Mar 28 2013

Paul’s Pastoral Paradigm for Preachers III

Session 14: Bruce Winter

We need to deal, not only with the presenting problem but also with the underlying cause.

Resurrection or Insurrection?

Many of the issues in Corinthians can be traced to men who are addicted to sex. Paul commands them to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 15:58. 1 Corinthians 15 is as much about the insurrection of our body as the resurrection of Jesus’ body.

Paul is having to deal with anthropology: Who am I? What is my body? and, What should I do with it?

The resurrection is a reality. We must all stand before the judgement seat of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:10. Life is not about me living how I want to. Not only is Christ to be raised, but we are to be raised. We are to die every day, 15:31. Even as an apostle, he had to fight sexual passion, 15:32.

The Christian life isn’t about having it all and living our best life now. Paul is calling the Christians to serious business; we will all be accountable for how we life our lives. Eternal life is not in doubt, but accountability is. God is not here to serve you (that is paganism); you are here to serve Him.

We need to teach people this because people have a concept of hedonism. It dominates our world. You pursue pleasure, but never to the point of pain. Philosophy is very much at the heart of things.

The resurrection drives us to us how we can abound in service to others, 15:58. You cannot be a Christian playboy or pursue Christian hedonism. Hedonism is condemned every one of the 7 times it is mentioned in the New Testament, buy joy occurs many times and is always encouraged.

The Cult of Christian Leadership

The Corinthians wanted Apollos to return to them but he could not go back, 16:12. Instead, they had to be watchful and stand firm in the faith, and do everything in love, 16:13. Remember, if you don’t have love, your ministry adds up to zero, 13:3. The family of Stephanas had devoted themselves to the service of the saints (despite being waited on by servants themselves), 16:15. Paul says that ministry is about service. It is not to orators but to servants that the church must submit, 16:16.

Remember Jesus’ example: He was the teacher who washed people’s feet, John 13.

You will have to deprogram the assumptions about what the ministry is.

The Collection for the Saints

There had been much mishandling of the Jewish tax, sent from Jewish citizens to Jerusalem, that the Romans sent guards to collect it. Those who had been transmitting it might even stay in luxury hotels.

The Corinthians had of their own initiative raised the issue of a collection, 16:1-4, giving the background to 2 Corinthians 8:8-9.

Paul is fastidious about money. Be very careful about money. Never handle money. It is important for ministers not to know who are the givers.

Conclusion

1 Corinthians teaches us to deal with the presenting problem in a pastoral way. Show them the way forward. Never see them as problem people, but as people with gifts who have problems like we do.

Remember that if you never deal with a fundamental, underlying problem, there will not be progress in the Christian life. If people are abounding in the work of the Lord, it is amazing what an effect that has.


Mar 28 2013

Selfless, Sensitive and Sacrificial

Session 13: Bruce Winter

Scoring 3 out of 4

When circumstances change, it often reveals our hearts. There was a major change in the Corinthians church after Paul left. How the Christians reacted tells us a lot about them.

When Nero came to the throne aged 16, a decision was made to set up a cult to him in southern Asia and centred in Corinth. There would be an annual festival, including gladiatorial shows and official feasts. Anyone from the upper class was invited to recline in the temple at a sacrifice.

Paul wrote to them about idols because they asked about them. Wouldn’t it be alright to participate in the free meal with the big shots seeing as idols are nothing anyway? It took 20% of the book to change their views.

If we cannot maintain a faithful position, the Christian faith will not continue. Paul’s argument is liberating.

They agreed that there is one creator. Tick.

They agreed that Jesus was God and part of the creative process. Tick.

They agreed that we exist through His atonement. Tick.

But, they looked over the fact that we exist for God. They were from a background where the gods were there for us. You only went to the temple when you needed something for you. Every Christian exists for God!

We are to be selfless, sensitive and sacrificial. Paul tells them to imitate him, 11:1. He never wants to put an obstacle before anyone who would believe.

Selfless

They argued that everything was lawful, but he replies that no Christians must seek his own good, but that of the other. The issue is that number one is looking after us! The Lord is our shepherd and takes acre of our needs. Why should we be obsessed with ourselves? We have been overrated so that we can be liberated in our lives. What more do you want? If I am taken up with what I want, I am insulting my heavenly Father.

We live in a self-absorbed world, but we must not be like the world. If God delivered up His only Son for us, how will He not also give us all things?

Our prayer every day must ask God how we can help others in every sphere of life. The Christian life must be selfless. It is a liberating way to live, full or joy. We can’t live our lives contrary to the Maker’s manual.
Paul gave up all his rights.

Sensitive

Paul was sensitive not to break a chain that could lead someone to Christ. You mustn’t suffer from prejudice (pre-judging). He commands that we must not give offence, 10:32.

What a great opportunity it is for us to speak to people from so many different backgrounds.

We are sensitive to the issues in people’s cultures. I like it when people are sensitive to me or my cultural context. Not only must we not give offence, we must be careful.

Neither should we give offence to the church of God. Christians can operate in offensive ways outside and inside the church. If we want our churches to survive and nth rive, we must not be offensive in the church context.

Sacrificial

God demands that we should seek to please others in what we do, 10:33. Paul lives a sacrificial life. The concern is not what I say, but what I do.

The Christian who is self-focused is boring and calloused. We should be aware of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, so that the past does not have to determine the future.

The most amazing statement in the Scriptures is in Romans 15:3, “For Christ did not please himself.” The question is not what Jesus would do, but what He did do. If He looks after us and cares for us all the time, how improper it is for us to focus on ourselves. People came to Jesus with all kinds of problems; He was there to help them with even long term problems.
The Gospel is an amazing amnesty which God is offering. We cannot be people focusing on ourselves.

If we and our churches are going to be four tick people and churches, we must do all this. If we do not believe this final point, the church will submerge. There should never be a church or Christians with the sign “Not in Service”.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” I exist for Him. Are you a good and faithful servant?


Mar 27 2013

Q&A with Bruce Winter, John Wilson, Peter Moore and Ben Johnson

Session 12: Q&A with Bruce Winter, John Wilson, Peter Moore and Ben Johnson

Q: Ben, how do you go about planning your preaching program?

I am in team ministry with Toby McIntosh and we cover three preaching centres. I preach in the morning, 7 out of 8 terms. Toby preaches half-time. He has other university preaching.

We are utterly convinced that we should be preaching God’s word as He gave it.

Three out of four terms is expository, and the fourth is topical. A lot of things fall in to terms and three months is about as long as I can hold people’s attention. One term is a Gospel; it has taken me 6 years to get through Mark’s Gospel. One term is in the Old Testament. One term is an epistle.

Q: Ben, how did you adjust the diet?

Since Ivan Barker, there has been a solid diet there, but people’s expectation is that there shouldn’t be much academic stuff in preaching. Many of our women finished school at 12 and worked until they were married. I had to ask how to engage my congregation. 1 Corinthians 14 says we must speak intelligibly. I preach so that the plowman can understand, but season it with things that the more educated might follow up on their own. We don’t want people to switch off, but we need to stretch them too.

Q: John, what is preaching and what are you aiming at when you preach?

There are a hundred books on preaching that intersect with that question. It is helpful to think about this question every now and again. It will sharpen what you do.

Preaching is a gift of God, a declarative device, which has worked on me, and through my mind and life, by which He then brings it to bear on the hearers to move the hearers to a Gospel commitment.

Read a book on preaching every year. There is no book on preaching which I’ve never drawn value from.

Q: John, you referred to both preparation of your message and you life. What are your stages of preparation?

There are three things I look for in my preparation of a message:

  1. The intuition of the passage. Wrestle with that alone until you are sure of the nub of the matter.
  2. Describe the message that you will preach on that idea.
  3. Settle on the main purpose of the message, which is the purpose of the passage.

Q: Bruce, how do you preach on controversial sermons?

I used to preach to giraffes who were doing their PhDs.

Go gently into situations. Think about what has been programmed there which is contrary to the Gospel. Be aware of the situation. Disappoint people who are there to shoot you down. If people have come for a fight, preach the Gospel. When dealing with homophobia, explain that God is the unexpected loving Father from the Prodigal Son. Exegete the culture and put the question that people are asking.

Q: Peter, if we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, how do we engage the emotions without manipulating?

Preaching is an art, not really a science. Preaching is about a personal engagement between a preacher and a person who is listening. You have to be honest about who Jesus is for yourself, being shaped by what you understand as the truth. Understand people’s personal integrity and respect their response. Don’t take charge of their heart and their will. You genuinely want to present Jesus openly and honestly; we want people to feel that as well as to understand that with their minds. The best kind of preaching is one-to-one preaching where you are listening as much as speaking and are genuinely interested in what they are saying.

Q: How important is an altar call?

Peter: I begin by trying to understand what the purpose in the text is and give people the opportunity to respond faithfully to it.

Bruce: I found that saying at the end of the sermon, “Now, there may be issues that we mentioned which touched you deeply. Please, come and see me afterwards.” Encourage people who don’t agree or want to respond to talk to you.

Q: Should all preaching lead directly to the Lord’s Supper (if it is being celebrated)?

