The way Paul describes his Christian ministry is no different to the process we each follow as we strive towards Christian maturity.
I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.
We work, and at the same time God works within us. A balance of cooperation between us and God.
Philippians 2:12 … continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
We work out our salvation as God works within us. Christ in you. There is a slogan popular in some circles, “Let go, let God.” But that is not what the Bible teaches. It might be better to say, “Do your best, God does the rest.” Christian maturity is something God develops within us. But we have to play our part so that the life of Christ is expressed in us. And what a wonderful goal that is to aim at.
Colossians 2:2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
This is what God promises us as we grow in Christian maturity. The full riches of complete understanding. Knowing the mystery of God, namely Christ. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul uses a wonderful phrase to sum up all the blessings God has for us in his cosmic masterplan: “the unsearchable riches of Christ”. God has so much to give us as we become mature in Christ!
Christ is in us – but that is only the half of it. Because Colossians 1:27 actually says this.
CHRIST IS IN YOU – THE HOPE OF GLORY!
We may not reach Christian maturity in this life. None of us become perfect this side of heaven. But what Paul is saying here is this. Christ is in us NOW – and this is our guarantee that one day we will share in the glory of God.
“Christ is in you, bringing with Him the hope of all the glorious things to come.”
We sometimes devalue the word “hope.” In English we can use “hope” to refer to some vague optimistic wish. In the Bible the word “hope” is much more definite. We should probably translate it as “happy certainty.” When Paul talks of “the hope of glory” he is actually saying “the happy certainty” of sharing God’s glory.
Now hope is a combination of expectation and desire. I would love one day to walk on the moon. But since I have no expectation of that ever happening I can’t say “I hope to walk on the moon.” On the other hand one day I am sure I will have to visit the dentist. But since I have no desire ever to visit the dentist again it would be wrong to say, “I hope to visit the dentist.”
But my greatest desire is to spend eternity with Christ. And the promises of God make it absolutely certain that I will spend eternity with Christ. So it is correct to say, I hope to spend eternity with Christ. I hope to share in His glory. This is not wishful thinking. This is expectation plus desire. This is the happy certainty of our Christian hope.
We were looking at Paul’s letter to the Romans in our evening services before Easter. Hope is a major theme in Romans.
Romans 5:2 And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
We rejoice in the hope of sharing the glory of God. It has been said that man can live for 40 days without food, for three days without water, for several minutes without air but for only a few seconds without hope. Dostoevski said, “Hell is hopelessness.” The inscription above the entrance to Dante’s inferno read, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”

When you look at the pessimism and gloom of some Christians you would think that they were destined for hell and even at its door. In fact the opposite is true. True believers have every reason to be filled with hope. We have a hope which is steadfast and certain! “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” “Christ in you - the hope of glory!” Not some wishy washy optimism but a confident expectation. The happy certainty that one day God will take us to be with him and we will share His glory for eternity. THIS is our destiny as Christians. THIS is God’s wonderful plan and purpose for us – yes even for you and even for me!
But as he told the Roman Christians, and as Paul himself experienced, the pathway to glory often includes suffering.
24 Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
Romans 5:3 …. we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
The road to heaven will not always be easy. The sufferings or tribulations we face are the pressures of a godless hostile world on those who follow Christ. These teach us perseverance and build up our character. And instead of undermining our confidence in God, in fact these experiences of adversity and opposition strengthen our faith and build up our hope. Our hope comes through the resurrection life of Christ in us. Jesus has died – but Christ has also risen! And He has shown us the path we must follow, through suffering to glory, through cross to resurrection. And in the end, all our suffering will be worth it. And Paul says in Romans 8:18,
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
The founder of the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther wrote this. “If we consider the greatness and the glory of the life we shall have when we have risen from the dead, it would not be difficult at all for us to bear the concerns of this world. If I believe the Word, I shall on the Last Day, after the sentence has been pronounced, not only gladly have suffered ordinary temptations, insults, and imprisonment, but I shall also say: “O, that I did not throw myself under the feet of all the godless for the sake of the great glory which I now see revealed and which has come to me through the merit of Christ!”
The sufferings of this life are not worth comparing with the glory which is to be revealed in us! The best is yet to come! “Earth has no sorrow which heaven cannot heal.” (Thomas Moore)
Some folk here this morning may be suffering at the moment. Illnesses, trials, all kind of griefs, defeats and discouragements. Be reassured, however tough life gets, God will not let go of us. We WILL share in His glory! But how can we be certain? It’s simple, says Paul. “Christ is in you – that’s the hope of glory!”
How can you be sure you are going to heaven? Because Christ is already in you! “Christ in you – the hope of glory!”

To describe who Christ is, Paul uses three words – the IMAGE of God, the FIRSTBORN of God and the FULLNESS of God.
The IMAGE of God (verse 15)
15 He is the image of the invisible God, The visible expression, the exact likeness of the invisible God. As the Message Translation puts it, We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. If we want to know what God is like, we look at Christ.
The word is ikon which originally meant a statue or picture or representation of something else. This reminds us of the story of Creation in Genesis 1:26-27.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.

Human beings were created in God’s image, to bear God’s likeness. Adam and Eve were like God in what they were, in qualities of mind and spirit. Adam and Eve were also like God in what they did, as God’s representatives in the world caring for creation. In the Fall of humanity that image of God in Adam and Eve was marred by their disobedience.
But Jesus Christ was not merely a man created “IN God’s image.” Jesus IS God’s image. The one and only Son of God, Immanuel, God with us, God incarnate as a human being. And God’s masterplan is to recreate His image again in all human beings.
2 Corinthians 5:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Paul spells this out in Colossians 3 and we will think much more about this later.
9 …. you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Christ the image of God was born a man and died and rose again to restore God’s image in everybody who puts their trust in Him. JESUS Christ is the IMAGE of God. AND THERE’S MORE! Christ is also
THE FIRSTBORN OF GOD (verses 15-18)
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
18 …. he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
In Judaism the significance of being the firstborn is much more than being born first. It is a metaphor for a person who holds a position of special favour. In the Old Testament the firstborn inherits a double share. The chosen nation of Israel were described as God’s firstborn son. Christ is truly God’s firstborn son.
17 He is before all things,
“Before” here refers to priority in time – Christ existed before everything was created, before even time began. But “before” here also means “before in rank, in standing,” Christ stands ahead of everything else, first in all of creation.
That is because Jesus Christ was the firstborn of the OLD ORDER, of this present universe, of the whole of creation.
Christ is the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Christ comes first because he created everything! All things – not just on earth but in heaven as well, not just visible but even invisible things, spiritual thrones, powers, rulers, authorities. And not only did He create all things. But all things were created FOR Him. He was not only the agent of creation but also its goal, its purpose. All things were created BY Him AND FOR him!
And not only was Christ the CREATOR of all things. He is and remains the SUSTAINER of all things. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Hebrews 1:2-3 puts it this way:
but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Listen to that in the Message translation:
By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words!
That’s how great Christ is!! Creator and sustainer of the whole universe – this present age, the old order. AND THERE’S MORE!!
Because Christ is also firstborn of the NEW ORDER – the age to come, God’s new creation, the church.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Not only was Christ the firstborn of everything which already is. He is also the firstborn of everything which is to come, the firstborn from among the dead, the head of the body, the church. So indeed in everything Christ has the supremacy. Christ is pre-eminent. He is the lynchpin of creation, the pivot on which everything is held in place. Christ is the focus towards which everything converges. Christ is supreme! Christ is the IMAGE of God and the FIRSTBORN of God. AND THERE’S MORE!!!
Christ is the FULLNESS OF GOD
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
The full nature of God was in Christ. Christ was “full to bursting” with God. The Living Bible puts it this way. “God wanted all of Himself to be in His Son.” Everything God is, Jesus Christ is! Jesus Himself said so in John 10:30. “I and the Father are one.”
Paul picks us this theme in Colossians 2 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
Everything God is, Christ is! All the fullness of deity in bodily form. And then Paul says something even more amazing.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
Christ has all the fullness of God, Christ is head over every power and authority, and Christ gives to US fullness. You have been given fullness in Christ. Paul says in Ephesians 4 that our goal is to become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. That is what Christian maturity is all about. Fullness of life. The whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Our God is too small!! Jesus Christ is the IMAGE of God. Jesus Christ is the FIRSTBORN of God. Jesus Christ is the FULLNESS of God. Christ is supreme!! Bow down and worship – for this is your God.
That is who Christ is. AND THERE’S MORE!!! Because Paul now goes on to remind us what Christ has done for us.
WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR US (more briefly from verses 19-23)
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

Paul reminds us of what we were without Christ.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
We were alienated from God, separated from God, trapped in darkness, rebels and strangers from God. Enemies because in our minds because of our wicked thoughts and enemies in our bodies because of our wicked behaviour. That is what we used to be. Then God gave his only Son Jesus Christ to save us,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
We have been reconciled to God. Christ has turned us from God’s enemies into God’s friends. And Paul also used other pictures for salvation earlier in chapter 1.
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
We have been rescued. As those plucked from the jaws of death. We have been redeemed, like slaves bought out of slavery to sin and released as free men and women! And our sins have been forgiven!
. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation
How amazing that is! God views miserable sinners like you and me as holy, set apart for God, as without blemish, pure and unspoilt, as free from accusation, with a clear conscience and free from guilt! In Christ there is no condemnation.
What a transformation! But let us never forget that all these wonderful blessings come to us at such a great cost.
22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death

19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

So we come back to my first question. Just who died on the cross? We have been reconciled, rescued, redeemed, forgiven, all through the death of Jesus Christ, God the Son, the image of God, the firstborn of God, the fullness of God.
Just think for a moment about the crucifixion of the IMAGE of God. Perfection tasting imperfection. The immortal overwhelmed by mortality. The eternal facing its end. The omnipotent God – powerless. The omniscient God – facing ignorance. The omnipresent God crushed by death itself.
And how about the crucifixion of the FIRSTBORN of God. The Creator of all things put to death by His own Creation. The Sustainer, the one in whom all things hold together, hanging dying and dead. “Hands that flung stars into space, to cruel nails surrendered.”
And think about the crucifixion of the FULLNESS of God. Everything that God is was in Christ there on the cross, experiencing agony and isolation and rejection and hatred and despair and even abandonment. The fullness of God poured out to complete emptiness.
This is who died on the cross for you and for me! The Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Christ who is supreme! Who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Bow down and worship – for this is your God!!

