Sermons – Golden Bay Baptist Church: Recent Episodes
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Church Unity – John 17
If you knew that in just a few short hours you would be arrested, tried, and executed, what would you do? That’s the position we find Jesus in in John 13-17.
He knew what Judas was about to do, and knew what the outcome of that betrayal would be. Of course, Jesus had always known where His mission would take Him.
He came to show us the Father, and to take our sins onto Himself to make us right with God.
Over the years that He had spent with His apprentices, Jesus had taught them all about God’s right-side-up kingdom, and had spoken about how he would die to rescue us.
But the time now was short. On the night of His betrayal, Jesus spent some time instructing His friends on who He really is and what it means to follow Him.
He promised the coming of the Holy Spirit, and reminded them of how God our Father loves us dearly because we love Jesus and believe that He came from God.
And Jesus prayed.
He spoke to His Father about what was happening, what He had done, and what He was asking for. He asked our Father to protect His apprentices; to keep them safe from the evil one.
While Jesus was with them in person, He had done exactly that. Now that He would soon be returning to the Father, He entrusted them to the Father’s care.
But Jesus didn’t just pray for His apprentices back then. He also prayed “for all who will ever believe in me through their message.”
That’s you and I! Jesus’ prayer: that we would be one, just like the Father and the Son are one. More than that: that we would be united with both each other and with God!
Why is our being united such a big deal? Because if we are one with each other and with God, then the world will believe that Jesus was sent by the Father!
Our unity is a sign to the world of who Jesus really is! It arises out of God’s glory; it is the witness of God’s love at work in us and through us.
What unites us is our knowing the Father – the Fathers love for the Son in us; Christ living in us.
Unity isn’t an optional extra for Christians; it’s key to our identity!
ORDERLY WORSHIP
Prisencolinensinainciusol is a 1972 song by Italian singer Adriano Celentano. The name of the song – and the lyrics within it – are pure gibberish. There is absolutely no substance to the song – except for the fact that it sounds like American English sounds to those who don’t understand English! Celentano said, “I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate. And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn’t mean anything.”
Celentano also took inspiration from the story of the tower of Babel.
In 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul is addressing a question from the Corinthians about the special abilities that the Spirit gives. The Spirit gives all sorts of gifts to people in the church.
But it was the more “impressive” gifts that the Corinthians were interested in – the gifts that seemed most “spiritual”. In particular, it seems that there was an emphasis on the gift of speaking in unknown languages. That is a gift from God to the church, and one that God still gives.
But Paul encourages the church to seek after the most useful gifts – the gifts that will help the church body he most. He wishes that everyone could speak in tongues – but wishes even more that everyone have the gift of prophecy. Because, says Paul, prophecy is a greater gift than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what is being said so that the whole church is strengthened.
Are the gifts that God gives for our own edification alone, or given for the edification and encouragement of the whole community of God?
What, Paul also asks, will be helpful in seeing non-believers coming to realise that God is truly among us?
What about our life together here at Golden Bay Baptist? What gifts has God given to us? What gifts do we desire? Which gifts would be the most beneficial for the church community, and in reaching to our lost community?
Where should our focus be?
Today’s text: 1 CORINTHIANS 14
Years ago, I visited an Indian restaurant, Annalakshmi, a few times. It was good food, with great views over the swan river. It’s also a restaurant dedicated to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. If I recall correctly, I discovered on one occassion that the food on offer was being dedicated to the goddess, of whom there is a prominent statue on display. The restaurant also has a philosophy that guests are divine, and should be treated as such.
Should Christians go to restaurants like that? Isn’t food food? Aren’t idols simply lifeless amalgams of wood, stone and/or metal?
There aren’t many times here in WA that we encounter occassions where food is offered to idols. It was, however, a much bigger deal in the ancient world, including the world of the early Corinthian Christians. Many of them had turned from paganism to follow Jesus. They had grown up attending temple feasts, and sacrifices made to idols. Deeply ingrained was a connection between the food they ate and the false gods they used to worship.
A lot of the meat available to purchase would also have been a by-product of sacrifices: sacrifices create a lot of food!
Some Corinthian Christians were more than happy to eat whatever wherever. For others, their consciences just didn’t sit well with eating food that had been sacrificed to idols.
Says Paul: flee idolatry. Christians can’t partake in idols. But food sold in a secular setting isn’t tainted. It’s just food! But there’s more at play than our freedom to eat… there’s also our love for one another, and whether our actions are glorifying God.
This isn’t just about food…
Today’s text: 1 CORINTHIANS 10:14-11:1
Doubt
Have you ever doubted God? I only know of one person who never did so: Jesus. He trusted His Father absolutely – even to the point of taking our sins and dying for us. He has always been in a relationship of mutual love and trust with the Father and Spirit. But we humans are a different story. We are finite, created beings. And we live in a world tarnished and tainted by sin. Sin is about falling short of God’s standards, but so often it finds it’s origin in doubt. When the serpent tempted Eve to rebel against God, he did so by inviting her to doubt God and God’s good intentions.
short of God’s standards, but so often it finds it’s origin in doubt. When the serpent tempted Eve to rebel against God, he did so by inviting her to doubt God and God’s good intentions.
“A lot of folks in our churches,” says philosopher theologian Dallas Willard, “have not been taught to question; they’ve been taught that doubt is a bad thing. Some people believe that if you doubt, God will maybe drop you from the subscription. But doubt is a good thing when it keeps you thinking about who God really is.”
The real question is how we deal with our doubts. Do we take them to God, or do we hide them away from Him and others? Do we look for answers, or do we assume that there will never be any answers? Do we, as Willard suggests, doubt our doubts as well as doubting our beliefs?Are we willing to risk talking about our questions and our doubts? Ignoring or suppressing them isn’t a sign of faith: it’s evidence of a lack of faith!
Imagine doubting that a spouse or friend actually cares for you. You might choose to pretend that you don’t doubt it – but won’t it subconsciously affect your relationship? Won’t it colour every interaction you have with them? What if, instead, you shared your doubts with them? What if you tested if the relationship was strong enough to bear the weight of your doubt?
Abraham is known as a man of great faith. But he and Sarah were also big doubters. They thought they could hide it – but God called them out. Will we let him do the same for us?
Today’s text: Genesis 17
After the death of Herod the Great, the territory that he had ruled was divided up by the Romans. Herod Antipas was given the region of Galilee to rule. In 26 AD, Antipas went to Rome to visit his half-brother Philip, Philip’s wife of about 30+ years, and his neice Salome. At this stage, Antipas would have been about 46, and Herodias in her early 40s. Long story short, Antipas and Herodias decided to divorce their present spouses, and marry each other. Antipas, Herodias, and Salome moved back to Israel, settling at Antipas’ palace near the sea of Galilee.
The Father of Herod Antipas’ former wife waged war on Herod – a war which did not go well for Herod Antipas. Later, Herodias’ jealousy of her brother Agrippa being given the title king, got Herod Antipas to ask the emperor Caligula for the same title. But when evidence came that Antipas had a stockpile sufficient to arm 70,000 men, Antipas and Herodias were instead exiled to Gaul. Oh, and before that, Antipas killed John the Baptist and became friends with Pilate over the killing of Jesus.
It reads like a soap opera, doesn’t it? And this re-telling leaves out half the details! Suffice to say, Herod Antipas was someone who wanted power – who was used to getting what he wanted. And Herodias seems to have been even more ambitious.
And then there was John the Baptist, the prophet calling people to repentance, who wouldn’t stop saying that marrying your brother’s wife wasn’t lawful! Herodias wanted John dead, but Herod had a morbid fascination with him. He would listen to John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. But he wasn’t going to change because of John, or even God. Eventually, Herodias got her way, and John the Baptist was executed, in a most gruesome scene.
John was rejected by those in power. And Mark tells his story in the context of Jesus’ being rejected by the people of Nazareth, his home town. But despite the various rejections, God’s kingdom was taking ground. Wherever it was welcomed, amazing things were happening. There was evidence of God’s goodness. Yes, there were places that rejected the good news – but that didn’t mean the program was failing. Despite the rejection, God’s kingdom was taking ground. And those who didn’t come on board – they were the ones missing out.
Why might people choose to reject the good news of God?
This weekend is palm Sunday, when we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem – shortly to be followed by the rejection of the crowds. But did the success of Jesus’ mission depend on their continued acceptance?
Today’s text: Mark 6:1-30
It had been raining, and the path around the lake had flooded in various sections. But Taryn and I had some time to spare before I had to be in the city, so we decided to just walk around the flooded parts of the path where necessary. It was a nice walk… until I saw it. A snake, slithering away from us on a bit of unflooded ground. I yelled out, urgently, “Snake!” throwing my arms out and pirroutting to alert Taryn to the danger. Unfortunately, I ended up first accidentally punching Taryn in the face, before completing my spin by falling down into the mud.
