All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching… 2 Tim. 3:16-17

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All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching… 2 Tim. 3:16-17

May 28, 2018 admin@upperroomchurch

WHY READ THE BIBLE

1) The Bible reveals who God is – and importantly, it reveals who His son is – Jesus Christ.

‘Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’ John 20:30-31

2) The Bible also helps us discern truth. Photos, video and music are edited and altered to hide the truth. Information comes at us through many sources and many are false or twisted to hide the truth. The Bible says that our hearts are deceitful above all things and beyond cure. The Bible is very different, in fact it says:

‘All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse. To the discerning all of them are right; they are upright to those who have found knowledge. ‘ Prov. 8:8-9

3) The Bible helps us determine God’s will. This may be for a specific decision – which job should I take or how should I react to a situation. However, when determining God’s will, we are suggesting a dynamic and relational interaction between yourself, God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul sums it up best when he writes in the Book of Romans:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. “ Romans 12:2

4) The Bible equips us to do God’s work. What good would it be if you acknowledge God’s son as saviour, can discern what is true and his will, but don’t know how to act on His behalf? The Bible tells us that:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim. 3:16-17

Challenges:

  1. Read the Bible each morning and before you go to bed.
  2. Memorise His word to really engage with Him!
  3. Join a group to study the Bible
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1 Cor. 12:12-27 ‘House Rules’

April 20, 2018 admin@upperroomchurch

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

(House Rules for The Upper Room Church gathering at Re-Hope Church Building)

Introduction:

1) The Upper Room Church is THE SAME CHURCH…(we are A CHURCH)…just meeting in a different place…

2) But…how are we meant to work together…to function…as A CHURCH…in a new place??

3) Our passage that we will briefly study tonight will help us understand what this means for us…NOW…in a new place…

4) Read the passage in two parts…Verses 12-18…and Verses 19-27…

A Number of (5) OBSERVATIONS about this Passage…

1) The Bible here is talking about THE CHURCH…(that is like a human body)…

– As we see in Verse 12…at the very beginning of the passage…and at Verse 27…at the very end of the passage…

– Like…BOOKENDS…(meaning that everything in between is all about THE CHURCH…TOO)…

– The Apostle Paul (who writes this Letter to the Corinthian Christians) is talking about How Christ is still at work in the world through the people in His Church…which Paul refers to as Christ’s Body…

– But…what is most important for us…is to understand that…in the New Testament…the Church is meant to function like the Human Body…

– The Metaphor (picture) of THE CHURCH…is THE HUMAN BODY…

2) We FUNCTION/SERVE in DIFFERENT Ways in the Church…

Like Different Parts of the Body…function in different ways…

As we read in Verses 14-17…

– In the Church…some serve like EYES…some serve like HANDS…some serve like FEET…some serve like EARS…

– Each type of functioning/serving is important…BUT DIFFERENT…

3) The way we Serve/Function in the Body/Church…is according (not to what we want)…but according to WHAT GOD DESIRES…

As in Verse 18…

– GOD decides and determines WHERE and HOW we can serve BEST…

– (Maybe you want to function like an Eye…but God says…“No, you will serve Me best like a Hand.”)

– It is all about WHAT GOD DESIRES…not what YOU WANT…

– (Grammatically…this is the most important bit in the passage…)

4) When the Body/Church is working well…We Recognize that WE NEED EACH OTHER…

As in Verses 19-24a…

– And…this is THE CHURCH…SO DIFFERENT from the world around us…

Because The WEAKER parts are declared to be MORE NECESSARY…and The LESS HONORABLE parts are given “more abundant honor”…

– Do you see that in Verse 22…and Verse 23…??

5) The Church as a Body…is all about CARE FOR EACH OTHER…

As in Verses 24b – 26…

– Such a DEPTH of CARING…that we SHARE in One Another’s SUFFERING…

– And we SHARE in One Another’s REJOICING…

– So that Verse 25…is critical for how a Church FUNCTIONS in the MOST HEALTHY WAY…

“…that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have THE SAME CARE for one another.”

Conclusion:

APPLICATION…HOUSE RULES…so that Upper Room can REALLY CARE for One Another:

1) Using the Re-Hope Building respectfully…staying away from main worship area for now…(especially musical instruments)…

2) SIGN-UP for Cooking & Clean Up CARE TEAM…

3) SIGN-UP for Set-Up CARE TEAM…

4) SING-UP for Music/Worship CARE TEAM…

(We will soon teach about GIVING FINANCIALLY…as way of showing CARE…)

ASK GOD…to show you how you can SHOW CARE to someone in the Church this week…

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Good Friday is Good

April 14, 2017 admin@upperroomchurch

Mark 15:1-39
(The Cross for Good Friday, 14 April, 2017):

1. Why…“Good Friday”…???

2. Thus…we read about the Cross…in Mark 15:1-39…

3. I wanted us to read all of this…but we will focus on just the last section…Verses 33-39…

– Let’s read those again…once more…

– Vss.33-39:

4. I think this passage wants us to focus on Two Very Important TRUTHS…that the Crucifixion of Jesus puts in front of us…

The Impact of Sin…

The Results of Christ’s Death…

I. The Impact of Sin

– We see this in Verses 33 and 34 :

1. FIRST…the Bible wants us to know…(in vs.33)…that a very strange thing occurred when Jesus hung upon the Cross…

– DARKNESS fell over the whole land…

– It is the term σκοτος …(skotos)…and it means the deep, penetrating BLACKNESS of the NIGHT…

a. (DISCUSS…what does darkness like this suggest…???)

