Monthly Archives: December 2013

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Favorite Books of 2013

I read a lot of books this year – more on that tomorrow – but it wasn’t too difficult to narrow down a list of thirteen favorites. These were, for me, the cream of the crop.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

FinallyFreeFinally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace by Heath Lambert. Lambert’s book is a fantastic grace-fueled filling of the gap in modern literature on the subject of fighting for purity. If you took out the chapter on “Using Your Spouse (or Your Singleness)” to Fight Pornography” the book is actually a field manual for killing all kinds of sin. Surely one can use sorrow, humility, gratitude, and confession to slay various, fleshly enemies. I kept thinking that his strategies would find a happy partner in the directives Owen provides in The Mortification of Sin. Any Christian – pastor, small group leader, lay member – would do well to read this book.

513i0UrhMqL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_ Formed for the Glory of God: Learning from the Spiritual Practices of Jonathan Edwards by Kyle Strobel. Jonathan Edwards is a towering theological giant for many reasons and one of them is his disciplined pursuit of holiness. Strobel is well equipped to write a book that I’m surprised no one had yet written: Edwards on Spiritual Formation. You don’t need to be an Edwards fan to appreciate the rich application found throughout this book. This is now one of my favorite contemporary books on “the ordinary means,” and I can only hope it gets a wide readership.

51CTv3RNFyL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Kingdom Come: The Amillennial Alternative by Sam Storms. This would be higher if I wasn’t already a convinced amilliennialist. In over 500 pages he covers everything from escatological hermeneutics to systematic strengths/weaknesses of the various positions to exegesis of the disputed texts. Storms writes winsomely and clearly, thus the book steers clear of the dry, academic treatment one usually finds in this debate. Surely this is now the “go-to” book on amillennialism.

TOP TEN FAVORITE READS

41BD8kstwuL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#10 – Rhythms of Grace: How the Church’s Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel by Mike Cosper. When it comes to accessible yet weighty meditation on the topic of worship, this Cosper’s work is as good as it gets. He brings together the best of all that has been published on worship and then puts his Cosper-like curve on the subject. The “One, Two, Three” framework he offers is quite useful: worship has one object and author (God), two contexts (gathered and scattered), and three audiences (God, the church, and the watching world). Every pastor and church member should read chapter nine,”Sing, Sing, Sing,” which offers uncommon wisdom on the topic and rightly challenges Christians to move from being a critic to a participant. An excellent work not to be underestimated.

51yn75QUjKL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#9 – Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief by John Frame.  This is a fitting capstone – “magnum opus” would be deserved – to Frame’s career. Everything you would expect from Frame is in this volume: emphasis on God’s lordship, extended sections on epistemology, a warm tone, and, oh yeah, loads of triads. Systematic Theology functions like a “John Frame’s Greatest Hits” album. It really is not much more than a smashing of his 4-volume lordship series with Salvation Belongs to the Lord. That being said, it is an outstanding achievement. If I had to recommend a 1,000+ page systematic for a layperson this might be the one.

411ZASBFp0L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#8 – Fit to Burst: Abundance, Mayhem, and the Joy of Motherhood by Rachel Jankovic. I read books on motherhood in order to better understand and serve my wife’s work as a mom. And I am glad I read this one. Jankovic is a wonderful writer, which makes perfect sense when you discover she is Doug Wilson’s daughter and Nate Wilson’s sister. Her wisdom and wit are preeminently displayed in meditations on misplaced “grace” in discipline, the relationship between faithfulness and stress, and the value of cultivating a lively sense of humor in parenting.

31GoWsW2GhL._PJlook-inside-v2-small,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#7 – Saving Eutychus: How to Preach God’s Word and Keep People Awake by Phil Campbell and Gary Millar. This book is not a theology of preaching, but a simple guide on the practice of preaching. Filled with humor and immediately employable wisdom, I can’t see how any preacher wouldn’t benefit greatly from this book. I found it so compelling and challenging that my prayers before preaching regularly include a petition that God would “save Eutychus.” We need more preaching books like this one.

