​The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday, November 26, 2023)
Rev. William Gaskill, Guest Preacher
 
 
“Christ the King”
Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46
 
 
            I’ve known my wife’s brother Steve for as long as I’ve known her, now well over 50 years.  He is an avid Phillies fan.  In any given April, if you asked him how the team would do, no matter how dismal a team they had, he’d say they were going to win the World Series.  He now works with a team of realtors and shows houses to their clients.  If the Phillies play while he is at work, he DVRs the game.  If another member of the family watches the game in real time he commands with some degree of urgency, “Don’t tell me the score.  I’m going to watch it later.”
 
            Spoiler alert!  That’s what we warn people with when we are about to tell the end before the beginning. I guess people want to enjoy the journey and to experience the surprises that happen along the way to the conclusion. That’s fine where sports or movies are concerned, but spiritually, it is really helpful to know the end from the beginning.  It helps keep hope alive and ward off despair.
 
Next week is the beginning of the church year in liturgy.  We call it Advent. In just a few short weeks we’ll all be gathered around the manger trying to recover our childlike wonder.  Spoiler alert!  Today we celebrate the outcome of a wonderful, sometimes difficult life.  Since last year, we have traced that life all the way from Bethlehem to Golgotha and onward through the resurrection to Jesus’ ascension and session at the Father’s right hand where his Kingship begins, or should I say continues.  Jesus was king even when he was the suffering servant whom precious few people accepted.
 
 Today we find out how the story turns out before we even go through the year considering all that leads up to this Holy denouement.  So here we go.  Today we acknowledge that Christ is King.  His rule and reign is what the whole creation has been groaning and lurching toward since the fall of Adam and Eve. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  All of us need saving; there are no exceptions. The central affirmation of Jesus is that at his coming the Kingdom of God has come near; the Kingdom of God is among you.
 
If all you have to go on is what your eyes see, your ears hear, your mind is able to grasp, if you get all your information about the meaning of life through your fleshly abilities, from our cultural scions and our media, you are not going to believe in the Lordship and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ.  When you consider what’s going on in our world, honestly, does it lead you to the conclusion that God is in charge of the events swirling around us? Or if God is in charge, does God seem like a cruel task master punishing everyone for each mistake they make. Or conversely, does it seem to you that God is simply no longer paying attention to human affairs?  That’s not the God of the Bible, but then few people really read the Bible anymore.
 
 To really see the deeper truth of God’s rule and reign through Jesus Christ, to understand spiritually what’s going on in the world, you are going to need a faith that looks through the violent, demonic surface presented by the world and have a muscular faith that perceives the activity of God that is constantly going on amidst the crime and chaos of our perpetually prodigal humanity. You are going to need a lot of help from beyond yourself and from beyond other people’s arrogant intellectual pride which pretends to know what’s what and what to do about it when they don’t. This has always been so and still is. Somehow we must go deeper. What we need to recover is a biblical world view.  We need the conviction that God has not abandoned us.
 
Let’s go to the end of our passage and see how Paul describes Jesus. First Paul says that God put his power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Belief in the resurrection truly is at the heart of the matter.  Elsewhere, Paul taught that if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
 
 You and I cannot prove the resurrection.  If you trace your faith back to your beginning in the Christian life, your faith and mine relies upon the testimony of the eyewitnesses who had numerous bodily encounters with the One who was dead, but behold, is alive forevermore. The witness they provided is now 2,000 years old and counting. Their testimony has been confirmed within the hearts of countless believers including us who have come along afterward.
 
We read about the resurrection in God’s word, and once our faith comes to life, we begin to experience our own life in the light of that defining event in all of human history.  He is Risen!  Hallelujah! We begin to live beyond guilt and shame.  We begin to live in the conviction that we are not only forgiven by God; we are loved by God.  We begin to experience God’s loving care through the Holy Spirit who has come along with the Father and the Son to take up residence deep inside of our lives.  Our life begins to change in many, often surprising ways.  Our faith grows.  Our faith deepens.
 
These realities grow directly out of the revelation that our Savior is our King, or as the Confession of 1967 puts it, “Our judge is our redeemer.”  This is what is indicated by the words, “Christ is seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.” In other words, the sovereignty of Christ is at work now and will continue throughout all eternity.
 
