Christ Church Studies

“Little children, love one another.” It is thought that the elderly apostle John repeated this message to early Christians every time he joined in their gatherings. This simple and profound message gets right to the heart of this letter. In this session, we reflect on why John places such a heavy emphasis on love and what effect love has on the world around us.

Are you a child of God or a child of the devil? To ask such a question may seem shocking, even offensive, but these are the categories John appeals to in his epistle. If you are a child of God, then that should be evident in the way you live and in the way you love.

1 John 2 tells us truths about what Jesus has done for us, the love which now defines our lives, and who we are as children of God. These truths do more than satisfy our curiosity, but show us how to live in the greater reality of God’s love.

We all want to truly know and to be truly known, but where can such community be found? In his first epistle, the apostle John offers us some initial answers to that question. True community means living in the light, and he both points us to the Light-giver and denounces the lies that keep us in the dark.

Thomas, though often remembered as a skeptic, is also the disciple who first referred to Jesus as God, undoubtedly the most profound of Jesus’s titles. It is also the claim that draws the most criticism from modern skeptics. In this session, we address the arguments of those who deny the truth of Thomas’s words and explore the remarkable implications of Jesus as our Lord and God.

John the Baptist gives the first answer to the question of who Jesus is: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” These words are a vital clue to understanding Jesus and why he matters for us, and so in this session, we examine what John meant.

Christ is so commonly applied to Jesus and used so repeatedly in the New Testament that many today assume it is part of his name. But it is a title: Jesus is “the Christ.” In this session, we explore what that means and why it matters to us today.

Jesus is certainly more than a great teacher, though we ought not skip over what it means for Jesus to be just that. In this session, we consider what people thought of Jesus’s teaching, what kind of a teacher he is, and what it means to be his student.

Who is Jesus, really? People debated it in Jesus’s day and continue to debate it today. Is Jesus a gentle savior, a fierce revolutionary, a kind friend, an uncompromising prophet, or a warrior king? In this session, we examine the implications of these answers, for how we answer this question often says more about us than it does about Jesus himself.

“Praise the Lord!” This three-word exhortation begins and ends the last five psalms in the Psalter. Why is praise important, and how can we join the psalmist in praise, seeing the world as he also sees it? This sixth and concluding session of our study of the Psalms addresses these questions.