Find out what is happening at Ramsgate's Town Centre Church.
The last parade costume workshop is this Saturday (6th May) 1-4pm in St. George’s church hall, with the parade on Sunday afternoon. Great activity for all the family to join in with.
See below for details of the parade and other town events:
As he writes to challenge the church in Corinth, Paul urges the church not ‘to go beyond what is written’. But what does he mean by that and how is he challenging them?
Sermon by Colin Gale.
Last time I visited my sister, which was just before Easter, I noticed that the walls and table-tops of her house were covered with framed and decorated inspirational sayings, life mottos and uplifting quotations. If I could, I would tell you what some of these sayings were, but unfortunately, I can’t remember a single one of them, even though I last visited her house less than four weeks ago. This tells you that I have a terrible memory, or that I don’t pay enough attention to the things that are all around me, or at least that my imagination was not captured by these sayings quite enough for me to commit any of them to memory, let alone to live my life by them.
Did you spot that in our reading from I Corinthians chapter 4, the apostle Paul invites the church in Corinth into a knowledge and appreciation of a quotation of unknown origin – one which we will see is not only worth remembering, but also worthy of shaping our lives by. In chapter 4, verse 6, he writes ‘I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying Do not go beyond what is written. Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.’ This saying can help open up for us the whole of I Corinthians chapter 4, and it can help sum up for us the essence of Christian living.
In order to grasp what Paul means by adopting this saying, Do not go beyond what is written, we need to understand what he is talking about when he refers to what is written. In the overall context of Paul’s thinking, what is written must refer to the Bible as a whole – he writes elsewhere that ‘everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope’ (Romans 15:4). In the context of his letter to the Corinthians in particular, what is written means: the things written in the Old Testament which appear as quotations in the first three chapters of I Corinthians, things such as
These and other quotations from the Old Testament which appear in the first three chapters of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians promote three things.
The first thing is humility as far as our capacities are concerned, and trust in God as far as his capacities are concerned. The wisdom of the wisest person, and intelligence of the most intelligent person, pales by comparison with the wisdom and intelligence of God, so whoever who is inclined to boast about their own abilities should stop, think about it a bit, and instead boast not in themselves but in the Lord, as it says in Jeremiah chapter 9, quoted at the end of I Corinthians chapter 1. That would express humility and trust in God.
The second thing promoted by the Old Testament quotations contained in the first three chapters of I Corinthians is a holy expectation and hope, which is again centred on God. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him. We have not yet arrived at our end of the journey we are on; this is what is written. There is more to come, of which we presently know nothing, in the demonstration of God’s love for us. And so, as well as living humbly, we live expectantly, patiently, and with confident hope.
The third thing embedded within those Old Testament quotations in the first three chapters of I Corinthians is the compassion of God, and his preparedness to make reasonable adjustment for us. He catches the wise in their craftiness (Job 5:13) and The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile (Psalm 34:11) are lines from the book of Job and the Psalms, quoted in I Corinthians chapter 3 not to be unkind, but simply to express the difference between the Creator, God, and the creature, you and me. The Psalms also say that ‘as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust’ (Psalm 103:13-14). If we think about it, compassion and reasonable adjustment are hardwired into the Christian gospel of God becoming incarnate as a human being, stooping so low as to suffer death on a cross, in order to raise sinners heavenward.
So the apostle Paul’s answer to the question concerning what is written is first, humility and second, expectation on our part; and third, compassion and reasonable adjustment on the part of God. These three things help to sum up the essence of the Christian life, and they are what makes the saying Do not go beyond what is written worthy of shaping our lives.
Yet of course the apostle Paul was writing to a real church made up of flesh-and-blood members who, just like us, were sinful and imperfect in all kinds of ways. He says in verse 6 of I Corinthians chapter 4 that he has applied the saying Do not go beyond what is written not to them but to himself and Apollos, so that they may learn from their examples, but if we read on through chapter 4, we can pretty easily work out how it did apply to the them in Corinth.
The Corinthian church was in no way a model of humility, hope and compassion. In place of humility and trust in God, there was pride and arrogance. In place of expectation and hope, there was a presumption of having already arrived. In place of compassion and reasonable adjustment, there was inflexibility and abuse of power. In each of these three ways, they had gone far beyond what had been written.
The pride and arrogance is mentioned by the apostle Paul in verse 6 of I Corinthians chapter 4. Once the Corinthians have learned the meaning of the saying, Do not go beyond what is written, ‘they will not take pride in one man over another’, says Paul. The reason for this is that they will have learned from what is written that they are no different from anyone else, and that they have nothing that they did not receive. That lesson is appropriate not just for the start of the Christian life, but for every single day of the Christian life, until its end.
Yet if the Corinthians were ever in that place of humility, by the time Paul wrote to them, they weren’t any more. They had gone beyond what is written, beyond humility and trust in God alone, to take pride in who they were, and pride in what they had. They wrongly believed themselves to be, or else they wrongly acted as if they were, self-made people. Whatever success they had, they attributed it to themselves, and whatever social markers they observed, they used them to distinguish themselves from other people, on whom they looked down.
Their pride was fuelled by a presumption of having already arrived. They had indeed arrived, according to one commentary on I Corinthians, “but in all the wrong ways”[1] and to all the wrong places. They had gone beyond expectation, patience and hope in God to presumption.
‘Already you have all you want!’ writes the apostle Paul sadly in verse 8. ‘Already you have become rich!’ In their own eyes, and in contrast to the apostles, he writes that they had ‘become kings – and that without [help from any apostle]. How I wish you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!’.
The contrast between the ‘now’ of the Corinthians and the ‘not yet’ of the apostles is then drawn starkly by Paul. ‘God has put us apostles on display … like men condemned to die in the arena … We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honoured, we are dishonoured! … We go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless … we have become the scum of the earth”. And then he adds, in verse 14, ‘I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children’.
The warning is this: those who have swapped out expectation, patience and hope in God for presumption have already received their reward in full. No more remains in wait for them. Do not go beyond what is written. Do not give up on hope, by pretending that you already have it all. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.
And then in place of compassion and reasonable adjustment, the Corinthians, or some of those who were leaders in the Corinthian church anyway, had begun to believe that they were accountable to no-one, and had begun to misuse their power. ‘Some of you have become arrogant’, writes the apostle, ‘as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon … and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. …’ When those with power in society or in the church lack compassion and refuse to make reasonable adjustment for those that need it, that is an abuse of power. And when those exercising power are accountable to no-one, abuses of power can run unchecked for years, far beyond what is written of God’s condescension and mercy.
‘What do you prefer?’ asks Paul at the end of chapter 4. ‘Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?’ Such a question might seem to answer itself. It is obvious even in his asking of this question that Paul intends to come in love and a gentle spirit, and does not intend to abuse his power in the control of others by fear. Yet, throughout history, strong-armed, red-blooded bullies, who use the power they have over others to big themselves up in society and in the church, have survived and thrived on blind loyalty, the blind loyalty and support of those who stay near the exercise of brute force because somehow they find it attractive – although it is in fact ugly.
Having been reminded of the beauty of what is written, and having surveyed the ugliness of those things which are beyond what is written, it is time to consider what is involved in living what is written. To do so, we return to three points that are by now familiar: humility, hope and compassion.
In our reading, Paul speaks of the humble way of life adopted by the apostles. ‘We work hard with our hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.’ (I Cor 4:12-13). These are examples of him and others walking the talk, practising what they preach, living out in flesh and blood what is written down on the sacred pages of Holy Scripture for our instruction. It’s hard to argue against kindness, generosity, endurance and perseverance. They shine with authenticity, in a world – and, may I say, a church – which is contaminated, it seems to me, with too much by way of falsehood, insincerity and showmanship.
