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Vicar's Letters

Sunday Sermon Third Sunday After Epiphany – Jeremiah 3:21-4:2 / 1 Cor :1-23 / Mark 1:14-20

Jesus’ words to Simon and Andrew, as they fished by the Sea of Galilee is very striking – Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men / or fish for people.

What did Jesus mean by follow. Our first reaction would be that it means to go with Him and follow Him where ever He went, and that would be right. But there is another meaning to follow – and that was “Come behind me as a disciple.”

This was a remarkable thing. To become a Rabbi’s disciple required that you go to the Rabbi and apply to join him as a disciple. The Rabbi would test you to see if you were good enough and then, if he deemed you good enough, or impressive enough, or someone with a lot of potential, he would say "Come, take my yoke upon you and become my disciple." And at that time, the boy would leave everything, (home, mother, father, synagogue, community...) and devote his entire life to being just like the Rabbi. The Rabbi’s teachings were called the yoke.

Rabbi’s would only accept the best. To be called to follow a rabbi was deemed a huge honor.

And yet here is Jesus, not walking amongst the temple courts seeking the graduates of Rabbinic schools, but walking along the shore line of the Sea of Galilee ASKING fisherman; unschooled, poor, ordinary men, those who would never be considered to be a disciple of anyone, to become HIS disciples.

Jesus calls us, and it has nothing to do with how impressive we may be, or our backgrounds, or our intelligence, or our goodness, or our pedigree. He simply calls us to follow him, to Come Behind Him as a disciple.

The phrase “to come behind Him as a disciple” means to follow his footsteps. One phrase from the Mishna is quoted as this, "May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi." Rabbis spent their days taking their disciples around teaching them, and as they traveled from place to place, they would literally kick up a cloud of dust. And because the disciples were following the Rabbi, at the end of the day, they would actually be covered in the dust their Rabbi kicked up - May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi... . The goal of a disciple was not JUST to go where your rabbi went but to be exactly like his master. To know what the Rabbi knew. To do what the rabbi did, the way the Rabbi did it. They were to become identitcal.

Notice, Simon and Andrew dropped everything and simply followed. They did not ask ‘Where are we going’ or ‘How will we live’ or ‘What will we eat’ or ‘Where will we stay’ or ‘What shall we do about money’ – they left everything to go where they did not know where. By leaving they placed their trust, their faith, their future – and they had no idea what their future held for them – they placed all into Jesus’ hands. They were committed to going where Jesus went and to be molded by Jesus into those who imitated Him.

This is the key to following Christ as a Christian. We know where we are, where we started and we know where we will end up - heaven – the in-between is what is uncertain – the journey, the pilgrimage – the adventure – whatever you want to call it – the time where we began our following to the time we meet Jesus face to face. This is uncertain. Someone has said that it’s not the dying for Jesus that’s the problem – it’s the living for Jesus that’s difficult.We do not know the difficulties, the hard times, the challenges or even the pain we will experience. Simon set out to follow Jesus not knowing that He would deny Christ and then become a major leader in the Church and then be killed for his faith. Simon had no idea. He just followed.

One of the things we have forgotten to do, and this is very evident amongst leaders – is to be a follower.

I heard a story about a girl who wanted to go to college but her heart sank when she read the question on the application form that asked “are you a leader?”. Being both honest and conscientious she wrote “No” and returned the application expecting the worst. To her surprise she received this letter from the college:

Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel that they should have at least one follower.

. One theologian has written:

Somewhere back in the past half century, we diagnosed the church’s problem as a crisis of leading, not a crisis of following. It’s as if we read Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship and decided we’d rather talk about something else entirely. In the past decade (or more), I bet you’ve attended your share of leadership conferences. Ever attend a followership conference?

This is the great tragedy of the church in the last fifty years: We have changed Paul’s words, “Follow me as I follow Christ,”7 to “Follow me as I lead for Christ.”

We must get back to the art of following. Now, we know that we would never follow someone we do not trust. To follow is to trust and to trust is to follow. Following Christ wherever he leads us requires that we entrust ourselves, our futures, our well being into his hands. Our hearts desire – our goal – our focus must be on following Jesus because we know for absolute certain that Jesus will bring us to the final destination safely. In fact only he can!

