Category: Sermons

Sermon: Sunday, 16th November, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Matthew 5:21-26

Sometimes we can think something is relatively easy to do when actually it is difficult. For example, when the KFC creche room was being plastered I was watching Darren the plasterer at work. He said to me, ‘D0 you want to try?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I took hold of the hawk in one hand (what the plaster is held on) and a trowel in the other and had a go. I was terrible. It was much harder than it looked. The 10 commandments are a bit like that. At first, they might seem manageable and relatively easy to keep. That’s what the rich young ruler thought of the commandments when he said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept since my youth.’   (Mark 10:20) How wrong he was. The Pharisees were also wrong about God’s commandments. They had a superficial and external attitude to the law.

1. True or false? The 6th commandment is easy to keep.

Have you ever murdered someone? Have you kept this particular commandment? The Pharisees thought they successfully kept the 6th commandment, thou shalt not murder, as long as they did not spill any blood. Jesus comes to them and corrects this false understanding. The commands of God are so deep that they concern the heart as well as our actions. And so, if we are angry with someone in a wrong way then we have broken the spirit of this command: ‘ class=”blu”You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.’   (Matthew 5:21-22) In other words, murder is not only a crime of the hand but also of the heart. You don’t have to commit physical murder to have the heart of a murderer. You can have murderous thoughts and break this command.

The 6th commandment not only prohibits the act of murder, but also an attitude towards people which hates, resents, is embittered, is angry, despises and wishes someone dead. Which of us has kept the 6th commandment? None of us. That is the truth of the matter.

How big of a problem is anger? Surely Christians will have got a handle on ‘anger management’!

Jerry Bridges: ‘It permeates each person and spoils our most intimate relationships. Anger is a given part of our fallen human fabric. Sadly, this is true even in our Christian homes and churches… our anger is often directed towards those we should love most: our spouse, children, parents, or siblings in our human families, and those who are our true brothers and sisters in Christ in our church families.’

What is anger? It is a strong feeling of displeasure, and usually of antagonism. It is usually accompanied by sinful emotions, words and actions hurtful to those who are the objects of our anger.

‘Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’   (Ephesians 4:31-32) Here we see Christian discipleship is like gardening. Both the weeding out (get rid of) and the planting (be kind and compassionate) are necessary in the Christian life.

‘My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.’ (James 1:19-20)

‘Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.’   (Proverbs 29:11)

‘An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins.’   (Proverbs 29:22) Anger leads to other sins: bitterness, resentment, church splits, divorce, rudeness and violence.

Can we ever say, ‘Yes I’m angry, but that’s because someone else has made me angry’? Or, is this just blame-shifting for our own reactions? ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.’   (Mark 7:20-23) Even when we are wronged, we can still choose how we will respond to the sinful actions of others towards us.

Jerry Bridges: ‘Someone else’s words or actions may be the occasion of our anger, but the cause lies deep within us – usually our pride, or selfishness, or desire to control.’

Often it is our words which reveal our murderous thoughts. In verse 22, Jesus mentions this word ‘raca’ which means ‘empty’ and is probably similar to when we might call someone an ‘airhead’ or a ‘blockhead’. You are insulting their intelligence. Or you might call someone a ‘fool’, which seems in this context to be close to calling him a scoundrel. In other words, we are engaging in the character assassination of another person, which is a serious business. Of course, insulting words may never lead to murder, but they are serious in the sight of God. That is why there is a warning of divine judgement in verse 22.

‘Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.’ (1 John 3:15)

John Stott: ‘Anger and insult are ugly symptoms of a desire to get rid of someone who stands in our way. Our thoughts, looks and words all indicate that, as we sometimes dare to say, we ‘wish he were dead.’

I hope we are all more sensitised to just how serious anger is in the sight of God and how destructive it can be.

Jerry Bridges: ‘Anger held on to, is not only sin, it is spiritually dangerous. Anger is never static. If it is not dealt with, it will grow into bitterness, hostility and revenge-minded grudges.’

And because it is so serious, we should do anything to avoid it and do all we can to limit its effects as quickly as possible. Jesus stresses the urgency of dealing with anger in the two illustrations he gives in vs 23-26.

2. Christian disciples: sort our disagreements speedily.

Jesus’ teaching on the immediate action anger requires is quite shocking: ‘Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.’   (Matthew 5:23-24)

For us in 2025, we might picture ourselves in church listening to a sermon, but then realise there is a relationship which has become bitter, leave church there and then and go and sort it out. Did Jesus mean this literally? Certainly, it gets the point across emphatically – sort it out as soon as is humanly possible. If we don’t, the issue is likely to get bigger and bigger. Paul says a similar thing ‘In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.’   (Ephesians 4:26-27) Paul is urging us not to hold onto our anger.

Notice something else. I would have expected Jesus to say something like: ‘If you are in church and you are angry with someone in your heart then go and sort it out.’ But that is not what Jesus says. Jesus says that if you realise someone else is angry with you, rightly or wrongly, get it sorted. Scotrail don’t want unidentified baggage lying around on trains or in train stations. They tell us: ‘See it. Say it. Sorted.’ That’s what we must do with our anger, whether it comes from our own hearts or from someone else’s heart to us. We have to identify that ‘dangerous baggage’ and have it removed.

Let’s be honest. Most of us are not good at keeping ‘short accounts’ with one another. Nor are we very good at going to someone and saying the words, ‘I’m sorry’. We might wait for them to make the first move. Don’t do that. Remember how important it is to God to deal with anger speedily. Are you willing to take the initiative with a family member, friend, someone in the church family or someone else and sort out resentment? Are there people we refuse to speak to? It should not be.

In a church context, we can see from this passage that God would rather you leave church and sort out a relationship that stay in worship when your worship is contaminated by a damaged relationship. God would rather you worship here with your brothers and sisters in Christ from a place of unity of heart and not from a place of bitterness and division. Such divisions go against the gospel of grace.

In Jesus’ second example (verse 25), there is once again a stress on the urgency of personal reconciliation. This is a legal image. In Jesus’ day, a person who defaulted in his debts could be thrown into a debtors’ prison.

Sinclair Ferguson: ‘Jesus says the two men should settle the matter now, before they are in the courtroom with the judge. It may be costly to settle it now; it will certainly be humbling. But if it continues, one man may find himself in prison, and unable to get out until he has paid the last penny.’

Let me quote Sinclair Ferguson again in his brilliant summary of these two illustrations: ‘Animosity is a time bomb; we do not know when it will ‘go off’. We must deal with I quickly before the consequences of our bitterness get completely out of control. Most human relationships that are destroyed could have been preserved if there had been communication and action at the right time. Jesus says that the right time is as soon as we are conscious that we are at enmity with our brother.

There is another obvious reason why anger ought to be dealt with speedily in a church. Unchecked, it is a terrible witness. We are meant to be pointing others to how they can be reconciled to God, and so if we cannot reconcile with one another, it is just an awful witness. That’s why as far as it depends on us, we should live at peace with all people. ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’   (John 13:35)

Let us take a moment to pause and think: is there someone we need to put things right with? Do we have to stay stuck in our anger? Is there a way back? Even after years?

Mature Christian disciples will acknowledge that their anger is very likely to be sinful. They will then try and think about what lies behind that anger. Is it our pride, our selfishness or our desire to be in control? Repent of whatever is feeding your anger and pray to God for a godly attitude towards the person who has wronged you.

‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’ (  (Ephesians 4:32)

Sermon: Sunday, 9th November, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20

If we want to grow and develop as Christians, is it important that we understand the place of God’s law in our lives. God’s law is summarised in the 10 commandments, and these commandments are summarised by Jesus in one words – love.

‘Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’   (Matthew 22:4-40)

So, Jesus reminds us that the law is good and is really concerned with how we can love God and love one another. We can also see just how good the law is by understanding that it reflects the character of God himself. For example, God tells us not to lie as he is the God of truth and he tells is not to commit adultery because he is a faithful God. The problem all human beings have is not that the law is bad or irrelevant. It is good and extremely relevant. The problem is that we are unable to keep the law in our own strength. In that sense, the law is like an x-ray, which shows all the moral failures we have inside our hearts. So, when we hear the simply command not to be jealous of what other people have- do not covet- we begin to realise that we are experts in coveting, and that is a serious problem.

When it comes to the commandments of God, Christians often fall into two dangerous extremes. Some wrongly believe that the law no longer applies to the Christian. They say things like, ‘We are now no longer under law but grace.’ or ‘I don’t need to keep the law – Jesus has forgiven me.’ This is wrong. They will twist a few New Testament verses to try and justify this position. Yes, we know that we cannot be justified or get to Heaven through keeping the law, but nonetheless it still has an important place in our lives. This view is called antinomianism, which just means ‘against the law’. I hope none of us here thinks that the 10 commandments or the beatitudes no longer apply.

The other extreme when it comes to the law is legalism. Legalists focus on keeping the law outwardly but often ignore the need to keep the law in our hearts. By doing this they try and ‘domesticate’ the law, reducing its power and making it something manageable, something that they can keep really easily. This too is wrong. Legalists sometimes think they can earn God’s favour by rule-keeping and they also have a tendency to add human traditions on top of God’s law.

Sinclair Ferguson: ‘The legal spirit is not to be confused with the Spirit of holiness. It is a subtle distortion that leads us to think that God’s approval of us is conditioned upon our obedience rather than upon Christ’s obedience.’

Our passage today, just 4 verses, is extremely helpful because here Jesus explains what his relationship is to God’s law, and then teaches us what our relationship with the law ought to be.

1. Jesus’ relationship with the law of God

This section begins with Jesus saying, ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets…‘   (Matthew 5:17) Clearly, for Jesus to have said this, some people did think, wrongly, that Jesus was against the law. Why did they think that? Well, when Jesus picked ears of corn on the Sabbath or healed the sick on the Sabbath the Pharisees and teachers of the law got extremely angry with him. They thought Jesus was breaking the Sabbath commandment. However, he was not. Jesus was only breaking the human traditions they had added to the Bible, but he would never have broken a commandment. He was perfect. It was their made-up rules which were wrong, not Jesus! Or when Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors or prostitutes, the religious leaders thought Jesus was breaking the commandments. But again, they were wrong. He was only breaking their human traditions and false interpretations of the law. In any case, Jesus knows some people have been claiming that he is against the law.

And Jesus wants to make his relationship to the law crystal clear. He says, ‘I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.’   (Matthew 5:17) What does he mean?

