WEBVTT 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:04.040 For the rest of us, we're going to read that whole psalm. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:06.900 Andrew Barnett is going to come and read it for us. 00:00:07.100 --> 00:00:09.500 So that is on page 625. 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:14.820 If you grab your Bible and hold it open there, Andrew will come and read it for us. 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:18.480 All right, I'll read from Psalms 133. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:21.800 It reads, 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:27.760 How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:34.420 It is like the precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.320 running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe. 00:00:39.939 --> 00:00:44.040 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. 00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:49.299 For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. 00:00:50.140 --> 00:00:50.460 Amen. 00:00:54.820 --> 00:00:56.219 Thanks so much, Andrew. 00:00:56.219 --> 00:00:57.500 Do keep our passage open. 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:01.759 We're going to be looking at it together over the next few moments. 00:01:02.019 --> 00:01:05.099 As we do that, I want you to imagine a scene with me. 00:01:05.859 --> 00:01:11.140 I want you to imagine that you're in Jerusalem, something like 600 BC, something like that. 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:15.299 And God's people are arriving in the city for a festival. 00:01:15.299 --> 00:01:24.439 So families, clans, individuals from the surrounding countryside are all walking into and gathering into Jerusalem, 00:01:24.939 --> 00:01:29.620 filling its streets, filling its hotels, filling its shops. 00:01:30.579 --> 00:01:31.599 It's hot. 00:01:32.199 --> 00:01:33.280 It's dusty. 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:35.840 But everyone is kind of in party mood. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:41.980 So think central London, New Year's Eve, without the rain and without the wind, and it's something like that. 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:49.700 Then on the morning of the feast, as that morning comes, people start to assemble together in the temple courts. 00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:52.680 The place is absolutely packed out. 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:54.540 There are people everywhere. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:05.640 Men, women, young people, older people, country folk, city dwellers, black, white, rich, poor. 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:08.879 They're all there, and they're all there for exactly the same reason. 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:10.580 They're there for the festival. 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:12.780 They're there to worship God. 00:02:12.900 --> 00:02:16.400 They're there to praise God for his mercy and for his grace. 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:20.439 They're there to express their trust in his covenant promises. 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:27.680 They're there to declare to anybody who would listen, anybody within earshot, that our God is the God. 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:29.460 He's the one who made us. 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:31.620 He is God, and there is no other. 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:34.639 He is the one who provides for us. 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:36.159 He is the one who saves us. 00:02:37.359 --> 00:02:41.839 Now, that scene is the scene of Psalm 133. 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:46.839 It is why it begins by calling itself a song of ascent. 00:02:46.839 --> 00:02:53.439 It's one of the songs that was particularly put together for God's people as they gathered in Jerusalem. 00:02:54.259 --> 00:03:00.339 And it is imagining the scene which is the key to really understanding Psalm 133. 00:03:00.340 --> 00:03:14.439 Our NIV translators have dropped the word, perhaps because it sounded slightly odd in English, but really the only instruction in the original Hebrew is a word at the beginning of the psalm, which is the word look or behold. 00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:21.359 Literally, the beginning of the psalm reads something like, look, behold, how good, how pleasing. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:36.360 It is almost as if, and I know this is sort of a mix of generations, really, but if you imagine in that 600 BC Jerusalem, gathering with all of those people, gathering for the festival, imagine that you had a drone, right? 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:43.240 And you flew it up and you looked down and you saw this great sea of people from all over the place. 00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:47.460 That is the essence of Psalm 133. 00:03:47.640 --> 00:03:48.900 Just look at this. 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:49.940 Look at all these people. 00:03:50.020 --> 00:03:51.040 Look at how brilliant it is. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:57.460 So many different people, but one God, one promise, one united voice. 00:03:57.460 --> 00:04:13.680 Now, the reason as leaders of the church that we decided to look at Psalm 133 together this morning is because our hope and our prayer coming to this morning is that you and I have a sense of Psalm 133, even before we read it. 