You and I sin every day. There is no one here who is perfectly honest, perfectly loving, perfectly self-controlled, perfectly centred on God’s glory in everything they do. We are under constant assault from sin, we find ourselves in a spiritual war whether we choose it or not. And yet we must not sin, we must obey God, we must resist sin and satan and become saints that put on display the power of God over sin. How do we do this? The temptation of Christ is a window into how a true human being is tempted and stands against temptation. The temptation of Christ in Luke 4:1-13 is about more than a lesson on how to be holy however. Let me put the significance to you in the form of a question: Why did Jesus have to be born instead of like Adam being made an adult to die on the cross? Why did Jesus need to born, grow up in a sinful world, why did He have to obey every command of God, and why in particular did He have to be led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested? Luke 4:1, ‘And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.’ Jesus had to be born to Adam’s line in order to be one of us to represent us. Jesus died on the cross in payment for the many sins we have done, the wages of sin is death, Christ paid with His life. The Bible tells us that He endured temptation and is able to sympathise with us when we are tempted, Heb. 4:15, ‘ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in...

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Let me begin with a statement, this generation of Christians in the West is the most informed and least godly generation of Christians that has ever been. I am not only talking about the fact that Christians are no longer recognizable as different from the world, nor am I referring to the many instances of public sin that Christian leaders and Christians in general are caught in. No, in our modern age with all of it conveniences, and all of its media and distractions we have lost our inner disciplines and spirituality. We are a people who are prayerless, we do not read our bibles, we do not think about God, we have grown impatient with reading, with hard thinking and research. We want google spirituality that is instant, that has taken all the difficulty out of accessing information, that is always attractive and well presented. We don’t know how to sacrifice but are connoisseurs of all the best things. We are not able to suffer well not having enough resources. We are full of constant complaints about our comforts. In a word we are infants. Think about children for a moment, they demand instant gratification, they squall as if they are dying when all they are is hungry because they haven’t eaten in 3 hours, they weep at the smallest injury, they fixate on their appearance not the state of their hearts, they are suckers for advertising and want the next new thing that shows up on an advert or their friends have begun to collect, they have no ability to clean their own rooms, brush their teeth when they should, they don’t self-regulate whenever sweets are around, and on and on I could go, but sadly this is what Christians are like today. Sadly many Christians are in...

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How many of you have traced back your family tree? There comes a time in life when you begin to seek out your past as a way to understand something of your identity. We all want to know if we have had any famous people in our family line, if you are a Christian whether there were any saints, and we love the scandal of knowing there are a few villains in the mix. This might help you to identify with the importance of our next portion of scripture, Luke 3:23-38, the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Genealogies in the West have lost their significance but many older cultures deeply value them, especially the Jews. Knowing your racial heritage was very important to Jews. Did you have the right to inherit a portion of the land? If you were childless who were your relatives that could redeem your property, or if your husband died and you were childless who were the relatives who could raise up an heir for his name through the practice of levirate marriage? Is the women I want to marry of Jewish stock? Am I of Jewish stock so that I can worship in the temple? Am I of the priestly line and am eligible to serve in the temple? Am I royalty with a claim to the throne of David? Your genealogy was information you kept close at hand and handed on faithfully as it answered all these questions and more. Who you are was a question that was often answered by your genealogy. In fact we can preach the gospel from the genealogy of Jesus. Who is Jesus Christ? We have heard the testimony of His baptism and the testimony of John now we have the important testimony of His genealogy. As we look at...

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Let me begin with a statement, this generation of Christians in the West is the most informed and least godly generation of Christians that has ever been. I am not only talking about the fact that Christians are no longer recognizable as different from the world, nor am I referring to the many instances of public sin that Christian leaders and Christians in general are caught in. No, in our modern age with all of it conveniences, and all of its media and distractions we have lost our inner disciplines and spirituality. We are a people who are prayerless, we do not read our bibles, we do not think about God, we have grown impatient with reading, with hard thinking and research. We want google spirituality that is instant, that has taken all the difficulty out of accessing information, that is always attractive and well presented. We don’t know how to sacrifice but are connoisseurs of all the best things. We are not able to suffer well not having enough resources. We are full of constant complaints about our comforts. In a word we are infants. Think about children for a moment, they demand instant gratification, they squall as if they are dying when all they are is hungry because they haven’t eaten in 3 hours, they weep at the smallest injury, they fixate on their appearance not the state of their hearts, they are suckers for advertising and want the next new thing that shows up on an advert or their friends have begun to collect, they have no ability to clean their own rooms, brush their teeth when they should, they don’t self-regulate whenever sweets are around, and on and on I could go, but sadly this is what Christians are like today. Sadly many Christians are in...

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Many people have claimed to be or have been thought to the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. For example, ‘Krishna Venta (1911–1958), born Francis Herman Pencovic in San Francisco, founded the WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith and Love) Fountain of the World cult in Simi Valley, California in the late 1940s. In 1948 he stated that he was Christ, the new messiah and claimed to have led a convoy of rocket ships to Earth from the extinct planet Neophrates. He died on 10 December 1958 after being suicide bombed by two disgruntled former followers who accused Venta of mishandling cult funds and having been intimate with their wives.’ ‘Arnold Potter (1804–1872), Schismatic Latter Day Saint leader; he claimed the spirit of Jesus Christ entered into his body and he became “Potter Christ” Son of the living God. He died in an attempt to “ascend into heaven” by jumping off a cliff. His body was later retrieved and buried by his followers.’ How do you know who the true Saviour is? This is the import of the text we are looking at today as we examine the baptism of Jesus. There are several things that testify to who Jesus is, revealing that He is God the Son and our Saviour. The angels testify to who Jesus is, Luke 1:35, ‘the Son of God.’ The demons testify that He is the Holy One of God, Mark 1:24. The Scriptures bear witness to Christ, John 5:39. The miracles of Christ bear witness to His identity John 5:36, and John the Baptist bears witness to who Jesus is, John 5:33. The greatest witness however is the witness of God and we see this in the portion before us as we see a visible representation of the Spirit and hear the voice of the Father...

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Sunday Afternoon Session by Nick Clevely  

Sunday Morning Session by Russell Cannons  

Second Saturday Afternoon Session by Russell Cannons  

Saturday Afternoon Session by Nick Clevely  

Second Saturday Morning Session by Russell Cannons Please note this session concluded unexpectedly early.