South Featherstone Gospel Hall

  Acts 2 v 42 is a crucial verse concerning the spiritual success of a church. Following the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, God had blessed His word and thousands of new believers in the Lord Jesus Christ had been ‘created’. These were mostly Jews and immediately they confessed their faith in Jesus, they were excommunicated from the synagogues and even from their own families. They had been saved from sin but could then have been in a total wilderness as far as spiritual growth is concerned. But quickly, it was realised by the Apostles that a way forward spiritually had to be organised in a practical way to build the church and set the new disciples on a spiritual growth road. The verse sets forward 4 pillars for spiritual growth which are as valid today as they were then, “And they (new believers) devoted themselves to the Apostles’ doctrine, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer”. Leave out any one or more of those 4 pillars, and the structure becomes uns...

  “Fight the Good Fight and Finish the Race” – 2 Timothy 4:1-8 Dear Friends, in his final letter, the Apostle Paul, knowing that the time of his departure was near, gives Timothy a solemn and urgent charge. These verses are among the most moving and challenging words in the New Testament, written by a man who had lived faithfully for Christ and was now facing execution. They serve as both a final instruction to a young leader and a powerful testimony for every believer. Paul begins with the weightiest possible authority: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word…” (2 Timothy 4:1-2 ESV) This is no casual suggestion. Paul calls Timothy (and us) to preach the Word faithfully, in season and out of season, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. He warns that a time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but will gather teachers to sui...

  In the light of our recent consideration of God speaking to us through His Son, Jesus, I just want to conclude by looking at another occasion when Jesus sat down, which pulls together the person and work of Jesus. It concerns the Samarian woman who came to draw water from the well that Jesus was sitting on in the middle of the day. Jesus was tired and thirsty and after a relatively short but deep conversation with the woman, where He revealed how much He knew about her situation, she ran into the city and spoke to the important men there and said, excitedly, “Is not this the Christ?” It was the firm conclusion she had drawn from her conversation with Jesus and wasn’t so much a question as a statement. And that is exactly the conclusion we can firmly draw from the first few verses on Hebrews 1. Jesus was not just a prophet, revealing God and His purposes to mankind, He was the Christ, the Sent One, God’s final solution, long promised in the Old Testament. And whilst He did not fit...

  “The Cost of Hasty Decisions” – Joshua 9:3-26 Dear Friends, the story of the Gibeonites in Joshua 9 is both fascinating and sobering. Having heard of Israel’s great victories over Jericho and Ai, the inhabitants of Gibeon devised a cunning plan to save themselves from destruction. They dressed in old, worn-out clothes, carried dry and mouldy bread, and presented themselves as travellers from a distant land. Their deception worked. “They went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, ‘We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us.’” (Joshua 9:6 ESV) The Israelites examined the evidence but crucially failed to do the one thing that mattered most — they did not ask counsel from the Lord (v.14). Joshua and the leaders made a treaty with the Gibeonites and swore an oath to them. Only three days later did they discover the truth: the Gibeonites lived nearby. The people grumbled, but the leaders honoured the oath they had made in the...

  In the Old Testament, when we read God’s instructions for setting up furniture in the Tabernacle and then also in the Temple, the only seat that is mentioned is the Mercy Seat, which was located in the most Holy Place, beyond the veil. In the Tabernacle and the Temple there were no seats either for the worshippers or particularly for the priests who were there constantly on their feet acting in service for God. Their work was never done, there was no relaxation or completion, they were on duty while ever they were in the Temple. The writer to Hebrews follows on the statement about Jesus being the only one to purge our sins by saying these words, “… (then) He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high”. Hebrews describes Jesus later as the Great High Priest, but when He had risen from the dead and ascended back to His Father in heaven, His work was complete, He could sit down because there were no more sacrifices to be offered, He had offered one sacrifice for sin FOR EVER!...

