Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Pilate is well-known for asking in a sarcastic manner, ‘What is truth?’ Given that he was speaking to Jesus, he also could have asked, ‘Who is truth?’ because he was speaking to the One who said he was the way, the truth and the life. Today people are just as sceptical as Pilate. We speak of personal truth, your own truth, which is another way of saying that there is no truth. The word ‘truth’ has different meanings and the recognition of this is seen in courtrooms when people are asked to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Witnesses can see the same event but each of them can see it differently. Even in casual settings, I can say a true statement that is not the whole truth: if I say, ‘my car is red,’ I am telling the truth but not all the truth about my car. Some truths are self-evident. I have to breathe in order to live. Other truths have to be revealed. Creation reveals that there is a divine Creator, but it does not say as much about him as the Bible does. The Bible ...

In this sermon, I want us to consider parables three (mustard seed) and four (leaven) and seven (a fishing net) of the seven that Jesus gave in this chapter. We have already considered parables one, two, five and six. All of the parables are about the kingdom that Jesus will reign over. First, I will give a summary of what we have discovered so far. Second, I will answer the question, What is meant by the kingdom in this set of parables? It is important to know the answer to that question because the term kingdom has different meanings and applications in the New Testament. Third, I will make some comments on the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. Fourth, I will spend some time on the final parable, that of the dragnet, and make some applicatory comments. Summary so far Parable one, about the Sower and the seed, is about two kinds of responses, one good and the other bad. There are three bad responses to the message of the kingdom (initial refusal, dislike of opposition, and ...

The   Bible speaks about awards and prizes and crowns. Several of them are taken from the races at the ancient games, and those races were similar to those that we are familiar with today. The writer to the Hebrews makes a powerful use of athletics when he says in Hebrews 12:1-2: ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’ Paul makes a few references to running   a race. In Philippians 3:13-14, he says: ‘Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’ In...

The parables of the hidden treasure and the valuable pearl point to the worth of the kingdom. Their message concerns what the kingdom contains and what the initial response to discovering it should be. So we can think about those two aspects. Before we do, we can notice some of the details to help us understand the points being made. First, why would there be buried treasure in a field? In the ancient world, rich people could not place their valuables in a vault in a bank. The safest way to hide them from robbers or invaders was to bury them. It was possible for someone to have to flee before he could recover his treasure, and no one would know that it was there. Or perhaps, somebody inherited a field from a relative, and as he was ploughing it he came across treasure that had been buried by his relative or by another family member. It would not be rare for a person to come across buried treasure. Second, what is the significance of pearls? Today, there are thousands of pearls, but few...

Whatever people think of the apostle Paul, it is impossible to ignore him. There are few people who have affected subsequent history after their lives are over in the way that he has. Today, some people love him, and others despise him, which is quite a remarkable effect two thousand years after he lived. It is true to say that Paul would have made a mark in his own generation even if he had remained a traditional Jew, but the main reason for his ongoing effect is because he became a Christian. And he became one to the extent that he was prepared to be executed for his commitment to Jesus. Conversion to Jesus on the Damascus Road did not only change Paul’s opinion of Jesus; it also changed Paul’s opinion of himself. Before he met Jesus, Paul knew that he was a sinner to some extent; after he met Jesus, Paul regarded himself as the chief of sinners and he held this opinion even when he had become a leading Christian. He saw no reason to conceal that self-opinion even when he was writing...

People today have many questions. In the world, they will ask why people continue to do wrong, no matter the attempts to improve things. In the church, they ask if the gospel will be successful and will converts become numerous. Of course, those questions are not new. People have asked them or ones similar to them for a long time. Does this parable answer those questions? Could such a short story answer those profound questions. No doubt, the possibility depends on the capability of the speaker. Could Jesus deal with such questions in a short story? Maybe you would like to look at the parable again and see what it says about why people continue to do wrong and what it says about whether the gospel will be successful. The parable says that both outcomes will happen throughout human history. What were the weeds? There are many kinds of weeds, as we know from our gardens. The particular type of weed in this parable is called darnel and it often grows alongside wheat. Initially, darnel loo...

We are used to brief bios of people, say on the back cover of a book or in a footnote reference to a person mentioned in a text. In such bios, important details about the person are mentioned. In verse 1 of 2 Samuel 23, we have a bio of David placed before an oracle that he made towards the end of his life: ‘The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel.’ What makes this brief bio of further interest is that the person who wrote it was guided by the Holy Spirit to make it. So what does it say? The bio refers to the lowly beginnings of David in the family of Jesse in Bethlehem, and then his ascent to become the king of Israel, a role for which he was anointed by God, before closing with the mention of his activity as a psalmist. There are few bios as good as the one given of David. It is a striking description of his activity as the psalmist to say that it was sweet. Sweet is a word con...