Free Servants in a Watching World; 1 Peter 2:11–17 — Week 5
Big Idea: God’s slave is the freest man in the room.

1. Remember you’re passing through (v. 11a)

2. Your desires are at war with your soul (v. 11b)

3. Your life is the evidence in the case (v. 12)

4. Submit to Caesar for the Lord’s sake (vv. 13–15)

5. Freedom means the right owner (vv. 16–17)

Closing

Biblical Theology and the Ordinances
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Context
Big idea: Baptism and the Supper are the gospel told in water and bread. Each one tells the whole story of Jesus, and each one tells it about the people who belong to him.

Three horizons for reading any text: textual (the passage where the ordinance is commanded), epochal (where it sits in redemptive history), canonical (the whole-Bible pattern it completes).

1. Baptism: the people who pass through the water
•Text: Matt 28:19 (the command); Rom 6:3–4 (the meaning); Acts 2:38–41 (the order: repent, be baptized, added).
•The water story: Noah, 1 Pet 3:20–21 · the Red Sea, 1 Cor 10:1–2 · the Jordan, Josh 3–4 and Matt 3:13–17 · the cross as a baptism, Luke 12:50.
•Pattern: God brings his people through the waters of judgment and out the other side.
•Why these count as types: the NT draws the line; the events are historical; each one escalates toward Christ.
•So the subject of baptism is someone who has already passed through judgment in Christ: a believer (LBCF 29.1–2).

2. The hard case: circumcision and baptism (Col 2:11–12; Gen 17:12)
•Continuity: one God, one people, one promise to Abraham (Gal 3:8, 16, 29); a sign of entry in both covenants.
•Discontinuity: Jer 31:31–34 (Heb 8:8–12): “they shall all know me.” Old-covenant membership came by birth; new-covenant membership comes by new birth (John 3:3–5).
•Col 2:11: the circumcision baptism answers to is “made without hands” (Deut 30:6; Rom 2:28–29). The sign follows the thing signified.
•Principle: the sign of a covenant matches the nature of that covenant.

3. The Supper: the people who eat with God (1 Cor 11:23–26; Luke 22:14–20)
•The meal story: Passover, Exod 12 · Sinai, Exod 24:8–11 (“the blood of the covenant”) · manna, Exod 16 and John 6:32–35 · the mountain feast, Isa 25:6–8 · Rev 19:9.
•Pattern: God feeds the people he has redeemed by blood, at his table, in his presence, with a greater feast ahead.
•The Supper looks back (1 Cor 11:26), looks around (1 Cor 10:16–17, “one bread, one body”), and looks ahead (“until he comes”). Compare LBCF 30.1.
•Because the one loaf makes the body visible, the Supper is the church’s meal, which is why the table is fenced (1 Cor 11:27–29; LBCF 30.8).

4. What the two ordinances are
BaptismThe Lord’s Supper
Tells the gospel once, at the doorTells the gospel again and again, at the table
How a person is added (Acts 2:41)How the added are seen as one body (1 Cor 10:17)
Looks forward to resurrectionLooks forward to the feast

Neither is a bare symbol and neither works by itself: to faith they are means of grace (LBCF 30.7); without faith, water and bread, and at the table, judgment (1 Cor 11:29).

The Protestant Reformation Begins - Martin Luther
Scripture: Romans 1:16–17.

I. Opening: the certificate for sale (indulgences)

II. Why the church was ripe for reform
A. Renaissance papacy and its debts
B. Wycliffe, Hus, Savonarola
C. Erasmus and the Greek New Testament
D. The printing press

III. Luther's pilgrimage
A. The thunderstorm vow, 1505
B. The terrified monk and Staupitz
C. Rome, 1510–11
D. Wittenberg lectures and Romans 1:17

IV. Indulgences and the 95 Theses
A. What an indulgence was
B. Albert, Tetzel, and the Fugger loan
C. October 31, 1517
D. Theses 1, 27, 36, 62

V. From Wittenberg to Worms
A. Heidelberg, Augsburg, Leipzig
B. The 1520 treatises and the burned bull
C. Worms, 1521, and the Wartburg

VI. Discussion  

MEMBERS OF ONE ANOTHER | WEEK 3 OF 12
Showing Up: Assembly and Presence
Texts: Hebrews 10:24–25; Acts 2:42, 46; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2
Confession: LBCF 22; 26
Big idea: Presence is the first gift a member gives the body. Every one-another command depends on it.

1. Have They Assembled?
A family has watched the livestream every Sunday for a year. They haven’t missed a single sermon — they give, they text prayer requests, they consider themselves faithful. Have they assembled this year? What would have to be true for “yes” to be the right answer?
Key: You can hear every sermon and still never assemble.

2. The Command and Its Purpose — Hebrews 10:19–25
The gathering commands flow out of the gospel: Christ’s blood has opened the way (vv. 19–22).

• "Consider one another to stir up love and good works” (v. 24) — deliberate attention to particular saints. The verse assigns every member a “provoking” ministry.
• “Not neglecting to meet together” (v. 25) — the practice that makes v. 24 possible. Whom can you consider, stir up, or encourage without ever seeing them?
• “As is the habit of some” — absence hardens into custom. So does presence.
• “All the more as you see the Day drawing near” — the nearer the end, the more the body needs its members within reach of each other’s voices.

Last month: a member is a limb (1 Cor 12). A limb serves the body only where the body is — and a body feels a member’s suffering and joy only where connection carries the signal (1 Cor 12:26).

3. The First Churches — a Devoted, First-Day Pattern

• The three thousand added at Pentecost immediately “devoted themselves” to the teaching and the fellowship, “day by day” (Acts 2:42, 46).
• Troas gathered on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7)
• Paul assumes a first-day rhythm at Corinth (1 Cor 16:2; 11:18, 33)
• John worships “on the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10).

What did those believers get from gathering that a perfect transcript of the teaching could never give them?

4. Hindrance and Preference

• Scripture commands the meeting and shows the first-day pattern; it legislates no percentage and no attendance threshold.
• The confession supplies the key category: the Lord’s day is set apart, excepting “duties of necessity and mercy” (LBCF 22.8).
• The careful conclusion: A member owes the body a habitual, prioritized presence, judged by pattern and heart. Illness, caregiving, required work, and infirmity are necessity and mercy; comfort, recreation, and drift are preference. The same empty seat can be either — and when providence hinders a member, the obligation reverses: the body owes its presence to the hindered.

5. Presence Practices
Plan Saturday for Sunday → arrive to greet, stay to speak → sit near someone new → notice absence and pursue it → communicate hindrances early → travel like a member.

Respond

1. What does my attendance pattern teach the newest believer in this church about membership?
2. Whom have I stopped seeing in the last two months, and will I contact that member this week?

This week: Read Hebrews 10:19–25.

Living Stones
1 Peter 2:1–10 — Week 4
Big Idea: God is building a house, and he builds it out of people.

1. Put away what poisons the family. (v. 1)
2. Crave what grows you up. (vv. 2–3)
3. Come to the Stone and become a stone. (vv. 4–5)
4. Nobody bumps into Jesus and stays neutral. (vv. 6–8)
5. You were saved to say something. (vv. 9–10)

Title: Ransomed to Love
Text: 1 Peter 1:17–25
Central claim: Those redeemed by the precious blood of Christ must spend their exile in reverent fear, confident faith, and fervent love.

