One of the first sermons I ever preached in OCC (in the days when we still met in the cinema at Gloucester Green) was about the clash between Peter and Paul, recorded in the letter to the Galatians 2:11-12:
“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.”
The background to this conflict is that both Peter and Paul had grown up as good Jews, who followed the Jewish food laws, which meant that they avoided eating with Gentiles (i.e., non-Jews). Then, in two successive chapters in the book of Acts, we read of each man experiencing a remarkable vision.
• In chapter 9, Paul came face-to-face with the risen Jesus, and it rocked his whole theological world, because he knew that the Jewish Law said that anyone ‘hung on a tree’ was cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:22-23), and yet here was Jesus, who had died in that manner and was anything but cursed! And God commanded Ananias to visit Paul, and told him that he would carry God’s name “before the Gentiles” (Acts 9:15).
• In chapter 10, Peter has a vision all about food, in which he is specifically told that he can now eat all sorts of food, and then told by the Spirit that he should go visit some Gentiles.
And yet, even though Peter was the one who received instructions about food and Gentiles, he found it hard to keep living that way. Instead, it was Paul who became the apostle to the Gentiles, as he was fuelled by his vision of the resurrected Christ.
The point I drew from all of this is that divine revelations of ‘what to do’ are much less powerful in our lives than divine revelations of ‘what God is like.’
Our Christian lives are hugely affected by our understanding of what God is like, and our best Christian lives will only be lived when we have a rich and accurate knowledge of God.
Of all the many wonderful aspects of God’s nature, we tend to talk (and sing!) a lot about his love, his power, his faithfulness, kindness and goodness. These things are all true, and a bedrock to our faith.
But there is more to God than that. He is also:
• Trinity (three-and-one)
• Equally present everywhere
• Eternal
• Self-sufficient
• Sovereign
• Omniscient (he knows everything)
• The Just Judge
• Unchanging – and yet responsive to us
At the start of 2023 (Sundays 8 January to 5 March), our Sunday series will explore aspects of God’s character that are often neglected, so that we might all know him more fully. After that, we will complete the run-up to Easter with a short series about meeting God ‘face-to-face.’
These are topics that also lend themselves well to personal study, and we know that lots of people who are part of OCC enjoy learning more about God through devotional reading, especially during Lent. So, alongside these series, we want to recommend two books:
‘Incomparable: Explorations in the Character of God’ by Andrew Wilson: This contains 60 short reflections on different aspects of who God is, such as ‘The Mercy of Yahweh,’ ‘The Most High,’ ‘God the Craftsman’ and ‘God is Holy.’ These are perfect for daily readings over a couple of months, and we have 100 copies that will be available for free.
‘None Like Him’ by Jen Wilkin: If a book of 60 chapters feels a little daunting, or if you’d like to read a brilliant female author, Jen Wilkin’s book is rather shorter and focuses on just 10 ways in which God is different from us, such as being infinite, self-sufficient, omniscient and unchanging – and explores how each of those truths does us good. (Available from online bookshops for less than £5.)
