Morling Tuesday Chapel: Colossians 3:1-14 Not just putting to death death

Speaker: Mitch Forbes

Scripture: Col 3:1-14

Colossians 1:9: Paul’s dreams and hope for the Colossians: Knowledge of His will… through the Spirit… Know who Jesus is, and who they are in Him… becoming a new person.

Chapter 3: Talks about what it’s like to live a life worthy of the Lord.

V1-4: “Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your mind not on earthly things. You are the resurrected ones, living the new life.” Repeating the things from Colossians chapters 1&2. Reminding us that we are the resurrected ones. We died, just like Jesus, and were raised, just like Jesus. Everything true of Jesus is true of us now. Your life is now hidden in Christ with God. The mystery of the gospel will be revealed. Psalm 27: He will keep you safe… Your life is hidden, it’s safe, nothing can get at it. Life is hidden in heaven, nothing can change that. It’s hidden for now but one day it will be revealed. When He returns, you will appear with Him in glory. Jesus is coming back to make us glorious, to renew all things! Remember who you are! You are a resurrected one and nothing can change that.

What do the resurrected ones do? How do they live? How does their life look like? Their life is orientated by two things: Putting to death death and putting on life. Some churches only talk about death and do not talk of hope. Some churches only talk about hope and pay no attention to evil in the world.

Put to death the things of death: The things that destroy people. Eg. how many lives and ministries have been destroyed by sexual immorality? By greed? By bitterness? By anger? By slander?

Jesus didn’t die so that we would stay dead. Jesus came so that we can have a new life. Not just standing against things, but standing for things. What are we for?

“And over these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Everyone can come and be welcomed and celebrate. If we value people’s humanness. If everything we do is dripping with kindness, humility, gentleness, patience.

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Sounds utopian: It is almost impossible.

Why forgive? Because the stuff of death still creeps in.

Woke up freezing today! Came to the warm Morling library early to search for some books for Field Education, and the "McDonaldization of the Church" and "relational leadership" captured my attention. Had a "Hope Street Coffee" prior to Chapel. It's the last Chapel of the semester and a magazine featuring the theme of "Unity in Diversity" was placed on all the chairs... "it is not about cloning"!

今早被凍醒，所以早早來到暖和的 Morling 圖書館尋找一些有關教會實習的書籍。 有幾本書 吸引了我的注意:「麥當勞化的教會」 和 「關係領導」。去神學主日之前剛好有在賣 「希望街咖啡」，所以買了一杯喝。「多元化的合一」是冬季校刊的主題。我們不是在製作「複製人」。

Morling Tuesday Chapel: Live again, Ezekiel vs John

16 May, 2017

Speaker: Matt Andrew

Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14

V3: “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel is faced with the absence of hope. It seems to be an absurd question, so Ezekiel replies, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

The response to Ezekiel’s answer is a command for Ezekiel to prophesise to the bone. The sovereign Yahweh is operating.

V5: The purpose of this prophecy: “I will put breath in you and you will come to life, and you will know that I am the Lord.” This unidentified group of people will come to life and they will know Yahweh is Yahweh and the relationship is restored. We are told the purpose before the description of the vision. There will be knowledge, and the knowledge of Yahweh. Ezekiel’s speech is not recorded. This is all about Yahweh and Yahweh’s words.

As Ezekiel prophesised we see a two stage process.

First there is a reversal of the biological process of decomposition. Bones come together, muscles are made and skin covers them.

A further act of God’s creative sovereignty is still needed for the prophecy to occur: Ezekiel is told to prophesise to the “breath”.

In Eden we also see a two stage animation of human life during the creation of Adam. There is a spring which splits of four rivers, flowing out into the four corners of the known world at that time.

Here there is no river. We have very dry bones. Yahweh’s creative Spirit is gathered, and the dry bones come back to life, from the four corner of the world.

We are given a clue: they stand on their feet at this stage and we are told they are an army. The prophet is starting to make connections at this point about who these people are. At this point, Yahweh tells him the meaning of this vision: these bones are the people of Israel.

“My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.” The covenantal curses of Deuteronomy is being reversed.

The refusal to address the meaning of the action up until this point is a grace. The message can be received as one of hope and not judgment.

The shift in imagery: valley to graves. Public defeat of a vast army. Yahweh will deal with Israel’s public unfaithfulness with an act of public faithfulness.

