One, True and Only

June 25, 2024

18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
-1 John 5:18-20 (NIV)

I recently found out that we have a number of weekly email subscribers that don’t attend St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Moncton for worship.  Of these people, I also found out that some of them aren’t even Christian.  There might even be a chance that sometimes these emails get forwarded to others in different cities, provinces and maybe even other countries.  To that I say FANTASTIC!

If you haven’t attended our humble church for Sunday worship, I invite you to do so!  We gather for worship each and every Sunday at 10:00 am (AST) and you’re always welcomed to attend.  Whether you’re a seasoned Christian, newbie Christian, someone of a different faith background, whether you’re Latin, Asian, White, Black, LGBTQ+, in a wheelchair, seven feet tall, three feet tall, or anyone else, you’re always welcomed at our church!  And with that statement I share that the gospel message as found only in Jesus Christ is for everyone!  To paraphrase from Timothy Keller where he once said something like, “Everyone is welcomed as they are (at church), but everyone is also not welcomed to stay as they are.”  Meaning we all must take up our cross daily and deny ourselves (Luke 9:23)

I sometimes forget about the diversity of occupants in our church building.  Many people may not know this, but we have various people using our building representing different groups Sunday to Saturday each week.  On any given day, I may encounter someone from the Muslim faith background (sometimes from the South East Adult Education – Literacy & GED classes), a floor hockey enthusiast (from the Moncton Sports & Social Club), a young Korean adolescent (from the Moncton Korean School), a young child (from the i-Play Athletics Daycare) or others.  Whether you’re in one of these groups or even a regular Sunday worship attendee, I hope you’re reading this next statement:

JESUS CHRIST is UNIQUE, and the ONE, TRUE and ONLY SON OF GOD!

Many faiths have their own gods and belief structures, but which other god came from heaven and in the flesh but Jesus Christ?  Which other god chose to dwell amongst us out of a deep compassion and love?  Which other faith acknowledges that we can do nothing on our own to bring us closer to God and make us more holy and not demanding we earn it?  Which other faith tell us that God did all the work and has completed it? (John 19:30).  The reality is this: All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!  (Rom. 3:23).  Because God is infinitely and perfectly holy, and because we are all sinful, we all have missed the mark and it’s impossible to please God on our own.  There is but one person (the God-man in Jesus Christ) that had to come down to earth (God in human flesh), to make us acceptable to God, by paying the terrible price that we all should’ve paid when dealing with the utmost holy God, and that is death (on a cross).  There was no other way to make us acceptable to an utmost holy God!  If you’re reading this and are far off from Jesus, or if you have a different faith experience, I implore you to do some self-reflecting on this idea and test the Christian gospel!

Our text tells us a great reassurance in that if you are Christian (born of God and thus, born again), God has sealed your place in eternity with him; this is incredibly comforting!  Nothing and nobody can add or remove from this fact.  Perhaps there are some that don’t believe it. – I think verse 19 has something to say about that one too (the whole world is under control of the evil one and don’t let him blind you).  Verse 20 tells us that the only way to remedy this blindness is Jesus Christ that gives us understanding and realizing he is the norm of all norms and the only real truth!  Moreover John 14:6 tells us in particular that Jesus is TRUTH and therefore anything and everything that comes out of him by default can only be true as well.  By believing that Jesus is the Son of God, Lord and Saviour, we have true communion with the one, true and only God (Yahweh) and the source of all life (verse 20).

The above statements may not sit well for some, but I guarantee that after an initial struggle there is healing and unimaginable joy if you believe the above statements are universally true!  As a result, there is also wholeness, peace and a deep understanding to knowing oneself and knowing the world around, but of course the greatest treasure is knowing God in Jesus Christ!

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Summer Plans

June 18, 2024.

35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
-Matthew 9:35-38 (NIV)

The thermometer level is going up and I see more people wearing shorts.  This means summer is just around the corner and the first day of summer is officially June 20th. Of course, there’s a select few “special breed” that somehow prefers wearing shorts all year round, and that’s just a unique fashion trend I can’t relate to, but kudos to those trend setters.  Historically in Canada during this time of year, a number of people go away on vacation.  We get so few days of sunny, hot weather and many Canadians try to take full advantage of the weather.  I actually hate summer and I sweat like a pig.  I’d rather shovel snow in frigid -20 degree weather than mow the lawn in 20+ or 30+ degree weather.

Do you have summer plans?  Maybe you’re away at a cottage.  Maybe you’re taking a “staycation”.  In the past like many churches in Canada, typically many people are away in the summer, but I somehow think this summer won’t be like previous summers.  I’m going to suspect a number of church parishioners will still be around.  This is great! I don’t know about you, but even if I’m away on vacation, I try to attend a local church wherever I am in the world as I don’t believe joining the larger body of Christ in communal worship should be seen “as a chore” and something we need a break from.

