Philippians – Salisbury Baptist Church

Joseph’s Silent Obedience

25th December 2024

The birth of any child reveals the miracle of God's creation, but the birth of Jesus Christ uniquely bridges Heaven and Earth. Through Joseph's eyes, we see the extraordinary responsibility of raising One who was both fully human and fully Divine. The humility of Christ's birth in a manger foreshadows His ultimate purpose - to become the perfect sacrifice for humanity's salvation. This same Jesus, who began His earthly journey as a helpless infant, now reigns as King of Kings, watching over us until His return.

The three abiding Christian qualities

8th December 2024

The Christian life produces three enduring qualities: faith, love, and hope. Faith serves as our gateway to salvation through God's grace, not through our own works. God's Love, demonstrated supremely in Christ's sacrifice, transforms us, and enables us to love others. Hope extends beyond mere wishful thinking—it represents the certainty of Christ's return and the completion of our salvation. These three qualities work together as the foundation of authentic Christian living, with the Holy Spirit both the empowerment as well as serving as our guarantee of the outcome to come.

Sons Through the Son

10th November 2024

The eternal Son of God emptied Himself of His heavenly glory to take on Divine identity and reputation. This is called His "kenosis" – His self-emptying of His status and reputation! On taking on humanity He established a model of how a human being can relate to the Father establishing a new model for people to know God as Father. Through Christ's perfect obedience and sacrificial death, He dealt with the human failure of original sin. He opened the door for believers to share in His own relationship with the Father. When we receive Jesus as Saviour, we receive both the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, who teaches our hearts to cry "Father" and enables us to pray with the confidence of beloved children. This intimate relationship with God as Father represents the heart of New Covenant Christian experience and surpasses what was possible under the Old Covenant. Summing up: by His need to cry "My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me?" which is a cry of a human under Divine punishment for our sins, He has enabled us to share His privilege of calling the Father as "Our Father".

The Oil of Readiness: Preparing for Christ’s Return

18th August 2024

The Kingdom of Heaven is not merely about going to Heaven when we die, but also about living under God's rule now. There are three stages of salvation: justification (becoming a Christian), sanctification (growing in holiness), and glorification (being perfected in Heaven). Many believers focus solely on justification but neglect sanctification. This neglect can lead to unpreparedness for Christ's return or our own death. We must actively pursue spiritual growth, eagerly awaiting His return. The delay in Christ's coming is a grace period for us to deepen our relationship with Him. Our goal should be to know more intimately, not just to secure a place in Heaven.

Sanctification: The Journey to Perfection in Christ

7th July 2024

The biblical concept of sanctification includes the idea of perfection, first given forensically to an individual by God’s grace and then progressively brought about into the individual’s experience by the Holy Spirit. It explains the differences between justification and sanctification, highlighting that justification is the gift of perfect righteousness given by Christ's sacrifice, while sanctification is involved in this but also in the ongoing process of becoming more Christ-like. The message encourages believers to rely on the Holy Spirit for spiritual growth and to understand that their ultimate perfection will be realized in glory.

Understanding True Sonship in Christ

2nd June 2024

This sermon explores the concept of sonship in Christianity, highlighting the transformative power of understanding and embracing one's identity as a child of God through Jesus Christ. It explores the differences between the Old and New Testament teachings on God's Fatherhood and how Jesus' introduction of the Lord's Prayer took this revolutionized this understanding. The sermon also underscores the importance of being born again, emphasising the role of the Holy Spirit in making believers true sons and daughters of God by new birth from above, as further to our being sons of God by just being His creatures. The message extends an invitation for listeners to experience this divine relationship personally.

The Full Circle of Christ’s Love

31st March 2024

The sermon intricately weaves through the concepts of “Kenosis” and “Plerosis” (emptying and then returning to fullness) in the life, incarnation and exaltation of Jesus. The message highlights Jesus' journey from self-emptying humility to being exalted by the Father as Lord of all. It focuses on Christ's ascension, His ultimate authority, and the impact of His humility, then exaltation on our understandings of salvation and discipleship. The preacher calls for repentance, urging believers to reverse their verdict on Jesus — moving from being outside the Divine favour to acceptance within the “Beloved” — in the salvation that Christ has achieved. This message not only recounts the theological significance of Jesus' actions, but also emphasizes the practical implications for believers, calling them to a life of humility, repentance, and a deeper dedication to the exalted Christ as Lord and Savior.

Raised for our Justification

31st March 2024

This sermon emphasises the profound impact of Jesus' resurrection, not only as a historical event but as a transformative reality in the lives of believers. It delves into the Apostle Paul's teaching on knowing the resurrected Jesus intimately and experiencing the empowering resource of His resurrection in our daily lives. The sermon outlines how Jesus' resurrection serves as the foundation for our justification, ushering us into a new life in Him, assured of eternal life. Through Christ's victory over death, and consequent ongoing life, believers are invited into a personal relationship with Him, marked by empowered Christian living and the ultimate fulfilment of eternal fellowship with God. The message invites individuals to embrace the risen Christ, enabling them to live lives characterised by His resurrection's power and the certainty of God's love and salvation.

Have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus

3rd December 2023

"this is the beginning of the Beatitudes, as Jesus is actually teaching those closest to him, the twelve disciples, and maybe some others that came with them. He's teaching them about what it is to be a real disciple. And there's eight things that he says, and up until where we've come to so far in the exegesis, the exposition of these, they're all positive. They're things that are shown in the life of a person who seeks to be under the kingly rule of Jesus. And so anyway, here we have Jesus teaching the disciples. And that's what the Beatitudes are all about. But as we come down to about verse 20 or so, you'll discover that there's a reversal."

Exploring the Significance of Human Decision in God’s Plan

8th October 2023

"One of the things I like in watching a movie is where, whether it be the hero or the heroine or whoever, is put in a position to have to make a difficult decision, put on the spot, and it's always of interest to me about why human beings make the decisions that they do... And that's actually something in movies I like to see where someone comes to a circumstance they didn't expect and have to make either a rash decision or a very brave decision or one that gets them killed. And that's the part of movies that really grip me. And I think that's been a part of me even before I watched many movies at all. And I have a great interest in the human decision mechanism. Some of that also comes about because my involvement in Christian ministry has been, in my younger days, very much about calling people to come to Christ and wanting them to make a decision."