27th Nov 2016 Advent sermon

Firstly my sermon today isn’t really based on today’s readings because I only found out I needed to cover for Campbell yesterday and I haven’t had time to prepare something new.

Because we’re in Advent, I wanted to say something about the Christmas season – and so I’ve adapted a previous Advent sermon I preached a couple of years ago. I apologise if you remember any of it.

So, another Christmas approaches. Another season of goodwill and celebration. Lots of preparations. Lots of food to buy and decorations to put up.

Lots of over excited children and perhaps lots of stress for some of you as you try to get everything ready in time.

And then the day itself. Presents everywhere and Christmas lunch. Time with family or perhaps a time when you feel lonely. And then probably too much to eat, repeats on the telly and its all over for another year.

And you can be left feeling a bit hollow and disappointed. Was that it?  All that effort and expense - and puff – now it’s over and time rolls on and another New Year approaches.

Perhaps in life generally you see time passing by - and if you’re honest – deep down, you feel a bit empty – and you wonder - is there more to life than this?

Well, if that is how you feel, perhaps the real message behind Christmas – which is what I want to talk about today - can offer you a glimmer of hope – and the possibility that there is indeed more to life than just existing.

We all know that Jesus was a good man who went round healing people and even raising the dead and then got crucified. But for many this is a as far as it goes – and they miss the point of Christmas.

We know also that Christmas is essentially about giving – but we can fail to see that Jesus is God’s gift to us – the greatest gift that anyone can receive.

And it was the same in Jesus’ day. Although he performed many miracles and cast out demons and raised the dead, most of the Jewish people remained unconvinced that Jesus was their Messiah – the one promised by God – who would come to save them – the one they had been waiting for, for hundreds of years.

Why was this? Well it was because they were expecting a worldly king – a strong warrior like political figure - someone like King David - who would drive out the Romans and make Israel a great nation again.

They were expecting a worldly king who would sit on an earthly throne. They didn’t understand that the Messiah would be a heavenly king who would establish his kingdom in people’s hearts and lives.

Jesus explained to the Jewish people – “my kingdom is not of this world” - but the majority failed to understand his meaning.

They were so focussed on this world and the here and now – that they missed the coming of their King.

And thus it is today. Where people are focused very much on this world – on the here and now, their careers and hobbies, on success or status or achievement  – they can remain blind to the significance of Jesus - and blind to the importance of eternal things.

Jesus came to make it possible for us to be reconciled to the God who created us. He came to offer us forgiveness and eternal life. He came to give our lives meaning and purpose and to offer us hope when the world can seem very bleak.

He came to enable us to know him and to experience a relationship with him that will transcend death.

Perhaps as I said at the start of this sermon some of you have been feeling that there must be more to life than just exisiting.

Well if that’s you, you may be closer to finding God than you think – because I think the starting point for finding a relationship with God is coming to a realisation that being focused on the world alone doesn’t bring us fulfilment.

That even though we may be fairly comfortable and successful, actually deep down if we’re honest - there’s an emptiness and pointlessness to life without God.

Although we may not realise it – we were actually created by God to enjoy a relationship with Him and until we find that relationship there will always be a certain emptiness and restlessness within our hearts.

Jesus said that he came to bring life in all its fullness. Life outside a relationship with him is two dimensional. Our bodies and souls will be alive – but spiritually we are dead – and cut off from relationship with God.

Life in relationship with God is 3 dimensional. God brings us spiritually alive and we can start to function as the people He created us to be.

Having acknowledged our spiritual hunger – we then need to look in the right place for that hunger to be filled.

There are all sorts of religions and spiritual paths on offer – but Jesus said – no “one comes to the Father except through me.” He is the only one through whom we can find a relationship with God.

He is the only one to have carried our sins in his body on the cross and to have died and been punished in our place – so that we could go free.

Jesus also said “I am the bread of life.” He is the only one who can truly satisfy our spiritual hunger.

We can look in all sorts of places for our spiritual hunger to be satisfied but ultimately only a relationship with Jesus will fulfil us.

I tried a bit of Buddhism at University and I quite liked the Bahai faith – but ultimately by God’s grace I found a relationship with Jesus.

I don’t know where you are on your spiritual journey at the moment. Perhaps you’re just awakening to the spiritual hunger that is in you. Perhaps you’ve tried a few spiritual paths but haven’t yet found what you’re looking for.

My advice is to seek Jesus. Read the gospels and pray. Share your thoughts and share your heart with God. Tell Him how you feel. Tell Him you’re looking for Him. Seek Him.

