Women on Thursdays is a long-running ministry that I watch a little from afar. But I hear stories. All the time, about how there is much care given to members who come. It is true that every year there seems to be an ebb and flow of people, as women re-enter the workforce and as others leave, the one thing I keep hearing about WOT is that women are heard, burdens are shared and people are cared for. And I think it is great that we have this bit of multi-generational, women-to-women thing going on here, which I think
Titus 2 picks up on a bit.
But not only is there care, there is also discipleship that happens here. As you share your lives, you also share God’s word with each other. Normally you all split into smaller groups so that you can all wrestle with the text in front of you. At WOT, it is unusual for there to be a monologue like this, as normally in our groups we want to promote a dialogue with you and God’s word. Because, and this idea caused reformations, you can engage with the Bible directly and understand it for yourself.
Able to understand for yourself
I grew up in a Church that didn’t really do Life Groups. I think when I was about 17 one young adult group started, and it was run by this mechanic guy, who meant well but worked hard, so I remember a few times in our final evening prayer, he would fall asleep. But besides that, I never really had an opportunity to read the Bible in a group.
Even in my approach to the Sunday service, I would listen to the guy up front, but not really with my Bible opened. I thought you had to be some sort of expert to understand the Bible, that is why we go on Sundays, to have it explained to us plebs. Even in my home life, as a kid, my parents did try and teach me the faith, and my mother would always buy any and every resource there was to help us. We would have devotional activities to do before bed, I would read Christian fantasy books and around the dinner table we would have “the reading” before we could leave the table. This "reading" wasn’t directly the Bible, it was some sort of devotion or reflection on some passage or theme in the Bible.
Now resources aren’t bad, and in my house we get our three kids to do a Bible devotion activity before bed, and my parents did mean well, but it wasn’t till I went to uni, that I learned that I could engage with the Bible myself. At uni, the Christian group would do one-on-one and small groups where we would just read the next bit of the Bible where we left off and then talk about anything that stood out to us and what it means for our lives.
I was and probably am still a bit radical in this. For it means the power of finding God’s will for my life, of knowing what is true, and how to think and live like a Christian was literally in my hands. I didn’t need to hear from some speaker, author or pastor, I could read the Bible as it was clear and I didn’t need anything else. Now don’t get me wrong here, God has also blessed His church with speakers, authors and pastors who are older than me, and who have more wisdom than me. They are good gifts from God and are helpful. It would be unwise if we didn’t listen to their voices, but the standard we measure against them to see how helpful they are, is the Word of God.
I don’t know if you have a story like me. I hope you do. Was there a time in your life when you realized that you could read God’s word for yourself and apply it personally? If if you don’t, I want to encourage you to stick with WOT, for that is exactly what we are trying to do here. To not tell you what the Bible says, but to show you what it says for yourself.
Just last month, I was talking to someone who is going to be a Life Group leader in another group. He actually had a bit of a dabble with Mormons before he moved to Canberra, and before that, he was a catholic. When he came to St Matt’s he found something different to his past church experiences. Especially with the Mormons, they would do bible studies and also look at their Book of Mormon, but he said the application or the next step was already quite planned. They had a funnel where they would bring in people and essentially get them on a works-based system to progress up some ladder. He said at St Matt’s we didn’t seem to do that. When we look at the Bible we see what it says, and we use our freedom to work out how we are to live out the text where are, applying it to our own circumstances. He said he found it to be so very different to his other experience and so personal. I hope you can find that too. God has given us his Word and our intelligence and the freedom to work out how to live it.
Do you just love watching kids figure things out for themselves? Trying to put the triangle in the triangle hole. Copying a directed draw off YouTube, watching them pick their electives in school and seeing them grow in their interests and even applying themselves and earning a place in university. I do wonder if God is a bit like a parent who looks at his children growing up and sees with excitement and anticipation with what they are going to do with their gifts and skills He has given them. We have been given scripture for us to read and to think about for ourselves so that we can live it in many and various ways.