Jesus has called us – he has called us for no other reason than he loves us – Follow me he says. You don’t know what the journey will be like – but don’t worry I am with you and I can lead to complete safety. Are we following? Will We follow?

And when we say ‘Yes – we will follow you Jesus’, we become something – we become fishers of men – of people.

There are two things we need to understand about this term ‘fishers of men / people.’

Firstly Jesus did not invent the term 'fishers of men.' In that day, it was a common description of philosophers and other teachers who 'captured men's minds' through teaching and persuasion.

Secondly, Jesus was calling these men to assist Him in delivering people from divine judgment by taking the gospel to them. As fishing, this calling would also involve hard work, self-sacrifice, and skill. Jesus invites these men – and he invites you and I to participate in the mission of God.

This means we have a purpose as we follow. And that purpose is to point people to Jesus. Now this is not to say that we are all to become evangelists and if you are not doing active evangelism then there is something wrong. Some people will have the gift of evangelism, and some will not.

No, the issue is this. If you are following then sooner or later someone will ask you ‘Who are you following’, or ‘Why are you following’ or even ‘Where are you going?’ When I left seminary Kitty and I decided that we would spend a year at our home church working for them. Now there was no salary, so got a part-time job in a Bank. It was not long before those who I worked for knew I was a Christian. Not because I was actively evangelizing them but they would notice me reading a Bible, or a Christian book; or if someone asked what I did yesterday I would say ‘I went to Church / or Bible study.’ Eventually a one of my colleagues could contain himself no longer and blurted out to me one day: “you are a reasonable, intelligent, normal guy so why on earth do you believe in God?”

Here was an opportunity to explain why I follow Jesus. 1 Peter 3:15 says always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

And what are we to say when people ask us why we follow Jesus? What is our message as fishers of people? Our reading from Jeremiah 3 helps us. The call of God is return to me and be healed. Jeremiah 3:22 says: Return O faithless sons and I will heal your faithlessness. Another translation says “My wayward children,” says the LORD, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”

In fact if you were to read the whole of Jeremiah chp 3 you would see that it is about how Israel, who had turned away from God was being called BACK to God – return – come back to Me, God says. And notice what God promises when they do return – HEALING. We have the message of healing.

God wants to us to return to him and be healed. That is our basic message. And it’s a message available to ALL. Do you want to be healed from the pain of life – from the things you have done wrong – from the guilt of your mistakes – from your fears - you can. And it does not require you to find God because he is already calling you – it requires you to say yes Lord – I hear you.

That is our message – God is calling people to Come back to him.. so that he can heal you. That is what makes us fishers of men. We follow Jesus so that others may follow Jesus and be healed, so that even more will follow Jesus.

So – do we hear Jesus’ call this morning – Follow Me – Follow Me and be fishers of men? Are we serious followers? Are we ready to be covered in the dust of our Rabbi?

Second Sunday After Epiphany

Do we want God to do his work in us?

Now, you may think that is a stupid question. You may say – of course we do.

But really, think about it. Do we want – no, are we desperate for God to do his will in our lives?

Are we seeking his will on a daily basis.

You see, God knows us in every aspect of our lives. There is no secret, there is no event, there is no thought, regardless of how well we have kept such things from other people, that God does not know or has seen. He knows us completely and utterly, whether we are his followers or not.

Everything about us in body, mind and spirit, in our thinking, and even in our subconscious is laid bare before the Lord. He knows us utterly.

This means that there are two ways that Christians live life. The first is to live in such a way as to ignore the fact that God knows everything about us. How can we do that? We live as if there are areas of our life which are not open to God, or that we think we can stop God from getting to. Maybe we think “well, I’ve done pretty well as a Christian but this thing / this practice / this habit I will NOT give up / relinquish or give over to God. We end up doing something that we try to ‘hide’ from God or ignore the fact that God knows exactly what we are doing. We think we are doing it in secret, behind closed doors, or we end up making excuses for our actions because we know God would not want us doing it. On an exaggerated scale, this is how Christian leaders of large ministries or Christian Pastors continue to lead and minister while also having an affair, or being addicted to a substance or even pornography. Of course for most of us what we attempt to hide from God, or stop God from coming into an area of our life is not as big as these things. Whether it is a habit, or an attitude, or an area of our lie, or even an emotion such pain, anger, frustration, feelings of inadequacy, low self esteem, failure; feeling of doubt; faking the smile on our face; hiding the tragedy we are encountering and saying “We’re fine” when asked how we are; whatever it is we do try and hide from God means we become fearful of what would happen if people discovered what we are really like. When this happens we have started to live a life that is deceitful.

