I AM // Part 3

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

God is revealing Himself to us His people. So often we know about God but do we really know Who God is? We hear stories about Jesus, about His miracles and His teachings but do we really have Jesus as a friend? Do we know and love Jesus the way that we should?

Because God loves us as much as He does, He doesn’t leave us guessing Who He is, He makes it abundantly clear and He reveals Himself to us as His followers and He revealed Himself to His disciples.

We already learned that Jesus said “I Am the Bread of Life” and we learned that through Jesus we never need to hunger spiritually anymore, and last week we learned that He said “I Am the Light of the World’ we never need to live in darkness, there is no battle with darkness, we just need to let the light in. 

Today we are hearing one of the most important messages that Jesus brought “I Am the Resurrection and the Life”. Knowing in hindsight what Jesus was going to do, His death and resurrection and what that means for us. We as Christians can understand this part of Who He is, but before Jesus died and rose again, the disciples wouldn’t have really understood what Jesus was saying. He was revealing to them Who He really is, not just what He can do, but that He can bring new life. All life does flow through Him, that death is a mere inconvenience when we are in relationship with Jesus as He can bring the resurrection.

1A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. 2This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair.a Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. 3So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”

4But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” 5So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6he stayed where he was for the next two days. 7Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

(John 11:1-7)

Jesus loved Lazarus like a brother and Lazarus’ sister’s had written to Him, letting Him know that Lazarus was sick, but Jesus was never in a hurry. 

17When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18Bethany was only a few milesd down the road from Jerusalem, 19and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. 20When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

(John 11:17-21)

Martha knew that Jesus could heal the sick. Jesus had revealed that part of Who He was many times over, and over again. Martha had the faith that Lazarus could’ve been healed had Jesus been there.

"But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

23Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24“Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

25Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.e Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

(John 11:23-26)

Jesus is starting to reveal Who He is. He is doing it in part to each individual so they can understand when He actually does what is to come.

34“Where have you put him?” he asked them.

They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Then Jesus wept. 36The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” 37But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

38Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39“Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.

But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

40Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” 41So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” 43Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

(John 11:34-44)

Thank You God that You don’t just reveal what You can do, but Who You are.

We can understand who we are really called to be by knowing the revelation of Who God is.

There is so much symbolism here between what would happen when Jesus rose again and the stone was rolled away. 

There is also a lot to understand here about timing. Jesus was asked “come and save our brother” but He seemed to take His time. Time may be universal but the way we all interact and perceive it is different. It’s like we all have different watches. For husbands and wives sometimes the 5 minutes that is asked for can be a lot longer than an actual 5 minutes. Our wives are definitely worth the wait, but their 5 minutes is very different from the actual 5 minutes.

I remember learning a lesson from my Dad when I asked him to collect me at a certain time, but when I went out to meet him for my ride home, he wasn’t there. I rang him, as this was strange and he informed me he had been there at the time that I had asked for. However, because I didn’t appear at that time he had driven back home assuming that I no longer needed the ride. He was teaching me an important lesson to respect and value people’s time. My Dad loved me enough to teach me a lesson about time.

How come we know that God is never late, His timing is always perfect, but sometimes it feels like He is late. He never seems to arrive early, He never seems to appear before we thought we needed Him. Like Jesus meeting Lazarus’ sisters. Maybe He’s teaching us a lesson, His ways are perfect, His timing is correct. Sometimes it may feel like He is late and you may be in a situation today where you feel like “Come on Jesus I need you to show up” or like Mary and Martha “Jesus You’re late” I want to assure you.

Jesus is never late, He arrives at just the right point. He never wastes a miracle, they are always at the right time and for the right reason, and just because we might not be able to understand. We shouldn’t lose faith in the One Who does understand. We can see with Mary and Martha that even though they felt that Jesus was late, they never lost faith in His ministry, in Who He is or His love for them.

To put John 11 in some context, we read earlier in John 10 that Jesus reveals that He is the Good Shepherd (which we will be able to hear about next week), He then reveals that He is the Son of God. This was seen as blasphemy at the time and Jesus had to then leave this area as He knew His time had not yet come for Him to die and this would really get the religious leaders angry. Straight after telling people that He is the Son of God, He now SHOWS them that He is the Son of God.

We learned last week that darkness is no problem for Jesus, well now we know that death is no problem for Jesus. So while Jesus is out of Jerusalem He hears from some of His best friends, who were so desperate for Jesus to arrive on the scene. They knew He could heal Lazarus if He wanted to. They didn’t just do nothing. They wanted to speak to the One they knew could change their situation.

If you feel poorly spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, then like Mary and Martha you cannot do nothing. They wrote to Jesus, they knew if Jesus was on the scene their situation would be completely different.

If you feel in a hopeless situation where no-one can help apart from God, we need to be proactive and come to Jesus in our hour of need with our problem. We can’t do nothing. Worrying will often only make the problem worse. We know the scripture Philippians 4 v 6 & 7, worry about nothing, pray about everything. It sounds great and it is great, but worrying is such a sign of our humanity. In practice, it is so hard to remember to cast your burdens on to Jesus and then not worry. That’s not how human minds work, we can’t just stop thinking a thought. We need to replace that thought with something else. We’re not supposed to just stop worrying, we’re called to start worshipping.

Mary and Martha were acknowledging Who Jesus was as their Lord and Saviour, that He can perform miracles and He can make a way and were worshipping Him through their letter to Him, asking Him to come into their situation, trusting that He could do what was needed.

Lets replace the worry with worship. Don’t just say I know that I am not, say I know that You are. Even though I’m too small, I know that You are big, even though I am weak, I know that You are strong. Replace that worry thought with that worship thought and invite Jesus into the situation.

When your situation doesn’t match up to the expectation that maybe you had in life, then we need to worship and seek a revelation of Who God is. That revelation is that Jesus IS the Resurrection.

Let’s never let time be wasted. Make time to worship.

Time waiting should never be wasted, if we’re waiting for Jesus then let’s not waste that time. Let’s worship Him today. He loves us so much that He reveals Himself to us. That’s the whole point of this I Am series. Jesus wants to explicitly reveal Himself to you so that you can have a friendship with Him in the same way that He did with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. You are His beloved, He wants to reveal Himself to you and meet you in those difficult situations.

Jesus could’ve turned up at Lazarus’ bedside before He died, He could’ve healed Him before He died and perhaps saved some heartache but that wasn’t part of His plan. Jesus told His disciples plainly in verse 14 “Lazarus is dead and for your sakes I’m glad that I wasn’t there. For now you will really believe. Come, let’s go”

Once He knew there was no other way that this could be sorted. Jesus says basically, I’ve not done this for Lazarus, I’ve done this for you guys so that you can see. My friend is only sleeping, death isn’t anything for me. His timings are often very different than ours, Jesus is trying to teach us and His disciples a lesson here that His timing is perfect. His ways are higher than our ways, and that His plan is the one that we should be seeking after. Not our own.

Even after Lazarus had died, Mary and Martha still love Jesus. Are we still willing to acknowledge that Jesus is LORD and love Him when things don’t go our way? They loved Him, they listened to Him, Martha ran to Him, they had faith in HIm, and they still believed that Jesus had the best for them. That He hadn’t let them down. Because of that Jesus knew that He could turn this situation on it’s head. They weren’t spending their time worrying. They were spending their time worshipping. Jesus reveals Himself as the Resurrection and the Life. 

He says it explicitly in words to His disciples before He does it practically, so that way when they see the practical resurrection and life they’ll start understanding the true meaning of the words. Whereas if He’d done it the other way around they would be focusing on the miracle instead of the message. The message is that Jesus loves us, He is the Resurrection and the Life. He wants a relationship with us. He doesn’t just want to raise people from the dead although that is awesome. He wants us to understand that He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith and all life flows through Him.

The chapter before Jesus had just claimed to be God, and now He is proving it. So everyone will see the miracle and help reveal who He was.

Jesus is saying this isn’t the worst thing that can happen, the worst thing is to be separated from God. He doesn’t just want to raise Lazarus from the dead, He wants to give Lazarus and His disciples this example of what it means to truly live and to be in a great relationship with Jesus. A situation that looked finished and done, Lazarus was dead and now being ceromonially buried but then Jesus turns up on the scene and turns everything upside down. He wants to show people that He controls everything, So in situations were you feel that you are waiting we need to make sure that we are not wasting our time, but we are worshipping Him.