Remember that Jesus said “seek and you will find.”

Perhaps some of you here this morning are intellectually convinced by Christianity but somehow your faith seems a bit dry and lifeless.

You hear of having a living relationship with God but that isn’t really your experience.

Well first of all I’d ask do you really want God in your life? Are you really hungry for a relationship with Him? Are you prepeared to let him guide you through life?

Or are you a bit wary of what He may ask of you? Are you a bit worried of what others might think if you became a Christian?

You see, God really does want to come and live in your heart and life – because He loves you.

You are extremely precious to Him, but He comes to those who truly want to know Him – who are sincere in their desire to find Him.

And this is the essence of repentance. God can only make his home in a repentant heart – a humble heart that truly acknowledges its need for Him.

And repentance isn’t a feeling. It’s a decision we make. To repent means to change one’s mind.

‘Lord up to this point I’ve gone my own way in life - but from now on I want you to be the Lord of my life. Forgive me for all that is past. Come into my life and help me to live in a way that is pleasing to you.’

And when we truly repent God comes by His Holy Spirit – the spirit of Jesus - to live in our hearts and lives.

I love the Christmas Carol ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ which describes how God comes into our lives.

‘No ear may hear his coming but in this world of sin – where meek souls will receive him - still the dear Christ enters in.

‘O Holy Child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in be born in us today.’

Now some of you may have repented and invited Jesus into your life – but you are bit disappointed because frankly you don’t really feel much different.

You were expecting spiritual fireworks but nothing much happened and you feel a bit disillusioned.

Well if a relationship is going to be a healthy we need to put time and effort into it. And a relationship with God is no different.

As with human relationships – it’s easy to lose touch with someone and for a relationship to go cold.

And it’s the same with God. We need to put aside time each day to pray and to read our bibles. The bible says “come close to God and He will come close to you.”

The more time and energy and effort we put into our relationship with God the closer to Him we’ll be.

Perhaps you’ve been leaving your relationship with Jesus on the back burner – and the knowledge of the kingdom of God which has been planted in you isn’t growing and flourishing.

Why not this Christmas time – make the decision to re-kindle that relationship?

So to tie up what I want to say - another Christmas approaches and no doubt we will all be getting various gifts from loved ones.

Some of these may be what we really wanted and some not – although of course even if we don’t really like them - we’ll still probably say something like - thank you so much – it’s just what I needed.

But the greatest gift of all awaits those who genuinely seek it – the gift of eternal life, the gift of salvation and forgiveness and a relationship with the living God.

Just as Jesus was born in humble circumstances 2000 years ago – so today He longs to be born in our lives if only we will humble ourselves before him and confess our need for him.

Why not this Christmas use the words from O Little Town of Bethlehem and turn them into your own personal prayer.

‘O Holy Child of Bethlehem descend to me I pray. Cast out my sin and enter in be born in me today.’

And if you’ve already invited Jesus into your life why not make your relationship with him a priority this Christmas – and put time and effort into re-kindling it?

May the living God bless you and your loved ones this Christmas. Amen.

Matthew 11 verses 2 to 11

In today’s gospel reading from Matthew, John the Baptists asks a question that many people have asked of Jesus – “are you he who is to come or shall we look for another” and this morning I’d like to look at Jesus’ answer to this question and see what we can learn from it.

So poor old John the Baptist has been locked up in prison by Herod and he finds himself cut off from the world outside. He can’t go and see what Jesus is saying and doing himself and so he is reliant on what others tell him.

And no doubt he hears conflicting reports. Some say Jesus is doing wonderful things but others say no – he’s a fraud and he’s undermining the laws of Moses.

And as John listens to these conflicting reports doubts enter his mind – and these doubts spread through his mind like yeast through dough – and despite all he knows about Jesus – he wonders if perhaps he got it wrong and there is a different Messiah still to be revealed.

So John sends his disciples to ask Jesus a straight forward question – are you the Messiah or should we be looking for someone else?

And Jesus answers John in an interesting way. He doesn’t just say ‘yes I am’ – he points John towards his works and the fruit he is bearing.

Jesus said that we could recognise whether people were genuinely Christian by their works – by the fruit they bear – and he applies this teaching to himself.

And the point for us to grasp here is that we can recognise who Jesus is from his words and actions. Jesus revealed who he was – by what he said and did.

And Jesus’ words and actions point towards him being the Messiah – God made flesh – the King of heaven.

So Jesus summarises what he was doing for John. I mean who else ever restored sight to blind people? And not just physical sight but spiritual sight as well.

