RE-FOCUSING ON THE CROSS
Many Christians have viewed the cross exclusively as the means by which God in Christ Jesus achieved our redemption. Of course, no true believer would want to minimize the centrality of the cross in God’s redemptive purposes.
If we view the cross as the means of salvation and nothing more, we shall overlook many of its functions as revealed in the New Testament.
In particular, we shall fail to see the following:
The cross stands as the test and the standard of all vital Christian ministry. The church and believers, in missing this, have strayed very far away from what God intends, and this is certainly not pleasing to Him.
The cross not only establishes what we are to preach (the content), but how we are to preach (and teach).
The cross prescribes what Christian leaders must be and how Christians must view Christian leaders.
It tells us how to serve and draws us onward in discipleship until we understand what it means to be true followers of the Lord Jesus.
In all the above, if we are honest about the issues, believers and the church have generally failed rather miserably. This could perhaps explain why unbelievers have been stumbled significantly; it also points to the reality that generally, the church has lost her ‘light’ and ‘testimony’ not only to the unbelieving world, but also to young believers who are truly dismayed after joining the church community and are truly distressed to see the lack of love, compassion, selflessness, and godly character among members – there seems to be an apparent ‘veneer’ painted over the fellow believers; a ‘whitewash’ over dirty and unsightly ‘walls’, and when this is removed, what ‘comes forth’ is no different from the people of the fallen world.
It is therefore imperative that we self-consciously focus on what is central – on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and resolve like Paul “to “know nothing….. except Jesus Christ and Him crucified”(1 Cor. 2:2). By God’s grace, we will then be able to shape our vision of ministry as much as it will shape our own grasp of the centrality of the gospel (and the cross).
THE CROSS AND PREACHING
The message of the cross divides the human race absolutely (1 Cor. 1:18-21); it distinguishes between those who are perishing and those who are being saved – the dividing line is the message of the cross. “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
In other words, the message of the cross is nothing other than God’s way of doing what he said he would do: by the cross, God sets aside and shatters all human pretensions to strength and wisdom.
God made us to gravitate toward him, to acknowledge with joy and obedience that he is the center of all, that he alone is God. This is in line with the theology of ‘predestination’ and ‘election’; it is not so much that we, in our wisdom and knowledge and sin, come near to God to seek him, rather, it is God who draws us to himself and prepares us to open our hearts to his love, mercy and grace.
The heart of our wretched rebellion is that each one of us wants to be number one. We make ourselves the center of all our thoughts and hopes and imagination – this lust to be first works its way outward not only in hatred, war, rape, greed, covetousness, malice, bitterness, and much more, but also in self-righteousness, self-promotion, manufactured religions, and domesticated gods. Often mankind pays tribute to those who show compassion to those in the plight of war and suffering, but little do we realise that the very ones who initially do this may be involved in the same cruelty and conflict in another context with another motivation.
Our self-centeredness is deep. It is so brutally idolatrous that it tries to domesticate God himself. In our folly we act as if we can outsmart God, as if God owes us explanations, as if we are wise and self-determining while God exists only to meet our needs and our satisfaction.
No public philosophy, no commonly accepted “wisdom,” can have enduring significance if its center is not the cross. Whatever the merits or the demerits of these various systems, they exhaust their resources on merely superficial levels. They do not reconcile men and women to the living God, and nothing is more important than that. They cannot uncover God’s wisdom in the cross, and if that is hidden all other “wisdom” is foolish.
God determines that the message of the cross, the content of what is preached, should save “those who believe; God determines that some men and some women would come to know him – but through a means utterly unexpected and unforeseen by the “wise” people of the world (1 Cori. 1:21).
From the human perspective, faith appropriates the peerless benefits of Christ’s cross. But the question of ultimate cause must be asked: If it was God’s wisdom that ensured that the world through its wisdom would not know him, how did these people come to believe? If everyone finds the cross foolish and repulsive, how did these people come to delight in it?The answer: They were called by God himself (1 Cor. 1:24).
What the world dismisses with a shudder is nothing less than God’s means of bringing blessing the world cannot otherwise obtain.
RE-FOCUSING ON THE CROSS (B)
In the previous sharing, we noted that if we do not view the CROSS wholesomely, we shall fail to to see that the cross stands as the TEST and the STANDARD of all vital Christian ministry.
