Rev. Craig Lynn preaches Ephesians 1:7-10 at evening worship on Sunday 18th January 2026 in First Ards.

Paul traces the work of salvation from God’s eternal purpose to Christ’s finished work, showing that the cross wasn’t a vague offer but a decisive achievement. In Christ, redemption has been secured through his blood and sins have been forgiven, not potentially but actually, according to the lavish riches of God’s grace. The cross stands at the heart of God’s wise and loving plan to gather his people and ultimately bring all things under Christ’s rule, producing believers with settled consciences, grateful obedience and a humility shaped by a salvation fully accomplished outside of themselves.

Rev. Craig Lynn preaches Like 8:22-25 at morning worship on Sunday 18th January 2026 in First Ards.

Jesus leads his disciples into a boat and straight into a violent storm, revealing that obedience to his word doesn’t guarantee calm circumstances. As fear takes hold, the disciples interpret reality through the danger they feel rather than the promise they’ve heard, until Jesus silences the wind and waves with a word. The calm exposes not only his authority over creation but the deeper question of who he truly is. The passage shows how storms uncover what governs our trust and how Jesus uses both danger and deliverance to train his followers to listen to his word above every other voice.

Rev. Craig Lynn preaches Ephesians 1:3-6 at evening worship on Sunday 11th January 2026 in First Ards.

Paul traces our salvation back beyond our decisions or responses to God’s gracious purpose before the world was made, showing from Ephesians 1 that grace begins not with us but with God’s loving choice in Christ. Before we existed or did anything good or bad, God chose a people in his Son, not because he saw something worthy in them, but out of sheer love, with the aim of adopting them into his family and shaping them to be holy in his sight. Election, far from being cold or abstract, is presented as deeply personal and relational, rooted in the Father’s love, centred on Christ and designed to end in worship. This truth strips away pride, grounds assurance, fuels holiness and prayer and leads the church to say with joy and humility, “Not to us, O Lord, but to your name be the glory,” as all praise belongs to God’s glorious grace alone.

Rev. Craig Lynn preaches Luke 8:16-21 at morning worship on Sunday 11th January 2026 in First Ards.

Jesus presses home that hearing God’s word is never neutral. When it’s truly received, it brings light that shows itself in changed lives. Using the picture of a lamp, he warns against a comfortable, hidden faith that listens without obeying, and urges us to consider carefully how we listen, because careless hearing dulls us while responsive hearing deepens us. He then makes it clear that real belonging to him isn’t about proximity, background, or familiarity, but about hearing God’s word and beginning to put it into practice, however imperfectly or dependently and by grace, so that those who listen and follow are shown to be part of his family.

Rev. Craig Lynn preaches Ephesians 2:1-5 at evening worship on Sunday 4th January 2026 in First Ards.

The opening of a new evening series on the doctrines of grace, beginning with the Bible’s honest diagnosis of the human condition and why grace is necessary at all. Drawing on Psalm 51, Genesis 6 and Ephesians 2, it sets out the doctrine of total depravity, that sin reaches every part of us leaving us unable to save ourselves and highlights the wonder of God’s intervention in mercy, making the spiritually dead alive through Christ.

Rev. Craig Lynn preaches Luke 8:1-15 at morning worship on Sunday 4th January 2026 in First Ards.

Jesus explains why the same word produces such different responses by telling a simple story about seed and soil, showing that the issue isn’t whether God speaks, but how his word is heard. The parable exposes hard, shallow and crowded hearts, while holding out the hope that through grace, perseverance and the work of Christ by his Spirit, God can make ordinary lives genuinely fruitful.

Rev. Craig Lynn speaks on Luke 2:8-20 at the Christmas Morning service 2025 in First Ards.

Christmas is God’s gift to ordinary people, announced not as advice but as good news that a Saviour has been born for us. Through the shepherds’ story, the focus is on receiving what God freely gives, Jesus Christ, the Son given, who comes to rescue, not because we’ve earned him, but because we need him.