Simply Christian
I've only found a few writers who stand far above the crowd in the maturity and clarity of their understanding of Christian faith. N.T. Wright is one of these. Someone along the way said that he is the current generation's C.S. Lewis. That's pretty high praise, and I think it's true.The first time I read his Simply Christian I knew I wanted to preach this material to our congregation. I longed for our people to see and experience the Christian faith through N.T. Wright's eyes, mind and heart. So when I finished it I passed it along to my wife (my resident theologian) who also liked the content very much. But she cautioned me that its concepts would be hard for me to preach and for our people to grasp. So I put it off for 2-3 years.
But in 2010 I was looking for some especially meaningful way to address Easter Sunday so I reopened the book Simply Christian to have another look. I knew these would be the last 2 sermons that I would preach before announcing my retirement from New Life Church and I wanted to get this message across before then. So I decided preach these concepts on Easter and the following Sunday in this little 2-sermon series. The next time I stood to preach it was to announce to the congregation my retirement. It is this series that I offer to you.
Blessings, Tim
Hebrews 10.19-23 Dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
Thesis: The Christian worldview is that God’s space and our space interconnect, even overlap, and Easter is the primary instance where God steps through the veil separating his space and our space to intersect our world.
John 20.19-29 Jesus appears to the disciples after the resurrection.
Thesis: Traditional Christian understanding of the afterlife is that upon death our spirits somehow go to be with Jesus; subsequently Jesus will return bodily to earth as Lord. Then his followers will receive new bodies. It is our privilege to live in the present, informed and leaning toward this future, which is only possible through the action of the Spirit of Jesus in the life of believers.