NT Sermons

How do we know anything about Jesus? We weren’t there when he fed the 5000, or when he rose from the dead? So how do we know these things happened? How do we know what they mean for today?

This morning, we’re continuing our journey through the book of Acts. Last week, I showed us how Acts is the second volume of Luke’s gospel. It picks up the story where Luke left off. 40 days after Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus returned to heaven. But his story doesn’t stop just because he’s gone home. And Acts is all about the things that Jesus did and taught next.

Do you ever wish you could live in the time of Jesus. There are great events in the 4 gospels that we only get to read about. Wouldn’t it be good to have seen them for yourself? To have heard Jesus deliver the original Sermon on the Mount, first-hand. To have shaken the hand of the paralysed man who’d been healed. To have eaten some of the foot Jesus produced for the crowd of 5000.

A united church is a wonderful thing.

It’s one reason why I get us all together like this at least 4 times a year. So we can enjoy not being Kemsing 9.15, Kemsing 10.30 and Woodlands, but worshipping together, being one.

For a congregation to be united is a wonderful thing. For a pair of local churches to be united is a wonderful thing.

Why would anyone reject Jesus?

He seems so wonderful. He healed the sick, raised the dead and fed the hungry. He came as God on earth, to rescue us from our selfishness, and bring us back to God. To know him is to have God as your Father, and to have millions of fellow Christians as your brothers and sisters. He came to bring true and lasting rest to all of us who are weary and burdened.

Who would not want to know a Jesus like this?

Why do more people not follow Jesus?

That’s been the question we’ve been tracing through this chapter of Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13.

Today, Jesus has two final parables for us – one to put the final piece in the puzzle. One to give us the chance to step back and look at the chapter as a whole. We’re going to ask what all this means for our response to Jesus.

The cost of following Jesus

Verse 44: “He sold all he had”. Verse 46: “He went away and sold everything he had”.

To many people today, that is unthinkable.

The idea that we might give something up in order to follow Jesus – it’s madness.

The idea that we might give up everything we have in order to follow Jesus – well that’s just insanity.

Many people today are glad to be involved in church. Come along on a Sunday. Maybe even take some responsibilities and make themselves helpful. Maybe even give some money to support the work of the church.

Why are there so few Christians if Jesus is as wonderful as he is?

That’s the question running through the chapter of the Bible we’re looking at this spring, Matthew chapter 13.

So far in the chapter, we’ve had two answers.

Answer number 1 came from the parable of the sower. Why are there so few Christians? Because not everyone responds to Jesus in the right way. For some, the message doesn’t go in at all. Others are distracted or give up when life gets tough.

Do you ever wonder why God doesn’t fix the world faster?

You watch the news, you see acts of violence and terrorism. You see civilians trapped, starved and killed in Syria. You know people who have suffered as the victims of crime or abuse. Do you ever wonder: Why doesn’t God fix the world faster?

He has a really good reason for the delay. We’re looking this morning at part of Matthew chapter 13, a chapter we’re working our way through this spring. The chapter as a whole is asking why more people don’t follow Jesus.

If Jesus is so great, why do more people not follow him?

It’s a good question. The Jesus we read about in the Bible certainly is great. He could heal the sick. He could raise the dead. His teaching kept the crowds spellbound.

And yet, even in his own day, only a very small group were his genuine followers. And today, the number of Christians is growing all the time, but you’d expect more wouldn’t you, if Jesus was for real.

It could put you off sharing your faith with others. It could even make you question your own faith.

It’s easy to think that Jesus of Nazareth is fairly unimpressive.

To the unbeliever, he was a man who taught some great things, maybe did some miracles, but whose life was tragically cut short. He didn’t know how to play politics, so his enemies caught up with him.

Even for we Christians. We love Jesus, but it’s hard to feel we do him justice. There must be more to him than it sometimes feels there is.