What should we do?

Preached at Christ church, Billericay, 15 Dec 2024 @ 08:00

Readings: Zephaniah 3:14-20 & Luke 3:7-18

Why the crowds were coming to John

A voice in the night

I was in a deep deep sleep, suddenly there was a loud voice. I woke slowly, it was pitch black. I couldn’t make sense of the voice or work out where it was coming from. I thought it was trying to tell me to do something. My brain was awake, now, but my body was lagging behind. I forced myself out of bed, and made my way to the lounge. The voice had stopped. I got to the lounge and woke the dog, but no-one else was about. After a short while, I said “good-night” to the dog and went back to bed. I couldn’t sleep, feeling I had missed something important. In the morning, I was told that the voice came from a radio, it’s left on all the time, it has batteries to keep it on in a power cut. It’s tuned to one station and the volume is turned all the way up – so everyone will definitely hear it. It is the hurricane warning system, and was telling us we MUST stay inside. It was so loud, the sound was distorted.

John’s Urgent Message

Anyway, it gave me a sense of urgency, that I must do something, and that is what John the Baptist is trying to do. And it’s working. Lots of people are coming out to him. They sense the danger.

The state of the Roman Empire

The Roman Empire is corrupt; it’s struggling to keep control of the Jewish state at the edge of the empire. The puppet kings are ineffective, and part of the territory is effectively under direct rule.

Out sourced tax collection

The collection of taxes has been outsourced. The rights to collect tax are sold to the highest bidder, who must then deliver the tax to the Emperor, and also collect enough extra tax to become rich.

How Jewish Soldiers make a living

The Jews have their own army, but it behaves more like the occupiers. Instead of protecting the people, the soldiers bully them, to supplement their own income.

The need for a new ‘Exodus’

It seems like things are coming to a head. That something important is about to happen. Something that will be on a par with God rescuing His people from the Egyptians in the Exodus. We have a vision of what they were hoping for in the Zephaniah reading. The oppressors removed, the festivals returned, and the world put to rights. They just had no idea how God would get them there.

Then this weird, but highly charismatic prophet – John the Baptist – appears and offers people baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Many people come and repent of their sins from all walks of life.

Vipers (Snakes) and their symbolism

John is not one to hold back. Calling those who have come to him a “Brood of Vipers” seems like quite an insult. Matthew tells us that this comment was addressed to the Pharisees and Sadducees, not the crowd in general.

Genesis – the serpent

Brood here refers to them as offspring. So it takes the idea right back to Genesis, where the serpent tempted Adam & Eve and was cursed by God. He’s saying they are children of evil.

Wrath of God and how to avoid it.

The wrath of God will sort out all the problems. The Israelites have seen this before. God’s wrath is coming soon, and John uses two images to explain this. The axe is already at the root of the tree – a tree that doesn’t produce fruit is cut down. That’s the danger they face.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how that might apply to the Jews who have come to be baptised. If they don’t get that one, the winnowing fork should explain it nicely – the chaff is about to be blown away, only the good grain will be left.

Being subjects to God’s wrath is a painful experience, but the end result is worth it. Anyway, they have just been told that they can flee God’s wrath.

Baptism is for converts

The way for them to avoid God’s wrath is to repent and be baptised. Baptism was the ceremony that those converting to Judaism went through. So, in a sense, they are admitting that they do not really have Abraham as their father. Even though they have repented, they don’t seem to clear what they have repented of. Three people in the crowd ask John what they must do. Clearly, they are expecting to live a different way.

A different way of Living

Cartoon

A cartoon shows a sceptic shouting up to the heavens, “God! If you're up there, tell us what we should do!” Back comes a voice: “Feed the hungry, house the homeless, establish justice.” The sceptic looks alarmed. “Just testing”, he says “Me too’”, replies the voice.

Living Differently

They will have to live differently. They will have to look after one another – sharing the resources they have. They will have to deal with each other fairly, not using the power they have over others to take advantage.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to them – but it seems to be. Sometimes the obvious just needs pointing out. It’s there in the prophets:

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

USSR

John’s call is for us too. Back in the USSR, where being a Christian was illegal, times were very hard for the believers. But some employers protected them as much as they could, because Christians were the only ones who could be trusted not to steal from their employers and not to use what they knew against them.

Living differently has an effect, not just in difficult situations, like living under persecution, but here and now in our world.

Perhaps we can feed the hungry, house the homeless and establish justice, because the sceptics aren’t going to. It is after all what the Lord requires of us, it is what we are here for.

Amen.

Two Kingdoms

Preached on 24 November 2024 at 10:00, at Christ Church, Billericay

Reading Daniel 7v9-10, 13-14; John 18v33-37

Lectionary: Christ the King

Today, the lectionary subject is Christ the King. It still feels rather strange to me, but at least it comes at the right time in our year – right at the end. At a time when Christ's mission has been fully completed, His kingdom established, and he has taken his place at the right hand of God in Heaven.

This subject did not appear in the Lectionary until 1921 when the Pope was trying to raise his profile against the newly appointed Italian king. For us, it entered the lectionary in 1990, so perhaps I’m taking too long to adapt. However, the two readings give us some great insights into God and his son Jesus, so let’s start with Daniel.

Daniel

Daniel is seeing a vision of that in our Old Testament reading this morning. In the first pair of verses he sees the Ancient of Days – that is God. The phrase literally means ‘before there were days’. That vision of God should certainly help us to understand His awesome power.