We focused on how the cross establishes what we are to preach and teach. Essentially, we noted that the message of the cross is such that God draws sinners toward him, to acknowledge their need of him for forgiveness, and to repent and believe, resulting in joy and obedience, and regeneration. Because the heart of our rebellion against God is the desire to be number one, we make ourselves the center of our thoughts, hopes and pursuits – this leads to hatred, war, malice, greed, bitterness and more, not forgetting the promotion of self, self-righteousness, the manufacturing of religions and domesticated gods.
Our preaching and teaching must not forget the need to communicate the conviction of sins, the need to cry out for forgiveness from God, and the abandonment of our self-centeredness, and the acknowledgment of who God really is, and who we are, in the place of wretched sinners before a holy and righteous God. Human wisdom and human folly are equally unable to achieve what God has accomplished at the cross; the gospel is not simply good news or good advice – it is God’s power to those who believe, the place where God has destroyed all human pride and pretension at the cross.
So we must not preach the gospel in such a way that seems to ‘beg’ sinners to come to God who ‘desperately’ needs them; we are not to put sinners in the seat where God owes them an explanation regarding their plight, and that they have the final option to decide whether to receive or reject the gospel. Only the Holy Spirit can cause sinners, men and women alike, to cry out, in deep repentance, for God’s mercy and grace, and to grant them the faith to believe; but we are not to cause the listeners to hear a message that puts them in a driving seat, a position that wretched condemned sinners do not deserve, and one that only the almighty holy God can occupy as the ultimate judge and ruler of the universe.
So the preaching and teaching on salvation, sanctification, perseverance of the faith, and all that Jesus taught the apostles (recorded in Scripture) should not eclipse the CROSS in their content and substance, and theology. Similarly, the preacher or teacher does not stand in front of God at the pulpit; he stands humbly behind as God’s messenger pronouncing the revelation of God in the power of the Spirit.
Accordingly, preachers, teachers, and leaders in the church are to be recognised as stewards and servants of God – it is only God who gives the growth and the increase; it is only God who deserves all the glory and honour. When men think it appropriate to claim God’s glory (even a fraction of it) in Christian ministry and service, and when others view them with ‘adoration’ and forget what they must be and ought to be in the sight of God, then we ‘displace’ God from His throne of glory and honour, and cause much ‘damage’ to God’s work and ministry.
It is always God’s work, God’s glory, God’s church, and never ever be ‘my church’, ‘my ministry’, my ‘achievements’ and so forth. We need to set aside all these human pretensions and human wisdom, and realise that we are impotent when it comes to dealing with sin and being reconciled to God, both for ourselves and for those to whom we minister.
We must return again and again to the cross of Jesus Christ if we are to take the measure of our Christian living, our Christian service, our Christian ministry. For far too long, Christians and their leaders have sought to take the centre stage and to put themselves on the pedestal. It is only the Triune God who is worthy of all worship and honour; no one else (including the evil one and his minions) can take this place or even think of taking it, for their end would be the lake of fire!! Are we re-focusing our life, our ministry, our service and our church life on the cross?
FOCUSING ON HOW THE SPIRIT OPERATES
The Holy Spirit, who indwells in us believers, is the One who interprets and applies the word (in Scripture) to all the changing scenes and situations of our lives. He reveals Jesus in the Word of truth to our situations and needs, as we reverently ask him to work in our minds, hearts and wills. And his activity is always Word-centered, because his work is always Christ-honouring.
This means that if we are to win in the spiritual battle, to grow in holiness and effective Christian living, we must know and use our BIbles.The Spirit has provided the sword; He trains us in its use; He gives us strength to wield it. We are right to recognise that we are totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit, but the logical deduction is that we must therefore give ourselves to being diligent students of Scripture, and sadly that has become a comparatively rare priority among Christians today.
We would prefer an instant ‘hot-line’ from heaven. It is more culturally acceptable to us and saves a lot of time and trouble. Who wants to study a book, if there is an intuitive awareness of God’s will open to us? The first can sound very ‘cerebral’ and ‘rational’, if not a little outdated to many. But that would be to ignore the greatest resource that God has given us. The teaching of the Bible is the plumb-line by which all claims to divine guidance, all new ideas, all intuitions must be tested. Its single, divine authorship means that Scripture has an inner harmony, without any contradictions.
Any contemporary claims to have a “word from the Lord” must be tested against the authoritative Word already given in Scripture. If they are in opposition to the Scripture, they are to be rejected. Such a simple test would have prevented hundreds of sincere people from being deluded by cultic leaders with powerful personalities. And if there is no Scriptural reference to which a prophecy can be tested, then the Old Testament test, that a true prophet speaks truth, has to be applied (Deut 18:22). “If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken.
