Archive for the ‘Preaching’ Category

Mar
26
2013

Thy Kingdom Come

I’m currently in the midst of a series on The Lord’s Prayer. This past Sunday I preached on the phrase: “They Kingdom Come.” I came across some great quotes in preparation:

From Ray Pritchard‘s excellent book, And When You Pray: 

Consider the matter this way. Every time you pray you must say one of two things. Either you pray, “Your kingdom come,” or you pray, “My kingdom come.” Those are the only two possibilities. But note carefully: When you pray, “Your kingdom come,” you must of necessity also pray: “My kingdom go.” God’s kingdom cannot “come” unless your kingdom is going to “go” They both can’t coexist at the same time and place.

From D.A. Carson‘s commentary, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: 

“Your kingdom come.” Christians ought not to pray this prayer lightly or thoughtlessly. Throughout the centuries, followers of Jesus suffering savage persecution have prayed this prayer with meaning and fervor. But I suspect that our comfortable pews often mock our sincerity when we repeat the phrase today. We would have no objecdtion to the Lord’s return, we think, provided he holds off a bit and lets us finish a degree first, or lets us taste marriage, or give us time to succeed in a business or profession, or grants us the joy of seeing grandchildren. Do we really hunger for the kingdom to come in all it’s surpassing righteousness? Or would we rather waddle through a swamp of insincerity and unrighteousness?

Mar
05
2013

What Evangelism Is

I’m highly skeptical of mechanics. If you are one, I’m sorry, but I think you probably realize that it goes with the trade. It’s this way with pastors, too, so perhaps we can commiserate some time.

But there is one shop in our community who does exceptional work, whose proprietors rise above the usual price-gouging and fake repair needs. These are guys I trust with every need my car has. They give good advice. They only fix what is needed. They give good referrals for other work. And when you are with them you just get the vibe that they are genuine, not slick salesmen trying to make a deal.

Here’s the thing about service like this. It’s so rare that when you find it, you want to tell the world about it. That’s what marketing experts get paid big money to tell their clients: perform good service and let the word of mouth build your business. Why is this? Because people are natural evangelists.

I think about this when I think about evangelism. If you have had a great experience with something, you don’t have to be prodded to tell ten people. It’s the same way with a bad experience. Guarantee you that you will not only tell ten people, you’ll post on your social networks. Companies are desperate for this.

When we evangelize the gospel, that is when we fulfill our calling to share the good news of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, it should be as natural as me telling ten people about my experience at Hainseville Firestone near my house.

And herein lies the problem with our evangelism for God. It’s not that we are afraid to tell people. It’s not that we want people to like us. The deeper reason we don’t share Christ is because we’ve lost our first love. We’ve forgotten how great Christ is. He’s become sort of familiar to us, Someone we aren’t all that excited about, not excited enough to tell people.

I find it interesting in the Great Commission verses in Matthew and Mark and Acts that the imperatives are not in the going and telling, but in the teaching and baptizing. Why is that? I think this is because Jesus assumed the disciples would tell everyone the gospel. And why wouldn’t they? They’d just seen Jesus rise again from the dead. They’ve had a radical, life-changing encounter with the Risen Lord. Who could shut up about that?

Perhaps the key to our evangelism is not adopting a new strategy or finding the perfect method or being guilted by Hellfire, but simply to revisit the wonders of the gospel message itself, to reread passages like Ephesians 2 to realize how sick and dead and lifeless we were before we met Christ. To bask in the wonders of regeneration and rebirth. To look at ourselves before we were Christians and how we are now.

Evangelism is really a natural human instinct. Every single one of us is an evangelist of something. Listen to yourself talk. What do you tell your friends and neighbors about? What excites you? What is that you can’t wait to share with someone?

Feb
05
2013

If There is No Sin, There is No Grace

Be of sin, the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure - Augustus Toplady

There is a hesitance, actually more like a firm resistance, to calling any behavior, “sin.” When the issue of sexual lifestyles are discussed, even evangelicals are wary of labeling any one behavior as sin. It’s the word we want to run far, far way from. Nobody sins anymore. They make mistakes. They were born that way. They are misunderstood.

