Key Bible Passage(s):

Ephesians 4:1-32

Tier 1:

The genius of an Anglican service ensures that as soon as we have received Absolution, we receive the Word of God. This is the first step in God’s answering our prayer that we might serve and please Him in newness of life. The Word of God has been designed to be used as the tool through which the Spirit transforms us, and Christ uses His illimitable power to ensure it is properly deployed in His Church.

Tier 2:

The life we are called to in Christ is far beyond human imagining, let alone capacity. It is traced and enabled through the Scriptures, and this demands a place of central importance to preaching and teaching this Book - and only this Book - throughout the life of the Church. Not even the Apostles would go beyond what was written. Our propensity to marginalise, disregard, or distort the Bible is always at the root of the Church’s fall into disrepair.

Tier 3:

There are many ways to make rejecting the teaching of the Bible seem an appropriate response - but perhaps the most catastrophic is to reject the idea of its trustworthiness by undermining in some way the sense of its being the inspired Word of God. How we treat the Bible depends on what we think it is, so it is crucial that we understand what we mean when we say: ‘This is the Word of the Lord’.

Let us bless God then, for His inspired word.  And may He grant that we may always cherish, love and venerate it, and conform all our life and thinking to it!  So may we find safety for our feet and peaceful security for our souls”

B.B.Warfield

Group Discussion

What would you do if you had unlimited power?

Read Eph.4:1-32

What resources were put at the disposal of Jesus when He ascended to heaven?

What does Jesus do with those resources?

What is the goal of the local Church?

What are the signs of maturity in the local Church?

How does a Christian change so that they are able to grow into Christlikeness and function as part of a mature local Church?

Homework

Over this half-term we have been working to memorise Matthew 6:25-34. You will have to keep refreshing Matt.5:1-26, Matt.6:5-15 and Matt.7:7-28 whilst you do this.

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

To Be A Christian, Q&A 25-35

If you were with us last term, take another look at Q&A 252-255, and see what aspect of your rule of life you could begin to develop this term..? It might be your habits of reading, studying and meditating on Scripture?

Before our next DTP session read and reflect on the following passages that give us some insight into God’s inspiration of the Scriptures:

Ex.4:10-17

Num.23:6-12

Jer.1:9

John 16:12-15

I Cor.2:10-16

Gal.1:6-12

I Thess.2:13 & 4:8

II Tim.3:16-17

II Peter 1:12-21

What do you think the human authors of Scriptural texts would claim for what they wrote? What do they think they are doing as they write these books that we now call the Bible?