This is a powerful illustration that is quite easy to understand.  It is also a thought-provoking paradox worthy of closer introspection.  Jesus is speaking in terms of His own life, but He is also offering to us an example to follow with our lives as well.  When He spoke these words the time was very near for Him to allow His life to be taken as the sacrifice for all sin…including yours and mine!

Jesus was that quintessential “single seed”.  But oh what power His death produces in us!  This illustration can be further understood especially this time of year.  Many of you may be about to start your flower and vegetable gardens.  Consider the variety of seeds you will be planting.  And each of those seeds must be planted in the soil and “die” to bring forth wonderful blossoms of color and delectable ingredients for meals.  Little packets of seeds produce basketful’s of vegetables!

This Sunday we will look even closer into this “truth” Jesus is telling to us.  But we will also witness another powerful illustration of this idea.  This Sunday’s service will be a celebration of water baptism as we will rejoice with some in our church family as they give testimony to their faith in Jesus Christ.  Water Baptism is kind of a living portrayal of what Jesus said about life coming out of death.  In baptism, an individual is saying a am a single life that has died with Christ (immersion into the water) and through His power has been raised up again with a new life, a new creation for His service and glory!

I invite you this Sunday to come to church.  You will hear this Powerful Truth from God’s Word.  You will see it.  But my sincere prayer is that you will experience it personally in your life.  The power of a single seed…the power of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection!

In John’s Gospel, the apostle offers an analysis immediately following Jesus’ miraculous resurrection of Lazarus.  In John 11:45-57, he records the different reactions of the crowd, which includes the religious leaders.  One in particular, Caiaphas, Israel’s high priest, is in direct opposition to Jesus.  He becomes the leader in the plot to kill Jesus, but in doing so, the Lord uses Caiaphas to actually prophecy the truth about Jesus death or rather, His sacrifice for all (v. 50).  This passage is a wonderful doorway into the truth and hope that we can trust in a sovereign God.

I invite you this Sunday to be with us as we look at this passage and see how the Lord will use anything and everything in our lives to bring about the fulfillment of His plans and purposes for us.  However, in the end it is still our choice whether to trust and believe in Him for our lives!  I hope to see you as we look at “A Prophetic Plot” in the Gospel of John.

There have been a few occasions in John where this truth comes to a head.  Where John records the questions people or an individual asked of Jesus.  In John 10, in a “once and for all” way, the Jews ask Jesus to tell them “plainly” if He is Christ the Messiah, the Son of God!

As Jesus had done so already on numerous occasions, He answered them.  What followed is what we will address this coming Sunday, or as I call it, THE PLACE OF DECISION!

The act of making a decision is very powerful.  When we make a decision, we eliminate the question with an answer. When we make a decision we trade confusion for conviction.  When we make a decision we become dedicated rather than doubtful.

I hope you will make this very simple decision – come to church this Sunday!  This Sunday we will have the additional pleasure of worshiping the Lord together with Communion.  I truly hope to see you this Sunday.

So what am I going to do about this kind of quandary I am feeling?  I’m glad you asked and there are a few specific things I am asking the Lord to help me accomplish this year.  I think you might find them interesting and worthy of consideration for yourself.  This Sunday offers the perfect opportunity for such a time of sharing.  The Lord’s Day as well as the first day of the new year.  In fact the very first real significant act you can involve yourself in could be Communion.  Now to me that has the potential to be a wondrously satisfying start to a new year.  Then I will tell you the expectations I have for me (and our church) for the new year.

Proverbs 13:4 offers the gateway to being “fully satisfied” and this Sunday I want to share with you how I want to open wide that gate into the new year.

Please join with me and others this year by making our faith in Jesus Christ…Priority #1 on Day #1 of the year 2012.  Start the year by starting the day with your family in church.  As it was on Christmas Day, we will start our New Year’s Day service at 11:00 am.  I sincerely hope I will see you here.

Anyway, all this talk about that one final gift reminds me of our emphasis at Webster Assembly of God for this week of Christmas – the gifts the Magi presented to Jesus.  Of course I remind you that before they gave him the gold, frankincense and myrrh; they gave themselves to Him by bowing in worship.

What is it about those gifts?  The gold we talked about last Sunday and really is kind of easy to understand that Christ is the King, the King of kings!  But frankincense and myrrh, most of us can barely spell them let alone tell someone what they are.  Well, let that set the stage for this Christmas weekend.  Let me invite you to two very special Christmas celebrations:

First on Christmas Eve, a Candlelight Celebration from 6:00-7:00 pm where we will share about how the frankincense distinguishes Christ as Lord, just like the angels announced to the shepherds in Luke 2:11.

