Reset

Preached at Christ church, Billericay on 4 January 2026 at 10:00

Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW4Tstb0kFo, from 28:55 to 42:34

Prayer

Gracious Father, we come seeking your presence and your wisdom. Speak to us today, and help us to walk in the grace you so freely give.

New Year

Well, although it’s not our new year, the church year starts at Advent, it is still the civic New Year, so I should wish you all “Happy New Year”. The start of the new year can be a bit of a reset. As we reflect on 2025, and decide that we’re not going to do that again, or we need to do things better, or at least differently. This is where new year’s resolutions come from. It’s common to think of improving our diet, reducing alcohol, taking more exercise – which seems to be the cure for most of our ills, these days. Suddenly, people join the gym.

Perhaps you are going to try a spiritual reset. To try to read your bible more, or pray more.

Quit Day

The problem is these things rarely last. The second Friday of January is being called “quit day” (there’s already a TV advert showing a crowd of people leaving a gym). That’s next Friday, only 9 days into the year. Mostly, it’s better to change your habits when there’s something more impactful than a calendar date.

If you’re going to try a spiritual reset, the first ‘in-church’ prayer evening is next Wednesday at 7:45pm, two days before ‘quit day’.

Jeremiah

In the Jeremiah reading, the Israelites are in a bad way. Jerusalem has been defeated. They are tired and possibly injured by the war. They have been forced across the desert by their enemies. It has been a long and difficult journey. They feel abandoned by their God:

Psalm 137:4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?

Here, we see God is promising a return from exile. Not only that, but the return will be easy, as we see from 31:9.

They will come with weeping;
    they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
    on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
    and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

The promise should reset their thinking, allowing them to focus more on the future than the past. They will still have a lot of thinking and praying to do as they try to understand the disaster that has befallen them. Their thinking has to turn from “why did God abandon us?” to “why did we ignore God and His love for us?”.

What it teaches us

The experience of the Israelites, is no different from the experience of so many people in our world today. Millions have been displaced by war, or famine. They will all feel abandoned, and will not understand the culture of the countries they end up in. They just want to go home and resume their normal life.

Gaza refugees

I was struck by the scenes of the refugees in Gaza when the fighting stopped. Endless streams of people, carrying what little they had left. Making their way along the wide dusty road, with piles of rubble, destroyed homes and businesses, on either side, heading back to their homes – if they even existed now.

Like the Israelites, they will face the painful work of rebuilding and re‑thinking their future.

John 1

John, on the other hand, doesn’t want there to be too much of a reset in people's thinking as they read his Gospel. Today we are looking at his prologue. John is setting the scene, and providing the context for the story of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection.

Unlike the other gospels, where the question “Who is this man?” is slowly uncovered, John dives straight in.

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

So, Jesus is the Word, who was with God, and who was God. We see the beginnings of Trinitarian understanding here, though John’s main emphasis is on Jesus as Creator. Verse 3 links Him back to creation. All the “God said” verses in Genesis chapter 1 are Jesus, the Word creating everything.

That alone, is not enough, John also tells us that the Word has life, the implication being that all life comes from Him, and Him alone. His life is what gives us our ‘light’. The light Christ gives us is what awakens and shapes our moral conscience. It’s that quality within us that enables us, encourages us to do good.

As James 1 say

¹⁷ Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same. ¹⁸ God decided to give us life through the true message he sent to us. He wanted us to be the most important of all that he created.

Darkness

There is also a darkness inside each one of us, which again goes back to Genesis and the story of how sin entered the world. The darkness though has not overcome the light.

I remember being on a small, narrow gauge train. We were on the first carriage, sat sideways, back to back with the people on the other side. Maybe 8 to a carriage. The little diesel engine groaned as it took us into the mountain - up hill. The driver was telling us about the mining operation, and reminding us to keep our heads down. The miners had followed the seam, it was a bit twisty in the little tunnels. Then we stopped, and the driver told us that he was going to switch the lights off so that we could see the conditions the miners worked in.

It was completely dark. You couldn't see a centimetre in front of you. On the dashboard there was the tiniest dim red light. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The darkness had not overcome it.

John the Baptist

Next John introduces John the Baptist, so I’m guessing the people he was writing for will have heard of John the Baptist, and perhaps some of them were even following his teaching. John the Baptist was only a witness to the light, and that light, Jesus, was coming into the world.

He came to that which was His own – the Israelites, the descendants of those who had returned to Jerusalem and later been conquered again. They were now so far from really understanding God, that they did not recognise Him when He arrived. He was rejected by their religious leaders, well, most of them. To those who did recognise Him and welcome Him, He gave the right to become children of God.

Children of God?

If we choose to accept that right, it forms the basis of our relationship with God:

We can speak directly to God in prayer (Heb 4:16).

We are not condemned for our sins, but forgiven. (Ro 8:1)

We will inherit eternal life (Ro 8:17)

but the offer also comes with responsibilities:

Love your neighbour (Matthew 22:39)

Do justice and love mercy (Micah 6:8)

Forgive others (Matthew 6:14–15)

Care for the poor and oppressed (Isaiah 1:17)

Accepting that right, is a major reset in anyone’s life.

The birth

In verse 14 we are told that the Word, became flesh, this is as near as John gets to a birth narrative. Rather than concentrate on the baby, because that’s not really relevant to a prologue, we are told that the one and only Son, is full of grace and truth.

Grace

God has already been gracious in His dealings with the Israelites, He has given them the Law and the Prophets to guide them, but they have chosen to ignore both. Even when they suffered the consequences of their action, He rescued them and returned them to their land. Now there is more grace from God, as He sent His son to guide all people everywhere. This is not a reset in God’s thinking, this is part of His long term plan.

Reset

If we are going to take this opportunity to reset our thinking, to review our spirituality, to determine to go in a better direction, let’s remember the grace that we have been given, and determine to have that same grace with others that God has with us.

In 2025 the world seems to have become a darker place, with more wars and hatred. So, let us shine Jesus’s spiritual light on the world. We can either be a reflection of Jesus’s light, [Show a mirror] or we can be a refraction of Jesus’s light [Show 'Dark side of the Moon cover'], and just pass on some of what we receive. This light cannot be overcome, it will continue to shine however deep the darkness gets, until perhaps it is the only thing we can see.

Or, it could become so bright that it's the only thing we can see 

Amen.

References 

• https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/jesus-the-word-become-flesh-in-john-1/
• https://mypastoralponderings.com/2025/01/03/living-in-the-real-world-with-god-my-sermon-on-john-11-18-and-ephesians-13-14/
• https://www.mfbc.org/hp_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Hand-Out-for-John-1.1-18-Sermon.pdf
• https://shortpowerfulsermons.com/john-11-18-in-the-beginning-was-the-word/ 
• https://biblehub.com/q/archeological_proof_of_israel's_regathering.htm
• https://biblehub.com/q/Archaeological_proof_for_Jeremiah_31_events.htm
• https://www.bibliaplus.org/en/commentaries/138/peter-petts-commentary-on-the-bible/jeremiah/31/7-14
• https://desperatepreacher.com/sermonbuilder/a_2c.htm
• https://desperatepreacher.com/sermonbuilder/newsermons/close_to_the_fathers_heart.htm
• https://youtu.be/5VJMgzvrTZA?si=d_Z5BxkJpkKBHV2m. The prologue 
• https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-christmas-3/commentary-on-jeremiah-317-14-10
• https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/12/31/3211800/0/en/Why-Most-New-Year-s-Resolutions-Fail-by-January-And-How-to-Make-Them-Stick-in-2026.html

 

 

God's Children

 Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 2 January 2022

Readings: Jeremiah 31:7-14, John 1:10-18

​Introduction

I’m going to look at each of these readings separately, then think a little about the common theme they both express – “Children of God”.