This is what Paul challenges the Corinthians about in our epistle reading this morning. When it says “All things are lawful for me” Paul is quoting what the Corinthians have said to him. And Paul says “Yes, but not all things are helpful and we should not be enslaved by anything”. The Corinthians had started to make excuses about their behavior and how they lived. They had taken to the extreme the idea that they were no longer under law. They had deceived themselves in thinking that freedom in Christ meant the freedom to do what they wanted. Paul’s response is an emphatic NO. You cannot live this way because it is not healthy.

Paul has to remind them that such a life was deceptive – it was not Christ centered. They were filled with the Spirit and their bodies where temples of the Holy Spirit and they must not defile their body.

If we have the Holy both as a corporate body, the Church and individually as Christians we are called to live in such way that glorifies God.

The story about Nathanael in our gospel reading is to encourage us to stop living life trying to hide or shield things from God. We must be people who surrender ourselves unconditionally to God and his ways. Nathanael acts as an example for us.

When Nathanael approaches Jesus, , Jesus says Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. What does this mean? The term reveals an honest, seeking heart – having a true heart and being straightforward with others.

Remember that Nathanael is a believer in God. He follows Yahweh and most importantly he longs to know God’s will. He does not just long to know God’s will but he is willing to go and look for it. When Philip came along and said “We have found the one in who Moses wrote about. Come and see”, despite his doubts, he goes. Why does Nathanael doubt? Because he knew his Bible very well – he knew that nowhere - in any portion of the Old Testament is Nazareth ever mentioned alongside Messianic prophecy. Nathanael knew that the Messiah did not come from Nazareth. But such is Nathanael’s desire to find God’s will he goes with Philip.

So, firstly Jesus’ remark that Nathanael had no guile or deceit meant that he was without duplicitous motives who was willing to examine for himself the claims being made about Jesus. The term reveals an honest, seeking heart – having a true heart and being straightforward with others. In other words, Jesus knew that Nathanael would not act or talk one way with someone and then do, act or talk the opposite way with someone else.

Jesus’ remark is also meant to point us to another issue. When Jesus says that Nathanael is an Israelite without guile he is also referring to Jacob. Remember Jacob, in Genesis 27. Having bought Esau’s birthright with a bowl of stew, he also takes away Esau’s blessing by pretending to be Esau. When it is discovered what had happened Isaac says to Esau, , Your brother came in here deceitfully and took away your blessing. v35. Now, Jacob’s name means to ‘grasp the heel’ because the Bible says when he was born he came out grasping Easua’s heel. Esau’s response to his father is a play on his name – He says literally Jacob is the right name for him. Twice he has tripped me up by the heel.

This is why God changes Jacob’s name to Israel – the deceitful Jacob would be no more, and now he will become Israel - Israel meaning ‘God fights’ – in other words God promises Jacob that he would have victory and receive the promises because would fight for him.

What has this to do with the passage? Well, Jesus is saying about Nathanael “Look, Israel without a trace of Jacob left in Him.” Nathanael’s attitude is in sharp contrast to the Jacob of old and to his descendants who in the form of the Pharisees were deceitful. Here is an Israelite seeking God because he desperately wants to know God’s will and is willing to come and check out Jesus in the hope that Jesus is the one.

And Jesus knew Nathanael before Nathanael knew Jesus. He had seen him under the fig tree. Whatever Nathanael was doing under that fig tree – and it was not bad – Jesus had seen it and knew about it. My own thinking is that Nathanael had prayed under the fig tree that he would become an true Israelite – one who was without guile – and when Jesus said what he said, quoting Nathanael’s prayer, Nathanael’s response is one of “how do you know me” – and when Jesus revealed that he had seen him, Nathanael realized that he could hide nothing from Jesus and the only response is to acknowledge that he was the son of God – and the Messiah.

Nathanael is a true seeker – he is searching for God and when he experiences the power of God he does not resist it but submits and worships Jesus. He makes no excuses or tries to modify how he might follow. He simply submits fully and completely to God. Nathanael is the perfect Israelite; the man in whom God finds favor, the man who recognizes the things of God immediately.

