Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church

Doctrine of God 17 | The Wrath of God

Part 17 of Covenant Waterfall's catechism class on the Doctrine of God: The Wrath of God.
Teacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola.
For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Citizens of Heaven | Philippians 3:17-21

If you believe that heaven can be attained in this life, then there are significant implications to how you will live. Your attitude will be that you need to bank everything on this life – live literally like there’s no tomorrow. You will find suffering, sickness and pain something abnormal and to be avoided at all costs, as those things are absent from heaven. You will have the temptation to accumulate as much wealth as you can in order to create your heavenly home here on earth. You will want to live how you please, gratify every desire you have and follow your heart in order to make this life like your heaven.
This is essentially the message of the prosperity gospel which is all too common in our context – the promise of health, wealth and happiness – live a life of heaven on earth. Yet this message is actually nothing new. The early church faced their own prosperity gospel preachers. In fact Paul has in mind a form of prosperity gospel in our text this morning. These false teachers are so focused on living their best life on earth, that they have actually lost sight of heaven itself. What we will see in this text is that because our citizenship is in heaven, we are to live here on earth holding to a future heavenly hope.
Preacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola.
For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Doctrine of God 16 | The Righteousness of God

Part 16 of Covenant Waterfall's catechism class on the Doctrine of God: The Righteousness of God.
Teacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola. For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Christ is the Prize | Philippians 3:12-16

Siva Moodley was a popular mega church pastor in Johannesburg. He was a self-styled “apostle” who taught the typical prosperity gospel message: if we’re a new creation in Christ, then our lives should be lives of victory, no sickness, attaining sinless perfection, full of miracles. Health, wealth and happiness. Heaven on earth. He even believed that if you had enough faith, you would not die. In 2021, he got seriously sick. Realising he was dying, he “prophesied” that he would be raised from the dead. On 14 August 2021 he died. Because of this prophecy, his family decided not to bury him, but kept his body in the morgue, anticipating his immanent resurrection. Eventually, after two years in the fridge, realising nothing was going to happen, he was buried.
As crazy and bizarre as all this sounds, this sort of belief is more common in our context than you may realise. And these views are actually nothing new. Paul faced similar heresies in the early church – specifically in Philippi. The same heresies have resurfaced throughout church history. Essentially, the belief that Christians can attain the fullness of their salvation now. That it is possible to attain perfection this side of eternity. It sounds nice, but is actually incredibly destructive.
Paul counters this heresy in our text, showing that believers will never be perfect this side of eternity. We still struggle with sin and the darkness in the midst of this cursed world. Yet we are not hopeless – we live lives in pursuit of our goal, Christ himself. What we will see is that because Christ has made us his own, we can press on toward the goal of our salvation.
Preacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola.
For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Doctrine of God 15 | The Love and Holiness of God

Part 15 of Covenant Waterfall's catechism class on the Doctrine of God: The Love and Holiness of God.
Teacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola. For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Righteousness that Depends on Faith | Philippians 3:1-11

I grew up here in South Africa during the 1980s and 1990s. I remember my school days just up the road at Forest View Primary School. We sang Christian hymns, prayed every assembly. The principal would teach Bible stories to us. We were taught about the Bible and Christianity as a part of the curriculum, this was called Christian National Education. At that time, it was considered normal. It was assumed that everyone was Christianity. Most people went to church, or even if they went occasionally or not at all, they still identified as Christian. There was a strong cultural Christianity, it was in the air we breathed, it affected our values, morality and outlook on life.
In many ways we are still breathing this cultural Christianity air today here in South Africa. To be sure, there are many benefits to this, but a deep flaw underlies it all. The problem is that it lulls people into a false sense of security. People believe they are Christians by virtue of the culture into which they are born. They believe they are good with God because they live a moral life and are relatively good people.
Not much has changed over the years. In fact, the church of Philippi was facing a similar problem. False teachers called the Judaizers were influencing the church and teaching that there was some benefit before God to being ethnically Jewish, that God required Gentile converts to Christianity to in essence become culturally Jewish - to start observing the Jewish ceremonial laws like circumcision, dietary prohibitions, observe the festivals etc. They taught that while they were saved by God’s grace, they had to stay in through continual obedience to the law.
Paul confronts this heresy head on in this passage. He exposes this false teaching for what it is – an aberration of the true gospel. It is nothing about our heritage, culture, our own sense of morality or righteousness that contributes to our standing before God. Instead what we will see is that one thing and one thing alone matters – being found in Christ and clothed in his righteousness that depends on faith.
Preacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola.
For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Doctrine of God 14 | The Goodness and Love of God

Part 14 of Covenant Waterfall's catechism class on the Doctrine of God: The Goodness and Love of God.
Teacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola.
For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Gospel Role Models | Philippians 2:19-30

Many of us are familiar with John Calvin, the great sixteenth century reformer of Geneva. But few know about one of his closest friends and allies, fellow reformer, Pierre Viret. Through Viret’s preaching, the Swiss town of Lausanne was won over to the gospel during the Reformation. Viret didn’t have an easy life though. He faced opposition from many of his countrymen. He was attacked by a Roman Catholic monk wielding a sword and left on the side of the road to die. Yet he survived. Then he was given a bowl of poisoned spinach soup, which also nearly killed him. He survived, but lived in constant pain for the rest of his life. He devoted his life to preaching the gospel to French-speaking Switzerland and southern France. Despite enduring incredible suffering and opposition, he was known as the “angel of the Reformation” or the smiling reformer, because of his graciousness, winsomeness and humility.
These days even the thought of making such sacrifices and enduring suffering for the sake of the gospel is not something that we tend towards. We’re much more inclined to pursue a comfortable life, ensure that we are financially secure and try our best to avoid suffering. This is epitomised through the prosperity gospel teaching that plagues much of our context. Yet if we look back at church history and indeed the Bible itself, we see that those people who have really made a difference for the Lord have denied themselves and lived incredibly sacrificial lives.
This morning we are back in Philippians and our text focuses on two men, Timothy and Epaphroditus. If you remember some weeks ago, in Philippians 1, we heard about Paul’s opponents – fellow brothers in Christ who had wrong motives. They were selfish, focussed on advancing their own self-interest, personal ambitions and sought to thwart Paul’s ministry. In great contrast to these guys, Paul draws our attention to two men whom he has discipled, true servants of Christ, whom he is going to send to minister to the Philippian church. What we’ll see in looking at both these men is that they are gospel role models. Both have sacrificed and suffered much for Christ. Ultimately, we’ll see that both these men point us to Christ himself, our true Suffering Servant.
Preacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola.
For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Doctrine of God 13 | The Power of God

Part 13 of Covenant Waterfall's catechism class on the Doctrine of God: The Power of God.
Teacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola.
For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!

Fellowship Tested by Hypocrisy | Acts 4:32-5:11

Guest Preacher: Dr. Brian DeVries, Principal of Mukhanyo Theological College.
For more information about Covenant Waterfall Presbyterian Church, please check out our website: http://covenantwaterfall.co.za or email us: info@covenantwaterfall.co.za. We'd love to hear from you!