Key Bible Passages:

Psalm 115:1-4; Isaiah 46:3-10

Tier 1

We’ll come back to ‘Father’ when we look at the Lord’s Prayer next term. In this session we will focus on the idea of God being Almighty Creator. This is a huge statement of faith (Heb.11:3) and in a materialistic culture can be more difficult to accept than we anticipate. There is a danger of reducing this session to arguments about evolution and timeframes…

Picking up on our last session, the fact that the Lord is Creator is what sets him apart from idols (Jer.10:11-12). Reality is shaped by Him and finds its meaning in Him. It is not an accident, and it is not out of control. This may raise significant questions about suffering, and a sense of chaos that people increasingly experience.

Tier 2

The Father who creates is Almighty (Eph.3:20-21). It doesn’t exhaust God to create, sustain, and rule and overrule throughout His creation.  And like everything the Father does, the purpose of Creation is to honour the Son.

Creation is not as it was when declared ‘very good’ by God (Gen.1:31). The world is ‘fallen’, dragged by human sinfulness back towards the darkness and chaos. This helps us understand the roots of any environmental crisis and helps us to grasp the importance of tackling this in a way that relates to Christ.

Tier 3

Creation is focused on Christ. His inheritance will include the Creation renewed by His own death and resurrection. And this fallen Creation is no accident en route. It has been forged to be an arena for the Cross, and ultimately only makes sense when viewed from the perspective of the Cross. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). And our being caught up in the death and resurrection of Christ, and the redemption and renewal that leads us into, is the very purpose of creation and our place in it.

There is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation; for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it at the first.

Athanasius of Alexandria

Group Exercise:

How do you feel about the idea of God’s Almighty power? 

What questions does this raise for you?

Do you think you respond appropriately to this vision of God?  Do you worship God because of His Almighty power (e.g. Ps.77:14; Dan.4:34-35; Rev.1:6; 7:12; 11:17)? 

...or does it cause concern and confusion?

Do you think God could (should?) do a better job at running the world? 

And later in the session

What does it say about God that when He could do anything that pleased Him, He created a world in which the cross could happen, and would happen? 

How does this vision of ‘power’ contrast with our culture’s way of thinking about power, and of what gives power? 

Based on what you’ve heard tonight (and perhaps what you know from elsewhere in the Bible) what would you say to someone who said they couldn’t believe in God because of the suffering in the world?

Read John 13:3-5.

How does Jesus use power?  Does it make sense to you that the most powerful person takes the role of a servant?

How should this shape our thinking about, and our experience of power today? 

What should power in the Church look like?

Where can you put this into practise?

Acts 4:33; Rom.1:16-17; I Cor.1:18; 6:14; Eph.3:7; 14-21; II Thess.1:11; II Tim.1:8; I Pet.1:5; II Pet.1:3…

How does this shape your thinking, or encourage you about discipleship?

Homework?

Continue to memorise the Apostles’ Creed

Over this half-term we’ll be working to memorise Matthew 5:1-10

(we’ll memorise the whole of the Sermon on the Mount over the next 3 years)

To Be a Christian, Q&A 38-47, and ‘A Prayer for the Father’s love’.

Read through the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.5-7).  Based on what you read here, what does it mean to call God ‘Father’?