Village Church Annandale (Sydney) sermons

I am giving the Village Summer Kids Club leaders studies each day from 1 Thessalonians. And we are up to the last verses. Today it's how to think about those who lead us in the Lord. How to give recognition and regard to them in love because of their work.

This passage comes as an encouragement to Village Church. Not as a rebuke. I think the culture on these issues is excellent in our church. I give thanks and praise to God for our members here.

1 Thessalonians 5:12 12 Now we ask you, brothers, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to regard them very highly in love because of their work.

IF you are in a relationship with God – Christian person – then the language used to describe you here is – you are ‘children of light’, ‘sons, daughters of light.’

You are Children of light

Don’t do the things that the night people do.

Sleeping is what the night people do.

Getting drunk is what the night people do.

1Th. 5:1 ¶  About the times and the seasons: Brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, for this day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. 6 So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

There are three great predictions in Mark 13 presented in Apocalyptic language.

1. A time of great distress.

2. The fulfilment of Daniel 7:13, The coming of the Son of Man

3. The gathering of the elect

Today we explore the fulfilment of the first great terrible prediction, the time of great distress.

Mark 13:14 “When you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be” (let the reader understand), “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. 15 A man on the housetop must not come down or go in to get anything out of his house, 16 and a man in the field must not go back to get his coat. 17 Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days!

When you go to a dinner party, sometimes someone will say, don't talk about the big three: Politics, religion and sex.

Today - we tackle all three in one talk with Lead Pastor Dominic Steele taking us to Jesus' teaching in Mark 12:13-17 on 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's.'

In Mark 13 we come to the most controversial chapter of Mark’s Gospel for bible interpreters.

There are two common positions taken about what the central focus of the chapter is: commentators posit the the central focus of the chapter is either the destruction of the Jerusalem temple that takes place in AD 70 or the second coming of Christ.

However, the Australian New Testament scholar (my friend) Peter Bolt has argued that what Jesus is talking about is the hour of his own death. 

There are three main thesis surrounding the the interpretation of Mark 13. That the events described in this chapter refer to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, that they refer to the return of Christ, or thirdly, that they refer to the death of Christ.

We are following NT Scholar Peter Bolt's thesis that they refer to the death of Christ.

On the steps of the temple, there’s extraordinary praise from Jesus for a generous poor widow, that teaches us lots about how to think about the whole subject of finances and giving. 

Mark 12:41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”