What to preach at your daughter’s baptism

Baptism sermons can be hard. A busy auditorium, lots of first-time visitors, the anxiety of giving a “home-run” talk… and an order of service with more moving parts than usual. How good it is that our Father delights in us already through His Son, even before we have uttered a word for Him! What I’ve learned so far from trial and error, from experienced preachers like David Cook and Sam Chan, and trusting the Holy Spirit’s guidance amidst my inexperience, is to plan and prepare sermons on special occasions like you would for a wedding: a milestone moment, with all kinds of people there, but not to see you. And time is short. So on days like these, I’m slowly learning to keep my sermons simple, expository and practical.

For context, this past term our church has been going through our statement of faith line-by-line during our sermons (at PCBC English we’ve called the series “This We Believe”). So with our church’s teaching on the Trinity relatively fresh in my mind, at short notice I was able to take the passage on Jesus’s baptism in Matthew 3:16-17, and prepare that as a shorter sermon (which was superbly translated into Cantonese by Ps Barry, another proud dad!).

Thankfully, during a baptism service you also get to lean in on how powerfully and vividly the gospel is proclaimed and pictured during the rest of the worship service. In our case, to hear five clear testimonies of faith in Jesus (including our eldest child!), and to play a small part in “picturing” the death and rebirth of each follower in Christ, all helps to take the pressure off coming up with unrelated illustrations, and just simply preaching a clear message from a Bible passage.

At the same time, because of the nature of the service (lots of non-Christians and visitors from different church backgrounds), I personally have found it helpful at some point in the sermon to give a brief apologetic for why our church practises believer’s baptism, and to offer a gospel invitation (something I learned from Joe Fleener’s many excellent wedding sermons).

Here’s my script from that morning, lightly edited for clarity (you can also listen to the sermon preached in English and Cantonese here).

Signs of Love 愛的記號 (Matthew 3:16–17)

Sermon #279 preached by William HC on 2 November 2025 for PCBC’s Combined Baptism Service. Big idea: Our triune God pictures a perfect family, provides a promised salvation, and presents a pattern for unity.

[Read Matthew 3:16-17]
[Introduce myself and Ps Barry, acknowledge family & friends]

About Baptism

Let us explain baptism briefly. Here at PCBC, we don’t baptise babies. Nor do we baptise every adult. Rather, we baptise believers as one of the family habits the risen Lord Jesus instructs his followers to do as we make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19-20). To be immersed under water and raised again vividly portrays the spiritual rebirth each believer has experienced by God’s grace (c.f. Rom 6:1-4). Like a wedding ring symbolises the union of marriage, baptism symbolises every believer’s journey from death to life in Jesus.

To Annie, Jun, Stacy, Eden and Kardia… we’re so grateful for the Holy Spirit’s work in you already. At the end of your water baptism, you will receive gifts and well-wishes. You will be formally added to the membership of PCBC (make sure you sign the big book on your way out!). Yet by God’s grace, you still get to decide, day after day, to keep trusting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

And to family and friends, I know that today the thing that would bring these five the most joy would not be simply to receive a gift from you. Rather, if you are here and do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, their greatest joy would be to know for certain you too have received the free gift of God’s grace. As Romans 10:9 states: “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Introduction: 💖

Let me ask a question: How do you show love? Turn to the person next to you for a quick experiment. And on the count of three, show them some love. 3… 2…1…

Who showed it this way? [hand heart / 心形手勢]
Who showed it this way? [finger heart / 手指心形]

There’s lots of other actions that symbolise love, of course. A phone call to ask: “Have you eaten yet?” A bouquet of flowers. An act of service. Affirming words. We all show love differently.

Image: Glen Scrivener, “Life According to Jesus in 321” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnpU6nUHzRc)

And yet here is how God shows love: by appearing to our world as Father, Son and Spirit. One God in three persons: our blessed Trinity.

Now I get it – for many of us, talking about the Trinity feels as exciting as answering the final question on a maths exam. “No thanks – I’ll leave it to the experts.”

Yet listen to Gary Millar explain in his book, Need to Know:

“It may seem strange now, but for the first 400 years or so of the Christian church, more energy was poured into working out the right beliefs about the Trinity than anything else. Men like Irenaeus, Augustine and Athanasius… made it very clear that to know God is to meet the Trinity.”

