January 2005 Archives
I added the following Torrance quotation to my blog post on January 24th (entitled NT Survey lecture summary):
“In Jesus God Himself descended to the very bottom of our human existence where we are alienated and antagonistic, into the very hell of our godlessness and despair, laying fast hold of us and taking our cursed condition upon himself, in order to embrace us for ever in His reconciling love…The Gospel tells us that at His Baptism Jesus was baptized ‘into repentance’, for as the Lamb of God come to bear our sins He fulfilled that mission…in a way in which He bore our sin and guilt upon His very soul which He made an offering for sin. That is to say, the Baptism with which he was baptized was a Baptism of vicarious repentance for us which He brought to its completion on the Cross where He was stricken and smitten of God for our sakes, by whose stripes we are healed. He had laid hold of us even in the depths of our human soul and mind where we are alienated from God and are at enmity with him, and altered them from within and from below in radical and complete repentance…Sin has been so ingrained into our minds that we are unable to repent and have to repent even of the kind of repentance we bring to God. But Jesus Christ laid hold of us even there in our sinful repentance and turned everything round through His holy vicarious repentance” (Thomas F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ).
I'm leaving tomorrow (Saturday) for Minneapolis to attend John Piper's pastors' conference. The theme of this year's conference is “This is My Beloved Son”: Exulting in the Trinitarian Relationships of Jesus Christ." Bruce Ware of Southern Seminary is the keynote speaker. John Piper will also do a biographical sketch on the life and theological contributions of Athanasius. I'm confident that this year's conference will be rich in Gospel food.
I have been reading Thomas F. Torrance on the Trinity in preparation for this conference's emphasis on the Trinitarian relationships of Jesus Christ. As I was reading Torrance this morning I came across a beautiful comment by Athanasius on the trinitarian benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:14 ("The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.") that gave me great cause to worship our Triune God this morning. Anthanasius writes:
"For the grace and gift that is given is given in the Trinity, from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. As the grace given is from the Father through the Son, so we can have no communion in the gift except in the Holy Spirit. For it is when we partake of him that we have the love of the Father and the grace of the Son and the communion of the Spirit himself" (Athanasius, Ad Serapionem, 1.30.).
Indeed, the Gospel of God is a glorious Gospel!
Blessings,
Dan
"To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God" (Thomas F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, p. 155).
“After I finished my lecture Professor Jurgen Moltmann stood up and asked one of his typical questions, both concrete and penetrating, ‘But can you embrace a cetnik?’ It was the winter of 1993. For months now the notorious Serbian fighters called ‘cetnik’ had been sowing desolation in my native country, herding people into concentration camps, raping women, burning down churches, and destroying cities. I had just argued that we must embrace our enemies as God has embraced us in Christ. Can I embrace a cetnik—the ultimate other, so to speak, the evil other? What would justify the embrace? Where would I draw the strength for it? What would it do to my identity as a human being and as a Croat? It took me a while to answer, though I immediately knew what I wanted to say. ‘No, I cannot—but as a follower of Christ I think I should be able to.’
“…My thought was pulled in two different directions by the blood of the innocent crying out to God and by the blood of God’s Lamb offered for the guilty. How does one remain loyal both to the demand of the oppressed for justice and to the gift of forgiveness that the Crucified offered to the perpetrators? I felt caught between two betrayals—the betrayal of the suffering, exploited, and excluded, and the betrayal of the very core of my faith. In a sense even more disturbingly, I felt that my very faith was at odds with itself, divided between the God who delivers the needy and the God who abandons the Crucified, between the demand to bring about justice for the victims and the call to embrace the perpetrator. I knew, of course, of easy ways to resolve this powerful tension. But I also knew that they were easy precisely because they were false. Goaded by the suffering of those caught in vicious cycles of conflict, not only in my native Croatia but around the globe, I went on a journey, whose report I present in this book” (Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation by Volf Miroslav, preface).
I don’t know about you, but I think I am going to purchase and read this book.
This is a lecture summary of a lecture I am doing on Wednesday in my NT Survey c lass. I'm teaching on the baptism and temptation of Jesus. Saturday was a time of rich study for me on the Gospel.
Lecture: The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus: From a Gospel-centered Perspective
Introduction: Narrative Genre
• Two types of narrative:
(1) Historical Narrative
Key Question: What is this teaching us about God's redemptive activity? We are looking for what God is doing in the narrative to accomplish His redemptive purposes.
(2) Illustrative Narrative
Key Question: What does this narrative illustrate by way of example?
• The temptation: To interpret historical narrative as illustrative narrative.
I. What is the Baptism and Temptation of Jesus there for?
A. Note the flow of the context
1. Matthew 1:1-2 – “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ”
a. “The son of David” – Matthew is telling us two things. First, he is telling us that he is primarily presenting Jesus as King. Secondly, he is telling us that Jesus is God’s special Anointed Servant (2 Samuel 5:1-4; 7:16; Psalm 132:11; Jeremiah 23:5-6). The fact that Jesus is the anointed son of David is huge.
b. “The son of Abraham” – Once again Matthew is telling us two things. First, he is telling us that Jesus is THE seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:17; Galatians 3:16). Second, he is telling us that it is through THE seed of Abraham that God first blesses Israel and then the nations (Acts 3:25-26; Genesis 22:18).
2. Matthew 1:18-23 – “Now the birth of Jesus Christ”
a. “An angel of the Lord appeared to” Joseph (v. 20). Notice how the angel addresses Joseph: “Joseph, son of David.” Matthew is intending that we do not forget to connect the birth narrative with the summary of Jesus’ genealogy (1:2). So Matthew is saying, “Now remember that the one to be born is THE son of David.
b. The nature of the conception (v. 20): “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” So we are immediately told that this conception is absolutely unique. There is something going on here that is utterly unlike anything that has ever happened in the history of mankind. This in itself indicates that the biblical history of the OT is reaching its intended climax.
c. The name of the son of David (v. 21): “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” This son of David, son of Abraham has an entirely unique mission in life. His mission is to save his people from their sins. That is why he is being conceived from the Holy Spirit. That is why he is being born from the womb of Mary.
d. Why did all this take place (v. 22-23)? “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet…” This is God’s doing to bring about the climax of redemptive history.
3. Every scene from Matthew 1:22 to the baptism of Jesus. (3:13-17) centers around the fulfillment of OT Scripture. Matthew 2:5 (“it is written by the prophet”); 2:13-15 (“this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet”); 2:16-18 (“Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah”); 2:19-23 (“And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’”); and 3:1-12 (“this is he [John the Baptist] who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah”).
• The entire flow of Matthew up until the baptism and temptation narratives tells us that the one who is to be baptized and tempted is (1) the anointed son of David, (2) the seed of Abraham through whom Israel and the nations will be blessed, (3) the one who was conceived from the Holy Spirit, (4) the one who will save his people from their sins, (5) the one who is the fulfillment of OT prophecy, and (6) the one who is the climax of redemptive history.
• So what kind of narrative are we dealing with in Matthew 3:13-4:11, illustrative or historical? We are dealing with historical, that is, we are dealing with narrative that tells us something of how God has worked in history to accomplish redemption.
B. What is Matthew 3:13-4:11 there for? It’s there to tell us something of how God has worked within history to save his people from their sins, how God has worked within history to bless all the nations of the earth.
II. What does the baptism of Jesus teach us?
Remember: We are thinking in terms of what it teaches us about how God has worked to save us rather than how it illustrates how we should live.
A. What was the baptism of John the Baptist? (Matthew 3:13)
1. Matthew 3:11 – It was a baptism for (with a view to) repentance.
2. Notice the emphasis on repentance from the very start of chapter 3 (3:2, 5-6, 7-8, 11). So very clearly this baptism represents the confession of sin, a whole life embracing of the Lord whose way John is preparing. John’s entire ministry was a calling on people to repent of their sins in preparation for the one who would save them from their sins, namely, Jesus (1:21).
B. Why did Jesus come to John to receive this baptism?
1. Notice John’s reaction (3:13-14).
2. How does Jesus answer him (3:15)? “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Thus far in Matthew every reference to the fulfillment of Scripture was within the context of God bringing redemptive history to its climax by saving His people from their sins in the person of His Son.
• Therefore we should understand Jesus’ statement within that same context.
3. What does Jesus mean?
a. Now remember that Matthew has already identified Jesus as the son of David promised to David in the OT. I think it’s important at this stage to consider the first significant thing that David did shortly after he was anointed by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:12-13; 17:1-58).
• Note that as soon as Samuel anointed David verse 13 says, “And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward.”
• 1 Samuel 17:45-47. The anointed of God stepped forward to show that God saves His people not with sword and spear but through His anointed and through His anointed alone.
