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by on 5.27.07

on summarizing the theme of the Bible

We made our Bible Study session (11:30-12:15) for the last two Sunday’s a discussion format. After our last two years reading and preaching through the Bible I wanted our folks to give me some feedback as to what they learned.

Last Sunday was a testimony time. I asked our people to come prepared to share one or two major lessons from the project. Our people were universally positive. Perhaps the biggest blessing to all was putting the Bible in context, especially the prophets of the OT.

Today I wanted them to help me come up with a summary statement of the message of the Bible. First we worked on one word that summed everything up. Several suggestions were made, but we settled on this word that covered everything to us:

Redemption

I asked our folks to think of Bible verses that could stand as summary statements in their own right. As we talked, three verses came out, each of them, I think, quite appropriate. Here they are, in the order suggested.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

The bulk of our discussion centered around coming up with a summary statement. We wanted to capture every major theme of the Bible as we understand it. The result is the following three sentences which do a pretty good job of summing things up, I think:

The Bible is the history of the fall, redemption, and future of man by the work of God through Christ’s substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection.

The Bible is the record of man’s response to the Holy Spirit’s witness.

The Bible is the revelation of my personal need of repentance and a living relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

For our session today I prepared nothing other than the suggestion of our theme – our people came up with the form of these statements with my coaching, but from their own understanding of the Scriptures. I was pretty proud of them. They show an increased grasp of understanding, beyond even what I had expected (o me of little faith!).

As for a sermon summary for today, I preached a summary message on the Old Testament. The message of the Old Testament can be summarized with these four ideas: Fall (the notion on which the whole Bible and the Christian religion is predicated), Faith (God always offers grace in the form of promises which some men avail themselves of by faith), Failure (in spite of grace and the example of some, the universal record of even the people of God is a record of spiritual failure), and Future (the OT always looks forward to what the Lord will do, even to the book of the Revelation [as seen in Zechariah] for the consummation of all things, especially the promises of the OT covenants). The title of the message was ‘Our Deep Need’, focusing our attention on the need of mankind for grace, we cannot save ourselves, we need the work of God.

For our afternoon service, I had my son Rory preach. He is home from his freshman year at BJU and preached on Jehu, “A Half Hearted Servant”. His message centered around the idea that the devil is satisfied if he can have part of your heart, but God wants all of your heart. Great damage can come to your life (and the lives of others) if you hold on to any idol you harbour in your heart against God.

All in all, a great day!

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

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by on 5.27.07

on the final NT Sermon Summaries – April 2007

Catching up with my sermon summaries, here are the last in the series, the sermons preached during the month of April:

04/01/07
The Final Public Ministry – Jn 12

We are going to see in this passage encounters between the Lord and four different groups of people. For the most part, the people who observed the Lord in this chapter got it wrong, all but a very few. The same is true today – most get it wrong when it comes to Jesus Christ. They don’t understand him and receive nothing from him. You need to be sure that you are getting the right perspective on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am going away – Jn 13.1-14.14

The Lord’s going away is necessary for the disciple’s going ahead.

I Send another Comforter – Jn 14.15-16.33

The provision of God for the inadequacy of believing men is the constant indwelling of the infinite Spirit.

04/04/07
The High Priestly Prayer – Jn 17

The prayer we have in Jn 17 is the most extended prayer of the Lord in the Bible. It is a remarkable window into heaven, giving us a glimpse of the communication between Father and Son. But the prayer in Jn 17 is not purely the interpersonal communication within the Godhead – especially during the Lord’s earthly ministry, but to some extent ever afterward, I think, the Lord Jesus communicates with the Father from a human perspective. This prayer is the prayer of a man [a perfect man, a God-man, but still a man] to God. It is therefore very instructive for us.

04/08/07 [Easter Sunday]
Behold the Lamb of God (2) – Jn 18-19

In the first Behold the Lamb, we looked at Christ through the eyes of sympathetic witnesses. In this Behold the Lamb, we will look at Christ through the eyes of mostly unsympathetic men. They see merely a man. We will see much more than a man. The abused man who hung on the cross of Calvary is the precious Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world.