I. Live in reverent fear before your impartial Father (v. 17)
Your Father is also your Judge.
Fear is taking God seriously.

II. Remember the price of your redemption (vv. 18–19)
You were bought, and you know what it cost.

III. Rest your faith and hope in God’s eternal plan (vv. 20–21)
The cross was Plan A.
Your faith is only as good as what it’s resting on.

IV. Love the brethren fervently (v. 22)
Ransomed people become a loving people.

V. Build your life on the abiding Word (vv. 23–25)
You can love like that because you’ve got new seed in you.

VI. Closing

Title: Gird Up Your Mind
Text: 1 Peter 1:10–16
Big Idea: The greatness of salvation revealed in Christ demands disciplined hope, obedient minds, and lives that reflect God's holiness.
Intro: The size of your salvation sets the standard for your whole life.

I. The Salvation the Prophets Searched (vv. 10–11)

• v.10 - What were the prophets looking for? Their own prophecies. 
• v.11 - What were they asking? Who is it, and when is he coming? 
• Before Bethlehem or the Cross, Christ was at work in the prophets, testifying about himself in advance, through men who couldn’t see his face yet.
• And what was he testifying about? Sufferings, plural. Glories, plural. The cross and the crown. The sufferings were always the plan.

II. The Salvation Angels Lean in to See (v. 12)

• v.12a. - “serving” means “deacon.”  Peter gives three things that have happened since. 
• v.12b. - The prophets served it up. The apostles announced it, and the Holy Spirit powered the preaching. 
• v.12c. That word, look, means to bend over and peer into something. 

III. Gird Up Your Mind (v. 13)

• v.13. "Therefore." Every time you see a therefore in the Bible, you stop and ask, “What is it there for?” 
• There’s one command in this verse: "set your hope." What follows is the how. Gird up your mind, stay sober — that’s how you hope. Peter gives you one command in two parts. 
• "Preparing your minds for action." Your Bible may say: Gird up the loins of your mind. 
  • What does it mean to gird up your mind?
    • It means you refuse mental carelessness.
    • Christians think on purpose.
• "And being sober-minded." Literally, don’t be drunk. 
  • You can be stone-cold sober & still be drunk on something. 
  • Peter says, clear-headed. Steady. Straight.
• v.13c. "Fully." All the way. To the end. Peter is saying, put all your weight into it. 
• What is that one thing? The grace that will be brought to you. Literally: the grace that is being brought to you. Right now.
• "At the revelation of Jesus Christ." Same word as v.7 last week. The unveiling. Peter’s saying, you loved him without seeing him. Now aim your whole hope at the day you will.
• Where is your hope actually sitting? Because your hope always ends up sitting somewhere.

IV. Don't Go Back to What You Didn’t Know (v. 14)

• v.14. "As obedient children." Literally, children of obedience.
  • Children of obedience means obedience is your family name.
  • What’s the obedience? Do not be conformed. Paul uses it in Rom 12.
  • Conformed to what? The passions of your former ignorance. Former. Those desires belonged to another time. They belonged to the version of you that didn’t know. 
• Salvation changes what you want. Ez 36: And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. A new heart wants new things. 
• Then why do I still want the old stuff?

1. You’re a Christian, and you’re in a fight, and the fight itself is evidence there’s a new heart in there doing the fighting. Dead men don’t struggle.
2. You’ve been in church a long time, know the words, sing every song, but have never actually repented. You’ve got the info without the new heart.

V. Holy Like the One Who Called You (vv. 15-16)

• vv.15-16. The size of your salvation sets the standard for your whole life.

1. God’s character sets the standard. As he who called you is holy. Literally: according to the Holy One who called you.
2. God’s calling supplies the reason. Peter opened this letter calling you elect exiles. You didn’t wander into this family. God called you — effectually, out of darkness into his marvelous light.
3. In all your conduct. Every bit of your walk.

• v. 16 comes from: You shall be holy, for I am holy. Lev 11:44.
  • Leviticus 11 is about food. Clean and unclean animals. God says Be holy, for I am holy in a chapter about groceries.
  • He says it again in Lev 19, and that chapter is about paying your workers on time, leaving the edge of your field for the poor, honest scales in your business, and refusing to hold a grudge.
• Where does the holiness come from? 1 Cor 1:30 — Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is your holiness. 

Closing
Polycarp: when they gave him one chance to lower the standard, to be a little less holy just this once, he had nothing left to lower.

Church History -- The Crusades and Their Effects

Big Idea: The Crusades fused genuine religious devotion with worldly ambition and violence in a way that should make Christians today think carefully about the difference between the kingdom Christ described and the kingdoms his name was used to build.

I. Opening

II. Historical Context: Motivations and Major Campaigns

• Religious motivation.
  • Pope Urban II's call at the Council of Clermont (1095) framed the recovery of Jerusalem and aid to besieged Byzantine Christians as a holy obligation, promising remission of sins (an indulgence) to participants — fusing pilgrimage, penance, and warfare into a single act.
• Political motivation. 
  • Urban also saw an opportunity to redirect endemic warfare among European nobles outward and extend papal influence by leading a unified Christian military effort that no single king controlled.
• Economic motivation.
  • Younger sons without inheritance, merchants seeking trade access to the eastern Mediterranean, and the prospect of land and plunder in the East drew participants whose motives were rarely purely spiritual.
• Major campaigns
  • First Crusade (1096–1099): captured Jerusalem in 1099, accompanied by a massacre of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants; established the Crusader states (Kingdom of Jerusalem and others).
  • Second Crusade (1147–1149): largely a failure; failed to recapture Damascus or Edessa.
  • Third Crusade (1189–1192): the Lionheart's campaign — see below.
  • Fourth Crusade (1202–1204): diverted from its goal and ended with crusaders sacking Constantinople itself — fellow Christians — devastating Byzantine power and deepening East-West animosity beyond what the 1054 schism alone had caused.
• Long-term consequences
  • entrenched Muslim-Christian hostility in the region for centuries
  • catastrophic and lasting damage to Byzantium after 1204, accelerating its eventual fall in 1453
  • periodic violence against Jewish communities in Europe
  • the rise and lasting institutional legacy of military religious orders (Templars, Hospitallers).

III. Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade

• King of England (r. 1189–1199), already renowned as a military commander before taking the cross alongside King Philip II of France and (initially) Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, in response to Saladin's recapture of Jerusalem in 1187.
• Campaign highlights:
  • Siege of Acre (1191): Richard's forces, joined with the remaining crusader army, finally took the strategically vital port city after a prolonged siege — followed by Richard's execution of roughly 2,700 Muslim prisoners after ransom negotiations with Saladin broke down, an episode that sits uneasily beside his romanticized legend.
  • Battle of Arsuf (1191): a decisive tactical victory over Saladin's forces, showcasing Richard's genuine military skill and discipline in holding formation under sustained attack.
  • Approach to Jerusalem: Richard advanced within sight of Jerusalem twice but judged he lacked the forces to take and hold the city against an inevitable counter-siege, and withdrew both times — a decision that drew criticism then and since, but that most modern historians regard as militarily sound.
  • Treaty with Saladin (1192): rather than capturing Jerusalem, Richard negotiated a three-year truce securing safe pilgrim access to the city for Christians — a pragmatic, limited success rather than the total victory the crusading ideal demanded.
• Personal piety and brutality together. 
  • Richard was remembered as personally devout, generous to the church, and a capable, even chivalrous, commander by the standards of his age — and he ordered a mass execution of prisoners and participated in a campaign whose foundational theology equated military conquest with penitential grace.
• Legacy: Richard became a legendary figure in English and European memory — celebrated in romance and later fiction — largely detached from the more troubling details of his actual conduct in the Holy Land.

IV. Theological Evaluation of Crusades

• Crusading theology versus Scripture.
  • The indulgence offered to crusaders — forgiveness of sins through participation in holy war — directly contradicts the gospel of grace through faith in Christ's finished work (Eph. 2:8–9; Heb. 9:12). It substitutes a meritorious act of violence for the cross.
• Two kingdoms, confused
  • Christ told Pilate plainly that his kingdom is not of this world, and that this is precisely why his servants do not fight (John 18:36). 
  • Crusading theology collapses the distinction between the church's spiritual mission and the state's legitimate, but entirely different, use of force
    • The 1689 LBCF preserves carefully in its chapter on the civil magistrate (ch. 24), which grants civil government just use of the sword while assigning the church no such commission.
• Just war versus holy war. 
  • Classical just war reasoning (proportionality, legitimate authority, defense rather than conquest) is a meaningfully different category from holy war theology, which treats the cause itself as sacred and therefore largely unconstrained by ordinary moral limits
    • Acre's massacre is a direct fruit of that unconstrained logic.
• The believer's actual weapons. 
  • 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 and Ephesians 6:10–18 describe the church's real warfare as spiritual, fought with truth and prayer, not steel — the corrective the crusading era badly needed and largely lacked.

Title: Kept by God
Text: 1 Peter 1:1–9
Big Idea: Because God keeps both you and your inheritance, you can rejoice while you grieve.

I. Strangers, chosen before the world (vv. 1–2)
II. Born again to a hope that will not die (vv. 3–5)
III. If necessary (vv. 6–7)
IV. Love for a face you have never seen (vv. 8–9)
V. Stand firm in it

Week 20 — Systematic Theology
The Offices of Christ

“Christ”
•“Christ” translates Mashiach, Anointed One. Ask: Who was anointed in Israel? Priests (Ex 29:7; Lev 8:12), kings (1 Sam 16:13), prophets (1 Kgs 19:16). Jesus's anointing: Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38 (the Spirit at the Jordan).
•No Israelite held all three. Melchizedek was king and priest; David was king and prophet; the three converge only in Christ.
•What is wrong with us that one office cannot fix? LBCF 8.10: ignorance needs a prophet, alienation needs a priest, inability and enemies need a king.
•Why is Jesus a Prophet, Priest, & King? Because sinners are ignorant, alienated, and helpless, the one Mediator holds three offices.

Prophet: He speaks the Father’s words
•Definition: One who receives God's revelation and delivers it (Ex 7:1, Moses "as God" and Aaron his prophet)
•Read Deut 18:15, 18, & Acts 3:22–23; Peter names Jesus as the prophet like Moses.
•Jesus claims the office (Luke 13:33), speaks only what the Father commanded (John 12:49–50), teaches with authority (Matt 7:29); the crowds recognize it (Luke 7:16).
•What sets him above every prophet: they said, “Thus says the LORD”; he says, “Truly, I say to you.” Heb 1:1–2 and John 1:18 make him both messenger and message.
•Christ’s prophetic ministry runs through all history. He spoke in the OT prophets by his Spirit (1 Pet 1:11), on earth in person, after the ascension through the apostles (John 14:26; 16:12–14; Acts 1:1, “began to do and teach”), and now through preaching and the Spirit’s illumination. Payoff: preaching is Christ exercising his prophetic office
•Liberal theology keeps this office and drops the other two. A teacher-only Jesus leaves you better informed and still condemned; the prophet's message is that you need a priest.

Priest: He represents you before God, and is doing so now
•Contrast with the prophet: the prophet faces the people for God; the priest faces God for the people. Read Heb 5:1 and draw out the four marks: taken from among men (his true humanity, tying back to the natures lesson), appointed by God (5:4–5, he did not seize it), active before God on behalf of men, offering sacrifice for sins.
•OT prediction: Ps 110:4 (a priest by oath, outside Levi, forever); Zech 6:13 (a priest on a throne, two offices in one person); Isa 53.
•Only Hebrews calls him “priest” (3:1; 4:14; 5:5; 6:20; 7:26; 8:1), yet the priestly work runs through the whole NT (Mark 10:45; John 1:29; Rom 3:24–25; 1 Cor 5:7; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 John 2:2).
•The priestly work has two parts: sacrifice and intercession.
•Intercession: Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 9:24; 1 John 2:1
•Scope: the elect only, and all the elect, including those not yet converted (John 17:9, 20). Pastoral picture: Luke 22:31–32, “I have prayed for you,” spoken before Peter’s failure.

King: Two thrones, one Mediator
•Distinction: as Son, He shares God’s dominion by nature; as Mediator, a kingship was conferred on him (Ps 2:6; Acts 2:36; Phil 2:9–11), which is what we see.
•Spiritual kingship over the church. Read Luke 1:32–33. Called spiritual because of its realm (the hearts and lives of believers), its means (Word and Spirit, John 18:36–37), and its end (salvation). Gathering, governing, protecting, and perfecting the church;
•Kingdom of God, two senses: strictly, believers; broadly, all who sit under the gospel’s proclamation, including the mixed visible church (Matt 13:24–30, 47–50).
•Present and future: present now (Matt 12:28; Luke 17:21; Col 1:13), consummated at his return (Matt 7:21; 1 Cor 15:50; 2 Tim 4:18); the same kingdom, later visible and perfect; and it never ends (Dan 2:44; 2 Sam 7:16).
•Universal kingship. Read Matt 28:18 and Eph 1:22, “head over all things to the church.” He steers nations and history toward his redemptive purpose and the church’s protection.
•The one hard text, one sentence: Luke 1:33 says no end; 1 Cor 15:24–28 says he delivers the kingdom to the Father. Reformed reading: the universal mediatorial kingship, granted for the church’s warfare, is handed back when the last enemy falls; the spiritual kingship over his people is forever. Put the two verses side by side on the board.
•Inability and enemies need a king who subdues both.

Which office do you functionally deny?
•LBCF 8.10: ignorance → prophet, alienation → priest, inability → king.
•Name three distortions and ask them to locate themselves silently: the teacher-only Jesus (every church that reduces him to a moral example); the pardon-only Jesus (wants the priest on Sunday and resists the king on Monday); the crown-only Jesus (wants him ruling the nation while evading his rule over one’s own habits).
•One memory verse per office: Deut 18:18; Heb 7:25; Eph 1:22.

Title: Dirty Hands, Empty Barns, and an Unshakable King
Text: Haggai 2:10–23
Big Idea: Religious activity cannot cleanse us; God’s gracious promise calls us to repentant obedience, and God’s chosen King gives us an unshakable future.

