Subscription Lists

In Matthew Chapter 5 we have these words of Jesus concerning the law and the prophets and his high regard for these writings. In the Old Testament, God is speaking and saying something specific. Often we have these words, “Thus says the Lord”. Almighty God is speaking – therefore, we should pay attention. Jesus Christ comes to fulfil everything that the prophets said Messiah would fulfil.

God speaks so clearly to Moses – commanding him – and one of the things God is doing as He delivers the Israelis from slavery in Egypt is reminding them they…  ( Click for more )

We are reading Matthew Chapter 5 and at verse 17, where we see that it is possible to think wrongly. It is possible to think in a wrong way about what Jesus Christ came to do, and to think wrongly about the Word of God, and about what God wants us to do as disciples of Jesus.

Jesus Christ came to fulfil the law and the prophets, and yet Jesus was not a legalist.

If fact, Jesus got into trouble with the religious leaders of the day because He did not do what they thought he should be doing.

Jesus came to fulfil the law, and Jesus speaks highly of the writings of Moses…  ( Click for more )

As we come to Matthew Chapter 5 and verse 14, Jesus continues to teach – you are not only salt – you are the light of the world.

The fruitful life is like a lamp.

That seed which germinates and grows transforms that man into a lamp.

The main purpose of a lamp is to shine - to illumine - to enlighten.

The true disciple of Jesus Christ is like a lighthouse. He gives light to guide other travellers - but he also warns of the dangers. Not everybody appreciates the second aspect of the lighthouse.

To hide the light which God gives us is SIN.…  ( Click for more )

Living this kind of life taught by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew Chapter 5, affects not only the disciple, but also affects and influences those around us. These are well known biblical phrases, in verses 13,14.

We have the characteristics of the disciple of Jesus in these earlier verses, and now right away we are encouraged to impact the world.

We are to be willing and prepared to count the cost. Counting the cost first avoids the need to resign, or run away, or compromise later on. Why count the cost? Surely that is one way to put people…  ( Click for more )

We are reading the Beatitudes in Matthew Chapter 5, and when we come to verse 10 we hear Jesus Christ say, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men hate you - when they exclude you - when they insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day.”

Is that not one of the very last things you want to do when you are going through these experiences?

From the beginning Jesus makes it clear. Follow me and you will be blessed. Follow me and…  ( Click for more )

We come in Matthew Chapter 5 verse 4 to these words of Jesus where He says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”. Does this not include those who mourn over sin – the very thought of hurting and offending Almighty God? Will I never free from this behaviour that grieves Him? You will be comforted or fortified, or fortressed. Jesus is so clear and also so simple.

“Blessed are the meek.” This is not weakness. This is being submissive to God, and humbly obedient to God. This requires real strength of character. They…  ( Click for more )

We are in the Sermon on the Mount and have read the concluding verses in chapter 7 for a very specific and pragmatic reason we now turn to these opening verses, which have been popularly called “The Beatitudes” Do read Matthew Chapter 5 verses 1 to 12, and consider the setting. Jesus Christ has been healing people, wrestling with niggling criticisms of the Pharisees and legalists, and calling these twelve men to be disciples.

This passage deals with our relationships – our relationship with ourselves - with other people – and with God. We could…  ( Click for more )

In the Sermon on the Mount, there is what might be called “The Secret of Holiness”. This is the secret of being different, and the practical implications are profound and immense, spiritually and physically and even materially. So let’s start this study afresh and anew and be open to what God says to us through His Holy Word, and I suggested we read Matthew Chapter 7 verses 24 to 29 for a very specific reason.

Jesus gives us an illustration from His building days. Remember, He was in the building trade for around 18 years.

Jesus says - I will show…  ( Click for more )

Having completed a series of studies in the Gospel of John, I was about to embark on the book of Revelation, when I thought we should take a few weeks to read and study what is called, “The Sermon on the Mount”.

What is the Sermon on the Mount all about? What can it accomplish? What may it achieve? Many people know parts of it and can quote from it, without reading the Bible.

This ‘sermon’ of Jesus is for those who are living in the Kingdom of God – or – how to live the Christian Life, or how to construct or build our lives.

Our…  ( Click for more )

We come to our final passage in John’s Gospel. We are in John Chapter 21 at verse 15 and we have spent well over two years in this profoundly revealing book.

We have been reading of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ – some of the hard facts of that amazing day. We read of these seven men going back to the fishing, and Jesus waiting for them coming ashore with empty nets. We spent some time reading that incident in the life of Thomas.

Peter had gone back to the fishing, and had caught nothing. Peter had jumped into the water when he realised he had been found…  ( Click for more )

We are in John Chapter 21, where Peter and six others return north to the Galilee and go out fishing. Leaders lead positively or negatively. We sometimes do not recognise this fact. These men have been called ‘the unmagnificent seven’.

They were out all night and they had nothing to show for it - nothing. Now, fishing had been something they had been good at. They would feel fairly confident at fishing, but they became so absorbed, momentarily, in the fishing, that they almost forgot about Jesus Christ - risen from the dead.

They are frustrated and…  ( Click for more )

We move into John Chapter 21. You cannot turn the clock back, but sometimes disciples of Jesus Christ want to turn the clock back. It is as if these disciples of Jesus wanted to turn the clock back some three years, but it was a bit of a disaster to try to do this as we shall see.

We normally make this attempt to return to yesterday, because we might have thought things were better. The world refers to the good old days, but they were not always that good.

The Bible warns us about thinking that days gone by were better.