Examining the Old Testament, we would note the Holy Spirit’s role as the creator and sustainer of life, but he is especially at work in the world, in a wider sense, in the lives of individual men and women. His mission is always to be the executive of the divine will within the world. The Holy Spirit’s great work is to bring sinners to the Saviour and then to mature Christians in their faith, forming in them the likeness of Christ, the renewed image of God, so as to prepare them for heaven. The process must begin with the new birth, but the continual renewing work of the Spirit is the essence of Christian experience throughout our lives in this world.
His work will be a work of conviction – “of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgments, in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me (Christ), in regard to righteousness because I am going to the FAther, where you can see me no longer, and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned”(John 16:8-11). The spirit of unbelief lies at the root of all our other sins. It is because we do not believe in God’s Word that we disobey it. It is because we do not believe that God has our best interests at heart that we will not allow him truly to be God in our lives. To be convicted of our unbelieving state by the Holy Spirit is the beginning of the gift of faith. No one can become a Christian without the work of the HOly Spirit in their life. He awakens our conscience and leads us to repent. He calls us to Christ, by revealing the truth of who Jesus is to our minds and applying it to our wills. He imparts his gift of saving faith, as we accept the forgiveness which Christ brought with his blood shed on the cross and as we become united to him both in his death and in his risen life. To be a Christian therefore is to receive the life of God within the innermost personality, or to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
FOCUSING ON HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT OPERATES (B)
One further aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit is his rule within the church. It is a tendency of our culture to be overly self-centered and to stress individual fulfilment at the price of corporate fellowship. But the Spirit, who indwells each believer, also unites us all as members of the one body of Christ on earth.
It is the Spirit who imparts the gifts of God’s grace to the church, for the common good of all (1 Cor. 12:4-7). In his sovereignty, he decides which gifts shall be given to which individuals, but always with the aim of building up the whole (1Cor. 12:11).
Too often churches have been divided and even ruined by aggressive and arrogant behaviour, in the name of some new understanding or experience of the Spirit. But his true mark is to unite God’s people in the love which is his greatest gift and chief fruit.
The Holy Spirit is also the enabling power behind the witness of the church in the world. He himself is the ability given to Christ’s believing people for the completion of the great commission to world evangelisation (Acts 1:8). We are dependent completely on his work for all spiritual progress.
He makes the church grow, checking our sin, strengthening our will to obey God’s Word, producing his fruit of godly character, ministering to and through the body of Christ by his gifts. What is amazing is that God plants a seed of spiritual life in our lives and it begins to grow. Looked at another way, that seed is his life within us, in the person of the Holy Spirit, who penetrates, develops and multiplies his dynamic in every area that is open to his ministry. But sowing and growing take time; there is no overnight harvest
We are prone to focus on God’s dramatic and emotional removal of the barriers we erect against the flow of his Spirit in our lives, as the real work he is doing in us. But it is the regular feeding and growing that are the real work. The upheavals and special crises are simply the prelude to further growth, frequently made necessary by our own stubborn resistance.
Our dependence on God has to be total; that is the only condition of spiritual health, and often he disciplines us, through testing and difficult circumstances, to bring us back to this realisation, and to regain our spiritual sense about things.
We are human and we are righteous sinners. We always shall be this side of heaven; but our humanity is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit.
FOCUSING ON HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT OPERATES (C)
The earthly ministry of Jesus, including the cross and the resurrection, recorded in the gospels, was only the beginning of the dawn of a new age and era. Luke quickly points out that Jesus’ earthly ministry was carried out through the Holy Spirit. We know that Jesus was truly God and truly man in his incarnation; he opted to experience the world through the limitations he took upon himself in order to be fully man even though his divine attributes were still present in him, but not voluntarily exercised by him. As such, he experienced time and space events within the confines of a normal human being and became the perfect example of how a man should live before God.
The Lord Jesus declared in Matthew 12:28: “I drive out demons by the Spirit of God”. In a synagogue in Nazareth, he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18). Both his wonderful words and his mighty deeds were made effective through the power of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, even his redemptive work was dependent on the same enabling.The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God will cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14).
Jesius Christ, as man, found it necessary to depend upon the Holy Spirit in and for every aspect of his ministry. How much more then does his body on earth need the anointing and enabling of the same “Paraclete”, the one who is “called alongside to help?
