That You May Have Certainty

Please read Luke 1:1-4

This link is to an mp3 file of the first in a series of sermons I'm preaching on the Gospel of Luke.

This sermon provides a basic overview of Luke's gospel. I preached it at Emerald Christian Assembly on 27 February 2011.

If My Words Abide in You

Please read John 15:1-7

I would like to encourage you to watch, or listen to, this message by John Piper, If My Words Abide in You.



This isn't a regular Piper-style sermon, and the first 20 minutes in particular may leave you a little confused and even overwhelmed.

Persevere. I hope that this message inspires you, as it did me, to commit yourself to a program of bible memorisation.

The file can be watched or listened to at the link above, or downloaded as either a video or an mp3. You can also watch it on YouTube, if you prefer.

Phillip Jensen on Hosea

I'm part of a small group that meets on Sunday evenings to sing "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19), and to hear the word of God expounded through various pre-recorded means. The days of tapes and even CDs are being superceded by the massive array of talks that can be downloaded for free from the internet.  (Free and internet should set off your discernment alarm now).

In this group, we recently completed a series of talks by Phillip Jensen on Hosea. Each talk goes for half an hour, and covers one chapter of the book. Each one of us found the talks excellent, and highly recommend them. The talks are:

• Comprehensive.  Almost every verse of the book is discussed.
• God-centred.  These talks showed me how much the book of Hosea tells us about God: His love, mercy, patience, jealousy, sovereignty.
• Christ-centred.  The prophecies of Hosea find their fulfilment in Christ, and these connections are clearly expounded.
• Relevant.  All Scripture is relevant (2 Timothy 3:16), but sometimes the scripture can be taught in an irrelevant way.  This is not the case with these talks.
• Easily Understood.  Phillip uses simple language that is easily understood to make Hosea easily understood (including historical and political background).  This is a spiritual gift that is hard to explain.  He doesn't make himself appear clever with his complicated words: he simply makes you understand what is written on the pages of your Bible.
• Memorable.  Good teaching links what you've been taught to the words of the scripture, so that when you read the passage later, you recall what you've learned.

Enough glowing praise.  If Phillip Jensen read this he'd glow with embarrassment.

To find the talks, go to his website: http://phillipjensen.com/ and follow the "Video" link on the top toolbar.  You'll find a number of series there, including the one on Hosea.  I'm sure the others are just as good (we've just started the Ephesians series), however, I'll only recommend what I've seen.

Technical tip: to download each talk as an mp4 video file, right-click on the video window that pops up and select "Watch on Vimeo".  Vimeo's kind of like YouTube, but different. If you log into Vimeo, you can download the talk using the button on the bottom-right of the page.  I first tried using automatic downloaders available on the web, but they're much more fuss (and less useful) than just signing up to Vimeo - then you can download any Vimeo video.

Disclaimers: Phillip Jensen isn't a relation of mine!  His name is Jensen; mine is Jansen.

Take Care How Your Hear!

Please read Luke 8:4-18, and Isaiah 6:9-10

I'd like to recommend a sermon I heard recently by John Piper. The sermon is on the parable of the sower as recorded in Luke 8, and is called Take Care How You Listen! Part 1.

The biggest thing that I learned from this sermon is that the parable of the sower is about hearing, and yet for some reason I'd always missed the whole point of it. It's all about how you hear!

Have a look at how many times the verb to hear is specifically used in this passage (ESV) (emphasis mine):

And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: "A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold." As he said these things, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.' Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

"No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away."

Do yourself a favour, and listen to this sermon; above all, taking care how you hear!