Titus

This 13 part expository study of Titus was preached at Flagstaff Christian Fellowship in 2007. Audio and manuscripts are available for each lesson.

For permission to reproduce/distribute these resources from Steve Cole (including the Word document and audio files found on the individual lesson pages below) please see Bible.org's ministry friendly copyright and permissions page. Likewise, to reproduce/distribute PDF/audio versions of his messages which may be found on Flagstaff Christian Fellowship's website see their permission statement.

Related Topics: Discipleship, Ecclesiology (The Church), Equip

Philemon

This 2 part expository study of Philemon was preached at Flagstaff Christian Fellowship in 2007. Audio and manuscripts are available for each lesson.

Related Topics: Basics for Christians, Discipleship, Fellowship

2 Peter

This 15 part expository study of 2 Peter was preached at Flagstaff Christian Fellowship in 2009-10. Audio and manuscripts are available for each lesson.

Peter wants his readers to be firm in the foundation of their faith, which is to know God more deeply through Jesus Christ as made known through the apostolic witness. The theme of 2 Peter could be summed up by saying, “Growing Christians will be knowing Christians.” We will be growing to know sound doctrine. (Peter shows that holding to false doctrine always results in final judgment.) But also, we will be growing to know God as He has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, through the apostolic witness to Christ, contained in the New Testament.

1. Boundary Basics

Article contributed by Probe Ministries
Visit Probe's website

Related Media

Story, p. 27-28.

Invisible Property Lines and Responsibility

Boundaries in the physical world:

fences
signs (No Boys Allowed! Keep off the grass)
walls
moats with alligators
manicured lawns or hedges

This is where my property begins.

Boundaries in the spiritual world are just as real but harder to see

Boundaries define your soul and help you to guard it and maintain it.

Me and Not Me

Boundaries define us. They define what is me and what is not me. A boundary shows me where I end and someone else begins.

Boundaries show us what we are responsible for, and they help us define what we are NOT responsible for. Like other people.

To and For

We are responsible TO others and FOR ourselves.

Gal 6:22 (NIV): “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” = Responsibility TO one another. Helping someone who has a burden too heavy to bear. Not enough strength, resources or knowledge to carry the load.

Gal 6:5: “Each one should carry his own load.” Everyone should carry his or her own responsibilities.

Greek word for burden = “excess burdens.” Like boulders. Need help.

Load = “cargo,” or “the burden of daily toil.” Like knapsacks. Carry our own.

Problems arise when people act as if their boulders are daily loads, and refuse help. . . or as if their daily loads are boulders they shouldn’t have to carry.

Results: either perpetual pain or irresponsibility.

Nature of boundaries

Good In, Bad Out

Boundaries help us distinguish our own property lines so we can take care of ourselves and be good stewards of who we are.

Boundaries are like fences to keep the good in and the bad out. They guard our treasures so people will not steal them. (Saying no to premarital sex so no one takes one’s virginity, which is a treasure.)

Sometimes we have bad on the inside and good on the outside. So our fences need gates in them.

Bad inside: I need to open up to confess sin and pain so I can be forgiven and healed.

Good outside: open gates to let Jesus in, let other people into our hearts.

So. . . boundaries are not walls. They need to be somewhat permeable.

God and Boundaries

Concept of boundaries is rooted in the nature of God Himself.

God defines Himself as a distinct, separate being, and He is responsible for Himself. He defines and takes responsibility for His personality by telling us what He thinks, feels, plans, allows, will not allow, likes, and dislikes.

He defines Himself as separate from His creation and from us. He says, I am who I am and there is no other God but me. He says he is love and he is not darkness.

God limits what He will allow in His yard. He confronts sin and allows consequences for behavior. He guards His house and will not allow evil things to go on there. He invites people in who will love Him, and He lets His love flow out to them at the same time. His gates open and close appropriately.

God made us in His image and likeness. We are also to take personal responsibility.

Examples of Boundaries

Boundaries are anything that helps to differentiate you from someone else, and show where you begin and end.

Skin

Our skin tells us where our bodies end. Victims of physical and sexual abuse often have poor boundaries because they were violated. They were taught early that their property did not really begin at their skin. Others could invade their property and do whatever they wanted. As a result, they have trouble establishing boundaries later in life.

Words

The most basic boundary-setting word is NO.

Being clear about your no—and your yes—is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. Let your yes be yes and your no be no (Matt 5:7).

The Bible says we are to confront people we love saying, “No, that behavior is not okay. I will not participate in that.” The word NO is also important in setting limits on abuse. Many passages of Scripture urge us to say no to others’ sinful treatment of us. Matt. 18:15-20 tells you what to do when someone sins against you—how to confront them.

Our words let people know where we stand and give them a sense of our “edges” that help say, “This is where I end.”

“I don’t like it when you yell at me!” gives people a clear message about how you conduct relationships and lets them know the “rules” of your yard.

Mom: “If you whine and beg and plead, the answer is automatically no.”

How boundaries develop in toddlers:

The word NO helps children separate from what they don’t like. It gives them the power to make choices. It protects them. Learning to deal with a child’s no is crucial to that child’s development.

Parents have two tasks associated with no.

1. They need to help their child feel safe enough to say no, thereby encouraging his or her own boundaries.

Not having to kiss and hug relatives if they don’t want to.
Not having to finish all the food on their plates.
Getting to making choices in what to wear from among Mom’s choices. “You’re in charge of deciding what you’re going to wear.”

2. Helping the child respect others’ boundaries. They need to not only give a no, but take a no.

This means not giving in to temper tantrums in a store.

It means time-outs, appropriate confrontations, and spanking, when necessary.

When kids set boundaries, it’s essential that they be honored. “I know, you don’t want to take a nap right now.”

And it’s crucial that their NO’s not result in a withdrawal of love. Parents need to stay attached to their children even when they disagree with them. When parents detach from a misbehaving young child instead of staying connected and dealing with the problem, they tell a lie about God’s constant love. When parents pull away in hurt, disappointment, or rage, they send this message to the child: “You’re lovable when you behave. You aren’t lovable when you don’t behave.”

The child translates that message something like this: “When I’m good, I am loved. When I’m bad, I am cut off.”

Parents who pull away from their child are practicing spiritual and emotional blackmail.

Parents who tell their children, “It hurts us when you’re angry” make the child responsible for the emotional health of the parent. In effect, the child has just been made the parent of the parent—sometimes at two or three years old. It’s far, far better to say, “I know you’re angry, but you still can’t have that toy.”

Geographical distance

Sometimes physically removing yourself from a situation helps maintains boundaries. Or you can remove yourself to get away from danger and put limits on evil. “Flee youthful lusts.”

The Bible urges us to separate from those who continue to hurt us and to create a safe place for ourselves. Removing yourself from the situation will also cause the one who is left behind to experience a loss of fellowship that may lead to changed behavior. (Matthew 18:17-18; 1 Corinthians 5:11-13)

When a relationship is abusive, many times the only way to finally show the other person that your boundaries are real is to create space until they are ready to deal with the problem. The Bible supports the idea of limiting togetherness for the sake of binding evil.

Time

Time off from a person or a project can be a way to regain ownership over some out-of-control aspect of your life where boundaries need to be set.

Adult children who have never spiritually and emotionally separated from parents often need time away.

Emotional distance

This is a temporary boundary to give your heart the space it needs to be safe; it is never intended to be a permanent way of living.

If you have been in an abusive relationship, you should wait until it is safe to go back, after patterns of real change have been established and demonstrated. We should look for “fruit in keeping with repentance” and not return too quickly.

Consequences

Biblical principle: trespassing on other people’s property carries consequences. Just as the Bible sets consequences for certain behaviors, we need to back up our boundaries with consequences.

How many marriages would have been saved if one spouse had followed through with the threat of “If you don’t stop drinking/coming home at midnight/hitting me/yelling at the kids, I will leave until you get help!”

How many young people’s lives would have been turned around if their parents had followed through with their threat of “No more money if you quit another job without having another one lined up,” or “You can’t live here if you continue to smoke marijuana in my house.”

2 Thess 3:10: “If one will not work, neither let him eat.” God does not enable irresponsible behavior. Hunger is a consequence of laziness. (Prov 16:26: “A worker’s appetite works for him, For his hunger urges him on.”)

Consequences give some good “barbs” to fences. They let people know the seriousness of the trespass and the seriousness of our respect for ourselves.

“I’m serious.”

What’s Within My Boundaries?

P. 38-39 Good Samaritan Story

Feelings

You feel your feelings, and they are yours, and you have the right to feel what you feel.

Feelings are like the light on a car’s dashboard: they tell us that something needs attention. Anger is a hot feeling that says, “My boundary has been violated.”

“You shouldn’t feel that way,” or “Oh, you don’t feel that!” is disrespectful.

Behaviors

Behaviors have consequences. “A man reaps what he sows” (Gal. 6:7-8).

Study · reap good grades
Go to work· get a paycheck
Stay home · get fired, have no money
Overeat · get fat

Natural consequences of our behavior.

The problem comes when someone interrupts the law of sowing and reaping in another’s life. A person’s drinking or abuse or irresponsibility SHOULD have consequences for him.

To rescue people from the natural consequences of their behavior is to render them powerless and keeps them immature.

Parenting with love and limits, with warmth and consequences, produces confident children who have a sense of control over their lives. “Bummer! What are you going to do about that?”

Choices

We need to take responsibility for our choices. This leads to the fruit of self-control. A common boundary problem is disowning our choices and trying to lay the responsibility for them on someone else. “I had to,” or “She made me,” or “See what you made me do?” . . . “I had no other choice.” Oh yes you did, but you didn’t like the other choices.

Limits

Two aspects of limits:

1. Setting limits on others. Really, a misnomer: we can’t do that. What we CAN do is let limits on our own exposure to people who are behaving poorly; we can’t change them or make them behave right. Our model is God. He doesn’t set limits on people to make them behave. He sets standards, but He lets people be who they are and then separates Himself from them when they misbehave: “You can be that way if you choose, but you cannot come into My house.” God limits His exposure to evil, unrepentant people, and so should we. The Bible says to separate ourselves from people who act in destructive ways. We are not being unloving. Separating ourselves protects love, because we are taking a stand against things that destroy love.

2. Setting our own internal limits. We need to have spaces inside ourselves where we can have a feeling, an impulse, a desire, without acting on it. We need self-control without repression. We own our feelings and we own the decision to NOT act on them. We need to be able to say no to ourselves, to destructive desires, and to good ones that are not for right now.

Boundary problems

Saying yes to the bad

When parents teach children that setting boundaries or saying no is bad, they are teaching them that others can do with them as they wish. They are sending their children defenseless into an evil world.

To feel safe in an evil world, children need to have the power to say things like:

· No.

· I disagree.

· I will not.

· I choose not to.

· Stop that.

· It hurts.

· It’s wrong.

· That’s bad.

· I don’t like it when you touch me there.

These are all ways to guard our hearts by setting boundaries against evil.

Blocking a child’s ability to say no handicaps that child for life.

The inability to say no to the bad is pervasive. Not only does it keep us from refusing evil in our lives, it often keeps us from RECOGNIZING evil. We can have broken spiritual and emotional “radar.” No ability to guard our hearts.

Saying no to the good

Boundaries with fences that have no gates. Unable to open up and share with people, to allow love to come in.

God designed our personal boundaries to have gates. We should have the freedom to enjoy safe relationships and to avoid destructive ones. God even gave us the freedom to let Him in or close Him off:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

God has no interest in violating our boundaries so that He can relate to us. It’s our responsibility to open up to Him.

People who say no to the good find it impossible to ask for what they need.

Controllers: Not Respecting Others’ Boundaries

They have a problem hearing and accepting others’ boundaries. No is simply a challenge to change the other person’s mind. Controllers can’t respect others’ limits. They resist taking responsibility for their own lives, so they need to control others.

Controllers believe the old jokes about training top sales people: no means maybe, and maybe means yes. It may help with sales, but it wreaks havoc in relationships. Controllers are perceived as bullies, manipulative and aggressive.

They tend to project responsibility for their lives onto others. They use various means of control to motivate others to carry the load intended by God to be theirs alone.

Boulder/knapsack: They look for someone to carry their knapsacks in addition to their boulders.

They come in 2 types:

1. Aggressive controllers. Steamrollers. They live in a world of yes. Think of Peter in Mark 8: Jesus “began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (v.31). Peter rebuked Him. Jesus rebuked Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (v.33). Peter didn’t want to accept the Lord’s boundaries. Jesus immediately confronted Peter’s violation of his boundaries.

2. Manipulative controllers. Less honest than aggressive controllers, they try to persuade people out of their boundaries. They talk others into yes. They indirectly manipulate circumstances to get their way. They seduce others into carrying their burdens. They use guilt messages.

· Tom Sawyer tricking his playmates into whitewashing the fence for him: he made it seem like such a privilege that kids were lined up to paint!

· Isaac’s son Jacob finagled Esau into giving up his birthright. With his mother’s help, deceived his father into bestowing Esau’s blessing on him. Jacob’s name means “deceiver.” God confronted Jacob’s manipulative boundarylessness by wrestling with him all night and left Jacob with a dislocated hip.

Only when the manipulative controller is confronted with her dishonesty can she take responsibility for it, repent of it, and accept her and others’ limits.

Those who say yes to the bad and no to the good can also be controllers. They tend to be more manipulative than aggressive. When they need emotional support, they may do a favor for a friend. They hope that by being loving, they’ll receive love. So then they wait, anticipating the return of the favor. And sometimes they wait for years. Especially if they performed the favor for someone who can’t read minds.

What’s wrong with this picture? It’s not a picture of love. Godly love doesn’t seek a return on its investment: “It is not self-seeking,” (1 Cor. 13:5). Caring for someone so they’ll care back for us is simply an indirect means of controlling someone else. If you’ve ever been on the “receiving” end of that kind of maneuver, you’ll understand. One minute you’ve taken the compliment, or favor—the next minute you’ve hurt someone’s feelings by not figuring out the price tag attached.

Next Lesson: Consequences: The Law of Sowing and Reaping

Related Topics: Boundaries, Christian Life, Messages, Spiritual Life, Wisdom, Women

Easter [2017]: Full Joy and Eternal Pleasure (Psalm 16)

Related Media

April 16, 2017

Special Easter Message

The French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, argued that all people without exception seek happiness and that this is the motive of every action of every person—even, he said, of those who hang themselves! (Blaise Pascal, Pascal’s Pensées, trans. by W. F. Trotter [E. P. Dutton], p. 113, cited by John Piper, Desiring God [Multnomah Books], Tenth Anniversary Ed. p. 16.) The problem is, people think that sin will bring lasting joy and pleasure. But sin always deceives. It delivers pleasure at first (Heb. 11:25), but ultimately that passing pleasure rots into corruption (Gal. 6:8).

If I were to ask, “What word pops into your mind when you think of God, would you reply, “Joy!” “Pleasure!” You should! The Bible repeatedly teaches that full joy and lasting pleasure are found in only one place: in the presence of God. Psalm 34:8 invites us, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Deuteronomy 12:12 commands, “And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God ….” Verse 18 repeats, “You shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all your undertakings.” Deuteronomy 27:7 says it again: “You shall rejoice before the Lord your God.” In the New Testament, from prison Paul writes (Phil. 3:1), “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” So that we don’t miss it, he repeats (Phil. 4:4), “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” The Holy Spirit is the source of joy (Rom. 14:17; 15:13; Gal. 5:22). These and many more verses invite us to find full joy and lasting pleasure in God.

Psalm 16 is about experiencing joy and pleasure in God (v. 11): “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” The scholarly German commentator, Franz Delitzsch, wrote of Psalm 16 (Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes [Eerdmans], by C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, p. 217), “There reigns in the whole Psalm, a settled calm, an inward joy, and a joyous confidence, which is certain that everything that it can desire for the present and for the future it possesses in its God.” The message of the Psalm is:

To have full joy and eternal pleasure, make the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ your supreme treasure.

The psalm divides into two main sections: Verses 1-6 describe how to make the Lord your supreme treasure. Verses 7-11 show the results that follow: you will be satisfied with full joy and eternal pleasure in Him. But, also, all commentators agree that verses 8-11 speak prophetically of Christ’s death and resurrection, because both Peter and Paul quoted these verses of Him (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35). So I add a third point that all of God’s treasures are secured by the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Make the crucified and risen Lord your supreme treasure.

The first section (Ps. 16:1-6) shows five ways to make the Lord your supreme treasure:

A. Make the Lord your refuge and Savior.

Psalm 16:1: “Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.” David probably wrote this psalm when his life was in danger: He needed rescue and a refuge. Rather than trusting in a physical stronghold (although he may have taken refuge in one), David trusted and took refuge in God. The truth is, we all need a place of refuge and protection, both in time and for eternity.

Temporally, we instinctively try to protect ourselves from harm and danger. We avoid risks that could kill us. We wear seat belts when we drive. We avoid smoking and eating junk foods that can cause disease. While we should do all of these things, we also should take refuge in God to protect us. Fasten your seat belt, but pray for safety. Take proper care of your body, but pray for health. We need the Lord’s protection constantly in this life.

But far more than temporal protection, we need an eternal place of refuge. The fact is, we’re all going to die and stand before the holy God in judgment. How can we avoid condemnation on that day? All of the good works you can pile up will not erase the fact that you have sinned and that the wages of sin is eternal separation from God. If you were guilty of multiple murders, but you tried to argue in court that you’re a basically good person who devoted your spare time to helping the needy, you’d still be convicted. Jesus said that all who have been angry with someone else are guilty of murder in God’s sight (Matt. 5:21-22). I don’t know of anyone who can honestly say, “I’ve never been angry!” So we all need a way to take care of our many sins before we stand before God.

The good news is: God has provided Jesus Christ as the Savior for all sinners who trust in Him. He is the refuge from God’s wrath for all who flee to Him. Jesus bore the curse of God’s wrath that we deserve for our sins, so that God could be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). Paul wrote (Rom. 10:13), “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That promise is for you! To have full joy and eternal pleasure, flee now to Jesus as your refuge and Savior. Then you will be safe on judgment day.

