In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the promises of peace and joy that Jesus has made to believers. He encourages the audience to reflect on whether they have personally experienced this peace and joy. The speaker also highlights three things that Jesus asks of believers: to serve one another, love one another, and obey his word. The sermon then shifts to discussing priorities and poses the question of what one would do if they knew they were going to die next week. The speaker references the excitement and anticipation surrounding Jesus' presence in Jerusalem and suggests that this is a special time.

I'm delighted to be here with you this morning. I have spoken once before from this pulpit, and some of you had the opportunity then to get used to my Welsh accent. Well, now you've got four more months to get used to it. The problem with my Welsh accent, people say that I often speak too quickly. I have learned to speak more slowly than I would normally do because I've been a school teacher for many years and then traveling and speaking in many pulpits. I've learned to moderate my voice and to speak more slowly, but sometimes I confess I get excited in the pulpit. And if I get excited, I tend to talk very, very quickly. And if I talk very, very quickly, you're going to have to listen quickly, okay? If you wave your hand at me, that would be a good sign to me that I'm speaking too quickly and you're not grasping what I'm saying. I want you to hear what I'm saying. So please just wave, don't sit there and get frustrated. When I came to Victoria in 1983, I came to pastor a church with the Christian Mystery Alliance. I'd been there one month and somebody, an elderly lady leaned over to my wife whom she was sitting next to, and she said to her, oh, I do like our new pastor, but I haven't understood a word he said since he came here. I don't want that to be true of our time here together. I'm delighted to be here with you and I pray that these next four months will be a very precious time for you, as I'm sure they will be for me. If I have a prayer for the next four months, it is that which is written, I think it may be written on your bulletin, it is Paul's prayer to the Ephesian church. He prays this way. I pray that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ would grant to us wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of himself. I want to know God more. I want to know God better than I do today. I've grown to know him wonderfully well over the many years I've now walked with him. Over 50 years, I've now known him as my Lord, as my savior. He's revealed more and more of himself to me over those times. And I pray over these next four months that he will reveal more and more of himself to each one of us here at Departure Bay Baptist Church. Amen? That's my prayer and I pray it will be your prayer too. I was a school teacher for 18 years. I graduated from the University of Wales in Swansea, Wales, which Denzel Merriman will know very, very well. It's the place where he was married and where he and Rose met and spent a lot of time together in Swansea. I graduated with an honors degree in physics and I became a physics teacher in the schools of Britain and then with the British forces overseas in Germany and Hong Kong. In 1975, my wife and I emigrated with our three daughters to beautiful Canada, to Toronto, and there I continued my profession as a teacher. For two years, I was head of science at the Hebrew Academy in Toronto. I was the only non-Jew, well, there was one other actually, in a staff of 70. It was a very privileged time, very wonderful time. Highly motivated students, very high salary pay in school. I was at the top of my career. And of course, it's always at those times that God reveals himself to you in particular ways and it was then that he began to draw me into the pastoral ministry. I do not say into full-time ministry because I think I was in full-time ministry even as a school teacher. We're all in ministry for the Lord and many, many times during the years as a school teacher, I had opportunity to stand in the pulpits of Wales and to preach and to teach. And so before I actually became an ordained minister, I'd probably preached maybe 200 times or more in the pulpits of Wales and also in Canada. But in 1983, sorry, in 1979, I was invited by the Christian Ministry Alliance to become pastor of a church in Kitchener, Ontario. And so after much prayer, I used to drive to school for that year and my car would be my prayer closet and I would spend many, many hours in prayer seeking to know whether really God was in this tugging that was in my heart into the full-time pastorate ministry. It was the last thing I wanted to do if it wasn't being from God. If God was not calling me, the last thing I wanted to be was be a pastor who dared to stand in the pulpit without God's calling. For why should God put his anointing on a man that he has not called? I needed to make sure in that year, 1979, that God was the one who was calling me into the ministry. And after a long, long time of prayer and more and more growing conviction that that is what God was doing, I finally left the profession of teaching to become a pastor with the Christian Ministry Alliance. My first church, as I said, was in Kitchener, Ontario. It was a little church, but it never had more than about 25 people in 20 years of existence. And at the time I went there, it had actually passed that number because there was a young man in the church who really was a street evangelist and he had led many young people to Christ on the streets and they were now in the church. But none of them had a church background at all. And I became their pastor and there were, at this time, about 60 of them young people in the church. They had no understanding of church etiquette, thank God. They had no understanding of church programs, thank the Lord. They were just hungry to know more and more about Jesus. And that's the kind of pastor I am. I want to know more and more about him. And so they brought me in as their pastor and I felt very comfortable because I'd worked all my life with young people, both in the church and, of course, as a school teacher. They said to me, the meeting was on Sunday afternoon. They had three elders. The elders were all 30 years of age. All of them were unemployed. And they were the only three in the church with any spiritual maturity. We had two professionals, I remember, in the church, two women, both of whom were nursing teachers. And we had no other professionals in the church. And so that was my first experience of a church. The meetings were held on Sunday afternoon and they lasted from three till seven. From three to four, it was just worship and singing and testimonies and fellowship time. From four to five was the hour they gave me for my teaching time. I had one hour, that's it. And then we had a break for a meal together and then we came back at six and we had a communion service every Sunday. That was the format of their service when I went there. So I was in, knowing that every Sunday I went to church, I had an hour in which I was to teach these new believers, these young people, and to disciple them. Well, that was, of course, my passion. I loved teaching the word. And so I was very, very much at home. I could have easily gone to my list of 40, 50 sermon notes that I had in my folders at home, but I realized that I had now a major responsibility. I wasn't coming in for a one Sunday to speak and share something that I'd been blessed with and then disappear, as I did in many churches throughout Wales. I was now a man with a responsibility to nurture these people. God had called me to be an under-shepherd to these young people. And so I took it very seriously. So I wanted to deal with priorities. So I spent all my time in my study in those days seeking the word of God for his priorities. I wasn't concerned about what were my priorities. I wasn't concerned to teach serendipity material. I wasn't concerned to teach things that just infused them or got hold of their attention, grabbed their attention. I wanted to teach things that were on a priority on the heart of Jesus. And that's what I want to do here too. And this morning I want to start dealing with priorities. I know very little about your church and I'm not particularly interested in the history of your church or the past of your church. I'm only interested in what I can be here for the next four months, a blessing to you I trust, and lay in a foundation for when you do appoint a pastor that you come into a church that is both healthy and enthusiastic about the things of God, because God has began to reveal himself to you. That's my burden. So this morning I want to talk about priorities. If you knew that you were going to die next week, what would you do? You've been to the doctor and the doctor had given you the bad news that whatever is wrong with you is terminal and you're going to die next week. What would you do? Well, I trust the first thing you'd do is ask for a second opinion. I'm sure that's one thing you'd want to do. I'm 67 now. I'm at that age where I'm ready to meet my Lord. I enjoy life and I enjoy good health and every morning I pray to him. I thank God for my good health. I thank him for my family, my friends, for my ministry, for the beautiful place where I live. And then I bring my prayer request to him. But if I knew that I had a week to live and I had to deal with priorities in my life, the first thing I'd want to do is to make sure my wife and my daughters knew how much I loved them. I'd want to make sure that I didn't leave any strings untied, you know. I didn't leave debts. I want to make sure that they were not things I needed to ask forgiveness for that I had not asked forgiveness for. One of my daughters lives in Australia. I'd be on the phone. I wouldn't worry about the cost of phone calls to Australia. I'd be on the phone talking to my daughter and my grandchildren, my son-in-law, just letting them know how much I love them, my desires for them. I'd want to sit down with my grandchildren, maybe take them out and just spend some time talking to them about my walk with God and encourage them to seek after him too. I'd want to deal with priorities. I'd want to make sure there are no pastors in my city who, as a fellow pastor, I'd undermine their ministry in any way or I'd be negative in their ministry in any way to them. I'd want to encourage them, my fellow pastors. People of my church, I'd want to make sure I'd really spend time in priorities. Jesus knew when he was going to die. He comes into Jerusalem, having told his disciples six months before in the Mount of Transfiguration, as they came