Sunday 8 June 2025: Genesis 3

Our Bible reading for today is quite lengthy – one whole chapter – and importantly so in order to have a proper context for the events it describes. As you might expect, there is debate about whether we should accept the account as factual or symbolic, but I suggest we put that argument to one side and focus instead on what we can learn from Eve.

She was a woman of many firsts. She was the first woman, she was the first wife, and she was the first mother. Eve is the only human being to have come from a man. After her, all other human beings came from other women.

The Bible tells us that Eve was created with Adam in the image of God, she was commanded with Adam to rule over the world, she was commissioned with Adam to be fruitful and multiply, and she was created from Adam to be a partner for him.

Eve was also the first to fall into sin. She was deceived by Satan into disobeying God, and then she convinced Adam to join her in her sin. When God confronted her, she blamed the serpent, refusing at first to take responsibility for her sin.

Eve was a woman who knew and understood loss. She experienced the loss of innocence when she disobeyed God in Eden. She experienced the loss of paradise when God removed her and Adam from the garden. She experienced the loss of her son, Abel, when he was murdered by Cain. Worst of all she experienced the loss of a perfect relationship with God which she and Adam had enjoyed in the garden.

Eve’s loss was our loss as well, because we are all now born into this world as sinners, separated from God and in need of a Saviour.

Verse 20 of our reading tells us, “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother all the living.” The name ‘Eve’ apparently means ‘life’ or ‘living’, and so every time someone spoke Eve’s name, it would signify life.

When we think of Eve as the mother of all the living, we can break that down into three key areas, namely, the mother of all the physically living, the mother of all the spiritually living and the mother of Christ the Saviour. So, let’s take a look at each of these in turn.

First of all, Eve is the mother of all the physically living. We can read about God’s good plan for His creation in chapter 1 of Genesis where He created the first man and woman and from them would come all other human beings. They would come together as husband and wife, they would bear children, and their children would bear children, and so they would fill the earth with humans created in the image of God to the glory of God. That was the plan.

Then sin intervened. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and suddenly for the first time they experienced shame, guilt and fear. When God came looking for them in the garden, they hid from Him for fear that their sin would be exposed. When God confronted them with their sin, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. And then God judged all three.

That judgement is recorded in verses 14 to 19 of our reading. God pronounced a curse upon the serpent, and to the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing.” He told the man that he would return to the ground from which he was taken.

These were strong judgments for sin, but Adam found a word of hope within them. The word of hope was that his wife would experience pain in childbearing, because that meant she would still bear children. God had pronounced judgment for sin, but in His mercy, he had not abandoned the human race. And he had not abandoned Adam or Eve.

God was not going to start over with someone else. Adam’s wife would still bear children, and so he named her Eve, because she would become the mother of all the physically living to come. She would be the mother of the whole human race. Eve is the mother of all the physically living. In God’s grace, humanity would continue through Eve. And in that sense, she is the mother of us all.

Secondly, Eve is the mother of all the spiritually living. There was a second word of hope that Adam heard that day, and we find it in God’s words to the serpent in verse 15: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.”

It's a strange word, enmity, isn't it? And it's not easy to day either. It looks and sounds a bit like enemy, and it has similar meaning. The definition of enmity is: ‘a state or feeling of active opposition or hostility’.

This was part of God’s curse on the serpent, and it was a prophesy that there was a spiritual battle to come. There would be enmity between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman.

The Bible identifies the serpent as none other than Satan himself. The word Satan means “adversary” and that is exactly who Satan is. He is an adversary. He is opposed to God, and he is opposed to God’s good creation. The offspring of the serpent are those who follow in Satan’s footsteps; those who are also opposed to God and His ways.

So, if that is who the serpent’s offspring are, then who are the woman’s offspring? Well, it can’t mean all her physical offspring, because that would include all humans, and we’ve already seen that many of the woman’s physical offspring would follow Satan rather than God. We must, therefore, take it in the spiritual sense of only those people who love and follow God.

And so we have these two groups of people: the offspring of Satan; and, the offspring of Eve. And there is a great spiritual battle that goes on between the two. That battle continues to the present day, but it began back in Genesis as soon as Eve bore her first children.

In Genesis chapter 4, Eve gives birth to Cain and Abel. Cain murders his brother, Abel, because Abel’s heart is right with God, but Cain’s is not. It is a sign of things to come. As the Book of Genesis continues, we see Cain’s line producing further violence and rebellion against God.

Meanwhile Adam and Eve have another son named Seth. And so the book of Genesis presents us with the godly seed of the woman represented by Seth and his offspring, as opposed to the ungodly seed of the serpent represented by Cain and his offspring. Therefore, Eve, as the mother of all the spiritually living, is the mother of those who follow God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

And that brings us to the third reason why Adam named his wife Eve. She would become the mother of Christ the Saviour.

This was the third word of hope Adam heard that day, and we find it again in verse 15 where God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is the earliest prophesy we have of Jesus in the Old Testament. It is an amazing testimony to God’s grace. No sooner had mankind sinned than God promised to send a Saviour.

When Adam ate from the tree, he did not die physically that day, but he died spiritually. He became separated from God by his sins. He needed a Saviour. His wife needed a Saviour. The human race needed a Saviour. And God promised that the Saviour would come through the offspring of Eve.

The Old Testament allows us to trace Jesus’ line from Eve right the way through to Mary. Eve was the first to sin, Adam soon followed, and through their sin, death came upon the entire human race. And yet Adam, hearing God’s promise of a Saviour, does not call Eve the mother of all the dying. Rather, in faith, believing God’s promise, he calls her Eve, the mother of all the living.

Adam means ‘ground’ and is a reminder of our death. But Adam called his wife Eve because the promised Saviour would come through her.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus came into our world. The eternal Son of God became flesh. He was born into our world as a human being. Satan struck at Jesus’ heel, tempting and attacking Him in his humanity. But Jesus crushed Satan’s head, dying for our sins on the cross, and freeing us from Satan, sin and death, so that we could live with God forever.

So why did Adam name his wife Eve, the mother of all the living? Because she is the mother of all the physically living. She is the mother of all the spiritually living. And she is the mother of Christ the Saviour.

So, in conclusion, God’s Word shows us that we are all one human race. We all have one common mother, and so there is no room for racial prejudice or discrimination in the Christian faith.

We are all sinners by nature and need a Saviour. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, their sin was passed on to all their children, and to all their children’s children. We are all sinners, and the just punishment for sin is death.

But Jesus is the only Saviour for all mankind. Jesus is the promised offspring of the woman who crushed the serpent’s head. He is the Saviour God promised to send, and it is only through Him and His death on the cross that we may be forgiven for our sins.

Eve is often a misunderstood character in the Bible. While she and Adam both brought sin and death into the world through eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve is the mother of the human race. She represents God’s promise to bring into the world the one who would crush the head of the devil and redeem us from sin once and for all. 

Sunday 25 May 2025: 1 John 5:1-6

Halfway through our reading John said, ‘For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.’  

The world back then, and the world now, is full of temptation and sin, always trying to drag us away from God and away from His teaching to do what is immoral or wrong. The world tempts us away from what is eternal and seeks to occupy our time and our minds with what is temporary. People of the world are completely taken up with things of the time, of the ‘here and now’, and we get dragged into things that wither and rot. But, what John is saying in chapter 5, verse 4 is that, when a man (or woman) is born of God, in other words believes by faith and follows His commands, believes that Jesus was the Son of God and died and rose again, they are able to rise up above the temporary and perishable things of this world, and can see things more clearly through the eternal lens.

If there are things that are distracting you from God this moment, this morning, this week, then look to the cross to focus your mind and avoid being distracted. Focus on what Jesus is doing for you on the cross and did for you on the cross.