Raising people from the dead is Jesus’ specialty. If you feel lifeless, that a situation you are in is dead and buried, that you are being left behind, maybe you feel forgotten, there’s nothing left to live for and you may as well be dead…. First of all, there is always hope in Jesus. But even if your situation is fully dead and fully hopeless, Jesus’ specialty is resurrection and He can roll the stone away and bring new life, proper life in Him.

Jesus wants to reveal to you today Who He really is, just like He did with His disciples and with Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

He could be a distant God but He wants to reveal Himself to you. He wants to make sure that you never have to hunger anymore, that He can bring light to your situation, and that He can bring new life into all areas of your life.

Jesus can breathe new life into you today.

Don’t be scared, don’t believe that Jesus is too late. He will arrive exactly when He needs to and turn things around for His glory.

Jesus will show up, just at the right moment.

Your life is too significant, your time is too precious, your calling is too great and your God is too good for you to be living a life waiting, wasting your time. Not acknowledging that Jesus will turn around your situation. Be waiting expectantly knowing that Jesus can turn your life around. It’s not just something He does, it’s who He is. He loves you and He will bring His resurrection power into those areas of your life that need it today.

I AM // Part 2

Pastor Jonny continued our I AM series this week. We continued looking in book of John, Jesus has 7 I AM sayings, explaining to His Disciples who He is, what His mission was, and how we can come into right relationship with Him.

Last week looked at the first I AM, when Jesus declared Himself as the Bread of Life.

This week, we looked as Him as the Light of the world.

12Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

13The Pharisees replied, “You are making those claims about yourself! Such testimony is not valid.”

14Jesus told them, “These claims are valid even though I make them about myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. 15You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone. 16And if I did, my judgment would be correct in every respect because I am not alone. The Fathera who sent me is with me. 17Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact.b 18I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.”

19“Where is your father?” they asked.

Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” 20Jesus made these statements while he was teaching in the section of the Temple known as the Treasury. But he was not arrested, because his timec had not yet come.

(John 8:12-20)

Prior to this passage, the Pharisees had caught a woman in adultery. Jesus told them “you without sin cast the first stone and none of the Pharisees could cast a stone at her, as they all recognised they had sin in their lives. Jesus is the only one who could have done that. He knew the law better than the Pharisees. The Pharisees loved living by the law, so Jesus used the law to show them their sin.

The Bible shows us that we all fall short of the glory of God, and Jesus came to show us that, but He also came to show us that there is hope beyond that. Jesus is the light of the world. He wants to radiate His light into all the dark areas of our lives. He is the way for us to get right with the Father.

Jesus is the light of the world

This is a beautiful vivid picture. Who doesn’t love light? He brings light and He is light. We shouldn’t hide the light in us, but we should let it shine (as the song sings).

In John 1:5, we see Jesus described as “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it”. Jesus conquered the darkness and the darkness couldn’t come close to extinguishing His light!

There is never a battle between darkness and light. When you switch a light on, the darkness always flees. The only way darkness can ever win is if there is no light. At night, darkness doesn’t overpower the light, but darkness is the absence of sun. Darkness can only win in the absence of light. It’s only when we don’t want Jesus’ light shining in areas of our lives that darkness can get a foothold.

Jesus is light for the world

Jesus wasn’t just revealing Himself through a metaphor. He was trying to reveal more about His mission here on earth as well.

He took on the sin of the world to cast out darkness. It doesn’t matter what you look like, what your bank account looks like, what your past looks like, Jesus came to bring light for you. His purpose was you, to love you and provide light and save you from keep tripping up in the darkness that you used to live in. We all need Him.

The more you sit in the dark, the more you get accustomed to, and adapt to the dark. This is a metaphor for how we live our lives. If we don’t shine the light into al areas of our lives, we can get used to living in the darkness, developing coping mechanisms and secretly enjoying our sin.

The longer we stay in the dark, the harder it is to imagine turning the lights on. Christians going through relationship breakdown or loss or financial ruin refer to the period as a dark period. This is because they have lost faith in Jesus, they have lost the light.

But do not worry, because Jesus has come to free you from the power and penalty of the sin in your life. The only way you can do this is through turning to Jesus, shining a light on the things you’ve hidden in the darkness in your life and believing in Him for eternal life.

Turn to Jesus and boldly approach the throne of grace today.

I AM // Part 1

Pastor Jonny brought us the first message in our new series, I AM, all about who God is. As Christians it’s really important we know who Jesus is, not just facts about Him.

In the Bible, Jesus tells His followers who He is, and thanks to God preserving His Word, we also can see who Jesus is!

Jesus uses the phrase “I AM” a lot. Both the Old and New Testaments point to Jesus. In the Old Testament, every time we see LORD in all capitals, it’s an English translation of the Hebrew word YHWH, which is Yahweh, which is Hebrew for “I AM”.

Let’s have a look at God revealing Himself to Moses:

9Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”

11But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”

12God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”

13But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”

14God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.d Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” 15God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh,e the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.

This is my eternal name,

my name to remember for all generations.

(Exodus 3:9-15)

So here, God reveals Himself to Moses. Moses one of the best and most humble leaders in the Bible, and we see that Moses and God had an intimate relationship. This is a very intimate moment recorded for us; God is answering Moses’ question. And that answer He gives to Moses’ question is "I AM" - He revealed His plans for the Israelites to Moses, that He would lead the Israelites out of slavery and into the Promised Land. God is the creator and has always eternally had power, and He will still do so long after all of us are gone.

We live in a world of self-identification, where we are supposed to believe people’s self-identity even if it doesn’t match up with reality. In truth, only God can identify us. Only God can self-identify Himself. We don’t have the right to shape God into who we want Him to be, we need to take God at His Word, who He identifies Himself as in the Bible.

In the New Testament, Jesus also uses "I AM" identifications:

22The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. 23Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. 24So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. 25They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. 27But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Manf can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

28They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

29Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

30They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? 31After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’g”

32Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

35Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

(John 6:22-35)

"I am the bread of life."

The Bible is one big story, and so we see Jesus is self-identifying to His disciples just as He did to Moses in Exodus.

Jesus had just fed the Five Thousand and withdrew from the crowds because the people were going to try and make Him into an earthly King against the Romans. His plan all along was to go to the Cross, but the people caused issues by trying to force Him into a role He wasn’t purposed to fulfil, that of a King of this world. The people only saw Jesus for earthly means, not only as a King, but as a miracle worker. They only followed Jesus because they wanted comfort and wanted to be fed, but Jesus told them they needed full hearts instead of full stomachs.

When we look at the big picture, we can see that Jesus came to fulfil us, not to feed us. He came to die on the cross for our sins. The crowds chased after Him for miracles, but we should chase after God for who He is, not what He can do.

We should challenge ourselves this week and check the motivations of our hearts.The world wants Jesus’ power but not the Person. They want the miracles but not the man who performed the miracles. They want the crown but not the cross. They want the blessing but not the burden. They want the glory but not the suffering.

In truth, Jesus didn’t come to feed us food, He came to bring us the Bread of Life, Himself, for us.

This week, please acknowledge that Jesus is the Great I AM, who wants to reveal Himself to you and wants you to fully know Him in an intimate relationship.

Easter Sunday

Easter is the pinnacle of the Christian calendar. Christmas is Christ coming into the world, but Easter is the reason why He was sent! Let us never lose the wonder of the empty tomb!

So we live in a world that loves tolerance, especially in the West. We have so many great things, like religious liberty and freedom of speech, but is seems this has also produced a massive amount of spiritual diversity, essentially an attitude that all roads lead to God.

Some people believe you can get to God for being a good person (without defining what “good” is), and some people believe that once you’re dead, it doesn’t matter, as you’re dead.

The fact is, our beliefs have consequences. Here at Light & Life, we have our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus and what He did for us 2000 years ago.

Today we want you to please consider Jesus.

We will look at His ministry, His resurrection and His eternal message. If we consider all these things, there is only one right response; we must get excited at Easter because Jesus conquered death for us!

