I’ve long thought that David Platt is a wondrously faithful model of how to preach God’s word. He handles Holy Scripture with reverence, clarity, passion, and joy.
Back in 2009 Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary invited Platt to speak on the topic of “For the Glory of God: Theological Foundations for Text-Driven Preaching” at their annual expository preaching conference. The lecture is full of unction and help for ordinary preachers like myself.
In preparing to preach this Saturday on Acts 6:1-7 I’ve found the apostles’ prioritization on prayer freshly challenging. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be, right? Which one of us would ever say we don’t desire to grow in devotion to prayer? I need to hear—surely I’m not the only one—this apostolic conviction again and again, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
Thinking about Acts 6:4 always reminds me of a Spurgeon lecture entitled, “The Preacher’s Private Prayer.” His opening volley to the students will arrest any pastor’s attention. With typical confidence the Prince proclaims,
Of course the preacher is above all others distinguished as a man of prayer. He prays as an ordinary Christian, else he were a hypocrite. He prays more than ordinary Christians, else he were disqualified for the office which he has undertaken. “It would be wholly monstrous,” says Bernard, “for a man to be highest in office and lowest in soul; first in station and last in life.” Over all his other relationships the pre-eminence of the pastor’s responsibility casts a halo, and if true to his Master, he becomes distinguished for his prayerfulness in them all.
You’ll really want to read the rest here—pastoral and spiritual gold awaits. It may just be the most challenging and encouraging thing you do today.
One of the greatest things a pastor can do is read books that stretch his soul. These books may be outside his ordinary field of interest or they may be more academically rigorous than what he usually reads in theology. Such reading gives the soul godly flexibility and knowledgeable capability.
To this end I’ve found it helpful to identify a few series of books worth serious investment—of time and money. Last week I came across a new series from Zondervan that looks fantastic, “New Studies in Dogmatics.” The editorial team of Michael Allen and Scott Swain say,
New Studies in Dogmatics follows in the tradition of G. C. Berkouwer’s classic series, Studies in Dogmatics, in seeking to offer concise, focused treatments of major topics in dogmatic theology that fill the gap between introductory theology textbooks and advanced theological monographs. Dogmatic theology, as understood by editors and contributors to the series, is a conceptual representation of scriptural teaching about God and all things in relation to God. The source of dogmatics is Holy Scripture, its scope is the summing up of all things in Jesus Christ, its setting is the communion of the saints, and its end is the conversion, consolation, and instruction of creaturely wayfarers in the knowledge and love of the triune God until that knowledge and love is consummated in the beatific vision.
The series wagers that the way forward in constructive theology lies in a program of renewal through retrieval. This wager follows upon the judgment that much modern theology exhibits “a stubborn tendency to grow not higher but to the side,” to borrow Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s words from another context. Though modern theology continues to grow in a number of areas of technical expertise and interdisciplinary facility (especially in both the exegetical and historical domains), this growth too often displays a sideways drift rather than an upward progression in relation to theology’s subject matter, scope, and source, and in fulfilling theology’s end. We believe the path toward theological renewal in such a situation lies in drawing more deeply upon the resources of Holy Scripture in conversation with the church’s most trusted teachers (ancient, medieval, and modern) who have sought to fathom Christ’s unsearchable riches. In keeping with this belief, authors from a broad evangelical constituency will seek in this series to retrieve the riches of Scripture and tradition for constructive dogmatics. The purpose of retrieval is neither simple repetition of past theologians nor repristination of an earlier phase in church history; Christianity at any rate has no golden age east of Eden and short of the kingdom of God. Properly understood, retrieval is an inclusive and enlarging venture, a matter of tapping into a vital root and, in some cases, of relearning a lost grammar of theological discourse, all for the sake of equipping the church in its contemporary vocation to think and speak faithfully and fruitfully about God and God’s works.
