Welcome to Tuesday’s Podcast. Thanks again for joining us as we seek to hear from God through his word, and live in response to that.

REFLECTION:

Today’s passage is Matthew 18:1-14 but we’re going to focus on verse 8 and 9:

If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

So, a nice, comfortable passage to start the day with, yes? The more and more I read the Gospels, the more I realise how challenging they are. Jesus really knew how to lay down the challenge – not just to those who were against him, but those who were for him. Yet we also know with Jesus, there is always the invitation – the invitation to be part of God’s story. The invitation is always there. Revelation 3:20 – Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

When we invite God into our lives, his promise is this – I will be with you…but the challenge is this…if you want me in your house…there’s going to be some changes!

As we saw yesterday, Jesus is trying to teach the disciples about life in the kingdom of God. Yesterday, we began by thinking about faith – the gift God gives us which enables us to enter his kingdom. To allow God’s influence to extend in our lives. To shape and transform us into person God created us to be.

But as we’ve already alluded to, inviting God into our lives means giving him permission to challenge some of things we do so that we might be more like Jesus.

I lead our fantastic youth church here at STC. Recently, we were sharing our testimonies, our faith stories with a group of teenagers and I was trying to answer the question: How has following Jesus shaped my life? And I thought it about it for the moment…and said, ‘If I had to sum it up, it’s this. I live differently.’

The point is this…when we invite Jesus into our lives, and let him shape our lives – we begin to live differently and living differently means that sometimes we have to make some tough choices. Some things have to change.

In today’s passage, Jesus is talking to his disciples about the seriousness of sin, the things we do which damage our relationship with God, and with others. The seriousness of it is this. Jesus talks about hell. Just the word alone puts people on edge. It’s the source of much debate amongst Christians and non-Christians alike.

Is Hell an actual place, or a kind of end state, or an absence of any sort of relationship with God – we don’t really know and we haven’t really got time to explore that in this short podcast. But what Jesus is saying here is that there is a consequence to us sinning. What we do with our life, what sort of choices we make, what we look at, what we say, what we do – it matters.

If you invite me into your life, Jesus says, you’re going to find yourself making some tough decisions. If your hand is causing you to sin – cut it off! If your eye is causing you to sin – gouge it out. Of course, we know that the message isn’t go and maim ourselves, but to get serious about the stuff that damages our relationship with God and to do something about that.

God calls us to live differently. Life in God’s kingdom, under God’s influence is different. And we know, through the gift of faith as we looked at yesterday, that the life we were made for, its life in all its fullness – and it’s not just something we can experience now, it’s something we’ll know fully in time, for all eternity. That’s God grace to us. It’s his gift to us. Because he loves us.

The challenge is living in response to that grace.

Hello and welcome to a new week of our Foundations Daily Podcasts. My name is Liam and I’m part of the staff team here at STC. Last week, Dave, took us through the next part of Matthew’s Gospel ending with the transfiguration. This is the moment where Jesus reveals to his three closest disciples his true identity – as God’s son, as the Messiah – the one whom God has appointed to rule over this new kingdom He is building.

REFLECTION:

As we pick up the thread again this week, we move from looking at who Jesus is, to what his kingdom will be like. What does it look like to allow God to influence and shape our lives? That’s in essence what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples as they journey together over the course of three years.

In the first part of today’s reading, which you can hear in full at the end, we read about Jesus healing a boy possessed by a demon. An amazing miracle! Another astonishing example of God’s compassion. Yet, this doesn’t seem to be the main focus of this short passage. We’re drawn to the conversation that Jesus has with the disciples immediately afterwards. We earlier learn that the boy’s father had brought his son before the disciples first before coming to Jesus and had asked them to heal him but they couldn’t. Let’s read from verse 19: Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

This seems like an obvious question. They are disciples after all. Learners on the job. They ask the obvious question. Why couldn’t we do it? Where we were going wrong?

Reading from v20: He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Jesus’ response is perhaps not the obvious one back and it seems a little harsh. They might have expected him to say because you didn’t pray hard enough, or for long enough, or maybe you did it the wrong way. No, he says, it’s because you have ‘so little faith’. Wow!

What is Jesus saying here? In the letter to the Hebrews we read that: faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Faith is something which enables us to trust God even when we can’t see Him. Faith is being certain that even though we can’t see it, God is working, speaking, and that he with us.