• Verse 50, “There was no sword in the hand of David.”
• Verse 52. Israel experienced victory over the Philistines through God’s anointed as their representative. Israel did not lift a finger. The entire victory came to them through God’s anointed their representative.
b. Matthew has already identified Jesus as the son of David (1:1, 20), and Scripture makes it very clear immediately following David’s anointed that he acted as the salvivic representative of his people Israel.
c. So why did Jesus go to be baptized by John and what did he mean when he said that it must be done “to fulfill all righteousness”?
Isaiah 53:11-12 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. [12] Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors
• Remember, why did Jesus come? Answer: “to save his people from their sins” (1:21).
• T.F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ – “In Jesus God Himself descended to the very bottom of our human existence where we are alienated and antagonistic, into the very hell of our godlessness and despair, laying fast hold of us and taking our cursed condition upon himself, in order to embrace us for ever in His reconciling love…The Gospel tells us that at His Baptism Jesus was baptized ‘into repentance’, for as the Lamb of God come to bear our sins He fulfilled that mission…in a way in which He bore our sin and guilt upon His very soul which He made an offering for sin. That is to say, the Baptism with which he was baptized was a Baptism of vicarious repentance for us which He brought to its completion on the Cross where He was stricken and smitten of God for our sakes, by whose stripes we are healed. He had laid hold of us even in the depths of our human soul and mind where we are alienated from God and are at enmity with him, and altered them from within and from below in radical and complete repentance…Sin has been so ingrained into our minds that we are unable to repent and have to repent even of the kind of repentance we bring to God. But Jesus Christ laid hold of us even there in our sinful repentance and turned everything round through His holy vicarious repentance” (Thomas F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ).
C. What happened when Jesus came up out of the water?
Matthew 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
III. What was the temptation of Jesus?
A. Note the way both the baptism and temptation narratives begin.
1. Matthew 3:13 – “Then Jesus came…”
2. Matthew 4:1 – “Then Jesus was led…”
• This is the author’s way of telling us that these two events in the life of Jesus are to be taken together. They are not unrelated events. Both are extremely important in understanding the mission of Christ in saving his people from their sins.
B. Note what Matthew says about the Spirit.
1. Matthew has already informed us that Jesus was conceived from the Holy Spirit (1:18). Then he tells us that after his baptism the Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove and rested upon him (1:16). Then Matthew says that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (4:1).
2. This leading of the Spirit was in perfect concert with Jesus’ mission as Israel’s sin bearing substitute. Matthew 4 continues the record of Jesus’ vicarious activity as the one who will save his people from their sins. Its purpose is not to tell us how we can be victorious over the temptations that we face in life. There are plenty of other texts in Scripture that do that for us. This particular temptation text continues the account of Jesus’ vicarious mission to deliver his people.
C. Note the nature of the temptation.
1. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil himself (4:1). It’s significant that the devil tempts him audibly, that is, the temptation comes to him from without through the spoken words of the devil.
“and the tempter came and said to him” (4:3)
“then the devil…said to him” (4:5-6)
“again, the devil took him…and said to him” (4:8-9)
• This in itself indicates that what we have here is not illustrative of how we are to fight temptation when we are tempted. Why? Because the devil does not come up to us and tempt us by talking to us. Matthew is telling us that this is a very unusual thing happening to Jesus.
2. Where is the only other place in Scripture where the devil tempts a man by speaking to him? Genesis 3
D. Note the differences between the devil’s temptation of Adam and Eve and his temptation of Jesus.
1. Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, the Paradise of God. Jesus was led by the Spirit of God into the barren wilderness.
2. Adam and Eve were well fed and satisfied (Genesis 2:16). Jesus had not eaten for forty days and forty nights.
E. What is the point of this temptation narrative?
• Where the first Adam failed in ideal circumstances, the Second Adam succeeded in the worst of circumstances (Note Romans 5:18-19)
Romans 5:18-19 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. [19] For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
• This connection with Adam and Eve tells us that God sent His Son not only to bless Israel but to bless all the families of the earth with salvation (Acts 3:25-26).
F. How did Jesus fight temptation? Through faith in God’s word. Where Adam and Eve failed to believe God’s word in the best of circumstances, Jesus believed God’s word in the worst of circumstances. Where Israel failed to believe God’s word in the wilderness (40 years), Jesus believed God’s word in the wilderness. Jesus fought temptation through faith. And just as Jesus’ baptism was vicarious so was his faith vicarious.
