A message based on Luke 8:28-36 and preached at Queen Street Baptist Church.

Have you ever had a defining moment in your understanding of God? A moment when you saw things clearer than you had ever before? It may have been a conversion experience or something else.

There was a man in the fifth century named Augustine. Augustine was always a very intelligent person but he lived a fairly wild life. He never married but he had a concubine. He loved learning but he also loved a life of pleasure. His defining moment was when he heard a child’s voice say, “Take and read.” He took that as a divine command. He had a copy of Romans at hand and he read a couple of verses where it was open which spoke to his wasteful life. After studying all sorts of philosophies and religions, Augustine finally found what he was looking for. He wrote this in his account of his life story:

Late have I loved Thee, O Lord; and behold,

Thou wast within and I without, and there I sought Thee.

Thou was with me when I was not with Thee.

Thou didst call, and cry, and burst my deafness.

Thou didst gleam, and glow, and dispell my blindness.

Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace.

For Thyself Thou hast made us,

And restless our hearts until in Thee they find their ease.

Late have I loved Thee, Thou Beauty ever old and ever new.

Augustine went on to be one of the most important Christian theologians who ever lived. Augustine is really to theology what Plato is to philosophy.

What is your defining moment?

The story that we are looking at today is a defining moment in the life of Jesus and of three of his disciples. When we read the story of the transfiguration, it really stands out from the surrounding stories. There are plenty of miracles in Jesus’ ministry but nothing like this.

We need a good understanding of what happened back then before we reflect what this means for us. In the story, Jesus brings Peter, James and John up a mountain. These three are included in the most intimate moments in Jesus’ life. we are never told why.

I don’t know what these three were expecting when they got to the top, but it probably was not what actually happened. There was Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus. Why Moses and Elijah? Why not Abraham and David? Noah and Nahum?

Moses and Elijah are a natural pairing. They represent the two main divisions of the Old Testament: the Law and the Prophets. They also had similar ministries of freeing their people from oppression. They also were the only two to actually see God. Both were put in a cleft were able to see the glory of God pass by them. Those two events were on a mountain by the way.

What were Moses, Elijah and Jesus talking about? It was not sports or the weather. They were talking about something very important and that was Jesus’ departure. I don’t normally get into the Greek of a word but in this case I think it is relevant. The Greek word is exodus. Sound familiar? That is the name of the book t

A sermon based on Ezra 3:10-13 and preached at Queen Street Baptist Church.

I have a confession to make. I am nostalgic. Not just a little bit, but excessively so. Moving back to St. Catharines has been painful for my family. Everywhere we drive, I point out the old schools I used to attend, the department stores where I used to beg my mom to buy toys for me and places where I used to get my comic books. No matter where I go, I find memories that are fresh and meaningful.

My nostalgia is just as strong when it comes to church. When I was a child attending church, I didn’t think much of it. I went because my parents went. I didn’t think that it was that fun at the time. But recently when I took a walk through the church I grew up in, which is now closed down, there were some powerful memories. I remember standing at the main doors at the back of the church handing out bulletins with my cousin. I remember ringing the church bells (okay that part was fun). I remember lighting the candles and carrying the cross as a server. I even remember my first epileptic seizure I had, sitting in the choir pews during a service. When we walked downstairs into the fellowship hall, I remember the two large rooms that were partitioned for each of the Sunday school classes. This church that by its end had no children, was once able to divide up Sunday school into grades because there were so many children. It was a powerful time for me immerse myself in thoughts of those good old days.

I will not apologize for being nostalgic. I think it is dangerous to forget the past and it is important to learn from the past. But it is not good to live in the past.

There are times that I get thinking about how much I miss my parents. I get completely focused on the good old days growing up in Merritton. I have to shake myself out of that and remember that I have a family right now that needs to be enjoyed. I can think about the memories of the past, but as a husband and a father, my job is to build new memories for my family today.

