From Doubt to Belief 12 - God as Trinity
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
God As Trinity audio (4MB)
This is a series based on and heavily dependent on Timothy Keller’s Best Seller "The Reason For God" for which I’m deeply grateful. It uses much of his argument though with various additions by myself or the other preachers of the series.
What is God like? What’s your image of God? We began this series by commenting that everyone has a picture of God in their heads, even if they profess to be atheists. Whether or not it’s an accurate picture, in order to say you don’t believe in God you actually need an image of what this supposed god is like.
So what is your picture of God? Is he the all powerful creator of the universe; powerful yet remote? Is he the kind, forgiving grandfather figure who loves you no matter what you do? Is he the scolding father who watches your every move and disciplines you when you get it wrong?
Of course, there are many perceptions of God in our world. Each religion has its own view of what God is like. But where Christianity varies from all of the rest is that every other religion sees their god, or gods, as unitary beings; singular beings around whom the universe revolves. If there are multiple gods then they’re either each doing their own thing or they’re competing with each other for popularity.
Christianity on the other hand sees God as triune: three persons in one God. Not that the Bible ever explains how this works. That would be too simple. But it does make it clear that there are three separate manifestations of God, sometimes working alone and sometimes appearing in the same setting.
From Doubt to Belief 11: The Resurrection
- Details
- Written by: Heather Cetrangolo
The Resurrection audio (4MB)
Something that I find annoying is walking in on the middle of a really good conversation.
Or turning up late to a movie – it’s never quite the same if you miss the start.
Or, you know, when you’re channel flicking and you come across a really interesting scene in a film and you keep watching but you’re still kind of trying to fill in the gaps to work out what’s happening.
Of course this is not a problem with James Bond films though because in these the story line is always basically the same and completely predictable, and you know the bad guys always lose and he always gets the girl.
And then there are the movies you’ve seen before, and you don’t mind watching them from the middle – like, The Sound of Music, for example.
And then some movies are such an ingrained part of you that you barely even need to watch them, because you can practically recite them from start to finish. For me, this is not a movie, but my DVD of the Les Miserables concert. I can actually recite that entire musical from start to finish. I thought about doing that for your listening pleasure this morning … but then I thought, maybe not.
Well becoming a Christian is a lot like coming in on the middle of a really good conversation.
Or perhaps a better analogy, is that we were all channel flicking in life, and some of us suddenly stumble across the resurrected Christ. We pause. We turn the volume up. We go, ‘wow, I haven’t see this movie before. This is different. What’s this about? This has got my interest.' We keep watching. Awhile into it we go, ‘yep, I believe in this’, I’m gonna give my life to this. We become disciples of Jesus. We keep watching … and watching …. and watching … (and some Christians never do anything much more than watch, occasionally hit rewind, re-live the good bits, stay on the couch) … and the movie seems as though it’s never going to end …
From Doubt to Belief 10 - Why the Cross
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
Why The Cross? audio (4MB)
1 Cor 1 tells us that Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles and you’d have to say this is still the case. People like Richard Dawkins and John Spong want to know what was the point of Jesus dying on the cross. Why couldn’t God just forgive us? If I’m truly sorry for my mistakes why can’t God just accept me? Why did he have to insist that someone pays for what I’ve done. It’s like God’s holding on to a grudge against us.
Richard Dawkins thinks the whole story of the cross is obscene. He says it makes God out to be one of those vengeful gods of primitive times who needed to be appeased by human sacrifice. He, along with others, suggests that the story of the cross is a case of “Divine Child-abuse”.
But is that the case? Or was the Cross really necessary?
From Doubt to Belief 9: Religion and the Gospel
- Details
- Written by: Garrett Edwards
Religion and the Gospel
by Garrett Edwards
Rom 4:1-15 audio (3MB)
We continue in our series, ‘The Reason for God’.Today we’re looking at the difference between religion and the Gospel.
Basically exploring the difference between the Gospel and the life it calls us to and the requirements of religion, even Christian religion. And to illustrate, I want to look at, ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Give overview of the story.
Towards the end of the story Dr. Jekyll finds that he’s truly helpless in his fight against the evil within him. And he says this,
‘I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful and of some good. You know how earnestly, in the last months of the last year, I labored to relieve suffering; you know that much was done for others. But as I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty and neglect of others…At that very moment of that vain-glorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most dreadful shuddering…I looked down, I was once more Edward Hyde.’
The story shows that everyone, even the best of people try to cover up what’s inside: that we have an enormous selfishness, that puts ourselves before others!
From Doubt to Belief 8 - Sin
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
Sin audio (3MB)
Sin isn’t the most popular term in our world today is it, though comedians occasionally use it as a means of getting a laugh. Yet it’s central to a reformed understanding of the human condition. But it sounds so harsh to say that I’m somehow warped in my humanity; that everything I do is tainted by sin. I do lots of good things. I’m basically a very nice person. Yet that’s what the Bible tells me. So is this a good or a bad doctrine? Is it a doctrine that makes you depressed or that gives you hope? Well, let me suggest that in fact it’s a doctrine that should give us hope.
But before we think about how it might give us hope I want you to think about the way you see people behave.
What sorts of reactions do you see from people who do the wrong thing? Don’t we see people trying to explain away their failures, or justify the evil within them. Sometimes it’s the fault of their upbringing, sometimes it’s some trauma they’ve gone through, some will say what they did was out of character with who they really are, some even blame their doctor for prescribing the wrong drugs.
And even when we’re willing to admit that we have problems we’re often told you mustn’t get depressed about it, you need to build up your self esteem. But is that the case? Or do we actually need to develop a healthily low self esteem.
They say the key to mental health is self awareness, self-understanding. People spend fortunes talking to therapists so they can get to understand themselves. And it’s not only mental health. The key to healthy relationships is also self awareness. You see, if we understand ourselves as flawed human beings, i.e. sinners, it’ll help us forgive others, treat others with patience and understanding and ask forgiveness of others. If we’re willing to admit that we have failings then it’ll make it easier to accept everyone else who we’ve always known have failings. So the Christian doctrine of sin can be a great source of hope.
