Ephesians 4:14-16 Introduction Too often churches are short sighted as to what their goals are. Some have a focus on evangelism and that is good. But what they sometimes mean is that they want to just get people to a point of salvation. They want people to pray a certain prayer, get baptized and identify…
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Romans 12:1-2 Introduction Few issues get Christians as worked up as their personal preferences when it comes to worship. There is a reason why people call it the worship wars. There is your side, there are the people who are worn, and there is a battle to be won. We often think of worship as…
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Romans 10:14-15 Introduction If I asked you to at some point today approach a random stranger and share with them the gospel, how would you react? You might respond by saying that you are shy and don’t talk to strangers. Fine, go and share the gospel with a close friend or family member that you…
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Colossians 3:12-17 Introduction There are are many ways we could look at the evolution of the western church over the past number of decades. It could be changes in attendance, it could be changes in architecture, it could be changes in technology, or it could be changes in music. Imagine using a time machine to…
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Zephaniah 3:14-20 Introduction I remember in university the challenge of picking courses because certain courses had required prerequisites. You couldn’t just jump into a course, you had to look what courses you needed to have already have. The idea was that one course prepared the way for the other courses because one curriculum was built…
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Malachi 3:1-4 Introduction When we think of Christmas, one of the themes that often comes to mind is that of peace. If you think about a nativity scene, the calm animals, the reverent visitors, the serene parents and of course the sleeping baby, all of it looks so peaceful. And that is what we consider…
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Jeremiah 33:14-16 Introduction One of the most difficult things to hold onto, depending upon your circumstances, is hope. In fact, we may be afraid to even try to hope. I recently came across this statement in Psychology Today about the danger of hope: “The emotion of hope pertains to that which hasn’t yet transpired. So…
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Hebrews 13:20-21 Introduction One of the things that really bothers me is when something important is missing. This could be putting together a complex puzzle and after dedicating all that time, you get to the end and find that there are one or two pieces missing. I still enjoying making model airplanes and it is…
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Romans 3:21-31 Introduction While many people celebrate Halloween on October 31, that day is significant for protestant Christians for another reason. It was October 31 in 1517, that a monk named Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, in modern Germany. Although Luther was a Roman Catholic, he…
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Matthew 6:5-15 Introduction There is one passage of Scripture that I have heard more than any other and it is not even close. It is not the 23rd Psalm and it is not the Ten Commandments. The one passage that I have heard more than any other is the Lord’s Prayer. Not only did the…
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Acts 16:11-40 Introduction How does one become a Christian? That seems to be a fairly reasonable question. If we claim to be Christians, then we better know how one becomes a Christian. I don’t think that I’m straying into heresy by saying the way to Christianity is through Jesus. There are those who believe there…
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Acts 16:6-10 Introduction How many of you like to go on long car rides? This can be especially nice at this time of the year when the leaves are changing and before the snow comes and everyone forgets how to drive. There are a couple of ways you can choose to do one of these…
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Acts 16:1-5 Introduction How committed are you to the Church? I don’t mean specifically Queen Street Baptist Church, although there is overlap with what I’m talking about. I mean more specifically, how committed are you to being the Church? When I have talked to Christians of older generations about commitment, the response was usually somethings…
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Acts 15:36-41 Introduction I want you do something. Without look around the room, I want you to think back. Is there any person who is a part of this church that has disappointed you? Is there anyone who said or did something that really bothered you? Has there ever been a time when you saw…
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Acts 15:22-35 Introduction When you are reading a story, one of the important steps for understanding is identifying the major characters. This is true whether you are reading William Shakespeare or reading a Superman comic book. It is also true when reading history. I have an interest in reading both ancient history and the history…
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Acts 15:1-21 Introduction When you think of the different events put on by the church, what is your favourite? Is it the worship service? Bible studies and prayer meetings? Potlucks and other meals? Where do business meetings fit into the ranking? When I was just starting in ministry, I was warned about how bad church…
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Acts 14:8-20 Introduction Most likely, you have expectations for any situation you are facing. You may not know all the details and your expectations may be wrong, but you do have expectations. At a previous church, one where I was expected to wear a suit and tie to each service, I snuck out during a…
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Hebrews 2:10-18 Introduction A few weeks ago, I reminded you of the way that God chose to communicate with us. God didn’t just send another teacher or prophet, God sent his Son. Not a half-god but the exact reflection of God’s glory. In some mysterious way, when God was sending his Son, he was sending…
