8. King of the nations Matthew 28, Acts 28
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Romans 9 and the OT: Who is the King?
{podcast id=253}
8. King of the Nations Matthew 28, Acts 28
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 8 September 2013
Series: Who is the King? And what has happened to his people? A short history of God and his people. A study guide can be downloaded here.
Bible Readings: Joel 2.28-32; Psalm 98; Acts 28.17-31; Matthew 4.12-17.
Passages referred to in the sermon: Acts 2.36; 9.15; 10; 11.19; 13.1; Gen 12.3; Isaiah 49.6; Romans 15.8-13; Matthew 28.18.
What the King did after he was raised, how he did it and why he sent his gospel to the nations.
What Healthy Churches Need 8 Sep 13
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
What Healthy Churches Need
What are the things that characterise healthy churches? Here are some possibilities: Disciples; A Founder; God’s Word; Prayer; Meetings that edify; Fellowship; Breaking bread; Gospel; Leaders; Generosity ...
What would you add to this list? What basis in the scriptures would you have for your suggestion? I am interested in your views. Please let me know what you would add to the list (which is a bit random at this stage).
The idea of a healthy church implies unhealthy ones, which I suppose all of us know about. But what does healthy mean? It suggests some correspondence between the life of a church and what God intended his church to be like. Just as when we go to the doctor, the doctor has some standard of comparison as to what a healthy person looks like. Otherwise their treatment would be subjective and whimsical (at best) or (more likely) determined by profit.
Luke 14.25-35 8 September 13
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Notes on the Gospel readings from Luke
Notes on Luke 14.25-35 8 September 13
This is a parable spoken to the crowds. Many people were travelling with Jesus. Jesus is interested in whether they will be his disciples. Being a disciple is not the same as travelling with Jesus.
Three times Jesus uses the phrase, “...cannot be my disciple”: verse 26, 27, 33.
A person must work out in advance whether they are willing to do what is required to be a disciple, v28-32. Two examples are given: a builder and a king.
If a person decides to be a disciple and then finds they do not want to continue, it is like salt that has lost its saltiness – it is no good and has to be thrown out v34-35.
What is involved in a person being a disciple of Jesus?
1. Hating near relatives, and one’s own life v26.
2. Taking up one’s cross v27
3. Giving up everything one has v33
Taking up one’s cross means dying. It is a similar idea to giving up everything one has. One has nothing left. This helps us understand the first idea. Jesus doesn’t mean we should have feelings of hatred to our relatives, any more than that we should have feelings of hatred towards our own life. He means we must not hang on to them, try to keep hold of them, possess them and depend on them. He wants us to be completely free to learn from him. Only then will we be able to love our relatives, and only then will we be able to live our own life in the best way.
Being a disciple of Jesus means he must have complete and total control of our lives. He is not looking for fans or spectators, he is looking for 24/7 apprentices.
Dale
These notes are provided for the benefit of the preachers in our Dinka speaking congregation.
7. God is King again
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Romans 9 and the OT: Who is the King?
{podcast id=254}
7. God is King Again
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 1 September 2013
Series: Who is the King? And what has happened to his people? A short history of God and his people. A study guide can be downloaded here.
Bible Readings: Ezekiel 34.11-24; Psalm 97; 1 Timothy 6.11-16; Mark 8.27 - 9.1.
Passages referred to in the sermon can be seen or downloaded here.
After 450 years of silence and expectation, God the King returns to his people, gathers the two parts of the kingdom to himself and enters the city, stops the temple and is rejected again, but is raised from death and declares himself as the one with all authority in heaven and on earth.
6. Where is the King? Ezekiel 43
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Romans 9 and the OT: Who is the King?
{podcast id=255}
6. Where is the King? Ezekiel 43
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 25 August 2013
Series: Who is the King? And what has happened to his people? A short history of God and his people. A study guide can be downloaded here.
Bible Readings: Ezekiel 43.1-9; Acts 13.44-52; Matthew 4.1-11; Readings referred to: 1 Kings 9.3; 1 Kings 11.9-13; 2 Kings 17.7-23; 2 Kings 23.26-27; 2 Kings 25. 8-12; Jeremiah 3.16; Ezra 1; Ezekiel 43.7-9; Revelation 3.14-22; Romans 11.21; Matthew 7.21
After Solomon, the division of the kingdom, the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, the removal of God's people from God's presence, and then the return from exile, has God returned to the new temple? Have any of the new promises been fulfilled?
5. The King and the Kingdom 2 Samuel 7
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Romans 9 and the OT: Who is the King?
{podcast id=256}
5. The King and the Kingdom 2 Samuel 7
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 18 August 2013
Series: Who is the King? And what has happened to his people? A short history of God and his people. A study guide can be downloaded here.
Bible Readings: 2 Samuel 7.8-16; Romans 1.1-6; Matthew 3.13-17; Luke 1.32-33; Ephesians 2.1-22; Hebrews 11.10,16; 12.22-end; Rev 21.1-4, 22-end
David establishes a City and brings the Ark of God to the city so religion and government is centralised in the same place. God promises David that his kingdom will endure forever and his son will build a House for God.
Christians who remain Christians 18 Aug 13
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Christians who remain Christians
Albert Camus, a French atheist philosopher, in 1948 spoke to a group of Dominican scholars. It was a post-war dialogue between believer and unbeliever. In the talk he said,
I shall not try to change anything that I think or anything that you think (insofar as I can judge of it) in order to reach a reconciliation that would be agreeable to all. On the contrary, what I feel like telling you today is that the world needs real dialogue, that falsehood is just as much the opposite of dialogue as is silence, and that the only possible dialogue is the kind between people who remain what they are and speak their mind. This is tantamount to saying that the world of today needs Christians who remain Christians.
He said he was opposed to changing one’s beliefs in order to reach some agreement between views that were really not able to be reconciled. He spoke of a Catholic priest he had heard speak at the Sorbonne who said he was anti-clerical. Camus thought this was a bad thing. He preferred that “Christians should remain Christians”.
It is an important idea. Especially at a time when public opinion on some important moral matters is being swayed by powerful lobbies.