In our bible discussion group here a couple of years ago, someone asked, ‘I wonder what Jesus prayed when he prayed?’ Well today, it’s all Jesus at prayer.

Every year on this seventh Sunday of Easter, which is the last Sunday of Easter before Pentecost, our gospel reading is taken from this very famous prayer in John 17.

It is part of a beautiful, inspiring prayer offered by Jesus for his disciples, and for all “those who will believe in [him] through their word” (John 17:20). Which, of course, is us.

Today’s gospel reading is the completion of the passage we started last week where Jesus describes himself as the True Vine, and if we abide in him he will abide in us to bear fruit to the glory of the Father.

There are many sermons in this passage! But today we are focussing on one particular verse which changes everything.

In today’s reading, Jesus says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last (v.16). That is, Jesus specifically chose you. You.

This week we continue to look at the deep fullness of life we can enter into as God’s children. Through Jesus’ own death and resurrection, we die to the world and ourselves and are born from above into a new and pure heart, and the pure in heart shall see God.

Last week we introduced thisme of abundance through one of the seven great I AM sayings of Jesus. I am the Good Shepherd, and we saw that through Jesus’ careful and consta tnt shepherding of us we ourselves become good shepherds.

Today Jesus uses a different name for himself as a way to describe how actively our Lord’s salvation works in us to make us holy and pure. Holy and pure enough, in the sufficiency of Christ, to bear fruit for the Lord.

The 4th Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday, so we always read the 23rd Psalm and John chap.10 with Jesus’ naming of himself as the Good Shepherd.

Often we look at this image of Jesus as the good shepherd through the timeless beauty of the 23rd Psalm, but today we are going to look at it from a different angle, I hope, which John reveals in the verse immediately before the start of our passage.

So with v.10, our gospel begins: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:10-11).

Today we bring to mind all we learnt over the Good Friday and Easter and as true resurrection people we consider what role the children of God have in creating this abundant life brought about through the good shepherd, Jesus.

This morning, the themes we have been speaking about since well before Easter come together in a unique sort of way in today’s second reading from John’s letter to the Church, that we started looking at last week.

That if we wish to ‘see’ Jesus, we need to look upon the cross of Christ as the flashpoint of the light of the world.

And God who is light and in whom there is no darkness, overcomes the darkness of our sin and we, like Jesus, are born into the light of eternal life with a new name; the Children of God.

On Easter day we celebrated the inauguration or birth of the Kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven. It is also called the Kingdom of Light.

We again are looking at John, but not the gospel this morning, but his first letter to the Church, and only three verses of it.

Now we’ve often spoken of how John uses great ‘opposites’ to show the utter holiness of God. Good and evil, belief and non-belief, but his most common is, I think, light and dark, night and day.

This is because this light that John writes about, is not just a metaphor, but a spiritual reality. Jesus really is the light of the world.

Two days ago, on Good Friday, we asked ourselves the central question: What does it mean when we say that Jesus died for us on the cross?  We talked about how Jesus took God’s justice fully onto himself because he was the only one who could, and through his blood shed for us, we can be one with the Father in the same way Jesus is one with the Father, through faith in the same Jesus Christ.  Today let’s move on to part two of this same central question.

When Jesus died the world became a different place.  The first sign of this totally different world is what we are celebrating today.  In this new world, Jesus was raised from the dead.  Nothing short of a revolution had begun.  It wasn’t just a surprising and happy ending to what we thought was a tragedy.  It was the beginning of a new sort of life, a new way of living.  This beginning meant that what we thought was the darkest, most inevitable power in the world, death, had been defeated.

What does it mean when we say that Jesus died for us, for me, on the cross?

John's Passion account is its own sermon, extending from betrayal at a place across the valley, Gethsemane, to devotion at the foot of the cross; from Peter's three-fold denial to Pilate's three-fold acquittal.

From the many who call for Jesus' crucifixion to the two who remove him from the cross; from those who bind him by force at his arrest, to those who bind him in love at his burial; from the beginning of the end in one garden to the end of the beginning in another.

