Rom.8:12-17 (Family) Bible Study

One of the most extraordinary claims of the Bible is that when we become Christians we are adopted into the family of God.   We’re so used to it that we might almost forget how breath-taking a privilege it is, and the glory of what it means often comes into sharp relief when we consider not only what we are saved to, but also what we are saved from.  We see that from Jesus’ own designation of the religious leaders as children of the devil (Jn.8:42-47); but only slightly less disturbing is Paul’s language in Eph.2:2-3, where in describing the Ephesians’ reality before becoming Christians, he writes literally of how they followed ‘the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience … we were by nature children of wrath’ (emphasis added).  Against this background, the idea that we are now adopted into the family of God is staggering.

The Bible speaks of our becoming Christians as having many different facets - some are ‘legal’, others moral or spiritual.  Adoption into the family of God speaks much more directly and intimately to the question of our relationship with God as Father, on the basis of Christ’s own Sonship.  So it is no surprise to read that one of the highest proveleges of being in the Family is that of coming to God as Father in prayer.  As we are now identified with Jesus, our Brother, we are able to come before His Father as our Father.  Jesus consistently approached God as His Father (Matt.11:25; 26:39, Jn.17:1 etc., in fact the only exception is His cry of dereliction, Matt.27:46).  We would never dare such presumption without explicit mandate from Christ.  Even then, the invitation to such intimacy threatens irreverence.   We keep our balance by remembering that He remains ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name’ (Matt.6:9).  Our Father remains our Lord.  

The Fatherhood of God is also the basis of our receiving the Spirit of His Son with a view to our growing more like our Brother in the family likeness (Lk.11:13; Rom.8:14; Phil.2:15).  This sense of growing to be like our Father is a key idea linked with our being children of God (Eph.5:1, I Pet.1:14-16), and lies in the background to Heb.12:4-11, which alerts us to the fact that the love of our Father means He is not willing to leave our sin unchallenged.  As Judge, God no longer sees, or remembers our sin as something for which we need to be judged.  He ‘blots out our transgressions … and remembers our sins no more’ (Is.43:25).  But as Father, He continues to see them as something for which we need to be disciplined, something which hinders our pursuit of the ‘family-likeness’.  In Hebrews this is celebrated as confirming God’s love for us, and that liberates us so that ‘we can share in His holiness’ (II Cor.6:18-7:1).

Few other aspects of our salvation speak to our hearts and redeem our emotional life so deeply as the idea of adoption. 

Questions:

If prayer is so critically linked to adoption, what does this mean for when people who aren’t Christians pray? Should we encourage people who aren’t Christians to pray e.g. the Lord’s Prayer (which speaks of God as Father)?

If we are supposed to reflect the life and character of our God, should Christians be expected to adopt as part of our discipleship?

Read Rom.8:12-17

What does Paul mean by living ‘according to the flesh’? Why does living like that lead to death (8:13)? Is this true even for people who think of themselves as Christians?

How do you ‘put to death the misdeeds of the body (8:13)? What is the role of the Spirit in this? How would help a new Christian to do this?

What is the difference between ‘slavery’ and ‘sonship’ (8:14-15)? Should people who aren’t Christians speak of God as their Father?

Do you think it is sexist and inappropriate to speak of our adoption to ‘sonship’ in the way Paul does here (8:15)?

How does the Spirit testify with our spirit that we are God’s children (8:16)? What would it ‘feel ‘ like? How would you experience this?

Why is it so important? How would you counsel a Christian who was struggling to think of themselves as part of God’s family?

Why does Paul link our being heirs, with suffering (8:17, see also 8:18)? What do you think we are heirs of… what is our inheritance?

Ideas for Family Worship Revelation 19:1-8 Church - Bride of Christ

Please click below for this weeks Family Worship Ideas

Rev.19:1-10 (Bride) Bible Study

The Book of Revelation is immense.  We’re having a whole day looking at it this summer (3rd August), so if it isn’t in your diary, book it in now!! The key to the book is to understand where and how the images have been used elsewhere in Scripture, and to bring that to the passage you’re considering in the Revelation.  This passage is a case in point...  the faithful bride and the faithless prostitute.  This is a not a new image in Scripture.  It has been used before to capture the idea of the Church as faithful to the covenant the Lord has made, in contrast to a faithless world.  It is another way of picturing the contrasting destinies of the two cities: Babylon and Jerusalem (see Ch.18 for Babylon, and Ch.21:9-11 for the identifying of the Bride with the New Jerusalem).   

It is a breath-taking scene, assaulting the senses as we grapple to take on board the cosmic reality of what is being revealed.  A vast echo of the wedding we saw in the opening scene of creation-history (Gen.2:18-25) is heard now in the closing scenes.  It is a theme that has resonated along the corridors of time: the books of Song of Songs, of Hosea, Psalm 45, and glorious passages such as Is.54:5; Is.62:5; Eph.5:25-27 (&32), to say nothing of the numerous parables where Jesus styles Himself as the Bridegroom, and the many times idolatry is presented as adultery...  Given how often it occurs in Scripture, there may be grounds in saying this is one of the Holy Spirit’s favourite images to capture the dynamics of the relationship between Christ and the Church. 

And here in Rev.19, the long awaited ‘wedding of the Lamb’ has finally come.  The Bride has finally made herself ready.  The prospect is so staggering we can understand why the angel has to underline that this is in fact happening (These are the true words of God).  Otherwise we could be forgiven for thinking such a thing impossible.  And the atmosphere of this moment is saturated with worship.  Every moment is punctuated by a roar of worship that echoes through the vaults of heaven.  The Angelic host of heaven (19:1); the Church and the Four Living Creatures (19:4), and Christ Himself (19:5) answer each other in cascading worship, before the whole company of heaven join in a rising crescendo (19:6).  Blessed indeed are those who are invited.  The worship is so infectious, that John is tempted to worship even the angel... and earns a stern rebuke from his fellow servant (19:10)!

Questions:

Does this passage evoke such instinct for worship as you read it?  Do you find yourself longing to be a part of this great company of heaven as they declare the praise of God?

How do you feel about God being worshipped in light of His judging and destruction of the world (19:1-4)?  In light of the response of heaven, how would you respond to someone who said they couldn’t worship a God who came in such cataclysmic judgment?

Do you find comfort in this image of the God whose judgments are just and true?  why is it emphasized that in judging the world He is avenging the blood of His servants (19:2)?  How would you feel about the judgement of God if you had lost those you loved in persecution?

Do you think it is fair of God to judge with an eternal destruction (19:3)?

Why does the Book of Revelation put this imagery in such close proximity to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb?  What is the connection between the two events, and why are they intertwined in worship like this?

What does the imagery of the Church as the Bride of Christ / wedding of the Lamb make you think of?   What passages are informing your thinking on this?

In what sense does the bride make herself ready?  Does that undermine the idea of grace?

What do you think constitutes the ‘righteous acts of God’s holy people’ (19:8, see the contrast of imagery with 18:16)?  How can we support each other at MIE as we pursue these?

Why is it only at the end of the age that the wedding supper of the Lamb takes place? 