While the specific emphases of individual volumes will vary, each volume will display (1) awareness of the “state of the question” pertaining to the doctrine under discussion, (2) attention to the patterns of biblical reasoning (exegetical, biblical-theological, etc.) from which the doctrine emerges, 3) engagement with relevant ecclesiastical statements of the doctrine (creedal, conciliar, confessional) as well as leading theologians of the church, and (4) appreciation of the doctrine’s location within the larger system of theology as well as its contribution to Christian piety and practice.
Our prayer is that, by drawing upon the best resources of the past and with an awareness of both perennial and proximate challenges to Christian thought and practice in the present, New Studies in Dogmatics will contribute to a flourishing theological culture in the church today. Soli Deo Gloria.
Every time one of our children goes in for their annual checkup our pediatrician will humorously—yet carefully—work through a “Development Report Card.” Haddon’s 18-month report card said in the Development Comments, “Great job at growing up.” He evidently achieved all of the medical milestones.
Have you ever considered how concerned God is with our spiritual development and growth in godliness? Over the last four months we’ve journeyed as a people through the book of 1 John and the apostle has given us a clear chart on what kind of spiritual growth ought to be normal in our life together. We know he wants us to have growing assurance, and as we begin to close I want to think about from our text particular marks of growing assurance. Three marks by which we can examine our corporate growth.
Growing trust in God’s word. I told you all the way back in January, when we started our series in this letter, that John is surely an apostle for our time. In an age that demands acceptance of virtually every view, an age that up until just recently celebrated doubt and rebelled against absolute truth, John speaks with total, trustful certainty. The drumbeat of our text and his message is, “We know.”
Where might you be tempted to doubt God’s word? Are there any truths, commands, or promises where you are not taking God at His word?
To grow in assurance is to have growing trust in God’s word. A second mark is . . .
Growing confidence in God’s spirit. Our text says “everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning,” and that Jesus “protects” us and “has given us understanding.” All of this happens through the work of His Spirit. Are you confident in God’s spirit? Is secret sin threatening to undo you? Is consistent weariness stealing hope? John means to inject our souls not only with ever deepening trust in God’s word, but ever increasing confidence in the Spirit who resides in us.
A final mark of growing assurance is . . .
Growing joy in God’s son. This is the chief mark. John said in chapter one that one reason he wrote this letter is so that “our joy may be complete.” John continually defends the truth of Christ and exalts in the glory of Christ because, as 5:20 says, “He is the true God and eternal life.” What brings you ultimate joy? What person, place, or people—no matter the difficulty plaguing you at the moment—can seem to lift your spirit in an instance? Oh, how I long for us to increasingly say, individually and corporately, “Jesus is our supreme joy.”
Growing assurance means growing trust in God’s word, growing confidence in God’s spirit, and growing joy in God’s son.
This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Love of Assurance,” on 1 John 5:13-21.
I love to read. 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.
Lord willing, tomorrow night at IDC we will finish our spring sermon series on the book of 1 John. Here are some brief thoughts on the 1 John commentaries I finished this week.
Epistles of John (NICNT) by I. Howard Marshall. If you’re familiar with the NICNT series you know it tends to be a bit more technical in nature, but Howard Marshall’s work on 1 John is full of pastoral warmth. That’s probably because the epistle on which he comments is full of pastoral sensibility and exhortation. Marshall strikes the appropriate balance in the apostle’s teaching between truth and grace/ word and spirit. Highly recommended.
1-3 John (BECNT) by Robert W. Yarbrough. Every sermon series I’ve ever preached found me purchasing—unknowingly—at least one commentary that was, quite frankly, turgid. For me, Yarbrough’s was that one for 1 John. The simplest of truths get untold paragraphs of focus and so it’s no surprise to find yourself drowingin the detailed analysis of John’s more difficult sections. Now, I’m not against detailed attention in biblical commentary. Yet, Yarbrough’s volume in the BECNT—a series I love—is an example of losing the forest for the trees. Preacher, don’t do the same in your exposition of 1 John.