Can it be possible to have met the risen…  ( Click for more )

We are in John Chapter 20 and we have been reading of the risen and living Jesus meeting with His disciples in the Upper Room on Resurrection Evening. To begin with there were various confusions and conflicting emotions and Jesus appears to deal with the crucial spiritual situation.

One of the disciples was missing. Thomas was not with them. We do not know why. Did he have something else to do – or somewhere else to go – or something on his mind which was troubling him following the trauma of Calvary?

When he did come back the others said, “We…  ( Click for more )

In John Chapter John 20 and at verse 19 we see the disciples of Jesus Christ in a room – the Upper Room – and the doors are locked because these men are afraid. Jesus, their Lord and Master, had been betrayed by a friend, arrested, led away, and crucified, and these men thought they might be next on the list. By now, rumours were rife.

Some had said that they had seen Jesus alive! Some were also saying – don’t be silly – we saw Him crucified – we saw Him laid in the tomb – we cannot believe what they women said – they are…  ( Click for more )

We are in John Chapter 20 considering some on the consequences and implication of the Resurrection. Jesus does not want any of us to carry around a dead Christ. God wants us to tell people that Jesus Christ is Risen and Alive. There are so many people who do not know that this really happened. It is not just that they don’t believe. They have never had it all explained to them by people who know it to be true.

The risen Jesus refers to the disciples for the first time as brothers. It is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that makes us brothers and sisters. …  ( Click for more )

We are in John Chapter 20 reading of John’s accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It has been quite a morning, following an exhausting and demanding ten days or so in Jerusalem. Mary was there at first light, and the massive stone had been moved, to allow the women folks to look in and see.

Peter and John rushed over from that Upper Room. It has been an emotional few days for everyone.

Mary and the others had seen the evidence of the empty tomb – well empty in as much as there was no body of Jesus, but the unmoved cloths are lying on the slab. …  ( Click for more )

If Jesus Christ rose from the dead then certain consequences follow as do spiritual responsibilities. We are in John Chapter 20 reading of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Peter and John leave the scene.

Mary is lingering. Mary so loved Jesus that she stays at the place of her last association with Him. Love lingers.

This woman had been in the very grip of Satan, and Jesus Christ had set her free.

Can you imagine the gratitude? Can you imagine the sorrow when she witnessed Jesus Christ being crucified?

This incident appears only…  ( Click for more )

We come to John Chapter 20. What was John doing on Resurrection Day, and what did John do on Resurrection Day, having been with Jesus Christ for over three years?

The women folks had just returned from the tomb of Jesus Christ reporting that the stone was rolled away, and the door was open, and there was no dead body of Jesus within!

Mary comes running to Peter and tells of what she has found, and Peter decides to go to check things out, and John goes with him. They are running through the narrow streets of Jerusalem, and John is the faster runner.

John gets…  ( Click for more )

Consider this week, just for a moment, that interim period between John Chapter 19 and John Chapter 20, but out of necessity, we go into Chapter 20 where we read of the risen resurrected living Jesus.

This broken warring world is living on the wrong side of the resurrection and it is our task to tell the world that there are answers, to all the pain and suffering and sadness and tragedy. The world would not listen to the apostles. The world would not even listen to Jesus, and it is not likely to listen to us, but it remains our task to preach and proclaim and share the Good…  ( Click for more )

We are reading of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in John Chapter 19. Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us other aspects of the crucifixion, where even the criminals say their piece and Jesus replies.

All over Jerusalem, sacrificial lambs were being ceremonially slain and slaughtered in memory of the Passover, and outside the city wall the Son of God was doing a work that would last for eternity.

Jesus chose and called and trained men, but it was the women who saw it through to the very end, at the foot of the Cross. They are last to leave, and they are first at the tomb. …  ( Click for more )

No man carries the cross of Jesus faithfully without receiving a work of God in his own life, and on occasions, through his life into the lives of his family. Remember what your Cross is. You can lift it up or put it down. It is not sickness or a person or a set of circumstances, or anything of that nature.

News had travelled fast, and a sympathetic crowd had gathered, and they are not afraid to express their emotions. They are not afraid to allow their deep feelings for Jesus to flow out towards Jesus.

We are in John Chapter 19 at verse 18 where Jesus is crucified with…  ( Click for more )

We are in John Chapter 19 at verse 16 where Pilate hands Jesus Christ over to them to be crucified. Over to them? Over to whom? To those in the hands of the enemy of Almighty God – religious leaders they may be, but men of God they certainly are not!

We often wonder why people do such things and why people say such things, but it is only as we read and study the Word of God that we come to understand these questions which can arise in any of our hearts at times. Once a man gets on the wrong road it can be very difficult to get off that road.

Having read of the…  ( Click for more )

We come to John Chapter 19 verse 5. The prayer and the agony in the Garden is over. The pain deepens and increases. We could use so many words.

The setting is the trial before Pilate and that humiliation and ill-treatment. Who is it who is really on trial here? Is it Jesus Christ, or is it all the others?

Pilate was a cold and haughty and proud Roman. O what pride can make a man do!

Jesus is before him and it is mockery and ridicule of the highest order. There is that purple robe and that crown of thorns and a mad mob wanting and waiting to crucify Him. …  ( Click for more )

John Chapter 19 verses 1 to 16. Having looked at the first part of the trial of Jesus and examined its many various facets, we now turn from the ecclesiastical trial, for that is what it was, to the civil trial. Yes, there was an ecclesiastical trial of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is quite shocking what religious people will get up to at times.

Already so many points concerning elementary rules of law and justice have been offended and broken. The Sanhedrin’s judgement was just illegal. This court which was to decide Jesus’ case was also an accomplice…  ( Click for more )