In the second he sees the Son of Man, which here refers to the Christ, being led to the throne and given dominion over all the nations and peoples, and all of them worshipping Him.

About kings and subjects

Both those images speak of unlimited power. Today, we don’t see the absolute power of Kings. Our king heads a constitutional monarchy. The King’s power is severely limited, now to the point where the role of King is almost exclusively ceremonial. Even when Henry VIII ruled and the theory of the divine right of kings was applied to the monarchy, he did not have absolute power. Remember what happened when king John pushed his barons too far.

As far as his subjects were concerned, though, it would seem as though he did. Had we been alive in those days, and been part of the peasantry, the King's power would have seemed absolute. He certainly had the power of life and death for us. Just as did his Lords and their representatives in each town or village. It was not so different in the Roman Empire in Jesus’s day. Keep that in mind as we look at the conversation between Pilate and Jesus from our Gospel reading.

Favourite verses

The report that John gives of the conversation is one of my favourite passages in the whole Bible. So, as we look through those verses now, I’ll try to explain why I find them so important.

Talk through verses

Background

Jesus has been arrested by “a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees” (v3) led by Judas. There are many more men here than could possibly be required to arrest one man, so this was a show of force – just in case some of the disciples were thinking of trying to prevent the arrest. Peter had a go, but it came to nothing because Jesus told him to stop.

Jesus is then questioned by the High Priests.

By the time this had finished, it was early morning, and they had to wake the governor of the province – Pilate. They will not go into his building because that would make them unclean, so Pilate must come out to them.

They only need Pilate because they want the death penalty. Pilate calls Jesus away from them and takes him inside.

Now, at this point, you might wonder how we know what was said. Well, while the questioning goes on, there are plenty of staff in the house. Some may even have been sympathisers, and I’d bet most of them were nosey, after all knowledge is power. So, the conversation could easily have been reported to the disciples after the resurrection, by one or more of

[v33]

In v33, Pilate’s first question is “Are You the King of the Jews?”. If we think about what Jesus must have looked like at that stage – dressed in peasants cloths, probably roughed-up a bit by the arresting troops, and now on his own, because his followers had left. Thinking of him looking like that as a king would be laughable. But, Pilate must ask. His primary concern is to ensure there is no threat to the empire. He is, after all, the Emperor in this place.

[v34]

Verse 34. If you ask Jesus a question, you will rarely get a direct answer. His response here is a case in point. In terms of how the dialogue goes, this is probably the most important verse. Jesus knows that Pilate has the power of life and death over him. He knows that what he says here will in some way affect what happens next. While under arrest and the threat of death, He holds to his own agenda. He even takes control of the dialogue. “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

It’s Jesus’s control, His composure and His ability to guide the conversation under such extreme pressure that really impresses me.

[v35]

The NRSV translates Pilate’s response as “I am not a Jew, am I?”, which makes it clearer that the question does not require an answer. Trying to get back on track, he continues with, “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

[v36]

Again, the NRSV has a better translation than the NIV, when it uses ‘from’ rather than ‘of’ in the first part of Jesus’s answer. Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’

Not from here

If we use ‘of’ rather than ‘from’, it can suggest that Jesus’s Kingdom is unworldly and has no effect on the world as we and Pilate know it. If we use ‘from’, then Jesus kingdom comes from somewhere else, and will not be a threat to Pilate and his Roman Empire – he clearly doesn’t have an army with Him - but it is not just a spiritual kingdom. It also makes Jesus’s first sentence consistent with the rest of what he says.

[v37]

Pilate is still not sure, and he has no idea why Jesus has been handed over to him, except that the Chief Priest wants Jesus put to death.

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Jesus now tries to divert the conversation again. He wants to talk about truth. The truth that each of the men see is very different.

Different type of kingdom – sacrifice not power

The two kingdoms we have been hearing about are very different.

Pilate knows the truth, that Rome’s armies are powerful. The political system runs on this power and the political manoeuvrings that go with it. If you control the power, you can make your own the truth.

Jesus knows a greater truth. His kingdom runs on sacrifice and love. What He is doing now – accepting His sentence and being prepared to be executed (along with all the pain and suffering that must happen along the way), will demonstrate how sacrifice and love work in His Kingdom.

Now we have a choice

We are faced with a choice. Which Kingdom do we want to live in. Which of them best serves our needs from now and into eternity. Because of what Jesus has done, all the things which keep us locked into Pilates Kingdom have been overcome. But, we cannot serve two masters, and we cannot switch sides as it suits us, because neither side will put up with that. Once our choice is made, we must serve the King we have chosen, in the way that he demands.

My Hope

My hope is that each of us has made our choice, and that we have decided to follow Jesus as our King. If not, and you would like to talk about it, please do talk to one of us at the end.

