(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Allerton Methodist Church and led by John Darnbrook one of our Circuit Local Preachers.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Theme: Jesus, fulfiller of prophecy and caller of disciples
Call to worship
Jesus said to them, “Follow me” – at once they left their nets and went with him.
We are here in person or reading this online or in a printed form this morning because we too have heard the call to follow Jesus and have chosen to worship him. So – whatever way you are worshipping – I hope this service can enable you to feel joyful whilst also listening carefully for Jesus’ continued call: having called us to follow him, what is he calling us to do for him now?
Song – StF 564 – O thou who camest from above
Prayers
Let us pray. Lord Jesus, your call to us is, “Will you come and follow me?” – give us courage to respond. Give us strength to do our best. Give us the nerve to follow you wherever you lead us. Open our ears to hear your call; open our eyes to see you before us. Open our lips to tell others about you. And open our hearts to your love.
Lord Jesus, you call us to respond as one. We live in a variety of homes and situations, but we worship you, united in our love for you.
Lord Jesus, you call us to respond now, no matter what kind of week we have had or whatever situations we have found ourselves in; good or bad, dull or exciting, frustrating or fulfilling. We worship you in response to your call.
Lord Jesus, you call us to respond wholeheartedly. Help us to follow you into this new day, this new week. Lead us in our worship. Lead us to exciting new beginnings in our faith in you, so that in responding to your call, we learn to love you more, and out of our love for you to truly love one another.
For we know Lord that we do not always show people the love we receive from you. When you called your disciples, they responded immediately and left their boats, followed you and learnt from you to love their fellow men. Forgive us for the times when we have not followed their example, when we have been hesitant in our response to your call; when we have clung on to what is familiar and not experienced the newness of your challenge.
Forgive us for the opportunities we have let slip by to share your love with other people – the person in the checkout queue, the neighbour in need of a listening ear or a helping hand, the person at school in need of a friend. Forgive us for our lack of courage to risk speaking up for you …
Lord Jesus, we thank you that you do forgive us when we are truly sorry for the times we have let you down, and we humbly accept your forgiveness now. We thank you for always being with us, and for giving us hope, a sense of purpose and joy! We bring our prayers in thy holy name. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Talk
When I was preparing this service, I broke off to empty our dishwasher and tidy the kitchen and I found all of these items [show various kitchen utensils] – and I understand what some of them are for! [Demonstrate use of lots of different kitchen utensils – ask congregation to name them. End with vicious looking jar opener: I stay well clear of the kitchen when this vicious looking thing is in use!].
My wife Caroline tells me she needs to use all of these at one time or another to make our meals. And as she produces some lovely meals, and my cooking is, let’s say, slightly more basic, I just have to believe her! All of these utensils are different, but all are useful in creating great food.
Have a look around at our beautiful congregation this morning and notice the differences between the people here? [Those reading this service, think of the differences in the people you come into contact with on a regular basis]. Differences in ages, male/female, height, hair colour, or lack of hair! Yes, we are all different, we have all lived different lives with different experiences, but Jesus says to every single one of us that we are all useful in spreading his Gospel message of love and forgiveness.
I am amazed sometimes, at the variety of utensils Caroline needs to use to make just one meal – given it’s me who tidies and cleans up afterwards!
And Jesus chose a wide variety of people to be his disciples; and he has chosen us to be his followers too. In fact, he wants everyone to know of his love for them – inside and outside the church, and we are the utensils he wants to use to spread that message. He’s asked all of us to show people his love and tell them that he is the King of Glory.
Let’s think about that challenge from Jesus as we sing our next hymn
Song – StF 317 – At the name of Jesus
Reading
The people will wander through the land, discouraged and hungry. In their hunger and their anger they will curse their king and their God. They may look up to the sky or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven. There will be no way for them to escape from this time of trouble.
The Future King
The land of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali was once disgraced, but the future will bring honour to this region, from the Mediterranean eastwards to the land on the other side of the Jordan, and even to Galilee itself, where the foreigners live.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows, but now light is shining on them. You have given them great joy, LORD; you have made them happy. They rejoice in what you have done, as people rejoice when they harvest their corn or when they divide captured wealth.
