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Published on 1 Comment on Mission Sermon – Philippians 2:5-18

When Jesus came, stooped, served, suffered, was shamed, bled and died - that was not a departure from His divine glory.  He wasn’t taking a holiday from being God.  That was the expression of His glory. The cross is the most God-life thing imaginable.  Because God’s life is a life of outgoing, outpouring, sacrificial, life-giving love.

Think of the cross.  Bring to mind that bloodied corpse with His arms outstretched to the world:  This is what is looks like to be God.  What is the highest heights of Godness, the deepest depths of deity?  Look to the Cross.  Look to the God who pours Himself out. His own life-blood is flowing from His veins.  And He does it for you.

The real God bleeds for His enemies.  The real God gives His life even to death.  The real God loves us more than His own life.  And when Jesus dies on the cross THEREFORE, God the Father exalts Him and says “THAT!!!  Look at the crucified One.  That's what it means to be God."

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Sermon audio

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Published on 5 Comments on Trinity and Islam

Here's a talk I gave at the Plymouth University mission earlier this year.  It was entitled "Three in One, have Christians got God right?"  We invited the Islamic Society along, so it definitely had a Muslim audience in mind (though the talk is not exclusively pitched at that audience).

Here's the introduction...

Listen to two very different voices from very different times and places.  They have one thing in common - a deep dislike of the Doctrine of the Trinity:

The first is from Thomas Jefferson:

“When we shall have done away with the incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one and one is three; when we shall have knocked down the artificial scaffolding, reared to mask from view the simple structure of Jesus; when, in short, we shall have unlearned everything which has been taught since his day, and got back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated, we shall then be truly and worthily his disciples.”  Thomas Jefferson

The second is from the Quran:

Allah is one, he does not beget nor is he begotten and there is none like him.  Surah 112

Do not say ‘Three’  Surah 4:171

No son did Allah beget, nor is there any god along with Him: (if there were many gods), behold each god would have taken away what he had created and lorded it over the others!  Surah 23:91

Incredibly different times, places and cultures.  But a real unity on this issue - they find the Trinity incomprehensible, if not blasphemous.

But tonight I want to say that the Trinity is the only thing that will make sense of your world, yourself and of God himself.  You might think that the Trinity doesn't make sense.  I want to say that without the Trinity life doesn't make sense.

Let me begin by asking you a question, What do you think was there 'in the beginning'?...

Audio

Powerpoint Slides (these would be helpful if you want to listen, or if you want a quick view of the talk)

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Published on 3 Comments on Talks from Ask Eastbourne (and other sermons on tough questions)

Does God exist? And if so, how does He fit with science?

Audio  Video  Text  Powerpoint

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What happens when you die?

Audio  Video  Text  Powerpoint

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Why is there so much suffering?

Audio  Video  Text  Powerpoint

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Why doesn't God accept everyone? (Why is there a hell?)

Audio  Video  Text  Powerpoint

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Does God even exist?

Audio  Video  Text  Powerpoint

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Aren't all religions basically the same?

Audio  Video  Text  Powerpoint

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How can you believe when religions cause so many wars?

Audio  Text

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Why bother with Christianity (as opposed to other religions)?

Audio  Text

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Published on 1 Comment on What happens when we die? Ask Eastbourne Video

This time I'm ripping off Steve Levy.  But I can't do it like he does it.

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Audio  Video  Text  Powerpoint

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Published on 8 Comments on Does God exist? How does He fit with Science?

Here's my first talk from Ask Eastbourne.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V68x4Z3VknM]

I ripped off stuff from Vaughan Roberts, Lee McMunn, Mike Reeves,  CS Lewis and probably others too!

 

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Audio  Video  Text  Powerpoint

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Published on 5 Comments on Lent Course – Session 5: The Outgoing God

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There's Q&A at the end that includes the excellent questions:

"Why does Paul call us sons but also slaves?",
"Is there any place for self-offering to God?",
"You dislike the "Omnibeing", do you mean to say that Jesus is not all-powerful, all knowing, etc?"