Our journey this Lent started with Jesus’ temptation and the very beginning of his ministry. Today we arrive at the beginning of the end of his earthly ministry, with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

This Lent we have been looking at our new name, our new identity as Children of God, and what it means to believe in this Jesus whom God gave because of his great love for us.

Now the gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke of today’s reading from Mark essentially tell the same story, but differ slightly in their emphases. The context is that Jesus, who has been making his way to Jerusalem for around half the gospel, has now arrived.

This morning we focus on this volatile character called “the crowd,” and what they were singing.

This morning we look at today’s Gospel (John 12:20-33) as sort of part two of last week’s talk from John chap. 3 and the magnificent v.16

Its theme follows on from last week’s sermon; what does it mean that Jesus is exalted, or ‘raised up,’ and what does it mean to be a true disciple of Jesus.

In our identity as Children of God, what does it mean to believe.

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the great movement of God, from creation on, to draw to people to himself. A people whose whole identity is anchored in their name - the children of God.

John 3:16 is probably the most famous verse in the bible. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.’  And it is magnificent, but needs to be read in context (like all scripture!).

This morning we are looking in a bit more detail at one of the most well-known passages in the Old Testament, the ten commandments given to Moses on Mt Sinai. These used to be said not just in Lent, but each week and are in 1st order of Holy Communion (p.101, APBA).

They could be read as the Old Testament version of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  The way to live in perfect harmony with God, God’s creation, and each other.

This week’s gospel can, I think, be seen as a sort of summary of what we spoke about in last week’s gospel from Mark.

The time of the Kingdom of God is fulfilled in Jesus, and all things are stripped from us except Christ and the life we have in him. Today, Jesus tells us how this happens.

Welcome to Lent dear friends, and today we will look at Jesus’ very first words, or command, to the disciples as recorded in today’s gospel from Mark and what that means for these newly called disciples and us.

Early in January we looked in detail at Jesus’s baptism. Mark then records Jesus’ Temptation with breathtaking brevity, but we’ll examine the Temptation of Jesus at another time, as it needs its own story. Today we are focussing on just two verses, vv.14-15.

Today is the last Sunday after Epiphany, where we celebrate that Jesus came as a light to all the world, not just the Jews. In whose face (as Paul tells us in today’s magnificent NT reading) is the very light of the knowledge of the glory of God!

Today Mark’s gospel shows us exactly who this Jesus of Nazareth is. He is the Christ, the Son of God.

I think today’s gospel shows the level of expectation placed on Jesus from the very beginning, by people (just like us, incidentally) who had made assumptions about who Jesus was and the way he went about his Father’s business. 

These expectations are not in themselves bad, but an indication of just how easy it is to try and ‘domesticate’ or ‘organise’ Jesus.

Today in this wonderful season of Epiphany, the great and complete revelation of God in Christ Jesus, we look at an aspect of Jesus’ teaching and healing that is fundamental to our lives as his disciples and children of the living God; that he has the full authority of God himself.

We have thought about Jesus as a child to be adored, a God to be worshipped, a Saviour to be followed, and a Lord to be obeyed. Today, we are thinking about Jesus as a healer and teacher with authority, to be trusted.

In the season of Epiphany, we celebrate that Jesus comes as a light to the nations, the revelation that Jesus is Lord of all the earth, of both Jews and gentiles.

So what could today’s remarkable and difficult little passage from Paul possibly have to do with that?

Today’s wonderful gospel reading, unique to John. The calling of Philip and Nathanael is that we are all called to be disciples, so this passage in particular deserves a closer look because it is the most detailed story we have of Jesus calling his disciples.

A disciple is a follower of and an adherent (stick like glue) to the teachings of Jesus, so we look at the passage thinking about what it means to follow Jesus.

Today is an excellent time to bring to mind how important the baptism of our Lord is in our own lives as baptised children of God.

So it is important to celebrate and remember our baptisms today and recognise that our own baptisms are located back into the very baptism of Jesus Christ himself in the River Jordan, which we heard Mark’s brief account of this morning.