Come and join us as we pray together to the Lord for our nation and election. We’ll be meeting on Saturday May 7 and Saturday May 14 from 10am-12noon in our ‘Upper Room’ (meeting room off the church hall, enter through the car park door). Of course, you are welcome to pray at home if you can’t come. (If you intend to do this, why not let us know?)
In this message, Rev Peter Phillips reminds us that in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14, Jesus gives us a very clear picture of how salvation is never earned or merited, but is always given freely by God to those who are undeserving. It is the not the self-righteous ‘good’ who make it in God’s eyes, but those who come to Him in complete humility and repentance. All this, is of course, a gift of God’s free grace.
Service
00:00 Welcome
Song: And Can It Be
00:17 Introduction
00:35 Prayer
03:30 Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 33:1-20
Song: We Are His People
08:31 Kids’ Talk – Colin Buchanan (with thanks to Compassion)
18:08 Bible reading: Luke 18:9-14
Song: Jesus Strong and Kind
Sermon: Luke 18:9-14
Song: Rock of Ages
19:19 Closing
We’re remembering those who gave up their lives for ‘God, King and country’ at our 10:30am service on Sunday April 24. Lest we forget.
When the women first went to the tomb where Jesus has been buried on that first Easter Sunday morning, they never expected to find Him alive. But when Matthew records in Matthew 28:1-20 that Jesus was alive, this changed everything. While they worshipped Him by falling down at His feet, the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb (and saw what happened) and the Jewish authorities were meeting together to spread misinformation about the truth. But no lie can stop the truth, and the whole universe is now under the Lordship on Jesus!
Service
00:00 Welcome
Song: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today
00:17 Introduction
00:43 Prayer
04:20 Bible reading: Matthew 27:57-28:7
Song: In Christ Alone
07:06 Kids’ Talk – Colin Buchanan (with thanks to Compassion)
14:42 Bible reading: Matthew 28:1-20
Song: Never Alone
Sermon: Matthew 28:1-20
Song: Thine Be the Glory
17:02 Closing
Outline
• If the gospels ended at the cross…
• The resurrection is the great game changer
• Three scenes in the text
• See how Matthew tells us of…
A choice to be made… which will be yours?
Matthew’ gospel continues to record the ‘things that happened to Jesus’ in Matthew 27:11-44. His sufferings did not end with His denial and betrayal or His arrest and trial, but also extended right up to and including His death on the cross. Matthew records all these things to make it doubly clear that Jesus was innocent of all crime and all sin. That He was the One who was ‘the righteous’ who died for the unrighteous’, to ‘bring us to God’ (1 Peter 3:18)
Outline
• Where we are in Matthew 26
• Vivid, remembered details
• Three scenes in the text
• See how Matthew tells us of…
All this… at great expense to Himself… for you!
After Jesus allowed Himself to be arrested and separated from His disciples, the Bible tells us that they all forsook Him and fled. All but one. Peter followed, but at a distance. And through the providence of God, Peter found a way to be nearer to Jesus than the rest of the disciples were… nearer, but sadly, further away from Him. Being close up to Jesus didn’t help Peter at all. It just magnified his weakness. It showed up what he wasn’t made of. He had professed that he would die with jesus, but he couldn’t even testify that he was one of His disciples! Poor Peter… but poor us when we think and act as if we have more strength that we do!
Service
00:00 Welcome
Song: There Is a Fountain
00:17 Introduction
00:39 Prayer
05:27 Bible reading: Isaiah 53
Song: Jesus Paid It All
07:41 Kids’ Talk
Song: Jesus Didn’t Sin
13:11 Bible reading: Matthew 26:57-27:10
Song: Jesus Thank You
Sermon: Matthew 26:57-27:10
Song: Man of Sorrows
16:50 Closing
Outline
• Where we are in Matthew 26
• A downward spiral begins
• The changing scenes before the reader
• See how Matthew tells us of…
See the Saviour in the midst of enemies and failures!