Taryn looked at me, quietly, as the snake continued minding its own business in the opposite direction. “I don’t think you handled that very well,” she said. Said I, “But it was a snake!!!”
Fear does funny things to us, doesn’t it? When we’re afraid, we’ll often have one of four instinctive responses: fawning, freezing in place, getting ready to fight, or – like I did with the snake – trying to run away. Fawning aside, those aren’t necessarily bad things to do – they are, frequently, exactly the right way to react to fear.
But how do we react to Jesus?
Today’s passage is all about fear. It starts with Jesus and His apprentices travelling on a boat across a lake. A great storm comes up, and the apprentices find themselves utterly terrified.
Then, arriving at shore, they encounter a terrified, terrifying man – host to a huge number of demons. Jesus sends the demons away, but the people of the region are so terrified that they beg Jesus to leave.
Back on the Jewish side of the lake, Jesus is met by a terrified man, whose daughter is about to die. His fear drives him to ask Jesus for help.
And while Jesus is on the way to help, we meet a terrified woman, who tries to sneak healing from Jesus, and is terrified when she can’t hide away.
Just who is Jesus? Is He someone to be feared, or someone to bring our fears to? How should we respond to Him?
Today’s passage: Mark 4:35-5:43
The Magician’s Nephew is the prequel to the more famous, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It tells the story of the creation of the world of Narnia, a world where Jesus is represented by a great lion Aslan. A couple of human children, Eustace and Polly, stumble upon Narnia as it is being formed. They find the song
of creation that Aslan sings wonderful! But the children had inadvertently brought two others along with them: the wicked witch, and Eustace’s uncle. The witch hates the song, and runs away. Listen to how Lewis describes Eustace’s uncle:
When the Lion had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, he
had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel.
Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a Lion (“only a lion,” as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make himself believe that it wasn’t singing and never had been singing, only roaring as any lion might in a zoo in our own world. Of course it can’t really have been singing, he thought, I must have imagined it. I’ve been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?
And the longer and more beautifully the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan’s song. Soon he couldn’t have heard anything else even if he had wanted to.
This weekend, we’re looking at one of the most famous of Jesus’ stories: the story of the Sower. It’s all about hearing and listening. Who can discover and understand the good news about God’s Kingdom? Why did Jesus speak in stories, with hidden meanings, when He spoke in public? Who can hear and understand Jesus? And what might this have to say about the way that we share the good news today?
Today’s text: Mark 4:1-25
In 2018, a reporter asked a prominent Christian leader in America why so many Christians were happy to support political candidates who seem to revel in disobeying Jesus’ teachings. The leader replied that Christians were just happy to have someone “on the playground that is willing to punch the bully.”
“What happened to turning the other cheek?” the reporter asked.
Replied the leader: “You know, you only have two cheeks.” What if Jesus was serious about calling on Christians to turn the other cheek, though? What if He were serious about calling on us to take up our crosses and to follow Him? Does Jesus really know the best way to live? Does He really understand what it means to live in this world of ours? Does He get the complexity of our lives?
It’s so easy to say we follow Jesus, but to reject His instructions when following them aren’t easy, or when they make our lives more difficult.
In today’s passage, we encounter a few different responses to Jesus. Some respond positively, but two groups that you might expect to be on board with Him respond very negatively. The family Jesus grew up in thought Jesus had lost the plot. And the scribes from Jerusalem – learned in the Scriptures – alleged that Jesus was in league with the devil.
Rejecting the work of the Spirit can have serious ramifications, though. Do we stand against Jesus – or are we members of the new people, the new family, brought together in His name?
Today’s text: Mark 3:7:35
To discuss: What does it look like in practice to be part of Jesus’ family?
When I was a child, I had a pretty major problem with my sister. You see, although we were both part of a Christian family, my sister had fallen into evil practices. I didn’t think she was a real Christian. What was she doing? She was listening to Christian rock music, rather than to classical stuff!
Fortunately, it wasn’t long until I realised how ridiculous my position was. She was celebrating God; I was setting up my own rules about what made someone right or wrong in God’s sight.
As I write this, I have my headphones on, and am bobbing along to some fantastic Christian songs. The real issue was never about the music, but about my own heart. It was about me trying to put up boundary markers for what a real Christian should be like.
I suspect the temptation to do that is one that many of us know well. And often the things we set up as boundary markers are good things. It is a good thing to attend church on a weekly basis. It’s a good thing to have your theology right (although we tend to argue about who is actually right!) It’s a good thing to listen to Christian music. It’s a good thing to set aside a day of the week to rest with God.
But how easy it is for these good things to become ultimate things. How easy to make them ends, rather than means. What if we so starch the collar of Christianity that we become unwilling to bend when God does something new?
Are we so caught up in the rules, our rules more often than not, that we lose sight of the fact that Jesus is King?
What if God is more concerned with seeing people come to know and enjoy Him than with them fitting into our neat and tidy boxes?
Today’s text: Mark 2:23-3:6
When we meet someone for the first time, we tend to try and figure out who they are. It’s interesting to hear how people define and describe themselves. Some people, often men, will tell you about their qualifications and achievements in life. Others will speak about their nationality or ethnicity. Others might tell you about their family. You might hear about the clubs that they are part of, or the various people you might both know who connect you.
Who are you?
I don’t think it’s a question that can be answered apart form some sort of relational or social context. Even if we say, “I’m a loner”, we’re defining ourselves in terms of other people!
Who are they?
That’s a different question, isn’t it? All of a sudden, we’re not asking about someone’s self-assessment, but that of those around them. We want others to think well of us. That’s why we spend so much time cultivating our friendships and our facebook statuses. That’s why we make sure we use the best filters on our instagram, and project the right image of ourselves in our TikTok shares. It’s why we choose who we hang out with.
It’s all about image management and self-improvement.
Who are you?
And who is Jesus?
This week, we’re starting a new series in Marks’ gospel – all about the good news of God. Mark wants us to realise who Jesus is – and to realise what that means for us.
Today’s text: Mark 1:1-13
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been exploring God’s description of His character, given to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7. We have seen that God is full of compassion, grace, love and faithfulness. But He is also a God of justice – He does not let the guilty go unpunished. This doesn’t, of course, contradict the fact that God is full of mercy and grace. The good news is that God Himself bore our punishment, and invites us to trust and rely on Him.
God takes injustice very seriously. Egypt was punished for the unjust way that they treated Israel. The Assyrians and Babylonians, who took Israel and Judah into exile, were likewise punished. Yes, there were opportunities for people to call on God for mercy – like we saw in the story of Jonah’s experience at the capital city of Assyria, Ninevah. But God will not allow injustice to stand. How could He do so, since God is love?
God’s people are meant to be justice-people. Israel’s society was meant to promote social justice. God made provisions for things like a year of Jubilee – a time when debts were forgiven and properties returned to their owners. Israel was meant to treat foreigners in the land well, remembering their own time in Egypt. They were meant to show the world a truly just society. A community where people treated one another rightly, in the knowledge that we are all made in the image of God.
But it often didn’t work that way.
What about the church today? How important is it for us to value and seek justice? Do we live in a just community? What should we do about it? Are we a just community, and how can we make justice as precious to us as it is to Him?
Today’s text: Amos 5
In 2018, a reporter asked a prominent Christian leader in America why so many Christians were happy to support political candidates who seem to revel in disobeying Jesus’ teachings. The leader replied that Christians were just happy to have someone “on the playground that is willing to punch the bully.”
“What happened to turning the other cheek?” the reporter asked.
Replied the leader: “You know, you only have two cheeks.”
What if Jesus was serious about calling on Christians to turn the other cheek, though? What if He were serious about calling on us to take up our crosses and to follow Him?
Does Jesus really know the best way to live? Does He really understand what it means to live in this world of ours? Does He get the complexity of our lives?
It’s so easy to say we follow Jesus, but to reject His instructions when following them aren’t easy, or when they make our lives more difficult.
In today’s passage, we encounter a few different responses to Jesus. Some respond positively, but two groups that you might expect to be on board with Him respond very negatively. The family Jesus grew up in thought Jesus had lost the plot. And the scribes from Jerusalem – learned in the Scriptures – alleged that Jesus was in league with the devil.
Rejecting the work of the Spirit can have serious ramifications, though. Do we stand against Jesus – or are we members of the new people, the new family, brought together in His name?
Today’s text: Mark 3:7:35
To discuss: What does it look like in
practice to be part of Jesus’ family?
