What I Read in 2023

Here’s a review of my reading material during 2023. 

 

Absolutely outstanding *****

Very good ****

A decent read ***

Hmm, OK **

Don't bother * 

 

The Litigators (John Grisham) ***

Small town street lawyer partnership representing a motley collection of individuals takes on huge, rich, ultra-smart legal firm defending big pharma in litigation over a cholesterol-reducing drug that supposedly causes heart conditions. The potentially lucrative case collapses when a series of independent studies show the drug to be perfectly safe. There are a number of sections that make you laugh out loud when the sheer ineptness of the plaintiff’s case sinks to Basil Fawlty and Manuel levels of incompetence but there is no late twist and therefore no surprise about the verdict. The story wraps up with a happy ending when another plot thread suddenly accelerates to a conclusion, but most readers will have seen that coming. All in all, not your absolute classic John Grisham.

 

Straight to the Heart of Genesis: 60 Bite-Sized Insights (Phil Moore) ***

I don’t think this is the best book in this series, but it is still a pretty good read. Overall, this book does not get bogged down in faith v science discussions and Phil tends towards a literal six 24-hour day creation. Arguably the text reads most naturally that way so I never belittle this view, but it’s not my own and I don’t think it is an indisputable interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2. I love the way Phil Moore sees pointers to Jesus throughout the Old Testament and there are perceptive insights all the way through this book on how it is all about a Messiah, particularly one who would save through blood sacrifice.  

I’d Like You More if You Were More Like Me (John Ortberg) **

I love John Ortberg; he usually writes with penetrating spiritual insight, self-deprecating and clever humour, and quirky originality. But this book about Intimacy mostly just bored me. In fact, I struggled to finish it. If you want a good John Ortberg book, go to If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box, God Is Closer Than You Think and Who Is this Man? Don’t bother with this one is my advice. 

 

Straight to the Heart of Moses: 60 Bite-Sized Insights (Phil Moore) ***

Moses covers Exodus to Deuteronomy so it walks through long and detailed descriptions of the tabernacle, exhaustive legislation on sacrifice, bodily emissions and mildew besides comprehensive genealogies and censuses. Phil’s guiding thought throughout is that these books are about making the invisible God visible. Sometimes the passages covered in one chapter of the book are a dozen or more chapters long so it can be a bit of a stretch if you’re reading it in a month, but there is enough here to keep you engaged in what, for many 21st Century Christians is one of the more impenetrable and baffling blocks of Scripture.

 

The God I Don’t Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith (Christopher J. H. Wright) *****

This is really excellent. I picked this up at a time when my church was reeling from the deaths of two women in their thirties within the space of 6 months. Wright is a good Bible scholar, successor to John Stott at the Langham Partnership, so sound as a pound. He covers the theme of suffering generally, and the extermination of the Canaanites particularly as perhaps the most disturbing narrative in Scripture for followers of the Prince of Peace. He also looks in depth at the cross; why would God do that for me? Is it just and right that God’s terrible wrath falls on his innocent Son? The book ends with some eschatological questions on Christ’s return, judgement, the end of the world and the new creation. Really well written and very helpful for making sense of some bewildering puzzles in the life of faith.

 

Is Easter Unbelievable? Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the Resurrection Story (Rebecca McLaughlin) ***

A very short ‘giveaway’ book, ideally at Easter outreach events. I liked it; it’s well-designed, interesting to read, strong on contemporary illustration (especially cinematic) and theologically sound. Probably best suited for a middle-class readership (it’s got a Radio 4 feel to it), it’s intelligently thought through and clearly explained.

 

Straight to the Heart of 1 and 2 Kings: 60 Bite-Sized Insights (Phil Moore) ***

The theme of this Straight to the Heart book is ‘the story behind the story’ where Phil Moore tries to trace the big picture narrative - what God was doing to prepare his people for their Messiah - behind the rising and falling of the two monarchies of Israel and Judah from King Solomon to the Exile in 587 BC. His grasp of history, especially the way the prophets interact with the monarchy and society, is a real help, as is his commentary on the way 1 and 2 Kings features Elijah and Elisha right in the middle of the book (it was originally one volume with space for it all on one scroll in Hebrew, written without vowels, but when translated into Greek had to be divided in two due to the extra space required by an alphabet with vowels.)

Behind the Songs (Graham Kendrick with Clive Price) **

I have often been thankful for Graham Kendrick’s song writing, especially from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s which I think was his golden era. This coffee table book, including lots of photos, was put together in 2000 and is a selection of his songs with a commentary on why they were written and occasionally how they were received. There are some interesting insights into the song writing process, the changing environment of the UK Church in the decades leading up to the millennium, and the ins and outs of his career between writing, recording and performing. One personal disappointment; most of my favourite Kendrick songs didn’t feature in the book and quite a few did that I’d never heard of.

 

1 Corinthians for You: Thrilling You with How Grace Changes Lives (Andrew Wilson) ****

Andrew’s doctorate was on 1 Corinthians so he knows his stuff and digs down into the letter in a very helpful way. Every chapter comes in two halves, with study questions at the end of each. I read this about the same time as Phil Moore’s Straight to the Heart and found this to be a better book, though it only covers 1 Corinthians. But there’s a lot in that first letter. As Andrew says, it starts with the cross and ends with the resurrection. In between, it’s packed with soap opera issues like factions, incest, scandal, lawsuits, idolatry, homosexuality and drunkenness. In addition, there are rows about spiritual gifts and confusion over essential doctrine. It’s all covered intelligently in this study guide.

The Guardians (John Grisham) ****

John Grisham is a board member of the Innocence Project, which advocates and campaigns to exonerate wrongly convicted prisoners on the basis of DNA evidence. This book is about a fictional non-profit called The Guardians who do similar work, a handful of cases at a time due to lack of funds, and it focuses on two cases in particular. As they investigate the case of a black man, 22 years in jail and on death row, the real baddies get wind of it and will stop at nothing to shut down the investigation and leave no trace.

 

The Judge’s List (John Grisham) ***

A classic Grisham with a brilliant plot. There’s a seral killer on the loose. A daughter of one of his first victims works in the shadows to try and identify a common denominator between all the murders and it turns out to be a High Court judge. His list is of people who have slighted him, jilted him, passed him over for promotions and so on. The thing is, he is very, very clever, knows all about forensics, computer hacking, police practice and security measures, and he leaves no trace. And, being in the justice system, he knows when someone is onto him. And he works out who it is. What should have been a nail-biting ending turns out to be pretty lame though. This could easily have been a five-star, one of Grisham’s very best, but for the damp squib conclusion, I’m going with three. And I’m feeling generous today.

 

The Hard Way (Lee Child) ****

My first Jack Reacher book; I had heard a lot about them and found this on a used books shelf on holiday in Hungary. (Fortunately, it was in English). This one is about the kidnap of a rich man’s wife and Lee Child does a great job of keeping the plot moving and keeping you guessing. The rich man also happens to be a shady arms dealer with plenty of firepower at his beck and call. It starts in New York City and ends with a shoot-out in rural Norfolk and, as in any Hollywood blockbuster, the good guy comes out unscathed. He has, after all, another big adventure ahead of him where he will doubtless solve a mystery, outthink everyone else with almost supernatural prescience, beat up some more villains and have a steamy night or two with the main female character whom he will instantly forget. I did not warm to Reacher as a character as many do, but the plot for The Hard Way is a well-worked thriller.

 

Kevin DeYoung - What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality? ****

You know what you’re going to get from someone associated with The Gospel Coalition on this subject and there were no surprises as to where this ends up as an argument. What is surprising is where it starts; the Garden of Eden, reminding us that the default attitude of human beings is rebellion against God and choosing our own ways over his. DeYoung goes on to discuss in the first half of his book all the passages in the Bible that address same-sex sex with his customary theological clarity and rigour. The second half gives a response to some of the most frequently raised contemporary questions, given scripture’s unambiguous and unequivocal message on the subject. At 160 pages, this is not the last word in the subject, but it is a pretty useful summary of theauthentic Christian reply to the question on the cover of the book. DeYoung articulates succinctly why in 2018 I decided the Church of England could no longer be home.

 

What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord? The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord (Michael Reeves) ****

When you consider that the Bible says several times that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it is surprising how few books there are on the subject and how little interest there is in it from preachers. I mean, when did you last hear a sermon on fearing God? Have you ever heard one? Michael Reeves’ profound little book is a delight. He very helpfully clarifies how similar-sounding words like “awe” and “reverence” do not quite do justice to what the fear of the Lord is and how the fear of the Lord is beautifully completed in Christ. One to read slowly and savour.

