Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. Sermon given by our reader Julie Taylor on the 22/8/21. In the 12th Sunday after Trinity. This sermon is called ‘Response To Jesus’.
Sermon starts at 5:38
Download Mp3 HERE!
Joshua 24 (paraphrased)Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem.
Joshua said to all the people, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “Long ago your ancestors lived beyond the River Euphrates and worshipped other gods. But I took your father Abraham and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants.
I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.
‘“Then I sent Moses and Aaron and I brought you out. When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.
They cried LORD for help, and I brought the sea over the Egyptians. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.
‘“Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also a lot of other “ites”, but I gave them into your hands.
You did not do it with your own sword and bow. I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.”
‘Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped beyond the River Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.’ Then the people answered, ‘We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.’
Joshua said to the people, ‘If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.’
But the people said to Joshua, ‘No! We will serve the LORD.’
On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD.
‘See!’ he said to all the people. ‘This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.’
John 6: 56-69
56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.
57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.’
59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, ‘Does this offend you?
62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!
63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you – they are full of the Spirit and life.
64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.
65 He went on to say, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.’
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’
70 Then Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’
71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)