Sermon Notes for Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

The Arrogance of Man and the Cross of Christ
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
January 30, 2011

We love lists! We have top tens for just about everything. Suppose you were tasked with making a list of the sins God hates the most. What would top the list? In fact, such a list does indeed exist, noting seven things that the God whose Name is Love ‘hates’. It’s in Proverbs 6, and there we discover what’s number one in the sin power ranking: “Haughty eyes” – the sin of Pride.

The sin of pride lies at the root of human rebellion. “You can be your own god” the serpent cleverly lied to our first parents. It’s a delicious deception, and leads us to the worship of our own will, and our own power.
• Nietzsche: “I call Christianity the one great curse, the one enormous and innermost perversion, the one great instinct of revenge, for which no means are too venomous, too underhand, too underground and too petty - I call it the one immortal blemish of mankind." (from The Twilight of the Idols, 1888)
• He went on to teach that God was dead and as a consequence humanity must value power and the will to have that power no matter what as the supreme virtue. Christianity taught the horror that weakness was to be valued and the weak cared for. "No!", shouted Nietzsche. We must usher in the 'superman' and the nihilistic kingdom.
• CS Lewis: The Center of Christian morals.

This arrogant self-sufficiency and self-idolizing is countered by the gracious humility of the God of the cross. He saves by an act of power that appears to be weakness in the sight of the powers, by an act of eternal wisdom that appears to be folly in the eyes of the wise. This is more than clear in the passage we’ve just read. The approach of the world to virtue and vice, to certainty and wisdom, are completely antithetical to the revelation of God in the Cross.

But Paul isn’t writing to the world. And there’s the rub.

While this is true in relationship to the world and its ‘way of life’ (which of course is the way that leads to death - Proverbs 14:12!), Paul’s chief concern is with the continuing arrogance of the Corinthian Church. Their prideful divisions make more than evident that they have not been gripped by the reality of the Cross of Christ.

They may well view the Cross as a Door rather than a Way, as an introduction to God rather than a relationship with him. They have not yet embraced the humility of God and started living as citizens of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, a realm characterized by the eternal values of poverty of spirit, meekness, mourning, and spiritual hunger. Claiming to be ‘King’s Kids’, the Corinthians were living like obese five year olds and arguing with one another over spiritual gifts as though they were toys or a game.

I. The Insanity of the Prideful Church
That Paul is dealing with the sinful pride of Christians rather than the sinful pride of the world in this passage, seeking to establish a new lowliness and humility in the Corinthians, is seen in the two passages from the Prophets with which he ‘bookends’ his message, Isaiah 29 and Jeremiah 9. BOTh deal with God’s people in their misplaced arrogant, spiritual snobbery.

Rather than using his characteristic ‘past tense’ language of ‘finished work’, Paul here uses present participles which emphasize the ongoing work of the already accomplished, past fact. The Corinthians are ‘being saved’ because they have been saved, and they better realize the implications of that ongoing work! They better wake up and repent.

A. Asleep in the Light: Isaiah 29; 1 Cor. 1:18-20
1. No Sophia
2. No Theology
3. No Rhetorician

B. Affirming the Light: Jeremiah 9; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
1. The Only Basis for Boasting
2. The Only Boast of the Christian - the Cross

II. The Insanity of the World’s Imports

A. The Offense/Scandal of the Cross: 1 Cor. 1:21-25
1. Christ, God’s Wisdom
* Cicero and Alexamenos

2. The Cross, God’s Weapon
* Constantine and the Skull

B. The Scandal of the Prideful Elect: 1 Cor.1:26-29

III. The Sanity of Saving Grace
A. Election by Grace
B. Union by Grace

So that Christ is all: he is our wisdom (we embrace the scandal); he is our righteousness (we have none of which to boast); he is our holiness (we can’t attain this apart from him); he is redemption (we could not and cannot rescue ourselves, buy our way out of this slavery, overcome this oppressor). Christ is our all, and thus he and his Cross remains our only boast and the only possible saving message.

Philip Yancey on Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

This is a compelling article and worth one's attentive reading. Those who don't remember Jim Crow laws or who don't think it really matters would be especially advised to read it.

www.adventistreview.org/2001-1541/story5.html

Quotable

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

CS Lewis

HT: Michael Sullivan

MTV's "Skins"

There's been a lot of racket in the last week over the MTV teen-sex TV series "Skins". Amid the din, I thought saying something here would go largely unnoticed, but would nonetheless add a little perspective for those who stop by and are interested in such things.

