True or False

How do we now the difference between false Christian teaching and true Christian teaching?

1. Christian teaching must be measured by the standard of Jesus Christ.
2. Christian teaching must be measured by the standard of the Bible.

Scripture reading: 1 John 4:1-6

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

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Announcements for the Week of May 17

Men’s Bible Study (lunch edition) will be this Wednesday at 12 PM. We will meet at Outback Steakhouse in Ratu Plaza. Come for fellowship and Bible Study.

RBI Brochures are on the back table. May 31 is the deadline to apply for the Systematic Theology class that starts August 25. If you have any questions please see Deacon Uran or Pastor Stephen.

Members and Regular Attendants, please fill out the JIBC data form for the 2009 church directory found on the welcome table in the back. Everyone over sixteen needs to complete a form, even if your spouse or parent has already completed one. We need individual information from members, associate members, and regular attendants. Please give completed forms to Dina.

There will be a special business meeting after the morning worship service on May 24. All JIBC members are encouraged to attend.

All the youth are invited to a Youth Sunday Practice on Saturday, May 23, at Pastor Stephen’s new house at 2:00 PM. Whether or not you think you have a role, please attend! We need you! For directions, please contact Jill Sharp. Youth Sunday is May 24.

Please fill out the JIBC Elder/Deacon Nomination and put the completed form in the box on the back table.

Home, A Little Church

Dear friend,

The great evangelist and theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) wrote:

“Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful.”

As a pastor, former Christian School teacher, and parent of seven children - I am totally convinced Edwards is right. God can work in the life of an individual apart from his or her spouse or parents. However, a Christ centered home life is the surest way to plant the seeds of the gospel in the hearts of others and help them grow in Christ! The Lord himself reminds us of this when he commands Christian fathers to bring up their children, “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph, 6:4b). Elsewhere he tells us, “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127).

If the Christian home is to be like a little church, than the father (or mother in his absence) is like the pastor. The word of God must be taught. Christian counsel must be given. Prayer and worship must take place. Discipline must be administered. All for the glory of God and the good of each family member.

Friend, is your house like a little church?

Your servant,

Stephen

Rev. Stephen St. John
Pastor/Elder

Christian Assurance

If you want to have assurance in your faith, then you want to be in a right relationship with God.

1. You will not find this within yourself.
2. You must find it through obeying God.
a. Believing is obeying.
b. Obeying includes loving others.

Scripture reading: 1 John 3:19-24

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

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Announcements for the Week of May 10

Men’s Bible Study (evening edition) will be this Wednesday at 7 PM in the JIBC Office. Come for some good food, fellowship and Bible Study.

The Jakarta English Speaking Congregations will hold a combined service on Ascension Day (Thursday, May 21) at 10 AM in the worship center at the International English Service Church. Pastor Stephen will be preaching. Mark you calendars now. More information will be available soon.

RBI Brochures are on the back table. May 31 is the deadline to apply for the Systematic Theology class that starts August 25.

Members and Regular Attendants, please fill out the JIBC data form for the 2009 church directory found on the welcome table in the back. Everyone over sixteen needs to complete a form, even if your spouse or parent has already completed one. We need individual information from members, associate members, and regular attendants. Please give completed forms to Dina.

Please fill out the J.I.B.C Elder/Deacon Nomination form on the back table.

Another Friday of Fellowship with the JIBC youth group on May 15. Come to the Baguley’s 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM for dinner, games, and Bible study if you are eleven to sixteen years old. Please attend this week in particular so you can help plan Youth Sunday!

Mission Moment Next Sunday, we will have a Mission Moment presentation from Baptist Youth Mission.

Let Us Not Grow Weary

Dear friend,

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9).

Are you tired of trying? Do you wonder if your efforts for the kingdom of God make any difference? Perhaps you doubt that your own pursuit of God in the Bible and through prayer is yielding any fruit. Maybe you have been pouring yourself into another with the hope that they too will fall in love with the Savior, but you are beginning to feel your work is meaningless.

Listen to the voice of the Lord in the scripture above! Lift up your head and quicken your step. Instead of backing away from ministry, dig in deeper. Instead of shelving that Bible, read extra. Instead of giving up on prayer, pray longer. If what you are doing is right, you will eventually reap a good harvest. Thus says the Lord!

Your servant,

Stephen

Rev. Stephen St. John
Pastor/Elder

Christian Qualities

If you are going to serve as an elder or deacon, then you must possess these Christian qualities.

(If you are going to nominate a man to serve as elder or deacon, then you must see these Christian qualities in that man.)

I. The elder or deacon must be a Christian (1 Tim. 1:6a; 9a). Clearly God is calling every man woman and child in the universe to believe.

1. Admit he is a sinner (Rom. 3:23),
2. Believe that Christ died for his sin (Rom. 8:5)
3. Confessed that he needs Christ as Savior (Rom. 10)
4. Die to sin (Rom. 6:2-3).
5. He has Eternal life (John 3:16).

II. The elder or deacon must possess these ordinary Christian qualities.

1. Above reproach (2, Tit. 1:6);
2. A one woman man (2, Tit. 1:6);
3. Sober minded (2);
4. Self-controlled (2; Tit. 1:8);
5. Hospitable (2; Tit. 1:8);
6. Not a drunkard (3, 8; Tit. 1:7);
7. Not violent (3: Tit. 1:7),
8. Not quarrelsome (3);
9. Not a lover of money (3, 8; Tit. 1:7);
10. Manage his household well (4);
11. Dignified (8);
12. Not double-tongued (8)

III. The elder or deacon must possess these extraordinary Christian qualities.

1. He must be a man (2, 12);
2. Not be a recent convert (6);
3. He must be well thought of (7);
4. Must have a Christian family (Tit. 1:6, 4-5);
5. Must not be men full of doubt (9);
6. Deacons must be tested (10);
7. Elders must have a desire to serve (1);
8. Elders must be able to teach, they must know the word and be able to use it. (2; Tit. 1:9)

Scrupture reading: Titus 1:5-9, 1 Timothy 3:1-13

Qualifications for Elders
5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Qualifications for Overseers
1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

Qualifications for Deacons
8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11 Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

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