At the start of our series, we briefly saw Moses asking God two questions: 'Who am I?' and 'Who are you?' In today's passage, many centuries later, we see a group of religious leaders asking the similar questions of Jesus, questions of identity that are meant to make us consider our own identity through the answers Jesus gives. Are we slaves to sin, or have we been freed through believing in him? Are we children of God, descendants of Abraham through faith, or children of the devil, standing in ...
Jul 13, 2025•43 min
The Philistines have been ravaged by God. They captured the ark of Yhwh’s covenant, thinking that they have won the victory over him. However, as we saw in the previous chapter, God showed that he has supremacy over all other gods. The Philistines now realized this and wanted to get rid of the ark by sending it back to the Israelites. Even though they do not worship nor know the God of Israel, they knew what they were going through was the result of his judgement on them. They tried to satisfy h...
Jul 06, 2025•37 min
More than a millennia has passed since God declared his name, YHWH, to Moses. For Jews living under Roman rule, waiting for the Messiah, it seems like the great I AM is nowhere to be seen. For Jesus' disciples, sailing on the Sea of Galilee on a dark and stormy night, fighting for their lives, they must have felt that even more! And it is into this picture that Jesus steps, walking on water, declaring that there is no need to fear, for he is with them, and us - and he is that one and the same I ...
Jul 06, 2025•37 min
While we don't often think too much about it in our culture, in the Biblical era, names often had special significance. In our text this morning, we will see how this is true even of God. When Moses asks for a name to give to the Israelites, to let them know their God would be with them, God replies not only by giving his name, YHWH (often translated as the LORD), but also gives that Name a meaning: I AM WHO I AM. This simple statement gives us a measure of who God truly is, in all his unchangin...
Jun 29, 2025•36 min
In 1 Samuel 8-12, Israel wants a king—a visible leader, like all the nations around them. But in doing so, they reject the God who gave them everything. And what they receive is Saul: impressive on the outside but hollow within. Yet even in their failure, God remained faithful. He sent thunder not to destroy, but to wake them up, to bring them home.
Jun 22, 2025•35 min
The covenants God makes with his people (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus) help us make sense of the storyline of the Bible as a whole. God makes special promises to be our God, and we, God’s people, his people commit ourselves to the conditions of the covenant: to live as God’s people. But how do we hold on to God’s promises when we don’t see any evidence that God is going to fulfil what he’s promised? And if we know in advance that we’re going to fail to live up to the conditions (w...
Jun 08, 2025•36 min
The ark of the covenant has been captured by the Philistines. In the eyes of the world, this means that Yhwh is weak and was therefore defeated by the Philistine god. The ark was carried and placed in Dagon’s temple, next to Dagon. It was meant to be a sign of Dagon’s trophy, having bested Yhwh. The people of Israel should despair because their God has been humiliated and defeated. Or has he? No! In fact, it was Dagon that ended up prostrating before Yhwh. What’s more, Yhwh brought devastation o...
Jun 01, 2025•36 min
Do we unknowingly treat God as a vending machine – that if we fulfil certain conditions and then God will be certain to give us some form of blessing? Do we think that if we only pray hard enough, serve long enough, be devoted enough, evangelise enough, that God should (maybe even be obligated to!) answer our prayers and requests to him? That was how the Israelites were treating God in the first half of 1 Samuel 4. They were in a battle against the Philistines (and it won’t be the last time). Th...
May 25, 2025•38 min
In our passage this weekend, we are given a picture of the rot at the centre of Israel’s priesthood. “Eli’s sons were scoundrels.” Even though they were supposed to be priests of God, they had no regard for God at all. They took advantage of the sacrifices that people brought for God and used their position to sleep with women who served at the temple. They were supposed to be priests – mediators between God and mankind and teachers of God’s laws to God’s people. However, what they are doing is ...
May 11, 2025•45 min
Hannah’s prayer is surprising to many of us. Remember that she has struggled for many years on her lack of a son and being provoked about it by Peninnah. However, God answered her prayer by giving her a son, and so she responds to God in her prayer. However, in her prayer, it is remarkable that the focus is not on herself, nor the son that God gave her, nor even her own situation. It is a remarkably God-centred prayer from Hannah. She begins her prayer by rejoicing in God for his deliverance. Th...
