In this week's online church service, we look at the second part of our summary of the resurrection of Jesus as per the account in John's Gospel.

WATCH NEXT -- The Empty Tomb, and why it still matters https://youtu.be/pSkqOC_JC3M

⏱️ TIMELINE --

[00:02:18] - Welcome

[00:06:43] - Sermon on the resurrection of Jesus Christ (part 2)

[00:22:20] - Christmas Carol: Hark the Herald

[00:26:35] - Conversation Street

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Service, uh, will last about an hour and in a few seconds you'll meet our host.

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And now the moment you've been waiting for is here.

Our Online Church service starts right now.

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's Crown Church.

I'm Anna Kettle and this is John Farrington.

And we are live, um, we are an online church and, uh, we are basically

here for people who perhaps are just exploring the faith or don't know that

much about church or those who just don't really see the point of church.

Um, but we're here every week on this live stream at 6:00 PM UK time.

Um, just exploring a little bit about Christian faith.

So how are you this week, John?

Yeah.

Doing good.

Thanks, Anna.

Doing good.

Um, just, I came back last week from, um, little trip to the States seeing, uh, some

of the in-laws, which was really lovely.

Um, celebrating Thanksgiving together, so that was really nice.

Oh, thanksgiving.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's, it was, uh, it was back to reality this week and just

recovering a little bit from the jet lag, but, but, uh, but Good.

Yeah.

How are you doing?

Yeah, I'm good.

Thank you.

I've been enjoying the start of Christmas season.

It feels like it's properly coming now that, you know, we've had a little

bit of snow for those who aren't watching from Liverpool today, where

that's where we're broadcasting from.

Um, yeah, it's been quite snowy this weekend, which has been unexpected.

Um, it's been very cold, so yeah, it's starting to be Christmassy, I feel.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I feel like Thanksgiving like set me off on the, the Christmas ride.

Came back to like wintery weather and now I totally feel very

much in the Christmas spirit.

Yeah, and you were saying that even though you've just done a long

haul flight with a baby as well.

So, braver person than I am.

Yes, yes, we survived.

Yes, exactly.

But, um, do you know what's coming up today?

John?

Can you let us into what we've got coming up here at Crowd Church?

Yes.

So I believe we have Pastor John Harding, uh, speaking on the last

two chapters of John's Gospel, which.

John 21, 22.

Somebody check that.

I have no idea.

I'm gonna go with it.

I'm gonna go with it.

We'll find out if I'm wrong in a couple of minutes.

Um, uh, yeah, and I believe he's speaking on the resurrection.

Jesus' Resurrection.

That little subject.

Brilliant.

Yeah, that sounds good.

And um, obviously as, as always, we've got, you know, after the talk

and, and, and the song, we've got Conversation Street as well, haven't we?

So that's a chance for people to post their questions and

their comments on, on the talk.

And obviously we'll come back and discuss it live and try and answer

people's questions as best we can.

Can't always guarantee we'll give a great answer, but we'll, we'll give it a go.

But yeah, we really encourage people to sort of make this interactive.

And if you're watching live on the livestream, then please do kind of post

your thoughts and ideas on what you're watching as well cause we like that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Get those comments in.

Uh, any questions.

No question is a stupid question.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, we'd love to discuss it all.

So, um, yeah, feel free on YouTube or on Facebook, just send those through and

that'll be great to discuss those later.

And I think we have a Christmas carol tonight as well, don't we?

We do.

Yes.

Yes.

So after the talk, there'll be a little Christmas.

Christmas, Carol.

Uh, is it Hark the Herald I think we have today?

Yes.

See, we're getting actually festive here, aren't we?

Like I've got Christmas jumper on, we've got Tinsels behind me.

Feeling lot of Christmas Love here already.

Yeah.

Love it.

That's great.

I have a, I have a tree going on in the corner, but you

just can't see it, you know?

Next time, next time I'll angle it so you can, uh, see the festivities in the room.

Yeah, we'd appreciate that.

We wanna see your tree next time, John.

Yeah.

Fab.

Well, as much as people wanna hear about our Christmas trees, shall we kick

straight off and like get into the talk?

Yeah.

Great.

Let's go.