These days, nobody seems to really care what they believe until they’re either really unwell on their deathbed, or unless they’ve lost a loved one. People then start to question what life is all about and where do people go after death.

People find Jesus controversial, which is strange, because He was an historical figure, and He really did live, minister, teach, get crucified and rise again, leaving an empty tomb!

New Age beliefs and other spiritual practices are on the rise, and they aren’t controversial, but Jesus is, because He demands a response from us.

Jesus’ teachings are the foundation for Western morals and justice. He was all about helping the poor and looking out for those who were overlooked, so why do people get worried about Jesus? It’s because Jesus has an exclusive claim. He claims to be the Way to God!

1“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.a If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?b 3When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4And you know the way to where I am going.”

5“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.c From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”

8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”

9Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.

12“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

(John 14:1-14)

In today’s passage, Jesus was coming to the end of His ministry and had just prophesied His death, betrayal, and Peter’s denial.

Today we ask you to please consider Jesus:

His Ministry

Jesus’ teachings are followed by Christians and non-Christians alike. The way He lived was perfect. Critics tried to trip Him up but they couldn’t, because He was perfect all the time, keeping the Law of God and never sinning. He also performed miracles. He fed the five thousand and turned water to wine. If He was a phoney, He would have been called out as a false teacher. People couldn’t deny His healings were genuine.

Critics wanted Him to stop His ministry because it was a threat. It was a threat because it was real. Jesus was constantly found with sinners, tax collectors, social rejects. His ministry was one of love.

His Resurrection

As Jesus died, the Roman officer and soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified as an earthquake occurred as Jesus died. One of them said “this man was truly the Son of God”. Why would the Romans be paid to kill someone then to a complete u-turn and acknowledge who He was unless He was the Truth?

Peter who denied knowing Jesus and still became the most prolific “resurrection preacher” to ever live! He pointed to the empty tomb in his sermons. This man who denied Jesus turned 180 degrees to give his life to spreading the Good News of who Jesus was and is.

Perhaps the Romans stole Jesus body? But why would they do that? They wanted to end whatever they sensed was about to start. They wanted to control people with the Roman religion, and Jesus’ movement was a threat. Stealing the body would have given support to the idea that Jesus was resurrected, which is exactly what the Romans didn’t want!

Perhaps the Disciples stole the body? Well we think not. Eleven average men could hardly overpower Roman soldiers and carry out the greatest heist of all time and never tell anyone! If that happened, the soldiers guarding the tomb would have just reported the truth.

Additionally, the disciples were brutally murdered for defending their faith, and they were willing to die for it. If they didn’t believe Jesus was resurrected, they wouldn’t want to sacrifice their lives for Him.

The truth is that Jesus really did rise again and leave an empty tomb, showing Himself to many people as evidence.

So today, please consider His resurrection.

His Eternal Message

So many other religions teach how to be a good person or impress the deity. Jesus’ message is that we are made right with God through Jesus’ death on the cross. There is nothing we can do in our own strength to be right with God. Even if we give up swearing or try acting like a nice person, it won’t be good enough, because even a little bit of sin in our lives separates us from God.

The Good News is that it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve failed or how many people you’ve hurt or how many people have hurt you, Jesus didn’t come to start a religion, He came to show the love of God. So please consider His eternal message.

Put simply, there was a man who claimed He had come to make a way to God. He then predicted His death and resurrection. He then died. He was then resurrected.

He came for sinners just like you and me, needy and hopeless, needing a rescuer. Let us believe this Easter that there is only one way to God, through Jesus.

If we consider His ministry, resurrection and eternal message, then we have to consider what a right response to this is.

Our only response can be to give our lives to Jesus, thanking Him for dying and rising again for us.

So this Easter, please consider Jesus.

Palm Sunday

This week Pastor Ian Heath from Garstang Free Methodist Church came to speak to us about Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week, leading up to Jesus’ meal, trial, arrest, crucifixion and resurrection.

In Biblical times, they had major festivals. One of them was called Passover which celebrated God’s intervention in Israel’s lives, freeing them from the Egyptian slaves and bringing them to the Promised Land. Jewish men within a 20 mile radius of Jerusalem were encouraged to go to Jerusalem for this festival. There would be lots of worship, celebrations and meals in the city and at the Temple.

At these events, the population of Jerusalem would swell from 30,000 to 250,000 with all the guests! Jesus had been warning the disciples that He had to come to Jerusalem for a big event, that He would be killed by the authorities and resurrected again.

Jesus and the disciples came to Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, and stayed with their friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary, and we come to the next day, today’s passage:

1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

4This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

5“Say to Daughter Zion,

‘See, your king comes to you,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” a

6The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna b to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” c

“Hosanna d in the highest heaven!”

10When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

(Matthew 21:1-10)

The King’s parade is coming. Are you going to let the King pass you by?

Have you ever got really close to somebody famous? When famous people, like politicians and royalty, are around, there are often the signs that precede their coming, such as security guards, fancy cars etc.

With Jesus triumphant entry, the signs preceded His coming. God engineered the events so that any questions about who Jesus is can be well and truly answered by looking in the Bible.

Verses 2-5 talk about Jesus riding in on a donkey. He had walked all the way down from Galilee to Jerusalem, but needed to ride on a donkey as He entered Jerusalem to fulfil prophecy. We see in Zechariah 9:9 and Isaiah 62, hundreds of years before this event, that the Saviour would enter Jerusalem humbly and peacefully riding on a donkey. Matthew picks out “humble” as one of the key words. It’s translated elsewhere in the Gospels as “gentle” and “meek”.

It was a great sacrifice for people to throw their cloaks down in front of somebody.

In 2 Kings there was a king called Jehu who was proclaimed King by some people in defiance of the existing King. His followers put down their cloaks before him as a sign of their respect.

The crowds shouted Hosanna to Jesus. The shout of Hosanna goes back to Psalm 118, which means “to save us and and help us we pray”.

They cried “Welcome to the Son of David”. This is explicitly prophetic because Jerusalem was city of David. 1000 years earlier, David had captured the city and made it his own.

Just like a great murder mystery, the prophetic clues are there and they get stronger and stronger, the more we dive into Scripture and see their fulfilment in Jesus. Are you going to let Him pass you by?

The Jewish people were praying for a Messiah to save them and set them free. They had been waiting for 400 years, where God was silent, for the Messiah to come. They were looking for Him. They expected Him to be a warrior-like military leader mixed with a superhero, based on some Old Testament prophecy. He was apparently going to kick the Romans out of Israel and end all the corruption. The Messiah was going to be a strong earthly King in their eyes.

In John’s Gospel, it says the crowds wanted to make Jesus King straight away, but He retreated and avoided it. Even the disciples got the wrong end of the stick about Jesus! Jesus didn’t see His Kingship that way. He hadn’t come to be enthroned in an earthly way, but in a spiritual way. He is the King of Kings and He came to be a Saviour, came to set them free, but not in the freedom they wanted...but the freedom they needed, and the freedom we desperately need today.

Are we going to let Him pass us by?

Today we want God just to be like they did: a King who sorts our lives out on the outside, our health and our finances and relationships, but not someone who will sort our inner spiritual life out.

CS Lewis said there is a fault line between good and evil, but it doesn’t run between people, it runs right down the middle of each of us, through our hearts. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

We are all lost, we have wandered far from God, we have sinned, and Jesus came to put us back together and make us truly whole. We are all struggling, spiritually and emotionally. We want a prophet and King the way we want it, not the way we need it.

Jesus is the greatest King of all, destroying sin and evil, wiping away tears from eyes. Jesus is God Himself. He came in humility, meekness and weakness, being obedient to God, even to the point of death on the cross.

Jesus came to sort out the biggest human problem: sin.

The Jews wanted an earthly King with a golden crown of prestige, whereas Jesus came to wear a crown of thorns and be spat at, before dying a criminal’s death after living a perfect sinless life.

He stood in our place of judgement so that we can stand before God as free people, free from judgement, the power and penalty of sin. This is our King. Are you letting Him pass you by?

Baptism

11“I baptize withd water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.e 12He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”

The Baptism of Jesus

13Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”

15But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.f” So John agreed to baptize him.