I take all this personally and I hope you do too.  But I must confess, as I look with my eyes out upon the world which is full of people drunk on power, corrupt in the use of money, as I hear with my ears from people who are violent, divisive, and hateful, and as I feel with my heart that there are many who don’t think twice about trampling on other people so that they can get ahead, so that they can satisfy their lustful desires, I know I’m going to need divine help to maintain a clear spiritual perspective on the world.  Christ the King?  I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
 
That’s the help Paul prays for the Ephesians to receive, and through them for us as well.  The first motive for Paul’s prayer is that he “has heard of your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you in my prayers.” 
 
May I help you notice the immediate battle line here?  Do we really have love toward all the saints, or just the saints that have the intelligence to agree with us on every point? The love that is rooted and grounded only in our flesh, in our natural proclivities tends to be very selective.  Fleshly love just can’t help itself; it tends to be judgmental when the going gets rough.  It is easily infected with bitterness and unforgiveness.
 
Christians through the ages have had much trouble with the urge to support schism.  Flesh and spirit clash.  I found a quote by Alduous Huxley where he said, “Thy will be done is a phrase repeated daily by millions, who have not the slightest intention of letting any will be done, except their own.”  May we be honest enough to admit that there are some saints we find to be more lovable than others?  Is it time for another prayer of confession?
 
Let’s not get bogged down. Moving on into Paul’s prayer for us, he asks God to give us the things we need in order for us to live well under the rule and reign of Jesus Christ.
 
First, Paul prays that we will be given a spirit of wisdom and revelation as we come to know him.  As I think back to the time when I first met Jesus and gave him my heart, I must confess I didn’t really know him all that well. My earliest confession was, “God, if you are out there, take my life.  Please just make it real.  I’ve had enough deception already.” I’ve been coming to know him ever since.
 
  I’ve needed the gift of wisdom from God to learn how to follow him.  I’ve needed revelation through scripture and prayer to learn about his character, his desires for me, his mercy, his kindness, and yes, often, his correction.  As the cliché goes, Jesus loves you the way he finds you but he loves you too much to leave you that way.
 
 The process of what the theologians call sanctification goes on for the rest of our lives.  Is anybody here done yet?  Neither am I. Lord, give me a wise heart to choose you who have first chosen me.  And give me revelation so I might know you more and more as long as I live.
 
 Paul’s petitions for us continue with the request that the eyes of our hearts be enlightened and that we may know three things.
 
One: that we may know the hope to which he has called us. I hope you realize that Christian hope is not the flesh indulged in wishful thinking.  We all wish that wars would cease.  We all wish for peace and prosperity.  We all wish that human stewardship of creation would improve. We all wish we would be loved. We wish for a lot of things that are good in themselves.
 
But our Christian hope comes from a deeper source and transports us to a far more expansive place.  Our hope is born as a response to the call of God through Jesus Christ.  That call is the source of a full life, full of purpose and meaning, a life that is comprised of far more than we can ask or imagine. And as we respond to that call, the promise of eternity opens up before us. 
 
The knowledge of the hope to which we have been called leads us to the second petition, which asks that we may know of his glorious inheritance among the saints.
 
 My sister Mary died in May of 2020.  I had agreed to serve as her executor.  She had 19 beneficiaries.  It was a complicated mess in many ways.  I’ve said sometimes, though not totally in earnest, that if you want to get even with someone after you die, make them your executor.  I finally got all the heirs their due rewards but it was a long process.
 
Now here’s something you might have missed.  The glorious inheritance in this second petition is not due to us, it is Christ’s.  It is his glorious inheritance.  Who; me, you, us together?  We are his glorious inheritance? We together are the reward given to Christ for his sacrifice of love offered up on the Cross.  We are viewed as his glory and crown. 
 
This is mind boggling stuff. Read Romans 8 over and over, and notice verse 29: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.”  We are adopted sons and daughters in whom Christ the King takes great delight and satisfaction.  We are the fruit of his labor on Calvary.  We are his crowning achievement! That insight ought to both humble us and exhilarate us!  Look what your value is to Christ the King.
 
