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Psalm 16 – Contentment – sermon notes

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Are you contented?

Alexander the Great conquered the known world.  But he was not contented.  After all his victories, he wept, because, he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”

Voltaire was a brilliant philosopher and a critic of organised religion.  He was not contented.  He wrote:  “I wish I had never been born.”

Lord Byron lived a life of hedonistic pleasure.  He was not contented.  At the age of 35, he wrote:

My days are in the yellow leaf,
The flowers and fruits of love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone.…

Quotes on happiness

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1.  I submit that the whole hectic scrample after happiness is an evil as certainly as is the scramble after money or fame or success.  (A.W. Tozer)

2.  I never met a happy individual who was not committed to a job or cause outside himself.  Because such people have a mission in life, they are not self-centred and introspective.  For them happiness is the by-product of work and duty.  (Abraham Maslow)

3.  Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.…

Physical and emotional phenomena of revival

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One feature which is often notable in revival, is the presence  of a variety of unusual phenomena, ranging from physical prostrations to (real or apparent) prophesyings, visions, and miraculous healings.

Now some scholars have been content merely to note the occurrence of these phenomena without making any serious attempt at biblical or theological explanation.  Ronald Knox, for example, at the end of a long book which catalogues many extraordinary features associated with revivals and ‘fringe’ movements, clumps them all together, and says:-

How to explain these phenomena – Camisard child-prophecy, or Jansenist convulsions, or Methodist swoonings, or Irvingite glossolaly – is a question that need not detain us.…

1 Samuel 1 – The prayer of Hannah – sermon notes

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At last, scientific research seems to have proven what many people have suspected all along.  Prayer does not work.  Prayer does not change things.

A recent study led by cardiologists from Duke University Medical Center tested whether heart patients recovered more readily if they were prayed for.  The three year study involved 750 patients from throughout the USA and 26 prayer groups from different part of the world, including Christians in Manchester, Buddhists in Nepal and Sufi Moslems in America. …

Questions asked by Jesus

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I have posted an item on questions Jesus was asked, and the replies he gave to them.

Equally fascinating are the questions that he himself posed to others.  They, too, show how wisely and sensitively he probed people’s thoughts, feelings and motives.

Here is a selection:-

Mk 10:18; Lk 18:19 “Why do you call me good?”

Luke 6:3 “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?”

Luke 6:9 “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”…

Results of revival

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It is time to consider some of the effects of revival upon the individual, the church, and society.  We take as our starting-point the great results of the Pentecostal outpouring:-

Acts 2:43ff  Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. …

Thinking about natural disasters

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In April 2007, Vinoth Ramachandra gave an interesting lecture on ‘The Science and Theology of Natural Disasters’.  Dr Ramachandra is a theologian from Sri Lanka, and well placed to discuss events such as the great Asian Tsunami of 2004.  The lecture can be downloaded from the website of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.

What follows here is based on the first part of his talk.

The great tsunami of 26th December 2004 claimed 1/4 million lives, and led many to question the credibility of faith in a god. …

Resurrection appearances of Christ

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1.  To Mary Magdalene, as Consoler, Jn 20:14ff

2.  To other women, as Object of Worship, Mt 28:8ff

3.  To Peter, as the Friend who never forsakes, Lk 24:34; 1 Cor 15:5

4.  To the Emmaus disciples, as the Sympathetic Instructor, Lk 24:13ff

5.  To The Ten, as the Restorer of Joy, Lk 24:36; Jn 20:19

6.  To Thomas (with the disciples), as Confirmer of Faith, Jn 20:26

7.  To the seven on the seashore, as the Compassionate One, Jn 21:1ff

8. …

John 14:16 – “Another Counselor” – sermon notes

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“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.”

It is difficult for us to imagine the emotional turmoil of Jesus’ disciples at the time that these words were uttered.  Impressed by his wonderful teaching and amazing miracles, they had concluded that their beloved Master was indeed the longed-for Messiah, and he would sit on David’s throne, restore the kingdom to Israel, deliver God’s people from all their troubles, and subdue all nations. …

The gift of the Holy Spirit: now/not yet

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The gift of the Holy Spirit has a now/not yet aspect, as is seen in three New Testament metaphors:-

1.  Commercial.  The Holy Spirit is like the down-payment in a purchase.  He is both the first instalment and the guarantee that the full payment will follow.  2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:14.

2.  Agricultural.  The gift of the Sprit is like the harvesting of the first-fruits.  It is both the beginning of the harvest and the gurantee that the rest will follow. …