For those that have, I’ll finish with the words of the apostle Paul to Timothy, because I believe they apply to all of us. From 1 Timothy 6 starting at verse 12:

¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴ to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

References

https://www.patheos.com/progressive-christian/here-is-what-it-really-means-john-c-holbert-11-16-2015

https://sermonsfrommyheart.com/2018/03/29/john-1833-37-long-live-the-king/

https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/preaching-on-christ-the-king/

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/long-live-the-king-craig-condon-sermon-on-jesus-as-king-194920

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_X_of_Denmark

https://sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary-old/john-1833-37/

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/king-of-kings-and-lord-of-lords-a-sermon-for-christ-the-king-sunday-mark-a-barber-sermon-on-christ-the-king-285667

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/king

https://bibleportal.com/topic/regicide

https://www.bibliaplus.org/en/commentaries/50/joseph-bensons-commentary-on-the-old-and-new-testaments/1-timothy/6/13-16

https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/why-is-god-called-the-ancient-of-days.html

In Christ Alone

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay, 4 November 2024.  this talk is about the song "In Christ Alone"

Reading Colossians 1:24-28

Origins

The song “In Christ Alone” was written by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty in 2002. That must make it one of the most up-to-date songs that we regularly sing. Stuart and Keith met at a worship event in late 2000 and decided to work together on some songs. A few weeks later Keith sent Stuart a CD containing some melody ideas. Stuart described the first one as a “magnificent, haunting melody that I loved, and I immediately started writing down some lyrical ideas on what I felt should be a timeless theme commensurate with the melody. So the theme of the life, death, resurrection of Christ, and the implications of that for us just began to tumble out, and when we got together later on to fine tune it, we felt we had encapsulated what we wanted to say.”

They had both wanted to capture biblical truth in songs and hymns that would not only cause people to express their worship in church, but will build them up in their Christian lives. Stuart says that songs are more memorable than sermons.

Recordings

“In Christ Alone” has been recorded many times, but Stuart’s favourite is a recording made at Stoneleigh Bible Week in England in 2019. He says of the experience “When we finish the third verse, about the resurrection of Christ, there’s an extraordinary burst of praise from the congregation that at the time was overwhelming, and listening back still sends a shiver down my spine.”

Stuart Townend

Stuart was born in 1963 and grew up in West Yorkshire, England, the youngest son of an Anglican vicar. He started learning piano at a young age, and began writing music at 22. He has produced albums for Keith Routledge and Vinesong, among many others, and has also released eight solo albums to date. Some of his better-known songs include “How Deep the Father’s Love,” “The King of Love,” and “The Power of the Cross.” He continues to work closely with friends Keith and Kristyn Getty, and is currently a worship leader in Church of Christ the King in Brighton, where he lives with wife Caroline, and children Joseph, Emma and Eden.

Keith Getty

Julian Keith Getty OBE was born on 16 December 1974 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He is the eldest of four children and a Northern Irish businessman, Christian singer and songwriter. Getty now mainly works with his wife, Kristyn; they release music under the name Keith & Kristyn Getty.

Getty began making music at age 11, learning to play the classical guitar and then the flute. During school, Getty was influenced by classical music, Irish music, and church music of all kinds. As a young adult, he studied music at St Chad's College, Durham University, graduating with his Bachelor of Arts in 1995. As a student, Getty completed special conducting opportunities at the Canford Summer School of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. He participated in a summer master class under Irish flautist Sir James Galway.

Kristyn met Keith Getty in 2002. Kristyn was attending a nearby university and asked Getty for some musical advice. The couple married on 16 June 2004 and they have four children.

Getty and his wife live between Portstewart, Northern Ireland and Nashville, Tennessee with their four daughters.

Song Popularity

“In Christ Alone” soon gained popularity, and by 2005 it was named by a BBC Songs of Praise survey as the ninth best loved hymn of all time, and in their 2010 survey was named second best hymn of all time. In 2006 it was in the No 1 position on the United Kingdom CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) chart. It has made the top 25 in the American list and is popular in other English speaking countries. There are also many translations. It is currently no. 18 in CCLI’s “Top 100” list.

Controversy

The song is not without it’s controversies, perhaps more politely called theological debate. In 2013 the Presbyterian Church in the USA voted not to include the song in its new hymnal. They had been refused permission by the authors to make a small but significant change. The wanted to use the line "Till on that cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified." in place of "Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied". They were faced with a choice – include the song in its original form or leave it out. One of their ministers - Chris Joiner - said "that lyric comes close to saying that God killed Jesus. The cross is not an instrument of God's wrath."

Satisfaction Theory Of Atonement

The discussion is long and complicated and involves the Early Church Fathers, particularly Anselm. It deals with the satisfaction theory of atonement, where Anselm describes human sin as defrauding God of the honour he is due. Christ's death, the ultimate act of obedience, brings God great honour. As it was beyond the call of duty for Christ, it is more honour than he was obliged to give. Christ's surplus can therefore repay our deficit. That’s a short description from Wikipedia, so you could start there if you want to research it more later.

My view of the argument

I followed their argument as far as I could and although I can see where they are going (I think), I cannot agree. The problem is that their argument departs from one of the central parts of Christian Theology – that Christ died on the cross to save us from our sins. One of the 16 scripture references that the song is based on is Romans 5:9, which says “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”.

There is no sense in any of the Gospels that God killed Jesus, each of them tells us quite clearly that Jesus went to the cross intentionally as part of His plan.

I made a decision a long time ago now, that when I couldn’t work something out for myself, I would trust the Bible, so that’s where I’ll start with this controversy.

 Creedal Song

“In Christ Alone” is a creedal song – it helps us with our statements of belief. That is certainly what the authors were trying to do. It is not a complete creed, like the Apostles Creed, or the Nicene Creed, both of which talk about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The simplest or shortest creed I could find in our liturgy only mentions Christ and the scriptures:

Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he was buried;
he was raised to life on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
afterwards he appeared to his followers,
and to all the apostles:
this we have received,
and this we believe.
Amen.

