In Depth:  Jeremy McQuoid

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

Deep down in the caverns of 1 Samuel, towards the end of the never-ending chase between Saul and David, there is a story with hidden gospel power that needs to be rediscovered.

The king-in-waiting comes to Ziklag to spend time with family and friends when another crisis emerges (1 Sam. 30). A band of Amalekites had raided Ziklag, taking captive women and children, including David’s wives. After gaining divine approval via the ephod, David sets off in hot pursuit, and with the providential help of an Egyptian, catches the Amalekites by surprise, recovering all the spoils (v.18–20).

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

The prophets tended to see the future as a series of mountain peaks. Joel’s prophecy is a great example. He paints, in vivid colours, the picture of a swarm of locusts attacking ancient Judah, as a sign foreshadowing the awesome, still-in-our-future, ‘Day of the Lord’.

There were a series of ‘days of the Lord’ in the Old Testament, as the northern tribes were taken into exile by Assyria, and Nebuchadnezzar descended like a vulture on Judah, leaving Jeremiah to lament the devastation he left behind. But those days of the Lord were only foretastes of the ultimate and climactic ‘Day of the Lord’ when people will cry out for the rocks to fall on them, so they don’t have to face the full glory of the returning Christ.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

I was brought up hearing the message of salvation clearly and repeatedly, week after week, in such an unmistakable way that classic gospel texts like John 3:16, Romans 3:23 and 1 Timothy 1:15 are etched on my psyche to this day. And I am eternally grateful for that.

I heard a lot of preaching that painted fiery pictures of hell in such a way that every hearer was anxious to run to the cross of Christ for rescue. I was left in no doubt that I had an urgent need to ‘be saved’, and I’m very glad about that.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

Jesus leaves the best ’til last! We need to remember that when the heat is on, fruit seems hard to come by, the bones are tired, and you perhaps question why you are in ministry at all – whether you are a full-time minister, or a sold-out lay member of a church that brings more trouble than triumph.

Jesus came to a wedding in Cana in Galilee, very early on in his ministry (John 2:1-11). The high expectations and joy of a wedding reflect the kind of expectation many of us enter ministry with: the joy of spending your whole life studying God’s word, shepherding His people, and seeing the gospel come alive in people’s hearts. What could be better than that?

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

I have been wrestling with Romans 9 to 11 recently. If you are a preacher, you will no doubt relate to my problem.

Having preached through Romans a couple of times, I always want to stop at chapter 8, not just for the glory of that ‘no separation’ finish, but also because I want to avoid Romans 9 and all the pastoral complications it brings.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

As I write, the new year is growing older and the diet I promised to endure on 1st January is no closer to reality.

Too many tray bakes in the church office, and too much snacking at late night elders’ meetings. The answer to some peoples’ stress is going to the gym. The answer to mine is chocolate, and I feel my Sunday jacket tightening.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

‘… the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time.’ (Acts 16:6)

How do you get guidance from the Lord? As I write this article, I’ve been putting together messages based on Christmas nativity passages where divine guidance seems to come by way of angelic visitations, dreams and reading astrological charts. They are fascinating passages, but I’m not sure they are a ‘how to’ guide for discovering God’s will. It is important to remember that these dramatic moments of guidance came before God had poured out His Spirit at Pentecost.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

Opening my Bible, the other morning, looking for a timely word from the Lord, I turned to that memorable verse, ‘No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the Assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation…’ (Deut. 23:3). I had actually opened to verse 1, but that was too inappropriate to quote in an en devotional!

Working your way through Deuteronomy becomes hard work when you get to the legal section. The next passage (v.9-14) is about uncleanness and making sure you go outside the camp if you want to relieve yourself – not quite the heart-warming devotional I was hoping for!

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

There’s something beautiful and faith affirming about seeing Christ, the gospel, and the whole of the Christian life, rolled out magnificently in early Old Testament texts.

That has certainly been by experience reading through Deuteronomy recently. The setting for the book is Moses and the Israelites standing on the plains of Moab waiting for their ‘Joshua/Jesus’ to take them into the Promised Land. The fact that this picture is so clear in the Old Testament, only adds to the conviction that Scripture is divinely inspired, and our Joshua will certainly take us to our Promised Land once our wilderness wanderings are done.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

How patient are you? The closer you get to the end of the New Testament, the more the word ‘patience’ and its bedfellow ‘perseverance’ begin to dominate.