In what ways is a Christian marriage service structured to reflect the dynamics of the relationship between Christ and the Church?  If you are married, would you be willing to share how this imagery has shaped your relationship with your spouse?

How important is it that Christian marriages reflect the pattern laid down between Christ and His bride the Church?  Can Christians decide to build their marriage in a different direction?

An Apostolic Church - ideas for family worship

I know we write these as a way of encouraging family worship – but if your family has older children / youth then please feel free to use the regular Bible Study material! 

But if you have younger children, how can we get into this idea of the Church being rooted in the Apostles?  There are a couple of idea: the first would be to build on the very visual image of the Apostles as the foundation of the Church (Eph.2:20, with Prophets simply be those who did the same job as the Apostles prior to the Incarnation of Christ).

Here’s a simple picture of the image in Eph.2:20 that might help:

Eph.2:19-20 would also make a great memory verse.  Here’s a shortened version: ‘You are ... members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone’.

To introduce the idea of making sure we can recognise the Apostles’ teaching, why not have a game where you read a popular saying or sentence and people have to decide if it is Apostle or not Apostle...  (cleanliness is next to godliness?  The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat?)

How can we get better at knowing what the Apostle’s teach (and what they don’t teach!)? 

Another way in might be to think of keeping something safe.  You could entrust something fragile to one member of the family, who keeps it for a day, then passes it on to the next person...  can it be kept safe till the end of the week?  This is a great picture of the Church as it passes on the Apostolic teaching from one generation to another through the ages.  How do we know when it is being kept safe?   ...and when it isn’t?

There are plenty of kid-friendly animations of the story of Apostle Paul’s missionary journeys on Youtube.  One of them – covering Acts 10-28 - can be found here.

with older children, you could take a letter written by an Apostle (i.e. any of the NT epistles) and begin to introduce them to the idea of learning from a passage about the Apostle and what they teach.  If you are using Eph.2:20 as a memory verse, why not take the whole chapter over the course of a few days, and explore some of the big ideas Paul is teaching, and what we are learning about him from what he writes there.  What does he teach us about sin, and the cross, and the Church?  What does he teach us about God and what God is doing through Jesus and why?  Just take it one section at a time, read it aloud as a family (you might find it helpful to make sure everyone has a copy of that section in front of them). 

In Explorers and youth group Bible studies, we often ask the y.p. to draw:

a question mark beside anything they don’t understand... 

an exclamation mark against something they didn’t expect... 

a light bulb next to new ideas... 

a deja-vu sign for anything they have heard before, or recognise from somewhere else in the Bible (see below)…

an arrow to note something we have to do…

a heart next to something they love or get excited about in the passage. 

That sort of thing might be a helpful way to get people talking about what you are reading...

II Thess.2:13-17 (Apostolic) Bible Study

There have always been competing claims on who Jesus was/is, what He taught, and what it means to follow Him.  Paul warned the Corinthian Church about how dangerous it is to tolerate those who preach a ‘Jesus other than the Jesus we preached’, or who offer ‘a different spirit from the Spirit you received’ or who proclaim ‘a different gospel from the one you accepted’ (II Cor.11:4).  And he is even more forceful when writing to the Church at Galatia: ‘...even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!’ (Gal.1:8).  He is adamant that the Gospel he has preached to the Galatians was not something he received from any mere human.  It was revealed by Jesus Himself (Gal.1:12). 

To confess that we believe in ‘One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’ is to commit ourselves to this Gospel.  It is to commit ourselves to the teaching and traditions, the example and the patterns of ministry and Church life that we see in the Apostles.  We are committing ourselves to disregard and to stand against all other versions of Christianity, all other opinions, all other beliefs and spiritualties.  This was the call on the Church in the days even of the Apostles, and it remains the call on the Church now. 

In my sermon this week I tried to make the point that we are committed to following the Apostles in their teaching, their example and their mission.  We are bound to whatever we see in them, or hear from them, and thus we are assured of the Spirit’s sanctifying work.  Such is released in us only as we believe in the truth (v.13).  The deep connection between the content of our belief and actual lived godliness is well attested (here, but also e.g. Rom.1:5, Titus 1:1 etc.).  As we drift from what we have received from the Apostles we can be confident that the Spirit will be muted, grieved, and withdrawing.  That is a terrifying prospect for any Church, any Christian.  We are called to His truth through the Apostolic Gospel (v.14).  When we ignore that Gospel there can be no expectation of salvation or sanctification. 

If ever there was a mandate to immerse ourselves afresh in the full teaching of the Apostles, inspired as they are by the Holy Spirit, it is our confession of the Apostolic Church.

Questions:

Read II Cor.11:13-15; II Tim.2:16-19; II Peter 2:1-3; I John 4:1 (and other similar passages you may be aware of).  Do you think this is still a problem in the Church today?  How would you recognise such false teachers?  How should we relate to such people in the Church today? 

How grateful are you for the Church (II Thess.2:13)?  What does Paul think should be in place before such thankfulness is legitimate?  Do you follow the Apostle’s example in this sense of overwhelming gratitude for those who are in the Church with you?

How do you feel about being chosen by God (2:13)?  What is Paul teaching us here?  How would feel about someone disagreeing with Pauls use of such language, and the ideas about God it communicates (see also: Rom.8:33; Eph.1:4 & 11; Col.3:12; I Thess.1:4)? 

Do you think Paul (and other Apostles e.g. I Pet.1:2; II John 1:13) reflect the teaching of Jesus here?  can you think of passages from the Gospels where Jesus uses the same kind of language?

Paul says we are saved ‘through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and belief in the truth’ (II Thess.1:13).  What is this sanctifying work?  ...and what would the impact and effects of this work be?  Could you be ‘saved’ without it?  What about someone who says they are a Christian, but who doesn’t believe the ‘truth’?

How comfortable are you with Paul talking about ‘our Gospel’ (2:14, see also Gal.1:6-12; I Thess.1:5)?  What do you think that Gospel is... and how does it differ from ‘gospels’ you may have heard elsewhere?

Do you think MIE is a Church that holds fast to the Apostle’s teaching (2:15)?  How important is it to you that we do that?  What does it look like for you personally to ‘stand fast and hold fast’ to that teaching?

What does it mean for you to have received eternal encouragement and good hope (2:16) Through God’s love and grace?  How does that motivate and shape our discipleship as we are strengthened in every good work?  What sort of ‘good works’ do you think Paul has in mind here? 

Father's Day... it's complicated

Days like today are complicated celebrations that seem to underline in so many ways the heart-breaking tensions of living in a fallen world... 

The idea of a ‘Dad’ was God’s.  And yet – like in so much of our experience – His vision can be tragically marred.  The complicated reality of a world that ignores God trips us up, and hinders our celebration of God’s idea.  For many days like today can be painful reminders.  Memories of our fathers are not always joyous, but can be scarred by abandonment, neglect, betrayal or suffering.  Relationships with our dads today are not always straightforward, and can be the cause of ongoing frustration and tears.  There are those who have so desperately wanted to be dads, but the circumstances of their lives have meant those hopes and dreams lie broken and unfulfilled.  Many feel judged, and are profoundly aware of their failure as dads on a day to day basis; for others ‘Father’s Day’ is an agonising reminder of decisions we would give anything to go back and make again.  For others, today opens afresh the wounds of loss.  Others find in their children a source of tremendous confusion and grief.  Even the most wholehearted and joyous celebration of Father’s Day will be tainted with sorrow. 