The song concentrates on Jesus and especially how we relate to Him and benefit from what He has done for us.

I have tried to summarise what it is saying (but the song says it best, of course):

Verse 1 – Christ’s love is our strength and security.

Verse 2 – Christ, in human form, as Jesus, dies for our salvation and is our life.

Verse 3 – His resurrection, His victory over death frees us from our sin.

Verse 4 – We live in the power of Christ and cannot be taken from Him.

Hope

We need to go back to the first line to understand that all of this is our hope. None of us have yet been resurrected, as Romans 8:24 says

²⁴ But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

All these things are our hope, our belief, our faith. As we sing this wonderful modern hymn, let’s try to take in the meaning and understanding that it provides, so that our faith may be strengthened.

Amen.

Jesus and the way of the Servant

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 20 October 2024

Recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdnMfwbMjmI from 22:47 to 41:06

	Prayer
	[Slide 2 – James and John] James and John’s request to sit at Jesus’s right and left in the Kingdom of God comes as they are on their way to Jerusalem.  It shows that they want to be in charge, to have all the privileges that go with any of the positions that are close to the King.  They want to be VIPs and seen as great and glorious.  Perhaps they think some of Jesus’s glory with rub off on them, perhaps they’re just being greedy.  The other disciples weren’t at all happy with James and John trying to become more important than them.
	[Slide 3 – Who is the greatest ...] I wonder who you think is the greatest person that ever lived?  Of course, for this, you can’t choose Jesus.  I know that Jesus is the answer every time, and we will see that later, but for now let’s leave him out. [get answers and comment]
	[Slide 4 – List of the greats …] Here’s a list of candidates that people have voted for on a website called ranker.com Jesus Christ Leonardo da Vinci Isaac Newton Nikola Tesla Galileo Galilei Aristotle Martin Luther King, Jr. Albert Einstein Marie Curie Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Of course, this list is of its time, just as our ideas are.  The list is affected by those who have chosen to vote, so it’s not what you’d call definitive. In Jesus day, the greatest person would have been a king, a political leader, a commander of an army, or a high ranking priest.  All of these people lived in palaces and expected others to do their bidding. This is the sort of life that James and John were expecting, after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  They don’t seem to be at all worried by the difficulties to come, they are focussed on the end game.  We can tell this by their blasé response when Jesus asks them if they can drink the cup He is going to drink, and if they can be baptized with the baptism that He will be baptized with.  Jesus is trying to make them see how hard it will be, but they do not care.
	[Slide 5 – Learn by your mistakes …] They say that you learn by your mistakes.  It’s also true that we can learn by the mistakes of others, so let’s see what we can learn from James and John’s absolute howler.  Jesus uses their request as a ‘teachable moment’.  Here’s what he said: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Up-side down Here’s Jesus turning the ideas and practices of the world on their head.  If God had followed the way of the world, His son would have been born in a palace to a King and Queen, and he would have grown up as a prince.  Instead, he was born in obscurity, in an outhouse, among the animals, and he grew up as a carpenter. His life was spent among the poor, helping and healing them, not being served by them.  So, when Jesus says that the son of man did not come to be served, He has already shown the truth of His statement. To serve - Activity Let’s see what it means to serve.  For this I will need a few helpers.
	[Slide 6 – Serving Others - Activity] Activity [Ask the helpers to pair up.  One of the pair must then select a sweet for the other.  Then change the pairings, and ask those with sweets to select a sweet for their new partner] Review Activity That was a very simple, and imperfect illustration of what it means to serve.  Did you get the sweet you wanted, or one that you don’t like?  Perhaps it would have been better if you had chosen for yourselves.  The problem with that is it leads to exactly what we have now, a society where the majority are only interested in their own lives and improving their lives, often at the expense of others. Lesson from activity Of course, we cannot serve the person we are serving just anyhow.  We have to be giving them what they want.  It would be better in our game to ask the person you were getting the sweet from what they like.  Jesus often asked those he was about to heal what He could do for them. Who do we know who serves? [get answers]
	[Slide 7 – Greatest servants of all time] Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was harder to find a list of the greatest servants that have ever lived.  So many of the lists included CEOs of large corporations and talked of their visionary leadership, those people were all very well paid for their genius, and would have had many others serving them.  That is not what I was trying to find.  I did find a few, though, who might just qualify (in no particular order): Abraham Lincoln Mahatma Gandhi Mother Teresa Nelson Mandela Jesus of Nazareth The problem with finding lists of people who serve is that most of them do it anonymously.   How do we serve? We only hear about them by the organizations they serve with, like the RNLI or St. John’s Ambulance.  The other time we may hear about them is when they win an award.  Occasionally they will appear on local news as they receive an award they would probably rather not have.  They will say something like “the work is its own reward”.  There is a sense in which service is its own reward.
	[Slide 8 – Albert Schweitzer Quote] Each of us has to find our own way to serve others, as Albert Schweitzer said, “the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” Service Whether this is true or not, our calling, if we follow Christ, is to serve others.  He is our example.  He is the one who came to serve, to give up His life in that service, so that many could be saved.  Without his choice to serve and to die on the cross, there would be no reconciliation with God.  If we follow Him, then, just like the disciples, we must follow Him to Jerusalem, and to His death.  We must follow His example and choose to serve others.  There are endless ways we can do this, and we will find, if we try, that it is also the route to fulfilment and happiness. Benefits everyone If we are all serving someone else, then it is also true that we are all recipients of someone’s service.
	[Slide 9 – long spoons] This is illustrated by the allegory of the long spoons.  This is usually used to describe the difference between heaven and hell.  Let me explain.  Imagine we are all around a large bowl of soup.  Each of us has a small spoon with a very long handle.  We could try to feed our selves, but by the time we have retrieved the soup, most of it has fallen off the spoon.  That’s the top picture, if you can see it.  This is hell.  We are not getting enough to eat.   However, if we choose to feed someone else, someone at the right distance for the long spoon, they will be well-fed, and if everyone does it, we will all be well-fed. – This is what heaven is all about. Conclusion The children had a poster to colour, it says “The servant is the greatest of all”.  We can all want this greatness, and we can all have it.  All we have to do is to find a way to serve – and there are so many ways to do that.  I’ll leave you all to think of some new ones to try. Amen

