He calls his own sheep by name

I'm not sure the good people of Holy Trinity really got it - I'd worked hard on it and I thought it deserved a bit more of a grin, or at least a grown, but:

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows his sheep by name (John 10:3). Whether it's Lambert, Ewan, Barbara or Shawn, Jesus relates to each of his sheep individually and personally.

Other sheep names most welcome!

The Good Shepherd

Some jottings for a sermon on John 10:

John 10 (p1076): The Good Shepherd

I. (a) Who Jesus is:

(i) The Gate (v7, 9)

(ii) The Good Shepherd (v11, 14)

(iii) Christ (v24f) – cf. King David the Shepherd (Ps 23)

(iv) Son (v36) / One with the Father (v30, 38) – God (v33)

(b) Who are we?

Jesus’ sheep?

Sheep smelly, stupid, needy, defenceless – need a shepherd

“other sheep not of this sheep pen” (v16) = Gentiles

Divided / mixed response (vv19-21)

Not my sheep (v26)

Thieves and robbers (v8, 10)

Hired hands (v12-13)

Wolves (v12) cf. Mt 6:15; Acts 20:28-31; 1 Pet 5:8

II. (a) What Jesus, the Good Shepherd, does:

Gives full / eternal life (v10, v28)

Dies for the sheep (v11, 15, 17-18) – really cares (v13)

Matthew 9:36; Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34

Knows his sheep (v14)

Calls his sheep by name and leads them (v3)

Keeps his sheep (vv28-29)

(b) What we, Jesus’ sheep, should do:

Believe (vv25-26, 42; 20:31) – Trust Jesus

Listen to his voice (v4, 16, 27), know him (v14), obey, follow only him (v4-5, 27), run away from strangers (v5)

Sacramental World

Revd Douglas Wilson writes:

There are two sacraments, true, but there is only one sacramental. The world is a sacramental, and everything in it. Grace is everywhere, and gets into everything. Faith can dig it out of anything. The grandeur of God can flame out from anything, like shining from shook foil.

If understood, this results in mediated grace for everyone who is responding to God in true faith. God does grants immediate grace in various ways, true. When He converts a soul, when He visits someone with direct blessing, when He receives our worship, the grace can be immediate. But this immediate grace is supposed to be a radiant grace, spreading out through everything else, affecting everything else, causing everything else to become a mirror that reflects the glory of God.

Critical Biblical Studies

An Insomniac's Primer

The Faith of Our Fathers

It's in my diary. Is it in yours?

A Post-Election Prayer

When the new parliament gets going, you might like to pray this prayer from The Book of Common Prayer (Prayers and Thanksgivings upon several occasions, p41):

A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament, to be read during their Session.

MOST gracious God, we humbly beseech thee, as for this Kingdom in general, so especially for the High Court of Parliament, under our most religious and gracious Queen [at this time assembled]: That thou wouldest be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations, to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church, the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and her Dominions; that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, for us, and thy whole Church, we humbly beg in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Evolution Song

Human uniqueness, value and significance: you've got thumbs! Enjoy this song from Doug Wilson.

Kevin Vanhoozer on Tom Wright

When I get the chance I'd like to listen to the rest of this lecture on What Paul Might Say Back to Tom on Justification given at Wheaton College, from the perspective of a systematic theologian. HT: Revd Dr Michael Jensen.

Dr Vanhoozer encourages peace talks between New Perspectives and Protestants. The legacy of the Reformation is at stake: is the Reformation something we must recover or something that we must recover from? Wright claims to be upholding the Reformation, of course.

Prospective MPs attitude to Christians

The Westminster 2010 Declaration people have been asking prospective MPs to "make the pledge" that they will 'respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs and act according to Christian conscience'. You can check out candidates in your area here.

Here's the blurb for our own constituency of Eastbourne. Waterston (Con) and Lloyd (Lib) have taken the pledge and Brinson (Lab)'s views are unknown.

Eastbourne (Held by Conservative, Majority 755, Swing required: 0.8%)
Nigel Waterson	Conservative	Eastbourne	England
Dave Brinson	Labour	Eastbourne	England
Stephen Lloyd	Liberal Democrat	Eastbourne	England

How wrong can one man be?

According to Jonathan Bonomo, by the end of his review of J. W. Nevin’s The Mystical Presence, Charles Hodge had charged Nevin’s system with being nearly identical to or at least tending towards the following heterodox views at one point or another:

(1) Schliermarchian Mysticism

(2) Rationalism

(3) Pantheism

(4) Socinianism

(5) Eutychianism

(6) Mothelitism

(7) Romanism

(8) Sebellianism

Of course Nevin would not have recognised this description of himself. And Bonomo suggests number of these errors are mutually exclusive. As he says, no doubt Hodge would have said that Nevin was hopelessly confused.

In the light of this onslaught of accusations, Bonomo agrees with Gerish that Hodge employed an “essentially hostile hermeneutic” Tradition in the Modern World, p62.

Jonathan G. Bonomo, Incarnation and Sacrament: The Eucharistic Controversy Between Charles Hodge and John Williamson Nevin (Eugene, Wimpf and Stock, 2010) pp93-94

"superfluity of naughtiness"

Jottings towards preaching at our BCP Communion on Thurs. (The BCP epistle for 4th Sunday after Easter is James 1:17-21).

You’ve got to love the language of the Prayer Book and the King James Bible, haven’t you?

Here’s our old friend “the superfluity of naughtiness!” (James 1:21).

You don’t need me to tell you. I’m sure, that “superfluity” means a superfluous amount or nature of something, so James is saying there’s more than enough naughtiness, naughtiness that is needless and redundant, superfluous.

