Jesus is the Word of God
Daniel Blanche has some excellent thoughts on the empty chair at the Sheldonian Theatre tonight.
Any temptations to gloat (and I have plenty) surely come from a deep insecurity over the self-evident Lordship of Christ. An insecurity which philosophical arguments will not assuage but foster.
Mike Reeves at Transformission Today - thanks Bish for organising and making available!
1.Who is Jesus - is your God Jesus-less?
2.What has Jesus done - do you really know the gospel?
3. How does Jesus really feel about you?
Also - Mike at New Word Alive 2010
Kevin De Young's set out a 'Christian Worldview' summary which is hung on four pegs: 1-2-3-4.
The idea inspired me to have a go at my own: 3-2-1.
Three - Jesus keeps talking about His Father and the love they have shared before the world began. And He does everything in the power of the Spirit who communicates this love.
Before there was anything there were these Three. And their love was too good to keep to themselves. They made a world so that billions more can share in the love of the Three.
Two - The story of the world is the story of two men. God placed one man, Adam, at the head of the world to bless it and care for it. Yet through mistrust, Adam broke fellowship with God, and plunged the world down into death and curse. We all participate in this broken humanity and feel the curse of this broken world.
But there is a second man, Jesus Christ. God the Son became God our Brother as He entered into our broken world, stepping into our shoes. On the cross He faced the death and curse that belong to us. Three days later He rose up to a new kind of human life - the head of a new kind of world.
But which of these two men will we belong to?
One - The Bible says all humankind are one with Adam when they are born. We are united to the old humanity headed down to death and curse. But Jesus stands, arms wide open, offering a one-ness with Himself. If we trust Him we become united to Him like in a marriage. All that is ours (our sin and curse) becomes His. All that is His (His Spirit, righteousness, and cosmic inheritance) becomes ours.
In union with Jesus we share now in His family relations - filled with His Spirit and adopted by His Father. And when He comes again we will also share in His immortal, bodily life - we and the whole universe.
The Three invite you in.
The Two divide the world.
Who are you One with?
.
UPDATE: Here are talks (with audio) explaining 321 in depth.
Outgoing – Session 6 – 13 October 2011
RECAP: Our God is more wonderful than we can imagine!
.
Therefore, what is sin? Discuss
.
“The Fall” is living apart from the Life-Giving God
.
The Head takes creation with Him
.
Is this unfair?
.
Romans 5:12-21
.
It’s about our being not our doing.
.
We are bad trees producing bad fruit
Good fruit will not make us good trees
We must be made good trees to bear good fruit.
.
We are not neutral – we are a sinner in Adam.
.
Example: Hebrews 7:1-10
Levi was in Abraham
We are in Adam
.
Therefore it’s DONE – it’s not down to us
We are carried in the body of our Head
We share the Head’s destiny!
How should we communicate the truth that we’re sinners?
John 16:5-15
God is Giver.
Sin is not receiving.
.
Luke 15 – Two Ways to Reject the Life-Giving Lord
Jesus is surrounded by sinners and slaves.
Sinners opt out of the system and go for freedom
Slaves opt into the system and go for respect
Slaves hate that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them
.
Therefore Jesus tells a story about a man welcoming a sinner and eating with him – while the slave grumbles.
Who is the slave?
Who is the sinner?
Who is the man (who welcomes the sinner and eats with him)?
.
The turning point....
... the pig-sty?
... the father’s arms!
.
Therefore:
What is sin?
What is repentance?
Who is Saviour?
How should we present the gospel?
Common Objection: “Sounds like I’m born sick and commanded to be well. How is that fair?”
Recommended Reading: Romans 1-4
What saves us / What does not save us?
Next Week: Buried
Those cut off from the life of God try to seek life in all the wrong places. Yet all our goodness and all our will-power only mires us deeper!
.
We don't need better preaching, we need a better gospel.
Yes I'm being provocative and hyperbolous. Let me remind you that this is a blog.
What I mean is this: there's a lot of focus on becoming better preachers. The real need is to preach a better gospel.
These thoughts were prompted by a Spurgeon comment as quoted by CJ Mahaney at T4G 2008:
"Whitefield and Wesley might preach the gospel better but they cannot preach a better gospel."
