Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Someone has said that two common mistakes made by Christians about the devil is for some to make too much of him and for others to make too little of him. Some see the devil virtually everywhere; others see him virtually nowhere. Did you think about him today? If you are a Christian, he thought about you and schemed to defeat you. If you are not a Christian, he has been blinding you to your immediate need of Christ. It is important that we have a biblical view of who he is and what he does. Paul reminds us of that in this passage.   The church in Ephesus had seen how very early on the devil had caused metalworkers connected to pagan worship to raise a riot against the gospel when Paul was planting the church. Paul later on had warned the elders of the congregation that false teachers would arise from within their number. The apostle had even told the congregation in Ephesians 4:27 not to give the devil a foothold by them using wrong forms of speech and other sins. So there are three re

History tells us that this instruction by Jesus has been the source of fierce debates. Some have regarded it as justification for creating an unbiblical liturgy in which the bread and the wine are regarded as a sacrifice whereas others have assumed that all that Jesus meant was that he should be remembered in a manner similar to how people recall a deliverance that was a great event in the past. As we look at the request, we can immediately see that there are some unusual features about it, which we cannot ignore; so we can think about them first. Then we can mention some ways in which the Saviour would want us to remember him.   Unusual features The first detail is that we are asked primarily to remember a person rather than an event. Of course, it is possible to say that the person of Jesus was an event in itself because everything about him is extraordinary. His arrival in the world and his actions in the world are all connected. Men and women have done great actions, but usually th

It is generally assumed that Peter wrote this letter in the early 60s. Things were becoming hotter for the believers and indeed it would not be long before Peter himself would become a martyr. So here we have a letter from a man who knows with certainty that he is going to die for the faith to people whom he knew would suffer for the faith.   The sender The sender as we can see from verse 1 is ‘Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.’ We can observe three details here. One is that Peter did not regard himself as the chief of the apostles. Rather he saw himself as one of the apostles, equal with the others, and that he did not have primacy over the other apostles.    Second, Peter is here fulfilling the instruction and promise of Jesus that despite his fall he would yet strengthen his brothers. At the time Jesus made that announcement, Peter could not have imagined that his brothers would be Gentiles living far away from Israel. And by extension, he is strengthening us.    Third, as an apost

Acts 9 is well-known for its account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. His conversion helped bring to an end a period of persecution of the church, the beginning of which is described in Acts 8:1: ‘And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.’ The persecution that started in Jerusalem was not a disaster. It brought about the spread of the church in Judaea and Samaria. We are not told what happened in Galilee until our text, but we can see that churches there too had growth.   After Paul was converted, the church also grew in Damascus. He came back to Jerusalem after a few years and was introduced to the apostles by Barnabas. His preaching there in Jerusalem led to concerns for his safety and he was sent away to Tarsus. The church had been purified, perhaps chastened. God works in unusual ways sometimes to bring spiritual prosperity.   But would it continu

As we know, the recipients of this letter were discouraged for a variety of reasons. The author responded to them with a message of encouragement and exhortation. Although he has written quite a long letter, he basically has one answer to their dilemma. His answer is not a theory, but a person. In his letter, he mentions other potential sources of real help, but in doing so points out their inferiority to Jesus. He begins by mentioning prophets, but what did they know in comparison with Jesus, even although their information had been supplied by God? He mentions angels, those creatures who excel in strength, but what do they know about the experience of human life? He mentions Moses and Joshua, their great leaders who brought them from slavery to the promised land, but what could they do for them now? He mentions Aaron, and the great system of priesthood and sacrifice and worship connected to him, but what did all that range of activities do for them in contrast to Jesus? He even menti

Do we think this is a solemn verse describing a surprising divine response to the behaviour of Christians? It is not the only biblical reference that describes God as grieved. Obviously, God does not grieve in a creaturely way. But he was grieved with the children of Israel for forty years (Psalm 95:10 and repeated in Hebrews 3:10 and 17). And Paul warns the Christians in Ephesus about grieving the Spirit. Later they had grieved the Spirit on their journey to become the loveless church they are described as being in Revelation 2.   I would like to begin with several quotations. The first is from John Calvin:  ‘Endeavour that the Holy Spirit may dwell cheerfully with you, as in a pleasant and joyful dwelling, and give him no occasion for grief.’ Calvin has provided an interesting illustration in which the believer is likened to a happy home, in which the Holy Spirit could live cheerfully.    Matthew Henry’s commentary for laypeople has been used for centuries and is still valued today f

Questions to answer Sometimes we are asked, where is your church? Usually, the person asking the question has in mind the building where we worship. Imagine asking it in Saudi Arabia? What would someone reply there? Or if someone asked, what is your church like? There could be a lot of answers to that question. Or if someone asked, how often do you meet? And how many attend?   What would be the answers if we asked those questions to the author of Hebrews? After all, some people were stopping attending the gatherings. They were doing so for two reasons. One reason was that the circumstances were difficult, mainly caused by persecution. The other reason was that they thought church was drab in comparison to what the Jews possessed in their temple worship, with all the visible rituals and performances that went on. His remedy for them was to consider the real picture of the church in the presence of God.   Of course, there are different ways of looking at the church. One is what we call t