Union with Christ Is What It's All About

In one paragraph

This message, preached from Romans 7 and John 9, kept returning to a single idea: union with Christ through faith is what the Christian life is all about. Pastor James traced that idea through the healing of a man born blind, showing how simple obedience, simple testimony, and simple worship all flow from being joined to Jesus. The service closed with communion and a call to work while there is...

Read together

1. Romans 7 passage being preached through, introducing union with Christ and dying to the law
2. Romans 6 cited for being united with Christ in his death and raised to walk in newness of life
3. Galatians 3 earlier sermon slide on union with Christ borrowed for this message
4. John 9:1-38 main narrative text read and expounded through the healing of the man born blind
5. John 9:3 Jesus answers that the man's blindness was not due to sin but so God's works might be displayed
6. John 9:4 we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, night is coming
7. Acts 17 Paul presenting Christ to the Epicureans and Stoics, some believed, some sneered
8. Acts 1:8 called to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts
9. Ephesians 2:8-9 saved by grace through faith so that no one can boast
10. Ephesians 2:10 created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God prepared in advance for us to do
11. 1 Corinthians 11 each time we take communion we celebrate the Lord's death until he comes again

Talk about it

1. The pastor brought up what he called 'primitive religion', the idea that bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people. He said it's sticky and keeps coming back even when we know it isn't true. Where have you caught yourself thinking that way, and what has it cost you or someone around you?
2. The man born blind gave what the pastor called a simple testimony: he didn't argue theology, he just said what he knew from his own experience. What would your own simple testimony sound like if someone asked you what changed in your life?
3. The pastor drew a distinction between being called to be witnesses and being called to be lawyers or judges. In practice, where is that line hard to hold, and what makes it hard?
4. The sermon pointed to the phrase 'work for the night is coming' and said our window for the good works God has prepared for us is limited. Has there been a moment when you felt that prompting to do something and either acted on it or let it pass? What happened?
5. The man's simple obedience was just two things: he went, and he washed. The pastor said that when God prompts us to act, we should do it immediately and simply. What tends to get in the way of that kind of straightforward response for you?