Category Archives: Sermon Notes

Jn 12:1-11 The anointing at Bethany – sermon notes

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Text: John 12:1-11 (also Mark 14:1-11)

Introduction

Who do you identify with?  Mary? Martha? Judas?

Where? When? Who?

1. Mary, v3

Mary approaches Jesus with a jar of expensive perfume.

She anoints not only his head (kingship) & body…

…but also his feet and wipes them with her hair – scandalous!

(Mary anticipates the servant-heartedness that will be taught in the foot-washing incident, Jn 13)

(Do we, like Mary, look for opportunities to express our gratitude to Jesus? …

Psa 65 This bounteous God – sermon notes

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Text: Psalm 65

‘Your God is too small’  By presenting God in his true stature, this psalm encourages us to expect great things from God, and to attempt great things for God.

May have been composed for the Feast of Tabernacles.

God is front of stage, and centre.  God is praised as the great welcomer, peacemaker, and giver.

1. God the great welcomer, 1-4

God hears our prayers, v2.  Whatever else God may be, if he were deaf to our cries, where would we be? …

1 Cor 2:6-16 The wisdom of the Spirit – sermon notes

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Text: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Let’s begin by celebrating some of the great achievements of the human race….

But there is one path of enquiry that is shut to us; one horizon beyond which we are unable to see…

The world, through its own unaided wisdom, cannot, does not, and never will, know God, 1 Cor 1:21.

But there is a wisdom that comes from God, a wisdom of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.

It is invisible, inaudible, unimaginable, 1 Cor 2:9.…

Mt 26:1-16 – Judas’ story and Mary’s story – sermon notes

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Text: Matthew 26:1-16

[Note: these are notes of a sermon preached in two parts, separated by a time of reflection and confession.  As you will see, each half was delivered using a 1st-person perspective.]

Judas’ Story

I heard it with my very ears: “In two days’ time, I’m going to be handed over to be crucified.”

A criminal’s death.  The cruelest and most degrading form of death.

He’d said such things before, of course:  ‘[that] he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’…

Mt 26:57-68 – Jesus before the Sanhedrin – sermon notes

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Matthew 26:57-68

This sermon was preached in two parts.  The first part was followed by a time of sung and spoken confession.

This Powerpoint presentation was used:-

Part 1 – Four portraits

(a) Caiaphas – perverted justice.

‘Looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death,’ v59.

Looking for the expedient solution – Jn 11:49f “It is better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”…

Lk 5:1-11 – Fishers of men – sermon notes

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Luke 5:1-11

Do you remember the day you became a follower of Jesus Christ?

Simon Peter would never forget this day.

1. Hearing the word of Christ

Jesus preaching by the lake – pushed back by the crowds – gets into boat, continues teaching.

Lk 4:43 – “I must preach the good news…to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”

The word of Christ is ‘the word of God’, v1.  Jn 7:16 – “My teaching is not my own. …

Acts 1:8 – You will be my witnesses – sermon notes

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Acts 1:8 – “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses.”

What are all reasons you can think of why a person might not do an errand like that?

Can’t hear it
Don’t understand it
Think that it’s someone else’s job
Got something better to do
Think it’s too difficult
Don’t have the means
Don’t know how to do it
Don’t want to

In our Bible passage, Jesus’ followers had been given a task to do. …

Mt 7:24-29 – The two houses – sermon notes

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Matthew 7:24-29

Two men each built themselves a house.  One built his house on solid bed-rock, the other the shifting sand.  Each house seemed fine for a while.  But when the rained rained, and the floods rose, and the wind howled, the first house stood firm, but the other collapsed.  It all depended on the foundation.

Jesus says that the house built on the bed-rock is like a life built on the foundation of hearing his words and doing them. …

Mic 6:1-8 – Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly – sermon notes

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Micah 6:1-8

Courtroom dramas:- Accused, The Brief, The Courtroom, Criminal Justice, Crown Court, Judge John Deed, Kavanagh QC, Rumpole of the Bailey, The Verdict.

Silent witnesses, v1f (Skiddaw watching over Keswick, Matterhorn over Zermatt, Mount of Olives over Jerusalem)

1. Listen, vv1-2

‘Listen to what the Lord says…hear…the Lord’s accusation…listen…for the Lord has a case against his people.’

Jerusalem’s magistrates are crooks, her prophets men-pleasers, her priests money-grabbers, her rich people lovers of violence and her merchants liars and cheats.…