The Quest for One: Recent Episodes
Benjamin Smith
Christian ministry serving those who are seeking the truth of Jesus Christ and the unity of his people. Visit our website at https://questforone.com
The church is the assembled people of God, not the building they assemble in. However, Paul compares the church to a building, a temple for God, and he tells us to build well. How do we do that?
We know that there is a way that leads to death and destruction through sin, and we see that there is a way of following Jesus that leads to life described at length in scripture. Is there another option, one that involves faith and a gift of eternal life without requiring any change on our part? Can one not be a disciple of Jesus Christ and still be saved by faith?
Following Jesus is hard, especially if we really do it the way Paul describes. Satan will oppose us learning to do so, making it even harder. That's why Paul wraps up Ephesians with a discussion of spiritual warfare. Every day is a battle, but we are guaranteed to lose if we fight the wrong battle with the wrong objective or neglect to use the tools of war God has given us.
Paul says that part of walking wisely, walking worthy of our calling, is that we must submit to each other. What does that mean? Paul uses three examples to explain, but the concept isn't limited to these examples. We must submit to one another in every human relationship if we are to be what Jesus created us to be.
What's the point of theology? Paul begins to answer that question in Ephesians chapter 4. Because we are called, we are told to walk worthy of our calling. What does that look like? He begins to answer that question here, and he continues through the remainder of the letter.
Theology is great, but it's only useful if we can live it out. Paul gives us a lot of wonderful theology at the beginning of Ephesians, and he spends the second half of the letter telling us how that works out in life. That's not automatic; we have to learn to do it, and we have to grow into it. God gives us gifts to help us do that together, and we need them all if we are going to be what he created us to be.
The basis of the Protestant Reformation is that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. What does that mean? How does it work? Paul gives the short answer in Ephesians, the same thing he writes in greater length elsewhere. Truly understanding this is key to us living out the Christian life, and Paul prays that God would help us understand.
The gospel is the glorious truth of our salvation, but the details sometimes seem a little unclear. After all, theologians have argued for centuries over topics like predestination, so how are we normal people supposed to understand what the Bible says? If we can manage to set aside modern ways of thinking and look at Ephesians like it's first readers did, predestination actually becomes rather simple.
The apostles spent three years with Jesus, learning, modelling, and even preaching. They still didn't fully understand his work, even at the ascension, where Jesus told them that they would receive the Holy Spirit and be Witnesses. They soon figured it out at Pentecost. What does it mean to be a Witness, though? How does it apply to us today?
Even after they had been told that Jesus was risen, his disciples didn't understand. They also didn't recognize him, even when he began teaching them about what had happened. Why were they so blind?
On Palm Sunday, Jesus told a somewhat strange story about a king going away to receive his kingdom and returning. His parable can only be understood in the context of the political drama surrounding his birth and exile to Egypt. What does this story teach us?
Luke 16 contains two parables, and in both, Jesus links handling of money to our eternal destination. If we are saved by faith, what does our money have to do with it? Let's take a look!
Anyone who has been in the church for long has heard the Parable of the Prodigal Son, how God welcomes the wandering sinner home with open arms. What if I told you that the parable really isn't about the Prodigal, but is really about his older brother?
Jesus tells us that life is about more than money, but he goes beyond that to tell us that how we handle our money affects our eternity. This is a lesson worth getting right.
The Good Samaritan is one of Jesus' best known parables, but there's more to it than just helping others. It has cultural overtones that still resonate today.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray using the language and ideas of his time and culture. Do we really understand what they mean when we repeat his prayer?
Grace is free, but it's not cheap. It cost Jesus everything to give us grace, and it costs us everything to receive it. That's the cost of following Jesus, and he said we cannot be his disciples any other way. Have you counted the cost?
Jesus' Parable of the Sower is a familiar teaching to many. Unfortunately, we frequently forget that the aim of sowing seed is to produce fruit, and thus we miss the point. If we think of it from the perspective of a farmer, the meaning is quite clear.
John was the forerunner of the Messiah, and he identified Jesus as the one. Later, John doesn't see things working out like he expected, and he questions Jesus about it. Jesus' response can tell us a lot about who he is and what his gospel is all about.
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the more famous passages of Jesus' teaching, but Luke's more compact rendition, the Sermon on the Plain, gives us the opportunity to more easily examine the flow of the teaching as a whole, in context. This provides insight into what Jesus intended when he said these things, insight that is easy to miss when we take the sermon a section at a time. Let's take a look!
As Jesus began to preach, what was his message? How did he frame his purpose?
What is the gospel according to Jesus?
Luke tells us, if we are willing to listen.
Jesus was tempted like we are, yet without sin. His temptation should be an encouragement to us, that as we follow him, we can successfully resist Satan, too. Let's take a look at the details and how his response to temptation is an example for us to follow.
Who was John the Baptist, and why does he matter? He was sent to prepare the way for Jesus, and what he had to say can tell us an awful lot about the gospel. Join us and let's take a look!
In chapter 8, Paul shifts from sexual issues to another moral issue: idolatry. The specific issue of eating meat offered to idols largely doesn't exist in our culture, but the principle he applies to this issue applies to all kinds of issues in our day. Join us as we outline Paul's teaching on this topic and look at his reasoning.
Continuing our series on 1 Corinthians, Paul turns from condemning illicit sex to addressing celibacy. Clearly, sex was one of the issues dividing the church. Paul gives both opinion and command in this controversial chapter. Let's see what he has to say.
The immaturity and resulting division in the church in Corinth involved some matters of morality and of interpersonal relations that required discipline and judgment by the church. Paul shows us the principles of how to handle such matters by applying them to the situation in Corinth in chapters 5 and 6. He addresses blatant immorality first, handling it harshly but in love. He goes on in chapter 6 to address how embarrassing this is to God's family, including how both immoral behavior and fallout in the legal system dishonor Christ.
The immaturity and resulting division in the church in Corinth involved some matters of morality and of interpersonal relations that required discipline and judgment by the church. Paul shows us the principles of how to handle such matters by applying them to the situation in Corinth in chapters 5 and 6. He addresses blatant immorality first, handling it harshly but in love.
Pride seems to have been an issue in the immaturity and doctrinal disputes in the Corinthian church. Is this a problem for the church today? Does Paul's solution work for the church today? Join us and take a look!
Why do people not understand the gospel? Why did they crucify Jesus? People who think and live only in this world simply can’t understand the thinking of God’s world, the spiritual world. This difference in thinking is very visible in the church as well, as there’s only one way God thinks which results in unity. Our divisions come when we think in a worldly way.
Why is the Church divided? The New Testament is clear that there’s only one Body of Christ, and yet we have many different churches, sects, denominations, and other divisions that compete with each other and teach different things. Why is it like this? Does the Bible address our problems? Amazingly, this issue goes back to very early in our history, and Paul tackles it head on. I think we’ll find that we’re more like the church at Corinth than we’d like to admit.
Paul compares the church to a building in 1 Corinthians 3. How are we building it? Are we doing it right? Join us as we continue to look at how immaturity affects the church. You can find the video version of this along with much more content on our website https://questforone.com