  “Melchizedek and the Bread and Wine” – Genesis 14:18-20 Dear Friends, in the middle of the dramatic account of Abram’s rescue of Lot and his victory over the invading kings, we come across one of the most mysterious and significant figures in the whole of Scripture — Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High. These three short verses in Genesis 14 introduce us to someone who would later become a powerful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’ And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” (Genesis 14:18-20 ESV) Here we see three beautiful actions: Melchizedek brings bread and wine, he blesses Abram, and Abram responds by giving a tenth of everything. The bread and wine immediately catch our attention. Long before ...

  Having established the credentials, as it were, of Jesus as part of the omnipotent Godhead, the writer to the Hebrews now comes to the contrasting work He was called to do and the reason ‘God spoke to us by His Son’, “When He had, by Himself, purged our sins……”!!!!! This phrase takes us so far from the glory of creation and sustaining the order in the universe, that it comes as total mental and spiritual shock. It uses such a strong word in the word ‘purged’. In today’s language it could be described as a ‘deep clean’ with the absolute removal of any remnant of contamination. And because it introduces the contaminant as ‘sin’, it takes back into the Old Testament where God laid down the eternal law, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin”. That in turn takes us to the cross at Calvary, where the purging of sin was achieved. But the other key issue in that verse is “by Himself”. There was no other person or agency involved, even God the Father could not look...

  Led by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church One Mediator, One Ransom: The Heart of the Gospel – 1 Timothy 2:5-7 Good evening, friends — after the rich discussion on prayer last week, we moved into the next few verses of 1 Timothy chapter 2. Brian led us through the passage, carefully teasing out its meaning, while Shaun helped us dig into the original Greek and the profound significance of Christ’s humanity. Brian began by reading the verses: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” (1 Timothy 2:5-7) He noted that these verses sit right in the middle of Paul’s instructions about public worship and prayer. Having just urged Timothy to pray for all people — including kings and those in authority — Paul now give...

  “I Lift Up My Eyes” – Psalm 123 Dear Friends, Psalm 123 is one of the shortest of the Psalms of Ascent, yet it carries a depth of feeling and spiritual insight that far outweighs its length. These were the songs the people of Israel sang as they made their way up to Jerusalem for the great feasts. With every step they drew nearer to the place where God had promised to meet with His people. In just four verses the psalmist gives us a beautiful and honest picture of what it looks like to live in humble, dependent trust in God — especially when life is hard and people are unkind. The opening words set the tone for the whole psalm: “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!” (Psalm 123:1 ESV) There is something wonderfully deliberate about that phrase. The psalmist does not look around at his circumstances, nor does he look down in despair. He lifts his eyes. He deliberately turns his gaze upward to the One who sits enthroned in the heavens — the sovereign, a...

  The writer to the Hebrews, having clearly defined Jesus as God, but in human form, establishes what His first role as God was and is and puts these extraordinary words together, “… upholding all things by the word of His power”. The vastness of the universe is beyond most mental comprehension. The variation of astronomic structures and formations continues to make scientists wonder how it all began and what sustains it. But Hebrews has a simple and profound answer. The Creator of the universe sustains it because He formed it. And His power is such that He keeps it under control just by His word. Many of us have problems controlling anything except by intense concentration and physical effort. But this phrase demonstrates the infinite power of God which makes what the writer expresses next so much more of a contrast. Let us never underestimate the omnipotence of God, which makes His care and love for us as mere specks in His creation so much more precious. And He controls it all j...

  “Justified by Faith” – Romans 4:1-12 Dear Friends, in Romans chapter 4 the Apostle Paul takes us back to the very beginning of God’s dealings with His people by focusing on Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation. Paul is carefully building his argument that a person is made right with God not through religious works or rituals, but through simple faith. This was revolutionary teaching for many of his Jewish readers. Paul begins with a direct question: “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?” (Romans 4:1 ESV). If anyone could claim to be justified by works, surely it would be Abraham. Yet Paul shows from Scripture that this was not the case. Quoting Genesis 15:6, he writes, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” This is a crucial point. Abraham’s righteousness was not earned — it was credited to him as a gift the moment he believed God’s promise. Importantly, this happened before he was circumcised and ...