​Jeremiah – prophet of Doom

We don’t hear a lot about Jeremiah in our regular lectionary readings, so it’s worth a quick recap. Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry began in Judah in 626 B.C. His prophecies ended in 580 B.C. and occurred during the reign of Josiah (640–609) Jehoahaz (609), Jehoiakim (609–598), Jehoiachin (598–597) and Zedekiah (597–586). This was the time of the rise of Babylon, and the destruction of Assyria. Josiah was sympathetic to Jeremiah and listened to him, but the following kings were hostile. That maybe because Jeremiah was known as a prophet of doom. He had heard from God what was coming and relayed it faithfully to the leaders, it was mainly an unpopular message.

​Not this time

That’s not true of our reading today. It starts “Sing with Joy for Jacob” because the scattered exiles are coming home. God is bringing his Children home. There is quite a debate about the ‘land of the North’ in verse 8. Some say Babylon, because although Babylon is to the east, the armies would have approached Israel from the north. Some say that it’s Assyria, because Assyria is at least in the stated direction, and it generally fits better with the timeline than Babylon.

​Favour Assyria

Another reason to favour Assyria is the following words, “Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labour”. The Assyrians, in particular, had been exceedingly cruel towards pregnant women: now the women with child, and those in labour, joined the great throng of returning exiles. God is redeeming the specific hurts that the Israelites have suffered.

​Abundance and Joy

The main message of the passage is one of redemption, and the promise of a better life. This is what God wants for his children. It was promised before as ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’. It’s a similar message here in verse 12 “they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD— the grain, the new wine and the oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.”

In this war torn land there is to be an extended time of peace. You cannot benefit from the fruit of the vine until the fourth year according to Jewish law, so that gives about five years of peace.

When the time arrives, these things will be a great cause of celebration and joy.

​Start of John

The start of John’s gospel is completely different to the start of the other three. Instead of the readers finding out who Jesus is by following his birth stories, John sets it from the very beginning. There it is in verses 1 and 2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”

Straight away we know that Jesus, the Word, is God. Two thirds of the trinity is already established, and one of the biggest questions of the other gospels, - ‘who is this man?’ is answered. Then we are introduced to John the Baptist, a man who John’s readers may have heard of, so that the gospel is set in a time and place that the readers can relate to.

​How to recognise God

Then we come to our reading (v10-11) “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

How would you recognise someone in this world, who had made this world? It seems obvious that you couldn’t.

​Discworld

In Terry Pratchet’s Discworld novels, there is a planet made by the wizards called round world – it’s supposed to be planet earth. It is kept in a glass dome in the Unseen University, where it is looked after by one particularly incompetent wizard. In one story, they need to make some changes to the way the society on 'round world' is operating, so they magic themselves into the round world. They, of course, look just like the people there, and no one knows who they are. Needless to say, the wizard's attempts are hilarious and disastrous. It’s an entertaining story.

​Atheists invent God

Don’t you just love the way that atheists have to invent God to make their view of the universe work – but that’s an aside, the point is the ‘natives’ of 'round world' cannot spot the gods (small g) who are invading them.

​Real world

In 'real world', where we are, our real God has the same problem. He needs to adjust the way things are going, and to do that He needs to be here. The difference is that Pratchet’s gods did not want to be known, but our real God does, because He knows that the only way to affect real change in His world is to go and show the ‘natives’ (us) how life should be lived.

So, he has a problem, how will He be recognised, as He will have to look just like us, but behave just a little differently.

Well, God has been speaking to people the whole time, through prophets, like Jeremiah, trying to direct them in the way they live, and in the way they relate to other nations. So there is plenty of evidence (the whole Old Testament, and some other writings) for the people at the time of Jesus’s arrival to recognise who he is.

​If you know …

If you know what God is like, if you’ve read the scriptures carefully and prayerfully, if you have understood how He wants you to live to get the best out of your existence, you should recognise Jesus for who He is. And some did.