The Holy Spirit is Jesus at work in the continuation of his ministry. “Another Comforter” (John 14:16) means another of the same sort, of the same nature, – another Jesus, we might say. The deity of the Holy Spirit is thus firmly established. The book of Acts, sometimes referred to as the acts of the Apostles, is in fact an extension of the ministry begun by the Lord Jesus, now continued through the acts of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit takes the things of Christ and makes them real and living – he applies Christ’s work to the individual. It is he who indwells Christian people to make us more like Jesus, but always on the ground of what Christ accomplished at Calvary, and always with the purpose of exalting the Lord Jesus (John 15:26).
In Luke 24:49, Jesus told his disciples, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” The emphasis is not on human achievement, but on the divine gift, coming down from God, which brings us what would otherwise be entirely beyond our reach.
We must understand that the apostles did not secure the Holy Spirit because they waited in prayer, but because he is “the gift of my Father” (Luke 24:4). The reception of the Holy Spirit is therefore not an opportunity, a responsibility, or even a privilege to be claimed, but the promise of a free gift of God’s grace. The baptism of the Holy Spirit then is receiving the free gift of God’s grace, personally. God himself comes to take up residence in the redeemed person. God planted in the human soul, through the person of the indwelling Spirit, is the gift of the Father made to every believer, without cost, condition, or exception. Jesus does not tell his disciples that if they have emptied themselves enough of their sin or self-centeredness, or if they are holy enough, or if they have waited long enough, then they will receive the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit was given, not to a few disciples who had fulfilled certain conditions, but to all (Acts 2:1-4). We do not have to empty ourselves in order to be filled. The Father’s love gift overflows to all his children.
Becoming a Christian, or experiencing the new birth, is all about being deeply cleansed by the blood of Jesus as we are immersed in the life of the Holy Spirit – he becomes the new environment in which we live and move as Christians.
“You are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” Let us grasp what apostle Paul wrote: Do we belong to Christ? Are we Christians? Then the Holy Spirit is within us. There is no other way in which we could be a Christian. If we are Christians, we have been made alive spiritually (regenerated), we live in his environment, we have been initiated, or baptised, into his life.
We should be clear of certain implications if we appreciate what has been shared. Jesus, on earth, lived perfectly as a human, although he was also divine – so if we are to follow him, there is no way we can do so without the presence, indwelling, power, and life of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was able to depend totally on the Spirit throughout his ministry and life on earth; hence he was sinless, fully pleasing to the Father. His words and work, and even his redemptive work, were the result of dependence on the Spirit from womb to tomb, and beyond. So if we seek to live, pleasing to God, and if we seek to serve and minister in a way acceptable to God (not perfectly though here on this side of the new era), we cannot do it without the Spirit and without depending completely on him. Hence we need to ‘practise his presence, his guidance, enabling, and not to grieve him in doing ‘things our own way”, depending instead on our finite minds and understanding, our ‘spiritual training’ (buttressed by being competent after attending many courses, and graduating with qualifications from various religious institutions), and dismissing the need for him to mould us and made us like Christ. As the Spirit is the author of Scripture, the interpreter and illuminator of the Bible, we cannot afford to live a Christian life without immersing ourselves in the Scripture, and be taught by him (2 Tim 3:16).
As the Spirit exalts the Lord Jesus and puts the ‘spotlight’ on Jesus and his ministry, we cannot seek to follow the Lord Jesus without the help, presence, and ministry of the Spirit – it cannot be done. Those who exalt themselves as great preachers, great evangelists, great pastors and teachers, without giving glory and honour to the Triune God, have to realise the great displeasure of God in their lives and ministry!
Similarly, those who claim much ‘power’ and effectiveness as great ‘healers’, miracle-workers, as those greatly anointed, without the approval and pleasure of God, and eclipsing the glory of the Triune God, need to ‘repent’ and know their proper position before the heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul, often referred to as one of the greatest Christian workers in the history of the early church, asked, “Who is Paul; who is Apollos? – servants and stewards of the living God. It is God who gives the growth of the church and Christian ministry – not one human being, even the most spiritual in the eyes of man, can take the place of God in ministering LIFE to the created.