Many came to Jesus and did not see this – including the Pharisees – who showed that in fact they were not true Israelites, or without guile, because they had other agendas. Nathanael’s only agenda was to know and find God regardless of the consequences and regardless of the result.

Are we willing to go and search for God’s will? Are we willing to pray, to do, to try, to read, to study in order to find God’s will? Nathanael was. That was why he was under the fig tree. The fig tree is a symbol in Scripture of messianic peace – it was where you went to meditate and pray and think and study. That is why I think Nathanael was praying and meditating on the Messiah and on God’s will under that fig tree.

Do we want to see God’s power work in our lives and in the life of this Church? Do we want to see incredible things happen in the name of Jesus? I am not talking about strange things, but simply seeing the power of God show up in our lives and in the church.

I think too often we have seen so little of the power of God working because we have been content not to give ourselves wholeheartedly to him.

Someone once said that there is no limit to what God can do with a man / a person who is YIELDED and WILLING to do His will!"

Are we ready to be called Christians in whom there is no guile?

As believers we must live as people of integrity – spiritual integrity before the Lord – being truly open to Him, not pretending, not hiding not faking anything. And the main reason is because there is no need to. God knows all our skeletons in our closet. He has seen them. He has seen our darkest thoughts and has been there with us even behind the closed door. He has seen us completely. And he still died for us. He still laid his life down so that we might live. God’s knows everything about you and STILL loves you! He knows everything about me and still loves me.

Let me finish this morning with a quote from JC Ryle a Church of England Bishop from the 19^th Century. He said: Let us pray that we may be of the same spirit as Nathanael. An honest, unprejudiced mind, a child like willingness to follow the truth, wherever the truth may lead us – a simple hearts desire to be guided, taught and led by the spirit – a thorough determination to use every spark of light which we have. A person of this spirit may live in the midst of much darkness and be surrounded by every possible disadvantage to their soul. But the Lord Jesus will take care that such aperson does not miss the way to heaven.

First Sunday After Epiphany

I love the way that our reading from Acts 10 starts – Peter opened his mouth… . Now his track record on what happens when he opened his mouth was not an encouraging one – he tended, as the old saying goes, to out his foot in his mouth.

But here he says something which is quite remarkable – he says “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any who fears him (God) and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

The immense radical ness of what Peter says here has often been lost on us, and we need to understand where Peter had been for the amazing sense of this verse to really impact us.

Firstly we need to understand where Peter is standing when he says this – he is standing in a Roman Centurion’s home – a gentiles home.

In Acts 10 we have a clashing of worldviews. Peter and Cornelius were as far apart as you could get. Peter had assumptions about Cornelius, not because he knew Cornelius but because Cornelius was not a Jew. Peter’s world revolved around his Jewish-ness, in a negative way.

If you were able to look inside of Peter’s head at the beginning of Acts 10 I would suggest that there was one thing which Peter held as a certainty; He knew who God loved. He knew who God accepted. The answer - people just like him; people who thought like him; Jews who accepted the messiah. And if you wanted to get to know God then you needed to become like Peter. God would never speak through Gentiles; God would never send His spirit on a Gentile; Gentiles could receive God but they had to become Jews first.

Cornelius is called a God fearing man in Chap 10 v2. This meant that he feared God, and probably followed the Law of Moses, but was not circumcised, which was needed in order to make him a convert. One reason why Cornelius might not have gone the whole way is that if he were to be circumcised, and his superiors in the Roman Army found out, he would be court marshalled and probably executed because he would be acknowledging that Yahweh was greater than Caesar. Yet, he was seen as just a God fearer and not a full believer because he had not accepted circumcision.

We are told that Cornelius and his family did acts of charity and kindness for the people and the people had great respect for them (v22). And we are told that God comes to Cornelius and answers his prayer. We will come back to the significance of this in a moment.

Yet in all this, Peter still believed that God would never work in a Gentile. And the reason for this was that Peter was ethnocentric. What does ethnocentric mean: the deep belief, usually sub-conscious, that one's own culture, language, race, nation, or people group is superior to all others (a group 'self-centeredness')

Some people would even call this racism; Now imagine this: Peter had conversion, discipleship training, baptism in the HS, ministering in the power of the HS, church leadership – and he was still ethnocentric. He still believed that God would never work in Gentiles. He still believed that Gentiles were inferior, and unclean to the Jews.

