Inoculated to Jesus?

“The hardest thing is not convincing people they’re saved; the hardest thing is convincing people they’re lost.”

-John Piper

Preaching to Heart Part II: Watching Pastor Paul at Colossae

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you…” Colossians 2:1

There is a great struggle spoken of in this passage.  Pastor Paul writes of it to these believers.  It is a great struggle he has for the church at Colossae and for the believers at Laodicea.  He must be struggling inwardly.  Paul was a man of the heart.  His messages emitted naturally from a newborn heart–a heart suffering for the sake of the church, a heart filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.  His is a heart that received from God a certain calling.  He is as he said earlier, “a minister.”  What is the main focus of his ministry?

“And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which you has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Colossians 1:21-23

Here we see that Paul ministers to God’s people for their sanctification.  God is working through Christ to present his people “holy,” “blameless,” and “above reproach” before him.  The main end of the minister’s work, therefore, is help God’s people reach these fruits of sanctification–holiness and blamelessness.  If the minister is not aiming for this, what is he doing?  He is not following the lead of Pastor Paul; and likewise, what Bible is leading him?

More particulary, we see that Paul exhorts the people toward these fruits by way of  three qualities–faithfulness, stability, and steadfastness.  If a minister is not exhorting his people to these three qualities, what is he doing? He is not following the lead of Pastor Paul.

But this is made even more particular.  Look at what the people are told to be faithful to, stable in, and steadfast for:

“not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which you has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” v. 23

This clearly demonstrates the way for a people to be holy, the way for a people to be blameless.  The way for a people truly to be God’s people is found in their faithfulness to the gospel, their stability in the gospel, and their steadfastness for the gospel.  Paul says at the end of this verse that he was made a minister of that gospel.  If we say we are ministers of the gospel, are we even preaching it?  If we are not preaching the gospel, we are not ministers of it.  Indeed, we cease to be ministers of anything the Bible has any knowledge of.  We have fallen from our ministership.

Paul says a little later that he is suffering for the church because “[he] became a minister [to it]” (1:24-25).  He then clearly acknowledges the nature of that ministry.  It is a “stewardship from God given to him for [the church]” (1:25).  The minister who calls the ministry his own with no heart-felt knowledge of the stewardship of it, ceases to be the minister the Bible speaks of.  He is a selfish man, building a kingdom, not God’s, but rather his own.

Stewardship signifies reception. If God has called you to this ministry of the gospel, why is there no reception?  You spurn the calling of the Lord, like some disobedient Jonah.  Away to Tarshish, yet God will find you!  A giant fish awaits the called runner. But Paul did not run.  It says in Acts 26:14 that upon the call from the Lord, he had “fallen on the ground.”

Stewardship signifies holding.  The minister of the gospel holds something that is not his own.  He has had something “entrusted” to him (See 1 Timothy 1:11).  It is not his own, yet why do some ministers act as though they invented the gospel?

 ”Man never could nor would have invented and devised a gospel which would lay him low, and secure to the Lord God all the honor and praise.” -C.H. Spurgeon

If any man has forgotten the nature of the gospel as here explained by Mr. Spurgeon, what is he preaching?  The end of the preaching of the gospel is the glory and praise of the Lord God, not the praises of men to the minister.

Stewardship also signifies selflessness.  “the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.”  It is not given by God for the ministers own personal parading prideful pulpiteering!  God has given the minister the stewardship for the sake of others.  Pastor Paul understood that he was given the ministry for the church, not himself.

Stewardship also signfies faithfulness. “…to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”  Paul refused to do the ministry half-heartedly.  He declared the whole counsel of God!  He made it fully known! This is the faithfulness of the minister.  He knows his mission, and he does it, fully. What mystery has been made known to us! Yet we preach some other thing as though there is no mystery and all people knew of it.  Don’t ever assume your people already know the mystery; and don’t ever think they know it well enough.