down from that mountain, prior to actually the Transfiguration, he talked to his disciples. He had taken them to the north of the country, to Mount Hermon. It's the first time in the scriptures we read that he's only with his disciples. He'd been with them for three years. And for three years, they had seen the miracles. They had heard his teaching. They had acted on his behalf in distributing the fish and the bread and collecting the pieces. They had followed him for three years. But in Mark's Gospel, chapter eight, we find the first time when Jesus takes his disciples just then, the 12th, and he journeys to the north of the country to Mount Hermon. Very beautiful mountain, I understand. And there on the slopes of Mount Hermon, looking down upon Caesarea, he's asked his disciples two questions. He says to them this first, tell me, whom do men say that I am? And they said to him, well, some think you're John the Baptist. Come back to life. Others think you're Elijah the prophet. Come back to life. Others think you're another great prophet. And he said, that's fine. Now you've been with me three years. You've seen the miracles. You've heard my teaching. Who do you believe that I am? And it's Peter, and I find this very interesting because Peter's the uneducated one. It's Peter who answers and says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father has revealed this to you. You should no longer be called Simon. You should be called Peter, which means rock. Change your name because I know the character that you are. You're the rock who one day is gonna stand on the day of Pentecost and proclaim the gospel. You're the rock who is going to one day be crucified upside down because of your boldness. You're the rock, the apostle to the Jews. And then straightway, he says to them, now we must go to Jerusalem, for the Son of Man must be delivered up and be beaten and taken, and they will crucify me and put me to death. And on the third day, I will rise again. Now the disciples obviously didn't grasp what he was saying, but from the moment of the revelation, he set his eyes and his face towards Jerusalem. He knows he's going to die. And he enters into the city of Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. And the people shout their hosannas and wave their branches and throw their coats upon the ground, and everybody celebrates as Jesus rides in on the back of a donkey. It's an amazing week. And at the end of the week, it's time to celebrate the greatest feast day in the Jewish calendar, the day of Feast of Passover, Pascha. Tells his disciples to go and they'll see a donkey, and they talk to the man who has the donkey, and they'll see a man carrying a bottle, and they'll follow him, and they find a room that Jesus has already planned where they're gonna celebrate the Passover. And they come into the Passover room, the upper room, and I can imagine the disciples walking into the room. Maybe Jesus is standing by the doors, they're walking in past him. There's Peter coming in. My, what a week this has been. Woo-hoo! Did you see the crowds of people last Sabbath day or last Sunday as we came into Jerusalem? As I was leading Jesus there in the donkey, and the people are throwing their coats on the ground and shouting their hosannas and waving. What a fabulous day, man! What a week this has been. I wonder, says Peter, if Jesus is about to establish his kingdom. Obviously he's coming to a climax now, his ministry. This is a very special week, this is a special time. But you'll be out in Jerusalem, and all the people are celebrating Jesus' presence. I wonder if he's about to establish his kingdom. And I can imagine James and John, known as the sons of thunder, they come in. They would not have been so vocal maybe about the big crowds as Peter was. I mean, Peter was right at the front there leading the donkey after all. James and John were known as sons of thunder. They were the political guys. Man, what a week this has been. Did you see what happened when Jesus overturned the tables and the money changers in the cabin? Man, did you see the look on the priest's face? Woo-hoo! Were they angry? That's the sort of thing that would have delighted James and John. I wonder if this is the week when Jesus is going to establish his kingdom. And this is what all the disciples were anticipating. In fact, Judas asked Jesus at this time, he said, Lord, is this the time that you're going to establish your kingdom? That's what they were looking for. But Jesus knew that tomorrow he's going to die. I don't believe for one minute that he stood there with a somber look upon his face or the tears in his eyes as his disciples were coming in because they were all in celebratory mood. After all, this was the greatest feast day of the Jewish calendar. They came to celebrate, to remember the day when the avenging angel delivered them out of Egypt without slaying any of the children of Israel where the blood had been put up on the doorposts. This is what they were celebrating. But as the disciples were celebrating, Jesus knew that he was going to die. Therefore, I believe that whatever he taught in that upper room must be the priorities on his heart. He wasn't gonna deal with trivial things. He had his disciples together. He'd been with them three and a half years. He knows he's going to die, and now he's going to deal with priorities. So let's hear what he says to his disciples. My peace I give unto you. My peace is not a peace like the world gives. My peace is a peace the world cannot give or take away. What a wonderful promise. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And where I go, you shall come later. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. And when I go, I will come again and receive you to myself. In the meantime, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. And he's gonna come and dwell in you. He's gonna lead you into truth. He's going to empower you to be my witnesses. Wonderful promise. These things I speak unto you so that your joy may be full. Fullness of joy. The world cannot give joy. The world can give you happiness. Jesus never promised happiness. You know, happiness goes up and down with circumstance. I went on the internet this morning, and saw that Wales, the soccer team, lost yesterday to Czechoslovakia, and I was unhappy. Happiness goes up and down with circumstances. Jesus never promised you happiness. But he did promise you joy. Joy is the song that the bird sings, the lark sings when the fawn is pressed against his breast. Joy is the song that's deep within, even the grieving Christian. How often I have been in circumstances where frustrated, thinking about something, and then suddenly realize there's a song welling up within me. That is what joy does. I didn't feel like singing, and yet deep inside I felt my spirit singing when I was, in my mind, being disturbed by other things. And Jesus promises in this upper room before his disciples, knowing he's going to die, he's bequeathing to them, he's writing out, as it were, his last will and testament. He said, I'm going, but I'm gonna leave you peace. The world can't give or take away. I'm gonna leave you joy, that your joy may be full. I'm gonna leave you the Holy Spirit to dwell within you. I am bequeathing these to you, my disciples. And the following day he signed his name to that last will and testament in blood upon a cross. Abide in me, he said, and you will bear much fruit. These are all promises from the upper room to his disciples. These are not what he preached to the multitudes. But these are priorities for his disciples. But as I read through this upper room account, it's found in John chapters 13 through 17, there are five chapters John dedicates to this one evening in the upper room, five chapters. As I read through those five chapters, I'm struck not only with the blessings that Jesus promises his disciples, and that means me and you, but also the things he asks of them. There is a verse of scripture that I often quote, and I quote it to pastors, if I speak to pastors or to, I quote it at Capernaum, I quote it to youth of the mission, I quote it to youth groups. And I will quote it to you, and see if you can, it's a little quiz, quiz time for you. Jesus, knowing that the father had put all things into his hand, and that he'd come from God and was returning to God, comma, what comes next? Well, you all know, he got up from the table, put a towel around himself, and washed his disciples feet. I find that very interesting verse, particularly when I talk to pastors, because it tells me this about Jesus, that Jesus knew who he was, and therefore it was very easy for him to serve by washing feet. It amazes me, and I speak as a pastor, it amazes me how often I find pastors who are not willing to be humbled to serve, because some of them feel it demeans them, some of them feel it lowers their status. I remember when I came to the Alliance Church in Victoria, we had a pot providence, they used to call it potluck, I don't believe in potluck, I believe in pot providence. God's blessing. I'm washing the dishes, or cleaning the dishes out afterwards, and one of my men came up to me and said, no way my pastor's gonna wash the dishes. And I said, if I can't wash the dishes, I have no right to expect you to wash the dishes. That is what it means to be a servant, that's what it means to be a pastor, that's what it means to be a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ. And Jesus comes to his disciples because he knew who he was, and he served them. Then he says these words, and you know, think about this. It was normal whenever you went into a Jewish home, particularly if it was a fairly wealthy home where they had servants, or if you went into a public gathering place, it was customary to take your shoes off at the door because there were sandals, and of course they had no paved road, and so their ways were dusty and dirty, and so dust used to get between their toes, and you know what it's like when dust gets between your toes, and dirt gets between your toes, and you're perspiring, you begin to irritate. And so it is customary for there to be a young servant girl. She was the lowest of the servants, and it was her task to come and wash your feet. But the disciples are gathered in this room, and they're laying down beside the table. The table would be a low table, and on it would be various things, wine and bitter herbs and pastoral preparation for the Passover. And they're leaning, and custom was you lay on your side on cushions, and I can imagine Peter, it must have been Peter. Peter is the one who's got a mouth that's shaped like a foot. He's always putting his foot in his mouth. Peter must have been