Philippians 1:1 – 2: Greetings in Christ
Some of the most stirring things have been written by saints who have been in prison for Christ. Scottish Puritan Samuel Rutherford who was imprisoned for his stand against the divine right of kings wrote once, ‘I am well. My prison is a palace to me, and Christ’s banqueting-house. My Lord Jesus is as kind as they call Him. Oh, that all Scotland knew my case, and had part of my feast! I charge you, in the name of God, I charge you to believe. Fear not the sons of men, the worms shall eat them. To pray and...
Read More
Luke 19:45-48: Jesus and the Temple
OUTLINE Jesus enters the temple Jesus cleanses the temple Jesus’ zeal for the temple INTRODUCTION There are certain texts in the Bible that are pregnant with meaning; they have layers of meaning to unravel. Jesus’ actions in cleansing the temple is one such passage. The birth of Christ, the baptism of Christ, the transfiguration of Christ, these events are multivalent as they bring together several lines of promises, types and prophecies in the OT to a climactic fulfillment in Christ. Although Luke records Jesus cleansing of the temple in very few verses, they are packed full with significance. Today...
Read More
Ephesians 6:15-16: The Armour of God: Part Three
What do we need to be effective for the spiritual war we are in? So far Paul has told us that we need God’s truth, this makes us ready, and helps us against the father of lies. We need to guard our hearts with righteousness, firstly with the truth of our justification; and secondly with a love for holiness as we pursue sanctification. Today we want to look at the next two pieces of armour Paul places before us, the shoes and the shield, v15-16, ‘and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the...
Read More
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...
Read More
Luke 13:1-9: Suffering and Repentance
We come now to what is probably the most important portion in the Bible on people suffering and our response to it. We are all familiar with the classic problem, something bad happens and the questions begin to flow, why did a loving God allow this? Why did the innocent suffer with the guilty? Was it God; or satan; or man; or nature that caused this? This is a very large intellectual problem. The dilemma of a good God and evil existing has a long history. Epicurus a Greek philosopher born in in Greece in 341 BC put the...
Read More
Luke 9:18-22: ‘Who Do You Say That I Am?’
One of the most important questions we need to answer in life is in this text, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ This is the question that Jesus puts to His disciples. We live in a day and age where many think we cannot answer that question with any confidence. For the more scientifically minded the problem is one of historical distance and having to rely on pre-scientific eye witnesses. For the more sceptical certainty about anything even our own experiences is doubted. But God has given us His word that we can know things truly, though not...
Read More
Ephesians 3:11-13: The Plan of God
One of the most misunderstood, yet one of the most comforting doctrines that we believe in is the doctrine of God’s decree. Just as a builder does not begin to build without the blueprints, God as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe worked out His salvation in history according to an eternal plan/decree. If you will forgive the Freemason associations He is indeed the Great Architect. This plan is freely constructed by God, in other words He did not have to be taught anything or have His arm twisted to make it in a certain way. Everything that...
Read More
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...
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
God and Covid-19
We are interrupting our series on Luke to do a Christian analysis on Covid-19. Here in NZ we are very blessed to be at alert level 1, but this is still a living reality for many in the rest of the world. My concern in doing this is a pastoral one. More than ever before we have been inundated with the voices of the media in analysing what has recently happened. We have all been tuned into the media and been saturated with their perceptions, judgements, and problem solving principles. We have all learnt new words and concepts and...
Read More
Luke 7:18-23: ‘Are you the One?’
Doubt, it will be our portion as long as we are alive. On account of the fallen nature that still remains within us we are professional doubters who default to doubt at the best and worst of times. We doubt because of satan, we doubt because of sin, we doubt because of ignorance, we doubt because we don’t like the truth, we doubt when we are in pain as a knee jerk reaction against God. The strongest and the weakest Christians have struggled with doubt. Elijah doubted God after the victory over the prophets of Baal; David doubted God...
Read More
Luke 7:11-17: The Lord of Life
Have you ever heard of the irresistible force paradox? Have you heard the phrase ‘the unstoppable force meets the immovable object?’ Maybe you have heard it in the context of sport where two powerful rugby teams are going to compete. Technically it is an impossibility for an unstoppable force to move an unmovable object, or vice versa because then the object would by definition no longer be immovable, or the force unstoppable. Nevertheless, ‘the unstoppable force meets the immovable object’ is a way in which several commentators have described the next section we are looking at. In this section...
Read More
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,...
Read More
Philippians 1:12-18: A Godly Attitude
Thanks to Simon Bird for preaching this afternoon. Our apologies for the lack of a recording. Philippians 1:12-18 12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good...
Read More
Habakkuk 1:5-11: My Ways Are Not Your Ways
Have you ever had an answer to prayer that was completely unexpected? There you were asking the Lord for one thing, and then He went and answered your prayer but not in the way you had hoped. There is a famous example of this in John Newton, it is recorded in one of the hymns we sing. It was originally called ‘Prayer answered by crosses’ here is the opening stanza, ‘I asked the Lord that I might grow In faith and love and ev’ry grace, Might more of His salvation know, And seek more earnestly His face.’ How would...
Read More
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...
Read More