New Focus Church

The Lord Jesus Christ often taught using parables. The parable of the fraudulent tenants gives an overview of mankind’s rebellion and opposition to God from the beginning of time to the slaying of God’s own precious Son at Calvary. However, there will be a reckoning, and destruction will overtake all who reject God’s marvellous salvation in Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ faced His enemies in the temple as they demanded He give an account of Himself, and the authority by which He did and said the things He did. The Lord requires an answer first from them which they are unwilling to supply, whereupon the Saviour declaims their hypocrisy.

The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples using many wonderful miracles including, and perhaps surprisingly, a withered fig tree! He told them that faith in God was at the heart of all true religion and the power that would attend their own ministries in the years to come.

The Lord Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and “looked round about upon all things”. The Lord was no sightseeing tourist, however. This insight and awareness teaches us the Lord knew all that was happening and how to interpret the events and needs of those around Him. We see in His words and actions the glory of His divine majesty and the humility of human need. These endear us to the One who alone could stand in our place and save our souls.

The Lord Jesus Christ sat upon a donkey, an ass and the colt of an ass, on the final part of His journey into Jerusalem where He would suffer and die for His people. Why a donkey now after years of walking, and why an unbroken colt upon whom never man sat?

The Lord Jesus Christ appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos and declared, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev 1:18). Believing this makes a difference at to how we live and what we look forward to enjoying.

The Lord Jesus Christ met Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, on the road out of Jericho. Bartimaeus certainly was blind but he knew his Bible and he knew too, that Jesus Christ, the Son of David, could heal the blind. He believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah so he cried out, ‘Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me’. Jesus did have mercy for He never disappoints anyone who comes to Him in faith.

The Lord Jesus Christ gave His disciples three great lessons following a less than great request from James and John. They were: a beautiful statement of God’s covenant purpose, a patient re-statement of true Christian character, and a delightful confirmation of limited, substitutionary atonement. James’ and John’s request for pre-eminence was unfortunate but we can thank them for it in light of these blessed truths it elicited from the Saviour.

The Lord Jesus Christ went before His disciples as they travelled up to Jerusalem where He would be crucified. Such was the zeal of our Saviour that He must press on to meet the ‘due time’ for His suffering and death. The Lord is our Forerunner, our Intercessor and Mansion-builder and has gone before us to prepare the way that we might follow after Him confidently and with joy.

27 March 2022

The Lord Jesus Christ meets the Rich Young Ruler. This young man is eager for religion but grieved at the cost of spiritual life. He spends his life meticulously following God’s law only to discover he has never grasped its spiritual tenor and never felt the power of its curse. The Lord Jesus shows him that far from obeying the law from his youth, as he assumed, he has stumbled at the very first step and must obtain the righteousness of another if eternal life is to be enjoyed.