When you are exploring an occasion, you begin as an apprentice. What we learn is that Yahweh has sovereignly apprenticed himself to history. He will bring about His purpose despite people’s faithlessness. The hope we see is still bare bones. The enfleshment of Israel will be done with Yahweh’s own flesh. The resurrection is by God’s own son. Yahweh meets us as one who’s joined in our history. God meets us in a message that concentrates on the possibility of Christ. To know Yahweh is to know this. The recurring theme: to this group of Christian leaders, we live in a time where, through scandal, financial and sexual abuse, item after item, we see the name of Jesus Christ in the church dragged through the mud, and our temptation is to despair. We are told not to despair at the state of the church, the seeming closing down of the horizon of possibilities. We are joining in the work of the one who’s always bringing about His purposes.

23 May, 2017

Speaker: Sylvia Collinson

Scripture: John 11

11 years ago, Sylvia’s husband developed leukaemia, became weaker, had blood donations, went into hospice, and died. Wouldn’t it be a shock if her husband comes back again? No one expects people who die, and are buried, to come back to life.

John’s Gospel

The Book of Signs (Chapters 1-11)

The Book of Glory (Chapters 12-20)

Epilogue (Chapter 21)

In Jesus we see the God who weeps.

Not like Greco-Roman gods. He displays the full range of human emotions.

Why did he weep?

l   His emotion is not just sadness for Martha and Mary.

l   It is lament before a great disaster: Jerusalem didn’t recognise the time of God’s coming.

l   Strong anger, outrage, emotional indignation at: Tragic results of sin, sickness and death. Persistent unbelief of his nation.

We too must feel people’s pain and sorrow as well as their joys.

In Jesus we see the God who cares for the unimportant.

Women, children, the disabled, foreigners…

Jesus spoke to Martha as fully autonomous, intelligent being. Jesus knew that we learn more from our reflection on life than 100 sermons.

He didn’t talk to her, but with her.

She recognised him as the Resurrection & Life: “I believe that you are the Messiah, The Son of God Who is to come into the world.” This confession from a woman parallels that of Peter in the synoptics.

So Christ gave… (gifts)… to equip his people for service, so that the body of Christ can be built up…” (Ephesians 4:11-13).

In Jesus we see that God who gives new life.

Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones. God was showing Ezekiel that the message he was about to bring to Israel is that of a new life.

Lazarus was really dead. The Jews thought that the spirit of a dead person hovers around the body for three days, and then goes away. This was the fourth day, so Lazarus was really dead.

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). (Life at its scarcely imagined best – Carson)

Jesus was all that humanity was meant to be.

l   Full range of emotions

l   Full range of relationships with people.

Life to the full does not mean a life of comfort, free of pain, suffering & temptations. But through suffering God’s glory may be seen.

The God who weeps with us in all our situations. He gently leads as we grow more like Jesus.

Transformation and the Holy Spirit

View from the Mount of Beatitudes

Transformation:

l   God not only saves us but also invites us and enables us to become new people in Him.[1]

l   While we are in this body, we will experience the pull of the old beliefs, attitudes, and dispositions, but we must see ourselves as new people, adopted into God's family, who need not yield to the lures of the flesh (Romans 8:12-17).

l   Exchanged life spirituality stresses the in-Christ relationship and the importance of experiencing and expressing his life in us.

l   Scripture declares that in Christ, we have already become saints, children of light, and citizens of heaven (1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 5:8; Philippians 3:20). We must know these truths, acknowledge them by faith to be true regardless of feelings to the contrary.

l   Just as we were justified by grace through faith, so we are sanctified by grace through faith. Good works are not attained by dependence on our own fleshly efforts, achievements, or merits; instead, they flow from the power of the Spirit of Christ who indwells us (Galatians 5:16-25).

l   Brokenness, or realizing the bankruptcy of our own resources and efforts, and unconditional surrender are part of the process of appropriating Christ as life (Romans 7:14-25; 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; Galatians 5:24).

l   Only Christ himself can live the Christian life, and he does this in us and through us (John 15:1-8; cf. 2 Corinthians 2:14). As branches of the true vine, we do not create life, but we receive it through our connection with the vine.

l   It requires "a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him" for us to move from a cognitive to a personal and experiential knowledge of these spiritual truths (Ephesians 1:17-19; Colossians 1:9).[2]

Ministry of the Holy Spirit:[3]

l   Convicting: The Spirit convicts unbelievers of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11). Apart from this ministry, people would never realize their sinful condition and desperate need for the saving grace of God.

l   Regenerating: The Spirit imparts eternal life through the new birth, and this in turn implants the divine nature in the child of God (Titus 3:5; 2 Peter 1:4). We who were formerly dead (Ephesians 2:1-3) have become new creatures who are alive to God (2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 6:3-11; Ephesians 2:4-6).

l   Baptizing: By the Spirit, all believers in Christ have been "baptized into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13), and in this way we have been adopted by the Holy Spirit into the family of God (Romans 8:9, 15; Ephesians 1:5).

