Highfields Baptist Church

31/08/2026

“Letting God Change Me”
Rev J Winkley

You may have heard of Nick Vujicic. There are many things that happen in life that Nick did not have to deal with. He has never had a sore arm or any problems with his knees. He has never jammed his finger in a door or kicked his toe or hurt his shin on a table leg. He sounds like a person who has everything going for him but just think for a moment. Nick doesn’t have a shin or a toe, or a finger, or a knee, or even an arm. Nick was born with no arms or legs.

We cannot imagine what that would be like. But listen to his words. “God won’t let anything happen to us in our life unless He has a good purpose for it all. I completely gave my life to Jesus Christ at the age of 15 after reading John chapter 9. Jesus said that the reason the man was born blind was “so that the works of God may be revealed through him”. Nick now travels the world to spread the gospel and love of Jesus. Nick says, “If I can trust God with my circumstances, then you can trust God with your circumstances”. What a testimony Nick has.

The challenge for us is to allow God to change us in whatever circumstances we are in. Nick could have been bitter, but he chose Jesus Christ to change his life and use him in ways he never thought possible. Are you open to God to allow Him to change your life? Maybe so that He can use you in ways you never thought possible.

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26/08/2026

“Overcoming Defeat In My Life” – Romans 8:28-39
Rev J Winkley

Our moods can affect many people around us, even our family or friends. If we are grumpy or angry, then people will avoid us. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are people who should attract people, who enjoy our company. They should see the joy in us that Jesus gives to us.

Paul tells us to do everything without complaining or arguing, so that we can be blameless and pure, children of God without fault so that “we can shine like stars in the universe”. God wants us to be joyful in our hearts so that we can overcome our defeats that keep coming up in our lives. May we be open to God speaking to us, may we respond to His challenge, and be joyful in our Christian walk.

16/08/2026

“The King We Want and the King We Need”
John 12:12-19

As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the crowd welcomes him with palm branches, shouts of “Hosanna”, and the declaration, “The King of Israel”. They are not wrong, because Jesus really is the King, and He really has come to save. But the crowd’s expectations of what that kingship will look like are far different to what Jesus has in mind.

They are living under Roman occupation, and the Passover festival that celebrates God’s deliverance of his people from oppression is approaching. There are many in the crowd that may have hoped that Jesus would be the king who would finally defeat Rome and restore Israel. But Jesus has come to do something far greater.

Jesus does not reject the title “King”. Instead, by riding into Jerusalem on a young donkey, he deliberately identifies himself with the King promised in Zechariah 9; a King who brings salvation, peace, and a kingdom that reaches to the ends of the earth.

The crowd can see the symptoms of a world broken by sin, Rome. But Jesus sees a deeper enemy, the root of the problem. He has come to deal with sin, death, judgment, and our alienation from God. He has come to reconcile us to God and establish a kingdom that will outlast every earthly power, every tragedy, every disease, and every grave.

That raises an important question for us. What kind of King do we most want Jesus to be? It is right to pray for healing, restored relationships, financial provision, open doors, and relief from pain. But if those things become the whole of what we want from Jesus, then we too are also focusing on the symptom, rather than our deeper problem.

We live on this side of the cross and resurrection. We know what the disciples did not yet understand, and we know how Jesus won his victory. And yet what we know does not always shape the way we live. We are reminded that Jesus is King, and we need to be willing to let Scripture define what kind of King he is.

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10/08/2026

“What Is Jesus Worth?” – John 12:1-11

We often reveal what something is worth to us by what we are willing to give for it.

In John 12, Mary and Judas are in the same room. They see the same Jesus and the same jar of oil, yet they respond in completely different ways. Mary sees someone worthy of everything. Judas sees money slipping through his fingers, and their responses reveal what is happening within their hearts.

Only a short time earlier, Jesus had called Lazarus out of the grave. Now Lazarus is sitting at the table, eating with the One who raised him from the dead. In the middle of the meal, Mary takes an extremely valuable jar of perfumed oil, pours it upon Jesus, and wipes His feet with her hair. The perfume may have been worth close to a full year’s wages, yet Mary pours it out without holding anything back.

Her act is costly, humble, and unashamed. She honours Jesus as King, even as Jesus prepares to lay down His life upon the cross. Yet Judas objects. His words sound responsible and compassionate: could the perfume not have been sold and the money given to the poor? John tells us that Judas did not truly care about the poor. He was a thief who helped himself to the disciples’ money box.