The Letters of John (TNTC) by John Stott. To read a John Stott commentary is a dangerous endeavor for preachers. If you don’t have your own outline of the passage before reading Stott’s commentary, chances are you’ll always be taking his–he’s just that good. This brisk volume in the Tyndale series has the two hallmarks of Stott on full display: precision and concision. If you are thus a preacher who tends to be wordy in your explanation, Stott will be a valuable addition to your study.
The Letters of John (PNC) by Colin Kruse. I always knew it would happen. At some point I was bound to find a volume in the Pillar New Testament series and offer a summary sigh of, “Meh.” I didn’t find the pastoral care in Kruse I so love in many of the other Pillar volumes. Also, the flow of his commentary is too frequently stilted by an “excursus” I think would have been better left woven into the verse-by-verse exposition. I’m sure some will disagree and find the theological rabbit trails useful. Looking back through its pages, this book has few underlined sentences after a first read. Somewhat disappointing.
The Message of John’s Letters: Living in the Love of God (BST) by David Jackman. You can always expect a BST volume to have devotional tenderness and Jackman didn’t disappoint in his commentary on 1 John. Although I did find his commentary somewhat losing steam by the end and thought some of his expositional divisions were odd, his word is worth the money for a preacher. I regularly found Jackman providing an unusual depth of illumination into the text with winsome turns of phrase and thought-provoking outlines. Good work!
The Epistles of John (Boice Expositional Commentary) by James Montgomery Boice. I love the ministry of James Montgomery Boice and have long thought him to be a model of a pastor-theologian. Unfortunately, his expositional volume reminded me of Yarbrough’s a bit as Boice frequently divides the text into such minute sections he misses John’s larger argument. However, Boice must be commended here for characteristic clarity in instruction and moments—albeit more sporadic than you’d expect—of homiletical brilliance.
Letters of John (NIVAC) by Gary Burge. I’m sure every preacher has affinity for a particular format in the commentaries he reads (I mean, does anyone like the format of the “Word Biblical Commentary?”). I’ve long found the NIVAC’s formatting to be a bit frustrating as it moves from ancient text, to bridging context, and finally to contemporary application. I was thus somewhat astonished to find Burge’s volume on 1John the most homiletically helpful of the whole bunch I read! He offers numerous exegetical insights, yet doesn’t complicate the simplicity of John. Burge also manages to squeeze out inordinate amounts of heart-searching application from each passage. I generally judge the commentaries I use for exposition by the “Preaching Factor”; i.e., “Does this book fan into flame a desire to preach the text at hand?” The best commentaries are sermonic fire-builders and Burge’s volume ignited a flame each week.
Click here to find other entries in the Recent Reads series.
For almost seven years now it’s been a great privilege to call Matt Boswell a friend and partner in the gospel. We served on staff together at Providence Church before we planted IDC in 2013.
I’d say about seventy percent of the songs we sing at IDC are hymns of old. The remaining thirty percent include many songs Bos has written for the church. It’s thus a wonderful day when we can celebrate a new Boswell release. Just this week Bos gave Christ’s church another rich EP entitled Messenger Hymns Vol. 2.
“God Omniscient, God All Knowing” has long been a personal favorite and is a quintessential “call to worship” song. “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery,” “O Church of Christ, Invincible,” and “God the Spirit” are some of our congregation’s favorites.
You can stream the seven songs below and then go buy the album on iTunes.
Pastoral ministry is one of maturing the members (cf. Col. 1:28). Christian maturity depends on teaching (Matt. 28:20), but we also know that much discipling work is more frequently caught than taught. One thing a faithful pastor should want his members to catch from his model is the joy of singing.
Few threads of Christian experience are as woven through all of Scripture as the role of singing. It’s a consistent command (cf Ps. 96:1), the immediate response to redemption (Ex. 15), a mark of a Spirit-filled life (Eph. 5:19), and one of the glories of heaven (Rev. 4-5). Our God is a singing God (Zeph. 3:17) who commands and creates a singing people.
Our churches thus need pastors who visibly and audibly exemplify this singing life. Here are two simple ways you can do this.