B. Make the Lord your Lord and your supreme good.

Psalm 16:2: “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.” Scholars translate the last phrase of verse 2 in one of two ways. The New KJV renders it, “My goodness is nothing apart from You.” This would mean that God does not need our good works, because they can contribute nothing to Him.

But most scholars understand the verse to mean (as in the NASB), “I have no good besides You.” As Psalm 73:25 proclaims, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.” It goes on to state (Ps. 73:28), “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge …” Sam Storms (enjoyinggodministries.com/article/satisfaction-psalm-16) comments: “Everything without God is pathetically inferior to God without everything.”

Can you truly affirm, “Lord, I have no other good besides You”? The only way you can truthfully say that is if you can affirm the first part of the verse: “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord.’” David was a part of the larger covenant people of God. But that’s not enough. In modern terms, it’s not enough to be from a Christian family or to be a church member. You must personally be able to say, “Jesus, You are my Lord.” Only when you know Jesus personally as your Lord can you begin to know Him as your only good.

Jesus explained this by two parables (Matt. 13:44-46):

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Being a Christian means that the Spirit of God has opened your eyes to see Jesus as that treasure in the field. He is the pearl of great value. The joy of finding Him makes it worth giving up everything else to gain Christ. As Paul explained it (Phil. 3:7-8):

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ….

Have you done that? Has God opened your eyes to see Jesus as your treasure and supreme good, so that you have said, “Jesus, You are my Lord”? That’s the only path to lasting joy and pleasure.

C. Make the Lord the center of your relationships.

Ps. 16:3: “As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.” Making the Lord our only good (v. 2) does not imply becoming a monk in solitary confinement. Rather, it is to put God at the center of everything, including our relationships. David’s point in verse 3 is that his joy in God is enhanced because he has delighted himself in the company of God’s people, whom he calls “saints” and “majestic ones.” These terms describe God’s people as those set apart unto Him, whose character is excellent or upright. The idea is that the path to lasting joy and pleasure is not a solitary journey. We travel in the company of fellow pilgrims, growing in holiness and love as together we find joy in God.

Thus make the Lord your supreme treasure by making Him your refuge and Savior; by making Him your Lord and your supreme good; by making Him the center of your relationships.

D. Make the Lord the exclusive object of your worship.

David’s thoughts about God’s saints cause him to reflect on those who turn their backs on God and pursue idols (Ps. 16:4): “The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied; I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor will I take their names upon my lips.” The Hebrew verb here can be translated either “bartered for” (NASB), or “run after” (ESV, NIV). Either way, the idea is that they have forsaken the living and true God to go after idols. But those idols never provide fullness of joy, but rather multiplied sorrows.

That’s always the case when we pursue the idols of this world! The false gods of financial success, sensual pleasure, or personal peace always promise fulfillment, but result in sorrow. So make the Lord the exclusive object of your worship.

E. Make the Lord your present and eternal inheritance.

Ps. 16:5-6: “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; you support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.” In the same way, Paul says that in Christ we have obtained an inheritance (Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:17) and that in the ages to come, God will show us “the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). It will take all eternity to discover our inheritance!

The idea behind Psalm 16:5-6 is that of God’s apportioning the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. But God did not give an inheritance of land to the priestly tribe of Levi. Rather, the Lord said to Aaron (Num. 18:20), “You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.”

As David reflects on this, his thought is that having the Lord as his portion is better than the best piece of land that anyone could inherit. John Calvin comments (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Ps. 16, p. 226), “For he who has God as his portion is destitute of nothing which is requisite to constitute a happy life.” C. S. Lewis wrote (The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996], p. 31): “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.” David’s primary joy is not in God’s gifts, but in the Lord Himself (Willem VanGemeren, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, [Zondervan] ed. by Frank Gaebelein, 5:157).

Can you honestly say, “I have made the Lord my supreme treasure”? You make that choice when you trust in Christ as your Savior, but then you should be growing to treasure Him more and more as you walk with Him (Phil. 3:7-16). What happens when the Spirit of God enables you to do this?

2. When the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ is your supreme treasure, He will satisfy you with full joy and eternal pleasure.

Psalm 16:7-11 lists four blessings that result when you make the Lord your supreme treasure:

A. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you enjoy His counsel and instruction.

Ps. 16:7: “I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.” The Hebrew word for “mind” (lit. “kidneys”) refers to the innermost personal life (J. J. Stewart Perowne, The Book of Psalms [Zondervan], p. 194). “Night” is plural in Hebrew, so the thought is, “night after night the Lord has counseled and instructed me as I have meditated upon Him.” David may be referring to the night watches or to times when he woke up in the night and thought about the Lord. When you treasure God’s Word in your heart, you receive His instruction and counsel that will sustain you during nights of difficulty and trials.

B. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience His stability in trials.

Ps. 16:8: “I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Your responsibility is to set the Lord continually before you. In Paul’s words (Col. 3:1-2), “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” When you do that, Isaiah 26:3 explains the result: “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.” When you know that the Lord is at your right hand, even though you may be surrounded by powerful enemies, you will have the peace of knowing that they cannot touch you unless it is God’s will (2 Kings 6:8-17).

C. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience gladness and joy because you are secure in Him.

Ps. 16:9: “Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely.” Glory refers to the soul. By adding, “my flesh,” David means that his total being, inward and outward, is glad and joyful because God has caused him to live securely. When you reflect on your security in Christ (as Paul does in Romans 8), you can’t help but be glad and rejoice in the Lord. If God is your treasure then you’re His treasure (Deut. 26:18), and God never loses His treasure! Rejoice!

D. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience eternal joy and pleasure in God’s presence.

Ps. 16:10-11: “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” As we’ll see in a moment, these verses find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. But as applied to David, the idea is either that the Lord will preserve and prolong his life; or, although he will die, the Lord will not permit him to suffer eternal destruction. To undergo decay “is a metaphor for total isolation and abandonment from God’s presence” (VanGemeren, p. 158). Rather than that, by walking in “the path of life,” David had hope beyond the grave that he would enjoy full joy and eternal pleasure in God’s presence. That’s your hope if you know the Lord Jesus as your supreme treasure.

David’s satisfaction (seen in v. 11) stands in stark contrast to the sad experience of his son, Solomon. Solomon sought satisfaction in his work, but found it empty. He sought fulfillment through wisdom, but found it vain. He built a beautiful palace and landscaped it with a fabulous garden, but found no pleasure in it. He tried laughter and wine, but found these to be madness. He had sexual pleasures with 700 beautiful wives and 300 concubines, but they could not satisfy him. He had fabulous wealth, but it couldn’t buy him happiness. He chronicles all of this in Ecclesiastes. Although he finally found contentment in the Lord (Eccl. 12:13), he should have learned sooner from his father to make the Lord his supreme treasure!

But maybe you’re wondering, “If I don’t go after worldly pleasure and instead seek pleasure in God, how can I be sure of the eternal joy and pleasure that God promises? Maybe I’ll have a hard life of suffering and then die and that’s it. How can I know that I will have joy and pleasure forever with God beyond the grave?”

3. God’s promises of eternal joy and pleasure are secured by the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ (Ps. 16:8-11).

Both Peter and Paul (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35-37) cite Psalm 16 and assert that verse 10 did not find final fulfillment in David, in that he died and his body underwent decay. David wrote prophetically of his Son, God’s Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. After citing Psalm 16:8-11, Peter concludes (Acts 2:29-32):

“Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.”

The consistent apostolic witness was that Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection proved Him to be God’s promised Messiah and Savior (Acts 3:15, 26; 4:10; 5:30). Even when the apostles suffered persecution and faced martyrdom, they kept proclaiming that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Paul went so far as to say that if Jesus is not risen bodily from the dead, our faith is worthless; we’re still in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). The entire Christian faith rests on the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection. That fact means that God’s promise of eternal joy and pleasure in His presence is secure for those who trust in the crucified and risen Savior!

Conclusion

The current movie, “The Case for Christ,” tells the true story of the conversion of Lee Strobel. He was an atheistic legal affairs reporter for the Chicago Tribune when his wife unexpectedly came to faith in Christ. At first, he vigorously opposed her faith. But eventually, he decided to investigate the claims of Christ and His resurrection by applying the investigative skills he used as a crime reporter. Although the movie only pictures a few interviews, Strobel’s book (The Case for Christ [Zondervan]) tells how for over two years Strobel crisscrossed the country, interviewing 13 scholars. Rather than disproving the claims of Christ, eventually Strobel came to realize that the evidence supports the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. He put his trust in Christ.

More than a century before, the same thing happened to Simon Greenleaf (1783–1853). He was a law professor at Harvard, who wrote the three-volume legal masterpiece, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which is still regarded as “the greatest single authority in the entire literature of legal procedure.” The U.S. judicial system today operates on rules of evidence established by Greenleaf.

While teaching law at Harvard, Professor Greenleaf stated to his class that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was simply a legend; as an atheist he thought miracles to be impossible. In a rebuttal, three of his law students challenged him to apply his acclaimed rules of evidence to the resurrection account. Eventually, Greenleaf took up the challenge, attempting to prove that the resurrection account was false. Yet the more Greenleaf investigated the record of history, the more stunned he was at the powerful evidence supporting the claim that Jesus had indeed risen from the tomb. He was so persuaded by the evidence that he became a committed Christian. (Greenleaf’s story taken from http://y-jesus.com/simon-greenleaf-resurrection.)

God’s promises of full joy and eternal pleasure are secured by the fact that Jesus died for our sins and He was raised from the dead, as the apostolic witnesses uniformly proclaim. But those promises only apply to you if you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus as the one who died for your sins and was raised from the dead. God offers you full joy and eternal pleasure in Jesus Christ. Sell all that you have to buy the field with that great treasure of Christ and you will have full joy and pleasures forever in Him!

Application Questions

Your friend claims to be a Christian, but is not experiencing joy in Christ. He asks your help. Where would you begin?
Is it okay to enjoy things other than God (family, friends, possessions, etc.)? When do they become idols?
Is it sin to be depressed? Why/why not? Defend biblically.
Does Psalm 16 alter your view of God? How so?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Lesson 3: The Mission of the Church (Matthew 28:19-20; 22:37-40)

Related Media

April 23, 2017

A grocery store owner in England decided that he had to ban customers from coming into his store. He said that he was forced to take such drastic action because of people’s bad manners. First, he banned smoking, then crude language, baby strollers, pets, and finally, customers themselves. Shoppers must now look through the window, spot the items they want, and then ring a bell to be served through a small hatch in the door. The owner admitted, “I have lost business, but I cannot say how much. But I am a man of principles, and I stand by my decision!” (FlagLive [June 4-10, 1998.) That storekeeper had lost sight of his mission!

While that story is ridiculous, it’s easy as a church to lose sight of our mission. If they’re not careful, churches begin to accumulate various programs, many of which were legitimate when they started. But over time, those running the programs forget the church’s mission and drift off course. Pretty soon, the church becomes cluttered with cherished programs that keep everyone busy, but don’t help work toward to the church’s mission (see Simple Church [Broadman & Holman], by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.) We’re doing many good things, but we’ve forgotten the main thing. So it’s important to answer and then keep coming back to the question, “What is the church’s mission?” In a nutshell:

The church’s mission is to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel to the lost and making Christlike disciples who make Christlike disciples.

There are other ways to say it. J. I. Packer (Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs [Tyndale], p. 194, cited by Joshua Harris, Dug Down Deep [Multnomah], p. 207) wrote: “The task of the church is to make the invisible kingdom visible through faithful Christian living and witness-bearing.” Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert (What is the Mission of the Church? [Crossway], pp. 62, 241) argue that the mission of the church is the Great Commission. They elaborate (italics theirs), “The mission of the church is to go into the world and make disciples by declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and gathering these disciples into churches, that they might worship and obey Jesus Christ now and in eternity to the glory of God the Father.”

Our church’s vision statement (see fcfonline.org) is built around the two great commandments and the Great Commission: “At Flagstaff Christian Fellowship we aim to build a community of joyful believers in Jesus Christ who love God and His Word, love one another, and love those without Christ by bringing them the good news of salvation.” Our mission statement is briefer: “We want to exalt God by helping each person fervently love God and others; and to help make disciples of all people groups.” Thus we have an upward focus: glorify and love God; an inward focus: love one another; and an outward focus: proclaim the gospel. And, the process isn’t complete until the disciples we produce are making other disciples.

1. The church’s mission is to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel to the lost.

To glorify God is to exalt Him or make Him look good as He truly is. The gospel (“good news”) is at the heart of glorifying God because God’s sending His own Son to pay the penalty for sinners so that He can offer forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a free gift to all who believe exalts God’s love, grace, holiness, and justice as nothing else can.

So Jesus’ ministry was centered on proclaiming the gospel. Mark 1:14-15 reports, “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” And at the very end of His ministry, just before He ascended, the risen Lord Jesus entrusted His followers with the Great Commission. The four Gospels plus the Book of Acts have different versions of this commission, showing that Jesus repeated it for emphasis in various forms:

Matt. 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Mark 16:15 (in the textually disputed longer ending): “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

Luke 24:46-48: “And He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.’”

John 20:21: “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’”

Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

The gospel was also the foundation of Paul’s ministry. Hoping to visit the church in Rome, he wrote (Rom. 1:15-16): “So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” He reminded the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:1-4):

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures ….

Also, Paul emphasized the centrality of the gospel in founding the church in Thessalonica:

1 Thess. 2:2: “but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.”

1 Thess. 2:8: “Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.”

1 Thess. 2:9: “For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.”

In this message, I can only make three observations about our mission of proclaiming the gospel:

A. We glorify God by proclaiming His gospel with verbal clarity.

In a somewhat surprising prayer request, given toward the end of Paul’s ministry, he wrote (Col. 4:3-4): “… praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” In Ephesians (6:19-20), written around the same time, he asks for prayer that he would be bold in making the gospel known. I wouldn’t have thought that Paul needed prayer for gospel clarity or boldness, but he felt that he did! And if Paul needed clarity and boldness, how much more do we!

Satan, the master deceiver, has always tried to muddy the water when it comes to the gospel. In Galatia, the Judaizers believed that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, but they tacked on a “small” addition: you also must be circumcised and keep the Jewish ceremonial laws. But Paul strongly labeled this a different gospel which is not a gospel at all and called down God’s condemnation on these false teachers (Gal. 1:6-9)! All through the New Testament, right up to the churches in Revelation 2 & 3, we see that many forms of false teaching had already infected the early church. The infection has continued down through church history.

In our day, there are multiple errors concerning the gospel. Many who profess to follow Christ, as well as most of the cults, muddy the gospel as the Judaizers did by adding human merits or good works to faith in Christ as the requirement for salvation. The “prosperity gospel” appeals to greed and selfishness by falsely promising a life of health and wealth if you believe in Jesus. Others sell the gospel as a spiritual form of self-help: “Would you like a happy life, a happy family, and personal success? Come to Jesus!” Another movement falsely tells people that you can receive Jesus as Savior and be assured of heaven even if you continue to live in your sins with no repentance. And, the church has always been plagued by various forms of legalism, which make salvation contingent on keeping certain rules that the Bible does not command.

So we must be clear on the gospel and make that vital message clear to those whom Satan has blinded. The gospel is the message of salvation from God’s eternal judgment: We all have sinned and deserve His judgment (John 3:18, 36; Rom. 3:23). Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh, died in the place of sinners, bearing the penalty we deserve (John 1:29; 3:14-17; Rom. 3:24-26; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:24). God justifies (“declares righteous”) and freely gives eternal life to every sinner who repents and believes in Jesus (John 3:16; Acts 11:18; Rom. 3:24; 4:4-5; Gal. 3:7-9).

B. We glorify God by proclaiming His gospel to all people.

The Great Commission extends to the whole world because Jesus is the Savior of the whole world (John 1:29; 3:16; 4:42). Jesus purchased for God with His blood those “from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). They will glorify God before His throne forever and ever (Rev. 7:9-12)! So the church should be committed to the cause of world missions. John Piper (Let the Nations Be Glad [Baker Academic], p. 9), cites John Stott, who says that the highest motive for missions is not obedience to the Great Commission nor even love for sinners. Rather, it is passionate zeal for the glory of God. Thus Piper (p. 17) adds, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”

C. We glorify God by verbally proclaiming His gospel backed up by Christlike love to all people.

This is to say that our Christlike lives are the foundation for our verbal witness. Jesus said that people will know that we are His disciples if we love one another even as He loved us (John 13:34-35). Paul reminded the Thessalonians that he imparted to them not only the gospel, but also his own life. He goes on to remind them of his godly behavior that backed up his gospel witness (1 Thess. 2:8-11). The enemy has repeatedly used the hypocrisy of those who profess to be Christians, but live just as the world lives, to undermine the gospel message.

When we talk about love for people, the question comes up, “What about social ministries? Isn’t the church called to help meet the physical needs of the poor?” (DeYoung and Gilbert deal extensively with this in What is the Mission of the Church? See especially chapters 6-8.) While obviously we would not be loving our neighbor to proclaim the gospel to him and leave him starving, at the same time, it would not be loving to feed him without proclaiming the gospel. In other words, meeting social needs may be a means to evangelism, but meeting social needs alone is not evangelism (Mark Dever, The Church: the Gospel Made Visible [Broadman & Holman], p. 82). Evangelism is telling people the good news about Jesus Christ and the free gift of salvation that He alone offers.

DeYoung and Gilbert (p. 242) explain why we must focus on the gospel: “In the end, the Great Commission must be the mission of the church for two very basic reasons: there is something worse than death, and there is something better than human flourishing.” The “something worse than death” is to spend eternity in hell (Luke 12:4-5). The “something better than human flourishing” is to spend eternity in the presence of God, enjoying His eternal pleasures and the riches of His grace (Ps. 16:11; Eph. 2:8).

