Citygate Church

About this series:

Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

About this talk:

Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11

This passage is widely believed to contain a hymn of the early church - vs 6-11 being a declaration of praise to God for the condescension and exaltation of Jesus. “Therefore” (v 1) means that Paul is making some sort of conclusion based on what he’s been saying up to that point. His four “if”s at the end of chapter 1 don’t mean, “if” as in “maybe you have these things, maybe you haven’t.” It’s “if” as in, “If you have breath in your lungs (which you obviously have), if you have reason to sing (which you clearly do), then praise the Lord” - ie. you have received all these blessings from being in Christ together, so be one in mind, in love, in spirit. And to then make his point all the more forcefully and powerfully Paul writes of the example of Jesus himself. If he, though in very nature God, lowered himself and exhibited the qualities mentioned in vs 3-4, then follow his example. But not only did Christ humble himself; he was then exalted to the highest place, as will be acknowledged fully when all confess him as Lord and bow before him - Paul employing this ancient hymn to express this so beautifully. This magnificent passage describes so much about who Jesus is and what he is like, leading us to worship and adore him both now and forever.

We look further into:

- How does the example of Jesus lead us to, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit [but] in humility [to] value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others”? Can you give some personal and practical examples?

- What does it mean that Jesus was “in very nature (Gk. μορφη, morphe) God” and took “the very nature (Gk. μορφη, morphe) of a servant”? What does this tell us about him and what he came to do?

- If he loved us to such an extraordinary extent, what might it look like for us to love him in return - bowing before him and acknowledging that he is Lord (vs 10-11)?

About this series:

Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

About this talk:

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10

This wonderful explanation of the gospel highlights both the dire predicament of those outside Christ and the remarkable position given to those who are now in Christ. Paul writes, “you were dead in your transgressions and sins” (v 1; cf v 5) and “were by nature deserving of wrath” (v 3), but now God has “made us alive with Christ” (v 5) and “ seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (v 6). The contrast could not be greater! The staggering heights of the good news is always seen most clearly against the horrific depths of the bad. The hinge on which this transformation turns is, v 4, “because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy.” It is clearly not of our own doing, not because we merited such treatment - “not from yourselves...not by works” (vs 8-9), but solely “love, mercy, grace, grace, kindness, grace, gift” (vs 4-7). His dealing with us is truly extraordinary! And this grace leads us then “to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (v 10) - we become, in Christ, part of the display of his glory to the world and the blessing of it.

We look further into:

- The gospel is such amazingly good news because the bad news from which it rescues us is so exceedingly bad.

- “Works” appears twice at the end of this passage. How do we balance not being saved by works (even good ones), v 9, with being “created in Christ Jesus to do good works,” v 10?

- What does it mean, in practical terms, to be “made…alive with Christ” (v 5) and “raised…up with Christ and seated…with him” (v 6)?

About this series:

Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

About this talk:

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10

Paul’s favourite designation for Christians is those who are “in Christ” (used, along with similar phrases, over 100 times in his letters). John Stott says, ‘To be “in Christ” does not mean to be inside Christ, as tools are in a box or our clothes in a closet, but to be organically united to Christ, as a limb is in the body or a branch is in the tree. It is this personal relationship with Christ that is the distinctive mark of his authentic followers.’ It’s a profound term signifying so many things. It speaks of relationship with him; of being united with him and blessed because of that union; that what is true of him becomes, by faith, true of us; that he is in us because we are in him; that our status/identity is defined by Christ, even when our conduct is sinful. So in these verses we have 9 instances of this and related terms: “in Christ” (v 3); “in him” (v 4); “through Jesus Christ” (v 5); “in the One he loves” (v 6); “in him” (v 7); “in him” (v 11); “in Christ” (v 12); “in Christ” (v 13); “in him” (v 13). Cf. another five instances in Ephesians 2:4-10. All of which only serves to make much of God, rather than us. Sure, we have huge dignity as his children, as those in Christ, but all praise and glory goes to him (vs 3, 6, 12, 14).

