Freedom’s Surrender

February 4, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, distraction, freedom, God, Gospel, idols, Jesus, Mark, Methodist, mission, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, rights, Street, surrender, United

Freedom’s Surrender

February 04, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 40:21-31 Mark 1:29-39 1 Corinthians 9:16-23

We’re going to start this morning with a quiz.

Most of you did not expect a quiz on Sunday morning, and some of you may struggle with the question, but here it is:

What idols do we worship in the United States in the twenty-first century?

Anyone who has been in church for any length of time at all, or anyone who has started reading the bible knows that there are many cautions and sermons against committing sin by worshipping idols.

Many of us would argue that our contemporary society doesn’t have any idols simply because you won’t find any temples where people worship Baal, or Jupiter, or Roma, or any of the ancient gods and goddesses. But is that enough of a defense?

It could easily be argued that idol worship is anything that we make so important in our lives that we are willing to sacrifice to it, and put ahead of God in priority, importance, or love. In scripture, God repeatedly makes the point that he simply will not accept second place. When we choose to worship God and his son Jesus Christ, God’s expectation, and God’s demand, is that we make him first in our lives. And if we use that definition, then it isn’t hard at all to see that Americans worship idols all the time. Even those of us who regularly go to church sometimes put God in second place because we are worshiping comfort, or sports, or money, or entertainment, or even the entertainment or indulgence of our children. As we discussed last week, as Americans, we often elevate rights above the importance that God gives to them and there are few other things that American culture elevates, and which may be regarded as idols, if we aren’t careful.

But first, let’s begin this morning by remembering who God is and why it is that we come here each Sunday to worship him. Let’s begin by listening to the words of the prophet Isaiah as he reminds God’s people of what God has done, why they belong to God, and why they really ought to stop complaining. We hear these words in Isaiah 40:21-31:

²¹Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
    and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
    and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
²³He brings princes to naught
    and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
²⁴No sooner are they planted,
    no sooner are they sown,
    no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
    and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

²⁵“To whom will you compare me?
    Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
³¹but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah begins by asking why you do not seem to understand the most obvious thing in the world, that God is not just big, but bigger than big. God is not just powerful, but so powerful that humans do not, and cannot, compare to him, nor can our imagination comprehend God’s power. Isaiah then continues by asking why people complain that God is hidden, or that God is ignoring them, or that God has forgotten them. Instead, Isaiah says, God knows exactly what you are doing, God is aware of your problems and cares about their resolution, but because God is all-powerful and all-knowing, God understands your situation better than you ever could. As such, God is not impatient, as we often are, and God waits for the right time to do what needs to be done. Once we understand and accept that this is true, then we also understand that our role is to trust God and as hard as it is to get past our own impatience, our role is to be patient and wait for God.

But then we read Mark 1:29-39. And here we find Jesus, God in human form, powerful beyond all understanding, and yet, what he does with that power staggers our imagination and our understanding. Mark says…

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. ³⁰Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. ³¹So he went to her, took her hand, and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began to wait on them.

³²That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. ³³The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. ³⁶Simon and his companions went to look for him, ³⁷and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

³⁸Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” ³⁹So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues, and driving out demons.

In this short passage, we see Jesus heal Peter’s mother-in-law of an unspecified virus, heal the sick, and drive out demons. Jesus is, at this point, wildly popular and people flock to see him wherever he goes. He is incredibly powerful. He could, at this point, do anything that he wanted to do. He could make a fortune just by performing healings. Can you imagine what Herod or other powerful people would have paid to be healed of their gout, diabetes, heart failure, lead poisoning,meningitis, encephalitis, syphilis, and other unknown and misunderstood diseases from which they suffered? Can you imagine what it would have been worth to Ceasar to know who was trying to kill him? Jesus could have done whatever he wanted. He could have been rich, he could have travelled, he could have had earthly power, but instead he tells his disciples that they will walk to nearby villages so that he can preach, teach, heal, and drive out demons because, he says, “that is why I have come.”

Jesus had the power and the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do, but he chose to do what God had sent him to do. And that feeds into what Paul says in his letter to the church in Corinth. Paul wasn’t powerful like Jesus, but he clearly had other options of what he could do with his life. Paul explains his choices this way in 1 Corinthians 9:16-23:

¹⁶For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. ¹⁸What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

¹⁹Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Paul says that he doesn’t travel from town to town and preach the gospel because of some inflated sense of self-importance but because that is why God has called him, and what God compels him daily to go out and do. Like Jesus, and like generations of pastors, teachers, and evangelists that have followed him, Paul doesn’t preach so that he can gain wealth, or fame, or some other earthly reward, but simply because he is being obedient to God.

Paul says that he is free to do whatever he wants to do. As a Roman citizen, and as a person from a family that had some measure of wealth, Paul is free to go wherever he wants to go, and do whatever he wants to do. Until he chose to follow Jesus, Paul was recognized as a leader within the Pharisees and among the rulers and leaders of Israel and, if it were power and notoriety that he wanted, it is likely that he could have gone back to that life. Paul had the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do, but instead, he gave up his freedom to be obedient to God. He gave up his comfort to suffer alongside the slaves and the poor. He gave up the familiarity of his Jewishness so that he could minister to, and with, the Gentiles. Although Paul had freedom, he gave up that freedom whenever, and wherever necessary so that he could accomplish the mission given to him by Jesus Christ.

Just as we spoke last week about rights, we must be careful as the followers of Jesus Christ and as citizens of the United States in the twenty-first century, to not make an idol of our freedoms. As important, and as wonderful, as freedom is, if we are to answer the call that God has upon our lives, we must sometimes set our freedoms aside in order to accomplish the mission that God has assigned to us.

Our rights and freedoms are not idols to be worshiped, they are tools to be used, set aside, or even surrendered, in pursuit of rescuing the lost as we share the story and the gospel of Jesus.

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Rights, Truth, or Distraction?

