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

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART 2026 – 6 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?

 

 

The Seeking Saviour

 

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES SUNDAY 28 JUNE 2026 

JOHN 4 VERSES 4 TO 30, 39 TO 42

THE SEEKING SAVIOUR AT SYCHAR

 

Samaria was first established in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 880 BC. Omri was the first man to buy the city. He was the father of Ahab – 1 Kings 16. Samaria served as the capital of the Northern Kingdom comprised of the 10 tribes that separated from the Southern tribe of Judah after the death of Solomon. It was a city that held significant importance politically and for religious reasons. It was associated with the worship of false deities and gods other than the true God. The Northern Kingdom eventually fell to the Assyrians in 722 leading to the exile of many of its inhabitants. Foreign people were brought into the land and they intermarried with the remaining Jews. These people were called Samaritans. They had a complex relationship with the Jews. Samaria is on the northern west bank today. There have been historical tensions and animosity between the Jews and Samaritans even those considered enemies and outcasts. This Samaritan was helping a Jew. Jesus ministered in Samaria. He would have interacted with them despite the prevailing prejudices of his time. This is a challenge to us. We also live in a time of prejudice yet the Lord is showing us through his ministry into Samaria he had no prejudices.

 

We read early on in the chapter “he must needs go through Samaria.” The disciples were with him. I am sure they were wondering what on earth Jesus was doing in going to Sychar because it was in Samaria. ‘Why do you want to go there Jesus?’ Jesus knew exactly why. He had an appointment with a woman who was coming to draw water and she was not expecting to meet the Saviour that day. His encounter with the Samaritan woman at Sychar was significant. This event in John’s gospel highlights Jesus’ acceptance of Samaritans. Sychar was 34 miles from Jerusalem. Sychar means in Hebrew drunken so it gives a flavour of what this city was like. Jesus detoured. He knew the detour other Jews normally took. It was a longer detour that the one Jesus took. He went through Samaria and came to Sychar

 

The contact – verses 3 to 6. There is something very important here that we must bring to your attention. Verse 6 Christ was wearied with his journey. This shows Christ’s humanity. Christ is both God and man, man and God yet he has 2 distinct natures – the human nature and the divine nature. The proof of that is seen in that Christ came through this area and he was weary. He is bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. Hebrews 2 verse 11 “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,” Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren. Those that he gave his life for you who are saved, Christ gave his life for you and me. We are his brethren and he is not ashamed of us. Are we ashamed of him? He is bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh and he was wearied at this well. The great importance of his humanity – he came to meet us at the point of our need. We could not keep our salvation because we are fallen sinners. Christ came born of a virgin lived a perfect life in his humanity and died and the God man went to the cross to give his life for you and me. We see his humanity here in this contact. He came and met with this woman.

 

The conversation – verses 7 to 15. It was the sixth hour. The Jewish hour cycles meant it was 12 noon. We have experienced that heat in our province recently. We wouldn’t go out at 12 midday. The sun was fierce. Christ was on his journey through that heat and it was now the sixth hour at the well. The temperatures could have been anything from 40 to 50⁰. Stifling hot. Here the Lord had been walking in this heat. Then he reached a well and it was noon and he was weary. Here cometh a woman to draw water. This was strange because the water would have been gathered either at the start or the end of the day. This is very unusual circumstances. The Lord finds himself at the well. Here comes a woman to the well. A surprising meeting for the woman but not for Christ. No accident. This was an appointment. God’s timing is perfect in the providence of God. Here the Lord was not too early or too late. He was right on time. Remember we have an illustration in the Old Testament in the story of Elijah and Elisha. Whenever Elijah met the woman with the barrel of meal outside the city gate she was gathering sticks as he arrived. Here Christ was at the well at this particular time. We see this conversation being struck up. For us as believers we can be encouraged – God works in our lives at the right time. His timing is perfect. Take heart from this story – maybe you have been praying for a loved one, maybe for months, maybe years. The Lord has heard your cries. The scripture declares he puts our tears in a bottle. They are remembered. He will step in at the right time. Here the Lord meets this woman and in doing so he begins with a conversation. “Give me a drink”. The discourse. He reacts with the woman. As it continues the woman is talking of physical water but he is speaking of spiritual water. She doesn’t understand. Verse 10. Maybe you are here and not saved tonight. Maybe you are a stranger to God’s grace and goodness yet from this pulpit tonight is presented to you the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus saves sinners. This man is the man that gives eternal life. The gift of God. The Lord says to her “if you had known you could have asked me.” Look unto him in faith, realise he is the only Saviour of sin. You cannot save yourself. He is the only one who can do it. If you are unsaved coming to this place of worship will not save you. This beautiful building will not save you. You cannot put faith in this church building – only put your faith and trust in a person. That person is presented in John 4. The one who gives the gift of eternal life. Spiritual water from a spiritual well. The only giver of eternal life. No denomination will give that. We are here tonight to worship him. Not seeking to gain salvation. If you are here tonight because of that you must be warned on the basis of Holy Scripture. It is only through Jesus Christ. This woman was leaning into this conversation. Verse 14 “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Now the Lord had the woman’s attention. She asked for the water – verse 15 “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.”