Sing passionately during your church’s gathered worship. This is quite simple for we one-service-only churches, and it’s a bit more tricky for multiple-service churches. Here’s why: if you have multiple services you might be tempted to join in the singing during only one service while skipping out on the others. For years I’ve seen pastors sit in “the green room” during the singing portion of corporate worship, only coming into the room to preach. I used to be on staff at a church where this was the usual practice. If you’re in the green room as much—or more—than you are out among the congregation during the church’s songs know that you’ve missed out on a sweet opportunity. Not just an opportunity to join in the joy of singing, but to model that joy before your people.
There is something powerful in a pastor sitting at the front of the room and singing with passion. It’s surely true that many church members take occasional, maybe even regular, glances at the pastor during worship to see what he’s doing. Oh, I pray when they look they don’t see a pastor fixated on his sermon notes. I pray they don’t see a pastor seemingly indifferent to the glory of song. I pray they don’t see a pastor talking with staff members or church members more than he sings. What does all that communicate to watching eyes? Singing is not of much value to the pastor. And if it’s not much value for him, why should it be for Mr. Church Member?
What’s better, much better, is for the congregation to see her pastor or pastors singing with passion. Passionate singing means praising God in spirit and truth with volume, expression, joy, and knowledge.
Sing often at other church gatherings. Don’t let the only time your church sings together be the weekend’s gathered worship service. Sing at men’s meeting, women’s meeting, members’ meeting, and prayer meetings. Encourage your small groups to sing one or two songs whenever they meet. I’ve recently been considering how to best incorporate singing into elders’ and deacons’ meetings. If we want to be a singing people we ought to be singing at every station of church life.
My hope in this post is simple: to see more preaching pastors model the singing life before their people. Let us not relegate the joys of singing to those peculiarly gifted in voice or instrument. God’s given us a voice—however out of pitch it frequently may be—to sing praise to His name and model joy in song for out people.
Apply God’s word and grace wherever it’s needed on this issue. Then go sing with unusual heavenly joy before your people this weekend.
Martin Luther said oratio, meditatio, and tentatio (prayer, meditation, and trial) are the indispensable ingredients for proper theological study.
For years I’ve labored as a pastor convinced of Luther’s laws, but to tell the truth, I’ve only experienced two of them with any regularity. Prayer and meditation have been faithful friends, yet trials has been something of a distant relative—until last fall. Tentatio knocked on my door around November and he seems to have taken up an extended residence in my life.
Our season of suffering arrived when one of our deacons found out his third child would likely not survive many hours outside the womb. God’s hand of providence took baby Eli home a few months before his due date and we wept together. Death struck again just ten days ago when a beloved church member’s heart unexpectedly failed in the middle of the night and his earthly pilgrimage came to an end.
In between we’ve watched another dear member waste away before our eyes as cancer ravages his body. We’ve counseled church members with immediate and extended family members passing away. We’ve walked through instances of secret sin seeking to steal souls and mar relationships. We’ve prayed with brothers and sisters in Christ whose bodies are failing. The storm clouds of suffering still hover overhead.
I’m thus getting a first sense of how trial teaches and shapes not only our theology, but our church’s life together. Tentatio is indeed a faithful tutor when it’s married to faith in Christ. Here are the sweet lessons we’ve feasted on these last few months.
Suffering has brought us greater unity. Like soldiers fighting in a foxhole together creates unusually strong relationships, so too does suffering together bring peculiar unity to a church. Many relationships now have a strength from shared suffering that I doubt could have come in any other way. Intercessory prayer is more active. Concerns of mercy and benevolence, already large, seem to burst forth at every corner. It’s quite difficult to let petty differences and disputes reign when death is moving. Which leads to the second lesson . . .
Suffering has brought us joyful perspective. We’ve learned afresh that life is short, death is real, and pain is great. Yet, oh how kind God is to comfort us in grief! These are principles many of us have heard about and endured separately, but now have experienced them together. We’ve seen how God’s promises take on new significance when suffering strikes. The ministry of God’s word becomes ever sweeter. The songs of the saints rise with greater volume. The vaporous nature of life is more keenly felt. This renewed perspective is a means to what is the ordinary walk of a Christian this side of heaven: joy in suffering.
Suffering has taught us the unshakeable power of God’s word. Without the truth of Scripture, what meaning can we find in suffering? Without God’s self-revelation, how can we know how Christ relates to our pain? Without God’s word, where would we find hope and strength?
What I’ve seen—maybe most acutely—over these last few months is what happens when a church lives in, around, and under the Truth. The Word is everything to God’s people. Like Luther famously said in another place, “The word did it all.” God’s word is the ballast in the boat of our corporate life.
Seasons of suffering, like the one we’re in, are times when our corporate boat sails through storms of Satan’s fury and death’s wrath. Our enemies sling their greatest waves our way and mean to tip us over. What will we do? Grieve we will, but fall we won’t, for our Lord has conquered death. What is left for God’s people is to stand on the truth of God’s word and in the victory of God’s Son.
And so we sail towards the heavenly city with confidence and certainty in spite of the storm, for nothing can assail God’s power delivered through His ordinary means. This is what tentatio has taught us.
Over the last week or so we’ve been doing some of our favorite work at the Stone home: decluttering. Now, we didn’t even have a cluttered home to begin with; if anything could properly be called clutter it would have been my study sagging with books. I find unique satisfaction and contentment in that which is simple.
I’ve found myself—as we’ve studied 1 John—often thinking about John as something like the apostle of “declutterment.” He continually puts before his readers the simple, yet essential truths of authentic Christianity. And this is so helpful for us. We live in a world of near endless possibility, in a culture that celebrates near limitless potential, and thus we can easily be tempted to do everything. Yet, we will eventually discover our attempts to do everything only bring great complexity and clutter. This is temptation can creep into the church as well. How easy it is to do so many things in the name of God that we lose focus on God.
So as we begin to wind down our time, let me mention a few thing our text tells us about a simple corporate fellowship.
A testimony-driven fellowship. “This is the testimony, that God gave us . . .” It’s an amazing thing, isn’t it? God entrusts His word, which is His testimony about His Son, to His church. His testimony is what dictates, directs, and drives His people. Just as a car moves forward when you step on the accelerator, a church moves forward for God’s glory when it’s devoted to God’s testimony. This is why we a praying in 2015 for unusual devotion to gathered worship, for here we rally around God’s testimony together in song, prayer, sermon, and sacrament. What drives and directs your personal life? Family life? John tells us it must be God’s testimony.
A faith-filled fellowship. When God’s testimony goes out, God means for His people to receive it and believe it—to be full of faith. As God’s testimony grow, faith grows and so fear, anxiety, and worry diminish. Have you ever considered how worry and doubt increase when you live apart from God’s testimony? God’s word is what the Spirit uses to stir up faith.
Where a testimony-driven fellowship leads to a faith-filled fellowship, we can expect thirdly the church will be . . .
An alive-to-Christ fellowship. “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life.” Life flows into a church in so far as it joyfully concentrates on Christ. The testimony is about Christ, the faith is in Christ, and so life come from Christ. What is it that most excites you or enlivens you? What is it that most animates us as a church? Oh, may it increasingly be the glory of Christ, for life is found in Him alone.
Simply authentic fellowships aim for three basic things: devotion to God’s testimony, growth in faith, and increasingly love toward Jesus.
Why should you believe God’s word? Because Jesus’ baptism, cross, and spirit shout forth its truth. What happens when you believe God’s word? You find life in Christ. Let us then take God at His word.
This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Love of Life,” on 1 John 5:6-12.
“Although every preacher must both woo and warn, the most regular note should be of wooing more than warning, more of the carrot than the stick, more of the beauty of holiness than the ugliness of sin, more of drawing Christ than highlighting the danger of the Devil, more of the attraction of heaven than the fear of hell.
“Let’s present Christ to our congregations or to our children and colleagues in all His glory. Let’s show them how much Jesus is willing and able to save and how much He desires and delights to save. He does not save because He has to but because He wants to and enjoys to.” — David Murray, The Happy Christian, 38.
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