Pastoral Letter August 2017

Jonathan HuntLeave a comment

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27
Dear Friends,

We have recently recommenced our series in the gospel of John, and on the day this edition comes out, we will (God-willing) complete chapter 14. It contains many wonderful sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ which are striking, but none, perhaps is as apt in the present day as the verse above.

In the latter part of John 14, the Lord Jesus announces three blessings for His disciples, and all His people. One, of course, is the ‘Helper’, or ‘Comforter’ – the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. The second is this peace we are speaking of, and the third is knowledge. All three are closely interrelated.

There is precious little peace in the world today — not just in the sense of an absence of war and unrest, but in the personal sense — a settled, calm, frame of mind, the banishing of anxiety, clarity of thought, a slower pace for our hearts and minds. So much today is frantic, pressured, demanding instant responses, decisions, and so on.

Many folk today fret because they don’t feel safe. Whether because of terrorism, crime, or perhaps compromises in health and safety, or perhaps all three — a gnawing anxiety is eating away at the soul of our nation. This is because we are a nation who have, by and large, forgotten God. And we have done so by choice, even by demand. There is great attention being paid to the events at Dunkirk in 1940 with the release of a new film, but one part of the matter has been forgotten — that the King called the nation to prayer beforehand, and millions responded.

True peace cannot come from any source other than the Prince of Peace. True freedom and rest of soul won’t be found in any election result, bank balance or safety precaution. How we need to hear our Saviour’s voice, and trust Him. He gives His people His peace. Just ask Him.

Pastoral Letter May 2017

Jonathan HuntLeave a comment

Dear Friends,

“I am the LORD — I do not change” — Malachi 3:6

I am writing this letter at the Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference, meeting for the first time at a residential centre near Stafford after decades in Leicester. It seems rather strange when something so familiar changes — even stranger that it snowed here this morning, in late April! At this conference there is an annual opportunity to catch up with old friends, but there is also a solemn and constant reminder of the passing of time. Old friends do indeed become older! Each year comes the reading of names of those who have gone to glory, or who are too infirm to attend any longer. We thank God, however, that old friends are being replaced by new friends, and that new preachers are being raised up.

Of course, the same things happen in family, social, and church life — but as we see each other daily, or weekly, the effect is not nearly so noticeable! The ‘change and decay’ we see all around us should not bring us to despair, however. We know that we live in a world which is only temporary, which is passing away. We know that we are all mortal, and that our bodies are a part of the creation which is ‘passing away’. Then, in life, we are people who change, and we are surrounded by people who change. We may change our minds on various things. We may change our attitudes or our tastes and preferences. Over time, we can become very different people. Often we will be let down by those who are ‘changeable’ — inconstant. People who don’t keep their word, or contradict themselves. It can be so deeply frustrating and upsetting.

But our God does not change. Everything else could change, and most things will. But He will not, and He cannot. In Malachi 3, the words following our text are ‘therefore you are not consumed’ — and how comforting this is. Our God is not only unchanging in Who He is, but in all He has said and done. Jesus Christ has come to redeem us, to purchase eternal life. Therefore we, His people, can know that we are secure for ever. Who He is, He will always be. What He has done He cannot undo. If we are His, our sin is forgiven, and our eternal future is secured. Whatever disappointments or sorrows come to us because of this changing world, none will come from Him — He does not change!

Pastoral Letter April 2017

Jonathan HuntLeave a comment

I do not know this man!

Dear Friends,
In introducing this month’s magazine, I wanted to remind you of Simon Peter’s denial of Jesus, when He was on trial in the High Priest’s house, just hours before His death at Calvary. Normally bold and even brash, Peter is scared for his own safety and becomes almost angry in his denial that he was ever with Jesus, or knew Him. We believe that Mark, who was a young man at this time and not one of the disciples, wrote his gospel based on the eyewitness account of Peter, and so it is in Mark 15 that we find the most unflattering (honest and blunt!) version of the exchange in the courtyard of the High Priest’s house. We believe it is Peter’s own testimony that he ‘began to curse and swear’, such was his desperation to wriggle out of any connection to this ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.

When I was visiting Dublin in 2015, I came across this striking picture in the National Gallery (and it was one for which, conveniently, photography was allowed). The artist is unknown, but he was a follower of the great artist Caravaggio, and he lived in Rome. The picture is titled “St Peter Den2015-03-03 15.39.50ying Christ” and was painted between 1610-1625. I was very struck by the facial expressions, which are that much clearer when you stand in front of a large canvas like this. Here we see the female servant who is mentioned, and on her face is pure disbelief. It is almost as though she is saying ‘Come on — all the evidence is clear — you are one of Jesus’ disciples!’, while Peter is a picture of sincerity, ‘hand to heart’ and the other raised in protest. While we may not be in danger of our lives, it seems that to admit that you know or follow Jesus in 2017 is just as undesirable as it was for Peter all those years ago, at the first ‘Easter’.

