Our Father in Heaven: the Lord’s Prayer [18 April 2021]

In chapter 6 of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, showing them the template that we call “The Lord’s Prayer”. But who is the God that he is telling them to pray to? In this message, I try to show that the answer is contained in those first four words: our Father in Heaven.

On the evening of that Sunday, I also led a one-hour workshop on how to use the Lord’s Prayer as a framework for our praying. (I mention this in the message.) Here is the single-sheet handout from that workshop:

2021-05-02-workshop-outlineDownload

The resurrection: the greatness and goodness of God [1 April 2018]

There is something in us that is, in the words of Thomas Browne, “not so much afraid of death, as ashamed of it”. Most of us at some time or other find it hard to believe that a human life can be simply extinguished. In this Easter message from 2018, I look at what the Old Testament has to tell us about death and life, how the resurrection of Jesus fulfils all the OT hints and glimpses, and how it demonstrates both the greatness and goodness of God — which are not at all the same thing.

(I have posted this message under the CC By licence, because I am happy for the message itself to be used anywhere, anyhow, subject only to attribution. But note that the slideshow that accompanies it contains images gathered from many different places, and I’m not able to licence those, so use at your own risk.)