Sermons by Joe Khan (Page 31)
Preaching the gospel to yourself
As we wrap up our series in Galatians and look at Paul’s passionate final plea to the churches we see once again the stunning freedom of the gospel. Gospel faith is not about trying to get close to God be keeping the requirements of the Law, but about trusting in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But just as we have seen that it is vital that gospel preachers stay true to this one gospel, we need to realise…
Motivation for good
“Good works” get some pretty bad press in the evangelical church. We have this belief that we are saved by grace and not good works and so we are skeptical of any teaching that calls us to good works. I have actually heard ministers say that a person’s works don’t matter at all because that is not what saves them. But just because we are not saved BY our good works doesn’t mean that we weren’t saved FOR good works.…
Gentle Restoration
Paul has continually pleaded with the Galatians not to live under the slavery of the Law but to embrace the freedom of the gospel and this week we see another reason why he cares so much about this. If we live under the Law we are tempted to view other people who get caught in sin as inferior. Maybe we are even tempted to profit of their sinfulness by letting it justify our own sin, “at least I’m not that…
Freedom in the Spirit
All throughout Galatians Paul has been championing freedom, but perhaps you have had some serious questions about this. See we know that the nature of humanity is corrupted and so if we are set free from the laws that keep our sinful nature in check will we not just embrace that sin and wind up doing more damage than good. Paul anticipates this question and declares boldly that even though we are called to freedom we should not abuse that…
Don’t Miss the Point
It is so easy to get caught up in the routines of our faith, the busyness of life or the trials and frustrations we face and to totally miss the point of Christianity altogether. As we reach Galatians 5 Paul declares with simple clarity why Jesus died for us… why Jesus sacrificed Himself… what was in His mind as He brought us into salvation… FREEDOM! And yet so often we miss the beauty of this freedom and exchange it for…
Coming of Age
All around the world different cultures mark the transition from boy to man with various rites of passage. It is the moment a young man tests his metal against the elements and proves himself worthy of maturity. In Galatians 4 Paul continues to highlight the wonders of belief in Christ by describing saving faith like coming of age… salvation is like moving from boyhood where we are enslaved to the rules of the house to full sonship where we are…
Graduating to Faith
All throughout our Galatians series so far Paul has been championing the reality that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ. IN other words that the basis for our right standing with God is not our capacity to measure up to the Law of Moses but rather Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. But if you are anything like me this raises a question: What’s the deal with the Law now? Does it matter how I live? Why did God…
No Condemnation
We broke from our Galatians series to serve in our local community during our normal church time. Instead we had an evening service where Pastor Joe looked at the encounter between Jesus and a woman caught in adultery. One of our worst fears is to have all of our worst moments, greatest mistakes and darkest thoughts exposed for others to see. We fear that we will be judged and that no one will ever forgive us. Well when we meet the…
The curse of the Law
When you are part of a culture it is almost impossible to identify the blind spots of your culture because you are completely ingrained in it… you have the same blind spots as your culture! This true as much for ethnic groups as it is the church. In the church we have a culture and there is nothing wrong with that… in fact most of the time elements of church culture are good and helpful parts of broader society. But…
Worth Fighting For
When Paul and Peter have a fight you know it is not going to be over something trivial. In fact when Paul confronted Peter to his face it was because his practice was threatening the very centre of Christian theology – the doctrine of justification by faith. So as we examine this central truth of the gospel this morning we will see the wonder it brings to our lives but also how our practice needs to marry with this doctrine…