Keswick at Portstewart - Monday 6 July 2026 - Jonathan Thomas

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART – MONDAY 6 JULY 2026 – JONATHAN THOMAS

But this evening, I want to change the focus and I want us to look at ourselves. Over the next 40 minutes, please don't think of anybody else. Don't apply this to anybody else, you know. This is a sermon for us to apply to ourselves about sin in our own lives. And so I've got a very simple question this evening and here it is. Are you a Peter or are you a Judas?

John chapter 13.

Over the last few chapters, we've seen Jesus addressing the Pharisees. Jesus addressing those who don't believe in him. And within that mix has been Judas. And really at this point we have in this kind of last evening of Jesus the point at which Judas walks out to betray Jesus. And then there's a hinge in verse 31 of John chapter 13 when it says this “when he Judas was gone Jesus said now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him.” There's a kind of change. there's a hinge and what you get is Judas on one side and then Peter on the other and there's a comparison. There's a contrast and I want to work that through this evening. Now, it is fair to say that Jesus referred to both Peter and Judas in satanic terms. You'll remember that, won't you? Matthew 16 verse 23, what does Jesus say to Peter? “Get behind me, Satan” or John 6 verse 7 what does Jesus say to Judas? “One of you is a devil.” Now, Judas and Peter, it's interesting, isn't it? Both were outwardly part of Jesus's inner ring, one of the 12 disciples. And both, as we're going to see this evening, were repeatedly offered love by Jesus. And I think it's fair to say that both Judas and Peter throughout this gospel struggled at times to truly grasp who Jesus really was. As one commentator puts it, how close Peter and Judas are. But there's one crucial difference. One went to heaven and one went to hell. And so  , this is the most serious question I could ask. Are you a Judas or are you a Peter? Well, let's look at each man in turn and then we look at our own hearts. Let's look firstly at Judas. John chapter 13 verses 1 and 2.

Let's have a look at Judas first. I want to call this brutal betrayal. Have a look down to verse 21 of chapter 13, and let's see what happens. John chapter 13, beginning at verse 21. 

If you've read John's gospel, John tends to talk on two levels, doesn't he? He's not just telling you it was night. He's telling you it was a spiritual night for Judas. So let's think about Judas. When you read through the gospels, you'll see that Judas is always listed amongst the 12 disciples. Interestingly, always listed last. You'll notice as well that in those lists, it tends to say that he's Judas, the betrayer. But we need to realize that with Judas, there was something wrong with him from the very start. You'll notice there in verse 29,  that Judas is described as the treasurer. Now, please don't think of other people, particularly church treasurers. That is not fair. But Judas was the treasurer. He looked after the money. Now, I want you to go back to an occasion in the Gospels. Do you remember when Jesus goes and Mary's there and she wants to anoint Jesus at Bethany, the anointing at Bethany, it's told in in in three of the gospels. Matthew 26, for example, talks about the way she comes. She wants to kind of extravagantly anoint Jesus. And it says that all of the disciples were indignant, calling what she was doing a waste. In fact, Mark's gospel in chapter 14, it says that they not only did that, but they rebuked her harshly. They didn't like this extravagant offering over Jesus. Interestingly, all the disciples at this point were struggling with who Jesus was and how you react to Jesus. They were all on a journey of discovery. But John's gospel goes a little bit deeper. Back in John chapter 12, we read the account there and Judas pipes in and says, "Yeah, hold on. This is terrible. We should give the money to the poor. And since I'm the treasurer, you should give it to me and I'll hand it over." I mean, it's quite cold and calculating, isn't it? There's a sense in which the disciples are on a journey. But Judas, even at the start, was a thief. It was a liar. There's a sense in which when you look at Judas in the Gospels, even at that point we've just read in John chapter 13, the disciples are completely oblivious to him. He's living a double life. It's possible to live as a Christian and it's possible to be here this evening and to be living such a double life that everybody around you and even those closest to you think that you're just living a good Christian life, but deep down you know you're not. And Jesus knew this. You can go to John chapter 6. Jesus says Judas is a devil. You see what's happening is this. When you look at someone like Mary in the anointing, what she wants to be is extravagant towards Jesus. But what Judas wants is to be extravagant towards himself, towards himself. So back to John chapter 13, we see in this kind of conversation, in this last meal, we see a kind of standoff between Judas and Jesus. It's in the public gaze, yet it's very private. Did you notice that they're having this conversation, but the other disciples just don't get it. And so they speak in front of everyone and the disciples all hear there's going to be a betrayal. They even hear Jesus tell Judas to go and do whatever you're going to do quickly. But verse 29, they think, "Well, it's Judas. He's a good egg. He must be going to give something to the poor." Jesus knew what was going on in Judas's heart. but no one else did. Can I ask you this evening? Who are you when no one else is looking? Who are you deep down this evening? Not what is your outward appearance, but where is your heart? So Judas goes and he decides to sell Jesus for money. Interestingly, if you look at Luke's gospel, Luke 22 and here in John, it states it's at this point that Satan entered Judas. It's a very important point. It's not that Judas had been entered by Satan early on and was doing everything because he had no choice. No, no, no, no. It wasn't until this point that Satan entered Judas. You see, it would seem to me that up until this point, Satan had been prompting him. You can go back to John chapter 13 if you're not quite sure. Have a look at verse two. The evening meal was in progress. And the devil had already prompted Judas. So, he'd prompted him, but he hadn't entered him. I'm going to controversially say I think Satan prompted Judas, and I think Satan prompted Peter. I think there were times when Peter was prompted by Satan to do the work of Satan. Jesus, you don't need to go to the cross. Jesus, you don't need to die for me. Hey, Jesus, I've got a sword. I can lop off ears.” What does Jesus say? “Get behind me, Satan.” You haven't got to mind the things of God. You don't realize what I need to do. But interestingly, Peter always ends up listening to Jesus. But we'll come back to Peter. But back to Judas for now. Judas walks out. He's going to get a band of soldiers. He's going to kiss Jesus in betrayal. And then he's going to feel guilty and he's going to kill himself. But the one thing Judas is not going to do is he's not going to repent. It's really important that we understand this evening who Judas really was. We need to know that Jesus knew who he was and that Judas knew exactly what he was doing. You see, in all of this, Jesus isn't some kind of hapless victim. Now, what's going to happen is as we go into this kind of last farewell discourse, and then as Jesus is going to be betrayed and handed over, as he's going to be taken through this terrible overnight court, as he's going to have all of these false allegations put against him, as he's finally going to die on the cross, and the disciples are going to think, "But this was the man who was going to save us. How can a dying man save us?" They're going to scatter, and they're going to run, and they're going to be confused. And so Jesus knows what's going to happen. And so all that he's doing at this point is to prepare them for this. Really, from chapter 13 verse 31 onwards, he's making sure that they know, he knows exactly what's going to happen. He's going to say it all in front of them. This was all a plan. And so we have Calvin, the great reformer. This is what he tells us about Judas. “He was not one of the elect and of the true flock of God. Yet the dignity of the office gave him the appearance of it.” Judas knew what he was doing. I wonder, do you sometimes wonder if Judas was some kind of hapless victim himself? Can we do a little bit of deep thinking on this? A little bit of theology, a little bit of philosophy to try and figure out what's going on here because for years I struggled with Judas. I kind of thought, well, hold on. If God had decided he was going to do it, then poor Judas had no choice, did he? I mean, what happened to Judas? Because in the text, it's clear Jesus knew he was going to betray him. So, what's going on? Krish Kandia in his excellent book Paradoxology this is a great title isn't it Paradoxology in the chapter the Judas paradox he said this “Judas is a tragic hero of the providence of God a man to be pitied more than any other or is he the master villain of the gospel story? Had God pre-programmed him as a robot assassin of the son of God.” It’s really is a debate about free will. And so, on my last night, let me chuck the theological grenade and ask ‘How does it work out?’ Because there is a quandary, isn't it? So, let me give you a silly example, okay? If God knows you're going to have chicken for dinner, do you now have to have chicken for dinner? Because if he knows you're going to have it, well, then you're going to have to have it. So, did you choose to have chicken for dinner or not? Well, it was probably your wife who chose. But, but seriously, how does it work? These really are questions of foreknowledge, predestination. And look, these aren't unique to Christianity. Muslims believe in divine destiny. Hindus believe in karma. Material atheists believe in biology and they were born this way. It's in their DNA. About the way some people deal with addictions. They were born with a weakness or it's societal. They had no choice, everybody in the world in one way or another believes in some kind of predetermination or whatever you believe that never takes away the responsibility of people's actions. And even if God does know all things and God as the master orchestrator of all history is in control of all things within that each and every one of us is responsible for everything we do. We choose to do it. You see when you look at Judas he knew what he was doing. He chose to steal that money. He chose to tell people he was giving it to the poor. He was someone who looked great on the outside but not on the inside. Spurgeon in his two volume autobiography tells the story of how as a child he used to go to I think it was his grandfather's house. Someone can correct me on the way out if I get this wrong. But Spurgeon would go to his grandfather's house and in his house on the mantlepiece there was this beautiful looking apple. This glorious juicy looking red apple. But Spurgeon says if you would go to bite it, you'd knock all your teeth out because it was a stone apple. It was an ornament. And the reality is you're able to look like one thing but be something completely different. You see, if you go back to John chapter 6 verse 64 and 70, it says this, "For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him." Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the 12? Yet one of you is a devil." He had never truly believed. And so I also believe when you read the text of John chapter 13, that he had a choice. He had chosen, but Jesus gave him a choice not to choose that way. It's interesting meal, isn't it? They're sharing bread. They're dipping bread. I get a little nervous in that kind of meal. You know, like when you have nachos, that was our family tradition on a Sunday evening after the evening service. I'd go home and my wife would just make a huge bowl of nachos. We'd cover them in cheese and we'd have lovely salsa. But let me be very clear. I only share nachos with my wife. No matter how nice you are, don't come anywhere near my nachos bowl. There's something quite intimate about sharing nachos. And here's this picture of Jesus with the bread, dipping it. He's giving it to the ones he loves. This is an intimate act. And in this passage in John chapter 13, even though he knows what Judas has been doing, he dips the bread and he offers it to him.  I think that was an act of love from Jesus. Could Jesus even offer an act of love to Judas at this point? Krish Kandia says Jesus offers Judas genuine love. If those aren't heavyweight enough for you, Don Carson says “this is a final gesture of supreme love.” Look at the context. Chapter 13 verse one. “It was just before the Passover festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. And having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” I think at that point how this works out philosophically, theologically in the paradox of God's economy, I have to believe that that offer of Jesus was genuine. But what did Jesus do? He offered it. And Judas, Don Carson says this. “Judas received the sop, the bread, but not the love.”  We thought about that on the first night, isn't it? It's possible to receive the bread, the stuff, the manna in the desert, but not the love, the bread of life. There's a sense in which when it comes to Jesus, as we get close to Jesus, it is possible that as you've come close to him in church or in the convention this week, you can come to Jesus, but one of two things can happen. One Christian writer puts it like this. “If you get close to Jesus, one of two things will happen. Either you will become wholly his or else you will slingshot away from him and end up farther from him than who you would have been if you'd never known him at all.” If you've come this evening and you don't know Jesus yet and you've heard of the love of Jesus and he is extending the bread to you, his love to you, if he's saying, "I am the good shepherd who has laid down my life for you." Can I tell you, welcome him into your life now. Give your life to him now. Don't slingshot away from him. Too many people have said, "I'll do it later in life."  If you really get who Jesus is, you don't want to put it off. Jesus doesn't come to ruin your life. Jesus comes to give you life. Talk to Christians here tonight. Maybe a Christian who's brought you and I think they'll all tell you this. I wish I'd become a Christian sooner. I wish I'd given my heart to Jesus sooner. So Judas, he had a choice. But what about Peter? Because really we have Judas, he walks out into the night.

And then in John chapter 13 and verse 31, we turn then to look at Peter. Now I love Peter. I think Peter is one of my favourite people in the Bible. I think he's wonderful. I think Peter, he's the guy who's always the first in. You know, I used to love watching war films, Vietnam war films. And you know, when they kind of come in in the helicopter, I always imagine Peter's the first one out of the helicopter. Come on, lads. We can take them on. He's always out first. And when you look at him through the Gospels, he literally is always first, isn't he? Luke chapter 5 and the calling. Do you remember? And his calling shows the contradiction of Peter. He's been out fishing all night. They're not really getting anything. And Jesus, the carpenter, turns up. “Let me tell you how to fish, boys.” And he tells them what to do. He wants to say, he's determined to have his say first. But what did he do? He followed Jesus. He did kind of waver, but he followed him. Oh, what about in Matthew 14? Do you remember when Jesus comes out to the boat and they've been there overnight and the storm's been there and then Jesus just before dawn walks out to the boat and they see Jesus walking on the water? Who's the first to say, "Hey, Jesus, invite me onto the water. I'll have a go." It's Peter, isn't it? I love it. But then I love the contradiction which is Peter. He walks onto the water. He's hear Jesus's voice. He sees his face. He's standing on the water and then he goes, "Oh no, I'm going to sink." But I love it because what does he do then? “Save me, Jesus. Save me.” I love the way Jesus says to him, "Oh, you of little faith." Yeah, but at least he's got a little faith, hasn't he? I'll take that any day. Or what about what I think is one of the biggest highlights for Peter in one of his low lights? Do you remember his confession in Mark chapter 8? Jesus is like, "Okay, you're getting who I am. Let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to have to suffer. I'm going to have to be handed over. I'm going to have to die, but I'm going to die for you." What does Peter say? “Not on my watch. No, no, no. Jesus, look at us. Why do you need to die?” And so he rebukes Jesus. And so what does Jesus do? Jesus rebukes him. You got this wrong. I've got to go to the cross. But you know what I love in that passage? I love the way Peter's just blurts out honestly what he thinks. Gets it so royally wrong. And then he just makes the great confession. And Jesus says to Peter, the one who's always the first in and always gets it wrong. He says, "Do you know what, Peter? I'm going to build a church on your confession." If you were Jesus, would you have said that to Peter? I don't think he would have made it through an elder election. I mean, I would have been like, "Peter, you're really good, but if you could just learn not to say something, we might let you do the youth work." I mean, what is going on? But here we have him. And then after Mark chapter 8, did you know you get Mark chapter 9? It's wonderful, isn't it? How it works like that. And you get the transfiguration. And so now he's made this great confession. He sees then the transfiguration. He sees Jesus in all his brilliance. And do you know what? You think Peter should have learned? Just don't say anything, Peter. And he's so amazed. He's got nothing to say. And he's like, "Hey, let's have a building project." Because that's what you do as Christians, isn't it? “We'll build you something, Jesus.” I love the way the Father speaks from heaven. Have you ever noticed this? I love it's a repeat of the baptism. Do you remember in the baptism of Jesus, the Father just says, "This is my son whom I love. With him, I'm well pleased." But this time for Peter, “this is my Son whom I love. I'm well pleased with him.” And you think by this point he's got it. John chapter 13. What's happening here? The context is feet washing. Jesus is coming and saying, "I want to wash your feet." So what does Peter say? First to speak out he blurts again. “No, no, no, no, no. You don't need to do it.” But it's interesting, isn't it? Because Jesus says, "No, no, no, no. If you don't let me do this, you can't have any part of me." And so, what does Peter say? “In that case, wash all of me. Let's go for it.” I love Peter. And I think we should love people like Peter all the more. They get it wrong. They blurt it out. They doubt. They falter. They fail. But they get there in the end. In the end, they always listen to Jesus. In the end, they always come back to him. Interestingly, in Luke's account of what's happening here in John chapter 13, in Luke 22, there's that added detail, isn't there, that at this point in John chapter 13, Jesus actually says to Peter, "Satan wants to sift you like wheat." It's interesting, isn't it? Judas and Peter prompted sifted under this kind of satanic attack. Judas just goes with Satan. What a wonderful verse, isn't it? Jesus praying for Peter. Can I tell you when you read the New Testament, you read the book of Hebrews, I got some news for you. Jesus is praying for you, too. I love that idea. You know, there's that famous Robert Murray McCheyne quote, isn't there? If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”  In heaven today, Jesus is praying for you. The whole point of Peter, I think in the gospel, and I've taken this from Ted Donnelly, Ted Donnelly in his wonderful little book on Peter, he says that Peter acts as both an encouragement and a challenge.  You’re going to get it wrong, but a challenge, but you need to repent and trust. Don't try and be self-sufficient. You need to trust in Christ. So, let's get back to our passage, John chapter 13, and we're going to read from verse 31. 

