God Pursuing Sinners

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Last month I was privileged to preach on Luke 15, one of my favorite texts, at our church. This is such a rich and amazing text. It reminds us that God is indeed “rich in mercy” (Eph 2), that God is the great evangelist, pursuing sinful people like us in spite of us. It is amazing to see that God rejoices in the salvation of sinners! Why should he choose to be pleased with rescuing us? Then the text is bracketed with rebuke of the self-righteous, challenging us to consider whether we are as interested in reaching the lost as God is.

Here are a few excerpts from my pondering of this text:

God rejoices over the salvation of the lost. Do you? Does it move you?
If we can see people saved and be unmoved something in desperately wrong.
If we can fail to see people saved and be unmoved something in desperately wrong.
…
Before moving on to the next parable let me pause here to say to those here today who are not converted. Do you realize that the Creator, the One who made you, against whom you have rebelled, who does not need any of us, that He is today seeking to save people like you. Will you reject such a gracious offer from God? Children who do not have new hearts- How about you?
…
Believers: Remember the pigsty! Can you still smell it? The only reason you ever left it is that the Father, the great shepherd came and found you. Then he received you with this kind of joy
…
The Self-Righteous Brother
This is the jab at the religious leaders. While the father rejoices over sinners restored these only think of themselves and their supposed righteousness.
The question for us is not: “Have you ever abandoned the Father and run off to the far country.” Rather the question is whether you realize and can admit that you have. Some people’s sin is more obvious than others, but we have all abandoned the father. This son rebels against the father by not joining in His joy. Is this you?
Are you worried about not being recognized appropriately for you godliness or your service?
Do you fail to join in the joy of the Father over people being restored, souls rescued?

Probably most of us would not identify ourselves with this readily, so let me probe it further. What leads one to such a self-righteous position. Perhaps any number of things, but pride must be one of the key traps. Beware the allure of spiritual pride! Do you glory in your grasp of biblical or theological truths? Are you fond of speculative talk and debate? Then beware. Flee from the snare of pride, by facing squarely this sophisticated pig pen and confessing that your ‘high falutin’ ponderings are merely dressed up pig food. Cry out with Paul, ‘God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of Christ.’

The Table
It is entirely fitting that our examination of this passage lead us to the Lord’s Table. Just as the Father in this parable, representing God, beckons his son to the Table (the feast), so we are invited today. This is the feast given for all of us sinners who repent. This is why we will be received by the Father. As this text makes clear this Table is not for those who are confident in their own self-righteousness. No, such people are forbidden. Rather it is for those who know they have gone off to the far country. It is for those who are all too familiar with the pig pen, indeed perhaps the stench still lingers. It is for such people who have nevertheless repented and come to the Father.

You can access the audio here.

Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart, Review

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Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart , John Ensor
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), pb., 160 pp.

I just finished reading this great book, and our church is working on getting copies for our book table at church. I have seen Ensor’s first book but have not been able to read it yet. Now, I am keen to do so, because he really has a way with words and he uses them to communicate sound truths.

This book deals with the issue of male/female relationships. It seems to me that the first audience in view is singles and the secondary audience is married people. Both groups can benefit from this book. Ensor writes with conviction and passion, frank and to the point. He does not pull any punches. He speaks out of the experiences of ministry leading a crisis pregnancy center. I found myself thinking, “I like this guy!” This is a book to have on hand to give away because it could be of great help to people in a number of situations.

Here are some quotes to illustrate some of his points as well as his style.

“It is one thing to act foolishly – to be a simpleton – when buying a used car. It is another when it comes to matters of the heart. The stakes are infinitely higher. Failure here means weeping into tear-stained pillows through sleepless nights. It means hot flashes of shame. It means spiritual incapacitation when it comes to things like prayer and worship.” (p. 12)

“I have talked to teens who, unfortunately, listened attentively in their sex education classes and now in their twenties, sit astonished in the discovery that there is no condom for the heart!” (p. 19)

“Hormones and oxytocin bond us to those with whom we share a bed, but what it means to love beyond merely making love does not come from chemistry; it comes from theology. It comes from parenting. It comes by learning.” (p. 44)

“Models of good marriages are books in clothes. The church was my library.” (p. 58)

“Women lack confidence in their desire to be a wife and mother. It is acceptable as a side dish, but should it be the main dish, something must be wrong with them. Men who want to do the right thing toward women are now unsure if it is okay even to open a car door for them.” (p. 59)

The Faithful Preacher, Book Review

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The Faithful Preacher, Thabiti Anyabwile
(Crossway, 2007), pb., 191 pp.