Ben: You can point to Jesus from any passage. I don’t want the Lord’s Supper to be an appendix attached to the end of the service. I begin it with a link to the sermon which came before so that the Supper is a response to what has been said.

If ever you get a response saying the sermon was nice, never leave it at that. Help them articulate why. Let people know that being challenged it okay.

Q: Is there any rule of thumb about how long preaching should be in our culture?

Peter: We should think about the context, but also about how long it takes to say what needs to be said. Cut out the bits that take nothing. In my context, I think it is 20-25 minutes, but I often go for 30.

John: The congregation is also a factor. You have to think about the passage and about your ability to preach. Seek the input of good elders who will speak to you about preaching.

Bruce: Sometimes you have to help people develop their appetite to help them listen for longer, as Mark Dever did at Capitol Hill Baptist. Don’t to a hip hip lollipop, giving lots of music and a little sweet at the end.

Peter: In each context, reinvent yourself and your preaching. Keep the same beliefs and convictions, but don’t assume that you can do the same thing in a different place.

Ben: Leave them longing, not loathing.

Q: How often do you do topical preaching and how do you make it Biblical, not opinionated?

Peter: I do a six month preaching program, including a topical series of 4-6 weeks. Maybe once a year, I’ll preach on more than one text, but often a topical sermon will only be on on passage.

Bruce: Think about your world and their world. What would happen if God went to the world of God’s people here?

Q: Over the last two decades, there have been a number of major events in world history, do you think that specifically calls for a sermon in the time in which it happens? What about not preaching on relevant topics at Christmas and Easter?

Bruce: Use seasonal opportunities as links in the chain to keep people coming back. Do modify your plans when situation arise.

John: Please respond. Everyone in the community is asking the deep questions when this happens. What is God’s perspective on what has just happened? Choose one key passage of Scripture which speaks to that issue.

Peter: This is something I am really bad at. This is really hard to do.

Ben: When an emergency arises, pray. If you need more time, deal with it the next week.

Q: There is a spiritual poverty in the country. How can you convey the importance of the Old Testament to a little old lady who says she only reads the New?

John: Preach better. It will work.

Bruce: I don’t have an Old Testament or a New Testament. It is the word of God. It is all profitable. Jesus and Paul’s attitudes have no room for ‘old’ and ‘new’ testaments.

Q: Would the college run a country conference?

Peter Hastie: Yes. It is our responsibility to serve the denomination. If Presbyteries wish us to assist at a particular time, we will. But, we have to be asked.


Mar 27 2013

Digressing into Exhortations of the Fathers

Session 11: Peter Moore

Antonomasia (αντονομασια) is giving an alternate name in place of the real name. It tells us what their chief characteristic is in the passage.

Introduction

Calvin defended the Protestants from the charge that they differed from the Fathers. He said that the Catholics were ‘only interested in gathering dross among the gold.’

Marginalia to Calvin’s Own Chrysostom Volumes

Calvin’s own copy of Chrysostom’s homilies were discovered in the 1960s and were published in the 1980s by Ganoczy and Müller. They say that Calvin was interested in returning people to the standards of behaviour in Chrysostom’s day, however Chrysostom was complaining about the same things that Calvin was!

The Scope of My Project and the Difficulties of Nachleben (Influence) Studies

How to you judge whether someone is influencing their world or another person?

Overview of My Research

Since Ganoczy and Müller have published the marginal notes, people have assumed that Calvin was learning to preach from Chrysostom. Ganoczy and Müller actually say that he was trying to learn about his ideas.

Examples of Remarkable Alignment

1. Both studied and appreciated classical rhetoric

The both thought that influencing people’s emotions was important.

2. Identical adaptions to classical form

Both adapted the classical form in the same way.

3. Both voluntarist approaches

They say that God has a Fatherly attitude towards human beings and people need to know that.

4. Profound similarities of treatment of emotions

In preaching on Matthew 5:11-13, both Chrysostom and Calvin give the cross reference to Luke 6:26, describes Job and his sufferings and uses ascent metaphors (Chrysostom: the ‘Golden chain’ from Homer’s Illiad. Calvin: the ‘Ladder’ from Virgil’s Aeneid.)

When preaching on Matthew 5:9, both show that it is about being more than peaceable in your own relationships, but also intervening in conflicts. They each talk about public violence and the Christian duty to intervene, fighting animals, those who take pleasure in inflaming fights, the devil, combustion metaphor, common share in Christ’s death and imminent language of damnation.

How both talk about emotions in the same way, with a dynamic equivalence between what they were saying. There are minor verbal similarities and larger parallels of content.

Conclusions

Calvin encouraged his readers in the Institutes who wanted to read more about emotions to read the homilies of the Fathers. He believed that John Chrysostom was the greatest of them all. From 1538 to 1561 he had been reading Chrysostom.


Mar 27 2013

We Must Enlarge Our Emotions

Session 10: Peter Moore

A. Introduction

Unconsciously, you are using rhetoric in some way. To learn more about it, see R. Dean Anderson’s Glossary of Greek Rhetorical Terms (2000)

Dilogia (διλογια) is using the same word again. It is better than paraphrase. It makes people think more about what you have said.

1. The Importance of Emotions in Rhetoric

I learned to play the clarinet at 350 Domain Road, South Yarra. The clarinet is has a passionate repertoire.

Most people think that Cicero was the greatest orator of all. He said that engaging the emotions was the only thing that the orator must do. Modern psychology agrees that this is very important in producing change in people.

2. The Difficulties of Studying Affect in Orations Recorded in Writing

Emotion is conveyed mostly through the use of the voice, which is not recorded by the written word.

3. The Preacher’s Emotional Journey

Chrysostom was in Antioch and had been preaching for five years. He has experienced monastic life and the disappointments of ecclesiastic life. The Council of Nicea was not that long ago. There was competition from the Arians, who were probably stronger than the orthodox believers, and Jews.

4. Beatitude Sermons 61-65, 1560

Calvin’s sermons were the final Gospel sermons we have extant. None of those further sermons were preserved. We have about half of his sermons, after the librarian at the University of Geneva threw them out, assuming they had been published. Calvin was to live only 3 or 4 more years, and he had lost his wife and children. As early as 1553, the memory of political turmoil was still fresh and Calvin’s influence was much reduced. The population of the Canton doubled, creating great tensions between the fleeing French and the indigenous Genevans.

B. Chrysostom and Calvin’s Attitudes to Emotion

1. Affirmation of emotion

Calvin affirmed feeling our miseries. God Himself directs our emotions; How that should direct our reaction towards our neighbours, Sermon 63.

2. Motivating Power of Emotion: Understanding -> Emotions -> Will

Both Calvin and Chrysostom think that emotions are crucial to changing people. The Stoics believed that our emotional life was a function of how we think. Calvin seems to have taken that on, though he rejected their unfeeling thoughts. He constantly traces the right thought through the right emotion to the right choice, or the wrong action, back through the wrong emotion to the wrong thought.

3. Palate for Emotions

Chrysotsom uses 989 different descriptions of emotion, about 1 every 10 seconds. Calvin mentions emotions about 500 times, at least every 30 seconds. There are Present emotions: Sadness and Happiness; Interpersonal emotions: Hate and Love; Future emotions: Fear and Hope. Both use the interpersonal emotions (hate and love) much more than future-orientated emotions or present emotions.

4. Palette of Emotions

Both use a broad range of words to pain their picture of emotional life.

C. Calvin’s Exploration of Emotion

1. Building a Community of Emotional Mutuality

A Community of Emotional Mutuality is a human group in which people share the same emotions. Both work incredibly hard to fan the emotions of their congregations for each other.

2. Directing and Prospering Social Transformation: Reformation at Home and Abroad

D. Engaging Emotions for Personal Transformation

Calvin’s ethic requires an emotional response, “We must enlarge our emotions as the situation requires,” Sermon 62.

E. Therapy of Emotion: Intensity, Orientation and Right Thinking

You have to have a heart for God and things that matter to God, like your fellow Christian. Neither wanted overriding emotions or passionlessness. They had a view that emotions always engage value judgements.

F. Calvin’s Use of Classical Rhetoric to Engage Emotion

Calvin operated at all three level of Rhetoric:

Docere – To teach. It engages with the intellect, not emotions. Calvin did this by the exposition of Biblical truth.
Delectare – to delight, please. It engages with the gentle emotions: respect, affection, admiration, curiosity, humour, nostalgia, etc. Calvin did this by using variation: metaphors, dialogues, witty descriptions of humanity and rhetorical questions.
Mouere – to move, affect. It engages with pathos (strong emotions): rage, lust terror, grief, rapture, etc.

G. Conclusions

i. In Chrysostom and ‘the First Calvinist’ emotions are respected

Both preachers think of their people, not only as thinkers, but also as feelers. We should preach with Godly zeal, Westminster Directory of Public Worship on Preaching point 6.

ii. Emotion as a part of the human condition

We should be like Calvin, engaging people’s emotions and respecting their emotions, as well as informing them. According to Calvin, Jesus embraced our emotions. Do we need to get in touch with our feelings?

iii. Emotion as critical for motivating life and change

The Romantics realised this. Jonathan Edwards saw the emotions as the driving force which motivates us for good or will. He worked from emotions to thoughts, but Calvin moved from thoughts to emotions.

iv. Build Communities of Emotional Mutuality

Calvin did this.

v. Master the Rhetoric of Emotion

If we want people to feel rightly about God, each other and their sin, we need to feel rightly about this. It will help if we wear our hearts on our sleeve. If you only present the idea without the emotions it produces, you corrupt the truth.


Mar 27 2013

Treasures New and Old: Preaching and Biblical Theology

Session 9: Andrew Reid

A. Where are we?

Our context is largely Biblically illiterate. They don’t know the content, setting and figures of the Bible, let alone the big picture of how they all hold together.

Most of us are committed to systematic, consecutive, exegetical preaching.

We must preach in a way that informs people about how this part of Scripture fits in to the whole picture of Scripture.

B. A Problem of Definition

Scobie defined Biblical theology once way. James Barr says that Biblical theology can only be defined by what it is not. Warfield approaches Theology as a Science, and classifies Biblical theology as one of its five disciplines. Goldsworthy says Biblical Theology is a lens through which we view the Bible.

What is football? Anywhere in the world, it means something definite. In some places, it is soccer, rugby, rugby union, Gaelic football or AFL. Each brand will think of itself as the only true football. There are various things which fit within the category of football.

The boundaries of Biblical theology are:

Faith in Jesus Christ, who is the fulfiller and centre of God’s purposes.
The Bible of Christians consists of two Testaments which are Scripture and contiguous.
We cannot read the Old Testament entirely objectively as if the New Testament did not exist.
Nor do we read the Testaments into the other, because they have to speak on their own to bear witness to Jesus Christ.
Both Testaments come from the same God.
It builds on exegesis and forms the basis for systematic theology.

Biblical theology is as inductive as exegesis is.

C. A Sample (Exodus 15:1-21)

1. Introducing a remarkable song

This is one of those times that the Bible gives us both a narrative account and a poetic account of the same event.

i. Tenses

All of our translations have trouble deciding what to do with these ancient tenses.

ii. Setting

Verse 1 sets the scene: Israel is standing beside the sea. Miriam is coming out to sing about the great victory.

There are two halves: 2-12 and 13-18. Both verses 12 and 18 are the shortest verses. They act as a sort of refrain and conclusion to their sections. The sections have difference foci, looking back and looking forward.

2. The Content of the Song

i. About Whom?

The song is about God. YHWH, Yah and Adoni are all mentioned repeatedly.

ii. Why?

He is the one who triumphed. This has exalted Him and given Him glory, and given His people salvation. These actions demonstrate His supremacy. It tells His people that He will surely bring them to the promised land.

iii. Exalting the Warrior King (15:1-3)

God is described as a man of war, v3.

iv. The Exploits and Incomparability of the Warrior King (15:4-12)

He is celebrated as the agent of salvation, v11. No one can be compared to such a God. He is ‘awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders’. The Egyptians cannot compare to Him.

v. Under the Hand of a Shepherd King (15:13-18)

There is a change of tone at verse 13. The Warrior King turns into the Shepherd King, v13. The verbs in verse 13 are for leading a flock and shepherding a flock. His people are spoken of as ‘redeemed’ and ‘purchased’, economic terms.

The abode is the place of destination for a nomadic people, designating a grazing land. It is described as God’s own mountain, the place where the LORD had made his abode, and His sanctuary which He has made. This could be Sinai or Zion, but poetry is open enough to allow it to be both.

The people of Canaan know about these events and tremble when they arrive.

Verse 18 is the first time that God reigning is explicitly mentioned in Scripture.

3. The Song and the Rest of Exodus: The Creator Who Redeems

i. Where Exodus Began

The theme of Creation permeates the book of Exodus. 1:7 describes Israel as multiplying and increasing, just as mankind was commanded to in Genesis 1. Pharaoh tries to stop this.

ii. Creation and Redemption: A Suggestion

The language of the deep comes up here. Why does the writer use the language of Creation? Because redemption is a done by creative acts on behalf of His people. His purpose is to give them rest in His presence, the same as His purpose in Creation.

D. A Sermon Outline

Helpless and Without Hope
A Quick Overview of Exodus
The Song of the Sea
Introducing A Remarkable Poem
Tenses
Content
Who?
Delight in the Warrior God and the Shepherd King
The pinnacle of the poem
Parading into the Promised Land
The Creator Who Redeems
Where Exodus Began
Creation and Redemption – a Suggestion
Checking out our suggestion
Drawing things together
Praising the God of Creation
Living with the God of Redemption

E. A Sermon Ending

Redemption is about making things new, bringing them back to the way God intended them to be.

If I am right, we would expect to see that in the rest of the Bible too. Isaiah talks about the redemption from Babylon as a new Exodus and a new Creation.

If I am right, you would expect to see that in the New Testament too. Paul uses the Exodus language of hard hearts and blinded minds, which God changes by speaking a word that light should shine out of darkness, using Genesis language, 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. Following on from this, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that becoming a Christian is in some ways, going back to how you were meant to be, dependent upon God, forgiven in Him and living in his presence. Revelation 21:1-5 uses creation language to describe the future. He will return the world to the way he intended it, with man and God living together in harmony again, replacing chaos with order and darkness with light. In the Old Testament, He did that by defeating Pharaoh and setting Himself among His people. In the New Testament, He does this by the lamb who was slain, Jesus, who makes all things new.

This matters because my deepest desire is to be independent. I cannot make myself pleasing to God and stop being sinful. The point of the poem is that God did this all Himself. He didn’t need help. In Genesis 1, He waged war on chaos and disorder, and it was done. This doctrine tells us how God can make us right with Him: He does an act of Creation in us, speaking a word about Jesus into us and making us again. We cannot make ourselves what God wants us to be, but God can. As we trust in Jesus, the old will pass away and the new will come. If God is a Creator, He will make things new.

How can we not be carried away with the people of Israel on the banks of the sea before this God?


Mar 27 2013

To Shake Them Out of Their Complacency

Session 8: Peter Moore

Mentoring and Values

I was ordained in 1991. For 14 years, I was a full-time minister in parish work followed by 8 years in academic work. Since the third year of my ministry, I have been meeting regularly with other ministers (mostly younger) to encourage them in their ministry. The things that are really moving my heart begin to matter to them too. Therefore, I need to have good values!

Chrysostom and Calvin’s views of how people change has made sense of my own experience.

Leading Thinkers in the Christian Era

Chrysostom is as seminal in the orthodox tradition as one of the three ‘holy heirarchs’, high priests who they hold on the same level with the New Testament. Calvin is seminal in the Reformed tradition. We would expect them to have considered anthropology, what man is, to understand the key hole the preaching unlocks.

Chrysostom is sometimes pictured as a moralist and Calvin is often seen as a legalist, but neither of these are correct. Both are very interested in people’s behaviour, but both are interested in profound change from within. They believe that change comes when we interact with someone else’s chosen life orientation.

I don’t think that moralism is a major flaw in churches where I have worshipped. As Reformed people, we think that giving people new ideas changes people. Chrysostom and Calvin would say that this is wrong. Ideas do not change people.

Chrysostom preached for change in and genuine change in his hearers. He did not stop preaching until he saw that change. Calvin, described this as preaching ‘to shake them out of their complacency.’

Calvin on Chrysostom’s Anthropology

Calvin described Chrysostom as a great Bible reader. Nevertheless, he warned people reading Chrysostom of his errors in free will and the merits of work. Still, he promotes his preaching as a model. Their philosophy and method of preaching is the same.

Chrysostom and γνωμη Gnomeh (Chosen Life’s Orientation) in Preaching for Personal Transformation
Chrysostom says that someone’s γνωμη or chosen life’s orientation needs to be pointed in the direction of Christ. The place that is effected by persuasion is the γνωμη. It has authority over the body and its members and determines free choice.

Thinking of γνωμη as a mindset as Laird (2008) does is inadequate. It allows for circumstances to be part of γνωμη ignores the problem of deterministic thinking in Chrysostom’s setting. Chosen life’s orientation helps.

Chrysostom is concerned with the goals of the writers of the Scriptures in writing what they did. As the hearers understand the passion of the writer and the Lord Jesus, they will have the passion too.

Calvin’s Understanding of Voluntas in Preaching for Personal Transformation

Calvin’s anthropology centres around will or voluntas. Calvin has a bipartite anthropology: we have a mind and a will. The mind is about understanding what is good. The will chooses to follow what the mind wants. This only applies for the unfallen. Since the Fall, our mind is ‘gravely wounded through sin’ and ‘very much enslaved by evil desires’, 2.2.4. We cannot repair our ability to choose through our own actions. God has a will and He works in us to change our will.

Faith is an experience of knowledge of God’s will. We obtain salvation when we know that God is our merciful Father, because of the reconciliation effected through Christ, and that Christ has been given to us as righteous.

Calvin has a strong place for affections in his anthropology. “[The Gospel] is received only when it possesses the whole soul and finds a seat and resting place in the inmost affection of the heart.” “It must enter our heart and pass into our daily living and so transform us into itself that it may not be unfruitful in us.”

