From Doubt to Belief 8 - Sin
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- 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.
Suffering for the Gospel
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- Written by: Rachael Lie
1 Peter 2:11-25 audio (3MB)
By Rachael Lie
Today is St. Thomas' day, so let's think about Thomas the apostle. Thomas boldly proclaimed Jesus as his Lord and his God (Jn 20:28), and tradition tells us that he then became a passionate evangelist of the gospel who was willing to travel far to Asia to tell about Jesus Christ.
We're not all called to be full time missionaries like the Jacksons in Japan, but we are all called to be full time gospel bearers to demonstrate the good news of Jesus who suffered, died and was raised after three days. Do you realize that we all should be full time gospel bearers? When I say full time gospel bearer, I am not talking about those ministers who are hired full time and therefore they are the ones who should be preaching and sharing the gospel 24/7. I am talking about you, everyone of you, including Chris, including myself, who are full time gospel bearers. As we look at today's passage, this concept will get clearer.
Peter is writing to people who are suffering from persecution by the government and suffering from discrimination of the society that results in maltreatment in everyday life. However, Peter says to them, yes, it's a tough life, but,
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. And then, conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge V.11-12.
Doubt to Belief 7 - Knowing God
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Knowing God audio (3MB)
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.
I want to suggest that we all “know” there’s a God. Even those people who would claim no belief in God, when you press them harder would acknowledge that deep within them is something that says there must be some power external to ourselves that sets the rules, that requires justice and fairness.
The God Sense in all of us.
If you think about it, we all know certain things are wrong:- the man who murders his children; the government that tries to wipe out a whole tribe or a nationality group; the businessman who embezzles his clients money; the CEO who makes sexual advances to his young staff members; the sportsperson who takes performance enhancing drugs. These are just a few of the things that happen in our world that provoke moral outrage, not just among believers but throughout the community at large.
Doubt to Belief 6 - The Mystery of God
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
The Mystery of God audio (4MB)
“I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Eccl 3:10-11 NRSV) So writes the author of Ecclesiastes. He sees that there’s something in the human mind that knows there’s more out there than we can grasp; there’s more than the now. He goes on: “14I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him.” There seems to be an innate recognition in the human spirit that there’s a God who works in the world. Yet he’s a God that we’re unable to comprehend.
It’s this unknowable aspect of God that confuses so many people I think. Because we’re so tied to the idea that reality has to have a material manifestation we can’t get our heads around the idea of an unknowable God.
Doubt to Belief 5 - Hell?
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
How can a loving God send people to Hell? audio (3MB)
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.
Matt 25:35-46
A lake of fire, of unquenchable fire, chains of deepest darkness, wrath and fury, anguish and distress; the language used in the Bible for hell is overwhelming isn’t it? Not to mention the popular images of pitchforks and horned demons. It’s the sort of distressing picture that we shy away from. It’s the sort of idea that’s so easy to make into a stereotype: preachers thumping the pulpit, spouting hellfire and damnation; men on street corners with big black bibles warning people to turn away from the wrath to come.
It’s no wonder people ask how could we believe in that sort of a God. How could a God of love possibly condemn anyone to that sort of suffering? Surely if God is the sort of God that Christians mostly talk about, he could never consign people to an eternity of suffering, could he?
The question becomes more pointed when it becomes personal. How can we look at someone who’s a leader in humanitarian work but who isn’t a Christian and suggest that that person is going to hell because they’re not saved? Can’t we think of lots of people who are really kind, who are loving and caring, who do all sorts of things for others out of the goodness of their hearts? What about them? Isn’t it a contradiction that a God of love would consign them to eternal suffering?
What do you think? Is it a contradiction? Well let’s think about the thinking that lies behind these questions. What do the people who ask them believe deep down.
Doubt to Belief 4 - Science
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Science vs Christianity? audio (3MB)
How do you answer your friends or colleagues when they ask you why you believe? What do you say when they throw up one of the many excuses for not believing. If you’ve been here for the last few weeks you may have noticed that we’ve been trying to answer those questions in this sermon series on doubt to belief. What we’ve been doing is to answer the questions people ask as though they were in the congregation. We want to equip you to answer them yourself when someone asks you. We might also be helping you to answer questions that you yourself ask from time to time.
Well, if someone doesn’t suggest that all religions are the same; or that suffering in the world disproves God; if they don’t complain that the injustices inflicted by the Church are enough to put them off God, you can be fairly sure that they will think that science has disproved Christianity. Richard Dawkins claims that evolutionary science has shown that God’s role in creation is just a myth; that the advances of science have removed the need for God. He and his colleagues would argue that science shows that miracles are impossible. Everything is governed by cause and effect, these people would say. If it can’t be measured it can’t be real.
Doubt to Belief 3 - Injustice in the Church
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- Written by: Heather Cetrangolo
Injustice in The Church audio (4MB)
I’m going to begin today with a short parable from the Old Testament. It comes from the second book of Samuel, ch12, and happens right after David has committed adultery with Bathsehba, and he has had her husband Uriah killed, and now taken her as his own wife.
A prophet called Nathan was sent by God to David and he tells him a parable: 2 Sam 12:1-7 – (who is the rich man?)
David doesn’t realise that he is the rich man in the story. He knows that he is guilty of adultery, but he doesn’t see how this particular sin is an act of injustice.
When I was a young teenager a Catholic priest came to my school to speak to us about injustice, and I will never forget the definition that he gave ... he said justice is the opposite of ‘just us’. Justice is what we do when we are thinking of others and not just ourselves. Injustice is what we do when we think only of ourselves or our group. Adultery is a very ‘just us’ thing to do. David was focussed on what he wanted, and had no thought of the trauma he was bringing to Bathsheba’s husband, a man less powerful than he.