Today we are finishing off John's gospel and we're looking at the final

two chapters, John 20 and John 21.

I've called my message today a series of extraordinary events, and rather than

taking a couple of verses or a little passage, I want to overview the five

final events of this section in John's Gospel, and I want to help us to reflect

on just how extraordinary, how unexpected, how un unusual these events are.

So a quick overview of the passage in case you've got your

Bible open in front of you.

Extraordinary event number one, Jesus is resurrected after

three days dead in the grave.

Truly the most extraordinary event of all.

Number two, Jesus chooses Mary Magdalene to be the first

witness of the resurrection.

A third extraordinary event.

The disciples who think Jesus is dead are together as family.

Fourthly, after the resurrection, the disciples go back to their own jobs.

They go fishing.

And finally, number five, Jesus forgives and restores Peter, after

Peter had denied Jesus three times.

Five extraordinary events that bring us to the end of John's gospel.

Let's drill down into them in a bit more detail.

So number one, Jesus who was dead in the grave for three

days is raised back to life.

This resurrection, along with Jesus' death on the cross are truly

the singular most important event in the whole of human history.

Yes, the resurrection of Jesus is miraculous.

It's extraordinary.

It's the impossible made possible, but without it, there is no Christianity.

I would go as far as to say, I actually don't think you can be a Christian in the

way the Bible defines being a follower of Jesus without believing in the actual

physical bodily resurrection of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul says in one Corinthians 15, 13 to 14, if there is no

resurrection, Then our faith is futile.

It's useless.

In fact, it goes on to say in verse 19, we have no hope.

No hope for the future.

And this is why Jesus' resurrection is so fundamental, so central to the

Christian faith, because in rising from the dead, Jesus defeated the power that.

And the grave had over us, and he guaranteed for us through the act

that we too would be raised to new life with Jesus in the new heaven

and the new Earth for all eternity.

Jesus' death, a sacrifice for human sin, a substitution.

He died the death that you and I.

His death brought us forgiveness Through it, we are cleansed.

We are made holy.

We are brought into God's holy family of sons and daughters of God.

Through his death, through the resurrection, the way is made for us

to enjoy eternal life with God forever and ever in the new heavens and earth.

Some say, well, John, maybe it's just a symbolic story, a myth.

It didn't physically happen.

Maybe Jesus rose symbolically, spiritually in our hearts.

What a nice thought, but actually no, because if that is true, then I don't

know about you, but I am no longer confident that Jesus, that God has

the power to raise me from the dead.

No resurrection, no hope.

That's event number one.

Extraordinary event number two.

Jesus chooses Mary Magdalene to be the first person to experience

him, to see him, to witness him after the resurrection.

So Mary is at the tomb.

She's weeping because Jesus is dead and the body has gone, the grave is empty.

Maybe she thinks that grave robbers have taken the body.

I dunno why they do that.

They left the grave clothes, the only thing of value, and Jesus

walks through the garden to her and calls by name and he sends Mary

back to the rest of the disciples.

The 12, well at the 11 as witness to tell them that he is alive.

Mary becomes the first preacher of the resurrection.

Now, if you were making this story up at the time, this is

not how you would've written it.

Mary is not the character you'd script in this role.

In the Asian Near East at this time, the testimony, the witness of a

woman in a court of law was invalid.

They were not believed, and that's even before we take into

account Mary's past her history.

You know, even today in a court of a law, someone like Mary would be

considered an unreliable witness.

She would be questioned as a witness.

She had a reputation.

A mad, crazy woman when she first encountered Jesus.

Jesus drove seven demons out of her.

Now, I'm not sure how someone would end up with that level of oppression.

But for me, even though we can't really prove it a hundred percent from scripture,

for me, I think it means that this Mary is likely to be the Mary who was

described earlier as a sinful woman.

Possibly as a prostitute.

Certainly that's what church history tells us, and Jesus orchestrated his

resurrection so that Mary was the first witness, the first entrusted to preach

the message that Jesus was risen.

It's extraordinary.

But let me say this about it.

If Mary can be entrusted with such a message, that means

so can I and so can you.

We don't have to worry about if people will believe us or not.

That's not down to us.

