Category Archives: Sermon Excerpts

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Sing the Word

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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

THE POWER OF A SONG

It was just over 100 years ago, in the early days of August 1914, that the War to End All Wars broke out and began to claim hundreds of thousands of killed, wounded, and missing soldiers. Four months later as the soldiers were firmly fixed in harrowing immovability of trench warfare, politicians and culture leaders were calling for a Christmas truce. Pope Benedict XV’s appeal for a cease-fire at Christmas made headlines, but was quickly rebuffed by both sides as “impossible.” The neutral US Senate urged for a twenty-day truce at Christmas “with the hope that the cessation of hostilities . . . may stimulate reflection upon the part of the nations [at war] as to the meaning and spirit of Christmas.” But the warring armies paid no attention to isolationist American and were content to keep on killing each other.

And so it was, to the everlasting astonishment of military history, that on the night of Christmas Eve one could find the Germans mingling with British, French, and Belgian soldiers – men they were trying to eliminate just hours earlier – in the middle of No Man’s Land; talking, exchanging gifts, and telling stories. The legendary Christmas Truce of 1914 came, not through the intervention of governments and petitions of well meaning leaders. Rather, is was the singing of an old gospel carol – “Silent Night” – that gave the entrenched foes a few hours of Christmas cheer and peace.

Nostalgic familiarity is what really brought those soldiers out of their trenches that Christmas Eve night, but we cannot dismiss how the event embodied the sheer power of a song.

Singing’s power is something the apostle Paul knew well, for in our text tonight we find him saying that singing how the power to let the gospel take up residence in a person’s heart.

SING COLOSSAE!

Colossians is a short letter that’s saturated with the supremacy of Christ. If you ever find your soul in need of a spark of spiritual power, read Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae. Here you will find some of the most exalted descriptions of Jesus, His gospel, and the Christian life.

Colossians 3 is one chapter I’d encourage every child of God memorize. In 3:1-4 Paul tells Christian they have been raised and seated with Christ in heaven. Therefore, 3:5-9 tells Christian to put off the old self of sin, and 3:10-17 tell us, as God’s chosen ones, to put on the new self. And Paul says singing plays a crucial role for our growth in Christ. If you wanted to sum up the truth of Colossians you might say: Singing has the power to put the gospel into your heart. If a song could bring peace to enemy troops in the Great War, just imagine what it can do for those united to Christ in faith.

SONGS TEACH

Before we look at one part of this glorious verse we need to get a sense of the whole. For there are a variety of different views (because of word placement and lack of punctuation in the manuscripts) on how the participles of teaching, admonishing, and singing relate to letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly. To make what could be a much longer – and fascinating! – discussion short, I think the NASB (the NIV is great too) gets the verse right when it says, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” What do we teach and admonish with (this is what the ESV misses)? Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. So we need to view 3:16 as a single command that we can put this way: Let the word of Christ dwell in your hearts by teaching and admonishing one another with songs.

Songs thus have teaching and admonishing power. The reason we can be confident of this view on the translation of Colossians 3:16 is the near identical teaching Paul gives in Ephesians 5:18-19, “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” Singing then is an overflow of a Spirit-filled heart and addresses fellow members with truth.

Incidentally, if you’ve ever wondered what the Spirit-filled life looks like I’d invite you to pay attention to Ephesians 5:18-21. For, over against what so many evangelicals say when they talk about being Spirit-filled, Paul says in those verses that a Spirit-filled life overflows in singing, thanksgiving, serving, and fearing God.

So if you take Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19, the twin towers of New Testament instruction on singing in the church, you get this powerful truth: “A Spirit-filled and word-saturated life is a singing life.”

SING THE WORD INTO YOUR HEART

Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” The λόγος, the Word, has already been identified in Colossians 1 (1:5, 25) as the gospel. Paul said this gospel “has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing,” and he later defined as this: “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.”

We must always remind ourselves of this gospel. The great apostle commands us to put it in our heart, to let is dwell in us richly. “Dwell in you richly” means the gospel is to have a beautifully permanent home in our hearts.”

When Emily and I bought our first house, the one we still live in, one of the great attractions of it to me was its study. There would be a room for my books; not that I had many at the time. When we moved we came with one bookshelf and I didn’t have enough books to fill it up. Yet, if you were to come over to our house now you’d find virtually the entire room lined with shelves overflowing with and a sagging under a bunch of books. Books have clearly made a home in my study. Their residence is permanent and growing.

That, Paul says, is how the gospel is to function our hearts. It makes a home there and the space it fills in our hearts ought to always be growing and made more beautiful.

Christian, you have believed the gospel, but can you articulate it clearly? Have you ever consider how some of the greatest songs of our faith are also among the greatest gospel teachers? Think about how this verse from “How Great Thou Art” helpfully describes the good news:

And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Here then is one implication for the songs we sing: Our songs must preach the gospel. They must. If you were to examine the songs we sing each week you should be able to find gospel truth abounding all over the place. I have no interest in a song that doesn’t strike some note of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Just as you should long for preaching that preeminently exalts a crucified Christ, so too should you long for songs saturated with the good news. And respond with eager obedience! Harold Best is wise on this implication saying, “A congregation is just as responsible to sing the gospel as preachers are to preach it.”