Night School (Lee Child) ***

When on holiday in Norfolk following Ben’s wedding, I thought I’d take a second Jack Reacher and this one was being given away so it was free. I think it will be my last. It’s not that the plot was poor or the pace was slow or the prose was laboured. It ticks all the boxes of an international best-seller. This one, set pre-911, has a radical islamist sleeper cell in Hamburg hatching a nefarious plot. That in itself is a great idea. Will this be a ‘what-if?’ I won’t give away any spoilers. I’ll just say that our hero emerges unscathed. He has, after all, another big adventure ahead of him where he will doubtless solve a mystery, outthink everyone else with almost supernatural prescience, beat up some more villains and have a steamy night or two with the main female character whom he will instantly forget. I really don’t like Jack Reacher as a hero and I don’t want to read about him anymore. 

 

Straight to the Heart of Jeremiah and Ezekiel: 60 Bite-Sized Insights (Phil Moore) ****

Jeremiah and Ezekiel are among the two books in the Bible that I have had most trouble getting a grasp on over the years, so I was eager for a guided tour from the Straight to the Heart series. Reading through Jeremiah and Ezekiel (and Lamentation) there are occasional shafts of light (the new covenant, ‘I have plans to prosper you’, the valley of dry bones and the ever-deepening, life-giving river) but these books are long, mostly about terrible, inescapable doom, and occasionally baffling (strange apocalyptic visions, Gog and Magog, and 7 long chapters on a temple that has never been built, anyone?) Phil Moore’s overarching theme for these prophetic books, which relate to each other because they overlap in time, is that only radical surgery can save the desperately sick patient that is Judah in its final sordid years leading up to God’s judgement - its destruction by Babylon. It really helped me get a grip on the meaning in context of these prophets and their abiding value for a decadent Western church seemingly as much under God’s wrath as Judah was in the late sixth century BC.

Surprised by Jesus: Subversive Grace in the Four Gospels – Dane Ortlund *****

Dane Ortlund is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. This book is a real feast. It shows brilliantly how Jesus utterly upsets and confounds expectations in four different ways as portrayed in the four Gospels. In Matthew, Jesus castigates the self-congratulating morally scrupulous but leaves the door open to the morally broken, showing categorically that religion is not the answer. In Mark, Jesus is rightfully crowned king but by descending to the depths of a condemned criminal. In Luke, Jesus creates a community where the insiders are excluded, and outsiders are welcomed in. And in John, Jesus’ identity - his very person - blows everyone’s mind as the mighty creator of all walks our world in flesh and blood. Surprised by Jesus is packed with stunning insight and healthy, sound doctrine. Absolutely my kind of book.

 

Straight to the Heart of Daniel and Esther: 60 Bite-Sized Insights (Phil Moore) ****

Daniel is God’s man in Babylon and Esther is God’s woman in Persia, both faithful Jews outnumbered and tested in a foreign and hostile environment. In both cases (and for beleaguered Christians in an increasingly antagonistic Western culture) the message is ‘God has put you here.’ This is an excellent accompaniment to these two roughly contemporaneous books.

Is Christmas Unbelievable? Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the World's Most Famous Story (Rebecca McLaughlin) **

Like the Easter book (see above) this is a very short ‘giveaway’. Personally, I found this one a little harder to relate to, partly because it starts and keeps returning to a scene from Doctor Who as a way into the Christmas story. Unfortunately, I care very little for Doctor Who. This is also for a Radio 4 readership but I don’t think many starting out sceptical would be convinced by this book which is too brief to deal with serious objections. 

 

The Bible (NIV) *****

Once again, I saw wonderful things I had never seen before. This year, I was struck by the stark and numerous parallels between the warnings of Old Testament history/prophecy for wayward Israel and the decline so apparent in the church in the West. I marvelled once again at how the Bible is the only book in the world that tells us not only about what used to happen, but what always happens! I found the Gospel of John unusually vivid and clear this time round. And in the year I was asked to be an elder in my church, I paid particular attention to the teaching about leadership in the New Testament epistles and found it had special resonance for me. 

He Came Down to Earth from Heaven

This sermon started with me standing 7 steps up a ladder, descending one rung with each point and finishing at the bottom.