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HAILSHAM LENT COURSE – The Outgoing God

Week 5: THE OUTGOING GOD

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RECAP:  The Trinity is not a maths problem, it’s the good news that God is love

The Trinity is the THREE-UNITY of God – God is Three Persons United in Love

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How is God Three? –  Eternally distinct Persons.

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How is God One?  (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Eternally united in love.  “Perichoresis” – the round dance of the Three

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Use of “one” in the Bible:  Genesis 2:24; 11:6; 34:16; Exodus 24:3; 26:6; Deuteronomy 6:4; Joshua 9:2; 10:42; 2 Samuel 2:25; 2 Chronicles 5:12; 30:12; Ezra 6:24; John 17:11,20-21

God is one the way a married couple or a united church is one.

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When Trinity Goes Wrong  (Heresies)...

Arianism:  Jesus is not as God as God is God!  (JWs)

Modalism: There’s one Person wearing 3 masks (Oneness Pentecostalism)

Tritheism: There are three Gods doings their own thing.  (Mormons)

Fourth Thing: Having a “God” beneath or beyond the Persons.  (Shamrock)

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Our biggest problem:

We try to reconcile the omnibeing with the Trinity.

We need to replace the omnibeing with the Trinity.

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The Roles of the Persons

2 Corinthians 13:14
Isaiah 11:1-5; Is 42:1-4; Is 48:12-16; Is 61:1-3

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The Father is the Loving Sender / Initiator

John 3:16, 35; 1 John 4:8-9

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The Son is the Beloved and Obedient Sent-One / Executor

Psalm 40:7-8: John 5:30

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The Spirit is the Personal Empowerer / Perfector / Applier

Acts 10:38; Romans 8:14-16

All things are FROM the Father, THROUGH the Son, BY THE POWER OF the Spirit.

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What does it mean that the Son is “eternally begotten”?

By the Spirit and through the Son, God is eternally outgoing

Life-giving, Communicating, Shining, Loving

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Richard Sibbes: “God’s goodness is a communicative, spreading goodness. . . . If God had not a communicative, spreading goodness, he would never have created the world.  The Father, Son and Holy Ghost were happy in themselves and enjoyed one another before the world was.  But that God delights to communicate and spread his goodness, there had never been a creation nor a redemption.  God useth his creatures not for defect of power, that he can do nothing without them, but for the spreading of his goodness.”

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If God is eternally outgoing, what is “godliness”, “faith”, “sin”, the Christian life?

“The Christian lives far above themselves in Christ through faith and far beneath themselves in their neighbour through love.”  (Martin Luther)

“God does not need our good works, our neighbour does.”  (Martin Luther)

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Philippians 2:1-18:  An outgoing God makes for an outgoing people

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CONCLUSION:  Look again to Christ.  Be filled by His Spirit.  Know the Life-Giving Father.  And overflow to the world.  This is our participation in the divine nature!

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Published on 2 Comments on Answering Some Big Questions

I went into Eastbourne College yesterday to answer questions the students had been asking as part of Ask Eastbourne.

Their top three questions were:

How do we know you exist?

How come you allow so much suffering?

What about other religions, are they all wrong?

I tried to answer those briefly and then took questions from the floor.  Students were very keen to stay and chat afterwards.  Great chats and 8 people took John's Gospels at the end to read further.  Please pray for them.

Audio (36 mins)

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Published on Leave a comment on Christ in all of Scripture

Perhaps you haven't heard me bang my 'Christ in the Old Testament' drum.  (In which case you must be very new to the blog!).  Welcome!  Here's a half hour talk introducing the theme.

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Powerpoint Slides

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I consider the subject systematically, from the New Testament and from the Old Testament.

Systematically:  Jesus really is the Word of the Father - if the OT saints knew God, they must have known Jesus.

From the NT:  Jesus and the Apostles seemed to think He was known and trusted in OT times.

From the OT:  Moses and the Prophets proclaim Christ in their own context on their own terms.

If you want to take the issue further, this page may help.

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