Recently in Gospel-Centered Bible Study Category
Christopher Wright on Christ-centered interpretation:
"To speak of the Bible being 'all about Christ' does not (or should not) mean that we try to find Jesus of Nazareth in every verse by some feat of imagination. Rather we mean that the person and work of Jesus become the central hermeneutical key by which we, as Christians, articulate the overall significance of these texts in both Testaments. Christ provides the hermeneutical matrix for our reading of the whole Bible" (The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative, 31).
This is so very good and helpful!
“The great gospel imperatives to holiness are ever rooted in indicatives of grace that are able to sustain the weight of those imperatives. The Apostles do not make the mistake that’s often made in Christian ministry. [For the Apostles] the indicatives are more powerful than the imperatives in gospel preaching. So often in our preaching our indicatives are not strong enough, great enough, holy enough, or gracious enough to sustain the power of the imperatives. And so our teaching on holiness becomes a whip or a rod to beat our people’s backs because we’ve looked at the New Testament and that’s all we ourselves have seen. We’ve seen our own failure and we’ve seen the imperatives to holiness and we’ve lost sight of the great indicatives of the gospel that sustain those imperatives. … Woven into the warp and woof of the New Testament’s exposition of what it means for us to be holy is the great groundwork that the self-existent, thrice holy, triune God has — in Himself, by Himself and for Himself — committed Himself and all three Persons of His being to bringing about the holiness of His own people. This is the Father’s purpose, the Son’s purchase and the Spirit’s ministry” (Sinclair Ferguson).
(HT: John Fonville)
I've been thinking about the concept of "quiet time" lately and discussing it the past week with my Principles of Bible Study students. Here are a few resources that I think you'll find helpful as you think about and engage in this practice.
Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt - This is a very thought-provoking article by Greg Johnson of the St. Louis Center for Christian Study.A Basic Quiet Time Plan - This is a Bible study/Scripture meditation plan that I adapted from Tim Keller's Preaching the Gospel in a Post-Modern World.
Psalm 62 Meditation - I wrote this example of the above quiet time plan. It's even more basic.
Justin Buzzard has interviewed Graeme Goldsworthy over at his blog. If you are not familiar with Goldsworthy (or even if you are) or are new to gospel-centeredness discussion, particularly as it relates to interpretation, you'll want to check this interview out. Thanks, Justin, for making this Goldsworthy interview available.
How important is it that the preaching of the church be informed and shaped by biblical theology, that is, by the story of God's redemptive activity within human history? Graeme Goldsworthy writes:
If a pastor does not understand or teach biblical theology, the members of the congregation are likely to suffer thus:1. Congregations will not understand the unity of the Bible or the progressive nature of revelation. They will fall prey to those proclaiming the disunity of the biblical message; and a fragmented Bible cannot be recognized as the inspired word of God.
2. Congregations will not understand the centrality of Christ for interpreting Scripture and the meaning of life in our world. Recourse to people and events—particularly those of the Old Testament—will be valued mainly for their exemplary lessons, and not for their typological contribution to understanding the person and work of Christ. They will not see that Christ in his gospel is the interpreting principle for Scripture and, indeed, for all reality.
3. Grace will be eroded by legalism. Preaching that principally points to the examples of Bible characters leads almost inevitably to legalism since the connection with the gospel of grace will be clouded or even completely lost.
4. The application of Bible texts will often be short-circuited. The Bible is reduced to a lucky-dip of texts all of which are perceived as standing in the same essential relationship to the Christian believer, and the progressive nature of biblical revelation in salvation-history is ignored.
5. The presuppositions of the New Testament in portraying Christ as the fulfiller of the Old Testament will be overlooked so that the fullness of Christ’s person and work is undermined. Teaching from the Old Testament is particularly at risk.
6. The doctrinal formulations of the church will be seen as less important in that their relationship to the progressive revelation of the Bible will not be evident. Biblical theology and doctrine work together for a robust understanding of God and his purposes for his people and the world.
Graeme Goldsworthy is the visiting lecturer in hermeneutics at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia.