If you live your life purely in the book of Acts, reading about church planting, city riots, earthquakes smashing open prison bars, and the gospel racing from Jerusalem to Rome at breakneck speed, you might get the wrong impression of what faithful gospel ministry looks like.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

The apostle James is an uncomfortably straight talker, but he’s exactly what our easily distracted souls need. His letter is deceptively simple, packed with pithy, hard-hitting proverbs, that challenge the day-to-day indolence of our sinful hearts.

As an example, James 1:26-27 covers the full gamut of our spirituality in just a couple of phrases. Firstly, James calls us to ‘bridle’ our tongues (v.26), like we might do a rebellious horse. Preachers and leaders say a lot of carefully chosen words in the pulpit. It is outside of the pulpit where we need to watch!

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

I remember the thrilling moment, in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the German soldiers opened the lid of the ark of the covenant, and Indiana Jones tells his leading lady not to look, as angels, turning into demons, emerge from the golden box to wipe out the soldiers.

Sadly, that is the image at the forefront of most believers’ minds when they think about the ark, because we hear very little about the ark from our pulpits! The ark of the covenant is brimming with meaning. It was part of the tabernacle whose exact specifications were laid out by God to Moses over about 15 chapters of Exodus (Ex.25-40). My guess is that we have spent more time unpacking the burning bush than we have the ark of the covenant. So let’s ‘raid’ the ark again.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

‘…what is unseen is eternal.’

In 375 BC the great philosopher Plato wrote an allegory that has an uncanny connection to the gospel. The allegory describes a group of people who have lived chained to the walls of a cave all their lives. These prisoners see shadows, as objects pass by a fire behind them, and are projected onto the wall of the cave. They name the shadows, but don’t realise that the shadows aren’t accurate representations of the real world. They’re just shadows.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

It may seem strange to build a devotional on one of Hebrews’ famous warning passages (Heb. 2:1-4), but I hope you will see encouragement as well as admonition here.

Being confronted with such a stark warning – ‘how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?’ – reveals something of the wonder of the gospel He has entrusted to us.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

The older I get the more mysterious life appears to me. I hope that’s a sign of growing wisdom, rather than leaking faith.

When I was in my teens and twenties, life was pretty ‘black and white’. I knew what to believe, and what not to believe, was confident in my convictions, and sometimes intolerant of older saints who weren’t quite as unequivocal as I was. But the ageing process has left me a lot less strident, I think in a good way.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

I have an immense skill in avoiding the practical challenges of whatever Bible passage I am studying and getting distracted by incidental apologetic detail. What a wretched man I am! But I think you could be forgiven for falling into that trap when you read about Moses fasting during the long process of receiving the Ten Commandments on Sinai.

Deuteronomy 9 records that Moses stayed on top of Sinai for 40 days and nights and he claims: ‘I neither ate bread nor drank water’ (Deut. 9:9). That reminded me of an article I read about Jesus having to build up to fasting for 40 days and nights. It is such an arduous task to fast for that long that he would have required regular fasting on the build up. You cannot simply decide to fast for 40 days and nights from scratch. Dizziness, headaches and all kinds of mental struggles would kick in early in the process, unless you trained yourself in advance.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

I was interested to hear Matt Redman, the celebrated hymnwriter, lamenting the fact that we lack hymns on the topic of holiness. I think he’s right.

When I am searching for a closing hymn on holiness after I preach, my ‘go to’ hymn is Purify my Heart. Holy, holy, holy is the other one, but beyond that I am stuck for any clear, singable hymn that my congregation will recognise.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

What is the gospel? There is something inside me that loves to pick up books with that kind of title, in the hope that they weed out unsound doctrine.

Specifically I look for a faithful description of sin and the wrath of God, and a clear exposition of justification by faith alone. So I was hit between the eyes when I read Paul’s opening to Romans, the book which defines the gospel most systematically.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

Philippians 2 may not strike you as a ‘go to’ passage as we approach Advent and Christmas, but its picture of the incarnation is beautiful.

The one who was ‘in the form of God’ (2:6), enjoying the freedom of eternity at the Father’s side, did not feel it necessary to hang onto that elevated status. So He ‘emptied himself’ (2:7), a phrase that has led to PhD dissertations and strong scholarly disagreements.

the ENd word

Jeremy McQuoid

How is your church doing as it hits the autumn? How are your services at the moment?

The question I am hearing in every webinar from church leaders is: are we ready post-lockdown? How will the impact of the prolonged absence of physical services affect our congregations?