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Welcoming Christ in his vulnerable people

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Matthew 10:40-42 Jesus said, ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’ We continue our reading through Matthew 10 Jesus has sent out the 12 disciples, and has given them authority to preach the kingdom, to cure ‘every disease and sickness’ And last week we learnt that as they spend time with Jesus so they will grow into the likeness of Jesus. And today we come to the end of the mission instructions to his followers. Listen to this talk here Three things I would like to draw attention to: 1. Identity Jesus identified himself with his sent followers. ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and...
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Hope for the harassed. A word for our times.

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Matthew 9:35-10:8 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’ Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the follo...
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Why the Trinity Changes Everything

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Matthew 28:16-20 There is something odd in these verses Jesus has all authority. He commands the disciples to go to all nations. And he says that he will always be with them. He is, using the old words, omni-potent and omni-present. And so you would expect him to say, ‘baptise them in my name’.  A link to the audio of the talk can be found here That would make sense. When you are baptised into someone’s name, you become part of them and they become part of you. Your lives are intertwined. Their glory becomes the glory in which you share. Their destiny is your destiny. You become their person, and they become your person. And if you hear echoes of marriage here, then you are thinking in the right way. In 1 Corinthians 10:2, Paul speaks of how the ancient Israelites were baptised into Moses. As they received Moses authority, as they followed him through the waters of the Red Sea, they were baptised into Moses: they became part of him, and he became part of them. And Paul also ...
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A spark becoming a flame. Learning to love Jesus

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John 14:15-21 Why? Why do you come to church? Why do you seek to keep the commandments: say the 10 commandments (or at least some of them!): no stealing, murder, adultery, lying or coveting? Jesus intensifies that to no hating, lusting, swearing – or perhaps more positively forgiving, exercising self discipline, speaking words of integrity. Why do you give? Why do you try to forgive? Why do you want to try and love other people even those you don't like or who don't like you? Why might you try to say some prayers, or the Lord's prayer, when you are on your own? The audio of this talk can be found here Because it is a habit, or what we have been taught we should do, or it is familiar or comfortable, or because it is useful in life? I suggest that somewhere within us, whatever other reasons we do those things for, we do them – rather than other things - because there is a spark of love for God in us. Jesus says, ‘If you love me you will keep my commandments’ (v15). ‘They wh...
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Praying Psalm 23 on your hand.

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John 10.1-10 , Psalm 23 Forgive a very basic sermon today, but I hope one that will live with you. I’ve brought along a visual aid. My hand. Your hand. Listen to an audio of this talk here The thumb. Look at your hand. Just for a moment. Now try to imagine it without your thumb. It still works but not very well. The thumb is an amazing organ. It is the digit that each of the other fingers – the pointing finger, the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger – relate to. Without the oppositional structure of the thumb, they can work together, grasp and hold but they cannot really do anything precise. The thumb in my illustration stands for the Lord Jesus, my shepherd. He is the one closest to me. He is the one who has come to us, who calls us – you and me – by name. “He calls his own sheep by name .. the sheep follow him because they know his voice” We think of him in the garden after his resurrection. Mary is distraught. The body of Jesus has disappeared. She sees what she th...
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Why the Messiah had to suffer. Luke 24:13-35

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Luke 24:13-35 Jesus says to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: ‘Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ They had been there with the others on the first Easter Sunday, but they had decided to call it a day. It was all too confusing and depressing. An audio of this talk can be found here They had thought that Jesus was the Messiah; that he would set Israel free from Roman occupation and bring in God’s reign of abundance and security and justice. They didn’t know how – perhaps he was going to provoke an uprising and raise an army. Or perhaps God would step in, as he had done in the past, and wipe out the Romans overnight. But they trusted this man, and they had put their hope in him. But it had all gone so wrong. Jesus had been arrested and crucified. Even the crowd had chanted for his death. And now, three days later, the women were saying that an angel had told them that Jesus was alive. Some of the disciples had been to t...
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The Word that makes us glorious. Easter day 2026

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Matthew 28:1-10 This was a sermon preached at a family service when we created a living model of this image. An icon of the myrrh bearing women. Prosopon school. Painted/written by Alison Rogers The icon above shows the women who came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body Or maybe you have been given an artist’s impression of a potential crime scene! And here on the ground we have a coffin marked out by our forensic experts. I would like us to visualise this scene and see how it helps us understand what we read in Matthew 28 Our witnesses are three women Mary Magdalene, another Mary (Mark and Luke tell us that she is Mary the mother of James – in other words, they are saying, you may not know her, but you know James and she is his mum). And there is a third woman mentioned by the other writers. They come to the tomb of Jesus. They know it is his tomb. They had seen where his body was laid. They had seen the stone rolled across the entrance. But when they get there, they find that the bod...
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