Conclusion

Although they have a different view on free will, both Calvin and Chrysostom are always talking about God’s orientation. Calvin is a voluntarist in that he believe that God first effects the will and the mind follows.

i. Not Just Ideas, But Lives

In Western preaching, we think that ideas do not transform us. Ideas in themselves are not enough. Personal transformation comes from an encounter with the truth embodied in a human life. It is your values and the values of God which will be transformative in people’s lives. “You can pass on what you know, but reproduce who you are.” Moore. 1 Timothy 4:12-16 stresses that we must wed doctrine to a life of authenticity.

ii. Not Just Integrity, But Authenticity

Integrity and authenticity are different things. Integrity is a negative term. Authenticity is about the positive power of our actions.

In our lives, we embody the desires of God. Integrity is a matter of outward conformity to the truth, but authenticity is about sharing our passions with others. If you’re coming up with a new vision for your church, it will not be enough to print a booklet or preach a series of sermons on that topic. You need to have heartfelt sharing so that people will engage with it.

iii. Lives Shared with our Congregations and Mentorees. Sharing from the Heart.

You need to share your life in the pulpit. You don’t have to speak about your passions from the pulpit, but you have to show it. Reveal yourself to the congregation.

Q: Isn’t engaging minds, hearts and hands actually from the Bible, not the world?

Calvin says that rhetoric is a gift from the Holy Spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Mar 27 2013

Plain Talk with a Gilt Edge

Session 7: Peter Moore

Introduction

It is important to consider the ‘what’ of Christian preaching, but also the ‘how’.

Calvin refers to Chrysostom more often than any other ancient writer and considers him to be the greatest ancient Bible reader. Both were trained in classical rhetoric and were indebted to it in their preaching. They used it as a tool to lay bear the plain meaning of Scripture to plain people.

Chrysostom’s Introduction to the Art of Persuasion

Chrysostom was born in Syrian Antoich around 347-349 A.D. He died c.407. He was trained by Libanius. He was converted and broke away from his expected career. He joined a monastic community on Mt. Silpius and lived there for two years. He ruined his body during that time by not eating, but also memorised the Bible in Greek. He accepted the office of a deacon 381 A.D. aged 34 and became a priest in 386 A.D. aged 39.

There was an uprising over taxation when the Antoicenes destroyed a number of statues of the Emperor. The people then expected the wrath of the Emperor, as another city had done the same and most of them were crucified. During the crisis of ‘The Statues’, John rose to prominence as a preacher and pastor.

Calvin’s Introduction to the Art of Persuasion

Calvin was born in Noyon in 1509 and died in 1564. He trained in law, but probably wanted to join the academy, writing a commentary on the works of Seneca. He was drafted into the service of the Protestant church in Geneva as a teacher, but became a minister, assisting Farel. After about a year, he and Farel were exiled to Strassburg. After a further three years, he agreed to return.

The goal of Calvin’s scholarly work was preaching. ‘If Calvin created a new civilization’ he did so ‘essentially through preaching.’ Stauffer. Preaching was his greatest ministerial priority. To understand Calvin, we need to understand him as a preacher.

Calvin’s esteem for Chrysostom: The ‘Plain’ Meaning of Scripture for ‘Plain’ People

Calvin wrote a preface for a translation of Chrysostom’s work, defending the work as a help to Christian life and a message intended for the common people. He says that Chrysostom does not twist his words and is interested in the plan meaning of the text.

Chrysostom’s Debt to Greek Rhetorical Theory

How indebted was Chrysostom to classical rhetoric? There have been three phases in the assessment of this question.

In the 19th to early 20th century, that there was only minimal evidence.
In the 1920s-1980s, the view was that he opposed the Sophists and their use of rhetoric, but unconsciously employed it.
Post-1980 an intentional master of classical rhetoric.

On the Priesthood

Before he became a bishop, Chrysostom wrote On the Priesthood. He described preaching as ‘the one method and way of healing appointed’ in the church. ‘We’ pastors ought to ‘apply ourselves to it’. Skill in preaching and ‘considerable tact’ is needed for it to be fruitful. He said that Paul was not ιδιοωτης and bishops could learn from them. A preacher ‘is unable to do any good worth mentioning, because he has nothing to say’. Preaching does not come by nature, but by considerable study. Good preachers have to do a lot of work to be faithful in exercising their gifts.

Chrysostom values the preaching of the word and the methods of classical rhetoric in preparing for that task.

Chrysostom and Calvin Preaching 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

In preaching about Paul going to Corinth without the wisdom of words, both Chrysostom and Calvin argue that it is the power of the Gospel which changed people’s lives and nothing that a preacher does must conceal that truth. Classical rhetoric is not forbidden, but can be used to faithfully present the truth.

Chrysostom and Calvin Preach 2 Timothy 4:2

Both Chrysostom and Calvin take ‘convince, rebuke and exhort’ as a method for preaching. First, they will state a point; Then they will demonstrate it to show why we should accept it through logic and life experience.

Both used the Enthyme ενθυμημα (an argument based on comparison):

Chrysostom said ‘And if he so wrote to Timothy, who was filled with the Spirit, how much more to us!’

Calvin said ‘(I)f Timothy, who was like an Angel in this world, need to be stirred up in this way, what shall we think about ourselves, who are so carnal, who have our minds and wits wandering this way and that way…”

Conclusions

The Directory for Publick Worship says that we should preach:

2. Plainly, that the meanest may understand; delivering the truth not in the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect; abstaining also from an unprofitable use of unknown tongues, strange phrases, and cadences of sounds and words; sparingly citing sentences of ecclesiastical or other human writers, ancient or modern, be they never so elegant.

and

4. Wisely, framing all his doctrines, exhortations, and especially his reproofs, in such a manner as may be most likely to prevail; shewing all due respect to each man’s person and place, and not mixing his own passion or bitterness.

We can’t pervert the truth but must present it in a way which is persuasive.

Q: Have you used this in your own preaching?

Yes. There are three levels of persuasion:

Docere – to teach. To convey information.
Delectare – to delight. To engage their hearts.
Mouere – to move. To engage the strong emotions.

These are things I think about now.


Mar 26 2013

Is Christ Hidden in the Old Testament?

Session 5: Noel Weeks

The influence of Deism

The religious context in which we live, including in the church, is deism. God created the world, or the primordial elements which form the world, and that is the extent of His action in the world (though the classical form also denies the deity of Jesus Christ).

If that is all God did, then all we see now is the results of evolution. There is also great difficulty believing in the sufficiency of Scripture or for people to become Christians by His work. Managing the church by human methods is only necessary if God is absent.

The puzzles of New Testament use of Old Testament texts
Some might say that the writers of the New Testament had great religious experiences and read the Old Testament in the light of that, meaning they imposed their views on the text. That leaves no room for the Old Testament to anticipate Christianity.

Sometimes, we have trouble understanding what the New Testament writers did to the Old Testament text.

Search for answers

1 Corinthians 14:20-25 quotes Isaiah 28:9ff in support of Paul’s argument that tongues are a sign of God’s judgement against His people. God is in control.

Matthew 2:15 takes an historical record from Hosea 11:1 and uses it as part of a pattern.

Crucial perspective

The basis premise of the New Testament use of the Old Testament is the continuity of God’s work: judgement and salvation. It is God, not man, who is driving the process.

Further

1 Corinthians 11:3 echoes Genesis 1:26-27. This is a fascinating passage to read in Jewish and liberal commentaries because of its Trinitarianism. God is complex and man is complex. The New Testament reads the Old Testament as a Trinitarian document.

Hebrews 1:10-12 is blatantly Trinitarian. It looks back to the judgement of God in the desert.

In judgement, God works in the same way in both covenants. In blessing, God works in the same ways. If you don’t have these assumptions, you won’t see that.

Application

The difference is that everything in the New Testament is bigger and better. There is anticipation in the Old Testament, but we have it so much better.

Commentaries say that Paul was quoting a Jewish myth about a rock following the people around providing water. This myth is only attested quite late and may or may not have been around at that time. Is it likely that Paul would refer to this or that he would refer to the far greater rock, the Son of God, who went with them?

Back to the prophecy question

In 1 Kings 13:2, the birth of Josiah and his sacrifice of the priests of the altar is prophesied. This is an interventionist God. Liberal commentators says that it was inserted after the fact. Do you finding hard to believe that God could actually inspire that?

Isaiah 45:1 prophecies the rule of Cyrus. When we preach form the Old Testament, we must be convinced that God planned all this.

Isaiah 7:14 prophesied the coming of Jesus. This does use the word for virgin. Rachel was described by each, but the other one often promoted is followed by “and no man had known her”. Isaiah 9:6 is Trinitarian.

What we have to battle in this age is functional deism. It makes God distant from people in their lives. That is why we don’t now how to pray or interpret our Christian experience.

 

 

 


Mar 26 2013

Do you have to be an Assyriologist to Preach on the Old Testament?

Session 4: Noel Weeks

People tell me there is a lack of Old Testament preaching in the churches. Why isn’t there more?

