Christians. Together  Haslingden   31st  March 17

Preparing for Tuesday’s Job Club   

I felt the need on the next step to spend some time to emphasise the importance of tailoring their CV to a job description, so I looked up a tailor’s job description.  Also I had been asking the Lord what I should speak about at the ‘Christians Together’ meeting on Friday? The answer:                                                   

Jesus was born one of us, tailored by God his Father to be like Him. We too are tailored by God to be like Jesus.

A Tailor has a set of skills:

A tailor understand measurement of the body to make a garment and also make a pattern to fit the individual.

They are equipped with the skill to design a dress or a suit. If they themselves do the work, they use special machine needles to deal with different types of materials: some materials stretch, others fluffy or very fine, some when cut begin to fray. The way the tailor lays the pattern on the material depends on the type of material.

Visual aids: tape measure, a pattern and card with switches on

God tailored Jesus

Jesus was formed according to the pattern of the perfect human being, He understood creation through having the mind of God his Father, and he was equipped with the full measure of the Holy Spirit. His ministry on earth was to the Jewish people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but in his death, resurrection and ascension to the Jews and the whole of mankind.

When we came to faith our lives began to be tailored by Jesus.. The creases of sin have been ironed out, through turning to Jesus in repentance and faith. Jesus has enabled us, through his resurrected humanity, to be the bride of Christ.

In the reading the people had observed that Jesus was not fasting, like John the Baptist and the Pharisees who fasted twice a week according to the law. When they enquired, Jesus referred to the joy of the bridegroom on the occasion of his wedding.

They must have wondered what he meant when he continued saying,  ^“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.” Mark 2: 18-21.

Jesus I think had watched his mother mend the clothes of the family. He had observed that when a garment has a tear, a problem occurs when an unshrunk piece of material was used to repair it. After its been washed it would shrink and pull away from the old material.

The unshrunk patch covering the tear that when washed it shrinks and makes the tear worse. I interpret this to mean: it’s the people who were followers of Jesus and then turned away from him when they came up against things that Jesus did or said that was contrary to the law. John 6: 66

We know that Jesus was pointing to the New Covenant rather than patching up Moses Covenant, that was flawed by only making a covering for sin. Jesus has replaced the Law of Moses with a new covenant, he being the perfect sacrifice that atoned completely for sin and transforms the soul, the nature, so that law is written in the heart, to know God in a personal way, so we feel how God feels about sin.

 We have been healed of the torn relationship between our self and God, we are a new creation in Jesus Christ, and we wear garments that have been made to measure by God the tailor of our salvation. Isaiah wrote, “He has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has covered me with a robe of righteousness.” Isaiah 61: 10.

The church the bride of Christ  described in John’s Revelation           “ ………clothed in fine linen bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” Revelation 19: 8

When I think of the church I see a patchwork quilt of various expressions of humanity in worship, more like Joseph’s coat of many colours, but nether the less, one in Christ.

This morning I saw the church of Christ that overcomes the barriers, the restrictions to ministry through denominations. But  every Christians can experience the fullness of Christ in their own ministry as God has tailored us to be like Jesus.

Some people give up on the Church.  

Jesus indicated in the ‘Marriage Feast” the marriage supper of Christ with his church, the bride. In the parable one person is there without a wedding garment and is duly cast out. A Christian that starts enthusiastic but at some point come up against barriers and they turn back into the world. Matthew 22: 11-14.                                        

We might feel like stepping out of church life or we might feel worn at the edges and that we have nothing left to give, but please don’t go back keep looking forward, do not focus on the troubles of the church or the world, but look on Jesus, his church of many colours.

John wrote, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.” Revelation 19: 7-9.

I had been told before hand that Alan the pianist had gone to be with the Lord. I’m sure Alan will be wearing his wedding garment at the marriage supper of the Lamb.