St John's Annerley Presbyterian Church

11/02/2026

Here > Now Sundays 5pm

Night Church has launched 🥳 What an exciting and encouraging night! Gathering around the Bible, worshiping Jesus and having meaningful chats over a delicious dinner.

Thank you to everyone who came and we look forward to meeting again this Sunday!

04/03/2025

“Truth is so powerful! Even just general truth. It silences error and lie. It humbles the arrogant. It opens the mind and the heart. It may not always be welcome, but it is always necessary, for without truth, we mishandle life and reality. How much more truth in the Word of God! When energised by the Holy Spirit, it can work extraordinary change in people’s lives, the lives of families, Churches and even nations... But Peter speaks here not of nations, communities or even families, but of individual people who were convicted and converted by it, to be transformed from sinners into saints and from rebels to servants. It is nothing short of the moment of the recreation of a human being…Peter says that his Jewish Christian readers have purified ourselves into a sincere love of the brethren by the Word of God… aided by the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit, as Alexander MacLaren wrote in his sermon on the word ‘truth’ this verse, ‘But the truth is no inert substance… the truth is, as physiologists say, a ferment. It is intended to come into life, and into character, and into the inmost spirit of a man, and grip them, and mould them, and transform them, and animate them, and impel them. The truth is to be ‘obeyed.’’” From a sermon by Rev. Martin Duffield on 1 Peter 1:22-25 titled, ‘The Word at Work in You’ preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 5/5/24 PM.

04/03/2025

“Some years ago, in a sermon by our late Brother Des Gallagher, we heard the true story of a young soldier in World War I. He came back from the battlefield one day to find his friend had not returned. When night fell, he asked his commanding officer if he could creep out onto the field and to find his friend, in case he was wounded, and bring him back. His C.O. told him it was too dangerous and wasn’t worth it. The young soldier went out into the dark anyway and, sometime later, crawled back without his friend. The officer asked about his friend and he replied that he had died. The officer said, ‘See, I told you it wasn’t worth it.’ The soldier replied that it was. When asked why, he said, ‘When I found him, he was still alive and when he saw me, his last words were, “I knew that you’d come for me.”’ I believe Des told that story to illustrate a truth we are considering tonight, that Someone came for us. The story of the incarnation is that Someone came for us; that Someone would not leave us living and dying without hope in the world and into eternity. It is the account of that Someone Who came to live with us, to die for us and to bring us home safely; a thing our young soldier sadly could not do for his dying friend. The loyalty of God for us is never more evident than in that process by which we were delivered from our wounds and restored to health because Christ came for us.” From a sermon by Rev. Martin Duffield on 1 Peter 1:20-21 titled ‘The Christ Who came for Us,’ preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 21/04/24 PM

04/03/2025

Surely…it is a sobering warning to every parent, especially Christian fathers, that they hand down a tradition of the truth, of the true God, of the true faith and practice to their children; that they pass on a life of true meaning and purpose under God; that they given them a fighting chance to survive the polluted world into which their children are born and from which they must finally be saved, as Paul described to the Philippians, a crooked and perverse generation. It is the aim of the exhortation of Eph.6:1-4, to spiritually bullet-proof covenant children from such social environments so that their trust in God not only survives, but they themselves can thrive sufficiently to change the world around them and not be changed by it.” From a sermon by Rev. Martin Duffield titled on 1 Peter 1:17-19 titled, ‘Living in the Proper Fear of God’ preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 14/04/24 PM.

04/03/2025

“(W)hen Peter speaks of the (future) grace to be brought to his readers - you and me included if we are in Christ – this is that grace. It is the culmination of every undeserved mercy we have received from our God, beginning with election and including all the graces of salvation in regeneration, conviction\conversion, sanctification and the glorification of the soul in Heaven. The grace that is (yet) to be brought includes the restored body and the life everlasting as the inheritance. It is a vast and thrilling subject to ponder, this grace that is coming to you on top of all the grace you have received. Peter calls his readers to rest their hopes on that; to look beyond their present lives and any hopes that they might have in it, to this future grace, in much the same way that Jesus, our Lord, for the joy set before Him, endured the Cross, despised the shame and sat down at the right hand of God in Heb.12:1-2.” From a sermon by Rev. Martin Duffield on 1 Peter 1:13-15 titled ‘True Motives for Holiness' and preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 7/04/24 PM

