Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 22/4/2012 As we can see from the end of chapter 2, many people wanted to follow Jesus. It is still very early days in what had become known as his three-year public ministry. His action in cleansing the temple had made an impression on some, yet Jesus did not regard their interest in him as genuine and he made no effort to encourage them. It is important to observe that Jesus made a distinction between those would-be followers and Nicodemus because the Saviour was clearly willing to engage in a discussion with Nicodemus. John is stressing here that Jesus cannot be conned because he knows every detail about anyone who attempts to be involved with him. 1. Who was Nicodemus? John tells us that Nicodemus was both a religious person and a prominent figure in the community. By religion, he was a Pharisee which meant that he was a strict follower of the religious traditions of Israel. The Pharisees were the theological conservatives of their day as ...

This sermon was preached on 15/4/2012 We all have motives for doing things. Sometimes we may have more than one motive for an action. The writer to the Hebrews here mentions one motive that enabled Jesus to persevere with his work of salvation on the cross. This motive is summarised in the clause, ‘for the joy that was set before him.’ Of course, Jesus had other motives for performing this work. For example, he says in John 14:31 that he went through with the onerous task because he wanted the world to know that he loved the Father. 1. Was Jesus joyful on earth? Perhaps we wonder if it is appropriate to think of the joy of Jesus. After all, did Isaiah not prophesy about Jesus and say that he would be the man of sorrows who would be acquainted with grief? And there were many situations in this sin-affected world that caused sorrow in the heart of Jesus. He was saddened by sin, by death, and by the way many rejected him. It is the case that many Christians are reluctant to th...

This sermon was preached on 12/4/2012 In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul has highlighted the reality that God’s people, especially the apostle and his colleagues, are facing difficult and very painful situations. He summarises those problems in 4:8-10: ‘ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.’ Yet although their situations are difficult, Paul does not view them negatively because he says that their sufferings are ‘preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison’. Indeed such is the eternal weight of glory that it makes their current sufferings seem light and momentary. What is this eternal weight of glory? It is the resurrection body. Paul gives some details about his outlook in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. Before we look at particular details of what Paul sa...

This sermon was preached on 1/4/2012 One of the reasons why many people are depressed is that they do not understand what is going on in their lives. There is so much uncertainty and disappointment in life. This is not only a modern phenomenon, it has been found in every age. When studying chapter 10, we noticed that Daniel and his friends had gone on a spiritual retreat to pray about why things had not gone well with regard to those Jews who had returned to Jerusalem two years previously with great hopes of rebuilding their capital city. In chapter 10 of the Book of Daniel, the Lord had informed Daniel of a great conflict between God’s kingdom and the powers of darkness that was going to last for a long time. Behind the scenes of human history, there is a series of cosmic battles involving angels and demons. Initially Daniel was told about the effects of such battles on the Persian Empire, and after that there would come battles with the Grecian Empire (10:20-21). In chapter 1...