Preachers can find the Old Testament more difficult and more daunting, particularly if you have to interpret the text in terms of its historical background? What pastor has time to bone up on Assyrian history?

Do we know the genre?

Survey of the situation

There is unwritten archeological evidence, like houses and household utensils. Very little of it is really relevant to the Old Testament. The information which would be most useful would start World War III,digging up the Temple Mount.

There is also written material. Very little written material comes from Palestine and the Jordan area from the item of the Old Testament. To find material from the same time, you have to go to other areas.

Mesopotamia (Ancient Iraq: Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians) yields voluminous texts, around 1 million in publication currently. They are largely administrative, but also letters, laws, myths and stories. However, they aren’t from Palestine. Does it really overlap with the Old Testament?

Egypt gives many documents, but they are focused on Temple rituals and funerary biographies. There are myths and stories, but not many, and not as mattering of legal and documentary material.

Hittites (Central Asia) yields little, but includes history like in the Old Testament.

Syria is patchy. Ugarit yields myths, rituals and letters. Mari gives rituals and letters. Emar has only rituals and Ebla just school texts and commercial documents.

Form of writing

Cuneiform is very complex. Hieroglyphics is easier. Literacy in Egypt is estimated at 2-4%, at full scribal literacy allowing you to read a myth, rather than functional literacy.

There may have been an oral culture, but it leaves little evidence!

Literary cultures of the Ancient Near East were elite cultures. The ordinary person would like read.

Less than 10 of the 2000 tablets in the library of Ashurbanipal’s library is about laws and myths. The rest is about divination (considered the science of every day life) and provides very little of interest for the background of the Old Testament. Because the Bible has areligious focus, we assume that it is the focus of the surrounding cultures, but the content does not overlap.

What is useful

The most useful documents are those that are commonly attested. Abraham’s practice of using Hagar to provide an heir is widely done. The practice of necromancy as with the Witch of Endor is widely attested.

Covenants are widely used. However, we should note that treaties in each culture are different and they are not easily matched.

What is rare or lacking

There is only one creation out outside the Bible: Enuma Elish. If you accept the Biblical date of Moses, it comes after the Biblical account. The nature of paganism doesn’t raise the question of where come thing came from. The gods are continuous with the matter of the universe even if they are in a different form. The sun god and the god through the underworld at night, though the statue in the temple is also the sun god. The gods and matter are always there. The gods and matter differentiate, but they are always there.

There is no reflection of the fall into sin. Some say that immortality was restricted to the gods. There is no myth of the confusion of languages. There is no record of national origins (despite the fact that they moved around). [The Maori have a storey of the seven canoes explaining their origins].

There is a flood story in Mesopotamia but not in Egypt, where the Pharaoh is god and the punishment of the society doesn’t make sense.

Traps

Mesopotamia and cuneiform dominate, so people tend to go for Mesopotamian documents to compare the Old Testament to. At the start of the 20th century, there was pan-Mesopotamianism, an antecedent of Nazism. The idea was that the Jews could never produce anything and the Old Testament was a borrowing of the Babylonian culture.

We tend to read new documents in terms of what we know, like the Bible.

Be aware of accidental parallels. Hammurabi’s Law has a law about someone who has an ox which accidentally gores someone. Either it means that Moses read Hammurabi or that oxen are inclined to gore! Life is life and there are similarities in cultures.

Fertility cults were widespread, where sympathetic rituals were practiced. There is no evidence in the Old Testament of sympathetic prostitution at the Temple. It could not be proved or disproved.

Divination and exorcism are much more significant for Ancient Near East cultures than we expect. The world of the dead and the cult of the dead is much more pervasive than we allow.

Genre

Sometimes there are no other genres to compare parts of the Bible to, as with Job. The Babylonian proverbs are the second primer for learning cuneiform, after learning your signs. They contain pithy sayings some of which parallel the Biblical Proverbs. The problem is that someone has to start it. Really creative texts and new texts create genres. There are more genres in the Old Testament text than we expect to find.

Interpret the Bible by the Bible

Make sure that the evidence for the background is good. Always interpret it the way people have always interpreted it, but the Bible.

Question: Some scholars want to read the early chapters of Genesis against an Ancient Near East background, like Enuma Elish. Why would they want to do that?

We expect that there will be all sorts of origin stories from each culture, e cause of our scientific background. Is that actually true of human societies? Going to the material provides only one Ancient Near East outside the Old Testament. It is more about establishing the supremacy of the Temple in Babylon and tells the story of creation along the way. The Biblical creation story contradicts everything, including modern ideas. Pressure is there to conform. Enuma Elish was incorrectly dated base don the idea that the Bible borrowed form it. It actually dates to 1200-1300 B.C. Moses is around that time or probably earlier, and the story would have to get from Mesopotamia to Palestine. The only way now to justify that view is to say Genesis was written after the Exile. The myth was read in the Temple and is in a very literary form, which your average Babylonia could hardly understand, let along any Jew who might happen to surprisingly be there. Of course Genesis is anti-polytheistic. The whole Bible is!

 

 

 


Mar 26 2013

Preaching from the Old Testament: Building Some Biblical Foundations

Session 3: Andrew Reid

This talk is about giving a framework for preaching from the Old Testament. To interpret the Old Testament, we need to learn from the Bible itself, how it begins and ends. What can we glean from Jesus and the apostles about how they used their Scripture.

The Big Picture of the Bible

Genesis 1

God is the creator and He is purposeful in His creation. The creation is said to be good for the purpose for which He made it, Genesis 1:12, 31. God has a goal in mind. Humans are integral to that purpose. His good intentions for His creation are interrupted by human corruption and independence. He has shut human beings out from His presence. Is it going to be fulfilled?

Revelation 21-22

The very same themes are in Revelation. There is a garden cry, with a river flowing through it. There is no curse, and healing and freedom and salvation, where humans live perpetually in God’s presence. There is no temple in this garden city because God is present and the lamb is present. The lamb appeared in chapter 5, where it was slaughtered but is standing. In the presence of such a lamb, we find what makes the difference between Genesis 1 and Revelation 21-22.

We should study the bible in the light of its goal and purpose (teleologically). Where the Bible is heading is about Jesus. Where the Bible is heading is Christotelec; it is orientated on Christ, through Christ and founded on Him (Peter Enns). We need to read the Bible with this foundation.

Building a Biblical Foundation for Interpreting the Old Testament

We should observe what is specifically said by Jesus and the disciples about how we should think about the Old Testament Scriptures.

Luke 24:13-35

To disciples are journeying to Emmaus and they fail to recognise Jesus as he walks along with them. He explains to them that it was necessary for Him to die and all that they said about Him. They were slow of heart, had their eyes opened, their hearts burned and their minds were opened. This language is common in the Old Testament. As Jesus talks, this dullness of understanding dissipates. Knowledge of Jesus and being taught by Jesus leads to revelation of the whole content of Scripture as they relate to Him.

The key to understanding the Old Testament is to see it in the light of Jesus, His person and work of suffering. We will be able to receive the message of the Old Testament and find it full of Jesus.

This isn’t about having a mystical experience of Jesus; however, true interpretation of the Scripture cannot be divorced from the relationship with Him of whom they speak.

Verse 26 does not say that every Scripture is about Jesus or that passage talks about Jesus. What it does say is that He spoke about everything that did speak about Him. Hey are part of a unified testimony to Him who gives life.

John 5:39-40

Jesus acknowledged that the religious leaders were diligent, yet they searched with illegitimate motives. You can master them technically but hold them at arms length. To master them is to know them in relation to whom they testify.

Matthew 13:52

After telling many parables, Jesus speaks of ‘every scribe who has been made a disciple of the Kingdom of Heaven.’ They are contrasted with those who are the scribes of the current day. There will be a group of scribes following the line of Moses reinterpreting them in its new context. That is exactly what expository preaching means, taking a passage from its original context and applying it to a new context. These are able to do more then the current scribes can do. They can bring out of the same treasures, things both new and old. The old is not abolished, but judiciously integrated into a new perspective of God through Jesus Christ. You are the able to draw out things both new and old, doing what Jesus does in relation to the parables.

There are implications for us. There are many things which are old, which Jewish believers could agree with. Because they are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, there are things which only believers will get. We have now an additional understanding of our understanding, as in 1 Peter 1:16.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

The Corinthians thought that they had made it. Paul’s perception is different. Their confidence in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, plus their spiritual experiences was unfounded and could lead to their destruction because they misunderstood the Christian life, focused on the work of Christ. He draws some parallel between what they were experiencing and the life of Israel is the deserts of Moab, showing that God’s acts in the past would teach, rebuke, correct and train them and suggest that He will do the same to them as He did in the past. The exemplary use of Scripture is not unheard of in the New Testament.

2 Timothy 3:14-17

The inspired Scriptures are useful for teaching, correction, rebuking and training in righteousness. They are about positively educating and correction in doctrine and behaviour. The Scriptures fit us for every work.

Drawing threads together

All of the Old Testament is useful for keeping us straight in terms of doctrine and conduct. We should ask how every passage is useful for doctrine and ethics. It is part of this to tell us about Jesus, but that is not all it is about. Moral and doctrinal teaching from the Old Testament is entirely in line with Jesus and the apostles’ use of Scripture. The I right use of Scripture will show us how to relate to others as well as to God.