For you have broken the yoke that burdened them and the rod that beat their shoulders. You have defeated the nation that oppressed and exploited your people, just as you defeated the army of Midian long ago.
Reading
Divisions in the Church
By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, I appeal to all of you, my brothers and sisters, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose.
For some people from Chloe’s family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you. Let me put it this way: each one of you says something different. One says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Peter”; and another, “I follow Christ”. Christ has been divided into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptised as Paul’s disciples?
I thank God that I did not baptise any of you except Crispus and Gaius. No one can say, then, that you were baptised as my disciples. (Oh yes, I also baptised Stephanas and his family; but I can’t remember whether I baptised anyone else.) Christ did not send me to baptise. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ’s death on the cross is not robbed of its power.
Christ the Power and the Wisdom of God
For the message about Christ’s death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God’s power.
Song – StF 250 – Jesus calls us o’er the tumult
Reading
Jesus Begins his Work in Galilee
When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he went away to Galilee. He did not stay in Nazareth, but went to live in Capernaum, a town by Lake Galilee, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was done to make what the prophet Isaiah had said come true:
“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, on the road to the sea, on the other side of the Jordan.
Galilee, land of the Gentiles! The people who live in darkness will see a great light. On those who live in the dark land of death the light will shine.”
From that time Jesus began to preach his message: “Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of heaven is near!”
Jesus Calls Four Fishermen
As Jesus walked along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers who were fishermen, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew, catching fish in the lake with a net. Jesus said to them, “Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people.” At once they left their nets and went with him.
He went on and saw two other brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in their boat with their father Zebedee, getting their nets ready. Jesus called them, and at once they left the boat and their father and went with him.
Jesus Teaches, Preaches, and Heals
Jesus went all over Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Good News about the Kingdom, and healing people who had all kinds of disease and sickness.
Sermon: Jesus said to them, “Follow me” – and at once they left their nets and went with him. What I’d like to look at this morning is: Why did those disciples go with Jesus; how did it happen; and how should we respond to our call from Jesus?
So firstly, why did they go with him? One of the reasons why those disciples responded immediately to Jesus’ call was because they saw in him the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. It helps to remember that our Gospel reading today came from Matthew, who was writing for a mainly Jewish audience – who were very precious about their Scriptures that we would now call the Old Testament, so Matthew took every opportunity possible to find in the Old Testament – in the Jewish Scriptures, something which he could use as a prophecy about events in Jesus’ life.
He found such a prophecy in our Old Testament reading today, Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 and 2.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows but now light is shining on them” is a prophecy which dates back to a time when the northern parts of Palestine, including Galilee had been ruined by the invading armies of the Assyrians; and these verses from Isaiah were originally a prophecy of the deliverance which would one day come to those conquered territories.
However, Matthew found in this passage of Jewish Scripture a prophecy which foretold of the light that Jesus was to bring. And the disciples believed that in Jesus they had found the fulfilment of such prophecy.
Can you remember from our Gospel reading, what Andrew said to his brother Simon Peter after meeting Jesus? “We have found the Messiah!” And Philip responded to Jesus’ call by finding Nathanael and saying, “We have found the one whom Moses wrote about in the book of the Law and whom the prophets also wrote about. He is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
So the disciples responded to Jesus’ call and went with him because they believed him to be the Messiah, God’s chosen one, and the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, even though it would take the whole of Jesus’ life, and his death and resurrection for them to understand exactly what kind of Messiah he is.
So my second point: how did that call happen?
Jesus was walking by the side of Lake Galilee, and as he walked, he called Peter and Andrew, James and John. This wouldn’t have been the first time that he had seen them, or they him. As we know from John’s Gospel, at least some of them were already disciples of John the Baptist – who they had probably seen baptise Jesus. No doubt they had already talked with Jesus and had already listened to him, but in this moment there came to them the challenge once and for all to throw in their lot with Jesus and follow him.
It is interesting to note what kind of men they were. They were not men of great scholarship, or influence, or wealth or social standing. They were not poor – they were simple working men with no great background and certainly anyone would have said, no great future.
It was these ordinary men that Jesus chose and called away from their daily lives, away from their paid work, to teach them the values of the Kingdom of Heaven and ultimately to build his Church upon his and their foundation.