Before we consider how Jesus fulfils the God’s law, let’s first just hear his plain and powerful affirmation of the moral law in the Old Testament. He says it has not been abolished. It still stands. So, as we continue in our studies on discipleship, know that Jesus expects all his followers, in God’s strength, to keep his law. We must try to honour our parents and keep his day and not tell lies. Those people (antinomians) who claim we are no longer obliged to keep the law are wrong.

How does Jesus fulfil the law and the prophets? This is a wonderful thing to consider. The phrase ‘the law and the prophets’ is just another way of speaking about the whole of the Old Testament. Jesus fulfils the Old Testament as he fulfils the many predicative prophecies there made about him. What was predicted would happen to the Messiah, predictions made hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, came to pass in Jesus. It was prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, but would go down into Egypt for a time. All of this happened to Jesus. He fulfilled these prophesies. Throughout Matthew’s gospel, as things happen to Jesus, he reminds us of this by saying: ‘This happened to fulfil what was written in the prophet so and so.’

Let’s just pause here. How do we know the Bible is a supernatural book coming straight from the mouth of God? How do we know we can trust what is written there? One massive reason is this – there are hundreds of predictions about Jesus written hundreds of years before his birth and they all came true. All of them. It was predicted that he would be crucified with criminals, be offered wine vinegar to drink, be buried in a rich man’s tomb and then rise from the dead. All of these things came to pass. Let’s have confidence in the Bible. It is not a book where God explains everything to us exhaustively. He does not answer all our questions. However, in his wisdom, he has revealed so much to us- all that he wants us to know. Even conservatively speaking, Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies.

But Jesus also fulfils the law in another sense – he shows us how deep God’s law really is. It is not just a matter of something external but it is a matter of the heart. If you think of God’s law as a bike tyre, the Pharisees had actually deflated the law of its power by only keeping it on the surface. Jesus comes and puts air back into the tyre, filling up the law so that we can see its true significance. For example, the Pharisees thought they could keep the 7th commandment – do not commit adultery. They thought they were good people and that this law was manageable. Jesus smashes this falsehood by saying: ‘You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.   (Matthew 5:27-28) This is crucial to grasp. Jesus shows the law concerns our motives and thought -lives and hearts and not just outward appearance. Man looks to the outward appearance but God looks to the heart.

Ironically, the religious leaders had accused Jesus of abolishing or weakening the law. In fact, it was they who had weakened it, by ignoring our need to have our hearts right with God.

Sinclair Ferguson: ‘Jesus did not weaken the law. On the contrary, he let it out of the cage in which the Pharisees had imprisoned it, allowing it to pounce on our secret thoughts and motives and tear to pieces our bland assumption that we are able to keep it in our own strength.’

What’s the practical lesson here to take away this morning? When we read the Old Testament, there are some laws that no longer apply, and for good reason. For example, the ceremonial laws for priests concerning how to sacrifice animals no longer apply today because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice and has fulfilled the ceremonial law. It is no longer required. And there are also Old Testament laws which were specifically for Israel as a nation. For example, the food laws, not to eat pork. These laws are no longer in force as God’s people no longer constitute a nation. But all the other Old Testament laws are still in force for us, and Jesus’ followers must seek to obey these moral laws.

Jesus is so strong on this. He says that the moral law is as enduring as the universe itself. ‘For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.‘   (Matthew 5:18) God’s law remains in force.

Imagine you are reading through Deuteronomy and you read in chapter 15: ‘If among you, one of your brothers should become poor… you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him.’   (Deuteronomy 15:7-8) Friends, these moral principles of open-handed compassion still apply to me and to you. The same goes for laws about justice, and care for the vulnerable, especially widows, orphans and foreigners.

2. The Christian and the law of God

Let’s start by considering Jesus’ shocking statement: ‘For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.’   (Matthew 5:20) Most ordinary Jews regarded the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as the most righteous people on the planet. If anyone would get into Heaven, they wrongly thought, it would be them. They were the experts. The knew the law inside out and seemed to keep the 248 commands and 365 prohibitions. Please understand how flabbergasted the people would have been to hear the standard of righteousness must exceed theirs. Does this mean that we need almost perfection to be good in God’s eyes? No!

The truth is, as we have seen, that the quality of the Pharisees’ rule-keeping was so surface-level that they were not righteous at all. They actually distorted God’s commands, twisted them, and like everyone else failed to keep them. To help us understand this, remember the rich young ruler in Matthew 19. Jesus reads him the commands, and the ruler says: ‘All these I have kept’. He looked like a good person externally but inwardly he loved money more than God. Jesus tells him to go and sell his possessions and give the money to the poor. He cannot do it. Money is his God. He cannot even keep the first commandment. He is not righteous. Our righteousness must be greater than his.

How can we do this? How can our righteousness be greater than that of the Pharisees? Some must have thought that Jesus was joking! Here is the answer. We can only do this by having a heart-righteousness. And a deeper heart-righteousness is impossible for us unless we are given a new heart by God himself. And we only get a new heart following a new spiritual birth- being ‘born again’.

Here’s the wonderful process – when we turn from our sins and trust in Jesus for our salvation and follow him, God gives us a new heart, and this heart begins to want to keep God’s laws, not to earn his love, but because of our gratitude to him. Our new heart obeys God out of gratitude. This is the opposite of why the Pharisees tried to keep the law. This should not be a surprise to us. We read in Ezekiel, ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.’   (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

For all of Jesus disciples here this morning, our righteousness does exceed that of the Pharisees. Is this something we can boast about? Absolutely not. It is God who gave us new hearts and it is God who gave us his Spirit who helps us to love and keep the law. Without God’s help, without conversion, no one is able to keep God’s law out of gratitude to God. We need God’s help to keep the beatitudes and the 10 commandments and any other aspect of the moral law.

We also see this clearly in Jeremiah, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’   (Jeremiah 31:33)

Here’s the before and after. Before salvation, God’s law is something external and burdensome. After salvation, we understand more of its depth and we have a God-given desire to keep it, fuelled by our love for Jesus and motivated to please him.

Sermon: Sunday, 2nd November, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16

We return to Jesus’ most famous sermon – the Sermon on the Mount. We spent four weeks in the beatitudes as Jesus described what the character of a Christian must be like. We must be those who are poor in spirit, not thinking too highly of ourselves. We must mourn our sin and the fact we have all let God down, and broken his rules. We are to hunger for the ways of God and be peacemakers, and so on. We cannot ‘whip up’ these characteristics on our own strength, so must be praying that the Holy Spirit would empower us and enlarge our hearts. Jesus is honest with us. In v11, he tells us plainly that living in this different, counter-cultural way will result in being persecuted by others. We must be aware that the Christian life was never meant to be easy. It is, in fact, a battle.

Next, Jesus moves on to consider the influence Christians who live out the beatitudes will have on the rest of the world. Last week, we focused on the image of salt. Salt prevents meat and fish from rotting. Likewise, as Christians follow the ways of Jesus closely, we hinder those around us falling into deeper decay. Last week we thought of some examples of this. As men have been converted in outer Mongolia, and as Jesus has changed their lives, they no longer waste their wages on alcohol and neglect and abuse their families in drunkenness. This widespread practice is not as prevalent there as it used to be. Christians are acting as salt. And we also saw how it was following British revivals in the 19th century that ‘salty Christians’ spearheaded the abolition of the slave trade, the end of child labour, the rise of the nursing movement, prison reform, the building of hospitals and schools and formation of labour unions. When a church is strong in a country, it hinders decay and when the church is weak, the decay happens more quickly. But the influence of Christians is not just about slowing decay. There’s a more positive side.

Jesus makes this wonderful statement: ‘You are the light of the world.’   (Matthew 5:14) Light dispels the darkness and brings life. It exposes falsehood and brings truth and love. It guides and reveals. Light is something precious and beautiful and positive. Remember who Jesus is talking to – Galilean peasants, who were ‘nobodies’ in the eyes of the world. They were not rich or influential or powerful. They did not have political connections. And yet because they were the people who trusted in Jesus and had a relationship with him, Jesus says emphatically: ‘You are the light of the world.’ He says the same to us this morning. If Jesus is your King and Saviour and you are his apprentice, then you too are the light of the world. You have a massively important role to play in this world. You will be a bearer of truth and a guide and one who dispels darkness. Society might look at the church as irrelevant or inconsequential. Jesus invests us with this marvellous responsibility. Is it arrogant for Christians to see themselves as the light of the world? Who do we think we are?

1. Jesus is the ultimate light; our light derives from him

‘Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’   (John 8:12)

Who is the ultimate light? Jesus! But listen closely to what Jesus says – it is as we follow him and his ways that we too will emit his light. As we remain united to Jesus in faith and as we nurture our relationship with Jesus through the Bible and prayer, and as we obey his ways, his light will flow into us and be seen by others. One excellent illustration of this is to think about the moon. Think of a beautiful full moon in a dark sky. It shines and breaks into the darkness. But where does its light come from? It comes from the sun. It is a derivative light. The moon reflects the light of the sun. In the same way, our light comes from Jesus. Our light is but a reflection of his. Jesus is the light of the world. He is the source of truth and love and life we all desperately need.

‘… people living in darkness have seen a great light…’   (Matthew 4:16) So, we are not arrogant as Christians. We know we don’t deserve to be lights. This is the work of God’s grace within us.

‘… giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’   (Colossians 1 vs 12-14)

2. The world is in darkness

It is obvious that the world is in great darkness. It is easy to see this all over the world when we consider crime, war, greed, exploitation, drugs, abortion, the worship of self and gossip and lies and pride and lust and laziness. But Jesus is keen for us to look closer to home, and understand that these things also lurk in our own hearts.

Jesus said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’   (Mark 7:20-23) Perhaps you have a more optimistic view of the human race than Jesus. But I know these things lurk in my heart.

The renowned author GK Chesterton once entered a newspaper essay competition. Essays had to answer the question – what is wrong with the world. He wrote: ‘Dear Sir, I am. Yours Sincerely, GK Chesterton’

The darkness of the world is more than a moral darkness. It is also a spiritual darkness and a darkness of understanding. Most people in Scotland do not know the meaning and purpose of life. They do not know about God or what he is like or how he wants us to live. They do not know what will happen to them when they die. They have no hope beyond the grave. Most people wrongly think they are basically good people, and don’t need Jesus or the forgiveness he offers. Friends, this is a thick black darkness. Many do not know we are more than just animals. We are made in God’s image. We are made to live for God and to enjoy a relationship with God. This world desperately needs our light. And God in his wisdom has chosen to shed his light into the world through his church – through ordinary people like us. The world likes to think it is enlightened. But it cannot even answer basic questions on purpose and meaning.