 

This sermon, like any proper sermon, has three points.

- Don’t try this at home

- Don’t tell whoever’s in charge of Health and Safety here about this

- This sermon is sponsored by Direct Line Insurance

Well, you may ask, what am I doing up here? I am beginning to wonder myself actually but I hope will become clear in the next few minutes.

The keen eyed among you might have noticed that I’m starting on the seventh step. It’s a long way down from here. And I start here, because seven rhymes with heaven. From all eternity, it was always a long way down for Jesus. 

He created and looked down on vast galaxies, bright shining stars, multifaceted spinning planets and strange moons. He smiled at super massive black holes and mysterious dark matter.

In the beginning was the Word – that’s Jesus. And the Word was with God. And the word in fact was God, the Bible says.

From all eternity, beyond time and space, eons and light years, Jesus is God himself, awesome in power, great in majesty. 

But the miracle of Christmas is that our amazing, wonderful, utterly glorious God lowers himself to come to earth and make his home with people like us. 

Jesus went from heaven to earth so that one day you could go from earth to heaven.

Step down

But not only did he go from heaven to earth... 

When I say he came to earth, don’t think that means he was still impressive and fearsome like the angels who came to earth to visit the shepherds. When the shepherds saw them, they shook with panic. The angels had to say “Don’t be afraid!” 

But Jesus wasn’t shining all around. He had no wings, no halo, no scary appearance, no robe like lightning. 

Hebrews 2.9 in the Bible says, “Jesus was made a little lower than the angels.” He was 100% human. 

Step down

But only did Jesus became a normal human being, just like you, just like me… 

Sure, Jesus had fingers and toes, a brain. a liver, two lungs, feelings and emotions, he was flesh and blood. 

But did he come into the world as a strong man, a fully-grown adult? And of course, we know the answer is “no!” 

He entered the world as a new-born baby, just like we all did.  He needed feeding and rocking to sleep, and his nappy changing. He had to learn to walk and dress himself and spell his name, which is the name above all names. 

God became a child so you could become a child of God. 

Step down

But not only did he come into the world as a baby… 

Was he privileged? Was he born into a rich family with a posh mansion and servants? 

Did he grow up in comfort and ease with a silver spoon in his mouth? Did he have caviar and truffles and foie gras and champagne at every meal?

No! He had a very ordinary family, with brothers and sisters who squabbled just like any other family. His dad was an unknown manual labourer, his mum was an unassuming housewife and they lived in a nothing town called Nazareth. 

He became a nobody so that you could become a somebody; someone special with dignity and honour. 

Step down

But not only was Jesus from an ordinary, modest background… 

When was born at Christmas, he didn't even have the simple comforts of home. 

No bedroom, no bathroom, no kitchen, no toys. He was born surrounded by farm animals. They had nothing to dress him with so had to use old bandages. And his first cot was a feeding trough out of which a goat, a sheep or an ox had just lately been drooling over its hay and straw.

His whole life was a bit like that. No cosy home, no nice holidays, no designer clothes… Pretty well everything he had was borrowed. 

The Bible says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Step down

Not only was he poor, when he was a baby Herod wanted him killed.

When he grew up the Pharisees wanted to kill him then as well.

He spent all his life in danger. For the first few years of his life, Jesus was a homeless asylum seeker in a foreign land, constantly in peril. 

For the last few years of his life he didn’t really have a home either.

He said, “I have nowhere to lay my head,” meaning he wandered around from place to place; he slept rough sometimes. 

God became homeless and in danger so that you can have a safe home in heaven forever.

Step down

And in the end, Jesus was killed in the worst way possible - crucifixion - one of the most painful ways to die ever invented. 

God was rejected so that you would be accepted. God was hated to show that you are so loved. Jesus was lonely and broken so that you can be a friend of God made whole. He was afflicted so that you can be healed. He died so you can have life. 

Step down

Why did Jesus do this? Why didn’t he stay in heaven? So much nicer up there. Pure paradise!

The Bible tells us why: God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

How much he must love you to have made that journey!

How much he must love you to have become one of us so completely.

