"Onto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour".  The New Testament begins by declaring Jesus Christ is a Saviour.  Then in John 4:42 that aspect of a Saviour is developed a little further because "… now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world" - there it says the Saviour, by implication that there is no other Saviour.  So the New Testament begins by stating that Jesus is a Saviour and then it moves on a step further and declares He is the Saviour of the world.  This is then taken yet another step further when, in Acts 4:12 we are told "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which they must be saved".  And so we go from the provision that there is a Saviour to recognising the fact that He is the Saviour and further emphasising that there is no other Saviour under which mankind can be saved.  1 Timothy 2:3-4 tells us "This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth".

Now I am quite sure that if I asked you this morning, as good Methodists, to give me the answer to Question 26 in the Methodist Catechism, you could probably do it.   You may not have looked at your Catechism in the last year or so but when we learn these things way back in Sunday School, they stay in our mind and in our spirit.  Can you answer Question 26 this morning - who is the Saviour of mankind?  Or would you have to go back and look it up?  The answer of course is:  The Saviour of mankind is the eternal Son of God who, for our sake, became man.  It's the basis of our Methodist theology, if there is such a thing.  It is stated very clearly at the roots of where we are coming from as a denomination that what we believe is that the Saviour of mankind is Jesus Christ.  He is A Saviour, He is THE Saviour, He is the ONLY Saviour.  And so that is at the very root of all that we believe as a denomination today.  To deny that is to deny the Word of God and to deny the Word of God and to refuse to accept what He has provided for us is to be foolish, to say the least.

The Bible goes on to tell us that Jesus Christ is also the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit.  Somebody has said that when God wants to draw something to our attention He mentions it in the Bible and when He really wants to get our attention, He mentions it more that once!  It's like the old man who was in court one day for a parking offence and the Judge asked him "Do you know what one yellow line means?"  And the man said "Yes I do.  It means no parking at all".  The Judge then asked him "Well, do you know what two yellow lines mean?"  The man replied " Aye, I suppose it means no parking at all, at all"!  And so when God wants to emphasise something to us in the Word of God, He mentions it more than once.  And it's interesting that this is a very controversial subject and it is even denied by certain Protestant denominations in churches today.  But it is in the Bible and you cannot get away from it because it's there as clear as can be.  The first five books of the New Testament all  declare it.  In every one of the four Gospels, it's clear and it's there for us to see.  You know we're all very good at remembering John 3:16 but I wonder do you remember Luke 3:16 where we read about this very subject.  "… He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire".  It's there in all four Gospels, it's there in Acts 1 and, like it or lump it, we can't get away from it.  It is part of the package that God gives to us and offers to us.  It is God's method of equipping the saints.  It is God's method of equipping the church to get the job done that He wants to get done.   So we cannot ignore it.  We might have differing theological views about it, but we can't ignore it.

The Bible also tells us very clearly that Jesus is coming again.  Each one of these four aspects that I'm looking at this morning, you could preach for 12 months on each one of them and still not exhaust the fullness or the wholeness about it or all that's in it.  But Jesus again declares in Matthew 24:27 "For as lightning that comes from the east is visible in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man".  He is coming back.  He is coming again.  Now of course you are as aware as I am of all the gurus that have gone in time before us who've said He's coming on this date or on that date and it hasn't happened.  But nevertheless He is coming again.  We read in Acts 1:11  "… why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven".  God even sent angels to speak to the disciples to tell them and to back up what Jesus Himself had told them when He was with them.  Hebrews 9:28 says "so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him".  He's coming again.

I'm told that there are over 630 prophesies in the Bible about the nation of Israel, and over 600 of them so far have come to pass exactly as the Bible said.  If you want a time clock or a milestone marker as to when things are going to happen, keep your eyes focussed on what is happening in the nation of Israel.  No matter what people say, Israel is still the apple of God's eye; the Jewish people are still the apple of God's eye.  God still has His hand on the Jewish nation and the milestones of the world's stage can be seen from the nation of Israel.  In 1917 the Balfour Agreement set up the terms of the formation of the State of Israel - it didn't happen until 14 May 1948.  But listen to what Ezekiel said (Ezekiel 11:17) "therefore say this is what the Sovereign Lord says 'I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered and I will give you back the land of Israel" and in Isaiah 66:8 "Who has ever heard of such a thing?  Who has ever seen such things?  Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?  Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children"  The State of Israel was born on 14 May 1948 inside 24 hours.  There was no State there and within 24 hours an entire government structure was set up.  The Bible asks "Can a country be born in a day?"  Yes!  It happened!  Keep your eye on Israel.  In 1967, in the Six-Day War, Israel regained more of the land that God had promised to Abraham as an everlasting Covenant.  An everlasting Covenant is an everlasting Covenant and God will do what He said would be done.  In the War of Yom Kippur, the Jews regained control of Jerusalem.  In Luke 21:24  "… Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled".  The Jews regained control of Jerusalem in 1973.   So what about the year 2000?  It is prophesied in Scripture that Israel will have peace on all her borders.  The only border that she hasn't got peace on yet is the Asyrian border and that's being negotiated at this very time, as we sit here, as part of an agreement.  Watch it.  It's going to happen sooner or later and when it happens you will see the biggest growth of the church across the world when Israel signs the peace agreement with Syria.  Oh that's not the end.  You need to read the rest of the story in the Scriptures and the other prophesies but that is one of the milestones along the way.  Keep your eye on the nation of Israel.

Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come"  Inside the last 2 years there is not a square yard of planet Earth that cannot pick up either a radio or TV satellite Christian programme.  If you want a time clock or a calendar, watch what the Scripture says.  No, we can't pin it down to a day or a year or a moment in time, but the fact is that it is going to happen.  Jesus is coming again.  All the milestones are built in.

The last one that I want to look at this morning is, of course, Jesus the Healer.  By far the largest reporting of Jesus' life in the New Testament is to do with His healing ministry.  Divine healing is a statute and an ordinance  and it's there from the beginning of Scripture.  It is a distinguishing feature of Christ's ministry.  His healing ministry is introduced with the words from Matthew 4:24 "News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed and He healed them".  He heals today because He gave the promise in the Great Commission (Mark 16:18).  Jesus is always present at His table.  His body was broken for you and for me.  1Peter 2:24 states "by His stripes we have been healed".

Is it God's will to heal?  I hear that so often when I go to pray with somebody.  'Well, you know it may not be God's will to heal'.  Well if it's not God's will to heal folks, make sure you think it through the next time before you go to the doctor.  Because if it's not His will to heal you, you could be going against His will!  Think about it.  Cut your finger and inside a matter of moments the blood will stop, put a plaster on it, leave it and it will heal itself.  God was so determined that we should have divine health and healing that He even built an automatic healing system into us.  He built it in.  There is a natural healing system within us, so, when God has declared it in His Word, it IS His will to heal.   'Ah but Cecil, wait 'til I tell you, that's not Methodist!".  Listen to John Wesley's journal:  Sunday 10th May 1741 - Being ill, I was obliged to lie down for most of the day.  Yet in the evening my weakness was suspended while I was calling sinners to repentance. But at our love feast, which followed, besides the pain in my back and head, and the fever which still continued, I was seized with such a cough that I could hardly speak.  (The guy wasn't in good shape).  I called on Jesus aloud to increase my faith and confirm the word of His grace and while I was speaking my pain vanished and the fever left me.  My bodily strength returned and for many weeks I felt neither weakness nor pain.  Unto thee o Lord, do I give thanks'  John Wesley.  And again, Sunday 3rd October  1756:  my disorder returned as violent as ever but I regarded it not while I was performing the service at Snowfields in the morning or afterwards at Spittlefields, until I went to the table to administer the Lord's Supper.  A thought then came into my mind: why do I not ask God for help at the beginning rather than at the end of my illness?  I did so and found immediate relief so that I needed no further medicines'.  John Wesley.  It's in our roots folks.  John Wesley taught it, the Bible teaches it and we need to get back to where the Bible is on this whole subject.

Psalm 30:2  "O Lord my God I called to you for help and you healed me".  But then I'm also reminded of Matthew 13:58 where Jesus Himself came to a particular place and the Bible records that He was not able to do many miracles there "…because of their lack of faith".  Scepticism, unbelief, lack of faith are all factors that influence the degree to which we can see the healing power of God flowing in our midst.

I think I had 3 telephone calls this week from people that I've prayed with over the last 6 weeks to say that what we prayed about has been completely cleared up.  That's not always the case.  I don't know how aeroplanes work but I get on them quite frequently and use them.  It doesn't stop me from getting on them.  I still use them even though I don't know how they work.  If we never begin, we never grow.  I know more today than I knew yesterday and I reckon I'll know more tomorrow than I know today.  And it's as we begin to take the Word of God and put it into practice that we begin to see our faith level rising.  Faith is not what you believe, folks, that's belief.  Faith is taking the Word of God and putting it into practice even if, at that moment in time, you don't see anything happening.  That's faith. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).  And we've all been given, the Bible says, a "measure of faith" and we can all increase our faith and we can all grow our faith.

How do we apply this in our situation this morning?  There is no point in talking about it unless we're going to do something about it.  The book of James tells us very clearly what the church should be doing in the area of healing and praying with one another (James 5:14). "Is there anyone amongst you sick?  He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord".  When did we last do that?  Who is the last person you did that for?  Do we believe that?  Is the Bible true?  'Oh yes, Cecil, I believe the Bible is true.  The Bible is the Word of God'.  Well, why don't we do what it says then?  Why don't we put into practice what the Bible says? There is not much point in reading it or hearing it and walking out the same way as we came in.  God wants us to take His Word and apply it and use it every day.

You know I believe that when we stand before Christ on the last day and we talk to Him and ask Him all the questions about all the things we don't understand, He might say to us … if you turn to page such-and-such, I had it in my Word.  'Oh I read that Lord'.  Yes, but you didn't DO it.

So what are we going to do this morning?  Well, as some of you may know, Frances Lindsey has gone into Belfast City Hospital this morning in preparation for major surgery for the removal of a very large tumour.  Remember John Wesley said "why do I not ask God for help at the beginning rather than at the end of my illness?".  Let's put it into practise this morning, right here in this church right now on behalf of Frances Lindsey.  There may be others in the church this morning who need the touch of God's healing power.  There may be others in the church this morning and you need that touch of God's salvation.  You've never given your life to Jesus.  Don't seek the healing; seek the Healer.  His name is Jesus.  He is the Saviour, Baptiser, Healer and He is coming again.  Let us pray together in faith.

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