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:19.540 That you looking around, and I guess if you're in the balcony, you get a particularly good view of this. 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:23.660 You look around, we see it in a smaller scale, but we see the same thing. 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:25.400 Look at this. 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:41.300 Young people, older people, not pointing at anyone in particular, black, whites, students, professionals, nurses, doctors, teachers, people who own their own businesses, tradespeople, country folk from small towns like Loughborough, like me. 00:04:41.700 --> 00:04:50.600 City folks, all brought together in the providence of God to worship him, to say to one another and to anyone who would listen, 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:52.780 our God, he's the God. 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:54.740 We trust him. 00:04:55.460 --> 00:04:58.200 He has made promises to save us and we trust them. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:04:59.540 There's no one like him. 00:05:00.100 --> 00:05:00.879 Listen to him. 00:05:01.340 --> 00:05:01.980 Worship him. 00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:06.939 Now, I hope that you get a feeling of that this morning. 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:09.220 Maybe a little tingle down your spine. 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:13.760 The truth is that many people in their Christian lives get to go to church, right? 00:05:13.840 --> 00:05:16.400 Going to church is an essential thing to do as a Christian. 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:21.539 And down the generations, Christians have had to do that or got to do that. 00:05:22.239 --> 00:05:27.959 Some Christians at some points in history have been part of starting a church. 00:05:28.419 --> 00:05:29.899 And that's been an exciting thing. 00:05:30.819 --> 00:05:34.459 Some people have gotten to be part of building a church building. 00:05:34.899 --> 00:05:36.439 And that's been an exciting thing. 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:44.259 Very few Christians in their Christian lives get to be part of what we're part of now, 00:05:44.779 --> 00:05:48.240 which is the bringing together of two different local churches, 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:53.420 united despite cultural differences, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. 00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:58.800 And I hope that that gives you a tingle because that's an amazing thing. 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:01.139 And it's not just because it's cold in this room. 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:09.759 The writer of the Hebrews kind of riffs off Psalm 133 in chapter 12. 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:14.339 And he reckons that the experience of the local church is even better 00:06:14.339 --> 00:06:16.740 than the experience of those Jewish festivals. 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:21.779 And he does a kind of compare and contrast to prove his points. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:25.579 He goes like, they get to go to Jerusalem, he says. 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:28.560 We get to join with the glories of heaven. 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:32.759 They go to what essentially is basically a model of the real thing. 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:35.500 It's like what a Wendy house is to a real house. 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:40.220 We get to come to the fulfillment, the real deal, the heavenly city. 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:45.259 They come through animal sacrifices, which could never really take away sin. 00:06:45.939 --> 00:06:49.920 We come through the blood of Jesus, shed on a cross for us. 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:52.800 You know, if you like football, it's like the comparison. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:59.180 They are watching lower league football where people are just kind of thrashing around in the mud. 00:06:59.280 --> 00:07:04.120 And if you squint and concentrate hard, you can get a rough idea of what the game of football is all about. 00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:08.360 We, on the other hand, are on the pitch of the World Cup final, 00:07:08.780 --> 00:07:12.680 surrounded by the world's best ever players and joining in with the game. 00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:13.740 That's the comparison. 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:22.259 And so says Hebrew 12, if that was an occasion of joy for them, an occasion of great reverence for them, 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:28.240 well, then this is an occasion of joy for us, an occasion of great reverence for us. 00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:32.579 We know that we're part of something amazing, something bigger than us, 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:36.740 that God is doing something by his grace, which is remarkable. 00:07:36.740 --> 00:07:39.600 And you and I get to be a part of it. 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:48.120 Now, as David writes his song in Psalm 133, there are essentially three threads of his praise to God. 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:49.920 And I just want us to look at them together. 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:53.900 The first one is this, that unity spreads joy. 00:07:54.400 --> 00:07:55.540 Unity spreads joy. 00:07:55.860 --> 00:08:01.639 I don't know whether you noticed when Andrew read it, but the passage contains basically two pictures, two similes. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:02.420 I think they're similes. 00:08:02.460 --> 00:08:04.600 I'm never quite sure of the difference between a simile and a metaphor. 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:08.720 You can explain that to me afterwards, but I warn you that people have explained that to me in the past, 00:08:09.140 --> 00:08:10.939 and I'm still none the wiser, but I think they're similes. 00:08:11.520 --> 00:08:15.180 They're both given to explain why unity is such a good thing. 00:08:15.840 --> 00:08:20.860 And the first picture is this one of Aaron and his beard and his head being anointed with oil, 00:08:20.960 --> 00:08:22.540 running down his beard and onto his garment. 00:08:23.460 --> 00:08:28.900 Now, I think it's probably fair to say that that image doesn't sort of scan super well now. 00:08:29.540 --> 00:08:33.580 We don't pour oil on people's heads quite as often as they used to in Old Testament Israel. 00:08:33.580 --> 00:08:38.700 But here's the idea that we were trying to communicate to the children in the family Bible slot, 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:45.639 that if you pour fragrant oil on Aaron's head, what happens is it runs down. 00:08:46.160 --> 00:08:46.740 It runs down. 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:47.700 It's repeated that, isn't it? 00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:53.940 It runs down, running down on the beard, running down on the beard, down on the collar of his robe. 00:08:53.940 --> 00:08:59.760 Now, that might, to you, sound sort of vaguely annoying, mightn't it? 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:04.640 To protect it if you were kind of precious about your robe, and now it's covered in greasy oil, 00:09:04.640 --> 00:09:05.640 and you didn't really want that. 00:09:05.680 --> 00:09:07.720 But actually, the image is a good thing. 00:09:07.900 --> 00:09:08.540 It's a good thing. 00:09:09.020 --> 00:09:12.520 The point is that the blessing of the unity is spreading. 00:09:12.760 --> 00:09:17.700 It's flowing down and down, making everything smell of the fragrant oil. 00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:24.620 And so it is with the unity described in Psalm 133 that we are getting to experience this morning. 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:29.280 It is like a sweet-smelling fragrance to everyone who touches it, 00:09:29.980 --> 00:09:35.340 so that all of us get to be part of the joy of the good and pleasantness of verse 1, 00:09:35.620 --> 00:09:38.340 because unity spreads joy. 00:09:38.560 --> 00:09:40.920 That was the experience of the worshippers in Jerusalem, 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:43.400 and it's our experience this morning. 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:47.980 Of course, those words, if you really grapple with them, 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:52.079 are kind of like dynamite, aren't they, in our highly individualistic world. 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:56.519 You and I are sold a lie by our individualistic generation 00:09:56.519 --> 00:10:00.519 that actually the best thing to be is to be your own person 00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:04.579 and to be an individual outside of everybody else. 00:10:04.579 --> 00:10:11.139 But the uncomfortable truth for individualism is that it's kind of lonely and kind of miserable, 00:10:11.139 --> 00:10:17.600 because joy, you will discover, is actually not something that you are able to have on your own. 00:10:18.019 --> 00:10:21.279 Joy is, by definition, a community pursuit. 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:24.460 Let me just try and prove this to you. 00:10:25.659 --> 00:10:28.799 There are some people in the world, I'm not really one of them, 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:31.340 but there are some people in the world who enjoy the game of golf. 00:10:31.899 --> 00:10:33.699 I'm not going to ask you to put your hands up if you are one. 00:10:34.379 --> 00:10:37.179 It's a strange idea, isn't it, really, hitting a small ball around a field. 00:10:37.319 --> 00:10:40.379 But anyway, imagine that you're one of those people who love golf. 00:10:40.379 --> 00:10:42.039 If maybe you do, I'm not judging you, that's fine. 00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:43.679 You're welcome to love golf, right? 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:45.639 We're united in Jesus. 00:10:46.439 --> 00:10:52.059 But imagine if you love golf and you're playing a game of golf on your own, right? 00:10:52.059 --> 00:10:58.879 You have been told that the solitude of the golf course is a place of real renewal and refreshment. 00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:02.179 And so you play this game of golf all by yourself. 00:11:02.179 --> 00:11:11.500 And the remarkable thing happens on a par three, right, where you hit the sweetest tee shot that you have ever hit. 00:11:11.739 --> 00:11:15.399 And the ball goes in, in one. 00:11:16.059 --> 00:11:18.000 A hole in one. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:22.379 And you are, like, overwhelmed by what has just happened. 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:24.779 And you look around and there's no one there. 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:27.120 There's no one even on the next tee. 00:11:27.559 --> 00:11:30.019 There's no one queuing behind you to give you a round of applause. 