Finding Favour with God

Here is the sermon I preached at All Saints on Dec 18, 2011. The text is Luke 1:26-38:

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,  to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?"

And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

Blessed, Not For What You Do, But Because of Christ

The sermon from November 6, 2011, preached at All Saint Lutheran Church. The text is Matt 5:1-12.
Here's the text for the sermon, Matthew 5:1-12:

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Wir Sind Alle Bettler

This is my last sermon at Bethany Lutheran Church. The text is Matt 15:21-28.

Sermon from August 14, 2011. The text is Matthew 15:21-28.

God's Feast For You

Sermon from July 31, 2011. The text is Isaiah 55:1-5

Life of Good Hope

The sermon from July 17, 2011. The text is Rom 8:18-25.

God's Word Makes You Good

Sermon from July 10, 2011. Text is Matt 13:1-9;18-24.

God Sets You Free

Sermon from July 3, 2011. The text is Zechariah 9:11-12.

Rejected on Earth, Accepted in Heaven

Sermon from June 26, 2011. The text is Matt 10:34-42.

What Does Pentecost Mean?

Here's my sermon from June 12, 2011, the Day of Pentecost. The text is Acts 2:1-21.

The Hand of God

Here is my sermon from June 5, 2011. I was blessed to serve as guest preacher at Hope Lutheran Church in Victoria. My brother-in-law is the pastor there and regularly posts his sermons on this website. I invite you to visit their website as well and listen to his sermons as well.

The text is 1 Peter 5:6-11.

Here is the link.

If the plug-in doesn't work, try it in Internet Explorer. I tried to play it in Chrome and it refused to work.

Zephaniah

God’s judgement is a key theme in Zephaniah and includes judgement on Judah, Judah’s enemies, Jerusalem and judgement on the nations.

A key component of that judgement is the great Day of the Lord, the day that God will come and carry out His judgement upon the world. Zephaniah gives a very graphic description: “A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.” (1:15-16) Zephaniah makes it clear that gold and silver, which man so often depends on, will not save them when this day comes (v. 18). Only in God, in His righteousness, trusting and depending on Him, seeking no righteousness in ourselves, might we be hidden from God’s wrath (2:3). In other words, by faith we are hidden in God, in Christ as His righteousness covers us so we no longer appear sinful to God but appear as Christ.

And that is why we have God’s law and His punishment—to correct us and lead us back to Him (3:7). Paul describes the Law as a schoolmaster, showing us how we have failed to live up to do God’s demands and live in righteousness and as He would want (Galatians). The Law is not just there so we would know how we should live, but so we would know that we can’t live as we ought to. Instead the Law leads us to the one who could live up to its demands for us—Jesus Christ.

The book of Zephaniah ends with the theme of God gathering not only Israel, but all nations to Himself (3:9-20). God will be the one gathering them and purifying them and their speech. He will put His Word on their lips, making them confess His name and keep it holy. Through His cross God will sanctify us who trust in Him to make us as we were meant to be. God works in us so that we might live as He would want and restores us to the glory that He meant us to always have. God promises that through the cross He is restoring His Israel to glory which will be fully known when Christ returns and brings us into His new creation.

Habakkuk

After a long hiatus (also known as a very busy time when the supervising Pastor goes on holidays and family comes to visit) I am continuing my series of reflections on the Minor Prophets, coming now to Habakkuk. I know you probably thought that I had forgotten but I haven’t! Every time I post on this site, I’ve been reminded that I need to finish up what I started. So here we go.

I must confess that Habakkuk was a bit of an odd book for me understand, I couldn’t quite get a handle on it for the longest time. The book of Habakkuk is comprised of two complaints from the prophet Habakkuk and then two answers given by God.