First of all, the show is the US version of the original British show, now in its fifth season. That fact reminds us again that what starts THERE often ends up here and it is thus worth paying attention to what is happening there now. See the link below for more information.

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8284506/Skins-a-British-view.html

Secondly, the show's defenders will constantly speak of 'pushing the boundaries' in the sense that artistic creativity demands insulting or attempting to negate existing norms of social behavior in order to educate and liberate the clueless masses.

Sure.

A couple of thoughts in regard to that kind of stupidity seem obvious, even apart from the fact that teens need little in the way of stimulation to encourage sexual exploration! The notion that one can 'push boundaries' presupposes boundaries. The defenders seem to suggest that boundary makers are prudish repressers who hate sex and might demand government supplied chastity belts for teens, except that they are right wingers who hate government supplied anything. Boundaries are good. Rails for trains and traffic lights for cars make for safe and possibly enjoyable travel rather than chaos, injury, and death. Boundary makers aren't prudish, they are WISE.

The creators of such shows know this as well - they just prefer different boundaries: few for sex; guards, towers, search lights, and dogs for discourse.

Let us suppose a network produces a show in which the 'N' word is employed by a few characters. I would be insulted, and you might be as well. BUT would anyone say in response to the ensuing outrage, "We have to push the boundaries"? Would that response meet with MTV executives' approval? Or what if CBN produced a show in which a teenage homosexual or lesbian was converted and became an ardent and intelligent follower of Christ, as well as an obviously heterosexual member of the community? You see, using the 'N' word is the new profanity - one can take God's Name in vain with impunity all day long on TV or movies and fear nothing but silence; say the 'N' word and one could expect wrath (and I would be one of the people saying such language is inappropriate as well). Encouraging homosexual behavior - no, celebrating it - is the new cultural boundary; suggesting that one could go the other direction is blasphemy and will not go unpunished by the new cultural boundary makers. Skins doesn't attempt tp push boundaries, it rather seeks to obliterate any existing boundaries and establish new ones.

So if one objects to Skins and hears that such shows wish to push the boundaries, go ahead and ask, 'Which boundaries?', and 'What are the boundaries in your life you won't tolerate being pushed?'

Oh, and don't forget the to ask the all important next question: "Why?"

Notes on Colossians for January 27 Ladies Bible Study at Redeemer

Colossians Study
Part Three: The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ in Salvation – Colossians 1:12-23

We began our study of Colossians with the analogy of an overture, Paul introducing his primary themes to which he will continually return. One of those themes is the Redemption that is ours ‘in Christ Jesus’. We might employ another musical analogy at this point to illustrate the way Paul weaves together a tapestry of truth about this central issue. Paul uses several different words to explore and explain the magnitude of what God has done in reclaiming us for his own and recreating us after his image. Like contra-punctual notes, these words – each so rich in their import – stand opposite one another, yet in relationship to one another, composing a glorious hymn of praise that amplifies the Gospel of Grace. These words unfold for us the mystery of what it means to be both a saint here and now and become a joint heir with the saints in Light.

* Note word group in Paul's autobiographical conversion narrative: Acts 26

“He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light…” – Colossians 1:12

Rescue – Transfer: Colossians 1:13
The idea of a new ‘authority’
The Warrior Savior: Isaiah 59:1-2, 15-20

Redemption: Colossians 1:14
Forgiveness
Redeemer Kinsmen: Take Vengeance; Rescue from Oppression; Raise Up Heirs
Marketplace and Battlefield

Reconciliation: Colossians 1:19-20
Estrangement from God: the idea of distance (moral as well as in reference to Being).
Incarnation and Reconciliation: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Imputation: not counting…counting.
The Prodigious God and the Prodigal’s return
The Blood as Basis for Reconciliation: Romans 3:20ff
Propitation and Sacrifice for reconciliation (see Genesis 32:13-21; the Law of the Kippur: Leviticus 16:5-22; 17:11
“Atonement” – “At-One-Ment” (Tyndale’s original pronunciation of this neologism for kippur and hilasmos/hilasterion).