Is that all?  No, there is more.  The third petition is that we may know the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.   If we are going to live with confidence and serenity in a world gone mad like ours has, we are going to need the power of God.  The Bible teaches us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that is at work in those of us who believe.  Do you need any more power than that?  No!  What we need is the faith to believe that what the Bible says is true.  And that faith, just as every other spiritual gift given to human beings, has its source in the heart of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 
What I’m trying to see and to help you see with me is that history at its deepest level is God’s salvation history.  All the imperialists, all the terrorists, all the corrupt politicians, even all the backslidden Christians are subject to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  As the earliest Christian hymn found in Philippians 2 concludes, “Every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
 
We get to be among those who willingly bow the knee to our King before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives, when every tear will be wiped from our eyes, when all things will be made new, when death will be no more, when the former things will have passed away, making way for the reign of Jesus Christ, un-enshrouded by the ravages of sin. We get to worship King Jesus even before many people don’t even know there is a King.  Come quickly King Jesus.

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ November 19 2023)
Rev. Dwayne Doyle
 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ November 12 2023)
Rev. Joel Buckwalter 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ October 29 2023)
Rev. Wanda Sevey 

​The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday, November 5, 2023)
Rev. Cliff Jones, Guest Preacher
 
 
“What Makes Us Presbyterians Distinct?”
I Peter 1:1, 2
 
I have this memory. It goes back to elementary school.  My teacher would sometimes organize our class for kick ball or dodge ball during recess.  She’d pick the two best players as captains, and then the captains would take turns choosing their team…. And I would be praying, “Don’t let me be among the last picked, please.”  Sometimes that seemed to work.  Sometimes that didn’t.  This one time, after the captains had been chosen and started picking team mates, one person said out loud, “Don’t choose Cliff. He’s no good.”  Ouch.  To hear that out loud just made me feel doubly no good and humiliated.  To my shock, I heard the captain then say, “That’s not true. Cliff’s good.  I choose Cliff!”  My attitude changed completely, and I walked proudly, proudly over to that team, because I was no longer a left over.  I was chosen.
 
What is it that makes us distinct?  What makes us Presbyterians different from other expressions of Christianity?  Is it food?  Seems like every time we get together we eat, but that’s not true only of us but most churches as well.  Meetings?  Yeah, well, same with most congregations, too.
What makes us different?  There’s more than one answer, but I’d like to highlight in yellow this distinctive:  we know that we are chosen by God.  Let’s take a look at this by reading I Peter 1:1, 2:
 
            Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the temporary exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus,
            Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen by the foreknowledge of God the
            Father through the sanctifying Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of
            Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
 
Sounds like a standard opening to a letter written back then… but not so fast.  It’s actually quite astounding!  Let’s look at it again.  The writer is Peter, the disciple, now apostle of Jesus.  He’s writing to congregations in what would be modern day Turkey and names the various areas where they are located:  “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.  Did you notice he calls them ‘temporary exiles’?  He’s reminding them they don’t have a permanent home in this world; they are ‘exiles’ because they are destined for a greater, true home with God forever.  Then, Peter says this:  “(you are) chosen by the foreknowledge of God.”  There’s the astounding part.  In other words, it tells us that God ahead of time - that’s the meaning of  the word, ’foreknowledge’ in verse 1; knew whom He would choose  - that’s the word, ’chosen’,  in verse 1; to come to the obedience of faith - just as the verse says; in Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross saves them - that’s the  meaning of ‘sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ;  through the working, as it says, of the Holy Spirit.  Now, that’s a mouthful, and I’ll just add to it by saying we have a reference here to the Trinity, without using that word:  Peter speaks of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 
The central idea he is communicating is that these people are chosen by God.  They belong to Jesus.  And this opens up one of the key distinctive of Presbyterianism and reformed theology:  predestination.  Have you heard this term?  I think you have.  Predestination.  What does it mean?
 
Here’s my definition:
God chooses us by foreknowledge before we are born to know and belong to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  It’s pre - meaning ‘before’, and destination - meaning ‘destiny’.  So, ahead of time, God chooses to give us a destiny with Jesus.  This idea goes by many names, ‘the elect’, ’election’, ‘chosen’, ‘called’ or ‘predestined’.  Does this idea of predestination raise questions for you?  It does for me.  Questions like:
Is predestination found in other places in the Bible, or just one or two places?
If God chooses us to belong to him, does that mean God doesn’t choose others?
How does this idea of predestination help me?
Let’s take a look at these questions.
 
