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Community Evangelical Church » Recent Posts http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/ Prayer Requests, Information and News for CEC Members en-US Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:55:35 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/search.php JermieNola on "Parables About Prayer" http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/topic.php?id=7#post-12 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:14:39 +0000 JermieNola 12@http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/ Nice site! I recommend you to read <a href="http://uk.bestessays.com/">essays</a>. sophiegreen on "Parables of Lostness" http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/topic.php?id=9#post-11 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:54:39 +0000 sophiegreen 11@http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/ Great post! Thanks for sharing! <a href="http://www.freelancercareers.com/">academic writing jobs</a> admin on "Parables of Lostness" http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/topic.php?id=9#post-10 Tue, 05 May 2009 23:23:58 +0000 admin 10@http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/ The Lost Sheep (Matt 18:12-14/Luke 15:4-7) Parable Type: This is an interrogative parable. 1. Context of the parable: 2. Would a shepherd abandon the ninety-nine other sheep? What relevance does this decision have for understanding the parable? Care for one sheep does not preclude care for all the sheep, and certainly some provision would be made for the ninety-nine, to leave them either in some enclosure or more likely with another shepherd. A flock this size may had more than one shepherd anyway. Do the features represent theological realities? Should the shepherd be identified with God, Jesus, the disciples, or someone seeking the kingdom? This parable is not saying that God is a shepherd, nor do the following parables make God a woman or a father. These parables are implied analogies. The actions and attitude portrayed – not the people themselves – mirror the actions and attitude of God. The parable of the Lost Sheep is an analogical “how much more argument”. The logic of the parable is this: if, as surely you would agree, a shepherd will go after a lost sheep and rejoice when he finds it, how much more will God search for a lost/strayed person and rejoice when he recovers that person. 3. What is to be learned about repentance? Do some not need repentance? a. …repentance is not a part of the parable. This parable neither defines repentance nor blames the sheep. …the parable teachers virtually nothing about repentance, but does emphasize how much God values repentance. 4. What does the parable teach? a. The primary function of this parable for Jesus was a defense of his deliberate association with and eating with people known to be sinners. By his reception and eating with such people he demonstrated the presence of the kingdom and the forgiveness available to all. b. What is revealed about the character of God is the value he places on even the least deserving and the care he extends to such people. c. God is not passive, waiting for people to approach him after they get their lives in order. He is the seeking God who takes the initiative to bring people back, regardless of how “lost” they are. d. If the kingdom comes with limitless grace and limitless demand, this parable emphasizes the limitless grace. e. The joy reflects both the attitude of God at recovering the lost and the celebration of the kingdom with its good news that God’s promised redemption has begun. The joy is communal, and Jesus’ hearers should join the celebration. Adapting the parable Matthean: 1. The awareness that God seeks us brings freedom and confidence to life. That his grace is to determine how we treat others should cause us to be caring and sensitive. 2. The awareness that God seeks us brings freedom and confidence to life. That his grace is to determine how we treat others should cause us to be caring and sensitive. 3. God’s grace, his seeking and care, applies to all, and our mirroring 4. We are most likely to assume that God must be much more harsh, and we are more likely to look for the ninety-nine than the lost one.Do lost, disobedient to God, and “insignificant” people have any sense from us that God really cares about and seeks them? 5. The Matthean texts reminds us that God cares a. not only for “sinners” outside the community b. but also for the marginal and questionable in the community. Note: We are more likely to show grace to those we seek to bring in than to those with whom we must work in the church. Second Sermon: Luke 15:4-7 Stress: The value of repentance, and repentance is a necessary and ongoing task for all of us. (When preaching this text, focus on the repentance made by the son – stages – crisis – embraced – at home – fully recognize his sinfulness – see cultural background here). I. Repentance is necessary A. God takes the initiative. The whole of Scriptures underscores this. Any action of humans are a response to the grace of God (highlight this). (illustrate