Will You Come and Follow Me ?

 

John 1:35-51

Just after Easter we began our series on The Nature Of God, and since then we’ve looked at 21 aspects of God’s nature:  Love   Holiness  Mercy  Grace  Friendship  Parenthood  Justice  Faithfulness  Forgiveness  Power  Creativity  Authority  Providence  Protection  Hope   Promise Keeper    Good  Comfort  Omniscient   Omnipresent   Compassion   Healer

These characteristics also describe the Christian, particularly the Christian born again of water and Spirit (omniscience and omnipotence are of course the exceptions which prove the rule). In my introduction to the series I reminded us that we humans are created in God’s image and as such we

The God of All Comfort

Comfort is a word which in modern speech has lost all of its New testament meaning. It suggests to us a kind of sedative, a palliative for pain of body or mind. But the comfort of God is no narcotic. The word "comforter" applied to the Holy Spirit really means "strengthener" (John 14:16). It has the same root as "fortify." We comfort a sufferer when we give them courage to bear their pain or face their misfortune.

The Faithful Keeper of Promises

We continue our series on The Nature of God and this week's title is Hope (Promise Keeper) and there were a number of readings to choose from (1 Kings 8:56, Jeremiah 31:31-34 Micah 5:2,
Matthew 16:13-18, Matthew 26:33-35, Matthew 26:69-75, John 3:16, John 5:14, John 6:35, John 14:1-3, John 21:15-17,Acts 2:1-12, Acts 2:38-39, Hebrews 11:32-12:1, James 1:16-17, James 4:81, 2 Peter 3:8-13) and a perusal of them touches on some of the promises which God has made and kept in the Scriptures and what one lifts from all of these is that because God is a Promise Keeper, we can have Hope ... but more than that, we can be filled with hope now, a hope that

Providence, Brexit and the Gospel

It is pertinent before saying anything else this morning to pass some comments on our referendum results and the resulting Brexit reality which has thrown our country and our continent into turmoil. There is uncertainty, fear, division, (along country lines in the Union, division along generational lines, division along racial lines), there is anger and a degree hopelessness regarding any quick resolution. While none of us would wish for these things ... we must see them for what they are. And what are they: they are fertile soil for the gospel of hope, the gospel of peace, for the gospel of reconciliation, for the gospel of perfect love which drives out all fear. Brexit turmoil is an opportunity for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to take root and grow and we, the church, we, Meadow Way Chapel, need to seize this opportunity with everything we have. It cannot be business as usual if we truly believe we are the bearers of Good News.

So, we continue our series The Nature of God and today we look at Providence and we have 3 readings to focus our attention: Genesis 22:1-19 , Exodus 16:1-35 and Matthew 6:9-13, 6: 25-34 and the title of my sermon is: Providence, Brexit and the Gospel

Kingdom Authority: Jesus, Jonah and our Queen

Jonah 1 & Matthew 22:34-40 

Today we continue our series on The Nature Of God and we look at the subject of Authority and our readings are Jonah 1 and Matthew 22:34-40. Today we also celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday, which, since 1974, been marked on the Saturday in the range 11 – 17 June and remembered on the following Sunday. To mark the Queen's 90th birthday, the Bible Society has joined forces with HOPE and the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) to publish a book about the Queen’s Christian faith, The Servant Queen and the King She Serves. You can order your free copy here, but we are giving away one copy to each family at this morning's service. I don't want to spoil the book for you, but here is a summary of what you will discover as you read it:

God's Faithfulness: And God Remembered Noah

                                                              Picture sourced here

On Tuesday 24 November 2015, just 3 weeks after we arrived in Norwich, God gave me the most beautiful rainbow that I have ever seen as I was leaving the Norwich library. I took a photo with my mobile, but before I transferred it to my computer I lost all my albums (longish and irrelevant story). However, I found this pic taken by Hayley Brasnett which, unsurprisingly, is much better than the one I took. Today I am looking at the Faithfulness of God, as we continue our series, The Nature of God.

Nature of God: Fatherhood

Luke 15:11-32
(read previous sermons in Nature of God series here)

In today’s language, this parable would be the story of the two siblings, boys or girls, or one of each, living in a small rural village where their widowed father owns half the town and most of the farms around it.  From a young age the older child has been groomed to take over the family business and the younger has been a bit of a rebel from little, although the father deeply, deeply loves them both. The more responsible one just gets more responsibility.  The younger one eventually says: “Dad, I want to get out of here and make a life for myself in the city – I've got to get out of this place.  Can I have my part of the inheritance, and, you know I didn't go to uni like my big sister, so I actually saved you thousands of pounds in fees and residence costs, so it's only fair you give me that as well.”

Grace

Ephesians 2:1-10

Grace: what a huge subject ... HUGE!

Tim Keller, speaking about the gospel, says that if you think you really, really understand the gospel ... you don't. If you really think that you haven't even begun to understand the gospel ... you do. What he is getting at is that there has to be a lifelong process of more and more deeply realising the wonder of the gospel. This week it has occurred to me that the same applies to grace. If I

The Nature of God: Introduction and Love

This week we begin a new series, The Nature of God and in this Introduction we look at Love. Our readings are 1 John 4:7-21, Romans 8:38,39 and 1 Corinthians 13. As a scene setter let us remind ourselves of a truth contained in the very first chapter of our Scriptures, Genesis 1:26. As Maria von Trapp aka Julie Andrews sang so many years ago: "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." Right back at the beginning:

"... God said, ‘Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness"

We have to get this clear right up at the start, this is foundational to the rest of the series: Humans are the image bearers of God on earth. We are icons.