Here’s the second of the three session in our Life Shared discussion series. Watch the video and take some time to consider the discussion questions below. If you have any comments or questions of you own please leave them in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Discussion Questions

Question 1: How do you feel about the idea that God wants to partner with you?

Question 2: What stood out to you from what Danielle shared? What inspired and challenged you?

Going Deeper: Read Acts 1:8

What fears come up when you think about God wanting to use you to reach others?

In what way(s) does the Holy Spirit empower us to
share our faith?

What do you think about the idea that God can use unlikely people?

Have there been times when you have viewed people as projects? What do you think Danielle meant by that statement? Have you seen evangelism practiced like this?

When it comes to the idea of God using us to reach others, what kind of unnecessary pressure do we put on ourselves?

Think back to the person that God used in your life to invite you into a relationship with Him. What made their witness so compelling and attractive to you?

What would it look like for you to change your posture
by asking the questions that Danielle suggested like, “How can I serve? How can I love? How can I connect?” in your local context?

Application: Spend some time praying that the Holy Spirit would give you:

Love (Romans 5:5)
Boldness (Acts 4:29)
Fearlessness (Romans 8:15-17)
Power (Ephesians 3:14-21)
Wisdom and Opportunity (Colossians 4:2-6)

 

In the lead up to our Fall Alpha Course I’ll be running a couple of small group sessions on how Christians can make invitation and hospitality a part of our faith.

The idea of sharing faith or evangelism can be extremely overwhelming to many people – it’s often been that way for me as well. The Life Shared small group series offers a place to talk through some of the issues around sharing our faith in a natural, humble and authentic way.

I’m offering the first session here as an introduction to the series. Below I’ve also posted the discussion questions from the session. If you want to offer any comments on the video or discussion questions please do so in the comments section.

Then on this coming Sunday (September 8) anyone who wants to take part can join me for the second session in the church library (Hyslop Room).

I’ll also be posting the second and third sessions here on the blog after people have met on Sunday. So whether you take part in person or here online, I hope you take some time to think about how you can share you faith and invite someone share the life we have in Jesus.

Session 1: Join His Heart

Discussion Questions

Question 1: What feelings or thoughts come up for you around this idea of sharing your faith?

Question 2:  What stood out to you from what Jon shared? What inspired and challenged you?

Going Deeper: Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

What do these verses tell us about evangelism?

Have you ever had a moment in conversation where you felt like you stepped into what God was already up to?

What prevents you from slowing down and noticing
God and people more?

Why do you think our culture has such a negative perception of the word “evangelism?”

What excites you about sharing your faith?

What makes you nervous about sharing your faith?
Can you share a time when you were inspired
by radical hospitality?

How can we practice the art of hospitality more
frequently and effectively in our context?

Application: Take a moment to write down the names of three people in your life who don’t yet know Jesus and spend some time praying for them.

At long last I’m starting to catch up from the weather we’ve had here in southern Ontario in the past few weeks. It will take me a couple of posts to full catch up but here’s the first of two I hope to have done this week.

Finishing up Section 1 – Chapter 4

In this chapter Paul wraps up his discussion of the divisions within the Corinthian church by defining what Christian leadership really looks like and asserting his authority as the spiritual father of this church.

4:1-13 – What it really means to be an apostle

• Leaders in the church should always remember that they are servants of Jesus and stewards of things that ultimately belong to God.
• One of the issues is that some in Corinth think that Paul isn’t as impressive as some other Christian leaders (apostles) that they’ve met. In fact some have started to think they are spiritually superior to Paul.
• Paul reminds them that the real measure of a Christian leader is how much they resemble Jesus, which includes humility and a willingness to suffer and look shameful in eyes of the outside world.

4:14-21 – Respecting your spiritual father

• This is where Paul comes down the hardest. He’s hurt that many in the community he founded no longer respect him in favour of other leaders who seem more impressive (or members of the community who are now saying that they’re better than Paul as well). Paul reminds them that the example he’s given them is only what he’s learned from Jesus. Ultimately he’s not asking them to look to him, but look to Jesus.
• He also reminds them that his work among them might not have seemed impressive by secular standards but was marked by the power of the Holy Spirit. These other leaders might offer impressive talk, but they need to look closely and see if they are guided and empowered by the Spirit. Are these others bearing good fruit like healing, reconciliation, peace and renewed lives?