We simply share the message that Jesus is alive for the message has

power in and of itself to convince and convict and change lives.

Second extraordinary event, God chose Mary.

A woman with a dubious reputation to be the first person to encounter

the risen Jesus and to be the first preacher of the resurrection.

Extraordinary event three.

The next thing that happens in John's gospel is that we read The

disciples are hiding away, huddled away together for fear of their lives.

They believe Jesus is a king, long awaited Messiah, that he would reign and they

would reign with him in a new kingdom.

But now here they are.

Jesus has been killed as a common criminal, a rebel, and so they're

hiding away for fear of their lives.

I find it a little bit surprising that they didn't scatter.

I think if I'd been in that situation, I think I'd have recommended that

we all went our separate ways in order to maximize our safety.

Much safer to do that, but they are together.

They are in community like family, and it's into that context that they now

encounter and experience the risen Jesus.

Jesus walks into the room, he speaks peace shalom to them.

He says to them, as the father sent me, now I'm sending you.

Literally in Greek Jesus says, just as the Father sent me, I'm sending you.

In the same way I send you so called to to mirror Jesus, to emanate Jesus,

to incarnate ourselves into community.

At their most fearful, disappointed, discouraged moments, the

disciples pressed into community.

They were together in community, and it's in the context of community.

It's in context of hardship and persecution and fear that they encounter

the risen Jesus in their midst, and he speaks his peace into their hearts.

Even the Doubting Thomas gets included.

And that's the third extraordinary event in this passage.

The fourth extraordinary event.

Well, this one blows my mind.

After all that's happened, after three years with Jesus, his death, his actual

physically bodily resurrection, after all of that, uh, after him sending them out

as witnesses into the world, chapter 21 of John, we read that some of the disciples

went back to their old jobs as fishermen.

They went back to work.

Now, if you know this story, you'll know that they were out fishing all

night and they had caught nothing.

So they weren't even very successful in their old jobs.

Maybe they were a bit out of practice.

But it was familiar.

Maybe they thought that going back to their old job would

be comforting or nostalgic.

I mean, I get that.

So, um, fishing all night, they'd caught nothing.

And a voice that they don't know, they don't recognize, calls out to them

from the shore and says, cast your nets onto the other side of the boat.

So they, they do that and they land this instant, miraculous

catch of fish, 153 fish in all.

The point I want to make is this, Mary encountered Jesus in the garden.

The disciples encountered Jesus in their community.

And here they encounter the risen Jesus in their day-to-day work.

And it's that encounter with Jesus in their workplace that makes 'em

incredibly fruitful and productive.

Now, I love some of the little details that John records in this

section 153 Fish quite precise.

The Roman writer, an early naturalist, uh, Pliny the elder.

He was alive in writing at this time.

He wrote, he believed there were only 153 species of fish in the entire world.

So maybe, um, in catching 153.

It was symbolic of a time where these fishes of men would reach people from

every tribe and nation and language.

Everyone would be reached for Jesus.

I love the little detail in the original Greek when it says,

Jesus cooks the fish over a fire over a particular fire of coals.

Now that Greek word is only used twice in the whole of the Bible.

It's used here, and the other time it's used is to speak of the fire

that Peter warms himself beside.

The exact same word, the exact same fire that talks about Peter's denial of Jesus.

It's a lovely little detail and I think it really connects, uh, into

our final extraordinary event.

Extraordinary event four, the disciples go back to their normal jobs, but

that's a place they encountered Jesus.

And the final extraordinary event, number five is, Jesus

forgives and restores Peter.

There's this lovely, precious encounter between Jesus and Peter

at the very end of John's gospel.

Peter had denied Jesus by that fire three times.

In his darkest moment when people said to him, even a slave girl said to him,

Hey, you are one of Jesus' disciples.

You were with Jesus.

Peter said three times, not me.

I never knew Jesus.

He denied knowing Jesus three times, and here three times, Peter

says to Jesus, Jesus, I love you.

Three times.

Jesus says to Peter, do you love me?

Now this is not Jesus being insecure or needy or seeking affirmation.

We are talking about the risen Jesus here, the one who had conquered sin and death.

No, he's asking Peter.

Peter, do you love me?