‘Presentation’ as Goal/End of Reconciliation: Colossians 1:22
Holy and blameless in the end
Persevering in steadfast faith


Recommended Reading:

The Cross of Christ, by John Stott
Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapters 11-18 in particular

GB to XLV

Packers to the Super Bowl! Loving this. Packers-Steelers - what a match-up.

Sermon Notes for Third Sunday after Epiphany

Following Together
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
The Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 23, 2011
There was nothing unusual about a great Rabbi having disciples, a great Teacher his students. Still, if there was ever a Master who might not have called disciples it would’ve been Jesus – IF all he had come to do was deliver a message, die, and rise again. Those aren’t things he ‘needed’ assistance to do. Yet Jesus called disciples to himself.

In the outskirts of Israeli society and from the margins of the population he summoned to his side men who would change the world as his disciples. They were fisherman, brothers together, and they were called together as brothers into a new and deeper family and fellowship.

Matthew tells us that the brothers were doing two things with their nets – mending them and casting. The nets would be torn from their use and stood in constant need of mending in order to capture and hold the great catch the fisherman sought.

The word Matthew uses for mending the nets is also one of Paul’s favorite words and he employs it in our lesson today when he writes, “be united in the same mind” (1:10). The fabric of the fellowship among the Corinthians had been torn by division and had to be mended. Chloe’s people had reported about the divisions afflicting the church, and Paul believed the report to be at least partially true. That broke his heart and drew out of him a ferocious response. A church ripped apart by schisms makes a poor net for the great catch Jesus intends. Paul writes in order to mend the net, to see that the tear which has erupted in the church be healed, and it once again become a community not only united in mind and judgment, but also thereby useful in the great mission of Jesus.

Think of all the problems the Corinthians faced, any of which might have been the Apostle’s chief concern and merited his first words. Out of them all, which sin in the Corinthians scene is first addressed by Paul? Schism – division. Do we share the same concern?

• The Church I used to go to.


Jesus called the brothers together and he calls each of us in the same way. We are called not only to the same radical response to his summons – forsaking all to become his disciple – but also to the same community. To hear Christ call you is to hear him call you to walk with others, side by side, heart to heart, in the community of grace.

• Bonhoeffer on Community

Remember to be united to Christ is to be united with his Church, his Body, and this Body is not confined to one place or one generation or culture: 1 Corinthians 1:2. Do we recognize not only the One who has called us, but the ones with whom he has called us?

• Uncle Screwtape on the Visible Church


I. Christ Divided? Never! 1 Corinthians 1:11-13
A. Men, Movements, and the Message

B. Unity of the Spirit and Unity of the Faith

II. Christ’s Cross? Always and Only! 1 Corinthians 1:17-18
A. Our Identity and the Cross
• Baptism and Supper
• Discipleship (Mathetes)
• Message and Music
• Even Architecture is the Cross
- To be forgiven and healed through Christ’s death, and to embrace the way of sacrifice and love as the path of life.
B. Our Only Hope and Boast
• This is the power that saves, contrary to all other claims for power made by the ‘rulers and authorities’, the elites, whether visible or invisible.


III. Christ’s Church: The Community of the Cross
A. The Society of the Saints

B. The Fraternity of Fisherman
• We cannot come to the cross without going with it to the seas of the world and casting the mended net to take in the great catch the Savior ordains.


Today, our nets need mending. Let us ask the Apostle of our Faith’s Confession, Christ himself, to heal our divisions and make us one that the world may believe that the Father sent him to be the Savior. Division is a luxury we cannot afford. It is a united witness that will still cause the people who sit in darkness to see a great light, just as Isaiah foretold.

John Piper - Race and the Cross

John Piper's excellent sermon "Race and the Cross" details the healing among the races that comes through Jesus Christ. His recollection of growing up in a segregated southern community is very powerful. Across town, Jesse Jackson was growing up at the same time. I commend this to your attention:

www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/resources/race-and-cross

Packers-Bears: NFC Championship Game for the Ages

I was born thirty miles south of the Wisconsin border in northern Illinois into a family that loved sports, especially football. Especially Green Bay Packers football. Now of course some family members loved the Chicago Bears - it was Illinois, after all. Growing up in the 60s and the Lombardi era made being a Packers fan pretty easy. I'm a die hard cheese head to this day. Yes, I have one of those ghastly head pieces, and if the Packers make it to the Super Bowl I will be wearing it as I watch (Scary thought - I used to own a cheese tie!). We used to vacation in Green Bay during training camp so we could see the players up close. Met Ray Nitzchke that way, and Bart Starr too.

