Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

In the structure of the Book of Revelation, we now move into another way to look at circumstances. Chapters 1–3 looked at seven different churches. Chapters 4–7 cover the period from the ascension of Jesus to his return. The ascension of Jesus is described in chapters 4 and 5; the activity of Jesus between his ascension and his return is described in chapter 6 and 7:1-8; and the outcome of his saving activities is described in 7:9-17.   The experience of John in Revelation 4 and 5 answers some questions that readers of the letters to the seven churches must have had. Those readers would be aware that the churches have real problems. And they would have seen that Jesus is the answer to the problems. Yet where is Jesus and what power does he possess to deal with those circumstances? The answer is to think of the ascension of Jesus. In Revelation 4, John describes the place where Jesus now is (even although Jesus is not mentioned in the chapter). What did he see?   Th...

One of the outlooks of contemporary life is that everyone should be free to do what they want. A consequence has been that most people are aware of verse 1, whether or not they know that it comes from the Bible. It has become very difficult to say that certain activities are wrong, especially if they are not harming anyone else. We should not be judgemental, we are told. Does Jesus support such an attitude in his teaching here about judging? What happened this past week according to the newspapers? Plenty to criticise, apparently. Politicians were criticised strongly. So too were footballers, although it all depended on whose side the supporters were. Were the criticisms valid? Does Jesus teach his disciples here that they should not have an opinion on political suggestions or sporting failures? In the religious world too, unusual things took place. At a Christian gathering in America, a prayer was offered to Allah. People criticised the gathering. Should they have done so? I...

Paul and Barnabas had taken the gospel to the region of Galatia during what we call Paul’s First Missionary Journey. They had planted churches in different places and had seen God do amazing things as they preached about Jesus. There had been opposition in some places, nevertheless conversions had taken place. So when they returned to Antioch they had wonderful things to describe to the church there that had sent them on the mission journey. Yet things in Galatia had not remained healthy in a spiritual way. Other teachers came to Galatia from Jerusalem and affected those new churches. The message they brought seemed innocuous because they liked to refer to Old Testament passages where God had given details about how his people should live. So they said to the new Christians, ‘God wants you to keep these laws. In fact, you cannot be right with God unless you do.’ Many of the new Christians were influenced by what these teachers said and moved away from what Paul had taught them. ...

Laodicea was located six miles from the city of Hierapolis, ten miles from the small town of Colosse, and about one hundred miles east of Ephesus. Christian churches existed in Hierapolis, Colosse and Laodicea by the date of Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome (Col. 4:13). He mentions in Colossians 4:15-16 that he had written a letter to the Laodicean church.  Laodicea was noted for its activities, three  of which Jesus alludes to in his letter to the church. The three were a thriving wool industry, a famous school of medicine particularly for eye problems, and a financial system. The city was so wealthy that when it suffered great damage because of an earthquake in AD 60, it did not need outside help from the Empire for rebuilding. It was self-sufficient, which was a good thing for the city, but it illustrates the problem with the church – it was also self-sufficient. Jesus describes himself Jesus introduces himself as the ‘Amen, the faithful and true witness, the be...

Sometimes, we speak about steep learning curves, by which we mean that we discover there is more to a situation than we imagined beforehand. The disciples of Jesus were on such a curve as they gathered around Jesus. They had entered into the kingdom of God and were discovering that it was very different from what they had imagined. Perhaps the matter that surprised them most was Jesus’ emphasis on the inner life rather than on outward effects. We can see his focus on the inner life on each area he has mentioned so far in the Sermon on the Mount, and he continues that focus as he teaches about the matter of worry. What is Jesus not speaking about? Jesus here is not speaking about legitimate concerns that parents may have or employers may have or governments may have. It is important for people to worry about the demise of Christianity, about the future of our families, about finding areas of work, about the concerns of the government. A person who does not worry about such thing...