You Are Not The Next Anyone!

Great words from Matt Chandler. I need to hear this.

You Are Not the Next Anyone! from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

A Story of Rescue

Skip & Barbara Ryan Story of Rescue from PCPC Video on Vimeo.

Zack Eswine: A Message For Ordinary Pastors

An amazing message for ordinary pastors. God doesn't think any more or less of you based on if we measure up to our perceptions of success.

Are We Preaching Christ or Talking About Christ?

Sobering words and a great reminder from Ray Ortlund. I always appreciate Ray's zeal for Christ and His gospel to be exalted. Read the original post here. 

“My wife always says the most important thing about the man as a preacher was, you didn’t notice him.  He came quietly into the pulpit, started quietly, and then something seemed to happen, and then you became absorbed in what he was saying. . . .

‘We beseech you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God’ (2 Corinthians 5:20).  Spirit-filled preaching — the preacher is in the background.  And something happens.  The worshiper, by the grace of God, is being spoken to by God and by the Word of God.  So Lloyd-Jones would often say, the difference between talking about Christ and preaching Christ, or talking about the gospel and actually preaching the gospel.  It’s a comparatively easy thing to talk about the gospel, but to really preach it is another thing. . . .

So many preachers have to start their sermon with a nice little anecdote or something interesting, to catch people’s attention.  That is a condemnation of the whole service.  If the service has really been in the presence of God, you don’t need to catch anyone’s attention. . . .

I love that quotation of John Knox.  It’s really a definition of the Reformation: ‘God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance.’”

Recent 9Marks audio, Iain Murray interviewed by Mark Dever on “The Pastoral Practices of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.”

Are we pastors even thinking in these categories?

A Call for Tough and Tender Pastor's in Controversy

From John Piper, as posted by Justin Taylor:

It seems to me that we are always falling off the horse on one side or the other in this matter of being tough and tender—

wimping out on truth when we ought to be lion-hearted, or

wrangling with anger when we ought to be weeping. . . .

Oh how rare are the pastors who speak with a tender heart and have a theological backbone of steel. I dream of such pastors. I would like to be one someday.

A pastor

whose might in the truth is matched by his meekness.

Whose theological acumen is matched by his manifest contrition.

Whose heights of intellect are matched by his depths of humility.

Yes, and the other way around!

A pastor

whose relational warmth is matched by his rigor of study,

whose bent toward mercy is matched by the vigilance of his biblical discernment, and

whose sense of humor is exceeded by the seriousness of his calling.

I dream of great defenders of true doctrine who are mainly known for the delight they have in God and the joy in God that they bring to the people of God—who enter controversy, when necessary, not because they love ideas and arguments, but because they love Christ and the church. . . .

[Acts 15:1-3] is my vision: The great debaters on their way to a life-and-death show down of doctrinal controversy, so thrilled by the mercy and power of God in the gospel, that they are spreading joy everywhere they go.

Oh how many there are today who tell us that controversy only kills joy and ruins the church;

and oh how many others there are who, on their way to the controversy, feel no joy and spread no joy in the preciousness of Christ and his salvation.

Pastors: Leading Their People to Death-Defying Devotion

"A high view of God's sovereignty fuels death-defying devotion to global missions"


"Pastors who believe that God is sovereign over all things will lead Christians to die for the sake of ALL peoples"

Just a couple opening quotes from David Platt's message he delivered at Together 4 the Gospel (T4G). I haven't read any of Platt's books (although I plan to) nor have I listened to much of his stuff, but from what I have heard, I love this guy and his passion for the gospel.

Being a Christian is intrinsically linked with mission. A legitimate belief in the God of the Bible fuels radical self-giving in the form of mission. I'm thankful for Platt, especially for that 2nd quote about pastors having the privilege of leading their people to die for the sake of the gospel going to ALL peoples. Most churches, and most pastors don't have the stomach to preach this. Yet, it is in the Bible. It is what Jesus said was necessary to follow him. Most pastors prefer to build up comfortable buildings for people to gather, giving them a few snippets of good advice for living, and enough assurance to soothe their religious conscious. This is nice, but this is not Christianity. This is not being a disciple of Jesus. This is not holding a high view of God's sovereignty. I'll be posting Platt's message here in a little bit. It is an hour long, but is well worth the time. John Piper is calling it the best sermon on missions he has ever heard. So, if you want to have your world rocked, check it out!

