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Today Carl and I are beginning a short sequence of Sunday morning messages about five aspects of what we stand for as a church.
- Five statements that we on the leadership team have felt should characterise our church at this point in its journey.
- Some of us are new to the church and wanting to know what it stands for – these five Sunday messages will help you get to grips with that.
- Others of us have been here for donkeys years (why is it always a donkey?) and for you we want to remind and entice you with what being part of this church is all about.
When you stand at a bus stop to catch a bus, the first thing you do as the bus approaches it look at it to see if it’s going where you want to arrive.
- On the front there is display telling people where the bus is going.
These five messages will unpack what is on the front of the Victoria bus.
- what kind of church we’re seeking under God to create.
1 a healthy Biblical community
2 a passionate worshipping community
3 a generous serving community
4 a deeply loving community
5 a relevant evangelistic community
So today – a healthy Biblical community
healthy
to be healthy I need to take on board the right food and have the right exercise, as well as guard against disease,
SO it is with our spiritual lives >>>
Community => we’re in this together
The church is a groups of people who have been called by God for a particular purpose.
The word used in the Bible is ‘ekklesia’ and it’s a Greek word that means “called out for a particular purpose”
Interestingly in its original form it didn’t have religious overtones.
The town council in Ephesus is called an ‘ekklesia’ – but they certainly weren’t a Godly outfit!
However the early Christians quickly latched on to this word because it said exactly what they wanted to say about the church of Jesus Christ
- If you’re a christians here this morninhg, you’ve been called out by God >>>
- we have a purpose to fulfil here >>>
If that is our mission,
- where is the inspiration to get me going to do this?
- where is the framework for me to live by – so I can sense whether I’m on track or not?
the answer is here in the Bible
- and the Bible is the book which above all others communicates God’s word to us.
<ppt> two dangers to be aware of
adding to the Bible
E.g. tradition
Bible believing Christians about a century ago were concerned over the addition of traditions by many Catholic theologians
other ‘inspired’ writings too
Just because I find a book inspirational (in the sense that it moves me) doesn’t mean to say that it’s inspired (God-breathed)
e.g. Book of Mormon
e.g. Science and Health with a Key to the scriptures (Mary Baker Eddy) Christian Scientists
adding other books to the scriptures is like piling luggage in a canoe – it will eventually fall over.
subtracting from the Bible
From Germany in the mid 20th century came a theological movement called “liberalism”
It all sounded very nice, very amenable, very culturally relevant, but it did violence to the text of the Bible
Liberal theologians argued that large parts of the Bible were ‘myth’ , miracles were actually not to be trusted and some statements about God were offensive and so could be ignored.
Jesus didn’t have to have risen from the dead bodily, so long as we believed in the story.
Bible believing Christians quickly realised that the Bible minus was just as dangerous to the gospel as the Bible plus.
and there were some major minds
John Stott (From and anglican)
Ray Brown (with a Baptist connection)
FF Bruce argued for the validity of e Bible from an archaeological standpoint)
Don Carson
Donald Guthrie (Rosi’s Dad) from a Academic perspective)
Their common message – <ppt> the Bible is the word of God written up in the words of man and it is reliable, trustworthy and the sole source of God’s message to mankind.
Principle 1
The Bible is the word of God written up in the words of man
My aim, is to inspire you, to motivate you, to encourage you to feed on the Bible
I use that word ‘feed’ very deliberately because the act of feeding on the Bible is totally different from merely reading the text of the Bible.
Now, of course, it’s vital that we do read the text
- because we can’t enable our souls to imbibe it without first getting our minds to process it.
- How can my heart rejoice in something my head hasn’t received?!
But I want to assure you that in order to do this you don’t need to be a Biblical scholar –
- and expert in OT Hebrew and NT Greek to get your heart to feed on the Word!
- If that were the case, God would be limiting his message to an intellectual elite and few, if any, of us come into that category!
So here is principle number 2 for this morning –
the purpose of the Bible is to bring life to the soul of anyone who is willing to receive it’s message.
Psalm 119 (just read it) was clearly written by someone who had received it message
Ps 119:9-16
10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
These are words indicating life!
These are the words of someone who just revels in God’s Word and whose heart and soul have been nourished and built up by the Bible’s message
That’s what God intends for every one of us!
>>>
E.g. Fathers – what do you feed your kids on? – good stuff
your heavenly father has just as great a desire to feed your soul on
Principle 3
the Bible is intended to be a clear communication of God’s message to us
Hard wired in the heart of God is a deep desire to get his word across to us.
- Your heavenly father has a vested interest in you receiving his message clearly and in an inspiring or challenging way.
- God doesn’t make his word obscure.
‘But’ you may say to me ‘some parts of the Bible are enormously difficult to understand’ and you’re right.
And for these most of us will need some help.
- In fact an important part of my task as a preacher is to expound the word so it can be understood and then (I pray) the Holy Spirit will take his word and make it real to you.
My favourite example of this is Ezra
Backstory:
Nehemiah had returned from exile to Jerusalem and had rebuilt its wall.
He and Ezra the priest called a meeting of all the people from the lowest slave to the high nobility to read and expound God’s word.
the physical construction had taken place, now the spiritual construction must follow.
Neh 8:6-9
6 Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
7 The Levites– …
8 .. read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.
And what happened?
The Holy Spirit came on the people in such power that they began falling down and weeping.
And it seems to me that nobody was more surprised about this than Nehemiah himself!
9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
4th principle:
To understand the Bible ask the question “What did this mean to the first person who heard it?”
Indeed, I don’t even have to have the book in front of me, or on my PC screen or in my mobile phone to feed on it.
Principle 5
One of the signs of me being filled with the Holy Spirit is a love and a hunger for God’s word.
Jonathan Edwards
He wrote about the signs of a true revival
Revival often came through his preaching
But some of the manifestations of revival (such as people weeping or falling down in meetings) worried him somewhat. Some were undoubtedly the genuine activity of God by his spirit. Others weren’t
he wanted to help people discern which was which
this is sign no 3 of a work of the Holy Spirit
”The spirit that operates in such a manner as to cause in men a greater regard to the Holy Scriptures, and establishes them more in their truth and divinity is certainly the Spirit of God”
Let’s examine and obvious parallel.
When I feed my body I put food inside it that will act as fuel to nourish it and
that nourishment helps it to grow and keeps it going until my next meal.
Some Christian waste away spiritually because they fail to take notice of their spiritual hunger and get a good square meal!
So I want to encourage you to have a good square meal each day for the next month or so – and tell me what happens
I’m calling it
Victoria’s wisdom challenge
Can we agree to read a chapter (usually a bit less that one page) of the Bible each day?
Use proverbs, >>>