00:11:30.379 --> 00:11:37.720 You're there on your own because you've been told that solitude on the golf course is the key to joy and refreshment. 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:46.620 You see, the point is you only really get to enjoy that hole in one when you tell somebody else about it. 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:48.500 That's when you start to enjoy it. 00:11:50.060 --> 00:11:52.960 And that really is Psalm 133. 00:11:54.100 --> 00:12:01.379 You don't get to enjoy unity, the blessing of being one of God's people, on your own at home. 00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:05.940 Actually, you only get to enjoy it as you gather with God's people. 00:12:05.940 --> 00:12:10.420 Of course, alone time with you and the Lord is really important. 00:12:10.540 --> 00:12:18.340 It's important that you spend time reading God's word and praying, consciously in his presence, repenting and trusting and loving. 00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:28.340 But there is a sense that you only really get to enjoy that individual relationship with God that you have as you gather with other Christian believers 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:32.620 and rejoice in the fact that you, like them, know the Lord. 00:12:33.180 --> 00:12:34.520 It's good and pleasing. 00:12:34.519 --> 00:12:38.960 It's like oil flowing down Aaron's head and beards. 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:46.559 It means, doesn't it, that if you're a Christian and your Christian life is mostly just a personal affair, 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:51.139 it's mostly just about you and Jesus and maybe a few YouTube preachers that you like, 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:53.579 the truth is you're missing out. 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:55.939 You're missing out on joy. 00:12:55.940 --> 00:12:58.880 You can put it negatively as well, can't you? 00:12:58.880 --> 00:12:59.800 You can put it the other way around. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:01.820 It kind of helps get the focus on it. 00:13:02.840 --> 00:13:10.220 You can say, can't you, that if you want to be a miserable Christian, then withdraw from God's people and that should do it for you. 00:13:11.180 --> 00:13:12.420 Withdraw from Christian fellowship. 00:13:13.160 --> 00:13:15.340 You know, Christian fellowship is honestly, it's a bit difficult, isn't it? 00:13:15.680 --> 00:13:16.700 Churches are disappointing. 00:13:18.300 --> 00:13:19.740 Churches are full of strange people. 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:24.700 They're led by strange people, people who will expose themselves as sinners at some point. 00:13:25.940 --> 00:13:27.919 But if you withdraw, you will be miserable. 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:32.919 Good and pleasing Christianity is an experience that we have in a community. 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:37.860 I think there's one other thing that we can say about this, though, before we move on to the next picture. 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:44.659 And that is there is even greater joy in the greater distance that unity flows. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:47.539 That's the repetition of the downward, isn't it? 00:13:48.460 --> 00:13:55.480 The joy on the head and the beard is not as good on its own as it is with the joy of it being on the collar as well. 00:13:56.200 --> 00:13:59.379 It's the running down, down, down that's part of the joy. 00:13:59.680 --> 00:14:03.920 It's the fact that it's on his clothes as well as his hat that's the good and pleasing thing. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:10.679 You know, the miserable Christian then is not just someone who withdraws from Christian fellowship for glorious isolation on their own. 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:15.939 The miserable Christian is also someone who only hangs out with people like them. 00:14:16.959 --> 00:14:23.939 If you want to put it in the image of the passage, really, miserable Christianity is all beard and no collar. 00:14:25.259 --> 00:14:26.459 All head and no beard. 00:14:26.460 --> 00:14:35.480 Homogeneous Christianity, where you hang out with people like you and your unity is really that you're from the same place. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:37.320 You like the same things. 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:39.000 You're the same age. 00:14:39.700 --> 00:14:40.960 Well, it's miserable. 00:14:42.139 --> 00:14:47.120 Because God is doing something bigger than uniting you with people like you. 00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:50.920 He's uniting you with people who are not like you. 00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:53.040 And that's the huge blessing. 00:14:53.540 --> 00:14:54.940 It's the distance that it travels. 00:14:54.940 --> 00:14:56.620 I hope. 00:14:56.680 --> 00:15:00.440 It doesn't mean that we're all going to be best mates in this room and all hang out and go away on holiday together. 00:15:00.940 --> 00:15:02.360 Necessarily, we might do, but that would be great. 00:15:02.420 --> 00:15:03.580 But we might not do that. 00:15:03.660 --> 00:15:08.160 But what you get at the end of church is an opportunity to go and speak to someone who's not like you. 00:15:09.620 --> 00:15:16.940 Go and speak to a collar or a beard or a head and say we're united in Jesus. 00:15:18.380 --> 00:15:19.600 And it's full of joy. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:24.779 I put up this week our picture of our joint leadership team. 00:15:25.379 --> 00:15:30.300 What a great joy it is to have a joint leadership team from so many different places and backgrounds. 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:35.600 Brazil, Jamaica, Greece, the UK, South London even. 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:37.060 A remarkable thing. 00:15:37.059 --> 00:15:42.599 So let me encourage you this morning. 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:44.199 Go and speak to someone who's not like you. 00:15:45.599 --> 00:15:46.619 Second picture. 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:49.019 Second picture is unity brings fruit. 00:15:49.339 --> 00:15:53.719 If the first simile is wasted on us a little bit, then this one I think is even more of a stretch. 00:15:53.879 --> 00:16:01.179 You are told in verse 3, if you look down at it, that unity is like the Jew of Hermon falling on Mount Zion. 00:16:01.179 --> 00:16:07.399 Now, David's crowd would have understood this, and we probably don't, but Mount Hermon is the highest mountain in Israel. 00:16:07.579 --> 00:16:09.259 It's renowned for its morning dew. 00:16:09.779 --> 00:16:18.479 Dew that was so abundant that it irrigated the ground and it brought fruitfulness not just on the mountain, but to the lower lands as well as the water flowed down. 00:16:18.959 --> 00:16:27.120 And here David is saying it's like that fruitfulness has been taken from Hermon and he's been put in Jerusalem because of the unity. 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:32.700 Fortunately, David gives us a little bit more of an expanded meaning in the second half of verse 3. 00:16:32.860 --> 00:16:33.179 He says, 00:16:33.620 --> 00:16:41.399 For, or because, there, as in where the unity is, there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. 00:16:42.440 --> 00:16:43.320 Here then is the picture. 00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:48.519 Unity is like a watering dew to dry ground. 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:53.980 Unity brings life, vitality, growth. 00:16:53.980 --> 00:16:58.000 So living together in unity brings God's blessings to his people. 00:16:58.920 --> 00:17:05.400 And as I read those verses, I think, well, the blessings that God brings to his people through unity are blessings like joy that we've talked about, 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:10.660 blessings of kind of thankfulness or maybe even spiritual growth. 00:17:11.220 --> 00:17:20.500 But actually, as you look down at the verse, you realize that the blessing that you receive through unity is actually the blessing of life forevermore until eternity. 00:17:20.500 --> 00:17:32.339 The astonishing thing here is that the blessing of eternal life, the blessing that John 3.16 talks about, the eternal life of not perishing because our sins are forgiven, 00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:39.160 the eternal life of knowing Jesus Christ, our Lord, and God, our Father, through the Spirit. 00:17:39.160 --> 00:17:43.580 That life, that life is at the heart of the gospel message. 00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:45.200 It's the heart of what our church is about. 00:17:45.660 --> 00:17:48.759 That life comes as a blessing of unity, we're taught. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:54.080 Now, if you think about that, I would suggest to you that that sounds kind of iffy. 00:17:55.019 --> 00:17:55.920 Maybe a bit wrong. 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:05.519 I think you would expect the psalmist to say that the blessing of eternal life is experienced through faith in Jesus Christ. 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:07.400 You'd expect him to say that, wouldn't you? 00:18:08.119 --> 00:18:11.000 The blessings of the Christian life are received by faith. 00:18:11.220 --> 00:18:11.940 That's true, isn't it? 00:18:11.940 --> 00:18:14.660 We know that's true, and we'd expect the psalm to say that. 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:16.359 But he doesn't. 00:18:16.859 --> 00:18:19.180 Now, is that because David is kind of going a bit wonky here? 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:22.940 Is he suggesting that you get to be a Christian just by hanging out with other Christians? 00:18:23.539 --> 00:18:24.759 No, he's not saying that at all. 00:18:25.660 --> 00:18:27.400 David is not saying that faith is unimportant. 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:29.000 We're going to think about that some more in a moment. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:36.819 But what he is saying to you is this, that the blessings of the Christian life, even and especially the blessing of eternal life, 00:18:37.220 --> 00:18:46.420 via the atoning work of Christ on the cross, that blessing is received, experienced, and enjoyed in Christian community. 00:18:47.579 --> 00:18:48.960 Not on your own. 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:51.420 Think about that. 00:18:51.420 --> 00:18:58.880 Revelation 21, at the end of the Bible, it pictures the glorious eternal state, doesn't it? 00:18:59.460 --> 00:19:00.560 How does it picture it? 00:19:01.779 --> 00:19:04.740 Forgiven sinners are welcomed into what? 00:19:05.480 --> 00:19:08.980 Little tiny houses all on their own, dotted out at equidistant from one another? 00:19:09.400 --> 00:19:09.620 No. 00:19:10.800 --> 00:19:12.560 They are welcomed into a city. 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:21.019 In Hebrews 12, as we talked about earlier, we come to thousands upon thousands gathered in the glories of heaven. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:26.299 In Revelation 7, we are gathered with a great multitude that no one can number. 