http://greenviewevangelicalchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/ en jthomson1955@googlemail.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-14T00:01:49+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/he-that-endures-to-the-end/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/he-that-endures-to-the-end/#When:00:01:49Z #cp_sitename{ border-right:1px solid #3D525F; color:#dadada; font-size:14px; float:left; padding:2px 10px 2px 0; margin:2px 10px 0 0; } #server-time{padding-bottom:9px} /* Float the EE link left */ div.helpLinksLeft p{color:#fff;} div.helpLinksLeft a { padding-top: 7px; display: block; float: left; }#cp_sitename{ border-right:1px solid #3D525F; color:#dadada; font-size:14px; float:left; padding:2px 10px 2px 0; margin:2px 10px 0 0; } #server-time{padding-bottom:9px} /* Float the EE link left */ div.helpLinksLeft p{color:#fff;} div.helpLinksLeft a { padding-top: 7px; display: block; float: left; }#cp_sitename{ border-right:1px solid #3D525F; color:#dadada; font-size:14px; float:left; padding:2px 10px 2px 0; margin:2px 10px 0 0; } #server-time{padding-bottom:9px} /* Float the EE link left */ div.helpLinksLeft p{color:#fff;} div.helpLinksLeft a { padding-top: 7px; display: block; float: left; }#cp_sitename{ border-right:1px solid #3D525F; color:#dadada; font-size:14px; float:left; padding:2px 10px 2px 0; margin:2px 10px 0 0; } #server-time{padding-bottom:9px} /* Float the EE link left */ div.helpLinksLeft p{color:#fff;} div.helpLinksLeft a { padding-top: 7px; display: block; float: left; }#cp_sitename{ border-right:1px solid #3D525F; color:#dadada; font-size:14px; float:left; padding:2px 10px 2px 0; margin:2px 10px 0 0; } #server-time{padding-bottom:9px} /* Float the EE link left */ div.helpLinksLeft p{color:#fff;} div.helpLinksLeft a { padding-top: 7px; display: block; float: left; }#cp_sitename{ border-right:1px solid #3D525F; color:#dadada; font-size:14px; float:left; padding:2px 10px 2px 0; margin:2px 10px 0 0; } #server-time{padding-bottom:9px} /* Float the EE link left */ div.helpLinksLeft p{color:#fff;} div.helpLinksLeft a { padding-top: 7px; display: block; float: left; }#cp_sitename{ border-right:1px solid #3D525F; color:#dadada; font-size:14px; float:left; padding:2px 10px 2px 0; margin:2px 10px 0 0; } #server-time{padding-bottom:9px} /* Float the EE link left */ div.helpLinksLeft p{color:#fff;} div.helpLinksLeft a { padding-top: 7px; display: block; float: left; }#cp_sitename{ border-right:1px solid #3D525F; color:#dadada; font-size:14px; float:left; padding:2px 10px 2px 0; margin:2px 10px 0 0; } #server-time{padding-bottom:9px} /* Float the EE link left */ div.helpLinksLeft p{color:#fff;} div.helpLinksLeft a { padding-top: 7px; display: block; float: left; }   There is no doubt in the Bible about the complete security of all who are ‘in Christ’.  Jesus says in John’s gospel’ John 10:28,29:  I give them (his sheep) eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. Our salvation rests on the ability of the strong hands of the Father and Son to hold us securely.  Paul backs up such strong assurance in the magnificent words of Roms 8 Rom 8:28-39  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us.  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.  As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."   No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We could look at many Scriptures that stress the security of all who are God’s people.  All would place the emphasis on God’s great ability to protect and keep those who have placed their trust in Jesus. Paul’s wonderful gospel promise is Rom 10:9,10  That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Ringing words of certainty and salvation.  It would be good to rest here but we cannot.  We cannot for Scripture doesn’t.  There is a dynamic at work in Scripture and in salvation that celebrates assurance – Christians daily believing that they are saved and that all the resources to live and finish the Christian life are theirs in Christ – but it forbids complacency or presumption. For example the previous text to that in John which says, John 10:28,29  I give them (his sheep) eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. says John 10:27  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. In other words those who are Christ’s listen to him and follow him.  If we do not listen and follow (however weakly) we cannot presume to be his sheep.   