Enjoying Jesus
What if it is possible to enjoy Jesus?
We know Jesus has saved us. We know we need to trust him. But too often there’s little sense of a lived experience of him—of enjoying him and being a joy to him, of loving him and being loved by him, of interacting with him as we walk through each day. I am praying that our summer preaching series will change all that for you.
Inspired by Tim Chester’s book, Enjoying Jesus, we are going to explore how Jesus acted and interacted with people, and how, through his Spirit, we can experience the joy of Jesus’ presence and companionship in our day-to-day lives. For the Jesus we see in the pages of the Bible is the Jesus who is for us even today - we read in Hebrews 13:8 that “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Reflecting on this in the book, Chester says,
“The love of Jesus for his people doesn’t fluctuate like the weather. It wasn’t diminished by his birth as a human being nor by his ascension into glory. So, as we think about what it means to enjoy a living relationship with Jesus now, when he is in heaven, we can begin by thinking about what it was like to enjoy our relationship with Jesus when he was on earth. What we see in the gospel is a reliable indicator of what Jesus is like now.”
While there might be some nuance to how we might express that throughout the series, Chester neither comes at this with over-realised eschatology or an under-realised understanding of a true spiritual connection with Jesus. Rather, he says, “We are saved by Jesus into a two way relationship with Jesus.”
I am praying that you will come away from church every week thinking, “Jesus is more amazing than I knew, he is alive and at work for me and in me and through me.”
We are going to consider:
Enjoying the Presence of Jesus (29 December)
Enjoying the Compassion of Jesus (5 January)
Enjoying the Voice of Jesus (12 January)
Enjoying the Anger of Jesus (19 January)
Enjoying the Advocacy of Jesus (26 January)
No doubt the one that surprises you in that list is Enjoying the Anger of Jesus. So, let me give you a little spoiler by again quoting from Tim Chester:
“What makes Jesus angry is his love for people. Imagine a person who never got angry. They would look at injustice and feel nothing. That’s not a sign of virtue, but of callous indifference. Jesus is full of love and when love sees injustice it expresses itself in rage. His compassion is his sympathy with those who suffer; his anger is his opposition towards those who create that suffering.”
It promises to be a great series. One you could invite a friend to. One that will help us engage more fully with Jesus in 2025. If you miss one, you can always catch it afterwards on YouTube. So, let’s have a great summer together, learning how we might enjoy Jesus more and more.
