Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Called the last chapter.
[00:00:08] For them, it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the COVID and the title page.
[00:00:20] Now at last, they were beginning chapter one of the great story which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.
[00:00:32] So I think that's a great place to start, is that as we move forward in our life stories, it develops, it changes. We're being molded and shaped into what God wants us to be. And every chapter going forward is going from strength to strength.
[00:00:49] So I think if every good story, story has chapters, it's often an adventure.
[00:00:56] There's sometimes a cliffhanger at the end of a chapter before the start of another one, and then normally at the ending it all comes together. So that's often why you look at the story at the last page, isn't it?
[00:01:11] So our lives have a story that is a witness. So we as Christians, we have a life story and that is a witness to people around us.
[00:01:22] And I think Rediscover Church has a story as well.
[00:01:26] And that's in the centre of Newton Abbot. And I've just been thinking, watching people go by today that your story is here in the centre of Newton Abbot. That's exciting.
[00:01:36] Now, often when we're in the middle of a story, unless you've read the end of the book, we. You don't know what's going to happen.
[00:01:44] But I want to say to you, the author, God does know the whole picture. He knows what's going to happen.
[00:01:52] So my first point this morning is God's masterpiece. Okay, so we are characters in his story.
[00:02:02] So our first verse is on the screen. Here we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
[00:02:18] Okay, the verse says that we're God's workmanship. Now the Greek word for workmanship, you know, excuse me if I say this wrong, is poema.
[00:02:29] I don't know if anyone can guess what word that means in English nowadays.
[00:02:35] It was, it's developed into the word poem.
[00:02:38] Okay.
[00:02:39] So it basically means something that is made and crafted by someone who is really skilled.
[00:02:48] You know, this version, the ESV uses workmanship, but I've seen it in other versions where it says handiwork or masterpiece.
[00:02:56] But we are Gods carefully created piece of work. Wow.
[00:03:03] Well done, Sharon. Yeah, wow. I agree.
[00:03:06] So every story has a purpose to it. And as God's characters in that story, he has prepared us for the good works. That he has for us.
[00:03:17] And so we are God's poem in progress, his story being written and displayed for those around to see.
[00:03:27] The second verse is there. And I'm sure you're familiar with these.
[00:03:32] You've got the version up there from the esv, but I'd like to read it from the New Living Standard.
[00:03:39] I think it's quite special in there.
[00:03:43] You made all my delicate inward parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex.
[00:03:53] Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in the under utter seclusion, as woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.
[00:04:08] Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
[00:04:11] Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. So, yeah, God is writing that story, our lives.
[00:04:22] And isn't that great?
[00:04:24] And he's the author. He knows us by name, so he knows his characters.
[00:04:30] And he has a plan. Now, we're not an accident.
[00:04:34] Okay, so it wasn't a rough draft of one chapter that he wrote a story about you.
[00:04:40] You're no accident. He knew and he had a plan for you.
[00:04:44] And. And, you know, I'm sure if we think about our lives, there's probably some pages we'd rather tear out. You know, we're like, we don't need that in the story.
[00:04:54] However, when we're in God's hands, as the author, he knows what he's making and what's the word? We are his workmanship, his masterpiece.
[00:05:04] And as a church, God has prepared you, I believe, for good works in advance, for you to do.
[00:05:11] And as you move into the next chapter as Rediscover Church, Newton Abbot, you are not making it up, but you're stepping into what God has already written and planned for you. And I think that's absolutely amazing.
[00:05:29] So my next part is the next chapter.
[00:05:33] Okay. We've got the background. We know that we've got a story. We have the characters in that story. Story.
[00:05:40] I've been studying the Book of Acts. So we're going to focus a little bit around Acts, Luke and Acts, actually.
[00:05:48] But I've been looking at it as a narrative, so I've been doing some study, and it's been good to look at it in a different way. So I'm looking at it as a story, and Luke is the author of both Luke and Acts.
[00:06:04] The Acts is like a sequel. It's like part two of the Book of Acts.
[00:06:09] What. What looked like the end of the story, at the end of Acts. Sorry, at the end of Luke, sorry about that.
