Tim Keller: Hints for Preaching Christ In The Old Testament

I've been finding a series of lectures by Tim Keller and Edmund Clowney very interesting and beneficial. The topic of the lectures is "Preaching Christ In A Post-Modern World." You can find the lectures on ITunes for free.

The topic I listened to most recently was on preaching Christ from the Old Testament, and Keller was answering the question "What commentaries present a redemptive-historical orientation on the Old Testament?" Keller answered with this gem:

Sometimes the New Testament scholars today are more sensitive to the Old Testament backgrounds than the Old Testament scholars feel free to move forward...

I do think the most recent commentators on the gospels are feeling very free to look back, and they recognize the enormous number of allusions that are really there. Look in the scripture index in the back of your New Testament commentaries when you're preaching on Isaiah or Exodus or Chronicles.

We have a tendency to say "Okay, I'm preaching on Chronicles" and you look at your [bookshelves] "O gosh, I don't have any commentaries on Chronicles!" You order some, you go to the library.

Maybe you better look in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- all your commentaries on the gospels -- and look back for allusions to your passage in 2 Chronicles. And to your surprise, you'll find sermon-breaking comments: exegetical insights that just break open the whole thing for you as a preacher on your Old Testament texts in your New Testament commentaries. I do that all the time.

"Servant of Jesus Christ"

A quote from a much smarter Westerholm:

If human existence is an accident, if the functioning of the cosmos is merely mechanical, if the language of right and wrong is rooted in nothing deeper than human convention, if the world is but the indifferent stage on which we give shape to our lives, then we may as well resent any attempt to curtail our freedom and self-determination.

If, on the other hand, human existence is a gift of love, if the functioning of the cosmos is providential, if language of right and wrong reflects our appropriate and inappropriate responses to reality, and human existence--indeed, all creation--has been cursed by human self-assertion; and if, moreover, Jesus Christ represents God's refusal to abandon his willful creatures to their sin; if Christ demonstrates the goodness of a life lived in obedience to God, his self-sacrificial death atones for human wrongdoing, and his resurrection makes possible eternal life in communion with God as a member of his redeemed people: if all these basic convictions of Paul are true, then (perhaps even people today would agree) there can be no prouder title than that claimed by the apostle--a "servant of Jesus Christ.

Steven Westerholm, Preface to the Study of Paul, Eerdmans 1997; p. 162

(ht: srt)

Morning Devotions With CJ Mahaney

A great quote from one of Christ's servants, C.J. Mahaney on morning devotions.

Actually, I would say that the initial challenge is just getting out of bed. That is why I would recommend for all who are listening to set your radio alarm across the room. Here has what’s helped me in the past: place the radio alarm across the room and set it to a country radio station. That motivates me out of bed.

But the point here is that we must have these practical strategies. I have people approach me at times who seem to assume that if one is called to pastoral ministry there is some special provision from God.

No, in my flesh, in your flesh, these battles take place. Take great comfort. If you watched me in the morning, you would not be amazed. There is no incredible display of giftedness present because I am called to ministry. No. I am a guy hearing these same protesting voices every morning as I get out of bed, making his way downstairs, eventually to his Bible, accompanied by a hot drink and a power bar.

And there I don’t have any angelic visitations. I am aware of numerous things in terms of distraction and aging and aches and pains, and certainly the day in front of me is seeking to rush in and interrupt me right now from what I am doing.

Get the full thing here.

Ethan: "The Time Has Come"

"Dad, the time has come. Maybe when I do something good, instead of a treat, I could get some money."

Inductive Bible Study

Rick Phillips from the Ref21 Blog.

The inductive Bible study is a purely post-modern practice, and one of the effects of post-modern spirituality will be the flight of its refugees to the false order and authority of Rome.

C.J. Mahaney on Perceiving God's Work

From C.J.'s new blog:

Most people are more aware of the absence of God than the presence of God. Most people are more aware of the presence of sin than evidences of grace. What a privilege and joy it is in pastoral ministry and small-group ministry to turn one’s attention to ways in which God is at work, because so often people are unaware of God’s work.

How To Understand the Old Testament, Nicky Gumble

Holy Trinity Brompton is a vibrant Anglican church in Knightsbridge, London. The following quote is from the sermon, "How To Understand the Old Testament", by vicar Nicky Gumble.

The place to start are the bits that we CAN understand. But what about bits we can't? What do we do with that? We wrestle with them. It's a bit like doing a crossword. When you're doing a crossword, you come to a clue, and you don't know the answer to that one. What do you do with it? You leave it – for a moment. You go on to the ones that you CAN do, and when you've put in the ones that you CAN do, that gives you clues to the ones that you CAN'T do. So as you start with the bits of the Bible that you can understand, it makes it a lot easier to deal with the bits that are more difficult.

lalalandon: i heart hats

read the internet's funniest/ profoundest man: Landon MacDonald. His post on hats is breathtaking.

Religion vs. Gospel

A great post from the Acts29 crew about Religion vs. Gospel.

Religion says, if I obey, God will love me. Gospel says, because God loves me, I can obey.

Religion has good people & bad people. Gospel has only repentant and unrepentant people.

Religion values a birth family. Gospel values a new birth.

Religion depends on what I do. Gospel depends on what Jesus has done.

Religion claims that sanctification justifies me. Gospel claims that justification enables sanctification.

Religion has the goal to get from God. Gospel has the goal to get God.

Religion sees hardships as punishment for sin. Gospel sees hardship as sanctified affliction.

Religion is about me. Gospel is about Jesus.

Religion believes appearing as a good person is the key. Gospel believes that being honest is the key.

Religion has an uncertainty of standing before God. Gospel has certainty based upon Jesus' work.

Religion sees Jesus as the means. Gospel sees Jesus as the end.

Religion ends in pride or despair. Gospel ends in humble joy.

Which of these statements did you need to hear the most?

Spurgeon on Church Growth

There is nothing new under the sun! Read this, by Charles Spurgeon!

My good ministering brother, have you got an empty church? Do you want to fill it? I will give you a good recipe, and if you will follow it, you will, in all probability, have your chapel full to the doors . . .

Read your Bible and preach it as you find it in the simplicity of its language. And give up all your Latinized English. Begin to tell the people what you have felt in your own heart, and beseech the Holy Spirit to make your heart as hot as a furnace for zeal. Then go out and talk to the people. Speak to them like their brother. Be a man amongst men. Tell them what you have felt and what you know, and tell it heartily with a good, bold face; and, my dear friend, I do not care who you are, you will get a congregation.

But if you say, "Now, to get a congregation, I must buy an organ."

That will not serve you a bit.

"But we must have a good choir."

I would not care to have a congregation that comes through a good choir.

Wow. Timeless. This could be the opening message for one of our StraightUp Conferences! Read the whole thing here.

[h.t. Justin Taylor > Pyro > Spurgeon Archive -- wow. My hat might fall off if I tip it any more. :-)]