The Bible, however, has clear categories. And some things are sin. Sexual license is sin. Murder is sin. Libel is sin. Gossip is sin. Furthermore, the Bible doesn’t just say that humans commit sin, but that humans are actually, by nature, sinners. That is they aren’t naturally good people who sometimes fall off the wagon and sin. We are sinners by nature.

But what about grace? Isn’t the church supposed to be about spreading the good news that God has accepted sinners by grace? Isn’t the message of the church that God’s grace covers even the vilest of sins? Yes, it is. And this is a message we should shout from the rooftops. It should be the core of what we evangelicals do and say.

Here’s the rub. If you stop acknowledging that some choices are sinful, you stop needing that wonderful thing called grace. In other words, if everything is okay, is just a different lifestyle, but not actually a gross violation of the righteousness of God, then why would you need grace? You wouldn’t, because nobody is doing anything wrong.

This is why the Church must talk about sin and about grace. At times, followers of Jesus have talked more about sin, as if God was violently angry at sinners and they have no hope. As if we were gleeful, like the Pharisees, to catch someone abusing God’s standard. This is the wrong message and denies the gospel.

And yet, we seem to be in a moment in the church when we want to talk about grace in a way that acts like sin is no big deal. Let’s not talk about sin, after all we’re suppose to be the people of grace. Wait a minute, though. If there is no sin, there is no need for grace.

The point I’m making here is this: Unless I realize I’m a sinner deserving of God’s just wrath against sin, I cannot experience the richness and fullness of His grace. If I deny my sin, I shut the door on grace. This was Jesus’ message to the woman at the well. Yes, you are a woman who is living in sin. Yes, you are just the kind of person I came to save. 

We have to acknowledge both realities. This is why talk of the word, “sin” should not frighten us who believe in the gospel. Because it was not mistakes or missteps or misunderstandings that Christ came to conquer and defeat. He came to defeat sin and sin’s awful child: death.

I’m not proud of my sin, but I’m glad to recognize that I’m a sinner. Because sinners are the only people eligible for Jesus’ unlimited grace.

Dec
12
2012

Three Kinds of Christians Who Should Always Keep Their Cool

'Keep calm and carry on' photo (c) 2009, Derek Keats - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/I was struck this week as I studied 1 Peter 4:7-11 as part of our Exiles series at church. I was struck particularly by this phrase: “Be self-controlled and sober-minded.” (v 4 ESV). There are differing ways translators have translated this. HCSB says “Be serious and disciplined.” NASB: “of sound judgement and sober spirit.” NLT: “Be earnest and disciplined.” KJV: “Be sober and watch.”

You get the idea. Christians are to be level-headed. Sober. Balanced. Mature. Of sound judgement. Wise. In control. These virtues should characterize our life, both in our speech, in our online engagement, in our beliefs. And yet there are times, many times, when virtues like this, such as balance, sound judgement, and sobriety are looked at by some as a lack of courage. Or we excuse them with things like, “I’m just speaking my mind.” Or we post half-baked conspiracy theories online or fire them off via email. We buy into ponzi schemes or weird ideas. An election doesn’t go our way and we freak out. We scan the negative headlines and we cower in fear or make goofy, doomsday predictions (or read the latest Christian bestsellers that posit them). But Peter says, “Be sober. Keep your cool. Pray.”

This phrasing is not original to Peter. In fact, in the New Testament you will find three types of Christians who the Bible says should always keep their cool:

1) Anyone looking for Jesus to Return. 1 Peter 4:1: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” Peter says the end is at hand. In my view this means two things: First it means the end of the age is upon us. It was upon the first century Christians and it us upon us. It was coming soon for them and coming soon for us. So, knowing that the end of the age is upon us, how should we act? Should we create newer charts? Should we try to figure out who the anti-Christ is? Should we say historically innacurate things like, “Its as bad as its ever been!.” Should we hide in the basement? No. In light of the end, Peter says, “be sober, be watchful, and pray.” When the headlines turn sour, Christians should be the last people gripped by irrational fear. The second thing this means is that the end is at hand in the sense that the end of the reign of Satan is at hand. The end is the beginning. Christ has defeated sin, death and the curse. The kingdom is here and is coming. So, rather than fear, rejoice. Be watchful. Be serious. Be balanced. And pray. Christians, of all people should not be fear-mongering conspiracy nuts. We should be joyful readers of the news, because we know the end is here and a new beginning is dawning. We know the story. We know a King is coming.