True understanding of the Old Testament is found by seeing them in the light of God’s purposes in Jesus Christ. That means, that our orientation must always be God’s, glorifying his Son. We must point them to Jesus so that they might have life. That the Old Testament has been fulfilled in Christ, means that there will be many things that we will find that the Jews will not find. There are also old things in there which Jewish believers would also recognise and do not need a Christological meaning to be enduring for us. Our task as preachers is to bring out of Old Testament Scriptures is to be including out things new and old. They are not only a sourcebook for Messianic messages about Jesus. It will teaching us about doctrine and ethics. Use it for the purposes for which it was given, to tell them about Jesus AND to encourage them to faith and good works.

Step 1: Look up. Recognise that the Bible is the Word of God. Read it with reference and humility.
Step 2: Look down. Exegete, recognising that the Bible uses the words of human beings.
Step 3: Look back. Place this passage in the context of the whole Bible.
Step 4: Look forward. Pace this passage in relation to the work of Jesus Christ.
Step 5: Look here. Apply and contextualise. Having understood the passage, turn to our own context and how it impacts upon us.

Biblical interpretation is not a straight line exercise, but this is a framework for it. Not every part of the model will apply to all passages.

Question: How do you use the Old Testament in the public square, as with homosexuality?

You may be better off explaining from all of Scripture what is going on here, rather than proof texting. This allows you to explain the Gospel. The old can never be divorced from the new. Instinctively as Christians, we know which apply and which don’t even if we can’t articulate our approach to Old Testament law. Show the larger Christological context.


Mar 26 2013

Paul’s Pastoral Paradigm for Preachers II

Session 2: Bruce Winter

In 1 Corinthians, Paul is writing about Cross Christians, rather than Culture Christians. We need to exegete the culture and understand how people can be subtly influenced by the culture.

The culture was interested in leaders; conflict arose between people who aligned themselves behind Paul and behind Apollos. Those who think they are mature are actually very immature indeed. Interestingly, the MBA, leadership-focused model is now being thrown away by business training schools. This is not the dynamic in which people are functioning in the business world. It is more about encouraging people todo what they need to do.

The second problem with power-brokers who got away with more than anyone else, ch 5. This powerful person was tolerated, despite committing a criminal offence. Paul told them to put him out of the church. A blind eye could not be turned.

Paul gives eight reasons who only fools would fornicate. He does not deny the complexity of the issue. Cicero asked who would be so foolish as to prohibit what was always done, “When was this not a common practice?” The young people in the church in Corinth were greatly influenced by the culture. His argument goes: You were washed, you were justified, you were sanctified. Your body is united with Christ. There is no such thing as casual sex because you enter into a one flesh relationship. You don’t have the title deeds of your body. You must flee fornication.

Paul talks about the obligations of the marriage bed. One of the primary tasks of the ministry is to guard the marriages of the church. The church wanted to to keep things as they were due to a grain supply shortage.

In preaching and pastoring, we want to be aware of what’s going on. Watch people’s reactions while preaching. If someone covers their mouths, you’ve struck oil.

The issue with head covering was women removing their marriage veil. Adultery was a criminal matter. Paul was concerned with the city-appointed messengers who supervised public meetings and the dress of women. They were concerned when women dressed as adulteresses and high-class prostitutes. Meantime, men were ceiling themselves as the pagan priests did to draw attention to their sacrifices and status.

The issue with the Lord’s Supper was that it was the wrong kind. There were two kinds of dinners, equal dinners, where food was provided for everyone, and unequal dinners, where you brought what you had and eat it. In the midst of a food shortage, those who had nothing were very embarrassed. What was first about Jesus giving Himself for us had been turned into people thinking of themselves. God disciplined them.

There were tensions between Christians. The issue was not really about spiritual gifts.

Chapter 13 is not about marriage at all. It is about ministry.
If you don’t have love, you don’t say anything.
If you don’t have love, you aren’t anything.
If you don’t have love, you don’t have a ministry.
If there is no resolution of issues, you have a ground zero ministry.

The task is given in 14:3. We should upbuild. Our task to construct. Is our Sunday service one in which we are actually building people up in the Christian lives, in their Christian faith? Are we feeding them for the next week? We never know on Sunday morning what difficult circumstances people have passed through. How am I building others up and encouraging them to run the race? Paul is concerned that the outsider must be able to fall down and recognise that God is in this place. Be thoughtful for the outsider. We must not be only for the sanctified. Paul is as concerned for the outsider as for the building up of the insider. You need to do a lot of thinking about how outsiders come in.

Question: How does the cult of leadership effect the church?

The manual is not the Bible. There is no mention of staff in the Bible. When I became a Christian, within two weeks I was visiting a prison and giving my testimony on a street corner. We are not all building up the body. Business Weekly ran an article about Building an Earthly Kingdom. We should not be treated like a CEO. Be a feeder, not a leader. We are not running a business. Wen you preach, give people something that will strengthen them and energise them for another week of activity. 1 Corinthians tells us what Paul is, not who he is (functional). This is a good place to start with a new ministry.

Question: How could you tell that a minister didn’t have a pastoral heart?

A pastoral minster prays for people in all kinds of situations. He preached with conviction and applied the passage to the people. Paul gives 108 commands in 1 Corinthians. He builds cases for them in pastoral ways. We translate it, “Let us”, but they are not optional. Identify with the people. These are your struggles too. If we really love people, they know and it begins to show in our prayers and our readings. Strangers are spoken to straight away. A family is operating which is very glad that you’ve come in to the service.

Question: How do we implement a discipleship model in our churches?

Teach them. “If anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross and follow me.” Jesus is not interested in converts, but in disciples, Matthew 28. A disciple follows the teacher. That is the rabbinic teaching. Christian is a term of derision, implying that it is a negative thing. We should think of ourselves as followers of Jesus and welcome others as family.


Mar 26 2013

Paul’s Pastoral Paradigm for Preachers

Session 1: Bruce Winter

1 Corinthians is Paul’s longest pastoral letter. We have a lot to learn from how he writes to the members of his church. He knows that their failures need not be final. There can be a new day.

The Lenses of Paul’s Pastoral Paradigm

It is sad to come to church and find a preacher who does not have a pastoral heart and is more interested in giving out information. I asked a class to describe what they would do with people with particular challenges, like in the movie As Good As It Gets. Many said they were problem people. Some said they were people with problems. Only a few saw them as people with gifts, anticipating how they would be used now that they were Christians.

Paul uses the medical term for putting bones together to describe the work of the ministry, putting people together. We should see people mend so that they can be effective in their service, also helping built up the body of Christ.

What caused the problems

There were four issues which were pointed out to Paul.

There was a major problem with people’s perceptions of ministry. There was a dazzling pattern of leadership in the world which came into the church. Teachers had followers, 1:10-14.

A man who committed incest was the cause of boasting in the church because of his status, 5.

Christians were going to court with each other, with damages being paid, 6:1-9.

Young men were saying that it was their right to fornicate, 6:9-20.

What issues were raised by the letter

There was a marriage matter which needed sorted out, 7:1-24.
People were going beyond their betrothal, 7:25-40.
The Emperor cult came to town and people wanted to take their place at the sacrifices, 8:1-11:1.
Men were putting on veils to prophecy and women were taking off the marriage veil to prophecy, 11:3-15.
Issues with the Lord’s supper, 11:16-34.
Spiritual gifts, 12:1-14

How does Paul see and prescribe the cures needed?

Sanctified

First of all, despite their actions, Paul calls them sanctified, 1:21. He reminds them of this, 1:30; 6:8-11. There needs to be a reformation in how they are living.

Greatly blessed

He reminds them of the grace given to them in Christ Jesus, 1:4-9. Therefore, they have everything they need and God will sustain them guiltless to the end. God keeps His promises to them.

A Critical Perspective in Paul’s Pastoring of the Christians

He addresses them 20 times in the vocative: αδελφή ‘brothers and sisters’, my brothers, beloved brothers, etc. It was against Roman law to call someone your brother unless you were brothers. Outsiders were indignant that Christians would call themselves family, Tertullian.

We do not talk to our parishioners or our members; they are our brothers and sisters.

Paul’s style of writing to them

He doesn’t use the posh style, but the plain style, 2 Corinthians 1:13, 10:10. Seneca the Younger preferred his letters to be written just as he would speak, but that is quite unusual. Paul’s letters are not rhetorical show pieces. Preachers are not there to show off how much time they have put into their sermons. Paul’s Greek is appalling at times, but he wrote so that it would be plain and easy to understand when it was read aloud. The teaching of Jesus was plain and simple. His is how God speaks in each generation. We need to preach in a way that is clear to all.

Paul’s pastoral heart, 2 Corinthians 2:4, cf 4:2

Paul was moved in his heart. Despite the pain in his heart, he wrote this letter. If we play politics, people do not hear us the same way. People want to know if we live in the house were preach about.

