Today we came to the final message in our three-part series, ‘Creation Care.’ Week 1 focused on ‘Creation and Our Origin’; Week 2 on ‘New Creation and Our Future’; and this week we turned to what lies between Creation and New Creation. In other words, where do we fit in the story right now?
Do you dream during your nightly sleep? Some people don't ever dream. Joseph in the Bible was dubbed 'that dreamer' by his jealous brothers. Why did they do that?
Genesis 1 and 2 provide us with crucial information about our origins, our role and our position in the world as we relate and interact with God, one another, and creation itself. If we don't understand these chapters, we don't understand God's purpose for humanity.
In the ancient world, animal sacrifice was a key part of worship for Jews and Gentiles alike, but Christianity brought a radical new way of doing things.
When Paul parted company with the leaders of the church at Ephesus, he impressed upon them the importance of proclaiming the Gospel. Someone once said that ‘the Church is the only organisation that exists for the benefit of its non-members.’ And that’s largely true because we have a responsibility to proclaim the wonderful news of Jesus to all who will listen.
Every single person in the whole wide world has unique finger-prints. Our own personality is nearly, almost like that. At times a personality-clash between two people happens. The big positive forward, work out a way in which we can still do good despite our differences?
Acts has once again brought us to the theme of radical generosity. The church was prepared to do whatever it took to ensure that no-one was in want. We're reminded that the people surrounding us in church are literally our brothers and sisters, and we must do our utmost to love and care for one them.
Time is a funny thing. Some people seem to live in the past – others are always thinking about the future – and others still seem to live only for the moment. But as Christians, we need to keep sight of the past, present, and future, all at the same time, to fully appreciate what God is doing in and through history and where we fit into it all.
Christians are called to love one another to such an extent that it becomes counter cultural. Unfortunately, we don’t always get this right , but when we do – it’s one of the most compelling aspects of our faith. In Acts, chapter 2, we get a brilliant example of what genuine love looked like in the early Church, which functioned very much like a large family.
Continuing with our series ‘Acts: Weird, Dangerous, Compelling, one of the things that makes Christianity so unique, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. To some it might sound weird – but there's no doubt that this doctrine and more importantly, the phenomenon itself makes Christianity dangerous and compelling.
We began a new series today, exploring the life of the early Church in the book of Acts. Over the coming weeks, we’ll see that the first Christians were weird, dangerous, and compelling, for reasons that will soon become clear. We started with the most striking thing that set them apart, both in the first century and still today: they followed a crucified King.
On Sunday we came to the end of our mini-series on The Fruit of the Spirit – 9 aspects of the Spirit's fruit explored in three lots of three, over three years and seen through the lens of Jesus' life. Closing today with the most important one - Love.
Continuing with our mini-series on the fruit of the Spirit, today we looked at goodness. A big theme, but one we can recognise when we see it lived out. Goodness looks very different from niceness. The world wants us to be nice, to keep things smooth and polite, but that’s not the same thing as goodness.
In many ways, the world we live in is not very peaceful; and sometimes the circumstances of our lives are far from peaceful. Today we saw that, with Jesus, it is possible to experience peace no matter what’s happening around us.
In Galatians 6, Paul reminds us that our identity isn’t built on how we present ourselves, what we achieve, or how well we impress the world. There’s no need to boast in those things. In fact, the only thing worth boasting in is the cross of Christ, because it’s there that God made it possible for each of us to become a new creation.
The Church is meant to be a place where the best relationships grow. And sometimes we see that; moments of real grace and kindness. Other times, we let each other down. But none of us stands above anyone else. We’re all sinners in need of a Saviour. And when someone is struggling, our calling is to gently restore, not to judge.
The apostle Paul compares two ways of living - life by the flesh and life by the Spirit. Life by the flesh is destructive to ourselves, the people around us, and society in general. By contrast, life by the Spirit leads to the fruit of a godly character, and all the benefits that flow from that.
The Apostle Paul makes it clear that if we want to get right with God, we need to put our faith in Jesus. Following religious rules will not lead anyone back to God. Jesus came to free us from religiosity, but more than that, he came to free us from sin and death, so that we might enjoy a relationship with God through Him.
God is not like us. Yes, we’re made in his image, but God is unique. As Karl Barth said, "One cannot speak of God simply by speaking of man in a loud voice." The Christian understanding of God is an eternal relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s not easy to wrap our heads around, but why would we expect an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and eternal God to be easy to understand!
31 May 2026
Matthew 28: 16-20 & 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13
Bp John Roundhill
Two-thousand years ago, about 10 days after Jesus ascended to be with his Father in heaven, God poured out his Holy Spirit on a group of believers who were waiting for this gift that Jesus had promised. Since that day, everyone who repents and puts their faith in Jesus is filled with God’s Spirit.
“Wonderful approach to service as a family.” Penny
“St Andrews is such a caring environment that is filled with wonderful people.” Steven
“Awesome environment for young and old!” Simone