What Kind Of Pastors Do Sinners Need?

Here is a blog post from Tullian Tchividjian's blog in which he quotes Sinclair Ferguson. This was brought to my attention by Danny Hindman.

What kind of pastor do sinners need?

 

Sinclair Ferguson answers this question from his Marrow Controversy Lectures:

But when your people come and have been broken by sin and have fallen into temptation and are ashamed to confess the awful mess they have made of their life, it is not a Calvinistic pastor who has been sanctified by vinegar that they need. It is a pastor that has been mastered by the unconditional, free grace of God. It is a pastor from whom ironclad orthodoxy has been torn away and the whole armor of a gracious God has been placed upon his soul–the armor of one who would not break the bruised reed or quench the dimly burning wick.
You see, my friends, as we think together in these days about a Godly pastor we have to ask, what is a Godly pastor? A Godly pastor is one who is like God, who has a heart of free grace running after sinners. The Godly pastor is the one who sees the prodigal and runs and falls on his neck and weeps and kisses him and says, “This my son was dead, he was lost and now he is alive and found.”

Pastors, when sinners are drowning, don’t tell them to paddle harder and kick faster. Throw them the life-line of amazing grace.

Earthshaking Earnestness

From Richard Baxter's poem, Love Breathing Thanks and Praise,

"I preach as never sure to preach again, 

And as a dying man to dying men!"

When considering the radical claims of the Gospel, when facing the realities of death and eternity, when there are people sitting in the congregation who are dead in their sins, how can I preach about trivialities? The puritan Richard Baxter had a profound sense of urgency in his preaching because he understood the weight of the matter. This gave him a deep sincerity and earnestness in his preaching. No matter the cost, he preached as a dying man, to dying men. Check out this quote from his book, The Reformed Pastor,

"I marvel how I can preach slightly and coldly, 

how I can let men alone in their sins, and that I do not go to

them and beseech them for the Lord's sake to repent,

however they take it, and whatever pains or troubles it should cost me. 

Shouldn't thou weep over such a people, 

and should not thy tears interrupt thy words?

Shouldn't not thou cry aloud and show them their transgressions, 

and entreat and beseech them to life?"

The Importance of Being Under the Word

If Billy Graham Could Do It Over

An excerpt from John Stott's, 'Between Two Worlds'.

"Speaking to about 600 clergy in London in November 1979, Billy Graham said that, if he had his ministry all over again, he would make two changes. People looked startled. What could he possibly mean? First, he continued, he would study three times as much as he had done. He would take on fewer engagements. 'I've preached too much,' he said, 'and studied too little.' The second change was that he would give more time to prayer. Moreover, in making these emphases, he must have been deliberately echoing the apostolic resolve: 'we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.' (Acts 6:4) Because afterwards I commented appreciatively on what he had said, Dr. Graham wrote to me the following day and added: 'I remember that Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse (of Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia) once said: "If I had only three years to serve the Lord, I would spend two of them studying and preparing."'


These are wise words, especially to young men going into the ministry. 

Piper on his leave of absence

John Piper will be returning from his leave of absence this January. As part of his annual report he writes to Bethlehem Baptist, Pastor John reports on his 8 month leave of absence. I admire this guy. I know God has used Pastor John as a mighty example of a Godly pastor, husband and Christ-follower.

John Piper on his leave of absence.

Why Johnny Can't Preach

I just finished reading "Why Johnny Can't Preach" by T. David Gordon. In short, Gordon writes about the current lack of sound preaching and proposes several reasons for this crucial inadequacy. Gordon proposes that the overuse of image based media has caused a sharp decline in the quality of preaching. Furthermore, people have lost the ability to read texts and rhetorically communicate thoughts because of how the media has shaped us. This has inevitably lapsed over into our preaching. Below is a paragraph regarding the content of preaching. I found it to be a good reminder to preach Christ-o-centrically.