For Peter's benefit.

For the benefit of Peter, he's giving Peter the opportunity to confess his love.

It's extraordinary.

It, it's remarkable.

In this ancient near east honor and shame culture, Jesus chooses

to forgive Peter and restore Peter and appoint him to go on to be the

first leader of the earliest church.

That's where I want to land my talk today on the extraordinary

events at the end of John's Gospel.

Mary, the disciples, Peter, encounter the risen Jesus in extraordinary ways.

And what of our response?

Well, I think it should be that of Peter's.

Hearts full of love, vocalized to our risen savior.

Jesus, we love you.

Jesus.

I love you.

I wonder if you would join with me in that confession.

Peter's confession this day.

Hey everyone.

Welcome back.

Thanks so much for that talk, John.

That was wonderful.

What did you think of that, John?

Yeah, that was great.

Really good.

There's, um, there's so many like different.

Different.

There's so many different things going on.

Um, yeah.

So now I really like to have John just kind of walk through each section and

um, also, we clearly learned that I need to read more of John's gospel because I

clearly dunno how many chapters there are.

Did you check it in the break?

Yeah.

That was, that was fine..

Oh, well, yeah.

No.

What, what did you think?

Yeah, I, I mean, I just loved that, that whole idea of, um, you

know, five extraordinary events.

I mean, yeah, there's, there's more than five in the resurrection, isn't it?

But those big five events that he picked out of those chapters,

it's just, I mean, yeah.

I love that take on it.

And I don't know, I mean, all five of them are extraordinary, but I mean, which one,

which one really jumps out at you John?

Was like any that you sort of thought, oh gosh, yeah.

That, that really resonates or,

yeah.

I think, um, honestly, that the first, the first point he makes about Jesus

resurrected for me is, um, so good.

And, and so key for me, I think, um, you know, John said without, without the

resurrection, there is no Christianity.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, and certainly for me, when I have had, you know, maybe kind of, uh,

doubts or questions about my faith, you know, at any point I think it, those

questions can make it easy to sort of spiral and you can kind of be into

question, oh, is, is any of this true?

Is any of this real?

And, um, for me, The, the anchor of it all has always been, you know, I,

I just always come back to Jesus is real and the resurrection is real.

Mm-hmm.

. And, um, and if ever I'm kind of struggling with any questions, I go

from that place of, well, I know Jesus is real and I believe the resurrection

happened, and so then I kind of go back to all those questions and see

how that, you know, how that all fits.

And that's definitely been, um, been the key for me, really.

Um, but yeah, I think that, that, that first point is, is fundamental, isn't it?

Uh, yeah, I think I'm, I'm thinking I'm fair with you really, John.

Like I.

For me, it was like that, um, line, I wrote it down cause

it, it really resonated.

But with, with no resurrection, then there's no hope.

I love that.

It's like, if, if there's no resurrection, then there's no

hope really in Christianity.

Is it like, yeah, that whole idea of.

Kind of how people might say, oh, well, it's a nice story, or it's just

a metaphor or a myth, you know, it's, it's just an idea that's expounded

and, and I think it wasn't actually a physical event then There's no, I loved,

I loved how he followed it through and it's like, it's, it's like the

linchpin of like a whole faith isn't, it's a centerpiece because without.

The resurrection being actual physical event that really happened and there's

no, there's no power over death, and resurrection and there's no, there's

no kind of victory over the grave.

Really.

And like for me, that's kind of, that is the hope.

Um, yeah, I sort of think without that then, You know, there's

no promise of eternal life.

It's all just metaphor, isn't it?

It's not real, and it kind of takes the point to me, but that,

that's the power that we have.

You know, that for me, certainly the hope that my faith is, is that kind

of, kind of that life on this earth.

Although there's many good things, it's like.

When things are hard, when chips are down, you know, like my, when, when

people die, that that's not the end.

Like my husband lost a family member a couple of weeks ago, which was really sad.

She was quite young.

Uh, and so, you know, so sad, but also so hopeful to know that

death isn't the end for us as believers, and I feel like that's,

without that then what's the point?

So yeah.

Yeah, that really resonated for me as well.