As Christians we are to ‘mourn with those who mourn’ (Rom.12:15).  Our focus should be on the broken, the wounded, the sinner and the sinned against.  This is righteous.  Our faith gives us the courage to face life as it really is, and not to have to pretend.  Yet the same verse (Rom.12:15) also commands us to ‘rejoice with those who rejoice’.  Our concern for the wounded can often lead us to forego the rejoicing and to mute our celebration.  Or we can lose balance the other way, and disregard the wounded in thoughtless rejoicing.  But this is not the way of the Scriptures. 

Nor is it their way to disregard, or distort God’s vision for fatherhood.  There are elements of it that seem unfamiliar, and problematic in our own culture.  The Christian vision of family is – sometimes explicitly – being eroded.  In this season of political manifestoes it can be worth reflecting on where our prospective governments prioritise (or even recognise) the value of the nuclear family, constructed along Biblical lines.  Unless we are deliberate and intentional, it is likely that we have little sense of what fathers are called to.

As Christians, we are to honour those who are worthy of honour, and give them the recognition they deserve (Rom.13:7).  This is rarely done in our world, and the Church dare not follow suit.  Churches must maintain a holy and healthy balance.  We cry out to God both to heal the wounded, and in gratitude for what is worthy of honour; both for grace to cover our failure and in praise for when God has enabled us to be faithful in our calling.

Only at the Cross can we find the resources to maintain this balance.  Only here can we learn to look beyond ourselves, our own experiences and situations, and our own culture, and to enter into the experience of another with such total empathy, so that those who mourn can rejoice with those who rejoice, and those who rejoice can mourn with those who mourn.  The integrity of neither is compromised.  For us all, we may find that as we obey His call, God is at work in us far more than we had anticipated.  Only at the cross do we truly grasp the cost of Fatherhood.  Only at the cross can we stand to critique our own assumptions and find them displaced by God’s vision for this most noble and courageous of roles.

And as we confront the complicated nature of today’s celebration of fatherhood, we find our hearts aching again for the holy simplicity of the New Creation, when ‘there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away’ (Rev.21:4).  This is our future in Christ, and on that day our joy will no longer be complicated, or tainted.  It will be complete in and through Him, and the fulfilment of His work.  That is our hope in Christ.  And it is a hope that radically relativizes everything in this old, passing age.  It relativizes both the joy and sorrow, and ironically perhaps even the institution of fatherhood, and of our love for our fathers.

Passages like Mark 10:29-30 and Luke 14:26 relate the disturbing words of Jesus.  His teaching calls us to a total allegiance to Christ that undermines even our love for the one who bore and nursed us.  Our love and respect for, and our honouring of ‘Dad’ (and his love for us); the relationship we may enjoy with him (and that he enjoys with us) must be understood in the context of our much deeper love for Christ and a much more compelling relationship with Him.  Ultimately we are delivered from this present age and delivered into the Kingdom of Heaven, where there is no Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free, or I wonder, father or child…  while our citizenship is in heaven, our pilgrimage remains through this old creation and this old age.  While here, we are called to ‘honour our … father’, but only in such a way that truly we are honouring Christ.  Neither we nor our fathers should expect more than this.  Perhaps this is the most complicated thing of all.

In Christ,

Mark

Catholic (Rev.7:9-17): Family Worship ideas

The Nicene (and the Apostles’) Creed both follow a Trinitarian pattern.  They look at each Person of the Godhead and then teach us a bit about who they are what they have done... or are doing.  The line about the Church (we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church) is in the section telling us about the work of the Holy Spirit.

Bringing us all together into one body – whenever or wherever we have lived – is the work of the Holy Spirit who is the ‘Lord, the giver of life’.  We come from all over the world and we have lived in all different times and contexts.  But all Christians are bound together in one Church!

If you have a world map, or a globe, this would be a great time to get it out... and to maybe pray for Christians from all over the world.  You’ll get some great ideas for how to pray here: https://youth.opendoorsuk.org/

and why not have a think about some Christians from history.  I’m a big fan of the torchlighter series for younger kids.  They are pretty good animations of Christian biographies from throughout history.  you can find a number of them for free on youtube. Though I’ve put one right here to get you started! It’s the story of Eric Liddel, who we’ll be thinking about later this summer!!!

And our reading for this week celebrates the reality that we are all together in one rich and diverse body of believers in heaven.  We are not reduced to a monochrome mono-culture.  John can still see that these are people from the full variety of cultures and nations and ethnicities.  That’s what the Holy Spirit is working towards as He brings us together into congregations as people become Christians today. 

That does raise some obvious questions which you might want to discuss as a family...  about why there are so many different Churches, and why it is that doing things ‘our way’ seems more important than doing things ‘together’?  ...about whether there should be Churches that limit themselves to people from a particular culture, or age-group?  ...about why God wants us to be together in worship, life and mission?  ...about what it is OK to change as other people join a congregation, and about what needs to stay the same?  ...about what we would be prepared to change to make others feel like they belong?

These can seem like big ideas, but introducing them now mean that we have the categories to discuss them as we grow older, and might help us from making mistakes as Christians later on in life!

 As a family, why not do a bit of research.  Pick one part of Church life, and see if you can find out how Christians from different parts of the world do it differently?   For example, in the Philippines, they baptise someone by having them stand in a basin of water, whilst pouring another basin of water of them...  Maybe have a look at how they celebrate Easter?  or how they do communion?

 Could you support a Church somewhere else in the world, or a missionary, or a local evangelist?

If you would like to do some more study on last week’s reading (Rev.7:9-17), then here are some questions for you:

Why do you think all the different cultures and nationalities are still evident in the Church in heaven?  What does this teach us about our nation / tribe / language / people?

What do you think the white robes represent?  Why is everyone wearing them?

What else does everyone in the Church have in common? 

How does vv.15-17 answer the Church’s experience of ‘tribulation’ (v.14)?

Can you think of something from the Bible (and maybe from your own experience) that is a good example God’s wisdom? ...that the Church would want to thank God for?  ...that shows God’s honour?  ...His power?  His strength?

Why is Jesus pictured as a Lamb in v.10?  How does that connect with God’s salvation of the Church?

Do you like the idea of Jesus as Lamb, or as Lion (see e.g. Rev.5:5) more?  Why?  Do you find it hard to think of Jesus as both these things?

Rev.7:9-17 Bible Study

When you reflect on the line about the Church in the Nicene Creed (We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church), you might begin to feel the tension embedded in the heart of the Biblical vision for Church.  The Catholicity (universal nature) of the Church is one of the greatest challenges to its one-ness (unity).  Of course, you could just slide the whole thing off into a nebulous spirituality.  You know the kind of thing: our unity is ‘spiritual’.  It is, but if there is one thing know it is that Christian spirituality is physical.  Or at least it has a physical outworking.  Think about how the deepest aspects of our worship draw us into physical and tangible experiences.  We baptise with water, and we eat and drink bread and wine.  The physicality matters.

