Sermons from October 2015
Q9 – “Where is heaven?”
The Bible uses the word heaven in several ways, but I am guessing that the questioner has in mind heaven as the future home of all who trust in Jesus. One of the thieves crucified with Jesus said to Him “Lord, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”, Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43, ESV. Where did the thief go after dying? this heaven spoken of…
Q8 – “How do Adam and Eve fit in with evolution?”
The Bible is not an encyclopaedia of science, but rather God’s message to mankind about how they can be re-united to Him, and know true meaning and real forgiveness for their lives. It does not set out to teach us about gravity, electricity, chemistry or biology. However, it does have a lot to tell us about our origin. We need to say what we mean by the word “evolution”. Few, if any, people deny the fact of evolution by selection…
Q7 – “If God has a plan for everyone, does he know some people will choose not to be Christians?”
God created mankind with the capacity for free choice. He did not want a race of robots who would say “Yes God, I love you and will always obey you.” Creatures like that would not really be human, just pre-programmed animals. You could say that He was prepared to take the risk of His creatures turning their backs on Him. In ways mysterious to us, He knows everything before it happens. He is not inside Time as we are, but…
Q6 – “What kind of ministry can a local church offer Christians battling with strongholds of fear anger or other crippling spiritual bondages?”
I think with this question we also need to include non-Christians, and there is a first step for a non-Christian, in that for someone who doesn’t know God yet, and doesn’t know that Jesus is their Saviour, as a local church we want to share with them the good news of the Gospel, the fact that God loves them, the fact the He sent His Son to die for them. But as a local church how do we help those…
Q5 – “Why did Jesus work as a carpenter in his father’s joinery before his ministry and him being the Son of God as well?”
I think there are 3 things involved in this question. The first thing is that the Bible talks about there being a first Adam and a last, or second, Adam. The first Adam is the one who by his turning away from God injected the curse into the world, including all the problems we have been talking about. The second Adam is Jesus, the last Adam, and He pulls the fangs of the curse and reverses things. Now that is…
Q4 – “God must have a nasty mentality if he could only create nature where species eat each other. Is it a godly way? Could he not come up with a better answer? Nice God!!! Where are you!!! Wake up!”
There’s a couple of questions in that one. I’ve tried to narrow it down to these questions:- the first question is ‘Why do species eat each other?’ In the first book of the Bible we are presented with a description of animals starting to eat each other after what is called the world-wide flood. So if you think of it in terms of a Timeline – first God made everything, including the first man and woman, and everything perfect, and…
Q3 – “What will my daughter grow up to be?”
As a mother of 3 daughters this is a question I’ve often thought about, and obviously if you happen to be the mother or father of daughters or sons or a mixture of sons and daughters you will have the the same question. I don’t think there is a parent who does not look at a newborn baby and think “I wonder who will you be? We’ve welcomed you into our family, but who are you, who are you going…
Q2 – “Why isn’t life fair?”
Just a “small” question! 🙂 I appreciate that the question could come from a number of places, and probably is a very personal question out of experience. So I recognise that I may not answer it according to what you had in mind from your personal experience, but let me give it a bash. When we talk about what is fair, the Oxford dictionary says “treating people equally without favouritism or discrimination.” so why is life unfair? It’s a good…
Q1 – “I have a million questions. Does God really hear?”
I think this question is an excellent place to start, because, what’s the use of having a Q and A if God doesn’t answer questions? There are really 2 parts to this question. One is ‘Is God able to hear us?’ The other is ‘Is God willing to hear us?’ For the former, we don’t have the time to go into depth about the theology of God’s existence and creation. But I’d like to quickly say that it seems clear…