“Tempe City Church” is now “Missio Dei Communities”. Please visit us at our new blog.
February 8, 2009
February 6, 2009
We had a great discussion on suffering for being a Christian last week. The principles we saw in 1 Peter were profoundly gospel-centric. However, most of us have to admit, we don’t know and experience suffering of this sort. I ended the teaching with a sober reminder that if we as a church continue on this trajectory of faithfully living out the gospel, suffering will be inevitable.
This morning in my reading, I came across a quote that really summed this up. The heading of the section is “Enmity of the World”
This is a wall which the church, if it faithfully carries out its mandate with respect to the world, will sooner or later be faced with in one form or another. For in the offer of grace and the call to conversion too much is asked of man. Failing to see that here he is offered his own rescue, he will increasingly put up his guards and offer stronger resistance as he feels himself more seriously threatened. For the first Christians this was a normal situation which they regarded as a test of their faith, and therefore were able to endure. But the less we understand this boundary and opposition, the more we will be discouraged by it and try to get around it, thereby running the risk of becoming unfaithful to the cause we are to represent in our outreach. Yet even as Jesus had to suffer in this world, so suffering is integral to the experiences of his followers in their outreach. That is the boundary of the outreach, but at the same time a new form of it.
(Berkhof, Hendrikus. An Introduction to the Study of the Faith. 1979)
February 3, 2009
______ According to the Gospel
Posted by christophergonzalez under Gospel, Sunday Nights[3] Comments
Currently in our Sunday Gatherings we are working through the second half of Peter’s first letter. He applies the gospel to different situations and issues his churches were facing: suffering, government, pastors, etc. Continuing in this vein, we want to take four more aspects of life and interpret them through the lens of the gospel.
In a couple weeks, the plan is to dwell on some issues that specifically face us We want to know which of the following aspects of life will be most beneficial for us to run through a gospel lens? We’ll take the Fave Four.
Please only vote for four.
February 2, 2009
Suffering in 1 Peter
Posted by christophergonzalez under 1 Peter, One Peter, Sunday Nights1 Comment
As promised, here is the chart we worked through yesterday morning. We tried to draw out the major themes that emerge on suffering throughout the book.
January 28, 2009
Here are the PDF’s of the True Story. You can download the acts individually, or the full version.
January 27, 2009
On Sunday night, David Strivings shared a bit from his 6 months in Indonesia. He hit on a common error we make in understanding the gospel. There are two ways to shrink down the gospel narrowing our view:
1. The Gospel of Personal Salvation. The gospel is only about going to heaven someday.
2. The Social Gospel. The gospel is only about addressing deforestation, poverty, etc.
The problem isn’t that either of these are wrong. Their problem is that they are both reductions. What we need is the biblical Gospel of the Kingdom. The good news of the historical event that Jesus of Nazareth came, lived, died, resurrected, and is now the King over all has far reaching implications. It is not less than either of these two. It is so much more!
January 26, 2009
Sunday Review: 1 Peter 2:13-3:7
Posted by christophergonzalez under 1 Peter, One Peter, Sunday NightsLeave a Comment
Peter’s big idea in this passage is that you (pl) are sent as missionaries to learn how to live as a servant family in the midst of a foreign society. Every aspect of life has a missionary dimension. So how do I live every day life in step with the gospel.
Notice the context and the missionary emphasis in these surrounding verses: 2:9, 2:11, 2:12, 3:15
Four Illustrations of Relationships Lived with Gospel Intentionality
This does not mean Blind Acceptance or Angry Rebellion. Rather it is Principled Submission. Because of the missionary dimension to my life I am able to submit in my relationships. Peter gives Four examples:
1. Civil Authorities (2:13-17)
2. Household Servants (2:18-20)
3. Wives (3:1-6)
4. Husbands (3:7)
Primarily teaching how do you as a Christian live when your government/boss/husband/wife is not? How do I live in societal structures and stay faithful to the gospel?
Note: Just because the household code of ethics isn’t the primary point Peter is trying to make does not mean it is not biblical. To see how Paul deals with this, check out Colossians 3:18-4:1 and Ephesians 5:22-6:9
How?
The Suffering Servant (2:21-23) is your Substitutionary Atonement (2:24-25)
Implications
Q: How do you stay tuned to the Suffering Servant and His Substitutionary Atonement?
Q: How will you live this out this week? In which relationships?
January 22, 2009
Evangelism: A Community Project.
Posted by christophergonzalez under Gospel, Missional, Missional Communities1 Comment
“Our primary method of evangelism is to expose people to that community created, sustained and nurtured by the gospel so that they see what the gospel produces. We want non-Christians to see us living, loving and serving each other. We want them to hear the gospel word as we speak it to one another in our sin and sorrow. We want our shared life to provoke enquiry so that we can explain the good news of Christ crucified to them. We want to invite them into this life lived well by grace as we call them to repentance and faith.
What does this look like? Just ordinary people living ordinary lives together with gospel intentionality.”
- Steve Timmis
Read the entire interview HERE, HERE, and HERE.
January 20, 2009
Sunday Night we talked through some of the idols that still grip our hearts as people seeking to live out the mission of God together. The first part of the night we looked at I Peter 3.15 and how our lives as people being transformed by the truth of the gospel are to be distinctly different than those without Christ. We then took the rest of the evening and got down and dirty working through some of our sin and how we are living lives that are influenced by something other than the True Story.
We took things like relationships, jobs, time, and $$$ and worked through how those good things can become ultimate things when we are not living according to the True Story. Then, instead of yelling at everyone telling them to be better people we talked through some heart issues of how we could live as people with hope in these situations instead mirroring those who have no hope.
Here are some of the highlights of the conversation:
Our Cultural Idols
Consumerism – How, what and why we buy things.
Materialism – How we view and use the creation.
Individualism – How, why, if and when we engage in relationships.
Moralism – What and why we obey.
Humanism – Who is at the center of the story.
5 Critical Questions for smashing idols and living as people with hope:
1. What is the sin under the sin?
2. What is the kernel of truth?
3. How does the rebellion distort, twist, or pervert that truth?
4. How is the cross good news in this situation?
5. How should we then live?
January 19, 2009
Today is MLK Day and tomorrow will be the inauguration of the first black President. I doubt there is anything in our country’s history that has left the stench of the Rebellion in the garden as intensely and putridly as our history of slavery and racism.
Contrary to other stories, the True Story of the Bible doesn’t condone racism. Far from it. The Gospel absolutely annihilates racism!
Thirteen Texts Showing how the Gospel Annihilates Racism
1. Every human is created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26-27)
2. The Covenant blessing is to all nations. (Genesis 12:1-3)
3. The pathetic example of Jonah’s racism. (Jonah 4:1)
4. The gospel-melted heart is that of the tax collector not the Pharisee. (Luke 18:9-14)
5. The Lamb was slaughtered for the world. (John 1:29)
6. We are justified by faith not race. (Romans 3:28-30)
7. Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility. (Ephesians 2:11-22)
8. Racism, by definition, counts “us” better than “them”. (Philippians 2:3)
9. Racism is not “in step with the gospel”. (Galatians 2:11-14)
10. Racism categorizes while the gospel unites. (Galatians 3:28-29)
11. Partiality gives glory to someone. The gospel gives glory to Christ. (James 2:1)
12. The gospel creates one race. (1 Peter 2:9)
13. Racists will be uncomfortable in heaven. (Revelation 5:8-10)
“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” (Dr. Martin Luther King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail)
