Sunday 12th January 2025 – Family Service led by Paster Peter Gooch
This was the first time Peter had led worship in our church. He’d grown up at Oakwood Baptist Church, and in his early twenties he’d invited Christ into his life and been baptized as a believer by immersion. He’d done many things in church life, but when in his early fifties Enfield Council had made him redundant, he’d applied to Oak Hill Theological College, completed three-year degree course, and since then had been Pastor of Walton Cross Baptist Church for seventeen and a half years until two or three years ago. So he was very pleased to be with us.
Peter told us that for the hymns that he’d chosen, he’d picked ones which mentioned Jesus, and gave various other names or titles for him. They spoke of what He had done for us, and what He will do for us. And before we sang each hymn, he read us those important passages that perhaps get subsumed into the music as we sing.
His introduction began with “Christmas is for the children” for there was much excitement, activity, lights and decorations, school plays, concerts, holidays from school and presents. And of course, on the day, the opening of presents, the playing with toys, or deciding what to buy with the money given by relatives and friends. Christmas wasn’t for adults we might feel, being a time of spend, spend, and more spend – and the financial problems it brought for many. The real reason for Christmas could get lost in a hive of activity. We needed to stop and think and remember that at Christmas we celebrated the birth of Jesus – the best Christmas present that money can’t buy!
The inspiration for the day’s message had come when Peter had stumbled across a photo of a slide he’d produced about 30 years ago, taking from his Good News Bible three headings from John, Chapter 3, and verse 16. When he’d re-discovered the photograph late last year it had been as if God was saying to him, “This is what you need to preach about when you go to Potter’s Bar United Reformed Church”.
So there we were; John, chapter 3, and verse 16, and the motive behind Christmas, “For God so loved the world”.
Genesis told us about God creating the world and all that he made. John’s Gospel told us that in the beginning, before all time, was the word Christ, and the word Christ was with God and the word Jesus was God Himself. All things were made and came into existence through him, and without him was not even one thing made that had come into being.
In the beginning God had created the heavens and the various stages of creation were set out for us in Genesis. God had created the heavens and the earth: the vast galaxy that we lived in was spinning at incredible speed (in excess of 490,000 miles per hour) but still needed 200 million years to make one rotation. And there were over a billion other galaxies similar to ours. God didn’t need to create anything, but he chose to create it all. And then God had created mankind in His likeness – male and female. He’d blessed them and told them to be fruitful, increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. It was very good.
God had created the universe, the galaxies, the earth on which we live, and the people to inhabit the world, as an expression of His love. We were a part of God’s creation: each of us was valuable to God. Paul told the Corinthians Christ himself existed, and was before all things, and in Him all things held together. His was the controlling cohesive force of the universe. In him everything was held together, protected and prevented from running into chaos.
But, oh dear! sin came. We knew about the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, the temptation from the devil, and Adam and Eve disobeying God. It was the first indication in the Bible of the battle between good and evil, the outcome which would include the crucifixion of Jesus. Satan would infect pain on Jesus, but Jesus would rise from death and cause Satan’s eventual death in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20).
Sin had come into the history of people and Biblical history charted the great wickedness of the human race on the earth, that the thoughts of the human heart were only evil, and God’s reactions to this.
God had a plan – salvation in Jesus Christ. But we needed to note (Romans 3,) that Man was sinful, everyone had sinned, no one measured up to God’s glory. Sin cut us off from our holy God and lead to death because it disqualified us from living with God.
But sins could be forgiven. God gave us, when we invited Him into our lives, the gift of eternal life because of what Jesus Christ had done. Human beings were free to choose between the two masters but were not free to manipulate the consequences of their choice. Each of the two masters paid with their own currency. The currency of sin was death – separation from God. But Christ’s currency was eternal life – a wonderful choice that we surely needed to make.
So, we had the motive behind Christmas. God continued to love the people of the world despite their sin and gave his one and only son. Everyone through Christ could choose to have a personal relationship with God and be truly blessed.
The birth of Jesus into the human race happened in God’s plan and the people of that time had to get ready for the first advent of Jesus. And yes, we needed to remember to get ready for his second coming, because he was coming to this earth again.
So we had the motive behind Christmas. God so loved the world. He gave his one and only son. And whoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal life. And there were verses in the New Testament which pointed to salvation in Jesus Christ. Christ would die for us, not because we were good enough, but because he loved us. He loved us when we were sinners, he could strengthen us and encourage us in life. God’s grace saved us because of our faith in Christ. Our salvation didn’t come from anything we did. It was God’s gift. Yet it seemed that some Christians, after receiving the gift of salvation, felt they were still obliged to work their way to God. It was because of what Christ had done for us that we could, through accepting His gift, have that salvation. Jesus was knocking at the doors of our hearts, wanted to have fellowship with us, wanted all people to open up to him.
The Bible gave us a definition of children of God, not every person on planet earth, but only the few who accepted Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord. But to as many as did receive Jesus and welcome him, he gave the authority, the power, the privilege, the right to become children of God.
Had we taken that step of faith and taken the hand of Jesus which he offered us? Had we invited Jesus into our lives? Come into our lives Lord Jesus. It’s in this way that we have that eternity, heading onwards through all eternity, yet to be with Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
Potters Bar United Reformed Church 