References:

https://mypastoralponderings.com/2021/10/16/how-to-become-great-my-sermon-on-mark-1035-45/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_long_spoons

https://www.ranker.com/list/the-all-time-greatest-people-in-history/alan-smithee

https://interruptingthesilence.com/2021/10/17/too-big-for-your-britches-good-a-sermon-on-mark-1035-45/

https://ministry-to-children.com/he-came-to-serve-lesson/

https://sermons4kids.com/activities/to-be-like-jesus-group

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer

 

I am the bread of life

Preached at Anisha Grange 13 October 2024 @ 15:00

Reading: John 6:35

Menu

If you go somewhere to eat and look through the menu, you will find bread in every meal. Toast for breakfast, baguette for lunch, a bread roll with your soup for lunch or dinner, and bread pudding for dessert. [Show the roll]

Bread is one of our staple foods. 2000 years ago in Jesus’s day, around the sea of Galilee bread and fish were the staple foods.

Background

So, it’s not surprising that our the story starts with five small barley loaves and two small fish. It is of course the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus prays over them and feeds the entire crowd. When they cleared up afterwards there was a lot left over. The huge crowd, seeing this, said “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus knew they would try to make Him king, so he left.

Free meal

If I could walk into a restaurant, choose anything from the menu, sit down and eat, then leave when I’m full without a charge, I’d go there every day. Even if they only served the staples, I’d go there a lot. So it’s not at all surprising that, in their agricultural economy, where a bad crop would leave them hungry, this miracle would get their attention. Of course they want free food, they don’t care what’s on the menu – with Jesus in charge, they need never be hungry again.

Crowd Find Jesus

Jesus has gone to the other side of the lake, but He cannot escape the crowd that easily; they have found Him on. Now, things are getting serious for Jesus. He’s not about to made their king – their meal ticket, or whatever they are expecting.

He says to them:

“you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

“What must we do?” they ask.

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

“What sign will you give, so that we can believe you?”

Asking for a sign

It’s rarely a good idea to ask Jesus for a sign, specially when He has just performed one of the most powerful signs of His time on earth. They are thinking of the Manna that God provided in the Exodus, that they call the bread of heaven, and they would like more.

Jesus tells them that He is the true bread when he says “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

By now he’s no longer talking about food, He’s talking about our spiritual life. The crowd around him realize this, but they still don’t really believe it. Then the grumbling starts and the crowd eventually disperses.

Bread and Water

We can live on bread and water for a very long time. My mum knew someone who only ate potatoes – another one of our staples, and who had lived a long and apparently healthy life.

Menu - Choice

All our menus have choices, we are rarely forced to live on staples. But, when it comes to our spiritual life, there really is only one thing on the menu. Jesus. If we come to Jesus, and accept him as the one God sent, then we can live, not just now, but for eternity.

You may look around at the world and see that there are other forms of spirituality on offer, but this is not a menu, where you can choose and mix it up a bit. To get any benefit of the food on offer there is only one choice, one staple, Jesus, sent from God to bring us to eternal life. Our choice must be to believe in Him. Feed on Him, Drink from Him. He has infinite resources, more than sufficient for each of us. If we can accept that Jesus is the bread of life, that belief will change our life now, and forever.

Amen

The turning point - Who do you say that I am?

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay at 8:00 15 September 2024. This sermon was not recorded.

Reading Isaiah 50; Mark 8v27-38

Introduction/Background

In today’s NT reading, we are almost in the middle of the book of Mark. Our reading marks a turning point in the book. Until now, the narrative has been mostly positive – miracles and healings. The teaching has been mainly fairly easy, and occasionally it has made things easier for his followers – in Chapter two, for example, he permits them to pick grain and eat on the Sabbath. He starts to draw a crowd, and He becomes well known in the area, and soon has many followers. The crowds follow Him wherever He goes. In chapter 6 the Twelve are learning from him, and practising their new-found skills – healing and driving out demons.

In Caesarea Philippi

Just before our reading today, they were in Bethsaida. Now, they are in the region of Caesarea Philippi, about a day’s walk further away from Jerusalem, and almost as far north as they go. The town is in modern day Lebanon. They are now over 100 miles from Jerusalem.

Caesarea Philippi was a Roman town, dedicated to the god that was the Roman emperor, and before that the god Pan. It had once been called Paneas. It is here that Jesus chooses to ask his question.

“Who do people say I am?”

“Who do people say I am?” Jesus sounds like some insecure celebrity or influencer asking for the uncritical support of his closest followers. That’s not how it is though, the reality is that he is teaching His disciples, and working them gently up to the most important lesson so far.

