Why Jonny Can't Preach: A review

'Why Johnny Can't Preach' comes in at a diminutive and readable 108 pages. It's helpful without being heavy, and Gordon writes so well that the pages more or less fly by. That, and the compelling subject matter help to make this one of the most readable books i've enjoyed this year.

The Good.

Gordon self consciously titled the book in the vein of 'why johnny can't read,' and 'why johnny can't write.' The author had been diagnosed with cancer shortly before sitting down to write his opus, in fact that what was compelled him to write. The five chapters deal with three major reasons why johnny can't preach (he can't read, he can't write and he can't interpret the Bible) as well as a couple of chapters on solving the problem. As you might expect from a book that comes from the pen of a dying man (he's now happily in remission) the pages come across very much as a heartfelt plea for a churchwide return to sound, solid, nourishing Biblical exposition. It was stirring and challenging. It made me want to bury my face in the text, spend more time writing, compose my speech better, and read Shakespeare's sonnets. Gordon's main point is that though Johnny can neither read or write, he can learn. He can learn to pay careful attention to texts and he can learnt to write. He can learn to preach. There were challenging and inspiring words.

The Less Good

Gordon's background is in media ecology, the study of how current trends in technology and media influence us and the way we think. This helps with many of his observations, but occasionally leads him to overstate his case, as he sees his subject through his expert lense. I'm not sure, for example, that increased use of the telephone has lead to a deterioration in the pulpit. I'm also not sure that the state of the pulpit is as bad as he makes out, but i've just been very blessed to be part of some excellent, Biblical churches in the last few years.

Overall this was an excellent read, if you want to be stirred, challenged and driven to prayer and deeper thought over your preaching, and preaching in general, buy this book!

Mark 10:17-31 (2)

I don’t know how that makes you feel. Discouraged? Upset? Worried ? Well if that’s the case then you’re in good company. Verse 26 says ‘lo, and they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, who then can be saved.’ Jesus message is so radical that even His closest followers were struggling with it. Who can be saved if it’s this hard? If even a man who looks so good struggles, how can we have any hope? If it’s not just about being good, who can be saved? Is it possible for me to be saved? Jesus answers that question in verse 27 ‘and Jesus looking upon them sayeth ‘with men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.’ How can we be saved? With man it is impossible. With man there is no way we can do it. There is no way this young man, despite his wholehearted obedience to the commandments Jesus listed could save himself. Just no way. With man it is impossible. But not with God. Not with God. With God all things are possible, with God you can be saved, with God this man can be saved. With God you can give up what you need to give up, you can change what you need to change, you can stop going to the places you need to stop going to, you can give a reason for the hope that you have. With God this is possible. I said earlier that the one thing the man lacked was Jesus. This is what I mean. He lacked a love for Him, a heart to obey Him, an understanding that he needs Jesus to be saved, he needs Jesus to save him, not his own efforts. That’s what he needed, that’s what I need, that’s what you need.

Please don’t miss this. Being a Christian means more than being part of a family that comes to church, or going to a Christian school, or going to camp or competing in competition or being nice to your parents or dressing and acting right. That’s the same sort of thing that the young man presented to Jesus as why he should inherit eternal life. It is impossible for us to be saved because of the things we do ourselves. This is what Jesus says. But not with God. God can save us. Not because of our efforts but in spite of them. Jesus would have saved this young man in a flash if he’d wanted to be, not because he’d kept the commandments, but in spite of that fact.

Then Peter speaks. It’s always worth paying attention to what Peter says in Mark’s Gospel because you know it’s normally something pretty daft. Verse 28 says ‘then Peter began to say unto Him, ‘lo, we have left all and followed thee.’ Peter says ‘hey Jesus, look dude, we’ve given up everything, we’ve done what you said, so…what are you going to do about that?’ Peter always has an answer, and in this case it’s a good one. If anyone has given things up to follow Jesus, it’s his disciples. They’ve given up their jobs, their homes, their family, their friends…everything, to follow Jesus as He walks around Israel. Peter wants Jesus to remember than when it comes to giving things up, he’s up there with the best. So what does Jesus have to say to that? Is He grateful? Does He apologise for speaking so harshly to the young man and let Peter know what a great guy He is? Sometimes we’re like Peter, we want Jesus to remember all the great stuff we could have had, all the fun we could have taken part in if it hadn’t been for Him.

Jesus, as we might have come to expect, has a different answer, and a better one. In verses 29-31, we see this answer: and Jesus answered and said ‘verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or brethren, or sister, or father or mother, or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospel’s but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life.

What Jesus is saying here is that it is worth it to be a Christian. It is worth it to give up what you need to so that you might gain Jesus. It is worth the ridicule, worth being an outcast, worth ‘missing out’ because of what you gain. This verse is true, trust me. When I came to America I left my sister, my father, my mother, my land…most of everything that made me who I was. And now? I miss my family every day, but Jesus has given me Christian brothers and sisters, a home at this church, friends, hobbies, a job. Jesus tells us not to worry, that whatever we think we’ll lose in this life for following Him, we’ll get back much, much, much more in the next life. There will be persecutions. We will struggle and suffer sometimes, people will laugh at us, people will end friendships with us. But it will be worth it. It would have been worth it for the rich young man to sell all that he had so that he could follow Jesus. He would have got it back 100 times. The same is true for you and me. There are things we all need to give up, but it’s worth it.

Jesus says it’s impossible to do this by ourselves. It’s impossible for us to do what we need to do. But with God’s it’s possible, He has done it on the cross. Jesus saving work that we celebrate on Easter Sunday is the ground for all His teaching, and all our hope. We can’t do what we need to do to be saved, that’s why Jesus had to die, that’s why Easter is so important, that’s why our response to the cross is so important.

Mark 10:17-31 (1)

Lets look at a brief outline of the story. Jesus has just come from the famous incident where he holds children in His arms, and tells His followers that they must become childlike if they want to follow Him. Then a rich young man comes and knees before Jesus and asks ‘good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ In 1 peter 3:15 we’re told to always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you. I think it’s very interesting that this young man came and knelt before Jesus and asked Him this question. He must have seen in Jesus a different hope, a better hope. He must have seen that He was a teacher from God at least. He may not have understood fully who Jesus was, but he had caught a glimpse. When was the last time someone asked you what the reason for your hope was? Do we live differently from the non Christians around us? Do we live like we hope in something different from them?

Jesus’ answer to this young man is both instructive and condemning. He says in verses 18 and 19 ‘why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, no steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honour thy father and thy mother.’ Jesus answer seems like two different answers, but as we see this incident play out, we’ll understand why He talks as He does. Firstly; there is none good but one, that is God. This is a statement totally opposed to what most people think today. People are regarded as ‘good,’ we’re not so sure about God anymore. People are the judge, God is in the dock. Not according to Jesus. Jesus says there is no one good apart from God. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, according to Jesus, there are no good people. We’ll come back to this.

The second part of Jesus’ answer is just as interesting. He lists the commandments in answer to the man’s question. Do not commit adultery, do not kill, no not steal. But there’s something missing from this list isn’t there? He’s missed out the commandments that concern man and God. In my experience whenever you ask someone why they deserve to go to Heaven they’ll always say ‘well I’ve never killed anyone or stolen anything, I’m not that bad.’ and that’s exactly what the young man says here in verse 20: ‘and he answered and said unto Him, Master, all these I have observed from my youth.’ He says: ‘Jesus, I’ve done all that, I’ve been doing them all my life, I have kept these commands and kept them well.’ He is, in many ways a typical unsaved member of a church. He does everything, he attends every event, he’s respectful, everyone thinks he’s a good guy…and he’s going to Hell. That’s what Jesus says. Look at verses 21 and 22 with me: ‘then Jesus beholding him, loved him and said unto him, ‘one thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come, take up thy cross and follow me. And he was sad and that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.’

