From time to time I put sermons I give up here. Not because I think they are particularly good, even less that they are model sermons. I can't even guarantee that I agree with everything I said then - I am (of course) learning all the time. But someone may be interested.
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We’ve just baptized Finlay. I don’t know what you make of baptism.
The Bible reading we had told the story of one of the biggest baptisms in history. About 3000 people, baptised on a single day. 3000. That’s most of the population of Kemsing. What could possibly make that number of people decide to be baptized on a single day?
We live in a broken society. A fragmented society. A scattered society.
Our relationships with each other are broken. Our relationship with God is broken.
Let me illustrate by listening in on the questions people have been asking since Tuesday’s bomb attack in Manchester.
“How could someone do that to their fellow human beings?” Our relationships with one another are broken.
“Why does God not stop something like that from happening?” Our relationship with God is broken.
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.
Many people have two struggles with Easter.
They struggle to believe it happened. As a Christian story, part of the legend, it’s fine. But dead people don’t come back to life. It just doesn’t happen. Which means that the idea that this is more than a legend, that it actually happened – that’s just too hard to believe. Struggle to believe it happened.
I take it that we all know that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday.
Today, I’m not going to try and convince you that the resurrection is a true story. I’m assuming you’re already convinced. You believe that Jesus really did rise from the dead. He’s alive today.
If I’m wrong to assume that, I’d love to give you a copy of {Val Grieve, Your Verdict}
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.
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.