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Eph 4:1-6 – Christian unity: God’s part and ours – sermon notes

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We have reached the half-way stage in our exploration of this letter of Paul to the Ephesians. And as we pass from the first into the second half of this great epistle, we immediately notice a change of scenery.  There is a shift from

  • Principles to practice
  • Belief to behaviour
  • Doctrine to duty
  • Exposition to exhortation
  • Credenda to agenda
  • Indicative to imperative
  • What God has done to what we must do

And yet the two halves of this letter are inseparably connected.…

The teacher

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When, recently, I was asked to give a very short account of the role of the teacher of the word of God, this was the outline I came up with:-

  1. The teacher’s conviction – 2 Tim 3:16 ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.’
  2. The teacher’s vocation – Eph 4:11 ‘It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.’
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Eph 3:1-13 – The unsearchable riches of Christ – sermon notes

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The letter to the Ephesians has been called the ‘Switzerland’ of the New Testament. And with good reason, because here we are among the loftiest peaks and most stunning landscapes of Christian faith and experience.

A map of Switzerland might recommend certain towns and landscapes as being ‘worth a detour’.  And here, in chapter 3:1-13 we accompany Paul on a short but thrillingly worthwhile detour.

Our passage begins with the words, ‘For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles…’.…

Stephen Hawking and the God of the Gaps

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It is not only theists who commit God-of-the-gaps fallacies (“I can’t explain it, therefore God must have done it”).

Stephen Hawking, in his new book ‘The Grand Design’ claims that there is no need to postulate a god who lit the blue touch paper and set off the Big Bang:-

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.

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Was that an apology?

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Those who are in the public eye often find it difficult to back down, to admit that they were wrong, to apologise.

The recent furore involving Pakistan Cricket chief Ijaz Butt is a case in point.

With members of his own team under investigation for allegedly fixing certain on-field events in order to defraud bookies, he declared, in an interview, that talk was rife that England players had been up to the same kinds of tricks. …

Some Roman Catholic proof texts

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A recent edition of Premier Christian Radio’s ‘Unbelievable’ show featured a lively discussion between William Johnstone, a spokesperson for ‘Catholic Voices’ and Duncan Boyd, of the Protestant Truth Society.

The topic for debate was, ‘Is the Papacy Biblical?’ – very topical, in view of the fact that the Pope was in the UK on an official state visit at the time.

In the event, the debate ranged more broadly than the question of the papacy. It was, I suppose, helpful that each protagonist was both clear and convinced about his own position.…

Five Points – of Arminianism and of Calvinism

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It is often assumed that the so-called ‘five points of Calvinism’ provide an adequate summary of reformed (that is to say, Calvinistic) doctrine. It is not really so. They were formulated (in 1618, at the Synod of Dort) as a response to a five-point Remonstrance put out by certain Belgian theologians a little earlier in the same century.

The theology of the Remonstrance, which came to be known as Arminianism, was based on the belief that faith is a free and responsible human act which is exercised independently of God, and that since the Bible commands all to believe, all must be able to believe. …

The Reformation: tell us the truth

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When the Pope arrived in Scotland a couple of days ago, on the first leg of his state visit to the UK, a welcome speech touched on the Reformation and mentioned the persecution of Catholics by Protestants.  It did not, however, refer to the treatment of Reformers by Catholics.

In a recent article in The Living Church, John Martin notes that in London stand two churches within a mile of one another, each commemorating religious martyrs:-

A plaque in St.

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The Christian view of man

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The Christian view of man (i.e. of human beings) may be summed up in the following way:-

1. Human beings have worth. The biblical record explicitly and implicitly affirms the value and worth of humanity. This positive statement is grounded in God’s creative activity, the ultimate plan of redemption that has been revealed in Jesus Christ, and the ongoing care that God provides for all creation. The worth of humanity is not based on anything inherent in people but is the result of God choosing to grant worth and dignity to people.…

Guidance – perils and pitfalls

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Christians, as J.I. Packer reminds us, believe in divine guidance.  We believe that God has a plan for us, and we believe that God is able to communicate that plan to us.

We fall into error, however, when we think of guidance as inward prompting of the Holy Spirit apart from God’s written Word.

It is a mistake to narrow the focus of guidance exclusively to vocational guidance (Whom should I marry? Which church should I join?…