1 John 2:18-29
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- Written by: John Altmann
1 John 2:18-29 audio (5MB)
Why do people leave churches?
There are a number of ways that people leave churches, for both good and bad reasons.
A good reason to leave is to be sent out to serve in another place. We've seen that recently with Heather and Adam. They spent two years with us practicing their ministry, trying things out to see what they are good at, and now we've sent them out to Elsternwick and Caulfield. We are being like God in this instance - we are passing on a gift that he has given us, sending Heather and Adam out to St. Mary's. And we've done the same with Garret and Roy and Camille and Andrew who have all served in our youth ministry here and gone out from us to serve in other churches. We ought to be proud of this and we ought to strive to keep on doing it.
But another way that people leave churches is to just drift away gradually. They come less and less and they care less and less about God's mission and purposes through the church. This can be not so good on our behalf if they never get a phone call from one of us asking how they are and if something has happened that we don't know about. Often people in this position will have a reason that they feel hurt by St. Thomas'. But as well as listening to this we have to ask them if they still believe in Jesus, God's only son, our Lord, and do they still believe in the importance of God's church?
Here's the reason why clergy usually leave churches.
1 John 2:1-17
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Getting Real about the Christian Life audio (6MB)
John is writing to his followers in the final years of his life. You get the feeling that he thinks he’s running out of time because there’s a certain urgency to the way he writes. He doesn’t waste words. There’s no polite greeting at the start of the letter. He just gets straight to the point. This is how it is. Jesus is real. The Lord who made the universe has appeared in human flesh. God is pure light. His perfect righteousness allows for no compromise. Truth matters. All in the first few verses. Then he begins to develop his themes.
If God is light, if God is perfect righteousness, then we’d better get real about our own righteousness.
Get Real About Righteousness
So he says “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” He’ll finish this first part of ch2 with these words: “Whoever says, "I abide in him," ought to walk just as he walked.” It should be obvious shouldn’t it? If we claim to follow the perfect Son of God, if we claim to be the children of God, as John will remind us we are in the next chapter, then we should be living the same perfect life that Jesus lived. There’s no room in our life for sinful thoughts or words or actions. In fact that sort of behaviour denies our real status as God’s children.
But of course it’s not as easy as that is it? If we’re going to get real about our own righteousness then we’ll quickly acknowledge that we’ve got a lot to learn. Some may be better at not sinning than others but all of us are still on the path to righteousness. None of us have got there yet.
Series: 62: 1 John
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
1 John
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1. Walking in the Light |
1 John 1:1-10 |
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2. Getting Real about the Christian life |
1 John 2:1-17 |
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3. Getting real about opposition |
1 John 2:18-29 |
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4. Living as God’s Family |
1 John 3:1-10 |
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5. Living to please God |
1 John 3:11-4:6 |
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6. Living God’s Love |
1 John 4:7-21 |
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7. Believing in action |
1 John 5:1-12 |
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8. Believing with Assurance |
1 John 5:13-21 |
1 John 1
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Walking in the light audio (6MB)
John is a passionate writer. Maybe he realises that he’s coming to the end of his life and he doesn’t have much time left to get his message across. Maybe he looks around at the church and realises that the inexorable drift from the gospel to religion is impacting on those he’s spent his life pastoring.
It seems that at the time John was writing this letter there were some in the church who were suggesting that there were other ways of seeing things than the way the apostles had taught them. These people were saying let’s not worry about all that gospel stuff, let’s just get on with our spiritual life. They were looking for deeper spiritual experiences. They wanted to be transported into the seventh heaven, removed from these earthly realities, set free to worship and enjoy God.
But it wasn’t as simple as that. Sadly, the result of their false teaching was that people were confused. They began to question whether they were really saved. Was this new spirituality right? Were they missing out on something extra? Nothing’s changed in 2000 years has it? What’s more, this false teaching affected their evangelism. Why tell people about the cross of Christ, if there were other ways of coming to God that were just as effective, if not more so? Why worry about moral behaviour if all that matters is what we experience on the spiritual plane?
Mark 1:32-45
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Why Jesus Came audio (3MB)
It’s easy to get carried away when things are going well in our ministry isn’t it? We can get caught up in the excitement of ministry and think this is what it’s all about! And if we have enough success we might even be tempted to so focus on that particular area of ministry that we forget the essentials of what it is we’re actually here for. [Matt Redman example] Sometimes we need to stop and remind ourselves exactly what it is we’re aiming for in whatever ministry we’re involved in. We need to stop and check in with God to get our bearings again. That’s what we discover Jesus doing in this passage today.
But first let’s think about the context of the passage. Mark begins his gospel with a series of encounters where Jesus’ power and authority is made very evident. People looking on are amazed at what he says and what he can do and evil spirits have to be told not to say who he is. Yet at the same time there’s the puzzle, as we’ll see in a moment, of the disciples’ inability to understand who it is they’re dealing with.
The passage begins and ends with scenes of Jesus healing people.
Mark 1:16-34
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Jesus’ Chooses his First Team Members audio (4MB)
Jesus begins his ministry with this clear announcement: “The time is fulfilled.” That is, it’s complete. Time’s up. We’re at the end of the line. Notice that John, the one who’s like Elijah, has finished his ministry. Mark wants to make it clear that the time of the Old Testament prophet is over. Now a new era, a new message has arrived.
I wonder, if you were here last week, did you notice that it was after John was arrested that Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. Was that bit of information put in just so we’d understand when this happened or is there more to it than that? One of the things you discover reading Mark is that he’s very good at giving us pointers to things in Jesus’ life that are significant, We saw that two weeks ago with the word associations that Heather pointed out at the start of Ch1. And I think the same applies here.
You see, John is the last of the Old Testament style prophets. He represents the old covenant that’s now passing away - being replaced by a new covenant. Jesus represents a new order in God’s Kingdom. When he says “the time is fulfilled” the word he uses has the idea of completed, come to it’s conclusion.
So he comes proclaiming the good news of God, the news that announces a new deal for God’s people. We’re not told the contents of the good news yet, but that’ll become clear as we read through the gospel.
And it’s as though Mark’s saying that even as Jesus begins his ministry the work’s already as good as finished. Jesus, the Messiah has come and God’s plan hurries to its intended conclusion. It’s as though Jesus’ coming is part of a single event: his incarnation, his death and his resurrection all flow together into the one moment in history when everything comes together.
But if that’s the case then Jesus’ coming means that this moment, right now, is the appointed time, the time of decision. And so Jesus begins preaching to the crowds just as John had, “repent, and believe in the good news”.
Mark 1:1-8
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- Written by: Heather Cetrangolo
The Beginning of the End audio (2MB)
Have you ever played that game where someone says a word and you think of the first word that comes to your mind?
We’re going to play it now, so please find a partner … and when I call out a word I want you to share with the person next to you the first word or image that comes into your head …
Blue …. Apple …. Beach
Word associations tell us something about our experience of the world and our view of the world. The opening of Mark’s gospel, “the beginning of the good news” is absolutely full of word associations with the Old Testament …
So here’s a little bible quiz, I want you to try now with your partners. When I say a word from Mark chapter 1, I want you to see if you can think of what the immediate associations would be from the Old Testament …
Ready? (if you don’t know, just guess)
