The Joy of Revealing Christ

Gary Lidstone – Pastor to Seniors

John 15:21-25

I was seven when we made our first road trip “down east” from Ontario. My paternal grandparents lived in Dalhousie, New Brunswick and I had little opportunity to get to know them. But I had a curiosity about my grandfather. A small man, quite deaf from his years in the paper mill, he would sit on the back steps of their modest house, unable to hear and unconcerned about orders from the nearby kitchen. I recall sitting with him on the back step, looking, desiring to know him. His well-worn hands revealed a life of hard work. His tattoos from the war years fascinated me. But as the years passed I understood that I would only learn more about my grandfather by observing his son, my father.

Jesus came to show us His Father and to do His will. He said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Just as Christ showed us the Father, we are to show Christ and hence the Father, through our lives. We should not be surprised that some will find the resemblance repulsive. But what an amazing privilege it is to grow in the knowledge and likeness of our Father through a deepening relationship with His Son. But there is a cost. Jesus’ contemporaries hated Him, His Father and His disciples. He told his disciples,

“They will treat you this way (persecution) because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ John 15:21-25

We celebrate that you came as God incarnate to be Emmanuel; that you, the Living Word, spoke the very words of God, words of life. We worship you in the glory of who you are, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.

We confess that we are tempted to deflect hatred towards you by avoiding a bold witness. In moments of deep worship, we are ready to die with you, but when hatred towards you shows its frightening face, we are tempted to duck. Forgive us when we don’t reflect your glory and grace to a lost world.

Father, deepen our love, our courage, and our commitment to follow our Saviour.

May it be said of us, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8,9

O come let us adore Him!