As I write this, it is Valentines Day. Across our city, people are expressing their love and commitment to one another. It is a wonderful thing to know that you are loved. I would content that humans need to both be loved and love in return. We are social creatures, designed for deep relationship. The absence of love is both painful and malformative. There are doubtless many today who are feeling alone, unloved and deeply hurt.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at God’s description of what He is like, as given to Moses in Exodus 34:6-8. We have already seen that God is full of mercy, and slow to anger. This weekend, we’re considering what it means for God to be full of unfailing love.
Max Lucado writes that, “If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every Spring and sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk to him, he’ll listen. …Face it, friend. He’s crazy about you.”
Our God is not some distant, uninterested God. He is, rather, the one who loves us. He who knows each star in the sky also knows our name, and every hair on our heads.
God is love. Love has always flowed between Father, Son and Spirit. In love, God chose to create us. And, in love, God choose to act to save us from sin and death – and to invite us into His love, and into His life.
God’s love is not something abstract – it is expressed in concrete ways. And His love is not fickle – His love for us never wavers.
And He has adopted us as His children. But what does that mean for us and for the way we love?
Today’s text: 1 John 4:7-21
It’s not nice being around someone who loses their temper at the drop of a hat. I suspect that all of us have some experience of people like that. Say the wrong thing, or say it in the wrong way, and you will soon know that you have caused offence. In the worst cases, people lash out against those who have angered them. In other cases, their simmering anger sets out to make you feel guilty for upsetting them. Even if things get better, you know that anything, at any time, could spark another bout of rage.
Anger exists to alert us to the fact that someone or something is obstructing our will. There is nothing wrong with anger per-se. God, after all, gets angry. If God didn’t get angry at sin, evil, and injustice, He wouldn’t be the loving God that He is. But while God’s will is good and perfect, and driven by love, our wills are broken and selfish, driven by vanity, hurt, desperation and an ultimate powerlessness.
I remember an occasion when someone, unhappy with the speed I was driving, swerved around and in front of me, and shared his anger by giving me the middle finger. It wasn’t actually a big deal. Someone who was behind me was now in front of me. But my anger immediately rose. I was driving at the speed limit; this person had no right to act like they had. Angrily, I flashed my lights at them. A small thing, maybe. But what’s scary is how quickly my anger rose.
If Jesus was driving, would he have flashed to anger like that? In Exodus 34:6-7 God describes himself as “slow to anger.” What does that look like, and what does it mean for us?
Today’s text: Judges 6
There’s an old saying: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” The idea is that children tend to take after their parents. But this isn’t just in terms of physical resemblance. We learn character from our family of origin. We learn how to relate to other people. It’s amazing how, even if we don’t realise it, we find ourselves echoing the attitudes and approaches of our forebears.
These days, I find myself speaking to Daniel about how we do or don’t do things in our family, saying things like, “In our family, we try and be kind.” If we belong to Jesus, we have been adopted into the family of God! And right now, we are learning the sorts of things that we do or don’t do as part of His family. Those are based on who God is, and what His character is like. Over time, we’re picking up the family traits of being part of God’s people, as God transforms us to be more and more like Jesus.
For the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking at the ways that God describes Himself in Exodus 34:6-7, and seeing how these traits can be expressed by you and I. This weekend, we’re looking at what it means for Yahweh to be “the God of compassion and mercy!” What does it mean for God to show mercy, and who should be the recipients of that?
And who should we, as God’s children, shown mercy to? Or is it the “sin of empathy,” as one supposedly Christian commentator put it last week, to show mercy to others?
Today’s text: Jonah 3-4
What sorts of things do you find tempting? Although there may be similarities, our temptations are uniquely ours. They are tailored to our personal wants and desires. Temptations are tempting because we think that they have something good to offer us. We give in to temptations when we think that doing so will make our lives easier and better. Of course, there is always a cost when we do that – a cost that is often far greater than we expected. And although we might look to our temptations to satisfy us, they ultimately fail to give us exactly what we need.
This weekend, we’re looking with Luke at the time, immediately following Jesus’ baptism, when the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus spent 40 days there, fasting; at the start of His public ministry, Jesus spent time focusing on His Father. And it was while there that the devil came and tempted Jesus.
What sorts of things tempted Jesus? For starters, bread. Jesus was hungry, and the desire for a nice, fresh loaf of bread must have been intense. Then there was the temptation to reclaim the world there and then, instead of having to go through with the Father’s plan. And then there was the temptation to prove that the Father would actually look out for Jesus.
If you think about it, the fact that we know what happens means that Jesus must have told His apprentices about it. He didn’t, as we might be tempted to do, pretend that He was immune to temptation. No, as Hebrews 4:15 points out, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.”
We can certainly learn from Jesus how we should respond to temptation. But is that the main reason why Luke tells us about it? And why, if it occurred immediately following Jesus’ baptism, does Luke interrupt the flow with a genealogy?
Today’s text: Luke 4:1-13
To discuss:
- Why does Luke tell us about Jesus’ temptation after giving us His genealogy?
- Was Jesus actually tempted by this stuff? Why didn’t He give in to temptation?
Every year, a new advert for lamb is made in preparation for Australia day. This year, the advert suggests that lamb is the solution to closing the generation gap. Different generations look at the world differently – and look down on the generations that came before them. And yet the truth is that each generation is shaped by the one that raised it! Near the start, someone yells across the gap that they invented the internet that the other side was using. Later in the ad, an older man cries out, “Typical kids… everyone gets a trophy.” In reply, someone from Gen Z calls back, “We were kids, you bought us the trophies!”
We are shaped by our ancestors. Growing up and experiencing your parents divorcing will have an affect on you. Growing up in a family where the last 3 generations have all experienced divorce will affect you even more. Growing up in a nuclear family will have an effect on you. Growing up in a family that fights all the time will have an effect on you. Growing up in a family that has lots of money will have an effect on you. Growing up in a family that never has enough will have an effect on you. And these effects compound through the years. In America, after world war II, a GI Bill was introduced, insuring mortgages for returned soldiers in return for their service. Most black soldiers missed out on this. Black people weren’t allowed into the suburbs; and as a result didn’t accrue the generational wealth of their white brothers-in-arms. Real estate prices rise; but you don’t benefit from that if you aren’t allowed to own a house! Here in Australia, we also have some people that have reaped the benefits of generational wealth, and others who have been denied the opportunity.
But the one thing that is the same in all of our histories and genealogies is the presence of sin. All of us were raised by sinners, and are ourselves sinners. That’s part of why things like the racism described above occur so often. And, as sinners, all of us fall short of the glory of God. As sinners, we cannot please Him.
But is there perhaps one who has a better lineage than we do? And what does that mean for us today?
Today’s text: Luke 3:21-38
Unfortunately, there is no audio recording for today’s message. Please find some notes attached below!
Introduction: Who is Jesus?* Did you know: ~ 1 in 12 men on the Asian continent are related to Genghis Khan + we know this based on a unique Y-chromosome – so don’t know about women * It can be really interesting find out where you come from – what your heritage is + the things that formed your ancestors, and brought you to where you are today * Ancestry was very important to Jewish people in biblical times + after all… God had made promises to Abraham and his family - promises that they had clung to through wars, exile, attempted genocides etc. + to know your ancestry was to know that you belonged to the people of God! - It speaks to your heritage, and your culture, and the cultural approach to life + Neh 7:64 – returning from exile, some priests couldn’t prove their ancestry - because only people from Levi’s tribe were allowed to serve as priests * there had to be a whole process for determining if they were really eligible! * Last week, we heard John say someone greater than Him was coming: the Messiah + but what makes one eligible to be the Messiah?
God’s Testimony (21-22) One day, while John was baptising people, Jesus came to be baptised too + we’re not given much detail by Luke – and might wonder why* Jesus did this! - Jesus didn’t have any sins – and didn’t need to turn back to God - perhaps it was about Jesus identifying with those He came to save - perhaps it was about publicly identifying as someone who puts God first * when Jesus gets baptised, something happens that hasn’t happened with anyone else + while Jesus was praying, the heavens opened, and the Father spoke over Jesus - “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” - God the Father is saying Jesus is His Son – and that He is well pleased with Him * There’s nothing to forgive with Jesus; Jesus lives a life that pleases His Father - and the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove, came and settled on Jesus * people, I think, would have seen something like a dove settling on Jesus - I think this is a sign to everyone there that the Spirit is with Jesus – He’s different * Here is someone who pleases God absolutely, and on whom the Spirit rests + And then Luke gives us a long list of names!?!
Luke’s genealogy (23) Bible scholars spend a lot of time debating the genealogies given for Jesus + Luke’s genealogy is quite different at places to that given by Matthew + People have come up with different explanations for that – good, and less so - Personally, I think the idea of adoption/levirate marriage makes a lot of sense - Family trees are complicated things – with all sorts of twists and turns in them! * But let us not get so caught up looking at the trees that we miss the forest! + Luke is a very clever man, weaving together the story of Jesus for us - Why has he chosen to include a genealogy for us – and why put it here? * Rather than somewhere in relation to Jesus’ birth or naming? * Luke starts by telling us that Jesus was thought to be the son of Joseph + Joseph is Jesus’ legal, adoptive father – the one who would raise & train Him + from a legal perspective, Jesus belongs to Joseph’s family – though He isn’t his kid * Luke tracks back from Joseph through to King David: Jesus is the son of David; royalty + God had promised David that one of His descendants would rule forever - and Jesus, legally, is part of David’s family line + the Messiah has to be from David’s family; Israel’s King has to be David’s heir * Luke tracks back further, going to Abraham + Jesus belongs to Abraham’s family – He is one of the people of God - The promises that God made to Abraham are for Jesus * in fact, Jesus is the fulfilment of those promises + the one who will accomplish and experience all God promised Abraham * Luke tracks even further back – beyond Abraham all the way back to Adam * in Hebrew the words son & father can mean descendant & ancestor + we shouldn’t necessarily be trying to use genealogies like today’s to date creation - that’s not why Luke is giving us this genealogy – Luke has a better reason * Jesus is fully human – he tracks His humanity, his heritage back to creation + He wasn’t some half-god, half-man demigod; cf Greek and Roman stories + He is eligible to be the Messiah, because He really is one of us*; He really is human
What’s the point? (22,38) But Luke takes Jesus’ genealogy back one extra step – past Abraham to God + The Father described Jesus as His Son – and Luke’s genealogy says, Yes, He is! * We’re told in Genesis that when God created humanity, He made them in His image + Adam was God’s son in the sense that He came from God, and represented Him + Humanity was meant to represent God to the rest of creation – to be His icon - and they did a great job of that… until the fall * Jesus doesn’t just sort of reflect who God is – He does it perfectly – better than Adam + 1 Cor 15, Paul calls Jesus the second Adam – a fresh start for humanity * And yet Jesus is also God with us – the eternal, everlasting Son of God! + Jesus is a son of God by right of being human; but He is so much more than that!* - Adam was created by God; Jesus is God’s eternal Son; un-created and eternal * Luke has just finished telling us about the virgin birth – he isn’t talking biology + what he’s doing is making a theological point: Jesus is God’s Son - He is the one uniquely qualified to be the Messiah – He is our rescuer
Our heritage* And you and I – we too can become sons and daughters of God + adopted by Jesus, and brought into His lineage – the only genealogy that matters
At the end of the school year, Taryn and her fellow year 6 teachers took their students on a special outing to an amusement park in Mandurah. The trip had been planned and booked well in advance. But when they arrived at the entrance to the park, the place seemed all too quiet. It turns out that the park had forgotten about the booking – and weren’t ready for them! They managed to get things running, and people had fun, but it wasn’t good.
It’s not good being caught unprepared – especially if you’ve been warned to be ready.
Jesus once told a story about 10 bridesmaids, who took their lamps and went out to await the arrival of the bridegroom. He was delayed, and they all got tired and fell asleep. But then, at midnight, the news came that he was on his way! They woke up, and got their lamps ready… but half of them realised that they were low on lamp-oil. They had no choice but to go and try and buy some… at midnight! While they were gone, the bridegroom arrived, and everyone present went in, and the door was locked behind them. By the time the five arrived back, it was too late. They called to be let in, but the bridegroom refused, telling them that he didn’t know them. “So you, too,” Jesus concluded, “must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.” (Matthew 25)
In today’s text, Luke tells us about the work of John the Baptist. John warned people that God was coming, urging them to be ready for His arrival by repenting and turning to God for forgiveness. Should they be found not ready when God arrives, it wouldn’t end well for them. But they could, here and now, change direction and turn to Him for grace.
But that was all a long time ago… Does John’s message still hold any value for us today?
Today’s text: Luke 3:1-20
To discuss:
- What does it look like to be ready for Jesus’ return?
- Was John warning people about Jesus’ first or second coming?
- What hope is there for us?
How good are you at waiting for things? Back in 1970, scientists at Stanford conducted an experiment in delayed gratification. Kids were taken into a distraction free room, where a treat (either two animal cookies or 5 pretzels) was waiting for them. They were told that they could eat the treat – but that if they waited 15 minutes before doing so, they would actually get two treats. Obviously, it makes sense to wait for 15 minutes – but that isn’t always so easy to do!
In the second half of Luke 2, we meet two people who were, it seems, well practised at waiting. Both Simeon and Anna were eagerly waiting for God to come and rescue His people. They had, I suspect, been waiting and longing for God to save for a very long time. But their waiting wasn’t passive. Waiting on God, for both of them, was an active pursuit. Why did they do it? What was it that drove them?
And then, on that wonderful day, they found themselves in the temple as Jesus was being brought in. Simeon, prompted by the Spirit, took the child, Jesus, into His arms, and praised God! He blessed Mary and Joseph, and prophesied to them how Jesus would cause many in Israel to fall – and many to rise. He spoke of how Jesus had been sent as a sign from God, and of how many would oppose Him. He spoke of Mary’s own soul being pierced by a sword.
Anna, passing by as Simeon spoke, joined in the praise. And she spoke about the child to all who had been eagerly waiting for God to rescue Jerusalem. The wait had been long – but now the time had finally come!!
What about you and I? What are we waiting for – and how will it affect how we live today, in 2024, and for the rest of our lives?
Today’s text: Luke 2:21-40
Solomon’s temple must have been an amazing sight to behold. It stood for hundreds of years, a symbol of God’s presence with His people. According to 1 Kings 6:15ff, the entire inside, from floor to ceiling, was panelled with wood: cedar for the walls and ceilings, and cypress for the floors. The Most Holy Place in the temple was panelled floor to ceiling with cedar. And everything was covered in gold! There was an opulence and grandeur about the whole […]
Have you ever come across someone who was absolutely convinced that they were right, whilst being absolutely wrong? We all have the potential to be like that. Usually, pride is at work in the mix: a certainty that we already know what the picture is going to be, while everyone else is still trying to get the puzzle pieces out of the box. When this attitude is full-blown, convincing people to see the truth can be a huge, almost impossible […]
Next month, the acting head of the Baptist Union of Western Australia will be coming to preach for us. Speaking with them at the annual pastor’s conference a few months ago, however, they told me they thought that only about 25% of Baptist churches in Western Australia would be open to the idea of them coming to preach. Why? Simply because the acting head is a woman. Many Christians have been taught that the Bible rejects the idea of a […]
What does it mean to have faith in God? We could simply say that faith is the same as trust. But what does that actually look like in practice? In exploring that question, we are following in the footsteps of Hebrews 11, we are busy making our way through the stories of different people of faith. As we do so, we will discover how faithful God is, and what it means to live in relationship with Him. So far, we […]
She had no idea who He was - but He knew all about her. When we encounter the living God in Jesus, do we run away from Him or towards Him?
Could it be that at times our work for God could get in the way of God's work? This week we're focussing on how Jesus has to be centre-stage!
Nicodemus was impressive – but there were shadows in his life that Jesus’ light would illuminate. You might look impressive; like you’ve got everything sorted. But we all have shadows that we are ashamed of. Things we like to hide so that we can present a good face. We can often fool each other, at least for a while. But it is harder (aka impossible) to fool God.
If you were setting out to point someone to the fact that Jesus is God our Rescuer, where would you start? John starts his gospel with a quiet sign, that hardly anyone knew about. What's that all about?
John the Baptist called Jesus the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He also said that Jesus would baptise people with the Spirit. What was it that convinced John that Jesus was the Messiah - and what will we do with his testimony about Jesus?
Today’s Passage: Nehemiah 7:73 – 8:12 Last week, we saw how the exiles from Judah were allowed to return home to Jerusalem by King Cyrus to rebuild the temple. We saw them prioritising God in their lives, and celebrating His goodness to them as they laid the foundations for the temple. But there was a lot of opposition to rebuilding the temple – with it stopping and starting. But eventually, it was built. At some point after this, an influential […]
Today’s Passage: Ezra 3 Over the course of the last few months, we’ve set out to get a birds-eye view of the Old Testament story. We saw the start of all things in Genesis 1 and 2 – and it was good. But the world we live in is not good any more. It is broken, as are we. Genesis 1 to 11 introduces us to the two biggest issues in our world. Firstly, there is sin and death, and the […]
Today’s Passage: 2 Chronicles 36:11ffYou might also want to read: 2 Peter 3, 2 Kings 24-25 This week, we’re continuing our journey through the Old Testament story of God and His people. Two weeks ago, we looked at 1 Samuel 8, where Israel went to the prophet Samuel demanding to have a king like all of the other nations around them. At first glance, it might have seemed sensible for them to want to have a king. But the problem […]
This Easter Sunday, we remember the true King of the world. He died, but he was raised from the dead - and reigns right now!
