Ephesians 5:5-7: Living in Light of Judgement
What do all these verses have in common? 2 Cor. 5:10-11, ‘For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.’ 2 Pet. 3:11, 14, ‘Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?’ ‘Therefore,...
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Ephesians 2:1-10: ‘But for the Grace of God….’
‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ This is a well-known statement which recognises that apart from God’s gracious intervention left to ourselves we would be lost. This statement is credited to the martyr John Bradford, once while walking past a gallows and as criminal were being led to be hanged, he looked over at them as said, ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’ It is this grateful recognition that Paul is trying to prompt in the Ephesians in 2:1-10. The body of chapter 1 is only two sentences in the Greek, the first...
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Matthew 26:36-46: The Plan of God for the Cross
Can you remember a time, when you didn’t associate the word Jesus or Jesus Christ with a cross? Even before you understood the gospel, you probably knew that Jesus had something to do with a cross. We live in a society that has been built on the Christian worldview, and the largest, professed anyway, religion in New Zealand is some form of Christianity. There are crosses in some schools, on war memorials, on emblems and coat of arms. Perhaps you may have seen an image of a Jesus crucified upon it on a church window or on a necklace...
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The Problem of OT Genocide
Introduction: Richard Dawkins once described God as: “…the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” The ethics of the OT and in particular the commands to eradicate the Canaanites from the promised land, the so called commands to commit genocide or ethnic cleansing are a strong reason for disbelief in the God of the Bible today. Today we want to spend some time thinking about the commands of God to enter...
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Romans 16:20: Victory over satan
Introduction: This is the first and only mention of satan in the book of Romans. Why talk about him now? Paul has been giving his love to the church and encouraging love between people and churches. He naturally moves from the unity of the church to the enemies of that unity warning about those false teachers who have a different gospel and who cause divisions. That is why Paul is talking about satan. The book of Revelation reveals that satan is thrown down to earth and is waging war against the church. The prophecy reveals satan using persecuting power,...
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1 Kings 11:9-43: The Chastening of the Lord
Introduction: We come to the last message in the life of Solomon and the question that immediately jumps into our mind is: did Solomon go to heaven? If 1 kings 11:1-8 was all we were told then we might say no. However, the book of Ecclesiastes is a memoir of a sort written by Solomon and it is credited to be written by him at the end of his long life. The book describes the futility of the many things Solomon engaged in and how the meaning of life is to love God and keep His commands, Ecc. 12:13-14,...
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Good Friday Sermon: Matthew 26:36-46: The Prayers Of Gethsemane
INTRODUCTION: Today in our Good Friday meditation we will be considering Jesus under the shadow of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. The name Gethsemane means ‘oil press’ and seems a very appropriate name for the place where Jesus would pray the hardest prayer any human has ever prayed. As we proceed to the Garden to look not only into another’s grief, but the grief of the Holy One who is submitting Himself to His Fathers punishment for our sins, we must beg the aid of the Spirit, we are not only treading on mysteries but holy ground. ...
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