We tend to think of those that can overcome the world as being great scientists, or philosophers or psychologists, but John says that we can all overcome the world by simply believing. When we realise and believe that the things we can see, touch, taste, smell and hear are temporary, but the things we cannot see are eternal. Jesus is eternal, God is eternal and through our faith we are invited to be part of that eternity.

John goes on to say that the victory was won by Jesus on the cross, who came by water, blood and the Spirit. There are many different interpretations of what John may have meant by this, but I am going to focus on one such thought that the water represents the baptism of Jesus, while the blood represents the blood that was shed when He atoned for our sin. These are both very significant events in Jesus’ life on earth as a man, the first when He was baptised in the Jordan and started His public ministry, and the second when He died on the cross and His body was bruised and battered and pierced to take on the sin of the world.

When Jesus was baptised, He went down into the water and rose out of the water into His ministry and eventually to the cross. When we are baptised, we descend into the water to be cleansed of our sin, to leave our old life behind, and then we rise out of the water into our new life with Christ. The old us is left behind and the new life is embraced.

The spirit enables us to have victory as well. Don’t forget that the Spirit descended like a dove on Jesus when He was baptised, and then of course we are told in Mark 1, ‘I (this is John the Baptist talking), baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’

In Acts 1:5 Jesus said, ‘For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit’. Jesus of course was referring to the baptism with the Holy Spirit that took place during Pentecost. The baptism with water is physical and outward, but the baptism with the Holy Spirit is inward and spiritual. This baptism incorporates them into the Body of Christ and empowered them for service. We too can receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and it fills us up so that we are equipped and empowered to follow God and live the life He calls us to live.

The early Christians were empowered through the Holy Spirit and it enabled them to learn essential skills to propel the early church such as the power of healing, the power of talking in different languages, the power to heal people, the power of loving God and loving those around them.

This is part of the victory that Jesus won on the cross that he was able to send the Holy Spirit to live and dwell in us.

So now I want to look at the first part of our reading which talks mainly about the love of God and the love for His people. This is what John was talking about when he talks about victory overcoming the world. Most people think that a victory is won by strength in battle, or by being knowledgeable, knowing how to manage money, or being good at making a fortune. But John says that the victory is won when we simply believe in Jesus and obey His commands of loving others.

This is what the early Christians did. They were more focused on loving people, by caring for them, tending to their needs, feeding them, clothing them, healing them, than they were on anything else.

Matthew 25:35-40 says, ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

It is the love of God that wins the victory. The love that, when we are children of God and are born again of the Spirit, are able to pour out to others. When we offer someone a meal, when we make sure someone has enough to drink, when we are welcoming to strangers, when we donate clothes to charity or give them away, when we visit or care for the sick, or in any other way. Compassion for our fellow men is pouring out the love of God and shining His light in the darkness.

John says, ‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves his child as well.’

When we are reborn we keep His commands and we don’t find them burdensome because we want to please God, we want to obey Him and we become eager to love others. It is not a burden because we have the strength from the Holy Spirit. Those who are truly saved will be characterised by a desire to do the will of God. Our love for God is expressed in our willing obedience to His commands. We delight in pleasing God.

We are called to live in love as God loved us. That is the victory that we have over the world that John talks about. We achieve this day by day by caring for others, looking out for those who need help and serving others as Jesus served us. 

Sunday 18 May 2025: 1 John 4:7-21

We have all probably asked ourselves the question, at one time or another; “What is Church?” Many people, and particularly those who don’t go in one very often, will think of it as a building, and will perhaps have an image in their mind of an ancient place with a spire or a tower.

Hopefully, to all of us, Church (with a capital ‘C’) isn’t a building at all, but a people, a body, a community of like-minded folk who have committed their lives to Jesus.

While we have been journeying through the first letter of John, I wonder if, like me, you have noticed some tough challenges amongst the encouraging and inspiring words that it contains? In our reading today, John is telling us that, as a Church, we should love one another. That might sound wonderful and lovely, but actually this ‘love’ that he writes about is not so much a feeling, but is to do with ‘action’. To coin a phrase, it is not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.

For John, love is a ‘doing’ word. We don’t just feel it, we do it! It makes no sense to say to someone: “I love you,” and then to act in a completely opposite way. That is true, both in our love for one another and in our love for Jesus. And it matters.

It matters because the Christian Church is, in a way, an advert for God, a foretaste of His kingdom, if you like. Verse 12 of our reading says that, “No one has ever seen God.” So, if people want to see what God is like – if they want to find out about Him – then one of the first places they will look is at the people who say that they follow Him. No one has ever seen God, but lots of people have seen Christians and, actually, that places on us a big responsibility.

We have been learning about evidence in our ‘Knowing God’ series. So far, that has revealed the crucial evidence of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the distinctive evidence from our personal relationships with Jesus and the practical evidence from obeying His commands. Now, we learn about embodied evidence where John is saying that we are evidence for God. We are the embodiment of what God is like. That places a big responsibility on us.

Our love is evidence of Jesus. Our love for one another, and the people that we meet, is evidence to the world of the love of God. It is evidence for the God of love. When I came to Ingaway eight years ago – almost to the day – after a traumatic parting from another place of worship, I came to a Church that loved me. I felt the love, but the folk here who welcomed me were doing the love. Their actions included empathy and understanding. In that love, I met the God of love. That is an example of how our love for one another shows God to the world.

The second half of verse 12 says that, “If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” So, if we are loving, then people will find God living here among us. But we must be careful not to allow any disagreement or division between us to lie unresolved. We are an advert for Jesus and such difficulties can cause people to doubt whether God is in our hearts. This is so important that we need to hear this warning afresh. We must never get complacent because we can always learn to love better.

If love is a doing word for John, then how are we doing this love thing ourselves? How are we doing at loving one another in the name of the God who first loved us? John provides us with a challenge that we need to rise to: we need to think every day about we relate to one another and to the people we meet. We need to think about how we love the whole body of the Church – not just our select friends here – but our friends in ChristWay Church who share this building with us, our friends in other Basildon churches, and our Christian friends right around the world who need our support in prayer. 

All of us together are the Church of God. All of us together are an advert for God. It is easy to say we love God when that love does not cost any more than turning up for the worship service every week. The real test of our love for God is how we treat the people right in front of us – our family members and our fellow believers. For we cannot truly love God while neglecting to love those who are created in His image.

God’s love is the source of all human love, and it spreads like fire. In loving us as His children, God kindles a flame in our hearts. In turn, when we respond by loving others, they too are warmed as that flame is passed on. That is the evidence that God is love, and His love is embodied in us. 

Sunday 4 May 2025: 1 John 3:1-7

I am sure you will agree that we all pick things up from our parents. We are all a bit like them somehow. Maybe, it is partly how we look? It could be genetics, or sometimes the actions and the mannerisms that we share that make us a bit like them.

We have no choice about our parents, but there is common ground between us. One of the things we might want to remember about our parents – not for all of us I know – but for most of us hopefully, is that they are, or were, a privilege to have. We probably don't realise it until we are older but nevertheless it's there.

My brother and I had the privilege of a stable home. We had a Dad who, for most of his working life, had a steady job at the same company, and we had a Mum who cared for our every need and who also worked hard for her family. Those things brought us immense benefits.

I was encouraged in playing sport and my brother was encouraged in music. Later, we were supported in our careers and, in my case, I learnt lots of practical skills from my Dad. Those things are a real privilege.

Looking at our reading for today from chapter 3 of the first letter of John, it tells us that we are all children of God. John, an apostle and very close friend of our Lord Jesus, wants us to know that we are children of God and that is an immense privilege.

In fact, he begins in the first verse by saying, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” That’s something to get excited about, isn’t it? We have a God who calls us His children right there in that first verse. 