(Fear, the Unknown, Danger, Losing Your Way, etc…)

b. Here…because it is very unusual…coming at “the sixth hour”…(12:00 Noon)…and because it falls “over the whole land”…and because it lasted for 3 hours…“until the ninth hour”…(says the verse)…

– HERE…it is clearly meant as a symbol of…the gloom and ugliness…of SIN!

– DARKNESS here conveys the awful impact of SIN…

– And behind SIN…in the Bible…is always SATAN…the author of all that is EVIL…

c. And in the Gospel Story…JESUS IS HANING UPON THE CROSS…because…GOD IS CONFRONTING SIN and SATAN…

d. It is…in other words… THE IMPACT of YOUR SIN…and MINE…and the SINS of all of HUMANITY…and the EVIL OF SATAN who inspires sin…which is the reason that Christ is Crucified…

e. And…this Very Unusual Darkness…tells us that what happened to Jesus…is nothing less than The Impact of Sin…

(SILENT CONFESSION: In prayer…silently…we confess to God that is OUR SIN…that required Jesus’ Death on the Cross…)

2. SECOND…the Bible wants us to know…that Jesus Christ…BORE THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR SIN…

a. We see this…very particularly…in Verse 34 :

b. In other words…the Impact of our Sin…is that Jesus was “FORSAKEN”…by God…His Father…!!

– The word means…to Cut Off and Abandon…which is how God in His Holiness must respond to Sin…

– This would be MY CRY…and YOUR CRY…“My God, My God, why have You FORSAKEN me?”

– BUT…Jesus took upon himself ALL of the SIN of the world…including yours and mine…

– And so…it is HIS CRY…rather than Yours…

c. The IMPACT of Sin and Evil…is that JESUS was Forsaken…Cut Off…Abandoned by God…

II. The Results of Christ’s Death

1. OPEN and FREE ACCESS to God…for ALL…

a. We see this in another very strange thing that happened when Jesus Died on the Cross…

In Verse 38…“And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

b. The VEIL of the Temple separated the HOLINESS of GOD…from common, ordinary human beings…

But…when it was TORN IN TWO…it is another symbol that something drastic has changed…

That JESUS’ DEATH…has OPENED the way for ALL to have ACCESS TO GOD…

EVEN…the Roman Centurion…(the enemy)…who is responds to Jesus…in Verse 39.

2. RECOGNITION of Christ as THE SON OF GOD

a. We see this…so clearly…in Verse 39:

b. The Bible is telling us…here…that ALL people can respond to God…because it is (as we said) A ROMAN SOLDIER who is the first to understand the significance of Jesus’s Death…and WHO HE IS!!

c. But…do see how the Bible here tells us something very specific?

It says…this Roman Centurion…recognized Christ…(in Verse 39) “…when…[he] saw the way He breathed His last…”

d. And that takes us back to Verse 37… which says that when Jesus “breathed His last”…He “uttered a loud cry”…

This must have been what the Roman Soldier heard and saw…that led to his proclamation…

So that…it must have been…NOT a cry of Fear or Hate or even Agony…

BUT A CRY of PRAISE to God…A CRY of VICTORY…A CRY of TOTAL TRUST in the God…

Because Jesus knew that SIN and SATAN were OVERCOME by His Own Death…

And Because…Jesus knew that…RESURRECTION was coming!!

e. SO…here is the LASTING RESULT of the Death of Jesus on the Cross…

– BOTH…the RECOGNITION and the PROCLAMATION…that JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD !!

f. Let’s proclaim it together…joining in with this Roman Centurion…in FARSI…and in ENGLISH:

“Truly this man was the SON OF GOD.”

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Images of Baptism

March 19, 2017 admin@upperroomchurch

BIBLE TEXTS for BAPTISM:

Discuss the Baptism of Jesus:

Mark 1:9-11 (Jesus’ example…water immersion…Trinity expressed.)

Matthew 3:13-17 (Answers question WHY did Jesus need baptism…emphasize “now”…the point of “fulfilling all rightesousness”…the “we” could be Trinity rather than John and Jesus.)

THREE PICTURES of Baptism in the NT:

Picture # 1: NEW BIRTH

John 3:1-7

(Deal with “waters” imagery in verse 5…alludes to natural birth waters of mother…but coupled with “the Spirit” as a pictured in waters of Baptism…flesh and Spirit…thus Spiritual Birth…the “Second Birth.”) (Baptism as the first picture of new birth…you are acknowledging that you are a new spiritual baby.)

Picture #2: DEATH/NEW LIFE

Romans 6:3-5 (Baptism as second picture…of Death and New Life…imitation of Christ…in death, burial, resurrection. We ca also reference Gal.2:20…crucified with Christ.)

Picture #3: NEW CLOTHES

Galatians 3:26-28 (Baptism as third picture…of being clothed with Christ…clothes a statement of identity…in Baptism you are declaring that you have a new identity…no longer is your identity determined by whether you are Jew/Greek…Slave/Free…Male/Female…but you clothe yourself with Christ…thus Jesus Christ is your statement of identity.)

KEY TEXT: What is REQUIRED for Baptism?

Acts 8:35-38 (Philip and an Ethiopian (non-Jew) (a eunuch)…verse 37…from heart belief…belief with ALL the heart…declaring Jesus Christ as ‘Son of God.’)

Other Texts:

Acts 2:37-38 (Baptism commanded…gift of the Spirit flowing from obedience to repentance and baptism.)

I Corinthians 12:13 (Baptized [water or Spirit baptism…or both] by the Spirit into the Body.)

Acts 8:12 (For first followers of Christ, baptism was regular expression…”were being baptized”…Luke’s note of “men and women alike.”)

Colossians 2:12 (Similar to Romans 6…but with stress on ‘through faith’…thus expression of faith…not knowledge, perfection, removal of sin, etc.)

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