The answers they report are all quite reasonable considering what they have done and what they have seen. There was an expectation that Elijah would return before the messiah came, but none of the people they have heard from have gone so far as to say that Jesus is the Messiah.

What about you?

So, Jesus narrows the question. “What about you? Who do you say I am?” The disciples have seen things and heard things that the crowd have not. Also, they have seen Jesus closer up and for a much longer time than the crowd. They must suspect more – surely?

The Christ

Peter is the leader of the disciples. I can picture the scene, Jesus asks the question, instantly everyone looks at Peter. What is he going to say? Is there a pause? Does he need time to think about it? Or is this a typical Peter response – the first thing that comes to mind is spoken straight away?

“You are the Christ”. It’s quite a jump. The Christ or the Messiah was, in the popular belief of the time, the one who would restore David’s kingdom. That’s a political and military leader. Three specific things were required:

1. Rebuild or cleanse the Temple
2. Defeat the enemies of God’s people
3. Bring God’s, justice to Israel and then the rest of the world.

Do not tell

Jesus immediately warns them not to tell anyone what Peter has said. He knows that He is not what the popular culture believes that the Christ should be. He is not going to live in a palace, raise an army, or start a war in Israel. That’s probably why he has preferred to call Himself Son of Man. That title mostly just means ‘Human Being’, but in Daniel 7, it undoubtedly refers to the Christ.

Jesus predicts His death

Now, the focus of the teaching changes. It’s no longer about lifestyle, it is about the Christ and what will happen to Him.

“the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”

Jesus is using the suffering servant in Isaiah (52:13-53:12) as the model for how his life will go.

Peter takes Him aside

That’s appalling, Peter has just said out loud that Jesus is the Christ, the glorious leader who will solve all the problems Israel faces, and now Jesus is saying He must suffer and die! So, Peter takes aside.

“Er, Lord, can I have a word with you in private for a minute”.

Of course, it can’t be private, they are out in the open, but Peter can’t take this, he will have to tell Jesus how it really is. Only Matthew gives us some of Peter’s words:

“Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Of course, Peter has a point. Who is going to follow someone whose future is to suffer and to die at the hands of the authorities they are hoping to overthrow? It sounds like madness.

Jesus’s Rebuke

Jesus recognises Peter’s words. He has heard them before. He spent forty days in the desert listening to words exactly like these.

Luke 4:13: When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Now is that time, just when Jesus starts talking to His followers, the ones who He knows will be the basis for the spread of His story, and the redemption of millions, there is Satan, trying his best to kill the church before it is even born.

Jesus’s response, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” is crushing for Peter, but essential for Jesus’s mission.

Jesus’s Teaching

Now, after that drama with Peter, Jesus turns to the crowd, calls them to come closer so that he can begin his teaching.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

Denying Self

Denying yourself, simply means not putting ourselves first, pushing our own desires into the background and focussing on the gospel.

Cross

Taking up your cross, means putting ourselves in the line with the condemned on the way to a Roman crucifixion, death is the only thing that awaits us.

Life

If, at any point, we try to save our lives, we will lose them, but whoever loses their life for the sake of Jesus and for the gospel, will gain eternal life.

Soul / Self

Jesus goes on to say:

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

Or what can someone give in exchange for their soul?

The word ‘soul’ here can also be translated self, if read like that perhaps we get a better understanding. If we give up ourself for the world, we have no self to own the world with! I think this is a way of Jesus saying we must be in or out, either we believe he is the Christ or we don’t – there can be no half way position. Verse 38 seems to underline this idea.

End of the gospel

I started by saying we were in the middle of the book, and today’s verses are a turning point. The teaching has changed, in these verses the emphasis is now on belief and sacrifice. As we approach Jerusalem and particularly as we come to the crucifixion narrative and to Jesus’s death, we see that everyone has melted away and Jesus is alone.

It would seem to be madness to follow such a leader, and the world increasingly seems to take that view. As we have seen, even Peter was opposed to God’s plan for redemption because he was thinking in a worldly (or satanic) way.

Challenge

This is our challenge, and one that the church of God faces in every generation, can we look at the world we live in from God’s point of view, when everything around us is telling us that that is madness?

It all hinges on the question that Jesus, at some point, asks each of us: “Who do you say that I am?”

What is your answer this morning?

Do you recognise Him as the Christ?  Are you willing to follow Him to Jerusalem, to death and ultimately receive the resurrection?

Amen

Summer Series 3 – Biblical Teaching

Preached 11 August 2024 at Christ Church, Billericay. It is based on Holy Habits in Messy Church.  I will add the slides later, so that it will make better sense.

The recording can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX8AAlUgffM from 28:15

I did go a bit off script at the end.

[Slide 1 – Title]

Prayer

Introduction

[Slide 2 – Mealtime cards]

 

Favourite story about Jesus?

What is your favourite story about Jesus?

[get answers]

My favourite story about Jesus is: His conversation with Pilate in John 18. Jesus is under extreme pressure, and being sentenced to death, but He has the presence of mind to have a conversation with Pilate that really unsettles him and makes him think about who Jesus is.

Bible at home? Would you like one?

If you haven’t got a Bible at home, would you like one?

[get answers]

Most (all?) of us have – I have loads – many different translations and different sizes – small ones that are difficult to read now, and larger ones with embedded cross-references. I also, have access to multiple versions on my phone.

If you have got a Bible, where is it kept?

