In Mark’s sermon we learnt about Wilson ‘Snowflake’ Bentley, an amazing photographer who was the first person to photograph individual snowflakes using an adaptation of a microscope to take photographs from underneath the snow. In 1885 he produced the first photograph of a snow crystal and discovered that no two snowflakes are identical. In 1931, his book ‘Snow Crystals’ was published, featuring over 2400 photographs:

The uniqueness of snowflakes makes us wonder at God’s creative power. He is the One who says to the snow ‘fall on the earth’ (Job 37:6) and who knows about the storehouses of the snow (Job 38:22). What is more amazing, though, is how He can wash us whiter than snow. David talks about this kind of cleansing in Psalm 51:7 (a cleansing that is more like a scrubbing than a simple wash!) We need God to remove the sin stains from our lives. Only He can wash us clean.

Isaiah spoke about this in Is 1:18: “Thought your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Mark showed us red water:

Jesus was born to solve the world’s sin problem. The cost of our cleansing was the blood of Jesus. Our sins were put on Jesus so that He could totally remove our sins. When we come to know Him as Saviour, the wall of sin is destroyed so that we can enter into a relationship with God. Mark challenged us all to be sure that our sins were forgiven. There is no need to carry our sins anymore!

The family service last night focussed (hopefully NOT prophetically!) on the subject of snow. Each song we sang had a mention of snow:

* In the Bleak Midwinter (snow had fallen, snow on snow)
* Such Love (pure as the whitest snow)
* Indescribable (which talks about the heavenly storehouses laden with snow)
* It’s Your Blood (which washes us whiter than the snow)
* Your Blood (what can make us pure as snow? Nothing but the blood of Jesus)

Then we had a snowflake treasure hunt, where we had to search for plastic snowflakes:

These were what we were looking for:

Snowflakes were the prizes we won!

Collecting prizes:

We also had a birthday to celebrate last night:

Matt Redman has written a book called ‘Mirror Ball’ in which he encourages readers to remember that, however inadequate they may feel, God will work in and through them, just as light radiates through the smallest prism. After all, the same God who said “let there be light” has made His light to shine in their hearts, illuminating their lives and the lives of those around them.

In the book, Matt Redman’s shares about the title of the book, regarding Louie Giglio’s idea to have a mirror ball come down from the ceiling during a part of the Passion Conference. This was held in a massive arena and when Matt Redman saw the small size of the mirror ball, he was worried that it was not going to make any kind of impact and was going to turn out to be the worst idea ever. However in the service when the time came, the ball dropped and bright beams of light hit the ball and the light radiated to all corners of the arena. It may have been small and seemed inadequate, but the result was anything but. Because of the love of God and Him living in us, we need to radiate His light through us by the lives that we live. We become the mirror ball for His light that shines upon us.

“When God shines upon His church, we become a dazzling testimony to His awesome radiance. You may feel ineffective. You might have lost confidence in your ability to shine. You may think you are too small or inconsequential to ever be of any value in the kingdom of God. But no matter at all – for, in the end, it is all a matter of light. His light. The life of worship never begins with you. It starts and ends with Jesus.” (Matt Redman, ‘Mirror Ball’)

Our light is just a reflection of God’s light. God is the Famous One, the important One, the One who must have the pre-eminence.

John the Baptist understood that the most important thing in his life was to give God the glory. He was very aware of his role in relation to Jesus. Jesus is the bridegroom; he is the best man. He is not the one who has to have the honour. Jesus is the one who must become greater; John is happy to become less.

Psalm 20:5 says “May we shout for joy over your victory.” We need to learn to let go of envy and covetousness and be secure in who we are in God and in the giftings and talents God has given us. We also need to understand, from the very depths of our being, who God is and that He is the One who must have all the glory and all the attention. God wants our eyes and attention to be focussed on Him and He wants us constantly to put other people’s eyes and attention on Him. He doesn’t want attention distracted onto us; He needs to have all the glory and attention because only He is worthy of that.

Louie Giglio, a Bible teacher and leader of the Passion movement which ministers to university students, when he was asked about modern worship songs and why they had such an impact on people, said he thought it was because the songs “are really rooted in a desire to make much of God.” (Interview with Louie Giglio)

He went on to say that “They’re just mirrors…holding up a mirror to the greatness of God so that people can see that and respond to it. I think God is into that, because God wants us to see how great He is and because it gives Him freedom to breathe on the song and to breathe into life. The fact that people can grab them easily is that they’re not simple. They’re easy to sing, but they’re not simple little songs. They have depth and theological content that can become for people, I think, an anchor in the good times and in the bad times in life.” (ibid.)

Jesus said “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32) The word ‘lifted up’ can also be translated ‘exalted’. When we exalt Jesus above ourselves, above our ideas, our opinions, our ministries and our hopes and dreams, He will draw all people to Himself. May we learn from John the Baptist to give God all the glory and point the people away from ourelves and towards Jesus.

Little is told us about John the Baptist’s childhood and early life. Luke concludes his first chapter with the verse: “And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.” (Luke 1:80) We don’t really meet John again until thirty years later when Jesus is about to start His own public ministry.

The wilderness life (perhaps caused when his elderly parents died?) shaped John’s life. Long before bush-tucker trials were the rage in ‘I’m A Celebrity’, John lived on locusts and wild honey and dressed in clothes made of camel hair with a leather belt around his waist (Matt 3:4). He seems quite a wild, untamed figure, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and giving the stark message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matt 3:2) He has learned many lessons in the wilderness:

(1) What is really important in life
John is no sycophant. He tells it as it is, called the Pharisees and Sadducees ‘a brood of vipers’ and urging them to ‘produce fruit in keeping with repentance’ (Matt 3:7-8). His plain speaking will get him into trouble later on with Herod, but he knows the value of the spiritual over the material and what is really important in life. Do we?

(2) What his purpose in life was
John’s gospel tells us “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” (John 1:6-8) John knew that his purpose was to be the forerunner for the Mesisah and he was content with that role. When his disciples noticed Jesus, he told them “But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matt 3:11) He pointed to Jesus as the Bridegroom and himself as the best man (John 3:27-30). He pointed to Jesus as the ‘Lamb of God’ (John 1:36). His role was to point to Jesus. He didn’t covet another ministry but had learnt what godliness with contentment looked like.

(3) Jesus must have the supremacy
John’s security in his identity in God and his purpose in life means he can point people to Jesus without feeling threatened or insecure. Possibly the greatest lesson John can teach us is that “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30). We must all learn to point people to Jesus and give Him all the glory:
‘You are the First
You go before
You are the last
Lord. You’re the encore.
Your name’s in lights for all to see
The starry hosts declare Your glory.’ (Chris Tomlin, ‘Glory In The Highest’)

John shows us that playing ‘second fiddle’ is not demeaning, but is an important role. Wes King wrote a song called ‘Second String’ in which he said
“I know what it feels like to be second string
I know what it feels like to just sit on the bench
And watch your friends play, and wonder why you’re even on the team
I know second string.” (Wes King, ‘Second String’)

So often, we feel that ‘second string’ or ‘second fiddle’ is unimportant, but John shows us that what matters is Jesus having the supremacy (see Col 1:15-18).

(4) Obedience must come before understanding
John the Baptist is probably most famous for baptising Jesus. When Jesus came to John to be baptised, John is incredulous: “I’m the one who needs to be baptised, not you!” (Matt 3:14, The Message) He understood that his baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins could not apply to Jesus, who had never sinned, and who would, in fact, become our sinless sacrifice. But Jesus urged him to baptise him ‘to fulfil all righteousness’ and John obeyed, even though it probably didn’t make a lot of sense to him. As Anselm said, ‘we believe in order that we may understand’, not the other way around. As Samuel told Saul, ‘to obey is better than sacrifice’ (1 Sam 15:22).

Just as John obeyed Jesus at this point in his ministry, even though he may not have understood the deeper significance of this act of baptism, so we too have to learn to believe in order to understand rather than always seeking to understand. As Michael Card says
‘So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Have the courage to say ‘I believe’.
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see.’ (Michael Card, ‘God’s Own Fool’)

John the Baptist is one of the key figures in the birth narratives of Jesus. Luke 1:5-25 tells us how the birth of John was foretold. We are introduced to his parents, both righteous Levites, and we read of their ‘thorn in the flesh’, childlessness. Even today, childlessness causes heartache and sorrow to many people. Millions of pounds today are spent on fertility treatments and although science has made great advances in helping people who are infertile, the difficulties faced by Zechariah and Elizabeth are readily understood by many in modern times. Wes King, a Christian songwriter, wrote about the difficulties he and his wife faced when for three years they were trying to have children and could not. He said that this period of disappointment was like ‘constantly walking on broken glass’ and ‘even when the glass is gone, the cuts are still there.’ He wrote a song about this in which he says:

“We thought you’d be here by now,
Your mother and I.
We’re praying through our tears that somehow
We might hear your sweet cry.
Have we waited too long?
It’s getting harder to be strong.
Is there something we’ve done wrong?” (‘Thought You’d Be Here’, Wes King)
‘Thought You’d Be Here’, Wes King

For us, the issue that is like ‘constantly walking on broken glass’ may not be childlessness, but we all experience heartache and disappointments in life. We can identify with the disappointment felt by Zechariah and Elizabeth.

The Christmas story constantly reminds us, however, that God steps into our situations and is our Deliverer and Redeemer. Their situation was changed by the angelic announcement of the birth of John (see Luke 1). This was a clear reminder that God hears and answers prayer (and is an encouragement to us to persevere in prayer) and a prophetic word about the purpose and destiny of this miracle baby.

Just because John was a miracle baby with a purpose and destiny proclaimed by an angel doesn’t mean we all have purpose and destiny, does it? Our roles in life may be major or minor, but the Bible teaches that every single person does have a destiny and a purpose: that every single person matters to God, even if not to their own parents; that there is value and worth in human life precisely because man is made ‘in the image of God’ (Gen 1:27). Abortion, euthanasia and eugenics all work from the belief that there is nothing inherently sacred about human life, but if we are knit together by God in our mother’s womb (Ps 139:13), if we can be chosen and set apart by God even before we are born (see Jer 1:3, Luke 1:15), then clearly there is more to life than the visible, scientific evidence so many rely on. John reminds us that life is sacred and precious and purposeful.

Our roles may not be as major as John’s was. We may never have the global impact that some people have. Our lives may never go down in the history books. We may never have an angelic message like this one given to us. But Jesus hung on the cross to save our souls because He deemed us important enough; He came into the world to save sinners and the whole message of Christmas is that people matter enough to God for Him to go to radical lengths to restore that broken relationship with Him.

If we take nothing else from the story of John’s miraculous birth, let’s remember that every birth is miraculous, every life is miraculous, because life itself comes from God and there is nothing more miraculous than the new birth which comes when we receive Christ as our Lord and Saviour. Christmas is not just about the birth of Christ; it offers us the hope that all of us can be born again: “to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)