But, there is more to our mission than just getting people “in the door” of salvation:

2. The church’s mission is to glorify God by making Christlike disciples who love God and one another.

The Great Commission task is not just to make converts, but to make disciples—obedient followers of Christ (Matt. 28:19-20). Their baptism is an initial act of obedience to Him that signifies being identified with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4). It pictures death to our old life and being raised up to walk in newness of life. Also, we are to teach them to obey all that Jesus commanded. This is a lifelong process of learning and growth, of course. But if a person professes to know Jesus as Savior, but he is not seeking to grow in obedience to Jesus’ commands, his profession is shaky, at best.

But perhaps you wonder, “What are Jesus’ commands?” There are dozens of commands in the Bible. Where do you start? When can you say, “I’m now a disciple because I obey Jesus’ commands?” Jesus summed up all of the 613 commandments of the Law into two, which He said were the greatest (Matt. 22:37-40):

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

A. Christlike disciples love God above all else.

This is a lifelong process that is never perfect in this life. But when we trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, we begin to love Him and love the Father who sent Him for our salvation. We seek to please Him as His beloved children (Eph. 5:1-2). This growing love for God also involves hating the sin that put our Savior on the cross (Eph. 5:3-14). As Psalm 97:10a exhorts, “Hate evil, you who love the Lord.” Jesus even said that His disciples must hate their own families and their own lives in comparison to their love for Him (Luke 14:26-27). Love for God must be first. Again, this is our growing direction, not a matter of perfection.

Love for God also includes worshiping Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). Anglican archbishop William Temple gave this eloquent definition of worship: “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God.” John MacArthur defines worship (The Ultimate Priority [Moody Press], p. 127): “Worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words, based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself.” Or, more briefly, MacArthur says (ibid. p. 147): “Worship is all that we are, reacting rightly to all that He is.”

Of course we must be worshiping God individually in private if our corporate gatherings are to be truly worshipful. We aren’t worshiping God “in truth” unless we’re growing both in understanding and applying God’s word of truth.

B. Christlike disciples build up one another in love.

Christlike love for one another is the primary mark of His true disciples (John 13:34-35). As Paul explained (1 Cor. 13), you can have all gifts and all knowledge and great faith, but if you lack love, you are nothing. The first fruit of the Spirit is love (Gal. 5:22-23). Like love for God, we must grow in love for one another. This means working through relational conflicts and misunderstandings, whether in our homes or at church, with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with and forgiving one another (Col. 3:12-13).

Paul explains how the church is to exercise our God-given gifts to build up one another in love (Eph. 4:11-16):

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

So my aim as a pastor-teacher is to equip you for service so that as you grow up in Christ, you can exercise your gifts one to another, resulting in the growth of the church in love. But, if we’re a loving church, but we’re just inwardly focused, we aren’t becoming Christlike disciples. Jesus summed up His own mission (Luke 19:10): “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Thus …

3. The church’s mission is to glorify God by making Christlike disciples who make Christlike disciples.

If we aren’t making disciples who make disciples, we’re only talking to ourselves. We’d be like doctors who only see patients who are well. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). Those repentant sinners go and make disciples of others who repent and believe the gospel. As those repentant sinners become disciples, they make other disciples. In other words, it’s a process of multiplication, where disciples make disciples who make more disciples. Each of us is a product of that process.

Paul put it this way to his disciple Timothy (2 Tim. 2:2): “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” There are four generations of disciples in that verse: Paul, Timothy, the faithful men whom Timothy taught, and those whom these faithful men would teach. So if you came to faith, but you aren’t making other disciples, you’re short-circuiting the process. You’re not functioning as a true disciple unless you’re seeking to make other disciples who will make still other disciples.

This requires getting to know others and imparting to them what you’ve learned and practice in your walk with Christ. And it isn’t a one-way street. When Paul hoped to go to Rome, he said that he wanted to impart some spiritual gift to them, so that they would be established in their faith. But then he quickly added (Rom. 1:12), “that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.” So the veteran apostle acknowledged that he would grow through being with them, as well as they would grow through him.

Conclusion

I read (No matter How Thin You Slice it, It’s Still Baloney [Quill], ed. by Jean Arbeiter, p. 31) about a British bus company that received complaints that their drivers were speeding past lines of up to thirty people waiting for the bus. The company defended its drivers, stating, “It is impossible for the drivers to keep their timetable if they have to stop for passengers.” The company also commented, “Get rid of the people and the system runs fine.”

We could say the same thing about the church! But let’s not lose sight of our purpose as a church: “to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel and making Christlike disciples who make Christlike disciples.” To focus on anything else is to get off course.

Application Questions

Must every Christian have as his/her main purpose to help make disciples who make disciples? Support from Scripture.
How can you be more intentional about making disciples?
Do you agree that social ministries must take a back seat to evangelism and discipleship? Support from Scripture
Why would Paul request prayer for clarity in proclaiming the gospel? Can you state the gospel clearly in one minute or less?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: Ecclesiology (The Church)

Lesson 4: The Unity of the Church (John 17:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:1-6, 13)

Related Media

April 30, 2017

The unity of the church is one of the most important subjects in the New Testament, but it’s also one of the most difficult to apply in a biblically faithful manner. It is frequently misapplied when people say, “They will know that we are Christians by our love, not by our doctrinal agreement. Let’s focus on where we agree and set aside the areas where we disagree.” So sound doctrine gets jettisoned in favor of everyone joining hands and singing, “We are One in the Spirit.” But the resulting “unity” is not true biblical unity.

On the other side of the spectrum, in an attempt to preserve the purity of the church, some Christians divide from everyone who does not agree with them on even minor issues. For example, some will fellowship only with those who use the 1611 King James Bible. Others require that you agree with their views of prophecy, abstaining from all use of alcohol and tobacco, women not using makeup or wearing pants, or other debatable matters.

While the statistics vary widely, there are thousands of Protestant denominations in the world, plus many groups of Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Among the Baptists alone, there are dozens of different groups, including the Southern Baptists, American Baptists, Conservative Baptists, Calvinistic Baptists, Free Will Baptists, General Baptists, Landmark Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Old Regular Baptists, Old Time Missionary Baptists, Seventh Day Baptists, and Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists! Thankfully, in 2002 there were only about five congregations of the latter group left (wickipedia.org). I say “thankfully,” because they teach that everyone is predestined to be either good seed or bad seed and therefore mission activity is both unbiblical and useless! May their tribe decrease!

In the New Testament, the local church was primarily defined by the city: the church in Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, or wherever. All who believed in Jesus were a part of the church in the city where they lived. Probably in larger cities, these churches gathered in numerous house churches, since churches did not construct buildings for worship until the fourth century. But today there are often dozens of churches in every city in North America. In Flagstaff where we have about 70,000 people, we have somewhere over 50 Protestant churches, plus Catholic and Orthodox churches. Due to significant differences in doctrine and practice, I cannot see any way that we could ever come together as one church in Flagstaff.

The subject of unity is further complicated by the fact that there are different levels of unity. On an individual level, every true believer is one with every other true believer due to shared life in Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). Thus a believer can enjoy fellowship with any other believer, even if they go to different churches.

Also, churches that hold to the truth of the gospel, but hold to different secondary doctrinal distinctives, may join together for various common causes: evangelism, helping the poor, or prayer for community concerns. On an even wider level, churches may join together even with non-Christian groups to work for laws protecting the unborn, laws supporting the traditional family, anti-drug laws, etc. But we need to be careful that our common association does not imply to the public that we agree on spiritual matters.

While far more could be said (I have at least three messages on the unity of the church on the church website), in this message I will address three questions: (1) Why is Christian unity important? (2) What is biblical Christian unity? (3) How do we apply Christian unity in a way that is a witness to the world? The main idea is:

Because Christian unity is so important, we need to think biblically about what it means and how to apply it.

Why is Christian unity so important?

1. Christian unity is important because Christ died to secure it and it is a major factor in our witness to the world.

A. Christian unity is important because Christ died to secure it.

In Ephesians 2:13-16 Paul writes,

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

It took the cross to break down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles and to reconcile these two formerly alienated groups into one body in the church. To use the familiar phrase from Christian weddings, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Since Christ died for the unity of the church, it is an extremely important subject that we must labor to preserve and display.

B. Christian unity is important because it is a major factor in our witness to the world.

In Paul’s day, the divide between Jews and Gentiles was huge. If the church could display to the world the unity between these groups that Christ secured on the cross, it would be a powerful witness. Jesus said the same thing in His high priestly prayer the night before He was crucified (John 17:20-23):

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

While as I will point out next, the unity that Jesus secured at the cross is primarily spiritual and not visible, at the same time there must be a visible expression of it for the world to take notice. The unbelieving world should look at the church and realize that there is something unnatural happening here. Our visible unity should cause unbelievers to want to be a part of the church.

What is biblical Christian unity?

2. Biblical Christian unity is not primarily outward, but rather is an unseen reality based on shared life in Christ.

A. Biblical Christian unity is not primarily outward.

It is important to understand that there are two types of unity in the Bible. In Ephesians 4:3, Paul says that we are to be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The unity of the Spirit is already a fact for believers, but we must be diligent to preserve it. This is the unity Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 12:13: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Christ accomplished this unity on the cross (Eph. 2:13-16). We could call this “positional unity.”

But also, in Ephesians 4:13, after talking about the ministry of pastors and teachers who equip the saints for the work of ministry, Paul adds, “… until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” This unity of the faith is not yet a reality; we attain to as we grow to maturity in Christ. (See, also, Eph. 2:14-22.) We could call this “practical unity.” It’s a work in progress. Under this second point, I’m looking at positional unity. I’ll look at practical unity under point three.

As a spiritual reality, note three things unity is not:

1) Christian unity is not organizational unity.

Organizations such as the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches promote organizational or external unity among various denominations. The idea is to set aside the areas we differ and come together on common ground. But both councils are notoriously theologically and politically liberal and they include denominations that deny or compromise the gospel. Christ was not praying for a one-world church organized under one governing body.

2) Christian unity is not uniformity.

Being one body in Christ does not mean that we all must look alike, talk alike, and enjoy the same kinds of activities. Back in the early 1970’s, I knew many “hippie” young people who got swept up in the “Local Church” movement under the Chinese leader, Witness Lee. Suddenly, they cut off their long hair and beards and started wearing white shirts with narrow black ties, just as Witness Lee did. They even gestured and sounded like him when they talked. It was kind of eerie, but it had nothing to do with true Christian unity! The very analogy of being members of Christ’s body implies that all the members do not look the same or serve the same function. The beauty of the body is that it functions as one body although it consists of many different members.

3) Christian unity is not unanimity on every doctrine.

We need to think carefully here! There are three broad levels of Bible doctrines:

(a) Essential truths, necessary for salvation. To deny any of these would be heresy and a denial of the faith. These include: The inspiration and authority of the Bible; the trinity; the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ; His substitutionary death on the cross; His bodily resurrection and second coming; and, salvation by grace through faith alone, apart from works.

(b) Important, but non-saving, truth. These truths affect how we live as Christians, the way we understand God, man, salvation, the Christian life, etc. But genuine believers differ on these matters. Some examples: God’s sovereignty versus human free will in our salvation; views of baptism; church government; biblical prophecy; old earth or young earth creation; charismatic gifts; roles of men and women in the church and home; Christians and psychology; and, divorce and remarriage. Some of these issues border on essential doctrines; but we need to recognize that those who differ from us on these matters are still true believers in Jesus Christ.

(c) Interesting, but not essential or important matters. These issues won’t affect how you live your Christian life. They include minor interpretive issues on difficult texts; some methods that are not mandated by Scripture; and other issues. For example: Who were the sons of God in Genesis 6? When does the battle in Ezekiel 38 take place? Did Christ descend into hell (1 Pet. 3:19-20)?

B. Biblical Christian unity is an unseen truth based on shared life through saving faith in Christ.

The Father answered Jesus’ prayer for His people to be one through the ministry of the Holy Spirit who baptizes every believer into the one body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). This is the unity of the Spirit which Paul exhorts us to preserve (Eph. 4:3). He goes on to enumerate seven elements of Christian unity, arranged around each member of the trinity (Eph. 4:4-6): “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”

I cannot comment on these seven elements here (see my sermon, “The Basis for Christian Unity,” 2/3/08, on this text). Ironically, some of these seven items (the Holy Spirit; prophecy [“one hope”]; and baptism) have created significant divisions in the church! But, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out (Christian Unity [Baker], p. 49), Paul probably structured this section in this way to show “that the unity of the Church is a manifestation of the perfection of the Godhead.”

Lloyd-Jones also observes (Knowing the Times [Banner of Truth], p. 134) that the unity Paul is describing “is not just a question of friendliness or fellowship.” Rather, “It is something … which lifts us up into the realm of the blessed Holy Trinity…!” So true Christian unity isn’t discussing football scores over a cup of coffee! Rather, it’s bound up with our common relationship with the Triune God. It’s centered on our common salvation. We don’t need to work to establish it, but rather to preserve and perfect it in practice. This leads to the final question:

How do we apply Christian unity in a way that is a witness to the world?

3. For biblical Christian unity to be a witness to the world, we must work at preserving and perfecting it.

As I said, the unity of the Spirit is a fact through His baptizing all believers into the one body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). We are exhorted to preserve this positional unity (Eph. 4:3). But Paul goes on to say (Eph. 4:11-12) that as gifted leaders equip the body for the work of service, the goal is that (Eph. 4:13), “we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” This is practical unity that comes about as we grow to maturity by coming to know Jesus Christ in a deeper way. It is in large part doctrinal unity, shared by those who understand on an experiential level what the Bible reveals about who Jesus is.

So the practical question is, “How do we preserve the unity of the Spirit and perfect the unity of the faith?” I’m suggesting seven (the perfect number!) practical ways we can preserve and perfect true Christian unity:

A. We preserve and perfect unity by working at harmonious relationships with all believers.

As Paul exhorts (Eph. 4:1-2), we are “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” After talking about the unity of the body in Colossians (3:11), Paul adds (Col. 3:12-14),

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Harmonious relationships, whether in our homes or in the church, do not happen automatically or effortlessly. They take continuous hard work!

B. We preserve and perfect unity by growing in understanding biblical truth so that we know Christ more deeply.

We attain to the unity of the faith by coming to (Eph. 4:13) “the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Our unity deepens as we grow to know Christ as revealed in His word.

C. We preserve and perfect unity by displaying racial, cultural, and social unity and diversity.

Paul makes this point in Galatians 3:28 (see, also, Eph. 2:11-22; Col. 3:10-11): “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” He sought to demonstrate the unity between Jews and Gentiles in Christ by raising a large financial gift from the Gentile churches and delivering it to the poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.

I’m going to step on some toes here, but I think that it’s wrong to divide the church along ethnic or cultural lines, unless language is a factor. There should not be Jewish churches, Gentile churches, Black churches or Native American churches. The church should be as racially and culturally diverse as the community. In 2010, Flagstaff was approximately 64 percent white, 2 percent Black, 12 percent Native American, 18 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent Asian. The church should reflect those percentages.

D. We preserve and perfect unity by the acceptance and appreciation of one another’s different gifts.

Writing to the factious Corinthian church, Paul devotes the bulk of 1 Corinthians 12 to the analogy of the church as the one body of Christ, made up of many diverse but essential members. No member can rightly say to another member, “I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:21). Though we all have different personalities, backgrounds, preferences, and spiritual gifts, we need to accept and appreciate the differences.

E. We preserve and perfect unity by accepting all whom Christ has accepted, while yet holding to truths that we believe are important for growth in Christ.

We should welcome into church membership all whom Christ has saved as long as those with differing views on secondary matters agree not to cause factions over those differences. While we may hold differing views on baptism, charismatic gifts, prophecy, etc. these should not keep us from being one body in Christ. For this reason, we allow those who do not share our Baptist views on baptism to join this church as long as they don’t promote or teach their different views here. And, we restrict the office of elder to those who hold to our Baptist views. The same is true of those who hold to the validity of the charismatic gifts for today. We are skeptically cautious regarding most modern expressions of the gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing, miracles, and prophecy. Those who hold a different view are free to join us as long as they do not promote their views and cause division.

F. We preserve and perfect unity by rejoicing when other gospel-preaching, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting churches do well.

We need to get rid of the spirit of competition among Bible-believing churches where the gospel is preached and Christ is exalted. If they have more people attending than we do, praise God! We’re all on the same team. Maybe we need to learn from them how we can be more effective. We may disagree on some secondary matters, but we should not put them down out of a spirit of jealousy or competition.

G. We preserve and perfect unity by holding firmly to essential biblical truth while guarding ourselves against the pride of “being right” on every minor issue.

It is right to strive for deeper doctrinal understanding and purity, but we always need to be on guard against spiritual pride. It’s easy to get puffed up about being right on every point of doctrine. John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on 1 Cor. 4:6, p. 158), who was not soft on sound doctrine, wisely observed “that pride or haughtiness is the cause and commencement of all contentions.” If God has graciously granted us more light than another church, remember Paul’s warning (1 Cor. 4:7), “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” We should always be humble, gracious and patient with others who may not yet understand everything that we understand. Growth is a slow process. If God uses us to impart a deeper knowledge of the truth to another believer, it will come through our kindness and love, not through spiritual pride.

Conclusion

I’m not under the illusion that these seven practical applications will solve the difficult problem of true Christian unity! I honestly don’t know how to overcome some of the divisions in the church at large. We seek to grow in the unity of the faith and to hold our convictions with humility, but we can’t do that by compromising what the Lord has taught us. Perhaps this word of wisdom from the godly 19th century Anglican bishop, J. C. Ryle, is a fitting way to conclude (Light from Old Times [Evangelical Press], p. 455), “Controversy and religious strife, no doubt, are odious things; but there are times when they are a positive necessity. Unity and peace are very delightful; but they are bought too dear if they are bought at the expense of truth…. Controversy, in fact, is one of the conditions under which truth in every age has to be defended and maintained, and it is nonsense to ignore it.”