This post is adapted from my recent sermon “Sing the Word.”

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Stand Firm on the Word of God

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For days Odysseus, the ancient hero of Greek literature, and his men had sailed without sight of land as they journeyed home.

Distress and despair permeated the crew, until they heard distant, otherworldly, and yet beautiful sounds . . . the fabled, sweet, and magical Siren songs. Few people knew about these Sirens because few survived them; their lovely songs were in fact death dirges in disguise. The songs would steal the hearts of sailors and compel them to go on the Siren’s shore, only to find that stepping on their sand meant certain death at the hands of these less than noble women. Having been warned of the Sirens’ melodic scheme Odysseus quickly covers the crew’s ears with wax and instructs them to lash him hand and foot to the mast. And so it was the crew was able to stay the course while the Siren songs called for their souls.

In 2 Timothy 3 we find Paul exhorting his young protégé, one final time, to lash himself to the masthead of gospel. For it’s only there that he, and by extension we, can navigate through the treacherous waters of this dark world, a world filled with siren songs of sin and death.

A STUNNING ASSURANCE

In 3:1-9 Paul says that “the last days” – the period the NT consistently refers to as the time between Christ’s comings – will be a time characterized by nineteen different kinds of godlessness. Godlessness perpetuated by false teachers who, according to 3:8, “oppose the truth . . . [are corrupt] in mind, and disqualified regarding the faith.” But Timothy is to follow another course, the apostolic pattern of Paul. Notice 3:10-11, “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings.” As it has gone for me, it must go for you. Look at the stunning promise of 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

So here it is Timothy, here are my final parting words, “Don’t follow the false teaching of these men who proclaim a fixation on the world and a life free from pain and persecution. No, those men are duped by the devil (my contemporary translation of 3:13), and your faithfulness in ministry depends on not being duped.” Dear Christian, are you being devilishly duped about suffering and persecution in the Christian life? Radical Christ-exalting obedience and God-glorifying passion will always be persecuted. And we, like Timothy, must embrace it and endure it. The question then is, how? How will he embrace and endure the persecution that comes from life in Christ? The answer comes in 3:14-15.

STAND FIRM ON SCRIPTURE

Paul says in 3:14, “But as for you, continue . . .“ In 3:13 Paul has just said “evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse,” they will advance and proceed in godlessness. But in 3:14 Paul tells Timothy to do the opposite, he is to “continue.” The word is better translated as “remain”, “stay”, or “abide.” Abide in what? Look at how the verse moves on, “Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.” There’s the answer to the question. And the answer is two-fold: embrace and endure suffering by 1) continuing in what you have learned, and 2) knowing from whom you’ve learned it.

In the course of the pastorals, what Timothy has learned is regularly said to be “sound doctrine” or “the gospel”, which are both revealed in “the sacred writings” of Scripture. We know from the rest of the New Testament that who Timothy learned it from was his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice.

Are you not amazed at the glorious simplicity for pastoral perseverance? Paul’s final exhortation to Timothy, as he sits in a Roman prison cell, is, “Lash yourself to the gospel. And you’ll do that by staying close to the word of God and people who teach it faithfully.

We stand firm in the life of God by standing firm on the word of God.

This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “Read the Word,” on 2 Timothy 3:14-17.

 

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Preachers as Window Washers

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2 Corinthians 4:1-6 is a zenith of apostolic instruction on true preaching.

Pastors would do well to memorize 4:5, where Paul says, “What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

HERALDING GOD’S WORD

The verb here for “proclaim” is κηρύσσω, which describes the tone of preaching as “heralding.” If you’ve rightly understood that encountering God’s word through preaching a battle of cosmic proportions, it won’t surprise you to know that “heralding” is military language.

A herald is in times of war what an ambassador is in times of peace . . . The herald would go into enemy territory ahead of an advancing army to warn the enemy of certain destruction unless they accepted the proffered terms for peace. A gospel herald stands with God’s word in hand and proclaims, “Hear ye! Hear ye! Jesus Christ is Lord. All who swear allegiance to his throne will receive eternal life.”

We preachers must ask our unbelieving hearers, “What will you do with this announcement that Jesus is Lord?” Satan wants to blind their eyes in unbelief  and rebellion (2 Cor. 4:4), to keep them as part of His army. But the gospel, the good news of life, is contained in those four words of 4:5: Jesus Christ is Lord. And thus we herald the King who lived perfectly, died sacrificially, rose victoriously, and now reigns supremely. We cry out for them to cry out to Him in faith and repentance. The two eyes of faith and repentance are the only way they will ever see the Son in all his glory. And so we call them to swear allegiance through their seeing of Him.

PREACHING IS WINDOW WASHING

Brother pastor, do not miss the negation contained in 4:5, “. . . what we proclaim is not ourselves,” but Jesus Christ. If you want to be a faithful preacher, rid yourself of notions to use the preaching of God’s word as an occasion to herald yourself. It is dangerous to put much of yourself into a sermon. Sure, short illustrations from personal experience can be useful at times, but such a desire to illuminate truth can easily become an exercise in proclaiming self.

And we dare not tamper with God’s word in that way.