IV. What is Matthew’s Good News?
A. Two-fold message:
1. Matthew is demonstrating that Jesus was consecrated as the Messiah, and that he, the Anointed of God, became one with us by bearing the guilt of our sin and offering to God a vicarious repentance.
2. Matthew is demonstrating that Jesus was consecrated as the Messiah, and that he, the Anointed of God, became one with us by conquering temptation by offering to God a vicarious faith.
B. Should the way Matthew begins influence the way we understand the life of Christ as recorded in the Gospels?
1. Yes, it tells us that Jesus, God become man, lived a vicarious life.
2. Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace –
3. T.F. Torrance on the redemptive significance of the Hypostatic Union –
“In Jesus God Himself descended to the very bottom of our human existence where we are alienated and antagonistic, into the very hell of our godlessness and despair, laying fast hold of us and taking our cursed condition upon himself, in order to embrace us for ever in His reconciling love…The Gospel tells us that at His Baptism Jesus was baptized ‘into repentance’, for as the Lamb of God come to bear our sins He fulfilled that mission…in a way in which He bore our sin and guilt upon His very soul which He made an offering for sin. That is to say, the Baptism with which he was baptized was a Baptism of vicarious repentance for us which He brought to its completion on the Cross where He was stricken and smitten of God for our sakes, by whose stripes we are healed. He had laid hold of us even in the depths of our human soul and mind where we are alienated from God and are at enmity with him, and altered them from within and from below in radical and complete repentance…Sin has been so ingrained into our minds that we are unable to repent and have to repent even of the kind of repentance we bring to God. But Jesus Christ laid hold of us even there in our sinful repentance and turned everything round through His holy vicarious repentance” (Thomas F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ).
Martin Luther wrote that when Jesus was on the cross, His Father was essentially saying to Him:
"You are now Peter, the liar; Paul, the persecutor; David, the adulterer; Adam, the disobedient; the thief on the cross. You, My Son, must pay for the world's iniquity” (Luther’s Commentary on Galatians).
And the Father did this for our salvation!!!
When I left the house last Tuesday morning, there were 10 inches of snow on the ground. By 2:00pm the temperature was between 60 and 65 degrees. Obviously, the snow started melting. Then rain arrived sometime after midnight. When I took our dog out at 6:00am, it was still raining and there was no snow to be seen. The temperature was still around 60. Within an hour and a half the temperature dropped approximately 30 degrees, and the heavy rain turned into a heavy snow storm. By the time I left my office to walk to my 8:00am class the ground was once again covered with snow (and the snow showed no signs of letting up).
The picture below (taken of the trees in our front yard) demonstrates what happens when snow hits branches that have been drenched with rain for 6 hours. That is snow on those branches. It’s not ice! I was reminded afresh at how the glory of God is seen in turning a dreary rain into a beautiful snow that takes the breath away. God does this in creation, and He does it in redemption. Psalm 30:11-12, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”
God Calls Dr. Jack Arnold to Glory (Scott Anderson made me aware of the circumstances of his death. They are quite remarkable.)
On Sunday morning, January 9, Dr. Jack L. Arnold was transported to the presence of Christ. Jack was preaching during morning worship and as he approached the conclusion of his sermon on the cost of discipleship, as he passionately exhorted us to live for Christ and anticipate going to be with Him when your earthly work is completed, Jack paused, looked up briefly, and fell to the ground. Despite the courageous efforts of numerous members in the congregation and the Oviedo Rescue Department, Jack died from a massive cardiac arrest.
While we grieve our loss of this wonderful servant, we do not grieve without hope. Rather we grieve the loss of companionship and leadership that Jack gave, but we celebrate the example he left, the people he taught and mentored over the years, and we celebrate his final words: “To me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
Conclusion of Jack Arnold’s final sermon:
The following words are taken from the text of Jack Arnold’s notes for Sunday. Though he departed slightly from the notes, he was in this final section, approaching the conclusion when he was taken home to be with the Lord. Read and consider the conclusion he intended to speak:
Christians often have a horrible fear that if they really commit to Christ, becoming a radical in His kingdom, they will suffer so terribly and their lives will be miserable. But what does Jesus say?
The Apostle Peter also questioned whether following Christ was really worth it, and Christ gave him a direct answer.
Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (Matthew 19:28-30).