Paul’s pastoral perspective, 2 Corinthians 13:4

He doesn’t come across as a great preacher. We should be careful not to give the impression that we are fine and have all the solutions. He was prepared to own his own battles, Romans 7:25. 2 Corinthians unfolds the life of a preacher in a way that is unprecedented in the Greco-Roman world. W must not pretend that we are living the triumphant life.

We can be so taken up with models for preaching, but we need a pastoral paradigm of preaching.

Confronting Issues with Pastoral and Positive

Perspectives Paul devoted 96.05% of the book to the issues.

Conflict:

Paul/Apollos 20.84%
Church worship 19.20%
Lord’s Supper 4.30%
Litigation 2.50%
Total: 46.38%

Compromise issues:

Worship in idol temple 18.56%
Resurrection 11.58%
Marriage 9.86%
Incest 3.36%
Veiling in ministry 3.36%
Fornication 1.95%
Total: 48.67%

2 Corinthians 10 says that we do not operate in secular ways. He doesn’t pull down people, but arguments and opinions which rise against God, taking thoughts captive for obedience to Christ. That is the task of the preacher. We mustn’t make people feel like they are very bad Christians, but remind them of who they are in Christ. We must isolate the problems and show people how living God’s way is best. Going the wrong way is not the end. There can be a new day. Because we are His children, his discipline is always remedial. There is always a cure.

 


Jul 27 2012

Carl Trueman – Proper Priorities for the Church Today

I’m not really a theologian. My training is as a historian and a churchman. I list eight priorities of importance for the church as it has moved from the historical position it has held.

The church needs to develop a proper doctrine of God with sense of his awesomeness.

Recently, I have been struck my the changed attitude to suffering in the church. There has been much in recent decades and we can know about it even if it is happening far away. In the 16th and 17th century, suffering was perceived differently. Huldrich Zwingli was called to the great Minster in Zurich in 1519. The next year, the plague killed 25% of the population. For a flu to kill 1% of a population, it would be a massive catastrophe. The understanding of disease we have now is only just beginning in the 16th century. Doctors dressed up like crows because they noticed that crows didn’t die of plague. It was considered a judgement of God. In response, Zwingli studied the providence of God. In the last hundred years, suffering has made people think God is not in control.

Martin Luther lost three children. He refers to this in a couple of writings. He talked to her as she was dying. He cried as she talked about going to her heavenly father. As he looked at his daughters coffin in the carpenter’s workshop, he remembered that she had gone to a better place.

Richard Baxter married a younger lady, having been a confirmed bachelor. When he was locked up for illegal preaching, she joined him in prison. He wrote a beautiful memorial of her life and death. He longed to go and join her.

John Owen had eleven children. Ten of then died in infancy. A daughter married badly, returned home and died. Not once in his 24 volume works, does Owen refer to the deaths of his children’s deaths. Why does he not ask why? He doesn’t consider it a problem for his knowledge of God.

These men had a common understanding of God’s holiness such that they could not answer back to God and his sovereignty is part of the solution not part of the problem. The Psalmists and Job always look the same way. God’s response to Job’s questioning is “Because I am God.” we need to recover a view of God as the holy, sovereign creator.

2. A clear grasp of the Gospel

The Gospel is ultimately a declaration of what God has done in Christ. The church has tried to find Christian answers to pretty mundane questions. The gospel is about what God has done. We need to declare it.

3. Regaining an understanding of what the ministry is

Some of the confusion about what ministry is comes from a confusion between special grace and common grace. W ended to recover an appropriate understanding of that distinction. Luther is driven by  the burning question, “Where can I find a gracious God?”. He finds God gracious towards him only in Christ. There is a reason why the apostles establish a diaconate: there are tasks that should not distract from the ministry.

4. We need to recover a word-centred ministry

Seminaries teach preaching very badly. As well as environmental questions about where we teach preaching, it also involves teaching what preaching is. It is not explaining the Bible. Preaching is not simply a transmission of information. No educational theorist will tell you that standing in front of a group for 30 minutes is the most efficient method of transmitting information. Peaching is the primary means of confronting people with God. One’s perception of a task shapes one’s execution of the task. Peaching is a powerful declaration of the word of God. Look t the function of God’s word in Scripture. It is powerful and changes things. Something supernatural goes on when preaching is conducted according to the proper understanding of preaching.

A word centred ministry ultimately requires an educated ministry. The normative minister should be well-grounded in the word of God. In 1518 and 1519, the university of Wittenberg appoints professors of Hebrew and Greek. The word of God needs to be understood from the original languages. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Charles Spurgeon are not normative. Pragmatic reasons of time and expense are not good enough reasons.

5.  The understanding of the need for a confession

Every church has a confession. If you don’t write it down, no one can test it by Scripture. It distinguishes the bar for members and office bearers, so they can be brought on to maturity. Confessions limit the power of the eldership. It delimits the complexity of the doctrines of the church. They connect us to the past and relativise the past. We are indebted to the past. Confessions offer a rich basis for Christian worship. Proper Christian worship has always been confessional. The history of the early church is the story of the cries of worship “Jesus is Lord” and “I baptise you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” They take you to the Council of Constantinople. It takes us into a deeper understanding of Christian worship. We shouldn’t set confessions and practical Christian life at odds with each other.

6. A church that sets realistic expectations of the present life and looks to eternal life

Karl Marx said that religion exists to make suffering bearable by pointing to the world hereafter. The most dangerous things on TV are the advertisements. It’s the danger you don’t see and are unaware of that is most lethal. Advertisements project an unchristian view of life, they teach you to be dissatisfied with life and that satisfaction can be obtained in this life. Steve Jobs was the high priest of this way of thinking. Howard Jacobson said that great thing Jobs did was not curing cancer, but allowing people to carry their music around with them. Along with that came the expectation that you would be able to do that. The church needs to teach people what they can expect this side of eternity: not very much at all. We get much more than the not very much at all, but that is exceptional. Compare the amount of time you spend in church to the advertisements and decide who is the most powerful preacher in your life. One of the ways to cultivate this realistic expectation is by singing more of the Psalms rather than sentimental tripe.

7. The church needs to encourage a reading laity

We live in a visual culture. The new atheists use visual arguments against Christianity as distasteful, whereas the logical positivists criticised it as nonsense. The Reformation was a movement of words, despite a literacy rate of 5-10%. God spoke and the way to reflect that is through words. Words now are on the back foot. We need to encourage our people to read. Twitter is the bane of proper reading. There is nothing worth saying that can be said in 140 characters. It reduces discussion to sound bites and slogans. We want Christians to grow in their understanding. It is crucial for the health of the church. Mark Dever says his library is quite big enough so he gives books away, every month. The catch is that he will give you a grilling on it in the next month or give it back. I’ll try it at my own church when I get back. If it works, it works; if not, we’ll try something else.

Question: Is Twitter a cause of the sound bite problem?

Answer: It could be a cause or arise from the demand. It feeds in to that. It can have a good purpose but it is often not used for that. The problem with a twitter is that it reduces the most intelligent people are reduced to sounding like writers in a Chinese fortune cookie factory.

Question: How does our view of suffering show itself?

Answer: The Holocaust is no different for us to understand than the murder of a young child. Modern theology dealt with this. Maultmann dealt with this in the crucified God. He says that our problem is not inherent sin but the justification of God. “Where was God in Auschwitz?” His answer is that God suffered on the cross. It is symptomatic of a problem that says that suffering is a problem for God. It comes back to the origin of evil. The Bible does not solve evil by telling us where it comes from. Owen doesn’t think that his private suffering is worthy of mentioning in public. He doesn’t see it as having any great cosmos significance. God has thrown Owen a particularly vicious hand, but he will see his children again in eternity. Sometimes all you can do is point people heavenward. Our problem is not that we are too heavenly minded. We are not heavenly minded. This will be the first generation in one hundred years that will have a lower standard of living than the one before it.

Question: What about evangelism?

Answer: That’s for that very gentle rebuke.

Question: The OPC has twice voted itself out of existence but not found willing partners.how are things in the OPC?

Answer: Things are stable. Our outward looking aspect is not as strong as we should be. The RPs are in a similar boat. Most other confessional churches are looking at splits. Churches are filled with sinful people, but we are not looking at that at the moment. We know what we are.

Question: Is there some book you recommend as edifying to encourage your laity to read?

Answer: Anything by Jim Packer, like God’s Words, John Owen on mortification in volume 6 of his works or the single edition on the downplaying of personal holiness, B.B. Warfield, including his book reviews from the complete works. Include the first volume of Iain Murray on Lloyd-Jones, Hoeffecker on Charles Hodge.

Question: We tend to drive a long way to church. Why emphasis should we put on worshipping where we live?

Answer: The church has never come to term with the motor car or cheap fuel. Now church discipline is not as effective. You need to balance how far your travel with how you can serve effectively. Your attitude should not be how much you can get. A bunch of smaller churches could transform a city. W need to think more critically about where we go to church. Think “Here am I, Lord. Send me.” I want to go to a church where if I am not there for one week, someone notices. If I am not there for two weeks, the pastor notices. If I am not there for three weeks, the elders are on the phone asking if anything is wrong.

Question: When are we responsible to plant new churches?

