Tag: Sermon Snippets

Abolished!

Wednesday 29th April 2015

‘Sermon Snippets’ is an occasional series, taking bitesize chunks from our Sunday sermons.  The following excerpt is adapted from a sermon on 2 Timothy 1:8-14, preached by Nathan Burley last Sunday.  You can listen to the whole sermon here.

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As I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s the General Election next week.

If they’re elected, Labour will abolish the Bedroom Tax.

The Tories would abolish inheritance tax on houses worth up to a million quid, the so-called Death Tax.

Imagine if the Lib Dems’ manifesto said, “Forget the Death Tax!  If we are elected in 2015, we will abolish death!”  If you knew they could do it, you’d vote for it, wouldn’t you!

And that’s just what Paul says Jesus has done.  He “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Tim 1:10)

He has abolished death.  There is no such thing anymore.

Death is our greatest fear.  It is the incontrovertible proof that the world is broken and so are we.  It’s the weapon our persecutors would threaten us with. It’s the judgement that’s coming for sin.

But Jesus has abolished it!  So that the Christian never truly dies.  We will be forever with the Lord!  Death is done.

John Stott suggests we shouldn’t put R.I.P. on our graves.  We should have C.A.D. instead – Christ Abolished Death!  What a gospel!

It’s all the more striking when you remember that Paul is writing this letter not just from prison but from death row.  Any day now he’ll be executed for his faith in Jesus Christ but still he won’t stop shouting, “Christ abolished death!”

If that’s not a reason to be thoroughly unashamed of the gospel, I don’t know what is.

Listen to the rest of the sermon here.

Always Remember

Friday 23rd January 2015

Sermon Snippets’ is an occasional series, taking bitesize chunks from our Sunday sermons.  The following excerpt is adapted from a sermon on Joshua 3:1-5:12, preached by Nigel Styles last Sunday.  You can listen to the whole sermon here.

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In Joshua 3, God’s people face an impossibility.

Ahead of them lay the land that, for centuries, God had been promising to give them.  But between where they stood and the land itself was the River Jordan.

At that time of year, it was not a placid stream, but a swollen, raging torrent, probably a mile wide, up to 10-12 feet deep, with a mass of jungle-growth on the riverbed.

God did the most extraordinary thing.  He took the liquid water of that river and turned into something that behaved more like a solid, standing it up in a heap!  And Israel crossed over on dry ground.

God told Israel that they must always remember what had happened.  (I guess that generation wouldn’t quickly forget it!)  Twelve stones, carried from the middle of the river, stacked up on the bank as a memorial, would provide a permanent reminder for every subsequent generation.

Always remember: God kept his promise
He’s said that he would bring them into this land.  And he had done it.  Impossible?  Yes, it was.  But God did it.  A raging torrent of a river could not stop him doing what he’d said.

Always remember: God will keep every promise
The land that God was to give Israel was full of seven tribal groups.  If God can open up the way into the land, he’ll also be able to clear the land.  Have confidence that if God has promised to do something, he will certainly do it.

Always remember: God will take his people home
Christians have long understood that Israel’s journey from the Exodus through the wilderness into the Promised Land is just like the Christian’s journey to our heavenly home.  So that ‘when I tread the verge of Jordan’, I can have great confidence that even the dreadful river of death need not cause anxious fear.  For our God will keep his promise and take us home.

How can I have confidence?  Always remember.  The three stones that we threaded into bracelets during our Sunday service are to remind us of these three things.

Listen to the rest of the talk recorded live at our All Age Service here.

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.