Churches are known for holding on to the past. There was a pastor sharing with other pastors at a ministerial and he told his colleagues that his goal was to bring his church into the 20th century. They corrected him by saying, don’t you mean the 21st century? He replied with, one century at a time, one century at a time.

Thankfully, the Bible wrestles with these same questions and gives us some important insight.

What we are going to look at are some of the most important events in Old Testament history. After the time of King Solomon, Israel was divided into Israel and Judah. Israel was conquered by the Assyrians. Some time later, Judah was conquered by the Babylonians. Not only did they conquer the nation, they destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. We need to remember that the temple is not just a worship building, the way our church buildings are. The temple was the place where God actually dwelled. When that temple was destroyed, it was devastating to the people. The temple was the only place that they could offer sacrifices. The people were lost without their temple.

But God was not done with his people. God used the Persians, who had conquered the Babylonians, to both send back the exiled Jews to Jerusalem and to provide materials for the rebuilding of the temple and the walls. This was no easy task. There were people on all sides trying to stop their

A sermon based on Acts 2:42-47 and preached at Queen Street Baptist Church.

Have you ever picked a New Year’s resolution and stuck to it? Some of the experts tell us that New Year’s resolutions don’t work. I don’t believe that’s accurate. I believe what really goes on is that many people are not motivated to keep their resolutions. It’s not the resolutions that are the problem, it is our commitment.

It is possible to keep a resolution. It has now been over a year since I have eaten a donut. If you think that is not a big thing, then you haven’t tried Tim Horton’s apple pie fritters. I totally forgot about them when I made the resolution. But I wanted to do one thing, something attainable that would have a positive impact on my health. And this was before I knew I had diabetes!

You still might think donuts are not a very good example of kept resolutions. After a number of years of abusing alcohol in my late-teens and early-twenties, I made a New Year’s resolution almost twenty-five years ago that I would never get drunk again. I have been sober ever since. That was about a year before I actually made a commitment to Jesus.

Before Advent, we took two Sundays to look at the early church and what they valued. I won’t get into detail about them now, but I will remind you of the four values: 1) studying the apostles’ teaching, 2) fellowship, 3) breaking of bread and 4) prayer. You can go back to those sermons for more details if you wish.

I bring this up to say that I would like us as individuals within this congregation to come up with some resolutions in each of these four categories. Before looking at our options, I want to give some guidance on setting goals. You might want to invite enough people to triple the size of the congregation, but that might not be very realistic. You might want to grow as a follower of Jesus. But how do you measure that? The best thing to do is to set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for:

With that in mind, let us take a look at our options.

One of the things that we find in the early church is that they were devoted to the teachings of the apostles. By this we understand the traditions about Jesus that eventually became our New Testament. In no way do I want to diminish the importance of the Old Testament. It is very important, as we see by the many quotes in the New Testament. The Old Testament was the Bible of Jesus and the apostles. But as followers of Jesus, if we are going to resolve to know him more, we need an emphasis on the New Testament.

Studies have demonstrated that Bible engagement, both outside and inside the church, is way down. Some pastors, discouraged by these trends, barely mention the Bible in their sermons. I can not do that, as I have seen the impact of biblical study on my life and I’m convinced that it can transform a church.

Assuming you agree that it is important to know the Bible, I want to offer you some options in setting goals in that area.

A sermon based on John 14:25-27 and preached at Queen Street Baptist Church.

I want you to imagine your favourite nativity scene. Maybe it was one you had growing up, one you have now or one you wish you had. Take in the emotions of the scene. Peaceful baby with peaceful parents, surrounded by peaceful shepherds with their peaceful sheep. The entire scene is about peace.

Think about some of our Christmas carol lyrics:

“How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift giv’n!”

“What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?”

“The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.”

Is that really the way it was? I see no reason to think that Jesus was unlike any other baby and that he probably cried and made a fuss. It was a stressful time for all, including the shepherds who had just been overwhelmed by the appearances of angels.

