Luke 13:31-35: Jesus Laments Over Jerusalem
One of the things that has always set Christianity apart is the fact that it calls us to love our enemies. Over and over again we have models in scripture of those who had a deep concern and compassion towards the undeserving and who prayed for them. Think of Abraham praying for Sodom and Gomorrah, think of Moses praying that God would not forsake a sinful Israel after she had worshipped the golden calf. Think of Jeremiah the weeping prophet who wept as Jerusalem was to be handed over to Babylon for judgement. But none of these can compare...
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Luke 12:49-59: War and Peace
Familiar words from Isaiah 9:6-7: ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.’ We read these words often at Christmas...
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Luke 12:1-12: Preparations for Persecution
The love of man’s praise and the fear of man’s wrath are the sins that Jesus warns His disciples of in this next section, 12:1-12. Jesus has just painted a target on His back and the back of His disciples by His confrontation with the religious leaders in 11:37-54. He has spoken to the Pharisees about their own sins; now He will speak to His disciples about the Pharisees sins. This next section is all about preparing for persecution. Jesus has kicked the hornet’s nest, they will kill Him, but Jesus has also just prophesied that they will kill...
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Luke 10:1-16: Preparation for ministry: The trust we exercise
Phillip Ryken tells the story of ‘The China Gospel Fellowship—also known as Tanghe—is a large network of Chinese house churches. Early in 1994 the fellowship began collecting donations for a special missionary trip. Since most of the group’s members live in poverty, their giving was sacrificial. People sold their chickens or gave up money they had been saving for marriage. No matter what the cost, they wanted God to be glorified in China. When sufficient funds had been raised, the fellowship held a worship service at which they commissioned seventy young evangelists to go out two-by-two and preach the...
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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 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...
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Luke 6:17-26: Jesus Teaching on Blessing: Part Three
Never before has public opinion counted for so much. Living in an age of twenty four hour news, in a culture where public shaming, on line trolling, managing and marketing an online persona; Christ, Christianity and Christians are in the spotlight like never before. Public opinion is not limited to your family, your school, your town, or even your country, it is universal, it is a new power group able to exert pressure, it is often polarised and tribal, and you don’t have to go far on the internet to find how Christ, Christianity and Christians are caricatured, demonised,...
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Ephesians 1:1-14: Our Eternal Salvation
Ephesus, the 5th largest town in the world when Paul wrote this letter. A town that would have been a difficult place to be a Christian, and so the church there was in need of encouragement. Ephesus, was the capital of the Roman province of Asia and a bastion of the Emperor Cult, where deifying the Roman Caesar was a badge of patriotism. A clash between those who thought the Caesar was Lord and Jesus is Lord is inevitable. It was also the centre for Diana/Artemis worship, the temple of this goddess of fertility was one of the seven...
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Romans 12:17-18: Blessed are the Peacemakers: Part One
Sorry, no audio recording is available for this sermon. Outline Imitating God Repaying evil Introduction Frederick Nietzsche thought that Christianity was a slave morality. The whole idea of turning the other cheek and that the meek will inherit the earth was seen by him to be a subversion of the nobility of man. He thought that we became our best through a will to power and he mourned the fact that Christianity had over the centuries shaped society so effectively. He saw democracy as a weakening of the strong, as a slave uprising keeping our best down. The idea...
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Romans 12:14: ‘Bless those who curse you.’
Outline Why we bless How we bless Introduction The Christian message of love is what sets it apart from all other ethical or religious teachings. This message of love can be boiled down to four love commands, love God, love you neighbour, love each other and love your enemies. Not to say that other groups don’t emphasize love. No other ethical teaching has all four of these nor to the same extent or in the way we are called to pursue them. Our love for God, is not a self-interested love for what we can get out of God...
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Ephesians 6:12-13: Wrestling against the spiritual forces of evil
Outline What we are up against How we are to react Introduction What are the real problems in the world, who are the real enemies, and how are we to respond? If we ask this question in the world today we will get answers very different to what the bible says. Having listened to many Atheist versus Christian debates recently many atheists would say that religion is the cause of most of our wars, fundamentalist ideology is the enemy and a war on faith and the secularising of society is the necessary preventative. Others who have a more compassionate...
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James 1:12: Endurance in Trials
Jono Macfarlane is an elder at Christ Sanctuary in Palmerston North. James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
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James 1:2-4: Joy in Suffering
Jono Macfarlane is an elder at Christ Sanctuary in Palmerston North. James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
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Revelation 11:1-2: Measuring the Temple
Outline The temple The trials Introduction The temple of Jerusalem is a hot bed of speculation and division. This is due to the OT presenting the New Creation in a Jerusalemocentric and temple worship style idealism. The perfect future of God’s people was always a projected perfect present which was very Jewish with a distinct separation from Gentiles, it was geographically located in Israel and not encompassing the whole world, it was represented in terms of a perfect temple worship and priesthood and not in light of the finished work of Christ, and it had other cultic aspects such...
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Revelation 7: Interlude
Outline The 144 000 The Great Multitude Introduction ‘Who can stand?’ This is the question that the last chapter has ended with. We saw a picture of the four horsemen devastating the earth, we had intimations of the church being ravaged in martyrdom and the whole earth being judged by God in a terrifying and irresistible judgement. The question on everyone’s mind in the churches receiving this letter would be, what about the church? Chapter 7 is the answer to that question. This chapter is called an interlude by many. In the midst of the storm of judgements between...
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Revelation 6: The 7 Seals: Part One
Outline The four horsemen The martyrs Introduction In all 7 letters in Revelation there is a promise to the one who conquers. John was writing at a time of great trial and the people of God were being called upon to be holy and true in the midst of suffering. The book of Revelation cannot be understood unless seen as a book written to a situation where the church is harassed. Many times in the first three chapters we hear about the tribulation that the church was experiencing and the need for endurance. We noted how the church and...
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