“Never be content with your grasp of the gospel. The gospel is life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth. It has more facets than any diamond. Its depths man will never exhaust.” - C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life

The minister of God also has one proclamation for his people.  “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (1:27-28)

What message do we preach?  Is it Christ and him crucified? For Paul would know of nothing else! (See 1 Corinthians 2:1)  What goofy, moralizing, cream-puff exhortations fill the pulpits of men who preach something other than Christ!  They want growth of church, but they forgot the seed–the gospel!  People may have ears for moralistic exhortation, but their hearts will be far from Christ and closer to their own self-righteousness.  “Stop complaining” is no sermon content!  Even the pagans don’t like complainers.  God’s people will stop complaining when they understand the gospel, when they see that the rock guiding them in the desert is Christ (See 1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

The minister of God also has one process for his people. “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom.”  The only wisdom Paul knows of he gets from Scripture.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding” (Psalm 111:10).  Also, Paul knows that his Lord is a truine Lord.  He goes on to say, “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3).  If a minister wants wise and knoweledgable people with good understanding his process should be to warn them and teach them with this wisdom; that is with this Christ.

The minister of God also has one purpose for his people.  “that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”  That is the purpose the minister of God has for others–their maturity in Christ.  For indeed, he must present them before God!  Will they be mature in Christ?  But yes, they will with God’s help.

The minister of God also has one power for his people.  “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (1:29).  The minister of God knows that two very difficult truths exist together.

1.) I must work, toil, and struggle. (This is our responsibility.)

2.) God gives the strength to endure that toil and struggle. (This is his sovereignty.)

And so, this was the struggle Paul had within him for the church.  He wanted to declare to them the riches of Christ for their joy and God’s glory.  What else is the minister to do?

Working with you to preach to the heart,

Vince R.

The Power of the Cross

A powerful video with one of my favorite modern hymns, The Power of the Cross by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty.

Not What My Hands Have Done

I just wept as I pondered the truths of this hymn; he died for me.  He became a curse! What else is there to preach?

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

-Horatius Bonar, Not What My Hands Have Done

100% Gospel: Jonathan Dodson on “Gospel and Method”

Jonathan Dodson contributed to The Resurgence web blog with these two articles.  I had a verbal “wow” when I read them.  Check out both parts.  I have provided excerpts from both.  Think hard especially about part II.  It is there that I was even more convinced of this simple equation: Preach Word -> Church Growth.

Part I

“Perhaps we need to be debating the strength of the gospel that is being preached, taught, shared, and shown in our churches. Are we incarnating and attracting people to a diluted gospel or a strong gospel? Are we incarnating kitsch gospel or kerygmatic gospel? In the end, what are we calling people to? Is our gospel both missional and communal or inward and individualistic? If it’s the latter, then something is wrong with our gospel. What would happen if we stopped debating methods and started debating gospel—winsomely and charitably?”

Part II

“Each concoction of the 50/50 gospel is actually quite dangerous. They all produce churches that attract people to morality messages, missional activities, and communal experiences. The goal of the church is reduced to converting people to a better way of living, not to a better God to be believing.“

Working with you for the gospel method,

Vince R.

All of Grace and None of Us

When we turn the gospel into a message expressing our worth and proclaim it as a message all about us, we can sing with many fuzzy feelings words that say Christ was crucified thinking ”of me above all.”  We should be uncomfortable with such words because in singing them we imply that God is not concerned with his glory.  In becoming comfortable with such an idea, we will begin to manifest our own glory because of our obedience rather than Christ’s and our worth rather than Christ’s.

I often hear the old cliche:  ”If you or I or he or she was the only person on earth, Christ would have died just for that person.”  Though I appreciate the sentiment, the person who says this has exalted a man.  Rather, if I take that phrase and turn it on its head to make it biblical, then we can add, “and that proves that your sins alone were wicked and black enough to call for the death of an innocent lamb.”  We do not constrain God to save us by our inherent worth.  Rather, he chose to save unworthy rebellious creature like us because of his free and sovereign grace.  As Charles Spurgeon put it, it is ‘All of Grace.’  And understanding this puts the amazing back into grace!

