This Sunday sees the last sermon in our series “Down to Earth”. Over the past 2 months we’ve read together through Matthew 8-10. I hope you’ve found it rewarding. As a preaching team we’ve really enjoyed getting to grips with what Jesus has to teach us. There have been a number of things that have stood out to us.
- the many times we see Gentiles included into the Kingdom of God that is Israel
- the way that Jesus uses the healing of sickness as a sign of his greater healing of our sins
- the call to be prepared to be hated and rejected for Jesus
Even this past week we received an email from someone who had experienced exactly the sort of rejection that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 10:16-33. While nobody likes to be treated like this, they also told us that it was really helpful to have been reminded of Jesus’ words of warning on this very topic. Many months ago when we planned the series we could not have possible known that God would use it in this way, nor that last week’s reading would have fallen at the end of a week where discussion of Christianity (and lots of rejection of it) would be the hot topic in the news. But God is far better at planning these things than we are!
Next Sunday we will begin our 2022 vision series. Over 5 weeks we’ll think again about what we’re doing together at St John’s as we seek to see our city transformed by the hope of the risen Christ. There is much to give thanks for and much to look forward to. Our last Sunday in the series will be our Celebration Sunday, 27 March. We’re very much looking forward to being joined by Archbishop Kanishka Raffel. Please do pray for our combined service and particularly for our many baptism and confirmation candidates. Do please also pray for each of the 4 weeks leading up to that day as we think together about what it means to Grow disciples of Jesus Christ, Glorify God by our love and service and Engage our city and the world with the message of the risen Christ. We’ll be working through passages from Ephesians to help us.
2022 is shaping up to be an exciting year and there’s already much to be thanking God for. We’ll see you in church this Sunday!
CLICK HERE to catch up on all our Down to Earth sermons!
David Ould / Senior Associate Minister
St John’s Anglican Cathedral, Parramatta
PRAY: Give thanks for the timely message we have heard from Matthew chapters 8 to 10. Pray that we would be strengthened in our faith and stay on track even during times of open hostility towards Jesus.
Join us this Sunday for our Sunday services. We meet at 8am, 9:30am, 11am and 5pm at the Cathedral – and online at 9:30am. Check out out Sunday services page for more information on our face-to-face services.