January 28, 2024January 28, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon abortion, Alliance, bear arms, Broadway, Christ, church, distraction, free speech, God, guns, idols, Jesus, Jonah, Mark, meat, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, rights, second amendment, Street, truth, United

Rights, Truth, or Distraction?

January 28, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Mark 1:21-28 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

I hear voices.

Seriously, every day I hear voices.

But so do you.

Every day we hear voices and opinions on the news, on social media, and in real life. We hear talking heads that give us opinions labeled as entertainment, we have news reporters that inject their opinions into the news, we have political parties of the left, right, and center that would argue that the sky isn’t blue if they thought it would win them votes, we watch wars from a distance and hear voices from factions from around the world spewing widely different points of view, and just about every major news story has a conspiracy theory to go with it. These voices offer us a cacophony of noise that makes us wonder where we might find the truth and might even make us doubt our own sanity.

But, although the stories behind the voices might be different, our struggle is not much different than that faced by the people of the Old and New Testaments. They too heard the voices of different opinions, different religions, different factions within their own religion, and similar arguments between their politicians, rulers, and foreign powers. The world is, and has been, filled with voices and opinions and the challenge that we face is choosing those voices to which we will listen, and discerning the truth from among the noise. Of course, we could spend months of sermons, and volumes of reading and study to even begin to dig through it all, but since this is both a new and an ancient problem, we find that scripture gives us guidelines that can help us. We begin in another time of confusion. As Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, they worried what would happen to them, and who would lead them, if Moses did not go with them, and for that matter, if Moses, who was already old, were to die. And in Deuteronomy 18:15-20, we hear an answer from Moses that answered some of their questions but also some of ours when he says:

¹⁵The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. ¹⁶For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

¹⁷The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. ¹⁹I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. ²⁰But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”

Moses’ answer is both good news and bad news. God promises that his people will continue to hear his voice through leaders and prophets that he would send and that he will continue to lead them. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there would also be other voices, from other people, that God did not send. Even worse is that some of those other voices would claim to be prophets sent from God and would claim to speak for God. For obvious reasons, that’s not good. False prophets could have any number of motivations, but as we’ve seen often enough in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, cult leaders and televangelists enriching themselves at the expense of faithful, though gullible believers is a very real possibility. But from the realms of everyday living to politics, listening to the voices of false prophets could be disastrous. This is so important, that the punishment for these charlatans isn’t just that they should be ignored, imprisoned, cast out, exiled, or excommunicated from the community, the punishment for pretending to speak for God … was death. God wasn’t playing around because the lives of his people, and the hope of his nation were at stake.

In contrast, as we read the story of the gospel in Mark 1:21-28, we see how the people reacted to Jesus in comparison to the preachers and politicians with whom everyone was familiar.

²¹They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²²The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, ²⁴“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

²⁵“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” ²⁶The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

²⁷The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” ²⁸News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

It was evident by the tone and tenor of Jesus’ teaching that he was different. He did not equivocate. He did not hedge. He did not express opinions or discuss possibilities or probabilities. Unlike the other preachers and teachers that everyone had heard, Jesus taught as if he knew what he was talking about and as if he had the authority to back up his words. And not only did Jesus preach and act as if he knew what God wanted, he demonstrated God’s power by healing the sick and the lame, raising the dead, and casting out demons. Jesus was the real deal and the people who saw him knew it because he spoke like it, lived like it, acted like it, and demonstrated it.

But how does that translate to us? What advice does scripture have that can help us to discern the truth and find guidance as we listen to the conflicting voices that we hear every day?

For that, let us once again turn to the writings of the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth. Reading from 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 we hear this instruction and advice:

^8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. ²Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. ³But whoever loves God is known by God.

⁴So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” ⁵For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), ⁶yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

⁷But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food, they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

⁹Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? ¹¹So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹²When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.

The first two verses contain an easily overlooked, but important tidbit. If we word it with a slightly more common phrasing, what we hear is, “Some people think that they know something, but until they understand how to love, they don’t know as much as they think that they do.” Let me say that again, “Some people think that that they are pretty smart, but until they understand how to love, they aren’t as smart as they should be.” And that is what is at the core of the rest of the passage.

In Corinth there was a disagreement among believers about whether it was okay to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. In Greece, much like it was in Israel, particularly without refrigeration, most people simply did not eat meat that often. Even if you wanted to eat meat, it was rare that you would want to butcher an entire animal. But there were meat markets in a city as large as Corinth. The problem was that much of the meat that was available for sale, came to the butcher after it had been sacrificed on some pagan altar.

Some believers felt that it was sinful to eat meat that had been sacrificed to a pagan god, but others believed that since pagan gods weren’t real, that it didn’t matter, that it wasn’t sinful, and it was fine for them to eat such meat. But Paul, strict as he was in his Jewish practice, says that even though he agrees that it isn’t sinful, and that believers have every right to eat it, it still might be wrong to exercise that right if doing so weakens, or damages, the faith of another believer. Paul says that when you exercise your rights in such a way that you hurt people and tempt them to do what they believe to be sin, then you destroy them, and you commit sin against Jesus. Paul’s conclusion is that he would rather give up meat forever than to cause a brother or sister in Christ to lose their faith.

So let us consider what we have heard from scripture today. First, that we can expect to hear voices that speak falsely, that claim to be something that they are not, that claim to speak for God when they do not, and who will attempt to enrich themselves at your expense. But those who are trustworthy will speak the truth, live in a way that models their faith, act as if they have faith, and demonstrate their faith in all that they do. Those that do not do these things are not worth following.

Second, while our rights are important, they are not always the most important. Knowing something, without understanding how to love, means that you don’t really know what you think that you know. If we exercise our rights in such a way that we hurt other people, tempt them to sin, or damage their faith, then we sin against God and against Christ in doing so. For Paul, the issue at hand was whether the followers of Jesus Christ had the right to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols but imagine how we might apply that to our modern discussions about rights. Although rights are certainly important, especially in our 21^st century American culture, the measurement isn’t whether we have a right to free speech, or to bear arms, or to not incriminate ourselves, or to eat meat and drink alcohol, or to protest, or to have an abortion, or smoke marijuana, or to a host of other rights that we hold dear, the real measurement is whether in exercising those rights, we hurt other people, tempt them to sin, or damage their faith.