The gospel is not about us; it is about the glory of God.  God did not save us for and because of  us. He saved us for and because of him.  But in this truth, we find all our calling, all our joy, and all our purpose found complete: to glorify God and enjoy him forever.  There is no other point of salvation but God and God alone. Indeed, the cross was the ultimate expression of God’s love, but it was also an expression of so many more aspects of his character.  There, on that hill, we see God’s holiness, justice, righteousness, wrath, glory, mercy, grace, and patience.  The cross of Calvary brings all of God’s attributes into clear focus, for it is there that we find the apex of God’s redemptive work to make himself all in all for his glory and our joy.

Working with you for your complete joy in All of Grace,

Vince R.

The Cardinal Tenants: Luther’s Gospel-Stance

Here I Stand!

After Martin Luther wrestled with Romans 1:16-17, he came to realize that “the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith.”  It was at this divine illumination that he felt himself “to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.”

This changed Luther’s understanding of Scripture.  “The whole of Scripture took on new meaning,” he said.  Hence, we turn to his lectures at the University at Wittenberg. After this divine illumination of Scripture, he began to lecture on the Psalms and Romans from 1513-1516.  He had not yet posted his Ninety-Five Theses, but he would soon get to that.  Note what Luther biographer, Roland H. Bainton, has to say of these lectures:

“The center about which all the petals clustered was the affirmation of the forgiveness of sins through the utterly unmerited grace of God made possible by the cross of Christ, which reconciled wrath and mercy, routed the hosts of hell, triumphed over sin and death, and by the resurrection manifested that power which enables man to die to sin and rise to newness of life.  This was of course the theology of Paul heightened, intensified, and clarified.  Beyond these cardinal tenants Luther was never to go.”-Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, p. 51.

I find in Martin Luther a man worth imitating in a lot of ways (most definitely not in every way! yikes!), but here, I find his refusal to move on from the gospel the one way I want to imitate him the most.  Luther was transformed by the gospel, and so he could not recant. “I Cannot… I will not recant…Here I Stand!” said he at the Diet of Worms.  The gospel is the centerpiece of our lectures, our sermons, our teachings, and most definitely, our lives.  If it’s not, has it transformed us? Let us examine this in us.  Beyond the cardinal tenants of this message, never go!

Working with you to keep the cardinal tenants at the center,

Vince R.

Distinguishing Biblical Counseling from Other Methods…

Dr. David Powlison discusses defective counseling.

One Major Tenant of Biblical Counseling…

Preach Repentance…yup.

A Feeble Attempt at Humility: A Loss of the Gospel

Christ humbly washing his disciples feet

“God honored His trust and did all for Him, and then exalted Him to His own right hand in glory.  And because Christ humbled himself before God, and God was ever before Him, He found it possible to humble himself before men, too, and to be the Servant of all.  His humility was simply the surrender of himself to God, to allow Him to do in Him what He pleased, regardless of what men might say of Him or do to Him.” -Andrew Murray, Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness, 33.

This morning I read out of Andrew Murray’s book, and I was particularly astounded at this section.  I had a verbal “wow” as I read it.  I find in today’s Christianity a tendency to make the gospel man-centered rather than God-centered.  I find it in my heart so many times.  We take the grace right out of salvation and treat the work of the gospel as exactly that–work.

Here’s what I mean.  Let’s take a passage of Scripture that is often thrown around in evangelicalism to promote service and humility before men.  Philippians 2:3-11 says this:

“Do nothing from rivalry and conceit, but in humility count other more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We often focus on one aspect of this verse. We focus on Christus Exemplar, that is, “Christ the Example.”  We focus on how Jesus is the perfect example on how to act toward our fellow man.  Look again at this part here that says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

What we do here is we automatically turn this  into an order for service and humility apart from the gospel message itself.  This is a result of man-centered Christianity that says the gospel is all about us.  The misinterpretation comes when we see Jesus Christ’s first advent as that which is specifically about us.  We have been taught that Jesus Christ died for me because of me.  This is not the biblical teaching.  Rather, the gospel is primarily and wholly about the confession of Jesus Christ the Son in mind, heart, and will to “the glory of God the Father.”

