This sermon further explores the concept of “spiritual awakening”, emphasizing the importance of moving from spiritual slumber to a life of active faith. Drawing from Romans 13:11-14, the message highlights the need for Christians to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light, embodying the character of Christ. It also discusses historical awakenings, demonstrating how the Holy Spirit's powerful movements can revitalize both individuals and communities. The sermon encourages believers to seek a deeper, transformative relationship with Jesus, resulting in a vibrant fellowship and renewed commitment to God's mission.
In this sermon, the speaker delves into the concept of spiritual awakening, using biblical examples to illustrate the transformative power of truly encountering Jesus. Emphasizing the necessity for believers to move beyond superficial faith and strive for deeper understanding and sanctification, the message calls for a revival within the church. By examining the self-deceptive nature of the human heart and the need for ongoing personal and communal renewal, the sermon encourages listeners to seek a profound and sustained relationship with Christ.
This sermon emphasises the profound impact of Jesus' resurrection, not only as a historical event but as a transformative reality in the lives of believers. It delves into the Apostle Paul's teaching on knowing the resurrected Jesus intimately and experiencing the empowering resource of His resurrection in our daily lives. The sermon outlines how Jesus' resurrection serves as the foundation for our justification, ushering us into a new life in Him, assured of eternal life. Through Christ's victory over death, and consequent ongoing life, believers are invited into a personal relationship with Him, marked by empowered Christian living and the ultimate fulfilment of eternal fellowship with God. The message invites individuals to embrace the risen Christ, enabling them to live lives characterised by His resurrection's power and the certainty of God's love and salvation.
Matthew 5:48 spells out Jesus' intention of his raising the standard of the Beatitudes in order to have us aim at the "teleios ", the final result of our sanctification. It is that we arrive at the perfection of the Father. This is God's aim in having you become a Christian in the first place. And what we were learning in the morning service as well as tonight in the 5'00 o'clock Service. Particularly Jesus is lifting our eyesight to aim at the standard for God to be happy with you to be in his Kingdom!" Paul's personal journey on this purpose is a good example for us in Romans, chapters 6 through to 8.
"Not only in terms of physically, economically, in terms of your development of job and whatever. Do we have that same desire to be established? But I think it's true of us all as Christians, the part of what the Scriptures tell us in the book of Romans, the whole of the idea of the book of Romans is about not only coming to Christ, but also getting established."
"I don't know whether you're aware of the fact that Jesus sees you as not necessarily able to take what he really wants to tell you. Are you aware of the fact that the Bible, in all of its teaching, examples what the theologians now call progressive revelation. And progressive revelation is nothing to do with contradicting some earlier truth and saying it was wrong. It's not correcting things. But it is the fact that God always has the problem with humanity that we humanity can't take in all the things he'd want to tell us."
"We didn't really have the opportunity to go very far down the road of tracking the meaning of the word sanctification. And in our salvation that God gives us is first of all how we get in the door right at the beginning. And sometimes that's called our justification. When God treats you, he puts you in the status of being justified even though you're a sinner. But because Christ has died for you and Christ has provided his righteousness to be ours."
"The book is about Pilgrim's Progress. And what is actually the progress that we make in the Christian life that's later than when you first get converted to Christ. Being converted to Christ is when you find the forgiveness of sins, when you receive eternal life. But it's post that, after that. But it's before you get to the River Jordan and go over and receive the benefit of Jesus' resurrection, helping you be resurrected to go to heaven. The book's all about the progress of the Christian."
"Have you ever wondered why the Gospel calls us to make a confession of Christ? And it's rather interesting in evangelism when you know that the message itself is asked for people to believe. But the way that Jesus talked to the crowds, he sometimes finished up with calling on them to make a response."
"If we were to venture onto the topic of how to find out and get to be doing God's will, you'd discover, we'd discover, that it's a fairly varied set of opinions that folk have as to what exactly is God's will and how do we get to find it. Or another aspect of the same thing is, is it possible to miss God's will or to have it and then muck it up? And some of the varying answers people have are held by people down through history who've been very good Christians but have differed."