The Jesus Story

The Focus of our Aspirations and Our Worship

The person at the very centre of our aspirations and our worship is Jesus the Christ; for he is the very foundation of Christianity.

In days gone by, it was fairly safe to assume that nearly everyone in society had at least some knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth, of his history and his teaching as presented in the Gospels and of the part he played in the salvation that God had prepared for his people. But this is no longer true; and Britain is now often described as "post-Christian". So, for the benefit of anybody wanting to know a bit more about Jesus, we present this page in our website.

Jesus was born in an obscure town in Palestine called Bethlehem, about 2000 years ago. During his first thirty years he shared the daily life and work of an ordinary home. For the next three years he went about teaching people about God and healing sick people by the shores of Lake Galilee. He called twelve ordinary men to be his helpers.

He had no money. He wrote no books. He commanded no army. He wielded no political power. During his life he never travelled more than two hundred miles in any direction. He was executed by being nailed to a cross at the age of 33.

Today nearly two billion people throughout the world worship Jesus as divine - the Son of God. Their experience has convinced them that in the wonders of nature we see God as our loving Father; in the person of Jesus we discover God as Son; and in our daily lives we encounter this same God as Spirit. Jesus is our way in to finding God: we learn about Jesus by reading the Bible, particularly the New Testament and we meet him directly in our spiritual experience.

Jesus taught us to trust in a loving and merciful Father and to pray to him in faith for all our needs. He taught that we are all infinitely precious, children of one heavenly Father, and that we should therefore treat one another with love, respect and forgiveness. He lived out what he taught by caring for those he met; by healing the sick - a sign of God's love at work; and by forgiving those who put him to death.

Jesus' actions alone would not have led him to a criminal's death on the cross: but his teaching challenged the religious and moral beliefs of his day. Jesus claimed to be the only way to reach God. Above all, he pointed to his death as God's appointed means of bringing us self-centred people back to God. Jesus also foretold that he would he raised to life again three days after his death. When three days after he had died on the cross his followers did indeed meet him alive again, frightened and defeated men became fearless and joyful messengers.

Their message of the good news about Jesus is the direct reason why this church exists. More important, it is the reason why all over the world there are Christians who know what it means to meet the living Jesus, and who believe that he alone has the key to human life.

We hope that this brief account of Jesus will be of help to you.