[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udclCIFCGr4]
Taken from Mike's series on justification here.
Author: glenscriv
The Goal of Our Salvation: Church
A Sermon on Ephesians 4:1-16
The Christian life is a down-hill WALK.
It’s also a battle, we’ll see that in chapter 6. There are forces to STAND against. But we STAND because we hold the high ground. And if you hold the high ground, you don’t need to advance, you don’t need to retreat, you don’t need to go anywhere. You just STAND in the strength of Jesus.
But this is the Christian life: First SIT at God's right hand in Christ. Understand all that we have. Then WALK out into the world and, all the while, be prepared to STAND against the enemy’s schemes. But notice this: NOTHING in the Christian life is about uphill struggle. NOTHING.
There is a WALK out into the world. There is a STAND to take against spiritual powers. But there’s never a climb. Jesus has climbed. He's the only one. We sit, we walk, we stand, we never climb. We are already on top of the world. We have gone to heaven already, in Christ. We have the fullness of God. And now, what’s life about?
What’s the essence of this WALK? What’s the goal of this wonderful gospel?
In a word: CHURCH...
Five Devotional Talks on Luke 8
I gave these short talks at the daily prayer meetings for Falmouth CU mission week.
Throughout Luke 8 we see the Word spreading powerfully though it's opposed at every turn. Through death, darkness and much frustration, light and life does triumph.
Luke 8:1-15 - The Word like Seed
Luke 8:16-21 - The Word as Light, Investment & Adoption Papers
Luke 8:22-25 - The Word that rules creation
The True Myth
During mission week at Falmouth CU we showed The Dark Knight Rises. I was going to give a short talk at the end but we had some technical problems halfway through so I gave the talk in the middle instead. Thankfully it didn't affect the talk too much since it wasn't based on the plot of Batman but on the concept of myths.
JRR TOLKEIN: ‘The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories… But this story has entered History... There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits.”
CS LEWIS: “The story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others but with the tremendous difference that it really happened.”
Evangelism Training Session 6
Here's the sixth and final 321Go evangelism training session.
The others are:
.
GOING IN HIS STRENGTH
Our Words - His Words 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Luke 10:16
What does it mean to go in Jesus' name?
.
Prayer for Openings Acts 16:13-15; Colossians 4:2-6; Ephesians 6:19-20
What does it tell you about evangelism that we need open hearts, doors and mouths?
.
We've thought about these sentences:
“That’s what I love about Jesus...”
“That problem is far beyond me/us...”
“That’s what I love about being a Christian...”
“That’s what I love about my church...”
.
A Final Sentence Up Your Sleeve
“What's stopping you becoming a Christian?”
.
Helping Them Make A Start John 1:10-13
Explain that salvation is to know and trust Jesus (it's a marriage union with Him)
We do this together with His brothers and sisters (talk about church)
We hear His word (talk about the bible)
We speak to Him (talk about prayer)
If they want to receive Him: Romans 10:9-13 - Believe, Confess, Call
.
Who Do I Know Who Needs to Know?
How open are they to me?
1. Nodding acquaintance / rarely see em
2. We talk, not very deeply
3. A friendship is there
4. We could talk about most things
5. We talk about everything
How open are they to the gospel?
1. They don’t know I’m a Christian / Don’t want to know
2. They know I’m a Christian but not much more
3. We’ve spoken about gospel things once or twice
4. They’d come to something / read a book
5. They’re open to exploring Christianity in a deeper way
Spend time thinking of 3 friends and how they might meet with Jesus.
Pray for them and for opportunities to share Jesus with them.
.
Evangelism Training Session 5
321-GO! Part 5
BUT I'M SCARED!
Problems of the Head Luke 10:25-30ff
Coming to Christ is like getting to know a potential partner
Questions are involved, but questions are not the be-all and end-all!
At some point you just know enough to trust them.
.
Answering Questions: Reframing, Reflecting, Revealing...
We reframe the questions around the Bible’s definitions. (You could use 321!)
We reflect the question back because they too must answer it.
We reveal the gospel focused on Christ and Him crucified.
.
DISCUSS these questions using Reframe, Reflect, Reveal...
1) If God is all loving, all knowing and all powerful, how can he allow suffering?
2) Religion simply causes wars
3) How can Jesus be the only way to heaven?
.
A Sentence Up Your Sleeve...
“Can I step back and tell you what Christians believe in 5 minutes...”
.
Problems of the Heart 2 Corinthians 5:10-21
We want to feel ok with the world But Jesus hits a conversation like a sack of bricks.
We want to feel ok with God So I don’t want to get too involved with ‘the world’
We want to feel ok with ourselves But frankly we’re spiritually dry and it feels like a duty.
.
How would the Apostle Paul handle these objections? (2 Cor 5)
.
QUESTIONS
1. What problems of the head do you feel most keenly? How can they be addressed?
2. What problems of the heart do you feel most keenly? How can they be addressed?
3. Can you explain the Christian faith in 5 minutes using jargon-free language? Try it on each other.
.
Happy Friday
A home grown Happy Friday for you today.
Some say my preaching fails to be "relevant". Some say I never engage with contemporary issues and movements. I hope this video finally puts the accusation to bed:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfVBIJgtGkw]
And yes, I stole the gag from Twitter.
Evangelism Training Session 4
Catch-up:
.
321-GO!
Session 4: GOING WITH THE MISSIONARY GOD
.
