reading the old testament

I picked up the book The Message of the Old Testament by Mark Dever at the Desiring God conference this past weekend.

Today I opened it up and read the foreword and since I have been talking about this very thing for months and months at the church, I thought I'd share a little of what Graeme Goldsworthy had to say:

Why then is the first question we often ask about a passage in the Old Testament, "What does this tell us about ourselves?" Surely, the first and main question we should ask is, "How does this passage testify to Christ?"

We must always begin with the latter question because Jesus Christ, the fulfiller of the Old Testament, is the one who alone defines the life of the Christian. If the Old Testament does not point to Christ, it does not point to the Christian either. For a sermon to be authentically and Christianly people-centered it must first be Christ-centered. We can learn much from the lives and experiences of the men and women, both good and bad, who come before us in the pages of the Old Testament. But, in the final analysis, only Christ can define how those individuals are good or bad. Furthermore, our Christian growth comes from becoming more like Christ, not more like Abraham or David or Daniel. These heroes of the Old Testament are examples for us only insofar as they foreshadow and point to Christ.

-joe

returned

Well, my brother and I made it back safely and in less than 18 hours (that was a crazy trip back last February).

It was a great weekend with hours of great teaching. I would highly recommend you reading, watching or listening to every one of the sessions (8 in all).

Specifically I believe you should listen to these: (well, i'll have to add the links later...because there seems to be an error on the site...stay tuned)

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links are updated and the desiring God site seems to be up and running again
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Mark Driscoll's talk on the use of tough language

Bob Kauflin's amazing talk on words and worship

John Piper's words of warning

Sinclair Ferugson's walk through James

-joe

day one of the conference

Tonight was the first night of the Desiring God National Conference. My brother, Justin, and I are both attending.

Tonight we met a lady named Cheryl and a few members of her family. She's a good lady who goes to John Piper's church. She has a passion for hearing and making sure that the word of God is preached diligently from the Scriptures.

Also, tonight, was the first time I've heard Sinclair Ferguson live and it was a real treat. He spoke on James 3 and it was both encouraging and challenging. To live with a bridled tongue, under control, is a constant battle. But, thanks be to God, that Christ is our salvation.

I encourage you to give both the sermon and the Q&A with Piper, Driscoll and Ferguson afterward at desiringgod.org.

-joe

the crucifixion

Sunday evening I took my youth group into the depths of the crucifixion of Jesus. It was a pretty eye-opening night for some of them, as was told by their shocked silence at the end of the night.

I encourage you to ponder not only the physical atrocity of the cross (which is immense) but the spiritual implications and what it means for you as a Christian.

The totality of Jesus purpose on this earth is finished at the cross where he bears the weight of the world's sin and gets the punishment we all deserve.

The cross is ugly and atrocious and, for Christians, that is also its beauty. The cross is the most prolific display of the love of God.

I encourage you to listen to a sermon, read a sermon or read a book on the subject. Some recommendations: this sermon by Mark Driscoll, this sermon by John Piper or this book by Martin Hengel.

-joe

life and ministry of Jesus

Last week at Senior High I discussed the life and ministry of Jesus. We looked at several things including his parables, his healings, other miracles he performed and his sinlessness.

The main message of the evening (hopefully) was this: Jesus came to tell about himself and to die.

His purpose during his 33 years (and more specifically his last 3 1/2) was to tell the world the good news about himself and then die to fulfill what he had said. Here are a few of the "purpose" statements that Jesus said during his life.

Luke 4:43 "but he said to them, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose."

John 10:10b "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."

John 12:27 "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour."(in reference to his coming death)

John 18:37b "For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth."

Jesus didn't come to be a hip, trendsetting, peaceful dude. He came to seek and save that which was lost by dying on a cross. That was his purpose, his mission and his life.

Let us never lose sight of that as we read the Gospels.