51JkeL52aUL._SY346_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_#6 – The King in His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments by Tom Schreiner. Schreiner is one of my favorite living biblical scholars. My appreciation is not rooted in the fact that I almost always agree with his conclusions (his understanding of the millenium withstanding), but in the fact that his scholarship is marked by such devotional warmth. There is pronounced emphasis on God’s lordship in the work and I deeply appreciated his focus on how human beings, created in the image of God, are supposed to relate to their Lord and King with praise, obedience, and fear. The summary conclusions and interludes woven throughout the book make it all the more useful as a discipleship and teaching resource. Well done!

41ByCYfk29L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#5 – A Neglected Grace: Family Worship in the Christian Home by Jason Helopoulos.  Wow, what a book! Helopoulos manages to tackle the always convicting topic of family worship with uncommon wisdom and grace. Far from feeling condemned after reading, I was freshly encouraged to lead my wife and boys in daily worship. We used this book at our church with a few dozen men and I am not sure I’ve recommended a resource that brought as much instantaneous fruit.

51e-ok5bIlL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#4 – Death By Living: Life is Meant to Be Spent by N.D. Wilson. Wilson didn’t disappoint in this long awaited follow-up to his much acclaimed Notes from a Tilt-a-Whirl. I was brought to tears multiple times through laughter, simple reflections on life, and the sadness of a loved one crossing over. As the book concluded a renewed vigor to live this vapor in the wind with passion and purpose thudded on my soul. I can’t wait to read whatever Wilson’s comes up with next.

51ChIFpKbLL._SX258_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#3 – Living by Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon by Tom Nettles. I will grant that I am somewhat of a Spurgeon aficionado – after all, I named our third son after the Prince of Preachers. I hope he will one day read this magnificent work. Once you get oriented to the textbook-ish layout you will be confronted with all the gusto one would expect from a momentous publication on CHS. Filled with fresh insights from consultations of little known sources, this book is a worthy, maybe even necessary, addition to your study.

41h18lfhjoL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#2 – Antinomianism: Reformed Theology’s Unwelcome Guest? by Mark Jones. This is a tour-de-force of historical and pastoral theology. Far from being simply a polemical work against modern antinomianism, this book displays a classically and confessionally Reformed understanding of sanctification and the pursuit of holiness. Jones ably shows that historic antinomianism is much more than a person being simply “against law.” This was the most illuminating work I read all year and the one I underlined most. I am sure I will recommend it for years to come.

51n2mUWQMaL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_#1 – From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological and Pastoral Perspective edited by David Gibson & Jonathan Gibson. I am still amazed that this book has been published. Who would have predicted ten years ago that a major Christian publisher would offer up a massive volume on limited atonement? Praise God for Crossway putting this into print and the Gibson men for editing so pristine a volume. No one writing on the topic of particular redemption will be able to do so without now taking this work into account. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest publishing achievements of the past decade and maybe even longer than that. Tolle lege!

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Recent Reads

I love to read. By God’s grace I am a pretty fast reader; I usually read a couple books each week. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

51e-ok5bIlL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Death By Living: Life is Meant to Be Spent by ND Wilson. Wilson didn’t disappoint in this long awaited follow-up to his much acclaimed Notes from a Tilt-a-Whirl. He says, “This book hangs on a creature’s narrative motion through time (past, present, and future) and is (slightly) more linear [than Notes].” I am not so sure I would call it linear, but it is a collection of marvelous meditations on life, death, and everything in between. I was brought to tears multiple times through laughter, simple reflections on life, and the sadness of a loved one crossing over. As the book concluded a renewed vigor to live this vapor in the wind with passion and purpose thudded on my soul. Undoubtedly one of the best books I have read all year.

41mtECTonBL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change by Paul David Tripp. I had thumbed through this book several times, but never got around to reading it until last week. Tripp’s soul-care manifesto is a one stop shop of biblical wisdom for pastors, counselors, and Christians in general. The book can be broken up into two parts with the first section detailing the theology foundation for helping people change and the second section showing a practical method to employ. His framework of “Love, Know, Speak, Do” is mighty helpful. The book is longer than it needs to be (360 pages), which is very Tripp-like, but I would still recommend every pastor read it.

