We are a forgetful people in a land of distractions. Our minds are easily captivated by trivial and temporary inducements. New things quickly become old. In our mind’s eye even glory tends to fade and warnings tend to wane. It is no wonder that we who are invisibly united to Christ and visibly in and not of this world live in constant need of renewal. And what is true for the Christian is true for the church. This is a series that seeks to renew the mind of the church. Not so much by reviewing what she is called to do as much as what she is called. As with the Christian so with church, her God-given identity defines her. We who are the church are a people for God and none other.
Before we return to the book of Romans, we will be looking at the what scripture says about the Church, in its nature, how she expresses herself in song, and how the church cares and equips for its members.
The messages from this series can be found here:
Manny Pereira - May 30, 2021
Israel’s Indictment
The drama of culminating rebellion is at the brink of its most violent eruption. Jesus is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. But “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11) but instead “were seeking all the more to kill him” (John 5:18). Now, finally, we hear Him who is David’s Lord pronounce the most dreadful series of woes against His people. Behind every awful /charge/ there stands a more appalling /cause/. The King of kings is arraigning guilty rebels. It is the voice of perfect justice that resounds in unanswerable severity. Words of righteous wrath, grief, and pity burst forth like a long-pent flood, and like peals of thunder and flashes of lightning they forewarn with sound, illuminate with light, and strike with heat. Yet these woes are proclaimed from the most gentle, meek, and loving heart the world has ever known—and they are the more remarkable because of it. It is an epic exposé. It is Israel’s official indictment from her Messiah.
Scripture References: Matthew 23:13-36
