BBC Sermon Cast

Does God exist? How can anyone believe in religion when science has neither a need nor a place for God? Is evolution happening today? If God is a God of love, why do we suffer and die? These issues that affects everyone. Evolution teaches us there is no need for God, no spiritual realm, and no afterlife. According to the theory, spirituality is just an evolutionary trick of the mind! The Bible gives a very different picture about the nature of these things.

The Bible calls Christians to a particular kind of “walk.” In Ephesians 4–5, Paul has shown us the kind of walk we are to have. In the opening verses of chapter 5, Paul exhorts us to walk in love. But this exhortation is not simply an abstract, empty truism. Instead, Paul lays down some objective exhortations. He tells us that our love is to be an imitation (vv. 1–2), that our love will produce a repudiation (vv. 3–4), and that our love arises from our identification (vv. 5–7).

Prayer for material substance is not wrong; in fact, it can be very “spiritual” to pray for material things—as long as we are guided by the introductory petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. When it comes to the prayer and the Great Commission, we must remember that we need bread for our lives if we will distribute the Bread of Life to other lives. We need to pray for bread. We need to pray for money.

Sometimes, church members who should be striving to usefully build up the body of Christ find themselves useless for the task. They fail to contribute to the overall health of the body, even though they may faithfully attend, faithfully give and faithfully involve themselves in ministries. What makes them ultimately useless and in fact destructive to the Body is a disposition of bitterness. Paul addresses this in the closing verses of Ephesians 4.

In v. 31 he identifies the spirit of the useless church member—those with a spirit of bitter and angry unforgiveness. In v. 32, he identifies the spirit of the useful church member—those with a spirit of kind and tenderhearted forgiveness. Simply, the apostle offers a twofold exhortation: (1) stop being bitter (v. 31); and (2) start being kind (v. 32).

The mission of the church is to know Christ and to make Him known. We must know Him before we will be able to make Him known. One of the best ways to get to know Christ in prayer. If we wish others to know Him, we must begin knowing Him by attending His theology classes on our knees.

The Lord’s Prayer is intimately tied to the Great Commission. Prayer is the vital fuel for this enormous task. Everything that the Lord taught the disciples in the Lord’s Prayer is God-centred and thus centred on His task for the church until the end of the age: the Great Commission.

When it comes to the prolife debate, Christians must realise that they are involved in a cultural war, which is nearly as old as history, between the culture of death and the culture of life. God commands us to choose life. This choice includes, but is not limited to, protecting the unborn, valuing the feeble and the frail, and valuing every human being as being made in the image of God. Genesis 9:6–7 helps us to see these truths. These two verses highlight the two ways of life: the culture of death (v. 6) and the culture of life (v. 7).

Psalm 16, though not generally thought of as being relevant to issues regarding the sanctity of human life, is most definitely applicable. In it, we see the value and regard that the Lord places on human life and flourishing, and we are called to find the same satisfaction and joy in the life we have been given.

Christians are called to a particular way of life. There is a code of conduct for which we are responsible—a commanded and an inspired code. We do not do as we please; we are called to conformity. In the text before us, we see that the expectation is the same for every Christian. We have already seen that the Christian is to mind his mouth (v. 25), to mind his temper (vv. 26–27), and to mind his business (v. 28). In vv. 29–32, we are exhorted to mind our manners—and to do so in two ways: Mind your speech (vv. 29–30); and mind your spirit (vv. 31–32). We will consider in this study what it means to mind our speech (vv. 29–30).

The question of assurance—of one’s own salvation—is one of eternal import. It is also one that carries with it practical, temporal consequences. How does someone know whether they are accepted in God’s presence? How can they know if they will eternally abide in God’s presence? Psalm 15 addresses this all-important question, provides the all-encompassing template, and points to the all-sufficient Saviour.

The Christian life is a supernatural life. And therefore the Bible reveals great expectations for everyone who is truly born again. And not the least of these great expectations is that of Christ being formed in us and we therefore becoming conformed to Christ (Galatians 4:19; Romans 8:28–30). This great expectation is the biblically normal expectation for every Christian. But how does one get to such a goal? In other words, what are the areas in which the Christian is to grow on this path? The development of the Lord Jesus Christ from infancy to manhood and ministry, as recorded in Luke 2:40, provides a wonderful template for our own growth.