l   Sealing: The Holy Spirit of promise is the pledge of our inheritance, and he seals all who trust in Christ for the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:22). The Father gives us the Spirit as a pledge or a down payment that guarantees the fulfilment of his promises.

l   Indwelling: The Spirit of God permanently indwells all believers in Christ (John 14:16-17; Romans 8:9), so that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in us (1 Corinthians 6:19).

l   Filling: When we are filled by the Holy Spirit, we are under his control (Ephesians 5:18). The filling of the Spirit produces the fruit of Christian character and maturity (Acts 6:3, 5; Galatians 5:22-23).

l   Empowering: This is another aspect of the filling of the Spirit, and it relates to his sovereign and surprising power for ministry in word and deed (Acts 4:8, 31; 13:9-10).

l   Assuring: The Spirit testifies to the truth of our life in Christ and bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God (Romans 8:16; 1 John 3:24; 5:7-8).

l   Illuminating: The Spirit of God who inspired the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:21) also illuminates the Scriptures "so that we may know the things freely given to us by God" (1 Corinthians 2:10-16). Because the things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned, the Spirit gives believers insight into the meaning and application of God's Word.

l   Teaching: Jesus promised his disciples that the Spirit of truth would "guide you into all the truth" and "disclose to you what is to come" (John 16:13). The divine anointing teaches us (1 John 2:27), and the Spirit glorifies the Son by making Jesus' words known to us (John 16:14).

l   Praying: Because we do not know how to pray as we should, "the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" (Romans 8:26). The Holy Spirit searches our hearts and speaks to the Father through us (Romans 8:2). When we pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18), we have access through Christ to the Father (Ephesians 2:18).

l   Gifting: The manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to the community of faith for the mutual edification of all the members of the body. The gifts are energized and directed by the Spirit as they are exercised in other-centred love (1 Corinthians 13).

An important reminder for seminary students:[4]

An important aspect of your College experience should be an intentional seeking for God, through the Holy Spirit, to transform your life and character. Throughout your studies and in ministry situations you will have a choice to make – are you going to just gain information and knowledge (as good as they are) or will you allow God to shape your attitudes and behaviours to better reflect Himself? Be aware, that God will often use hard times, times when we are tempted to fall back into past unhelpful patterns, to build our character! Building character takes discipline, accountability and encouragement from our Christian brothers and sisters.

Transformation through prayer:

l   Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of spiritual life. It is original research in unexplored territory. Real prayer is life creating and life changing.

l   Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The closer we come to the heart-beat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ.[5]

l   For Jesus, and for us, prayer provides the insight and affirmation that if we do anything that is worthwhile-teaching, healing, organizing, reforming, working for good-we can never claim it as our own achievement. Rather, we can acknowledge it as a gift of God, the result of which is in God's hands. Prayer is the experience of knowing that God is the source of everything we claim as our own. To pray is to say with Jesus, "Not my will, but yours. Not my words, but yours. Not my worth, but yours. Not my glory, but yours. Not in my name, but in yours."[6]

---

[1] “Transformational Discipleship Program Foundation Module 1”, 15.

[2] Kenneth Boa, Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2001), 102-04.  

[3] Boa, Conformed to His Image, 293-294.  

[4] “Transformational Discipleship Program Foundation Module 1”, 19.

[5] Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, Study Guide Edition ed. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999), 42.  

[6] Henri J. M. Nouwen, Michael J. Christensen, and Rebecca Laird, Spiritual Formation : Following the Movements of the Spirit, 1st ed. (London: SPCK, 2011), 21.  

Morling Tuesday Chapel: The birthing of the Spirit

Speaker: Cass Kwakye, Plunge Coach

Scripture: John 3

Whenever you become pregnant, a lot of anticipation comes about what your baby will be like. Human kind had been created in the image of their parents. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to Spirit. If that is correct, what does your offspring look like? If God was to remove His Holy Spirit from you today, what would remain unchanged, and what would be dramatically changed? What will you no longer say no to? What ministry would cease to exist?

The greatest danger to the church today is not ISIS, Trump, etc. The greatest danger is Christians, trying to accomplish for themselves things that could only be achieved through the Holy Spirit.

Passover John 2:23

Jesus was about to go to Samaria to the woman at the well. Jesus was actually setting up for us a new way of knowing God such that we have never experienced in our life time before. To the religious institution, there is a bucket and there is a well, to drink and be filled, Jesus put inside every believer a new stream of water that never dries. Jesus “did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.”