3. The purpose of our identity as lights

Jesus has given his church and the individuals with his church a huge privilege and responsibility – to be light bearers for God. We might feel inadequate for such a task. But Jesus is encouraging us. He’s not saying this is what you could be, but this is what you are. You are the light of the world. The more closely we follow Jesus, the brighter our light will shine. But even a small amount of light can make a huge difference in the darkness.

Many years ago, I went to a Hungarian national park called Aggtelek. They have an incredible network of caves there. You go down into the cave system in Hungary and can come out on the other side of the border, in Slovakia. Deep in this cave system, our guide turned off all the electric light. It was the darkest darkness I have ever experienced. Then he turned on a small torch, and that made a huge different. We did not feel so disorientated any more. That’s the impact the church can have in the world. That’s why Leven Free Church is so important in Fife, for example.

One of the functions of light is to show people the way. It acts as a guide. We know why the world is the way it is. We know its Creator. We know his Word. We know what he wants. We know how to get into Heaven. As we tell others this wonderful message, we act as lights in the darkness.

When we considered being the salt of the earth, we were reminded of how salt must be rubbed into the meat or fish to have an impact. Likewise, for light to have an impact, it must shine in places of darkness. If a room is already well lit during a summer’s day, turning on a light will have no impact whatsoever. Likewise, without compromising, Christians must be involved in society, even when it is dark, and in so doing act as lights. We need to be involved in ordinary things, clubs and societies and neighbourhoods and the social structures of the workplace, where possible.

What does it really mean for us to shine as lights in the darkness. As we’ve already heard, it does involve pointing people to Jesus and showing them the way. But in this passage, the focus is on our ‘good deeds’. Wherever the Lord places us, in school, at work, in the family, in church and in the community, we must never grow tired of doing good.

‘God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.’   (Acts 10:38) Like Jesus before us, we must go around helping others, loving others and working hard. Our workplace ought to be all the better for us being there. We should not be the moaners and complainers or the gossips or the lazy.

‘Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.‘   (1 Peter 2:12)

‘Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…’   (Philippians 2:14-15)

Think back to the last week, in your workplace, in the community, at the shops, meeting other people in any context, were these places better because you were there encouraging others, helping others, listening to others, and promoting their welfare? Jesus wants other people to be blessed by our words and actions and see the light within us. And that light within us should not point to ourselves but our Father in Heaven. Light is not meant to point to itself. A spotlight shines on a person on the stage. Our light is meant to spotlight God. People are meant to be attracted to God because they see God within us!

Sinclair Ferguson: ‘The regeneration of men’s lives is a sovereign work of God’s grace. We cannot bring anyone to newness of life. But it is our responsibility to live the new life in order that others may be challenged by it. It is our responsibility to shine for Jesus Christ so that others will see his salvation expressed in the flesh-and-blood reality of our daily lives. This is the point Jesus is making: we have a responsibility to show the Christ-like life of light to those around us. We cannot hide it under a cover.’

As we have already heard, light is meant to be placed in the darkness and meant to be seen, not covered. If you think of a one room Scottish black house or one room home in Jesus’ day, a lamp would be put on a stand to light up the whole room. It would be ridiculous to cover that lamp with a bowl. We are not to be lights hidden away in Christian bubbles. And if you lived in Jesus’ day, before electric streetlights, travellers would be delighted to see the light of a city shining in the distance, breaking the darkness and showing them the way. That city on a hill is meant to be seen. Let me be more personal- you are meant to be seen. Whether you like it or not, Jesus’ plan is that his light will be shown to the world through his people. What a privilege and what a responsibility. One of the main ways God in his wisdom chooses to reveal himself to others is through his transformed people, people now living out the beatitudes. We are, in this sense, being watched all the time. And if our light is shining, we are living proof that Jesus Christ is alive and is a great Saviour who forgives and transforms his people. That’s what happened in Outer Mongolia. People could see the power of God in the change taking place in the people of God and this, in turn, changed more lives.

We are God’s ambassadors. In his providence, he has placed us in a variety of families and communities and workplaces. The question is this, will you pray for God to help you to love and care for those around you, that you would shine brightly for him? If we have not been in this mindset, then we need to repent of our careless discipleship. This is basic Christianity.

Will you go into the rest of this week determined to love those around you and to help them? You might be in a time of stress and trouble. You are still watched at such times as to how you will react. If you can maintain a love for others at such times, your light will be powerful and impactful. May the Lord help us all to shine for him as we do good to others.

Sermon: Sunday, 31st August, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Mathew 11:28-30

What’s the best invitation you have ever had? It’s lovely to receive an invitation. Perhaps it was a wedding invitation to celebrate the ‘big day’ of close friends and to share in their joy. Or perhaps you were invited on holiday to a beautiful area to explore all kinds of new places with your friends. You might be invited to apply for a job and that feels like a great boost – people appreciate your efforts in the workplace. We are inviting people to come to Meal with a Message; they might accept or decline the invitation. You might receive a handwritten note from your spouse, inviting you for a special picnic and walk; sometimes these personal invitations are the most touching. Or it could be a surprise milestone birthday party you are asked to. Roger is inviting us all to a musical concert on the 1st of November. As we know, when invitations arrive then we have a decision to make, to accept or politely decline. A response is required. But the best and most important invitation you have ever received comes here in Matthew chapter 11. Make no mistake, you are invited and you are invited by Jesus himself. Let’s explore what it is exactly that Jesus is inviting us to and what the implications are if we accept or reject the invitation.

1. An astonishing invitation

‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’   (Matthew 11:28)

What is astonishing about this invitation? It is staggering for one man, Jesus, to invite the whole world to come to him to receive all the things that they need most. Can Jesus really deliver that? Does he have the resources to meet all our needs? This is the kind of invitation that only God could extend. We read in the book of Isaiah; ‘Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.’   (Isaiah 45:22) God is saying that only he is qualified to rescue us. That would be arrogant were it not true. Likewise, Jesus’ claim to the only one in whom the deepest needs of the world can be satisfied is either some kind of foolish arrogance or it is the truth. We know that Jesus is far more than a human being; he both God and man in one person. That is why he is able to make this amazing invitation. Jesus is, in effect, inviting us to have a relationship with him. It is one where we trust and obey and follow him. And it is through this relationship alone that we can find rest for our souls. It is a relationship where we talk to him in prayer and listen to his voice as we read the Bible.

No politician can say to us, ‘Follow our party and we will meet the deepest needs of your soul.’ No scientist can point to a discovery which will give us peace, meaning and direction. No false prophet in other religions can accomplish this. Only Jesus can. And the good news is that he actually invites you to come to him to receive all you need and more. The question is, will you come?

But it’s also an astonishing invitation because it is an invitation made to those who have rejected him. Jesus has been denouncing the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida. They had seen his miracles and heard his teaching first-hand and yet still rejected him. The Apostle John was right when he wrote: ‘He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.’   (John ch 1 v11)

Today in Fife, the vast majority of people have no time for God or for the things of eternity. Even though these are the critical areas of life, we just focus on what we can see and touch instead. We conveniently forget about the big questions of life: what happens when we die? What will God do about all the wrong things I have done personally? What is the meaning of life? Does God love me? Even though the human race refuses to thank God for his goodness to us and to live our lives for him, Jesus still invites us into a relationship with him. Jesus is here opening his arms to receive the whole world, even a world which has ignored him. It is an invitation we really don’t deserve. Instead of condemnation, we receive an invitation.

2. Who specifically is invited?

We have already seen that the whole world is invited. But Jesus is more specific. He is inviting the ‘weary and the burdened’ He is inviting those who labour and are heavy laden. But does this not describe the whole world without Christ?

Augustine said: ‘You have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in You.’

It’s hard for people to be satisfied without knowing life’s true purpose, even if their family and work circumstances are positive. And it’s no wonder people are weary in a world full of pain and suffering when that pain and suffering seems random and pointless. Is life really meaningless? Life is not a level playing field. Some carry more burdens than others. However, life is hard for everyone. Sometimes we are burdened by guilt weighing us down. We know we have hurt others, but we don’t really know what to do about that. Our consciences begin to bother us. Sometimes we’re crushed by rejection, or bad relationships or an addiction. We are just so worn down by life. Are you loaded down by your sin, or sorrow or regret this morning? You are invited to come to Jesus.

In Jesus’ day, many were weighed down trying to earn God’s favour keeping all kinds of rules. Not just rules in the Bible, but many man-made rules as well. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus describes the actions of the Pharisees: ‘They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.’   (Matthew 23:4) In other words, they falsely teach that people must earn their place in Heaven by ensuring that their good outweighs their bad. But we cannot earn our salvation. We cannot rescue ourselves. We cannot even keep God’s laws, but break them on a daily basis. What a massive burden to place on people – telling them they must, in their own strength, be good enough for God. And even if we do go down this false road, we would never know if what we have done has been enough. We would always be in a state of spiritual anxiety.

It’s not just back in Jesus’ day that people were over-burdened trying to earn God’s favour. This happens just as much today. In fact, every religion teaches this false path and in so doing places burden after burden on people. Jesus invites us to come to him and have this burden removed from our backs. He is able to keep the law on our behalf. And he is able to pay the price for the wrongs we have committed by dying on the cross for us.

3. What does Jesus promise those who come to him?

In a word, rest! There is rest for our souls and it is found in a relationship with Jesus. There is rest for our conscience as in Jesus our sins can be totally forgiven and we no longer carry the burden of shame and guilt. There is rest in our hearts because in Jesus we know who we are, why we are here, what our true purpose is and what will happen to us at death. There is rest in Jesus because our Creator specifically designed us to have a relationship with him.

Most of us know what it is like to be exhausted and burnt out but then to have a proper rest. We might just need time away from work, or a parent might need a break from the relentless task of watching young children. To those trying to earn God’s favour, Jesus tells us that he has done everything necessary for us to be saved and to enter Heaven. We can rest in what he has done. It is not restful to live life running away from God and just doing our own thing. How can we know spiritual rest doing that?

What does coming to Jesus for rest involve in practical terms? It means coming to him in prayer, and asking him for his forgiveness and his help. It means coming to him with empty hands and asking him for all that we need. It means giving up trying to go it alone and receiving his love and grace. It means entering into a relationship with King Jesus.

