Romans – Day 3

30 Sep 2009 | | Posted in RomansNo Comments

and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. [Romans 1:4]

The Cross of Jesus Christ is right at the heart of the gospel (which is JESUS – see yesterday), but it is not the whole gospel.

 If Jesus’ incarnation communicates His humanity and the character of Father God,  if His crucifixion demonstrates His sacrifice and love, and deals with our sin (we know this is far too simplistic but true none-the-less), then it is His resurrection that shows His power.

Recently evangelical christianity has been deeply concerned with discussion and disagreement around the nature of atonement, but also  appears to have a pretty impoverished understanding of the resurrection. Here Paul suggests that it is the resurrection that proves Jesus Sonship - His Godship. This is crucial logically. Only a King who has conquered death can live forever. Only if Jesus is alive can He fulfill the prophecy of 2 Samuel 7:13 and be the Messiah. This is also the prime evangelistic message of the early church: a dead man walked! He is God! (check out the early sermons in Acts)

For us today it means at least three things:

1. Jesus rising from the dead defeats not only death for us, but everything that surrounds death.

  • Fear – when will I die?
  • Despair – life is full of pain, and then you die
  • Greed – I’ve got to grab all I can in this short life

(you add your own)

It’s true – it has been defeated by Jesus. These things need no longer win over you. Jesus is risen!

2. The risen Jesus means we have a living faith – not a dead religion.

He is alive! Now we get to walk as children of the resurrection – we get to walk with Him, co-operate with Him and relate to Him.

3. The risen Jesus means that the Jesus life is not just humility and sacrifice – it is POWER!

Today: ask Jesus if He would reveal His risen life to you – in your ordinary, HIS extra-ordinary risenness. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with the presence and person of the risen Jesus.

- Karl

Romans – Day 2

29 Sep 2009 | | Posted in RomansNo Comments

the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, [Romans 1: 2,3]

The Good News that was introduced in yesterdays section IS JESUS — it’s not essentially a formula – or an equation to get us out of the mess that we find ourselves in. The Good News is JESUS ..

JESUS was promised by the prophets. If you have time today check out the following Scriptures to get just a hint of the over 300 prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled in the person of Jesus: Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:2-7, Micah 5:2-5, Psalm 22:16-18. Above all check out Isaiah 53.

JESUS – Really God – Paul describes Jesus as “God’s son”. He “fleshes out” God for us. He not only represents God but is God (you only have to do a superficial study of any of the Jesus story in the gospels to recognise that this is who Jesus saw himself to be and what caused such a stir – disciples to follow and religious people to hate)

JESUS – fully Man – Paul sees Jesus also as the seed of David descended from David – as such he qualifies to be the promised messiah – as such he is not only Godly – he is Grounded – as such he can relate to our stories cause he lived our stories – he is human – he slept and ate and laughed and cried and got angry and died.

Jesus knows our stuff – and has come to do something about our stuff – he is the Gospel – he was creating at the beggining – John 1 – he is mentioned at the Fall – Gen 3 (he will crush Satans head) – he is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – he yells It is accomplished on the cross – he is coming again in glory.

Jesus is the GOSPEL . (If you have not already or have time to do so again – listen to the Sermon – Jesus – God’s Rescue Plan – on Mbc website – or Itunes – from 13th September 2009)

Stop – just for a moment and list all the names and qualities of Jesus that you can recall – you may want to journal these – write a song or a poem… spend some time just worshipping Jesus.

- Karl

Romans – Day 1

28 Sep 2009 | | Posted in RomansNo Comments

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God [Romans 1:1]

At MBC every Sunday morning and evening we are encouraged to introduce ourselves to people around us in the building. I find it really interesting the way in which people describe themselves… very often they define their life and role by their job or where they live or whether or not they are married and have kids. If they are a student – they might say I study… I come from… and when the conversation goes further they might talk about hobbies and interests… if they are a hairdresser they could describe the holiday they are going on later in the year (apologies for all ridiculous stereotypes being created during the series).

If you had three words to describe yourself what would they be?

From the many writings that Paul left us and from the Acts of the Apostles (written by Luke) we can piece together a great amount about Paul – his training – zeal – conversion – intellect – ability to reason – he is a scholar – pastor – teacher – tent-maker and yet here at the very start of this – perhaps his most studied letter to the church in Rome, he describes himself as a SERVANT, as an APOSTLE, and as SET APART… or HOLY.

I am not sure that you or I would ever use these words in a conversation in the first few minutes of a church service (let alone in the barbers!). But what an awesome way to describe yourself.

HOLY – set apart – different – set apart for the Gospel of God – the orientation and direction and goal of my life is the good news of God – his plan – we can know God – the restoration of all things

SERVANT – one who serves – God – his purposes and People

APOSTLE – one who pioneers this Good News . One who embodies and bears this news of God.

As we start this study together – in community – would you dare to pray that by the conclusion of the study – you would find your life best described by these things – HOLY – SERVANT – APOSTLE .. and not by what you do for a job – what you own – or the relationships you have.

Today would you join me in praying for this as individuals and as a community – find someone else in the community – a friend – a prayer partner – a spouse – and open up as to how you wish to grow this coming year.

- Karl