Category Archives: Sermon Excerpts

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What’s as Good as Christ’s Presence?

Word = Presence

The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

In John 4:46-54 Jesus heals an official’s son from a distance and reveals one of the sweetest realities about the power of His word: Christ’s word is as good as Christ’s presence.

Jesus merely said, “Go, your son will live,” and the cure was done. Good Bishop Ryle said, “Christ only commanded, and the deadly disease stood fast.” Do you feel the comfort from this truth? What value it gives to every promise that ever came from Christ. If you have laid hold of some word of Christ, you have set your feet on the solid rock. What Christ spoken, He is able to do. What He has undertaken, He will accomplish. You can trust in this Christ. Luther says it well, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” Oh, see how faith in Christ’s word can be the source of faith for every circumstance you find yourself in . . .

  • If you are fearful. Remember Isaiah 43:2, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”
  • If you are struggling with temptation. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability . . . he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
  • If you are fighting sin. Remember Micah 7:9, “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
  • If you are without Christ. Remember Romans 10:9-13, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved . . . For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Faith receives and rests on the word of Christ; a word that is His powerful presence in our lives.

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Ministry for the Victorious King

Psalm 47

The Psalms have long occupied a special place in the life of the church, and for good reason.  John Calvin called the Psalms “an anatomy of the soul” because throughout the 150 psalms in our Bible we find the full range of the human experience.  There is a Psalm for every emotion that we experience.  But of course Psalms are not merely emotive, they actually contain some of the richest theological expressions in the entire Bible.

Today I want to consider Psalm 47, a short and powerful song extolling our glorious king.  There is debate on the original situation and setting for this psalm, but the main point is clear: God is king over the nations.  So it is a song of exultation and celebration, but a prophetic and eschatological dimension also marks it, as the psalmist longs for the full establishment of God’s rule on earth.

Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.
3 He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
4 He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah

What we see, right from the outset, is that this psalm is one of incredible joy.  As the people of Israel sang this song they would have done so with great volume and expression.  To think upon the glory of God as our king is a meditation that throughout the Bible – and in this psalm – leads to two reactions: 1) praise, and 2) fear.  Both reactions are clearly seen in 47:1-2.  Because He is the Lord, the Most High (Yahweh Elyon) he is to be feared. The title of God being “a great king” would have been significant during the time when Israel sang this song. Kings in the ancient Near East loved to designate themselves by this title because with it were associate superiority and supremacy. Any king assuming this title could not tolerate competition. So it is with God, He is the Great King over all the earth.

In the first four verses we also see four reasons to praise God: 1) Joy in His character, 2) joy in His reign, 3) the triumph of the Gospel, and 4) the love He has for His children.

5 God has gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm!

The early church often sung this Psalm on Ascension Day because it celebrates that God has gone up.  Therefore He is worthy of our song and the repetition of verse six simply reminds us of how appropriate and normal it is for God’s people to sing.

8 God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
9 The princes of the peoples gather
as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
he is highly exalted!

God’s ascension into heaven and his rule over the earth emphasize the universality of His reign, He reigns over the nations.  That He is seated on His holy throne means that He is altogether different from other gods.  He alone is King and He alone is God.  Verse nine is incredibly important as one writer mentions, “The history of divine salvation is consummated within the psalm’s field of vision.”  We are told the princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. Remember God’s covenant with Abraham, His promise that all the nations would be blessed through Abraham.  The psalmist is prophetically thinking of a time when all the nations would gather as the children of Abraham.  And so we have come to the centrality of Christ in our psalm.

  • Who subdued the nations and the peoples?  We are told that Jesus did through His cross and victory over the grave (Col. 2:17; Rev. 20:3).
  • Who ascended on high to reign? Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18-20).
  • Who sits on His holy throne exercising rule and dominion? Jesus (Rev. 5:6-13; 7:9-17).
  • Who secured blessing for the nations and welcomes them as children of Abraham? Jesus (Gal. 3:7-9).
  • Who is to be highly exalted? Jesus (Rev. 5:7-13).

