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I am the true vine (John 15:1-11)

Jesus and the disciples had left the upper room where they had their Passover gathering and were making their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, the place where they usually spent the Passover evening in the city. It is possible that on their way there they passed a vine that Jesus used as an illustration of spiritual fruitbearing. Passover occurred during the spring, and springtime was when good branches were pruned and dead branches removed. The owner may have cut off unfruitful branches and they were lying on the ground. Either the owner or his servants would gather them for burning. The owner had also pruned fruitful branches, and passers-by would not see any unwelcome growths on them. Jesus, however, was not merely using an illustration from the natural world. When he called himself the true vine, he showed that there was a false one as well. The Old Testament calls Israel a vine several times, but as Isaiah 5 emphasises, it had failed to produce fruit for God and was not a true vin...
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The Same Jesus Remains the Same (Hebrews 13:8)

We live in changing times. There is a sense in which we always do so. Our circumstances change every day, and we change along with them. We can look back on our lives and see many changes have occurred throughout the years, some that we did not see coming, but which had their effects. Some changes are good. Children grow up, become adults, marry, and have their own families. People get jobs a nd form career paths which fit the gifts with which the Lord has endowed them as creatures made in his image. In contrast, some changes are bad, such as when a country may find itself at war because of an aggressive neighbour. Some changes are limited in their effects while others are far reaching. All institutions in a society experience change. Governments change and introduce new policies, and they bring further changes, which are changed again in the future. Churches change and do so in a variety of ways. Believers finish their course in this world and go to heaven and their absence from the c...
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The Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)

This verse is an important one in our multi-faith society. Life in Britain today involves awareness that there are alternative religions on our doorsteps. In the verse Jesus says that followers of these other religions will not find the way to God through their beliefs. There is a well-known summary of this verse found in Thomas a Kempis’ book, The Imitation of Christ : ‘Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which thou must follow; the truth which thou must believe; the life for which thou must hope. I am the inviolable way; the infallible truth, the never-ending life. I am the straightest way; the sovereign truth; life true, life-blessed, life uncreated.’ A common way of interpreting the verse is to say that ‘way’ refers to discovering Christ as Savio ur at the beginning of the journey to heaven, that ‘truth’ refers to being discipled by Christ as ‘teacher’ as we travel to heaven, and that ‘life’ ref...
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God is For Us, But How (Romans 8:31-37)

From one point of view, Paul is coming to the end of his explanation of the contents of the gospel that he had composed for the Roman Christians in this letter. In the first chapter, he had said that he would give his understanding of the gospel of which he was not ashamed. Of course, in the letter, he will yet deal with the important matter of Israel in the plan of God as well as give instructions about several aspects of Christian living about which the Roman Christians needed divine guidance. This book may have been the first of the New Testament letters that they saw. While we have no idea about the precise circumstances Paul was in while he dictated this letter, we can see that he is aware that he is concluding this section of the letter because he asks several applicatory questions. The first question looks back to what Paul has said either in this chapter of Romans or in the earlier chapters of the book. The other words in this set of verses are part of Paul’s answer to his fir...
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Great is the Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:16)

1 Timothy 3:16 seems to be a mini-creedal statement about the earthly life of Jesus, either composed by Paul or quoted by him. It begins with the arrival of Jesus at his birth, closes with his departure, and makes six affirmations of him. In today’s sermon, we can think briefly about each affirmation, although each of them could be the basis of a separate sermon. Introduction We should note Paul’s preamble because he mentions three crucial details about the following affirmations: they together describe a revealed mystery, each highlights the greatness of Jesus, and they together form a common verbal confession of believers. The term ‘mystery’ in the New Testament does not have the meaning that we usually give to the word. In a sense, it almost means the opposite of how we use it. The word was used in the first century to describe a revealed truth that had been previously hidden by God. We can think of another New Testament reference to a mystery which is clearer: ‘… the church, of wh...
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