 

In this conversation we find her confession – verses 16 to 27. We seen the Lord’s contact at the start of this chapter, then the Lord’s conversation, now we see her confession. She had been searching in relationships and in pleasure. She found they did not satisfy. Now she meets the one who can meet her at the point of her need. The God man Jesus Christ. He is the one. She meets him here. Then she confesses “I perceive thou art a prophet.” We find here as this conversation goes on that the woman sees the Lord looking into her heart and life. She realises this is the Christ and we see not only her confession but also her conversion. She left the water pot. So excited having met the Christ she believes in him. He is the Christ. She leaves her water pot and returns to the city. She left it in a sense like leaving her old ways. When the Lord saves us he changes us. Not only does she return but she begins to witness. Remember what it was said of Paul – “behold he prayeth”. This woman is converted. She realises this man is the Messiah. She goes to the city and witnesses of Christ. She takes this information and returns to the city to witness to the men. We read later in verse 39 the woman went back and spoke of her Saviour the Messiah and many believed. This is the challenge to us tonight as we learn the lesson of what this woman did. She witnessed to the men of the city. Many were invited to come out and meet Jesus. There were other towns in and around Jerusalem that didn’t want Jesus but here they begged him to stay. Many more believed because of his own word. Notice the words in verse 42 “the Saviour of the world”.

 

This is a challenge to us that we would speak to others – our friends, our family. Family is hard to make a difference in but we are to do it. The right time, the right moment, the right way to stand for him. What a challenge this is. In verse 35 we have the summing up of this challenge. The Lord speaking to his disciples – a great challenge is in this verse. Often it is spoken of in a missionary context. What a challenge this is to us. In this portion the Lord met the woman and she found the seeking Saviour at Sychar. If you are unsaved tonight look to the Saviour. If you are a believer in Christ look to the fields for they are white unto harvest tonight.

 

 

The Gospel

 

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SUNDAY 21 JUNE 2026 – MR CIARAN THOMPSON

THE GOSPEL

 