Who else ever made lame people walk again? And not just physically lame people – but people who were struggling to walk in life.

Who else ever healed people completely from leprosy? If you’ve seen pictures of leprosy its a disgusting disease and parts of people’s bodies rot away and fall off.

But Jesus gave these people new flesh and bones and he restored their skin. He made them clean and new, and of course that’s what he does to us when we put our faith in him. He makes us spiritually clean and new.

Who else ever restored hearing to the deaf – and again not just physical hearing – but the ability to hear God?

And who else ever bought the dead back to life – and not just the physically dead but the spiritually dead as well?

And yet many people hear of what Jesus did and remain completely blase and unconcerned about it. ‘Yeah that’s cool but its no big deal.’

But these actions are shouting at us – to believe in him.

Many people today a bit like John, are living in prisons of darkness – spiritual darkness. They are groping around for a meaning to their lives and wondering if there really is a God.

And some perhaps are asking - like John – ‘is Jesus the answer – is he the one I should be looking for’?

Well the answer is yes – Jesus is the one you are looking for. He is the answer for all your needs and his identity is waiting for you to discover in the pages of the gospels.

The gosples testify about Jesus. They record for us what he said and what he did.

And as we read them they point us towards Jesus’ true identity. Indeed John says of his gospel “these things are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name.”

Like John the Baptist when he was in prison, we can’t go and listen to and watch Jesus for ourselves - but we can study his life and claims and miracles and then make our own judgement.

And hopefully if we do this we will come to see that Jesus really was who he claimed to be - the Messiah – the son of God – and the King of heaven.

I think the other thing that we need to understand from this passage, is that the things Jesus said and did were all expressions of his kingdom.

Jesus came to establish his kingdom on earth. He came to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.

The things he did weren’t just random acts of kindness – they expressed his rule and reign and the type of king he is.

People were healed because Jesus’ kingship was brought to bear on their situation.

We pray in the Lord’s prayer “thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Well in heaven there is no sickness or blindness or deafness or death. So Jesus exercised his power and authority in order to bring his good and perfect will to bear over people’s lives and to undo the works of the devil.

As John says in his first letter – “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

And Jesus said “the devil comes to steal kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life – life in all its fullness.”

The devil wants to steal our health our hope and our faith. He wants us to remain spiritually blind and cut off from God.

But Jesus wants to restore these things to us – because health and hope and faith are all aspects of the kingdom he came to establish.

Mots of all Jesus wants us to accept him as our heavenly king. John tells us in his gospel “the work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

The reason Jesus wants us to believe in him – to believe that he really is Lord and King – is that this is the first step towards him establishing his kingdom in our lives.

All the time we resist his kingship – we resist everything good that he wants to give us and do in us – and this breaks his heart.

He sees what a mess we get ourselves into and he longs for us to acknowledge our need of him and humbly bow before him and invite him to be our Lord and king.

Jesus establishes his kingdom on earth in people’s hearts and lives. He does it soul by soul and silently.

As we bow to his Lordship and invite him to be our king – he comes to live within us by his spirit – and the kingdom of heaven is planted within us like a seed.

We are instanlty transferred out of Satan’s dominion – into God’s kingdom.

As Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossains, the moment we repent and invite Jesus to be our Lord and King - God rescues us from the dominion of darkness and brings us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

Satan’s dominion over us is instantly broken and we become Children of God. And then God can start his work of healing and restoring us and training us for the life of heaven that awaits us.

I like the analogy of our lives being like a garden with a fence round it and a gate.

As Jesus looks over the fence at our lives, he can see all the weeds that are growing and how overgrown everything has become – and he longs for us just to open the gate of the garden – and invite him to help us turn our gardens – our lives - into something beautiful and fruitful.

And he knows precisely how to do it – because he understand us and our situation perfectly.

Of course this won’t necessarily happen overnight and we’ll find that certain weeds can have a habit of popping up again and again – but as we submit to Jesus’ guidance and plan for our lives – he will start to bring order out of chaos – and beauty and fruitfulness – where there were thistles and brambles.

Hopefully when others peek over the fence and see our gardens – they will want to know who our gardener is and we can give then Jesus’ number.

Its really not clever to keep Jesus shut out of our lives because when he comes to live in our hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit - he brings light and love and truth and healing and hope and forgiveness – everything we are crying out for and desperately need.

So, as Jesus answers John the Baptist’s question we get a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven breaking through into this world – like sunlight breaking through clouds – and shining down on the earth.

Of course we don’t see the kingdom of heaven perfectly established on the earth and this is why not everyone who prays is healed – and why sometimes darkness can seem to hold sway for a while.

