Here is the text of another talk I gave earlier in the year. If memory serves me correctly then it was given at only a couple of days notice as our pastor was having some issues and needed me to step in. Also, I have lost the original ending and have therefore had to change it to suit what the lord was telling me today but the gist of it remains the same.

Happy New Year! Has anybody made any resolutions? This time of year is often full of resolutions but one wonders why. What is so special? Every day is the start of a new year. I wondered thoguh, what we, as Christians, would do if we did have some. Our body is a temple. do we need to go to the gym to repair it a little? Perhaps we need to develop our spiritual muscles. I know plenty of people who try and read through the Bible in a whole year. This is something I am going to try and do this year. I have a new app and so far things are going great.

Personally, I want to go back to basics in what I am teaching and preaching about. Start at the beginning. Revisit all those palces that are so familiar that perhaps I skip over them in my Bible readings. There are passages in scripture that I find myself seeing again and again. perhgaps I think I know all there is to know about them. This is something I want to check out. It isn't easy.

One of my favourite films is one that is unpopular in some corners of the church. it is called the Life of Brian and it is a film made by Monty Python. Some people think that it mocks Jesus I don't. They (the makers of the film) were asked what their next movie would be and one of them jokingly said 'Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory'. Apparently they tried to make that film but couldn't. You see, comedy is all about pointing out flaws and errors and the more they looked at the character of Jesus they found out that he had nop such flaws. It is mocking in tone but it mocks organised religion and it mocks politics.

Anyway, near the start the title character goes along to hear Jesus speak. There is a large crowd and at the back a group are struggling to hear him. 'Blessed are the cheesmakers?' says one and there follows much hilarity.

I love the beatitudes

Join us tomorrow as we go over the fourth beatitude as a part of our #trends series! #cstrends #Beatitudes

A photo posted by CapshawStudents (@capshawstudents) on Sep 6, 2016 at 5:08pm PDT

I think they are a wonderful part of the gospel of Matthew. For a long time, I misunderstood them. I saw them as a series of statements, platitudes even, to help people get through life. But, they most certainly are not. They are not a series of disconnected statements; instead they are part of a radical program that takes us right to the heart of what it means to be a Christian. They are not like the 10 Commandments; a list of things to be avoided. rather, they are a list of things to aim for. We are to aim to be all of these things and if we do them all, what joy will await us!

Jesus starts with 'Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'. Being poor in spirit means to be humble, to realise that all gifts come from God. It references Isaiah 57:15 which says

For this is what the high and exalted One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.


It means getting rid of all our pride and personal independence. It means looking to God as the apostle James wrote in the fourth chapter of his book

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.


If we do this, then the kingdom of God is ours. That is what Jesus means when he talks about the Kingdom of God, it is a kingdom of people who know who their king is and who know that their good things come from God.


Then he says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. I used to think that this was all about those who had lost a loved one and that is a nice way to look at it. It is a comfort to those mourning in that way. However, it doesn't mean to mourn in that way. It means mourning for what the world ahs become. When we get rid of our pride and begin to rely on God (when we are, in effect, poor in spirit) we will see what a mess the world is in. Then we will mourn. We will be comforted though, Jesus himself promised a comforter in John 14 verse 6 and we need to remember that one day, we will be in the kingdom that is ours and we will all be ok.


Blessed are the Greek! Sorry, blessed are the meek! (I'm glad they're getting something, they have a hell of a time!). They are going to inherit the earth. Jesus is contrasting them with the powerful. The powerful own the earth now (and how true that is today) but one day the meek will inherit it. As the Psalmist says in psalm 37:10-11

A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.
11But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity.

You see, being humble (poor in spirit) and mourning for the world leads to self-control and this is not in vogue these days. We are constantly bombarded with adverts for the latest stuff. Hedonistic holidays and nights out are put forward as the way to go. People are being downtrodden in the name of enjoyment as more and more people are exploited for the gratification of but a few.


Jesus knows this and he points out that blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. God is righteous and we need to long to be like him. We need to desire justice. This means true justice, not the 'I have been wronged I demand justice' type. Those who search for this justice will be thinking of other people and will not be thinking of their own selfish desires. God will satisfy this search. As Paul says in Philippians 3:7-11

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith ina Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,11and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

This is what we are to want form God; justice that will be done and a desire that will be satisfied.

1 Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the LORD delivers them in times of trouble.

