our faith and show Your love, to make known His Name, and make real His presence. Forgive us that so often we come to You but fail to go for You; so easily we turn in on ourselves and to the evil, and away from You and each other. Forgive us that having received so much we give so little. Forgive us for so often deceiving ourselves and trying to deceive You – refusing to admit or accept our mistakes. Forgive us for the excuses we make for not following You and for holding grudges and being unable to forgive those who have sinned against us. Forgive us for pretending to be better than we really are, and not always following Your way of love. Renew us now through Your Spirit. Restore us through the love of Christ. Remake us in Your likeness, and assure us of Your forgiveness. Help us to accept the freedom Your love brings, and help us to come to You, just as we are, and find true forgiveness, deliverance from evil, and strength to live as Your people with each other, to the glory of Your Name. Give us Your Word, and bless our worship, through Jesus Christ Your Son, and our Saviour.          AMEN.

OLD TESTAMENT READING-ISAIAH 43:24-27; EXODUS 20: 5-6

… YOU HAVE BURDENED ME WITH YOUR SINS AND WEARIED ME WITH YOUR OFFENCES. I, EVEN I, AM HE WHO BLOTS OUT YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS, FOR MY OWN SAKE, AND REMEMBERS YOUR SINS NO MORE. REVIEW THE PAST FOR ME, LET US ARGUE THE MATTER TOGETHER; STATE THE CASE FOR YOUR INNOCENCE.YOUR FIRST FATHER SINNED; YOUR SPOKESMEN REBELLED AGAINST ME … FOR I, THE LORD YOUR GOD, AM A JEALOUS GOD, PUNISHING THE CHILDREN FOR THE SIN OF THE FATHERS TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION OF THOSE WHO HATE ME, BUT SHOWING LOVE TO A THOUSAND GENERATIONS OF THOSE WHO LOVE ME AND KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS.

NEW TESTAMENT READING: – MATTHEW 6: 12-13.

FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS. AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE.

I HAVE HIDDEN YOUR WORD IN MY HEART THAT I MIGHT NOT SIN AGAINST YOU (Psalm 119: 11). Long before the Saviour came, the Psalmist knew that God’s Word offers us protection against sin, enabling us to take up position at the side of God the Father in the battle against Evil. But people who think that God’s Grace allows us to continue to sin are mistaken. This is a very dangerous PATH. So many people pray for forgiveness without receiving it. They want to buy their forgiveness, not discovering that Jesus already paid our full debt on the Cross, and that faithful life in that Grace is sufficient for us. But how is that Forgiveness working in lives so much exposed to Evil?

FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS … The need to be forgiven for our sins must be one of the greatest and most urgent needs in everyone’s life. We all have guilt feelings, and try to atone for our sins in some way. At a visit to a Psychiatric Hospital once a doctor told me that he could discharge half of his patients if only they would accept that their sins had been forgiven. Shocking!  Many people bear a burden of guilt, being depressed by genuine guilt, debts they feel that cannot be paid. They will remain unfulfilled for ever if their attitude remains blocked in the continuous condemnation of the self or of others. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus wants to share His perspective with us. He does this with the words –US- and –AS WE. I must confess that I have always found the US-theme in this specific prayer the most difficult to understand. My first impression has always been that debt is a very private matter. We cannot plead before God for other people’s debt, and neither can they take the blame for our debt. How many parents have not wished that they could suffer for their children’s mistakes. But we should remember that Jesus gave this prayer in a specific context. He was speaking out against the Pharisees and their I-centred prayers. Jesus is set against their type of prayer-attitude: – A concern for their own guilt only; – As long as their own guilt is dealt with, they are satisfied; – As long as their own slate is clean, they are at peace with the world; – They feel nothing for others who are equally bound by guilt; – They pray for forgiveness only for the sake of their own conscience, not for the sake of the Father and His Kingdom with all its citizens. Jesus teaches us to pray unselfishly when we pray for forgiveness, because our sins make our sisters and brothers just as unhappy as they make us. With these words we can go to God with our concern for our sins, searching our hearts in private to see whether we are contributing to that guilt and debt in which we have been involved. But first we have to make OUR need known to God, being prepared to assume responsibility for my fellow believer’s guilt as far as I am able to. Much is said about Collective Guilt. Christians, we think of sin in personal terms, but the collectiveness of guilt implies the willingness to play a part in repairing the damage we have done as a Church. Jesus teaches us: – to open our hearts to others; – to be aware of other people’s sins and to lay them before God; and – to take responsibility, as part of a group, for that sin’s reparation.

AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS.  What Jesus meant here is that we should look at our Father and do our utmost to do what He does, because God knows how hard we are trying (or not trying!) to forgive the guilts of others. With this petition we are closing our account and saying: – Dear Father God, my inability to forgive others is part of my debt. But I accept that it remains part of my responsibility, that Your assurance of my forgiveness is inseparable from Your command to forgive all those who have sinned against me. Very hard, isn’t it ?! Many people cannot accept forgiveness because they cannot forgive. They think that The Heavenly Father judges them as they judge others. Because they find it hard to forgive others, they think that God will find it equally hard to forgive them. You know, do you, the well-known saying, used even here in Skye: – “I forgive, but not forget!” Unfortunately all these Christians forget that the Lord, who taught us this Prayer, was crucified; He took our inability to forgive upon Himself, and He, who rose again in victory, takes our hand and teaches us to forgive. We should never forget that!

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION … What exactly is temptation?  When was the last time you were tempted? How do You deal with temptation? Unfortunately we can so easily be superficial about it. We connect temptation with a wandering eye or a hand doing a misdeed, facing the following commandments: – Do not kill! – Do not commit adultery! – Do not steal! – Do not bear false witness against your neighbour! But deep in our hearts we know that it is not that easy to pin down and overcome temptation. It is not always a case of a hand that can be cut off or an eye that can be plucked out. To learn exactly how difficult it is, we must read what the Bible says about it. Jesus came face to face with the Tempter Himself. In the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 4, we learn about temptation that appeals to our desire to assert ourselves, to be the “boss”, to give in to the desires of body and spirit. We are inclined to take this petition of the Lord’s Prayer too lightly. Once again, we tend to pray it without understanding what we are asking for. In our minds, it is simply the end of a prayer. But Jesus teaches it differently – to Him it is the stamp of sincerity with which there is guarantee that this is the prayer of an honest sinner. In any case, it is not Jesus’ prayer. He is telling us what and how to pray. It is for us who have experienced the wonder of God’s forgiveness to confess again: – Dear Father, we are sinners, and we fear ourselves. We have a problem with temptation!  John Calvin states: – Temptations, impulses to sin, tear us away from God, and this can happen in so many ways. It often begins with the innocent, seemingly good things on this earth; when the gifts of life become more important than the Giver. (John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion – Geneva, 1536. Book Second: – Of the knowledge of the Redeemer in Christ, as first manifested under the Law, and thereafter to us under the Gospel. Chapter 7: – Salvation through Jesus Christ. -Translated by Henry Beveridge).

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.  Temptation is the possibility of being torn away from God. There are numerous dangers that threaten us. The TEMPTER (Evil in the biblical language) leans heavily on our hearts when he tries to send a specific temptation across our life-path. As with Jesus in the desert, he presents us with an attractive offer to prove ourselves, by working harder to get a highly ranked position, or having an affair, or material things, or whatever. He knows exactly what moves us most. And he plays with us. I must confess, that there was a time in my ministry when I thought of climbing the church-hierarchy. Then, already in my late thirties, God gave it to me, only for me to realise after a time that church-leadership is not my type of ministry, so I returned to the preaching of the Word. Just remembering it, makes me ashamed over and over again. We have to be constantly on our guard against temptation. We must not talk lightly about temptation, because that puts us on a good footing with the Tempter, and most of all, we are overestimating our ability to say “NO” to Evil. Anything can become a temptation to us – higher respect, burning passions, as well as the good things in life. Literally anything can come between us and our Heavenly Father, and spoil our relationship with Him.

We must do everything in our power to resist evil. In the Epistle of James 4: 7-8 we receive this advice: – Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Three instructions must be emphasised here: – SUBMIT, RESIST, and COME. We must not play with temptation. To resist the Evil one is not enough. Submission to God’s will is the only positive way to resist temptation, and to be assured of a safe return to the Father. In the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, Jesus defeated the devil with the Scripture; as Paul tells us: – TAKE UP THE SHIELD OF FAITH …THE HELMET OF SALVATION AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD, and you will be safe from the flaming arrows of the evil one  (Ephesians 6:16-17).     AMEN.