The young man thinks he’s good, good enough for Heaven. We know that Jesus says that there is none good, but God only. This man is not good enough for Heaven. You are not good enough for Heaven. So what is he supposed to do? Jesus says ‘sell everything and follow me.’ So is that how we get to Heaven? Being poor? Living in a hut with no electricity? Do I need to sell my laptop to go to Heaven? The man went away sad because as much as he wanted to inherit eternal life he didn’t want it more than his riches. He was more interested in thirty, fourty, fifty years of comfort here than he was in an eternity of joy in Heaven . Jesus said he lacked one thing…what was that one thing? Saving faith! He lacked a love for Jesus. He lacked an understanding that what Jesus called him to lose was nothing in comparison to what he would gain.

Here’s where tonight’s passage gets really relevant for you and me. Jesus says later in verse 25 ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.’ Will it be hard for you to go to Heaven? Do you find it hard to be a Christian? Do you find it hard to do what you know is right when you’re at school, or when you’re surrounded by your friends? Are there things, like this mans riches, that you need to give up so that you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Do you need to take some things to Jesus and give them up because they are making you like a camel going through the eye of a needle? It was hard for the rich man not to be rich and to be a Christian instead. What would his rich friends say if he gave all his possessions away ‘because God told him to?’ They’d laugh at him, he’d be an outcast. Is that true for you? What’s holding you back from giving everything you’ve got for Jesus? What’s stopping you? Do you think you’re ‘good’ like this man because you’ve never killed anyone? If you think it’s tough in middle school it’s going to get a whole lot harder in high school. If you think it’s tough to stand up for Jesus at high school then trust me, it’s going to get a whole lot harder at university. It just is. If you think that you can just not break commandments and be ok as a Christian, Jesus says theirs is one thing you lack. You lack Jesus.

Driscoll: Men and Marriage

There have been 23,856 page views of the sermon in the last four days. If you're a man, and you haven't watched it yet, what all have you been doing?



Be encouraged, be rebuked, be challenged, be a bit scared when he starts shouting. It's 71 minutes long including the Q and A at the end.

The Transfiguration

I'm preaching on Mark 9:2-13 in Teen Church tonight, another passage thats hard to preach. As with so much of the Gospels, and i'm learning as we go though mark, so much of mark, the answers are hidden in the Old Testament.

Why do Jesus' clothes become radiantly white, more intense than anyone on earth could die them? Because in Daniel 7:9 the Ancient of Days took His seat and His clothing was white like snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool.

Why do Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus, (an odd mix in some ways, David and Isaiah might have made more sense)? Because all the law and prophets bear witness to Jesus. Jesus is the one like Moses who was promises in Deuteronomy 18:15. Israel failed to listen to Moses with great consequences, so we, if we fail to listen to Him, we will suffer great consequences.

Why did this happen at all? To show Peter that Jesus was right. Peter had just confessed Jesus as the Christ, but he still didn't seem to know what it meant. In his mind the Christ would overthrow Rome and restore the glorious Kingdom to Israel. That's what he rebuked Jesus for saying he had to die. But look Peter, this is Jesus, the glorious, beloved Son, you must listen to Him. You must.

Jesus is the beloved Son, the last Moses, the Son of Man, the Son of God. But Jesus is also the suffering servant, the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that Mark paints Him as all the way through his Gospel.

Peter needed to know this, and listen to Jesus. And so do we.

Mark 7:1-23 (2)

This is a serious problem. Your greatest need, my greatest need, is to be acceptable to God. We do so much to try and appear acceptable, but Jesus says that appearances do not matter. What we can not see is more important to Him that what we can see. Jesus explains what He means in verses 14 and 15: ’and when he had called all the people unto Him he said unto them ’hearken unto me every one of you and understand, there is nothing from outside that entering into a man can defile him: but the things that come out of him, those are they that defile a man. If any man hath ears to hear let him hear.’ Jesus is keen for people to hear and understand what He is about to say. He starts of by saying ‘listen,’ then He says ‘understand,’ then He says ‘if anyone hath ears let Him hear.’ Three times he asks for people to listen in such a short period of time, what He is about to say is important. What He says turns the world upside down. It is not what we eat that is the problem. It’s not what we wear, it’s not who we hang out with, it’s not the music we listen to or the tv we watch, although we need to make wise Christian choices all of that stuff. Jesus says that there is a problem inside of us that needs fixing. He says that it is the things that come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

What makes us unacceptable to God? What is inside of us, not what is outside of us. It’s who we are that is the problem, not what we do. What we do is only a problem because it is evidence of who we are. In one sentence Jesus turns the world upside down. In one day He challenges, and changes what everyone things about people and their relationship with God. It wasn’t popular then, and it’s not popular now, but look at what He says. Those things that come out of Him, they are what defile Him. Amazing. And terribly important.

In the Old Testament people thought that God didn’t care about people breaking His law, that as long as they were in the right place at the right time they were acceptable to God. Here in Mark some people tried to keep the law genuinely believing that it would make them acceptable to God. Today, some people think that as long as they’re wearing a tie on a Sunday morning in church it really doesn’t matter what they do the rest of the week. Some people hold to the standards and traditions that we come up with because they genuinely think that God will be pleased with them. Here Jesus makes it clear that they are both wrong. It is the inside that counts.

But why? We need a bit more than that, and, it seems, so did the people with Jesus. We see in verse 17 that when He was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked Him concerning the parable. We see from this that people then were not really happy with the idea that there is something wrong inside of us. They even thought Jesus was telling them a parable rather than just preaching to them. I love Jesus’ response here. ‘are ye so without understanding also?’ He says, basically, guys, if you don’t get this you are really stupid. Don’t you understand what I’m saying? ‘whatsoever thing that enters a man from outside can not defile Him.’ It’s like Jesus is jumping up and down and yelling right now. ‘It’s not the outside that’s the problem it’s the inside.’ We need to get this, just like the disciples did and we need to respond.

So why is the inside the problem? Because that’s where the action happens. Because the inside controls the outside. What does the heart do? It produces, as verse 21 says: evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. Do you see what the problem is that Jesus is addressing? It is these things that make us unacceptable to God, not the food we eat or the clothes we wear. It’s our evil thoughts, our lying, our pride that is the problem. No amount of coat and ties are going to put these things away. These are the things, verse 28 that come from within and defile a man.

What Jesus needed his listeners in mark 7 to understand is that their problem was not outside them, but inside them. That their problems could not be solved by washing their hands, or eating the right food, or wearing the right clothes. It is a tragic thing in the church today that so many people think, and teach, that by wearing certain clothes, by being in the right place at the right time and behaving ourselves we can be made acceptable to God. What a small, unimpressive, puny ‘god’ they have created for themselves.

I started off by asking how we could be acceptable to God. The bad news is that our problem is much worse than we thought, our problem is deep, deep, deep inside of us. The good news, the best news, is that, as we saw last week, Jesus came for people who are sick like we are sick. He came to heal us. He came to save us, to change us the way we need to be changed, from the inside out.

Mark 7:1-23 (1)

I once heard a story of a woman who cooked a ham every Sunday for lunch. And every Sunday she would cut off the end of the ham and throw it away even though it was perfectly good. Someone asked her why she did this and she said because that’s what her mom had always done. So then someone asked her mom why she always cut off and threw away a perfectly good piece of ham? She said it was because that’s what her mom had always done. Then someone asked the second lady’s mom why she always cut off the end of a perfectly good piece of ham before cooking it. Turns out that it was simply because her pan was too short to hold the whole ham.

Sometimes our traditions are like that, sometimes the things we do hark back to another day which has passed, sometimes we end up saying and doing things in a certain way just because that’s what people have always done, rather than because there is any good reason for it. All so that that may be acceptable to God.

How to be acceptable to God is, obviously, the biggest question that the Bible answers, the biggest question in our lives, and the biggest question in this evenings passage. How can we be acceptable to God? In the opening five verses of our story tonight we meet a group, not for the first time, who think they know the answer to that question.

They know how to the be acceptable to God, and they think their job is to go around making sure everyone else is doing exactly what they say. We see something of their rules and traditions in verse 3 ‘for the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands, oft, eat not, holding the traditions of the elders.’ According to Jewish tradition, unless people often washed their hands, they shouldn’t be eating. And yet we read in verse one that Jesus disciples’ were eating bread with ‘defiled, that is to say, unwashen, hands.’ This would have been very upsetting to the Jewish leaders. Not only were Jesus’ disciples being unhygienic, they were surely being unholy, they were surely acting unacceptably towards God. How could they be God’s people if they were not washing their hands? I love how Mark commentates on this incident, twice in these verses he mentions that the Pharisees were upset because the traditions were being broken, not because they saw Jesus do something unBiblical. This situation is close to home sometimes isn’t it? We’ve all met people who believe in things, and defend things that we can not find in the Bible. Well that’s what’s happening here.

Jesus then spends a long time answering them, between verses 6 and 13. Lets look at what He says ‘well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written ’these people honoureth me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other such things you do.’ And He said to them
‘full well you reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.’

What was the problem that these guys had? Why were they so upset with Jesus and then Jesus so angry with them? Because they taught their opinions as if they were from God, and ignored what God Himself taught. They didn’t care about the commandments of God and were more concerned about whether or not people were washing their hands. God had called them to preach but they were acting more like fussy old women. This was not, and is not right. We see the very serious result of that in verses seven and eight. Jesus says that people worship Him in vain, He says that they honour Him with their mouths yet their hearts are far from Him. He wanted people’s hearts. He wants your heart. He’s not interested in just your church attendance record, or just how much you read your Bible, or just how much you serve, He wants your heart to be near Him. Now, He wants you to come to church and read your Bible and serve. But he only wants you to do that because your heart is near Him. If you come to church because of tradition, then Jesus says you worship Him in vain. If you would rather be almost anywhere else in the world than in that sanctuary between 11 and 12 on a Sunday morning, if you sit in church waiting for lunchtime to come, then Jesus says you worship in vain. He says that we are not acceptable to Him.

Mark 2:1-17 (2)

On first glance the second half of our text tonight doesn’t seem to have much to do with the first story, but I think there is. Jesus moves from a house in the city to a beach, people keep following Him, and He keeps teaching them, He calls Levi, who’s better known to you and me as Matthew, a tax collector, and Levi follows Him. Now we might not see anything very shocking in that, but to the Jewish leaders of the time, tax collectors were really one of the worst sorts of people. The tax collectors were seen as national traitors who had sided with Rome instead of Israel to make a few bucks. These tax collectors essentially stole from their own people to live a good lifestyle. The scribes and Pharisees would have been outraged to see Jesus calling men like Levi to Him.

But the story gets worse for the religious guys in 15 and 16 and it came to pass that as Jesus sat at meat in his house many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many, and they followed Him, and when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with publicans and sinners they said unto His disciples; ‘how is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners.’ I picture this like a bad hip hop video. People are drinking and partying, people are not wearing enough clothes to have decently left the house, there’s a dude wearing a white suit lying on some pillowa.. From that background we can see why the scribes and Pharisees, the religious temple guys, would have questioned Jesus once more. Maybe they’ve heard His teaching and found Him interesting, or even have some respect for what He’s saying, but they do not have a category for a man like Jesus who hangs out with tax collectors, publicans and sinners. They may not be impressed, they are certainly confused. Jesus answers them with words that we need to listen to, with words that should scare us and make us look at ourselves hard.

Verse 17 says when Jesus heard it He saith unto them, ‘they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’ Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. Sinners. Not people who reckon they’re ok because their grades are up and they’ve opened the Bible on their own for ten minutes this week. Sinners. Not the religious types from Israel, but the sinners from Israel. The lowest of the low. We see it in our passage this evening, Jesus heals a man with the palsy, calls a tax collector and eats with sinners and publicans. All the time the religious crowd is standing on the fringes questioning and criticizing.

In our passage tonight Jesus treats a sick man by forgiving His sins, and treats sinners like a doctor. That’s why He closes in verse 17 by saying them that are whole have no need of a physician, but them that are sick. There is a greater sickness in the world than physical sickness. Being seriously ill is an awful thing and when Jesus returns all sickness will gone forever. But there is something worse. Jesus leaves us here by calling attention to our bigger need, our deeper need. The need to have our sins forgiven. He comes not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So if we, like the religious leaders of the time here think we are righteous, think that we are doing ok, think that we don’t need any help, we need to be careful, we need to be worried, because what we’re saying is we don’t really need Jesus. But here’s the wonderful news. If you woke up this morning, or any morning feeling awful because of your sin, feeling that there is no way out for you because of what you’ve said, and thought and done. If you’re feeling right now that you’ll never, ever be as good as these church folks, then you are in exactly the right place. Then Jesus came for you. He came for you, the sick sinner, if we come to Him in repentance we have nothing to fear.

Mark 2:1-17 (1)

In the ancient world people associated sickness and sin very closely. People thought that if a man was ill then he must be cursed by God. People thought that these people who sat at the side of the road and begged for a few pennies were not worth bothering with. They thought that God had put them there like this, and that there was nothing more than could be done for them. The crippled man, or the leper, or the blind man would be sentenced to a life of hardship and ridicule, suffering by the side of the road. An understanding of this helps us to see how odd this story, one of the better known in scripture, really is.

Looking at verses 1-4, we see the basic facts of this story as mark recorded them. Jesus’ fame had already spread. Last week we closed with Jesus preaching and saying ‘repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.’ Here, a little later on in His ministry we see that people are listening to His message. We see in verse two that Jesus had gained so much fame that when they heard He was in town ‘straightaway many were gathered together, insomuch as there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door, and He preached the Word to them.’ Jesus already had such a reputation that people were desperate to be near Him and hear Him preach. This is still the way it is in some places today.

If you go to Central America, or parts of Africa and Asia, you’ll still see people standing for hours to hear the Bible preached, waiting in the heat of the day to be prayed for and spending hours at church just to enjoy the fellowship. We see this as a fulfillment of where we left Jesus last week. He promised that as He preached the Kingdom of God would be near. And it is, the sick are getting healed, the poor are being fed, the powers of darkness were in retreat. It’s not wonder that people wanted to be near Jesus. It’s no wonder that these four men wanted to bring their friend, sick of the palsy, to Jesus.

