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Published on Leave a comment on The fruit of the Spirit as works of the flesh

For years I prayed for the fruit of the Spirit every day.  (Galatians 5:22f)  Yet, looking back, I prayed for the fruit in an altogether fleshly way.

How so?  Well basically my prayers were petitions for the moral character of ‘love, joy, peace...' as abstract qualities. I would judge my own spiritual walk that week by how loving, joyful, peaceful... I had been. In short I had turned the fruit of the Spirit into a check-list of works which I either did or didn't practice that week.

One morning, as I was praying for the fruit, I got an image of the Spirit coming to my door with a huge basket laden with choice fruits.  And my response was to say ‘Thanks for bringing the fruit.  Just leave them inside the door and I'll see you later!'

I wanted the fruit not the Spirit.  I wanted the fruit apart from the Spirit.  Yet the fruit is fruit of the Spirit. It grows organically from a relationship with Him.  Henceforward I prayed for the Spirit Himself.

How quickly we turn gospel into law.
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Published on Leave a comment on Eat Dirt Man Eater!

Satan must eat dust all his days (Gen 3:14)

Man is dust (Gen 3:19)

Satan is a maneater (1 Pet 5:8)

Yet Christ will join man to crush the maneater (Gen 3:15)

He does this by being Man eaten (John 6:51)

Only in this way does He swallow His enemies (1 Cor 15:54)

Those who don't eat (with) Christ get eaten (Rev 19:18)

Those who eat Christ join Him in crushing the maneater (Rom 16:20)

In this way Christ humbles Himself in order to be exalted (Luke 14:11)

Meanwhile Satan, who exalted himself will be humbled (Ezek 28:11-19)

Eating dust is the lot of the defeated enemy (Ps 72:9)

And Satan will eat dirt all the days of his life (Micah 7:17; Rev 20:10)

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So eat dirt man eater!  There's one Man you couldn't swallow.  He's swallowed you.  Our food will be the Man eaten.  And you will eat dirt forever.

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Published on 17 Comments on 1 Corinthians 13 sermon

bubblebath

Sermon Audio Click Here

How do you think of 1 Corinthians 13?  Is it a warm, relaxing bubble bath?  Does it make you forget your cares and give you the warm fuzzies?

antiseptic

I'm here to tell you, this chapter is not a bubble bath.  It’s a scalding hot bath full of antiseptic!

And we are covered in cuts and bruises and deep wounds.  And 1 Corinthians 13 hurts.  It hurts!

That’s the kind of wake-up call Paul wanted the Cornithians to have.  No Corinthian read this chapter and thought, ‘How sweet!.  They thought ‘Yikes!  I am in deep, deep trouble here.’

There are three paragraphs in this chapter.  Paragraph 1 will put the fear of God into us, paragraph 2 will make us despair of ourselves, but only then will paragraph 3 give us some hope.

There’s hope in the end, but Paul wants us to soak long and hard in some painful truths.

Listen here.  Or keep reading...

...continue reading "1 Corinthians 13 sermon"

Published on Leave a comment on The context is key. The context is mission.

In preaching through 1 Corinthians recently I listened to a lot of sermons on chapters 9 and 10.   Two themes in particular were hammered home by preachers. 

In chapter 9 there's the olympic training regimes (v24-27).  In chapter 10 there's 'glorifying God' in all circumstances (v31).  But so often the context of these verses is ignored.

So in chapter 9 we read this:

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

That'll preach won't it?  Go into strict training people!  There's a medal held out.  Be an Olympian Christian.

And what did all these sermons mean by being an Olympian Christian?  Personal holiness.  Devotional disciplines.  You know the drill.

But what is the context?  Verses 19-23 - becoming all things to all men so that by all possible means we may save some.  It's a missionary context.  Beating our bodies and going into strict training is a description of how we order our lives with evangelistic priorities.  This Olympian spirituality is an outwardly focussed determination to move out into the world for the salvation of others.  That's quite a different sermon.

In chapter 10 we have that famous verse:

31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

What does this mean?  How would it look like lived out?  Well if you listen to these sermons it's mainly about personal holiness.  Devotional disciplines.  You know the drill.

But again, what is the context?  It's eating and drinking in the context of food sacrificed to idols.  The context is a world full of unChristian and anti-Christian cultures and practices which, nonetheless, the Christian is compelled to engage.  And so verse 33 says:

I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

It's about adapting all things, even eating and drinking, to the end that Jews, Greeks and the church of God is built up (v32).  Effectively verse 33 explains verse 31.  Doing all for the glory of God means doing all for the good of many, so that they may be saved.  This makes sense of the 'glory of God' which is not a static quality but an outgoing salvific movement. 

To have your life ordered by God's glory is not simply to do your daily devotions - it's to live in outgoing invitation for the salvation of others.  Verse 31 is not some abstract call to look pious at all times.  We know what 10:31 looks like - it looks like Paul's ministry.  It looks like 9:19-23.  It looks like the missionary determination to become all things to all men that some may be saved. 

So please, keep the context in mind.  And remember, the context is mission.

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Published on Leave a comment on Paul Blackham on the Sermon on the Mount

Having thought a bit about preaching this week, here is the preacher who has helped me see the nature of true preaching more than anyone. 

PaulBlackham

 

Here Blackham is at his best unpacking the Sermon on the Mount at Tarleton Farm Fellowship.  (Also see the "Other Sermons" tab above for some brilliant All Souls sermons from him).

 

Matthew 5:1-12 - Blessed are the Spiritually Rubbish

Matthew 5:13-20 - Making a difference

Matthe 5:21-26 - Violence 

Matthew 5:27-32 - Sex

Matthew 5:33-37 - Truth

Matthew 5:38-48 - Revenge and Love

Matthew 6:1-4 - Generosity

Matthew 6:5-8 - Secret prayer

Matthew 6:10 - Your kingdom come

 Matthew 6:11 - Daily Bread

Matthew 6:13 - Deliver us from the evil one

Matthew 6:16-18 - Fasting

 

Matthew 7:1-7 - Judging others

 ... More to come...

 

Other topical talks focussing particularly on the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus and Money

Jesus and Power

Jesus and Sex

Jesus and Violence

 

More talks from Tarleton Fellowship (including sermons covering most of John and Acts)

 

Three favourites from the above are Jesus and Money, Matthew 5:27-32 - Sex and Matthew 6:13 - Deliver us from the evil one.

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Published on 2 Comments on A theology of preaching – part 6 (final part)

Christ must be proclaimed biblically.

Nothing has been said yet about the character of the preacher.  This has been deliberate.  It’s not the character of the preacher but the character of the word that is determinative.  It’s not ultimately the skills, gifts or even godliness of the preacher that will bring the word home to hearers.  The Second Helvetic Confession continues its article on preaching by saying...

... the Word itself which is preached is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches; for even if he be evil and a sinner, nevertheless the Word of God remains still true and good.

Whatever we say about the character, gifting or expertise of the preacher it must begin with these immovable indicatives.  The preacher is, first, recipient (and a thoroughly unworthy recipient) of God’s overflowing revelation.  We gratefully hear this word, knowing its divine source and character.  Preachers though find themselves carried along in the same movement to testify to this same Word that holds them captive. 

Thus the preacher is never a person capable of preaching.  Really the true mark of the preacher is that they are incapable of doing otherwise.

 “If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, indeed I cannot.” (Jeremiah 20:9)

 

Conclusion

This paper has sought to provide an answer to the ‘How can?’ of preaching.  Hopefully, along the way, some of the ‘How to?’ has been addressed as well.  Yet, in the end, a true understanding of preaching should always propel us to the most urgent question: ‘How can we not?’ 

“I am compelled to preach.  Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16);

“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak.” (2 Cor 4:13)

“The love of Christ controls us …  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us…  (2 Cor 5:14-21)

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The whole paper is here.

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Published on Leave a comment on I wish I never sinned

"I wish I never sinned" said the Israelite at the head of the queue.

The others waiting to make their sacrifices nodded.

The priest narrowed his gaze.  "Why do you wish you never sinned?"

The Israelite was amazed that the priest would ask.  The answer was so obvious it hardly needed saying.  "So I don't have to keep returning to this altar."

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Published on Leave a comment on A theology of preaching – part 5

Christ must be proclaimed biblically

Hopefully it is not a new thought that Christ is the Word of God.  Perhaps, though, it is a new thought to consider preaching as the word of God.  Therefore some may wonder whether we have lost the vital importance of Scripture as the word of God.

Absolutely not.  Without Scripture we have no Christ.  Without Scripture we have no preaching.  Yet here is the irony. When the preacher is viewed simply as ‘explainer and applier’ of God’s word (the bible), this results in a lower view of Scripture.

If preaching is simply explanation and application of the bible then it’s difficult to avoid the impression that the Bible stands in need of our interpretive and psychological expertise: the Bible needs explaining as an obscure text and it needs applying as a distant text.  On this understanding preaching either doubts or dilutes the authority of the Bible.  It doubts it if the preacher ‘comes between’ word and congregation as the word’s helper.  It dilutes it if the preacher ‘comes between’ simply to pass on Scriptural information.  In either case we are left with this question:  Why should the preacher even attempt to offer words in addition to the written word?  If, as the reformers contended so fiercely, the Bible is perspicuous, why should the preacher take up thirty minutes of the service but the Bible reading only three?  If all that can be called ‘word of God’ exists in the Scriptures alone, how do we dare to embellish with our own blessed thoughts?

Here is the problem: if the preacher is reduced to a bible-expert we inadvertently reduce the bible to a difficult text.  And simultaneously the preacher is raised up to stand in the gap.  The ‘scholarly’ among us will dissect and expose the text with expert exposition.  The ‘dynamic’ among us will ‘enliven’ the Word with rhetorical flair, persuasive apologetics and well-aimed application.  However, in either case, whether as explainers or appliers, preachers become essential aids for a word that seems less than ‘living and active.’

In all this we communicate the idea that the bible is actually obscure, boring, weak, vague and disjointed.  So then the preacher’s task is making the obscure clear; making the ancient relevant; enlivening the dead letter; making pointed application where we find the bible too vague and providing cohesion to the disjoined Scriptures – bringing things back to ‘the gospel’ or ‘the kingdom’ or ‘the cross’ etc.  Yet the bible is already perspicuous, already living and active, already a persuasive word, already a pointed (application-making) address, already a witness to Christ. 

Perhaps the greatest need for preachers today is to understand the significance of this ‘already.’ 

We think of the bible as an obscure and distant text given to the individual believer for the sake of their personal morality. On this understanding the preacher comes along merely to strengthen Scriptural admonishments to piety.  Yet the bible was not given for the prayer closet but the pulpit.  The Scriptures are the Spirit’s living testimony to the Son, addressed to the church and intended for proclamation to the world. 

What then is the role of the preacher?  We don’t ‘stand in the gap’.  We stand in a stream.  We don’t draw out the living waters.  The Scriptures overflow.  Already the written word has this out-going character.  God’s word cannot be chained (2 Tim 2:9).  Preaching is simply the expression of the Scriptures’ own uncontainable witness.

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