4. A life-long apprenticeship

But the rest Jesus offers us is not a life of idleness. We are not called to do nothing. And it’s not an easy life but one full of battles and difficulties and temptations. Can that still be restful? Yes, it can. He says: ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’   (Matthew 11:29-30)

What does it mean to take Jesus’ yoke on us? We don’t often think about animal yokes in our culture. A yoke is a wooden collar that runs across the shoulders of a pair of oxen, helping them to pull huge weights. When we become Christians, giving our allegiance to Jesus, this is just the first day of a whole life of serving him. To take Jesus’ yoke on our shoulders means to follow him, serve him and learn from him. In other words, we become Jesus disciples, or apprentices. In the Bible, a yoke speaks of submission to authority. He is in charge of all areas of our lives. We submit to his authority about forgiving others, relationships, our use of money and time, and in terms of our attitudes and desires. Does that sound restful to you? Submitting to Jesus’ authority? The amazing thing is this- it actually is restful to give up trying to live any way we please. Doing as we please is not how we were designed and leads to frustration and hurt and emptiness. In contrast, living according to the ways of Jesus gives us true rest and freedom and peace.

In verse 29, Jesus says: ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…’ Christian disciples are to be life-long learners. We must always have our Bibles open so that we are learning from Jesus. When we are learning to drive, we display the red L-plates. When we pass our test we have the option of displaying a green P which stands for probationary. We still have a lot to learn. As Christians, I think it’s useful to think of ourselves as always keeping the L-plate on. We never reach a stage where we no longer have to follow Jesus. We need to be committed each day to the process of learning from Jesus.

If you learn a language from the app Duolingo, you aim to complete at least one lesson every day. The number of continuous days you have is called a streak. Keen language learners become quite obsessed with making their streak as long as possible. Christians must do the same with our Bibles. We need a healthy obsession to ensure each day we are learning from the attitudes of Jesus and the actions of Jesus and the commands of Jesus. And because Christians are now filled with the Holy Spirit and because we do so with gratitude in our hearts to the one who died for us, this should not be a burden. Following and obeying Jesus should bring us rest. ‘In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…’   (1 John 5:3) Friends, is this your attitude?

5. Is there anyone better to follow?

I love the answer Peter gives to Jesus when Jesus asks if the twelve want to stop following him, as many from the large crowds had done. ‘Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’   (John 6:68-69) This is so true.

There’s another reason for following Jesus. ‘I am gentle and humble in heart…’   (Matthew 11:29) This is the only time in the whole Bible when Jesus describes his own heart. When Peter denied Jesus, eventually he was able to come to Jesus and what did he find? One who was gentle with him and humble and who would restore him to usefulness once again. For us who are Christians but have made a right mess of something or other, be assured that we can come to Jesus and he will be gentle with us. Is that not a precious truth? The religious leaders of Jesus day were uncaring and harsh and critical and proud. You wouldn’t want to have gone to them for help. But Jesus’ arms are always wide open to receive us and bless us. If you come to Jesus he will meet you with kindness and gentleness. So, come!

And if you are not yet a Christian, I would urge you to stop carrying the heavy load of sin and guilt and meaninglessness and rebellion. Instead, come to Jesus in prayer. Ask for forgiveness. Ask him to be in charge. Become his disciple. Learn from him. And you will know rest.

Sermon: Sunday, 24th August, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Revelations 8:1-5

It’s been several weeks since we were last in Revelation, so let’s recap. In chapter 5, we saw a scroll with writing on both sides in the hand of God the Father. This scroll symbolises God’s plans for human history. At first, no one could be found worthy to open the scroll, and bring God’s plans to fulfilment. However, there is a lion-like Saviour who is going to put things right! This lion is also a Lamb who has been slain.

In chapter 6, we were introduced to the four riders of the apocalypse. Through these coloured horses, and the opening of the first four seals, God is telling us what must take place between the first coming and second coming of Jesus, which includes right now. God wants us to be prepared for the great suffering on the earth from the time of Jesus’ ascension, until the day he returns, at the end of the world. God says to expect a world of military conquest (the white horse), war (the red horse), famine (the black horse) and death (the pale horse). And this is exactly our experience of life. God’s warning is exactly right. The fifth seal transported us from the earth up into Heaven, where the martyrs ask God how long the suffering of Christians on earth must last for; God tells them it will be until he has finished gathering in all the saints. Then, most soberingly, we saw that the opening of the sixth seal marks the Day of Judgement. A great shaking and destroying of all evil will take place. The sun turns black and the stars fall from the sky. The universe is being dismantled. The end has come. Those who have rejected God in this life will have nowhere to hide from God’s justice on that day. They will have missed their opportunity to receive God’s mercy. They must now face the consequences of their own failures.

If the opening of the sixth seal seemed too climatic, with the whole universe being dismantled, what is going to happen when Jesus opens the seventh seal? Will the earth melt with fire? After the action-packed descriptions of seals 1-6, the last seal might seem to arrive with a sense of anti-climax: ‘When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.’   (Revelation 5:1) There is not much silence in the book of Revelation; usually we hear loud cries of praise on the sound of war or a loud voice speaking, but not silence. What are we to make of it? The silence is deafening. It is an intense and overwhelming silence, like the calm before a storm.

1. Evil will be punished

As we have seen again and again, the best key to unlock the imagery in Revelation is the Old Testament. What does silence signify there? There are many Old Testament passages which link silence to the righteous judgment of God. For example, in Isaiah 23 v2, when Tyre is being judged by the Lord, we read: ‘Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon…’   (Isaiah 23:2) And in the book of Zephaniah, God gives a prophecy about judging the whole earth on the day of the Lord: ‘Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near.’   (Zephaniah 1:7) This is a holy and reverent silence before divine judgment takes place.

The silence, then, signals to us here this morning that there will be a day when we are all brought to account for how we have lived. We cannot live any way we please and ignore God with impunity. Why does this silence last for half an hour? I am not sure. Perhaps it signals how suddenly this judgment will come upon us. We need to be ready for it, by becoming followers of Jesus.

Many Christians today struggle with the truth of God’s judgment. Some are emotionally troubled by it and others might feel even stronger and be morally outraged by it. The fear is that hell will be an unfair punishment and that it does not square with a loving God. These are genuine concerns people wrestle with. I’ve got several questions about hell myself which I don’t know the answer to. I leave these things with the most loving, just and fair being in the universe – God himself.

Recently, I read a helpful article by Rebecca McLaughlin about the link between love and anger:

‘The idea of the wrath of God seems alien to us a psychologically damaging relic from a bygone era. But just as we cannot absolve people of moral accountability without also erasing their ability to love, so God’s love and God’s judgment cannot be pulled apart. Think of the anger you feel when you see school children shot, women raped, or people beaten because of the colour of their skin. Think of your anger at the slave trade, the Holocaust, and global sex trafficking. When you analyse that anger, its root is love. No one who regards those of other races as subhuman cares about racial exploitation. No one who believes that women or children are property cares about sexual abuse. And the more we love, the more easily our anger is kindled. We rush to defend our children from the least attack because we love them: anyone who harms them inspires our fury.

Imagine that this kind of love-motivated anger is so deeply entrenched in the heart of God that your own commitment to justice is like a drop in the ocean, like the justice of a child dressing up in a police outfit compared with a high-court judge.’

In 2014, it came to light that Jimmy Savile was not the man we might have thought he was. Yes, he raised 40 million for charity. But the truth is that he was a sexual predator who never received punishment for his decades of criminal activity. Did he get away with it? No. He will be brought to account by God. We all will.

Earlier in the month, the Steadfast Global prayer notes told us about Nigeria: ‘Violent attacks against Christian communities are continuing across Plateau state with a further 17 Christians killed by suspected Fulani Muslims since 15 July’. From a human point of view, these attackers got away with it. But have they? Do you want to live in a world where evil actions do not matter? Yes, for many hell is a tough truth to wrestle with. But a universe without justice is also an awful thought. And we can be sure that God will never over-react when meting out punishments. It will be done with absolute fairness. Jesus says, ‘But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.’   (Matthew 11 v 24:) In other words, there will be different levels of punishment in hell.

What will we say to the Lord when we stand before him in judgment? What will Savile say? What will the Fulani herdsman say? Will we be complaining to God about how unfair the punishment is going to be? ‘Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.’   (Romans 1:19) Every mouth will be silenced because God will be judging us and not the other way round. Evil will not remain unpunished forever.

2. The power of prayer

Is there really any point in praying to God? What difference does it make? If we look closely at these few verses it ought to be a massive encouragement to us to pray more. Prayer makes all the difference. Who exactly is praying here? Verse 3 says it is the prayers of ‘all of God’s people’. It is the prayers of all the saints. That includes the prayers of us here this morning, if we are Jesus’ disciples. And what happens to our prayers when they are uttered? They do not bounce of the ceiling and get lost. They do not enter a black hole. Rather, they reach the front of the throne of God. In other words, God hears them. The King of the Universe listens to us personally.

If we all wrote letters to Keir Starmer expressing our various concerns and needs, I very much doubt we would get a personal reply. The letters will go through a screening process at his office with many being ignored. Probably, one of his secretaries will send us a generic reply to some people. How many letters does the prime minister get each day? How many does he read and respond to and take action on personally? A very small number. God is the opposite.

Notice that our prayers are mixed with incense. What does this tell us? That our prayers are like a sweet smelling aroma to our heavenly Father. Do you believe that? That’s why we sang from Psalm 141: ‘May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice’. Even when we do not know what to pray for and we cry out to God, and even when our prayers are mixed with wrong motives and faltering faith, because Jesus is our perfect sacrifice and we are united to him in faith, he makes our prayers acceptable to the Father. When we pray in Jesus’ name, our prayers are covered by Christ’s blood and ascend clean and beautiful and bring joy to our Father. Isn’t that wonderful?

There’s the story of a very young girl picking flowers for her mother. An older woman sees what she has gathered and says ‘let me help you – I’ll take out the weeds and the dirt’. And she does. And the girl gives this beautiful bouquet of flowers to her mother. This is what Jesus does with our prayers. He perfects them for us. He intercedes for us.

Here’s the most exciting part – God not only hears our prayers but he responds by taking action. Our prayers are influential. Far from being a waste of time, they result in the action of God.

Kevin Deyoung: ‘God has ordered the world so that our prayers make a difference. He has sovereignly ordered the world so that he responds to prayer. His sovereign purposes are accomplished through his people praying. The hands that fold in prayer move the hands of him who made the world.’

We see the truth of this as the Lord responds to the prayers of the persecuted church by finally bringing judgment on those who have attacked his church: ‘Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.’   (Revelation 5:5)

Remember what happened when the 5th seal was opened. The martyred saints in Heaven pray: ‘They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.’ (Revelation 6:10-11) God answers their prayers at the end of time.