the one who said these words, John, my feet are itching, where's the servant girl? The bowls of water were at the door, and the towels were at the door, but there was no servant girl yet. John said, I don't know, hey James, where's the servant girl to wash our feet? I don't know, hey Judas, where's the servant? And around the circle he would go. And sooner or later, and again, I'm sure it must have been Peter, he said, well, this is a fine party, this is, man, my feet are itching, where's the servant girl? Didn't anybody know the servant girl? And Peter must have got it, you know, Peter was one of those guys who got a little uptight. He said, who planned this? Somebody, whoever planned this party has failed, they've forgotten the servant girl. Shh, Peter, shh, Jesus planned it. Jesus has planned this evening, and he's deliberately, evidently forgotten the servant girl. Then he gets up and washes their feet. Can you imagine how they must have thought and looked at one another when Jesus is doing this? He's getting up from the table, he's walking towards the bowl. Peter, again, I'm sure Peter must have thought to himself, oh, Jesus obviously remembered, he's gonna call the servant girl. But instead of that, he watches as his master, his Lord, the one he has declared to be the Messiah, just six months earlier, puts a towel around himself, picks up a bowl of water, and comes walking back towards Peter. Oh no, he's gonna ask me to wash their feet. Instead of which, Jesus washes Peter's feet. I was preaching on this message, something like it in Africa. I was in Africa for four years working with medical mercyship. And I was in a church in Sierra Leone. It was an open church. It was a round church, it was open-sided, and a bamboo type of roof. And there must have been a couple of hundred people in there, black people of course, and the pastor at the front. And as I'm teaching this, I'm very demonstrative, I like to walk and talk, all right, in my school teaching. And so I come up to the pastor and I get down on my knees in front of the pastor demonstrating Jesus washing the feet. It didn't strike me until afterwards, it struck me very quickly then. Everybody gets up and they stand around their chairs, they wanna see this white man down in front of this black man washing his feet. Well, why can't the white man get down in front of the black man washing his feet? But it was so striking that they'd never seen any missionary do this. But Jesus, that's exactly how Peter and the disciples must have felt, or even more so as Jesus began to wash their feet. And then he said to them this, do you know what I've done to you? If I, your Lord and master, can wash your feet, so do you to one another. The first calling of a Christian is to be a servant. And Jesus demonstrated it by washing their feet. Why do you go to church on Sunday morning? Why do you come here this morning? You don't have to come to church now, it used to be a time when everybody went to church because you had status in the community if you went to church, but that's not the reason now you come to church. So why do you come to church? I go to church for three reasons. I have to look at this, but I often do this and I got four fingers up. I go to church for three reasons. Number one, I go to church to worship God. I want to express my love to him, I want to sing worship to him. I can do that at home, but in a body of people, with my friends and the family of God, it is so much more full to have corporate worship, to be led by worship leaders. The second reason I go to church is to hear God speak to me. I want my heart to be open to hear him speak through the worship, through testimonies, through the preached word. I want the spirit of God, we prayed this at the start of the service, I want the spirit of God to speak to me as I come into the people, with the people of God. But the third reason I go to church is to have my feet washed. You see, you can't spend one hour in this world without the dirt of this world rubbing off on you. You watch your television, most television programs, after I watch them I feel dirty. You read your newspapers and the dirt of this world comes off on you. You watch your news broadcast, you see what's happening in the Middle East, doesn't it make you feel heavy? That's the pressure of this world coming on you. And one of the reasons I come to church is I want to meet brothers and sisters whom I love and in the Lord Jesus, who greet me and wash my feet. To walk in here and to be greeted by a number of you this morning, the Lord bless you brother, it's good to see you, it's good to see you too. That's foot washing. And particularly when we come in and we begin to know one another as part of a body, as a family, you come in with heaviness upon your heart, you come to people who know that you're heavy and who put their arms around you and just say I love you. That's foot washing. I found one of the most amazing things when I became a pastor, I remember going to a woman whose sister had died, elderly lady. I did not know what to say, I was a brand new pastor and I just sat with her. And you've, many of you have experienced this and after a while she's tears in her eyes, she says thank you for coming and being with me. I didn't say a word. But my very presence was washing her feet. The first call we have as Christians, priority I