To get to the Super Bowl the Pack will have to beat the Bears in Chicago. I can't imagine a more intense and football frenzy type of NFC Title game than Bears vs. Packers. Talk about waking the ghosts! One can almost imagine Lombardi and Halas pacing the sidelines this Sunday. The teams have played each other 181 times. 182 will be the biggest of all.

If the Packers lose to the Bears, I'll be disappointed, but I will be cheering for Da Bears in the Super Bowl with gusto. My grandfather was a huge Bears fan, and I almost always cheer for the Bears to this day (except when they play the Pack), just the way he would have liked it. I know there are Packer fans who hate the Bears and Bears fans who hate the Packers, but I'm not in that fraternity. Look, the only team I really despise is the Vikings. That's the bitter rivalry (Yeah, Viking fans, how many Super Bowls have the Vikes won? Right. ZERO!). I like this Bears team - tough defense, unheralded, and ready to make big plays on offense and special teams. Urlacher and Peppers are terrific. No they're not as great as the 85 Bears (went to the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory in London to watch that Super Bow, staying up til 2:30 am to see the whole thing, cheering for the Bears all the way). Can they win it all? Yes. So can the Packers, and I hope they will.

The team that wins on Sunday will lift high the Halas Trophy for winning the NFC Title and will then play in the Super Bowl for the right to hold the Lombardi Trophy. Halas and Lombardi. Lets just call the game this Sunday "The Legends Bowl". These two teams matter to the NFL and this might well be a game for the ages. It already is for the fans.

The truth is that Packers and Bears fans respect each other, just as the two teams do as well. I don't know if the Bears fans will cheer for the Packers in the Super Bowl, but I know a lot of Packers fans who would cheer for the Bears.

I think this Packers team is better than the Bears, but the home field advantage the Bears enjoy may be tough to overcome. Its going to be cold. Its going to be snowing. Its going to be GREAT!

Packers by 4 and it will be down to the last possession.

I have no idea who wins that AFC title game between the Jets and Steelers, though I'm guessing the Steelers. A Packers-Steelers Super Bowl? Classic. We'll see.

The World Wide War Against Christians

This is a must read:

www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/01/17/the-most-important-story-not-being-told/

Colossians Notes for this Thursday

Colossians – the Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ

Study Two: Creator, Ruler, Savior and Sustainer of All Things – Paul’s Christology

The Horse and his Boy: “Who are you?”

I. God the Son, the Image of God – Colossians 1:15

God’s Invisibility: 1 Timothy 1:17; John 1:18
The exegesis of God
God’s ‘express image’, or ‘exact representation’ and outshining and radiance: Hebrews 1:3
(Note entire chapter on Deity: “…but of the Son he says…”).
Both truly God and Truly Man: Colossians 2:9; Isaiah 45:18-23 and Philippians 2:5-11

II. God the Son, the Creator and Sustainer of All Things – Colossians 1:15-17
“First Born” – not a created being a term for the Messiah; ‘first born’ refers to the one who has been given familial supremacy as heir.
This is why all that is made is both ‘through him’ and ‘for him’ (v.16). This is also noted in Romans 11:33-36
Creatio ex Nihilo – Hebrews 11:3; Psalm 33:6; Genesis 1;1ff.
Christ is not “a” divine being among others, but rather all the angels and powers were made by Him and serve Him.
“The Eternal One” (v.17): Jesus himself affirms this in John 8:48-59, and the implications of this declaration were more than clear!

III. God the Son, Head of the Church – Colossians 1:18
We will return to the subject of the Church and Christ’s headship when, with Paul, we enter into this mystery in 3:1-17

IV. God the Son, the Savior, Ruler, and Sustainer – Colossians 1:17-20
Salvation as Reconciliation (1:19-21): More on this next week!
Salvation as Rule: Over, In, and Through (1:17; Hebrews 1:3)
The misapplication of ‘natural laws’ and Providence.
The only ‘method’ of salvation: Colossians 1:20, 22: death and bloodshed of the cross; again this points to the materiality and reality of incarnation.
God over, in, and with: The Trinity as Necessity: The Father is God over us, the Son is God with us, and the Holy Spirit is God in us.