Jesus says the disciples have ‘so little faith’ which is perhaps a little confusing as given what we already know about these young men it would seem that they clearly do. I mean, they’ve given up everything to follow him! What is Jesus saying here? It would seem that Jesus is saying to them it’s not that you don’t have faith, it’s that it’s not in me – it’s in yourselves. To emphasise his point further, Jesus talks about only needing to have faith the size of a mustard seed. He’s saying that it’s not really about the size of your faith, it’s who or what you put it in. Jesus is trying to teach his disciples something here about faith, about fully trusting in God – knowing that he will soon leave them when he ascends to his Father in heaven. ‘Do you really trust me?’ Jesus is in effect asking them.

Faith is God’s gift to us. The Bible is clear – we can’t muster up faith in God. It’s something we receive through Jesus, through his death and resurrection. Our own salvation comes through faith in him which is a gift from God.

Faith is God’s work, it’d God doing, not ours. Jesus knew that in order for his disciples to function as leaders in his new community, they needed the gift of faith and they needed to recognise the power and the authority of the one in whom they had put their trust. They needed to know that healing the sick, seeing people come to know Jesus, advancing his kingdom – it’s not their doing, it’s his. But through faith, he enables us to receive his Spirit and be people who he uses to extend his influence in the world ...

Hello. It’s Friday, the end of the week for our Foundations podcasts. We’ve been working our way through the Gospel of Matthew, asking God to speak to us each day through this powerful account of the ministry of Jesus.

REFLECTION:

We’re well over halfway through this Gospel now and today we’re focusing on Matthew 17:1-13. This passage is referred to as the Transfiguration. Here are verses 1-7:

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”

Have you ever seen Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers? If you have then you probably know where I’m going with this. When I imagine the Transfiguration, I imagine something like the scene in that film where Gandalf the white appears for the first time. Everyone thinks he’s dead, but then he appears in this incredible flash of light, one of many great moments in an excellent trilogy of films. Back to our Bible passage, what struck me this week though, reading this passage afresh were the reactions of Peter, James and John. Strange moments where they suggest building shelters aside, their strongest reaction comes not to the dramatic change in Jesus’ clothes, or the fact His face was shining like the sun, which you’d imagine would both be solid contenders for strongest reaction. By far the thing that has the most impact in this surreal and powerful encounter is the voice of God. The passage says that when they heard the voice of God, the disciples ‘fell facedown to the ground, terrified’. God Himself was speaking to them.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? That all through the Bible when God speaks people’s response is often fear. When God appears to Moses in the burning bush Moses hides his face as he is afraid to look at God. Later on in the story of Moses he is allowed to glimpse God’s back, but not his face as it would be too much for him. Even angels sent by God generally cause some form of terror. Whenever they appear in the Christmas story people are petrified! We don’t often talk about fearing God, but we do sing about it, “come and stand before your maker, full of wonder, full of fear”. It does appear in the Bible as well. Both the Old and New Testaments sometimes describe people as ‘God-fearing people’.

To fear God goes further than just showing Him a bit of respect every now and again. It is to deeply revere Him. To acknowledge that He is more awe inspiring than we can ever imagine. To know that He is Holy, set apart, He is unlike all else we know: as all we can see and touch and hear are merely things that His hands have created, that His voice has spoken into existence. Deep reverence of the Lord must have an effect on how we live. However, it’s important to say that we are God fearing, but we are not scared of God. I love this classic passage from C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe: “Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…”Safe?” said Mr Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Hello! Today’s Foundation reflection is on Matthew 16:13-28. This is an absolute gold mine of a passage, with so much that we could delve into.

REFLECTION:

It revolves around two conversations that Jesus has with His disciples, particularly Simon Peter. We’re going to have a look at the big picture of what’s happening, through picking up on three particular parts of the narrative. The whole passage will be at the end of this reflection, but for now here are verses 16-23. We pick up just after Jesus has asked the question, ‘who do you say I am?’

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

I love the story of Peter. His name was originally Simon but we tend to refer to him as Peter, which is the Greek version of the name Jesus gave him, Cephas. Peter was a fisherman, a businessman. He was smart, he spoke at least two if not more languages. He was also, shall we say, a little rough around the edges. He’s headstrong, he knows his own mind. We read at the start of the Gospels of how he leaves all he has to follow Jesus. He’s committed, all in. And in this passage we see him having two very different conversations with Jesus. In one, he shows that he knows that there’s something special about Jesus. He’s one step ahead of the crowds. He’s recognised that Jesus is the Messiah, God’s appointed King. In return, Jesus speaks some incredibly affirming words. Simon is given this new name of Peter, which means a stone or rock. He’s told that Jesus will make him instrumental in the coming Kingdom of God. In the next conversation however he gets a bit too big for his boots. He pulls Jesus aside, rebuking him for talking about this crazy idea about dying at the hands of the Jerusalem authorities, not overthrowing them. We’ve just heard Jesus’ response, saying ‘get behind me, Satan!’ Has there ever been such a fall from grace as in these two interactions?

The big picture of what I want to pull out today is that despite the ups and downs of Peter’s journey, Jesus uses him to do incredible and world shaking things. The same is true for us. Let’s look at three parts of the story that we can take encouragement from.

First, the location. If I’ve learnt anything from daytime TV it’s that Kevin from Grand Designs doesn’t age and location is always key. The first part of this conversation happens in Caesarea Philippi, which is in the far north of Israel, about 2 days walk above Lake Galilee. It strikes me that Jesus is choosing to slowly reveal His identity not in corridors of power, not in Jerusalem or even Rome, but far away from the shining lights, surrounded only by those who have committed to following Him. Straight away the implication for us is this, Jesus isn’t impressed by fame or fortune or power. The only thing that matters here is availability. Are we people who are available to Jesus and His promptings today?

Second is that Peter,

Welcome to the STC Foundations podcast on Wednesday 24th October. Today’s passage is Matthew 16:1-12.

REFLECTION:

We’re still around the Sea of Galilee and right at the start of the chapter we see Jesus being tested by the Pharisees and Sadducees, who are asking Him for a sign from Heaven. Jesus refuses, as you might imagine He would., He’s been pulling out miracles left, right and centre, never to entertain or to prove Himself, but always to minister to the people that come to Him. You can imagine that to reduce these incredible acts of grace and love to the level of a party trick would be an insult not just to God, but to each of the individuals who had been on the receiving end of these miraculous signs. Those who had put themselves in a vulnerable place with Jesus, pinning all their hopes and dreams on Him. We’re going to pick up the passage a little later, when Jesus is talking with His disciples. Here are verses 5-6 and 11-12.

When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” [The disciples then get confused over the idea of yeast and bread before Jesus goes on to explain further…] How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Sometimes the Bible is plain as day straight away in what it is saying to us. Other times I’m glad that Jesus often takes the time to clarify what He has said and what He meant. It is both utterly genius and a genuine miracle that Jesus is able to speak into highly specific situations 2000 years ago in such a way that His words are of complete and total relevance to us today.

Here we see Him warning His disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Why is Jesus talking about yeast? A brief history lesson is helpful here. Do you remember the story of how God used Moses to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt? Maybe you’ve read the story in Exodus, the second book of the Bible, or perhaps you’ve seen it in film, the classic films of ‘the ten commandments’ and ‘the prince of Egypt’ come to mind. Well when the Pharaoh finally let the Israelites leave Egypt, they were taking no chances, there was no time to cook some tasty treats for the journey, they had to leave in a rush in case he changed his mind. So they made unleavened bread, bread with no yeast or raising agents, to save time. It wouldn’t win a handshake from Paul Hollywood of the great British bake off, but it got them out of there, pronto. This whole chapter was a defining moment for Israel, a key part of the story of God leading them to the promised land. The celebration of this came to be known as Passover and as part of the Passover traditions people would bake unleavened bread to remind them of what God had done. Over time, yeast took on more symbolism as well. It came to denote impurity, something that corrupts and was removed from homes entirely during Passover. It was used as a metaphor for something that starts small but eventually takes over the whole of something. The symbolism extended to yeast being like sin. It can grow, it can consume, it can cause the whole to take on new characteristics. It can dilute what was there before.

When Jesus talks about the yeast of the Pharisees this is not a neutral phrase. He is talking about the teachings that do not align with the Kingdom of God. He is talking about the way that they misled people, intentionally or otherwise. The rules and regulations that they put in place that grew and expanded and came to define the relationship that people had with God. This is relevant for us today. What are the things, the people, the places that hinder our walk with God?

Hi there, Dave here. Today on Foundations reflections we’re looking at Matthew 15: 29-39. Yesterday we heard how Jesus paused His plan to minister to the person in front of Him. Today we see Jesus return to the familiar location of the Sea of Galilee. This is familiar territory for both Him and His disciples.

REFLECTION:

Allow me to start with a question. How often do we need reminding of what God has done for us?