The apostle Paul says in Romans that he was not ashamed of the gospel because he said “it was the power of God onto salvation for anyone who believes.” For every man who believes, every woman, every child who believes. And he says later on “and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” But he said “how can they call on the one they have not believed in? How can they believe in the one they have not heard about? And how can they hear about someone if someone does not preach to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” Paul also says in Romans that God does reveal himself independently of the gospel. He reveals himself in creation. And he says men are without excuse for not knowing God – they know him through conscience and through the commandments as well. But we are commanded to share the gospel because that embodies the whole truth of God and God will judge people based on what they were exposed to in life. But we know that the gospel or we should know that the gospel is not just about people like me standing up here and preaching. It's a certain kind of lifestyle as well. Paul says elsewhere in 1 Timothy to watch your life and your doctrine closely. So, it's not just a doctrine, it's a lifestyle as well. If we say we're following the Lord, but we don't treat each other well, then we're liars. John says that in his letter. If we don't love our brothers and sisters, we have to demonstrate our love for God and our submission to God through our love of our neighbour and love of enemy. As Jesus said, if we don't do this, then we are deceived and we can fall into even greater deception. Well, we live in an age of hostility towards Christianity. Although, as I said earlier, we are seeing a bit of a quiet revival taking place, which is exciting, and we hope that that bears much good fruit in the next generation. Some Christians may find it tempting to give up or give in. And I do believe that we will face real persecution in the future as well as the way things are heading even if there is a revival on the way because the Bible promises it and says it will increase as we go through time. But we're told in scriptures not to be frightened. Jesus said that. He warned us of things in advance so that we wouldn't fear and so that we would continue to have faith in him. He says the one who endures to the end will be saved and indeed, we must always put Christ at the centre and always first in all things. So Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15, “always” - notice that word “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that you have, but always do it with gentleness and respect.” And that's a wonderful way, isn't it, that we were to be like. So he's saying that with Christ you have hope and always be prepared to give the reason. Why do you have a hope when other people are despairing? You know, when people say, "What's the world coming to?" We can say, "Well, we know that there is hope at the end of the tunnel if you believe in the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ who is coming again to set things right." Let's turn to Hebrews 11 verses 1 to 3 “So now faith is the substance of things hoped for (there's that word hope again), the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders, that is the men and women of faith who've gone before obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So that things which are seen were not made by things which do appear.” And then skip to verse . “But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he6 exists and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him,” who earnestly seek him, as some translations say. So a summary of that basically is saying that we cannot see God yet we must believe in him because he is real. Why do we know that God is real? How do we know? Well, we've experienced his power, his presence, and his immeasurable ability to answer prayer. We've seen how he's changed our lives and the lives of others. And verse six basically says there that we must first believe that God exists and secondly that he created the world around us. Why does the writer to the Hebrews say that? I think it's because it's the very first two things we discover about God in the scriptures. The opening verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God," so it's acknowledging that there is a God created the heavens and the earth. So Hebrews is saying we must first believe that there is a God and two that he created the world around us. And for some time now for about 150 years or something like that we've lived in an age of scepticism really an age of sceptics and mockers. Peter actually in his second letter predicted that in the last days mockers would come and ridicule the idea that there is a God, that God created the world, that he caused the flood at the time of Noah and they'd also mock the idea that Jesus was coming again. We see that amongst atheists particularly the likes of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Particularly 20 years ago they were very vehement and quite popular. But we are seeing a change in that where people are turning back to the Lord now which is very encouraging and people are really rejecting the new atheism as it was called. Even so many still say that science has disproven the Bible and rendered it sort of a fairy tale. They have rendered Christianity outdated and bigoted even and unnecessary and false. But you know, the Bible does make scientific statements. So in Genesis 1 it makes clear that the universe had a beginning. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And scientists for a time in the past believe that the universe was eternal. I think the ancient Greeks might have thought that. But the Bible says there was a first cause. There was a beginning. And now scientists acknowledge there was a beginning. The book of Job says that the earth is suspended over nothing. That it floats in space. That's in chapter 26. And this was written at a time when a lot of people thought that the earth sat on a large giant or on atlas.  The Quran says that the earth sits on a large animal. But the Bible was right all along that God has suspended the earth in space over nothing. It floats in space. Isaiah says in chapter 40 that the earth is a circle. And the Hebrew word for circle can be translated as a ball or a sphere, a 3D object. At a time when man thought the earth was flat and there was just a big dome. And still today some people think the earth is flat. But all along the scripture has said the earth was a circle and that God sits enthroned above. Many of our greatest scientists were inspired by the bible. Sir Francis Bacon who's considered the first of the modern scientists even Louis Pasteur, Sir Isaac Newton said “there are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than any other history.” Gregor Mendel as well who was a Austrian priest became the father of modern genetics as well and Francis Collins who's alive today spearheaded the Human Genome project in the early 1990s and he came to know the Lord because he could see as he studied human DNA he said there is it is so intricately and amazingly designed there is no way this came about by evolution, by random chance.  