John the Baptist introduces Jesus as the Lamb of God, and offers a riddle as part of the description. We all like a riddle now and again – what does this one mean? Listen, or watch, and find out. This message is an exposition of John 1.29-34.
Month: December 2017
An ever-flowing stream
There’s a verse in an old hymn that says,
Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream dies at the op’ning day.
Time is something we tend to think a lot about as the year closes. To be frank, I’m thinking a bit more about it than usual.
On Wednesday, I had a wonderful conversation with a dear friend who that day turned ninety-eight. It’s hard for most of us to conceive! But she is well, all things considered, and it was a joy to talk with her.
Then, on Thursday, I hit a milestone – the half-century club. I’ve always believed age is just a number, but this one has caused me to pause and ponder a bit more than any other, perhaps because it is such a profoundly round number!
The end of the year, like a milestone birthday, is an occasion both for looking back and looking forward. What have I accomplished in the past year (or half-century)? Who have I become? What do I hope to accomplish? Who do I hope to become?
The ancients called an exercise like this the examen, an examination of both conscience (what I’ve done and who I am) and consciousness (how aware of God and his activity in my life I’ve been). It’s something they actively encouraged we do not only annually, but daily.
Life coaches and new age gurus (who don’t necessarily overlap much) will often tell us to visualize goals as a means of doing what we want to do, and being who we want to be, in a prescribed period of time. Making goals both attainable and tangible certainly contributes toward their accomplishment. But I would stir that pot for you a bit by suggesting that what matters more in that conversation is this: What does God want us to do, and who does God want us to be?
I encourage you to spend a few moments, as the year closes, asking those questions. Because time, “like an ever-rolling stream”, seems to fly by with greater haste as we grow older. Let’s make the most of it.
“We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work” (John 9.4, NLT).
Encouragement From The Word returns on January 12.
Christmas morning: Differs not by one iota
Merry Christmas! At our Christmas morning service, I did a very short review of our journey (so far) in the Gospel of John (by reading 1.1-14) and reviewed an important theological point that was posted on this blog a few weeks ago. Listen to, or watch, this brief message below.
What Child?
The message for our late Christmas eve service this year focused on answering the question posed by the famous Christmas carol by William Chatterton Dix: What Child Is This?
Listen, or watch, below. Merry Christmas!
Glory! (What’s that?)
We toss words around a lot without knowing their meanings, and that happens especially when we sing Christmas songs. In this message, I explore the meaning of the word “Glory”, and how it can apply to our lives as followers of Jesus. Listen, or watch, below. Merry Christmas.
A voice in the wilderness
In Advent, it’s normal for one Sunday to be dedicated to the story of John the Baptist. Since we’ve begun a series in the Gospel of John, we’ve continued in that tradition, but at a different time. We’ll see more of John the Baptist yet, but for now, we learn something of what our responsibility is – even at Christmas – through John the Baptist’s testimony. Listen to, or watch, this message based on John 1.19-28 below. (The song with which we closed the service was the old hymn May the mind of Christ, my Saviour.)
Merry Christmas!
At this notoriously busy time of year, let me encourage you simply to stop for a few minutes, amid all that’s going on around you, and spend some time chewing on this passage of Scripture.
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
will make this happen! (Isaiah 9.6-7, NLT)
Let each name for Jesus in this prophecy wash over you, comfort you, and encourage you as we celebrate the most miraculous birth of all time.
Merry Christmas! I invite you to worship at St. Paul’s Church, Nobleton on this special weekend. Service times are printed below. God’s best!
Near to the Father’s Heart
If you want to know God, you need to know Jesus, who is near to the Father’s heart. And we know Jesus by reading Scripture. Listen to, or watch, this message based on John 1.15-18.
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Being the Joneses
The great preacher Donald Grey Barnhouse once told a story about seeing a cartoon that illustrated (then – over 50 years ago!) what North American society looked like. The cartoon depicted a couple having an argument with each other. The caption read, essentially, “You are not content with trying to keep up with the Joneses. You want to be the Joneses with whom everyone else is trying to keep up.”
At this time of year, purveyors of everything from toys to vacations are attempting to convince you that you need more…that if you really loved your kids, you’d give them more…that if you want to show your appreciation to someone, you’ll give her or him more.
As Gary Chapman reminds us in The Five Love Languages, some people express their love through gift-giving. But let’s remember that it’s not the only way to communicate our love for another. Sometimes, the gift of time is what the other really wants, and needs.
