Tag Archives: sermons

A year of sermons in picture: remember these?

Posted by on November 18, 2011 Comments Off

 

 

 

Myth busting

Posted by on October 11, 2011 Comments Off

This series of talks are currently happening at church in the hope that we will bust some of the myths surrounding Christianity and set the record straight. We’d love you to come listen to any or all of them, examine the Bible with us, ask questions, and hopefully get meaningful, satisfying, and even life-changing answers from God and His word.

On our part, we promise to respect where you’re coming from, and not demand anything from you. And we promise free dinners after church! We sincerely hope you’ll check us, the Bible, Jesus, and Christianity out.

09/10 – Christianity is for mindless morons
16/10 – Christianity does more harm than good
23/10 – Christianity is for wimps
30/10 – Christians hate homosexuals
06/11 – Christians are all hypocrites
13/11 – All religions are the same
20/11 – You can’t take the Bible literally
27/11 – …so what does all this mean for me?

The Glorious Unveiling – the Book of Revelation

Posted by on July 10, 2011 Comments Off

This Sunday (July 17) we’ll be beginning our sermon series on the Book of Revelation. We’ll be calling it “The Glorious Unveiling” – because Revelation means to reveal, and what we’ll see in the Book of Revelation will be majestic and glorious.

Here is the info on the series:

Jul 17  The Glorious Unveiling (Rev 1:1-20)

Jul 24  What Jesus thinks of His Church (Rev 2:1-3:22)

Jul 31  Enter the Throne Room (Rev 4:1-5:14)

Aug 7  Groundhog Day (Rev 6:1-11:19)

Aug 14  A Glorious Gathering (Rev 7:1-17)

Aug 21  Beware of Imitations (Rev 12:1-13:18)

Aug 28  Total justice (Rev 14:1-16:21)

Sept 4  The city of man is gone! (Rev 17:1-19:10)

Sept 11 The city of God is here! (Rev 19:11-21:8)

Sept 18  Glory! (Rev 21:9-22:21)

The Introduction to Revelation which we are passing around in hard copy can be found at the bottom of our Resources page here. It was written by a good friend of Keiyeng and mine. Please have a read of the paper, but more than that, please read the Book of Revelation – it’ll greatly help your understanding of the sermons and Bible Studies.

How words change lives

Posted by on June 23, 2011 3 comments

I’ve been reading through Proverbs 10:11-21 in preparation for this Sunday’s sermon. It’s an amazing passage – so relevant to our lives today, but so tough to live out. You see, it’s all about the power of the spoken word – for good or for harm. Two things that really strike me are: what we say matters to the person who is listening; but equally importantly, how we speak also matters. Here’s the passage. Notice the positive and negative effects of our speech:

Proverbs 10:11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

12Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

13On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.

14The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.

17Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray.

18The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.

19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

20The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth.

21The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.

Here are a few thoughts the passage has brought to my mind:

  • What sorts of things do I speak about – at church, work, home, with friends?
  • Am I conscious of the power of my words – either for people’s good or harm?
  • Do I have adequate self-control in the way I use words? For illustration: in a golf car, there’s what’s called a ‘governor’ – a little device that stops the car from going past (say) 30km/hr. It physically prevents the car from going too fast and thus getting in danger. Do I have an internal ‘governor’ that stops me from saying harmful things in harmful ways? How do I get this? (more on this this Sunday)
  • Am I conscious, not just of what I say, but how I say things? Are my words nullified by immature or unloving actions?
  • What sort of listener am I? Do I listen to and take on correction and guidance, or do I ignore it and keep going in my folly? A few months ago, a friend subtly rebuked me for what was obviously a poor attitude of mine. I heard what he said, and thought he was talking about someone else. Later, Keiyeng said that my friend was obviously talking about me, and that I wasn’t listening properly. SNAP! It took Keiyeng to re-emphasise by poor attitude, but it finally got through my thick skull. And hearing and heeding the (much needed) correction has helped my attitude enormously. If only I am quicker to hear what people are saying to me!