The first complaint regards the violence and destruction the people of Judah do against the righteous, or the faithful of Judah. Habakkuk says that the wicked surround the righteous and justice goes forth perverted (1:4). In a way it doesn’t sound all that different from the stories that we sometimes hear today, where people will go through the courts, or the Human Rights Tribunals here in Canada, to sue or punish Christians for preaching God’s Word. The faithful Christian preacher is punished for being a Christian and delivering God’s message which condemns sin and delivers the forgiveness given through Christ. It may be that the faithful Jews are being prosecuted for remaining faithful to Yahweh and proclaiming God’s Word to the people, which would condemn their unfaithfulness. Like the faithful Jews of that time, we might look to God and say, “What are you doing? Don’t you see that justice is being perverted and the gospel is being impeded by these wicked men?” And rather than trust in God and His will for us and rejoice in our suffering as Christians, as Peter tells us to do (1 Peter 4), we doubt and question our God and whether He really has everything under control and whether He really does care for us. “He promised blessings if we followed His covenant, where are they,” we might ask, arrogant of our wickedness and sin and thinking ourselves so great as to deserve those blessings.

God answers the complaint by saying that those who punish the righteous will be brought to justice through Babylon who will be much more violent and wicked than Judah. So, God is going to punish Judah by using a nation that is even worse against them…I think you might be able to see some of my difficulty as I read the book. God will punish the wicked by putting them under the heel of the even more wicked. I sense a cycle beginning to form. Sort of. What God is making clear is that the wickedness of Judah, the wickedness of Babylon and the wickedness of the world will all be punished for their sins. Where we might wonder just what God is doing and whether He is actually going to do anything, God is active and at work in the world, judging and punishing the world for their sins. I know, not the greatest comfort but it gets better.

The second complaint is related to the first, because with all this wickedness and corrupt justice going on it can seem like God is just looking on idly while the traitors and the wicked swallow up the righteous (1:13). God answers the complaint with one of most famous verses in Paul’s writing, “the righteous shall live by faith.” That by faith God’s people will overcome the injustice and suffering and rejoice in their Lord who has promised them the victory over this world and sin. Habakkuk tells the people that now is not the appropriate time for all of this to come true yet, the vision of the righteous reigning over earth hasn’t happened yet. It’s still not the appropriate time, but the injustice of the world won’t stop it from coming. There will be a time when God will swallow up wickedness and His people will reign in righteousness. That time is both now and not yet. Through His Son, Jesus Christ, God has taken the wickedness of the world upon Himself on the cross and died for it all. He defeated sin and wickedness and rose from the dead to proclaim His victory and declare that we too will share in His reign. Jesus will return to complete His victory over wickedness, to defeat the greatest wickedness of the world—death—and call His people forth from the grave.

In His wrath on the world, as His judgement destroys this sinful world and all sinners who refuse the forgiveness of Christ, He will remember His mercy for His people. He will save us from the judgement, since Christ has already gone through it for us and has covered us with His righteousness. This is the great comfort Habakkuk offers and ends his book with prayer and rejoicing to God for the great gift of our salvation in times of suffering. That nothing can steal His salvation away from us and that in our suffering we can trust in Him who gives us the victory in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to God!

The Way to Heaven, The Truth that Brings Life

The sermon from Bethany Lutheran Church on May 22, 2011. The text is John 14:1-12.

God's Benefits

The sermon from May 1, 2011. The text is Psalm 116:12-17.

Show Me The Body

The sermon from May 1, 2011

Nahum

Well, Lent is over, which means that my discipline of reading the minor prophets is finished. But my Lenten discipline included writing reflections on the minor prophets, so my discipline is not quite finished yet.

Today we come to Nahum, who writes about another one of Judah’s enemies, Nineveh. The book opens with Nahum proclaiming God’s judgement upon sinful Assyria. Nahum describes the Lord in 1:3 saying, “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.” Through the reading of the other minor prophets I have become very aware no nation or people, whether Israelite or otherwise, was innocent of sin. I have also become aware of how I, myself, am not innocent of sin and wandering after idols. We are all guilty of sin and God will not clear the guilty. So once again Nahum directs us to the question: How then are we to be saved? God certainly doesn’t clear the guilty, but rather than punish the guilty God punishes His Son on the cross. Jesus takes the punishment for our guilt and give us His righteousness in exchange.

