{"id":400,"date":"2006-12-19T17:39:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-19T17:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2006\/12\/19\/on-catching-up\/"},"modified":"2006-12-19T17:39:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-19T17:39:00","slug":"on-catching-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2006\/12\/19\/on-catching-up\/","title":{"rendered":"on catching up…"},"content":{"rendered":"
I am a little behind on sermon summaries. The exercise is a satisfying one for me as I think through the messages one more time. I occasionally think that I should write the summaries first, then maybe I would preach the messages better.<\/p>\n
Last Wednesday, Dec 13, I preached our last message before Christmas from our NT series. I had intended to preach this message on Dec 3, but we had this snow problem. (Did I mention we don’t do snow?) We were looking at 1 Cor 11, a passage that has some controversy. I preached five messages on the first 16 verses when I was preaching through 1 Corinthians in order to give the issue of headcoverings a thorough treatment.<\/p>\n
Our message this time was entitled ‘Two Difficulties in Worship<\/a>‘. The first difficulty is the issue of headcoverings, the second difficulty is the issue of the manner in which at least some of the Corinthians were taking communion. My proposition: ‘God is as concerned with our manner in worship as he is with our willingness to participate in worship.’ First, on the headcoverings issue, the problem was that some of the Corinthian women were removing the headcoverings they normally wore when they were in church. They were doing this out of a misunderstanding of the consequences of the gospel and a lack of appreciation for the reasons for gender-specific cultural distinctions. They thought the gospel made men and women equal in Christ, which it does, and thus thought that in church, at least, they could dispense with headcoverings. Paul points out that gender distinction is God’s idea, it has a theological basis (the voluntary subordination of Christ in the Trinity) and that it reflects creation order. Those who practice headcoverings today are not wrong, but headcoverings are not the third sacrament either.<\/p>\n The more serious worship disorder in Corinth was the manner of taking the Lord’s supper. The Corinthians apparently were combining the observance with a pot-luck supper of sorts, but those who had little or none to bring were finding that it was a ‘no-luck’ supper for them. This is the unworthy manner Paul rebukes and says that some were sick or even dead as a result. So the passage calls for good order in worship, a consideration of one another and a submission to God in all.<\/p>\n ****<\/p>\n On to Sunday…<\/p>\n On Sunday, we continued our Thru the Christmas Passages series. This has been most enlightening for me. Our first message, ‘The Babe Leaped<\/a>‘ came from Lk 1.39-45, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. The proposition was: “The work of God is confirmed by Spirit filled witnesses.” I keyed in on the response of the infant in utero and Elizabeth’s spirit filling. Mary travelled to see Elizabeth over a distance of 50-70 miles. I suggested that she could not have travelled this distance alone in that day and age, she must have had guardians or family with her. They would be important witnesses for her chastity. We looked at what Spirit filling meant in OT times, noted that Zacharias and John are also said to be filled with the Spirit in the chapter, John ‘from his mother’s womb’, which I take to be a life-long filling, unusual for an OT saint.<\/p>\n As Mary greets Elizabeth, the Spirit moves – Elizabeth learned of Mary’s news directly from God, there is no indication that she had any prior knowledge from Mary. She blesses Mary, blesses the Lord, remarks on her own blessedness in receiving the visit, and again blesses Mary, saying that the things the Lord promised SHALL [note future tense] take place. This indicates that the overshadowing had not yet occurred. Elizabeth’s prophecy is important as confirmation of the certainty of the things we believe (Lk 1.4). God moved and worked among different people to establish certainty. Mary came to stay in a small home in Judea at the time that she became pregnant. She had people around her all the time, including a Spirit filled prophet and prophetess who could vouch authoritatively for her chastity. The point is this: Do you have any trouble believing the doctrine of the virgin birth? God provided Spirit filled witnesses to confirm the work of God.<\/p>\n