We are behind the times in giving you our sermon summaries. This Christmas, we have been totally discombobulated by our weather. We still have close to a foot of snow lying around in our yard, though the roads are now clear… with spots of black ice in the mornings. We just don’t get weather like this here… usually.

I am also trying to install a new sermon publication plugin for our church site. It looks quite exciting, but we have something set wrong so it isn’t working yet. I spent a lot of time last week trying to get it working and didn’t publish last week’s summaries here as a result.

You can find the last two weeks of messages at these links:

12/28/08

• A star shall come forth from Jacob (Num 24.15-19)
• A Brief Survey of the First Moravian Mission
• True Satisfaction (Jer 17.1-10) Duncan Johnson

1/4/09

• We saw His Star in the East (Mt 2.1-12)
• Pilgrim’s Progress: Christiana Follows Christian
• True Forgiveness (Mt 18.21-35) Rory Johnson

We are continuing our Christmas series in the AM messages, inspired by the Moravian star. The 12/28 message has to do with Balaam’s prophecy of the star in Jacob. Today we look at the wise men, very likely knowledgeable of Balaam, his prophecy, and some of the other OT prophecies. Their lives were changed by seeking Christ.

The Moravian mission story was a prequel, leading up to our showing of First Fruits, a docu-drama of the first Moravian mission and the beginning of Protestant missions. It is a remarkable story. Today, we return to our study of Pilgrim’s Progress.

The afternoons were messages from my sons, first on the theme of finding complete satisfaction in Christ by Number One Son, Dunky-boy, and then this week on three truths revealed concerning forgiveness in Mt 18 by Number Two Son, Rory-O.

We are snowed out again. The main roads were clear, but our church is on an unplowed side street and our parking lot is buried. We have about a foot of snow. The mountain to the west (over which half our congregation drives) is a skating rink.

As an alternative, we held a small service in our home this afternoon with a few who were able to make it over. We recorded it (with an inferior microphone) but we offer it here so our folks can have a ‘virtual service’. Our daughter-in-law accompanies us on the violin, with a special of What Child is This as well.

Reactions to Christmas (Lk 2.15-20)

Our message is a brief meditation on the Christmas story and the five reactions we see to the announcement in this passage. We hope it is a blessing to you.

Here’s why:

That’s the Malahat at 9:15am… our people who drive over it each week for church shouldn’t take the risk, not to mention the icy streets and accumulating snow we have everywhere else.

We can be thankful that this usually only happens once a year! But we think a memo to the weatherman is in order: Here in Victoria, we don’t do snow!

Let There be Light (Gen 1.1-5)

From our “Moravian star” Christmas theme:

Of course we are talking in our passage about our natural, material universe, but light and darkness are emblematic of spiritual themes, not only in the Bible but in the consciousness of man. Thus we see these themes recurring in other religions as well, albeit corrupted as all false religions are.

It is only as we consider the theme of light in the Bible that we really understand it properly.

But more than mere understanding, I am going to submit to you that the theme of light and your personal relationship to it, as well as the Biblical presentation of it, speaks very loudly to man’s absolute need of and dependence on God.

A Biographical Sketch of Count Zinzendorf

From our “Moravian star” Christmas theme:

One of the most fascinating stories of Church History (among many) is the story of Count Zinzendorf.

The apostle Paul said:

^KJV 1 Corinthians 1:26 ¶ For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

Count Zinzendorf and a few others are very thankful that the apostle didn’t say: “not any” — he just said “not many.”

So today for our study time I’d like to give you a bit more detail concerning the life of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf.

The Days of Her Purification (Lev 12)

In our context, this part of the Bible seems utterly foreign to us. We read through it, if we are in the habit of reading through our Bibles, because it’s there, not because we derive great insight and blessing or instruction from it.

• Isn’t that true?

