5th January 2026

5th January 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 1:19-28 and Luke 1:39-45)


Message (Alan Burke) 


We’re just in the new year so I imagine Christmas is pretty fresh in our minds. I’m not taking about the feasting, the mouthful you got from the sister in law again or the bank balance which is currently ruining your January, what I’m referring to is the ‘Christmas Story’ or rather the coming of the Christ, how the eternally begotten Son of God, for us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, 
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man. We are all familiar with the account but going on in the midst of it all there is what seems nothing more than a side story of how Elizabeth who was very old conceived and bore a son whose name was John (see Lk 1:18-25). Mary the mother of Jesus visited this Elizabeth while they were both pregnant and John who was within Elizabeth’s womb leaped with joy and she and the child were filled with the Holy Spirit (see Lk 1:39-45). 


John was the last Old Testament prophet he came to witness to testify all about Jesus Christ. We’ve already been introduced to him in John’s gospel, in the midst of the wonderful Christology of the prologue, we’re given some details about him. In verse 6f; “There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”


Just so we’re in no doubt who this man sent from God, who came as a witness testifying to the Christ, is this John that we are told off, v15 makes it clear; “John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’””. His ministry was s a bridge between the way in which God spoke and that he would now speak, for at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, (Heb 1:1-2).


There is something thought that I want to draw out for us today not so much about who John is as the last Old Testament prophet, who was sent by God, testifying concerning the Christ to come it is in relation to the saving faith that he had. You might wondering where I’m getting this from, sure he sent his disciples to ask Jesus “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else” (Lk 7:20). But in his mother's womb he recognised the presence of Jesus leaping in the womb. 


Only those who have been given new life can experience such joy in Christ’s presence, John has been regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit within the womb of his mother. The Lord that we come before had acted, transforming the heart of John in the womb of Elizabeth and his faith was seen as he grew and as he lived in response to what God had done. You know my hope and prayer for all our covenant children is that the Lord would show his mercy to them, that there would never be a day that they did not know the Lord and in response to the regelation of the Holy Spirit in their hearts in their young age, even in their mothers womb that they would live by faith, living lives to the glory of God in response to the wonderful salvation that the Lord has brought us. Pray that the Lord would be merciful to our children, that he would save them in their infancy, and that he would use them for his glory in this place and to the ends of the earth. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q63 Which is the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment is, Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
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