Titus by Stuart Allen
1Paul,
a servant of God
and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
for the sake of the faith of God’s elect
and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness,
2 in hope of eternal life,
which God,
who never lies,
promised before the ages began
3and at the proper time manifested in his word
through the preaching
with which I have been entrusted
by the command of God our Savior;
- Why do you think Paul wrote such a detailed introduction to his letter to Titus? What is the main point he is making here?- The colors match and you can see what's sandwiched stands out...
- Eternal life is at stake!
- The reason behind Paul's calling >> the future hope
- Pursuit of greater good in future, hence present denial
Tuesday Gobbets on Mark (Intro to Mark) by Robin Sydseff
- Learn Mark off by heart, know the rhythm of it, so when you're on tube/mrt, you'll be thinking/pondering over it
- The Gospel books, not just evangelistic tools for non-Christians, also written for Christians (training/discipleship)
- Challenges
(i) Familiarity, most often congregation switches off, people won't be able to tell difference between Mark & John, only that it is about Jesus, the Gospels are the least understood
(ii) Getting a line on the different Gospels - John (evangelism...signs, discourses), Luke (assurance to Theophilus, tonic to the Christian soul), Mark (Messianic secret, centurion's statement is high point "You are the Christ" 15:29, and training)
(iii) Constructing a coherent series - summary titles in bibles have no coherence to the book/rhythm
(iv) Teaching the Gospels to Christians - as well as to non-Christians
(v) Tough literary genre - parables, narratives, discourses, prophesy, miracles....need to switch gears and get the rhythm right
- 4:38 Mark's unique...disciple's fear mentioned. How many times we say "God doesn't care". Reality is sometimes that it's not calmed...got to address it
- 4:39 Jesus saying "Be still!", in Greek is term associated with exorcising, thus we see the waves in a different light, one associated with evil, since you only exorcise evil. Application: Jesus' inactivity doesn't mean he doesn't care!
- Power of nature meets power of God. Storm which could have killed them, the fishermen knew that since all experienced fishermen would have known what kind of storm they could steer away from.
- Don't forget Mark's key contribution! Get back into text!
Doctrine by Tim McMahon
Developing and Teaching Doctrine
- What's doctrine? categories, articulate, how the bits come together
- A human activity with a Divine purpose
(a) Constant reformation...never going to be able to sum up, constantly reviewing
(b) Bible vs Gospel...knowledge of Bible and knowledge of God...heart relationship base on content, can have knowledge but no heart, knowledge which affects life compared to just facts >> anyone can immediately pick out the difference
- our framework needs to be changed by the Word
- The Purpose of studying doctrine.
(a) To inform how we worship God....people's doctrine of God determines how they engage/relate to him (it), consider Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaeo-Christian
(b) To inform our understanding of Blibical texts (a recursive relationship with doctrine - one changes the other)...strangely for a person who has an abusive father, still have an innate understanding of what an unabusive father is like...all due to us being made in the image of God
(c) To inform our gospel preaching (largely doctrinal in evangelical circles recently)
(d) To inform how we live
Trinity
- The nature of God....a philosophical matter?
- Propositional statements about God...look at "God is light", you won't think much about it, but read up 1 John 1:5-7; 2:9-11; 2:18-19...."God is light" is in the relational context, fellowship, loving others
- Don't need exhaustive to have complete knowledge of God. Eg, marriage relationship, will we ever know spouse completely? No. Does it stop us from wanting to know more? No. What God has revealed enables us to have a deep, profound relationship with him.
- Teaching Trinity...recognise the limitations of models to explain Trinity, failure of physical/mathematical models but the relational model of marriage works. Pictures of liquid/ice/steam or egg/yolk/white, all fail because it's not relational. Need relational terms like marriage to describe the unity in Trinity or family terms. Eg, insult wife, husband insulted, or children praised, father is happy but is not in the limelight though he is the one who has brought them up.
Problem comes when equality comes into picture, but equality is not blibical. There's submission and authority, but people have problems with those words in the 21st century, the inadequacy of language. Read Bible, read with picture of Trinity, us being brought into the Trinity relationship which is one of joy and agreement with one another. Amazing!
- Next week is Christology, SO exciting!!!
Deuteronomy by Christopher Ash
Deuteronomy 4:21-31 why religion is wrong (why grace works)
v21 angry theme...Lord angry with Moses
v24 God is a consuming fire [good healthy jealousy, all or nothing God]
(1) consumes & burns up those not loyal to him (DANGER)
(2) if we're loyal, enemies will be consumed (SAFETY)
A. Idolatry scatters the Church (v21-28)
v25 I create the god I'm worshipping....projection of me
Theological: If 2 individuals create god, bound to be scattering, conflict, etc
B. Grace gathers the Church (or God gathers the Church by his word of grace) (v29-31)
v29 from there = place of scattering/from exile/from place where taste bitter fruit of suffering
v30 will return = repent
Theological ques: How does Moses know that some of them will repent/turn back?
Ans: because God swore the promise to Abraham so they will return. Gospel of grace Moses preached.
- land = rest
- what does it mean to "take the land"? Believe in the promise/faith. Unbelief hence didn't enter the land. We're not in the rest now.
- Deut = about faith, not legalism. Believe and hence live out your loyalty to God.
Conclusion: Post-modern doesn't care about church scattering, but mention family breakdowns, disharmony, they'll understand. And when they see changed lives, they'll be amazed.
Changed lives, changed hearts are all God's work! We couldn't do it even if we tried really hard. God's grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. Let's consider what they means in each of our lives...
Titus 2: 11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
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