Prayer…

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 24 December 2023

Christmas - The Dark Side (Matthew 2.13-23)

Introduction 

How have the last few weeks been for you? It’s been pretty full-on here for many. 30^th anniversary celebration, Christmas market, record numbers in the furniture scheme, a super busy time for the foodbank and running around getting everything ready for Christmas at King’s…

 

And that’s on top of everything else that always presses in at this time of year. Christmas cards to write, cakes to bake, parties to go to, presents to choose, buy and wrap, decorations to put up and - oh, good news; the number of shopping days till Christmas is fast dwindling away like sand in an egg timer. 

 

Some of us will be asking ourselves, “How am I going to manage my already crowded diary? Who’s coming home for Christmas and when? How am I going to fit everyone in? How am I going to afford everything?” 

 

For Joseph and Mary too, the events of Matthew 1 and 2 describe a very eventful and stressful few months. A traumatic and unexpected pregnancy, severe relationship strain, a series of disturbing dreams, a long and tiring journey, the worst possible time to go into labour, a not ideal location for childbirth, unexpected visitors, weird presents... 

 

I mean most people buy things like rattles and fluffy toys for babies. What’s a new-born going to do with gold? And myrrh is an embalming spice to stop dead bodies smelling. Who invited that guy?

 

I can imagine Joseph and Mary looking at each other after all that and saying, “Well, that was a bit of a roller coaster, wasn’t it? But now, at last, we can adjust to becoming a family and maybe settle back to normality.”

 

But in the next part of the story, things are going to be anything but normal. Let’s read what happens next; Matthew 2.13-23.

 

When they [that’s the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

 

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

 

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

 

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, 

because they are no more.”

 

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

 

So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, [this is the 5th dream in two short chapters] he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

 

The Dark Side

 

So once these mysterious visitors, the Magi, have returned home, v13, an angel - a messenger from God - appears to Joseph in a dream. 

 

The prophet Joel had said that with the coming of the Messiah, in the last days, he would pour out his Spirit on men and women alike. 

 

Men would see visions and dream dreams. There would be new revelation and signs and wonders. 

 

God would begin to move in exciting ways. Matthew is telling us here that a new era is upon us; God is initiating something unprecedented and significant. 

 

“Get up,” he says... “Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child [your child] to kill him.” 

 

Matthew calls this a dream. I think Joseph might have called it a nightmare.

 

Herod is determined to kill Jesus, and this is just the first of five assassination attempts in Jesus’ life as recorded in the Gospels.

 

After this one, Satan goads him to plunge to his death from a high roof (Matthew 4), then locals in Nazareth attempt to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4), then Pharisees pick up stones to stone him at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 8) and after that, Judeans seize him to try and murder him at the Feast of Dedication (John 10).

 

And that’s not counting six other references to plots or schemes to kill him.

 

In all the uncertainties of their life, Mary and Joseph must feel real anxiety. Where will we go? How will we get there? What is Herod so angry about? What will become of us? What is going to happen to our baby? 

 

But God has spoken. And when God speaks, you've got to respond. Verse 14; “So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night [that shows you the sense of urgency] and left for Egypt.” 

 

They run away as fugitives to a foreign land and towards the great unknown. 

 

In v20, this is probably about a year or 18 months later, God says, “Get up!” again; this time to leave Egypt. Where will they go to? The dream just says, “to the land of Israel.” 

 

It’s a big country. Joseph and Mary both have family in Judea in the south. Maybe there then? But v22 says, “When Joseph heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.” 

 

So they head for Nazareth further north, which is Mary’s home town. It must have felt like their homelessness, rootlessness and the feeling of being vulnerable would never end.

 

Do you get that feeling sometimes, that it’s just one thing after another, that the stress you live under is relentless? 

 

If you’re a Christian, never forget that you are a follower of the one who slept as a baby in someone else’s manger, crossed Lake Galilee in someone else’s boat, fed crowds with someone else’s food, rode into Jerusalem on someone else’s donkey, ate the last supper in someone else’s upper room, was buried in someone else’s tomb and lived in constant danger in someone else’s country. 

 

There are two angles to the story of Jesus’ birth. In Luke’s gospel, it’s full of wonder and angels and joy and friendly farm animals and quaking shepherds. It has a warm glow to it. That’s the side of the story that dominates school nativity plays and Christmas cards.

 

But Matthew paints a much darker picture. And both aspects are true.