LET US PRAY:

GRACIOUS AND RIGHTEOUS HEAVENLY FATHER, we praise You for Your immeasurable love, always watching over us, constantly reaching out to bless, daily by our side. You are a God full of mercy, always ready to forgive, always prepared to give us deliverance from the evil one when tempted, and eager to wipe the slate clean and start again with us, despite our stubbornness, not always forgiving each other. You are all-loving and all-powerful – reaching out Your hand to bless, to reward faithfulness, to vindicate truth. Help us to recognise the destructive consequences of our sinfulness, to see our faults and to confess them honestly to You. To discover the joy that comes from being at one with You, and to look forward to that day when Your will shall be done, and Your Kingdom come. Forgive us for the things we should have done, but have left undone – the acts of kindness we never found time for, the thoughtful words never spoken, the message of encouragement or comfort never sent, the helpful deed never attempted. Forgive us for our failure to serve You as we promised – the prayers we never offered, the sacrifices we never made, the faith we never had, the commitment we never gave. Forgive us for forgetting each other here, for forgetting those around us, and for so often forgetting You. Gracious Father God, save us from being a people of unfulfilled intentions, and enable us to turn our good intentions into good deeds. Help us to learn from Jesus who laid down His life for others, and, in growing closer to Him, may our lives speak not of ourselves, but of You. Be with our over-tested world in this pandemic; heal, help, and comfort all those who are in any need. Bless Your Christian Church Universal in all its denominations; our Church of Scotland in all its presbyteries and congregations. Be with our parish here in this Island and hear our prayers for loved ones and all those whom we now name quietly in our hearts … through Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.

THE LORD’S PRAYER: – OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN …

CLOSING HYMN (CH-482) – YIELD NOT TO TEMPTATION, for yielding is sin; each victory will help you some other to win; fight manfully onward; dark passions subdue; look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through.

CHORUS: – Ask the Saviour to help you, comfort, strengthen, and keep you; He is willing to aid you; He will carry you through.

Shun evil companions; bad language disdain; God’s Name hold in reverence, nor take it in vain; be thoughtful and earnest, kind-hearted and true; look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through.           + CHORUS

To him that o’ercometh God giveth a crown; through faith we shall conquer, though often cast down; He who is our Saviour our strength will renew; look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through.           +CHORUS

MAY THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THE LOVE OF GOD, AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BE WITH YOU ALL.    (2 Corinthians 13: 14)

Sandor, your Minister.

Please see the News and Intimations page for information about the church re-opening for Sunday morning worship from 28 March 2021 (Palm Sunday)

THIS IS WHAT THE LORD SAYS: I WILL EXTEND PEACE TO HER LIKE A RIVER, AND THE WEALTH OF THE NATIONS LIKE A FLOODING STREAM, YOU WILL NURSE AND BE CARRIED ON HER ARM AND DANDLED ON HER KNEES. AS A MOTHER COMFORTS HER CHILD, SO WILL I COMFORT YOU …          (Isaiah 66: 12-13)

WELCOME TO OUR MOTHERING SUNDAY WEB-SERVICE.

OPENING HYMN (CH-574): – BREAD OF THE WORLD, IN MERCY BROKEN, wine of the soul, in mercy shed, by whom the words of life were spoken, and in whose death our sins are dead: Look on the heart by sorrow broken, look on the tears by sinners shed; and be Thy feast to us the token that by Thy grace our souls are fed.

LET US PRAY:

LORD OUR GOD, on this special day of thanksgiving, we catch a glimpse, through a mother’s love for her child, of Your love for us; the care, dedication and devotion You show to all Your children which makes You as much “our Mother” as “our Father.” As a mother nurtures her children, instructing, feeding, clothing, guiding, so You nurture us, carefully leading us towards maturity. As a mother tends her children, comforting in times of distress, reassuring in times of uncertainty, encouraging in times of challenge, nursing in times of sickness, so You tend us, always there to lift us up and set us on our feet again when we fall. Lord our God, Mother and Father of us all, receive us as we respond, in joyful worship and heartfelt thanksgiving, in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son. AMEN.

OLD TESTAMENT READING: – DEUTERONOMY 8: 10-18. WHEN YOU HAVE EATEN AND ARE SATISFIED, PRAISE THE LORD YOUR GOD FOR THE GOOD LAND HE HAS GIVEN YOU. BE CAREFUL THAT YOU DO NOT FORGET THE LORD YOUR GOD, FAILING TO OBSERVE HIS COMMANDS, HIS LAWS AND HIS DECREES THAT I AM GIVING TO YOU THIS DAY. OTHERWISE, WHEN YOU EAT AND ARE SATIFIED, WHEN YOU BUILD FINE HOUSES AND SETTLE DOWN, AND WHEN YOUR HERDS AND FLOCK GROW LARGE AND YOUR SILVER AND GOLD INCREASE AND ALL YOU HAVE IS MULTIPLIED, THEN YOUR HEART WILL BECOME PROUD AND YOU WILL FORGET THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE LAND OF SLAVERY. HE LED YOU THROUGH THE VAST AND DREADFUL DESERT, THAT THIRSTY AND WATERLESS LAND, WITH ITS VENOMOUS SNAKES AND SCORPIONS. HE BROUGHT YOU WATER OUT OF HARD ROCK. HE GAVE YOU MANNA TO EAT IN THE DESERT, SOMETHING YOUR FATHERS HAD NEVER KNOWN, TO HUMBLE AND TEST YOU SO THAT IN THE END IT MIGHT GO WELL WITH YOU. YOU MAY SAY TO YOURSELF, “MY POWER AND THE STRENGTH OF MY HANDS HAVE PRODUCED THIS WEALTH FOR ME.” BUT REMEMBER THE LORD YOUR GOD, FOR IT IS HE WHO GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO PRODUCE WEALTH, AND SO CONFIRMS HIS COVENANT, WHICH HE SWORE TO YOUR FOREFATHERS, AS IT IS TODAY.

NEW TESTAMENT READING: – MATTHEW 6: 11. 

GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD.

BREAD always reminds me of MY MOTHER. The Transylvanian fertile soil produces huge wheat-crops, so bread has always been the staple food in the villages of my homeland. The wheat harvest was hard labour as it was the work of all the people. Then the grain had to be dried and ground into flour in a mill. Baking bread regularly for the family was not an easy task either, but when my Mother finally took the large loaves out of the big outside oven, both the scent and the taste made it worth all the effort. Bread had to be cut first by the oldest man in the house, who would say a short prayer of thanksgiving at the same time. In most of the cases the basic school-sandwich, or the quickest food for any hungry child was bread and plum-jam. Usually in late September, two or three families would work together to make their jams of some delicious ripe plum variety in huge copper bowls on an outside open fire. It was fun for the children and hard work for the mothers, but taking home in the evening  tens of kilos of very natural plum-jam for each household, without any sugar or preservatives added to it, was an overwhelming joy. In big ceramic jars, the hardened jam could be kept for years. You were never able to refuse a slice of freshly baked bread with jam; it was like MANNA for a child from a loving Mother. This is why I always associate Bread with my late Mother and with the Mothering Sunday we celebrate.

After the first three sections of the Lord’s Prayer, which are known as The Kingdom prayers, we now come to four petitions known as The Church prayers. This section is about the personal needs of Jesus’ disciples. Thinking about it, is it really necessary for us to pray for our daily bread? What do we mean when we say these begging words: –  GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD. These words are a turning point in the Lord’s Prayer. Until this point we were centred on the Kingdom of God. All the promises in the Beatitudes were anchored in an assumption of faithfulness and obedience. But now it is different. We suddenly descend from the holy concerns of the King to the level of our ordinary lives. In a twinkling of an eye, we move from the throne of the King to the most basic, daily need of His subjects – BREAD. This is how Jesus teaches us that this glorious King is our heavenly Father. He wants us to tell Him about our need for bread. He wants to give us bread, and He encourages us to ask for it in our prayers. As with the other petitions, we have to listen carefully to hear exactly what Jesus is saying here. Every word He uses is significant, therefore the words bread and daily and us have some very special meaning for us here. We are no longer concerned with the heavenly kingdom, but with our daily lives. When a disciple tells God about his personal needs and entrusts Him with all these needs, he is in fact praising God for the way in which He provides for all His children’s needs and cares.

BREAD. One easily has the impression that we are dealing here with our own selfish interests in contrast to the previous part, which dealt with God’s Kingdom. When bread is mentioned, is that really about our own survival? Is it so important? Would it not be better to concentrate on even more spiritual things than on ordinary matters? In this model prayer, Jesus is teaching us to go to our Heavenly Father with our ordinary needs also. These everyday needs may seem very unimportant to us if they are viewed from a heavenly perspective. However, these needs occupy about ninety per cent of our daily lives. If we do not include them in our prayers, ninety per cent of our lives would fall outside God’s providence. Jesus wants us to be one hundred per cent at home in the Kingdom of our Father.  A 16th century catechism defines this petition of the Lord’s Prayer in this way: Give us this day our daily bread. That is: Provide us with all our bodily needs so that we may acknowledge that You are the only fountain of all good, and that our care and labour, and also Your gifts, cannot do us any good without Your blessing. Grant therefore that we may withdraw our trust from all creatures, and place it only into Your Holy hands. (Answer to Question 125 – from the American and Canadian authorized version of the Heidelberg Catechism, 1563)   It is not wrong to ask for bread, but it is important to ask and receive it in the right way: in the full knowledge of our dependence and with sincere gratitude. Not like the five thousand people whom Jesus miraculously fed, and then told them: –“ I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for the food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.” Then they asked Him, – “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent. …I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  “Sir”, they said, “from now on give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”(John 6: 26-29, 32-35). They had eaten the bread and fish and enjoyed it, but in their greed and selfishness they forgot about the message of God’s wonderful care and providence fulfilled in Salvation through Jesus Christ. Few of us really need to ask for bread; we have plenty. What we do need daily is Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, who nurtures us for all eternity. God wants us to trust Him to supply what we need each day, physically and spiritually, until all will be taken into our Father’s eternal home.

GIVE US. The word US is equally important. We are not saying, – give ME. This is not a selfish prayer. With this prayer on our lips we should be thinking beyond our own safety, satisfaction, and well- provided lives. We should be thinking of our sisters and brothers who really are hungry, unsafe, and unsaved. While we pray, we should always be thinking about sharing our bread with the hungry and the Bread of Life with all those who are in need of being saved. This petition teaches dependence and generosity. Without the hand of the Father we cannot survive. In gratitude we should reach out to others who also wish to survive. This prayer does give us an opportunity to talk to God about all OUR NEEDS, but it teaches us to never selfishly demand things. Jesus teaches us in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15), that selfish greed leads us away from our Father. This petition also reminds us of our responsibility towards others. Through Jesus, we become part of a multitude of people with needs, coming to Him with all the needs and troubles of the present Pandemic, and just suddenly we realise that our King is the Almighty God and Father. Faithfully we can ask Him to relieve the hunger for healing and safety in today’s world. Jesus says, – You give them something to eat. (Matthew 14: 16), reminding us of our faith-provision, to offer our own piece of Bread of Life to God, and ask Him to do a miracle so that others may eat with us and be satisfied.

Remember this next time you throw away any bread you do not need, while others are starving, or giving up praying for anyone you know in need of the Bread of Life, to be saved.           AMEN.

                                   HER HANDS.

Her hands held me gently from the day I took my first breath.

Her hands helped to guide me as I took my first step.

Her hands held me close when the tears would start to fall.

Her hands were quick to show me that she would take care of it all.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Her hands are now twisting with age and years of work,

Her hand now needs my gentle touch to rub away the hurt.

Her hands are more beautiful than anything can be.

Her hands are the reason I am me.

(A poem for Mothering Day, by Maggie Pittman)

LET US PRAY:

LIVING AND LOVING GOD, You have called us to be Your children, and You care for us as a mother who deeply cares for her child. So now we pray for those entrusted with the responsibility of motherhood – all those who watch over their children in the same way, with the same feelings and intensity. Grant to each one Your wisdom, guidance, and strength. We pray especially for single mothers, those faced with the challenge of raising a child or children on their own, with no one else to share the demands or joys of parenthood. May the Bread of Live help them to deal with their bread-and-butter everyday problems. Give to each of them patience, devotion, and dedication. We pray for those who have recently lost their mothers due to Coronavirus pandemic or any other illness. Bless those who never knew their mothers, those orphaned as children or being given up for adoption, those whose mothers have passed away some time ago, and all for whom this day brings pain rather than pleasure. Grant them Your comfort, Your support, and the assurance that Your love will be always with them. We pray for those who are separated from their children, those whose children are unable to visit them because of the Covid restrictions, those who feel that may never see each other again. We pray especially for those parents who are in hospitals or are dying, and for their children who are simply unable to visit them. Be with us all, dear Lord. It is a year now since Coronavirus turned our lives and our world upside down; our prayer for the everyday needs is still raised to Your Son, our Bread of Life, to help us survive, and continually live through Him. Bless Your Church here and everywhere. Be with our loved ones and all those whom we now name in our hearts before You. Our daily bread is to believe in You , and whom You sent to be our Saviour, Jesus Christ, our Lord. For His name sake, hear our prayers, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, One, Eternal God.       AMEN.

THE LORD’S PRAYER: – OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN …

CLOSING HYMN (CH-89) – GUIDE ME, O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH, pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with thy powerful hand: Bread of Heaven, Bread of heaven, feed me till my want is o’er.( + repeat the last sentence)

Open now the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow; let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through: Strong Deliverer, Strong deliverer, Be Thou still my strength and shield. ( + )

When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside! Death of death, and hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side! Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will ever give to Thee. ( + )

THE LORD IS GOOD TO THOSE WHOSE HOPE IS IN HIM, TO THE ONE WHO SEEKS HIM; IT IS GOOD TO WAIT QUIETLY FOR THE SALVATION OF THE LORD. (Lamentations 3: 25-26) – TO THE ONLY WISE GOD BE GLORY FOR EVER THROUGH JESUS CHRIST! AMEN. (Romans 16: 27).

Sandor, your Minister.

Please see Bill’s message about the Easter church magazine on the News and Intimations page

GRACE AND PEACE TO YOU FROM GOD OUR FATHER AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST (1 Corinthians 1: 3). Jesus said, THE KINGDOM OF GOD DOES NOT COME WITH YOUR CAREFUL OBSERVATION, NOR WILL PEOPLE SAY, “HERE IT IS” , OR “THERE IT IS”, BECAUSE THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU       (Luke 17: 20-21).

WELCOME TO OUR SUNDAY MORNING WEB-WORSHIP.

OPENING HYMN (CH-566): – THE EARTH BELONGS UNTO THE LORD, and all that it contains; the world that is inhabited, and all that there remains. For the foundation of the same He on the seas did lay, and he hath it established upon the floods to stay.

Who is the man that shall ascend into the hill of God? Or who within His holy place shall have a firm abode? Whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure, and unto vanity who hath not lifted up his soul, nor sworn deceitfully.

This is the man who shall receive the blessing from the Lord; The God of his salvation shall him righteousness accord. This is the generation who do after Him inquire; they Jacob are, who seek Thy face with their whole hearts’ desire.

Ye gates, lift up your heads on high; Ye doors that last for aye, be lifted up, that so the King of Glory enter may. But who of glory is the King? The mighty Lord is this; even that same Lord that great in might and strong in battle is.

Ye gates, lift up your heads; ye doors, doors that do last for aye, be lifted up, that so the King of Glory enter may. But who is He that is the King, The King of Glory? Who is This? The Lord of hosts, and none but He, The King of Glory is. (Alleluia! Amen).

LET US PRAY:

LORD, OUR GOD AND OUR KING, You have spoken to Your people across the centuries. You identified Yourself with humankind in Jesus Christ.  You dwell within us through Your Holy Spirit, making Your presence come alive. Accept now the worship we offer, and use us for YOUR KINGDOM. We come in response to Your call, to offer our worship, our thanks, our confession, our lives. We come, seeking Your guidance, Your strength, Your renewing power and YOUR WILL. Lord our KING, help us to come to You not just as an outward gesture, but in heart and mind and soul. Help us to make space in our lives to be still in Your presence, and so may we live in You and You in us. Accept this worship we offer, and use us for YOUR KINGDOM, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.   AMEN.

OLD TESTAMENT READING: – PSALM 24: 1-6.

THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND EVERYTHING IN IT, THE WORLD, AND ALL WHO LIVE IN IT; FOR HE FOUNDED IT UPON THE SEAS AND ESTABLISHED IT UPON THE WATERS. WHO MAY ASCEND THE HILL OF THE LORD? WHO MAY STAND IN HIS HOLY PLACE? HE WHO HAS CLEAN HANDS AND A PURE HEART, WHO DOES NOT LIFT UP HIS SOUL TO AN IDOL OR SWEAR BY WHAT IS FALSE. HE WILL RECEIVE BLESSING FROM THE LORD AND VINDICATION FROM GOD HIS SAVIOUR. SUCH IS THE GENERATION OF THOSE WHO SEEK HIM, WHO SEEK YOUR FACE, O GOD OF JACOB.

NEW TESTAMENT READING: – MATTHEW 6: 10.

… YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN …

The Christians who worship God the Father recognize Him at the same time as Lord and King. This is what the Bible tells us about God, and this is how the Church has worshipped Him through the centuries. God exercises His reign over His Kingdom and His subjects. We read in the Bible how the Lord is praised and glorified as the King of heaven and earth, the all-powerful King – the King of kings. He is our Father, but He is also our King. Up to this point it is not difficult to agree with the Lord’s Prayer, but we must understand that this prayer is the heart of the Gospel, and the central theme of the Sermon on the Mount. Acknowledging the Kingdom of God implies far-reaching consequences in our lives. Like Jesus, we are not allowed to remain silent in the face of opposition, but called to – take up the shield of faith… the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6: 16-17), to defend the honour of our King.