We are called so that we can be called children of God. And it is by God's initiative that He has called us – that He has asked us to be His children. It is by His grace and through His care for us that He offers us something that we don’t deserve. But He does it nonetheless, and He gives us a status.

God has chosen us to be on His side and, if we accept that offer, then we are Sons and Daughters of God. That is a status that takes us from being in rebellion to Him into being children of Him who love their heavenly Father.

It is a journey we all go through as children. We love our parents unconditionally when we are really young, then we reach a period when our parents seem a bit odd, and foolish, and ignorant, and then eventually there comes a time when we begin to realise that our parents are actually not that bad and really do understand us a little bit more than we thought. In a sense, we go from loving them, to being rebels, to being ones who love them again. God is calling us to be moved from being rebels to loving Him and to be His children.

In a similar way, you may have read in the letters written by the Apostle Paul that he refers to this as ‘adoption’. Many of you will know that we, as a Church, support a Christian charity called ‘Stand by Me’, whose objective is to rescue children, and then do whatever it takes to provide the care, love and attention they need to thrive. One way to achieve this is by enabling individuals to sponsor a child – a kind of adoption, albeit from a distance.

The process starts by browsing photos and stories of children based in various countries around the world and then choosing one to sponsor. Each month, the sponsor gives a monetary donation to help with the needs of the child, but they can also build a relationship by writing regularly. In that way, the child comes to know they are cared for, they are prayed for, and they are loved.

God loves us so much that He has chosen us. He wants us to be in His family and to give us the care, love and attention we need to thrive. I am sure you will understand what I mean when I say there is nothing particularly lovely about us that makes God want to love us. He knows us inside out, and yet He still says, “I love you and I choose you. I choose you to be a son or a daughter of Me, the Living God.”

The fact that God chooses us goes right back to the people of Israel when they came out of slavery in Egypt and crossed the Red Sea on dry land. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 7 and 8 it says, “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you.”

That suggests there was nothing special about the people of Israel that made God love them, but He just chose them. In a short while, we will sing a hymn called ‘My Song is Love unknown’ and let us just consider the words of the first verse now: ‘My song is Love unknown, My Saviour's love for me, Love to the Loveless shown, that they might lovely be.’

Those words speak of God reaching out to us with an invitation to become one of His children. He wants to be our heavenly Father – not because we are yet lovely, but as His children that is exactly what we will become!

When we become children of God, we have incredible privileges. Think about Prince William, the Prince of Wales, for a moment. He has incredible privileges because he is the child of a king. He has a nice home with plenty of room and a generous income. The great majority of people he meets fall over themselves to be nice to him at all times, and he has assistants and servants to support him in all he does.

If we consider God as a king, then we too are children of the King. We have privileges, but different to those of Prince William. Those privileges are written down for us by John. They are privileges that remind us we are loved by God.

That is among the most beautiful of things that we have, and we are given this name that we are children of God. It is a status that is conferred upon us because He loves us and wants to transform us, because in verse 2 it says, “What we will be has not yet been made known.”

In other words, we will be continually transformed by the Holy Spirit to become more like our heavenly Father. Just as we spent our childhood watching our parents and then beginning to imitate them, so with God as our Father we spend our earthly life imitating Him through what we learn of Him through the Bible. Slowly but surely His Spirit transforms us to be more and more like our heavenly Father.

As believers, we know that, one day, we will see God face-to-face because John tells us in verses 2 and 3: “We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” He will look upon us with love and we will be Christlike. That's the best privilege we have – we shall be like Him.

So, we are loved and we are transformed, and then we are also forgiven because it says in verse 5: “But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.” This is a reference to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that allows us to stand before God as forgiven children that are welcomed into His presence. There is no barrier between us and our holy God.

In being transformed, we are responding positively to God’s love and, in a sense, we are saying that, “If you love me that much, I want to be more and more the holy person you call me to be.”

John calls it a sinlessness. This is what he writes in verses 5 and 6: “And in him [Jesus] is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

John sets the bar at the highest possible level because, to become people who are without sin is impossible, except for Jesus. We know that we will fail; we know we will get things wrong; but our privilege is that we are forgiven and we can receive that forgiveness every time.

John told us in chapter 2, verse 1, which we looked at last week, that: “if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” What is important is that we have a desire to turn from sin. We know that failure will occur, but when we are transformed, it will only occur within people for whom sin no longer sets the tone.

That's the key. We are called to be children of God, and to delight in that privilege. When we know we are fully loved by God, forgiven and transformed, we are free to grow into the likeness of Jesus and are able to live our lives no longer ruled by sin.

In creation, God gave us birth. He is our paternal father, and He chose us first. When we accept and respond to His invitation, we choose His fatherhood through Jesus to live in that intimate, loving relationship as the children of God.

Sunday 27 April 2025: 1 John 1:1-2:2

How do you tell the difference between what’s fake and what is real? It is often very difficult, isn’t it?

We are probably all familiar by now with the idea of ‘fake news’ – news that appears to be real, but isn’t. It is a particular problem with social media, where news can be shared with millions of people in the blink of an eye. And you might have noticed that a certain politician seems to label everything as fake news! But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Photos and videos, for example, are now often subject to the interference of AI, or artificial intelligence. Those who know about these things say that it is rapidly becoming pretty much impossible to tell the difference between a real photograph and one that’s been computer generated or altered.

There are times when it is really important to know the difference between what is real and what is fake. And when it comes to photos or videos that are being used as evidence in a courtroom, then it matters a lot.

And it is not a new problem, because this first letter of John, that we are going to be examining over the next few weeks, is dealing with exactly that issue. When it comes to matters of faith, there is a question about what is fake and what is real.

When someone claims to know God, how do we know whether that claim is true or false? John wants us to be confident that our faith in Jesus is genuine. He wants us to be assured that we have eternal life through trusting in Him. And he wants us to reject all who teach a different message to the one passed down by the apostles.

John is writing as an eyewitness of Jesus. No serious historian disputes the existence of Jesus. He is a real figure of history, although there is much debate about who He is, or who He claimed to be. And here is a letter from someone who was with Him, who, along with the other apostles, heard Him speak, saw Him act, and lived in close contact with Him, both during His earthly life and then also after His resurrection from the grave.

As we read the opening verses, it is clear that this Jesus, whom John got to know first-hand, is no mere man. John calls him the ‘Word of Life’ who has come from the Father. His existence didn’t begin in the womb of a young girl called Mary. He has existed eternally as God the Son, in loving fellowship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Not three separate gods. But one God in three persons. An eternal fellowship in which there is eternal life.

And, John says, this life has appeared. Eternal life is not hidden so that we have to search for it and find it. When Jesus turned up on the world stage, so did eternal life. At a specific point in history, the Son came from the Father and appeared in the flesh. Without ceasing to be fully God, He became fully man. And He did so to make known the joy of eternal life in fellowship with God.

This is the Jesus whom the apostles heard, saw and touched. He appeared to them. And now they pass on what they know to us as first-hand, eye-witness evidence. Their message is that life has appeared. To have eternal life is to have a personal relationship with God the Father through faith in Jesus.

This, John says, is what will make his joy complete. It is the knowledge that those to whom he is writing share his faith in Jesus and have been made members of God’s family with him. It is a possibility that is open to each one of us today. All we have to do is put our trust in Jesus.

But if we live in fellowship with God, it means that our lives will change. If we truly know God, then that will be evident in the way we live. So, what John says to his readers next is that our lifestyles matter, because a person’s lifestyle reveals whether their faith in God is real or fake.

Verses 5 to 7 of our reading tell us that God is Light, and this reveals two things to us. Firstly, it is to say that God is truth and that He makes truth known. In Him there is no darkness. In other words, there is no error in Him. Everything He reveals to us is dependable and true.