- Is the idea of predestination truly biblical?  Let me give you 2-3 examples.
Jeremiah 1:5 - “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you… I appointed you prophet to the nations.”  God foreknew Jeremiah the prophet and picked him.
Deuteronomy 14:2 - “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.”
Romans 8:33 - “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” - referring to Christians.
Matthew 22:14 - “For many are called, but few are chosen”, says Jesus.
John 6:44 - “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”, again, Jesus.
Feel free also to check out Colossians 3:12; Ephesians 1:3,4; Revelations 17:14; Acts 4:26; Romans 8:29; Titus 1:1; Luke 18:7.  Predestination is there.  It’s Biblical.  It’s Presbyterian.
God chooses us by foreknowledge before we are born to know and belong to Jesus Christ.
 
Well, how about this question:
- Does predestination mean God chooses ahead of time who will not belong to Jesus Christ?  If God chooses ahead of time who will belong to Jesus, doesn’t that mean He chooses who won’t?
Let’s first acknowledge what we know about God.  As II Peter 3:9 says, “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all may come to repentance.”  God is patient with us all, wants to enfold all of us in his care.  However, God also knows who we are, what kind of person we are, and what our choices will be.  We make our own futures.  That is why the word, ‘foreknowledge’ is important.  God knows ahead of time what choices we will make, and how we will react to his love.  Some will turn towards, others will turn away from, God.  It’s not about who’s in and who’s out.  It’s about God’s love and protective care, holding us, assuring us we belong always to Jesus.
 
In fact, the primary reason why predestination is used in the New Testament is to comfort and strengthen Jesus followers who are facing difficult times.  Just take a look at the letter Peter writes here, as an example.  Peter is writing to Christ followers who are suffering for their faith. How do we know this?  One quick way:  the word, ‘suffer’ is used 6 times as often in I Peter as any other book in the New Testament, except the book of Hebrews, where it’s used 2 times as much as Hebrews.  This tells us something.  These people are suffering, for their faith.  So, it’s no wonder why Peter begins the letter as he does.  “Listen,” he’s saying.  “I know what you are going through, but burn this truth into your minds and into your hearts.  You belong to Jesus.  He has chosen you and He will not let you go.  Do you hear me?  I know it’s tough, but hang on.  Don’t despair.  Jesus will not let you go.  You belong to Jesus.”
 
This leads us to our other question:  How does predestination help me?  The answer is strong.  Having this kind assurance of being chosen can bring deep comfort, calm assurance; peace.
 
A few weeks back, I received an urgent text from a mission agency about a national in a Muslim country whom the police were looking for.  He was raised Muslim, then became a Christ follower and started talking to people in his country about Jesus.  Conversion to Christianity is against the law in that country, and there was real concern what might happen to him and his family.  Three days later, I receive another text, with a picture of the man with 4-5 other men he has led to the Lord.  He said this, “(These men) were fearful, afraid of what the police might do, but after reading Scripture, all declared they would not turn back.  They would remain faithful, no matter what.  When we know that we are chosen; when we know we have been predestined, we know God is for us and God is with us.  We are not left to fate.  God will uphold us, no matter what happens… and even if it leads to death, that is not the end.  There is eternity prepared.  This Presbyterian distinctive from our Reformed Theology changes our way of thinking.  We don’t have to despair.  We don’t have to be caught up in frenetic anxiety.  We have been chosen.  We belong to Jesus and He will uphold us, so we can let go of our fears, and allow the deep comfort of our election to calm us and give us peace.
 
And, there’s another implication as well.  There is evil in our world, injustice and hurt:  on-going divisions and anger in our country, a war in the Middle East, a war in Ukraine, senseless shootings, a tropical storm that too swiftly upgraded to a hurricane, our own chaos and difficulties.  It’s easy to think God is not in charge of our world; or that his love and care is not permanent.  The truth of Predestination helps us see through the chaos of our world to find God not only cares for us individually, but God cares for the whole world.  Predestination not only applies to us but to our world.  God is loving, and God is in control, and is bending the events of our world to his plan, his destination, and his glory.  God has predestined the world to experience his perfect will and He is bringing it about.
 
I remember reading about a teacher in a Christian school in an African country, which had seen its share of suffering.  The teacher was leading them in a Bible lesson that included the passage that speaks about Jesus’ returning with a cry.  One of the high schoolers raises his hand and asks, “Teacher, what do you think Jesus will shout?”  The teacher said, “Enough.  Enough.  When Jesus returns, He will cry out, ‘enough’.”  We are a people of hope.  We know how it all will end.  We don’t need to despair.  We don’t need to be negative.  We know how it all will end.  Praise God!
 