in the story). Salvation is the work of God… B. Yet, the whole of Scripture also insists that humans do indeed act. Salvation is entirely the work of God, in which we are entirely involved. In here, we are responding to the grace of God, with our entire being, without reservation. In here we are not trying make ourselves look right. (This requires a lot of illustrations or stories – There is a huge difference between responding to the grace of God and trying to make oneself look right. Conclusion: We do not need to fear that repentance exposes us to an attempt at salvation by human effort. The Compassionate Father and His Two Lost Sons (Luke 15:11-32) Issues Requiring Attention: 1. How should cultural factors inform the reading of the parable? In particular, how do cultural and legal factors pertaining to the younger son’s request and the father’s division of his property influence ? a. The request is imaginable, but at the very least we must recognize that the boy’s request and especially his departure would have been viewed negatively by all Mediterranean societies. It is no accident that v.12 reads literally “He divided to them the life,” for these resources were the father’s means of maintaining his life, especially in old age. The boy may not have literally wished his father dead, but his actions show that he did not really care for his father or desire relationship with him. He wanted the father’s money, not the father. Even with the division of goods, the younger son would still have had responsibility to help care for his father, a responsibility he ignores by leaving. What is the younger son’s sin? Several answers have been given: the request for his share of the possessions, his covetousness, his leaving, his squandering, his lifestyle, or his neglect of his father. From an OT perspective the prodigal would have been guilty of violating honoring parents 2. Does the parable depict the human condition generally, … or specific groups listening to Jesus? 3. To what is analogy being made? Is Luke’s context for the parable correct? 4. What does the parable teach about the Pharisees? If the elder son represents the Pharisees and scribes, why are the father’s comments to the elder son so positive? What does the parable imply about the relation of the Pharisees to God and their inclusion in the kingdom since the father says the elder son is always with him and owns all things with him? 5. What is the theological significance of the parable? Does it have “allegorical” correspondences? What conclusions should be drawn about repentance, Christology, or the atonement? a. Nearly all admit or assume the straightforward association of the parable with God, sinners, and the “righteous.” The specifics of the prodigal’s plight do not stand for theological realities; they paint a picture of degradation and need, especially for Jewish hearers. The father’s extravagant action in receiving the prodigal paints a picture of eager reception…. Similarly the description of the restoration of the prodigal with a robe, ring, shoes and fatted calf for celebration paints a picture of joy and full acceptance, 6. What is the purpose of the parable a. The first purpose of the parable is to emphasize the compassion and the unquestioning love of the father, who mirrors analogically the attitude of God. The God that jesus represents and proclaims is precisely the forgiving and merciful God reflected in the parable. b. The second purpose of the parable is the invitation to celebrate and rejoice which is explicit in vv. 23-24 and 32d. If God rejoices at the return of sinners, can God’s people do less? …the parable in effect says, “God is giving a party, are you going to come?” c. The third purpose of the parable is a defense of Jesus’ association with sinners. The parable…functions as an invitation for the hearers to take the same attitude toward sinners as the father towards the prodigal. That change of attitude carries with it a missional force so that one is motivated not only to accept sinners but also to find them. Adapting the Parable: 1. The prodigal does not belong in the far country and in the alliance he has made. He is distant from himself , … He lived a fractured life. 2. Both he and his brother are distant from their father in different ways. 3. The parable’s message is that both sinners and seemingly righteous people – both irreligious and the religious – have a home with God. 4. The parable is an invitation to recognize our estrangement and bankruptcy. 5. This parable is a prime identity-shaping text. It says, in effect, that humans are not legitimately inhabitants of the far country, that they are not prodigals or slaves. Rather, they are children of their father and belong with their father. The elder son is suspicious of joy and sees himself as equivalent to a servant, but the father insists that he is a son as well. 6. The parable sounds a note of joy that should mark disciples of the kingdom. If the kingdom is present and forgiveness is being dispensed, even if evil is still in the world, joy should characterize those who recognize what is happening. 