I have not yet finished reading this book, but after reading the first sermon by Lemuel Haynes, I knew this is a keeper and one to commend to the readers of this blog.

In this book Anyabwile briefly introduces three pioneering African-American pastors and then gives us a selection of their sermons. The very first sermon in the book is an ordination sermon on Hebrews 13:17! This is a key text in my mind on pastoral ministry (hence the name of this blog), but I do not find it much discussed these days. This sermon on this text is incredible- searching, weighty, powerful- ingredients often missing but sorely needed in pastoral ministry today.

Appropriate to his text, Haynes expounds powerfully the need to fulfill our calling in view of the account we will one day give directly to God. As much as I talk about this verse, I desperately need exhortations like this sermon. Here are a few quotes:

The goal of preaching:

“It is the design of preaching to make things ready for the day of judgment . . . . We are fitting men for the Master’s use, preparing affairs for that decisive court.” (p. 29)

“When he studies his sermons, this will not be the inquiry, ‘How shall I form my discourse so as to please and gratify the humors of men and get their applause?’ but ‘How shall I preach so as to do honor to God and meet with the approbation of my Judge?’ This will be his daily request at the throne of grace. This will be ten thousand times better than the vain flattery of men. His discourse will not be calculated to gratify the carnal heart; rather he will not shun to declare the whole counsel of God.” (p. 32)

If we would heed this we would not be worried about giving a good performance and there would be no interest in downloading the sermons of others. I think much less time would be given to the frilly silliness so often seen and we would be in earnest to simply know what the text says and how to explain that to our people.

The importance of oversight:

“They who watch for souls as those who expect to give account will endeavor to know as much as they may the state of the souls committed to their charge, that they may be in a better capacity to do them good . . . . when they see souls taken by the enemy, they will exert themselves to deliver them from the snare of the devil.” (p. 33)

This aspect has been mentioned often here, but it is refreshing to hear yet one more faithful pastor from our past remind us that we must know our people and watch over them. The distant “preaching head” approach simply will not cut it.

Best Friends

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Grant, George & Karen Grant. Best Friends: The Ordinary Relationships of Extraordinary People. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 1998.

I have previously commented on another Grant book, Shelf Life: How Books Have Changed the Destinies and Desires of Men and Nations. This book is a companion volume written in the same format- vignettes and compiled quotes. It is an easy read, encouraging and challenging. One of the most common challenges for pastors is developing close friendships, dealing with isolation. This book rightly holds up the value of friendship as a gift from God. It is not aimed at pastors, but in reading I did think of the difficulty of so many pastors who feel isolated and alone. This book might encourage you to seek out real friendships in your labor. What a blessing it is when you can have true friends laboring as pastors right alongside you! This is a joy I am blessed to know.

Here are a few quotes:

“All kinds of things rejoiced my soul in the company of my friends – to talk and laugh and do other kindnesses; read pleasant books together, pass form lightest jesting to talk of the deepest things and back again; differ without rancour, as a man might differ with himself, and when most rarely dissension arose find our normal agreement all the sweeter for it; teach each other or learn from each other; be impatient for the return of the absent, and welcome them with joy on their homecoming; these and such like things, proceeding from our hearts as we gave affection and received it back, and shown by face, by voice, by the eyes, and a thousand other pleasing ways, kindled a flame which infused our very souls and of many made us one. This is what men value in friends.” – St. Augustine

“A friend hears the song of the heart and sings it when memory fails.” – Martin Luther

“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” – George Washington

“We love those who know the worst of us and don’t turn their faces away.” – John Buchan

“…it is seeing ourselves in the context of community, of relationships, and of friendships that ultimately give meaning to our search for meaning and purpose in life. Indeed, no man is an island.” – Andrew Nelson Lytle

Susan Creek

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Susan Creek, by Douglas Wilson
(Veritas Press, 2004), pb. 124 pp.
ages 8-12

For some reason- completely odd to me- Amazon does not even have a listing for this book. I hope they will remedy this soon, but my link above will lead you to Wilson’s own Canon Press where the book is available.

