Sermons @ Salford Elim Church

The first Easter Sunday began with frightened women and perplexed men peering into an empty grave looking for their friend who had been killed a few days earlier. They were looking in the wrong place. They would find him and their worlds would be turned upside down. It's just that he was never going to be found in a graveyard. He had risen. Life would never be the same again.

Sometimes our pain is caused by the reactions of others. We can be overcome by their disapproval and condemnation of us and the way we live. We can be overcome by their disapproval and condemnation of us and the way we live. Watch how Jesus deals with the sense of guilt and the condemnation of others.

Everyone wants to be ‘spiritual’ but no one wants to be ‘religious’. What do we mean by ‘spirituality’ and what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit of God in everyday life?

What did Jesus mean when he identified a piece of bread with his flesh? What does it mean to feed on Jesus? What is happening in communion? And is it any surprise that people were confused by Jesus at times?

What is your deepest hunger? What are the things that feel insatiable? For some it’s intimacy, for others security, for others it might be approval. John points us to Jesus who feeds our deepest hungers.

Anxiety preys on all of us. It makes us fear we won’t have enough, or that we will be overwhelmed. Jesus knows this and is able to transform these fears of not having enough to living abundantly.

In a world where it feels everyone is ready to argue, it’s easy to be defensive about our own assumptions. But if we are going to see the world differently, we need to allow our assumptions about life to be challenged. It’s what Jesus did to people in his time. It’s what he still does.

When John wrote the gospel, he includes just 7 miracles – even though he knew a lot more happened. What his account highlights is how Jesus engages our vulnerabilities and brings us back to health. Back to life.

You can see that some people have been broken by life. Others just hide it well. How honest can we be? Jesus steps into our brokenness and stops us being defined by it.

One of the questions that crops up at regular intervals throughout life is one of the most basic ones: ‘Can we change? Can the direction of my life change?’ Jesus offers hope that things are not fixed, that change is possible to all who are open. It begins with the heart.

Too many of us wonder whether we are good enough, or fear what others might think about us. The power of shame can be crippling. Jesus rescues us from that power so that we can live joy-filled lives.

Life is complicated. We can either try to work out our own pathway, or we can accept the invitation of the One who knows where he is going and wants us to walk alongside him.

John’s gospel, written for people who may never have met Jesus, or perhaps even been born when Jesus was on earth, needed to be rooted in understanding who Jesus was and what his actions meant for them in their time. We are in the same place as them.

Matthew retells the story of Jesus stilling the storm as part of a group of stories about how Jesus confronts all manner of hell-bent evil. He did it because we need to hold onto the core truth of Jesus’ authority over everything - especially when things seem to be going wrong.

Storms come to all of us. Without the storm Peter would have never had the chance to walk on water…

Jesus' story is that death didn't get the final word. Life did. Resurrection life. And his promise was that this new life is ours to share. Life always trumps death!

The call to be as holy as God is holy sounds as odd now as it probably did when it was first written down in Leviticus. Is this even possible? And what would it look like on the school run, or handling finances, or dealing with the awkward colleagues or aging family?

Many people are good starters. Perseverance is the quality that ensures you finish well. Peter sees it as essential for those running this Christian race.

Self-control is one of the most underrated virtues. We can excuse ourselves too easily when we give into the temptations that surround us so often. How do we grow in self-control?

Today knowledge can feel just 2 clicks away on Google. But is that knowledge, information, what Peter meant? Sometimes it can feel like it is, and those who have this knowledge can feel superior to everyone else. That’s dangerous. But what if Peter meant there was a different way of growing in knowledge? What if it was about a growing relationship – both with God and others. What does it take to g...

Goodness can sound soft and prissy. No one wants to be called a goody-two shoes. Unless you have faced the opposite and been the victim of evil. Goodness is the authentic integrity that is creative and trustworthy. It may not be glamorous but it makes all the difference in the world.

I believe lots of things that make no real difference to my day to day life. New Testament faith is different. It was never a static acceptance but trust in a person who transformed everything. Faith was dynamic. And it was the bedrock for everything else that would be possible…

Why did Paul send Onesimus back? Was he encouraging slavery? How do we read the New Testament on these issues when we hold to different views of what is right?

Let’s not fool ourselves: forgiveness always costs something. Always did, always will. Relationships will occasionally rupture. Forgiveness is the way they can be repaired. How do we do this?

This church lived at a time when everyone knew their place. Rank mattered and brought privileges. If you were at the top of the pile you could order people around. Paul modelled a different way. He chose to appeal rather than to order. He demonstrated how we subvert the natural hierarchies.