When we do that, even if we have a right to do whatever we did, then we sin.

Remember we said that some people think that that they are smart, but until they understand how to love, they aren’t as smart as they should be.

The measurement isn’t about rights, it’s about having love and compassion for the people around us.

We must never let the voices of the world around us distract us from living and acting in ways that are truthful, compassionate, faithful, and loving.

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A Year in Review: 2023

January 24, 2024 PastorPartridge Blogs Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, reports, review, year end

2023 Year in Review

by John Partridge

Well, our annual “End of Year” reports have been completed and turned in to the East Ohio Annual Conference. So… how did we do? Overall, I am pleased and think that we did well. Of course, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they do tell us things. So, let’s review a few numbers and consider what they tell us.

We started 2023 with 289 members and we received 5 new members. Unfortunately, we removed 13 members that were lost to death. That is both sad and unfortunate and we grieve the loss of our friends. The good news is that we did gain five new members and, if we’re honest, that’s five more than many churches. The reality remains that our survival depends upon us inviting new people to worship, connecting them to small groups and other ministries of the church and, eventually, bringing them into membership.

Despite the loss of so many members, quite a few of whom were regular in worship, our average attendance increased from 65 to 70, which is an increase of 8 percent and our United Women in Faith saw a 25 percent increase in membership. At the same time, the average number of people who worship online increased by 50 percent from 24 to 36. We also saw an 83 percent increase in the number of children, growing from 6 to 11 in Sunday school and the addition of one more children’s class to accommodate them. Not surprisingly, we did see a small decrease in adult Sunday school attendance, largely due to the loss of the older members previously mentioned. Overall, however, our average attendance in Sunday school increased by 5 percent. And, although I have said it before, as has Pastor Chris, the percentage of our congregation that attends Sunday school, compared to most any other church in our connection, is strikingly high. In the average Protestant church, 44 percent of those in worship attend Sunday school. At Christ Church, that number is 63 percent.

We did see a 7 percent decrease in total giving and, with the departure of Men’s Challenge, a small drop in building use fees, but we did see a 9 percent increase in pledged giving and an increase in “unidentified gifts” which is made up of things like our loose offering, Chuck Wagon offering, Pennies for Heaven, Sunday school offerings, and this year will include the Noisy Can offering.

Additionally, we continue to have a strong (for our size) online presence. The website where our sermons are posted currently has 221 subscribers which translates to about 70 views per week. Those same sermons are sent out to 296 subscribers by email, which is an increase of 89 from last year. Of those, about 60 subscribers open the email and read it. And our YouTube livestream increased by 17 subscribers during 2023 and now has 123 total subscribers with between 30 and 40 viewers of each week’s message.

So, what does all that mean?

As I look at it, it means that there is still a need for, and an interest in what we are doing. It means that people are watching and reading online, but that some of them are also coming here in person. It means that the members and friends of Christ Church are inviting our friends and neighbors to worship with us and some of them have decided to stay and join our church family. It means that where only a few years ago it was common to have a Sunday without children, now it is rare that we do not have at least a few.

Yes, we have some challenges in front of us, but just as God has led us to navigate through those challenges in the past, we trust that he will continue to lead us into the future. Moreover, despite the losses that we have felt over the last year, the growth that we have seen gives us every reason to expect that growth to continue if we remain faithful in doing the work that God has given to us, continue being the hands and feet of Jesus, and never stop sharing what a great family that we have here at Christ Church.

In other words, there is every reason to have hope for, and even to expect a bright future.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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The End is (Really!) Near

January 21, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, end, fish, God, Jesus, Jonah, judgement, Mark, Methodist, near, Nineveh, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, repentance, Street, the end, United, whale

The End is (Really!) Near

January 21, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Mark 1:14-20 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Do you watch cartoons? Or do you read the comics on the funny pages of the newspaper, or online?

I’m not sure exactly what to call it, but there is a cartoon component, image, idea, motif, or stylistic element that has been used, copied, reused so many times that it is impossible to figure out when it first appeared. The image that I am thinking of is that of a person carrying a sandwich board or a sign on a pole that says, “The End is Near.” Often the person carrying the sign is portrayed as a sixties-era hippy, but other times it can be a businessman in a suit, or whatever else fits the point that the cartoonist is trying to convey.

But outside of cartoons and attempts at humor, we have often seen similar doom and gloom, end of the world stories in the real world. These stories once came from a raft of scientists that were predicting the dawn of a new ice age, or those that now predict rising sea levels due to global warming, or to asteroids that will destroy civilization, or a catastrophic x-class solar flare that may one day wipe out all the computers and electricity generation across out entire planet. Not to be outdone, there seem to be regular announcements by various religious groups that the world will end, or that Christ will return, because of their interpretation of scripture, or because of the Mayan calendar, or because of something else. Overall, we have heard that “The End is Near” so often that we no longer bother to pay any attention to such announcements at all.

But maybe we should.

What if the place that we heard “The End is Near” is in the bible? And what if we didn’t hear it just once, but over and over again, generation after generation, from the mouths of prophets, disciples, and from Jesus himself? Would we assume that if the message had been repeated so often, just as we assume today when we listen to the news, that it must not be true, and we are free to ignore it? Or would we notice that sometimes it was true, and things did not go well for the people who didn’t listen?

Let’s take a look at three samples from scripture, and then we will think about what it all means, and just what we might, and might not, want to ignore, and what we should be doing about it in our lives, and in our church, today. We begin with the end of the story in the book of Jonah. First God sent Jonah to preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh, but Jonah didn’t want to do that. Jonah knew that the people of Nineveh were awful, evil, terrible people who hated God, hated the people of Israel, and treated their enemies, criminals, and anyone they took a dislike to, with contempt, abuse, violence, and death. Nineveh was the city that hung the heads, and often the bodies, of their enemies on the gates and the walls of their city to warn everyone what happened to those who dared to oppose them. They were not nice people. In any case, God prevails, and Jonah, after his encounter with a big fish, obeys God. This is the story that we hear in Jonah 3:1-5, 10.

