Tim Baldwin preaching John 21 (3/4/11)
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Being a christian is more than a personal relationship with Jesus, it’s our job to fish and shepherd.

Jesus said, if you believe you will follow, and to follow we not only need to be people who believe, but ones who fish and shepherd. That is, it’s more than your own personal relationship with Christ, this belief comes a responsibility to care for those in your Christian family, and to bring others to know Christ.

Fish
We see in the passage that the disciples catch 153 fish, and Jesus not only cooks the disciples breakfast, but instructs the disciples and therefore  us, to fish for people.
See also Luke 5:10

Shepherd
Jesus also calls us to ‘feed my sheep’. Being a shepherd applies to leadership, but also is applicable to all Christians as we set examples in the way we live, and humbly care for our Christian brothers and sisters.Around a coal fire, just like when Peter denied Jesus 3 times, Jesus asks Peter ‘do you love me’ 3 times, not to condemn him but to reinstate him publicly.
Peter appears to have a healthy distrust of his own heart, and no longer carries the pride he had when he asks Jesus to sit at his right hand in heaven.
What does it mean to be a shepherd ? To care so much for the sheep, that they would do anything to feed and protect their sheep, even lay down their lives to do this.

Being fishermen or shepherd, comes at great cost. For Peter, it meant crucifixion and we should expect suffering as we follow Jesus.
1 Peter 4:12 Peter highlights that suffering as a follower of a Christ is normal and we should rejoice in our suffering.

Being a christian is more than a personal relationship with Jesus, it’s our job to fish and shepherd.

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Andrew Heard preaching John 20:19-31 (27/03/11)
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Craig Dobbie preaching John 20:1-18 (20/03/11)
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Everything put together eventually falls apart. Our bodies, our houses, our world is in a constant state of decay.

The Bible’s story begins in a garden, ends in a garden, and this climatic story of the resurrection starts in a garden. As Mary finds the empty tomb and her first response is ’someone has moved the body’ indicating she wasn’t expecting a resurrection. John and Peter arrived at the tomb and John makes the point about the folded linen. It’s as though the body has diffused through the cloth.  John vividly remembers this event and it’s as though his belief is one that he ponders deeply, fully appreciating later.

Jesus is the template for the new bodies that we will receive. Restored both physically and in spirit we get a sense of how our eternal bodies will be.

Why the resurrection matters?

1. Because it’s true.  John’s account isn’t written the way a story would be created, and yet John tells it as he saw it as an eye witness.
2. God is personally good to us. It shows God truely cares for the world (picking ordinary blokes and despite their failures, mercifully & patiently turning them into spirit filled apostles)
3. The cross/resurrection is God’s powerful statement that He will renew what he has made.

Give thanks that God has given us the Holy Spirit to give us a taste of what is to come.

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Andrew Heard preaching John 19:31-42 (13/03/11)

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We live in a world where ideas and truth claims compete. Differing truths battle to shape out opinions and feelings about life.

John 19:31-42 we see John’s account of Jesus burial. In the Jewish calendar the Sabbath starts Friday at sundown. The cruelty of crucifixion usually brought death through asphyxiation, and to hasten death large mallets were used to ’smash the legs’. John drives home the truth about Jesus death in order to convey the critical facts of this event.

Fulfillments.

• Not one of his bones will be broken – Passover lambs were to be cooked without breaking any bones. John wants us to see that Jesus is the true Passover lamb. Psa 34:20
• v37 They will look on the one they have pierced. Zech 12:10

Irony

• Jews didn’t want their land defiled or their festival to God defiled, so they have the ‘Son of God’ taken down before the sabbath.

There is a Pharasee in all of us. It’s very easy to think you have ‘arrived’ an therefore become complecent about our life.  Joseph and Nicodemus were moved by Jesus and his death and were able to put their Jewish traditions aside.

If what John wrote is true, then life is about being moved by the gospel, to understand the love of God to provide a lamb for us.

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Craig Dobbie preaching John 19:16b-30 (6/03/11)

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John 19-16b-30
Which matters matter?  From the start of John’s gospel he writes that from the beginning God’s purpose was to save the world.  Now at John 19, this plan was realised as Jesus is crucified.

John seems to skip over the gory details of the cross and highlights some seemly mundane and random details.
John raises details to show that the scriptures would be fulfilled and it seems that Jesus had Psalm 22 at the top of his mind this whole day.
- Soldiers casting lots for Jesus clothes.
- Not a bone of his body would be broken
- His side would be pierced
- ‘I am thirsty’

John also uses them to point out the sovereign hand of God at work.
Finished / completed is translated from the Greek “Tetelestai”meaning ‘it’s done’ and it’s appropriate that this is Jesus’s last words.

As we mature, we can look back and see things that at the time seemed really important, but on reflection were not significant at all. As we encounter the things of life, we need to reflect on events with a spirit filled heart, and to see them in the context of God’s greater plan centered in the cross.

If what really matters is what God is on about in the world, then we need to be so captured by his perfect plan that it passionately shapes everything that we do.

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Tim Baldwin preaching John 19:1-16a (27/02/11)

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We love power, and it’s nice to hear that to follow Jesus is to follow the powerful one shown through powerful healing and teaching.

In this passage we see Jesus being mocked, beaten and humiliated and it can be difficult to see this as a demonstration of power. It’s horrific that this treatment should happen to anyone, and yet this happens to the true king of the world. How disciplined Jesus must have been to restrain himself in the midst of the physical and emotional torture, all to be obedient to God’s plan. So who has the power in this passage?

Pilate who has the authority of Rome, control of the armed forces and it would initially seem that he is the one with power. But, Pilate and the Jewish priests are in power struggle, and the Jewish leaders blackmail Pilate suggesting that Jesus is claiming to be in opposition to Caesar, recognizing Pilate’s shallow conviction.  John points out the irony of the Jewish leaders who despite their religious beliefs say that ‘we have no king but Caesar’. The truth is that the Jewish leaders didn’t recognize Jesus as the messiah because he didn’t exhibit what they were looking for in power – physical and political power.

Jesus explains in the climax to this passage that all power comes from God and while he could have with a spoken word zapped his mockers, he respectfully in obedience bore this suffering in our place.

Isaiah 53 forecasts that Jesus was to be humiliated, disfigured, as a suffering servant king – which is the amazing way that he became the conquering Messiah! To have Jesus as your king is to humbly accept His salvation. Our sin caused Jesus to take this path. To follow this true King, we need to serve Jesus by humbly unselfishly and sacrificially serving those around us, in order to bring glory to God’s name.

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Andrew Heard preaching John 18:12-28 (13/02/11)

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Andrew Heard preaching John 18:1-11 (06/02/11)

Gratitude – for the cup that Jesus drinks on our behalf
Awe – even the soldiers are struck back in awe of Jesus words
Comfort – Jesus concern for his followers is a source of great comfort
Significance – this event eclipses all the big events of time

Where is your heart? Be captured by the significance of the cross, reflect on Gods word as we study the ‘hour of glory’ this term.

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