Weekly Pastoral Message prepared by Rev. Murray Adamthwaite
for Sunday 27th December 1998

From the Pastor: Christ has Come and is Coming IV

"On the fourteenth day of the first month shall be the LORD's Passover ... For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed." Numbers 28:16; 1 Corinthians 5:7. As we approach the new millennium, one matter causing much concern in our computer dependent world in the so-called "millennium bug", the fact that many older computers and data systems were programmed for a two-digit year rather than a four-digit year. There are apocalyptic scenarios envisaging planes dropping out of the sky, banks losing the records of depositors accounts or computer-controlled life-support equipment shutting down in the middle of the night of January 1st, 2000. While there is indeed a problem, some of these visions seem more in the vein of hype than real prospects. However, an important point often overlooked here is that our era system of dating by X years from a certain event has been entrenched in Christian thinking from very early times. By contrast, the Jewish system in OT times saw the Passover start the series of festivals, each of which looked forward to the coming Redeemer. Meanwhile, our "Christian calendar" dates largely from the fourth century of the Christian era whereby Christmas is really the first of the series of observances, and then Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. These point us to the accomplished redemption which the old Passover anticipated. The Passover began the year: Christ our Passover has terminated the cycle of types and shadows pointing to His decisive atonement. Moreover, each year a week following Christmas, the calendar clicks over to a new year and a new hope. Each new year takes us further away from His first advent, but correspondingly closer to His second. The new millennium brings for the Christian not a scenario of disasters but a year nearer "the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). When that day arrives, it will not be to deal with sin, but to exercise judgment, and to glorify those who have longed for that Day. Be sure you are among the latter.