Eat, Drink, Rest

We become weak when we don't drink, eat and rest. Growth happens when we receive and rest. So, "...Let anyone who hears, say, 'Come!' Let the one who is thirsty come (Rev 22:17). Let the one who desires take the water of life freely" says Christ and His bride.

This morning a friend from my Catechism Review course asked me a very good question: "How do you grow, spiritually?"

I love the question and I love the word that the Bible uses to describe the process by which we become more mature and increase: "Grow". Peter says, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..."

 The concept of growth is a mysterious thing, but at the same time, a natural one. When we're growing we don't necessarily notice it. Humans don't notice when they're growing physically besides possibly experiencing a little discomfort. They don't do things to make themselves grow, they just do, organically.

Listen to how St. Paul describes the cause of our growth as believers: "11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. 14 Then we will no longer be little children..." (Ephesians 4).

The Lord has provided us the means of grace (see Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 26 (http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/lang/lords-days/26.html) by which we grow and develop. Pastors and teachers are quite literally God's gifts to His body to provide us with those means, primarily the Word (the Gospel we hear) and also, the sacraments which are visible, tangible representations of the Gospel: The Bread of Life that nourishes you, the Water that washes you, the Wine which satisfies you.

Biblical Theology: Seeing Christ

In the preface to Clowney's book, The Unfolding Mystery, J.I. Packer writes, "Biblical theology is the umbrella-name for those disciplines that explore the unity of the Bible, delving into the contents of the books, showing the links between them, and pointing up the ongoing flow of the revelatory and redemptive process that reached its climax in Jesus Christ." If you're like me, maybe you grew up with expository preaching taught without a proper context. Line by line is a wise approach, only as much as the lines are placed in the context of the whole. Stories, analogies and imperatives lifted out of Scripture and broken off from the overarching story of redemptive history, can leave the listener listless and even despairing. To remain faithful to an accurate understanding of Scripture, Christ must be sought out and seen, whether in the types and shadows of the Psalms and Prophets or in the plain speech of St. Peter. If we fail to see Jesus, we've missed the point. All of Scripture breathed out by the Holy Spirit, points to Him: The Serpent Crusher of Genesis, the Seed of Abraham, the Everlasting King in the line of David. Find Him and you'll find treasure. Some great resources for Biblical Theology: Michael S. Horton: God of Promise Edmund P. Clowney: The Unfolding Mystery Graeme Goldsworthy: Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture Graeme Goldsworthy: According to Plan Nancy Guthrie: Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament (series).

Reformation Theology: A Warning and A Word of Encouragement

Some of you are new to Reformation theology. Please be aware that as you mingle on social media, there are all kinds of people who claim to be Reformed, Reforming or Calvinistic/Sovereign Grace in their theology. Some of them are flat out heretical, denying the historic, orthodox creeds, and others are nothing more than IFB pietists who sprinkle on a little Calvinistic language for show. Please be careful. 

If Christ is not the centerpiece of their religion, if you're pointed to your naval or a heaping helping of directives and imperatives, you're not hearing Christianity. You're hearing the religion of the world that seeks to earn God's favor by what humans do in the name of God, rather than looking outside of ourselves to what God has done in Christ for us. This kind of thinking and teaching will drive you to despondency.

Listen to the Law... Discover your fallenness and need of a gracious Christ. Then listen to His marvelous Gospel... Nothing in it but the promise and fullness of rest, peace, joy and love. Bask in it. Christ is beautiful.

I am particularly excited to discover Reformation Anglicanism. I've been listening to Ashley Null and Michael Reeves, Justin Holcomb (Episcopalian), Chuck Collins, Curt Benham, and of course, our friend and mentor, John Fonville. They all seem to have one thing in common... a joy to make the love of Christ known to weary sinners. Listen to them. They have salve for the wounded and hope for the sinner.

Resurrection Day 2020

Jesus' resurrection is essential to Christian doctrine, being a crucial element of the Christan Gospel.
But it is also a *historical event, a fact documented and attested to by hundreds of eyewitnesses.

Of this event the Apostle Paul wrote, "For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to

Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me." (I Corinthians 15).

This event was predicted and prophesied throughout redemptive history; the promise to Eve of a Serpent Crusher, who would defeat sin and the grave (Genesis 3) and the One of Whom Moses spoke, the Great I Am. Jesus pronounced Himself the "I Am" throughout John's Gospel, and testified of Himself, "I Am the resurrection and the life."

Today marks the day when the church universal especially recalls the Passover lamb, the promised Serpent Crusher, the promised Messiah rising from the dead declaring to the world the Father's "Amen" to the Son's "It is finished." His sacrifice: His life of perfect, perpetual, personal obedience and His substitutionary atoning death has won the purchase of our deliverance from sin, death and makes certain our hope of the resurrection and life with Him forever.

Christ died. Christ is risen. Christ is coming again! Praise to you Lord Christ!

Holy Saturday 2020

Holy Saturday

You know about Good Friday. Have you heard of "Holy Saturday"? Today we, with the universal church remember the day that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy, that the Christ would die and be laid in the tomb of a rich man. His body, sacrificed for us, was laid in the grave in the fashion of a king. His burial proved that he was really dead, but awaiting the resurrection. This reality brings us the hope and confidence that we, who are in Him will too, rise again.

Isaiah 53:9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.

John 19: 37 Also, another Scripture says: They will look at the one they pierced. 38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus—but secretly because of his fear of the Jews—asked Pilate that he might remove Jesus’s body. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and took his body away. 39 Nicodemus (who had previously come to him at night) also came, bringing a mixture of about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes. 40 They took Jesus’s body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the fragrant spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 41 There was a garden in the place where he was crucified. A new tomb was in the garden; no one had yet been placed in it. 42 They placed Jesus there because of the Jewish day of preparation and since the tomb was nearby.

He was in the grave, really dead... but Sunday's Coming!

For more on this topic, listen to John Fonville preach "He Was Buried: at https://www.paramountchurch.com/sermons/sermon/2013-04-07/he-was-buried

Good Friday 2020

Today marks what the world knows as "Good Friday". We remember, along with the saints all over the globe, the culmination of Christ's incarnate mission when He bore the sins of His people in His penal, substitutionary atonement.

Up to this point, His incarnate ministry was to live a life of personal, perpetual, perfect obedience to the will of the Father, keeping every jot and tittle of the Law of God in our place. Now to test the resolve of His obedience even further, Jesus Christ took on our sin, received our lashes, bore our "crown" and cross, and suffered the ultimate sorrow in our stead: alienation from the Father, Who cannot look upon sin.

All this for us. The scene leaves us breathless, in awestruck wonder, that the Son of God, the Word made flesh, unlike the gods of the pagan imagination, came down, lowered Himself to serve and substituted His life for ours'. Glory to You, Lord Christ for the embodiment of God's love, Oh Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!

...The rest of the Good News is the forsakenness of the cross is not the end of the story. Take heart. Sunday is coming! Read these prophetic words,  foreshadowing the trial of our Passover Lamb and Suffering Messiah in Psalm 22 (here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+22&version=CSB ).