Chiangmai Christian Fellowship

Big Idea - 1) Did God really mean it? View one: God didn’t command the killing of the Canaanites View two: The commands to “wipe them out” are not to be taken literally 2) Three reasons why God commanded the killing of the Canaanites Possession of the land The protection of Israel It was judgement on a wicked people 3) The “wipe them out” texts and the contemporary mind We’re weak on culture We’re...

Big Idea - Why does Joshua send spies into Jericho? Is it to gain strategic military intelligence about weaknesses in the city wall or to know how to overcome their defenses? If that is what he is looking for, the spies fail to provide that information. However, if he is seeking confirmation that God has already given the land to them and that God will grant them success every step of the way, not...

Big Idea - The book of Joshua begins with the word that "Moses my servant is dead." Moses was the great leader of Israel who had led the people out of slavery in Egypt. So, it was by the hand of Moses that God had saved and redeemed His people. But that was not the end of what God wanted to do for them. He also wanted to give them a very special gift that would be a blessing to them for generation...

Big Idea - In these verses, Paul is urging us to a life of obedience, specifically to stop grumbling and arguing and start living together with one heart, one mind, and one love. It is how they can strive together for the Gospel, showing its truth and power by the way they treat each other. What is the place of obedience in the life of a Christian? There are two major ways that our thinking about...

Big Idea - Paul tells us that one of the great purposes of our lives is to shine as lights in the world. All that he talks about in this passage centers around this truth and calling for the Christian life. But what exactly does it mean to shine as a light in this crooked and twisted generation? And how are we to do that? Paul gives two commands of what we are to be doing in our everyday lives in...

Chiangmai Christian Fellowship

Chiangmai Christian Fellowship

Making the Prophets a Little Less Difficult!  (1) A Brief History of Israel (2) The OT Prophets: Speaking v Writings; Major v Minor (3) Where do the prophets fit into the Isreal’s history?  (4) What was the role of the prophets? (i) The prophets spoke in the name of the Lord (ii) The prophets were God’s prosecutors, His covenant enforcers (iii) The prophets pointed forward to a new hope (5) Readin...

1. The resurrection confirms Jesus as God's Son 2. God raised Him up - the greatest reversal 3. The resurrection is the defeat of death

(1) The One they mock as king is the King (2) The One who seems powerless is all powerful (3) The One who seems unable to save himself, saves others (4) The One who seems not to trust God, trusts God

* A tragic night fishing * Jesus appears * What does the passage teach us about Jesus? * Lesson: guilt and forgiveness

Big Idea - We come to the end of the Gospel of Mark, but it is not the ending we might have hoped for. The end of Mark is such a problem that other endings have been added to try to fix it. What makes the ending of Mark so unsatisfying is that we get no glimpses of the resurrected Jesus. We only have the empty tomb and the promise of seeing Him. But there could be lots of explanations for the empt...

(1) The deep descent of the Son of God (2) Darkness v. 33 (3) The cry of abandonment v. 34 (4) A terrible misunderstanding v. 35 (5) A glorious cry and a great tearing vv. 37-38 (6) An amazing confession v. 39 (7) Honouring faithful women vv. 40-41

Big Idea - The early Church, up until the time of the reformation, practiced meditating on the cross and contemplating the suffering and death of Jesus at great length. This often involved looking at an image of Jesus on the cross, often for hours at a time. Many wrote their reflections into poems and books, for example On the Passion of Christ by Thomas A Kempas, and O Sacred Head Now Wounded, a...

Big Idea - As our study through the book of Mark brings us to the cross we come to the main point of the book and the sole purpose of Jesus' life. Three times Jesus warned the disciples that this is why He came. Not only that He would die, but He told them in great detail exactly how it would happen - Mark 10:33–34 (ESV) — 33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be d...

Chiangmai Christian Fellowship

Big Idea - Theologians talk about the scandal of the cross. How could Jesus claim to be the Messiah sent from God, the very Son of God who is full of all the authority and power of God, and at the same time be convicted as a criminal and die the most shameful death possible? It is a scandal - completely unexpected, shocking, mind-boggling. What makes it most shocking is that by all appearances, it...

Big Idea - What did Jesus suffer leading up to the cross? Why was it necessary to suffer all the brokenness and pain of sin? How did He respond to all He had to endure (how did He suffer)? 1) Jesus suffered the most treacherous betrayal of a close friend and the pain of being greatly misunderstood by those He came to save. 2) Jesus had to suffer all the pain and brokenness of the human condition,...

Big Idea - No one wants to fail. It is painful and can lead us to feel great disappointment in ourselves, and it is doesn't do much for our reputation either! In this passage, Jesus tells His disciples that they are all going to fail, they will all 'fall away.' But Peter is determined that he will not. He affirms his determination to stick with Jesus, even if it means dying with Jesus. But Jesus k...

Chiangmai Christian Fellowship

Big Idea - This passage begins a new section, the final section of the Gospel. It is now two days before the Passover, which means the cross is very near. This passage is a sandwich story in which plans are being made to arrest and kill Jesus, and Judas' going to the High Priest to betray Jesus is contrasted with a woman who anoints Jesus with costly perfume. It seems very random and even inapprop...

Big Idea - In both Western and Eastern thought, there is a sense of never-ending time. Either endless cycles of death and rebirth in Buddhism or the idea that the universe is billions of years old and will continue on for billions more before it runs out of gas. However, the Bible paints a very different picture in which there is a definite point when it all began and a very sudden end to the stor...

Big Idea - Is the world going to end soon? The fires that have destroyed thousands of homes in LA and the scenes of devastation are being described as apocalyptic, a word used to describe events signaling the end of the world. The war in Ukraine is now the deadliest since WWII. The conflict and war in the Middle East are spreading, and with Israel at the center of it all, many are saying that we m...

The Grand Story of Christmas * Introduction; The Bible the story of reality * A true story * Jesus the key that unlocks the Bible * Lessons: 1. Shirts and buttons 2. Which story is shaping us? 3. Gulags and hope

Big Idea - The birth of Jesus is good news of the greatest joy. It is the abundance of God's joy that He wants to share with us. The world offers the promise of joy, and we are easily tempted by what the world offers because we all want a life full of joy. But the Bible teaches that true and lasting joy comes through the good news. If you want to find joy, you need to find Jesus. This story is abo...