Sermons - Christian Teaching Resources

Sermons (Currently in Development)

DATE	CHURCH	SUBJECT	PREACHER	BIBLE REF.
31.05.09	St Mary's Church	Work of the Holy Spirit: Many Christians feel the Holy Spirit is rather mysterious – they can understand the concept of God the Father, and of God the Son as their Saviour. We can also understand how that relates to our own lives...	Patricia Higton

01.03.09

All Saints Church

Temptation to Doubt: You may have heard many a sermon preached in Lent about the importance of overcoming temptation. Various temptations will have been mentioned – lust, greed, anger, hatred, envy, pride, etc. But in the reading from Genesis we heard of the very first temptation ever to the first human beings: the temptation to doubt God. That temptation, which can be mild or agonising and takes many different forms, has afflicted humanity ever since. Temptation is not sin – only if we give in to it. But we can take comfort from the fact that this particular temptation comes to most people at one time or another and even afflicted Jesus.

Patricia Higton

Luke 4:1-13

18.01.09

All Saints Church

Christian Unity: This is where unity begins – with us here and each congregation throughout the world which gathers to worship Jesus. When new people come to All Saints most comment what a happy family atmosphere there is. But how we need to guard that and not allow in divisive attitudes.

Patricia
Higton

John 17:1-11
Isaiah 62:1-7

27.12.08	All Saints Church	The Generosity of God: The Christmas card version of Christmas is somewhat misleading. It is virtually certain that the birth of Jesus didn’t take place on December 25th. In Israel, flocks were kept outside from April to November, (although occasionally during the winter in suitable locations). Moreover the Romans wouldn’t have held a census in bad weather which could include snow, when some roads were impassable.	Tony Higton	Luke 2:8-20
12.12.08	All Saints Church	Jesus the Only Way: I never cease to marvel at how favoured Mary was. She was a young, unknown peasant girl living in a small village in remote corner of the Roman Empire. Yet, to use a Greek theological term, she was theotokos – the God bearer. I wonder how much she took in of what the angel said to her. The angel referred to:	Tony Higton	Luke 1:26-38

09.11.08	All Saints Church	Facing Death: “We grieve; for Christians death is sleep. For Christians grief is not hopeless, for Christians hope is certain.	Tony Higton	1 Thess. 4:13-18
02.11.08	All Saints Church	Living by Faith: The popular British definition of a “Christian” is “a good person.” Obviously, Christians are called to be good people. But what is often forgotten is the statement of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6).	Tony Higton	Luke 9:18-27

25.10.08	All Saints Church	The Right Mind-Set: “Two men looked through prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars.” It all depends how you look at things. This is an important lesson for the Christian life. We can either have our minds set on earthly things or on heavenly things.	Tony Higton	Phil. 3:17-21
11.10.08	All Saints Church	Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, was the son of a Lutheran Pastor. He gave up studying theology because he lost his faith and became very anti-Christian. He is famous for the statement: “God is dead.” He wrote book Thus Spoke Zarathustra which Richard Strauss set to music. It was used as the theme for Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001, A Space Odyssey.	Tony Higton	Phil.4:1-9

28.09.08

All Saints Church

Following Christ: Are you a follower of Christ? Many of us would want to answer: “Yes!” But are we? It may be true that we believe and trust in him. It may be true that we are enormously grateful for his sacrificial love for us. But do we really follow him?