God’s reign as the victorious king of the universe finds its consummation in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  So let us clap our hands, shout with loud songs, sing praise, and exalt our King of Kings!

PSALM 47 AND THE PASTOR

So how might this psalm uniquely impact the life of a minister?  Three couple of things come to mind:

  1. Let your ministry be centered on Christ. He is the center of the Psalm and the climactic concentration of history. Therefore, His current and coming kingdom must preoccupy our preaching and shepherding. If His kingdom advances through His church we would do well to lay up Christ at the center of all our ministry.
  2. Let your ministry be focused on mission. Throughout this Psalm we see that God, through Jesus, reigns over the nations.  Therefore, He is to be feared.  The reality of His reign is a terror to those apart from Christ for God reigns over them as a judge.  Yet His reign is wonderfully sweet and comforting to His children for He reigns over them as a loving father.  So we cannot ever lose the focus of making disciples in our ministry.  Every person that we encounter exists under the lordship of Christ and we want to serve him or her in such a way that they, through faith, come to exalt the one true, holy, and great God.
  3. Let your ministry always have an eye to the nations. Throughout Psalm 47 we see the universal scope of God’s reign: He is “a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet . . . God reigns over the nations; The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God.” The reality of God’s universal reign should encourage us to serve with the nations in mind.  What might that look like?  First of all, not forgetting that the area we currently find ourselves in, is part of the nations.  We want to see His reign extended where we live.  But we also want to disciple people to have the heart of Christ, which is a heart for the nations.  We want to pray regularly for the nations to come to Christ.  Revelation 5 tells us that Jesus has secured salvation for every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. So we ought to long for the consummation of this work and participate in the completion of this work.

In summary then, Psalm 47 is an exciting encouragement for your ministry to be focused on Christ, the victorious King of the nations.

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A Portrait of Purpose

Pray and Preach

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” – Mark 1:35-38

In 2010 The Museum of Modern Art hosted artist Marina Abramovic’s performance entitled “The Artist is Present.” For 736 hours she sat immobile in the museum’s atrium while spectators were invited to sit across the table from her. It essentially was an artistic staring contest, but photographers captured incredible shots of people responding with laughter, smiling, and crying to the Serbian’s stares. It’s a fact that we all know from experience, staring at someone ordinarily evokes a response and the response can often be more pronounced than one would have guessed.

Stop and stare at the Savior here in Mark 1:35-38 and those few mornings hours after the Sabbath day. What do you see? What response is bubbling to the surface? What I see in this portrait of Jesus is a pattern for God’s people to hear and heed: Communion with God fuels mission for God. We find in our text Jesus praying, resisting, and preaching and all three points have something essential for us to see tonight as we meditate on the truth that communion with God is essential to mission for God.

3 RESPONSES TO JESUS’ EARLY WAKE UP CALL

First, see the priority of prayer. The start of His ministry has been a resounding success; His authority currently captivates everyone. They clamor for His presence and power, and what is His immediate response? He withdraws to a desolate place in order to pray. Let’s just think about Jesus’ practice of prayer that we observe in the gospels. When He was baptized we are told he was praying (Luke 3:21). When he was transfigured, we are told that His face was transformed as he prayed (Luke 9:29). Before He appointed the twelve disciples, Luke tells us He tells us He continued all night in prayer (Luke 6:12). After feeding the five thousand all the people want to crown Him as king, but He leaves them in order to pray (Mark 9:23). In the moments leading up to His betrayal, arrest, and eventually crucifixion we find Him crying out in prayer. Our Lord is consistently is found praying, it was a priority that fueled His mission.

We would be wise here to be challenged and encouraged by His devotion to prayer. In commenting on this passage, JC Ryle said, “Here is the pulse of our Christianity, here is the true test of our state before God.” How healthy is the pulse of your Christianity? What can we say about those who pray little, what’s the pulse of their Christianity? Let’s confess that this is most of us.  We understand the value of prayer and can even recount blessings untold we have received at the throne of grace, but we progress slowly. What might our prayerless reveal? If prayer, as modeled by Jesus Christ is little more than an act of humble dependence, then prayerlessness is little more than an act of independence. Jesus was dependent on God for strength, wisdom, and assurance, and so He prayed. Might our small progress in prayer be rooted in a soul that finds greater joy in independence from God than dependence on God? We need to see first of all the priority of prayer and . . .

Second, see the pitfall of preoccupation. The disciples cried out, “What are you doing out here praying? The people need you.” We observe here, and will find similar occasions all over the gospels, that a recurring pitfall for Jesus’ mission on earth was preoccupation with earthly concerns. The people’s concern was with health and happiness, not with the King’s demand for repentance and faith. The disciples’ preoccupation with these things not only interrupted Jesus’ communion with God, but also threatened His mission for God. Jesus shows us that no one makes progress in communion with God or mission for God that is not schooled in self-denial. If your life were shot as a documentary for all to see, what preoccupations would the audience see? Any preoccupations that interrupt communion with God or threaten you mission for God? See the priority of prayer, the pitfall of preoccupation, and for this text, most centrally. . .

Third, see the primacy of preaching. This was Christ’s mission, to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Preaching was the God-ordained means to extend the kingdom of grace, and preaching remains the God-ordained means to extend the kingdom of grace. Have you ever thought about how incredible this truth is? That God builds His kingdom on the authority and power of His word? Not through signs and wonders, but through the gospel being preached to the ends of the earth!

Every weekend the church gathers and the element of our worship that gets the most extended time is preaching. You come each week and primarily get to sit and listen to someone speak to you. It’s strange is it not? 1 Corinthians 1:18 says that preaching seems foolish to the world. But let it not be foolish to us! The preacher may not be gifted and the sermons may be meager offerings, but it is God’s chosen grace to extend His kingdom. How then do you think about this chosen grace? Do you even think of it as God’s grace to you? Your commitment to and delight in hearing the word in your church’s gathering is a pretty good place to start your evaluation.

The people in the first century may have thought the Messiah would spend His earthly ministry keeping up the priestly institutions and ceremonies, like the great high priest Aaron. Many thought He would rule and reign in the manner of the great King David. But this Savior defied all expectations and conventions of the day. From the moment of His arrival to the moment of His death, He could be heard preaching, for that is why He came.

Stopping and staring at this portrait of the Savior will evoke a response. Let our responses be renewed interest in the priority of prayer, greater awareness at the pitfall of preoccupation, and strengthened delight in the primacy of preaching. However unexpected this scene was to the 1st century disciples, may the truth of this scene not be unexpected or unfamiliar to us, that communion with God fuels mission for God.

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Don’t Miss This Savior

No One Like Jesus

“And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.'” – Mark 1:271

Back in my soccer days I as able to travel all over the world.. I have been to virtually every country in Europe, but such truth can be deceiving. Weeks spent training and playing in these countries meant that we became familiar with their landscape and culture, but rarely got to experience that landscape and culture. Our lives were eat, sleep, and play soccer. Familiarity didn’t lead to experience.

And we need to understand that it is easy for us to fall into the same trap when encountering Jesus. We can be familiar with the gospel stories and teachings of Jesus, but never experience who He really is. Familiarity is necessary, but not equal, to experiencing Jesus. Mark 1:21-34 is in our Bible to show us not only the kingdom’s advance, but also the absolute uniqueness of its King. Mark is in pain for us to see this one simple truth about Jesus: This Savior is unlike anyone you have ever heard or seen. In many ways, every gospel writer recounts the life and ministry of Jesus so that everyone would get that truth. You could make it the main point of almost every gospel passage. But is clearly is the main point of Mark 1:21-34. The people are amazed and astonished, bringing all the sick and demon possessed to him, because He has an authority they have never experienced before. In order that we see the utter uniqueness of Jesus, I want to give you three things from this text that you cannot afford to miss.