Introduction:
God gives Haggai two final messages.
The first concerns the spiritual condition of the people.
The second concerns the future of God’s kingdom.
Haggai closes with three pictures:

1. Dirty hands
2. Empty barns
3. Shaking kingdoms

I. Religious Activity Cannot Cleanse a Defiled Heart
A. Haggai asks the priests two questions (vv. 10–13)

• First question: If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that garment touches ordinary food, does the ordinary food become holy?
• Holiness does not pass automatically from one object to another. You cannot become holy through secondhand contact with holy things.
• Second question: If someone has become ceremonially unclean through contact with a dead body, and that person touches food, does the food become unclean?
• Uncleanness spreads. Defilement contaminates whatever it touches.

B. God applies the verdict to the people (v. 14)

• The people assumed that working on the temple would sanctify them.
• God says that their defilement was contaminating their work. 
• Religious activity does not make an unrepentant heart acceptable to God.

C. Holy surroundings cannot produce a holy heart

• The question is larger than, “What holy things have you touched?”
• The question is, “Has the holy God cleansed you?”

D. Christ cleanses those whom religion cannot cleanse

• Jesus and the leper
• The Holy One has come to cleanse unholy people.

II. An Empty Barn Cannot Nullify God’s Promise
A. God commands them to consider their past (vv. 15–17)

• “Consider” is one of Haggai’s favorite commands. God tells them to remember what life was like while they neglected his house.
• The great tragedy appears at the end of verse 17: “Yet you did not turn to me.”

B. God promises blessing before they see evidence (vv. 18–19)

• The people have now renewed the temple work. Yet there is still no harvest.
• The seed has been committed to the ground but produced nothing.
• Then God says: “From this day on I will bless you.” The promise comes before the produce.

III. Shaking Kingdoms Cannot Unseat God’s King
A. God turns from the fields to the nations (vv. 20–22)
B. God makes Zerubbabel his signet ring (v. 23)
C. The promise reaches beyond Zerubbabel to Christ
D. The church can remain steady while the world shakes

Conclusion

MEMBERS OF ONE ANOTHER | WEEK 2 OF 12
Entering the Body: Reception
Big idea: A member is a limb joined to a living body. Reception is the church’s deliberate act of recognizing Christ’s gift of a person and accepting responsibility for that person by name.

1. When Did It Begin?
How a church relation begins reveals what we believe the relation is.

2. What a Member Is — 1 Corinthians 12:12–27
Paul’s word for “member” is melos: a limb or organ of a living body — a foot, a hand, an ear, an eye.
A brick is part of a wall; remove it and the brick sits in the yard unchanged.
A hand is a member of a body; it lives only while joined, and its removal wounds the body.

Four features of a member in the text:
•Joined — baptized by one Spirit into one body; God places the members (vv. 13, 18).
•Differentiated — many members, unequal functions; sameness would destroy the body (vv. 14–20).
•Mutually dependent — “I have no need of you” is the one thing a member cannot say (vv. 21–22).
•Co-suffering and co-honored — one suffers, all suffer; one is honored, all rejoice (v. 26).
Verse 27 is addressed to a particular congregation. A limb is always a limb of some body. Can a hand be a hand in general, attached to no body in particular?

3. How One Is Joined — Acts 2:38–41, 47; 2 Corinthians 8:5
Addition is a counting word: the Lord added, and the church could count who had been added.
Reception recognizes a double gift — to Christ, then to his people (LBCF 26.6).

4. What Scripture Shows
•Testing and reception: Jerusalem weighed Saul’s credibility, and Barnabas’s testimony resolved it (Acts 9:26–28).
•Baptism and profession as entry markers: disciples made, baptized, taught (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 2:38–41).
•Confession: visible saints who willingly consent to walk together, under the church’s government (LBCF 26.2, 6, 12).
Reception does not create salvation; it declares the church’s judgment about a visible relation and starts the clock on defined care.

5. A Faithful Reception, in Sequence
Profess plainly → learn the relation → be examined charitably → be baptized → consent mutually → be received publicly → begin immediately.

1. Can I name the day this congregation accepted responsibility for me, and the day I accepted responsibility for it?
2. Am I taking the body’s benefits while withholding the second gift of 2 Corinthians 8:5?

This week: Read 1 Corinthians 12:12–27 and mark every time “member” is mentioned.

Stewardship for the Purpose of Godliness
Big Idea: Because God owns us and everything he entrusts to us, Christians should intentionally use time and money for his glory, our godliness, the good of the church, and the advance of the gospel.
Primary Texts: Psalm 24:1; Ephesians 5:15–16; 2 Corinthians 8:9; 9:6–8

I. Everything Belongs to God

• God is the owner.
• We are the stewards.
• We will give an account.

II. The Gospel Creates Faithful Stewards

• Christ gave himself for us.
• Our stewardship responds to grace.
• Our good works reveal living faith.

III. Redeem the Time

• Time lives under pressure.
• Time is limited and cannot be recovered.
• Time bears eternal weight.
• Worship, work, service, family, mercy, and rest all belong to God.

IV. Give as a Steward

• God owns everything we possess.
• Giving expresses worship, trust, and love.
• Giving should be regular and planned.
• Giving should be generous and sacrificial.
• Giving should be willing and cheerful.
• Giving should meet real needs and strengthen Christ’s church.

V. Consider Your Ways

• What has my calendar been saying can always wait?
• What does my spending reveal about what I treasure?
• What change should I make this week?

Time: One recurring block I will reclaim: ______________________________

Money: One planned change I will make: _______________________________

Accountability: One believer I will tell: _______________________________

Text: Haggai 2:1-9
Title: When the Work Looks Small
Big Idea: We can work courageously because God is present, God owns everything, and greater glory has come in Christ.

I. God’s presence is greater than our visible weakness (vv. 1–5)

• Comparison produces discouragement.
• God commands the whole community to be strong.
• God’s covenant and Spirit remain.
• Faithful work is significant because God is with us.

II. God’s resources are greater than our apparent lack (vv. 6–8)

• God shakes creation and nations.
• The nations and their treasures serve his purpose.
• All silver and gold belong to him.
• Limited resources never limit divine sovereignty.

III. God’s promised glory is greater than the remembered past (vv. 7–9)

• God himself fills the house with glory.
• Christ brings greater glory than Solomon’s temple.
• Christ is the true temple and giver of peace.
• His kingdom alone remains unshaken.

Week 19, Biblical Theology: Worship: From Eden to the Great Assembly
Big Idea: God gathers a redeemed people into his presence through Christ; therefore, Christian worship must be governed by the Word, centered on Christ, practiced by the congregation, and shaped by the hope of the new creation.
 
I. What Makes Worship Christian?

• If a practice appears somewhere in the Bible, does that automatically make it appropriate for the church’s Sunday gathering?
• How do we determine which biblical practices govern the church today?
• Biblical theology asks:

1. Where does this practice appear in the biblical storyline?
2. Under which covenant was it commanded?
3. What purpose did it serve?
4. How has Christ fulfilled or transformed it?
5. What does the New Testament command Christ’s churches to do?