Lets pick up the story in verse 3: and they came unto Him, bringing one sick of the palsy, who was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was; and when they had broken it up, they lay down the bed where the sick of the palsy lay. We’ve already mentioned the crowds who were pressing in on the house, and here we the effect of it. These men wanted to bring their friend through, but they were told, it seems, to get to the back of the line. But they’re weren’t to be put off, they wanted their friend to be near Jesus, they wanted to see Him. I love this next bit, they climbed up onto the roof, maybe ten feet, dragged their friend up with them, and dug their way in. Isn’t that cool? They must’ve thought ‘well, if they won’t pay attention to us in the line, they’ll have to pay attention to us when there’s a bed landing on their heads.’

Imagine what it must’ve been like in the house as well, you’re sitting there, it’s loud and hot and probably a bit dark, you’re trying to get near Jesus so he can touch you, or at least so that you can hear what He’s saying… And then, what’s that noise? Why’s there dust and bits of hard mud falling on my head? Good gracious, is there…there’s someone coming through the roof! I don’t know whether when they made the hole in the roof they just dropped the guy with the palsy on the floor, or whether some people jumped up to help, but somehow, he ended up on the floor, by Jesus.

And we think…that’s some effort, how can Jesus top that? Surely that’s the most surprising thing about this story. But no, Jesus is always the hero of every story in the Bible. Every story. Lets see what happens next in verses 5-7: when Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee”’ But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, ‘why doth this man speak blasphemies, who can forgive sin but God alone?’ What does Jesus see? Their faith. What does Jesus do? He tells the man to get up and walk… No He doesn’t! He tells him his sins are forgiven Him. And we think, well that’s nice Jesus, but you’ve missed the point, this man wants to be healed of the palsy, he doesn’t want his sins forgiven, whatever that means. His friends carried him in here; they don’t want to have to carry him out again. We’re not the only ones thinking these things. We see that there were some people there, who wondered why Jesus was talking like this. Mark tells us these guys were the scribes, they were like the record keepers in the temple, and they were probably there to report on Jesus to the Pharisees, the guys who ran the temple. These scribes, even though throughout the Gospels there are the bad guys, they’re the ones always fighting Jesus, actually ask the most important question of the story. They wonder, in their hearts, who can forgive sins but God alone?

This is so important to grasp. Who can forgive sins but God alone? No one. Why? Imagine for a moment that when I finish tonight I walk across the parking lot and break into Justinshouse. He's the one I’ve offended right? He’s the one who I need to forgive me. Imagine if after I’m caught Rachel comes up to me and says ‘Ed, I forgive you for breaking into Justin’s house.’ You’re going to think that’s crazy. not the one I offended, she’s not the one who should forgive me, Justin is, because he’s the one I’ve sinned against. Why can only God forgive sins? Because God is always the most offended party. God is always the one, ultimately, that we sin against.

In Psalm 51, when David is repenting for sleeping with Bathsheba he says ‘against you and you alone have I sinned oh Lord.’ And we think, well what about Bathsheba? You’ve sinned against her, and you’ve sinned against her husband, and you’ve sinned against the child in her womb, and you’ve sinned against Israel by forming your military strategy on the basis of getting a man killed. But David understands that because God is God, because He is King of the universe, because He is the most moral being in the universe, all our sin is against Him. I remember my teachers at school used to say ‘if you don’t work hard you’re only cheating yourself,’ but they were wrong. Laziness is an offence against God. Lust is an offence against God, pride is an offence against God, greed is an offence against God. No one can forgive sins but God, because God is always the one you have offended. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek forgiveness from people we’ve hurt, we should, but we need to remember that God is the one we’ve upset the most. That was supposed to be a small part of my message!

So what’s Jesus doing saying that He can forgive sins? He’s assuming the identity of God. Lots of people say that Jesus never claimed to be God, and that’s partly because they don’t understand the Trinity, but actually He did. He claimed to be able to forgive sins. That is claiming to be God. Lets see how Jesus deals with this in verses 8-11: why reason ye these things in your heart? Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy ‘thy sins be forgiven thee’ or to say ‘arise, take up your bed and walk’, but ye may know that the Son of Man hath authority on earth to forgive sins.’ (He saith to the sick of the palsy) I say unto thee arise and take up your bed and go thy way into thine house.’

Jesus shows us physical evidence for a spiritual truth. It’s easier for Him to say your sins are forgiven than to say ‘get up and walk’ because there’s no way to prove whether sins have been forgiven or not, but if Jesus had said get up and walk first it would have been easy to prove Him wrong…Jesus healing the man with palsy is a visual demonstration of what He has done spiritually. The scribes, and the rest of the people there, and now us need to know that Jesus has authority on earth to forgive sins as we see in verse 10. This is such an important truth for us. We don’t need Jesus the therapist or Jesus the vegetarian or whatever; we need Jesus the forgiver of sins… We need Jesus the savior. This is an amazing story, it’s no wonder that people said, in verse 12 we never saw it on this fashion. This is something totally new, this is the Kingdom of God coming near.

Philippians 1:19-24 (2)

But that’s ok for them, you might think, I’m not a missionary in Ecuador, and I probably never will be. That’s true, but there are so many ways in which we can life to demonstrate Jesus as our treasure right here. The way we spend our money, for example. Do we think about the way we spend our money, do we make sure we have to enough to be generous in the offering on a Sunday morning? Does Christ get the best or our money or just the nickels or dimes that are left over. We don’t hesitate to spend $20, $40 or $60 on clothes, but we’d have to pray about it if anyone ever asked us to give that much to our church.

Spend money in a way that shows that money and stuff is not your treasure, and you will not waste your life. Give money away that you will never see again, and you will get a sense of what Paul means when he says ‘to live is Christ.’ This is hard. We love money, we love the security, opportunity and status it brings. if we learn one thing about our western culture in the current economic climate, it’s that we all love money.

But should we not love Jesus more? Moments after we die, we will know how we should have spent our money in our lives. Forty million years from now, when we have more Christ centered joy in our hearts than we can imagine right now it will seem incredible to us that we thought spending money on ourselves was ever more important than spending money for the sake of Christ.

To live is Christ, says Paul and to die is gain. But what does this mean? How do we make much of Jesus in our death? How can we die to show that Jesus means more to us than life? This is important to think about whether you’re a freshman in high school or whether you’re in your eighties. How will we die?

Death is seen my almost everyone today, including many in the Church as the great enemy, as something to be avoided at all costs. Paul didn’t seem to see it that way. Paul said something quite incredible…he says that to die is gain. This sounds so strange to our ears it may as well be in a foreign language, what does it mean? We see in John 21:19 that Peter would have a death that glorified God, that Peter knew that to die is gain.

But how? Well look at verse 23 with me: for I am in a strait betwixt the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. It is far better to be with Christ, says Paul. Far better. Psalm 16:11 promises that ‘there is fullness of joy in His presence, pleasures forever at His right hand.’ Doesn’t that sound good? Isn’t that what we’d like? Fullness of joy and pleasures forever? Well that’s why death is gain, because that’s what we get being with Jesus when we die. Think of the sweetest times you’ve had with Jesus in your life, and then imagine that multiplied billions and billions of times, and getting better every day, and then you have the slightest, smallest glimpse of what Heaven will be life. The Great Awakening preacher Jonathan Edwards says this on the subject: The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean. Death for the Christian is not to be enjoyed, but faced, knowing that it will bring us everlasting joy and happiness at the side of our Savior. Death for the Christian is a vehicle that takes us where we want to go. Paul says it’s better to be with Christ. To not waste our life is to able to say that with him. To not waste our life is to be happy to leave everything behind to be with Him.

