Michael Collie: Sermon Series

Daniel: God and Government The setting of Daniel is the sixth century B.C. when the Jews are in exile in Babylon. You might wonder what such distant events might have to say to us today. First of all the book of Daniel will help us reflect on God’s rule in our world. It raises issues such as persecution, evil, suffering, power politics and forces us to think about how we are to live as Christians in a hostile world. Sec-ondly Daniel and his friends are models of faithful, wise and courageous men who offer us insights on how we might respond to the temptations and trials that we face. Thirdly, Daniel provides some of the background thinking to what Jesus has to say about the kingdom of God, his identity as “the Son of Man” and the end of the world. So there are many good reasons for reading Daniel. We will do chapters 1-6 in the coming weeks and look at chapters 7-12 over summer.

Our Term One and Two series in 2012 is on John's Gospel.  It was is written so "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31).

This Sunday we begin a series called “Promoting the Gospel.” The gospel about Jesus that we wish to promote is “good news” for everyone and for our country but the spiritual climate of Australia is mixed to say the least. Our reaction may be to withdraw from the public sphere and limit mission to personal interactions. I have no problem with personal evangelism – each person matters. But we must also have an eye on the wider issues that are affecting the spiritual dynamics of our country and state. Please do use whatever avenues you have to ensure a Christian perspective is communicated intelligently and graciously.

Peter