We often remember the first time we experienced something wonderful, and we can often we can associate a song or sound with that first experience. A song playing in the car, the first time we drove alone having got a license, the song from a first date, night sounds from our first holiday in the wild. The Scriptures in Psalms, Isaiah and Revelation mention a New Song nine times. Every mention has a number of things in common. As we prepare to enter the new year, this New Song can teach us to navigate each new experience this year in a way that will strengthen and encourage us and those we meet for years to come.

Three days can be a long time - but when today is hard and there seems no chance of tomorrow being any better, remember that God delights to bring new life on the third day. Moses, Abraham, Jonah, Hezekiah, Esther and the disciples all saw the glory of God on the third day. They all have something to teach us about looking forward in hope, no matter the circumstances.

We tell the events of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem every year, we are so accustomed to it, we tend to forget how remarkable they are. We learn from Luke’s Gospel that Ceasar Augustus passes a tax bill that means Mary and Joseph needed to travel to Bethlem from Nazareth to take part in the census. This is a 150km journey, while Mary was 9 months pregnant. If that little donkey who has been so beloved and cherished over the years slipped or stumbled and Mary fell, Jesus would have been born somewhere between Nazareth and Bethlehem. But it wasn’t so because God had prepared the journey from time immortal. Micah prophesied this 700 years before it happened, against all odds.

Luke records that Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman empire issued a decree that everyone in the empire was to travel to their town of birth to be registered in a massive census. This meant that people all over Europe, North Africa and the Middle East had to undertake arduous journeys at the behest of one very powerful individual. Joseph and Mary had to travel almost 150km from their home to the place where Joseph was born, Bethlehem in Judea. The world has seen many empires and powerful leaders like Caesar, but not one of them acts outside of the foreknowledge and control of our Father in Heaven. Daniel’s prophecies show just how perfectly God holds this universe in His loving control.

John the Baptist had God ordained the purpose of preparing people for the arrival of Jesus Christ the Messiah. John’s father Zechariah prophesied that the sunrise was about to happen, that light would swallow up darkness and reveal God’s mercy and grace and our desperate need for Him and His grace. This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of the way that all flesh would see the Glory of God, but what does it mean to see the Glory of God. Do we see the Glory of God?

Jesus is given many titles in Scripture, but at His birth He is named Jesus which means “God saves” and He is given the title Emmanuel which means “God with us”. This fulfils an ancient prophecy and brings about God’s ultimate saving act. Jesus saves us from the most savage enemy we have ever had, sin. Our distrust and disobedience to God is more deadly than anything else because it’s destruction is permanent and eternal. As we approach Christmas and the celebration of God coming in the flesh to be with us, we need to meditate on whether we trust in His power and love alone, or whether we’ve strayed to looking for help, peace and comfort in other places.

The great blessing of fulfilled prophecy is in the way that it strengthens our trust in God and His Word. From the first mention of the victory of Jesus over sin, death and Satan in Genesis three, the Old Testament is packed with predictions that Jesus Christ fulfilled. By looking at how God overcame obstacles to His plan, we gain deeper trust for the promises He has yet to fulfil. When God promises His Shepherd will guide us to springs of living water, we don’t wish for it, we wait for it.

Today, we’re continuing a new series on prophecy that will lead us into our Christmas day service. And today we’re looking at the most beautiful scripture which is so appropriate for us right now. Not just because of Christmas, but because of what’s happening in the world around us. It speaks of another kind of match, a deathmatch battle between good and evil that’s been raging since the dawn of time, but one which was also won before it even began.

Prophecy and it’s fulfilment reveals God, His power and His love in the most wonderful way. Looking back we can trace God’s predictions through the Bible across millennia and marvel at the precision with which they have been fulfilled. This leads us to look forward to the prophecies which have yet to be fulfilled, primarily those concerning the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly there has never been a shortage of unbiblical predictions that contradict Scripture and still manage to find a large and willing audience on social and other forms of media. What does the Bible teach about prophecy and how are we to understand it’s place now? Thankfully, by God’s grace the answer is in God’s Word, especially in the letter to the Corinthians.

The prophets searched and for it. The Apostles revealed it, and the angels long to look into it. Peter knows all about it, the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Peter knew from bitter-sweet experience that God’s grace has great power to sustain us through difficult times. He tells how the Holy Spirit predicted the suffering and glories of Jesus which will bring about and perfect God’s eternal plan of saving His children and restoring us to Himself.

