The Gospel Coalition

O Lord, You received affronts
without number from Your blasphemers,
yet each day You free captive souls
from the grip of the ancient enemy.

You did not avert Your face
from the spittle of perfidy,
yet You wash souls in saving waters.

You accepted Your scourging without murmur,
yet through your meditation
You deliver us from endless chastisements.

You endured ill-treatment of all kinds,
yet You want to give us a share
in the choirs of angels in glory everlasting.

You did not refuse to be crowned with thorns,
yet You save us from the wounds of sin.

In your thirst You accepted the bitterness of gall,
yet You prepare Yourself to fill us with eternal delights.

You kept silence under the derisive homage
rendered You by Your executioners,
yet You petition the Father for us
although You are his equal in Divinity.

You came to taste death,
yet You were the Life
and had come to bring it to the dead.

Amen.

- Gregory the Great, 540-604 A.D.

All genuine appreciation rests on a certain mystery of humility and almost of darkness. The man who said, “Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall not be disappointed,” put the eulogy quite inadequately and even falsely. The truth? “Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised.”

The man who expects nothing sees redder roses than common men can see, and greener grass, and a more startling sun. Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall possess the cities and the mountains; blessed is the meek, for he shall inherit the earth.

Until we realize that things might not be we cannot realize that things are.

Until we see the background of darkness we cannot admire the light as a single and created thing. As soon as we have seen that darkness, all light is lightening, sudden, blinding, and divine.

Until we picture nonentity we underrate the victory of God, and can realize none of the trophies of His ancient war.

It is one of the million wild jests of truth that we know nothing until we know nothing.”

- G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

Seven links for your weekend reading:

1. My dad is blogging now. Here’s an interesting interview he did with Joel Widmer on businesses having a strong internet presence.

2. The Law of Love and the Love of Law

3. Bill Hybels challenges conference attendees to not lose the core of Christianity, and then he summarizes the Christian message in five words

4. You’ll soon be able to text 9-1-1 for emergencies.

5. Mike Ovey on the London looters: Them or Us?

6. The difference between great and mediocre preaching

7. Pregnancy Reduction, An Everyday Horror in the Culture of Death

Brief notes on three books I’ve read recently:

Orphanology:
Awakening to GospelCentered Adoption and Orphan Care
Tony Merida and Rick Morton (New Hope Publishers)
My Rating: *****

Christians do not approach orphan care as mere humanitarians but as people adopted by God through the work of Jesus Christ. Orphanology provides the burgeoning orphan care movement with a gospel-centered theological foundation as well as a comprehensive plan for getting involved at many levels, including adoption, orphanage restoration, foster care, and transitional assistance. Between adoption stories, Tony Merida and Rick Morton offer a compelling picture of how the gospel motivates us to action on behalf of the fatherless.

Our Triune God:
Living in the Love of the Three-in-One
Philip Ryken and Michael LeFebvre (Crossway)
My Rating: ****

Our Triune God is a pastoral treatise on the importance of the Trinity for the Christian’s life and faith. The book lays out the biblical support for a Trinitarian view of God, and then delves into practical ramifications. The result is a sustained reflection on the joy of fellowshiping with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Perspectives on Tithing: Four Views
Edited by David A. Croteau (B&H Academic)
My Rating: ****

Leery of appearing self-serving, many pastors hesitate to preach on giving. However, the fact that the issues surrounding tithes and offerings are controversial is a sign that we need more teaching on this subject, not less. This book provides four evangelical perspectives on the relevance of the tithe for New Covenant Christians. The contributors appeal to Scripture, showing how tithing is described and prescribed. Christians may be divided on whether tithing is mandated today, but the authors are united by a strong desire to honor the Lord in matters of stewardship.

These reviews first appeared in Christianity Today, July 2011.

Five arguments for the deity of Christ:

In this chapter Robert Peterson marshals five arguments for the deity of Christ…

Tim Keller – “Four Kinds of People in the World”

GetReligion analyzes recent coverage on Michelle Bachmann:

I often tease my friend who will run for president some day that our friendship will end up costing him dearly. Reporters will dig up our connection and will explain what a freak I am and how that disqualifies him to be president. That’s kind of how it goes now if you run for office, apparently, no matter where you fall politically.

We see this kind of guilt by association throughout a new piece on Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) from The New Yorker, a much talked-about profile that includes some bizarre connections and strange inferences.