He's actually friends with the atheist Richard Dawkins and Dawkins just can't understand why someone so intelligent like Collins could believe in God but Collins said “I believe in the death, the atoning death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” To believe in the word of God means that you believe God exists. You can see that God has revealed himself in creation just as Paul says in Romans 1. The Bible says that in the beginning God created a very good world. That's how God describes it himself. Where there was no sin or disease or death or destruction, no war, no problems, no suffering of any kind. And he placed man in a perfect environment. And he said that the world was his and he was to take care of it and to have dominion and to spread over the earth and multiply and to look after the creation that he has it were bestowed to us. But he didn't force this on man in a way. He gave man the ability to make his own moral choices. And that's wonderful because if God had forced Adam and Eve and all people to live a certain way, that's not love, is it? That's not relationship. God gave us the ability to reject him or to believe in him. And that's grace, isn't it? If grace is forced upon someone, it's not grace. It's like if you give a gift at Christmas, you say you have to receive it. You know, you can't kind of refuse it because someone might say, "Well, I don't want that". But God graciously offers everything. He offered eternal life to mankind in the beginning. But he gave them a choice as to whether they wanted to take it. And he said, "If you keep my ways and you stay within good boundaries that I've set, you will continue to live and enjoy eternal life and delight in me." And in a way, we'll build a wonderful world together. But if you disobey me, you will die this day, you will suffer and pay the consequences. And of course, all humanity has suffered ever since because we're all descended from our first parents who sinned against the Lord. Very quickly, man deliberately followed the way of the devil, the serpent, who had already fallen from grace himself. Again, God gave the angels the ability to follow him and to worship him. And many manly angels fell with Satan as well and became demons as the scripture says. Paul says in Romans that “just as sin entered the world through one man and death also came through sin, so death has now come to all people because all of us have sinned. For the wages or the payment of sin is death.” That's the penalty for sin, it is both physical and spiritual death. You see, God is just, isn't he? If we break a law, we pay a price. And we've all broken God's laws, haven't we? He's a father. And of course, today is Father's Day. We remember the role of fathers in our lives. And any good father will discipline his disobedient children. It's only right, isn't it? The Bible speaks about this. But no one is perfect. And as I say, we're all sinners in God's eyes. God had promised eternal life to Adam and Eve, but they allowed themselves to be stained and tainted with sin, which began the process of death in their bodies and in their relationship. It damaged their relationship with him as we know. Disobedience, sin, impurities are all detestable to a pure and holy God. And that begins separation. You know, it's like the Michelangelo painting. I remember seeing that as a child. not the real one in the Sistine Chapel in Rome but you know a picture of it on the television and you see the two fingers and I used to think that represented the fall of Adam falling away from God but it's actually the creation but it's like as though he started to become separate from his creator. The Bible also says in Genesis 3 and Romans 5 verse 6 and 8 that sin didn't just affect us did it, it damaged all creation contrary to modern scientific teaching that, you know, we've always had natural disasters and we've always had violence in nature. We've always said killings and the survival of the fittest and all that. The Bible actually says that sin affected the animal  kingdom, the plant kingdom, the whole world and brought about disease and disasters and death and also injustice in our human world as well. Paul speaks about the frustration and decay that the creation was subjected to, but he also says that it longs for the new creation as well to be a part of that. What's so wonderful as well when you see in Genesis 3 that when God punishes Adam and Eve and says this is what's going to happen, he punishes the serpent, he punishes the man, and he punishes the woman. He says despite this he said a curious thing he says “the seed of the woman or an offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.” I wonder if Adam and Eve really knew what that meant. So the seed would crush the head of the serpent. Well the serpent was revealed to be the devil. In other words, it would some sort of seed, some offspring of the woman, of Eve would break the power of Satan, of evil that man had let into the world. But God also says that the seed would be bruised in the process. Isn't it amazing that right at the very beginning, God, we see the first glimmer, the seeds, if you excuse the pun, of redemption of our world. God had made sure that there was a way through this in his mercy. We see in this that God is both just and merciful, isn't he? And it's justice he has to punish. And in his mercy, he offers a way out, as it were, because he loves the creation. He loves mankind who he made. The Bible says that God doesn't desire anyone to be lost, but for all to come to repentance and the knowledge of salvation. But we know most people do get lost. As Jesus said, most people go down the wide road to hell. Few find the narrow path. To prepare people for the seed to come, God established a chosen people, a special people on earth called Israel, of course. And the man called Abraham was the first father of this nation. And God also promised him a seed. He mentioned the seeds to him as well. Paul speaks about this in Galatians 3. It's also in Genesis 12- 15 and 20 chapter 24. Later through the man Moses centuries