WHERE DO WE START? (verses 3-8)
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Paul starts by thanking God for the Colossian Christians and the difference God has made in their lives through the gospel. And we all start with the gospel. The good news about the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The good news which reconciles us to God. The good news about how God forgives our sins and gives us new life, eternal life, life in all its fullness.
Colossians 113 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
God begins to change us when we hear the gospel and understand God’s grace, God’s free gift of pretty amazing grace which brings us eternal life. And that gospel impacts on our lives in at least three ways.
The hope that is stored up for you in heaven (verse 6) – not just pious optimism but the happy certainty that one day we will share God’s glory in heaven.
Faith in Jesus Christ (verse 4) – the channel by which all God’s grace comes to us. Not just intellectual assent but truly putting our trust in Jesus. Martin Luther said, “Faith is a living daring confidence in God’s grace.” Daring indeed because if our hope is false, if our trust is misplaced, then we lose everything! Here is a test of how much faith we have. How much would you stand to lose if the gospel turned out not to be true? If we don’t LIVE it, we don’t BELIEVE it!
Faith and hope lead us on to Love for all the saints (verse 4) a supernatural love in the Spirit (verse 8). God’s kind of love which just never runs out, never gives up.
Hope. Faith. Love. These three things are not the sum total of the Christian life. But they are the fundamentals of the Christian life, the basics for every Christian. If you have not experienced these basics of hope and faith and love yet, then while I go on to talk about Christian maturity you might like to ask yourself – why not? Today might even turn out to be YOUR Christian birthday!
So we start with the gospel and the basics of hope, faith and love. What next? Paul explains

WHAT DO WE NEED? (verse 9)
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
The vital ingredient in Christian maturity, not only in Colossians but in all of Paul’s letters, is this: “Knowing God’s will.”
We find it again in Colossians 412 Epaphras … is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
Discovering God’s will is not an intellectual process but a spiritual one. Verse 9 again:
asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
God’s will is not something we can work out for ourselves. We need spiritual wisdom and understanding. We need God to reveal his plans and purposes to us! And there are two levels to God’s will. Overarching the entire universe there is God’s ultimate purpose, God’s cosmic masterplan.
Ephesians 1 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
God has an ultimate plan for the whole of Creation. We should never get so bogged down in our own small corners that we lose sight of God’s cosmic masterplan – to bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ.
But at the other end of the scale, God also cares about the tiniest details of all of our lives. God has specific purposes for each one of us. We each have an appointed place in God’s cosmic masterplan.
Romans 12 . 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
God wants each one of us to find out the part he wants us to play in the jigsaw of his purposes for the whole universe. Some Christians seem to just drift through life and work and home and family and church with no sense of direction or purpose. People who can’t see the target usually miss it. We all need to ask God to fill US with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. As somebody said, “To know God’s will is man’s greatest treasure. To do God’s will is man’s greatest privilege.”
If you are looking for God’s pspecific will and purpose for your life – ASK HIM! But we can start with the same general clues Paul gives to the Colossians because they apply to all Christians.

WHERE DO WE GO NEXT? (verses 10-14)
10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

We need to know God’s will so that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
Isn’t that what we would all long to do if we could? Please God in everything we do? Live a life worthy of Him? And Paul spells out four ways we can do this.
bearing fruit in every good work,
ACTIVITIES: We aren’t saved BY good works but we are saved FOR good works. Founder of Methodism John Wesley said this. “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” Mature in Christ – are you growing in your Christian service?
growing in the knowledge of God,
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: Knowing God’s word the Bible, praying, appreciating God’s love. How much better do you know God now than you did last year, or five years ago, or when you first believed?
11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
CHARACTER: depending on God’s glorious might and not our own feeble efforts. Christian maturity doesn’t come overnight. It comes through great endurance and patience, or it never comes at all. New Christians may be excused impatience, or lack of perseverance. Those of us who have been Christians for longer have less excuse. Christian maturity – are you growing in Christian character?
joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
JOY AND THANKFULNESS! These are often the characteristics of new and young Christians. Sometimes we think, “They will grow out of it. Wait until they have faced the problems I have.” In fact, joy and thankfulness are marks of MATURITY in our Christian faith. We should pray we will all grow INTO it!
Christian maturity in activities, in our relationship with God, in character, in joy and thanksgiving – all parts of living a life worthy of the Lord and of pleasing Him in every way.
Paul prayed these things for the Colossians. Let us pray them for ourselves and for each other. And as if we needed any more incentive to stay firm in our faith and to move on in Christ, Paul reminds us of everything God has done for us in Christ! From Colossians 1verse 12,
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

God has done all this for us. The least we can do is resolve to move on with Christ and make every effort, by God’s grace, to become Mature in Christ.

Building Collaborative Relationships
As we consider the future of the Baptist family, many of us are dreaming dreams about what church could be like at local, cluster, regional and national levels. Financial constraints are focussing our minds on structures and patterns. I suggest that we also need to look from a different perspective: that of relationships. ……

Juggling with Chickens
“Juggling with Chickens - Reflections on Pastoral Ministry today” is a book in progress. A variation of the first chapter was published in the Baptist Times. The current version lives online starting at http://www.pbthomas.com/jugglingwithchickens/ …….

“The Prophet-hood of All Believers”
There is so much I would like to say about government by church meeting and that will have to wait for a later post. For today I have added a new page to this blog, “The Prophet-hood of All Believers”, which is the summary of a talk I have given to “Celebrate Jesus” this week. …..

7 ideas to make Home Mission support more effective
As a Home Mission Visitor and a Mission Consultant for more than 20 years I offer the following suggestions about Home Mission support. Although they referring primarily to churches receiving a grant to help them have a minister they can also apply to other mission situations. ….

Things I miss about the good old days with lots of Associations
More than thirty years ago Bushey Baptist Church encouraged me to become a lay preacher in Hertfordshire Baptist Association. By the time I came before the Association Ministerial Recognition Committee five years later I had preached in half of the churches of the Association, and at least half of the Committee members had actually heard me preach. …..

Why the most important Baptist Distinctive is “The Believers’ Church”
For four days in 2008 I took part in a conference at the Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg on “Congregationalism, Denominationalism and the Believers’ Church”. This brought
together mostly academics but also pastors from the Baptist, Mennonite and other Brethren traditions from Canada and the Northern USA. ……

Why I am glad I resisted the temptations to bivocational ministry
More than thirty years ago I trained as a teacher and then taught science for five years before studying theology and entering pastoral ministry. Teaching is a career which it is relatively easy to pursue part time in conjunction with church ministry. How might life have been different if I
had been led to follow that route? …….

Anybody interested can find this new blog at www.pbthomas.com/thoughts

A few years ago we marked 200 years from the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies. And one Sunday was designated “Amazing Grace Sunday” – a day for very many churches to sing that marvellous hymn by the converted slave trader, John Newton.

AMAZING GRACE! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me;
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
’Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

Amazing grace! The word grace is at the heart of the gospel message. It occurs 124 times in the Bible. But what is grace?

Grace is the mercy and active love of God, God’s undeserved favour;

Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues. John R. W. Stott (1921– )

Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. It is a self-existent principle inherent in the divine nature and appears to us as a self-caused inclination to pity the wretched, spare the guilty, welcome the outcast, and bring into favor those who were before under just condemnation. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus. A. W. Tozer

Eph 2:1 ¶ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

The Bible tells us what we know in our hearts to be true. Without God we are all dead in our sins, running away from God, led astray by the ways of the world and by the Evil One, the Tempter, the devil. This is true of ALL of us, living to satisfy our sinful nature and following its desires instead of pursuing God. Because of our sins we all face God’s judgement - we are all objects of (God’s) wrath. We are rightly judged to be guilty and deserving to pay the penalties for our sins.

Without God we are lost. Not just lost like you’ve missed your turning and you have to turn round and go back and take the right road. Not even lost like you’re up a mountain and you can’t find the way down, because usually when you are up a mountain most ways down will get you to the bottom. Lost like you’ve crash landed in the middle of the jungle and you don’t need to decide which path you want to take because there aren’t any paths – and those lions over there are looking rather hungry. That kind of lost.

Without God we are lost and we are doomed. Doomed! Up the creek without a paddle. Drifting in your canoe where there’s no point in trying to swim for the shore because if the crocodiles don’t get you the hippo’s will. And you are drifting faster and faster towards the edge of the waterfall crashing down over the cliff. That kind of doomed. Only much much worse.

But here’s the GOOD news!!!

Eph 2:4. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

We were dead because of sin. But Jesus has died for our sins on the cross. As we share in His death our sins are forgiven. But even more than that! We were dead– but God has brought us to life with Christ! We are raised up with Him and seated in heavenly places! We share Christ’s resurrection life, eternal life, life in all its fullness! That’s grace. Getting the punishment we deserve for our sins would be justice! Being spared that punishment which we deserve would be mercy. But sharing the benefits of Christ’s glorious resurrection, receiving blessing upon blessing, that’s grace!

If someone brutally murders your son and you take things into your own hands, that’s revenge. If you’re content to allow the law and the courts to arrest and punish the offender, that’s justice. But if you pardon the murderer, adopt him, and take him home to live with you as your son, that’s grace! And that’s what God has done for us!! All we deserve from God is punishment for rejecting Him and running away from Him. But instead we are alive with Christ, raised up with him, seated in the heavenly realms with Him - THAT’s grace!!

It’s the kind of love shown by the father in Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son. The father who doesn’t treat this wasteful son as he deserves for squandering the family estate, but instead welcomes him home. The Father who is always on the lookout ready to welcome the wanderer home.
20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, `Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Grace that welcomes back that wasteful prodigal son. Grace that welcomes a slave trader like John Newton, and tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus, and thieves like the man who hung on his own cross alongside Jesus. Grace that welcomes sinners of all kinds, prostitutes and murderers and drunks, “scumbags, every one”. Even miserable sinners like you and me!