71bXN4B-qnL._SL1500_A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible: Playing by the Rules by Robert Stein. I loved the whimsically serious nature with which Stein teaches basic principles for interpreting the Bible in this book. When he teaches on interpreting narratives he does so under the heading of “The Game of Stories”; when it’s poetry he calls it “The Game of Rhythm.” Each section is long enough to cover the necessary bases, but not so long to tempt the reader’s interest. All in all, this is a useful introduction to hermeneutics. It may have been the one I’d recommend if it wasn’t for . . .

51woZW9K8jL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer. I love Kregel’s “40 Questions About Series” because each entry is accessibly exhaustive – 40 questions on a given topic is usually sufficient to his all the high points. Plummer’s entry on hermeneutics is my now go to volume to introduce Christians into the discipline. Plummer covers everything you would want him to with clarity and care. Highly recommended!

51UWLpan49L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. My dad has tried to get me to read Clancy for quite some time, so I finally dove in with the first Jack Ryan novel. Maybe it was because my dad’s rave reviews created unrealistic expectations or maybe it was because I already knew the ending from watching the movie; whatever the reason, I was quite disappointed. The book is bloated with technical naval jargon and Clancy jumps around so much with the narrative that character development didn’t seem to be on his radar. I did enjoy how the Cold War’s ideologies were appropriately collided throughout the novel. Ryan gets surprisingly little spot time in the book, so I can’t help but think that if Clancy didn’t bounce around so much and focused more solely on Ryan and Ramius (the Soviet protagonist) the narrative would have been tighter. I am not disappointed enough to give up on Clancy, I will just stroll in to the next book with lower expectations.

51DjGtdpW8L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James Swanson. Swanson’s first two books, bestsellers I might add, focused on the chase for a presidential assassin and the presidential funeral pageant that followed. So I guess he is uniquely equipped to writ about JFK’s assassination and everything it includes. And I am glad he did. Swanson is one of those rare historians who can write history with the gripping prose of expert storytellers and this trait is on full display in this latest work. I was so absorbed with the interwoven fates of Kennedy and Oswald that I read the entire book in two sittings. Conspiracy theorists will surely want to excoriate Swanson’s simple conclusion that “perhaps the reason (for Oswald assassinating the president) is much simpler and more fundamental and lies beyond rational human understanding: Lee Harvey Oswald was evil” (297). The book abounds with fascinating insights (such as how Jackie started the Camelot Court mythology) and I think would satisfy the JFK expert or novice.

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Sermon Evaluation Form

Preaching Header

Lord willing, tonight I will sit next to my wife during corporate worship for the 12th time this year and listen to another man preach God’s word at our church.

We planted IDC with the conviction that I would preach no more than forty times a year. So this year has seen six different men preach at IDC, half of them are working out a call to ministry. The preaching opportunity is therefore a time for these men to hone skill in exposition and for the congregation to affirm their stated desire to be preachers of God’s word.

I want to always get better at how I serve these men by way of feedback, so this week I created a sermon evaluation form that captures some of the distinct preaching convictions of our church.

I hope it will provide more tangible flesh to sermon reviews. Feel free to download the form and adjust accordingly to fit your church.

Sermon Evaluation Form

Our form is based, in part, on Tony Merida’s sermon evaluation form in Faithful Preaching.

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Reading Well to Write Well

The Pastor and Writing

I am increasingly convinced that the discipline of writing is one of a pastor’s best friends. It promotes clarity of thought, winsomeness with words, and power in persuasion.

Consider these statements from prominent pastor-theologians in the Reformed tradition:

Citing Augustine, John Calvin said, “I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write.” John Piper said, “Writing became the lever of my thinking and the outlet of my feelings. If I didn’t pull the lever, the wheel of thinking did not turn. It jerked and squeaked and halted. But once a pen was in hand, or a keyboard, the fog began to clear and the wheel of thought began to spin with clarity and insight.”1

In many ways, the only reason I started this blog was to force myself to write with regularity. My hope is the regularity will do two things: 1) help me to write better, and 2) help me to find my own voice. I think of a pastor’s writing voice much like his preaching voice: it takes a long time to discover it2 and a lifetime to hone it.

D.A. Carson once said, “If you listen to only one preacher, you become a clone. If you listen to two, you become confused. If you listen to fifty, you’re on the edge of wisdom and beginning to become yourself.” I think you can apply the same thing to reading and writing: “If you read only one writer, you become a clone. If you read two, you become confused. If you read fifty, you’re on the edge of wisdom and beginning to become yourself.”

So what I want to do in this post is give you a peek into how I try to put my spin on Carson’s maxim into practice. I hope it will encourage you to something similar as you find/solidify/sharpen your writing style and voice.3

READING THAT SHAPES WRITING

I read John Frame and Tom Schreiner for accessibility. I am amazed at how these men can write expansive systematic and biblical theologies with such simplicity and clarity. Their works steer clear of the verbosity that so often comes out of the academy, which serves the ordinary person in the pew. Reading Frame and Schreiner will show a pastor how to write on complexity without complexity.

I read the Puritans for particularity. The Puritans were masters of nuance, distinction, and definition. When talking about God’s power they speak of His absolute power and ordained power. When speaking about God’s love for man, they make a distinction between God’s benevolent love and complacent love. Their theological distinctions can be so minute they run the risk of being helpful. But on the whole, their particularity in discourse is overwhelmingly useful. Anyone who has engaged in theological discussion knows the necessity of precision, and the Puritanism is something of a synonym for precision. Their particularity is seen not only in their doctrinal instruction, but also their heartfelt application. Every doctrine would be applied to specific heart conditions, a fact that writers would be wise to consider for a diversity of people will read any given work.

I read the Wilsons for dexterity. By Wilsons I am thinking of Doug and Nate Wilson. This father and son duo has a facility with language and prose that regularly astonishes me. I will never write as well as they do, but I am always inspired with their skill in crafting sentences and wielding words with power, passion, and conviction.

I read history for sensitivity. No person wants to be accused of “chronological snobbery” in their writing or ministry. Broad historical reading helps one be sensitive to the ebbs and flows of culture. The best historian are storytellers, therefore a glorious consequence of reading good history is that you get to see how a story is told well. So historical reading helps generate sensitivity to the progress of man and the progress of a good plot line.

I read fiction for curiosity. Good fiction excites interest – curiosity – for a variety of reasons. It can be suspense, angst, pain, joy, or any other emotion. Every person who writes wants to write compellingly and good fiction encourages that kind of writing.

Strategic reading will help shape your writing. Who is influencing your writing voice?

  1. HT: Justin Taylor, “On Writing Well: Four Suggestions.” ↩
  2. I would say it took five years of somewhat regular preaching before I hit my personal stride in oral communication. ↩
  3. Check out the bottom of this post from Tony Reinke to see how he did something similar when writing his first book. ↩
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Training Future Preachers

David Helm, Mike Bullmore, and Bryan Chapell discuss a timeless issue for pastors: How do you train future leaders and preachers? Watch, listen, and learn.

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Recent Reads

I love to read. By God’s grace I am a pretty fast reader; I usually read a couple books each week. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

41h18lfhjoL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Antinomianism: Reformed Theology’s Unwelcome Guest? by Mark Jones. This is a tour-de-force of historical and pastoral theology. As Guy Waters says in his endorsement, “What does a seventeenth-century theological controversy have to do with Christian living in the twenty-first century? Everything.” Far from being a polemical work against modern antinomianism, this book displays a Reformed understanding of sanctification and the pursuit of holiness from a confessional perspective. Jones ably shows that historic antinomianism means much more than a person being “against law.” Historically, antinomianism was an elusive mix of six factors: 1) ridiculing the idea that Christians should imitate Christ, 2) rejecting of the law as a means of sanctification, 3) denying a law-gospel distinction that said the law is a friend to Christians and the gospel contains prescriptive parts, 4) refusal to speaks God rewarding of good works, 5) espousing the belief that God does not love us any more or any less on the basis  of our obedience or lack thereof, and 6) putting forth a view of assurance that has no place for subjective fruit flowing from the objective work of Christ. Jones says, “When all or at least most of these errors are combined in a preaching ministry, you have [historic] antinomianism” (128). One of the most illuminated works I’ve read all year and surely the one I underlined the most.