Application Questions

Have you struggled on the personal level with where to draw lines of fellowship? How did you sort through the issues?
Should an evangelical church work with a church that denies the gospel to help prevent abortions? Why/why not?
How do we determine where to draw doctrinal lines for church membership without becoming divisive?
How do we determine which doctrines are essential and which are important, but not essential? What criteria apply?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Case Study: Deconversion

Article contributed by Stand To Reason
Visit Stand To Reason website

Related Media

Some skills are easier caught than taught.

In my February Mentoring Letter to you, I taught you how to deal with apparently daunting charges raised against Christianity by breaking the process down into steps. This move simplifies the process, allowing you to focus on one thing at a time and deal with different parts of an issue piece by piece.

Sometimes, though, offering an actual case study of a specific set of complaints against your convictions is a good way to learn how the process works. That’s why I decided to walk you through the process using a rhetorically aggressive challenge to Christianity that I came across recently. The effort may help you by providing some answers to the specific points of the challenge, but it may also help you to absorb the process of how this is done—again, the “caught versus taught” concept.

I say “rhetorically aggressive” because I do not think the issues themselves are especially substantive. However, to a casual reader they may appear that way since they’re embedded in a “deconversion” story—an account of a Christian who became an atheist. Stories like these have a unique dynamic since they come from someone who had once been in fellowship, yet still found Christianity wanting for some reason.

A Deconversion Story

Deconversion stories are daunting. This one is especially so since it purports to tell us not just why a former Christian changed his mind, but why people like him will never be converted again. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. That sort of thing.

The story I have in mind is summed up in the article, “Why the Gospel Doesn’t Work on Deconverts,” written by Neil Carter. You can read it for yourself at patheos.com. ¹ Your first time through might make you uncomfortable, though. Carter is articulate and the challenge sounds compelling. That’s where our system comes in.

If you recall, I told you to first clarify the claim, what I called “the big idea.” Get a fix on exactly what’s being charged or asserted. What’s the specific point the challenge is meant to persuade you of? Second, list the reasons the person thinks his charge against your view is legitimate. This is the “because” factor. Your friend is right and you are wrong because of something. What is that? Finally, do an assessment taking one point at a time asking if the reasons support the big idea.

That’s the system. Pretty straightforward.²

Carter uses Tim Keller’s best-selling defense of Christianity, The Reason for God [link], as a foil to organize his misgivings. My main concern here is not to defend Keller—he’s perfectly capable of that himself—but to assess Carter’s argument.

Now to the big idea. What does Carter want you to be convinced of—or at least be considering—once you have finished reading his story? He actually states it twice, nicely bookending his article fore and aft with the same sentiment.

In the first paragraph Carter says that even though he and other deconverts “gave our hearts and our lives entirely over to Jesus, yet in the end we still found [the evangelical] belief system lacking.” In his last line he concludes, “We left because we discovered it was the belief system itself that was broken, not we ourselves.”

That’s the big idea. Now to our second step. What are the reasons Carter thinks Christianity is “lacking”? In what ways is it “broken”?

First, Carter says, he tried Christianity and it didn’t work—“Been there; done that,” as he puts it. Second, since “everything you do is wrong” the game is subtly rigged with antiquated ideas of sin and guilt to condemn everyone, invalidating even the most moral among us. Third, the appeal to “have faith” in the midst of doubt is anti-intellectual and entails question-begging regarding the Bible’s inspiration. Finally, the advice to “join a church” is an invitation to hang with people who often act like scum because they’re constantly being told “they are scum” (point two). [emphasis mine]

According to Carter, then, Christianity is “lacking” or “broken” because of these concerns. Of course, I’m sure Carter has much more to say about his discontent with Christianity than what he’s written in this article, but I want to simply take this as a stand-alone piece since that’s how many will read it.

Negative Noise

Before I dive in, let me give you a general tip for navigating discussions like this. Discipline yourself to ignore the negative noise.

In parleys about emotionally charged issues, especially spiritual ones, it’s not unusual for disparaging, derisive, or sarcastic language to creep into the conversation. In Carter’s case, phrases like “the belief system they are trying to sell us,” and “even on our deathbeds we would have to simply trust that we weren’t sold a bill of goods” are part of the rhetorical gamesmanship meant to subtly color the discussion.

Don’t take it personally and don’t be distracted by that kind of chatter. Whether you’re reading an article or having a conversation, try to tune out the negative noise. In the long run, the rhetorical “spin” doesn’t count in the assessment. Sidestep anything that sounds snarky or snide. Let it go and focus on the substance.

“Been There; Done That”?

The mere existence of people like Neil Carter is unnerving for Christians, “like flies in the ointment of evangelical theology,” he says. Describing how “sold out” for Jesus that deconverts once were he writes, “We held back nothing and committed every fiber of our being to loving and serving Jesus. We did everything exactly the way we were supposed to.”

There is particular power to testimonies of a changed mind. Atheist Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic magazine, has his own Christian deconversion story he opens with when he debates Christians. Bart Ehrman, the bestselling author and aggressive critic of Christianity, followed a similar path. But so does atheist-turned-Christian apologist J. Warner Wallace and Lee Strobel. These testimonies cut both ways.

So, what do we say to people who try Christianity and then walk away saying it simply does not work for them? That’s a hard question to answer.

Human psychology is complex. People disagree on spiritual things for a wide variety of rationales, many that have nothing to do with reason at all. Something persuasive to one will not convince another. It’s hard for anyone—including the person himself—to sift through all the relevant factors. A whole range of rational and psychological factors are in play.

Sometimes people find Christianity wanting because of unmet expectations. A popular slogan during the Jesus Movement was, “Jesus is the answer,” which sounded fine until one wit asked, “What is the question?” In a similar way, whenever anyone asks, “Does Jesus work?” I say, “That depends. What do you expect Him to do?”

Jesus “works” for some things, but not for others. He does all He was intended to do, but He promises nothing more. Jesus will save you if you trust Him for it, but there is no promise He will save your marriage, or your children, or your business. If you count on that, you may be disappointed.

Some people are disenchanted with Christianity not because they expected too much of Jesus, but because they expected too much of themselves. They thought salvation depended on them in some sense. Instead of trusting God’s grace, they trusted their own goodness. But that will always sink their ship.

Here is what I want you to think about with deconversion stories in either direction (Christian to atheist or atheist to Christian). The issue to focus on is not how really convinced someone was in the past and how genuinely unconvinced they are now. The issue, rather, is the reasons that they think justify the change.

Instead of being distracted—and possibly discouraged—by the strength of someone’s emotions regarding his old beliefs, we need to focus on the strength of his reasons for rejecting those beliefs. In the final analysis, that’s all that matters, so let’s see how Carter’s reasons fare.

“Everything You Do Is Wrong”?

Carter writes, “Reformed folks [Calvinists, like Keller] enjoy reminding us of how faithfully they love things that ceased being cool centuries ago.” He calls it a kind of “chronological snobbery” in reverse where we inappropriately import cultural values of the past—like human depravity and the need for repentance—into the present. “The Christian faith is at bottom an anti-humanistic faith,” he writes, since it teaches that “people are fundamentally broken and…need saving from themselves.”

But it’s worse. The game is subtly “rigged” so no one can win on their own. We must repent not only of the bad stuff, but also of the good stuff we do attempting to save ourselves. This “invalidate[s] the moral fortitude of everyone alive…. You can get all of the answers right and still fail the test.”

Two thoughts here.

One, it is not chronological snobbery in reverse to say something that was universally true 2000 years ago is still universally true today. The idea of something being outdated may work in the fashion industry or in technology, but it has no bearing on the issue of moral or spiritual truth. A notion may turn out to be false, but not simply because it has gone out of fashion.

Two, the real question is whether or not man is and always has been fallen—sinful and guilty, needing repentance and forgiveness. Yes, you can get all the answers right and still fail the test because getting the answers right is not the test. Salvation is not based on scoring high on a theological pop quiz or following all the rules, but rather on humbly beating your breast with the tax collector of Jesus’ parable saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Lk. 18:13).

Carter makes much about pastors making us feel guilty. It’s not the pastor’s aim, though, to make us feel lower than we are, but rather to help us take stock of what most of us already know is true—that something is morally wrong at our core. Indeed, if we were not deeply aware of our own need of forgiveness, it’s hard to imagine how the offer would be appealing to begin with. Offering water to a person who’s not thirsty is a waste of time. Yes, maybe some of our guilty feelings are fabricated. But all of them? No, pastors are not manufacturing guilt; they are pointing out blame that is already there, fault that we already know is ours.

As for the game being rigged, all systems of law require full compliance. No amount of moral fortitude atones for moral failure. There is no law in any legal system that one can break with impunity without being held responsible for the violation. And obeying most of the others doesn’t make up for the broken ones. Carter might disagree we are under such a law, fair enough. But it’s not trickery. It’s not rigging the game.

This alleged liability at the core of Christian religion, then, is the claim that, as Jesus pointed out, sinners need to be rescued (Lk. 6:31-32) since no one is good save God alone (Lk. 18:19). The question we’re faced with here is fairly simple: Was Jesus right? Are we guilty or not?

We certainly feel guilty about a lot of things—if we’re morally healthy (only psychopaths never feel guilty). True moral guilt is not based on feelings, of course. You can do bad without feeling bad (like those psychopaths). But do we have good reason to believe we are guilty, feelings aside?

Chesterton famously observed that original sin is the only part of Christian theology that can really be proved.³ One might ask why the atheists’ complaint about evil is so pervasive if humans are not in the habit of doing evil. Our belief in human depravity is not anti-humanistic, but properly realistic.

“Try Not to Think So Much”?

Carter writes, “There is nothing morally inferior about demanding that things make sense, or requiring that claims be supported by external evidence”—this in response to Keller’s appeal not to wait for every doubt to be vanquished before making an intelligent decision for Christ.

Regarding Carter’s basic point, I agree entirely. It’s proper to ask for good reasons. His application here is a bit surprising, though, considering his article is a response to Keller’s book. In The Reason for God Keller argues—as others have ⁴—that the basic storyline of Christianity actually does make sense, on the main, and he provides abundant reasons for thinking so.

Are there unanswered questions? Of course. However, Keller’s point is that we are justified trusting God for what we do not know precisely because of the things we have good reason to believe we do know. There is nothing anti-intellectual about this. Atheism itself is famous for its own inexplicable and wildly counter-intuitive outliers—everything came from nothing, life came from non-life, consciousness came from matter, etc.⁵

Nevertheless, Carter claims, “This is almost certainly why the apostle Paul made it clear that the Christian message will always appear as foolishness to some—he knew good and well that what he claimed was absurd. He simply believed it anyway.”

This is simply an unfair reading of Paul. Yes, Paul warned his readers that, in Carter’s words, “They’re going to think it’s baloney, folks.” True enough. Paul readily acknowledged that Christianity would appear absurd to some.⁶

Paul himself did not think it absurd, though, mere nonsense simply to be believed regardless of the facts. Instead, he consistently made appeal to the evidence, famously stating that if Christians were deluded at critical points, like the resurrection, then “we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). These are not words you’d expect from a man advocating leaps of blind faith.

There is more evidence of Christian thoughtlessness, though, Carter says. It has to do with the way believers (Keller, in this case) appeal to the Bible. He raises two complaints.

In response to Keller’s point that in the absence of “watertight arguments” we can still trust a “watertight person,” Carter says:

If we haven’t yet been given sufficient reason to believe that the story of Jesus is based in reality, what good would it do to encourage us to trust that Jesus wouldn’t lead us astray? How would we even know what Jesus says in the first place if not for the book that we’ve just finished telling you we haven’t been convinced tells the truth?

Here, I think, Carter has a point. If he has considered the substantial historical evidence for the life of Jesus of Nazareth and still concludes that the story is not “based in reality,” then we’re at a standstill on that point. As I said earlier, different people respond in very different ways to the very same evidence, and there’s not much we can do about that.

Carter’s second complaint, though, is misguided. He says it’s circular to appeal to Jesus for evidence of the Bible’s divine origin since one must quote the Bible to do so, thus presuming what must be proven.

After quoting Keller—“I take the whole Bible to be reliable…because I believe in Jesus and that was his view of the Bible”—Carter responds, “How do you know that Jesus subscribed to the infallibility of the Bible? Because the Bible says he did? Forgive me, but the circularity of this evokes genuine laughter.”

Laugh if you like, but it is not necessarily circular to believe the full inspiration of the Bible because Jesus in the Bible said it was inspired. There are actually two ways to make this point. Here is the circular one: The Bible is inspired by God because the Bible says so, and if God is the author of the Bible then He would not lie. Notice that this version presumes as evidence for its conclusion the very thing it needs to prove, thus making it circular. I know of no one who argues this way, however, certainly not Keller.

The second way is to approach the Gospels just like one would any other primary-source historical record of antiquity: as accounts of a person’s life—Jesus, in this case—written by mere mortals. If the history is shown to be sound, then we can have confidence of Jesus’ views about a host of things without making any presumption about divine inspiration.⁷

Simply put, there is no need to assume the infallibility of the Bible in order to be reasonably confident the Gospel authors accurately recorded what Jesus taught—including His views about the rest of the Bible. Using this approach, it is not circular to appeal from the Bible to determine Jesus’ views about the Bible.

“Join a Church”?

Finally, Carter thinks Keller’s advice to “join a church” is not at all helpful since recent scandals—along with personal experience—reveal “how routinely Christian community falls short.” Carter thinks “this is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy…. If you keep telling people they are scum, they will conclude they aren’t capable of any better.”

This complaint completely mystifies me. It appears that Carter believes people are not fundamentally broken (his second point), but only act that way in churches because they are constantly told they are (his fourth point). This makes no sense. People who aren’t really bad, start behaving really bad, because they think they are really bad, because they’ve been told they’re really bad?

I don’t know what church Carter went to that routinely taught him he was scum, but in 43 years of church-going all over the country I have never heard such a thing. Sinners in need of repentance? Yes. Despicable, worthless filth? No. Jesus doesn’t die for scum. The price He paid was precious because that which He purchased was precious.⁸ If anything, the church in America leans much more towards approbation and love than towards denigration and law.

Ironically, Carter admits to finding the same evils outside the church as well (“human problems…plague every other religion and subculture on the planet, my own tribe included”), so I fail to see how this is a mark against Christianity. People are broken inside the church, and people are broken outside the church. On this I agree, but that sounds a lot like old-fashioned human depravity to me, despite Carter’s denials.

Has Carter shown that Christianity is “lacking,” “broken” in some vital sense? Ultimately you have to decide for yourself, but now you have a tool to help you do so. All it takes is three steps to make a fair assessment: Clarify the claim, list the reasons, then assess. Not that tricky.

¹ Patheos.com, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2016/11/23/why-the-gospel-doesnt-work-on-deconverts/.

² It might be a good exercise for you to read Carter’s article and do your own assessment first before seeing how I evaluate it.

³ G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, chap. 2.

⁴ See, for example, Gregory Koukl’s The Story of Reality .

⁵ Keller explores the serious liabilities of an atheistic, materialistic view of reality in his excellent book, Making Sense of God.

⁶ See 1 Cor. 1:18-25.

⁷ For a thorough treatment of this issue, see J. Warner Wallace’s superb Cold-Case Christianity.

⁸ 1 Pet. 1:18-19.

La Revue Internet Des Pasteurs, Fre Ed 23, Edition du printemps 2017

Edition Printemps 2017
Auteur: Dr Roger Pascoe, Président
The Institute for Biblical Preaching
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
(http://tibp.ca/)

$C:\Users\Roger\Documents\My Documents\Institute for Biblical Preaching\Forms, Binder Cover Page, Logo\IBP Logos\IBP Logo.jpg$

“Renforcer l’Église dans la prédication et le leadership bibliques “

Part I: Le Pouvoir De La Predication, Pt. 6

“Le Pouvoir de l’Écriture”

La Puissance De L’ecriture Dans La Predication

Dans la dernière édition de ce journal, nous avons discuté de la puissance de l’Écriture dans le prédicateur lui-même. Dans cette édition, nous allons discuter de la puissance de l’Écriture dans l’événement de prédication. Les Écritures sont puissantes dans la prédication parce que ...

1. La Prédication Biblique Permet À Dieu De Parler, Pas À L’homme.

Nous sommes la voix de Dieu qui parle la Parole de Dieu au peuple de Dieu par la puissance du Saint-Esprit. Par conséquent, nous pouvons déclarer: «Ainsi dit le Seigneur!» C’est ce que Dieu dit qui est important. C’est la seule chose qui a une pertinence et un pouvoir éternels. Les gens doivent entendre la voix de Dieu parler semaine après semaine, pendant que vous déclarez la Parole de Dieu. La prédication biblique emmène le prédicateur hors de la voie et donne la notoriété de Dieu. Ensuite, la Parole de Dieu oeuvre puissamment dans la vie des gens.

La prédication biblique est centrée sur Dieu et n’est pas centrée sur l’homme. La prédication biblique se concentre sur Dieu (sa volonté, ses desseins, ses plans, sa personne, son oeuvre, etc.), pas sur l’homme (ses problèmes, ses besoins, ses souhaits, etc.). Je ne déduis pas que la Bible ne traite pas les questions de la vie - elle le fait sûrement tout ce dont nous avons besoin pour la vie et la piété (2 Pierre 1: 3). Mais ce que je dis, c’est que l’intérêt de toute prédication biblique est d’exposer la vérité théologique - ce qu’elle nous parle de Dieu - et ensuite d’appliquer cette vérité à la vie. L’accent mis sur les soi-disant «ressentir les besoins» en tant de prédication aujourd’hui produit une génération de chrétiens bibliquement analphabètes et spirituellement immatures. Il se concentre sur “mes besoins et mes problèmes” et non sur Dieu. La prédication biblique, d’autre part, se concentre sur les «besoins réels», qu’ils soient ou non ressentis. Et ces besoins sont comblés dans les Écritures et en connaissant Dieu.