And especially Cornelius. Cornelius was a representative of the Roman Empire and the Roman army which was occupying the nation. For a Jew, Cornelius was an enemy. Not just a Gentile but a Gentile which represents death and oppression. I think we don’t quite understand the hatred which existed between the jewish people and the Roman Empire at this time. To have any contact with a Gentile, let alone a centurion, would be putting Peter’s reputation to scrutiny.

Yet here is Peter, in Chap 10, at Cornelius’ house. And the penny begins to drop. He starts to understand that God wants fellowship between Jewish Christian’s and Gentiles.

God begins to dismantle Peters worldview – to remove all his preconceived thinking and beliefs. Then Peter hears for the first time that God had come and revealed himself to a Gentile.

How would it have sounded to Peter – here was someone whom Peter had thought could not have any intimate contact with God, explaining that God has answered his prayers; that he had received a very personal revelation from God and that part of the this revelation was to get Peter to his house (v30-33).

The penny finally drops for Peter - “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any who fears him (God) and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

How wonderful is this verse – it reaffirms God’s heart for reconciliation which began way back in Genesis 12:2-3:

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you, I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse, AND ALL PEOPLES (ETHNE) ON EARTH WILL BE BLESSED THROUGH YOU.

This is the same theme from our reading from Isaiah this morning – the Servant of the Lord – the special, ideal servant of God will accomplish God’s purposes to ALL THE NATIONS – not just to the Jews, but to the Greeks, and the Arabs, and the Chinese and the Africans and, and, and… . He will never grow weary or be discouraged – and this is a promise – it will happen – and it has begun to happen – the Servant has come – Jesus Christ – and we await its completion when he returns.

We must be so careful not to present God as a tribal God – as either white middle class or white western. I know of a Muslim who became a Christian. He accepted Christ and believed the Gospel. But for many in his Church this was not enough. He had to renounce everything about his culture and his history. He had to become a westernised Christian before he was accepted as having been truly converted.

We must also be careful not to write off anyone as someone whom God could NEVER convert, or work through, or speak through. No-one is outside the reach of being changed and used by God.

God does not look at the external appearance, or nationality, or wealth, or social status or achievements. The emphasis is that Cornelius’ gentile nationality was acceptable to God so that he had no need to become a jew.

This has a huge implication on how we share the Gospel with others.

Evangelism is not about making someone conform to our cultural way of doing church or Christianity. Real change only happens when the Holy Spirit convicts. We must never be focused on superficial change but on real deep rooted change.

Good evangelism is about reconciliation with the Father. And when we grasp God’s heart for reconciliation our evangelism is no longer a programme whereby we try and make others like us – white western Christian’s – but where we try and release people back into the vibrant, life giving relationship between them and God. The heart of our evangelism should be about the glory of God – that the creator of the Universe desires reconciliation with you and I.

Here we can and must learn a vital lesson from Peter as his assumptions, biases, and discriminations are slowly stripped away. He ended up in front of Cornelius, willing to accept him, to listen to him, to attempt to understand and learn from him and finally to serve him as believer and a follower of Jesus.

And lets not forget Peter – who willingly accepts that his earlier view of God was defective. He has no problem accepting his error because for Peter saving face or saving his honor or pride is utterly irrelevant – he desires to bow down to God’s truth and willingly accepts correction when he is wrong.

The Church exists in a culture which seems increasingly alien to us and increasingly superficial and appearance based. For us to be able to reach into this culture we need to learn from Peter and we need to let God continue to break down our assumptions and our biases and our discriminations. In Matthew’s Gospel, chp 27:51 it says Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom; the earth quaked and the rocks were split. The curtain which separated everything from the holy of holies was torn down the middle – symbolizing that now God was approachable by all – nothing lay in the way for anyone to approach God. Yet too much of church history and our current times has seen the church trying to sew that curtain back together again, creating barriers and setting man made rules to determine who may or may not approach God.

There is absolutely NO ONE excluded under the call of God to repentence – be they rich or poor, criminal or terrorist, murderer or petty thief - all can come to repentence and be forgiven – as Romans 10:9 says if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

There is absolutely NO-ONE, having come to God in repentence, excluded from receiving the Holy Spirit.