And so we are left with the awkward expectation that the universal nature of the Church will not fracture the physical reality of the unity of the Church.  The ‘one...catholic...’ Church is the historical outworking of the Gospel.  It is what the Gospel produces.  As we are brought by the Spirit to Christ we are saved by Him into the one Church.  All of us.  Whatever our age, background, culture, ethnicity, or position on the socio-economic ladder.  Whenever we have lived, wherever we have lived.  Whether we are even living at all!  The Church is universal.  We all belong to the one Church.  That’s what it means to say the Church is catholic.

We might begin to appreciate that the Creed puts this firmly within the remit of the Spirit’s work.  If we are ever to achieve that sense of diversity without division, we will have to reach beyond human capacity and potential.   To keep us together and in fellowship with one another in spite of all our differences...  that’s a miracle in its own right!  The tensions in such a Church family are almost unbearable.  But we can see in Scripture how critically important it is to maintain the unity of the Church in the face of the challenges poses by such catholicity.  In Acts 15, we find the Apostles even pausing on world evangelism in order to return to Jerusalem and address the question of how Christians from different cultures can remain united in one body.

Maybe this is why some say that this line of the creed, that ‘we believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church’ is the most difficult to believe.  Maybe it’s why – in spite of confessing it – many have given up believing it to be even possible.  Today it is increasingly common for Churches to ‘aim’ at one particular culture, or even sub-culture; or perhaps one age group or demographic.  However successful this might seem to be, it is a denial of the catholicity of the Church.  And as such it grieves the Spirit.

Questions:

How much of Rev.7:9 do you think we can (re-)capture in our present experience of Church?

Why is it so tempting to allow our cultural or ethnic difference to drive us apart and into different congregations?  How can we overcome those temptations?

In Rev.7:9-13, what are the things those in the ‘great multitude’ have in common that keep them together in spite of all their differences?

How do you think they would respond if you suggested they segregate into different groups depending on age, stage of life, ethnicity, or nationality?

How can we better lean into this vision of the catholic Church at MIE?

What is the ‘great tribulation’ that this multitude have come out of (7:14)?  Why does it matter where they came from? 

What is there in vv.15-17 that would be of comfort to those who have been through ‘the great tribulation’?  Why does the ‘elder’ quote from Is.49:10 and Is.25:8?  What is going on in those sections of Isaiah that connects with John’s vision of the Church in heaven?

Why are they (a) dressed in white robes, and (b) holding palm branches (7:9)? 

What excites you about this vision of the Church?

1 Peter 2:4-12

Please find below the link to download this weeks family worship ideas

I Peter 2:4-12 Bible Study

When our relationship with Jesus changes, our relationship with everything else changes too!   Nothing about us stays the same.  We can’t simply add ‘christianity’ to our life whilst leaving everything else untouched.  In coming to Christ, we are by definition being built into the life of the Church.  Whether we strengthen or weaken the structure of the Church life is another question.  We are part of the life of the people of God.  As such we are part of something that is holy (in this passage see: I Pet.2:5 & 9, but also I Pet.1:15-16).  It’s a much misunderstood concept, often equated with moral purity.  That is in fact part of what holiness is about, but it cannot be reduced to this.  ‘Holiness’ is much more about be set apart.  In Leviticus – which unsurprisingly is where we are taught about such things – many things can be designated as holy that have no intrinsic moral quality: food, time, a house, oil, an animal, a field, and so on.  People, things, time, are all ‘set apart as holy’.  What that means will look different depending on what it is that has been set apart.  When people are set apart as holy (Lev.20:26), that will carry a moral connotation – but also much more.  A people set apart for the Lord’s purposes is a glorious thing.  And this is what we are reminded of in our creed: We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.  

When Peter speaks about our priesthood, he is reminding us of the privilege the Church has in holding forth the Gospel to the world.  That is one of the things we are set apart to do (so Paul in Rom.15:16).  To be set apart from the world is not to withdraw from it in such a way as to leave it unaffected by our presence.  Our being God’s special possession, a holy nation is not to hermetically seal ourselves away from ‘the darkness’ (2:9) in a ‘holy huddle’.  That sort of idea is a counterfeit holiness, not at all what the Lord has in mind when He calls us holy.  To retreat is to misunderstand the heart of God, and the identity of the Church.  We are set apart not geographically, but spiritually.  We are set apart in order to be different, in order to transform that which we have been set apart from. 

I’ve always found the description of Christians in the Epistle to Diognetus inspiring stuff to read.  It may well have been written to one of Emperor Marcus Aurelius' tutors, somewhere in the mid-second century!  In it we find this brilliant description of Christians:

“For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or custom. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life... although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man’s lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed. It is true that they are ‘in the flesh,’ but they do not live ‘according to the flesh.’ They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require.

They love all men, and by all men are persecuted. They are unknown, and still are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought back to life. They are poor, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. They are dishonoured, and in their very dishonour are glorified; they are defamed, and yet vindicated … They are treated by the Jews as foreigners and enemies, and are hunted down by the Greeks; and all the time those who hate them find it impossible to justify their enmity”.

Questions:

Why do you think that Peter particularly draws attention to the fact that Jesus was ‘rejected by humans’ (2:4)?  From what you know of the rest of the epistle, why might that help and encourage the Churches Peter is writing to?

How does the Church offer ‘spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God’ (2:5)?

Peter links 3 passages from Isaiah and Psalms to speak of Jesus and of the responses people make to Him.  When you look back to those passages, how can you tell they were written about Jesus?  ...or is Peter bringing a meaning to those passages they didn’t originally have?

How does Jesus cause people to ‘stumble’ and ‘fall’?  What does Peter mean when he says that this is ‘also what they were destined for’ 2:8)?

In 2:9, Peter draws four Old Testament descriptions of the Church forward to the New Testament people of God?  What does that teach you about how Peter sees the relationship between the two?

Take each of those descriptions: Chosen People; Royal Priesthood; Holy Nation; God’s Special Possession.   What do they communicate about the life and mission of the Church?  How well do you think MIE fits those descriptions... or do those descriptions fit MIE?  What would you need to do for us to grow into a better fit?

Why is it wrong to argue that because we are all a ‘royal priesthood’, the Church shouldn’t have recognised and ordained leaders?

What does Peter mean when he talks about our declaring the praises of God? 

Do you think of the Church as a distinct people?  How does your belonging to that people shape you (see also e.g. Acts 4:23)?   What do you do when the claims of belonging to different people are in tension?  Can you give examples?

What does Peter want us to understand about being ‘foreigners and exiles’? How does that status affect our abstaining from sinful desires? In what ways do those desires wage war against our soul?

Do you live sucha good life that even people who disagree with Christianity and see it as a problem, are impressed by your good deeds? How canw e ensure that it is God who is glorified, rather than us (you’re such a good person)?

Eph.4:1-16 Ideas for family Worship

For the next 4 weeks we’re going to keep thinking about the Church, but from a different angle.  In our services we say the Nicene Creed when we are preparing to take Communion.  In that we say that we believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  What does that mean?  We’re taking each of those key words that describe the Church, and exploring them in our Services and Sunday Groups.