Proverbs is a great book – and as all Scripture does, it leads us to Jesus (Luke 24:27) – who spoke the truth perfectly, and backed it up with His consistently right actions. He took all our sins (word, thought and deed) and nailed them to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14). He gave His people the Holy Spirit, who is making us like Jesus, in our words and deeds (Galatians 5:22-25). As we look at Proverbs, and as we seek to grow in wisdom, we are to be reminded that Jesus is the one who gives us wisdom and righteousness (1 Cor 1:30).

And through the Holy Spirit who inspired the Word of God (the Bible), we are taught to be like Jesus, in “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). To be Christians means to be loving in the way we speak. Speaking the truth (God’s Word) as well as avoiding gossip, lies and rumours etc, in love, is a powerful tool in the hands of God’s children. As Christians, we’re to be people who know God’s truth, who speak God’s truth, who say it in love, and get in on God’s work of transforming the lives of people around us.

So come to 5:17 church on Sunday, as we seek to know these truths more, and grow in our words and actions, to the glory of King Jesus.


 

Genesis: the beginnings

Posted by on May 4, 2011 Comments Off

Our current sermon series at 5:17 is Genesis: the beginnings. Below are the details for the series. Reading up on the passages beforehand would be of great benefit to you. We’re also studying the same passages in our Community Groups – to get the most out of the passages, and to make sure that we are applying what we learn well.

May.1  When the world began (Gen 1:1-2:3)
May.8  Humanity at its best (Gen 2:4-25)
May.15   Humanity at its worst (Gen 3:1-24)
May.22   The spread of evil (Gen 4:1-5:32)
May.29  A clean slate (Gen 6:1-9:28)
Jun.5    Humanity: our way (Gen 10:1-11:9)
Jun.12  Humanity: God’s way (Gen 11:10-12:9)

Seeking great things for yourself?

Posted by on August 29, 2010 Comments Off

Last Sunday we finished off the Jeremiah sermon series in chapter 45. (Meanwhile I’m still plodding through all 52 chapters in my personal Bible reading – long but worthwhile!) As per all good Bible reading / preaching / study, Steve seeks to preach sermons that follow the 3-step process of reading the Bible effectively – exegesis (what does the text say?), hermeneutics (what does the text mean? especially recognising that a time and culture gap needs to be bridged between the original text and here and now), and application (so what?).

Here’s a summary of last week’s ‘So What’ from Jeremiah 45.

God’s word to Baruch was: In a time of national and spiritual disaster, Baruch’s priorities were wrong; it was wrong of him to seek great things for himself.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:26 that life isn’t about the accumulation of abundance – about grasping for gain.

1 John 5:13 tells us that God’s people have been given the priceless gift of eternal life.

This means we don’t have to strive for gain or personal ambition in life; we’ve been given something so much greater.  If God has my back (like He had Baruch’s – Jer 45:5) it means I can freely give myself to Him and others.

So who or what am I ambitious for?

In Matthew 6 Jesus says to be ambitious for God and His kingdom – to seek first to see His kingdom growing.

This is especially needed in the face of coming disaster; 2 Peter 3:9 tells us a day of judgement is coming – which spells disaster for anyone not on the side of the Judge (through the Saviourship of Jesus).

In the face of this coming disaster, will you seek to build up your or some other human’s ‘kingdom’, or will you be ambitious to build God’s – to see more people finding refuge in Him?

Upcoming sermon series

Posted by on August 25, 2010 Comments Off

After a personally challenging journey through the Book of Jeremiah, we’re now ready for a new series of sermons at 5:17. With Keiyeng ready to give birth to our bub at any time now, and to give me a short break when bub arrives, we’re going to have a month of DVD sermons from Mike Raiter. These messages are on the book of Acts, and give an exciting picture of how God’s gracious gospel changes lives – then and now.