You and I as Presbyterians have a wonderful certainty.  It makes no difference what we face, we have been chosen by God and He will not let us go.  He will uphold us.  When I doubt if I have what it takes; when I feel like a failure, I can hold on to this:  "God has chosen me.”  When I wonder what’s even lovable about me; when I cry out,’why is this happening to me?’, I hold on to this:  “God has chosen me.”  When I feel like I can’t keep going on; when I seem to be helpless against what’s swirling around me, I cling to this:  “God has chosen me.”  When the world seems like it’s crashing down; when my world is falling apart, I claim this:  “God has chosen me and I belong to Jesus.”
 
This truth gives us peace.  This truth gives us hope.  This truth empowers our faith.
We choose to trust our very lives into the care of God through Jesus Christ!
 
Why am I a Presbyterian?  Many reasons, but among them is this:
God has chosen me! 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ October 22 2023)
Elder Russ Long
 
Pastors: Leading as Shepherds
Ephesians 4:1-14
We saw from the 1st ten verses of Ephesians that there is one body in the church. There is one spirit that is our common ground in that fellowship. We have one common hope in the future to which we are called. We have one Lord – Christ to whom we belong. Our common faith is in the saving grace of Christ. And our common baptism by the Holy Spirit who dwells in all believers. But as we see here in vs. 11-16 our oneness in Christ does not destroy our individuality. The Holy Spirit gives every believer gifts for the building of the church. Once we have these gifts, it is crucial to the church that we use them as we will see here. If one pat of the body is not operating to their full capacity, then the body may be able to limp along, but it will not function as God intended.
 
Today I want to talk about the pastor’s role in the church leading as shepherds. Pastors are first God-called, then church-called, and that part of their calling is to lead the Lord’s church as a preacher. Today we will look specifically at the role of shepherd.

Shepherds: What the Bible Says. The word shepherd or shepherds is only used 18 times, in 17 verses in the New Testament. For example, in Mathew 9:36 the word is used when Jesus considered the people of Israel as sheep having no shepherd. They were gone astray. Jesus told the disciples about how the sheep would scatter when the shepherd was struck, speaking of the way the disciples would scatter when He was crucified. In John 10:11-18 Jesus talked about being the good shepherd, and His sheep knew His voice.
Of all the times the Bible speaks of shepherds, only one time does it identify pastors as such. Read with me our text this morning in Ephesians 4:11-13.
“And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
In verse 11, the apostle Paul wrote that God gave to churches apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. Here the words pastors and teachers are referring to the same man. The word pastors as you see it in your Bibles comes from the same Greek word for shepherds.


Shepherds as Leaders
If you understand the biblical definition of leadership as placing yourself in service to others so they might become what God wants them to be, then you won’t have any problem seeing God’s plan of shepherding leadership in our text. God’s plan for our life is that we be transformed into the image of Christ: that we be Christlike in all our ways. Romans 8:29 tells us “for who He foreknew, he predestined, to be conformed to the image of His Son. In other words, God wants us to think like Him, to act like Him, to hold His values, to feel what He feels, for His passions to be ours, so that when He looks at us He is only seeing a reflection of Himself. God’s plan for shepherding leadership then is that the shepherds are to help us become that reflection. Look at verse 12 with me again. Why did God give shepherds to churches?
Paul gives us three reasons that form a progression of sorts.

1 - For the perfecting of the saints
The word perfecting means to completely adjust in conduct and in character. The Bible says in Romans 3 that we are corrupt in every way. Our speech is corrupt, our character is corrupt, and our conduct is corrupt. If you want to think of it in this way, you can say that we are 180 degrees out with God. The work of the shepherd then is to lead us in such a way that a complete adjustment is made in our life.
If the front end of my van was out of alignment, it would wander all over the road. It might pull hard to the left or to the right. But I want it to run true and right down the middle. The only way to get it right is for there to be an alignment, and the only way to get it properly aligned is to allow someone who knows what they’re doing to adjust it back to the original specs, as determined by the manufacture of the vehicle. In the same way churches are filled with people who are all over the road. Some pull hard to the left, others to the right, but God’s way is straight down the middle. So long as God’s people are out of alignment, then God appoints shepherds to help them make the proper adjustments as determined by the Creator. Luke 9:62 tells s that “no one putting their hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom. In the same way, God wants from us total dedication. We can’t pick and choose what we like from His word and ignore the ones we don’t like.
The word perfecting also means to equip or prepare for service. As we make the adjustments in our lives that will bring us into alignment with God’s Word and will, we will become better equipped or prepared for service. Now, how are God’s shepherds supposed to accomplish the perfecting of the saints?

Look first with me at 1 Peter 5:1-3.
“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you,
How is a shepherd supposed to accomplish the perfecting of the saints. Peter said to “feed the flock of God. The diet of God’s people is the Word of God. Every week the pastor can go to the cupboard from Genesis to Revelation and present it so that we can grow and mature into the image of Christ.
The Word of God is God’s alignment tool. It is His perfect standard, and the shepherd’s job is to make sure that we understand that we must be adjusted to it rather than changing it to adjust to our likes and dislikes.
Not only is the shepherd to feed the flock, but he is to be an example for the flock. He can never expect us to be anything that he is not, so the shepherd must be careful to live in such a way that others learn by example. “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
As the shepherd feeds the flock, he has a responsibility to guard them from the attacks of wolves, to guard them from those who would harm them. Wolves come in many forms today. Some come from outside the church, and some come from within. Some wolves would have us to believe in false plans of salvation. God’s plan is that we recognize our sinfulness before Him and repent, placing our faith and trust in Christ.
Wolves come in the form of many other false teachings.  The shepherd must guard the flock from them, and he does this by teaching them the perfect Word of God. When a bank teller is learning how to tell a real $50 from a forged $50 they don’t study all the fakes. They study the real one so that they know what to look for when they are checking. In the same way we can know the real truth from Satan’s lies by studying the truth of God’s word to us. As this occurs, then we become equipped for the next thing found in Ephesians 4:12.
2 - For the work of the ministry

Simply put, God gives pastors to His churches to train and equip the members of those
churches to do the work of the ministry.
“By teaching, preaching, training and by example the pastor is to equip church members for God’s service. Pastors ready Christians for action and to make them useful in the kingdom’s service. It is not the pastor’s job to meet every need of the congregation. It is their job to see that every need is met.”
Did you notice the subtle difference there? It isn’t the pastor’s job to meet every need of our church. It is however his job to make sure that every need is being met, and the biblical way to do that is for saints to do the work as they are taught and trained.
So, as the shepherd labors for the perfecting of the saints, as they become engaged in the work of the ministry, a third reason comes about.

3 - For the edifying of the body of Christ
The word edify means to build up or to grow stronger. As we grow in Christlikeness, as we mature and align ourselves with God’s Word and God’s will and we become engaged in the work of the ministry, our body is built up, as lost souls are saved and by the building up of us as individual saints.
Conclusion
Leading one of the Lord’s churches as a pastor / shepherd is a great privilege. (The stone tablets in the narthex) God placed Pastor Mouris here to lead us in that direction. It took three years to bring Pastor Mouris to this church. He took us part way in this journey that God has us on and I believe that even now God is preparing that one who will lead us on the next part of that journey. We just need to be vigilant and praying for that person and that we will recognize him when we see him.
Verse 13 tells us that until we all come to the unity of the faith (we all believe the same things concerning the faith), and until we all come to the knowledge of the Son of God (we all know Him as we should), and until we all become perfect, or fully grown and mature believers, found to be perfect reflections of Christ, that this work must continue.
V16 – till every part does its share… we all need to share our gifts in the ministry of building God’s church so that the body grows and matures.
What adjustments is God looking for in your life today? Perhaps it is nothing more than having a better understanding of what God has planned for us as we search for our next pastor. It’s not what we want but rather what God’s plan for us is, as he knows better that we do what is needed in the church and in our lives. Perhaps it is God inviting us to join Him in His work somewhere, and we need to respond to that invitation. Whatever He is inviting us to do, heed his call today. Let’s pray

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ October 15 2023)
Rev. Joel Buckwalter 

​The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 East Church Street
Blackwood, New Jersey 08012
Sermon Notes – Sunday, October 1, 2023
Rev. Beth Thomas, Guest Preacher
 
   “God Gives More—Again!”   
Exodus 17:1-7
 
Road trips are never easy, are they?  Some of the scariest times in my life have been on mission trips with various church youth groups.   Herding teenagers and driving a 15-passenger van requires big faith, tons of energy and a strong sense of humor. 
 
On a mission trip. for every heart-warming moment spent around a campfire there will be times when some boy picks up a steel pipe at a construction site, decides to play baseball with it and accidentally swings it right into the forehead of the pretty blonde girl he is trying to impress.  Yes, she was rushed to the emergency room and yes, she was fine. Fortunately, her mom was one of our chaperones. God is good.
 