16After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were openedg and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

(Matthew 3:11-17)

John the Baptist was called by God to point people towards the Messiah. We have a similar calling as Christians today, pointing people to Jesus.

Why would Jesus, the sinless one, need to get baptised? Jesus wants to bring glory to God. As Christians, our chief purpose is to bring glory to God and enjoy Him forever.

This is not just a New Testament thing. The concept of “passing through water” to glorify God is in the Old Testament too. In Exodus, God’s people had to travel through water. When the Israelites were leaving their time of slavery in Egypt, they had to pass through water through the Red Sea. Years later, Moses died and Joshua took leadership of the Israelites. They had to pass through the river Jordan to get into the Promised Land. As long as we are willing to leave the old behind and fix our eyes on who God is, He will lead us into new chapters in our lives. Fast-forward several hundred years and we find ourselves with John the Baptist, baptising people at the start of the New Testament.

As a Christian, each day we die to our old selves. We are being raised into the glory that Jesus has for us, through what He has already done before us.

When Jesus got baptised, as He was raised from the waters, the Spirit descended like a dove - here we see the Trinity. There are only specific times when all 3 Persons are present at the same time!

So why should we get baptised? The simple answer is because we’re told to.

In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus says we should go, make disciples, and baptise people. We should also follow Jesus’ example - He did it, so we should too. We need to pass through the water and show that we have been buried with Christ in baptism and raised to newness of life. Our faith saves us, but baptism is a symbol to the outside world of the inward transformation, the work of the Spirit of God in our lives.

Mothers Day

God meant for you to have a great mum. If you don’t, it hurts, because it goes against God’s design.

1Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord,a for this is the right thing to do. 2“Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: 3If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”b

(Ephesians 6:1-3)

12“Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

(Exodus 20:12)

Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus. If you read earlier chapters, he’s bringing these Christians on a journey about how to live well by the power of the Holy Spirit. He then moves on to calling husbands and wives to love each other. Then he discusses parent-child relationships.

Let’s get the basis of our lives right before trying to address the big things. Let’s make sure that parents and children are living right with one another in the Lord.

Unfortunately, family breakdown is at an all-time heigh, but if we follow God’s design, we will flourish and have the best family relationships.

Honouring our parents is one of the Ten Commandments. We ought to honour our parents, and in particular, today, our mothers.

Some questions to ask yourself to see whether you are the sort of son/daughter God is calling you to be:

• Are you the type of child that you hope your children are?

• Are you the type of son/daughter that you hope that you are raising?

• Do you act towards your parents the way that you hope one day your children will act towards you?

How do we honour our mothers?

• Love her unconditionally.

  • Love her even when she’s tired

  • Love her when she has an ‘off' day.

  • Love her when she’s not at her best.

  • Love her when she has less to offer.

• Love her all the time and remember her gratefully.

  • Ask her to pray for you.

  • If you’re going shopping, invite your mum on the shopping trip.

  • Invite your mum to places with you and your children.

  • Remember your mum, remember that she gave her best years to you and she did it gladly.

• Help her cheerfully.

  • Help her before she even has to ask, and don’t act as though you’re doing her a massive favour.

• Hug her affectionately.

• Understand her sympathetically.

• Listen to her attentively

  • Remember that mothers go through so many seasons of change, physically and emotionally, through their lives.

  • Give her some attention.

  • Never stop asking questions and listen to your mum attentively.

• Remind your mum how much she is needed.

  • Ask her for her opinions on things that are going on in your life.

  • Ask her for her special recipes.

  • Ask her for tips on raising children.

  • Tell her she is valuable.

Remember, a Christian mother wants to see her children flourish in the Lord. The best way you can honour her is to show her your relationship with Jesus.

If your mother isn’t Christian, be praying for her conversion and share your faith with her.

We’re praying for you and hope you have a great time honouring your mums this week.

Growth // Barriers to Growth

Over the past few weeks, Pastor Jonny has been working through a series with us about growth. Today, we looked at why we don't always experience Christian growth in our life?

Jonny’s has some summary statements about growth:

If we are connected to God, we are healthy.
Healthy things grow.
Therefore, if we aren’t growing, maybe we’re not as healthy as we should be.
Therefore, if we aren’t as healthy as we should be, maybe we’re not as connected to God as we should be.

24“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

39“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

41“Your approval means nothing to me, 42because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. 43For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. 44No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.e

(John 5:24, 39-44)

So many things can get in the way with our relationship with Jesus. This is because of sin. In church, we are sometimes afraid to talk about sin, but the world doesn’t talk about it, and it’s in the Bible, so it needs to be talked about somewhere, no matter how unpleasant it is. We should never be afraid to call sin for what it is, because talking openly about it helps us root it out of our lives.

In v39-44, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. Who were the Pharisees? They were teachers of the Old Testament law, leaders in the synagogues, and therefore people would look up to them. They were seen as honourable people in society and seen as part of the “people of God” as they were so prominent in Israel. Sadly they completely missed that Jesus was the fulfilment of Old Testament Scripture and they missed the identity Messiah when He came to earth.

So what causes us as Christians to miss Jesus in our day to day lives?

Pride

There are some areas of life that we haven’t submitted to Christ because we want to remain in control. That’s pride. Pride is thinking of yourself above God. Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve wanted to retain their control more than obeying God.

The good news is that through Jesus, we can combat pride in our lives. In the Old Testament, Moses was the best leader of the Israelites; he was the most humble man. He handed everything over to God. Instead of pride, we need to have humility like Moses, which is the opposite of pride.

CS Lewis described humility as this:

"Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but thinking about yourself less"

A great way to develop more humility is to spend more time seeing how we can bless others rather than thinking about how we can bless ourselves.

Agenda

The Pharisees had their own agenda when it came to knowing Jesus. They enjoyed being set apart as special in society. When they saw people were looking to Jesus as being special, they were threatened and wanted to get rid of Him. So when they met Him, they couldn’t see who He really was because they were blinded by their own agenda.

Have you ever come to Jesus with your own agenda? Not letting Him access to all areas? Have you ever wanted God to be a certain way or do certain things? Have you ever been upset and turned away from God when things don’t go your way? That’s having an agenda. God’s ways are higher than our ways, so we need to understand God’s working things out in a way that’s better than we want!

Self-esteem

Some people are so proud of who they are to the point where they rely on themselves and their own works rather than God’s grace. Biblically, we are never good enough to earn God’s grace, hence why we need Jesus and His work on the cross.

But on the other side, many believers still believe that they are not good enough for God, even though they are in Christ.

People get trapped by their past experiences, and rather than living in their identity as a Christian, they cannot help but live in a way where they still identify with their past experiences, almost as though those experiences are still happening in the present.

You might have failed in the past, but it doesn’t mean you’re a failure today. The truth is, Jesus died for you, and you’re created in the Image of God, which gives you incredibly precious value! Replace the lies  of Satan with Biblical truth.

We all need God’s warmth and light to flourish. We all need to be connected to the true vine. When we are, we will see growth and fruit that tastes good in our lives.

Growth // Connection and Fruit

We’re coming to the end of winter and the start of spring, and as the Government restrictions lift over the coming months, it looks as though we have a pathway to get back to normal.

Springtime brings hope, life, growth, new flowers, baby lambs and many other wonderful bits of creation. As we admire the creation, we have great opportunities to turn our eyes Heavenward and admire and worship the Creator.

Pastor Jonny brought a message based upon John 15:1-8 this week.

1“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

5“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

(John 15:1-8)

We need to be connected to Jesus

At this point in the Gospel of John, Jesus is preparing His Disciples for the next stage of their walk with Him. In chapter 14, He had announced that He would be leaving the world and that the Holy Spirit was coming in a new way at Pentecost, to dwell in Christians. It’s a great example of Trinitarian theology in action - seeing Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the different roles they play in salvation and the Christian walk. It’s always worth seeing the bigger picture of Scripture and reading it in its context, rather than trying to read our circumstances into the Scriptures.

Jesus’ vine analogy would have been very applicable to the Jews. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel are talked about as being a vine, but Jesus took it further. Jesus fulfilled the law and showed Israel what they were supposed to be, so he is the “true” vine, because the Israelites had got out of step with God.