Judas warns us that it is possible to remain close to Jesus while still serving ourselves. He travelled with Jesus, heard His teaching, witnessed His miracles, and held a trusted position among the disciples. Yet proximity to Jesus was not the same as faith in Jesus.

This passage calls us to examine more than our outward actions. What do our money, time, ambitions, priorities, and attitudes reveal about what Jesus is worth to us? Are our words about worship, generosity and compassion matched by the way we actually live?

The message is not simply that we should try harder to become more like Mary and less like Judas. Before we consider what we might give to Jesus, we must see what Jesus has given for us.

Mary poured out something worth nearly a year’s wages. Jesus was preparing to pour out His own life for sinners. We are not saved by the costliness of what we offer Him, but by the costliness of what He offered to us.

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03/08/2026

“When God Reveals His Glory, People Reveal Their gods”
John 11:38-57

What would it take for someone to believe in Jesus? We might imagine that an undeniable miracle would settle the matter. Surely, if people saw a man who had been dead for four days walk out of his tomb, everyone would respond with faith.

But John 11 shows us something more searching. When Jesus reveals the glory of God, people do not all respond in the same way. Some see what He has done and believe in Him. Others recognise the signs but resist Him because trusting Jesus threatens the things they most want to protect.

At Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus confronts the terrible reality of death. He does not minimise grief or pretend that death is natural and harmless. He groans before the tomb and then commands Lazarus to come out. There is no struggle and no elaborate ritual. The dead mans hears the voice of the Son of God and lives.

This sign reveals the glory of Jesus. He is the One sent by the Father, the resurrection and the life, and the One whose voice has authority even over death. Yet the same glory that gives life also exposes hearts. The religious leaders do not deny that Jesus is performing signs. Their concern is what belief in Him might cost them. They fear losing their place, their security, their influence, and their control. Their response raises an uncomfortable question for every one of us: what are we most afraid of losing if we obey Jesus fully?

The passage then gives us a remarkable picture of God’s sovereignty. Caiaphas argues that Jesus should die so the nation can be preserved. He means that Jesus should be removed so the leaders can save themselves. But God gives his words a deeper meaning: Jesus will die to save and gather God’s people. The leaders think they are controlling events, yet their opposition advances God’s saving purpose through the cross.

As we hear this passage, we should ask two questions: What does the glory of Jesus reveal about Him? And, what does the glory of Jesus reveal about us?

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29/07/2026

Ephesians 3:14-21 – Myles Waldron

Paul pauses after explaining the great saving work of God in Christ and shares his prayer to the Ephesian church. He has already spoken of God’s grace, our adoption in Christ, the unity of Jews and Gentiles in one new people, and the access believers now have to God through Jesus. “For this reason”, Paul prays.

His prayer is not merely that Christians would know, in a general sense, that God loves them. He prays that believers would be strengthened with might through the Holy Spirit in the inner person, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they would be rooted and grounded in love. He longs for them, together with all the saints, to grasp something of the width, length, depth, and height of Christ’s love, even though that love surpasses complete human understanding.

This is a prayer we need for ourselves and for one another. We can know the truths of the gospel without fully appreciating their wonder. We can speak about Christ’s love while living discouraged, distracted, or spiritually weak. Paul reminds us that we need the Spirit of God to strengthen us so that the truth of Christ’s love takes deep root in our hearts and shapes the way we live.

The passage then rises into worship. The God who strengthens His people is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. There, He deserves glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout every generation.

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29/07/2026

"The Resurrection and the Life"
John 11:17-37

Some of the hardest questions we ask in times of suffering are not, “Could Jesus have done something?” but, “Why did Jesus not do something?”

In John 11, Martha and Mary both believe Jesus could have prevented the death of their brother, Lazarus. Their confusion is not about his power, but about his absence. Both sisters say the same thing: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. Humanly speaking, the situation is beyond recovery and death appears to have settled the matter.

This passage does not give us a simple explanation for every painful experience. Instead, it directs us to the person we need in the presence of death. Jesus meets Martha in her questions. She does not understand why he has allowed this loss, but she still comes to him. Jesus then redirects her attention from resurrection as a future event to resurrection as something found in himself: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Jesus does not merely promise resurrection, He is its source. He does not promise that believers will avoid physical death, but he does promise that death will never have the final word over those who belong to him.

