Jesus = I AM.

In early May I had the privilege of preaching the last section of John 8.

The passage is well known for Jesus' huge claim "Before Abraham was, I am." It is often said, correctly, and quite simply that Jesus is claiming to be God. But, it is much more profound, clear and bold than that.

The points I brought out of the passage and some very brief notes are below. Jesus makes 2 huge statements which begin "Truly, Truly..." and they formed the basis of the sermon.

Jesus is the only way of salvation
Looking at the declaration “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Jesus says if we follow Him, keeping His word, we will enjoy eternal life. This is huge for the Pharisees, and those listening, who have already been at odds with Jesus, because they know that Abraham and all the prophets died. They firmly believe that those guys kept the word of God, so for Jesus to be claiming this is massive.
But Jesus' word is the word of the Father, and He Himself is the Word (John 1v1). Jesus' humility is clearly seen in the fact that He is not glorifying or testifying about Himself, but His Father does it.
The Father, who the Jews claim as their God, glorifies Jesus. The harsh truth for those listening is that if they reject Jesus, they reject the Father whom thy claim to as their God. Jesus has already said earlier in the chapter that it they knew the Father they would love Him.
The question for us is, do we love Jesus? Or do we love tradition, law-keeping, biblical knowledge or doctrinal rigour rather than loving Jesus?


Jesus is I AM
The second declaration really riles the leaders and their response of wanting to kill Him shows just how riled they were.
The key to this one lies back in the OT.
If you go back to Exodus chapter 3 where the LORD reveals Himself to Moses in the burning bush you will notice something incredible. The Angel of the LORD is in the bush, but then it is the LORD who speaks to Moses! Jesus is saying to the religious leaders that it was Him in the bush speaking to Moses. Jesus is I AM!
John is wanting us, in the whole of His gospel, aiming to show us Jesus so that we may know that He is the Son of God and that by believing in Him we may have life in His name (ch20v31).
So we need to ask ourselves here, what is our response to Jesus?
The religious leaders, shockingly, want to get rid of Him completely.
Where do you stand? Jesus is telling you that He is the second person of the One Triune God, and that through Him you may have life, which is know Him and love Him.
Will you accept it?


The transcript is here and the sermon audio can be found in the Sermons and Talks tab at the top of the page.

The LORD is Peace - Judges 6

The church I am a member of is currently working its way through the names of God on a Sunday evening. At the end of last month I had the privilege of looking at "Jehovah Shalom" - The LORD is peace, as revealed in Judges chapter 6 when the Angel of the LORD meets Gideon.

I thought I might post my thoughts on the passage with this theme of "Jehovah Shalom" in mind.
Generally I find thematic sermons harder to passage than straight exegesis of a passage.

First, the people of Israel are in the land of promise and at the end of chapter 5 we are told there has been 40 years of peace; no war, plenty of rest, and prosperity/well-being.
But, as chapter 6 begins, it all goes pear-shaped again. As we so often read in the book of Judges, "the people did evil in the eyes of the LORD". In chapter 6 the LORD gives them over to Midianites and Amalekites to be raided and pillaged for 7 years. The people of Israel are experiencing covenant curses (no time to go into this).

The people then cry out to the LORD to come to their rescue. They are utterly helpless. As we read what follows we are surprised. The LORD doesn't just reach out His hand and save them, He sends a prophet who reminds them of what the LORD has done for them and then declares that they have not listened. If the passages stops there the people are in deep trouble. They merely want the LORD for a rescue, a return of their prosperity and protection. They do not want the LORD for who He is, just His blessings.

Fortunately the story doesn't end there, and this was the second things I looked at. The Angel of the LORD appears to Gideon who is threshing his wheat in a winepress to he can hide from the raiding parties and have some food.
The dialogue between the Angel and Gideon is fascinating. The identity of the Angel becomes clear, and it is wonderful. He declares that He will be with Gideon. In verses 14 and 16 He is clearly identified as the LORD, not just speaking on His behalf. So, who is this Angel? He is the Eternal Son of God, the second member of the One Triune God, the pre-incarnate Christ. Gideon meets Jesus.

