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.

Luke 7 1-10

I really like the story of the centurion which we read about today in Luke’s gospel because it has a lot to say to us about prayer and faith and the authority of God.

This morning I’d like to look at this story and see what we can learn from it. And then look at how we can build our faith so that like the centurion, we too can receive what we need from God.

So to start with, this centurion has a slave he values and cares for who is dying. Now for many people this may have looked like a situation which could only end in death – but the centurion has hope – because he has faith in Jesus.

We have no idea where he gained this faith – because we’re not told. My guess is that at some point he himself had probably gone to see Jesus and heard him speak and watched him heal people.

However he’d come to faith – the important thing is that he recognised that Jesus had authority over sickness and disease - the authority to heal and restore people to health.

As a centurion he understood the concept of authority very well – because as he says in verse 8 - “I am a man set under authority with soldiers under me.”

He would have had command over a group of 80 soldiers and he knew very well that if he gave an order to his men - it would be obeyed. Whatever he commanded would be done.

And he understood that when it came to sickness and disease, whatever 

Jesus commanded would be done. This is why he says in verse 7 “only speak the word and let my servant be healed,” - or as the NIV puts it –“just say the word and my servant will be healed.”

So this Roman centurion – although he was a Gentile and not a Jew – obviously believed that Jesus was who he claimed to be – the Messiah, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob made flesh, the creator of the universe.

And we can see this from the humility he displays in verse 6 - where he addresses Jesus as “Lord” and recognises that he is not worthy to have him come to his home.

Even though as a Roman officer – he was part of the ruling elite - he does not presume to come himself and ask Jesus for healing. Instead, he sends his Jewish friends to ask on his behalf.

He obviously recognised also that the Jews were God’s chosen people. We’re told in verse 5 - he loved the Jewish people and had built a synagogue at his own expense for them.

I’ve noticed that there is a lot of anti-Jewish feeling around at the moment particularly on the political left and among the liberal intelligentsia. Much of this stems from Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

The Jewish nation like all nations is far from perfect – and it’s OK to be critical of their actions. However, as Christians we need to be wary of harbouring anti-Jewish feelings – because these feelings do not come from God.

The Jewish people are still very much in God’s heart – and in the future the bible tells us clearly that God will turn away Godlessness from the Jews and they will come to recognise Jesus as their Messiah.

Indeed – my understanding of scripture is that at some point in the future, the church will be raptured and removed from the world.

And at this point - when the seven-year period of the Tribulation begins and the Anti-Christ comes to power - the Jews will once again be God’s chosen people to share the message of salvation with the world.

We may be living in the time of the church but the Jews still have a central role to play in God’s plans for the future. As Christians, we may not agree with some of their government’s actions – but nonetheless like the centurion, we should love them and seek to bless their nation.

There is a chain of people involved in the healing of this servant. The servant himself is too ill to be aware of the events unfolding around him.

But he has a master who loves and cares about him and this master in turn has Jewish friends who are happy to approach Jesus on his behalf.

The crucial link in this chain though is the faith of the centurion – and his conviction that if Jesus will only speak the words of command – his servant’s healing will occur.

As Christians we lift people to God in prayer - many of whom will be totally unaware that we are praying for them. And we can ask our friends to pray for them too.

And for us also, the crucial link in this chain of prayer is faith – the belief that if only God will speak those words which we are praying for – our prayers will be answered.

When we pray we need to understand that God has ultimate authority over both the physical and spiritual realms - and that He exercises this authority by speaking.

He didn’t create this world with a large team of angels with shovels. He spoke creation into being.

He planned and envisaged in his mind what He wanted to create and then 

He spoke words of command to bring that creation into being.

When God speaks words of command - his creative power and authority are released – and whatever God speaks will surely come to pass.

If you’re a Christian it is because God has spoken words of command over your life. He has commanded that spiritual darkness must depart from you and that your spiritual eyes be opened to recognise Him.

And every child that is born – exists because God has spoken – because He has envisaged in his mind the person he wanted to create and has spoken their existence into being and has breathed life into them.