One helpful way of thinking about this is through the analogy of preachers as window washers. God’s word is a window that reveals the glory of Christ. When we stand behind the sacred desk we are to hold up the window of God’s word, and cry out, “Look unto Him! See Him! Behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Our job as preachers then is to scrub that window clean by the clear proclamation of Scripture (2 Cor. 4:2; cf. Col. 4:4).

Putting too much of oneself into the sermon is tantamount to scrubbing the window with clouds of mud and then covering it up with the foil of personal vanity. Our churches won’t see Christ through such dirt. Renounce such disgraceful and underhanded means and herald God’s word by “the open statement of the truth.”

Preacher, you are a window washer. Make the window plain and clear, so they might see Christ!

This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “Preach the Word,” on 2 Corinthians 4:1-6.

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Is it Enough?

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Have you ever considered how the Bible is, in many ways, much like a vivid night sky?

Every chapter in God’s word, like stars in a night sky, shouts and shines forth the glory of God in Christ, but – like certain stars and constellations – some chapters do so with incredible luminosity. Psalm 119 is one such chapter that shines with peculiar power. The Germans used to call this psalm, “The Christian’s golden alphabet of the praise, love, power, and use of the Word of God.”

At 176 verses this psalm is the longest longest chapter in the Bible, more than twice as long as its nearest competitor. You could point to verse twenty-five as indicative of the psalmist’s heart and theme.

NOT A NEW THEME

119:25, “My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!” And what amazing about this one verse is how it encapsulates a main theme we see from Genesis to Revelation: the connection between God’s word and life. God’s word bring life from the dust.

All through the Bible we see that when God gives life, He does so through the power of his word. In Genesis 1 we find God creating, giving life to all things, by speaking them into existence with his powerful word. Later on in Exodus 20 we find God, through His word, speaking the nation of Israel into existence. Then there is the stunning vision in Ezekiel 37 of God giving new life to his people after their exile in Babylon. The prophet sees bones lying in the dust and God tells him to speak. Ezekiel then says,

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone . . . and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. (Ezekiel 37:7,10)

God’s word, spoken through Ezekiel, brings dead bones to life. The Old Testament is clear: God’s people receive life through God’s word.

We see the same thing in the New Testament. Indeed Scripture’s teaching about God’s life-giving Word finds its consummation in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word. John writes at the beginning of his gospel,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life. (John 1:1,3-4)

In the Word was life! It is through Jesus Christ – the incarnate Word of God – that we are brought from death to life and “born again” by God’s power. Paul makes the same point in Romans 10: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ,” he says (Romans 10:17). And Hebrews 1 says, “he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” The Bible continually announces that God’s Word brings life to everything; that is a theme on which our soul is lifted from the dust of this world in which we live.

GOD’S WORD IS ENOUGH

Notice how prevalent this idea is in Psalm 119:

  • 119:37 – “Give me life in your ways.”
  • 19:50 – “Your promise gives me life.”
  • 119:93 – “Your precepts . . . have given me life.”
  • 119:107 – “Give me life, O Lord, according to your word!”
  • 119:54 – “Give me life according to your promise!”
  • 119:56 – “Give me life according to your rules.”

Psalm 119 reorients us to the primacy and life-giving power of God’s word. Here is life and life abundant! Why turn anywhere else?

How is it that God’s word can give us life? Notice the vital nuance we find in 119:2, “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.” Do you see it? 119:2 shows us that keeping God’s word is the same thing as seeking God. The psalmist doesn’t destructively separate God from His word. He knows that God’s word is an extension of Himself. To obey God’s word is to obey God. To hear God’s word is to hear God. These words are life-giving words because they are inextricably connected to the life-giving Creator of the whole universe.

I wonder what comes into mind when you think about God’s word. Tozer famously said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Psalm 119 is telling us the same is true when we think about God’s word. Here is a trustworthy saying deserving of full acceptance: You can measure a person’s opinion of God by his or her opinion of God’s word. God’s word is an extension of God Himself, so your thoughts about it reveal your thoughts about Him. A person who loves God loves His word, and a person who rejects God rejects what God has said.

THE “ENOUGHNESS” SCRIPTURE

Here then is the first implication we as a church, and you individually, must see from Psalm 119: God’s word is enough. It has the power of life and so it is enough. We dare not be surprised that God’s people are regularly tempted to slide away from the the sufficiency – the “enoughness” – of God’s word. Understand dear church that the Serpent is desperate for you and us to believe it’s not enough. To tempt us to think life is found somewhere else – anywhere else! If we run away from the fountain of life we must know that we are actually into the desert of death. Is God’s word enough for you? Enough to give you life?

This post is adapted from my recent sermon on Psalm 119 entitled, “The Word of God.”

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Sounds from the Stone Pavement

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In Mark 15:1-20 we come to the final hours of our Lord Jesus as he stands at The Stone Pavement on trial before Pilate.

It is a part of Mark’s gospel familiar to Christians and non-Christians alike. And thus we must recognize that danger lurks in these pages. The danger is that such familiarity constrains our ability to be freshly affected. Spurgeon, when preaching on this text, said, “I hope that you will not be wearied with this subject. If so, it will be the fault of the preacher, for the subject is always full and fresh. Or if the preacher is not to blame, there will be something of censure due to his hearers. If we grow tired of the story of the Cross it will be a sad indication of secret soul-sickness.”1

In God’s good kindness He calls us to look to His word so that our soul-sickness and soul-slumber might be exposed.