YOUR KINGDOM COME.   Asking for God’s Kingdom to come shapes the entire Lord’s Prayer. The word KINGDOM comes from two words – King and domain, – the domain being the territory governed by the King. So, when we say, –  Your Kingdom come – we ask God to reign fully in our lives, yielding to His control in every aspect of our existence, and asking our heavenly Father to help us to be faithful, obedient, and effective followers of Christ. Jesus made it clear that God’s Kingdom is a Spiritual Kingdom, – because the Kingdom of God is within You (Luke 17: 21). The Kingdom of God is seen most clearly in the life of Jesus – what He said and did. At the Cross, Jesus is the man who loved His enemies, who being rich became poor, who prayed for those who despised and used Him. The Cross was not a detour or a hurdle on the way to the Kingdom; it was the KINGDOM COME. People may choose to consider the Kingdom unreal, not relevant, or not possible; but we cannot omit or abandon the clear references of our Bible. The Lord’s Kingdom is where He is recognised and obeyed as the King, where His constitution becomes the only one  acknowledged as the ruling of our lives. The Sermon on the Mount can be entirely regarded as the Constitution of God’s Kingdom. When we pray, – Your Kingdom come, – we should really mean it because we are endangering any kingdom we may have built for ourselves. It is wrong to think of the kingdom only as something heavenly that is still to come. Jesus spoke about His Kingdom as the one already established here on earth, in all the goodness and love that follows us all the days of our lives. Many people were very disappointed with Jesus’ version of God’s Kingdom; just think of John the Baptist, Simon Peter or the two men on the road to Emmaus. They were disappointed because they saw the Kingdom of God as a personal “Utopia” – a place and state where one could sit at the King’s left or right hand, and rule with Him  The fundamental hope of Christians should always be a bridge-building task with God, not as a dream and not as a mirage, but as the reality of the Psalmist’s vision: – Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him (Psalms 126: 5-6). In these difficult times of Pandemic, the world is full of anxious and fearfully saddened and weeping people, who find no comfort. They might not even know it, but they are potential subjects of God’s Harvest for His Kingdom. As citizens of our God’s Kingdom, we must continue to sow. We must keep sowing the seeds of faith, hope and love, and contribute to the coming of God’s Kingdom, even if the world is tempted to not listen to Him. But as Psalm 24 makes it clear, – The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it… The owner of the whole creation is the King; our King. His Kingdom comes, to all who seek healing, comfort, security, support; because God is the King of Love, our Shepherd, through Jesus Christ, and He is always just a prayer away to those who believe in Him. Remember, if in the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord’s Name is hallowed as important to us, then we will easily recognise Him as our King. This petition has its parallel in an old Jewish greeting-prayer, probably known by Jesus Himself: – May The Lord establish His Kingdom during your life and during your days (Mishna). William Barclay’s definition of God’s Kingdom is this: – The Kingdom of God is a state of things on earth in which God’s will is as perfectly done as in Heaven (The New Daily Study Bible, Gospel of Matthew). Jesus’ life and teaching, including The Lord’s Prayer, call us to join Him as servants in the Kingdom of God, so that we can labour with Him to help GOD’S WILL TO BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS ALREADY DONE IN HEAVEN. When we pray for God’s Kingdom to come, for – Thy will be done, – we are asking not only for the final establishment of God’s RULE on earth, but also we are praying that we ourselves may be active participants in GOD’S WILL in every area of human experience, beginning with our lives and relationships, and the institutions in which we live and work.

YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. It means that we submit our will to God’s WILL, and asking His WAY to triumph. We should not even think of – My will be done, –  but faithfully asking day by day, – Your will be done, my Lord, not mine. Jesus gave us examples of how He always did the will of His Father.     I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me (John 5: 30); looking for the Father’s will to be done on earth was a way of life for Jesus. He also said: – My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Just like eating food, carrying out God’s plan was a life-sustaining activity for Jesus. He felt, like hunger, a continuous inner need to do God’s will and, like food, an ongoing satisfaction in accomplishing the work God gave Him to do. Right before Jesus was betrayed and turned over to endure the agony of the Cross, and drink the cup of God’s wrath towards sin, He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and said: – My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will (Matthew 26: 39). And He said for a second time: – My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done -(Matthew 26: 42). Choosing God’s will when it came to drink the cup of God’s wrath ultimately led to Salvation for mankind, Jesus’ exaltation, and God the Father’s Glory. God’s will proved to be in the best interest of everyone, and the unique godly way to Salvation.   When we pray, – Your will be done, we are praying for God to accomplish His purposes and enable us to live as obedient children. God is sovereign, so there is no doubt that what He desires will ultimately come out. However, when we are praying for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we align our desires and aims with God’s; wanting people to know Him and obey Him. Praying for God’s will to be done is an active demonstration of our will for God to increase righteousness on the earth, draw more to repentance, and for His Kingdom to come fully. May we follow James’ teaching: – Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God, and He will come near to you (James 4: 7-8). In this way it may be to us a delight to do His will.

God’s will may mean that we have to drink the cup of suffering. That means that our own will is of no consequence, even if it is not necessarily bad or wicked. We may sometimes feel that our own will would serve God better than His will. What did Jesus mean when He distinguished between His will and the will of His Father? Was His will against that of His Father? Even Jesus felt inner resistance against the pain and misery of the way of the Cross, but that was from His human nature and not from His Godliness. Deep in His Sonship, there was for Him only the WILL of a Loving Father.

The Lord’s Prayer is for the here and now. We have to seek more earnestly God’s Will here on earth, beginning with our own lives. Christians are the Agents of heaven. We are called to proclaim God’s Will, and God’s Will is concerned with people and their world. And above all, GOD WANTS HIS PEOPLE TO BE SAVED.               AMEN.

LET US PRAY:

GRACIOUS LORD GOD, we thank You that You are a God who sees not only the outside but the inside, a God who is not taken in by external appearances but who looks into the inner depths of our heart and soul. We thank You for the reassurance which that brings, the confidence we can have that, though we repeatedly disobey You, consistently breaking Your commandments and failing to live as You have called us to, still You know that we earnestly desire to be Your people, that we long to be better disciples of Christ. For Your unfailing mercy, receive our thanks. Yours is the earth and everything in it, the world, the universe and all who live in it. All is Your Creation and Your establishment. Save us, and accept us Lord God, to stand in Your holy place with clean hands and pure heart, to receive blessing and vindication from our Saviour. We confess You Almighty King worthy of all the Glory. Though our lives may appear blameless, our faith strong, our works good and our words right, You and You alone know the reality in our lives and the truth beneath. Gracious Lord God, turn Your eyes upon us and see the despair, anxiety, uncertainty, suffering and grief in our world so much tested by the Coronavirus pandemic. Come and hear all the prayers raised to You, seeking support, healing, comfort, Salvation. Bless all the good deeds of those who are helping others, doing their best in science, leadership, social-work and hospital-care, with humility and self-sacrifice for the well-being of others. May Your healing touch renew the faith, hope and love of millions depressed by the strict regulations imposed because of this dangerous virus. Bless Your Christian Church Universal in all its Branches, our Church of Scotland in all its presbyteries and congregations. Be with all Your children on this Island and in our village, and guide all the different forms of worship, spoken, written on the internet, or praying through phones. Touch the hearts of people as if they would be in their church, in fellowship with well known and loved sisters and brothers. Be with our loved-ones and hear us as we name them in our hearts through prayers … in Jesus’ name.              AMEN.

THE LORD’S PRAYER: – OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN …

CLOSING HYMN (CH-296): – REJOICE, THE LORD IS KING; Your Lord and King adore; mortals, give thanks and sing and triumph evermore: Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; Rejoice; again I say, “rejoice”.

Jesus, the Saviour, reigns, The God of truth and love; when He had purged our stains, He took His seat above: Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; Rejoice; again I say, “rejoice”.

His Kingdom cannot fail; He rules o’er earth and heaven; the keys of death and hell are to our Jesus given: Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; Rejoice; again I say, “rejoice”.

He sits at God’s right hand till all His foes submit, and bow to His command, and fall beneath His feet: Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; Rejoice; again I say, “rejoice”.

Rejoice in glorious hope; Jesus, the Judge, shall come, and take His servants up to their eternal home; we then shall hear the archangel’s voice; the trump of God shall sound, “Rejoice”.

MAY THE GOD OF HOPE FILL YOU WITH ALL JOY AND PEACE AS YOU TRUST IN HIM, SO THAT YOU MAY OVERFLOW WITH HOPE BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.                                                            (Romans 15: 13)

Sandor, your Minister.

…THE LORD IS NEAR. DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING, BUT IN EVERYTHING, BY PRAYER AND PETITION, WITH THANKSGIVING, PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS TO GOD. AND THE PEACE OF GOD, WHICH TRANSCENDS ALL UNDERSTANDING, WILL GUARD YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS.  (Philippians 4: 5-7)

WELCOME TO OUR SUNDAY WEB-WORSHIP.

OPENING HYMN (CH- 351): – O THOU MY SOUL, BLESS GOD THE LORD; and all that in me is. Be stirred up His Holy Name to magnify and bless.

Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, and not forgetful be of all His gracious benefits He hath bestowed on thee.

All thine iniquities who doth most graciously forgive: who thy diseases all and pains doth heal, and thee relieve.

Who doth redeem thy life, that thou to death mayest not go down; who thee with loving-kindness doth and tender mercies crown.

Who with abundance of good things doth satisfy thy mouth; so that, even as the eagle’s age, renewed is thy youth.

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, The God whom we adore, be glory, as it was, and is, and shall be evermore. Amen.

LET US PRAY:

FATHER GOD, You came to our world in Christ, sharing our humanity, and to teach us how to turn to You in prayer. You come to us each day through Your Holy Spirit, sharing in our every experience; so now we come to You, to share with You. We come to acknowledge Your greatness, to recognise Your goodness, and to declare Your wonderful works. We come in awe and prayer, to bring our worship, ourselves and our world before You. We come to seek Your forgiveness, to confess our many faults, and to receive Your mercy. We come seeking Your strength, Your guidance and Your will. We come to read Your Word and Your Message, and to discern Your purpose. Come afresh to us now in this time of worship – renew and refresh our prayer-life, our faith, our hope and our love. Open our eyes to Your presence, and open our lives to Your grace and power. For we ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord.      AMEN.

