For His Pleasure

It is God's pleasure to magnify the glory of His free & sovereign grace in choosing a people that they might be for Him "a name, a praise, and a glory (Jeremiah 13:11).

In other words, to extend the pleasure that God has in His own name, He calls out a people to enjoy and praise and proclaim that name. The Bible calls these people "the elect," "the chosen."

John Piper

Some resources on election

some resources:

Misunderstandings of the Doctrine of Election
Wayne Grudem

Are There Two Wills in God?
John Piper - Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved

Sovereign Grace and the Glorious Mystery of Election
C. J. Mahaney (.pdf)

Unconditional Election
R.C. Sproul

Longer than ther've been fishes in the ocean...

Ephesians 1:4to6 says:
He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy & blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption thru Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Here is Commentary by John Stott.

Paul reaches back in his mind *before the foundation of the world*
(verse 4), before creation, before time began, into a past eternity in
which only God himself existed in the perfection of his being.
In that pre-creation eternity God did something. He formed a
purpose in his mind. This purpose concerned both *Christ* (his only
begotten Son) and *us* (whom he proposed to make his adopted sons and
indeed daughters, for of course the word embraces both sexes). Mark
well the statement: *he chose us in him*. The juxtaposition of the
three pronouns is emphatic. God put us and Christ together in his
mind. He determined to make us (who did not yet exist) his own
children through the redeeming work of Christ (which had not yet taken
place). It was a definite decision, for the verb *he chose
(exelexato)* is another aorist. It also arose from his entirely
unmerited favour, since he chose us *that we should holy and blameless
before him*, which indicates that we, when in his mind he chose us,
were unholy and blameworthy, and therefore deserving not of adoption
but of judgment. Further (Paul repeats the same truth in different
words), *he destined us in love (1) to be his sons through Jesus
Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his
glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (verses
5-6).
Now everybody finds the doctrine of election difficult. 'Didn't I
choose God?' someone asks indignantly; to which we must answer 'Yes,
indeed you did, and freely, but only because in eternity God had first
chosen you.' 'Didn't I decide for Christ?' asks somebody else; to
which we must reply 'Yes, indeed you did, and freely, but only because
in eternity God had first decided for you.'
Scripture nowhere dispels the mystery of election, and we should
beware of any who try to systematize it too precisely or rigidly. It
is not likely that we shall discover a simple solution to a problem
which has baffled the best brains of Christendom for centuries. But
here at least in our text are three important truths to grasp and
remember:

a). The doctrine of election is a divine revelation, not a human speculation.
It was not invented by Augustine of Hippo or Calvin of Geneva. On
the contrary, it is without question a biblical doctrine, and no
biblical Christian can ignore it. According to the Old Testament, God
chose Israel out of all the nations of the world to be his special
people (e.g. 'you shall be my own possession among all peoples.
Ex.19:4-6; cf.Dt.7:6ff.; Is.42:1 and 43:1). According to the New
Testament he is choosing an international community to be his 'saints'
(verse 1), his holy or special people (cf. 1 Pet.2:9-10). So we must
not reject the notion of election as if it were a weird fantasy of
men, but rather humbly accept it (even though we do not fully
understand it)as a truth which God himself has revealed. It seems
natural that at this point we should seek help from Calvin. He
preached through Ephesians, from the pulpit of St Peter's church,
Geneva, in forty-eight sermons beginning on 1 May 1558. Here is one of
his comments: 'Although we cannot conceive either by argument or
reason how God has elected us before the creation of the world, yet we
know it by his declaring it to us; and experience itself vouches for
it sufficiently, when we are enlightened in the faith'.

----------------------------- Note -------------------------
(1). AV, RV, and NEB put the expression 'in love' immediately after
'holy and blameless before him', because they understand it as
referring to the love which God wants to see in us. Thus holiness is
defined in terms of love. This may well be the correct translation
since the words 'in love' occur in five more contexts of Ephesians and
in each case describe Christian people (3:17; 4:2, 15, 16; 5:2). RSV,
however, attaches the words to the verb 'destined us' because it
understands them as referring to God's love, not ours. I myself favour
this interpretation because the context appears to be emphasizing love
as the source rather than the result of our election.

--John Stott, in his commentary on Ephesians
(The other 2 truths in the text will be posted later)

Benefits

..It is His delight to remember them. The
Lord always did think upon his people: hence their election and the
covenant of grace by which their salvation is secured; he always will
think upon them: hence their final perseverance by which they shall be
brought safely to their final rest. In all our wanderings the watchful
glance of the Eternal Watcher is evermore fixed upon us-we never roam
beyond the Shepherd's eye. In our sorrows he observes us incessantly, and
not a pang escapes him; in our toils he marks all our weariness, and
writes in his book all the struggles of his faithful ones.

