St Andrews Church

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. This sermon given our reader Julie Taylor on The third Sunday of Lent on the 26/3/23 entitled ‘Jesus Raises Lazarus’

Download Mp3 HERE!

Sermon starts at 3:04

John 11 v 1-45

Jesus had been informed that one of his most beloved friends, Lazarus, was gravely ill. But he insisted that this illness would not lead to death, but would be used by God as a witness to the Son of God.

But word came to Jesus that Lazarus had died and all were saddened by the news. Jesus insisted that this was the time to go to the home of Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus.

Before Jesus arrived, Martha got word that he was on his way, and she hurried out to meet him.

Martha said “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”

Jesus said *Your brother will rise again.”

“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

And having said this, Martha returned home to tell Mary that she had spoken with Jesus, who was on his way to see them. Mary got up quickly and ran out of the house to see Jesus.

Mary said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus asked, “Where have you laid him?”

She said “Lord, come and see.”

They led Jesus to the tomb in which Lazarus had been laid. All those who followed Mary and Jesus were amazed and moved by his love for his friend Lazarus.

When they arrived at the cave, Jesus gave them instruction: “Take away the stone.”

Martha said: “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.”

Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

And so they rolled the stone away.

Jesus said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me. Lazarus, come out!”

And Lazarus came out, his hands and feet bound with the strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth.

Jesus said “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Many of the people who had come with Mary and Martha to the tomb had seen what had happened and they believed in Jesus.

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. This sermon given our reader Julie Taylor on The third Sunday of Lent on the 12/3/23 entitled ‘A Samaritan’s Witness

Download Mp3 HERE!

Sermon starts at 3:54

John 4 v 5-27

5 So [Jesus] came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’

8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’

11 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’

13 Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’

15 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’

16 He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’

17 ‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband.

18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’

19 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet.

20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’

21 ‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’

25 The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’

26 Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you – I am he.’

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’


John 4 v 28-30; 39-42

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,

29 ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’

30 They came out of the town and made their way towards him.

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I’ve ever done.’

40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.

41 And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’

Sermon from St Andrews Church, Slip End, UK. This sermon given our reader Julie Taylor on The third Sunday before Lent on the 26/2/23 entitled ‘Do Justice’.

Download Mp3 HERE!

Sermon starts at 2:35

Micah 6 v 1-8

The LORD’s case against Israel

1 Listen to what the LORD says: ‘Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.

2 ‘Hear, you mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.

3 ‘My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.

4 I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.

5 My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.’

6 With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.