Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 7/8/2011 What is the message of the Book of Genesis? Many correct answers could be given to that question. It tells us how God made the world; it tells us about the entrance of sin; it speaks about the choice of Abraham as the originator of the line from whom the Saviour would come. It also tells us what bad clay the heavenly Potter has to work with, because from one perspective Genesis is about how God worked in the lives of certain individuals. In this passage, we see how he worked in the lives of three of his people (Isaac, Rebekah and Jacob) and there are many lessons for us. The passage also mentions a fourth person, Esau, and he is a picture of how close we can come to the blessing of God and not receive it. The passing of time A lot of years have passed since Jacob obtained the birthright from his brother Esau. Isaac is probably now 137 years old. What had happened to Isaac in the intervening years? We are given three details in Genesis 26. ...

This sermon was preached on 24/7/2011 As we can see from the account, nothing is said about the childhood and adolescence of Esau and Jacob. No doubt there were significant events and one that can be worked out from the genealogies is the passing of their grandfather Abraham when they were about fifteen. There would also be regular events, also significant but which carry the possibility of being taken for granted. We saw in a previous study that prayer was a major feature of the lives of Isaac and Rebekah, and no doubt that would have continued. Esau and Jacob would have grown up within a pious community where the name of God was honoured, although they have felt a bit isolated because of the fewness of those connected with them. It is useful to bear in mind why Moses wrote the Book of Genesis. He is not writing a history of the ancient world, instead he is describing the development of the kingdom of God. Moses only refers to important people and events when they affect God’s...

This sermon was preached on 17/7/2011 There are three reasons why I think a study of the life of Jacob is important. First, we are believers in the same God and follow the same spiritual life as Jacob did. We learn more about the spiritual life from the accounts of individuals in the Bible than we do from other biographies, even of devout believers. Second, his life covers a great deal of the Book of Genesis – studying Jacob also means studying aspects of the lives of his parents (Isaac and Rebekah) and his children (especially Joseph). Third, the Lord often refers to himself as the God of Jacob, which points to a relationship between them that has implications and lessons for other believers. Before we look at what Genesis 25 says about the birth of Jacob, we should look at the genealogy in the chapter because he genealogies of the patriarchs provide interesting details. We can see from Genesis 25:7 that Abraham died when he was 175 years old. He was 100 when Isaac was born, ...

This sermon was preached on 24/7/2011 Abraham Kuyper begins his massive work on the Holy Spirit by saying that ‘the need of divine guidance is never more deeply felt than when one undertakes to give instruction in the work of the Holy Spirit – so unspeakably tender is the subject, touching the inmost secrets of God and the soul’s deepest mysteries.’ And if there is one area of the spiritual life in which this is especially the case, it is in the way believers have fellowship with the Spirit. As far as I know, there are two biblical passages which use the phrase ‘fellowship of the Spirit’ or ‘the communion of the Holy Spirit’. One is Philippians 2:1-2, where Paul writes: ‘So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.’ The other is the benediction found at the close of 2 Corinthians: ‘The grace of the Lo...

This sermon was preached on 28/7/2011 Sometimes we tend to read lists of names in the Bible in a manner similar to how we use the telephone directory – we only read them if we have to. Yet such an attitude will mean missing out on information that the Lord wants us to have because, for example here, we often find little details about church life in the lists of names that Paul mentions. We can see that is the case in the list in Colossians 4. From the list we can also deduce that Paul was a people’s person, who clearly wanted to say something good about his companions (we should note that he has nothing much to say about Demas (v. 14), which may be a hint that even then, several years before he apostatised, Demas was giving signs that all was not well. The companions of Paul (vv. 9-14) What I want to do in this study is look briefly at what Paul says about the various individuals he mentions. We will begin with Onesimus (we looked at Tychicus in a previous study). Onesimus had been s...

This sermon was preached on 21/7/2011 In the Bible, there are many unsung heroes who are mentioned briefly in different places. Almost every prominent Bible character has several other persons mentioned as his companions in particular periods of his life. Paul had several such persons. Concerning some of them, such as Barnabas and Silas, a great deal is said in the Book of Acts. Others, such as Epaphroditus or Epaphrus, are only mentioned briefly. Epaphroditus, who brought a gift to Paul from the church in Philippi, is described by Paul as his ‘brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier’, one whom his church should ‘receive in the Lord with all joy, and honour’ (Phil. 2:25-30; 4:18). Epaphrus was a prisoner along with Paul at this time (Phil. 23); he had brought the gospel to Colosse, and although he was presently absent from the church there, Paul assures them that Epaphrus was ‘always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the ...

This sermon was preached on 14/7/2011 In these verses, Paul describes the witness of Christians to non-Christians, whom he describes here as outsiders. The witness is twofold: in verse 5, he refers to life in general and in verse 6 he refers to our speech. It is likely that there is an evangelistic thrust in this witness because Paul has just asked for prayer for his own evangelistic activities. Now he turns and addresses the form of witness that the Colossians should engaged in. The meaning of ‘outsiders’ This word does not sound a friendly word, but Paul does not suggest that Christians should be unfriendly. Instead it is a word that highlights several features. First, it is a word that reminds us that most people do not belong to the visible church, that is, the organised church in a community. The mark of the visible church is baptism, which is given to those who profess the Christian religion. Until a person has been baptised he is obviously an outsider from its public functions...