51nxFXnHfBL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_The Deliberate Church: Building Your Church on the Gospel by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander. The Deliberate Church is one of the finest, and most expansive, books on practical ecclesiology available today. Divided into three parts (Gathering the Church, When the Church Gathers, and Gathering Elders), the book covers everything from faithful pastoring to shepherding to the regulative principle to how a healthy elder meeting is run. Dever views this book as the conclusion to an ecclesiological trilogy that began with 9 Marks of a Healthy Church and Polity. This book will challenge, encourage, and sharpen pastoral and congregational convictions in the best ways. It is one of two primary resources we use at IDC for elder candidate training.

41hsuMz9d6L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church by Tim Witmer. This is the other primary resource we use in our elder candidate training. The initial chapters on biblical and historical foundations for shepherding are solid, but it is in part two – “A Comprehensive Matrix for Shepherding” – where the book’s value is seen. Witmer wisely walks through the distinction between macro and micro shepherding and then says a faithful shepherding ministry consists of four parts: knowing, feeding, leading, and protecting. He provides the undisputed biblical backing for each part and then proceeds to recommend how a church can go about integrating macro and micro shepherding for each part. I have recommended this book to countless pastors over the last few years and not a few of them have said it completely restructured their thoughts on shepherding. And that’s a good thing.

41MK+RxtbeL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl. Koukl loves to engage non-believers in conversation and this book is an overflow of his apologetics ministry. He is wise to note that most skeptics have a kind of “theology by osmosis” that will fall in on itself when the right questions are asked. And that really is the overarching tactic he advocates: asking wise and probing questions. Doing so will help reveal the irrationality fueling unbelief. Koukl does, at times, lean more into an evidentialist approach than I would recommend, but overall this is a very helpful resource for lay members. If a church member is interested in apologetics I might start ’em on Koukl, then move ’em on to Frame, and conclude the training with Oliphant’s latest.

51vfzfeFT7L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_The King James Controversy: Can You Trust Modern Translations? by James White. This book is probably the “go to” resource for addressing the KJV Only debate. Thankfully, the controversy seems to have noticeably declined over the last 15-20 years. I have only dealt with it once in my ministry. If you have friends or family members that look down on your NIV or ESV translation because they only want the King’s English, grab a copy of White’s book. Otherwise I’d pass it over.

51p1WBVb4BL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Bloodwork by Michael Connelly. I might need a break from Connelly for a while, but it’s not because I didn’t like this book. In fact, I found this book to be intriguing, surprising, and unique. The issue at play for me is Connelly’s continual employment of a “twist” ending. Knowing a twist is likely coming at the end I engage in a sort of competition with Connelly: will he surprise me or will I accurately predict the surprise? Because I am, how do you say, pathologically competitive, the joy of reading is somewhat stolen. Bloodwork illustrated this principle all too well. So, even though he remains my favorite crime writer, I think Connelly and I will separate for a period of time. And, oh yeah, I had Bloodwork‘s ending nailed about a third of the way in.

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2 Ordinary Responses to an Extraordinary Birth

In Excelsis Deo

My favorite character in all of English literature is the legendary consulting detective of 221B Baker Street – Sherlock Holmes. The modern BBC adaptation is, undoubtedly, my favorite show on the “tele” (as the English say).

One of the more humorous parts of Holmes’ personality is his obsession with the extraordinary. A modern rendition of his business advertisement captures the quirk quite well:

I’m Sherlock Holmes, the world’s only consulting detective.

I’m not going to go into detail about how I do what I do because chances are you wouldn’t understand. If you’ve got a problem that you want me to solve, then contact me.  This is what I do:

1. I observe everything.

2. From what I observe, I deduce everything.

3. When I’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how mad it
might seem, must be the truth.

If you need assistance, contact me and we’ll discuss its potential. Interesting cases only please.

The ordinary bores Holmes to a debilitating degree and so he must have interesting cases. I often wonder if we Christians don’t approach the truth of Christmas with a similar distaste for what we think is boringly ordinary.

