The New Testament in 50 words

 

August’s Worship For All (catchup online here) finished the theme of the Bible with a look at the New Testament.

In conclusion, the Gospels tell us the story of Jesus - the big miracles and the small encounters and are very important but to really understand what it means to follow Jesus, to really know what Jesus has planned for us - you need the whole of the New Testament.

The New Testament is a ‘build a Christian’ kit. Not in the Ikea or Lego sense of “put prayer A in service B”. But in the sense of a set of stories of people who struggled, who made mistakes, who sometimes did amazing things, and above all grappled with what it meant to live as children of God; as Christians. We learn from these stories. God uses them. So read them! Mark’s gospel is a good place to start and the Acts of the Apostles is a roller-coaster story. Read and understand how all that happens relates to the Old Testament story, to God’s big plan for us all; recognise how they are stories of their time and place - and yet they speak to us across the centuries. Every time we read these stories, we find something new in them, because that, it seems, is how God likes it! Read the stories and hear God speak. Hear God speak and learn!

The New Testament was summarised in 50 words…

    Gabriel announced
    Mary bore
    Jesus taught
    Disciples followed
    Jesus crucified
    Hope gone
    Jesus risen
    Christ ascended
    Spirit flowed
    Peter spoke
    People saved
    Churches grew
    Saul persecuted
    Peter imprisoned
    Saul envisioned
    Paul travelled
    Faith spread
    Churches planted
    Paul wrote
    Leaders supported
    John saw
    Jesus revealed
    Death defeated
    God honoured
    New Jerusalem