This means that God is at work in all of creation for his glory: this is the basis of what we refer to as ‘Common Grace’: God’s voice in the world and God’s testimony through all, even those agents which do not recognize him or indeed despise him.

The past, present, and future of creation: Romans 8:18-23
Current Providence: Holding all things together, from sub-atomic particle to the universe and everything in between.
In our hymnody: “He Shines in All that’s Fair”; “This is My Father’s World”; “He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found…”
The ‘service’ rendered to God by creation: The trees of the field shall clap their hands



Recommended Reading:

Creation Regained: Wolters
Angels in the Architecture: Wilson and Jones
He Shines in all that’s Fair: Mouw
Beholding the Glory: Jeremy Begbie
The Calvinistic Conception of Culture: Henry Van Til
The Beauty of the Infinite: David Bentley Hart
Christ and Culture Revisited: DA Carson
Christianity and Culture: TS Eliot
Christ and Culture: Niebuhr

Sermon Notes for Second Sunday after Epiphany

Paul’s Epistle to the Church at Austin
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 16, 2011

Suppose you lived in a city that was a wealthy, thriving regional commercial and political center dominated by a youthful population that was upwardly mobile in their social orientation towards cultural and economic advancement. Suppose this home city of yours was also renown for athletic competition and academic flourishing. Suppose you lived in such a city and it was also a place that tolerated a multitude of religious persuasions, including a fair number of people who practiced occult arts. Suppose that in addition to all of these things, this city of yours was a place of excessive arrogance, as well as sexual licentiousness, the kind of city whose name was synonymous with good times and wild parties. Oh, wait. You do.

Suppose you lived in a time when the church was afflicted with divisions, immaturity, law suits among competing bodies of believers, confusion over marriage and human sexuality, a lack of discipline, strange teachings about spiritual gifts, heresies about the Second Coming, confusion about the sacraments, and uncertainty about how to relate to a surrounding culture increasingly hostile to the Gospel. Oh, wait. You do.

For all of these reasons and more we do well to pay close attention to Paul’s Epistle to the Church at Colonia Laus Julia Corinthiensis – the full name for Roman Corinth: the Julian Colony of Rome at Corinth. Paul envisions a new kind of colony in Corinth, from a new and supreme Lord, the true Savior of the World and Israel’s Messiah, Jesus Christ. Like us today, the ancient Christians of Corinth who were the first members of the Colony of Christ’s Kingdom in Corinth faced tremendous obstacles to their faith. The Apostle’s instruction to them is comforting and confrontational, wounding and healing, as necessary and crucial for us now as it was for our fellow believers when Paul first put pen to parchment.

I. The Corinthian Christians
A. Apostolic Foundations – 1:1-4
1. Acts 18 and the Genesis of the Church
• Paul’s apostolic calling and apostolic seal
- “My ear thou hast pierced” – Psalm 40
- “Salvation to the ends of the earth” – Isaiah 49:1-7
2. Grace and Peace – Charis and Shalom

B. Apostolic Summons – 1:2, 7-9
1. Become what you already are by grace: Holy Saints
2. Live in what you already are: Holy Community


II. The Corinthian Catastrophe
A. Division – 1:10-13a; 3:1-3

B. Immorality – 5:1; 6:13-15

C. Arrogance – 5:2; 8:1-2

D. Syncretism – 10:21

E. Isolationism – 5:9-11

F. Snobbery – 12:15-25

G. Heresy – 15:12-14



III. The Corinthian Calling – and Ours! 1:9
A. Saints to the End – 1:2
• We are sanctified and called to be holy

B. Saints Together – 1:2, 8-9
• We are saved personally but never alone
• We are a local congregation but we are inseparably united with all Christians
- We are truly catholic

C. Saints to be Trained – 1:8; 14:37


But how is it that any of us may arrive at 'guiltless' and 'blameless' on the Great Day? The answer is in the Gospel lesson today: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of world." Our hope - our only hope - is Christ the Lamb of God and in the blood he has shed for us and our salvation. The crimson flow is sufficient to cleanse from every stain and powerful enough to shatter the strongholds of any sin and all shame. Behold Him! Look to him!