My goal in preaching through these passages is to help you discover what God was saying to Israel through this ‘enacted spirituality’, these visible, physical pictures of an inner, spiritual reality. I want you to get this principle:

The externals of Judaism embody the internals of Theism.

~~~

Our messages today were all blessings to me, I hope they were to our people. I am especially enjoying our communion series in Leviticus, it is a fascinating book. Our morning message also stirred us as we considered how Light brings life, how man sinned in the light and against the light, and how our Lord Jesus, the Light of the World gives us life out of darkness once again.

Not by Rite, Not by Power, but by My Spirit (Rm 2.28-29)

or, What makes a True Jew?

Our concluding message for the second chapter of Romans concludes Paul’s main argument against the Religious man. The Religious man thinks he is exempt from God’s judgement because he has divinely revealed Rites and special judgement escaping Power because of his superior morality and way of life. These notions misunderstand the nature of true acceptance by God, a regeneration of the inner man by the power of the Spirit instead of the works of the flesh.

Pilgrim’s Progress: The Celestial City

We conclude the first half of The Pilgrim’s Progress as we see Christian and Hopeful finally reach the destination of all believers, the Celestial City. We see them linger first in Beulah land, the land where the seasoned saint is partly in this world and partly in the next, then they cross the river of death, entering into the joy of their Lord. Bunyan says (as in his vision the gates to the City close) “After that they shut up the gates; which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them.”

In our own ministry, we have seen many saints go on ahead of us. I can sincerely say that I wish myself among them. Our folks gave what I thought were moving testimonies at the end of this session on that subject. I amplified their words so that you can hear them also, hopefully the distortions at that amplification will not be too distracting.

The Moravians and their Star (Lk 18.18-30)

We begin our Christmas season with an introductory message. The Moravians have a Christmas ornament that is a multi-pointed star. It began as an educational project but quickly became a beloved symbol of Christmas. Four passages are associated with its meaning, these will form our theme for the month of December, all related to the ’star’ and its association with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our first message introduced this theme by taking a look first at the rich young ruler and the spiritual investment to which the Lord called him – give up everything. Then the Lord taught his disciples the principle of multiplied returns – give up everything and get one hundred fold in this life and in the life to come, everlasting life! Exactly what the rich young ruler asked for.

We compared these themes to the spiritual investment Count Zinzendorf made in the 1700s. He was the spiritual leader of the Moravian movement, called by some ‘the rich young ruler who said Yes!’ When Zinzendorf died, his Moravians and their mission sent out over 228 missionaries, seeing many thousands come to Christ, simply because they made the right spiritual investment.

Unfortunately, the modern Moravian church does not match the orthodoxy of former days, but the missionary efforts of the 18th century Moravians are an inspiration to us today.

~~~

My apologies for the delay in posting this! (I know the world was waiting with bated breath.) We had a blessed day yesterday and a busy day today.

The Rite judged by the Un-Rite if the Un-Rite is Right (Rm 2.26-27)

In this message we look at what good our religion is if we have the right rites but the wrong lives. Paul proposes a situation where the uncircumcised (the Un-Rite)nevertheless keeps the righteousness of the Law. He asks, will not his law keeping equal the value of your circumcision? Moreover, will not his law keeping judge your law breaking? Jesus gave examples, the men of Nineveh and the ‘queen of the south’ (Mt 12.41-42). The same problems attend our religion today. We have the Bible,we have baptism, we have the customs and practices of Christianity, but when we sin (as professing Christians) we stand judged by the lives of non-Christians who don’t sin in the same ways we do.

All of this builds the case that neither morality (Rm 2.1-16) nor religion (Rm 2.17-29) can exempt us from the judgement of God and the sentence of wrath that has fallen on mankind. (Rm 1.18-32). We need something superior to morality and religion.

Pilgrim’s Progress: Ignorance Ignores Christian (pp. 174-187)

In this session we see the renewed attempt by Christian and Hopeful to evangelize Ignorance. Ignorance is completely confident in his own obedience, he has no sense that he needs more than his own self-justification. He does not know he needs the merits of Christ. Leaving him to his own deserts, Christian and Hopeful talk of another man, Mr. Temporary, who made a show of going on a pilgrimage, but turned back when his mind was not changed, he feared other men, could not bear the shame of religion and was grieved to feel guilt for his sin.

Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5.16-24)

Our message this afternoon returns to a theme we considered eight years ago, the fruit of the Spirit as taught in Galatians. Today’s message looked at the whole idea of spiritual fruit, the desirability of spiritual fruit, and the method of cultivating spiritual fruit. For cultivation, we must crucify the flesh — weed the garden, and so enhance the working of the Spirit in our own lives.

~~~

We had a visiting couple today… lots of visitors lately, but not many returnees. That’s what we would really like, but so far our many visitors lately have been just visitors.

A Rite is Right only if Law is not Wronged (Rm 2.25)

Our study of Romans moves from showing the insufficiency of even revealed religion to eradicate sin (Rm 2.17-24). Now Paul attacks confidence in the rites of revealed religion. Men made idols out of the rites of Judaism, thinking that their possession and performance of the rites meant they escaped God’s wrath towards sin, failing to realize that their sin invalidated their rituals. The same condition afflicts us today, even us as independent Baptists. We easily make our religious exercises into ‘magic’ rituals that act as ‘charms’ to keep us safe from condemnation. We think that if we regularly attend church, if we’ve been baptized, if we’ve prayed a prayer or walked an aisle, we’ve escaped! But we fail to understand that sins invalidate rituals. What we need is genuine Biblical repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ for our sins. From that faith decision flows the newness of life.

The Enchanted Grounds [Pilgrim’s Progress]

In this session we see Christian and Hopeful keeping themselves wakeful in the Enchanted Grounds by engaging in ‘well managed fellowship’. The specific topic that engages their minds is a discussion of Hopeful’s salvation testimony. In this section Bunyan gives us a clear picture of a soul under conviction and turning to Christ. We made our reading shorter this week to spend more time covering this section in detail.

For Our God is a Consuming Fire (Hb 12.25-29)

This afternoon we considered another distinctive of our Church life, reverent worship. Much has been said all over the world about worship in recent years, but we stand as a body of believers committed to conservative, reverent, traditional worship. By worship we mean more than music, but everything from music to offering to announcements to preaching and all the bits in between. Our reason for insisting on this kind of worship is found in Hb 12.18-29, as the Christian experience is compared to Mt Sinai and found to be far more solemn and far more holy than that awe inspiring experience. We intend to be reverent in worship because God is who He is.

~~~

A smallish crowd today, but blessed services nonetheless.

We had a special speaker this week, read on for the details!

An Open Door and many Adversaries (1 Cor 16.9)

Today we had the great privilege of a guest speaker in our services. Scott Holloway is our pastor’s cousin (technically, 1st cousin once removed!). He received his training for the ministry in a local church Bible institute in Trail, BC where he currently serves as an assistant pastor. He plans to begin a church planting ministry in Kindersley, Saskatchewan in the New Year. We invited him out to present his ministry to our church.

Scott’s message for us in our Sunday morning worship challenged us concerning the open door God puts before us in the form of various opportunities of service. At the same time, every opportunity will be blocked by adversaries. In order to take advantage of the opportunities God gives us, while overcoming our adversaries, we need spiritual preparation, we need to employ much prayer, and we need to be persistent in our service to God.

Wayward Travelers

Our study of Pilgrim’s Progress leads out of the Delectable Mountains into new encounters with various travelers. For this session, we first covered a few points of clarification from last week’s lesson and then plunged into this week’s reading. This week begins with an initial encounter of ‘a very brisk lad,’ Ignorance, who is unwilling to hear of a gospel of salvation by faith but is content with his own works. Leaving Ignorance, we encounter one Turn-away, and a weak Christian called Little-faith. We are encouraged by the discussion of these characters, but we end finding Christian and Hopeful being chastised for being led astray by a Flatterer, who captures them in a net. All of these events serve to illustrate situations believers may experience in their Christian lives.

Entering the Harvest (Jn 4.27-35)

In our afternoon service, Scott Holloway presented his vision and plans for a church planting ministry in Kindersley, Saskatchewan. He gave the presentation on overheads, then preached another message for us.

The message comes from the Lord’s teaching of his astonished disciples when they discover him speaking to the Samaritan woman. He teaches them that there is a harvest they did not see. He teaches them that the harvest is often in a place they would not expect. Finally, he teaches that the harvest is ready. These principles admonish us today as well.

~~~

Scott and I traveled north for the evening service in my brother’s church, Grace Baptist of the Comox Valley. Scott preached another fine message for the congregation there. I was especially blessed to have this opportunity for fellowship with Scott. The trip to Courtenay is about 3 hours each way. I was 20 when Scott was born, so I have had little opportunity for interaction over the years. Yesterday blessed my heart.