Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

We are all familiar with circumstances that seem so difficult that we wonder what someone could say to people in them. Peter was very much aware that his readers faced problems that showed no sign of disappearing. His remarks would need to be realistic, sympathetic and encouraging at the same time. We may be surprised that he makes no attempt to minimise their troubles or by suggesting they might disappear.   Praise of the Father (1:3-5) Having given his greetings to the churches, Peter continues with an expression of praise to God the Father. In his expression of praise, he first refers to the relationship between the Father and Jesus. Then he describes features of the relationship between the Father and his readers.   The Father and Jesus The relationship between the Father and Jesus is expressed in terms that refer to Jesus as the exalted Mediator. We see this in the way that Jesus is described. He is the Messiah (Christ) who has been highly exalted and given the supreme ti...

The first action of a soldier when preparing to put on his armour was to use a belt or girdle to hold his clothes in place and also to where he could attach his sword when not using it. He did this to prevent his clothes from hindering his movements in a battle and to prevent him from being able to use pieces of armour such as the shield or the sword. Paul was aware of this requirement for a soldier, and he saw it as an illustration of the fact that a Christian soldier can only fight if he knows the truth and is governed by the truth. This obviously means that we have to be convinced about truth.   Right away we can see an issue with our society. In today’s world, there is not one truth, but many truths. Indeed, the concept of truth has been reduced to individual preferences. It is common to hear the expression, ‘But that is only your opinion.’ Relativism is the atmosphere in which we live. From the Bible’s point of view, there is truth and anything that differs from it is a lie. T...

One of the common desires of people is to meet and they do so in different ways. No doubt those taking part in such events have a variety of reasons for doing so. If we asked them for their reasons, they would be able to tell us. Football supporters cheer on their team, for example. Christians also meet, but why do they do so? Suppose someone was to stop ask you as you leave the building today, ‘Why were you meeting together?’, what would you say? More importantly, what reasons does the Bible provide for why we come here?   Why on Sunday? There are three reasons for doing so. The basic reason for meeting on Sunday is that doing so was the practice of the New Testament churches. Paul reminded the Corinthians to have a collection on the first day of the week, which assumes they met on that day. On another occasion, when he was in Troas, he says that he knew beforehand that the Christians there would meet on together on the first day of the week to break bread. Luke describes the serv...

Someone has said that two common mistakes made by Christians about the devil is for some to make too much of him and for others to make too little of him. Some see the devil virtually everywhere; others see him virtually nowhere. Did you think about him today? If you are a Christian, he thought about you and schemed to defeat you. If you are not a Christian, he has been blinding you to your immediate need of Christ. It is important that we have a biblical view of who he is and what he does. Paul reminds us of that in this passage.   The church in Ephesus had seen how very early on the devil had caused metalworkers connected to pagan worship to raise a riot against the gospel when Paul was planting the church. Paul later on had warned the elders of the congregation that false teachers would arise from within their number. The apostle had even told the congregation in Ephesians 4:27 not to give the devil a foothold by them using wrong forms of speech and other sins. So there are thre...

History tells us that this instruction by Jesus has been the source of fierce debates. Some have regarded it as justification for creating an unbiblical liturgy in which the bread and the wine are regarded as a sacrifice whereas others have assumed that all that Jesus meant was that he should be remembered in a manner similar to how people recall a deliverance that was a great event in the past. As we look at the request, we can immediately see that there are some unusual features about it, which we cannot ignore; so we can think about them first. Then we can mention some ways in which the Saviour would want us to remember him.   Unusual features The first detail is that we are asked primarily to remember a person rather than an event. Of course, it is possible to say that the person of Jesus was an event in itself because everything about him is extraordinary. His arrival in the world and his actions in the world are all connected. Men and women have done great actions, but usuall...

It is generally assumed that Peter wrote this letter in the early 60s. Things were becoming hotter for the believers and indeed it would not be long before Peter himself would become a martyr. So here we have a letter from a man who knows with certainty that he is going to die for the faith to people whom he knew would suffer for the faith.   The sender The sender as we can see from verse 1 is ‘Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.’ We can observe three details here. One is that Peter did not regard himself as the chief of the apostles. Rather he saw himself as one of the apostles, equal with the others, and that he did not have primacy over the other apostles.    Second, Peter is here fulfilling the instruction and promise of Jesus that despite his fall he would yet strengthen his brothers. At the time Jesus made that announcement, Peter could not have imagined that his brothers would be Gentiles living far away from Israel. And by extension, he is strengthening us.  ...

Acts 9 is well-known for its account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. His conversion helped bring to an end a period of persecution of the church, the beginning of which is described in Acts 8:1: ‘And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.’ The persecution that started in Jerusalem was not a disaster. It brought about the spread of the church in Judaea and Samaria. We are not told what happened in Galilee until our text, but we can see that churches there too had growth.   After Paul was converted, the church also grew in Damascus. He came back to Jerusalem after a few years and was introduced to the apostles by Barnabas. His preaching there in Jerusalem led to concerns for his safety and he was sent away to Tarsus. The church had been purified, perhaps chastened. God works in unusual ways sometimes to bring spiritual prosperity.   But would i...