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On Sunday November 3 we continued our look at section 3 of Living Faith (God in Christ) and considered: What does it mean for us to call Jesus Lord and Saviour today? What does Jesus save us from? What does he save us for?

This is the fifth in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Acts 2:22-24, 29-3, Luke 6:46-49 and Matthew 20:25-28.

This message reflects on Living Faith sections 3.4-3.6.

Chapter Three – God in Christ
3.4 Jesus is Saviour
3.4.1 Jesus is the Mediator through whom God has come to us and through whom we come to God.
3.4.2 Christ died for our sins. The innocent one bore our condemnation on the cross. He suffered and was put to death for the sin of the world.
3.4.3 God’s reconciling act in Jesus Christ is a mystery which the Scriptures describe as the sacrifice of a lamb, a shepherd’s life given for his sheep, atonement by a priest. It is also the innocent dying for the guilty, the ransom of a slave, payment of a debt, and victory over the powers of evil. Such expressions interpret the love of God revealing the gravity, cost, and sure achievement of our Lord’s work. Yet that love we cannot fully explain. God’s grace, received by faith alone, pardons and justifies, redeems and reconciles us.

3.5 Jesus is Lord
3.5.1 Jesus suffered, died, and was buried, but God raised him from the dead. Risen and ascended, he is alive now, the living Lord.
3.5.2 His resurrection means that our faith is not empty, that final victory is assured over all evil powers which destroy and deform life, and that death, the last enemy, is conquered.
3.5.3 The forces of the evil one still wage war against us. The destructive powers are still present. But their end is not in doubt. We await the full revelation of our Lord’s triumph.
3.5.4 We worship our ascended Lord. Reigning in glory and power he is our High Priest and Advocate interceding before the Father on our behalf. Through him we offer our sacrifice of praise, with prayer for all to the Father.
3.5.5 Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!

3.6 Salvation in Christ
3.6.1 Salvation comes from God’s grace alone received through faith in Christ. From all eternity, and through no merit on our part, God calls us to life in Christ. Here is the good news of the Gospel! Jesus Christ is the elect one, chosen for our salvation. In him we are made acceptable to God. Before the world was made we were chosen in Christ to be part of the family of God.

3.6.2 We are called for a purpose: we have been predestined to be like Christ and to serve God. As with Israel in the Old Testament, so with the new humanity in the New Testament, God chooses us. There is assurance in knowing that the living God has eternal purposes to achieve through us. God will bring to completion the work of grace begun in us.

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

Minister: Rev. John T. Read

On Sunday October 27 we explored the next section of Living Faith and asked some more questions: Who is Jesus? and Why does what believe about Jesus matter?

This is the fourth in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Philippians 2:5-11 and Matthew 11:25-30. Rev. John also refers to some recent studies on faith and churches in Canada:

Still Christian? What Canadian Christians Actually Believe. https://www.cardus.ca/research/faith-…

Nine interesting data points on the state of today’s Protestant churches. https://macleans.ca/society/nine-inte…

This message reflects on Living Faith sections 3.1-3.3.

Chapter Three – God in Christ
3.1 Jesus Christ and Israel
3.1.1 To the world in its rebellion and alienation God promised blessing and restoration. The Lord chose Abraham and his descendants and through a covenant with them destined them to be bearers of that promise to all people.
3.1.2 The Old Testament records God’s message and mighty acts. It speaks of God’s grace and judgment. It declares God’s promise and points to the One to come.
3.1.3 From Israel came the Messiah; in Jesus of Nazareth God kept the promise of salvation. We understand his coming in the light of the Old Testament. Born of the seed of David, he lived a Jew among Jews. Child of an Israelite woman, he fulfilled God’s promise that Israel would be a light to the nations. In Christ God came to dispel the world’s darkness.

3.2 Jesus Christ: Truly God
3.2.1 God became man and dwelt among us. In silence we ponder, in awe we confess this amazing truth. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, the eternal Son of God humbled himself to be one with us. To Israel and to the world came God in Christ.
3.2.2 To call Jesus Christ the Son of God is to say that he is God of God, Light of Light begotten, not made. To see Jesus is to see God incarnate. To know the Son is to know the Father.
3.2.3 God’s nature is expressed in Jesus, the very Word of God. Through him were all things made. His life is the light of the world.
3.2.4 Jesus Christ is Lord. He is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

3.3 Jesus Christ: Truly Human
3.3.1 Jesus was truly human. Tried and tested as we are, yet without sin, he experienced the depths of life. Jesus understands us. He felt the joy of friendship, the pain of rejection, and died a human death. He trusted the Father completely and lived in the Holy Spirit. Neither temptation nor threat prevented him from loving God and his neighbour as himself. He showed us what it means to be a child of God.

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

Minister: Rev. John T. Read

On Sunday October 20 we explored some more big questions: What is the purpose of human life? What’s the relationship between who God is and who we are? How do we handle the tension between what’s good and beautiful about humanity, and what’s destructive and evil?