Our regeneration, our gifts (including the indwelling of the Spirit) are all due to God’s grace and mercy. Heaven forbids us to claim credit for ourselves and to think ourselves as special and self-made leaders in God’s ministry. The life of God planted in our human souls, through the person of the Holy Spirit, is the gift of the heavenly Father, without any contribution, whatsoever, from us. If Jesus’ earthly ministry as the God-man has to be carried out through the Holy Spirit, what more our life and ministry as righteous sinners, still ‘struggling’ to deal with the flesh, the world and the evil one? God knows we cannot carry out the task assigned to us without the Spirit, and so the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to empower His people to fulfil His great salvation plan until the consummation. Thanks be to God who has not left us without a “Helper” and “Comforter”!!
FOCUSING ON HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT OPERATES (D)
One of the greatest tragedies in the past 30 years or so in the history of biblical Chrisitianity is the un-Biblical dichotomy between facts and feelings, and so between the Word and the Spirit.
The mistake is to emphasise one at the expense of the other, even to theGod, doctrine, truth and the illumination of the mind are somehow antithetical to the Spirit, experience, love and the softening of the heart is a profound error.
We are not “just minds” or “just hearts”. We are whole persons, made in the image of the God who thinks and speaks, who loves and acts, and who has made us with minds to understand his self-revelation in the words of Scripture, hearts to accept his truth and enthrone the Lord Jesus as the control-centre of the personality, and wills to put into action what we have come to understand and embrace in the gospel.
No one is at liberty to choose to be a “love Christian” rather than a “truth Christian”, or to major on the Word without the Spirit. We all need both the Spirit and the Word and both in the fullest possible measure, for nothing less will bring true glory to the Trinitarian God of love and unity, into whose image we are being made. The great concern of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus, because his glory is the glory of the Father too. Just as the Son spoke the words the Father gave him, the HOly Spirit takes the things of the Lord Jesu (his character, his words, his saving work) and reveals them ever more deeply and fully to his disciples, the living church.
The disciples, empowered by God, then go back into the hostile world,which does not know God, and otherwise would never want to know him, to testify of Christ, and through their testimony to see the powerful Spirit at work, convincing other rebels of sin, righteousness and judgment.
FOCUSING ON JESUS’ CONCERNS FOR HIS CHURCH
Many congregations had considered the book of Revelation in recent months. We probably would not have missed the letters from the Lord Jesus to the seven churches in the first few chapters.
Although the letters were addressed specifically to actual churches during that period of history, the concerns of the Lord Jesus continue to be relevant to the churches today. The seven churches were undergoing persecution; some encountered severe persecution, some less severe, but the overall situation was one that calls for the need to remain faithful to God and the gospel from the One who is the Alpha and the Omega, the risen Lord, the one who is coming again at the end of the age.
The main concerns raised by the Lord for the seven churches:
1. The church in Ephesus – the list of achievements was impressive but the Lord rebuked them for losing their ‘first love’.
2. The church in Smyrna – they were exhorted to remain faithful in suffering and in the face of spiritual opposition.
3. The church in Pergamum and in Thyatira – despite some commendable areas, they had compromised in terms of allowing false teachers and false teaching to infiltrate their congregations, accompanied by sexual immorality and idolatry.
5. The church in Sardis – this church was relatively free from spiritual opposition. However, she had been infiltrated by the values of the world and had a name of being alive but was actually dead spiritually.
6. The church in Laodicea – a church which claimed to be ‘rich’ but was actually poor spiritually. She was branded as ‘lukewarm’, neither hot nor cold. They were half-baked believers, half-hearted Christians.
7. The church in Philadelphia – had little strength, yet she did not deny the Lord Jesus and had remained faithful.
As we go through the list above and note the ‘rebukes’ from the Lord Jesus, and also realise the ‘similarities’ in our contexts today as churches, and the solemn call to repent, do we feel that these rebukes and call from the Lord do not apply to our congregations today?
Perhaps, a different approach in addressing these issues may be helpful:
Many believers today want just enough of the gospel to make them happy, but not so much that they become ‘disturbed’. They do not want so much of the gospel that they learn to really hate covetousness and lust; they certainly do not want so much that they start to love their enemies, cherish self-denial and contemplate being open to serve God in adverse circumstances. They want ‘ecstasy’, the feeling of being ‘high’, but not repentance; they want transcendence but not transformation. They would want enough gospel to make their families secure and their children well behaved, but not so much that they find their ambitions curtailed or redirected.
Can we detect some characteristics here that in fact reflect the concerns of the Lord Jesus? Do they not fit in with the believers who have a name that they are spiritually alive but in reality are dead? What about those who are lukewarm, indifferent, neither hot or cold spiritually – do we see this in those who want just enough of ‘commitment’ to Jesus that will not be disconcerting, or cause them to have to love those who are unlovable in their assessment and to face the call of self-denial in their lives?
