John Piper on the NPP and the Pharisees

~ fundyreformed ~ 4 Comments

Just a quick link to a good article by John Piper which discusses the New Pauline Perspective and their view of Phariseeism. The article strongly suggests  that NPP proponents are not considering properly what Jesus Himself says concerning the Pharisees.

Here is the link: “Jesus, Islam, Pharisees, and the New Perspective on Paul“.

The article is important reading, but it is also devotional reading. We must not be relying on our own merits for favor with God. Let us remember this as we go “serve” God today in worship. Let us come expecting to receive more than give, and come as needy not worthy.  

Thank you Jesus for such undeserved and altogether glorious grace!

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

Jesus’ Demands — Take up your Cross and Follow Me (#8)

~ Bob Hayton ~ 13 Comments

Click to orderDemand #8 — Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt. 16:24-5)

Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. (Mark 1:17)

I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)

Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead. (Matt. 8:22)

If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. (John 8:31)

Following Jesus means Fulfilling Jesus’ Mission.

Jesus came to “seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). And he did this ultimately through his suffering on our behalf on the cross. Jesus’ mission was “to gather a people in allegiance to himself for the glory of his Father” as Piper puts it. And following Jesus is joining Him in that mission, or helping Him fulfill that mission. This is why Jesus said “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17)

Following Jesus is Painful.

Jesus promised us, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (Jn. 15:20) Jesus did not promise us a rosy life. He promised us suffering. This is why he calls his followers to first “take up their cross” and then to “follow” Him. In Matt. 16:24 “Jesus put the emphasis on self-denial and cross-bearing”.

The suffering we are called to endure creates ruptures in our relationships with people, wealth, and our occupation. We are to hate our most intimate family members, even our own selves, in comparison to our devotion to Jesus (Luke 14:26). And we are to “renounce all that [we have]” if we want to be a true disciple (Luke 14:33). This results in a liberal approach to giving, such that Jesus can say to the rich young ruler “sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”. (Matt. 19:21) Piper points out that many of the disciples had to leave their occupations, and many times Jesus will move his people to leave their good jobs, pack their bags, and head off to Africa or Asia, or go into ministry here in America. Not everyone will be called to leave, but all are called to follow which will change your perspective on your job, your money, and your family.

Following Jesus is “Worth It”.

The suffering we are called to endure as we follow Jesus will be worth it. Jesus promises that if we hold on to our life we’ll lose it, and if we lose our life we will save it. (Mk. 8:35) And He constantly declares that following Him is a wise and exceedingly beneficial choice. Consider Jesus’ stress on our eternal reward to be received through this suffering/following in the following verses Jn. 12:25; Matt. 19:27, 29; Luke 14:14; Matt. 5:12. So while the suffering is only temporary the pleasure is eternal.

Yet the pleasure is not only future. Following Jesus brings joy now. It can make the persecuted “leap for joy” (see Demand #10 and Luke 6:22-23). This kind of faithful following even through suffering—the kind that rejoices to suffer for Jesus’ name—brings great glory to our Savior. A sad, somber, doleful “suffering for Jesus” will not necessarily glorify Him. But the kind of triumphant joy which smiles in the midst of tragedy, that points to the incomparable worth of Jesus Christ and properly displays His value to a watching world. Consider Piper, finally, on this point.

If you follow Jesus only because he makes life easy now, it will look to the world as though you really love what they love, and Jesus just happens to provide it for you. But if you suffer with Jesus in the pathway of love because he is your supreme treasure, then it will be apparent to the world that your heart is set on a different fortune than theirs. This is why Jesus demands that we deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. [emphasis added]

—See all posts on, the Demands of Jesus

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

Preaching Pictures

~ fundyreformed ~ 14 Comments

Having recently pushed for my viewers to buy a movie ticket to see The Nativity Story, I was very intrigued by Kevin Bauder’s recent article on the history of fundamentalism and the movies. This first article is primarily history while part two, apparently, will be Bauder’s own assessment of the morality inherent in going to a movie.

With this discussion on my mind, I stumbled across By Faith magazine, and some recent articles they have on movies and drama.  

The article entitled “We Do Theater Because We Believe” by Charlie Jones drives home the point that drama has the ability to move us. It tells a story, and stories are powerful, especially in a post modern age like our own! Drama often preaches a sermon, so to speak. It can powerfully communicate a message. And if you look around, there are lots of sermons and millions of listeners. But it is not us Christians who are doing the preaching.

In an interview with Christian playwright and actor Tom Key, Key claims that “art always leads the person to slightly or profoundly more than change, whereas the entertainment that is not art will not experientially, existentially affect the recipient.” So while drama can move us, if it isn’t good art, it probably won’t. Which leads us to wonder with Art Within founder Bryan Coley, “In a media-saturated generation, where are we as Christians?”  

