Jesus is the Word of God
Does God exist? And if so, how does He fit with science?
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What happens when you die?
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Why is there so much suffering?
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Why doesn't God accept everyone? (Why is there a hell?)
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Does God even exist?
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Aren't all religions basically the same?
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How can you believe when religions cause so many wars?
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Why bother with Christianity (as opposed to other religions)?
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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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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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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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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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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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The Bible is PLAIN, POWERFUL, it's for PASSING ON, and it PRESENTS JESUS.
Handout...
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RECAP:
We become like what we worship (Psalm 115:8)
The trouble is, our minds are endless factories of idols (John Calvin)
Understanding the living God is the very stuff of life (John 17:3; 2 Peter 1:2-3)
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Everyone has a god – we all look to sources of meaning / protection / satisfaction
The question is not: Do you believe in God? The question is: "Which God do you believe in?"
It’s a god eat god world out there and it’s every god for himself!
So which God do we believe in? That’s our topic for tonight...
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THOUGHT EXPERIMENT:
When you imagine God what do you picture?
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When you imagine Jesus, what do you picture?
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When God imagines you, what does He picture?
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Colossians 1:15-23
When you imagine God what do you picture?
Verse 15 – He’s invisible.
Verse 21 – We’ve been alienated
But He does have an Image!
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We think “God” is obvious, we’re uncertain of Jesus.
In the Bible it’s the other way around: God is unknown unless Jesus reveals Him.
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Tom Torrance: The biggest question soldiers asked: “Is God really like Jesus?”
Lord Byron: “If God isn’t like Jesus, He ought to be.”
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When you imagine Jesus, what do you picture?
Verses 15-20 – the Cosmic Christ!
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Sometimes people think of Christ alone as narrow, is it narrow?
It’s only as narrow as Christ is. And He is vast!
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When God imagines you, what does He picture?
We imagine a dimmer switch. Actually it’s on or off...
OFF: v21 – alienated, enemy, evil
ON: v22 – holy, without blemish, free from accusation.
Verse 23: Keep returning to verse 22!!
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SUMMARY: Jesus is God-sized. God is Jesus-shaped. Every day we need to re-imagine God according to His true Image: Jesus! When we see who He is, then we understand our true position, loved by God, clothed in Christ, filled by His Spirit.
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Put yourself in the passage: You had been in the dock awaiting a terrifying sentence. Now the verdict is delivered for all time: "Justified." How do you feel?
Or put yourself in the slave market. You had been shackled and owned by a terrible master. Now you’re freed and the Son of God is given to you. How do you feel?
Or put yourself in the queue at the temple. You deserved to shed your own blood. But Christ died in your place, as your Lamb. How do you feel?
What is a Christian? We are JUSTIFIED, FREED, and FORGIVEN and we don’t deserve it for a second. Our Christian lives are NOTHING to do with ourselves, and EVERYTHING to do with Jesus our LORD...