Answer: When the church I am going to be installed as pastor of reaches 250, we will outgrow our building. Will we build a bigger building or plant? Hopefully, we will plant. Could a larger church give the same quality of pastoral care.

Question: Is a strict subsubscriptionist view necessary?

Answer: We need to be honest in our subscription. I can have scruples on the Larger Catechism’s application of the fourth commandment on the Sabbath. The classis can then decide. What is unacceptable is making declaratory acts which makes subscription meaningless. You don’t want a position where someone is crossing their fingers when they make their vows.

Question: What do you do when an historic creed or confession doesn’t address a current area of contest?

Answer: We try to draw out principles from the Westminster Confession of Faith and write occasional papers. In general, they are pretty thorough for most issues you’ll come across in the church.


Jul 27 2012

Carl Trueman – Seven Marks of a Healthy Church: Lessons from Luther

The Protestant Reformation shapes the way we think. Protestantism is defined internally by how people agree with or react to Luther. Luther’s theology began with questioning church authority. How did his thinking develop during the passage of his reformation process?

The Reformation was not a wholesale rejection of everything that went before. It intensified and modified medieval theology relative to Biblical knowledge. It wasn’t anti-traditional. Calvin’s view was that the Roman Catholic Church had departed from the right tradition in addition to the Bible.

It was beyond the realm of the thinking of the reformers to think that the church would not be one. The break up of the church was very painful for them. They kept engaging with ecumenical endeavours with the Roman Catholic Church because it was impossible for them to comprehend a split in the church.

Tradition says that the reformation began on 31 October 1517 when Luther nailed the 95 Thesis against indulgences.

Luther participated in the disputation against scholastic theology in September 1517. The attack on indulgences grabbed public attention. It was about money. The German-speaking lands we’re more self-aware. Northern Europe was bailing out southern Europe as the Popes drank wine while the Germans drank beer.

Luther wanted clarity about the position of the church. He had been taught that sin was dirt or weakness and baptism was a washing or strengthening. He now thought that sin was a state, it was death. Instead, they should be humble (which develops into a view of faith). Luther’s problem was that humility was set aside. When word gets back to Rome, the Pope has to commission an investigation into what indulgences are.

The Augustinians investigate Luther. He gets to defend himself at a chapter meeting in Heidelberg in 1518. He talks about theologians of power, who extrapolate that to God, and a theologian of the cross who starts with God’s revelation, primarily in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the height of it on the cross. His theology will ultimately question the power of the church. It is mean to reflect the power of Christ and be completely different to the power of the world. For him, the Pope was the Antichrist, the exact opposite of Christ, who uses earthly power calling it spiritual power. The Heidelberg Disputation is important for understanding his thinking, though he doesn’t understand all of the implications.

At the Imperial Diet of Augsburg (called to deal with the war against the Turks), Luther is put on trial again. Frederick the Wise protects Luther despite never meeting him, with Spalatin acting as intermediary. He had prevented the selling of indulgences because he had so many relics himself.

The Emperor dies, preventing the empire from moving against Luther. An old friend, now an enemy, John Eck challenges Luther to debate him in Leipzig, accompanied by a group of armed students. Luther was meant to preach at the chapel before the debate, but there are so many people that they meet in a lecture hall. He preaches on Matthew 16 saying that the keys are given to the church, not to the Pope.

Eck calls that “Bohemian”, following John Hus. Hus said the church was the totality of the elect. He believed that no one could believe that he was elect, so there was no assurance. Therefore, the Pope could not know that he was elect and head of the church. Hus was burned at the stake as a heretic. Eck pushes Luther, and Luther says that not only can the Papacy go wrong, but the Council of Constance which condemned Hus may have been wrong too. This could be the point when the Reformation began as salvation moves outside the sacramental structure of the church and questions it’s authority.

In 1520, Luther lays out what he thinks the Reformation should look like in The Freedom of the Christian Man, the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and the Appeal to the German Nobility. They set out justification by faith alone; reworking the sacramental system to include only baptism, communion, and confession and penance; and unleashing the civil magistrate from the authority of the church.

Luther is very medieval. He thinks he is living at the end of time. The black plague makes this seems possible. In 1522 he is identified with one of the witnesses in Revelation. He never appropriates it nor repudiates it. He adopts the strategy of people in mixed demonimations, as in the Church of Scotland in the 1970s and 80s: just preach the Gospel, the opponents will die out and everything will work out well. That’s not Paul’s plan. Luther will be dramatically disabused of his non-ecclesiastical view of the church. After the Diet of Worms in 1522, he is taken to the Wartburg Castle high above Eisenach, where Bach was later born. The leadership in Wittenberg passed to Carlstatt, Melancthon and Svelling but Luther had to return, at first incognito, to end the riots lest Frederick the Wise or the Emperor suppressed the Reformation. Luther had no military support but was able to put down the riot.

In 1525, the Peasants War (or rebellions) arise. Ten years ago, radicals wanted justice. Now they wanted freedom. Luther realised that you can’t have anyone preaching whatever Gospel they want. Melancthon wrote the Augsburg Confession in 1530 to clarify the message. The Emperor does not sign it and the princes protest, forming the Schmalcalic League. Luther comes to see that Gospel is not enough.

In 1539, he writes about church councils. He has seven marks of the church: word and sacrament, then either purity of worship (WCF) or discipline (Continental). Luther includes prayer.

Preaching of the word (displacing the centrality of the mass). See Oxford university press on When Church Became Theatre about churches becoming like music halls.

Baptism.

The Lord’s Supper. Promise and presence are important.

Keys (discipline).

Calling and ordination of ministers. Connects to the first four.

Public prayer, praise and thanksgiving. Teaching people to pray well in public isn’t done well. Public prayer is a pedagogical activity and is not to be done lightly. The Book of Common Prayer doesn’t use the words “We just” even once.

The cross. Anabaptists traced the true church through the fifth to sixteenth century by the trail of blood, who has been persecuted by the church. Many of them should have raised the ire of Protestants too. Even the medieval church had anti-Pelagians and maintained a right Christology. Even in America, it might be time to revisit this last mark of Luther’s. If the expectation is that the church will suffer, it will change your outlook. The cross is going to be more central to the identity of the church then it has been for many generations.

Luther has a crisis of authority, leading to an institutional view of the church for the purpose of the Gospel.

Following Luther’s death, the Emperor and his aide de camp went into the church at Wittenberg and destroyed his portrait. Luther had destroyed his reign and in the end he didn’t have the energy to desecrate his grave.

Question: Bifurcation of the modern mind splitting the theology of the cross from the theology of glory, see Revelation 1:17.

Answer: Paul makes numerous antithesis, rather than bifurcation. Does Luther emphasise the cross to the exclusion of the resurrection? To say that Christ is glorious is not to engage in the theology of glory, which makes man glorious not Christ.

Question: As Presbyterians, we tend to have reasonable relationships to evangelical Anglicans and Baptists, but not with Lutherans. Is this a cultural or theological distinction?

Answer: In 1529, the Landgrave of Hesse, at the Marburg Colloquy, the Lutherans insisted on the presence of Christ in the supper. Luther told Zwingli that they had a different spirit, i.e. we have the Holy Spirit and you don’t. Later, the Phillipists moderate but lose and the real Lutherans win. Ecumenical relations don’t exist because Lutherans hold fast to their confessional position. Even in Luther’s time, ecumenical relations between Wittenberg and Rome and easier than Wittenberg and Geneva because they agree that Christ is present in the supper, even if they’re not sure about whether the bread is. Luther was happy for the outward forms to remain in place so long as the content changed. There has been a sacramental move in Presbyterianism too, perhaps from a craving for more transcendence that was in Puritan worship.

Question: Indulgences weren’t new. They were there form the first crusade. What did you mean?

Answer: Excurge Domine in the 14th century developed them a link to the bank of merit. There is no uniform understanding of indulgences. Neither does it have a uniform view of justification, so Luther can’t be condemned as a heretic.

Question: Remember in the Lord’s Supper means the mighty acts of God in the past, bringing them up to the present.

Answer: I wouldn’t want to take it in isolation. Paul uses Jeremiah 31 language of God doing a new thing. We proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns. He is at the Father’s right hand. Calvinism deals with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Question: Luther started with the conviction that the Gospel was enough. Where does that end up?

Answer: One has to cling to the Gospel. Pus, we need good organisation. Questions of order always take precedence over questions of theology. Chalmer’s mantra in the ten years running up to the Disruption was organise, organise, organise. If you’re in a mixed denomination, you need a plan to change it. That involves boring stuff including making sure the wrong people don’t get ordained and the theological colleges stand firm for the truth. In the Church of Scotland, the evangelicals mistook numbers for influence.

Question: In Titus, after the teaching of the Gospel, the government of the church is the next priority.

Answer: Yes

Question: How have your views of theological education changed since coming to Westminster?

Answer: I thought people understood that an M.Div. doesn’t mean you are qualified to minister. Robinson (++Sydney) on the age of ordinands. How do you teach preaching? Certainly not just four times in a preaching lab. A mentor path is the best for that, just ads other things are best done in a classroom.