Sermons

This sermon explores the transformational journey from adhering to the Old Covenant and Pharisaical interpretations of the law to embracing Jesus' teachings of unconditional, divine love (agape). It highlights Jesus' call for His followers to love not just their neighbours but also their enemies, reflecting God's perfect love and progressing in personal sanctification. Through the exploration of key biblical texts, the sermon underscores the importance of letting God's love extend beyond familial or brotherly love to include even strangers, showcasing a radical hospitality rooted in divine love. It challenges believers to rely not on their strength but on God's, to live out this high calling of perfect love in their daily lives, involving a sanctification process that moulds them to be more like the Father.

The sermon emphasises the importance of truly knowing Jesus beyond mere belief in God or adherence to religious practices. The preacher recounts an anecdote about a bumper sticker and explores how superficial expressions of faith can sometimes misrepresent our deeper convictions. Through key scripture references, including a poignant interaction between Jesus and His disciple Philip, the sermon underlines that being a Christian is fundamentally about having a personal, transformative relationship with Christ. This relationship goes beyond simply knowing about Jesus or following religious rituals; it involves an intimate, experiential knowledge that impacts one's entire life and identity. The sermon invites listeners to reflect on the depth of their faith and encourages a journey towards truly knowing and experiencing Jesus.

This sermon delves into the Beatitudes, focusing on Jesus' call for Christians to respond with grace and patience to those who wrong them, as a part of their sanctification journey toward perfection. Drawing on the metaphor of going the extra mile, as instructed in Matthew 5:41, the preacher emphasises the importance of not being reactionary but rather embodying Christ's teachings in everyday interactions. The sermon highlights the story of Simon of Cyrene, who was compelled to carry Jesus' cross, as an ultimate example of serving without expectation of recognition, embodying the essence of Christian sacrifice and humility. Through these teachings, listeners are encouraged to embrace a life of non-retaliation, patience, and grace, aligning closer with the perfection of the Heavenly Father.

The sermon explores the concept of salvation as depicted through biblical stories, particularly focusing on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This narrative emphasises faith, judgement, and God's grace. Abraham's intercessory prayer for Lot is used as an example of how faith and prayer play crucial roles in salvation of others. The sermon warns against complacency and the dangers of ignoring God's call, using Lot's wife as a poignant reminder of the consequences of looking back. It encourages the audience to embrace a full commitment to faith, akin to Abraham, and to be mindful of the generational impact of their spiritual lives. The key point is that salvation is not automatic but requires a responsive heart to God's grace and a willingness to separate from the world's values in the outworking of sanctification.

This sermon dives deep into the Beatitudes within the context of Matthew chapters 5 and 6, emphasising Jesus' call for a higher standard of righteousness that goes beyond mere legalism to a heart transformed by sanctification. It explores the nuanced biblical understanding of murder versus manslaughter, underlining the importance of intention and malice in defining wrongful acts. Moreover, it discusses the significance of truthfulness and honesty in our dealings, as exemplified by Jesus' interaction with Nathanael in the Gospel of John. Jesus references the fact of God's moulding the character of the original Jacob to be named "Israel". The changes have sanctified his guile such that he can well represent being an Israelite. The key point revolves around the parallel New Covenant Christian journey toward sanctification, not just avoiding outward sins but cultivating an inward purity of heart and intention, striving towards perfection as our Heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48 spells out Jesus' intention of his raising the standard of the Beatitudes in order to have us aim at the "teleios ", the final result of our sanctification. It is that we arrive at the perfection of the Father. This is God's aim in having you become a Christian in the first place. And what we were learning in the morning service as well as tonight in the 5'00 o'clock Service. Particularly Jesus is lifting our eyesight to aim at the standard for God to be happy with you to be in his Kingdom!" Paul's personal journey on this purpose is a good example for us in Romans, chapters 6 through to 8.

"In our passage today in Matthew's Gospel, it is about anger and murder. And so that's what we're talking about today."

"He claimed to be the good shepherd. He claimed to be the one that spoke from God. He did it with authority as we've been learning in the morning surfaces. And, looking at the Beatitudes there, and Jesus, this one, was somehow not accepted by the Jewish leaders, and they couldn't grasp the fact that when they challenged Him. Tell us plainly tell us plainly whether you are the Christ or not and his answer was basically don't my works display when you see the Father's works turning up through me, when you see I'm doing the works of my Father, doesn't it show you who I am. My identity with the father. By identity I mean that the Father's the Father, and He's the Son."

"In our studies of in the beatitudes, Jesus has been speaking against the backdrop of the ideas of traditions coming from the teaching of the Pharisees, coming from the background of the history of the Jewish religion, and he presents himself as an authority. One of the things we found as we went through the beatitudes is just how much the folk listening were amazed how much authority Jesus had and how different that was from the normal teaching they were used to hearing."

"I want to talk about the fact of being convinced and of coming to a place of real conviction and of assurity in what you're on about, and how that can be ours as well."