There's two things we need to see in this passage. Two things that will mean we are Peter and not Judas. The first thing is this. What did Peter see? What did Jesus teach him here clearly? Well, in verse 37 and 38, Peter is still going for self-sufficiency. I will lay down my life for you. You don't need to die for me. And Jesus is clear. No, you won't. you will fail. And so he says, what does he say in verse six? “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” There is no other way to heaven. The only way to heaven is through me. The first thing you need to grasp is this. We need a Saviour. Jesus is not an option to heaven. Jesus is the only way to heaven. It is impossible to save ourselves. The only way you are getting into heaven is through Jesus. I remember as a teenager many years ago, the accusation was always thrown at me, Christianity is a crutch. And many years ago, I'm sure many of you preachers here said exactly the same as I'm about to tell you. Christianity is not a crutch. It is a stretcher. We do not need a helping hand to heaven. We can only be carried to heaven. It's all of Jesus. And the whole lesson for Peter is I can't be self-sufficient. Jesus has to die for me. It's the only way.  It is really easy to delude yourself into thinking that if you try hard enough, if you do enough, you're going to be okay. One of my kind of heroes in technology and in business, he's a controversial figure, is Steve Jobs. You know, Steve Jobs, I've got my Apple iPhone, I've got my iPad. I mean, he owns me even though he's no longer on this earth. And I loved reading the kind of biography of Steve Jobs and you see all of these amazing things he did. He just reinvented the way that we use computers and technology and phones and music and everything. But it is one of the saddest books you'll ever read. And it's the saddest book because Steve Jobs got cancer and he decided just like he had beaten the world of technology, he could beat the world of cancer. And so he didn't go to a normal doctor like everybody else would. He didn't take the normal treatments that everybody else would take. He just tried acupuncture and fruit juices. And nine months later, he died. It is possible to know the way of salvation, but still to be convinced if I try hard enough, if I look good enough on the outside, then I'll get there.  You won't. Jesus is the only way and it is the most glorious way because he has paid everything for you and he wants to say, "Here is eternal life. All your sins forgiven, all your shame taken away, a new status of being adopted into God's family, made a son, made a child of God, given eternal life, which doesn't just start when you die, but starts now. Eternal life isn't just about death and length. Eternal life is knowing God and its quality now. That he is with me each and every day. And he has given me a mission and a purpose for life. The Christian life, even though it is a struggle at times, is a wondrous thing because the Christian life means that even when you struggle, God is with you and God is for you.  He has done it all. And we need to remember that, we need to trust in him. But we need to remember that as Christians, we don't just need the gospel to get into the kingdom. Do you remember yesterday we saw that Jesus was the shepherd? He became the gate. He was the way in to the sheepfold. But what did it say? Jesus brought them in and out and he gave them pasture. Jesus isn't just the way in. Jesus is how you stay in. The gospel isn't just the ABC of Christian life to get you in. The gospel is every day of Christian living.  We need to realize exactly what Peter realized over the next couple of chapters. We need to realize that even when we trust in Christ, we're going to fail. Even when you have new life, when you're brought into his family, even when you are one of his, even when you have your mouth wide open and he fills you, I'm going to be honest, you're still at points going to fail. And so to come into the kingdom, you have to admit, I cannot do this on my own. I need you, my Savior. And every morning when you wake up as a Christian, you need to admit, I cannot do this on my own. I can only do it by Jesus. It's wonderful, isn't it? Jesus doesn't just save you and then say, "Off you go, have a great one." Jesus is with you. He saves you and he keeps you. He secures you. He strengthens you. Do you know what's interesting? Peter denies Jesus. In John 21, you get the wonderful reinstatement of Peter, don't you? And you kind of feel by the end of John's gospel, Peter must have graduated now into the school of Christian maturity. He's obviously going to get everything right. And then you get to Acts and then he's there on the day of Pentecost. I mean, he's one of the first to get the Holy Spirit. And not only is there on the day of Pentecost, he also gets filled by the spirit in subsequent measures. You can discuss that one over supper. But something happened. And guess what he does? Paul tells us, he fails again. He starts to get his theology wrong. He starts to make disastrous pastoral decisions. Paul has to go and confront him. Whilst we will grow in holiness, the more we see Jesus, the more we love him, the more we will become like him. We will be transformed as we're transfixed on him. I want you to grasp that. But in this world, you will still fail. You will still fall. That's why you need to remember Jesus isn't just the way in. He's the way you stay in. and he always has grace for you. And so it seems to me, what did Judas get wrong? Judas never believes in Jesus. And even at the last point when Jesus held out that hand of love, he would not give his life to Jesus. I don't think he would ever be able to tell everybody, "I've been stealing the money." He'd built that facade. He was that stone apple that Spurgeon had seen and there was no turning back. He never trusted. But Peter, Peter got it wrong time and time again. But every time he came back to Jesus and trusted in him, trusted in him.  If you're struggling in the Christian life at the moment, if you're here this evening and you have started to live a double life, I don't know what you've done. Have you started to tell people in church you're doing one thing when you're doing something else? Have you started late at night looking at stuff on screens that you know you know you shouldn't be looking at? Have you started to harbour bitterness in your heart and now whenever your imagination has time to roam, it's roaming into revenge? Have you just gone cold towards Jesus and you've just stopped reading your Bible? You don't know how it happened. You missed a day and then you missed a week and now you've missed three months, but you haven't told anybody. And now you're finding yourself in church when people ask you how you are. “I'm great. I'm grand.” We all fall into these things. And now you have the choice. Will you live a double life, let that sin fester in the darkness and stop going to Jesus? Or will you see him hand you the bread of love and say, "Friend, I've died for you. My death has covered all of your sins. As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your transgressions from you. Come now, though your sins are as crimson. Come on, let us reason together. They will be as white as snow." You don't have to live a double life., if you've just started down that road of hiding your sin, of letting it fester in the dark, you don't have to follow it. This very evening, you can make a decision. I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to bring him my sin.  , look, I read someone once who put it something like this. If Jesus gave his life for you when you were his enemies, now that you're his child, now that you're his, how much more will he love you? How much more will he forgive you? Whenever you bring your sin and your guilty conscience to Jes to Jesus, he is like the father in Luke 15, isn't he? He will run towards you with open arms and he will embrace you. Don't let Satan tempt you to despair and tell you of the guilt within. Look upward and see him there who made an end of all your sins.   1 John chapter 1 and verse 8 says this, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

 

Keswick at Portstewart 2026 - Sunday 5 July 2026 - I am the Good Shepherd

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART 2026 – 5 JULY 2026 – JONATHAN THOMAS

I remember watching the news about 15 years ago. There were riots in London and as I was watching the news, some imagery came up of a CCTV angle and it showed an international student who had been assaulted. I think his bike had been stolen, his jaw had been broken and then you saw these two bystanders come and help him. I don't know if you remember watching this CCTV and you thought, "Wow, they're helping him." And as one of them helped him, the other one stole everything from his rucksack. They looked like they were helping, but they were actually there to do him great damage. Do you know the world is full of people who claim to try and help us, but often are only out to con us. We do a thing in work called scam safe every year and we have to find out about how do you know if an email that comes through is real? How do you know if a phone call that comes through is genuine? But even sometimes, how do you know someone who's asking how you are and you start to tell them what's happened? How do you know they're not just listening to gossip? How do you know? It's a big question in life, isn't it? How do you know who to trust? Who is legit? And what about leaders in the workplace? How do you know if they're genuinely there for you or just going to use you? Or politicians? How do you know if they really want to serve your community or just siphon off your money? Or what about church leaders? How do you know they genuinely want the best for you? They are who they say they are. Perhaps you're here this evening and you've had a bad  experience of some kind of person who's promised to be there for you, promised to want the best for you, but actually in the end has hurt you. How do you know who's truly for you, not out to devour you? Well, this evening as we come to John chapter 10, we're going to see that actually the Bible is open and honest about all of these things. That actually the problem with leaders and shepherds actually abusing their power is nothing new. And Jesus wants to show us an answer to that in John chapter 10. But before we get to John chapter 10, we've got to go to Ezekiel chapter 34. We're going to look at what was happening in the Old Testament because these abuses of power are nothing new. Ezekiel 34 verse 1 to 10

I think it's fair to say God hates false shepherds. God despises and prophesises against men who say they're here to serve you but aren't. Last night we were in John chapter 6 with Jesus declaring he is the bread of life. Over the next chapters you see those who are meant to be the shepherds of Israel the Pharisees. And you see them coming in and starting to speak against Jesus. Not wanting the flock not wanting the sheep to get to their Saviour but actually start to want to keep them for themselves. They wanted to keep the power. They wanted to keep the people. Do you remember in John chapter nine how they bullied the man who was born blind and his family because he dared to speak about Jesus?

So come back with me to Ezekiel 34. Let's read on and see what God says. Ezekiel 34 verses 11 to 16.

Isn't it amazing? Jesus says that when the shepherds fail, he himself will be the shepherd. He himself will come to the people. He himself is the promise of the shepherd. And in tonight's passage in John chapter 10, we see Jesus coming and revealing himself as the good shepherd. He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises. Now, a note about this word shepherd. When Jesus uses the term shepherd to describe himself, he's using it as a metaphor, not as not as a parable. And so when he says he's a shepherd, he is a shepherd, but he's going to do two things with it. The first thing he's going to do is he's going to use it in an elastic nature. He's going to change and morph this idea of a shepherd as he goes on. And the other thing he's going to do is he's going to take this idea of the shepherd to the extreme. He's going to take it beyond all sense. John chapter 10 verses 1 to 6

Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees, they did not understand what he was telling them. The first thing I want you to see this evening from our passage is this. Jesus, our good shepherd, leads us by name. This is really how this picture starts. A shepherd and a sheepfold. Now, we need to be careful here. It's easy to get it wrong. I said last night I live in the Breconen Beacons, and when I walk up my local mountain, I get to walk through these ancient sheep pens. These walls have been there for hundreds of years. And I love walking through and imagining what the shepherds and farmers of old used to do with all the sheep. But the thing about the sheep pens is they're a 45minute walk up the mountain from my house. And sometimes it's easy to think of sheep pens as somewhere out on the hillside. But actually in this context and culture, the sheep at times would come into the home. They would be with them. They were close by. The shepherds would sleep with them. The shepherd didn't keep the sheep at a distance, but was with them. And really when Jesus is talking about the sheepfold and the shepherd, what he's talking about is the family of God, God's household, who is really in. Because, you know, sometimes it's hard to tell who's in and who's out. Sometimes it's hard to tell who is a true shepherd and who is a false shepherd. So, who is it? And Jesus is clear. What's happened is some have climbed in over the fence. Some have come in and they are imposters. You don't have to be a Christian for long to realize that you can get people very wrong. In the 30 years since I went into full-time gospel ministry, a number of men who I served alongside, I prayed with, I wept with, I loved have left families and are now in prison. I look at one guy in particular used to go to conferences with him and I would look at everybody and think “I think he's the humblest guy and I thought if anybody was a fake it definitely wasn't him.” No idea what he was getting up to. What do you do when you get that phone call to find out what's happened or you read that article and you realize it's your friend? Your whole world comes crashing down. Mark mentioned Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoffer. I would say it's one of my top five books as well. And what I love about life together with Dietrich Bonhoffer is he says one of the biggest problems for Christians is we fall in love with an idealized idea of the church - that the church is this perfect place and all your leaders are going to be perfect and everybody is going to be truly a Christian. And we end up being shattered with disappointment when we realize the church is full of sinners who live in a fallen world. And part of Christian growing is realizing that the church in this world with the wheat and tears together is a mess. I'm going to confuse you and say it's a glorious mess. But because within that mess there is grace and there is true Christians. But how do you deal with it? I have found the only way I can deal with shepherds who have failed is by rooting myself in the good shepherd who never fails. When I see him and realize even if those closest to me fail me, if I look to him, I can stay the course. I don't think it makes the hurt any less. I don't think it makes the disappointment any less bitter at times. But when I look to Jesus, the true shepherd, when I realize that he has come because no human shepherd can be everything we need, what it also does is it helps me take the shepherds off the pedestals. It helps me stop putting pressures on leaders wanting them to be perfect. And it makes me pray for them more. Makes me care for them more. Makes me love them more. Makes me want to ask them more, how are you doing? what's going on. And so we need to look to Jesus. And the first thing I love about Jesus, this good shepherd in these first six verses is Jesus leads us by name. Verse three is just beautiful, isn't it? The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, the shepherd, and the sheep listen to his voice because he calls his own sheep by name. I get a real kick out of believing that God, the creator of the universe, knows my name. That's amazing, isn't it? I love it when you talk to some people and they keep using your name. I love it. When someone takes the time to remember my name, I just love it. God doesn't know your name because you've got a badge. He knows your name like I know the names of my three boys. He knows your name because he is your heavenly father. He is your good shepherd. I would say this, God doesn't just know your name off by heart. He knows your name on his heart. It's wonderful, isn't it? And so, here he comes, knowing our names. Can I say when I read the Gospels, I love the way Jesus uses names. Do you remember Peter after he'd fallen, after he'd failed the Lord Jesus, after he'd disowned him at the end, I love the way that when Jesus sees Peter, he says, "Simon, son of John." And I love that because there he is. I know you. I know your name. But the one I really love, the kind of story that stands out to me in the New Testament is the story of Mary and Martha. I write about it in my book. My book is about this idea that we get interrupted by our phones all the time. Social media is pinging up all the time. And the reason I love it is because I feel like someone wants to connect with me. That's why I get addicted. That's why I scroll through all these things. And my conviction was actually we need to learn to turn those interruptions off because all of those interruptions are about distracting us. And what we need to learn to do as Christians is learn to hear the interruptions of Jesus. Have you noticed how often in the gospels Jesus interrupts people? Do you remember how many people Jesus prioritized a meeting with? Either they interrupt him or he interrupts them. And I love the way he interrupts them even by name. So here's my favorite one. Do you remember Mary and Martha? Lovely sisters, aren't  they? And I love it one day and and I'm going to say Martha, I think, is in many senses the hero because Martha sees Jesus walking by and she's like, "Jesus, come for tea." She deserves a tick for that, doesn't she? She invited Jesus in. So Jesus comes in and then straight away she's Jesus is here. I best make him tea. Best make him some wee buns and 15s. Let's get everything we need for Jesus. And so she goes and straight away she's seen Jesus. She has Jesus and she walks away from Jesus because she believes that we need to serve Jesus before Jesus serves us. But Mary, Mary gets it. Mary's like, "Jesus is here. He's going to speak. I'm going to sit at his feet and I'm going to listen." Because Jesus had walked into her house. Jesus had interrupted her and Mary got it. When Jesus interrupts you, you sit and you listen. And then Martha, oh, I love Martha. There she is in the kitchen banging the pots ever so quietly to medium to louder. I think she probably dropped a plate or two. And as she's doing it, she kind of just shouts at Jesus, "Jesus, tell Mary to get in here." And I love this moment. Jesus looks at Martha and he calls her by name. I don't know if you've ever wondered how did he say her name? I love to read the Bible out loud and I love to see when people read that passage how they read it. I think it tells a lot about us. Did he say “Martha Martha stop banging the pots?” How did he say? I think he said Martha. Martha, you're stressed. You're worried. You've got a lord of cares. I see you. I get you. But Martha, one thing is needed and it won't be taken away from you. Let me interrupt you. Come and sit down. Listen to my voice. We have a good shepherd who is in the busyness of life, but as well in the disappointments of life, knows us by name. He calls us by name and he wants to speak with us. He wants us to sit down with him. I love the fact that Jesus knows my name. Are you are you brave enough in your faith to believe that Jesus knows who you are? And even tonight, Jesus is speaking to you. Sometimes we can worry that if we put ourselves out as Christians and ask God to speak to us, he won't. But he will. He always speaks to us when we ask him to. He is the good shepherd who knows us by name. But let's read on. He's even more. Have a look at verses 7 to 18 of John chapter 10 verse 7.

Here's the second thing we see in the passage. Jesus, our good shepherd, lays down his life for us. Jesus, our good shepherd, lays down his life for us. Really, this is the big news. Not only does Jesus know my name, but Jesus lays down his life for me. You know, there are some people who know our names and would do anything for us, but they can't save us. Jesus knows our name and he came to die for us. Now, this is where we see the elastic nature of the metaphor. He started off as the shepherd, but now he's the gate. That's really confused me. I thought you just came in through the gate. Oh, yes, but I'm the gate as well. And he's Jesus, so he can do that. He's both. It's a metaphor. He's putting them together. So the shepherd comes in through the gate in verses 1 to3. But now the shepherd is the gate. Verse seven. That is the only way into relationship with God. The only way into God's family, into the kingdom of God, is through Jesus. He's the only way you can be saved. You see, Jesus is the only one who has come into our world and who is in the world and was able to save us. No one in the world could save us because we're all in the same situation. And if God had stayed in heaven, he couldn't save us. And so the Father sends the Son, the good shepherd, to come. And what does he do? He comes into our mess, into the mess we've created by our own stupidity. And he comes not just to pull us out in a very easy way, but actually because sin is so much greater than my stupidity. He comes by laying down his life for us. A price that no one with us could pay because we were all in the same boat. And a price you couldn't pay for us unless you became one of us. And so Jesus comes and he says here, I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays down his life. And can I say that is the extreme version of the metaphor. Shepherds do not lay down their lives for the sheep. The shepherd is worth more than the sheep. But here's the idea. It seems crazy. It seems wild. But the God of the universe, the good shepherd, became one of us and laid down his life for us. So now, he is the way into the gate. He is the way into God's family. It's through his death and his resurrection. And look what he offers us.  In verse 9, he says, "I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. If you trust in Jesus, if you put your faith in him, then you will be saved and they will come in and go out and find pasture.” I love that Jesus not only saves us, but he satisfies us. He feeds us. There's no way I could get through this sermon this evening without referencing Psalm 23, is there?

“The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul.”

This is our good shepherd. He guides me along paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

“And even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

This is our good shepherd who laid down his life so we could live in the reality of Psalm 23. Don Carson, the great Bible commentator and theologian has, I think, one of the best lines on this. Don Carson says, "When we read this passage in John 10, we should think of, fat, contented sheep safe from oppression." Well, I'm claiming that from Don Carson. I want to be a fat contented sheep. Do you believe that the gospel that Jesus feeds you and keeps you safe that you can be contented in him? He gave his life so that we could have this life that he offers us. And he did it in such an amazing way, didn't he? Look at how he does it. Verse 11, he lays down his life. Verse 15, he says again that I lay down my life. H says in verse 18, he says, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." Friends, the good shepherd who knows your name decided to lay down his life for you repeatedly. He wants you to know he wasn't forced to do this. He didn't do this by accident. You're not a happy byproduct. Jesus knowingly, willingly, deliberately came to lay down his life for you. whatever shepherd has disappointed you, whatever leader has disappointed you, whatever Christian has disappointed you, whatever has happened in your church that has broken finally this illusion the church is perfect. Can I tell you, take your eyes from the church and put it on Jesus because he is the good shepherd who knows your name. He says to you, Martha, Martha, Jonathan, Jonathan, Simon, Simon, Mary, whatever your name is, he says, I know, I see you, I know you. I laid down my life for you. Let me keep you secure and feed you. Two years ago, we found ourselves as a family in a situation where those we thought were there to shepherd us didn't. And in that season, you have a decision. Will I focus on the shepherds who haven't cared for me, or will I look to the shepherd who truly loves me? We need to realize there is a shepherd who will never fail. That doesn't excuse the shepherds who falter. It doesn't excuse what has been done. But I tell you, it keeps you safe. It keeps your heart right. But this shepherd is far more. Look with me very quickly at the last few verses of the passage. Let's go to verse 19.