OLD TESTAMENT READING: – LEVITICUS 22: 31-33.

KEEP MY COMMANDS AND FOLLOW THEM. I AM THE LORD. DO NOT PROFANE MY HOLY NAME. I MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED AS HOLY BY THE ISRAELITES. I AM THE LORD, WHO MAKES YOU HOLY AND WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF EGYPT TO BE YOUR GOD. I AM THE LORD.

NEW TESTAMENT READING: – MATTHEW 6: 6, 8, 9, 10.

… WHEN YOU PRAY, GO INTO YOUR ROOM, CLOSE THE DOOR AND PRAY TO YOUR FATHER, WHO IS UNSEEN…FOR YOUR FATHER KNOWS WHAT YOU NEED BEFORE YOU ASK HIM. THIS, THEN, IS HOW YOU SHOULD PRAY: OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME.

The LORD’S PRAYER is a central Christian prayer, taught by Jesus, who said : – This is how you should pray… (Matthew 6: 9), or: – When you pray, say… (Luke 11: 2). Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, and a shorter form in the Gospel of Luke (11: 1), when… one of His disciples said to Him: Lord, teach us to pray… I don’t intend comparing the two versions, but during the following weeks I would like to guide you through Matthew’ text of the Lord’s Prayer, as our prayerful Lent-preparation for Easter.

Prayer is a generally accepted religious practice. In the history of the Old Testament people, it was part of the service in the Temple, so it is understandable that certain prescriptions for prayer have developed. Gradually, prayer became a lawful, prescriptive requirement, and so  started missing its real purpose. Prayer should always be the purest expression of sincere, personal communion with God, and never degraded into a competition of religious show, as the Pharisees of Jesus’ time practiced it. The foundations of prayer-life are laid in privacy; as Jesus said: – Go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father. True faithful prayer is always a personal relationship before it becomes a collective responsibility: first alone with God, and then together with other people. In the New Testament Church the idea of fasting during Lent was to make time to seek the Lord by means of Bible-study and prayer. Sincere fasting could still play an important role in Christian faith, if correlated with prayer and Bible-reading. Remembering Jesus’ fasting in the desert we must see that prayer played a decisive role in His life, giving a positive new perspective to the existing practice. He gives prayer a new meaning; that is why it is so important that we do not see this as a model prayer or just another prayer formula. Within The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is not saying that this should be the verbal content of our prayer. He indicates what the BASIC CONTENT of our prayer should be. HIS WORDS SHOULD CARRY AND FEED OUR WORDS, whenever we pray.

OUR FATHER.

The words used by Jesus to address God are revolutionary. The God of the Covenant was seldom referred to as a FATHER – the term Father occurs only fifteen times in the Old Testament, and not once as a form of address. To be able to address the HOLY GOD as OUR FATHER, is possible only through Jesus Christ. It is also important to note that the Aramaic word that Jesus uses for Father is a very special word. ABBA was a more intimate form such as Daddy or Dad would be today – depending on the emotive value we attach to the word. What was new, was that one could address God in this way. JESUS WAS PRESENTING GOD AS A COMPASSIONATE FATHER WHO CARES FOR HIS CHILDREN. We have to remind ourselves who God is when we approach Him with our requests, so that we ask in faith (Ephesians 3: 20). All the elements of true prayer are found in this prayer that Jesus gave us as a model for our own prayers. Prayer has three forms:  – Adoration, worship, communion. We can praise God for what He is and for what He has done. We can pray to Him anytime we need or want to – as we go about our duties, eat our meals, drive our cars, or whatever we are doing (1 Thessalonians 5: 17). – Petition. We have to receive from God ourselves before we can give to others. He wants us to bring our needs to Him. – Intercession. We usually begin to pray for loved ones after ourselves and then move to the people further from us. We can touch the world for God through prayer.

THE HEAVENLY FATHER.   The children of God’s Kingdom have a Father – a Heavenly Father. The word Heaven shows that this Father is someone set apart. He is removed from us into HIS HOLINESS and GLORY, far above man, and we therefore look up to Him in awe. He is worthy of all our respect. At the same time, He draws us close to Himself in His incomprehensible Fatherly love. God, our Father.     First and foremost, He is OUR FATHER. Disciples are members of a special family, THE FAMILY OF GOD. They are children of a Heavenly Father who also has other children. They have – God knows – how many sisters and brothers. When a disciple speaks to his Father, he speaks as a member of the Family of God, never as for himself only. Because of our frail human nature, we cannot help petitioning God for our own desires, but only when we recognise Him as the loving Father of us all. Then, His Spirit inspires us to think also of the needs of our sisters and brothers. WE MUST NEVER LEAVE OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS OUT OF OUR PRAYERS. Many people think that the purpose of prayer is to get our will done and to persuade God to give US what we want. The true purpose of prayer is to get OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S WILL DONE when we ask according to His will, and never forgetting about the needs of others (1 John 5: 14). When we pray we are coming into the presence of the CREATOR AND SUSTAINER OF THE UNIVERSE. We should be conscious of HIS POWER to believe everything we might ask. Faith is vital for the effectiveness of our prayer. We don’t need to pray with closed eyes, folded hands, or kneeling down. Prayer is not about the position of the body, but rather the MOOD OF OUR SOUL towards our Heavenly Father.

HALLOWED BE THY NAME.   When we refer to the name of the Lord, we also mean His character and nature. THY NAME is not limited to one specific name for our indescribable God, but to the PERSON who reveals Himself to us through the Bible. We can only HALLOW His name once we know Him; and we can only know Him if He has shown Himself to us. The better we get to know Him, the greater and more wonderful He becomes, and the more we want to come before Him to worship His almightiness and majesty. To really know God we need HIS WORD, because there, in the Bible, God Himself is speaking, telling us who He is. There we get to know the WORD THAT BECAME FLESH, who said, – If you knew me, you would know my Father also – (John 8: 19). This is how we get to know God the Father – through a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. Our knowledge of Him will then become visible in our worship, in our service to Him, as well as in our marriage and in our family life.The Lord’s Prayer tells us that beside our personal praise and thanks we should also HALLOW God’s Name. In other words, we should live in such a way that others will praise His Name because of us. Reading again Leviticus 22: 31-33 we can clearly see why God said, – Do not profane my Holy Name. I must be acknowledged as HOLY…  God proved His faithfulness when He saved His people from slavery,  so, The God who saves, wants to be God of our daily lives; HALLOWING GOD’S NAME, GLORIFIES HIM.

We are God’s children – HIS FAMILY. Through our actions one of two things can happen: either His Name is honoured, or His Name is disgraced. HALLOWED BE THY NAME also means HALLOW ME. Because through a life set aside for God and separated from sin, God’s Name is – in fact – honoured. Those, who hallow His Name, – will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like stars for ever and ever (Daniel 12: 3). We have fellowship with God through the work of Jesus Christ for us and in us: – Who came as a witness to testify concerning the LIGHT, so that through Him all men might believe (John 1:7).

God’s Name is profaned when our daily lives discredit the Gospel through which we are supposed to be Christ-like. Swearing and taking the Name of God in vain are not the only actions that profane His Name. There are certain other ways in which God is mocked, but children of the Father discredit His Name especially when their lives are not worthy of children of God.

That is why every child of God should constantly ask oneself: – Are there moments in my life when God’s Name is not honoured as it should be?  Am I a worthy ambassador for the GOOD NAME OF MY GOD?  Or think about it positively: – How can I contribute to the hallowing of God’s Name in the circumstances of my life?         AMEN.

LET US PRAY:

ALMIGHTY AND HOLY GOD, we come to You as Your people to worship You, to praise Your Holy Name, and thank You for all Your goodness and greatness, welcoming us into Your presence. We come in all our weakness and with all our failings, rejoicing that in Christ we have been saved and made new; that through Him, You have set Your mark upon us, and called us to be Your holy people. Help us truly to be Your people, reflecting Your love, showing Your compassion, and responding to Your guidance. Renew and restore us through the love of Christ and the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit. Touch our hearts through this time we’ve spent together with You and strengthen our faith, so that in the week ahead we may live and work to the glory of Your name. OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME. We thank You that we can call you OUR FATHER; that our relationship with You is not one of fear or duty, but one of love, grateful response and freedom. For the blessings we have received, the love that surrounds us, and the hope that sustains us day by day, we bring our grateful praise. Father God, You came to our world through Christ to help, to heal, and to save. Within this Coronavirus Pandemic Your whole world is in such  need to be helped, healed, and saved. Come, help and bless all those who work to do the best they can to contain the Virus, to administer vaccines, and save lives. We pray for the sick and suffering, the poor and the hungry, the oppressed and exploited, the lonely and unloved, the aged and infirm, the frightened and anxious, the sorrowful and the bereaved, the helpless and the hopeless. Reach out to them in Your loving care. There is so much need of You around us, in our neighbourhood, our town, our country, our world – so many people crying out for help. Hear their prayers. Be with Your Christian Church Universal in all its denominations, with our Church of Scotland in all its presbyteries and congregations, including ours here in Portree, and all our loved ones, through Jesus Christ our Lord.         AMEN.

