St Jude's Mapperley Archive Blog

Good Morning! Yesterday morning, we started a short series in Matthew 25, looking forwards to the day when Jesus comes back. Guy and David both did a great job of helping us to understand the passage and see how it affects us. I'm not going to go over what they said, but it's well worth a listen on the website when the talks are up. Matthew 25 is in the few days before Jesus is killed. Conflict with the religious authorities has escalated through Matthew 21-23. In chapter 24, Jesus talks to his disciples about the future - about the destruction of the temple (which happened in AD 70; Christians got out in time because of Jesus' warning) and Jesus returning as king (which obviously hasn't happened yet). Matthew 25:1-13, which we looked at yesterday, is a story helping us to understand what this waiting is like. Here's the story in a less familiar translation: Jesus: Or picture the kingdom of heaven this way. It will be like ten bridesmaids who each picked up a lante...

Good Morning! Yesterday morning, we finished off our series "In the Wilderness" by looking at the time Jesus went into the wilderness – Matthew 3:13-4:11. Matthew is very clever in the way that he tells Jesus' story. Especially in chapters 1-4, he emphasises the bits that show that Jesus is the True Israel – he is the embodiment of the perfect People of God. Israel failed in the wilderness in Numbers 11-14. The devil tempted them, and they fell. But Jesus didn't. Just like Israel, he came up out of the water having been assured that he was God's Son, and was then led by God's Spirit into the wilderness. Israel survived on their own food for 40 days or so, then complained and accused God of leading them into the wilderness to die (Ex 16). Jesus went without food for 40 days and nights, was within a week or so of starving to death, and yet would not take the devil's temptation of using his powers to turn stones to brea...

With yesterday being Remembrance Sunday and tomorrow being 11th November, I think it only right that I should let poet and evangelist Glen Scrivener take this morning's Monday Mail with his new Remembrance Video. See it here on youtube. Here's the text: If I should die think only this ... A bullet flew by that did not miss... What story of the war is told? Romance bright or horror cold? Triumph's tale or tragic loss, the iron or the wooden cross? Lost lament or victor's boast? Full brass band or lone last post? Heroes, villains, cowards, kings? It's war... it's all these things. It's us unleashed for good and ill, the gallant heart, the savage will. A Kaiser's pride, a nation's fear, a global greed, it's all in here. What causes war, the old book asks? Beyond the history, beneath the masks, There grows a want, becomes a will, demands our way, prepares to kill. The war we mark as long ago, is close to home, it's all we know. What ceases war? ...

Greetings! Yesterday, we finished our series in Exodus and Numbers, looking at the people's journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. We saw the people reach the Promised Land in Numbers 13 & 14, and how they failed to enter it. It started well, with the people reaching the edge of the land and Moses sending scouts out to explore it, but it all went horribly wrong. We saw 5 stages in the disaster that unfolded as the scouts reported back in Numbers 13:24-33 . 1. They ignored God – they didn't see the land as the land that God was giving them or the Promised Land – it was just the land Moses had told them to look at. 2. They looked at the opposition instead of God. They saw lots of people, and fortified cities. 3. They were afraid. 4. They let their fear distort the facts. By v31-33, they are contradicting themselves with the land eating its inhabitants, but the inhabitants being giants. 5. They let their fear affect their sense of self-wort...

Good morning! Yesterday, we finished working through Numbers 11. In some ways the end of Numbers 11 is quite a difficult passage – we are (rightly) uncomfortable with passages about God's judgement on groups of people. After all, we understand that God is love and relates to his people with love. So this morning, I thought I'd offer three quick perspectives to help us see what the God of Love is doing in judgement passages like Numbers 11. 1. God judges the worst offenders to give the rest of the people a chance When we read stories like Numbers 11, it's important to remember their place in the bigger story of God and Israel, and in the bigger story still of God and the whole human race. In the story of God and Israel, God is leading Israel through the desert towards the Promised Land, and they're probably only a month away by this stage – they reach the edge of the Promised Land in chapter 13. Before they get there, they need to learn to trust ...

Good Morning! Yesterday, we continued our series "In the Wilderness". One of the things that has really encouraged so far in the series has been hearing stories of people deciding not to grumble because of what God has been saying to all of us through his Word. I know it can be difficult – this last week I spent a fair bit of time on a conference which gave me plenty of opportunities. But I decided beforehand not to grumble, and I didn't grumble as much as I usually do on those things, instead trying to encourage others. I think it's important, though, to draw a few helpful distinctions between grumbling, lament and asking for prayer or help. Lament is what a lot of the Psalms do – it's bringing our sorrow into the open before God, being honest with him about it and letting him speak into it. It can be a very powerful thing. Some laments are individual, some are corporate – sometimes it's helpful to bring another person in on our la...

Good morning! Yesterday was one of those unusual Sundays when I was working but not preaching, so I thought I'd share a few quick thoughts on how to respond to the threat of Islamic fundamentalism, which has obviously been in the news a lot recently with the execution murder of Alan Henning. 1. Remember God's Justice Lots of the Psalms can appear quite bleak at first reading. But actually, they were written precisely to help God's people respond to difficult situations like the rise of the Islamic State. Here's Psalm 10:7-15, for example. 7 His mouth is full of lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue. 8 He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for his victims; 9 like a lion in cover he lies in wait. He lies in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net. 10 His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall under his strength. 11 He ...