We saw yesterday how the angels’ song in Luke 2 proclaims that Jesus came to give His father glory and His people peace. No truth is more foundational to our faith, yet it can be so utterly ordinary that we find it to be uninteresting or unsurprising. The Incarnation can become so common to our minds that it gets put on the “Uninteresting Shelf” of souls. And so we clamor and shout for other doctrines, when in reality, outside of the Trinity, no truth or doctrine of Christianity is as mysterious and interesting as the Incarnation. God has come down to lift us up, He has become weak to make us strong, He has been born so He might die. This is most interesting! This is life altering!

See afresh how gloriously interesting the Incarnation is.

The extraordinary truth of Christ’s birth and its purpose – God’s glory and our peace – demands two ordinary responses from God’s people, responses exemplified by the shepherds in Luke 2.

2 ORDINARY RESPONSES TO THE EXTRAORDINARY BABY KING

First, Jesus came to give His Father glory and so we worship. Luke 2:15-16 tell us that after hearing the angels’ song the shepherds went to Bethlehem and found the baby King. 2:20 says, “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.” As we have said, the glory of God is uniquely displayed in the birth of Jesus. The heavenly chorus begins the symphony of God’s glory in redemption that will soon crescendo at the cross. We are invited to join in and worship. Does not your heart want to burst in song with the angels? To glorify and praise God for the miracle of Christ’s birth? If not, ask why not? Have you become so disengaged from God that He no longer amazes you? Is cherished secret sin in your soul pushing out your heart’s ability to cherish this King worthy of all worship? He came to give His father glory, and so we worship.

Second, Jesus came to give His people peace and so we witness. With haste the shepherds go to find the baby and when they arrive 2:17 says, “They made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.” They bear witness. This is the pattern of the Christian life: the vertical response of worship and the horizontal response of witness. 2 Corinthians 5 says God is bringing peace to the world through Christ and so “we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” Ambassadors bearing witness, heralding the good news, imploring the world to be reconciled to God, this is ordinary the response to Christ’s coming and bringing His people peace. Do we have this kind of joyful earnestness to announce His terms of peace? I suspect we all feel humbled by the shepherds’ response. Let us pray for God to embolden and empower us through His Spirit to boldly and clearly proclaim the wonder of His Son.

To the distracted world in which we live, the Christmas story was just a small, insignificant acorn that was just a blip on the canvas of history. But the Incarnation, this truth that is more fantastic than fiction, this little acorn would soon grow into an oak of redemption that shines forth the majesty of God to the universe. So sing with joy, in peace, and from love this Christmas because Jesus came to give His Father glory and His people peace.

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Singing with Angels

In Excelsis Deo

In his classic book Knowing God, JI Packer wrote, “It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie . . . The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.”1

To see the truth more fantastic than fiction we turn to the well-known story of shepherds and singing angels on that first Christmas night in Luke 2. In the short span of one verse the angels reveal the purpose and wonder of Christ’s incarnation. We might summarize their chorus by saying, “Jesus came to give His father glory and His people peace.” This is the purpose of Christmas according to the angels. I want you to encourage you with three things from the angels song: 1) Sing with Joy this Christmas, 2) Sing in Peace this Christmas, and 3) Sing from Love this Christmas.

SING WITH JOY THIS CHRISTMAS

They sang, “Glory to God in the highest.” What does the song’s first syllable tell us? That God is supremely glorified in salvation. The Bible tells us that everything in creation resounds unto God’s glory. He is glorified in every drop of dew that falls on the morning grass. He is glorified in every plant that blooms in forests men rarely see. He is glorified in the bird that glides on His air. From the smallest minnow to the largest whale, the creatures in the sea sing of His glory. The bright stars and far of galaxies proclaim His glory to the universe. Every lightning bolt and crack of thunder contributes to creation’s concert of God’s glory. But creation does not represent the highest movement in this symphony of glory. It’s the incarnation of Christ that finds the angels singing glory to God in the highest. Spurgeon said, “There is more melody in Jesus born in the manger, than there is in worlds upon worlds rolling their grandeur round the throne of the Most High.”

