Category Archives: Sermon Notes

1 Tim 6:3-10, 17-19 – Money – sermon notes

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Which of the following is the odd one out? Faith, doctrine, Scripture, gospel, salvation, money.  Answer: none of them!

Money is a spiritual issue.  Martin Luther observed that “there are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, of the mind and of the purse.”

Consider the story of Zacchaeus, Luke 19. As a chief tax collector, Zacchaeus would have been very wealthy indeed. When he encounters Jesus, his response is, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”…

1 Chron 29:1-20 – The grace of giving – sermon notes

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Text: 1 Chron 29:1-20; 2 Corinthians 8:1-10

This sermon was not prepared for a special Sunday devoted to the church’s finances, but for an ordinary Sunday when our text happened to be all about giving.

How many people are like me? They’ve had it on their minds for some time to review their giving to the work of God, but not quite got round to it.

Here are two very different situations. In the first, King David, right at the end of his earthly life, is passing on the responsibility for building the temple to Solomon, and is holding a fund-raising day.…

Mt 13:3-9; 18-23 – The Christian and the Bible – sermon notes

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It is springtime by the Sea of Galilee. Great numbers have come enthusiastically to hear Jesus preach, but what will be their response? The seed was being faithfully sown, but what will the harvest bring? We can picture Jesus sitting in the prow of a boat, pointing, perhaps, to a field where a sower is scattering corn seed onto the ground. Look: some of it is falling onto the pathway, and you can already see the birds coming along behind and pecking it up off the hard ground.…

Ruth 1 – Can God be trusted, even in the dark? – sermon notes

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Can God be trusted, even in the dark? When your world has collapsed, and you can see no way of putting it back together again. When God himself seems to have dealt you a very poor deal, and when you cry out “Why?” heaven remains silent. When your faith is sorely tested. Can you – will you – cling to God nevertheless?

This is the very practical problem that I would like to explore with you from Ruth chapter 1.…

Gen 17:1-8, etc. – The unity of the Bible – sermon notes

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Readings: Genesis 17:1-8; 2 Samuel 7:8-16; Hebrews 1:1-9

Your’re sitting in an evangelistic meeting, and a bloke at the front keeps banging on about the Bible, saying, “The Bible teaches this, the Bible teaches that…”  And you’re thinking, “I’m not sure there is such a thing a ‘the Bible’ that teaches anything consistently at all.  Moses says this, Isaiah says that, Paul says something else, and Peter something different again, but I can’t see that it adds up to any coherent message.”…

Mk 9:9-32 – A demonised boy healed – sermon notes

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It had been a mountain-top experience to top the lot. Right there, in front of three of his disciples, Jesus had experienced a brief but amazing transformation. His face shone; even his clothes became dazzling white. Two godly men from long ago, Moses and Elijah, had put in personal appearances. And God himself had spoken: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

As they come down the mountain, Jesus gave Peter, James and John a solemn instruction, v9: “Don’t tell anyone about what you have just seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”…

Song 7:9b-8:7 – Aspects of love – sermon notes

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The Song of Songs is a strange, unique, beautiful book.

Strange – partly because God isn’t mentioned from beginning to end.

Unique – because it is the one book of the Bible that gives a sustained and detailed celebration of love between a man and a woman.

Beautiful – because it does all of this in wonderfully imaginative poetry. It has every right to be called ‘The Song of Songs’, the greatest love song of them all.…

Mk 7:1-23 – Lips OK, heart far away – sermon notes

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How far would you be willing to travel in order to meet, or see, or hear, someone you really admired? Your favourite musician, perhaps, or a dear friend.

How far would you be willing to travel to meet Jesus in the flesh? Without the benefit of modern transport? And what would you say to him when you met him?

Well, here are some people who came all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee to see Jesus.…

Jonah – The Reduced Jonah

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It seems to me that the message of Jonah lends itself rather well to dramatisation.  Here’s an attempt to do that, using three voices.

JONAH: Friends, I want to speak to you about wickedness in the world today. I’m sure that you will agree with me that there are lots of extremely wicked and cruel people around. The world is full of cheats, and tyrants, and murderers, and liars. I think that God should punish these wicked people.…

Lk 2:41-52 – ‘In my Father’s house’ – sermon notes

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After the angels went back into heaven, after the shepherds went back to their flocks, after the magi went back to where they had come from, after Mary and Joseph and their their son went back to Nazareth, what happened then? Did Jesus grow up just like any normal child?

In v52 we have nearly 30 years of development summarised in one sentence: ‘Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.’…