• Hebrews 12:18-24, 28-29.

 
II. The Story of Worship
A. Creation: Humanity Was Created for God’s Presence

• Read Genesis 1:26-28; 2:8-15
  • The Bible begins with God dwelling with humanity in a good creation.
  • God created humanity in his image to reflect his character and exercise dominion under his authority.
  • Adam and Eve lived in God’s presence without sacrifice, priestly mediation, or a sacred building.
  • Their entire existence was an offering of obedience, gratitude, and service.
• Worship was never intended to be confined to music or a weekly meeting. Worship encompassed the whole human calling.

 
B. Fall: Sin Is Misdirected Worship

• Read Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 1:21-25
• The fall was an act of false worship.
  • Adam and Eve trusted the serpent’s word over God’s Word.
  • They desired the created gift apart from the Creator.
  • Romans 1 describes sin as exchanging God’s glory for worship of created things.
  • Humanity continues to worship because we were created as worshipers. Sin redirects worship toward idols.
• After the fall, Adam and Eve were driven from God’s presence. The cherubim at the garden’s entrance signified that sinful people could no longer approach the holy God freely.
• Key Principle: The worship problem is deeper than style, music, or liturgy. The central problem is that sinners worship the wrong object, according to their own desires, and on their own terms.
• What are some created things people expect worship to provide apart from God?

 
C. Love: God Redeems a People to Worship Him

• Read Exodus 3:12; 6:6-7; 29:45-46

1. God acts in grace.
2. God redeems his people.
3. God brings them into covenant.
4. God gives his Word.
5. God’s people respond in worship and obedience.

• Read Exodus 19:4-6.
• Christian worship follows the same gospel movement:
  • God speaks.
  • God reveals his holiness.
  • We confess our sin.
  • God announces his grace.
  • We hear his Word.
  • We respond with faith, praise, obedience, and thanksgiving.
• A worship service should rehearse the gospel b/c the entire biblical story moves from divine grace to human response.

 
D. Sacrifice: Access to God Requires a Mediator

• Read Exodus 29:43-46; Leviticus 16; Hebrews 9:6-14
• The tabernacle and temple revealed two truths simultaneously:

1. God graciously desired to dwell among his people.
2. Sinful people could approach him only through the means he appointed.

• Under the old covenant:
  • God’s presence was especially associated with the tabernacle and temple.
  • Priests represented the people.
  • Sacrifices dealt ceremonially with guilt and uncleanness.
  • The Most Holy Place remained closed to the people.
  • The high priest entered once a year with sacrificial blood.
• The old-covenant worship system taught that God is holy, sin brings death, and access requires atonement. Then Christ came.
  • John 1:14: The Word became flesh and “tabernacled” among us.
  • John 2:19-22: Jesus identifies his body as the true temple.
  • Hebrews 7:27: Jesus offers himself once for all.
  • Hebrews 10:19-22: Through his blood, believers draw near with confidence.
  • John 4:21-24: Worship is no longer tied to Jerusalem.
• Jesus fulfills every major feature of old-covenant worship:
  • Temple: Christ is the true meeting place between God and humanity
  • Priest: Christ is our great High Priest
  • Sacrifice: Christ offers himself once for all
  • Cleansing: Christ cleanses the conscience
  • Veil: Christ opens access to God
  • Sacred location: God’s people approach through Christ wherever they gather
• Key Principles:
  • We do not create God’s presence through music, atmosphere, architecture, or emotion.
  • We enter God’s presence through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

 
E. Promise: The Church Anticipates the Final Assembly

• Read Ephesians 2:19-22.
  • Christ is the cornerstone.
  • Believers are joined together.
  • The church is being built into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
  • The local church gathers as a visible expression of this new-covenant temple.
• Read Hebrews 12:22-24:
  • Every ordinary Lord’s Day gathering participates by faith in an extraordinary heavenly reality. The church gathers through Christ with the saints whose names are written in heaven and with angels in festal assembly.
• Read Revelation 7:9-12; 21:1-4, 22:
  • The dwelling place of God is with man.
  • The curse is removed.
  • God’s servants see his face.
  • No temple building in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
  • The redeemed from every nation worship before God’s throne.
• Key Principle: Corporate worship is a weekly foretaste of the new creation.
• Our worship should display:
  • The unity Christ is creating (Welcome time)
  • The holiness of the coming kingdom (Prayer of Confession)
  • The joy of forgiven sinners (Singing)

 
III. How the Story Shapes Our Worship Practices
A. Worship Is Governed by God’s Word

• The Second London Baptist Confession, chapter 22, summarizes the principle well: the acceptable way of worshiping God is instituted by God himself.
  • This is commonly called the regulative principle of worship.
  • God determines the elements of corporate worship. The church arranges those elements with wisdom, order, and cultural intelligibility.
• The distinction prevents two errors:
  • Human creativity becoming binding upon Christian consciences
  • Every practical decision being treated as though Scripture supplied one required form

 
B. Worship Is Saturated with the Word

• Read the Word: 1 Timothy 4:13
• Preach the Word: 2 Timothy 4:2
• Pray according to the Word: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
• Sing the Word: Colossians 3:16
• See the Word in baptism and the Supper: Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

 
C. Worship Is Centered on Christ’s Finished Work

• Since Christ is the temple, priest, and sacrifice:
  • We pray through Christ.
  • We sing of Christ’s person and work.
  • We preach every text within the story that culminates in Christ.
  • We celebrate the Supper as a proclamation of his completed sacrifice.
  • We approach God with confidence grounded in Christ’s blood.
  • We reject any practice that implies Christ’s sacrifice needs repetition or supplementation.
• Christ-centered worship includes the Father and the Holy Spirit. We worship the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

 
D. Worship Is Congregational

• Read Colossians 3:16.
  • Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
  • Teaching and admonishing one another.
  • Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
    • Congregational singing has two directions: We sing to God and we teach and encourage one another.
    • The congregation is the primary choir. Musicians and leaders serve the congregation’s voice.
• 1 Corinthians 14:26 gives the controlling purpose: “Let all things be done for building up.”
  • The sermon should be understandable.
  • Prayers should be audible and intelligible.
  • Songs should be singable by the congregation.
  • Leaders should serve rather than perform.
  • Members should hear one another confess and praise.

 
E. Worship Is Reverent, Joyful, and Hopeful

• Read Hebrews 12:28-29.
  • We receive an unshakable kingdom.
  • We respond with gratitude.
  • We offer acceptable worship.
  • We worship with reverence and awe.
  • We remember that our God is a consuming fire.
• Biblical worship refuses to separate joy from holiness.
  • The cross produces humility and confidence.
  • Forgiveness produces gratitude and gladness.
  • God’s holiness produces reverence.
  • The resurrection produces hope.
  • The coming kingdom produces endurance.
• Christian worship should sound like people who know that Christ has conquered and who still long for his return.

 
IV. Conclusion
Biblical theology teaches us that worship is God’s work before it is our response: the Father gathers us, the Son brings us near, the Spirit dwells among us, and the Word directs our praise.

Title: The God Who Stirs What He Commands
Text: Haggai 1:12–15
Sermon Series: Consider Your Ways: The House God Builds, Week 2 of 4
Big Idea: God commands the obedience He Himself stirs — and stays with those He stirs. He reminds us that He is with us so that we can go, bring, and build.

I. The Assumption (v. 12)

II. The Stirring: Wake Up (vv. 13–14a)

III. The Doctrine Named (Phil. 2:12–13)
“Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.”

IV. Stirred People Sweat (v. 14b)
“How is the Word made effectual to salvation?” “The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.”

V. The God Who Still Stirs (Rom 13:14)

Paneled Houses, Ruined Harvests
Text: Haggai 1:1–11
Big Idea: God exposes the futility of self-first living and calls His people to build His house for His pleasure and glory.

I. The Respectable Excuse, vv. 1–4
II. The Divine Audit, vv. 5–6, 9–11
III. The Merciful Command, vv. 7–8
IV. The House Christ Is Building
V. Bring Your Lumber

Consider your ways. Go. Bring. Build.

Series Memory Verse — Haggai 2:9: “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.”

Around the Table
1. What is one “not yet” our family keeps saying to God? What would obedience look like this week?
2. Why is it good news that God sends futility — the “bag with holes” — instead of leaving us alone?
3. For the kids: if God’s house today is His people, how can a kid help build it this week?

The Rise of Islam and Its Impact on Christianity
Big Idea: Within a century, Islam conquered much of Christianity’s historic heartland. John of Damascus demonstrates faithful theological engagement from within a conquered church.

I. The Rapid Expansion of Islam
The exhaustion of the Byzantine and Persian empires
The Arab conquests from Syria to Spain
Christians living under Islamic rule
The loss of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria

II. John of Damascus: A Christian under the Caliphate
His Christian family and government service
His monastic life near Jerusalem
His theological writings

III. John’s Defense of the Christian Faith
Responding to Islamic claims about Christ and the Trinity
Defending the use and veneration of icons
Systematizing Eastern Christian theology
Evaluating John from a Reformed Baptist perspective

IV. Lessons for the Church Today
Know the faith clearly
Test every claim by Scripture
Defend the truth with courage and gentleness
Trust Christ to preserve his church
Pray for Christians living under hostile governments

Habakkuk 2:6-20
Woe, Glory, Silence

I.  The Woe of Plunder, Habakkuk 2:6 – 8
II.  The Woe of Prideful Security Habakkuk 2:9 – 11
III.  The Woe of Bloodshed Habakkuk 2:12 – 14
IV.  The Woe of Debauchery Habakkuk 2:15 – 17
V.  The Woe of Idolatry Habakkuk 2:18 – 20
VI.  The Woe He Did Not Pass, Matthew 26:39

Practical Theology, Week 19
Topic: Members of One Another — Week 1 of 12
Title: Start at the End: How "Members of One Another" Shapes Departure from a Local Church
Texts: Romans 12:3–8; Ephesians 4:1–16, 25
Confession: 2LBCF 26.5–7, 12–13
Big idea: Because believers belong to one another under Christ, an ordinary departure should be completed openly, truthfully, and through the church's recognition.

• When did their membership end? — a case of silent departure
• We belong to one another (Romans 12:3–8)
• Mutual identity requires truth (Ephesians 4:1–16, 25)
• What Scripture places in the congregation's hands (Matt. 18; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2; Rom. 16:1–2)
• A faithful departure: speak, reconcile, transfer care, conclude truthfully
• For reflection: Have I treated membership as a service I consume or as people to whom I belong? If I were ever to leave, whom would I owe the truth?
• Take home: Read Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. Name three members whose spiritual good is your near responsibility.

Text: Habakkuk 1:12 – 2:5
Title: Write, Wait, Live
“If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. … but the righteous shall live by his faith.” — Habakkuk 2:3–4

I.  The Argument from God’s Own ____________   (Habakkuk 1:12 – 17)

• Habakkuk stacks covenant names: everlasting, my Holy One, O ____________.
• His problem with God is built out of his ____________ of God.
• Babylon “sacrifices to his ____________” (1:16) — he worships the tool that caught his prosperity. Name yours.

 
II.  The Tower and the ____________   (Habakkuk 2:1 – 3)

• He files the complaint expecting to be corrected.
• Write it — ink outlasts ____________. Make it plain — legible at a ____________.
• “It will surely come” is a doubled verb: “____________, it will come.”
• God writes the “if it seems ____________” into His own promise.

 
III.  Three Words to ____________ On   (Habakkuk 2:4)

• The ____________ — by his ____________ — shall live.
• Exodus 17:12 — Moses’ ____________ held steady until sundown, because someone was holding them.
• Genesis 15:6 — Abram ____________ the LORD, and it was counted to him as ____________.
• Quoted three times: Romans 1:17 (____________), Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38.

 
IV.  Arrogance & Acquisition   (Habakkuk 2:4a – 5)

• The ____________-up soul is a churchgoing possibility — you can recite a catechism about faith and still trust in yourself.
• The opposite of living by faith is living by ____________ — grasping because the soul cannot trust.
• Habakkuk never ____________ Babylon fall. The promise outlives the prophet — and he is content that it should.

V.  The Coming One ____________   (Hebrews 10:37 – 39)

• Hebrews reads Habakkuk 2:3: “the coming ____________ will come” — the vision that surely comes is a ____________.
• He came once at the appointed time; He will ____________ again at the appointed time. You live between the two — on the tower.

Big Idea:  The righteous live by ____________ while ____________ on God.

This week for Family Worship:
1.  God told Habakkuk to write His promise down and read it while he waited. Why does a written promise help on days when we can’t feel it? (Habakkuk 2:2)
2.  Is a promise true before you can see it come true? Who makes it true? (Habakkuk 2:3)
3.  What are the three words God gave Habakkuk on the tower? Can you say them together? (Habakkuk 2:4)
4.  When Moses’ arms got tired, who held his hands steady? When your faith gets tired, who holds you? (Exodus 17:12)

Memory verse for the series: “But the righteous shall live by his faith.” — Habakkuk 2:4.

Week 18
The Church's Role in God's Story: Ecclesiology Through the Lens of Biblical Theology
Theme: The church is not God's "Plan B." The church is the covenant people of God, anticipated throughout the Old Testament, established by Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and destined to display God's glory until the new creation.
Objective: Understand that the church occupies a central place in the unfolding story of redemption, serving as God's covenant community that displays His kingdom until Christ returns.

I. Introduction

• Where does the church fit within God's entire story from Genesis to Revelation?

II. God's Original Design: A People for His Presence
A. Creation. Genesis 1-2

• God did not merely create individuals. He created humanity to live together under His rule in His presence.
• Notice three themes: God's Presence, God's Rule, God's People
• Even before sin entered the world, redemption's goal was communal.
• God's purpose has always involved a people who reflect His glory.

B. The Fall. Genesis 3

• Sin shattered: fellowship with God, fellowship with one another, harmony with creation
• Humanity became divided: Cain murders Abel. Nations scatter at Babel. Idolatry replaces worship.
• The story of Scripture becomes God's work of restoring fellowship.

III. Israel: God's Covenant Assembly
A. Abraham. Genesis 12:1-3.

• God's promise includes: land, descendants, blessing to all nations
• God promises a people before He promises a nation.