So, really, Peter here is referring to every kind of Christian. Because every serious disciple should be watchful and sober. Every follower of Christ should be joyfully looking for the return of the King. Not with colored charts, but with prayerful, sober hearts. (I honestly didn’t intend for that to rhyme!).

2) Pastors 1 Timothy 3:2 says that one of the qualities for pastors should be “self control and sobriety” (1 Timothy 3:2). And this makes sense. If we are to lead God’s people to do as God says and live as if the end is near, we have to model it in our own lives, don’t we? There is something about leadership that says if the leader is freaked out and scared, the people will be even more freaked out and scared. Leaders set the tone. Especially pastors who are looked upon, by their people, as having a word from God. That’s why one of our main jobs is to calm people during a crisis, to give them the reassurance that God is in control, that the end is near and the King is coming, despite what is happening right now. That’s why I cringe a bit when I see pastors write and publish doomsday scenario books or make outlandish public statements about America, etc. There is a place for prophetic preaching, but it must be given with a sober, self-controlled tone–is that not what Paul tells Timothy here? We are to point people to the Word and say, “God is sovereign over history, over what is happening today and what will happen tomorrow. Live by faith, not by fear.” Sadly, fear sells more books than faith, but good pastors lead their people with a cool head.

3) Church members Titus 2:1-6 gives instruction four kinds of church members: Old men, young men, old women, young women. This pretty much covers all kinds of people you’d find in a church. And what undergirds all of his instruction is the same idea used by Peter in 1 Peter 4: Sobriety. Self-control. Maturity. It seems that one of the signs of a growing believer is this very underrated trait.

At times I will hear Christians say things like, “Well, Dan, you have to think that way because you are the pastor.” And by 1 Timothy 3:2 standards, yes, they are right. I must be sober, etc. But according to Paul’s words to Titus, the church members are not exempt from displaying spiritual maturity either. So, therefore, it does matter when you send that half-truth conspiracy email or you post some outlandish thing on Facebook or when you live every day by fear of the headlines. Apparently that’s wrong for the church members as well as the pastor.

Summary: The point of all this is in the inspired Words of God as written by the Apostle Peter: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” 1 Peter 4:7 (ESV). How do you live in view of the end? Keep your cool. Be sober. Pray.

Nov
14
2012

The Gospel Versus Nostalgia

This summer I had the privilege of travelling to Eastern Europe to attend my brother’s wedding. His wife, Annette, is a native of Krakow, Poland. After the wedding, I continued on to Slovakia to visit missionaries we support near Bratislavia. Jason and Adele Rice and their three young boys have just got to the field and are busy learning the language and culture of Slovakia.

There is something about the mindset of an overseas missionary that would be good for us American Christians to learn. It struck me that missionaries don’t go into a country and try to change the entire governmental structure all at once. That’s not even on their agenda.Over time, their work may lead to positive changes in the country’s culture (See Hudson Taylor, William Carey, Adoniram Judson). But missionaries don’t complain about a country’s culture, but seek to minister in it as it is.

I wonder if American Christians need to start thinking of themselves as missionaries in their own cultures. We’ve had the privilege of growing up in a country that at least acknowledged Christianity even if it was in a national, generalist, fuzzy form. In other words, in America, we generally have gotten back pats and attaboy’s for being Christians. We are accustomed to that so much that when the greeter at Walmart doesn’t automatically belt out a rendition of “Silent Night” after scanning our items, we throw up our hands in horror at the new “War on Christmas.” Most of the Right’s “War on Christmas” meme is hyperbole. But it acknowledges a reality we must get used to if we are going to take the Great Commission seriously: we are missionaries in a culture that is less supportive of biblical Christianity.

We can respond to this reality in two ways: a) We can operate out of fear and continue to try to “take our country back” or b) we can recognize what the Bible recognizes: followers of Christ will always be a misunderstood minority. We’re missionaries. And missionaries don’t complain about the culture they are called to serve. They simple learn the culture and get busy faithfully sharing the good news of the gospel.