Spurgeon

13 Shifts

I'm enjoying thinking through and reading thru some stuff Don Miller wrote. I'm going to post the 13 in segments.


Thirteen Paradigm Shifts we encountered doing Christian ministry in a pagan environment…

1. Other People Exist: Simply coming to the understanding that the world does not revolve around “me” but that everybody is having an experience, created by God, loved by God, and that we needed to repent of showing partiality…

2. Nobody will listen to you unless they know you like them: We began to understand that people, subconsciously, merit a religious or philosophical idea not on logical conclusions, but on whether or not the idea creates a “good person”…the definition of a good person being whether or not a person is kind to them, tolerant and understanding, able to listen without arguing and so on.


If you simply can't be patient, here's the pdf

Work has started on our required GRU lift station

JOF update video

one month's difference

Redeeming Love

Electing love has selected some of
the worst of men to be made the best.
Pebbles of the brook Grace turn into
jewels for the Savior's crown. Worthless
dross he transforms into pure gold.
Redeeming love has set apart many of
the worst of mankind to be the reward
of the Savior's passion and death.
Effectual grace calls forth many of the vilest
of the vile to sit at the table of mercy."

Spurgeon

Reprobation

Reprobation is the name given to God’s eternal decision regarding those sinners whom he has not chosen for life. His decision is in essence a decision not to change them, as the elect are destined to be changed, but to leave them to sin as in their hearts they already want to do, and finally to judge them as they deserve for what they have done. When in particular instances God gives them over to their sins (i.e., removes restraints on their doing the disobedient things they desire), this is itself the beginning of judgment. It is called “hardening” (Rom. 9:18; 11:25; cf. Ps. 81:12; Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), and it inevitably leads to greater guilt.

Reprobation is a biblical reality (Rom. 9:14-24; 1 Pet. 2:8), but not one that bears directly on Christian behavior. The reprobates are faceless so far as Christians are concerned, and it is not for us to try to identify them. Rather, we should live in light of the certainty that anyone may be saved if he or she will but repent and put faith in Christ.

We should view all persons that we meet as possibly being numbered among the elect.

--JI Packer, read the whole article here

Grace, Sovereign & Free

For [God] says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ROMANS 9:15-16

The verb elect means “to select, or choose out.” The biblical doctrine of election is that before Creation God selected out of the human race, foreseen as fallen, those whom he would redeem, bring to faith, justify, and glorify in and through Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28-39; Eph. 1:3-14; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; 2 Tim. 1:9-10).

This divine choice is an expression of free and sovereign grace, for it is unconstrained and unconditional, not merited by anything in those who are its subjects. God owes sinners no mercy of any kind, only condemnation; so it is a wonder, and matter for endless praise, that he should choose to save any of us; and doubly so when his choice involved the giving of his own Son to suffer as sin-bearer for the elect (Rom. 8:32).

read full article here

A Higher Dignity Than Created

Comments on Eph 1:
    God destined us in love to be his sons. This expression seems to be key to our understanding of the present consequences of our election. Election is with a view to adoption. Indeed, when people ask us the speculative question why God went ahead with the creation when he knew that it would be followed by the fall, one answer we can tentatively give is that he destined us for a higher dignity than even creation would bestow on us. He intended to 'adopt' us, to make us the sons and daughters of his family. And in Roman law (part of the background to Paul's writing) adopted children enjoyed the same rights as natural children. The New Testament has much to say about this status of 'sonship', its rich privileges and demanding responsibilities. --John Stott

Stott on election

Let no one say that the doctrine of election by the sovereign will and mercy of God, mysterious as it is, makes neither evangelism or faith unnecessary. The opposite is the case. It is only because of God's gracious will to save that evangelism has any hope of success and faith becomes possible. The preaching of the gospel is the very means that God has appointed by which he delivers from blindness and bondage those whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, sets them free to believe in Jesus, and so causes his will to be done.

Fling Wide!

Fling wide, then, the portals of your soul.
He will come with that love which you long to feel; he will come with
that joy into which you cannot work your poor depressed spirit; he will
bring the peace which now you have not; he will come with his flagons of
wine and sweet apples of love, and cheer you till you have no other
sickness but that of "love o'erpowering, love divine. --Spurgeon, Evening April 25

What I meant to say

Today in the 10:45 service I poorly told a story from my week.
In the telling I wrongly made it sound like I thought it was a bad thing that all the 2nd graders in my son's class were protective of creation. That is not a good thing.

