This week David Powell will bring the ninth message in our ‘Abide In Me’ series – “Abiding in the End”.  The readings are from Revelation 4 and 7:9-17 revealing the throne of the Father and the Lamb that was slain. Here we reach a glorious end to our abiding – eternal worship of the Father, Son and the Spirit. We will see how we are dwelling, and will dwell with God before His throne and He with us. We do this not as individuals, but as a great multitude from every nation, tribe and tongue. This provides us with an […]

This week, in John 15, we come to the passage from which the title of our series appears – ‘Abide in me, and I in you,’ says Jesus to his disciples. The vine imagery used by Jesus is a reminder of Israel’s failure to produce the fruit the Father desired. In the last of Jesus’ ‘I am…’ statements, we hear that HE is the ‘true vine’. Only in him can we ‘bear fruit’ which remains. However, for this take place, there is much cutting and pruning – no branch is spared the gracious, yet sometimes severe, tending of the vinedresser […]

It is often said that we live in a ‘free country’, but I wonder how many of us truly feel free. There is much in this life which seems to restrict and overwhelm us, let alone the matters of sin, the world, the devil, our consciences and God’s law and his wrath. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be free of the bondage and tyranny of any, let alone all of these? Jesus promises us complete liberation – “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). This freedom is found only when we abide in the […]

This week, from John 6:22-59, we will hear how doing ‘the work of God’, coming to Jesus, looking to him and feeding on his flesh are all one and the same – belief in him. And all who do this will be ‘raised up in the last day’ and have eternal life. Yet, unless the Father draws us to Christ and grants to us the gift of faith, we can do none of these. Without this faith and revelation, we may see the sign and want more of it, but not see or seek the object it is pointing to […]

Last week we were shown something of the holiness of God that Israel, and others such as the Philistines, saw and experienced, particularly with regard to the Ark of the Covenant. God was determined to dwell among his people, and graciously provided the means by which this could take place. However, very few were able to come near to the Lord’s holy presence and to even touch the Ark brought about dire consequences. How is it then, that we could ever hope to dwell in God’s holy presence, and he with us? How could we ever ‘abide in him’ and […]

It is so easy to take for granted this remarkable fact that God has come to make His home with us. To abide in God and for God to abide in us is no small matter.  It is an awesome thing to believe that the holy God of all creation is pleased to live in us and for us to live in Him. Neither presumption nor an easy familiarity sits well with the biblical revelation of the Holy One of Israel who came to dwell in the midst of His people. Where the gift of His presence, particularly in the […]

Last week we heard of God’s plan and desire to have a people of his own who will abide with him, and he with them. This all began in the Garden of Eden. However, sin, guilt and shame now interrupt this true abiding. Fear and death now loom over us and over all creation. What’s more, we hear with Cain that ‘sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.’ We all know these dynamics in our own lives, and the restlessness that they bring. Is there any hope for true abiding […]

This week we commence a new series, ‘Abide In Me’. Whilst this phrase doesn’t appear in the Scriptures until John’s gospel, it has been God’s yearning from before the foundation of the world. As the great prophetic anthem declares, ‘I will be your God, and you will be my people’. God longs to have a people of his own who dwell with him, and he with them. Moreover, he has prepared and provided everything necessary, in Creation and in Redemption, for this mutual and eternal abiding to take place, and he is determined that it will. Into the pervading restlessness […]

Brian Arthur will be preaching this Sunday. He writes, “Three things have stirred my heart in coming to you this week and a fourth brought my theme into focus. I received a prophetic email from Ian Pennicook (from which I have taken my title); I read Ray’s précis for last week’s proclamation and over the last twelve months I have been immersed in Paul’s battle for life and love to flow in the Church at Galatia. Ian, Paul and Ray all applied themselves to the impact of the prophetic word. Each faced the issue that the life of God as […]

Early in Luke we read that he wrote his gospel to Theophilus so that he might have certainty concerning the things he had been taught. As we conclude our series through Luke’s gospel this week, we hear of Jesus speaking to his disciples saying that everything about him in the Scriptures must be fulfilled. This includes his suffering, death and resurrection, and “that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” Whilst he declared, ‘It is finished!’ on the cross, and was soon to ascend to his Father’s right hand, the work of proclaiming […]