What kills our witness is nostalgia. Nostalgia, I’m afraid, is against the gospel. Nostalgia says that there was once a time, maybe its the 1950′s, where we got everything right and America was golden. Nostalgia says, “This is the worst time ever. Sin has never been more rampant.” I can’t tell you how many books I read that appeal to this. There are statistics about how many marriages failed in the early 20th century compared to now, as if adultery and sexual sin are a new invention. But then I open my Bible and find that the same sins that plague us in the 21st century plagued the very first generation of humanity. There was brother-on-brother murder in the second generation. And the pages of Genesis, pre-Flood, read like a transcript of the Jerry Springer show. And consider the book of Judges. Consider the sins the book of Romans describes. Consider Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthian church.

The point is this: sin has always been rampant among humans. There was never a golden age where life was all beautiful. Why do we think this way? Personally I think there is a part of us that longs for utopia–and tries in vain to create it here on earth. Perhaps its our sorrow at being kicked out of Eden and our longing for the eternal home of Heaven.

Here’s how the gospel differs from nostalgia. The gospel instructs us to look back, but not to the Eden we’re missing or to some mythical golden era, but to the cross, where sin and death were defeated, where the enemy of our souls was crushed once and for all. The gospel is always pointing us, not backward, but forward. Hebrews reminds us that we are a people who are not looking backward, but forward to a “city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).”

We can learn from other eras, we should drink deeply from history, we should imbibe the best of the Reformers, the Puritans, the ancient church fathers. But we must always seek to bring the gospel to today’s world, to live missionally in the culture that is not lament a culture gone by.

Because real missionaries don’t complain about the country that isn’t, but serve the country that is.

Nov
02
2012

The Surprising Fruit of Balance

It would be hard to find a more boring word in ministry circles than “balance.” There is a lot of talk about being “radical”, “edgy”, “relevant”, etc. But balance sounds rather unhip. But I’m finding this word may be the key to lifelong, steady, sustained ministry success.

There is a part of all of us in ministry that desperately wants to be noticed. And our American culture seems to celebrate such unbridled ambition. We want to be though of as being successful, even if we cover it with a nice Jesus gloss and call it impact. And so pastors are on Twitter crafting statements they hope will be retweeted. Or we are coming up with more outrageous ways to have our message rise above the cultural noise. I’m guessing most of the time this comes from a pure heart: we want to see a lost world embrace Jesus and we’ll do anything to get them to notice.

But there is a cost to a sort of pragmatic, no-hold-barred, entertainment-is-the-answer approach. There’s a cost to pastors being outlandish, carnival barkers, a bit crazy. Sure, you’ll be seen as a different kind of pastor and you’ll likely get written up in the latest ministry magazines. You might get a lot of traffic to your website or land that coveted speaking engagement. But the cost is something valuable: credibility. Maturity. Pastors, as God’s representatives to His people, should, at the very least, be the adults in the room. We should be sober-minded, steady, strong. This is the kind of leadership every generation needs.

Now, to be balanced isn’t necessarily the same as being “safe.” To be “safe” is to shy away from the hard call of the gospel, it’s to seek our own comfort, it’s to bend our ear more frequently to the applause of the culture. To be safe is to do the same things, over and over again, without new results. To be safe is to preach only of the culturally acceptable parts of the Bible (love, forgiveness, justice, unity) and ignore those that sound like fingernails on a cultural backboard (Hell, sin, repentance, God’s wrath, morality, forgiveness, grace). In it’s own way, being the most obnoxious, radical, attention-seeking preacher is, in a way, safe. It’s safe because you create a lot of easy heat without much light. It’s safe because building a ministry by scheme and flash is a shortcut through a  lot of hard, faithful, tireless ministry work.

There is something inside all of us who do public ministry that has to die. It’s the desire to be someone, something. I must fight this regularly with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in me. We must make Jesus Christ the story of our ministries. We must work hard to create cultures where the gospel, not the leader, is celebrated. We must ask ourselves, with every new, creative idea we have: is this to make me more famous, is this to get other Christians talking about me? Or, does this have the intent of edifying the body of Christ and bringing those who don’t know Jesus to Him?

This is why balance matters. One of my best friends, a ministry mentor, Dr. Rich McCarrell of Byron Center Bible Church, says, “Balance is the elixer of ministry.” He has always cautioned me not to make one issue, one controversial position, one methodology the main thing. Keep Christ the main thing, he says, and that will give you wisdom in leadership.