  Having shown that Jesus radiates the character of God, the writer to the Hebrews now goes even deeper and shows why Jesus could show, outwardly, actions and words that spoke so clearly of the love and grace of God. The next words the writer uses are, “…. the express image of His (God’s) person”. The idea behind these words is that in every way Jesus showed us what God the Father is really like, because He Himself was God in human form and therefore sinless in every way. When we study and look at the life of Jesus on earth, as the Gospel writers saw it, whatever our idea of God was or is, Jesus was the actual personification of God. That should alter whatever mindset we have because all Jesus did backed up the holiness of His character but yet demonstrated the love of God for His creation. And yet, despite demonstrating a perfect life, God allowed His Son not just to suffer a physical agonising death, but also to make the ultimate sacrifice of His relationship with His Father in t...

  Having defined God’s final revelation to mankind, God’s Son, for us God in human form, the writer very boldly but beautifully describes the character and work of Jesus in just 2 verses, a masterpiece of succinct description! And He heads up the description by saying “who, being the brightness of His (God’s) glory …..”. The Greek word for ‘glory’ means the radiance that comes from a light. Only once in His ministry on earth did Jesus physically radiate intense light and that was during His transfiguration when He was seen talking to Elijah and Moses. So when the writer uses the word ‘glory’ it has to refer to His activity on earth. And in other similar contexts, the word ‘glory’ can be translated as referring to the actual character of God, because God’s character is pure and illuminating. Jesus therefore as the brightness of God’s glory showed us without speaking in any other way, just who God is. The acts of kindness and the love Jesus showed whilst on earth are all attributes o...

  “Who Are My Mother and Brothers?” – Mark 3:31-end Dear Friends, in Mark chapter 3 we see a very human and touching moment in the life of Jesus. His mother and brothers come looking for Him because they are concerned about His ministry. They stand outside the house where He is teaching and call for Him. What happens next is both surprising and deeply instructive. Jesus looks at the people sitting around Him and asks, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Then He answers His own question by declaring: “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:34-35 ESV) This is a powerful redefinition of family. While Jesus loved and honoured His earthly family, He makes it clear that the strongest and most important bond is spiritual. True relationship with Him is not based on blood ties, but on obedience to the will of God. This passage challenges us all. It is easy to assume that because we come from a Christian family,...

In Psalm 122, the first verse says this, “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go up to the house of the Lord’”. Today, we have, as it were, another opportunity to enter ‘The House of the Lord’. In the psalmist time, it was literally a designated building, and I suppose we have the Hall as the designated building but the house of the Lord in our time, which is different to the Old Testament arrangements, can be anywhere, even in the open fields and woods, so we don’t need a building to enter God’s presence. The difference today is that we have an opportunity for combined public worship as we gather round the Lord’s Table and we can all enter His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts and enter His courts with praise, together. And the hymn writer had it correctly, “At thy Table is our place”. Barring illness, holidays or legitimate occupations, we should be round the Lord’s Table and we should also, like the psalmist, “be glad” to be there because worship of God is our highest and...

  “Finally, Brothers” – 2 Corinthians 13:11-end Dear Friends, as Paul brings his second letter to the Corinthians to a close, he gives a series of beautiful, practical exhortations that are just as relevant to us today as they were to that troubled church. In verse 11 he writes: “Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” (2 Corinthians 13:11 ESV) Paul longed to see the church united, restored, and at peace. He knew that division, quarrelling, and spiritual immaturity had damaged their testimony. His closing appeal is both a challenge and a promise: if they would pursue harmony and restoration, the God of love and peace would be powerfully present among them. Then comes one of the most beloved benedictions in the whole Bible: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV) This v...

  “The Walls Came Tumbling Down” – Joshua 6:1-20 Dear Friends, Joshua chapter 6 records one of the most famous victories in the Bible — the fall of Jericho. The city was tightly shut up because of the Israelites, yet God gave Joshua what must have seemed like a very strange battle plan. For six days the armed men, together with seven priests carrying trumpets and the Ark of the Covenant, were to march once around the city in silence. On the seventh day they were to march around it seven times, the priests were to blow the trumpets, and then all the people were to give a great shout. When they obeyed exactly as God commanded, the walls of Jericho fell flat. The people went straight up into the city and took it. What a powerful demonstration that victory comes not by human strength or clever strategy, but by simple obedience to the word of the Lord. This account is a wonderful picture of faith in action. The people had to keep marching even when nothing seemed to be happening. They h...