Section 2: Living With Integrity

The next major section of the letter covers chapters 5-7 and deals with the question of what it means to live lives of Christ-like integrity within the Christian community and larger world.

Chapter 5 – Inappropriate Behaviour and Community Standards

• While the main situation Paul is addressing has to do with sexual behaviour, it’s important to note that Paul isn’t just concerned with sex. Verse 9 illustrates the fact that there is a variety of sinful behaviour that negatively affects not just an individual but the broader Christian community.
• The situation that’s been brought to Paul’s attention is a man who is in a relationship with his step-mother.
• Aside from the negative affect this has on the individuals in question, Paul’s is particularly concerned with the affect this has on the whole Christian community in Corinth. First, this kind of behaviour is causing a scandal in the whole local community. This is behaviour isn’t just something other Christians see as wrong, it’s outrageous to everyone and is discrediting the church in the community. Secondly, tolerating or excusing this kind of behaviour threatens to mislead other members of the church about what life in Christ should be.
• This leads to the question of discipline within a Christian community. One challenge is that over time some Christian groups have practiced very heavy-handed forms of discipline (condemning and excluding people for the slightest mistakes), while others are more like this early church in accepting any and all behaviour.
• Paul here is trying to take a balanced approach, and what he teaches has a lot in common with what Jesus teaches in chapter 18 of the Gospel of Matthew.
• Discipline is carried out for significant behaviour that negatively affects the individual as well as the community of faith. It is also meant to bring the offender to repentance and a change of behaviour in hopes that they will eventually be able to rejoin the community. Such discipline should be carried out in love and humility, seeking the good of the individual and the community.
• Paul also says something quite significant in verses 9-13. So often Christians look around at people outside of the church and are quick to condemn people who don’t believe in God or Jesus’ teaching. Yet why should we expect non-Christians to behave in a Christian manner? The last people we should be judging are non-Christians! Our job is to share the good news of grace and mercy and help people live new lives once they know God through Jesus. And if we want to show the world a different way to live, a way of life that looks like Jesus, then we need to be sure that we are living it ourselves!

Chapter 6:1-11 – Handling Disputes as a Community

• Paul turns to another issue of integrity within the Corinthian church. While they are tolerating some kinds of bad behaviour, some are also quick to take other members of the church to court over other matters. Paul is concerned because a community that is based around God’s reconciling love in Jesus should be able to settle disputes on its own. If we are guided by God’s Spirit then we should be able to make good decisions.
• The other issue is that most secular courts then and now are based on an adversarial model that tends to further damage people and relationships in the interest of sorting out winners and losers. Yet Jesus taught that we should accept being wronged or hurt rather than do anything that hurts or wrongs someone else. There was also the contemporary issue that Roman courts were often unjust and tended to favour the rich and elite over the poor and humble.
• There are certainly situations today where churches should absolutely take matters to secular authorities, especially when there is abuse or other forms of criminal activity, but otherwise we should be able to resolve other disputes with fairness and grace ourselves. The last thing we should be doing is suing each other over anything.

Chapter 6:12-20 – Honouring God with our Bodies

• One of the underlying issues in Corinth behind both the tolerance of significant misbehaviour and other people suing each other is that some in the church were over spiritualizing their faith.
• It seems as if some thought that because all their sins were forgiven by Jesus, they could now do anything they wanted – hence the expression, ‘all things are lawful for me’ in verses 12. Some also seem to have thought that since their souls were saved and they had this new spiritual experience of Jesus, that what they did with their bodies wasn’t important. As they were now spiritual people, their bodies (and what they did with them) didn’t matter any more.
• Paul deals with this head on. He says that though we might be forgiven and free in Jesus new sins can still harm us (and others). He also adds that free people also shouldn’t willingly enslave themselves to harmful behaviour (sexual or otherwise) or attitudes (greed, selfishness or anger).
• Paul also stresses that our bodies do matter. In chapter 15 he’ll remind the Corinthians that Jesus was raised physically, which means that God cares about the physical and material as well as the spiritual. But here Paul also reminds them and us that when we become Christians we are spiritually united with Jesus and our bodies become a dwelling place for God’s Spirit. Therefore we should become more careful about how we live in the world and not less.

Chapter 7

We’ve had a lot of great discussion in our Wednesday night sessions, so we have been going a little more slowly through the book than I had planned. In particular we spent a whole session just talking about chapter 7, which addresses the questions of marriage, divorce and singleness.

So that will be a post of its own, which I hope to have up in the next few days.