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.

That’s how much God loves us! THAT is grace – God’s undeserved favour!
“If in my foolishness I stray, returning empty and ashamed, I love the way you father me.
Exchanging for my wretchedness your radiant robes of righteousness, I love the way you Father me.”

When a person becomes a Christian God pours down so many blessings on them!
Forgiveness of sins
Life instead of death
Freedom instead of slavery to sin
Life in all its fullness here and now
The Happy Certainty of Heaven
The Holy Spirit living inside us
Being God’s children
Being part of God’s family
Access to God through prayer

And all of these blessings are God’s FREE GIFT to us as Christians. We know we don’t deserve any of those blessings. In our hearts we confess that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – there is none who is righteous, no not one!”

Pretty amazing grace is what You showed me
pretty amazing grace is who You are
I was an empty vessel You filled me up inside
and with amazing grace restored my pride

Pretty amazing grace is how You saved me
and with amazing grace reclaimed my heart
love in the midst of chaos calm in the heat of war
showed with amazing grace what love was for

You forgave my insensitivity and my attempt to then mislead You
You stood beside a wretch like me
Your pretty amazing grace was all I needed.

Came to You with empty pockets first
when I returned I was rich man
didn’t believe love could quench my thirst
but with amazing grace You showed me that it can

You overcame my loss of hope and faith
gave me a truth I could believe in
You led me to a higher place
showed Your amazing grace when grace was what I needed

Pretty amazing grace!

Grace is all those blessings we could NEVER earn or deserve, lavished upon us by our loving heavenly Father!

Eph 2: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.

When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award–yet despite that he receives all these and much much more - that is God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God. We could never be good enough for God. We could never earn or deserve our salvation - it’s all of grace! Praise God!

John Newton said that when we get to heaven, there will be three amazing things:

(1) who is there
(2) who is not there, and
(3) the fact that I am there!

So many blessings! “Grace is everything for nothing for those who don’t deserve anything.”!
Grace – God;s undeserved favour. And that grace carries on throughout our lives.

Eph 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Good works prepared in advance for us to do! Reminds me of Blue Peter - “Here’s one I prepared earlier!!”
Or of ten-pin bowling – the skittles set up ready to be knocked down.
God’s grace not only saves us! Grace also leads us on and equips us to serve God for the rest of our lives, doing those good works God has planned for us to do!

When we think we haven’t the strength to continue, God’s grace is there for us! Whether it’s in our church life together or in any part of our lives, home, work, family, if ever we are weary and discouraged and want to give up, God’s grace is there for us! When we are dragged down by illness or discouragement or grief, God’s grace is sufficient for us!

A Minister (and this isn’t a personal story) once had to make a very long and urgent journey, but wasn’t sure he would have the money for the whole trip. One of the elders of his church who was very wealthy came to his home to offer a word of comfort and encouragement. As he left, the elder slipped a piece of paper into the minster’s hand. He looked at it and was surprised to find that it was a check made out to him and signed by this rich friend. But the figures to indicate the amount of the gift were missing. “Did you really mean to give me a signed blank cheque?” he asked. “Yes,” the elder replied. “I didn’t know how much you’d need, and I wanted to be sure you would have enough.”

Grace means that God has given us a signed spiritual blank cheque to provide for every genuine need that arises in our lives. With God there is always ENOUGH when we need it - “my grace is sufficient for you!”

And none of it earned, or deserved. God’s undeserved favour. God’s love that cares and stoops and rescues!

Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.

THROUGH MANY DANGERS TOILS AND SNARES WE HAVE ALREADY COME
TIS GRACE HAS BROUGHT US SAFE THUS FAR AND GRACE WILL LEAD US HOME

MATT 28:5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

So the women were filled with joy, and soon afterwards so were the apostles.

John 20:19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

They were frightened. They were surprised. But most of all they were filled with joy!
Luke 24:36 Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” 40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 …. they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement!
Of course the disciples were filled with joy when they saw that Jesus was alive again. They had been right there with Him when He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. They had waited outside as Jesus was put to trial first before the High Priest, then before the Roman Governor Pilate, and then again before Herod the King of the Jews. They had watched from a distance when Pilate washed his hands as he sentenced Jesus to death. They had watched Jesus carrying his cross along the Via Dolorosa. They had watched as Jesus was nailed to the cross. They had watched every minute of his agony hanging there for the three hours it took for Jesus to die. They had watched as the spear pierced his side and blood and water flowed out. They had watched as the dead body of Jesus was taken down from the cross and sealed in the garden tomb behind a seven ton boulder. Their teacher, their master, their friend had been crucified, dead and buried right before their eyes! So of course they were filled with joy when they knew for certain that Jesus was alive again. He had died. Now he was alive. Of course they were overjoyed!

It made no difference that Jesus had already told his disciples everything that was going to happen to him. They had not understood then. When Jesus was crucified it was inevitable that they would weep and mourn and grieve. Only when Jesus rose from the dead would his disciples be joyful again.

JOHN 16:19 Jesus …. said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, `In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no-one will take away your joy.

On Good Friday Jesus Christ the Son of God was crucified. But now on Easter Day Jesus had risen from the dead. So now the disciples would rejoice!! And in the same way we also are filled with joy because Jesus is alive! We love Jesus. We are sad because he has died. And only one thing can take that sadness away.

Four friends were talking about death. One of them asked the other three, “When you are lying in your coffin and people are mourning you, what would you like to hear them say about you?” The first man said, “I’d like to hear them say that I was a fine doctor and a great family man.” The second man said, “I’d like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and a teacher who had really made a difference to his pupils’ lives” The third man replied, “I’d like to hear them say, ‘Look, he’s moving! He’s not dead! He’s ALIVE!’”

People who don’t love Jesus may not care when they hear that He rose from the dead that first Easter day. But the more we LOVE Jesus, the more thrilled WE will be that He is not dead but alive forevermore! The Cross was not the end of the story of Jesus. Easter Day was the new beginning!

Christ was raised to life on the third day! He was dead. Then he was alive again! There is a wonderful poster with a simple yet profound slogan. “Didn’t He used to be dead?” The answer is, YES, Jesus did used to be dead, but now He is alive! That is why we are filled with joy!!

And then we are also filled with joy because Jesus shares His resurrection power with us. Jesus gives us eternal life, life in all its fullness. And that life is nothing less than the resurrection of life of Jesus pouring into our own lives, the power which raised Chirst from the dead helping US to live a new life, to reign in life, to be victorious! And this is life which nothing can take away from us, not even death. Because Jesus is alive we have the happy certainty that we will live with Him in heaven forever! Because HE lives, WE will live also!

1 Peter 1:3 ¶ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade- kept in heaven for you,

So we are joyful because Jesus is alive – not dead. We are joyful because his resurrection power is poured into our lives! And we are joyful because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s guarantee to us that when we die we will be with him in heaven forever. No wonder we are joyful!
1 Peter 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

An inexpressible and glorious joy – that’s the joy which Easter brings us!

10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,and he will divide the spoils with the strong,because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Yet even after Jesus had explained the Scriptures to them, even after He had helped them through their lack of understanding and their lack of believe, still Cleopas and his companion did not recognise that it was Jesus with them!
With all the understanding in the world, and with all the belief in the truths of Scripture we can have, it is still possible to fail to recognise Jesus Christ when he is right there, right at hand, even in the same room! There can be times when we fail to recognise Christ when He comes up and walks with us!
I serve a risen saviour, He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living, whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer.
And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.
He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way!
Is that just theory, just a nice song to sing? Or is that our genuine Christian experience? We say we believe Christ is with us. But are we aware of his presence? Do we really expect Him to act and to speak in our lives? Christ is indeed with us, working in healing power, with us in our daily work and recreation and family life and Christian service. But do we always recognise Jesus when he walks with us along the road? As much in the good times when we feel close to Him as in the bad times when everything is going wrong and we feel that God has deserted us?
Some people today may be finding it hard to enter into the joy of Easter. It is hard to sing joyful hymns if we have sad hearts, grieving hearts, worried hearts, scared hearts. But the resurrection is not only good news when things are going well in life, when we are feeling strong and successful. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is even more good news when we are feeling weak and powerless. Those are the times when it is good to discover that Jesus is alive and risen for us!
We claim to understand the Bible. We claim to believe what it says. Yet so often people fail to recognise that Jesus is alive and with them. So maybe there was a third reason why Cleopas and his companion did not recognise Jesus. Perhaps they were simply lacking in expectation.
They may have understood and believed. But they still had this basic blind spot. Dead people stay dead! Dead people just don’t come back to life, do they? They just didn’t expect to see Jesus alive again.
If the second disciple was indeed the Mary who had stood at the foot of the cross, she certainly knew that Jesus was dead. She had seen him die with her own eyes only a few yards away. And dead men don’t come back to life. At least, they never did until Jesus came along. So the resurrection went against all their experiences and their expectations. Perhaps it was lack of expectation which blinded the eyes of those two disciples to recognising Jesus. And the same is true of so many people today. We live in a materialistic world where people think there are no realities beyond what they can see and touch. We live in a mechanistic world where everything is determined by cause and effect and nothing can surprise us. Many people fail to recognise that Jesus is alive simply because it goes against all their expectations. But lack of expectation will not stop Jesus from revealing Himself!
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
How like Jesus. He didn’t force himself upon them but waited for their hospitality. If they had not invited a stranger into their home, these two disciples would have missed out on the wonderful blessing of recognising the Risen Christ with them. So many people DO miss out on an encounter with Jesus because they never invite Him in.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
We mustn’t read too much into this event. This was not a “communion service.” It is unlikely that Cleopas and his companion had been present at the Last Supper, although they could well have been there when Jesus broke five loaves and two fishes and fed five thousand people. Perhaps it was in the light of the room, as they were looking at the bread, maybe it was then they saw the scars of the holes in Jesus’s hands and so they recognised Jesus.
And in that one instant, all their lack of understanding and lack of belief and lack of expectation were swept aside. They didn’t just understand that the Christ had to rise from the dead. They didn’t just believe reports that Jesus was alive. Those two disciples knew for certain that Jesus was alive!
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
We may be lacking in understanding. We may be lacking in faith. We may be lacking in expectation. But meeting the Risen Jesus Christ changes everything! The testimony of Cleopas and his unknown companion are added to the other witnesses from that first Easter Day. We have seen the Lord! Jesus is alive! Praise the Lord!

And you have won unlimited spending money! Although to be fair, there aren’t any shops in the Arctic so there won’t be anything to spend your money on! But it’s the thought that counts

So who will you choose to take with you on this holiday of a lifetime. You can have two members of your family, or your closest friends. Decide now for me – who are you going to take?

So there you are in the Arctic on your holiday of a lifetime. We promised you snow – but I am afraid you are getting even more snow than you expected. An Arctic blizzard is raging outside your igloo. You and your two friends are trapped inside. You have just got in touch with Arctic Enterprises. And there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that you have seven days of food for the three of you! The bad news is that is seven days of minimum rations. In that extreme cold if you don’t eat that minimum ration each day then I am sad to say you will die. And I have some more good news and bad news for you. The good news is that help is on its way! But the bad news is that the blizzard is so bad that the caterpillar snowmobile with more food will take ten days to reach you.

So what are you going to do? Help is ten days away. But you and your two closest friends have only seven days of minimum rations left. What are you going to do?

I first told that story almost thirty years ago. Rob answered first. He was a policeman, on the staff of the police training academy in Hendon. Rob had just been on the front line of the Brixton riots. Rob was a strong man. I asked the question – what would you do? Rob answered very honestly. “We all know what we ought to do – but how many of us would have the guts to do it?”

You probably know the story of Captain Scott’s polar expedition. Still 400 miles from safety, the party was suffering with frostbite, snow blindness, hunger and exhaustion. One of the group was Laurence Oates. He was struggling with an old war wound and almost unable to walk. To give his companions a better chance, on 1th March 1912 Laurence Oates walked out of the tent into the blizzard. His last words were, “I am just going outside and may be some time”.

Would you do it? Would you give up your life to save the lives of your closest friends? I’d like to think that I would. But if it came to the crunch, would I?

It was just as hard, at least as difficult and painful, for Jesus to give up his life for us as it would have been for you and for me. This is how we know how much God loves us.

Romans 5:6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were sinners, while we were still God’s enemies, Jesus chose to die for us.
Jesus did not have to die for us. Jesus chose to die for us.

JOHN 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Let me say it again. It was just as hard, at least as difficult and painful, for Jesus to give up his life for us as it would have been for you and for me. And nowhere is that more evident than when Jesus prays in Gethsemane.
Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives
39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

“Take this cup from me”, Jesus says, THREE times – I don’t want to suffer, I don’t want to die!
Sweat like drops of blood!
So intense an experience even Jesus needed an angel to strengthen him!!! So deep, so sorrowful, such a sacrifice that even the Son of God needed an angel!!!

All alone – disciples asleep – Jesus abandoned!
“Yet not my will but yours be done!” Think of all the times we have said the opposite – done what we wanted instead of what God wanted – taken the easy way out – but Jesus does not. He is obedient unto death, even death on a cross!

This is how much God loves us!

ANY OTHER WAY (by Dave Sewell)

If there’s any other way, Father,
To bring the world back to you and to give men freedom,
If there’s any other way, Father,
Please tell me so!

If there’s any other way, Father,
But to take all the sin of the world on my shoulders,
If there’s any other way, Father,
Please tell me so!

For I know that the cross will be hard to bear
And I know I will have to be strong.
And the jeers of the crowd and the heat and the thirst
And the pain will go on and on.
But it isn’t the pain of the cross that will be
The worst thing I’ll have to bear.
But to know as the sin of the world rests on me,
That for the first time in my life, You won’t be there!

So if there’s any other way, Father,
To bring the world back to you and to give men freedom,
If there’s any other way, Father,
Please tell me so!

If there’s any other way, Father,
But the cross and the shame and the pain and the dying,
If there’s any other way, Father,
Your will be done. Your will be done.