^3:1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ²“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

³Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. ⁴Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” ⁵The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

¹⁰When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

The message that Jonah carried into Nineveh, however reluctantly, was a message that God intended to utterly destroy them as a people and as a city. As far as they were concerned, Jonah was predicting the end of the world. But they listened to Jonah, heard his message, they repented of their evil actions, habits, and culture, and God relented and did not bring upon them the destruction that he had planned.

It is worth noting however, that some years later, Nineveh returns to their old ways, continue to do evil, and God declares through the prophet Nahum, that their time is ended. The Babylonians invade and Nineveh is erased from history, disappears from the maps of the world, and its ruins only rediscovered by archaeologists in 1847.

We hear a similar story, though far less violent, in Mark 1:14-20 in which Jesus is the one sharing the message from God:

¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

¹⁶As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ¹⁸At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹When he had gone a little farther, he saw James, son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

The message of Jesus was that the kingdom of God had arrived and that everyone should repent and believe the good news. But why is repentance so important, so vital, to the news that the kingdom of God had arrived? It is important because, in the calendar of God, now that the kingdom had arrived, the followers of God now knew that judgement was at hand and could come at any moment. The news that the messiah had come was inescapably tied to an understanding that the end was near, and judgement was coming.

And if you aren’t convinced that these events are so closely tied together, then listen to Paul explain it to the church in Corinth as recorded in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31:

²⁹What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; ³⁰those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; ³¹those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

Paul says that the time is short, that the end is indeed near, and because it is, the followers of Jesus Christ must live as if time is important. We should not live as if we have all the time in the world, but as if Jesus could return tomorrow, or this afternoon, or before we draw our next breath. Paul’s words describe a need for urgency in our behavior and in our actions. We must act as if the world might end tomorrow. We must live as if our mission is important and assume that we might not get a second chance to share the good news with the people around us. We should share what we have and not get addicted to the accumulation of possessions. And finally, we should behave as if we aren’t addicted to the things of popular culture and the popularity of fads and famous folk.

Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour of his return and the day of judgement, but scripture says that the end is near.

And we really ought to act like it.

We must live lives that reflect some urgency.

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Baptism 2.0

January 14, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon 2.0, Alliance, baptism, Broadway, Christ, church, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, repentance, spirit, Street, United

Baptism 2.0

January 14, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 1:1-5 Mark 1:4-11 Acts 19:1-7

If I say the word “baptism” what image comes to mind?

Since we are in church, the odds are good that most of you thought of water. This is even more likely when this is the Sunday that we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, and we have a fountain gurgling in the front of the church.

But when I say the word “baptism,” what else comes to mind other than a baptism in water?

When I entered the words “Baptism by…” in the Google search box, it suggested baptism by fire, baptism by immersion, baptism by desire, baptism by blood, and a few others. In Catholic doctrine, sacramental baptism is by water, the baptism of desire is a person’s desire to join the church, and baptism by blood is a sort of euphemism for martyrdom. Baptism by fire, or trial by fire, is used in the military and in other stressful situations where you are initiated into a group by enduring or surviving a challenging task. You might have been trained for that task, but until you perform that task under a particularly high stress environment, you have not yet been baptized by fire. In the military that might be actual combat, while in retail it might be surviving Black Friday.

But none of those is what I’m talking about in the title of today’s message when I wrote “Baptism 2.0.” Of course, the first baptism is John’s baptism which signifies a baptism of repentance. That baptism isn’t entirely original to John. Immersion in water to symbolize purification was an everyday occurrence in the Jewish world of the first century. Everyone, from the oldest to the youngest and from the least to greatest passed through a mikveh, a ritual bath, before they could enter the temple courts in Jerusalem or often even the synagogues in their local villages. But there’s another baptism, that goes beyond ritual purification or even John’s baptism of repentance. But… before we get to that, let’s begin at the beginning, the very beginning, and read the first few verses in Genesis chapter one (Genesis 1:1-5)

^1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis tells us that before anything existed, when all that was, was darkness, even then, there was God. It was the Spirit of God that looked over the darkness, spoke into it, and created light.

Why is that important?

Because God’s spirit not only plays a part in creation, but also in Jesus’ baptism, and in the life of God’s people, and God’s church, in the present day.

In Mark 1:4-11, Jesus comes to John in the wilderness to be baptized and as we read, we witness something spectacular.

⁴And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁶John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

⁹At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

First, John declares that the Messiah, Jesus, would baptize his followers, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit. It is also worth mentioning, I think, that in Matthew’s account, John says that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire which is the image that we are given at Pentecost.

Second, after Jesus is baptized, heaven opens, the Spirit of God descends upon him, and the Father speaks from heaven declaring that God loves his son Jesus and is pleased with him.

But again, why does that matter?

It matters because we begin to understand that the Spirit of God is not just an agent of creation, but is aware of what is happening on earth, and is an active participant in the events of earthly humanity.

But still, why is that important to us personally or corporately in the present?

And the answer to that is found in Luke’s letter to Theophilus, that we find in Acts 19:1-7 where we hear these words:

^19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples ²and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

³So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”

“John’s baptism,” they replied.

⁴Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” ⁵On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. ⁷There were about twelve men in all.

