I was slightly frustrated when I came to this passage. John’s gospel includes some incredible moments in Jesus life, but on first look this appears a bit of a filler passage. But then I read it again, and again, and again. In effect, I meditated on the passage. Through that repetition I found real joy and inspiration. I caught sight of the texture of these verses as they described real people having real encounters. John the Baptist willingly releasing followers (disciples) to follow Jesus. Yet another example of John the Baptist’s humility and prophetic calling. Five different men deciding to follow Jesus. Friends inviting friends, brother inviting brother. John the gospel writer refusing to name himself in the narrative as he stays true to his vision for his gospel – to point people to Jesus.  Read More

We seem to be in the middle of a pandemic of apologies. Barely a day goes by without a new demand for an expression of remorse from someone in power for their failings. The trouble is that many of our leaders seem to have perfected the art of “apologising” without acknowledging that they have actually done anything wrong; “It wasn’t that serious…, I misunderstood…, I wasn’t told it was wrong…., I was misled…”. It may be more honest if they had confessed; “I was arrogant..., I was deceitful…, I was greedy…”. But we all prefer to present our most shameful actions as understandable mistakes rather than acknowledge them for what they are. The Bible speaks of such things plainly; it calls them “sin”. It makes it clear that they are the root cause of our fractured relationships with the Holy God who created us and the darkness that engulfs the world as a result.  Read More

John’s Prologue serves as an introduction in the same way a movie trailer prepares us for a film. Here John is introducing us to a whole bunch of material that he’ll unpack for us through his eyewitness account of Jesus’ life that follows. At the end of these verses we’re left with a tonne of questions, and that’s just the way he wants it. John is inviting us to follow him into the rest of his Gospel. He wants to invite you to explore the claims of Jesus. We’re going to have great fun doing just that in the weeks and months to come. There is so much compressed into these verses. But I’d like us to consider just half a verse together today. It’s the start of John 1:14. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  Read More

Recently I went to the cinema to watch the latest Spider-Man movie. Don’t worry, I’m not going to drop in any spoilers! It was a really good movie and once again Spider-Man proved strong enough to save the day and overcome the bad-guys. In almost every scene we could see his super-human abilities. His incredible powers that no ordinary person possesses. Despite his desire to be seen as an average teenager, Peter Parker is not an average teenager. He is a super-hero. Sometimes we unhelpfully make super-heroes out the men and women we see in the Bible. We picture them as some kind of next level Christian with super-Christian abilities, their Holy Spirit senses tingling at every turn, always able to overcome and always having pure heroic motives. However, as we begin our journey through the Gospel of John, it’s important to understand who it is that’s giving us this account of Jesus’ life. John, the disciple of Jesus, who wrote this gospel didn’t have a very impressive list of credentials…  Read More

Vision is vital. When I was a small boy my father worked for Worcester College for the blind. We would regularly have students over for lunch and I marvelled at how these young men with no sight negotiated our home and the unwitting traps set for them by a 4 year old boy. They were amazing, but their lack of vision made life harder. The Bible is clear, a lack of vision, or having the wrong vision, in our lives is even more dangerous. We are created for purpose – Kingdom purpose. From Genesis 1 when God creates humanity in the image of the divine to bring the authority and rule of God over creation, to Matthew 28 when the risen Christ commissions the disciples to take the gospel to all nations, scripture is clear.   Read More

And so we come to the end of our journey through Galatians. What a fruitful journey it has been? Or has it? Certainly it has been an enjoyable time – what is not to enjoy about digging into the grace of God week after week. To be constantly reminded that God loves us because he loves us. That God’s love is not, and has never been, dependent on our religious activity. That we were chosen before the beginning of the world, that before we were even a glint in our parent’s imagination we had a fixed place in the mind of God. This is grace, this realisation that our foundation is secure and that from that foundation we can now live to please GOD. But has this journey been fruitful?  Read More