B. Sinai. Exodus 19:4-6.

• Israel becomes: a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation
• Why priests? A: represent God to the world. Israel was intended to display God's character among the nations.

C. Israel's Failure

• Israel repeatedly failed because of: idolatry, covenant breaking, injustice, unbelief
• The prophets promised something greater. Jeremiah 31. Ezekiel 36. Isaiah 2
• God would create a renewed covenant people.

IV. Christ Establishes His Church
A. Jesus Announces the Kingdom

• Jesus does not merely gather followers. He forms a new covenant community.
• Matthew 16:18—Church (ekklesia): “assembly.” The language echoes Israel gathered before God.

B. Pentecost

• Acts 2: The Holy Spirit creates God's new covenant people.
• Notice four characteristics. They devoted themselves to: Apostles' teaching, Fellowship, Breaking bread, Prayer

C. Jew and Gentile Become One

• Ephesians 2:11-22. Paul uses several images: One new humanity, Household of God, Holy temple, Dwelling place of God
• The church fulfills what Israel anticipated.

V. The Church's Mission in God's Story

• 1 Peter 2:9-10. Notice Peter applies Israel's covenant language directly to the church. The church is: chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for God's possession
• Why? "you may proclaim the excellencies of Him…" Mission always flows from identity.
• Three Primary Purposes

1. Worship: The church glorifies God. Romans 12. Hebrews 13.
2. Witness: The church demonstrates the gospel. John 13:35.
The church is God's visible apologetic. Our love authenticates our message.
3. Formation: God matures believers through life together. Ephesians 4.

VI. The Church in the New Creation

• Revelation 21:1-5. The Bible ends where it began. God dwells with His people. Notice the progression: Garden —> Tabernacle—> Temple—>Church—>New Jerusalem
• The church is preparing for the eternal dwelling of God with His redeemed people.

VII. Application

• Am I treating church as an event or as God's covenant family?
• How can our congregation better display God's kingdom together?
• Does our life together make the gospel believable?

Conclusion

• We gather each Lord's Day because we are participants in God's unfolding kingdom.

Text: Habakkuk 1:1-11
Title: A Work You Would Not Believe
“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” — Habakkuk 1:5

I.  The ____________ the Prophet Carried,   Habakkuk 1:1

• “Oracle” is literally a ____________ — something lifted and carried. 
• The prophet ____________ what he was given to haul.

 
II.  How Long? The ____________ of the Righteous,   Habakkuk 1:2 – 4

• “Violence!” (chamas) — the word of Genesis ____________:11, the world before the flood.
• Faith complains ____________; unbelief complains sideways.  (See Psalm 13:1.)
• Watch the phrase “justice goes forth” — it will return in verse ____________.

 
III.  “I Am Doing a ____________ in Your Days,”   Habakkuk 1:5

• Every command in v. 5 is ____________ — God answers one prophet in front of the whole nation.
• “I am doing” — the work is already ____________. Unanswered is different from ____________.
• Baptist Catechism Q. 14: God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful ____________ and ____________ all His creatures, and all their actions.

 
IV.  The Bitter and ____________ Nation,   Habakkuk 1:6 – 11

• “Behold, ____________ am raising up the Chaldeans” — God claims the instrument.
• Judah’s justice went forth ____________ (v. 4)
• Babylon’s justice goes forth from ____________ (v. 7). Measure for measure.
• 1689 Confession 5.4 — God ordains the course; the ____________ belongs to the creature alone. God can wield what He will still ____________.

 
V.  The Work You Would Never ____________,   Acts 13:38 – 41

• Paul quotes Habakkuk 1:5 immediately after proclaiming ____________ by faith (Acts 13:38–39).
• In Habakkuk’s day, God used a pagan empire to ____________ His people
• At the cross, God used a Roman instrument to ____________ them.
• The danger in Antioch and now, is not that God’s work fails, but that we ____________ at it.

Big Idea:  God is always at ____________ but His work may be the last thing we would have ____________.

Family Worship questions for this week:
1.  Is it okay to ask God a question when something seems unfair to you? Whom did Habakkuk go talk to?
2.  Can God be busy working even when we cannot see anything happening at all? (Habakkuk 1:5)
3.  Can God use even bad people to carry out His good plan — without ever once doing anything bad Himself?
4.  What is the most surprising thing God has ever done to save people? (Acts 13:38–39)

Memory verse for the series: “But the righteous shall live by his faith.” — Habakkuk 2:4

Church History
LESSON: The Split Between East and West
Big Idea: The Great Schism was the eruption of a fracture line within political, cultural, and theological thought that had been forming for centuries.
Objectives:
1. Identify the long-developing political, cultural, and theological causes of the East-West split.
2. Explain the filioque controversy and the Photian Schism as the decisive flashpoints
before the formal break of 1054.
3. Evaluate both traditions' departures from apostolic simplicity, while clarifying where
Reformed theology actually lands on the filioque question.

I. Framing the Big Idea

• Can two churches share the same creed and still split apart?

II. Historical Context: Centuries of Divergence

• Political divergence. 
  • Charlemagne's coronation as "Roman Emperor" by Pope Leo III in 800 was, from Constantinople's vantage point, an act of usurpation — there was already a Roman emperor, and he sat in Constantinople. The West now had its own emperor and increasingly saw the papacy as standing above, not under, imperial authority.
• Cultural and linguistic divergence.
  • Latin in the West, Greek in the East. By the ninth century, few churchmen on either side were fluent in the other's language or theological vocabulary — councils and correspondence increasingly talked past each other rather than to each other.
• Ecclesiological divergence.
  • The West developed a doctrine of Roman primacy rooted in Petrine succession (Matt. 16:18). The East held to a conciliar model — the pentarchy of five patriarchates (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem) governing jointly, with Rome holding honor but not unilateral authority.
• Theological friction points building toward the schism:
  • The filioque clause ("and the Son") added to the Latin Nicene Creed describing the Spirit's procession.
  • Disputes over leavened versus unleavened bread in the Eucharist.
  • Clerical celibacy required in the West, married clergy permitted in the East.
  • The Iconoclast controversy of the eighth and ninth centuries (covered further by John of Damascus's defense of icons next month) left lingering East-West tension over images and authority to settle doctrine.

III. Core Content: The Filioque Controversy and the Photian Schism

• The filioque clause. The original Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381) confessed the Spirit as proceeding "from the Father." Western churches, beginning in Spain in the sixth century and spreading north, began adding "and the Son" (filioque) to clarify the Spirit's relation to both Father and Son.
• The Eastern objection has two layers, and we should distinguish them carefully:

1. Procedural objection: no ecumenical council authorized the addition; the West altered a universally received creed unilaterally, which the East regarded as a breach of conciliar order regardless of the theological merit.
2. Theological objection: the East holds the Father as sole archē (source) within the Trinity; double procession, in Eastern eyes, risks compromising the Father's monarchy and conflating the Son's role in the Spirit's eternal origin with his role in the Spirit's temporal mission (cf. John 15:26).

