COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY AND DAILY STUDIES BASED UPON OUR PREACHING SERIES AT COMMUNITY CHURCH PUTNEY
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COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY
COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY
Think
back to the process of your becoming a Christian. Think of all of the countless
coincidences and decisions that have led you to be who you are and where you
are. Are you the result of happenstance? Over the next two-weeks we will be
looking at what it means for God to be our Saviour
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR GOD TO BE THE
SAVIOUR?
Why are you a Christian? There are only two answers:
Firstly, “people did it! I’m a Christian
because of my family, those around me, my culture, my decisions...” Or, Secondly, “God did it! God chose
me (election) and raised me from spiritual death.”
Ø What did Gabriel say to Joseph about
Jesus in Matthew 1:21?
Salvation
from beginning to end is of God. We make real decisions but the greater reality
is that God, in His sovereignty, chose to save us.
Salvation
is a gift from its beginning to its end. As you look at the following list,
notice how salvation is so much more than forgiveness. Here is a summary of
the ‘order of salvation’:
1. Election/predestination (God chooses who will
be saved)
2. The gospel call (salvation is through the message of the gospel)
3.
Regeneration (being born again through the Spirit)
4. Conversion (the response
of faith and repentance)
5. Justification (right legal standing through faith
in Christ)
6. Adoption (becoming members of God's family)
7.
Sanctification (the ongoing process of our lives being changed)
8. Perseverance
(remaining a Christian)
9. Death (going to be with the Lord)
10. Glorification
(the completion of God’s work and receiving a resurrection body)
All
of this process of salvation is God’s gift from beginning to end!
Read Romans 8:28-30 and discuss:
Ø What are the things that God does in
regard to our salvation?
Ø Which things do we do (in this
passage) in regard to salvation?
Read Ephesians 1: 4-6 and discuss:
Ø Whey did God choose us?
Ø What did He predestine us for?
Ø Through whom is our salvation
possible?
Ø What should be our response to God’s
grace? (v.6)
GOING DEEPER PERSONAL DAILY STUDIES
Monday: He has done it all!
Romans 8:30 ‘those he predestined, he also called;
those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.’
John Piper wrote about this, ‘What’s the point of a chain of statements
like this? The point is certainty and confidence and assurance and security.
The point is that God is the one who saves his people, really saves
them. He does not just offer salvation, he saves them. From beginning to end he
is the One who decisively and infallibly acts so that not one of his own is
lost. The point is that the chain cannot be broken: all the foreknown are
predestined; all the predestined are called; all the called are justified; and
all the justified are glorified. The point is to guarantee that everyone in the
chain will reach the goal of glory!’
Tuesday: “I chose you”
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I
chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit…
Ephesians 1:4-6 For
he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for
adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his
pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has
freely given us in the One he loves.
‘Election
(predestination) may be defined as that eternal act of God whereby He, in His
sovereign good pleasure, and on account of no foreseen merit in them, chooses a
certain number of men to be the recipients of special grace and of eternal
salvation.’ (Berkhoff, theology, Page 114)
We may ask if
it is fair that some are called whilst others are left to face judgement. There
is no easy to answer to this dilemma. Some, in an effort to make God
appear more ‘fair’ have made salvation more about our choice than God’s
choice, but this does disservice to what the bible actually says – God
alone is the Saviour!
Wednesday: Growth in salvation is by His
grace
Philippians 1:6 ‘being
confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’
Why
are you a Christian? Fundamentally it’s because the Holy Spirit has given you
new life – eyes to see and ears to hear in place of spiritual blindness and
deafness. But, we must remember that salvation is also an ongoing process of
spiritual growth throughout our lives and this, also, is only made possible as
He works in us.
In
saying that we are saved by God’s grace I am not saying that your decisions and
cooperation are not real. Make a decision today to press on to growth in utter
dependence upon God! As Paul says,
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends,
as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my
absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order
to fulfil his good purpose.
What sins do you need
to turn from? What good things are you being challenged to do? How is your
bible reading and prayer life? Make decisions, aware of your need for God’s
power, to press on in your growth.
Thursday: death has no sting!
Are you worried about death?
Fear is caused by lack of certainty that God has justified you (forgiven), will
be with you, and receive you to Himself.
Hebrews 2:14-15
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their
humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who
holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their
lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
John 5:24 “Very truly I tell you,
whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal
life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to
life.
The devil cannot drag
you to hell if you have put your faith in Jesus - the One who bore our sin and
death in His body.
Friday: the worst of sinners is saved
Read the
account of the Apostle Paul in Acts 9 and consider God’s grace in saving him
and how this is also true of you and me.
Ø Was Paul a good
person, open to Jesus, the kind of person that one might think God would save? (9:1-2)
Ø Did Paul play
any part in his conversion? (9:3-9)
Ø Did Paul’s place
in church history as the greatest servant of God, writing much of the bible,
depend on him or God’s grace? (9:10-19)
Ø What power did
He (and we) need in order to fulfill God’s calling? (9:17)
Ø What is the
initial response for all believers in Jesus? (9:18)
Saturday: The song of all the saved
Let’s end
this week of considering the Saviour by using these verses to worship Him.
1 Timothy 1:15-17 Here is a
trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But
for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of
sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for
those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now
to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be
honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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