The relationship between a husband and his wife is the most important human relationship that we can achieve in our lives. It is in marriage that we can learn how fully to love another person, how to forgive one another, how to be considerate and caring, how to be selfless. The Bible tells us a great deal about the principles of marriage and what it should mean for disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ
Godliness is a very practical attribute, a simple definition of it is ‘honouring God in our everyday lives’. It is something we have to practise, to train at everyday. Just as an athlete will become unfit and unable to win a race if he does not train daily, so disciples of Jesus will become spiritually unfit if they do not practise godliness daily. We need to consider how we can do this practically in our lives.
The Judgement Seat when Jesus Christ returns to set up God’s Kingdom, everyone who knows and understands the Gospel message will be called to meet him and will be judged by him. Those who have been faithful to him in their lives will be given a place in the Kingdom, those who have been unfaithful will be rejected by the Lord and will be sent away to die. The basis of the Judgement will be how we have put the Gospel into practice in our lives (Romans 2:16) and Jesus will be particularly interested in how we have used our tongue. “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Matthew 12:36-37 Jesus will not listen to what other people say about us; amongst other things he will judge us on what we have said about other people, on how we have used our tongue. If our words are ‘careless’; if they are thoughtless or hurtful then we shall have to answer for them to Jesus.
The Ecclesia of God hen men and women are baptized into Christ they belong to God as part of His family. God has commanded that His children should be organised into a community of believers and He tells us clearly how this should happen – there should be one body or world wide community of disciples. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free…” 1Corinthians 12:12-13
In our English Bible, this organisation is called the church or assembly or congregation. However, in the Greek language, which was used to write the New Testament, a special word was used, the word ‘ecclesia’. An ecclesia is a group of people who are brought together for a special purpose and there is a use of the word in the New Testament which illustrates this. Acts 19 tells us of the time Paul spent in Ephesus and of the problems he had with some of the people of the city. “For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, "Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth… Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.” Acts 19:24-25&32
It is a great honour to belong to the ecclesia of God and when baptized members meet to worship they should always remember this fact. God has called them to these things and they should not neglect them.
n Lesson 2 we saw that baptism marks the end of our old life and the beginning of a new life in Christ. We become members of God’s family, His sons and daughters, and so become brothers and sisters together in Christ. We become the disciples (the word means a student or pupil) of Jesus and commit our lives to following his words and his example. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:13-15 This is very important; our relationship with Jesus depends on doing what he commands us to do. One of the most important things he has commanded us to do is to meet regularly with our brothers and sisters to share bread and wine together in remembrance of him. “The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." 1Corinthians 11:24-26 The worship together of true Christians is very simple and, apart from baptism, this is the only ritual act the Lord Jesus Christ has asked us to do – we must take it very seriously indeed. We know that, after the ascension of Jesus, the disciples met daily in the homes of disciples to share bread and wine in remembrance of him (Acts 2:46-47). Later the ecclesias met weekly, on Sunday, the first day of the week, to do this. “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them.” Acts 20:7 Under the Law of Moses the Jews met together on Saturday, the last day of the week, for a day of rest – the Sabbath. The disciples of Jesus decided to meet on the first day of the week as this was the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. This decision to meet weekly in this way probably looked to the Scriptural example of the weekly meal of the Shewbread by the priests in Old Testament times (Leviticus 24:5-9). When Jesus said ‘do this in remembrance of me’, he used quite a rare word which is also used in the Greek version of the Old Testament in Leviticus 24:7 where it is translated ‘memorial’ in our English version. Just as this meal was holy and precious to the priests in Old Testament times – only they were allowed to eat it, so the Breaking of Bread meal is holy and precious for the true disciples who share it together today. They do not share it with other ‘Christians’, only with those who truly are their brothers and sisters in Christ. Throughout the whole world, Christadelphians meet every Sunday to share bread and wine together in this way. They usually do this in a hall or rented room but sometimes in the home of a believer. The place is not important. The service is always very simple and is very similar wherever in the world it is held. It is the most important part of our fellowship together and Christadelphians know that wherever they are, they can go to an ecclesia to share bread and wine with those who worship there. Jesus gave us a number of instructions about this service and we shall consider them individually.
When we look at the character of Jesus and see how lovely and gracious he is, then we rejoice in the great and precious promise of God that, in the Kingdom, we will be made like Jesus if we believe and are baptized. The Gospel of John tells us that the most important thing in the life of Jesus was his relationship with God, his Father. He was very close to Him and he said in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one”. Jesus filled his life with the Word of God. He and his Father had the same purpose and shared the same thoughts. He felt the presence of God with him in his life every moment of every day. It is difficult to find the words to describe how close were the Father and His Son. The Bible describes such a relationship as ‘fellowship’. This is a special Bible word that means ‘sharing together’. This gives a wonderful picture of life in the Kingdom of God and we can sum it up like this. • In the Kingdom true disciples will be given immortal life. • They will be made like Jesus Christ; they will fully share his character as well as his immortal nature. • This will bring them into perfect unity with God Himself. His ways will be their ways, His thoughts their thoughts. • So they will be in perfect and complete fellowship with God However, God’s promise of fellowship with His children is not just for a future time in His Kingdom. When men and women are baptized they begin a new relationship with God and with His Son. Their sins are forgiven and they become part of God’s family, His sons and daughters. Just as human fathers love and care for their children, God cares for His family. He wants His children to be close to Him and have fellowship with Him now in their lives. Yet the fellowship that disciples have with God now is incomplete. Their human failings get in the way and prevent them being completely ‘at one’ with Him. As we have seen, perfect fellowship will only come in the Kingdom of God.
