In preaching through Romans and now beginning the epistle to the Colossians, I have somehow stumbled upon a series of sorts that has come out of my usual verse by verse exposition.  This series doesn’t have a title, but it has to do with the life of the church.  Perhaps this emphasis was brought to my mind as a result of the pandemic, and the ensuing restrictions that were placed upon the church.  It made me examine why we go to church, the reason for the church, and whether or not church was essential.  It seemed at the time that

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Today we are beginning a new book of the New Testament, which normally we study verse by verse, and chapter by chapter.  But I am going to break tradition with this one, and start in the middle of chapter one.  I may end up circling back to the beginning material at some later date.  But I am doing it this way because I want to continue in a series of sorts that was begun in our study of Romans which we finished last week.   As you will remember, starting with chapter 12 of Romans we began to look at

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We have come today to the end of the epistle to the Romans.  It’s been a long, somewhat arduous journey.  Romans is a very thorough, very dense, theological treatise in the form of a  long letter to the Roman church from the Apostle Paul.  And as I have said quite frequently lately, the first 11 chapters were almost strictly theological, but the second part of the book beginning with chapter 12 are very practical. Now they are practical because these last 5 chapters are dealing with the life of the church.  The first 11 chapters tell us how we receive

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We are coming to the conclusion of our study of Romans. And as I have said previously, the last few chapters of Romans, starting in chapter 12, are not doctrinal so much as they are practical application. And that application is particularly focused on the church. In these three chapters, Paul has written concerning the life, worship and fellowship of the church in great detail. Now at the end of chapter 15, he speaks about what might be called the fruit of the church. At the beginning of the epistle he stated that he wanted to see some spiritual fruit

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In the epistle to the Romans, Paul spends the first 11 chapters talking about the theology and doctrine of the church. Not the doctrinal distinctives of a particular type or denomination of a church, but the general theology and doctrine which believing through faith leads to salvation, through which you are made a part of Christ’s church. You cannot join this church, you must be born again to be a member of this church. And Paul uses the first eleven chapters to teach the doctrines of being born again, which is the doctrine of salvation. That doctrine is what is

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Starting in chapter 12, Paul has basically been giving a series of admonitions regarding life in the church.  The church is not a building nor an organization, per se.  It is an organism, a living, breathing community of believers who are connected in spirit, soul and body.  The church is the temple of God, of which  indwelled by the Spirit of God. 1Peter 2:5 says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And beginning in chapter 12, Paul has

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I believe that in chapters 12 through 14 of Romans what we have is Paul addressing some practical considerations for how the church is to show love towards one another.  It is one thing to say that you should love one another, and that you should love your neighbor, and you should even love your enemies.  But it is another thing to work out how we do that in real life.  In each of these aspects of love, Paul is explaining the way love is worked out in the church and through the church.  Even in chapter 13, when Paul

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Beginning in chapter 12, Paul has been writing a series of practical exhortations to the church.  He started off in ch.12 vs 1 saying that as Christians we have a responsibility to present our bodies to the church as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service of worship. Now as we have learned, the church is not a building, nor a denomination, but a people.  The church is the eklesia, the called out ones, the assembly of believers who make up Christ’s body in local community.  So we are to physically present ourselves to be a part of that

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