THE SOUL’S ALARM CLOCK

For have you ever considered how much the truth of God’s word is like a spiritual alarm clock for the soul? Through His work God speaks and summons us to life and joy because of Christ’s sacrifice. He calls us to wake up! And the sound of this alarm in Mark 15:1-20 has two primary beats on which I want to meditate as we close.

The Stone Pavement calls for reckoning with Christ. We see in Pilate the reality that fascination with Jesus doesn’t equal faith. He is amazed and interested at Jesus, but when the cries of the worldly crowd get loud he figures its time to be done with the supposed king. Some of you like Pilate and the crowd need to reckon with the truths of Christ. He is no mere man to be amazed at, He is the King who demands your faithful allegiance. Every day the enemy of mankind and Lord of mankind call you to a reckoning, whom will you follow? False saviors that make promises they never can fulfill or the Savior who Himself is the greatest promise? Let your reckoning with Christ then lead to the second sound.

The Stone Pavement calls for thanksgiving in Christ. I’ve always wondered what Barabbas did the rest of that Good Friday. Did he make the walk up to Calvary later that afternoon and watch as the Christ was crucified in his place between his friends? Or did he walk away only to give occasional thought to the man who was his substitute? Church, let us acknowledge that so often we do the latter. We walk away from the glorious substitution of Christ and only infrequently remember what He did. Oh, but the every time the gospel is announced it is like a Thanksgiving holiday for the soul! The church’s corporate gathering is a weekly summons to consistent thanksgiving, for it is here we sing and hear the good news. And is there any greater ground for gratitude than this gospel of substitution?

He took the accusation.

He took the condemnation.

He took the humiliation.

And gave you salvation.

Hear the King’s silence before Pilate, see the King’s substitution for Barabbas, feel the King’s shame at the battalion’s mockery, and come to a reckoning with Christ that leads you to thanksgiving in Christ. What joyful news we have and herald: The Son was shamed for sinners.

The post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Savior’s Sentence.”

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  1. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1644. ↩
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3 Truths About the Lord’s Supper

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In Mark 14:22-25 Jesus gathers with his disciples to eat the Passover meal just hours before the pawns of darkness convey a criminal court to silence Jesus.

In God’s great providence, the silence of the cross became the means by which God’s salvation would be shouted to the ends of the earth. God loves to use small whispers to shout His glory and what we get to look at tonight is that most blessed of whispers, the Lord’s Supper.

What was formerly a celebration of Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt will become a remembrance and celebration of Jesus’ new-exodus deliverance of his people from the power of sin and Satan. And it’s in that transformation we see this truth: The Lord’s Supper shouts forth the grace of our Lord’s sacrifice.

3 ASPECTS OF THE SUPPER’S ANNOUNCEMENT

When traditional food of the Passover meal was brought in – unleavened bread, bitter herbs, fruit, greens, and stewed lamb – was brought in the youngest person would ask the traditional question, “Why do we eat these foods on this night?” In reply the father would recount the story of God’s grace in the Exodus. After singing Psalms 113-115 and just before the meal itself, the plate of unleavened bread was lifted up, a prayer of thanks was said, and then the bread was distributed.

This bread was normally eaten in silence, but notice how Jesus interrupts the tradition in 14:22 and says, “Take; this is my body.” First, we see that the Lord’s Supper is a gospel announcement. He is saying, “I am the Passover bread,” feed upon me and live! Roman Catholics have historically believed that in the Lord’s Supper Christ is literally re-sacrificed for sin, but that misses the point of the text. Jesus is saying that when we take the bread, we hold in our hands not a literal sacrifice, but a symbol of His body that was sacrificed on our behalf.

In 14:23 He takes a cup, gives thanks, and then hands it to the disciples and look at what Jesus says in 14:24, “This is my blood of the covenant.” Second, the Lord’s Supper is a covenantal announcement. That phrase “blood of the covenant” would have been engrained in the brain of every Jew. It comes from Exodus 24 where Moses instituted the first covenant by throwing blood upon the people. Luke 22:20 records Jesus saying that this cup “is the new covenant in my blood.” The New Covenant prophesied in Jeremiah 31, where God promised to write His law upon His peoples’ heart, to open their eyes in the knowledge of Him, and forgive all their sins, and Jesus says this covenant is about to dawn through His death. Just as God ratified the Old Covenant through a meal with His people in Exodus 24, He ratifies the New Covenant through a meal. The covenant is realized and sealed by Christ’s blood, which 14:24 says, “is poured out for many.”

If you’ve read the entire Bible you’ve likely noticed how blood runs over almost every page. Our faith is a blood-bought and blood-wrought faith. Those who escaped Egypt in the first Exodus only did so if the blood of a lamb was smeared over their door. Throughout the Old Testament blood literally flowed out of the Temple as animals were sacrificed to pay the penalty for the sin. Jesus tells us He is the fulfillment of all the blood-sacrifice shadows of old; His blood was about to be shed once and for all to pay for sin and deliver His people in the new-exodus. The gracious blood is symbolized in the cup of the Lord’s Supper.