Each of you have professed to know God and live for Him. This is why in a few moments, you five will be baptised in the one name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And before we do so, I’d like to briefly explain three lovely things our triune God shows us from this passage we just heard (Mt 3:16-17): a perfect family, a promised salvation, and a pattern for unity.

So let us first consider how:

1. Only our Triune God pictures a perfect family

Listen again to Matthew 3:16:

“As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.””

Author and podcaster Glen Scrivener, reflects on this scene this way: “to know God we should look at him. And what do we see? A loving Union of three…”

Here is Matthew —an eyewitness and one of Jesus’s close followers—paying careful attention to the events that took place at Jesus’s baptism. And in the same waters where God’s people once made a risky crossing into new beginnings (Joshua 3-4), our Triune God announces a new beginning: as a picture-perfect family. With a proud Father who declares to the world: “This is my beloved son. I’m so pleased with Him.”

Of course, we are two proud dads here [~don’t cry!]… and two thankful pastors. Like many of you, we are so grateful for God’s gracious hand in our families.

Yet how much more delighted must God the Father be at Jesus’s baptism… when he speaks over his one and only Son – “I’m so pleased with you!” How special it must have been for our Lord to experience the closeness and delight of his Father, and the presence of his Spirit.

The photos you take today will be treasured memories. Yet here at Jesus’s baptism is a more perfect picture. This is the gospel: when you unite in faith to our triune God, you go from being a total outcast… to delighting in the closest, deepest love ever known. You become fully known, fully loved in Jesus, by the Father, with the Spirit.

A precious family. One that has always been, and will always be, full of love. Only our Triune God pictures this.

But not only that, for every believer here…

2. Only our Triune God provides a promised salvation

One thing you’ll have noticed by now is that there are differences between Jesus’s baptism, and the ones here today. For starters, behind us is Auckland water, not water from the Jordan River. We’re in an auditorium in Pakūranga, not in the wilderness of Judea. And the ceremony is conducted in English and Cantonese, not Aramaic or Greek.

Yet just as today’s baptisms point to deeper spiritual realities, Jesus’s baptism points to deeper spiritual realities for each of us today.

Because here is a picture of Father, Son and Spirit, presenting a long-awaited redemption. When our first parents failed to obey God’s good word in the garden, all seemed lost. But the Father promised that one day, a son of Adam would crush the serpent’s head. And now, the voice of Heavenly Father here (Mt 3:17) in actual fact echoes an important verse from the Old Testament.

600 years before Jesus’s baptism, the prophet Isaiah predicted this Chosen One with these words:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.”

A delighted voice. A chosen servant. God’s Spirit upon him. Sound familiar?

Here at Jesus’s baptism, the spotlight shines on the chosen one all of humanity has been longing for. As Matthew and the other gospel writers go on to describe, only Jesus had his Father’s authority to forgive sins, to calm the storms, to feed the multitudes, to heal the sick, to raise the dead – including his own body, after He dies for sinners on the cross. This is the greatest symbol of love (†) – do you believe this?

Yet the Bible is also clear that every member of our Triune God saved us. As Ephesians 1 tells us: praise the Father who chose us, The Son who saved us, The Spirit who seals us (Eph 1:3-15). To paraphrase our opening hymn: “God in three persons, saving you and me.” (♪ 三位一體神，拯救你同我 ♪)

And just as we needed our Triune God to save us…  we need God in three persons to keep growing us. None of us can live the Christian life alone! It is the Spirit who will grow in us fruit such as faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). It is the Son who is the Author and Finisher of our faith as we run the race He has pioneered (Heb. 12:1-2). It is the Father who will keep delighting in us and showing His steadfast love to us, just as he did the day He made us.  

To the five of you, I can’t wait to see what kinds of spiritual gifts God grows in you, as you keep trusting and following Him. Some of the most faithful prayer warriors in God’s army are the older saints among us like Annie. Some of the best missionaries in God’s service are next generation believers like Eden, Kardia, Jun and Stacy, who cross cultures with their identities firmly anchored in Christ.

And yet each of you belong in God’s family – not because of your gifts, or your talents, or your achievements. You’re not worth more or less based on the language you speak, the years you’ve lived, the gender God gave you. Rather, your true identity and worth comes from being loved by our Triune God who has provided His promised salvation.