Tony Higton

Phil. 2:1-13

24.08.08	All Saints Church	Living for God: You will stand before God alone one day, to give account of your life. What will have been the dominant motive of your way of life - pleasing yourself, pleasing others or pleasing God? Paul challenges us to live a life which pleases God and benefits other people. Firstly, he urges us	Tony Higton	Romans 2:1-8
17.08.08	All Saints Church	What is the Purpose of the Law?: When we lived in Jerusalem it was clear that Jewish people thought that we Christians didn’t think the Torah (the Law) was important. They thought we simply thought it was important to believe, but keeping the Law of the Hebrew Scriptures was unimportant.	Tony Higton	Luke 10:23-41 Galatians 3:16-29
10.08.08	All Saints Church	Walking on Water: There are some Christians who seem to think Christianity is meant to be an insurance policy against all difficulty and suffering. They dogmatically believe every sick person should be healed and that God wants Christians to be affluent. They think that life should be one uninterrupted string of miracles.	Tony Higton	Matt. 14:22-33
03.08.08	All Saints Church	The Feeding of the 10,000: Yes it probably was about 10,000! The 5000 didn’t include women and children.I worked out that dividing loaves between all that crowd would have provided each person with the equivalent of about one hundredth of a modern slice of bread. Yet they were all satisfied and 12 baskets full of scraps were gathered up. To me this brings home the amazing nature of this miracle.	Tony Higton	Matt.14:13-21

27.07.08	All Saints' Church	You're Never Alone: Do you remember that 1960s TV advert depicting a dark, wet, deserted London street scene in which a rain coated character, lit a cigarette and puffed reflectively. Then a voice-over declared "You're never alone with a Strand".	Rev. Tony Higton	Romans 8:26:39
20.07.08	All Saints' Church	Who is a Child of God?: “We’re all children of God” is one of those glib statements you hear from time to time. It gives the false impression that we are all safe and sound in God’s family for time and eternity. The New Testament, however, teaches that we have to opt into God’s family.	Rev. Tony Higton	Romans 8:12-25
13.07.08	All Saints' Church	Responding to God's Word: Jesus speaks about this in his Parable of the Sower. The “seed” is the “message about the kingdom [of God]” (verse 19), i.e. the message about the rule of God in our lives. The “soil” is our heart attitude towards that message.	Rev. Tony Higton	Matt.13:1-9, 18-23

29.06.08	All Saints' Church	Onward Christian Soldiers: Now I am passionate about peace and reconciliation, especially in the Holy Land where we used to live and minister. I abominate the violence in the history of Christianity. But I shall sing the traditional militant version with enthusiasm!	Rev. Tony Higton	Acts 12:1-18
22.06.08	All Saints' Church	Coping with Financial Worries: What would you think of me if I visited a wife who had just been left by her husband for another woman or parents who had just lost a baby or a man who has been told he has terminal cancer and I said: “I know how you feel”? You’d have me sacked for profound insensitivity and clear incompetence!	Rev. Tony Higton	Matt.6:25-33
01.06.08	All Saints' Church	If We Love God We Will Obey Him: I always remember an experience I had as a boy on holiday in Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast in the 1950s. At the far North end of the beach there was an RAF bombing range, littered with debris from shells and bombs.	Rev. Tony Higton	Matt. 7:21-29

25.05.08	All Saints Church	Justice and Beyond Justice: Sex is an important subject because it deeply affects the lives of individuals and families, and therefore society. I myself for 14 years campaigned on various subjects including sexuality (but I am not a single issue person). But sadly the church does sometimes seem to have a fixation on sexuality, particularly homosexuality.	Tony Higton	Lev. 19: 1-2 Matt 5: 38-60
18.05.08	All Saints Church	Trinity Sunday: The Mystery of God: Trinity Sunday speaks of the complexity and mystery of God. Have a quick read through the following ancient attempt to define the Trinity.	Tony Higton	Isaiah 40: 12-31
11.05.08	All Saints Church	Pentecost: If Ever We Need the Power of the Holy Spirit, It's Now!: We live in a very needy nation. There is widespread breakdown of the family with all the trauma and social problems that produces. There is a very high abortion rate. There is a growing problem of violent crime, particularly amongst young people.	Tony Higton	1 Cor. 3. 3-13

20.04.08	St Mary's Church	The "I Am" Sayings: Quite frequently these days we need to produce documentation to prove we are who we say we are – the other day I wanted to open a savings account and had to show my passport and a notice of tax coding.	Patricia Higton	John 14:1-14
20.04.08	All Saints' Church	What is Christianity? Christianity is not primarily church buildings, hymnbooks, prayer books, communion tables, candles and the like. Christianity is Christ. When Thomas asked Jesus the way to heaven, Jesus replied that he is the way.	Rev. Tony Higton	John 14:1-14
13.04.08	All Saints' Church	What is Church For? What’s the purpose of the church? What’s it all about? Is it just for people who have nothing better to do on a Sunday morning? Is it just a cosy religious club? Is it a gathering of those who like singing hymns?	Rev. Tony Higton	Acts 2: 42-47