Maybe you are reading this and are not a Christian, you need this blood of Christ to cover your sin. It’s only through faith in this blood that your sins, which are now leading you to eternal death and judgment before a righteous God, can be washed away. His blood was spilled on the cross so sinners like you and me might be restored to relationship with God. Will you trust in His blood today? The old hymn has it right:

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Finally, the Lord’s Supper is an eschatological announcement. Yes, I know that’s a big word, but oh how good it is! Look at what Jesus says in 14:25, “Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” The cup announces that a time is coming when Christ will finally establish His eternal kingdom and feast forever with His bride, the church. This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 that when we take the Lord’s Supper we proclaim His death until He comes back. So in the Lord’s Supper is satisfyingly unsatisfying. These are just tastes, spiritual rations of the feast we wait for and long for.

COME AND FEAST!

I recently watched the movie Gravity, which is almost entirely about one astronaut suspended in space and trying to make it back to earth safely before time runs out and she dies. The movie’s plotline was sufficiently tense, but what really captured my attention was the stunning pictures and sights of our planet just hanging there in outer space. Maybe you are like me and such sights stir your soul in fresh ways to appreciate the grandeur of God’s creation. And stir it did, for about eighteen hours. At some point the next day the toils of life were quenching out that fresh wonder at God’s power.

Isn’t our awe at the majesty of Christ displayed on the cross much like this? There are periodic times where we get a fresh glimpse of His powerful love, but so often the cares of life quench out the amazement. But oh how kind our God is! He knows our weakness and gives us the means of grace to continually refill our souls with astonishment at His glory. The Lord’s Supper is one such means. It is a visible sermon, one that preaches the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. This is why we take it every single week, because we need to be reminded of the gospel, Christ’s covenant with sinners, and the news that He is coming back.

What a meal this is! Do you see its wonder and importance? Do you plan your week in such a way to make sure you can come to this Table? Families who love each other are families who regularly eat together. Do you feel a sense of loss when you are not with the gathered church in this act of worship? It ought not to be possible for Christian to miss the corporate worship of God and not miss the corporate worship of God. Can we be honest and acknowledge that we often have a small view of this Supper’s power? That we so often delight more in the trivialities of this world and so will forgo a meal with Christ. I have prayed this week that God would elevate our love of Christ and longing for Christ to such a degree that we move heaven and earth to commune with Christ through the word, prayer, and Supper each Saturday night.

– This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Savior’s Passover“, on Mark 14:12-31.

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New Life & Heavenly Conduct

New Life in Christ

Ephesians 4:25-32 represents a syllabus of sorts regarding life in the school of heaven.  We might simply say these eight verses show us that heavenly conversation and conduct mark new life in Christ.

On Monday we looked at heavenly conversation and today we want to look at heavenly conduct.

THE CONDUCT OF CLOTHING

Have you ever noticed how often clothing can transform conduct? If you don’t know what I mean, just keep your eyes open on Halloween.  You might see a child, or even an adult, dressed in a pirate costume and trying to talk like a pirate.  You might see a teenager dressed as Harry Potter waving around some stick as though he suddenly has attained magical power because he put on a normal white shirt and tie, and a black cape.  We could keep going, but I digress.

Is it not true that clothing can sometimes causes you to feel awkward, or confident, or ashamed, or maybe out of place? Clothing often transforms conduct.

This is the point Paul wants to get across when he tells us that putting on the new self means that we put on the new clothes of Christ righteousness.  And that new clothing must truly transform our conduct. We see him detail this new conduct in verses 4:26-28 and 4:30-31.  The first area of conduct that Paul addresses is anger.

PUTTING ANGER TO BED

26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil.

Notice that Paul doesn’t come out and condemn anger, it is as though he sees it some appropriateness to anger.  It’s useful to know that Paul is quoting from the Greek version of Psalm 4:4 in which we find David angry at Israel’s idolatry.  It is possible to have righteous anger: anger at God being robbed of the worship that he is due, or anger at the hideous and offensive nature of sin.  But I would add that this anger should always be mixed with righteous grief.  The one instance where Jesus is said to get angry is Mark 3:5. Jesus was in the synagogue on the Sabbath about to heal a man’s withered hand and the Pharisees would have none of this happening on the Sabbath day. It says, “Jesus looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.”  Righteous anger is to be upset and grieved with idolatry and sin.

What then is unrighteous anger?  You don’t have to look very far, just look down to verse thirty-one, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” Paul gives us five different words to show us the nature of sinful anger.  Sinful anger is filled with bitterness, wrath, clamor (which is yelling, brawling, or shouting indicating a lack of restraint), slander (profane or abusive speech), and malice (viciousness).  So let us look in the mirror and see whether or not our anger is righteous or unrighteous.  Does the name of Christ being profaned and the horrific consequences of sin cause us to get angry?  Or is our anger more of the shouting, abusive, and vindictive sort?  If we are honest, it probably is the latter category.

