(SERMON) John 12:37-50 Isaiah saw Jesus -- we should too!

 The revelation that Isaiah saw Jesus upon the throne in the Temple should transform how we read the Bible.  Seeing Jesus on every page sets our hearts ablaze with joy and love.  What Jesus goes on to explain though is just as amazing--the whole reason why He appeared in the Old Testament and became human in the New was to save us; to allow us to see the Father, to be in the presence of the Father, and have eternal life.

Revd Adam Young · John 12.37-50 Isaiah saw Jesus, we should too!

(SERMON) John 12:12-35 Seeking and Serving Jesus

 In this passage the crowds DECLARE Jesus as Saviour, Lord, and King but they don't understand what they are declaring. Instead it is the Greeks who actually SEEK to see the real Jesus and know Him as He is.  Through this seeking Jesus tells them the hard TRUTH: He is all the crowd said and so much more but that means dying on a Roman cross and rising to new life.  Even harder--we too much die to sin, self, and the world and rise to new life if we are to know peace and joy eternal.  This truth leads to a simple CHOICE: will you believe in the Light or be lost in darkness?

Revd Adam Young · John 12.12-36 Seeking and Serving Jesus

(SERMON) John 14 -- Our common purpose and mission, a Mother's Union service of New Beginnings

Life is full of new beginnings, great and small, temporary and long term.

We should use such new beginnings to re-dedicate ourselves to our purpose and mission.

As individuals, and as the Mother's Union, our purpose and mission is

1.) to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth - we were saved by Jesus and must tell others about this.

2.)to be united with other Christians in prayer, in worship, and in service.

If these are not the things for which we are known in our communities then perhaps the need to rededicate ourselves to them is all the more urgent.

(SERMON) Incarnation, Apollonaris, and Nestorius: John 6.35-51

The doctrine of the incarnation—God in the flesh—is utterly foundational to Christianity.  The belief that Jesus is 100% God and 100% human, that he is the God-man, is the truth upon which our hopes and salvaiton rest.

But what does all of this actually mean?

The Early Church was divided between the teachings of Alexandria and Antioch, between the errors of Apollonarianism and Nestorianism. It had to find the biblical middle ground and did so at the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD—what was taught there, and is taught in the Bible, should impact our daily lives and even our theology of the Lord's Supper.

(SERMON) The Heresy of Arianism: 1 John 1.1-18

In the streets of Alexandria in 318AD a mob was chanting "There was a time that Christ was not!"  This heresy - Arianism - is alive and well around the world and church today.  Athanasius would spend most of his 46 years as a bishop in exile for fighting it.  Why was he so determined to fight the good fight and why should we be today?

We must stand firm because Scripture teaches that Jesus is truly God, begotten not made.

We must stand firm because if the person of Jesus is a created thing, no matter how exalted, all our worship is idolatry.

We must stand firm because unless Jesus is truly, fully, God - and not just close to God or like God - then our sins have not been forgiven.

We must stand firm because in this  truth is great comfort and blessing: knowing that God is a loving Father and not a distant and cold loner.

(SERMON) Trinity Sunday 2018: John 3.1-18 & Romans 8.12-17

On the day I baptised my cousin-in-law and niece in to the household of faith I preached about the Trinity: about how God has revealed Himself, what this  tells us about God, and why this changes everything for us who believe.