[get answers]

My main one is next to my bed.

Activity 1 – Minute to Win it

[Slide 3 – Books of the Bible]

 

Time for an activity. Hopefully you haven’t opened your envelopes yet – because if you have, that would be cheating! We’re going to have a look at how much you know about the Bible. There are 66 books in the Bible. In your envelopes you will find the names of 14 of those books on slips of coloured paper. Your task is to put them in the correct order. The colours of the paper are not significant. If you are fortunate, you will have two slips with the same names on them, although I hope not. If you aren’t fortunate you will have an extra slip, but again, I hope not.

If you’re doing this from home, and don’t have a pack, try working out those on the screen.

So when the next slide comes up, you have one minute to get as many of them as you can.

[Slide 4 – Minute to win it video autoplay and auto advance to 5]

How did you do, check your list with the index page of a Bible?

[get answers]

 

What is the Bible?

So, what is the Bible? And Why is it so important to Christians?

It is a collection of writings (or books), from around 3200 years ago, to about 2000 years ago. In many cases, the writings are recording events that have come to their hearers by being told and re-told over many generations. The writings record peoples interactions with God, and how they behaved because of, or despite, those interactions. It tells us of their ups and downs, their successes and failures. They recorded songs, poetry, prophecy, biography, letters, and philosophical thoughts as well as a little history. All aspects of their lives are covered. All the writings are focussed on God and His people. We can see how His promises are fulfilled, and most importantly, how His plan for the redemption of the world is progressing.

Sequence

The writings are kept in a particular sequence, as we have seen. This is not a historical sequence, even though the first book deals with creation and the last with the end of this world and the establishment of the next. Rather, Jewish writing that make up our Old Testament are first, and the Christian writings that make up the New Testament are second, after that the sequence loosely categorises the writings by type.

Important

The Bible is important because it is the word of God. Each of the books is inspired by God, and eventually, written down and then copied and copied again by people who recognised its importance. The Bible stories we read, both the historical ones, and the made up ones, like the parables, tell us something about ourselves and how we relate to God. They also tell us something about God and how He relates to us. The Bible itself says that these writings are sufficient for us, so during the reformation, in 1561, this confession was written:

[Slide 6 – Belgic Confession]

“We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation is sufficiently taught therein.”

and in the following century the Westminster Assembly said:

[Slide 7 – Westminster Assembly]

“The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men [Gal. 1:8–9; 2 Thess. 2:2; 2 Tim. 3:15–17].”

So our Bible has everything we need to live our lives as God wants us to. We just have to work out the what and the how.

Activity – What’s Missing

Slide 8 – What’s Missing

One of the ways we can use the Bible is for guidance. In the following activity, the guidance the items provide will help us get from one place to another.

Watch the screen carefully. You will have only 30 seconds to study it’s contents and store them in your short term memory. Then, the picture will change and one of the things will be missing. Now, normally this game would be played with a tray and a cloth covering it, I would them take an item and uncover it. But it’s almost impossible to show a tray of items to those who worship from home, so I’ve created a video.

Right, here goes:

[Slide 9 – 9 items that give direction
Slide 10, slide 11 follow automatically]

What was missing?

 

Did you manage to see what was missing?

[get answers]

[Slide 12 The Missing Item]

So, there it is, a small black arrow, I hope you spotted it.>

 

Life as a Journey

[Slide 13 What does the Bible say about]

It’s a bit of a cliché these days to say life is a journey, but that is still a valid way of looking at life. Often we find ourselves lost and don’t know what to do next, or how to respond to a certain situation.

Many years ago, as a young Christian, I was given a book, simply called ‘Help’. Each chapter, consisted of a page or two of Bible verses that answered some question about life, or gave indications of how to pray and respond. These days we simply have to do an internet search “What does the Bible say about …?”. But we have to be careful when we look at the results and only read results that list Bible verses. If the Bible is to give direction, we don’t necessarily want other peoples interpretations. Read the verses, and perhaps check to see if there are any other references that relate to those verses. It’s rarely a good idea just to read one or two when there are about 31,100 to choose from.

Road to Emmaus

[Slide 14 Road to Emmaus pictures]

In our reading today, the disciples on the road to Emmaus were lost and confused, because the man they thought was the Messiah was dead. Then an apparent stranger comes along and speaks to them about their scriptures, and shows them how all the scriptures point to Jesus, and His death and resurrection. They didn’t recognise Him until he broke bread with them, then they understood.

It can work in similar ways for us, if we are prepared to listen to and absorb the contents of the Bible, and to learn from it, not just remember it. Then, when we have need the words and their meening will come back to us and provide us with clarity and understanding.

Amen

Seeds for the Kindgom

Preached at Christ church, Billericay on 16 June 2024 Online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQZ5OJ4lpEg from 13:45 to 34:15

Reading Mark 4:26-34

Prayer

Introduction

Today we are looking at the parable of the growing seed and the parable of the mustard seed.  Jesus has been teaching the crowd that followed him with various parables, some are quite complicated, but these two are short and simple.  Most of the people He is talking to would be farmers, or involved in jobs related to farming.  So, by using seeds as his subject, He can be sure that the people he is talking to will understand what he is saying.  Wheat is their most important crop, and mustard seeds are common.

Identifying Seeds

[Activity 1 – Identifying seeds – carrots]

 

Before we plant seeds, it’s important to know what they are, that is especially true if you’re a farmer who is growing crops to support your family.

