Category Archives: Christian Life

John 15:1-17 – Be fruitful – sermon notes

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Have you ever been parted from someone you love?  A boy or girl goes off on holiday with a friend, and won’t see mum and dad for a couple of weeks.  A boyfriend and girlfried will be setting off in September for different universities.  A husband is called up for service in the armed forces, and doesn’t know when he’ll be home again.  What is said on such occasions.  “Look after yourself…keep in touch…don’t get into trouble”  The disciples were in such a situation. …

The Christian mind

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It was Galileo who said, ‘I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.’

And A.W. Tozer reminds us, ‘the mind is good – God put it there. He gave us our heads and it was not his intention that our heads would function just as a place to hang a hat.’

Neglect of the Mind

But the mind is apt to be neglected by well-meaning Christians.…

Mt 6:11 – ‘Give us today our daily bread’ – sermon notes

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The Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful prayer: wonderful in its simplicity, and wonderful in its comprehensiveness.  Its several petitions have been likened to the colours of the rainbow.  And, like the colours of the rainbow, there is a definite order here: we are taught to pray first about God’s things (his honour, kingdom, and will), and only then about our things (daily provision, pardon, protection).

Just six words, but full of meaning:-

1.  ‘Bread’ stands here for the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, clothing.…

Ex 17:8-16 – Spiritual warfare – sermon notes

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Text: Exodus 17:8-16

We stand, as it were, at a mid-point between two vast continents.  Behind us lies the immense unalterable past, with its pleasures and regrets.  In front of us looms the equally vast future, with all its hopes and fears.  The question for the people of God as they move forward into this unexplored and largely unknown new territory is this: Can God be trusted?  All we have is his promise, and sometimes that promise seems to hang by the slenderest of threads.…

Should we pray to the Holy Spirit?

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This is another question about the Holy Spirit which has recently been posed to me.  Once again, I am reluctant to discuss such a ‘shy sovereign’, who is more to be experienced than analysed.  Nevertheless, I offer a few thoughts:-

The Bible does teach a certain order in the operations and activities of the members of the Trinity. For example, according to Jn 14:26, the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in the name of the Son.…

Mt 6:1-18 – Ways to pray – sermon notes

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The first reference to prayer in the Bible occurs in Genesis 4, which records the time when “men began to call on the name of the LORD”,.  The last reference is in the last verse but one of Revelation, which is itself a prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus”.  In between the Bible is full of prayer.  Even apart from the Psalms, whole chapters record the prayers of God’s people.  Abraham would pray under a tamarisk tree.  Jacob famously wrestled in prayer. …

Mt 25:31-46 – The sheep and the goats – sermon notes

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This is a very well-known passage – most of us are familiar with the so-called parable of the sheep and the goats. It occupies a strategic position in Matthew’s gospel – it comes at the end of lengthy block of teaching that Jesus gave to his disciples privately, just a couple of days before his crucifixion, and it is in fact the very last piece of formal teaching recorded in this Gospel. It’s a very powerful passage – our Lord speaks in no uncertain terms of final judgement and eternal life and eternal punishment.…

Gospel paradoxes

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At first sight, the New Testament’s descriptions of the Christian life often seem to defy logic.  On further reflection, however, we see the Lord’s wise design in all of them.  Note the following examples:-

we see unseen things (2 Cor. 4:18);
we conquer by yielding (Rom. 6:16-18);
we find rest under a yoke (Mt. 11:28-30);
we reign by serving (Mark 10:42-44);
we are made great by becoming little (Luke 9:48);
we are exalted by being humble (Mt.…

Quotes on Good Deeds

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“Works? Works? A man get to heaven by works? I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand!”  (George Whitefield)

It is a true saying, that believers should not act for life, but from life.  They must act as those that are not procuring life by their works, but as such who have already received and derived life from Christ, and act from the power and virtue received from him. …

Quotes on humility

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It is the person who most knows himself liable to fall that will be most ready to overlook any offences from his fellow men. (Alexander Auld)

The Christian is like the ripening corn; the riper he grows, the more lowly he bends his head. (Thomas Guthrie)

‘The truly humble Christian does not inquire into his neighbour’s faults; he takes no pleasure in judging them; he is occupied wholly with his own.’ (Athanasius)

Richard Sibbes ‘was most eminent for that grace which is most worth, yet costs the least to keep it, viz.…