Again in our reading, Paul speaks of expectation and hope in God. ‘Judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the secrets of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.’ (I Cor 4:5). If God is the judge, then we need not – in fact we must not – rush to judgement. If God is our judge, then we may wait patiently for him to incline and hear our cry, and rescue us. This too is a way of living what is written.
Then in I Corinthians chapter 5, which will be the subject of a future sermon when we pick up our series on I Corinthians later in the year, the apostle Paul recommends compassion – a strange sort of compassion, a tough love it may seem to us, when we come to read chapter 5 – but a compassion which is nevertheless aimed at saving the skin of a flagrant, unrepentant offender in the last ditch, and a compassion which accommodates us to living in an imperfect world. This is the compassion of God himself, who hates nothing that he has made, who forgives the sins of all who are penitent, and does all this through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So
we will live what has been written by the inspiration of that same Spirit. By the grace of God, we will live up to what we have already attained, and we will never seek to go beyond what is written, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we may always keep hold of humility, hope and compassion. We can, and we may do this, only in union with Jesus Christ, who endured the cross – there is his humiliation – and scorned its shame for the joy set before him – there is his expectation – and suffered death to bring many sons and daughters to glory – there is his mercy and his compassion. (cf. Hebrews 2:9,10; 12:2).
Though for the life of me, I still can’t remember any of the motivational phrases and life mottos on display in my sister’s house, I do remember thinking last month that they captured many admirable and worthwhile sentiments. But here in I Corinthians chapter 4 we have a saying that is really worthy of being taken to heart, not only memorable but also capable of shaping our lives – for the better, and for the sake of Christ. Do not go beyond what is written, because what is written is to us life, and health, and peace. And may this peace guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus, now and forevermore.
[1] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Eerdmans, 1987), page 157.
It was great to gather with both congregations at St. George’s for our special St. George’s service. The Parade following on was amazing – especially as the rain held off! The lunch in the hall was also fantastic.
Many thanks to all who helped to organise this, especially Jemima, the St. George’s Regeneration office and Theresa Askew from Great British Carnivals.
“Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
(Romans 15:4)
This week at YI, our group for the young people of St. George’s and St. Luke’s, we will continue using Rebecca McLaughlin’s book and explore whether science has disproved Christianity. The study starts at 5:00pm and followed by food together at 6:00pm. Supper this is week is fried chicken wraps with salad.
Then at 6:30 our doors remain open for anyone who wants to come and there will be a variety of games and activities available.
We’d be delighted to welcome any young people from Year 6 to 13.
Have a good rest of the week.
What is MOPP? It is a new idea for a once a term meeting to introduce opportunities at St. Luke’s and St. George’s to explore the Christian faith and grow as a disciple.
Our second MOPP meeting will be at 7pm of Monday 24th April in St. Luke’s Church Hall. Please click the button below to book a ticket, so that we can plan for the catering (free of charge, donations for food welcome on night). Please let us know by 1pm Sunday 26th.
The letters stand for:
This will be a series of thematic Bible studies exploring the ministry and teaching of Jesus and asking : what do they tell us about the Holy Spirit in Him and in us ?
Maximum number is 8 people.
We looking at Peter’s life, using bible passages and 3 very open questions in a different style from typical study material but it has proved most fruitful to date.
These studies help us to look at our every day lives and see how God is at work in us and through us, and will help us to strive for more areas of our lives to be in step with Gods kingdom living.
Looking to learn or develop skills in leading small group Bible Studies – this ‘pop-up’ study group is the course for you.
This Sunday is St. George’s Day. We are going to do things a bit differently. There will be no service at St. Luke’s, but we will have our annual Joint Service at St. George’s at 11am. This will be a special All Age service with interactive activities and worship.
