The BPFC Teaching Ministry
The BPFC Teaching Ministry brings you weekly preaching from Bootle Protestant Free Church in Merseyside. Each Monday we release the latest Sunday sermon — Christ‑centred, Scripture‑focused, and rooted in the historic Reformed faith. Under the banner “For Christ’s Crown and Covenant,” our preaching seeks to exalt Christ, explain the Bible clearly, and strengthen believers in their daily walk. Whether you’re catching up on a missed service, exploring Reformed teaching, or looking for faithful Bible preaching, this podcast provides a steady, pastoral voice grounded in God’s Word.
Reformation Sunday: A Chosen People in God’s Marvellous Light — 1 Peter 2:1–10
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Pastor Ian Thompson — BPFC Teaching Ministry
This Reformation Sunday sermon explores 1 Peter 2:1–10 and the four identity titles God gives His people: a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people. Preached at Bootle Protestant Free Church, this message calls believers to examine themselves, embrace their calling, and live as God’s treasured possession in a world that desperately needs the light of Christ.
Rooted in Reformation theology and centred on Scripture, this sermon reminds us that election is God’s work, priesthood is our call...
Sola Scriptura: John Wycliffe and the Search for Truth
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Apology in advance. I was starting with a cold when i preached this
John Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, asked one question that still echoes today: “Where can I find truth?” In this sermon, Pastor Ian Thompson opens the Five Solas series with Sola Scriptura — Scripture Alone, exploring how Wycliffe’s passion for the Word of God reshaped England and still challenges the Church in our confused age.
Drawing from 2 Timothy 3:14–17 and Psalm 119:105, this message traces the hunger for God’s Word in a co...
Galatians 6:1–18 — Fulfilling the Law of Christ & Paul’s Benediction
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In this full‑chapter sermon from Galatians 6:1–18, Pastor Ian Thompson explores what it means to live a Spirit‑shaped life and to fulfil the law of Christ. Paul closes his letter with deep pastoral concern, calling believers to restore the fallen gently, bear one another’s burdens, guard their own hearts, sow to the Spirit, and persevere in doing good.
This passage also contains Paul’s personal handwritten benediction — exposing the failure of the law to save, contrasting false boasting with boasting only in the cross, and reminding us...
True Christian Liberty – Galatians 5:13–26
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In this sermon from BPFC Teaching Ministry, Pastor Ian Thompson explores Paul’s teaching on true Christian liberty in Galatians 5:13–26. Drawing directly from the text, he shows that liberty in Christ is not the freedom to do as we please, but the freedom to live as we ought—to walk in the Spirit rather than be enslaved by the flesh.
The message contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit, emphasising that Christian freedom is shaped by love: love for God and lo...
For Freedom Christ Has Made Us Free — Galatians 5:1–12
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Pastor Ian Thompson teaches Galatians 5:1–12, a powerful passage where the Apostle Paul sounds the alarm against legalism and calls believers to stand firm in the freedom Christ has purchased. This episode explores why “Christ plus anything” destroys grace, how legalism becomes a different religion altogether, and why true righteousness rests in Christ alone.
Listeners will learn the difference between striving in the flesh and waiting in the Spirit, the danger of adding human effort to the gospel, and the beauty of “faith working through love.” Pastor Ian contrasts the legalist’s burden with...
Galatians 4:21–31 — The Allegory of Abraham: Children of the Freewoman
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In this episode we continue our journey through Paul’s letter to the Galatians, exploring one of the most profound and misunderstood passages in the New Testament — the allegory of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar.
Paul pleads with the Galatian church to hear the Law properly and understand the difference between bondage under the Mosaic Law and freedom in Christ. Through Abraham’s two sons, Paul reveals the contrast between the covenant of Sinai and the covenant of promise — between slavery and liberty, between human effort and divine grace.<...
Galatians 4:12–20 | Paul’s Pastoral Plea to a Wounded Church
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Paul’s words in Galatians 4:12–20 reveal one of the most personal and tender moments in all his letters. In this episode, Pastor Ian explores Paul’s pastoral heart — a heart that pleads, remembers, warns, and labours for Christ to be formed in His people.
This teaching traces seven movements in the passage: Paul’s plea for restored fellowship, his refusal to take offence, the Galatians’ former love, the pain of speaking truth, the danger of false affection, the labour of spiritual formation, and Paul’s longing to be present with clarity and compassion...
