The Power of the Simply Preached Gospel of Jesus Christ

The first academic level book as a I read as part of my 2015 reading plan was Michael Rydelnik's The Messianic Hope.  Admittedly, I was predisposed to agree with Rydelnik's argument - that the Old Testament is primarily a Messianic collection of writings designed to reveal Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel, and Savior of people from every tribe, tongue, and race.  I am grateful for men like David Hallett and Mark Blair who taught me to read the Bible this way, and was actually surprised to learn that so few evangelical scholars read the Old Testament texts as Messianic.  

Most of the book was typically dry academic writing.  I don't say that in a negative way. Rydelnik was showing in chapter after chapter that the Old Testament predicted the Messiah's coming and the New Testament revealed him to be Jesus of Nazareth.  So when I say dry I don't mean uninteresting or boring, just that he primarily deals with facts and exegesis.  Surprisingly, he concludes the book with a personal story that moved me to tears sitting in my office during my Friday lunch break.  A few minutes later I reread the chapter, and tears flowed again.  

Rydelnik recalls an experience as a 16 year old recent convert to Christianity.  He is Jewish, and had become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah.  A large number of Jewish students in his Brooklyn high school were also believers in Jesus.  The leader of the school's Hebrew club invited a local Jewish graduate student to argue that Jesus was not the Messiah.  

On the day of the presentation Rydelnik listened, then at the conclusion of the presentation he stood up and asked about Old Testament text after Old Testament text that he believed pointed forward to Jesus as Messiah.  The speaker, who I believe is Dennis Prager based on the information given by Rydelnik, effortlessly deflected every text that Rydelnik brought up.  

For decades Rydelnik wished he had been more prepared, and wished he could have another opportunity to debate the speaker.  One day he was in California to give a presentation to a Messianic church.  A man who looked familiar began talking to him, and after some time Rydelnik came to realize that the man had been his high school music teacher.  The music teacher recounted his conversion this way:

The reason this moved me so is that I've been battling discouragement recently.  I take what the Bible says about preaching the word in season and out of season very seriously.  But when you preach/teach the word week after week and see virtually no fruit it's easy to become discouraged. The times when preaching the word are out of season are not much fun.

With Rydelnik's story I was reminded of the power of the simply preached gospel of Jesus Christ.  He was a sixteen year old kid who didn't speak with the authority or charisma of an incredibly gifted young man, and one who has gone on to make a career out of talking.  Yet, his simple insistence that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah planted a seed in his music teacher's heart. It took some time, but that seed eventually blossomed into saving faith.  

It's sad that the modern church flocks to gifted speakers who talk about anything but Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins.  Honestly, it can be discouraging for those who faithfully preach the word to see those who do not draw large audiences and build huge churches.  It's frustrating when I know that I could build a bigger young adults ministry if I would stop preaching the word and instead talk about relationships, money, and career advice.  It's been proven time and again that if you talk about such things, people will come. I wouldn't be faithful to my King if I do so though, and I would be building a following for myself. It wouldn't be Jesus building his church.

I was reminded last week that there truly is power in the preached word.  I was also reminded that a lack of visible, immediate fruit doesn't mean that Jesus is not calling His sheep to Himself.  

It was a timely reminder as I prepare to preach an outreach event next week.  As I began preparations I've battled doubts.  There's a part of me that says, "They won't want to hear the gospel.  Why bother?"  So why bother?  Because King Jesus have given me a message to speak, and I don't have the right to change it. Because the power is in the gospel, not in me.  Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.  Because regardless of what people want to hear, what they need to hear is the gospel.

Maybe the message won't be well received.  Maybe I'll never be invited back.  Maybe I won't see any response to the message at all next Tuesday.

None of that matters.  What matters is that I faithfully proclaim Jesus as Lord and call on people to repent and believe, just as Jesus and the Apostles did.  That's all that matters for all of us who belong to Christ.  And we don't stop just because we don't see immediate results.  We sow the seeds, God causes them to take root and produce fruit.

Reading the Church Fathers: Clement of Rome's Epistle to the Corinthians

Over the last two Fridays I've read Clement's epistle to the Corinthians as part of my 2015 reading plan.  Clement's letter is one of the earliest non-Scriptural church documents that we have today.  While it obviously doesn't carry the same weight and the authority as the God-breathed sacred writings, it does give us a window into the early church to see the beliefs and practices of the first generation of non-Apostolic Christians. 

Here are four brief observations I made while reading Clement.