So why do we need to be connected to Jesus? The answers are all in John 15! V4: we cannot be fruitful unless we remain in Him. V5: apart from Him we can do nothing. V6: Anyone who doesn’t remain in Him is thrown away on a pile to be burned.

It’s not pleasant or popular to talk about, but the Bible is clear that Hell is very real and people who aren’t in Christ will spend eternity there.

How can we be connected to Jesus?

We need to ask Him for His grace, for forgiveness for our sins, and we need to repent of those sins.

The biggest thing that separates us from God is sin. The Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus paid for sin when He died on the cross, and when we trust in Him for eternal life, we get our sins forgiven, past, present and future.

When you become a Christian, God looks at you as though you have lived the perfect sinless life that Jesus lived. You won’t be punished for your sin, because it was already paid for on the cross.

God and sin can’t co-habit. God is so perfect and sin is so imperfect that God obliterates sin like light obliterates darkness!

In Jesus, we are set free from both the guilt and power of sin.

So practically, how can we live for Jesus? We can first get our heart posture right. Look not just to Him as Saviour, but as Lord. By coming before Him humbly in that way, we acknowledge He has access all areas to our lives!

We can be part of a church community, observing the ordinances/sacraments of Communion and Baptism - these are outward signs of the inward change in our lives, as God transforms us from the inside out.

Daily we can read the Bible, spend time in prayer, go out into creation, foster good relationships with people, and even small simple things like saying grace before a meal, thanking God for the food.

Fruit

We should be producing fruit. Again, the answers are in John 15! V5: those who remain in Jesus will produce fruit! That’s a “will”, not a “might”.

Fruit is the right response to receiving grace. If we truly have repented, we will produce fruit. Elsewhere in the Bible, it says that Christians will be known by their fruit

If we aren’t seeing fruit, we probably need to ask if there’s an area of life that is not connected to Jesus. Fruit shows maturity! Fruit helps others and helps spiritually feed others too.

Works do not save a person, but they can be the means of saving others. If you display good works, it could lead to questions and conversations about faith. No good work is good enough to earn God's grace, but the fruit we produce should reflect our salvation

What fruit should we producing?

Galatians 5 lists them out: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

There is the fruit of good works. The book of James says faith without works is dead. We should be people with a generous spirit, caring for those who cannot care for themselves, giving to our local church, and partaking in evangelism (sharing Good News with friends and family).

There is fruit that can come from our personalities too. With mental health being something that is no longer a taboo subject, we now say "it’s ok not to be ok”. But as Christians, we should add that "it’s no ok to stay that way”. We should be working through our problems and looking to improve ourselves to be more like Jesus. Let’s be working on our personalities and bringing our lifestyles in line with God’s expectations in Scripture. This means being counter-cultural in many areas, such as cutting out swearing, keeping sex within the confines of a marriage bed between one man and one woman, avoiding pornography, gambling, gossiping,addictive substances and other sins.

God wants to see us grow as individuals and as a church. Let’s be empowered to go and live for Him, connecting with Him and bearing fruit as a sign of what He is doing in our lives.

Growth // Environment is Key

The environment you find yourself in is key to growth in your life. If you are in the wrong environment, you won’t grow as well.

Last week Pastor Jonny looked at making sure we are regularly fed and encouraged. This week he brought us a message on being warm and having light.

34So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

(John 13:34-35)

Warm environments produce good growth. This is why gardens flourish in the summer and flounder in the winter. For the Christian, this means you need warmth on an emotional and spiritual level. Those types of warmth bring the best out in people.

In John 13, at the Last Supper, Jesus prepared His disciples for the trials ahead. But instead of merely dwelling on those trials and the coming persecution, He focused on reminding them to love one another.

Emotional warmth comes through love. Love produces a warm and engaging environment where families and communities thrive. But true love comes from God and starts with our relationship with Him. We need to spend time in prayer and Bible study and bask in the warmth that comes from the love of God.

In relationships, some people boost others with encouragement and some people drain others with problems. We could call these types of people “gainers” and “drainers”. We naturally enjoy spending more time with gainers because they bring the best out of us.

As Christians, we are supposed to be other people’s gainers and we’re also supposed to be a spiritual thermostat, setting the positive atmosphere in the room.

Encouragement is so important. When an overly-critical person criticises someone, experts say that for every 1 negative point, a person needs 8 positive points to make them feel better.

When we look at the rest of the world, especially on social media, we see that everyone is bringing everyone else down. As Christians, let’s be the people who lift each other up! Let’s be the gainers and the encouragers.

Just as a disclaimer, we’re not talking about constructive criticism/feedback here. Those things are helpful as they encourage growth. We’re talking about criticism that attacks for the sake of attacking. It often says more about the person doing the criticism (their unhappiness) than the person being criticised.

We need to be people of grace, pointing people to Jesus with truth and grace.

In addition to warmth, we also need light.

4The Word gave life to everything that was created,a

and his life brought light to everyone.

5The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness can never extinguish it.b

6God sent a man, John the Baptist,c 7to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

(John 1:4-9)

This is the very start of John’s Gospel and it mirrors the first chapter of Genesis. John wrote that Jesus is the Light and that darkness cannot extinguish the light.

We need to live in that light, the light of Jesus and the life that He brings.

Don’t live in the darkness, don’t let the Devil have a foothold in your life. Shine the light of Jesus into the darkest areas of your heart and turn from sin into the life that Jesus has for you.

When you flick a lightswitch on, darkness disappears and the room is filled with light. It’s the same in our walk with Jesus. As long as we stay connected to Jesus, He banishes the darkness in our lives.

As you mature in your faith, this will become more natural. The Holy Spirit will convict you of sin and call you to live more and more like Jesus.

We are called to grow as people. We need to be rooted in Jesus, fed by Jesus, receive the warmth of Jesus and the light of Jesus, and then we are to help create warm environments for others to grow in Jesus.

Growth // Established and Fed

This morning, Pastor Jonny brought us the first in our new series on growth!

Rooted in Jesus

Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

(Colossians 2:7)

Paul wrote to the Colossian church, a young church. He encouraged them to be spiritually full. They needed to be rooted in Jesus and He is all that they needed. There was no need to let distractions take precedent, but to make sure that their feet were planted firmly in Christ.

It’s the same for us today. Are you rooted in Jesus? You need to make sure that your heart is fertile soil, letting the Holy Spirit do what only He can do.

So how do you make sure the soil of your heart is fertile? You need to ask yourself some challenging questions. How is your prayer life? How regular are your daily devotions and Bible reading? Hint: the clue’s in the name. These things are the basics, the foundation for growth. If you aren’t building solid foundations into your walk with the Lord, how do you expect to grow?

Just like appliances need to be plugged in at the power source to work, we as Christians also need to be plugged in and engaged with God and His Word on a daily basis.

Drink the Living Water

But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

(John 4:14)

So you’re rooted in Jesus, now what? You need to be fed and watered, like any good thing that grows!

In John 4, Jesus met the woman at the well and spoke to her about how He is the living water.

Have you ever eaten a really salty meal that’s resulted in excess thirst, where soft drinks just won’t cut it, and only pure water will do the trick? If you’ve ever experienced that feeling, we need to turn that feeling into our attitude of thirst for Jesus. We need to come to Him knowing that all the distractions in our life just won’t satisfy us like pure quality time of prayer and worship with Jesus.

When did you last realise you needed an outpouring of Jesus in your life?

Eat the Bread of Life

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

(John 6:35)

In this verse, Jesus is condemning the crowd that followed Him. In the previous chapter (John 5), they had seem Him perform the feeding of the 5000, and Jesus knew that they were only following Him for another miracle. He had to speak quite firmly to them and teach them that He is the Bread of Life, not the bread that He multiplied in His miracles!

In fact, Jesus talked about bread a lot in His ministry, from teaching us the Lord’s Prayer to having bread at the Last Supper.

We imitate the moment at the Last Supper by having bread and wine at communion. When we come to what is known as the Lord’s Table, we remember that Jesus’ body was broken on the cross for us (represented by the bread) and His blood was spilled for us (represented by the wine), to pay for our sin, so that we can be forgiven of our sins and be granted eternal life in Heaven when we believe in Him.