THE LORD’S PRAYER: – OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN …

CLOSING HYMN (CH-368): – NOW THANK WE ALL OUR GOD, with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things hath done, in whom His world rejoices, – who, from our mother’s arms, hath blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever-joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us, and keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given, The Son and Him who reigns with Them in highest heaven, – The One, Eternal God, whom earth, and heaven adore; for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore. Amen.

MAY THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THE LOVE OF GOD, AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BE WITH YOU ALL.   (2 Corinthians 13: 14)

AMEN.

Sandor, your Minister.   

YOUR ATTITUDE SHOULD BE THE SAME AS THAT OF CHRIST JESUS: WHO, BEING IN VERY NATURE GOD SOMETHING TO BE GRASPED, BUT MADE HIMSELF NOTHING, TAKING THE VERY NATURE OF A SERVANT, BEING MADE IN HUMAN LIKENESS. AND BEING FOUND IN APPEARANCE AS A MAN, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF AND BECAME OBEDIENT TO DEATH – EVEN DEATH ON A CROSS! THEREFORE GOD EXALTED HIM TO THE HIGHEST PLACE AND GAVE HIM THE NAME THAT IS ABOVE EVERY NAME, THAT AT THE NAME OF JESUS EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH AND UNDER THE EARTH, AND EVERY TONG CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.                    (Philippians 2: 5-11)

WELCOME TO OUR SUNDAY MORNING WEB-WORSHIP.

OPENING HYMN (CH-688): – I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR, most gracious Lord; no tender voice but Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee every hour; stay Thou nearby; temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain; come quickly and abide, or life is vain.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will; and Thy rich promises in me fulfil.

LET US PRAY:

ALMIGHTY LORD GOD, we come as Your people to worship You, to praise You for being here amongst us, and to thank You, for all Your goodness and greatness, to welcome us into Your presence. We come, in all our weakness and with all our failings, and we praise You for the inspiration You give us through Jesus – the knowledge that He experienced temptation, just as we do, yet refused to compromise, staying true to His chosen path despite the awful cost. We praise You for the revelation of Your purpose in Jesus, everything we see of You throughout His earthly ministry. Loving God, we come, at this season, to recall Your goodness, to marvel at Your grace, and to commit ourselves to Your service. Give to us Your Word and bless our worship, through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray.      AMEN.

OLD TESTAMENT READING: DEUTERONOMY 8:2-3; 6:13,16. REMEMBER HOW THE LORD YOUR GOD LED YOU ALL THE WAY IN THE DESERT THESE FORTY YEARS, TO HUMBLE YOU AND TO TEST YOU IN ORDER TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN YOUR HEART, WHETHER OR NOT YOU WOULD KEEP HIS COMMANDS. HE HUMBLED YOU, CAUSING YOU TO HUNGER AND THEN FEEDING YOU WITH MANNA, WHICH NEITHER YOU NOR YOUR FATHERS HAD KNOWN, TO TEACH YOU THAT MAN DOES NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF THE LORD. FEAR THE LORD YOUR GOD, SERVE HIM AND TAKE YOUR OATHS IN HIS NAME. DO NOT TEST THE LORD YOUR GOD AS YOU DID AT MASSAH.

NEW TESTAMENT READING: – LUKE 4: 1-13.

JESUS, FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, RETURNED FROM THE JORDAN AND WAS LED BY THE SPIRIT IN THE DESERT, WHERE FOR FORTY DAYS HE WAS TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL. HE ATE NOTHING DURING THOSE DAYS, AND AT THE END OF THEM HE WAS HUNGRY. THE DEVIL SAID TO HIM, “IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD, TELL THIS STONE TO BECOME BREAD.” JESUS ANSWERED, “IT IS WRITTEN: MAN DOES NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.” THEN THE DEVIL LED HIM UP TO A HIGH PLACE AND SHOWED HIM IN AN INSTANT ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. AND HE SAID TO HIM, “I WILL GIVE YOU ALL THEIR AUTHORITY AND SPLENDOUR, FOR IT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME, AND I CAN GIVE IT TO ANYONE I WANT TO. SO IF YOU WORSHIP ME, IT WILL ALL BE YOURS.” JESUS ANSWERED, “IT IS WRITTEN: WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.” THE DEVIL LED HIM TO JERUSALEM AND HAD HIM STAND ON THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE TEMPLE. “IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD,” HE SAID, THROW YOURSELF DOWN FROM HERE. FOR IT IS WRITTEN: – HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU CAREFULLY; THEY WILL LIFT YOU UP IN THEIR HANDS, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.” JESUS ANSWERED, “IT SAYS: DO NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO TEST.” WHEN THE DEVIL HAD FINISHED ALL THIS TEMPTING, HE LEFT HIM UNTIL AN OPPORTUNE TIME.

In 2021 Easter Sunday falls on April 04. The Western Christian Church had determined Easter as the first Sunday following the full moon after the Spring Equinox (March 21), and the calculations were made in Rome by a certain Dionysius Exiguus in 525 AD, following a more general decision of the Council of Nicaea from 325 AD. The date is related to the Jewish Pesach, because biblically that is the time of Jesus’ Resurrection: the fifteenth day of the Nissan month in the Jewish Calendar. Later, the previous six weeks became observed as LENT. The purpose of Lent is a preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, repentance of sins, and self-denial, which includes fasting in certain cases. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, includes six Sundays and ends on the day before Easter. It is traditionally described as a commemoration of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, meanwhile He endured temptation by Satan. The English word LENT is a shortened form of the Old English word Lencten, meaning “spring season,” as Lente in Dutch – and Lenz in German languages. TODAY IS THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT, and our Message is accordingly related to it…

Temptation is a powerful force in our lives. We all confront all kind of temptations on a daily basis, and Jesus’ story facing, and conquering it, teaches us how to avoid temptations in our own lives. I still recall a story read or heard in my childhood of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. It is an insight into the self-destructive nature of temptation and sin. First, the Eskimo coats his knife’s blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then, he adds another layer of blood, and another, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with its blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and reaches the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the edge is bare. Harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. His craving for blood becomes so great that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, and then ultimately being satisfied by his own warm blood … and finally the dawn finds him lying dead in the snow. Very expressive, isn’t it ?!

Today’s Bible-texts remind us that our capacity to repent and to resist temptation comes from our relationship with God and the grace of His deliverance rather than from our own spiritual strength. We live in a world of competing initiatives. In such a world, we must know the Christian way of avoiding the satanic traps in order to not fall captive. In Luke’s version of Jesus’ temptation we can clearly see the two distinct attitudes regarding the fall into sin and temptation. Why had Jesus be tempted at all? The temptation in the wilderness was in fact an attempt by Satan to trap Jesus into a concession that would force Him into disgrace. Innocent human faith may be pure, but it needs testing to be strong. This wasn’t the case with Jesus, His nature wasn’t sinful like ours, but the uncompromising way of how He defeated Satan is the testing of our own worthiness to celebrate whole-heartedly the Easter-meeting with our Risen Saviour and Lord.

1. – TEMPTATION OF HUNGER. (LUKE 4: 3-4) The first temptation seems pretty simple. Jesus has been fasting for 40 days and Satan offered Him a quick way to feed His hunger, by turning the rounded bread-shaped stones scattered in the desert into actual loaves of bread. This is the temptation to meet legitimate physical needs by illegitimate, unnecessary means. There is nothing wrong with meeting physical needs, – food, shelter, protection, medical support, – by … legitimate means; because there is a higher law than our physical desires, and that is God and His Word. By quoting from Deuteronomy 8: 3, Jesus’ point is that physical needs must be met God’s way, not in out selfish, short-cut ways. Humans are tempted to steal, to cheat, to lie, and even kill, to provide themselves what they see as necessary. God is able to assist us in supplying our needs, but we should rely on the requirements and restrictions, put up for us in His Commandments. Bread, physical fulfilment, is not more important than God’s Word and Way. Martin Luther once said, – Not the price of bread is the real expense, but all the rest, people are tempted to give away for it.
2. – TEMPTATION OF POWER AND WEALTH. (LUKE 4: 5-8) The second temptation is to authority and worldly glory. The devil   led Jesus up to a high place and showed Him the kingdoms of the world. This sounds like a vision. Jesus obviously saw the kingdoms, but Satan wasn’t able to draw Him into a dispute about ownership. Arguing with Satan makes the tempted person even more vulnerable. In higher politics or corporate power that kind of temptations are abundant. Just “play the game”, you are told, or “Just look the other way,” they say. The rewards can be tremendous, and this is how “overnight” millionaires appear; but at what cost?    The devil said, – If you worship me, it will all be yours, but Jesus answered with Scripture He had doubtless learned as a boy, – It is written: – Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” Our God is a jealous God. We are not free agents in His world, picking or choosing between different powers around us to take some benefits. We must rely on the Lord our God, or be sucked irresistibly into the orbit of the devil’s sphere. If we don’t worship the Lord, we are lost. Jesus knew that power was important to His mission as Messiah, but it must be The Power bestowed by His Father when time will come. His was the Hard Way to glory – through the Cross and grave and Resurrection. But in due time the Father exalted Him to the highest place that He deserved, and to the position in which He is publicly proclaimed before heaven and earth (Philippians 2: 6-11). It took longer and harder, but Jesus resisted, taking His Father’s path.
3. – TEMPTATION OF INSTANT ACCLAIM. (LUKE 4: 9-13) The third temptation of Jesus was for popularity. God…will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against the stone (Psalm 91: 11-12). This was Satan’s quotation from the Bible when he took Jesus to stand on the highest point of the Jerusalem Temple, asking Him to jump off to the pavement down below. Satan knew that Jesus is the Son of God. His invitation to this visible miracle of walking away from a certain mortal injury would make Jesus instantly so famous in the eyes of the pilgrims to the Temple, that perhaps would be acclaimed as Messiah on the spot. Jesus could choose the path of pride or humility. HE CHOOSE HUMILITY. The Bible says, – (Jesus),… being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tong confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2: 6-8). Jesus answered the devil with the words of Deuteronomy 6: 16: – Do not put the Lord your God to test. In other words, do not take some action that forces God’s hand, that seeks to manipulate God to do what He otherwise would not wish to do. The passage Jesus was quoting referred to the Israelites’ forcing God to act when they were thirsty at Massah in the wilderness. They had tested God by saying, – Is the Lord among us or not? If so, then prove it to us by giving us water. There is a kind of insistent unbelief in these sort of testing. Doubting Thomas said something the same, – Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it (John 20: 25). Louder and louder claims like, – My will to be done –  echo in our tested world, and I just wonder how many of these people know or remember, – Your will be done, – from The Lord’s Prayer. Jesus’ reply to Thomas answers all the doubting remarks, – Because you have seen me, you have believed me; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20: 29). Too often, we try to manipulate God, too, with bargains and deals. We need to take seriously Jesus’ words, – Do not put the Lord your God to test!