Next we go on parade! The carnival style parade leaves St. George’s at 12noon. We would love everyone from the service to join with others who will meet outside the church for the carnival itself. The parade will turn left out of the church, travel down Broad Street to the junction with Hardres Street, turn right, then left onto the High Street pedestrianized zone. We will march down the High Street to the gates at the end of Harbour Street, before turning around and returning to the church.
Costumes have been made in workshops at St. George’s hall. If you want to make a costume, then the last workshop is on Saturday 22nd April from 1 to 4pm. Please collect your costumes from the hall before the service and store at the back of the church ready to put on immediately afterwards. Those who have not made costumes will be given flags or roses to carry on the parade.
After the Parade, at about 1pm, join us for a free lunch in the hall. There is soup, a spread and tea and cakes.
With gratitude to Ramsgate Town Council and Thanet District Council for grants to make this happen. Thanks also go to Teresa Askew from the Great British Carnival and Jemima Brown, St. George’s Regeneration Officer for planning this fantastic event.
This will be a great church and community event in the heart of Ramsgate. Everyone is welcome.
This week YI will not be meeting in St. Luke’s church hall Sunday evening but will instead will be joining other Youth groups in Thanet at ‘The Event’. That’s this Sunday the 23rd (not the 26th).
Games, food, worship and bible teaching still feature, but we’ll be together with other friends from the area. This month we are at Queens Road Baptist Church in Broadstairs, 6pm – 8pm.
Leaders from YI will be there. Do contact Claire if you would like a lift.
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12
How can we continue with Christian joy in a world of suffering and pain? Peter in this joyful opening of a letter to suffering Christians gives us some pointers.
Sermon am – 1 Peter 1:3-9
Aim: Genuine faith rejoices in our imperishable inheritance despite the sufferings of this life.
Joy – really?
I love this passage, it just oozes joy and enthusiasm. It’s such a great celebration of the great resurrection truths and the difference it should make to our hearts. In fact the first verse of our passage:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 peter 1:3)
was one I often quoted to myself as an encouragement during the Covid pandemic.
But you might be sitting there and thinking, ‘Really?’ How can you be joyful when life faces us with so many struggles?
Certainly, as Christians we should not ignore the difficulties and struggles of life. Some of the Psalms are a great model of how to cry out to God when life seems tough and the whole focus on the crucifixion of Christ faces the reality of suffering head on. Christianity is not simply an, ‘Always look on the bright side of life!’ religion.
1 Peter is a letter written to people who are suffering. We do not know the details, but the letter suggests that the Christians Peter is writing to are struggling with being small groups of isolated Christians who are often ill-treated by others because of their Christian faith. Compared with our lives today, their life was tough. From the perspective of the pagans around them, being a Christian made things worse. They had little from a worldly point of view to rejoice in and Peter knows that. In verse 6 he acknowledges their struggles:
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” (1 Peter 1:6)
So how can we rejoice when we are suffering?
The answer lies in what you rejoice in and how that compares to the suffering. Peter’s claim is not that we should ignore the suffering or that it is wrong to experience the emotions of grief and sadness that it may bring, but that even the depths of the suffering in this life cannot compare with the joy we have in Christ.
The Zip-Wire of Joy
For my wife’s 40th birthday, we as a family did ‘Go Ape’ at Leeds Castle. This involved climbing around increasingly ‘High Wires’ and going on a massively long zip-wire, which crossed high over a valley. I don’t like heights, but it was my wife’s birthday, so I gave it ago. At points it was terrifying, but it was also fun – even the zip-wire!
Now there are three things that you want to know about a zip-wire in order to be confident using it. You want to know that it is secured to the ground at the start, that it is secured to the ground at the end and that it is not going to snap in the middle! If any of those things fail, then the zip-wire turns from a thrill to a tragedy.
In the same way if we are to have joy in the Christian life, then we need to have confidence in its start point, its end point and the wire running between them and those are what Peter focusses on in this passage.