2010-03-14T00:01:49+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/two-humanities-romans-512-21/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/two-humanities-romans-512-21/#When:22:07:54Z Roms 5:12-20 Two Humanities We are studying Paul, the apostle’s, C1 letter to the church at Rome. It is a vital book of the Bible to understand. J.I. Packer has said, 'When the message of Romans gets into a man’s heart there is no telling what may happen.' Now all preachers are fond of claiming that the text they are about to consider is significant. However, it is fair to say, the text we are considering today is significant in the fullest sense of the word. In a few highly compressed verses, Paul explains the reason why our world is in the tragic state it is and the reason why Jesus is the only answer to its plight. These verses, however, are not the easiest to follow. Let me sketch the flow before we read it. The verses are fundamentally a comparison between: · Two men - Adam and Jesus. · Two Acts - an act of disobedience by Adam and an act of obedience by Jesus · Two Outcomes/Consequences - Adam’s disobedience, bringing condemnation and death and Jesus’ obedience, bringing righteousness and life It helps if we notice too that the comparison between Adam and Jesus begins in v12 but lies uncompleted until v18. Vv13-17 is really a parenthesis/a digression. For although Paul is about to show a parallel between Jesus and Adam, so jealous is he to guard the uniqueness of Jesus, that he takes pains to show the contrasts between the two are as important if not more so, than the comparison. Sermon Transcripts 2010-01-04T22:07:54+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/th/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/th/#When:22:01:22Z The Fear of God We are entering the second decade of the C21. And it is hard to do so with optimism. Society, nationally or internationally, is struggling to hold its core. Global warming is the new spectre. Wars proliferate in the world. The big nations posture and flex their muscles. At home families and family values are disintegrating. We have a mountain of debt, individual and national for which a day of reckoning is coming. Christian values are collapsing and values are gaining grounds that are increasingly hostile to Christian belief and Christian people. The Church, in the West at least, doesn’t inspire optimism either. It is rapidly shrinking in size and significance. It too seems to be losing its core, the gospel. And meanwhile like the world frivolity and all kinds of cultural tack are rushing in to fill the void. Both in the world and in the church people act as their inclinations lead. If they are professing Christians they find some text to turn on its head to justify their actions. The signs are all present of a society and church that has lost its fear of God; where there is no fear of God before our eyes. And when a society or church loses its fear of God it is in a desperate condition indeed. Consequently, as we enter a New Year and new decade, I want to impress on our minds and hearts the profound importance of a proper fear of God. For fundamental to all wise godly living is a deep and profound sense of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, Scripture regularly informs us, is the beginning/fountain/source of wisdom. I want to choose today just a few verses out of a mountain of verses in Scripture that make this point. And in fact we may not get much further today than citing these few texts but if we allow them to speak to us, if we allow them to make due impact on our souls, then our time will have been well spent. Sermon Transcripts 2010-01-04T22:01:22+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon-romans-118-23/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon-romans-118-23/#When:21:18:57Z Roms 1:18-23 Wrath Revealed We are continuing to unpack from Paul's letter to the Romans, what the Christian gospel is about. It is a gospel we have discovered that Paul tirelessly preaches because it proclaims to all - those in the ancient C1 world and us today God's great rescue mission that he has undertaken in Jesus. His salvation; his deliverance that we desperately need to embrace. However, immediately we hear about salvation/deliverance/a rescue mission we naturally ask the question: rescue from whom? Saved from what? From which forces or powers or persons do we require deliverance? Probably most of us, if we think we need rescued at all, think we need rescued from ourselves and from the evil that seems to frustrate our every effort to make a better world. Man's greatest enemy is himself or so the looming war in Iraq implies. And there is a great deal of truth in this. As we probe further into Romans we will discover that the evil in man is unquestionably a force from which we need delivered and from which only God through Jesus can ultimately free us; but when we examine these verses we read this morning we make the startling discovery that the first person we need to be saved from is God himself. Notice the words of vv16-18 'I am not ashamed of.... for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven...' The clear and present danger we face is God himself. God's wrath. God's anger. God is says the Bible - outraged. He is angry with human beings. Sermon Transcripts 2010-01-04T21:18:57+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/honest_hermeneutics/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/honest_hermeneutics/#When:20:04:42Z ‘An honest exegete who can find’. The answer, thankfully, is that there are many. Praise God for extremely able godly men (and women) who handle Scripture carefully and with prayerful integrity. The church is indebted to them. My concern is those that do not. More, I am worried about the subtle pressure on all of us who study Scripture to apply less than honest criteria as we approach the Bible. This temptation may be even more acute in some of our Bible Colleges where I suspect too much credence is given to what modern scholars say and too little to what the Bible says. There is a real danger we simply approach the Bible as a text book to study rather than coming to it as the ‘living Word of God which endures forever’. I suspect many of us study Scripture with an attitude far removed from the psalmist when he wrote: Psalm 119:9-16, 47: How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word… I delight in your commands because I love them. This wholehearted and single-hearted delight in God’s Word that recognises it is the very ‘bread of life’ enlightening, enlivening and enriching is easily lost in the mechanics of modern Bible study where the Bible can become a book to to be critically dissected rather than delighted in as life-imparting wisdom from God. Hermeneutics 2009-10-28T20:04:42+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_luke_18_the_rich_young_ruler/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_luke_18_the_rich_young_ruler/#When:19:53:55Z The Rich Young Ruler Mk 10:13-31 The Gospels are full of personal encounters that people had with Jesus and they are there not simply there as stories for us to enjoy but because they illustrate different responses that people have towards Jesus, not simply then but also today. The Rich Young Ruler is one such person. I don’t know what your idea of a Christian is or of the kind of person who is likely to become a Christian but I suspect most of us would see this Ruler as a likely candidate. He certainly has some necessary qualities. 1. He is sincere. There is no sense that he is just trying to trick Jesus. He’s not like so many of the characters Jesus meets who seem only interested in playing word games, debating and arguing. There are lots of people like that today who enjoy a good argument about Christian faith but are really no more interested than fly in the air. This man was genuinely seeking. He was sincere and earnest - he came running to Jesus. It is unfashionable to be sincere. It is considered naïve and gullible. It is cool to be cynical and hard-nosed. To mistrust everything. But it is the way of invincible ignorance. You will never discover anything worthwhile and certainly not the truth about Jesus and the answers to the big questions of life unless you begin as an honest seeker, a humble genuine inquirer. Be committed to discovering truth. You won’t stumble over it by chance and you certainly won’t find it in cynicism only in serious searching. God says in the Bible he only makes himself known to those who ‘seek him with all their heart’. 2009-10-28T19:53:55+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_luke_16_the_rich_man_in_hell/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_luke_16_the_rich_man_in_hell/#When:19:50:58Z The Rich Man in Hell Luke 16 v19-31 It seems bizarre, almost unreal in a lovely day like this to speak of hell. For most people hell is simply a mild swear word. Or it is an image to describe the unpleasant in life - the neighbours from hell. At best it is some mediaeval religious myth, but in the Bible it is, quite simply, a destiny. Each of us here will one day die, when we die we will be in heaven or we will be in hell. The poor man died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom... a metaphor for heaven The rich man also died and was buried, and in hell.... 1. Hell in the Bible is a fact. The writers of the NT speak regularly of hell. And, strange as it may seem, no one speaks more about hell than Jesus. I believe hell exists because Jesus speaks about it. This parable is one place among many where he speaks explicitly about hell as a destiny. The rich man’s destiny - and by extension, perhaps yours or mine. It is a chilling thought and it is intended to be. Sermon Transcripts 2009-10-28T19:50:58+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_knowing_god/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_knowing_god/#When:19:46:29Z Knowing God John 17:3 What does it mean to be a Christian? It means above all else a relationship with God. Life is about relationships. Without relationships - family, friends, colleagues and so on life would be meaningless. Relationships are the stuff of life. We know this because when the most important relationships of life break down we are deeply unhappy. A broken romance or worse a broken marriage or a bereavement brings depression sometimes despair. In fact the root cause of human unhappiness is because the most fundamental relationship of all has broken down - our relationship