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Hebrews 1:1-4 Introduction Why are you here? Seriously, what are you doing here? More specifically, for those who identify as Christians, why do you bother? Why would you want to be a Christian? Why would you want to follow Christ? Those might seem like strange questions but they are important. For many people, the answers…
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Acts 13:44-52 Introduction It was approximately thirty years ago. I had just come out of a period of atheism while a student at Brock University. I had come to believe in a God but I had no idea what religion I should follow. Christianity seemed too obvious, being the most common religion in Canada and…
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Acts 13:13-43 Introduction One of my favourite things is studying history. In another life, I could have seen myself as a history teacher rather than a pastor. I like history because it is interesting and often entertaining. But I love history because it is relevant to today. Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with the…
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Acts 13:1-12 Introduction A few months ago, it was the twenty years ago that I was ordained. It was at Queensway Baptist Church in Brantford, and it took place on mystery last Sunday there before starting at a new church. It was a meaningful service but it really was one step in a long process…
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Acts 12:20-25 Introduction I’m going to give you a little bit of insight on how I go about picking passages to preach on. I enjoy preaching a series, preferably on a book of the Bible. I like this because it forces me to get outside my own area of interests and to be challenged by…
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Acts 12:1-19 Introduction It does not take us long before we discover that life is not fair. Children at a young age complain that things are not fair. They sense a disconnect when someone gets something good that they didn’t get or if they get punished and someone else doesn’t. It just isn’t fair! As…
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Acts 11:27-30 Introduction What is the question that the world is asking about the church? Believe it or not, the main question is not about which church is the true church. People are not lying awake at night wondering of the Anglicans or the Pentecostals or the Baptists have a corner on the truth. That…
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Acts 10:1-33 Introduction How common would you say prejudice is? We might be inclined to think that we are not as prejudiced as some other people. But then that is a form of prejudice. Here is an example. I find that Canadians point to Americans as people who have really struggled with racism. We hear…
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Matthew 28:1-10 A Frightening Morning I want you to imagine that first Easter morning, specifically from the perspective of the women. Perhaps you think of an early morning stroll through a garden with a few friends. That was not really what was happening. It was very early in the morning, so early that it was…
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Matthew 21:1-11 Introduction If you are a parent, or have at least spent some time with children, you will know that there is an ongoing lesson that needs to be taught. And that lesson is the difference between a need and a want. They need their favourite blanket. They need a bowl of ice cream.…
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Acts 9:19b-30 Introduction Has there ever been a time when you have felt rejected, like the whole world was against you? Perhaps the supports that once been there were now gone. Do you remember what that was like? And have you ever been in that position and someone came forward to support you? It may…
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Acts 9:1-20 Introduction I want you to think about the person you would most be surprised to become a Christian. It could be someone famous, perhaps a musician or an actor or a politician. Maybe it was someone who is a known criminal or is had had a particularly immoral life. Maybe it is someone…
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Exodus 3:1-15 Introduction Have you ever had an opportunity come your way that totally scared you? While you valued the opportunity, the task seemed beyond your abilities. When I think about these feelings, I automatically think about the anticipation of my basic training for the army. I did not have much time to process what…
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Acts 8:26-40 Introduction I have often felt like the story of the Ethiopian eunuch is one of the strangest in Acts. It’s not the picture of Philip running alongside the horse drawn chariot, listening to what the man was reading. Nor is it the way the Holy Spirit takes Philip away immediately after, making it…
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The Church scattered February 7, 2021 QSBC Acts 8:1-8 Introduction Back when I was in my mid-20s, I went on my first mission trip. It was with the organization Operation Mobilization. I was pretty excited to go overseas and preach the gospel. And I as feeling a bit overconfident as well, if I am honest.…
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Acts 7:54-60 Introduction Have you ever thought about what it will be like when you die? I don’t mean passing into the afterlife but in the hours and minutes leading up to it. I know that sounds morbid and yet it is something we will all experience. I have spent time with a lot of…
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Acts 7:51-53 Introduction Have you ever been having a conversation with someone and you realize that you have come to a crossroads? You can see the next thing that you plan to say in your mind. You know that if you say that, there is no going back. Not only will it change the direction…
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Acts 7:44-50 Introduction Many years ago, I was at a revival service here in St Catharines and I heard something that I have never forgotten. Interestingly, it was in his sermon but in his appeal for the offering. As he was asking people to dig deep into their wallets, he told us that God was…
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Matthew 2:1-12 Introduction You may think that Christmas is over but it is not. As the song says, there are twelve days of Christmas, starting on December 25 and ending on January 6. So Merry Christmas! When I think of Christmas, I often think of nativity sets. Each of us might be drawn to different…
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Hebrews 12:1-2 Introduction Throughout this season of Advent, we have looked at Jesus as our Hope-Giver, Peace-Giver and Love-Giver. We now come to Jesus as our Joy-Giver. It is not difficult to find the concept of joy in the Christmas story. When the pregnant Mary visited her relative Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the…
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John 13:34-35 Introduction I have a love-hate relationship when it comes to tradition. On one hand, I really love tradition. It may be connected with my appreciation for history, including church history. There is so much that we can learn from the past and tradition is an excellent way of passing on those lessons. Not…
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Introduction Last week, we looked at how in our dark times, our world is in desperate need of hope. We also saw that Jesus came as the hope-giver. That is Good News. What else do we need in these turbulent times? It just so happens that the second Sunday of Advent is that of peace.…
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Introduction This is the first Sunday of Advent. It is a time when each week we light a candle, bringing light out of the darkness and we reflect on what it meant for Jesus to arrive in our world. This is also the first Advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. If ever there was a time…
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Acts 6:8-15 Introduction I want you to think about a time when a person or a group of people were very upset with you. Not just slightly annoyed but downright angry. Now I want you to think about what it was that made them angry. How accurately were they interpreting the facts of what you…
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Acts 6:1-7 Introduction With this being Remembrance Sunday, I can’t help but think of conversations I have had in the past with veterans, especially of the Second World War. I was blessed in my previous church to have a good group of WW2 veterans that I was able to get to know and hear their…
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Acts 5:33-42 Introduction As many of you know, I have a great interest in military history. It is not to glorify war but to learn from what happens to humanity when put in the most difficult situations. There are often practical life lessons, and even lessons for us as a church, even if the weapons…
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Acts 5:12-32 Introduction This time COVID-19 has been a chapter of the church unlike anything that I can remember. It has challenged us to to rethink everything that we have just taken for granted. What does it mean to worship? What does it mean to gather? What does it mean to care for one another?…
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Acts 5:1-11 Introduction Every once in a while I get the urge to write a devotional on the most disturbing passages in the Bible. There are a number that could be included and one of them would be the story of Ananias and Sapphira. This is the story of a married couple in the church…
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Acts 4:23-37 Introduction I remember being at a ministerial and I pointed out that John had been a Baptist. The Nazarene pastor reminded me that John may have been a Baptist but Jesus was a Nazarene. That’s when another pastor stated in heaven, we would all be the United Church. I’m not suggesting that any…
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Acts 4:13-22 Introduction You may or may not know that I took a number of years off pastoral ministry between my previous churches and coming to Queen Street Baptist Church. But of course we still needed to eat and so that meant I needed to get a job. At that point, I had been a…
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Acts 4:1-12 Introduction I will confess to you that I’m horrible when it comes to directions. Whenever we go on a trip, I completely rely on Amanda. My confidence in her surpasses that of any GPS. If I don’t have Amanda, I definitely rely on the GPS directions on my phone. But what did people…
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Acts 3 Introduction At some point in 2019, just a few people contracted a virus that we now call COVID-19. At the time it probably looked like a small thing. I don’t even know how sick those first people got. I am sure that if you could go back and explain to them all that…
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Joshua 22:10-34 Introduction As some of you may know, one of my interests is blogging. A blog is a shortened form of web log and it is like a public diary or opinion column posted in the internet. I have been doing this for about fifteen years. Most of the time when I publish a…
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Acts 2:42-47 Introduction I want you to imagine you were doing a public performance of some kind. It could be a speech, some music, presenting something you have made, whatever you are passionate about. You present your skills to the public. After the performance, someone comes up to you and says, “I was just filled…
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Acts 2:22-41 Introduction Have you ever had a recurring dream? It may not be exactly the same dream but it is the same sort of dream or it happens at the same place or it includes the same people. I have had a number of recurring dreams over my life, usually repeating frequently during a…
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Acts 2:1-21 Introduction I am the pastor of Queen Street Baptist Church. But I am not a lifelong Baptist. In fact I have been baptized twice in my life and neither time was in a Baptist church. I was raised in the Anglican church for a long time that’s all I knew about church. I…