 

But in Matthew the emphasis is on: the crisis in Joseph and Mary’s relationship that brings them to the brink of divorce, and five strange and disturbing dreams, and an anxious family fleeing for dear life, and the evil villain Herod, who doesn’t feature at all in Luke, but who dominates the narrative in Matthew and, of course, this appalling bloodbath of innocent children in v16-18 

 

On the screen is a painting depicting a terrified mother holding her young child, as another woman runs away from danger with her little ones in the background. It was painted in 1824 by the French artist Léon Cogniet and it is about this passage of Scripture. 

 

Look at her hand covering his mouth in a desperate but probably futile attempt to stop the noise of his crying. She’s trying to hide but she’s hopelessly exposed. She’s cornered. Trapped. Her child seems doomed. 

As we focus in on the woman’s face in Cogniet’s painting, notice her eyes wide with fear, with alarm… there’s a look of shock on her face. How can this be happening?

She could be an Israeli mother on October 7 this year as Hamas terrorists storm her kibbutz. Or a Palestinian mother as the Israeli army bring their response to the Gaza Strip.

 

Bethlehem had an estimated population of 2,000 people in those days. It really was the little town of Bethlehem. If the demographics were typical, there would have been maybe 25 boys aged 2 and under at that time, and Herod saw them as a challenge to his authority.

Each child would have a mother who would weep for the rest of her days for her little boy bringing grim fulfilment to Jeremiah’s prophecy that this would happen.

Such were Herod’s vanity and paranoia that he thought nothing of committing atrocities like this, to protect his power base. 

We know from historical sources outside of the Bible that he was obsessively jealous, and he routinely had people executed (including his wife and three of his sons) if he suspected they were a threat to his throne.

Herod is grim reminder of what the Bible everywhere asserts; that evil is real. It’s why Jesus said to pray that God will deliver us from it. 

Scripture says that many antichrists will come into the world. 

Herod the Great was one of the first. In the last 100 years we’ve seen some of the worst; Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot. 

Alive today, there are others like Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad. Sadly, we probably haven’t seen the last of them.

Fearful Times

The book of Revelation teaches, using highly symbolic language, that much of what we see physically on earth has an unseen spiritual reality behind it. 

There is, and always has been, an evil assault on life itself, even from the womb, on the family, on the gospel, on truth itself - and there is something of the demonic about Herod. 

The Bible doesn’t sugar coat the Christmas story, or any other story; it tells us the truth; and it tells the whole truth.

And it’s a truth that affects us, as followers of Jesus, disproportionately. The Independent newspaper carried an article a few years ago with the headline: Christians: the world’s most persecuted people. 

According to the International Society for Human Rights, which is a secular organisation, 80% of all religious discrimination in the world today is directed at Christians.

International Christian Concern (ICC) released its annual report on the persecution of Christians last month. In Nigeria, ICC cites numerous “horrific atrocities” committed against Christians by Islamist terrorists. Between March and July this year, some 550 Christians were killed – and that’s just those reported to ICC. They accuse the Nigerian government of turning a blind eye or worse.

In North Korea, there are an estimated 400,000 Christians but they are forced to practise their faith in secret or else risk imprisonment, torture or execution.

In just one incident there, ICC claims that earlier this year a two-year-old toddler and his parents were given a life sentence after a Bible was found in their home.

In India, home to 26 million Christians, a surge in radical religious nationalism poses a grave threat to Christians, and violent incidents against them are escalating.

This year, in Manipur (northeast India) for example, Christians have been targeted with virtual impunity, leaving dozens dead and hundreds of churches destroyed.

Why there is so little outrage or protest on their behalf?

And it’s not just far away. There has been an increase in the number of anti-Christian hate crimes across Europe, with particular concern raised about the treatment of Christians in the UK.

According to a report this year by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, there was a 44 per cent increase in anti-Christian hate crimes between 2021 and 2022. Arson attacks on churches saw a rise of 75 per cent.

At the same time, the stigmatisation and criminalisation of Christians for voicing mainstream biblical Christian teaching on controversial issues is on the rise.

There’s a Christian teacher in Ireland who was sacked and imprisoned for 100 days last year for refusing to address a student by his preferred, but factually incorrect, pronouns. 

George Orwell was right when he said, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”

The Bible says that “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” 

In Acts 28, even in the context of the dramatic advance of the gospel in the first century, the remark is made, "people everywhere are talking against this sect."