​v12-13

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

​Adopted Children

Paul says that “those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.” Sonship is a term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture, and applies to all those who recognise Jesus.

​Grand children

I have seven grandchildren:

• one that is starting to have more adult conversations;

• one that is becoming a good mimic;

• one that is the class clown;

• one that is empathetic, even with my dog;

• one that has a world of their own and invites me in;

• one that has just come running up to me for the first time with arms in the air saying ‘grandad’;

• one that just smiles and grins and smiles.

​Delight

I delight in each one of them, in their own different ways, I look for them to grow and to flourish in whatever they enjoy doing and encourage them as much as I’m able. I’m sure that I’m not unusual in that respect, so if I can know and delight in my grandchildren that I see relatively infrequently (especially recently), just imagine how God, our creator and adopter delights in each of us, whom he knows intimately. This is where we put ourselves when we recognise Jesus as the son of God, which He is because John says “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (v14)

​Jeremiah 31:9

In our Old Testament reading, God describes Himself as Israel's father, and Ephraim as his firstborn son. The picture is the same as in the reading from John. God has always cared for and delighted in His children.

That should be an encouragement to us, and is a good reason for us to celebrate, as we head into an uncertain 2022.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief purpose is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” So, if you’re making new year’s resolutions, try something like “This year I’m going to enjoy God’s love for me more and more”

Then we will truly begin to understand what it means to be a child of God.

Amen.

Sermon: Messiah?

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay 5 Jan 2020 @ 10:00

Reading Jeremiah 31v7-14; John 1

Convert You / Con You

I watched a trailer for a Netflix series called Messiah. There are suggestions it is about the second coming, but I haven’t watched any of the episodes yet so I can’t be sure. What I can say is that it is a typical Netflix series, well produced and no doubt has plenty of twists and turns. There is also the portrayal of events that may be seen as miracles. There will be controversy – people arguing for both sides of the debate. Is he the messiah or not? Is he dangerous? Is he leading a cult? Just exactly who is this guy? I’m sure that Netflix can make that go on for any number of series. The trailer ends with Convert You / Con You.

The Gospels

It set me wondering what the controversies and questions were when John wrote his Gospel. Matthew, and Luke were writing to simply explain what happened, so they used their sources to tell the story as they remembered it or had heard it. They start with stories of Jesus’ origin – his birth, his genealogy, his childhood, and then move on to the story of John the Baptist. Mark’s gospel doesn’t worry about Jesus’ origins but starts with John the Baptist.

In each of them we find out who Jesus is bit by bit as His divinity and mission are revealed to those around him during his life. Only Luke gives us early clues as he tells Mary’s story.

John’s Gospel

By the time John was writing towards the end of the 1^st century, Christianity had already spread widely around the Roman Empire. It is most likely addressed to 2^nd and 3^rd generation Christians. Already there were theological questions being asked. Already there are all sorts of heresies cropping up, although it is difficult to know exactly what they were. So John starts his Gospel, not with Jesus’ birth or His genealogy, but right at the beginning, of time (or even before time began).

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

The Word

Echoing Genesis, even pre-dating Genesis, John tells us the The Word was with God, and the Word was God. The theology of the Trinity has been started, but more importantly John has established who Jesus is right at the beginning of the gospel. There is little room for debate. Even Netflix would struggle to make an argument about who Jesus is based on this.

The creator

John also tells us that Jesus is the agent of creation, everything that has been created was created through Him.

The Universe

When you look up at the night sky and see the Milky Way (if you can get away from our light pollution) remember that Jesus made all of that. The people originally reading John’s gospel would share our sense of awe at what we see, but they wouldn’t have the understanding we do now. We know that what we see is mainly just our galaxy and that here are more than 100 billion other galaxies out there.

Life

Don’t think about it too hard because it’s not the most awesome thing you can see. John goes on, telling us more about Jesus, the Word.

⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Jesus has all life in Him. That life was the light of people. 100 billion galaxies with maybe 300 billion stars in each but that is just darkness. The real light is the life in Jesus, everything else is just darkness. Those in the darkness do not understand what true light is, they are just stargazers.

Mission

Now, you’ll be relieved to know, I’m going to move a little faster through the chapter. The true light that give light to everyone has come inside His own creation. That idea on its own is quite mind bending, but we must allow that God can indeed do anything. The hows are not discussed, how could they be, but the purpose is. That is in verse 12 if you’re following through with me. To those who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God. Children born of God, not by the natural processes of the world. We’ll hear more about that in Chapter 3 where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and tells him that we must be born again.

“Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. ⁷Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

So, now we know Jesus’ mission. He has come to literally re-connect us to God, and we have a small insight into how that will happen, but the full story is not told here.

End of the Intro

The next verse (v14) brings this introduction to an end. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The literally means ‘pitched His tent among us’. If you’ve ever been to a camp site or a music festival (like Greenbelt or Glastonbury) you will get a sense of how close that is.

John, as the writer says “We have seen His glory” that means that John knows the end, the death and resurrection of Jesus and is claiming to be a witness to it, but he will tell that part of the story in due course.

Grace and Truth

Jesus, the One and Only, John says is full of grace and truth. This is an important idea for John, because it is repeated in verse 17. It is because of God’s grace to us, that we are able to benefit from Jesus’ death and resurrection and be united with God. Only because of God’s grace can we see the light that is in Christ and be turned from out and out sinners to faithful Christians.

Conclusion to Introduction

So John has set out for his readers his basic theology, and has no doubt addressed many of the questions that were around at the time. He has made it very clear for people who He says Jesus is – the Word of God, the creator of all things, who was with God in the beginning and is therefore not part of creation.

Now the story of Jesus’ life can be told. With everything that happens we can reference back to who Jesus is.

Lamb of God

Let’s skip forward now, jumping over the story of John the baptist, that John needs to tell to ensure his account fits with the others going around at the time, to verse 29. Here we will get some more ways of identifying Jesus.

In this short section John records John the baptist identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. His Jewish readers and probably many of his gentile readers would be reminded of Isaiah 53:7

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

They may also realise that he is referring to Jesus like the daily sacrifices in the temple, which took place each morning and each evening – a lamb whose sacrifice atoned for the sins of the people was offered to God on the alter.

Except, of course, Jesus’ sacrifice can only occur once, not twice a day, but because of who Jesus is this is sufficient.

Son of God

John says that he identified Jesus because he he saw the “Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him” (verse 33). This is recorded in Matthew 3:16 as John baptises Jesus:

“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.”

and in verse 34 we have the title “Son of God” or “God’s Chosen one” depending which edition of the NIV you read.

Calling the Disciples

The remainder of the chapter is about the calling of the first disciples. The first two are John the baptist’s disciples who leave John to follow Jesus. They recognise Jesus as a teacher (they call him Rabbi). Andrew tells Simon that he has found the Messiah.

When Philip is called he identifies Jesus as the “one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets wrote.”

Nathaniel

Nathaniel recognises who Jesus is very quickly and identifies him as Rabbi, ‘Son of God’, and King of Israel after what appears to be a very minor miracle.

Conclusion

We have seen Jesus identified as many different things by John, who knew him well to Nathaniel who had only just met him. If we think back to the Netflix series and ask some of the questions, what answers will we get?

Is He the messiah? Yes, according to John he clearly is.

Is he dangerous? Well that depends on who you are, if you are the authorities exercising power over the people, then yes. Not only did he rise from the dead, but he completely changes the Roman Empire in just a few hundred years.

Is he leading a cult? No, he is leading a movement.

So what’s your answer to the question Just exactly who is this guy?

And what difference will that answer make to the world around you in the coming year?