"From about twenty-five years of wrestling with the question, I have come to concur with those who believe that the content of Christian preaching should be the person, character and work of Christ. What we declare, with Paul, is not ourselves, but Christ crucified. Our message, like Paul's, is 'the message of the cross'. The substance of our proclamation is the soteric fitness of the person and character of Christ, and the soteric competence of his work. With the old Puritan John Flavel, we wish to open up that 'Fountain of Life' which consists of Christ's person and work. What is offered to the congregation, in rightly ordered Christian worship, is nothing less that Christ himself."

The life-giving Preacher

"The life-giving preacher is a man of God, whose heart is ever athirst for God, whose souls is ever following hard after God, whose eye is single to God, and in whom by the power of God's Spirit the flesh and the world have been crucified and his ministry is like the generous flood of a life-giving river."

John Piper in 'Brother's We are Not Professionals'

Notes on Preaching a Gospel Sermon

Though I am not studying to become a pastor, I found Keller's words to be a great reminder to all of us what a gospel-sermon consists of...

MORALISM VS. CHRIST-CENTERED EXPOSITION by Tim Keller

We have said that you must preach the gospel every week–to edify and grow Christians and to convert non-Christians. But if that is the case, you cannot simply ‘instruct in Biblical principles.’ You have to ‘get to Jesus’ every week.

For example, look at the story of David and Goliath. What is the meaning of that narrative for us? Without reference to Christ, the story may be (usually is!) preached as: “The bigger they come, the harder they’ll fall, if you just go into your battles with faith in the Lord. You may not be real big and powerful in yourself, but with God on your side, you can overcome giants.” But as soon as we ask: “how is David foreshadowing the work of his greater Son"? We begin to see the same features of the story in a different light. The story is telling us that the Israelites can not go up against Goliath. They can’t do it. They need a substitute. When David goes in on their behalf, he is not a full-grown man, but a vulnerable and weak figure, a mere boy. He goes virtually as a sacrificial lamb. But God uses his apparent weakness as the means to destroy the giant, and David becomes Israel’s champion-redeemer, so that his victory will be imputed to them. They get all the fruit of having fought the battle themselves.

This is a fundamentally different meaning than the one that arises from the non-Christocentric reading. There is, in the end, only two ways to read the Bible: is it basically about me or basically about Jesus? In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done? If I read David and Goliath as basically giving me an example, then the story is really about me. I must summons up the faith and courage to fight the giants in my life. But if I read David and Goliath as basically showing me salvation through Jesus, then the story is really about him. Until I see that Jesus fought the real giants (sin, law, death) for me, I will never have the courage to be able to fight ordinary giants in life (suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, hardship). For example how can I ever fight the “giant” of failure, unless I have a deep security that God will not abandon me? If I see David as my example, the story will never help me fight the failure/giant. But if I see David/Jesus as my substitute, whose victory is imputed to me, then I can stand before the failure/giant. As another example, how can I ever fight the “giant” of persecution or criticism? Unless I can see him forgiving me on the cross, I won’t be able to forgive others. Unless I see him as forgiving me for falling asleep on him (Matt.27:45) I won’t be able to stay awake for him.

In the Old Testament we are continually told that our good works are not enough, that God has made a provision. This provision is pointed to at every place in the Old Testament. We see it in the clothes God makes Adam and Eve in Genesis, to the promises made to Abraham and the patriarchs, to the Tabernacle and the whole sacrificial system, to the innumerable references to a Messiah, a suffering servant, and so on. Therefore, to say that the Bible is about Christ is to say that the main theme of the Bible is the gospel–Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9).

So reading the Old Testament Christocentrically is not just a “additional” dimension. It is not something you can just tack on - to the end of a study and sermon. ("Oh, and by the way, this also points us to Christ".) Rather, the Christocentric reading provides a fundamentally different application and meaning to the text. Without relating it to Christ, the story of Abraham and Isaac means: “You must be willing to even kill your own son for him.” Without relating it to Christ, the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel means: “You have to wrestle with God, even when he is inexplicable-even when he is crippling you. You must never give up.” These ‘morals-of-the-story’ are crushing because they essentially are read as being about us and what we must do.

