Keswick Year Book 2019: Longing

By Tim Farron, Ray Ortlund and Mark Meynell

Here is the contents page of the 2019 Keswick Yearbook:

Introduction by James Robson, Ministry Director for Keswick Ministries
The Bible Readings
Romans 8
Ray Ortlund
Romans 8:1–8
Romans 8:9–15
Romans 8:16–25
Romans 8:26–30
Romans 8:31–39
The Lecture
A Mucky Business
Tim Farron
Evening Celebrations
The Complications (Genesis 16:1–16)
Mark Meynell
The Commitment (Genesis 22:1–19)
Amy Orr-Ewing
A Necessary Longing (Luke 18:9–14)
Julian Hardyman
Longing in Step with Jesus (1 Peter 2:13–3:17)
Pete Nicholas
The Church of the Longing (1 Peter 5:1–14)
Duncan Forbes
Keswick Resources
Keswick Ministries
Keswick 2020

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP
• Release date: Jan 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781789741766

Tim Farron

Born in Preston, Lancashire in 1970, Tim Farron was elected Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005. He rose to become President of the Liberal Democrats during the Party’s time in coalition government. Succeeding Nick Clegg as Party Leader in 2015 he led the Party through the 2016 EU referendum and the 2017 snap general election. He lives on the edge of the Lake District with his wife Rosie and his children Izzie, Gracie, Jude and Laurie. He is a fourth rate fell-runner, a long-suffering Blackburn Rovers supporter and a pop music anorak.

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Copyright © 2019 Keswick Ministries

The right of Elizabeth McQuoid to be identified as the Editor of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicized edition). Copyright © 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘niv’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture quotations in the Bible Readings section, and those elsewhere marked esv, are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked phillips are from the J. B. Phillips New Testament in Modern English, published by HarperCollins Publishers, copyright © J. B. Phillips, 1960, 1972.

Scripture quotations marked nlt are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60189, USA. All rights reserved.

First published 2019

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978–1–78974–175–9

eBook ISBN: 978–1–78974–176–6

Set in Dante 12.5/16pt

Typeset in Great Britain by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire

eBook by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

Contents

Introduction by James Robson

Ministry Director for Keswick Ministries

The Bible Readings

Romans 8

Ray Ortlund

Romans 8:1–8

Romans 8:9–15

Romans 8:16–25

Romans 8:26–30

Romans 8:31–39

The Lecture

A Mucky Business

Tim Farron

Evening Celebrations

The Complications (Genesis 16:1–16)

Mark Meynell

The Commitment (Genesis 22:1–19)

Amy Orr-Ewing

A Necessary Longing (Luke 18:9–14)

Julian Hardyman

Longing in Step with Jesus (1 Peter 2:13 – 3:17)

Pete Nicholas

The Church of the Longing (1 Peter 5:1–14)

Duncan Forbes

Keswick Resources Enjoy the 2019 Convention!

Keswick Ministries

Keswick 2020

Introduction

The desire for a greater knowledge of God captivated those who founded the Keswick Convention. So we were glad to return to that at the 2019 Convention with the theme of ‘longing’.

Longing is part of being human. We have thoughts, we have desires. We are not just thinkers, but lovers. That is how God made us and he made us for himself. So when our desires lead us astray, it doesn’t mean that desire is wrong, rather that we are longing for the wrong things. Ultimately, whether we know it or not, our longing is for him.

Longing is awoken in us when we experience the brokenness of a fallen world; longing comes when something is missing, when there’s an intangible void to fill, a higher level of beauty to achieve: ‘the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited’.

¹

Like a bride’s love for the heavenly bridegroom, only our relationship with Christ will truly satisfy this longing. He offers life-giving water to our parched souls: ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink’ (John 7:37). Longing speaks of the oneness we yearn for, a completeness in Christ. Longing fits our past and the object of our longing is our future.