I was blown away by the vigor these kids showed. It was obvious that they are growing up in a day and setting where this is front and center and "accepted by all".

I meant to say that we as humans regularly adopt values without checking them with Scripture...and did NOT mean to communicate that 2nd graders being "green" was to be shunned.

Other resources

Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 6

W'minster Shorter Catechism, 13-19

W'minster Larger Catechism, 21-29

Abraham Kuyper

this is one of those quotes that i read and realize, "this resonates with what I experience"; i saw it in a ken meyers article called "christianity, culture, and common grace":


. . . the unbelieving world excels in many things. Precious treasures have
come down to us from the old heathen civilization. In Plato you find
pages which you devour. Cicero fascinates you and bears you along by
his noble tone and stirs up in you holy sentiments. And if you consider
your own surroundings, that which is reported to you, and that which
you derive from the studies and literary productions of professed infidels,
how much more there is which attracts you, with which you sympathize
and which you admire. It is not exclusively the spark of genius or the
splendor of talent which excites your pleasure in the words and actions
of unbelievers, but it is often their beauty of character, their zeal, their
devotion, their love, their candor, their faithfulness and their sense of honesty. 

Yea, we may not pass it over in silence, not infrequently you
entertain the desire that certain believers might have more of the
attractiveness, and who among us has not himself been put to the blush
occasionally by being confronted with what is called the “virtues of the heathen”? 

--A. Kuyper


(I actually had this type of experience earlier this week, and wrote about it here)

Death, Slavery, Condemnation

Stott on Ephesians 2
Death, slavery and condemnation: these are the three concepts which Paul brings together in order to portray our lost human condition. Is it too pessimistic? Well, we must agree (as he would have done) that this is not the whole truth about mankind. He says nothing here about ‘the image of God’, in which human beings were originally created and which - now grievously damaged - they retain, although he certainly believes it and speaks of our redemption in terms of a re-creation in God’s image (verse 10 and 4:24). He says nothing either about different degrees of human depravity, although again he would have accepted this. For the biblical doctrine of ‘total depravity’ means neither that all humans are equally depraved, nor that nobody is capable of any good, but rather that no part of any human person (mind, emotions, conscience, will, etc.) has remained untainted by the fall. Nevertheless, despite this necessary qualification which affirms the continuing dignity of man on account of the divine image which he has not altogether lost, Paul’s diagnosis remains. 

Outside Christ man is dead because of trespasses and sins, enslaved by the world, the flesh and the devil, and condemned under the wrath of God.

    It is a failure to recognize this gravity of the human condition which explains people’s naive faith in superficial remedies. Universal education is highly desirable. So are just laws administered with justice. Both are pleasing to God who is the Creator and righteous Judge of all mankind. But neither education nor legislation can rescue human beings from spiritual death, captivity or condemnation. A radical disease requires a radical remedy. We shall not on that account give up the quest either for better education or for a more just society. But we shall add to these things a new dimension to which non-Christians are strangers, namely that of evangelism. For God has entrusted to us a message of good news which offers life to the dead, release to the captives and forgiveness to the condemned.         --John Stott

CONVERSATION IN THE LAS VEGAS AIRPORT

brief excerpt that NAILS much of what i (Rob) think & feel about issues we're doing in the coming 5 weeks:

In the movie, Hardcore, Jake Van Dorn, a pious Calvinist elder played by George C. Scott, is sitting in the Las Vegas airport with a thoroughly pagan young woman named Niki. Jake's teenage daughter has run away to California and gotten involved in the pornography business, and he has set out to find her. His initial efforts thus far have failed, but he has managed to enlist the help of Niki, a young prostitute who knows his daughter. They have just followed a lead in Las Vegas, but having discovered that the wayward daughter is no longer there, they are moving on in their search.

As they are sitting in the boarding area, waiting for their plane, Niki informs Jake that she considers him to have a very negative outlook on life, and it is obviously connected, she thinks, to his religious beliefs. "What kind of church do you belong to?" she asks. "It's a Dutch Reformed denomination," he responds, "-a group that believes in TULIP." The conversation continues:   read it here

Common Grace as Shade

Especially because of the common curse, common grace is necessary. Laboring
under the physical, spiritual, and emotional strains of a fallen world, without any
shade in the scorching sun of God’s wrath, man’s suffering would be, well,
hellish. But human experience is not hellish. In fact, considering what he
deserves, human culture is an amazing gift. But that doesn’t make it the Kingdom of God.

--Ken Meyers

More on Common Grace

The fruits of common grace include the ability to perform what has been

called “civic righteousness,” or justitia civilis, “that which is right in civil or

natural affairs, in distinction from that which is right in religious matters, natural

good works especially in social relations, works that are outwardly and

objectively in harmony with the law of God, though entirely destitute of any

spiritual quality.”

