Video for January 29th, 2026
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.
At this time of the year John the Baptist is a frequent visitor to our church services. At the beginning of Advent we had him at his combative best, accusing the religious leaders of being a brood of vipers. A couple of weeks ago, in John’s account, he was a little more thoughtful. He is beginning to pass the baton of ministry from himself, pointing people to Jesus. He provides a link from God’s dealing with his people in the Old Testament to His revelation in the New. There are similarities, sufficient for his first hearers to note the resonances, but radical departures as well, although these too can be traced back to the words of the Old Testament prophets. John (and indeed all the New Testament writers) don’t see Jesus and his work as a complete departure from the past but rather its fulfilment.
The key in John’s thinking is a recognition of who Jesus is. This is a new category of being altogether. Prophets were understood, if not particularly welcome. They were the Greta Thornbergs of the ancient near east! Our Muslim friends still consider Jesus to be a prophet – someone who speaks from God, albeit just a prophet. We Christians, after John, see him as much more than that. In fact, it is our understanding of Jesus in the terms that John uses that distinguish Christian faith from every other. Several phrases pop up in John’s Gospel as John points his own followers to Jesus: Lamb of God; Son of God; Messiah, being the most prominent.
The ancient Israelites had a sacrificial system where the death of an animal, an everyday part of agricultural life, was symbolically incorporated as part of their worship. They understood the death of that animal to symbolically take away their sins and reassure them of God’s forgiveness. Jesus takes up that symbol in his own life and death on a cross for us. But John describes Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus comes not just to reassure us of God’s love. He will effect forgiveness rather than just symbolise it. It won’t just be about my sins being forgiven, if I receive that gift, it will be about the transformation of the world. It won’t just be another religious ritual and a course of moral improvement, but the offer of a transforming power within. The prophets Jeremiah in chapter 33 and Ezekiel in chapter 36 hint at it. No longer will the moral life be about external regulation which we strive to live by. Both say that God will write the law on hearts which will become hearts of flesh rather than hearts of stone.
This may sound high falutin theology, but it really matters. This is the heart of what makes the Christian Gospel distinct, powerful and life changing. This is all we have to offer. The gospel diagnoses a profound problem. Humanity left to its own devices is alienated from God. That alienation leads not only to all the problems in human and international relationships that we see writ large every time we turn on the television, but also to the dissonance between human beings and the natural world. Alienation from God leads to alienation from everything and everyone else. That alienation can only be dealt with at root through forgiveness. That forgiveness can only be achieved through Jesus Christ’s death for us on the cross. The real power to transform the heart subsequently can only happen through the resurrection life of God coming into human hearts submitted to Christ’s authority through the Holy Spirit. The New Testament model was that that Gospel would subsequently spread around the world through the witness of communities of individuals being changed by it and subsequently changing the world around them. The atheist philosopher Nietzsche said, “show me you are redeemed and I will believe your redeemer”. So, no pressure then! If only the church of his day had been more alive and Gospel focussed the whole course of secular thought would have been very different.
In 32 years of ministry, I have yet to see a power like the gospel to transform peoples’ lives. Changed hearts put broken marriages back together; people discovering they are loved enough to die for delivers them from the tyranny of the opinion of others; the healing of deep seated pain releases people from their captivity to addictive substances that they used as an anaesthetic substitute; people becoming convinced of the truthfulness and emotional credibility of the gospel find meaning, purpose and love. I’ve seen all of that. Day by day people continue to discover that in every place and culture.
My prayer for us as we face really challenging times at an institutional level is that we renew our confidence in these truths; that we open our hearts afresh to the power of the indwelling spirit; that we commit more deeply to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and seek his will for our lives and church. That is where the fruitful future lies. Andrew found these things in Jesus and said to his brother, “come and see.” Will we be courageous enough to do the same?
+Richard