The word Creed is taken from the Latin word ‘Credo’, which means ‘I believe’.  The Creed marks out the boundaries of what the Church believes.  This is the core of what it means to be a Christian, and to be a Christian Church, so it’s worth understanding what it means.  We spend a whole term at DTP exploring this as a foundation of life and faith, so don’t be deceived by it’s succintness and simplicity.

Maybe you could print it out and decorate it... and put it on the fridge.  These are all things that all Christians have agreed that the Bible teaches.  Maybe you could memorise it? (The Apostles’ Creed is shorter than the Nicene Creed)

Read Ephesians 4:1-16.

To speak of the Church as ‘One’ is to say we believe that all Christians who have ever lived are joined together in Christ and are united with one another.  In the Bible we can see that God wants Christians to be able to express and experience that unity ...that togetherness.

There are all kinds of ways we can illustrate this.  An airfix model? lego? ...anything where a ‘whole’ is comprised of many bits.  Or a great image from the Bible is a loaf of bread.  Why not bake one, and then look at I Cor.10:17.  Think about our communion service where we all eat bits of bread taken from one loaf!  what a great picture of our belonging together.

And here is this week’s Catechism Q&A (To Be a Christian Q&A 96):

In what sense is the Church ‘one’?

The Church is one because all its members form the Body of Christ, having ‘one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all’ (Eph.4:5-6).  The Church is called to embody this unity in all relationships between believers

Pause for thought:

Have think about what kind of things causes Christians to fall out?  Why do Christians start so many different Churches?  do you think this is something God is pleased with?

In our passage Paul gives us some tools to help us keep the unity of the Spirit.  He tells us to be humble, patient, gentle, loving.  How do these help us to stay united?

How can you pray as a family for the unity of the Church? Are there people you know who have fallen out?

And if you want to take this a step further:

Communion isn’t the only thing that keeps us together.  Everything about our faith works for our unity.  We have ONE baptism, ONE Lord, ONE faith.  We share in ONE Holy Spirit.  And we worship the ONE God who is Father of us all!  We are all growing to be like Jesus.  A fun way to illustrate this is to draw a circle and put some dots around the edge of the circle.  As the dots move towards the centre, they also get closer to each other!  (OK – maybe fun was a strong word!!).  As we all grow towards Jesus, we grow towards each other!

And there is one more tool to help us keep our unity!  Jesus has put people in the Church who will teach us the Bible (Apostles, we’ll look at them in a couple of weeks; Prophets; Pastor-Teachers and Evangelists, who teach the Bible to people who aren’t Christians yet!).  As we listen to those people teach us, and as we learn and believe more and more of what the Bible says, we’ll find that we all agree more and more with each other!  If a lots of pianos are tuned to the same tuning fork, they will all be in tune with each other.  One of the reasons it is so dangerous to say we’re not going to believe something the Bible teaches – we are making it more likely that we will fall out and divide the Church!

How do you as a family engage with the Scriptures? ...and with the teaching of the Scriptures at MIE?  This is a great opportunity to model to your children how to listen to the Bible as the Word of God.

Why not memorise Ps.119:96-97, To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are boundless. Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.

Dear God, We Thank you for all the blessings you give us day by day. We thank you that you love us and help us but we know we don’t live as we know we should.

We’re sorry for the times we hurt You through my words, actions and bad thoughts. We’re sorry that we don't do what we know is right. Please forgive us because of Jesus, and help us by your Spirit to live as you say we should.

Amen

Eph.4:1-16 Bible Study

What a glorious challenge!  To ‘live a life worthy of the calling you have received’!  Paul has laid out a vision of our experience of the love of God we have experienced in Christ.  Something, Paul tells us, that has been on God’s heart since before the creation of the world (1:4-10).  Paul has taken us across the landscape of the Gospel, helping us to understand God’s vision and purpose for the Church, and then he inspires us to live up to our identity, our destiny, our purpose. 

I wonder what images and ideas that conjures up in your mind and imagination?  What would be the first thing Paul would expect to see in a life worthy of the calling to be a child of God?  Perhaps unexpectedly, Paul seizes on the question of unity as of first and highest priority in this.  Someone who understands what it means to be a Christian, will be someone deeply and personally committed to the unity of the Church.  Paul gives us the tools to fashion that unity in lived experience in our own congregation (4:2-3); and the spiritual framework that makes that unity so necessary.  It remains a gift of grace, bestowed by the risen and ascended Christ (vv.7-11), but that is not an excuse for our passivity in the face of such a high and holy calling.  It is worth pondering how we are active in cultivating that unity, and how we protect it when facing the temptation to behave in ways that undermine it.

The building of that unity is profoundly connected in Paul’s thinking to the question of truth and of our shared understanding and experience of Christ.  The current Church of England mantra about the wonders of a ‘broad’ Church where people believe contradictory things about Jesus, is a recipe for disaster, and is likely contributing to the implosion of the Anglican Church as we know it in this country.  It pulls in exactly the opposite direction to the course charted by the Apostle towards a unity ‘of the Spirit’ that is founded on speaking truth in love.   

That’s as true in any individual congregation as it is in a denomination.  Paul anticipates a growing stability and agreement to develop as the Scriptures are taught (vv.14-16).  That stability and agreement is focussed on Christ, and works itself in to the fellowship of the Church as it shapes us in to those who love Christ and each other in deeply practical ways.  Those two are inextricably linked, and it is hard to convey the spiritual dissonance that exists when people say they love God, yet are distant from the Church.  We are saved into the people of God.  We cannot envisage spiritual life without reference to our relationship with other Christians.  We cannot love Christ, and not love those who also love Him.

Questions

Under what circumstances do you think it would be legitimate to leave a Church?  How would you advise someone who was thinking of leaving their Church?  What sort of reasons to people give for leaving Churches?

Have you ever left a Church?  Would you be prepared to share the story?  How do you feel about it now?  

Do you think MIE should leave the Church of England if Synod and the House of Bishop change the Church’s Law on marriage later this year?

How can we cultivate a deeper sense of fellowship at MIE?

Read Eph.4:1-16

What does complete humility look like?  How can we develop this?

How can we be gentle, patient and bear with one another when they behave in ways that frustrate us, hurt us, and provoke us?  What does it mean to bear with someone?  What if they don’t change?  How long should we be prepared to behave this way?

Is Paul saying we can’t confront or challenge someone who is behaving in ways that annoy us?   When should we raise this issue with the leadership of the Church? 

Paul lists seven things there are ‘one’ of in vv.4-6.  How does each of these motivate and inspire us in our efforts to ‘keep the unity of the Spirit’?

Based on what you read in this passage, what role do the Scriptures have in building and sustaining the unity of the Church?

How do those entrusted to preach and teach the Scriptures ‘equip’ you for works of service? 

How does false teaching and deceitful teachers damage the unity of the Church?

Would you say that MIE was a Church that was growing and building itself up in love?  Is it a Church in which each part does it work?  Can you pray for each other in your group as you serve the ministry and mission of the Church?

Ideas for Family Worship Numbers 24:1-19

Below is the link to download this week’s ideas for Family Worship.