This edition of the ‘Messenger’ is largely given over to three stories of people who are not ashamed to say that they follow Jesus. Some are modern, some are older. I hope that these stories, or ‘testimonies’ will be of interest to you. Perhaps you are reading this ‘magazine’ for the first time, and you wonder what all the fuss is about. Why do people still go to church? Why would anyone want to admit that they were a follower of Jesus? Going back to Peter himself — why would he soon come to the point where he not only stopped denying he knew Jesus, (he repented of it) but boldly told everyone about this man, even though ultimately it would bring him to a martyr’s death? Well, if you come to know ‘this man’ — The Lord Jesus Christ — you will find that the answer is plain. If you know Him, then you will have everlasting life.

Pastoral Letter March 2017

Jonathan HuntLeave a comment

“Pray without ceasing”

Dear Friends,

We lead with the Apostle Paul’s very simple urging, one of a list, to ‘pray without ceasing’.
We need to follow this instruction! As we have seen in our recent series ‘The Battle for Souls’ — there is no greater need than that we see conversions, and there is no other source of power in this battle than the Lord Himself. Of course there are many other things we need to pray about, but there can be few things of such vital importance — for the glory of God, and for the continued life of our church. The ministry we seek to engage in together (the work of the ministry is for all, not just for the Pastor — see ministry from Ephesians 4) is most simply expressed in two ways — to see sinners saved, and to see believers grow in the faith. All of this is a supernatural work, a spiritual work. We cannot possibly imagine that any number of things we do — however worthy they may be — will bring these two aims to pass.

We can study God’s word diligently. We can preach it powerfully. We can witness faithfully. We can do many good things — but only God can change hearts and minds, and we need to seek Him in prayer, together.

Prayer together humbles us. It reminds us that we all depend entirely upon the Lord. Prayer together encourages us — we may discuss things together but to hear one and another pleading with the Lord is heartening, as we realise that we are united in our longing. So we can also say that prayer together unites us. Prayer together also edifies us, as we learn from one another’s prayers.

Enough theory. There will be no progress without prayer, and we will see no blessing either. There will be more ‘Opportunities to Pray’ from this month forwards. Please see the website for details of when and where we will be gathering to pray. And make this your priority. Nothing matters more.

Pastoral Letter January 2017

Jonathan HuntLeave a comment

Thus far the Lord has helped us

— 1 Samuel 7:12

Dear Friends,

It is five years since our family came to Morton, but it now seems to me as though we have always been here. It is good to take a moment at the turn of the year to look back, and to look forward also.

Whatever our experience has been, if we love the LORD we can say “thus far the LORD has helped us”. It is good to place on record, as Samuel did when he set up the stone ‘Ebenezer’, that whatever the passing of time has brought, the LORD has helped us to this very place and time in our lives. He has not failed us, nor will He ever do so.

These five years have been hard for various reasons. Several dear friends have been called home to be ‘forever with the Lord’ and while we rejoice for their happiness, we miss them. Many of us have been very sick and suffered in mind and body. Yet, God has not failed us. We did not know if we would reach five years together as a fellowship without our resources being exhausted. Yet, we have, and giving has not fallen, but increased. We did not know what we could do to reach out to people, and yet the Lord has sent in a good number of new friends and has encouraged us with the best response we have seen for a very long time at our recent Christmas services. The baptistry had been dry for many years, but we have had cause to use it, and we have reason to hope we will use it again. We may feel that our meetings are insignificant and unnoticed, yet they are observed by Heaven itself. We may feel that few people are hearing God’s word, and yet each sermon is heard by at least three times the number of our congregation via the internet, and some are downloaded hundreds of times in dozens of countries. We have been able to distribute thousands of gospel invitations and items of literature on the doors, at the market and at the Carnival. We have seen magnificent answers to specific prayers. We have had the privilege of standing with brothers in London who are seeking God at work. There is so much more that we could lay out here!

We have every reason to be positive about the future — because it is the Lord our God who is our helper. We have every reason to pray more fervently for the salvation of souls — because the gospel is glorious and powerful, and Christ’s redemption is sufficient for all His people who have believed, and have yet to believe. We have been given a mission by the King of Kings, and we know that His kingdom cannot fail, and that He is building His church. We give God thanks for His faithfulness to us. We look back with gratitude and thoughtfulness. We look forward with excitement. He will not fail us.

His love in time past, forbids us to think,
He’ll leave us at last, in trouble to sink.
Each sweet ‘Ebenezer’ we have in review,
confirms His good pleasure to help us quite through.
(John Newton).

May the Lord bless us all!

