…Phil Johnson reminds us in this “Pulpit Highlight” from the recent Shepherds’ Conference.
Tagged as // Church, Ministry, Phil Johnson
Filed in // Videos
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March 8, 2010
Video: Brothers, We Are Not Figure-Skaters
February 18, 2010
Oh Boy! Oh No! Oh Well. Oh Wow!
…are four stages of software development that David Murray suggests can parallel the preacher and his sermon preparation.
Tagged as // David Murray, Ministry, Preaching
Filed in // General
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February 15, 2010
Are You Being Served?
When you gather together on the Lord’s Day are you being served or do you come to do the serving? Consider this excerpt from Michael Horton’s Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church
The church has a very narrow commission. It is not called to be an alternative neighbourhood, circle of friends, political action committee, social club, or public service agency; it is called to deliver Christ so clearly and fully that believers are prepared to be salt and light in the worldly stations to which God has called them. Why should a person go through all the trouble of belonging to a church and showing up each Sunday if God is the passive receiver and we are the active giver? It’s like being expected to look forward to Christmas when you are always giving but never receiving any gifts…
When Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist and began washing the disciples’ feet, Peter was confused and asked, “‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’ Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand’” (John 13:6-7; emphasis added). Afterward? After what? Jesus is referring to his ultimate act of service at Golgotha, which Peter so often rebuked Jesus for talking about as they were nearing Jerusalem. Peter was ready for action: a coronation or a revolution, but not Jesus’s crucifixtion. True to character, Peter protested, “‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no share with me’” (v.8).
Not only once upon a time, on a hill far away, but each week the Son of God comes to serve us. We may protest. We may think that it is we who need to serve God rather than vice versa. Nevertheless, Jesus tells us as he told Peter that this is actually an insult, a form of pride. We are the ones who need to be bathed, clothed, and fed, not God.
Tagged as // Books, Church, Gospel, Means of Grace, Michael Horton, Ministry
Filed in // General
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January 9, 2010
Symington’s Pastoral Heart – An Example to Follow
As I said earlier this week, I’ve been reading William Symington: Penman of the Scottish Covenanters. After discussing Symington’s work, The Atonement and Intercession of Jesus Christ, Blackwood quotes Symington’s clear pastoral concern that one could read his work and only have an intellectual interest in Christ.
“Be it then the concern of all who read these pages, earnestly to seek such an interest in what the Saviour has done and is still doing…Let them not regard [these] as matters of curious speculation, or content themselves with mere doctrinal belief… They must become the subjects of saving faith…
Let not the reader, then, rise from the perusal of these pages, without seriously and conscientiously asking himself these questions: – Am I interested in the atonement and intercession of Jesus Christ? Have I faith in the sacrifice of the great High Priest? Has my soul been sprinkled with His precious blood? Does He plead in my behalf with the Father?… Were I called, at this moment, to recline my head on the pillow of death, could I indulge the comforting assurance that the advocate within the veil…would present on my behalf the request, ‘Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am’ [John 17:24]…? These are solemn questions. Let no one neglect to put them to himself.” [This quote, although reproduced in the aforementioned book was originally found in Symington, William. The Atonement and Intercession of Jesus Christ (pp. 301-303)]
What an example to follow, not only when academic work is undertaken but even in ministry. Men, don’t deliver lectures this Lord’s Day, rather preach Christ from all the Scriptures!
Tagged as // Books, Gospel, Ministry, Preaching, William Symington
Filed in // Quotes
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November 19, 2009
A Reformed Pastor is a Justified Pastor
Last Summer I began reading Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor
Baxter begins by pointing out something that should be obvious; a Reformed pastor is a justified pastor. Well, a Reformed pastor should be a justified pastor. Here is a snippet from Baxter’s exhortation to all those in the ministry and all those training for the ministry:
Believe it, brethren, God never saved any man for being a preacher, nor because he was an able preacher; but because he was a justified, sanctified man, and consequently faithful to his Master’s work. Take heed, therefore, to yourselves first, that you be that which you persuade your hearers to be, and believe that which you persuade them to believe, and heartily entertain that Savior whom you offer to them.
And Baxter continues…
It is a fearful thing to be an unsanctified professor, but much more an unsanctified preacher. Doth it not make you tremble when you open the Bible, lest you should there read the sentence of your own condemnation? When you pen your sermons, little do you think that you are drawing up indictments against your souls! When you are arguing against sin, that you aggravating your own! When you proclaim to your hearers the unsearchable riches of Christ and his grace, that you are publishing your own iniquity in rejecting them, and your unhappiness in being destitute of them!
I’m sure this will be the first of many posts inspired by Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor
Tagged as // Books, Gospel, Justification, Ministry, Preaching, Richard Baxter
Filed in // General
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