Num.24:1-19 Bible Study

Looking at the whole story of Balaam (Num.22-25) is a bizarre experience.  For some, the existence of narratives such as this – with a talking donkey - simply affirms that the Bible belongs in the realm of myth and fairy tales, albeit fairy tales with a moral.  But even within the Bible's account there is the awareness that this is a unique moment, an exception to the way the world is.  As a rule, animals don't talk.  So why is the rule broken?

A prophet-for-hire has been employed to curse the Church.  It gives us insight into the nature of God who deigns to speak through him in spite of all the ambiguities, and into the nature of inspiration.  The Lord's desire to bless His people is abundantly clear throughout.  In the end it is only their sin that brings curse (in line with the Mosaic pronouncements of Deut.28).  But the Lord's desire is to bless an obedient people.

We are shown the dynamics of inspiration - which remain as important in today's Church as in the Church of Moses' day.  Can we trust those who speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?  Are their words exclusively the result of the Spirit's work, or are they a mixture of divine and human origins?  Can a prophet get things wrong while speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?  Or could a prophet's human motivation somehow undermine what they say?  All such questions are answered through the account of Balaam.  As Balaam himself puts it repeatedly: 'Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?' (Num.23:12, see II Pet.1:19-21, and I Cor.2:10-14). 

So why the talking donkey?  Well...  when you see Balaam's greed and his betrayal of the people of God (Num.31:8 & 15-16) perhaps the analogy comes into focus.  The stubborn mule who cannot utter a word on its own takes on the role of Balaam himself, and Balaam's struggle to simply get the beast to do what he wants gives us insight into the LORD's own frustration at the recalcitrance of a wayward prophet determined to go their own way.  As Balaam would have killed the donkey with his sword, so the Angel of the Lord is waiting to slay Balaam (Num.22:29-33).  Balaam gets to see his behaviour from the Lord's perspective (see Ps.32:8-9).  Unfortunately, even such revelation does not halt his descent into spiritual treachery.  Balaam knows that the only way God will come against His own people is if they capitulate to sin.  His counsel to Balak then is to have the Moabite women to seduce the Israelites, both sexually and spiritually (Num.25:1-2).  The God who desires to bless His obedient people now stands against them in their unfaithfulness and disobedience, '...and those who died in the plague numbered 24,000' (Num.25:9).

Balaam thus earned his wages.  Unfortunately, in spite of the short term monetary gain, the wages of sin remain what it has always been: death (Num.31:8, Rom.6:23).

Questions:

Is this how you understand the idea of the Inspiration of the Bible?  How does what we believe about the Bible shape our attitude to it?  What would you say someone believed if their engagement with Scripture amounted to only a few minutes each day?

Why do you think preaching is so undervalued in the Church today? 

How has this series in Numbers challenged you? ...inspired you?  ...changed your thinking about God, or the Church?  What is different for you going forward?

Do you think MIE has learned the lessons God would want to teach the Church in the Book of Numbers? 

Have another look at I Peter 1:10-12.  How do Balaam’s prophecies speak of the grace that was to come to [us]? How do they predict the suffering and glories of Christ?  How do they serve [us]?

What does it teach us that after everything that has happened, it still pleases the LORD to bless Israel (Num.24:1)? 

What can we learn about the experience of being inspired by the Holy Spirit from what Balaam says (24:3-4 & 12-16)?

To what extent do you think the prophecy in 24:17-19 is about Jesus?  What parts encourage you?  What parts do you struggle with?  Why?

Family Worship Ideas - Numbers 20: 1-13

Here is the Family worship Ideas based on this weeks passage Numbers 20:1-13 Click on the Down load button to access the PDF.

Num.20:1-13 Bible Study

One of the most traumatic things we can experience is the death of someone we love and have shared life with.  Even when we know they were a Christian, so that grief is tinged with hope, it can still be a horrendous experience to live through (I Thess.4:13).  Miriam had been so incredibly significant in the life of the Church (e.g. Ex.15:20-21), and of Moses.  This profoundly personal loss must have created a fault line in Moses’ emotional landscape...  which might perhaps explain his signal failure in the incident that followed.

I’m sure the ‘gathering in opposition’ in v.2 wasn’t premeditated to take advantage of Moses in this moment of vulnerability.  It is probably more likely that they simply didn’t think to give Moses space to grieve.  A congregation can often see an ‘office’ rather than a ‘person’ in their leader, and are often unaware of them struggling with all the pain and pressures of life that everyone else struggles with, and even less aware of the stresses and temptations that are unique to those in spiritual leadership.  Did it simply not occur to them that, whatever their issues might be, there could be compassion, wisdom, gentleness is giving Moses space to grieve before grumbling, criticising and complaining against him in this way (v.3-4)?  Probably not.  We fallen humans can even in our redemption, be a remarkably egocentric bunch at times.  And even when we know our leaders are under personal pressure, we can still expect them to be available...  the good news is that it may be they learned from this episode, and when Aaron died (20:27-29), the whole Church took 30 days to mourn.

But for Moses the convergence of his personal grief and pressure of another round of public criticism and complaint has tragic consequences.   The pressures he has lived with since confronting Pharaoh and leading the Church out of Egypt has had an accumulative effect.  The people’s relentless and pathetic infatuation with Egypt has eroded his patience and humility.  His personal loss has left him uniquely susceptible to temptation.  They blame him for what their own sin had caused.  And yet whilst his impatience, frustration and anger may seem justified – or at least justifiable – to us, it constituted an act of disobedience that had disastrous consequences.  However true his allegation against the Church might appear (you rebels... v.10), it was not his place to judge.  It remained his place rather to teach the Church and to model the implicit obedience Christ will only ever show to His Father (Jn.5:19).  A new generation of the Church is growing up, and it is crucial they see that obedience is non-negotiable, and that the Word of the Lord is sufficient.

Questions:

This is a significant moment that ripples through Scripture.  One such ‘ripple’ is Psalm 95, which embeds it in the corporate worship of the Church. 

Does what we see of God in Num.20:1-13 inspire you to worship?  Or does God’s dealing with Moses raise too many questions for you?

What other grounds in Ps.95 are we given for worshipping Him?  Which of these speak particularly to you?  Why?

In Ps.95:8-9, the Lord complains that the Church should have learned by then to trust His faithfulness.  Why had the Church not learned these basic lessons even so far into their wilderness experience?  Why were they still so nostalgic for Egypt (Num.20:3-5)?  Why were they still quarrelling?

How do we exhibit the same reticence to learn the basic lessons of Christian discipleship?

What does it mean that the first generation of the Church (apart from Caleb and Joshua) never entered His rest?

...and back to Num.20. 

How do we ‘quarrel’ with the Lord?  Based on this passage, how serious would it be to do so?

Have you ever seen a Church leader treated in the way Moses is being treated here?

What are the critical errors Moses makes in 20:10-11?  How are they expressions of his distrust of the LORD (20:12)? 

Do you think Moses disobedience is sufficiently serious to warrant the punishment he receives (20:12)?

How does this episode ‘prove’ the Lord was holy amongst His people (20:13)?