2. La Prédication Biblique Révèle La Pensée De L’esprit

L’Esprit de Dieu révèle le sens et l’application de l’Écriture au prédicateur alors qu’il étudie le texte et prépare son sermon. L’Esprit de Dieu révèle aussi la signification et l’application de l’Écriture à l’auditoire pendant que le prédicateur expose le texte. De cette façon, les gens deviennent instruits dans la vérité des Écritures et le Saint-Esprit les amène à l’obéissance à cette vérité.

3. La Prédication Biblique Couvre Le Conseil Entier De Dieu

Le predicateur expose la foi dans tous ses détails. Ce n’est pas la foi subjective d’un pécheur qui croit, mais la foi objective de l’église chrétienne évangélique - la vérité doctrinale. L’église est construite sur l’enseignement des apôtres, dont les épîtres nous donnent l’instruction pratique et la vérité théologique. Le prédicateur exposant prêchera systématiquement à travers les Écritures et il prêchera la théologie biblique. De cette façon, il «prêchera la foi» - c’est-à-dire les grandes doctrines de l’Église chrétienne. Une telle prédication renonce à l’erreur doctrinale, maintient l’hérésie à distance en «divisant à juste titre la Parole de vérité» (2 Timothée 2:15) et forme les chrétiens dans leur très-sainte foi.

Ainsi, la prédication biblique encourage un ministère de prédication équilibré alors que vous prêchez systématiquement par la Parole de Dieu. Ce faisant, vous prêchez un équilibre de la vérité éthique et doctrinale. Vous prêchez tout le conseil de Dieu. Cela empêche le prédicateur des tentatives de prêcher sur des thèmes ou des questions personnels.

4. La Prédication Biblique Aide À Créer L’unité Dans L’église.

Lorsque l’attente du type et de la substance de la prédication est établie et convenue, cela aide à unifier l’église et à établir une atmosphère d’harmonie et de coopération entre le prédicateur et la congrégation. Puisque la prédication biblique se concentre sur la centralité de la Parole et de la seigneurie du Christ, lorsque la prédication exposée est l’attente de la congrégation et la pratique du prédicateur, alors le prédicateur et la congrégation partagent un dénominateur commun, unificateur, c’est-à-dire que Dieu La parole est le fondement de la foi et de la pratique et donc la base de la prédication.

5. La Prédication Biblique Augmente Le Pouvoir Spirituel Et Moral De l’Église.

Le péché est toléré aujourd’hui dans de nombreuses églises. La norme du monde s’installe insidieusement dans l’église. La prédication biblique contribue à purifier la vie spirituelle de l’église parce qu’elle met les personnes en contact avec la Parole de Dieu et ses exigences pour la sainteté. Il apporte toute la Parole de Dieu sur toutes les questions morales et pratiques auxquelles l’église est confrontée. Ces problèmes ne sont donc pas décidés par l’opinion populaire dans l’église ou par les dirigeants de l’église mais par la Parole de Dieu.

En outre, la prédication biblique est puissante parce qu’elle génère une faim pour la Parole de Dieu dans la vie des gens. Lorsque la Bible est prêchée, les gens vont commencer à amener leurs Bibles à l’église et à commencer à l’étudier pour eux-mêmes. Ainsi, cela aide à la croissance spirituelle des gens en engendrant l’éducation spirituelle, l’édification et la maturité.

La prédication biblique maintient l’église sur la voie spirituelle et morale parce que l’obéissance personnelle et corporative est requise par Dieu dans sa Parole. Lorsque la Parole de Dieu est prêchée de manière expositive, elle expose le peuple aux exigences justes d’un Dieu saint et appelle à la soumission obéissante à ces exigences sainte. La prédication biblique maintient l’église sur la bonne voie, spirituellement, pratiquement, de manière éthique et doctrinale.

6. Biblical Preaching Requires Diligent Study Of The Word By The Preacher.

La quantité de temps que le prédicateur passe à étudier la Parole et la prière a une relation directe avec le pouvoir de la prédication. Si nous donnons l’étude de la Parole et la priorité de la prière pendant la semaine, alors nous aurons le pouvoir dans la chaire. R. G. Lee a dit une fois: “Vous ne pouvez pas vivre avec du lait écrémé pendant la semaine et prêcher de la crème le dimanche.” L’étude diligente, la prière et l’intimité avec Dieu est la clé de la prédication efficace et puissante. W. E. Criswell a déclaré: “Aucun homme ne peut répondre aux exigences d’une chaire qui ne travaille pas constamment et avec sérieux”.

L’étude est un lieu privé et tranquille où le prédicateur passe le temps avec Dieu et où le Saint-Esprit illumine sa compréhension de la Parole. Cela ne peut se faire dans un environnement de bruit et d’agitation. Ce n’est que lorsque le prédicateur est entièrement préparé à partir de son temps dans l’étude qu’il peut entrer dans la chaire avec confiance qu’il a quelque chose à livrer aux gens de Dieu. HC Brown Jr. a déclaré: “Il n’y a pas de substitut à la connaissance intime des mots et des pensées du texte”. John Calvin a dit une fois: “Aucun ne sera jamais un bon ministre de la Parole de Dieu, à moins qu’il ne soit d’abord un Érudit.” Et C.H. Spurgeon a déclaré: “Celui qui ne sème plus dans l’étude ne pourra plus récolter sur la chaire(pupitre) “.

Comme vous étudiez, attendez Dieu jusqu’à ce qu’il entre et vous donne un message du texte de l’Écriture. Il s’agit d’attendre devant Dieu pour la direction de Dieu sur le message pour le peuple. En effet, cela devrait être le principal groupe d’étude. Le message doit avoir le feu que seul Dieu peut lui donner. Tout autre message n’a pas de feu de Dieu.

7. La Prédication Biblique Permet À La Parole D’accomplir Sa Tâche.

Le prédicateur exposant peut réclamer Isaiah 55: 8-11. Les pensées et les voies de Dieu sont bien supérieures à la nôtre et sa Parole ne sera pas nulle. La Parole de Dieu est descendue à nous alors que la pluie descend du ciel et qu’elle accomplit sa tâche telle qu’elle est prêchée avec précision et pleinement aux gens.

La Parole de Dieu accomplira la tâche à laquelle Dieu l’envoie parce que «la parole de Dieu est vivante, puissante et plus nette que toute épée à deux tranchants, perçant jusqu’à la division de l’âme et de l’esprit, des articulations et de la moelle et Est un discernant des pensées et des intentions du cœur “(Hébreux 4:12). Cette assurance donne au prédicateur un grand confort et encouragement que ses efforts ne sont pas en vain et que sa faiblesse sera utilisée pour magnifier la force de Dieu par sa puissante Parole. La tâche principale de la Parole proclamée est de transformer les vies. L’exposition des Écritures transforme les saints (y compris le prédicateur) et les pécheurs.

8. La Prédication Biblique Rétablit La Priorité Perdue De La Prédication.

Pourquoi la prédication a-t-elle perdu sa priorité? La prédication a perdu sa priorité parce que certaines personnes ont un faible avis de prédicateurs et de prédications. Certaines personnes ont une faible opinion de la prédication parce qu’elles ont changé d’orientation de la chaire au conseil. Les églises modernes semblent penser que les stratégies laïques sont la réponse aux problèmes du peuple plutôt que des approches spirituelles.

Certaines personnes ont une opinion faible de la prédication parce qu’elles ne comprennent pas ce que Dieu fait. Ils ne prient pas pour les âmes ou pour la victoire spirituelle. Ils ne comprennent pas les attaques de Satan contre les serviteurs de Dieu. Pour eux, tant que les services et les programmes de l’église continuent, alors tout va bien.

Le discrédit de la prédication est l’une des marques de notre époque. Les gens discréditent la prédication en disant au prédicateur de ne pas les prêcher ou de l’accuser de prêcher trop longtemps. Au lieu de cela, les gens devraient être plus préoccupés par le contenu et le pouvoir du message que Dieu livre et non pas la longueur du message. En outre, certains prédicateurs eux-mêmes discréditent la prédication en racontant des histoires et des blagues, et par une mauvaise attitude à l’égard de la tâche de prédication. Souvent, les prédicateurs pensent que leur prédication n’a aucun impact et qu’il est redondant.

Quelle est l’importance la prédication? La prédication est la tâche principale du pasteur et l’aspect le plus important de son ministère. Le plus grand péril du pasteur est de s’occuper des choses moins importantes pour la négligence de la prédication. Le prédicateur détient une position de privilège et de responsabilité suprême, car il est le porte-parole de Dieu. C’est le plus grand honneur de parler la Parole de Dieu pour Dieu. Il n’y a rien d’autre qu’un prédicateur soit plus important que lorsqu’il prêche, car quand il prêche, il accomplit sa commission divine.

La chaire est le centre de l’oeuvre du royaume de Dieu. C’est la ligne de front de la bataille spirituelle qui se déroule chaque génération. La prédication et la chaire sont les armes les plus puissantes de Dieu contre la froideur spirituelle et la léthargie dans l’église. Par la prédication, les perdus seront sauvés, les besoins des gens seront comblés, et leur vie spirituelle sera changée pour la gloire de Dieu.

Le maintien de la concentration et de l’énergie dans la tâche de prédication est la préoccupation la plus importante du pasteur. D’autres fonctions clament l’attention, mais le pasteur doit toujours se concentrer sur sa tâche principale, la prédication. En gardant cela à l’avant-garde, le prédicateur doit se rappeler qu’il appartient et sert le Seigneur Jésus-Christ - pas la congrégation, la dénomination ou l’une des multiples questions urgentes qui traversent son chemin. En effet, c’est l’absence et l’inattention de la prédication biblique qui, du moins en mesure, explique les maladies de notre société moderne. La dépravation morale qui afflige nos nations ne s’arrêtera pas jusqu’à ce que des changements soient apportés sur nos chaires.

9. La Prédication Biblique Rétablit Le Pouvoir Perdu De L’autorité Biblique.

Le fondement de la prédication biblique (exposant) est l’autorité biblique - que la Bible est le standard ultime pour toutes les questions de foi et de pratique. Le défi à l’autorité biblique est principalement venu au cours des Lumières (l’âge de la raison). Comme le souligne David Allen, “L’autorité de la méfiance ne l’est pas. La postmodernité démantelera l’autorité.”

Les disputes sur l’autorité biblique dégénèrent rapidement en disputes sur l’interprétation biblique. Et commence ainsi la pente glissante sur ce qu’il dit, ce que cela signifie, et comment cela s’applique à nous aujourd’hui.

La puissance de la prédication se tient ou sucombe sur cette question de l’autorité biblique. Si vous niez l’autorité biblique, votre prédication n’aura pas de la puissance spirituelle. Si vous reconnaissez et faites preuve de respect, votre prédication aura une puissance spirituelle. L’autorité biblique signifie non seulement que l’Écriture est vraie dans tout ce qu’elle affirme, mais cette Écriture est contraignante dans tout ce qu’elle prescrit.

10. La Prédication Biblique Rend La Bible Un Point Focal Du Culte.

La Parole de Dieu est au cœur du culte ou de l’adoration à Dieu. La Bible ne devient le point focal de notre culte que lorsqu’elle s’agit du point focal de l’étude du prédicateur. La Bible ne sera le point central de nos cultes d’adoration que si le prédicateur l’a travaillé dans sa préparation à la prédication et seulement lorsque le prédicateur présente sa prédication comme une offrande à Dieu.

La prédication n’est pas une obligation du prédicateur de plaire aux gens ou aux responsables de l’église, mais de faire plaisir à Dieu. Quand un sermon est prêché comme une offrande à Dieu par le prédicateur, le prédicateur ne regarde que Dieu pour l’approbation de ce sermon.

Le prédicateur est le serviteur de Dieu, transmettant le message de Dieu, basé sur la Parole de Dieu dans et par la puissance de l’Esprit de Dieu. Lorsque le prédicateur prêche la Parole en conséquence, c’est une offrande à Dieu. Ensuite, il offre le sermon à Dieu et seul Dieu peut vraiment évaluer son acceptabilité. Par conséquent, nous devons préparer et prêcher comme Dieu, parce que Dieu est le public qui compte et son approbation est tout ce qui compte. Pour qu’un sermon soit une offrande à Dieu, cela doit nous coûter quelque chose - à savoir, travail acharné et prière dans l’étude. “La prédication qui ne coûte rien n’a aucun effet” (Jowett).

II: Se Préparer Pour Précher

« Identifier la Structure du Texte », Pt. 3 (suite): Test sur vos points forts

Dans la dernière édition de ce journal, j’ai parlé de votre sermon - en particulier, comment tester vos points principaux. J’ai dit que les points forts du sermon doivent être distinctement homélisés et harmonieux.

Je pensais que cela pourrait vous être utile si je vous ai donné quelques exemples à partir de mes propres schémas de sermon qui peuvent vous aider à voir que les points forts sont distincts les uns des autres et qui sont également liés les uns aux autres en étant liés au sujet.

1 Corinthiens 2:1-5

Suject: Prêcher l’Évangile

1. Lorsque vous prêchez l’évangile, votre message doit être convaincant (1-2)

(1a) ... pas à cause de votre discours ou de votre sagesse (1)

(1b) ... mais à cause de la personne et du travail du Christ (2)

2. Lorsque vous prêchez l’évangile, votre message devrait être puissant (3-4)

(2a) ... pas à cause de votre personne et de vos mots (3-4a)

(2b) ... mais à cause de l’action et de l’oeuvre de l’Esprit (4b )

3. Lorsque vous prêchez l’évangile, votre message devrait être rentable (5)

(3a) ... pas à cause de la foi dans la sagesse humaine (5a)

(3b) ... mais à cause de la foi dans la puissance de Dieu (5b)

Galates 3:10-14

Sujet : La justification devant Dieu

1. SI vous comptez sur vos propres oeuvres, vous êtes condamnés (10-12).

(1a) …Par ce que vous ne pouvez pas garder la loi dans son entierté (10).

(1b) …par ce la justice s’obtient seulement par la foi. (11-12)

2. SI vous comptez sur l’oeuvre de Christ, vous êtes bénis (13-14).

(2a) …Parce que la condamnation de la loi a été transferée en Christ (13).

(2b) …Par ce que la bénédiction de la foi nous a été transférée en Christ (14).

Galates 5:16-25

Suject: Vivre dans la liberté spirituelle

1. Vivre par l’esprit est une vie de conflit (16-18)

2. Vivre par l’Esprit est une vie de contraste (19-23)

3. Vivre par l’esprit est une vie de crucifixion (24)

4. Vivre par l’Esprit est une vie de conformité (25).

Philippiens 3:1-14

Sujet: Se confiant au Christ plutôt qu’au moi.

1. Lorsque nous croyons au Christ, notre perspective change (4-8c)

(1a) Ce qui a autrefois signifié tout (4-6), ne signifie rien (7)

(1b) Ce qui ne signifiait plus rien, cela signifie tout (8a-c)

2. Lorsque nous croyons au Christ, notre but change (8d-11)

(2a) Notre but à vie est de devenir comme Christ (8d-10)

(2b) Notre but à vie est d’être avec le Christ (11).

3. Lorsque nous faisons confiance au Christ, notre poursuite change (12-14)

(3a) Nous mettons de côté ce qui est passé (12-13a)

(3b) Nous poursuivons ce qui est futur (13b-14).

Colossians 1:24-2: 5

Sujet: La tâche du ministère.

1. Dans le ministère pastoral ... nous souffrons pour l’amour de l’église (24).

2. Dans le ministère pastoral ... nous servons comme intendants de l’église (25-29).

3. Dans le ministère pastoral ... nous luttons pour la spiritualité de l’Église (2: 1-5).

Colossiens 2:13-15

Sujet: Transformation de la mort spirituelle à la vie.

1. Dieu nous a conféré deux grands avantages (13)

(1a) Il a conféré la vie spirituelle

(1b) Il a conféré le pardon des péchés.

2. Dieu a conquis deux grands ennemis

(2a) Il a conquis les exigences de la loi (14)

(2b) Il a conquis les forces de Satan (15).

1 Thessaloniciens 1:1-10

Suject: Un portrait d’une église modèle.

1. Les gens centrés sur Dieu sont connus pour ce qu’ils font (3)

(1a) Nous démontrons notre foi par le biais des œuvres (3a)

(1b) Nous démontrons notre amour en servant (3b)

(1c) Nous démontrons notre espoir par la persévérance (3c)

2. Les personnes centrées sur Dieu sont connues pour qui elles sont (4-10)

(2a) Nous sommes des témoignages vivants de la puissance salvatrice de l’Évangile (4-5)

(2b) Nous sommes des témoignages vivants du pouvoir transformateur de l’Évangile (6 -10).

1 Timothée 3:14-16

Sujet: Le caractère de la maison de Dieu.

1. Notre conduite est régie par la nature de l’église (14-15)

(1a) C’est l’église du Dieu vivant

(1b) C’est le pilier de la vérité

(1c) C’est le fondement de la vérité.

2. Notre confession est gouvernée par le message de l’église (16)

(2a) L’église avoue l’incarnation du Christ

- il a été «manifesté dans la chair»

- il a été «justifié par l’Esprit»

(2b) L’église confesse le témoignage du Christ

- le témoignage des anges (“vu par les anges”)

- le témoignage parmi les gens (“prêchés parmi les Gentils”)

(2c) L’église avoue la réponse au Christ

- la réponse sur terre (“croyue dans le monde”)

- la réponse du ciel (“reçu en gloire”).

Hébreux 12:18-24

Suject: S'approcher Dieu en adoration.