How is it that God is so supremely glorified in the birth of Christ?

  • Jesus’ birth glorifies God’s wisdom. This is what it would take to save men, God become man. From eternity past God decreed His Son would come and add humanity’s flesh to His divine nature. What wisdom!
  • Jesus’ birth glorifies God’s justice. No creature could satisfy God’s justice toward the sin of men. Only Jesus, the Son of God, perfect in nature and obedience, can satisfy His just Father. So the birth of Jesus uncovers the glories of God’s wisdom, justice, and thirdly . . .
  • Jesus’ birth glorifies God’s holiness. Our holy God demands holiness from His creatures, but we all have fallen short. Holiness is impossible for us to grasp or achieve. The demand of holiness can only be met in Christ, the Holy One. Thus it was that He came.
  • Jesus’ birth glorifies God’s mercy. He is just and holy, as such He stands opposed to all our sin. But see His mercy in Christ. The Father does not desire to leave men in sin, He is going to use them as mirrors of His mercy. And so Jesus came as the ultimate merciful gift for sinful man. His mercy will triumph over man’s misery. 

So yes, creation glorifies God, but not in the way Jesus’ incarnation and redemption does. Do you see how we are to sing with joy this Christmas? His wisdom, justice, holiness, and mercy are instruments for our joy.

Every Christmas season I like to listen to Handel’s famous work The Messiah. This piece is ingrained within popular culture because of its infamous “Hallelujah Chorus.”  If you go to a performance of Handel’s masterpiece, you will notice something rather interesting. As the second part of the oratorio rolls to its climax, the iconic “Hallelujah’’ chorus, people will begin to stand, it’s a tradition that supposedly dates back to the mid-1700s. Call it traditionalism or deference for greatness if you want, but historically the act was done out of reverential joy.

The angels’ chorus ought to cause our soul to leap up with joy. What about you? Does your soul remain seated when you read and hear of the glory of Christ’s birth? Or does your soul leap for joy because His birth signals that salvation has come? His birth is is like a turbo-charger of joy. Let us be reminded, in the words of John Piper, that joyless faith in Jesus is an oxymoron in terms. Sing with joy this Christmas, and now, as the song continues we are encourage to sing in peace.

SING IN PEACE THIS CHRISTMAS

2:14 continues, “and on earth peace.” The great design of Jesus’ birth was peace on earth. Have you considered that peace is man’s greatest need? Ever since the fall of Adam man is in a state of war and rebellion against his Maker. In our sin we all have renounced allegiance to and dependence on God, and instead we claim allegiance and dependence only to ourselves. So we are now against God and God is against us. The soul was created to be at peace with God, but now it isn’t, so we strive in sin to give it peace through everything but God.

Some of us think money and materials will provide peace to our soul, but as many of you know from experience, things can’t give true peace. So some people strive for peace through people. Marriage and parenting does bring joy, but they don’t calm a soul at war with God. Some people think pleasure will calm a soul of doubt, fear, and struggle – things that are nothing more than the fruit of no peace. So they turn to drink, drugs, food, or flesh to give peace, but it never comes. Some people think following the rules and laws of God with utter perfection will sign a treaty with God, but such legalism is a tyranny.

Where then is peace found? In this baby lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. The long expected Prince of Peace will soon be surrounded by animals and shepherds. Ephesians 2 tells us, “He is our peace.”  Have you come in faith to the peaceful prince? Maybe you are reading this and you are not a Christian. The Bible tells us that you are far off, separated from Christ, without God or peace in this world. The good news of this baby king is that He came to bring peace on earth. Through the blood he shed on the cross He brings near those who are far off and He gives peace to those at war with God.

Sing with joy, sing in peace, and now sing from love.

SING FROM LOVE THIS CHRISTMAS

Peace comes to “those with whom he is pleased!” It is popular to conceive of God as some sort of spiritual Santa so you better watch out, because He’s making a list, and checking it twice, gonna find out, who’s naughty and nice. Those who are nice get the present of peace. But that’s not what the angels are singing here. “Those with whom he is pleased” is biblical language for election. We can think of Deuteronomy 10:14-15, which describes the pleasure God had in choosing Israel from all the peoples of the earth:

“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it; yet the Lord set his heart in love upon your fathers [literally:“the Lord delighted in your fathers to love them”] and chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples.”