Still and the reality is, a lot happens at church to keep the place going.  There are many men, women and even children that dedicate and volunteer their time to serve God and God’s people on a weekly basis for most of the year and they need this time to recharge and get much needed rest.  The reality is, if our “regular volunteers” don’t get “regular times” of Godly rest, they’ll fatigue and burnout.  And what would the church be without the various ministries happening to expand God’s kingdom here on earth?  What would our church be if everyone adopted the mentality of “we’re going to church” instead of “We ARE the church”?  Proverbs 14:4 tells us, “Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests.”  In short, our church wouldn’t be where we are now without God leading us, and also without us following after God through the vehicle of the local church.

I know many of you have been giving your time, talents and gifts for many years to God and the church.  I commend you for that and please keep it up.  Whether it’s your leadership, your wisdom, your time, your manpower, your generous monetary giving, other ways of serving, etc., may God richly bless you for all that you’ve done and continue to do.  For those of you already serving and even the rest of you, congratulations because God has elected you to follow after him through Jesus Christ, but that also means embarking on the joy of a life of servitude to Christ!  Either you serve Jesus Christ or you don’t and Satan always wants the latter.  I stress that it’s a joy!  I mean, even for myself, I left a job erecting plazas for a land developer in Southern Ontario when I accepted God’s call to ministry and I wouldn’t change my decision for anything!  Not many are called to full or part time congregational ministry, but ALL are called to serve God in ministry and a great way to do it is by serving the church as our vehicle to reach the world!  As our passage in Matthew 9:37 tells us, truly the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  We have a lot going on at St. Andrew’s and we need your help!  Our children and youth need you, our finances needs you, the various ministries ultimately under God’s direction needs you!  As some of us make summer plans to rest and relax, please know that others are using this time to plan communal fellowship, outreach, admin, discipleship and worship well, and we cannot do it well without more workers for the harvest!  Please consider joining one of our committees, ask an Elder or a Pastor how you can help expand God’s kingdom through the church and joyfully work the harvest!

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It’s His Story

June 11, 2024.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”  4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
-John 11:1-4 (NIV)

I’ve said it a number of times before that Eisegesis is bad, because it falsely puts the readers own interpretation into biblical texts, rather than drawing out its true meaning.  Eisegesis is incredibly dangerous because a reader’s own bias can falsely be drawn out and magnified if the Bible is not read and understood correctly, according to the author’s original meaning (the author being the Holy Spirit - see 2 Pe. 20-21).  We should also be aware that a branch of Eisegesis is Narcigesis whereby the reader falsely places him/herself into all of scripture at all times.  Narcigesis goes like this:

·       The blessings and promises of Abram in Gen. 12?....God will also give them to me!  My own nation is coming soon!

·       The famous Jer. 29:11?  Yes, that 100% applies to me too at all times (this is actually one of the most misunderstood passages in scripture).    

·       Peter walked on water in Matt. 14:29?....God gives me that ability too, so if the cruise ship sinks with no life rafts, I’m still good!

·       I’m broke and hungry….Not to worry because the birds will feed me like Elijah in 1 Kings 17:6.

I once watched a YouTube video clip of an atheist woman who was recommended to read the Bible by a Pastor.  To my surprise she read the entire Bible and wasn’t changed.  I thought going through scripture changes you in a good way (and it does by the way - see Rom. 12:2, 2 Tim. 3:16-17), but she put up an unforeseen blockage at the time.  She had to read it a second time to meet, know and follow Jesus Christ as a newborn Christian.  What changed the second time?  Instead of reading it thinking the Bible was about her (a fatal error in approaching scripture the first time), she realized the Bible is not written about her.  Instead, the Bible is written about God, but for her.  The former places herself as the subject and the latter places God as the subject – that’s a BIG difference!  As an atheist, she read it through a Narcigesis lens that leads to self-glorification and self-appreciation.  Many various people actually read scripture, but unless we’re honest with ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to speak through scripture as it was meant to be read, we will never change.