Each year, I collect the seeds from the last few tomatoes on my tomato plants, carefully dry them and store them safely away from anything that might try to eat them, then the following year I plant them, and we will have another nice crop of tomatoes from late July through until about the end of October.

[Activity 2 – Seed Packets]

I plant my seeds in special trays and, just as Jesus says in the parable, wait patiently.  Perhaps only God know what exactly happens.  I’m always excited when the first leaves appear in the seed trays.  That usually takes about five days.  So, once I’ve planted them, I just have to wait.  Be patient and hope that the seed is good and that germination will occur, and after that the seed will continue to grow.

As with the farmers in the parable, I have no idea what is going on under the soil, I just have to be patient.

Wheat in the field

My tomatoes take a bit more work than the wheat in the fields.  After the seeds germinate, they have to be put in big pots, and watered and fed regularly.  The wheat, though, is just left to get on with growing.

“All by itself the soil produces grain”, the Greek word has the same root as our word “automatically”.  So we could say that the soil produces grain automatically.

Today wheat is sown in nice straight lines, in Jesus’s day the wheat grains were scattered by hand.  No nice neat rows that you can walk along, the stalks grew here, there and everywhere, and the weeds with them.  There is no easy way to water those crops, farmers had to rely on the rain.  All the wheat and the weeds would be harvested at once, there was no other way – they had no weed killer to kill the weeds.  But I’m straying into another parable now.

Kingdom of Heaven

[Slide 9]

 OK, enough about my gardening, how does all this apply to what Jesus is saying.  He’s trying to let his hearers know what the Kingdom of heaven is like.  Before you heard this passage today, how would you have described the kingdom of heaven.  Perhaps as an incredibly opulent palace, with gold and diamonds everywhere or something like the description in Revelation 21:11-14:

“It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb”

Kingdom of God like a seed

But we’re not talking about the new heaven and the new earth, we’re talking about the Kingdom of God as it is now, and only the part of it that is on Earth.

So, how is the Kingdom of God like a seed?

[Slide 10 - Wheat]

Well, the seed is planted in someone, and it might germinate soon, or it might lay dormant for months or years – real seeds can do that, and remain viable.  At some point, the seed will germinate and begin to grow. 

Growing Inside

What is growing inside that person is a faith in God and Jesus.  We will not see it at this point; it is still under the soil – it is still hidden inside the character of the person.  But as the seed continues to grow, it will change the person it is growing in.

We know that, because Paul tells us, using a slightly different analogy:

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,²³ gentleness and self-control.

Nature of the Kingdom of Heaven (on Earth)

You will, almost certainly, not notice that people are changing, that they are becoming more loving, or more tolerant, kinder, more prepared to do good.  That is the very nature of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth – it is imperceptible.  Until, that is, something big happens and suddenly there is a church providing support and protection for all sorts of people.  This is what the parable of the mustard seed is telling us.  You look and ask yourself, “Where did that come from?”  The answer is of course that is has been growing for years, it was just that no-one saw it – perhaps because no-one was looking.

Encouragement

This should be an encouragement to us – God is working, growing the seeds that we have spread in all sorts of places.  Indeed, this is an important part of our faith – that God is always at work, in someone, somewhere.  Really, that should be in lots of people, all over the place.

In a video I watched, in preparation for this, the Reverend Dr Ian Paul (the Associate Minister of St Nic's, Nottingham) says “Enough churches have been planted in the North East in the last 20 years to fill an Anglican diocese.”  That is how growth occurs – it ‘just happens’ and we don’t hear about it.

Reap

So, the farmer waits, night and day (that’s how the Jews count, because their day starts in our evening), so not day and night.  Until the crop is ready, and then when the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it and there is the harvest.

This, of course, will only happen once with the Kingdom of God – when the time is right, when the harvest is ripe, Jesus will return and His work of redemption will be complete.  For the farmer of course it happens season after season, just like it does for me as I pick tomatoes from my plants for three months or so.

Lesson

[Slide 11]

The main lesson from these two parables for us is to constantly scatter seed.  How might we do that?

For me, it means that we must be prepared to share Jesus’ teaching whenever we see the opportunity.

What teaching would you share with others?

Take a moment to think of something, then write it down, and we will collect it in our seed packets.

Amen.

 

References

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-powerful-word-of-god-just-keep-sowing-mark-4-26-34-darrell-ferguson-sermon-on-sower-276089

https://sermons4kids.com/activities/planting-seeds-group

https://sermonwriter.com/childrens-sermons/a-tiny-seed/

https://sermonwriter.com/childrens-sermons/mark-426-34-scattering-words-edstrom/

https://ministry-to-children.com/tiny-faith-mark-426-34-sunday-school-lesson/

https://garynealhansen.com/a-childrens-sermon-on-mark-4-26-34-the-mustard-seed/

https://rfour.org/childrensmessage_b_29.html

https://shortpowerfulsermons.com/mark-426-34-the-mustard-seed-miracle/

https://pcpe.smu.edu/blog/surprising-seeds-reflections-on-mark-4-26-34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8AXq5CW4JQ

https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/the-kingdom-of-god-grows-all-by-itself-in-mark-4/

https://www.bibleref.com/Mark/4/Mark-4-26.html

https://getbusygardening.com/easy-seed-envelopes/

Commentary 

Joel 3:13

‭Joel 3:13 NIV‬

[13] Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the wine press is full and the vats overflow— so great is their wickedness!”