Light of the World, a City on A Hill

…thinking out loud about living missionally in the city of Sydney so that the city will come to know Jesus…

Archive for preaching

Christian Dating

February 7, 2008 at 2:53 pm · Filed under Humour, Mark Driscoll, preaching

(h/t - Mars Hill Vox Pop Network)

The question we always asked as Christian teenagers in relation to dating was “How far can we go?” or “Where’s the line?”.

Mark Driscoll preaches this coming Sunday on How do Christians Date righteously. In honour of this they have created the Christian Dating Bubble effecting a zone of holiness.

Not sure how popular they will be with the punters!

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Preach it, Brother

November 23, 2007 at 9:39 am · Filed under preaching, scripture

Following on from my previous rant on preaching through whole books of the bible, I have another reason why this seems to make sense as the main congregational diet.

I have been involved in an online discussion recently with one of the staff from my church around what the bible has to say on singleness. Now this is a perennial topic for discussion, and I have certainly noticed that marrieds tend to argue towards marriage whereas singles (who, paradoxically, more often than not would like to be married) argue the virtue’s of singleness.

Now the bible has a fair bit to say on these topics, but what it says exactly is not perfectly clear.

A case in point is 1 Corinthians 7:8-9. The ESV renders it this way:

“To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”

The NIV is almost exactly the same, however some translations do not say “with passion” in v9.
Anyway, it seems that various scholars have differing opinions on what burning with passion means (shocking that scholars have differing opinions, I know). Some contend that it refers to feelings of love/romantic desire, while others say it is talking about physical/sexual desire. Now while this may seem a trivial difference, it does have a reasonably significant effect on the meaning and application of Paul’s words.

My point in highlighting this example is that if the scholars come to these conclusions via in-depth understanding of the Greek language, of words and participles and genders, what hope has the average Christian got of understanding God’s word correctly?

Now there are certain freaky laypeople like me who have a library of commentaries, exhaustive concordances and books on hermeneutics to dig into these things, but most are just reading their NIV bibles (cause they’re Australian evangelicals after all), using whatever interpretation principles they have cobbled together, trying to work out what the bible says.

So why would preaching whole books help? By picking up on all of these verses and helping people understand them correctly and consistently. Now clearly the 1 Cor verse could be covered in a “Topical” series on Marriage or Singleness, but there are plenty of other verses which you would never pick up in a topical series.

Rant over.

Jeff

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All Scripture is God Breathed…is it really?

November 20, 2007 at 11:32 am · Filed under churches, preaching, scripture

I am leading my bible study group this week in the absence of our fearless leader who will be swanning around in beautiful downtown Bris-vegas (that’s Brisbane in Queensland for the un-initiated). I really like bible study leading. Helping others grapple with and apply God’s word is just fantastic.

Anyway we are in the middle of a study series in Philippians…or should I say bits of Philippians.
Study groups are trucking through a study book which just skips significant slabs of the book. What is with that?

Like many, I love 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” [ESV]. This verse is placed in the context of Paul’s urging for Timothy to both follow Paul’s instructions and way of life, and to “Preach the word”.

But do we really believe that all scripture is of use to us? How may times have you observed whole passages, chapters or even books ignored altogether in the churches ‘instructional’ program?

I am guilty of this in relation to making suggestions for bible study. I have avoided all sorts OT books, mainly because I was a bit intimidated by them.

What I have noticed is that many of today’s young reformed preachers seem to take this verse from 2 Timothy pretty seriously. The typical preaching schedule sees whole books preached from start to finish and regular rotation between the Old and New Testaments.

This approach has started to make a lot of sense to me. I’ll explain.

Firstly it gives people the flow of the story or the argument presented in the given book. The bible was generally written this way, so why not preach it/study it that way? I think this approach helps the layperson in the pew learn to effectively read their bibles themselves.

Secondly it means the hard/controversial texts are not avoided. I’d contend that church leaders using a more topical/pick and choose approach tend to avoid texts which are a bit touchy (like women’s roles for example).
Thirdly people receive the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27), not just what the preacher thinks people need to hear. God sets the agenda.
So anyway, back to the bible study. I am rebelling. The study book skips Phil 3:15 - 4:10, but I am going to do the study on these verses. I started preparing last night, and I can say Paul’s words are pure gold. I can’t wait.
In the word,
Jeff

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