Secondly, it is to say that God is holy and pure. There is no evil in Him. Every promise He makes and every command He gives is for our good and our blessing.

The Bible often describes those who don’t know God as those who walk in darkness. They are either ignorant of His promises and commands, or they choose to ignore them. But those who have fellowship with God learn to walk a different way. Just as babies learn to walk as they grow up, albeit with a few bumps and scrapes along the way, those who have fellowship with God learn to walk in His light. They learn to follow a new lifestyle.

So, John says, if we claim to have fellowship with God but continue to lead a lifestyle characterised by darkness, then our claim to know God is a lie. It’s false.

Our actions back up our words. So, if I claim to be on a diet, but persistently scoff packets of biscuits and bars of chocolate, then I’m talking nonsense. My claim to be on a diet is plainly not true. And it is the same with our claim to have fellowship with God. Our lifestyle either backs up our claim to know God or contradicts it. If we say we know God yet consistently disobey His commands, then we’re talking nonsense. Our claim to know God is not true. We cannot persistently sin and be close to God.

But if we learn to walk in His light, seeking to trust His promises and obey His commands, then, John says, we are truly members of His family and are united not only to Him, but also to one another. This is what unites us as Christians. It’s not membership of a particular church denomination. Nor is it time spent together socially. It is a genuine faith in Jesus, which is borne out in our words and actions.

That is not to say, however, that we will walk in the light of God perfectly. When someone becomes a Christian, they don’t suddenly become sinless. They don’t stop sinning altogether. In fact, they start to experience an intense battle with sin that they didn’t experience before.

When we start to read God’s Word - the Bible - we start to see our sin more clearly than we ever did before. We become more conscious of what terrible sinners we are. That’s what light does. It reveals what previously had been hidden from our eyes. If a jeweller wants to examine a diamond, they hold it up to the light. If it has any defects, the light will reveal them.

The more we walk in God’s light and submit our lives to the scrutiny of His Word, the more conscious of our sin we become. That is not a sign that something is wrong – it is a genuine Christian experience.

That is why verse 7 ends as it does, with the assurance that the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, purifies us from all our sin.

When confronted with our sinfulness, we need to know what to do with it. And John wants us to understand that the first step is to acknowledge that our sin is real.

As we become conscious of our own personal sin, it is important to acknowledge that it is real and to put our trust in the remedy that God has provided. Verse 9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” And then the first two verses of chapter two say, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

God is faithful and just. He has promised that He will forgive all who truly repent and put their faith in Jesus. And He will keep that promise. At the cross, Jesus turned His Father’s wrath away from us and onto Himself. His justice demands that He fully forgives all who come to Him in repentance and faith.

John is telling us this so that we might examine ourselves and see what we find. If we don’t find genuine faith, we can do something about it. If we do find that crucial evidence of genuine faith, then we can rejoice in the knowledge that our fellowship with God is real, and we can be assured that we have eternal life in Jesus. 

Sunday 20 April 2025: John 20:1-18

Our reading starts with Mary Magdalene going to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark. So I want you to imagine for a moment what she was going there for. What was she hoping to find? What purpose did she have in mind? Well. we are not told that in this passage, but we find the same passage in the Gospel of Mark where we are told that the women who went to the tomb, had spices to anoint Jesus’s body and on their way to the tomb were even wondering who would help them to roll away the stone that would have been in front of the tomb entrance. Now this is an interesting fact because it tells us that Mary and the other women really cared for Jesus and wanted to make sure after His death that His body was cared for in the usual way and prepared for His burial. However, this also tells us that, even though Jesus had been preparing the disciples for what was going to happen to Him and that on the third day he would rise again, they were not convinced. They had doubts. Otherwise, they would have realised, even without seeing that Jesus’s body by the morning of the third day would no longer have been in the tomb. Even though Mary loved Jesus, and had spent lots of time with Him, she doubted what He had told her. How could it be true, after all they had seen Jesus die on the cross? So when Mary and the other women arrive at the tomb to find the stone rolled away and an empty tomb, their first thought is not confirmation of what Jesus told them (that He was to be raised to life), but that that someone had moved his body. Do we sometimes have doubts? This is only natural, after all we are human. But we are told that, because we believe even though we have not seen, we are blessed. When Jesus talks to Thomas after His resurrection He says in John 20:29, ‘because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

So Mary’s first thought was not that what she was witnessing was Jesus’ resurrection. No, her first thought was that somebody had moved Jesus’ body, or stolen his body. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” Imagine yourself in this situation. Mary had lost Jesus, she was grieving and just wanted to go to do the last thing for Jesus that she could, to anoint His body and prepare Him for burial. They were worried about how they would access the tomb considering how heavy the stone would have been, but instead of being faced with a difficult situation of how to get to Jesus body inside the tomb, they were now faced with an unimaginable fact, that Jesus’ body was gone. What reaction do you think you would have had? Are you quick to make assumptions about things? Do you doubt easily? Do you trust in what the Lord tells you or do need more proof before making your mind up? Doubts and assumptions are what make us human, normal reactions, after all even Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples had doubts.

Proverbs 3:5 says, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.’ Sometimes we do not understand, which is why we need to trust in the Lord.

Mary runs to tell Simon Peter and John what she had seen, or not seen, at the tomb. When she arrived, she may have been out of breath, she may have been full of emotion, upset at the prospect that someone had stolen Jesus’ body and she just blurts out that someone has taken Jesus’ body out of the tomb. She did not know this for fact. Yes, the tomb was empty, but that does not mean that someone removed it, and of course we know that not to be the case. But that was Mary’s first thought, and she imparted this knowledge to the two disciples. Now their reaction is quite interesting because they did not say to Mary to calm down, ask her whether she was sure. They just reacted to what Mary said and immediately began running to the place where Jesus had been laid to rest. They had taken what Mary had said at face value, instead of remembering back to what Jesus had told them would happen. They ran to the tomb with an assumption.

Now let’s take a look at what happened when they arrived at the tomb. They were running, trying to beat each other and John outran Simon Peter. But when John arrived at the tomb, he did not go in. Why? Why did he stay outside of the tomb? Was he afraid of what was in there? Was he doubting what his eyes were telling him? Verse 5 says, ‘He bent over and looking in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in’. We are told in verse 9 that, ‘They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.’

When they looked into the tomb, they saw that the grave clothes were arranged not how they were expecting. If someone had moved the body, either they would have taken the grave clothes with them, or the clothes would have been discarded in a haphazard way. But these were arranged, as though they were where Jesus body had been, but had then risen. That would have been convincing proof to the disciples that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead. We are told that, when they saw this, they believed, even though they did not understand.

Are we, as Christians, expected to understand everything? No, of course not. If this was the case, then true believers would be reserved only for the best, most educated theologians. Even then, those individuals would not know everything. No, we have to trust in the Lord that He will reveal to us what we need to know, and send the Holy Spirit to help us to understand.

John 14:26 says, ‘But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything.’

Our understanding comes from a variety of things. Firstly, there is the truth, the Bible. We can read and digest the Bible and begin to acquire knowledge about God. Then there is our experience of God, which at the time we may not understand or even recognise. But sometime later, when we look back, it can make sense and we understand. Then there is the Holy Spirit, which when we allow the Him into our heart, this can help us to gain a better understanding of God, His message and our purpose.

Proverbs 3:5 says, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.’

We cannot trust in our own ability to learn, read, acquire knowledge. This comes from God. Are you trusting in the Lord with all your heart, or are you leaning upon your own understanding. We may all have things in our lives right now that require our faith. We can spend time analysing our situation and become discouraged. We can feel abandoned; I am sure like Mary did on that first Easter morning. We can make assumptions about ourselves, others or our situation. Have you ever assumed something would happen, only to realise that all that time spent worrying about a bad outcome did not happen. When we follow God as our shepherd, we have to trust in Him instead of fretting and worrying about things. 1 Peter 5:7 says, ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.’

So, Mary did not listen to what Jesus had told her and had made an assumption that someone had moved Jesus’ body. Verse 11 says, ‘Mary stood outside the tomb crying.’

Why was she crying? Surely this was a triumph? Jesus had risen from the dead as He had promised. He had overcome death. But Mary was expecting the worst, she was assuming the worst, when in fact in reality the plans that God had for her were wonderful. Instead of being the worst situation, this was actually the best situation. The absence of Jesus’ body in the tomb is the most wonderful, glorious thing that could have happened. If Mary had gone to the tomb, found Jesus’ body and been able to anoint Him, that would have been a day of sorrow. It would have meant that all the hope that the disciples and we have in Jesus was futile. Mary failed to see beyond the empty tomb. Her desire to see the Lord was so great that she then could not bear to leave the tomb and so sat outside crying. She had such a passionate devotion for Jesus that she did not want to leave. Even though Mary was experiencing great pain and sorrow, she longed to see the Lord. I wonder why she peered back into the tomb. Did she think that perhaps she had not seen clearly before, or did not want to believe that Jesus’ body really was not there. Whatever the reason, it was her persistence to be near to Jesus that she saw the angels and eventually was the first one to encounter the risen Christ. Simon Peter and John had been in too much of a hurry to see either the angels or Jesus. They simply wanted to rush back, but in their haste, they missed something wonderful. Do we sometimes rush our time with Jesus? When you spend time with the Lord, do you sometimes try to rush through your prayers or devotion for lack of time? In doing this we may miss something important that the Lord wants to tell us. We need to pause and listen to hear and understand.

So, after seeing the angels, Mary then encounters Jesus, but does not realise that it is Him. She again makes an assumption that, because it is early in the morning, the person who asks her why she is crying must be a gardener or something. After all, who else would be hanging around that early in the morning? In her persistence to want to see Jesus’ body, she even asks Him where He has taken Him so that she herself can go and retrieve His body. She has such a strong devotion that she is willing to do anything.

Finally, Jesus calls Mary by name, and at this point she realises it is Jesus. However, Mary makes another assumption. She assumes that the risen Jesus has simply come back to life, as Lazarus did. Did she assume that He would just continue His earthly life as before. Surely if this was the case then at some point Jesus would need to die again. No, Jesus explains to Mary that His resurrection means something quite different, and in fact that He will be going back to His father.

I wonder how Mary must have felt when Jesus called her name? The Jesus whom she thought had died and then had his body stolen so that he couldn’t even be properly prepared after his death. What an awesome moment must that have been for Mary, to be grieving with no hope one minute, to a sure hope and deep joy the next? This is the power of Jesus, that He can turn sorrow into joy. He can bring hope where there is no hope. He can bring clarity where there is confusion. He can bring truth where there is doubt. One word from Jesus turned Mary’s morning around. Imagine what He can do for you. You just need to stop, listen and have faith. He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Sunday 13 April 2025: Philippians 2:1-11

Our Bible passage is one of the most profound in the Bible because it reveals both the humility and exultation of Jesus. The Apostle Paul calls believers to adopt the same mindset that Jesus displayed; one of selflessness, obedience, and ultimate glory.

Paul wrote this letter while he was in prison in Rome. It was to thank the Church at Philippi for the gift they had sent to him and to encourage them in the faith by showing them the true joy that can only come from knowing Jesus.

Paul was often concerned to promote unity in the Church, and the early verses of our reading point to that concern. He describes for us the mind of Jesus, which is a willingness to give up rights and personal privileges, and take a lower place.

The cross of Jesus can heal the division of Christians wherever we are. It wipes out all the petty differences that we make among ourselves. The cross takes away our illusions and removes the pride that makes us think we know better than even God Himself. That is something we can focus on as we approach Good Friday.

All of us in the Church have a responsibility to promote unity. When we look at Jesus and ask the question: “Is Jesus divided?” The answer is obviously “No”. The body is one, but has many parts. All the parts of the body, though many, are united together. We can also say that, when we believe in Jesus, we believe in all of Him. Not a part or parts, but the whole of Him. There can be no division to it.

Looking around us, we can of course be disappointed that more in our local community do not demonstrate their belief in God by joining us for worship each week. But, despite that, there are still faithful people here that make up the body of this Church. Each one of us brings something a little different from another. We all come from different backgrounds; our experiences of life are never quite the same; there is a richness in our diversity.

But there are times when all of that may not quite be enough. There might be times when our opinions and our differing perspectives could bring disunity. There might be times when our desire to follow a particular way could cause division.

So, we come back to our need for focus on Jesus. We must use our differences responsibly whilst valuing all that others can bring into our lives. That’s when our togetherness will make us stronger. And when we focus on Jesus and His way, division and disunity fade away like the morning mist. 

When everyone decides to put the way of Jesus first; that is what brings harmony in a congregation. That is always the unifying factor in a church, and that is the mindset that Paul encourages us to adopt; the mindset that does not consider ourselves as the most important thing.

Paul urges believers to adopt the mindset of Christ. Jesus, though fully God, did not cling to His divine privileges, but willingly took on the form of a servant. His incarnation was not a loss of deity, but an addition of humanity. He chose to humble Himself, experiencing as a result, the full depth of human suffering and submission.

Our Bible passage calls us to reflect on what is in our own hearts. In a world that encourages us to put ourselves forward for personal gain, Jesus' example teaches us to lay aside all pride and ambition to instead embrace servanthood. True greatness is found in humility and sacrificial love.

Jesus’ humility was not just an outward appearance, but a reality of the way He lived and who He is. He obeyed the Father’s will to the point of death – even the most shameful and excruciatingly painful way to die, crucifixion. His obedience was not passive, but intentional. He willingly took all our wrongdoing on His shoulders and, in doing so, took the punishment upon Himself that we deserve.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to obedience as well. This means surrendering our will to God’s will, trusting that His ways are higher and better than our own. Whether in small daily choices or in life-changing decisions, we are to walk in submission to His Word, just as Jesus did.

Because of His obedience and sacrifice, God raised Jesus to the highest place. He has been given the Name above all names; the Name at which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. This moment of universal recognition of Jesus is inevitable, because all of creation will one day know and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, but it will either be in joyful worship or in fearful realisation.

The reality is that Jesus could return at any moment, and so even we need to ask ourselves if we are prepared and ready. Do we truly believe and trust in Jesus, do we repent of our sins, or are we just paying lip-service to those things whilst enjoying the ‘niceness’ of church? We should make sure that, on that day, we are among those in joyful worship.

The exultation of Jesus assures us that humility and obedience are never in vain. Just as Jesus was lifted up in glory, we too, if we are His followers, will share in His victory. God honours those who humble themselves before Him.

This passage challenges us to examine our own lives. Are we reflecting the humility, obedience, and trust that Jesus demonstrated? Are we living for His glory rather than our own? As we think on the verses of our Bible reading, may we be inspired to embrace the servant-hearted nature of Jesus, knowing that in due time, God will raise-up in joyful exultation those who walk in His ways.

Let us strive, then, to have the mind of Jesus – a mind of humility, obedience, and unwavering devotion to the glory of God the Father. 

Sunday 6 April 2025: Colossians 3:1-17

Living as Those Made Alive in Christ

Paul has three key messages in this passage. The first is that we are told to set our hearts and minds on things above. Paul reminds us that we have already been raised to new life in Christ, which happened when we were converted and accepted Jesus as our Lord. Because we are in Christ, Paul says set our desires on things above and make our focus on things above. In this life we live, nearly everything we are confronted with, focuses our minds on things that are the ‘here and now’. If you think about it, we get news alerts straight to our phones encouraging us to read it, we are enticed to scroll through social media in case we miss something, we may feel that we need to provide immediate responses to messages or emails that we receive. All of this detracts from what Paul encourages us to do which is to not focus on earthly things but on things above. This is the message Paul was writing to the Colossians who were being drawn into worrying more about the rules and rituals of the here and now.