When any man confesses (and a true confession must come from the heart or it is false, see Romans 10:8-11), “Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God,” we must note that Jesus himself attributes it to the grace and glory of God.  After Simon Peter makes this same foundational confession on which the Church of God is built, Jesus answers him with that very understanding:  “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is heaven.” (See Matthew 16:15-18)

Jesus completely attributes the gospel-changed believer to the will and work of his Father in heaven.  So let us ask: why are we saved at all?

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in [Christ], were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

This passage attributes our salvation’s end to the glory of Christ, but we also see something else is true when we read this passage in 1 Corinthians 15:27-28:

“For ‘God has put all things in subjection under [the Son's] feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under [the Son].  When all things are subjected to [the Son], then the Son himself will also be subjected to [the Father] who put all things in subjection under [the Son], that God may be all in all.”

We see that God the Father is working to place all things under the feet of Christ.  But this does not mean that God the Son will have God the Father under him, too.  “It is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him.”  Rather, the Son himself will also be subjected to the Father in that day.  For what reason?  “That God may be all in all.”

Clearly, we see that God the Father is given the glory for all that he does for the Son, and we see also that God the Son submits to God the Father.  Look at the way Jesus spoke when we was on the earth:

“The Son can do nothing of his own accord…” John 5:19

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 5:30

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 6:38

“My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” John 7:16

“But I have not come of my own accord.” John 7:28

“I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” John 8:28

“I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.” John 8:42

“Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ” John 8:50

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” John 14:10

In all of these passages, we see that in the life and teaching of Christ, he was in total submission to God the Father.  But I do not have to go outside of Philippians 2 to show you that.  Look at what it says:

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:6-11

To whom was the Son “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”? The answer is obviously God the Father.  Why did God the Father highly exalt him?  Was it because Jesus was being humble before men?  The answer is obviously no because we have seen that Jesus was humble before God the Father!  Who gets the glory for Jesus’ perfect humble work?  It is done to the “the glory of God the Father.”

Now, if we view Philippians 2:3-11 as a call to just be humble toward man for the sake of man’s good we have placed obedience to the gospel at the center.  We have said that our highest focus is not what God has done in Christ.  We have said that our highest focus is what we do!  How shamefully man-centered!

A proper reading of this text must be read with gospel-lenses.  Christ was completely humble to his Father in heaven.  As a result, he could say that he practiced what he preached, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).  If we look at the context of that verse we that it speaks of a justified sinner, whose conscious and panging shame over his sin caused him to beat his breast and look to God for mercy.  The man who is justified humbles himself before God because a man who humbles himself before God knows that God is his only way for salvation.  Jesus Christ’s perfect humility fell in line with his own teaching (a proper understanding of Christus Exemplar), but it also enabled him to pray with confidence to his Father, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:4-5).

Obedience to God comes from humility before God.  Disobedience to God comes from pride before God.  I have said it many times: Pride is the root of all evil.

Jesus was highly exalted because he was humble on earth, not before men but before his Father in heaven.  “Are you saying that we shouldn’t be humble before men?” asks one.  If you have to ask then perhaps you don’t understand the gospel yet.  Paul said in Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Paul’s call for humility finds its root directly in the humility of Christ before his Father.  Our obedience is both humbled and exalted because of the perfect obedience of Christ.

When we make the gospel a message expressing our worth and a message all about us, we can sing with many fuzzy feelings words that say Christ was crucified thinking ”of me above all.”  We should be uncomfortable with such words because in singing them we imply that God is not concerned with his glory.  In becoming comfortable with such an ide, we will begin to manifest our own glory because of our obedience rather than Christ’s.  Our obedience to Philippians 2:3-4, then, becomes our feeble attempts to conjure some kind of humble demeanor toward our fellow men.  Friends, our humble demeanor is a false one if we are not humble first and foremost before God.  A humble and contrite heart, God will not despise this.

Working with you to be humble before God,

Vince R.