How should we read scripture and live our lives? – With a mindset of, “it’s His Story!”  That can be a difficult statement to swallow at times.  It’s easy to thank God and glorify God when good things happen, but what about pains, struggles and challenges?  Let’s keep in mind Jer. 29:11 was words of prophetic hope intended for the Israelites during the time of Babylonian exile.  Can these words be applied to us?  Yes, at times, but not always.  True enough that God wants for us to prosper, but at the end of the day, the story is about God not us.  Let’s not forget that for 400 years the Israelites lived under slavery in Egypt (Gen. 15:13).  This means that whole generations were practically born into chains and died in chains.  Let’s also not forget that Daniel’s friends were thrown into the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:19-20).  Let’s also remember that Jesus Christ (God’s own Son), was beaten and nailed to a cross (Matt. 27:35), and finally let’s not forget God allowed Lazarus to go through a terrible sickness in John 11:2. Why would a loving, gracious and gentle God do such a thing?  Because it’s about God’s glory and not our own! – And tell that to all the false prosperity gospel preachers out there (Joel Olsteen, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn- not to be confused with Costi W. Hinn, Joseph Prince, etc.).

Indeed Lazarus did die, and indeed Martha, Mary and even Jesus mourned (John 11:35), but Jesus also raised Lazarus as well.  Admittedly knowing our lives are not our own but belong to God can be a tough pill to swallow to some, but know the greater statement in that our Lord is good and his mercy endures forever (1 Chron. 16:34,), and I’d rather be on God’s side than anyone else.  Finally, an eternity spent with Jesus is the ultimate prize and I wouldn’t want it any other way!  Every pain, challenge and setback we may go through in this life is temporal.  Let’s look at the bigger picture of eternal life spent with him (Luke 10:20)!
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Growing Pains and Attacks!

June 4, 2024.

The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’  12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

-Acts 4:1-12 (NIV)

Is our church growing by leaps and bounds?  Yes!  Is our church perfect in all it does?  Absolutely not!  Are we headed in the right direction?  I believe so!  Does Satan enjoy Christians and churches striving to expand God’s kingdom in the name of Jesus Christ?  No way!  Are we going to pack our bags and quit?  ……….N-E-V-E-R!

Of course the older hymn entitled, “Onward Christian Soldiers” comes to mind!  As our humble congregation grows and expands in spiritual maturity and numbers, growing pains will come!  Some of our growing pains comes from internal frustrations of working with a number of people with different opinions here and there.  Do not let Satan divide us and do not have your focus shifted on other matters!  Instead of small differences here and there, focus on the bigger picture:  the Gospel, the person of Jesus Christ and the saving power of his grace!  Apart from these small differences internally as a result of growing pains, we’re also going to experience other pains and downright attacks!  Naturally Satan is not going to like churches like us growing.  Satan is going to absolutely hate that new believers are drawn to our church and ultimately to Jesus Christ!  He will throw ever roadblock to try and stop progress.  This happened to the early disciples of Jesus and it’s been happening all throughout human existence for people that follow after our triune God (Old Testament, New Testament and beyond till this day).  They’re all varying kinds of growing pains and some are demonic, satanic attacks!

In our text, we encounter a sort of “courtroom scenario” where Peter and John are brought before the Sanhedrin.  The Sanhedrin was the Jewish ruling council made up of elders, scribes and the high priest, where it was seventy-one members including the high priest and probably patterned after the model of seventy elders established by God through Moses in the Old Testament.  The scene happened shortly after Peter healed a lame beggar from birth (In Acts 3, just in the chapter before).  I don’t know about you, but when I read Acts 4 it’s almost as if though in my head I hear knocking and my mind telling me, “satan, is that you come to disturb me?”  That’s the image I mentally receive where if I use the uncapitalized noun of satan meaning adversary in Hebrew, I see this opposition and adversary/adversaries at work.  They’re all schemes of the enemy.

Notice the reason why John and Peter were in trouble.  Acts 4:2 simply says these Jewish and religious leaders were “greatly disturbed” or upset simply because John and Peter were proclaiming the Gospel (eternal life in Jesus, found through the resurrected Jesus and in his name and authority).  Those in opposition to Christ will hate hearing such news.  Those in opposition to Jesus will hate hearing we’re all sinful, must repent and must place all our hopes and trust in the resurrected God-man in Jesus Christ!  That’s just how it is!  Peter and John were not afraid, nor did they lose focus. They kept to the gospel script regardless of what happened to them.  They attributed all power and authority to Jesus Christ, and they acknowledge the heinous wrongs being committed by rejecting Jesus (Acts 4:10).  In fact, Peter lays it out further and hammers it home in verse 11 and 12.  Jesus was the one everyone rejected and he is the only way to salvation!

What do I make of all this? It’s not a surprise that we as Christians and even as a church will go through growing pains and outside attacks and persecutions.  In terms of the outside attacks in particular and If you’re doing right and standing up for the Gospel, that’s going to come and you can count on it!  What you may not realize is Acts 4:8 in that the Holy Spirit fills and thus gives power during tough times!  Do not waver, do not lose focus and stick to the Gospel!  May the Holy Spirit fill you and empower you!