Luke 14:15-24: The Parable of the Great Banquet
We are all familiar with missed opportunities. A most important decision comes along and we don’t grab it, we choose the wrong thing and we regret it. There are many examples of this, here are some well-known examples from the world of business. In the early 2000s the company Yahoo was approached by Google to buy it for 1 million dollars, they rejected the offer and in 2020 Google reached the 1 trillion dollar mark. In 2000 Netflix approached Blockbuster to buy it out for 50 million, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and today Netflix is worth 228...
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Apologetics Acts: Part Two
Good afternoon everyone, it is once again a privilege to open the word for you again, continuing on my two part sermon looking at apologetics, the art and science of explain what we believe and why we believe it. And we have been going through two sermons by Paul in the book of Acts, his sermon to the synagogue in Antioch Pisidan, in modern day Turkey, and in the Areopagus in Athens, in modern day Greece. And we used these two examples to apply to the two different groups that we Christians interact with in today’s society. You have...
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Apologetics Acts: Part One
Pastor Nick is away in the North Island and so I will be bringing the word to you this morning and this afternoon, and we will be taking a break for Pastors Nicks exposition through the book of Luke and Ephesians. And just like the last time I preached, I will be preaching this morning on the topic of my current course this morning, and when I tell you what it is, some of you will probably inwardly sigh. And the course I am taking is about apologetics. And if you aren’t already jumping out of your seat in...
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Luke 13:22-30: How Many Will Be Saved?
Who is going to be saved and how many will be there? This is a big question which many have asked. Asking the question today in an age like ours has certain other questions attached to it. We live in a global village and are aware of the billions of people who cling to other religious views; what do we do with all the other religions? Are they right or wrong? What about all the “nones” of our own generation who are post-religious but are opting to be philanthropic, vegan/vegetarian, who are all about social justice for the marginalized...
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Ephesians 4:17-24: A New Creation in Christ, Part 1: The Old Man
Thomas Watson once said, ‘Dead fish swim downstream; living fish swim upstream.’ As Christians we are no longer dead, we can no longer go along with the world. We are no longer what we were so we can no longer live the way we used to. We have life and cannot live like we do not; we have God and cannot live like we do not. This is the heart of what Paul is getting at in Ephesians 4:17-24. We are in the second half of the letter to the Ephesians. Chapters 1-3 are mostly doctrine indicating what God...
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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...
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Ephesians 3:7-13: Preaching the mystery of Christ
The Bible is full of little people being given big jobs. Imagine you were Abraham for a moment. God has given you a new name, it means father of nations, yet you have no children. God wants to bless the whole world through the offspring of a couple who cant have children. Or think of Moses, he used to be in favour with the Egyptian court until there was a warrant out for his arrest because he murdered someone. And now God wants to use this man who has been away from Egypt for 40 years to go as...
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Luke 8:1-3: Jesus’ Female Disciples
Today we are in the thick of the gender wars, the last 50 years has seen the rise of feminism which has dismantled biblical and traditional views of male headship in the church and in the home. Egalitarianism, the view that teaches that there are no real differences between men and women has won the culture war and is the dominant perspective today. Added to this we have the transgender war. We moved from the removal of the differences between men and women, to pushing acceptance for homosexual activities and marriage, and this has now taken a third step...
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Ephesians 3:2-6: Steward of the Mystery of Christ
The word mystery has various connotations. If you are a book lover it may cause you to think of a favourite genre of who-done-it crime thrillers. The common English word means something that is difficult or impossible to understand it, it is often used in the sense of defeat: ‘It is a mystery, we will never know.’ In the ancient world there were various mystery religions who had secret knowledge which only the initiated could understand. The mysteries were the secret truths revealed to those who had proven themselves worthy of ascending to being indoctrinated in this higher knowledge....
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Ephesians 3:1: ‘Paul, a prisoner’
At Bible college during one of the chapel services a pastor by the name of Bill Hughes shared with us. He was a very godly man who was serving in a church that wanted to fire him because of His Calvinistic convictions. It was a long a painful process that ended in him resigning to save the church from a split. During the long and painful time of enduring the difficulties Bill struggled to find a reason to get out of bed being extremely demotivated by the ordeal. But he had a faithful wife who put a sign on...
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Ephesians 2:11-22: The United People of God
Do all lives matter or do Black Lives Matter? Do we need separate safe spaces for black Christians to worship, or do we need united worship spaces? The problem of unity in God’s people is a perennial problem. The portion before us, Ephesians 2:11-22 speaks to our identity as a united people of God. What defines you and determines your relationship to other Christians? Do we subscribe to modern views that seek to define and relate us as intersecting minorities situated in relation to oppressive structures; or views that divide us by our gender preferences; are we stratified generational...
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Colossians 1:24-29: Suffering, the Gospel, and Holiness – How to Identify a Faithful Christian Minister
Many of you all will have heard this verse and felt very warm and smug and contented inside. James 3:1 says: ‘Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, as you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness’ You may be breathing a big sigh of relief in your hearts as I often have, comforted by the thought that the church elders, those who preach here up the front, will be judged with a higher standard, and you may have thought that perhaps God will let those of us sitting in the pews off...
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Romans: Final Overview
Introduction: You have heard the saying, ‘I can’t see the forest for the trees.’ Some of you may feel this way as we come to the end of the book of Romans, it is the longest of all Paul’s letters, and the most theological. If I had to ask you to give me a quick rundown of Romans could you do it? Are you familiar with its content and the development of its argument or is it a maze? Romans is a long development of the theological twists and turns of the gospel of God. So it is my...
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Philippians 3:2-16: True Religion
Introduction: When I say the words ‘mature Christian’ what comes to mind? Perhaps you automatically think of someone older, someone calm and unruffled, but few of us put the words mature and ambition, or mature and striving for perfection, maturity and a desire to suffer together. We ordinarily do not associate maturity with those things we could easily associate with fanaticism. In the portion that we will be looking at today Paul places these things together in his picture of mature Christianity. Phil. 3:15 comes at the end of his description stating, ‘Let those of us who are mature...
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John 1:1-18: The Word Became Flesh
Theme The People Say that Jesus is Elijah …? John’s Introduction to the Gospel Introduction Who do the Jews say that Jesus is? Who do non-Jews say that Jesus is? Who do people today say that Jesus is? Body Who does John say Jesus is? The Word The Greeks The Jews Brief Exegesis Verses 3-14 The Word Became Flesh Conclusion Jesus is Fully God and Fully Man
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Romans 15:25-29: Paul the Church Ambassador
Introduction: What is driving you, when you feel tired in the morning and don’t feel like getting up what do you tell yourself to get yourself going? What are you living for? Are you functioning according to a deliberate motivation or a default autopilot? Some are driven by a desire to provide for their families; some are driven by a career goal; some are fixed on their retirements; some have sinful goals, some have godly goals. All of our doing flows out of our wanting. We do what we want. Paul is a man of ambition, he has just...
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