One other part that intrigued me as I read Nahum was the mention of a wound for Nineveh (3:19). I couldn’t help but thinking that I had heard this sort of thing before. Yes, I had heard this before, it’s in Micah 1:9. Except in Micah the wound was supposed to be Judah’s wound, a wound that only the Great Physician is able to heal. It turns out that it’s not only Judah whose hurt by this wound, but those outside Judah as well. Indeed, all people are inflicted by this wound, all those affected by sin and death. And God’s healing power will be upon them as well, given first to the Jew and then to all the world (Rom 1:16).

Both Nahum and Jonah speak to Nineveh, yet they both give drastically different messages. Jonah gives a message of hope and mercy, while Nahum gives a message of judgement and impending doom. What’s going on? Apparently, the people of Nineveh are not as willing to hear and receive God’s message from Nahum as they were for Jonah. Yet they were still proclaiming the same message of repentance that God has given us, He tears us down by the threat of the Law, and shows us hope and mercy in Christ, the Messiah, who heals our wound that leads to death.

God's Will

Here's my sermon from Maundy Thursday. The text is Matt. 26:36-46 and the Third Petition of the Lord's Prayer (Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.)

Christ Your Servant

Here is my sermon from Palm Sunday. The text is Philippians 2:5-11.

Micah

Micah is one of those books that comes out swinging with massive amounts of law that beat you into submission. Then as you keep reading it starts to get a little better until the sweet gospel is laid out in the final chapter.

Micah opens by describing the destruction that is about to come upon Judah. Micah makes it clear that what is coming can only be blamed on themselves and their constant chasing after idols. Throughout the first chapter there is this idea of God Himself coming down to earth to punish Judah and Samaria for her sin. The destruction that God will bring with Him will destroy Samaria down to the foundations, nothing will be left standing and all the idols that the people lusted after would be shattered completely. Yet there is also a sense of regret and mourning in these verses for the punishment that God must now bring to His wayward people. “For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah,” (1:9) God says. Sin spreads throughout the human race, bringing with it a wound that we can’t cure, a wound that leads to death. Yet God has mercy on His people by taking that wound upon Himself and in so doing, gives us the cure for our sin and death.

Micah’s preaching then turns from the general sins of Samaria and Judah to the more specific sins of the leaders and the people who attempt to silence God’s prophets and the preaching of His Word (2:6). Because sometimes God’s Word tells us what we don’t want to hear, sometimes God’s Word convicts and condemns us. And so the people of Israel have become God’s enemy, outright rejecting His Word and persecuting His prophets who come them calling for repentance and declaring punishment for the unrepentant. We too turn into God’s enemies when God’s Word and the preaching of His Word becomes despised and neglected. We no longer hold it sacred, or gladly hear or learn from it because there are times that what the Bible tells us isn’t very pleasant for us to hear. Like the people of Israel we prefer the preaching of wine and strong drink (2:11), of fun and prosperity, health and wealth. Yet God makes it clear that such a preacher is a preacher of lies.

Since the leaders of Judah aren’t doing their jobs, but are leading God’s people into sin, God Himself will be their leader and gather them all to Himself (2:12-13). God displays Himself in the image of a shepherd throughout this section, as one who gathers His flock and leads them to pastures and protecting them. It is the image of the Good Shepherd that Jesus uses to describe Himself in John 10.

Micah calls out the rulers of Judah who oppress the people and gives a pretty graphic and gory description of the oppression they impose on the people:

Hear, you heads of Jacob
   and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?—
²you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
   and their flesh from off their bones,
³ who eat the flesh of my people,
   and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
   and chop them up like meat in a pot,
   like flesh in a cauldron.