Berkhof is consistent with the Reformed confessions, compare, for

example, the Westminster Confession on “Good Works,” (ch. XVI, paragraph VII):

Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they

may be things which God commands; and of good use both to

themselves and others: yet, because they proceed not from an heart

purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word;

nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful, and cannot

please God, or make a man meet to receive grace from God: and yet,

their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing unto God.

So works that are “of good use to themselves and to others” are done by

the unregenerate. These works include works in the social and cultural spheres.

--Ken Meyers 

Christianity, Culture, and Common Grace
Ken Myers (.pdf)

Common Grace, what it is?

Question
There are many apparently good-natured non-believers in the world -- the nature of these people seems inconsistent with the idea that all of mankind is in a desperately fallen state. The doctrine of "common grace" seems to explain why the fallen state of man is not always blatantly obvious. Is common grace a biblical doctrine?

Answer
Common grace partly explains why most non-Christians do not appear desperately evil from a human perspective. Another part of this explanation is the doctrine of total depravity itself. Total depravity does not state that people are as wicked as they possibly can be, but rather that they are depraved to some degree in every part of their being. It also states that man is incapable of doing anything to merit salvation, not that he is incapable of doing anything "good" in any sense of the word. For example, even evil people give good gifts to their children (Matt. 7:11; Luke 11:13). Because fallen people are at enmity with God, everything they do is morally tainted -- what they do cannot be completely separated from who they are. For this reason, nothing they do is meritorious in God's eyes, and nothing they do can please him (Rom. 8:5-8). But this does not erase the fact that many things they do in their relationships with other people are good in many respects.

Common grace is the doctrine that God expresses grace towards all mankind, even towards those who hate him and will never be saved. The classic proof text for this doctrine is Matthew 5:44-45 where Jesus stated that God providentially cares for the evil and the good, for the righteous and the unrighteous. It can also be substantiated in certain ways from the doctrine of the Fall and from history in general. After the Fall, God did not execute judgment against mankind as fully as he might have. Instead, he allowed man to live, and even offered man hope of future redemption (Gen. 3:15). Thereafter, God went so far as to give special protection to Cain after Cain had murdered Abel (Gen. 4:15). Examples could be multiplied almost infinitely from history to demonstrate that even the reprobate receive good things from God (compare the principle in Luke 16:25). One good thing that fallen man receives from God in common grace is retention of the image of God (Gen. 9:6: 1 Cor. 11:7). This image gives man honor and authority, and is the basis for at least some of God's protection of man (Gen. 9:6). It is also part of what restrains sin in man. Another gift of common grace that restrains sin is man's God-given conscience (Rom. 2:14-16).

Answer by Ra McLaughlin

Esther Meek:
Many cultural and epistemic productions of unbelievers nevertheless glorify God and advance his purposes in the world. In these God is restraining the inevitable evil of the ungodly by exercising his common grace.

God, full of wrath & mercy

In Ephesians 2 Paul moves from the wrath of God to the mercy and love of God without any sense of embarrassment or anomaly. He is able to hold them together in his mind because he believed that they were held together in God's character.

--John Stott

Reference Point Matters

The terrible condition of man's heart will never be recognized by people who assess it only in relation to other men. Romans 14:3 makes plain that depravity is our condition in relation to God primarily, and only secondarily in relation to man. Unless we start here we will never grasp the totality of our natural depravity.

--John Piper

We tend to compare  people to people, and can get a "too generous" assessment, as this old story goes:
 

There were two scandalous brothers who oppressed the people of their town by various means.  One of the brothers died. The surviving brother sought out the pastor the day before the funeral and handed him a check for the amount needed to finish paying for the church's new building.

"I have only one condition," he said. "At his funeral, you must say my brother was a saint." The pastor gave his word and deposited the check.

The next day, at the funeral, the pastor did not hold back. "He was an evil man," he said. "He cheated on his wife and abused his family." He went on in this vein for a small time, and the surviving brother was clearly fuming in his seat.

"But," the pastor concluded, "compared to his brother, he was a saint!"

2 typed

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves
sinners, and the rest, sinners who believe themselves righteous.
- Blaise Pascal

Radical Corruption

After being rescued from captivity in Iraq and experiencing firsthand the corrupt methods of Saddam Hussein, one American hostage remarked, "Despite all that I endured I never lost my confidence in the basic goodness of people." Perhaps this view rests in part on a sliding scale of the relative goodness or wickedness of people. Obviously some people are far more wicked than others. Next to Saddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler the ordinary run-of-the-mill sinner looks like a saint. But if we lift our gaze to the ultimate standard of goodness - the holy character of God - we realize that what appears to be a basic goodness on an earthly level is corrupt to the core..

