Overcoming Temptation

Oct 30, 2025

From the age of twelve to the start of His ministry aged 30, we know nothing of what Jesus said. He worked as a carpenter like His father and had other brothers and sisters (learning family relationships as we all must!) His baptism was the start of His public ministry, and here, we see His identity as God’s beloved Son affirmed by God Himself (Matt 3:17). Immediately after this, He was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tested, to be tempted by the devil. (Matt 4:1-11) This is a key moment: if Satan could cause Jesus to sin as he had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the plan of salvation would have been wrecked.
We see that the years of learning and the time spent in prayer and fasting led to vistory over temptation. Temptation itself is not sin, but can easily lead us astray (see James 1:13-15).Satan questioned Jesus’s identity as the Son of God and wanted Him to use His power for His own selfish ends – turning stones into bread (to assuage His obvious hunger after fasting for 40 days and nights), using God as His divine protector for no other reason than self-satisfaction. His final temptation was to try to prise worship from Jesus. On each occasion, Jesus defeated the enemy by the word of God, quoting from Deuteronomy 6 and 8. He used the sword of the Spirit, just as we must. The devil’s lies and half-truths cannot be argued with; they must be defeated by God’s powerful words of truth.
Jesus’s victory in the wilderness set the scene for His ministry throughout His life on earth. He would do God’s work in God’s way. He would put God’s will before His own (even in the Garden of Gethsemane.) He would live out His identity as God’s son not by pleasing Himself but by pleasing God. He would reserve worship for God alone, and would not seek to find security, significance or self-worth anywhere but in God.
In this, Jesus models for us how to overcome temptation. He does not listen to half-truths, but simply leans on the word of God as His weapon. The more we absorb the word of God, the better chance we stand of overcoming temptation and resting secure in our spiritual identity.

The First Words of Jesus

Oct 30, 2025

We know quite a lot about the birth of Jesus from the Gospels, but very little about His childhood. His first recorded words in Scripture come in Luke 2:41-52, when His family went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, and ended up returning without Him… only to find Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening and asking questions. As His mother asked Him why He had done this, He replied, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
It is clear from this passage that Jesus, aged 12 (the age at which Jewish boys were preparing for their Bar-Mitzvah, the transition from childhood to maturity), had an assurance of His identity (He was not just in the temple; He was in ‘my Father’s house.’) That identity led Him to prioritise spiritual learning above earthly responsibilities (though He went back with His parents and was obedient to them, demonstrating a humility and respect which are a part of growing up.) He had a focus on God which would give Him the authority and assurance which astounded people even at this point of His life and which would be a characteristic of His teaching.
Part of our responsibility as parents and grandparents is to pass on spiritual truths, to pass on the baton of faith. It can be challenging to recognise that our ‘little ones’ grow and mature into adults and to give them the space to do so, but Mary continued to treasure these things as she grew in an understanding of who her son really was.
This passage reminds us that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. He displays an authority in His words at an early age but also allows Himself to sit under the authority of His parents and to learn from other teachers. He spent the first years of His life learning His identity, just as we all do. The fact that it takes another 18 years before His ministry begins reminds us that there is no such thing as instant maturity.

Followers of Jesus

Oct 26, 2025

Tonight we looked at another description of God’s people in the Bible: we are followers. Passages such as Matthew 4:18-22, John 1:35-41 and Matthew 9:9 show us Jesus calling disciples to follow Him, and He still calls people to follow Him today. Not all those He called chose to follow (see Matt 8:19-22, Mark 10:21-22), but He made it plain that discipleship means denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily and following Him – even when we do not understand or know where He is leading us! (Mark 8:34-37)
Following Jesus means leaving our old way of life behind (as the fishermen did to become fishers of men) and embracing a new life where we are not in the driver’s seat (see Matt 16:24-26, The Message). This path can feel very uncertain, but we learn from the example of Jesus. (Heb 12:1-3) The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is still the means of salvation for all (see 1 Cor 1:18-25), and as we embrace the Jesus way of doing things, we will find freedom in following Him.
Ultimately, we know that our destination is secure with God, and this helps us as we journey through life with all its uncertainties and troubles. God has promised never to leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5) and therefore we have hope. Jesus is our navigator through every circumstance of life. If we are in trouble, we should pray and seek God’s deliverance. (James 5:13) If we are sick, we should call the elders of the church to pray over us and anoint us with oil in the name of the Lord, expecting God’s healing. (James 5:14) Whatever our circumstances, we should seek to rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks. (1 Thess 5:16-18) When we face temptation, we can be confident that God will make a way out for us so that we do not sin. (1 Cor 10:13, James 1:13-15) When we sin and make mistakes, we can confess our sins and know the forgiveness and cleansing that Jesus brings. (1 John 1:9) In every situation, we are called to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, leaning on His wisdom rather than on our own understanding. (Prov 3:5-6)
When we choose the Jesus way over the world’s way (His way of love, surrender, forgiveness, blessing, grace, mercy and worship), the world will see not only something worth following, but someone worth following. Just as the Israelites were led by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, we will be led by God to an eternal destination, and we will be known as followers of God. There is no greater identity we could ever have.

