Tag: Preaching (Page 1 of 2)

The Written and Necessary Message of Repentance and Forgiveness (Part 2)

Last year, my wife and I took our son, Zachary, to the doctor and she diagnosed him with an ear infection; and, like good doctors do, she not only prescribed the medication for him but she also provided the right dosage – you could say – how he was supposed to take the medicine: amoxicillin, twice a day, with a specific amount of milligrams. In like manner, when we are sharing the Gospel we want to make sure we properly tell people howto appropriate and receive the great news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; namely, repent and believe. If we provide the right medicine without giving the proper way for that medicine to be received, our job is in incomplete.

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The Written and Necessary Message of Repentance and Forgiveness (Part 1)

46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Lk. 24:46,47 NKJV)

 

After Jesus, recently resurrected from the dead, opened the minds of His disciples to understand the Scriptures (Lk. 24:45), and presumably after He gave them an Emmaus Road-like Bible study similar to the one Cleopas and other unnamed disciples received (vs.27), He concluded by saying, “Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day” (vs.46). Their ‘kingdom now’ expectations had been part of the reason they overlooked the Scriptures explicit predictions – the Christ was to suffer, die, and rise (Isa. 53; Ps. 22; 16:10). It was not an aberration of the plan of God and neither was it a contingency; it always was the plan. The promises found in Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms all bore witness to that.

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The Inescapable and the Optional (1 Cor. 9:15-18)

16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. (1 Cor. 9:16-17)

Perhaps at some point you’ve heard or received the following counsel, ‘Don’t go into preaching unless you have to.’ The idea being – unless God’s Word is like a fire shut up in your bones (cf. Jer. 20:9), and unless you can say like Amos, “the LORD God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8), and unless that burden is an inescapable part of life, you are likely not called into preaching. That’s kind of the idea of the transitional thoughts of 1 Corinthians 9:16-17. Before we get there, however, let’s briefly create a little context by looking at what’s before and after it.

In the previous verses of this chapter the apostle Paul laid out the apostolic/ministerial rights that he had and forewent so as not to obscure the Gospel. He, most specifically, had a right to financial support (1 Cor. 9:3-14). Using Old Testament laws, Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, provided a Biblical basis for the principle “…those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel” (vs.14b). But he refused that right (vs.15). The Corinthians provided him with no love offerings, no paycheck, and no material support. This (in this context) was his boast – that he could set forth the Gospel free of charge (vs.15,18). No one, then, could accuse him of getting on the Gospel-bandwagon because it was more like a ‘gravy train.’ Not to mention, it formed a stark contrast between himself and the phonies that peddled the word of God for profit (2 Cor. 2:17). As one who had been made free, he freely became a servant. And isn’t it so appropriate that the priceless gift of salvation proclaimed in the Gospel of grace would not come with a price tag but an invitation to come and drink from the water of life freely?

Back to the Text

So, when Paul wrote, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of (vs.16a), he was setting up a contrast between what his boast was and wasn’t. He could not boast that he was a preacher – listen to beginning of his argument:“for necessity is laid upon me” (vs.16b). He didn’t locate a ‘Christian recruiter’ so as to enter the Gospel army; he was drafted! Personally, by the risen Christ. And that same Jesus not only drafted him but commanded him, “Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21; cf. Gal. 1:15-16). After experiencing what Paul experienced on Damascus Road (see Acts 9) you could say that going AWOL after receiving such an order was not really an option. A point he emphasized further when he wrote, “yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (vs.16c)! He would have been miserable, undone, assailed by the pangs of his conscience, and chastened by his heavenly Father if he didn’t preach the Gospel. So there was no boasting concerning the fact that he preached the Gospel. And in case we or the Corinthians missed it, there’s another opportunity to get it as Paul came at that those points again in another way saying, “For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship” (vs.17). The argument being – ‘If I was a volunteer, who out of the inclinations of my own soul entered into the Gospel ministry, well then I’d have a reward. But it wasn’t like that. I got assigned against my will.’ Paul didn’t choose the assignment; His Savior did. He was made a bondservant of Christ and he was required to be faithful to proclaim the mystery of Christ (1 Cor. 4:1-2). So, again, per Paul’s argument in these verses (9:15-18) his boasting was not based upon preaching the Gospel; rather, his boast and his reward was that he preached the Gospel to the Corinthians free of charge (vs.15,18). In other words, it was a joy for him to embrace a measure of self-denial and self-inflicted hardship in order to remove potential obstacles from the Gospel.

Missional/ Pastoral Application

There is a sense in which every Christian, but especially those who are in pulpits and mission fields must be able to say, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). And oh how thrilling to be able to say such a thing! Is it a cause for boasting? No. But is it cause for worshipping? I’d say so. For those of us called to pastoral ministry and the mission field, who are we that we can share in that compulsion? We may have met Christ in a worship service and not on Damascus road, we may have been commissioned by a local church and not the resplendent appearance of the resurrected Christ, but we share with the apostle Paul a divine compulsion to preach, speak, and give our lives to the ministry of the Gospel. That reality, that fact of being personally gifted, called, and sent under the auspices of a sovereign, gracious God, ought to be a means of refreshment and encouragement that inspires confidence that the God who enrolled us in the race will keep granting us a sense of ‘divine necessity’ to see that we not only finish the race but also the work He gave us to do (cf. Jn. 17:4). And along the way, let us, like Paul, look to voluntarily seize opportunities to forego our rights and embrace self-denial for the sake of the Gospel and its hearers. In sum, we’d do well to embrace both that which is of necessity and that which is optional, all for the sake of the Gospel.

Avoid These “So-Called” Christian Sayings (Volume II)

That’s a dead church’. This expression can also take on similar forms, such as: “That church is dead” or “The Holy Spirit is not in that church”. Granted, there are churches that fit the description of Sardis (Rev 3:1), but all too often this expression is not found on the lips of someone who is saying that a church has forsaken the true Gospel and the preaching of Scripture; rather, it’s often simply someone’s way of saying that, by their standards, ‘the people are just too quiet’, ‘no one raises their hands when they sing’ or ‘they only spend 15 to 20 minutes singing songs’.

So… they’re dead?

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Avoid These “So-Called” Christian Sayings (Volume I)

Now, by way of disclaimer, let me say that there are situations where the sayings may apply. The purpose of this exhortation, however, is to address the times in which people often apply these sayings in places where they should not.

He’s not anointed” – This saying may also take the form of the following expression, ‘He doesn’t have the anointing.’ The idea being – the person who is speaking or singing or preaching doesn’t have, according to the person making the statement, the power of the Holy Spirit working through them. This saying is incredibly problematic because it is almost always slung from one Christian at another, and, according to the New Testament every Christian is anointed.

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