So God will turn His back on them and will come to rule and judge from Mt. Zion, as the king of His people. It is a return to the days before the monarchy, when God was the king of Israel and personally lead His people. His rule will be a rule of peace where swords and spears will no longer be needed, but beaten into farm equipment (4:1-5). And God will manifest His rule, His reign through the birth of this king/judge/shepherd in Bethlehem (5:2-5), in other words JESUS! The one who brings God’s reign through His cross and gathers all people to Him and the peace of His mercy and grace. And who will return once again with the new Jerusalem to judge the living and the dead and reign of His kingdom forever.

Trapped in a Cave

Here's my sermon from April 3, 2011.

Jonah

Jonah is a book that everyone loves to teach to their kids. Except they glance over about half of it and leave out the most important parts. In fact when I think back to all the children’s stories about Jonah I can’t remember the point of the story (if there was any). Yet there is such a great point to Jonah that children would love and that we all need to hear!

I’m sure we’ve all heard Jonah’s story, so I won’t bore you with the details. Jonah’s hatred for Nineveh & its people makes him flee in the opposite direction. The ironic thing is, even when Jonah tries to run from his God-given calling, God still uses him to spread his kingdom. After throwing Jonah overboard, the sailors on the ship “feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows” (1:16). Jonah’s trying to flee from job, and God still makes him do his job! How futile it is for us to run from God & our God-given calling. What great power & grace God has to still work through us to spread His reign on earth! God works through us, even when we refuse to. God cares so much about His people that He will work even when we refuse to, yet He still calls us to be His messengers.

Then Jonah gets swallowed by a fish and stays there for three days and three nights. And he prays a prayer that is often brushed over, yet it is so beautiful. Jonah finds himself in the pit of despair, what he calls the “belly of Sheol” (2:2), yet God still hears him when Jonah cries out to Him. Through the prayer, Jonah uses imagery from his current situation to describe how his sin has crushed down upon him to take his life. Yet in those times God hears our prayer and saves us from the crushing depths of sin. Jonah’s prayer ends with the great exclamation that “salvation belongs to the LORD” (2:10).

So then Jonah goes to Nineveh and they repent and God has mercy upon them. And Jonah gets ticked off at God’s mercy! So ticked he wishes to die (4:3)! How often do we think about God’s mercy to all people and feel absolutely pissed off that God could have mercy on that adulterer, murderer, rapist or what have you and forgive their sins in the name of Christ and bring them to heaven. That’s a really hard pill to swallow, in fact it might even be impossible. But we have to ask are we any different? Have you looked at someone with lust in your heart? Have you thought a hateful word toward your neighbour? Then Jesus says that you are no better than that murderer or adulterer. You are a sinner and deserve hell just as much as those we house in our prisons.

God shows His care for the world in a gigantic object lesson using an actual tree (cause God can do that). He brings up this tree to give Jonah shade in the hot desert sun. And Jonah is happy and loves that tree.Yet the next day that tree withers and dies. And Jonah is once again pissed off and wants to die. So God asks, “Is it worth getting angry for this plant?” To which Jonah gives his emphatic “Yes!” (4:9) So God tells him that he’s cared so much for this plant, which he did not create, he didn’t labour to make it grow, and came and passed at night. So why shouldn’t God care for His creatures in Nineveh that He created and laboured to make them grow to a city of 120 000? Is the plant really worth more than them? God cares not only for them, but even for the cattle that live in the city, and desires that they too would be welcomed into His grace. God cares for you too, no matter how sinful, evil or worthless you think you might be, you are worth His own life. And He makes you holy and righteous. God cares for you and all people of the world, no matter how evil we think they are. God so loves the world. That’s the point of Jonah.

God Brings Life

Here is my sermon from March 20, 2011. The text is John 3:1-17.

Obadiah

Today we take a look at a oft neglected, rarely read book: Obadiah. You can find him in between Amos and Jonah, but don't flip too fast, you'll end up missing him. Obadiah is a different book in that it doesn't seem to be addressed primarily to Israel but one of their neighbours and enemies: Edom. Through Obadiah God pronounces judgement on this little nation that has cheered, looted and mocked the defeat and destruction of Israel. God often uses the prophets to pronounce judgement on other nations, but rarely does one prophet give the other nations most of the air time. Yet these judgements prove that God is not just the God of Israel, but of all the world. Obadiah tells Edom and all the world that this Day of the Lord that the prophets keep talking about won't be for Israel alone. Israel isn't the only one affected by the Day of the Lord, but the whole world will fall under the judgement that God brings on the day that Christ returns. And in that day, Jesus, the saviour who will rule from Mt. Zion shall rule over all the world, even to Mt. Esau (21).