Don’t miss the aim of Jesus. The “whole city” gathers at Jesus’ door, not because they recognized that He is God’s Son and Savior, but because it is rumored that a miracle worker has come in their midst. Jesus had come to preach repentance and the nearness of the kingdom, but the people think only of relief from pain and affliction. They failed to see that the healings and deliverances were windows into who Jesus was, the true Son of God. You are not supposed to stare at windows, but stare through windows. The people should not have stared at the miracles, but through the miracles, for the miracles attest to the identity of Jesus. See the miracles of Christ and look through them to the One performing them.

There is something important for the church in this passage.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “The authentic task of the church is not primarily to make people happy; it is not to make people healthy; and it is not even to make people good. The church, of course, is concerned about making people good, and that they should be happy; yes, but that is not her primary function . . . Her essential task is to restore men to the right relationship with God.” It wasn’t Jesus’ primary aim to make people happy and healthy, it was to restore them to a right relationship with God. So, firstly, don’t miss the aim of Jesus, secondly . . .

Don’t miss the assault on Jesus. He shows up in the synagogue, teaching with authority, and quite literally, all hell breaks loose. There is no more dangerous place in town that where the truth of Christ meets dead, devilish religion. Never forget that the world is not friendly to the authoritative truth of Christ. If you are under assault for loving the truth of Christ, you have a friend in Christ. The devils of this world and dead religions of this world assault the authority of this Savior. By dead religion, I want you to see the religious leaders there in the background of the synagogue, leaders who will soon come to the forefront in the opposition of Christ. Men, who knew their Scriptures, but did not know God. They were dead in religion and couldn’t handle the truth, so they wage war against it. This text calls us to remember that one can know the truth and yet be unconverted. Might you be familiar with Jesus and yet still not know Him as your Savior? I invite you to examine your heart before Him and see if you have truly placed your faith in the one who is the Savior for sinners. He didn’t come for us to be merely familiar with Him, which leads to the final thing we cannot miss . . .

Don’t miss the astonishment at Jesus. Jesus’ authority astonished and amazed the people who encountered Him for the first time; He “blew their minds.” To behold this Jesus is to be struck with the holy mixture of fear and wonder. When was the last time you beheld Jesus and were astonished? Amazed? Left in holy fear?

Jesus’ is establishing God’s kingdom, and in the process we see that He is the teacher, deliverer, and healer. Let us not miss the aim of Jesus, the assault on Jesus, and the astonishment at Jesus. For this Savior is unlike anyone you have ever heard or seen.

  1. This post is adapted from my sermon “The Savior’s Authority.” ↩
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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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3 Traits of a Disciple-Making Church

A Disciple-Making Church Slider

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-201

For the last twelve months or so I have been engrossed in studying the Cold War. We could say that the Cold War was a clash of cultures – capitalism on one side and communism on the other – and certain components contributed to each culture. A capitalist economy is based on private ownership, private profit and free competition. It encourages private individuals to own businesses and make profits. A communist economy, on the other hand, is controlled by the government. A country’s wealth and resources are owned by the state or government. The state controls and plans all economic activity so that everybody benefits.

Every culture has unique components. I believe the Great Commission calls the church to have a disciple-making culture. A disciple-making culture is the product of many different components or traits. Here are three . . .

THREE TRAITS OF A DISCIPLE-MAKING CHURCH

First, a prayerful trait. Earlier in Matthew Jesus talked about how the fields are ripe for the harvest, but the laborers are few. What should his disciples then do? “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Faithful disciple-making is marked by a prayerful disposition before the Lord of the harvest. I wonder if you have ever noticed how Paul often calls churches to pray for him, that doors would be opened for him to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. Our sovereign God is not only the one who saves sinners, but sends His laborers to proclaim that salvation. Thus, disciple-making people are praying people. This is a reason why, at our church, we pray so much in our gathered worship and spend much of our time praying for things outside of our body. This is why we regularly post links to Operation World to encourage our members to pray for the nations each day. Let us also be encouraged tonight to let our prayers have a particular accent on the glory of God being made known to all nations.