John 3:1 A Pharisee named Nicodemus, a teacher of the law, probably the one who shapes the theology of Israel, came to Jesus at night. He is a member of the Sanhedrin, so he has political and judicial influence too. He is a representation of the religious institution itself. His name means “the victory of the people”.

3:2 He came to make a statement: coming with his credential and own appraisal of Jesus’ ministry.

3:3, 5-6 Jesus’ counter statement: “very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again… Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Human effort: utterly void when entering the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is one of the blind, amongst the many blind. No human effort can give us access to the kingdom of God.

Morling College consists of men and women of different backgrounds that are religious professionals, spending all their lives spreading the gospel. Nothing compares to having God in our lives doing it with us. It’s nothing if it’s not done with Him. Everyone here had a point in life when we were in the darkness, we were blind, did not know Jesus, and lived life without Him, with a craving for something new.

Jesus likens God to a woman in labour. It is not a glorious image of a queen, but an unsanitised image of a pregnant woman about to give birth. This is the only image that will convey the reality of how a human being cannot do what God can do: A new birth.

John 1:12 Children of God: “not born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

Nicodemus should know what a new birth is about because he’s read Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 36: This tells us what a new birth is about. “For I will take you out of the nations… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you… I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Wow, I was just translating these verses from Hebrew right before going to chapel… so this feels pretty profound!) The first birth is done by a physical labour, the second by a spiritual labour. The baby has done nothing to exist: this life inside a pregnant woman is completely passive in the process. Life was chosen for him, he didn’t choose life. The new life I bring through the Holy Spirit, you do nothing to get it. This new era is an era where the Spirit of God moves amongst humanity in an unprecedented way. A new Spirit created in God’s image. It can say no to sin, and death cannot crush. This image of being born again is not a one-time occurrence, it is throughout our whole life and ministry. Spirit gives birth to Spirit is the foundation of our ministry.

John 3:7-8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit wants to give birth through us. As Christians, every one of us has the Holy Spirit in us, anticipating new creation. How do we know how the Spirit wants to give birth through our life? Through listening for the labour pains: the groan. There are 3 groans in Romans 8: The groan of creation, to be loosened from the bondage of decay. The groans of the children of God, as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. The groan of the Holy Spirit, interceding for God’s people in accordance with the will of the Father. You will find the birthing of the Spirit in the place where these three groans meet. Cries of creation that wants to be reborn.

Augustine, one of the Early Church Fathers, was a rascal as a young man who stole pears from his neighbours and had promiscuous relationships with women. After his conversion, he was so radically changed that one day he was travelling and one of his former girlfriends came to him, calling out “Augustine, it is I.” To which he replied, “Yes, but it is not I”. The change in his attitude towards life and self was so profound that he has changed to another person.

Our call is to continue to partner with God, and say Spirit gives birth to Spirit.

Speaking of which, there is a new book by Michael Frost and Christiana Rice that seems very relevant:

https://www.ivpress.com/to-alter-your-world

Morling Tuesday Chapel: Caring for the land

Speaker: Christine Redwood

Scripture: Ezekiel 36:24-32

Christine visited a rainforest and looked at a 1000y.o trees. “Were you there when that seed landed on the ground? Did you breathe in life to the seed?”

She also felt sadness about the old old trees, many of which were cut down over the years. She thought about the indigenous lives cut so we’ve got what we got today.

“I wonder does God grieve or celebrate the changes?”

Ezekiel 36:1-7

God commands Ezekiel to address the mountains of Israel.

The people of Israel were taken away in exile and the focus here is the land. The mountains were always there, before and after the people arrived and exited from the land. This was where the abundance of life were to be found. However, the land was trampled. There was sadness in the land.

“There is a close relationship between humans and the land.”

What we do not only had effects on ourselves, but also on the land. The land was given so the Israelites could have a place to worship and for other nations to see this.

Ezekiel 36:18-19

The land was defiled because of Israel’s actions. Israel was vomited out.

“God’s judgment is again coming to those nations who destroy rather than cultivate.”

Christine is passionate about caring for the environment but felt deeply troubled when the Baptist magazine didn’t let Christine publish her article on climate change, saying that there’s no fixed position on whether it exists or not.

“How we live in our land is related to our spirituality.”

Ezekiel 36:8-12 “I find myself yearning along with Ezekiel for such a reality.”

Part of being spiritual is caring for the space where we live in.

Ezekiel 36:35: This land that was laid waste has become like the Garden of Eden!

Ezekiel 36:22: It is not for your sake, but for the sake of my Holy name.

Ezekiel 36:24-28: God chooses in His grace to transform the people instead of destroying the land.

Live in this land the way God calls us to.

“They should see God’s care for the world through us.”