Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 29/12/2013 Sometimes we can over-estimate the importance of a significant event in the past. This can happen in many ways. The inventions of modern technology have rendered useless many of the discoveries that previous generations utilised. Yet some people prefer the machines from the past and when we see people doing so we smile and perhaps feel sorry for them because they could have something far better. Progress in modern health care has caused previous remedies to be discarded, and if we saw a sick person insisting on old treatments we would not smile because we would know that they are only harming themselves. We can do this with regard to church history as well. Important actions had to be taken which were justifiable at the time, but we can so respect those that made the sacrifices that we do not stop to ask whether or not their actions have relevance for today. Some will want to ignore the past completely whereas others will try and ignore t...

This sermon was preached on 29/12/2013 Was he a prophet ? It seems to be the case that Simeon was an Old Testament prophet, and the presence of such a person at such a time in Israel would not be surprising given that there was also a prophetess called Anna among the devout saints living in Jerusalem. Often, prophets appeared when the priesthood was corrupt. How can we say that he was an Old Testament prophet? First, he lived in the Old Testament dispensation. Second, he received personal revelations from God concerning the coming of the Christ. Third, he recognized who Jesus was before receiving any information about him from Mary and Joseph. Fourth, he predicted the sufferings of Jesus and the maternal sufferings of Mary. Was he a priest ? It is also possible that Simeon was a priest. Some commentators have thought so. I read one who said that the ceremony of the redemption of the firstborn would involve a priest examining the child for no blemishes, then he would pronounce ...

This sermon was preached on 29/12/2013 Why does the Apostles Creed say that Jesus was both crucified and dead, given that virtually everyone who was crucified died? The probable answer to the question is that they were refuting a heresy that suggested it was not really the Christ who suffered on the cross, that the Christ whom the heretics said had come on the man called Jesus at his baptism had then left the man Jesus when he was crucified. That was an ancient heresy connected to Gnosticism. It is interesting to note how they counteracted the heresy – they did so by simply stating the truth and put it in a form by which Christians repeated the truth regularly. It is very unlikely that we will meet someone today who holds that ancient heresy, although anything is possible in our confused age. Yet there are modern heresies to which the Apostles Creed speaks and one of them also suggests that although Jesus was crucified he did not die. This modern heresy suggests that Jesus mere...

This sermon was preached on 22/12/2013 The author continues with his athletic imagery in this set of verses. We are familiar with pictures of tired runners with ‘drooping hands and weak knees’. He is citing part of Isaiah 35:3, a chapter which describes the exiles returning from Babylon to Zion, a picture of the journey that God’s people today make from earth to heaven. The exiles were encouraged in their journey by the prospect that their God would come to rescue them and to reward them. If we read that chapter, we can see how it applies to those who are running the Christian race. How do runners in the Christian race lift their tired hands and weak feet? They do it by looking to Jesus and imitating his example of thinking ahead to the joys of heaven. The writer has already told them to run looking unto Jesus, the one who ran the perfect race of faith, and to consider the way that he endured opposition. They are also to remember that he is coming back in order to rescue them fr...