We continue with our Romans series today and begin a new series on prayer.

By Whom and Among Whom (Rm 1.5-6)

Last week we completed Paul’s summary of the gospel. This week we move from doctrine to impact in human lives. The gospel is more than just intellectual theorizing; the gospel is the life-changing transformation from death to life. Paul speaks first of the gospel impact on his own life, and the lives of the apostles. God’s work is first and primarily through God-called Men. Men called by grace and sent by God carry the Message of ‘obedience of faith’, the obedience which is faith. The result is an impact on the Multitudes, those who are among the nations called by the gospel to bring glory to Christ.

The gospel of God … the gospel from God … the whole mission of Christ, extended through the apostles and God-called men of every generation is all about this: ‘among whom are ye’.

Teach Us to Pray (Lk 11.1)

When it comes to prayer, what sincere Christian is satisfied? An unnamed disciple asked the Lord, ‘teach us to pray’, after observing the Lord at prayer. The true disciple longs for vital communion with God in prayer. As we begin to consider the topic, we observe first of all our Lord Jesus Christ, our exemplar in prayer. Luke’s gospel records many situations in which the Lord is found praying – at his baptism, choosing the disciples, in private times alone, in public, in intercession, and on the cross. Our Lord’s dependence on the Father and his communion with the Father is our great example in prayer. We observe also our longing for prayer in the prayer of the disciple. Have you ever thought about this request made of the Lord? It is a prayer itself, one in keeping with the Father’s will, and one that is immediately answered (read Lk 11.1-13). The first lesson the disciple learns is learned unconsciously and spontaneously: he asks something of the Lord in the Father’s will, "teach us to pray". Last, we observe our predecessor in prayer, John the Baptist. The Lord is our example, fully man, fully dependent on the Father, but John is our predecessor, only man, and as fully dependent on the Father. J. Vernon McGee observed that this passage is the last mention of John the Baptist in the Gospels, and it marks John as a man of prayer. Prayer ought to mark our lives as well.

We closed this message with an illustration out of E. M. Bounds book, The Necessity of Prayer and a hymn by William Cowper out of the Olney Hymnal:

“A dear friend of mine who was quite a lover of the chase, told me the following story: ‘Rising early one morning,’ he said, ‘I heard the baying of a score of deerhounds in pursuit of their quarry. Looking away to a broad, open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making its way across, and giving signs, moreover, that its race was well-nigh run. Reaching the rails of the enclosure, it leaped over and crouched within ten feet from where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over, when the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and round, fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs in the West could not, and should not capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my strength.’ So is it, when human helplessness appeals to Almighty God. Well do I remember when the hounds of sin were after my soul, until, at last, I ran into the arms of Almighty God.” — A. C. DIXON.^[1]

Exhortation to Prayer by William Cowper

What various hindrances we meet
In coming to a mercy–seat?
Yet who that knows the worth of prayer,
But wishes to be often there.

Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw,
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love,
Brings every blessing from above.

Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;
Prayer makes the Christian’s armor bright;
And Satan trembles, when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
Success was found on Israel’s side;
But when through weariness they failed,
That moment Amalek prevailed.

Have you no words? ah, think again,
Words flow apace when you complain;
And fill your fellow–creature’s ear
With the sad tale of all your care.