We look into the following:

- Why might this be Paul’s favourite way of describing followers of Jesus?

- What ways can you think of that illustrate the truth of being ‘in Christ’?

- What does all this say about our identity in a world full of identity crisis?

About this series:

Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

About this talk:

Building on his position to the end of v 11, Paul speaks of Adam, the representative head of humanity, and Christ, the representative head of a new humanity, in this section of ‘contrast and compare.’ He begins by explaining how it was that sin was in the world in the first place - through Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden being ‘passed down’ to future generations. But not only had sin entered the world, death, it’s natural consequence, had too (even before the law was given to Moses, vs 13-14).

From v 15 he starts his ‘contrast’ section, twice using the phrase, “how much more” (vs 15,17) to make his points.

v 15: If many died through Adam’s sin, how much more did God’s grace overflow to many through Jesus.

v 16: Judgement followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

v 17: If death reigned through Adam’s sin, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through Jesus Christ!

Secondly, his ‘compare’ section in which he states three times, “just as...so also”:

v 18: Just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

v 19: Just as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.

v 21: just as sin reigned in death, so grace reigns through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We explore:

- One of the glorious ways of looking at the gospel is seeing all that being ‘in Christ’ has saved us from, in contrast to all that was ours ‘in Adam.’

- Assurance: all this is secured for us by virtue of us now being ‘in Christ’ - not by our achievements, behaviour or merit.

- This is how we reign in life, not by doing but by receiving: by “receiving God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness.”

About this series:

Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

About this talk:

Paul’s “Therefore” at the start of v 1 is the conclusion of his argument to this point:

- Ch 1: All are guilty

- Ch 2: God is righteous in his judgement of Jew and Gentile alike

- Ch 3: None are righteous according to the law, but God has made known a righteousness apart from the law

- Ch 4: Abraham, the great father of the faith was himself justified by faith, not by observing the law (since it wasn’t given until Moses)

- Ch 5: “Therefore...we have peace with God”

This is the great issue for guilty sinners - to have peace with God rather than enmity. And it’s all come about by grace (cf. Ephesians 2:1-10). The wonder of all this is spelled out in vs 4-6: Christ died for the ungodly. It would be rare for anyone to be willing to die for an honourable person, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Absolutely extraordinary! But there is more! Given that God has treated ungodly sinners this way, there can be no doubt left that we will be both “saved from God’s wrath through him” (v 9) and “saved through his life” (v 10) - ie. we will be saved on the Day of Judgement and saved ‘into’ resurrection life. In result, we can say that we have been saved (vs 1-2), we are being saved (vs 3-5) and we will be saved (vs 9-10); salvation is past, present and future.

We can look further into:

- What does it mean (and what doesn’t it mean) to say that God loves us this much? (There is much misunderstanding about the love of God).

- What does it mean to stand in grace (v 2)?

- God has demonstrated his love for us and poured out his love “into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (v 5).

- What does this mean for our experience of being loved by God?

- What does this passage have to say about the important matter of assurance?

About this series:

Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

About this talk:

Paul’s argument to this point has been, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (3:10). Whether Jew or Gentile, “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (3:12). The conclusion is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23) and therefore stand condemned before him with no means of rectifying this dire situation. Into this darkness Paul shines the light of one of the New Testament’s “But”s (3:21). But God has done something about our predicament, righteously made a way for the unrighteous to be made righteous. And in a break from theOld Testament, though to which it testifies, he has done so “apart from the law.” A righteous status is conferred upon those who put their “faith in Jesus Christ” (3:22). All (universally) have fallen short and all who put their trust in him “are justified freely by his grace.” The terms used here are rich and very important: righteousness, justified, grace, redemption, atonement. This is truly the gospel unpacked succinctly in six profound verses. And in case anyone should question whether God can be just in justifying the guilty (vs 25-26), there is no question that sin has truly been paid for in Christ’s atoning death and that God does indeed remain “just [in being] the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” What a glorious, remarkable, undeserved turnaround God works by grace through faith in Christ!