7. We cannot claim to be returning to the Father without displaying the same kind of forgiveness and willingness to embrace which the Father displays. 8. If God is receiving sinners so eagerly, then that message needs to be shared, and people need to be invited home. admin on "Grace and Responsibility" http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/topic.php?id=8#post-9 Tue, 05 May 2009 18:57:57 +0000 admin 9@http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/ The Unforgiving Servant (Matt 18:23-35) Issues Requiring Attention 1. The relation of the parable to its context. Jesus addresses his followers who have experienced the kingdom, not Jews in general, and Matthew has framed this section to emphasize what it means to follow Jesus as it relates to sin and forgiveness. 2. How much is intended with 10,000 talents? Is this amount Matthean hyperbole? The debt is enormous and strains credulity, but parables often contain hyperbole and tend to be pseudo-realistic. The main point is that the debt is so high that no possibility exists of the servant ever paying it. The parable’s intent with the description of the first debt is to achieve maximum effect in underscoring the enormity of the king’s act of forgiveness. 3. What does the parable teach? Is God like or not like the king in the parable? The problem with this parables is that the king is both very attractive as a magnanimous figure and problematic in that he can renege on his forgiveness 4. Does this parable teach a form of “works righteousness” which argues that one’s forgiveness of others is a precondition for experiencing divine forgiveness? Jesus is not legalistic. He does not promote salvation by works. But he insists that discipleship includes obedience. The indicative of God’s forgiveness precedes the imperative of our response. In Matthew, as elsewhere in both Testaments, the ethic is a responsive ethic, a response to God’s grace and calling. 5. Is God bound by the unlimited forgiveness of vv. 21-22? The concern of this parable is not about the limit of God’s forgiveness. The concern of the parable is God’s forgiveness and the seriousness of failing to mirror God’s mercy. Mercy is not effectively received unless it is shown, for God’s mercy transforms. If God’s mercy does not take root in the heart, it is not experienced. Forgiveness not shown is forgiveness not known. The forgiveness of God must be replicated in the lives of the forgiven, and the warning is clear. Where forgiveness is not extended, people will be held accountable. Adapting the Parable: 1. Christian living – rather than insisting on rights – should be a continual dispensing of mercy and forgiveness, mirroring God’s own character and treatment of his people. The NT ethic is a responsive, reflective ethic, one that responds to God’s prior acts of mercy and reflects his actions in human lives. The Two Debtors (Luke 7:41-43) Parable Type: This is a double indirect narrative parable that elicits a self-judgment. The analogy sets forth a reality and concludes with a question requiring a decision, which is provided by the Pharisee. Issues Requiring Attention: 1. Was this parable told in the context of a meal with a Pharisee…? 2. What is the meaning of the parable? Specifically what should we understand takes place in the narrative and in the parable? a. Nothing sinister should be attached to the fact that a Pharisee invited Jesus for a meal. Explanations that see the Pharisee as deliberately insulting Jesus by not providing the hospitable acts described in vv. 44-46 go too far. b. Since the woman brought the ointment with her, she almost certainly came with the intent to anoint Jesus’ feet. Her identity is not known. c. Clearly this parable has correspondences between image and reality: the creditor corresponds to God (or Jesus), debts correspond to sins, canceling of debts to forgiveness of sins, the woman to the debtor who owed more, and Simon to the debtor who owed less. d. The parable expresses the grace and goodness of God. When it comes to forgiveness, God is like a moneylender who does not care about money. e. Again, parable interpretation is not about finding correspondences, even when they exist; the issue is how the analogy works. f. The two points are: God forgives sin freely, and one forgiven more will love more. At least one forgiven more should love more, but gratitude is not automatic, as the parable of the Unforgiving Servant attests. g. Like many parables, this one ends with a question requiring that the hearer pass judgment. Once the answer is granted, the relevance of the conclusion cannot be evaded. Obviously the person forgiven the greater debt (or at least aware of the greater size of the debt forgiven) should love more – or possibly be more grateful – in return. 