Sermon Transcripts

All you need to do is read the opening few verses of the prophet Habakkuk to realise that God has left his church a record of a man whose struggle is our strugg...

Have you ever been interrupted in the middle of something? I used to hate it when I got interrupted growing up. What we are doing always feels so important, doe...

So far as I have divided up Matthew 12, since we first considered Jesus' healing of this demon-possessed man that we came across in Matthew 12:22, this present...

Our message in God's word this morning from the Gospel of Matthew continues the teaching of the surrounding context. We do not want to lose that context. As you...

We return to Matthew's Gospel and to a fascinating portion of Scripture. The central point of what we are to look at this morning is a valuable reminder. You se...

I wonder how knowable you think the ways of God really are. Whilst the God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has made himself knowable...

Last week, I made the point that our Lord Jesus, in addressing the crowds concerning John the Baptist, was sounding a warning. That warning was, and still is to...

Have you ever been in situations in your life when upon reflection, you didn't really appreciate the gravity or the weight of the moment? And it's only when you...

As we enter a new chapter in the gospel according to Matthew, we enter a new division in the book. Matthew repeats this phrase "when Jesus had finished" five ti...

Many Christians in life struggle with what I call the inferior Christian complex. This is a state of mind where people wrongly begin to compare themselves to ot...

In Matthew 10 this morning we continue on the theme of Kingdom Missions for Christ and his Gospel. Missions is really the one word umbrella term that can be put...

In our lives, we have to discern in people and in things the point to which we can trust them, don't we? I was flying home from the Hawke's Bay just this past w...

From our earliest life, it is a very natural impulse for us to imitate others. We imitate others, but ultimately it is man's calling, his creational mandate to...

Matthew 10:16-23 Sheep Among Wolves The next portion for us is Matthew 10:16-23. The message that I have entitled "Sheep Among Wolves." Matthew 10:16 says, "Beh...

We ought to be aware as Christians that we are part of a work of God that spans human history itself. It is a work to show God's glory and his power. It is a wo...

The Reverend Jay Wilbur Chapman once published a devotional book called "The Secret of the Happy Day." At one point, he retells the story of a Christian man tra...

Well, again, we are in Matthew's gospel, and again we come to another searching question concerning the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples. Las...

When we refer to Jesus Christ, so often we speak of his life, his death, and his resurrection. We say his perfect life that he lived for us. We say his atoning...

"Fear not" are the simple words which have stilled the hearts of God's people throughout ages past. The life of the believer, you see, is often one in which the...

This morning we come to a short portion of Matthew's gospel with a peculiar point of difference. That point of difference is that Matthew breaks, and of course...

We come in our studies in Matthew to perhaps one of the most well-known recorded miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have in the Gospels. I think most Chr...

Have you ever witnessed true power? This week, I saw a video of a New Zealand politician commenting on the war in the Middle East. And what caught my attention...

The writer of Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan, once wrote: "No child of God sins to the degree as to make himself incapable of forgiveness." In our study of Psa...

We sadly live in a day where many, even Christians, have a low view of the church; the church proper and the church as a local gathering of saints. And what I m...

Well, again, we come to our study through Psalm 51. And at this point in the fourth message, we should hardly need to introduce these words as a whole. They sho...

Here we come to our third look at this fifty-first Psalm, a truly incredible Psalm, and I hope you have been able to see something of that in the past sessions...

We come to part two now of our study in this precious portion of scripture. This prayer is what we call a lament in the Psalms. It is a window into the soul, re...

The Psalter is a treasure trove for God's church. It is a divinely inspired song book of prayers and poetry that lead us in worship and adoration of God through...

In the Christian life, we must often ask of God that he would keep our hearts from growing cold towards him. There's an old hymn by the English Baptist of the e...

Well, I want to bring you a message this morning. I have entitled it "Numbering Your Days." There's something of a conclusion to the Christmas theme messages we...

At the start of December this year, a reporter hit the streets of Wellington to find out from locals what they thought of the city's three taxpayer-funded Chris...

Perhaps you have heard the saying, a watershed moment. The idea of a watershed actually comes from geography. It means the high ground, like a hill or a mountai...

One of George Eliot’s most famous novels is a book titled The Mill on the Floss. In one particular scene, Mr Riley in the novel notices an unusual book on a she...

In May 1943, during World War Two, the United States was in a desperate situation. The Japanese were an almost unstoppable force in the Pacific, decimating Alli...

Zechariah is, for many Christians, a book with clean, shiny pages that has been seldom read, hurriedly read, or read with some confusion. As with many prophets,...

For anyone who watches the America's Cup or follows sailing, Peter Burling will be a household name. Burling spent twelve years with Team New Zealand, but has r...

Matthew 8:1-17 He Took Our Infirmities After many weeks working our way through the Sermon on the Mount we now come down off the mountain to follow Christ and c...

Matthew 7:28-29 Amazed By Jesus In stage productions and plays, producers usually use, at some point, focused light to help highlight certain characters on the...

Romans 1:17 The Just Shall Live By Faith In life, we all must choose which hills we are prepared to die on, those convictions for which no amount of personal sa...

Matthew 7:24-27 Build Your House Upon The Rock Matthew has laboured in his narration of the life and ministry of Jesus to show us that the great expected King h...

