Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Colossians 3.12-17 ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts’ (v15) Link to the audio of this sermon I think we need to hear that! I spent most of the time yesterday writing this talk feeling very chewed up – we simply did not know how things would work out. I was not even sure whether we would be meeting this morning.  [Saturday June 24: Prigozhin and the Wagner group mutinied and marched on Moscow]   But we need peace. Peace in our relationships: which is what this passage is about (“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body”. Colossians 3:15) and peace in ourselves. So I’d like to leave you with four instructions! They come from Colossians 3.12-17, and they are instructions that will lead us in the way of peace Remember that you are chosen, holy and beloved “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3.12) This really is the starting point of everything When Jesus was baptised, a voice was...

Matthew 9.9-13,18-26   Jesus says, 'Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice'.   The Pharisees are criticising Jesus because he has called Matthew, a tax collector, to come and be one of his disciples – and no doubt Matthew has invited all his friends, his mates, to come and meet Jesus, and now Jesus is eating with ‘tax collectors and sinners’.   This was not respectable company. Tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman occupying forces. They had sold out whatever faith they had, and broken the law of God for power and wealth. There are many stories of how they abused their power and exploited people. And they are put here together with 'sinners', which usually refers to prostitutes. This was not respectable company. Today it would be as if Jesus was calling a known paedophile to follow him and was associating with drug pushers and gangsters.   It is not that Jesus condones the sort of tax collection that was going on ...

  John 7.37-39 Today we hear a wonderful invitation. Listen to the audio of the sermon here Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink’. Jesus is talking to people who live in a dry land. There was little water, much of the time the earth was barren; but when the rains came the world exploded into life. Jesus was at the feast of the tabernacles, of the booths. This was a festival, held every year, when the people of Israel remembered how, about 1300 years earlier, God had led them out of Egypt to the Promised land, through the wilderness. It was a desert land. There were times when they had no water. On at least two occasions the people are very scared. They begin to complain. They accuse Moses, who had brought them out of Egypt, of bringing them into the desert so that they will die. And Moses cries out to God. And God tells Moses to take his staff and to strike a rock, and miraculously water pours out of the rock. The New...

John 17:1-11 Madonna, the mega star, was being interviewed. They asked her if she prayed. She said that she did. She said that before she went on stage, she gathered her crew around her and she prayed, ‘God, make them love me’. I speak of Madonna, but I suspect that that is a prayer that each of us might want to pray. In John 17 we are shown Jesus at prayer. At first glance it might look like Jesus is praying what Madonna prayed, only bigger. Not ‘make them love me’, but ‘glorify me’! Is Jesus praying, Glorify me: let me be a star, let me be there in the headlights, let them love me and praise me, let them say their great big ‘ ура ’ about me? But as we read through this prayer, we begin to realise that true glory is so much more.   1.       When Jesus prays ‘Glorify your son’, he is praying for that his Father will complete his work in Jesus, will make him perfect, through the cross. Jesus has already lived a perfect, authentic life: a life...

John 14.15-21 I hate preaching from John and I love preaching from John! I hate preaching from John because there is so much here and some of it is very complicated.  But I love preaching from John because there is so much here, and there are always new truths to discover. John’s gospel is like a mine – the deeper you dig, the larger and the more precious are the jewels that you draw up.  Today is no different. Although I fear that we are not going to dig very deep. We are simply scraping over the topsoil.  Audio of the talk In John chapters 13-17, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. It is his last night with them. These are his final words. That very evening he will be betrayed by Judas and arrested. That very night he will be tried and sentenced. The following day, at about 9am, he will be nailed to a cross and at about 3pm he will die.  Jesus knows that his followers will be crushed. He knows that they will be lost and broken, feel abandoned and utterly hopeless. ...