Have you ever wondered how Luke heard the story of Jesus’ temptation? Jesus was alone in the desert; no one had observed Him. Certainly Jesus himself told His disciples about His own temptation experience to teach them how to resist temptation themselves. I am sure, that over the course of forty days, Jesus experienced more than just three temptations. But He selected these three in order to teach and instruct His disciples. What Jesus teaches us is to answer temptations always with the Word of God, too. We need to know the Bible well enough to answer our doubts and fears and temptations with it, and apply the Word of God to every circumstance of our lives to emerge victorious from all temptations. Satan pulled one piece of Scripture out and tried to use it against Jesus. We should never take a biblical verse out of its context and try to use it alone. If we pull bits and pieces out of the Bible, as many people unfortunately do, we can make the Bible say anything we want. We must always study and use the Bible in its context. Jesus’ Messiahship had been shaped  by the principles of God’s guidance. Facing the temptations, He had considered them carefully as His Father’s plan, and as a result of it He triumphed with that power over the Evil. The hard way of service and of suffering led Jesus to the Cross, but after the cross to the Crown. Temptation is Satan’s weapon to defeat us, but it can become God’s tool to build us.

Later, Jesus told His disciples, – I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you (Luke 1o: 18-19). Jesus trampled on the desert snake and scorpion, and He offers us this power to prayerfully consider all the benefits of His death and Resurrection. Lent is the season before Easter, when we should take this exercise.     AMEN.

LET US PRAY:

LIVING AND LOVING GOD, You have promised to all who love You a peace that passes understanding. Forgive us that we have failed to make that our own. Teach us to be still, and know that You are God. Speak to us through the example of Jesus – the way He made time for quietness and prayer so that He could speak to You, the need He recognised for space and silence in which to seek Your guidance and to reflect on Your will, to overcome the temptations. Help us to live each day, every moment of this season of Lent and find peace, the rest for our souls that You have promised. Help us to know that Your love flows through us, reaching upwards in worship, inwards in fellowship and outwards in service, to the glory of Your name. We pray for our world, Your world Lord God, and for an end to all that frustrates Your purpose in it. We think of those in countries racked by conflict, famine, disease and poverty; of those who face repression and discrimination, persecuted for their faith or for who they are; and of those who are victims of crime, violence and var. Most of all, we bring before You the world-wide struggle to contain Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic in all its terrifying variants, as millions of people are dying, and potentially everyone of us in the world are in that great danger, too. We pray for the sick and suffering, and for those who mourn loved ones whom they not even had the chance to see for the last time before they died. Be, o Lord, with the elderly and the young, the lonely and who feel unloved, the disabled and disadvantaged in any ways. We pray for those in the medical profession: doctors, nurses, scientists, researchers, counsellors, and psychiatrists, whose roll increases day by day. We think in these difficult time of aid agencies, charities, food-banks, churches, politicians, police and members of the armed forces – these, and so many others who contribute to the fulfilment of Your purpose. Bless Your Christian Church in this Lent-season , our Church of Scotland in all its presbyteries and congregations, and all our sisters and brothers in our church, on our Island and in the world. Hear us in our quiet prayers … through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

THE LORD’S PRAYER: – OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN …

CLOSING HYMN (CH-210): – FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS Thou wast fasting in the wild; forty days and forty nights tempted still, yet undefiled.

Sunbeams scorching day by day; chilly dewdrops nightly shed; prowling beasts about Thy way; stones Thy pillow; earth Thy bed.

Shall not we Thy sorrow share, learn Thy discipline of will, and like Thee, by fast and prayer wrestle with the powers of ill?

What if Satan, vexing sore, flesh and spirit shall assail, Thou, his vanquisher before, will not suffer us to fail.

Watching, praying, struggling thus, victory ours at last shall be; angels minister to us as they ministered to Thee.

GOD IS FAITHFUL; HE WILL NOT LET YOU BE TEMPTED BEYOND WHAT YOU CAN BEAR. BUT WHEN YOU ARE TEMPTED, HE WILL ALSO PROVIDE A WAY OUT SO THAT YOU CAN STAND UP UNDER IT (1 Corinthians 10: 13). NOW TO HIM WHO IS ABLE TO DO IMMEASURABLY MORE THAN ALL WE ASK OR IMAGINE, ACCORDING TO HIS POWER THAT IS AT WORK WITHIN US, TO HIM BE GLORY IN THE CHURCH AND IN JESUS CHRIST THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS, FOR EVER AND EVER!  AMEN. (Ephesians 3: 20-21)

Sandor, your Minister.

JESUS ASKED, … WHICH IS EASIER: TO SAY, “YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN”, OR TO SAY, “GET UP AND WALK?” BUT THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT THE SON OF MAN HAS AUTHORITY ON EARTH TO FORGIVE SINS … I TELL YOU, GET UP … (AND WALK)             (Luke 5: 22-24)

WECOME TO OUR SUNDAY MORNING WEB-WORSHIP.

OPENING HYMN (CH-467): – TAKE OUR GIFTS, O LOVING JESUS, use them in some lovely way, for the happiness and comfort of the whole wide world today.

Let us be allowed to help You, in some plan of loving care, in some venture for the kingdom, by our deeds and by our prayer.

LET US PRAY:

LIVING AND LOVING GOD, we come in awe and wonder, to bring our worship, ourselves, and our world before You. Open our eyes to Your presence; open our lives to Your grace and our hearts to your power. We come to seek Your forgiveness, to confess our many faults, and to receive Your measureless mercy. We come seeking Your strength, Your guidance and Your will. We come to read Your word and Your message, and to discern Your purpose. We come offering our discipleship, our gifts, our talents, and abilities, committing all once again to Your service. Come afresh to us now in this time of worship – renew our commitment and vision, renew our faith, our hope and our love. Open our eyes to Your presence: open our lives to Your grace and to Your power. For we ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord.   AMEN.

OLD TESTAMENT READING: – JEREMIAH 17: 14 – 15.

HEAL ME, O LORD, AND I SHALL BE HEALED; SAVE ME AND I SHALL BE SAVED, FOR YOU ARE THE ONE I PRAISE. THEY KEEP SAYING TO ME, “WHERE IS THE WORD OF THE LORD? LET IT NOW BE FULFILLED!”

NEW TESTAMENT READING: – THE BOOK OF ACTS 3: 1 – 10.

ONE DAY PETER AND JOHN WERE GOING UP TO THE TEMPLE AT THE TIME OF PRAYER – AT THREE IN THE AFTERNOON. NOW A MAN CRIPPLED FROM BIRTH WAS BEING CARRIED TO THE TEMPLE GATE CALLED BEAUTIFUL, WHERE HE WAS PUT EVERY DAY TO BEG FROM THOSE GOING INTO THE TEMPLE COURTS. WHEN HE SAW PETER AND JOHN ABOUT TO ENTER, HE ASKED THEM FOR MONEY. PETER LOOKED STRAIGHT AT HIM, AS DID JOHN. THEN PETER SAID, “LOOK AT US!” SO THE MAN GAVE THEM HIS ATTENTION, EXPECTING TO GET SOMETHING FROM THEM. THEN PETER SAID, “SILVER OR GOLD I DO NOT HAVE, BUT WHAT I HAVE I GIVE YOU. IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH, WALK.” TAKING HIM BY THE RIGHT HAND, HE HELPED HIM UP, AND INSTANTLY THE MAN’S FEET AND ANKLES BECAME STRONG. HE JUMPED TO HIS FEET AND BEGAN TO WALK. THEN HE WENT WITH THEM INTO THE TEMPLE COURTS, WALKING AND JUMPING, AND PRAISING GOD. WHEN ALL THE PEOPLE SAW HIM WALKING AND PRAISING GOD, THEY RECOGNISED HIM AS THE SAME MAN WHO USED TO SIT BEGGING AT THE TEMPLE GATE CALLED BEAUTIFUL, AND THEY WERE FILLED WITH WONDER AND AMAZEMENT AT WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO HIM.