Paul says at the moment we see only a reflection as in a mirror; but one day we will see shall see face to face.

Although the kingdom of heaven doesn’t break through perfectly on earth – one day in heaven it will – and everything will be perfect and whole and restored – as God designed it in the beginning.

And as we accept Jesus as Lord and his kingdom is planted in us – our main purpose in life becomes to help others receive his light and his life.

Paul in his letter to the Philippians describes Christians as shining like stars in this dark world.

Like Jesus - our words and actions – our works, should help others to see something of the light and life of Christ and point them towards Jesus.

I’d like to close my talk today with a time of prayer to give some of you the opportunity to invite Jesus into your life. I know I do this fairly regularly but if it gives just one person the opportunity to enter the kingdom of heaven - as far as I’m concerned - its worth it.

So lets pray – and just repeat the words I say silently in your heart to God.

Lord Jesus thank you for your great love for me.

Thank you for dying for me on the cross because you love me and you wanted to take all my guilt and shame away – and all my sin – so I can be free.

Lord please forgive me for the mistakes I’ve made in my life and the people I’ve hurt. Forgive me for the bad things I’ve said and done.

With your help I want to live a better life. I want to follow you.

Lord Jesus I want you to be my Lord and King. Please come into my life and make me whole. Restore me and forgive me. Fill me with your love and your life. Amen

Mark 12: 28 – 34

Mark 12: 28 – 34

The words of today’s gospel reading about loving God and loving our neighbour are very familiar to us as we hear them as the summary of God’s law most sundays.

This morning I’d like to try and look at how practically we can apply these two commandments to our lives – how we can love both God and our neighbour.

So just to set the scene, in the run up to today’s reading the Pharisees and Sadducees have been trying to trap Jesus in his words by asking him awkward questions – like whether the Jews should pay taxes to Rome.

But Jesus has answered them well and this scribe who has been listening, is impressed with Jesus’ answers.

And he has a question of his own – which perhaps as a teacher of the law – was a question he had mulled over many times.

And his question is, which commandment is the greatest or most important?

Now the Jews at that time had both the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments. In total they had over 600 different laws to obey – so no wonder perhaps that this scribe wants to know what is at the heart of all these laws.

And Jesus answers him by saying that all God’s laws can be summarised by two simple principles – which are to love God wholeheartedly and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

OK, so that’s sounds fine - but realistically how can we sitting here in Brenchley today with our busy lives get anywhere near doing this?

Well first let’s look at loving God. Our love for God is a response to Him loving us. As John tells us in his first letter - we love God because He first loved us

Our love for God springs from our understanding of how much He has done for us in Christ.

When we really understand that Jesus loves us so much that he was willing to die for us; that he has paid the penalty we owe for our sins in full on the cross - and saved us completely and eternally - our response should be love and gratitude.

But how do we then show our love and gratitude to God? Well, Jesus tells us in John’s gospel. He says, "If you love me, you will obey my commandments."

As Christians, we demonstrate our love for God through obedience and through surrendering our own wills to His will. Through choosing to try and please Him rather than ourselves.

And really this is a continuation of the decision we made when we first became Christians.

When we first become Christians, it is generally because somewhere within us there is a genuine desire to do life from now on with God rather than without Him.

We’ve tried life without God and have come to the conclusion that it wasn’t making us happy – that we weren’t fulfilled – that there must be more to life.

So, we reach a point of what we call repentance – a point where we say by faith - OK God, from now on I want to do life with you – your way. And we’re prepared to allow God to direct and guide us through life.

In short we decide that from now on, to the best of our ability, we want to live in obedience to Him and to follow Christ.

And our willingness to be obedient is at the very heart of loving God.

This obedience has two parts to it. It’s both obedience in how we live our daily lives and its obedience to specific instructions that God gives us or things He tells us to do.

So firstly, how do we demonstrate obedience in our daily lives? We do it by choosing to do those things we know God wants us to do. By for instance putting aside time each day to be alone with God and pray.

By choosing to read our bibles in order to get to know God better. You might think that’s strange – but the bible is God’s written word.

And just as we get to know people by the words they speak – so we also to get to know God through His Word – the words he has caused to be written down in the books of the bible.

We can demonstrate obedience to God by turning up for prayer meetings – by choosing to give our time to praying for the needs of others; or by choosing to meet with other Christians – to encourage them in their faith and to be encouraged in our own faith.

When we make these small everyday choices to put God first – and make the effort to live in a way that is pleasing to God – we show Him that we love Him.

