The last in a series on work. Various angles: –
Statistical. In NT times the average life expectancy was 35-40. This didn’t change much until about the year 1850. By 1950 it had risen to 65. Now it’s around 80. Somewhere in the world a person has been born who will live to the age of 150. Over half the people born today will live to the age of 100.
Economic. Things will be very different when today’s young people reach retirement age. …
(a) Aquila and Priscilla had a lot in common with Paul, and became his life-long friends (see Rom. 16:3 and 2 Tim. 4:19). Why do you think that Priscilla is usually mentioned first? What evidence can you see in this chapter of how effective they were as a team? How important is team-work between a Christian husband and wife?
(b) What do you think was inadequate, or incomplete, about Apollos’ understanding of the Christian faith? What do you think was the content of the ‘more adequate’ explanation that he received from Priscilla and Aquila? …
Marriage – not just some marriages, but marriage itself – seems to be on the rocks these days. More and more couples are avoiding it, and settling for cohabitation, and more and more couples who do tie the knot are looking for a pair of scissors with which to cut it before too many years are out.
Marriage seems like a relic from a bygone age, a dinosaur. And not even a valuable relic, nor an interesting dinosaur. …
John Stott called it ‘double listening’, urging that the preacher must exegete, not only the Bible, but also the culture. Not only to the eternal word of God, but also to the changing context in which that word is to be proclaimed.
Colin Adams would agree, and says that he has been thinking about questions such as:-
Tom Wright, bless his heart, has a habit of turning things on their heads, so that we see them at a completely different angle. Sometimes this is infuriating. But at other times it is fascinating and enlightening. So…
Much of the discussion about the Bible’s teaching on the relationships between men and women, between husbands and wives, has focused in recent years on the role and status of women. But this can disguise the fact that in our own day it’s harder than ever to be a boy. …
Legalism is a distortion of obedience. It is guilty of:-
In the New Testament, legalism is found in two main forms:-
Mark 14:32-42
It took place in Gethsemane, an olive grove at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
It happened after supper, and before Judas identified Jesus with a kiss and the soldiers arrested him.
Jesus had a few short hours in which to pour out his soul to his heavenly Father.
‘The shadow of Calvary’. A place of
1. Anguish
V33 – ‘He began to be deeply distressed and troubled.’ To the point of death, v34.…
Text: Mark 14:27-31.
Everyday life is full of warnings:- health, flood, gale. Fire hazard, trip hazard, bio hazard, radiation hazard. May contain nuts, may cause offence. We will prosecute if you exceed the speed limit, park illegally, drink in a public place. No photography, no mobile phones, no noise after 11 pm…
We come to church to get away from all that! To be inspired, uplifted, encouraged, – not warned.
But ‘these things were written down as warnings for us…So, if you think you’re standing firm, be careful you don’t fall!’…
31. Boys need rough and tumble. They need to be trained, through sports and other activities, to ignore pain, and to sacrifice themselves to a worthy cause. Women shouldn’t be taught to fight because they’re smaller and weaker and because they are reproductively too valuable.
32. Don’t defend yourself. Unless you’re in physical danger. Be assertive, not defensive. If you’re wrong, say so and back down. If you’re right, say so and don’t back down.
33.…
Romans 15:1-13
I’ve sometimes thought nursing might be OK without patients, teaching without students, and Christianity without Christians!
However, ‘There is no way of belonging to Christ except by belonging gladly and irrevocably to that marvellous and extraordinary ragbag of saints and fatheads who make up the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.’ (Geoffrey Paul)
Unity: prayed for in the Gospels, modelled in Acts, urged and encouraged in the epistles.
Conclusion of the section beginning at 14:1, about the weak and the strong. …