[00:06:17] Was when Jesus ascended into heaven. So Luke finishes after Jesus died, with Jesus disappearing and going up into heaven.
[00:06:27] So Luke finished on that cliffhanger hanger that we often see in books.
[00:06:32] And then Luke, then Acts starts at the same place, okay, so Acts starts at the same place that Luke finished.
[00:06:40] So Luke points to this story of Jesus about how the Holy Spirit used Jesus to prophesy to his death, his resurrection. And Acts is that second chapter. And it's about Jesus continuing his story in the disciples. So he empowered the disciples to continue the story with his Holy Spirit.
[00:07:03] So we see in Luke that Jesus spent three years of his ministry preparing the disciples.
[00:07:10] We remembered last week of the foundation. So Jesus was building those foundations in the disciples life. And at the beginning of Acts we see God's spirit, his power, power.
[00:07:24] So as he leaves, as Jesus leaves the earth, he says, I promise you the Holy Spirit's going to come.
[00:07:31] Now those disciples, if we look at that, Luke 24.
[00:07:36] So he blessed them, he left them.
[00:07:39] They weren't sad, which is, if you think about it, that was a little bit strange, isn't it? They've just said goodbye to the person. They've spent three years really closely.
[00:07:49] They had gone through his death and resurrection, but they went away and worshipped in great joy. So they knew there was something different. They knew that something special was coming.
[00:08:02] So that was amazing.
[00:08:04] And then the Spirit comes and they could do more than they could ever do with Jesus there with them. They saved, you know, with the power of the Holy Spirit. Through them, people became Christians. 3,000 people on the first day, healings, boldness, and the church began to spread around the world.
[00:08:26] We even have an example of character growth within that. Because if you remember Peter, what did Peter do? He denied Jesus three times.
[00:08:36] But at Pentecost, he was the one up the front preaching boldly with the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:08:45] Three thousand people responded. The Spirit gave him boldness, the Spirit gave him direction. And the church grew.
[00:08:53] And that was the next chapter, that was the beginning of Acts.
[00:08:59] So for us personally, when a chapter closes in our lives, it often means a point where God opens a new way, a new doorway opens.
[00:09:11] And it's about us moving out in faith.
[00:09:15] Our past failures, we were talking about that in the prophecy wasn't the failures, the things that we are ashamed of.
[00:09:23] It doesn't stop us from moving on with God. It's preparing us for what is to come.
[00:09:30] We can ask Peter, about that one, can't we in heaven? You know, how it was that he could, you know, that change in him, that new chapter in his life.
[00:09:40] And so for us as a church, as we move on to the next chapter, it's been familiar. We've known what's happening.
[00:09:49] We can thank God for what he's done.
[00:09:52] But actually, we don't just stay on that cliffhanger. Okay, so it's a cliffhanger, and it's the last page of the chapter, but we're moving on to that new chapter.
[00:10:02] And we need to look to Jesus. We need it for his Holy Spirit to come and move us forward with boldness and direction for what is going to come next in the exciting story. And it is an exciting story.
[00:10:17] You know, the early church didn't just grow through those main characters. It grew with ordinary people stepping out. And the church's story is about ordinary people doing amazing things for God.
[00:10:31] And, you know, the Bible talks about the body being one body, and every single part of that body is important.
[00:10:39] So, yeah, we need to just remember that we're moving into the next part, stepping forward in faith. And we want to thank God for that.
[00:10:49] Okay. God doesn't promise, so it's going to be easy. So we're moving on to the next part, which most books have. Most stories have those hard times, the hard pages.
[00:11:02] Every story has some difficulties.
[00:11:06] Every story has the dramatic, the unexpected, the twists and turns. So it's not always easy.
[00:11:13] However, this doesn't mean the story's gone wrong.
[00:11:17] Actually, I often think they're the most important parts of the story story because they make the ending even better.
[00:11:24] If we know what characters have been through. And then we get to the ending where actually the couple fall in love and live happily ever after. We think, wow, they went through that.
[00:11:35] And when we walk with Jesus, he doesn't promise it's going to be easy.
