The Greatest Message ever expressed

God has received a bad press. Many who have claimed to represent Him have misrepresented Him. The wrong message has been communicated. People think He is out of touch, cold, distant and uncaring. In the birth of Jesus Christ God speaks for Himself.

When we converse with people, we often struggle to find the right words to communicate what is on our minds. We are left feeling frustrated because we haven’t adequately or accurately expressed ourselves – our hearers haven’t got the right impression or the full story.

When God wanted to express Himself to the human race, He had just the word. John opens his Gospel with this statement:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word God used was a person. This person couldn’t be a mere man – that would be an inaccurate representation of God, because the human race has been corrupted by sin and so couldn’t communicate what God is like. Neither could the person be a mighty angel – that would be an inadequate representation of God, because angels, though sinless, are finite – they are creatures, and as such could never fully communicate what God is. In order for God to accurately and adequately express Himself, the person had to be God, and so John tells us, “the Word was God.”

But for us to understand this message it had to be translated into our language. That’s why John goes on to say:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1:14

One who was God became man in order to declare what God is like. As one Bible teacher said, “when we look at Him, the guessing games about God stop.” We don’t have to imagine what God is like. We don’t have to wonder if He’s interested in us. We don’t have to speculate about how we can know Him. Look at Christ.

Look at Jesus in the manger – He was God, and He was prepared to come to us. Look at Jesus in Nazareth – He was God, and He was prepared to live with us. Look at Jesus on the cross – He was God, and He was prepared to die for us.

God has something to say to you, and He has said it all in Christ.

Have you got the message?

The Greatest Gift ever given

It’s the Christmas tradition that causes the most excitement for children (and anxiety for parents) – presents. So what makes a gift a good one? Here are five features. As you look at them you will see that God is offering the perfect gift.

The Greatest Person ever born

A baby – the epitome of weakness, in a manger – the epitome of poverty, and yet Christmas carols declare, and Christians believe, that this baby in the manger is none less than “Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord.” But are there any good reasons to believe that the baby in the manger is the Creator? Let’s look at three.

The Greatest Story ever told

The Creator entering into His creation to sacrifice Himself for His creatures – there is no story like it, but is it just a story, or is it true?

I don't (want to) know

I was talking to an atheist friend of mine a while ago, and I asked him how he could account for reason if the only reality is physical reality.

Ehrman's error

Bart Ehrman is a New Testament textual critic who used to be a professing Christian but is now an agnostic and writes books that seek to cast doubt on the reliability of Scripture, but his arguments are self-contradictory.

Who do you think you are?

We live in an individualistic society. In many parts of the world today, and in every part historically, a person was identified by their family, tribe and nation. There was a great sense that the individual’s identity was bound up in the group. The theory of our culture is that you can make your own identity, and it doesn’t matter about your family, tribe or nation. That’s the theory anyway.

Respect

I told you in a previous post about an atheist friend (Robert) I had a chat with. I want to focus on another aspect of our conversation. 

"What sacrifice?" or "What a sacrifice!"

I had an interesting conversation recently with an atheist (Robert) which was wide-ranging and led into many areas that I might write about later, but I want to focus now on one area – the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Why doing good is no good and not good

It is the common teaching of so many religions, as well as being the common-sense notion most people have – the way of salvation is by being good. Although this is widely held, sincerely believed and often preached, it’s not biblically based. The Bible stands apart from every other message and says that salvation is not by good works. In fact, the Bible teaches that if you seek salvation by good works you will get neither.

To help you understand what I mean, I will tell you about a conversation I recently had with a very religious man (Alan).

Thinking about thinking

I had a very enjoyable conversation recently with a man who told me he didn’t believe in God. The reason he gave for his view was that he didn’t think there was any reason to believe in God.

Court is in session

A lot of the best dramas are set in a courtroom. The biggest courtroom drama wasn’t written by John Grisham but by God Himself in the Bible.

A matter of taste or a matter of fact?

I had an interesting conversation recently with a very friendly lady who introduced herself to me as a Pagan / Wiccan, with a bit of Mormon thrown in.

Gordon's story

Here is another video from the Understanding the Gospel website.

But what about...?

It is one of the most common responses to the evidence for the miracles of Jesus in general and His resurrection in particular – “What about all the miracles reported in other religions?” As if believing in the miracles reported in the Gospels binds the Christian by the cords of consistency to believe in all reported miracles.

The reliability of the Bible

Here is another video from the Understanding the Gospel website.

Simple, not easy

It was Monday morning and a friend asked me if I had been preaching the night before. I told him I had, and he asked me what I was speaking about, so I told him I had been speaking about the words of Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved”. He replied, “If it was that easy then everyone would do it.” I told him it wasn’t easy at all.

Can We Trust the Gospels? Book review

I just finished a book by Peter J. Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?

Here's what I think of it...

Two simple facts, one startling truth

The cornerstone of Christianity is the resurrection of Christ – if it happened, Christianity is true; if it didn’t, it isn’t.

Everyday Evangelism

Everyday Evangelism is now available on Kindle. If that's your thing you can get it here.

Testimony

Here's another video that I did for the Understanding the Gospel project:

Who is God?

Here is a video I was asked to do for the new Understanding the Gospel website. I hope you find it helpful.

Understanding the Gospel

I've been helping with a website aimed at giving information about the gospel message and the Christian life. It has been launched today. I hope you'll have a look at it and that you'll find it helpful.

I'll put a video or link to an article here every once in a while.

Have a look at this:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence? OK then.

We often hear from atheists that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. They think the Christian is obliged to provide this extraordinary evidence to support his "extraordinary" claims, but the gun they are holding is pointing at themselves.