This discussion between Paige Patterson and Mark Dever at this year’s SBC is very interesting.

Today, I’m happy to be joined by David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL, for a conversation about his latest book, Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God. I appreciated Radical Together for its emphasis on the church as the agent through which God extends His glory to the nations. As I read David’s book, I marked up the margins with questions that remained unresolved in my mind.

Today, David graciously responds to some of my lingering questions about his bold proposal. I pray our conversation will edify and embolden you as you seek to fulfill the Great Commission.

Trevin Wax: David, in Radical Together, you write:

“If you and I want our lives to count for God’s purpose in the world, we need to begin with a commitment to God’s people in the church.”

Why is it so vital that the church be at the forefront of our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission?

David Platt:  The local church is God’s chosen, called, and ordained agent for the accomplishment of the Great Commission. From the beginning of the book of Acts, we see God’s people, by God’s design, coming together in local churches that are devoted to God’s Word, to fellowship with one another, to worship, and to prayer (Acts 2:42). Through these local churches, the Lord began adding to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47). Out of 114 times that we ekklesia in the New Testament, at least 90 of them refer to specific local gatherings of believers.

Clearly, the New Testament precedent and pattern is the advancement of the gospel through followers of Christ who are joined together in local bodies. As a result, if we want to be a part of spreading the gospel to all peoples in global mission, biblically we need to begin with a commitment to God’s people in the local church.

Trevin Wax: In your chapter on “The Misunderstood Gospel,” you make some clarifications regarding the motivation for our obedience. You write:

Unleashing radical people into the world requires the gospel as our foundation and our motivation.

David Platt: That’s right. I don’t want any follower of Christ to be overwhelmed by guilt, constantly wondering:

• “When I am going to be radical enough?”
• “What do I need to do, how do I need to give, or where do I need to go in order to do enough for God?”

These are extremely unhealthy questions, for the reality with which the gospel confronts us is that we’ll never be able to do enough. No matter what we do, even if we sell all of our possessions, give to the poor, and move to the most dangerous country in the world, we cannot do enough to be accepted before God or approved by God.

The beauty of the gospel is that Christ alone is able to do enough. He alone is able to keep the law and commands of God, and He has done it. Indeed, He has been faithful enough, generous enough, compassionate enough, etc. As a result, the starting point of the radical life is death to self, death to every attempt to do enough before God, and trust in Christ, the One who has lived the radical life on our behalf.

Trevin Wax: How does this beauty of the gospel translate into the beauty of Christian obedience?

David Platt: The beauty now is that when we trust in Christ to be our righteousness, we are now free to obey from a totally different position. In Christ, we have been declared “not guilty” before God. As a result, we no longer live from a position of guilt, but from a position of righteousness. And not only have we been declared righteous in Christ (as if this were not enough!), but He has given us His Spirit, and He lives in us to enable us at every single moment to live according to the commands which He has given us. As Christians, we now find ourselves free from guilt and driven by grace.

Trevin Wax: Why is it important that grace, not guilt be what motivates us?

David Platt:  In addition to everything I’ve mentioned above, guilt is ultimately an unbearable burden and an unsustainable motivator. We may change our ways for a short time based on guilt, but real, true, radical life change will not happen until we trust in the gospel.

So my encouragement in Radical Together to anyone who struggles with a low-grade sense of guilt, wondering if they are ever doing enough, would be to realize that they can never do enough…and then to rejoice in the reality that Christ has done enough for them. Then, whenever they are confronted with sin or shortcomings, I would encourage them to trust in Christ, to rest in His righteousness, and to ask Him to produce the fruit of a radical gospel in their lives. This alone will sustain radical, life-changing, world-impacting obedience for the glory of God in all nations.

Trevin Wax: You express concern about the “missional” movement, if by missional we mean merely focusing on our immediate context and not on reaching the unreached with the gospel. I think “missional” is a reaction against the older idea that “missions” is something that we pay other people (“missionaries”) to do over there. The missional movement is seeking to remind us that we are all missionaries in our local context. It seems that you see a distinction between missional churches and Great Commission churches. Is that so? Why or why not?

David Platt:  “Missional” is quite a loaded, and often misunderstood, word in many conversations today. I certainly appreciate any effort to remind us that God intends us all to make disciples wherever we live, particularly in our local context. This is the command of God for each of us to follow, and so by God’s grace we need to wake up every day intentionally considering how we can most effectively make disciples where we work, where we play, and where we live.

