All Things Seen & Unseen

Recently a gifted friend of mine sent me a sermon she had written in a few days before delivering it on a Sunday in January 2012. The sermon is about praise and the power of praise to rout the enemy of our souls. It begs to be read! It touches on the theme of God's glory! Read it HE RE .

I know I've already spoken about this theme in reference to first part of John ch2. But the same three interwoven strands of SIGN-GLORY-BELIEF appear again in the pericope of the Cleansing of the Temple (Jn 2.13-22). This occurrence invites a further look at this triad. The sign is less obvious but it's still there because the Jews ask Jesus 'what sign do you show [us] given that you're doing these things [driving out the money changers from the temple]?' Jesus gives them the sign of his resurrection: 'Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up' (Jn 2.19). They don't understand and significantly neither do the disciples! The disciples only understand after Jesus is resurrected and the text says that the disciples remembered what He had said on this occasion, they believed the scripture and they believed the word which Jesus had said (Jn 2.22). In this case, some 3 years elapsed before the disciples became more mature belie...

The marriage feast described in John 2.1-11 at Cana of Galilee ran out of wine and was in disarray. We don't realise but this situation is a potential social humiliation for the bridegroom the shame of which will follow him all his days. His marriage feast will always be characterised as the one that ran out of wine! Jesus takes the opportunity to meet this situation by providing a mighty sign, a superabundance of wine out of water and reveals his GLORY . My key verse is Jn 2:11, 'This beginning of miracles [signs] did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested [revealed] his glory; and his disciples believed on him.' Let's focus on--   The Revelation of Christ's Glory  When we look back in the gospel to John 1.14 it says, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt [or 'tabernacled'] among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth'. What does 'glory' mean to you? It's not easy to define. Honou...

The marriage feast described in John 2.1-11 at Cana of Galilee ran out of wine and was in disarray. We don't realise but this situation is a potential social humiliation for the bridegroom the shame of which will follow him all his days. His marriage feast will always be characterised as the one that ran out of wine! Jesus takes the opportunity to meet this situation by providing a mighty sign, a superabundance of wine out of water and reveals his GLORY . My key verse is Jn 2:11, 'This beginning of miracles [signs] did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested [revealed] his glory; and his disciples believed on him.' Let's focus on--   The Revelation of Christ's Glory  When we look back in the gospel to John 1.14 it says, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt [or 'tabernacled'] among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth'. What does 'glory' mean to you? It's not easy to d...

John Flavel (1627-1691) was a great puritan preacher who, along with more than 2000 other ministers, was turned out of his pulpit in The Great Ejection of 1662 . He famously wrote, Keeping The Heart which is a mastery exposition of Prov 4.23. 'Keep and guard you heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life' (Amp). Like all the Puritan writers his work is dense and doesn't lend itself to easy summarisation. However he opens his short book which can be found here on the internet with these words: The heart of man is his worst part before it is regenerated, and the best afterward; it is the seat of principles, and the fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the eye of the Christian ought to be principally fixed upon it.   The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very force and stress of religion;...

Proverbs 4.23 is a key text for reminding us about the centrality of our spiritual hearts. The spiritual heart can be understood as the 'inner person'. Proverbs says, 'Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life'. Although variously translated the importance of the heart remains clear in all of them. In one of Jesus' sayings, he taught that a person is not defiled by what he eats. What is defiling is what comes out of his mouth from his heart (Mark 7.20). Such things as, 'evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness' and 'All these evil things come from within, and defile the man' (vv21-23).

I am an evangelical looking for an Anglican congregation which still values the Prayer Book (PB). Australian Anglicans have three major prayer books dated: 1662 ( Book of Common Prayer ), 1978 and 1995 but it's hard to find evangelical congregations which use the PB. Some will use tiny bits out of the PB but it's hard to describe their liturgy as dependent on the Anglican Tradition; what is presented could equally be found in any non-conformist denomination. Usually members of such churches will boast about this absence of Anglican liturgy as if this is a good thing. (I suppose it can be if the formal liturgy has become lifeless and routinised but this process can happen within non-conformity too.) Last Sunday I finally found an evangelical Anglican church where good expository preaching was given and the PB liturgy was used. My, it was good! I had almost given up hope. The church is the Church of St Edward the Confessor in Blackburn South, Melbourne, Australia. I...