3. What is the relation of the woman’s acts and her forgiveness? Did she act because she was forgiven, or was she forgiven because of her acts? a. Often this is pitched as a disagreement between Catholics and Protestant. The Catholics seeing the woman’s love is as the basis of her forgiveness and the Protestant that the woman’s love stems from her previous forgiveness. b. Neither Jesus nor the Evangelists were as anxious as we are about avoiding any thought of salvation by works. Other texts display a similar “strangeness”of order or lack of concern about the order of salvation. The merciful receive mercy (Matt. 5:7), those who forgive are forgiven (Matt. 6;12/Luke 11:4), people are told to obey in order to have eternal life (Luke 10:25-28; 18:18-23), and Luke 17:19 the cleansed leper who returns is told that that his faith has saved him…. c. Luke is not posing the theological question of the relation of God’s initiative and human response and that for Luke both are active in reconciliation. d. Several points can be mentioned that strengthen the case that forgiveness precedes the woman’s love: 1) The logic of the parable assumes that forgiveness comes first and without any reason in the debtor and that love flows from forgiveness 2) Something prior caused the woman’s actions. From the standpoint of the narrative the woman’s actions are a response to Jesus being a friend of sinners (7:34). 3) The statement about forgiveness in vv. 47a, 48 use the perfect tense (have been forgiven), indicating that forgiveness preceded the acts of love. 4. What is the relation of love and faith? This periscope forces us to bring faith and love closer in relation that we usually do. For us faith is a head matter, whereas love is a heart matter, but Scripture does not know this bifurcation. In this passage love is understood as the expression of faith (Gal 5:6), and properly understood it is difficult to imagine faith that does not involve love. To love God with the whole heart, mind, and strength is not something less than faith, and faith cannot accomplish more. Faith will love, or it is not faith. Cancellation of debts is pure grace, but it is grace that transforms, creates love and relationship, and requires-even demands- a response. Jesus’ parable and the dialogue accompanying it demonstrate the presence of the kingdom, and forgiveness made available to sinners, and the responsibility that comes with grace. Adapting the Parable 1. For both this parable and that of the Unforgiving Servant one central focus is response. The kingdom comes with limitless grace in the midst of an evil world, but grace that does not bring forth a response is grace unknown. If we care about what God has done for us, gratitude that responds and acts will be present. 2. Part of that response will be to develop the ability actually to see people. We need to be able to see beyond the obvious and the form of people to see who they actually are, what their needs are, and what their potential is. Only then can the love of God find an avenue through us. 3. The woman in this parable teaches us the importance of emotions, of not taking forgiveness for granted but having some sense of its value. This is what gave her a deep love and commitment to Jesus. 4. Christians do not have the right to reject “outcasts.” Even when rejecting specific actions, Christians must be willing to embrace sinners without affirming actions or events that are clearly wrong. Holiness, at least true holiness, is stronger and more contagious than sin. 5. Forgiveness is without limits but not without responsibility, confession, truth, and even restitution. admin on "Parables About Prayer" http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/topic.php?id=7#post-8 Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:24:38 +0000 admin 8@http://www.communityevangelical.org/membersarea/ A Friend at Midnight Luke 11:5-8 1. The parable is not about persistence. 2. The parable encourages us to be repetitious in our prayers because God will hear us for our many words. 3. If we pray long enough, and passionately enough, God will change his mind. 4. Is God of such character that he responds to long and passionate prayers? 5. Jesus conviction is that God is a God who eagerly hears the prayers of his people and can be trusted to respond. 6. If you would ask for and expect help from a neighbor, how much more should you seek and expect the help of God? The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14). 1. Christians are easily guilty of self-satisfaction like the Pharisee. 2. When we are alone with God we realize how far from God we are. 3. When we see God’s holiness we realize our own sinfulness. 4. If we feel safe like the Pharises we really are in danger of peril. 5. It is wrong to assume…to make oneself out as utterly vile…as if God is pleased with self-abasement, 6. All too frequently we secretly judge people as less than ourselves. 7. The parable excludes every thought that would elevate one above other The Unjust Judge Luke 18:1-3 1. This parable offers no answer as to why God moves slowly in brining final vindication and justice. 2. This parable urges prayerful and faithful living in the confidence that God will act. 3. The parable is not about persistence in praying until we get our desires. 4. God is not like the uncaring, unrighteous judge, but is merciful, patient, and eager to assist his people, 5. It is necessary to stay alert and ready for God’s vindication and judgment. 6. Vindication has begun with the kingdom and resurrection of Jesus, but it awaits God’s future eschatological action.