Please comment with your findings, questions etc!
Please comment with your findings, questions etc!
This Sunday, we’ll be starting a new sermon series called “Gospel OUT! Living out the gospel: sermons from the letter of James.” The purpose for this series is as follows: for the last two months or so, we’ve been looking at nine of the key Christian doctrines (“The Contenders” sermon series): the deity of Jesus, total depravity, justification by faith alone, regeneration, substitutionary atonement, the authority of Scripture etc. This was what one could call “Gospel IN” – what is the gospel, what do Bible-believing Christians believe, why we should believe it, and what we should fight and die for (and what we shouldn’t).
Following Gospel IN, the next big questions is: what does it mean to live these great truths out? That’s what Gospel OUT is all about. Following is the week by week programming of Gospel OUT. It’d be great if you could read the Bible passages before they are preached, so you get more out of the sermons.
16/5 Introducing ‘Gospel OUT’: where faith and culture meet (James 1:1)
23/5 Gospel OUT: Pursuing wholeness through trials (James 1:2-18)
30/5 Gospel OUT: Walking the Word part 1 (James 1:19-25)
6/6 Gospel OUT: Walking the Word part 2 (James 1:26-2:26)
13/6 Gospel OUT: Words and Wisdom (James 3:1-4:3, 11-12)
20/6 Gospel OUT: Taking sides (James 4:1-10)
27/6 Gospel OUT: Grasping time and eternity (James 4:13-5:11)
4/7 Gospel OUT: Final Words (James 5:12-20)
From C.J. Mahaney’s “Living the Cross Centred Life” (pp.69-70)
“If you were searching for a single sentence in Scripture to best capture the story line and theme of the entire Bible, what would you choose? Where would you look?
Many of us would no doubt go right to the beloved and familiar words of John 3:16, with good reason. But let me suggest we search no further than… the opening pages of Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Fix your thoughts on this sentence:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
J.I. Packer says it isn’t too much to describe these verses as “the key, not merely to the New Testament, but to the whole Bible, for they crystalize into a phrase the sum and substance of its message.”
In this one sentence, Paul succinctly captures the main theme and essence of the entirety of holy Scripture – as well as answering the desperate cry we heard from Job for someone to arbitrate between God and man. Yes, Paul declares, there is a mediator! There’s someone to arbitrate between us, to lay His hand on us both and remove the rod of God’s wrath so His terror frightens us no more. There’s a unique intermediary between God and man: the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all. The Bible’s complete message hinges on this one point.”
C.J. then gives two more quotes from some of my spiritual heroes:
R.C. Sproul: ”The glory of the gospel is this: The One from whom we need to be saved is the One who has saved us.”
John Stott: ”Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice.”
And a suitable conclusion:
“If there’s anything in life we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate only about sharing it with others; I mean passionate in thinking about the gospel, reflecting upon it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to colour the way we look at the world and all of life.” (p.15)
Amen!
This BBQ is an opportunity for us to get together in a different way, as a church family. There’ll be a very short word on why Good Friday is really really good – but in and around that, we’re hoping to have a great time hanging out in a really relaxed, no-program, bring friends, play cricket with strangers kind of way.
I know it’s only a week away, but – we hope you’re coming!!
I almost cried during one of my New Testament exams at Bible College – not out of fear of not finishing or paralysing hand cramps from having to write so fast (though these were occasional issues!) – but from having my heart melted.
It was a Greek translation and exegesis exam, which meant having to translate a portion of Greek New Testament text into English and then writing comments on both the Greek grammar and syntax as well as what the text meant. Doesn’t sound very heart-warming or heart-melting, but I’ve found that the great thing about reading the Bible in a language other than your own is that it slows you right down and you grasp things you otherwise miss because you’re reading too quickly or with too much familiarity.
In this case, I had to translate and exegete a portion of Luke 21, starting with verses 1-4 – a section often called The Widow’s Offering, or The Widow’s Mite. It’s a passage that has never since failed to melt my heart – despite being so short and unadorned. I’m just incredibly touched that this widow, “out of her poverty put in [to the temple 'offering bags'] all she had to live on” (v4).
What on earth would possess her to do such an apparently foolish and irresponsible thing?! It’s hardly good stewardship to give away all your money, especially when you’re a widow with no position in contemporaneous society and no hope for a stable income. This woman is either stupid, or -
she has a heart of profoundly deep worship and utter dependence on God. Out of everyone who gave their offerings that day, she was the one who knew God best and therefore loved and trusted God best. The rich people gave perhaps to honour God but likely to honour themselves, but her willingness to give everything, to ‘lose’ everything to the LORD, revealed exactly Who had first place in her life and how much she trusted Him as her God and provider.
These four simple verses kick me in the guts. I struggle to put their meaning and impact into words because SO MUCH is being said. The sermon this humble widow preaches to me convicts me deeply. I am ashamed of the poverty of my worship of God in contrast – this is what makes me cry, as much as being touched by her love and worship. The thing is, I can’t see myself in her position. If I were in her shoes, I don’t know if I could do the same – because I love and trust and worship God too little…
5:17 girls out there, there are a bunch of women in the New Testament who preach loudly to us about whole-hearted devotion to Jesus: among others, Mary who submitted herself to ridicule and rejection to bear the incarnate God, the woman at the well whose transformation was so complete she became an evangelist to her whole town, the forgiven prostitute who kissed and anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume, the women who lovingly prepared spices for Jesus’ crucified body.
I hope you (and the guys too) can hear the ’sermons’ preached to us by these beautiful women. Together, I hope we will have our hearts melted and broken by their examples; I hope God uses their stories to move us to their heights of unbridled adoration for Jesus – not out of flippant or flighty emotionalism, but taking captive all our womanly powers to deeply love and live for him.
Our 3 Community Groups (CG-South, CG-Indooroopilly, CG-St Lucia) are following this schedule for the course of this Contenders sermon series.
As 5:17’s leaders have decided, we want to make sure we’re getting a ‘balanced diet’ in our CGs – of Bible study (the staple), special prayer nights, socials to grow in depth and breadth of relationship with each other, and serving nights – to make sure we exist not merely for ourselves as a church/CGs, but to serve others with both the words and actions of God’s saving Gospel. If there’s anything you think we should be covering but aren’t, let us know!
For week starting:
We added to our library the other night courtesy of Koorong’s sale. Steve bought Fanny J Crosby, an autobiography. You might recognise this as the name of a famous, prolific, gifted, and beloved hymn writer born in the early 1800’s. You may also remember that Fanny Crosby was blind – which made her writing of over 8000 hymns all the more remarkable.
Here’s a profound quote from her to enjoy and ponder -
It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.
Fanny J Crosby