Queen's Road Cell

We looked at the passages for the study (Is 61:1-3 and Luke 15). The Isaiah passage is one of the "servant songs" in the book, passages which point to Jesus as the suffering Messiah. Jesus appropriates this passage for His own in Luke 4:18. Luke 15 tells the story of salvation in 3 different ways through 3 parables: the lostness of a sentient sheep, the lostness of a non-sentient coin, and the lostness of a beloved son. Daniel observed that the sheep was 1 of a 100, the coin was 1 of 10, and the son was 1 of 2 that were lost. All the lost objects originally belonged to the finder, and when all are found there is great rejoicing. Taken together, the 3 parables lay out the scope of salvation for every believer (i.e it is not that some of us are sheep, and others, coins, and so on, but that God works in various ways in everyone who comes to faith. As in Isaiah, the seeker/finder is portrayed as divine. The passages therefore cannot be taken to explicitly tell us to do what God ...

Small groups – for common life   42  They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43  Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44  All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47  praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47) 32  All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in ...

We discussed what Jesus means when He says (Mt 16:19, 18: 18)   that “whatever (we) bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever (we) loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”. The first quotation is to Peter, and the second generalizes this power to all the disciples. Matthew 16 presents the ‘rock’ on which Christ builds his church either as Peter himself (the archetype of the faithful confessing Christian) or Peter’s confession (as that which all who belong to the church must share). There is no hint here of the continuing apostolic succession claimed by Roman Catholics, or of supremacy of leadership of the church in all matters (c.f. Paul’s correction of Peter in Gal 2:11-14, James’ leadership of the Jerusalem council in Ac 15:7-21) “Binding” and “loosing” in this context refers to the power to discipline in the church regarding right and wrong conduct for those in the kingdom (cf.18:19). This would be equivalent to the setting of permissions and restrictions in...

   Unity and Trinity   1 .   What does it mean that God is one God? The many gods of some other religions are limited in their power and domain. They are like humans in their characters and failures and motivations. We worship a unique, transcendent, sovereign God. Our God is the Holy One – completely separate, yet approachable through revelation. (Is 45:21–22; see also Is 44:6–8; Ex 15:11; Deut 4:35; 6:4–5 ; 32:39 ; 1 Sa2:2; 1 Ki 8:60).     2.   What does it mean that God is a Trinity? God is three in person (There are relationships within the Trinity) God is one in essence. (God’s ‘being’ is not divided into three parts, no one Person has attributes not possessed by the other two) Each person is fully God. (The being of each person is equal to the whole being of God). “When we speak of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together we are not speaking of any greater being than when we speak of the Fa...

The Greek word for ‘draw’ in Jn 6:44 is used in the NT to connote actions with a degree of forcefulness. It is used to describe Paul and Silas (Ac 16:19) getting dragged before the authorities and Paul getting dragged by a mob (Ac 21:30). The rich compel/draw the poor before the courts (Jas 2:6) as well.   It is also used to describe the drawing of a sword by Peter (Jn 18:10) and the drawing of a net of fish (Jn 21:6, 11). So 'draw' does not mean 'woo' or 'persuade'. Selwyn gave the analogy of a magnet drawing something. There is a sense of active action on God's part before one can be saved. Perhaps the most useful passages in John’s gospel that throw light on Jn 6:44 are Jn 12:32 (Jesus ‘draws’ all men to Himself) and Jn 6:65 (“This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father”). So Jesus speaks of a sovereign work of God in salvation. Of ourselves, we cannot seek God and be saved. Matthew’s gospel says the sam...