Paul hastens to add that anger ought not last long, for he says, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Anger must be dealt with quickly and hastily because if it is not, we give an opportunity to the devil.  Let’s pause for a second here and notice the power of this truth.  Unchecked and unrepentant sin gives Satan an opportunity, a place or foothold.  Think about it this way.  Have you ever tried to close a door and then someone sticks his foot in the doorway?  As long as the foothold is there, that door will not shut.  To shut the door the foot must be removed or broken.  That’s the only way.  To knock off Satan from His place as the tyrant dictator of the dominion of sin, he must be removed or broken.  Such a thing happens only when we plead for the blood of Christ to cover our sin and for His righteousness to break the chains of sin and Satan.  After dealing with anger Paul moves on to the issue of stealing.

AWAY WITH STEALING & GRIEVING

28Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Instead of stealing, the thief redeemed by Christ is to work hard and earn an honest wage.  Did you notice the purpose of earning an honest wage? So that he may have something to share with anyone in need. The Christian is not only marked by diligence and discipline in labor, but he uses his income to support and care.  In short, the Christian is generous.

30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Paul doesn’t give us a positive thing to put on here; rather he only shows us the negative, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” Once again Paul is drawing from the Old Testament, and understanding this not only helps clear up a verse that is often quoted out of context, but it reinforces Paul’s emphasis on walking as a heavenly people.  Here Paul is echoing Isaiah 63:10.  As he reviews God’s gracious actions, he looks back to the exodus and recounts how Yahweh brought his people out of slavery and into a covenant relationship with him.  Yet, despite such grace the nation of Israel, “rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.” So here we see again, Paul addressing the new creation covenant community who has been sealed for the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance.  And he instructs the Ephesians and us to not be like the Israel of old who fell into continual idolatry and sin, but we are to walk in complete faithfulness before our God.

CONDUCT THAT LOOKS AND SOUNDS LIKE HEAVEN

Finally, notice the final, positive exhortations of 4:32.

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

In the place of these six sinful actions, we are instructed to put on kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.  As people forgiven by God, so to we must forgive.  This is heavenly conduct isn’t it?  Paul calls us to be a people marked by righteousness, diligence, generosity, faithfulness, kindness, and forgiveness.

In the school of heaven we learn that not only is our conversation is to sound like heaven, our conduct is to look like heaven.

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New Life & Heavenly Conversation

New Life in Christ

In Ephesians 4:25-32 we find Paul giving the Ephesians a syllabus regarding life in the school of heaven.  The text unfolds a magnificent structure for our new life in Christ. These eight verses offer a series of twelve commands pointing the church to a glorious reality: Heavenly conversation and conduct mark new life in Christ.

In this post I will simply focus on the exhortations to heavenly conversation found in verse twenty-five and twenty-nine. Later this week I will try to show how the other seven verses give us a glimpse into the conduct of heaven.

HEAVENLY CONVERSATION

You may wonder why I am using the adjective of heavenly.  “What in this text speaks of heaven?”  The answer is actually quite hidden within verse twenty-five and is easy to miss.  But it is an answer that provides a firm foundation for eight verses filled with twelve imperatives.

25Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Paul says because you have put off the old self and put on the new self (therefore), let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor.  In this command, speak truthfully, we find the answer to why I am saying that Paul instructs the Ephesians in heavenly conversation.

The exhortation to speak the truth is a quote from Zechariah 8:16 where the prophet says, “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another.”  This is the first in a series of commands that immediately follow divine promises regarding the New Jerusalem. Through Zechariah, God is telling us what kind of people His children are to be in the new heavens and new earth. So the first command Paul gives is an echo from Zechariah that was originally given to the people of God who would dwell with him forever in the New Creation, in heaven.  And doesn’t this beautifully fit with what has come before in Ephesians?

Chapter two tells us that Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, and God has created one new man, one new body in Christ Jesus.  We are later told that, in Christ we have put of the old self and put on the “new self, created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”  In short, Ephesians repeatedly reveals the in-breaking of the New Creation.  Although it is not yet here in its fullness, it is already here in part.  Thus, Paul tells us right from the outset, “You are a heavenly people who are to be marked by heavenly conversation.”  And speaking the truth marks heavenly conversation for we are members one of another.

Let us now look at verse twenty-nine to see what else is to mark heavenly conversation.

HEAVENLY MEANS GRACE-FILLED

29Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

The word corrupting was used to refer to rotted wood, diseased lungs, rancid fish, withered flowers, and rotten fruit. Rotten, diseased, rancid, and withered talk belonged to the old self, but now we are instructed to speak in the opposite manner with words that are good for building up.  Our language is to edify and benefit those who hear it, as fits the occasion.  And isn’t this quite difficult, to speak edifying words at the right moment and in the right way?  Far too many of us are little concerned to wisely discern what other people need to hear from us with our words.  What Paul is telling us here is that heavenly conversation begins with wise listening.

Oh this is so hard!  I have the sometimes useful, but often cursed gift of being able to totally tune people out.  A week never goes by where my wife does not tell me that I wasn’t listening to her.  Heavenly conversation builds up as fits the occasion, so that it may give grace to those who hear.  Our words are to be saturated with and steeped in grace.  As salt seasons whatever it touches, so to must grace season our conversation.  Verses twenty-five and twenty-nine tell us that heavenly conversation is marked by truth, wisdom, and grace.  Truth, wisdom, and grace.

