Who is God-Father according to Apostle Paul?

40+ “the God” is “the Father”

^ESV Romans 1:7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

^ESV Romans 6:4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

^ESV Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

^ESV Romans 15:6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

^ESV 1 Corinthians 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

^ESV 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

^ESV 1 Corinthians 15:24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

^ESV 2 Corinthians 1:2 ¶ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

^ESV 2 Corinthians 6:18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."

^ESV 2 Corinthians 11:31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

^ESV Galatians 1:1 Paul, an apostle- not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-

 ³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

 ⁴ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

 ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

^ESV Ephesians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

 ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,

^ESV Ephesians 2:18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

^ESV Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

^ESV Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

^ESV Ephesians 5:20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

²³ Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

^ESV Philippians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

^ESV Philippians 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

^ESV Philippians 4:20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

^ESV Colossians 1:2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

 ³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

 ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

^ESV Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

^ESV 1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

^ESV 1 Thessalonians 3:11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,

 ¹³ so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

^ESV 2 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

 ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

^ESV 2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,

^ESV 1 Timothy 1:2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

^ESV 2 Timothy 1:2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

^ESV Titus 1:4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

^ESV Philemon 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Communion Service: Focus on the Passion

The faith of Abraham is the faith of Jesus is the Christian hope

Romans 4.16 So the promise is based on faith in God and His promises.  It is provided as a free gift, guaranteed to all the children of Abraham — not merely to those who follow the law, but also to those who belong to the same faith as Abraham had.  And Abraham is thus the spiritual father of us all.

17 As Scripture says, “I have made you the father of many nations.” For in the presence of God, Abraham believed in the God who makes the dead alive and speaks of things as not existing as if they already existed. 

18 Against all hope Abraham in hope believed God, so that he could become the father of many different nations, just as God had promised him: “This is how many descendants you will have!”

19 His faith in God did not weaken even though he thought his body was practically dead (he was around a hundred years old), and he knew that Sarah was too old to have children.

20 He held on tightly to God’s promise — he did not doubt it. Instead his faith in God grew stronger, and he gave glory to God.

21 He was totally convinced that what God had promised He had the power to bring about.

22 That is why Abraham was considered right by God.

23 The words “Abraham was considered right” were not just written down for his benefit.

24 They were written for us too, those of us who will be considered as right, since we believe in God who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. 25Jesus was handed over to die because of our sins, and was raised from death to life with a view to our gaining God’s approval.

·       Even though the world was yet to see one single instance of a resurrection from the dead.

·       Abram also “reasoned” that the God Who had miraculously created Isaac, could recreate him.

·       A type/symbol story for the Son of God.

The bread:

1Cor 11.23 For I received from the lord the tradition I passed on to you: the lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took some bread.

24 After giving thanks, he broke the bread into pieces and said, “This bread represents my body, which is given for you. Remember me when you do this.”

• Ask someone to pray.

The cup:

25 In the same way he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the New Covenant ratified in my blood. Remember me as often as you drink it.”

• Ask someone to pray

Closing Prayer:

26 For as often you eat this bread and drink from this cup you are announcing the lord’s death, until he returns.” Maranatha!

Hymn?

Communion Sunday: Jan. 1, 2016

“The things of the OT are the shadow, those of the NT are an image and truth is the state of the future things to come.”

St. Maximus the Confessor, 7^th century AD.

In this New Year it’s important to emphasize this future, Christian hope of the coming KOG on earth that has been at times muted, at times lost, from the communion service.

We find a reference to this double meaning when Jesus prays to the Father:

“May Your Kingdom, may your will be done on earth…Give us bread today for the coming day.”

[Luke 11.2-3; Mat 6.10-11].

Luke explicitly shows this service as inextricably bound up with the Kingdom promise:

Luke 22.15 “I have been earnestly looking forward to eating this Passover meal with you before my sufferings.

16 I tell you, I shall not eat it again until the time when it is fulfilled in the future Kingdom of God.” 

17 Jesus took a cup, and after he had given thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves.

18 I tell you that I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes.”

Luke 22.29 And so I now covenant with you to grant you a Kingdom and the authority to rule just as my Father covenanted it to me,

30 and you will eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones governing and administering the regathered 12 tribes of Israel.

And Paul adds a reference to the 2^nd coming when he repeats the lord’s commandments: 1Cor 11.23-26.

“Paul urges a deeper awareness of the meaning of the new covenant shared in the Lord’s Supper, and thus an authentic proclamation of the Lord’s death until he comes in glory.” The Eucharist in the New Testament, Jerome Kodel, p 82.

As a result, the Kingdom promise was center stage in the communion service of the earliest churches, as shown in the 1^st century document called “The Teaching”:

“Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom; for yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever.” Didache 9

Admonishment:

Hebrews 10.25 Continue to keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. And let us not stay away from church meetings. Some people are doing this more and more. Take this opportunity to comfort, encourage and warn each other, especially as we see the Big Day approaching.

