Sermons

Christmas Day service 2024!

2023 Christmas Day Service.

Young Adults Evening Service. We welcome Steven back to speak to us on the topic of money! How do we manage our money (regardless of whether we have a little or a lot!) in a way that glorifies our Lord?

Baptism of A van der Kolk. Gerald speaks about the importance of teaching our children, the next generation, about all God has done. We do not want to be like the Israelites, where generations quickly forgot how the Lord cared for them. We do this by teaching our children what is in the Bible, but then also by sharing how God has worked in our lives, so they may by God’s grace come to have a saving faith in Him.

The final part of a four part sermon series entitled ‘Christianity According to Jesus’. The account of the demon possessed man gives unique insight into how the evil one operates, and what his intention is with humanity. Jesus confronts the darkest of evil and transforms the most hopeless and irretrievable situations. Read ahead at Luke 8:26-39!

Young Adults Evening Service. A follow up to our four part ‘Christianity According to Jesus’ series. What’s the foundation of your life? This is a critical question, and we hardly ever consider it. Living ‘Jesus Shaped Lives’ requires not only hearing and believing, but also doing. Jesus demands ongoing change of behaviour. The question is: why would anyone do that? Read ahead at Luke 6:43-49!

The third of a four part sermon series entitled ‘Christianity According to Jesus’. Following Jesus means we enter a Kingdom of love: love that is radical and selfless. This love radically reorients how we treat other people, even those from whom we might typically recoil or despise.

The second of a four part sermon series entitled ‘Christianity According to Jesus’. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He’s calling us to considerably more than a change of mind or beliefs. Sure, we start with what we believe about Him, but like His call to Levi, following Him means taking decisive action.

The first of a four part sermon series entitled ‘Christianity According to Jesus’. If we are to frame Christianity in the light of Jesus’ own teaching and life example, what would we start changing in our lives or in our church? If we’re going to follow Jesus now, we need to know why he came then. Jesus’ words in Luke 4 open our eyes to his core purpose.

The Good Samaritan is a well known parable, but why did Jesus tell it? Nathanael looks at the question that led to this parable, how Jesus answered and what our response should be.

Christmas Day 2022. In this sermon we spend time thinking about Simeon’s response to the coming of the Lord Jesus and we too get a sense of excitement as we contemplate the magnitude of God’s love to us.

This morning we are looking at the very last word of Jesus, which is… “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” These words have everything to do with our comfort!

The Shepherds are a well-known part of the Christmas story. But do we need them? What do they add to the story? What might we miss if they were not? Our sermon considers that as shepherds they point us to Jesus, the true and good shepherd. But they are also normal everyday people like all human beings who need the gospel. They heard the announcement of the angel and they responded in faith, in worship and in witness. If we have responded to Jesus for salvation, do we continue to respond to him in faith by living a life of worship and witness? Ultimately, the response of the shepherds showed that what the angels said was true. That indeed God had sent a saviour – his own son, who would save his people from sin. What does your life show? Is your life in every way a response to the baby born that day – Jesus who is Christ the Lord?

This moment on the road to Emmaus leads to a discovery for the disciples on their journey which changed their lives eternally. An understanding of who the man journeying with them and what it is that has happened can change our lives also. Jesus was raised to life, resurrected – and for those who believe this, life is forever changed.

In this first part of 2 sermon’s, we consider what the bible has to say about worry. Whether long term or short, whether significant or even insignificant, worry is weighty. Worry can consume us, it can change how we think and feel and act, it can paralyse us, it can limit and reduce our lives in a way which very little else can. And it is something that affects so many people. we worry about many things but likely they all fall into 2 categories – something we want to happen and doesn’t or something we do not want to happen that might. Yet, God in the bible says to us, Do not Worry! How can this be so?

Reaching the end of one year and preparing for the next, we naturally look back as well as forward? How do we assess the year gone by? What has been good, challenging, beneficial, what have you learned? What would you like to change moving forward? This time of year is a good time to take stock. Do you ever seek to do this kind of thinking spiritually? Have I grown in certain areas of my life as a Christian? I look back and think of trials I have faced – what did I learn from them? Did I learn anything from them? Have there been blessings and joys? What can I give thanks and praise to God for over the past year? What might I like to change? Looking at the account of Zacchaeus we consider how being with and meeting Jesus brought a change in his life. We similarly need to be with Jesus so as to understand our new identity from which will come new behaviour and attitudes.

So many people live a life of ease avoiding the hard questions – the ponderings. They don’t want to waste the mental energy on these questions, or they think it is all beyond them and so they do something else. The biblical writer of Ecclesiastes records that some people believe that we ought to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Amazingly, the most important questions that we need to face are not faced at all. We might spend more time deciding on what takeaway to eat than to contemplate the big questions of life?

In the Christmas Carol, ‘O Holy Night’ we sing the words, ‘A thrill of Hope, A weary world rejoices.’ How true as we reach the end of the year 2021 is it to say, our world is weary! The carol says however that there is hope. As we consider the Biblical account of Christmas, we discover that Hope has come, Peace has come and Joy has come. Hope has a name, Peace has a name, Joy has a name and his name is Jesus!

Jesus could have said any number of things to prove to him that he was the Christ, but this whole incident, of Jesus on the road to Emmaus, is for you and me! It is about believing on the basis of what we hear rather than on the basis of what we see. Jesus repeats this lesson in John’s Gospel when he says this, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29). We all like to say, “Seeing is believing!” but what we understand from reading the Scriptures is that “seeing is not always believing.” Rather it is the work of the Holy Spirit in apply the Scripture into our lives that warms our hearts.

