Such Were Some Of You

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they were now washed, clean, and made new. Sounds like a pretty good church doesn't it? But how many of us would feel comfortable around the type of people Paul was writing to? There were mended people. But to be mended you first had to broken.

First Corinthians 6:11 ¶ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

We are all praying for our church to grow. We will accept everyone that the Lord brings and adds to our church. We do however particularly want to see Kingdom growth as well which means we are praying for people to be saved and set free. But consider what we are praying for. We are praying for people to be saved andset free. Saved and set free from what? According to the latest data, increasing numbers of Australians are now growing up in broken homes. If they are married, chances are it is their second marriage. If they are in a relationship, chances are they fear it won't last - which causes them to keep their relationship options open even if it means painful destruction of existing relationships. Statistically, the people we are going to reach out to with the Gospel are also going to be people who have been sexually abused. They need to be saved. They need to be set free. Consider who Paul was writing to-

First Corinthians 6:9-11 ...sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

How are we going to respond, as a church, as God increasingly answers our prayers? As we ponder this, consider this. We are praying for God to save and set free. We are praying for God to deliver, heal, and restore people. Chances are that God will answer our prayers. We can expect that people who need saving, setting-free, delivering, healing and restoring will be drawn to us -- but we should also expect that God will answer all of our prayers by actually saving, setting-free, delivering, healing and restoring lost, bound, oppressed, sick, and broken people.

As God grows His Church through mending broken people we will not compromise His Gospel. This Gospel declares that sexual activity outside of marriage is sin that risks eternal damnation. This is actually where Paul starts his current thought-

First Corinthians 6:9 ¶ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

After all, unless we are able to show people that they are lost, bound, oppressed, sick, and broken through holding up the mirror of the Gospel, we will not be able to minister God's desperately needed grace to them.

Amen.

God is...

God is... How would you complete this sentence? On what basis would you know how to complete this sentence? How would others who do not really know God answer this question?

The other day I was contacted by an emailer who challenged my belief in the Biblical God. He intimated that the God of the Bible is a cruel and harsh God. He asked me why this God of the Bible would send "billions of [innocent] people to be tormented in Hell for eternity"? When I hear a question like this, I have to wonder where did this person get this idea from? Not only does the Bible present God as all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful, all-present, but I have come to experience enough of these attributes of God to know them to be true. While we live on this earth we are all candidates for God's mercy and forgiveness. Added to this, God ensures that every person receives sufficient revelation of who He is to begin a relationship with Him (Romans 1).

Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

But we know that God is a just and fair God. He will not violate a person's right to exist (since they are created in the image of God) thus, the choices a person makes in this life will be be validated for eternity. The stern warning of Jesus Christ to the world was that unless a person repents, they will "perish" for eternity (Lk. 13:1ff). Rather than obstinately telling God that this is "unfair", we should instead be thanking God that He has made it possible for any one of us to be forgiven of our sin and to be adopted into His family as a joint-heir with Christ!

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

This is the God we are coming to know. A God who has revealed himself in the Book of nature and the Sacred Book of Scripture. It is this God who sent His eternal Son to the world to reveal to us the most complete image of God we will have in this lifetime. Once a person experiences this God through revelation (Eph. 1:18), prayerful communion, a community of grace, and the living Word of God they can confidently say that they know who God is.

Father, we want to know you more. Help us to know you. Help us to make you known. Teach us Your ways and give us the grace to follow You.
Amen

Propitiation

Sometimes simple concepts can only be best described with less than simple words. That is, if an attempt is made to explain something complex with inadequate terms, we are not being simple but simplistic. Being simplistic means that the fuller explanation is missing - thus the potential is: that because the explanation is insufficient the actual concept becomes misrepresented and therefore damaged.

For example, how do we describe God? If all we say is that God is love, we run the risk of being simplistic. Not even the Scriptures, which seems to default to simple concepts and language, leaves the reader with just this description. God is love, but He is much, much more than that.

How do we describe the salvation that God provided through Christ's redemptive work? In seeking to convey the heart of the Gospel, the New Testament uses a powerful (but not a simple word) to sum up the majestic work of salvation: propitiation. This word occurs four times in the New Testament and conceptually many more times than that in the Old Testament (where it is rendered as atonement).

It means that God's anger and wrath is vented on an atoning sacrifice (Jesus the Christ) so that the guilty who are called to be reconciled to God can receive mercy.

Romans 3:25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

It's not a simple word. And it's not a simplistic word. But it's a phenomenally profound word and concept: Propitiation. Thank God for it!

Why Is Good Friday Good?

Why do we call it “Good Friday” if we’re remembering how a man was brutally executed? Truth is, if enough people really understood what happened that particular Friday there would be protests and street marches to every parliament of the world demanding that it be changed from “Good” Friday to “Best” Friday!

Imagine you had a crippling credit card debt, a largess personal loan, and a mortgage that’s out of control. You have just been told by the Dentist that your kids need braces – or to put it another way- $5000 for each child! Each day you are overwhelmed by the enormity of your worsening financial predicament. You can’t sleep. You’re snappy. You’re depressed. You do the maths and you get more depressed! Then you get an unexpected phone call.

It’s the bank. They’ve rung to discuss your financial situation.

Gulp. They’ve reviewed your accounts and decided to forgive all your debts and make an unimaginably large deposit into your savings account! Would this be a “good” day?

If you get what actually happened at the original Easter, then you understand that what actually happened was 10,000,000,000,000,000 (plus more) times better than that imagined day! It was the day the Creator of the Universe cleared the spiritual and moral debt of those who are reconciled to Him. Is this worth celebrating every year by attending Church and saying thanks? Or, perhaps you still don’t “get it”? Then this weekend is the best time of the year for you to come and see what all the fuss is about! It’s not just “good” news- it’s the best news!