And finally, very briefly,

3. Only the Triune God presents a pattern for unity

Look again at our verse. Did you notice at Jesus’s baptism how each member of the Trinity plays a different part? The Father is not hovering like a dove. The Spirit didn’t get wet. There is unity and difference. Yet no one is worth more or less. Here in the life of our Triune God, we are offered a pattern for unity in diversity.

Brothers and sisters, our church is in the midst of many big changes. They are rebuilding the roads right outside our doorstep. Four of you have committed to our church family despite many uncertainties about our English ministry in 2026. And just 7 days ago, our church couldn’t reach a consensus over calling an Assistant Pastor.

So how do we show love amidst these challenges? Whether you show love this way [finger heart]… or this way [hand heart]… only our Triune God presents the ideal pattern of unity. After all, there is no blame game within the Trinity. No finger pointing or resentment between Father or Son. No unforgiveness or bitterness between Son and the Spirit.

And so in that case, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:13-26). Let us unite under our Father’s will. Let us repent and believe in the Lord Jesus day by day. Because just as Paul once told the Corinthians, it is the same Spirit, the same Lord (Jesus), the same God (and Father) who is at work in every church, no matter how chaotic. (1 Cor 12:4-6). Praise God for showing us unity comes not from our skin colour, or what language we speak, but from our triune God… who pictures for us a perfect family, who has provided a promised salvation, and who presents us a pattern for unity in the days ahead. Let’s pray.

Thoughts on preaching and teaching on mental health in our church

“I have mental health issues”, said no Asian parent ever.

One of the most confronting and challenging aspects of pastoring in our immigrant church for the past few years has been the deluge of mental health issues we’ve had to navigate and walk alongside. Something that Radio New Zealand recently reported on as a “silent crisis” in New Zealand, but very rarely openly discussed or addressed in Asian contexts. Whether it’s immigration-related trauma and loss; the ongoing identity challenges among the 1.5 and 2nd generation who constantly cross cultures at church, work and home; battles with trying to project a “model minority” appearance while simultaneously carrying the scars of ongoing rejection and shame, every Sunday at PCBC there are brothers and sisters who carry many silent wounds and hidden hurts.

The idea to focus on mental health in our worship services has sat in the back of my mind for a long time, as I’ve heard story after story of depression, anxiety, and unresolved trauma from brothers and sisters. All the while, I’ve felt severely under-equipped to pastor and counsel well. We tested the waters on this topic a bit last year with a one-off sermon on Psalm 88 on NZ’s Mental Health Awareness Week. But when the opportunity arose to preach a topical series this year, our English ministry team decided to shape our gathered worship and ministry for the whole month around this topic.

In order to address mental health as a church holistically, we leaned in on four key phrases:

  • WORRY / Psalm 131 is a brief psalm that has helped many who struggle with anxiety, and I was grateful to have the chance to preach from it;
  • REFUGE / Psalm 46. We had the joy of welcoming Dave Giesbers back from the brink as he shared his own journey of seeking refuge in God our fortress during his life-changing near-death experience in 2024;
  • UNIQUE / Psalm 139:13-18. Ps Albert showed us two priceless truths in the midst of our broken bodies and souls: that we’re uniquely made, and we’re graciously preserved;
  • Q&A – After a short 6 minute sermon on Jesus being the perfect counsellor to a grieving family (John 11), we heard lots of helpful answers from a two-person panel: Eva Chiu (our resident theologian and a mental health first-aid trained member) and Felistas Muodza – a member of Papakura Baptist and a relatable and knowledgable certified counsellor.

The Q&A format let our church members ask questions that would have been much harder to voice out in person, such as the usefulness of medication, how to respond when someone expresses a desire to commit suicide, and many other topics. Not only did Felistas bring her practical experience to our worship service, she was also kind enough to share a couple of extra seminars for us to be better equipped together on common mental health issues like anxiety, depression, ADHD and trauma.

During the month, we also heard two special testimonies from Eva and Jess (one of our friends from our visiting mission team in April) who courageously shared their experiences with anxiety, depression and other health issues with the wisdom of God’s Word and the hope of Jesus Christ.