As I look around the Church, I see that God has granted some of his servants favor and prominence. But mostly the Church is built by ordinary men and women, serving faithfully, day in and day out.

I know balance and maturity and boring old faithfulness are not the hot stuff of the Christian conference and publishing circuit. But they are vital, I think, for lifelong gospel ministry.

 

Oct
24
2012

When We Add Stuff to the Bible, We Hurt People

Orthodox evangelicals believe in something called a “closed cannon.” In other words, we believe the Bible as it is presently constructed-39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament-are the complete, written, inspired, inerrant Word of God. This matters for lots of reasons, but two big ones: a) we have all we need for faith and practice (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16) and b) there is no new revelation, no new Scripture. The latter point takes seriously Revelation 22:19 in that we feel it dishonors the Word to add to it.

In practice, most conservative evangelicals believe this. It’s in our statements of faith, its part of our creeds, and we will not be ashamed to say we believe this. But in practice, we often say something different. We can do this in a variety of ways, but one big one for conservative, inerrantists is this: We often add lists, rules, and ideas to the Bible that just aren’t there. This is a very subtle, yet dangerous thing to do, in my view. And I think it hurts the people we pastors are called to serve. Let me explain: 

I’ve often had people approach me, as a pastor, and ask me, “Why don’t you tell us what entertainment we should enjoy in our homes?” They want a list, the sanctified, sanitized, pastor-blessed list of acceptable movies and okay music. But I can’t do this with integrity. I can’t get up in the pulpit and say, “Thus saith the Lord . . .” when really the Lord has not spoken specifically on that subject. I can preach the broad ideas when it comes to entertainment. But mostly what I’m tasked with doing is simply preaching, clearly, the text of the Word of God, nothing more and nothing less. And I’m to trust the Holy Spirit who uses that Word to shape the hearts of my people.

To be sure, there are areas where the Bible gets very specific, particularly on morality, gossip, honesty, etc. And on those I can, with confidence, preach what the Bible says. But when we as pastors parachute our preferences into the Word of God, we are dishonoring the text. It’s subtle. And our motives maybe pure, but if we are, on Sunday, mixing our opinions with truth, we confuse our people. We communicate the idea that the Bible is like putty–it can be shaped to our whims.

Most people who come to church on Sunday assume that what a pastor says in the pulpit is from God. That’s the dangerous rhetorical power of a pastor. This is why James 3 strongly warns those who would be teachers to take their responsibility seriously. Words spoken in the pulpit, under the authority of God, have power to uplift mens’ souls or to destroy them. Consider how many millions of people throughout the centuries who have been led tragically astray by bad teaching. Consider the destructive impact of legalism.

Our job is to simply preach the text of the Word. We ought to make it abundantly clear when we give our opinion that it is our opinion. Our preaching out to answer the question, every time ,”Where is that in the Bible?” My opinion my be sound, it may be good, it may even be based on my interpretation of what I think the Bible says, but at the end of the day my opinion has no power. Only the Word of the living God has power.

Sep
27
2012

Les Lofquist on Leadership and Preaching

I especially loved this piece by Les Lofquist on how to respond to a criticism of preaching:

I think the only way is to be determined to be prayed up and studied up the next time you’re in the pulpit. Resolve to get up early each day the next week and pray as a man of God should. Then study seriously. Grapple with next Sunday’s text. Turn off the television. Stop surfing the web. Put away your fantasy team rosters. Dig into the Bible. Pull off from your shelves those theology books and commentaries of yours and pore over them. Review your old Bible College / seminary class lecture notes. Accept the challenge of that passage you’ll be preaching and wrestle with its meaning and outline and application.

Approach next Sunday with all the earnestness you can. After all, it’s God’s holy and written Word you are handling! Get serious about it once again, like you did when you first began preaching. Shake off the cobwebs and preach with fire in your soul, accepting the calling from God to be the spokesman to your people in your congregation for Him. Let them see His glory through you as you seriously handle His words. And don’t be afraid of being appropriately direct and bold, assuming nothing with respect to the spiritual condition of the individuals in your congregation. Preach with the authority of God, bearing God’s message, speaking God’s Word and forget about yourself and your own authority.

via Leadership … and Preaching | Fire In My Bones.