1. Si vous vous approchez de Dieu sur la base de vos propres œuvres, vous recevrez le jugement juste de Dieu (18-21)

(1a). Pour approcher Dieu sur la base de sa loi est une expérience effrayante - le pouvoir, la peur, la mort, la distance (18- 19)

(1b) Pour approcher Dieu sur la base de sa loi est une expérience de condamnation - vous ne pouvez pas mesurer (20-21)

2. Si vous vous approchez de Dieu sur la base de l’œuvre du Christ, vous recevrez la grâce chéissante de Dieu (22-24).

Lorsque nous nous approchons de Dieu sur la base de l’œuvre du Christ ...

(2a) Nous entrons dans la ville sainte sans barrière (22)

- “au Mt. Sion et à la ville du Dieu vivant “

(2b) Nous venons à la grande célébration sans déception (23a)

-” à l’assemblée joyeuse et à l’église du premier-né “

(2c) Nous venons en présence du juge sans crainte ( 23b)

- “au Juge de tous”

(2e) Nous venons à la compagnie des justes sans imperfection (23c)

- “aux esprits des hommes justes, rendus parfaits”

(2e) Nous venons au Médiateur sans conscience

- “à Jésus le Médiateur de la nouvelle alliance “

(2f) Nous venons par le sang du Christ sans péché

- “au sang d’aspersion qui parle mieux que celui d’Abel “.

Genesis 21:8-21

Suject: La source et les solutions à notre problème.

1. Les difficultés trouvent souvent leur source dans nos mauvaises attitudes (9-10)

- La mauvaise attitude de Sarah entraîne le ressentiment.

2. Le problème trouve souvent sa source dans nos mauvaises décisions (11-14a)

- La mauvaise décision d’Abraham mène à une situation difficile.

3. Le problème trouve souvent Sa source dans nos mauvaises circonstances (14b-16)

- Les mauvaises circonstances d’Agar conduisent à des bannissements.

4. Trouble trouve toujours sa solution dans la bonté de Dieu (17-21)

- Le bannissement mène à l’intervention de Dieu.

Genèse 32:22-32

Sujet: Fuir la présence de Dieu.

1. Exécuter par le passé ne résout pas vos problèmes (22-24a)

(1a) Il peut vous séparer de votre famille (22-23)

(1b) Il peut vous laisser isolé et seul (24a).

2. La rencontre avec Dieu vous amène à vos sens (24b-29)

(2a) Une rencontre avec Dieu vous arrête dans vos sentiers (24b-25)

(2b) Une rencontre avec Dieu vous fait pleurer pour une bénédiction (26-29).

3. Faire face au futur vous donne un espoir renouvelé (30-31)

(3a) Vous pouvez faire face à l’avenir avec espoir, quand vous avez “vu le visage de Dieu” (30)

(3b) Vous pouvez faire face à l’avenir avec espoir, lorsque “Le soleil se lève finalement” (31).

Exode 3:1-10

Sujet: Rencontrer Dieu dans les événements quotidiens de la vie.

1. Dans une rencontre avec Dieu, il vous rencontre où vous êtes (1)

(1a) ... dans une activité ordinaire (1a)

(1b) ... dans un lieu ordinaire (1b)

2. Dans une rencontre avec Dieu, il Vous attire (2-4)

(2a) ... en apparaissant dans un “buisson en feu” (2-3)

(2b) ... en vous appelant par votre nom (4).

3. Dans une rencontre avec Dieu, Il révèle qui il est (5-10)

(3a) Il révèle qu’il est un Dieu saint (5)

(3b) Il révèle qu’il est un Dieu fidèle (6)

(3c). Il révèle que Il est un Dieu rédempteur (7-10)

- un Dieu qui a racheté qui a pris connaissance de son peuple (7)

- un Dieu qui a racheté son Dieu (8)

- un Dieu qui a envoyé un Sauveur pour son peuple (8-10).

Part III: Exposition Devotionnelle

«La compréhension de l’Evangile» (1 Corinthiens 2: 6-16)

Par: Dr. Stephen F. Olford

Introduction.

Après avoir traité le caractère, la communion et la communication de l’évangile, Paul conclut cette section avec un paragraphe sur la compréhension de l’évangile. Il anticipe ceux qui pourraient déduire de son argument jusqu’à présent qu’il n’y a pas de place dans l’économie de Dieu pour la sagesse, et que la vérité chrétienne soit entièrement hors du domaine de l’intellect. L’apôtre répond à cette objection en soulignant que l’évangile contient une sagesse, mais cette sagesse est spirituelle et donc seulement comprise par des moyens spirituels. Le fait de ne pas comprendre ces faits importants était une autre cause de division parmi les croyants de Corinthe. Donc, Paul corrige la situation existante en insistant pour que la compréhension de l’évangile soit rendue possible par:

I. L’initiation Spirituelle

«Cependant, nous parlons de la sagesse parmi ceux qui sont mûrs, mais pas la sagesse de cet âge, ni les dirigeants de cet âge, qui ne parviennent à rien. Mais nous parlons la sagesse de Dieu dans un mystère, même la sagesse cachée que Dieu a ordonné avant les siècles pour notre gloire» (1 Corinthiens 2: 6-7). En effet, Paul dit ici: «N’imaginez pas que le christianisme soit dépourvu de philosophie, de sagesse, qu’il soit quelque chose en dehors du domaine de l’intelligence renouvelée. Il n’en est pas ainsi. Il a sa propre sagesse, sa propre philosophie» En effet, ce que Paul montre ici, c’est que la philosophie chrétienne est la philosophie ultime. Il ne doit pas être testé par d’autres philosophies. Ils doivent être essayés par elle.

Il est donc évident que Paul établit une fois de plus la distinction entre la sagesse du monde et la sagesse de Dieu. La sagesse du monde est limitée par son «âge». C’est littéralement le mot que Paul utilise. La caractéristique suprême de la philosophie humaine est qu’elle est toujours limitée par l’âge dans lequel elle est évoluée. Donc, dans un sens très réel, les hommes sont circonscrits dans leur raisonnement par la période dans laquelle ils vivent. Mais pas avec la philosophie divine. La sagesse de Dieu est intemporelle et donc immuable. Paul décrit cette sagesse comme un mystère, “même la sagesse cachée, que Dieu a ordonné devant le monde à notre gloire” (1 Corinthiens 2: 7). C’est une sagesse qui sort de l’éternité, envahit le temps et vit à travers les âges. Pour connaître cette sagesse, les hommes et les femmes doivent être spirituellement initiés. C’est pourquoi Paul utilise ce terme «mystère». Le mot grec signifie «quelque chose dont le sens est caché à ceux qui n’ont pas été initiés, mais qui est clair pour ceux qui ont été initié» (William Barclay).

Maintenant, la question se pose de savoir comment les hommes et les femmes peuvent être initiés dans cette sagesse de Dieu, ce qui n’est rien de moins que la révélation de Dieu en Christ et de lui crucifié. La réponse est implicite dans le petit mot “maturité” que Paul oppose à ceux qui sont spirituels (voir verset 15). Cela signifie que pour qu’une initiation spirituelle ait lieu, il doit y avoir:

1) Une naissance spirituelle. «Cependant, nous parlons de la sagesse parmi ceux qui sont mûrs ... » (1 Corinthiens 2: 6). Le mot traduit «maturité» signifie «pleine croissance» contrairement à «bébé». Avant qu’il ne puisse y avoir de développement et de maturité, il doit y avoir une naissance spirituelle. C’était la poussée entière de l’approche de notre Sauveur à l’un des hommes les plus intellectuels de son temps nommés Nicodème. Bien que versé dans la philosophie et imprégné de théologie, il n’est pas né de nouveau, et à lui, le Sauveur a dit: «Certes, je vous le dis, à moins qu’il ne soit né de nouveau, il ne peut pas voir le royaume de Dieu» (Jean 3: 3 , Voir aussi 3: 5). Il n’y a qu’un seul domaine dans lequel la révélation de Dieu peut être comprise, et c’est le royaume de Dieu. Ce royaume ne peut jamais être entré que par une initiation spirituelle - une nouvelle naissance. Mais avec cette naissance spirituelle il faut aussi:

2) Une croissance spirituelle. «Cependant, nous parlons de la sagesse parmi ceux qui sont mûrs ... » (1 Corinthiens 2: 6). William Barclay soutient que le mot «mature» décrit «un animal ou une personne pleine de croissance et qui a atteint le sommet de son développement physique». Il continue en disant que «Paul utilise ce mot pour indiquer une Croissance spirituelle et mentale de ceux qui peuvent apprécier les choses profondes de Dieu “. Barclay déclare également:” ... à ceux qui viennent tout juste d’entrer dans l’église, nous parlons des éléments fondamentaux du christianisme; Mais quand les gens sont un peu plus mûrs, nous leur donnons un enseignement plus approfondi sur ce que ces faits fondamentaux signifient. C’est à cet égard que Paul limite la compréhension de la sagesse de Dieu aux «initiés». La sagesse de ce monde disparaît , Ou “vient à rien” (verset 6), mais la sagesse éternelle de Dieu, ordonnée devant le monde, est conçue pour amener les hommes et les femmes dans le plein but de la gloire de Dieu, par une crise et un processus d’initiation que nous appelons La naissance spirituelle et la croissance spirituelle. Avez-vous connu cette initiation par l’Esprit Saint? Sans cette expérience, vous ne pouvez jamais comprendre la sagesse de Dieu telle qu’elle est révélée dans notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Mais la compréhension de l’évangile implique, en second lieu:

II. Illumination Spirituelle

«Mais comme il est écrit:” L’œil n’a pas vu, ni l’oreille a entendu, ni entré dans le coeur de l’homme les choses que Dieu a préparées pour ceux qui l’aiment. “Mais Dieu nous les a révélés Par Son Esprit . Car l’Esprit cherche toutes choses, oui, les choses profondes de Dieu» (1 Corinthiens 2: 9-10). Après l’initiation spirituelle, il doit y avoir l’illumination de l’Esprit. L’une des leçons les plus difficiles que les hommes et les femmes doivent apprendre est que l’observation humaine, l’inculcation humaine et la contemplation humaine ne peuvent jamais pénétrer ou découvrir les choses profondes de Dieu. En d’autres termes, l’approche philosophique et la méthode scientifique sont limitées par le temps et le sens, et ne peuvent que nous amener à la fin du raisonnement humain. Mais là où l’investigation humaine échoue, l’illumination spirituelle prévaut. Ainsi, Paul progresse pour montrer que si une personne est qualifiée par la naissance et la croissance spirituelles, il peut savoir:

1) La revélation de l’Esprit. «Mais Dieu nous a révélé (les choses spirituelles) par son Esprit» (1 Corinthiens 2:10). Pour illustrer son point de vue, l’apôtre dit: «Pour ce que l’homme connaît les choses d’un homme, sauf l’esprit de l’homme qui est en lui? Même personne ne connaît les choses de Dieu, sauf l’Esprit de Dieu» (1 Corinthiens 2:11). Ce qu’il dit, c’est simplement qu’il y a certaines choses que seul l’esprit d’un homme peut connaître. Tout le monde en est conscient. Personne ne peut vraiment voir dans nos cœurs et savoir ce qu’il y a là, sauf nos propres esprits. Maintenant, Paul continue en disant que la même chose est vraie pour Dieu. Il y a des choses profondes et intimes à propos de Dieu que seul l’Esprit de Dieu connaît, et c’est donc seulement l’Esprit Saint qui peut nous amener à comprendre la pensée de Dieu. Pour le dire sous une autre forme, il y a des domaines de vérité que le pouvoir de pensée sans aide ne peut jamais découvrir. Le Saint-Esprit seul doit nous le révéler. C’est pourquoi, lorsque le Seigneur Jésus quittait ses disciples, il leur a promis le Saint-Esprit qui leur enseignerait toutes choses et les rappellerait (Jean 14:26). Avec la révélation de l’Esprit vient aussi:

2) L’exploration de l’Esprit. «Car l’Esprit cherche toutes choses, oui, les choses profondes de Dieu» (1 Corinthiens 2:10). La fonction du Saint-Esprit n’est pas seulement de révéler la vérité telle qu’elle est en Christ, mais aussi d’explorer la vérité. Le mot “recherches” dans notre texte est très intéressant. Le terme se trouve dans les manuscrits anciens pour le rapport d’un chercheur professionnel et pour la recherche de fonctionnaires personnalisés. Tout comme un fonctionnaire spécialisé expérimenté met en lumière les articles cachés de la valise d’un voyageur, le Saint-Esprit, dans un sens plus merveilleux, explore les choses profondes et cachées de Dieu et les rend compréhensibles et disponibles pour le chrétien le plus humble qui soit prêt de lui faire confiance (voir aussi 1 Jean 2:20). Ce phénomène étonnant est ce qui déconcerte les intellectuels de tous les âges. Les philosophes et les scientifiques n’ont jamais été en mesure de comprendre comment même si l’esprit ignoré peut apprécier et discuter des vérités qui sont totalement cachées dans le monde entier. La réponse, bien sûr, c’est qu’il existe une illumination spirituelle. Le Seigneur Jésus se réjouit de ce fait (Luc 10:21; Matthieu 16:17).

Connaissez-vous quelque chose sur cette illumination spirituelle dans votre vie? Il n’y a rien de plus merveilleux que de partager la révélation et l’exploration de l’Esprit de Dieu. Quiconque a atteint ce point peut dire avec l’apôtre Paul: “Maintenant, nous n’avons pas reçu l’esprit du monde, mais l’Esprit qui est de Dieu, afin que nous connaissions bien ce qui nous a été donné par Dieu” ( 1 Corinthiens 2:12). Mais pour la compréhension complète de l’évangile, il doit y avoir non seulement l’initiation spirituelle et l’illumination, mais aussi:

III. L’interprétation Spirituelle

«Ces choses aussi dont nous parlons, non par des mots que la sagesse de l’homme enseigne, mais que l’Esprit Saint enseigne, en comparant les choses spirituelles avec le spirituel» (1 Corinthiens 2:13). Maintenant, nous abordons l’argument de Paul dans lequel nous devons le suivre de très près. Ces mots que nous venons de citer sont souvent utilisés comme preuve par les partisans de l’inspiration verbale - une doctrine à la fois biblique et vraie. Mais Paul dit ici «nous parlons», non pas «nous écrivons». Il se réfère donc tant à l’inspiration que à l’interprétation. Il nous enseigne que la connaissance de la vérité peut être obtenue en comprenant deux éléments essentiels:

1) L’utilisation de la langue par l’esprit. «Ce sont aussi ces choses que nous parlons, non par des mots que la sagesse de l’homme enseigne, mais que le Saint-Esprit enseigne, en comparant les choses spirituelles avec le spirituel» (1 Corinthiens 2:13). On ne peut pas insister assez sur le fait que celui qui connaît l’esprit de Dieu choisit aussi les paroles de Dieu pour interpréter la vérité divine. C’est essentiellement le ministère du Saint-Esprit. Quelle importance cela place sur les Écritures tout au long de l’âge de cette église. Son travail consiste à interpréter la Bible chez les hommes et les femmes qui connaissent l’expérience de l’initiation spirituelle et de l’illumination. Qu’on souligne, cependant, que le Saint-Esprit ne parle jamais en dehors du contexte de la révélation divine que nous appelons la Sainte Bible. C’est pourquoi nous devons accorder une attention particulière à l’utilisation de la langue par l’Esprit. Pas un jot ou tittle n’est pas significatif. C’est pourquoi Jésus a dit: “Le ciel et la terre passeront, mais mes paroles ne passeront pas” (Matthieu 24:35). Il a également dit: “... quand Lui, l’Esprit de vérité sera venu, il vous guidera dans toute la vérité ...” (Jean 16:13). C’est le secret de l’interprétation: l’Esprit utilisant ses propres mots pour faire connaître l’esprit de Dieu. Mais avec l’utilisation du langage par l’Esprit, il y a aussi:

2) Les termes de référence de l’esprit. «Ce sont aussi ces choses dont nous parlons, non par des mots que la sagesse de l’homme enseigne, mais que le Saint-Esprit enseigne, en comparant les choses spirituelles avec le spirituel» (1 Corinthiens 2:13). Les commentateurs ont trouvé extrêmement difficile d’exposer cette phrase. Certains disent que cela signifie «faire correspondre les choses spirituelles avec des mots spirituels». D’autres soutiennent qu’il se lit «interprétant les choses spirituelles envers les hommes spirituels». Je suis personnellement convaincu que les deux positions ont raison. Le point que l’apôtre Paul fait est qu’aucune Écriture n’est d’interprétation privée (2 Pierre 1:20). Le Saint-Esprit a ses termes de référence, et à travers le corps de la vérité, comme nous le connaissons dans la Bible, il existe un précédent suffisant et un soutien pour toute doctrine cardinale que nous croyons chère. De plus, nous avons ce qu’on appelle une tradition chrétienne qui est composée des contributions des hommes doctrinaux au cours des siècles. Nous ne devons donc pas deviner la révélation divine. Il n’y a pas de vérité qui soit vitale pour la vie et la pratique chrétiennes qui n’ont pas le soutien à la fois de la révélation divine et de la tradition chrétienne. Quand Paul écrit à Timothée au sujet de la compréhension et de la communication de la vérité divine, il dit: «Et ce que tu as entendu de moi parmi de nombreux témoins, confie-le à des hommes fidèles qui soient aussi capables d’enseigner aux autres» (1 Timothée 2: 2).