This calling is our calling as surely as this catastrophe is our catastrophe. Moreover, this commitment to the truth of the Apostolic message must be ours as well. This begins with repentance and humble hearing of God’s word, joined with a renewed thanksgiving for the grace and peace, the charis and shalom that is ours in Christ Jesus, the same grace and peace he calls us to give to the world.

Introductory Notes on Colossians

Today I begin a new study on Colossians with the always attentive and enthusiastic women's ministry at Redeemer. Here are the notes for that initial gathering.

Colossians – The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ

An Introduction
I. Authorship: Paul, with Timothy serving as ‘secretary’: Colossians 1:1; 4:18

II. Origin: Rome, where Paul is under house arrest (Acts 28); this epistle is sent to the church together with letters to the Ephesians and the personal letter to Philemon: Colossians 4:3; Philemon 1; Colossians 4:10-14/Philemon 23-24; Colossians 4:9/Philemon 12. Colossians was written approximately 60-62 AD.
A. Colossae: small, formerly significant town on a trade route running from Ephesus to Tarsus in western Asia Minor, the area we now know as Turkey. Within fifteen miles were more significant cities, Laodicea and Hierapolis (note Colossians 4:13).
B. Epaphras – Colossians 1:7
• Paul did not go to Colossae, but rather served in Ephesus, his ministry there making an impact throughout the region – Acts 19:8-10.
• Perhaps Epaphras was a convert from this Ephesian ministry, a native of Colossae, and carried the Gospel back to his home. This man evidently had a position of leadership among the Colossian Christians, and traveled to Rome to inform Paul about the church’s progress and challenges: Colossians 4:12

III. Intent: Colossians 1:1-2; 2:8-9
A. Saints and faithful brothers. There is an interesting note in the opening greeting. Paul addresses not only the Church as a whole (‘saints at Colossae’), but also speaks directly to those who are ‘the faithful brothers’, perhaps a designation for those responsible for the teaching ministry of the church. Paul is going to address doctrinal and practical matters, but he expects the local leaders to put into practice what he is saying while they amplify his instruction.

B. The answer to false teaching and to unholy living is to recover two particular aspects of the Gospel: the Supremacy of Jesus Christ and the Sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Christ is Head and Savior, the fullness of Deity in bodily form. If one has ‘fullness’, why subject oneself to that which is partial and incomplete? Colossians 2:9
1. It appears that, not unlike Hebrews and Galatians, the Apostle is concerned to guard the fledgling Christian community from drifting into a return to Judaism.
2. It can be hard for us to hear/read this critique in a post-holocaust era, but we must recall the historical setting and not impose our own experience on the letter (The early Christian communities were regarded as renegade and heretical by certain Jewish leaders, and violent persecution of Christians by these leaders was a regular practice. At this point in time, it was not the Romans but rather the Jewish leadership which persecuted the infant church. Arriving from the other end of the religious spectrum, it was Jewish ritual which was in some quarters being insisted on as a mark of being a true Christian. Note especially Colossians 2:11-21).

C. The Danger: The Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross must not be eclipsed by the ‘philosophy’ of man: Colossians 2:8.
Basic Outline

I. Apostolic Salutation and Benediction – Colossians 1:1-14

II. The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ in Creation and Redemption – Colossians 1:15 – 2:23

III. The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ in the Church – Colossians 3:1-17

IV. The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ in the Christian Home – Colossians 3:18 – 4:1

V. The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ in the Christian Ministry – Colossians 4:2 – 18

Toni Times 1-09-11

My thanks to all for their continued prayers for Toni and her ongoing recovery. I am happy to report that she is making excellent progress, and in the past week has resumed some driving - including driving herself, Claire, and Anna to church this morning. She's in great spirits. Toni continues to suffer from some serious episodes of pain, sudden weariness, and occasional numbness in her left hand, but these symptoms are growing less and less frequent and intense.

We did have some alarming moments during the drive back from KY when her hair started falling out in handfuls - something we thought would not occur post chemo. We were quickly reassured that this would cease very soon and the lost hair would grow back. I'm a bit biased, but I think she looks magnificent, and is certainly far better than even a month ago. Compared with September, I think its safe to say that she is experiencing a great recovery. It was great to see her at church today, laughing and chatting with so many folks after the second service.