00:19:27.079 --> 00:19:32.139 As knowing God comes with this glorious blessing of knowing and being known by others. 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:36.599 So that in the gatherings of the local church now, in the company of other believers, 00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:41.240 what we have here is a mini foretaste of what eternal life feels like. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:47.579 I don't know whether anyone has done a bungee jump. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:50.740 Put your hand up if you've done a bungee jump. 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:59.159 I think bringing Redeemer Queens Park and West Kilwam Baptist Church together ups our chances of having some people in the room who might have done a bungee jump. 00:19:59.419 --> 00:20:00.919 Has anybody done a bungee jump? 00:20:01.700 --> 00:20:02.000 No? 00:20:02.779 --> 00:20:03.139 Nobody? 00:20:05.500 --> 00:20:07.419 Yeah, Camden, you've done one, right? 00:20:07.659 --> 00:20:08.940 Why did you do a bungee jump? 00:20:11.139 --> 00:20:12.099 It looked fun. 00:20:13.399 --> 00:20:14.339 Wow, there you go. 00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:19.559 Right, okay, so I thought that people do bungee jumps to make them feel alive, right? 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:28.940 There is something about you know that you're alive when you're afraid of something and you kind of throw yourself off and the adrenaline and everything makes you feel that you're alive. 00:20:29.559 --> 00:20:31.000 You want the thrill of the drop. 00:20:31.859 --> 00:20:33.799 That kind of heart in your mouth feeling. 00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:35.779 Not many of us in this room want it. 00:20:35.899 --> 00:20:36.980 Only Camden wanted it. 00:20:37.659 --> 00:20:39.539 And he wasn't sure why he did it anyway. 00:20:39.539 --> 00:20:48.619 But if I can put it this way, the gatherings of the local church are like the bungee jump of Christianity, right? 00:20:48.619 --> 00:20:56.619 It's here in this room, gathered with these people, that you get the thrill of feeling alive. 00:20:57.859 --> 00:20:58.939 I'm alive. 00:20:58.940 --> 00:21:00.840 I'm alive. 00:21:02.500 --> 00:21:04.539 Forevermore with the Lord Jesus. 00:21:04.539 --> 00:21:14.319 And I know that not just because I'm imagining it in my head, but because I'm gathered with a company of other people who are also experiencing that very same thing. 00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:17.319 We're alive forevermore. 00:21:18.460 --> 00:21:20.419 We're experiencing new life in Christ. 00:21:22.579 --> 00:21:36.099 One of the things that we've been saying at West Kilburn over the last 18 months or so as we started out on this journey of revitalization is that corporate revitalization and individual revitalization, they go hand in hand. 00:21:36.099 --> 00:21:46.480 In other words, that desire that we have to establish a vibrant gospel witness in this community, that doesn't happen without us growing individually as Christians. 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:53.619 But we don't grow individually as Christians without the corporate witness of the gathered church. 00:21:54.099 --> 00:21:56.019 Both go hand in hand and go together. 00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:00.819 Psalm 133 is telling us that we will not grow. 00:22:00.819 --> 00:22:06.059 We will not enjoy the blessings of the Christian life without the corporate life of the church. 00:22:06.179 --> 00:22:07.559 Those things are woven together. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:13.019 So with that in mind, let me perhaps apply this directly to you this morning. 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:17.319 If you're maybe just thinking, I'm sitting on the edge of this this morning. 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:24.879 I'm just kind of wondering whether maybe I will, maybe I won't be part of this and what's going on. 00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:34.640 Well, let me say to you this morning, this is your invitation to do the spiritual bungee jump and throw yourself not off but in, right? 00:22:35.400 --> 00:22:38.520 In to what God is doing in this community of people. 00:22:39.080 --> 00:22:47.520 Because it's here together in this united mix of people from all different backgrounds and circumstances that you will experience the joy and vitality of your Christian life. 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:53.660 It doesn't have to be in this church, but it does have to be in a local church. 00:22:54.139 --> 00:22:58.920 Because you don't experience this on the edges, but only in the midst. 00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:02.920 Final point then is this. 00:23:03.059 --> 00:23:05.079 Unity is God's work. 00:23:05.740 --> 00:23:11.379 I want just to finish here and I want us to notice this unwritten assumption in Psalm 133. 00:23:11.380 --> 00:23:18.820 You see, it would be wrong to go away from Psalm 133 and to think, well, unity is such an important part of church life. 00:23:18.900 --> 00:23:23.320 What we really need to do is work very, very hard to build unity. 00:23:23.780 --> 00:23:26.300 That would be the wrong application. 00:23:27.120 --> 00:23:34.440 Because David's assumption is not that we build unity, but that God builds unity and we enjoy it, right? 00:23:34.900 --> 00:23:40.580 That's why the instruction at the beginning of Psalm 133, which I think if you've got a pen you can write in on your Bible, 00:23:40.579 --> 00:23:43.179 is behold or look. 00:23:43.539 --> 00:23:47.240 Look at what God is doing and we are experiencing. 