This Good Friday, we remember Jesus our King. But He was a different kind of king to what everyone would have expected.
Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 8 This week, we’re returning to our lighting journey through the story of the Old Testament. We spent a few weeks in the introduction to the Biblical story: Genesis 1-11. There we saw that the way the world now is is a result of human rebellion against God. We have a sin problem. We also saw that we have a knowledge problem: we don’t know who God is or what He is like. As a result, […]
Over the last few weeks, life has changed. Across almost all the world, humanity is struggling to deal with a virus too small for the naked eye to see. How can Christians respond to this crisis?
Today’s Reading: Judges 2:6-3:6 Also helpful to read: Judges 1-21 Over the last few weeks, we’ve slowly been making our way through the Old Testament, trying to get a birds-eye view of it’s story. It’s the story of God’s good creation, and of humanity’s rebellion against God. It’s the story of God acting to set things right. The main emphasis in the Old Testament is on God’s showing us who He is, in preparation for His arrival in Jesus to […]
Over the last few weeks, we’ve started journeying through the Old Testament, and exploring the story of God and His people. We’ve seen how God created everything to be good, and how people sinned by not trusting God. Last week, we looked at the story of Babel, and how humanity had come to a point of not knowing who God is and what He is like. So God acted to change that. He chose one man, Abram, and called him […]
Today’s passage: Genesis 11:1-9 Have you ever bribed someone to do something for you? Every now and again, stories will come up about people or companies or countries trying to gain a competitive advantage over others by greasing a few palms. Mid 2018, an Australian company was found to have been bribing public officials in Vietnam in order to win work on aid projects in that country. There have been allegations made that people were bribed to vote for Qatar […]
Today’s passage: Genesis 3 Have you ever had a sneaking suspicion that you were being hard done by? It hurts when when we are being slighted. But it can also be a problem when we act on an assumption of unfairness that turns out to not be true. In the British sitcom “The IT Crowd,” there’s an episode where one of the main characters becomes convinced that she is being slighted. As the manager of the IT department, she was […]
This week, we’re starting a brand new series exploring the narrative books of the Old Testament. Our aim is to get a big picture overview of God’s story of redemption leading up to the coming of Jesus Christ. This week, we start at the very beginning of the Old Testament – Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Unfortunately, these beautiful chapters can be the cause of much confusion and hurt among Christians. Those who think that Genesis 1 teaches a young, […]
Today’s Passage: Psalm 84In 1977, NASA launched a pair of probes into space, on a course, eventually, out of our solar system. On those Voyager craft, they put a golden record (the height of technology!) 30 years later, Annie Druyan, the creative director behind the project, said the following about what she chose to include in The Sounds of Earth: The first thing I found myself thinking of was a piece by Beethoven from Opus 130, something called the Cavatina […]
Today’s Reading: Colossians 2:3-10 It seems like we’re getting more and more scam phone calls coming through in recent months. Often, these scammers try and convince us that we have a major problem, but that they can provide a solution for us very easily and very quickly, for just a small amount of money. They might claim to be from Telstra, the NBN, Microsoft or even the tax department. And they’re convincing. They keep doing it because they get enough […]
Today’s passage: Colossians 1:1-8 This weekend, we’re starting a new series through Paul’s letter to the church in Colosse. What’s interesting about this church is that it wasn’t one that Paul founded. It seems like Paul himself didn’t get to Colosse with the good news of God’s Kingdom made available to us through Jesus. A man named Epaphras was responsible for sharing the good news there. Maybe Epaphras had heard Paul speak in Ephesus, some 160km away. We’re not sure. […]
Today’s reading: Philippians 1:27-2:11 This Saturday just gone was Australia day. For some people, this day will be a painful reminder of the injustices of colonialism. For others, it will be a chance to have a good time with friends and family over food and drinks and perhaps to “ooh!” underneath fireworks. Just in time for Australia day, the government will also recognise the Australian of the year. Last year’s Australian of the year was a professor in quantum mechanics. […]
Today’s Passage: John 12:20-36 Over the last three weeks, our morning service has been looking at God’s message through the prophet Hosea. Hosea tells of the greatest love story this universe has ever heard. It tells of God’s love for His people. It’s a story of God’s incredible faithfulness, contrasted with the unbelievable unfaithfulness of us – His people. Our God is the God who does not easily give up on us. He is certainly the God of justice, but […]
Today’s Passage: Hosea 3 Hosea’s life isn’t, perhaps, typical of what you’d expect from a holy man. When he got married, he married not one of the nice girls in town, but one of the prostitutes. And although she stayed around for a bit, it wasn’t too long before she had walked out on him. She ended up with another man – perhaps a slave, or perhaps with debts to him that she couldn’t ever pay off. She was trapped. […]
Today’s passage: Hosea 2 In our Sunday morning service this weekend, we’re continuing our journey through the book of Hosea. Hosea is an interesting prophet; called by God to be a living demonstration to his people – and to us today – of the heart of God. As we saw last week in Hosea 1, God told the prophet to marry an adulterous woman, and to start a family with her. And Hosea did. He married Gomer – a woman […]
Today’s passage: Hosea 1 This weekend, our morning service starts a new 4 week series looking at the book of Hosea. Hosea’s the first of the so-called Minor Prophets – the shorter prophetic books. He is, as one of the minor prophets, much less well known than prophets like Ezekiel, Jeremiah or Isaiah. Which is a great pity… because the message of Hosea is incredibly beautiful. Hosea did more than speak God’s words. In a way, Hosea’s life came to […]
This weekend, we have the privilege of welcoming Mark Sena, pastor of Faith City Church in Mandurah, as our guest speaker. Over the last fortnight, we’ve been looking at our experience of God with us by His Spirit. We’ve spoken about how we can hear God, and discern it when He speaks to us. We’ve also looked at how the Spirit of God is not under our control. God lives in us by His Spirit; He is a person, not […]
Today’s Passage: Acts 8 This Sunday morning, we’re continuing our mini-series looking at the person of the Holy Spirit. As we saw last week, our relationship with God is not meant to be one sided. God is for us, and cares about us. And God speaks. If God lives with us by His Spirit, then why would we expect God to do otherwise? The Spirit of God who lives with us, however, is also the One who empowers us. Through […]
Today’s Passage: 1 Samuel 3 Have you ever heard God speaking to you? It’s a strange question to ask of a bunch of Christians, isn’t it? After all, we are those who claim to have a personal relationship with God. We often speak about how God is with us. We read through the Bible, and hear of God’s speaking with people time and time again. In the book of Acts, we read of Jesus speaking with Paul on the road […]
Today’s Passage: Luke 11:1-13 This Sunday, our society takes a moment to celebrate our fathers. Personally, I have been blessed with a wonderful, godly man as my father. He’s a gentle man who consistently encourages his children – to this day! – to be the best that we can be. I know without a shadow of doubt that my father loves me – and that will always be the case. He (along with my mother – mothers are great too!) […]
Today’s passage: Galatians 3:15-29 The situation among the Christians in Galatia wasn’t good. They had put their trust in Jesus to save them. They’d heard the good news that God’s Kingdom was open and available to them through Jesus, who had dealt the death-blow to death and sin. They were a vibrant church, where there was plenty of evidence of God’s power in their midst. God’s Spirit was doing all sorts of miracles among them. God’s Spirit was living in […]
The last session from our combined church camp. After all of our journey through the history of the church, we ask what we can learn from it for our life as Christ’s Church today. Passage for this session: Philippians 1:12ff
The third session from our combined church camp. A primer on church history, presented by Dr Peter Elliott. This session focuses on the history of the modern church. Slides for more details are available.
The second session from our combined church camp. A primer on church history, presented by Dr Peter Elliott. This session focuses on the history of the church during the Middle Ages. Slides for more details are available.
The breakout group session from our combined church camp. In this session, Matt Hall, asked the campers to discuss some following questions in light of the first session from the camp. The questions addressed were: How would you describe persecution? Where do you know that persecution against the church exists today, and what form(s) does it take? In countries where religious persecution takes place believers were aligned to a tribe or nationality, and when they become Christians it can be […]
The first session from our combined church camp. A primer on church history, presented by Dr Peter Elliott. This session focuses on the history of the early church. Slides for more details are available.