Ainsi, Paul conclut ce paragraphe étonnant en soulignant: «... l’homme naturel ne reçoit pas les choses de l’Esprit de Dieu, car elles sont une folie pour lui; Et il ne peut pas les connaître, parce qu’ils sont spirituellement discernés» (1 Corinthiens 2:14). En d’autres termes, sans l’initiation spirituelle, l’illumination et l’interprétation, la vérité n’est rien de plus qu’une folie envers le non régénéré - l’homme du monde. Il considère la révélation comme une absurdité. Une fois que nous avons compris cela, nous avons une explication complète de l’attitude adoptée par les choses non chrétiennes à spirituelles. Il faut donc être patient avec lui et prier pour qu’il se soumette aux termes de la révélation divine. D’autre part, l’apôtre dit: «... celui qui est spirituel juge tout, mais lui-même n’est jugé à juste titre par personne» (1 Corinthiens 2:15). En d’autres termes, l’homme qui connaît l’initiation spirituelle, l’illumination et l’interprétation possède une faculté qui lui permet de tamiser et d’examiner les choses divinement révélées, ainsi que les choses humaines et naturelles. En même temps, il ne peut être soumis à l’examen et au jugement par celui qui est dépourvu de l’Esprit. Aucune personne non régénérée n’a le droit de critiquer ou de juger un homme chrétien en ce qui concerne sa foi personnelle en Christ. Il est sans faculté de discernement spirituel et ne peut donc pas comprendre la nature du miracle qui a eu lieu. Tout comme il ne peut pas juger le chrétien, il ne peut pas instruire le Seigneur (voir le verset 16). Ce n’est que l’extrême impertinence humaine pour l’homme naturel d’élever la voix contre le Dieu qu’il ne veut pas accepter.

En revanche, le chrétien a «l’esprit du Christ». Le passage se termine par cette énorme déclaration. La sagesse de Dieu n’est rien de moins. que l’esprit du Christ. Le mot «esprit» ici signifie «intellect» ou «conscience». Nous avons la conscience du Christ, l’esprit du Christ, la perspective du Christ. Ce n’est pas le même mot que Paul utilise dans le chapitre deux de Philippiens. Là, c’est la disposition du Christ; Ici c’est la compréhension intelligente ou la sagesse du Christ.

Conclusion:

Combien il est merveilleux que vous et moi puissions connaître l’esprit même de Dieu. L’émerveillement est que, pendant toute l’éternité, nous allons continuer à explorer l’esprit du Christ, de plus en plus comme Jésus. Quel vaste univers de bénédictions s’étend devant nous! Cela nous fait ressentir Isaac Newton, quand il a dit: «Je suis comme un petit enfant qui se tenait près du bord de la mer, ramassant un caillou ici et un caillou là-bas, et les admirait, alors que la grande mer s’étend devant moi.

Paul culmine un sujet puissant avec les plus hauts concepts. Ce qu’il dit à ces Corinthiens, c’est que s’ils connaissent l’initiation, l’illumination et l’interprétation, ils connaîtront l’esprit du Christ. Et connaître l’esprit du Christ est de connaître l’unité de la pensée, de la vie et de la pratique. Il n’y a pas de division dans l’esprit du Christ et aucune division dans l’église locale qui connaisse l’esprit du Christ. O que notre prière pourrait être: “Que l’esprit du Christ, mon Sauveur, vive en moi de jour en jour, par son amour et son pouvoir contrôlant tout ce que je fais et dis”.

Part IV. Plans De Messages

Pour écouter la version audio de ces sermons en anglais, cliquez sur ces liens: Link 1 - Jn. 11:38-44; Link 2 - Jn. 13:1-3, Pt. 1; Link 3 - Jn. 13:1-3, Pt. 2; Link 4 - Jn. 13:1-3, Pt. 3

Titre: Laver les pieds des disciples.

Point #1: Nous devons comprendre la base du vrai service (1-3)

1. La base du vrai esprit de service est la confiance qui vient de la connaissance

(1a) La connaissance de où nous allons et comment nous y rendons (1a)

- «Jesus savait que son heure était venue.… »

(1b) La connaissance de qui nous sommes et comme il nous convient. (3a)

- «Jésus savait… que le Père avait remit toutes choses entre ses mains»

(1c) La connaissance d’où nous sommes venus et pourquoi nous sommes là. (3b)

- «Jésus savait… qu’Il était venu de Dieu et qu’Il allait vers Dieu»

2. La Base de l’esprit de service est la Motivation qui vient de l’amour (1c).

(2a) La motivation qui vient de l’amour est demontré à Travers l’objet de cet amour (1c)

- «Ayant aimé ceux qui Lui appartiennent»

(2b) La motivation qui vient de l’amour est démontrée à travers l’extension de cet amour (1d).

- «Ayant aimé les siens qui sont dans le monde, Il les a aimés jusqu’à la fin»

The Net Pastor's Journal, Eng Ed, Issue 23 Spring 2017

Spring 2017 Edition
Author: Dr. Roger Pascoe, President,
The Institute for Biblical Preaching
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
(http://tibp.ca/)

$C:\Users\Roger\Documents\My Documents\Institute for Biblical Preaching\Forms, Binder Cover Page, Logo\IBP Logos\IBP Logo.jpg$

“Strengthening the Church in Biblical Preaching and Leadership”

Part I: The Power For Preaching, Pt. 6

“The Power of Scripture”

The Power Of Scripture In Preaching

In the last edition of this journal, we discussed the power of Scripture in the preacher himself. In this edition we are going to discuss the power of Scripture in the preaching event. The Scriptures are powerful in preaching because…

1. Biblical Preaching Allows God To Speak, Not Man

We are God’s voice speaking God’s Word to God’s people through the power of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we can declare, “Thus says the Lord!” It’s what God says that’s important. That’s the only thing that has eternal relevance and power. People need to hear the voice of God speaking week after week as you declare the Word of God. Biblical preaching takes the preacher out of the way and gives the Word of God prominence. Then, the Word of God works with power in the people.

Biblical Preaching is God-centred not man-centred. Biblical preaching focuses on God (his will, his purposes, his plans, his person, his work etc.), not on man (his problems, his needs, his wishes etc.). I am not inferring that the Bible does not address the issues of life – it surely does for it contains all that we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). But what I am saying is that the focus of all biblical preaching is to expose the theological truth – what it tells us about God – and then to apply that truth to life. The emphasis on so-called “felt needs” in so much preaching today is producing a generation of biblically illiterate and spiritually immature Christians. It focuses on “my needs and my problems” and not on God. Biblical preaching, on the other hand, focuses on “real needs” whether “felt” or not. And those needs are met in the Scriptures and by knowing God.

2. Biblical Preaching Reveals The Mind Of The Spirit

The Spirit of God reveals the meaning and application of Scripture to the preacher as he studies the text and prepares his sermon. The Spirit of God also reveals the meaning and application of Scripture to the audience as the preacher exposits the text. In this way, the people become educated in the truth of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit brings them to obedience to that truth.

3. Biblical Preaching Covers The Whole Counsel Of God

It exposes the faith in all of its detail. This is not the subjective faith of a sinner who believes, but the objective faith of the evangelical Christian church - doctrinal truth. The church is built on the teaching of the apostles, whose epistles give us practical instruction and theological truth.

The expository preacher will preach systematically through the Scriptures and he will preach biblical theology. In this way, he will “preach the faith” – i.e. the great doctrines of the Christian church. Such preaching keeps down doctrinal error, keeps heresy at bay by “rightly dividing the Word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), and builds up Christians in their most holy faith.

Thus biblical preaching encourages a balanced preaching ministry as you preach systematically through the Word of God. By doing so you preach a balance of ethical and doctrinal truth. You preach the whole counsel of God. This keeps the preacher from the temptation of preaching personal pet themes or issues.

4. Biblical Preaching Helps Create Unity In The Church

When the expectation for the type and substance of the preaching is established and agreed upon, this helps to unify the church and establish an atmosphere of harmony and co-operation between the preacher and the congregation. Since biblical preaching focuses on the centrality of the Word and the lordship of Christ, when expository preaching is the expectation of the congregation and the practice of the preacher, then both the preacher and the congregation share a common, unifying denominator – namely, that God’s Word is the foundation for faith and practice and, therefore, the basis of preaching.

5. Biblical Preaching Increases The Spiritual And Moral Power Of The Church

Sin is being tolerated in many churches today. The world’s standard is creeping into the church. Biblical preaching helps to purify the spiritual life of the church because it brings the people into contact with the Word of God and its demands for holiness. It brings all of God’s Word to bear on all the moral and practical questions that the church faces. These issues, then, are not decided by popular opinion in the church or by the leaders in the church but by the Word of God.

Further, biblical preaching is powerful because it generates a hunger for God’s Word in the lives of the people. When the Bible is preached, people will start to bring their Bibles to church and begin to study it for themselves. Thus, it aids in the spiritual growth of the people by engendering spiritual education, edification, and maturity.

Biblical preaching keeps the church on track spiritually and morally because personal and corporate obedience are required by God in his Word. When the Word of God is preached expositorally, it exposes the people to the righteous demands of a holy God and it calls for obedient submission to those holy demands. Biblical preaching keeps the church on track – spiritually, practically, ethically, doctrinally.

6. Biblical Preaching Requires Diligent Study Of The Word By The Preacher

The amount of time the preacher spends studying the Word and praying has a direct relationship to the power of the preaching. If we give the study of the Word and prayer priority during the week, only then will we have power in the pulpit. R. G. Lee once said: “You cannot live on skim milk during the week and preach cream on Sunday.” Diligent study, prayer, and intimacy with God is the key to effective and powerful preaching. W. E. Criswell said: “No man can meet the demands of a pulpit who does not constantly and earnestly study.”

The study is a private and quiet place where the preacher spends time with God and where the Holy Spirit illumines his understanding of the Word. This cannot be done in an environment of noise and commotion. Only when the preacher is fully prepared from his time in the study can he enter the pulpit with confidence that he has something to deliver to the people from God. H. C. Brown Jr. said: “There is no substitute for the intimate knowledge of the words and thoughts of the text.” John Calvin once said: “None will ever be a good minister of the Word of God unless he is first of all a scholar.” And C. H. Spurgeon said: “He who no longer sows in the study will no more reap in the pulpit.”

As you study, wait on God until he steps in and gives you a message from the text of Scripture. It is a matter of waiting before God for the direction of God as to the message for the people. Indeed, this ought to be the main party of study. The message must have the fire that God alone can give it. Any other message has no fire from God.

7. Biblical Preaching Allows The Word To Accomplish Its Task

The expository preacher can claim Isaiah 55:8-11. God’s thoughts and ways are far higher than ours and His Word will not return void. The Word of God has come down to us just as the rain comes down from heaven and it accomplishes its task as it is preached accurately and fully to the people.

The Word of God will accomplish the task to which God sends it because “the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). This assurance gives the preacher great comfort and encouragement that his efforts are not in vain and that his weakness will be used to magnify God’s strength through his mighty Word. The primary task of the proclaimed Word is to transform lives. The exposition of the Scriptures transforms saints (including the preacher) and sinners.

8. Biblical Preaching Re-Establishes The Lost Priority Of Preaching

Why has preaching lost its priority? Preaching has lost its priority because some people have a low opinion of preachers and preaching. Some people have a low opinion of preaching because they have shifted the focus from the pulpit to counselling. Modern churches seem to think that secular strategies are the answer to the people’s problems rather than spiritual approaches.

Some people have a low opinion of preaching because they do not understand what God is doing. They do not pray for souls or for spiritual victory. They do not understand the attacks of Satan against God’s servants. For them, as long as the services and programs of the church go on, then everything is fine.

The discrediting of preaching is one of the marks of our time. People discredit preaching by telling the preacher not to preach at them or by accusing him of preaching too long. Instead, people should be more concerned with the content and power of the message that God is delivering rather than the length of the message. In addition, some preachers themselves discredit preaching by telling stories and jokes, and by a bad attitude towards the preaching task. Often, preachers think that their preaching does not have any impact and that it is redundant.

How important is preaching? Preaching is the pastor’s primary task and the most important aspect of his ministry. The pastor’s greatest peril is to attend to things of lesser importance to the neglect of preaching. The preacher holds a position of supreme privilege and responsibility, for he is God’s mouthpiece. It is the greatest honour to speak God’s Word for God. There is nothing else that a preacher does that is more important than when he preaches, because when he preaches he fulfills his divine commission.

The pulpit is the centre of God’s kingdom work. It is the front line of the spiritual battle that is waged in every generation. Preaching and the pulpit are God’s mightiest weapons against spiritual coldness and lethargy in the church. Through preaching, the lost will be saved, the needs of people will be met, and their spiritual lives will be changed for the glory of God.

Maintaining focus and energy in the preaching task is the most important concern of the pastor. Other duties clamour for attention, but the pastor must always be focused on his primary task, preaching. In keeping this in the forefront, the preacher must remember that he belongs to and serves the Lord Jesus Christ - not the congregation, the denomination, or any of the myriad urgent matters that cross his path. Indeed, it is the absence of, and inattentiveness to, biblical preaching that, at least in measure, accounts for the ills of our modern society. The moral landslide that besets our nations will not stop until changes are made in our pulpits.

9. Biblical Preaching Re-Establishes The Lost Power Of Biblical Authority

The foundation of biblical (expository) preaching is biblical authority – that the Bible is the ultimate standard for all matters of faith and practice. The challenge to biblical authority came primarily during the Enlightenment (the age of reason). As David Allen points out, “Modernity distrusted authority. Postmodernity dismantles authority.” (David Allen, “Preaching and Postmodernism: an Evangelical Comes to Dance,” in Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 5, no. 2, Summer 2011, 73, cited by Richard Holland in The Masters Seminary Journal, Spring 2011, 27).

Disputes over biblical authority quickly degenerate into disputes about biblical interpretation. And thus begins the slippery slope as to what it says, what it means, and how it applies to us today.

The power for preaching stands or falls on this issue of biblical authority. If you deny biblical authority, your preaching won’t have spiritual power. If you acknowledge and bow to it, your preaching will have spiritual power. Biblical authority means not only that Scripture is true in all that it affirms, but that Scripture is binding in all that it prescribes. “It’s questions demand answers of us ... its exclamations should become the shouts of our hearts ... its promises must be relied upon, and so forth.” (John Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 1987), 201, cited by Richard Holland in The Masters Seminary Journal, Spring 2011, 27).

10. Biblical Preaching Makes The Bible A Focal Point Of Worship

The Word of God is central to the worship of God. The Bible becomes the focal point of our worship only when it is the focal point of the study of the preacher. The Bible will be the central point of our worship services only if the preacher has laboured over it in his preparation for preaching and only when the preacher presents his preaching as an offering to God.

Preaching is not an obligation of the preacher to please the people or the leaders of the church, but to please God. When a sermon is preached as an offering to God by the preacher then the preacher only looks to God for approval of that sermon.

The preacher is God’s servant, delivering God’s message, based on God’s Word in and through the power of God’s Spirit. When the preacher preaches the Word accordingly it is an offering to God. Then he is offering the sermon back to God and only God can truly evaluate its acceptability. Therefore, we should prepare and preach as unto God because God is the audience that matters and his approbation is all that counts. For a sermon to be an offering to God it must cost us something – namely, hard work and prayer in the study. “Preaching that costs nothing accomplishes nothing” (Jowett).

Part II: Preparing For Preaching

Outlining the Sermon, Pt. 3 (continued): Testing Your Main Points

In the last edition of this journal, I talked about outlining your sermon - specifically, how to test your main points. I said that the main points of the sermon must be homiletically distinct and harmoniously related.

I thought it might be helpful for you if I gave you some examples from my own sermon outlines that may help you see that the main points are distinct from each other and yet also relate to each other by being tied to the subject.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Subject: Preaching the gospel

1. When you preach the gospel, your message should be persuasive (1-2)

(1a) ...not because of your speech or wisdom (1)

(1b) ...but because of Christ’s person and work (2).

2. When you preach the gospel, your message should be powerful (3-4)

(2a) ...not because of your person and words (3-4a)

(2b) ...but because of the Spirit’s action and work (4b)

3. When you preach the gospel, your message should be profitable (5)

(3a) ...not because of faith in human wisdom (5a)

(3b) ...but because of faith in God’s power (5b)

Galatians 3:10-14

Subject: Justification before God

1. If you rely on your own works, you are condemned (10-12)

(1a) …because you can’t keep the law in its entirety (10)

(1b) …because righteousness is only by faith (11-12)

2. If you rely on Christ’s work, you are blessed (13-14)

(2a) …because the condemnation of the law is transferred to Christ (13)

(2b) …because the blessing of faith is transferred to us (14)

Galatians 5:16-25

Subject: Living in spiritual freedom

1. Living by the Spirit is a life of conflict (16-18)

2. Living by the Spirit is a life of contrast (19-23)

3. Living by the Spirit is a life of crucifixion (24)

4. Living by the Spirit is a life of conformity (25)

Philippians 3:1-14

Subject: Trusting Christ rather than self

1. When we trust Christ, our perspective changes (4-8c)

(1a) What once meant everything (4-6), now means nothing (7)

(1b) What once meant nothing, now means everything (8a-c)

2. When we trust Christ, our purpose changes (8d-11)

(2a) Our lifelong purpose is to become like Christ (8d-10)

(2b) Our lifelong purpose is to be with Christ (11)

3. When we trust Christ, our pursuit changes (12-14)

(3a) We put away what is past (12-13a)

(3b) We pursue what is future (13b-14)

Colossians 1:24-2:5

Subject: The occupation of pastoral ministry

1. In pastoral ministry...we suffer for the sake of the church (24)

2. In pastoral ministry...we serve as stewards of the church (25-29)

3. In pastoral ministry...we strive for the spirituality of the church (2:1-5)

Colossians 2:13-15

Subject: Transformation from spiritual death to life

1. God has conferred on us two great benefits (13)

(1a) He has conferred spiritual life

(1b) He has conferred forgiveness of sins

2. God has conquered for us two great enemies

(2a) He has conquered the Law’s demands (14)

(2b) He has conquered Satan’s forces (15)

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Subject: A Portrait of a Model Church

1. God-centred people are known by what they do (3)

(1a) We demonstrate our faith through works (3a)

(1b) We demonstrate our love through serving (3b)

(1c) We demonstrate our hope through perseverance (3c)

2. God-centred people are known by who they are (4-10)

(2a) We are living testimonies to the saving power of the gospel (4-5)

(2b) We are living testimonies to the transforming power of the gospel (6-10)

1 Timothy 3:14-16

Subject: The character of God’s house

1. Our conduct is governed by the nature of the church (14-15)

(1a) It is the church of the living God

(1b) It is the pillar of the truth

(1c) It is the foundation of the truth

2. Our confession is governed by the message of the church (16)

(2a) The church confesses the incarnation of Christ

- he was “manifested in the flesh”

- he was “vindicated by the Spirit”

(2b) The church confesses the testimony to Christ

- the testimony of the angels (“seen by angels”)

- the testimony among the people (“preached among the Gentiles”)

(2c) The church confesses the response to Christ

- the response on earth (“believed in in the world”)

- the response of heaven (“received up in glory”)

Hebrews 12:18-24

Subject: Approaching God in Worship

1. If you approach God on the basis of your own works, you will receive God’s righteous judgement (18-21)

(1a) To approach God on the basis of his law is a frightening experience - power, fear, death, distance (18-19)

(1b) To approach God on the basis of his law is a condemning experience - you can’t measure up (20-21)

2. If you approach God on the basis of Christ’s work, you will receive God’s redeeming grace (22-24)

When we approach God on the basis of Christ’s work...