Jesus himself said, “Everyone will hate you because of me.” 

But he also said this: “Happy are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”

Do I believe that? Does my reward in heaven for being faithful to Christ outweigh my desire to be popular and accepted? Does it for you? These are the choices we face increasingly in our generation.

Matters of Life and Death 

Between 1899 and 1901 there was a great anti-Christian uprising in China called the Yihetuan Movement. It was a sudden national mood swing that brought severe persecution.

188 missionaries and 32,000 Chinese Christians were bound in public. Their noses and ears were cut off and eyes gouged out before they were beheaded. 

Lizzie Atwater was an American missionary to China at that time. She was 22 years old and pregnant with her first child. 

She wrote to her family on 3 August 1900. And this is what she wrote in her letter.

Dear Ones, I long for a sight of your dear faces, but I fear we shall not meet on earth… I am preparing for the end very quietly and calmly. 

The Lord is wonderfully near, and He will not fail me. I was very restless and excited while there seemed a chance of life, but God has taken away that feeling, and now I just pray for grace to meet the terrible end bravely. The pain will soon be over, and oh the sweetness of the welcome above!

My little baby will go with me. I think God will give him to me in Heaven, and my dear mother will be so glad to see us. 

I cannot imagine the Savior’s welcome. Oh, that will compensate for all of these days of suspense. 

Dear ones, live near to God and cling less closely to earth. There is no other way by which we can receive that peace from God which passes understanding…. I must keep calm and still these hours. 

I do not regret coming to China but am sorry I have done so little. My married life, two precious years, have been so very full of happiness. We will die together, my dear husband and I.

I used to dread separation. If we escape now, it will be a miracle. I send my love to all of you, and the dear friends who remember me.

Twelve days later, Lizzie, her husband, their unborn baby and six other missionaries were hacked to death and their bodies were thrown into a pit. 

Afterwards, when Lizzie’s parents in Ohio heard the dreadful news of the death of their daughter, son-in-law, and unborn grandchild, they said, through tears, “We bear no grudge – we gave them to that needy land; China will yet believe the truth.”

Why did Satan single out China? Perhaps because of the extraordinary potential of the church in that land. In our own lifetimes, there has been an unprecedented revival in that country; some estimates put the number of Christians there now at 100 million.

Lizzy’s blood, that of her husband and their unborn child, will be avenged by God alone. The Bible speaks of the terrible consequences for those who “did not choose to fear the Lord,” like Herod. 

Biblical scholar Christopher Wright describes what awaits those who die in rebellion against God as literally a fate worse than death. 

“On the judgement day of God,” he says, “all the wrongs will be exposed. There will be no longer any hiding place. No secret accounts to conceal the fruits of exploitation. No more tight security, bulletproof, cars, or safe houses. No more excuses for ourselves or for others. No more skilled lawyers, pleading, technicalities. No more sentimental allowance for old age and infirmity. No more recourse, even to the oblivion of suicide. No more escape at all, by any means, anyplace, ever. The day of judgement will reveal everything, assess everything, and deal with everything. All unrepented, persistent wickedness will be met with the verdict of God’s perfect justice. And that define verdict will be public, validated by the evidence, indisputably, vindicated, beyond complaint, or appeal, irreversible, and inescapable.” 

But the sweetness of the gospel is this: no matter how hard a human heart becomes, even as hard as Herod’s, or more obstinate still, it is never too hard to be unable to turn to God and be cleansed and made new! 

None of us are anywhere near Herod’s league, but the Bible is clear that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 

Why be separated from God and his blessings forever if you don't have to? God loves you. 

If you had been the only person on earth needing salvation, Jesus Christ would still have come as a baby, grown as a boy, lived as a man, and gone to the cross and laid down his life for you. He loves you that much! 

It may be that for some here today, right now, God is speaking and giving you a fresh chance to turn to Christ. You haven’t ever done that before. Don’t put it off to tomorrow! The Bible says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” 

That is why Jesus came, to seek and save those who are lost.

Ending

You and I do not know what tomorrow holds, but as someone once said, we do know the one who holds our tomorrows.

And he says again to each of us, in this world of constant wickedness what he said to Joseph; “Get up! The time to act is now.” 

Let’s pray...

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 10 December 2023