Jesus Christ: Name Above All Names

Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN, hosted their Christian Life Conference last weekend, and the speakers were Sinclair Ferguson and Alistair Begg. The conference topic this year was seeing and knowing Jesus Christ through the names and titles given to him through Scripture. I have not yet finished listening to all of the addresses, but so far it has been a rich feast of Biblical theology and unabashed exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to learn how better to “know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified” in your preaching, to grasp the ministry of Christ in the gospel accounts more fully, or if you simply want your heart to soar to new heights of devotion to Christ, you can find the messages here.

The Faithfulness of Christ as Savior

I am beginning to work through the passion narratives in John’s Gospel here at our church, and have been moved a number of times already at the deep resolve of Jesus to fulfill the mission given to him by the Father before the world began  – to save all those who had been given to him. This purposeful march to the cross is never more evident than when “the hour” finally arrives, and Jesus is given over to be crucified. When things appear to be the most chaotic, Christ is faithfully going about the work of accomplishing our salvation: “shall I not drink the cup that my Father has given me?” Now that is a Savior.

I attempted to preach John 18:1-27 this past Sunday morning.

Sermon-Listening and Prayer in the Local Church

I told my wife before our church’s prayer meeting last night that I was setting myself up for major discouragement: I was going to ask our church what they could remember about Sunday morning’s sermon. As in the sermon I had just preached three days before. As in the message I had slaved over in study and prayer for the glory of God and the good of their souls . . . you get the idea. Please do not misunderstand: God has blessed me with a congregation that loves the Word of God and is more attentive to  the Scriptures than any I have ever had the privilege to preach to. They are truly one of the deepest sources of joy to me. Still, I knew that by Wednesday evening, there was a good chance there would be crickets chirping when I asked for some feedback (beyond, “oh you did such a good job with it!”) .

So why would I set myself up for such a fall? Two reasons.

First, it provided an excellent opportunity to point out how prone we are to be hearers of the Word only, to take in Biblical preaching approvingly and thankfully, only to forget its instruction and application and instruction by the Sunday afternoon football game. It offered a chance to explain the purpose of preaching as more than simply the weekly box to be checked off, or a performance to be admired or critiqued, but God’s means of cutting us and binding us up and conforming us to Christ. It afforded me the chance to commend jotting down the major points on the little note pads for later review I have begun leaving in the pews. This sort of culture-building takes time, but it starts with these kinds of loving encouragements, it seems to me.

Second, as we are focusing on becoming Biblical pray-ers on Wednesday nights, I wanted to commend to them the practice of “praying through” the sermon after it has been preached to them. Any of us can be discouraged when we look down at our watch and see that, after pouring out our hearts for every need we can imagine, less than five minutes has passed! This is often because we are not allowing the endless resource of Scripture to be the kindling for the flames of  the roaring fires of our prayer. Just as our private meditations on Scripture should aid our prayer, so should the Biblical sermons we hear – specifically prepared for and applied by a pastor who knows us and loves us – provide ample fuel for our prayers throughout the week.

So after a bit of coaxing, a few members began reciting some of the major points from Sunday’s sermon on John 15:17-16:33 . . . Jesus’ followers live in a world that hates them for Jesus’ sake . . . the gracious working of the Holy Spirit is necessary to convict the world of sin and righteousness . . . Christians are to find sorrow in the world and joy in Christ, and not to get those two backwards. With these once more before us, we took some time to tease out the applications for ourselves in prayer, i.e. “Father, search my heart and expose where I take delight in the world. . .I praise you for the work of the Holy Spirit, apart from which I would still be dead in my sins and in love with the world,” etc. Then, we prayed together.

Joining the two spiritual disciplines of sermon-listening and prayer together will make both of them more effective and greater sources of joy for any child of God. This is the kind of practical lesson that the Puritans knew and taught so well.  And now their heirs, men like Donald Whitney, J.I. Packer and Dr. Ray Van Neste, bring out so well to spiritual weaklings like me.

I am sure it will take time for this sort of teaching to take root and bear fruit throughout my church, but I am confident that the Holy Spirit is already at work in creating a greater joy in Christ in each of us. After all, I listened to Sunday morning’s sermon.

Six Cautions to Keeping a Tender Heart

1. Take heed that you choke not those convictions that at present do break your hearts, by laboring to put those things out of your minds which were the cause of such convictions; but rather nourish and cherish those things in a deep and sober remembrance of them.

2. Shun vain company. The keeping of vain company has stifled many a conviction, killed many a desire, and made many a soul fall into hell, that once was looking hot to heaven. A companion that is not profitable to the soul is hurtful.

3. Take heed of idle talk, that thou neither hear nor join with it.

4. Beware of the least motion to sin, that it be not countenanced, lest the countenancing of that makes way for a bigger. . . remember that he who will rend the block, puts the thin end of the wedge first thereto, and so, by driving, does his work.

5. Take heed of evil examples among the godly; learn to do of no man that which the word of God forbids. Sometimes Satan makes use of a good man’s bad ways, to spoil and harden them that come after.

6. Take heed of unbelief, or atheistical thoughts; make no question of the truth of the reality of heavenly things: for know unbelief is the worst of evils; nor can the heart be tender that nourisheth or gives place unto it.

(From “The Acceptable Sacrifice, or The Excellency of a Broken Heart.” Works of John Bunyan I, 713)

Bunyan on the Word and the Spirit in Prayer

Dr. Donald Whitney was the first to teach me about the sweet union that should exist between our Scripture meditation and our prayers. So often when I feel I have exhausted my resources in prayer as far as what to pray for, how to say, what my attitude should be, it is because I have not let the words of Scripture be the kindling for the flames of my prayers. As I preach this to my own soul, I hope to carry my people along with me. Whitney stands squarely in the Puritan tradition in this point of course. Listen to John Bunyan describe the activity of the Word and Spirit together in prayer:

And indeed the Holy Ghost doth not immediately quicken and stir up the heart of the Christian without, but by, with, and through the Word, by bringing that to the heart, and by opening of that, whereby the man is provoked to go to the Lord, and to tell him how it is with him, and also to argue, and supplicate, according to the Word. (“On Praying in the Spirit,” Works of John Bunyan, I: 628)

John Bunyan on Prayer

John Bunyan has always been a reliable guide through the Christian life for me. As I have been seeking a deeper and more consistent life of prayer, I was blessed read Bunyan’s treatise “On Praying in the Spirit,” in which he unpacks the following definition:

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to the Word, for the good of the church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God. (“On Praying in the Spirit,” Works of Bunyan I: 623)

A Prayer for the New Year

One thing I have asked of the Lord,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

My prayer for the New Year is that the Lord would deliver me from superficial spirituality, from the deadly exchange of vital abiding with Christ for mere busy religious activity. That he would incline my heart away from its complacency and worldly desires, and give me a genuine longing the beauty of the Triune God: to glory in the fellowship of the Father through the work of the Son, in the power of the Spirit. No matter what failures or discouragements or trials come this year, if I can say at the end of 2009 that I have been able to gaze upon and be satisfied with the beauty of the Lord, it will be enough. It will be so much more than enough. May our own fainting and thirsting for Christ spill over to the hearts of our people, for their joy and for God’s glory. 

Happy New Year!