WIELDING THIS NEW CREATION WEAPON

This text reminds us of two realities. First, it cannot be mere coincidence that Paul the first specific thing Paul deals with regarding our new life in Christ is our tongue.  For we all know that there is nothing more telling about the condition of our heart than our tongue. After all, out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  Thomas Brooks said, “The tongue is the nimble interpreter of the heart. If there be piety or iniquity at the bottom of your hearts, your tongues will discover it . . . What is in the heart will be in the mouth.”  Our tongues tell of our true heart.

Second, we are reminded of the tongue’s power.  It has the ability to corrupt and tear down, and the ability to edify and build up in grace. Brooks likened its power to a razor saying, “The tongue is often like a sharp razor, that, instead of shaving the hair, cuts the throat.”  It is designed to sooth, clean, comfort, and brighten, but one small misstep can result in great pain.

The New Creation renovation has dawned upon Christ’s church. And it’s a renovation heard in our heavenly conversation.

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Two Movements from Sovereign Strength

Faith and Prayer

In Mark 9:14-27 Jesus comes down from the mountain of Transfiguration to find a demonically-possessed, epileptic boy. In yet another compassionate display of His sovereign Lordship casts out the demon and restores the boy to health.1

Sometime later that day the disciples ask Jesus in 9:28, “Why could we not cast it out?” Remember back in chapter six that the twelve received authority over evil spirits and had successfully driven out many demons before this incident, so why their failure now? Jesus answers in 9:29 by saying, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” It seems that the disciples took for granted the power given to them or they thought was inherent now in them. So they no longer prayerfully depended on God for His power and they revealed their lack of faith. There is something in the disciples’ lack of prayer and lack of faith worthy of meditation.

I love symphonies and classical music. Last week as I was writing this sermon a particular song came on that moved me with its unusual grandeur. We might think of Mark’s gospel as a symphony that is sounding for the strength of this Savior with elegance and power as it moves towards the crescendo at Calvary. And does this symphony move you? Let’s consider two ways, from our text, in which this Savior’s strength should move us.

Two Movements from the Savior’s Strength

First, the movement of faith. This text is all about the power of Christ over the forces of darkness and the faith that power demands from us. In 9:19 He rebukes the lack of faith permeating the crowds and scribes; in 9:23 He says all things are possible for those who believe; in 9:24 the boy’s father cries our, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And the unique thing about this text is how it commends small faith. It tells us that small faith in this strong Savior is enough. The father’s faith was small, but it was still enough for Christ to respond with strength.

Let us remember that salvation depends not on the strength of our faith, but on the strength of the one our faith is in – the one who saves. An illustration might be helpful here.

Several weeks back we had our boys at a playground and I set them up high on ledge and said, “Alright, jump to Daddy.” I’m sure many of you have done the same. Hudson only needed a little prodding to take the leap of faith. He’s done this before and knows that Daddy will catch him. Owen however is smaller, the jump looks much bigger, and he really hadn’t jumped from this height before. He didn’t want to do it at first and it took quite a bit of prodding, but he eventually held his breath and jumped with a shaking little body of fright.

What they placed their faith in (my ability to catch them) mattered more than how vibrant their faith was. The same is true when it comes to believing in Jesus. It’s not the quality of our faith that saves, but the object of our faith – Jesus Christ – that saves. Also, it’s not we see from this text that it not as though God requires a certain strength of faith to welcome any who would believe. Mark 9 reminds us that true faith in Christ, no matter how small it is, is still enough because it falls on this sovereign and strong Savior. See the strength of Jesus and be moved to faith. The second movement in our text is . . .

The movement of prayer. Prayer is little more than faith turned towards God. Both faith and prayer testify that spiritual power is not in us, but in God, and both wait upon His promise to answer. Growing faith will lead to growing prayers. For us as a congregation, we long to be filled with faith in our Sovereign God. One way we show our faith is not only in the fact that we pray often, but that we love to pray often. What then does your practice of and delight in prayer say about your faith? It is not stretch to say that all of us would probably say that our prayer life reveals a faith smaller than we would hold. Rather than fall into the serpent’s condemnation on this point, let’s be encouraged to cry out, “Father, help my unbelief!”

The second half of Mark’s gospel is consumed with Jesus’ mission to suffer and die, and the disciples inability to understand this mission. The exorcism of Mark 9:14-29 highlights the disciple’s spiritual weakness and lack of faith, but thankfully it doesn’t leave us with only negative deficiencies. It shows up the priority of faith and prayer in following Christ. Let us crowd around Him in faith collectively, come to Him in faith individually, and call on Him in faith, beholding His power and remembering: Small faith in this strong Savior is enough.