But what are the things above? Have you ever thought about what Paul means by this? It is all about Jesus, it’s all about Jesus and making Him the centre of our focus and energy and attention. When Paul says to the Colossians that they should not set their minds on earthly things, he is not suggesting that they should favour the spiritual world over the physical world, he means that, as we go about our everyday life, make Jesus the centre of everything we do. Even when this is the most mundane of tasks, we should make Jesus the centre because He should be our life because Jesus is everything and as Paul described ‘Christ, who is your life’.

What do you say is life? What is most important to you? Some people may say that family is their life, or their career is their life, but as Christians, we should answer this by saying that Jesus is our life. He should be the main focus in everything we do. Earthly things are only temporary. Eventually, at some point, it will all come to an end. If you are at work, at some point your career will come to an end, either when you retire, leave, or sadly pass away. Its temporary. All those years spent working hard and putting work first will be gone. If sport is your life, your team may come and go. But what Paul tells us is that Christ is our life, and we should set our minds on Him because when that sports game you so looked forward to gets cancelled, or your career has stalled, Christ remains, and He is your life and your hope that He will appear with us in glory. We have that promise that we have been raised with Him, we are with Him now and we will be with Him in the end. So, it’s no wonder that Paul tells us that we should focus on Him.

Now you may be wondering how you can focus your heart and mind on Jesus. Well, there are things we can do such as spending time in His presence, praying to Him, reading about Him in the Bible, or singing hymns of worship about Him.  

Paul then goes on to give us some very practical advice on how we can put to death our earthly nature. Paul is talking about the physical and mental temptations that we find ourselves faced with in this earthly life. But Paul urges us to put these to death, get rid of them, prune them from our lives. If you are a gardener at all you will know what I mean about facing those persistent weeds. We need to continue to pull them up and get rid of them every few weeks to stop them from coming back and choking up the plants. This is what Paul is talking about when he talks about getting rid of the sinful natures that are constantly trying to creep into our lives. The things Paul talks about; anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language, as well as lying must be pruned out, just like the weeds. Paul urges the Colossians to put these things to death because they are the sort of things we may have done before we were with Christ, but now we need to turn away from these things because it can ruin our life with Christ.

Paul then goes on to talk about the qualities that we need to adopt as being children of Christ. It’s like the identity of Christians. We are all different, but in some aspects, we are all the same, because as Christians we have all clothed ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. We are distinct and can be seen apart from others by these qualities. The fact is that we should pour out forgiveness and love, even if we need to bear with each other, because perhaps we irritate each other, but with Christ we can be patient and loving.

As a follower of Jesus, Paul urges us to set our hearts on things above, not on earthly things, things that come and go. Rid ourselves of all the things that are sinful in our lives; malice, anger, slander, and instead clothe ourselves with compassion, humility, forgiveness and love. Imagine a world where everyone took note of what Paul writes and did this. That we all love one another, we reconcile and forgive one another, that we make amends. We are called to immerse ourselves in Christ, to make Him the centre.

Sunday 30 March 2025: Isaiah 66:12-14

Today is the day set aside for us to give thanks for our mothers and for the gift of motherhood. Our reading from Isaiah encourages us to think about the comforting love of a mother.

We are all made in the image of God, both men and women. So, as image bearers of God, we reflect some of God’s qualities and attributes. But we are a pale reflection, like the moon reflecting the light of the sun. There is no comparison between the radiance of the moon and the sun, because the sun outshines the moon a million to one.

But a full moon reflecting the light of the sun on a clear night, is still a beautiful sight to behold.

In the same way, mothers are a reflection of some of the most incredible qualities of God. And comforting is one of them.

The key verse in our reading, verse 13 says, ‘As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.’

When we read or hear that verse, what do we think of?

If you are a mother, you might think of your child, and how you have held him or her and wiped away their tears. If you are a father, you may think of your wife comforting your children. After all, children invariably go to mum when they get hurt – and that’s okay. Somehow, mum makes it better, because she comforts her child using instinctive gifts that come from God.

Some of us might think back to when we were hurt as a child, and our mother put her arms around us, and we just knew everything was going to be alright. A mother’s tender touch, her soft voice as she whispers in our ear that everything is going to be okay. Her arms that hug us tight tell us of her comforting love.

I’m sure that’s the kind of picture God wants us to have, because that’s the kind of comfort He has to give. Even if we didn’t have a mother who did those things to comfort us as a child, God is here with us today and He wants to wrap His arms around us and tell us that everything is going to be okay.

That is the kind of God we have; a God of comfort like a mother comforting her child. Comparing God’s comfort with that of a mother’s, tells us He has an intimate understanding of the needs and emotions of those who turn to Him. God's comforting presence implies a restoration of hope and peace for those who seek Him.

The context of our reading is to show God's response to genuine repentance. The comforting nature described in verse 13 is part of God's response to those who repent and turn to Him.

Thinking more broadly about the way in which God uses motherhood to demonstrate his fatherly love for us, I wonder if you remember the words from Luke’s Gospel where our Lord Jesus was speaking to His mother from the cross? He said, "Woman, behold your son," indicating John the disciple. Then, to John: "Behold your mother." John was of course not Mary's biological son, but Jesus, addressing her as ‘woman’ rather than ‘mother’, then assigned her to John as his spiritual mother.

Despite His own pain and anguish at that moment, Jesus had regard for His mother, giving to her what every mother needs, a son to guard her and keep her, and to John what every son needs, a loving, understanding mother.

John accepted the responsibility and took Mary into his own home. What a wonderful revelation this is of Jesus' understanding of our humanity, and of God’s purpose, in showing His comforting concern for the needs of mothers, sons and daughters.

It is perhaps the act of comforting that we can most easily associate with motherhood. Through that outward display of care and tenderness, we can see a reflection of Christ-like qualities. And we can take this further by reflecting God’s love and the life of Jesus in ourselves and in others.

We are surrounded by people in need; people who, in varying degrees, are hurting in their lives. Recognising those needs, and responding to them with comfort and love, is part of what I believe is required of us.

God surely intends for us to bring His comfort into our human lives. We can do this in very practical ways by finding out where people are hurting, and by understanding the level of need – be it in our homes, our neighbourhoods, our church communities, or wherever our lives touch others.

And we should ensure that the nature of Jesus is the example we use, rather than our own nature with its multitude of weaknesses. 

Motherly love is characterised as everlasting and faithful as a further reflection of God's love. Human love is conditional, but the godly person ministers to others, not for self-satisfaction or gain, but that God may be glorified in His creation. This is their lifestyle and their life's goal. In the process of comforting, we learn genuine tenderness, compassion and sensitivity.

What we have learnt, and then demonstrate, can become an example to others. We can all become mother-like in the way we interact with other people, whether or not we have directly experienced the wonder of the reproductive process.

In comforting others, we are loving Jesus; the cup of water given to the thirsty in His name is our gift to Him. By bearing fruit in every good work, we increase in the knowledge of God.
 
Spiritual motherhood, then, is perhaps the level of maturity intended for every Christian. Recognising the lives of others as being God-given, can help us to respond with comfort and love. God intends us all, male and female, mother or father, son or daughter, to share the attributes of His Son, Jesus, and to demonstrate them in our daily lives. 

By the example of Jesus’ mother Mary, we may teach family, Church and society the beauty and dignity of serving, comforting and loving in order that Jesus may live in us and among us. When we learn to live in this way, we will become a living, vibrant mother to humanity's needs.

And so, we give thanks to our Heavenly Father for our mothers, past and present, and we praise Him for the eternal gift of mothering to us all.

Sunday 16 March 2025: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

The Ministry of reconciliation

We can explain Christian reconciliation by thinking about two friends who have had an argument. A good relationship that they once enjoyed has been strained and they now stop speaking to each other, and gradually over a period of time they have become strangers. It is possible that they may be hostile to each other, even and outwardly cold. But then one day something changes which makes the friends think about the old friendship they had and the good times they once shared. All it takes is for one of them to maybe pluck up the courage to pick up the phone and make contact. They begin to talk and the pride and resentment that they once had begins to fall away and they apologise to each other for things said long ago or things done, that they can put aside their differences and peace is restored. The two friends embrace and enjoy spending time together once again. Now let's think for a moment and consider that in that situation what if only one of the friends was at fault and one was completely innocent. What if it was the friend who was innocent who is the one who began the reconciliation, the one who apologised first, the one who came to the other friend with open arms. This is what Christian reconciliation is about. This is what it is like when God reaches out to His sinners.

Reconciliation involves a change in some way, but a change on our part, not on God’s part, for God is always the same and always remains perfect. But what happens in Christian reconciliation is that God changes us. As Paul writes, ‘The old was made new’. That is what happens to us on the inside when we are reconciled to God.

The way in which God reconciles us to Him was through His son Jesus Christ. We can see that in verse 18 of our reading where it says, ‘All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them’.

In fact, it was while we were enemies of God that He chose this time to reconcile us to Him through the death of Jesus on the cross. You might be wondering why we need to be reconciled to God, but the fact is that throughout history our relationship with God has been broken, but broken through our sin not God’s. Because God is holy and blameless. Our sin acts as a barrier against us and God, but when Jesus died on that cross that acts as a bridge between us and God, allowing forgiveness and justification by the grace shown through faith in His Son. God’s grace nurtures us and changes us to be the image of Christ. It's that change that Paul is talking about when he says in verse 17, ‘Therefore if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come; The old has gone the new is here’. We are a new creation in God.

When we think about the Bible story it's really all about how we are reconciled to God. Adam and Eve started in the Garden of Eden as friends of God, unashamed of their nakedness, living hand-in-hand with God and each other, but when Eve bit that apple and offered it to Adam, that's when sin entered the world and the relationship with God was broken. We became enemies of God and started choosing our own ways, our own paths, and live in hostility towards ourselves and to God. Scripture in the Bible records a constant battle where God is reconciling us to Him, but we continually run away and God pursues us. We're all scattered as sheep, but God sent His Good Shepherd to guide us in. We hid in the darkest parts, but God sent the Light of the World to be our true light. We were dying through thirst, but God sent a living water that would mean we would never go thirsty.

Let's take a reading from Colossians 1:21-22 where Paul writes, ‘You were his enemies separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without fault’.

And now as those who are reconciled to God, we have been given a great responsibility as Paul writes in verses 19 and 20, ‘And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God’.

So not only are we encouraged to accept the invitation from Christ to be reconciled to God but we are to encourage others to also take up that wonderful offer.

There is a passage of scripture that has been on my heart all week and it can be found in a number of different verses in the Bible. It can be found in Joel 2:32, in Romans 10:13 and in Acts 2:21. The verse is: ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’. So that means this reconciliation that Paul was talking about is not reserved just for a special few, it's not reserved for those who consider themselves holy, it's not reserved for those who live in particular circumstances. This invitation to call on the name of the Lord is open to everyone. When the Bible was written this would have meant that the message given to gentiles and Jews at the time was the same. It didn’t matter their background, where they were born, whether they were a Jew or gentile. We all are able to call on the name of the Lord and be saved. We are all able to be reconciled to God and we are all able to receive the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Sunday 9 March 2025: Psalm 51

Lent is a special season of the church year. We are entering a period of self-reflection; a time when we are called to close examination of our relationship with God, and of our weaknesses and shortcomings; a moment when we can seek to realise that we are utterly lost without the grace of God.

Psalm 51 is one of the clearest examples of repentance in the entire Bible. Countless broken sinners will have found these words a profound expression of their deeply felt need for God’s mercy and forgiveness. The confession that David makes can help us to examine our own excuses, our half-hearted repentance and our lack of sorrow for the things we do that keep us from a right relationship with God.

But David’s words also demonstrate the role of hope within confession. And this psalm can help us find a way of dealing with guilt or a sense of distance that our wrongdoings place between us and God.

Whenever we undertake close work like reading or writing, or sewing or a fiddly repair of a small or delicate item, invariably we will use a lamp, a torch or a spotlight to help us see clearly what we are doing. In the same way, as we go through this period of self-reflection and examination, we should use the light of Jesus to help us identify what is wrong and to put things right. That is to say, we should compare our thoughts, words and actions to those of Jesus, and match them up where the link is broken. Lent is a season to examine ourselves in the light of Jesus.

The very process of self-reflection is difficult enough. We all lead such busy and hectic lives that it is hard to find the time to stop and reflect. When we do, we may not always like what we see.

Perhaps we compare ourselves to others who seem so much more holy than us; or we compare ourselves to people who really seem to have it all together; or we might even compare ourselves to those who we judge to be worse than us in order to make ourselves feel better.

But as we examine all those attitudes, we might conclude that they are driven by a deep-rooted fear: a fear of being uncovered or found out; or a fear of understanding ourselves as we truly are. And maybe we don’t want others to know who we really are? Perhaps, we don’t even want to know ourselves as we really are?

Yet we are aware that God knows us better than we know ourselves, and that realisation might bring its own sense of fear.

David had been living in denial. He had refused to acknowledge the depth of his sin in having Uriah killed. Uriah was the husband of Bathsheba with whom David had committed adultery. The seriousness of his behaviour had not dawned on him until Nathan the prophet came to him and confronted him with the severity of his sin.

You might remember the story from 2 Samuel 12 in which Nathan tells David a parable about a rich man who steals the lamb of a poor man to feed a guest. The rich man had huge flocks of his own but, in his selfishness, he took the only thing of any value to the poor man: his lamb.

When Nathan told the story, David was so angry about the behaviour of the rich man that he said, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Then Nathan confronts him with the terrible truth: “King David – you are that man!”

David is confronted with the reality of who he is, and so Psalm 51 is written by him out of that experience of pain, of being found out. It is the moment of realisation, and he speaks to God with a clarity of honesty during his confession.

As we reflect on his words in Psalm 51, so we can think about our own need for grace from God.

The first thing we note is our need for mercy. Verse 1 says, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” There is nothing we can do to cleanse ourselves. We cannot eradicate our sinful nature.

We might try over and over again – and, for some of us, life is a continuing pattern of working towards self-improvement – but ultimately, it is our reliance on God that counts, as David infers in verse 10: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Only God can give us a pure heart. Only God can give us a steadfast spirit.

Secondly, the truth is that we can never know true happiness until we are restored into a right relationship with God. David writes in verse 3: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” No matter how we may try to ignore our sinful nature, it is always with us. Quite simply, we can run – but we can’t hide.

We know who we are and we know what we have done, but we can’t turn back the clock and make it right. When we look in the mirror, we see ourselves as we are. We cannot escape our past failings any more than our past successes, because we are the sum of all our decisions.

Thirdly, the reality is that sin against others – and sin against ourselves – is ultimately sin against God. David had sinned against Uriah. He had sinned against his own people. He had sinned against Bathsheba. He had sinned against himself and yet, in verse 4, he was wise enough to say to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.”

God is the Lord of creation. If we refuse to recognise His Lordship, we are sinning against Him and we will face the consequence of judgement.

