http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/online-sermons.php Sermons and Messages from St. John's (Shaughnessy) Anglican Church in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Sermons from Rev. David Short, Rev. Daniel Gifford, and special guests. en-us Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:26:57 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss St. John's Shaughnessy Media Manager john@crystalorigin.com http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Nov30-2.mp3 Rev. Jim Salladin -- Jesus' offer is this: my family is open, it includes anyone who learns my Word and obey it. When Jesus looks out to the crowd, He sees a great danger. He knows there are people who heard His Word, follows Him around, but they are casual and their hearts are really not with Him. Jesus uses the parable of the soil to diagnose hearts. He talks about four different types of soil, each of them responds to a different kind of heart. Satan's highest agenda is to steal God's Word from our hearts, that's why he's right there when we hear God's Word – to take it away. This is the greatest trajedy of mankind. The middle of the two soils are the most common of hearts – those that look good on the outside, but they bear no fruit in the long term because secretly they have not given their hearts to God. Jesus warns that "nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light." Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Nov23.mp3 Rev. David Short -- This sermon begins with Luke addressing the readers directly about two different responses to Jesus, and ends with an incident of two different people responding to Jesus. We see a beautiful response as a result of the freedom experienced by a woman when her sins are forgiven. We also see a shallow man with a shallow conviction who completely misunderstands the actions of the woman. We see Jesus rebuking him by saying "You gave me no water for my feet", "You gave me no kiss", "You did not anoint my head with oil". As Jesus promised in chapter 6, if we call Him "Lord, Lord", but do not do what He says, we are in danger of Him saying to us on the last day "You did not give me your days", "You did not study my word", "You did not commit yourself to any small Bible study groups", "You did not let my teaching really affect your life". God's purpose in our lives must go deep and far before we can bear the kind of fruit that Jesus describes in Luke 6. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Nov16-2.mp3 Aaron Roberts -- In this passage, we see two different aspects of Jesus' authority and Jesus using Old Testament texts to give evidence that he is the Messiah. We see Jesus raising the dead, and we see Jesus healing someone without being present. The centurion, being a man with authority to delegate, understands that Jesus can delegate His healing power. He can do it then, He can do it now. We are in the Messianic age, and Jesus has shifted His mission to us. While Jesus is totally focused on God's purpose: "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God in other towns as well" (Luke 4:43), we too must continue this mandate. But Jesus' compassion causes Him to rescue the sick in between His preaching missions. Perhaps we should be asking ourselves "Do we lack the love today?", "Do we lack the faith?", or "Do we not believe that God is compassionate enough today?" If Jesus rewarded the faith of the friends of the paralytic man by healing him and forgiving his sins, how much more will He reward our faith when we love our neighbours by constantly interceding and praying for their salvation? Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Nov09-2.mp3 Rev. Daniel Gifford -- This passage spells out change, the change that Jesus will bring, and only He can bring. It is change from inside out, a complete re-ordering of our lives. It is not easy to live up to these 29 verses. Jesus brings about three big changes in our lives: (1) The reversal of our status. v20-26 gives four blessings followed by four woes. The blessedness comes from taking on Jesus' point of view. The woes are things that are exalted in the world, allowing us to be self-sufficient and preventing us from relying on God. (2) The changing of our love. In very strong language, Jesus tells us what to love, and not to hide the grace we receive from Him. We are to look for ways to extend love outside of our loved circle. Extending God's love to people who cannot love us back makes us 'sons of God'. (3) A deep change in worship. New worship means coming to Jesus, hearing His words and doing them. We are to live out the treasure in our lives so that His treasure will be visible and desirable to others, so that others will be blessed through us. Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Nov02.mp3 Rev. David Short -- Forgiveness of sins and the healing of these men in the passage are both humanly impossible and utterly astonishing. Because Jesus has come, we can know the verdict of judgement day and we can have forgiveness TODAY! I don't have to justify myself, God justifies me... Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Nov02-3.mp3 Rev. Jim Salladin -- Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Oct26-2.mp3 Rev. David Short -- The healing stories are in the middle of the passage sandwiched between Peter's recognition of his own sinfulness and Jesus' proclamation of what He came to do. Jesus doesn't just embrace Peter and forgive his sin, He draws Peter into the freedom work. It's a wonderful and terrible moment for Levi when Jesus calls him to 'follow me'. Will Levi leave everything he has to follow Jesus? Repentence is not just about 'me and Jesus'. We see the spontaneous result of conversion in v29, Levi began to share his joy of freedom with all his friends! Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Oct26.mp3 Rev. Jim Salladin -- Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Oct19.mp3 Rev. Daniel Gifford -- Salvation is so big that Luke paints five different pictures of salvation. In this passage, we see salvation as the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God, and salvation as release. The Kingdom is most often seen in conflict. Why did Luke put the casting out of a demon right after His first sermon? Because that is a picture of salvation. As Jesus began to rescue people from demon possession and sickness, He became so popular that people from all over came for healing. In 4:43, He said "I must". The word "must" is big in Luke because Jesus uses it to show that His priority on earth is to do God's purpose – to proclaim the good news, because it is the only way He can bring salvation. Through the preaching of God's word, Jesus both saves and judges. He silences Satan's representatives and condemns them. We are released to serve, to use the word that He has entrusted to us to serve others so that they too can be released. Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.stjohnsvancouver.org/audio/SE2008Oct19-3.mp3 Aaron Roberts -- Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT