St Jude's Mapperley Archive Blog

Good Morning! Yesterday, we continued with our series on the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus started the sermon by declaring who is living life right – that it's the people who are spiritually bankrupt and who hunger and thirst for righteousness. But that raises the huge question of how it fits in with the Old Testament Law. After all, plenty of people at Jesus' time would think that the people who are living life well are the ones who keep all the rules. It's still a popular idea in the Church today – lots of people think that living well is about keeping rules. But what Jesus says next blows that idea out of the water. He doesn't do it by ditching the Law. After all, it had been given by God himself. He does it by showing that the Law itself was never about keeping the rules. When God says "Do not murder", he's not just inventing a rule about murder; the way the OT uses it shows that it's actually about valuing other pe...

​ Yesterday morning, we started a new series in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus begins the sermon with a dramatic statement of what the "good life" looks like. Who is living well? Who has got life sorted? Here's what Jesus said from some less-familiar translations: Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! Congratulations to those who are mourning; they shall be consoled. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are to be envied, because they will be filled. Congratulations to the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Happy are the pure in heart – because they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. Congratulations to you when they reproach you and...

Shining with God's Love in Our Community Yesterday morning, we looked at Matthew 5:14-16. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. We saw that we should shine because of who we are . A town on a hill does not get a choice about whether it is visible or not. Because it is on a hill, and because it is a town, people can see it for a great distance (even hundreds of miles away if there are no streetlights and it's a cloudy night). We shine because God has put his Spirit in us. Jesus the light of the world lives in our hearts by his Spirit and makes us, his people, into the light of the world. We don't get a choice about it. If we try not to shine,...