This is important for several reasons. First, if we didn’t understand what John was saying at Jesus’ baptism, it is more obviously presented here and the point is that John’s baptism of repentance, what I’m calling “Baptism 1.0,” and the baptism that Jesus brings, “Baptism 2.0” are two different things. John’s water baptism was symbolic of a person’s desire to repent and make an outward sign that one intended to change the way that they lived. But the baptism of Jesus was, and is, a baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the “baptism of fire” that was seen on the day of Pentecost when tongues of fire came down from heaven and entered each of the disciples and the others who were there with them. And, we believe, this is the baptism, most often without fire, that we receive, when we choose to follow Jesus and are baptized into his church. This is much more than just an outward sign of repentance, although water baptism is that, but Baptism 2.0 is not just external and symbolic; it is also internally transformational because the Spirit of the living God enters into us and takes up residence within us. It is because God chooses to inhabit us, that he is daily able to be at work transforming us into the people be wants us to be, and to lead us, guide us, and empower us with his strength, his compassion, his patience, his endurance, and his love, to do the work that he has set before us to accomplish. It is because God inhabits us that we have the strength and wisdom to do things that we would otherwise believe to be impossible. It is God that gives us the courage to share the gospel with others, it is God that leads us to the people who need to hear his message, it is God who leads us to people who can teach us what we need to learn, it is God who gives us the strength to persist and to continue when we come to the end of our human strength, and it is God who goes with us and equips us to do his work in countless other ways.

Baptism 2.0 and the coming of the Holy Spirit is why the church is able to answer the call of God and do the work that God calls us to do, both as individuals and as a gathered church. It is the moment that God’s people move beyond “God with us” and begin a new life as we go into the world with “God in us.”

You wouldn’t send your children outside in the cold without a hat, coat, and gloves.

You wouldn’t leave on a long car trip without a full tank of gas.

You wouldn’t send an army into battle without food and ammunition.

And neither does God send you out into the world to do his work unequipped and unprepared.

That… is Baptism 2.0.

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Unexpected People in Heaven

January 7, 2024January 7, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon adoption, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, Ephesians, epiphany, family, Gentiles, God, Isaiah, Jesus, magi, Matthew, Methodist, mystery, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, promise, reveal, Street, United, wise men

Mystery Explained!

(or Unexpected People in Heaven)

January 07, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 60:1-6 Matthew 2:1-12 Ephesians 3:1-12

Whether it’s reading Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, or watching NCIS and FBI dramas on television, many of us enjoy a good mystery. Since Patti spends much more time in her car than I do, she regularly listens to audio books, and whenever I go with her, she is always listening to a mystery of some kind. Good authors keep us guessing. What will happen next? What plot twist lies in store for us? Among the many characters that we’ve met, who is the perpetrator of the crime in question?

It’s just our human nature to be curious, and for our curiosity to be inspired by a good mystery story. But whatever it is, we look forward to the end of the book, movie, or television drama where all is revealed, and the mystery is solved. And that’s the part of the biblical story that we will dig into today, it is the moment that Paul proclaims the mystery “has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets,” and of course, to us. But before we get to the big reveal, let’s dig into the back story and understand some of the history of the mystery. Let’s begin with the prophecy and promise contained in Isaiah 60:1-6 where we hear this message:

^60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
²See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
³Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

⁴“Lift up your eyes and look about you:
    All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
    and your daughters are carried on the hip.
⁵Then you will look and be radiant,
    your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
    to you the riches of the nations will come.
⁶Herds of camels will cover your land,
    young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
    bearing gold and incense
    and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.

Through Isaiah, God tells of a coming day when the Lord’s rising will overcome the darkness of the human soul in the same way that the sun overcomes the darkness of night. And on that day the people of Israel will return from the four corners of the earth to which they had migrated, Israel will be filled with wealth, symbolized here by camels, and all who come will bring gold, incense, and other gifts that would be fit for a king.

And then, as we anticipate the celebration Epiphany, we hear of the coming of the Wise Men and we hear how their coming echoes the prophecies of Isaiah. They come to Israel from afar bearing gifts of gold and incense and, as we hear that echo, we understand how much else of Isaiah’s prophecy is being fulfilled. A light has come into the darkness of the world and into the darkness of the souls of humanity.

Reading from Matthew 2:1-12, we hear these words:

^2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magifrom the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

⁷Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

We’ve lost count of the times, and the Christmases, that we have read, and heard this story. We know the story of the magi. But where is the mystery in that? The mystery is found in the “why.” These men were not Jews and so, why did they come? They were not Jewish, they did not share the faith of Mary and Joseph or the nation of Israel, and yet they worshipped the baby in a manger. Moreover, they were not the first to present this puzzle. In 2 Kings 5, Naaman, the great military commander of the nation of Aram came to Israel to be healed of his leprosy and, after God healed him, he asked the prophet Elisha,, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord.”

Before that, the prophet Elijah fed the widow of Zarephath with a miraculously never-ending supply of oil and flour during a famine. And of course, there was the prostitute who hid the spies in Jericho, and Ruth who followed her mother-in-law Naomi, married Boaz, and became the great-grandmother of King David. And long before that, we know that not everyone who fled slavery in Egypt were from Abraham’s family, but all of them, of every race and nationality, became known as the children of Israel. All of these were Gentiles. They were not the children of Abraham; they were not born into the covenant of Abraham, they were not a part of God’s contract with Abraham, and they did not inherit the promise that God had made to Abraham’s descendants. And so how is it that they could have faith in Israel’s God? How is it that God would accept them?

And, like the end of our modern-day detective stories, that is exactly the mystery that Paul reveals as he writes to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 3:1-12, saying:

^3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

²Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, ³that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. ⁴In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. ⁶This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

⁷I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. ⁸Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, ⁹and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. ¹⁰His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, ¹¹according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹²In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

The mystery, as Paul explains it, and as we have already discussed, is how God could love Gentiles and invite them into his family. Even in the Old Testament there were occasional examples that, despite having made an eternal covenant with Abraham and his descendants, and those who later became the people of Israel, there were hints that God loved Gentiles and would accept them into his family. But now, through the story of the gospel, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Gentiles are invited into God’s family, adopted by the creator and king of all that exists, and are now heirs, together with Israel, members of one body, and together with the people of Israel and Abraham’s family, share in the promises of Jesus Christ.