  • Aug 29 – Mission in the Marketplace (Acts 17:16-34)
  • Sep 05 – Confronting the Idols (Acts 19:8-41)
  • Sep 12 – Paul’s Perfect Storm (Acts 27)
  • Sep 19 – Adventures in Malta (Acts 28:1-10)

Following Mike’s sermons, we’ll then be moving on to 1 Timothy, which I will be preaching through (God willing).

The title of this series is ‘Putting your household in order’, and this comes from 1 Timothy 3:14-15, which says:

“I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth”.

The following is the sermon plan for this series:

  • Sep 26 – Intro to 1 Timothy – Warning a Young Church (Acts 20)
  • Oct 3 – Grounded in Grace (1 Timothy 1)
  • Oct 10 – The Godly Life (1 Timothy 2)
  • Oct 17 – It’s all about character (1 Timothy 3)
  • Oct 24 – Training in Godliness (1 Tim 4)
  • Oct 31 – No little people (1 Tim 5:1-6:2a)
  • Nov 7 – In case you’ve forgotten (1 Timothy 6:2b-21)

Hopefully there will be a 1 Timothy reading plan produced in the next few weeks, so that you can read through the letter at home and thus grasp the message of 1 Timothy even more.

the New Covenant is better

Posted by on August 22, 2010 3 comments

Last Sunday and at (some) CGs this week, we took a good look at Jeremiah 31:31-34 where the LORD promises to make a New Covenant with His people. I got pretty excited at CG studying the passage in conjunction with Hebrews 10:11-25, and it’s one of the units from Bible College that impacted me the most too. (It’s an unusual privilege when you actually enjoy writing an exam essay because the content is so fantastic!) Why so excited? All to do with how superlatively better the New Covenant is compared to the Old.

…but as we pointed out at CG, it wasn’t that the Old Covenant was a bad system in itself. God doesn’t institute bad systems; He’s not a bully for introducing something that He knew would ultimately ‘fail’. But it was a system that He knew wouldn’t be able to work perfectly because it was a Covenant made between Him (a perfect God with perfect standards of holiness) and a broken, sinful, and thus unreliable people. Namely, from Exodus 19:5, Israel was supposed to obey God fully and keep (or obey) His covenant – the process of which was fully described in the Old Testament moral, political, and ceremonial laws. If (or rather when) the people didn’t obey, they were to apply the procedures of the sacrificial system – as an animal died and its blood was shed on their behalf, the people acknowledged that the due penalty of their sin against God was the separation of death, but that an animal was taking this punishment upon itself in their place. A lot of sin was committed, and so a lot of animals died*.

But there was a bunch of other stuff – as we learned from the (translated!) Latin summary phrases in Sunday’s sermon, a fallen humanity is not able to not sin. So there remained this separation, this relational distance between a sinful people and an awe-fully holy God as they struggled to obey, yet kept failing. A new system was needed – one that didn’t depend on sinful people to ensure its success, yet one that didn’t compromise this awe-full holiness of God’s. What? How??

Enter the New Covenant.

Imagine if there were someone who could perfectly keep the human side of the Covenant, and then ‘lend’ this perfect obedience to the rest of humanity? And imagine if there were a blood sacrifice with blood so ‘potent’ it was sufficient to cover all sin for all time – so the animal sacrifices could stop? And imagine if there were a life of infinite worth that if sacrificed, would be sufficient to take the separation of death-punishment for all other lives?

Enter Jesus.

- the perfect Adam, and the perfect Lamb – the human who because of the infinite worth of his divine life, could represent all humans: as he both perfectly obeyed the perfect standards of God, AND as he offered himself as the perfect and final ‘animal’ sacrifice to completely take the punishment due all humans for all their sin.

So if he kept Covenant perfectly, and if God allowed this Covenant-keeping perfection to belong to sinful me, then … wow! Imagine all the benefits that would be mine! (Actually you don’t have to imagine – Hebrews 10:11-25 is a good start, and then you could read the rest of the New Testament to round it off!)