The 2019 Convention gave a chance for all who came not to suppress or ignore our longings, hopes and desires, but to have them renewed, recalibrated and refocused by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of God’s Word.

The following chapters provide a snapshot of the engaging preaching and teaching rooted in the Word of God, which saw more than 12,000 people inspired and equipped to love and live for Christ in his world. Young and old alike were captivated afresh by the love of God in Jesus Christ.

There are five Bible Readings by Ray Ortlund on one magnificent chapter in Paul’s letter to the Romans, Romans 8. As Ray has observed elsewhere, ‘The landscape of Romans 8 is crowded with strong comforts, supernatural helps, bold claims, honest acknowledgments and invincible promises. Here is real help for weak Christians, as we all are.’ Ray unpacks carefully, faithfully, insightfully and pastorally the finished work of Christ, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, present suffering in the light of future hope, our heartbroken longings translated by the Holy Spirit into powerful prayers, and our ultimate triumph, possible only because God has shown himself once and for all as ‘for us’ (Romans 8:31).

Five sermons come from the Evening Celebrations across the three weeks. From week 1, which looked at the parables of Jesus, we have Julian Hardyman on ‘A Necessary Longing’ (Luke 18:9–14). From week 2, which focused on 1 Peter, we have Pete Nicholas on ‘Longing in Step with Jesus’ (1 Peter 2:13–3:17) and Duncan Forbes on ‘The Church of the Longing’ (1 Peter 5:1–14). From week 3, which travelled with Abraham through Genesis 12–25, we have Mark Meynell on ‘The Complications’ (Genesis 16:1–16) and Amy Orr-Ewing on ‘The Commitment’ (Genesis 22:1–19).

The final contribution to this book also draws on the theme of longing, but from a slightly different angle. It is the Keswick Lecture from week 3 given by Tim Farron MP, entitled ‘A Mucky Business’. It is a heartfelt, articulate, moving plea for people longing to make a difference to be involved in politics; although politics is ‘a mucky business’, so too is life!

Alongside this Year Book, we would like to recommend to you two particular books that we produced for 2019. The first is the Bible Study Guide, Longing, a series of Bible Studies for groups or individuals on the theme of the Convention. The second is a 365-day devotional, Food for the Journey, an omnibus edition of the twelve ­individual Food for the Journey thirty-day devotionals. With it, you can read the Bible with experienced teachers from the Keswick Convention by your side all through the year.

The Lord alone knows the impact that the 2019 Convention will have. But we can be confident that, when God’s Word is spoken, by the power of his Spirit, lives are changed. Many will have gone from Keswick all over the country and all over the world, sent by him to be his ambassadors.

As you read this book, it is our prayer that your own longings will be renewed, reshaped and recalibrated, so you will be inspired and encouraged to love Christ and live for him in his world.

James Robson

Ministry Director, Keswick Ministries

Note

1. C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses (HarperOne, 1980, p. 31).

The Bible Readings

Romans 8

Ray Ortlund

Ray Ortlund has earned degrees from Wheaton College, Dallas Theological Seminary, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Aberdeen. He was ordained in 1975. In addition to teaching Old Testament for nine years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Ray’s primary ministry has been as a pastor – in California, Oregon, Georgia and now at Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee. Ray and his wife Jani have been married for forty-seven years.

Romans 8:1–8

There is a reason we love Paul’s letter to the Romans, especially chapter 8. It is pure gospel. It is good news for bad people through the finished work of Christ on the cross and the endless power of the Holy Spirit. John Stott wrote, ‘the letter to the Romans is a kind of Christian manifesto . . . It is the fullest, plainest and grandest statement of the gospel in the New Testament.’

¹

The theologian Frederick Godet wrote, ‘The probability is that every great spiritual revival in the church will be connected as effect and cause with a deeper understanding of this book.’

²

Romans 8 tells us of no condemnation in Christ, the sufficiency of his cross, the power of the Spirit, the nearness of the Father, the cosmic magnitude of redemption, the hidden meaning of our groanings, the eternal purpose of God, and his invincible love in Christ Jesus our Lord. We therefore come to Romans 8 with expectancy, by God’s grace, for his glory.

