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Following Jesus...Engaging People |
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Appleton Community Evangelical Free Church |
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Sunday’s Message Outline |
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GOD: What does it mean that God is the Creator? Why is this important? How do you interpret Genesis 1? Describe the essential attributes of God. Why is it necessary, or important, to have a working understanding of the nature and attributes of God? What does it mean that God is holy? What are the implications of his holiness? Describe the doctrine of the Trinity. What is the importance of the truth that God, as “three equally divine Persons,” eternally exists “in a loving unity?” Describe one contemporary denial of the doctrine of the Trinity. Why is it heretical? What does it mean that God has “limitless knowledge and sovereign power”? Why is this significant in contemporary debates about God? What is the significance of God graciously purposing from eternity to redeem a people for Himself? How does redemption relate to the creation? What impact does your view have for our present stewardship of the earth’s resources?
THE BIBLE: Explain your understanding of the development of the canon of Scripture. What are the canonical issues involved with Mark 16:9-20? John 7:53-8:11? Describe one modern day canonical dispute. How would you respond to it? What do the words “verbally inspired” mean? What is “inerrancy,” and why is it important? What does it mean that this concept is applied to “the original writings”? How do inerrancy and infallibility relate? Are modern translations of the Bible inerrant? How are they reliable? What is the difference between general and special revelation? How helpful is general revelation when it comes to knowing God, viz. is it salvific? What does the clarity of Scripture mean and what are its implications? What does it mean, both doctrinally and practically, that the Scriptures are sufficient? Regarding the truth of God’s Word, what is to be your response? What is the implication for your life and ministry?
THE HUMAN CONDITION: What does it mean that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God? What are the implications of this doctrine for us today? How do you understand the fall of humanity and its effects? What does the fall teach us about the nature of sin? Who is Satan, and what role does he play in the fall of Adam and Eve? What is he working to accomplish today? How do you understand “union with Adam?” What does it mean that we “are sinners by nature and by choice”? (Rom 5:12-21). What does it mean that we are alienated from God? What does the wrath of God mean and what is its significance? From what are we rescued? To whom are we reconciled? How are we renewed? Why is it important to state exclusively that this work is accomplished only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ?
JESUS CHRIST: What is the significance of the incarnation? Why was it necessary for our salvation? Explain your understanding of the Hypostatic Union of Jesus Christ. (the union of Christ's humanity and divinity) How do you understand Phil 2:7? What were some of the Christological heresies as the early church attempted to understand and explain the hypostatic union? Why is it important that Jesus be known as “Israel’s promised Messiah?” What is its importance for our understanding of Jesus? What about our understanding of the Bible? What is the virgin birth, why is it essential, and what is its significance for our understanding of Christology and soteriology? (The study of religious doctrines of salvation) What is the significance of Jesus’ perfect obedience (both active and passive) for our salvation? Could Jesus have sinned? How do you understand the temptations? Why did Jesus die? What is the importance of Jesus’ resurrection? How do you understand the nature of Jesus’ resurrection body? What is the significance of the ascension and session of Jesus Christ? What is the significance of Jesus’ ministry as High Priest and Advocate and how does this affect your life and ministry?
THE WORK OF CHRIST: What is it about Jesus’ person and work that accomplishes our salvation? What does it mean that Jesus is “our representative and substitute?” Why was Jesus’ shed blood necessary for our salvation? Why is the centrality of the cross essential? What is the significance of Christ’s sacrificial death being “perfect” and “all-sufficient?” What is the value and necessity of His death? How does the fact that this is the only way in which our sin is addressed compare with those embracing a wider hope of salvation beyond Christ and His work? What is atonement? Define propitiation and expiation, and explain the difference. What does it mean to be reconciled to God and what is its significance? What is your understanding of 2 Corinthians 5:21? Explain your view of “imputation.” Why is Jesus’ resurrection considered as an element of our salvation? What is the significance that Jesus’ resurrection is “victorious?” Who and what did Jesus overcome? What does it mean that Jesus’ work is the “only ground for salvation?” What does “salvation” mean biblically? Explain your understanding of it.
THE HOLY SPIRIT: Who is the Holy Spirit? How is the ministry of the Holy Spirit similar and dissimilar between the old and new covenants? Why did the Holy Spirit come, viz. why did Jesus send “another?”? What does it mean that the Holy Spirit “glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ?” Why is the ministry of the Holy Spirit essential in the “world?” What is the guilt of which He convicts? What is “regeneration?” Where in the order of salvation does regeneration occur? How do you understand the teaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit from 1 Cor 12:13? Regarding the Holy Spirit’s ministry, what are the differences between baptism, indwelling, filling and walking? What does it mean that you are in “union with Christ?” What is the meaning and significance of “adoption?” What are biblical evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit? What role do the gifts of the Spirit play in the body of Christ? Is that role different today than during apostolic times? How are the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit similar? Different? How do they function in your life?
