Jesus Seminar - Part 1

Mark the evangelist allows us to listen in on a conversation between Jesus and his disciples where Jesus asks the question “Who do people say that I am?”[1]  This question has troubled mankind and the church for the last two millennia.  In 451 AD the church attempted an answer at Chalcedon with the following statement:

Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.[2]

Christendom on the whole accepted this creed as the definitive answer for the next thirteen hundred years.  However, in the eighteenth century Hermann Samuel Reimarus, a professor of oriental language in Hamburg, Germany, influenced Gotthold Lessing to write “The accidental truths of history can never become the proof of necessary truths of reason”[3] and with this the quest for the historical Jesus began.  Across Lessing’s “broad ugly ditch of History”[4] men tried to piece together a picture of Jesus that seemed reasonable, less miraculous.  One of the American Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, “cut and pasted together only those passages that made sense to him”[5].  This quest has had its starts and stops, but we seem to find ourselves today “in the midst of a cultural paradigm shift”[6] when it comes to Christology.  Every Easter and Christmas brings with it a flurry of television and print articles that question all aspects of orthodox Christology.  For example, the cover story for the March 28^th 2005 issue of Newsweek was titled “How Jesus Became the Christ”[7].  The idea that the early Christians “backfilled” much of the gospel’s words figured heavily in this story.  A leading protagonist in this story is The Jesus Seminar.   According to the Jesus Seminar Forum, the official web site of the Jesus Seminar, the seminar was “convened in 1985 by Robert W. Funk, [it] has become a lightning rod for international debate about the "historical Jesus" - that is, the real facts about the person to whom various Christian gospels refer. The Seminar's on-going project has been to evaluate the historical significance of every shred of evidence about Jesus from antiquity (about 30-200 CE). Over the past twenty years more than 200 scholars from North America & beyond have participated in its semi-annual meetings.”[8]  One could hardly think of a more noble endeavor than to “study the real facts about the historical Jesus”.  But, is this attempt a “landmark work of exceptional quality” as reviewed by Encounter Magazine[9] or simply “blasphemous” as many right-wing conservatives have exclaimed?  What exactly are the conclusions reached by the 200 imminent scholars paneled for this seminar and how should their conclusions effect the way we live, teach, and relate to this Jesus of Nazareth?

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[1] Mark 8:27 ESV

[2] Council of Chalcedon.  As quoted in The Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics. [On Line Source]; available from http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=chalcedon.html; internet.

[3] Millard J Erickson. The Word Became Flesh. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1991), 112.

[4] Donald Macloed. The Person of Christ. (Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 1998), 109.

[5] Thomas Jefferson. The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. (Boston:  Beacon Press, 1989), vii.

[6]  Erickson, 12.

[7] Jon Meachem. “How Jesus Became Christ:  From Resurrection to The Rise of Christianity,” Newsweek, 28 March 2005, 38.

[8] Jesus Seminar. The Jesus Seminar Forum. [On Line Source] http://virtualreligion.net/forum/index.html; Internet.

[9] Robert W Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels: What did Jesus Really Say? (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,  1993), i.

"Show Me" Sermon Notes

I. So
   a. Look Back (1:29-30)
   b. So. . . (v 2:1)
       i. If there is any Encouragement in Christ
       ii. Any Comfort from Love
       iii. Any Participation in the Spirit
       iv. Any Affection and Sympathy
II. Complete My Joy (v 2:2)
   a. Same Mind (As me)
   b. Same Love (As me)
   c. Full Accord d. One Mind
III. Unity for Dummies (2:3-4)
IV. Show me
   a. Jesus (2:5-8)
   b. Timothy (2:19-24)
   c. Epaphroditus (2:25-26)
V. In Christ = Humble Service (Mark 9:33-35)

Seven "Rules" of Bible Study

1. The context rules when interpreting the text.

2. The text must be interpreted in light of all Scripture.

3. Scripture will never contradict itself.

4. Scripture should be interpreted literally (or naturally according to its genre).

5. Do not develop doctrine from obscure or difficult passages.

6. Discover the author’s original intended meaning and honor that meaning.

7. Check your conclusions using reliable resources.

How to Study the Bible

I. STUDY THE BOOK AS A WHOLE.

a. Consider the questions of date, authorship, recipients, and purpose (general matters of introduction.) b. Develop an outline of the entire book (study Bibles and commentaries will be helpful).
c. Examine the relationship of the passage under consideration in both its near and far context.

II. ESTABLISH THE BEST TEXTUAL BASE POSSIBLE: 

a. Use the original language if you can. (Strongs/E-Sword are great tools to do this)
b. Compare various versions and translations.

III. INVESTIGATE THE TEXT LINGUISTICALLY (E.G. WORD BY WORD).

a. Make a lexical (definitional) study of crucial words.
b. Research the passage for key words, phrases, and ideas.
c. Track the verbs! d. Cross Reference.

 IV. EXAMINE THE FORM OR FORMS OF THE MATERIAL IN THE PASSAGE.

a. What is the literary type (history, poetry, prophetic, apocalyptic)?
b. What literary devices are used? c. Is there any indication of the life situation from which the material came?