Can you believe there is a debate about Jesus? All of these miracles, all of these signs, all of these amazing words, and they still don't get it. Friends, do you know it is possible to reject Jesus? It is possible to hear all about him and to miss out. Perhaps you're not yet a Christian. I want to urge you, don't miss out. If you hear the voice of Jesus call your name, respond because he is the only person who will never disappoint you. He is the only one who will never leave you. He knows your name. He came to lay down his life for you and he wants you to enter through him the gate so that he can be your good shepherd and he can give you eternal life. And if you're a Christian this evening, do you know that Jesus is your good shepherd? Do you know that he knows your name and that he loves you? Let me just as we come to a close, just focus on a third and final thing. You see, what we saw in the passage here is Jesus, our good shepherd, gives us eternal life. I love that. Those statements are great, aren't they? Verse 28, they shall never perish. Again, no one will snatch them out of my hand. Why? Because verse 29, my father is greater than all and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand. If you trust in Jesus, he will hold you fast and he will keep you and he gives you eternal life and it's the best eternal life you can ever have. There's a great book by Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 and a half chapters. It's not a very accurate history. It's more a collection of kind of short stories with a thread. But Julian Barnes has very interesting insights. He has a chapter on were there woodworm in the ark? But the other one is he has this picture of heaven. And so in this last chapter, he goes to heaven and basically heaven is where you go after you die and you get everything you've ever wanted. So whatever you want to do, you get to do. So if you want to play golf, if you want to spend heaven in Portrush, then then you can do it, play golf. If you want to play tennis, whatever it is you want to do. And as he's walking around, he talks to him. He says, "What's the one thing everybody asks to do?" And the guy said, "Oh, that's very simple. They all ask to enter the dream state." He says, "What do you mean by that?" Well, basically, they all ask to die. They can say, "Hold on. heaven get everything we want. Why would they do that? Says, well, once you get a hole in one and you've beat that golf course, gets a bit boring after 100 years. When you've been there 10,000 years, the stuff, the gifts, things you want is not enough. Julian Barnes, I think, really gets it, doesn't he? For heaven to be heaven, for eternal life to be eternal life, we need something greater than us. Dare I say, we need someone greater than us. The wonderful thing is we have a good shepherd who gives us eternal life. And this is eternal life that we know the Father. Heaven will never be boring because in heaven we'll be gazing upon the lamb. We'll be worshiping him. And so, give your life to him. Trust in him. And know that the life he gives is a wondrous life. And the life he gives you is a life that can never be taken away. No one can snatch you from his hand. I love that. I love the fact that Jesus, the good shepherd, knows me by name, lays down his life for me, gives me eternal life, and says, "No one can snatch you from my hand." Do you know? Perhaps you've been disappointed with other Christians. Maybe you've been disappointed with yourself. I think that's been my biggest spiritual crisis.  Its not the sin in others, but the sin in me. And perhaps you're thinking, I don't know if I can hold on any longer. I don't know if my faith will hold. I want you to imagine this evening that you go out and you're walking by the rocks. You're going down over the rocks and a wave comes and just knocks you. And the wave knocks you into the sea and before you know it, you're being dragged out and your clothes are weighing you down and you're gulping for breath and the freezing cold water is taking away your breath. It's getting into your bones. You don't think you're going to make it. You're just going further out and further down. And then in the distance you see the RNLI. You see the lifeboat and the lifeboat just comes because you can't save yourself. All the people watching from the side, they can't save you. But they are in a lie. They get in the boat. They come out to you. And as they come out to you, they come up alongside you. And what do you do if you know you're going to drown. If you know that boat can save you, what do you do? You put your hand out. And as you put your hand out, the hand comes from the boat and grabs you. And as that hand grabs you, you are saved. You're saved holding on to the hand and you're going through the waves. And then you start to think, I don't think I've got enough energy to hold on anymore. I'm too cold. I'm too tired. I'm being dragged down. I don't think I can hold on anymore. Do you know what will happen? It doesn't matter because he's holding on to you. You may have put your hand out to him, but he's got you. If you feel in your faith tonight like you're coming and you're holding on like a fingertip, Jesus has you. You are united to him. You are rooted in him and he will hold you and he will never let you go. He is your good shepherd. Even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even when you walk through the most difficult of times, he is holding you. He will never let you go. If you feel your faith is weak, I want to encourage you to come to the Lord Jesus, to be honest with him, to tell him how you feel and how you're struggling, and to ask that he would come and give you strength. Perhaps as we've talked about shepherds who have failed, hurts have come up. If those hurts have come up, don't leave them where they are. Don't let them fester. Bring them to the Lord.

 

Keswick at Portstewart 2026 - Saturday 4 July 2026 - I am the Bread of Life

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART – SATURDAY 4 JULY 2026 – JONATHAN THOMAS

 

I love the book of Psalms. And even though this evening we're actually going to be in John's Gospel, I want to start in Psalm 81 verses 1 and 2.

“Sing for joy to God our strength. Shout aloud to God of Jacob. Begin with music. Strike the tambourine. Play the melodious harp and lyre.”

It's a wonderful invitation, isn't it? A call to come and worship God. And that's what we've come to do this evening. And what the psalmist does is he tells us how we get excited to worship him, how we get energized to worship him. And so what he does is in the psalm, Psalm 81, he goes back and looks at the Exodus and the Passover. He says in verse 6,

“I removed the burden from their shoulders. Their hands were set free for from the basket. Into your distress, you called out and I rescued you. I answered you out of a thundercloud.”

You know, in the Old Testament, really what the psalmist does is when he wants to praise God, he looks back at how God has saved them. And so, when you get then to that whole kind of beautiful idea of calling out, he remembers the Exodus and then he does a strange thing. I don't know if you've ever noticed this in Psalm 81, but in verse 10, he remembers, you know, they came out and after he'd saved them, he gave them the law. He gave them the ten commandments. And so he kind of alludes to it here in verse 10. He says,

"I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt."

Now, if you weren't looking at your Bible, and I quoted that, what would you expect him to say next?

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.”

It should say, "You shall have no other gods before me." But actually, it says these amazing words,

"Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it."

Isn't that a wonderful promise? The God who has saved us wants to satisfy us. Now I'm a Welshman and a great Welsh hymn which is known in English as Guide Me oh thou great Jehovah. You get it in churches and in rugby stadiums. And it's a wonderful hymn because it looks back at the Exodus. It looks back at the Passover and the wanderings. It looks back at the journey of the Israelites. But then in the chorus, whether you're in a rugby match or in church, you are going to sing “Bread of Heaven, Bread of heaven, fill me now until I want no more." What a great line, isn't it? Fill me now until I want no more. And friends, that comes from this promise. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. On this first message of the conference, I want to give you an encouragement and a challenge - when you come to a convention like this, you need to come with mouths wide open. Some commentators look at Psalm 81 and say it's like chicks in a nest, little birds in a nest with their mouths wide open waiting for the mother bird to come and bring them food. We need to come expectant to feed, to hear God's word, and to be filled until we want no more. Perhaps you've come this week and you're in a season of life where you're just going on empty. You feel hungry spiritually. You know you need a word from the Lord. Come open up your mouths and he will fill you.  Perhaps you've come this week and you know what? You've been snacking on things you shouldn’t be filling your life with. All manner of things but not the Lord. It's a funny thing. I get little addictions to different things like popcorn. Those are the kind of addictions I'm talking about. Sometimes I eat them until I'm full and then I just feel sick. I don't feel happy. I don't feel energized. I feel lethargic. And maybe you're coming this week and you've been filling your life with all manner of things. And this week, you need to come back to God and repent and say, "God, I want you. I want to open my mouth and I want to hear your word. I want to be filled. The idea is to see how we can be rooted in Christ, how Jesus changes everything. So I want to do that this evening from John's gospel. So turn to the New Testament.

John chapter 6. John chapter 6 and we're going to look at a well-known passage and a well-loved passage. I love John's gospel. It introduces us to Jesus. It's rich, isn't it, of every kind of thing that Jesus ever did. And I love when you just get to the end of John's gospel as if he just goes at the end “Oh, do you know what? I can't get it all down because if I did, there wouldn't be a library big enough in all the world to contain all that Jesus has done. But let's just have a look at this one little chapter. John chapter 6. Let me read the first 15 verses. John chapter 6 beginning at verse one. This is one of the most well-known and well- loved stories in the Bible. A great crowd coming following Jesus. They've seen his miracles and they want to see more miracles. And so Jesus deliberately here shows us that he's going to do a miracle, but it's going to be a sign. is going to show them something greater. And so Jesus wants to see, do they grasp who I really am? Have they got my identity yet? So what's the situation? Huge crowd, not enough food. It would take half a year's wages to pay for the food. And so this little boy comes with his five loaves and two fishes. And I love the simplicity of it. Jesus prays. And he just breaks the bread and breaks the bread and breaks the bread and breaks the bread and just this food just keeps going on and on and on. You can imagine at the start, can't you? Some people take a little bit. I better not take too much because Mrs. Jones won't have any next to me. And then next thing, another piece of bread comes. Oh, well, if there's a bit more going on, I'll have some more. And then before you know it, they're eating to the point that they're full. And guess what? The bread is still coming. They have to get the baskets to pick up the leftovers. I mean, it is phenomenal. What we have here is an overflowing miracle of abundance. An overflowing miracle of abundance. And in many senses, that is the promise of the gospel. The promise of the gospel, the Christian hope is an overflowing miracle of abundance. Do you believe that God is a God of overflowing abundance who just wants you to open up your mouth and to receive your fill to be able to say, "Fill me till I want no more." Well, I want to try and show you that that's true.

