New Sermon Series

The sermon series for Spring 2012 is now available for download at http://www.stmarkssaltney.org.uk/Sermons.htm where you can also catch up with all our sermons from previous months. 

  

A Call to Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who was hanged by the Nazis in 1945 wrote a book entitled ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, and in it he wrote about costly grace in contrast to cheap grace. He said, ‘cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. And it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God’. And the Incarnation of God is what we have just been celebrating a few weeks ago at Christmas, and continue to celebrate throughout our Christian journey. The Incarnate God still calls us today to follow Him, and still it is costly. This Spring Sermon Series we will be looking at ‘A call to discipleship’ helping us to see afresh what it really means to follow Jesus, and how we can help others to do the same. Are we willing to dedicate our lives fully to following Christ by presenting our bodies to him as a living sacrifice, offering ourselves to Him to use us as He so desires enabling more of His Kingdom to be built here on earth?

1Peter - Living in the world but not of the world Peter was writing to Jewish Christians who were experiencing extreme persecution for their faith. He wrote to comfort them, reminding them of the hope of the resurrection, and to encourage them to continue to live holy lives, even in their suffering. Peter can write with empathy and authority because he knew what it was to be persecuted, having been beaten and imprisoned many times. But more importantly he knew Christ, and nothing could shake his confidence in his risen Lord. His Lord whom he had misunderstood, rejected and run away from, and His Lord who had forgiven and reinstated him, and given him the task of building His Church.    As we continue as a church to seek God’s vision for the future I believe this book could have a significant impact on our discipleship and in the renewal of our faith. It is a book all about Vision and a coming together of God’s people to see it fulfilled – how exciting is that?!