Sermon Archive


Vaccine Mandates and the Unity of the Church

(Apologies for the audio cutting off at the 43 minute mark. Please download the sermon manuscript if you want to read more.) On the 21st of October 2021 Jacinda Ardern announced that NZ will be moving away from the Alert Level system to the Traffic Light system. Some of the stated goals by the government are to update the countries response in light of a majority vaccinated population, and to limit lockdown situations to relevant areas and not make them country wide. Our message today is not going to focus on the political, medical or economic logic behind these...


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The Government and Covid-19

We have recently experienced something which none of us will have experienced in NZ, the government ordered churches not to gather for worship. Of course, they did not single out religious groups alone to be closed down, but for the first time that any of us have experienced in this context, we were forbidden to meet for worship. Questions arose in our minds about the rightness of this act, and these questions were multiplied as we hit the various alert levels, and especially as we were coming out of the stricter levels into those with more freedom. Questions like...


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Luke 2:8-21: The Good News of Christ’s Birth

One of the great public events, at least for those who still have a monarchy, is the first appearance of the crown prince, or royal baby. The picture of the couple and the baby makes the front cover of every news outlet, social commentators wax lyrical about whether the duchess wore a dress in the same style as Diana, and on and on it goes. The arrival of a new royal is a big deal and the world sits up and pays attention. Some even have a little shrine to the royal family in their homes, a central place...


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Luke 2:1-7: The Birth of Christ

When I say ‘Christmas’ what comes to mind? Santa Claus, stockings, reindeer, Christmas trees, gifts, food…. Most of our associations have to do with lights, and music and festivities, and large family gatherings with lots of gifts and food and a large expenditure of money, but not so at the first Christmas. Luke 2:1-7 gives us the humble and simple account of one of the greatest miracles of all time, God becoming man. How did we get to the modern practices of celebrating Christmas the way we do? In the earliest times of the time, the birth of Christ...


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Isaiah 3: God’s Judgement on Nations

A big thanks to Guy McKenzie for preaching this week when Nick was away. We appreciate it! Isaiah 3:1-5 1 For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water; 2 the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, 3 the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms. 4 And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them....


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Romans 13:6-7: Fulfilling Our Obligations

INTRODUCTION: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  (Mark 12:17).  These have been called the most important political words ever spoken, and rightly so.  Jesus was being put to the test by the Pharisees and the Herodians.  They thought they had Jesus cornered when they asked Him if they should pay taxes.  They thought they had Him on the horns of a dilemma, if Jesus said yes the Jews should pay taxes then that would make Him unpopular with the general public.  And if He answered No, then the Herodians...


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Romans 13:5: Conscience

INTRODUCTION: Living by a conscience informed by the word of God before the face of God is the basic posture of Christian holiness. We know this well, here is the famous quote of Luther demonstrating this reality at the Diet of Worms when asked to recant of all his statements and writings before the Emperor: ‘Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound to...


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Romans 13:3-4: Capital Punishment

INTRODUCTION: The death penalty is a matter that causes great controversy. We live in a country that has put away the death penalty, any country today seeking entrance into the EU will have to ban the death penalty, and even many countries that approve of it are very slow to apply it. But it is to this matter that we must turn as we take a look at Romans 13:3-4, a traditional prooftext for the traditional Christian view that the death penalty for murder is a God given power of the state. ‘For rulers are not a terror to...


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Romans 13:2: Obeying and Disobeying the Government

INTRODUCTION: Michael Cassidy, the founder of African Enterprise visited P W Botha in South Africa on October the 8th 1985. ‘It was the time of the National Initiative for Reconciliation, and Michael hoped for signs of repentance and for assurance that apartheid would be dismantled. He was to be bitterly disappointed. This is his account of what happened: ‘I was immediately aware on entry to the room that this was not to be the sort of encounter for which I had prayed. The President began by standing to read me part of Romans 13.’ One of the verses that...


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Romans 13:1: God’s sovereignty over bad government

INTRODUCTION: Christians can and should submit to bad governments.  They are not submitting to the devil but God.  How is this possible, because God has given the authority relationship of government to man, and He has sovereignly put even the bad governments in place.  This is the gist of what we have been saying Paul is impressing upon the Romans in our section so far.  Submission to the Roman Government was a point of contention and they needed some motivation to submit.  Paul’s motivation is that government authority is a common grace gift of God to fallen man, and...


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Romans 13:1: God and the Government

Introduction: There are two extremes we need to avoid as we investigate the biblical teaching on our relationship to the government.  We can call these overrealised and underrealised views of the kingdom.  The overrealised view of the kingdom totally confuses the governments of this world with the rule of Christ.  That rule which will one day rule over the new creation is attempted to be installed now.  This results in conflating the work of the church and the state.  This spiritualises the work of political activism as kingdom activity. It tends to be a liberal tendency and attaches to...


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Romans 13:1: Submitting to the government

Introduction: Human beings are political animals. We are deeply invested in who is in power and is making the big decisions that affect our lives. And as we move into a new chapter in Romans we move into the most systematic teaching in Paul on the matter of the Christians relationship to the government. Historically the relationship between the Christian and the state and the church and the state has been fraught with difficulties. A number of questions assail us as we being to think about this area. Must Christians submit to governments? Are governments a necessary evil and...


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