Hell is filled with people who believe they should be outside hell and inside heaven. Heaven is filled with people who believe they deserve to be outside heaven and inside hell. Such grace defies our sense of fair play. Know that you shouldn’t be in. Look to Christ. Be at rest. You are in.
- Dane Ortlund, Defiant Grace: The Surprising Message of Jesus (Carlisle, PA: EP, 2011), 92.
I’m excited to begin a church-wide study of my favorite extra-biblical book tonight, The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I decided to go with the “Pure Gold Classics” edition, edited by L. Edward Hazelbaker. This is one of the few “modern English” editions that contains an unabridged account of parts I and II, and it has not disappointed so far.
One of the issues we will examine tonight from the early chapters is the necessity of a deep conviction of sin. Here’s how Bunyan describes his pilgrim at the beginning of the story:
I had a dream in which I saw a man dressed in rags, standing in a certain place and facing away from his own house. He had a book in his hand and a great burden on his back. As I looked, I saw him open the Book and read out of it, and as he read he wept and trembled. Unable to contain himself any longer, he broke out with a sorrowful cry, saying, ‘What shall I do?’
The “great burden on his back” is the weight of guilt he has begun to feel before God over his own sin. He did not begin staggering under this load until he began reading from “the Book,” his copy of God’s Word; to this point, he had blissfully pursued the same self-centered, worldly lifestyle of his neighbors in the City of Destruction, never once imagining himself to be at odds with his Maker. But now the Scriptures have shown him how miserably short he has fallen of God’s glory, how grievously he has broken God’s Law, and how desperate is his condition under God’s wrath. It is this “burden” which drives the man to flee from his home, that he might find relief through Christ, who awaits him on the other side of the Wicket Gate to free him of his heavy load. Though many, including his own family members, try to stop him, the oppressive weight of the burden will not allow him to remain in his old life:
So in my dream I saw the man begin to run. He had not run far form his own door before his wife and children, having seen it, began to cry after him to return. But the man put his fingers in his ears and ran on, crying, ‘Life! Life! Eternal life!’ So not turning to look behind him, he fled toward the middle of the plain.
Just as the conviction of sin moves us to begin the Christian life, it also keeps us going on it. Another man named Pliable hears of the pilgrim’s journey and joins him for a time, excited about the prospect of the Celestial City at the end of the road. But Pliable never received a “burden” as Christian did; he never experienced the thorough conviction of his sin by the Spirit, but merely jumped on the bandwagon when it passed by. But at the first hardship they encounter on the journey, Pliable abandons the pilgrimage and returns to the City of Destruction.
Finally, the weight of the burden keeps us from pursuing other paths, for true relief comes only through Christ. A man named Worldly Wiseman tries to turn the pilgrim off the road the Bible showed him, by offering a far less painful removal of his burden than through cross-bearing discipleship, in the village of Morality. But again the Law of God teaches the Pilgrim that all the clean, moral living and disciplined, religious activity cannot unburden him of his sin: only Christ can. And so, onward he presses to the Wicket Gate, to the only place, to the only Savior, where he can find freedom and life.
Well, these are just a few of the rich lessons of Christian experience we will begin looking at together this evening, as the Lord uses John Bunyan to teach us his Word. I can’t wait!
Parents, if you complain about your church in front of your kids, don’t be surprised if your kids don’t want to go to church.
- Burk Parsons
I was so honored to receive these commentaries yesterday from a dear friend, whose grandfather was a faithful preacher of God’s Word here West Tennessee for a number of years. There are some real gems here: the American Commentary Series, and B.H. Carroll’s Interpretation of the English Bible, all volumes written by leading Baptist pastor-scholars from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. I look forward to receiving help from brothers like Carroll, John Broadus, E.T. Winkler, and Hezekiah Harvey, as I prepare future sermons here at Curve Baptist Church. As I use the books, I hope I’ll take a moment to reflect on how the Lord Jesus used them in a former day to keep his promise in building his church, and how he’s still being faithful to that promise today. I’m grateful to God for these resources, for his faithfulness to his people from one generation to the next, and for the deep bond of friendship in Christ these books represent. What a good life he has given us; what a great God he is.