Clement was a man saturated in Scripture. Throughout his lengthy letter, Clement repeatedly directly quotes and alludes to Scripture, both Old Testament and New.  He knew the Scriptures and his thinking was controlled by the Scriptures.  He praised the Corinthians using Scripture. He chastised the Corinthians using Scripture.  He exhorted the Corinthians using Scripture.  He encouraged the Corinthians using Scripture.  The words of Clement were his own, but the message was not his own.  He spoke as an ambassador of the King, not the originator of a new message.

There is a noticeable difference between Clement's writing and the God-breathed Scriptures.  One of the most notable elements of Clement's letter in my mind was his reference to the fable of the phoenix as a naturally occurring event that points to the resurrection of Jesus.  I don't hold Clement in low esteem for this. There was no Snopes in the first and second centuries to determine the truth of a legend.  The Scriptures are free from such errors though.  In all the Scriptural writings concerning nature, there is no reference to anything like the phoenix that we now know is not truth.   

Furthermore, reading passages like Ephesians 1:3-14 and 1 Peter 1:3-9 moves me beyond words. Even when reading the practical instructions of James there's a knowledge that I am reading the very words of God. Not so with Clement.  Feelings are very subjective, I know, but reading Clement and other non-Biblical authors is just not the same as reading God's word.

Clement labels those who are full of zeal for anything other than salvation as contentious and causing division.  It was Paul who delivered to the Corinthians as of first importance that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, was buried, and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And even in Paul's letters we see that the Corinthians were distracted by debates over other matters, a problem that obviously continued long beyond the life of Paul.  In chapter 45 Clement reminds them to stop being zealous for anything but salvation and, what else, look to the Scriptures, which are the true utterances of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and he told the first disciples he would make them fishers of men.  Christians who are not focused on the proclamation and defense of the gospel, no matter how good their other works may be, such as racial reconciliation and ending human trafficking, are off mission and need to become gospel people first and foremost.

Clement held the office of pastor in very high regard.  There is an idea today, that as best I can tell has been heavily influenced by Frank Viola's book Pagan Christianity, that the early church had no authority structure.  This is simply not true.  Clement is clear that those who serve as pastors must prove themselves qualified.  He accuses the Corinthians of great sin for removing faithful pastors from their office.  He tells those guilty of sedition to submit to and be subject to the presbyters.  The inherent distrust of authority and rebelliousness of Americans has led to a tragically low view of the office of pastor in the American church.  It is that low view that has in turn produced many unqualified pastors who have further damaged the reputation of the office.  The American church very much needs a Biblical understanding of the office of pastor and the expectations Scripture places on church members under the authority of qualified elders/pastors. 

So, my first reading of one the church fathers this year has been very thought-provoking and fruitful in my efforts to understand more of the church's long, rich history.  I thank God for faithful men like Clement of Rome who preached Christ crucified and demanded obedience to all of Scripture's teaching. 

Weeping and Rejoicing Over Genesis 1-4

I began my 2015 reading plan today, reading Genesis 1-4 in English and trying to read Matthew 1 in Greek.

The opening chapters of Genesis are extremely important for multiple reasons.  I probably reference Genesis 1-3 in my teaching and preaching more than any other portion of Scripture.  You cannot understand the Bible, you cannot understand this world, without understanding Genesis 1-3.  It is the foundation on which the entire Bible stands.  

Despite my familiarity with these chapters, I find myself sorrowful and rejoicing every time I read them or think on them.

I weep over what was lost.  God created a good, very good, earth.  Everything he created was good, including the crown of creation, mankind.  He also demonstrated His goodness in preparing a garden for the man to work, and providing a wife for the man when no helper suitable for him was found.  

A man and a woman, naked and unashamed, in a garden with everything they needed provided.  No sickness, no death, no pain, no fear, no worry, no anxiety, no relational discord.  Most importantly, there was no separation from God.  

Then the man and the woman disbelieved God and trusted the lies of the serpent and the desire of their eyes over the words God had spoken.  Everything changed.  

Suddenly they realized they were naked, and there was shame.  

Then came the curses.  The serpent was cursed, the man and the woman were cursed, all creation was cursed.  The man and the woman were sent out of the garden, and out of God’s presence.  They were sent out of paradise with a promise that life would be full of pain hardship, and then they would die.

In Genesis 4 the first human ever born murdered his own brother out of envy and anger.  A few generations later one of his descendants boasts about his own murders.  The heart of man was irrevocably corrupted.  It seems that all hope is lost.

But in the curses and the aftermath God made a promise and gave us a picture of the hope to come.

In Genesis 3:15 God told the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” When we read this in English we might not pick up on the fact the offspring is singular.  One man will crush the serpent’s head.

In Genesis 3:21 we’re told that the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. They had been told that if they ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they would die. And one day they would.  But that day something else died in their place.  Not only did a sacrifice die in their place, the sacrifice provided clothing to cover their shame and protect them as they went out into the now-cursed world.  

