INTRODUCTION Jericho will always be famous for 3 unlikely converts. Firstly, there is the conversion of the prostitute Rahab. At the time of the Exodus she had heard about God rescuing His people from Egypt and giving them victory wherever they went. When the two spies came into Jericho she hid them, saving their lives. Her faith was demonstrated in her brave actions to save the spies. The second we looked at last week, the salvation of an apparently sinful blind man Bartimaeus. We saw someone who would be suspected of great sin seeing Jesus true identity when others did not, we witnessed his determination to be healed by the Son of David, and how he followed Him. Our third unlikely convert is Zacchaeus, the rich tax collector. We have in Zacchaeus a wonderful picture of the conversion of the quintessential sinner. Where Bartimaeus foregrounded faith, Zacchaeus shows us that true conversion includes repentance as well as faith. One of the major concerns to the Jews when they encountered the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith was the issue of holiness. If we say that we are not saved by works and that forgiveness is free that will be a teaching that encourages sin and holiness which is something that every person who loves God should strive for will not be properly motivated. There was a deep suspicion of salvation by grace through faith, especially when you see outcasts and lifestyle sinners suddenly let off the hook and fully forgiven. There is no trial, no window period where they have to prove themselves, upon believing they are fully forgiven. Luke, who is very good as stressing repentance in Luke and Acts, is the only gospel that includes the story of Zacchaeus. His conversion illustrates the power of God to...

Read More

Introduction    Marriage in NZ is under attack. 2020 saw some of the lowest amounts of marriages in NZ recent history. There were only 16 380 marriages.1 The statisticians add a further 403 same sex marriages and civil unions, but as Christians who have a biblical view of marriage, we cannot admit the same sex unions are marriage, it cannot be a marriage in God’s eyes unless it is between one natural man and one natural woman. Likewise civil unions are legal realities that defy being defined by the Bible, they refuse to define themselves as a marriage and so do we. That is a dramatic drop off from 2019 which recorded just over 19 000 marriages. Covid 19 caused a 10% drop off in the marriage rate in one year. In 1971, 50 years ago there were just over 27 000 marriages in a population of 2.8 million, that has dropped to 16 380 in a population of 5.3 million. Not only that, marriages are happening later in life. In 1971 the average age for marrying in NZ was 20.8 years for women, and 23 years for men, that has risen to 29.5 years for women and 30.6 years for men. 7,707 couples divorced in 2020, that is more than double the 3,347 in 1971. 5973 children under the age of 17 have been impacted by those 7700 divorces. Here are some stats for America, which set the trend for the Western world: ‘Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America, That equates to 86 divorces per hour, 2,046 divorces per day, 14,364 divorces per week, and 746,971 divorces per year There are nearly 3 divorces in the time it takes for a couple to recite their wedding vows (2 minutes). More than 172 divorces occur during your...

Read More

OUTLINE The knowledge of faith The desperation of faith The asking of faith The consequences of faith INTRODUCTION It has been said that Christ’s miracles of healing various disabilities is a deliberate illustration of how Christ heals our spiritual ailments. Christ raising the dead illustrates how Christ is able to give new life; Christ casting out demons illustrates how the devil’s domination of us is overcome; the healing of leprosy shows how Christ can cure the unclean incurables; the healing of lame shows us the liberty we experience in Christ to live for God; the healing of deafness shows how turns us from truth and how God teaches us to listen to His voice. We see in these physical ailments illustrations of our spiritual condition and the sufficiency of Christ to rescue us from them all. The healing of blindness then teaches us about our sin induced blindness and Christ who gives us eyes to see. Today we come to the miracle of Jesus healing the blind man one the road to Jerusalem in Luke 18:35-43. This is an important miracle in the context of the journey to Jerusalem. Jesus has been speaking about who enters the kingdom of heaven and has been reeducating us about who can and cannot enter. The best of Jewish religion, the Pharisee cannot enter; the best of Jewish society, the rich young ruler cannot come in; but the child, the tax collector and now we see the blind beggar can come in. At this Jericho pit stop we will see two important converts this blind man and Zacchaeus, and they will be the last converts until the thief on the cross and the Centurion at Christ’s crucifixion. The lesson of this section is that a blind man sees who Jesus really is, and those...