with God. However good our other relationships in life may be they never make up for a broken relationship with our Creator - with God. That is why as I say the Christian life is at heart about a relationship with God. That is what John says Read John 17:3 The problem even for Christians is that they lose sight of this at times. We often substitute things that are at the edge of the faith for that which is at the centre. We see our Christianity in terms of churchgoing or rule-keeping or activities instead of seeing it as cultivating a personal relationship with God. And the word cultivating is important because a relationship, any relationship in life has to be worked at - it doesn’t just happen - and our relationship with God is no different. Things that go wrong in our Christian life whatever they may be always start here - failing to work at our relationship with God. How then do we develop this relationship? That’s what I want to remind us of today. Look at slide Two ‘To ‘Know God’ means to turn all we know about God, into meditation before God, prayer and praise directed towards God and devoted obedience to God.’ I want to look simply at each aspect of the definition. 2009-10-28T19:46:29+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_john_1_the_good_shepherd/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_john_1_the_good_shepherd/#When:19:40:59Z The Good Shepherd John 10:1-30 Within a matter of weeks we shall be caught up in the machinery of a General Election. It will not in the main be about policies - the policies of the two major parties do not seem to be so different - it will be about people. Personalities. John major and Tony Blair. And the personality that appeals most to the public - that can convey the most appealing persona will likely win. Sad though it may be today’s politics is about leaders. Not so much their principles as their charisma. Their colour. That is why political parties spend so much of their resources choosing the right leader and ironing out his or her imperfections to make them attractive to the electorate. To us the people. In a sense nothing has changed. The world has always looked for leaders. Men have followed men from time immemorial. They have looked for someone who would lead them out to a better life. A better world. A world of liberty equality and fraternity. It was the hope of the French revolutionaries. It has always been the human hope. Certainly it was so in Jesus day. Palestine was alive with would be leaders. The previous couple of centuries had seen an upsurge of would be saviours. Selfappointed messiahs who would free the Jewish people from the domination of Rome. They had come as leaders have come throughout history with their zeal and fanaticism. With their philosophy of freedom and impossible promises to meet the hopes and ambitions of the people. To bring the utopia that the human spirit hungers for. And fuelled by these dreams they had led the people into bloody revolution that had remorselessly led to defeat and destruction and death. They failed. Why? Well no doubt for many reasons but one of the principle reasons was that they came with the wrong agenda the wrong goals. They were, as leaders inevitably are, fuelled more by their own self interest, their own ambitions their own distorted agendas than they are with the well-being and interests of the people. Sermon Transcripts 2009-10-28T19:40:59+00:00 http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_john_51617_is_jesus_just_a_good_man/ http://greenviewchurch.co.uk/resources/johnthomson/sermon_john_51617_is_jesus_just_a_good_man/#When:19:36:30Z John 5 v 16-47 Is Jesus Just a Good Man? When people today are confronted with the claims of Jesus and with the Christian message Christians discover that the same stock answers come up over and over again. Answers that are based on popular assumptions people make. Assumptions that because enough people make them have gained a credence far beyond what they deserve. And, tragically, assumptions that allow people to dismiss the Christian message and the claims of Jesus as so much nonsense without a second thought. One such assumption is that Jesus is no more than a man. If you speak to people today and challenge them with the claims of Jesus on their lives almost always the response will be ‘But why should Jesus have any claim on my life. He’s just a man. A good man, perhaps even a great man, but just a man nevertheless.’ Mary Magdalene in the rock musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ speaks for many when she says ‘He’s a man, only a man, and I’ve known so many men before - he’s just one more.’ Of course this kind of thinking about Jesus did not find it’s origins in popular culture. It’s what the academics of the church - the religious establishment have been trying to get us to understand for the last 100 years or sothough their message only seems to have penetrated in the last 30 years or so. Sermon Transcripts 2009-10-28T19:36:30+00:00