I guess these articles (they are all fairly brief) caused me to ponder a few things. First, that the art form of drama and motion pictures is a powerful medium which Christians should redeem, and feel free to experience (with discernment of course). Second, that Christians should be more involved in the production of artful plays and movies. And lastly, such Christian involvement in the production of drama would lead to both a communication of Christian themes to a wider audience, as well as providing a healthy alternative to secularism’s often lustful creations–to “criticize by creating” as Michelangelo and Bryan Coley put it.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

Time Out!!!

~ fundyreformed ~ 8 Comments

Please don't give me a

 

I just want to let you all know that I’ll be taking a time out from the blog for the next few days. My mom is visiting and we haven’t seen her since May.    She flew in from Africa (my parents are missionaries in Zambia) to be with my sister who had her gall bladder taken out a couple weeks ago. Needless to say, we’ll be spending time with her, rather than  with you all. I should be back and blogging by ’bout Thursday or Friday.

I know you all are just totally devastated right now.    Well, to tide you over, I’ll post a few links here to articles worth reading. Mind you they weren’t  written by me, but then again, maybe that makes them actually worth reading!

Reflections on the Cross from Mark Driscoll

~ fundyreformed ~ 9 Comments

I don’t listen to sermons all that frequently. I don’t own an i-pod, and I tend to read and surf through blogs during my spare time. But lately, I have tried to get in at least one sermon a week in addition to what I get from church.

This week’s sermon was an address (“Death by Love: Reflections on the Cross”—8MB download or 35MB download) that Mark Driscoll gave at a recent Resurgence conference hosted by his church, Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I know that Driscoll is controversial, but this message revealed an earnest, serious fellow who exults in the cross. Without going into a defense of him or his missiological emphasis, let me just encourage you all to listen to this sermon. It is an hour and thirteen minutes of reflecting on the cross. And I almost think he just about covered everything that is really important about the cross—all in one message.

He starts out with a vivid description of what a crucifixion actually was. I was thankful to be reminded of the terrors that Christ underwent purposefully for me.

Then he stressed the centrality of the cross. He made some helpful evaluations of various movements within Christendom with regard to how they view the cross. And while they are certainly generalizations, I think they help point out the natural pitfalls and tendencies of these movements.

Charismatics generally tend to move away from the cross to Pentecost and beyond. They focus on Acts 2, rather than on the climax of the gospels. Liberals prefer to focus on the kingdom rather than the cross and atonement. Fundamentalists, he said, tend to preach a religion of works and don’t focus on the fact that Christ has done all that is needed through the cross. They ignore the cross, he said. [From my perspective, I can understand how he would generalize fundamentalists in this way. No fundamentalist would claim to be a legalist, yet the following points would combine to make many of them (especially hyper fundamentalists) practical legalists: 1) a practical emphasis on dos and don’ts 2) a common tendency to view salvation strictly as a done deal, or past event, rather than an ongoing process (Phil. 2:12) 3) a sanctification approach based on “gritting your teeth” and “trying harder” (Gal. 3:3)] And finally, postmoderns tend to reinterpret the cross for today’s culture. The language of wrath and atonement wouldn’t apply today, they’d say.

Then Driscoll finished the message by focusing on the penal substitution aspect of the atonement. He stressed that the atonement is multifaceted and that there are elements of truth to almost all the atonement theories. But the point of contention today is over the penal substitution of the atonement. Driscoll did not really make a detailed defense of penal substitution, but sought to explain it and stress its significance. In doing so, he pointed back to the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament sacrificial system. There were two goats used on that day. One was slaughtered—that is propitiation, he said. The other was released to wander in the wilderness—that is expiation.

Propitiation is the fact that God is angry justly at us for our sins. Driscoll pointed out something I hadn’t thought of before under this point. Everyone goes out of their way to stress God’s love for us as being personal. But no one wants to think of His wrath as personal. We are okay with getting upset at people who wrong us, but God can’t get upset when we or others wrong Him. Driscoll further stressed that we need not think of the message of propitiation as detracting from a message of God’s love for us. No, 1 John 4:10 explains that Jesus’ propitiation of God’s wrath for us is the love of God. Propitiation illustrates and explains God’s love for us.

And expiation is another aspect to this penal substitution. Driscoll pointed out that some translations echo a popular theological position today in translating the Greek word for propitiation as expiation. Driscoll stresses that the word includes both expiation and propitiation, not strictly expiation. He also challenges Calvinists for he believes they often defend propitiation to the exclusion of expiation. To Driscoll, expiation is basically cleansing from sin. Christ takes our punishment (propitiation) and delivers us/cleanses us from our sin (expiation). He pointed to 1 John 1:7 for this.

To conclude my post here, let me encourage you all to listen to this sermon. It will fill your mind with thoughts of Jesus and the cross, and I trust it will cause you to be more captivated and enthralled by the wonder that Jesus suffered on our behalf. May the cross of Christ—and all its ignominy, shame, and horror—fill you with awe at the glorious love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. And may it free you to trust in Christ alone for the guarantee of all of God’s promises to us, even eternal life.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7