Tabernacle

God is not anxious.  Can you imagine God fretting and fussing like we do?  No, His Spirit is at rest.  Why?  Because He has a plan, and He has the power to accomplish His sovereign plan.  Nothing has the power to resist Him.  Our lives are intended to facilitate God’s plan, not complicate it.  One day, God’s plan will be fulfilled completely, and then all will be at rest—forever!

When we think about heaven, we look forward to a place where there will be no more stealing, lying, and cheating, an eternity without anxiety, fear, and pain.  Sin and its symptoms will be far removed from us in the new creation.  The Church should give the world a foretaste of this hope.  Let us remove wickedness from our lives, and let us pursue what leads to peace, joy, and love.

Easter Sunday and April Fool’s Day—what a weird mash up!  The last time these two days coincided was in 1956.  It may seem bizarre, but it is strangely appropriate Because of the cross, the world is divided into two groups: fools and fools.  People are either fools for believing in a crucified con-man or they are fools for rejecting the resurrection.  In other words, in whose eyes do you want to be wise—God’s or man’s?  “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

In ancient days, triumphant kings would ride into their cities amid fanfare, hailed by their people.  Jesus understood this, which is why He refused to pull the plug on the Triumphal Entry party.  He was entering Jerusalem as its rightful King,

and was calling the people to receive Him as such.  Would they?  Would you?  

Have you?

There’s a lot of meaning behind baptism, but the one thing we want to keep clear for everyone is that God designed to be a sign and seal of His promise to be our God and for us to be His people.  We belong to Him, and so he marks us as His own.  And because He calls our children holy, he includes them in the covenant and intends them to be baptized as well.  Not all Christians agree on baptizing children, but we all agree that baptism points us to Jesus, the one who God provided so that all who believe may receive the gift of righteousness by faith.

Sixteen years ago, on the second Sunday of March, Tabernacle Presbyterian Church began worshiping together.  There were only about fifty of us (plus kids) gathered together at first, but God gave us steady growth.  He multiplied us in 2009 to form Holy Cross Presbyterian in Staunton.  He expanded us to accommodate more people from Waynesboro.  He has blessed us in good times and has preserved us through hard times.  He is faithful!  He is faithful to keep His covenant with His people, a theme we will continue to expand on this morning in part two of our baptism miniseries.  Thank you for being a part of what God is doing in us and through us!

Over the next three weeks we will taking a short break from Zechariah in order to focus on baptism, the sign and seal of God’s covenant with us in Jesus.  In addition to learning more about the what and why and who and how of baptism, my goal is to help us all better appreciate the entire Bible as the revelation of Jesus Christ.  The Bible is the story of how God Almighty makes an eternal promise, a covenant, with us through Jesus: “I will be your God and you will be my people.”

How often do you reflect upon your glory days? We all have moments in our past that we remember fondly. We remember things we have accomplished. We remember feats we were once capable of doing. Reflecting upon these times is not bad. However, if we start to long for the past, it affects the way we view both the present and the future. We might even begin to despise much of our lives. This not only happen to us as individuals, but it can happen to us as the church. However, the gospel does not allow this. The gospel reminds us that the best is yet to come. Jesus came to change the world and He will return to finish what

He started.

I love a good courtroom drama.  I love clever, good-hearted lawyers with a flair for the dramatic, who fight to the bell for their innocent clients.  But what about the clever lawyers that use their skill to get the guilty off the hook?  Now we begin to feel the tension of the Gospel of God that tells guilty people they are forgiven—and free!  Is that good news?

Parents aren’t supposed to have favorites.  We love all our kids all the same.  But we don’t love all kids all the same.  No offense, but I love my own kids more than I love your kids.  And you love your kids more than you love my kids.  God is the same.  He loves all people, but he loves His people more.  Zechariah tells us that God’s people are the apple of His eye, that He chooses to dwell with them and guards them like a wall of fire.  Believe this!