Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

There are some things that we, from a cultural point of view or even from a frightened-of-what-others-might-think point of view, regard as inappropriate and among them is a person saying anything about his or her own prayers. It would certainly cause a few heads to be turned if one of us was to start speaking about his or her prayers. So why does Paul here go into detail about why and how he prayed for the Roman believers? Here are some reasons. I hope they will let us see that while we normally might not want to speak about our own prayers, they should be offered in such a way that others would understand what we are praying for and why we are making particular petitions. 1. Five reasons for why he did so First, Paul was conscious that he was an example to other Christians. What benefit could he be to the Christians in Rome if he was not a praying person? Yet how would they know that he was that kind of man? Only by him revealing that he was. When they read his letter they woul...

We have considered recently two of the three features that Jesus indicated would be the marks of his true disciples. These two features are prayer in the name of Christ and obedience to the commandments of Christ. In this sermon, we will consider the third essential feature of true discipleship, which is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Spurgeon began one of his sermons by saying, ‘The unspeakable gift of the Son of God was followed by the equally priceless gift of the Holy Ghost,’ and that is a good perspective for us to have. Thinking about the Holy Spirit today is complicated by the influence of the Charismatic Movement on Christian thinking. That movement has stressed certain activities as indicating the presence of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, and the excesses connected to it may cause us to ignore the work of the Spirit in our own lives. Of course, this would be a mistake because the New Testament makes clear that we need to experience the workings of the Sp...

How would we describe our lives? It is common today to hear people say, ‘I did it my way,’ a title from a popular song of a few years ago. I read the lyrics the other day and saw that the song does not say anything about the future (I had known that detail before but had forgotten). All it seems to be is a personal reflection on how its author lived without help from God or anyone else. So although it is a song about dying, it is really a song without a destiny. I was also struck by how the lyrics don’t seem to take seriously any wrongs that the person may have done, as if death perhaps would bring an end to any consequences. I read another personal description of life at the same time. It is from the diary of Kenneth Macrae, who was the minister in Stornoway Free Church several decades ago. He recorded in his diary a few months before he died: ‘I have been long in His service here, but I never tired of it. All my grief was that it was so poor, so listless, so forgetful, and so la...

The final statement in the Apostles Creed follows on from the affirmation about the resurrection of the body. So we can read the statement as indicating the kind of existence in which those resurrected in a saved condition will enjoy. We should also read it aware that this future experience is one of only two possible circumstances in which humans will find themselves, the other being eternal death throughout an endless eternity. It is important to remember that both life and death describe forms of existence, and that death in this context does not suggest cessation of being, as some have suggested. We should not be surprised that sensitive, compassionate Christians have looked for possible interpretations that would mitigate the awfulness of a lost eternity. Yet we have also to acknowledge that the New Testament is very clear about the reality of hell as a place of permanent, conscious punishment administered by a righteous God on those who have disobeyed his will. As mentioned prev...