30.03.08	All Saints' Church	Christ Our Hope: The word “hopeless” is one of the most negative in the English language. Sometimes we use it superficially. But hopelessness is an extremely negative condition. It is not only emotionally traumatic it has a powerful psychosomatic effect too.	Rev. Tony Higton	1 Cor. 15:19-26
23.03.08	All Saints' Church	Jesus Always Comes to Us: They had heard what the women, Peter and John had found. The tomb was empty and Mary claimed to have seen Jesus alive. But they still felt in limbo. They locked the doors “for fear of the Jews	Rev. Tony Higton	John 20:19-31
12.03.08	All Saints' Church	Palm Sunday: The full significance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey may be lost on us if we do not know the background to his action. It was, in fact, a public claim to being the long-awaited Messiah.	Rev. Tony Higton	Matt 21:1-11

24.02.08	All Saints' Church	Rejoicing Every Day: The teenage suicides in Bridgend have vividly conveyed the hopelessness which some young people feel. There is all too much hopelessness out there in the world. How many people out there are hopeless as we sit here in church? Maybe some are contemplating suicide and our hearts should go out to them.	Rev. Tony Higton	Rom 5:1-11
17.02.08	All Saints' Church	How to be a Part of God's Chosen People: Abraham lived many centuries before Jesus. He didn’t have the Bible (it wasn’t written then). He didn’t have the church (it hadn’t started). He didn’t know about Jesus. But he had faith and...	Rev. Tony Higton	Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
09.02.08	All Saints' Church	What's Wrong with Human Beings?: Did Jesus really have an encounter in the wilderness with a personal Devil? That is how the story of Lent – Jesus’ 40 days and 40 nights in the desert – puts it. I can’t go into that in great depth here. But, like the Church of England, I do believe in a personal Devil.	Rev. Tony Higton	Gen 2:15-37
03.02.08	All Saints' Church	A Sermon for Older People: I think I’m beginning to feel depressed. Even more so when I read Cicero: ”As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age: first, it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death.”	Rev. Tony Higton	Luke 2: 22-40

20.01.08	All Saints' Church	The Kingdom of Justice: Who is the Servant of the Lord? Isaiah writes about him several times. Initially, it could be that it was a corporate servant, i.e. the people of Israel were God’s Servant.	Rev. Tony Higton	Isaiah 42: 1-9
06.01.08	All Saints' Church	God is Working His Purpose Out: God brought about the incarnation of his son through the virgin birth in Bethlehem, attended by a heavenly choir, and the subsequent visit of the Magi from the East. Then King Herod hears of it and acts to destroy the infant Jesus, slaughtering other small boys in the process. On the face of it, is God really in control?	Rev. Tony Higton	-

23.12.07	St Mary's Church	Is Jesus God? Sometimes I feel as if my brain is buzzing with questions, from as mundane as ‘Did I switch the oven on before I came out’ or ‘Have I done everything I’m supposed to do to be ready for Christmas?’	Patricia Higton	Matt1.20
16.12.07	All Saints Church	Mary's Example : There is a major problem with the Christmas story in Britain: it tends to be ignored – even by Christians. Everyone knows that it is ignored amidst the commercial festivities. But it should also be noted that, because the story is so familiar, it can wash over Christians like warm shower water.	Rev. Tony Higton	Matt 1.18-25
09.12.07	All Saints' Church	The Generosity of God Challenges Us to Generosity : Are you finding life difficult? Are you hanging on by your finger tips- not sure if you can carry on? Perhaps just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse: it did. I’ve been there, and sympathize.	Rev. Tony Higton	Romans 15: 4-13