So Jesus called his disciples away from their normal lives, their paid work and all the possessions and familiar things that they had surrounded themselves with up to this point. Some people these days choose to try and do without certain types of earthly things, but for most people we can’t easily manage, we can’t easily live and support our loved ones without the wages we receive for our daily work.
Even in the 21st century, Jesus does still call some people to completely different areas of work and areas of life as part of their discipleship – at the start of his ministry he himself left his home town of Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum.
There was a kind of symbolic finality in that move. In that moment Jesus left his home, never again to return to live in it. It was as if he shut the door that lay behind him before he opened the door that lay in front of him. It was a clean break between the old and the new. One chapter of his earthly life had ended and another had begun.
And into our lives there may come these moments of decision, and it’s normally better to meet them with a definite choice than to wobble undecided between two courses of action.
So Jesus left his home and went to Galilee, and in going there he knew what he was doing. Galilee was the most northerly district of Palestine, stretching almost to the Mediterranean on the west; to the north-east it was bordered by Syria; and its eastern boundary was the Sea of Galilee. So it was not large – about fifty miles from north to south and 25 miles from east to west.
But being by far the most fertile region of Palestine, it was densely populated. The Jewish historian Josephus states that in the region of Galilee there were 204 villages, each with a population of at least 15,000 people.
So Jesus began his mission in that part of Palestine where there were most people to hear him; he began his work in an area teeming with people to whom the Gospel proclamation might be made.
But Galilee was not just densely populated – its people were also of a certain kind. Of all parts of Palestine, Galilee was the most open to new ideas. Josephus says of the Galileans, “They were ever fond of innovations, and by nature disposed to changes and ready to follow a new leader.” Yet they were the most chivalrous of people. Josephus said that they were never lacking in courage. “They were ever more anxious for honour than for gain.”
The inborn characteristics of the Galileans were such as to make them the most fertile ground for a new gospel to be preached to them, just as their land was fertile for growth of a different kind. And from amongst the people of Galilee, Jesus called his first disciples away from their daily work, to learning and work of a completely different kind.
But for most people, for most of us, a complete change of occupation – or a move away from where we currently live, is not part of our call from Jesus. And if this is the case, then we must not be complacent in our discipleship; for if Jesus is not calling us to change jobs or move house, he most certainly is calling us to be effective witnesses for him in the jobs and the social circle that we already have.
And sometimes that can be the most difficult place – where people know us best, for being an effective witness for Jesus amongst our work colleagues and our friends – at work or at school – is not always easy – but it is part of our calling, part of our discipleship, part of our response to Jesus and his love for us.
As an example of this, many people have said to me over the years, “Why don’t you enter full-time ministry?” And my answer has always been that I have never felt the call to do that. Just because I can preach, many people think I would make a good minister, but there is so much more to the vocation of full-time Christian ministry than the ability to be a good preacher, and I do not feel that is right for me or my family because I have never felt Jesus calling me in that area.
And therefore, I have got to make sure that I fulfil what I do strongly feel called to – to be a Methodist Local Preacher – to the very best of my ability. For if Jesus doesn’t call us to a new occupation, a new vocation as part of our discipleship, then he certainly wants us to be the best witnesses we possibly can be, in the life and work we already have.
So my final point: how should we respond to our call from Jesus? From our reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we note that Jesus calls us to live according to his teaching and not to be divided amongst ourselves.
And this is a very important point, because if we are to be the best witnesses possible for Jesus and spread his Gospel message of love and forgiveness, we won’t do that very well if people outside the church see us squabbling amongst ourselves. How attractive would it be then, for them to step inside the church and join us?
As we heard, Christian disunity is not a new thing; for Paul had cause to rebuke the Christians he was writing to for the divisions that were separating them and robbing their Christian witness of the unity it required to be truly effective.
Paul calls the Corinthians, Christian brothers, which softens the rebuke he gives them, so it comes not as from a schoolmaster with a cane but as from one who has no other emotion than love. But it also shows them how wrong such divisions are among a group of Christians.
In trying to bring them together, Paul bids them to make up their differences. The words he uses could also be interpreted as “being knit together”, as with bones that have been fractured, or the healing of a joint that has been dislocated. Hence Paul emphasises that their disunity is unnatural and must be cured for the sake of the health and efficiency of the body of the Church.