Something we love to do at STC is give thanks. We start each week doing it at morning prayers, we include it in the daily prayer emails and we regularly share things we’re thankful for in Sunday gatherings. It’s a great rhythm, a great discipline even and I love it. When I start to say thank you to God I start off with all the classics. Thank you for my wife – I always say that first, in case she’s listening – thank you for our family, our jobs, the house we live in, our friends.

But then, I don’t know about you, but sometimes for me it can end there. Or the list carries on with general things that could be true any day of the week. And it’s good to say thank you for these things, absolutely. However we’re missing out on something if we stay at this level. Something much more powerful is if we can start to name really specific things that have impacted us and caused us to give thanks. Places and times that we’ve seen God provide for us or those around us. Places we’ve seen breakthrough. People that we’ve seen a change in. The easiest way to identify these places is to think, well what did I pray for last week? What prayers has God answered? It might be a meeting going well. It might be getting an opportunity to speak to a particular person.

Why is it important to do this? Well simply, because it is so easy for us to forget or lose sight of what God has done for us. Take this passage as an example. Jesus sees that the people need food. He’s tended to their other needs but Jesus knows they need to eat. Jesus calls His disciples to Him and declares His intentions to feed the crowd.

Does this sound familiar? This happened just one chapter ago! In real time, this is certainly no longer than a month or two later. And yet still the response He gets is a reply of ‘where could we find that food ourselves’? Jesus goes on to repeat the miracle but I wonder, how easy was it for the disciples to forget, in the moment, that Jesus had provided before? How easy is it for us to do the same now? Being specific in our thanksgivings reminds us of what God has done, and gives us confidence that He can and will do it again in the future.

Our God is a generous God. This story is just one example of that. He is faithful and He provides for His people in their time of need. I would encourage us all to take heart from that today. Let us be people who seek to recognise God’s generosity in our lives, but also people who remind ourselves of it. Sharing these stories is a great move as well. Not only can it encourage others now, but when we are finding life hard, it means others are able to encourage us by reminding us of the stories we may have forgotten.

PRAYER:

Thank you God that you are generous in your faithfulness and provision. Please help us to be encouraged today by remembering the times that we have seen your provision and breakthrough in our lives. Amen.

READING: Matthew 15:29-39

Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.

Hello and welcome to a new week of Foundations podcasts from the team here at STC Sheffield. My Name is Dave and my learned colleague James has passed me the baton as we journey through the next few chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. The passages over the last few weeks have been filled with parables and miracles as we follow Jesus around Judea and Galilee. This week we’re going to span a few topics and locations. There is one thread that I’m going to point out through the passages this week though. That is the generosity of God. We’ll unpack this as we go along but as we move through Matthew’s Gospel this week try and spot the places where we are given a glimpse into the generous heart of God.

REFLECTION:

Today’s passage is Matthew 15:21-28.

We’re in a location today not frequented very often in the Gospels, the coastal towns of Tyre and Sidon. If you were to look for them on a map of the places Jesus went to in His three year ministry you’d find them in the north west corner. Perhaps the Scottish highlands of the Holy Land. You’ll remember that Jesus has been drawing huge crowds and He hasn’t been afraid of causing a little friction with the religious leaders of the time. It’s possible that Jesus was choosing to lay low for a while. To not let things spiral to the end point of His ministry too soon. It could be that He’s ensuring He and His disciples don’t burn out and taking them on a well earned short break away from the crowds. Maybe it’s a combination of the two, but in any case, this is beyond the borders of Galilee into Phoenicia and so it’s of no surprise that whilst there are no crowds of Jewish people following Him, Jesus quickly encounters a Canaanite woman.

You might remember the Canaanites from Old Testament stories that you’ve heard. They were one of the people groups that inhabited the promised land that God led the Israelites into. The Israelites had to fight the Canaanites to claim this long promised land. It’s clear that they very much were not God’s chosen people, unlike the Jews. This then makes sense of why Jesus ignores the woman initially. She is not part of the plan. Jesus had come so that the whole world might know God, yes. But the plan was for that to happen first and foremost with, and then through, the Jewish nation. Jesus had to stick to this plan because that was what had been prophesied. But here we learn something about Jesus. He knows the plan. He knows the timeframe. Israel first, then the rest of the world. But He can’t just ignore this woman. When she answers Him and shows the faith that she has Jesus cannot turn her away. There is something in Him that means He chooses to minister to her and grant her request, healing her daughter instantly.