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Acts 1:12-26 Introduction I want to be careful in what I predict, but I want to say that I hope that this is my final congregation of my pastoral career. I realize that I still have a lot of time before I retire, but the thought of going through the process again is not appealing.…
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Acts 1:1-11 Introduction Have you ever been in the awkward experience of expecting someone to do something and you are not sure if they are going to do it? You are hanging on their every word and action, hoping that that they will get around to what you want them to do or say. It…
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1 Corinthians 14:1-19 Introduction Do you enjoy traditional worship? Before you answer that, we better be clear on what we mean traditional. At this point in time after months of online services, any in-person worship taking place in a church building, no matter how recent the songs, may feel like traditional worship. But perhaps you…
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Psalm 102 Introduction How does one recognize a person as a Christian? I’m not referring to following certain rules, wearing Christian t-shirts or speaking in Christianese. Is there a way to recognize that someone is in relationship with God? For some, the answer is clear: look for God’s blessings. Is the person obviously blessed by…
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Psalm 100 Introduction An important part of our church mission statement is that we are a people worshiping God in Jesus Christ. I don’t think that there is anything controversial about that. I would be surprised if someone tuned into this worship service and was shocked that we were worshiping God. But what does worship…
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Jude 1:17-25 Introduction Different people have different starting points for how they live their lives. Some begin from a place of reflection or of theory or of impulse. While I appreciate all of those things, I prefer more guidance and direction. I want to be told what to do, not necessarily how to do it,…
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Jude 1:16 Introduction Have you ever encountered a belief or a position that you strongly disagreed with? It may be a religious, political, ethical or even an artistic difference. There is more than just an intellectual disagreement, there is almost a physical reaction. What do you do? The truth is that there are battles worth…
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Luke 24:50-53 Introduction What were the most theologically significant events in Jesus’ life? That’s easy, just follow the holidays. What are the two biggest holidays for the Christian Church? Christmas and Easter, representing Jesus’ birth and his death and resurrection. Those are the events we really need to know. But what about the ascension? The…
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Luke 24:44-49 Introduction As many of you know, I am a chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces reserves. I have long been interested in the military and their way of doing things. I even see a number of intersections with the military and the church. I don’t think I am too far off the track,…
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Luke 24:36-44 Introduction I want you to imagine that the risen Jesus was coming to visit you. Not a dream or a vision, but appearing to you physically. What would you do to prepare yourself? I suspect that one of the things that you would want to do is to get ready to listen. I…
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Luke 24:13-35 Introduction How did you come to know Jesus? Was it one big moment of coming to understand Jesus or was it a long process? I was once stopped by some evangelists who wanted to check to see if I was really a Christian. They asked how I became a Christian. I responded that…
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Luke 24:1-12 Introduction Have you ever heard that saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is”? This is a good general rule of thumb. For example, if you receive an email saying that someone from another country, who you don’t know, has left you one million dollars, you should be…
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Luke 23:44-49 Introduction On the day that we call Palm Sunday, Jesus entered into Jerusalem. This is often called the triumphal entry because it looked like Jesus was at the height of his ministry. People were cheering, they were throwing their cloaks and waving their palm branches and it looked like some of them were…
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Luke 23:26-43 Introduction In many ways, the current pandemic is happening at a terrible time. Not that there is ever a good time. But we are approaching Easter, the high point in the Christian calendar. COVID-19 is threatening to disrupt our Easter celebrations. None of us want that. In another way, it couldn’t have come…
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Luke 23:1-25 Please note the video and audio contain the entire service and not just the sermon. Introduction Last week we took a look at Jesus’ religious trial. There we saw that during his interrogation, it was revealed that Jesus was in fact the Messiah and the Son of God. This was important for the…
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Luke 22:66-71 Introduction As a young person, I loved comic books. For quite a while I had a number of thousand of comics. I started by reading army comics but eventually moved onto superheroes. While I no longer collect comics, I still enjoy superhero movies. If you pay attention to these characters, you will realize…
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Luke 22:54-62 Introduction It has been pretty rare for me to ever get first place in any competition. This was especially true in school when it came to any physical activity. I was a pretty scrawny kid. We were doing a number of different exercises one day in gym class and they were ranking how…
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Luke 22:47-53 You don’t know me but I’m one of Jesus’ disciples. Not just any disciple, but one of the big twelve. I was there from the beginning. I can’t even begin to tell you what it was like spending all that time with Jesus. He was like no one else I had ever met.…