Not only was the birth of Jesus likely not peaceful in terms of sound, it wasn’t peaceful in the sense of lack of conflict either. Probably one of our least favourite Christmas stories is the slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem by Herod. What about Joseph and Mary with baby Jesus having to flee to Egypt as refugees? Where is the peace?

We call Jesus the Prince of Peace, but how is that working out in our world? Did you know that 160 million people died in wars during the twentieth century? To put that in perspective, there are 35 million people in Canada. The entire population of Canada was killed 4.5 times during the twentieth century just through war.

Does the Christmas message have anything to say about this? One of the most memorable stories in any war was something that happened during the First World War. On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas. The warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire, but on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce. At numerous points along the front, soldiers on both sides came out of the trenches, played games, exchanged presents and wished each other a Merry Christmas. My question to you is, is this a beautiful story or a sad story. There is some beauty to it. But the next day, they returned to the trenches and continued the slaughter. The best that could be hoped for was a temporary reprieve from the violence.

That was supposed to be the war to end all wars, and yet that war ended in such a way that it basically guaranteed another world war within a few decades.

We live today in a world that may not fear a war on the scale of the first and second world war, but we live in fear of terrorist attacks. There are people who are not looking for conquest or even material destruction, but looking to create terror through attacks on civilians.

We as Christians need to ask two very important questions in this violent world. Does Jesus Christ have any peace to offer us? And what does that look like?

Jesus had a lot to say about peace and his Jewish audience was eager to hear about it. They wanted peace and they wanted a very specific kind of peace. They were already experiencing a kind of peace called Pax Romana. The Romans enforced peace across their empire which incl

A sermon based on Romans 5:1-5 and preached at Queen Street Baptist Church.

One of the themes of Advent is hope. When we think of the Christmas story, many of us think of the promise of hope. But what if it is just a story? What if there is no real hope in this world? While I don’t believe that, there are many that do.

Think about some of the events that have taken place around our world. There was just a presidential election in the United States. While such a process is often long and painful, it should be a normal part of life that comes around every four years. And yet this one was different. You would expect that a large part of the population would be disappointed because their candidate lost, but something more happened this time. I read a number of articles indicating that after Trump was reported as winner that there was a huge spike in the calls to the suicide hotlines. Large numbers of people were considering suicide because the person they didn’t like was elected. That is not normal. What happened?

Think back to the election of Barack Obama. Obama ran on a platform of hope. He even wrote a book called the Audacity of Hope. People, who didn’t necessarily agree with his politics, saw in his election a glimpse of hope, a belief that something better was possible. Those same people have felt that their hopes have been dashed. People are living in fear of what their country might become. I have no interest in speculating on whether Trump will be a good or a bad president. I simply observe that those who put their hope in government have become disappointed. There is an increased culture of hopelessness.

We need to reflect on the kind of world that we live in. Is there any reason to have hope or should we just expect the worst and see if we might get pleasantly surprised?

The Christian message is one of hope. The Christmas message is one of hope. The birth and incarnation of Jesus Christ was the injection of hope into a hopeless world.

But what does that look like?

When we look at hope, we need to begin with situations that require hope. We can probably think of many experiences that are difficult and painful. But the Bible teaches the foundational need for the human race is reconciliation with God. That is not say other things are unimportant. Rather, much of what we experience that is negative stems from our separation with God. When we are not in right relationship with God, we are not in right relationship with others and we are not in right relationship with ourselves.

When Paul wrote to the church in Rome, he was dealing with a specific problem. The Gentile and Jewish Christians were fighting over who had the advantage when it came to God. Paul demolishes all of their arguments by insisting that we all start in the same place, that is estranged from God. Neither the Torah nor following own conscience is enough to fix the problem. The only answer is Jesus Christ.

It is through Jesus Christ that we are justified. Justification is just a fancy word for saying that we are declared not guilty. I have never been on trial for criminal charges, but I have been in court for family matters. When the judge decided in favour of what we were seeking, there was a tremendous relief. Being declared righteous by God is far greater.

Paul declares that we are at peace with God. Not just that we have the peac