At the same time, the Great Commission is not just a command from Jesus to make disciples; it’s a command from Jesus to make disciples of all nations (literally, panta ta ethne, of all the people groups). This means that Jesus has commanded us to go beyond just the place where we live and the people we live among. He has commanded us to go to people groups all around the world who have little to no access to the gospel. This is at the heart of the Great Commission.

So being “missional,” in the sense of the whole of the Great Commission, is never just about making disciples among people right around us. Being “missional” according to the Great Commission involves making disciples among people far away from us (geographically and/or ethnically).

As a result, in Radical Together, I want to encourage those who would claim the banner of “missional” to be truly “missional.” Let’s continue to focus on making disciples among the people around us (let’s not detract from that focus!), and let’s focus on making disciples among peoples all around the world who presently have no access to the gospel. This is obedience to the Great Commission and the heart of what it means to be “missional.”

Trevin Wax: Is it possible to so focus on the unreached people groups that we discount the good work being done by people in other parts of the world? I had this question about myself as I was reading the book. Were my five years in Romania not really Great-Commission work, since that country is partially evangelized?

David Platt:  For what it’s worth, I think your work in Romania (assuming you were making disciples there with a view toward seeing all nations reached with the gospel) was absolutely Great Commission work. For that matter, I trust that my work in Birmingham, AL (talk about reached!), is also Great Commission work as I shepherd a church to make disciples here with a view toward penetrating every people group on the planet with the gospel.

We are constantly tempted to choose between either going to reached peoples or going to unreached peoples. But this need not be an “either/or” scenario. What if God has designed our work among reached peoples to be aimed toward the spread of the gospel among unreached peoples?

The example I use in Radical Together involves how we as a church are focusing on ministry to various people in Birmingham (Brook Hills Bob) with a view toward the spread of the gospel among all peoples in the world (Brook Hills Baruti). We don’t want Birmingham or the nations for Christ; we want Birmingham and the nations for Christ.

So is it possible to so focus on unreached peopled groups that we discount the good work being done by people in other parts of the world? I suppose. But not if we understand disciple-making as a “both/and” scenario instead of an “either/or scenario.” Jesus made disciples among a very small group of Jewish men in the first century in a way that has led to you and I becoming disciples in America in the twenty-first century. Let’s follow His lead and make disciples among reached places in a way that will lead to disciples being made in unreached places all around the world.

Trevin Wax: What is the value of short-term missions in fulfilling the Great Commission?

David Platt: There are so many abuses when it comes to short-term mission trips, and oftentimes these abuses obscure the tremendous value of short-term missions. The goal of short-term mission is always long-term impact…on a variety of different levels.

First, we want to be a part of long-term impact in other contexts in the world. Obviously, we are not going to be able to go into another setting and make disciples in a week or two. So our goal should always be to connect relationally with long-term disciple-making processes in other contexts. Whether it is missionaries who have moved into another country/context, or nationals living in another context/country, we want to connect with brothers and sisters who are carrying out long-term disciple-making in that country/context. They know what the best uses might be for a short-term mission team, and there is great confidence in going to a place and serving alongside brothers and sisters like this, knowing that you are a part of supporting a long-term disciple-making process in that country/context for the glory of Christ.

But the long-term impact is not just about what happens in that country/context during that week or two on a short-term mission trip. We also want to promote a long-term impact in the people who are going on that short-term mission trip. This is a part of the disciple-making process in our own churches. In the church I pastor, short-term mission trips are a huge component of our long-term disciple-making processes. We want people that we are teaching and training in Christ to go into other contexts in the world, to see the glory of God in ways they may have never seen before, and to expand their understanding of the global purpose for which God has created them.

So for anyone that is looking to go on a short-term mission trip, the goal is not just to focus on impacting another part of the world; the goal is to focus on impacting the people you take with you to another part of the world, so that when you come back to your own context, you and the people who traveled with you are that much more committed to obeying the Great Commission in the context of where you live every day. In addition, many people will come back from a short-term mission trip and decide to go into more mid-term or long-term missions. Almost all of the people who have gone out from our church to serve in another country/context for 6 months, a year or two, or a lifetime, started by going on a short-term mission trip.