Numb.16:1-34 Bible Study

In the sermon this week, I focussed on the key idea running through this passage – the importance of ensuring that Christ is exclusively shaping and structuring our relationship with God.  This is linked to His office as our ‘great High Priest’ (Heb.4:14).  That’s why Aaron is the focus of this latest outbreak of grumbling and resentment in the Church.  He is the ‘actor’ who represent Christ in the drama of worship that is played out at the Tabernacle.  He is like a living, breathing visual aid, and when we watch him fulfilling the office and ministry of High Priest, we are being shown what Jesus will do.  It’s an important – if often neglected – dimension to the corporate worship of the Church that it is designed to teach us the Gospel.  If it doesn’t model the Gospel, it is immediately sub-Christian! 

Of course Aaron is only an actor.  As Hebrews teaches us many generations later, those like Aaron who play the part of Jesus are themselves ‘subject to weakness’.  Consequently, they have to offer sacrifices again and again, ‘for their own sin as well as for the sins of the people’ (Heb.5:2-3).  When Christ is called as High Priest, He sacrifices for the sins of the people once for all when He offers Himself (Heb.7:27).  But for all the inbuilt inadequacies, there is much about Aaron that helps us understand Jesus.  And because of that, it is incredibly important that the ancient Church learns to accept his role, and to learn from it.  The LORD has chosen who will be holy and who will come near to Him (16:5).  It is Christ.  And anyone else who wants to approach the Living God must do so, and can only do so through Him. 

That – in part – explains what happens in the rest of Numbers 16-19.  In the wake of this rebellion (see Num.26:9), the Lord re-iterates in a number of ways the centrality of the ministry of the High Priest.  It is the High Priest alone who can make atonement, and who stands between the living and the dead, and who alone can stop the plague that is the expression of the wrath of God (16:42-50).  It is the High Priest that can bring life out of death (17).  And after these drama-tic teaching moments, the Lord then hands down a raft of new legislation that relates to the Levitical Priesthood.

All are powerful and pictorial representations of Christ’s ministry.  He has forged the way into the Presence of the living God.  Our sincerity is not the criteria by which God accepts us.  Neither is what may seem meaningful, or spiritual to us.  The only grounds for acceptance by God is the question fo whether it is structured and mediated by the High Priest, His beloved Son, who He gave to death on the cross.  To spurn this is indeed ‘insolent’ (16:1)

Questions:

In 16:3, the reason given for rejecting the High Priesthood of Aaron is ‘the whole community is holy, everyone of them, and the LORD is with them.  Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?’.  What contemporary equivalents of this argument have you come across over the years?  Why is this spurious reasoning?

What is going on in 16:12-14?  Why do they describe Egypt the way they do?   How can they have such a ‘romanticised’ view of Egypt when it was actually a place of slavery and death?  What is the charge they are bringing against Moses and Aaron (and by implication, against the Lord)?

Why is Moses so angry in 16:15?  Is it appropriate for him to ask the Lord not to receive the worship of others in the people of God?  Is that something we could ever pray today?

Why does the Lord invent a ‘new thing’ to deal with those caught up in Korah, Dathan and Abiram’s rebellion?  What is the significance of their going ‘down alive into the realm of the dead’ (16:30 & 33)?  Does the Bible really think the ‘realm of the dead’ is under the ground?

It is a bit harsh to say they treated the Lord with contempt (16:30)? 

What would you say to someone who called themselves a Christian, but who didn’t allow Jesus to structure their relationship with God, or the way that worked out in their lives?

What would you say to someone who said they didn’t need to become a Christian because they had their own genuinely meaningful spirituality that they felt connected them with God?

 Read Jude 11.  Why does Korah get a mention here?  What does that teach us about how to apply this story into the life of the New Testament Church?

And if you still have time:

In the sermon, I also mentioned the Sons of Korah and their stepping back from their family’s fate (Num.26:11).  The appearance of their work in the Book of Psalms is an important testimony to the grace of God in the face of judgment, and reminds us that there is no necessity for any to face that judgment.  It takes a deliberate defiance to refuse to repent.  Ps.42-49 explore what its like to live in this fallen world waiting for the return of Christ in glory, anticipating various aspects of the Church’s destiny when He does return.  Ps.84-5 speak of the kind of longing for the Lord that only comes from those who have sacrificed much for Him.  Ps.87 rejoices in the international nature of the Church.  If you have time though, it might be worth turning up Ps.88, and reading it in the light of Numbers 16.

Questions:

What stands out to you with new meaning, or what takes on a new signifigance, when you do that?

In what sort of situation would you find Psalm 88 useful to read?

What can you learn from Ps.88 about the experience of stepping away from family and friends to be identified with those who trust in Christ as high Priest?

How do you think the Sons of Korah would have felt looking back on the events of Num.16?  How would it have shaped the way they lived and worshipped?

Num.16:1-34 Ideas for family worship

It’s great story, and one that a lot of children will enjoy!  But what does it mean?  well, if you’ve followed along with the sermon and perhaps dipped into the Bible Study notes for Num.16 you should have a pretty good idea that the focus is on the role and work of the High Priest (representing Jesus), and the fact that He is the only way for us to access the life of God.  That’s probably where I would start any discussion or teaching on this passage: Why can we not just get to God ourselves? 

Once you get past that into a discussion of the High Priest, and his ministry, the key ideas are about the fact that it is the Lord who gets to set the terms of our worship, and to choose who can have access to Him.  It is nothing short of presumption to start anywhere else than there.  And He chooses a High Priest.  More specifically, He choose His own Son as High Priest (see Heb.4:14-5:10 if you want to unpack this).  He approaches the Father – and anyone else who wants to has to go with Him.  This is great news and gives us incredible confidence – we know the Father accepts His Son.

The idea of representation is an easy one to explore.  Depending on age the idea of sports team representing a country (or a town); an MP representing people in their constituency; or an ambassador representing their government might all help. 

In a similar way, Christ represents us in the throne room of heaven!  There is no one better to trust to work in our best interests.  The costume of the High Priest visualises this for us.  He carries on his shoulder two onyx stones on which are engraved the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, literally carrying the Church into the heavenly throne room, as He appears before the Father with the blood of His sacrifice.  Imagine a child being lifted up to on their parent’s shoulders to see something they couldn’t see on their own – that’s a pretty good picture of what’s going on!

Once we get past the drama of Num.16:25-34, it is worth pointing out that God isn’t being unfair in His dealing with these trouble-makers and their families and followers.  There are two critical things to remember.  The first is that the result of trying to get to God iwthout Jesus is always death.  The second is that no-one actually had to suffer this fate!   In fact we’re told in Num.26:11 that not everyone did.  Some of Korah’s descendants wanted to stand with Christ, rather than with their families who rejected Christ. 

This is such a rich (if quite challenging) area to explore.  As parents it gives us a chance to help our children think through what it means to choose to follow Christ even when other important people in our lives choose not to.   The danger of being carried along by other people’s decisions is one we will want them to recognise and avoid. 