A shorter reflection for a very short book.

Amos

Amos is a book that is famous for its focus on social justice. And deservedly so. The point I think there might be some disagreement is on the why. Why does Amos focus so much on social justice? Is it because God’s people should make God’s kingdom on earth, a part of which is social justice? And so would not doing social justice and helping to bring that kingdom into this world be a sin?

Amos doesn’t say that.

What Amos does say is that those who seek the Lord “hate evil and love good” (5:15). Those whom God has made His people do good and love good. They do good things; they love their neighbour, provide, care for and protect him. They do social justice because it is good, not in an effort to bring some semblance of God’s kingdom onto earth. They love, just like God loves them (see 1 John 4:19).

This is what the Israelites weren’t doing (see Amos 2:7). God’s people weren’t loving their neighbour (unless it helped them), or caring for them (too busy caring for themselves), or protecting him, (but exploiting him [4:1]). That’s just what high class affluent businessmen do. That’s just what we sinners do. Oh, come on, how many times have you turned a good deed and thought about the wind fall that could come of it?

So God says, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream” (5:24). So justice does roll on all Israel, with their total and complete destruction. And so it does on every sinner, with their total and complete destruction. Ouch.

So, then, what’s the Gospel? God’s not done with Israel. He will restore them through Israel boiled down to one. Jesus does what Israel couldn’t and lives faithfully under God’s law. He loves cares for, and providing for His neighbour perfectly. And Jesus also goes to the cross where He pays for the sins of all sinners who put themselves ahead of others. Through Him righteousness flows like an ever flowing stream, covering us completely in His righteousness. And through Him Israel will be restored when He returns on the Last Day and gives all the new creation to the New Israel (all those who trust in Christ as the Messiah/Saviour of the world). “I will plant them on their land and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land I have given them” (9:15).

Joel

It didn’t take long to read this short, and often forgotten, book. Yet I found it very interesting this book that’s seems steeped in eschatology (the end of all things).

The book begins by referencing a locust swarm that has devastated the land (Joel 1:2-12). (To get a better understanding of locust swarms and what Joel is talking about, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psH4lqB_Yyc) This image of a multitude of invaders pops up again and again in Joel’s writing and plays a key part in his understanding of the day of the Lord.

Anyway, Joel uses this natural disaster as a call for repentance. He calls for the people to recognize their sin and their need for God’s forgiveness (Joel 1:12-20). So complete is the destruction brought by the locusts that even the beasts are left suffering, panting for the provision that God promises to all the earth (1:20). This image of the locust swarm destroying all the plants of the land seems to be the template as Joel contemplates the day of the Lord. As complete as the destruction of a locust swarm can be, the destruction on the day of the Lord is even worse. The heading usually put on this section (2:1-11) is “The Day of the Lord,” but as I read it I can’t help but wonder if maybe this is a reference to the destruction wrought sin, the devil and his minions. The Garden of Eden, which God created as perfect, has been destroyed by sin and the devil. It corrupts everything that God has made good, leaving desolation and death in its wake. Even man is not spared by their onslaught, but are corrupted themselves and subject to death. Who indeed can endure the day of the Lord, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God?

And so the call for repentance and turning to God is repeated, “for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and He relents over disaster” (2:13). God promises to restore all that was lost to Israel with the coming of the swarm, so much that they will know that He is in their midst and that He alone is their God (2:18-27). More than that He will give to all people His Spirit and “show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke” (2:30). I found it interesting that the first in this list was blood. Perhaps a connection to the Exodus, when the Nile turned to blood. And perhaps pointing to the future, when the Lord would spill His own blood for the sin of the world. When He would be the lamb that pays the price for all sin and restores His people to Himself. When He would speak from the cloud (smoke??) that Jesus of Nazareth is His Son, with whom He is well pleased and who will take the sin of the world upon His shoulders and die for them all.

