Willetton Christian Church

Numbers 6:19-7:9. Ross Patterson. To be announced by the High Priest (a type of Christ, our High Priest), the Lord declares His divine will towards His redeemed people - unconditional blessing! God keeps , expresses His grace to & grants us His peace! How amazing! How wonderful! Let us offer ourselves to Him with songs of praise & wholehearted devotion!

Matthew 6:7-15; 18:23-35.  Tony van Drimmelen.  Household debt in Australia is rising.  Nationally we are facing a debt crisis.  The reality of sin in our lives incurs a different kind of debt which is nonetheless real and a crisis for us all.  The good news of the gospel is that the debt has been paid in full.  Jesus tells the parable to show us the enormity of our debt to God and the comparatively trivial amount others may owe to us.  If we have an exaggerated view of the debt of others, it proves that we have minimized our own.  The main point of the parable is its conclusion:  'I canceled all that debt of yours [which was huge]…  Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' (Mat 18:32-33)

Revelation 21-22. Dan Kroon. "All good things must come to an end," they say. Holidays, parties, meetings… The fun must end. But that’s not what the Bible says. Ultimately, the Bible says the opposite. That all bad things must come to an end and all good things must continue. That’s what Revelation is all about. The end of the old and the eternity of the new. And that tension we talked about last week? Over. Done. Kaput. The lingering effects of sin and death? Finished. The devil himself? Destroyed. These are the last days. The old order will one day pass away; maybe very soon. So, what should we do? We should decide for Jesus. We should persevere in the Spirit. And we should prepare for his return. All in the peace of his assurance.

1 Samuel 8. Jordan Gommer. "We want a king over us, to lead us and fight our battles!" Israel made this demand of Samuel near the end of his life, and it's a demand that resonates with us today. We also want a ruler that leads well and fights for us. But in their request, Israel rejected their rightful king, the one who could and had lead them and fought for them better than any other: God himself. In doing so, they brought about their own destruction. We, too, have this choice before us, for God, in his love, has provided us with a human king with all the attributes of God: Jesus, the Son. Shall we reject God as Israel did, or shall we accept him as our rightful king?

1 Peter 1:13-2:17. Dan Kroon. With Jesus the kingdom has come near. But it has not finished coming. With Jesus the kingdom is now. But it also not yet – not in its fullness – not until he returns. Until then, we, the church, live in between the ages – in an era of tension. We have the rule and blessing of Jesus and grace, and we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But even though the new has come, the old has not yet gone. Inside us, the Spirit clashes with our fleshly and sinful desires. And outside us, the Church clashes with a world that doesn’t recognise God’s rule. So, in the age of the Spirit, we are called to keep in step with Spirit, putting off sin and putting on Christ. And we are called to go in the power of the Spirit, as strangers in the world, to be witnesses of Jesus Christ. So, while we have been given everything in Christ, perfection is still to come. The hope of glory to help us persevere.

Numbers 6. Ross Patterson. Only Levites & priests could serve Yahweh in the Tabernacle. In the law of the Nazirite, God provides an opportunity to the members of the 11 tribes to dedicate time & talents to their Redeemer.Jesus, the Nazarene Nazirite also kept His vow of separation to His Father's will by going all the way of sacrifice to Calvary. We too are called to service out of our gratitude for Jesus' atoning death-Nazirites in a Nazirite congregation - so fulfil your vows to the Lord!

Mark 1:15. Dan Kroon. The coming of Jesus is the coming of the Kingdom of God. He is the fulfillment of time – the crux of history. He is the bringer of the kingdom – the true King come to earth. He is the perfection of God's people, the embodiment of God's place, and the fulfillment of God's rule and blessing. Jesus' birth, death and resurrection is that amazing time in history where the sun sets on the old creation and the old covenant and rises on the new. His presence, his message and his ministry is newness. And his call? To repent and believe in the gospel. To turn our hearts towards him. To put our trust in him. To have faith that he died and rose again so we might be made new as well. So we might enter the kingdom and let the kingdom enter our hearts.