In all of these ways, short-term mission trips can be hugely valuable for supporting disciple-making processes in other parts of the world as well as right where we live. Through short-term, mid-term, and long-term missions, we join together with our brothers and sisters around the world as we work with all our hearts to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Trevin Wax: How does God-centered preaching lead to passion for evangelism?

David Platt: The gospel begins and ends with God. He is the holy, just, and gracious Creator of the universe who has sent His Son, God in the flesh, to bear His wrath against sin on the cross and to show His power over sin in the resurrection so that everyone who believes in Christ will be reconciled to God forever. And this is the gospel that we proclaim in evangelism.

So how do we best lead and shepherd God’s people to evangelize? By giving them a grand understanding of God. In preaching, we unfold the character of God: His holiness, His justice, His grace, and all of His other breath-taking attributes. As we magnify His Word, people behold His glory. And they believe, deep within their minds and their hearts, that God is great and greatly to be praised. In the process, this becomes the ultimate motivation for evangelism. The more the people I pastor see God’s worth, the more they want to make His worth known in the world.

So week after week after week, as I stand before them with God’s Word, I want to show them God’s worth. As they hear His Word and they see His worth, they will lay down their lives to make the good news of God’s grace and glory known to the people around them and people groups around the world. God-centered, gospel-saturated preaching is great fuel for Christ-honoring, world-embracing evangelism.

Alan Jacobs responds to Andrew Sullivan’s denouncement of “Christianism:”

I think Andrew has finally convinced me. And as I have thought more about this I have finally realized whose fault all this is: Martin Luther King. He could have stayed in his prayer closet instead of politicking; he could have attended to his own failures as a Christian, which of course were many; he could have forgiven white Southerners instead of judging them. But no. He became an “outside agitator,” marching into ordinary American communities and telling them that their local laws, and indeed in some cases federal laws, were not to be obeyed — and why? Because they conflicted with the law of God!

Michael Hyatt – “Three Lessons I Learned from Getting Fired”:

I didn’t eventually become a CEO because I made fewer mistakes than you. In fact, it’s probably just the opposite. I made more. In fact, I’ve been fired from three jobs in my career. Each of these was a very painful experience. But these experiences also taught me important lessons that I probably could not have learned any other way.

This dialogue between Ed Stetzer and Mark Dever is well worth watching:

Topics discussed: -the church as a sign of Jesus
-contemporary vs. traditional church expressions
-the regulative principle (with special reference to “smite” in this part
-contextualization and John MacArthur’s comments about such
-the role of culture and gospel presentation
-the use of humor
-why he reads his messages to damper his personality
-seeker services
-the content and nature of the gospel
-the relationship between the gospel and the kingdom
-the nature of Kingdom work
-the purpose of the church

If the economic situation is discouraging you, here’s a bit of cheer: E-Book sales are up 1000%.

One positive story in a week of terrible economic news :BookStats, a new annual statistical survey of raw sales revenue and unit data provided by nearly 2,000 publishers that is being released today, shows a lot of bright spots for the U.S. book publishing industry. Book sales are expanding, not shrinking. Between 2008 and 2010, total revenues and sale units grew for the publishing industry as a whole, while e-book revenue for trade publishers increased by 1274 percent year on year. And the data does not even account for the e-book sales surge in 2011.

A few weeks ago, I was privileged to be the guest on Focus 4, the primary program on Cornerstone TV , a nation-wide television network based in Pittsburgh, PA. We spent about 25 minutes discussing Counterfeit Gospels. This was a neat opportunity for me to give the gist of the book to a wider audience.

The media team at Moody edited down our conversation into different segments about different topics. Below are links to the videos and to the full interview.

An Overview of Counterfeit Gospels

Countering the “Therapeutic Gospel”

Countering the “Judgmentless Gospel”

Countering the “Moralistic” and “Quietist” Gospels

Countering the “Activist” and “Churchless” Gospels

Full Interview

Interesting. Mars Hill Church will no longer refer to its campuses as such, but as churches. Wondering how this change affect other multi-site churches and their ecclesiologies.

The word campus is not in the Bible. Not that it has to be. You won’t find podcast orMacBook in your concordance either (or Trinity, for that matter); that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop using these critical tools for ministry. But the Bible does give us a word to describe a body of believers gathered together on mission for Jesus: church.

In addition to being more biblical, it’s also more natural to describe our locations as churches (the term campus usually refers to academic institutions or offices) and more accurate, because every location is a church.