This is hard. To view what we can not see as more valuable than what we can see is hard. It’s easy to be happy with a comfortable and safe life. It’s easy to be happy throwing dimes into other’s people’s dreams. So we must pray, we must pray for focus if we’ve lost it, we must pray that we would keep our focus if we have it. We should pray that we would be like Abraham, who was searching for a city as yet unseen, like Moses, who considered reproach for the sake of Christ better than all the wealth of a prince of Egypt, like the Christians in Hebrews 10:34 who joyfully accepted the plundering of their property because they knew they had a better possession with Jesus.

So what is the unwasted life? The life that sees life and death as gift from Jesus to make Him look great. A life that does this by counting everything as loss for His sake, a life which accepts weakness, like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, as long as if makes Christ look great. A life that will say to Jesus, ‘Lord, you can do anything with me…anything, as long as you are magnified through it, as long as you are my life, you can do anything with me, because you, Jesus, you are worth it.’

Philippians 1:19-24 (1)

My burden for my own life, and, consequently in this short time we have together, for your life, is that we do not waste our lives. It’s so easy for us to waste our lives, even coming from a Christian school, even in North Carolina. The Bible makes it clear that our lives are short, that our lives are issuing very quickly either in everlasting joy, or everlasting torment. Our lives are short, we must not waste them.

I know you’re thinking this is an odd topic to start with. We’re teenagers, we’ve barely started to live yet, why are you talking to us about death? Well when I was a teenager, I thought two things about my self, 1) that I would live forever, and 2) that I knew everything. I basically thought I was God Himself. If we are not to waste our lives then we must appreciate how short they are, how every day is a unique opportunity. 1 Samuel 2:6 says: The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. James 4:15 says: If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. If the Lord will I will finish this message and get back to Greenville safely, if the Lord will I’ll make it to my 24th birthday next week. Life is short, life is fragile, life is totally in God’s hands, and this is very, very good news.

So, in the midst of all this, how do we not waste our lives? Do we, like the rich man in Luke, store up goods for ourselves in barns and then ‘eat, drink and be merry?’ This seems to be the response of many people, earn as much, get as much and play as much as you possibly can. But one day our lives will be required of us, then what good will the abundance of our possessions be? Jesus says in Matthew 16:25 whoever will lose their life for my sake shall find it. Whoever loses their life for Jesus sake will not waste their life. So can we only not waste our life in dying itself?
Or is there a way to live that is not a waste? I think the best answer to that question comes in Philippians 1:19-24 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I know not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

These words are, of course, written by Paul, a man who did not waste his life, a man who lived with extraordinary passion, courage, commitment, love and joy in and for Christ. So what is the unwasted life? The passage we just read shows us how to not waste our life, and then how to not waste our death.

Look with me at the end of verse 20: so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by death or by life, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul wants Christ to be magnified, to be made to look great, and awesome in his body, whether he lives or whether he dies. This is Paul’s all consuming passion, this is the road of the unwasted life, this is the heartbeat of a life well lived, to make Jesus famous. To life up Jesus’ name in all he does whether in life or in death. We were made for this. Our hearts, our brains, our bodies, our desires are made for Jesus. Made to be filled with this and made to put this on display. CS Lewis wrote that: ‘if I try every pleasure and offer of satisfaction in this world, and yet am not satisfied, I can only conclude I was made for another.’ He was right.

What does it mean that to live is Christ? I think Paul expands on this idea in Philippians 3:7 where he says ‘what things were gain for me I counted loss for Christ’ Previous to this he had been listing everything that he used to hope in and build his life upon. His birth, his social standing, his education. He counted all these things as nothing for the sake of Jesus. Nothing! Can we say that? Can we say that we count everything that we have as loss, as nothing for the sake of Jesus? That we count all our possessions as loss for the sake of Jesus? That we count all our dreams for the future as loss for the sake of Jesus? That we count money or food or sex as loss for the sake of Christ? How can Paul say that? How can Paul mean that? Are even the good things in our life to be counted as loss?

Because Paul was a man who knew Jesus Christ. Who knew that what he gained from Him made everything else look like rubbish. And because of that, He loved Jesus. He loved Him His life was so wrapped up in Him that from his conversion every day until the day He died Jesus was His obsession, Jesus was why he woke, why he traveled, why he spoke. Jesus was it for Paul. Jesus was His life. Is that true for us? Is Jesus the deepest passion of our hearts? Do we love to meet with Him in His Word? Do we think about our witness to Him when we make our plans for the weekend? Do we let Him decide what we look at on the internet? Or how much we spend at the mall? Do we let His Word and Will define our every decision? Do we want Jesus to be our God, or just our forgiver? If Jesus is your God, and your single all consuming passion, and all your decisions are placed before Him in prayer, and made with Him in mind, then you will not waste your life.

My fiancée and I are called to the mission field in Eastern Europe, and one of my missionary heroes is a guy named Jim Elliot. He and five others, mostly young World War II veterans followed God’s call to the Amazon rainforest to preach the Gospel to the Auca tribesmen, who had never heard it. Five intelligent, married young men set off for the rainforest, a passion for Jesus in their hearts, a desire not to waste their lives driving them forward. Three days after they made their first ground contact with the Aucas they were speared to death on a sandbank in the Amazon River. The world looks at that and sees wasted lives, we should look at that and see lives lived and lost for the sake of Christ, the greatest cause of all.

Preaching and providence

I preached on Philippians 1:19-24 at Bethel Christian Academy's chapel service this morning. I like the idea of Christian High Schools (i think, if only because in Eastern NC at least public/state schools are average at best) but they are hard places to preach. And on top of that i'm not sure i did a great job of it.

It attacked my pride as i drove home this afternoon, realising that when i'm speaking somewhere know one knows me, i want to preach as well as i possibly can, and i knew that today i felt some way off that. I don't think i prepared well enough, i don't think i knew my script well enough, i didn't pray enough, i don't think to a large extent what i wrote was finished. I'll stick it up here in the next couple of days in any case, feedback appreciated.

What bothered me more than anything else as a i drove along an empty and dusty Highway 11 was that what i said just wasn't relevant. That somehow these 14-18 year olds didn't need to hear a message about Christ being life and death being gain. That there was something better, more practical i could have spoken on. How do you convince kids that to die and be with Jesus is better than to live an easy life of accumulation? How do you get someone to wear Christian Hedonist glasses in such a short, impersonal space of time?

So i struggled to believe what i shared was relevant or helpful for their lives. I struggled to think that they needed to be persuaded to count their lives as loss for the sake of Christ, that they didn't need to be challenged about what they wore or how they spent their money. Essentially, i thought they needed to hear something other then the root of the Biblical Gospel.

But oh, then lovely providence. My close friend in dark times of the soul. I picked up 'Finally Alive' and on the second page i read was this paragraph:

That...relevance is what guides my sermons and my writings. In other words i want to say things that really are significant for your life whether you know they are or not. My way of doing that is to stay close as i can to what God says is important in His Word, not what we think is important apart from God's Word.

John Piper, Finally Alive P100

So the feeling i didn't deliver a message well does not have the final say in the matter. A few hundred bored looking teenage faces looking at me (and anywhere but!) is not the final word on whether i preached on a relevant text or not. What good news it is, how it clears the fog. Talk about whats important to God, for that is truly relevant.