The Bible teaches the total depravity of the human race. Total depravity means radical corruption. We must be careful to note the difference between total depravity and "utter" depravity. To be utterly depraved is to be as wicked as one could possibly be. Hitler was extremely depraved, but he could have been worse than he was. I am sinner. Yet I could sin more often and more severely than I actually do. I am not utterly depraved, but I am totally depraved. For total depravity means that I and everyone else are
depraved or corrupt in the totality of our being. There is no part of us that is left untouched by sin. Our minds, our wills, and our bodies are affected by evil. We speak sinful words, do sinful deeds, have impure thoughts. Our very bodies suffer from the ravages of sin.

Perhaps "radical corruption" is a better term to describe our fallen condition than "total depravity." I am using the word "radical" not so much to mean "extreme," but to lean more heavily on its original meaning. "Radical" comes from the Latin word for "root" or "core." Our problem with sin is that it is rooted in the core of our being. It permeates our hearts.

from a helpful little article by RC SPROUL

Victim & Abuser

We are all both complicitous in and molested by the evil of our race. We both discover evil and invent it; we both ratify and extend it. --Cornelius Plantinga

Stubborn and Stubborner

Man is stubborn in sin, but God's grace is more stubborn. --Plantiga

Beneath the Floorboards

(Murder is wrong. Rape is evil. By pointing out this song I'm endorsing neither.)

As we talk about Total Depravity this week... there can be a sad but luring temptation for Christians to think that they are "of a different stock" from the "worst" of sinners. Sufjan Stevens is NOT one of those Christians. He reflects on the life of John Wayne Gacy, Jr. and allows it to shed light on his own sin.


Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr 2005
Sufjan Stevens gives his take on the story of Gacy, who was executed in 1994 for the rape and murder of 33 boys …

His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's T-shirts
When the swingset hit his head
The neighbors they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things
Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead
Twenty-seven people, even more
They were boys with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God

Are you one of them?

He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed he kissed them all
He'd kill ten thousand people
With a sleight of his hand
Running far, running fast to the dead
He took off all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips
Quiet hands, quiet kiss
On the mouth

And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid

--Sufjan Stevens, song: John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

Total Depravity

That sounds ominous and final, huh?

This Sunday I will preach on this topic.

Why?
1. The bible teaches it. (Tons o' verses, stay tuned)
2. Jesus taught it. (Luke 11, you who are evil, know how to give good gifts)
3. Helps you sense the majesty and drama of Christ's work of redemption. (Gators came from behind after being down 3 touchdowns OR Gators came from behind after being down a field goal.)

The depth of the dilemna magnifies the sweetness of the victory.

The doctor successfully completing the heart transplant elicits (sp?) greater celebration than completing the Vaccination shot)

4. A shout out to God to say thanks for John Calvin

2 of my favorite people

Tim Keller and Ricky Gervais (along with Sam Harris & Rick Warren) are highlighted with 3-5 minute videos at a website that WARNING WARNING is not seeking to exclusively distribute the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Link to videos here

"He's Not Here"

What love has done

The rule has been disproved
The stone, it has been moved
The grave is now a groove,
All debts are removed!

Oh, can't you see what love has done?

Egg Hunt... Waiting on my balloon

sudden end to Mark's account, verse 8

from Derek Thomas:
Look at verse 8: They went out, they fled, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

And that’s the end of the Gospel. (Now, I know! You’re hiding verses 9-20!) That’s the way the Gospel ended. They fled. It’s the same word in the same tense of what the disciples did in chapter 14 when they abandoned Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when He was arrested. The very same word.

What a way to end the Gospel. No appearance of Jesus. The women do not do what the angel asks them to do, namely, go and tell the disciples and go and tell Peter. (Remember, Peter is probably the one dictating this Gospel to Mark; very significant that Peter should be mentioned here.) You know, there’s a contrast here, because right at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel you have the story of the way in which a leper is healed, and he is commanded, you remember, not to go and tell anyone...and he goes and tells everyone! And here the women are told to go and tell, and they’re silent. They tell no one.

Now, Matthew tells us they did go and tell the disciples later, and the disciples didn’t believe them. You see, Mark is answering the question, not ‘How do you know that Jesus is risen?’ – (answer: The tomb is empty); but Mark is answering a different question: ‘How come all Jerusalem didn’t hear about the resurrection immediately?’ Surely a bunch of hysterical women rushing through the streets of Jerusalem early in the morning, screaming about a resurrection...everyone would have known about it in an instant. And the answer: Because they were afraid...because they were afraid.

