Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 27/1/2011 You Shall Not Steal (Exodus 20:15) One of the epidemics that is sweeping our nation is that of theft. It has been calculated that 13% of our gross national product is stolen each year. An article I read stated that between 2000 and 2006, shoplifting cost retailers in Britain almost £14 billion pounds. The Treasury is denied millions of pounds by individuals who don’t pay the right amount of tax. Offices lose a lot of money each year because staff pilfer pens and other items of stationery. There are several million people in Britain who work in offices. If each one takes a pen for his own usage each month, the cost to the companies involved is almost £1,000,000 each month. And we can add to pens a whole range of other items. Of course, each individual can say, ‘It is only a small item, and no-one will notice.’ But the cost overall is high, and all of it is a breaking of the eighth commandment. On the social level, the consequences of the...

This sermon was preached on 23/1/2011 It is likely that this verse alludes to a common proverb. Gilead was well-known for its medicinal balm. Reference is made to the existence of this balm in the story of Joseph in Genesis 37:25: ‘Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.’ Obviously, where such medicines could be found would be where expert physicians would also be found. 1. The state of the people The background to the chapter is the invasion of Judah by the Babylonians. This invasion was allowed by God as a punishment of the people for their sins. They had been guilty of a form of idolatry that involved combining the worship of the true God with worship of idols. Probably they regarded this combination as progress in their religious understanding, but the actual outcome was that they lost the knowledge they had been given about the L...

This sermon was preached on 23/1/2011 It seems that the Christians in Colosse were drifting away from a position in which their focus was on the person and work of Jesus. The particular attraction that diverted them is not that important for us (if it was crucial for us to know what the alternative interests were, Paul would have told us). Instead what is important is Paul’s response to their departure, and his response is given in great detail in this letter. The reason why it is vital is because Christians must always focus on the person and work of Jesus and not allow themselves to accommodate, even in a little way, different ideas about how to live the spiritual life. Of course, focussing on Jesus is a wide subject. In a sense, it is like telling a wealthy person to view all his territory and assets. Sometimes such a person can view his possessions from a high vantage point, another time he can view them from a distance and take a lot of them into sight, and at another time he ca...

This sermon was preached on 23/1/2011 It is obvious from the New Testament that Simon Peter was an important person in the development of the early church. In addition to the references to him in the Gospels, he is also a central figure in the Book of Acts (where Luke details the growth of the early church) as well as the writer of two letters (1 and 2 Peter) to churches in modern-day Turkey. It is also generally believed that the Gospel of Mark, although written by the person of that name, was directly influenced by Peter (Mark was him in 1 Peter 5:13). A great deal of information is given about Peter in the Gospels and in the Acts, which suggests that the Holy Spirit, in enabling the authors of these books to write under his inspiration, desires readers of the Bible to learn from the experiences of Peter. So Peter is a crucial person in the biblical story. Who was Simon Peter? The Gospels tell us that he was a fisherman from Bethsaida (John 1:44), who also had property in Capernaum...

This sermon was preached on 19/1/2010 You Shall Not Commit Adultery (Matt. 5:27-32) While it is correct to regard this commandment as a warning about immorality it is also important to note that it is focussing on an issue that can destroy family life. Adultery is a sin committed by married persons. So we can see here that God is reminding his people about carefulness in protecting the family relationship. The physical sin was used in the Old Testament to depict spiritual adultery, in particular the sin of idolatry. The most graphic presentation of this method is the story of Hosea and Gomer, with her adulterous behaviour illustrating the unfaithfulness of Israel towards God. It could be classified as adultery because she was in a covenant relationship with the Lord (he was her husband), and it was also true that involvement with pagan religions usually meant participation in immoral activity. The use of the sin of adultery illustrates how seriously God regarded unfaithful...

This sermon was preached on 13/1/2011 With the sixth commandment, the divine requirements of God move to behaviour within society. They are given in an order of seriousness – murder is more heinous than adultery, adultery is more heinous than theft, theft is more heinous than false witness, and all actual disobedience is worse than wrong inner desires. Although some sins are less heinous, it does not mean that they are not dreadful. Every sin is an insult to God’s character and an assault on his authority. Of course, there are aspects of killing other people that are not wrong. The two examples of this are killing in war and execution in capital punishment. Admitting this, however, is not the same as approving of all occurrences of death in these circumstances. There can be illegitimate killings in war situations and there can be wrong motives for capital punishment (a person can be executed because he is a dangerous opponent, with the executor as guilty of offences as the exec...

This sermon was preached on 9/1/2011 Paul is concerned that the Colossians will continue to make spiritual progress. In the previous passages he has prayed about their progress and explained the significance of Jesus Christ. He was not giving them new information about Jesus, but reminding them of what they already accepted concerning him. That he was reminding them is seen in his comment that they had received Christ Jesus as Lord. We are familiar with the idea of receiving Christ at evangelistic meetings and may assume that Paul is saying something similar. Yet the term he uses is usually connected to receiving the apostolic teaching (tradition) about a matter. So while Paul is stressing that the Colossians received Jesus in a personal way, he is also saying that they received a particular teaching about Jesus as well. So for the Colossians, coming into a relationship with Jesus involved their minds as well as their hearts. The teaching that they had received reflected what Paul h...

This sermon was preached on 9/1/2011 In order to understand the significance of this ‘I am’ saying, we have to note what kind of entrance is being alluded to. Sheepfolds in Israel could be of two kinds. One kind would be large and well-structured, usually found in towns or villages, and the entrance to such would be guarded by a porter who opened and closed the door or gate when the shepherds came for or brought back the sheep. Jesus alludes to this kind of fold in verses 1-6. The other kind of fold would be roughly structured and circular, made of rocks, with a gap which functioned as an entrance. The shepherd would call his sheep to enter the fold and, when all the sheep had done so, the shepherd would then lie across the gap and act as a door in order to keep out wild animals. Jesus refers to this kind of fold in verses 7-9. In the story several things occur. First, the shepherd calls the sheep into the fold (this is illustrated by the sheep’s refusal to listen to false shep...

This sermon was preached on 2/1/2011 When an individual has a worthwhile goal he will endure most things in his path. Paul’s goal was to produce mature believers through the proclamation of Christ (v. 28). He also knew that God had called him to this role (v. 25), and this twofold awareness of a definite goal and a calling for life gave him a viewpoint on his current sufferings, probably imprisonment in Rome. He looked at these sufferings and assessed whether or not they hindered his goal or belied his calling and realised that they did not. Therefore he got on with fulfilling his calling and reaching his goal. Perspective on sufferings The sufferings that Paul has in mind here are not illnesses in general but sufferings that came his way because he was a Christian. Mainly these sufferings are connected to persecution, although such sufferings would have had effects on him physically as well. Paul describes his sufferings in two ways: first, they are for the benefit of the Colossians...