This is the sequel to Blackthorn Winter which I reviewed previously. Susan Creek is significantly better than Blackthorn Winter. The overuse of ambiguous proverbial sayings is gone and the action is increased. My boys early on in the reading said they liked the sequel better.

The story does not take up right where the last book left off. Instead, this story focuses on John Monroe, the son of Thomas from the previous story. Thomas has become a prosperous merchant in the colonies but expects his son Thomas to work hard as a regular sailor to learn his way before leading the family business. So, on a visit to Scotland John stumbles into intrigue and adventure which follows him back to America. Along the way he hears the preaching of George Whitefield and is challenged to live out his faith. Issues of justice, bravery, when to fight and when not to, and the basic issues of being a man all arise in the story. It also introduces readers to life in colonial America in the days of the First Great Awakening, prior to the Revolutionary War.

This was a fun and helpful read. It does not rise to the level of our favorites, but we commend it to you.

Pastoral Ministry According to Paul

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Pastoral Ministry According to Paul, James W. Thompson
(Baker, 2006), pb., 174 pp.

I have previously commented on my appreciation of the basic direction of this book and its critique of common contemporary conceptions of pastoral ministry. I have more recently finished reading the book and submitted my review to the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. I can’t post my complete review here before it goes to print, but I did want to briefly commend the book here. I have some key basic disagreements with Thompson, but he makes excellent points on goal of pastoral ministry as found in Paul’s letters (at least in the letters he is willing to ascribe to Paul).

Thompson does a good job of showing that Paul is not simply concerned to get professions of faith from large numbers of individuals. Paul is concerned to establish churches composed of healthy, godly members living in proper relation to one another. Paul’s vision is much more holistic than what we often witness today. Paul is clear that the success of his ministry will only fully be known on the final day. Thus he labors in view of eternity and not simply with a bag of quick fixes which may attract attention from denominational papers but will fade long before judgment.

Here are a few quotes:

His initial evangelistic work is therefore only the beginning of a process that will not be complete until the end of time. His work will be successful only if his congregations live out the consequences of the gospel through transformed lives and are fully transformed at the coming of Christ. Thus all theology is pastoral for Paul.  24

Paul’s work is not only to evangelize but to participate in the transformation of the community.  91

In the fourth place, Paul’s pastoral theology is ecclesiocentric and eschatological. Ministry is not done in isolation, and the goal of the pastor is not only the well-being of the individual. The goal of ministry is to ensure that individuals discover the resources for transformation within the community and that corporate well-being is the goal of the pastor…. The church has seen a glimpse of the end of the narrative, when it will be transformed into the image of the Son. To be engaged in ministry is to work with God toward this goal.  118

The ultimate test for the effectiveness of our ministry cannot be measured by the standards of our culture or our peers but by whether our work survives the test.  156

To build a church on the basis of the satisfaction of consumer tastes is to retreat to the self-centeredness of the old aeon.  157

The worship service is not intended to appeal to individual consumer tastes but to build a lasting community.  161

I encourage pastors to get this book and read it. There are parts to disagree with, but there is much to heed as well.

The Real Lesson of the Da Vinci Code

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I found this post still in draft form from last June. The point still holds, so I decided to go ahead and publish it.

There has of course been much talk about the Da Vinci Code- errors, distortions, how to respond, etc. However, I have not seen enough about what I think is the real lesson for the Church in the whole thing. Anyone with a decent awareness of the bible and history can see the distortions, oversimplifications, etc. In dealing with sources Dan Brown would receive a poor grade in an undergraduate class. The real question then is this: “Why then are so many church members caught up, confused and even convinced by the claims of this book?” Why do I regularly hear of people in churches who are swayed by the book?

A recent U.S. News story touched on this just briefly. At the close of the story a Catholic priest who was interviewed for the story said, “We’ve been given an opportunity to teach our people what we probably should have been doing a better job of teaching them all along,” Indeed! This is the point. The only way such a book could gather such a following is for people to be uninformed of the Bible. In one way this book and movie can be a gift to the church to re-awaken us to the importance of teaching in the church. While pastors have pursued programs and entertainment to draw larger crowds we have largely abdicated our God-given responsibility to teach our people. The Great Commission requires us ‘teach them to obey all that I have commanded you’. We will not have done any good if we draw large crowds only to see them pulled away by false teaching. If we will have long term health and true growth, we, the pastors, must hold fast to the task of teaching our people.