  The change that we just touched on yesterday is then made clear by the writer of the book of Hebrews and it is the most significant contrast that can ever be recorded anywhere and about anything! Because as the prophets and righteous men in the Old Testament could not find a permanent solution to the sin problem, we have now, through God’s intervention, the absolute solution. The verse goes on to say, after the reference God’s interventions in the Old Testament, which we looked at yesterday, “… (God) has, in these last days, spoken unto us through His Son”. What a word is this!!! Whereas the Law and all the sacrifices that were offered could never deal with sin, God, in the human form of Jesus, His Son, provided the final solution. And it wasn’t the words that Jesus spoke that dealt with sin but the very act of Him being the one-time sinless sacrifice that ’speaks’ salvation from sin to the whole of the human race. God will no longer reveal Himself to people in the form of an ang...

  Hebrews is above all a book on contrasts. The key thought is the word ‘better’, because a contrast inevitably compares one thing with another and one generally comes out better. So the very first verse of Hebrews which starts out so dramatically and which we considered yesterday has the very first contrast in it. So we will consider first what the old system of approaching God had to offer and the way God interacted with His people. “God, Who spoke to His people at various times and in various ways in the past.” If we go through the Old Testament and look at the ways and means God used to seek to get His People to listen to Him and to follow His commandments, we do have a multiplicity of occurrences and many times God physically appeared and took on the form of an angel or another human being. The people whom He appeared to were generally in awe of the vision they had seen but it never had a lasting effect. Always, the people lapsed into sin again and eventually God just spoke th...

“Rolling Away the Reproach” – Joshua 5:2-end Dear Friends, Joshua chapter 5 marks a powerful moment of transition and renewal for the people of Israel as they stand on the edge of the Promised Land. After crossing the Jordan, God gives Joshua specific instructions: the new generation of Israelite men, born in the wilderness, must be circumcised. This act of obedience was the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham. At Gilgal, the reproach of Egypt was rolled away, and the place was named accordingly. Following this act of consecration, the people kept the Passover. The very next day, the miraculous manna that had sustained them for forty years ceased. From then on they ate the produce of the land — a clear sign that a new chapter had begun. The most striking moment comes when Joshua encounters a Man standing with a drawn sword. When Joshua asks whose side He is on, the reply is profound: “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come ” (Joshua 5:14 ESV). Joshua falls ...

  “The Battle Is God’s” – 2 Chronicles 20:1-23 Dear Friends, 2 Chronicles 20 tells the remarkable story of King Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah when they faced an overwhelming crisis. A vast army from Moab, Ammon, and the Meunites came against them. Humanly speaking, the situation was hopeless — they were outnumbered and unprepared. Instead of panicking, Jehoshaphat did something wise and godly. He called the whole nation together to seek the Lord. They fasted and prayed in the temple. In his prayer, Jehoshaphat openly acknowledged their weakness and helplessness: “We have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (2 Chronicles 20:12 ESV). What a powerful declaration! God answered through the prophet Jahaziel with these wonderful words: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s” (v.15). He told them they would not need to fight — they only needed to take ...

   Led by Shaun Fereday, Leader @SFGH Churc h Prayer as the Bedrock: 1 Timothy 2:1-4 Good evening, friends — there’s something wonderfully grounding about returning to a passage together and digging a little deeper. Shaun led us back over the opening verses of 1 Timothy chapter 2 that we had begun the previous week, drawing out fresh insights and practical applications for our own lives and church. Shaun read from the ESV:  “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” He noted that while the NIV wording is similar, the core message remains clear. In context, Paul is writing to Timothy, who was pastoring the church in Ephesus amid false t...