He is not here! – Jn 20-21

John 20 is the resurrection chapter. The whole emphasis is believing the message John is giving. John 21 offers more proof, but it is more about what we do next – believe, yes, but now serve.

The New Commandment Applied – 1 Jn 1-3

The light that should dominate the Christian life comes from one source, but we think of it in several different locations. First is the light that comes from God. God is light. The second source in our minds is the word of God, which of course comes from God also. The word is light. In particular the light in which we are exhorted to walk in 1 Jn is the new commandment: love one another.

04/11/07
Certainty in the Confession of Christ – 1 Jn 4-5

Another major theme in 1 John is knowledge. From knowledge comes certainty. If we have the knowledge of the truth and we walk in the truth and live the truth, we will develop spiritual certainties about certain things. Genuine Christian experience produces spiritual certainty and stability.

04/15/07
Watch yourselves, watch your church – 2 Jn, 3 Jn

I have given our message this title: Watch yourselves, watch your church The ‘watch yourselves’ part comes from 2 Jn. The ‘watch your church’ part from 3 Jn. I am going to set our theme from 2 Jn, making much of the theme of truth, then point to three ways this theme is applied to three individuals in 3 Jn. Christian love is practiced in the sphere of discerning truth – it is bounded by truth and practiced in truth among lovers of the truth.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ – Rev 1

The book of Revelation is the Lord’s last love letter to his church, intended to instruct present saints for life in this age and future saints for enduring the trials to come.

The Lord in the Midst of the Candlesticks – Rev 2-3

It is better to think of these seven churches as typical of the kinds of churches that exist at any time. Some are well thought of by the Lord, some are poorly thought of, others are in the middle somewhere. When we look at these chapters we should be asking the question, ‘What does the Lord think of me? What does the Lord think of my church?’ The Lord’s overview of the church should stir us to conviction, correction, and continuation [in the work of the Lord].

04/18/07
The Scene in Heaven – Rev 4-5

The prospect of heaven calls forth the complete surrender of the person in abject devotion and worship to the One who alone is worthy.

04/22/07
The Scroll Unsealed – Rev 6-8

Our subject matter for today is mostly judgement. So how can we make this relevant to us? I think we need to look into these chapters and see what the chapters say about God and also look to see what the chapters say about man. What do these chapters reveal concerning the relationship between God and man and how should we live now as a result? Failing human beings must yield to the will and way of the sovereign God.

Three Woes – Rev 9-11

Judgement intensifies as the tribulation progresses. The last three trumpets are called the three ‘woes’. Woe to the world and to the enemies of God means glory and blessing for the saints.

The Great Antagonists of Israel – Rev 12-13

Chapters 12 and 13 are primarily explanatory – they explain what the conflict of the Tribulation is all about. In these parenthetical chapters, we are going to see the three great antagonists of Israel during the Great Tribulation, fully revealed in their persons and in their fury against God and God’s people. The antagonists of Israel are the antagonists of man, intent on drawing men’s worship away from God and to Satan.

04/25/07
Anticipation of the End – Rev 14-15

In this section, the Lord himself is giving a preview of the final days of the tribulation, an anticipatory vision anticipating the anticipatory vision that pictures the final consummation of all things. It ought to stir us up to be in prayer for the lost, to be witnesses to the lost, to point them to God as their great Sovereign, and to Christ as their great Saviour. The judgement of sinners and victory of saints is assured by God’s repetitive revelation: does the love of Christ constrain you to tell men?

04/29/07
The Great Harvest – Rev 16-19

The picture we are given in the earth of the harvest is that of a vine ready to harvest – a vine where the grapes are in prime condition, ready and bursting for the harvest (Rev 14.18). God’s final answer to sin is judgement. It is much better for man to judge himself, turn to Christ, and thus be received into glory before judgement to come.

The Time of the End – Rev 20

Human history does not simply conclude with a great ‘NO!’ by God against sin and sinners. Besides saying NO, by bringing the kingdoms of men to an end, God will also say YES by bringing a perfect kingdom to men. The purpose of God’s YES is to demonstrate to the utmost the righteousness and justice of God’s final NO to sin.