Yeah, and, and I think also, that I think that could be quite jarring

for people to hear as well sometimes.

Cause you do hear people talk a lot about, um, you know, interpreting the gospels

as more metaphorical than, than literal.

And, um, and I think in some ways that when you talk about it in a metaphorical

sense, that can sound nicer, but actually it, um, like you're saying.

Ultimately it, it doesn't provide any hope.

Um, and it, it loses real and it sort of any strong sense of meaning.

Yeah.

Um, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

I also, I mean, I liked all of the points, but I also like the one, you

know, probably I would say this as woman, but I liked the second point

as well about, um, Mary Madeline being the first person that met Jesus.

Like that was so, to me that was so counter culture in a kind of, Culture

and a time, um, where women really didn't have any kind of equality with men, um,

in that kind of culture and that sort of time zone that Jesus was born in.

Um, and I, for me, that, that's so interesting.

Like how much Jesus values a woman that he would appear to her first above

everyone else, before the disciples.

Before everyone else, and yeah.

Something that's just, it always slightly blows my mind.

It just reminds me how countercultural Jesus was and how he did

things that were really quite revolutionary at the time, and yeah.

How he is just always breaking the norms.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah, and, and kind of, it, it keeps in that theme of Jesus does things

that if you were to, to make it up.

like John was saying, you wouldn't choose to do it that way if you wanted

people to believe it at the time.

Mm-hmm..

Um, yeah, no, that's it.

I, yeah, I agree.

It's, it's really cool.

I like how he talk.

He talked about, um, Mary being the first preacher of the resurrection as well.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, it's a nice, nice phrasing like that.

Yeah.

It kind of, sort of puts to bed the thing of like, women shouldn't speak

or preach in church for me, I mean, I know that's controversial, but I still

think, well, it's good enough for Jesus.

Yeah, yeah.

No, absolutely.

Yeah, it's, it's very cool.

Yeah, definitely.

It's a good point actually.

And um, the whole thing of like, Jesus appearing to the

disciples, I mean, they're all extraordinary events, aren't they?

But I love the fact that he sort of says, About how they should and, you

know, you would expect them to all have scattered to the foreigns of wherever.

And instead they all gathered together and sort of sort kinda, I suppose

they were grieving, weren't they?

And they'd lost a friend and a, and a someone they were following,

um, their sort of rabbi and, and I, I guess that they were kind of,

there's like some kind of solidarity in their loss in being together.

But I think that dynamic meant that when Jesus appeared to all of

them, there was like this, I think that's quite hard to argue with.

It's like, not one person's testimony.

It's like lots of them were gathered and they all saw the same thing at the same

time and it kind of adds real weight and like a stronger evidence base if it just

one or two people had seen him one by one.

It's like where you could have just dreamt it imagined it, uh, or just wanted it so

bad that you sort of, but the fact that lots of people said, described and saw.

Experienced the same thing in the same way, at the same time.

It's, it's harder to argue with, isn't it?

In terms of facts?

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And also how they're, um, I guess how they're like, experiences of encountering

Jesus after his resurrection are quite different and, um, and poignant for,

for the different disciples, you know.

Um, like with how he, uh, with, with Thomas, you know, um, doubting Thomas and

then, you know, with Peter with the Do you Love Me conversation that he has with him.

Yeah.

Um, very like, they're very personal and kind of speak straight to the sort of,

um, the heart of the individual, you know?

Yeah.

I like that.

It's cool.

Do we have, do we have any comments going on currently in the, uh, chat bar?

You got anything coming through?

We've got a few.

Where's John's Christmas jumper?

We, as soon as, as soon as you pointed out Anna, I thought,

uh, I've Let the side down.

Here we go.

Oh no.

The um, Yeah, there's quite a few coming through on that first point that we've

just discussed around if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.

Um, yep.

Quite a few on those.

Dan Orange says extraordinary events that this passage as well as the

rest of the Bible has so many.

Yes, the Bible just full of extraordinary events.

Um, Matt Edmundson says, totally agree.

The first point is key.

I love that scripture.

Without it, there is no hope.

And your faith is futile.

Yeah, that seems to be the point that it's really jumped out a lot of people here.

Um, yeah.