Joy in Life – vs. 3
The start point is the resurrection. Peter had himself known Jesus, gone through the tragedy and pain of seeing him crucified, before experiencing the utter joy of meeting the risen Jesus and seeing death defeated. For Peter, the resurrection was a transformational moment, it changed his life utterly.
Now, many years later, he writes with confidence to these struggling Christians to remind them of the new birth they have experienced when they came to believe in the reality of the resurrection.
Many would have previously been pagans, believing in a world controlled by fickle gods, with death being the gateway into a rather bleak view of any afterlife. Life was tough and then you die, was their hopeless outlook.
Today, many in our world have the same outlook. They are distracted by momentary pleasures and short term goals to improve their lives through more money, better relationships or fun activities, but they have nothing to look forward to in the long term except the onset of old age and death itself. Hope is dead.
When you grasp that the resurrection actually happened, that the God of Jesus can and has raised the dead and he did so to create a way to life and salvation for all who trust in him, then hope comes alive and life is transformed.
It is a new birth. The resurrection is not an intellectual fact to debate over, but a reality that should seep into our hearts and change the way we think, feel and love. It brings inexpressible and glorious joy. The resurrection is the secure start point of the Christian life.
Joy in Hope – vs. 4
But start points are not enough. If I went on the zip-wire across the valley with a secure start point, but a broken end-point, then the zip would become a plummet.
Yet, as Peter makes clear, the resurrection shows us that our end point is secure. We have an inheritance, a place in God’s eternal home that will always be there:
untouched by death
unstained by evil
unimpaired by time
These days we insist on guarantees. We want to be confident that if we buy something, that it won’t break straight away or fail us. The Bank of England guarantees, the banking system, so that if the banks fail we can know that our savings – up to a certain amount – won’t disappear.
Security is important, but the recent pandemic and the war in Ukraine have made us feel less secure. Where can we find a confident guarantee?
The answer comes from Jesus. Why? He proved his utter commitment and love for us dying for us and demonstrated his power over death by rising again. In Jesus, our hope is totally and utterly secure. In him, we can find true joy.
Joy with Faith – vs. 7-8
Finally, there comes the wire itself. You can have a secure start point and a fixed end point, but if the wire goes snap, then you go splat!
What is the wire in our illustration? How are we held through time between the fixed points of the resurrection and our eternal home in heaven? How can we be held with confidence above the trials and tribulations of this life? It is with a genuine faith.
Peter says, such a faith is of greater worth than gold. This is obvious. You can’t take gold with you when you die, but genuine faith in Christ is what brings us to the fixed point of that eternal inheritance.
Yet, the illustration has another aspect to it. Gold is refined by fire. When you heat gold up and skim the rubbish off the top, the true gold remains, the rubbish disappears. The same is true of faith, when we are faced with the trials and suffering of life.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus speaks of the seed that falls on shallow ground as illustrating those whose faith is not genuine. When the suffering and persecution come along, their faith wilts. It was not genuine. Similarly, he speaks of the seed that falls amongst the weeds as illustrating a faith that is not genuine. When the worries of this life come along, the faith is choked.
True faith perseveres through these struggles, keeping you fixed to the resurrection and to the hope of our eternal inheritance. When this is the case, suffering creates a deeper confidence that our faith is genuine, that the wire will hold. Our struggles may be tough, but they have a positive purpose in refining and strengthening our faith. When that happens we discover a deeper joy!
When I went on the zip wire across the valley near Leeds Castle, the initial moments were terrifying – the ground was a long way down. But as I whizzed through the air, I became more confident that the start and end points would hold and the wire would not snap. Terror turned to pleasure.
In the same way, as Christians as we zip through life, we need to focus again and again on the great fixed points of the resurrection and our eternal inheritance and rejoice in the genuine faith that God has given us to keep us moving towards the ultimate goal, the salvation of our souls!
St. George's Church Ramsgate