City South Presbyterian

In Numbers, or 'through the wilderness', Israel is camping with God and tested to see whether they will be people who move towards God, and so 'fruitful garden life' or away from God towards the 'desolate wasteland.'

Children are part of the household of God in the Old Testament, and the New; and we should read the Bible to them. But — we also need children to teach us how to enter the Kingdom of God as 'little children' — filled with awe, and wonder, and questions — so reading the Bible with children is a chance for us to learn from them.

God gives us community — through time and across space — to teach us how to read the Bible from outside our own moment.

When we read New Testament letters we are reading other people's mail. They are very human pieces of correspondence. How do we see the difference between 'bring me my coat' and other parts of Paul's letters to Timothy? Could the 'human' parts of the letters be the key to understanding them and applying them to our situation?

How do we read the Old Testament as those who read it after Jesus, and especially as gentiles? Should we read the David and Goliath story identifying as David, or those who lined up behind Goliath who faced God's anointed king while cosplaying as a Serpent?

The Bible is literarily true; not simply 'literally true' — and its authors use conventions like genre not just to give texts meaning but so that they fulfil a purpose. We test this framework out on some apocalyptic texts.

We can treat the Bible like it's 2D words on a page, where our job is to pull the text apart and comprehend its meaning; or like it is in 4D; where it pulls us into a way of seeing and living in the world as those who are brought face to face with Jesus in his glory.

God's words are given to us through ancient people speaking and writing ancient languages that are translated (and interpreted) into English. They are true in timeless ways as they reveal the glory of Jesus to us and invite us to be transformed into his image and likeness. Remembering that they are ancient and entering the world 'of the text' — seeing how words are used throughout the Bible's story — and the world 'behind the text' — seeing how words are used in the ancient world adds richness and helps us avoid domesticating texts in ways that make them speak only to our time.

The Bible is fully human, and fully divine and fulfilled in Jesus.

The Scriptures’re God-breathed — inspired — and they do speak to us — but, like Jesus, they are 'fully divine, and fully human' — incarnate in and through human authors and human processes for human audiences 'at various times', fulfilled in Jesus. We read the Bible best when we remember this humanity, as well as this divinity.

All Scripture is God Breathed — and is 'inspired' in order to breath life into God's people. We read the Bible according to its design when we read it as 'living and active' in order to become living and active humans inspired by God's Spirit.

We are vulnerable and honest about our own sin and brokenness, living and speaking the truth to one another in love, and welcoming to those not yet trusting Jesus.

Prayer is an expression of our new position — we are raised and seated with Jesus and have access to the Father in heaven as 'beloved' — the Lord's prayer answered. And prayer is a way we learn to live in this position and be those who want God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. So, as we gather we pray.

WWJD? Philippians 2 tells those of us who find life in the cross and who look forward to God exalting us with Jesus to 'have the same mindset' as Jesus and specifically, Jesus crucified.

Jesus ends the enmity between humans and God by ending the enmity between God's offspring and the serpent's with a crushing victory. This victory is won at the cross.

At the crucifixion Jesus is crowned and enthroned; revealing the nature of his kingdom. Due to some technical issues the Bible Reading and first two minutes of this sermon are not part of the recording.

This week we were joined by Dr Jonathan Cornford from Manna Gum to think through the way the church is a new economic community, and practical ways of holding material life in common because of our common life by God's Spirit.

The Bible tells a story, beginning with Cain, of innocent blood poured into the earth by violent empires crying out for justice; and of lifeblood given to cleanse or atone. The cross brings these two threads together.

In John's Gospel, Jesus is introduced as the "lamb who takes away the sin of the world" and his death is presented with links to the Binding of Isaac and to the Passover. Here we explore how Jesus brings the mosaic of lamb images in the Old Testament together to invite us to feast on him and be saved as God provides a lamb for us.

At the Cross Jesus is experiencing the 'sign of Jonah' going into the belly of the earth; and functioning like both goats on the day of atonement — heading into exile — where we are — to defeat the monsters who hold us — sin, death, curse and Satan — and bring us home to God.

At the Cross the Son turns his face to the Father — who does not turn his face away — as the Triune God turns towards us. At the Cross Jesus, the Image of God, reveals the nature of the Father as we are invited to be reconciled to God.

The author of life planned for the cross to be the pivotal moment in human history; orchestrating events in a way that should produce awe and wonder in us, and that invites us to have the author of life write the cross into our stories.

We are revisiting our mission to be a church who are "a meeting place between Jesus and the world. We want to be a community living in God’s presence and so carrying his presence to the world. We long to see our city and world transformed by Jesus as his good news changes both sinful individual lives and unjust systems."And our vision to be a community who "meets together as a taste of the goodness of God to us in Jesus, to bear one another’s burdens, to live and speak the truth in love, pursuing maturity in Christ, and to encourage one another to live lives worthy of our calling, and in anticipation of his return.And: "Meets our neighbours, wherever they might be, and love them as God has loved us in Jesus, as a faithful presence in our communities, serving as ambassadors of God’s kingdom and hisministers of reconciliation, in anticipation of Jesus returning to make all things new."

