Monthly Message May 2022

Dear friends,

I wonder how people planning to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in June realize that the idea of Jubilee comes from the Old Testament?  Leviticus 25, in fact.

The Israelites were to count off seven periods of seven years, a total of 49 years, and then the following year, the 50th, was to be a jubilee.  It was to be heralded by a trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement or, Yom Kippur.  Lev. 25:10 says: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants”.  In that fiftieth year everyone was to return to their family property and to their own clan. Furthermore, they were only to eat cultivated crops, not what was growing wild.  People were to be free, and nature was to be free.

So what was all that about?  Like so much of OT requirements, it was pointing to a fulfilment of something in God’s grander plan.  But what was that?  Isaiah, (chapter 61), spoke about the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord being upon his Servant to, among other things, “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”. That was a reference to jubilee.  Centuries later, Jesus, in the synagogue at Capernaum read from that same passage. He stopped right there at the mention of the “year of the Lord’s favour” and declared: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”!

Her Majesty’s 70 year reign has been a most remarkable achievement of selfless dedication and service to the nation and Commonwealth, and a great example of godly living and principles to us all.  We thank God for her and her reign.  But sound the trumpet for the Jubilee of King Jesus! By his sinless obedience to the Father’s will, culminating in his death, resurrection and glorious ascension to the Father’s throne where “he always lives to intercede for” those who come to God through him (Heb. 7:25), he has brought total and everlasting jubilee freedom.  Nor is this something that has to be renewed every fifty years.  “He sacrificed for (our) sins once for all when he offered himself” (Heb 7:27).

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” 
Luke 4:18-19

Let us rejoice in the glorious truth that “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Your brother in Christ,

Tony Mason

Monthly Message Mar-Apr 2022

Apologies for no Monthly Message in March; I must have been pre-occupied with the Spring Event!  Here, as an Easter reflection, is a summary of something I spoke about on that occasion,

Jesus said: But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:32). That word “draw” occurs five times in John and once in Acts. It is used of Peter drawing his sword, of hauling and dragging a net full of fish, and of dragging Paul and Silas into the marketplace.  It is also used of being drawn to Jesus, here in John 12, but also in 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

So it is a word that conveys something very powerful: pulling out a sword to use it, dragging ashore a full net, dragging someone before a crowd – and drawing sinners to a Saviour!  It takes power to draw a sword, haul a load of fish, drag a reluctant person.  And it takes divine power to draw a sinner to Christ!

People are saved as they are powerfully drawn to Jesus through the cross.  So let us pray for ever more powerful preaching of the cross in our day, and in our churches.

Jesus described the cross here as “When I am lifted up from the earth…”. Remember how he said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”.  He was referring to Numbers 21, where God sent venomous snakes among the people on account of their rebellious grumbling. Moses was to put a bronze snake on a pole so that everyone who looked at that snake would live. That was but a foreshadowing of what Jesus would eventually accomplish on the cross: “…so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”.  Notice the word “must”.  The cross is not ‘a’ remedy for sin; it is ‘the’ one and only remedy. Only in the cross can the demands of God’s holiness and righteousness – and love – be met.

Jesus used the term ‘lifted up’ “to show the kind of death he was going to die”. But the same word is used in Acts of Christ’s exaltation to God’s right hand.Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:33) and “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Saviour…” (Acts 5:31).  And, when we humbly come to Christ in repentance and faith we, too, are lifted up.  James 4:10  “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” and I Peter 5:6  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time”.  Jesus was lifted up on the cross, so that he might lift us up to glory!

May you, this Easter time, be drawn afresh to the Saviour, and may he lift you up.

Your brother in Christ,

Tony Mason

Monthly Message Feb 2022

Dear friends,

As I write, our country and the wider world in some cases, is watching expectantly for the answers to questions about such matters as a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, justice and relief for the people of Afghanistan, the outcome of a police investigation into No 10 Downing Street  ‘parties’, whether Boris Johnson will resign and who will replace Dame Cressida Dick – to mention just a few.  There is no absolute certainty attaching to any of these expectations but they occupy the thoughts of the media and the general public and quite possibly you and me.

One event, however, is certain: the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now that’s been promised for a very long time and, since it hasn’t happened yet, we may not be looking for it as keenly as we should.  It is somewhat strange that we are not watching for it all that acutely because, unlike the other things we are watching, this one is actually promised by none other than the Lord himself.  And he hasn’t broken a single promise yet, and he never will!

For most of the things we expect we have plenty of warning – advancing old age, impending retirement, upcoming holidays, the birth of a baby and so on.  But there will be no warning of Jesus’ return.  He will come as a thief in the night (no burglar ever phones in advance to arrange a time!).  He will come while life is going on as normal with people eating and drinking, getting married and giving their daughters in marriage. So it will be, all of a sudden, with the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords.

All evil, trouble, sorrow, anxiety and uncertainty will be over when he comes as Judge and to take to himself for ever those whom he has redeemed by his precious blood.  Then the uncertainties and injustices of situations like Ukraine, Afghanistan, partygate, police and prime ministers, and everything else, will all be resolved.  Then there will be a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

So, as we look out over our world, where does our hope, our expectation lie?  In man’s frailty or in God’s total trustworthiness? Are we watching and praying for Jesus’ return, and are we ready?

Your brother in Christ,

Tony Mason

PS If you haven’t yet booked in for the Spring Reunion Event on March 12th do make sure you do so by February 28thswbible.focus@gmail.com