True Blessing - 2

Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." (Lk.11.27-28)

True blessing is related to hearing and obeying God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. The woman mentioned in our text was hearing the Lord Jesus as He spoke God's Word. She heard God Himself speak it! She had a priceless opportunity to learn about God because He was standing right there in front of her. Yet, for her, it seemed to be no more than an exciting experience. Therefore, Jesus corrects her and shows her the path to true blessing.

The Lord was not telling this woman anything new. The Psalmist had written about this long before anyone had heard Jesus speak. "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies " (Ps. 119.1-2). "Blessed is the man...(whose) delight is in the law of the Lord" (Ps.1.1-3). The path to true blessing was revealed long ago and Jesus was simply repeating it to this woman.

This path is identified as hearing and obeying the Word of God. Many people heard the Lord Jesus teach when He was on the earth. He told them that the wise person would hear His words and live by them (Mt.7.24-27). However, after Jesus ascended to heaven, how could anyone "hear" Jesus words? The obvious answer is that His apostles were moved by the Holy Spirit to write them down. As with the prophets of the Old Testament, these men were directed by the Holy Spirit to write down the very words of Jesus, as well as to give an inspired explanation of what He did. Their writings are the final part of the whole "Word of God" that Jesus is talking about in these verses. Therefore, even though we are not able to hear the Lord Jesus teach, as this woman heard Him, we can "hear" His words, the Word of God, in the pages of the Bible. In “hearing and keeping” the words of the Bible we will find that God is faithful to bless us and enable us to obey Him.

For this reason, it is of the utmost importance to read and study the Bible on a regular basis. The purpose of this little blog is to help you do that. I believe that what God says is true. The path to true blessing is “hearing and observing” His Word, as the Lord Jesus said. Unless we are hearing and keeping His word daily, we will not know true blessing. We may have wonderful experiences of God’s love and forgiveness and be helped to do “great” things, but unless we are hearing and keeping God’s Word, then the blessings we receive will be few and far between. God may need to “bless” us with discipline (for example, hard situations or temptations we cannot overcome) to show us our real need of regular “hearing” Him in His Word. We can live like beggars at our Father’s door or we can live inside at the table He has spread before us in His Word. The choice is ours.

Do you want to be truly blessed?

True Blessing – 1

Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." (Lk.11.27-28)

The teaching and miracles of the Lord Jesus were a cause of amazement to many people. They had never heard nor seen such great things before. More than once the gospel writers tell us that the people were amazed and astonished at the things Jesus did. On the occasion recorded in the verses above one woman was so overcome by her surprise that she cried out from the midst of the crowd while Jesus was teaching. She could not control her emotion. Her surprise at what Jesus was doing and saying made her cry out in amazement.

The woman's words tell us what she was thinking at the time. She blessed the woman who had brought Jesus into the world because she was glad to be hearing Jesus teach and to be watching Him do wonderful miracles. To this woman it was a glorious experience to be where Jesus was doing wonderful things. It was marvelous to her to hear Him silence the scribes and Pharisees by His words. She blessed the one who gave the world this amazing Person.

The Lord Jesus gave her a surprising answer. She expressed some degree of praise to Him but He does not seem to accept it. In fact, He contradicts the woman's statement, saying that she had a wrong perspective on things. It is certainly true that the Lord Jesus is an amazing person and that His teachings and miracles are glorious. However, simply seeing His works and hearing His teaching is not true blessing. Indeed, there were thousands who heard and saw what this woman did but who were never truly "blessed."

What then, does Jesus say true blessing is? "Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it." True blessing is something related to the Word of God. It is not merely an experience of happiness, surprise or any other emotion. Such emotional experiences are temporary and unpredictable. They come and go and we cannot depend upon them. If true blessing is only an emotional experience, then most of the time it is quite impossible to be truly blessed. Most of the day we are busy with our jobs, our children, our schoolwork or other responsibilities and cannot stop to think about our happiness. On the contrary, if a person is always thinking about his happiness, he will not be blessed at all. Furthermore, he will be unable to have any useful role for God in this world. He will be so busy with himself that he will not have time for God or man.

If you were asked what true blessing was, what would you say? Would you talk about wonderful experiences of God’s help in trouble? Would you mention God’s provision of some great need in your life? Would you think of wonderful experiences of God’s love and forgiveness after falling into sin? These things are blessings indeed. But how many of us would answer this woman as Jesus did? How many of us would think that true blessing was being enabled to understand and obey the Word of God. That is what Jesus thinks it is. Do you?

Blessing!

Only One Source

“Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

The Lord Jesus said some things that were hard for His followers to understand and accept. In John, chapter six, He spoke about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He obviously did not mean that His followers would become cannibals who would eat His body. He was speaking about eternal life and faith in Him as the Savior. But when people misunderstood His words they stopped following Him. When they stopped following Him they cut themselves off from the only source of life and truth. As Peter said, Jesus alone has “the words of eternal life.”

The Word of God has for us a unique place and performs a unique function as the only existing revelation of God’s mind and will. Scripture is the only revelation of the mind and will of God available to us. It is only in and through scripture that we have any knowledge of or union with Christ, who is the image of the invisible God. In the days of His flesh the disciples had no understanding of Jesus, or faith in Him apart from His spoken word. In the same way we are wholly dependent upon their witness, which was anticipated and foreshadowed in the Old Testament, and was recorded in the New.

Without scripture we have no knowledge, faith, or fellowship with Him who is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the image of His being. We are as destitute of the Word of life as the disciples would have been if Jesus had not revealed Himself through His spoken word. We would be deprived not only of the knowledge, faith, and fellowship of the Son, but also of the knowledge and fellowship of the Father and the Spirit. Our dependence on scripture is total. We depend upon the message of scripture for every doctrine of our faith, for the redemptive truth that illumines our minds, and for every hope against the needs of time and eternity.

Scripture is absolutely unique. It is unique because it is the only way we come into relationship with God and enjoy His gracious redemption. We have no encounter with God, with Christ, or with the Holy Spirit in terms of saving and redeeming grace apart from scripture. It is the only revelation to us of God’s redemptive will.

Why do people seek to know God from other sources? Some imagine they can know God through their feelings and experiences. God can be experienced and felt, but how are you to know it is God that you are feeling? We human beings were made to experience God but how can we know what we are experiencing is God? People imagine that if it makes them feel good or happy it must be God. But sin makes the sinner feel good. Is sin God? Obviously not. The fact that people do not like what Jesus says does not mean that they can find God somewhere else. God can only be found in the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Holy Scriptures. Do not think you can find Him anywhere else.

To whom do you go?

All About Jesus

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)

Have you ever wished you could study something with one of the truly great teachers? Think of how much you could learn from someone who was a master in his field. This is very often how people learn trades and skills. Universities like to boast about how many professors they have on their staff. The best person to learn something from is often the expert. When we read about Jesus walking with the two men on the road to Emmaus, we can very easily wish that we had been there with them. Their hearts burned as He expounded the scriptures to them. What an enlightening experience for those two men! But, in spite of what Jesus taught them, they still did not recognize Him until it pleased Him to reveal Himself to them at the meal table. No matter what we learn from the Bible, we still need the Lord to enlighten our eyes by His Spirit in order to know Him.

Nevertheless, the Lord thought it important that He teach those men about Himself. He gave them a great lesson from the scriptures so they might understand Him and His work. They would not know Him without the scriptures. He started at the very beginning and went through the Old Testament to teach them about Himself. Even though He was God and could have given them new revelation on the spot, He chose to use what He had already inspired through Moses and the prophets to teach them about Himself. Those great old books were the textbook for His lesson. Why? The scriptures, Jesus said in another place, “testify of me.” (John 5:39) The whole Bible is about the Lord Jesus. He is in every book.

The Old Testament seems to be a book of long stories and instructions to priests. However, since God was working to bring salvation even from the moment Adam sinned, the book is really about what God does to save sinners. It is about salvation. In the beginning we see the need for salvation as Adam sinned and all men became sinners in him (see also Rom.5.12-21). Then the rest of the Old Testament is the preparation of salvation as God reveals Himself to the nation of Israel and teaches them about the coming Savior. The New Testament begins with the accomplishing of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Then, the book of Acts tells about the proclamation of salvation and the epistles give us the explanation of salvation. Finally we read about the consummation of salvation in the book of the Revelation.

Since Jesus Christ is the Savior, He is the subject of each part of the scriptures.  “They testify of Me,” He said. As we read the Bible we will definitely get information about history and how God helped the nation of Israel. However, the story behind it all is what God did to prepare and accomplish our salvation through Jesus Christ. When you read the Bible, look for Jesus. Something about Him and His salvation is on every page.

“That I may know Him” (Phil.3.10)

Why the Bible?

"But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." (John 20:31)

When we read or study the Bible we need to ask why the passage we are reading was written. Was it written to give some information we are to know and believe, to expose some sin, to instruct us in true obedience to God? This question is also important concerning the whole Bible itself. Why was it written? Sometimes we wonder why we have only a little information about some people or events and why other things are given at length and in great detail. How we would love to read a complete biography about some people like Abraham or David! However, God did not have those things written.

Why the Bible, then? The apostle John tells that the things written in his gospel were written so that the readers might have enough information about the Savior to savingly believe in Him. The revelation of Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners is the purpose of the Gospel of John. It is also the purpose of the whole Bible. God has revealed what He has in order that we might know Jesus Christ and believe in Him. From Genesis to Revelation the purpose of the Bible is to reveal what God has done for us in Christ so that we might be saved from both the guilt and practice of sin. This is the central theme of the Bible. This is the message that God wants us to know and believe.

If we do not understand the basic purpose and message of the Bible we will miss the meaning of what we read. At the same time reading something we do not understand will frustrate us. Do you want to understand and enjoy the Bible? The first thing to remember is that the book is about the Lord Jesus and what He has done to save sinners and to prepare them for heaven. When you read a book or a passage ask God to show you your need of Christ. Ask God to show you what you are to learn about the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The answer to these questions may not be easy to see at first, but as you learn to read with this prayer in mind, God will teach you the things He has revealed for your salvation.

Why the Bible? The answer we are giving to this question includes the Old Testament as well as the New. The apostle Paul understood this when he wrote to Timothy: “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 3:15) The “holy scriptures” he was talking about were the scriptures of the Old Testament. They were able to “make him wise unto salvation” because they showed him Christ. As Timothy learned these scriptures he was taught to look for God’s Redeemer. He found Him, too. Have you? If not, keep looking so you might believe in Him and be saved. If you have found Him in the Bible, keep looking, because God wants you know and love Him more.

Why the Bible? Christ is there.

Follow by email option

Friends,

I have just added the "Follow by Email" option to the blog. Now you can get email notification of new posts right to your Inbox. Simply enter the email address you want notifications to come to and, voila, you will receive timely notice of future postings. Thanks for your interest and support by reading these little ramblings.

God bless you all,
Steve L.

Preaching – Protestant or Not?

The “worship” of the Church of Rome focuses on the mass in which the priest magically turns a wafer and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The participant then partakes in a fairly passive way of what the priest has prepared for him. The central feature of the service is the priest. The “worshipper” goes home basically unchanged and none the better for having been at “worship.”

The Protestant Reformation rescued the Word of God from the obscurity it suffered at the hands of Rome and made it once again the central feature of true Christian worship and life. However, we Protestants are in danger of returning to the centrality of a man, in this case, the preacher, at the expense of neglecting the Word of God. How so?

Part of the problem stems from the philosophy both of preacher and congregation as to what constitutes a “message” from God’s Word. When you hear a preacher talking about “getting a message” for the Lord’s Day it can reflect the mentality that borders on the prophetic, in the biblical sense of the word. It can be common to refer to someone’s preaching ministry as “prophetic.” People expect to hear messages that are not only timely, but also speak powerfully to the things around them. They want messages that confound their enemies and speak to their needy nation, as did the prophets of old.

However, the prophets of Scripture “got messages” from God because He newly revealed them to them. Their messages were revelation in the strict sense of the word. They did not so much “get” messages; rather God “gave” them to them. However, the New Testament preacher (which we all are since the ascension of Christ) is in a different situation. The canon of Scripture is closed. There is no more new revelation. There is no ministry that is “prophetic” in the strict sense of the word. The office of prophet ceased with the last of the apostles. This means that God has said all He wanted to. This also means that the Scriptures themselves are God’s message. God preaches to us in His Word.

So far, so good. But how does a preacher obscure God’s message and make himself the central feature of Christian worship? It comes back to “getting a message” for the Lord’s Day. Preacher, you already have your message – it is Scripture. You don’t have to “get” it; rather you have to study it in order to pass on what God has already said to us in the text you will preach. The text is the message; God preaches it to us. Your mission is to understand the text to the best of your ability and to “repeat” it, or to explain it to the congregation. That is all the “getting” there is (apart from the Holy Spirit’s leading as to which text to preach).

The text is the message. You don’t have to traipsing all over the Bible to pull together various threads to make a garment. The garment is fully made in the text. It may be illustrated in various biblical passages, but the thought of God is the text itself. You may need to bring in instruction from other passages and explain theological concepts used in the text, but the message itself is the text itself.

The problem comes in with the expectation of preacher and congregation. What is a “message” as far as they are concerned? Is it what God has already said in His Word, or is it what the preacher puts together from often disparate sources on a “timely” theme? Is it the plain meaning of the text or is it a compilation of timely thoughts or even good doctrinal statements that “spring” from the text? I say “spring” because a text is often a “springboard” that a preacher uses to get to the “timely thoughts” he already has in mind for his congregation. He might as well use Luke 7:40 as his text, “I have somewhat to say unto thee.”

When a preacher concocts a message from various texts or uses a passage for a purpose other than what it was inspired by the Holy Spirit to fulfill, the congregation is entirely dependent on that preacher for whatever he is going to impart. The message reflects the preacher’s own mind and not the text. There is no way the congregation could ever reread the message in the text because the message did not reflect the text. They must depend on note taking (which is not a bad practice in itself) and perhaps on a catchy alliterated outline to remember anything that is said. However, when they read the text again in their regular Bible reading what the preacher said is only a distant memory at best.

The worst thing about all this is that the congregation did not hear from God. They heard from the preacher. They might have heard truth and they might have heard some sort of helpful “ought to” for their Christian life. However, they did not hear God speak from His Word. They may have heard God speak in spite of the sermon, but they did not hear His voice through the sermon. The logic of the sermon came from the preacher’s mind, not from God’s mind.

The result of such an approach to preaching is that the central feature of the worship service is not the Word of God, but the preacher. The participant listens in a fairly passive way to what the preacher has prepared for him. The central feature of the service is the preacher. The worshipper goes home basically unchanged and perhaps none the better for having been at worship.