Luke 16:14-18: Jesus Confronts Hypocrisy and Legalism
Christ’s teaching on money stands in counterpoint to the heart fixed on money. Christ teaches that everything is God’s and we are stewards. He teaches that money should be invested so as to gain rewards in the New Creation. Christ teaches that we cannot have an idol of money, and challenges those who have this idol to sell all they have and give to the poor. Christ teaches that sacrificial giving is good. Christ teaches that the usual preoccupation with security and possessions can be entrusted to God who loves you as a Father and you can seek first...
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
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...
Read More
Luke 2:22-38: Jesus presented at the Temple
Jesus being presented at the temple is usually not seen as a very important part of the birth narratives in the gospels, but it is important for several reasons. Jesus presentation of the temple gives the final birth hymn, the Nunc Dimittis, that goes along with the Benedictus; the Magnificat; and the Gloria in Excelsius. It is the first visit of Christ to the temple. It is significant that He who is the temple, and the Word tabernacling among us comes to the temple and certain Spirit led things confirm His identity and purpose. This visit is important because...
Read More
Romans 7:21-25: We are at War
A big thanks to Guy McKenzie for preaching this week when Nick was away. We appreciate it! Romans 7:21-25 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25...
Read More
Romans 16:17-19: Fighting for Unity
Introduction: A pastor has a certain number of things he must do. He has to teach, he has to encourage, as well as rebuke. But he also must warn the flock of God of the various dangers that they will encounter. Paul as a faithful shepherd is wearing his warning hat when he speaks in Romans 16:17-19, ‘I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by...
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 13:8: Paying our debts
INTRODUCTION: Debt is a familiar concept to us and today in Romans 13:8 Paul is going to speak to us about paying our debts. Stott points out that the idea of debt is mentioned several times in Romans already. In Romans 1:14 Paul spoke of his debt to preach the gospel to all peoples; in Romans 8:12 how we are not debtors to the flesh but the Spirit; in Romans 13:6 of how we must fulfil our debts of honour and taxes and once again in Romans 13:8. ‘Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one...
Read More
Luke 2:21: The Circumcision of Christ
Introduction: This morning in preparation for Christmas I would like to impress upon us the dark side of Christmas. There is no end to the frosted idyllic scenes of a cute cherubic baby Jesus with a glowing halo. He is surrounded with raptured smiling faces, while ‘no crying He makes’. Many in order to avoid the distinctly gospel and Christian aspects of Christmas have amplified the cuteness, and fixated on the birth of a baby. But today I want to cast a shadow over the birth. The shape of that shadow is in the form of a bloody blade. ...
Read More
Romans 12:8: The Gift of Mercy
Outline Mercy defined Mercy exampled Introduction Plato once said, ‘How can a man be happy when he has to serve someone?’ This question highlights the tension between joy and commanded service, duty and desire. Yet this is the very thing that Paul is calling us to as he moves on in his discussion of the spiritual gifts, ‘the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.’ It has been said that all the gifts mentioned in Romans 12:6-8 relate to the office of elder and deacon, this could be the case, but we are trying to show how there...
Read More
Galatians 3:19-29: Children by faith
Outline Law Faith Introduction How does one become a child of God? A most simple but a most important question, and one which has been answered a number of different ways. The Liberal answer to this question is, every human being is a child of God; that man is basically good, and therefore they believed in the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. This is a view of our being children of God without taking into account the problem of sin, and God having to judge us for our sin, and having to provide a...
Read More
Romans 10:14: What about the unevangelised? Part Two
Introduction: Today if you ask someone, ‘What is your biggest problem with Christianity?’ The answer that often comes is, ‘Christianity is too exclusive.’ In other words, we are seen to be dogmatic, intolerant, arrogant and oppressive for trying to get everyone to believe as we do. In our age of secular materialism and humanism Christianity with its insistence upon truth and the exclusive need for salvation in Christ is at best and annoyance to be ignored and marginalised, at worst a poisonous enemy to be crushed. Timothy Keller in his book ‘The Reason for God’ outlines three reactions that...
Read More
Romans 10:5-9: Saving Faith
Introduction: Martin Luther said that if anyone knows the difference between law and Gospel, make him a doctor of divinity and let him preach. The distinction between the law and the gospel is the heart of Reformation and the heart of the difference between the religion of the first century Jews and the message Paul was preaching. The whole of chapter 10 is a prolonged discussion on why the Jews are to blame for not being saved, it is because of their unbelief. We have seen Paul commend their zeal, but reveal that it is without the knowledge of...
Read More
Romans 10:2-4: Religion that cannot save
Introduction: In the west we are becoming less religious and more religious at the same time. Christianity is on the decline and atheism on the increase, but ironically as Christianity is cast off other religious worldviews are rushing in to take their place. This growth in religion can be put down to many different things. Our increasing knowledge of the world has turned the many isolated countries into a single global village where we have been confronted with others cultures and faiths, this has caused many to re-evaluate their own Christian heritage in the West and opt for an...
Read More