So this is why I get excited thinking about the New Covenant, and how it’s better – not at all because I’m better or more sophisticated than an Old Testament Israelite, but because a Better Person has kept it perfectly for me. And God by His stupendous grace, somehow sees fit to allow Jesus’ perfect Covenant-keeping righteousness to be MINE – so that God sees me as if I’d never sinned, and is changing and empowering me so that I sin less with time, and will one day perfect me so I can’t sin at all. Plus I get to have GOD as my friend, not a distant Creator or angry Lord, but as loving heavenly Father, and Jesus as my brother.

I’ve gone on for several paragraphs now, but I hope you’ve seen why this stuff makes me excited. It’s the Gospel – the heart of the Good News we believe as Christians – that God should be so good to me by including me in this New Covenant is too wonderful for words. I hope it makes you rejoice too, and if you haven’t yet experienced it for yourself, I hope it makes you want to. Find out how here.

—

*Gory? yup. But a primitive system of blood and death by an anthropologically immature people that later became outmoded as they developed a more sophisticated religion? (this is how some schools of thought would describe it) no. Yes, this might seem to be a plausible explanation, but a careful reading of the whole Bible helps clarify why the system changed – and it isn’t due to a group of people becoming more sophisticated. Actually, keep reading above for the Bible’s explanation.

How much should I give?

Posted by on August 17, 2010 3 comments

On Sunday, one of the questions in the Q & A session was about tithing and giving in general. Instead of reinventing the wheel (and because she writes better than I do), I’ll post something Keiyeng wrote a few years ago for the SLE blog on this exact same topic.

….

There’s a few ideas or things you may have been taught about giving along the course of your Christian life. One might be the concept of‘ Tithing’, which has its origins in the Old Testament Law given to God’s people (the Israelites) through Moses. Tithing was where God’s people gave 10% of everything they owned (whether money, crops, animals, cloth etc) to God by giving it for the use of the priestly Levite tribe. The male Levites’ job as Priests in God’s Temple disallowed them from working at anything else to earn money or possessions, so they needed these to be given to them. In God’s magnificent, logical, and orderly wisdom, He arranged that the Levites’ daily needs should be provided for by the other 11 tribes’ tithes.

So what about us in the New Testament? Is tithing (giving 10% of our money, goods, and possessions) still the way to go?

The question behind the question here is to what extent are New Testament believers bound to obey the Old Testament Law? This is a huge question with a big answer that’s hard to reduce into a few paragraphs. But I’ll try!

Historically, there are two positions that give the extreme answers to this question – ie. ‘not at all’ (Dispensationalism) and ‘fully’ (Theonomy). And here I’ll do some quoting from the contemporary Old Testament scholar, Tremper Longman III (!):

One finds a tendency in dispensationalist writing to distinguish between the OT as a time when God worked through law and the NT as a period of grace. … [Schofield's] view … cannot help but lead to a minimalisation of the law, a disregard for the OT law as such. It does not, as Bruce Waltke points out, take into account Paul’s assertion that the law is “holy and right and good” (Rom 7:12).

… On the other hand, the school of thought that goes by the name theonomy … argues that the OT laws and penalties are still in effect today. … In brief, theonomy’s approach to the law is to take Jesus’ words seriously, dogmatically, and literally. … Strict continuity is assumed between the Old and New Testaments. Theonomists believe that it is the job of government to enforce OT law, which thereby becomes a blueprint for contemporary society.

[Making Sense of the Old Testament: Three Crucial Questions, Tremper Longman III, p105-106]

Longman’s (and our) view is that there are distinct points of Continuity AND Discontinuity between Old and New Testaments. So, when it comes to NT believers’ obedience to the Law (or not), we have to understand what these points are. Here’s where this post could seriously blow out so at risk of being too brief, this is a summary based on Longman’s [p108-123] -

All OT Case Law (laws that concern specific situations) is an outflow, or application of the Ten Commandments to the specific situations of the Old Testament people of God.

Jesus himself upheld (and extended the scope and application of) the Ten Commandments in his teaching, so we must uphold them.

