From the last post, I should be more clear on what I mean by “sermon.” None of the questions have anything to do with the biblical text itself and exegesis because I do not think there is such a thing as a sermon without that.
Monthly Archives: December 2009
Eight Things to Ask the Rough Draft of Your Sermon
- What is my aim in preaching?
- Where is Jesus?
- Where is the gospel of God’s grace?
- What is my dominant emotion as I read through the manuscript?
- What do I want my hearers to remember the most?
- Do I sound like a starving man who has found food or like a theological tycoon who pretends to monopolize insight?
- Is God glorified? Is His worth and beauty magnified?
- Is this before and unto the LORD as Christ-exalting, Spirit-dependent worship?
A Fierce Lamb Then and What It Means for Me Now (By the way…)
Revelation 19:11-16 is a fierce picture of Jesus. The Lamb who was slain will then be known as the King of Psalm 2. The meek Savior will rule with a rod of iron. The suffering servant will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
This will happen. Now what does it mean for me? If this is my King, the One in whom by grace I take refuge, how do I factor now into this future reality? Here are a few observations:
- I must be sure not to confuse the figure of Revelations 19:11-16 to be anyone other than Jesus. It is not me and it is not my example.
- The conquerors who belong to Jesus are victors by giving up their lives for the sake of others, not by taking the lives of others.
- The judgment that he administers on that last day is a judgment that we all deserve and that we would all experience if not for the sovereign grace to God to call and save sinners.
- This judgment is not capricious, but is the display of God’s righteousness–the unswerving commitment to uphold the glory of His name.
- I should be jealous for God’s glory, too. But my jealously for God’s glory is not executing judgment, but in giving up my own life out of love for others to display Christ’s worth.
By the way, doesn’t this thwart the intention is Islamic jihadism? How can one make war against those who are bowing their heads in love for the very ones who want to make war against them?
Elizabeth is Two
Yesterday we celebrated Elizabeth turning two-years old on December 26th.
I had the deep joy of praying a birthday blessing over Elizabeth…
In Jesus’ name by grace-
May the LORD bless you, my daughter, to shout and sing for joy as an inhabitant of Zion.
May He bless you to give thanks, to seek, to declare, to ascribe, and to worship:
that is, may the LORD bless you to
give Him thanks for His steadfast love,
to seek His presence continually,
to declare His name among all peoples,
to ascribe to Him glory and strength,
to worship Him in the splendor of holiness, through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
May the LORD bless you, my daughter, to say of Him:
“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.”In Jesus’ name, amen.
One Embarrassing Error on the Flight from London to Detroit: What Terrorists and Many Americans Have in Common
There are not a few things that I find extremely disturbing about someone wanting to blow up themselves and an airplane full of people. But one point that I cannot get passed is the continued ignorance of Islamic terrorists as to what a Christian actually is.
The guy’s idea on the flight from London to Detroit is sickeningly obvious, and seriously erroneous. The savage, barbarous idea was to kill a plane full of Christians on one of their cherished holidays. The error is to think that an airplane full of Americans and Westerners means an airplane full of Christians.
You would think that at least one of them would have read something on Christian doctrine. How do they not know a glaring distinction between Christianity and Islam? — what makes someone a Christian is not a will-exalting submission to rules and mantra, but an inner transformation that comes from outside of us–from God who humbles our will and exalts the glory of His grace.
And that means that there could be absolutely no Christians on a plane full of Americans. The terrorist bad guys need to get the same thing that liberal Protestants need to get, not to mention the Southern Bible-belt at large: Being American or Western does not mean being Christian. Living in some form of ‘christian’ morality does not mean being Christian.
I wish those guys would get this. I wish they would learn something about the gospel and not listen to American TV or Rome. Blowing up a plane is not executing infidels, it is just killing people.
Merry Christmas!
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:14 ESV)
Merry Christmas to you all!
Come, Lord Jesus!
Do We Speak the Word at Home?
The ministry of the Word is not the exclusive property of pastors and teachers, but is to be shared with the whole people of God in various capacities–one another speaking the Word to one another.
This culture of Word-speaking will not be a reality in a pastor’s congregation if it is not the reality in his own life. The question must first be, does “word-speaking” happen in my family? Does it happen outside of a formal context?
My hope is a home that is saturated with the Word. It is hung on the walls and prayed at the table and whispered in the morning when we awake from sleep and sung in the evenings before we go to bed and served in the busy monotony of regular days. I want my daughters to speak words of life to one another and I want them to love doing it. And even in my most frustrated and often sin-blinding moments, I want to break through to speak words of life to Melissa. Please, Jesus!
Do we really believe this Book? Brothers, do we believe the Book?
The Trellis and the Vine: The Radical Simplicity of a Word-saturated Church
After hearing raving review of The Trellis and the Vine, I was eager to get a copy and began reading. I’ve been reading through with a red pen and orange highlighter. Pages are marked up and tagged. I think I’ll come back to this one more than once. So far it is very good.
It is not that the content is so revolutionary, in fact, it is rather simple. That is maybe what is most fascinating. It is simple, straight-forward stuff that has become lost in many local churches. There is a radical flavor to the simplicity of what Marshall and Payne are saying.
- Local churches should be more about gospel-growth, disciple-making, and authentic training.
- Training itself is not competency in a skill, but maturity in Christ and the character that ensues
- The ministry of the Word is not the exclusive property of pastors and teachers, but is to be shared with the whole people of God in various capacities–one another speaking the Word to one another.
This is a picture of a church that believes the Word. May their tribe increase!
The Touchstone…
The church always tends towards institutionalism and secularization. The focus shifts to preserving traditional programs and structures, and the goal of discipleship is lost. The mandate of disciple-making provides the touchstone for whether our church is engaging in Christ’s mission. Are we making genuine disciples of Jesus Christ? Our goal is not to make church members or members of our institution, but genuine disciples of Jesus.
Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine, 14
Jesus Saves Us From What?
A crucial problem with how people conceive the doctrine of Christ’s saving work is the attempt to understand the doctrine apart from the doctrine of God. Until we have a biblical understanding of God and His nature, we are not fit to see the necessity of the cross. Propitiation and expiation and the various aspects of the atonement will be nonsense to us. If we step into this doctrine without a grasp of who God is then we will most likely gravitate to the aspect of the atonement that seems most compatible to our own interests, expectations, standards, etc.
Most people conceive of God to be a God of love. That is not controversial. To most people the caricature of the Divine Being is at least some giant ‘care bear’ in the sky who is nice to people. The “man upstairs” is everybody’s kind of guy. He loves and is comfortably lovable to the point that there is enough mercy to go around when we screw up. But what is nature of this real love and real mercy?
It should be clear that we would know nothing about love or mercy if there were no such thing as wrath. The meaning of mercy implies an alternative. Mercy is not an independent concept that drops out of an undermined idea of love. Mercy is the response that’s very presence testifies to the fact that it is what should not be. If mercy is to be fully understood then understanding wrath is a necessity.
Unless we get that we really deserve eternal condemnation, unless we get that we really deserve the furious anger of God’s wrath against us forever–unless we get all of that then Jesus’ death in our place is emptied of its glory. How can we appreciate salvation if we don’t know what it is that we are saved from?