Read More

OUTLINE The sin in Israel The sin in the Bible The sin in our experience INTRODUCTION Marriage is an institution created by God and as sinners we reject God’s institutions and sin against them just as we sin against God. In the endless creativity of our sinfulness there are many sins against God’s institution of marriage. We sin against marriage when we do not keep sex for marriage, not seeing it as a seal of the covenant bond, a picture of our union with Christ, an expression of committed love, and the means of bringing children into the protected environment of a committed life long relationship. Pornography, prostitution and promiscuity which take sexual satisfaction and turn it into a personal pastime and a selfish pleasure. Polygamy, where a man has more than one wife, or polyandry where a woman has more than one husband is a defiance of God’s pattern of the two becoming one flesh. Open marriages where you do not have to remain loyal to your spouse; swinging; contractual not life-long covenants; concubinage; homosexual marriage; adultery; divorce; child brides; incest; deliberate childless marriages; cohabitation. I am sure you could add to my list. The portion of scripture that we are dealing with today Malachi 2:10-12 addresses two key areas of marital sin that were deeply impacting on Israel’s holiness and provoking the justice of God—divorce and being unequally yoked to an unbeliever. V10-12 deals with the issue of being unequally yoked and v13-16 the matter of divorce. Today our focus is on the matter of Jews marrying people of other religions. We will divide our message into three sections. Firstly, we will look at this sin in Israel doing a short exegesis of v10-12; then we will look at what the Bible says about this sin in general...

Read More

OUTLINE Birth Nature Ministry Death, burial and resurrection INTRODUCTION I am a fan of science fiction and fantasy, and a common theme in many these genres is the issue of prophecy. Modern fiction thinking reflects modern world views. It too tries to create stories that don’t have God as the Bible describes Him in them. Often you will have a prophecy about someone’s death and this will spark the various characters into having philosophical dialogues. The main problem presented in these dialogues is this one. How can the future be fixed and our choices be free? A common plot twist is where the hero makes their own destiny refusing to be defined even by prophecy. These fictional versions of reality are products of a worldview without God where man writes his own destiny. There is no almighty God causing all things to come to pass according to a predetermined plan. And even if they allow for a God he too can only guess about the future because your choices are not set until you choose them. This fictional view of the universe sits well with our sinful instinct to deny a God over us and to think that we control reality and our own destinies.

OUTLINE The unheeding Levite The ideal Levite The wayward Levite INTRODUCTION Robert Murray McCheyne said once that his people’s greatest need was his personal holiness. Why is it that a church’s greatest need is for the minister to be as holy as he can be? I think John Benton said it well, it is rare for the spirituality of the group of Christians to exceed that its leaders. Leaders set the tone for worship, they give direction, they give teaching and instruction and they are supposed to model the Christlike life as Paul does, 1 Cor. 11:1, ‘Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.’ Truth is as much, or perhaps more caught than taught so a leader’s life and teaching is to be guarded closely. This is why Paul says to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4:16, ‘Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.’ It is for this reason that teachers are held to a higher standard of accountability, James 3:1, ‘Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.’ In the portion before us we see God holding the spiritual leaders, the priests accountable for their failure. We see God warning judgement, outlining the ideal priest and naming their failures. Any look at God’s standards for leaders is useful for every Christian because as believers we are to find good leaders in good churches and gladly commit ourselves to submit to their care and instruction. As Christians we are to appoint Christian men who fulfil these requirements to positions of authority. And, if leaders are to live a godly life that we might imitate them, then we need...

Read More

OUTLINE Salvation is impossible with man Salvation is possible for God INTRODUCTION I want you to picture the best human being alive on earth right now. Think of a person who is virtuous, successful, lauded, and loved. Some of you may have pictured a Nobel Prize winner like the late Desmond Tutu who has just died at the age of 90, some may have thought of a family member. No matter who you thought of that person is not truly good, and not good enough to get themselves into heaven. This is the lesson of the next section we are looking at in Luke 18:18-30. We come to the familiar story of the rich young ruler. The context helps us to see why this is here. You will remember that Jesus is dealing with the issue of who can and cannot get into the kingdom of God, who is welcome and who is not, who will be received and who will not. We have seen a Pharisee rejected and a tax collector accepted; we have been told about how we have to come us unentitled, defenseless and needy children. Christ has been turning our world upside down showing us that those who we thought were good and deserved salvation were rejected, and those who we thought rejected are accepted. Christ continues on this note showing how the rich are poor and the poor are rich. The main point of this section is to show us that the best of men are men at best and it takes a gracious and powerful God to save us because we cannot save ourselves. Our portion divides into two section, v18-23 deals with Jesus interaction with the Rich Young Ruler, we will call this point salvation is impossible with man; then in v24-30 we...

Read More

OUTLINE Dishonoring worship Minimalistic worship Lukewarm worship Compromised worship INTRODUCTION How much worship does God deserve? How much honor, reverence, fear, awe, love, obedience, and sacrifice? The truth is we can never worship, honor or revere God too much. If I as a finite creature gave every moment of time to give a constant flow of heartfelt praise, it would never be enough. If every person in all of creation worshipped God for all eternity, even this finite choir could not give God’s infinite majesty the glory it is due. Enter sin into that equation where we worship as sinners, from sinful hearts, in sinful ways, and you can see the many ways in which we sin in our worship. It is this matter of sinful worship that Malachi turns next in 1:6-14.

Our Political leaders don’t always act rightly. How should the people of God respond?