1 Thess 5:12-13 on Pastoral Ministry

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This passage is an important one for understanding pastoral ministry biblically. It is addressed to the congregation and calls for them to respect and “esteem highly in love” their pastors. These pastors in turn are expected to do three things:

– labor among them- work hard in their midst
– to “be over them in the Lord”- the idea here is to exercise authority over the flock, to lead them appropriately
– to admonish, or teach them

The idea of authority is sometimes difficult to understand in our setting. It is not to be domineering (1 Pet 5:3), but it is to involve authority (cf. Heb 13:17). Much could be said here, be let me provide a paragraph from a great commentary on this passage:

One of the reasons for this predicament is that we too often view church leaders as CEOs of the church “corporation,” whose purpose is to meet our needs. If the church does not meet our needs in the way we think it should, we find another “church store” to attend. Another reason for this situation is that the American church has been so permeated with democracy and individualism that these two great American ideals have been taken to an extreme. Too often churches proclaim that their goal is that every believer become a “minister.” The implication is that every believer is to be equal with every other believer and that, ideally, there should be no one in an authoritative position over anyone else. Of course, it is true that everyone in the church is equal in the sense of being in the image of God. Accordingly, all should grow in their recognition and exercise of the diverse gifts that they have received from God. But Christians are not equal in the sense that they have functional equality in the church. Rather, they have different gifts that entail different kinds of functions. Leadership is among these gifts (Eph 4:11).
We need to be instructed about the important role leaders play in the church and how others who have not been called to be leaders should look upon those in authority over them. (158-159)

Beale, G.K. 1-2 Thessalonians The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2003

Outside Activity Books

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How to Build Treehouses, Huts, & Forts, David Stiles (The Lyons Press, 2003), pb. 96 pp.Backyard Ballistics: Build cannons, paper match rockets, Cincinnati fire kites, tennis ball mortars, and more dynamite devices, William Gurstelle (Chicago Review Press, 2001), pb., 169 pp.

The Art of the Catapult: Build Greek Ballistae, Roman onagers, English trebuchets, and more ancient artillery, William Gurstelle (Chicago Review Press, 2004), pb., 171 pp.

My oldest son bought these three books with some of his birthday money a couple of years ago- much to my delight! We have actually spent more time reading and looking at these books than building anything in them; but, we are finally in the midst of building a treehouse using the Stiles book. We have had a lot of fun looking through the book deciding which design would work best for us and roaming the yard looking for the best site for the treehouse. The plans given in this book are well done and easy to follow. They are even written to the boy rather than to the parent (a good touch). We are having a good time working on the project even though it is taking a while to get it done due largely to my needing to learn on the go- which is another benefit to me.

Another project we hope to take on this summer is to build a tennis ball mortar. We have been planning this since Christmas playing with an idea from a friend as well as the plans given in Backyard Ballistics. We may also attempt a sort of mini-catapult for water balloons! The Gurstelle books are great for explaining the science behind things as well as giving historical accounts where these contraptions were used.

These have been a lot of fun for us and we commend them to you.

A. Alexander on the Lord’s Supper

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Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) was the first professor of Princeton Theological Seminary and one a key figure in early American theology. I am currently working on a review of a reprint of his A Brief Compendium of Bible Truth, which was designed to be a brief treatment of Christian doctrine for laypeople. This weekend I read his treatment of the Lord’s Supper and really appreciated it. The following quotes fit well with the argument I put forward here renewal of our practice.

“As the Lord’s Supper is a memorial of the death of Christ, it should be celebrated often, so that this great sacrifice on which our salvation depends may not be forgotten, but kept in lively remembrance in the Christian church.
…
The value of the Lord’s Supper is incalculable. It is admirably adapted to our nature. It is simple, its meaning is easily apprehended by the weakest minds. It is strongly significant and impressive. It has been called an epitome of the whole gospel, as the central truths of the system, in which all the rest are implied, are here clearly exhibited. And it ever has been signally blessed to the spiritual edification and comfort of the children of God. They, therefore, who neglect this ordinance, do at the same time disobey a positive command of Christ and deprive themselves of one of the richest privileges which can be enjoyed on this side of heaven.”

A Brief Compendium of Bible Truth(1846; reprint 2005, Reformation Heritage Books), p. 188-89.