The church today may be seen as a “hive of activity” – everyone seems to be doing things and moving from one thing to another; but are all these an overflow of the ‘first love’ for Jesus? Many do not want to talk about suffering for the Lord, and in fact constantly pray to be delivered from situations which may be distressing for them as believers.
The influences of self-indulgence wield their power in the church – it has become more important to be comfortable and secure than it is to be self-sacrificing and giving, or even to be inconvenienced for the sake of loving the brethren or those in need.
When it comes to praying, it is almost always about ‘my health’, ‘my career’, my family’s needs, and almost ‘nothing’ about reaching out to others with the gospel and praying for various ones to be more open to the Lord. Worse still, the prayer meetings of many congregations cannot even ‘boast’ of the presence of even 10% of the numbers in the congregation. But when it comes to activities that involve food, fun and frolic, the numbers may be staggering.
‘Fellowship” – what lies at the centre of all the ties with fellow believers – meals, the weather, our children, grandchildren for those who qualify, our aches and pain? Is there no fellowship in the gospel, passion for the gospel, the good news that in Jesus God himself has reconciled us to himself – in the conversation is there sharing on delighting in God, learning from his Word, joining in prayer for the advance of the gospel, encouraging one another in obedience and maturing discipleship?
What about growingGod if we are full of bitterness or other self-centered sins.
This is not to say that we cannot enjoy one another’s company in sharing some common activities, and talking about world’s situations and the like in the midst of excellent meals and drinks. But what really ties us together when we meet after a church service – is it the passion for the gospel, and fellowship in the gospel?
As we look at these questions, we should realise that what characterise the average congregation today are also the concerns of our Lord Jesus for his church. We are no different essentially from the seven churches in the Lord’s seven letters in Revelation! We need to repent before the ‘lamp’ of our witness and testimony is removed by the Lord; we need to recover our ‘first love’ for the Lord, our pursuit of holiness, our recovery of wholesome teachings and theology from the revelation in the Scripture. There is a need for total commitment to God in the light of the persecution, tribulation that will grow in intensity in the last days.
The beginning of the book of Revelation seeks to put these right before revealing the scenario of what is going to take place before the consummation!
RE-FOCUSING ON SCRIPTURE
Who wants to listen to sermons or be involved in Bible study nowadays? People are ‘drugged’ by television, hostile to authority, weary and wary of words – even infants are quietened when they are given handphones to look at, so why will they bother to read when they grow up, especially when there are only words in print without any ‘scenes’ and music to ‘catch’ their attention?
Despite the acknowledged problems today, preachers and teachers of the Bible must persevere. Why so? The health of the church depends on it. If Jesus endorsed that human beings “shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, it is equally true of churches. Churches live, grow and flourish by the Word of God; they wilt and wither without it. The pew is usually a reflection of the pulpit. ‘?’Is it not true that the decadent periods and eras in the history of the Church have always been those periods when preaching had declined (paraphrase of the question posed by artin Lloyd-Jones).
Although we rejoice to see statistics of church growth, we have to admit that it is often growth without depth, superficiality everywhere. Nothing, it seems, is more important for the life and growth, health and depth of the church today than a recovery of serious biblical preaching and teaching. But we need to pause and qualify: note that the devil can quote Scripture (in his encounter with Jesus in the wilderness); the fact that Scripture is quoted in sermons and teaching does not necessarily mean that the preaching and teaching is considered as truly biblical in the eyes of God.
To preach or teach the Scripture is to open up the inspired text with such faithfulness and sensitivity that God’s voice is heard and God’s people obey him.
We need to note that the biblical text is an inspired text; we need to view the biblical text as being unlike any other text, unique in its origin, nature and authority – this view is indispensable to authentic preaching and teaching. Nothing undermines preaching and teaching more than scepticism about Scripture. It is very ‘painful’ and ‘distressing’ to see what is communicated in sermons and bible study amounting to just ‘ideas of man’, ‘gleanings from reading of commentaries by questionable authors, distorted views of Scripture and theology, and the like.
‘Revelation’ describes God’s initiative to unveil or disclose himself. God, in his infinite perfections, is beyond the reach of finite minds – we have no ability to read his thoughts (Isa. 55:9). Hence we can only know him if he chooses to make himself known (but even what he reveals is only what we need to know).