A BASIC OUTLINE FOR CHRIST-CENTERED, GOSPEL-MOTIVATED SERMONS
The following may actually be four points in a presentation, or they may be treated very quickly as the last point of a sermon. But more generally, this is a foundational outline for the basic moral reasoning and argument that lies at the heart of the application.

The Plot winds up: WHAT YOU MUST DO.
“This is what you have to do! Here is what the text/narrative tells us that we must do or what we must be.”
The Plot thickens: WHY YOU CAN’T DO IT.
“But you can’t do it! Here are all the reasons that you will never become like this just by trying very hard.”
The Plot resolves: HOW HE DID IT.
“But there’s One who did. Perfectly. Wholly. Jesus the—. He has done this for us, in our place.”
The Plot winds down: HOW, THROUGH HIM, YOU CAN DO IT.
“Our failure to do it is due to our functional rejection of what he did. Remembering him frees our heart so we can change like this…”

a) In every text of the Scripture there is somehow a moral principle. It may grow out of because of what it shows us about the character of God or Christ, or out of either the good or bad example of characters in the text, or because of explicit commands, promises, and warnings. This moral principle must be distilled clearly. b) But then a crisis is created in the hearers as the preacher shows that his moral principle creates insurmountable problems. The sermon shows how this practical and moral obligation is impossible to meet. The hearers are led to a seemingly dead end. c) Then a hidden door opens and light comes in. The sermon moves both into worship and into Christ-application when it shows how only Jesus Christ has fulfilled this. If the text is a narrative, you can show how Christ is the ultimate example of a particular character. If the text is didactic, you can show how Christ is the ultimate embodiment of the principle. d) Finally, we show how our inability to live as we ought stems from our rejection of Christ as the Way, Truth, and Life (or whatever the theme is). The sermon points out how to repent and rejoice in Christ in such a way that we can live as we ought.

The Despair of an Ordinary Pastor

In his recent book, 'Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor', D.A. Carson captures the moving and encouraging life story of his father, Pastor Tom Carson. Tom Carson spent his life ministering to the people of Canada in the Quebec and Montreal regions. He never was famous. He was not big. He did not author a book. He often felt despair for his apparent failures in his ministry.

In one section, Dr. Carson talks about his dad's perfectionist mentality. This always left Tom Carson feeling like he could have done more. This led to periods of Tom Carson's life where he felt deep despair and a sense of failure. Of this, D.A. Carson writes,

"So many aspects of ministry demand excellence, and there are not enough hours in the day to be excellent in all of them. It is rare for me to finish a sermon without feeling somewhere between slightly discouraged and moderately depressed that I have not preached with more unction, that I have not articulated these glorious truths more powerfully and with greater insight and so forth. But, I cannot allow that to drive me to despair; rather, it must drive me to a greater grasp of the simple and profound truth that we preach and visit and serve under the Gospel of Grace, and God accepts us because of His son. I must learn to accept myself, not because of my putative successes but because of the merits of God's Son. The ministry is so open-ended that one never feels that all possible work has been done, or done as well as one might like. There are always more people to visit, more studying to be done, more preparation to do. What Christian's must do, what Christian leaders must do, is constantly remember that we serve our God and Maker and Redeemer under the Gospel of Grace."

What a great reminder. Like Tom Carson, I usually feel like a complete failure when it comes to ministry. I need to constantly remind myself that my assurance and joy are not tied to my 'performance' in ministry, but in Christ himself. I can't be any more or less justified based on apparent successes in the ministry. More so, when our acceptance is grounded in Christ, failures will drive us to a deeper dependancy in God. We will realize more and more that we can do nothing apart from Christ, and that everything is by His sovereign grace, according to His purpose.

Christian Community

The following quote comes from William Still's book 'The Work of the Pastor'

"Don't you know that sinners are the only kind of men Jesus can love?...A true Christian fellowship is a place where stray cats and dogs can find a home. It is a hospital where the only sin is to hide your wounds from the Doctor. And the true pastor's job is to strip all the fearful ones, however gently, patiently, faithfully, and all the hypocritical ones of their camouflage and cloaks. Grace and truth come by Jesus Christ." (pg. 55-56)