So much for our mild green winter! There have been 5 snow days where all the schools have been closed in the Hamilton Public Board since the start of January, 4 of which have been in the last 2 weeks. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this in years, if ever (though today’s snow day seems a bit unnecessary).

Long story short, despite my best intentions I haven’t been able to catch up on my blog postings for the 1 Corinthians study as I’ve been dividing looking after the kids on the snow days with my wife Elaine. I hope to be caught up by next week – so long as the weather lets up and the school board doesn’t call anymore snow days.

The one upside is that I had fun game of Monopoly with my kids over the past couple of days. And if their ability to beat me (with a suitable financial bonus at the start and a little guidance from daddy as their real estate advisor) is any indication of the future, Elaine and I won’t have to worry about our retirement!

This week we begin our study of The Apostle Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians. We’ll start by taking a quick overview of who Paul was, what Corinth was like and a little about the early Christian communities Paul founded and wrote to.

Opening Reflection Questions

•  What have you heard about the Apostle Paul? Have you read his letters for yourself? What do you think about him and his letters in the New Testament?
• Are you familiar with 1 Corinthians? If so, what comes to mind when you think of it?

Background to Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians

Who is Paul? Why did he write so many letters?

The Book of Acts provides a detailed account of Paul’s story, written by someone who was either a follower of Paul or at least had access to first hand records from Paul’s ministry. You can find this account in Acts 9:1-31 and Acts 13:1-28:31. Paul tells much of his own story in opening to his Letter to the Galatians. But here’s the short version.

• The man best known as the Apostle Paul was a Jewish Pharisee named Saul from the Greek city of Tarsus in what’s now Turkey. We was educated both in Jewish learning and Greek rhetoric (public speaking and writing). Paul is just the Greek version of the Hebrew name Saul.
• While in Jerusalem Saul joined the opposition to the early Christian movement, and began seeking out and arresting Jesus’ followers. While on his way to the city of Damascus in Syria to hunt down Christians he had a powerful spiritual experience of the risen Jesus. Saul then joined the Christian movement (much to the surprise of everyone) and eventually made his way to the Syrian city of Antioch.
• Paul’s beliefs about Jesus were shaped by his own  spiritual experience of Jesus as well as teaching from disciples like Peter and Jesus’ brother James.
• He felt called to share the Gospel of Jesus with the non-Jewish people of the Roman Empire and made several missionary journeys to the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean. He founded Christian communities in cities like Ephesus, Colossae, Phlippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and the region of Galatia. He only stayed in these places for a around 1-2 years, then maintained his connection with these new churches by letter.
• In these letters we see Paul deal with practical issues facing these early churches, encourage them in their mission, and correct errors in their beliefs or practices.

What was Corinth like?

Corinth was one of the great city states of Classical Greece but was completely destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC.  It was then left in ruins until it was refounded as Roman colony by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. It quickly regained its status as one the busiest sea ports in the Mediterranean.

Corinth in Paul’s time was still a relatively new city where people had a greater opportunity to advance in society than in other places – it was a competitive environment where the rules of more established cities didn’t fully apply. We can see this reflected in the letter, where Paul deals with many issues related to social and religious status.

What were Paul’s Churches like?

Paul’s churches usually met in the home of the family with the largest house. A church community might include several smaller house gatherings that only met occasionally in one place. They met for worship on Sundays, and this worship (as we’ll see later in 1 Corinthians) included a community meal. Paul’s letters would have been read aloud in their entirety at a church gathering.

Introduction to the Letter (1 Cor. 1:1-9)

• Paul wrote this letter from Ephesus in Turkey around 54 AD in response to concerns brought to him by people from the household of a church leader named Chloe (1:11).
• The opening part of Paul’s letters always cover the main themes of what he’s writing about and help us understand the whole letter. In the opening of 1 Corinthians we hear Paul talk about the issue of spiritual gifts, which is the major issue at the heart of the letter (chapters 12-14).
• Notice also how Paul refers to Jesus 9 times in these opening verses. He is reminding this gifted but divided church about who is the centre of their faith. This focus on Jesus is seen throughout the letter. It would have also supported this community as they proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord” in a city where everyone else accepted the practical reality that the Roman Emperor ruled the world, ie. that “Caesar is Lord.” Indeed the word ‘Christ’ to Greeks would have indicated royalty, and Paul’s many references to Christ Jesus can be translated as “King Jesus.”