Were half the breath thus vainly spent,
To heav’n in supplication sent;
Your cheerful song would oft’ner be,
Hear what the LORD has done for me. ^[2]

~~~

Today was a blessed day in our services with 50 in attendance. We have been a bit up and down for the last couple of months with various people away, but today almost everyone who regularly attends was there. We also had a visit from a couple who are friends of another couple in the church. Today was an encouraging day. The Lord has done great things for us this year and we look forward to whatever is in store in the coming year.

[1] Quoted in E. M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer, Ch. 1, from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bounds/necessity.i.ii.html (Accessed 11.17.07).

[2] William Cowper “Exhortation to prayer.” Olney Hymnal, Hymn 60.

In Canada, Nov 11 is Remembrance Day. We all wear poppies in our lapels to honour our war dead. It is a particularly moving experience these days, especially as our nation is now at war in Afghanistan. Though our casualties are very light compared to the World Wars, the loss of young men to their families and our nation is still tragic.

Our messages this Sunday brought us once again to the book of Romans. I took both morning and afternoon services to advance a bit in our study.

The morning message was from Rm 1.3, The Gospel of the King. The proposition for the message was: "The coming of Jesus Christ to earth brings forward the royal man who fulfills every longing of creation ruined by sin." Mankind, fallen, broken, and insecure looks for the leadership of strong men, heroes, in order to provide peace and security. Every human king fails, but in Christ we have the one King who will not fail. Our passage tells us how the eternal Son became of the seed of David, as far as his human nature is concerned, in order to provide himself for us as the ideal champion all men are really looking for.

In the afternoon, we looked at Rm 1.4, The Gospel of the Resurrection. Proposition: "The resurrection marks out this one man as the only man able to provide dead men their one and only escape from the grave." In v. 4, we see that our Lord is not merely our royal Hero-Messiah, not merely the Hero-King of the seed of David, but he is, as to his divine nature, ‘Son of God in power’, and that power is especially the power to cause certain men to live forever. Our Lord is declared to be such by the resurrection out of the dead, the first among many brethren. He leads the way and he provides the life.

~~~

What a mighty God we serve. Our focus in these beginning weeks of Romans has been ‘the gospel of God.’ Words cannot extol our Lord enough as we consider these powerful themes.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Morning Service

The messages I heard in Greenville last Sunday motivated the theme for our first service today. In our study of Romans, we had come to "concerning his Son … Jesus Christ our Lord." The services last Sunday struck me with a particular thought about the Son, so I decided to pause where we were and dwell on the subject a bit more.

In Overwhelmed by the Son I was emphasizing this idea:

There is a real person who is Jesus and who is God and who is NOW, THIS MOMENT , living in heaven, ministering before God for his saints and who is worthy of all your attention and worship.

Often in our worship services, I find myself concentrating on conducting the service, less on contemplating on the subject of the service, which is the worship of the Son. Last week I was able to sit and absorb the messages from the music and the preaching strictly as a worshipper. I suppose this contributed to the difference for me.

Many people seem to go through the motions in their worship, barely aware of the center, the focal point of our Christianity. They act as if they believe Jesus is far away, someone from 2000 years ago who we follow as a matter of course — they seem to miss a sense of the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ, living, interceding, ministering for us NOW. If we could capture a sense of the reality of the living person of our Lord, our worship, not to mention our lives, might be totally different.

Afternoon Service

In the afternoon, we looked at Leviticus 2 in Remember Your Lord. Lev 2 has to do with the grain offering in its various forms. It is a ‘memorial’ offering in that only a portion of the offering is burned as a ‘memorial’, reminding the worshipper that the offering is but a token of our ‘whole life obligation’ to God. We give tithes and offerings, but all our possessions belong to him. We give our time in worship each week, but all our time belongs to him.

The type of offering portrayed by the grain offering is a tribute – a gift of an inferior to a superior, often with a sense of fear. The offering acknowledges the indebtedness of the inferior to the superior, a picture of our whole life obligation to God.

Some things are excluded (yeast and honey) as unacceptable to God in this offering – these excluded items are likely excluded on the grounds of corruption they represent as agents of fermentation. The life presented to God is not acceptable with the presence of corruption. Salt is always included, a sign of an eternal covenant, an everlasting relationship between God and the believer.

This offering is a "therefore" offering. It always accompanies the burnt offering, which symbolizes our substitute fully and wholly bearing the wrath of God on our behalf. The ‘therefore’ aspect is captured by Rm 12.1-2, "I beseech you therefore…" The ‘therefore’ is the doctrine of salvation that precedes, so therefore present your bodies as a living grain offering, a living sacrifice… Heb 13.15-16 capture the same sense, "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice [grain offering] of praise to God continually".

The point of the grain offering? To call the worshipper to a ‘whole life dedication’ to God.

~~~

We had 42 in attendance today, including two ladies who were visiting. As they came in they seemed somewhat reluctant to give their names and they rushed out without speaking to anyone. Sometimes I wonder what is going through people’s minds, but some are unwilling to reveal themselves. I don’t get a sense that these two will be back, but you never know.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

In Victoria, we had bro. Bob Fricks, from the staff of Galilee Baptist Church in Kent, WA, filling our pulpit. One of my deacon’s reports “the preaching was a blessing for all. We had 38 attend and 3 more came after coffee. As usual there was more food than people and way to much desert…”

In Greenville, we heard a message from Dr. Bruce McAllister, a long time friend of mine. He gave an excellent message on Acts 20.24 and Paul’s commitment to the ministry. The challenge of the message was for young people to make the same commitment. The service was a great blessing, but I missed singing the “Amens” after the hymns. Things aren’t as formal here as they used to be. They still say the creed, though, and I still remember it without looking.

This evening we went to Cornerstone Baptist Church, pastored by Dr. Gary Reimers, another seminary friend. He preached a fine message on Psalm 32 on the subject of guilt and how to handle it. He gave an excellent exposition of the passage, bringing the poetry to life, real practical life in pointing the Christian to the source of real joy, which is a life lived openly before God, with nothing between my soul and the Saviour.

The day was a great blessing to me, bringing to mind the reality of the person of Jesus Christ. I wonder how many professing Christians really believe that there IS a living person who IS God and who IS personally interested in every detail of their life. When we are born again, we are born again by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Ac 20.21). But faith means that we bow our knees and our hearts to a real person, living NOW. Faith isn’t just believing in a Jesus who was, but a Jesus who is.

I hope your day in Christ was equally profitable.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

I will have light posting over the next week and a half – not that I am posting heavily these days. I am visiting with my ailing mother-in-law (and my wife who has been helping care for her these last three or four weeks). It is a great blessing to see my dear mother-in-law, though she is obviously uncomfortable and in failing health. And it is joy unspeakable to witness the grace of God in my wife as she lovingly cares for her mother. What a privilege to be married to such a woman!

I wanted to be sure to update you on last Sunday’s services in our church. We had a blessed day, including a couple visiting from a Baptist church in Capetown, South Africa.

Our first message continued the Romans series, Concerning His Son. The message focused on the person of the gospel. Romans 1.1-7 is one sentence in Greek, offering Paul’s salutation to the Romans. He establishes his credentials in verse one, closing with the matter of being a separated (‘marked out’) by the gospel of God. He tells us two things about that gospel in the next few verses – it is that which was promised before through the prophets (see here for summary) and it is that good news ‘concerning His Son’.

The word ‘Son’ stands at the beginning of verse 3 in the Greek, followed by two ‘who’ clauses, and is then renamed by the phrase ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’ at the end of v. 4. The KJV puts the word ‘son’ and the phrase ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’ together at the beginning of verse 3, while modern versions tend to put the words in the same order as the original Greek. Either way means the same thing, perhaps the modern versions have a slight advantage in preserving the original word order. To my mind, the impact of renaming the Son is heightened by holding to the original word order.

There is rich doctrinal content in the two ‘who’ clauses in vv. 3 and 4, but there is an eternity of value in the four words which name our Lord, so I took this message to spend some time thinking on each word. William Newell said: “The gospel is all about Christ. Apart from Him, there is no news from heaven but that of coming woe!” [Newell, p. 16] Here is our proposition: “The names of the Son express the essence of eternal life, communicated to man by faith.” First, as the Son of the Father, we see our Lord as a glorious person, the Eternal Son of an Almighty and Eternal Father, one in essence with Him, distinct in personality, sent by the Father on a rescue mission to a dying world. Second we see our Lord as the man Jesus – a jarring thought in contrast to the glory of his eternal being, a man with human limitations, dependent on the Father, the man whose name means ‘Yah is Salvation’. The two clauses of v. 3 and 4 speak to the transition between the eternity of the Son to the limitations of Jesus the man – made of the seed of David, declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection. These two events reveal the stupendous character of this man, Son of God, son of Man, our Saviour. Third, he is the promised Christ. The Messiah, the anointed one, the one set aside to the place of The Prophet, The Priest, The King, the one promised from Gen 3.15 on to be the answer to the sin problem of mankind. And last we see our Lord as our Lord! Lord means master, owner, one who has the right to dispose of his property as he will. But the term includes what I called ‘the precious pronoun’: our. He is our Lord. We hold him to be our Master by faith in his name, in his work on the cross in our behalf. I pointed out Phil 2.5-11. Someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord, but for most, it will be too late. And here is my simple conclusion:

Our Lord …
Is he your Lord?

~~~

Our afternoon message concludes our series on the metaphors of the Church. I repeated this metaphor with a new sermon and additional content on the idea It’s a building. I wanted to focus on the need for organization and administration that the building metaphor implies. A literal building is an organized structure if it is intended to last at all. I described the simple homes of Palestine during Bible times, most of which did not survive all these years, even as ruins, since they were made of mud bricks. Even simple structures like these required organization and working building systems to provide shelter for people at all. A local church, as a building requires organization as well. Some of that is mandated in the Scriptures: Pastors/Elders and Deacons. Some is exemplified: the committee for the care of ‘widows indeed’ in 1 Tim 4. All of this involves structure and organization. I used Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle as an example of a large church with multiple different kinds of ministries during Spurgeon’s day. Over 66 different ministries were in existence at the time of Spurgeon’s 25th anniversary as a pastor. In addition, the Tabernacle had 40 mission churches under its sponsorship and many Sunday schools and Ragged Schools as well. All of this effort requires organization and administration. This is an aspect of church life that I believe is a failing in our minsitry, or at least a weakness. This is primarily because I personally HATE administration. But it is something that we must get better at in order to improve our gospel impact in our community.

~~~

In our Sunday School hour we are going through the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. This is a worthy document and has provoked much valuable discussion in our assembly.

~~~

Well, all of that catches me up. I hope to find time to post a few things later. Traveling just doesn’t seem conducive to much blogging!

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Our morning message saw us take a significant leap forward in the exposition of Romans. In message number 4, we rushed into the second verse of the 1st chapter! It was a daring gambit, but seemed to be succesful!

Seriously, Lloyd-Jones outdoes me. He had five messages on the first verse, I only had three. If you have the opportunity, I would recommend reading his fifth message on “The Gospel of God”. The message is worth the price of the book by itself. I was sorely tempted to make the same phrase my text this morning, but I determined to soldier on.

Our message today was entitled The Promised Gospel. The interesting thing about our verse is that Paul seems to pause before giving us the content of the gospel (the person and work of Christ, vv. 3-4ff.) to instead make a comment about the ancient character of the gospel. We might think the words about the promise coming through the prophets in holy writings is something of a throw-away, a ‘by the way’ type of statement. After all, the gospel is the central thing, and Christ and his work are the heart and soul of the gospel. But the reference to the prophets and the promise is a characteristic of apostolic preaching, especially Paul’s preaching. He mentions it at least three times in Romans itself, in the second verse, in 3.21, and in the second last verse (16.26). His comment is no incidental comment. He is establishing a notion that the gospel is the heart and soul of the ancient plan of God, even, I think, pointing back to that earliest hint of a promise found in Gen 3.15. It is important to realize that God’s promises are ancient, plentiful, and now fulfilled – note past tense of ‘promised’. It is important to realize that the Lord used the prophets to propagate the promise of the gospel. It is important especially to realize that God ‘put it in writing’, moving his prophets to record things they didn’t fully understand, carrying them along by the Spirit as a disabled ship is carried about by the wind. And it is important to realize that this good news is more than simply a word, but it is a real thing that can belong to us. “Gospel” is no academic exercise, it is the long-standing promise of God, fulfilled in Christ, and made available to any who would believe.

Our afternoon message continued the series on the Church with It’s a Temple. Some of my ideas for this message came from a post by an on-line friend, Ryan Martin. My focus was different from his, as Ryan was talking about what the church does and I am focusing on what the church is. Nevertheless, his post stimulated my thinking in this regard. Our understanding of the temple metaphor for the church must be informed by the OT temple and its meaning. As I understand the passages (and the OT), I think the primary meaning of the temple is holiness, and this holiness is meant to be reflected in the NT metaphor of a local church as a temple of the living God, a place that must be kept holy by those living stones who inhabit it. [I do see this metaphor very directly referring to the local church, not the universal church. It is not that it is impossible to refer the metaphor to the universal, but that is not what the NT does.] Under this proposition: “You are the temple of God; you are called to holiness.” I developed these points:

I. The holy temple is under God’s protection (1 Cor 3.16-17)
II. The holy temple is called to identify exclusively with God’s holiness and cleanse its premises (2 Cor 6.16)
III. The holy temple is the ground of holy living (Eph 2.19-22)
IV. The holy temple is intended to offer up spiritual sacrifices (1 Pt 2.5, 9-15)

~~~

All in all, it was a good day, although our crowd was definitely down after our big high last week on Thanksgiving Sunday. Still, the gospel was preached and we saw some young disciples show up who haven’t been to church in a while. It was good to minister to them. Faithfulness and consistency take time to develop.

By the way, I thought of something in connection with the metaphor of the church as a temple in light of a discussion about mundane things like announcements and potlucks being part of worship services or not. The discussion occurred over at Chris Anderson’s place, I hope I am not simply an agitator over there.

Here is the thought: the OT worship in the temple included many different kinds of sacrifices. I am impressed with the fact that one of the most common sacrifices was the peace offering, at which the worshipper sat at table before the Lord, in fellowship with him at a ‘holy barbecue’, if you will permit the expression. I suggest that our fellowship meals as a gathered church are as holy to the Lord as the songs, prayers, offerings, and preaching that occupy the bulk of our services. And I further submit that to announce the occasion of such acts of the lively stones in the worship services of the living God are no matter to be dismissed.

But yes, we can make our announcements and our fellowships an extremely trivial and earthly thing. Let us labour to not make it so.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

As I study the book of Romans, I am confronted with a dilemma: too much information, too little time. My usual response to this dilemma is to move very slowly through verse by verse exposition. I am a little worried about this in Romans since, of all the books in the New Testament, this may be the one written up the most.

This Sunday we came to the first phrase (after last Sunday in the first word). The phrase is ‘a slave of Jesus Christ’. The concept is so vital to understanding Paul’s ministry that it begs us to pause and truly consider the implications of its meaing. Our message was entitled Mastered by Christ. I explored a bit of the background of slavery, both in Jewish thinking and in Greek/Roman society of the day. To apply the term to one’s self is quite striking when you consider that the Rabbi’s would excommunicate a man from the synagogue for calling another man a slave. But the important part of the phrase is not the condition of the one who uttered it, but the name of the master to whom he is attached. Our proposition developed this thought: The gospel begins in a life when the self-serving rebel submits his soul to the mastery of Jesus Christ. The bottom line for us is this – who masters you?

In our afternoon service I continued with my series on church philosophy, It’s a Flock. The subtitle went this way: it needs shepherding (not merely leadership). My point was not to denigrate leadership. Of course the church needs leadership, but a particular kind of leadership, the shepherding kind. As I prepared for this message, I did a little internet search on ‘sheep behaviour’. You will find many interesting sites with this search, I didn’t realize how much was known of sheep psychology. One thing that surprised me was this: You must lead sheep, you can’t drive them. The ministry of the shepherd to the sheep is one primarily of care: feeding, leading, medicating, guarding, and guiding. There are some aspects of shepherding that cause sheep discomfort (see wikipedia on ‘mulesing’) but primarily the leadership of the shepherd is tender watchcare over the needs of the sheep. Sometimes the sheep need prodding, but mostly they need feeding. We find the same parallel in the scriptural metaphors provided by our Lord in Jn 10 and by David in Ps 23, as well as throughout the Scriptures. While pastors have authority to some extent over their flocks, they must realize that the biblical pattern for the exercise of their authority is the tender watchcare of the shepherd, not the autocratic demanding stance of the CEO or a military general.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

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

I didn’t realize how many messages I have not yet added to my summaries. I have been swamped with work as I am busy with duplex renovations two days a week. This last week we turned a corner on the ‘ripping and tearing’ stage and are now putting things back together. Most of the new sub-floor is into the kitchen/dining room, we only have one more sheet of plywood to install there, then do the entryway and the bathroom upstairs. We also hope to start painting this coming week and then putting in kitchen cabinets… so the end is in sight.