Then I come to Matthew 1, and it begins with a genealogy.  Although Matthew begins with Abraham rather than Adam and Eve, he is making a point - the woman’s offspring, the child promised first to Eve, then to Abraham, then to David has arrived.  God was faithful to his promise.

The offspring, named Jesus because he would save his people from their sins, succeeded where Adam failed.  Adam and Eve succumbed to sin under the best of circumstances; Jesus resisted in the worst of circumstances (contrast Genesis 2-3 with Matthew 4:1-11).  Where Adam and Eve doubted God’s word, Jesus quoted the words of His Father to the devil.

He remained sinless his entire life.  And although he did no wrong, although he was the one person in the history of the earth who didn’t deserve to die, he was sentenced to the death and suffered great pain on the cross.

In doing so He fulfilled the promise of Genesis 3:15 and the picture of Genesis 3:21.  

In giving up his life his heel was bruised, but he crushed the serpent’s head.  Sin and death were defeated forever.

In giving up his life he provided for his people a covering for their sin and shame.  For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God proved this by raising Jesus from the dead.  The promise for those who believe is that the earth will one day again be what it once was.  All who repent and believe in Jesus’ gospel will die, but will also be resurrected to new life in the new creation.  Man will once again walk with God on a good earth.  Every tear will be wiped from our eyes, death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.  

So today I mourn what was lost. And today I rejoice for what has been done and what is yet to come.  

My 2015 Reading Plan

What follows is my plan for reading in 2015.  The key word here is plan.  With our first child due in June and my current job ending around the same time with no idea what’s next, we’ll see how things go.  

For most of the last 4.5 years I’ve been working, taking seminary courses, and teaching regularly in our young adults groups in Beijing and Jakarta.  For six months in the middle I was a full-time seminary student.  That hasn’t left much time or mental energy for non-required/non-teaching prep reading.  Now that I’m done with seminary and taking an indefinite break from weekly teaching I’m looking forward to doing some personal reading again.

I’m planning to follow a schedule of daily reading and weekly reading that should amount to about an hour a day.  The plan is as follows.

Daily Reading

I’ll follow Denny Burk’s daily Bible reading plan.  This plan goes straight through the Bible, reading three or four chapters a day.  He schedules catch up days throughout the year, so if you miss a day or two you’ll have some opportunities to make up the missed days without doubling or tripling one day's reading.  

I’m also going to try to follow Burk’s Greek New Testament reading plan.  My Greek is not nearly proficient enough to read without major help, but fortunately Logos Bible software can help me with the time consuming task of identifying words.  The plan involves reading one chapter a day in Greek and also leaves a number of catch-up days throughout the year.  

I also plan to read one chapter of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion every day.  I’ve been a “Calvinist” (soteriologically) for several years now, but this will be the first time I’ve read Institutes.  Earlier this year I wrote a short biography of Calvin for a Church History class, but like most Calvinists, I became one not by reading Calvin, but simply by reading the Bible.

Weekly Reading

Monday - On Mondays I plan to read one or two chapters of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.  I read Grudem for my seminary courses 3-4 years ago, so this will be a refresher.

Tuesday - Most Tuesdays I will read the chapter of Gregg Allison’s Historical Theology that corresponds with the chapter of Grudem I read the day before.  Allison’s book examines the history of the doctrines covered by Grudem rather than being a chronological history of the church.  The book is only 33 chapters, so some Tuesdays I will read something from the Wednesday-Thursday list.  

Wednesday and Thursday - Wednesdays and Thursdays I will plan to read 20-30 minutes of a scholarly work on issues or Bible passages that are of interest to me.  The list so far, in no particular order:

• From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective by Various Authors
• Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books by Michael J. Kruger
• The End of the Law: Mosaic Covenant in Pauline Theology by Jason C. Meyer
• The Lord’s Supper: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ Until He Comes by Thomas R. Schreiner & Matthew R. Crawford
• The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic? by Michael Rydelnik
• Sermon on the Mount: Restoring Christ’s Message to the Modern Church by Charles L. Quarles

Friday - On Fridays I plan to spend 20-30 minutes reading the writings of the church fathers.  I'll start with Volume One of the Ante-Nicene Fathers which includes the writings of Clement of Rome, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus.  The church fathers didn't get everything right, but understanding the history of the church is of great importance.  The church has been working through theological and cultural issues for 2,000 years.  It would be foolish to ignore that history.

I'll leave Saturday and Sunday open in case I miss a day or two during the week.

So, that’s the plan.  I hope to share some of the things I’m learning here on the blog.  

What’s your plan for the coming year?