When I think back over the last 30 years, I should have been more politically involved. I could have written more letters to MPs to both encourage and challenge. But there’s something much more powerful I could have done more of – and that’s pray. Because our prayers are more powerful than we realise. God uses them for the outworking of his purposes. I believe God pays more attention to our prayers and uses our prayers more than he does with the political structures we have. Political structures are important and we ought to be involved in them, but the power of prayer is more important than politics. May this remind us to pray for our politicians.

If we take this passage seriously, and if we really believe that God uses our prayers to fulfil his eternal decree then we won’t need to have our arm twisted to come to the prayer meeting or to pray more at home. If we trust prayer makes a difference it is likely we shall do it.

Sermon: Sunday, 17th August, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Acts 16:11-40

This is a thrilling part of the Bible. It describes the first three people who were converted in Europe. We find them all in a place called Philippi, which today is in the north east of Greece. You could not find three people with less in common: a wealthy business woman from Asia called Lydia; a slave girl who is a double-slave, both to her owners and an evil spirit; and a tough, cruel jailer. However, by the end of the chapter, none of those differences matter because they all become followers of Jesus, and end up in the same church together. In verse 40, we find them all gathering in Lydia’s house for a house church. And they are now called ‘brothers and sisters’. Jesus transforms the lives of all these characters. He forgives their sins and gives them the certain hope of eternal life. He brings them into the same family. So, you have men and women, slaves and free, Asians and Europeans, lower class, middle class and upper class. None of these differences matter any more. The good news of Jesus is for everyone. It doesn’t matter what country you were born in, who your people are, what gender you are, how much education or money you have, we all need Jesus to save us. And when he does, we become a church family and the differences no longer matter.

This morning, I’d like us to focus on the jailer. I hope you are all prayerfully thinking about who you can invite along to our next ‘Meal with a message’. If you had known this jailer, you probably would not have invited him. We don’t know too much of his background, but it’s likely that he is a retired Roman soldier, as many Roman soldiers retired to Philippi where they received money, land and Roman citizenship. If so, he would have been a hard man, used to bloodshed and death. We can see that he is cruel as, even though Paul and Silas had been severely flogged, he does nothing to relieve their pain. In fact, he makes their situation worse by putting them in the inner cell, the worst and darkest place to be, and then putting them in stocks, which in Roman times were also designed to inflict pain and misery. Then the jailer went off to bed to sleep. But God is going to work a miracle in his life and bring him to a place where he sees his need of Jesus.

This should be a reminder to all of us that we have no idea who God is going to save next. He saves the slave girl. Today, he might next save an addict or a religious person or someone who seems so materialistic and more interested in cars and holidays and houses than God. What does this mean for us? It means we should invite all kinds of people along to church and to church events and to our homes. It means we should get to know all kinds of different people, whoever the Lord places in our paths. And it means that God specialises in converting the most unlikely people at the most unlikely times. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. If you are here this morning and are not yet a follower of Jesus, God is able to save you too, just as he saves the jailer here.

1. God alone saves, but he uses the witness of Christians

The witness of Paul and Silas is remarkable here. They have been unlawfully arrested on false charges and severely flogged even though this was illegal as Paul is a Roman citizen. You might have expected them to be cursing and swearing at the jailer, or that they would suffer in silence, wondering why God had abandoned them in such an awful place. What we actually hear is a sound probably never heard in this inner cell before – it’s the sound of men singing praises to God. Now let’s be clear – these men do not know what is round the corner. Perhaps they will be executed. They don’t know deliverance is coming. And yet, even in these dark circumstances, they continue to trust that God is in control and that God knows what he is doing even if they do not know. These are Christian men who rejoice in knowing Jesus no matter what kind of circumstances they are in, good or bad.

Keddie: ‘To the outward view their situation was grim – flogged and imprisoned, they perhaps faced even death on the morrow. But God was in all their thoughts and as they poured out their deepest petitions before the Lord, their sense of being in his everlasting arms evoked lively singing of his praises. They had been beaten up, but they were not beaten down.’

We read in verse 25 that the other prisoners were listening to them. I think it more than likely the jailer was also listening. This is a picture of what we saw last Sunday morning, that those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles. This is supernatural strength in a time of great vulnerability.

Next, the jailer is about to commit suicide, probably because he will be put to death for allowing his prisoners to escape. We see this earlier in Acts after Peter’s miraculous escape from prison: ‘After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.’   (Acts 12:19) How do Paul and Silas respond to the jailer in this extreme situation? Paul shouts: ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’   (Acts 16:28) Sometimes we come across people who are suicidal or engaging in self-harm, and we ought to lovingly say to them ‘Don’t harm yourself’. There is hope in Jesus Christ. Who knows what situations we will come across in the coming months.

What Paul is doing for this man is a powerful witness. Paul is saying kind and loving words to the very man who had hurt him and had hurt Silas and had showed no compassion to them whatsoever. Here is a picture of loving your enemies. The prisoners make no attempt to escape. And please notice this – who does the jailer turn to when he wants to know how to be saved? Paul and Silas.

Here’s a challenge for all of us today – we are always being watched by those who know us. They notice how we react to circumstances, especially when things go wrong for us. But if we make an effort to get to know people and to show kindness to all people, even those who wrong us, then when God is at work they might well just come to us and ask us why we can be calm in the face of sickness and tragedy and even death. How we treat one another in our church and how we treat those at work and in our communities matters a great deal. God uses our witness. We are called to let our lights shine before others. Paul and Silas are not aloof from others but are among the people. They are not bitter and angry in their reactions but full of hope and love. May God help us to be the same. What a powerful witness it is when we live like that.

2. God alone saves, but he uses the words of Christians

Don’t listen to people who say: Preach the gospel at all times ad, if necessary, use words’. Christians are called to witness both with their actions and their words. You need both. You could be an amazingly kind neighbour or colleague but if you never point people to Jesus then your witness will be truncated. We need actions and words. How can someone be saved unless we tell them how?

In verse 30, we see that the jailer is beginning to think about God and his great need to get right with him. He genuinely does not know how to do this and so earnestly asks Paul and Silas the most important question in all the world: ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ The jailer might have seemed an unlikely candidate for conversion, but God is pursuing him. God sends Paul and Silas to the jail in order to witness to him and to explain the way of salvation. And God even sends an earthquake in order to bring this man to his senses. God moves heaven and earth as he goes after his lost sheep. What an encouraging fact this is. God is orchestrating events in order save the jailer from his sins.

He asks such a great question. He knows for the first time that he needs to be saved as he is lost, without God and without hope in the world. If you are not yet a Christian, do you appreciate that? Does it trouble you that you are lost and without eternal hope? Suicide was not the answer for this man. He might have escaped the judgement of his bosses but he would not and could not escape the appointment which we all have with almighty God. When we die, each one of us must stand before God and give an account for our lives. And because each one of us has broken God’s good and holy rules so many times, we urgently need to be saved.

I think Paul and Silas’ answer to his question would have greatly surprised the jailer. Notice that he asks, ‘What must I do’ to be saved. Perhaps he expected to have to make a huge financial or animal sacrifice to Jesus. Or perhaps he thought he might have to go on a long journey to a holy place or turn his life around by trying much harder to be a kind man. But none of this can save us. The answer given is much simpler: ‘They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’   (Acts 16:31) It’s crucial that we understand this- this man could not save himself. However, there is something God wants him to do. There is a step he needs to take. And it’s the same thing he wants from each one of us in this room today. He wants us to believe in Jesus. He wants our faith. There is no other way to Heaven. God wants us to receive salvation as a free gift – we cannot earn it. Faith is that receiving of the gift – accepting that Jesus died in our place on the cross.

Becoming a Christian is marked by simplicity. All that is needed is believing in Jesus. However, we must understand what it means to believe in Jesus. It is much more than just believing that he was a historical figure – that he existed. Even the Devil believes in Jesus in that sense. Faith in Jesus means accepting that there is nothing you can do to make up for breaking God’s rules. There is no programme of doing good deeds that can undo our sin. However, although we cannot make up for our wrongdoing, Jesus can. That’s why he died. And that is what we come to believe in – that Jesus, the Son of God, lived the perfect life we could never live and then died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Salvation is not about what we can do for God to make up for things, but the other way round, what God in Christ has done on the cross so that we can be forgiven. Through his death on the cross, Jesus accomplished salvation for all who would trust in him.

So, as we speak to people about Jesus, we must explain to them that salvation comes through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we need to unpack that by explaining who Jesus is and why he needed to die on the cross. We cannot just give people one sentence sound-bites. And that’s exactly what Paul and Silas do – they unpack the gospel: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’  Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.’   (Acts 16:31-32)

3. When God saves, we always see the good fruit of a changed life

What evidence is there that the jailor was truly a changed man. ‘At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds…’   (Acts 16:33) Isn’t that such a clear and practical evidence of change? It’s not that the jailer suddenly had an amazing grasp of deep theology. Nor would all of his wrong living and wrong thinking have disappeared in an instant. That would take a lifetime of work. But he had love for other followers of Jesus. The test of a living faith is faithful living, and we see that here. We also see the reality of his change in his hospitality and in the newly found joy which fills his heart.

4. When God saves, it has an impact on a whole family

‘At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptised.’   (Acts 16:33-34) Why baptise all the members of his family? The covenant sign being placed on our households goes back to the book of Genesis: ‘I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.’   (Genesis 17 v 7) God tells Abraham to place the sign of the covenant on all the males in the household. Because in conversion God embraces households. This is no guarantee that everyone will be saved all of the time in the family, but it does mean the household is now a special one. This principle is repeated on the Day of Pentecost: ‘The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.’   (Acts 2:39)

Let’s consider these verses again and listen out for the way in which the jailer’s conversion impact his whole house: ‘They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.  At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptised. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his whole household.’   (Acts 16:31-34) Today, as we say goodbye to a number in our church family (the Youngs and Daniel), I doubt that God has finished working in their families. What an encouragement it is to know our God cares for the spiritual well-being of our families.

Sermon: Sunday, 10th August, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Isaiah 40:27-31

1. Feeling forgotten by God

Do you ever feel like God has forgotten about you? Do you ever feel that he doesn’t care? If he did, surely he would have answered your prayers by now and changed things. Can true Christians become disillusioned with God? Can people with genuine faith in Christ feel that God has abandoned them? Can they become angry with God. Yes, they can. Sometimes for a long time. Yes, Christians are those with trust in Jesus, but our trust is far from perfect. Sometimes it’s a wobbly faith. Always, it’s mixed with some measure of doubt and fear and darkness and questions. Perhaps this morning, on the outside it seems your faith is fine, but the truth is, if people could see into your heart they would see that you feel far away from God and you feel that he has let you down.