Genesis 21:7

The story progresses in verse 3: ‘Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him Isaac.’ It’s hard to imagine what Abraham had been though in the last few years. A quarter of his life had been lived in the light of the promise of the child he now held in his arms. Twenty five years of waiting for a son by his wife was over. Abraham called him Isaac, just as God had commanded in 17:19. Isaac means ‘He laughs’. I love this part of the story, and it’s significant for reason’s we’ll come back to. You can imagine that upon the birth of the long awaited son Abraham would be full of laughter so maybe this was an obvious name. But why did God tell Abraham to name his son Isaac? I think, as we’ll see in a moment, this is part of how we make sense of this story today.

God’s plan is marching on. We notice again in verse 5 that we’re told ‘Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him’. Why more repetition? Surely for the same reasons that there was repetition in verses one and two. One commentator says that ‘there is great emphasis in the repetition… For he thus retains his readers, as by laying his hand upon them, that they may pause in consideration of this great miracle.’ The next time we ask whether it’s possible for God to do something we need to really ask ‘how big is God?’ Here we see a huge God keeping His huge promises.

The last two verses are given to Sarah, and it’s probably a song. Verse six says: ‘God has made laughter for me, everyone who hears will laugh over me.’ With this miraculous visit and fulfillment, God has turned Sarah’s laugh of disbelief into a genuine laugh of joy. And, of course, as we’ve already seen, the name Isaac means ‘he laughs’. God wanted Isaac to be called Isaac so that every time Sarah looked at her son, she would remember what God has done, and laugh for joy about it. Not only Sarah would laugh, but those in her household and also, those who read this story. Israel would have been expected to laugh with a similar joy when they read this story, because, in a very real way, Isaac’s birth signaled the birth of the nation of Israel. If Isaac had never been born then there would have been no Israel, no nation of God’s people.

Like ancient Israel we can also laugh with joy at what God has done in our lives. Once we were not God’s people, now we are God’s people, once we did not call on His name to save us from our sin, no we can think of no other sort of life. Just as God miraculously called Isaac into existence He has miraculously called us into faith. This is why I started this morning asking why we were here. It’s so easy to get relaxed about being a Christian or coming to church, but our salvation is a breathtaking miracle. It’s a bit like flying. Imagine sitting in a metal tube a few miles above the surface of the earth and traveling at about six hundred miles an hour, only slightly slower than my voice is traveling to you right now. It should be the most thrilling way of traveling that we know, and yet, because flying is such a normal thing today we spend our time reading or watching movies or sleeping, and grumbling when our plane is delayed. We mustn’t let ourselves end up like this about the church, about knowing Jesus. We need to remember that our being saved is a joyful, miraculous thing. Like a ninety year old giving birth, it should be something that we barely dare to believe.

In verse seven Sarah’s song, and our story ends ‘and she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age.’ Well Sarah’s right, who indeed would have thought this would happen. And yet it did. A son was born, then a nation, and then another Son.

Who would have thought that a virgin could have given birth? Who would have thought that a homeless carpenter was the Son of God? Who would have thought that His death would bring life to all who believed in Him? Jesus brings the final fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Abraham was promised not just that he would father Isaac, but that he would father a multitude of nations. Jesus pours out His Spirit on his followers so that we would ‘make disciples of all nations.’ Jesus shed His blood for the nations that they might be saved. In the birth of Isaac, we see the initial fulfillment of God’s promise to make Abraham a multitude of nations, fulfilled in Jesus and then through us.

So why is Isaac’s birth recorded in the Bible? To stir up faith among God’s people at the wonderful work of our miraculous God. To leave Israel, and then the church, in wonder at what God has done in saving His people, so that we would laugh for joy like Sarah and not become tired in their love for the Lord.

To teach us that His promises are to be trusted. As we saw earlier, Abraham didn’t trust God’s promises and tried to make them work his own way. He didn’t believe that his aged wife could give birth, so he had a son by Hagar. He didn’t believe that God would keep him safe in a foreign land, so he told the king that Sarah was his sister and let him marry her. God wasn’t going to fulfill His promise though Ishmael because Ishmael was possible. Isaac was impossible! All of Abraham’s efforts only took him further away from what God was ding. All God requires of Abraham, and us, is to have faith in His promises.

To remind us that read now that God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, through the death of Christ this has been made possible, and so to remind us of our responsibility to play our part in the great commission.

Genesis 21:1-7

Part one of my script from sunday school last weekend

I wonder why we’re at church this morning. I guess our answers would range from the spiritual (‘I want to worship God though Jesus in Sprit and truth’) to the relational (‘I want to spend some time with my friends and church family’) to the more mundane and honest (‘this is just what I do on a Sunday morning’). None of those are bad reasons for coming to church, obviously, but I wonder if sometimes it’s easy to get blasé about being part of a church, about being saved, about being one of God’s sons or daughters though faith in Jesus. Maybe it seems to us that being a Christian isn’t worth it. We seem distant from the days when everything was new and we’ve grown tired of the daily routine of Bible reading and prayer.

I wonder if often times this was how Israel felt. They had lost the wonder of the early years, they had all heard the stories of what God had done generations ago that we read about in the early chapters of Genesis, and maybe, by the exile they felt like we do sometimes. In need of a fresh reminder at the wonderful power of God. In need of a revelation of the purposes of God, and how wonderful it is to be part of His people. Maybe they simply needed to remember that God is always in control, and always working for the good of His people. Maybe we need that reminder this morning as well.I think the story we’ve just read would have served all of those purposes for the Israelites that read it, and hopefully it will do the same for us as well.

Genesis 21:1-7 forms a complete story, about the birth of Isaac, but it’s part of a larger story, the conclusion of a story that started 25 years previous and took many diversions and hit many problems along the way. Before we can understand and enjoy this story in it’s full colour we need to see this back story, so lets take ever such a brief look at the last 25 years of Abraham until this point. The story starts in Genesis 11:30, right after we meet Sarah we’re told ‘now Sarai was barren, she had no child’. Shortly after that God calls Abraham and tells him in Genesis 12:2 ‘I will make you a great nation…’ Genesis 12:4 tells us that Abraham was seventy five years old at this time. Shortly afterwards God visits Abraham again and tells him, in Genesis 13:16 ‘I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth…’ and in 15:5 ‘as the starts of the sky.’ All this time as these promises become more and more incredible Sarah is still barren. So she suggests that Abraham tries to conceive with Hagar, thinking that this must be the way that God was going to fulfill His promise to them. Hagar gives birth to Ishmael and it seems that the wait is over and the tension is relieved.

Abraham and Sarah are happy with this state of affairs for thirteen years until chapter 17, when God appears again to Abraham and says if Sarah in verse 16: ‘I will give you a son by her’ In Genesis 18 God gets more specific about the promise of Isaac saying, verse 10, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a sin.’ Sarah overhears this from her tent and, perhaps understandably, verse 12 ‘laughed to herself saying ‘after I am worn out and I am old shall I have pleasure?’’

So that’s where we are prior to Genesis 21. So far it’s a story of God making big promises, and His people not believing Him and trying to make God’s plans happen themselves. Sometimes people say that the Old Testament is no longer relevant, but that sounds just like my life sometimes. Lack of faith leading to inappropriate action. It gets even worse in Genesis 20 when Abraham passes Sarah off as his sister to protect himself from King Abimelech. It’s from this point our story starts, twenty five years after God’s first promise, thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael, and a year after Sarah laughed at the idea of bearing a child.