The New Jerusalem – Rev 21-22

In our passage today we will find six new things. Each of them represents something that is new in quality, fresh, vital, alive, not necessarily brand new, but renewed. The New Creation restores all that was lost in the fall — at great cost.

In my messages from Revelation, I repeated this quotation from my notes in a Bible class taught by the late Jesse Boyd at BJU. The quotation captures exactly the right approach to the book of Revelation (and the entire Bible).

The Golden Rule of Interpretation:
“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise.” DAVID L. COOPER [New Testament Prophecy classroom notes taken by Don Johnson of a lecture by Jesse Boyd, circa 1977.]

This series had tremendous impact on my life, and the life of our church. I am working on getting the audio onto a DVD along with the sermon and Bible Study notes. I can make this available to anyone for the cost of mailing (anticipated readiness in the fall). Write me at dcsj AT telus DOT net if you are interested.

I would encourage anyone who has not done so to make a project of reading the Bible in chronological order. It will open up the Scriptures to you in ways you never saw before.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Filed Under: Sermon Summaries
by on 5.27.07

on marriage

We are all home again, my wife and I and our younger four in Victoria, and our oldest and his bride in their new home in Greenville. We entered a whirlwhind of activity for two weeks leading up to the big event, then a week of winding down – they on their honeymoon and we visiting family. I expect they were more relaxed than we. Now we have been home for a week… busy as ever, but with some time to think about what happened in Greenville. I thought I would share some of my meditating with you.

~~~

While at the rehearsal dinner, a thought came to me concerning the nature of Christian marriage. I thought it so important that I reworked the message for the wedding in order to incorporate it. I have been thinking about it a good deal since. Here is the thought as I jotted it down on my PDA while enjoying the dinner: “God joins a man & woman together – the preacher’s pronouncement witnesses the work of the Holy Spirit.”

The thought behind this involves one of the more difficult passages of the New Testament to interpret.

Matthew 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

and

Matthew 18:18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

I won’t go into the exegesis of these passages here, but the idea as I understand it is this: The church and its servants are given authority by God to act as witnesses of things God does in heaven. We see evidence of God’s work and pronounce that it is so, giving our witness to it.

A marriage, perhaps especially a Christian marriage, is one of these kinds of events.

In the wedding ceremony, a couple pledges a set of vows to one another before the Lord. After the vows are said, the preacher pronounces the couple man and wife. What is it that makes that pronouncement true? Is it the fact that the preacher has vested in him authority by the Church and the state to make such pronouncements? Does the statement of the preacher make the two people married? Or is it the fact that the couple recited the vows to one another? Do the promises themselves make the couple one? What is actually happening in a marriage ceremony?

The vows are important as said to one another, but they are much more important in that they are said before God. A marriage ceremony is an oath taking ceremony. The man and the woman pledge their oaths before God and in the presence of witnesses. The witnesses, especially the preacher, but really the whole marriage party and the members of the congregation all gather to hear the pledging of these oaths in the presence of God. The pronouncement of the preacher is a recognition on earth of something that is being sealed in heaven.

As the couple makes their vows, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in heaven take note of the troth that is pledged. They hear the vows and a supernatural response is made – two people become one flesh by the work of God. The preacher’s pronouncement is a ‘by faith’ witness that the supernatural act has taken place. The wedding party and the congregation acknowledge the same and receive the couple as man and wife. We humans do this by faith – one moment the two are two engaged individuals, the next moment they are man and wife. God did that. We witnessed it.

Perhaps the most important factor in making the violation of marriage vows such an offense is this supernatural thing that God has done. When you act contrary to these oaths, you are acting contrary to a one flesh relationship God created. You violate God’s creative act, repeating in your small world the sin of Adam, violating God’s original creation.

The implications of these thoughts are pretty far reaching. We don’t need to go that far afield to be violating the troth that is pledged in marriage. If, as Jesus taught us, adultery can be committed in the mind, so too can errant thoughts violate the one-flesh bond between man and woman supernaturally created by God.

May God keep us faithful.

For Jesus’ sake.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

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