In Isaiah 40, God acknowledges that his people are feeling this way: ‘Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God’?’   (Isaiah 40:27) They feel disregarded by God. They feel ignored. They feel like they don’t matter to God. They feel neglected. Why? It’s likely because God’s people are going through a difficult season of suffering. It is possible that they are in captivity in Babylon surrounded by enemies and feeling hopeless. God’s covenant promise to be their God and the God of their children seems hollow. Often in times of difficult circumstances, our faith begins to waver. Remember what the disciples to say to Jesus in the boat during the storm: ‘Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’   (Mark 4:38)

Psalm 13 opens with David’s cry: ‘How long, Lord? Will you forget me for ever? How long will you hide your face from me?’ David feels forgotten by God. Doubtless he has been praying, but God does not seem to be answering quickly enough for him. That’s why four times in the first two verses he asks, ‘How long?’ Can you relate to David? You have questions for God that he is not answering. You are in circumstances that you have prayed about again and again and nothing ever seems to change. Perhaps even years and years have gone by. And through our suffering and disappointment, it is easy to arrive at a place where we feel life has ripped the stuffing out of us and God has sat back and watched it all happen from a distance, even though we trusted in him to help, at first anyway. You pray and pray and it seems like only delay and delay from God. ‘My way is hidden from the Lord.’   (Isaiah 40:27) All Christians remain sinners, and we can begin to harden our hearts towards God and think of him in the wrong way. And Christians remain sufferers; the things we have gone through and are going through take their toll on us. We ask: ‘How can God be allowing this to happen to me?’.

Here’s some good news. God understands. He’s not fazed by our cries of disappointment. He’s not going to abandon us. I love the words in Isaiah 42 v3 which outline God’s attitude towards the weak of faith and the vulnerable: ‘A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.’   (Isaiah 42:3) Our God is a compassionate God. However, he does not want his people to remain in a place of such fragile faith. He wants our trust in him to grow once again. He wants us to be able to keep going in spite of our tough circumstances. How does the LORD do this? By reminding us of who he is and by promising strength to those who trust in him. So, if you are feeling like God has forgotten you, let’s take our eyes away from our circumstances, and back to where they ought to be – on God himself.

2. The antidote: ‘Behold your God.’

We all need to be reminded again and again of the basic truths about who God is. We need to relearn them. We forget them so quickly and then we go off the rails. ‘The Lord is the everlasting God.’   (Isaiah 40:28) He is infinite. There never was a time when God was not there and there never will be. He is the one who was, and is, and is to come. He never grows old. He is outside of time. We are all so time-bound and often feel pressurised by time. There’s so much to do and so little time. God never feels that way. We need to remember this when we pray and nothing seems to change. God is not acting on our timescale but on his own. This means we need to be patient.

His name is the LORD, which reminds us that he is the covenant God, who always keeps his promises to us, even if that takes longer than we would like. He is committed to us. He loves us.

He is the Creator of the ends of the earth. There is no part of our world where God is not in control. He is not only the infinite God but he is also the God who is everywhere, even at the ‘ends of the earth’. He is omnipresent. Maybe the Israelites felt abandoned by God in exile in Babylon. But God was right there with them. And maybe you feel abandoned by God here in Fife, in the circumstances of your own home and your own work, but God sees you and he knows what you are going through and he cares.

He will not ‘grow tired or weary’. We grow tired and weary quite easily. If we don’t get enough food or enough sleep we can quickly become jaded. Our strength is so limited. There is only so much we can do. If we are doing housework, which never seems to end, we will need to take a break. We need to rest. In so many jobs in the modern world the workload seems to increase and the number of people helping us seems to decrease. We get stressed and exhausted and burnt out. God never grows tired or weary. Isn’t that amazing? He can make the world in six days and not even break sweat. He never sleeps. He never needs to recharge his batteries. Like the burning bush in Exodus 3, he burns with energy all the time but his resources never diminish. Isaiah is saying to us all this morning: ‘behold your God’. He is eternal and everywhere and all-powerful. And there is more.

‘His understanding no one can fathom.’   (Isaiah 40:28) God is the all-knowing God. He is infinite in his wisdom. I believe this is one of God’s attributes which we need to keep particularly in mind today. When things go wrong for us, we are so quick to put God in the dock and to judge God and find him guilty, as if we are the ones who have infinite understanding.

JL Mackay: ‘…our complaints against his ways of acting are misguided because they are based on incomplete information.’

Often the LORD allows things to happen to us and we simply don’t know why. We cannot see the purpose. But does that mean there is no purpose? Does that mean it is just all meaningless? No! God, and God alone, has all the information. He alone sees the end from the beginning. And he is working all things for our good. When the going gets tough for us, we need to return to the fact that God is wiser than we are. We need to learn to be comfortable in a place where we don’t understand what God is doing, but we understand that he knows what he is doing. We need to let God be God. We need to trust him. We need to trust in his infinite wisdom. I myself have many questions God has never answered. Many things have happened to me that I really don’t understand. What will I do with all of these things? Will I put God in the dock and judge him? Or will I humbly accept that he has infinite wisdom and trust that he knows what he is doing?

During the times of our suffering, Satan wants us to doubt God’s love and wisdom. He attacks our faith and wants to extinguish it. He wants us to think of God as harsh and uncaring. We need to fight these temptations with truth. We need to be reminded about who God is, the one infinite in greatness, strength and power and wisdom.

But we also need to hear the truth about God’s graciousness. What do I mean? We need to know that God is a God who shares his power with those who are weak. ‘He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.’   (Isaiah 40:29) This is wonderful news. God is the one who sustains us in our weakness. He gives supernatural power to the faint. This might be a word for you here this morning.

3. The antidote continued: ‘Wait on the LORD.’

Verse 30 reminds us that even youths grow tired and weary. Sometimes we look at young people in the prime of life and we think ‘I wish I had half of their energy’. But even they grow tired. Our puppy Jura is 7 months old, just a bairn, and out on walks she seems to have boundless energy. But even she crashes when we get home. ‘Young men stumble and fall.’   (Isaiah 40:30) These young men are those specially chosen for the army because they are so fit. Perhaps for an elite army group. Even they eventually collapse in a heap. If even youths and young men are eventually ground down by life and cannot survive on their own resources, how much more are we going to come to an end of our own resources.

But here’s the thing: it’s good when we come to the place where we realise we cannot cope on our own. It’s good when we stop relying on our own limited strength. Because only then will come to God in prayer and wait upon him for strength from above. We don’t have the spiritual energy to continue following Jesus but the good news is that God has a surplus of energy. So, if you are here and you are disappointed with God, rather than becoming angry with him, why not find a quiet place and ask him for strength instead? ‘… those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.’   (Isaiah 40:31)

Do you want this supernatural strength from God? Then, we need to understand what it means to ‘wait upon’ the LORD. Because only those who wait upon him shall receive such strength. Perhaps the first step in waiting on the LORD is coming to the end of our own resources. Someone once said, all we need to receive God’s power is to be weak enough. Have you given up on trying to live life on your own strength yet? Then you are actually in a good place to be.

Waiting on God means to adopt a posture of trust, trusting that the LORD will come through for us in his time and in his way. He might not give us what we want but he will give us what we need and what is best. Waiting on God is a patient anticipation that he will help us. We hope on him. We can be content in hard circumstances because we know he will not let us down. It might take time. It might take a very long time from our limited point of view. Waiting on God means crying out to him in prayer for strength each day and then trusting that our heavenly Father will give us our ‘daily bread’. We spread the matter before him in prayer and then leave it in his capable hands.

Waiting on God is not something passive. We don’t just pray and do nothing. Yes, we pray, but we also read our Bibles, reminding ourselves of the character of God. We read his promises to us in the Bible and we trust in them. We wait with patient expectation. ‘The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.’   (Psalm 34:10) Do you believe that? We trust that God will act in the right time and in the right way, and in the meantime and this is crucial, we get on with the task of following Jesus in all the areas of our lives. We want his will to be done in our lives as we wait on him.

Then something wonderful happens. We are able to do things we once thought would be impossible. We are able to continue on the path of following Jesus. We are able to keep going in those hard circumstances: ‘They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’   (Isaiah 40:31) Have you ever watched an eagle flying? Have you seen how effortlessly they seem to soar on the air currents with their huge wings. We might think we could never do that. But God can give such strength to us. He can help us to keep on running when we get a stitch and want to stop and he can help us to keep on walking to our destination when it seems like we cannot go on. He is the God who gives strength to those who ask and wait.

Sermon: Sunday, 3rd August, 2025
Speaker: Neil MacDonald
Scripture: John 3:1-21

For years now chat shows have been a popular type of TV programme. Chat show hosts aim to get their guests talking freely so that they reveal something of themselves and let the audience see what makes them tick. Something that makes the Gospel of John different from the other Gospels is the extended discourses, or conversations, it records for us. John wants us to hear Jesus talking. He doesn’t tell us everything he knows about Jesus. Instead he selects just a handful of events and records them in great detail. There are several conversations which reveal to us the heart of Jesus and how he understood himself.

A curious individual

Here in chapter 3 we have the first of these conversations, Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. In the opening verses we’re introduced to a curious individual. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council. He was an ultra-orthodox Jew. He belonged to the party which stood for strict adherence to God’s law. He was a rabbi and a man of influence and standing in the community.

Nicodemus had witnessed Jesus’ ministry and was impressed. He realised Jesus was no ordinary Jewish rabbi. He’d come to the conclusion that he was ‘a teacher who has come from God’: no one could perform the miracles he did unless God was with him. Jesus clearly aroused Nicodemus’ interest, and he wanted to find out more. And so he came to see Jesus at night.

Nicodemus may have come by night because he didn’t want people to know he was interested in Jesus. Perhaps coming at night was the only way to get Jesus on his own for the kind of serious and unhurried conversation he wanted to have with him. But I suspect the main reason John mentions when the meeting took place is that he sees a symbolic significance in it. In his writings John speaks again and again about light and darkness. Darkness stands for sin and wickedness; light speaks of purity and righteousness. In his Gospel, John tells us how Judas left the gathering in the upper room to betray Jesus to the authorities; he writes, ‘As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out, and it was night.’   (John 13:30) It was dark when Judas left the company of Jesus and the other disciples, but the physical darkness which surrounded him was as nothing compared with the spiritual and moral darkness which engulfed his soul.

