Letters
Eph 4:1-16 - Becoming One in Christ
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
Becoming One in Christ audio
We come today to the core issue of the letter: If we’re to fulfil our destiny as a church, if we’re to demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, as we read last week, then we must be united in heart and mind. But can we do it?
Here in ch 4, Paul begins to outline how being the new people of God is to be worked out in the down-to-earth, concrete realities of life. As we read on we discover that there are two challenges for us. First, it’s to build ourselves into a single united people without any of the social and economic divisions we see everywhere else; and then to be a holy people, showing in our lives the purity and righteousness that belongs with the people of God.
So today let’s think about the unity of the Church. How does that unity arise and how is it to be maintained?
Rom 8:26-39
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
Life in the Spirit -Help and Assurance audio
Well, how’s life treating you? That’s a fairly common question people might greet you with; commonly responded to with “Fine, thanks.” But is it fine? Or is life a bit tough at the moment, even if you don’t feel like sharing that with a mere acquaintance? Are you worried about some issue in your life? Are you concerned about the future?
Over the past few weeks we’ve been reading Paul’s letter to a church that were certainly doing it tough at a number of levels: at both the personal and external level. They were struggling with living lives that please God, and they were struggling with the pressure of living in a world where normal expectations and lifestyles were opposed to Christianity. In other words they weren’t that much different from us. Suffering is very much a universal experience.
Last week, though, Steve pointed out that we need to give thanks to God because the sufferings of this world can’t be compared to the glory that awaits us and now Paul goes on to build on that theme of thankfulness.
2 Cor 5:6-21 New Creation
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
New Creation and Reconciliation
Who’d like a new body? I’d say put your hands up but I wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle in your eagerness. Well today we follow up on what we heard last week, from Howard, of the reality of our hope of eternal life, of the fact that Jesus’ resurrection assures us of our own resurrection and, what’s more, that the presence of his Holy Spirit within us assures us that we’re already experiencing that eternal life with God, even if that is limited by our mortal bodies. Today we’re thinking about what that experience of God’s presence with us might mean for us in our present circumstances.
Paul begins this section reminding us that we remain always confident, not of our own strength or ability, but of God’s promise. One thing about Paul is that he understands what it’s like to struggle with life as a Christian. You’ll remember, if you were here 2 weeks ago, how he used that metaphor of having a great treasure in jars of clay. The jars of clay, of course, are us; our weak bodies and our less than perfect willpower.
Rom 7:14-25 - Living in the now and not yet
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
Living in the Now and Not Yet
When John writes his first letter to the churches in Asia- minor he reminds them that God loves us so much that he’s made us his children; and then he says “3:2Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” In other words our future life has to shape our present life. If we’re to live with God in the future then we need to start learning to live now in a way that pleases God.
So how are you at living a god pleasing life? You don’t need to answer that out loud. Nor do you need to give yourself a score. But my guess is that if you’re like me you may regularly find yourself thinking back on something you’ve done and realising that you should have done the exact opposite if you wanted to please God? How often do you realise that you’re repeating those mistakes over and over again? And if so, what do you do about it?
Rom 5: Peace, Perfect Peace
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
“Therefore, since we are justified by faith ...” But hang on, what’s this “Therefore” mean? This is like coming in halfway through a TV series, isn’t it? We first need to hear about the story so far.
The story begins in chapter 1 with one of Paul’s major affirmations: “The gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith - for the Jew first and also for [everyone else].” Then in the rest of ch1 he shows how people throughout history have chosen to ignore God, to decide for themselves how they should worship, how they should live; how in their desire to have their own way, make their own personal decisions, they’ve broken down social norms, exhibited all sorts of antisocial behaviour, envy, slander, insolence, arrogance, greed, murder; and the list goes on. And you’d have to say that things haven’t changed much. We live in a world where the rich get richer and the poor are simply overlooked, where people have become more and more self-centred, - narcissism seems to be the dominant characteristic of our society at the moment; “Not in my backyard” is heard much more often in public forums that “what can we do to help?” We see it in the increasing insistence on personal rights – not just the righting of social injustice that the rights campaigners began with in the 60s, but personal rights: my right to choose: whether I have a vaccination is one of the most recent; my right to choose when I die, my right to choose what pronouns you’ll use for me. God has become irrelevant to people’s decision making. The point of what he’s saying is that the world needs to be saved from itself.