Jesus also calls Mary to himself. She comes with fewer words, but she falls at his feet and brings him her grief and tears. Her response reminds us that faith is not always expressed through confident explanations. Sometimes faith simply comes to Jesus and weeps. Then, in one of the most moving scenes in Scripture, Jesus himself weeps. He knows what he is about to do, He knows Lazarus will soon walk out of the tomb. Yet he is not cold, distant or untouched by sorrow. He is deeply troubled by the devastation of death, and he enters the grief of those who mourn.

We will see that because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, those who believe in him can grieve honestly without surrendering hope. We may bring him our questions, and our tears. And we may trust that, for those who belong to Jesus, death will never have the final word.

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13/07/2026

"Not Unto Death: When Jesus Delays"
John 11:1-16

You may have experienced praying with all your heart, believing God could act, only to be met with silence. Many of you have watched someone you love suffer, and you have wondered why Jesus doesn’t seem to show up.

We look at one of Scripture’s most challenging passages. A family Jesus loves sends an urgent message: “The one you love is sick”. The natural response? Rush to help. But Jesus does something that seems almost unthinkable. He stays away for two more days.

The delay doesn’t mean He doesn’t care, but it means He has something greater in mind. Some of us are living in that “two-day delay” right now. Others may be looking back at it. You have sent up your desperate prayers but God feels silent. These kinds of experiences can leave us confused, maybe even hurt, wondering if God has forgotten us.

This passage of scripture gives us a window into seeing that Jesus is not indifferent, but He is working on a different timetable. He sees what we cannot see. He is concerned with our immediate pain and sorrow, but He also sees through an eternal lens. This life isn’t all that there is.

This passage also reminds us that our life is not really about us, it’s about Him. God uses all things to reveal His glory and deepen our faith in ways that could never happen if He always came running at our first call. This story is about trusting a God whose delays have a purpose, whose silence is not indifference, and whose power over death changes everything.

05/07/2026

“When the Judges are Judged” – John 10:31-42

How do you decide whether to trust someone? Maybe it’s one bad review, one careless comment, one thing that didn’t sit right, and you write them off. Or maybe you’re the opposite: you research everything, overthink, and still can’t land on an answer.

In John 10, Jesus stands before the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, and in a sense, He’s on trial. They’ve heard His words, especially His claim that He and the Father are one, and they’re ready to stone Him for blasphemy. But the problem is they’re judging Him by His words alone, while conveniently ignoring the many good works He’s done among them.

Jesus won’t let that stand. He points them back to Scripture, and then to His works, showing that His claim isn’t blasphemy; it’s the truth. In doing so, He exposes something that His enraged accusers completely missed. They think they’re sitting in judgment over Him, but they are the ones being judged.

We will walk through:
• The faulty verdict – how selective evidence leads to wrong conclusions.
• The correction – how Jesus models the right order of judgment: Scripture first, then works.
• The contrasted response – pride that hardens into rejection, and honesty that leads to faith.

Along the way, we ask ourselves: Do we judge Jesus fairly, weighing the whole case? Do our own works bear witness to the words we claim to believe? And when His promises feel hard to trust, do we remember what He has already done. This passage is ultimately not just about how the Jews or us, judge Jesus – it’s about how He will one day judge us. But before that day comes, we’re reminded of His patience and grace, still extended, and still open.

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22/06/2026

“Can the Sheep be Lost?” - John 10:28-30

We looked at the question, 'Who are the sheep?' Jesus answered it plainly: his sheep hear his voice and follow him. Not as a one-time event, but as an ongoing relationship. That may have raised a question: If the sheep are defined by ongoing hearing and following, then what do we do with what Jesus says next?
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone sn**ch them out of My hand."

Doesn't that settle it? Doesn't that mean that once you're in, you're permanently in, regardless of what happens next? For centuries Christians debated texts like these, and regardless of how they understand it they have all read those words and drawn enormous comfort from them. This is one of the most comforting promises Jesus ever gave.

But what exactly is being promised? Read those words carefully; carefully enough to feel their full weight, and to see precisely what they guarantee. We will look at what kind of threat Jesus is addressing. We will ask who the "they" of verse 28 refers to. And we will hold this passage alongside the other great security texts of the New Testament, to see how they fit together with the warning passages.

The goal is not to make you anxious. The goal is the opposite. John wrote his first letter so that believers could know they have eternal life, not hope nervously, but know. Genuine assurance is available and God wants you to have it, both the comfort and the call.

Hear Jesus say: "No one can sn**ch you from my hand". But also hear the warning that his sheep must abide in him. Both are true. Both are for you.

Blessings
Highfields Baptist Church

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