Now, why would Mark end the Gospel that way? Think about it for a minute. When did Mark write his Gospel? Probably A.D. 65, just at the onset of Roman persecution of Christianity. And do you see what Mark is saying? That the Christian church began not in a great bang of human power, but it began by the power of Almighty God.

You know, the church began out of nothing, out of a small little group of women who, when they saw the empty tomb, ran because they were afraid. Imagine, twenty, fifteen years later, you’re trying to write this down and to give some credence to a movement that is now under attack from the authorities. Would you want to give the church an account of the resurrection which was the catalyst of the church and say nobody believed it at first?

And you know what? The first person who said “He is not here, but He is risen” - no one ever saw him except these women. No one was ever able to interrogate him. He disappeared. And why is Mark saying that? Because Mark wants us to focus not on the faith of the disciples, because they didn’t have any; not on the faith of these women, because they didn’t have much, either. But it wants us to focus entirely on the power of God that is manifested in that empty tomb. You can imagine it, can’t you? The camera focusing on that empty tomb and panning out...and there’s the start of it. There’s the genesis of it. The putting forth of the sovereign, supernatural, power of God in raising His Son from the dead, and in so doing demonstrates the validity of Jesus’ deity, underscores the validity of everything that Jesus ever said and did, assures us of the forgiveness of our sins by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, promises to us a bodily resurrection in the life to come, and says to us with absolute certainty – not because it’s based on the faith of some women or the faith of the disciples, but because it’s based upon the power of God – that all of this...all of this...is true.

Walls

The Patristics-- Adult Sunday School 9am

Adult Sunday School Class
Hebrews 12:1
We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...

This coming Sunday is the 2nd of 9 weeks on leaders of the early church. In Week 1, the Jewish religious leadership pursues the elimination of the Christian faith but the number of believers increase dramatically amongst Jews and Gentiles. This week, April 12th, the Roman government begins its campaign against the followers of Jesus and the martyrdom of Ignatius. church leader at Antioch, and Polycarp, church leader in Smyrna, are highlighted.

He Bridged the Gulf

Christ saw us ruined by the fall, a world of poor, lost, ship-wrecked sinners. He saw and He pitied us; and in compliance with the everlasting counsels of the Eternal Trinity, He came down to the world, to suffer in our stead, and to save us.
He did not sit in heaven pitying us from a distance: He did not stand upon the shore and see the wreck, and behold poor drowning sinners struggling in vain to get to shore. He plunged into the waters Himself: He came off to the wreck and took part with us in our weakness and infirmity becoming a man to save our souls.
As man, He bore our sins and carried our transgressions; as man, He endured all that men can endure, and went through everything in man’s experience, sin only excepted; as man He lived; as man He went to the cross; as man He died. As man He shed His blood, in order that He might save us, poor shipwrecked sinners, and establish a communication between earth and heaven! As man He became a curse for us, in order that He might bridge the gulf, and make a way by which you and I might draw near to God with boldness, and have access to God without fear.
—J.C. Ryle

Let the Walls Go UP!

Easter Sunday @ Christ Community

We will have normal sunday school classes at 9am, for children and adults.
Services will be held at 9:00am and 10:45am

Basically, schedule wise... it is a normal Sunday.

Celebration wise, let's pray that God will be glorified by our celebration of His victory.

latest email from Nate for Youth Group

Just a couple quick announcements:

1. Christ Community's Easter Egg Hunt is this Saturday from 10 AM to 12:30 PM. The youth are making balloon animals for the kids. They need to be there by 10:45 AM in order to help. We've been practicing our balloon shaping skills at Youth Group, so this a great opportunity to use those skills to serve others.

2. No Youth Group this Sunday, April 12th. It's Easter, and we will be off. Next Sunday, April 19th, we will resume as usual.


Grace and Peace,
Nate

Resurrection Validity

THAT'S EASTER Death to Life from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

This is a concrete slab; FOUNDATION!!

