Church notes - December 2019
1st December
Micah 5:2
Luke 2:1 - 7
Revelation 19:6 - 10
The Bride of Christ
A network of trusted people. Social capital. People who are socially connected tend to be healthier. Churches are effective at breaking down class barriers.
Churches decrease social polarisation.
Jeremiah 3:1 - 7
Hosea 1
Hosea 3:1
Unfaithfulness
God reaching out to His people, calling them to Himself.
2 Corinthians 11:2
Paul saw his ministry as preparing the Bride for marriage.
Ephesians 5:22 = 33
Revelation 19:6 - 10
The Church must be morally pure
Eph 5:27
The church is a fellowship of sinners who are being transformed through Christ.
One day, we'll be as Christ sees us, without stain or blemish.
Ephesians 4:22 - 32
Satan decieves by subtleties - e.g. Genesis 3:1 -4. Eve couldn't resist the temptation. She didn't have the words. In contrast Jesus did. Matthew 4:3 - 10. We need to know Scripture to refute him.
Revelation 2:1 - 7
Ephesus
They had lost their first love for Christ. We need to have that!
The Bride of Christ - It is not one person. It is all of us together.
More than a 'club', for we have the Spirit of God in us.
Hebrews 10:19 - 25
A place to find peace in God.
8th December
John 8:12
John 1:1 - 12
Beginning with the Light
vs 9
A different perspective to Matthew and Luke (who began with the genalogies and His birth in Bethlehem).
No Typical Baby - A light coming into a world of darkness. Jesus has come to be the light in your life. He's offering rescue from the darkness.
His love glows in the darkness.
Romans 8:38, 39
This is why we shouldn't let the light of Jesus dim in our lives. There is nothing that can stand against it.
His Love glows in the dark.
We need not fear.
Walk in the light without fear.
Psalm 27
15th December
Isaiah 53
Community
Unity
Ephesians 4:3, 4
Unity needs to be protected.
2 Corinthians 5:18 - 20
Reconciliation
Jesus came into the world so that we'd be reconciled to God.
Judah
Genesis 37:19 - 30
Genesis 38
Judah seems to be going downhill
Three sons
- Er
- Onan
- Shelah
Er died, but Onan didn't do right by Tamar, so God killed him. Shelah was too young...
---
Judah recognises Tamar is more righteous than him.
Tamar triumph's over Judah and the patriarchal system of the time, and becomes part of God's story of redemption. A beginning of spiritual growth for Judah.
Matthew 1:2 - 6
Not only Tamar, but also Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.
In God's kingdom everyone is welcome,
God's reconciling.
If He can reconcile Judah and Tamer, there is no one He can't reconcile.
Whatever needs to be confessed, whatever relationship needs to be fixed, or a habit broken or a behaviour changed, bring it to God.
22nd December
Luke 2:1 - 10
Luke 1:26, 38
2 Corinthians 5:16 - 21
Reconciliation
Exchanging Hostility for peace.
Exchanging Emnity for friendship.
Distance is a relationship closing.
Joseph
Genesis 37:2 - 11, 19, 20, 26, 27
Joseph sold into slavery by his resentful brothers.
Genesis 41:9-13
The cupbearer remembers.
Genesis 42:7-20
The dream fulfilled.
Joseph doesn't just want forgiveness. He wants reconciliation built on trust.
A true pentitant means, if one commits a sin that if given an opportunity to commit the same sin again, refuses.
Genesis 44:18-33
Judah had changed.
Genesis 45
Reconciliation between Jacob's sons.
Genesis 49:8 - 11
The most important blessing is Judah's.
David and eventually, Jesus, would come from Judah.
Christmas Eve 2019
Psalm 100
A Great Shout of Joy
God and sinners reconciled.
What is Reconciliation?
To bring together people who were estranged.
Exchange hostility for peace.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20
The reason Jesus came into the world.
What is greatness.
Not the person who has the most dollars. (Nor a certain POTUS...)
Luke 2:25 - 33
Simeon recognised that Jesus was the Saviour.
Reconciling through Jesus' sacrifice.
Romans 5:10
Colossians 1:22
2 Corinthians 5:21
A light for the world - the hope for us.
Replaced the hostility with peace.
Christmas Day 2019
Christmas is about reflecting on Jesus coming
Isaiah 7:14
Luke 2:8 - 20
Matthew 2:1 - 12
The Story of Christmas - Jesus is Born
Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:18 - 19
The Pinnacle of reconciliation in the Bible.
Isaiah 7:14
Immanuel God with us.
God in us.
He is with us. In us.
Forest Gump - rejected by everyone on the bus, except Jenny.
Elvis: 'I'll be blue at Christmas without you."
Loneliness
Dawkins: "The universe offers nothing, just pitiless existence."
Dawkins is wrong
Genesis 2:18
God with us mentioned hundreds of times in the Old Testament.
Jesus with us in human form.
The Holy Spirit with us.
Acts 4:13
They noted that Jesus had been with them.
A triumph for the theif on the cross.
Freedom for people who are addicted.
Loneliness means we are made for God.
Loneliness increasing.
3/4 Americans report loneliness.
Minister of Loneliness in the U.K.
Immanuel - a picture of God and sinners reconciled.
The message of Christmas is Immanuel. God with us. God and sinners reconciled. You and I moving closer to God.
29th December
1 John 1
Fruits of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22 - 24
Three issues
Euthanasia
Abortion
Same Sex Marriage
Euthanasia
Secular Humanism
Wikipedia - Secular humanism is a philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
Ethics
We should base them on the Bible.
All through the Book of Judges - a often repeated phrase. There was no King and all the people did whatever seemed right in their eyes.
Secular Humanist Worldview - No Supreme Being, individual humans are sovereign.
Christiian Worldview - God is sovereign.
Euthanasia legal
Northern Territory in 1996 - until the Federal Government overrulled it.
2019 - Victoria and Western Australia...
Euthanasia - a deliberate act to end a life.
We need to be cautious about the implication.
Active - an action leads to death.
Passive - inaction leads to death.
Voluntary - Patient chooses to end their life.
Invuluntary - the decision is made by someone else... (As has happend in the Netherlands).
Indirect - Death occurs due to unintended consequences of treatment.
Judges 9:52, 53
Abimelech had his servant run him through so that 'they wouldn't say that a woman killed him'.
2 Samuel 1
David had the Amelekite executed because he had killed Saul.
Sovereignty of God
Job 1:21
Value of Humanity
1 Corinthians 3:16, 17
1 Corinthians 6:19, 20
Suffering
Romans 5:3
2 Corinthians 4:17
God cares for his people
Promises to deliver.
Psalm 23:4
God going through life with us, in us.
Romans 8:31 - 39
2 Corinthians 12:7 - 10
Psalm 34
Revelation 21:3, 4
Jesus is the Good Shepherd who guides us through life. We can trust Him to guide us through death as through life.
We don't have the right to choose when to die.
Euthanasia makes no sense. Trusting God makes sense.
Ephesians 2:8, 9
God's Grace - Salvation comes completely apart from any effort on our part. It's through Jesus on the Cross. God did it all through Grace.