Nicodemus wasn’t in the desperate situation Judas found himself in, but when he came to see Jesus he was still in darkness, spiritually speaking. Although he was a rabbi and no doubt kept the law of God to the best of his ability, he was still in spiritual darkness; he was still a sinner cut off from God. It’s possible to be very religious and yet in spiritual darkness. But Nicodemus was curious. He was prepared to acknowledge Jesus was a teacher come from God: he could see that God was with him. But he needed to see that Jesus was even more than that. And so Jesus spoke to him.

A vital experience

Jesus’ response to Nicodemus’ initial comments is uncompromising: ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ (John 3:3) The Jews of Jesus’ day were looking for what they called ‘the kingdom of God’. Some of them understood the kingdom in a political sense: they looked forward to a day when they would be delivered from bondage to Rome and would have their national independence restored under the rule of God’s Messiah. Others put more stress on the personal, religious side of things. For them the kingdom of God meant the achievement of moral perfection through obedience to God’s law. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus probably understood the kingdom of God in both ways. The Pharisees sought to prepare the way for a political kingdom by their personal dedication to a religious kingdom. By obeying the law they tried to be the true people of God preparing the way for the Messiah.

We might have expected Jesus to congratulate Nicodemus on his theological credentials and upright way of life. But that’s not what he does. Instead, gently but firmly, he says, ‘No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ He tells Nicodemus that, without the experience of rebirth, he cannot hope to see the kingdom of God. That would have come as a shock to a devout Jew like Nicodemus. He would have presumed his place in the coming kingdom was assured by virtue of his race and law-keeping. In the eyes of other people he had impressive credentials as far as God was concerned. But however ‘good’ Nicodemus appeared, Jesus clearly did not think he was good enough to share in the kingdom of God. For that he needed to be born again. He needed a new nature. He needed radical transformation from the inside out.

Nicodemus is taken aback. He asks: ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born?’   (John 1:4) He seems to understand Jesus’ words literally as if he were speaking about a second physical birth. And the very idea strikes him as absurd, as indeed it is. Jesus has to explain that what he is speaking about is a spiritual rebirth which can only be achieved supernaturally. ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.’   (John 3:5-6)

The reference to water and the Spirit probably echoes the words of the prophet Ezekiel. While we may not readily pick up on that, Nicodemus would have done, for he was thoroughly versed in the Old Testament scriptures! In his prophecy Ezekiel refers to water and the Spirit. The Lord promises: ‘I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.bAnd I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees…’   (Ezekiel 36)

The prophecy speaks of the coming Messianic age, when there will be a new experience of cleansing and a new experience of the Spirit. Men and women will be given new hearts and new spirits. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that the day of cleansing and power which Ezekiel anticipated has now come. That’s because the long-awaited Messiah has come in the person of Jesus himself. Spiritual renewal is now possible by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. This spiritual renewal is supernatural from first to last. It’s nothing short of miraculous. Human nature cannot evolve naturally into the life of the kingdom of God. There is discontinuity between sinful human nature and the new nature required for entry into the kingdom of God. But God’s Spirit has the creative power to enable an individual to make that quantum leap into a new world.

The new birth is supernatural. It’s beyond human control and beyond human knowledge. But it’s not impossible. To illustrate this, Jesus points Nicodemus to the wind. He says, ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’   (John 3:8) In Greek and Hebrew the word for ‘wind’ is the same as the word for ‘Spirit’. There’s a kind of elaborate pun here. Jesus is in effect saying, ‘Nicodemus, you cannot control the wind, you can’t even see it, but that doesn’t stop you experiencing its effects at first hand. In the same way, you can’t control or fully understand the work of the Holy Spirit, but that doesn’t mean you can’t experience its effects. You can see the effects of his intervention in people’s lives.’

A little boy once asked a sailor the question, ‘What is the wind?’ ‘The wind?’ replied the sailor, ‘I don’t rightly know what the wind is; but I can hoist a sail.’ That’s pretty much what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus.You don’t have to know how the Holy Spirit creates new life in people. It’s miraculous and mysterious. But you can experience it. You can enjoy the benefit of it. You can hoist a sail. And so Jesus says to Nicodemus, ‘You shouldn’t be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’   (John 3:7) Notice that word ‘must’. Jesus doesn’t say ‘may’; he says ‘must’. ‘You must be born again.’ Being born again isn’t a spiritual extra for the super-keen. It’s a spiritual necessity.

The 18th Century evangelist George Whitefield was once asked by his sponsor why he was always preaching on the words, ‘You must be born again.’ Whitefield’s reply was simple: ‘Madam, because you must.’ In the most literal sense of the word, this is a vital experience, because it’s a matter of life or death.

You may have a lot in common with Nicodemus. You’re religious. You’re educated. You’re a pillar of the community. Even so, Jesus says to you, ‘You must be born again!’ Or you may be as different from
Nicodemus as chalk from cheese. You’re no scholar. You wouldn’t claim to be a particularly good person. Jesus says the same thing to you: ‘You must be born again.’ For, as he says to Nicodemus, ‘… no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’   (John 3:3) It’s a vital experience.

A unique person

‘How can this be?’ Nicodemus asks. To this Jesus replies, ‘You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.’   (John 3:10-11) Nicodemus thinks his problem is that he can’t understand Jesus’ teaching. What Jesus is bringing him round to realise is that that isn’t his real problem. His real problem is that he has an inadequate view of who Jesus is. That has been his problem right from the beginning of the conversation. Remember what he said: ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.’ That was a flattering enough comment in its own way; but it was also rather patronising. ‘We know…’ Presumably Nicodemus was referring to himself and at least some of his fellow Pharisees. Jesus now echoes the plural with which Nicodemus had introduced himself. ‘We speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen.’   (John 3:11) In other words; ‘Your problem, Nicodemus, is not that you can’t understand what I am saying, but that you don’t think highly enough of me to believe that I know what I’m talking about.’

When Jesus speaks about the things of God, he offers first-hand knowledge. It’s divine revelation of a quite unique kind. ‘We testify to what we have seen.’ That being so, what matters most is not our ability to understand, but our willingness to believe. ‘I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak to you of heavenly things?’   (John 3:12) Jesus has used the analogy of the wind to explain the work of the Spirit to Nicodemus and he has struggled. But there are many aspects of the revelation Jesus brought for which there’s no earthly analogy. There are heavenly realities which defy comparison to anything Nicodemus has ever experienced. If Nicodemus can’t trust Jesus when he tells him about the way of the wind, how will he trust him when he tells him about the way of salvation?

And so Jesus discloses to Nicodemus who he is and why he has come. He describes himself in verse 13 as ‘the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man’. He has come down from heaven and is also the Son of Man, the one the prophet Daniel speaks about who will win final victory and rule for ever. In verse 16 Jesus goes on to call himself ‘the one and only Son’, the unique Son of God. Nicodemus needs to realise the greatness of his person. He needs to see just who he is.

Jesus also tells Nicodemus why he came. He says, ‘God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’   (John 3:17) He is God in human form, God’s Son come on a rescue mission. And then there are the well-known words: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’   (John 3:16) In these words Jesus roots his mission in the love of God the Father. Out of love for a lost humanity he sent his Son into the world to become its Saviour. We see how great God’s love is from the fact he loved the unlovely. He loved a world which had rebelled against him and was organised in opposition to him. We also see how great God’s love is from what it led him to do. He was moved to extravagant action: he gave his one and only Son. He had only one Son but he freely gave him up for sinners like us.

Claims such as Jesus makes here are ‘heavenly things’. They can be known only by revelation and appropriated only by faith. Is faith really such a difficult thing? Nicodemus initially seems to have found it so. But perhaps he needn’t have done. Consider these words; ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.’   (John 3:14-15)

Jesus is referring here to an incident which took place while the people of Israel were making their way between Egypt and the promised land of Canaan. The people had rebelled against God and he had sent a plague of poisonous snakes into their camp to chasten them. In their desperation they confessed their sin and cried out to Moses to provide some remedy for the venom. The Lord told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole: any Israelite who looked at that snake would be healed. And that’s what happened. The Israelites couldn’t have understood how a bronze replica of a snake could take the bite of the real thing away. All they could do was take Moses at his word and believe: they had no other choice. But it was enough.

Jesus is, in effect, saying that it’s the same for Nicodemus, and indeed for each of us. ‘One day soon, Nicodemus, you will see me lifted up on a cross, just like that snake in the desert. You will not be able to understand it, at least not fully. But all you have to do is to trust me enough to believe that I know what I’m doing. For I tell you that every man and woman who looks to me on that cross conscious of their sin and failure, aware of their need of salvation, knowing they need the mercy of God to deliver them, will find rescue in that look, rescue in that faith. More than that, they will find the life of the age to come – the new life of the kingdom of God that we have been talking about.’

Nicodemus’ question had been, ‘How can this be?’ The question he should have been asking was, rather, ‘Who can this be?’ For, in Jesus, he had come face to face with a unique person.

A critical verdict

Jesus says of himself; ‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.’   (John 3:18) Jesus is saying that a person’s destiny is determined by whether he or she believes in him. The new birth is the work of the Spirit, but we have the responsibility to believe in God’s one and only Son.

Forgiveness and eternal life are freely offered to us if we do. For those who do not, there is condemnation. Jesus says: ‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.’   (John 3:19-20) The appearance of the light in the person of Jesus forces everyone to make a choice. Tragically, in an astonishing act of self-destruction, multitudes refuse the light and continue to embrace the darkness. That’s because they don’t want to have their sin exposed. They would rather stay in the dark than move into the light and admit what they’re really like. And so, by refusing the light they compound the condemnation which already hangs over them because of their sin.

Spiritual blindness, says Jesus, is a culpable blindness. It’s not that we can’t see the light, but that we will not see it. ‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world but men love darkness.’ That’s a critical verdict.

Nicodemus was a curious individual, but his curiosity wasn’t enough. Jesus told him about a vital experience he needed to have: he needed to be born again, he needed a radical transformation from the inside out. Jesus then pointed to his own uniqueness: ‘God sent his Son into the world to save the world.’   (John 3:17) And finally Jesus made Nicodemus aware of the critical verdict: condemnation for those who don’t believe and forgiveness for those who come to the light and believe in God’s one and only Son. Nicodemus came to see Jesus by night. I wonder if he left him with light dawning in his heart.

And what about us? As we have eavesdropped on this private conversation, have we seen our need of being born again, have we seen the uniqueness of Jesus’ person and work, and have we come to the light and believed in God’s one and only Son?

‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’   (John 3:16)

Sermon: Sunday, 27th July, 2025
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: Mark 4:1-20

And so we come to one of the best-known parables that Jesus told – usually called the Parable of the Sower, although maybe the Parable of the Seed and the Soils would be a better guide to its meaning – we’ll come back to that later. The fact it’s one of the best-known parables means we may think, ‘Oh I know that already.’ We must guard against being complacent!

Parables; simple stories from everyday farming and fishing life in rural Galilee that have a neat way of making us think. What do they make us think about? Mainly they make us think, in language that everyone can understand – whatever education they may or may not have had, whatever age we happen to be – about what the ‘Kingdom of God’ actually means; how we can be sure we are indeed citizens of that Kingdom; and how we can truly have the close relationship with the living God that he wants for us all.

Sometimes Jesus’ parables make us downright uncomfortable. Usually, they make us take a good, hard look at ourselves. So these parables work as a kind of spiritual searchlight so that we have no hiding place from God’s gaze on our souls. Any shadows we might wish to lurk in are blown away by that searchlight. We see ourselves very much in a new light. We see our total dependence on God, and our need for him, in a new way.

Now, every word in the Bible is there for a reason, and you’ll note that the first word in Mark chapter 4 is the word ‘again’; ‘Again Jesus began to preach by the lake (Sea of Galilee).’   (Mark 4:1) Earlier in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus had called the tax collector Levi (Matthew) to follow him, and a crowd gathered. This time the crowd was so large that Jesus got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore. How come so many people gathering? Because crowds attract a crowd but also there were great expectations because; ‘The kingdom of God has come near.’   (Mark 1:15)

This is the first of the parables of Jesus recorded in Mark’s Gospel. Maybe that’s why we get some clues later in the passage as to its meaning. In the later parables we’re just left to work it out for ourselves! So we read that Jesus taught them many things by parables. But after he had told the story of the seed and the soils, his disciples came up to him when he was alone, and asked him about the parables, why he spoke in that form. And the reply that Jesus gives is very interesting. He says this: ‘The secret of the Kingdom has been given to you (his disciples).’   (Mark 4:11a)

A ‘secret’ – there’s that expectation of a king with a crown in the here and now, with a visible kingdom in the here and now. Jesus has been sharing with his disciples the ‘secret’ that he’s not that kind of king, and his kingdom is not that kind of kingdom. As Jesus later explains, ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’   (Luke 17:21) Only faith could recognise the Son of God in the lowly figure of Jesus of Nazareth. The secret of the Kingdom of God is the secret of the person of Jesus.

So the secret of the Kingdom is given to his disciples. But then there’s this: ‘But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables.’   (Mark 4:11b) For the reason for this, Jesus quotes a verse from Isaiah so that; ‘…they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’   (Isaiah 6:9) Now this is surely quite a difficult verse! It sounds like Jesus doesn’t want people to be forgiven! Can that in fact be right? But really, it’s because Jesus has been facing the same problem that Isaiah faced hundreds of years earlier: Many people just don’t want to know because their hearts are hardened.

Jesus describes why this is. ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’   (Mark 4:9) Indeed, he said on other occasions. It’s the same point Isaiah made about being ‘ever hearing but never understanding’. After all, don’t we sometimes say: ‘It goes in one ear and out the other’? Especially when asking kids to do something they don’t want to do! That’s what we need to guard against when we’re listening to God’s word. It’s very easy for the message just to drift over us when our hearts are hardened.

So the parables work as a king of sieve. In the same way, the parables work to separate out people who really want to be in the Kingdom of God from those who’re just kind of hanging around listening, who harden their hearts against ‘getting’ what Jesus is on about. And that’s exactly the same point that we see when we look at the first type of soil that the seed fell on, in the story Jesus told.

The farmer sows the word. Who’s the farmer? In the first instance, it’s Jesus himself speaking to the crowds. But by extension, the farmer is also any faithful preacher of the Bible today. The farmer spreads the seed in an apparently wasteful manner. Only some of the seed falls on good soil and produces a crop. The same seed gets sown, the same message gets preached but the outcome is not the same in each case.

Think of the original hearers of Jesus as he was preaching from that boat. They all heard the same story. Some people may have said: ‘Well I was quite disappointed really. I went along to see if this was the Messiah who would give us back our independence. But it was just some guy telling some stories.’ Others may have said: ‘I was there beside the lake. And the story this guy Jesus told really hit home. I could see that what he said made every difference in the world, about me, about God. About how I need to turn my life around.’ Same message heard – very different outcomes.

The first fellow thought that Jesus was there to fulfil his expectations. The second one saw that his expectations were all wrong, and that the story searched him to the core of his being. Jesus didn’t come to fulfil all our expectations, or to be a kind of genie to sort out all our problems. But when we do open our lives to him and bow down before him, we find that he turns everything upside down: what we thought was most important becomes not important at all, and what we thought wasn’t worth bothering with becomes the most important thing of all.

So, mixed responses to the message of Jesus even back then and it’s the same today. What, then, is your response going to be? What’s my response to be? Let’s have a closer look at the story Jesus told to find out. The farmer sowed the seed and, as he was scattering the seed, it fell on four different types of soil:

Along the path…

Verse 3 and verse 14: The farmer sows the word and some people are like the seed sown along the path (by the wayside) where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. So these folks hear the word alright but it doesn’t penetrate at all. The evil one might right now be whispering a little voice in your ear: ‘Well, I enjoy the company at church, the people here seem really nice. But I don’t think all this stuff really applies to me. It’s quite interesting, but I don’t really need to accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord. I quite like to hear the stories in the preaching, but the application makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. I’m okay as I am. I believe in God and I try my best.’ The seed that falls on the path and the birds came and ate it up before it could take root.

Rocky places…

Verses 5-6 and verse 16: Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. Well, this sounds more promising! But hang on, since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. This is someone who responds to the Gospel very positively, and very promptly: ‘Yes, I’m in!’ It might have started at big church rally with warm music. There’s a call to go to the front, and down you go. That’s it! Count me in as a Christian!’ But then it doesn’t really work out. It’s flash-in-the-pan faith, flaring up brightly, then fading to nothing. It’s like someone who sees an exercise bike advertised. Great, I’ll have one of those. Their enthusiasm lasts a whole week, or maybe 2 – then it just lies there.

Why does faith sometimes fade in this same way? Jesus tells us: ‘When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.’ &nbsp: (Mark 4:17) Owning up to being a Christian among friends or family or at work just comes at too great a price. They begin to freeze you out, they maybe even begin to give you a hard time. And that’s just too big a price to pay. And so you begin to hold back from going to church. Maybe even a spouse will say: ‘That’s enough of this Jesus stuff: you’re going to have to choose: it’s Jesus or me!’ And you make your choice.

Among thorns…

Verse 7 and verses 28-29: Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. And this is surely the most subtle response of all.

It all starts so well. A life is turned round by the Gospel. Someone finds a new family in the church family. The Bible teaching is lapped up – can’t get enough! Fruitful service is given to the local church. But then something changes, very gradually at first, almost imperceptibly. You think, ‘Well, you don’t absolutely have to go to church every Sunday, do you? Aren’t we saved by our faith in Jesus? So then the odd Sunday is missed, and before you know it, it’s a few more. Next there’s a loss of appetite for the Bible. It becomes a closed book to you. Literally.

What’s gone wrong? Jesus puts his finger right on the problem, (or problems): ‘The worries of this life; the deceitfulness of wealth; and the desires for other things…’   (Mark 4:17b) These come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. The worries of this life; life certainly has its worries. I don’t suppose any of us here today are immune from worries – financial worries, worries about the family, worries about health. But rather than worries being an excuse to drive us away from Jesus, worries should cause us to cling more closely to him!

As Jesus said in Sermon on the Mount: ‘Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. So do not worry about these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (that you worry about) will be given to you as well.’ Do you believe the words of Jesus here? Don’t let ‘the worries of this’ life crowd round you like thorns choking your faith in him!

What other kinds of thorn might there be? There’s the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things. If a little wealth comes our way, there’s no doubt at all that it can dampen our Christian faith. Yes, material things can indeed be a blessing from the Lord: a decent house or car – but beware! – material blessings can so easily become a snare.

The deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things – in following Jesus, we cannot have divided loyalties. No wonder he said, ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.’   (Matthew 6:24)

I wonder what Jesus means by ‘other things’? It may just be the things we mentioned under ‘worry’: what we eat or drink or what we’re going to wear. And Jesus says, seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness and these things will take care of themselves. But in our consumer society, it’s usually more than just the basics. We want ‘other things’. We want stuff. The whole economy is based on buying stuff we don’t really need. And if we’re trying to follow Jesus but have our heads turned by wanting a new this, a new that when what we have is perfectly fine, then the thorns choke our faith, dampen our zeal for the Lord, little by little, bit by bit.

Perhaps it’s someone who was a joyful vibrant Christian in her teens, but now she’s nowhere spiritually. What happened? The thorns got in and choked her faith. If it’s a choice between church and sport, which do you choose? Maybe there’s even someone here today who’s thinking back to earlier times, when the flame of faith shone really brightly but it’s not shining brightly now. And you’re thinking, ‘How did it come to this?’

Now here’s the thing: with all 3 types of ground that the seed has fallen on so far – the path, the rocky places and the thorny ground, there is a way to be on the good soil after all.

The good soil…

The good soil with its spiritual crop of thirty, sixty or one hundred-fold isn’t because of something good in us, it’s because of something done for us, namely Jesus dying on our behalf to cleanse us from our sins. But the point of this story that Jesus told is that we listen, not just hear. Those who have ears, let them hear! Let them take it on board! You’ll never get to grips with the message of the Christian faith by sitting on the sidelines, as you might sit in an audience looking at a play or a gig on a stage. You need to be in the play yourself! Up there on the stage yourself!

If you just let the message go in one ear and out the other…
If you listen to that little voice that says, ‘This doesn’t really apply to me…’
If you treat faith as just a harmless hobby for those who like that sort of thing…
If you let the thorns choke out any glimmerings of faith you may have, then I have to tell you: you’re not in a good place!

You see, listening to God’s word week by week, you’ll either be helped or you’ll be hardened. You’ll be helped if you respond to God’s voice speaking to you, calling you deeper into a relationship with him, despite your sinfulness, despite your failings. But if you listen without responding, if your pride makes you think, ‘I’m fine I don’t need a Saviour!’ Then hearing God’s word will just harden your heart, more and more. Until it’s too late.

‘If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.’   (Matthew 4:23)