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. This one is related to Psalm 41:1

Being merciful means loving others who are in distress. It means showing love and forgiveness. It is being like God in as much as we ask him to forgive us in the Lord's Prayer. Being merciful means feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty and clothing the naked. It is the very least we can do and it is the most we can do as well. If we do this then we will receive the same from God.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. This is impossible say Moses (Exodus 33:20), John (John 1:19) and Paul (1 Timothy 6:16) but Jesus says something different. Jesus says that if we are fee of selfishness and therefore pure in our hearts, we will see God!

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called Sons of God. This is a powerful one. It means living peacefully and also bringing peace to others. It is more than just sitting back as a pacifist. It imitates God who wants peace. It bridges the gap between God and man. If we are a peacemaker, bringing peace to others and to our own lives, we will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is something that is going to happen. Scripture and church history both tell us that we, as Christians, will be persecuted. All over the world our brothers and sisters are being persecuted. What about Nissar Hussein? A former Muslim who came to Christ several years ago, since which he has faced death threats, beatings and ostracism from his family and friends. When badly beaten the police told him to move. Was this in some Islamic Republic? No, it was in Bradford England. His is the kingdom of Heaven.

You see, these eight little snippets from Jesus are not a shopping list of ways to be nice and to be happy. They are not individual things we should aim at. Neither are they platitudes to help those who are suffering at the hands of a divine nature who is, at best, indifferent and, at worst, malicious.

If we see the beatitudes for what they are, we see a path to a holiness that leads us closer to God. God is holy. This simply means different but he is so different. We can't comprehend how different he is. But when we become humble, when we develop a concern for the world, when we decide that we need to seek active justice and when we are peacemakers, no matter what persecution we go through, we will be comforted.

Jesus was a great teacher. I know a thing or two about teaching (although I am not in his league; we probably play different sports!) and one of the things I know is the importance of modelling what we want our students to do. It is all well and good telling them things that we need them to do but they respond so much better when they see it done.

Jesus was humble, he truly mourned for this lost world, he was self-controlled and lowly, he desperately wanted justice and peace and he was certainly persecuted. The next time we want to try out these different aspects of our spiritual lives, we could, as always, do no better than look towards Jesus and his modelling of the ultimate path to God.

I have agreed to doing some work for the local radio station over the Christmas period. Earlier in he year they needed people to do their 'thought for the day' slot. I wanted to do it but convinced myself that it would be difficult with my employer.

What a feeble excuse that was. We were challenged at Spring Harvest to be Game Changers and I have done precisely nothing. Zero. No new Christian Union, no new staff prayer meeting. Absolutely nowt.

I am ashamed of this and I really need to up my game. My light should not be hidden under a bowl and I am not being very salty.

That is one of the reasons why I have agreed to do it. I have no idea what I am going to do, no idea what I am going to talk about and no idea what it will be like. All I have is God and the sure and certain knowledge that He is sufficient!

No, not being a church leader, rather leading the service. It is my turn on Sunday because the pastor and his wife are away helping at another church. I was talking to the man who is coming to preach this Sunday and told him that I was leading.

He said that my job was to lead the church into the presence of God and that really got me thinking. All to often we see the worship (sung praise) as the way of entering the presence but it isn't. It starts when we arrive and continues before the service. It includes the notices (!) and it includes what I choose to say before we start singing.

A verse that come to mind was Psalm 100 v 4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name

This is what we are meant to do. We need to sing praise and we need to listen to a sermon but more than that, before it all, we need to enter his gates with thanksgiving in our hearts ...

Last night we had our first LifeGroup proper. We had met last week but yesterday was the first of our Bible Study sessions. I was on Acts 1 and I have to confess I had a poor impression of the chapter. I guess that I had only ever seen it as a sort of prologue or introduction to the chapter that follows. Thankfully, God, in his grace, showed me just how wrong I was.

There were several points whioch came up that made me think deeply about what God was saying.

1. The disciples dedicated themselves to prayer. Prayer is vital obviously, but in this case they had a mission and they had to get ready for it. The disciples had been told to wait in Jerusalem but they had no idea how long they were going to have to wait. Of course they prayed, they had a lot to do and organise.
2. Matthias has always been an unusual part of the story for me. Why bother replacing Judas at all (well, scripture does say they should)? Then we look at the Job Description and realise that the person had to have been with Jesus since his baptism (Jesus' not the apostle)
3. This made me think about the baptism. How many of those people who heard the voice of God declare Jesus His son became believers. Some of them must have
4. I also discovered that there is a tradition that Matthias was also known as Zaccheus. It isn't important but it is a nice way to think about it.
5. They aren't disciples anymore; they're apostles. An important distinction
6. Finally, there is a little verse about the women who were there. Right at the start of the church there were women. This is something that the church has ignored for generations and this is something it needs to apologise for. Women are, and always have been, as much a part of the church as the men.