Today’s passage: 1 Corinthians 15 There’s an exercise that one can do to try and come to a better understanding of who you are as a person. On a piece of paper, drawn a straight line, representing time. On the left hand side, mark a line for your birth. Above your straight line represents good, and below the line represents bad. The exercise is to think back over your entire life, and to graph your life. When things go really […]
Today’s passage: Galatians 1:10-2:10 This weekend, we’re continuing our journey through Paul’s letter to the Galatians. As we saw last week, Paul wrote to the Galatians in response to some very disturbing news that had reached him: the Christians in Galatia were in the process of abandoning God! They were giving up on the good news that Paul had preached to them in favour of a new so-called “good news” that was anything but. We heard last week that there […]
This week’s passage: Galatians 1:1-10 This weekend, we’re starting a new series going through Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia. Like so much of the New Testament, the letter to the Galatians came about as a result of some serious issues in the Galatian churches. The Galatian Christians had accepted God’s rescue in the person of Jesus, quite probably as recorded in Acts 13ff. They had heard the good news that there is forgiveness of sins and the offer […]
Today’s passage: John 8:2-11 This weekend, Daniel Patterson is bringing us a message from John 8:2-11. The incident that John describes for us is particularly pertinent to the age in which we live. In your Bible, you might notice that this passage is in a section demarcated with a line about it not being in the earliest manuscripts. This is true. The evidence from the oldest manuscripts, together with a few other clues, is that this bit of John wasn’t […]
This week’s passage: James 3:1-12 “Oh, my dear, I would be very careful around that man. I believe he’s been in jail for stealing houseboats before…” “I don’t really know, but I’ve been told that Mrs Jones… Of course I don’t believe it, but, as they say, ‘there’s no smoke without fire!’” “In love, and just so that you know how to pray, have you heard the latest about Clarissa?” Gossip. We hate it when we’re the target of gossip. […]
This weekend, we’re doing a one-off sermon looking at whether we Christians are forced to choose between science and Christianity. There are those in society who would have us believe that any choice other than science would be absurd. Science, after all, explains things. And science works. We don’t, we’re told, need to make up stories to explain things any more. We’re told that faith is a crutch for those who don’t know any better – or who refuse to […]
Today’s passage: Acts 9 Grace is wonderful. God shows us such kindness and love and gentleness. Even though we don’t deserve it, God invites us into a relationship with himself. Having shown us mercy – taking the penalty of our sin onto Himself – God graciously invites us into his family, adopting us by the blood of Jesus through the Spirit of God. I like the idea of grace. I love the fact that there are countless second chances. Every […]
Passages under consideration: Genesis 37-54 This weekend, as we continue our exploration of God’s grace, we’re doing something a little different. Rather than looking at a single passage, we’re looking at a story that covers at least 10 chapters! Our focus today will be on the story of God’s using Joseph, and what that story reveals about the grace of God. To understand Genesis 37ff, we need to understand something of the family history. Joseph is a son of Israel […]
Grace is something that we cannot live without. Grace starts where mercy leaves off. It’s more than our not getting what we deserve. It’s our getting what we don’t deserve. Grace is, ultimately, God giving Himself to us. It’s by grace that we are saved. That is, we are saved not because we deserve to be with God, but simply because God chooses to save us. Grace is a gift. Grace doesn’t dumb down the immensity of sin. Grace isn’t […]
This week’s passage: 1 Peter 2:9-10 This weekend, we’re starting a brand new series focusing on grace. Grace is one of those concepts that we speak about a lot as Christians. But it’s also something that we can find incredibly hard to get a handle on. In some ways, we just don’t get grace; it staggers our understanding! Grace is God’s treating us with undeserved kindness. It’s God giving us what we don’t deserve. Mercy, on the other hand, is […]
Today’s passage: Luke 24:13-34 This weekend, we’re continuing our series looking at some of the “words of life” that are so important for us as followers of Jesus. Already, we have explored what grace is: God giving himself to us, even when we don’t deserve Him. And we’ve considered what exactly we mean when we talk of faith: putting our trust in God on the basis of who He is and what He has already done for us. The word […]
Today’s passage: Hebrews 11:1-12:4 This weekend, we’re continuing our series looking at some of the most important – and often misunderstood – words describing the life of one following Jesus. Last week, we grappled with the concept of grace, discovering how essential it is. Grace is God’s giving of Himself to us – even though we don’t deserve Him. This weekend, we’re considering what exactly faith means. It might seem strange for me to include the word faith in a […]
Today’s passages: 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 2, John 1:16-17, Romans 6 This weekend, we’re starting a brand new series exploring some of the important words that we use all the time as Christians: grace, faith, hope and love. These words represent key concepts for us in our lives as apprentices to Jesus. They’re also concepts that a lot of us Christians struggle with. This week’s word, grace, is certainly one of those concepts that a lot of people struggle to […]
Today’s Passage: Habakkuk 3 This weekend, we come to the third and final chapter in the book of Habakkuk. The prophet Habakkuk lived in the time just before the Babylonians would come and all-but destroy Jerusalem and Judah. But Habakkuk’s vision, when his book started, wasn’t on the Babylonians. He was concerned with the state of his own people – with how wicked the so-called people of God had become. It seemed to him that things were going from bad […]
This week’s passage: 1 Corinthians 12 Today we are looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 12. This chapter considers the Spiritual Gifts that God gives to his people in the Church. Not everyone has the same Spiritual gift, nor the same method for using that gift. Some are aware they have gifts and others are yet to experience or use their gifts. As we are experiencing growth and changes in our Church we need to examine ourselves and ask: What is […]
Sitting on my counter at home right now is an envelope from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, containing a survey question asking whether Australia should legalise same-sex marriage. It’s been a long road getting to this point, with many political turns along the way. The question is one that has been raised several times over the last few years. And, unfortunately, this is an issue where the Christian church has been seen to be unloving, unkind and ungracious. Christians are […]
Today’s Passage: Habakkuk 1:12-2:20 Last week, we started looking at the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is one of the shorter Old Testament prophetic books, but what it lacks in length it certainly makes up for in punch! As we saw last week, Habakkuk found himself living in a land that seemed to have gone to hell in a hand-basket. Evil and violence were everywhere, and the law (which in Israel was meant to have as its basis the law of […]
Today’s passage: Habakkuk 1:1-11 The song at the end during communion is Do it again by Elevation worship. Watch it here. This weekend, we’re starting a new series looking at the Old Testament prophetic book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is an incredibly short book, consisting of only a few chapters. In it, the prophet Habakkuk brings his complaint to God about the state of his world. Although no definite information is given, it seems that Habakkuk lived in the era just […]
Today’s passage: Matthew 6:9-15 How people communicate can tell you a lot about the kind of relationship that they have with each other. If they barely talk, you know that something is wrong. The same is true if one only sees one party talking and not giving the other a chance to speak. During his sermon on the mount, in which Jesus was describing the life fully committed to God and His kingdom, Jesus spent a bit of time teaching […]
Today’s passage: Matthew 6:9-13 I pity you. You’re pitiful. You’re so pitiable. Stop for a few seconds and think about what those words make you feel. Chances are, you’re first reaction might not be positive. In our culture today, the idea of being pitied is one that isn’t much appreciated. We assume that for somebody to pity us, they must think of themselves as being superior to us. We can equate pitying someone with looking down on them in pride. […]
Today’s Passage: Matthew 6:11 Prayer: it’s both the easiest thing in the world, and something so many Christians struggle with. Prayer is simple talking with God – both speaking to Him and listening to His voice. Just as all relationships require communication, so too does our relationship with our God. Why then do so many Christians fail to have a thriving prayer life? Perhaps it’s because we have yet to fully appreciate that God really does love us, and really […]
Today’s Passage: Matthew 6:10 Last week, we started looking at the model prayer given to us by Jesus as He taught the crowds around Him in Matthew 5-7. As in everything, there was something different about Jesus when it came to praying. He spent a lot of time praying. But I don’t think that prayer was ever a duty for Jesus, the way we sometimes think of it. When Jesus prayed, He was talking with His Father. He was speaking […]
Today’s passage: Romans 8:14-25 In our Sunday service this weekend, we’ll be looking at some more at the incredible 8th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. A fortnight ago, looking at the first half of the chapter, we discovered the incredibly good news that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus died and took our punishment, our condemnation, for us. If we belong to Jesus, we don’t have to fear God’s wrath any longer. […]
Today’s passages: Matthew 14:22ff, Matthew 28:15ff In his book on doubt, Os Guinness writes that “What is most dangerous to Christianity is not that Christians doubt, but that there seems to be so little open discussion and understanding of doubt. This must be changed.” This morning, we’re making a start on that sort of change. Are you a Christian who struggles with doubts? It’s not the sort of thing we like to admit to each other. We like to give […]
Today’s sermon was brought to us by Rennie Cox, pastor of the City on a Hill church in Singleton.
Today’s passage: Matthew 6:16-18 In our journey through Jesus’ sermon on the mount, the last few weeks have focused on Jesus’ warning that we not do our acts of righteousness in order to get human praise. If the good things we do are not done for God, then we shouldn’t expect God to stand in the way of what we really want: the praise of people. But if we do our good deeds in secret – so that they are […]
Today’s passage: Matthew 6:5-8 Last week, we continued our exploration of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, considering what kind of person a “kingdom of God” person is. At the end of Matthew 5, Jesus said that we – his disciples – should be perfect as our Father in the heavens is perfect. But immediately after urging perfection – for that is what a person wholly made like Jesus is like – Jesus saw fit to warn us […]
Today’s passage: John 21 Imagine yourself with Jesus on the night of his betrayal. The evening starts in an odd way – with Jesus washing your feet. And then He speaks about one of you – one of the twelve – betraying Him. He speaks about it matter of factly, saying that He’s telling you about it beforehand, so that when it happens you’ll believe that He is the Messiah. A little while later, he’s telling you that the time […]
Today’s passage: John 4:1-42 Who are you really? This morning, we’re continuing our Easter series, considering the good news that our lives aren’t defined by our failures. Instead, we find that God offers us the chance for new life in the midst of our brokenness. In today’s passage, we get to look in on an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. For most of this incident, Jesus was alone with the unnamed woman; all the information that we have […]
Today’s passage: Matthew 5:17-20 God is King, and life in his kingdom is the best life there possibly can be. It’s a life that is perfectly in accordance with God’s will; in God’s kingdom, everything is exactly as God wants it to be. As creator of all that is, God is sovereign over all that is – he alone has the right (and the capacity!) to rule everything. The bad news of the Bible is that we humans reject God […]
Today’s passage: Matthew 5:13-16 God is king, and in his kingdom, things are the way that God wants them to be. Which, since God is God, makes God’s kingdom the best place for us to be. God is love, and his kingdom is a place of love. God is perfect, and his kingdom is a place sans any sinfulness or brokenness or imperfection. It’s a place where there are no tears, where there is no danger, and where there is […]
Sermon passage: Matthew 4:23-5:12 I love attending men’s breakfasts. True, when I’m waking up at some unearthly hour my first thought is not one of joy. Yet that tends not to last too long: it’s great hanging out with my brothers in Christ, discussing life together, praying together, and thinking through our devotion together. Oh, and the breakfast… that’s quite nice too! But a while back I did something rather silly: I rocked up at a men’s breakfast sans my […]
Sermon passage: Matthew 4:12-25 Matthew 4:12-25 One of the things Taryn and I did on our recent holiday to New Zealand was to visit a weta cave in Zealandia. The cave was actually an old mine tunnel, cut into a mountain. Taryn, her brother Nathan and I slowly made our way into the tunnel, using the torches on our phones to try and avoid the wetness in the middle of the tunnel floor. Coming from the brightness outside, the tunnel […]
Sermon passage: Matthew 4:1-11 Do you ever find yourself tempted to do something which is wrong? What is it? Why is it tempting to you? Is it wrong in and of itself, or would it only be wrong depending on specific circumstances? When do you feel the lure of temptation the most? When are you most likely to give in to temptation? How do you feel when you experience temptation? Temptations are only tempting because, at some level, we think […]
Today’s passage: Matthew 1 God is the King of all that is, was and ever will be. The good news that Jesus came preaching was that God’s kingdom was near. He called us to repent and to believe that good news. He called us to become his disciples, to come to him: the way, the truth and the life; the only way to the Father. The Bible teaches that God is the creator of all things, and that we were […]
God is the king of all that was, is and ever will be. Our God – the only God – spoke all that is into existence. He created our world, and he created us to be his representatives on earth. Humanity was tasked to enact God’s will on his creation. Our kingdoms, the places where our wills are done, were meant to be lived in submission to the high King of Kings. But that isn’t the way the world is. […]
In Psalm 47:5-7 we read that God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. The good news of Jesus is that God’s kingdom is near to us. Through Jesus, we can have the gift of new life – of citizenship in God’s kingdom; of being […]
Have you ever forgotten – or even refused – to pay an electricity bill? What’s interesting is that if you do, Synergy won’t immediately disconnect you from the grid. They’ll send letter after letter, encouraging you to make things right with them. There are schemes of grace available should you be in financial difficulties. But should you steadfastly refuse their authority, you will rediscover the joys of living without electricity. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been considering the good […]
The good news of Jesus is much more than just “here’s how you get to heaven one day when you die.” Jesus came preaching that the kingdom of the heavens was near. In fact, as God’s king, Jesus came to make it possible for all those who trusted in him to be welcomed back into God’s kingdom right here and right now. We’ve been invited to repent of our rebellion against this universe’s true King, and to instead follow him […]
When asked by his disciples how to pray, Jesus taught them a model prayer: Our Father in the heavens. Hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven... But what does it actually mean for us to pray for God’s kingdom to come? Last week, we discovered that the good news Jesus preached was bigger than simply “how to get into heaven when you die.” His news was that God’s kingdom […]
One of the things I love about C. S. Lewis’ Narnia books is the fact that, in the words of one of the Dwarves, “Narnia was never right except when a Son of Adam was King… It’s not Men’s country, but it’s a country for a man to be King of.” Lewis was on to something. Our world, like Narnia, is also not “Men’s country” – it is a part of God’s kingdom– yet it is a country created for […]
Passage: Matthew 19:3-12 This week, we’re starting a month-long series on marriage. For those in our congregation who are married, I hope that it will be a series that helps us to work through what it means to live as pprentices of Jesus in our marriages. For those who are not married, or who have been married in the ast, I hope that this series will help us understandthat we can live as apprentices of Jesus whatever our marital status. […]
Text: Philippians 1:12-26 The good news of God is that through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, we can have a relationship with Him. Unfortunately, the good news is often met with antagonism, perhaps because it insists that we are sinners who fall short of God’s glory, having no means of our own to set ourselves right. We simply don’t like being told that we are wrong – or that our way of thinking might not be right. In Australia, we […]
Text: Philippians 1:3-11 Often, our actions are a window into the desires of our hearts. True – we can put on a good show for others, but those who know us best often have an insight into what drives us. If we are desperate for power or insecure within ourselves, for example, we might be short-tempered at home. Truth will out. Our heart’s desire is to be important and in charge. Sometimes, our heart’s desire is evidenced by what we’re […]
Text: Philippians 1:1-2 This morning, we’re staring a new series on Paul’s letter to the church that met in Philippi. Philippi was the first place in Macedonia (modern Greece) where a Christian church was established. Read Acts 16 for the story of how the church was started! Paul wrote this letter while in jail – probably from Rome in the early 60s AD, although some think he might have written from another of his jail-cells elsewhere. It’s important to remember […]
Today’s text: Genesis 22:1-19 Over the last few weeks, we’ve been a fly on the wall of Abraham’s life. In Genesis 12, we saw how God called Abraham and gave him incredible promises: promises of descendants and land, a promise that God would bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed him, a promise that through Abraham the nations of the world would be blessed. As we’ve explored Abraham’s journey with God, we’ve seen how those promises have […]
Todays text: Genesis 20 Abraham is an interesting character. In a world where we think we can make a name for ourselves, God promised to make a name for Abraham. He promised to bless him with land and descendants. He promised to bless those who blessed Abraham and to curse those who treated him with contempt. He promised that through Abraham, he would bless the world. As Christians, we recognise that God’s greatest blessing through Abraham has come in the […]
Text: Genesis 18-19:29 Over the last few weeks, we’ve been tracking along with Abraham as God reveals his character and promises to him. God called Abram in the context of the tower of Babel – a project that showed just how little humanity knew about who God is. They weren’t praising the one and only God who made everything. Their “god(s)” were more like humans, with needs and requirements that could be manipulated to enhance the reputation and prestige of […]
Today’s passage: Matthew 11:25-30 Being religious is very hard work. As humans tainted by sin, we seem to have an inbuilt understanding that in order for us to have any significance in this life and success in the next, we have to be successful in the here and now. We assume that we have to prove our devotion to God in order for him to accept us. We know that God is holy and perfect, and we know that he […]
Today’s passage: Ephesians 2:11-22 The gospel of Jesus Christ is amazingly simple. Mostly, religion is about proving ourselves worthy of God. It’s about living an upright, moral life. It’s about attaining a standard of life that is superior to the majority of others. It’s about being able to say that we have harshly disciplined ourselves, and that we have attained a level of perfection that is “good enough” for God. Many have assumed that Christianity falls into this same style […]
Today’s passage: Ephesians 2:1-10 This morning continues our journey through the opening chapters of Ephesians. Paul started by praising God for all that he has done for us (only everything – he’s blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus!) Last week, he continued by praying that God would reveal more of himself to his readers, that they might live out of what he has done for them. This week, Paul continues on from where he left off. What […]
