Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

If we were to conduct a poll on what are the biggest hindrances to authentic Christianity in our society, I wonder what people would say. Perhaps they would mention love of pleasure. Of course, all pleasure is not wrong unless it is one’s goal in life. Many people live for the weekend because that is the time when they imagine they will become happy, and they look forward to escaping from the drudgery of life, as they see it. And there are what Peter calls the pleasures of sin, which no Christian should get involved in. What else would be regarded as hindrances? Some might say that changes in our society caused by people of other faiths coming to live in our country is dangerous because they can influence people and turn them away from Christianity. Of course, such a response forgets that true Christians will not become followers of religions that don’t exalt Jesus. In fact, the arrival of such people is really an opportunity for evangelism, so we cannot say that their presence is...

It is obvious from the preceding verses in the psalm that the author had gone through a period of great difficulty in which he had been disappointed and perplexed about what had taken place. Verse 17 indicates that relief only came when he spent time at the temple. He went there to get his perspective on life changed. This is a reminder that it is possible to assess life from inadequate viewpoints. In times of trouble, we need to select the best viewpoint, and that is to see where God is and what he is doing. The psalmist did this eventually and in the verses we will consider we read about what he saw. This psalm is a reminder that the Bible does not conceal the wrong ideas and suspicions that believers can have at times. Asaph was not an ordinary believer (if there is such a person), but a prominent one, with important public roles in the worship of God as a priest and psalmist.  The psalm is an example of how to wrestle through situations that cause us to doubt the providen...

Philadelphia means ‘the city of brotherly love’. Whether that was true of the city is unlikely. Yet it was true of the church there because Jesus finds no fault within it. It is the second of the seven churches to have this level of commendation, along with the church in Smyrna. This means that the city of brotherly love had a community of brotherly love within it. Jesus , the divine ruler In describing himself, Jesus says that he is both God and man, which is how we should think of him when focusing on what he has done since his incarnation. His deity is seen in his description of himself as the one who is holy and true. Yet they would also be accurate descriptions of his human nature. As the one who is holy and true, he cannot tell a lie, which would be of great comfort to the small church in Philadelphia as he makes promises to them about their future. The significance of him having the key of David is connected to what is described in Isaiah 22:20ff where the prophet rev...

Having described some aspects of the righteousness that is superior to that of the scribes and Pharisees Jesus now moves on to deal with the practice of three features of righteous living among the Jews – almsgiving, prayer and fasting. They were ones with which the Jews would have been familiar because they would have observed the Pharisees doing them. Of course, it is important to stress that Jesus here is referring to personal, voluntary expressions of those practices. There were occasions when public expressions were mandated and on those occasions it would be obvious that people were engaging in them. The Saviour points out a basic principle connected to personal acts of discipleship. If we engage in them in order to get a reputation among men, we will succeed in doing so. On the other hand, if we engage in them to receive blessings from God, we will succeed in doing so. The problem is that we cannot have both. But Jesus does more that point out that principle. He als...

This incident is one of the best known in the Bible. It was not the occasion of Isaiah’s call to serve the Lord as a prophet because there already have been five chapters of prophecies before this incident. Maybe the best way to look at it is that it was initiated by the Lord in order to prepare Isaiah for the change of circumstances that he would face. The time It was a period of crisis in the land of Judah because their longstanding king had died. Uzziah had reigned for fifty-two years and, in the main, he had been a good king, although he had experienced divine judgement for a rash action involving the worship of God. As we know, occasions of change can often cause uncertainty and fear, whether those occasions are national, denominational or personal. When they happen to us, we need to receive from God words of assurance, comfort and guidance, a reminder that he is still there. The throne On this occasion, Isaiah was shown in a very graphic manner that the Lord is the e...