Willetton Christian Church

Much ink has been spilled over the topic of the Lord’s Supper during the Reformation than we think. Martin Luther, the German monk who started the Reformation, was famously willing to split the church over this issue. Just what it is about the Lord’s Supper that is so important? Isn’t it just mere “bread and wine”? There are two traps that we can fall into with regards to the Lord’s Supper – think...

Baptism is the sign and seal of the person into the covenant community of God. It shows that the person who is being baptised has now become part of the people of God in the same way that circumcision marks the child out as part of God’s people. Just as how circumcision was a sign of God’s blessing and grace to those who are born into God’s covenant community, baptism is a sign of God’s grace and...

The people of God has always been set apart from their surrounding nations. Ever since God gathered his people around him, he has called his people to be different, because he has rescued and redeemed them. The New Testament continues this pattern with Jesus Christ. We are gathered around Jesus, set apart for him because of the redemption that he purchased for us. The church is a people that God h...

There are endless opinions when it comes to the singing and music in our weekend services. That is not surprising as music and songs connect to us on a deeper and emotional level. It just “feels” so much more personal than a sermon. That is why it can elicit such strong opinions. However, when you think about it, as a society, we do not actually do a lot of singing together with others. There are...

We are starting our new sermon series this weekend on the Rhythms of Grace. Each Sunday as Christians, we gather at the church building. In that gathering, we have different elements of the service that we go through – we sing, we pray, we give, we serve, we listen to preaching, etc. Going through all that becomes a rhythm in our lives, like a constant beat for a piece of music. It keeps our Chris...

The account of David and Mephibosheth is a very small one in the Old Testament. However, it presents us with a beautiful picture of our abject sinfulness and the loving heart of God. This Sunday, we will explore the character of Mephibosheth: both who he was and why he was so miserable. We will also take a closer look at David’s heart for Mephibosheth in comparison with God’s own heart for us. We...

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible. It is a psalm that is all about loving, celebrating, and delighting in the commands, laws, and word of God. Psalm 119 calls us to delight in God's word. It makes us wise as it teaches us about God's world and how it operates. God's word also brings us joy and delight as it tells us about God's love and heart for us. It reveals to us our sins, so that we...

God is speaking continuously – both through his creation and in his word. Are we listening? God is speaking through his creation. Since the beginning of creation, the whole creation is displaying God’s power and divine nature. We often leave marks of who we are in the things that we create, and it is the same with God and the whole creation. We see marks of who this Creator is by noticing and “lis...

Across the centuries, we have different kinds of rulers, from tyrannical to the incompetent. Last week, we read about Matthew declaring that the promised awaited king has come. But what kind of king is he? We will be looking at Matthew 1:18-25 this weekend, and in that passage, we see two aspects of Jesus’ kingship. This promised king will be our saviour. He has come to save “his people from their...

It is great to have the peace that passes understanding that, because we belong to Christ, we are comforted in life and death. That in belonging to Him, our sins are covered by His precious blood and all things must work for our good without a hair from our head falling apart from the will of our Father in Heaven. This is what we rejoiced in when last I preached in Willo. In Sunday’s service we fo...

In Romans 16, we read of Paul’s greetings to all the people that have laboured in Gospel ministry. There is a camaraderie and personal touch in Christian ministry. Paul knew many of these people personally, and they laboured together in Gospel ministry. Christian ministry involves working together with others and it is not merely the effort of an “anointed” few. One of the roles of being in Christ...

The church is made up of a diverse group of people who have been accepted by God in Christ. Therefore, we should accept one another within the church of God. The relationships that we have built within the church have a greater impact on us and the watching world than we imagine. A united people from diverse backgrounds with strong and deep relationships is a rare breed in our world. We are united...

Christians have many different opinions on different ways of being obedient to God. This is especially true on things that God himself has not explicitly mentioned in the Bible. Paul mentioned a list of issues that the Jews and Gentiles would disagree about. However, he insists that we all belong to the Lord and each of us will have to give an account to God, not to each other. Therefore, let us s...

All glory is to be to God alone. The culmination of the first four “solas” of the Reformation is that glory belongs to God and God alone. We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone through God’s sheer grace alone, promised to us in the Scriptures alone. All of that is only possible because of God’s initiative and work, both through the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit in us. That is Paul...

We receive the grace of God through no work nor merit of our own. We are justified purely on the basis of Christ’s righteousness counted as ours, received by faith alone. We do not need elaborate rituals, activities or work for us to gain favour from God. God doesn’t help us only when we help ourselves. Instead, God gives his grace to us freely in Christ. An encounter with the transcendent graciou...

Most Christians are familiar with the basic outline of the Jonah narrative. It's one of the first Bible stories we are taught. But are there truths and details that we miss due to this familiarity? In this message, we take a deep dive into the kind of person Jonah was.

We continue our short sermon series on the Five Solas. This week, we focus on the fact that we are saved in Christ alone through faith alone. In Ephesians 2, Paul begins by describing our condition and lives before Christ. He does not paint a pretty picture of who we are – spiritually dead and deserving of God’s wrath. It is a stark reminder of what we are saved from – our sins. Because of God’s g...

500 years ago, it was thought that the Scriptures were too complicated for lay people. All we need to receive grace from God is to attend Mass at the local church. It did not even matter that we would not have been able to understand what was said during Mass, as long as we are a part of it, then we would receive God’s grace. Therefore, through this sort of thinking, the teaching of the church and...

There was a Latin phrase that was once popular amongst Christians and was even used in some Christian liturgies, and that is the phrase Coram Deo, which means "before the face of God". This captures the essence of the text for this week, that the whole of the Christian life is to be lived Coram Deo - before the face of God. To plan our lives apart from God, as if to forget him, is to rob him of hi...

In Romans 13, Paul continues his call for Christians to live a life of love towards others. He focuses on how Christians are to relate to the governing authorities. We are to submit to them as they are agents of God’s justice in our world. Through governing authorities, God restrains sin in our society and therefore creates a society in which there is order and justice. That is why Christians shou...

It is something people of all ages long for, especially in times of upset and distress…. COMFORT. The Heidelberg Catechism asks a very important question about comfort: “What is your ONLY comfort in life and death?” In other words, no matter what you’re facing, no matter how critical the situation, even life threatening, what is your only comfort? In the Psalms we find many beautiful songs of assu...

Romans 12 is a shift in Paul’s letter. After 11 chapters of declaring God’s redemption of his people, Paul shifts the focus to what our response should be towards God’s amazing mercy. In light of all that God has done for us, the only true and proper worship of God involves us offering our bodies as a living sacrifice for God. It is the totality of our lives that we give in our worship to God. Our...

God is the grand artist of history, and the world is his canvas. He is painting his story of salvation in this world. Paul gives us a further glimpse of what this completed canvas will look like in Romans 9 – 11. We have learned that God is completely sovereign in salvation and that the Israelites themselves rejected Christ, yet there is still a remnant chosen by God. Those of us who are Gentiles...

The true offspring of Abraham is the children of promise, chosen freely by God and not based on human effort or desire. Because of this, God’s righteousness can only be obtained by faith alone in Christ alone, which the Gentiles did but the Israelites did not. The Israelites sought to establish their own righteousness, and therefore did not gain God’s righteousness through Christ. That is why Chri...

Paul is in anguish for his fellow Israelites. Even though they had all the blessings and privileges of receiving God’s revelation in the Old Testament, they did not have faith in Christ. There are scores of God’s promises in the OT for the Israelites. God’s promises were never based upon physical descent nor our own works. Right from the beginning, it has always been God’s own sovereign grace towa...