That’s the big reveal. That God has always loved the Gentiles, that the Gentiles were always welcome to join his people, and that God always had a plan to invite the entire world into his family. But now that the mystery has been revealed, God’s plan to rescue the world includes us, the church. Paul says that God’s intent, God’s plan, is for the church to spread his word, to act as God’s agents in the world and to tell the rulers, the authorities, our neighbors, our friends, and the entire world the story of the gospel, the message and the Good News of Jesus Christ, and to invite them all to join God’s family. Because, as Paul said, “in him, and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”

God commands us to share the story, and to spread the Good News. But it is a story that’s worth sharing because it’s our story.

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The Reward of Faithfulness

December 31, 2023December 31, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, Anna, Broadway, Christ, church, faithful, faithfulness, Galatians, God, Jesus, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, promise, reward, Simeon, Street, United

The Reward of Faithfulness

December 31, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3 Luke 2:22-40 Galatians 4:4-7

The world had changed. The world in which I have worked as an adult bears little resemblance to the working world that my grandfather knew, only some resemblance to the world that my father knew, and I’m certain that the world in which my grandchildren eventually work will similarly be different. Once upon a time, it was common for men, because it was men, to get hired, work their entire lives, and retire from the same company, and get a gold watch or something similarly symbolic after 30 or 40 years of their lives at that employer. That sort of thing is rare rather than common today, although retirees might still get gold watch watches or similar retirement gifts in some places. It was once common for those retirees to receive pensions at their retirement, but again, employers that even offer a pension are rare rather common in today’s working world.

But if there aren’t gold watches and pensions given at retirement, then what is the reward for thirty or forty years of faithfulness? And, since we’re asking the question, what reward do we receive for a lifetime of service and faithfulness to God? We gain some insight into this as we read the words contained in Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3 where it says:

¹⁰I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations.

^62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
    her salvation like a blazing torch.
²The nations will see your vindication,
    and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
³You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
    a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

Isaiah says that God has deliberately set the people and the nation of Israel apart from the rest of the world and clothed them in salvation and righteousness. God’s mysterious and irresistible spirit is at work planting a garden of righteousness and praise throughout the nations of the world so that one day, Israel will be exonerated and declared innocent of all accusations that have been made against her and she will be called by a new name, given to her by God. On that day Jerusalem will be a jewel in the crown of God almighty. But, given the news from Israel that we see each day today, that day has not yet come. But God is not done with human history, and we see signs in Luke 2:22-40 that foreshadow the future as we meet several characters of the Christmas story, see their faithfulness before God, and hear how God rewards them:

²²When the days for their purification were completed according to the Law of Moses, they brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, ²³as it is prescribed in the Law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord,” ²⁴and to offer a sacrifice in accordance with what is stated in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

²⁵At that time, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This upright and devout man was awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not experience death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

²⁷Prompted by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was required by the Law, ²⁸he took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹“Now, Lord, you may dismiss your servant in peace,
    according to your word;
³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹    which you have prepared in the sight of all the peoples,
³²a light of revelation to the Gentiles
    and glory for your people Israel.”

³³The child’s father and mother marveled at what was being said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: “This child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, ³⁵so that the secret thoughts of many will be revealed, and you yourself a sword will pierce.”

³⁶There was also present a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very advanced in years, having lived with her husband for seven years after their marriage, ³⁷and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped with fasting and prayer night and day. ³⁸At that moment, she came forward and began to praise God, while she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.

³⁹When they had fulfilled everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was upon him.

The first people that we encounter in this story are Mary and Joseph who, being the faithful people that we already know them to be, bring Jesus, their firstborn son, to the temple to present him before God. There, the law required the sacrifice of either two doves or two young pigeons. One thing of which we can be certain from history, is that Mary and Joseph were poor. They, and 90 percent of Israel’s population, existed at a subsistence level. They earned, or grew, just enough to stay alive. It is likely that the purchase of two doves was more than they could have afforded, and even two common street pigeons was probably a financial stretch unless there was a way for them to catch their own but, given the corruption that we see surrounding temple sacrifices during Jesus’ adult ministry… probably not. But in any case, despite the financial strain that it placed on the family, Mary and Joseph do whatever needs to be done so that they can follow the law and start their son off right before God.

Next, we meet Simeon who had been a faithful, upright, and devout follower of God for his entire life, in whom God’s spirit rested, and to whom God’s spirit had revealed the coming of the promised Messiah. Simeon is led, by God, to the temple courts on this specific day, for this specific moment, and when he sees Mary and Joseph, he takes their baby in his arms, gives thanks, and praises God for keeping his promises to Israel, to the world, and to him personally.

Likewise, Mary and Joseph also meet Anna, a woman who had tragically been widowed only seven years after her marriage, left destitute and penniless, and, as was sometimes done in charity, had moved into the temple as a servant. But somewhere along the way, her faithfulness to God had been rewarded by God with the gift of prophecy. And she also was led by God, at that specific moment, to meet this holy family and lift praises to God for sending the Messiah, deliverer, and rescuer of Jerusalem.

Each of these people had arrived at the temple because of their faithfulness. Simeon and Anna were both rewarded by being among the first people on earth to see the fulfillment of God’s promises and to meet, in person, the Messiah, rescuer, and redeemer of Israel. Mary and Joseph were able to hear, and to witness, these saints of God proclaim the truth of who their son would become, and they later witnessed their son grow in strength, wisdom, and in the favor of God.

But again, what about us?

What does all this mean to us two thousand years later?

To put it simply, now, as it was then, there is a reward for our faithfulness to God. In Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia (Galatians 4:4-7), he writes this:

⁴However, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, ⁵in order to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

⁶And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying out “Abba! Father!” ⁷Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son; and if you are a son, then through God you are also an heir.

The Messiah, rescuer, and redeemer that was promised in the words of Isaiah, who was born to Mary and Joseph, and who lived, died, and rose again, whose story is contained in the gospels, came to earth so that we might be adopted into God’s family. Because of him, our relationship with God is not the relationship of a master and a servant, or boss and employee, or military leader and a subordinate. Our relationship is one in which we can call on God as our Abba, Papa, or Daddy, a beloved father who loves us so much he was willing to give his life for us. We are no longer strangers or slaves, but children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, and heirs who will inherit the kingdom of God.