Pastoral Letter November 2016

Jonathan HuntLeave a comment

Dear Friends,

“a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past”

– Psalm 90.4

The words of Psalm 90 verse 4 help us to put our lives into perspective by giving us God’s perspective. We consider the appalling loss of life in modern wars, and one often-mentioned fact is the terrible losses on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when 19,240 men died within 24 hours. But these are not the worst ‘daily’ losses we have ever known. In the Wars of the Roses, without the aid of modern weaponry, an astonishing 28,000 men died in one day at the Battle of Towton (1461). The great wars of the past century, however, along with genocides and other wicked actions such as the Holocaust, and the purges of various Communist and Fascist regimes, do overshadow the whole of recorded history. We remember loss, and injustice, and we are thankful for those who have given their lives in support of freedom and in opposition to oppression. But how easily and readily we forget, and how necessary it is to set time aside to remember.

It is not so with the Lord our God. He is the Creator of all things, including time. He is outside of time and in control of it. A thousand years, to him, are like ‘yesterday when it is past’. Our cover features a picture of the Roman ruins at Scythopolis in Israel. Once they formed part of a great city, but that city was only minor in an enormous empire. Those under the rule of it and citizens of it could scarcely have imagined the possibility that it would fall, and that such impressive cities would one day be merely ruins. But the Lord knew. He saw it all. So, today, He knows and sees all things. We seek to serve Him in difficult days when it seems that faith is unwelcome in the public square and that the vast majority of people in our society despise or pity us as fools. Our time, our circumstances, seem like they are everything. They are not. The horrors of persecution seem like they are novel and unending. They are not. It feels as though violence, murder, and war will endure forever. They will not.

Only God’s Kingdom is ‘everlasting’. Human history is in His sight merely the blink of an eye, and all godless human endeavour is no more significant than the scurrying of a colony of ants. We remember with thanksgiving the sacrifice of those before us. We weep with those who weep. But we do not despair! Jesus Christ has died once for all. The Lord is Sovereign over all things, and He will be glorified by the entirety of human history. Meanwhile, considering how insignificant is time itself, our greatest focus must be eternity. Are we prepared for it? What about our friends, family, and neighbours? How will you use the little time that you do have, in the light of eternity?

August 2016 – Blessed are those whose strength is in You

Jonathan HuntLeave a comment

Dear Friends,

It seemed to make sense to publish the sermon from Marlene’s funeral in this slot rather than detracting from its message with another one:

That we are here today is not a surprise to any of us. That doesn’t mean that it is easy to be here, or that our hearts are not heavy. But we have known for a few months that Marlene would soon leave us. Amidst our sadness, if only we knew it, and if only we were looking, we have had the opportunity to see a follower of Jesus die well. What do I mean? I mean that Marlene did not fear death. I mean that she was full of joy and peace which has no rational explanation, and I mean that she wasted no opportunity to tell those who came in to nurse her or to visit her, that she had this joy and peace because of Jesus Christ, her Saviour.

As we have watched, waited, and prayed these last few months, the Lord laid a particular verse from the Bible on my heart. It is found in Psalm 84. This is a Psalm, a song, about longing to be in God’s presence. In the Old Testament, it referred to visiting that literal place, the Tabernacle, later the Temple, where God chose to show His presence among men. Many of the Jews would make a pilgrimage to visit what we would call ‘God’s House’. That place where God and Man came close together. The Psalm begins with these words:

How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord;

My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

But the days of the Tabernacle and the Temple are past. There is no need for sacrifices any more. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came from eternity and entered time, was born of the virgin Mary, and lived a perfect life here on earth. He offered that life up, and died on Calvary’s Cross willingly, that, as He said Himself “whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. Then He rose from the dead the third day, defeating death. All of a sudden, the temple was no longer needed. There was no longer a need for sacrifice, because Jesus shed His own blood. There was no longer a need for a ‘Holy Place’ where man could not go, because now, just as we sing at Christmas: “Peace on earth, and mercy mild: God and Sinners Reconciled” Now the way to God is open through Jesus Christ, and now He dwells eternally in the hearts of all His people.

What was the verse that God laid on my heart? It is found in the middle of the Psalm, verse 5: Blessed are those whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

How do we account for Marlene’s strength in these last days? I understand that she was always a strong person. Philip testifies to how fiercely loyal and faithful she was when he worked very long hours. A good many years into their marriage, Philip became a Christian. Marlene didn’t know what was going on. Sometimes she went to church with him and came away shaking her head saying ‘I can’t understand what they are on about’. Until one day, when she went into the chapel at Westerleigh, heard once again of the love of Jesus, and came out a different person. She turned away from her sin and trusted in what Jesus had done on the cross, that He would take the punishment due to her for her sin, that he would stand in her place, that He would make her right with God. God had met with her, and opened her eyes and ears to understand the gospel.