To hear in our church context so much practical and Scripture-soaked advice on anxiety, depression, religious trauma and more was not only unprecedented in the life of PCBC English, but also so necessary as we continue to learn how to follow in the footsteps of Jesus our Suffering Servant.

Here’s a couple of my own thoughts around preparing, planning and preaching on this topic:

  • Do it. For the sake of your church. The stigma around discussing this topic (especially in non-Western cultures) is huge, but the cost of not addressing it is even more so. In our Q&A session, Felistas helpfully reminded us that the issues we grapple with “in these last days” (2 Tim 3:1-2) includes struggles around our identity, purpose and hope in the soul.
  • Do it with help. Our world is so complex today and labels carry all kinds of meanings and assumptions (e.g. condition/disorder; autistic/neurodiverse). Don’t go into this area assuming you have all the answers (none of us do!) Ask around for trusted advisors: doctors, counsellors, parents raising children with special needs. Involve them in your thinking, prayers and planning. Read widely on this topic. Two easy-to-read books I found helpful in informing my preparation and prayer were: “Caring for One Another” by Ed Welch (a Christian counsellor), “Mental Health and your church” by Dr Steve Midgely and Helen Thorne-Allenson, but there are plenty of other good resources out there.
  • Do it with God’s Word. There are definitely ways that Scripture can be used and abused we should avoid (I interviewed Tore, a religious-trauma trained counsellor about this about a year ago). Still, in an age of professionalised help and care for every area of life, it’s important to remind ourselves that the world doesn’t have all the answers. A topical series on mental health isn’t just a chance to take a break from sermon preparation – by no means! While you won’t find the exact phrase “mental health” in the Bible, God’s Word in fact has more to say about the struggles of our soul than our physical ailments. As Jess shared with us in her testimony, it’s no accident perhaps the oldest book of the Bible, Job, is 42 chapters full of one man’s mental anguish poured out as Holy Scripture. Or that 1/3 of the Psalms are laments. I think too of that God’s prophets often spoke in times of extreme distress and trauma – the decimation and exile of a people group through war and genocide, for example. And think for example of how frequently the people Jesus met and transformed struggled not just from a broken leg, but tortured minds and muddled thoughts.
  • Do it with God’s Word explained. A topical series can be as short or as long as your church needs, but should still be grounded in Scripture. For us, spending four weeks on four specific psalms fit well with school holidays, speaker availabilities and other factors. As our church previously spent the previous half year pacing through 1 & 2 Timothy, the Psalms (OT poetry) offered a good contrast in genre and approach. Other helpful books and Scriptures to ground in a focus on mental health / soul struggles include Jeremiah (the weeping prophet), Lamentations or Habakkuk; selections from John 11-17 focusing on Jesus’s “talking therapy” with his disciples; or Job (a book I’ve preached through in the past), though we need to be careful not to let the topic of mental health override the key message of each book in its context of salvation history.
  • Do it with care. There is a sad (and often unbiblical) tendency to spiritualise mental health as a lack of faith that prayer will surely solve, or a purely secular issue that therapists, not Christians, can help with. As with everything, nuance is needed. Yes, those in Christ do and will have victory over all death and disease. But just as a cancer sufferer doesn’t always get healing in this earthly life, it’s unbiblical to treat mental health issues the same way. Amidst our unanswered “why” questions, a Christian worldview speaks to our groaning world that God made it good, sin marred everything including our mental health, and Jesus will redeem and restore everything as part of God’s unfolding revelation.
  • Do follow with pastoral care. Be available and prepared for the questions and pastoral conversations, and the secondary trauma you might carry as you listen deeply and empathise with the horrors and sorrows people open up with you and others about.
  • Do follow with self-care. Mental health is a confronting topic, and Felistas reminded us that there is such a thing as secondary trauma that even she herself as a counsellor needs to process in healthy ways. Do give yourself permission to enjoy your own mental health break: whether a favourite hobby, a bathtub-filling experience, a space to unwind, a friend to debrief with together, even as you bear one another’s burdens and fulfil the law of Christ (Gal 6:1).
One of the many sunrises I enjoyed God paint on my daily run/walk/pray during this preaching series.