Amos 2:6-16; 5:4-6; 9:11-15. Dan Kroon. The prophets play a crucial role in the story of the Bible. They connect the partial kingdom of Israel with the perfected kingdom of God. They minister during the height, the decline and the seeming death of that partial kingdom. They look to the past (covenant, redemption, law and blessing) and to the future (judgment, new covenant and salvation) and how both should affect the present. But ultimately, they address an irreparably broken kingdom with the hope of God’s miraculous renewal and restoration. And as we saw last week, it’s not an external fix, but an internal one. A fix for human hearts that are otherwise unfixable.

Ephesians 1.  Tony van Drimmelen.  We rely on hope.  A lack of hope will cast a shadow on the way we live and see all of life.  But if we believe the gospel, then no matter what happens in our lives, we have a hope that will always strengthen us.  Christians find their hope in the certainty of God's love for them through Jesus Christ.  That means we can live in the hope of knowing that we, along with the entire creation, will be renewed into a perfect world without pain and death.

Dt 11:8-25; 12:1-7; 17:14-20. Dan Kroon. Last week we started to see the partial fulfillment of God's promised kingdom. We saw how he made Israel his people by redeeming them out of Egypt. And we saw how he established his rule by giving them the law at Mt Sinai. Both their redemption and the law were amazing blessings of God, their King. But this week we see he gave them even more blessings. We see how he brings them into the bountiful, promised land of Canaan. And we see how he seeks to rule through a people-uniting monarchy (through kings like Saul, David and Solomon). And on top of all of this, God blesses Israel with his presence in the temple in Jerusalem. This Sunday is a broad sweep from Numbers to 1 Kings; from Moses to Solomon; but it offers us many lessons. Even though God gave Israel all they needed (redemption, law, and the land), they still went astray. Their hearts were not right. They looked for answers in the world around them (human kings). And we often do the same. But the only true answer

Colossians 1:21-23. Dan Kroon. Last week we immersed in the rich, incredible poem (Colossians 1:15-20) about Christ’s centrality and supremacy in creation and the new creation. And while it’s amazing to consider, it can also leave us feeling a bit overwhelmed. Just like trying to see the invisible God, it can be difficult to grasp the pre-eminence of Jesus. That’s why Paul brings it home in the next three verses. He very clearly locates us on this huge, cosmic map; showing where we were, where we are, how we got there and how we stay there. And again, it’s not about where we are going, because we are already where we need to be. That’s the gospel!

Exodus 19:1–20:22; 24:1-11.  Tony van Drimmelen.  God’s promises to Abraham are partially fulfilled in the history of Israel.  Through the exodus from Egypt, God makes Abraham’s descendants his very own people.  Now at Mt Sinai He gives them His law so that they might live under His rule and enjoy His blessing.  For Christians today there is the great outworking of something Israel could only do in part.  Again and again our hearts are exposed by God’s law and we are driven back to the basis on which God accepts us: Jesus’ blood and His righteousness.  Because of Jesus we can respond to God in genuine obedience and with transformed hearts that are guided by His law.  Today we rise to become the new Israel, the holy nation representing Jesus and serving the community in which we worship and live.

Colossians 1:15-20. Dan Kroon. In Colossians 3:11 Paul says that "Christ is all and in all." Hence the name of the series. And there is nothing small or insignificant about that incredible statement. Christ is all and in all. He’s all that matters. He’s everything and that’s all there is to it. This week we’re considering the passage that introduces the theme of Christ’s 'all-ness' – his supremacy and centrality – and it would be an understatement to say it’s an amazing passage. It’s one of the richest, grandest, most beautiful poems of praise to the ultimate reason for our existence – the One who is the radiance of God's glory – the Lord Jesus Christ. And for our lives, it means everything.