BIBLICAL GIVING & TITHING Part 1

By Bob Warren

Giving

Gal. 3:10

Deut. 12:6

Heb. 7:5

Gen. 14:20   Gen. 28:22

Acts 6:1, 3

1 Tim. 5:3-10, 16

CHRISTIANS TO REMEMBER THE POOR SAINTS

Gal. 2:9-10

Acts 11:28-29

Rom. 15:25—27

1 Cor. 16:1-3

2 Cor. 8:11—14

2 Cor. 9:7

1 Tim. 6:17-18

Gal. 6:10

James 2:15-17   1 John 3:16-18

Phil. 4:14-16: Philippian church provided for the needs of the apostle Paul

PAUL SETS AN EXAMPLE OF WORKING SO HE WOULD NOT BE A BURDEN ON THE CHURCH

Acts 18:3; 28.30

1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8-10

PAUL’S FAREWELL AND INSTRUCTIONS TO CHURCH ELDERS

Acts 20:17-20, 33—35      

John 21:25

Edersheim, Alfred, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, Hendrickson Pub.

Sketches, page 169; 220: 

"Thus . . . to come to the subject of this chapter . . . we now understand how so many of the disciples and followers of the Lord gained their living by some craft; how in the same spirit the Master Himself condescended to the trade of his adoptive father; and how the greatest of his apostles throughout earned his bread through the labor of his hands, probably following, like the Lord Jesus, the trade of his father. For it was a principle, frequently expressed, if possible, not to forsake the trade of the father'"

1 Cor. 9:3-12    

1 Tim. 5:18

James 2:16      

1 John 3:16-18

TITHING TO BE DISCUSSED IN Part 2

Lev 27.30-34

Deut 12.6; 14.22-26; 26.12

Num 18.20-28

2 Chro 31.5

Neh 10.37; 13.5

Mal 3.10

Gen 14.20; 17.12; 22.13; 25.6; 28.20-22; 33.19; 42.27; 47.15

Mat 5.44; 19.9

Gal 5.6; 6.15

1Cor 5.7

Heb 7.4

“Besides those 2 tithes, which I have already said you’re to pay every year, the one for the Levites, the other for the Festivals, you’re to bring every third year a third tithe to be distrubted to those in want: to women also that are widows, and to the children that are orphans.”

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 4, Ch. 8.22.

Sunday Communion: Remembering Martyrs

Why Sunday?

Acts 2.42 They committed themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the fellowship of the believers, “breaking bread” and praying together.

20.7 “On the first day of the week…we gathered together to break bread…”

Didache [Teaching] 14.1: "And on the Lord's day come together and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure."

The service became primarily a remembrance of martyrs & the soon-to-come KOG, i.e., 2^nd coming.

NT evidence: Mat 20

21 Jesus said to her, “What is it you are asking me for?” She said, “Please appoint my sons to sit beside you in your future Kingdom, one on your right and the other on your left.”

22 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup I am about to drink?” They replied, “Yes, we can certainly do that.”

23 Jesus replied, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but the privilege of sitting on my right or on my left in the coming Kingdom is not mine to give [only the Father’s].”

Early Christian practice from the Roman catacombs, early 2^nd century known as the Fractio Panis, "breaking of bread", aka:

·       "The Lord's Supper" (coena dominica),

·       “The "Sacrifice" (prosphora, oblatio),

·       The "Liturgy" (Acts 13:2, leitourgountes);

·       "The gathering together" (synaxis, congregatio),

·       "The Mysteries",

·       "The Sacrament of the Altar",

·       “The Agape Meal/Feast”.

The Point: Communion inextricably connected with Martyrdom [denoting a purely pacifist/non-violent movement] and the Christian Hope, soon-to-come 2^nd coming/KOG.

The Service: Warnings

1.       Idolatry

1Cor 10:14: So my dear friends, stay away from idol worship.

15 I am talking to intelligent people, so you decide whether I am telling the truth.

16 When we give thanks for the cup we drink in the Lord’s Supper, do we not share in the blood of Messiah? When we break the communion bread, do we not share in the body of Messiah?

2.       Church split/factions

1Cor 11:17 Now in giving you the instructions which follow I cannot commend you, because when you meet together you cause more harm than good!

18 First of all, I hear that when you have church meetings you are split into different factions, and I believe there is truth in this.

19 Of course such factions among you are inevitable so that those who are genuinely approved can show themselves by the evidence.

The bread:

23 For I received from the lord the tradition I passed on to you: the lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took some bread.

24 After giving thanks, he broke the bread into pieces and said, “This bread represents my body, which is given for you. Remember me when you do this.”

The cup:

25 In the same way he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the New Covenant ratified in my blood. Remember me as often as you drink it.”

Closing Prayer:

26 For as often you eat this bread and drink from this cup you are announcing the lord’s death, until he returns.” Maranatha!