Paul’s ‘Pastoral’ letters to his son in the faith Timothy. Want to know what your Church elders should be teaching then get the inside track from these letters. And yes it is all about Jesus. Paul encourages timothy to continue to fight the good fight for the cause of the gospel and the truth of scripture. Warning him to guard the flock against false teachers amidst the rising persecution. Paul also gives advice on how to treat members of the church, old, young, male and female, and totally upsets any wing ding feminist viewpoint on a number of basic theological issues. ‘He can’t mean that’ they cry! Oh yes he does. Paul while waiting to have his head chopped off gives Timothy, and us, amazing encouragement to endure suffering and to trust the scriptures about Jesus and His gospel implicitly. The situation for Christians at that time got considerably worse under Nero and Paul was martyred. Timothy took Paul’s words about Jesus and continued to the rest of his life which was violently, as an old man, was painfully ended while preaching the gospel. ‘Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’…

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The two letters to the church Paul set up in Acts chapter 17 in Thessalonica are wonderfully practical books, but also used by the ‘wing ding’ brigade who are waiting for the ‘rapture’ to happen to get their ‘prophecy charts’ out. Paul again just keeps on pointing to Jesus. That it is all about Jesus and his death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins to remove the wrath of God. And because of that amazing gift of grace from Jesus we live differently, not in sexual immorality like the gossip fuelled press would have us believe, but also with integrity and without idleness. These two books deal with Jesus’ return and the consequence of Jesus’ justice of an eternity in Hell for tose who reject his mercy. Paul does not ever portray a ‘fluffy bunny’ God but always a just, loving and merciful God who sent his son Jesus. All this amid persecution! Paul got some when he came to Thessalonica, his host Jason took a pasting, the church continued to be attacked and Paul had someone forging letters saying they were from him! So why should we in the ‘cosy comfy’ western nations expect anything different but opposition to Jesus and his gospel. They got it and so should we. The Christian life is not an easy one, just as no one’s life is, but it is one filled with forgiveness, mercy and grace all through Jesus.

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The book of Colossians. Written by Paul from prison in Rome to a Church that he didn’t start. Paul’s heart for everything to be centred around Jesus’ death burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins is paramount in this book. It is all Jesus, Jesus and more about Jesus! This church had been infiltrated by some weirdo teaching around silly religious personal practice and Angel worship. We are not told the details but we are told about how Jesus is the boss of it all and we should live all for Jesus, because of Jesus, through Jesus to the glory of Jesus as Jesus is coming back one day. Paul keeps on stressing the importance of good solid bible teaching about. Yes you guessed it. Jesus. This is the scarlet thread after all and Paul makes sure that the blood of Jesus is what the Colossians have to remember and rejoice in. The amazing gift of Grace.

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The book of Philippians is a book of GREAT JOY. Possibly the most uplifting book in the New Testament – written by Paul from Rome waiting to have his head chopped off! It is all about the gospel of Jesus, the Philippians’ love of Jesus and sharing the gospel, Paul’s imprisonment for the Gospel of Jesus and Jesus’ humility in stepping down from heaven to add humanity to his divinity, live the sinless life we cannot live, die the death for sin on the cross we should all die to remove the wrath of God. So that we can get the undeserved favour of forgiveness of our sin through repentance and faith in Jesus – AMAZING GRACE! Paul encourages the Philippians to continue in their faith with Jesus, share their faith of Jesus all to the glory of Jesus because one day it will all be better as they would be with Jesus. As Paul wrote ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain’.

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Ephesians. Paul’s book of two halves. More beautiful than the beautiful game (which lets face it can be quite ugly) as this is all about the beautiful gift of Grace through Jesus. The first half – Chapters 1, 2 and 3 – are all vertical to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to lead us to the understanding that salvation is the gift of grace that we don’t deserve and can never earn. Complete with the loving doctrine of predestination and election. The Second half – Chapters 4, 5 and 6 – are horizontal about how we live with Jesus centred advice for wives (Got some vicars in trouble recently did this one!), husbands (if only the feminists read this bit and understood it), children (obey your parents… imagine how this one goes down) and slaves and masters (think of your boss or teacher) all to the glory of Jesus as he is keeping account of how we all live. Finished off with the extra time penalty kick out that is ‘The Armour of God’. We are at war but not an earthly one which explains how and why when you mention Jesus and the Bible it gets up people’s noses. All this from the gift of grace of salvation through Jesus to the glory of Jesus.

