Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

When we put ourselves into the shoes of the disciples on the evening of the day when Jesus was crucified, what thoughts could have come to our minds? Perhaps we would be tempted to say that all was now pointless, that there was no point in serving Jesus any more. I suppose one way of trying to express this feeling would be to ask ourselves, ‘What would we do if we were the only Christian left?’ That may seem unlikely, but while the big picture does not include such a scenario, many small pictures in our lives may include it. We may be the only Christian in our family, or in our street, or in our class in school, or in our place of work, and despite what we have done and prayed the situation has not changed. In such circumstances, we can be like those disciples who had to react to what had happened to Jesus when he was crucified. Contrasting responses One wrong response would be to imitate his disciples, those whom he had taught for three years, and indeed taught them about what ...

Despite his progress in the Christian life, Paul knew that he was still not yet perfect. However far he had advanced, there was still further to go. In these verses, he uses the imagery of a race to depict the Christian life. It is like a long-distance race, not a short sprint race. Further, it is like a steeplechase race which has many obstacles throughout its course. The obvious feature of a race is that the runners have to start at the same place. It is not possible for someone to join a 10,000 metres race half-way through it. Instead each athlete has to begin at the starting line. Similarly, there is a starting line to the Christian race. In a sense, each person is in one of three places: he or she is running the race, or he or she is at the starting line, or he or she has wandered away from the starting line. What is the starting line? It is the gospel invitation. The call is given to trust in Jesus Christ and begin the race to heaven. The purpose of Christ (v. 12...

Matthew highlights four consequences in connection to the cross after the Saviour had died. Each of them was unexpected. The curtain is destroyed (Matthew 27:51)   The first detail that Matthew mentions is that the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place in the temple was torn in two. One assumes that priests would have been serving at that time in the temple and this would have startled them. We cannot know if they saw into the most holy place, but if they did, they would have seen its furniture and other features. The obvious deduction from the way that the curtain was torn is that it was a supernatural act. If it had been a human act, it would have been torn from the bottom up. Yet since it was torn from the top down, we can assume correctly that the Lord did the rending. He wanted people to know that sinners could now come into his heavenly presence because of the stoning work of Jesus. Of course, the earthly most holy place could not depic...

Paul reveals his spiritual priorities in these verses, and in so doing reveals to us what it means to be Christ-centred. All of us have ambitions or goals and if we want to attain them we have to work out how to do so. Paul’s ambition is to know Christ and he says that it will involve two strategies: one is the power of Christ’s resurrection and the other is the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Again, with regard to our goals, we usually have a reason for them; Paul’s reason for knowing Christ is so that he ‘may attain to the resurrection of the dead’. Often if we were to ask an onlooker for his opinion of Christianity, he will reply that it seems to be a series of regulations and may refer to the Ten Commandments or to the Sermon on the Mount. Or he may say that it seems to be a set of rituals and he may mention prayer, baptism, the Lord’s Supper and so on. Obviously, in a sense his observations are accurate, yet they still omit the most crucial aspect of true Christianity whic...

There have been many accounts provided of the deaths of individuals. Some of them were martyrs, others were courageous soldiers, others were coping with diseases. Some of the accounts have been embellished with details that the readers cannot know if they are true or not. Matthew presents facts about the death of Jesus that people had observed taking place and they could be verified by individuals still alive when he wrote his account. The demeaning of Jesus After Pilate had pronounced the death sentence on Jesus, some soldiers took Jesus to their barracks and forced him to endure the entire battalion’s contempt. It is possible that they engaged in a game called The King’s Game which may have included the various details mentioned here. Yet it may also be the case that their actions reflected the reasons why Jesus was condemned by Pilate – he had been accused of involvement in an attempt to overthrow the Roman authorities. The intention of the soldiers was to demean Jesus an...