Term 5 – The Church’s One Foundation
Introduction
As the early church grew, it faced challenges of belief and behaviour. We look at the teaching of Jesus in Matthew as he urged his followers to embrace a radically new vision of the kingdom of heaven; at how Jesus’ death and resurrection was both a fulfilment of prophecy and a victory of cosmic proportions; and at the teaching of Paul in his major epistles as he strove to instruct churches around the Mediterranean how to respond to the challenge of living out their new lives, and to defend the good news against accusations from outside the church and false teaching from within. The letters he wrote give us the guidance we need to be firm in our own faith today.
Summary of Sessions
- Paul and His Writings. Introducing Paul’s character, and an overview of his work; the big questions that concerned him most, and the heart of his gospel.
- The Uniting Gospel. Paul considered the good news of salvation to be so wonderful that the only possible response was total service in Jesus name, but the Corinthians saw their new-found freedom in Christ as permission to do what they liked In his first preserved letter to them Paul spells out what it really means to belong to Christ.
- God’s Rescue Plan Unpacked. Writing to a mixed Jew and Gentile church in Romans who may have been at loggerheads, Paul explains why the gospel applies equally to both Jew and Gentile, how the gospel ‘works’, and how it both enables and demands a transformed life.
- Living as God’s People. Enlarging on some of his thoughts first laid out in Romans, Paul explains to the still-unruly Corinthians and to the Ephesiansthat in Jeuss, they are called to a transformed, ‘cross-shaped’, life and values patterned on Jesus’ sacrificial example.
- Paul’s Spirit and Jesus’ Beginnings.
- Part 1 – a summary of how Paul saw the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives;
- Part 2 – Jesus’ birth in Matthew’s gospel.
- An Overview of Matthew. The structure of Matthew’s gospel, it’s key texts, and a summary of it’s account of Jesus teaching and ministry.
- Reaching the Heart. How Matthew saw Jesus, and the meaning he attaches to Jesus’ death and resurrection.
- Kingdom Life Applied. A deeper look at Jesus’ teaching within the Sermon on the Mount – the ethics of the kingdom of God – and Matthew’s concluding ‘Great Commission’ to spread out and make disciples.
