Coro Baptist Church

We continue in our short series from Genesis 3 as a prequel to the book of Job. God created us to be faithful and fruitful, and to find meaning and purpose in the work He intended for us. However, sin is the great disruptor causing friction, frustration and futility. We will explore three questions about work: 1. What was the original created purpose? 2. How has sin corrupted, but not destroyed, that purpose? 3. How does the Cross of Christ redeem the created purpose? Jesus has completed HIS work. God has raised HIS faithful worker from death. Therefore, we don't need to be authoritarian or weakly passive in our relationships. We don't need to use work to give ourselves an identity, and neither do we need to resent work as meaningless. Our certain hope for the future affects the way we live our lives now.

The mandate given to us by God at Creation has not been revoked because of sin, but it has surely been made more difficult to fulfil. Any fruitfulness now comes through pain and frustration– for both the woman and the man. They experience this together, but also in their own particular labours of life. As we will hear this week, the woman knows this pain and frustration particularly in motherhood and marriage. And yet, it is through this same pain and frustration that the promised 'offspring' of the woman is born. And, he will also be the True and Faithful Husband of his Bride, the church. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8– yes, creation has been subjected to futility, but in hope. Despite the pain and frustration we know in life, in Jesus Christ there is the sure hope of freedom, relief and glory beyond compare.

Have you ever loathed your life so much you wished you were never born? Have you ever cried out, "It's not fair!" Has God ever made your soul so bitter that you questioned his goodness and justice? These may sound like drastic questions– ungodly even to ask! And yet these are just some of the brutally honest questions raised in the Old Testament book of Job that we will be considering in a few weeks' time. Until then, we will be doing some 'Job Preparation' by spending three weeks in Genesis 3 looking at how God responds to Satan (this week), the woman, and the man after sin came into the world. In all of this, as Job declares, it is indeed good to know that 'our Redeemer lives'.

Matthew's gospel concludes with what has come to be known as 'The Great Commission'– where Jesus tells his disciples to, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… baptizing them… and teaching them." This commission is 'sandwiched' between the declaration of Jesus' authority over all things and the promise that he will be with us always, to the end of the age. As we go, wherever it is we are going, Jesus has given us all something to be about– making disciples. We do this because he is Lord, and knowing that he is with us always. Please pray that we might hear these words of Christ's afresh and respond to them in the obedience of faith.

"After three days, I will rise again". These words of Jesus ring in the ears of the priests and Pharisees. To their understanding, these words represent Jesus' last deception. Our passage starts in the historically unique time found between the crucifixion and resurrection, and faith is nowhere to be seen. Jesus' humiliating death on the cross has brought into question the entirety of his three years of ministry, the wonder of his miracles and the revelation of his teaching. The eleven disciples are broken, and the followers are in mourning. If Jesus remains dead, he will go down in history as a deceiver, faith will be useless, and all believers are most to be pitied. But what if… "He has been raised"?

On Good Friday we will hear Jesus cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and will be reminded how he could not save himself, but had to be forsaken so that we might be saved, and never be forsaken.

We often sing, "Because the sinless Savior died my sinful soul is counted free, for God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me." This week, as we draw near to the cross of Christ and hear of one notorious criminal and murderer being set free while Jesus is sentenced to death, we are given a glimpse into 'The Great Exchange' that takes place on the cross. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Hallelujah! What a Saviour! Please pray that we might know the wonder of those words and the work of his grace, 'for our sake…'.

Failure is something we would all prefer to avoid. And as for public failure… well, all the more so. And yet, Peter's three-fold denial of Jesus is recorded for all to hear and read. But what a lesson it is– for Peter, and for all who are willing to learn from it. A lesson which is in fact essential for us if we are to find our hope and strength in the unfailing love and all-sufficient grace of God rather than in our own faulty and insufficient selves. Please pray that we might be willing students in this lesson of love.

This week we read of the familiar scenes of Jesus' betrayal, arrest, and trial. For the regular joe, any one of these events would be enough to leave us spinning out of control, but not Jesus. Matthew, the gospel writer, displays a saviour who not only gave prophetic words regarding our redemption but also wilfully fulfils them through his own suffering.

We have often sung, "There in the garden of tears my heavy load He chose to bear. His heart with sorrow was torn, 'Yet not my will, but Yours,' He said." However we understand the mystery and anguish of our Lord in Gethsemane we can be sure of this– Jesus went to the cross willingly. The Son never sought to do anything but his Father's will. And his prayer in the Garden was not in any way contrary to that. The very act of prayer is the Father's will. And to pray, "your will be done," is not to acquiesce to God's will because we cannot bend it, but is in fact to "actively will God's will and aid it." (P. T. Forsyth) Willingly, Jesus did this for you and me in Gethsemane and all the way to Calvary.