Jesus is good news for you and for our community.
You may not think that. Maybe you’ve only ever heard the term ‘Jesus’ used when someone is swearing. You’re not on your own there. But Jesus isn’t a term, it’s a name. And Christians believe and teach that Jesus is the name of the Saviour of the world.
Jesus was born in a little town called Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. This is what Christmas celebrates. He grew up like most boys did, and when he was thirty, he began his work of teaching. In his teaching he was telling people about a new way to live, a way that was pleasing to God and was also pleasing to most people. We’d like to say it was pleasing to all people, and it should be, but it wasn’t. And it was that teaching that started to get Jesus into trouble.
Through his life, Jesus did what all followers of the living God should do – he lived in a way that reflected his love for God the father, and God’s love for him. He was kind to people who weren’t used to receiving kindness – and he wasn’t afraid to point out the hypocrites of his time. His message was about the kingdom of God, and this meant that his message also called people to repent. That means he was calling people to acknowledge the things they had done wrong, ask God to forgive them, and start living a new life.
What was amazing about this part of his message is that he didn’t expect people to just do better. He promised that he would help them, and he taught people that God loved them.
Those who were enemies of Jesus were powerful people, and eventually Jesus was arrested and killed on a Friday.
But that’s not the end of the story.
On the Sunday morning, some of his friends went to the tomb where he had been placed and found it empty. Then they saw Jesus and realised that when Jesus had talked about being killed and being raised, he was speaking about his death and his resurrection. This is what we celebrate at Easter.
Today, we still celebrate Jesus and his resurrection believing that through him we can be truly forgiven.
That’s good news.
We’d be happy to tell you more about this good news. You can contact us and ask for more information, listen to the sermons on this site, or come and join in on a Sunday morning.