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"I will not leave you as orphans"
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Category: sermons
Outgoing 4B – The Triune God part two
Outgoing – Session 4 – 29 September 2011
The Triune God - part two
Compare and contrast the omnibeing with the trinity.
How do these different gods lead to different gospels?
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What is our big problem with the Trinity?
We try to reconcile the omnibeing with the Trinity.
We need to replace the omnibeing with the Trinity.
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How is God Three?
Eternally distinct Persons.
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How is God One?
Eternally united in love
Deuteronomy 6:4
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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
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God is one the way a married couple or a united church is one.
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Perichoresis – the round dance of the Three!
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We must uphold UNITY, DISTINCTION and EQUALITY
Arianism: Jesus is not as God as God is God! (JWs)
Modalism: There’s one Person wearing 3 masks (TD Jakes)
Tritheism: There are three Gods doings their own thing.
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Almost all analogies are rubbish. But....
Humanity is in the image of God! Genesis 1:26ff.
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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
The Father is the Loving Sender / Initiator
John 3:16, 35; 1John 4:8-9
The Son is the Beloved and Obedient Sent-One / Executor
Psalm 40:7-8: John 5:30
The Spirit is the Personal Empowerer / Perfector / Applier
Acts 10:38; Romans 8:14-16
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All things are FROM the Father,
THROUGH the Son
and BY THE POWER OF the Spirit.
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What are the benefits of being explicitly Trinitarian?
Relationship
Radiance
Room
Response
Common Objection: “What’s all this nonsense about a trinity? Isn’t it easier to stick to the one God?”
Recommended Reading: 1 John. What does it mean that God is love?
Outgoing 4A – The Triune God
Outgoing – Session 4 – 29 September 2011
The Triune God
What was there in the beginning?
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The Trinity – Tri-unity – Three Persons united in love.
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Galatians 3:26-4:7
God the Son became God our Brother.
He came to make the perfect offering.
He brings us into His Sonship.
We are clothed in Christ,
Filled with the Spirit,
Doted on by the Father.
The trinity is not a maths problem!
It’s the good news that God is love...
... and we are invited!
Compare and contrast with the solitary, lonely god.
Genesis 39 Sermon – The Sinless Faithfulness of the Right Hand Man
Nehemiah 3 sermon – what brings unity to God’s people?
Nehemiah 3
What unites the Lord’s people? What makes for real, lasting, binding unity among the Family of God? Where do we find the kind of oneness that Jesus speaks of in John chapter 17.
“May they [the church] be brought to complete unity.” (John 17:23)
How can the church ever be the answer to Christ’s prayer?
Some will suggest unity through institutions. Be united under bishops, and archbishops. Perhaps under the Pope – surely that’s one way of achieving unity.
Some suggest unity through dialogue and declarations. Sit down with Christians and come to doctrinal agreements on as many things as we can. Certainly there’s a time and a place for that.
Perhaps we should pursue unity through ecumenical services where we put “give and take” into action in our worship. Maybe that can be an expression of unity.
In Nehemiah 3 we see the people united in an incredible way. Men and women. Adults and children. Nobles and servants. Different tribes. Different cultures. Different occupations working as one towards a common goal. There were hardships, there were set-backs, there was serious opposition, but through it all, the gracious hand of God was upon them and in 52 days they did what seemed impossible. They rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem.
And that’s what unites the people of God. And you say “What, a building project?” “Brick-laying is the key to church unity? Urban planning is the great ecumenical hope?” No, but let’s think what building up Jerusalem means. ...continue reading "Nehemiah 3 sermon – what brings unity to God’s people?"
Some talks
Mike Reeves on Just Jesus - three talks on the incomparability of Christ. His self-giving sets Him apart!
Rich Owen on Colossians 1:3-14 - "We need Jesus more today than we did yesterday". Amen!
And I've just spotted Rich's Colossians 1:15-23 sermon. Haven't listened to it yet. But very much looking forward to it.
UPDATE: See also Michael Luerhmann's sermon on Colossians 1:1-2 (ht Dave K).
The Threefold Word – Seminar part 2
Christ must be proclaimed biblically.
John 5:37-47
My job is not to speak about the bible.
My job is to speak about what the bible speaks about.
We don’t minister the word in order to give a “take home point.”
We offer a take-home Christ!
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Christ must be proclaimed biblically
The Bible does not need experts, it creates Heralds.
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Christ must be proclaimed biblically.
The Bible is not given to individuals for their personal piety.
The Bible is given to the church to proclaim Christ to the world.
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A minister of the word is not capable of speaking of Jesus.
They are incapable of doing otherwise!
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Jeremiah 20:9; 1 Corinthians 9:16; 2 Corinthians 4:13; 5:14-21
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If this is true how will it affect the content
of our word ministry?
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The Threefold Word – Seminar part 1
HANDOUT PART ONE
When I say “The Word of God” what springs instantly to mind?