Joel closes with a decree of judgement on the nations that reject Him and oppress the people of Judah (3:1-16). And then a final message of hope for the future of Judah, being supplied by Lord from the house of the Lord. The New Jerusalem, the home and hope of all Christians, is not something that will last until some other Adam and Eve come along, but will stand forever in the love and mercy of our Almighty God.

Hosea

During the season of Lent (a season in the church year that encourages repentance and focus on the cross) my wife and I decided that we would give up our personal reading time. What I mean by that is that we have given the time we would normally spend reading novels or such things and instead use that time to read the Bible. I decided that I would start to read the minor prophets, beginning with Hosea.

I just finished Hosea and would like to post my reflections on the book. The book of Hosea was written primarily to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, though Judah makes several appearance too. Hosea is a book of pretty heavy law as he convicts the people Israel, and Judah, of their sin of faithlessness toward God. But Hosea also contains some beautiful gospel as he records the great mercy that God will have on His people.
The book opens pretty quick with a larger than life object lesson. Hosea marries a whore, whom he must constantly chase after and buy back whenever she resumes her profession. In this way Hosea demonstrates for Israel God’s mercy for His people as He has constantly come to them to buy them back from their faithlessness, which has brought them under the firm hand of an oppressor. It also points to God’s act of coming to and buying all His people, the whole world, back from their sin. Like Hosea’s wife we constantly flee away from God and sin against Him. Yet still God comes to us in His Word and reminds us of how He bought us back by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Hosea and his wife also have children, who take part in this great object lesson. One of their sons is called “Not My People” since the sin of Israel has separated them from God (Hos 1:9). Their daughter is called “No Mercy” since God will show no mercy in punishing Israel for her sin. Yet God gives them the promise that on the Day of the Lord, God will show mercy on His people and that the people will once again belong to Him. Not because of anything that they have done, but because God will bind them to Him in righteousness. All of this God does for us in Jesus Christ, who gives us His righteousness and in whom we find God’s mercy for us.
Much of Hosea deals with the lack of knowledge that the people have for the Lord. God makes an accusation to the priests of Israel for their failure in their office to teach the people about God’s covenant, His promises and His work for them. Hosea makes it clear that this is what God wants from His people, rather than sacrifice and burnt offerings (Hos 6:6). So often we treat God as having His little block of time on Sunday and then the rest is for us and us alone. That is hardly God’s idea of devotion. Trust in God, strengthened by knowledge of Him which is centred on the cross, that is devotion that is pleasing to God.

There is so much in Hosea, much more than I can put here. But the prophet closes his book by declaring the great love of God for His people. God promises to heal Israel of their apostasy and be the tree that gives them their fruit. Indeed we all sin and turn away from God, but God has healed us through His Son Jesus Christ. Apart from His there is no saviour (Hos 13:4) and He will look after us and answer us (Hos 14:8). The last words of Hosea exhort everyone (seems sorta universal to me) to know and understand these things, since God’s way is always right. Yet the transgressor stumbles in them, they are an offence to him. It is the offence of the cross, that God’s justice was satisfied in Jesus Christ, that by the death of one man we have been given life.

Faith Is More Certain than Seeing

Here is the sermon for last Sunday, Transfiguration Sunday. The text is 2 Peter 1:16-21.

Love Your Enemies

Here is the sermon from February 20, 2011 the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany. The text is Matthew 5:38-48.

Who Are You?

Here is the sermon from February 6, 2011. The text is Matthew 5:13-20.

The Light of the World

This is my sermon from January 23, 2011. The text is from Isaiah 9:1-4.

"The Lamb of God"

The sermon from the Second Sunday after Epiphany, on John 1:29-42.