The word for ‘prayer’ that is used in the New Testament simply means ‘to present our desires towards (someone)’. So when we turn to God in prayer, we should take all the ‘desires of our heart’ (Psalm 37:4) to Him and these should include a deeply felt awareness of our sins and our need to be forgiven by Him. When we approach God in prayer we must believe that He hears us and that He will answer our prayers. This requires faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 However, this verse does not mean that God will give us everything we ask for. If we pray in the right spirit then God will listen to our prayers and He will answer them in a way that will really benefit us. It is very important to understand what this means. God does not promise us that He will take away all the problems of this life now. He tells us: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
It is sometimes surprising to meet disciples who are not really interested in reading and learning from the Bible in their everyday lives but who expect to be part of the Kingdom of God when Jesus returns. If we do not find God’s Word exciting and inspiring now, if we do not want to learn from it every day, why should we expect a place in a future Kingdom in which the Bible will be the at the centre of life for evermore?
The Bible makes a unique claim for itself; it is ‘inspired’ which simply means ‘God breathed’. Just as we use the breath in our lungs to power our voice and make ourselves heard, so the Bible gives us a picture of God speaking words to us. The Apostle Paul wrote about this in his letter to Timothy: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” 2Timothy 3:14-17
The first of 14 Classes on: The New Life in Christ
The ‘New Life in Christ’ Course is designed to help you understand what discipleship really means in the lives of men and women who commit themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It begins first with an understanding of our predicament as children of Adam and the condemnation that it brings. The reason for why we need to be moving away from the nature we bear to that new life.
There are 14 sessions in this course:
1. The Problem of Sin. 2. Baptism – A New start to a New Life. 3. The Word of God in our Everyday Lives. 4. The Importance of Prayer. 5. Fellowship and Ecclesial Life. 6. The Breaking of Bread Service. 7. The Ecclesia of God. 8. The Power of the Tongue. 9. Truthfulness and Honesty in our Lives. 10. Godliness and Self Control in our Lives. 11. Marriage and Family Life. 12. The Disciple and the State 13. The Problem of Suffering and Poverty. 14. The Grace of God.
This first episode opens the reason for our change in direction and acceptance of the way of salvation.
It is much easier to understand the devil as being a picture of what is happening in the mind of Jesus. We are told that Jesus was ‘tempted in a/I points like we are’ (Hebrews 4:15), and in James 1:14 we are told that we are tempted by our own evil desires that cause us to sin. Mark 7:21-23 tells us that our evil thoughts come from within, not from outside us. So Jesus was tempted by his own evil desires. If Jesus knew that an evil angel was trying to cause him to sin, and then the evil angel appeared and started suggesting these things, wouldn’t it be much easier for Jesus to reject these suggestions? But if these temptations were coming from the human nature that Jesus had, they would be much harder to fight against because they would be with him all the time.
Also if we believed that the devil has no respect for Gods word, what would be the point in Jesus quoting scripture at him? But we can understand that Jesus, after not eating for 40 days and nights, would be tempted to misuse God’s word (as we all can do) to fulfil his desires. Psalm 119:9-11 shows what Jesus was doing to fight the temptation — he knew Gods word so well, that whenever the thought of sinning came into his mind he quickly thought of the scripture that stopped him sinning.
This is essential to understand because we are told that the mission of Jesus was to destroy the devil!! We must understand what the Biblical devil is to understand why Jesus came!!
Let us look more closely at these verses to see HOW Jesus destroyed the devil. Read Hebrews 2:14.
We have seen that the devil or satan is not described in the Old Testament as a fallen angel, but what about the serpent in Genesis 3? Usually Revelation 12 is used to show that the serpent in the garden of Eden was ‘that ancient serpent called the devil or satan who leads the whole world astray}’, but we have seen that Revelation 12 cannot be used to talk about something that happened before the creation of the world. So, Revelation 12 is not telling us that the serpent in Genesis 3 is an evil angel or is controlled by an evil angel. Let us look closely at Genesis 3 and see what the serpent really is.
Part 3 in our series on the Devil and Satan; covers the question of weather the Devil is a fallen angel. In this episode we look at various Bible passages that might on the surface appear to support this claim. But looking at greater depth we might consider the real meaning of these bible passages.
All Christians believe in a devil. The devil and Satan are both mentioned many times in the New Testament — but what are they? Most Christians believe that the devil is an angel called Lucifer (another name for him is satan). They believe this angel was the head of all creation, beautiful and powerful, until he became proud. Because of this sin, God threw this evil angel from heaven to earth. Now the devil wanders around the earth deceiving people. God will destroy him in the end, but even now God allows the devil to tempt and deceive people. If Christians give in to the devil, God will not save them.
We want to have a look at what the Bible says - how much of this is true, how much can we find in the scriptures?
The Bible says that the reason Jesus came was to ‘destroy the works of the devil’. Read 1 John 3:8. So it is important that we understand what the Bible devil is so that we can understand the true gospel. We will look at the words devil and satan separately: firstly at what or who satan is in both the Old and New Testaments, then we will consider the devil.