Like Mary and Joseph, Simeon, Anna, and countless millions who have gone on to glory ahead of us, we rest in God’s promise, and in the examples that he has given to us. Because of these witnesses we find comfort and assurance that there is, and will be, a reward for our faithfulness.

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Waiting for Hope

December 24, 2023December 24, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, candlelight, candles, Christ, Christmas, Christmas Eve, church, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge

Waiting for Hope

December 24, 2023*

(Christmas Eve)

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 9:2-7 Luke 2:1-20 Titus 2:11-14

READING 1:

Isaiah 9:2-7

²The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
³You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.
⁴For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
⁵Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
⁶For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

READING 2:

Luke 2:1-7^2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²(This was the first census that took place while^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

READING 3:

Luke 2:8-14

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God, and saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

READING 4:

Luke 2:15-20

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying, and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Waiting for Hope

By Pastor John Partridge

Well… we’ve arrived.

For many of us, Christmas is our favorite season of the year. For some of you here, I have seen your posts on social media counting down to tonight and tomorrow morning. We might have hoped for a white Christmas, but I’m certain that we’ll have enough of that soon enough. We’ve sung the songs, we’ve heard the children, the pipe organ, the choir, and the bells. In a few minutes we will light the candles and welcome Christmas as we sing Silent Night. For many of us that is the moment that we know that Christmas has arrived and our hearts, and our souls are, even if only for a moment… at peace.

But what does it all mean?

Yes, we’ve heard the story. Yes, we know that the King of Kings was born to a virgin, entered into our earthly existence, and begun the journey that led to our salvation and rescue, but what about the here and now? We know the first century story, but what is the twenty-first century story? What does the Christmas story mean to us in our hectic, helter-skelter, world of rushed deadlines, underfunded budgets, and overscheduled calendars?

As much as we love the Christmas story, we all know that it represents just the very beginning of God’s invasion of the world and our work to tell humanity of Christ’s coming and call everyone to repentance and reconciliation with God. The disciples knew that too. And in his letter to his friend, we hear Paul helping Titus to grapple with the message of Jesus Christ and understand his, and our, role in the world around us. Titus was one of Paul’s missionary partners, a pastor, capable church administrator, responsible ally, evangelist, and a trusted friend. And, in Paul’s letter he tells Titus that what we are doing in the post-resurrection world, is… waiting for hope. That’s a puzzling idea, and so let’s read a larger passage from Titus 2:11-14, to hear, in context, what Paul is saying. He says:

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹²It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Paul says that the coming of Jesus Christ was, for us, the appearance of God’s grace to the world and offers salvation to all people. That grace, and that rescue, teaches us to navigate the chaos of the world around us. We surrounded by a culture that admires and idolizes lives that are at least, or often completely, out of control and burning with ungodly and worldly passions that worship sex, drugs, gambling, power, and excesses of every kind and flavor. But God’s grace guides us toward lives that are moral, ethical, upright, and self-controlled… which absolutely is not saying that we live lives that are boring, humorless, or without fun or other enjoyment, but that find fun and enjoyment in ways that honor God.

The odd part of Paul’s writing is where it says that we live these lives “while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of… Jesus Christ.” I’m certain that Paul isn’t saying that we live without hope, because Jesus Christ is our hope. Rather, I think what he is saying, when he says that we wait for the “blessed hope,” is that we live these lives while we wait for the fulfillment of our hope and return of Jesus Christ.

And so, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we must remember not just that he came, but why he came. Jesus came to earth to call the world to repentance, to rescue us from sin and death, to teach us how to live moral, ethical, upright, and godly lives in the middle of a world that is immoral, unethical, out of control, and ungodly. Our mission is to tell the people around us that God offers them a better way and a better life. And we must live and love in such a way, that the people around us can see that better life in us, know that God’s offer is real, and want what we have.

Merry Christmas everyone.

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(Insert Your Name Here)

December 24, 2023December 24, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, Animal House, Broadway, Christ, Christmas, church, David, Delta House, fulfill, Gentiles, God, insert, Jesus, Mary, Methodist, mission, Nathan, National Lampoon, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, prepare, promise, rescue, Romans, Rome, Street, United, virgin, your name here

(Insert Your Name Here)

December 24, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 Luke 1:26-38 Romans 16:25-27

There is a scene in the 1978 movie, National Lampoon’s “Animal House,” where the new class of pledges for the Delta House are sworn into the fraternity. In it, they are asked to say “I… state your name… “and every single one of them says the words “state your name” instead of saying their name. And we all laughed because we all assume that everyone knows what to do in such a situation. Whenever we fill out forms for our schools, doctors, insurance companies, the Internal Revenue Service, retirement funds, and all sorts of other things, we encounter a box or a line that asks us for our name. At other times, we have been asked to include our names in a script where we take an oath of office, or are sworn into the military, or, in this case, a fraternity, we just include our own names where we are told to do so.

But as common as it is in our everyday lives, we often miss it when the same thing happens as we read scripture. And that’s a point that I want to make today. As we make our final preparations for Christmas tomorrow morning, it’s important for us to remember that we are included in the story of scripture. We aren’t everywhere, of course, because the story is about characters that are so familiar to us. This morning we will hear about King David, the prophet Nathan, the angel Gabriel, Elizabeth, Mary, the Apostle Paul, and… (insert your name here).

We begin with God’s words found in 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 where we hear God’s promise to King David given through his prophet Nathan:

^7:1 After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ²he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

³Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.”

⁴But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:

⁵“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? ⁶I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. ⁷Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’

⁸“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. ⁹I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. ¹⁰And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning ¹¹and have done ever since the time I appointed leadersover my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.

¹⁶Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

David had finally become secure in his leadership of Israel. He has built a palace, united the twelve tribes, settled, and secured the borders with other nations, and at this moment he looks at the tent that houses God’s tabernacle and imagines that it is time to build a permanent dwelling place for the Ark of the Covenant and for Israel’s God. But God isn’t having any of that just yet. God’s words to David are that he is not the one who has been called to build God’s house. Instead, God reminds David of his roots and humble beginnings, how God brought David to this place, how God will place the name of David among the greatest men on the planet, and how God has plans that extend far beyond David’s lifetime. God promises that David’s family, and David’s kingdom will endure forever.