May 04, 2025•38 min
There are times when God seems silent. There are times when we feel like God does not care. However, no matter the situation we find ourselves in, God knows and God cares. Hannah found herself in such a situation. She was not able to bear a child for her husband, Elkanah, while his other wife Penninah had children. Year after year, she was taunted by Penninah about her childlessness. One year, she cried out to God in anguish, weeping bitterly. In an unsurprising turn of event, she did bear a chi...
Apr 27, 2025•41 min
Many people today believe that there is a crisis of leadership in our world. The reality is that often leaders are not trusted by those they are called to lead. The image of biblical leadership is most often portrayed as shepherding leadership. It is the exercise of leadership that leads by example and leads in a sacrificial manner. The Apostle Peter writing to the elders of the church states, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them…not lording it over those entr...
Apr 06, 2025•37 min
One of the regular rhythms in our Christian lives should be our service to our brothers and sisters in Christ. That is the only appropriate and reasonable response in view of God’s amazing mercy to us in Christ. Therefore, it is important to remember that we are serving one another, not to be saved, but rather because we are saved in Christ. We are one body in Christ, and so we should not think of ourselves more highly than others. Rather, we think of ourselves as part of the body of Christ, ser...
Mar 30, 2025•35 min
Much ink has been spilled over the topic of the Lord’s Supper during the Reformation than we think. Martin Luther, the German monk who started the Reformation, was famously willing to split the church over this issue. Just what it is about the Lord’s Supper that is so important? Isn’t it just mere “bread and wine”? There are two traps that we can fall into with regards to the Lord’s Supper – thinking that it is “magical” or a “mirage”. Some have thought it “magical” to the point where if we take...
Mar 23, 2025•37 min
Baptism is the sign and seal of the person into the covenant community of God. It shows that the person who is being baptised has now become part of the people of God in the same way that circumcision marks the child out as part of God’s people. Just as how circumcision was a sign of God’s blessing and grace to those who are born into God’s covenant community, baptism is a sign of God’s grace and blessing as well. Whether it is an infant or an adult who has come to faith, baptism celebrates God’...
Mar 16, 2025•40 min
The people of God has always been set apart from their surrounding nations. Ever since God gathered his people around him, he has called his people to be different, because he has rescued and redeemed them. The New Testament continues this pattern with Jesus Christ. We are gathered around Jesus, set apart for him because of the redemption that he purchased for us. The church is a people that God has rescued through Jesus Christ. We are saved into a people, therefore our faith has never been a me...
Mar 09, 2025•41 min
There are endless opinions when it comes to the singing and music in our weekend services. That is not surprising as music and songs connect to us on a deeper and emotional level. It just “feels” so much more personal than a sermon. That is why it can elicit such strong opinions. However, when you think about it, as a society, we do not actually do a lot of singing together with others. There are hardly any events that we do that. The only exception is probably concerts or birthdays. Christians,...
Feb 23, 2025•38 min
We are starting our new sermon series this weekend on the Rhythms of Grace. Each Sunday as Christians, we gather at the church building. In that gathering, we have different elements of the service that we go through – we sing, we pray, we give, we serve, we listen to preaching, etc. Going through all that becomes a rhythm in our lives, like a constant beat for a piece of music. It keeps our Christian lives in sync and provides a pattern for the rest of our lives. However, if we do not re-examin...
Feb 16, 2025•39 min
The account of David and Mephibosheth is a very small one in the Old Testament. However, it presents us with a beautiful picture of our abject sinfulness and the loving heart of God. This Sunday, we will explore the character of Mephibosheth: both who he was and why he was so miserable. We will also take a closer look at David’s heart for Mephibosheth in comparison with God’s own heart for us. We will finish by unpacking the remarkable end to Mephibosheth’s story and discover how God’s undeserve...
Jan 19, 2025•33 min
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible. It is a psalm that is all about loving, celebrating, and delighting in the commands, laws, and word of God. Psalm 119 calls us to delight in God's word. It makes us wise as it teaches us about God's world and how it operates. God's word also brings us joy and delight as it tells us about God's love and heart for us. It reveals to us our sins, so that we can run to Christ, through whom our sins are forgiven. Through God's word, we know a God who has lo...