Jesus said this at the end of his encounter with Zacchaeus, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the Lost.” This summation by Jesus provides us with a real insight into the life and character of Zacchaeus. He was someone who was lost. We might all smile about a short man climbing a tree to see over the crowds but Zacchaeus was driven up that tree to see Jesus. I dare say that he wasn’t simply curious but rather he was simply hoping for something that would provide a cure for the loneliness and emptiness he had in his life. It must have been an amazing experience when Jesus eyes looked into the tree and spotted Zacchaeus and that Jesus knew his name and said that he “must” go to his home.

C.S. Lewis said, “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation. They say that God became man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.” We look at the prophecy of Zechariah following the birth of John the Baptist to help us see that the incarnation of Jesus should be something that we consider at all times and not just Christmas.  We are helped to understand that the incarnation brought Jesus to earth to visit us in order that he might bring redemption.  Our redemption sets us free in order that we would now serve God in righteousness and holiness.

‘In a commonplace environment, at an inappropriate hour.’  This is the title of a social experiment considered where people missed the beauty of what took place because of where & when it took place.  We look then at the commonplace event of a baby being born in a stable in Bethlehem at the inappropriate time of the census.  Jesus birth likely affected only a few at that time.  But how does it affect you today?  Do you see the beauty in what took place or has the incarnation become commonplace?  Has the story grown old?  Does it still impact us in the same way?  The truth is that it does and should still affect us because all that took place at Christmas was for our sake.

In this one-off sermon, we take a further look at our mission statement and ask – How will it be possible?  What is needed for us to Win people and to be transformed to be like Christ?  we need to recognise how disciples are made.  This is done by the 4 P’s, “Disciples are made by the Persevering Proclamation of the word of God by the People of God in Prayerful dependence on the Spirit of God.” Looking at an overview of Acts, we see the triumphant, joyful forward-moving expansion of the gospel, empowered by the Spirit and resulting in changed lives and changed local communities, as is God’s intent for the continuing church.  Preyer and the Holy Spirit lie at the heart of what we see in Acts and likewise today.  Do we pray?  Do we pray for the Spirit to work? Are we filled with the Spirit?

So, we have the joy of a miraculous birth and an awe in what God is doing. However, when Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit expresses himself, we are surprised. We sort of expect him to wax lyrical about his own son John, and although he does mention him, his voice praises God for someone far more important than his own son. This prophecy, this psalm of Zechariah reaches out far further and focusses on the salvation that is to come to Israel, through the coming of the Lord Jesus.

John Piper gives the following definition of Joy: ‘Christian Joy is a feeling in the soul, produced by the holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world.’ Joy is something that should characterise all Christians. The question though is, does it? Do you have Joy? Are you Joyful? And what gives us Joy? The passage shows us the Joy of Elizbeth, of John and of Mary. We consider also that for some believers our Joy may have faded. We need to look once again to Christ and we must seek to walk with him and be obedient to him that our Joy will be complete.

When Zechariah heard the amazing news that he would become a parent he didn’t say, “I don’t believe it!” with a kind of “I do believe it, but I find it really amazing” but “I really don’t believe the words of the angel Gabriel.” In fact, he didn’t believe the words of God to him! He really didn’t believe it at all! Mary on the other hand had a completely different reaction!

Continuing our 5 part series on Making Disciples, we consider ‘How to make disciples.’ The question really is: By what method or means is God rescuing and gathering his people into the kingdom of God? We discover that there is no one size fits all method – no silver bullet to ensure that people are brought from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God, nor moved towards God in maturity and Christlikeness. 4 E’s help us to consider what is necessary for all people in their movement towards God. Engage, Evangelise, Establish and Equip. As a summary of how disciples are made 4 P’s are necessary at all times – disciples are made by: the persevering proclamation of the word of God by the people of God in prayerful dependence on the Spirit of God.

The idea of changing the camel to a rope or the eye of a needle to a small door is to create the impression that you can gain eternal life if you simply pack light. Instead of having a big caravan connected to the Toyota land cruiser, you have a small trailer attached to a mini. Or you imagine a man having to take his back pack off to crawl through a hole. In the end you create the possibility of getting in but without any material possessions. Thus, the rich man can’t get in but the poor man can! Still this type of interpretation, which is all too common, is faulty! What it does is elevate our ability to gain eternal life, while in actual fact we have no ability to gain eternal life.

How do people who are responsible for so much tragedy and evil get away with it? We can well imagine those who came up to Jesus that day, telling him this story about the blood Pontius Pilate had spilled in keeping a lid on dissension against Roman Rule in Jerusalem wanting Jesus to condemn Pilate and Roman Rule in particular. They would want Jesus to join in on their chorus against Roman Rule and oppression. Yet, the amazing thing is this story is that Jesus does not condemn Pilate! So many wrongs are done each day. So many things are not fair! So many times, people get away with something and there appears to be no justice! We expect some kind of response from Jesus! We expect him to say something about this blatant injustice and yet he turns it all around and asks about our standing before God.

In this well known parable we discover that our hearing is vital. We are told, ‘Take care how you hear.’ How we hear determines our eternity. It also determines if we bear fruit. This fruit in turn should be seen by others who might themselves turn and praise God, meaning our hearing has a bearing on the eternal destiny of others as well as the glory of God.