The Church is a Disciplined Community
Matthew 18:15-20 (ESV) “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church,…
The Church is a Defined Community – Part 2
Matthew 18:15-20(ESV) “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let…
The Church is a Defined Community – Part 1
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 (ESV) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a…
The Church is an Apostolic Community
1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 2:1-2; 15:1-9 (ESV) Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours… And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the…
The Church is a Spiritual Community
1 Corinthians 2 (NIV) 2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration…
What is the Church?
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 (ESV) Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks…
The Word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi
Malachi 1 (ESV) The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts…
Work, For I Am With You
Book of Haggai (ESV) In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word…
Joel – “Yet Even Now, Return to Me With All Your Heart”
Joel 1:3-4 (ESV) Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten.What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten,and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. Joel 2:12-14 (ESV) “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”Return to the Lord your God, for he is…
Habakkuk – Yet I Will Rejoice
Habakkuk 3:16-19(ESV) I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound;rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food,the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take…
Nahum of Elkosh
Nahum 1:1-8 (ESV) An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful;the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries…