Sermons from 2024 (Page 2)
The Identity of Christ Confirmed
The Identity of Christ Confirmed – John’s Gospel chapter 5, verses 31 to 47 Background Jesus had compassion on the paralysed man and healed him on the Sabbath day, creating controversy with the religious rulers. His startling claim to be one with God angered them. Now He calls witnesses in His defence. Jesus’ five witnesses He engages in a mock trial, calling 5 witnesses. There is no shortage of evidence. God the Father 32 There is another who testifies in my…
The Controversial Claim of Christ
The Controversial Claim of Christ – John’s Gospel chapter 5, verses 16 to 30 2 Things: Jesus, a controversial figure 16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. John 5:16 Just before this He provoked controversy by healing an paralysed man on the Sabbath. Jesus’s controversial claim 7 In his defence Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’ 18 For…
A Surprising Solution to Suffering
A Surprising Solution to Suffering – John’s Gospel chapter 5, verses 1 to 15 A surprising solution to suffering. The problem of suffering is ever with us. What could be worse than being sick? A miraculous poolside healing 5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great…
The Love of God
The Love of God – 1 John chapter 4 God is Love: 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God,…
The Holiness of God
The Holiness of God – Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1 to 7 God’s fiery, beautiful holiness The rise and fall of a king 6 In the year that King Uzziah died, … Isaiah 6:1a Uzziah: 52 years on the throne. A good king, but his pride led to his downfall. National anxiety at his death. Would the next king be good or bad? The Lord’s majesty described I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train…
The Mercy and Grace of God
The Mercy and Grace of God – Ephesians 2:1-9 Mercy and Grace Defined Mercy = compassion and leniency (not getting what we deserve)Grace = benevolence or unmerited favour (giving us what we do not deserve) Our Past Condition As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work…
The Justice and Wrath of God
The Justice and Wrath of God – Romans chapter 1, verses 18 to 32 Without this the Gospel makes no sense: “One can grasp the greatness of God’s salvation … only when one understands the devastation introduced into the world by human beings.” – Tom Schreiner. “God is love” yes, but He cannot love evil and injustice. We cry out for justice, and only God can give it to us. The Revealing of God’s Wrath So that no one can…
The Unchanging Nature of God
The Unchanging Nature of God – Malachi chapter 2 verse 17 to chapter 3 verse 6 Change is an inevitable and necessary change for us for we are far from perfect. But God does not change. He is already perfect, He cannot, He need not change. What a contrast with faithless Israel, so often “doing evil in the sight of the Lord”. Now, 100 years after the return from exile they are a small nation and asking “Is God still…
The Omnipresence of God
The Omnipresence of God – He is Everywhere – Jonah chapters 1 and 2 Definition: Omnipresent He is present everywhere, really present. He fills heaven and earth. He is truly present in all places at all times. An attempt to flee God’s presence 1:1-3 Jonah knew of God’s greatness. Yet he flees, he runs, he goes “down”. Foolish, yes, but so are we. 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where…
The Omniscience of God
The Omniscience of God – He knows everything. Psalm 139 Even AI doesn’t know what it doesn’t know.God DOES know everything. He is bigger and more incomprehensible than we can imagine. For us it is OK to say “I don’t know”. Omniscience defined God knows all things, past, present and future – nothing is hidden from Him. God knows all that we say, do and think 1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.2 You know when I sit and when…
The Omnipotence of God
The Omnipotence of God – Job chapters 38 to 42 Omnipotence defined God can for all things according to his nature and will. So he cannot lie, but he can do everything he wills. Nothing can thwart his plans. The book of Job is about suffering, but much more. It shows us the omnipotence, the sovereignty of God. Again and again He is called the “Almighty”. Job’s early acceptance of his suffering turns later to complaint. God’s unsearchable knowledge. 38 Then…
The Sovereignty of God
The Sovereignty of God – Psalm 115 verse 3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. Psalm 115:3 In a world of change we must look to the Sovereignty of God. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. His authority is not constrained by time and space. No space in which He is not sovereign. I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods.6 The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens…