Latest News
Last updated 10.35pm Thursday 26 March 2026.
Thursday 24 March 2026
Jim Harries - End-March News
In Jim's latest news he ponders whether he is a 'missionary'. This fits in well with our 'Love Your Church chapter on sending This is the video to which Jim refers:
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Sunday 22 March 2026
Weekly Sheet
Is available to download (22/03/2026) as are the sermon notes.
3.45pm, 10.15pm Audio recordings available.
Zoom
Join using this link from 10.15am ready for the service start at 10.30am.
Please enter your name on the meeting screen so we know who you are.
Sermon Notes
Also available to download.)
Love
Your Church - Gathering – Hebrews 12:18-29
Gathering – specifically related to CORPORATE WORSHIP on the Lord’s Day
God has ordained that there is something intentionally unique about the gathering of God’ s people to worship together which is described in Hebrews 12:18-29. Because this has been ordained by God, there are blessings that come from worshipping him as he intends as outlined in Scripture and consequences if we choose to worship according to our ideas of what God should be pleased with when we gather to worship, which is not worship of God, however well intended!
Two Covenants and Two Mountains
Mount Sinai – Hebrews 12:18-21 relates the events recorded in Exodus 19:20-20:26 – an event upon which the earthly tabernacle in which the glory of God would dwell among his people as they sojourned in the wilderness and the temple that would later be built in Jerusalem. This was God’s temporary dwelling place with his people.
Mount Zion – not the earthly mountain, but used to refer to heaven, God’s permanent dwelling place with his people.
A stark contrast
Mount Sinai – ‘foreboding and terrifying’ – here God appears to most as far off and unapproachable. This sense of distance is the consequence of God’s holiness and Israel’s sinfulness.
Mount Zion – ‘inviting and gracious’ – here God is close and approachable to all. So, what has changed? God is still holy and people still sin! But something about the sin in God’s people is different. That difference is the person of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. In Jesus, his life, death and resurrection Jesus has fulfilled the old covenant and has mediated a new and better covenant (see Heb. 8:6 & 12:24)
A covenant is the structure within which God’s master plan to rescue/renew his creation, cantered on Jesus Christ is achieved. It is how the glory that was ruined by sin is restored through Jesus.
God made a covenant (an oath/promise) with humanity starting with Abram (Genesis 17 – where the language echoes that which God said in Eden) that he will bring about what is necessary to:
· Forgive our sin
· Remake us to be like him
· Be with us – ‘to be God to you and to your offspring’ (17:7)
The whole story of the Bible records how God’s master plan unfolds and every stage points to the coming of Jesus who will bring it about is front and centre.
Through Jesus – the wonderful picture of worship in Hebrews 12 is that we no longer worship in the foreboding and terrifying shadow of Mount Sinai, or under the conditions of the old covenant. Nor do we stand outside the tabernacle or the temple whilst the priests and the High Priest enter the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place on our behalf.
Instead, for those who believe and confess that through Jesus Christ alone we have been saved from our sin, we can enter God’s presence at the summit of Mount Zion, in heaven.
This is what we see in Hebrews 12, here there an eternal reality that occurs when the church of Jesus gathers, which is a foretaste of what lies ahead for us (see Rev. 5):
Keeping good company – ‘But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal [joyful, celebratory feast] gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel’ (Heb. 12:22-24 )
Worship as God commands simply cannot be boring!
And so, as we gather to worship:
· As the church of Jesus Christ, it is or we are ‘the place that God is especially present in the world’ (Ligon Duncan)
· It is essential to remember that worship is for God – ‘sola deo gloria’ – therefore it is about pleasing God, not ourselves! Though pleasing God brings immense pleasure to those who love him.
· God cares about HOW we worship, not just that we worship –‘To obey is better than sacrifice’ (1Sam. 15:22) e.g. Cain and Abel; therefore, we must ensure that when we gather we worship as God commands and not how we prefer – ‘the acceptable of worshipping the true God is INSTITUTED by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that they he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other ways not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures’ (Westminster Confession, Ch. 21 para. 1 & The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, Ch22 para. 1)
Worship that pleases God is God-directed worship – ‘sola Scriptura’ (the ‘regulative principle’) – ‘Read the Bible, preach the Bible, Pray the Bible, Sing the Bible, and See the Bible’ (the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper)
Sunday 15 March 2026
Heating at Church
The new boiler will be installed in the week commencing 13 April.
In the meantime we will continue to meet in the hall. Zoom will still be available - but not the same immersive experience.
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