Dealing with Divisions and Finding Unity in Jesus (1 Cor. 1:10-4:21)

The major issue Paul begins with is the serious division within the church over various church leaders (1:10-17). The main divisions are highlighted in 1:12, where some look to Paul’s authority, some look to another missionary leader named Apollos, and others to the Apostle Peter (who is called by his Aramaic name Cephas). Paul stresses that Jesus is the true leader of the church, and that divisions over human leaders is foolish. Christians are called to united in Jesus, no matter what they think about the various human leaders of the church.

Paul then turns his listener’s attention to who Jesus is, and how the Gospel of Jesus is all about turning the world’s expectations upside down.

^1:22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified:a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

In chapter 2 Paul argues that many in Corinth have confused human wisdom (which values status and the appearance of power) with God’s wisdom (which comes through the humble and crucified Jesus). In Chapter 3 he talks about the true place of leaders in the church: that they are important and must be responsible, but everything ultimately rests on Jesus and God’s power. Every leader should also be assessed on whether they work on the foundation of who Jesus is and what he taught.

This section wraps up with chapter 4, but since we ran out of time at our in person section, chapter 4 will have to wait for the next post. Take care until then.

I’m planning to have weekly summaries up here on the blog no later than noon on the Tuesday following each Wednesday session of the 1 Corinthians Study.

If you want to go deeper into our Study of 1 Corinthians you can buy a copy of N. T. Wright’s excellent and very accessible commentary on 1 Corinthians from his For Everyone series.

 

You can buy it as a paperback or ebook at Amazon or Indigo.

Starting on Wednesday January 23, I’ll be starting a new 5 week study of Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians.

This New Testament book is best known for what chapter 13 says about love, and this is central for Paul’s message to the church he founded in the Greek city of Corinth. This letter also provides a tremendous amount of practical advice on how Christians can live together in community, overcome their differences, and be united by their faith in Jesus and his resurrection.

For a preview of what we’ll be studying take a look at this video from the Bible Project.

Seeing as I’ve called this Bible Study “Beginnings” I want to start right at the beginning with the basics of what we’re doing. So the first thing I’d like you to reflect on are these two videos by the Bible Project on “What is the Bible?” and “The Story of the Bible.” Each one is about 5 minutes and together they provide a good place to start for understanding the big picture of what the Bible is, and what it’s about.

If you want to dig a bit more into the material presented in these videos you can find study guides and reflection questions here.

Why Are We Talking About the Story of the Bible?

Genesis chapters 1-11 tell a story that is the introduction to the the big story of the Bible. So to understand what it has to say to us today we need to understand how it connects to that big story as an introduction and frame for what follows.

And yes, Christians do believe that despite being a complex library of religious literature that was written by a variety of people over more than a 1000 year period, the Bible tells one big story. We believe this because behind all the different times, places, and people stands God’s Spirit. The Spirit inspired not only the people who wrote these books but also the communities of faith who discerned that the words of these books were God’s unique and lasting Word to people in all times and places. And because God’s Spirit directed this process, it all fits together as one story.

What is the Story All About?

The short version is that Christians believe that the Bible is the story of how God created a good world, how that world got messed up, and God’s plan to rescue the world and restore the goodness he intended from the beginning. It’s also about our role as human beings in this big story.

But Christians also believe something else about this story. The New Testament claims that the Old Testament is ultimately a story about Jesus if we learn how to read it correctly. Now this is a pretty big claim, yet we find that it comes from Jesus himself.

• Read Luke 24:13-50 and focus on verses 25-27 and 44-48. What do you think about what Jesus is saying here? Do you think Jesus can do this for people today?

Now it might seem a bit puzzling how the Old Testament can be about Jesus, even if you accept that many of the prophecies were talking about him. But it makes a bit more sense when we look at what the writer of the Gospel of John has to say about Jesus at the opening of his book.

• Read John 1:1-14. What do you think about John’s claims about Jesus?

The Gospel John claims that Jesus is God’s Word, eternally one with God and the one through whom God made all things. For instance when we look at the creation story in Genesis chapter 1, John is saying that Jesus is that word that God spoke to create the universe (and John’s not the only New Testament writer to say this, see also Colossians 1:15-20).

As my particular Christian tradition puts it:

“He is the living Word of God to whom the written word bears witness.” (Living Faith 5.1 the  Presbyterian Church in Canada)

So How Do We Read the Bible?