On Wednesday, Jan 24, we covered Rm 6-8, in a message called “The Essentials of Sanctification“. The point I was making with the message was that victory over sin should be the normal experience of the Christian life, with victory being obtained by turning our mind over to Christ (reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God), remaining constant in the battle with the flesh, and finally relying on the Spirit for the power needed to overcome.

The following Sunday, Jan 28, saw us in Rm 8 for “The Guarantee of Glory“, a message that focused on the end of sanctification, that which motivates us to keep on in the struggle, that is, the great glory that will be revealed in us. These passages contain some of the most tremendous assurances of victory in the New Testament as Paul assures us that the glory is worth all suffering on this earth, that the Spirit within is active, working ‘the glory’ out in our lives now, and that as we trust in God, nothing can separate us from His love. The reason the believer persists in the struggle for sanctification is the exceeding richness of the reward — a reward that is guaranteed.

Our second message that day was “The Question of Israel“, a message covering Rm 9-11, some of the more complicated passages in Romans. A key to understanding these chapters is to understand the objection to the gospel that Paul is answering. The objection is stated this way: How can you trust the promises of God now if God’s promises to Israel have been set aside? Paul answers by showing that God’s promises to Israel have not been set aside, but that men don’t understand what God was doing with Israel in the first place. The first point (ch 9), is that God’s promises are not frustrated by Israel’s unbelief, they are fulfilled in the chosen remnant who believed. The second point is that Israel’s problems are not God’s faithlessness, God has provided the means, sent the preachers (the prophets) and given the opportunities – Israel’s problem is its own unbelief (ch 10). Last, God’s word to Israel is not empty, it remains in force (ch 11) as proven by the remnant in this age, and by the future national turning that will yet occur when the Lord returns. The Proposition: God’s dealing with Israel, past, present, and future, assures us of the wisdom in trusting the promises of God.

Our afternoon message was on Rm 12-13, “The Consequences of Salvation“. These chapters are the great ‘so what’ of salvation. The Proposition: The doctrine of salvation demands the practice of love for God by love for man. In a way we have an inclusio in these chapters, Rm 12.1-2 speak of the need to love God with whole heart mind and strength, i.e., the living sacrifice, and Rm 13.8-14 bring us back to that same idea. In between, we see that the way this is done is by loving our fellow man, first to believers in the church by exercising the gifts and in outdoing one another in showing love for our brethren. Then we are called to do good to men in general, even our enemies, heaping coals of fire on their heads by so doing (something that we can’t do maliciously!). And last, we are called to show the love of God by submission to legitimate governmental authority and paying our taxes. In the end we are obliged to owe man nothing but love for one another.

Last Wednesday, we finished up Romans with a message covering Rm 14-16, but mostly concentrating on Rm 14.1-15.7, the obligation we have to brethren who differ with us on non-moral scruples. The title was “Our Relations to One Another” with this Proposition: Christian love demands the sacrifice of high-mindedness for the sake of our brethren. What I mean is that we can’t be high-minded about our ‘strong consciences’ or about our ‘strong scruples’ – both brothers have to receive each other in love, not despising or judging each other. The strong conscience brother has the additional responsibility of deciding to be considerate of the scruples of the weak conscience brother and an obligation to avoid putting a stumbling block in front of him. Again, the principles of love are our guide and the example of Christ who sacrificed all for us must be our model.

Today, we returned to Acts with “Paul’s Farewell Tour” mostly from Ac 20, a bit from 21. I took a bit of a different tack with this message and preached on a subject I don’t think I have ever heard a message on — preparing for the preacher’s permanent departure from a ministry. The Proposition: Christian churches should constantly be preparing themselves for the succession of the next generation. I showed how Paul spent time with several churches on the way, talking long into the night in Troas (interrupted by a quick death and resurrection), lingering with believers in each place that he visited on the way to Jerusalem. Then we turned to the words of preparation seen in Paul’s message to the Ephesian elders in Ac 20: Paul recounts his satisfaction with his ministry among them, preaching the whole counsel of God, satisfaction with his sincere earnest manner of ministry, satisfaction that he had not withheld anything needful. All of these are preparatory, even in the midst of a vibrant ministry. In this message, Paul knows he is likely not to see them again, so he warns them of certain danger to come, wolves from without, perverse truth twisters from within. Much failure in succession is a failure to adequately prepare people to be discerners of false teaching during the years of ministry. And last, Paul returns to a lesson of practical Christianity where he teaches them concerning industry and generosity – a message he would give as if he were still going to be there next week, but a message that prepares for departure nonetheless. God’s people need to keep their own departure in mind, anticipating that there will be a generation to follow and make their own contributions to the future success of the truth by assimilating truth now and passing it on to those who follow.