We look further into:

- The gospel is such amazingly good news because the bad news from which it rescues us is so exceedingly bad.

- How should followers of Jesus handle their experience of present sin? By going back to grace through faith in Christ. See also 1 John 1:8-2:1 and Psalm 51.

- How does this truth help us defeat the lies of accusation and condemnation?

About this series:

Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

About this talk:

In this passage in Romans 1 Paul tells us the following things about the gospel (Gk. ευαγγελιον, euangelion), an announcement of good news):

- It is the gospel of God

- It was promised in the Old Testament

- It is about his Son, Jesus Christ

- Who was a descendant of David

- Who, in the power of the Spirit, was raised to life and thereby declared as God’s chosen Son for all to see

- It was through him that Paul received grace and apostleship for his mission to the Gentiles

- His mission was to call the Gentiles to faith that leads to obedience for the sake of Jesus’ name

- The gospel calls us to belong to Jesus and to be God’s holy people

- Such people are given grace and peace from God

The gospel is essentially the announcement about what God has done for us in / through Jesus Christ. And it is not simply the way into the Christian life; it is the focal point for living the Christian life. Tim Keller says, ‘We never “get beyond the gospel” in our Christian life to something more “advanced.” The gospel is not the first “step” in a “stairway” of truths, rather, it is more like the “hub” in a “wheel” of truth. The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s of Christianity, but it is the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we all make progress in the kingdom. We are not justified by the gospel and then sanctified by obedience but the gospel is the way we grow (Gal. 3:1-3) and are renewed (Col 1:6). It is the solution to each problem, the key to each closed door, the power through every barrier.’ It is in Jesus that we know we are loved by God and called to belong to him (v 6-7a) and through him that we receive “grace and peace” (v 7b).

We look further into the questions:

- In what ways do we tend to drift away from a reliance on the gospel? Eg. legalism, licence, pride, despair.

- The gospel in contrast to ‘moralistic therapeutic deism’ (you may have to search for that, but it’s helpful).

- How, practically, can people ensure that the gospel remains their A to Z?

About this talk:

In this year's vision message we lean into a prophetic word that was spoken over us. We explore the phrase 'pruning for fruitfulness' with biblical and real life stories and how we can expect God to bring greater future fruitfulness for us personally and as a church family.

We learn from John 15 that the fruit comes from abiding in him, remaining in his love and knowing the life of his spirit flowing through us everyday!

About our Christmas series:

Come and celebrate the Good news story of Christmas with us! News is everywhere! News can be good and bad. Sometimes it's just for you, other times for a whole bunch of people, News can also be just ‘interesting’ or completely ‘life changing!’

At Christmas time we celebrate the best news ever! Good news that, as the angels said to the shepherds, can cause ‘great joy for all people.’ It was good for Mary (though scary), it was good for Joseph (though awkward) and it is good for you too! This news came not in the form of words in a paper or read aloud on the BBC but in the form of a person. A person as it turns out who is such good news he is able to save us from our sin (which is the bad news!) and bring us peace with God himself.

About this series:

While we regularly encourage people to be engaged in mission and give some ideas about what that could look like, our next series looks at the reasons and motivations for mission.

After the first week - What Is The Good News? - we’re going to spend five Sundays looking at the Why? of the gospel. Why is the gospel such good news? What biblical reasons do we have to engage in mission?

About this talk: For the Christian, obedience to God is duty, logic and delight - as God’s children and servants, it is our duty to obey him, it is logical to obey him (see Romans 12:1) and it is our delight to obey him. So when Jesus says, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18) we have plenty of motivation to obey. 

But the Great Commission must be seen as more than just an instruction, though. It is the logical movement of people who have seen the gospel for themselves and who have understood each of the previous ‘Why?s’ that we’re looking at. 

Why should we engage in mission? Because Jesus has instructed us to go and make disciples of all nations. 

We look into: 

- Encouraging faith for each person’s part in the Great Commission; all of us are included. 

- What does “Go” look like in your circumstances and your personality? 

- Some encouraging stories of your involvement in obeying the Great Commission