The peace of God comes according to God’s sovereign pleasure. And are not the shepherds the perfect example? One commentator on the text said the shepherds “were much more like a group of tattooed rednecks than anything else.” And God chose them. Merit and achievement has no influence on the sovereign grace of God – a fact that might need to comfort some of you and discomfort other of you. He does not choose people because of their prominence or grandeur or distinction. When he chooses he chooses freely, in order to magnify the glory of his own mercy. His sovereign pleasure is the foundation for His praise.

You’ll notice this golden chain of salvation if we work backwards through the song: The sovereign pleasure of God provides the peace of Christ, and the peace of Christ propels the praise of God. Because this baby king was born we sing with joy, in peace, and from love because He loved us first in Christ.

  1. This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “In Excelsis Deo.” ↩
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The Elder’s Noble Teaching

Pastoral Ministry

Earlier this week we looked at “The Elder’s Noble Traits” from 1 Timothy 3:1-7. As Carson says, these traits are all gloriously unremarkable because they are required of all Christian men. But there is one trait not required of all men: that they be able to teach.

In Lectures to My Students Spurgeon said:

The pulpit is the Thermopylae of Christendom: there the fight will be lost or won.

To us ministers the maintenance of our power in the pulpit should be our great concern, we must occupy that spiritual watch-tower with our hearts and minds awake and in full vigor. It will not avail us to be laborious pastors if we are not earnest preachers.

We shall be forgiven a great many sins in the matter of pastoral visitation if the people’s souls are really fed on the Sabbath-day; but fed they must be, and nothing else will make up for it.

The failures of most ministers who drift down the stream may be traced to inefficiency in the pulpit. The chief business of a captain is to know how to handle his vessel, nothing can compensate for deficiency there, and so our pulpits must be our main care, or all will go awry.

Teaching then is not only the elder’s ordinary weapon for war, it is also his rudder for directing and steering the church.

NOBLE TEACHING

Along with the words of management and oversight we have in this text, the qualification that elder be able to teach gives us great insight into his work.  All the noble traits we just looked at speak to his character, this one speaks more to his work – to his competency.  Remember, the Ephesian church that Timothy pastored had been infiltrated by teachers, so Timothy’s role as an overseer necessarily meant that he be able to teach sound doctrine.  And this is the qualification that distinguishes the office.  Deacons might be able to teach, but such ability is not required. It is for elders.

James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers . . . for you . . . will be judged with greater strictness.”  The Bible then does not expect that everyone in the church will be able to teach.  So what does this qualification mean? I actually think the way Paul articulate this qualification in Titus 1:9 is more helpful; there he says the elders “must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”  It’s one thing to be able to instruct in sound doctrine, it’s even better to also be able to refute false doctrine.  An elder should able to communicate and apply the truth of Scripture with clarity, coherence, and fruitfulness.

A common question then is, “Does an elder have to be able to preach in front of hundreds?” I would say yes and no.  He need not be Charles Spurgeon nor John Piper; he just need be able to clearly and accurately teach Scripture in an edifying way.  The ability to teach doesn’t equate to Piperion grandeur in preaching or Spurgeon-esque power in rhetoric.  The overwhelming majority of elders, and thus teachers, are humble men who ably bring a humble offering of the word whenever and wherever they are asked to do so.

An elder is to teach.  Paul does not give us much about the elder’s work here in 1 Timothy. If we were to survey the Bible’s teaching on eldering or shepherding we could break up the pastor’s labor into four main areas: knowing, feeding, leading, and protecting.  For this of course is what shepherds do. Which leads us then to the most important thing to note when talking about elders and shepherds . . . they are “under-shepherds.”

They are to be an earthly reflection of the church’s chief shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4), Jesus Christ. In John 10 we find Jesus say, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Faithful “under-shepherds” then are men that are to model the character of Christ (noble traits) and teach the glory of Christ (noble teaching).