Matthew 7:21-23 True And False Christians We come now to consider the penultimate message in our journey through Jesus' teaching of what is called the Sermon on...

Matthew 7:15-20 Beware of the Wolves We inch nearer again to the conclusion of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which formally concluded in verses seven to twelve. I...

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter Through The Narrow Gate The Puritan preacher Giles Firmin once said, "It is the duty of all the sons and daughters of Adam who hear the go...

Matthew 7:7-12 Who Can Live The Christian Life If you enjoy hiking, tramping, exploring in the wilderness, or mountaineering, you might understand the concept o...

Matthew 7:1-6 How And How Not To Judge It has been well said that the words of the Bible, when pressed too far, taken out of context, and mishandled, yield not...

Matthew 6:25-34 God's Cure For Anxiety C.S. Lewis once said, "Put first things first, and we get second things thrown in. Put second things first, and we lose b...

Matthew 6:19-24 Undivided Loyalty For God Most of the time, it is really important in our lives that we have the right perspective, isn't it? It is really easy...

Matthew 6:5-15 How The Christian Ought To Pray In this sixth chapter, Jesus’ teaching is especially focused on the Christian’s need to live as those aware they...

Matthew 6:1-4, 16-18 What Motivates Your Christian Works? For the most part, virtue is something that our society celebrates. To have virtue is to possess, as a...

Matthew 5:48 Are You Perfect? Next time you are in a mall or a public place, somewhere where you can look around and see people go about their day, I'd encourag...

Matthew 5:43-48 The Law Explained Part VI Love Your Enemies We now come to the sixth of Jesus’ so-called antithesis statements in the Sermon on the Mount. Over...

Matthew 5:38-42 The Law Explained Part V Revenge In our studies in the Sermon on the Mount, I have repeatedly emphasised that this sermon is addressed to the be...

Matthew 5:33-37 The Law Explained Part IV Vows There was a wealthy oil tycoon on his deathbed, and his pastor sat by his side and reminded him of God’s healing...

Matthew 5:31-32 The Law Explained Part III Divorce Well, Jesus continues to explain how we as Christians are to relate to the law and his commandments, and, at...

Matthew 5:27–30 The Law Explained Part II Adultery It would be helpful to be reminded of a little context as we begin. It is important that we read the Sermon o...

Matthew 5:21-26 The Law Explained Part I Murder Well, as a summary of how we came to this portion of scripture, last week, particularly in Matthew 5:20, Jesus m...

Matthew 5:19-20 The Christian And The Law Here in Matthew 5:19-20, as with subsequent messages for a little while in Matthew's Gospel, plain and simple, Jesus w...

Matthew 5:17-18 Jesus Came to Fulfill The Law I remember as a youth learning that if you were to lay out the vast network of blood vessels in the average adult,...

Matthew 5:13-16 People of Salt and Light Well, this morning we take yet another step into Jesus' teaching discourse on the Sermon on the Mount. The King is defi...

Matthew 5:1-12 The Upside-Down Kingdom We come now to consider the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount. Allow me to remind you of a few important points fr...

Matthew 5:1-7.29 Introduction To The Sermon On the Mount Well, a good question to ask at this point, especially with a break of three weeks, would be this: What...

Matthew 4:23-25 Kingdom On The Move Well, this morning we land on a penultimate section in a way of speaking before we embark on what is famously known as the S...

Matthew 4:18-22 Followers Of The King Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran theologian known for his active resistance to the Nazi regime during World War I...

Matthew 4:12-17 Kingdom Light A little while ago, I think maybe a couple of months now, I took Caitlin through the Clifton Caves. It was the first time I'd been...

Matthew 4:1-11 The King's Probation Well, in case you live under a rock, you now know that the United States is undergoing a transition of power since Donald Tr...

Well, today, as you know, I've framed our worship service in line with a Christian commemoration of the Protestant Reformation. I can't presume upon anyone's kn...

Matthew 3:13-17 An Unexpected Baptism A little while ago, John, Caleb, and I were seated in a lawyer's office in Invercargill, having one of the final legal doc...

Matthew 3:5-12 A Warning in the Wilderness We tend to minimize things in our lives which are of tremendous importance, but inconvenient facts at the time. You w...

Matthew 3:1-4 Prepare the Way of the Lord In 1960, archaeologists were excavating sites in Masada, which was the location of Herod the Great's temple. We've lea...

Matthew 2:19-23 Jesus the Nazarene Well, we come this morning to our next passage in Matthew's Gospel in this series through Matthew's Gospel, and I want to bri...

Matthew 2:16-18 Weeping in Ramah Perhaps you have heard of the infamous eighteenth-century French philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778) of the so-called Enlightenmen...

Matthew 2:13-15 A New Exodus Imagine watching the final episode of a TV show where the producers decide to leave the plot on a cliff-hanger right at the end of...

Matthew 2:1-12 Worship the King By way of introduction, entertain a few questions with me. To what end or purpose did God create all things? Why is there someth...

Matthew 1:18-25 The Birth of the King A couple of years ago, a sports reporter asked the coach of the Boston Celtics basketball team, Joe Mazzulla, to comment o...

Matthew 1:1-17 The King Is Here In 2013, the digital currency known as Bitcoin was rarely spoken of outside the private conversations of IT and computer experts...