And also, I just wanna say while I remember, I'm sorry that the,

if anybody noticed that, or during John's talk, the sound and the

picture was slightly out of sync.

So yeah, I dunno.

There was a slight technical hitch in the playback there, so apologies if it

was a bit annoying to watch that part.

But hopefully it's resolved now.

Um, you can tell us in a chat box if we're also outta sync, but I don't think we are.

What did you, um, what you think Anna about the, the final point there, Jesus,

the conversation with Jesus and Peter, because there's, I feel like there's quite

a few layers to that really isn't there?

Yeah.

The way he sort of forgives him and kind of, um, meets him where he is at really.

Um, I love the fact that that kinda like, you know, Peter had obviously like pretty

much written would, you know, as you would do, you've sort of denied Jesus.

You've written yourself off if you think I've let him down.

Probably a lot of feelings of not being good enough, which I think a

lot of us kind of appreciate and Jesus kind of cuts through all of that.

And for me, that's, that's the kind of thing that I always take away from that.

That bit of the story that kind of we're so quick to sort of, you know, write

ourselves off and, you know, kind of look at our own failings and think I'm not good

enough to serve Jesus or be used by him.

You know?

And we all fail, don't we?

We all get it wrong sometimes.

I know I do, but like I love that Jesus meets him there and reassures

him and kind of actually he's doesn't affect Jesus' plan for him and he

still, yeah, he sort of forgives him and kind of, yeah, it kind of changes

everything for Peter, doesn't it?

That kind of grace that he meets there, that kind of, you know, Yeah.

That kind of encounter, Jesus sort of, um, it's the power and the kind of, um, I

don't know what the word is, but it kind of inspires him like in a really deep way.

Yeah.

Changes his whole life.

And you know, obviously he goes on and he, he serves the early

church for many years and has this amazing ministry, but it's like,

It's like that encounter with Jesus' forgiveness changes

everything for him in that moment.

And I think, you know, we, I guess we all have, as Christians, we all have those

moments where obviously there's that initial moment of becoming a Christian.

But then I think also throughout your Christian walk, there's those times on

there where you kind of experience that forgiveness and that grace of God, again

in your life that's just so freeing and releasing and changes everything.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

It feels like it's, uh, you know, it's like a, it's a real moment of, of, uh,

Jesus kind of empowering Peter and sending him out and, and like John said, giving

Peter the chance to confess his love.

Mm-hmm.

, um, for Jesus.

There, there's like, there's another part of the, uh, passage though,

which, um, I read the other day cause we've been going through the.

Uh, in our church, we have been walking through John's Gospel, uh,

with daily devotional readings.

And, um, there's a bit where, uh, after the conversation with Peter and Jesus, it

then, um, refers to John and, and it, it's almost like Peter gets kind of slightly

distracted by maybe what Jesus is speaking into John's life and calling mm-hmm.

you know, and, and Jesus kind of says, don't worry about that.

Um, you know, you have, you have your own calling and, and John has his own,

and I thought that's also like a, just an interesting, um, thing of even when

we get a sense of how God is speaking into our lives and that direction he

is calling us into and, you know, the career or job or places he might bring us

into, it's so easy for us to get quickly.

Distracted by what other people are doing or what God's doing through

other people and, and feeling like we need to be getting pulled into

that, you know, but, um, remaining centered and focused on actually what

the Holy Spirit has spoken to us.

And um, yeah, I just thought that was an interesting element of the story as well.

Cause it's almost, it's almost written as a side in the passage, you know?

Um,

yeah, I think that's a really good point.

It's, it's like everyone has their own calling and like, even amongst those early

disciples, like it wasn't like their walk of faith wasn't all the same, was it?

Like Jesus said and gave them what they needed to hear and different things and

you know, they were all sent out, but they weren't, yeah, it wasn't like, Yeah, they

needed to worry about comparing themselves against one another, but it was like,

you just do what I'm calling you to do.

And I love that.

Like right from the start, it was like Jesus really treated them

as like individuals, didn't he?

And um, and I love the fact that it, he did send them all out and they

did all have something to go and do.

And um, yeah, yeah, there was just like a real sense of like, this is what, you

know, this is where I'm calling you.

