4 times a year, the three main congregations across our two churches meet together for a combined service. They're great times, with a full building, hearty singing, and the chance for fellowship across congregations who don't often get to worship all together.
We've finished a run through Paul's letter to the Philippians. With its themes of partnership in the gospel, grace, suffering, and God's life-transforming power, it gave us some good times as we gather all together.
We're now starting a run through John chapter 17. I plan to take us through quite slowly, taking at least 3 services on each of the 3 main sections (1-4, 6-19, 20-26). That means we'll be in this chapter, God willing, for the next 2 to 3 years.
It's an incredibly rich prayer. I hadn't fully appreciated this before I started to study it, but essentially we'll be taking an overview of John's Gospel by focussing together on this one chapter. Here's Don Carson:
“In some respects the prayer is a summary of the entire Fourth Gospel to this point Its principal themes include Jesu’s obedience to his Father, the glorification of his Father through his death / exaltation, the revelation of God in Christ Jesus, the choosing of the disciples out of the world, their mission to the world, their unity modelled on the unity of the Father and the Son. To cast this summary in the form of a prayer is not only to anticipate Jesus’ being ‘lifted up’ on the cross, but to contribute to the climax of the movement that brings Christ back to God – one of the central themes of the farewell discourse.” (Page 551)
We'll start this on Sunday 30th October — if you're around Kemsing then, you'd be very welcome to join us at 10am.
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