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)
Luke 2:22-40
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- Written by: Heather Cetrangolo
A New Year audio (2MB)
In 516 BCE the reconstruction of the Temple was complete. King Herod renovated it in 19 BCE, expanding the facility to include what was basically a large shopping precinct, where you could buy religious goods and animals for sacrifice. It would have been a great sight to behold, especially for Mary and Joseph who had come from a very small town to the big city.
Mary and Joseph were faithful Jews. They would have travelled for about a week to get there, at great expense. For them, observing the laws of purification was absolutely essential. The scripture says, they “finished everything required by the law” (v39). They dedicated Jesus, their firstborn son to the Lord, which would have involved paying a redemption price to the Temple (Num 18). They also went in order to make a sacrifice for ritual cleansing, following childbirth (Lev 12).
And all of this, for the child who was destined to be the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. His death would destroy the need for a Temple. Because of him, the need for ritual purification would end with his generation.
Matt 1:18-25 (Christmas 2011)
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Immanuel - God With Us audio (3MB)
Well here we are again on Christmas Eve hearing the same old story once again. I wonder do you feel like it’s a bit like television in December - just another repeat? Nothing new in it. No new insights to get you going?
Or do you approach the retelling of the Christmas story with excitement as you’re reminded once again of just how amazing these events really are?
Do you stop and think again how incredible it is that God could become one of us?
Let’s do that now as we think about what we’ve just read from Matthew’s Gospel.
Joseph has heard the news from Mary that she’s pregnant and reacts as you’d expect him to: he decides a quiet divorce will solve the problem. He doesn’t want to disgrace her publicly so he decides to keep the details private. People will probably think that they just didn’t get on so he divorced her.
But then an angel appears to him in a dream to reassure him that Mary has remained faithful to him; that the baby is a miraculous child, brought into existence by the work of the Holy Spirit. So Joseph changes his mind and quickly marries her. Nothing new there is there? We’ve heard it all before countless times.
But let me ask you, do you think Joseph was too quick to believe what he heard in that dream? Would you have changed your mind that easily? I mean it might just have been a bit too much goat’s cheese that he’d had for dinner that had him dreaming a weird thing like that.
God Has Favourites
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- Written by: Heather Cetrangolo
God has Favourites audio (5MB)
‘The Incarnation’ as we call it, God becoming a human being, is the fundamental belief that sets us apart from Judaism and all other religious followings.
It really is where the rubber hits the road in terms of the Christian faith.
We Christians are the only people on this earth who believe that God himself became one of us.
We believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
We believe in the Great I Am who spoke to Moses at the burning bush, who parted the sea and led his people out of slavery.
We believe in the God who went before his people in the wilderness as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day … who chose to reveal himself to the Jewish nation.
We believe in the God who’s glory appeared as a thick cloud … descending over the tabernacle
… who’s holiness shook Mount Sinai, striking the earth with thunder and lightning that made the people tremble.
We believe in the God who is so holy that we can’t look on his face; that the Israelites couldn’t touch the mountain when his glory descended, that Moses’ face shone when he met with the Lord in the tent of meeting.
We believe in the God who is ‘holy, holy, holy’. Who appeared to the prophet Isaiah, who in the Lord’s presence was terrified.
We believe in YHWH, the Great I Am, the one who is so holy that even his name cannot be spoken.
And we share all of this in common with the Jewish people.
But we part company when we open to chapter 1 of Luke’s gospel, because we believe that that same God became a man.
