Worthy is the Lamb

I’m preaching on Revelation 5 on Sunday.  Really looking forward to it.  I’ve taken the opportunity to read Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon on Christ as the Lion and the Lamb: “The Excellency of Christ.”  In it his thesis is that the Lion-ness and Lamb-ness of Jesus represent…
“…an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ.”
I [...]

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What a pastor needs?

I’ve been very blessed by stumbling across the sermons of Victor Shepherd on the web.
Here’s a thought of his prompted by Revelation 5:5:
Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.”
Here’s what Shepherd says:
I think that what a pastor [...]

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‘Why the Cross?’ sermon

My sermon on Romans 3:21-26 is here.  Audio is here.
I preached on ‘Why the Cross?’ on Sunday.  Thanks to all who gave help to this sermon.
In the end I guess I did a version of an old style law-gospel talk.  Basically it ran – sin is very serious, thank Christ for atonement.
Now I’m aware that such [...]

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Heh heh

Two funnies that have made me chuckle this week:
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Hilariously tragically true:
 
http://xkcd.com/386/   H/T: Missy
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Now read all about St Simon the Fool.  Beautifully silly
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Door to Door?

A friend of mine recently posed this statement for discussion
“Five sessions of 5 pairs spending two hours door-knocking is better spent having 5 pairs having neighbours round five times in a season” Discuss.
Some responses:

Good thought!  See especially here where Rory Shiner discusses Gospel intentionality as a good ‘third way’ between cold-contact and friendship evangelism.  He (like [...]

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Apologetics? Nein!

Some nice moments from Barth against apologetics
“Knowledge of revelation… begins with certitude. Either God has spoken or He has not spoken. If He has spoken, He has done so in such a manner that it is impossible not to heed Him. Among others, the question of His existence and nature are then decided and can [...]

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Faith is not a thing

A while back Matt Jenson wrote a brilliant short essay entitled: Faith is nothing at all.  Do read it if you haven’t already, it won’t take long.
We must constantly remind ourselves that faith is not a thing.  It is not a possession by which we make claim to salvation.  Faith is the absence of a thing [...]

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Any help?

I’m preaching on Sunday with the title Why the Cross?  (I think the whole ‘Why can’t God just forgive?’ question is behind the choice of topic).  What should I say?
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Trusting Him – Walking as He walked

After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, [...]

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Gospel intentionality

Here Rory Shiner explains a third way between stranger evangelism and friendship evangelism.  I’ve plenty of time for both these but his description of ‘Gospel intentionality’ (borrowed from Steve Timmis) is excellent.  Check it out.
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Islam and the cross

You want a very quick way of distinguishing Islam from Christianity?  Think of the cross.  The Muslim account of the cross exactly reverses the gracious work of Christ.
In Islam, the sinful man (Judas) is substituted for the righteous one (Jesus).  The Quran says it only appeared to be Jesus on the cross, another was substituted in [...]

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Five thoughts on the sermon of creation

1) The sermon of creation is not a minimal thing – it’s maximal.  Romans 1:19 ‘what may be known about God… God has made plain.’  Colossians 1:23 ‘the gospel… has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.’  Psalm 19:2 ‘Day after day they pour forth speech.’
2) Our blindness/deafness to this sermon is not minimal either – it [...]

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How He has loved us

Bobby’s just commented on a brilliant Richard Sibbes quotation re participation in the trinitarian communion of love.  Go read it. 
It got me thinking about the upper room, before Jesus died.  Here Jesus gives us three pictures of how we are loved.  The waterfall, promotion, God’s compass.  They all deserve reflection as we immerse ourselves in how we [...]

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Blog mouth

A few months ago I commented on a blog about Christian kids songs.  I mentioned speaking to an author about the lyrics of one of his better known songs.  Since this conversation happened 7 years ago, my memory of it was very sketchy (I even mistook his name for someone else’s when it was mentioned).  But [...]

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Trusting God’s Sovereignty – Trusting God’s Son

When times are tough – what is your comfort?  When comforting others, where do you point them?
In the circles in which I move the encouragements of choice involve variations on the theme of ‘God’s got a plan.’  Many’s the time when a well-meaning brother (usually a brother) has said ‘I guess at moments like this, all [...]

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Why is God breaking you down?

Sometimes, when I’m sharing with Christians about tough times, I ask them: ‘Why do you think God is breaking you down like this?’
Almost without fail they say something like, ‘I know, I know, it’s to make me stronger.’
No!  No, no, no, a thousand times no!
He’s breaking you down to make you broken.  Don’t, whatever you [...]

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Barth on Preaching Christ from all the Scriptures

For Barth the three-fold Word – Christ, Scripture and Proclamation – means that preaching should always be Scriptural and always witness to Christ.   Here he makes it clear that christo-centrism is not something the preacher (or the biblical theologian) bestows on the Bible.  Rather, the Bible is already and inherently witness to Christ:
“The Bible says all sorts [...]

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Preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God

That’s what Heinrich Bullinger asserted in the Second Helvetic Confession.  And he’s not alone.  Check out Luther:
“Tis a right excellent thing, that every honest pastor’s and preacher’s mouth is Christ’s mouth, and his word and forgiveness is Christ’s word and forgiveness… For the office is not the pastor’s or preacher’s but God’s; and the Word [...]

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What age are we in?

Are we in the Post-Christian age? 
Is this age characterized by total cultural memory-loss regarding our Christian heritage?  Is this the age in which people are so far back in their Christian understanding that the mission stategies of previous centuries are virtually useless? 
Are we in the Post-Modern age?
Is this age characterized by the total devaluation of [...]

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What a resource!

Hot off the press – here is UCCF’s new theology site (American’s read: IVCF).
 This page alone justifies the existence of the internet.  Download all the Mike Reeves you can!
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What is godliness?

From a sermon on Luke 14 I gave yesterday:
Godliness is radical other-centredness.  Christ-likeness is opening your life out in invitation to the world.

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“You and me, we’re not so different really…”

There’s often a point in the crime drama where the bad guy tells the cop ‘You and me, we’re not so different really.’  Well there are two baddies in the history of trinitarian theology who really aren’t that different: Arius and Sabellius.  Arius was the sub-ordinationist.  He defined the One God such that Jesus could not [...]

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