-joe

Israel is our example; Christ is our Rock

Yesterday I had the great joy to preach on 1 Corinthians 10:1-22 in an ongoing series in our church in 1 Corinthians titled "The church that didn't have it all together."

The basics of the sermon are this: Israel screwed up, a lot, and God got mad, a lot. But, thankfully, God was also merciful because of His love, through Christ.

So, I work through several of the old testament stories mentioned in the text and then I sum it up with a warning against idolatry and an encouragement that Christ can be our victory.

The sermon is about 35 minutes long.


-joe

sunday school

My good friend, Andy, is teaching the Sunday School class that I attend. And I have to tell you, last Sunday was great.

The subject for the next, unknown, weeks is simply "The Gospel." What a great subject, I say.

Sunday we began a study on the Scriptures regarding the state of man, that is, his sinfulness and how it encompasses everything we are, everything we do, and, in the end, our ability to respond to the Gospel.

It was a refreshing Sunday and I look forward to many more where I am not the teacher, but the learner. I've never been so happy to be in a classroom.

I hope, for your sakes, that you have the same joy as I when you are taught of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, and be on the lookout for another installment on my series on Christ...this week: The Life and Ministry of Jesus. (And, I'm preaching this Sunday out of 1 Corinthians 10...so I'll post a brief summary of that as well.)

-joe

the incarnation

The basic outline for my sermon last night at Senior High youth group was this:
The Incarnation: prophecy, its fulfillment and the purpose

I used several birth prophecies of Christ from the Old Testament.
The genealogies of Jesus:
Of Shem Genesis 9:26-27
Of Abraham Genesis 22:18
Of Isaac Genesis 17:21
Of Jacob Genesis 35:10-12
Of Judah Genesis 49:8-12
Of Jesse Isaiah 11:1-5
Of David 2 Samuel 7:12-16; Jeremiah 23:5; Psalm 89:3-4

All fulfilled in the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3

Born of a virgin

Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, “Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel."

Fulfilled in Matthew 1:18

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit…All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: (quote Isaiah 7:14)

Luke 1:34

And Mary said to the angel “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

I stayed for awhile on this point, which is under constant attack from many fronts, because if you toss out that Mary was a virgin you have to toss out Matthew, Mark, and Luke as reliable witnesses. That means that Acts is gone as well. It creates a snowball affect that destroys any attempts to validate the New Testament. Jesus was born of a virgin, a girl who'd never had sex, and conceived in the Holy Spirit.

I also talked about the complicatedness of the following prophecies all having to hit at the same time:
Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
Star to appear (Numbers 24:17)
Gifts from Kings (Psalm 72:10)
Slaughter of children (Jeremiah 31:15)
Flight to Egypt (Hosea 11:1)
Date of birth and death (Daniel 9)
Before Judah loses its right to rule (Genesis 49:10)

Then I talked of the significance of all these being true, that, indeed, Jesus was fully human, but that he also was the son of God (Psalm 2:7...fulfilled throughout the NT but especially Matthew 3:17; Luke 1:35; John 3:16; 1 John 5:20.)

Finally, the purpose of teaching the humanity of Jesus is found in Galatians 4:4 and a portion of Hebrews 2.

The basics of it are these:
To destroy the work of the devil
To deliver us from the fear of death
To be merciful to us when we are tempted
To receive adoption as sons
To become the propitiation of our sins.

Hebrews makes it very clear that it was necessary for Jesus to become like us, flesh and blood, so that his death would mean our guilt removed. If God were to have sacrificed his "eternal" nature (by somehow killing himself in the heavenly realms) then he would cease to exist and therefore our salvation and our world would be lost. Instead, he humbled himself to the point of death on the cross so that he could assume our punishment in bodily form without sacrificing his eternal nature to express his love in our salvation and joy.

It is in all of this that we rest. Jesus had to be human for all these reasons and with John we claim if you "deny that the Christ came in the flesh" then you have no part in salvation. Jesus was fully man. Let us never forget the love and humility it took to garner our salvation.

May our hearts burn within us just like the women in Luke 24.

-joe

the reason

Colossians is a book that puts me in a mood to worship like few others. It is full of great truths about Christ and great calls to know everything we can about him.

It is in the first and second chapters that the call to teach for eight weeks on Christ came about. I have highlighted the lines that stood out to me. From Colossians 1 and 2:

Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

I desire that everyone I meet, but especially those youth in my church, to be found mature in Christ and be firm in faith. I hope that by teaching the mysteries of Christ that no one will delude them (and you) by plausible arguments.

I decided to post my full thoughts online for those "who have not seen me face to face." Some of you will not be present when I teach on these things, but that shouldn't mean you can't benefit from the teaching.

I pray that as I study and learn that God would open my mouth to clearly proclaim the mystery that is found only in Christ.

-joe

eight weeks

Over the next eight weeks I'll be posting on eight different aspects of Christ. These are the lessons I've been preparing for the youth this semester. I'm pretty excited about it...I mean, it's about Jesus...so it has to be exciting.

The topics:
The pre-existence of Christ
The incarnation of Christ
The life and ministry of Christ
The death of Christ
The resurrection of Christ
The ascension of Christ
The rule and reign of Christ
The second coming of Christ

Right now I'm planning on posting several times per week on the topic so that I can straighten out my thoughts before I teach it at the beginning of next month.

peace

-joe

allright, this time i'm really back

Well, after my post a month ago I thought I'd be back to blogging regularly but I ended up working full-time for the furniture store, having some relatives in from Texas and working on figuring out PHP scripting (again, that made my week.)

On thinking about working on the new scripting language I did realize that it was, in fact, very spiritual. I don't mean that php is the language of God, but I do think that the process of learning and thinking I had it, and then realizing I didn't, was deeply spiritual.

There were many times that I tried to write code before I knew what I was doing and it didn't work. I'd click on something and instead of doing what it was supposed to do, it would just sit there. It was discouraging. But I had a goal: to learn php so that the website would be easier to handle in the long run.

Now, take that idea (of working on something very hard and failing time and again but pushing on because of the end result) and put it into your mind for Christ. That's what we do as we seek to know Him and His word better. We study and we think and we act...and many times we fail. But sometimes we succeed and we get pumped that we've figured something out about the character of God or about how we should behave so that Christ is magnified.

So, continue the struggle. I'll be trying to make it work on this end.

-joe

this is in no way spiritual...i think

I just figured out how to use php stuff on the Bailey's Furniture webpage (it's still in development so don't complain when things don't work right.)

I had to write to tell the world, cause it took me a couple of weeks of staring at a computer screen of code to figure it out. But now, instead of copying and pasting countless lines of code I can type a simple statement...and be done. That is awesome.

I feel awesome.

What a good day.

-joe

back to the grindstone

Well, after two barbecues, a pontoon ride (and near sink) and a last meal at Moe & Johnny's, my sister left for Honduras again. The capital city, Tegucigalpa (Tegus for short), is still shut down to airplanes so she had to fly into San Pedro Sula instead.

She landed a couple of hours ago and is heading back to Esuela El Sembrador (which is now 8 hours ago instead of 4.)

Pray for her as she travels and pray for the kids at the school and the missionaries there that God would be glorified in their midst through the spread of the Gospel in Honduras.

-joe

the rbf

For those who missed the most amazing event of the year, the RBF (or Round Barn Festival for those city-slickers who don't know), it was incredible.

My sister has a sweet picture post you should check out.

And if you're wondering why we think the picture with the VFW cannon is so funny, let's just say there was a certain "incident" my dad's senior year of high school that involved a canon, a sheet, a lit up switchboard, the high school, handcuffs and about 12 people.

Don't ask too many questions...the details are a little fuzzy. (But I'll be glad to recount the whole thing to you sometime.)

-joe