This is the third week we have the Message through Jesus’ disciple and apostle Peter. His apostleship wouldn’t be complete without this unique healing miracle of the Crippled Beggar at the Temple’s gate.

Peter was originally named Simon. Jesus was the One who changed his name, Peter meaning “rock” or literally PETRA. He was among the first disciples called by Jesus, and frequently their spokesman – for good or bad. One thing Peter is credited with was the essential insight that he had concerning Jesus’ identity, calling Jesus – according to the Gospels, – The Son of the Living God – the Messiah. A disciple means a “follower of” and that is what most Christians actually are today. An apostle was “one sent forth” in the sense of “sent forth by God to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ”, fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20). After Jesus’ ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit, Peter was the first one to preach on the day of Pentecost, and he was the first to proclaim Christ to a gentile. He willingly suffered persecution, imprisonment, beatings, and finally execution by crucifixion in Rome. The early Christian tradition said that Peter asked to be crucified head-down because he felt unworthy to be crucified in the way that the Lord Jesus Christ had been. The lowly fisherman became a mighty fisher-of-men, and one that changed and shaped the world forever. One who still proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ to us today, through his humble words and deeds, being the tool in the hands of his Lord to perform the miraculous healing of the Crippled Beggar at the Beautiful Gate of the Jerusalem Temple.

Peter and John were going to the Temple to pray at three in the afternoon. That was a peak time of prayer at the Temple and so there would have been crowds of people around. As they approached, they passed by a lame man who would be carried to the gate of the Temple by his family, and as worshippers would come and go, he would ask them if they could spare a coin for a lame man. He had become good at asking and begging for money. He was made to believe that money was the greatest need in his life. He thought he would be on that mat for the rest of his life. He thought things would always remain the same. He never gave other things much thought because lying on that mat was all he had ever known. Sometimes we make the mistake in thinking that – If I only had more money, my life would be much better. The truth is that money is not our greatest need. Our greatest need will always be to have a vibrant, personal relationship with Jesus, and with each other.

So Peter and John arrived at the Temple and the lame man sitting there asked them for money. But the disciples had no money to give him. Instead, they had something more valuable to give away: – In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, getting him up and to walk. And immediately, they helped the man to his feet, and he had been healed and was able to walk again. And then, there is this lovely scene in verse 8: – Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. What an incredible turnaround in his fortunes, and what a shocking experience for all those around him!  He had not expected anything miraculous to occur that day; just to go begging as usual and receive some money from kind people. Instead, he was healed and was able not only to walk but also to believe and worship God, his Saviour. This apparently simple biblical story has some very important and relevant messages for nowadays Christians, both individually and as a Church, in this time of hurt, anxiety, despair, depression, and grief caused by the long lasting, terrible Coronavirus pandemic. Here we have three of them.

1. – REACHING OUT PRAYERFULLY TO THE HURTING.

It is important that our story comes immediately after Pentecost, the story about how thousands were coming to the Christian faith through the ministry of the apostles, and then moves straight into this story of how one single man came to faith in Christ.  One of the most important roles of the Church – according to Jesus’ Great Commission – is to reach out to the hurting parts of the community. That hurting can take many forms: – it may be physical illness, grief, broken relationship, loneliness, eldership, fear, and of course, all the medical and social aspects of the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Hurt comes in many forms and Christians are called to speak into the hurt with the healing words of Christ so that we can be agents of healing and wholeness. In most cases we do not have anything else to offer, do we? But we can bring words of comfort, words of hope, we can offer our friendship, we can listen to people as they talk, and … more than just words of encouragement … PRAYER … in the name of Jesus Christ the Saviour, which is the greatest gift of all. We know and they should also know that He is just a prayer away.

2. – REACHING OUT BY WORKING TOGETHER AS A CHURCH. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses the metaphor to describe the church as a family: – some people are hands, some are feet, some are eyes, some are hands and acting together as one body. We need each other to work effectively together so that the healing power of the Lord can really make an impact on all those who are hurting in body and in soul. Peter and John were engaged in this miracle because they were such different personalities. Peter was a hands-on, pragmatic, hot-headed, impulsive “doer”. He was a working man, a fisherman with calloused hands and deep passion. John, as we know from the style of his Gospel, was much more of a philosopher, a deep thinker, more reserved. And yet, God brought them together, to enable them to work for the glory of His Name. As different as they were, they really complemented each other. We are all very different as people, and we all have different gifts and talents, yet, working and praying together we can fulfil our calling, to be salt and light for those around us, in a world that is crying out for healing and help.
3. – OUTREACH DEPENDS ON GOD’S AUTHORITY AND POWER. Peter was not a healer. Peter was not a miracle worker or magician. Instead, Peter was just an ordinary human being like us, but he knew that God had the power to heal and so he called on the authority and power of God in the name of Jesus, to bring about the healing that the man really needed. Peter just prayerfully offered Jesus’ ministry of teaching and healing, and along the way the Lord performs the miracles to accompany the ministry so that people may believe. The Crippled Beggar was the one everyone saw over and over again out at the front of the Temple. He was someone, people felt sorry for but rarely ever did anything to help. This was the man who, when the worshippers saw him, they crossed over on the other side. This was the one who would at best receive a small coin but never anything else. This was the man who had written off any hope of ever having a life different from that which he was currently living. And this man has been touched by God, given healing and faith to know and never forget that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Luke 1: 37). Peter had been just a tool in the hands of God, and the same is true for us. We are ordinary people, with ordinary gifts and talents; we are not healers, nor miracle workers, but we do have in Christ a relationship with God who has the authority and power to heal and transform lives for the better. We have little to offer people: we do not have the magic touch against Coronavirus, nor an endless pot of resources in terms of time, health or wealth. But we do know a God who is limitless in His authority and power to help, heal and transform.

You know by now that I love William Barclay’s Commentaries. Here there is another quotation from him: – It is a fact that any doctor or surgeon can now do things which in apostolic times would have been regarded as miracles. God has revealed new truth and new knowledge to us, and through that revelation they are still performing miracles. As a great doctor said, “I bandage the wounds; but God heals them”. For Christians, there are still miracles all around if they have eyes to see.   (The Acts of the Apostles, page 37)

AMEN.

LET US PRAY:

ALMIGHTY LORD GOD, You have made us in Your image, each one the work of Your hands, a unique and precious creation, and we praise You for it. We thank You that You are a God who hears and answers prayer, and we praise You for those times when You have responded to us and granted our requests. But we confess that there also times when You seem silent, when, listen though we might, we cannot hear Your voice. In these terrifying times of the Coronavirus pandemic, we keep on praying for the best but still fearing the worst. We do believe in You, Lord God; help us to overcome our unbelief. We pray for those who are facing very difficult times with this pandemic – battling with the illness, wrestling with depression, anxious about the future, loved ones or themselves. We pray for those who are burdened by doubt, crushed by failure and grief, overwhelmed by loneliness and lockdown, and who long to find hope but who find it hard to get close to You. We are conscious that so many in our world today cry out to You yet seem to receive no answer – some because they do not expect to receive any, some because they are not ready or willing to listen, some because they do not understand what You are saying, but many are genuinely and urgently longing to hear Your voice, Your message, Your guidance. Speak to them Lord God, we pray. Do not keep silent, use us as You have used Peter and John, and reach out into the pain, the hurt, the need and hopelessness of so many lives around us; may we bring Your Word of comfort, of peace, of healing, love and renewal. May we bring friendship to the lonely, encouragement to the sick, and comfort to the bereaved. In our homes, local communities, our country and our world, may Your love, authority and power be shared among us, bringing hope and healing to all. Bless Your Christian Church universal, and our Church of Scotland in all its presbyteries and congregations, and be with us as Your Church in this place to fulfil our calling, through Jesus Christ our Lord.         AMEN.

THE LORD’S PRAYER: – OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN …

CLOSING HYMN (CH-462): – TAKE MY LIFE, AND LET IT BE consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King. Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart – it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love; my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure-store. Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

FINALLY, WHATEVER IS TRUE, WHATEVER IS NOBLE, WHATEVER IS RIGHT, WHATEVER IS PURE, WHATEVER IS LOVELY, WHATEVER IS ADMIRABLE – IF ANYTHING IS EXCELLENT OR PRAISEWORTHY – THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS. WHATEVER YOU HAVE LEARNED OR RECEIVED OR HEARD … PUT INTO PRACTICE. AND THE GOD OF PEACE WILL BE WITH YOU.   (Philippians 4: 8-9).

AMEN.

Sandor, your Minister.