But one of my favorite obeservations on this whole incident is the realisation that the Sons of Korah can teach us a lot about how to approach God properly in worship.  It might be good to explore one of the Psalms written by the Sons of Korah!  One of the easiest would be Ps.45, which describes the wedding of Christ and the Church (Eph.5:25-27; Heb.1:8-9).  Older hcildren might appreciate Ps.42-44 though, which explores what it feels like to live in a fallen world, waiting for Christ to come and fix it!

A great memory passage for this week might be from another Sons of Korah Psalm: 85:6-7, Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?Show us your unfailing love Lord, and grant us your salvation’.  Worth praying that together as a family!!

Num.13-14 Ideas for Family Worship

Because it was an all age service last Sunday we had a shorter reading (Num.13:26-14:9). It was a great reading, but it is in fact part of a longer story (Num.13-14). I’ll leave it to yourdiscretion how much of it you want to tell or read as you build a Family Worship session around the passage. U+you can download a single-side-of-A4 version of this here:

In the great drama of our salvation that is played out on the stage of Gen-Joshua, the Promised land is teaching us all about the New creation.  The idea in Chap.13 is that these spiritually responsible leaders (likely from amongst those who had sat with the Lord in Ex.24:9-11) were to bring back a report that would inspire the rest of the Church to pursue God’s vision of their life together.  With their redemption fresh in their minds, with the presence of the Lord in their midst, and with the hope of their God-given future before them, they would be unstoppable!

The whole idea of having a secure and well informed hope for our New Creation future is critical to our being able to live as disciples today.  This is a fairly straightforward idea to get across to anyone who has sat an exam!  Something you know will happen in the future affects how you feel and what you do today.  A conscientious student will forego hobbies, social events, TV, Game-play and so on in order to prepare for their future (Exam!).  Sometimes people even miss Church when exams are getting close!  That might be something you’d want to talk about as a family!!

So, looking forward to the New Creation is very different from looking forward to exams (maybe, planning for a holiday would be a better image to work with!!), but the idea that a future anticipation can affect us and shape us today is a dynamic we can cultivate however old we are.  For someone like Paul, his hope for the New Creation helped him when he was facing struggle and persecution (e.g. Rom.8:18).  And we can see how dangerous it is when we don’t believe the New Creation is for us. 

So – what do we know about the New Creation?  What can we learn even from Num.13:23-27? 

A great way in might be to read the closing sections of Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan.  OK – so the whole of Pilgrim’s Progress is always worth a visit.  you can watch a pretty good animation of it on Youtube, here.

Or perhaps ‘My first books...’ sections 212-217.  Or for older children/youth, ‘To be a Christian’ Q&A 144-120.  If you did get a copy of The-Ology, the Ch.62-65 are pretty amazing ways of getting a really tangible sense of the New Creation hope we have.

Talking about what we are looking forward to about New Creation life is bound to get exciting (if at times prompting some unexpected answers).   And spending some time praying that the Holy Spirit would help us know the hope we have is something Paul teaches us to do.  Why not re-write Eph.1:17-21 in your own words, and use it as a family prayer?  ...perhaps each person could pray for one of the things Paul teaches us to pray about?  You could trace around your hand and break the prayer in five, writing each part on a different finger / thumb, and praying them every day this week...

For older children, I’d suggest a second part of the conversation can focus on the mistakes made by the ten spies who are crippled by unbelief.  What is the mistake they are making?  Why is the Church more inclined to listen to them than to Caleb and Joshua?  How can we avoid making the same kind of mistakes ourselves? 

Oh – and if it’s your kind of thing, you can get grasshoppers to eat (13:32-33)!  How you get that into family devotions, I’ll leave to your imagination!!

Num.13-14 Bible Study

As last Sunday was an All Age service, we had a truncated reading (13:26-14:9).  But really, the story stretches through all of Chap.13-14.  Parts of it are fairly well known, but the profound dangers of the issue it exposes can easily be missed in the drama of the moment.

The idea in Chap.13 is that these spiritually responsible leaders (likely from amongst those who had sat with the Lord in Ex.24:9-11) were to bring back a report that would inspire the rest of the Church to pursue God’s vision of their life together.  With their redemption fresh in their minds, with the presence of the Lord in their midst, and with the hope of their God-given future before them, they would be unstoppable!  It’s a matrix that should continue to frame Christian spirituality. When we remember what we have been saved from and how; when we experience the presence of the Lord in our midst, and when we are focussed on the hope set before us, the Church is unstoppable.  This is what shapes Paul’s prayer for the Church in e.g. Eph.1:17-21, and it might be worth stopping as a group and spending some time praying the same for MIE!

Numbers 13 then was all about establishing their hope in the New Creation Inheritance God had promised His people.  There were battles and challenges ahead, but with a clear vision of their future, they would step into them with courage and expectant faith!  The reality of what happened fell somewhat short of that intention.   They were so close, and yet so far.  All twelve of the spies did in fact grasp the glory of the Promised Land: ‘It does flow with milk and honey’ (13:28).  It’s the next word that does all the damage: ‘But...’.  It is so easy to hear everything God says to us, but...  to know what we are called to, but... to realise the incredible privileges and responsibilities the Lord gives us, but...

And which side of that ‘but’ you stand decides a great deal about your life as a Christian.  Caleb and Joshua saw everything the other ten did.  They saw nothing different, but everything differently.  Whereas the ten saw themselves as unable to stand against the obstacles to God’s promises (13:33), Caleb and Joshua saw those obstacles as unable to stand against the Church stepping into God’s promises.  The difference is perspective.  Your perspective on Christ that is.  How you see Him determines how you see everything else.

Questions:

What is Moses trying to establish by asking the spies about the aspects of the land listed in 13:17-20?  Why does he want some fruit brought back?  What achieves the same purpose in our own discipleship?

Why are the congregation of Israel more inclined to listen to the ten, rather than to Caleb (13:30) and Joshua (14:6-9)?  How can we guard ourselves against making the same mistake today?

In Josh.2:8-11, we hear how the Canaanites saw Israel (granted it is 40 years later, but I doubt much has changed).  In the light of Rahab’s speech, what is wrong with the spies’ report in Num.13:27-29, and 13:31-33. 

What accounts for the attitude of the people in 14:2-4?  What does it say about their understanding of the Lord?  How can they still desire Egypt?  Why can they not accurately remember the reality of their experience there?

This isn’t the first time the Church has behaved in this way (see Num.11:1-6; Ex.16:2-3).  Why can they not learn this lesson?  How should we behave if we keep falling into the same pattern of sin?  What do we need from each other, and from our Church?  When is it right to comfort, and when to rebuke?

Are you ever tempted to think that life would be better if you weren’t a Christian?  Do you sometimes find yourself envious of those who don’t follow Jesus?  What is that like?  How do you resist such temptations?

Do you think the Lord’s response to the ten is fair (14:36-38)?  Why does He take it so seriously?  What has been the impact of their unbelief?  Is it fair that the whole Church is treated as it is because of the failure of these ten (see 14:26-35)? 

Do you think the Lord still deals with His people in this way?  What might it look like for a Church today to be similarly disciplined by the Lord?

What difference does your hope in the New Creation make to daily life?  How could you tell whether a Church was rooted in such a hope? 

How does what you believe about the future express itself in your discipleship?