Preparation for Wednesday Jun 3rd, 2015

Our passage of interest for this coming Wednesday is John 13:21-30.

1.  The first thing to do is to sort out the "players" in verses 22-26:
  - Peter is involved--not surprisingly;
  - Who is the disciple "whom Jesus loved"?
  - And then to whom does Jesus give the piece of bread he had dipped?

2.  Now try to think through, based upon the narrative, how these players might have been arranged around the table.  If you do, you will come to see an amazing demonstration of God's grace to Judas and an example of Jesus' persistent efforts to reach him.  

3.  One more thing--go back and read Jn 13:9-10 and see if you can explain to yourself a consistent understanding of what it means to be clean and yet need to be cleansed that applies to both the foot washing incident and the time of reclining at the table.  

As you can see, we have some very interesting things to discuss.  
See you on Wednesday.  

Kevin

Preparation for Wednesday 27 May 2015

There is no preparation for the 27th due to our quarterly business meeting.  I'll have some specific questions for you next week prior to getting into John chapter 13, but for now, if you want to get a jump on things spend some time in John 13.  Specifically, consider the meaning of verse 10.

See you on Wednesday for prayer and an update on the business of the Church.

Kevin

Preparation for Wednesday May 20th, 2015

I have been planning to begin a study of John 13-17 -- Jesus' instruction to His "inner circle".  Those in whom He had made the greatest investment of both Himself and truth.  Not only that, but those through whom the Spirit would ignite and spread the Church.  I am still planning on going there, but we are going to hold off, as I have one more thing I would like to cover first.  

Read Luke 9:23-f or any of the companion texts in Matthew or Mark.  And then here are a few things for you to think about:

1.  Write a one sentence summary of what Jesus is teaching. 


2.  What does this have to do with our study of the resurrection?


3.  What does this have to do with our study of "revival"?


4.  And, what does this have to do with our study of Gospel Culture?



I would suggest to you that they all fit together.  Stated another way--if you are lacking in one, you are lacking in all.  Give it some thought, and see what kind of questions arise.

See you on Wednesday,
Kevin

Preparation for Wednesday May 13th, 2015

Scotty will again be bringing the message this coming Wednesday.  You can prepare by reading John chapter 1.  Think through carefully what we learned in verses 1-14 (and 44-47) and see what truths you can find in the remainder of the chapter.

See you on Wednesday,
Kevin

Preparation for Wednesday May 6th, 2015

There is no preparation for May 6th due to a guest speaker.  See you then.

In His grace,
Kevin

Preparation for Wednesday April 29th 2015

This will be our final lesson on the topic of "Gospel Culture".  I think you will find it very interesting.  In order to be better prepared for our time together--read Lk 15:11-32.  You will recognize this right way as the "Parable of the Prodigal Son".  Couple things to think about before we meet:

1.  Who is represented by the Prodigal and the "Older Brother"

2.  How is grace manifested in the parable?  What are the consequences of rejecting God's grace?

3.  How does this parable relate to Gospel-Culture?

See you on Wednesday,
Kevin

Preparation for Wednesday April 22nd, 2015

We studied the example of Jesus when He washed the disciples feet, which in turn led us to the truths associated with the Christian's calling to have a servant's heart and to follow the example of Christ.  We have one last subject to investigate and it revolves around this question, "If we are living out the truth--a sacrificial, other-person-first, life of humility; how then would we expect the world to respond to us?"  

You might think it would be grateful, or even respond to the message we have.  Take a look at Jn 16:33 and Jn 15:18-19 to see what you can expect instead.  

Stated another way, William Tyndale, Bible translator, said this about the Gospel, "Euangelion (the Gospel) is a Greek word signifying good, merry, glad and joyful news, that makes a man's heart glad and makes him sing, dance and leap for joy."  And the world martyred him, for among other things, translating this good news into English.   

How do you explain this?  Should it effect our "Gospel Culture"?  

See you on Wednesday,
Kevin

Preparation for Wednesday April 15th 2015

So during our last meeting together, I tried to show you that one way we (the Church) puts on display the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10) is through the outworking of a servant's heart (Jn 13:15-16).  And not just a few within the fellowship, but as a VCC-wide culture.  

Now, are there any boundaries or limits on this service model?  

  - On the one hand, with Christ as our example, we might be tempted to say no.  

  - On the other hand, consider 1Tm 3:15 and Jn 18:37-38.  I think they add something to what it means to be "holy. . . without stain or blemish" as a church fellowship.  That's one of the things we'll talk about this week. 

See you on Wednesday,

Kevin

Preparation for Wednesday April 8th, 2015

We are going to continue our study of "Gospel Culture" while at the same time transitioning to a study of John chapters 13-17.  Here is the connection I would like you to think about for this weeks' study.  

How does the example of our Lord washing the disciple's feet (and the command to do likewise) relate to Eph 3:10?  In other words--this idea of Gospel Culture seems to be tugged in two different directions.  Are we to take on a servant's role--or put on display the wisdom of God to the watching spiritual host?  Can these two be reconciled.  We'll try on Wednesday.  

Kevin

April 1--No Wednesday Evening Service