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Sunday 31 May 2015

'TO GOD BE THE GLORY'

Rev. Juliet Schimpf
By Rev. Juliet Schimpf   


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Broadcast Notes

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LINK to CFRA broadcast of Sunday, April 5th, 2015) 

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  EASTER SERMON: 
 
'To God be the Glory'



Lord Alfred Tennyson [1809-1892, British Poet]  “There's no glory like those who save their country.”
Napoleon Bonaparte:  “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”
1 Peter 1:24  “All men are like grass, and their glory is like the flowers of the field.”

1.       God with us
2.      God for us                                                                                    
3.     God in us
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1.  God With Us

John Stott:  “In a word, our glory is our obsession.  It dominates our minds, fills our horizons, and engrosses our attention.  For the apostle Paul this was the cross.  The cross of Christ was the center of his faith, of his life, and of his ministry; and it should be the center of ours.  Let other people be obsessed with fame, power, sex, and money; we who claim to follow Jesus should be obsessed with the cross like the apostle Paul.  This was not a peculiarity of Paul’s, however.  I think we might say that the cross was central to the mind of Paul only because it had been central to the mind of Christ.”
Isaiah 6:1  ”In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3And they were calling to one another:  “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
John 1:14   14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

2.  God For US

JOHN PIPER:  ”God is uppermost in His own affections:  The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever.  The reason this may sound strange is that we are more accustomed to think about our duty than God’s design.  And when we do ask about God’s design, we are too prone to describe it with ourselves at the center of God’s affections.  We may say, for example, that His design is to redeem the world.  Or to save sinners.  Or to restore creation…But God’s saving designs are penultimate, not ultimate.”

AND SO GOD SENT HIS SON…

PIPER:  “Ever since the incarnate, redeeming work of Jesus, God is gladly glorified by sinners only through the glorification of the risen God-Man, Jesus Christ.  His bloody death is the blazing center of the glory of God….The “face of Jesus Christ” is the beauty of Christ reaching its climax in the cross.  The bloody face of Christ crucified (and triumphant!) is the countenance of the glory of God…..living for the glory of God must mean living for the glory of Christ crucified.  Christ is the image of God.  He is the sum of God’s glory in human form.   And his beauty shines most brightly at
his darkest hour.”

PIPER:  “The glory of Christ reaches its highest point in the obedient sacrifice of the cross where Jesus triumphed over the devil.  Jesus said in that final hour of his own sacrifice, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”  (John 13:31)

PAUL:  GALATIANS 6:14 “God forbid that I should glory in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified unto me and I have been crucified unto the world.”

3.     God in Us

Colossians 1:27:  “Christ in YOU, the hope of glory….”
God created us for his own glory.  God did not need to create man, yet he created us for his own glory. 

  • Isaiah 43:7  “everyone who is called by my name,
    whom I created for my glory”

  • Eph. 1:4-6  4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[c] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

  • EPHESIANS 1:11-12   11“In him we were also chosen,[e] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.”

WAYNE GRUDEM:  “The fact that God created us for his own glory determines the correct answer to the question, ‘What is our purpose in life?’  Our purpose must be to fulfill the reason that God created us:  to glorify him.  When we are speaking with respect to God himself, that is a good summary of our purpose.”
THIS EXPLAINS THE WESTMINSTER CATECHISM:    Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, [b] and to enjoy him for ever.
"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." - Johann Sebastian Bach
1 CORINTHIANS 10:31   “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
The Lord’s Prayer:  “For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever, amen.”

Let us pray, together:

Our Heavenly Father, We thank You , that You have displayed your glory in creation, and that You then gave us your only Son, Christ, full of your glory. We want to learn to live for Your glory. We thank You Lord, that You died for us and that we can see the light of Your glory in the face of Christ, (as second Corinthians, four, explains it). The light of the knowledge of Your glory is displayed in the face of Christ. Father, help us to live for Your glory, not our own.
Would you live through us? We pray that your lights shine for You.
We conclude by saying the Lord’s Prayer, which says, “Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the GLORY, for ever and ever, AMEN.

Rev. Juliet Schimpf
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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

Sunday 24 May 2015

'JESUS ON HOLY COMMUNION'

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, May 24th,  2015)
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Broadcast Notes:
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'Jesus On Holy Communion'

Today's Reading is From: Luke22: 1-20  (ESV)
 

The Plot to Kill Jesus

22 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people.

Judas to Betray Jesus

Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

The Passover with the Disciples

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus[a] sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” 10 He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters 11 and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.” 13 And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

Institution of the Lord's Supper

14 And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it[b] until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.[c]

Footnotes:

  1. Luke 22:8 Greek he
  2. Luke 22:16 Some manuscripts never eat it again
  3. Luke 22:20 Some manuscripts omit, in whole or in part, verses 19b-20 (which is given… in my blood)                                                                                                                                                ______________________________________________________
Dear friends,

My words this week are shortened from a longer sermon that I gave at my home church, Church of the Messiah. The original sermon was part of a series entitled, Luke: Jesus For Pagans And Skeptics. In the notes today, I have added a few practical matters to help you when you go are part of a communion service.

Please pray for me and for all of the speakers.

1. Why can human beings so easily plan evil, and plan to do good, at the same time - all the while thinking that we are superior?

2. Satan is real, invisible, hostile and active in human affairs - and I will not take him lightly or ignore him or fear him or be pre-occupied with him.

3. In love Jesus died for me. In love He explained the meaning of His death. In love He calls ordinary people to be His people, and to meet together, and to remember who He is and what He accomplished for us.

4. Luke tells the real story of the real God acting with real grace for real people in real history where His real Son died to really inaugurate a real covenant that I can really enter into and really live in.

Some (hopefully) helpful comments on preparing to receive Holy Communion.

A. I will choose to remember that Jesus died to reconcile me to the living God.

B. I will choose to say "Thank You" to Jesus for who He is and what He did.

C. I will choose to not seek to experience a particular emotion.

D.  I will choose to leave it up to God as to how I will benefit from receiving communion.

Friends, 

Give yourself to Jesus. Trust Him as your Saviour. Be Baptized --one of the institutions of Jesus.  Celebrate the Lord's Supper with others, and when you celebrate the Lord's Supper, remember that He died for you. Remember that, and say, "Thank you". 

Father, pour out Your Holy Spirit upon all these Listeners. Bless us. Bring us to Jesus. Make us disciples of Jesus, gripped by the Gospel, who live for your glory.

- Rev. Canon George Sinclair
Church of the Messiah
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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link: