We're discussing Proverbs at Bish's blog. I've written some longish comments.
Here's an old sermon I preached on Proverbs to some Christians and non-Christians. Audio here.
Category: sermons
Luther v Cranmer on Lord's Supper
Given discussion about Lutheran influence on the UK, here's a Thawsday repost...
John Richardson (whose excellent blog is here) adds his voice to this discussion on Stand Firm in Faith. He writes about the place of repentance in the communion service. It chimes with a lot of what I wrote here:
I have long felt Anglicanism (specifically Thomas Cranmer) to be good at driving us to our knees in repentance, but not so good at letting us get up again.
In regard to this, I would point out the contrast between what the Book of Common Prayer says about our preparation to receive Holy Communion and what Luther said. The Exhortation in the BCP says in effect that if we are to receive Communion worthily we must first put ourselves right with God.
Contrast this with Luther. First, he says, “There must be faith to make the reception worthy and acceptable before God, otherwise it is nothing but sham and a mere external show.”
And what is this faith? It is “a firm trust that Christ, the Son of God, stands in our place and has taken all our sins upon his shoulders and that he is the eternal satisfaction for our sin and reconciles us with God the Father.”
But what does this mean for our ‘worthiness’? “This food demands a hungering and longing man, for it delights to enter a hungry soul, which is constantly battling with its sins and eager to be rid of them.”
Therefore those with the right faith are those, “who suffer tribulation, physical or spiritual ... spiritually through despair of conscience, outwardly or inwardly, when the devil causes your heart to be weak, timid, and discouraged, so that you do not know how you stand with God, and when he casts your sins into your face.” (emphasis added)
I don’t think the BCP reflects this. Rather, the BCP urges communicants first: “search and examine your own consciences ... that ye may come holy and clean to such a heavenly Feast, in the marriage-garment required by God in holy Scripture, and be received as worthy partakers of that holy Table” and so, “examine your lives and conversations by the rule of God’s commandments; and whereinsoever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended, either by will, word, or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life” (emphasis added).
The Anglican way is ‘be cleansed, then come’. The Lutheran way is ‘come and be cleansed’.
Here's a 'come and be cleansed' type sermon I preached called Eating with Jesus (listen here).
.
Luther v Cranmer on Lord’s Supper
Given discussion about Lutheran influence on the UK, here's a Thawsday repost...
John Richardson (whose excellent blog is here) adds his voice to this discussion on Stand Firm in Faith. He writes about the place of repentance in the communion service. It chimes with a lot of what I wrote here:
I have long felt Anglicanism (specifically Thomas Cranmer) to be good at driving us to our knees in repentance, but not so good at letting us get up again.
In regard to this, I would point out the contrast between what the Book of Common Prayer says about our preparation to receive Holy Communion and what Luther said. The Exhortation in the BCP says in effect that if we are to receive Communion worthily we must first put ourselves right with God.
Contrast this with Luther. First, he says, “There must be faith to make the reception worthy and acceptable before God, otherwise it is nothing but sham and a mere external show.”
And what is this faith? It is “a firm trust that Christ, the Son of God, stands in our place and has taken all our sins upon his shoulders and that he is the eternal satisfaction for our sin and reconciles us with God the Father.”
But what does this mean for our ‘worthiness’? “This food demands a hungering and longing man, for it delights to enter a hungry soul, which is constantly battling with its sins and eager to be rid of them.”
Therefore those with the right faith are those, “who suffer tribulation, physical or spiritual ... spiritually through despair of conscience, outwardly or inwardly, when the devil causes your heart to be weak, timid, and discouraged, so that you do not know how you stand with God, and when he casts your sins into your face.” (emphasis added)
I don’t think the BCP reflects this. Rather, the BCP urges communicants first: “search and examine your own consciences ... that ye may come holy and clean to such a heavenly Feast, in the marriage-garment required by God in holy Scripture, and be received as worthy partakers of that holy Table” and so, “examine your lives and conversations by the rule of God’s commandments; and whereinsoever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended, either by will, word, or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life” (emphasis added).
The Anglican way is ‘be cleansed, then come’. The Lutheran way is ‘come and be cleansed’.
Here's a 'come and be cleansed' type sermon I preached called Eating with Jesus (listen here).
.
The New Birth
My great friend (and regular commenter here) Will Mackerras recently preached a cracker at Farm Fellowship (where Paul Blackham ministers).
Do we really believe that a person in Christ will naturally and organically produce righteous fruit - just as someone in Adam will naturally and organically produce wicked fruit? Do we have a proper understanding of our new nature? And of what will flow from it?
Will gets Rom 2:14 absolutely right to say yes. Even Gentile believers will do by nature the things required by the law, because they are born again - they have a new heart of flesh (Jer 31:33-34).
Then he discusses how to be born again. We do not contribute to the new birth. We are born again by faith (John 1:12). Will has a wonderful analogy for how Jesus does not dispense the new birth.
He asks us to imagine a super hero called Super Doctor. Super Doctor has the power to cure people of their sickness at will and even from distance. But Super Doctor's one weakness is that he hates spending time with sick people. So he hatches a plan. He decides that he'll wait until people come into his waiting room and then as soon as they walk through his office door he'll magically heal them so that they won't get any germs on him.
But then he thinks they won't be very grateful for this because they'll think they effected the cure by walking through the door. So instead he just magically zaps sick people in the community at random and trusts that eventually they'll figure out what's happened to them and turn up in his surgery to say thanks.
Of course both these scenarios are very different to Jesus' healing methods. Sick people come to Jesus just as they are. It's precisely the sick people who do come to Jesus - leperous warts and all. (Mark 2:17) 'If you are willing you can make me clean' said the unclean man to the Holy Lord of Israel. (Matt 8:2). Jesus heals the way He saves. He encounters people in their unregenerate sinful mess and through the encounter He changes them.
One implication of this for preachers is that we should be far more invitational. We call on people to turn to Christ just as they are. They don't need to clean themselves up but simply call on Christ even in their sins and love of darkness.
I spent some great time with Will a few weeks ago discussing how we love to hear invitational preaching. It is of the essence of the gospel to call on sinners to come to Christ right there and then as the sinners that they are. May our preaching reflect this precious gospel truth.
The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Rev 22:17)
1. Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidst me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.2. Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.3. Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.4. Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
sight, riches, healing of the mind,
yea, all I need in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.5. Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.6. Just as I am, thy love unknown
hath broken every barrier down;
now, to be thine, yea thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Listen to the sermon here (unfortunately it misses the last few minutes).
.
Dan Allender – The Psychology of a Pooped Pastor
The Wounded Heart is my favourite Dan Allender resource. (see previous post). But here's one that's $95 cheaper (i.e. free). A talk entitled The Psychology of a Pooped Pastor
His main point is that the problem is not Pooped Pastors but Pissed Pastors. (By the way Mum, by pissed he means angry - it's an American thing).
It's not underlying tiredness but underlying anger that's the problem. Very interesting!
.
1 Corinthians 13 sermon
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?
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...
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.
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
Matthew 5:38-48 - Revenge and Love
Matthew 6:10 - Your kingdom come
Matthew 6:13 - Deliver us from the evil one
Matthew 7:1-7 - Judging others
... More to come...
Other topical talks focussing particularly on the Sermon on the Mount.
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.
.
.
Evangelistic talk for youth
Stef Liston preaching to youth in an evangelistic meeting last month. It was part of Bible by the Beach 2009.
It was an absolute pleasure to be there. I'm glad I stumbled on the blog link this week given I'm blogging on preaching. This is a great example of holding out the word of life.
It's called "One kind of God, three kinds of people." (No it's not on the trinity.) He begins by demolishing all other gods than the Christian God.
There is no other message than the Christian message.
Every other 'message' is not a message at all. Ultimately, if you get beneath the jargon into the content, every religion says this: Try harder... Do better. Come on. If you just... If you just... If you just... then maybe. If you just, then who knows. If you just, then you could be in it.
Christianity is completely different. It's a declaration of what's been done.
The good news is 'It is finished'. It has been done. Now you just come into what has been done for you.
Then he gives the gospel as the vicarious life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. (And yes he used the word vicarious, repeatedly. Unashamedly. Glorious!)
Then he goes on to talk about Luke 15 - the lost sons. He talks about three kinds of people.
First there's the naughty sinner. Second there's the nice sinner. Different temperaments, both as lost, both as far from God.
If your Christianity consists of reading your bible, praying and not swearing that is as foreign to Christianity as Islam.
You need to be a category three person: You must be born again.
What is the stance of the person who is born again? It's not kneeling. It's standing in the Father's embrace.
Throw yourself into His arms.
.
Can I eat this kebab?
That's the question Paul is answering from 1 Corinthians 8-10.
If you ate meat in Corinth, chances are it had already been used in ritual sacrifice to a false god. So the question among the Corinthian Christians was ‘Can I eat this kebab?’
It's a question that goes to the heart of the issue - How much of non-Christian culture can I participate in? Can I eat this food? In this religious and cultural context? In this time and place? At this temple? During this festival? With these people?
At every time and in every place the church needs to address this issue - What should be the Christian's attitude to non-Christian culture?
In Corinth those with a weak conscience could not eat without thinking of the idolatry involved in producing it. Those with a strong conscience thought ‘It’s not demon meat, it’s just a kebab, God owns everything, we’re free in Christ, tuck in.’
The strong write to Paul and say 'We have the right don't we? We can eat can't we?'
Paul's answer in chapter 8 is 'Yes you have the right, but that doesn't mean you should. You should worry about the weak.'
In chapter 9 Paul goes back to first principles and demonstrates that generally the Christian thing to do with your rights is relinquish them.
Then in chapter 10 Paul returns to the kebab question. This time he says 'Yes you have the right. But that doesn't mean you should. You should worry about yourselves.'
Paul is so worried about the strongs' insistence on rights that he wonders whether they're even Christians at all. Maybe they're just like the faithless generation in the wilderness, claiming the privileges of God's people but with hearts set on evil.
That's the shocking challenge of chapter 10.
Listen to the sermon here.
.
Ascension sermon – Dev Menon
It should become an annual Ascension Day practice to listen to Dev's incredible sermon.
Sit back and enjoy. You've never heard anything quite like it. Unless you know Dev!
.