So, Lent is a time for self-reflection and examination. But that is not the same thing as saying that Lent is a time for negativity and a sense of helplessness. It is a time for honest reflection; not a time for collapsing under the weight of our own guilt. Psalm 51 helps us to move deeper into that self-realisation. David combines a realisation about himself with very real hope for the future.

When we come to terms with who we are – full of imperfections and doubts – it is at that point that we are able to relax into the love of God. And then, when we do relax into that love, we realise the Good News of the Gospel. As David says in verse 13, “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.”

And finally, with David, we are brought to praise and worship. Verse 15 says, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” That is the journey that we go through during this season. We begin at verse 1: “Have mercy on me, O God”. We are confident, though, that if we make this journey with honesty and a willingness to submit to Jesus, we will arrive at Easter morning with David in verse 19: “Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you”.

Our prayer today might be that God will give each one of us the courage we need to look within ourselves, attend to what we see and develop a sense of realisation so that we can experience the joy of reconciliation with God. That is the Holy Lent to which we are all called.

We come into the presence of the Lord through His Son. When we allow Jesus’ death and resurrection to purchase our forgiveness from God, we are counted as righteous. Our sins are forgiven because Jesus has already paid the price for them. Only then can we have peace with God. 

Sunday 2 March 2025: Matthew 17:1-9

The Transfiguration

We know that the trip up the mountain and the transfiguration took place six days after Jesus and His disciples went to Caesarea Philippi where Peter declared that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus predicts His death.

Matthew 16:21-23 says, ‘From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Jesus has spent time preparing His disciples for the fact that He was going to go to Jerusalem and would suffer, be killed and would be raised back to life. But here we see Peter rebuking Jesus saying that this shall never happen to Him. Jesus’ response is to call Peter ‘Satan’ for trying to get Jesus to choose a different path from the one He is describing.

Now six days later we see Jesus with Peter, James and John. Were they specially selected by Jesus to witness His transfiguration or did they just happen to be with Jesus when it happened? Was there a special purpose in ensuring that Peter got to witness the transfiguration to get Peter to listen and understand what Jesus had been telling him? Had Peter been only focusing on the death part that Jesus had been explaining that he had failed to understand the resurrection part? Whatever the reason that Peter, James and John were with Jesus, they got to witness something truly magnificent.

We are told in our reading that Jesus led them up a high mountain. We are not told in scripture what mountain it was, but it is interesting that many encounters with God take place on mountains. Moses went to Mount Sinai to speak with God and received the Ten Commandments; Abraham went up a mountain when he was asked to sacrifice Isaac; and, Elijah encountered God on Mount Carmel. So, it appeared that big things happened on mountains where God was encountered. He did important things on mountains.

Climbing a mountain can be hard work both physically and mentally, but when we get there, particularly if it is a clear day, the air will be clearer, we can see for miles and miles and there is a sense of peace and tranquillity. We know that the effort we put into the journey is worth the results at the end. Is this similar to our journey with God? Are we too on a journey up a high mountain to meet God? What hills and obstacles are we trying to overcome to meet God? When we focus on God, focus on making it to the top of the mountain to meet with God. This is when things can become clearer, and we open our hearts to the Lord and receive a sense of peace and tranquillity.  

So, Jesus, Peter, James and John had made the big journey up the high mountain and now let’s take a more detailed look at what happened.

Verse 2 says, ‘There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.’

Being transfigured means to be transformed into something more beautiful or elevated. Jesus is described as having a face that shone like the sun, and His clothes becoming as white as the light. Up until this moment, Jesus’ body had been veiled in a body of flesh. He looked like any ordinary man; nothing special about His appearance was recorded in scripture and most likely He would look very similar in stature and appearance as many men around that region. But now, Peter, James and John get to see the transfigured Jesus whose face and clothes become radiant like the sun and dazzling white light. This was a visible manifestation of His deity. The scene could be regarded as a preview of what Jesus will be like when He comes back to establish His kingdom and all who see Him will be left in no doubt that He is the Son of God, the King of Kings.

After Jesus was transfigured, we are told that Moses and Elijah appeared next to Jesus and were talking with Him. In this account it is not recorded what was being said, but in Luke’s account we are told that they were speaking with Jesus about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). Considering how monumental this meeting would have been, it is quite telling that there is no detailed recording in scripture about what was said. This could be because what was said was not important, but the real significance is in the presence of Moses and Elijah. They are both great figures from the Old Testament, but they can be considered here in this reading as representing two very different things. Moses, having been the one to receive the Ten Commandments represents the Law and Elijah represents the Prophets. Here we then see both sections of the Old Testament (the Law and the Prophets) pointing forward to the suffering that Christ would make on the cross and the glory that would be to follow in His resurrection.

Peter was clearly moved by the experience and recognised Moses and Elijah for who they were. He sees how important it is and immediately wants to capture the splendour of what is happening by suggesting that they set up three tabernacles (or booths), one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. The sentiment was there, and it showed that Peter was not frightened by their presence, but we then hear the voice of God declaring once again (similar to the time when Jesus was baptised), ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!’ God was declaring that Jesus is not equal to Moses and Elijah, Jesus is Lord over all. He is the beloved Son.

On hearing the voice of God, the disciples are terrified, and they fall upon their faces. They look to the ground; they are terrified that they may see the face of God. In Exodus 33:20 it says, ‘You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’ Is this why the disciples fell on their faces so that they would not look on the face of God if He appeared? But what they failed to realise is that Jesus is God, so they had technically already looked into the face of God through Jesus. Jesus, in His compassion, knows they are terrified and tells them not to be afraid. Jesus comforts them in the same way He comforts us and tells us not to be afraid. No matter how scary something may be, and some of you may be facing some truly scary situations at the moment, Jesus encourages us to look to Him and to not be afraid. He has got us.

One purpose of the transfiguration was so that the disciples in the inner circle, those closest to Jesus, could gain a greater understanding of who Jesus was. He went through a dramatic change in appearance so that the disciples could plainly see His glory and understand. They knew He was the Son of God, but now they could see it and truly comprehend it. Was this moment key to ensuring that they also could gain reassurance about what was ultimately going to take place with His coming death and resurrection? The old covenant was about to be completed, and a new covenant was going to replace it.

This life-changing event for Peter, James and John was one of those moments where they had no control over it. God was in control. Sometimes in life we too face situations where we are not in control. There may be things that happen where we have no choice and what is happening seems to change the whole course of our life. All we can do in these situations is face up to the reality and pray for the strength, guidance and peace to get through it.

Life is complex and can be very tough. Jesus was about to face the toughest of times, but in knowing His identity and future glory we see Him coming down from the mountain fully accepting the path laid out for Him by God. He embraced the will of God in total obedience. How willing are we to meet God on our own mountain, listen to Him and obey His will? Do we descend the mountain as willing servants of God, or do we just want to hide away and stay on the mountain hiding away in the clouds? Even though there are things that happen in our life where we have no choice, we do actually have a choice. We can face them on our own, or we can face them together with God.

So finally, I want to focus on the importance of what God said on the mountain. God simply said, “Listen to him!”.

Do we sometimes struggle to hear Him. Do we sometimes not listen to Him? Are we sometimes so distracted by other noises and distractions around us that we tune out? Are there any voices or things that you hear that you have had to tune out of in order to listen more closely to Jesus? It could be that you have had to stop listening to the voice of others or turn away from advice that you have been given in order to hear the wisdom of God more clearly. Perhaps listening to Jesus has meant that we have had to unlisten to something else? Or perhaps we are so caught up in talking to Him, telling Him about our troubles, our anxieties, or asking Him for things, that we forget to listen to His reply?

Through the transfiguration, Jesus was revealed to His disciples and to us that He is the one and only Son of God. The Son who laid down His life for us, who took on the burden of our sins. He is our guide, our comforter, our shepherd, our counsellor, but as God said, we have to listen to Him.