Sermons

Talk for Sunday Morning Services

09/02/25 – Mark 1

The Faith Adventure

God is calling us to go on a journey

The other day, I was with some friends, and one of them asked the question: “If you could go anywhere in the world, with unlimited funds, for a holiday, where would you go?” Maybe you have somewhere that springs to mind immediately; maybe you don’t. What about a related question, “How would you get there”?

Indulge me for a moment, if you will, and imagine that all options, including sci-fi fantasy options, are on the table. Would you fly?

I imagine quite a few of us, if given the option, would just teleport: travel from A to B instantly, with no time involved and no fuss. If we’re trying to get to somewhere awesome, we tend to view the journey as a bit of an inconvenience.

But I want to suggest to you this morning that having a Christian faith, that following Jesus, is about both the journey and the destination; and both journey and destination can be more awesome, more wonderful, more glorious, than we think.

Turning to our [Gospel] reading for a few moments: if you were a first-century Jewish male, like Jesus and Andrew and Simon, then at a young age, maybe around six years old, you would start learning the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. And when I say ‘learning’, that included ‘memorising’. Five whole books of the Bible, to be learned, off by heart, by the age of ten. Approximately 80,000 Hebrew words.

Then by age ten, most boys would end their studies, and become apprentices under whatever trade their family was involved with. But the 2 brightest students would continue studying, and move on to the rest of what we now call the Old Testament; and yes, they would then be expected to memorise most, if not all, of the 34 other books.

By the age of 17, almost everyone would have ceased their studies and gone into the family trade; only a handful of the very brightest and best students would remain. And of those, some might receive the ultimate honour: to be chosen to become an apprentice of a rabbi.

For those who did receive the honour, the goal of becoming a rabbi’s disciple was to become as much like your rabbi as possible. The author John Mark Comer, who sets out a lot of what I’ve just been saying, puts it this way: “the goal of an apprentice [or disciple] was to stick close to their rabbi, and arrange their lives around these three aims: be with your rabbi; become like your rabbi; and do what your rabbi did.”

Men like Simon and Andrew, who we heard about in our reading, were not disciples of a rabbi. Somewhere along the way, they had dropped out of their studies, and settled instead into the family trade, becoming fishermen.

But now, here comes Jesus. And He offers them the chance to pursue a dream that perhaps they gave up on years ago; or perhaps they never even had in the first place. Perhaps they knew at a very young age that they were never going to be the best of the best; they would never be disciples of a rabbi. But Jesus comes and says to them, ‘Come. Follow Me. Be my disciples. Be with Me, and learn to be like me.’

Jesus is saying the same thing to each and every one of us this morning. Whether you have been a Christian for years, or whether you’re not even sure if you believe in God, Jesus says the same thing:

‘Come, follow Me. Be with Me. Learn who I am, and learn how to be like Me.’

It’s both a journey, and a destination. The destination is being like Jesus: being full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The journey is life; a way of life. Life done with and for Him, rather than alone and for ourselves. Done right, it’s a stunningly beautiful journey that arrives at a truly glorious destination.

This is very personal to me, because I spent more than half of my life so far not understanding this. I was brought up a Christian; I went to church; I believed in God; I tried my best to behave in ways I thought He would approve of.

But what I didn’t realise, either because no-one ever told me or perhaps because I wasn’t listening properly, was that this faith business was all about a relationship. Just as Jesus’ first disciples were able to walk around with Him; to eat with Him; to talk to Him; to see what He did and do the same; as Christians today, we too can do all of those things.

And if we do, then life becomes a ‘faith adventure’. That’s my title for this sermon series that we’re starting today, because this week and over the next three weeks, I want to take time to think through together this idea that what it means to be a Christian is to go on an adventure of faith with God.

In 2016, the world triathlon championships were being held in Mexico. With one kilometre to go, Jonny Brownlee had a comfortable lead over his brother, Alistair, and Henri Schoeman in third place.

But Jonny Brownlee was dangerously dehydrated; and with 500 metres to go, he started to stumble towards the sidelines, his pace slowing to a crawl.

Rounding a corner, his brother, Alistair, saw him. Instead of running on past and becoming world champion, Alistair stopped to help his brother.

Henri Schoeman overtook them both as a result, winning the race. But Alistair supported Jonny, and they ran the last 500 metres together. He even gave Jonny a little shove just as they got to the finish line, so that Jonny finished second and he finished third.

The faith adventure is something we do together. A rabbi would have multiple disciples; Jesus had 12. This faith adventure is a collective adventure that we are all invited on, companions with one another, helping one another when we stumble and need support.

The church is a group of people, as it says in 1 Peter 2, who together are called by God to “proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His marvellous light.” As of this week, we’ve refreshed our vision and mission statements. Our vision, as a church, is to be “A beacon of hope for the people of Newark.” That’s who we’re called to be.

