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Published on 2 Comments on Genesis 12 Sermon – the Fall of Abram

Genesis 12Audio    Text    Powerpoint

Here's a point I didn't have time for in the sermon...

In Egypt, Abram is far from the altar of the LORD and so he's far from calling on the Name of the LORD.  It's the altar of the LORD that makes sense of the Name of the LORD.

Think of where Abram's altar is.  It's on a mountain ridge between Bethel and Ai. "Bethel" means “house of God” and "Ai"  means “ruin”. To the west lies the presence of the Lord. To the east lies a ruin.  And this hilltop place of sacrifice stands between them. Where God’s house meets our ruin – there is bloody sacrifice.

At the altar God meets our ruin and provides the blood that saves.  Here sinners can call on the true Name of God.  Through the blood of the sacrifice we find that the LORD truly is "the compassionate and gracious God..." (Exodus 34:6ff). But who can call on the gospel character of Christ when they are far from His altar??

Abram shows what happens when we stray from the cross.  Having sinned, he gives us a picture of a spiritual sulk. In Genesis 13:3, he moves through the “Negev” - the "wilderness" - going from place to place. Moping in the dryness, moping around the fringes of the promised land.

Isn't this what we all do when we fail?  I do.  I put myself in a self-imposed “time-out” with God.  I try not to bother Him for a while and hope He forgets what I’ve done. But no, time doesn’t atone for our sins. Tears don’t atone for our sins.  The LORD Himself provides our atonement.

So then, let's flee to the cross, let's know the blood of the LORD Jesus. Let's not mope around on the fringes of His promise, let's not try to clean ourselves up. Let's come to Christ for the bath. Then we will call on His gospel character - the Name that makes sense at the altar.

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Published on 3 Comments on 321 Houseparty Talks

Priesthood of Christ

I had a great time this weekend with Emmanuel Church, Plymouth. It was a time of refocussing our vision through the lens of Jesus. In Him we see God, the world and ourselves rightly.

If you've heard me before on any of these passages, move along, nothing new here. But if not, here are the mp3s and Powerpoint ...

Beginning with Jesus - Colossians 1:15-23

God's Threeness - Galatians 3:26-4:7

The World's Twoness - Romans 5:12-21

Our Oneness - John 15; Ephesians 5; Hebrews 4

Communion - 1 Corinthians 10:14-17; 11:23-26

Powerpoint Slides

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Published on 15 Comments on Do Not Worry – A Sermon on Matthew 6:25-34

what-me-worryWe spend our lives worrying about what we’ll eat and Jesus takes bread saying “I’m the bread of life, broken to feed worriers like you.”

We spend our lives worrying about what we’ll drink and Jesus takes a cup saying “This is my blood poured out for anxious souls like you.”

We spend our lives worrying about what we’ll wear and on the cross Jesus is stripped, so that we can be clothed in His righteousness.

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Sermon text

Audio (I had to re-record the last 3 minutes after the service).

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Published on 1 Comment on Which God Don’t You Believe In – an evangelistic talk

ascension JesusYou might have heard me (or others!!) bang this drum before. But if not, here's a 25 minute evangelistic talk entitled "Which God don't you believe in?"

DOWNLOAD AUDIO

Colossians 1:15-23

 Three thought prompter questions...

What do you picture when you think of God?
What do you picture when you think of Jesus?
What does God picture when He thinks of you?

When you think of God…?

Problem - v15: He's invisible. Which means unknowable!

There's been a divorce- v21.

But there's an Image: Jesus.

This is the reverse of natural thinking

We think God is obvious, we're unsure of Jesus.

Bibles says, Jesus is on show, God is unknown.

God is Jesus shaped.

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When you picture Jesus...?

V15-20  What kind of God is this!?

Climaxing in the cross.

Jesus is God sized.

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When God pictures you…?

Not dimmer switch. On or off.

V21: OFF - going against the grain of reality

V22: ON - holy, without blemish, free from accusation.

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Have you been reconciled?

Have you forgotten Jesus?

Every day I imagine an unChristlike God on the throne.

Let's return to the God of Jesus.

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Published on 3 Comments on Luke 1:26-38 Sermon

Luke 1.26-28Sermon Audio

Sermon Text

This is Jesus: The Son of Mary. Our Brother in every way. A pure gift of the Father. God the Son entering our Family that we might enter His. A true Joshua bringing us rest. A true David crushing our Enemy and setting the world to rights.

And He’s for you.

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Published on 1 Comment on Christmas is for Dark Places – John 1
“Rachel Weeping”
Rachel Weeping For Her Children.
Click for source

 

Audio

 

Full Text

In the light of the news from America you may be asking, What can Christmas possibly say to Newtown, Connecticut?  Isn’t Christmas now inappropriate?  How can we dare to teach these children about the joys of Christmas when children just like them were gunned down in a school on Friday?  After all that’s happened, how can talk of Christmas go on?  After these events Christmas has been cancelled for scores of families.  How can we speak of Christmas??

I suggest to you that the real question is: How can we not??  How can we NOT speak of Christmas when the evil and suffering of this world is unmasked in such a horrific way?  How can we NOT speak of Christmas?  Christmas is FOR Newtown, Connecticut.  Christmas is precisely FOR this evil and suffering world.