  1. This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Savior’s Healing,” on Mark 9:14-29. ↩
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Cross Centered Epitomes

Cross Centered

This is an excerpt from my recent sermon on Mark 8:27-9:1 entitled, “The Savior’s Demand.“

In 8:34 Jesus called “the crowd to him with his disciples,” indicating that what is about to follow is for all disciples, not just The Twelve. He says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself . . .” Self-denial here does not mean the mere resistance of material desires. It means the complete renouncing of self – ceasing to make self the central focus of one’s life. “. . . and take up his cross . . .” Cross bearing doesn’t refer to putting up with irritations or annoyances in life, but it involves the path to crucifixion. It was normal procedure for the condemned person to carry the crossbeam of the cross from the place of judgment to the place of execution. Crucifixion was view as the most ignoble of deaths. To bear the cross, thus meant obeying to the point of humiliation, extreme suffering, and death. “. . . and follow me.” Jesus is simply saying, “My path is your path.” I will suffer and die, you must be willing to follow in my footsteps. This is what disciples must do.

Understand how radical this would have been for the disciples to hear. They understood Jesus role as Messiah to be one of political victory and triumph, they probably were thinking they’d soon have seats of honor next to His throne when He overthrew the Roman Empire. But Jesus said He would suffer and so they must be willing to suffer. Each of these phrases were like little sticks of dynamite blowing up the disciples’ notions of what it meant to come after Jesus.

8:35-38 now gives us four statements that put some practical meat on the theological bones of 8:34. Notice how each verse begins with the word “for”:

  • 8:35: For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
  • 8:36: For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
  • 8:37: For what can a man give in return for his soul?
  • 8:38: For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

We need to see two ways these verses reason unto us a rethinking of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

  1. Cross-centered discipleship demands us to rethink confession versus denial. 8:35 and 8:38 are linked on this point. It would have been a powerful temptation to the 1st century Romans Mark originally addressed to deny Christ in order to save their life. But Jesus is saying denying Him here on earth means losing Him there in eternity. So, confessing faith in Christ here – no matter the cost –means gaining Him there.
  1. Cross-centered discipleship demands us to rethink humiliation versus honor. Sin, Satan, and the world call you to strive for honor here and forego any humiliation at being associated with Christ.  But Jesus turns that notion on its head in 8:36-37. Would you flee the humiliation that often comes from believing in Christ to gain honor in this world, but in so doing forfeit your soul? Jim Elliot surely right to say, “He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

Simply put, cross-centered discipleship will ordinarily demand earthly loss for eternal gain, and that pursuit flies against the common goal of “the good life” – saving one’s life and gaining the whole world. I wonder tonight what occupies your mind most, earthly profits or eternal pursuits? Are you striving for the honor of this world more than the humiliation that comes with faithfully following Christ? Are you quicker to confessing Him as Lord or hide your Christian convictions?

The section concludes with a somewhat puzzling statement, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” It seems best to understand that Jesus is referring to what comes next in Mark’s gospel, which we will study next week, the Savior transfigured in glory on a mountainside.

Slowly but surely, Jesus is moving the disciples from being spectators to being participants. Participation means seeing who Jesus is, seeing what Jesus must do, and then seeing what disciples must do.

A CROSS CENTERED CHURCH

Do you see the centrality of the cross in this passage? In 8:31 Jesus says His Messiahship is necessarily barreling towards the cross. In 8:34 He says discipleship is summed up in self-denial and cross-bearing. Christian life and mission is all about a cross – the cross of Jesus Christ. This is thus necessarily true about a Christian church. Let’s begin to close by considering what this text tells us about a cross-centered church:

A cross-centered church knows Jesus intimately. It all begins with a confession of Christ, seeing Him clearly, knowing Him intimately. Faithfulness to Christ depends on accurate knowledge of Christ. If we are to be church that displays and declares God’s glory we must be about knowing Jesus intimately. One practical outflow of this truth is that we would be a people who help each other grow in our knowledge of the Savior. We would make it our delight to help our spouses, children, and fellow church members know the Savior intimately. That knowledge would lead to the second point . . .

A cross-centered church follows Jesus sacrificially. Jesus clearly assumes that His followers would suffer, be rejected, and even die. Faithful obedience requires sacrifice. In our culture that might not be the sacrifice of our lives, but it could mean the sacrifice of money, time, relationships, or reputation. Those sacrifices will ordinarily stem from our third point . . .

A cross-centered church proclaims Jesus eagerly. We are to model the plain, yet bold, teaching of Christ in 8:32. A crucified and risen Savior is the gospel that saves; it’s good news so glorious that we must proclaim it. It must be the sum and substance of our gathered worship time, but also the aim of our daily conversation.

Know Him intimately, follow Him sacrificially, and proclaim Him eagerly; three regular responses of a cross-centered church.

GOODBYE TO SELF-CENTERED LIVING,
HELLO TO CROSS-CENTERED LIVING

One of my favorite theologians is a Scotsman named John Murray. He was the youngest of eight with five older brothers and two sisters. When World War I came his older brothers were some of the first called to service. The unspeakable grief, for the families of such summoned men, is hard for us to capture today. When Murray’s brother Tommy was called to France his father said, “Goodbye Tommy, I’ll never see you again.” And Tommy indeed never returned home alive.

Jesus, the King of Kings, has called His people to Himself, opened their eyes, and is summoning people to the war of the ages as they follow Him. It’s a summons that demands we say, “Goodbye self, I’ll never see you again.”  He came to die that we might live and now calls us to the same, die to self that we might live to Christ. Because He went to the cross we are to carry a cross. Christian life and mission is all about a cross.