And our mission, the thing we’re called to do, is “to transform our community through sharing the love of Jesus.”

To ‘transform our community.’ To make our community something radically different than what it would be if we weren’t here. That’s a pretty lofty goal, right? I mean, an honest alternative in some of our minds might be: “to be a friendly group of people who do something a bit weird on Sundays that people can join if they want to”.

We’re saying ‘no’, our goal is nothing short of the transformation of our community – and wider society as well, by the way, but we’ll get there.

This isn’t about empire-building. I’m not a business leader who’s desperate to expand my company in order to grow profits and satisfy shareholders. If we succeeded in transforming our society so that people came to know Jesus, and the net effect of that was that everyone came to know Jesus but went to another church down the road, I’d be absolutely over the moon with that.

I’m not a CEO. I’m a church leader who passionately believes that the local church is God’s chosen instrument to change the world.

The late Tim Keller, who was an author and church leader in New York City, did some work on the idea of ‘tipping points’, thinking about what it would actually take to bring significant change in a city neighbourhood.

And he came to the conclusion that major transformation takes between 5 and 15% of a population.

So let’s take an average, call it 10%. Our parish population is somewhere around 16,000 people. If 1,600 of those people were disciples of Jesus, then things would be different around here. Don’t get me wrong, I think Newark is a lovely town as it is; but imagine what it could be like if it were transformed, as people came to know and follow Jesus.

God is inviting us on a journey. As individuals, and as a church. And with God, both the journey and the destination are always remarkable.

But here’s the thing. Did you notice what Simon and Andrew did when Jesus called them? They dropped everything, and followed Jesus.

If you, as an individual, want to really see change in your life, then you’re going to need to lay down and let go of anything and everything that is currently getting in the way of you following Him. What that looks like will be different for each of us; but for each of us, it will be costly.

If we, as a church, want to really see this town transformed, then we’re going to need to lay down and let go of all the things that are currently stopping us from following Jesus fully. We’re going to need to let go of our pride; of our own understandings of the way things should be done; of our desire for self-preservation; all sorts of other things; and trust that

Jesus will lead us.

I’ll finish with the first recorded words of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Let’s pray.

Coming soon!

Talk for Sunday Morning Services

23/02/25

Can Change Really Happen?

God has done great things before; and He will do them again.

Two weeks ago in my sermon at this service, I spoke to you about the idea that this life of Christian discipleship that we are all called to live can be a life of adventure. A life where both the journey and the destination are glorious, in all senses of that word.

Then last week, Danny spoke about how we can’t ‘stay at home’; he used the analogy of a gym memberships to remind us that it’s not enough just to sign up to Christian faith; we’re called to be active participants, both for our own sakes; and for the sake of a world that desperately needs Jesus.

And so this week, I want to address the elephants in the room. There are two elephants, I think, so this metaphorical room is getting a bit full!

And the first is this: we live in a country, and a culture, where Christian faith is in decline; and where it has been in decline for a long time. By more or less any measure you care to use, Christianity in the UK, and in the Western World generally, is less prevalent now than it was in the past. To pick just one statistic: in the Church of England, average Sunday attendance at church is now well under half of what it was in 1980; and even the 1980 figures represented a big decline compared with the decades before that.

And part cause, part consequence, Christianity is commonly mocked or ridiculed in our society, both in the media and in general. I’ll never forget a conversation I had when I was living in London, working as a primary school teacher, travelling home on the bus with one of my fellow teachers one evening. I admitted that I was a Christian who sometimes went to church, and her shocked response was, “But you don’t really believe in all that nonsense, do you?”

So when we’re talking about an exciting vision for the future, the first elephant in the room is this background of a long-term decline in Christian faith in our society. The second elephant is the reality of our individual lives. I described life with Jesus two weeks ago as a glorious adventure. And yet, very often, for many of us, life feels a long way away from that. A struggle; or painful; or just boring.

So, by this point, you might be feeling a bit depressed! Well, don’t get too down, because good news is on its way! My title this morning is “Can Change Really Happen”; and - spoiler alert – I think the answer is a very definite ‘yes’.

Around 3,100 years ago, there lived Gideon, who we heard about in our first reading this morning. He lived a little while after the death of Joshua, who you may remember was the leader who brought Israel into the

Promised Land, the land of Canaan.

And at the time of Gideon, Israel was in a bit of a mess. The people had been disobedient to God when they entered the land; they’d taken to worshipping idols; and as a direct consequence of those things, they were oppressed by the Midianites. Many of the Israelites were in hiding; and the Bible tells us that every time they tried to grow crops or raise livestock, it would be plundered or destroyed by the Midianites.

So eventually the people of Israel cried out to God; and He sent his angel to…Gideon. In spite of what the angel said when he greeted Gideon, Gideon was not a mighty warrior – at least not at that point. He was not important or significant within Israel. He was one man, with no special authority or ability; but the one thing about Gideon that made a difference was that he was prepared to listen to God, and to be obedient to Him.

