The Gospel Part 2 - Rebel

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

 Last time we talked about the Gospel we learned that it is a story that begins with God.  The first part of the Gospel taught us that God is the royal, holy, perfect King over all the universe who deserves all of the glory.  Part 1 of the Gospel teaches us about God and part 2 teaches us about ourselves.  So, the first two parts of the Gospel simply teach us about who God is and who we are.  As John Calvin said, "Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. "  The Gospel teaches us three main truths about ourselves.

1.  We were created to reflect the image and glory of God.  In Genesis 1 when God created humans He set them apart as distinct from the rest of creation by making them in His own image.  "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them." (Gen 1:26-27)  There is a lot of speculation about what it means to be made in the image of God.  Does it mean that we are conscience of our existence, rational, emotional, or relational?  Those may be part of it, but at the center of the idea of being in God's image is displaying His glory.  In the context of the ancient near east there were many different gods and many temples to those different gods.  At the heart of each temple was an image or idol of that god.  That image was meant to be a display of the glory of that god and was intended to point people to worship that god.  In the same way, humans were made in the image of the true God to reflect His image and glory so that people who be always turned to worship God.  But, the second truth the Gospel teaches us about ourselves shows that things did not always work out this way.

2.  We rebel against the royal God by trying to exalt our own image and glory.  But humans proved to be not very good at reflecting the image and glory of God.  In Genesis 3 the first rebellion against God happened.  Adam and Eve decided that instead of reflecting God's glory they would try to be like God and make decisions for themselves (Gen 3:5).  Instead of glorifying the royal King, they tried to make themselves gods.  This rebellion is sin.  Whenever we sin we are making ourselves little gods over our own lives instead of submitting to the true King.

But the Gospel tells us that this rebellion was more than just an act Adam and Eve committed in the garden.  It is a disease that has infected all of humanity.  Paul says that "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned." (Rom 5:12)  And also that "there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God." (Rom 1:10-11)  This rebellion is something that every human has participated in.  We have all tried to usurp God and make it all about us when it should be all about Him.  And there is nothing we can do about this.  We are sick and we cannot heal ourselves.  Down to our very core, to the deepest parts of us, we are in constant rebellion against God.  And this presents a huge problem, which is truth number three.

3.  Our rebellion makes it impossible to be in relationship with the royal God.  This rebellion we have all joined has many negative consequences: sickness, poverty, natural disasters, anger, violence, greed and the like.  But the worst result is the separation it creates between us and God.  God is royal and we are rebels.  God is holy and we are sinners.  God is good and we are evil.  Because of these essential differences no relationship is possible.  This is part of the ultimate goodness of God, that He cannot put up with what is not good.  This should break our hearts, that this rebellion has made it impossible for us to be with God and should drive us to repent.

(But, it does not stop there.  This is part 2 but there is a part 3 coming.  As Paul says, "Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom 7:24-25))

If we knew Jesus like this, He would be enough.

It's is amazing how on little thing can make us forget how Jesus is so much more than enough for us.  And this is why it is so important to have a high view of Jesus, to know Him deeply, and to always be in wonder of Him.  Because when we really know how great Jesus is, we need nothing else but Him.


 

Essentials for Transformative Preaching

I was talking with one of my mentors the other day and we got on the topic of preaching.  It seems pretty obvious to us that a lot of (maybe even most) preaching does not work.  People and society are not being transformed but are getting worse.  All too often, members of our congregations are sitting passively in our church services, leaving no closer to Jesus then when they walked in, and a hour later forgetting what was preached.  What must be included for preaching to change lives?  After talking about this we agreed that at least two things are essential (there may be more that are necessary for transformative preaching but these two things are required).

Biblical Centeredness  The first thing we need is for Scripture to be central in all preaching.  All of the power in preaching comes from God's Word and the degree of preaching's power is equal to the degree of its congruence to Scripture.  When we preach, we must lift up the Word, share the Word, speak the Word, and make the Word known.  Because God has promised to use His Word.  It will accomplish His purpose (Isa 55:11); it penetrates hearts (Heb 4:12); it is useful for teaching and training in the way of God (2 Tim 3:16); and God reveals Himself through His Word (2 Sam 3:21).

But we do not make the Bible central.  In most preaching the thoughts of the preacher are central.  Modifying behavior is central.  Jokes and stories are central.  However, all of these other things lack the power to transform us into the image of Christ.  People do not need good jokes, illustrations, applications, or thoughts, they need the Word.  These other things only help when they point us deeper into the Word.  In one sermon David Platt described this idea using the image of a pool.  Many preachers treat the Word like the diving board, they use it to get into what they really want to say.  Other preachers use the Word like pool furniture, occasionally swimming over to it.  But we want the Word to be like the pool, we want to dive into it, explore it and spend most of our time in it.

Big Challenges  Another thing that is necessary is for the preacher to call his listeners to radical commitments.   This steams from being Biblically centered, because Jesus called those who heard to Him to radical lifestyles (see Luke 14:25-35).   People are not interested in living in lukewarm Christianity; that's boring.  People want to live for something that is bigger than themselves.  They do not get excited about small dreams but about big dreams.  And when they are challenged to do big things they realize the ways their lives fall short and they begin to make changes to their lives.  Preaching is most effective when speakers challenge their audience to make big, huge, radical changes. 

And this make us realize that relevance is overrated.  I think that sometimes preachers are soft on either Biblical centeredness or big challenges because they feel like they need to make sure that their preaching is relevant to the lives of the people.  But Scripture is not concerned with being relevant; it is concerned with making a new relevance.  It wants to show us that what we have valued is not of value because there is something of so much more value that we have missed.  Scripture is about changing our values to such a degree that even what we consider to be relevant to our lives changes (because our very lives have changed).

What do you think?  Are these essential for transformative preaching?  What else may be essential for transformative preaching? 

The Gospel Part 1 - Royal

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

The gospel begins with God.  This is appropriate, since it is a story that is about God.  Too often, in our self-centeredness, we begin the story with ourselves.  We want the story to be about us so we begin with us.  But the truth is that if we do not understand who God is then we will never understand the gospel.  If we do not understand who God is then we will not understand why Jesus had to die, how great is the privilege of relationship with Him, and whose renown we are compelled to spread.  The gospel must begin with God.

God begins the story.  He ends the story.  He is the center and the crux of the story.  He is the story.  God is the gospel.  It is a story about how He has shown Himself to us and drawn us to Himself.  Without seeking to know God we will never know the true gospel.

Too often we have sacrificed a lofty idea of God on the altar of ease and relevance.  Because when the gospel does not begin with God we do not have to think deeply about His character nor do we have to measure up to His divine standard.  But, an easy gospel will never be relevant, because it will never be true (think of all the time Jesus talks about the cost of following Him).  And a gospel that primarily seeks relevance will never transform us, because it will look too much like us to change us.  What we must understand is that a noble picture of the Triune Godhead is of infinite worth. 

So we begin the story of the Gospel with the simple statement that God is Royal.  He is Lord.  He is King.  His is mighty and sovereign over all things. In the beginning He was.  He is infinite and eternal, timeless and everlasting, faithful and true.  He loves justice and hates sin.  He has mercy on His people and judges wickedness.  He is greater than we could ever imagine and more glorious than we could ever describe.

There are over 100 billion trillion stars in the universe, and He made each one.  He calls them each by name and it is because of His great power and might strength that not one of them is missing.  The universe is about 40 billion light-years across and He can measure that with the breadth of His sovereign hand.  Every single living creature depends on His for life and substance.  When he open His hand they are feed and life prospers, but when He closes His hand there is death.  He controls ever mountain, volcano, river, ocean, continent, and cloud.

And He is holy.  He is righteous and pure, perfect and true.  Everything about His is wonderful, good, and deserving of praise.  Simply because of who He is He deserves all the glory, the honor, and the praise that is in all the universe.  And all of this is but a glimpse of the God who begins the gospel.

What is the Gospel?

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

Most Christians know that the Gospel is at the center of the Christian life and faith.  After all, Jesus came to preach the Gospel ("good news" - Lk 4:18), Paul's life centered around preaching the Gospel (Col 1:23),  and the Gospel saves us (1 Cor 15:2).  But while many may know that the Gospel is important, many do not know what the Gospel is.  And way too often we may know one part of it but not the other, or focus so much on one part we forget about another.  But, as A.W. Tozer said, "it might be demonstrated that almost every heresy that has afflicted the church through the years has arisen from believing about God things that are not true, or from overemphasizing certain true things so as to obscure other things equally true."  We must know the Gospel, the whole Gospel.  And we must know what is not the Gospel, so that we do not make nonessentials essentials and divide the Church even more.

So, for the next few blog posts we will dive into the Gospel and try to discover what the true, complete Gospel is.  We will see the Gospel with five parts as follows:

Royal (Eph 1:19-23; Col 1:15-20):  The Gospel is a story that begins with God (Gen 1:1).  He is the royal king who rules and reigns over the whole universe and deserves all the glory in all the universe (Job 38).  He is majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, and working wonders (Ex 14:11).  He is righteous and holy, perfect and pure, and hates sin with all of His infinite being.  Everything in all creation is obedient to Him, every bird, wave, and mountain.

Rebel (Eph 2:1-3; Col 1:21):  Except for us.  We have rebelled against this holy God and sinned.  Instead of giving God the glory He deserves, we tried to exult ourselves (Rom 1:21).  Instead of being obedient to the Creator, we insisted on creating our own way.

Reconcile (Eph 2:4-5; Col 1:22a):  Even though we rebelled against this royal God, He loved us so much that He wanted to be with us.  So, out of His mercy, God became a man, lived among us, and died to take the punishment for our rebellion.  In doing so, Jesus reconciled (made peace) between God and us and destroyed the sin barrier that prevented us from being with God.

Relationship (Eph 2:6; Col 1:22b-23a):  Now, since Jesus has reconciled us to God, we get the unbelievable gift of being in relationship with the King of the Universe (Matt 27:51).  The Gospel is not primarily about us getting to go to heaven, or being loved, or given purpose, but it is primarily about us getting God (Phil 3:7).  We love and are grateful for these gifts because they lead us deeper into relationship with Jesus.

Renown (Eph 2:7; Col 1:23b):  But, this relationship is not primarily for us (Eze 36:22-23).  God has a purpose for this relationship, that we would go and spread His renown in all the earth (Isa 26:8).  In all things we are to make disciples of Jesus (Matt 28:19) and glorify God in all we do (1 Cor 10:31).

May this Gospel transform us, our churches, our neighborhoods, and the world for His renown!