Here’s the first point I want to show you from the passage. The first point is this. Jesus gives bread. What an amazing day to have been there and to see all of this bread. Now, if you put yourself in the text and you were in John 6 and you had seen Jesus's miracles and then you'd eaten the bread, here's the question. Would you have got who he was? Would the penny have dropped? Well, interestingly, look at their response. Verse 14. After the people saw the sign, he's trying to show them who he is. It's a sign. It's signposting to him. They began to say, "Surely this is the prophet." Oh, prophet. Is that right? Is that wrong? Jesus is a prophet. Have they got him? Surely he's a prophet. And then

Jesus verse 15 “knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” Did they get it? Not completely. You see Jesus did this amazing miracle as a sign that he was going to come and give them eternal life. And actually what they saw was the prophet come who they had hoped would do another Psalm 81. Psalm 81, looking back at the Exodus when they kind of took off the shackles of slavery. Here are a people under Roman occupation who were thinking, "Here's the prophet. He's going to do it again. He's going to get us freedom." You see, what the people wanted who came to watch these miracles was more miracles. What they wanted when they saw

these physical phenomenon was more physical things. Let's get rid of the Romans. I wonder as you come this week to Keswick what is it that you want? What's the bread that you desire? When you hear the promise this evening that God wants to fill you, what were you hoping he would fill you with? Let me give you a couple of ideas of what it might have been. Some of us have come this week and you know what we want? We want peace. Some of us just want peace in the world. We're fed up of turning the news on and seeing yet another conflict, someone else just announcing another war. Some of us want peace internally inside. We're just we're just tired of being constantly worried. Some of us might come this week because we want the bread of health. We want to be physically healed or psychologically we just want to be in a happy place again. Or maybe you're coming this week and you're just desperate for security. Maybe it's financial security. Maybe it's a security in your relationship. What do you do when you come this week and the passage says that if you cry out to the bread of life, he will fill you until you want no more. Well, this is where we've got to be careful because if we get this wrong, we're going to expect and hope for the wrong thing and we're going to be disappointed in a misunderstanding of God rather than what God has actually promised. You see what was going on here? They were getting the signs wrong. Jesus was giving them bread and doing miracles and they were thinking, "Yeah, we want more bread. We want more miracles. We want more physical. We want you to do what you did in the Old Testament. Yet again, they got the sign wrong. And as Christians, even today, we can get the signs wrong. We can apply the scriptures in a wrong way. You see, they were looking at what Jesus and was saying and had done, and they were looking at what God had done in the Old Testament. And this is what they were saying. These are signs and so they're going to do exactly the same again. But the thing about signs is that signs are never the same as the reality. You know, when you're driving down a road and there's a school sign and it's like what? Three kids crossing a road. If there was only three kids crossing a road, why the sign? There's hundreds of them. That's the problem. Or maybe you see a couple of little pebbles falling off a cliff on a sign. Well, if it's only a few little pebbles falling off a cliff, why the sign? The sign is showing you here's something greater. And in the Old Testament, the Exodus, even though it was the kind of greatest saving moment in the Old Testament, it was but a sign to what Jesus was going to come and do. The Passover, the manna in the wilderness, all amazing things, but yet signs. Believe it or not, Jesus was going to do something greater. You see, Jesus didn't come just to overthrow the Romans, just to give them one last chance of freedom. He came to do more. Even if we are desperate for peace, desperate for health, desperate for security, as important as all of those things are, Jesus comes to offer us something far, far greater. There is a way in which the gospel gives us something that goes beyond even those needs. Now, what happens here is they don't get the sign. They still want Jesus to give them stuff. And the other thing, I don't know if you noticed in the text, but actually they don't really realize it's going to be given to them for free. Let's read on to see what happens. Let's read the next section, verses 16 to 31.  Let's see what happens. Verse 16, John 6. It's a strange thing, isn't it? Because we're going to get back into the bread of life. He feeds them and then he should really get on to the next section and teach that he's the bread of life. But we have this little story, this little account about Jesus walking out onto the boat and being with them. What's going on? What's Jesus doing in this passage? Well, he's wanting them to understand the main question. The main question is this of John's gospel. Who is Jesus? You see, Jesus in walking with these people, with these crowds and the disciples, he needs to get them not to look at the miracles and keep their eyes on the miracles, but to see the miracles as signs and lift their eyes to the one who is doing the miracles. They need to see Jesus. You see, the passage is clear. Their hearts weren't right. They weren't looking for the right thing. Look back at verse 26. exposes their hearts. Verse 26, “very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, but not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” We want more bread. We want more stuff. They weren't coming to him and saying, "We need a Saviour. We need you." They were looking for the gifts, not the giver. They were looking for the miracles, not the miracle maker. One commentator goes far as to say that this following is not faith. In fact, the commentator goes on and says this is not faith but unbelief. How can you be so close to Jesus and see the miracles but yet not grasp who Jesus is? Not want him but have wanting the stuff that he gives. But it's not only that. Not only did they get it wrong, they get it wrong in that other way where in verse 28, you remember what did they say? What must we do to do the work God requires that is they still think they have to do something to get something from Jesus. Their relationship is transactional. If we do something, you will do something for us. And I think we can do that, too. Now, I could take the easy pot shot tonight. The easy pot shot is prosperity gospel.  I think actually we follow a similar theology, but in a more subtle way. that is there are times when I want something from God. I want that peace or I want that security or I want that kind of health. And do you know what I do? I become more devout. I read my Bible more. I pray more. Don't they sound like good things to do? And they are good things to do. But I'm doing them in a transactional way. If I do this, you will do that. Do you know if you don't believe that you think that way? Let me reverse it. Here's the reverse of it. How many of us when something goes wrong say this? What have I done to deserve this? If you've said that, you're in a transactional relationship with God. I do God good and God should do good to me. But friends, what this passage is teaching us is that actually Jesus is far more than this. Jesus is far more than giving us bread, giving us miracles, giving us things. Do you know what? He's going to give us those things as well, but he's going to give us something greater. He's going to give us not something that spoils, but something that is personal and permanent. That's what he's going to give them. And so, let's see what he gives them. Have a look with me. Verses 32 to 40.

Do you see it? Here's the second and final point. Jesus gives himself as the bread of eternal life. Jesus gives himself as the bread of eternal life. Here's what he's saying. I am coming as the gift of God. Verse 32, this is the Father's gift. Verse 38, this is the Father's will and I'm coming you to give bread from heaven, which is me, which won't just keep you alive for one day, but will keep you alive for eternity. I wonder if we sometimes miss what's going on and what Jesus is offering us. Imagine you turn 17 years old and on your 17th birthday, your grandparents come in. They're very rich and, you know, spoiling grandparents and they come in and for your birthday, they hand you a set of keys and you turn to your grandparents say, "Wow, I've always wanted a set of keys. I've actually got a really good key ring that I can put on this set of keys. I've also got a key box. I think there was actually a gap in there. The keys will go there.” And so you go to school and you show your friends, look at these keys. Aren't they great? I love my keys. Thank you for my keys. What are you missing? You're missing the car they've given you on your 17th birthday. Don't play with the keys. Look to what they give you. The car. This bread miracle, they were keys to see what Jesus has come to give them. We need to be careful that as Christians, we're not missing the true heart and enormity of the gospel. You see, what is Jesus offering them? He is offering himself. Verse 35 is amazing, isn't it? “I am the bread of life.” What a stunning image. Jesus is offering himself. Can I ask you a question? Does the idea of Jesus offering you himself excite you? I'm going to say that for a few years as a Christian, it didn't excite me. I thought Jesus was the way I got into the kingdom to get all the good stuff. I I still believed that Jesus was a means to the end. It took me that sermon series by Ted Donnelly and Albert 25 years ago to realize that Jesus is the end. That actually he is the one, he is the gift. Jesus is wonderful, isn't he? I mean, I could spend all night, we could spend all week, couldn't we, preaching on Jesus. We could look at his incarnation. We could remember how Jesus left heaven, left the worship of angels. He, as one hymnwriter in Wales puts it, he was contracted to the span of a hand. And he grew as one of us. And he lived his life as one of us. Why? Because he came to rescue us. We could look this evening at his crucifixion, his death on the cross. that after living a perfect life of complete obedience to the Father, doing everything the Father told him, loving everybody around him, not only not only preaching amazing things like love your neighbour, but actually loving his neighbour. And then he goes to the cross, an innocent man, but guilty people. We could talk about how he who knew no sin became sin so that I could become the righteousness of God. I mean, what a wonderful Saviour. We could preach this evening on his resurrection, couldn't we? How on that third day he rose from the dead, how that stone was just rolled away. And how in that moment death was beaten, completely beaten. We could preach all week, couldn't we? On the  ascension of Christ. I'm going to be honest, this is the one that really excites me. The idea that Jesus, the man, is in heaven today. That he is there as the victorious one. He is there preparing a place for us. He's there praying for us. He's there pleading the blood for us, saying, "I died for him. I died for her. They're mine." That he never forgets us. that he always remembers us each and every day. Jesus is wonderful. So when Jesus says, "I am the bread of life, he is the offer of the gospel," it should excite us. It should be wonderful.  I think sometimes we can look at all the things we want and need in life and think, "I would love it if God would give me those things and then go, but he's given me Jesus. I know I should be excited about it, but cherish the other things I want. Jesus is not a simple one thing that is just, oh, I've been given Jesus, but I wanted so much more. No, no. He is everything. He is wonderful. He is everything you're looking for and more. He is everything you need. Whatever season of life, whatever you face, whatever happens, Jesus is enough. He wants to offer himself to you. He is saying this week, come open up wide. I will come to you. I will fill you. I love spending time sitting down reading the gospels. I love every year I try and read a new book on Christ. I just want to know more because with every passing year of my faith, I realize there's so much more about Jesus than I ever understood. I love I've said the incarnation all night. We could preach on the incarnation, but you know what it means? It means he understands me. It means he gets me because he's lived here and he's one of us. He has compassion on me. I love the crucifixion, the cross. Why? Because it means he loves me. It means he covers all of my sins. He forgives. He cleanses me of all my shame. I love the resurrection because it means I live in victory, assurance, and eternal hope. And I get blown away by the ascension - that he's ruling, he's reigning, he's praying, and he protects. But when you pray the Lord's prayer, it's just amazing, isn't it? I'm one of these odd people, you know, when I pray for my daily bread, I pray for my daily Jesus. I do want to pray for bread. And I think it's great to say grace before meals, but I tell you what I need. I need Jesus every day. I need to see him. I need to feed on him by faith. What are you facing? If you're facing guilt, Jesus is the answer. If you're facing shame, Jesus is the answer. If you're worrying, Jesus is the answer. If you're struggling in anger, Jesus is the answer. If you're disappointed, Jesus is the answer. If you're weary, Jesus is the answer. Do you remember the old hymn? This is how the old hymn puts it.