Now Gideon was far from perfect in his obedience. If you read what happened, you’ll see that Gideon asked God on multiple occasions for proof that He really was with him; and initially Gideon was too scared to do what God had told him to do openly, so he obeyed in secret instead.

Maybe some of us can resonate with that!

But God anointed Gideon, this insignificant person from the least important tribe in Israel, to be able to raise an army. And Gideon raised an army; then God told him that his army was too big, and that if Gideon won with that army, the people might think it was their achievement, not God’s. So God whittled down Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300; and those 300 won the battle.

Fast forward about 1100 years, and we come to today’s (Gospel/other) reading. After His death and resurrection, Jesus meets with his 11 remaining disciples, and commissions them to make more disciples.

These guys are fishermen, and tax collectors and so on; not exactly an elite team of disciple-making experts.

And initially, they’re frightened. A bit like Gideon, they follow God’s instructions, but timidly and in secret. But when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, everything changes; and looking back now, we can see that no other similar group has ever had anything like the impact on the world that those 11 people had. It’s really not an exaggeration to say that those 11 people completely transformed the course of world history.

And these two Bible readings are just two of many, many examples throughout the Bible, and throughout church history, where God takes a small remnant, a handful of seemingly insignificant people, or in some cases just one person, and changes everything. He does it over and over and over again.

And did you notice what made the difference, in both cases? Two things: God’s command, and God’s presence. In Gideon’s case, through the angel, God gives him a commission, “Go, in this might of yours and deliver Israel…I hereby commission you.” And, “I will be with you.”

Jesus, with the disciples: “Go therefore, and make disciples…and I am with you always.”

Our church family is around the same size as Gideon’s army of 300. We have nearly as many on our staff team as there were disciples who met

Jesus on the mountain in Galilee. We have been commissioned, and God is with us; so what might God do through us?

In 1949, on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, two sisters were praying. Their names were Peggy and Christine Smith. They were 84 and 82, and suffering from poor health.

They were praying because they were greatly burdened by the fact that not one young person attended public worship at their church. They decided to pray twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. They would begin praying at 10pm, and pray until the early hours of the morning.

In time, they persuaded a small number of men to join them in prayer.

And soon, God began to move. They called in a minister from the mainland called Duncan Campbell to lead some meetings. And shortly after that, on the 13th December 1949, at 11 o’clock at night, whilst a small group of people were praying inside a church, a crowd of six or seven hundred people gathered outside. The crowd had come from all over the town, and beyond. Most of them were not Christians. The only explanation as to why they were there was that they had felt compelled to come.

Soon, more joined them from a local dance hall. Others woke up, got dressed, and came to church. Meetings continued for three or four years, and several thousand people gave their lives to Jesus.

And what about the wider church, beyond the West, today? It’s difficult to establish the number of Christians in China; the church there is often suppressed and oppressed to varying degrees. But most sources agree that from less than 1 million Christians in 1950, China now has tens of millions of followers of Jesus.

In Iran, it’s illegal to own a Bible in the local language; and sharing Christian faith with others is outlawed. Yet estimates suggest that Iran has one of the fastest-growing churches in the world, with perhaps more than a million converts over the past four decades. I know two of them; one of whom is Vahid, who is such a wonderful member of our community here.

When I think of individual transformation, I think of Eddie, a friend of ours from London. Eddie was kicked out of home by an abusive stepfather aged 14, and lived on the streets of Glasgow and then London for over 30 years. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, Eddie was invited to church, to Alpha, by a homeless friend. By the time I met him a few years later, Eddie was completely transformed. Clean in every sense, wise, kind; with a job, a rented flat, and a great sense of humour.

And it’s not just those who are in extreme situations whose lives God has transformed. Charlotte’s life is completely different to how it was before she became a Christian in her 20s. She was a teacher, with a good job, enjoying life in many respects; but now she would look back and say that she doesn’t know how she ever lived without Jesus.

So the church worldwide is growing, rapidly. God has transformed lives, and transformed whole societies, countless times in the past. He is doing it, now, today. And He will continue doing it in future. Change really can happen.

But what about us? Well, I’m going to talk more next week about where we go from here; ‘next steps’, if you like, for our church, and for us as individuals. But for today, I simply want to say this: on a church level, we are in a very different place from where we were three years ago. I’m not for a second knocking what has happened here in the past. But as a church community, we are significantly larger; we’re younger; and I think we’re more vibrant, with a greater excitement about what God is doing in our midst, than we were.

On an individual level, each of us will have a different story, and will be in a different place in terms of our own spiritual growth. Hopefully, some of us really do feel like life is a glorious adventure with God. Others might not be feeling that right now.

But wherever you are at, I am convinced that the best prayer in regard to all of what I’ve been saying this morning is this: Lord, please, bring revival. Bring spiritual renewal. And start with me.

So let’s pray.