Welcoming Jesus

Whether it's Palm Sunday or not, we need to welcome Jesus into our lives. Mark 14 shows us 3 ways we can do this: through sacrificial worship, like the woman who poured perfume on Jesus' head; through submissive worship, like the disciples who trusted Jesus' words; and through sacramental worship, as seen at the Last …

Jesus’ authority

This is a sermon preached at St Peter & St Paul Shepton Mallet on Mark 11:27 - 12:17. Jesus enters our lives, as he entered Jerusalem, with authority. Our response should be submission. We should find our identity in him, the anchor in the storm, defining ourselves first and foremost as children of God. We should …

The sovereignty of God

Or: God, our ultimate superhero This is a sermon I preached at St Aldhelm's Doulting, focusing on James 4:11-17. Superheroes are everywhere in today's culture. In some ways we're a bit like them, in that we often judge each other, comparing our own skills and achievements against other people. James points out that this is …

Sermon: Living faithfully

This is a sermon I preached at St Peter & St Paul Shepton Mallet, looking at James 2:14-26. James writes to young Christians in churches across the Middle East, telling them that faith without works is dead. At first glance, that seems contrary to Paul's teaching, so we need to take a closer look at …

What is Church?

Following a discussion with a learned friend recently, it became painfully apparent that my personal definition of "Church" was quite different from his.  He challenged me to explore this further, particularly to look at the New Testament to see Biblical evidence of Church.  This document is an analysis of this research, which will hopefully point …

Sermon: Fear conquered through faith

In this sermon, preached on Sunday 19 February at St Peter and St Paul Shepton Mallet, we look at different types of fear, the importance of keeping our fear in the context of Jesus's power, and the assurance that fear is conquered through faith in Jesus. Mark 4:35-6:6 https://www.matthewdawkins.co.uk/wp-content/audio/sermon-2017-02-19.m4a

Sermon: redefining the Kingdom

Another sermon, preached at St Aldhelms Doulting on 5 February. Many people think they are entitled to the Kingdom of God, but Jesus's message is that it is only by grace that we are saved. Mark 3:7-35 https://www.matthewdawkins.co.uk/wp-content/audio/sermon-2017-02-05.m4a

Sermon: Jesus, King of sinners

In my latest sermon, preached on 22 January 2017 at St Aldhelm's Doulting, we look at Mark 1:40 - 2:17. We read about the leper Jesus healed, the paralysed man who was lowered through the roof, and the calling of Levi. https://www.matthewdawkins.co.uk/wp-content/audio/sermon-2017-01-22.m4a Summary Donald Trump has been inaugurated as President of the US, and the …

2 Peter 1:1-11 – A chain of support

In this, the first in a series of personaly Bible studies in the book of 2 Peter, we begin with a list of qualities that Peter encourages his readers to have, chained together one after the other. I figured it might be interesting to examine what the connection is between these qualities, and how they …

Bible study: Acts 28 – The need for God

Some thoughts from my personal Bible study, mainly asking questions of the text and pondering some potential answers. Why did the Maltese natives think Paul was a god? This has to be one of my favourite bits of the Bible. Paul is shipwrecked off the coast of Malta, but survives. Then he gets bitten by …