God is the Lord and creator of all things and because He is love - He creates everything in love. In other words, He loves his creation and that includes you.

John’s gospel tells us that Jesus is the Word and that the Word was with God and the Word was God.

As the Word - Jesus brings into being everything that His father speaks. God the Father envisages what He wants to create and speaks -  and Jesus brings it into being.

As John tells us - All things came into being through him. Without him, not one thing came into being.

When Jesus was on the earth, the words of command that came out of his mouth had the power and authority of God upon them to heal and restore life.

This why Jesus spoke words of command when he healed people. Pick up your mat and walk. Stretch out your hand. Be healed. Be opened. Be set free from your suffering.

As he spoke, the creative power and authority of God rested upon His words and bought them to pass. Damaged cells were restored; leprous body parts were re-created. Life that had departed from people returned.

And of course like his Father, Jesus has authority not just over the physical realm but also the spiritual realm. He has authority over every power of darkness.

This is why demons fled and departed at his command and begged him not to destroy them.

So when we pray we are effectively asking God to speak over a situation or person and to use His authority to bring His kingdom and His will into being.

And this is what the centurion recognised about Jesus and why he was so confident that if only Jesus issued the command his servant would be healed.

The trouble for most of us is – that although like the centurion we may recognise God’s power and authority to answer our prayers – we can doubt  his willingness to answer them.

Although we know He could – often if we’re honest - we can doubt that He cares enough about our particular situation to want to intervene.

So what practically can we do about this? What can we do to increase our faith? Well I think that the key to strong faith is rooted in knowing how much God loves us.

The more we know deep within our beings how much God loves us – the greater will be our faith.

And this is why Satan seeks to cause us to doubt God’s love. If he can get us to start to doubt that God really cares about us or our family or our situation – our faith deflates.

Have thoughts like – ‘I don’t know why you’re praying again. It’s pointless you know. He’s not listening.’ And ‘why should he care about your trivial problem when there are much more important things going on in the world’ – crossed your mind?

The truth is though, that God does care deeply about our situation – because the bible tells us so.

Peter tells us “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

And when we pray of course He listens. It’s impossible for Him not to – because He’s omniscient – He hears and sees and knows everything.

John tells us; “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

If what you’re praying for is in line with God’s will to save and heal people, to restore relationships and communities and to bring peace – He hears you.

And we only have to look at the cross to remember God’s love not just for us but for our family and friends.

He loves each one of us here today enough to die for us. Jesus would rather die than be separated from you.

So rather than let negative thoughts and feelings undermine our prayer lives – we need to keep on praying persistently for God’s kingdom to come and 

His will to be done in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

And most importantly we need to make a deliberate effort to praise and thank God. The more we thank God for all that is good in our lives and the many ways he has blessed us, the more our faith will rise.

And we can thank God in advance for speaking over our situation. Prayer with thanksgiving is powerful because it expects results.

As Jesus said – “whatever you ask for in prayer – believe that you have received it and it will be yours.”

As I’ve said before, Christians are like Helium balloons that can rise up as we are filled with praise and thanksgiving.

However, Satan is keen to puncture our confidence and as we let negativity influence us – our faith diminishes and we float back down towards the ground.

So to conclude what I want to say this morning – I think there is much we can learn from the story of this centurion’s faith.

And just as Jesus heard the centurion’s request and healed his servant – we can be confident that he loves us and hears our requests.

And if we will persevere in prayer in faith with thanksgiving – we too over time will find that our prayers also are answered – and that the living God has spoken over our situation and life.

I’d like to close with a time of prayer.

Prayer

Although we can’t see him Jesus is among us now. He hasn’t changed in his willingness to answer our prayers. He loves us and wants the best for us and those we love – and he knows the thoughts and prayers of our hearts.

In a few moments of quiet – like the centurion - ask Jesus to speak words of command over any person or situation which you care deeply about.

If you want to, you can say “Lord just say the word”… and then present your request to him

Pause – time of quiet

Now thank Jesus in faith for hearing your prayer – and for the words he has spoken over your request and continue to thank him over the coming days.

Amen