00:23:48.039 --> 00:23:49.220 Unity is God's doing. 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:50.960 It's the oil poured on Aaron's head. 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:53.960 It was not because of the works of righteousness done by him, 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:58.759 but it's a sign that the Lord's undeserved blessing is pouring down onto him. 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:00.079 It's God's doing. 00:24:00.859 --> 00:24:04.720 The smell on his head and his beard and his collar was received by him. 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:10.640 The Jew on Mount Hermon was not kind of instructed by Mount Hermon itself. 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:11.740 It comes from heaven. 00:24:12.680 --> 00:24:18.880 And so here, unity, this gathering together of people from all nations and backgrounds is not something that we have manufactured. 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:21.559 It's something that God is doing through the gospel. 00:24:21.559 --> 00:24:29.419 We started this morning with this image of God's people gathering into Jerusalem to celebrate a festival, 00:24:29.559 --> 00:24:33.039 to bring sacrifices, to rejoice in the covenant of God with his people. 00:24:33.460 --> 00:24:35.319 That's in David's mind as he writes. 00:24:35.399 --> 00:24:39.200 And when the Psalms are put together, it gets labelled as this psalm of ascents, 00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:41.259 literally a song to sing as you gather. 00:24:42.139 --> 00:24:45.519 And it's because it's the work of God to build the people of God. 00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:49.139 So in the Bible, it's God who is gathering people. 00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:52.319 It's sin that is scattering people, right? 00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:58.639 God in the gospel is calling people together, gathering them together as a community of people. 00:24:58.839 --> 00:25:01.039 And it is our sin that scatters them. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:03.299 God breaks down barriers. 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:04.839 Sin puts up barriers. 00:25:05.539 --> 00:25:08.500 God builds churches full of all sorts of people and says, 00:25:08.599 --> 00:25:10.960 that's where you're going to grow and experience life and joy. 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:18.819 It's people who build churches by gathering just students or just young professionals or just people like them. 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:21.019 God doesn't gather churches like that. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:26.460 Now, I think that means there are two really important lessons for us as a church this morning, 00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:27.620 and we're going to finish with these. 00:25:28.500 --> 00:25:37.819 One is that our experience of unity as a church will be directly proportional to our emphasis on the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:25:37.819 --> 00:25:47.379 What do I mean? 00:25:48.179 --> 00:25:54.079 Well, I mean, if the gospel is all about what God is doing for people in the person of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:25:54.519 --> 00:25:56.519 if you're not a Christian this morning, this is what you need to hear, 00:25:56.519 --> 00:26:04.160 that God is taking sinful, weak, broken, isolated people like me and like you, 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:07.960 and through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, dying in their place, 00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:12.079 he is gathering them into companies of God's people like local churches now 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:17.299 to take them to a city where he will dwell with them for all eternity. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:18.759 That's the gospel. 00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:27.440 And it is the extent to which we emphasize that message that we will experience unity, joy, and blessing. 00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:31.619 You know, if we emphasize that message as a church, 00:26:31.799 --> 00:26:36.220 we will find that we are surrounded by a whole group of people who are not like us. 00:26:37.299 --> 00:26:40.059 We'll be surprised at the kind of people that the church gathers. 00:26:40.059 --> 00:26:45.919 If you de-emphasize that message or if you cloud it in other things, 00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:50.059 if you build a church mostly based on demographics or cultural appeals, 00:26:50.359 --> 00:26:54.359 if you talk mostly about how much we love God and not how much God loves us, 00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:59.899 if you find yourself doing that, you will surround yourself by people who are just like you. 00:27:01.799 --> 00:27:04.139 Because unity is the work of God and not man. 00:27:04.740 --> 00:27:05.779 It's due from heaven. 00:27:05.779 --> 00:27:09.000 It's not irrigation that we do. 00:27:09.700 --> 00:27:10.720 It's water from heaven. 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:14.639 So the question for us this morning is will we commit ourselves as a church 00:27:14.639 --> 00:27:16.859 not just to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:19.579 but to emphasize the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:27:19.980 --> 00:27:23.019 Will we look at one another through the eyes of the work of Christ? 