Will Vaus

When Dr. Gardner Taylor was a young man, he was preaching one Sunday in Louisiana during the Depression. Electricity was just coming into that part of the country, and he was out in a rural, black church that had just one little light bulb hanging down from the ceiling to light up the whole sanctuary. He was preaching away, and in the middle of his sermon, all of a sudden, the electricity went out. The building went pitch black and Dr. Taylor didn’t know what to say, being a young preacher. He stumbled around until one of the elderly deacons sitting in the back of the church cried out, “Preach on, preacher! We can still see Jesus in the dark!” Sometimes that’s the only time we can see Jesus… in the dark. And the good news of the gospel is that whether we can see Jesus in the dark or not, he sees us. [1] As we delve into John 14 today, Jesus and his disciples are facing a very dark time. But in the midst of that darkness, Jesus offers to his first century disciples, and to ...

What is glory? The word is used hundreds of times in the Bible, but what does it mean? I like this definition I came across this week: to glorify is to ascribe weight by recognizing real substance. In one word, glory is praise. The Greek word that is at the root of what we are going to talk about today is  δοξά. From this word we get our English word: doxology, which means “a word of praise”. We sing the doxology in church every Sunday: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” And the answer it gives is: “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” This raises the question: how is God most glorified? I believe that our text for today from John 13:31-38 reveals three answers to that question. Listen for God’s word to you… When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified...

When I was growing up in Southern California, occasionally on a sunny Saturday, my father would wake me up early in the morning and say, “We are going to see the doctor today.” Unlike most children, when told they are going to the doctor, I would get all excited about the prospect. The reason was because my father’s statement was really a code phrase for something else. If I asked, “What doctor are we going to see?” my father would say, “Dr. Neydis.” I knew Dr. Neydis was really a reference to Disneyland. I don’t think my father would ever admit where we were really going until we got there. However, the suspense would build as I knew we were moving in the right direction for Disneyland. Then I would see the top of the Matterhorn, and I would hope it was true. Finally, we would pull into the parking lot of Disneyland and I would practically leap out of the car for joy! In the passage we are going to read today from the Gospel of John we see Jesus building a similar sort of...