[00:11:39] You know, in fact, if we think about Isaiah 43, it says, when you go through the waters and when you go through the fires. It doesn't use the word if, but it does promise that he's going to be with us. And I think that was another prophecy this morning, wasn't it? About God being with us to give us courage.
[00:12:02] And if we think of the book of Acts, when Paul and Silas are in prison, they praise God and what happens? There comes an earthquake and the doors open.
[00:12:13] Another time, Peter is chained between two guards and he prays and the angel lets them out.
[00:12:22] Acts 18, 9, 10 is on the screen.
[00:12:26] The Lord speaks to Paul in a vision and says, don't be afraid.
[00:12:31] Speak out because I am with you.
[00:12:35] No one will attack and harm you.
[00:12:38] And the story continues. And actually Paul was worried about staying where he was and thinking he had to move.
[00:12:45] But with that encouragement and that word, that vision, he stayed another one and a half years to teach.
[00:12:52] In Acts 23, verse 11, the Lord stood near to Paul, okay, and said, take courage. Don't be afraid.
[00:13:02] And again, the story continues through difficulties.
[00:13:06] So Paul was worried about going to Jerusalem because he thought he where he knew from prophecies that it wasn't going to be a straightforward time. There was going to be persecution. But God promised him, you're not only going to go to Jerusalem, but you're going to go to Rome to preach the Gospel, you know. And then there was a continuation of that story for Paul.
[00:13:29] In chapter 27, Paul was caught in a really violent storm, shipwrecked.
[00:13:35] And what does that. What happens? The angel comes and stands next to him and says, don't be afraid.
[00:13:41] Everyone's going to be saved. You're all going to live.
[00:13:45] And Paul passed through those waters and they did not sweep over him on malta. In Acts 28, Paul goes to put something on the fire and a snake fastens onto his hand and he's able to shake it off and it doesn't harm him.
[00:14:05] And so Paul walked through the fire and it didn't harm him.
[00:14:10] Though often those masterpieces of our lives are made through those difficult times. They're made through going through the fire.
[00:14:17] They're made by going through the floods.
[00:14:20] But God is with us. And I don't know if you remember that poem footprints.
[00:14:24] Does everyone remember that? I don't know if you've seen it before, where they see two footprints going along the sand and then sometimes they only see one. And they say, why in those most difficult times in my life, can I only see one set of footprints?
[00:14:41] And the poem goes on to say that that's when I carried you, my precious child. That's when I picked you up and carried you.
[00:14:49] So we have that promise in the scripture that God is with us.
[00:14:53] And if we think about the early church, it faced persecutions, oppositions.
[00:14:59] Most of the disciples ended up being killed for their faith.
[00:15:03] However, they kept growing. They kept growing in numbers, and God kept blessing them. And rediscover Newton Abbott's next chapter won't always be easy. No one's promising it's going to be easy. But the best bit is God is with you. He's Walking with you and the best is yet to come. Because the story has not finished. It's going on to the next part of that story.
[00:15:29] So, yeah, we have the hard bits, but the hard bits are there to make us go from strength to strength.
[00:15:36] We don't stop at the difficult times. It's strengthening us. It's building us up.
[00:15:43] If you think about your favorite book and your favorite story, those dramatic bits really make the story stronger. It strengthens the story and it makes the ending more powerful.
[00:15:56] And there's three different. There's some verses here. Acts 9:31 talks about the church enjoying peace and being strengthened. And by the strength of the Holy Spirit, they grew in numbers. The church was strengthened in faith and grew daily.
[00:16:14] Paul and Barnabas strengthened the disciples, and they went through hardships and strengthening together.
[00:16:22] Our life stories are not random episodes of God, but God is growing and developing us in every chapter that we go through.
[00:16:33] So maybe what you're going through in the last chapter is going to help you in the next chapter. You may be able to encourage someone through something that you've been through and, you know, new rediscover. Newton Abbott is not starting again. It's been built on a strong foundation, is going forward into the next stage. And I was thinking, actually, when. I love Acts because it reminds me of my time when I was in Albania as a missionary and a church plant.
[00:17:03] And I always say it reminded me of reading the Book of Acts.