later, he gave Israel a set of laws and commandments and then Joshua Moses successor as we know brings the nation of Israel into the promised land. Israel was placed at the crossroads of the world. If you can imagine in your head a map of the world and you see, you know, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia, and Antarctica at the south, you've got Israel is in the middle. In the time of Jesus, it was in particular a popular place to pass through. You know, the atheist Christopher Hitchens criticized, the message of Christianity, the gospel, because he said, "Why would this random man from Nazareth, die on a cross, and what about the rest of the world? And how would anyone know about that? It's this insignificant place really in the world." But that's a complete lie. The Galilee, you know, where Jesus grew up and Nazareth, it was called Galilee of the Nations because caravans of people would travel from Europe through Galilee to Africa. They travel from Africa through Galilee to Asia, from Asia to Europe. It was the crossroads, three different continents. That's where people passed through. And Jesus would have grown up seeing all these people passing by. There were constant flow of people coming through. And they'd stop in Israel many a time. And we know that the Jewish people spread over parts of the world as well. We read in scripture that God gave his people Israel lawgivers, liberators, kings, and priests and prophets to lead them towards righteousness and away from evil. But we read, don't we, in many of the books of the Old Testament that many of the leaders of Israel turned Israel away from God and towards sin. Not one king or one judge or one leader could live up to God's perfect standards. You see, what the people needed was a lawgiver, a liberator, a king, a priest, and a prophet all rolled into one. But someone who would live perfectly, sinlessly before God the Father. Only such a person could destroy the power of the devil that God spoke about in the beginning. The power of the serpent that has affected and infected the whole world. The Bible is clear that we cannot save ourselves. We needed a Saviour. And God was preparing his people for this. So that person, that seed sort of had to be both human and divine really to be that bridge between man and God. And so it began to be born in the hearts of particularly the prophets in the Old Testament that God would send such a person would save a Saviour, a redeemer, a Messiah from heaven to earth. Around 740 BC, 740 years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah said, "The Lord himself will give Israel a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.” And that's exactly what Israel needed, exactly what the world needed, God with us in human form. Someone we could relate to who wasn't distant in heaven because we'd caused that separation. That distance. It's interesting when you see in the Garden that God walked, God the Father walked with Adam, you know, and Eve probably as well. And there was such closeness. It says he walked with Enoch, you know, the seventh generation from Adam and he was close to Abraham and Moses and others. But there's almost this distance that develops. And the Bible says “shout to the Lord” and it's almost like you have to really shout to get through the heavenlies. The Bible says there's all these demonic forces. We heard about this this morning, didn't we, in Ephesians 6. And there's a battle sometimes in prayer, isn't there, to get through to God sometimes because of all the evil in the dark spiritual realm. So we needed someone to come to us to our level. John says in the opening of his gospel that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. In other words, he pitched his tent amongst us. A very Jewish picture there of the Jews who lived in tents beginning with Abraham. God wanted to come and live amongst us. And over 2,000 years ago and more than 2,000 miles away, a young virgin named Mary conceived this seed by God's Holy Spirit and later gave birth to a baby boy in Bethlehem as promised. Joseph, her husband, who was the foster father of Jesus, named him Jesus in obedience to what God told him to do through an angel. and his name means God saves. I don't know if you know this, but sorry I'm sidetracking a bit, but you know how Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. Well, Moses represents the Lord, doesn't he? Elijah represented the prophets. And Jesus said, "I came to fulfill the law and the prophets." Moses was succeeded by Joshua. Elijah was succeeded by Elisha. And John the Baptist, we read, prepared the way for Jesus. The name Joshua, Elisha, and Jesus all mean the same thing. They all mean Yeshua. They mean God saves. Isaiah, actually means the same as well. And he's the most sort of messianic prophet of the Old Testament, isn't he? We read of Jesus that he grew up and he perfectly obeyed his human mother Mary and his foster father, Joseph, and learned his father's trade, carpentry. He only lived 33 years but lived a perfect sinless life before God because we needed that perfect example. How do we live? What does perfect living? What does godliness look like? See all the other characters we have in the Bible, they all were far from perfect. They were very many of them were very good and godly men and women, but they were all imperfect. Whereas Jesus was totally sinless in every way. Never once sinned. There was no deceit found in his mouth. Jesus recruited 12 disciples, didn't he? And drew massive crowds as he taught them parables and healed the sick and loved people in a way never seen before or since. In all the other religions, man is having to reach up to God or to the gods as it were, whatever they believe in to earn God's favour, never knowing if they had done enough good deeds to outweigh our bad deeds. But we know that in Christ, God came down to us. Jesus himself said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you know the Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." And when Jesus's closest followers began to realize who he was, the prophesied Messiah, the son of God, that the Old Testament spoke about many times he could then reveal to them what his ultimate mission was. Remember when Peter said, "I believe you are the son of God. I believe you are the Messiah, the son of the living God." Jesus said, you know, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. He says, "You now know need to know that I, the Son of Man, will be rejected by the chief elders and the leaders and he'll be handed over. He will be condemned, but on the third day he will rise again." And he fulfilled what