Do Not Return to Bondage — Adopted as Sons and Daughters (Galatians 4)
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Pastor Ian Thompson — Bootle Protestant Free Church
Galatians 4 calls believers to remember who they truly are in Christ: not slaves, not servants, but adopted sons and daughters of the living God. In this sermon, Pastor Ian Thompson explores Paul’s heartfelt plea to the Galatian church — a warning not to abandon the liberty of the Gospel or return to the bondage of idols, rituals, or the expectations of the world.
Drawing from the imagery of children, slaves, and heirs, this teaching unpacks the contrast between life under the La...
The Function of the Law – Galatians 3:19–29
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Description:
In this sermon, Pastor Ian Thompson continues our journey through Paul’s letter to the Galatians, exploring one of the most urgent and clarifying passages in the epistle. Paul asks the foundational question: “Why then the law?” and unfolds three layers that reveal the true purpose of the law, the supremacy of the promise, and the identity of every believer in Christ.
This message examines:
The purpose of the law — revealing sin, restraining sin, and driving us to Christ.The temporary nature of...Receiving the Spirit by Faith — Galatians 3:1–18
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In this sermon, Pastor Ian Thompson opens one of the most hard‑hitting sections of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Galatians 3:1–18 forms the doctrinal heart of the epistle, confronting the church with a choice that still shapes Christian life today: law or faith, works or grace, performance or promise.
Paul’s thunderous cry — “O foolish Galatians!” — is explored in its full context, reminding us that chapters and verses were added centuries later. Paul’s grief and urgency flow from everything he has already said: the danger of drif...
Paul’s Opposition to Peter — Standing Firm for the Gospel (Galatians 2:11–21)
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Pastor Ian Thompson
In this Teaching Ministry episode, we explore Paul’s public opposition to Peter in Galatians 2:11–21 — not as a personal conflict, but as a courageous defence of the Gospel of grace. Peter’s moment of inconsistency under pressure becomes a warning for all believers: our behaviour must match the Gospel we confess.
Pastor Ian walks through the passage with clarity and pastoral warmth, showing how peer pressure can blur the Gospel, why Paul’s confrontation was necessary, and how both men ultimately stood united in Christ. Th...
Galatians 2:1–10 – The Gospel That Cannot Be Compromised
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Pastor Ian Thompson continues the Galatians series with a clear and pastoral exposition of Galatians 2:1–10. In this passage Paul travels to Jerusalem “by revelation,” bringing Barnabas and Titus with him, to ensure that the unity of the church is preserved and the gospel remains undefiled.
Titus stands as a living testimony that salvation is in Christ alone, by faith alone, without the works of the law. Paul exposes the danger of false brethren who seek to add human requirements to the gospel and shows why he refused to yield even for an hou...
Paul’s Authority of Divine Origin — Galatians 1:11–24
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Pastor Ian Thompson — Bootle Protestant Free Church
In Galatians 1:11–24, Paul defends the divine origin of the gospel he preached — a message not received from men, not shaped by tradition, and not adjusted to culture, but given directly through the revelation of Jesus Christ. This teaching explores Paul’s dramatic transformation from persecutor to preacher, his independence from the Jerusalem apostles, and the early testimony that caused the churches of Judea to glorify God for such a miraculous change.
Key themes include:
Paul’s claim that his gospel is...No Other Gospel: Christ Alone (Galatians 1:1–10)
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Pastor Ian Thompson
Paul’s opening words to the Galatians carry urgency, clarity, and deep pastoral concern. In this sermon, we begin our new series by exploring why Paul wrote this “rescue letter” — a defence of the true Gospel against those who would add rituals, obligations, or human effort to the finished work of Christ.
Paul reminds the church that his apostleship is not from men, nor through man, but directly from Jesus Christ. Because the Gospel he preached is God‑given, any message that adds requirements before a s...
Paul’s Broken Heart: Why Galatians Was Written in Tears
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Pastor Ian Thompson
Galatians is often treated as a sharp theological argument, but this sermon reveals its deeper heartbeat: the cry of a spiritual father watching his children drift from the gospel he first delivered to them. Drawing from Paul’s own words in Galatians 4:13–15, we explore how the apostle arrived in Galatia weak, wounded, and vulnerable, and how the church received him “as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.”
This episode uncovers the personal crisis behind the doctrinal one. The Judaizing teachers were not simply ad...
