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2 Tim 1:11-18 – Not ashamed – sermon notes

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We come to the second instalment in this series on Paul’s 2nd Letter to Timothy. Paul is in prison in Rome. He is cold (‘bring me my cloak’), bored (‘bring me my books’), and lonely (‘everyone has deserted me’). He is staring execution in the face (‘the time has come for my departure.’)

Paul predicts a time of terrible persecution for the Christian church, and a large-scale falling away from the faith. Yet the great apostle has by no means given up hope, and is still looking to build for the future.…

Gal 3:1-18 – Continue as you began – sermon notes

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Tom was a world-class athlete. He had reached the pinnacle of his sport by talent and sheer hard work. But in order to make sure of that Olympic medal, that world record, that number one spot, he started taking performance-enhancing drugs. Result: a ruined reputation.

Kevin and Julie had fallen deeply in love and in due course got married. After a while, the Julie announced to Kevin, “Darling, I love you very much and of course I trust you absolutely.…

The faculty of impromptu speech

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“You nearly found your preaching voice today.”

Those were the kindly, but slightly troubling, words of an elderly Christian gentleman after he heard me preach recently.

What he meant was that in my preaching I tend to be too tied to my notes, and to speak more to the head than to the heart.  In other words, in his view I tend to lecture, rather than to preach.

A number of somewhat random thoughts occur to me as I try to reflect on this:-

  1. I am by training and profession a teacher (of nursing), and I wouldn’t dream of speaking from fully written-out notes in my day job.
…

Heb 7 – Completely, for ever – sermon notes

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“This Melchizedek”. I’m trying to imagine a conversation you might have with a friend tomorrow. “How was your weekend?” you are asked. “Pretty good. Went to church yesterday evening.” “Oh yes? What was that all about?” “Melchizedek.” I’m really not sure where the conversation might go after that. Straight back to the Olympics, presumably.

The writer to the Hebrews seems to have had his own doubts about broaching the subject of Melchizedek. He’s been edging up to it for a while now.…

2 Tim 2:1-12 – The Christian race – sermon notes

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These are the notes of a sermon preached on Sunday 29th July 2012.  The Olympic Games had just opened in London, and a deliberately topical (rather than expository) approach was taken on this occasion.  The underlined portions refer to the slides in this Powerpoint presentaton:

Well, it’s not been a great start for Team GB in the medal stakes.  But my aim this morning is to make sure that everyone is a winner in this matter of running the Christian race.…

Apt Alliteration’s Artful Aid – Arrgh!

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It is good for written and spoken outlines to be striking and memorable.  One technique that some writers and preachers use is alliteration – using key words that begin with the same letter.

Used sensibly, alliteration is a handy device.  John Stott was not greatly given to its use, but I think it was he who noted from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that the apostle writes about (a) revelation, v15; (b) return, v14; (c) resurrection, v16; (d) rapture, v17; (e) reunion, v17; and (f) reassurance, v18. …

What is ‘spirituality’?

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Words change their meanings over time. To deny this would be silly, and to try to stop it happening would be futile.

Moreover, at any one time a word can mean different things to different people. A word can have a broader, everyday, meaning, as well as a narrower technical meaning.

But sometimes a word has its meaning changed and extended so much and so fast that it becomes difficult to pin down what it anyone means by it any more.…

Some thoughts on Young Earth Creationism

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According to Young Earth Creationists (YEC) the cosmos came into being not more than about 10,000 years ago.  I must admit that I have tended to regard this view as unnecessary from a biblical point of view, and implausible from a scientific point of view.

But let me just note, without irony or mockery, what kinds of arguments could be used to support it.

1.  YEC regards its theory as theologically coherent. 

YEC is committed to a high view of Scripture. …

Adelphopoiesis: ‘the making of brothers’

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It is interesting that both human rights activist Peter Tatchell and politician Adrian Trett have asserted that in times past the Christian church has actively endorsed same-sex marriage.  And in both cases they have appealed as their sole source of evidence to John Boswell’s book The marriage of likeness: same-sex unions in pre-modern Europe.

Boswell argued that the ancient rite of ‘adelphopoiesis’ should be regarded as equivalent to same-sex marriage.  It would follow, then, that sections of the modern Christian church are denying its own history when it opposes same-sex marraige today.…

Instone-Brewer: the destruction of the Canaanites

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The Bible records several acts of hostility that would be probably regarded as ‘war crimes’ today. The problem is made worse by the fact that God is said to have commanded these acts.  Perhaps the most notorious involved the command to utterly destroy the Canaanites (see Deut 20:16).

What follows is based on an article by David Instone-Brewer:-

Curiously, it may be that this particular act of genocide never happened. Although Palestine contains many remains of ancient towns destroyed by warfare, very few date from the time of Israel’s conquest.…