the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1 where he says that he will be called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Paul says in Romans, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the payment of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ." I love how Paul says, "It's a free gift." You know, it cost Jesus everything as we know, but we got it for free. It didn't cost us anything. He paid the price for us. And I know everyone here, I'm pretty sure that we all know this, but we can never fully get our heads or our hearts around that, can we really? And in obedience to God, Jesus willingly allowed himself to be falsely accused, although he'd done no wrong, physically and verbally abused, murdered in the most cruel and humiliating way, completely naked on the cross. We see him when you see crucifixes, always a loin cloth around his waist, but that's not how it was. They were completely naked on the cross. On a Roman cross, he took our place and our punishment that we deserved. Jesus endured at the hands of evil men so that the hand of the evil one would have no would no longer have authority over us. In his dying breath, Jesus said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Let's just pause there for a moment at that point. It's as though the father had to look away as his son became sin itself. Jesus Christ, the son of God, had a perfect loving relationship with God the Father for all eternity. Again, we can't really get our heads or our hearts around that. We just have to believe. But for that brief moment, they were separated. That I believe was far worse than any of the physical, emotional, and mental torment that Jesus endured. In a way, he endured hell on the cross for us. It's interesting that the last three hours Jesus was on the cross, it went really dark. Jesus said, "I thirst." Hell is a dark place. It's the place of outer darkness, the Bible says. And it's a thirsty place because it's very hot. And it's a place where you're separated from God. And Jesus for one brief moment at the very end was separate to God. You know, it says that in the scriptures that a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day to God. I think that day felt like a thousand years to Jesus. Albert Einstein actually said that because we interpret time differently, don't we? Paul says in 2 Corinthians that God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we would become the righteousness of God. He clothed us in his righteousness and takes away our sin such as the achievement of his death on the cross. He was there, you know, with his arms outraised, suspended between heaven and earth. God was saying the payment of man's sin is dealt with. But it's only dealt with for those who believe and repent of their sins and acknowledge their need for salvation and forgiveness. We read that all of this was done out of love. The most famous verse in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but enjoy and have eternal life. So Jesus was restoring that original promise that God made to Adam and Eve. The ardent atheist who I mentioned earlier, Richard Dawkins said, "If God wanted to forgive our sins, why did he not just forgive them? Who is God trying to impress by allowing his son to die on the cross? That's a ridiculous thing to say when you think about it. God is also a judge. Can imagine in a UK court of law if a murderer was on trial and the judge said, "You know what? We'll just forgive you. You're free to go. I'm sure you didn't mean to do that. We'll forgive you and just move on." We'd be absolutely outraged. And that sort of thing has happened in human history because it's so unjust. We know that God has to punish sinfulness. But because he also wants to forgive, he provided a way of escape, as it were, from our sins. Isaiah says, "The Lord himself laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was pierced for our transgressions." Pierced. He was pierced in his hands and his feet. As we know, that was written before Roman crucifixion was invented. He was crushed for iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was laid on him and by his wounds we are healed. Written more than 700 years before the event. Jesus died and was buried. But that was not the end. We know that on the third day he rose again from the grave. And in doing so, he defeated death itself but also the power of sin, the power of hell, the power of the world, the power of Satan and his demons. Those things only have power over people who give them the that power. But those of us who are in Christ and safe in him, the only safe place there is to be, we share in the same victory of Jesus. And we then through the Holy Spirit who has given us, we can overcome the sin that we struggle. We won't go to hell. We can overcome the worldly passions and pleasures of the world and the flesh and we are not subject to Satan. We don't have to allow him to influence us. Christ's death was the payment for our sins and he took our sins and died for us. But because he was completely innocent, not deserving of death, that punishment of death was reversed. God vindicated him by raising Jesus back from the dead. It's interesting that that God, the father, the son, and the spirit were all involved in his resurrection because God him, it says that God raised him back from the dead. Jesus himself said that “I lay down my life for my sheep and I will take it up again. No one takes my life from me.” So he had power over his own death and resurrection in a sense. And Romans Paul says the spirit who raised Jesus from the death is living in you. So Father, Son, and Spirit were all involved. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. And a time is coming when all those are in their graves will hear my voice and come out. Those who have done what is good will rise to life. Those who have done what is evil will rise to condemnation." There's a resurrection coming of the righteous and the unrighteous when Christ after Christ's return. And despite great scepticism even amongst some Christians. There was a polling years ago about Christian churchgoers, if they believed in the resurrection. And many said, "Well, they believed spiritually that he rose again. I don't know if you saw “The meaning of life”, which is a series on RTE that Gay Byrne, the late great Irish presenter, presented for many years, and he interviewed. One of the women on the Irish band The Corrs said, she was a committed Roman Catholic. Gay Byrne asked her, "Do you believe in the death of Jesus?" And she said, "Oh, absolutely." He again asked her, "Why did Jesus die?" And she was like, “I don't know really. I