 

Mission Team Headed to Palmer Children's Home

 

Communion is about Jesus' Faithfulness, Not Yours

While each time the Lord’s Supper is to be celebrated, God’s people reenact

this meal as interpreted by Jesus, the essence of the sacrament as instituted by Jesus is not the

subjective state of the recipient–“I am sad enough or worthy enough to partake?” Instead, the essence of

the sacrament is found in Christ’s promise to be present with his people through these elements, the

bread and wine. This will be clear in the next few verses when Jesus ties the eating of the sacramental

bread and the drinking of the cup of wine to abiding presence of the kingdom, which is finally

consummated at the last day. –Kim Riddlebarger

The reason why we do not despair or give up hope despite our sin and

our weakness, is only because our salvation does not depend upon our strength and our determination to

do what is right. Rather, our salvation depends upon Jesus drinking the cup of wrath and enduring the

rejection from his father while suffering upon the cross. --Kim Riddlebarger

and spurgeon:
Thy standing is not in thyself-it is
in Christ; thine acceptance is not in thyself, but in thy Lord; thou art as much accepted of God to-day, with all thy sinfulness, as thou wilt be
when thou standest before his throne, free from all corruption. O, I beseech thee, lay hold on this precious thought, perfection in Christ! For
thou art "complete in him." With thy Saviour's garment on, thou art holy as the Holy one.

In order for...

in order for you and me to hear those sweet notes of covenant blessing, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” In order for those words of covenant blessing to come to us, He would say to His Son, His only Son, “The Lord curse You. The Lord make His face to turn away from You”;

A Different Day at Christ Community

Our services tomorrow will be different.

We are focusing on the sufferings of Christ as recorded in Mark 15. We will see Him:
--before Pilate
-- mocked
-- crucified
-- breathe His last
-- buried

Our hope is that we will see afresh (or for the 1st time) a glimmer of the depth of love Christ has for His people, for you.

Two logistical notes about the service:
1.) The room will be darkened. The only light will be candles and the overhead screen.
2.) When we take communion we will pass the bread and the cup down each row.

Summary review as we enter Mark 15

While Jesus and his disciples were still making their way to Jerusalem to complete his messianic
mission, in Mark 10:33-34, Jesus made the following prediction. “`We are going up to
Jerusalem,’ he said, `and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of
the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and
spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.’” It is now early Friday morning of
Holy Week, and by now almost all of the things Jesus predicted have come to pass exactly as he said they
would. Jesus has been betrayed by Judas, one of his own disciples. He has been arrested by the
Sanhedrin and found guilty of blasphemy because he claimed to be Israel’s Messiah. He has been beaten
and spit upon. Now, Jesus will be handed over by his own people (the Jews) to an obscure Gentile
politician, Pontius Pilate, who will condemn him to death even though even Pilate knew full-well that
Jesus had done nothing wrong. In just a few short hours, Jesus will be crucified, he will die and be
buried, only to rise again from the dead that first Easter Sunday. Jesus’ remarkable prediction, will soon
be completely fulfilled. Jesus will drink the cup of God’s wrath, endure unspeakable shame and
humiliation, and in doing so, save us from our sins. --Kim Riddlebarger

In Quiet & Confidence

"Persons who believe and trust in God will not search about frantically for ways to save their own lives, but they will in quiet and confidence grasp the hand of their all-powerful and merciful God. "

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Crucifixion Scene from "To End All Wars"

Brian Gadawa is a Christian who makes films. His movies include sin, unbelief, grace, and redemption. Sort of like life.

He made a film titled "To End All Wars", about POW life, based on a book by one of the POW's. In this scene, one POW has attempted to escape, been caught, and assigned to die by beheading. Another POW takes the place of the guilty and is crucified.

The Fruit of Christ's Death & Passion

"God declares to us that Jesus Christ, who once had his side pierced, today has his heart open, as it were, that we may have assurance of the love that he bears us; that as he once had his arms fastened to the cross, now he has them wide open to draw us to himself; and that as once he shed his blood, so today he wishes us to be plunged within it. So, when God invites us so sweetly and Jesus Christ sets before us the fruit of his death and passion, . . . let us all come to take our stand with our Lord Jesus Christ."

--John Calvin, Sermons on Isaiah's Prophecy of the Death and Passion of Christ, page 82.

HT to ray ortlund

Stephen Addcox has spent some time reading John Calvin recently. At my request he put some reflections in writing. Enjoy.