And they were like scattered out at that point.

They weren't kind of, didn't just kind of keep it to themselves, but

they kind of, you know, couldn't not share it at that point.

It was, it was very sort of natural response to having that

encounter with Jesus as it were.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

I've got a question for you.

So yeah, in response to how John kind of finished his talk.

So he, um, kind of was giving us an opportunity to, I guess reflect on

our love for Jesus and, um, and having, having a heart response towards that.

Um, obviously you've been a Christian quite a long time.

But I was wondering..

You saying I'm old, John?

No.

Well, no, I've just heard your testimony.

No, it's true.

I have, I've been a Christian, I've been around Christianity my whole life.

It's true.

Yeah.

I guess, oh, and me the same really?

Um, I was thinking, you know, like what point would you say you like loved Jesus

and would you have connected that to at the same point, you know, where you

maybe committed your life to Jesus.

Yeah.

Does that make.

Yeah, that's a really interesting question actually.

And I think, yeah, I, I can actually see that in my life.

Like, I would say I was, grew up around, I like grew up, I was a pastor's kid,

so I, I've been in church since like day dot and, um, Yeah, so always, you

know, throughout my teens and stuff, always went to church with my parents,

but I think it was becoming a student.

Um, thanks Matt.

He's saying I'm as ancient as Matt Edmundson.

Not that old everyone.

I really dug myself a hole there.

I'm so sorry.

But yeah, for me, like it was kind of going to university and becoming an

adult, I guess, like leaving school, leaving home, and the Christian

family I growing up in, I actually.

and coming to Liverpool as a student, that was what actually was the point at

which it was like crunch times for me.

Like, I have to decide if I want to follow Jesus now myself, and

if I'm gonna continue to follow him now I don't have to, or you

know, I'm not, it's not expected.

No one's gonna be checking up and see if I go to church or

do all, all of these things.

So for me, I guess at that point it was kind of, um, Do I want to follow Jesus

and do I really love him or just do it cause I'm expected to do it by my parents.

And I guess I, that was a real season of journey of discovery, of like putting

my faith to the test, really kind of finding Jesus for myself and I guess, As

I sought him and I read the Bible and I kind of, yeah, looked for him for myself.

I really found him.

And so yeah, I think that period of, in that age, I really remember that kind

of being my faith growing into itself and kind of, I guess that was the season

of falling in love with Jesus, it being more than just head knowledge, but

really becoming like heart knowledge for the first time where actually.

I think it was falling in love with Jesus rather than just knowing about

Jesus, which I have done my whole life.

So yeah, that actually quite resonates with me.

And then obviously like finding that passion and that love for Jesus for

the first time for myself, um, rather than sort of just knowing about him

and living off my parents' faith as I probably did when I was younger.

Um, yeah, that totally motivated me to.

It, it motivated me in terms of the way I loved others and the way I got involved

in church and different ministries through church that I look, you know, reached

out to other people, perhaps broken and vulnerable, whether that's like street sex

workers or homeless people or kids, you know, from parts of the city or whatever.

It was, different projects that I've been involved in over the years, but I

think all of that comes out of a love.

Yeah.

That love of like experiencing Jesus for yourself.

So yeah, I, I think that's a good point.

I, I really resonate with that.

Do you, like, do you have a similar experience or,

yeah, I think probably it's quite similar in some senses.

I, I've been thinking a little bit about like, um, how John's gospel in general

talks about love and that, that like, I guess sort of just like, what does

it mean when it's talking about love?

Like, um, and, and the thing I've just been seeing a lot more of the

connection between like sacrifice and love whenever it is sort of

talked about in, in the gospel.

Like, like for example, you know, this like the John three 16 passage.

Um, God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

Um, you know, there's that clear connection between God loved us so

much that he's willing to give up the thing that he loves the most, you know?

Um, and, um, yeah, and I, I think in lots of other places in the book

you, you can see that, um, yeah.

So I guess I was, I was thinking like, at what point in my life did I realize.

Like you were saying, this isn't just something I was following,

but it was something I was actually willing to give something up for in

order to follow, if that makes sense.

Yeah.

Um, so, which for me was, was probably, um, was probably like round

round six, six form kind of time, like 17, 18 when I was starting to.

