Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on Thursday, 30/12/2010 As we have observed in previous studies in this series, the first four commandments have to do with worship and the other six with witness – or to put it another way, the first four are about loving God and the other six are about loving our neighbour. With regard to the first four, the first commandment deals with the object of worship (God alone), the second with the means of worship (no visible representations of God), the third with the manner of worship (reverently), and the fourth with the regular time for worship. The fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember’. This word could indicate that the Sabbath was recognised before the Decalogue was given at Mount Sinai or it could suggest that the children of Israel were liable to forget it. Without denying the validity of these two suggestions, I suspect that there is another reason, which is that a proper observation of the fourth commandment is crucial for an appr...

This sermon was preached on Sunday 26/12/2010 In our previous study we considered the deity of Jesus as expressed in the words of Paul in Colossians 1:19: ‘For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.’ Paul then links this reference to the prospect of reconciliation, both on a universal scale (v. 20) and locally with regard to the group of believers in Colosse (vv. 21-23). I suppose we could liken the universal reconciliation to the cessation of hostilities between two nations and the local reconciliation to the effects the national peace has on a small community within either country. The small community could not have peace before the national reconciliation was made; yet it was also possible for that small community not to experience the benefits of the national reconciliation by failing to appreciate what was involved in it and required of them. Universal reconciliation (v. 20) The reason why Jesus came into our world was to function as the achiever of reconciliation....

This sermon was preached on Sunday 26/12/2010 One of the questions that has been asked of children this past week is, ‘What would you like as a present?’ In this account of Simeon, we see what he wanted to receive from God, which was a sight of the Saviour. Such a desire is one that we should all have. When he saw Jesus, Simeon burst out in praise and, in the process, mentioned names of Jesus such as the Glory of Israel and the Light of the Gentiles. We will look at Simeon’s character (his response to the birth of Jesus tells us how we should respond) and at the names he gave Jesus. I was impressed by C. H. Spurgeon’s character profile of Simeon: ‘Beloved, that is enough of a biography for any one of us. If, when we die, so much as this can be said of us - our name - our business, “waiting for the consolation of Israel” - our character, “just and devout” - our companionship, having the Holy Ghost upon us - that will be sufficient to hand us down not to time, but to eternity, me...

This sermon was preached on 23/12/2010 The first four commandments are concerned with our relationship with God and the other six with our relationship to our neighbours. We could summarise them by saying that the first four concern our worship and the other six concern our witness. Given that the third commandment refers to our speech, we might think that it should be found among the six commandments because others may hear how we speak about God publicly. Thomas Boston pointed out that ‘as the first command respects the object of worship, and the second the means, so this third hath respect to the right manner of worship.’ We can also note that the fourth details when we should worship God in an organised way, although we also know that all of life should be dedicated to him. It is interesting that God often describes his appointed location of worship as the place where he put his name (e.g. Deut. 16:2, 6). Worship involves every aspect of our bodies as well as of our minds....

This sermon was preached on 19/12/2010 Whenever we describe a person we usually do so by saying who he is and what he does. When we are dealing with an historical person, the verb tense changes and we consider who he was and what he did. In Colossians 1:19-20, Paul reminds his readers as to who Jesus is and what he is doing. The words in verse 20 may seem clear enough in their meaning, but we may find verse 19 difficult to understand, with its reference to divine fullness. It seems probable that ‘fullness’ was an idea in use among the Colossians. They wanted to have the fullness of God in their lives. Since God was so great, they thought different messengers were needed to bring his fullness to them. So they imagined a long list of possible angels who could help them get these blessings from God. This suggestion is not too surprising because angels have often been God’s messengers, both in the Old and New Testaments. The problem with the Colossian notion is that it demeaned Jesus an...

This sermon was preached on 16/12/2010 When visitors come to our church, they note that we don’t have an altar or crosses on display. The reason why we do not is found in the second commandment. Geographically, when we travel to other countries we will see various idols in homes or in the streets. The reason why such things were not found in the past in Protestant countries was the second commandment. Historically, one of the features of the Reformation was its removal from God’s worship of a range of statues and other creations that was regarded as breaking the second commandment. Often the impression is given that the Reformation was all about the rediscovery of the doctrine of justification by faith. A good case can be argued that its primary concern was the rediscovery of the way to worship God by those who were justified by faith. I recently read a book on the Reformation in which the author lamented the destruction of pieces of church furniture. The methods of removing th...

This sermon was preached on 2/12/2010 As we know, the first table of the law, the first four commandments, are focussed on how we relate to God whereas the second table, the other six commandments, deal with how we relate to other humans. The order is important: obedience to the first four expresses our love to God and obedience to the other six shows our love to our neighbours. If we don’t pay heed to the first four, then we will not have a basis for concentrating on the other six. It is because we are accountable to God that we show true concern for our neighbour’s spiritual needs. The first commandment is ‘You shall have no other gods before me’. What does God mean by ‘before me’? The word ‘before’ can be used with the meaning of priority in a list of items (A comes before B) or it can refer to the presence of someone (I stood before [in front of] him). In the first commandment, the word ‘before’ does not refer to priority because such a meaning would permit a legitimate use...

This sermon was preached on 19/12/2010 Two of the four Gospels refer to the birth of Jesus. Luke’s account is more detailed and narrates it from the perspective of Mary (he describes her visit to her relative Elizabeth and the meeting she had with the angel Gabriel in Nazareth). Matthew’s account is from the perspective of Joseph, at least in the first chapter, and Matthew presents Jesus as a King from the line of David (Matt. 1:1-17). So we will consider first some aspects of the character of Joseph before making some comments on the instruction he received regarding the name of Mary’s son. A Great Privilege Joseph belonged to an illustrious family line – like all Jews he was descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but in addition he was a descendant of David which meant royal blood was in him. Circumstances had brought great changes to the descendants of David – they were no longer living in palaces. Joseph himself was a humble carpenter. Joseph’s involvement in the b...

In the previous verses Paul had described the greatness of Jesus as the creator and preserver of the universe. He now moves on to describe (1) the greatness of Jesus as the head of the church and (2) his greatness as the ruler of the universal order that will yet come into existence. The apostle is not making a contrast between the three sets of reality over which Jesus rules; instead he connects them to one another and reminds his readers that if they want to continue appreciating the significance of Jesus they will have to keep the three sets in mind. 1. Jesus is head of the church Every Christian will affirm that Jesus is head of the church. But it is possible that they will not all agree about what the meaning of this statement is. For example, the term ‘church’ is subject to a variety of interpretations. It can refer to a local church, to a national church, to a visible church, and to the invisible church – and Jesus would be regarded as the head of each. Nevertheless if Paul mea...