And second on Christmas Day, a Communion Celebration from 11:00-12:00 noon when we will declare Christ as Savior, revealing the gift of myrrh as an illustration of the sacrifice Jesus became for you and me.

I hope you can make time for both of these precious times of worship.  I know this year presents a unique challenge with Christmas being on Sunday.  But I feel it makes it all the more special.  the Lord’s Day and Christmas Day on the same Day…tell me how can it get any more special.  I hope to see you in person this Christmas!  But if not, make like a wise man (or wise woman) and WORSHIP CHRIST…FOR HE ALONE IS KING of kings, LORD of lords and our MOST WONDERFUL SAVIOR!

Then the stage will be set for the week of Christmas, when we will have a series of three services devoted to our theme – “Called to Worship!” The messages in these celebrations will focus on the three gifts presented to Jesus by the wise men who traveled from the east to worship Christ.

Sunday, December 18 at 9:30 am, we will focus on the gold as we seek to “Worship our King.”
Saturday, December 24 at 6:00 pm, during our special Christmas Eve Candlelight Celebration we will seek to shine our lights in testimony and witness as incense to “Worship our Lord.”
Then Sunday, December 25 at 11:00 am (please note the later time from our normal Sunday Celebration) Christmas Day we will consider the myrrh and “Worship our Savior” with the observance of Holy Communion.
What awesome times of worship! I invite you to be a part of these appointed times when we can “bow down and worship Him” just as the wise men did. This Christmas Season I truly hope you “come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!”

Already with the Sundays surrounding Thanksgiving, our Sunday celebrations have focused on God’s desire and will for the worship of His people.  View them for yourself at websterag.org.  From John 4:23, Christ Himself declared “a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”  And Pastor Doug shared what the Apostle Paul told the church in Thessolonica was God’s will for their worship, “be joyful always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances,” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

Leading up to Christmas and including Christmas Day, we are going to look at the gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth to see the immediate and natural reaction of the individuals who were present at this miraculous introduction of the Son of God.  In a phrase, “THEY WORSHIPED HIM!”

From Mary to the Magi, including a host of angels and a group of shepherds, plus a couple of priests and a prophetess; all of them glorified and worshiped the Lord God!  Hear some of their praises:

• My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.  (Luke 1:46)
• Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people.  (Luke 1:68)
• Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.  (Luke 2:14)
• Sovereign Lord…my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the sight of all people.  (Luke 2:29-30)

Men and women, the wise and the humble, from every walk of life…Jesus came for each one and for all, that they might know the love of God for them.  And, THEY WORSHIPED HIM!

This season, I invite you to come and join us for the mulitple opportunities we will have this month to experience His coming into our lives and to simply WORSHIP HIM!  To quote a familiar Christmas refrain, “Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the new born King!”

What is the purpose for such a display of lights?  To get everyone in the spirit of the Christmas holiday I am sure.  Do you know God desires to “display” His work in our lives all year around?

John chapter 9 is a wonderfully unique chapter.  John offers to us a vivid story of an occasion with many individuals.  At the center of which is an encounter a blind man has with Jesus, the Light of the world!  The highlight verse is near the beginning, verse 3, when Jesus answers a question of his disciples with this marvelous truth…a truth that is the “true truth” for all of us.  The man’s blindness was “so that the work of God might be DISPLAYED in his life.”

What a tremendous motivation and outlook for living life.  That no matter what the circumstances and conditions we may find ourselves in (even “from birth” as with the blind man), God’s plan is to DISPLAY His work of love and grace for us and in us.  Whether in struggles or in prosperity, we are a DISPLAY for the power and strength that comes from Jesus Christ, the Light of the world!

I invite you to join with us this Sunday as we look at this “illuminating” chapter in the Gospel of the Apostle John.  Together we will see the great revelation the Lord God Almighty has for each of us as we learn more about who Jesus is and how He is displaying His awesome work in each of our lives.  I sincerely want to see what He is doing in you!

“I tell you the truth…”

These two truths are:

“…if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

“…before Abraham was born, I AM!”

I invite you to join with us this Sunday as we look at these two statements of truth from Jesus that have everything to do with the reality of both death and eternal life.  Then we will celebrate together Communion and the promise we can have in Jesus Christ, the great and eternal I AM!