Jesus also perfectly summarised the essence of the Ten Commandments (and their accompanying case laws) in the two greatest commandments in Mark 12:29-31 -

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

The relevant ‘case law’ (or application of the Ten / two Greatest Commandments to our specific situations) inevitably looks hugely different for us (Christians in the 21st Century) compared with the OT / God’s nation of Israel before Christ.

The New Testament provides ‘case law’ for New Testament believers, exemplified in Jesus’ and the apostles’ teaching about what pleases God.

Instead of obeying the case law of the OT, we obey the ‘case law’ (or commands) of the NT, both of which are expressions / applications of the Ten Commandments / two Greatest Commandments contextualised for the stage of redemption-history at hand.

Neither the Israelites nor we can obey God’s commands to earn salvation. Rather we obey Him to please Him because He has saved us.

So, back to tithing! Do we give 10%, more, or less?

The NT ‘case law’ on giving doesn’t specify percentages, but rather, attitude. Paul teaches Jesus’ followers (that’s us!) to give generously. To illustrate this he gave the Macedonian Christians props for urgently pleading with the apostles for the privilege of giving! He motivated generosity on the basis of Jesus’ generous giving to us. And he taught that God both enables and affirms our generosity when it’s enacted for Him. (read it all in 2 Corinthians 8-9)

Back to the 10%. We personally think there’s lots of merit for letting 10% be a minimum figure rather than a maximum. If the NT teaching is ‘generosity’, then the whole point is that we seek to out-give ourselves, rather than scrimp! But having said this, because 10% is not a NT command, NT believers have freedom in Christ to give less – particularly if and when circumstances necessitate it. (Beware using this as a cop-out though!)

I’ll finish with a fantastic summary borrowed from David Cook at BLT in January 2008.

In the Old Testament, it was 1 in 12 (tribes who were consecrated to serve God as His priests). In the New Testament, it is 12 in 12. As Christians, we are ALL made holy to serve God as His priests (mediators) to the non-Christian world, as a constant, never-retired-from vocation.

In the Old Testament, it was 1 in 7 (days consecrated as holy to the Lord to remember and honour Him). In the New Testament, it is 7 in 7. All our days and times are His; we remember, serve, and honour Him with all of what we do on all our days – both at work and at rest.

In the Old Testament, it was 10% (of money and possessions given back to God). In the New Testament, it is 100%. All of our money and possessions belong to God; we are merely stewards of His resources. We are to use ALL of it to serve and glorify Him; all of it is holy and to be used in God-honouring ways – whether given in offering, given away to the poor, invested for His kingdom – not ours! – or spent in enjoying His Creation-gifts with thankfulness.

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

preparing your church for suffering

Posted by on July 15, 2010 1 comment

Last Sunday our sermon was from Mark 8:22-38, where Jesus makes clear that following him means death to self.  As David Cook (the preacher) explained,

‘Only conversion shatters the idol of self’;

2 Corinthians 5:15 tells the Christian that ‘my life is no longer mine’;

‘God has placed His throne where self has been’;

‘I have lost control of my life to Jesus’;

‘A Christian who lives for self is a contradiction in terms’.

What piercing statements.  And along with this death to self, is the certainty that Jesus’ disciples will suffer just as he did.  But God can be trusted; you will not find yourself on the losing side by being His, because He is no man’s debtor (Mark 10:29-31).

Someone who knows this incredibly clearly is Joni Eareckson Tada, and I thought it worth posting the link to the short video we watched of her on Sunday so you can be re-encouraged by her steadfast faith in God’s sovereignty and goodness.  (Joni’s book, A Step Further has been the best and most helpful (and readable!) book I’ve ever read on God’s purposes in suffering in our lives; I can’t recommend it highly enough!)

Click here for the 5-minute video (scroll down to bottom of screen), here for the article Joni mentioned by Dr John Piper called ‘Don’t waste your cancer’, and here for ongoing updates and encouragement re Joni’s medical progress.