A Call to Fight the Good Fight: Faith, Warfare, and Walking With God
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Visiting Speaker: Tom Greig
This week’s BPFC Teaching features a visiting preacher delivering a stirring message on the spiritual fight every believer is called into. Drawing from Exodus 13:17–22 and 1 Timothy 6:12–16, the sermon challenges Christians to recognise the reality of spiritual warfare, to face life’s battles with faith, and to trust God’s leading even when the road is not the easiest one.
Tom reminds us that God did not lead Israel by the nearest route, but by the right route — the one that woul...
Faithfulness and Remembrance: The Battle of the Somme and Joshua 22
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Pastor Ian Thompson reflects on the Battle of the Somme through the lens of Joshua 22:1–5, drawing together themes of loyalty, sacrifice, fraternity, and Protestant faith.
On the 1st of July 1916, thousands of young men stepped forward in duty and devotion — many never returned. Their courage and sacrifice remain woven into the shared memory of these islands. In this sermon, we remember the fallen not only with solemn gratitude, but with a call to live lives worthy of their legacy.
The two‑and‑a‑half tribes of Israel...
Peter, Paul, and the God Who Has No Second‑Class Children
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Speaker: Pastor Ian Thompson
In this teaching message, Pastor Ian explores the lives of Peter and Paul — two very different men, two very different personalities, yet one Lord and one gospel. Some believers feel impulsive and emotional like Peter; others feel structured and clear‑thinking like Paul; many feel like neither and quietly wonder whether they truly belong.
This sermon shows from Scripture that:
God has no favouritesThere are no elite ChristiansThere is no spiritual hier...The New Covenant: Grace, Spirit, and the God Who Makes All Things New
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Pastor Ian Thompson
In this sermon, we reach the final and greatest of God’s covenants — the New Covenant promised by the prophets, fulfilled by Christ, sealed at the cross, confirmed in the resurrection, and poured out at Pentecost.
From Jeremiah’s promise of a new heart, to Ezekiel’s promise of a new spirit, to Isaiah’s vision of a covenant for all peoples, we see how God creates not a repair job, but something entirely new. A covenant written on the heart, not on stone. A covenant...
The Davidic Covenant: Kingship, Collapse, and the Promise Fulfilled in Christ
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Pastor Ian Thompson continues our covenant series with a deep exploration of the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7:8–16 — God’s promise to establish the throne of David forever.
In this sermon we trace David’s journey from shepherd to king, the astonishing promise God makes to him, the painful honesty of David’s failures, and the collapse of the kingdom that followed. Yet through every rise and fall, God’s covenant faithfulness remains unbroken.
This message shows how the longing for a righteous king ultimately leads to Jesus...
The Priestly Covenant: Zeal, Holiness, and the God Who Provides a Mediator
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In this sermon, Pastor Ian Thompson continues the covenant series by exploring the often‑forgotten Priestly Covenant made with Phinehas in Numbers 25. Israel stood on the edge of the Promised Land, yet their nearness to blessing did not protect them from spiritual collapse. Their covenant infidelity, leadership paralysis, and moral confusion mirror the challenges of our own day.
This message examines the five great truths of the Priestly Covenant:
that sin destroys communities,that leadership without moral clarity leads to suffering,that true sp...A Protestant Calling: Witness, Liberty, and the Gospel
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Pastor Ian Thompson
In this sermon, preached to the Orange Institution in April 2026, Pastor Ian reflects on what it truly means to be protestantis — a people who give witness. With Scripture in one hand and history in the other, he calls believers to rediscover their identity as those who testify to the Word of God, stand firm in truth, and live as witnesses of Christ in a confused and drifting age.
Drawing from 2 Chronicles 24:19, the meaning of Protestant witness, and the legacy of William II...
The Relief of Derry — God’s Providence, Perseverance, and Protestant Witness
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Pastor Ian Thompson
Bootle Protestant Free Church — BPFC Sermon Podcast
The Relief of Derry (1689) stands as one of the defining moments in the Protestant story — a testimony to God’s providence, steadfast courage, and the defence of religious liberty.
In this sermon, Pastor Ian Thompson reflects on the siege, the suffering of the people, and the extraordinary deliverance that followed, drawing clear lines to the Christian life today: perseverance under trial, trust in God’s timing, and the call to stand firm for Christ’s Crown and C...
