Word of Salvation – Vol. 42 No.3? – October 1997   Moses & Aaron Stumble on the Last Step   A Sermon by Rev. P. Archbald on Numbers 20:1-13 Scripture Readings: 1Corinthians 10:1-12; Numbers 20:1-13   Covenant People of God. How frustrating it is to come near to finishing a long and arduous task, only to have something go wrong at the last minute.  Something that sets you right back – right back to square one.  Something you're building, or making, or drawing, and little brother comes along and wrecks it.  Or that long composition on your computer, and it's accidentally...

Word of Salvation – Vol.46 No.31- August 2001   Grasshoppers or Powerful Royalty?   Sermon by Rev P Abetz on Numbers 13:33 Scripture Readings: Numbers 13:26 - 14:9; Mt 28:16-20; 1 Pet 2:9   Beloved in the Lord, In the hippie era of the 1960s and 1970s, many young people made pilgrimages to India and other places to try and find themselves.  They painted slogans like “make love, not war” on the sides of their beat up old VW vans.  They tried alternative lifestyles of communes to living off the land.  They wanted to know: Who am I?  What is life...

Word of Salvation - September 2010   Numbers 9 - FOLLOW THAT CLOUD... OBEY THAT WORD - by John Westendorp (Sermon 9 in a series on Numbers)  Scripture Reading: Numbers 9. Singing: Book of Worship - 115 / 203 / 358 / 441   Introduction: Do you believe that God really guides you through all the ups and downs of your life? This week, as you make tough decisions, are you convinced God is actually leading you? God’s guidance! It’s a topic over which Christians disagree. Perhaps I could sum up the debate by mentioning two extreme positions among believers.  ...

Word of Salvation - August 2010   Numbers 8 - CONSECRATED UNTO THE LIGHT - by John Westendorp (Sermon 8 in a series on Numbers) Scripture Reading: Numbers 8. Singing: Book of Worship: 92 / 182 / 431 / 117a   Introduction: It’s been said that half the fun of a holiday is making the preparations beforehand. There’s a lot of truth in that.Some of us have made an overseas trip at some time or other (perhaps to Tassie...!?!)We prepare for that trip months and months beforehand.And the excitement grows and grows as the departure date gets closer.You begin to puts...

Word of Salvation - July 2010   Numbers 7 - HOUSEWARMING GIFTS! - by John Westendorp (Sermon 7 in a series on Numbers) Scripture Reading: Numbers 7:1-17 & 84-89. Singing: Book of Worship 99 / 218 / 203 / 240   Introduction: It’s been a long time since I last attended a housewarming party. Maybe I’m a little out of touch... but it seems to me that they’ve gone somewhat out of fashion.Or maybe in our affluent society we no longer need them? Housewarming parties were particularly for young newlyweds when they got their first house.The couple finally moved out of...

Word of Salvation - June 2010   Numbers 6 - RADICALLY DIFFERENT - by John Westendorp (Sermon 6 in a series on Numbers) Scripture Reading: Numbers 6 Singing: Book of Worship 115 / 177 / 214 / 215   Introd: Many who read the Bible for the first time begin the same way they read most books: at page 1. They read Genesis and find it interesting. The first dozen chapters of Exodus are not hard either.But then there’s chapter after chapter of instructions for building the Tabernacle.And by the time they get into all the laws in Leviticus they’re just...

Word of Salvation – May 2010   Numbers 5 - THREE KINDS OF DISORDER... AND CHRIST - by John Westendorp (Sermon 5 in a series on Numbers)  Scripture Reading: Numbers 5. Singing: Book of Worship: 34a / 23a / 139a; “Create in me a pure heart” Introd: It’s amazing how things keep going wrong in life. Everything is coasting along nicely and we feel we’ve got our life in order.And then suddenly – boom – a crisis – and life falls apart in disorder.As I prepared this sermon a story in the local paper vividly demonstrated that. A 9-year old girl...

Word of Salvation - February 2010   Numbers 4 - CARRYING TENT PEGS FOR GOD - by John Westendorp (Sermon 4 in a series on Numbers)  Scripture Reading: Numbers 4 Singing: Book of Worship 161 / 215 / 148 / 23a Introd: I learnt early in life that there is a lot of social status attached to the work we do. I grew up in a church that consisted largely of blue-collar workers.We had lots of trades people and factory workers in our church community.A neighbouring church was made up of mainly white-collar workers.I recall that at youth events young people...

Word of Salvation – February 2010   Numbers 3 - THE WORSHIP OF THE REDEEMED - by John Westendorp (Sermon 3 in a series on Numbers) Scripture Reading: Numbers 3:1-10 & 40-51 Singing: Book of Worship 143 / 392 / 435 & Rejoicing 124   Introd: I want to begin with a question that some of us probably won’t appreciate. The question is: How important is worship to you?What sacrifices will you make – if need be – to make sure that worship happens?   I ask that because it troubles me as a pastor to see so much irregularity in...

Word of Salvation - March 2010   Numbers 2 - IT’S NOT JUST A MAP - by John Westendorp (Sermon 2 in a series on Numbers)  Scripture Reading: Numbers 2 Singing: Book of Worship 505 / 91 / 34a / 96 & ‘Oh the mercy of God’   Introd: An older colleague of mine was visited for the first time by his grandson from interstate. When he came into his granddad’s study he was awestruck by the shelves and shelves of books. He said: Opa, what a lot of books you have. Have your read them all?My colleague laughed and replied...