(HT: Justin Buzzard)
Note to Readers: Those of you who regularly visit Eucatastrophe are well aware of the fact that my blogging has been almost non-existent the past three months. I’ve only posted 15 times since July 28th! My intention is to begin posting regularly once this particular semester is over.
If someone said to you, “Your main problem in life is that you want your will over God’s will,” how would you respond? If that were said to me, I would probably say something like this, “Tell me something I don’t already know. I’m very aware of what my main problem is. I know that God’s will is not done in my life like it is done in heaven. So rather than just telling me what my main problem is, why don’t you also tell me what the solution is.”
“Well,” he says, “the solution is to ask the Father that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that His will be done in your life as it is done in the lives of those in heaven.”
I respond, “So you are telling me that the solution to my main problem in life is simply to habitually ask God to do this?”
“Yes, ask, wait, and strive to obey. Well, you’ll need to read your Bible, identify biblical principles, and daily apply them to your life too.”
“Oh, okay, I now understand. What you are essentially telling me is that in order for God’s will to be done in my life as it’s done in heaven, I need to tell God daily that I want His will to be done in my life as it is in heaven and then just do it? That does make sense. After all, Jesus did instruct us to petition the Father that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. But I do have one last question. Where’s the gospel in all of this? Where is the good news in all you’ve told me? If the bad news is that I don’t do God’s will as I ought, what’s the good news?”
That’s the question that I wish to address in this post. Where is the gospel in this petition of Matthew 6:10? How did Matthew envision this petition being answered? How should we envision this petition being answered when we consider it in the light of the entirety of Matthew’s Gospel?
It seems to me that the overarching desire of the Lord’s Prayer is for the realization of God’s ultimate purpose for Israel and the entire world. The programmatic statement for Matthew’s Gospel is found in the angel’s announcement of the Son of God’s birth to Joseph. “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Everything in the Gospel of Matthew fits within that programmatic statement. The genealogy that opens Matthew’s Gospel is clear. God’s people are suffering under the exile of sin and death because of their sins. So God himself, Emmanuel, has come to save them. Matthew will not permit us to think that God’s ultimate purpose for Israel and the world can be achieved in any other way. If it is to be achieved, it will be achieved in Jesus the Messiah, God’s Messiah. I believe that the Lord’s Prayer in general, and verse 10 in particular, has Matthew 1:21 in view. The only way the Father’s will can be done on earth as it is in heaven is if His Messiah—the one anointed by the Spirit—fulfills his redemptive mission. The redemptive mission of the Messiah is the foundation upon which the Lord’s Prayer rests.
What I find significant in understanding the foundation upon which this request rests is what happens when Jesus is on the brink of bringing his redemptive mission to its completion.
Matthew 26:42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done."
Can you hear the echo of Matthew 6:10 when you read these words? “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done [on earth as it is in heaven].” In his hour of deepest grief and agony—when our resolve would have long melted away, when the last thing we would have desired at such a time was for the Father’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven—Jesus essentially took the petition of Matthew 6:10, which he gave to his disciples, to us, upon his own lips. When he stood on the very brink of bringing his redemptive mission to its climax, its completion, Jesus prayed, “Your will be done on earth, right now in these cosmically important moments, as it is in heaven.” And that is exactly what happens. The Father’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Shortly thereafter, Jesus drank the full cup of the Father’s wrath, and after he cried out “It is finished!” he yielded up his spirit. The Father’s will was done and redemption was accomplished. Jesus did indeed save his people from their sins.
But Matthew's Gospel does not end there. There's also the resurrection. So how does the resurrection relate to everything we've just discussed? Well, it’s not only the definitive proof that the will of the Father was done on earth as it is in heaven, but also what powerfully moves the petition of Matthew 6:10 forward for us who take it up onto our lips. Notice how Matthew’s Gospel closes. The resurrected Messiah stands before his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe [to do the will of God as seen in] all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20). Do you not hear the echo of Matthew 6:10 again? Jesus basically says to his disciples in Matthew 6, “Pray to the Father that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. For I have come to save you from your sins. And when I have finished my mission, all authority in heaven and on earth will be given to me. Therefore, you can pray in great confidence because it is through my life, death, and resurrection that your petition will be granted.”