So root your life in Jesus! We cannot encourage this enough here at Light & Life. If you’re not a Christian and you like what you’ve read, and your interested in following Jesus, get in touch via our contact page or on our social media! We look forward to hearing from you!

Vision Sunday

This week at church it was Vision Sunday, and Pastor Jonny presented his vision for Light & Life for 2021.

Vision isn’t a perfect plan or a step-by-step guide. Instead, it’s much more like a direction or a compass. Through much prayer, the vision is a compilation of suggestions following the 21 days of prayer and fasting.

Some relevant Scriptures about vision:

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

(Proverbs 29:18)

2Then the Lord replied:

“Write down the revelation

and make it plain on tablets

so that a herald b may run with it.

(Habakkuk 2:2)

24One person gives freely, yet gains even more;

another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

25A generous person will prosper;

whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

(Proverbs 11:24, 25)

Vision and goal-setting are important as they help build resolve against temptation when it comes to working towards a goal. For example, in a weight-loss journey, it helps to have a target weight. In a financial journey, saving up for something, it helps to have a target savings goal.

The church vision is for everyone in the church, helping everyone see the direction that the church is going in.

When people sent Jonny suggestions, some recurring words kept cropping up: building, family, growth, sanctuary, expand, stand firm, enlarge, God first, hope.

So this year’s vision is to “enlarge” in everything we do.

4 areas to focus on

Individually enlarge our relationship with God.

We need to be going to deeper with God. This is the most important point because God calls us to walk in step with His Spirit, go deeper into His Word and spend more time in prayer. We need to be pursuing holiness, crucifying our sinful flesh and its desires, and pursuing God, aiming to be more like Jesus. To develop a Christ-like character is our first calling.

Enlarge the church in unity

We are to be church-people, committed to the church and one another. This means we pray for each other when people are sick, we deliver food to people who are unwell, we babysit for each other’s children, we celebrate birthdays together, we pursue fellowship with one another. If you’re on the sidelines, start by joining a life group!

Enlarge the number of people in the church

While salvation is of the Lord, we be the instruments in God’s hands and share the Gospel and invite people to church. If we step out and invite people to church, we provide opportunity for people to see how Christian community functions, as well as exposing people to the Gospel for what might be the first time.

Enlarge the Kingdom

Light and Life is a little local church, but we are part of the Church, God’s Kingdom that He has been building for thousands of years. Christians at Light & Life are a small number of the millions of people who have their name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. This means that we ought not to see ourselves as the only church on earth, but we should be seeking friendship with church planters and ministries that we can help partner with in our walk with Jesus.

Remember that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed according to Jesus. It started out as the smallest seed on earth, but has grown for the last 2000 years and will continue to grow as the Gospel spreads in the future!

Don't Look Back

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

15All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

17Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

(Philippians 3:12-21)

Today is our church birthday, and we are 4 years old. Pastor Jonny brought us a message called Don’t Look Back.

We all have a past that we remember, and we all have a future that we don’t know. One of the wonders of the Gospel and God’s love is that it doesn’t discriminate based on a person’s past. It doesn’t matter what your background is, you can come to Christ and be part of God’s family!

So this week’s Scripture passage is written by Paul. It was a letter to encourage church in Philippi. The Philippian church was one of the early churches, relatively new at the time, with new believers. You could say that there were some parallels between the church at Philippi and Light & Life.

Jonny brought a warning and a hope this week.

The warning is especially prominent for those of us who have a great past: don’t live in the past. The problem with having a great past is the temptation to constantly look back and yearn for “the good old days” again. The past always seems more romantic when we look back, but at the time, it likely didn’t feel any more special than the current present.

The problem with fixing our eyes on the past is that we miss out on enjoying the present and the future that God has for us.

The nation of Israel fell into this trap. On their way to the Promised Land, they took their gaze off God and looked back fondly at their time spent in Egypt, even though they were in slavery in Egypt and they were free when they were in the desert. They failed to look forward to what God had for them, and they failed to thank God for freeing them from their past. Because they focused on the past, they missed out on the Promised Land and it was delayed by a generation.

We should never forget what God has done for us and we should be thankful for all those things, but we shouldn’t fail to embrace what God is doing now in our lives. Why would we not want to be part of what God is doing?

Jonny’s message of hope is for those of us with a troubled past: you don’t have to live in the past anymore. God is calling you to press on and come to Him. God is love and God loves freedom, and there is freedom in Christ if you come to Him.

Once a person becomes a Christian, the Bible says they become a new creation, and that the new is come and the old has passed away. What we focus on consumes us and is what we end up walking towards. So don’t focus on the old, on the past, but dwell on Christ, and focus walking towards Him.

We can see this is Genesis 19 with the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. God told Lot and his wife to leave Sodom and not look back. Lot’s wife looked back and she was turned into a pillar of salt. It is not healthy to look back at a past that God has told you to leave behind.

Just a couple of Scriptures that help motivate us to look towards the future rather than the past:

19See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.

(Isaiah 43:19)

62Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

(Luke 9:62)

Here at Light & Life, we love looking back each birthday at how God has blessed us as a church. There are so many things we can be thankful to God for and so many happy memories we can use as fuel to propel us into the future.

So never live in the past, always thank God for what He has saved you from, and look forward for what is He calling you to. Regardless of the circumstances, the future is bright with Jesus.

Continuing in Christ

1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

11The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

17Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

31Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

(Acts 9:1-19, 31)

This week, Pastor Jonny spoke to us about the power of the Holy Spirit.

The book of Acts is an account of the “acts” of the Apostles. It was written by doctor Luke who also wrote the gospel of Luke, and Luke is known for his attention to detail and his desire to portray historical events accurately. The book details the work and circumstances of the early church, and so church leaders can learn so much about evangelism and early church life and persecution by studying Acts.

In dark and difficult times like these COVID-19 lockdowns, it can sometimes be difficult to hold onto faith, leading us to ask where God is. For many, they struggle with their faith, and some lose their faith. To persevere in the faith, there is only one way we can carry on with our walk with Christ - through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the third Person of the Trinity. We have God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. God is one being consisting of three co-equal co-eternal Persons. Each Person is fully God, and the three Persons are entwined in total unity with one another.

The Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of Christians. He is the fire that propels us forward in faith, helping us overcome trials, bringing the Bible to life for us, helping us resist temptation, and helping us endure persecution.

The Christian life is made up of many spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, fasting, daily Bible reading, and the giving of our finances. God doesn’t call us to do those things in our own strength, but instead we should aim to do all those things through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In today’s passage, we see Ananias (whose name means “Yahweh has been gracious”) was a faithful man who had a vision. The message God gave him was about Saul, and yet, given Saul’s reputation, he was in disbelief that God would ask him to approach a man with such dangerous credentials. Yet despite this, he obeyed God anyway.

When we need to be obedient to God in difficult circumstances, are we faithful enough to act on it?

After encountering Jesus, Saul had a complete life change. He was forgiven from his sin and healed of the scales that were placed on his eyes.

If your life is turned around drastically by Jesus, some of your friends and family will be speechless, some will be intrigued, some will be open and some of them will hate you for it.

Never dismiss when God opens doors to a new drastic calling on your life and leads you in a new direction away from your old life. This new direction isn’t necessarily easy. We can see what difficulties God called Paul (Saul’s new name) to:

24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

(2 Cor 11:24-30)

Following Jesus isn’t guaranteed to be easy. Rejection, hardship, persecution and hunger await many disciples of Christ. Many Christians in countries today experience hardships for their faith, particularly in parts of Asia. To endure all those hardships and keep the faith, it needs to be the power of the Holy Spirit sustaining a person. The Holy Spirit brings His Fruit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It’s that self-control that comes from the Holy Spirit that enables us to ensure hardships, resist temptations, and overall press on victoriously through the Christian life.

Let’s be praying this week that the Spirit will sustain us through difficult times we’re walking through, and that we can conclude our final week of prayer and fasting with hope, joy and expectation for brighter days ahead through 2021.

Fasting

Doug came and spoke to us this week about the importance and benefits of fasting.

Fasting should be normative for Christians. Note this verse:

16“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

(Matthew 6:16)

“When” you fast, not “If” you fast. The same sentence structure is seen a few verses away:

5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

(Matthew 6:5)

2“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

(Matthew 6:2)

“When you pray”. “When you give”. “When you fast”. All three of those should be normal in the Christian life.

