Monday 20 January 2014

God’s New Society

Yesterday, was the first of our sermon series on St Pauls letter to the Christians at Ephesus – a Roman town which is now in Turkey. This letter provides important teaching for Christians as, in the words of the late Revd Dr John Stott: “(Ephesians) sets forth God’s eternal purpose to create, through Jesus Christ, a new society which stands out in bright relief against the sombre background of the old world. For God’s new society is characterised by life in place of death, by unity and reconciliation in place of division and alienation, by the wholesome standards of righteousness in place of the corruption of wickedness, by love and peace in place of hatred and strife and by unremitting conflict with evil in place of a flabby compromise with it.”

The first sermon in the series, entitled “Praise, Thanksgiving and Prayer” was preached by one of our Lay Readers, Colin Chettle. Using a glass for illustration, which we may describe as either “half full” or “half empty,” he showed how with all the benefits that Christ gives us, we should be considering how wonderfully full it is.

Other sermons in the series will be:
Sunday 26th January
      Made alive in Christ  Ephesians 2
Sunday 2nd February
      Paul’s Prayer  Ephesians 3
Sunday 9th February
      The Body of Christ  Ephesians 4.1-16
Sunday 16th February
      Instructions for Christian Living Ephesians 5
Sunday 23rd February
      The Armour of God  Ephesians 6

Do come and join us as we consider the challenges  that there are for the new Society, the Church, to be what it is meant to be.