ADRIAN SNELL – GETHSEMANE

On the way they met a woman with severe bleeding who had problems of her own. An incurable condition. Twelve years of pain, getting worse and worse. But more than that, because of her illness under Jewish Law she was ritually unclean. In the past she also had been wealthy, but now she had been cast out by her family, her friends and her synagogue. So this woman comes to Jesus, hoping not only for healing but to get her life and her home and her friends back.
25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”
Then there was Jairus’s daughter, only 12 years old. Can you picture her childlike joy, just into her teens. Now sick. On the point of death. Would Jesus be able to heal her?
At the centre of the story of course is Jesus Himself. Jesus who cares about people and cares about their problems. In the midst of the pressing crowds Jesus cares about every individual: Jairus, the sick child, the woman in pain. Jesus who cares just us much about us and every one of our situations.
So it’s a story about people, but it’s also a story about faith. I hope you will allow me to take things out of order, and start by thinking about
WHEN FAITH TOUCHES JESUS
Here was this woman with severe bleeding. She did not have great faith – but she had enough faith. Her faith was ignorant and misdirected.
27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.
The woman had faith that if she could just touch Jesus’s clothes then in some almost magical way she would be healed. Not great faith, but still a living faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. Enough faith to push through the crowds just to touch Jesus.
Well, the woman was successful, and she received the miracle she was hoping for!
29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
Praise God! Jesus healed people in miraculous ways then and He still heals people in miraculous ways today! His touch has still its ancient power!
The woman had been healed, but then all she wanted to do was melt away into the crowds. But instead Jesus drew her out into the open.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.
If God blesses us it is never right for us just to keep quiet about what he has done for us. Remember Jesus’s command to Legion we heard about last week. “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
And Jesus wants to lead the woman on in her faith. This was as important as her physical healing. She had to realise it was not touching Jesus’s clothes that had healed her, but Jesus Himself.
34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
“Your faith has made you well.” The words could as easily be translated, “Your faith has made you whole.” “Your faith has saved you.” Only a simple faith, but it was enough to open the door to healing and wholeness. And Jesus still offers those blessing today, to everybody who reaches out to touch him, to everybody who asks for his help and who puts their trust in Him. Here is a story of what happens when faith touches Jesus, but it is also a story of what happens
WHEN FAITH RUNS OUT
Imagine the scene. Father and mother and child at home, surrounded by family and servants. The daughter is literally at death’s door. And there is just one last desperate hope. Jesus is in time. Mother stays at the bedside as father goes to find Jesus. The minutes pass by – and then it is too late. All hope is gone. The girl is dead!
It is hard for us to put ourselves into their shoes, because we know there is a happy ending on the way, but just try. The girl is dead. Any last glimmers of hope the mother may have had are cruelly extinguished. Why didn’t Jesus come in time? It’s just too late now. So they send the heartbreaking message.
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher any more?”

It’s too late. There’s nothing the teacher can do. He can’t help us any more – your daughter is dead. Faith runs out.
Has your faith ever run out? We pray for God’s help. Nothing happens. No answer. While the daughter was sick there was always hope of healing. Once she has died, all hope is gone. It can happen in a relationship, when a marriage breaks down. It can happen at work with redundancy. An accident can turn life upside down. In so many areas of life, things can go wrong. We can feel that God has let us down. Sometimes things can go so wrong that we feel not even God can put them right again. And faith runs out. Has your faith ever run out? I don’t have any easy answers for situations like that. But I do want this story to be an encouragement to us. Because it is never too late for God. Even when we have lost all hope, even when our faith has run out, Jesus can still work miracles. Miracles of healing, miracles of restoration, miracles of forgiveness, even the miracle of raising the dead back to life. God’s love and God’s power never run out! As this story shows us a marvellous example of what happens
WHEN FAITH KEEPS ON
Don’t miss the humility with which Jairus had come to Jesus in the first place. Although he was an important man he had “thrown himself at Jesus’s feet” and “begged him earnestly.” Jairus had already put his faith in Jesus as the one person who could help.
But then it might appear to some that Jesus had let Jairus down. Instead of going straight to the sick girl, Jesus had stopped on the way to heal somebody else – a woman who, did you notice, had been sick for the whole of that girl’s life. And then Jesus had kept on talking to the woman for so long that by that time Jairus’s daughter had died. You might think that Jairus would be angry that Jesus had taken so long . Even angry at the woman who had been healed, which meant his precious daughter had died. But Jairus gives no signs of anger or grief.
And then Jesus speaks, words full of understanding, words full of authority.
36 Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
Jairus may have lost hope. His faith may have run out. But Jesus encourages him! The command there is what is called a continuous imperative. Not just a one off action, but, “Keep on believing.”
It can be so hard to keep on trusting when God seems to be too late, when it seems as if nothing if left to be done. But Jairus did keep on believing.
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
It can’t have been easy to keep on trusting with so much grief, crying and wailing. It can’t have been easy with everybody around laughing at Jesus’s words. But Jairus did keep on trusting. Believing in the face of grief. Believing in the face of derision. Because real faith does keep on believing. Despite problems and setbacks and delays. Real faith keeps on trusting. And the result here in the second part of the story is an even greater miracle than in the first part!
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.
The young girl had been dead – and Jesus brought her back to life. It is NEVER too late for God. Even in the most hopeless and desperate situation God’s love and power can break in and change things! And Jesus still offers life, life in all its fullness, to people who are dead without Him. Jesus still transforms the lives of those who keep on trusting Him.
But how can we have that kind of faith? What made the difference for the woman who was healed? When the mother and the family at home ran out of faith, what made the difference for Jairus? It was one simple thing – the presence of Jesus.
When Jesus seems very far away it can be hard to trust Him. But when we realise just how near Jesus is to us, when we are aware of His love and His power, then it is easier to keep on believing, and then miracles can happen. The closer our relationship with Jesus, the better we know Him as our Saviour, Master and Friend, the easier it is to trust Him. Like Jairus, and the woman, we simply need to take our needs to Jesus, to reach out and touch Him, and keep on believing.
It’s never too late for God. No situation is so hopeless that God cannot help us. So put your trust in Jesus who makes the blind see and the lame work, who sets people free from evil, who heals the sick and even raises the dead to life again. Just keep on believing!