Following Jesus

Oct 26, 2025

Forty-two years ago I started to follow Jesus. I was seventeen years old and had spent this equivalent weekend (at the start of the October half-term) with a friend, visiting her sister who had just started studying at Girton College, Cambridge. I had gone along to a service at the chapel there and also attended a church service in Cambridge where the minister faithfully taught from 1 Corinthians 7 about Christian marriage. I began to see that God was alive all over the world and that faith mattered even to young people (rather than being the prerogative of the old, who needed an insurance policy against death, as I used to think.) The students I met were young, intelligent, caring people whose faith gave them grounding and purpose.

I returned home, wrestling all that week until the Thursday with God, understanding that He wanted me to commit my life to Him but fearing the consequences of surrender. I had no peace until I finally accepted His call to follow Him. I surrendered and received His free gift of eternal life, recognising my sinfulness and inability to save myself.

Jesus calls people to follow Him. The Bible is full of these stories: His call to Peter, Andrew, James and John, to Matthew, to Saul. Many people have responded positively to that call; some, like the rich young ruler, decided the cost was too high. Jesus gives us a choice.

Forty-two years later, I’m so glad I am still following Jesus. Thire is no better way to live. Jesus is an ever-present companion, a friend, someone who loves us unconditionally and gives us a fresh start, even when we mess up. He is also that fierce lion, shaping our lives through affliction and the sufferings of life. He does not condone our failings, but cleanses us and sets us on our feet again.

The Bible gives us the identity of ‘followers’, which reminds us that God leads and we follow. He is the Master. We are not the boss. To be a follower is not to read the words of Jesus and click a ‘like’ button on Facebook;. To be a follower means putting His words into practice on a daily basis. It means immersing ourselves in the death of Christ so we too can share in His resurrection. To follow Jesus means we acknowledge that He is at the centre of life and we are not.

C. S. Lewis described himself as ‘the most reluctant convert’, fearing the choice to follow Jesus would lead to the end of all the good and pleasurable things in life. Instead, he found himself ‘surprised by joy’, for God is good and the author of all joy. God is good (Ps 119:68), and a lifetime of following Him underlines that fact, but I know also the tightrope we walk at times in life includes much that is not good. Faith is how we reconcile the visible and invisble aspects of life.

I don’t regret following Jesus, for He alone has the words of eternal life. (John 6:69) I want to press on and continue to follow Him. I don’t know where He will lead me, but I know I can trust Him to do all things well. (Mark 7:37)

Will you follow Jesus too?

The Words of Jesus

Oct 17, 2025

In our new Bible study series on the words of Jesus, we looked at the fact that the Bible describes Jesus as the Word (see John 1) and that God uses words powerfully, something we first see in creation (Genesis 1-2, when we read repeatedly ‘God said…’ in the creation account.) Ps 33:9 tells us that God spoke, and it came to be, reminding us that when God speaks, things happen! (‘One word, and the walls start crumbling,’ as Chris Tomlin puts it in his song, ‘Impossible Things.’)

Words and speech are what distinguish human beings from other created things, and speech development is a fascinating subject. We learn to speak through hearing speech; Jesus told His disciples that He was the good shepherd whose sheep hear and recognise and follow His voice. (John 10:1-17) The words of Jesus are powerful and life-giving, but we must learn not only to discern His voice (which speaks love, truth, correction, kindness and understanding to us with scalpel precision, being a double-edged sword as Hebrews 4:12 reminds us), but to hear His words and put them into practice. In Matthew 7:24-29, we are reminded that there is a vast difference between the wise and foolish person. Wisdom involves not only hearing the words of Jesus, but putting them into practice (see also James 1:22-25).

We must, therefore, act on what we hear as we hear the words of Jesus. We must recognise the authority of His words, recognising that in the past God spoke through the prophets but has now spoken to us by His Son. (Heb 1:1-3) God has both the first word and the final word; His words are sources of life to us. As Peter said, ‘You have the words of eternal life.’ (John 6:69) Jesus holds the key to life and we discover what it means to have life in all its fulness only as we hear, understand and act on His words.

We are Believers

Oct 12, 2025

Tonight we looked at the fact that our identity as God’s people is that of believers. Jesus was asked ‘What must we do to do the work God requires?’ (John 6:28) and HIs answer was that the work of God is to believe in the One He has sent. (John 6:29) Our identity is primarily not associated with doing, but with believing and trusting God.
God is primarily interested in our relationship with Him rather than merely giving us rules and regulations to follow. Faith is what sets us apart from other groups and in this respect, Abraham is our father, since it was his trust in God’s promises (and God’s ability to fulfil those promises) which set him apart and made God declare him righteous (see Romans 4.) To believe in Jesus means that we put our whole weight upon His shoulders and take Him at His word. Here are three of the benefits of faith:
1. Freedom from worry and anxiety, because we know God loves us and provides for us (see Matt 6:25-34, John 14:1, Luke 11:11-13)
2. Access to the power of God (John 14:12, Eph 1:18-19)
3. The ability to overcome (see Rom 8:37, 1 John 5:5)
We are called to believe God’s promises (even when we cannot see how He will fulfil these) and to trust Him even when we cannot understand what He is doing. A life of faith is what defines God’s people; believers is what we are called to be!