Maker of Heaven and Earth — The Nicene Creed and the God Who Creates
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In this third episode of our Nicene Creed series, Pastor Ian Thompson continues exploring the Creed’s opening declarations by focusing on the phrase: “Maker of heaven and earth.” Building on the foundation laid in Genesis 1, this sermon examines what it means for Christians to confess that God is not only Father and Almighty, but also the Creator of all things visible and invisible.
This teaching highlights how the biblical doctrine of creation shapes the entire Christian worldview. Pastor Ian shows how Scripture presents creation as purposeful, ordere...
We Believe in One God the Father Almighty — The Nicene Creed and Genesis 1
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In this second episode of our Nicene Creed series, Pastor Ian Thompson explores the opening declaration of the Creed: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty.” Rooted in the reading from Genesis 1, this sermon shows how the Bible reveals God as both sovereign Creator and loving Father, the One who brings order out of chaos and speaks light into the darkness.
This teaching examines the Creed’s insistence on one God in a world filled with competing spiritualities, idols, and modern...
The Nicene Creed: An Introduction to the Foundations of Christian Faith
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In this opening message of Series 2, Pastor Ian Thompson introduces the Nicene Creed, the historic confession first established in AD 325 and treasured across the Reformed tradition as a faithful summary of essential Christian belief.
This sermon offers a clear and accessible overview of the Creed’s purpose, structure, and enduring importance for the Church. Pastor Thompson explains how the Nicene Creed articulates the Trinity, affirms the full divinity and full humanity of Jesus Christ, and sets out the foundational truths that unite believers across centuries.
...The Malefactor and the Martyr: A Testimony of Grace | Luke 23 & Acts 7 | BPFC Sermons
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Pastor Ian Thompson — Bootle Protestant Free Church
In this sermon, Pastor Ian Thompson reflects on the transforming power of God’s grace by contrasting two striking biblical figures: the malefactor on the cross in Luke 23 and Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in Acts 7.
The dying thief turns to Christ with nothing but need — no ritual, no achievement, no time left to prove anything. His simple confession shows that salvation is entirely by grace, received through faith alone.
Stephen’s martyrdom reveals the othe...
The Mosaic Covenant: Law, Worship, and the God Who Forms a People
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Speaker: Pastor Ian Thompson
In this sermon we continue our journey through the great covenants of Scripture and arrive at one of the most defining moments in the Old Testament — the covenant God makes with Moses and with Israel at Mount Sinai.
From liberation out of Egypt to the giving of the Ten Words, from the tabernacle to the sacrifices, from Israel’s calling to their rebellion, this covenant reveals the holiness of God, the seriousness of sin, and the mercy that holds His people fast.
We...
A Testimony of Grace: Sammy Heenan
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Recorded during Affirmation Weekend, this is the powerful Christian testimony of Sammy Heenan — a story of suffering, survival, and saving grace. Through trauma, bereavement, and the violence of the Troubles, Sammy bears witness to the faithfulness of God and the hope found only in Jesus Christ.
The Abrahamic Covenant: Promise, Faith, and the God Who Calls Us Out
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In this week’s sermon, we explore the Abrahamic Covenant — the moment God calls an ordinary man to trust an extraordinary promise. From the command to “Go,” to the covenant ceremony, to the near‑sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham’s story reveals a God who binds Himself to His people with unbreakable faithfulness.
We look at the three strands of the promise — land, descendants, and blessing — and how they shape the whole biblical story from Genesis to Christ. Abraham’s doubts, failures, and questions remind us that covenant is not about perfect peop...
The Covenant of Preservation: God’s Promise to Noah
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In this second message of the covenant series, we turn to God’s gracious promise to Noah after the flood. The world had been judged, the waters had receded, and humanity stood at a new beginning. Into that moment, God spoke a covenant of preservation — a commitment to uphold the rhythms of creation, restrain judgement, and sustain the world until redemption’s story reached its fulfilment in Christ. This episode explores the structure of the Noahic Covenant, the sign of the rainbow, and the way this universal promise forms the backdrop for every covenan...
The First Covenant: Adam and the Promise of Life
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In this opening message of the covenant series, we explore God’s first dealings with humanity in the Garden of Eden. Before the Fall, before judgement, before sacrifice, there was a covenant of life — a gracious arrangement in which Adam was called to trust, obey, and walk with God. This episode traces the shape of that covenant, the blessings it offered, and the consequences of its breach. More importantly, it shows how the Adamic Covenant prepares the way for every covenant that follows, pointing us ultimately to Christ, the Second Adam, who fulfils what...