Here at Curve Baptist Church, we began studying the book of Acts together this past Sunday morning. As I studied the first few verses of chapter one, I was struck by the importance of Jesus’ 40-day preparation of his apostles during the period between his resurrection and ascension. For Theophilus and Luke’s other original readers, knowing the qualifications of the apostles to speak on Jesus’ behalf would have been essential. Today, the Christian Church is still built on the “foundation of the prophets and apostles” — we frame our lives now and stake our eternity on what these men declared in the New Testament. The opening verses of Acts 1 remind us of why we should do this: because the risen Jesus himself chose, commissioned, and prepared these men to be his official spokesmen in the world after he had ascended into Heaven. Note three particular ways in which Jesus prepared his apostles for this great task:
First, Jesus presented himself alive to them(3). The heart of the apostles’ message is that Jesus, who was crucified for sinners and buried in a tomb, has been raised from the dead by his Father, and granted authority to forgive sin. The entire Christian message hangs on the fact of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. That means the essential qualification of being an apostle is having witnessed Jesus’ resurrection. So for 40 days, Jesus shows them “by many proofs” that he has been raised: they look into his eyes; they hear the familiar sound of his voice; they touch his scarred hands and feel his beating heart; they watch him eat fish! These men will travel the world and give their lives to announce that Jesus is alive, and will undergird their message by boldly declaring, “and we are witnesses of these things.” These are the men we are listening to in the pages of Scripture: eyewitnesses of the resurrected Lord!
Second, Jesus teaches them about God’s plan. (3) he “spoke about the Kingdom of God.” The Bible is the story of God’s plan to re-establish his Kingdom, or his Rule, in his rebellious world. Up to this point, the apostles have not understood that plan very well, as they showed throughout the four gospels. So now, Jesus spends 40 days patiently unfolding for them God’s plan to establish his Kingdom on earth: God has sent his Son, the rightful King, to lay down his life for rebel sinners, and to rise from the dead to offer them pardon and life under his rule. The apostles will unfold this plan in their preaching throughout Acts, and will unpack that plan in greater detail in their letters. Where did this insight into God’s plan for the world come from? Here, from Jesus himself.
Third, Jesus promises to send them his Holy Spirit (4-5). As great as their preparation has been, the apostles will need more than certainty that Jesus is alive, and knowledge of God’s plan, if they are to carry on Jesus’ ministry for him. They will need power from heaven; they will need to be filled with the same Holy Spirit who filled Jesus himself during his earthly ministry. And so Jesus orders them to stay in Jerusalem, to await “the promise of the Father.” In the Old Testament, God promised that when his Kingdom broke into the world in the last days, he would send his Holy Spirit on his people — Joel 2:28:“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” Jesus says that he will send the Spirit upon his apostles, baptizing them with his presence and power, as John baptized with water. This Spirit-baptism is the final, essential step in their preparation: when Jesus returns to Heaven, he will work through the apostles, by the Holy Spirit.
Well, much more could be said. Thinking through the Lord’s preparation of his apostles was a fruitful exercise for me; I hope you may find it so also.
Grace:
yet I am sure in my mind of one thing:
that before I was brought low,
I was like some great stone lying deep in mud,
until “He who is power” came
and “in his mercy” lifted me up.
Yes, that’s how it was, he did indeed raise me up,
for he placed me on the very top of the wall.
And so, because of that, I must shout out loud
“to the Lord in order to give back” some small thing
for all his gifts that are so great both here and in eternity.
The mere mind of man can never plumb such gifts as these.
Saint Patrick, Confessions, 12
Did you met the Lord in his Word yesterday? Did this encounter make you long to see him face-to-face?
I pray thee, merciful Jesus,
that as thou has graciously granted me to drink deeply and sweetly from the word which tells of thee;
so wilt thou of thy goodness grant that I may come at length to thee, the fountain of all wisdom, and stand before thy face forever.
- Bede (c. 673-735)
Break thou the Bread of Life, dear Lord, to me
As thou didst break the loaves beside the sea
Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord
My spirit pants for thee, O Living Word
- “Break Thou the Bread of Life” (1877)
