Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on Sunday, 5th October, 2010 This third recorded saying of Jesus on the cross is only recorded by the apostle John: ‘But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.’ As we can see, there are really two sayings, one to Mary and one to John. Whenever we look at the life of Jesus we see it was different from other lives. Often his actions seem to go from the extraordinary to the ordinary and back again. Speaking to his disciples about a hungry crowd numbering several thousand, he mentions their need of food – an ordinary assessment; then he proceeds to feed them all from a few loaves and fish – an extraordinary action. Travelling across the sea of Galilee on one...

This sermon was preached on Sunday, 5th October 2009 In this section of his Gospel John has been describing the various ways in which different people came to know who Jesus was. At one level the chapter records how these individuals encountered Jesus; at another level John is building a composite picture of who Jesus is so that his readers will get as full a picture as possible, and he will continue to do this throughout his Gospel. John described Jesus as the Lamb of God, Andrew described Jesus as the Messiah; in the section we are considering there are the descriptions of Philip and of Nathanael. It is supposed that Nathanael is the same person as Bartholemew, mainly because Philip and Bartholemew are linked together in the lists of apostles (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14). The testimony of Philip There are four features of Philip’s testimony about Jesus that we should notice. First, Philip says that he is not alone in his discovery about Jesus – Philip says to Nathanael: ...

This sermon was preached on Sunday, 5th October, 2010 Introduction The Book of Genesis is about beginnings, not only describing the origins of the universe and the creation of Adam and Eve, but also detailing the appearance of human sin and the onset of God’s plan of redeeming the sinful human race. As with all other books in the Bible, Genesis was written under divine inspiration and contains details that were given to its author Moses by divine revelation. It is likely that Moses included details concerning the lives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph that were handed down through the generations of Israelites. He may have had access, when he was a royal official in Egypt before his flight from Pharaoh, to government records that described geographical areas and political groups. Nevertheless he was divinely guided by God concerning the selection of material to include in his book and divinely controlled as to the words he used when writing these details in his ...

This sermon was preached on Thursday, 1/10/2009 What was Jesus like and what kind of life did he live? Paul gives one summary of the life of Jesus in Romans 8:3: ‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.’ This verse is a reminder that there are different roles played by each person of the Trinity in the plan of salvation. One aspect of the role of the Father in sending his Son to be the Saviour was the preparation of his human nature, which is referred to here in the phrase, ‘the likeness of sinful flesh.’ This phrase has played a central role in theological study as it has considered the Saviour’s human nature. Sent by the Father To begin with, this verse reminds us that the Son of God existed before he became a human – we can see this in the statement that he was sent by the Father (a person has to exist before he can be sent). Here we draw near to what is m...

This sermon was preached on 27/9/2009 ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’ (Luke 23:39-43) A lot of people were at Calvary that day who would not have written it in their diaries as a day to enjoy. The soldiers were there because they had work to do, the Jews were there because they had malice to show, the disciples were there because they had sorrow to bear, the crucified were there because higher powers had arranged for their deaths. It is on those who were crucified that we will focus, although we may mention the others. When I said that these three men were there by the arrangement of higher powers, I don’t mean that their deaths were authorised by the civil authorities. They were involved, and no doubt they imagined that they had arranged it, yet the higher power that arranged what was taking place was God. The primary reason why Jesus and the two criminals were on crosses was because God had arranged it. This is an important perspective for us to have, ...

This sermon was preached on 27/9/2009 The Conversion of Andrew (John 1:35-42) Many who are old enough can recall what they were doing when President Kennedy was assassinated. A more recent event which individuals can remember what they were doing when they heard about it is the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2002. For what it is worth, I remember what I was doing when Margaret Thatcher announced her resignation – I was driving along a street in Edinburgh. These were events of public significance. But it is also the case that we can remember when certain things happened to us individually, and that was true of Andrew and his friend mentioned in our text, for they remembered the time of day when they met Jesus Christ. It was about 4 pm (the tenth hour). Four conversions are recorded in this chapter: Andrew was helped by a preacher (John the Baptist), Peter and Nathaniel were witnessed to by other disciples of Jesus, and Philip was found by Jesus without...

This sermon was preached on 20/9/2009 1 Prayer for Forgiveness (Luke 23:34) The cross of Jesus is the most important happening in human history. Yet when we look at the people who were there, we see that, initially at least, it did not affect them as it should have done. The soldiers were indifferent, the Jewish leaders were hostile, the crowd was antagonistic, the crucified criminals were spiteful, his friends were distraught. We will see various attitudes and responses by these different groups as we think about the events that took place at Calvary. Through the hours that Jesus was on the cross, some of the members of these groups began to think differently. Yet interesting as their reactions are, it is more important for us to understand what was going on in the mind of Jesus when he was on the cross. How can we discover what he was thinking? One way of doing so is by considering what he said when he was on the cross. In the Gospels are found seven sayings that Jesus uttered on the...