Loving God is essentially a series of small choices that we make each day. We can choose to get up a bit early to make time to be with God at the start of the day.

We can choose to make the effort – even if it’s a bit cold and rainy outside or there’s something good on telly - to go to some Christian meeting or event or course – because we know God would like us to, and we want to help our local church flourish.

Another part of demonstrating obedience – and love for God - in our daily lives, is seeking to honour God by the way conduct ourselves.

Paul says that we should aim to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit and seek to perfect holiness out of reverence for God.

In other words, we should do our best to live in a morally upright way. Again, this is a series of choices that we make.

We can choose to drink too much or to watch unpleasant programmes on telly or to end up arguing and saying hurtful things to people.

Or we can say no – I’m not doing that because I want to honour God.

‘No I won’t have another drink thank you’ – ‘can we switch the channel please because I don’t want to watch this’ – ‘no, I’ll bite my tongue even though I’d like to say something.’

Of course, we all struggle to do what we know we should and sometimes we will give in to temptations and do and say things we shouldn’t – but as Christians – we’ll then acknowledge our wrong doing and with God’s help try to do better next time.

The other part of demonstrating obedience to God – and therefore that we love Him, is being obedient to things that He asks us to do.

These may be small promptings to go and talk to someone or to go and visit or help someone who may be lonely or struggling or to pray for someone.

Or God may be asking us to do something – some role He wants us to play in the life of the church. He has a plan for each of our lives – and in order for us to walk in this plan we need to be obedient to what we believe God is calling us to do.

If you’re not sure what God is asking you to do – pray and ask Him. Ask Him to make it clear to you – and then having prayed and talked about it if need be with your spouse or Campbell or a Christian friend - take a step of faith – and do what you believe He is asking you to do. Give it a go.

Every journey involves lots of small steps. And God can only guide us as we’re actually moving and taking steps of faith. You can’t really guide someone’s footsteps if they’re not taking any.

As well as being focused upwards as it were on loving God we need to be focused outwards on loving those around us. In fact, the result of seeking to love God should be a desire to share our faith and show others God’s love.

Personally, I feel incredibly lucky to be a Christian. I feel very fortunate that God intervened in my life and revealed himself to me and saved me.

And I now want those around me to be lucky too. I want to help other people find a relationship with God and come to know Him for themselves.

And really, seeking to love others is the best way to share God and make him known – because God is love. If we can show people love, we show them something of the character of God.

To love our neighbour as ourselves is to treat people in the same way that we would like to be treated. It’s not doing or saying anything to others that we wouldn’t want people to do or say to us.

Its helping and encouraging and seeking to bless others in whatever way we can.

I quite like listening to Joyce Meyer who preaches on the TBN Freeview Channel on weekday evenings at 9.00 pm.

And Joyce says that when she wakes each morning she asks God to help her to be a blessing to the people she will meet that day.

And I quite like that idea. ‘Lord help me today – to bless and encourage the people I meet – to help them know your love.’

Obviously we’re not perfect – I’m certainly not - and some days far from loving the people we meet we can feel quite unfriendly and unloving – but at least we can aim high.

There are a couple of other things that I’d like to say that relate to loving God and our neighbour. Firstly, we desperately need God’s help to live as Jesus commands. We need the help of the Holy Spirit in order to love God and our neighbour. We can’t do it in our own strength.

So we need to keep on asking God to fill us with his power and love.

And the extent to which God will help us is very much tied in with our obedience and submission to God.

The more of ourselves we offer to God – and the more of our lives we open to Him – the more He can fill us and empower us. The less of ourselves we give him, the less He has to fill.

And secondly, the more we focus on living for God and loving others – the more we’ll find that God blesses us and our loved ones.

Because it is in answering the needs of others that our own needs are met. It is in blessing and helping others that we ourselves are blessed and helped by God.

As Proverbs 11 verse 25 says; “The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.”

And Jesus said “Give – and you will receive a full measure, pressed down shaken together and overflowing; for with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”

As we give out – so we receive back from God. Sowing and reaping is a principle of God’s kingdom. What we sow in other’s lives, in time we will also reap.

So, to conclude, as Christians we should aim as much as we can – with the help of the Holy Spirit to love God wholeheartedly and to love those we meet each day as ourselves.

We should aim to give as much of ourselves – our time and effort - as we can to God and to whatever He is calling us to do.

And although we cannot earn our salvation or make God love us any more than He already does – as we seek to love God and our neighbour – we in turn will be blessed.

In the name of the living God. Amen.