2013 Learning from Jesus
Learning from Jesus - what was it that Jesus thought important to teach his first disciples and what does that have to say to us as disciples today?
The Loving Heart of God
Featuring: Dima Lutsenko
Date: Sunday, 14 July, 2013
Media tags: 2013 Learning from Jesus
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Putting Jesus first - Luke 14:25-34
Featuring: Ian Bentley
Date: Sunday, 5 May, 2013
Media tags: 2013 Learning from JesusAt the end of v34 Jesus said “He who has ears to hear let him hear”. So what should we hear?
a. accept – Jesus is offering us the very best way of life. As the Good Shepherd he calls us to follow him that we might have life as God the Father intended for us.
b. submit – but to get that life we have to submit to Jesus as Lord. We have to repent of trying to run our lives our own way and let Jesus be our saviour and Lord. We have to give over our lives to him and ask him to help us in our relationships, in our work situations, in our view of ourselves, in our possessions. In every part of our lives we must submit to him as Lord because he is God, and because he has our best interests at heart in everything. However such submission to Jesus as Lord requires
c. trust - we need to trust in his goodness, that he will only do and guide us in ways that are for our best. We need to trust him especially when things get tough and we can’t see why things are as they are or where he is leading us. We need to trust that he will help us when the other things tempt us and we want other things more than him. We need to trust that eventually we will be in heaven with him. We need to trust he is good and he is faithful – can you do that?
Can you accept Jesus as Lord of your life?
Can you submit every part to him and say take control here, lead and guide me in this?
Can you trust him for today and eternity?
“Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine and ten thousand beside! Great is thy faithfulness!
Attachments:
130_db20130505.pdf
Obedient to Jesus' word - Matthew 7:15-27
Featuring: Ian Bentley
Date: Sunday, 12 May, 2013
Media tags: 2013 Learning from JesusJesus expected and encouraged his disciples to obey his words, but what did he have in mind for his disciples to do? What words did he think they should be listening to and putting into practice.
Well I suppose overall we should be placing our lives under the authority of the whole of Scripture but here surely “these words of mine” must refer back to what he has just been saying in the Sermon on the Mount.
As I said earlier one of the marks of Jesus’ authority which leads us to see him as God was his authority in the way he taught. We see that a lot in the Sermon on the Mount where he uses the expression “you have heard it said...but I tell you”. It was that which made the people listening sit up and take notice. Here was something very different from what they normally heard. “I tell you” has an authority doesn’t it?
In these chapters he told them about being salt and light, making a difference in the world as they lived out and spoke out their faith. He spoke about loving their enemies and not seeking revenge – that’s a hard saying we might be tempted to put aside. He spoke about worry, about true spirituality being what takes place out of sight of others rather than on show for others to be impressed by!
I haven’t time to go through the whole of the Sermon on the Mount but you can look it through later today or as your Bible reading this week.
These are the words of Jesus that he expects and encourages those first disciples, and us centuries later, to hear and to put into practice.
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? It means Jesus expects and encourages us to hear and obey his word. That is being a true disciple, a wise person.
Attachments: 131_db20130512.pdf
Learning to pray - Luke 11:1-13
Featuring: Ian Bentley
Date: Sunday, 26 May, 2013
Media tags: 2013 Learning from JesusRemember – that God our Father is God and he may not always give us everything we ask for even as a human parent doesn’t give everything a child asks for.
I have mentioned before that in times past I used to read the Perishers a cartoon strip in the Daily Mirror. In one cartoon a little boy, Baby Grumplin is walking to church with his sister Maisie and the conversation goes like this, “If I pray very hard I’ll get everything I want won’t I Maisie?” “Well everything within reason.” “Here what’s this within reason lark? Ask and thou shalt receive is what it says!” Maisie responds “Oh I shall loose patience I shall. It means ask for something proper something unselfish, something within reason. To which Baby Grumplin replies “I knew I should have read the small print.”
Well Maisie has got it right and wrong yes we are to ask and yes we will receive but in all we need to remember that God’s will for us is perfect and he will only give us what is good for us or what is in accord with his purpose.
In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, “Father everything is possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Yet not what I will but what you will” (Mark 14:36). As we know it was not the will of the Father to keep Jesus from death.
As we pray we need to remember God will only give us what is good for us or what is in accord with his purpose.
Friends I know this only too well. Daily I pray to be able to bowl a cricket ball like Stuart Broad and often end up bowling like Stuart Little! But then God knows my pride and it wouldn’t be good for me!
But seriously Jesus here is not encouraging us to act as if God is some celestial philanthropist just giving us everything we want. However that does not mean that God does not answer our prayer. When your child or grandchild ask for a third cake you answer them but the answer is not what they want to hear and sometimes it is so with God, his answer is no and sometimes we find that hard and we cannot understand. But then we are children and as such are called to trust our heavenly Father.
What has Jesus to teach us about prayer? He tells us it about our relationship with God who is our Father in heaven to whom we come as loved children and of whom we can ask anything knowing that he will give to us what is for our good, our spiritual and physical welling and as a blessing through us to others.
It is as we shall be reminded in our closing hymn a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! And again as we shall be reminded we forfeit peace and we needlessly bear pain when we will not come to God in prayer.
Attachments: 133_db20130526.pdf
Willing to forgive, Matthew 18:21-35
Featuring: Ian Bentley
Date: Sunday, 2 June, 2013
Media tags: 2013 Learning from JesusAttachments: db20130602a.pdf
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Loving Others - John 13:31-38
Featuring: Tim Hedgecock
Date: Sunday, 9 June, 2013
Media tags: 2013 Learning from Jesus- Read more about Loving Others - John 13:31-38
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Following Jesus' example - John 13:1-17
Featuring: Ian Bentley
Date: Sunday, 19 May, 2013
Media tags: 2013 Learning from JesusJesus washed the disciples feet to show that no task of loving service should be beneath the follower of Christ.
Then he told them he had given them an example to follow and as we read vs16-17 he clearly expected them to do it. He was the master and did it so surely they as his followers will also and not just those disciples but every disciple down the ages.
This means
- we are never to important to serve others and
- nothing is too menial for us to do.
Those are the principles that come out of this passage to us but how does that apply in practice?
Jesus loved his disciples and he showed that love in sacrifice. It was shown in the great sacrifice which only he could offer of his life in place of each and every person. But it was also shown in this act of humble service which we can and should seek to follow.
Jesus’ example means humble service should be part of our Christian way whether it is at home, with our neighbours, at work and at church.
The danger in many of these situations is that we are tempted to say, “it is not my job to....” and I think here Jesus removes that from us.
So at home we should not shun the menial tasks, washing up, cleaning the toilets or whatever. We do it as followers and as service to the rest of the family.
As neighbours we serve those around us being willing to do small and perhaps insignificant tasks of shopping etc.
At work we serve washing up the mugs at the end of the day, clearing up when a child has been sick even if we are a teacher!
At church there are so many ways we can serve. If we came each Sunday with the attitude how can I serve my brothers and sisters how would it change what we do this morning?
In the life of this as any church there are many ways we can serve and often ways that go unnoticed, doing the flowers, visiting people in heir homes, helping in the crèche, tidying up at the end of services. Yes we may not be on the rota but in love we serve.
We are never too important to do these tasks of service nor should anything be too small or menial for us to do.
Out of love Jesus sacrificed his very life for us and he looks to those who follow out of love for others to be willing to follow his path of sacrificial and humble service.
Jesus said to his disciples “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you”, v15.
That example of love revealed through humble service is there for all of us to copy as we follow Jesus.
132_db20130519.pdf