(2a) We come into the holy city without barrier (22) - “to Mt. Zion and to the city of the living God”

(2b) We come into a great celebration without disappointment (23a) - “to the joyful assembly and church of the firstborn”

(2c) We come into the presence of the Judge without fear (23b) - “to the Judge of all”

(2d) We come into the company of the righteous without imperfection (23c) - “to the spirits of just men made perfect”

(2e) We come to the Mediator without conscience - “to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant”

(2f) We come in by the blood of Christ without sin - “to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better thins than that of Abel”

Genesis 21:8-21

Subject: The source of and solutions to our trouble

1. Trouble often finds its source in our bad attitudes (9-10)

- Sarah’s bad attitude leads to resentment

2. Trouble often finds its source in our bad decisions (11-14a)

- Abraham’s bad decision leads to a predicament

3. Trouble often finds its source in our bad circumstances (14b-16)

- Hagar’s bad circumstances lead to banishment

4. Trouble always finds its solution in God’s goodness (17-21)

- banishment leads to God’s intervention

Genesis 32:22-32

Subject: Running Away from God

1. Running from the past doesn’t solve your problems (22-24a)

(1a) It may separate you from your family (22-23)

(1b) It may leave you isolated and alone (24a)

2. Meeting with God brings you to your senses (24b-29)

(2a) A meeting with God stops you in your tracks (24b-25)

(2b) A meeting with God makes you cry for a blessing (26-29)

3. Facing the future gives you renewed hope (30-31)

(3a) You can face the future with hope, when you’ve “seen the face of God” (30)

(3b) You can face the future with hope, when “the sun finally rises” (31)

Exodus 3:1-10

Subject: Encountering God in the everyday events of life

1. In an encounter with God, He meets you where you are (1)

(1a) ...in an ordinary activity (1a)

(1b) ...in an ordinary place (1b)

2. In an encounter with God, He attracts you to himself (2-4)

(2a) ...by appearing in a “burning bush” (2-3)

(2b) ...by calling you by name (4)

3. In an encounter with God, He reveals who he is (5-10)

(3a) He reveals that he is a holy God (5)

(3b) He reveals that he is a faithful God (6)

(3c) He reveals that he is a redeeming God (7-10)

-a redeeming God who takes notice of his people (7)

-a redeeming God who delivers his people (8)

-a redeeming God who sends a Saviour for his people (8-10)

Part III: Devotional Exposition

“The Comprehension of the Gospel” (1 Cor. 2:6-16)

By: Dr. Stephen F. Olford

Introduction

Having dealt with the character, communion, and communication of the gospel, Paul now concludes this section with a paragraph on the Comprehension of the Gospel. He anticipates those who might infer from his argument thus far that there is no place at all in the economy of God for wisdom, and that Christian truth is wholly outside the realm of the intellect. The Apostle meets this objection by pointing out that the gospel does contain a wisdom, but this wisdom is spiritual and therefore only comprehended by spiritual means. Failure to understand these important facts was another cause for division among the believers at Corinth. So Paul corrects the existing situation insisting that the comprehension of the gospel is made possible by:

I. Spiritual Initiation

“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:6-7). In effect, Paul is saying here: “Do not imagine that Christianity is devoid of philosophy, of wisdom, that it is something outside the realm of the renewed intellect. It is not. It has its own wisdom, its own philosophy. Indeed, what Paul is showing here is that the Christian philosophy is the ultimate philosophy. It is not to be tested by other philosophies. They are to be tried by it.

It is clear therefore, that Paul is drawing a clear distinction once again between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. The wisdom of the world is limited by its “age”. This is literally the word Paul uses. The supreme characteristic of human philosophy is that it is always bounded by the age in which it is evolved. So in a very real sense, men are circumscribed in their reasoning by the period in which they live. But not so with divine philosophy. The wisdom of God is timeless, and therefore changeless. Paul describes this wisdom as a mystery, “even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). It is a wisdom which comes out of eternity, invades time, and lives on throughout the ages. To know such wisdom, men and women must be spiritually initiated. That is why Paul uses this term “mystery.” The Greek word signifies “something whose meaning is hidden from those who have not been initiated, but which is crystal clear to those who have” (William Barclay).

Now the question arises as to how men and women can be initiated into this wisdom of God, which is nothing less than the revelation of God in Christ and Him crucified. The answer is implicit in the little word “mature” which Paul equates with those who are spiritual (see verse 15). This means that for a spiritual initiation to take place, there must be:

1) A Spiritual Birth. “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature…” (1 Corinthians 2:6). The word translated “mature” means “full grown” in contrast to “babe.” Before there can be development and maturity, there must be a spiritual birth. This was the whole thrust of our Savior’s approach to one of the most intellectual men of His day named Nicodemus. Although versed in philosophy and steeped in theology, he was not born again, and to him the Savior said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, see also 3:5). There is only one realm in which the revelation of God can be understood, and that is the kingdom of God. That realm can never be entered except by a spiritual initiation – a new birth. But with this spiritual birth there must also be:

2) A Spiritual Growth. “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature…” (1 Corinthians 2:6). William Barclay maintains that the word translated “mature” describes “an animal or a person who is full grown and who has reached the height of his physical development.” He goes on to say that “Paul uses this word to indicate the spiritual and mental growth of those who can appreciate the deep things of God.” Barclay also states, “…to those who have just newly come into the church, we talk about the basic elements of Christianity; but when people are a little more mature, we give them deeper teaching about what these basic facts mean.” It is in this respect that Paul limits the understanding of the wisdom of God to the “initiated.” The wisdom of this world passes away, or “comes to nothing” (verse 6), but the eternal wisdom of God, ordained before the world, is designed to bring men and women into the full purpose of God’s glory, by a crisis and a process of initiation which we call spiritual birth and spiritual growth. Have you experienced this initiation by the Holy Spirit? Without this experience you can never understand the wisdom of God as it is revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ. But the comprehension of the gospel involves, in the second place:

II. Spiritual Illumination

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). Following spiritual initiation there must be the illumination of the Spirit. One of the hardest lessons men and women have to learn is that human observation, human inculcation, and human contemplation can never penetrate or discover the deep things of God. In other words, the philosophical approach and the scientific method are limited by time and sense, and can only bring us to the end of human reasoning. But where human investigation fails, spiritual illumination prevails. Thus Paul proceeds to show that if a person is qualified by spiritual birth and growth, he can know:

1) The Revelation of the Spirit. “But God has revealed them (spiritual things) to us by His Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10). To illustrate his point, the Apostle, says, “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11). What he is saying is simply that there are certain things which only a man’s spirit can know. Everyone is aware of this. No one can really see into our hearts and know what is there except our own spirits. Now Paul goes on to argue that the same is true of God. There are deep and intimate things about God that only God’s Spirit knows, and therefore it is only the Holy Spirit who can lead us to understand the mind of God. To put it in another form, there are areas of truth that the unaided power of thought can never find out. The Holy Spirit alone must reveal them to us. This is why, when the Lord Jesus was leaving His disciples, He promised them the Holy Spirit who would teach them all things, and bring all things to their remembrance (John 14:26). With revelation of the Spirit also comes:

2) The Exploration of the Spirit. “For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). The function of the Holy Spirit is not only to reveal truth as it is in Christ, but also to explore truth. The word “searches” in our text is a most interesting one. The term is found in ancient manuscripts for a professional searcher’s report, and for the search of custom officials. Just as an experienced custom official brings to light the hidden articles from a traveler’s suitcase, so the Holy Spirit, in a more wonderful sense, explores the deep and hidden things of God, and makes them understandable and available to the humblest Christian who is prepared to trust Him (see also 1 John 2:20). This amazing phenomenon is what baffles the intellectuals of every age. The philosophers and scientists have never been able to understand how it is that even the unlettered mind can appreciate and discuss truths that are utterly hidden to the world at large. The answer, of course, is that there is such a thing as spiritual illumination. The Lord Jesus rejoiced in this fact (Luke 10:21; Matthew 16:17).

Do you know anything about this spiritual illumination in your life? There is nothing more wonderful than to share in the revelation and exploration of the Spirit of God. Anyone who has reached this point can say with the Apostle Paul: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). But for the complete comprehension of the gospel, there must be not only spiritual initiation and illumination, but also:

III. Spiritual Interpretation

“These things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13). Now we reach a point in Paul’s argument where we need to follow him very closely. These words that we have just quoted are often used as a proof text by the proponents of verbal inspiration – a doctrine that is both biblical and true. But Paul here says “we speak,” not “we write.” Thus he is referring not so much to inspiration as to interpretation. He is teaching us that knowledge of truth can be arrived at by an understanding of two necessary essentials:

1) The Spirit’s Use of Language. “These things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual”(1 Corinthians 2:13). It cannot be emphasized enough that he who knows the mind of God also chooses the words of God to interpret divine truth. This is essentially the ministry of the Holy Spirit. What an importance this places on the Scriptures throughout this church age. His work is to interpret the Bible to men and women who know the experience of spiritual initiation and illumination. Let it be stressed, however, that the Holy Spirit never speaks outside of the context of the divine revelation we call the Holy Bible. That is why we need to give special attention to the Spirit’s use of language. Not one jot or tittle is inconsequential. This is why Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). He also said, “…when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth…” (John 16:13). This is the secret of interpretation: the Spirit using His own words to make known the mind of God. But with the Spirit’s use of language, there is also:

2) The Spirit’s Terms of Reference. “These things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13). Commentators have found it extremely difficult to expound this sentence. Some say it means “matching spiritual things with spiritual words.” Others maintain that it reads “interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.” I am personally convinced that both positions are right. The point the Apostle Paul is making is that no Scripture is of private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20). The Holy Spirit has His terms of reference, and through the body of truth, as we know it in the Bible, there is sufficient precedent and support for every cardinal doctrine we hold dear. What is more, we have what is known as a Christian tradition that is made up of the contributions of doctrinal men down through the centuries. So we are not left to guess about divine revelation. There is no truth that is vital to Christian life and practice that has not the support both of divine revelation and Christian tradition. When Paul writes to Timothy concerning the comprehension and communication of divine truth, he says: “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (1 Timothy 2:2).

So Paul concludes this amazing paragraph by pointing out “…the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). In other words, without spiritual initiation, illumination, and interpretation, truth is nothing more than foolishness to the unregenerate – the man of the world. He looks upon revelation as an absurdity. Once we have understood this we have a complete explanation of the attitude that is adopted by the non-Christian to spiritual things. We must therefore be patient with him and pray that he may submit to the terms of divine revelation. On the other hand, the Apostle says, “…he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one” (1 Corinthians 2:15). In other words, the man who knows spiritual initiation, illumination, and interpretation possesses a faculty which enables him to sift and examine things divinely revealed, as well as things human and natural. At the same time, he cannot be subject to examination and judgment by the one who is destitute of the Spirit. No unregenerate person has the right to criticize or judge a Christian man regarding his personal faith in Christ. He is without the faculty of spiritual discernment, and cannot therefore understand the nature of the miracle that has taken place. Just as he cannot judge the Christian, so he cannot instruct the Lord (see verse 16). It is nothing but utter human impertinence for the natural man to raise his voice against the God he is unwilling to accept.

By contrast, the Christian has “the mind of Christ.” The passage closes with this tremendous statement. The wisdom of God is nothing less than the mind of Christ. The word “mind” here means “intellect” or “consciousness.” We have the consciousness of Christ, the mind of Christ, the outlook of Christ. This is not the same word that Paul uses in Philippians chapter two. There it is the disposition of Christ; here it is the intelligent understanding or wisdom of Christ.

Conclusion:

How wonderful it is that you and I can know the very mind of God. The wonder of it is that throughout eternity we are going to continue to explore the mind of Christ, becoming more and more like Jesus. What a vast universe of blessing stretches out before us! It makes us feel like Isaac Newton, when he said, “I am like a little child standing by the seashore, picking up a pebble here and a pebble there, and admiring them, while the great sea rolls in front of me.”

So Paul climaxes a mighty subject with the loftiest of concepts. What he is saying to these Corinthians is that if they know the initiation, illumination, and interpretation, they will know the mind of Christ. And to know the mind of Christ is to know unity of thought, life, and practice. There is no division in the mind of Christ, and no division in the local church that knows the mind of Christ. O that our prayer might be: “May the mind of Christ, my Savior, live in me from day to day, by His love and power controlling all I do and say.”

Part IV. Sermon Outlines

To listen to the audio version of these sermons in English, click on these links: Link 1 - Jn. 11:38-44; Link 2 - Jn. 13:1-3, Pt. 1; Link 3 - Jn. 13:1-3, Pt. 2; Link 4 - Jn. 13:1-3, Pt. 3

Title: Washing the Disciples’ Feet

Point #1: We Must Understand the Basis of True Servanthood (1-3)

1. The basis of true servanthood is the confidence that comes from knowledge

(1a) The knowledge of where we are going and how we are getting there (1a)

- “Jesus knew that his hour had come…”

(1b) The knowledge of who we are and how we fit in (3a)

- Jesus knew… that the Father had given all things into his hands”

(1c) The knowledge of where we have come from and why we are here (3b)

- Jesus knew… that he had come from God and was going to God

2: The Basis of True Servanthood Is The Motivation That Comes From Love (1c)

(2a) The motivation that comes from love is shown in the object of that love (1c)

- “having loved his own”

(2b) The motivation that comes from love is shown in the extent of that love (1d)

- “having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them to the end”

You are here

Titus

Philemon

2 Peter

From the series: Boundaries PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

1. Boundary Basics

Invisible Property Lines and Responsibility

Boundaries in the physical world:

Me and Not Me

To and For

Nature of boundaries

Good In, Bad Out

God and Boundaries

Examples of Boundaries

Skin

Words

How boundaries develop in toddlers:

Geographical distance

Time

Emotional distance

Consequences

What’s Within My Boundaries?

Feelings

Behaviors

Choices

Limits

Boundary problems

Saying yes to the bad

Saying no to the good

Controllers: Not Respecting Others’ Boundaries

From the series: Boundaries PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

From the series: Easter Messages PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Easter [2017]: Full Joy and Eternal Pleasure (Psalm 16)

1. Make the crucified and risen Lord your supreme treasure.

A. Make the Lord your refuge and Savior.

B. Make the Lord your Lord and your supreme good.

C. Make the Lord the center of your relationships.

D. Make the Lord the exclusive object of your worship.

E. Make the Lord your present and eternal inheritance.

2. When the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ is your supreme treasure, He will satisfy you with full joy and eternal pleasure.

A. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you enjoy His counsel and instruction.

B. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience His stability in trials.

C. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience gladness and joy because you are secure in Him.

D. When the Lord is your supreme treasure, you experience eternal joy and pleasure in God’s presence.

3. God’s promises of eternal joy and pleasure are secured by the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ (Ps. 16:8-11).

Conclusion

Application Questions

From the series: Easter Messages PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

From the series: The Church PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 3: The Mission of the Church (Matthew 28:19-20; 22:37-40)

1. The church’s mission is to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel to the lost.

A. We glorify God by proclaiming His gospel with verbal clarity.

B. We glorify God by proclaiming His gospel to all people.

C. We glorify God by verbally proclaiming His gospel backed up by Christlike love to all people.

2. The church’s mission is to glorify God by making Christlike disciples who love God and one another.

A. Christlike disciples love God above all else.

B. Christlike disciples build up one another in love.

3. The church’s mission is to glorify God by making Christlike disciples who make Christlike disciples.

Conclusion

Application Questions

From the series: The Church PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

From the series: The Church PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 4: The Unity of the Church (John 17:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:1-6, 13)

1. Christian unity is important because Christ died to secure it and it is a major factor in our witness to the world.

A. Christian unity is important because Christ died to secure it.

B. Christian unity is important because it is a major factor in our witness to the world.

2. Biblical Christian unity is not primarily outward, but rather is an unseen reality based on shared life in Christ.

A. Biblical Christian unity is not primarily outward.

1) Christian unity is not organizational unity.

2) Christian unity is not uniformity.

3) Christian unity is not unanimity on every doctrine.

B. Biblical Christian unity is an unseen truth based on shared life through saving faith in Christ.

3. For biblical Christian unity to be a witness to the world, we must work at preserving and perfecting it.

A. We preserve and perfect unity by working at harmonious relationships with all believers.

B. We preserve and perfect unity by growing in understanding biblical truth so that we know Christ more deeply.

C. We preserve and perfect unity by displaying racial, cultural, and social unity and diversity.

D. We preserve and perfect unity by the acceptance and appreciation of one another’s different gifts.

E. We preserve and perfect unity by accepting all whom Christ has accepted, while yet holding to truths that we believe are important for growth in Christ.

F. We preserve and perfect unity by rejoicing when other gospel-preaching, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting churches do well.

G. We preserve and perfect unity by holding firmly to essential biblical truth while guarding ourselves against the pride of “being right” on every minor issue.