[00:17:08] So just to give you some background, Albania was a communist country. In communism, it was atheist.
[00:17:17] So it was the only country ever in Europe to say they were an atheist country.
[00:17:22] It wasn't like a lot of the other Eastern European countries.
[00:17:26] It didn't have an underground church. In fact, when Albania opened up, there was only five believers that were known right down in the south of Albania.
[00:17:36] But there was a lot of missionaries preparing from all different missionary organizations. I remember growing up as a Christian in the church where I was in Tiverton, praying for communism, for the Iron Curtain to come down.
[00:17:49] And I felt called to Albania as a missionary. And I went in 1994, about three years after Albania opened up. People were hungry. People wanted to know God. People were becoming Christians in their thousands.
[00:18:03] And the missionary organization spread all over Albania. And I remember baptizing people in a bath. And I remember young people becoming Christians. I remember them saying, well, what does it mean about speaking in tongues and well, pray? And we didn't want to come and enforce our way. We did church because this was an Albanian church and Albanians, when They hear music, they dance, you know. So Albania had to be developed as a church in their own right. And that was just so precious to see.
[00:18:38] But then in 1997, and some of you may remember this being on the news at the time, Albanians put all of their money in pyramid schemes that collapsed.
[00:18:50] And overnight they went. They broke into weapon factories. They. They got their hands on lots of guns and weapons, and there was real anarchy in the country. It started down the south, and it went up.
[00:19:05] And we didn't really have Internet. We didn't really know what was going on. But in the town where I was, there was a Chinese arms factory.
[00:19:14] So overnight, we woke up one morning to shooting all around us. Now, the believers at the time said, you're not staying on your own tonight. You all have to stay with us. And we stayed with the believers, but then we had to leave, so there was no notice. We literally overnight had to say goodbye to these new believers.
[00:19:34] But do you know what? We left. We were actually. I ended up being evacuated because there was no other way out of Albania. So it took about 24 hours to completely get out of Albania on landing crafts because helicopters couldn't land because it was too dangerous. And just watching, you know, it was a very scary night.
[00:19:55] But, yeah, God took us out. But that church when we left, continued growing. And that those young Christians, remember, they weren't Christians for very long, like two or three years. Some of them less than that.
[00:20:09] They led the church, and it continued growing.
[00:20:13] And some of those people who I saw become Christians are leading churches today.
[00:20:18] You know, so God can really take those difficult times and do that strengthening and those wonderful things in that story. And I believe that for you here in Newton Abbott, that, you know, it's not the end of the story. It's the next exciting chapter.
[00:20:37] So Acts 28. Now, we know the ending. Okay, so we know the ending of the story.
[00:20:47] But Acts finishes on a cliffhanger.
[00:20:50] Okay, so Acts.
[00:20:53] It finishes with Paul being in house arrest.
[00:20:57] That's how Acts finishes. That's how the story finishes. Isn't that the worst end of the story ever?
[00:21:05] You know, who would want to read a book where he's just in house arrest?
[00:21:10] But the last words of Acts says the story, he preached boldly without hindrance. So even though he was in house arrest, he carried on preaching the gospel. And the worst ending ever. Had hope.
[00:21:28] Even in chains, the story kept moving onwards. Okay, so I've got a. I believe the next sequel. Well, with us as the main characters, the story of the church okay. It didn't finish with how Paul died. It didn't finish with that end of the story. It finished on a cliffhanger.
[00:21:48] Because we are the next part of that story.
[00:21:51] We are the characters in the next part of the church's story. We're the characters that take the story on.
[00:22:01] Now, if you don't like reading the last page of a. Of a book, then maybe you want to close your ears now, because this is a spoiler alert, because we're going to read the last page. We're going to read Revelations 21, verse three to five. Okay? And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I'm making everything new. So that's the ending. No more pain, no more sadness, no more difficulties.
[00:22:54] That's the end of the story.
[00:22:56] So that means that whatever page we're on now, we can keep going because we know the ending is good and, you know, that's exciting.
[00:23:07] And what do we do now in the meantime? We fix our eyes on the author.