This is the third in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Psalm 8, Psalm 130 and Matthew 5:13-16. This message reflects on Living Faith sections 2.2-2.5 2.2

Our Creation
2.2.1The mystery of human existence is that we belong to God and have been made in the divine image. In God we live and move and have our being. Therefore, we know ourselves only when we know God. Our lives must reflect the Creator’s love and purpose for all creation. We acknowledge God as Creator and Lord.
2.2.2 We have been made male and female for our mutual help, comfort and joy. Our creation as sexual beings is God’s loving purpose for us. We are dependent on each other and as men and women, need one another in all of life.

2.3 Our Calling
2.3.1 We are called to work out the meaning of our own lives and to find our true vocation in the love and service of God.
2.3.2 We serve and love God by the service and love of creation especially the care of the needy. Every kind of work that is honest and serves others is a vocation from the Lord.
2.3.3 Calling means the necessity to deny selfish ambition and desire in order to minister to others. In God’s service true freedom is to be found.

2.4 Our Care for the World
2.4.1 Though life is a gift from God, human life depends upon the created world. Our care for the world must reflect God’s care. We are not owners, but stewards of God’s good earth. Concerned with the well-being of all of life we welcome the truths and insights of all human skill and science about the world and the universe.
2.4.2 Our stewardship calls us to explore ways of love and justice in respecting God’s creation and in seeking its responsible use for the common good.

2.5 Sin Separates Us from God
2.5.1 We confess that we are sinners. We do not care for the world as we should. We do not fulfill our calling to serve God. Our lives do not reflect the Creator’s love. Our failure is sin, a rebellion against God, an insistence that we be god in our own lives.
2.5.2 God has given us the law to show us how to live. Yet we are unable to keep the Ten Commandments, and we do not love God without reserve nor our neighbour as ourselves. Above all, our sin is exposed by the perfect life of Christ.
2.5.3 Sin alienates us from God. It offends the holiness of God, separates us from our Lord, and leads to spiritual death. It mars the divine image in us and infects our relationship with others and with ourselves.

2.5.4 Sin is a power present in every human life, even at birth. It issues in such sins as pride asserting itself against God, indifference towards God and neighbour, untruthfulness, greed, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy, and selfish anger.
2.5.5 We cannot escape our sin, nor the sin of the world.
2.5.6 Because we are sinful the societies we live in are sinful. There are no exceptions: every system is flawed. We are part of the evil of the world, of its violence, neglect, injustice.
2.5.7 All people fall short of God’s standards and need salvation. God’s way to salvation has been revealed in Jesus Christ. Through the death and resurrection of Christ our sins are forgiven. Salvation means life, forgiveness, healing, wholeness. It comes from God’s grace received through faith in Christ alone.
2.5.8 Thanks be to God!

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

On Thanksgiving Sunday (October 13) we explored the questions: Who is God? What is God’s Character? Who is God for us in the this world of many different powers and loyalties? And what does it mean if we believe that God is somehow ‘sovereign,’ and guides what happens in the universe? This is the second in a new series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Isaiah 40:9-11, 21-31 and Mark 12:28-31.

This message reflects on Living Faith sections 1.1-2.1

Chapter One – God

1.1 There is one true God whom to know is life eternal, whom to serve is joy and peace. God has created all that is. The whole universe testifies to the majesty and power of its Maker.

1.2 God has come to us. The Lord spoke to the people of Israel and entered into covenant with them. From Israel came Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bringing salvation through a new covenant entered by faith. The Lord continues to come to us by the Holy Spirit, God present in the world, and Guide to the church, the new Israel.

1.3 The church upholds and defends the truth given to the apostles and recorded in the Scriptures. The Old and New Testaments witness to God’s mighty acts. They reveal the Creator’s holy love, and lead us to Jesus Christ.

1.4 The creeds of the early church preserve the faith of the apostles who first preached the Gospel of Christ. We receive them as a legacy in which the true interpretation of the Scriptures is protected.

1.5 Therefore, with the one church universal we believe in one God, eternal Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one, one in three, equal in power and glory. God is the Father to whom we come, the Son through whom we come, the Spirit by whom we come.

1.6 We worship almighty God, the source of all life. With thanks we acknowledge God’s wisdom, power, faithfulness, and love. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be!

Chapter Two – God, Creator and Ruler

2.1 God Creates and Rules 2.1.1 The living God is Lord, Creator of all, Sustainer and Ruler of the universe. In the seasons and the harvests, in the rise and fall of nations, God’s goodness and judgment are present. All events in this world are under the sovereign care of the eternal God.

2.1.2 We hold in reverence the whole creation as the theatre of God’s glory and action. God rules the lives of individuals and nations yet does not negate our freedom and responsibility. Ever at work in the world and in our lives God directs all things towards fulfillment in Christ.

2.1.3 We affirm God’s righteous and loving purpose even in a world where evil abounds. This purpose is uniquely disclosed in Jesus Christ. In him we see the greatest paradox of life: the mighty God chose to come into this world in weakness. In Christ, God entered most deeply into our suffering.