‘Inspiration’ describes the means God chose by which to reveal himself, namely by speaking to and through the biblical authors. It is not a dictation process which would have demeaned the authors into machines, but a dynamic one which treated them as persons in active possession of their faculties.
‘Providence’ is the loving foresight and provision of God by which he arranged for the words he had spoken first to be written to form what we call ‘Scripture’, and then to be preserved across the centuries so as to be available to all people in all places at all times, for their salvation and enrichment. Scripture then is “God’s written word”, his self-disclosure in speech and writing, the product of his revelation, inspiration, and providence.
BUt since God has spoken, we too must speak, communicating to others what he has communicated in Scripture. We speak and teach because we believe what God has spoken. In that light, this is a very responsible task for every Christian preacher and teacher – it is not to be taken lightly.
RE-FOCUSING ON THE SCRIPTURE (B)
We noted that the biblical text is an inspired text. The inspired text is also a partially closed text. To preach or teach is to open up the inspired text, then it must mean that the text is partially closed or else it would not need to be opened up.
The Reformers advocated the “perspicuity” of Scripture, meaning that Scripture has a transparent or ‘see-through’ quality – this means that the ordinary Christian can understand the central message of the Scripture, principally the gospel of salvation (this was to counter the claim of RC that only the priests were the ones who could understand the Scripture).
However, this insistence on the perspicuity of Scripture on the part of the Reformers does not mean that everything in Scripture is equally plain. The apostle Peter himself wrote that some things in Paul’s letters ‘are hard to understand’ (2 Peter 3:6). Consider this: if one apostle did not always understand another apostle, it would hardly be modest for us to claim that we understand everything in Scripture. Hence, the church needs pastors and teachers to expound or open up the Scriptures, and the ascended Lord Jesus still gives these gifts to the church (Eph.4:11). God has given us in Scripture a text which is both inspired (having a divine origin and authority) and to some degree closed (difficult to understand). Therefore, in addition to the text, he gives the church teachers to open up the text, explaining it and applying it to people’s lives.
To open up the inspired text…requires faithfulness and sensitivity, namely, faithfulness to the ancient Word and sensitivity to the modern world.
Faithfulness means we have to accept the discipline of exegesis, that is, of thinking ourselves back into the situation of the biblical authors, into their history, geography, culture and language. To neglect this discipline or to do it in a half-hearted or slovenly way is inexcusable, for it expresses contempt for the way God chose to speak. We must study it in a conscientious and meticulous way, sometimes painstakingly in order to open to others the very words of the living God!
John Calvin understood this well: He wrote, “It is the first business of an interpreter to let his author say what he does say, instead of attributing to him what we think he ought to say.” Years later, Charles Simeon of Cambridge enunciated the same principle when he wrote, ‘My endeavour is to bring out of Scripture what is there, and not to thrust in what I think might be there.’
Biblical preaching and teaching demand sensitivity to the modern world. Although God spoke to the ancient world in its own languages and cultures, he intends his Word to be for everyone. This means that the expositor is more than an exegete. The exegete explains the original meaning of the text; the expositor goes further and applies it to the contemporary world. This requires the preacher and teacher to keep in touch with the changing world and to appreciate their thoughts, values, and disorientation and despair.
The characteristic fault of liberal preachers is to be contemporary, but not biblical. This leads to distorted interpretation and reading too much into the text (beyond what the original author communicated), and this can be very displeasing to the Lord, and cause much damage to God’s people.
It is only the author who determines the meaning of a text, and that to ‘banish’ the original author as the determiner of meaning is to reject the only compelling principle that could lend validity to an interpretation. Meaning is not to be found above the text, behind it, beyond it, or in the interpreter. Meaning is to be found in the text. It is the language of the text which determines what meaning God intends for us to have.
To be faithful in working at the text’s meaning and then being sensitive in discerning its message for today requires hard work – there is no short cuts to this. There is only the hard slog of study, seeking to become familiar both with the Scriptures in their fullness and with the modern world in all its variety.
The apostle James wrote, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers and sister, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (James 3:1)
If we do open up the inspired text with faithfulness and sensitivity, what can we expect to happen?
We can expect God’s voice to be heard. God who had spoken in the past also speaks in the present through what he has spoken.
We can expect that God’s people will obey him. The Word of God always demands a response of obedience. We are not to be forgetful hearers, but obedient doers of God’s Word.
The Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.” (Heb. 3:7-9)
RE-FOCUSING ON THE SCRIPTURE (THE WORD) (C)
God’s Word, received and responded to, has a central role in the faith and life of God’s people:
Submission to the authority of Scripture is the way of mature discipleship. There may be followers of Christ whose confidence in Scripture is small – their discipleship is bound to be impoverished on account of their attitude to the BIble.
A full, balanced and mature Christian discipleship is impossible whenever disciples do not submit to their Lord’s teaching authority as it is mediated through Scripture.
After all, discipleship is a many-faceted lifestyle, an amalgam of several ingredients – in particular, it includes worship, faith, obedience and hope. Every Christian is called to worship God, to trust and obey him, and to look with confidence towards the future. Yet each of these is a response to revelation, and is seriously impaired without a reliable, objective revelation of God. It is interesting that in today’s preaching and study of Luke 8, in the healing of the woman with haemorrhage, and the raising of Jairus’ daughter from death, the subject of faith in Jesus and hope in him were highlighted.
Worship
Every Christian is a worshipper. We recognise our duty to worship Almighty God publicly and privately. But how can we worship God unless we know both who he is and what kind of worship pleases him? without this proper knowledge, our attempts to worship would surely degenerate into idolatry.
To worship God is to glory in his holy name, that is, to revel adoringly in who he is in his revealed character. To glory in God’s name would imply that we must know it; hence the essential need of reading and preaching of the Word of God in public worship, and of biblical meditation in private devotions, and among fellow believers. These things are not an intrusion into worship; they form the necessary foundation of it. God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship.
The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship. If we excuse ourselves from immersing ourselves in Scripture (with whatever reason), we would be the poorer spiritually in our knowledge and worship of God; invariably we would also be poorer in our discipleship.
Faith
If every Christian is a worshipper, every Christian is a believer also. Indeed, the Christian life is a life of faith. ‘Where is your faith?’ Jesus asked the twelve when they were afraid, and exhorted them, ‘Have faith in God.’ (Luke 8:25).
Faith too is a response to the revelation of God. We can no more trust a God we do not know than we can worship an unknown God. If worship is to glory in God for who he is, then faith is to trust him because of who he is. So faith is neither naivety nor gullibility; it is neither illogical nor irrational. It rests on knowledge, the knowledge of God and his name; its reasonableness arises from the reliability of the God who is being trusted. It is never unreasonable to trust God, since no more trustworthy person exists. The very best of man may fail us and be found untrustworthy in the face of crisis; but not God.
Faith will grow as we reflect on the character of God (who never lies) and on the covenant of God (who has pledged himself to his people). But how can we discover his character and covenant? Only from the Bible, in which these twin truths have been revealed. So the more we meditate on God’s self-disclosure in Scripture, the riper our faith will become, whereas without Scripture our faith is bound to be weak and sickly.
Obedience
Jesus calls his disciples to a life of obedience, as well as of worship and faith. How can we obey him, unless we know his will and commandments? Without a knowledge of these, obedience would be impossible. “If you love me, you will obey what I command,” he said. (John 14:15) And again, “Whosoever has my commands (that is, knows them, and treasures them up in his mind and memory) and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” (John 14:21)
Once more, the Bible is seen to be indispensable to mature discipleship. For it is there that we learn the commands of Christ and so take the first necessary step towards understanding and doing his will.
Hope
The Christian hope is a confident expectation regarding the future. No Christian can be a cynic or a pessimist. No doubt, we do not believe that human beings will ever succeed in building Utopia on earth; but although we have little confidence in human achievement, we have great confidence in the purposes and power of God. We are certain that error and evil are not going to be allowed the last word. For Jesus Christ is going to return in strength and splendour, the dead will be raised, death will be abolished, and the universe will be liberated from decay and suffused with glory.
Christian hope is a confidence in God, kindled by the promises of God. ‘Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,’ the author of Hebrews exhorts his readers . Why? ‘For he who promised is faithful.'(Heb.10:23) “And you will see the Son of Man…coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Mk.13:26). It is promises like these which stimulate our hope. It is ‘in keeping with his promise that we are looking for a new world, in which righteousness will reign. (2 Peter3:13)
We have therefore four basic ingredients of Christian discipleship – worship, faith, obedience, andhope. All four will be irrational without an objective basis in God’s revelation of God’s name, faith to the revelation of his character and covenant, obedience to the revelation of his will and commandments, and hope to the revelation of his purpose and promises. And God’s name, covenant, commands and promises are found in Scripture. That is why Scripture is fundamental to Christian growth,and why submission to its authority is the way of mature discipleship!