Second, an intentional trait. Disciple-making is ordinary Christianity. Like learning to count and say your alphabet in the natural realm, there is scarcely any part of the Christian life where discipleship does not touch. In his wonderful article Disciple-Making is Ordinary Christianity Erik Raymond provides the following examples of intentionality in disciple-making:

  • Intentional disciple-making happens when a guy wants to be married but doesn’t have a game-plan for how to go about it. He asks another brother for guidance and help. This brother takes him out for lunch and talks through some biblical and practical principles. He then commits to pray for him, to be available for questions, and to meet occasionally to talk about his progress.
  • Intentional disciple-making happens when a mom with two toddlers drops something off that she borrowed from another sister at church. During the exchange they get to talking and the young mom expresses her feelings of fatigue and failure to measure up to her perceived standards of motherhood. The other woman listens to her, reminds her of Scripture, prays with her, and then continues to come alongside of her for encouragement in the gospel.
  • Intentional disciple-making happens when a brother notices another brother is running hard after his job and neglecting his family and ministry. He comes alongside of his brother to remind him of the true and lasting treasure, and the proper perspective on work.
  • Intentional disciple-making happens when a mom is at the park with her children. At one point the kids become unruly and she patiently, graciously but faithfully, disciplines her children. There are many watching eyes around her. Both the believing and unbelieving women are intrigued. Conversations begin and soon the fruit of the Spirit points to the matchless worth of Christ.
  • Intentional disciple-making happens when a home-school mom breaks away with free time only to go to the same coffee house hoping to make new friends and open doors for sharing the gospel.

So, faithful disciple-making includes a prayerful trait and an intentional trait.

Thirdly, a disciple-making church will have a sacrificial trait. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” That means that Jesus is Lord over every one of our lives and therefore has the right to do whatever He wants with our lives. You often may hear someone say, “I have decided to make Jesus the Lord of my life.”  Now that statement is often a sincere way of professing truth faith in Christ, but at a certain level it’s not true.  For Jesus says that he is already the Lord of your life. You didn’t really have a choice in the matter. The real issue is not if Jesus is Lord of your life, but if you will submit to His lordship over your life. Will you do it now or will you do it after it’s too late? What does it mean to surrender to the lordship of Christ? It means that we have surrendered – we have sacrificed – every right to determine the direction of our lives. No longer do we get to call the shots in our lives.  Men, if you have surrendered to Christ you no longer have the authority to call the shots as to what career you have, what you do with your money, in what direction you lead your family. As your Lord Christ looks at those rights and says, “Mine.” The glorious news from Matthew 28 is that we know what Jesus wants to do with your life, He wants you to make disciples of all nations! The sacrificial trait comes into play when His Lordship calls you to sell a house to give the money for a church plant, to take a job in a foreign country to be a Christian businessman bearing witness to our Lord and King, to leave the DFW to help with a church plant in another state, or to take the gospel to an unreached people group that are so hostile that you may lose you life in the process.

He is Lord of your individual body and Lord of this collective body. In what ways might he be calling you and calling us to live sacrificially for the glory of Christ in all nations?

Christ’s authority, command, and presence call us to be a disciple-making church. Those things ought to stir up within our midst prayerful, intentional, and sacrificial head, hearts, and hands. Henry Martyn, the great missionary to India said,  “The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, and the nearer we get to Him the more intensely missionary we must become.” He promised to be with us to the end of the age, therefore a faithful church will be “intensely missionary.” Prayer, intentionality, and sacrifice are aids to such a disciple-making culture.

  1. This post is adapted from my sermon “A Disciple-Making Church.” ↩