• Reformed theology has historically affirmed the Western filioque on exegetical grounds (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7 — the Spirit is "sent" by both Father and Son), while still recognizing the East's procedural objection as a legitimate complaint about how doctrine should be settled.
• Photius and the schism that bears his name (867–886). Photius, a layman and senior imperial official, was elevated through the clerical ranks in a matter of days and installed as Patriarch of Constantinople in 858 amid a contested succession.
• Pope Nicholas I refused to recognize his elevation and backed the deposed patriarch Ignatius instead. The two sides excommunicated each other in 867 — a full breach, later patched over but never fully healed.
• Photius's enduring importance:
• He articulated, more systematically than anyone before him, the theological case against the filioque (in his treatise Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit), giving Eastern objections lasting intellectual form.
• His Bibliotheca, a vast compendium of summaries and reviews of ancient texts (many now lost except through his record), preserved an enormous amount of classical and patristic literature.
• He was deposed, restored to the patriarchate (877–886), and deposed again — his career illustrates how thoroughly church office had become entangled with imperial politics in Byzantium.
• From Photius to 1054. The formal break came when Cardinal Humbert of Rome excommunicated Patriarch Michael Cerularius, and Cerularius responded in kind — both acting somewhat impulsively, without full sanction from their own sides, in a dispute that nonetheless stuck and has never been formally reversed.

IV. Theological Evaluation

• Both traditions departed from New Testament simplicity in different directions: the West toward monarchical papal authority claiming universal jurisdiction; the East toward a church too tightly fused with imperial power to maintain independent doctrinal judgment.
• The filioque debate is a useful case study in careful theology — precise trinitarian language matters (cf. 1689 LBCF 2.3), and unilateral changes to shared confessional language, even when theologically defensible, carry real pastoral and ecumenical costs.
• Neither side's claim to final authority — papal infallibility in seed form, or imperial-patriarchal consensus — survives scrutiny against sola Scriptura. The schism is, in part, a story of two traditions each substituting institutional authority for the final authority of the Word.

V. Discussion Questions

• Rome changed a shared creed without an ecumenical council. Does the how of a doctrinal decision matter as much as the what? Why?
• The East and West each developed a different answer to "who has final authority to settle doctrine?" How does the 1689 LBCF answer (1.1, 1.10)?
• Photius rose from layman to patriarch in days, largely through imperial favor. What dangers does this illustrate about appointing church leaders for political rather than spiritual qualifications (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1–7)?

VI. Closing

• Ephesians 4:3–6

Text: Hebrews 8:11 7/12/26
A Covenant With the Elect

Hebrews 8:11
"And they shall in no way teach each one his fellow-citizen, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’; because all of them will comprehend Me, from their insignificant to their dignified.”

Outline:
I. The Nature of the Danger Paul Addresses in Hebrews
II. The Difference in the Law in the Old Covenant Vs. the New
III. The Basis of the New Covenant: Forgiveness
IV. Hebrews 8:11, The New Covenant is With the Elect
V. Church Children and the New Covenant
VI. “All” Means No Infant Baptism
VII. Making Fleshly Sense of the Bible

Our prayers are mixed by angels with incense in Heaven (Revelation 8:4), but we can’t see or smell it from here; please let us see and smell a little incense in our worship
proceedings too.
Kid-speak: In the Old Covenant, the priests made nice- smelling incense for God’s house. But in the New Covenant, we don’t do that, because the real incense is where?

Aaron and the Tabernacle service were perfectly aligned shadows (not the real thing) Christ. What Hebrews is for: to break us off from Aaron and wed us to Christ.
Kid-speak: If we built the Tabernacle again, like in the Old Testament, would that be an OK place to worship God?

Just the fact that God told of a coming New Covenant in the book of Jeremiah is enough to let us know that the days of the existing covenant, Moses’ covenant, were numbered (soon to end).
Kid-speak: In the Old Testament, God said He would be making a New Covenant with the Israelites. Did that mean their covenant through Moses would have to stop?

Last time, we skipped to Hebrews 8:12 to see the BASIS or REASON for the New Covenant, which is forgiveness.
Kid-speak: Out of Hebrews 8:10, 11, or 12, which verse tells us the whole REASON the New Covenant works?

Hebrew 8:12
For I will be merciful to their injustices, and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless deeds."

Hebrews 8:11
"And they shall in no way teach each one his fellow-citizen, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’; because all of them will comprehend Me, from their insignificant to their dignified.”

In brief, the New Covenant is with the elect: those whom God chose, for whom Christ died, and whom the Spirit brings to Christ and keeps until the end.
Kid-speak: What does the Bible call the people whom God chose before the world started, then Jesus came to die for them, then the Holy Spirit brings them to Jesus?

John 6:45
It has been written in the Prophets, They "shall all be taught of” God. [Hebrew, “Your
sons shall all be students of Yahweh.” So then, everyone who hears and learns from the
Father comes to Me.

Concerning church children, we don’t know if children are chosen by God until we see His work in their hearts, evidenced in their recognition of their sinfulness and their need of
Christ.
Kid-speak: Kids, are your parents and Pastor Cain trying to teach you that you need Jesus to wash away the bad things you’ve done?

To allow infants to be baptized, supposedly allowing them into the New Covenant, Mickey saw “all” here as “most.”
Kid-speak: Kids, if we had baptized you when you were a baby, would that have put you in the New Covenant?

Jesus’ attitude had been mainly heavy, as the Man of Sorrows, Isaiah 53:3. Ours, despite great burdens, is mainly light! His preoccupied attitude paid for our carefree
one!
Kid-speak: Jesus thought a lot about what He had to do on the Cross. Because He thought alot about paying for our sins, do we have to worry about it now?

Children born to elect parents are benefited greatly from that. They are even “sanctified,” 1 Corinthians 7:14; but an elect parent does not make an elect child.
Kid-speak: Kids, is it better for you having parents who already know Jesus?

Some say, “The elect are chosen because they chose God,” even though the Bible says the reverse (God chose them).
Kid-speak: Are the elect who they are because they chose God or because God chose them?

Proverbs 26:4,“Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness, lest you, even you, become like him.
Proverbs 26:5,“Answer a fool according to his foolishness, that he not be wise in his own eyes.”
First, don’t enter a debate on a fool’s level. Second though, you can say, “Wanna know what you sound like/ are suggesting?”
First, the 3 friends had taken Job’s desperate despair as a reasoned argument. Second, Job had nailed the 3 friends’ cruelty, but he had “become like them” in making God’s
discipline tit-for-tat.

Proverbs 26:16,“The lazy one is wiser in his own eyes than seven that return a wise answer.” Man’s go-to is, “I don’t need to think. I already know I’m right.” Once Job took the 3 friends’ destructive detour, they needed the 7-fold wisdom of Elihu.

Proverbs 29:19,“A servant is not corrected by words; though he discerns, there is no answer.”
Our main answer in life must be in answering God, but our deaf ears give us a mute mouth: “What? No, He’s not talking to me.” AT this point, Job is so far off that his first answer to
God will be, “Ain’t sayin’ nuttin,” Job 40:4-5, when God had clearly demanded an answer!

Job 40:2.
Father, I will be the Answer to that, if You will answer the punishment for their sin in Me.”
Kid-speak: If we tell people that Jesus is the ANSWER, what is our PROBLEM that He had to answer? Three letters: S __ n.

1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.