You might think that fasting isn’t for you, but be careful, because Jesus said “the student is not above his teacher”, so be mindful when you disregard something Jesus teaches about.

Types of Fast

Fasting is supposed to boost or kick-start a person’s spiritual life.

• Absolute fast - no food or water passes the lips.

• Normal fast - water only (some people say distilled water only).

• Partial fast - giving up certain things (Daniel gave up meat and sweet things, living off only water and vegetables; some of us today might give up our phone on social media, or something else we particularly value)

While fasting is supposed to be normative for Christians, some people shouldn’t fast. For example, particularly elderly people, or people with eating disorders or other health problems.

Whatever your preferred type of fast, the goal should be “Matthew 6:33” fasting, a fast that seeks first the Kingdom. The whole point of fasting is to pursue God; if a fast is just about going without something, then it’s no different to a diet or starvation. The purpose of a fast is always spiritual, with specific prayers about specific things.

How to Fast

For those new to fasting, it’s helpful to build into a fast, perhaps skipping lunch one day, then all the meals the next day. It’s not helpful to try and fill up like a camel, as that can leave a person feeling bloated and tired.

When you fast, you’ll notice food references more, you’ll notice other people eating more, and time will pass a lot slower! Water is your best friend during a fast.

Why Fast?

It’s super important to recognise that fasting doesn’t put us right in the eyes of God. Only faith in Christ grants us peace with God. Fasting is something for people who are already right with God. It is not a method for making ourselves right with God. In other words, fasting is not a replacement for the Gospel.

Fasting helps us with empathy for the hungry. Going to bed on an empty stomach after a day without food really aids understanding of what life is like for those living in poverty and hunger.

Fasting is powerful. It helps break addictions, and the yolk of spiritual dryness. It helps open doors that would otherwise be closed.

How Does Fasting affect Health?

It’s a good rest for the digestive system.

In conclusion, it would be great if you would consider fasting. We are now on day 8 of our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, so even if the first 7 days have been based purely around prayer, now might be a good time to throw fasting into the mix.

Prayer

Starting today, we’re beginning 2021 by dedicating it to God with 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.

This week, Pastor Jonny brought us a message on prayer and Doug will be speaking on fasting next week.

If you’d like to receive the daily prayer & fasting devotions, sign up via your ChurchSuite account or contact us via Facebook, Instagram, or even the form on this website. Alternatively you can email us at info@lightandlifefm.com or send us a message on 07956 421 802

12Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

16Rejoice always, 17pray continually, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

19Do not quench the Spirit.

(1 Thessalonians 5:12-19)

A great Victorian theologian and preacher, Charles Spurgeon, ranked prayer as one of the most important things in life. He called his church prayer meeting “the Boiler Room”, as a praying church was the fuel for his ministry. At Light & Life, we also believe in the power of prayer, and so we also have a prayer meeting. Originally, they were weekly at Garstang Free Methodist, and now they are every 3 weeks on a Sunday evening on Zoom.

When it comes to prayer, we can always do better. We need to be intentional about it. We need to change our attitude about it and set time aside for it, and we will end up with a deeper, more prayer-saturated relationship with the Lord.

A question many ask is why pray to God who knows and ordains everything? We pray not to inform God but to involve God in our lives. When we pray, we say that we want God to be close with us, involved in our day.

Pray to listen. We ought to be telling God we’re ready to open the Scriptures and be ready to hear from Him.

Prayer is a vehicle. It takes us from where we are to where we need to be. Prayer is not just a conversation, but it is the vehicle that moves us through difficult stages in life.

Prayer is a weapon. Spiritual warfare is real. You can check out our series on that from last summer on our Youtube channel. The Enemy wants to distract us, but prayer enhances our focus on God and is an act of worship, which helps us live a more Christ-centred life.

How then shall we pray? Scripture gives us so much inspiration for this. Never stop praying, do not be anxious. God is omnipresent and omnipotent, so why wouldn’t we pray when we have a God with those attributes?

Where shall we pray? Prayer can happen anywhere. Some ideas might be:

• An altar in a church (although can’t do that due to lockdown restrictions at the moment)

• The foot of a cross in a church.

• Anywhere on our knees with our face down - this is not the most comfortable position, but we bow before the King.

• At the top of a hill with our arms raised high - being our in creation is an incredible place to pray and worship God as Creator.

• In a hospital - praying for those who are sick.

• In a group - a family in prayer is powerful.

• Individually - a church made up of people praying individually makes a strong corporate church body.

Basically, as long as our posture in prayer is one of humility, we are doing it right.

One of the most important thing to realise is that prayer should be first response, not last resort. We need to be spending time with God, who loves us and has called us.

Let’s pray Lord’s Prayer together.

9“This, then, is how you should pray:

“ ‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation, a

but deliver us from the evil one. b ’

(Matthew 6:9-13)

New Year? New Me!

Happy New Year! Each New Year, we love to grasp at new things, whether that’s New Year’s Resolutions, goals or targets. Ultimately, however, none of these matter, because none of us know what God has ordained for us for the year ahead.

The Bible teaches us that we can’t plan for the future

13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

(James 4:13-14)

But the great news is that it doesn’t matter that we don’t know what the future holds, because God does.

It doesn’t matter what our plans are, it matters what God’s plans are!

11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

(Jeremiah 29:11)

In Jeremiah 29:11, the Jews were in captivity, held in Babylon, and God was promising them a return to their Promised Land, Israel. Just like the Jews had a future and a hope of being brought back to the land of Israel, we have promises of God too. No matter the circumstances were last year, no matter what the future looks like this year, we, as Christians, have an eternal hope to look forward to that doesn’t depend on our circumstances in this life. Christ Himself (our relationship with Him, becoming like Him, spending eternity with Him) is the prize:

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 3:12-14)

The Apostle Paul’s earthly circumstances were awful. When he wrote many of his letters in the New Testament, he was shipwrecked or imprisoned for spreading the Gospel, but he focused himself on the goal of Jesus as his hope for the future.

Putting it bluntly: it doesn’t matter if you have the best or worst life right now, but if you’re a Christian, you have everything to look forward to in eternity!

So Happy New Year! Each year, we need to ask some questions: what do we need to start? What do we need to stop? What things do we need to pick up? What things do we need to put down? What habits do we need to begin? What habits need to cease?

The most important thing is that when we make these decisions, we need to cover them in prayer, bringing everything to God’s Throne of Grace. We should also mediate on Scripture, as it gives us the best teaching about what things to do and what things not to do.

Pastor Jonny brought us a message this morning from Ephesians, another of Paul’s letters:

22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26“In your anger do not sin” d : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold. 28Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

(Ephesians 4:25-32)

Paul is writing to tell us to “put off the old nature” and “put on new nature”. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. The Holy Spirit convicts us of what to put down (sin), but we don’t always remember to live fully in the new life, the Christian walk, with a life immersed in prayer and Scripture.

If we don’t clothe ourselves in the new self, then we are more vulnerable to going back to the old sins. It happens in all areas of life, with habits, diets, everything. If we remove an old destructive sinful habit but fail to replace it with a new wholesome habit, it creates a void in us, making it easy to slip back into the old sinful habit.

Using a diet analogy, we should seek to replace bad diet with good food. We should seek to replace sin with time immersed in prayer and time experiencing the wholesome things, living out the Fruit of the Spirit,

instead of focusing on not doing a certain sin, we need to switch our focus on Jesus and the things He has granted us to do. The more time we focus on living in the “no zone”, focusing on what we cannot and should not do, the more likely we will be to fall.

Instead, we need to move into the “yes zone”, immersing ourselves in the things God gives us the Christian liberty to step into.

In our diet analogy, we need to replace cake with fruit. Rather than focusing on not being able to eat cake, we instead need to focus on getting into habit of eating and enjoying eating fruit instead.

If we live in the “no zone”, self-reliance becomes a big thing instead of God-reliance. It also creates a Pharisee attitude. Not stepping into the “fruit” causes us to wither away as well.