As Peter says, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any who fears him (God) and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

Can you & me say Amen to this verse? Do we know in our on lives and in the lives of others that God shows no favoritism or patiality?

How wonderful, merciful and holy is our God.

Book Review - Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case For Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis

There are a plethora of books on apologetics - just type Christian Apologetics into Amazon and you get over 8000 results! It can be hard to make a distinction between many of the works, both in content and style. Not so with Douglas Groothuis' contribution. At over 670 pages Groothuis does not attempt to pack too much into this volume - only 26 chapters - but what he does focus on makes this a wonderfully concise book on Christian Apologetics. Laid out in three parts, you are taken through the biblical basis of apologetics and christian worldview; the distortions which have been made again the Christian worldview and why truth matters. Part two takes you through the defenses of Christian theism while part three tackles the objections of Christian theism. This is an easy book to read in terms of following Groothuis' thesis and discussions. It is also a thoroughly biblical and, most importantly, Christ centered book. Probably the smallest chapter in the book, the conclusion, reveals Groothuis' real heart - Take To The Streets - Apologetics is not about head knowledge, but about evangelism and sharing the gospel. This is what makes Groothuis' book not just a worthy addition to the topic of Christian Apologetics, but one which should be used widely.

Highly recommended.

Sermon from the First Sunday After Christmas

There are times in our lives when something happens, an event or a situation that results in our lives changing forever. It can be a good event, a happy event, or a bad event, or it is just part of the process of life but whenever it happens life is never going to be the same again – Everything Changes. Have you notice those times? Have you had those moments when you have thought – “My gosh – nothing will be the same ever again.”

These moments happen regularly during our life even when we do not recognize them. Going to Kindergarten for the first time means life is never the same again. When we go to middle school, then high school, then college our life changes forever.

When we get our first job, when we get married, when we have our first child, when our children leave home, when we retire, when we lose a parent or a child are all examples of when everything changes forever and life is never the same again.

One of the most vivid times that I had that feeling was when Sam, our oldest child, was just a few days old. Kitty and I had been married 14 years before Sam was born. And I remember sitting on the floor of the living room at 4am, holding a dirty diaper thinking “My life, our life will never be the same again.”

Of course there are times when our life changes because of an unexpected tragedy or accident. Joni Erikson Tarda was 19 years old when a diving accident left her a quadriplegic and her life changed forever, although today, despite her disability she is a powerful Christian teacher. Christopher Reeve, if you remember, went riding one day, fell off his horse, and was paralyzed from the neck down. Everyday thousands are diagnosed with diseases and illness, are in accidents which will change their life forever

This even happens on a national and global level. The First World War changed the world forever – the Second World War changed the world forever – 9/11 changed America forever.

And it happens on a spiritual level too. Everything changed – nothing was the same again for the whole universe when Jesus became a baby – when God was born as a human being. Everything changed in the heavenly world and in the earth forever.

Revelation says that the lamb was slain before the creation of the world. God’s plan to rescue us, determined before creation, was being put into operation. God enters his creation to take back what Satan had laid hold of – the bondage of sin, the reign of the devil – the separation of God and humanity was all going to change.

All the Old Testament, the sacrifices, the rituals, the law and the prophets had been pointing towards this time – this event – to the gospel, the good news begin announced to the world.

The other gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke start their accounts at the beginning of Jesus’ life or with John the Baptists ministry – but the Gospel of John is different. As we have heard read this morning John begins his gospel way before that. He goes back to the beginning of the history of time.

John’s gospel starts as Genesis starts – in the beginning. The Word was at the creation of the universe – and the Word was with God - which means the Word and God are separate and yet John says, the WORD was God.

All things were created through him – in him was LIFE – all life is sustained, upheld by God, by the Word.

Colossians 1 says:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him—all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers—all things were created through him and for him.

He himself is before all things and all things are held together in him.

He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son

and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross—through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

It is this WORD – the one who is LIFE itself – the one who sustains and upholds all creation – this Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. God steps into his own creation.

John’s point in beginning his account of Jesus’ life at the beginning of creation was to make sure people understood that from the very beginning, from within the Trinity the gospel was conceived and executed.

For every human being , God becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us, Jesus’ birth into this world, changed everything for all humanity, for all of eternity.

