Calvary Chapel Portsmouth Barry Forder

Our guest speaker Simeon Forder from Calvary Chapel gives us a exhortation on Prayer and Obedience from the following verses in 1 Kings 18. 1 Kings 18:1-40 May this message bless you today.

Our guest speaker Steve Vickery from Calvary Chapel Oxford gives us a exhortation on being obedient from the following verses in Acts 16. Acts 16:6-10 6 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, 7 After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. 8 And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. 10 And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. May this message bless you today.

This concluding study in Malachi 3-4 was given by Pastor Barry Forder on 24th July 2022. This also brings us to the end of our study in the Minor Prophets. Throughout the Minor Prophets we have seen God's faithfulness to the Nation of Israel, keeping His covenant with the nation that had been given to Abraham; yet God is a just God and Israel, before being restored, must be judged for her sins as a nation. Malachi draws all of this to a close and calls for a people who will offer sincere offerings from the heart out of a love for the God that has called and chosen them. Malachi also introduces us to two great voices who will 'prepare the way of the LORD'. Firstly, John the Baptist, who prepared the way at Christ's first advent, and then Elijah who will return and prepare the way for Christ's 2nd Advent! May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

This first part of our 2-part study in the book of Malachi was given by Pastor Barry Forder on the 17th July 2022 at Calvary Portsmouth. Malachi (whose name means ‘my messenger’) comes onto the scene around 60 years after the Jews had returned from the captivity in Babylon. Dr Chuck Missler comments: “The Temple was rebuilt; priestly worship carried on; but the people had fallen into spiritual decline, and their attitudes developed later into the sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees” Malachi, as God’s messenger to the people challenges the people’s apathy and idolatry. God is a God of love, so much so that Malachi refers to God’s love for Israel as a burden, but God is also a God of justice and cannot condone of overlook sin. Malachi warns the people that God’s judgment is coming. Only after that will they once again return to the LORD and walk in His blessing. Malachi is the third & last of the post-exile prophets (Haggai and Zechariah being the other two). –Written around 486-464 B.C. His name means ‘My messenger’ Jewish tradition states that Malachi was a member of the “Great Synagogue,“ and a Levite from Supha, in Zebulun Through Malachi God speaks one more time to the nation before the ‘big day’ Israel had become apathetic, entering into mixed marriages & withheld that which should have been given to the LORD The message of Malachi could just as easily have been written directly to us: God has delivered us from out captivity Do we now think we can just live and worship in the way we please? Have we become apathetic? Have we entered into mixed marriages with the things of this world? Have we withheld from God that which we should have given Him? Maybe God is speaking to us one last time before our ‘big day’? The outline of the book is as follows: Introduction 1:1 God’s unchanging love for His own 1:2-5 The total failure of the priests 1:6-2:9 –The priests should preserve knowledge! Their failure to value covenants 2:10-16 –Their covenant with God, symbolised by the covenant of marriage The Messiah’s coming in judgment 2:17-3:6 Israel’s sin yet future restoration 3:7-18 The coming & mission of Elijah 4:1-5 May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

This final study in our journey through Zechariah was recorded on 10th July 22 at Calvary Portsmouth, by pastor Barry Forder. In this concluding study in our verse-by-verse journey though Zechariah we see Zechariah reiterate the LORD’s promises to His people, Israel. They will be blessed and one day dwell in peace and safety in their land, but first there must come a time of testing – the time of Jacob’s troubles (Jer 30:7), but though two-thirds of the Jews remaining in Jerusalem will be killed by the armies of Antichrist, Israel will emerge from this fire victorious because the LORD will fight for them. These chapters allude to some huge geographical and meteorological changes to come and we get a glimpse of just how unlike anything the world has yet seen the ‘Day of the LORD’ will be. This incredible prophetic book leaves us in no doubt that the kingdom Jesus told us to pray for really is coming! He will soon rule and reign over the whole earth from Jerusalem; the nations of this world will become subject to Him, and the unconditional promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be fulfilled. May you be blessed and encouraged by this book and this study.

In these incredible chapters the answer is given as to why God has not yet poured out on Israel the blessings that were foretold and promised back in chapter 10. “This Chapter explains why the blessings and promises of the previous chapter are in abeyance for Israel. By rejecting their true Shepherd-Messiah at his first advent, they will experience rejection themselves, climaxing in their accepting of the false shepherd in the time of their greatest woe”. – Dr Chuck Missler Zechariah reveals that, following the Babylonian captivity, rather than repenting and turning to God, Israel’s ‘shepherd’s (their national leaders) had continued the same unjust and corrupt behavior that brought judgment on the nation before. So, in the same manner, there will be a time of woe and desolation for the Nation before the time of blessing (already foretold in this book) will begin. God had made a covenant with Israel to keep the gentile nations restrained so long as Israel walked with God. But if they forsook that covenant God would forsake them and scatrter them among the nations of this world – but even then His grace and mercy would hear their cry, when in their anguish they repented and called out to Him. See Lev 18:24-30 / Deut 4:26-31 / Deut 28 Chapter 11 opens with the declaration that judgment was coming from the north (vs 1-3), not this time from the Babylonians, but rather from Rome. In verse 4 however, prior to the judgment coming, God calls for the Messiah, Israel’s Shepherd, to feed the flock, even though they would reject His words. The Shepherd depicted by Zechariah can only be the Messiah. The reason they were called “the flock of slaughter” sprang from the fact that slaughter was their irrevocable destiny, just so long as the Jews preferred their own evil shepherds to the True One. Zechariah’s instruction here to “Feed the flock” refers to Christ himself coming into the ranks of the Chosen People to instruct and lead them in the paths of righteousness. “Last of All“* God sent his Son in the hope of averting their self-motivated dash to destruction” – James Coffman# Verses 6-11 then proceed to lay out the coming judgment where Israel will be handed over to the gentiles. In verse 12-13 we see the prophecy of Israel’s rejection of their Messiah at the hands of Judas, for 30 pieces of silver – the price of a slave. The tragic irony of this is that, not only did Israel reject their true Shepherd, they will embrace a false shepherd – Antichrist. Jesus Himself said: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive”. (John 5:43) Verse 15-17 introduce us (again) to this false-shepherd who will come in his own name, and seek to devour the sheep! – so much so that Israel will face the greatest affliction in their history at the hands of Antichrist during the coming time of Tribulation (referred to by Jeremiah as the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ – Jeremiah 30:7). May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.