God’s message to David is, “Look how far you have come. Look at how far I have brought you. And I’m not even close to being done yet.”

And that leads us back to the Christmas story in Luke 1:26-38 where God sends the angel Gabriel to visit Mary and announce her pregnancy.

²⁶In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

³⁴“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be calledthe Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.”

³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Mary wonders how this could happen. She knows where babies come from, but she also knows that she and Joseph have not yet slept together. Given that their two families do not live in the same town, the chances are good that she and Joseph rarely, if ever, see one another, and it’s quite possible that she hasn’t seen him at all since the contract was signed pledging them to be married. But as difficult as it is to believe, Mary accepts her role in this unfolding drama saying, “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

It is important to notice that Gabriel also affirms God’s promise to David, and Mary understands that she will be a part of the fulfillment of that promise. God promises that Mary’s son will inherit the throne of King David and become a part of a kingdom that will never end. And so, Mary clings to God’s promise. If God has come this far, over thousands of years, to fulfill his promise to David, Mary’s prayer is that God will do the same for his promise to her, saying, “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

But what does that have to do with us?

Where is the fill in the blank part?

And as we often do, we find the application in Romans 16:25-27, in the very last words of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome where he says…

²⁵Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, ²⁶but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes fromfaith— ²⁷to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

And there it was. Did you hear it, or did you miss it?

Paul says that God has revealed his salvation, through his son Jesus Christ, through the writings of the prophets of Israel… so that… all the nations, or in another translation all the Gentiles, might come to obedience and faith. God says that the entire journey of the people of Israel, through Abraham, David, and to the Christmas story, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, the entire story was commanded by God for the purpose of bringing hope to the world and calling the Gentiles, and all the nations of the world, to faith in Jesus.

That is where you can insert your name.

Paul said, “the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, ²⁶but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that (insert your name here) might come to the obedience that comes fromfaith…”

But the story isn’t over.

The story wasn’t over when God brought David from herding sheep to unite the twelve tribes of Israel, and the story wasn’t over with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God did all these things so that all nations, and all people, might come to obedience and faith in Jesus Christ.

There is still work to do.

And God is calling each one of you, (insert your name here) to finish the job.

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Pastor’s Christmas Letter

December 19, 2023 PastorPartridge Blogs Alliance, Broadway, Christ, Christmas, Christmas Eve, church, Holy Spirit, Humbug, invitation, invite, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, pastor, spirit

Pastor’s Christmas Letter

by John Partridge

Dear Friends,

This year the Advent season seemed to sneak up on us faster than I remember others in the past and we are already racing towards Christmas. This seems to race even faster when our fourth Sunday of Advent falls on Christmas Eve morning. This feeling of hectic scheduling makes it even more important that we be deliberate in preparing ourselves for the celebration of our Lord’s birth. I don’t just mean buying presents and decorating our homes, but preparing our hearts and our souls so that we can enjoy and appreciate the arrival of the newborn king.

I admit that since I was in my twenties, and in most ordinary years, I struggled (past tense) and still struggle (present tense) with being a humbug. I just don’t “feel” Christmas-y. Before Patti and I were married, I discovered that one way to fight back, and to start feeling the warmth of the holiday was to start listening to Christmas music after Thanksgiving, even if I didn’t feel like it. More recently, with the loss of my hearing and music often sounding off-key, music hasn’t been as effective and so instead I make sure to decorate our Christmas tree, turn on the lights, and look at it for a while every evening.

But that isn’t enough. Because the Spirit of God dwells within each one of us as the followers of Jesus, when we are together, we feel the presence, not only of other people, but also the presence of God himself. And so, every Sunday, but especially during Advent, it is important for all of us to worship together, to simply be together, so that we can feel that sensation of closeness to God and prepare our hearts for Christmas. That closeness to God is real and, as important as it is to us personally, it’s important that we don’t keep it to ourselves.

Statistically, about one-third of, or one in three, people say that they would be willing to attend or visit a church if they were invited. That willingness is often highest at Christmastime. Christmas Eve is easily one of the most attended worship services of the year in almost every church in North America. And so, as I have in the past, I hope that each one of you will invite at least five others to join us. Toward that end, we have printed business cards that you can give to your friends, classmates, business associates, barber, hairdresser, grocery store clerk, or anybody else, and invite them to join us as we worship and celebrate Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve and Christmas are a time when we draw close to one another, and draw close to God, in a way that is both special and memorable not just because of the people, but because it is a time when we encounter the Spirit of God in a special way. Of course, we will share the extraordinary experience of hearing our choirs, bell choirs, pipe organ, and singing traditional and meaningful carols of Christmas together. But most importantly, we will remember the story of God’s invasion of the earth and the arrival of the Christ child, who would become the rescuer and redeemer of all humanity.

I hope that you will join us as we draw closer one another, and closer to God, together.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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Pastor Partridge

Sermons, blogs and other things from Pastor John Partridge

Freedom’s Surrender

Freedom’s Surrender

February 04, 2024*

Rights, Truth, or Distraction?

Rights, Truth, or Distraction?

January 28, 2024*

A Year in Review: 2023

2023 Year in Review

The End is (Really!) Near

The End is (Really!) Near

January 21, 2024*

Baptism 2.0

Baptism 2.0

January 14, 2024*

Unexpected People in Heaven

Mystery Explained!

(or Unexpected People in Heaven)

January 07, 2024*

The Reward of Faithfulness

The Reward of Faithfulness

December 31, 2023*

Waiting for Hope

Waiting for Hope

December 24, 2023*

(Christmas Eve)

Waiting for Hope

(Insert Your Name Here)

(Insert Your Name Here)

December 24, 2023*

Pastor’s Christmas Letter

Pastor’s Christmas Letter

by John Partridge