And the same is true of us too. Disunity and squabbling amongst any group of Christians is harmful to the group and lethal to their witness for Jesus. We too should be more concerned with sharing amongst each other the love and forgiveness we ourselves have received from Jesus.
Yes we will have our differences from time to time – we are all different people with different views and opinions. And with the recent conversations in the Methodist Church on the issues of relationships and same-sex marriages, there are many who disagree with each other. But hopefully we can be mature enough in our Christian faith to be able to deal with these disagreements in a spirit of brotherly / sisterly Christian love and not let them divide us.
Paul’s urgency to get this point across to the Corinthians can be seen as he stumbles over his words when speaking about who he had baptised. “I didn’t baptise anyone except Crispus and Gaius. Oh yes, also Stephanus and his family, but I can’t remember whether there was anyone else!”
He is not belittling baptism, it’s just that he is much more bothered in this passage about the importance of his call to unity – and so we should be too.
So to conclude, as Paul said, we are called to live out our faith in Jesus Christ, the fulfiller of Biblical prophecy, in a world that sees the Christian gospel either as folly or as a stumbling block – just as it was when Jesus called his first disciples.
And we too need to proclaim a united message to that world – that Jesus’ love and forgiveness are for all people, if only they, like we, would turn from their sins and believe in him.
Is this message folly? Is it a stumbling block? Or is it perhaps the most important message of all time? A message we should dedicate our lives to proclaiming, as the utensils God uses to spread his love and forgiveness.
Every utensil is different, but all are useful in preparing our food. Every person is different. But, despite our differences and disagreements, let us work together to be united as the body of Jesus Christ our Lord, his Church here on earth, so we are useful to Jesus in bringing about the Kingdom of God. Amen.
Song – StF 608 – All praise to our redeeming Lord
Prayers
Let us pray. Lord Jesus Christ, as we respond to your call to harmony in thy name, we ask for your help to mend our disunity. All too often, your Church is not united and fails to live up to its calling. Grant us the blessing of your Spirit that we may work together to spread a united message of love and forgiveness, whichever part of your Church we belong to.
Lord Jesus Christ, as we respond to your call to build each other up, we pray for those in need. We pray for all people who have responded to your call and serve you in their lives, not just those we know or have heard of because of the so-called important jobs they do for you, but also for everyone who gives up something for you. We pray that their witness may be effective, inspired and blessed, and that we, like them, may truly pass on your love and forgiveness and swell the ranks of your kingdom here on earth. We pray Lord, that we might all be empowered by your Spirit and not only willing to give things up for you, but also to look for new ways of serving you.
As we take a moment to think Lord of what lies ahead for us in the next week, the things we will be involved with, the people we will meet …. we pray that whatever happens, it might be blessed by you, so that we can truly be useful to you and worthy of our calling.
And as we think of your world in which we seek to serve you, we see so many who suffer, and we pray for them all. We pray for those suffering the effects of war and conflict in Israel, Palestine, Gaza, Ukraine, Russia, Yemen and in so many other parts of your world. Lord, we pray that peace may come and be supported by justice, leading to people learning to live together in harmony and with goodwill to their neighbours.
Lord Jesus, we pray for people in so many countries of the world, where the choices they face are not so much about how they can follow you and serve you in the comfort and luxury that we take for granted, but more about how they and their loved ones can survive another day.
And coming closer to home, we think of the people of this church here in Allerton and those we know in our own lives, and we bring you our prayers for them now in a moment of silence ….
We ask your blessing Lord Jesus on all for whom we have prayed. We bring our prayers in and through thy holy name. Amen.
Offering: Lord God, we are grateful for all the blessings we receive from you, and for all the ways in which you transform our lives for the better. So we bring you our gifts of money, in this offering here or by whatever other means we give. Take all that we offer, our money and our lives, and use it to the glory of your name. Amen.
Song – StF 443 – Come let us sing of a wonderful love
Blessing – May the God of love guard us, guide us and keep us as we seek to follow our calling from his Son Jesus, by the power of his Holy Spirit. Let us go out to live and work to his praise and glory. Amen.