So where is the gospel in Matthew 6:10? The good news is that it is through the one who has been given all authority for having obeyed the Father’s will in accomplishing redemption that the petition of Matthew 6:10 is answered. God will not grant our request because we have asked, waited, and strived to obey, or because we have read our Bibles, identified biblical principles, and daily applied them to our lives. Fervency in prayer and determination in obedience are not the basis for answered prayer. The ultimate ground and basis for answered prayer is the work of the Messiah who took our prayer upon his own lips and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross—even as he submitted himself to the death of sinners. It is this one who has been raised and given all authority in heaven and on earth. It is in his name that we can confidently and joyfully pray, “Father, your will be done in our lives as it is in heaven.”
This is what people like me need to hear. When Jesus took up Matthew 6:10 upon his lips in the garden three times, the disciples were taking up something too, namely, sleep. Prior to his thrice-repeated prayer, Jesus told Peter, James, and John that his soul was very sorrowful, even to death, the he wanted them to watch, to keep awake with him (Matthew 26:38). Jesus then went a little farther on and took up the petition of Matthew 6:10 three times upon his own lips as he faced the prospect of being forsaken by the Father, of drinking the full cup of the Father's wrath against sin. After Jesus prayed the first time, he came to Peter, James, and John and found them sleeping. So he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit inded is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:40-42). It is after this that Jesus goes and prays the same petition two more times.
Here is what strikes me about this episode. The disciples are willing that the Father's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, but their flesh is weak. In the hour of their Messiah's greatest need they were willing but weak. So what does Jesus do? He takes up Matthew 6:10 upon his lips two more times. "Father, your will be done on earth in this hour as it is in heaven." And again, "Father, your will be done on earth in this hour as it is in heaven." And then he goes to the cross and dies the sinner's death. But that's not the end. A New Day dawns on the morning of his resurrection—the day when our weakness is overcome with the strength of Resurrection Life! It is this one who stands before Peter, James, and John on a mountain in Galilee and says, "All authority to do the will of the Father in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore..." (Matthew 28:18-19).
So when we take the Lord's Prayer up onto our lips, we must not lose sight of the life, death, and resurrection of our Messiah. We can confidently take that prayer up onto our lips because we have been taken up into the Messiah as the one who lived, and died, and was raised in our place. Our obedience is not the strength of our prayer. Jesus, the Lord of the whole earth, is the strength of our prayer. So pray today with great confidence in the name of the Messiah.
One of the main objectives of this blog is to encourage preaching that is gospel-centered. Because of this emphasis I am occassionally asked, "What does a gospel-centered sermon look like?" Those who have asked me this question are often already convinced of the necessity of preaching from a gospel-centered perspective, but how this kind of sermon should actually look in practice is still not clear to them. So, below you'll find a link to a sermon I recently preached that is an attempt to preach a gospel-centered sermon on the baptism and temptation of Christ (Matthew 3:13-4:11). My emphasis is not on the illustrative value of this section of narrative. Rather, it's on how this baptism and temptation narrative fits within the unfolding of salvific history.
To download: right click on link below and select "save as"
P.S. the first couple minutes of the sermon were not recorded. A written version of the missing introduction is below.
P.P.S. If you want to expose yourself to sermons that are consistently and beautifully gospel-centered, listen to Tim Keller. I agree with Mark Lauterbach when he says, "No one, and I mean no one, preaches Gospel saturated messages better than Tim Keller. Buy his sermons and see how the Gospel is everywhere in the Bible."
Sermon Introduction:
I have the privilege of teaching 18-19 year old young people an introductory course on Bible study. Teaching freshman in this particular area is one of the most exciting things that I do. One of the areas where I have to work extremely hard to correct their thinking is in how they approach biblical narrative. Every freshman who has entered my classroom the past year and half has treated all biblical narrative texts as if there primary purpose is to be illustrative. There seems to be this underlying conviction that biblical narrative is primarily for exemplary value. In other words, they all seem to assume that the primary intention of the biblical writers is to give us examples to follow or not to follow to aide us in navigating life. So what I spend a considerable amount of class time doing is demonstrating that biblical narrative is primarily historical rather than illustrative.