If we feel that Christmas doesn’t fit with the horrors of Friday’s shooting, I suggest we’re thinking about the wrong Christmas. I hope you know that Christmas is NOT about elves and tinsel and warm cocoa and X-Factor number ones.  It is NOT about wandering blank-eyed through shopping malls and maxxing out the credit cards. It’s not even about sweet Carols and even sweeter Nativity plays. There is NOTHING sweet about the real Christmas.  There is NOTHING sentimental about the true Christmas story.

Matthew chapter 2, verse 16:

16 When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under… 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in [the region of] Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." {Jer. 31:15}

That’s the real Christmas. Christmas happens in the dark...

Full Text of sermon

 

Audio download

 

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Published on 3 Comments on Carols Talk on Luke 2

Prometheus2

Talk Audio

Talk notes:

Prometheus is the Christmas story in photo-negative!

Intrepid humans make treacherous journey into heavens

We try to make contact with our makers

They turn out to hate us and seek our destruction

Only our own efforts can save us from our makers

Christmas is the polar opposite

It doesn't begin with intrepid humans but with Luke 2:8...

Farm-labourers on a night-shift.

But all heaven breaks loose.

Verse 9: The opposite of the science fiction stories

He doesn't say "Take me to your leader", but "Here, have our Leader!"

Verse 10: The Messiah - do you know Handel's Messiah?

Here's the One promised throughout the Scriptures

The Hope of the ages, the Desire of all nations

One filled to overflowing with the Spirit

Like the top glass of a Champagne fountain

In Luke 1 He's called "The Son of God"

This is who God is: A Father pouring the life, love and joy of the Spirit onto His Son

Here's the good news... the Son is given to us...

To share everything He has and everything He is with us.

God the Son became God our Brother...

Verse 12: A baby, wrapped in rags, laid in a feeding trough

Lo within a manger lies He who built the starry skies.

Why?  Verse 11 - He is Saviour.

What does He save us from? Disconnection

The human race is disconnected, like a Christmas tree.

All that's wrong is because of a foundational disconnect with God.

This Christmas will be hard because of disconnection...

Death, Divorce, Disease, Depression or simple Disappointment will ruin Christmas

We need re-connection and so...

The One connected to God connects Himself with us.

Will you receive Him?

He is a Gift "to you" - verse 11.

Around the ankle of the baby Jesus, imagine a gift tag "to you"

Will you receive the ultimate Christmas Gift?

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Published on 6 Comments on Need help with Christmas talks?

Well it's nearly Advent so it's time for preachers to think about Carols services, Christingles, Nativity plays, etc.

It's also a time to miss a golden opportunity.  The golden opportunity is to preach a theology of incarnation.  But, year in and year out, this chance is missed in evangelical churches.

Our mentions of incarnation boil down to the Abrupt, the Apologetic or the Anselmian.

The Abrupt:

“God in skin. Weird huh? Anyway…”

The Apologetic:

“Jesus shows up in time and space which means that we can verify the truth through historical methods, and really the New Testament documents are very reliable don’t you know…”

The Anselmian:

“God basically wants to acquit his elect and so needs a Scapegoat to take the fall. And there he is the manger. Weird huh?  Anyway…”

Where are the Athanasian, Atoning, Abasing themes?

The Athanasian Incarnation:

“In this marvellous exchange, He becomes what we are, that we might become what He is”?

The Atoning Incarnation:

"Here is God-With-Us, making us at-one in His very Person!"

The Abasing Incarnation:

"My God is so small, so weak and so helpless, there's nothing that He will not do... for you!"

I wonder if we shy away from the Athanasian incarnation because we don't want to get into (or don't properly understand) the trinitarian theology that makes sense of it.

I wonder if we shy away from the Atoning incarnation because ontology has no place in our thinking about atonement.  (This is also why our Easter sermons contain no theology of resurrection - only a 'proof that the cross worked'.)

I wonder if we shy away from the Abasing incarnation because we're wedded to a theology of glory that refuses to countenance the little LORD Jesus.

If any of these guesses are anywhere near the mark, let me suggest a remedy.  Read Athanasius' On the Incarnation and hear the kind of Christmas message that has warmed the hearts of millions down through the ages.  Get started here as you listen to Mike Reeves read extracts.

And for what they're worth, here are three of my own posts on incarnation:

Incarnation and Trinity

Incarnation and Creation

Incarnation and Salvation

(For good measure here’s a paper on Athanasius and Irenaeus)

These are some talks in which I've tried to preach this theology...

 

Christmas is God laying hold of us - Hebrews 2:14-18

The Coming King - Psalm 72

In the beginning… – John 1:1-2

The Word became flesh – John 1:14

Christmas brings a crisis – John 1:15-18

Student Carols – Isaiah 9

Evangelistic carols service – Light shining in darkness – Isaiah 9:2-7 (different to the other Isaiah 9)

Luke 1:26-38

All-age: Christmas turns slaves to sons – Galatians 4:4-7

All-age Carols Talk: Christmas is weird – Phil 2:5-11

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Here are some songs on the same theme and the Anti-Santy video

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What resources have you found helpful?  Please share the wealth in comments...

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