Isaiah knew that everything would change. Our reading from Isaiah 61 shows what happens when God comes – rejoicing, deliverance, vindication, praise. When God shows up, things change.

Our reading from Galatians also make sthis point. Before Christ we were under the law. But when Christ came everything changed – we are no longer under law but declared righteous by faith in Christ – adopted as sons with full rights! Thus we can call God ABBA Father.

The season of Advent and Christmas is a declaration that because the God of the universe became flesh and dwelt amongst us nothing will ever be the same again.

Sadly, in the midst of our commercialization of Christmas too many believers have missed this point.

If we miss this we miss the whole point of Christmas. If we as Christians have not noticed that everything has changed, not just in the spiritual and physical worlds, but in our own lives – if we do not have that realization that nothing will ever be the same because God revealed himself to humanity then we are missing out on one of the most incredible blessings we have as followers of Jesus Christ.

It is to miss out on the incredible joy of knowing that God has won – he has won – he has the victory. He has rescued us, and the creation from eternal darkness and death and has given us the light of his life.

History, the universe, humanity are on a path to a destination – a destination that results in God returning in power to the earth to complete what he began with his birth and death.

Have you noticed that everything has changed – that nothing will ever be the same again?

You see, it is only when we enter into relationship with Jesus Christ that we realize that nothing will be the same. It is only then that we will have the spiritual eyes to realize the magnitude of what God has done both in the heavenly realm, in the earth and in our own lives.

We see a small glimpse of this in the wonderful story of Elisha in 2 Kings 6. The king of Aram had surrounded the city of Dothan in order to kill Elisha. Elisha’s servant goes out and sees this great army and panics. “Oh Lord what shall we do?”

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

At that moment everything changed for the servant – he saw the heavenly army protecting Elisha.

As a Christian our lives have changed forever – everything has changed – our destiny has changed from death to eternal life – our present has changed, as we realize that God has a calling and purpose for our lives today – our allegiance has changed, as we are no longer working for ourselves and our purposes, but for the kingdom of God and His purposes – our citizenship has changed, because we have been adopted by God as his children and so our home is now in God’s kingdom.

Just think about what it means to be called a child of God. Just think for a minute of the image of a good parent / children relationship, how a parent feels about their child? What they would do for them? Think about a parent’s care for their child, their nurture of them, their protection of them and their love of them.

This is what God promises to do with us. He loves us – he nurtures us – he helps us to learn and grow – he gives us good things – the things we need – he is with us even through the difficult times and he guarantees us an inheritance – to be with him forever.

It means that God gets involved with our lives.

How should we respond to this? Isaiah 61 v10 says– I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall exult in my God

Are we rejoicing in the Lord this morning in light of what we celebrated last week? Are we exulting the Lord our God because we know that Jesus Christ’s arrival as a human being changed everything forever?

Praise and thanksgiving are the natural response to God’s grace, especially grace that has been personally received and experienced.

Too many Christians lack praise, thanksgiving and joy because they do not understand nor have grasped the magnitude of God’s work – that everything has changed forever – he has won. His victory has been accomplished and the victory began when he was born into this world – when God became flesh and dwelt amongst us.

Isaiah 61 also says that HE has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness…

This is a description of every Christian – of every believer in Christ – clothed with the garment of salvation, rescued from sin – set free from death and in Christ given a robe of righteousness.

Are we not moved this morning to praise our wonderful King and God. – to want to shout aloud – to declare the awesomeness of God? Isaiah saw this. In chp 61 He saw that one day God will restore the whole world and the creation – after these visions he knew nothing would be the same again – that everything was going to change.

And yet in the face of the fact that what God has done has changed everything forever, we so often remain placid.

Imagine what would happen if Joni Erikson Tarad suddenly had the use of her body again? If she were set free from the constraints of her paralysis? What would happen when someone discovered that they were cancer free, or that the years of being unemployed would now end with the offer of a great job which meant security – what would happen. Great rejoicing and weeping and happiness and thankfulness.

Every Christmas should be a huge and awesome celebration – we should, as the church, put on the most splendid of parties. We should be delirious with joy and happiness – not because we have eaten too much or drunk too much or because we have expensive gifts – but because we celebrate the time when everything in the whole universe changed forever – God became flesh and dwelt amongst us declaring the victory of God over sin and death so that we might never be the same again.