18.11.07	All Saints' Church	Signposts of the End: The implication of Jesus’ teaching is that when we hear of such things we should have two thoughts in mind. One is of compassion towards those adversely affected as to how we can help them. But the second thought is to remember that Jesus said these are repeated reminders of the fragility of life, of the End and of his coming.	Rev. Tony Higton	Luke 21:5-12, 24-28
04.11.07	St Mary's Church	A Different Kind of Kingdom: We remember all the saints today – that doesn’t just mean those depicted in stained glass windows, because Paul wrote to the saints in Rome, the saints in Ephesus, the saints in Philippi – and he could just as well have written to the saints in the Woottons.	Patricia Higton	Matt. 5:1-12

28.10.07	All Saints Church	Doers of the Word: Jesus said (verse 21) "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” We go to church and sing all the hymns. We say the set prayers. We recite the creed But this can be merely words, words, words?	Rev. Tony Higton	Matt 7:15-29
07.10.07	All Saints Church	A Harvest Challenge: I know of a clergyman who was preaching on this passage and couldn’t understand why the congregation became highly amused. He was speaking of Jesus teaching about the seed (of the word of God) falling on rocky (shallow) ground, where it soon stopped growing and was killed off by the hot sun.	Rev. Tony Higton	Luke 8: 1-15

30.09.07	All Saints Church	Unity in Diversity: We are celebrating this special occasion today with a birthday cake and a display of work done by our children.	Rev. Tony Higton & Patricia Higton	1Cor 12: 7-31
02.09.07	All Saints Church	"Life is not fair": I don’t know how many times I’ve stood in front of grieving family and friends and acknowledged: “We’re all asking the question ‘why?’”	Rev. Tony Higton	-

26.08.07	All Saints Church	A God who weeps: in this last sermon in the series we look at another reason – He is a God who weeps. Jesus shows us what God was like. That is the principle of the incarnation. And we see that: Firstly, Jesus was moved with compassion over the hungry (and needy)	Rev. Tony Higton	Luke 19:41-44
19.08.07	All Saints Church	A God Who Seeks: Firstly, he seeks those who have not yet come to faith in Christ or who have not yet become involved in the church. Jesus uses three illustrations of this. He tells the story of the lost sheep.	Rev. Tony Higton	Luke 15
12.08.07	All Saints Church	A God Who Rescues : Why do we do evangelism? Why do we carry out mission? It is because we have a God who loves and wants all human beings to love him. It is also because we have a God who communicates. He speaks to us through Jesus, through the Bible, through creation, through conscience and in other ways. This God also identifies. He came to be one of us, sharing the pain, suffering, stress and temptations of the world in order to save us through dying on the cross. However, there is another reason – a very solemn one. A faithful preacher brings the bad news as well as the good.	Rev. Tony Higton	John 3:17-8 John 3:36 1 John 5: 10-13

15.07.07	All Saints Church	How do you inherit eternal life? Over the years I have spoken at meetings in many places and many countries. On occasions I have had someone come up to me to check out if I am orthodox. They tend to be more Evangelical believers. “Do you believe in the authority of the Bible?”	Rev. Tony Higton	Luke 10:25-37
08.07.07	All Saints Church	A God Who Identifies: God loved us so much that he became one of us, experiencing all the pressures, suffering, disappointments, humiliation, injustice, unrequited affection and temptations that we do.	Rev. Tony Higton	Phil. 2:6-8 Col. 1:12-13 Heb. 4:15
01.07.07	All Saints Church	The Only Organisation Which Exists Primarily for Non-Members: Why is the church the only organisation which exists primarily for non-members! Is it to get a higher income for the church? No, it’s because we believe in a Missionary God. He reaches out to the whole of humanity – every human being, to tell them about, and enable them to experience, salvation. Christianity is essentially a Missionary Religion. Mission, including Evangelism, is essential to Christianity. Without Mission and Evangelism Christianity is emasculated: a pale reflection of the real thing.	Rev. Tony Higton	Amos 4:13 Isaiah: 43:10 Psalms 98:2