The Lord Jesus told us to remember Him by breaking bread at His Table. Who can come to the Table, How do we celebrate the Table? When can we, and where can we celebrate the Lord’s Table, and most importantly, why do we come to the Lord’s Table? The Scriptures show us that we must look backward and remember Jesus, look forward to eating and drinking in the Kingdom with Him, look inward and confess our sin and need for Him, and then look outward at those who are one with us in the celebration of the Table. This helps us to be grateful for Him and everything He has done, and respond in gratitude which is why it’s also called the Cup of Blessing or Thanksgiving.

What does water baptism do? Does it save us? Does it impart a spiritual benefit? These questions have divided believers for centuries. The Bible makes it clear that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Bible alone, to the glory of God alone. Baptism cannot save - only faith can, but can baptism impart some sort of protection or spiritual blessing? 1 Corinthians 7:14 is often cited as proof of this kind of blessing that is imparted to infants by baptism. Is that a valid interpretation, or is it something else that imparts a spiritual blessing or covering to our children until they can make a faith declaration for themselves?

Times change and churches change, we are experiencing those changes right now, but what should never change about the Church? How can the Church be separated from the world, committed to God and pleasing to Him? The Hebrew Church was being taught to worship God without the Temple, the altar and a High Priest that they had been excluded from. The author ends his instructions to the Hebrew Church with three keys to committing to to God and pleasing Him despite changing times. If we obey these instructions the Church will be powerful and pleasing to God no matter what the circumstances.

Times change and churches change, we are experiencing those changes right now, but what should never change about the Church? How can the Church be separated from the world, committed to God and pleasing to Him? The Hebrew Church was being taught to worship God without the Temple, the altar and a High Priest that they had been excluded from. The author ends his instructions to the Hebrew Church with three keys to committing to to God and pleasing Him despite changing times. If we obey these instructions the Church will be powerful and pleasing to God no matter what the circumstances.

Nobody likes being excluded, there is a deep human need to belong and be appreciated. To be included though, to enter into belonging somewhere, we have to leave somewhere else. Exclusion is necessary for proper inclusion. A husband leaves his father and mother and becomes one flesh with his wife. He forsakes all other women, leaves them so that he can be devoted to his wife. Remember, when the world excludes us for the sake of Jesus, we aren’t just leaving the world, we’re being included in the Kingdom.

We’re all looking for ways to cope in the days of pandemic, isolation, economic pressure, anxiety and loss. There’s no shortage of those selling their own formulas for overcoming these challenges, many of them centre on “inner strength”. If we have inner strength we will weather these storms and prosper - but is that true, and what is inner strength. Is it unshakeable self-belief and prioritisation of our selves which will elevate us above the struggles of this world? The Scripture shows us a different way, a powerful way that carries us through trouble - and takes others with us. True Inner strength does not come from us, and is not focused on us, yet it has the power to give us hope, purpose, victory and peace.

The author is concluding chapter 12 with a crescendo. He’s telling the Hebrews to listen to the words of our Lord Jesus because our world and earthly things will be shaken until there is nothing left! He’s calling his audience to focus on a new, unshakable Kingdom. And that’s how we end Hebrews 12 today. It’s the last warning from the book… There is a final chapter, chapter 13, which is an epilogue of the book, so today we cover the book’s last warning.

If you’ve ever struggled to picture God, or battled to comprehend how He loves you, then here is an image of Him. Jesus called the little children to come to Him, He picked them up, embraced them and loved them. He blessed them and prayed over them. He was indignant with anyone who tried to prevent them from coming to Him. Jesus tells us that if we have seen Him, we’ve seen the Father. No wonder parents brought their children to Jesus, they wanted the best for their children. They wanted Jesus to bless them. The best gift that they and any parent can give to their child is to give them to Jesus, and then to do everything they can to help them to know and love Him. Everything else we can give them will fade away, but a relationship with God is forever.

How can we take care of our mental health in times of crisis? The Christians who first heard the letter to the Hebrews were struggling with that and were being tempted to choose the Old Covenant of Moses over the New Covenant secured by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Son of God. The Old Covenant was fading fast and even the Temple was about to be destroyed. We are in a similar position. We are tempted to choose a Covenant with the world, which is fading fast, over the same New Covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant may have be more tangible, but through it God was less accessible. The world is the same. The New Covenant may not be realised with by our senses right now, but it is every bit as real, and makes God completely accessible to all who believe, now and forever. This is the foundation for the Christian’s mental health and fortitude.