Dear BPCWA worshipper, This week marks an important week in the Christian church calendar where we revisit and commemorate the death and eventual resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For those who are saved, this must be an important time in your calendar as well. It is a good time for us to rekindle our devotion to our Saviour, who lived and died on our behalf. Salvation is the free grace of God – a gift that we can never earn nor repay. Love for Christ is the only acceptable response to this gracious gift. Is it any wonder that the Apostle Paul would passionately state, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Cor 16:22)?

What is our first love? We often take salvation for granted. It’s something that we’ve gotten “used to” and taken for granted.  We are assured that we can never be plucked out of our Father’s Hand. We’ve heard the gospel often, tell others about it, and tell our children to believe. But do you remember that time when the gospel (though you might’ve heard it often prior to salvation) became real to your heart and the overwhelming joy of the understanding of it flooded your life and thoughts? Remember when you first realised that because of Jesus Christ’s sufferings and payment for your sins, you could be cleansed of that dark blot of sin in your life? And after seeking Him to forgive and save you, how you longed to be close to Him, to know Him more, to speak with Him all the time. And how you wanted to please Him by obeying everything He wishes? Your heart was full of yearning to love Him whom you had come to know. Love for God became a driving force in our lives. In that first love, we could read the Bible the whole day and that still was not sufficient. Daily duties seemed a burden that took you away from it. Christ was the very first thought when you awoke, and He was the last thought before you fell asleep.  If someone would teach us more of the Bible, we’d be there without hesitation.  We found Bible studies too short. We just could not get enough of God. The 6 days in the week seemed to drag by until Sunday came, and Sunday went by too fast. The Lord’s Day was the blessed day of the week when you could go to church to worship with His people in His church and to sing His praise together. It was a treasured opportunity where the preacher would open the Word of God and tell you more about your beloved Saviour, in ways that you hadn’t known when you read the Bible on your own. And when you could eventually be baptised, you were so happy. Each Holy Communion was such a heart-warming event, and heartbreaking when you realised you had sinned against His great love. And you just loved talking about the things of God because they occupied your heart which was bubbling over with love for Him. Moreover, you would ask about how to pray because you wanted to commune with your beloved Saviour. Oh, how those early morning and late- night times of prayer alone to Him were so sublime. 

What is having this first love in us? It means that despite having been a Christian for decades, this flush of first love which I’ve just described has never left you. Instead, it has grown more stable, more sure, and more joyful. This love for your God remains imprinted in your heart. Your yearning to be walking in unbroken fellowship drives you to be in God’s presence constantly.  Reading the Word, praying to Him, singing hymns, and reading about Him are not drudgeries but delights. Even if I had to catch several buses to church in the sweltering heat, it was not a chore. How can you renew your first love and live for Him who died for you? This is a good time of the year to ponder deeply about Who He is, What He has done, and ask God to renew our love for Him who suffered and bled and died for your sins.

Who we must return to. During the Good Friday and Easter season, we can be lost in mere church activities and services out of habit. We can forget what, or rather Who it is all about. We are not seeking merely “an experience” but we are seeking to behold again our Saviour’s face, in whose “presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps 16:11). This is a season wherein we want to set our hearts to ponder afresh upon our Lord Jesus Christ “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Php 2:6) would be willing to be our Saviour. Because He knew that those sins which I had committed against Him could never be erased by any good works that I would do. He knew that in the whole universe, there was only one solution for man’s sin – that God, the very Almighty Creator of heaven and earth would be the substitute for you, take upon Himself the form of man, take upon Himself your sins, and pay the very punishment for your sin. He could choose to walk away and do nothing, send you to hell to pay for your rebellion, and in doing so He would still be absolutely just and righteous. We did not have the right to even think about asking Him to die on our behalf. Instead, Christ “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Php 2:7). God voluntarily did that for you and me – without us asking him to do that because we never understood our dire situation. And after having done that, He sent people to give us the gospel and drew us to Himself, patiently, tenderly, continually, until the day He graciously opened our eyes to salvation. This He did, although Christ knew every sin that we had committed in our hearts and minds against Him. This speaks volumes about the God that we serve. It speaks volumes about His greatness, His meekness, and His love. Don’t let this Good Friday pass without carefully re-reading Christ’s life on earth. How busy and hectic it was, how He lived a perfect life, how He spread the good news, bore the ridicule for us sinners, and then finished His work of being our Saviour. Let us remember that in human form, He would have the same limitations of the human body as we do – thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and discomfort. His love must be so amazing to take on human flesh to be our Saviour. Read in detail also about Christ’s agony in Gethsemane and what great agony He began to suffer there. Think about the price Christ, the God-man, bore right to the end for you and I. Read again about how unappreciated Christ was as He hung on the cross for those He came to save. Remember that we too were sinners represented by those who disdained Him as He hung on that cross. Remember, the very breath of those who mocked Him as He hung on the cross owed their very lives to Him. Ponder how even as the King of Heaven and Earth hung suffering and humiliated – way lower than the average man – He could have called “for more than twelve legions of angels” (Mtt 26:53) to deliver and minister to Him. What kept Him going and why did He have to go to such extremes? To do the Father’s will to redeem us from an eternity of hell and suffering. Oh, what love, that He should die for me! How can we not love such a Saviour? Can we face Christ one day when He knows what we may be thinking in our minds – that doing such and such or that giving up some leisure is just “too much” and He is a “hard man” to expect us to do it for Him? 

What we need to get back to. The Lord says, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works” (Rev 2:5). It is not enough for us to remember Christ’s great love for us. The Bible is not about me, but about God. This season must cause us to wonder how God could have loved us. And that thought must cause us to love Him and serve Him with greater zeal.  Let go of the love for the idols that we have accumulated in our lives, the love for the world, for the trifling things that will pass away, and love only Him evermore. Let our hearts be filled with His love and may that fire burn on till we see Him face to face. May our greatest fear be that, when we see Him face to face, beholding that blessed face and the nail-printed hands, He shall say to us “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Rev 2:4).

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor

Good Friday Service 7:30pm @ Church
Easter Sunrise Service 7:30am @ Melville Limestone Amphitheatre