How to Raise a Fake Christian:

Raising kids that truly love Jesus is hard work. That’s why so many of parents settle for plan B.

What would happen if you were actually trying to raise a pretend believer? Here are some 9 steps you might take.

J.I. Packer at John Stott’s Memorial:

In celebrating John Stott’s life, British-born Canadian theologian J.I. Packer focused on Stott’s lifelong passion for sharing the true gospel of Christ with the world at a recent memorial service.

“John Stott was the most modest of men,” theologian Packer said in his sermon on August 5. “If he could have briefed me in advance for this message that I am to give now, he would most certainly have said to me, ‘Focus on Christ. Don’t focus on me.’”

Pastoral Ministry is War:

The war of the pastorate is a deeply personal war. It is fought on the ground of the pastor’s heart. It is a war of values, allegiances, and motivations. It is about subtle desires and foundational dreams. This war is the greatest threat to every pastor. Yet it is a war that we often naively ignore or quickly forget in the busyness of local church ministry.

Last month, I was glad to give the opportunity for a dozen or so bloggers to contribute posts during my blog break. Unfortunately, I overbooked the blog and was unable to post all the contributions. This post, however, was just too good to pass up. It’s written by Jacob Sweeney, a seminary student and minister of eduction who blogs about pop culture here. Enjoy!

The Preacher’s Message: The Dragon Has Been Slain

The world in which we find ourselves has lost nearly all moral language. Pop music and television glorify unhinged sexuality and violence. Even our humor seems to consider everything to be acceptable as long as its satire. Those of us who are – or want to be – preachers are faced with a difficult calling. Our context may appear different, but the challenge is the same. For me, my strongest instinct is to face the culture head-on, don my best John the Baptist costume and declare sin and repentance. But, sometimes I think preaching in morally confused world means we turn their own poets and prophets against them.

Modern Day Demi-gods

We don’t have to look far to recognize that our world is hemorrhaging in pain. Humanity is searching for a hero to deliver us. Consider the demi-gods who warred against the oppressive deities in Greek myths. I think of Aesop’s fables with its tales of evil around every tree and the impassable hero who would defeat it. Presently, the summer months are reserved for cinematic explorations of superheroes – the modern demi-god. From Harry Potter to the Green Lantern, I see an opportunity for ministers and preachers to speak directly to this world.

Every movie and every book has told them the exact same story, and every one of them is right. We do need a hero! 

Christians know that hero is Jesus Christ. Millennials and Post-moderns may not hear you at first when you speak of sin, but they will listen when you speak of a broken world and our desperate need for deliverance.

Shaping Minds and Moving Hearts

Sin’s effect on our mind can directly affect us in precisely the way we don’t expect. In other words, we don’t always know what we think we know. Our hearts can be deceived. Our brains can be misled. A good preacher knows this about himself and about his people.

Essential to the task of preaching is shaping minds according to Scripture. This requires more than an information dump. The Preacher – by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit – must fill the mind and move the heart.

As you prepare remind yourself that the Word of God is the Spirit-empowered means by which God changes people. He fills their minds and their hearts. Pray for every sermon, that the Spirit would move through the preached Word to transform hearts and minds. As much as it depends on you, preach to stir the heart and the mind.

Give Them Hope

The moral topography of contemporary culture is bleak. The cultural landscape is desolate and dreary. What carries travelers through such wretched wasteland? Hope. Preacher, don’t ever forget that the gospel is a message of hope! It does not surprise me that my generation’s native tongue is cynicism. We do not know hope!

How do we preach in a world gone mad? What is a preacher to do when facing a congregation that does not know its right from its left? He gives them hope. He tells them that the world is not what it should be; it has been devastated by rebellion. Insurrections rarely bring about beauty. Yet, the King returned. He put down the rebellion by suffering the mutineer’s fate. The very ones who sought to usurp him are now invited to his table.

G.K. Chesterton wrote:

Fairy tales do not give a child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

Most people know the dragon exists. They’re hopeful he can be defeated. The ministry of a preacher is telling people the dragon does, indeed, exist. And there is a St. George and the dragon has been slain.

Jacob Sweeney is a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute (BA) and is currently a Master of Divinity student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He writes book reviews and explorations of pop culture at his blog.  His greatest blessing is his wife, Whitney – who always believes, always hopes and always loves.