 V. ANALYZE THE STRUCTURE OF THE PASSAGE.

a. Determine if the material constitutes a literary unity.
b. Is there a logical sequence of ideas present?
c. Isolate the basic themes or emphases.
d. Outline the passage you are studying. Use the outline as the framework for your teaching.

Good Stuff!

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!” (Ps 97:1). “Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (Ps 67:3-4). But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. Missionaries will never call out, “Let the nations be glad!” who cannot say from the heart, “I rejoice in the Lord…I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High” (Ps 104:34, 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.” –John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993/2003), 17.

Towards a Theology of Fitness Part 1

Most of my life I would have scoffed at the idea that one should develop a theology of fitness. A theology of work, yes, a theology of marriage-absolutely, but fitness, nah. Seriously, the people who focus on that sort of thing are the granola eatin’ momma’s boys who take one statement by Paul, isogete it beyond recognition and then paint it on the wall of their Jesus gym. 1 Timothy 4:8 says “for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” I think that taking this verse and trying to suggest that Paul is trying to get Timothy to begin “pumping iron" is abandoning the natural reading of the text, and more than just a little bit silly. But, I have seen “bodily exercise profits" on the walls of at least two YMCA’s. The same holds true for Paul’s athlete analogies; A simple reading (not a study mind you – just reading) will inform one to realize that Paul is using a commonly held cultural ideal to make a point about spiritual things. To take these analogous images and use them to teach fitness is, to me, an unconscionable mishandling of the Scripture. 

So, for all these reasons I merrily ate my fried bologna sandwich surrounded by my books and got fat nasty and disgusting, laughing at the Under Armour wearing fools out there in the cold (or the heat as the case may be.) But then, I was invited to go to Nepal to help a member of my church teach, train, and equip pastors. I was going to get to go to a foreign land and impact the Church of my King by teaching His servants how to preach expositional sermons. Now this is my sort of thing. The route we were to take to get to the “seminar"was described to me like this: “We will fly out of Kathmandu to city X and then take a bus to town Y, and in town Y we will get a taxi to take us ‘as far as it goes’, and then we will walk the rest of the way.” “How far do you think that might be?” I asked. With a chuckle my host said “That depends on where the Taxi will go no more”. I couldn't tell at this point whether my friend was messing with my mind, if I was having trouble with his broken English, or the situation was really this nebulous. After several minutes of wrangling with the language I was able to determine that I should be prepared to walk 20 kilometers with a pack full of all my stuff, to preach the gospel. As a former Marine I knew it was possible that I had gotten in up to my neck. As I leaned on the counter to catch my breath from walking to the fridge, I slowly ate a Swiss Cake Roll and thought about the changes that I was going to have to make in the next few months. 

 The preparation was simple, I bought a good heavy pack and filled it with commentaries and Greek word studies until it was about 50lbs and walked. The first day I almost got out of my office, and then I was able to make it to the front door and so on until I was walking about 5 miles a day with my pack. I am pretty sure that my neighbors thought I had finally lost my ever-loving mind as I plodded around the community with all 5 kids in tow and Wuest falling out of my pack. But, I was ready - I thought. As you have probably already surmised the terrain in western Nepal (what with the Himalayas and everything) was a good bit different than the piedmont of North Carolina, and the mental/spiritual exhaustion of the actual work I had traveled to perform made the walking up and down the mountains all the more difficult. I returned to the United States a different man and wouldn't trade those two weeks of crushing for anything. This is not the place to discuss all the things God taught me in Nepal, but I did have a bit of an epiphany about fitness. I heard John Piper say in a sermon one time something near this “If you do not possess a passport you are not in God’s will.” His point, I think, was this: If you are not prepared to answer the call of your king at a moment’s notice then you are presuming upon God not calling you to serve him outside of the country. When I heard this I patted my passport, said Amen, you tell ‘em, smiled and moved on. But, if this principle is correct, if I am to be ready to be scrambled in the service of my king immediately then fitness becomes an issue of the Gospel. 

Things began to crystallize in my mind. If everything God has given me is to be used by Him for the furtherance of the gospel – If my home,my marriage, my money is a gift given as  equipment to be used in the service of my King then is my body any different? 2 Timothy 4:1-2 says “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” If I study diligently to be obedient to this passage - am I assuming upon WHERE I am to preach the gospel. I confess as sin that yes I was. I was living my life as if God could not possibly send me to preach his gospel somewhere that required that I walk further than from the car to the pulpit. 

In Nepal, one morning I stood with two Nepalese Pastors as they looked across the mountains and said “there is a village on that mountain that has not heard the gospel”, and “we need to send someone over there with Jesus” and as this conversation continued I realized that because of my American mindset it had never crossed my mind that God might ask ME to walk to “that village" and preach the gospel, and that right then at that moment I COULD NOT do so because I was physically unable, and that made me ashamed of my sin. So, for me the first point in my theology of fitness is simply this. I must be ready at all times to respond to the call of my King to take the gospel wherever he sends me. This would include my spiritual walk in that I must be in constant communion with my savior so that I am ready. This would include my mental preparation in that I study and equip myself to preach and respond and hold Jesus up. And now I realize that this would include physical preparation in that I must be prepared and equipped to physically go should the call come.