Human strength will only take you so far. But Marlene came to take on a new strength. What does our text say? Blessed are those whose strength is IN YOU. Her strength was in God, it came from God. God chose her, God called her, God saved her, God kept her, and late on Saturday 18th June, He welcomed her home to eternal glory.

But it wasn’t the language about strength that really caught hold of me. It was what the Psalm says about the heart of someone who follows God: ‘Whose heart is set on pilgrimage’. When Marlene became a Christian, she had a change of heart. A complete change. Her heart used to be set on the things of this world. Having a family, a good home, being a wife, and mother. Those are not at all bad things of course, but they are not the most important things. When she became a Christian, her heart became set on the journey of life, a journey with only one destination for her. From the day she trusted Jesus until the day she finally saw Him, her heart was set on that very thing — to be with Him. She didn’t want to leave Philip behind. She didn’t want to leave any of us behind, but she knew that to be with Jesus was ‘far better’. We thank God for giving her what felt like ‘extra time’ here, time to be with the family. But when her strength failed, I believe that she stopped walking the pilgrim way, and began to run home. Humanly speaking, she became so weak she could do nothing for herself, but we know that spiritually she was a strong as a lion.

One of her very last times here at Morton, she heard her first Pastor, Dr John Hall, preaching on Jesus’ words in John 14:

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

Jesus prepared a place for Marlene, and she is now safely in it. She was blessed because she trusted God, and drew her lasting strength from Him, and because she trusted God, her heart was set on pilgrimage, on the journey of life, and while we mourn today, our loss is Heaven’s gain. We have no reason to weep for her. No joy can match hers. No wealth can equal her treasure in heaven. No strength can approach hers now!

We know that Marlene’s only concern was leaving her friends and family behind. First, because she loved you, but second, because she knew that many of you here have not turned from your sin, or trusted in Jesus. Her deepest desire was that you too might know what she knew, and what she now knows perfectly: forgiveness of your sin, peace with God, and eternal life. Friends, life is a journey, and we are all on one of two paths. When you trust Jesus, you are changing direction.

IMG_1440There is a broad, easy way in life, that Jesus says leads to destruction. We read that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. If you don’t repent of your sin and trust in Christ alone, then you are the one who will be punished for your sin. God is Holy, and Just. He must do what is right. But as it says right behind me, ‘God is love’. How do we know this? Because Jesus stands ready, able, and willing to save whoever believes on Him. Even John Newton, the wicked slave trader. Even the Apostle Paul, who was guilty of murder. Even the dying thief on the cross who had no chance to do anything godly or good, but simply trusted in Christ.

Marlene chose the readings today. She didn’t know that I would be saying something about Psalm 84. I know she wanted me to say something about part of Ephesians 2, which we read earlier. Here it is again, here is the proof that it is true – God IS love : For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

What is it all about, this Christianity? What is the message of the Bible? It is that God saves sinners. It is that man cannot save himself. Marlene is in Heaven not because of anything she did but because of what Jesus Christ did perfectly on her behalf. He lived that perfect life we cannot live, and died that saving death we cannot die.

Christians are not ‘goody two shoes’ who earn their way into God’s favour by trying to live right, fasting, charity, or lighting candles, reciting prayers or even confessing to a priest. Real Christians are ordinary flawed people who have grasped this one simple fact – that salvation, and eternal life, are God’s gift to all who trust Him. They cannot be bought, they cannot be earned, they cannot be deserved. But Jesus paid the price –

Jesus paid it all.
All to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Marlene’s journey is over, and all is well. She is more alive than any of us. In front of us is a container, a coffin. Inside it is another container, a body. But Marlene is not here. Her soul is with the Lord, until the last day when He will make all things new and reunite body and soul. This is a broken world – Adam sinned and God’s perfect creation was ruined. Death separates body and soul. Tell me, while you are here, body and soul, which path are you on? Tell me, what is your heart set on? This world is passing away fast. Our lives will soon be done. The letter of James calls them a ‘vapour’. Each one us has a never-dying soul. Where will you spend eternity? Where is your hope?

What will be the source of your strength when life’s trials come, or when the end approaches? Don’t despair, but trust Christ. What He has done for Marlene, He can, and will, do for all who believe on Him.

I close with a few passages from God’s Word which speak to us about the glorious future of all who trust in Him:

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man

The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

1 Corinthians 2:9

He will swallow up death forever,

And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces;

The rebuke of His people

He will take away from all the earth;

For the Lord has spoken.

And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;

We have waited for Him, and He will save us.

This is the Lord; We have waited for Him;

We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”
Isaiah 25:8-9

They shall neither hunger any more nor thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Revelation 7:16-17

Blessed are those whose strength is in You,

Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

Psalm 84:5

Amen