Sermons on Discipleship

Questions of Life: 4 of 7: Is following Jesus really worth the cost?

Luke 9:18-27 Let’s be honest, following Jesus can be hard graft. Standing up as a follower of Jesus in your office is more likely to get you grief than praise and sometimes we’re tempted to ask the question ‘is it really worth it?’ Jesus is totally realistic about what it means to follow him and he doesn’t pull his punches when he says “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” So is it really worth it? Whether you’re weighing up whether to follow Jesus at all or wondering about keeping going after years of doing it this talk is for you.

A Sting in the Tale: 2 of 3: The Prodigal Son

I wonder how would you react if you saw a church leader having lunch with a group of people who were guilty of fraud? Or maybe a Bible study leader hanging out with known drug addicts? Would you be a bit shocked, perhaps even judgmental, that they would even consider associating with such people? This is how Jesus was treated by the religious people of his day. We can distance ourselves from God not only in obvious rejection of him, but also in our religious morality – and this can be the more dangerous if it goes undetected…

A Sting in the Tale: 1 of 3: The Good Samaritan

A lawyer asks Jesus “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” This is one of the most fundamental questions that everybody at some point asks, about what will happen when we die – we might phrase this question today something like “How can I be sure I’ll be saved in the end?” If we profess to be God’s people, then this will show in how we live our lives – not only in how we love God, but also in how we love others. Jesus challenges us not to think about who we are to love, but to be loving…