In God’s timing, we also walked through this series confronted with significant changes in our English ministry, including the start of a church-wide process to restructure PCBC English in what one leader called “a time of pruning” for us (you can hear more about it here). Our family have also faced an unusually large number of trials, hardships and attacks over the past 12 or so months personally, apart from the ongoing challenges of normal life as saved sinners in our fallen world. In many ways, the first “mental health” sermon Sunday was me preaching about anxiety to my own heart first – and being so freshly aware of my Heavenly Father’s deep, intimate love and care for me amidst our tear-filled ministry.

Because as we continue to grapple with anxiety, depression, trauma and grief, we can be grateful that the struggles of our soul are real, they’re seen, and they’re known personally by God Himself. More than anyone, our Lord sympathises with our weaknesses. He could calm the storms and comfort the weeping. Yet no one was more anxious than He was the night before Good Friday, surrounded by olive trees in a garden of tears. In His anguish, He quieted his anxious heart for us and then bled and died for our sins, so we can now cast our cares upon Him (1 Pet 5:7) with childlike faith.

If you’re interested, do check out all the talks and resources from this series here: Mental Health and our Church (PCBC English).

Sermons I’ve preached in connection with mental health:

Q&A and Seminars on Mental Health and our Church:

What are your thoughts about preaching and teaching on mental health? What has helped you personally? I’d love to hear it.

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” – Psalm 147:3

Bathtub filling thoughts on preaching 1 & 2 Timothy cross-culturally

Imagine being able to overhear a Jedi Master pass on to his young padawan all the skills of being a Jedi Knight. Or a violin virtuoso giving away playing tips to budding musician. At our church, we’ve just finished preaching through 1 & 2 Timothy – two letters that offer us a window into the glorious gospel of our God Jesus — and the apostle Paul’s parental heart as he pours out his passion and wisdom into Timothy and future generations of Christian leaders.

As with previous sermon series at PCBC, we had the delight of inviting a number of guest preachers to share in “Guarding the Gospel / Proclaiming the Word”, including Peter Anderson (his memoir and other books are a wonderful read!), Keimei Suzuki (one of our church’s partner missionaries), and Dr Paul Windsor (Director of Langham Preaching’s International work, and still blogging faithfully!). A newcomer commented how it was so refreshing to hear “different takes” on the same Word. I couldn’t agree more!

For those preparing to preach through these two letters, I personally found the Proclamation Trust volumes (1 Timothy by Angus McLeay and 2 Timothy by Jonathan Griffiths) the right length and depth for a busy dad, pastor and student. The Greek text can be a bit tricky at times so at times it was helpful to consult other commentaries, although there’s no replacing going through the text itself slowly. It was also a help to follow along Carey Baptist College’s “Mentored For Ministry” Karakia (chapel) series in 2024, and to have gone through these books before at our previous churches.

A few reflections in no particular order:

  • As it’s fresh in my mind from this past week, I have to say it was a real privilege and treat to hear Paul Windsor close our preaching series from the final words of his apostolic namesake (2 Tim 4:9-22). Through him, God challenged us, even as we hold many, many people in our hearts, to be filled with the Lord in our hearts ourselves. To hear from one of the most experienced preachers in NZ not only careful exegesis (e.g. he brought out the NT Greek wordplay in using “love” in 1 Tim 4:8/10 and “repay/vindicate” in 1 Tim 4:8/14), but also offer clear and relevant challenges to how we live and lead as Christians was special. The analogy he shared of the bathtub was particularly relevant: in all ministry there will be things that drain, and things that fill our tub. To endure in gospel service, you’ve got to get the flow right! After all the trials and hardships of this past year, to have our bath-tubs filled again on Sunday by the Lord was a joy.
  • Earlier on in this series, another Sunday felt particularly special for our congregation. On that day, we had a missions update from a sister and prayed for Mongolia; sang an 1800 year-old worship song with a modern twist called “The First Hymn“); had the privilege of one of our members Billy (Ngāti Porou) leading us in te karakia o te Atua / the Lord’s prayer (something our Chinese-heritage church would not have imagined was possible 30+ years ago!); all culminating in one of our young men Isaac preaching a clear, Christ-centred sermon on the practice, purpose and power of prayer from 1 Timothy 2.
  • 1st Timothy attracts a lot of attention particularly because it is ground zero in many churches and denominations regarding debates over gender roles in ministry and leadership (e.g. 1 Tim 2:11-15, 1 Timothy 3). So much so that before being called to our church, I was told by a member: “So long as you don’t preach on that topic, it should be be OK”. But when our Senior Pastor picked these books as the focus for 2025, given our shared commitment to preaching through whole books of the Bible, I knew the time had arrived to preach this part of God’s Word without apology.
  • As our pastoral team and many in our congregation hold different views on the “should women preach” question, we sought to give a balanced perspective on the relevant passage (Albert preached 1 Tim 2 for our Cantonese congregations; while I preached 1 Tim 2:8-15 for our English congregation), and to do so in a way that honoured the many gifted and faithful sisters and brothers in our church. Accordingly, one resource I found particularly helpful was this April 2025 podcast episode by Rebecca McLaughlin (interviewing Dani Treweek and Ellie Wiener). These sisters not only unpacked some of the heated questions and applications with exegetical skill from both egalitarian and complementarian convictions (although these terms don’t always map neatly outside Western cultures), but did so with a reverence and respect for the Scriptures and a wonderfully gracious manner – I suspect in a way that three men on a podcast wouldn’t have been able to accomplish!
  • It’s important to remember though that who can or can’t lead in churches or preach in gathered worship isn’t the primary issue in Paul’s letters to Timothy. Rather, his priority in both 1 & 2 Timothy is that everyone is to guard the gospel and proclaim the Word, both in speech and in lifestyle (1 Tim 4:16).
  • In the Lord’s providence, many of the passages I was assigned to preach popped up at timely moments in our fifth year of pastoral ministry at this church. In a year that’s brought about a fair amount of uncertainty and change in our midst, I was personally ministered to as I rejoiced in how Jesus saved even me, the worst of sinners (1 Tim 1:12-20); remembered that character matters in church leadership (1 Timothy 3), reflected on Paul’s priority to encourage the next generation among us (1 Timothy 4); and was challenged to think more deeply about honourable leadership (1 Tim. 5:17-25) and true contentment (1 Tim 6:1-10) living in a culture where it’s gotten harder and harder to find good examples of either. God truly ministered to me through these tender, parental words of Paul -for that, I’m filled and grateful.

If you’re interested, you can listen in to the sermon series in English here: “Guard the Gospel, Proclaim the Word” (1 & 2 Timothy). We preached 1 Timothy over 10 talks, and 2 Timothy over six sermons.

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” – 2 Timothy 4:2

Some initial thoughts on reading the UBS6 Greek New Testament

It’s been a busy and productive few months thesis writing. In the midst of family, church and study life, it was a blessing to receive in the mail two books hot off the press (Dankeschön Jotham!):

  1. The Reader’s Edition of the Sixth Edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (more commonly known as UBS6),
  2. An updated textual commentary by Prof Hugh Houghton to help make sense of the UBS6 edition (here’s a helpful review).

It definitely can’t be overstated how much of a privilege and kindness from God it is that we have such ready access to God’s Word, researched and presented so meticulously and beautifully (the use of Alegreya Sans font in the Reader’s Edition looks gorgeous). With this in mind, based on some initial reads of UBS6, it seems like there’s least three important changes coming to the default scholarly editions of the New Testament (UBS6/NA29), which will eventually affect most Christians at some stage.

1) The order of the books in the Greek New Testament has been changed: the Pauline epistles now appear after the Catholic Epistles, and Hebrews is placed between 2 Thessalonians and the Pastoral Epistles. As others have already pointed out, this is totally unlike almost every modern Bible translation (even though it does better reflect what the earliest Greek manuscripts did with the NT canon). So it will definitely be a major adjustment if this book order becomes the basis for future translations and commentaries (although not unprecedented – the Tyndale House Greek New Testament in 2017 also put the Catholic Epistles first, after the Gospels).

Table of Contents, UBS6 Reader’s Edition. Note too how Hebrews sits between 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy, in the midst of the Pauline epistles – so the book order implicitly favours Pauline authorship of Hebrews.

2) Every verse assigned a number within the New Testament is now included in the main text. You know all those “missing verses” that King James-only advocates complain have been removed from the Bible? They’ve all been slotted into the main text in UBS6 (albeit with double brackets [[ ]] to show the editors think they’re later additions). The net effect is that a large number of previously ignored readings have been welcomed back to the main text. I think this particular way of presenting the text will completely change how future Bible translators and preachers work from the Greek NT (and commentaries based on it), as they’ll now need to more consciously decide at each point how to address these variants – after all, it’s right there in the text!

Here, the UBS6 text includes Acts 8:37 (the Ethiopian eunuch’s confession of faith to Philip) in double brackets. As far as I can tell, the UBS6/NA29 is the first edition ever in the Nestle-Aland text tradition to include all verses in the main text (for example, Eberhard Nestle’s 1st edition just skipped verse 37).

3. As with the previous version of UBS, the editors have adopted the ECM text where it’s available (Mark, Acts, Catholic Epistles and Revelation), including the changes to the text from there (you can see the latest Greek text for yourself on the digital version of ECM, hosted on the INTF website). However, what the UBS editors have done with Ephesians and other parts I’ve read so far is anything to go by, there seems to already be numerous edits to the rest of the NT as well, including changes to paragraphs, punctuation, formatting throughout the UBS/NA text. What the standard UBS6/NA29 text will look like in the standard editions (to be published October 2025), and whether they match or reflect the earliest manuscripts of the Greek New Testament remains to be seen, but these choices do influence how we read the passage (ask me how in a few months, or once the thesis is “nailed” – Lord willing!).

Here in Eph 5:3, a new paragraph has been added (it wasn’t there in UBS5 or NA28). With ECM Pauline Epistles still to come, we’ll have to stay tuned for more updates…
In this part of Colossians, the phrase Μετὰ χαρᾶς (“with joy”) in UBS6 follows the NA28’s choice to format it as the start of a new paragraph (i.e. “With joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified…”). It implies that this is the start of a new thought, whereas UBS5 and other Greek editions print the phrase as the final thought of verse 11: ἐν πάσῃ δυνάμει δυναμούμενοι… εἰς πᾶσαν ὑπομονὴν καὶ μακροθυμίαν μετὰ χαρᾶς “with all power empowered… for all endurance and patience with joy.“)

I’ve also shared a short note on my Academia page with more details (and references), and keen to hear what others think. Have you got your hands on a UBS6 yet? What are your thoughts? I’d love to know.

Thoughts on preaching Matthew’s Gospel over five years

It took nearly five years, 7 different series and over 50 sermons. Yet in God’s kindness, yesterday our English congregation at PCBC completed an expository preaching journey through the gospel of Matthew. Out of the dozen or so sermon series we’ve completed at PCBC English, this one has been the most meaningful to me personally – my first sermon as pastor was from Matthew 1 (in the midst of the COVID pandemic, no less!), while diving into Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount firstly in 2020 and more recently at this year’s Equip Conference continues to convict and challenge my own walk with the Lord.

Alongside our senior pastor Albert, it was a privilege to share the pulpit for this Gospel with a number of fellow pastors including Sam Cutforth, John Tucker, “John the Baptist” (😉), Michael Drake, Dave Giesbers, Nathan Cutforth and Peter Anderson (an unforgettable message on the resurrection!). We also took the opportunity to train some of our own members to preach from this eyewitness account, and even had the joy of two students from a visiting college mission team preach from the crucifixion accounts earlier this month. For our children and alternative learners, we also paired the main sermons with worksheets and resources, graciously prepared each week by Eva and Cheryl from our English congregation.

For those preparing their own preaching series through Matthew’s gospel, I personally found the following commentaries most helpful:

  • Matthew (EGGNT) by Charles Quarles – a clear and convenient first stop for original language and syntax-related questions. Anytime I stumbled in translating the Greek text, this volume offered well-informed translation options and helpful preaching suggestions based on the text.
  • Teaching Matthew by David Jackman and William Philip – at times I felt like the authors flew too high above the text (e.g. summarising multiple chapters in one sermon), but in general this book gave some concrete and practical ways to keep my sermons focused on explaining Matthew’s gospel in the context of God’s Old Covenant promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
  • JC Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on Matthew were particularly helpful in connecting the truths of this gospel to the thoughts and concerns of the average congregation member. It was a delight to listen over his shoulder, in a sense, to think how the gospel should shape the various concerns of our daily life.
  • For Matthew 5-7 specifically, Jonathan Pennington’s The Sermon the Mount and Human Flourishing: A Theological Commentary was paradigm-shifting in a good way, as was Jonathan Dodson’s Our Good Crisis on the beatitudes specifically (I also shared a few exegetical thoughts on this part of Matthew’s gospel when we encountered it together in 2020).
  • Tim Patrick and Andrew Reid’s “The Whole Counsel of God” gave me permission to think long-term when it came to preaching through this gospel, and offered a practical framework to schedule and plan to preach through the book in a setting where it wasn’t always possible to preach seriatim for more than a few weeks at a time (unlike other series, this book didn’t align with our Cantonese congregations’ preaching schedules).