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Genesis 15:1-6
1 Samuel 3:1,7,19-21
Psalm 18:30
Psalm 33:4-6
Jeremiah 1:4-10
John 1:1-3
Acts 6:7; 12:24; 13:49; 19:20
1 Thessalonians 2:8-13
Hebrews 4:12; 13:7
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How do we make sense of the various ways “God’s Word” is spoken of?
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The Three-Fold Word
- Christ
- Scripture
- Proclamation
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Martin Luther: “Tis a right excellent thing, that every honest pastor’s and preacher’s mouth is Christ’s mouth, and his word and forgiveness is Christ’s word and forgiveness… For the office is not the pastor’s or preacher’s but God’s; and the Word which he preacheth is likewise not the pastor’s and preacher’s but God’s.”
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John Calvin: “When a man has climbed up into the pulpit… it is [so] that God may speak to us by the mouth of a man.”
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The Second Helvetic Confession (Heinrich Bullinger): “The Preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is proclaimed and received by the faithful.”
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Matthew 10:40; Luke 10:16 – From Father to Son to Church to world with divine authority!
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When are my words God’s words?
When Christ is proclaimed biblically.
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If this is true, how will it affect the manner
in which we conduct our word ministry?
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Jesus is God’s smile beaming at us out of the depths of eternity
From Ben Myers' sermon here:
When we talk about God, when we write books and attend lectures, and read discussions about this question, “Does God exist”—as Christians when we talk about God we’re not talking about some kind of intellectual hypothesis. We’re not talking about a speculative idea that may or may not have certain arguments for or against it. We’re not talking about a psychological technique for coping with the difficulties of our lives. And when we talk about God, we’re certainly not talking about a supreme being that is so infinitely remote and distant from our world that all we can do is kind of look through our little theological telescopes and try to make a few connections.
As Christians—as followers of the Lord Jesus—when we talk about God, we are talking about one who has entered into the very fabric of our world, who has come as close to us as we are to ourselves, a God who has become incarnate. When we talk about God, ultimately, we are always talking about Jesus. For the God of the gospel is the God who has come among us in Jesus of Nazareth. We believe in God because of Jesus.
Jesus is the one who showed us the face of God—Jesus shows us the truth of God, Jesus shows us the love of God. Jesus is God’s smile beaming at us out of the depths of eternity. Jesus is God’s love wrapping around us, seizing us and not letting us go. Jesus is God’s grace, reaching into the darkest and most shameful dimensions of our experience. Jesus is God’s healing, binding up the wounded. Jesus is God’s goodness, in a world full of chaos and disaster and catastrophe. Jesus is God’s great strength for the weak. Jesus is water for the thirsty, and when you drink that water you will never thirst again. Jesus is bread for all those who are starved and hungry, famished for something good and something true. Jesus shows us God. He is not God’s explanation, he is not God’s argument, he is not God’s debate. He is God’s simple, great, loving act, showing us, Here I am, here you are. In Jesus, God shows us God. That I believe, is the whole secret of the Christian faith.
Religion Causes Wars – Man is the Answer. A sermon for 9/11
Yesterday I had two different conversations with people who called themselves atheists.
“Why are you an atheist?” I asked each of them. They both answered in exactly the same way. I wonder if you can guess what they said:
“Religion causes wars” they said.
It’s a common accusation isn’t it? Days after the September 11th attacks, Richard Dawkins wrote in The Guardian, “To fill a world with religion... is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used.”
That thinking is very prevalent. And on a day like today it might seem difficult to argue with. 10 years after the planes flew into the buildings, 10 years of war, surely it proves the atheists right, doesn’t it? Religion causes war.
Well now, let’s think about that for a second. The last hundred years have been called the murder century. Over a hundred million people have died violently in those 100 years. But do you want to hear the top three perpetrators who account for the great majority of the deaths? Stalin, Mao, Hitler. Add to this Mussolini, Tito, Pol Pot, Idi Amin. All of them atheists either dogmatically or practically. They have killed more in a century than religion ever has.
If we’re going to compare body counts, there’s blood on everyone’s hands. You cannot flee from the evils of religion to the safety of atheism. You cannot escape the human problem because the problem IS humans. Religious humans or irreligious humans – we are the problem. God is not the common denominator in war. Man is.
I say “man”, and I use that politically-incorrect label for a genuine reason, as we’ll see shortly. But God is not the common denominator in war, man is.
Man might use God to justify war. But man might also use godlessness to justify war. It seems that people can come up with any justification for war. What’s the problem? The problem is with us.
After so much war and suffering and terror, people have wanted to ask “How can you believe in God after the last hundred years?” But that is not the question is it? The question is, “How can anyone believe in man?”
That seems to me to be an obvious observation. But let’s think a little more biblically. Because actually, in the Bible, there is hope for man. And actually in the Bible religion does cause wars.
But we’ll have to come at the issue the way Paul does. We’ll do it by studying Romans 5 together and by thinking about that little word “man.”
...continue reading "Religion Causes Wars – Man is the Answer. A sermon for 9/11"