So with out context set, lets look at verses one and two together: the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had promised.’ The tension is resolved, Abraham has a son! This is a huge step forward in the story of Genesis, in the search to find the serpent crusher, and the story of how Abraham was to become the father of many nations. We can see the emphasis in these verses is all on God’s action. The phrases ‘as He had said,’ ‘as He had promised,’ ‘at the time of which God had spoken to Him,’ demonstrate where the author wants to draw our attention here.

Onto God. Onto the LORD of Israel keeping His promises even down to the smallest details. Again we see, clear as a bell from scripture that God is gracious because God is gracious, not because we deserve it or because we have done something to impress Him. God makes a promise and He keeps it. This is a firm rock on which to set our feet. This is what should wake us up every morning thrilled to be a Christian, because today, and tomorrow, and every day, God will keep His promises. This is good news!

Blogging about preaching

Adrian Warnock blogs about four dangers of preaching slowly a book of the Bible. We started in Titus in mid June, and finished yesterday so we've probably ticked a lot of these boxes!

Michael Jenson blogs about the 10 worst habits of preachers. 

Titus 3:1-8 (1)

The last time I preached on a Wednesday night I mentioned how hard it was to break Titus up into smaller blocks for ten or fifteen minutes of preaching. It seemed that nearly every week we had to break Paul off halfway through a thought. Well this week the problem became insurmountable. The start of chapter three is so rich, so dense, so flowing that no one part of Paul’s argument really carries it’s full weight without the other two. So tonight we’re going to look at eight verses together. Something of a leap for a Wednesday night, and we won’t be dealing in such detail with every verse as a consequence, but I think it will help us to see, feel and appreciate Paul’s argument, and it’s solid application to our life all the more.

>Lets look at verses 1 though 3 together. Paul tells Titus what the membership of his church should look like, how they should behave in every day life. Church members then and now are to be subject, are to be obedient, and need to be ready for every good work. The words ‘principalities’ and ‘powers’ and ‘magistrates’ here refer to the human, secular authorities we all live under. The federal and state government, the local authorities in Washington. The elected officers whom God has provided for us. We are to obey them as far as we can without being moved to disobey a clear command of God. So we should pay taxes, drive legal cars, pay our bills, and a multitude of other laws. We are also called to obey the magistrates. The only exception to this comes when a command from the secular powers is clearly, and directly against a command of God. For example in Acts 4:18-20 Peter and John are told ‘not to speak of teach in the name of Jesus’. But obviously they do. And obviously they have to. So the Christian is to be a good citizen outwardly. Responsible and diligent in all that they do. The church is doing it’s job when people can say ‘we may not agree with their views on truth and homosexuality, but this place would be a lot worse if they all left’ we need to seek the peace and seek the good of where we live.

We also need to be good citizens inwardly. Paul tells Titus’ church to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers but gentle. Just as we need to be good citizens to people’s face, we need to be good citizens behind their backs as well. It is no good at all to obey someone but then to speak evil about them. Jesus is not interested in that sort of obedience. It means nothing. We are to obey them and speak no evil of them. Coupled with that we are not to be brawlers, but gentle, showing meekness unto all men. It’s easy to read that verse, see the word brawlers and reassure ourselves that since we’ve never been in a fist fight we’ve nothing to worry about here. Jesus is interested in inward obedience, not just outward though. So when we get angry with someone, we may as well have punched them. That’s why Paul mentions it next to meekness, because meekness is the opposite of quarrelsome.

Why should we be meek? Well, there seem to be three, related reasons here, and it’s obvious to Paul, and hopefully it’s just as obvious to us! Look at verse three ‘for we ourselves were once sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, and hating one another. Do you see Paul’s point? We can not but be meek when we are faced with things that make us angry, because all they do is serve as a mirror to your old self. Regardless of how long ago we were saved, there was a point in all of our lives when we were like this. There was a point in all of our lives when we were driving by our sinful desires, by our divers lusts, by our anger…just by our sin. Look at the list that Paul writes to Titus here, we’re all in there somewhere, whether it’s malice and envy, hatred or foolish disobedience, there is enough in all of our pasts to remind us that we need to be meek.

Ruth and an excess of meaning

Tim Keller, in his excellent lectures on 'Preaching to the Heart' talks about how there is often an excess of meaning in the narrative parts of Scripture that there isn't in say, prophecy and epistle. I think this is why the narrative parts of scripture are my favourite to read (ooh different every time) but probably my least favourite to preach (aarrgghh different every time). It's also why i love the book of Ruth.

We went through Ruth in Sunday school this morning. It's just about...just about possible to read it all in sections, preach and be done in forty five minutes. Just about. William Cowper's words 'behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face' probably don't apply to any book of the Bible as well as they apply to Ruth.

So what of the excess of meaning? What do we learn from Ruth?

1) Ruth story is our story. Ruth was a foreigner, an outside, an outcast. She was away from God, outside His people and His blessing. She didn't know Him. Boaz redeemed her. He not only redeemed her and bought her into Israel, though him she becomes an ancestor of Jesus. Spurgeon says that Jesus is our glorious Boaz. He brings us in from the wilderness, He brings us into God's presence, God's place, with God's people. Jesus is our kinsmen redeemer

2) Sometimes the way we feel about God's work in our life is wrong. Sometimes we look at our circumstances, and whats left of our hopes and we say with Naomi 'the Lord's hand is against me, do not call me sweet.' This was how it looked for Naomi. No husband, no sons = no one to provide for her. These were terrible times for Naomi. Was she judged by God. I don't know. I wrestled with this this week. I think we can say with confidence that Elimilech was judged for going to Moab, and his sons were for marrying Moabite women and Naomi suffered as a result, but was she herself judged? The question of whether Naomi was right in 1:20-22 is what the rest of the book exists to answer. It really should be named for her!

3) In the darkest of times personally, God is working. We must never allow the wall that our circumstances form around us to judge God and His work. We have no need to ever despair because of what we can or can't see around us. God was marvellously at work in Naomi's life when she was in despair, Ruth, Boaz, her redeemer Obed, nourishment in old age, hope for her future. All these things God was working in her life despite of her despair.

4) Linked to this, in the darkest times of national history, God is at work. Judges was a dark, horrible, pagan time. God was at work bringing about His purposes in them. His plan was not disturbed and has never been disturbed by mans sin. And what a plan this was that God was bringing about. Ruth is in Jesus' line. She is great King David's great grandmother. God's purposes are being fulfilled in the worst of times. In the worst of times God was bringing about the birth of His Son. In the worst of times, He was doing the greatest thing ever.

Titus 1:14-15 (2)

That’s what we must look like. Now in verse 15 we learn who we must listen to. For the majority of the letter, Paul has been talking to Titus about his church in Crete, but now he wants a word with the leader himself, but it’s a word that he wants the rest of the church to overhear. Verse 15 says: ‘these things speak, and rebuke, and exhort with all authority. Let no man despise thee’. Here is one of the clearest verses on the authority of the preacher in the New Testament.