Please continue to pray with us that Toni will grow stronger each day, that the attacks of weakness, numbness, and weariness will dissipate and then disappear, that she will soon be able to return to the work she loves, and that she will be spared any relapse.

There are so many people to thank for so many blessings sent our way during this lengthy trial, and we are deeply grateful to you all.

A reversal of the words uttered by one of my heroes seems appropriate: Never has so much been owed by so few (us) to so many (all of you). We are in your debt for your prayers, love, encouragement, and practical assistance offered in so many kind ways.

Sermon Notes for First Sunday after Epiphany

What’s His is Mine: the Meaning of Christian Baptism
Romans 6:1-11
First Sunday after Epiphany
January 9, 2011

Perhaps as late as a couple of years ago most people would not have heard of a young lady named Kate Middleton. Now she’s on the cover of countless magazines, her fashions and every movement scrutinized, her past explored, her future debated, and her every word weighed. Why all this attention for a young lady? Her off the radar, quiet life of calm has been turned on its head because of her engagement to the Prince of Wales. Now what is his – a throne and a kingdom – will be hers as well, as one day, barring the unforeseen, she will be Queen at his side. Talk about marrying up!

In a certain respect everyone here who has been baptized and become a follower of Jesus Christ has ‘married up’; everyone here baptized in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is no longer their own person, but is now through the power of the Spirit united to Christ and his Church. This is the essential meaning of Christian baptism, for through the Spirit’s work Christ is now in me and I am in Him, and all that is his is mine.

• His Life and Righteousness
• His Death and Burial
• His Resurrection and Glorification

What is his is now mine, for by grace the Spirit has united me to Jesus Christ and his people. This is what holy baptism signifies to us – nothing short of the entire Christian life, which is the life of Christ in us.

Romans 6:3-5; Acts9:4



I. Baptism as Sign Language
A. No doubt there are many things baptism ‘signs’ to us:
• Regeneration – Born of water into new life
• Justification – forgiveness of sins
• Purification – removal of sin’s pollution and damage
• Ordination – placement in the Priestly people of God
• Mortification – putting to death the practice of sin
• Glorification – hope in the midst of suffering

- Yet each and every one of these amazing blessings is summed up in the idea of union with Christ.

- Note John Murray, page 5 of ‘Christian Baptism’ and in ‘Redemption Accomplished and Applied.’

B. In Christ - Paul uses the phrase ‘in Christ’ to describe the life of the Christian:
- Ephesians 1:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Philippians 3:8-9

C. Christ in Us - He also speaks of Christ being ‘in us’:
- Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27

D. Jesus ties both together when he says of the one who eats his flesh and drinks his blood ‘remains in Me and I in him’ (John 15:4).

E. Union of the Whole Person: Moreover, while this union is the work of the Spirit and is eternal and internal, it encompasses the whole person; our bodies are joined to Christ as well.
- We must not take the members of our body- which are Christ’s – and join them to another in sexual immorality.
- We can be assured of our bodily resurrection because Christ will raise from the dead every member of his body. Nothing that is ‘his’ can remain in the grave.

II. Baptism and Union with the Trinity – Matthew 28:18-20
A. Baptized ‘into’ the Name of the Trinity
• Jesus baptism and the Holy Trinity
- While our baptism signifies our union with Christ, his baptism signifies his union with us
- While our baptism signifies our cleansing from sin, his baptism signifies that he is the One who cleanses
* We are not in ‘proximity to’ but in union with God the Holy Trinity.

B. This is the language of union and it is frequently repeated: 1 Corinthians 10:1

III. Baptism and Union with Christ – Romans 6:1-11
• Here we find both sides of the great redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus, the legal and the participatory. We must have BOTH. The legal side emphasizes the forgiveness of sins, that Christ is for us; the participatory side emphasizes the new life that is ours to now live, that Christ is in us.
• Paul’s argument is simple – Grace does not provide a license to live as you please, but the liberty to live for the Savior. To someone who suggests that grace means ‘Sin all you want’, Paul, recoiling in horror, says, “May it never be!” Look, you’ve been baptized, joined to Christ, so how could you possibly think that you can live for yourself or by yourself?

