Teaching Luke

I've been spending my time this week getting to grips with the big picture of Luke's Gospel. As I've been doing so I've come across these videos from William Taylor, Rector of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate in London. William gives some helpful thoughts on how to understand Luke on his own terms and how to begin thinking about preaching or teaching the Gospel. Well worth a watch.

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Tuesday Teaching| When I Don't Desire God (3)

We come to the third and final talk in John Piper's series on how to fight for joy in God. You can listen by clicking here.

Anti Santy Ranty

Tuesday Teaching| When I Don't Desire God (2)

Here's part two of John Piper's series 'When I don't desire God', which looks at how we battle for joy in Him.

You can listen by clicking here.

Judgment, Salvation, the Living and the Dead

Tuesday Teaching| When I Don't Desire God (1)

Over the next three Tuesdays I am going to post a series of talks from John Piper looking at how we battle for joy in God.

You can listen to part 1 by clicking here.

Why Memorise Scripture?

Tuesday Teaching| Brothers, we must not mind a little suffering

Charles Simeon was, for many years, the minister of Holy Trinity church in Cambridge. Throughout his time there he endured faithfully under much suffering and opposition.

John Piper has given a helpful biographical sketch of Simeon, where he examines what it was that kept him persevering in the midst of his trials, and draws out lessons to be learnt today.

You can listen to the talk by clicking here.

Good Habits or Legalism

Some challenging words from John Piper on one lie about prayer that we're prone to believe:

But the hard truth is that most Christians don’t pray very much. They pray at meals—unless they’re still stuck in the adolescent stage of calling good habits legalism. They whisper prayers before tough meetings. They say something brief as they crawl into bed. But very few set aside set times to pray alone—and fewer still think it is worth it to meet with others to pray. And we wonder why our faith is weak. And our hope is feeble. And our passion for Christ is small.

The Duty of Prayer

And meanwhile the devil is whispering all over this room: “The pastor is getting legalistic now. He’s starting to use guilt now. He’s getting out the law now.” To which I say, “To hell with the devil and all of his destructive lies. Be free!” Is it true that intentional, regular, disciplined, earnest, Christ-dependent, God-glorifying, joyful prayer is a duty? Do I go to pray with many of you on Tuesday at 6:30 a.m., and Wednesday at 5:45 p.m., and Friday at 6:30 a.m., and Saturday at 4:45 p.m., and Sunday at 8:15 a.m. out of duty? Is it a discipline?

You can call it that. It’s a duty the way it’s the duty of a scuba diver to put on his air tank before he goes underwater. It’s a duty the way pilots listen to air traffic controllers. It’s a duty the way soldiers in combat clean their rifles and load their guns. It’s a duty the way hungry people eat food. It’s a duty the way thirsty people drink water. It’s a duty the way a deaf man puts in his hearing aid. It’s a duty the way a diabetic takes his insulin. It’s a duty the way Pooh Bear looks for honey. It’s a duty the way pirates look for gold.

Means of Grace: Gift of God

I hate the devil, and the way he is killing some of you by persuading you it is legalistic to be as regular in your prayers as you are in your eating and sleeping and Internet use. Do you not see what a sucker he his making out of you? He is laughing up his sleeve at how easy it is to deceive Christians about the importance of prayer.

God has given us means of grace. If we do not use them to their fullest advantage, our complaints against him will not stick. If we don’t eat, we starve. If we don’t drink, we get dehydrated. If we don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies. If we don’t breathe, we suffocate. And just as there are physical means of life, there are spiritual means of grace.

"...my studies are just beginning."

Augustine, was one of the greatest theologians in church history. One writer describes him as having "...by far the greatest influence on the beliefs, practices and spirituality of Western Christianity." Even with all the learning and understanding that God graciously gave Him, Augustine never got bored of the Bible. In fact,it was quite the opposite. The more he studied and understood the more of an appetite he had for Scripture. In a letter he says this about the Bible:

There is such depth in the Christian Scriptures that, even if I studied them, and nothing else, from early childhood to worn-out old age, with ample time and unflagging zeal, and with greater intellectual ability than I posess, I would still each day find new treasures within them. The basic truths necessary for salvation are easily found within the Scriptures. But even when a person has accepted these truths, and is both God-fearing and righteous in his actions, there remain so many things which lie under a great veil of mystery. Through reading the Scriptures, we can pierce this veil, and find the deepest wisdom in the words which express these mysteries, and in the mysteries themselves. The oldest, the ablest, and the most eager student of Scripture, will say at the end of each day: "I have studied hard, but my studies are just beginning."
 

This stands as a challenge to us when we're tempted to think that we've 'mastered' the Bible. Or when we begin to think that we, pretty much, know what it all says. Let us be those who are ever saying, "My studies are just beginning."

Happy Reformation Day!

It was Saturday October 31st 1517. Martin Luther, a theology professor at Wittneberg University, was 33 years old. With a piece of paper in his hand, he walked over to the Castle church in Wittenberg, and nailed it to the door. In God's providence, this simple act became a key moment in church history. It was the moment that sparked the reformation into flame.

Today is reformation day. It is the day that the reformed church remembers Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, and gives thanks to our God for the impact of the reformation.

There have been quite a number of articles posted today on the significance of this simple act.

On the significance of what Luther did:

• What was Luther doing when he nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg door - Justin Taylor
• It's Reformation Day! - Justin Holcomb

On the doctrine at the heart of the reformation - Justification:

• Five Key Concepts in the Reformation Understanding of Justification - Kevin DeYoung

On lessons to be learnt for today from Martin Luther:

• 9.5 Theses on Martin Luther Against the Self-Indulgences of the Modern Church - Carl Trueman

And Finally...

• 9 Things you should know about Halloween and Reformation Day - Joe Carter

After Darkness, Light

A Certain Desperation

Recently Justin Taylor interviewed Dale Ralph Davis, who's written a number of excellent Old Testament commentaries. One of the questions he asked him was about the role of prayer in Biblical interpretation. Davis gave a very helpful answer, and is equally applicable both to those who are preparing to teach the Bible to others and those seeking to read it for themsleves. Here is what Davis said on the role of prayer in Biblical interpretation:

There’s not much I can say here except that the temptation I run into is ignore it. I’ve been so happy to run into the following quotation from Owen:

For a man solemnly to undertake the interpretation of any portion of Scripture without invocation of God, to be taught and instructed by his Spirit, is a high provocation of him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who thus proudly engages in a work so much above his ability.

I originally came across this quote in Richard Pratt’s He Gave Us Stories. All I can say is that’s where I have to come back to again and again. It is very easy for me to start in and pull the books off the shelf and so on and dive into the Hebrew text and not give even a thought to specific prayer about that. I’ve done that before and you’re in the middle of it and you think “Boy, what a Godless approach this is. Here I am dealing with syntax and interpretation and I haven’t even really sought the Lord’s face about it.” I know it is the proper thing to say—”you need to pray before you prepare”—but there needs to be a certain desperation about this which I’m not sure we normally have. Again, all I can really say is that I seek to catch myself in this area and repent and go back to that point and then start over again.

Memorising the Bible

Over at the Briefing, Jean Williams has a very helpful series of articles on memorising Scripture. You can read them by clicking the links below:

• Part 1: "Why you shouldn't memorise Bible verses."
• Part 2: "A three-course banquet of Bible memorisation."
• Part 3: "A smorgasboard of Bible memorisation methods."
• Part 4: "The delightful results of memorising the Bible."

Tuesday Teaching| Jude (2)

Here is the second sermon in a two part series in the book of Jude with Dick Lucas. It is a while since I posted the first, so I have included the links to both sermons. Enjoy.

• Part 1
• Part 2

Jesus' 'Wife'?

Did Jesus have a wife? Over the last few days the story has been breaking of the discovery of an ancient text which makes reference to Jesus having a wife. This new manuscript (or more correctly, a fragment of a manuscript), now called The Gospel of Jesus' Wife, is supposed to include the words '...Jesus said to them, "My wife...'.

What are we to make of this discovery? The media, loving a sensational conspiracy, has billed it as proof that Jesus was in fact married, and that this casts doubt on the reliabiblity of the New Testament. However, the reality is that the discovery is far less sensational than the media would have us believe. The authenticity of this manuscript is still in question. Even if it was proved to be genuine it does not prove that Jesus was married, nor throw doubt on the Gospels, because it would have been written much later than the New Testament. It does not provide us with reliable historical information. In short, this discovery does not change much. All it tells us is that possibly some people at a much later stage claimed that Jesus was married. Lots of people have claimed all sorts of false things about Jesus down through the centuries. The fact that people have held to things that the Bible does not teach, does not lead to the Bible being proved unreliable.

A couple of helpful, and much more trustworthy, reports on the story have been written by Simon Gathercole at Tyndale House, and by Michael J. Kruger at the Gospel Coalition. You can read them by clicking on the links below.

• Did Jesus Have a Wife - Simon Gathercole
• The Far Less Sensational Truth About Jesus' Wife - Michael J. Kruger

A Praying Church?

Sinclair Ferguson was interviewed about what concerns him about churches today. What concerned him most was the lack of prayer and corporate prayer in the church. He says this:

Again there is the lack of prayer and of the Church praying. This is to me the most alarming, for this reason: we have built apparently strong, large, successful, active churches. But many of our churches never meet as a congregation for prayer. I mean never! What does that indicate we are saying about the life of the Church as a fellowship? By contrast, the mark of a truly apostolic spirit in the church is that that we give ourselves to prayer and the Word together (Acts 6:4). No wonder “the Word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied” (Acts 6:7). If this is so, it should not surprise us that while many churches see growth, it is often simply reconfiguration of numbers, not of conversion. I greatly wish that our churches would learn to keep the main things central, that we would learn to be true Churches, vibrant fellowships of prayer, Gospel ministry and teaching, genuine mutual love. At the end of the day, such a Church simply needs to “be” for visitors who come to sense that this is a new order of reality altogether and are drawn to Christ.

 You can read the whole article here.

 

 

How do I decide what to read?

 The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us that "Of making many books there is no end.." (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Therefore, we need to be both discerning and selective about what we read. How then do we decide what to read? Here are some thoughts from John Piper on how he decides what to read. You can listen to the short interview, or read a transcript by clicking here.

Personal Prayer and Killing Sin

J. I. Packer writes: "The activity by which the Christian directly secures the mortification of his sins is prayer". What does this look like? In this helpful short video Packer unpacks further what he means by this.