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Galatians

1st and 2nd Corinthians. A multicultural roman trading city where nearly ‘anything’ went – including within this church! Here Paul planted the church in Acts 18 and 19 preaching solidly for 18 months in the house next door to the Synagogue! (Check out The Scarlet Thread Pt 38). This church had a lot of theological questions and a lot of issues. One guy was turning up to church with his mum on his arm and this wasn’t because she was old and infirm! Yet this wing ding church Paul said was the seal of his apostleship! Paul covers lots of daily issues including, sex, marriage, money, legal disputes, false teachers of the bible, disputes among each other, serving, ‘tongues’ and many others. There is a lot of theological and practical ground to cover in these two books and some twist scripture that is ‘hard to understand’ but the best way to approach these books (and any other in the bible) is to go the way Mark Twain did. Mark Twain said ‘It isn’t the passages of scripture that I don’t understand that bother me, it is the ones I do!’ So if you are in continual sin and using a ‘hard verse’ to self justify then just think you are going to stand in front of Jesus and give an account of how you flouted his word and kept diving into your own personal favourite sin. But all the way through Paul keeps on pointing back to Jesus and him crucified. That grace is from Jesus, that our salvation is through Jesus, that Paul served and met Jesus, that nothing this world’s big wigs has can touch or compare to Jesus. You will get the gist that Paul was really big on Jesus.

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Romans – The ‘Himalayas’ of the New Testament. Some think that this amazingly rich theological book is just too complex to enter into, others use verses from it out of context such as ‘I am under grace not law’… try that with a speed camera or Police officer…. This book laid the foundation for Martin Luther to counter the Roman Catholic Church and its grace abuse and vile use of indulgences in the Reformation in the 1500s. That you can not work and earn your way to heaven it is all by God’s grace through Jesus. Yes Romans is all about Jesus. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection being the propitiation (taking the wrath of God that we deserve because we have broken his Holy Laws) away from us and legally justifying us in the Heavenly courtroom. That is why salvation is by Grace through Jesus and by any of our own works. We deservedly have the death penalty over us because of our sin and yet God offers us mercy through Jesus. And at the end we get an amazing list of names that show that our God is personal and this book is true, especially when one of the names is written in stone to this day on the streets of Corinth so you can know that this amazing gift of grace from Jesus is completely true.

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The book of Acts or ‘Acts of the Apostles’ or ‘Luke part 2′ This amazing narrative outlines the beginnings of the church after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension in fulfilment of scripture and how the ‘Gospel’ (Good News) of Jesus went out through the world of the day amid immense trouble and persecution. Becoming a Christian is not an easy option! It cost Jesus his life and he forewarns us to count the cost. Most notable is how murderer Saul became missionary Paul and brought the gospel to us in Europe. This guy gave up his bling life in Jerusalem to preach the gospel through continual beatings, hunger, arrests, misrepresentation, blatant lies, shipwrecks and eventual beheading. All for Jesus, after meeting Jesus (while on his way to kill Christians in Damascus), loving Jesus, serving Jesus, dying for Jesus to finally and eternally be with Jesus. But the whole way it was preaching and teaching Jesus as the Messiah from the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus the beautiful scarlet thread.

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The Gospels (Good News) of Jesus Christ. The start of the New Testament. All four of them provide a clear snapshot of part of Jesus’ life particularly as the saviour of the world from our own sin. Two were eyewitnesses to Jesus and two were records of people who heard later from others. As this is Christmas week Matthew and Luke give us the birth of Jesus in fulfilment of a load of Old Testament scriptures. Jesus (the gift of salvation) is the greatest present that anyone can be given – and it was given by God himself. The four gospels are in different flavours too. Matthew was written to Jews, Mark to Romans, Luke to Gentiles and John to people on another planet who like Shakespeare! Well Greeks really. But each of them major on one week of Jesus’ life – the week that Jesus was crucified for our sin, to take the wrath of God on our behalf should we repent, turn from our sin, say sorry and thank you and put our faith in Jesus that he will save us on Judgement day when he returns. Salvation from Jesus is the greatest gift ever given to all the sinful rebellious people on this planet who deserve nothing but Hell forever for Breaking God’s laws and why would anyone want to refuse it? Jesus the giver of Amazing Grace.

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