We have plenty of water. It falls out of our sky, it runs along our rivers, it flows out of our taps. We take it for granted.
Things are different where Jesus came from. For much of the year, the sun blazes out of a cloudless sky, the river-beds are dry, and all the water you need for drinking, washing, cooking and cleaning has to be fetched up from the bottom of a well.
Jesus arrives at Jacob’s well. …
(This sermon was preached at an all-age service)
As Jesus approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her, which no-one has ever ridden. Untie them and bring them here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’…
(Because preached to an elderly congregation, the Authorised Version was used on this occasion)
1. “I am the bread of life”
The bread of life is not a thing, but a person. 1 Cor 10:16 ‘The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?’
V 33 – ‘The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven.’
Jesus points to himself – what a claim!
“For him hath God the Father sealed.”…
2 Timothy 4:7-8 contain some of the last recorded words of Paul:-
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day–and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
What do people think about on their death beds, and what do they say?…
The classic illustration of redemption is found in the Book of Ruth. The framework of this touching idyll consists of two clauses of ancient Hebrew legislation: the law of Levirate marriage, rendering compulsory the widow’s marriage to her late husband’s next of kin, Deut 25:5-10, and the law of the kinsman redeemer, Lev 25:25-34. Adied by these two enactments, Ruth, the loyal but poverty-stricken stranger, was able to marry into the best family in the district and to become the ancestress of King David and of the Messiah.…
[This short sermon was preached at a service of Holy Communion following the Book of Common Prayer. Hence the use of ‘traditional’ language]
Peter’s purpose in writing was to encourage persecuted Christians to stand firm in their faith, 1 Pet 5:12. Accordingly, he repeatedly reminds them of the blessings that belong to those who belong to Christ: so much so, that this letter has been called ‘the epistle of hope’. Moreover, he instructs them in the behaviour that Christians should exhibit in the midst of suffering: what kind of relationships they should have with the world in general (2:11f), with the state (2:13-17), within the home (2:18-3:7).…
One of several images of salvation used in Scripture is that of reconciliation.
In this image, we leave the temple precincts, slave-markets and lawcourts, and come home to our family and friends.
Reconciliation is the answer to alienation, and to all who feel alienated reconciliation sounds like the good news that it is.
Reconciliation begins with a restored relationship with God, Rom 5:9-11 (note the parallel in this passage between reconciliation and justification). The idea is closely linked with those of ‘adoption’ (Jn 1:12f; 1 Jn 3:1-10) and ‘access’ (Rom 5:1f; Eph 2:17f; 1 Pet 3:18; Heb 10:19-22).…
Readers of this blog will not expect to find much here by, or about, John Hick. However, his writings on the philosophy of religion are not without interest or value.
Hick has thought deeply about the problem of suffering. He asks us to imagine what the world would be like if there were no possibility of pain or suffering. I have always been struck by what he says about this:-
Suppose…that this world were a paradise from which all possibility of pain and suffering were excluded. …
Whereas the imagery of propitiation is that of the temple court, the imagery of redemption is that of the market-place. The basic meaning of ‘to redeem’ is to buy or buy back, whether as a purchase or as a ransom. Strongly implied is the plight from which we needed to be ransomed.…
Last Saturday I attended, for the first time, the London Men’s Convention. Ten of us drove down from Norwich to an aircraft hangar in London’s Docklands that goes by the name of ExCeL Royal Albert Hall it certainly isn’t, but you can’t keep nearly 4,000 men down, especially when stirred by the preaching of Tim Keller and others, and by the music of Stuart Townend.
The theme of the day was ‘The Man for all Men: Be Men of Jesus’, and the four main talks covered,
