Latest News
Last updated 11.30pm Saturday 4 April 2026.
Sunday 5 April 2026 - Easter Sunday
Weekly Sheet
Is available to download (04/04/2026) as are the sermon notes.
Heating at Church
Although the new boiler will be installed in the week commencing 13 April we will meet in Church today (Easter Sunday). Do wrap up!
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.
Easter Sunday
Luke 24:13-35 - God’s Big Story
Both the appearance of Jesus to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus and his appearance to his disciples in Jerusalem reinforces several key beliefs of the Christian faith:
· That Jesus has risen from the dead and his was a physical resurrection
· That all that has happened was recorded in Scripture – ‘the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms’ (24:44 and 27)
· That all that had been prophesied was fulfilled in Jesus – Jesus explains how the whole of the Old Testament points to him
· That Jesus was the Christ [the promised Messiah] and had to, ‘suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’ (24:46-47)
· That the truth concerning Jesus is received by revelation – ‘And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him’ (24:31); ‘he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures’ (24:45)
These encounters between Jesus and his followers are also a glorious picture of how the gospel/good news of Jesus works. There is:
· An opening up of the Scriptures – preaching, sharing, reading …
· An encounter with the risen Jesus
· A revelation of the truth of who Jesus is and what he has done for us through the Scriptures leading to recognising who Jesus is – the eyes of the heart and mind are opened to recognise who Jesus is and what he has done for us
· A heart transformed – ‘did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road, while he opened up the Scriptures?’ (24:32)
· A recognition of who Jesus is and what he has done – a confession of faith
· An urgency to share the gospel by sharing the good news of the risen Jesus – ‘And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem’ (24:33)
It is interesting to note that the language in these accounts is that of seeing and not seeing and refers specifically to seeing or not seeing the truth concerning Jesus. Ultimately this seeing comes through revelation not intellect, the disciples’ hearts burned within them, not their minds! The mind hears, but the heart believes.
As Jesus, ‘beginning with Moses and the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself’ (24:27) he told them, ‘God’s Big Story,’ the unfolding story of God’s glorious plan of salvation.
Here are four features of God’s plan that was revealed to the hearts of Cleopas and his travelling companion and the disciples gathered in Jerusalem:
An eternity in the making – ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him’ (Eph. 1:3-4)
Set out in the Scriptures - beginning with Moses and the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself’ (24:27) The whole of the Scriptures points to and makes known to us, ‘that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God’ that we might believe and ‘live in his name’ (Jn. 20:31) Starting in Genesis 3:15: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’ Genesis 3:21 provides the first indication of how God’s plan of salvation would be fulfilled: ‘And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.’
Fulfilled in Jesus – ‘For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.’ (1 Cor. 15:3-5) – In his lifetime Jesus fulfilled in the region of 350 prophecies, and one source suggests 28 were fulfilled through his being crucified.
An eternity to be lived – ‘Great is the mystery of faith, Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again’ – to receive His beautiful bride - ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’ (Rev. 21:1-4)
And in this city, we will once again be restored to the presence of God as was intended in the garden of Eden at the beginning of the Bible and everything in-between tells us how this was to come about and how it was all fulfilled in Christ. This is what we celebrate at Easter (and every moment) and what we celebrate in communion.
Thursday 24 March 2026
Jim Harries - End-March News
In Jim's latest news he ponders whether he is a 'missionary'. This fits in well with our 'Love Your Church chapter on sending This is the video to which Jim refers:
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