Calvin on Christ our Victor

Finally, since as God only he could not suffer, and as man only could not overcome death, he united the human nature with the divine, that he might subject the weakness of the one to death as an expiation of sin, and by the power of the other, maintaining a struggle with death, might gain us the victory … But special attention must be paid to what I lately explained, namely, that a common nature is the pledge of our union with the Son of God; that, clothed with our flesh, he warred to death with sin that he might be our triumphant conqueror.

Chan on Discipleship

“A person who is obsessed with Jesus knows that the best thing he can do is be faithful to his Saviour in every aspect of his life, continually saying ‘thank you!’ to God. An obsessed person knows there can never be intimacy if he is always trying to pay God back or work hard enough to be worthy. He revels in his role as child and friend of God.”

“A person who is obsessed with Jesus is more concerned with his or her character than comfort. Obsessed people know that true joy doesn’t depend on circumstances or environment; it is a gift that must be chosen and cultivated, a gift that ultimately comes from God (James 1:2-4).”

“People who are obsessed with God have an intimate relationship with Him. They are nourished by God’s Word throughout the day because they know that forty minutes on Sunday is not enough to sustain them for a whole week, especially when they will encounter so many distractions and alternative messages.”

“People who are obsessed are raw with God; they do not attempt to mask the ugliness of their sins or their failures. Obsessed people don’t put it on for God; He is their safe place, where they can be at peace.”

“A person who is obsessed is characterized by committed, settled, passionate love for God, above and before every other thing and every other being.”

“A person who is obsessed thinks about heaven frequently. Obsessed people orient their lives around eternity; they are not fixed only on what is here in front of them.”

“People who are obsessed with God are known as givers, not takers. Obsessed people genuinely think that others matter as much as they do, and they are particularly aware of those who are poor around the world (James 2:14-26).”

“People who are obsessed with Jesus do not consider service a burden. Obsessed people take joy in loving God by loving His people (Matt 13:44; John 15:8)”

“A person who is obsessed with Jesus knows that the sin of pride is always a battle. Obsessed people know that you can never be ‘humble enough,’ and so they seek to make themselves less known and Christ more known (Matt 5:16).”

“Obsessed people are more concerned with obeying God than doing what is expected or fulfilling the status quo. A person who is obsessed with Jesus will do things that don’t always make sense in terms of success or wealth on this earth. As Martin Luther put it, ‘There are two days on my calendar: this day and that day’ (Luke 14:25-35; Matt 7:13-23; 8:18-22; Rev 3:1-6).”

“People who are obsessed with Jesus live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another. Obsessed people believe that Jesus talked about money and the poor so often because it was really important to Him (1 John 2:4-6; Matt 16:24-26).”

“People who are obsessed with Jesus aren’t consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else. Obsessed people care more about God’s kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress.”

Ortlund on Preaching Christ

There is a difference between preaching Christ and preaching about Christ. Preaching Christ is presenting him so clearly and directly that the people experience the sermon this way: “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified” (Galatians 3:1). Preaching about Christ is presenting ideas related to him. It’s a good thing to do. But preaching Christ is more profound, more daring and more helpful.

In Intellectuals, page 31, Paul Johnson wrote of the poet Shelley, “He burned with a fierce love but it was an abstract flame and the poor mortals who came near it were often scorched. He put ideas before people and his life is a testament to how heartless ideas can be.” It is not enough for us preachers to burn with a fierce love. We must burn with a fierce love for Christ the crucified Friend of sinners and for the sinners right there before us who need that Friend. Ideas about Christ can even be heartless. But Christ crucified befriends sinners, and they feel it.

Calvin comments on Galatians 3:1, “Let those who want to discharge the ministry of the gospel aright learn not only to speak and declaim but also to penetrate into consciences, so that men may see Christ crucified and that his blood may flow.” Christ’s blood flowing into the human conscience, setting people free as they sit there listening to the sermon – that is preaching Christ.

One way to test ourselves is to ask, What are the people who hear me preach walking away with? Have they seen Christ himself during this sermon, or have they only interacted with ideas about Christ? As a preacher, I cannot make people engage with him. I wouldn’t want to try. But I can and must preach in such a way that he stands forth as obvious and available to the people right then and there.

Chester on Leaders

In Philippians 1 Paul says he is sure he will survive his imprisonment “and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith” (25). It is an intriguing glimpse into how Paul saw the goal of his ministry. His goal was to make people happy, to bring them joy. This, of course, we much more than merely enjoying happy circumstances. Paul himself expresses joy in the midst of persecution, imprisonment and opposition (12-18). This joy is joy in Christ. And for Paul this ministry begins with his own joy in Christ. He himself says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (21) “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all tings.” (3:8) Our aim is to treasure Christ above everything so we naturally and sincerely extol Christ to our communities so that they might find joy in Christ. Then as they treasure Christ, they too will extol Christ to a lost world so that other join us in treasuring Christ.