Those same purveyors of everything will likewise attempt to convince you that, while buying for others, you should buy for yourself, too, because, after all, you deserve it. You’ve fought the crowds in the malls; you’ve dodged several other cars and avoided accidents; you’ve attended every compulsory Christmas gathering. You deserve something.
There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself once in a while, to be sure. But don’t be sucked in by advertisers’ encouragements to accumulate more.
Followers of Jesus are enjoined throughout the Scriptures to be content, to be satisfied with what we have. Those who want to keep up with the Joneses, or to be the Joneses, would say that enough is “just a little bit more.” But we who have Jesus know that what we have in him is sufficient.
“Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you’” (Hebrews 13.5, NLT).
Two Christmas Gifts
Jesus is the gift, as we say at Christmas, but he brought with him two gifts that are also 
for us. We learn about them in John 1.6-14. Have a listen, or watch the Facebook Live feed below (no account needed). And yes, that’s me at a young age pictured.
One Iota
There are memes-a-plenty on the Internet around this time of year, especially as we approach December 6, which is the Feast of St. Nicholas – the day when St. Nicholas is celebrated in many churches. While we have translated St. Nicholas into “Santa Claus” with his trips down the world’s chimneys, leaving of gifts, and eating of sundry snacks left behind by enthusiastic children, the real St. Nicholas did more than give gifts. He helped keep young women from being enslaved to men, for one thing, and he also was an ardent defender of biblical Christianity. This is seen in one key way.
He defended the faith against Arianism, the notion that Jesus is subordinate to the Father. In the early church, when theological issues arose, a council of the church’s greatest leaders was called to debate, discern, and ensure that the church was remaining faithful to the truth as set out in Scripture. Thus, in Nicholas’ time, with Arianism holding sway over the church, the leadership (in the name of Emperor Constantine) called a council, which met in Nicaea, a place in what is now Turkey. It was called the Council of Nicaea, and one of the principal doctrines it tackled was the very idea of whether Jesus was subordinate to the Father, or was equal to the Father.
At issue was one little Greek word: homoousios. Or was it homoiousios? That was the question. The word homoousios means “of the same substance”, while homoiousios means “of a similar substance”. To make a long story short, the church affirmed that the Son was homoousios with the Father – of the same substance. Anyone, like the Arians, who believed that the Son was homoiousios – of a similar substance – was deemed heretical and in need of correction.
That’s why, today, we have the English idiom, when two things are the same, that they differ “not by one iota”. Iota is the Greek letter that we call “i”. The only difference between doctrinal truth and error, on the issue of the substance of the Son of God, is one iota, between homoousios and homoiousios.
It doesn’t take much to be off significantly in doctrine. And while this might seem like ‘angels dancing on the head of a pin’, it actually is a very important issue for the church, because if Jesus were only of similar substance to the Father, he was not technically God, and therefore could not atone for our sins perfectly. If Jesus isn’t God, in other words, we’re still dead in our sins. And that wouldn’t be good news.
It’s amazing what one letter can do.
“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation” (Colossians 1.15, NLT).
In the beginning
…no, not that “In the beginning” – the one in John 1.1-5! We’re starting a series on John’s Gospel with this message, which starts the season of Advent. This is the closest John comes to a birth narrative; listen, or watch, to find out why it’s One Of Those Things that’s Not Like The Others.
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Simple preparation
This weekend brings the beginning of the season of Advent, a time when God’s people prepare themselves – in every way – for the birth of his Son. It’s what sets us apart from the rest of the world, that spends its time preparing for Christmas by shopping ‘til they drop.
For some, it is a very elaborate preparation: there are special services, candles to be lit, prayers to be said, both at church and at home. For others, it is a very simple preparation: extra time spent in prayer, spiritually and emotionally getting ready to mark what followers of Jesus have been marking for over 2000 years.
This dichotomy is well expressed in one location. If you’ve never been to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, I recommend you go at least once. Upon arrival, you’ll see a very small door that opens into a large nave, at the front of which are some very elaborate decorations, common to the tradition that regularly worships in that building. Underneath the front section of that worship space, one descends a small, narrow staircase into a grotto – a cave – where one can touch what is believed to be the very place where the birth of Jesus happened.
There’s a lot of bling on top, but at the very root of Jesus’ birthplace is rock. Above the elaborate is simplicity.
You can have one, you can have the other, you can even have both – but whether your Advent is simple or elaborate, celebrate. Get ready. The birth of Jesus is nothing if not world-changing. That deserves our attention, and our devotion.
“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
‘Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem,
a firm and tested stone.
It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on.
Whoever believes need never be shaken’” (Isaiah 28.16, NLT).
Passionately His 