think it's to help us in our suffering.” And he said, "Do you believe he rose again?" And she said, "spiritually, I think I don't know about physically." And you could just tell she had no idea. I know from being a Roman Catholic originally that there was such an emphasis particularly on the death of Jesus. Yes there was a belief in his resurrection, but it was never really taught. Why is that so important? What does that mean for us? It's really sad when people who purport to be believers just don't understand these things. There's a disproportionate number of lawyers and judges across the world who've come to know the Lord because they've examined the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus and his death as well. And they've been overwhelmed by the evidence. And they know how to examine evidence, how to spot truth, how to spot integrity in reports and things like that, in evidence that's laid before them. I'll give you some examples. Dr Simon Greenleaf, who lived in the late 18th to mid- 19th century was the famous Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University. He was considered one of the greatest law makers in history. He concluded that the evidence for the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus was so overwhelming that he could hold it up in a court of law. And also Brooke Fos Westcoat who was born in Birmingham in 1825 was a scholar and a distinguished theologian. He once said, "Raking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ." If you've heard of the story of Lee Stroel as well, there's a film about him. It's amazing. It's a really good film if you've seen it, The Case for Christ. It's based on the book that he wrote. And he was a real strong atheist and his wife became a Christian and he really turned against her and their marriage nearly broke up. But he said, "I'm going to try and look at the evidence." And he thought, "I'm going to disprove that Jesus died and rose again." And he actually came to the conclusion that it's true. And many of the people who've taken that path have found the same thing. As you probably know, they set out to try and disprove and then they realize, "Oh, actually, I can't disprove it. It's got to be true." We have to remember as well, there's other evidence as well for the resurrection of Jesus. Think of the early Christians we read in the book of Acts in particular who saw the risen Christ or were converted by people who saw the risen Christ and they risked their lives and they faced torture and death. They were fed to the lions. All on the belief that Jesus was real, that he was alive, that he rose again. And millions have suffered ever since for this. I don't believe many people would really put themselves to that. I mean, why would some put themselves through that torture and death if it was all a lie, if it never happened, Christianity would be a very short-lived thing. It probably wouldn't have lasted very long. But no, they knew and believed with all their hearts that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is alive. We read that these early Christians had such boldness, didn't they, in the face of  imprisonment and death and suffering. What gave them that boldness? Well, the Bible says that Jesus remained with the disciples for 40 days after he rose again. And towards the end, he commanded them in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 1, he says that to wait in Jerusalem for the gift that my father will send. And he was referring to the Holy Spirit. The rest of the New Testament is indeed a testament to the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus entrusted his disciples to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we must remember that it was the Holy Spirit who came to live within them and all believers as well. Jesus said, "You must be born again of the Spirit, born again from above to enter the kingdom of God." And then the Holy Spirit filled them and anointed and  inspired them and guided them. Just as Jesus was anointed and filled with the spirit so too his followers would be so that they wouldn't do things in their own strength and their own flesh which we see in all other religions really it would be done by God as it were through them. We are just vessels aren't we for God. See Jesus is no longer on earth. And he actually said "It's better that I go away because then the Comforter can come, the Counsellor can come, the Advocate, an advocate just like me." Jesus is the advocate, isn't he, before the Father. And he also said there is another advocate coming, the Holy Spirit. And he says he will come to convict the world of its sin. And he'll be with you always. And he says that he will empower you with gifts and with fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, humility and self-control. The fruit of the spirit is a description of the character of Christ. And Paul says “against such things there is no law.” You can't legislate against that. You can't say that those things are wrong. Who could say that love is wrong and peace and joy and kindness? That's Galatians 5 that we read about the fruit of the spirit. Jesus and every writer of the New Testament says that he was going to return to earth one day. He was going to leave the earth but one day come back. When Jesus was on earth, he told parables explaining this to his disciples. He said the master was a long time coming. So from the earthly perspective, it's a long time and it has been 2,000 years nearly now. But when Jesus speaks in the book of Revelation, he says, "I'm coming soon." Because a day is a thousand years to him. It's only been two days to Jesus since he was here. But to us, it's been 2,000 years. What's he going to do? Why is he going to come back? Why does Jesus need to come back? Well, we see the state of the world. He will come to remove and punish the devil and his followers, the antichrist that we read about, the great tyrannical leader who will rise up at the end. He will fully establish his kingdom on earth. He will later judge all people for how they lived and then bring about the new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells. Let's turn to 2 Peter 3 verse 8 “But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” In verse 11 he says “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be? Ye are to be in all holy conversation and godliness." You are to be holy and godly looking for and even hastening the coming of the day of the Lord, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements will melt in fervent heat. “Nevertheless, we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found in him in peace and without spot and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.” We can even speed the coming of the Lord because Jesus said when he predicted the end times he said the gospel will reach all nations and he said then the end will come and Peter is saying here that as you spread the gospel you are in a way hastening the coming of the Lord. Jesus now is preparing a beautiful place for us. He said “I go away to prepare a place for you. If it were not so I would not have told you. In my father's house and many rooms, many mansions, and one day I'll take you to be with me so that where I am, you may be also. A place where there'll be no more sin, no curse of sin, no disease, no death, no war, no problems. God himself will wipe the tears away from people's eyes." After all that Jesus has done, particularly in his work on the cross, he's still doing things for us because he said, "I go away to prepare a place for us." In a way, he's gone back to carpentry because he's preparing a room or some translations say a mansion, don't they? He's also interceding for us before the Father. He ever lives to intercede us for us. And he is able to save those to the uttermost. He's filling people with his Spirit. He's appearing to people in visions and dreams as the Bible says. Many Muslims are coming to the Lord Jesus because he's appearing to them in dreams and revealing to them who he is. So Jesus is still working and then when he comes later on at one point we'll have the marriage supper of the Lamb and it says in Luke 12 Jesus talks about this and he says the master will wait on the servants and will wait on us. You know that after all Jesus has done and he's going to wait on us. You think of the humility of the Lord Jesus, there is no one like him. Surely if we know this, if we know the good news, the gospel of Jesus, the only good news there really is in our world, we should surely be spurred on every day to live by his good news, to live by the word from Genesis to Revelation, cover to cover, to continue to spread his gospel, regularly confessing our sins. John speaks about this, doesn't he, in his letter. “If we do sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And we are to confess our sins regularly to him. And the blood of Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We are to love others John says. This is how we know we are saved. That we show love. That we live like Jesus in this world. You know, if we knew the cure for cancer, we wouldn't keep it bottled up. We wouldn't keep it a secret, would we? And sin is a cancer and it's metastasized across the world, hasn't it? If we don't know this, the Bible says that if we are stirred by this message, we feel convicted. As Jesus said, the spirit comes to convict the world of its sin. We must first say, "Yes, I am a sinner. I have done wrong." We say sorry to God the Father and acknowledge him and ask him to forgive us of all past sins. This is repentance, isn't it? To turn away from your way of living. The Bible also says that we are to believe in our hearts that he sent his one and only son to pay the price of our sins and that he raised him back from the dead to offer us eternal life. We are to confess with our mouth as well that Jesus now is the Lord of our life. We're not the Lord of our lives. Jesus is now Lord. And we ask that he fills us with his Spirit. It's so important that we encourage new believers to come to a bible believing church, to be baptized in water as a sign of that faith, of the burial of the old life and the beginning of a new life. That new believers are well discipled, that they are encouraged to study the word, that they keep confessing sin and living for Christ in the Spirit. Let's encourage those around us to look at the word of God more because it has a purifying effect on us. The Bible does. It's the pure, flawless, spotless word of God, isn't it? And Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2 that there'll be a great falling away around the time when the antichrist comes. And he says they fall away because they did not hold fast to the truth. They preferred to believe the lie that came from Satan rather than the truth. And again as I said Paul says elsewhere to have that belt of truth. Keep truth very tight around you. The Bible is living and active. It's a double-edged sword. It divides between flesh, doesn't it, and soul and spirit. It gets really to the heart of the matter. No other book can do that. It's the only book that you can read and read and read and study and study. And you'll never exhaust it. You'll always see something new. It's always yielding up new things. Just like the earth yields up precious stones forever. This word is precious. Let us memorize it. There may come a day where this gets taken away from us. And when people outside the church criticize us for believing and mock us for believing the Bible, well, challenge them and say, "Have you ever read it? Just read it.” I remember Billy Graham saying that. He said that to someone when he was invited to some dinner, great big banquet or whatever, and this man opposite him was an atheist and he was ridiculing him. And Billy Graham said, "Have you ever read any of the Bible?" And he said, "No." and he said “I challenge you to read the New Testament over the next six months and then contact me. The man did contact him after six months and says “you know I have to say it's changed me, I am not sure I like what it's doing but it has actually changed me.” So it has an impact on people. Probably everyone here knows the Lord Jesus Christ because someone told you about him so let's not keep Jesus from the people of Coleraine and those around us wherever we may live. It's often our parents who've told us about the Lord or a friend or a preacher or even a stranger. There are some exceptions because sometimes people have just said to God “if you're real please reveal yourself to me” and he has but again God will do that through a person. So let's share and show the wonderful powerful gospel and good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to spread his kingdom in the world as he told us to do and let's live for him in every way and every day. Revelation 22 verse 12 “And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and the sorcerers, and whoremongers, and the murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say come. And let him that heareth say come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of this book, of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from things the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things, saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”