Sermons

There are many different kinds of Christian book that get published. One of them is the missionary biography: stories that tell how someone of a previous generation took the good news of Jesus Christ to a part of the world where he had never been heard of. Frequently, these stories include some dramatic accounts of God intervening to help. There are many difficulties encountered — someone perhaps about to run out of money, and they prayed, and providentially the next ship from London carried everything that they needed.

Let me ask you a question: what kind of thing is Christianity? Or maybe you say, “Okay, that's obvious — it's a religion.” Or maybe it is. Maybe that's a helpful label; maybe it's not.

Some people helpfully point out that religions generally are about the human race trying to climb up a ladder towards God, whereas Christianity is about God coming down from heaven to reach us. So in some ways, the label “religion” is not helpful when applied to Christianity. This is something different from anything else called a religion.

Part of being a Christian is to witness to other people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you are really pleased to hear that. I suspect a number of us had been secretly hoping nobody would ever say that to us, because we find the thought of speaking about the Lord Jesus with others terrifying and difficult. If that is you, you're not alone. Lots of people find it difficult.

Part of being a Christian is to witness to other people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you are really pleased to hear that. I suspect a number of us had been secretly hoping nobody would ever say that to us, because we find the thought of speaking about the Lord Jesus with others terrifying and difficult. If that is you, you're not alone. Lots of people find it difficult.

In this country, many church leaders first cut their teeth in how to give a talk, lead a Bible study, disciple individuals, through helping as a member of a team on a youth camp. At these youth camps, many fun activities were put on for the young people to enjoy during the day, and in the evening there would be a tour—a meeting at which some songs would be sung, and the Christian gospel would be run through over the course of the various evenings of the holiday.

Let me take you to the beginning of the world of Harry Potter. Now, I know a few of you, as Christians, feel uncomfortable with Harry Potter and think that it is not helpful for Christian kids to be reading books about the world of magic and whatever. If that is you, please do not switch off and fail to hear the rest of this sermon because of that one thing. I am not endorsing the books; I am simply using the storyline, which has become part of our lore in this country, to introduce the sermon and nothing else.

Let me start by asking the question with which Lee ended last week, which is this: what is the purpose of the church?

Now, there are lots of right answers to that question. The church is lots and lots of things, but there's a very particular focus to that question in these verses we're looking at this morning.

Have you ever had the experience of missing out on something because you were too far away? Most of us in this room live in Scarborough. I'm guessing that you have therefore had this experience, because Scarborough is a town that is far away from just about everywhere. You can drive to York and hit kind of big roads that way—it takes about an hour. Or you can get bored of that road and think, "Well, I'll go to Goole instead," and discover that takes you an hour and 20 to hit a decent-sized road. Or you can head all the way up the coast to Newcastle, and finally you get there.

Do you ever find yourself comparing yourself to other people? There is an unhealthy obsession today with drawing comparisons between our life and that of others. In part, social media fuels this. You're forever being invited to look at your life and put it on show so other people can look at your life and match up against you. So you're comparing your house with their house, your kids with their kids, your job with their job, your holiday, your food—and you can't go to a restaurant these days and enjoy a good meal without taking a photograph of it first. Why? I don't know.

Let me ask you a question: what do you make of the story of Jesus rising from the dead? This is the central reality of the Christian faith. It is the most important reality of the Christian faith. The Christian faith is grounded not in theories and ideas but in historical events that took place in real space and real time. You can put a date in the calendar; you can put GPS coordinates on the map where these things took place. And of all the events of history around which our faith revolves, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the central one.