THE CHURCH: How do you understand “justification” (cf. Rom. 3:21-26)? Define “grace” and “faith” and explain how grace and faith in Christ are related to justification. What is the significance of the emphasis on “grace alone?” How are the scriptural metaphors of “the body of Christ,” “the bride of Christ,” and “the Head of the Church” to be understood? What is the relationship between the “true church” and the “local church?” What does it mean to be a “believers’ church?” Why is membership important for a local church? What responsibilities do members have in a local church? Address the various types of church government. What is your understanding of the statement that the “EFCA shall be an association and fellowship of autonomous but interdependent congregations of like faith and congregational government?” What is the meaning and purpose of baptism? What are the various modes of baptism? What is the meaning and purpose of the Lord’s Supper? What are the various ways this is understood? How do baptism and the Lord’s Supper relate to one another, i.e. is there a biblical order? How do they “confirm and nourish the believer?”
CHRISTIAN LIVING: How do you understand the doctrine of sanctification? How is it related to justification? What is the purpose and function of “works” in the life of the believer? What is the relationship between a believer’s sanctification and assurance? Why is love for God preeminent and why is this at the heart of understanding the Ten Commandments and is considered the first and greatest commandment of the whole of the Christian life? How does this relate to other gods and idolatry? How does our preeminent love for God (and God’s prior love of us) serve as the basis for our love for others? Why is it important to distinguish between “the faith” understood as a body of truth and “faith” understood as the way in which one lives, viz. having been justified by faith, we live by faith? What is the biblical teaching of “the poor” and “the oppressed?” How do you understand the local church’s responsibility and role in the world, particularly ministering with compassion and justice? What is spiritual warfare? How should we combat the spiritual forces of evil? What is the importance of the command to “make disciples” and what are the God-ordained means of doing that? Why is it important to distinguish between the gospel and the entailments of the gospel? How does the gospel relate to deeds of mercy and compassion? We are always to bear witness to the gospel in both proclamation(“in word”) and in life (“in deed”)? Give examples of how we can witness to the gospel “in…deed.”
CHRIST’S RETURN: Briefly describe your position on the second coming of Jesus Christ. Include your views on the tribulation, the rapture of the church, and the millennium. Why is it essential to state explicitly that Christ’s return is “personal” and “bodily?” What is your understanding of the relationship between Israel and the Church as it pertains to eschatology? (Rom 11:25-27). How do you understand Jesus’ teaching of the kingdom and how does the kingdom relate to eschatology? Why is it important to include a statement of humility regarding the exact time of Christ’s return, viz. “at a time known only to God?” How do you understand biblically “constant expectancy,” and what does it mean to live this way? How do you define and understand the “blessed hope?” How does the biblical teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ’s return bring you hope? How does Christ’s return motivate you “to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission?”
RESPONSE AND ETERNAL DESTINY: What is the gospel? Is the gospel a universal message? What does it mean to “believe the gospel,” viz. what is the importance of belief? Define “repentance.” What is the role of repentance in conversion? What does it mean to “receive the Lord Jesus Christ?” What is the importance of the universal command to believe, the exclusivity of believing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal consequences grounded in ones response to Jesus? What is the importance of the “bodily” resurrection of the dead (note Jesus’ bodily resurrection and bodily return), and what does this teach us about humanity? What is your understanding of the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Great White Throne Judgment of Rev. 20? Will believers face future judgment? Explain the meaning of 2 Corinthians 5:10, cf. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. What is the destiny of unbelievers? What is the destiny of the unevangelized? What does it mean that unbelievers are condemned? What is the nature of Hell, and does “eternal conscious punishment” mean? What happens to a believer who dies before the return of Christ? How do you describe “heaven” and “life after death?” What is the relationship of the “new heaven and new earth” to the millennial Kingdom of Christ?
Current Doctrinal Issues: Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia, Role Distinctions in the Church of Men and Women, Homosexual Belief and Conduct (and other sexual perversions of God’s design for sexuality) Issues Related to Life-Style: Spiritual Disciplines, Stewardship, Personal Finances, and Debt, Moral Purity, Marriage and Family Priorities |
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NOT FOR PASTOR’S ONLY Wrestling with Spiritual |