We all have plans don’t we? Plans for our day, plans for our jobs, plans for our lives. Some of us don’t like to admit it but our plans can become really important to us. Sometimes we have plans we believe are given by God as well. We might refer to these as a calling, a purpose or a vocation. Called to be a social worker, a mum, an entrepreneur. Plans are good. Jesus had a plan too. He was revealing it a little at a time to His closest disciples. What happens though when something comes up that is outside our plan? Sure, it’s right to sometimes ‘stay in our lane’. We can’t fix every problem in the world ourselves after all. But sometimes we do have to be willing to follow the example of Jesus and minister to the person in front of us. At the end of the day, for all the other callings and purposes we have in life, Jesus gave us two instructions that come above all others. To love God and to love those around us.

PRAYER:

Father thank you for this story. A story that shows the generosity of Jesus to pause His plan for a few moments to minister to the person in front of Him. We say sorry for the times that we’re too busy with our own plans to help others. Help us today to have love for those around us. Amen.

Hello and welcome to Friday’s podcast. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening in this week. Next week I believe it is my colleague Dave Saxton recording the podcast so keep getting involved.

REFLECTION:

Today we are looking at Matthew 15. You might remember that on Wednesday I shared how this half of the book of Matthew focuses on how people are responding to the message Jesus laid out in the first half of this book. Well today we are seeing a big clash between Israel’s religious leaders and Jesus. They are talking about cleanliness but really it quickly becomes bigger than that.

Before I read from the Bible, let me share a story. We are talking about cleanliness in our house at the moment. Not because we have an issue, but because our son, Joshua, who is 10 months old, recently got a flu. He is doing fine, he recently started nursery, and so mixing in regularly with the other kids, he potentially picked up what they carried and got sick. Obviously, it was heartbreaking seeing him not well for the first time. There is very little we could do other than pray and give the magic that is Calpol. The feedback from our friends has largely been: kids get sick, it’s normal and he will be better for it. We are quickly learning that there seems to be a parental scale with two extremes when it comes to the cleanliness of a child that are helpful metaphors for how we might see this adventure for Jesus. One extreme looks to sterilise everything and keep the germs away, while the other embraces the dirt, the muckier the better because we learn to clean ourselves up and fight off infection. I’m not sure where you’d fight on the scale and if there is a not a right side or not. But with that idea in our mind, let’s pick up the story today and we will consider together a thought about what real devotion could look like.

That Which Defiles

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus challenges them back and asks “why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?”

He ultimately drops a bombshell calling them out as hypocrites! He quotes Isaiah (a prophet of the Old Testament) who said:

These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.

Israel’s religious leaders and Jesus go head to head on the idea of purity. The Pharisees have raised a complaint about Jesus’ friends approach to ceremonial washing before meals. Now, for the record, it is good to wash your hands before a meal, but these rituals alone are not the measure of a healthy life of a disciple. Yes, your skin might be disease free, but your hearts are far from it, as it said in the Bible passage.

It seems to me that the religious leaders lean more to the side of ‘sterilise everything and keep the germs away’ and they describe that life as radical devotion to God; whereas the person of Jesus is about a surprising new lifestyle and a different type of radical devotion. He went around touching people with skin diseases, a woman with chronic bleeding and even dead people. It was like his view on purity was wired the direct opposite way to the Pharisees’. They seem convinced that these things made you impure and so steps had to be taken to limit your interaction with brokenness. Whereas Jesus seems convinced that engaging with these things can heal and purify those things that are broken or corrupted.

What does that mean for us? How might this affect our life today? This person in Jesus is an answer to some of the world’s problems and we should not always withdraw from difficulty or brokenness for our own protection. So, is our evangelism edgy enough?

Hello everyone and welcome to Thursday’s Foundations podcast. My name is James and I lead the student work here at STC Sheffield. Today’s Bible reading is a belter – packed full of imagery and meaning – it’s the story of Jesus walking on water.

REFLECTION:

However long you’ve been reading and listening to the Bible you may be familiar with this story. It’s just one of those that stays in the mind of those that hear it, like those of Jesus turning water into wine or feeding the 5000 like we heard yesterday. In conversations with friends and family there is an awareness of this story but not why we are being told about it. We are going to look at it together, we’ll pull some verses out as we go through & hopefully leave us with a fresh encouragement to take into the day ahead.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.  After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

This whole story from start to finish is a good illustration of what life looks like when you follow Jesus. There is a closeness and a blessing that comes from God but sometimes it gets pretty rough. It’s definitely an adventure. Often we create this image in our heads that life will be smooth sailing if we live a life that pleases God. That it is only when we are disobedient & bad – does the storm come in and the boat begins to rock around. The problem with that worldview is that it doesn’t fit with this story at all!

