NT Sermons

Last week, a friend of mine who lives in central London posted some advice on his Twitter account: If you see someone in London looking confused at a map, offer to help them. It is, he suggested, not rocket science, but basic etiquette with being a host city for the Olympics.

Not rocket science. It seems so obvious. And yet it needs to be said, because it’s not a very London way to live. London is very much a city in which it’s each man and woman for himself. Sadly, such basic etiquette does need to be said.

Well, Samuel and Harrison: What have you just done? What have you just signed up for?

When someone becomes a follower of Jesus, what are they signing up for? Many of us here already follow Jesus: What have we signed up for?

This is not the full text of a sermon, but notes and an outline of what was said:

Failure crushes. “I’m not a very good Christian”. Despite our best intentions – we let God down. I’ve had periods of life (as I’m sure every Christian here has) when we’ve made the same mistakes over and over again. We just never seem to get on top of them.

Read this passage, can make us feel worse. Read Jesus being tempted. Here we see the sins we commit. Most of the ways we fail are captured here.

Jesus is the one person you cannot ignore.

Many people think he can be ignored. Many people try to ignore him. But he is the one person you cannot ignore forever, and if you’re in your right mind you wouldn’t want to ignore him.

Matthew has told us enough of Jesus’ childhood to introduce him to us. We’re about to meet the adult Jesus. But before Jesus takes the stage, God sends one last Old Testament prophet to announce his arrival. John comes on: “Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please all welcome…”