Latest News
Last updated 9.50pm Saturday 14 March 2026.
Saturday 14 March 2026
Jim Harries - Mid-February News
Jim's recent teaching trip to Tanzania; a new book on The Witchdoctor's Craft; and Living With The Poor - all in Jim's latest update which is available to view on-line.
Heating at Church
The new boiler will be installed in the week commencing 13 April.
In the meantime we will continue to meet in the hall. Zoom will still be available - but not the same immersive experience.
Weekly Sheet
Is available to download (15/03/2026) as are the sermon notes. 
Zoom
Join using this link from 10.15am ready for the service start at 10.30am.
Please enter your name on the meeting screen so we know who you are.
Sermon Notes
(Also available to download.)
Love Your Church – Welcoming – Mark 2:13-17
Welcoming: Making space for everyone, Grace-centred hospitality.
The Practicalities of Welcome – vital, more than the front door, but not our focus!
The Principle of Welcome: summary – the welcome we receive from Jesus sets the bar for the welcome we offer to all
How Jesus welcomes us - It is essential to understand:
The seriousness of our sin – sin is rebellion against God – ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Rom. 3:23) – all are sinners in need of a Saviour: ‘Without a divine call no one can be saved. We are all so sunk in sin, and so wedded to the world, that we can never turn to God and seek salvation unless He first called us by His grace’ (JC Ryle)
All are saved ‘by grace alone.’ God, though the one rebelled against, takes the initiative to save us – ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. 5:8)
The deadly consequence of remaining lost in sin – ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 6:23) This is a deadly serious matter of profound urgency.
Those who have received Christ are called to share the good news of His saving-gospel with all as often and to whoever we can – our motive as Christ, love for the sinner, as he loved us.
Just how much the Father loves sinners and longs for them to be restored -
How do we know that the Father loves sinners/us? – classically John 3:16, but the Bible tells us much earlier:
Genesis: God created an entire universe for us to know Him and to delight in, even when working!
God’s response to Adam and Eve’s sin as they hid from him – ‘Where are you?’ (3:9) He did not say, ‘what have you done?’ Then covering their shame, ‘And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them’ (3:21) Here we have a clear sign of how God would resolve the issue of sin once and for all.
How much does the Father love sinners? – ‘In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [to pacify, placate, or appease the wrath of God] for our sins’ (1 John 4:9-10)
Jesus motivated by love took the punishment that was rightly ours so that we could have the ternal life that is rightly his. This is not a woolly love! ‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). Because of our sin, Jesus in truth laid down his life for his mortal enemies to make us his friends.
Thie is the welcome we receive from Jesus – ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light’ (Matt. 11:28-30)
We are to welcome those Jesus welcomed – ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners’ (Mark 2:17) Jesus’ words should not have been radical or controversial. The religious leaders should have been doing exactly what they were criticising Him for doing!
‘I came’ – there was a clear purpose for the Incarnation! Jesus left heaven and stepped into the sin-filled mess of human life. A survey of the Gospels reveals the reality of what Jesus said to ‘the scribes of the Pharisees’ reveal the people Jesus welcomed:
· The genealogy in Matthew 1 – Jesus’ credentials for his Jewishness – Abraham (a regular liar); Rahab (a prostitute); David (broke most of the 10 commandments in one go!)
· Jesus’ disciples and followers – Peter (‘foot and mouth’); Judas (a thief and disloyal); Mary Magdelaine (a shadowy reputation)
· The people Jesus met – ‘sinners and tax collectors’; demon possessed (Gerasene demoniac turned evangelist!); Samaritan woman (‘he had to pass through Samaria … It was about the sixth hour’ (John 4:4-6)); lepers, the dead.
All who God had ensured would be accommodated but the religious spirit of Israel’s leaders had actively rejected, Jesus welcomed.
Jesus’ mission statement: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’ (Luke 4:18-19)
A truly welcoming church lovingly welcomes those that Jesus welcomes, for Jesus has chosen to reveal himself to a sin-filled world of broken and lost souls through his church. What that looks like in every generation will be different.
Will our welcome – as individuals and the church
– for those who the Lord brings us into contact with be that of Jesus: – ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light’
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