New Humility

    But what we suffer from to-day is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved
from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was
never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about
the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert
is exactly the part he ought not to assert himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he
ought not to doubt—the Divine Reason. Huxley preached a humility content to learn from
Nature. But the new sceptic is so humble that he doubts if he can even learn. Thus we should
be wrong if we had said hastily that there is no humility typical of our time. The truth is that
there is a real humility typical of our time; but it so happens that it is practically a more
poisonous humility than the wildest prostrations of the ascetic. The old humility was a spur
that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going
on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him
work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make
him stop working altogether.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy,  1908

Colossians 4:18- A Warning About Eisegesis

My wife and I were in the car listening to the radio during a short trip through town. In the brief minutes we listened to the program on the air, the teacher made a comment, roughly paraphrased:

Paul said [in Col 4:18], " I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. " We're not sure exactly why he wrote this, but it could be that he had a problem with his hands because he was in prison, and by writing this letter he was showing them that through God you can receive grace to overcome your physical constraints.

At this my wife piped up, "I wish these teachers would stop making up spiritual meanings when it's not there in the Bible."

We talked about it a bit after that, but I thought this particular issue was interesting because I think we can reasonably know what Paul was getting at by his statement. In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul writes, "Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come." There apparently had been a problem through Paul's ministry that people would write forged Pauline letters to promote aberrant theology. History teaches that this was a problem for the church, and sometimes the violations came from within church leadership. So Paul would typically sign his letters even if he hadn't put pen to paper for all he had authored [2 Thess 3:17].


There is another instance of Paul mentioning his own handwriting in Galatians 6, "See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand." Hopefully a good Bible teacher knows about this reference (and similar ones in 1 Corinthians 16 and Philemon), or would have the decency to look it up. Galatians was most likely written well before Paul was in jail (probably before the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15). There is no reason to think that prison would do anything to Paul's hands if he had been writing letters in this manner before he was in jail and continued to write while in chains. Of course it's possible this teacher is right, but it's not likely, and you certainly cannot discern that from the context of Paul's letters.


The truly ironic part of this bad Bible lesson is that it commits a similar error that Paul was trying to protect against! The spiritual lesson was not of Paul, but by guessing at what Paul was really saying, it crafted a new doctrine that could be passed off with Paul's authority.

This is an important lesson about Bible study. We must let Scripture interpret Scripture. We do not have the authority to impose our meaning on it because a spiritual lesson fits well in our framework. We may not write on behalf of Paul. The best sign of genuineness we may have as we teach is to say what Paul said, and not more.

Tempting Jesus

During a VBS lesson this week, the teacher gave a lesson on the temptation of Jesus found in Matthew 4. While speaking about the 3rd temptation, an astute 4th or 5th grader asked a very insightful question.

If Jesus is God and is already in control of all things, then how could Satan tempt him to be king? Wasn't he already king?

Here is the text of Matthew 4:8-9:



Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”


Satan's Offer

Satan probably doesn't know quite what this temptation means to the God-man; he can only think of himself. There is some sense in which Satan has dominion over the earth, though it is ordained and limited by God's absolute sovereignty.

Satan's Dominion: 2 Cor 4:4, Eph 2:2
Christ's Victory: Luke 10:17-18, Col 2:14-15, John 12:31

He is asking Jesus to commit the very same sin that brought his fall. Satan wants to be exalted above God, and that is the essence of Satan's offer: he will trade his hollow scepter for the golden crown.

Jesus' Temptation

How could this actually be a temptation for Jesus? Jesus knows he will be king over all:


Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high [Hebrews 1:1-3].



But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” [Hebrews 1:8-9].


But the glory that leads the Son of God to that eternal kingship is through the cross. The reality of the crucifixion, of bearing God's wrath, of dying for the sins of world had a deep impact on the soul of Jesus. He asked the Father if there was any other way [Matt 26:39]. The Son of God and the Son of Man would truly be crushed.


And so the real temptation before Jesus was a short-cut. He could claim dominion over what God was giving him without taking the path of pain, reproach and death. If he made a simple concession, he could be king now.


Jesus knew God's Word, God's will and lived to fulfill his Father's will. And because Jesus worshiped and served the Lord our God only, he could be our substitute and offer God's kingdom to his followers.



I am thankful for VBS and the thoughtful children we've been blessed with. I pray that God would grant and grow a child-like faith in all of them.

Fierce Wolves

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted [perverse] things, to draw away the disciples after them. [Acts 20:28-30]

What are these ‘perverse things’ which are a disturbance and a danger to the church? One of the major characteristics of false prophets in the Old Testament was their amoral optimism, their denial that God was the God of judgment as well as of steadfast love and mercy. They were guilty, Jeremiah said to the people, of ‘filling you with vain hopes … They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, “It shall be well with you”; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart they say, “No evil shall come upon you.” ’ Similarly, God complains: ‘They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.’ Such talk was, to say the least, a grave disservice to the people of God. It gave them a false sense of security. It lulled them to sleep in their sins. It failed to warn them of the impending judgment of God or tell them how to escape it.

Stott, J. R. W., & Stott, J. R. W. (1985). The message of the Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7) : Christian counter-culture. The Bible speaks today (199). Leicester [Leicestershire; Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-varsity Press.

Criticism

Participating in church leadership exposes you to an order of magnitude more criticism than normal. There are many encouraging resources for those enduring the hardship of excessive criticism.

C.J. Mahaney

His book, Humility: True Greatness

01. The Pastor and Personal Criticism
02. The Pastor's Temptation when Criticism Arrives
03. Learning Wisdom by Embracing Criticism
04. A Kind and Painful Bruising
05. The Pastor's Wife and Her Role When Criticism Arrives
06. Adding a Few Smudges to My Moral Portrait
07. Deal Gently With Your Critics

08. Why Faithful Pastors Will Be Criticized

09. Too High An Estimation

10. Distinguishing Criticism

11. How to Criticize Your Pastor

John Newton

Letter XIX: On Controversy

Desiring God Biography

Whoever . . . has tasted of the love Christ, and has known, by his own experience, the need and the worth of redemption, is enabled, Yea, he is constrained, to love his fellow creatures. He loves them at first sight; and, if the providence of God commits a dispensation of the gospel, and care of souls to him, he will feel the warmest emotions of friendship and tenderness, while he beseeches them by the tender mercies of God, and even while he warns them by his terrors.

I have been thirty years forming my own views; and, in the course of this time, some of my hills have sunk, and some of my valleys have risen: but, how unreasonable within me to expect all this should take place in another person; and that, in the course of a year or two. (And Piper spoke to the men asking them if they expected people to change because "they attended my class" on that subject for two weeks)

Of all people who engage in controversy, we, who are called Calvinists, are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation. . . . The Scriptural maximum, that "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," is verified by daily observation. If our zeal is embittered by expressions of anger, invective, or scorn, we may think we are doing service to the cause of truth, when in reality we shall only bring it into discredit. [And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:24, rsv)]

As to your opponent, I wish, that, before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord's teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write. . . . [If he is a believer,] in a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts. . . . [If he is an unconverted person,] he is a more proper object of your compassion than your anger. Alas! "He knows not what he does." But you know who has made you to differ.

C.H. Spurgeon

Desiring God Biography

5. For Spurgeon a key to his perseverance in preaching through adversity was that he had settled who he was and would not be paralyzed with external criticism or internal second-guessing.

One of the great perils of living under continual criticism is that this is a constant call for you to be other than what you are. And, in fact, a humble saint always wants to be a better person than he is. But there is a great danger here of losing your bearings in sea of self-doubt. Not knowing who you are. Not being able to say with Paul, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). Spurgeon felt this danger keenly.

In comparing one ministerial identity with another he reminded other pastors that at the last supper there was a chalice for drinking the wine and there was a basin for washing feet. Then he said,

"I protest that I have no choice whether to be the chalice or the basin. Fain would I be whichever the Lord wills so long as He will but use me ... So you, my brother, you may be the cup, and I will be the basin; but let the cup be a cup, and the basin a basin, and each one of us just what he is fitted to be. Be yourself, dear brother, for, if you are not yourself, you cannot be anybody else; and so, you see, you must be nobody ... Do not be a mere copyist, a borrower, a spoiler of other men's notes. Say what God has said to you, and say it in your own way; and when it is so said, plead personally for the Lord's blessing upon it" (see note 69).

And I would add, plead personally the Lord's purifying blood upon it too, because none of our best labors is untainted. But the danger is to let the truth paralyze you with fear of man and doubt of self.

Eleven years later in 1886 he struck the same anvil again:

Friend, be true to your own destiny! One man would make a splendid preacher of downright hard-hitting Saxon; why must he ruin himself by cultivating an ornate style? ... Apollos has the gift of eloquence; why must he copy blunt Cephas? Every man in his own order" (see note 70).

Spurgeon illustrates with his own struggle to be responsive to criticism during the Downgrade controversy. For a season he tried to adapt his language to the critics. But there came a time when he had to be what he was.

"I have found it utterly impossible to please, let me say or do what I will. One becomes somewhat indifferent when dealing with those whom every word offends. I notice that, when I have measured my words, and weight my sentences most carefully, I have then offended most; while some of my stronger utterances have passed unnoticed. Therefore, I am comparatively careless as to how my expressions may be received, and only anxious that they may be in themselves just and true" (see note 71).

If we are to survive and go on preaching in an atmosphere of controversy, there comes a point where you have done your best to weight the claims of your critics and take them to heart and must now say, "By the grace of God, I am what I am." And bring an end to the deranging second-guessing that threatens to destroy the very soul.

C.S. Lewis

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which,if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilites, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." [From The Weight of Glory]

On Church Growth

Rather than pontificate ad nauseum, I simply want to point to some great comments and messages on the concept of church growth.

Mark Dever Speaks About Church Numbers and Growth [9:08]

A Shepherd and His Unregenerate Sheep (Matt Chandler, 2009) [53:36]

False Conversions: The Suicide of the Church (Mark Dever, 2012) [1:03:14] [audio]

Congregational Prayer for 2/19/2012

Our Father in heaven,

Today we pray as a church, “hallowed be your name.” You are the holy Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer. We prostrate ourselves before an awesome and holy God. Hallowed be your name. You who command the sun and moon and stars, hallowed be your name. You who laid the foundation of the earth, hallowed be your name. You who remove mountains and shake the earth out of its place, hallowed be your name. The morning stars sing together and all the heavenly hosts shout for joy at the work of your hand. They never cease to say, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

May our hearts beat a note that resounds, “holy, holy, holy.” May each breath that we draw remind us of the breath of life you have breathed in us. Your creative work continues every moment by your very Word, and it causes us to cry out, “hallowed be your name!” It is our joy to praise you and glorify you as our Sovereign King and Exalted Lord. May our worship rise up under the weight of your glory.

And the glory of your creation does not end in the physical realm. We praise you for giving us life, and we marvel that you give us new life. We took what was good and perfect and holy and defiled it. Our corrupt flesh has run after death, and we deserve nothing more than the destruction we’ve wrought. We not only miss the mark, but we turn our back on you and aim for everything but your holy standard. We use the good you’ve given us to hurt each other and rebel against you. Lord, we confess that we are sinful creatures and need to repent, and we need your forgiveness.

Your glorious plan, from eternity past, was to send your Son, very God of very God to cleanse us from our sin and restore our fellowship with you. His crimson blood washes away our guilt and makes us white as snow. We see that through your Son you have made us a new creation in Christ, receiving a new heart and a transformed and renewed mind. Lord, you have caused us to be born again. May we believe in your Son with all our might—with all our being. Lord, give us faith; help our unbelief.

Father, I pray that we treasure your gospel so greatly that we have a heart to share it.  Give us the heart of Jeremiah who wrote, “If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” Even when your Word feels like a reproach and a derision, let us remember that our great Savior became a man of sorrows, stricken, smitten, and afflicted--acquainted with grief to save us and glorify you. May we be bold to speak this truth to the world. We long to see the day that every creature in heaven, on earth and under the earth bows the knee and declares, “blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

I thank you for the example of missionaries that have gone before us. Thank you that the Judsons left the shores of the United States exactly 200 years ago today as our country’s first Protestant missionaries. You teach us patience when we see that none were saved in the first six years of their ministry. You teach us of the power of your Word and the assurance of your promise when we see that 8,000 people believed by the time they died. Lord, the same mustard seed that sprang up in Burma is the same mustard seed that’s been planted in Batavia. Help us to be faithful to plant and water, and Lord, we ask for growth. May your kingdom come. Lord, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We want to be missionaries, evangelists, disciples of Jesus in our homes and neighborhoods. Lord, give us faith in your word, hope in your promises and love for our neighbor.

And Lord, as we pray for a work of bold faith to be done in our church, we pray for our missionaries throughout the world. We pray for all who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we especially ask for blessing on the lives and ministries of the missionaries that we know and love. We pray for the Hansens in Bolivia; may the students they teach in seminary become national leaders for your kingdom. Bless the Kellys as Todd trains pastors throughout the world and makes disciple-making disciples.  We pray for the work of the Kuligins in South Africa and ask for continued recovery after Abigail’s jaw surgery. As the Martins work in a church plant in France, may the light of the gospel shine in a darkened country. We ask for gospel growth in the Czech Republic as the Nichols teach your Word at the seminary. Help the Nystroms focus with their busy schedule, and may translation work continue smoothly in Papua New Guinea while the John and Bonnie finish their book here. Give Daniel Owens wisdom as he finishes his doctorate at Wheaton and prepare their family to return to Vietnam.  May the Wicks experience your grace and strength as they serve in a dangerous Middle East and grant salvation to its citizens. And we thank you for the work Michelle Munoz desires to do and we pray that she raises her support quickly and sorts out all of the logistics she needs to accomplish before she starts her work in Oregon. Bless these front line missionaries and let them be an example to us to remember the wisdom of Jim Elliot when he said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” We confess that it’s true for us too.

God, may your glory go out to all the earth.  Send your Spirit to every tongue, tribe and nation. Bless these missionaries as they speak of your Son and preach the good news. Raise the value of Christ’s worth in the hearts of all people around the world. And do that here. Batavia needs to enthrone Jesus as Savior and King. Prepare a harvest in our community and help us to see how the fields are white. Keep the gates of hell from prevailing in this town. Let us be strong in you Lord--in the strength of your might.

And by your Spirit may we worship you in song, prayer and preaching, but let us also worship you in obedience by making disciples on this soil.

            The end of all things is at hand; therefore we wish to be self-controlled and sober-minded and prayerful. Above all, give us to loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Let us show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, help us to use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.