“I cannot pass a man by as though he were a stone.” –Fredric Jameson
This was my first encounter with John Calvin; for two weeks I read these chapters from his Institutes on the bus to and from UF’s campus. In my experience Calvin is often characterized as a cold-hearted theologian, whose interpretations of scripture are unpalatable. Yet here I encountered a man who is deeply concerned with the charitable interactions of Christians both with each other and with the world in general. The quote with which I began these thoughts comes from a Marxist literary critic. His idea is an important one: as human beings, we all share a common bond, but where Jameson and others have identified this connection as biological, economic, or cultural, Calvin finds our similarity in our heritage as God’s creations.
What then is our response? Calvin urges that “whatever gifts of God we notice in others, let us value and esteem both the gifts and their possessors[…]. The faults of others we are taught to overlook, [and] we should never insult others on account of their faults, for it is our duty to show charity and respect to everyone.” In essence, we cannot treat others as though they “were stones.” In my own experience of reading The Golden Booklet, I was offered a brief opportunity to put this into practice. While riding home at the end of the day, a young woman started asking me questions about the book I was reading. Her questions varied from who the author was to what particular parts of the book meant. Unfortunately, our conversation was cut short when we reached her bus stop; as the bus slowed, I read aloud a selection on this topic: “Let us rather seek the profit of others, and even voluntarily give up our rights for the sake of others.” Getting up to leave, she asked one final question that went straight to the heart of the matter, “But how do you do that?” I was stumped.
Every day I am faced with choices about how to interact with others around me. I can scoff at the bad drivers on Archer (you’ve all seen them), or I can laugh at the self-centered vanity of someone who loudly answers their phone in the library. But I need more than a change of behavior, because even if I repress my outward reaction, my inward response is still the same. God has often chastised me for such reactions; for example, after having a condescending thought about a fellow bus passenger, I later saw that she was intently reading her Bible. I felt such shame upon realizing that this person is as much God’s child (in all likelihood) as I am. Calvin’s solution to this dilemma strikes me as so simple and yet so counterintuitive: to treat others as God’s image bearers begins with humility. My incredulity, my unapologetic sarcasm, and my callousness are born of a vaulted view of my own person and abilities. In seeking humility, my view of others will raise as my view of myself lowers. This is not a simple task of self-abasement or mental self-flagellation; Calvin’s describes it as a process of “forgetting yourself.” As John the Baptist said of Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Can I completely forget myself? Probably not, but as Calvin rightly says, “Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair because of the smallness of our accomplishment.” We cannot get bogged down with frustration at not being perfect in our treatment of others, but in seeking humility and charity, we will find them to be closer them we may have first imagined.

A theology of Tragedy

It is precisely here that a true theology of tragedy can begin to take shape. The notion that Christianity is somehow alien to tragedy—that it is simply and straightforwardly “comic” because the resurrection makes for a happy ending—could not be more radically wrong. In his essay “Tragedy and Christian Faith,” Hans Urs von Balthasar singles out three essential elements of tragedy: that the good things of the world cannot sustain themselves and are lost; that this places us in a position of contradiction or alienation; and that this condition is bound up with an “opaque guilt,” in which individual moral responsibility cannot account for all suffering, leaving us subject to a mysterious “inherited curse.”

According to von Balthasar, Christ does not banish tragedy but carries it into the heart of God. Christ “fulfills the contradiction of existence...not by dissolving the contradiction but by bearing that affirmation of the human condition as it is through still deeper darknesses in finem, ‘to the end,’ as love....”

Order of Worship, Passion Sunday

Call to Worship

Congregational Song: All Hail the Power of Jesus Name
Solo: O Sacred Head Now Wounded

Reading: Mark 15:1-20
Exposition
Man of Sorrows, What a Name!

Reading: Mark 15:21-41
Exposition
Solo Who is this, so weak and helpless?

Reading: Mark 15:42-47
Exposition
Stricken, Smitten & Afflicted

The Lord’s Supper
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
In Christ Alone

Offering & Announcements

Benediction

Who Is This, So Weak and Helpless?

1. Who is this, so weak and helpless,
Child of lowly Hebrew maid,
Rudely in a stable sheltered,
Coldly in a manger laid?
’Tis the Lord of all creation,
Who this wondrous path has trod;
He is God from everlasting,
And to everlasting God.

2. Who is this, a Man of Sorrows,
Walking sadly life’s hard way,
Homeless, weary, sighing, weeping
Over sin and Satan’s sway?
’Tis our God, our glorious Savior,
Who above the starry sky
Is for us a place preparing,
Where no tear can dim the eye.

3. Who is this? Behold him shedding
Drops of blood upon the ground!
Who is this, despised, rejected,
Mocked, insulted, beaten, bound?
’Tis our God, Who gifts and graces
On His church is pouring down;
Who shall smite in holy vengeance
All His foes beneath His throne.

4. Who is this that hangs there dying
While the rude world scoffs and scorns,
Numbered with the malefactors,
Torn with nails, and crowned with thorns?
’Tis our God Who lives forever
’Mid the shining ones on high,
In the glorious golden city,
Reigning everlastingly

This is from the atheist philosopher Slavoj Zizek's book, Tarrying with the Negative: "Christ was the “son of man’, a ragged, miserable creature crucified between two common brigands; and it is against the background of this utterly wretched character of his earthly appearance that his divine essence shines through all the more powerfully."

Note: (In the original quotation, Zizek had enclosed "son of man" in quotes, presumably to indicate his skepticism.)