Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 26/5/2013 The author in this section wants to encourage God’s people. We can see why. He has just warned them about the dangers of departing from Jesus and then reminded them that they had given some evidence by their lives that they were genuine disciples of Jesus. Yet no doubt his words of warning would have made his readers apprehensive for the future, especially as they were facing pressures to give up the faith. What guarantees could the author give to them in order to strengthen their faith in Jesus? The way that the author encourages them is to remind them of what God the Father and Jesus have done for them, a reminder of the faithfulness of God and of the Saviour towards their people. God made an oath about them Perhaps their biggest fear would be connected to whether or not God would remain committed to them if they became colder in the commitment to him. So in order to illustrate what God the Father had done for them

This sermon was preached on 26/5/2013 We might be surprised that we are going to answer this question by turning to an Old Testament passage. If we are, it means that we have adopted a wrong approach to the Bible. Yet the wrong approach is very common. But the Old Testament is a Christian book, full of details that are essential for Christians to know and encouraging for their faith in the God of the Bible. The context of the verses that we will think about is the coming of the Messiah who would be born in Bethlehem (5:2). The amazing feature about him is that his birth was not the beginning of his existence. Before his birth it had been arranged that he would come to Bethlehem in order to be born. We know what this rather cryptic description means. Jesus was the eternal Son of God who existed before he was born. The prophecy goes on to say other marvelous things about the coming Messiah. At the end of verse 4, he is described as the sovereign who will be great

This sermon was preached on 19/5/2013                   Did we ever have the experience of speaking to someone and sensing that the person is unable to understand what you are speaking about? I know some people have had that experience with me. Many a mechanic has begun to explain to me what has been wrong with the cars of mine that he has checked, and despite my nodding he soon realises that I am unable to understand him. Why was that the case? Despite several opportunities I had made no effort to understand what I was being told. I could have done so, but I did not, therefore I could not follow his explanation.                   In a far more serious manner, the author realises that his readers are unable to understand what he would like to say to them about the significance of the Old Testament character, Melchizedek. I wonder what we could say about him, if we were asked. Fortunately, for them and us, he proceeded to explain their current problem, then to warn t