The tone of Romans 8 is confident longing. God will satisfy our longings within – and while he’s at it, he will also renovate the entire universe. Romans 8 is why we sing with longing,

From the best bliss that earth imparts,

we turn, unfilled, to Thee again.

³

But why is Romans 8 here at all? What is this chapter doing within Paul’s letter? Here is how the book of Romans unfolds up to this point. In chapters 1–5, Paul explains his gospel message. The gospel is the good news of God’s grace in Christ crucified, received with the empty hands of faith. At the end of chapter 5, Paul sums it up boldly: ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more’ (verse 20). God doesn’t simply match our offences with his grace. God’s grace abounded all the more. You need not fear that you are such a spectacular sinner that you can come to Christ with the merest faith, only to find that your sins have defeated him. That is our confidence, as Paul concludes chapters 1–5.

Chapters 1–5 are Paul’s theological lecture, so to speak, and then in chapters 6–11 he opens it up for Q&A. Hands go up all over the room, because the gospel doesn’t suppress our thinking; the gospel stimulates our thinking. In chapters 6–11, Paul answers the typical questions. For example, ‘Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?’ ‘Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?’ ‘Is the law sin?’

Here in chapter 8, the question Paul is answering is unstated. But it isn’t hard to surmise. Look at his longing as chapter 7 concludes: ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ (verse 24). We all understand his sense of failure and impasse. So here’s the question that Romans 8 will answer: ‘What grace does God have for people like us who sin, and we’re grieved by that, but then we sin again? What does God have to say to Christians who aren’t good at Christianity – which is all of us?’ Paul’s answer in this passage is that God’s provision for sinners like us is not more law, more crisis, more pressure; his provision is blood-bought grace as big as the universe.

The key word in this chapter is ‘Spirit’. In chapters 1–7, the word ‘Spirit’ appears five times. In chapters 9–16, it occurs eight times. But in chapter 8, ‘Spirit’ appears twenty-one times. What does God give to sinners like us who long to be saints? God gives his own Holy Spirit. Grace succeeds where law fails, because grace works with the power of the Holy Spirit. Your future opens up not through more withering scoldings, but through the power of one whom Jesus called ‘another Helper’ (John 14:16).

Romans 8 is perfect for everyone suffering with a low-grade fever of anxiety because we’ve failed in the past, we don’t measure up in the present and we fear what we’re capable of in the future. Romans 8 is perfect for everyone who worries that maybe the best God can say to us now is, ‘Sure, I understand your need. It’s why I gave you the Ten Commandments. You know what to do. What I’m looking to see is, this time, do you really mean it?’ Our hope does not lie in our own wherewithal. Our hope lies in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is why Paul says at the end of chapter 7, ‘Thanks be to God’ (verse 25). In other words, ‘What a relief! I’m not limited to myself any more.’ There is not a single command in all of Romans 8. We love God’s commands. But Romans 8 teaches us to rejoice in all that God gives, when we have nothing to give.

So let’s begin:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

(Romans 8:1)

Romans 8:1 is the negative flip-side of Paul’s positive declaration in Romans 5:1, ‘Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (emphasis added). How fascinating that this message of no condemnation stands at the beginning of the chapter, not at the end! No condemnation in Christ is not what we grow into; no condemnation is God’s assurance up front. No condemnation in Christ is where we start, where we stand, where we stay. We need not fear that, on that great and final Day of Judgment, we will be denied the fullness of salvation we now long for. If you have received Christ with the empty hands of faith, your Judgment Day was 2,000 years ago at the cross. Christ was condemned, so that you can never be condemned. Bishop Marcus Loane said it well: ‘He took what was ours as though it were His, and gave what was His as though it were ours.’

⁴

This exchange of his righteousness for our sin is the divine genius of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, apart