Was Christ jerking us around? Was He lying to us? His words are either true or false. If they are false promises, Christ is a liar, and He is not worth following. Let us go out and eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. If they are true promises, then not to follow Christ would be the biggest mistake any person could ever make. Not to follow Christ, will cost one his or her soul!
CONCLUSION
What the church needs today are true disciples, outspoken followers of Christ, and bold believers. We need radical Christians that spread the good news of Christ through love and persuasion, not through force and killing. We need men and women who are willing to suffer for the gospel and die for it if called upon to do so.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, said, “Give me one hundred men who love God and hate sin, and we will turn the world up side down for Christ!” Wesley almost did it in his generation.
I say to you, “Give me one hundred men or women that love God and hate sin, and we will turn the world up side down for Christ!” I think I could find one hundred men and women who loved Christ in America, but I am not sure I could find one hundred men and women in America that hate sin.
We Christians just have one life to give, so let us give it for Christ and His kingdom, for eternal values and for the glory of God.
“This life will soon be past. Only what is done for Christ will last.”
More from the Associated Press:
Preacher Dies During Sermon About Heaven
OVIEDO, Fla. - A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying "And when I go to heaven ...," his colleague said Monday.
The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church in this Orlando suburb when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beates, associate pastor at Covenant Presbyterian.
Before collapsing, Arnold quoted the 18th century Bible scholar, John Wesley, who said, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done ... I go to be with Jesus," Beates said in a telephone interview.
Several members of the congregation with medical backgrounds tried to revive the minister and paramedics were called, but Arnold appeared to die instantly, Beates said.
Arnold had been the senior minister at the church until the late 1990s when he began traveling to Africa and the Middle East to teach pastors. The cause of death was believed to be cardiac arrest. He had bypass surgery five years earlier.
Beates also recounted Arnold's death in an e-mail he sent to members of the Central Florida Presbytery.
"We were stunned," Beates said. "It was traumatic, but how wonderful it was he died in his own church among the people he loved the most."
More details sent to me from Scott Anderson (the account was written by Desiring God's video producer, Scott Smith):
Below is the account of the PCA pastor who died during preaching a sermon last Sunday. It's the kind of account I don't belive on the internet but comes first hand from Mike Beates who is an assistant pastor at the church and used to work in the education department at Ligonier. From what I've heard the account has aired on Fox & Paul Harvey.
Subject: Dr. Jack L. Arnold, 1935-2005
Fathers and Brothers of the Central Florida Presbytery, Today our brother Jack Arnold is with Christ in glory. He was preaching today at Covenant Presbyterian on the cost of discipleship. As he neared the end of the sermon he spoke of his favorite verse "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." He quoted Wesley saying, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal.
But when my work for Christ is done,"and he slapped his hands together toward the sky saying, "I am outa here! Idon't know about you, but when my work is done, I go to be with Jesus.
And that will be gain! And when I go to heaven, . . . ." At this point, Jack paused briefly, looked up, swayed slightly and grabbed the podium before falling back to the floor. And he was gone.
Several members of the congregation worked on him until Oviedo EMTs arrived but all appearances were that the Lord took him quickly and completely. The congregation remained in their seats until the EMTs entered the building then we moved to the fellowship hall to continue to pray before dismissing the people with prayer and benediction. Pray for Carol Arnold, who is strong in faith, but missing her husband already. Her testimony was that Jack was singing hymn around the house this morning for more than 30 minutes as he prepared to preach. Pray also for the 4 Arnold boys as they travel to Orlando. Finally pray for Covenant Presbyterian Church Oviedo as we minister to our people who heard a great sermon but then saw this dear saint die in their midst. Give God all the glory. Blessings to you all,
Scott
On January 6th I posted a quotation that I was planning on using in my January 12th sermon. BBC's president, Jim Jeffrey, gave me the opportunity to introduce a 3-part series (each message by a different Bible faculty member) on personal holiness this first week of school. The title of my January 6th post was "a mere outline of a human being." The title of my sermon was "Personal Holiness: More than a Mere Outline of a Human Being." If you are interested, you can listen to it by downloading the link below (right-c lick and then c lick on "save as" to download).
another pic of the Cruver home
These pics are looking out into our back yard from our kitchen.
"Men after God's heart return to the Gospel because they know they forget the Gospel. Even ministers of the Gospel neglect the Gospel. The New Testament shows that even the apostles sometimes forgot the Gospel, as we see in an oddly comforting episode from the life of Peter.
"In Acts 10, God welcomed a Roman centurion named Cornelius into the family of God by faith alone, without works, without giving up his Gentile heritage. God chose Peter to preach the Gospel to Cornelius, a 'God-fearing' Gentile (v. 2), but Peter had a hard time accepting it. Before Peter would be willing to go to Cornelius, God had to send him a vision of a sheet lowered from Heaven, holding all kinds of clean and unclean animals. Three times God said, 'Rise, Peter, kill and eat.' Three times Peter refused: 'Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impore or unclean.' And three times a voice from Heaven said, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean' (vv. 11-16). While Peter wondered what this might mean, Cornelius' servants arrived at Peter's house, seeking him. Peter had no idea who they were, but the Spirit told Peter, 'Do not hesitate to go with them' (vv. 17-22). Peter must have been shocked when he found that the men were Gentiles, but he obeyed and went. When Peter arrived at Cornelius' house, a crowd of Gentiles awaited him. When Peter greeted them, he told them God had sent him. The he asked, 'May I ask why you sent for me?' (vv. 24-29).
"When I read this question, I want to laugh and tell him, 'Peter, you are an apostle, a herald of the Gospel! Surely you know why God sent you there!' But Cornelius did not laugh. Instead he urged Peter to present his message: 'It was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us' (v. 33).
"then Peter began to preach: 'I know realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right' (vv. 34-35). Again I want to laugh at Peter, to shake him. 'Peter, how can you say, 'I now realize.' Surely you knew before. You saw Jesus heal Gentiles, talk to Samaritans, and purge demoniacs from Gadara or Phorenicia --Matthew 15; John 4; Luke 8. How can you say, 'I now realize God accepts people from every nation'? Surely you already knew that.'
"We laugh at Peter. Yet like Peter, we know and we don't know. We know the Gospel, but we need to grasp it more deeply, more truly. We all have moments when we think, 'Now I realize; now I understand the Gospel'" (Dan Doriani, The Life of a God-made Man, pp. 29-30)."
I found this insightful quotation in preparation for a sermon I am preaching in chapel on January 12th. It is a powerful reminder of my profound need of the gospel.
"All idolatry is not only treacherous but also futile. Human desire, deep and restless and seemingly unfulfillable, keeps stuffing itself with finite goods, but these cannot satisfy. If we try to fill our hearts with anything besides the God of the universe, we find that we are overfed but undernourished, and we find that day by day, week by week, year after year, we are thinning down to a mere outline of a human being" (Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It's Suposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, pp. 122-123).
It reminds me of the words of Bilbo: "I feel thin--sort of stretched like butter scraped over too much bread. I need a holiday, a very long holiday, and I don't expect I shall return. In fact, I mean not to!" I would just change one thing in Bilbo's statement of need: "I need the Gospel, all of it, and I don't mean to stop feeding upon it!"
I am 25 pages away from completing The Fellowship of the Ring again. Since I am a Bible teacher I am always on the lookout for illustrative material for use in my lectures. I finished my reading of LOTR last night with a section that is just begging for spiritual application. So I want to give all my fellow Gospel-loving Lord of the Rings fans (especially Rick!) the opportunity to share how you would make spiritual application from the following LOTR selection.
Context: The members of the fellowship have just received their parting gifts from Galadriel. Gimili talks with Legolas about his experience as they depart Lothlorien on the Great River.
“Suddenly the River swept round a bend, and the banks rose upon either side, and the light of Lorien was hidden…The travelers now turned their faces to the journey; the sun was before them, and their eyes were dazzled, for all were filled with tears. Gimli wept openly.
“‘I have looked the last upon that which was fairest,’ he said to Legolas his companion. ‘Henceforward I will call nothing fair, unless it be her gift.’ He put his hand to his breast.
“‘Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Gloin!’
“‘Nay!’ said Legolas. ‘Alas for us all! And for all that walk the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream. But I count you blessed, Gimli son of Gloin: for your loss you suffer of your own free will, and you might have chosen otherwise. But you have not forsaken your companions, and the least reward that you shall have is that the memory of Lothlorien shall remain ever clear and unstained in your heart, and shall neither fade nor grow stale.’
“‘Maybe,’ said Gimli; ‘and I thank you for your words. True words doubtless, yet all such comfort is cold. Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it c lear as Kheled-zaram’” (pp. 394-395).