What do I mean by historical narrative? By that I mean that biblical narrative is primarily about what God has done within space and time to accomplish redemption. It is not primarily about illustrating how we should live within space and time. Biblical narrative is primarily about God’s entrance into history to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The reason is spend so much time arguing that biblical narrative is historical rather than illustrative is because when our dominant focus is on the illustrative value of the text, the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to lose its central place in our thinking and living. And when preachers primarily preach narrative as illustrative material, the gospel subtly loses its centrality functionally in the life and practice of the church.
As long as we live on this side of glorification, we will always be tempted to interpret biblical narrative as illustrative rather than historical. So what I would like to do this morning is look at a text, half of which is too often thought of as illustrative rather than an historical account of God’s activity within history to accomplish redemption.
Matthew 3:13-4:1 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. [14] John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" [15] But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. [16] And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." [4:1] Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
“No matter where you are reading in the Bible, faith is the first mystery you should recognize. Faith is not believing that the story you are reading is true as written. That does nothing for anyone. Even unbelievers can believe the Bible story of Jesus’ birth is true. Faith is not a natural work apart from God’s grace…Rather the right kind of faith, the kind that flows from Grace and that God’s Word demands, is firmly believing that Christ was born for you. His birth is yours and occurred for your benefit. For the Gospel teaches that Christ was born for our benefit and that everything He did and suffered was for us.”
Martin Luther, By Faith Alone
(HT: Tom Wood of Graced Again)
I Kings 18 tells one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It's the story of Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Or more correctly, it's God vs. Baal on Mt. Carmel. It's a great story of God drawing attention to Himself once again. Basically, He takes Baal out behind the woodshed (if you don't know what that means, ask your parents).
This past summer, I heard a message on this passage. It was pretty much a de-secularized pep talk about how we need to be bold like Elijah. Don't get me wrong. We certainly need to be bold as Christians in the face of idolatry and worldly philosophy. But that's not the center of the meaning circle in the passage.
The hero of the story isn't Elijah, it's God. I really can't tell someone to be like Elijah, b/c in the story, we aren't Elijah. Unfortunately, we are the people of Israel. We are the ones who have gone and are going to great lengths to worship something that is an idol of our own imagination. We are even hurting ourselves to worship this false god.
But something happens. The fire will fall, but where does it fall? It's supposed to fall on the people. We, the people deserve the fire of God's judgment. We deserved to be incinerated, burnt to a crisp for having other gods before the One True and Living God. But the fire fell on the sacrifice instead. And what happens in the story? The people confess that the LORD is God. Their hearts are turned back by the sacrifice being consumed by the fire of God.
You see, it's ultimately the Gospel of Jesus Christ that keeps us from facing God's wrath. The Perfect Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, has already faced God's wrath for us. We may now confess that Jehovah is God, not because of what we've done, but because the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Are you struggling with an idol? I know I am. Look to the Perfect Sacrifice!
I’ve been tagged for this book meme by Mick Porter of Unveiled Face! So here it goes:
Total number of books I've ever owned: I would guess a few thousand. I’m really not sure though. I’ve been heard saying that I would rather buy a book and read it then purchase food or clothing. I don’t read as much as I would like too though (time and brain constraints).
Last book I bought: The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen. It has been a good read thus far.
Last book I read: River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler. It is a book about the author's experience in the city where we are going to serve in an orphanage, namely, Fuling, China.
Five books that mean a lot to me:
1. The Bible: There are many books that I would like to master. There is something ennobling about thinking the thoughts of great men. But the Bible is the one book that I want to master me.
2. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture by Graeme Goldsworthy: This book was recommended to me when I was seeking to understand how to interpret/preach the Bible from a gospel-centered perspective. This is a must multiple-read for all Christians (not just for all pastors).
3. The Pleasures of God by John Piper. I consider this book to be Piper’s best. It has been a few years since I’ve read it. So I think it’s about time to pick it up again to drink deep.
4. The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons by Thomas F. Torrance. As far as I’m concerned, this book is without peer in its presentation of the beauty of our God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
5. The Mediation of Christ by Thomas F. Torrance. If I had to pick the one book that I think is helping me understand and apply the gospel more than any other book I’ve ever read, it would be this one.