A. United through the Spirit: his crucifixion and mine - Romans 6:1-4
B. New Life through the Spirit: his resurrection and mine - Romans 6:4-11
1. His Death is My Death – v.5
2. Throughout life, we learn to mortify the body and say ‘No’ to sin and death – v.6-7
3. In the end, we share in his life forever – v.8-10

Knowing then that the whole our eternal life is summed up in this great rite of Holy Baptism, let us always rejoice in it, return to it as a signpost of comfort and courage, bring our little ones to the font, and exhort all recipients to walk in newness of life.

Poem for the Day

The Journey of the Magi – T.S. Eliot

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Homily for Epiphany 2011

This Little Light
Isaiah 60:1-6
Epiphany Day
January 6, 2011

There are many little songs I can remember from VBS and Sunday School, but none was more fun than ‘This Little Light of Mine.’ We all loved to shout “NO!” when the song asked, “Hide it under a bushel?”

It’s a fine little song, but it is theologically a little on the weak side. After all, children don’t have a ‘little light’, just because they are ‘little’ themselves; children are not filled with Holy Spirit Jr.

More significantly, whether the child in question is 3, 30, or 60, a ‘little’ light is not our inheritance. A Great Light has brought us to Christ whose face shines more powerfully than the sun, Not only this, he has poured out on us the Holy Spirit, and the presence of the third person of the Trinity was manifested by flames of fire resting over the heads of 120 people gathered on the day of Pentecost. That’s enough to set off the smoke alarms!

We are people of the Day, sons of the Light, those who once sat in darkness, but who have now seen a great light.

That’s why Isaiah’s exhortation is so important for us tonight:

Arise, shine…

A Great Event has Occurred – Your Light has Come

Two Great Outcomes can be Anticipated -

1. The Conversion of the Gentile World: the Magi are the forerunners, drawn inexplicably by supernatural light.

• Missions is not an optional extra for the church but a mandate which must be embraced with joy and faith.


2. The Renewal of our Families: the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph reminds us of the calling each of our families have received to be households of faith and shine as lights in the world.

• Children being discarded as inconvenient, or neglected in the name of ambition; marriage being held in contempt not only by those who would seek to redefine it, but by those who already have done so, destroying the covenant foundation of marriage through so-called ‘no-fault divorce’, or pursing infidelity and all manner of license while masking that behavior with formal religion – all of this and more is the gross darkness of our own day.

• “But the glory…”

How can we be Epiphany People, People who Live the Light in the Darkness?

1. Love the King and His Kingdom Supremely: The ancient kings come to worship the One born King.
• Do not confuse nation and kingdom!

2. Go Public with Your Witness: Don’t curse the darkness, but rather patiently and quietly love and testify with your words and examples to the Light of Christ.

3. Engage with Missions and Missionaries. Pray for them , support them financially, write them. Go on a short-term mission trip.
• Offer your Treasures
• Travel the world on your knees

Has the light shone upon you and in your heart? Christ the Light of the world has broken into our darkness and brought his new day! Sins forgiven, we are a new creation, united to the One who is the Light and thus to Light we belong and so with Light we go to the world, and to Light we shall go in the end.

Epiphany Service Thursday Evening at Seven

The Christmas season closes and Epiphany beckons us to the rising light of Christ's Dawn on dark humanity. The birth in Bethlehem yields to the scene of Magi making their way to worship the King of Kings, forerunners of all who are summoned by the the Holy Spirit. Isaiah spoke not only of the Messiah's birth but also of the grand design of his mission - nothing short of the salvation of the world, that kings would come to the brightness of his rising. And so it has come to pass.

Let us follow with these ancient sages the same path of worship and discipleship, coming to Christ the King in humble gratitude. The Epiphany worship service is one of the most beautiful gatherings of the year and I look forward to welcoming you and your family tomorrow to Redeemer Austin. Come to the Feast, all you who have received from the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation the opening of blind eyes to the wonder of the Word made flesh.

Olasky Nails it on the (New) NIV

Read his review at the following link:

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/17442

The NIV has always been a poor English version of the Bible, and it has grown worse with the years. The new edition, scheduled for release later this year, is just one more example of the feeble and sad groveling some will embrace at the altar of gender neutral egalitarianism and theological confusion.