Genesis 11:27–12:9.  Tony van Drimmelen.  Life in the perished Kingdom is harsh, cursed even.  The human race has been spiralling down, deeper and deeper into sin.  God has wiped out nearly everyone on the planet with the flood.  When the line of godly line of families is nearly snuffed out, God issues the call to Abraham and his family to restore His Kingdom on the earth.  Abraham responds even though he never sees the Kingdom restored.  How does he do it?  By faith he receives the promises of the Kingdom and it is credited to him as righteousness.  Abraham's life becomes a testimony to God's promises of a people, a place and the rule of God on earth.  According to the New Testament, the blessings given to Abraham come to us when we live by faith in Jesus.

Matthew 6:11. Dan Kroon. It's a simple request, the fourth request in the Lord's Prayer. Simple because we are to be simply dependent on our heavenly Father. Dependent on him for our physical needs and our spiritual needs. Dependent on him for our daily existence and sustenance. Dependent on him for the things we actually need, not just want. The few simple words of this simple line of this simple prayer are incredibly significant for us. Not just for our prayers, but for our whole lives. Sunday night will be a great opportunity to remember how much we need God to give us the things we easily take for granted, and to pray for those things. Not only that, but to pray for the people who cannot take these things for granted because they don't have them. We are all dependent on the gracious provision of our Father.

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-24.  Tony van Drimmelen.  With the blessing and rule of God firmly established in the opening chapter of the Bible we have to ask: what went so horribly wrong?  The entrance of sin into the world is the end of the Kingdom in the garden.  But God continues to rule even when His people disobey Him.  Genesis 3 tells us what sin is what its consequences are and what God does about it.  The rest of the Bible tells the story of God’s great love and of His determination to restore the Kingdom.

Colossians 1:9-14. Dan Kroon. After Paul has expressed thankfulness for the true gospel and the true Christians in the Colossian church, he then shares with them his constant prayer for them. And it is a worthy prayer. A prayer we could (and should) pray for each other, as well as the wider church. It is a prayer for worthy knowledge and worthy conduct. Knowledge of the will of God and the resulting lifestyle; which is marked by fruit, growth, endurance, joy and gratitude. Not only can we pray this for one another, we can also seek to be a part of the answer, striving for knowledge and a life that is pleasing to God.

Genesis 1:1–2:2.  Tony van Drimmelen.  We start our journey through the Bible at the very beginning.  God creates and in so doing lays down the pattern for life as it was meant to be.  We get to see a hierarchy in creation that speaks of a King providing a place, people, rule and blessing.  The foundation of every human endeavour is there in the creation account.  There is unity and goodness in which every human being can work, rest and enjoy.  But living according to the pattern God established can only happen when people live in fellowship with the Creator-King.  The good news of the gospel means that the pattern established at creation has been perfected in Jesus.  Because of His saving work we, of all people, can truly live and thrive in His creation!

Col 1:1-8. Dan Kroon. It’s all about Jesus. That’s how we know when we’re dealing with the real thing; the genuine article. The true gospel is all about Christ and grace. True Christians are saints who are 'in Christ'. And true growth is simply grasping more and more the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ. Paul wrote Colossians as an encouragement to a young church – reassuring them that they had all they need to grow to maturity; all in Christ. And it is as much an encouragement to churches and Christians today, whether old or young, that Christ is all we need for salvation and sanctification. Nothing else; nothing extra; just Jesus.

Mt 5:17-20.  Tony van Drimmelen.  Jesus deals with the beliefs of the most conscientious Scripture readers of his day, the Pharisees.  He argues that his position on the Law and Prophets supersedes theirs.  He has come not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete, obey and to give them their true meaning.  With Jesus they take on a new dimension -- Jesus says they are about him.  The Pharisee’s approach to reading the Scriptures means they believe the testimony of Scripture as true but they remain deaf to what God is saying to them.  It is as if they have no faith at all.  Without faith in Jesus we will never understand what God says in the Bible.  Faith in Jesus allows us to see God’s Big Picture.  Today we recognize why the Bible is so important.  It show us God's great plan of salvation culminating in the finished work of Jesus.