Gideon comes to realise this very fact as he returns with a sacrifice which the Angel burns us with the tip of His staff and then disappears. Gideon's reaction to this speaks volumes. He is terrified. He thinks he is going to die, because he has seen the Angel of the LORD face to face. He equates the Angel of the LORD with the LORD Himself. I think it is fair to say that Gideon believe in a Triune God.
Gideon need to know the peace that the Angel then declares to Him. He need to know the he is safe, secure, not in danger of death. He needs to know shalom.

My final point was, how does this apply to us. How does we know "Jehovah Shalom"?
Quite simply, we know Jesus. We know peace with God because of Him. Here's a list of verses I read out to show peace linked with Jesus (there are many more); Luke 2:14, Colossians 1:20, Ephesians 2:14-18, John 14:27, Romans 5:1, 2 Thessalonians 3:16. Not to mention Isaiah 9 where the Messiah is called the Prince of Peace.
Interestingly enough, one writer says this about the word shalom, that its core meaning is: "reconciliation brought about by payment of a debt, the giving of satisfaction."
That's exactly what Jesus does. Gideon needed to know it because he was a member of rebellious Israel who had turned to worshipping idols, we need to know it because we too worship idols instead of the Triune God of the universe. Jesus dies for us, making peace, defeating sin and death. In Him, and in Him alone, we are made right in the sight of the Father, Jesus' righteousness being credited to us, meaning we can be in relationship and at peace with God.
The Angel who meets Gideon is the One and same Lord Jesus Christ who dies on the cross.

Knowing the peace that Jesus is, brings and gives to us frees us to live lives that are truly fulfilled and satisfied. We are freed from legalism because we do not, and can not, earn this peace.

There is much more to say, but this post is fairly substantial already. Here is the manuscript I preached from. Check it out if you want to see more of the application and content.

(As always, any feedback, comments or questions are welcomed.)

Jeremiah 29:1-23

I recently had the privilege of preparing a sermon on Jeremiah 29. I gave it at a little church in Ouston, Gateshead as a guest speaker (11th Sept) and then at my home church, Calvary in Sunderland (9th Oct), as part of our series in Jeremiah.

I was keen, as with the passage on Elijah from 1 Kings (blogged about a while ago), to preach the passage in context but also show how it spoke of Jesus.
The transcript of what I said is linked below. As with the other sermon I posted on here, this is roughly what I said. Some parts get expended others shortened as I speak. My aim is not to gain plaudits by posting this, I'd love any thoughts or comments from anyone who preaches, or just wants to throw their thoughts in for good measure. Maybe I will try and record future talks somehow.

In preparation, I found Tim Keller's talk, which was mainly about the first section, looking our for the welfare of the city, helpful.

The transcript is available here.

1 Kings - Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

I recently had the privilege of preparing and preaching 1 Kings 17v8-24, which for those of you who don't know is the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath.

My biggest challenge and concern was how to preach Christ faithfully.
Attached is my sermon manuscript. I tend to preach from a full script, but it often changes as I go. So what you read it not exactly what I will have said, but near enough.
From what I can remember when I preached on Sunday I expanded a bit on Jesus' resurrection and what it means but other than that if you'd been there you would have heard something very similar to the text.

My reason for posting is not for recognition, but for any helpful thoughts or feedback on whether I hit the right notes in terms of preaching Christ. Preaching Christ from the OT is something I have not really had the chance to do before, and when I have preached from OT passages in the past I have not thought as much about specifically preaching Christ in a very explicit way.

Here it is

Trial: Suffering to Bless

Listened to this today in the car. Some really good practical application as usual.
Check out the video:

Or audio:

Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind - John Piper

I listened to this on my commute to and from Stockton today. It is a John Piper sermon on Romans ch14v1-9. I found it really interesting and challenging. Maybe because I work for a non-denominational organisation it made me think even more. I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking "oh well it's a secondary, non-essential issue I don't really need to think about it or have deep convictions on it." But how do I go about having deep convictions and strong opinions on these things without causing division and trouble? This sermon helped.
You can listen here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/225/Audio/
Or watch here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/225/Video/

Trial and Jesus

On the way back from speaking at Bradford CU I listened to this sermon by Mark Driscoll from his new series in 1&2 Peter. The sermon is titled Trial and Jesus. I had thought of trying to give a synopsis as a blog post but I reckon you'd just be better of hearing the whole thing!

Listen to the audio:

Or watch the video:


It is well worth a listen or watch, very challenging, very encouraging, heart-warming and mind-nourishing.