Topic Archives: Jesus Christ

The day before John Owen departed to be with Christ (23 August 1683), he dictated his last letter to a friend: ‘I am going to him whom my soul has loved, or rather who has loved me with an everlasting love, – which is the whole ground of my consolation.’ The following day, William Payne […]

Never was a more bitter or blasphemous accusation made against the Lord Jesus Christ than the one reported in Luke 11:15: ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.’ During Jesus’ ministry the attitude of the religious authorities towards him had mushroomed from curiosity, to annoyance, to rivalry, to envy, and now to […]

Let me begin with a question (not a trick one!): ‘What is the principal exercise of faith?’ It is a straight-forward question and a very important question. For John Owen, the great English Puritan divine, the answer was instinctive: ‘The contemplation of the glory of Christ.’ Saving faith unites the believer to the Lord Jesus […]

Most Christians all over the world confess their faith in worship using one of two ancient, historical creeds: The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. When we confess the faith using one of these creeds, we not only confess those things we believe, but we remind ourselves that Christianity is a lot older than we […]

Church growth experts tell us that Christmas Eve surpasses Easter as the time when people are most likely to go to church. It’s a recent development but should not be surprising. Religious practices have caught up to cultural preferences. Santa Claus has always won out over the Easter Bunny. It’s an important piece of information […]

The child in the manger in Bethlehem, for whom there was no room in the inn, may have seemed powerless, but he was the Son of God. The angel had told Mary, his mother: ‘That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God’ (Luke 1:35). Thus, while he […]

How did awareness of heavenly councils between him and his Father shape Jesus’ sense of earthly mission? Every phase of our Saviour’s life was shaped and styled by his self-conscious sense that he had come from heaven ‘not to do (his) will but to do the will of him who sent (him)’ (John 6:38). Indeed, […]

Over the past weeks I have been reading through The Letter to the Hebrews. It has, as ever, been a fascinating, sobering and richly encouraging read. The Letter, as you will know, was written to Hebrew Christians who had become influenced by false teaching and were under pressure to give up on Christ and return […]

Samuel Rutherford lived and preached in the first half of the seventeenth century and yet his life and work are still held in high regard. First published in this form in 1909 this beautifully presented little book is one to treasure and keep close for referring to continuously. These short pieces taken from Samuel Rutherford’s […]

to proclaim … the unsearchable riches of Christ. Ephesians 3:8 Recently four teenagers, three of whom were entering their last year at high school, were killed in a car accident. I cannot imagine the grief and heartache of the parents of these young people, knowing that their children’s lives were snuffed out at such a […]

Christ is our sufficiency. This statement is true on the highest and most vital level of our lives. Only Christ has regarded us in all of our unworthiness and unloveliness and has loved us to the uttermost, giving His life as a ransom for us. Only Christ can cleanse us of the guilt, heal us […]

The Saviour had been crucified. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid Him in the grave. The chief priests and Pharisees recalled that Jesus had foretold His rising from the dead on the third day. They went their unbelieving way to Pilate, claiming to be afraid that the disciples would “come by night and steal […]

Shortly before his death on January 1, 1937, Dr. J. Gresham Machen dictated a final telegram to his friend and colleague, Professor John Murray. The words of the telegram were short and sweet: “I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” That memorable message has been passed down through the […]

The hearts of all mankind are closed to the gospel, to the preaching of the word, the beseechings and invitations of the Lord. by Geoff Thomas Lydia’s home town was four hundred miles away in Thyatira a city famous for its dyes (there is an early inscription to a guild of dyers there). Lydia was […]

The death of Christ is the first fact of the Christian Gospel, and its interpretation the first work of a apostolic preaching by Samuel Chadwick The Gospel of the Cross is that ‘Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried; and that He hath been raised on the third […]

WORSHIP AND THE PRESENCE OF GOD Think what is involved – personal communication and communion with the living God. by Graham Harrison   Worship has been hijacked and debased by many today. It is often reduced to a set of preliminaries lasting anything from a half to one hour, usually consisting of repetitive chorus singing, […]

We will not be strong because of our own sense of righteousness, morality and good behaviour. by Geoff Thomas What a constant theme is Christian weakness in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. How alien a message it is to the prevailing Christian ethos of the 21st century. For example, those churches which claim to […]

PAY FULL ATTENTION! ‘If no sin was unpunished in the Old Testament, how can any be in the New?’ Every good preacher should be able to state things as succinctly as the writer to the Hebrews has done; but no preacher worth his salt is content with doing only that. He knows that things have […]

HOW TO KILL SIN A Sermon on the Mortification of Sin “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the […]

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD – OUR HIGHEST PRIVILEGE In our communion with God we are so prone to look first into our own hearts to see what love to Christ is there The highest privilege a Christian can enjoy this side of eternity is fellowship or communion with God. John holds out the prospect of communion […]

THE TRANSFORMING WORD Imagine taking up in your hands Christ’s own copy of the Scriptures and, turning the pages, noting the passages that were meaningful to Him An old Army pensioner was talking about a recent experience. He had been rummaging through a closet when he’d come across the small Bible he’d carried with him […]

A Saudi-raised Pastor offers an insider’s perspective. At 4.55, the minaret loudspeaker blared outside my window. I was in Damascus, visiting relatives, and hundreds of mosques all over the city were calling Muslims to the first of five daily prayers. Faithful Muslims weave these into their everyday lives. If they forget their duties in the […]

THE GOSPEL SPREADING IN SICILY, ITALY We were present in Santa Elisabetta for the dedication of their new premises and have seen many Christians and also a good attendance of non-Christians To write an article, especially in the summer season of 2001 in which the temperature reaches 35 degrees, is an enterprise, particularly if you […]

What Jesus wants most for Christmas is that his elect be gathered in and then get what they want most to see his glory and then savor it with the very savoring of the Father for the Son. What does Jesus want this Christmas? We can see the answer in his prayers. What does he […]

THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS HE DWELT AMONG US; “FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH” INDEED, BUT IN OUR MIDST The Christian Faith is deeply and necessarily ‘incarnational.’ “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” John tells us. “He was manifested in the flesh,” wrote Paul. Even more daringly, he tells us that God sent […]