What a friend we have in Jesus.

All our sins and griefs to bear.

What about later on in the hymn?

Are we weak and heavy laden,

cumbered with a load of care,

Precious Saviour, still our refuge

In his arms he'll take and shield you.

You will find a solace there.

This is where we need to be rooted. This is why understanding that we are united with Christ is so important. And this is what we need to pray for this week. That we would see Jesus, we would be satisfied in him. We would rest in him. And we would hear him. A friend of mine once said, "John, I think we treat Jesus like UHT milk." We're just going after life and the blessings of life and all the things of the world. And well, if it goes wrong, at least I've got Jesus. He's my milk. Jesus is far more. Jesus is blue top full fat milk. He is everything and we need to learn to trust in him. But he's not only better than UHT milk in taste. He's actually better than UHT milk in longevity. Because Jesus not only gives you himself, but actually he gives you himself forever. Look at verse 27. Do you remember it in the text? Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Jesus is the one who not only satisfies when he saves you, but he sustains you forever. And the gift he gives you is eternal life. Jesus will never run out. Whatever you face, Jesus is enough. This week, come for Jesus. Come to him. What you have to do to have this Jesus? I love it. It's so simple, isn't it? Verse 29. What does he say? Verse 29, what do we have to do? He says, verse 29, “the work of God is this, to believe in the one he sent.” To have Jesus, you just have to believe in him. Just have to trust in him that you need him and he has done enough. Perhaps you've come here this week and you know what? You've been looking at Jesus, been looking into Christianity and you're starting to see who Jesus is and you're getting that he's the Saviour of the world and he could possibly be yours. But maybe you haven't had the confidence yet to believe, to trust in him, to say, Maybe God has brought you here this evening to hear the call to hear him say that he is the bread of life and if you believe in him, he will give you eternal life. Why not make this the time to come to him and have the eternal life that he offers you. Or perhaps you're here this evening and you're a Christian and you are struggling at the moment. You're just hungry for reality. You're hungry for God because of what's going on, what you're seeing, what you're struggling with. Come expectant to hear his voice. I want to open wide my mouth because I know you will fill it.

The witness

 

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES – SUNDAY 5 JULY 2026 – PASTOR HENRY CASKEY

RUTH 1 verses 1 to 7 

I want us to turn this morning to this little portion of scripture that we've been reading together. It's a wonderful, wonderful book, the book of Ruth. Many, many instructions coming from it. And the period in which it was written was a period of discontentment. It was, I suppose, a period of a very low spiritual and indeed a social time in the history of Israel. We read here of this little family. And you know, whenever I read of this little family, Elimelech and Naomi and her sons, when I see where they're living at here, they're living in Bethlehem, Judah. The interpretation of Bethlehem Judah is the house of bread. So they're living here in the house of bread. And there's a famine in the land, a famine in this place that is called the house of bread. And so it reminds me that we can go through difficult times. It reminds us that we come through disturbing times and hard times and times perhaps whenever we can see very little light at the end of the tunnel. But it's at times like those that we really do need to really rely upon the Lord and stand for him. Sometimes, you know, this little lesson here gives me a caution at times. You know whenever you have to sit down and make a decision and you have to decide on things. You have to decide maybe on the future.  We have to be very careful because here was Elimelech and he allowed the conditions that he was living in to somehow crowd him out and to make a very poor decision indeed. Because the decision that this man made in the state of this famine was that he would take his wife and he would take his two sons and they would go down into the land of Moab there to live. He didn't intend to spend long. He intended to go down for a while, but things overtook him there. Elimelech and his wife, you can almost see them sitting down around the table. You can almost see them discussing things.

You can almost see them coming to that decision what they were going to do.

They were going to leave this area in which they were living in and they were going to go to Moab. You see, it tells us in the book of Judges and that just

uh it sums up the spirit of the age. It tells us in the book of Judges, the very last verse in chapter 21 and 25, it says, "In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes." That was the spirit of the age. And from this place here, they would leave. Can you imagine them? Can you imagine them packing up all their belongings? Can you imagine them putting them onto the little cart or whatever it was? Can you imagine them

getting up and heading off and looking back and saying farewell to that? What were they actually doing? They were actually leaving the place that God would have them to dwell in. It wasn't God's idea for them to move. God could God could take care of them even through the famine. God could provide for them even through the famine. But they decided not. And so they were going to move from the place where God would have them to be. And that's sometimes where we need to be cautious. We need to be careful because of situations and circumstances that we're moving from the place where God would have us to be. Not only that, but they were moving from the people of God. They were going to separate themselves from the people of God, God's own people. And they were going to go down to Moab to the very enemy of God's people. And they were going to dwell there. They thought it'd be better off down there than they would be amongst the people of God. And of course, they were going to move from the promises of God because God's promise was that he would take care. Then after 10 years, after the death of her husband and after the death of her of her sons and everything was gone and her whole life seemed to be turned upside down, it tells us in verse six "Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread." How did she hear? When did she hear? Some of the commentators around this little portion, they tell us it was an angelic visitation. But it doesn't really tell us that. Maybe it was just another person. Was it was someone who was friendly with Naomi in the past, friendly with Elimelech in the past and they had gone through the famine. They had gone through the famine and now God had visited and God had come with blessing. God had provided food in this place where there was a famine. Now, here was someone who just didn't want to live in the blessing, but he was thinking to himself, we would need to reach Naomi. We would need to tell Naomi. This witness, the witness to what God was doing. 

And the first thought I had was it was a faithful witness. Perhaps they've been enjoying the blessing of God. Can you imagine what it must have been like? Can you imagine the famine that they were going through and there was hardly enough from day to day to eat but then God comes with great blessing. And he brings again food to this land. He brings the blessing of God. And rather than sit back and enjoy what they were having, here was someone who thought to themselves, "Well, we would need to go and let Naomi know." Naomi left here a way back some 10 years ago, and she's living down in Moab, and she doesn't know about what God is doing here. So, we would need to go, and we would need to tell her. Maybe it was a family friend. Maybe it was someone who actually tried to persuade them in the first place not to leave. Maybe it was someone who knew all about them. How Naomi had turned their back and Elimelech had turned their backs and took their children away. But here this person, this witness, they didn't want to just give up. They wanted Naomi to share the blessing. Is that what we are today? We want others to share in the blessing of God. Oh, sometimes we can go through difficult times. We're going through a very lean time at this moment in time in the churches. Most churches numbers are small. But you know, as we hold on to the God of heaven, maybe God will come with great blessing. We want to share the blessing of God. We want to share the blessing that we receive in coming into the house of God with others. Can you remember Moses? Do you remember whenever Moses was called upon to go down into Egypt? And there he was. He was leading that multitude of people out of Egypt. Oh, it came after a very difficult time. He had a great battle there with the with the king of Egypt first. He would not let the children of Israel go. And Moses time after time he went in and he battled with the king and he come out and went to God of heaven in prayer and then he would go back again. He didn't give up until he led that people out of captivity. And then you remember how he met his father-in-law? He met his family. And you remember how he explained to his family on the way that they were going to the land that God has promised to give us." Do you remember what he said? He says, "Come thou with us." He didn't want them anywhere else. He wanted them enjoying the blessing too. Maybe there's someone this morning that used to be here in the house of God. Maybe there's someone used to sit with you in the house of God. Maybe they were in the very prayer meeting and you remember them lifting up their voices in prayer and they're no longer with you. Have we forgotten about them? Or do we want to go and speak to them? Do we want to try and encourage them back into the house of God, into the blessing of God? This faithful witness knew that Naomi was down there in Moab. And he knew that he was enjoying the blessing of God here. And somehow they wanted to get word down to Naomi of the blessing that that God was giving. I think of those early disciples. Do you remember how they left their boats? The Lord said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And they wanted to leave because they wanted to be witnesses of what Christ had done. Do you remember the young man of Gedara? Do you remember how he had his dwelling there out amongst the tombs? He was possessed of the evil spirits and he could find no rest. He wasn't allowed to live amongst his own family, his own little village. He was driven out amongst the tombs and that's where he would live. He would cut himself. He would cry out. He would run about naked and nobody could approach him because everyone was afraid of him. And then one day the Lord Jesus Christ came across his pathway and the Lord delivered him. And that young man said to the Lord “let me follow you.” And the Lord says “no, go you back into your own village and you tell your friends the great things that the Lord has done for you." Have we told someone this week of the great things that the Lord has done for us in saving our precious souls, in turning our feet away from that lost and Christless hell for all eternity and setting our faces toward God and the blessings that he's bestowed upon us since then? Do you remember whenever the woman folk looked into the tomb, the empty tomb on that resurrection morning? The angel sitting there asked them  “why do you seek the living amongst the dead? He's not here. He is risen. "Go and tell my disciples. Go and give them the news that the body's not here, that the Lord is risen." But then you remember what they said? "And Peter.”  Peter must have been feeling awfully down. He must have been feeling awfully alone. You remember how he walked afar off in the garden? Do you remember he didn't follow the Lord as closely? Do you remember how he denied knowing him? He must have been feeling awful. And yet the Lord said, "Go and tell my disciples and Peter.” I'm sure those woman folk wondered to themselves, why should we tell Peter? He was the one that walked away, but they were faithful in their witness. I always think of the Apostle Paul whenever he's writing there to the young man Timothy. He spoke to Timothy in chapter one of second Timothy of another man Onesiphorus. This man Onesiphorus was a good friend of the Apostle Paul. He says, Timothy, he says, you know the way that he ministered to me whenever he get the opportunity in Ephesus. He says, you know all about this man. He says, let me tell you something more about him. He says, whenever I was down in Rome, and he says, I was in prison and Onesiphorus sought me out very diligently. And the words behind that and the thought behind that is that here was a young man and Paul was out of circulation for a while. And this young man, seemed to think in his heart, I would need to be looking about Paul where he's at. And so he went down to Rome and it's as if Paul is saying that he knocked every door until he found where I was. He sought me out, but he did it. You see, he was a faithful witness. Oh yes, he ministered to Paul, but now he's looking after Paul and going to try to find him. In Acts chapter six, we find the same thing, don't we? Whenever we find Peter, Peter's been arrested, cast into prison. James had already had his life taken. The king there was going to put down very witness of Christianity. Peter was taken from the streets and locked up in the prison house. But the church, do you remember what it said? It says they prayed without ceasing onto God for him. They didn't forget about him. They were there. It was a faithful witness. You know, we're called to be faithful. I always remember this man saying to me, whether he thought maybe

