Category: Quotes

Nailed!

Thursday 10th October 2013

Sermon Snippets’ is an occasional series, taking bitesize chunks from our Sunday sermons.  The following excerpt is adapted from a sermon on Colossians 2:6-15, preached by Nigel Styles last Sunday.  You can listen to the whole sermon here.

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Martin Luther wrote that when Satan tells us that we are sinners, he is actually reminding us of the mercy and kindness of Christ our Redeemer.  He is reminding me of the death of Jesus that has thoroughly dealt with all my sins.  He points me to the place where I can be comforted me immeasurably.

Imagine a list of all you’ve done wrong – all the many things that Satan likes to remind us about.  This long list is like a huge IOU of what we owe God.

In our passage from Colossians 2, Paul pictures the cross of Jesus and points above his head to the place where the felonies of the crucified criminal are normally nailed.  And Paul sees there not the ‘the king of the Jews’ sign that actually hung there, but my list of my crimes nailed to his cross.  All my sins are listed up there.

And the place where they hang, flapping in the wind, is a reminder of mercy and kindness.  For the punishment has been meted out, not on me but on that man hanging there.  The debt to society has been paid by him.  That IOU has been nailed above a prisoner who has died for those crimes.

And my criminal record – which should be so condemning – is cancelled.

It’s a very vivid picture saying that our forgiveness is complete.  And how immeasurably comforting this is.

Listen to the rest of the sermon here.

Blobfish & Voyager-1

Thursday 19th September 2013

Sermon Snippets’ is an occasional series, taking bitesize chunks from our Sunday sermons.  The following excerpt is adapted from a sermon on Colossians 1:15-20, preached by Nathan Burley last Sunday.  You can listen to the whole sermon here.

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Jesus is a bigger deal than we think.

Lots of people today think He’s just an interesting historical figure, maybe not even that.  But no, Jesus is supreme.

Why?  v16 “For by him all things were created.”

And in case we don’t know what “all things” means, Paul spells it out!  “in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him & for him.”

ALL things.  Wherever, whatever, whoever.  If it exists, Jesus made it.

This week the aptly named blob fish was voted the ugliest animal in the world.

 You may never have seen one of those before.  Apologies that you now can’t unsee it!  There are countless creatures like this.  Strange species, some massive, some tiny, all so different.

And Jesus made all of them.  All His idea.  You might think the blobfish is a bit a weird thing to think up, but where’s the last fish you invented?

No-one can do what Jesus can do.

On the other end of the spectrum, this week NASA announced that Voyager-1, which launched in 1977, just became the first man-made object to leave our solar system.

It’s around 19 billion km away.  Which is a lot compared to how far most of us travelled to get to church.  But it’s about a millimetre compared to the known universe.  To give some perspective, in about 40,000 years, Voyager 1 might get within a light year or so of another star other than the sun.  That’s the scale of the universe.

Jesus created all of it.  He’s supreme over creation because He made it all.

Is that what you think of when hear the name ‘Jesus’?

Listen to the rest of the sermon here.

 

Nothing More Than Him

Tuesday 10th September 2013

Sermon Snippets’ is an occasional series, taking bitesize chunks from our Sunday sermons.  The following excerpt is adapted from a sermon on Colossians 1:1-14, preached by Nigel Styles last Sunday.  You can listen to the whole sermon here.

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Colossians is going to put Jesus centre stage.

The supreme Jesus.

The sufficient Jesus.

Christ is the message that produced the fruit of faith, love and hope.  In Christ are all the treasures that will continue to bear fruit in every good work.  Only in him.

So I need nothing more than Him.  He is sufficient for the start of my Christian life.  And he is sufficient for the continuing of my Christian life.

Listen to the rest of the sermon here.

Mousetraps Or Brooms?

Tuesday 30th April 2013

Sermon Snippets’ is an occasional series, taking bitesize chunks from our Sunday sermons.  The following excerpt is adapted from a sermon on Mark 2:1-12, preached by Nigel Styles last Sunday.  You can listen to the whole sermon here.

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In our house, we often have problems with mice.  When we come across the nibbled carrot in the veg box or we find some mice droppings behind the chair… what should we do?

We could sweep up the mice droppings.  Yes, that would be a good idea.  We should throw away the nibbled veg.  Definitely!

But even if I clear up the evidence of mice every day, it’s of limited value.  I need to take more drastic action.  I need to get out our mouse traps, pull back the spring, set an appetising sultana in place, and wait for the ‘thwatch’!!!

In the Garden of Eden, before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, no one got ill.  There were no wheelchairs, or cancer wards or Get Well Soon cards.  But then the world went horribly wrong.

Jesus could have come along and swept up the droppings.  A leper cleansed here.  A paralytic raised up there.

But when he forgives this man’s sins in Mark chapter 2, he is saying that he has come to deal not only with the symptoms of a broken world, but with the thing that broke it in first place.  He has come to deal with sin because that is the root cause.

When he says ‘your sins are forgiven’, like a guided missile locked onto its target, Jesus attacks the thing that really needs to be dealt with.

Jesus is saying that we need to look no further than inside ourselves.  That is real problem.

I am in the wrong.  And not just me, but all of us.  Everybody is like this.  Everybody has sins that need to be forgiven.  That’s where the problems of the world begin.

Listen to the rest of the sermon here.

 

Stop Running

Tuesday 8th January 2013

Sermon Snippets’ is an occasional series, taking bitesize chunks from our Sunday sermons.  The following excerpt is adapted from a sermon on Jonah 1:1-16, preached by Nathan Burley last Sunday.  You can listen to the whole sermon here.

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Jonah isn’t the story of a giant fish, but a giant God.

A God who is far bigger than we give Him credit for.

He isn’t just a local, tribal god, only interested in one group of people, even if those people are the Israelites.  He is a global God who cares enough about the whole world to send a messenger to the worst of cities to lovingly warn them.  He’s bigger than we think.

He’s the kind of God you couldn’t run away from if you tried.  He will always find you.

He’s so big that even if we shake our puny fists at the sky and say, “I won’t do what you want!”, He has a funny way of stopping us in our tracks and saying, “Not so fast, sunshine.”

He’s big enough to hurl a storm into the sea, the way you or I might skim a stone.  He’s the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

The one who decides the toss of a coin, so the finger of blame lands on the right man.

As the sailors put it in v14, “You, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.”

There are lots of ways in which we can point the finger at Jonah and say, “What an idiot,” but really we’re all a bit like him.  We’ve all said no to God in our own ways and headed off to do our own thing.  And from Adam and Eve onwards, we’ve tried to hide from Him.

Let the story of Jonah convince us – we can’t hide from Him!

God is bigger than we think… so we should stop running from Him.

Listen to the rest of the sermon here.