2.1.4 We cannot fully comprehend nor is it our task to justify God’s rule of the world. We experience evil in the midst of life. Yet evil cannot ultimately prevail, for it is against God’s will. The resurrection of Christ and the new life he gives us are assurance of his ultimate triumph.

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

On Sunday we explored the question: What does it mean to confess our faith today? This is the first in a new series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. In this message explore just what a ‘Confession of Faith’ is and how it can be helpful for a local church in a time of renewal and change.

Our guiding scriptures for this week are Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Luke 9:18-20, 2 Corinthians 4:13-15.

Between now and Christmas we will be exploring questions like: Who is God? Why is there evil in the world? Who is Jesus? What does is mean to have faith? How do we handle doubt? What is the church for anyways? What is mission? What about other religions? How do we have hope in times like these?

You can find Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…
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How do you hold on to who you are when you also need to change to meet the future? This week we look at how at how God’s Word can give us that genuine sense of self, while also helping us grow into who need to become to be faithful where we are.

This was Rev. John’s Read’s first week back from sabbatical.

Our guiding scriptures for this week are Psalm 100 and Mark 7:1-23.
To signup to our email newsletter send a message to: standrewsancaster@gmail.com

June 23 was Rev. John Read’s last Sunday before a sabbatical that will extend from June 24 to September 22, 2024. This will be the last online service posted to the St. Andrew’s Channel until John gets back in the fall. Worship in person will continue each week with a variety of guest preachers. This week’s message is a reflection on the Biblical practice of keeping Sabbath based on Exodus 20 & 23 and Mark 2.

“Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me”
Words & Music: Jonny Robinson | Michael Farren | Rich Thompson
© 2018 CityAlight Music (Admin. by Integrity Music) | Farren Love And War Publishing (Admin. by Integrity Music) | Integrity’s Alleluia! Music (Admin. by Integrity Music)
Used by Permission

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church,
Ancaster Website: https://standrews.ws/
CCLI Licence # 3046584
CCLI Streaming # 20546703

June 16 was Heritage Sunday and the retirement celebration for our Accompanist Bob Marshall. We marked the day with lots of music, and Rev. Read offered a reflection on the important role that music, hymns and songs play in worship.

This video includes the sermon and some musical highlights. Additional music from today will be available in another video. The Bible passage for the message was Psalm 150.

0:07 – Choir Anthem – “Only A Holy God”
4:09 – Message – “Singing Together”
18:29 – Song – “All the People Said Amen

“Only A Holy God”
Words & Music Chris Brown | Dustin Smith | Jonny Robinson | Michael Farren | Rich Thompson
© 2016 CityAlight Music (Admin. by Integrity Music) | Farren Love And War Publishing (Admin. by Integrity Music) | Integrity’s Alleluia! Music (Admin. by Integrity Music) |
Used by permission

“All The People Said Amen”
Words & Music | Matt Maher | Paul Moak | Trevor Morgan
© 2013 Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.) | Thankyou Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | Valley Of Songs Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | Trevor Morgan Music |
Used by permission

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church,
Ancaster Website: https://standrews.ws/
CCLI License # 3046584
CCLI Streaming # 20546703

In light of our Accompanist Bob’s Marshall’s forthcoming retirement at the end of June, are posting selections from St. Andrew’s music team and choir. Here are some additional music highlights from Heritage Sunday.

“Sound Of Adoration”
Words & Music: Bryan Torwalt | Katie Torwalt | Phil Wickham
© 2017 Capitol CMG Genesis (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | Capitol CMG Paragon (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | Jesus Culture Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | Jesus Culture Music Group (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | Phil Wickham Music (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC]) | Simply Global Songs (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC]) | Sing My Songs (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC]
Used by permission

“For The Beauty Of The Earth”
Words: Folliott Sandford Pierpoint |
Music: Conrad Kocher
Words & Music: Public Domain

“How Great Is Our God”
Words & Music: Chris Tomlin | Ed Cash | Jesse Reeves
© 2004 sixsteps Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | Wondrously Made Songs (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.)
Used by Permission

“How Great Thou Art”
Words & Music: Stuart Wesley | Keene Hine
© Copyright 1949 and 1953 Stuart Hine Trust CIO Stuart K. Hine Trust (Administration: USA All rights by Capitol CMG Publishing, except print rights for USA, North, Central and South America administered by Hope Publishing. All other non USA Americas rights by the Stuart Hine Trust. Rest of World – Integritymusic.com.)
Used by Permission CCLI License # 3046584

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church,
Ancaster Website: https://standrews.ws/
CCLI Licence # 3046584
CCLI Streaming # 20546703

This week we conclude our series on Colossians with the call to let Christ transform every area of our lives in Colossians 3:17-4:6. In particular we focus on how this should shape relationships within families and households, and the challenge of how to apply Paul’s teaching in Colossians 3:18-4:1 (and other challenging scriptures) to our lives today.