We might express this through the following diagram …



The exciting thing is that when we extol Christ we do so to oursevles as well as to other so we nurture our own treausing of Christ. In the same way when our communities extol Christ they do so one another and to us so together we extol Christ the more. These “feedback loops” create virtuous circles.



Consider again our simpler diagram. It highlights our starting point and therefore our main task as leaders: to treasure Christ. My main task is to nurture my own joy in Christ. Everything else flows from this point.

Hengel and Bird on Torah and Christ

For him, the encounter with the Resurrected One near Damascus set before him the question of the law or Christ in the form of a soteriological alternative. For Judaism of that time the Torah was in manifold expression the essence of salvation, and could be identified with the fundamental religious metaphor, “life”. Since the opposition between Torah and Jesus of Nazareth had made him into a persecutor, now the relationship between Christ and Torah had to become a fundamental issue, in which the inversion of the opposition immediately because apparent: he, the Resurrected One is zwh& for those who believe (2 Cor 4:11-12; cf. 2:16).[1]
While I demur from Hengel’s treatment of the incident at Antioch for the reasons given above, I remain convinced that Hengel has tapped into the nerve of Paul’s thought and demonstrated the radical stance of Paul and the Torah that made him the controversial figure that he was. Yet this Christ-Torah antithesis needs some qualifications as I suspect that it does not mean what many Protestant commentators think it means. It does not mean that Jewish Christians should cease observing the law, nor does it mean that the Torah has nothing binding on the ethical life of Gentile Christians. Rather, the advent of Christ means that his death and resurrection has effected the end of ages and broken the link between law, sin, and death. Christ turns the condemnation of the law into justification. Christ made the curse of the law into redemption. Faith in Christ is the testimony of the law and yet faith in Christ places believers beyond the jurisdiction of the law. Christ terminates the Mosaic dispensation in order to fulfil the Abrahamic hopes. Christ serves the circumcision by making Gentiles heirs of the Patriarchs.

Driscoll on Teams

Affinity vs. Community

If you're cause-oriented, you get affinity. All the people who agree with you come together. If you're Christ-oriented, people who disagree on a whole lot of things, they come together. That's actual community. What passes for community in our day is pretty much affinity. Everybody like me hangs out and does what I like. Community is people totally unlike me, who don't have much in common with me, come together with me, because we're Christ-centered. It's all about Jesus, and as we're all walking closer to Jesus as followers of Jesus, we happen to get closer together and become a team. That's what's cool about Christianity. You guys know this, in your community groups, your social networks, you're like, "Man, my Christian friends, I would never pick these people. I don't have anything in common with them—bipedal, upright—other than those two factors, we got nothing in common. But you know what? They love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love them, and together we make each other more sanctified, and together when we serve Jesus, it goes better, so praise God for a weird, diverse, collective team of different kind of people." So on our team, there are artists, there are accountants, people who are good with pictures, people who are good with numbers, all important, very vital. Weird teams are the best teams. You see that with Jesus. It's kind of a weird team. He's not picking the guys you'd expect, he's picking a bunch of no-names and nobodies.