00:27:23.399 --> 00:27:28.299 That each saint in this room is a precious individual for whom Jesus shed his blood. 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:31.700 And even though they don't look like you, even though they don't sound like you, 00:27:32.099 --> 00:27:34.680 even though they don't enjoy the same things as you, 00:27:34.680 --> 00:27:38.840 even though they might support Tottenham, you will still love them. 00:27:41.560 --> 00:27:45.720 No one's quite sure exactly when David wrote Psalm 133. 00:27:46.299 --> 00:27:50.620 If you know the story of David's life, you'll think it was probably in a very narrow window of time 00:27:50.620 --> 00:27:54.259 because the story of David's life, we've been looking at it actually last year, 00:27:54.259 --> 00:27:59.640 is the story of David's sin smashing apart God's people over and over again. 00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:03.299 The unity in David's Jerusalem was destroyed by his sin, 00:28:03.980 --> 00:28:06.480 the work of the devil and the hostility of the world around him. 00:28:07.740 --> 00:28:11.279 And that means that our second thing is not only emphasize the gospel, 00:28:11.900 --> 00:28:15.359 but we need to realize that unity has an enemy. 00:28:16.140 --> 00:28:17.279 Unity has an enemy. 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:21.440 The unity of our church is such a blessing of God, a work of God, 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:27.660 that its enemy is our sin, the devil, and the lure of the world around us. 00:28:28.200 --> 00:28:30.559 And so we need to be aware, be on our guard. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:35.819 Just before Christmas, I was on the phone to a friend who's the pastor of a church 00:28:35.819 --> 00:28:38.319 who'd just gone through a church merger quite similar to ours. 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:40.460 I said to him, have you got any advice? 00:28:41.339 --> 00:28:42.619 What should we be looking out for? 00:28:43.119 --> 00:28:44.299 Quite a really helpful conversation. 00:28:44.899 --> 00:28:47.059 And he said one thing at the end that really struck me. 00:28:47.159 --> 00:28:52.000 He said, listen, there's something weird about merging a church or two churches. 00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:55.879 He says the devil hates it. 00:28:57.059 --> 00:29:02.139 He said we have had some really weird fallings out in our church since we merged. 00:29:02.679 --> 00:29:05.759 And we expected it almost to be from people from different churches, 00:29:06.099 --> 00:29:07.559 but actually that's not been the case. 00:29:07.559 --> 00:29:11.299 It's been from people within their own groups who've fallen out with one another. 00:29:12.359 --> 00:29:15.039 He said, and as I look at it and as I look at what they've fallen out over, 00:29:15.339 --> 00:29:18.179 the only conclusion I can come to is that the devil is at work 00:29:18.179 --> 00:29:20.579 because he hates the unity of God's people. 00:29:21.740 --> 00:29:23.039 And of course he's right, isn't he? 00:29:23.539 --> 00:29:29.740 The devil, my sinful, selfish desire to put myself ahead of anybody else, 00:29:30.399 --> 00:29:34.460 the lure of the world around us which tells us to build success based on anything else, 00:29:34.460 --> 00:29:38.620 those things pour water onto the flames of the blessing of God, 00:29:39.620 --> 00:29:42.140 breathing death into the life that we enjoy. 00:29:42.140 --> 00:29:45.320 So the call on us this morning is to guard against that. 00:29:46.040 --> 00:29:47.800 Will we keep turning from our sin? 00:29:48.540 --> 00:29:51.420 Will we make sure that this is a community of grace and forgiveness, 00:29:51.780 --> 00:29:53.480 not individualism and selfishness? 00:29:54.080 --> 00:29:55.320 Will we bite our tongue? 00:29:55.900 --> 00:29:57.480 Will we pray for our brothers and sisters? 00:29:58.120 --> 00:30:01.460 Will we know that the spirit and the flesh are at war with one another? 00:30:02.460 --> 00:30:07.080 Will we trust that God is doing something glorious and we get to be part of it? 00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:09.179 Well, let's pray. 00:30:09.319 --> 00:30:13.500 I'll have a moment of quiet for you to pray on your own and then I will pray for us. 00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:35.859 Heavenly Father, we acknowledge before you this morning 00:30:35.859 --> 00:30:39.799 that you are doing something that we could never do. 00:30:39.799 --> 00:30:46.059 Not only through the work of the Lord Jesus are you saving us from our sinful, selfish desire, 00:30:46.879 --> 00:30:50.720 rescuing us for an eternity with you that we don't deserve and could not earn, 00:30:51.299 --> 00:30:56.019 but also in your great loving kindness to us, you are uniting us with one another 00:30:56.019 --> 00:30:59.879 so that we become brothers and sisters together in Christ. 00:31:00.519 --> 00:31:04.559 Thank you that together this morning we get to be part of something really special. 00:31:05.339 --> 00:31:07.339 We thank you that's your doing, not our doing. 00:31:07.339 --> 00:31:12.939 May we look away from individuals and may we look to you and put our trust and our hope in you. 00:31:13.539 --> 00:31:17.679 We pray, please, that you might help us to emphasise the gospel 00:31:17.679 --> 00:31:20.939 and to guard ourselves against the devil's attacks, 00:31:21.359 --> 00:31:28.179 that we might experience joy, life in the unity of our church. 00:31:28.639 --> 00:31:30.679 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:31:31.179 --> 00:31:31.419 Amen. 00:31:31.419 --> 00:31:31.559 Amen. 00:31:31.559 --> 00:31:31.699 Amen.