Over the past 4 weeks, we’ve studied how Jesus’ genealogy (Matt 1:1-17), birth circumstances (Matt 1:18-2:6), and post-birth socio-political happenings (Matt 2:7-18) tell us something of Christmas’ joy amidst the tragedy of our broken world. This week’s study rounds up the series as we look at the significance of Jesus’ return from Egypt. Our text today is connected to its preceding texts with the word “but”. What changed, and what does it mean for us today? Read on to find out more!
Jesus is a king with authority who makes His claims with legitimacy. He is the fulfilment of long-given promises and this is an important part of His identity because how we think about His rule and authority affects what we think of Him. Until we understand this, God will just be a TV channel that we choose to turn on and off at will. Today’s passage will show us different responses of people when they encountered this King.
If Jesus is king, then we are not, and how can that be a joyful thing for us? Today’s passage tackles this problem head on.
What have you been waiting for? There are many different types of waiting, and different objects of waiting. Here’s why it is important - what you are waiting for will determine how you live, and whether your life is worth living. Read on to find out what God’s people waited for, and are waiting for!
Advent is a time in the Christian calendar when Christians reflect on the first coming and birth of Jesus. At Fellowship, we will spend this Advent on the first two chapters of Matthew, which forms part of the Gospels. Gospel simply means “good news” and these four books are actually talking about one piece of good news – our salvation. These are four accounts of the one man, Jesus of Nazareth. It chronicles His birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection. Each writer has a different emphasis and audience. Mark emphasized the servanthood of Jesus because it was written to a Roman audience used to leadership and leaders who lorded it over them. Matthew was for the Jews, God’s covenant people who have been waiting for a Messiah. Kingdom is therefore one major theme that Matthew writes.
This text is one of the high points in this book. From Genesis 3, we’ve been moving through the story of redemption. In Exo 19, now God’s people have been delivered from slavery and have gathered, organized themselves, and even fought off enemies. They are now at the foot of an important mountain, first referred to in Exo 3. Moses has been to this mountain before. Moses will remember how 40 years ago he saw fire on this mountain, and met God. He heard the voice of God and God’s command to set God’s people free. The sign given to Moses was that he will return and worship God here. Exo 19 is a fulfilment of this promise.
How do we describe God? We often think of adjectives like holy, perfect, creator, omniscient, powerful. But have we ever thought about God as a covenantal God? Have we ever thought about God as a husband? This passage covers perhaps one of the most important parts of the Old Testament- the Mosaic covenant.
God’s people are being forced to think about practical problems that comes with being a nation not just in the form of providing for sustenance, but also dealing with the problem of their hearts. A young nation also has to deal with warring nations (last week). In Exo 18, their evolution from a ragtag group of refugees to a travelling band of migrants, they’ll have to deal with leadership issues.
As cheesy Tumblr pages dutifully inform us: “We all have our battles to fight.”
But what are you fighting for? As you toggle between the different roles you play and stages you run through, the question is the same - who are you fighting, and what are you fighting for?
In Exo 16, God has just provided for them through the daily bread, and in the previous chapters, the people have been grumbling not once, but twice. Once with water, and another time for food. They disobeyed God in their food gathering, but God still continued to provide for them. They are experiencing daily miracles. In this passage, we will read of an Israel that still continue to doubt God and testing Him with the question “God, will you provide for our needs?”
Throughout Exodus, we’ve seen how God’s goal for Israel is to see His glory. God’s primary goal for us is to know Him and to be His people. The goal is not just to be saved. Saving us is a means to an ends – to be His. John 17:3 tells us that eternal life is that the people know Him as the only true God. God saved His people from Egypt not just to free them, but so that they may know who He is. As we continue reading about the people of God after the Exodus, we’ll read of how God makes Himself known to His people.
Do you often find yourself being discontent? Our heavy use of social media does not help this. Instagram has just been named as the worst social media for the mental health of young people: it is heavily associated with high levels of anxiety and depression. How does God provide for his people amidst their discontentment? What does God have to tell you when you see others around you getting a work promotion, starting a family, earning more qualifications, driving bigger cars, and moving into even bigger houses? In today’s passage, God teaches his people, the Israelites, a lesson on who he is, and why that matters for their contentment.
God leads his people through many seasons in life, sometimes to difficult times and circumstances, and others in times of joy and abundance. Here, God teaches his people to depend on him as their healer, as the one who makes them whole. Are you ready to follow the LORD through all times? Are you ready to be transformed by God to become more like Jesus?
Today’s passage looks at how God deals with a people whom he has just saved, and their complaining. Read on to find out more!
We are going to walk through Scripture to construct a spine to understand the person of the Holy Spirit and to apply it to truths. The big idea in this study is that the Holy Spirit is God, worthy of worship and praise, and He intends for us to experience Him clearly. We will anchor our study in John 14-16 because Jesus lays out what we need to know about the Spirit.
In this study, we’ll look at the doctrine of inerrancy which actually runs throughout the Bible. This doctrine basically answers the question of whether or not the Bible that we have is trustworthy, whether it is wrong or inaccurate on certain things, and how then should we read the Bible. In this first part, we’ll examine the biblical basis for inerrancy.
In the first part, we read about the biblical basis for inerrancy. Now, we’ll unpack more about what inerrancy means and its implications.
Gender. It's an incredibly important and hot topic these days, mostly because the issues are so weighty and so personal at the same time. Few issues go to the heart of our humanity and personhood like this one. Thus, we should be careful at all times, to speak of these matters with great care and love, ever conscious of the dignity of human persons. This is core for Christians in every context. Gender and sexuality are sacred issues for us and we must not be careless. Thus, for us, instead of tackling each of the specific issues individually, we're going to start first looking at the character of God, and the nature of humanity He designed. In order to develop shared ground to speak of, we should not start from our experiences, which are varied, and expectations, which could come from different sources. Our controlling mechanism must begin with who God is, and who we are as human beings, so let’s start from there.
What is the church? Christians often describe the church as a gathering. Yet, there is a lot of confusion about what the church is. In our world today, there is no end to Christian gatherings – small groups like these or our parachurch ministries on campus or our cell group in our church made up of people that are of a similar demographic to us. Today, we hope to study the Bible and see how God intended for His church to be.
What do you sing for? We sing songs in church, but often forget to think about why we sing the things we do. In today’s passage, we read of Moses and Miriam’s song. This isn’t just another song about how a lover feels for his or her beloved. This is a song that expresses gratitude and affection for salvation!
Exodus is all about God’s glory, His glory in saving His people and defeating their enemies. He reveals His glory to His people and to their enemies. God wants His people to remember and trust this. God also wanted them to remember His deliverance. When God’s people forget and fail to remember who God is and what He has done, sin comes in and distorts their relationship with God. Exodus also gives us the framework to fully grasp the full extent of Christ’s completed work on the cross and shows us ourselves, our helplessness and how God acts.