Bob Kaufman on Worship

One of the drums I will never tire of beating is this: All biblical worship is rooted in and made possible by the cross of Christ. Most churches could stand to be much clearer and more consistent when it comes to highlighting the gospel in song. I said it this way in my book, Worship Matters:
The gospel is not merely one of many possible themes we can touch on as we come to worship God. It is the central and foundational theme. All our worship originates and is brought into focus at the cross of Jesus Christ.
Glorying in Jesus Christ means glorying in his cross. That doesn?t mean looking at some icon or two pieces of wood nailed together. Nor does it imply that every song we sing has the word cross in it. It has little to do with church gatherings that are more like a funeral than a celebration.
The cross stands for all that was accomplished through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. It focuses on his substitutionary death at Calvary but includes everything that gave meaning to that act. His preexistent state in glory. His incarnation. His life of perfect obedience. His suffering. His resurrection. His ascension. His present intercession and reign in glory. His triumphant return.
I will always plead that worship pastors lead gospel-centered worship that is characterized by:
? an awareness that the cross/gospel should be referenced somewhere in the time of singing.
? viewing the gospel as our primary motivation for praising God.
? helping people understand that only Jesus enables us to approach God - not music, musicians, worship leaders, or particular worship songs.
? encouraging congregations to be most enthusiastic about the theme the Bible is the most enthusiastic about - the Lamb of God who was slain.
When the Gospel Loses Its Power
But I?ve learned that we can practice gospel-centered corporate worship in a way that is more obligatory than faith-filled. What once magnified the glory of Christ becomes lifeless repetition. My friend, Jon Payne, shared some thoughts with me on this topic that I found helpful. He pointed out that a formulaic approach to gospel-centered worship can lead to some of the following problems:
? thinking every song should be exclusively about justification, boldness before the throne, or our sins being completely forgiven.
? thinking every song list should climax with a ?gospel? song.
? an inability to reference or articulate uniquely other aspects of the gospel - adoption, reconciliation, union with Christ, etc.
? a scarcity of other themes in our songs such as the wisdom of God, the eternity of God, the power of God, the incarnation, the kingship of Christ, heaven.
? worshiping a doctrine rather than allowing that doctrine to lead us to a living Savior. We are not ?crowning the gospel with many crowns.?
Leading gospel-centered worship in a faithless way can lead to some bad fruit:
? the gospel and the Savior lose glory in the eyes of bored worshipers.
? People develop a limited view of God and his attributes.
? People don?t learn how to apply the gospel to other areas of life/Biblical themes.
? The gospel becomes a crude, repetitive tool of truth rather than a lens for all of life.
? People think an explicit reference to the gospel reference makes their worship acceptable, rather than trust in a crucified and living Savior.
? Rather than expecting to encounter God because of the gospel people come expecting to repeat faithless facts.
The gospel of our Savior must never cease to be amazing in people?s eyes. It?s our responsibility as leaders to make sure, as the Puritans said, that we always ?labor to be affected by the cross.? That?s the best way of insuring that the gospel will never lose its power in our songs, or more importantly, in our lives.
May our understanding, practice, and leadership always cause people to have a greater love for the Savior who died to redeem them and reconcile them to God.

Marcus North on Leadership

authentic Christian leadership is closely linked to:

?The nature and person of God
?The worship of Christ
?The Work of the Holy Spirit
?The mission of the church
?The nature of mature discipleship
?The character of Christ
?The nature of the body of Christ

Martin Lloyd-Jones on Knowledge

It is possible for a believer who . . . sincerely recognizes the Bible as his sole authority, and desires to submit himself wholeheartedly to its evident meaning?it is still possible for such a man to go astray by becoming purely theoretical in his attitude towards this precious knowledge. It can happen to all, but I emphasize again that it is the particular danger of those who have keen minds, and who desire to understand and to grow in knowledge. The devil knowing us as he does, always suits the particular form of temptation to our exact mentality. At this point I am not referring to people who do not read the Scriptures, or indeed little else, and who say, ?I am interested in nothing but my experience?. The devil does not trouble such people in this way, but to those who truly long to grow and develop, he comes and says, ?Of course, you are quite right; what you need, and what everyone else needs, is more and more of this knowledge?. But he presses the thought so far that in the end they get into a condition in which their whole relationship to truth is purely theoretical and academic. And this involves the terrible danger of becoming more concerned about, and more interested in, our intellectual knowledge of Christian truth than in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and if the devil with all his wiles can beguile us into this condition he is more than satisfied. In other words, it is the failure to realize that the ultimate end of all knowledge is to bring us to a knowledge of the Person Himself.

Bryan Chappell on Worship

He breaks down this ?gospel structure? down into eight basic components:

1. Adoration (recognition of God?s greatness and grace)
2. Confession (acknowledgement of our sin and need for grace)
3. Assurance (affirmation of God?s provision of grace)
4. Thanksgiving (expression of praise and thanks for god?s grace)
5. Petition and Intercession (expression of dependence on God?s grace)
6. Instruction (acquiring the knowledge to grow in grace)
7. Communion/Fellowship (celebrating the grace of union with Christ and his people)
8. Charge and Blessing (living for and in the light of God?s grace)

In the New Testament, Chapell says we find hints of a ?gospel structure? in Rom. 11-15 and Rev. 4-21. But he astutely observes that ?the lack of explicit detail [related to a liturgy] must reflect an intention to guide us by transcendent principles rather than by specific worship forms that could become culture-bound, time-locked, and superstition-invoking.? That means there can be variation in how these components are fleshed out. The important thing is that we have a gospel-driven purpose in why we do what we do.

John Piper on Grace

The assistance we need, above all physical healing and all financial security and all employment successes and all career guidance and all relational harmony, is the divine assistance to see and to savour the glory of God in Christ.
AHFG p63