Today’s passage: Ephesians 1:15-23 This weekend, we’re coninuing our journey through the first few chapters of Ephesians. Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians to remind them of how amazingly wonderful the good news of God really is, and to encourage them in their living out of that. As we saw last week, what makes the good news of Jesus so incredible is that God has done it all! God chose us, rescued us and saved us. And what’s more we […]
Today’s passage: Joshua 3-4 It had been about 40 years since the people of Israel had been rescued from the land of Egypt – the land of slavery. The escape from Egypt had been incredible. There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Israel’s escape was a “God-thing”. To experience not only the plagues (including the angel of death), but also the crossing on dry ground of the Red Sea could leave nobody in any doubt that the God of […]
Bible Passage: Galatians 5:16-26 If you visit the old Fremantle prison, you might hear the story of serial escapee Moondyne Joe. He twice escaped prison in country WA, and twice more in Fremantle – one time almost under the noses of his guards! Although Moondyne Joe had a flair for escaping, the law would invariably catch up to him. We are all a bit like Moondyne Joe. But our guilt is to a higher authority: God. But God loves us […]
Today’s passage: Galatians 4:8-5:16 This morning, we’re looking at how we can find freedom from legalism. Legalism stands at the core of all human religions, each of which presents a different set of tick-boxes that one has to sign-off on to be in good standing with God and avoid his wrath. Of course, when these different sets collide, conflict arises! Unlike these religions, Christianity stridently says that you and I can never be good enough. Even if we manage to […]
Passage: Psalm 142 In 1 Kings 18-19, we read of a showdown between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, God’s prophet. The showdown is a resounding display of God’s supremacy. But as Elijah comes into the conflict he feels, I think, very lonely and overwhelmed. In 1 Kings 18:22, he tells the assembled people, “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets.” Later, fleeing for his life from the wrath of Queen […]
Passages: Zechariah 3, Matthew 27:3-10, John 21 What do you do with your guilt? Like all emotions, guilt is a gift from God – but one that so easily turns from gift to curse. Properly, guilt reminds us that we have failed to live up to some standard. It’s not meant to be pleasant. But it is meant to bring us to a place where we repent, seeking forgiveness and turning from what we were doing wrong. But what about […]
Passage: Matthew 6:19-35 Jesus told a parable once about a farmer who went scattering good seed. Some seed fell on the footpath, and were eaten by birds. Some seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock, and withered when things got hot. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Sill other seed fell on fertile soil, producing an incredible crop. Jesus explained the meaning of these different soils (Mathew 13:18-23), saying that the […]
Paul reminds the Corinthians of the good news that saves us if we continue to believe it. What was most important? That Christ died for our sins, was buried and was raised from the dead – all as the Scriptures had said. The risen Jesus was seen by Peter, the twelve, and more than 500 at one time – many of whom were still alive when Paul wrote this letter. He was seen by James, the apostles, and finally by […]
From Numbers 21, we see the punishment for rebellion against God. We also see God in his mercy providing a way of redemption: a bronze snake. A replica of the poisonous snake, all the bitten who looked on it lived. We see then from John 3 that Jesus too has been made sin for us – he is a replica of our sinfulness, bearing it all. Those who look to him – who believe in Jesus – are saved; those […]
It is now a mere six days before the Passover celebration would begin. Jesus is visiting Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. During the meal, Mary poured expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet, wiping it with her hair. Jesus notes that she did it “in preparation for my burial”. Did Mary knowingly do so? Mary has abandoned all reserve in her regard for Jesus. She is willing to give up an incredible fortune to honour Jesus. Judas, meanwhile grumbles […]
The disciples have realised that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Now, Jesus starts telling them that he will go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and on the third day rise from the dead. Peter reprimands Jesus for saying this. Jesus says “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me.” Peter was seeing things from a human perspective, not God’s. Jesus disturbed the disciple’s ideas of what the Messiah would be like. […]
Why is it that Jesus would eat with the “scum” of the earth? By refusing to play by the rules of status, Jesus shows us the heart of God – and highlights our own sinfulness. Why didn’t Jesus encourage his disciples to fast? By refusing to play by the rules of religion, Jesus shows us that what matters is not religious observance but relationship with him. He also shows us that dried-out legalism is like an old garment which will […]
As we approach Easter – what were some of the ways that Jesus “disturbed” the status quo and upset those who would kill him.
Paul wrote to a church where there were serious social divides. How does one celebrate the Lord’s Supper in such a context – and how does the Corinthian situation and Paul’s solution apply to us today?
The problem is that we’re all caught in a spiral of sin. Even today, sin still traps and ensares. But God is merciful – he has saved me. And he works to bring me to repentance. Sometimes when I am from God, I feel as though he had abandoned me. But he does not. God is faithful. By his grace, he reminds us of this. But he does challenge me to put off the sin which so easily entangles, so […]
An expected enemy, an unexpected judge, an unexpected leader and an unexpected act of deliverance. The story of Deborah, Barak and Jael shows us that what we need most is the mighty hand of God to be at work in our deliverance.
An unexpected man from a small tribe gets close to a tyrant, stabs him through and then escapes through the toilet. What does the story of Ehud, the second of Israel’s recorded judges, teach us about ourselves – and about how God brings salvation?
Is our faith personal, or do we hang on the spiritual coat-tails of others? Do we know God and all that he has done for us?
Please note: This was recorded during a power failure – so the sound quality is not the best.
This message is particularly for the Golden Bay Baptist church – but is applicable to all churches.
Sermon Questions What does it mean to share in Jesus’ sufferings? Why do we gladly suffer? What is glory? How is it linked to suffering? Groaning and Glory #1: Creation What is wrong with the universe? What does creation long for? Why? Why is it that creation groans? How does the state of creation speak to the human experience without God? What is it that brings meaning and purpose to both creation and people? Groaning and Glory #2: Christians What […]
This morning, we’re starting our brand new series on Easter. Over the next six weeks or so, we’ll follow along with Mark as he takes us on a journey through the week of Jesus’ life centered around his death. Easter is kind of like Christmas, I guess, in that many people here this morning will know the story very well. And yet, like the story of Christmas, we need to hear the old old story again and again and again. […]
If our destination is assuerd, does our path there matter? If we don’t know our individual life span, then how much time can we use, waste or lose? Does it matter? Who would you rather be… Lois or Eunice? Why? Can you detect how God talks to you? Do you agree with John Newton: I am not what I ought to be I am not what I’d like to be I am not what I hope to […]
A few years ago now, one of my mates signed up for a group called Toastmasters. I don’t know if anybody here knows about toastmasters? Basically, it’s a group of people getting together to improve their public speaking skills. Each week, a few of the members have to get up and give a speech to the group. It’s a great idea. I must admit to you though, that I had this brilliant plan all worked out in my head how […]
This morning, we’re continuing our journey with Doctor Luke through the second half of his gospel – the book of Acts. Last week, Luke told us about how we should be bold in what we pray for – because God is able to do so much more than we can even begin to imagine. Last week, we saw the apostle Peter being miraculously released the night before his almost certain death. This morning, as we look at Chapter 13, Luke […]
This morning, I have a confession to make. I confess that there have been times when I’ve been praying with a group of people, and I’ve held myself back in what I prayed for. Have you ever had that feeling that you really should pray something BIG, but you just kept quiet? This morning, as we continue our look through the book of Acts, I believe that God wants to challenge us – challenge me and challenge you – to […]
Over the last month or so, we’ve been looking at what it takes to grow godly families. We’ve explored the effect that our faith has on our relationships in our families. We’ve seen that God wants our families to reflect the relationship that he has with his church. Because at the end of the day, God has to be the most important person in our homes. As you’ve probably realised by now, I’m something of a reader. One of my […]
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at what the Bible has to say about growing Godly families. Because our families – our homes – are incredibly important to God. As we saw last week, God wants our families to mirror the relationship that he has with the church. The Christian home is many ways an outpost of God’s kingdom in our communities. But I’m also aware that there are people in our church who have known the pain […]
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at what the Bible has to say about growing Godly families. We’ve seen in Ephesians 5 and 6 how our being Christians changes the way we relate to each other. Husbands and wives are called to submit to each other. Children are expected to obey and honour the parents. And parents are to instruct them in the ways of the Lord. This week, I want to zero in a little bit […]
I have such an incredible respect for parenthood. Raising a family is one of the most awesome blessings that God gives us as humans. But that blessing comes with responsibility. Because God desires Godly families. Families where mum and dad teach and show and live out for their kids what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Last week, we started our series on Growing Godly Families by looking at how God expects husbands and wives to relate to […]
Families. They’re so important. They’re the place where our most significant relationships are. Husband. Wife. Children. Parents. They’re the place where we learn so much about our lives. In a Christian family, they’re where we first come face to face with the good news of Jesus. When you think about it, it’s not surprising how much the Bible speaks about families. God values families. The first commandment that comes with a blessing is one that involves our families. Time and […]