For every moment of unbridled joy amongst teenagers there will be moments of great angst—like the time a lively young girl colored her hair purple for the trip, only to jump into a swimming pool and have it turn a disappointing shade of grey. They don’t really teach you how to deal with a fashion emergency at seminary, but could have been so much worse.  God is good.
 
For every moment on a mission trip when you are sure these kids really do love the Lord and even, almost like you, there will be those moments when you get up in the middle of the night and make your way outside to the restroom, only to return and find that some sneaky someone (probably with grey hair)  has locked you out of the rustic cabin you and the girls are sleeping in. It is a chance to see the sunrise.  God is good.
 
So, it’s also good to remember Moses and his experiences in the wilderness narratives, especially when you are a Youth Pastor. Teenagers, like the Israelites have short memories.
 
Let’s review where the Israelites are coming from: Right before this journey through the wilderness the Israelites have survived not one but 10 plagues that God sent to Egypt; their first-borns were spared in Pharoah’s rampage to cut down their population and they have escaped through God’s miraculous Passover event. You would think that they would be forever grateful and thankful that they have been set free from the land of Egypt where they had been enslaved and persecuted in many ways for many years.
 
And after the escape the miracles continued.  Here they are following that miraculous cloud during the day and that pillar of fire at night—both assurances that God is with them and is leading them. And oh yes, they have also experienced and survived that little incident at the crossing of the Red Sea. 
 
And, when they complained about being hungry, God sent and continues to send them manna every morning and quail every evening.  Maybe not fine cuisine but enough to fill them and keep them going.  So don’t they have enough visual and tangible proof that God loves them and is with them and is providing for them? The signs are everywhere, aren’t they?
 
What about in your life?  How have you seen God at work? Has God helped you in the past? Can you remember that and draw on that when times get difficult?
 
I draw great comfort from remembering a time when our boys were about 7 and 9 and our finances were about zero. God provided by giving me a freelance writing position at the News Journal newspaper and provided even more by having the editor send me on a story about a young mom who was opening a resale toy shop in her home. At that time, she was hunting for a big-ticket item--used Fisher Price Treehouse--for a client. We not only had one sitting in our back yard we also had two boys getting too tall and too cool to use it. Not only would I get a paycheck for my story, but I could also sell the treehouse.  God is good!
 
 
But I don’t always remember God’s provision when new troubles arise and the Israelites, I think, had some memory problems too. In our story today the group has just emerged from the Wilderness of Sin, which doesn’t sound like a very good place to have been, and traveled to Rephidim. But, alas, there is no water there and once again the people complain to and quarrel with Moses.
 
They say things like, “Give us water to drink! Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
 
And Moses cries out to God, saying what all pastors may say at least once in their lives, “What shall I do with these people? And God answers Moses yet again and as usual God provides.
 
Michael J. Chan writes on the “Working Preacher” website that the Israelites had still not learned the lesson that “where God leads, God provides.” Is that a lesson we have taken to heart even in bad times? It’s a challenge, isn’t it?
 
Chan, however, can summon some sympathy for the Israelites, as he writes, “They are not only on a journey through the wilderness, they are also on a journey of the soul—being transformed from an earlier existence as an enslaved people to that of an independent nation. Unlearning the habits of domination—reinforced by Pharaoh’s extractive and cruel system of slavery and subjugation—is difficult, painful and patient work. Accepting kindness and generosity when all one has known is violent exploitation was never going to be a quick and easy process.”
 
He continues, “Few would disagree that one of the Bible’s most difficult commands is the call to trust.  This is especially true when the world teaches you that your survival depends upon [the] distrust and skepticism [encountered in slavery].”
 
So maybe we too need more empathy for the Israelites. Maybe before we judge them we should as the saying goes, “walk a mile in their sandals.” Have you ever been given just one day to cook a special meal, put some animal blood on your doorframe and then run from your home with your family carrying everything you can in your arms?
 
If you are like my family if you were moving from your home, you would use cars and trucks and moving vans. You would know where your new house would be and even if you drove through some sketchy neighborhoods to get there you probably wouldn’t feel the stress the Israelites did. Today we think moving the Comcast account and getting the television to work in our new homes is stressful—how much harder was it those following Moses? Aren’t changing jobs and moving high on that list of personal stressors?
 