Word of Salvation - January 2010   Numbers 1 – NOT JUST A LIST OF NUMBERS Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp (Sermon 1 in a series from Numbers) The author acknowledges his debt to Iain M. Duguid. By means of his devotional commentary "Numbers: God's Presence in the Wilderness" I discovered that it was possible to preach my way through the book of Numbers.I heartily recommend this book to any who have appreciated this on-line sermon series. Scripture Reading: Numbers 1:1-21 & 42-54. Singing: Book of Worship: 104a / 441 / 34 Introduction: Can you imagine that after reading Numbers 1...

Word of Salvation – Vol.53 No.45 – December 2008   Joseph — the Silent Partner   A (short) Christmas Sermon by Rev Leo Douma on Matthew 1:18-25 Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25   Brothers and Sisters in Christ. I want to do something different this Christmas and deal with a character we don’t usually talk about on Christmas Day. He is seldom dealt with, although he is a key player in the drama. I guess one of the reasons we don’t talk much about him is that nowhere in the Bible do we read of him saying anything. We hear Mary speak...

Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.48 – December 2006   Jesus' Origin and Name   An Advent Sermon by Rev John De Jongh on Matthew 1:18-25 Scripture Reading:  Isaiah 7 Suggested Hymns:  BoW 251; 253; 385; Rej 376; 477   Dear Congregation. It's interesting to look closely at the genealogy Matthew records at the beginning of his gospel. We often skip over genealogies like this one, but we shouldn't, because Biblical genealogies often make some very significant points. The genealogy in Matthew 1 is very important. Last time we looked at this passage we saw that this genealogy implies that Jesus...

Word of Salvation – Vol. 39 No.46 – December 1994   From Abraham through David to Christ   Sermon for Advent by: Rev. M.P. Geluk on Matthew 1:17 Readings: Revelation 11:1-14 Matthew 1:1-17   Congregation, beloved in Christ, It might not seem that way but our text, verse 17, speaks about the coming of Christ into the world.  That, of course, is what Christmas is all about.  And with the words of our text, Matthew was aiming to comfort the church with the coming of Jesus Christ. Matthew, the former tax collector, wrote his gospel in the second half of the...

Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.45 – November 1966   Emmanuel!   Sermon by Rev. J.F.H. VanderBom on Matthew 1:22,23 Scripture Readings: Isaiah 7:1-17 and Matthew 1:18-25 Suggested Hymns: Psalter Hymnal: 334, 289, 342, 343, 468   Brothers and sisters, In our text we read about the wonderful fulfilment of prophecy in the Name Emmanuel, God-with-us.  Have you ever thought over the full meaning of this name? God with us, this means, first of all, that God is not far away.  He is not 'up-there', somewhere, 'but nobody knows where, and even our space-men cannot find Him...!'  No, Emmanuel tells us...

CHRISTMAS MORATORIUM Rev John Westendorp   Text: Matthew 1:21 Scripture Readings: Isaiah 9:1-11 & Matthew 1:18-25   Introduction How many of us know what a MORATORIUM is? Show of hands…? Let me explain. A moratorium is a legal term. It’s especially used in the world of big finance. It means a DELAY: A delay on the payment of a debt in order to re-evaluate it. When we do that it’s called defaulting on our debt. When the government does it it’s called a moratorium. The word moratorium is used for giving something a miss... for a while.   There is a...

Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.47 – December 2006   A Fresh Start   An Advent Sermon by Rev John De Jongh on Matthew 1:1-17 Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:4-9 Suggested Hymns:  BoW 250; 72a; 252:1-3; Rej 457   Dear Congregation. There was a series on TV a while ago called 'Always Greener' or something like that. It was about one family from the city and another one from the country who swapped places. They both felt they needed a change, a new start. In a far deeper and more important way, a world fallen into sin needs a fresh start. It...

Word of Salvation – Vol.14 No.9 – March 1968   Sons Of The Kingdom   Sermon by Rev. P. van der Schaaf, B.D. on Matthew 8:5-13 & Luke 7:1-10. Scripture Readings: John 4:46-54 Suggested Hymns: Psalter Hymnal: 383; 100 (2,4) (old); 404; 403; 468.   Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ! As you know, in the days when Jesus lived on earth, the Romans ruled over Israel.  Therefore, in several towns, there were Roman garrisons to maintain law and order. Generally speaking, relationships between such garrisons and the population were not too good.  As a rule they hated one another. ...

Word of Salvation – Vol. 47 No.29 – August 2002   Two Ways   Sermon by Rev. John Haverland on Matthew 7:13-14 Scripture Readings: Deut.30:11-20, 31:9-13; Luke 13:22-35   Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Most of us, I'm sure, have been out travelling in a car, or walking on a track and have come to a T-intersection, or a fork in the road.  When that happens we are faced with a decision.  Which direction will we go?  What route will we take?  Which path will we go down?  The two tracks go in quite different directions: one is the right...

Word of Salvation – Vol.47 No.33 – September 2002   Recognising False Prophets   Sermon by Rev J Haverland on Matthew 7:15-23 Scripture Readings: 1John 1:5-2:6; Jeremiah 23:13-32   Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. This sermon is about how false prophets and disciples can be recognised by their failure to produce the fruit of obedience.  And the purpose of the sermon is to urge you to examine false prophets and your own life for the fruit of obedience. People have an amazing ability to deceive themselves.  We have all seen this in people.  If someone has set himself on doing...