Was there ever a scene so poignant as the time that Jesus spent in the garden of Gethsemane right before the cross? The gospel writers make much of this, as we find in Matthew 26:36-56. The text tells us that Jesus struggled with the enormity of the ‘cup’ placed before Him by the Father, which He must take and drink. It wasn’t out of fear of pain or death that he recoiled from drinking it. Not at all. But He knew that on drinking it, He would face separation from His Father. And yet (thanks be to God), He obeyed! What a wonderful Saviour!
Service
00:00 Welcome
Song: Holy Holy Holy
00:17 Introduction
00:38 Prayer
04:52 Bible reading: Jeremiah 25:8-17
Song: Jerusalem
06:40 Kids’ Talk
Song: Jesus Rose to Pray
11:49 Bible reading: Matthew 26:36-56
Song: My Hope Rests Firm
Sermon: Matthew 26:36-56
Song: When I Survey
15:14 Closing
Outline
• The garden
• Extreme trial for Jesus
• The ‘heavy load he chose to bear’…
• See how Matthew tells us of…
Victory won – before the cross!
‘I have come to do Your will, O God’
‘Reality’ TV shows about how plastic surgery changes the way people look, are to me, only mildly interesting. They seem to portray a sad reflection on a society that is so obsessed with image. As they say, ‘beauty is only skin deep’. It’s superficiality at its best. Dying on the cross on that first Good Friday, Jesus wasn’t a pretty sight. He was beaten, tortured and naked. But the Bible holds out his death to us as the most amazing thing God has ever done for us! (See Romans 5:8) So why this death on a cross? To make us new on the inside! The Bible says of those who trust in Jesus, that they are ‘a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!’ (2 Corinthians 5:17) This Easter, forget about image. Seek the One who loved you enough to die and rise for you even when you were His ugly enemy. Join us on Good Friday at 9:30am to hear the message of His transforming grace!
The scene at the Last Supper as recorded in Matthew 26:17-35 is so full of significance. Much could be (and has been!) written about the event which connected the Passover to this institution of the new covenant by Jesus. But what happened after the Last Supper is also important for setting the scene that would take place in the garden of Gethsemane, and this specifically concerns Peter, who, on hearing what was about to take place, boldly claimed to ‘even die with Jesus’. Poor Peter… but yes, how many times have you and I been like him?
Service
00:00 Welcome
Song: Praise to the Lord
00:18 Introduction
00:39 Prayer
03:35 Bible reading: Zechariah 13:1-9
Song: Be Unto Your Name
05:38 Kids’ Talk
Song: I Can’t Save Myself
10:09 Bible reading: Matthew 26:17-35
Song: How Deep the Father’s Love
Sermon: Matthew 26:17-35
Song: This Life I Live
12:33 Closing
Outline
• Where we are in Matthew 26
• The calm before the coming storm
• The focus switches to Jesus and the eleven
• See how Matthew tells us of…
The disciples… what a mixed bag!
Remember who we are and whose we are…
It’s fitting that the parable Jesus told in Matthew 25:31-46 is the last thing that Matthew records in this long discourse from the mouth of Jesus. The parable has always been and remains one of the scariest parables that jesus ever told – not because it is unclear – but just the opposite! It is all too clear. In the parable, jesus tells His disciples that when He comes back he will take up His royal throne and immediately proceed to judge the nations, and therefore, all peoples. An in that process of judgement he will make an eternal distinction between those who are His (sheep) and those who are not (goats). The dividing line will be eternal and the judgement will be on the basis of works. Salvation is not by works. Salvation is by grace. That’s how anyone of us become one of His sheep! But judgement is based on works and these will either identify us as one of His sheep or not! It’s a most vital truth and one that you cannot ignore!
Service
00:00 Welcome
Song: O Christ in Thee
00:19 Introduction
00:40 Prayer
03:32 Bible reading: Matthew 25:31-46
Song: My Worth Is Not in What I Own
05:41 Kids’ Talk
Song: Isaiah 53:6 (Baa Baa Doo Baa Baa)
11:09 Bible reading: 1 John 4:7-21
Song: My Heart Is Filled
Sermon: Matthew 25:31-46
Song: Sing We the King
13:27 Closing
Outline
Again, no salvation by works…
The heart of the matter: to love Jesus is to love His people!