SCAN
Last time I spoke here I gave the acronym SCAN for you to think about Scripture. Our historic Anglican tradition holds thatHoly Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. (Article VI)This means in normal English, that the Bible has everything we need to know about salvation and if anyone comes up with something else that can not be proved from the Bible, then we don’t have to believe it.
Scripture is Sufficient, Clear, Authoritative and Necessary for salvation. That is SCAN.
We don’t need any extra revelation from God, it is complete in Scripture. That is, it's Sufficient.
The Bible is translated very well into our own language so we are able to read and understand it. That is, it is Clear.
We believe Scripture is God’s word, so that comes with His authority, so what it says goes. That is, it is Authoritative.
And this is a revelation, we can’t think our way up to God, He has spoken to us and so we need to hear from our creator to know how to live. That is, it is Necessary.
That is what SCAN means. Sufficient, Clear, Authoritative and Necessary for salvation. That is why we do the Bible group thing. That is why we spend time looking at the text in front of us, so that we can hear from God.
Comes with practice
So I urge you to keep at looking at the Bible by yourself and together. It is possible and revolutionary, and you get better and better at it over time. Likewise attending WOT, you can get better at that over time. WOT has its own culture and movements. As you come here more you will get more familiar with how it works, and I want to encourage you to lean into that. Work out how the sausage is made.
Some of you have been at WOT for a bit. As you come here, you will discover that some of our groups are large. One main reason is because we don’t really have the space for another group to fit. But that might change. We will have a whole other hall. Space may no longer be an issue for having more groups. Change can be uncomfortable, but that sometimes come with growth.
My kids grow out of their clothes all the time, but when they get a new size it is much more comfortable afterwards. Please stick around with WOT, some moments it might be tight, it might be uncomfortable, but the goal is growth over time. Numerically we may grow, and we may get more groups. Spiritually we also want you to grow in your knowledge of the Bible, and this also happens over time. You don’t need to know all the answers to everyone, you don’t need to know Greek, you just need to know the text in front of you and the main idea it has. This may feel like a skill you don’t have, but it is just like reversing with a trailer, it comes with practice if you are willing to give it a go. Over time you can see how we do it and then have a go yourself.
Looking at the Gospel
So that is a high-level look at WOT, but for the immediate, just to end, I want to introduce this term briefly. We are going to be doing a modified version of Simply Christianity, for two main reasons. The primary reason is because it is good to know the basics. In fact in Christianity we really don’t move on from the basics. Jesus is Christianity. When I was the youth guy there would sometimes be a tension between a normal night and an evangelistic night, like for some reason they were to be different, but in my simple mind, I never saw why.
You know what a non-Christian needs to hear? The Gospel. Something about Jesus.
You know what a Christian needs to hear? The Gospel. Something about Jesus.
Most of our New Testament text, which fleshes out the Gospel isn’t written to non-Christians but to Christians.
Paul at the start of Romans says he wants to visit them and says:
That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. (Romans 1:15 NIV)Paul wants to preach the Gospel to the Christians in Rome and then for the rest of this long letter he writes to them and tells them the Gospel.
At the start of 1 Corinthians 15 Paul writes
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:1–2 NIV)Paul goes on the say what the Gospel is to these Christians. He says he has already preached the Gospel to them, but he still wants to tell them it again. There are other examples like this, but all this to say is that everyone, Christian or not, everyone needs to hear the Gospel and at its very basic, the Gospel has to do with Jesus and what He has done for people.
So the first reason why we are looking at the basics of the faith is that it is a message we all need to hear, not just once, but over and over again. We need to know deep down that we are sinners. We need to know deep down that we are loved and forgiven and accepted by God. This is identity shaping. This is confidence boosting. This is freedom in service.
So I hope that helps you to understand what it is that we do in our Life Groups and at WOT. I hope that here you will be able to be heard and understood. That people will listen and care for you, as you listen and care for others. I also hope that you will feel confident to hear and to understand what God is saying to you through His word and that you will feel confident in reading His word for yourself and maybe even to be confident enough to point others to His word too.
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