In the second service, we covered basically Ac 21-23 with a look at the “Antagonism of Judaism“. We picked up the thread of anxiety that we see as Paul is told by various prophets along the way to Jerusalem that trouble and imprisonment is coming. Then we see the active antagonism of the Jews as Paul is arrested, beaten, threatened, charges and counter-charges slung around and so on. In the end, the Jews plotted to kill Paul, but he is not overwhelmed by these threats and their antagonism. What is remarkable is that what Paul wants to do when threatened is preach to them! Just as he wanted to do with the mob in Ephesus, Paul turned to the mob in Jerusalem and preached to them … his desire was to see them come to Christ. I compared again some of Paul’s thoughts from Rm 11 and 9 and his desire to see them come to Christ. The whole point of this message was that this is God’s will for us when we deal with Jews today who are antagonistic to Christ. We should not react in kind, be frustrated, but we should seek their souls. Are they enraged with you? What an opportunity! Evangelize!

In the last service, we had a similar theme, but this time with respect to the Gentiles. From Ac 24 (and a bit of 25) we looked at “In the Eye of Imperial Rome“. Proposition: The servant of Christ must learn meekness in the hope that the most wicked rascals he meets might be born again. The wicked rascals in question for this message were the Roman governors, primarily Felix and his wife Drusilla. I gave historical background for both Felix and Festus, but concentrated on the two years of witnessing Paul was able to have with Felix. Felix, though under conviction, resisted grace (hah!!) in the interest of a bribe. Paul refused to give a bribe, not wanting to get out of jail with this excellent opportunity to witness regularly to this pair, Felix, a former slave turned brutal governor and Drusilla, great-grandaughter of Herod the Great, daughter of the man who executed James the brother of John. What a great prize of grace they would have been, but they would not repent. The attitude Paul has to those who are trying him is to turn it into a witnessing opportunity. Do we do that with people who attack us? We need the evangelistic heart of the apostle Paul instead of the self-protective self-centered hearts we so commonly carry around with us.

Well, that brings you up to date. We have eleven weeks to go in our through the NT series. It has been a great blessing so far, and a good bit of work, but we are hopeful that it will be a great resource for new disicples for years to come.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

We are jumping back into our New Testament series after the Christmas hiatus. We still have two of our college kids at home, so we had a bit bigger crowd for Wednesday PM. I wish we could motivate more people to make Wednesday a regular habit. I suspect that is a lament of many pastors.

We resume our survey with 1 Cor 12-14, entitled ‘Regulating Spiritual Gifts‘. The proposition was this: “The Lord intends for our hearts to be governed by the Spirit so that we exercise spiritual gifts with definite spiritual control.” The three chapter divisions in this section cover three ways in which the use of spiritual gifts are regulated. First, gifts are regulated by an understanding of the true nature of spiritual gifts. They come from one source, God, under divine supervision, are given individually, not sought, and each has a unique function in the body in order to benefit the whole body. Second, gifts are regulated by an elevation of the superior value of spiritual fruit. That is, spiritual fruit (especially love) is essential if gifts are to mean anything, the supreme quality of love is described, and the enduring permanence of love is seen in that it outlasts all gifts (especially the temporary tongues) and even other aspects of earthly spiritual fruit such as hope and faith. Thus, spiritual fruit should be our concern much more than spiritual gifts. Last, gifts are regulated by the discipline of the proper exercise of spiritual gifts. That involves putting tongues in their proper place, realizing that tongues are primarily a sign to unbelievers (and especially a sign that those hearing them are being cut off from God’s revelation), and finally regulating their use by strict rules that eliminate all of so-called tongues speaking today. The Spirit-led believer today needs these truths to be in our minds lest we be led astray by false teaching so prevalent around us.

Sunday we will finish 1 Corinthians and move on to 2 Corinthians with a brief stop in Acts 19 in between.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3