Today's Biblical Preacher: A Servant

“Preachers are specially exposed to the danger of flattery. I fear the whole frame of mind in which some Christian people go to church is wrong. They do not go to worship God or hear God’s Word. They go to hear a man. So it is not the message to which they listen, but as if they relished some tasty morsel in their mouths. They say afterwards how much they enjoyed or did not enjoy it. But sermons are not intended to be ‘enjoyed.’ Their purpose is to give profit to the hearers, not pleasure. Sermons are not artistic creations to be critically evaluated for their form. They are ‘tools, and not works of art.’ A sermon is never an end in itself, but a means to an end, the end being ‘saving souls’… What matters, therefore is Christ Himself who is proclaimed, and not the men who proclaim Him. To think or act otherwise is not only to usurp God’s glory, but to jeopardize the preacher’s whole ministry, brinigng it first into discredit and finally to ruin.”

John Stott, Biblical Preaching Today, quoting Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching.

A Passion for Christ!

“Our external delights, our earthly pleasures, our ambition and our reputation, our human relationships, for all of these things, our desires are eager, our appetites strong, our love, warm and affectionate. When it comes to these things our hearts are tender and sensitive, deeply impressed, easily moved, much concern and greatly engaged. We are depressed at our losses and we are excited and joyful about any worldly success or prosperity. But when it comes to spiritual matters, how dull we feel. How heavy and hard our hearts. We can sit and hear of the infinite length and height and breadth and love of God in Christ Jesus, of His giving of His infinitely dear Son, and yet sit there cold and unmoved. If we are going to be excited about anything, shouldn’t it be our spiritual lives? Is there anything more inspiring, more exciting, more lovable and desirable in heaven or on earth than the Gospel of Jesus Christ? We should be utterly humbled that we are not more emotionally affected than we are in the church.” Jonathan Edwards

Answers for Today

I am beginning a new series in our morning service on the book of Acts. Over the last few months, I have felt a need to teach and preach on a series related to speaking the gospel to our culture. It is nothing new to any of us to realize our great need to discover meaning in this life. So many have been touched by the economic downturn of our day, have witnessed the futility of our government leaders to provide answers, and have experienced the downsizing of jobs and the plunge of the housing market. What is going on and who has the answers? I believe that the Christian faith can supply those answers. I believe that the hope of our world lies in the message of the gospel. No other religion can provide that hope like Christianity. I was thinking about this hope when I came across a quote from Chuck Colson (How Now Shall We Live?, 136):

“For the secularist, death is like stepping off a cliff into a black abyss of nothingness. The Muslim faces a fearsome judgment, and for many Eastern religions, the prospect is equally grim: After death, the law of karma decrees that people must pay the penalty for what they have done in this life, being reincarnated according to their past deeds. But for the Christian, assured of eternity with the Lord, ‘To die is gain’ (Philippians 1:21).”

A Perspective on Prayer

“Remove relational prayer from the center, and every other kind of prayer goes bad. Worship becomes blasphemy—we reduce God to our errand boy; He’s there to serve us. Thanksgiving becomes a disguised expression of entitlement—we thank God for what we think He really should have given us anyway. Intercession is rooted in self-interest—we plead with God on behalf of family, friends, government, and church leaders with our purposes and comfort in mind. And petitions, even apparently legitimate ones such as loved one’s salvation or a child’s health, are fueled by the energy of a demanding spirit. We hear ourselves presenting reasonable requests to God. He hears us whining like spoiled kids, “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” We have no controlling thought of advancing God’s kingdom or of enjoying our privileged relationship wit the King.”

Larry Crabb, The PAPA Prayer, 33

Two of the Greatest Questions

If you had the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ in person, what questions would you ask Him? Would you ask him about the passing of a love one? Or would you ask Him why He allowed certain things to happen to you in your life? Maybe you have a perplexing question from His Word that you have been unable to resolve? One theological dilemma for me is how to balance election and free will. We should not be afraid to ask these questions that surface from our hearts. While they leave question marks on our soul, they bring us to the point where we become unsatisfied with the world’s answers. Deep inside each one of us these questions drive us to a source greater than ourselves to find these answers.

In Acts 9, we are given the opportunity to hear the questions of a man who met Jesus Christ face to face. With arrest warrants in hand and a burning passion to quench the so-called Christian movement, the Apostle Paul travels to Damascus to hunt down and arrest anyone who professes the name of Jesus Christ. Hot on the trail on these believers, little did Paul know that it would be Jesus Himself who was on Paul’s trail. We find their encounter in Acts 9:3-4, “As he (Paul) was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’”

I cannot imagine what was going through Paul’s mind at this time, but I am certain that it forever changed his life. From this point forward, Jesus transformed Paul’s zeal from hunting down Christians to hunting down Gentile unbelievers for the cause of Christ. I believe that his transformation happened over two of the greatest questions in the Bible. We find these questions in Acts 9:5-6. Paul’s first question is “Who are you, Lord?” (Acts 9:5) and his second question was “What will you have me to do?” (Acts 9:6).

These are two greatest questions that you will ever ask and will spend a lifetime answering them. Each one of us will eventually give an answer for the first question: “Who are you, Lord?” To some, he is just another prophet or a historical figure from the past. Others will argue that he is an example of how we are to live. Though these are accurate answers, Jesus did not come primarily to be a historical individual or an example of morality. He came to be the Savior of the world. Man is incapable of earning salvation because of his sin. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

God has provided a solution to us. That solution is Jesus Christ who bore all of the sins of the world and satisfied the wrath of God. When we acknowledge our sin and despairing condition without Christ, we come to the cross and accept what He has done for us, that is, He paid the penalty for our sins. We ask Him to be our Lord and Savior, and immediately we receive eternal life. Again, the Bible clearly states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

The other penetrating question that we must ask is “what will You have me to do?” There is no greater question that you will need to ask than this one posed by Paul. Paul’s great assignment would be called to declare the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. What will your mission be? God has uniquely designed each us for a particular purpose, and we will never find fulfillment in this world greater than the fulfillment of serving Him. We are left here on earth to become ambassadors for Christ sharing with others who Christ is and what He has done for us. How will you answer these questions?

Happy Halloween!

Claire as a Green Bay Packer cheerleader!

Release What's Good

Author Larry Crabb says that we Christians often communicate to each other one of these two solutions: “Do what’s right” or “Fix what’s wrong.”Instead, the New Testament holds up a better way: “Release what’s good.” What’s good is the Holy Spirit, already living in us, with all the resources of God at his command.

Philip Yancey, Reaching for the Invisible God, 177.