believe in the heart of Jesus is a way to be servants to one another. The next thing I find that Jesus says to his disciples in this upper room is this, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Now he didn't give us any options. This is our king saying I command you to love one another. He didn't say I command you to love those who go to departure of a Baptist church or any other Baptist church. He said I command you to love one another, no, nothing else except a command to love. No options here. He didn't say love those who have the same doctrine as you or love those who like the same kind of worship as you. Or love those who go to the same church as you. He said if you're a part of the body of Christ, if you're my disciple, love one another. That means loving the Pentecostal people up the road and the Anglican people down the road and those born again of the spirit of God in the Catholic church around the corner, it means loving them because we are commanded to. And I have no option. Paul told you I'm an ordained minister with the Christian Mission Alliance. I'm not a Christian Mission Alliance Christian. I am a kingdom Christian. I belong to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. I belong to the body of Jesus Christ. But I belong to you just as much as I do to anybody in the Alliance Church because I belong to Jesus. And I'm commanded to love you. I may not like you, but I'm commanded to love you. That means I want the best that there can possibly be for you. I do not gloat when I find you're struggling because how many churches we hear that, Victoria now there's a couple of churches struggling. People are leaving and going to other churches. I don't gloat that they're leaving those churches and coming to my church. Paul talked about us being a body. If one part of the body hurts, then the rest of the body hurts. I've been doing a lot of work since I came back. I was in Australia for your winter, visiting my daughter there. Anna and I spend six months every three years with our daughter in Australia. And I have wonderful time ministering there at different places. I came back full of energy and I decided to build a patio, a concrete patio at the back of my house. I've never built anything as big as that. Never done any work as much as that ever in my life. I'm all aches and pains. I know what it is, I lie in bed and my left elbow hurts and I turn over and it's my right arm hurts and then it's my neck aches. And when one part of the body is aching, the entire body begins to ache. How many churches are there in Nanaimo? Any idea how many churches? Come on, you're all Nanaimo people, you must have an idea how many churches are in Nanaimo, surely. I know. One. One. There's only one church in Nanaimo. There's many different expressions and Departure Bay is one expression of that church, one part of the church, just as I might be one part of the body. But there's only one church here and Jesus Christ is the head of that church. And he commands me to love every person who's a part of that church. Amen? Some of you are saying amen, some of you are not quite so sure. This, I believe, is priority, brothers and sisters. He says, I command you, less than 24 hours before he died, I command you to love one another. I'm committed to love even the unlovely in the body of Christ. Talking about the body of Christ, Paul is the one I talked about has been built together. People often say to me, what part of the body are you? A little bit facetiously. And I say, I'm a big toe. What part of the body are you, Paul, any idea? You're part of the body of Christ. What part are you? An appendix? No, no, no, surely not. Surely not. I'm a big toe. People say, what do you mean a big toe? Well, I say, I'm used to being under pressure. Big toes under pressure? I'm used to working in dark, smelly places. You sit in the pastor's office and listen to the stories that some people tell you, dark, dark, smelly places. It's part of the calling to be there. But the reason I delight in being a big toe is that I'm committed to try to bring balance to the body of Christ. I want my teaching to be full of balance. I want to have the people of God not going off into tangents, into doctrinal tangents or denominational tangents, but to recognize that we are one in the body of Christ and we are commanded to love one another. The third thing Jesus said in this room to his disciples this evening, this night before he died was this, if you're my disciples, do what I command you. Obey my word. I'm of a strong conviction, brothers and sisters, that Jesus made wonderful promises to us of peace and joy in the presence of his spirit and a home in heaven. And we rejoice in those things and they are true and they're for us today. I trust that you all realize that and that you've experienced this peace and joy. Have you? Any of you experienced this peace and joy? The world can't give and take away. Have you? Please answer me. Don't be afraid to answer me. I'm a school teacher. I'm used to, even if you disagree with me, answer me. But that he also asks of us three things. He asks us to serve one another, to love one another, and to obey his word. I want to be a man who's committed to serve the people of God, to love the people of God, and to obey his word. And then Jesus did something very striking. He took the bread and he broke it.