04/03/2025

“Jesus said, 'But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.’ Well, do you appreciate that privilege? Do you realise what you have that the prophets themselves didn’t have? We should never lose the sense of wonder here, nor should our desire to understand more be ever diminished. Should you not retain a holy curiosity to learn and a holy discontent with your present ignorance of the mystery of Christ now revealed? (After all) the deeper our understanding goes, the more praiseworthy our God is, the more glorious is His grace and the greater our debt of love to God in Christ, Whose life death and resurrection was of so great an interest to prophet and angel alike.” From a sermon by Rev. Martin Duffield titled ‘A Holy Curiosity’ based on 1 Peter 1:10-12 preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 24/03/24 PM

04/03/2025

“The eternal soul, eternal life and salvation are possessions which Jesus said are of value beyond measure. Every person on earth will eventually agree with that assessment of Jesus… The moment of death is when that assessment will become powerfully, overwhelmingly clear. If a man or woman, just freshly deceased, becomes conscious, whether they are in the blazing glory of Heaven or the outer darkness of Hell, they will know, overwhelmingly that the value of the immortal soul, the possession of eternal and the salvation of the soul from sin’s consequences, is the greatest thing that mattered in this life. Nothing else will matter at that instant of realisation; not career; not wealth; not spouse or children – as precious and important as they are. No, it is what that person did about his or her soul, their attitude and relationship to God, that will be the only issue.” From a sermon on 1 Peter 1:6 by Rev. Martin Duffield titled, ‘The Greater Treasure than Gold,’ preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 10/03/24 PM.

04/03/2025

“Perhaps the most comforting of all the phrases in this little verse, ‘the power of God.’ The Greek word for power (‘dunamis’ hence our word ‘dynamite’) doesn’t carry the idea of explosiveness, but of authority and the word is used interchangeably because authority in and expression of power any way. As Joseph Benson said, '(our future) is secured from all real harm, under the observation of his all-seeing eye, and the protection of his almighty hand…' That should bring to mind an amazing promise of our Lord on earth from John 10:28 where He speaks of our personal security in relation to His hands and their power to preserve, 'And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone sn**ch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to sn**ch them out of My Father’s hand.' You are kept by the power of God and Jesus uses the image of divine hands; the hands of the Second and then the First Person of the Godhead. It is a double divine security. No-one can break that; No-one! Our confidence is our God.” From a sermon on 1 Peter 1:4 by Rev. Martin Duffield titled, ‘Our Security in the Power of God,’ preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 18/03/24 PM

04/03/2025

"(The Apostle) Peter says that when we were brought from spiritual death to life, and we confessed with our mouth that God raised Jesus from, ‘a living (or lively) hope’ was the result. From the vague and uncertain (Old Testament) notion of Sheol, the Spirit lifts men and women into a knowledge and a confidence in the resurrection of the body. It is said of Jesus by Paul in 2 Tim.1:10, ‘(the grace of election) has now been revealed by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…’ When we were awakened and realised just what the resurrection means for us, especially in the face of death, we are, or should be, transformed. Our morale should be lifted. Hope should well up within us like an endless fountain. That lively hope of a regenerate man or woman produces an irrepressible confidence and even a joy at the prospect of conquering physical death. Do" you remember Paul’s reaction to this thought in 1 Cor.15:54-55, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory! O Death, where is your sting?O Hades, where is your victory?’ That is the profession of a lively hope.” From a sermon titled ‘The Other Inheritance’ based on 1 Peter 1:3-5 Annerley Presbyterian Church 18/03/24 PM sermon by Rev. Martin Duffield

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28/12/2024

‘John Calvin said, “You cannot have God as your Father unless you have the church for your Mother…Let us learn even from the simple title of 'mother' how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her. For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance, until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels in heaven.”’ From John Calvin’s commentary on Matthew 22:30 and quoted in a sermon by Rev. Martin Duffield titled A Portrait of Christian Marriage preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 29/12/24.

08/12/2024

“No man can pe*****te the secret counsels of the Almighty. No one can go up to heaven, and inspect the Book of Life to see if his name be there. No one should presume that his name is there without evidence. No one should depend on dreams, or raptures, or visions, as proof that his name is there. No one should expect a new revelation declaring to him that he is among the elect. All the proof which any man can have that he is among the chosen of God, is to be found in the evidences of personal piety; and any man who is willing to be a true Christian may have all that evidence in his own case. If anyone, then, wishes to settle the question whether he is among the elect or not, the way is plain. Let him become a true Christian, and the whole matter is determined, for that is all the proof which anyone has that he is chosen to salvation.” A quote from Albert Barnes found in a sermon by Rev. Martin Duffield from 1 Peter 1:1, 2 titled, ‘The Wonder of Our Nature and Destiny’ and preached at Annerley Presbyterian Church 11/02/24 AM.