MCA Church Alaska: Recent Episodes
Muldoon Community Assembly
1 John 4:7-10 (ESV) 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Love’s Divine Design…
- Starts with God
1 John 4:7-8 (ESV) John 3:31-32 (ESV) Matthew 6:33 (ESV)
- Expresses Himself towards His most valued treasure.
John 3:16-17 (ESV) John 3:17 (ESV)
- Is meant to be known & encountered
1 John 3:1 (ESV) 1 John 3:1 (NKJV)
- Holds us together.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (ESV 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV) Matthew 24:12 (ESV)
Continuing our Alaska series is a Sunday morning message from Tracy Fick.
- Know Where You Are Going
- Always Bring Food
- Just Keep Walking
In Triggered Culture, we are taking up those things in our lives and world today about which many people have an emotional, intellectual, psychological and spiritual reactions and become internally distressed. 1. Many people in our society have a huge reaction to Christian Biblical Morality. 2. Issues of race, bigotry, prejudice, bias, and misogyny are also points of significant reaction. 3. Civil disobedience in its many forms is often a precipitating stress for significant triggered reactions. God, as revealed in the Bible, is THE universal and absolute moral and ethical standard.
As Christians, we live by every word that comes from the heart of God. Matthew 4:4 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” The Word of God is revealed in three ways.
- Jesus is the Personal Word of God.
- The Proclaimed Word testifies of Him, the Personal Word.
- From the Proclaimed Word, under the influence of the Personal Word, the Written- Word came into being.
The Personal Word, Proclaimed Word and Written Word are all breath filled by the Holy Spirit.
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21
Let us consider Jesus’ beliefs about the Written Word.
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— John 10:34, 35
Jesus views all of the Bible (written) as Scripture. Vs. 35
Jesus views all of the Bible as a tapestry that cannot be broken. Vs. 35
• Here, Jesus refers to Psalm 82:6 • The word translated broken carries the following meanings: o loose (unleash) let go; o release (unbind) so something no longer holds together https://biblehub.com/greek/3089.htm • “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10, 11
Jesus views many Old Testament Scripture to be about Himself.
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27
Jesus views all Scripture as assuredly coming to pass. God’s Word is a “done deal” for our Lord; Scripture will be accomplished.
8 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Matthew 5:8
The Personal Word (Jesus) reveals the power and authority of the written Word (Bible).
The Apostle Paul joins Jesus’ perspective.
14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets. Acts 24:14
Jesus reveals wide-reaching acclaim for the all of the Word of God.
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Adam and Eve. a. He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, Matthew 19:4 b. 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
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The flood. a. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Mathew 24:37-39
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Jonah’s experience. a. 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
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Perspectives of Daniel.
a. He used Daniel’s “Son of Man” terminology to refer to himself. 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13, 14
64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64
- The temptation of Jesus
All three quotes Jesus shares are from Deuteronomy. i. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word[a] that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3 ii. 16 “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. Deuteronomy 6:16 iii. 13 It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. Deuteronomy 6:13
Of the Personal Word (Jesus), the Proclaimed Word (Spoken) and the Written Word (The Bible) it is said:
Jesus is the Living Word and Faithful Witness
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. Revelation 1:5
Jesus is truth itself.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
It is the Spirit of Christ who inspired the prophets.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 1 Peter 1:10, 11
The Testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Of His disciples, who wrote the New Testament, Jesus said their words would be inspired by the Spirit of God.
20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Matthew 10:20
From Jesus’ perspective, God as revealed in the Bible, is the universal and absolute moral standard for all human beings. 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4 Christian, we are invited to live and move and have our being in the Bible.
Every moral belief we have is to be totally shaped by the Bible.
Each moral decision is to align harmoniously with the Bible.
Today, will you consider investing the rest of your life to the preaching of this glorious Word of God?
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?[c] And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
The Yeshiva for Globally Engaged Disciples exists to help you prepare for God’s call to preach the Word of God globally.