Super Easy Chicken Soup

This is my recipe for a Chicken Soup that we really love and is fairly easy. Each one of the kids like the carrots cut differently, so I have to cut a few carrots length ways for William, like coins for Lizzy, and chopped up for Emily and Molly.  If you can normalize the carrot it only takes about 10 minutes to get ready for the simmering.

yield: 6 2-cup servings

2 Tbsp butter
6 celery stalks, sliced (leaves too)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 large carrots, quartered and diced
2 cups roasted chicken or turkey
12 cups water
3 chicken bouillon cubes (the big ones)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp tarragon
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup brown rice

1. In a large stockpot, melt butter. Add celery, onion, and carrots; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer 40 minutes or until rice is done.


Prayer

John 15:5-9 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

I.  Abide
     A. I in you
     B. You in me
     C. My words in you.
II. Not Abiding
III. Fruit Bearing
    A. That's the point
    B.  By this My Father is glorified
IV. Imprecatory Psalms

Psalms 35, 58, 59, 69, 109, and 139 were written by David to ask God to bring judgment upon his enemies. (The other two imprecatory psalms, 79 and 137, were written by Asaph and an unknown psalmist.)

Great Read

Reading around on the Internet this evening while watching the game (Roll Tigers Roll) and I came across this post from Tim Challies.  This really convicted me, so I thought I would share it with you guys.

I'm Better Than You

January 06, 2014
I’m kind of a jerk. For as long as I’ve been able to think about myself, my heart, my life, I’ve known that I’m a sinful person. I’ve never doubted the reality of my depravity. And if there ever had been any doubt, being married and having children and immersing myself in a local church has provided all the proof I, and they, need.
But lately I’ve been considering one simple and disturbing aspect of this sin: I’m better than you. At least, this is what I believe in most of life’s situations. I’m just plain better than you. Somewhere deep inside I believe it’s true and too often I live and act like it’s true.This is the old sin of pride, I suppose, the one we talk about so often but deal with so seldom, the one many people put at the root of all sin. And it’s amazing to me how much of my sin comes down to it. I think I’m better than you. Too often I’m just plain convinced of it.
When you choose to go left, my heart judges and condemns you because I am convinced it would have been better to go right. I don’t have nearly all the information you have, and probably only half the wisdom, yet in my heart I am convinced you would have made a far better decision if only you would have asked me to guide you.
When you lead your ministry, I have trouble following because I see all the things you are doing wrong, all the ignorant decisions you are making. I don’t know much about children’s ministry or music ministry or evangelism ministry or whatever else it is you lead, but I still have it all figured out. Come chat and I’ll be glad to set you straight.
When you are given a privilege or responsibility, something that puts you in a position of trust or authority, I am certain that the privilege should have gone to me. I suppose you will do okay, but I think we all know I would have done better. After all, I’m better than you.
This thread, this conviction of my own superiority, runs deep in the background of my life. If you’re honest with yourself, you may well find that it’s in your life as well.
It matters. It matters because while God calls us toward Christlikeness, we prefer to call others toward us-likeness. God calls us to hold all things up to the light of his Word, while we prefer to hold all things up to the light of our own judgments and our own determinations. Ultimately, we all long for conformity to us rather than to Christ.
This makes us useless counselors. We are useless counselors unless we can counsel from Scripture and toward holiness rather than from our own arrogance and toward conformity to us. This makes us miserable because we are always convinced life would be easier and better if only others were more like us. This lessens our usefulness to God and his kingdom because we spend so much of our time lamenting all the things others are doing wrong rather than joining them in doing things their way. This increases our sin and hinders our holiness.
I’m kind of a jerk, I know it, and still I have the audacity to want you to be like me. It’s baffling. It’s gross. It’s sin. It’s pride.

Already

This morning while beginning to prepare for the upcoming series on Philippians I was reading H. A. Ironsides commentary and in the introduction he posits that the theme of the book is "Christ is All".  He outlines the book as follows:

 I. Christ as our life

II. Christ our example

III.Christ our object 

IV. Christ our strength and supply 

WOW!!! That is good stuff. 

I am so excited about what God has to say to NGBC through the book of Philippians. Just think how much of an impact it would have on the Body of Christ at North Glencoe if Jesus were *really* enough for us. How diffrently we would act if we lived out: 

"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." 

Join with me the next few weeks in reading the Book of Philippians and praying that God would make us more like Jesus through the reading of His word.

A Timely Prayer

So far to go 

(Taken from Valley of Vision)

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Your mind in The Word, of neglect to seek You in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I thank You that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Father, Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Lord, please do not let the passions of the flesh nor the lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but God rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank You that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Your patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Your rule. I thank You for Your wisdom and Your love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If You should give me a choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Your grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in only You. Then I shall bless You, God of jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.