Jan 12, 2025•37 min
God is speaking continuously – both through his creation and in his word. Are we listening? God is speaking through his creation. Since the beginning of creation, the whole creation is displaying God’s power and divine nature. We often leave marks of who we are in the things that we create, and it is the same with God and the whole creation. We see marks of who this Creator is by noticing and “listening” to creation. They speak of God’s immeasurable power and his unlimited creativity. God is spe...
Jan 05, 2025•40 min
Across the centuries, we have different kinds of rulers, from tyrannical to the incompetent. Last week, we read about Matthew declaring that the promised awaited king has come. But what kind of king is he? We will be looking at Matthew 1:18-25 this weekend, and in that passage, we see two aspects of Jesus’ kingship. This promised king will be our saviour. He has come to save “his people from their sins.” That is what a king is supposed to do – to protect, rescue, and care for his people. However...
Dec 08, 2024•40 min
It is great to have the peace that passes understanding that, because we belong to Christ, we are comforted in life and death. That in belonging to Him, our sins are covered by His precious blood and all things must work for our good without a hair from our head falling apart from the will of our Father in Heaven. This is what we rejoiced in when last I preached in Willo. In Sunday’s service we focus on Q&A 2 which raises the question as to, what do we need to know in order to have this comf...
Nov 24, 2024•33 min
In Romans 16, we read of Paul’s greetings to all the people that have laboured in Gospel ministry. There is a camaraderie and personal touch in Christian ministry. Paul knew many of these people personally, and they laboured together in Gospel ministry. Christian ministry involves working together with others and it is not merely the effort of an “anointed” few. One of the roles of being in Christian ministry is to watch out for those who would cause divisions within the church. These people are...
Nov 17, 2024•41 min
The church is made up of a diverse group of people who have been accepted by God in Christ. Therefore, we should accept one another within the church of God. The relationships that we have built within the church have a greater impact on us and the watching world than we imagine. A united people from diverse backgrounds with strong and deep relationships is a rare breed in our world. We are united in the Gospel of Christ with our mission to proclaim this Gospel to the nations. That was the heart...
Nov 10, 2024•40 min
Christians have many different opinions on different ways of being obedient to God. This is especially true on things that God himself has not explicitly mentioned in the Bible. Paul mentioned a list of issues that the Jews and Gentiles would disagree about. However, he insists that we all belong to the Lord and each of us will have to give an account to God, not to each other. Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on each other on these topics where we have freedom to practise in different wa...
Nov 03, 2024•42 min
All glory is to be to God alone. The culmination of the first four “solas” of the Reformation is that glory belongs to God and God alone. We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone through God’s sheer grace alone, promised to us in the Scriptures alone. All of that is only possible because of God’s initiative and work, both through the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit in us. That is Paul’s conclusion at the end of Romans 11. He has been declaring the wonders of the Gospel message of Ch...
Oct 27, 2024•39 min
We receive the grace of God through no work nor merit of our own. We are justified purely on the basis of Christ’s righteousness counted as ours, received by faith alone. We do not need elaborate rituals, activities or work for us to gain favour from God. God doesn’t help us only when we help ourselves. Instead, God gives his grace to us freely in Christ. An encounter with the transcendent gracious God does not leave us the same. This God has saved us in Christ out of his sheer grace. This grace...
Oct 20, 2024•36 min
Most Christians are familiar with the basic outline of the Jonah narrative. It's one of the first Bible stories we are taught. But are there truths and details that we miss due to this familiarity? In this message, we take a deep dive into the kind of person Jonah was.
Oct 13, 2024•33 min
We continue our short sermon series on the Five Solas. This week, we focus on the fact that we are saved in Christ alone through faith alone. In Ephesians 2, Paul begins by describing our condition and lives before Christ. He does not paint a pretty picture of who we are – spiritually dead and deserving of God’s wrath. It is a stark reminder of what we are saved from – our sins. Because of God’s great love, mercy, and kindness to us, he accomplished salvation for us in Christ. All these blessing...
Oct 06, 2024•40 min