Now this is a pretty big idea and one that can be a bit hard to wrap our minds around. Yet, if we begin to accept it, I think it provides us with a really helpful way to understand the Bible.

If Jesus is God’s Living Word, then anything we can say about Jesus we should also be able to say about the Bible. And if we think about how Jesus revealed who God is through his life, death and resurrection, then I believe we can understand how God reveals himself, his great story, and his purpose for his through the Bible.

• Jesus Acted: He did things that were both natural (eating meals with people) and more than natural (calming a storm).
  • The Bible tells the story of God’s great acts in human history. Some of these acts are carried out in ordinary ways (through ordinary people and nature), some are more mysterious or miraculous.
• Jesus Taught: He provided concrete teaching about God, the world and how people should live.
  • The Bible presents God’s teaching, through prophets, priests, apostles and through Jesus himself.
• Jesus Tells Stories: This is one of the most distinctive things about Jesus is his use of stories to reveal who God is, what God’ Kingdom is about, and how people should live in light of God’s Kingdom coming on earth. We call these stories parables.
  • The Bible tells parables that reveal truths about God, the world, God’s purpose for the world, and our role in that purpose.

So how do we know when the Bible is giving us history, concrete teaching, or a parable?

Well that’s a bit tricky. There’s not a lot of consensus on this. Different groups of Christians read the Bible in different ways and have always done so. Some Christians argue that all of the Bible is to be read factually and historically – stories might have deeper spiritual meaning, but they’re all history that happened exactly as they were written. Other Christians go entirely the other way saying that most (if not all) of the Bible is made up of fictional stories that only have a metaphorical meaning. Most Christians tend to be somewhere between these two extremes. These differences of perspective unfortunately often end up in name calling – “Godless Liberal!” “Crazy Fundamentalist!” I’d like to avoid that.

On the whole,  I personally to fall on the conservative side of center. I believe that most of the stories in the Bible are historical on at least some level and that many are very historical – especially the Gospels. However, I think it’s essential to believe that the key events actually happened (or will happen). What do I call the key events? Basically what’s is found is the ancient creeds of the Christian Church, like the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
      creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
      who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
      and born of the virgin Mary.
      He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
      was crucified, died, and was buried;
      he descended to hell.
      The third day he rose again from the dead.
      He ascended to heaven
      and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
      From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
      the holy catholic church,
      the communion of saints,
      the forgiveness of sins,
      the resurrection of the body,
      and the life everlasting. Amen.

I also believe that some of the stories in the Bible are more parable than history. I would classify books like Job, Esther and Jonah in this category.

So How Do We Read Genesis Then?

Some Christians read Genesis historically, some read it as a parable. I personally read Genesis 1-11 as a parable that draws on the history of the world, and Genesis 12-50 (the story of Abraham’s family) as entering the realm of history. But no matter how we read Genesis 1-11 I think most Christians would agree that these are some of the most important stories in the Bible, stories that help us to understand the rest of what follows. And no matter what kind of word they are, they are God’s Word. So let’s get ready to listen and reflect on what God might be saying to us today though them.

 

 

It’s hard to believe that we’re already in the first week of a new school year! Summer always seems too short, and for some reason this one felt exceptionally short. Still, it can be an exciting time of year. My youngest started junior kindergarten this week, which had me feeling extremely proud, grateful, overjoyed at how happy she was on her first day, but also a little sad. My oldest also had a big moment as he started French immersion, as he’s now in grade 1. Here in Canada fall is a time for beginnings.

It’s also a time of beginnings for my congregation of St. Andrew’s. After a long and arduous season of construction, the accessible renovation and expansion of our building is almost done, and we’re planning a Grand Reopening for the last Sunday in October. From both the outside and inside it really looks like a brand new church.

With all these new beginnings going on it seemed like a good time to preach and study the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, which tell stories about the beginning of the world. These are stories that explore the big questions so many of us have: Where do we come from? What are we here for? Why is the world such a mess? Where is God in all of this? Is there a purpose or a plan for the universe and for my life?

So with all of this in mind I’ll be preaching through Genesis 1-11 from September though to early November. And starting on Wednesday September 26 there will also be a short 5 week study for those who want to go deeper into the story.  A group will gather at the church each week at 7pm, and study notes and reflection questions will be posted here on the blog.

For  a sneak preview here’s a video from The Bible Project that touches on some of the things we’ll be exploring together.