the sermons I'd preached wasn't that powerful or not. He took me to one side and said "Brother we're only asked to be faithful, we are not asked to be successful." Isn't that a wonderful thing that you and I are called to be faithful? Will we be faithful today - that we just don't sit back and enjoy what we have? Of course we do, but we want to share it with others.

It's really a faceless witness as well. We're not told how Naomi heard. It just simply says she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. News had come to her ears. But you know, I always like to give that we bit of credit to someone. That we bit of credit that someone actually enjoyed the blessings of God and then went to tell Naomi about it. Maybe knew all about Elimelech dying. Maybe knew all about the two sons dying. Maybe knew all this the situation, but they were faithful to her. They wanted to tell her about this. You remember those men in the Old Testament scriptures, the four lepous men that were sitting outside the city walls? The enemy had surrounded the city and there was a great famine behind the walls. Those men thought to themselves, well, if we go down to the enemy camp, they might kill us, but we are going to die anyway. They made their way down into the enemy camp and as they made their way down into that enemy camp (1 Kings 7) they found food in abundance. They went from every tent and then they come to a place where they said to themselves, you know what we do this day, it's not good. There are those up there behind the city walls and they're starving and yet we have all this food and abundance. Let's go up and tell them. They were faithful but also faceless because we do not know who they were. You and I are called to be faithful. We may never know the impact of what we do on a precious soul. You may never know the impact that you have on that next door neighbour just by simply going out and getting into your car each morning, coming home or whatever the case may be. Maybe the little deed is done over the fence, a little word here or there or whatever the case may be. You may never know meeting that person in the shop tomorrow morning or the next morning just when you're in buying your paper what the effect has upon that person. In John chapter 4, we read about the woman at the well.? She came out to the well and there she found the Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour and as her Lord. And off she went to tell the men of the city. And there she just spread the word, but we're not told her name. Sometimes we like our name to be broadcast, don't we? But not in this situation. And your name may not be

talked about, but maybe the actions that you have done will tell an eternity to come. In the great revival movements, we read about the main characters, don't we? We read there of the Wesley's and the Whitfield’s, and we read of the Nicholsons and Duncan Campbell, and we could go on. We've read about the histories of them and all. And Duncan Campbell made a point apparently after every meeting and every mission of going around them that met together with him for the times of prayer just to thank them. They were faceless witnesses

because we're not told their names. There are those who prayed through times of revival and we don't know their names.

Duncan Campbell told a story of a local butcher. He told the story of a local butcher that met with them every night at the revival meetings to pray. Then the butcher one morning explained to Duncan Campbell that God had laid it upon his heart to pray for Greece. And Dr. Campbell looked at him and he asked him, "Do you even know where Greece is?" And he says, "I don't. But God knows." Duncan Campbell, I suppose, maybe shrugged his shoulders and went off. But then he was sitting in a meeting one night a few years later and this man was preaching, but he stopped to give a word of testimony. He told about how he had went to Greece on his holidays and while he was there he was asked to preach. He preached a few nights there and then they came to him asked if he wouldn’t he mind staying on would he mind staying on just to preach another few nights and so he did he preached then for another two weeks. And he says God began to move in a mighty way. Night after night souls were coming to the front and were getting saved. They were going home and they were getting saved in their own homes. And God was breaking in in such a mighty way. And Duncan Campbell was in that very meeting. He's listening to this man telling this story. And he began to calculate and he began to think back and he began to put the dates together. And it was the very dates when he spoke to the butcher man whom God had placed upon his heart to pray for Greece. Maybe that's what we'll be. Just a faceless witness.

It was a fearless witness as well. Look at what it says in verse number six. It says, "Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread.” So she was still in Moab when she heard this. I wonder did that witness make his way down to Moab? I wonder did they did they send a message down? But she heard. Maybe this person had times of fellowship with Naomi previously, whenever the times were good and then the famine came, there were hard times and the little family made a very, very tough decision. A decision that cost them so dearly. And now Naomi had spent some 10 years in Moab. Do you remember what was said on her return? It tells us in verse number 19 what was said. The people saw her coming and the people looked at her and they said, "Is this Naomi?" She was barely recognizable after 10 years. It was such a hard time for her. Her reply was, "Call me not Naomi, call me Marah." 10 years had taken its toll. 10 years away from the Lord's land. 10 years out of fellowship. Others might have felt she was out of reach. But not this fearless witness. They were going to keep at it until Naomi found out about this bread. God desired her to hear of what he was doing. And thank God for the faithful, fearless witness who never gave up, never feared about wrong responses. Maybe they had thought to themselves, "Well, Naomi's been down there that long she'll not want anything to do with this." It didn't matter. Fearless in going that extra mile. Just like the woman folk at the tomb that day. They were to tell the disciples, but they were also to go and tell Peter. They didn't know what response they would get from Peter. And maybe that's you today. Maybe there's someone that you would love to talk to, but you're afraid of that response. You're afraid of what they're going to say. You're afraid of the answer that you're going to get. That woman at the well was fearless. She was going into the cities. She was going to tell the people about the Lord Jesus Christ. She didn't know what response she would get, but she was fearless. She had got something in her heart that day that she wanted to tell others. She says to the men of the city, "Come and see a man." She only wanted them to come and see the Lord Jesus Christ. “Come and see a man that has told me all things that ever I did. Is this not the Christ?” She said, "Is this not the one that the world has been waiting for?" And that's the message that you and I have. That's the message that we have today. Are we fearless as we spread it abroad? Whoever brought this news, they were entering into the enemy territory because here we find that Naomi was still in Moab. It says in Judges 3 verse 12, "The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord." The Moabites were the enemy of God's people. And here was one servant, one witness, and they were prepared to go down and enter in enter into the enemy territory just to tell Naomi. That's our message to others this morning. But you know, remember if you're going to out to witness this week, you're going into the enemy's territory. You're going into the very devil's territory. And he has a hold on his his people. He doesn't want them to see the light of the glorious gospel. He doesn't want the gospel to come into their hearts and into their lives. He doesn't want to see them changed. He doesn't want to see them transformed. That's what you're up against. And when you come into the prayer meeting and are praying for men and woman, that's what you're praying against. We're battling not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, and against the rulers of wickedness in high places. That's our enemy today. That's the one that we battle against this morning. So, we need to put on the full armour of God as we go out tomorrow morning, as we go into the supermarket, as we go down the street, as we speak to others, as we give them a gospel tract. We need the full armour of God because we're going into the enemy's territory. We need to be fearless. Do you remember when David went out to face the great Goliath? Oh, they tried to put Saul’s armour on him. He says, "I can't go in this." But he was fearless. He stepped out. You remember he went down to the little brook. He picked up five little stones out of the brook. He put them into his shepherd's bag. And off he went. And he said to that great giant "You've come to me with all your experience, with all your military power, with all your armoury, with all your weaponry. But I'm coming in the name of the God of Israel. And he took that little stone out of his out of that little pouch and he brought that great giant down. We enter in to the enemy's territory whenever we're seeking to tell men and women about Jesus Christ.

It was a fruitful witness because it tells us in verse number six, then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. When she heard this account, when she heard how God was blessing, she could no longer stay in Moab. She says Moab's not for me. And off she went to come back unto the land of Bethlehem Judah, the land of blessing where God was blessing in a mighty way. Let's not give up this morning. Let's keep witnessing and telling others. Maybe like Elimelech and his family, we feel that we're living in very, very difficult times. Times of famine. Now, there were times when our churches were full and overflowing. Times whenever we had brought in extra chairs for missions. But God's the same yesterday. He was the same God where you were bringing in extra chairs. He's the same today and he'd be the same forever. Are we willing this morning to surrender all? To give him all this morning in his service and whatever he'd ask of us?