[00:23:13] We fix our eyes on Jesus. And Hebrews 12, verse 1 and 2 says, Let us run with perseverance, that race. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus because he is the author and the perfecter of our faith, and we need to make sure he controls that pen, not us. Okay?
[00:23:36] And then the next bit of that verse is a great cloud of witnesses.
[00:23:41] And that's the people, that's the characters who've gone before us. You know, for me, that's really special when I think of my parents and that they, Their witness, their faith inspired my journey in faith, and we need to pass that on to future generations.
[00:23:57] And there's one example that I want to sort of come as I'm coming to an end. Just think about a story in Luke which is the road to Emmaus.
[00:24:08] Do you remember that the two disciples were walking along the road?
[00:24:12] They were really. The Bible talks about how upset they were, that it says their hearts were burning in pain, they were walking along with Jesus, but at the time, they didn't know it was Jesus.
[00:24:25] And it said, we had hoped that he was a messiah.
[00:24:30] We had hoped.
[00:24:32] And then obviously, the nice ending of the story is that they realized who it was when they broke bread together and that changed their life, didn't it? And they moved forward.
[00:24:44] So you may be on that difficult road at the moment. You may be on the Emmaus road. You may be saying, I had hoped. I'd hoped it was going to be better.
[00:24:55] But, you know, God wants to say, I'm walking with you. You know, like that poem, I'm walking with you. I'm holding your hand. I'm there. I've got you.
[00:25:04] Give the pen back to God to let him continue working.
[00:25:10] And Philippians 1, verse 6. I think this has been mentioned this morning as well, that he who began a good work will bring it to completion.
[00:25:20] That is a good ending. You know, he is going to complete that wonderful story of your lives, and he's going to bring it to completion.
[00:25:29] And that was a verse that Paul wrote to the Philippi Church.
[00:25:34] So, yeah, there are.
[00:25:36] That's really where I wanted to end, but I think there's some things to think about this morning. Yeah, God knows the ending, and he's promised it's going to be good.
[00:25:45] But he invites us to live those chapters with him, to say yes, to step out in faith and trust him.
[00:25:53] And so I think, you know, as you think about where you are today, is it a time when you need to give that pen back to God and say, okay, I've taken too much control. I now need to allow you God.
[00:26:08] Acts 28 ended on that cliffhanger.
[00:26:11] But remember, we're his masterpiece, and he wants to continue defining that wonderful masterpiece.
[00:26:19] He wants to continue that story with us.
[00:26:22] So are we willing for the Holy Spirit to give us that boldness and the direct direction in our lives to continue forward with him?
[00:26:33] So, yeah. Shall I pray? And we can just pray into that. And. And yeah. Thank you for being so quiet for the children. I'm sorry, I hadn't realized you would have been in. I would have probably made it a little bit more exciting for you. But, yeah, we've got a wonderful story, and God is writing it.
[00:26:53] Heavenly Father, I just want to thank you for today. I thank you that you have been here with us.
[00:27:00] I thank you for this wonderful church. I thank you for everything that you have done so far. I thank you for the foundations.
[00:27:08] I thank you for the story so far. And, Lord, we're excited. We're excited. Sitting here, Newton Abbott, watching the people go by, looking in. We're excited about what you have in store for the future.
[00:27:22] And, Lord, we want to walk with you. We want to move forward in faith, believing that you have it, that you walk with us and that you are holding our hands.
[00:27:32] And Lord I just want to pray that your Holy Spirit will touch every person here wherever they are in that part of their journey and that story that Lord if they need to give the pen back to you that you will allow in the quiet moments that follow that you will allow them to just hand that back to you. Lord I just pray as that we are on that cliffhanger hanger as we move forward that we will be able to step out in faith and Lord we need that bonus. We need that directness, directness from you that your Holy Spirit will give us. Lord, I was just thinking of Jesus when we talk about Luke we we hear about the Holy Spirit empowering Jesus for his ministry.
[00:28:15] But the most amazing thing is that Holy Spirit wants to empower us to continue that work and we just praise and thank you God for that wonderful gift.
[00:28:26] Amen.