Traps we can fall into

Perfectionism

Satan wants to tell us that we are going to have a perfect year to tempt us into self-reliance. The moment we mess up, we think the year is now ruined. We need to understand that we will never reach perfection in this life. But Jesus is the author and perfect of our faith, He is sanctifying us over the years, perfecting us, making us more Christ-like.

Once for all decision

We need to pick up our cross daily. Good habits only happen over time. Following Jesus is not a once forever decision, it’s a daily decision.

New Christ-like-living might not immediately feel quite right

Familiarity with the old life doesn’t make the old life right. We are a new creation in Jesus and it won’t immediately feel quite right. Eventually it will feel more fulfilling to turn back on old life and live holy, as Christ would have us walk.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we should make a New Year’s Resolution to fix our eyes on Jesus, cast our burdens on Him and trust Him with our future, because He cares for us. Let’s take off the old, put on the new, as that’s what repentance, turning from sin and coming to Jesus, is all about.

We wish you a Happy New Year and invite you to join us starting next Sunday for 21 days of prayer and fasting, a time to prepare us for the rest of the year.

Christmas // Joy

This week, Pastor Jonny taught on the difference between joy and happiness.

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

(Luke 2:8-14)

Notice verse 10. The good news is the Gospel, and for all those who believe, the Good News of Jesus causes great joy!

Joy is totally different to happiness. Contrary to popular belief, God does not exist to make us happy. If we have a happiness-based theology, then this will lead us to a distorted and distant relationship with God.

A happiness-based theology might look like this:

1. Happy = right. Unhappy = wrong

2. Therefore discomfort, delay, risk and suffering can never be God’s will.

3. Therefore we start to worship comfort, money, pleasure and things.

Notice how a bad theology leads us away from God and causes us to set up false idols! This is why it’s so important to understand that God doesn’t exist as a magic genie to grant us every wish. If everything that makes us happy is “good”, then we can quickly become trapped in sinful living, and God hasn’t designed us to live happily in our sin…He’s caused us to live happily in Him!

Instead of pursuing happiness, we should be pursuing holiness, which is the character of Christ and lifestyle that God would have us live. Such a lifestyle leads to a life of abundant joy!

To illustrate the difference between joy and happiness, let’s look at Jesus’s life.

What made Jesus sad?

The shortest verse in the Bible is merely “Jesus wept”, when Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus, died. Separation from loved ones brings sadness.

In Matthew 23, Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem, as its people were far away from God. Jesus weeps over sin.

What made Jesus joyful?

Jesus thrived off the things that really matter in life: relationships. Jesus found joy when rejected people became included, when sick people became healed, when decaying things were restored, and when sinners repented and trusted in God for forgiveness and salvation.

You see, joy is more of a mindset than an emotion. Happiness and unhappiness are emotions, but joy is a mindset.

Key definition: Joy is an attitude God’s people adopt, not because of their current circumstances, but because of God’s promises, hope and love for their life.

Basically, we have to choose to be joyful before we start to feel it.

When the Hebrew slaves left Egypt, they were in the wilderness with no comforts, yet they had a mindset of focusing on the promise of God for their future, and their attitude was that of joyful worship.

Jesus, as Messiah, wasn’t going to be the Messiah people wanted, but He was the Messiah people truly needed. He didn’t change circumstances but He changed peoples' outlook on life, their worldview. People were able to endure persecution and attack with joy because of their relationship with God.

God’s economy is upside down to the world. As we strive for happiness, we miss out on opportunities for godly joy. We need to change our perspective.

Let’s pray for a blessed New Year, but not focus too much on earthly happiness. Let’s pray for spiritual joy to well up and overflow out of us. As our relationship with God goes deeper, our joy will increase.

Christmas // Carol Service

We all love a good story. Stories make life more interesting. The dull can appear delightful when told the right way, and we all know someone who’s great at turning the mundane events of their life into a creative narrative of humour and fun.

Jesus is the world’s best storyteller, often communicating Kingdom principles in short stories, or parables. For us today, one of the most famous “Jesus stories” is the Nativity, told to one another each December for 2000+ years!

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

(John 1:1-3, 14)

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

(John 3:16)

6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

(John 14:6)

30When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

(John 19:30)

19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

(John 21:19)

Pastor Jonny brought today’s message from the Gospel of John.

The Gospel writers were also master storytellers too, with each Gospel structured with a beginning, middle and end, like all the best stories do. Looking at the Gospel of John , we can see it has a beginning, middle and end, it has a love interest, it’s designed to draw the reader in, and most importantly, it’s 100% true!

Chapter 1 explains that Jesus was there, along with the other two Persons of the Trinity at the start of creation in Genesis.

The middle of the Gospel of John is all about Jesus’ teachings who He is, and His signs, wonders and miracles.

Then the end of the story is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus died on a cross so that we might have eternal life if we place our faith in Him, trusting Him as our Lord and Saviour. His death on the cross becomes the punishment for our sins, and we inherit His eternal life as though we have never sinned. Every human to have walked this earth has sinned against God and deserves eternal punishment, except Jesus, who went His entire life without sinning. When we become a Christian, God looks on us and treats us as though we have also lived that same sinless life that Jesus lived. Jesus conquered death and was resurrected, and all Christians will one day be resurrected to eternal life when Jesus returns in the future to set up the New Heavens and New Earth, a world where Christ’s people will live and dwell for eternity. This is all explained in the book of Revelation, also written by the same John who wrote the Gospel. Basically, Jesus wins, and the war is already won! So this is why when Jesus says “Follow me”, that we should take His words very seriously.

Have you turned to Jesus yet? Take an opportunity to think on spiritual things this Christmas, to work out where you stand with God. Jesus is God’s gift to us so that we can inherit eternal life. That eternal life can start today, and it means that you can know and experience the love of God, and live the rest of your life filled with the love, joy, hope and peace that comes from God the Holy Spirit dwelling within your heart.

Christmas // Peace

This week, Pastor Jonny brought a message about peace, as well as some powerful personal testimony. Jesus came to bring glory to God and peace on earth. With these Government lockdowns and restrictions, we need to know that peace more than ever before.

1In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;

God makes salvation

its walls and ramparts.

2Open the gates

that the righteous nation may enter,

the nation that keeps faith.

3You will keep in perfect peace

those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trust in you.

(Isaiah 26:1-3)

Isaiah was Old Testament major prophet and most quoted book by Jesus Himself. The book of Isaiah is a long one, but well worth a read. There is prophecy directly for Israel at the time it was written, as well as prophecy about the coming of the Messiah (which apply to Jesus) and some prophecy about the eternal state, the New Heavens and New Earth.

Jesus came and fulfilled these prophecies; He is peace personified. Jesus has a lot of names, one of which is the Prince of Peace. He rules in and through peace, and brings peace to His people.

Jesus brings peace to creation. In the Gospels, we read an account of how the disciples were in a boat in the middle of a storm, and Jesus calmed the sea in the boat. “Even the wind and waves obey Him”, remarked the disciples. How we should have such awe today for who Jesus is!

We see Jesus as an example of how to act peacefully in a crisis. Jesus never rushed between His situation. Instead, He always had a calm perspective, bringing peace to situations, whether that be healing the sick, giving sight to the blind or raising the dead.

We all need peace. Jesus is the gift that every single one of us needs this Christmas.

He is the Shalom. 

In the original Hebrew for verse 3 of today’s passage, “perfect peace" was written as "shalom shalom” - Hebrews repeated words to emphasise them, so we can know that Jesus is “peaceful peace” in the original language, which we translate to “perfect peace” today.

A key truth for today: Peace isn’t found in the absence of problems. Peace is found in the presence of God.

We will have problems with our children, our spouse, our family and our finances.

We ought to fix our eyes on Jesus, as He is the key to perfect peace.

When we go stargazing, we get so focused and enamoured by what we can see in the sky that we forget about the events happening on earth. We should seek to have a similar attitude in our spiritual life.

We need to look up, focus on Jesus, our minds fixed away from the chaos of life, and receive that peace that He offers.

7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:7)

Jesus’ peace is nothing like the world’s peace; He brings the peace that goes beyond all our understanding.

We can have lots of money, look successful, be married, have anything the world has to offer, but we can still not have peace. Peace isn’t found in the absence of problems but in the presence of God.

So this Christmas, seek Jesus to receive the peace of God.