Paul tells Titus to speak about, to exhort and rebuke his church with everything that he’s just written to him. The preacher’s job then, is the constantly remind the church of the truth of the Gospel and what our response should be to it. Hebrews 3:13 tells us to ‘exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today.’ The preacher is to exhort with the Gospel and rebuke with the Gospel. Exhort simply means to encourage, to plead, to stir up affections. To ever place before the eyes of the church the beauty of Jesus, to stir them to live changed lives for Him. The word used here means to use more than words. Paul wants Titus to use everything at his disposal to have his church live and speak for Jesus.

The preacher is also to rebuke those who are not interested in the Gospel, those inside the church, who don’t care whether or not their lives are changed. Paul tells Titus to watch out for and rebuke these people in his church. To catch the foxes in the vineyard.

Paul tells Titus that he has all authority to do those things. All authority. Not just a bit, not just when people in his church like his message. All authority, all the time. The preacher has this authority, not because of himself, but because of his call, not because his words are valuable, but because he speaks the words of the Bible. And the Bible is the word of God.

The preachers’ authority only remains as long as his message is the same as the message of this book. The English theologian J.I Packer puts it like this: ‘preaching that does not display divine authority, both in its content and its manner, is not the substance but only the shadow of the real thing. Yet the Bible is the real preacher, and the role of the man in the pulpit or the counseling conversation is simply to let the passages say their piece through Him.’ The preacher’s authority does not come from his church, nor from a board of deacons nor his education but from God, though His word. The preacher is not a lifestyle guru, he is not just what happens between the offering and Sunday lunch, he is a man chosen by God to herald the most important message in the world. And as long as he is faithful to the Gospel, he has the privilege of ministering with God given authority.

Paul finishes this verse of advice to Titus with the words ‘let no man despise thee’. Why does Paul end his advice here, why doesn’t he finish on the point of authority, why doesn’t he end on a charge to preach the Gospel as he does elsewhere? Paul knew that because of Titus’s work and message he ran the risk of being despised by people in his church. Maybe because he came from the wrong part of the island, maybe because his family wasn’t important enough, maybe he was young like Timothy, but more than likely just because people didn’t want to hear what he’s got to say. Titus ran the risk of being despised and Paul wanted him to be clear that no man is to despise him because there is no one in the church who is to be free from Gospel centered pastoral authority. Paul wants Titus to know this, he wanted Titus’ church to know it and he wants us to know it.

We’ve seen time and time again in our study in Titus that we are to live lives that look different to the world, and in verse 14 we see clearer than ever that this ability comes from our crucified Lord. Here we see in verse 15 that we are to listen well to our preacher, a man whose authority comes from our crucified Lord.

On the bus to Onslow County

One of the things i really value about serving a church of 300-350 people is the diversity of groups that i get to speak to. By this evening i'll have spoken to the main adult meeting, the college age sunday school class, the fourty to fifty years old sunday school class and our group of special needs adults, all in the space of ten days.

What i love about that is it makes me think, and helps me to realize.

It helps me think about the words i use, particularly in the case of the special needs adults. This afternoon we're taking a group of them to Jacksonville, NC, to see the Christmas lights, enjoy a hayride, and eat hot dogs around a bonfire, where i'll lead a short devotion on Luke 2:11-12.

It's been tremendous to work on that for the last couple of days. To think clearly about every word i use. To lose some words like 'incarnation' and 'propitiation' while keeping their glorious truths in the message. it's helped me to...i don't know how to describe it, come face to face with those truths again. Come face to face with the beauty of simple language again. Now, as far as we can, we should learn to use words like 'incarnation', because they are important and God glorifying. But we shouldn't rely, i shouldn't rely, on theological nomenclature too heavily, because church isn't a club for the middle class, college educated people.

And it helps me realize. You know what (and you do know, i'm just saying) the Gospel is the same and true whoever you are, where ever you. If you're a Bible college student or you work at dairy queen, whether you're a politician or a phosphate miner, whether you've written books or you need 24/7 professional supervision, the Gospel is the name, and you need to saving blood of Jesus shed for you. This isn't a new thing i've learnt, but it is a cool thing i've been reminded of. The Gospel is the solid rock in our lives, and our jobs, our pay packet, where we live and who we spend time with are malleable. They must bend, and be infected and redeemed by the truth of the Gospel.

Titus 2:14-15 (1)

I love reading Paul’s letters. Romans is far away my favourite book of the Bible, and I love our Wednesday nights in Titus. If there’s one problem with them, however, it’s that they are too good. Breaking down Paul’s thought process into smaller chunks for a Wednesday night often means we have to leave Paul halfway though a sentence and this is the case here. Last time, we saw from verses 12 and 13 that some of the keys to the Christian life were living and looking. Living in the present world as we look at the Savior. Tonight, in verses 14 and 15 Paul finishes that thought. If last week was about live and look, this week is about what we look like and who we listen to. And why?

Verse 14 carries on the sentence from verse 13 talking ‘about looking for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us’. Here we learn something else about who Jesus is, not only is He the great God and our Saviour, but also He gave Himself for us. In these four words ‘gave Himself for us’, there is a hugely important, life changing, faith strengthening point. Jesus gave Himself. His death on the cross was no tragic accident, God the Father did not have to adjust His plans or make a painful last minute decision. This was the plan from the start and John 10:18 illustrates it well ‘no one taketh it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up’. Jesus gave Himself for us.

Why? Well look at verse 14 with me again ‘that he might cleanse us from all iniquity, and purify us unto himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ I love reading the Bible because it moves our attention away from ourselves and towards Jesus. Notice that He did not die to give us an easy life, or a bigger house, or a happy family, or a million other material benefits, although of course, every material benefit is because of the cross, Christ died to redeem us from iniquity. This is much better, this is much more important. This is our needs being met in a stunning way. Our felt needs and our real needs are often very different things. My felt needs often revolve around my ego and my material gain; my actual needs are to have my sins forgiven. They are glorious seasons of the soul when my felt needs are my actual needs, when I am convicted of my sin and come to the throne of God, via the cross of Christ, for mercy. If there is one thing that is clear over and over in Titus, and of course, in the rest of the Bible, it’s that God’s people are to reflect God’s character. God’s people are to love holiness and hate sin. This is a further unpacking of that.

We are released from our captivity to sin. Mark 10:45 ‘to give His life a ransom for many’. Jesus ransomed us from the power of the enemy to be pure, to be peculiar and to be practicers.

We are to be pure for Jesus, as we see in verse 14. Jesus gave Himself to purify us. We are to throw off the sin that so easily entangles. The question when it comes to sin shouldn’t be ‘how far can I go’, but ‘how far can I get away’, how much can I expose myself to the glory and wonders of Jesus Christ, and how much can I serve Him, not how much sin can I get away with.

We are to be peculiar for Jesus. We see this in the middle of the verse where it says ‘unto Himself a peculiar people.’ This word has the sense of being owned or set apart for Jesus. Once we were peculiar for sin, we were set apart for sin, we were committed to sin. Now we are called to be peculiar for Jesus, set apart for Him, by Him. We are to be committed to Him. This is so much better. This is life itself!

We are to be practicers for Jesus. This is what is meant at the end of the verse where it says ‘zealous of good works’ we are to be full of enthusiasm for good works. Good works are no more an optional extra for the Christian than apples are an optional extra for an apple tree. Good works are part of being a Christian. We once were zealous for sin, we once looked for opportunities to sin, and we once served sin with all our hearts. Sin was our master. Now that Christ has redeemed us He is our Master, we must ask Him daily for a new heart so that we desire to serve Him as well as we used to serve sin. Hebrews 9:14 tells us that ‘the blood of Christ…will purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.’