We read in v22 that Jesus is the one who sent his friends into the boat ahead of him. They were doing as they had been asked and yet the storm still comes. That’s so important to remember – the storm didn’t show they had deviated from Gods path. Instead God’s path for them lay through the storm, to the other shore of the lake. I personally find that really encouraging. Just because there is difficulty in a day, or in my family, doesn’t mean that I have done something wrong or that God is evil. This story is a reminder to me that my journey with Jesus is an adventure and it is not measured by performance. What counts is faith. How do we know that? We’re told in the story a little later on.

It’s by faith that Peter gets out of the boat to walk to Jesus. It’s by Peter’s faith in Jesus that he is then caught and saved.

Let’s just be honest, this is not ordinary. Jesus walked to the disciples on the water. They then cried out for help. Very simply, I want to pull out that thought a little further for us to reflect on today. There are times in my life where I get nervous about situations I’ve got myself into, trying to be obedient to Jesus. Nothing yet as life-threatening as what these disciples are facing, but times where I certainly feel out of my depth. Conversations with people who have more life experience, more expertise or have better ideas than I seem to have. There are times when I think I can’t deliver on the things I set out to do for Jesus. Today this story reminds me to watch out for that kind of thinking. My life isn’t a performance for Jesus. I’m pretty sure he wants to do things with us. More of a partnership. He came out on the water towards the disciples and by His Spirit he wants to be close to each and every one of us today. We are to guard ourselves from the mindset that we have to work so hard for Jesus that we forget to spend time with Jesus.

Tough circumstances are not always a sign that we are doing something wrong. Certainly in this story the disciples had to go through it to the other side. And, where can I look out for Jesus today and invite him into the situatio...

Hello and welcome to Wednesday’s podcast. My name is James and it is brilliant to be thinking about the Bible together this week. I’m normally listening in on the walk home from picking my son up from Nursery but wherever you’re listening in today, if it’s the start or the end, I hope this short thought, Bible reading and worship track bring a big blessing to our day.

REFLECTION:

As hinted at yesterday there is a shift in the story as we begin to start chapter 14. I picked most of that information up from a brilliant thinker and theologian called Tim Mackie. He does some YouTube videos animating the Bible called ‘the Bible Project’ – just look it up online. If you are a visual learner they are brilliant at painting that bigger picture of the whole book. So Jesus has just finished talking about what the Kingdom of God, this rescue mission to the whole world, looks like. And from today we will begin to see how people are responding to that message. Clearly some people are for it, others do not get it yet and others want to fight it, especially Israel’s religious leaders.

Today we are reading about Jesus feeding a crowd of 5000 men, plus women and children. There is so much that could be said about this story but it would be great to build on the last few days’ podcasts in a specific way. The last few days have been parables and stories of WHAT the Kingdom of God is like, and today gives insight into HOW the kingdom of God operates, HOW it got started and HOW it advances.

Let’s read a short part of the story. Matthew 14 verse 14, 15 and 16.

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

But as the crowds gather, the disciples see that look in Jesus’ eyes. (v14) Jesus had compassion on them.  It’s that other kind of hunger, a spiritual hunger. The crowd wanted to be where Jesus was and that really moved him.

So Jesus gives the disciples a challenge: (v.16) “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

Why is Jesus asking the disciples to feed the crowd? It does seem a bit ridiculous and it doesn’t appear to be their responsibility. Jesus has seen the crowd. Jesus probably knows what they’re carrying between them. He knows it’s definitely not enough – so why does he ask?

Because there is a lesson here that reveals something about Jesus and about how his Kingdom operates. God loves to use us. This request is given to reveal our full need for Jesus. Sometimes we just don’t have all the resources or the smartest answers. But God equips those he has called. In the step of faith the disciples find they have all that they needed and more. The Bible reminds us that the one who calls us is faithful and He will do it.

That is how the Kingdom of God comes. God loves to use us. To partner with us. With generous hands, a willing heart & a bit of imagination. Jesus is discipling these young followers to see any and every situation and say, “I don’t have much but how can I help?”

Jesus taught the 12 disciples a vital lesson. It wasn’t just a classroom exercise; 5000+ people actually got a meal that day on the hillside and to God be the glory.

Here is a question for us to take into today: what is Jesus saying to me through this story about my part to play in his work? And where can I exercise my trust muscles today and take a step of faith?

PRAYER:

God, thank you for this story.  There would have been all sorts of people in that cro...