Question my faith a lot more.

And also just starting to see what, what the other options were, you know?

And, um, um, but actually realizing, actually I'm, I'm very willing to

give up all of those other options because I've realized that like, I

think this is the best one, , you know?

Um, and I, I think this is what brings me the most joy.

Mm..

Yeah.

So, yeah, that's, that was probably sort of it for me, but just, um,

yeah.

And it's, it sort of brings conversation full circle, doesn't it?

Cause you say like, it, it, you know, what else sort of gave you, you know,

when you look at all the options and different ways you could live your life,

like what else would bring you that joy?

And I'd kind of say similar, but it's like, what else could give you

that kind of hope for the future?

Yeah.

And a hope for present.

Like, yeah.

I dunno.

Through Good times and bad.

I just don't see anywhere else, um, that you could go, that would give you that

hope that not only is hope for here and now today, but also a hope for others.

And a hope that goes beyond the grave.

Like I just, I don't know of another.

and anything else that that offers that hope that, like,

lasts forever beyond the grave.

And yeah.

You know, that for me, that's, I dunno, I, I don't see anything

else that promises that.

And um, yeah.

So it kind of takes us full circle to what we're saying really

at the beginning, doesn't it?

That that's this whole message.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, yeah.

Yeah.

Actually it reminded me a little bit of, um, verse in 1 Peter.

One.

One Peter one.

Yeah.

The eight.

And it, it was, it was kind of just that, um, when John was sort of

talking about the response at the end of the talk about, um, yeah.

Of, of acknowledging a love for Jesus.

And you know, it says though you have not seen him, you love him,

though you do not now see him.

You believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible

and filled with glory.

Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls, um, which is kind

of just like, it's that, that hope mm-hmm.

and that joy, uh, that we're talking about.

Yeah.

Which is our salvation in Jesus.

Um, yeah.

Yeah.

I love that first.

That's, that's great.

Yeah, I think that's a pretty good point on which to finish, isn't it?

I think we're kinda coming to the end of this.

Um, yeah, I think that pretty much sums it up.

I can't, I can't think of a better way to end that really.

So Yeah.

Sums up the whole thing pretty much, but, um, great.

Yeah.

Before we finish though, do you, do you wanna tell us what

we've got happening next week?

Yes.

So next week we.

Uh, John harding and

interesting.

Uh, we got John Harding and Matt back for, um, uh, they're gonna be talking

about finding peace in difficult times.

Brilliant.

Think so.

Um, so it's gonna be Matt speaking, I believe.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which should be great.

I think Matt said.

In somewhere in the chat, but it's the Christmas special next week,

so it's official Christmas, um, service live stream next week.

So yeah, that'll be well worth checking in on if you are around next week.

That should be a good one, everyone.

Absolutely.

So yeah, Christmas jumpers will be imperative for that one.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Um, perhaps we even wanna see them like post in the chat

box if, if we can do that.

I dunno.

A good idea.

But I, I think we should see that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Love that.

There's a comment down there.

It says, plug Christmas service.

Yep.

We've just done that next week, John and Matt Edmundson talking about

finding peace in difficult times.

Wear your Christmas jumpers, Matt says.

Yep.

So please do everyone.

That should be good fun, and there'll be a new Carol next week as well.

So lots to, lots to, uh, checkout next week.

Exciting times.

Brilliant.

Well, everyone, thank you so much for joining us here tonight on Crowd Church.

Don't forget that we're around throughout the week.

You can look us up at any point at Crowd.Church.

Send us a message, reach out to us on email, text us any of those

ways, how you can contact us.

Is all gonna come up on the screen at the end and also is, um, yeah.

There's more information about how you can connect with us

at our website, Crowd.Church.

There you go.

It's just popped up.

Um, but yeah, please do reach out if you want us to pray for anything.

If you've got anything going on, if you just need someone to talk to this

week, if you've got more questions you wanna discuss, then please.

Um, yeah, just reach out to one of our team.

But I think other than that, got anything, any final comments to add, John?

Um, no, I don't think so.

Enjoy your sunday evenings.

Thanks for joining us tonight, everyone.

Take care.

Cool.