I also learned a lot from other churches that journeyed through Matthew’s gospel at the same time or beforehand. In particular, I’m especially grateful for Tim Bradford’s input during our time at Petersham Baptist in Sydney when we went through Matthew’s gospel from 2017-18, and for Nathan Cutforth at Papakura Baptist who helped me wrestle with some of the harder parts of Jesus’s discourses (e.g. the end of the age stuff in Matthew 24).

Looking back at older sermons you’ve preached over the years is also a good way to grow in humility! When I scan the sermon archives I’m reminded of rookie mistakes, bad preaching habits, the sermons that felt woefully unprepared in the midst of a busy ministry life, and the attempts to be clever that thankfully nobody will remember once Jesus returns! My hope and prayer each week was simply that sinners were convicted to turn to Christ, and saints were built up to abide in Christ. It’s been a privilege to let Matthew’s Gospel tell the gospel at PCBC English, and to preach the Word in season and out of season.

A few more reflections in no particular order:

  • Five years is probably a bit too long for a sermon series in Matthew – barring our family and a couple of others, most of the people who heard Matthew 1 have since moved on from PCBC English, while others have joined without ever hearing the start. Nevertheless, in the context of a 20 / 25-year preaching ministry, it was worth the time and effort to let the Word set the agenda for us time and time again.
  • There’s a lot of time and energy spent putting into words the vision, mission and values of any organisation (our church included). But there is no better summary of God’s vision for His church than what the resurrected Christ declares to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospel: “As you go, make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit… and I am with you always to the end of the age.” If we ever wonder the purpose and vision for any church, Matthew’s gospel makes it clear – to be disciples who make disciples because of the good news about the risen Lord Jesus!
  • The more I’ve read and thought about Matthew’s gospel within a cross-cultural setting, the more I’m convinced that this is the one that came first (i.e. Matthean priority). There are lots of academic debates about this, but it’s interesting to me that for much of church history it was held that Matthew was the first gospel to have been written (followed by Mark, Luke and John, as per our present-day book order). Other well-known authors (e.g. Augustine) have explained this, but I personally see a coherent logic where Matthew was written as a comprehensive account for the first generation of mostly Jewish background believers, while Mark subsequently summarised and rearranged Matthew’s content for a church becoming more multi-ethnic, cross-cultural and less conversant in Old Testament prophecies and typologies.
  • Matthew chapter 1’s long list of names seems to be a rather unexciting way to begin sharing good news. However, there is something particularly resonant in a non-Western church to begin with a genealogy – just as Māori customs begin a serious conversation with a pepeha (introducing one’s place and people), Matthew introduces Jesus’s place and people to a hurting world longing for God to be truly present with us (Immanuel). Preaching through Matthew raised for me how our society’s incessant focus on the individual is not necessarily a worldview that is shared by much of the world.
  • Team preaching carries with it a number of benefits and challenges. It takes more planning and coordination to make sure the gospel is consistently preached and explained season by season. But there is something wonderful in letting people see that it is the gospel (proclaimed through fallible preachers) that speaks, that their pastor also sits under the preacher’s authority, and that it is the Scriptures that serve as our supreme authority on matters of life and faith. It’s also wonderful to look back and see how many different partnerships in the gospel began and continue today through the simple ministry of opening God’s Word section by section, week after week, year after year.

If you’re interested, you can listen in to each sermon series here:

  1. The Return of the King (Matthew 1-4)
  2. The King’s Speech (Matthew 5-7)
  3. Deeper into Following Jesus (Matthew 8-12)
  4. Summer Parables (Matthew 13)
  5. Action Jesus (Matthew 14-16)
  6. Servant King (Matthew 17-20)
  7. Lead Us To the Cross (Matthew 21-28)

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore as you go, make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you [Immanuel!] always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20