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Luke 22:39-46 Introduction Bad things are going to happen to us. You may have some bad things happening now. If not, you have in the past and you will in the future as well. Get used to it. One of my pet peeves is the teaching that Christians are immune from suffering, that God will…
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Ephesians 5:15-20 Introduction The mission statement for Queen Street Baptist Church says “We are a welcoming community, growing spiritually, worshiping God in Jesus Christ and sharing God’s saving love.” The third part of that says that we exist to worship. There is nothing controversial about a worshiping church. It is something that we just take…
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Luke 22:14-23 Introduction When I think about my time growing up in church, it is interesting to note what stands in my mind. It is not so much Sunday school lessons as it was going to the altar to receive communion, or as we called it, the eucharist. I was raised Anglican and we celebrated…
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Luke 22:1-6 Introduction When we think of the story of Jesus, what do we think of? Some of us may automatically go to the crucifixion and resurrection. One of the reasons we have been doing this series on Luke is to show that there is much more to the story. At the same time, the…
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Luke 21:25-38 Introduction For those of you who are sports fans, you may know the anxiety of whether your favourite team is going to win. The situation may be that your team losing by a significant margin and you are hoping for a last minute comeback or it may be a very close game which…
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Luke 21:7-19 Introduction When I was a student in elementary school, I was not good at sports. But there was one thing that I was good at and that was running. When you are the smallest kid in the class, you get good at running. But I need to be clear, I was only good…
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Leviticus 23:23-25 Introduction This is our first Sunday of the New Year. But why do we have a New Year? Is it just for dating purposes or is there something else? If it is just to change the number on the calendar, why do so many people have celebrations? It is interesting that most cultures…
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Matthew 1:18-25 Introduction One of the things that I have enjoyed about Christmas are the nativity scenes. I like how we can bring together all the characters and participants in one place. And if you think about it, they all have their own special role. Obviously Jesus has to be there. And of course Mary…
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1 John 4:7-21 Introduction I have had a number of conversations with people recently about the emphasis on the message of God’s love in the church. No one is arguing that God’s love is unimportant. But we can observe that there has been a shift from seeing God as a harsh judge to God as…
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1 Peter 3:13-17 Introduction As far as I can see, there are two reasons why people choose to celebrate Christmas. One is that they love the symbols, images and beauty of the holiday. This is not as simple as a secular vs religious view of Christmas. There are many people who are ambivalent in their…
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James 3:1-12 Introduction One of the frequent sayings from my childhood was the phrase, “Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me.” I can’t think of a more incorrect statement. As I look back over my life, I can’t remember much of the times that I was physically hurt by…
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2 Timothy 4:6-8 Introduction When our children were younger, many of their questions began with “How many sleeps until…?” Many of the questions were quite trivial and I started to just make up numbers. Then one day, one of the children asked, “How many sleeps until I die?” That shook me. I had no clue…
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This message was based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 was part of the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
Colossians 4:2-6 Introduction There is a lot of work that goes into sending military troops on deployment. There is more to it than just providing transportation and supplies. Rules of engagement must also be developed. What are rules of engagement? They are very specific rules on how the troops are to respond during a conflict.…
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Ephesians 5:21-33 Introduction Christians, especially conservative Christians, often claim to stand for “family values.” What those values are sometimes are rather vague. But the disturbing thing is that one can get in the media spotlight and preach family values and come home and not value family. There have been many unfortunate reports of bad relationships,…
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Galatians 2:11-14 Introduction In general, human beings work in extremes. This includes our attitudes toward conflict. On the one end of the spectrum are those who love conflict. It is not necessarily because of hatred or anger attitudes. It may be because they value precision and accuracy. It may be because they lack patience. It…
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2 Corinthians 4:7-18 Introduction If you wanted to achieve a certain goal, gain a certain level of effectiveness, what would you seek? I would suspect that most of us would seek a position of power and strength. We would want to have as many resources as possible and attempt to minimize weakness. We would connect…
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Romans 8:12-17 Introduction One of the biggest shocks to happen to me took place around fifteen years ago. My mother sat me down and revealed to me that I was adopted. Now my adoption story is a bit different than most. My mom was my birth mom but my dad adopted me. He was not…
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