We are revisiting our mission to be a church who are "a meeting place between Jesus and the world. We want to be a community living in God’s presence and so carrying his presence to the world. We long to see our city and world transformed by Jesus as his good news changes both sinful individual lives and unjust systems."And our vision to be a community who "meets the living, Triune God, our creator and redeemer, in prayer and worship together, and so become living sacrifices who invite others to meet Jesus in our lives together."

We are revisiting our mission, to be "a meeting place between Jesus and the world. We want to be a community living in God’spresence and so carrying his presence to the world. We long to see our city and world transformed by Jesus as his good news changes both sinful individual lives and unjust systems."And our vision to "a community who Meets Jesus in his word, with each other, to be transformed by the Spirit, into people who love and worship God, and so become the people he created us to be."

God's people are called out of violent empires who live for pride and use violence to accumulate wealth— to join those who mourn — and to become a kingdom of priests who follow the lamb who was slain who gathers a people of every tribe, tongue, and nation around the throne of heaven.

Nathan and Caitlin explore how Paul's self-presentation as a suffering fool echoes the Old Testament prophets and serves as a model for us.

Paul compares his example — he embodies the message of the cross — with the super apostles to demolish their false Gospel.

Paul invites the church to be partners in generosity — not just funding Gospel work, but as Gospel work that produces equality.

Paul's vision for church is not just we share one mind — shaped by the Gospel of the crucified Jesus, but one heart, shaped by the Holy Spirit. God's ministry of reconciliation restores us to relationship with him, and to one another.

As we join Paul and his team, we join God's mission — compelled by the love of Jesus to be ambassadors of God's ministry of reconciliation — where sin is dealt with and we become participants in his justice and righteousness because the Spirit unites us in Jesus.

Paul's model for glorious ministry is built on the life-giving work of the Spirit — who dwells in us and transforms us into glorious humans who can reflect the image of Jesus in the world; carrying around his death in our bodies so that his life might be made known.

Paul wants to bring his readers out of being captivated by the "super-apostles" and their worldly vision, into being captivated by the example of Jesus and those sent by him to bring the aroma of life.

Note: talks from the last two weeks were not recorded.Paul ends his letter unpacking the theology of the body behind the cross-shaped ethic he calls the church to; a cross-shaped ethic is made possible by a resurrection shaped hope.

Paul uses 'the body' as a metaphor to address both the disunity occurring in the church in Corinth, and to describe the way of life the church is called into in Jesus, by his Spirit — the most excellent way of love.

Doug unpacks the nature of the pilgrim life — and Jesus as the true pilgrim — from Psalm 84.

Paul says "flee from idolatry" and that you can't participate in both the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Then he says the meal the church eats when it comes together is not the Lord's supper. The job of those called to be united to Jesus and to be Holy is to bring his presence from his table, to the world, not bring the idolatrous ways of the world to his table.

Nathan and Robyn unpack Paul's words about women, head coverings and prophecy in the public gathering of the church.

Following Jesus means turning from idols and powers and principalities to serve Jesus and join his mission.

Paul takes the truth that our bodies are not our own but are bought at a price and made for life with Jesus, and applies it to the way those in the church approach singleness, sex, marriage, and divorce.

Paul responds to some situations in the Corinthian church where they are behaving differently to their neighbours, but worse; and calls them to honour God with their bodies, as his body in the world.

Paul uses plural yous a lot to call the church in Corinth to be who they are, together, the temple of God, where his Spirit dwells — and suggests their status games risk destroying what God is building, while they should be building one another up in life-giving ways.

The church is God's holy and set apart people; called to reveal the transforming power of his life in the world. The medium and message we are sent with are the same: the cross of Jesus.

Leviticus ends with an invitation to choose life with God rather than curse.

The Jubilee was the 'hard reset' button for life in Old Testament Israel; designed to maintain equality and teach people that life in the land was a gift from God. Putting jubilee into practice required a giving heart, not a grasping heart.

The bread, the lamp and the blasphemer in Leviticus 24 are a symbolic picture of who Israel are, and aren't, meant to be.

God's holy people are called to live in holy space and spend holy time eating with God and learning to view the cosmos through the lens provided by these meals.

The book of Leviticus calls for God's people to be holy; to separate themselves from the serpenty ways of the nations around them where people seek to merge heaven and earth on their own terms, and to learn to dwell in heaven and earth space on God's terms; listening to and obeying him.

Atonement is at the heart of Leviticus. But what is the heart of atonement? And how does atonement reveal God's heart to dwell with his people?

Human bodies are flesh and blood held together by skin. When things attacked skin or life leaked out of holes in our skin Leviticus marked a person as unclean as a reminder of life under the curse of death. Jesus makes people whole so that we can be made holy as his Spirit dwells in us.