In other words, how difficult is it to move not just to a new home but into a completely new sort of life? It’s all harder than we might think, isn’t it?  Change is hard. We had our kitchen remodeled a few years ago and it took me a few months to remember that the spoons and knives and forks were now in a new drawer. I don’t know how I would keep track of the utensils if I was busy wandering in the wilderness!
 
And when we stop and remember the culture of the times, we encounter another huge change for the Israelites. Just think, in all of their history they were used to meeting God in their tabernacles or synagogues. But now, God was no longer confined to the holy of holies.  God was right there in the wilderness with them taking care of ordinary things the people could no longer take care of, things like providing food and water for themselves. How could they trust this new God? That had to be an enormous stress.
 
What about you? Are you trusting God or thirsting for spiritual water you are trying to find on your own? How hard is it to let God be in control of your life? Do you expect God to show up in the mundane moments of your life and do you recognize God when this happens?
 
In this scenario, things play out pretty much as they always do in the wilderness. The people encounter a problem and take it in complaining voices to the leadership.  The human leaders take the complaint to God and God provides, often in wondrous and unexpected ways.
 
We would never think this particular group of people would ever question, “Is the Lord among us or not?”  But at some point, in our lives we may all ask that question. And maybe it comes from a fear that at any given moment may seem bigger than our faith.
 
But isn’t it interesting that the Israelites and we, too, find it easy to believe that God is with us when we have what we need but tend to feel abandoned when we don’t?
 
Moses is always quick to remind the people, “Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.” Yikes! That might make a big difference. Who are your complaints against? I suspect that God is big enough to handle whatever we give him in our grumbling voices but I also suspect that God would much rather hear our thanks and praise.
 
Some of the key verbs in this story are from the Hebrew words for “test” and “quarrel” and reading this in our homes or in our lovely sanctuaries we don’t quite comprehend that.  We, who have the comfort of knowing how the story ends, tend to see the Israelites as ungrateful grumblers. We forget how very new this experience was and how very different it was to suddenly be free. Adding thirst to the already overwhelming stress of life during the Exodus wasn’t just a little inconvenience.
 
Also writing on the Working Preacher website, Anathea Portier-Young says 100 hours is about the length of time a human body can survive in average temperatures without access to water.  Heat decreases that number as does what you are doing—so walking long distances, in the desert sun, carrying all your belongings—shortens the timeline for dying of thirst.
 
So, Moses handles these complaints the way he did all of the grumblings.  He prayed and God in turn used Moses in some of the most extraordinary rescues in the history of Israel.  In this case God told Moses to use all those rocks that were at hand in this deserted place and find water there. God had a much better use for those rocks than letting the people stone Moses with them.
 
God said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7
 
Terrance E. Fetheim writes, “God leads Moses to help that is available in the world of nature. God has created the world in such a way that it has healing capacities in and through which God can work in positive ways on behalf of its creatures.  They will be able to find the most elemental resource for life.  Water does in fact run through rock formations and so it is a matter of finding the places of flowing water. The actions of both God and Moses enable [this] hidden potential to surface.”
 
That is one powerful staff that Moses uses again and again to help solve the current problem. In Exodus 4 soon after God met Moses in that burning bush, God used Moses’ shepherd’s crook as a sign of divine power by turning it into a snake. In Exodus 7 God instructs Moses to take that same staff and strike the Nile turning its life-giving water into blood and later a strike from the same staff parts the water of the Red Sea. Using it again this time to provide water assures the people that Moses was as powerful in the wilderness as he had been at home.
 
But no wonder Moses called the places in this story Massah which means test and Mribah which means quarreled.  Both names appear again in Psalm 85 This is a psalm that is a call to worship and obedience, and to this day we can read:
 
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
 
And later, in verses 8-
O that today you would listen to his voice!
8     Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me
    and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
 
So today, as water supplies even in this country become unsafe from chemical spills or neglect, as glacier receded and an estimated one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, remember all of those times when God has heard your cries and answered them and be like Moses and take your concerns to God.  
 
Look around to see whom in your midst might still be thirsting for water-spiritual water and look for what surprising resources are available right here in this congregation that God use in creative ways.  In what ways will God intervene and lead you to solutions? You may never hold a powerful staff in your hands, but you can always put your hands together and pray. Moses did.  Amen.
 
 
 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ September 24 2023)
Rev. Wanda Sevey 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ September 17 2023)
Rev. Robert Reader