Malachi 2:13-16: Divorce: Part Three
OUTLINE Children and divorce The heart and divorce Hatred and divorce INTRODUCTION We are in our third sermon looking at the matter of divorce. So far we have looked at the spiritual consequences for those who pursue divorce; what constitutes a marriage and last week we laid out an overview of the Bible’s teaching on divorce. We got as far as looking at Genesis to the teachings of Christ. I wanted to say one last word based on the teaching of 1 Corinthians 7 before we moved on with our exposition of Malachi 2:13-16. I feel that there is...
Read More
Luke 10:25-37: The Parable of the Good Samaritan
What do you think is the lesson of the parable of the Good Samaritan? The knee jerk response of most people is that the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us to love our neighbour. This certainly is part of the answer but not all of it. The context of the parable of the Good Samaritan is a conversation between Jesus and a lawyer about the way of salvation. The parable of the Good Samaritan has a double purpose: firstly, it was intended so who a man who thought he was saved by obeying God’s law to love that...
Read More
Christian Ethics: Cannabis & Euthanasia
Thanks to Joe Fleener from Rolleston Baptist Church for speaking to us this afternoon from Luke 10:25-37, on how we make ethical decisions as Christians. 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.”...
Read More
Ephesians 4:1-6: The Unity of the Body
We have reached the half way point in the letter to the Ephesians and Paul does a typical thing that happens in most of his writings. In chapters 1-3 he laid out the doctrine of the church, now in 4-6 he lays out the proper practice flowing from these truths. This pattern is gospel shaped, it starts with what God has done, and then focuses on what we should do. In technical terms we say that the imperative is rooted in the indicative. Our doing is only possible because of God’s doing. Paul begins the exhortational part of the...
Read More
Luke 6:27-36: Jesus Teaching on Love
One of the reasons why Christ has turned the world upside down is because of His teaching on love. Not only does Jesus teach a pure version of the OT teaching on love, to love God and our neighbour; not only is His teaching on the golden rule supreme and positive compared to all the other versions of it floating around in philosophy and religion; He introduced radical models of love, namely loving each other as He has loved us, and the command to love our enemies. In our portion of scripture today in Luke 6:27-36 Jesus outlines His...
Read More
Ephesians 1:15-23: Prayer for the Saints: Part One
What do you pray for other Christians? You might have found yourself in your quiet time and you pick up the church phonebook to pray through a page as part of your daily devotions. This is the third time you have gone through the book and the prayers are beginning to feel heartless and robotic. You aren’t really sure what to ask for. Should you ask for happiness, prosperity, good health, emotional wellbeing, peace? These are broad categories of well-wishing which are not informed by the gospel, what you want are prayer requests that are not what any uninformed...
Read More
Church Camp 2020 sermons: 1 Corinthians 13: Love
Thanks to Ian Goodman for preaching at the combined Reformed Baptist Camp 2020. Ian is the pastor of Wilson Street Baptist Church in Timaru. Sermons are available to download from the Rolleston Baptist website, via the following link: http://www.rollestonbaptist.org.nz/resources/sermons/?enmse=1&enmse_spid=21&enmse_mid=282
Read More
Hebrews 10:24-25: Regular Church Attendance
Thanks to Rene Kempf for preaching this afternoon as part of our series in the Disciplines of Grace. Hebrews 10:24-25 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Read More
A Christian Response to New Zealand’s Darkest Day
Introduction: Friday March 15th 2019 will go down in history as one of New Zealand’s darkest days, or as some are calling it, the day NZ lost her innocence. More people died in the Christchurch earthquakes but the hatred filled attack which killed 50 Muslim men, women and children is more personal. The trauma of the event is amplified by the fact that New Zealand has a well-earned reputation as being a safe haven; it has always been well insulated from the troubles of the rest of the world. There are a number of issues that are all bound...
Read More
Romans 16:5-16: Paul sends his love to the Church in Rome
Introduction: ‘I love Jesus but I don’t love the Church.’ How many times have we heard such a sentiment? It can come in many different flavours. There are those who have a high view of membership and a deep ecclesiology who love the idea of the ‘biblical church’ or the ‘healthy church’ but they are so taken with the ideal that they are critical and distance from the real flesh and blood church made up of sinners that they are in. It can come in the liberal and emergent flavour of disliking the church where on account of a...
Read More
Romans 15:5-7: A Prayer for Unity
Introduction: One of Christ’s desires for His church is unity, John 17:20-21, ‘”I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’ The Spiritual unity that Christ is asking of the Father here was given on the day the Spirit was poured out on Pentecost. Every Christian receives in the gospel a uniting with Christ...
Read More
Romans 15:1-3: True Spiritual Maturity
Introduction: What are the marks of true spiritual maturity? There are many who think themselves to be mature but who behave like children. Think of the Corinthian church. They thought that their maturity resided in the fact that they had the miraculous in their church and that they were well educated. But Paul calls them infants in Christ 1 Cor. 3:1. They were infants because they were full of divisions, they were full of sexual immorality, they were not serving one another with their spiritual gifts but using them in a war of one-upmanship. They were not considerate of...
Read More
Romans 14:13-16: How to never be a stumbling block
Introduction: What do these three situations have in common: a pastor uses his hunting rifle to kill an abortion doctor; an Evangelist walks into a mosque and shouts out that Islam is idolatry; the parents of a teenager who has announced himself gay lose their tempers and verbally assault him calling a pervert and other things? All three are right in a wrong way, all three have the truth but without love. Abortion is wrong, Islam is a false religion and homosexuality is a distortion of the way God made us, but we can be right in a wrong way. ...
Read More
Mark 12:28-31: Loving Man Without Loving God
INTRODUCTION: Today we are faced with many causes being promoted as social justice issues and human rights cases. Many thing today are being done in the name of loving mankind. Gender equality, with its attempt to consistently apply human rights to gender issues is an attempt to misdirected love, of love without law, of good without God. Abortion, Euthanasia, no spanking, no fault divorce, and many other things are done in the name of upholding a person’s human rights. It is done in the name of love. Christians will view these acts as sinful, as having their source in...
Read More
Romans 13:9-10 – Love Fulfils The Law
INTRODUCTION: To say that the Christian ethic is a law based ethic can give a false impression. Here is a typical example: ‘There is a tale told of a missionary in a dark corner of Africa where the men had a habit of filing their teeth to sharp points. He was hard at work trying to convert a native chief. Now the chief was very old, and the missionary was very Old Testament—his version of Christianity leaned heavily on thou-shalt-nots. The savage listened patiently. ‘I do not understand,’ he said at last. ‘You tell me that I must not...
Read More
Romans 12:19-21: Blessed are the Peacemakers: Part Four
No audio is available for this sermon. Introduction: Paul now draws his teaching on loving our enemies in this section to a close. Usually when we come to the end of a discussion on a thing we leave the important things, and summarising statements to the end. That is exactly what Paul does here in Romans 12:19-21, ‘Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him...
Read More