Spurgeon's point is that the power is in the gospel, not the preacher. Amen. But if the gospel preached aint the gospel, then we need a better one.
'Better gospel?' you ask - how can you improve on the good news?
Well you can't improve on the biblical gospel. But you can darned well improve on the gospel preached by some. Here's a false one I hear around the traps (there are others, but this is the devil I know best):
'God is power. We must submit. Since we don't, God has a plan B. It's a wonderfully clever mechanism called penal substitutionary atonement. For those who profess faith in penal substitutionary atonement (and submit the whole of their lives to God in total self-surrender and who pass on this 'gospel' and persevere to the bitter end), then... well... they will avoid hell. Probably.'
Lord save us from well illustrated and applied, passionate, persuasive and prayerful preaching of this 'gospel'. Remember that the evangelism of the Pharisees made converts twice as much sons of hell as they were. (Matt 23:15)
What a thought! The perversion of a false gospel is multiplied in those it converts. Preachers - don't work on your preaching, work on your gospel.
.
We don't need better preaching, we need a better gospel.
Yes I'm being provocative and hyperbolous. Let me remind you that this is a blog.
What I mean is this: there's a lot of focus on becoming better preachers. The real need is to preach a better gospel.
These thoughts were prompted by a Spurgeon comment as quoted by CJ Mahaney at T4G 2008:
"Whitefield and Wesley might preach the gospel better but they cannot preach a better gospel."
Spurgeon's point is that the power is in the gospel, not the preacher. Amen. But if the gospel preached aint the gospel, then we need a better one.
'Better gospel?' you ask - how can you improve on the good news?
Well you can't improve on the biblical gospel. But you can darned well improve on the gospel preached by some. Here's a false one I hear around the traps (there are others, but this is the devil I know best):
'God is power. We must submit. Since we don't, God has a plan B. It's a wonderfully clever mechanism called penal substitutionary atonement. For those who profess faith in penal substitutionary atonement (and submit the whole of their lives to God in total self-surrender and who pass on this 'gospel' and persevere to the bitter end), then... well... they will avoid hell. Probably.'
Lord save us from well illustrated and applied, passionate, persuasive and prayerful preaching of this 'gospel'. Remember that the evangelism of the Pharisees made converts twice as much sons of hell as they were. (Matt 23:15)
What a thought! The perversion of a false gospel is multiplied in those it converts. Preachers - don't work on your preaching, work on your gospel.
.
This lunchtime (1245 in the UK) William Lane Craig will give a lecture entitled "The Evidence for God." You can watch it live here. His other engagements in the UK are listed here.
UPDATE: Apparently the video will be here in the next few days. In the end I didn't get to hear more than 5 minutes of it since I was called away. Another time!
I will be very interested to watch and I know I will learn plenty.
Just for the record I still hold these six convictions regarding what has already happened between God and man. In my opinion we must not argue as though these things have not happened - because their happening is the Gospel which we claim to stand on:
These convictions have implications for how we do apologetics. Read more here.
Recently a man came to the prayer centre where I work in great turmoil. He said “I invited Jesus into my heart 10 years ago and I think I meant it and I think I felt His presence. But I don’t feel His presence any more. I think I’ve finally quenched the Spirit through my sins and now He’s left me.”
The guy seemed to know his bible very well. So I said “Can you think of a single verse that ever talks about 'inviting Jesus into your heart'?”
He thought and said “No, I suppose it’s not in the bible.” I said, "But you know what is in the bible...?" We spoke of the High Priest’s clothing in Exodus 28 and 29.
"Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel in the order of their birth--six names on one stone and the remaining six on the other. Engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal. Then mount the stones in gold filigree settings and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the LORD...."Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the LORD. (Exodus 28:9-29)
"Here's the bottom line" I said “Christ, your High Priest has you on His heart. My feelings go up and down. Christ stays up – all the time. And you’ll only feel Him in your heart (sporadically) when you know you’re on His heart, forever."
The centre of the Christian life is not your personal relationship with God. The centre of the Christian life is Christ’s personal relationship with God. But the good news is - Christ includes you in His communion.
