"To Him be glory forever": Gospel

Showing posts with label Gospel. Show all posts

Sunday, November 10, 2019

More Than A Story

Recently I got a call from a friend I haven't heard from for nearly 40 years. We served together in the Navy and through technology that virtually no one could have imagined in 1979, the Facebook phone call, he called me up.

My friend was working on some issues in his life and had come to the conclusion that perhaps he should read the Bible. The idea may have been suggested to him by someone else. He didn’t know where to start, but he did know that I had become a pastor, and so he gave me a ring to see what he should do.

Just hearing from him was a surprise, and I wasn't sure what kind of guidance to give him. I'm a pastor, but not his pastor. If it was someone from my congregation, or maybe someone who I was talking with in my office, I could sort things out a bit before giving him some guidance. I might have some understanding and insight as to where to begin. But…those luxuries were not mine at the time. I took what seemed to be the best route and said, "Read the gospels."

A few days later I got a message. "What gospels? My Bible doesn't have any gospels."

That caught me by surprise, but also let me know that I was assuming too much. My suggestion to "read the gospels" assumed that he would know what I was talking about. It assumed that he already had a basic understanding of the organization of the Bible. So here is the basic message I sent back:

"The first four books of the New Testament are the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In a nutshell they are the story of Jesus, each told from a different point of view. They have some things in common, and also some differences. Maybe start with reading John. John begins by basically stating that Jesus, the man who lived on earth, was also God, no ifs ands or buts. And that sets the tone for the way he would have us read the story of Jesus' life, as he tells it. His goal is that his readers would come to believe in Jesus as their savior when they get to the end of the story. John wants his readers to see their problem with God being one of living as sinners in the presence of a holy God, a God who in his mercy offers them his son, Jesus, as the only possible remedy for dealing with their sin and coming into a relationship with God. That may sound a bit preachy, but I want you to know what you are getting into as you read."

In answering my friend I was mindful of the fact that the gospels are stories, but they are much more than stories, for they have a purpose that is greater than any other story that might come to your mind. John says it himself this way,

"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:30-31

The gospels are more than stories, for the story they tell is the only one that leads us into a relationship with God. No ifs, ands or buts.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

My attempt to answer a friend's question…

Image result for what should i preach about

"Hey Friend... suggestions for a sermon for pulpit supply in a Presbyterian church... this may be one week or a few..... they have an interim pastor coming the end of October..."

Sermon suggestions? Do you mean such as what text, or what topic? I'm assuming that is what you are after, so here goes.

For the most part I believe that the text preached drives the sermon, so for me the big question is deciding the text. As I study it, and pray, (and it's always best to proceed in the opposite order, i.e. prayer first!) then I take the sermon in the direction I believe God is leading it to lead through the text. I did a "series" (I have a bit of a distaste for the 'series' concept) last year where I had a topic first, or rather a question, and then found and explained pieces of scripture that answered the question.

So you are preaching once, and possibly a bit more, for the same congregation, but what to preach? Using the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) is one option. If the Presbyterians you are preaching to are of the PCUSA persuasion this may be where their sermons frequently come from. When I began I used the RCL for nearly a year as the primary place to select my texts from.

Each week the RCL has readings from the OT, Psalms, Gospel and somewhere else in the NT. Prayerfully consider the readings and see if one of them seems to be the thing to bring to the particular congregation. Sometimes two readings can fit well together. I have some issues with the RCL, but since you are preaching just once, or maybe a few Sunday's for one group, that is a conversation for another day.

It may be that you are personally using a devotional book or following a Bible reading plan. In that case there may be a text in your reading that strikes you as something to explore and develop more fully as a sermon.

If you are preaching someplace that is glued to the liturgical calendar then it may be that your sermon is developed in conjunction with an event on the calendar. In that case the RCL should be the source of your text. On the other hand today I preached from Mark 1:1-11, where Jesus rides into Jerusalem. Traditionally it is a Palm Sunday text but I am preaching my way through the Gospel of Mark, leaving Mark for only rare occasions, such as Advent, Christmas, Palm Sunday and Easter. I rarely get feedback on my preaching but on the way out today one man told me that the message was just what he needed to hear, so I was glad to have stayed with that text today, despite its traditional placement.

If you are preaching one week, and maybe a few more, you could also do a "series" around a character of the Bible, such as Moses or Peter, taking snapshots of a few periods of the person's life. If you did that I would take a NT character, rather than preaching several times in a row from the OT to a congregation that isn’t your own flock.

Whatever you do you have to, in some way, get the Good News of Jesus in front of the congregation. In every sermon, whatever your text, without exception, in some way, Christ has to be lifted up and shown to make a difference. This is much easier said than done.

Another way of looking at this is that the Christian church is not some kind of social club. It is not one of many different but equally valuable organizations. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. Or as Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

People who already embrace the Good News have to be comforted, encouraged, reminded and strengthened as they hear it again.

And those who are presently on the outside need to see that everyone, without exception, is a sinner in the presence of God. They need to see that there is no other hope for sinners outside of Jesus. And lastly, that there is no one who is too far gone to be beyond the saving touch of Jesus.

Some people may say that people who have an evangelical approach to the Gospel place too great of an emphasis on the cross. I say that if you are going to stand in the pulpit and not bring the core of the Gospel then you might as well be talking to a Rotary club, or the Jaycees, or what have you.

Hope this is helpful. Any more questions? Ask away! And in your preparation and preaching may all the glory be to God!

Addendum: The picture is Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers. Spurgeon felt that perhaps the hardest part of preaching was choosing a text, something he worked on throughout the week. He began his actual sermon preparation at 6 PM on Saturday evening, staying at the task until he felt he had sufficiently prepared for Sunday morning. This method should only be used by the most gifted of preachers!

Friday, March 2, 2012

John 14, part 1

This week I had the privilege of giving a lecture on John 14 for the local class of Community Bible Study (CBS). CBS is a non-denominational Bible study with this goal:

“To make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in our communities through caring, in-depth Bible study, available to all.”

Our class meets weekly, roughly following the calendar for the school year. After a short devotional time we spend time in small groups, discussing a lesson that we have studied during the previous week. Then we gather as a class to hear a lecture on the week’s Bible passage. And as we leave we receive a written commentary on that same passage, along with questions to consider as we study the passage for the next week.

My history with CBS goes back about 10 years. I started in 2001 and for three years I was a member of a small group. Then for 5 years I was a small group leader. The leaders met together once a week as their own small group and those years in leadership were a time of much growth for me spiritually. Not only did we review the week’s lesson but we also spent time in devotion and prayer. As a part of the leadership I took advantage of the opportunity to lead the devotional time for our leader’s group study, and also about once a year I led the devotional time for the larger class.

I took two years off from CBS when we adopted Kat and this year I was able to return. We are studying the Gospel of John. There was a need for someone to substitute for the regular lead teacher and provide a lecture on John 14. I was asked to do so and now want to share, over several posts, some of the things that I think that are going on in that chapter and the meaning they have for us today.

The setting of John 14 is in the Upper Room. It is after the disciples have shared a meal and instituted what we now know as the Lord’s Supper in the accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and after the foot-washing of John’s Gospel. It is after Judas has been identified as Jesus’ betrayer, and he has left the room.

This is the time of Jesus last teaching opportunity with the disciples as a group, a teaching that is spread out over chapters 14, 15 and 16. Soon he will be leaving his disciples and the “teaching” that will occur then will be as they witness his arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection. This chapter has 31 verses and includes many verses and ideas that are very familiar to many Christians. A preacher can draw deeply from the material here and one pastor whose work I admire, James Montgomery Boice, preached 17 sermons as he worked his way through the chapter.

I was provided with about 20 minutes for my lecture, so I gave an overview of what I felt to be six key ideas in the chapter, all of them collected around the theme that Jesus primary purpose is to prepare his disciples for his departure by giving them hope and assurance for their future, both in the short-term and eternally.

The first thing Jesus talks about, in verses 1 through 6, is heaven. Jesus doesn’t tell them specifically what heaven will look like. He doesn’t given them visual images. He does tell them that in order for them to go to heaven that he will have to leave them and go there first to “prepare a place,” saying in verse 3,

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Jesus gives the disciples assurance that heaven exists, that he will prepare a place for them there, and that he will return to take them there. And that seems to be all that Jesus thinks the disciples need to know about heaven.

The Bible gives us other images of heaven, particularly in Revelation, and I love those descriptions, particularly the images of vast multitudes of people engaged in worship of God. But the relatively sparse information found in John 14 is really enough. Heaven exists, God prepares our place, and one day God will take us there.

The chapter then shifts to the topic of God the Father, in verses 7 through 11. While the disciples, particularly Philip, take Jesus’ talk of God the Father very literally, and ask to be able to see him, Jesus tells them something radically different. He tells his disciples that his identity and the identity of the Father are intertwined. In verses 10 and 11 he says,

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

All the things Jesus has said and done are not on his authority as a human, or as the Son of Man, but are because he and the Father are ‘in each other,’ or as he said earlier in John 10:30,

“I and the Father are one.”

When I think about the culture that Jesus and his disciples lived I imagine that this claim of unity with the Father must have shocked their senses. They lived in a culture where the very name of God was considered too holy to speak aloud or write. It was only made known in their worship through allusion. They knew the circumstances where the word “Adonai” was being used because the more correct name for God, “Yahweh,” was too holy, too sacred, to even speak. For them to speak the name of God was considered a violation of the commandment to “Not take the name of the Lord God in vain.”

Yet here they were, in the very presence of one who bore that most holy name in his own person. The name that was too holy to speak was in a body and speaking to them. And he speaks to us today.

And because he speaks to us we can know his presence and his love as deeply as the disciples who walked with him for three years. Like the disciples we feast with him at his table, in the Lord’s Supper. And as with his first disciples, we who follow in the footsteps of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, have the same assurance that he is who he says he is and that one day he will carry us to the place he has already prepared for us, our eternal home with him.