God is a Community on Mission... and so are we! John 20:21-23
Outgoing-ness not so much a decision or act – a way of life.
.
Not Simply Sent... We Join Him In His Outgoing Life Matthew 28:18-20; Heb 13:13
If God is outgoing, what does it mean to be godly?
.
Mission is a community thing John 13:34-35.
What kind of community reaches the world?
Why should this be so?
.
We Help Each Other 1 Peter 2:9-12; 4:10-11
What does it mean for church to be a priesthood?
What is the significance of our different gifts within the priesthood?
Remember 1 Peter 3:15 - All are called to use words when the time is right!
.
A Sentence Up Your Sleeve...
“That’s what I love about my church...”
.
QUESTIONS
1. Sometimes it feels like God is up in heaven and wants us to go out and bring people in. How does this teaching challenge that thinking?
2. How does your community think of your church? (Do you want those thoughts to change?)
How does your church think of your community? (Do you want those thoughts to change?)
3. How can the life of church be more invitational? How can you be more invitational?
4. How would you complete that sentence "That's what I love about my church..."? How might you naturally talk about your church family with friends?
On Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously
Here's a repost about the vital importance of not being too earnest...
First of all, taking yourself lightly needs to be held together with the other half of the truth: we must take God seriously. Once I take God seriously - and by that I mean the trinitarian God of the Gospel - only then am I freed to get my eyes off myself.
Every human religion has humanity working before a watching God. The true God works before a watching humanity - Isaiah 64:4. In fact, as Isaiah says, that is the distinctive of the living God - He is the God of the gospel. And this gospel is that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit take salvation entirely into their own hands and leave not one calorie of effort to be done by us.
Once we see the Son taking our humanity, empowered by the Spirit to live our life before the Father and then die the death we should die - all in our place and on our behalf - then we see that it's out of our hands. Completely out of our hands.
Hence the punchline of so many of Paul's gospel explanations: "Where then is boasting??!" (Rom 3:27; 4:2; 1 Cor 1:29,31; 3:21; Gal 6:14; Eph 2:9). Boasting is essentially the definition of taking yourself too seriously. And it's the opposite of joy!
The gospel means that we must get off centre-stage, sit in the audience and watch the living God work salvation for us. And thus we take God seriously and we do not take ourselves seriously. In fact the essence of faith is to transfer our focus entirely from self to Christ.
Before Paul came to faith he used to take himself very seriously. He would spend his time building and making known his spiritual CV: Circumcised on the 8th day, of the people of Israel... (Phil 3:5ff). But when he came to see Christ as the gift of righteousness from God to be received by faith he counted that whole self-focused, CV-building, take-myself-very-seriously Pharisaism as dung! Total crap! (Phil 3:8). (And if we don't like those words maybe we need to lighten up and stop taking ourselves so seriously!)
Now he just wants to be found in Christ (Phil 3:9). The old Paul is dead, crucified with Christ (Rom 6:3ff; Gal 2:20; 6:14). And he entrusts every judgement about himself into Christ's hands:
I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. (1 Cor 4:3-4).
In the (half-remembered) words of Tim Keller, Paul is basically saying "I don't care what you think of me, I don't even care what I think of me." Paul has been so liberated by Jesus from self-focus, he knows his life is hidden with Christ in God - that's where his true life is (Col 3:1-4). And he refuses to be drawn back down into navel-gazing.
So that's what I basically mean when I say, Take God seriously, Don't take yourself seriously. Be released by Jesus into happy dependence. Then you can roar with laughter and not worry about what a goof you look. Then you can make fun of yourself and all your ridiculous self-salvation projects. Then you can hold everything else lightly because you know that you yourself are gripped by the triune God.
I admit that this can all sound quite radical because we tend to think that spiritual people are very serious people. And the more spiritual, the more serious. Well that's true for every human religion. But the gospel of Jesus is utterly different. And it's the one power to liberate us from the slavery to self and truly release us into the joy of the Spirit.
More on not being too earnest.
More on Comedy and Christianity
.
Evangelism Training Session 3
321-GO!
YOUR ONE-NESS
How are we one with Jesus?
Vine and Branches John 15:4-5
Head & Body / Groom & Bride Ephesians 5:25-30
Ruler and rulers Revelation 2:26-27
Priest and People Hebrews 4:14-16; 6:19-20; 7:23-28; 9:23-28; 10:11-14
Champion and Army 1 Samuel 17
Seed of Abraham Galatians 3:16,29
Son and sons Galatians 3:26
Anointed one(s) 1 John 2:20
.
The Privileges of Oneness with Jesus
His Status
His Inheritance
His Family
.
Discuss
If you asked the non-Christians you know ‘What is the Christian life all about?’, how would they respond?
How does Oneness with Jesus shape our understanding of the Christian life?
.
Becoming One with the Son of God John 1:12-14:
How does someone become a Christian?
.
Discuss:
People often say “I wish I had your faith!” What’s their understanding of “faith”?
How can people “have faith”?
.
A Sentence Up Your Sleeve...
“That’s what I love about being a Christian...”
.
QUESTIONS
- Sometimes people worry that offering Jesus “for free” will lead Christians to be careless about “doing good”. Given what we’ve been discussing, what would you say to that?
- Often we worry that we’re not clever or knowledgeable enough to share our faith. How does this teaching give us hope in our evangelism?
- What do you love about being a Christian? How could you drop this naturally into conversation?
.