For “superfluity of naughtiness” the NIV has “the evil that is so prevalent”.

I’m tempted tell Jono next time he’s misbehaving that, “we’ve has a “superfluity of naughtiness” already, thank you very much!”.

The point is there’s a surplus or abundance of evil in our world, and who could disagree with that?

You don't need me to prove to you that our world is full of filth and evil and wrong.

Whether or not you agree with David Cameron that we live in Broken Britain, we know that we live in a broken world, don't we?

Everywhere there is injustice, suffering and pain.

Our epistle gives us some insight into the source of evil and it's solution.

So first of all, the source of evil: where does it come from?

First of all, certainly not from God!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

God is the Father of light, pure and radiant.

He is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

He is utterly consistent in his moral perfection.

No, the problem is not God but you and me.

At the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.

James hints at this when he tells us that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God".

Jesus tells us in the Gospel (John 16:5-15) of the Holy Spirit's work:

"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment"

We're such inveterate sinners that we can't even recognise our own sin!

We need the Holy Spirit to open our blind eyes so that we can recognise not only the evil in the world around us, but the evil within each of us.

So what's the solution to evil? What's the answer to all that's wrong in the world?

It won't surprise us to discover its neither Brown, Cameron nor Clegg, nor any of the other parties standing for election today.

The power comes from God alone:

"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."

We need to be born again by the Word of God in the power of the Spirit.

We are to "receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls".

We depend on Jesus' saving work and we need him to send us his Spirit that we might receive his word.

So, by the power of the Spirit, will you "lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls"?

That is the only hope for us and for our world.

Lives Jesus Changed

I've been preaching my way through John's gospel for a while, and I'm thinkimg of doing some edited highlights for the leaders on camp this summer. There are, of course, a number of ways of doing this, including:

I am sayings
Signs
Farewell / Upper Room Discources
The Cross & Resurrection

Today I bought a book which looks at Lives Jesus Changed from John's Gospel. Revd Dr Simon Vibert invites us to meet Jesus and learn lessons about life by considering Jesus' encounters with:

John The Baptist
The Disciples
Nicodemus
The Woman of Samaria
The Royal Official & the Paralyesed Man
The Crowds
The Jews
The Adulterous Woman
The Man Born Blind
Mary, Martha & Lazarus
The Greeks
Philip
Mary & Mary
John
Thomas
Peter

Resources on Mark's Gospel

God-willing we'll be having Bible studies and talks from Mark's Gospel this year on our camp for 11-14 year olds (Danehill 1). Here are some resources I'm thinking of recommending to our leaders. Are any of these rubbish? Is there anything else you'd recommend?

Paul Barnett, The Servant King: Reading Mark Today (Aquila)

Peter Bolt and Tony Payne, Mark: News of the Hour Ten Interactive Studies for small groups and individuals (Matthias Media)

Tim Chester, Mark 1-8: The Coming King The Good Book Guide to Mark 1-8 Ten Studies for individuals or groups (Good Book Company)

Tim Chester, Mark 9-16: The Servant King The Good Book Guide to Mark 1-8 Ten Studies for individuals or groups (Good Book Company)

R. Alan Cole, Mark Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (IVP)

Phil Crowter, Preaching Mark: Talk Outlines For The Gospel of Mark (Good Book Company)

Dick France, Mark: The People’s Bible Commentary (Bible Reading Fellowship) – he also wrote the big fat New International Greek Testament Commentary on Mark as R. T. France (Eerdmans / Paternoster)

William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark: The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Eerdmans) – fat

Tom Wright, Mark For Everyone (SPCK)

Christianity Explored and CY (youth version) material are also (largely) based on Mark’s Gospel (Good Book Company)

See also: http://www.bestcommentaries.com/category/mark/

Westminster 2010

In church on Sunday we are encouraging people to sign the Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience. You can find details and sign the petition here.

Preaching the Psalms

Today I'm running a session at the Sussex Coast Ministry Training Course for my little preaching group to tee up our term's work on preaching the Psalms. I've grandly entitled my jottings:

APPRECIATING, APPLYING & PREACHING PSALMS

Here's my handout:

All the usual things to think about when preaching / speaking plus:

The 5 books of the Psalter – cf. 5 books of the Law – significance?

The Context of the Psalms

- original historical context – how important? the importance of the superscriptions (original) – sometimes unknown - speculation

- original / early use of Psalms e.g. in gathered corporate worship, Psalms of Ascents pilgrim festivals

- in a cycle / group of Psalms, the book of Psalms, in Psalms as a whole – e.g. Ps 1 & 2, 42 & 43

- in the Bible / salvation history – the Psalms as a Christian book

Content & form (e.g. acrostics, parallelisms – synonymous, synthetic, antithetical etc.)

The form / genre / types / use of the Psalms – songs / prayers / laments / imprecatory, Royal etc. didactic?

What do we miss by not knowing Hebrew? – word play / sounds, alliteration, ascenance - translations

Reading poetry (English & Hebrew!): What images / poetic devices are used / how / why?

The mood, feel, emotions, intended effects / response of the Psalm

“Levels” of meaning / application of the Psalms:

- The psalmist – how “unique” or typical?

- the historical speaker of the Psalm

- David(ic) King

- Jesus, the Messiah, the ultimate Davidic King

- All believers (in Christ)

- Us / me

Jesus praying / saying / singing this Psalm / singing or saying it to Jesus

The use of the Psalms today

- private study / meditation / reflection / prayer / singing

- family devotions, small groups etc.

- public – neglected? Eph 5:19; Col 3:16 – for teaching

- sung, said, prayed etc.

How will you have the Psalm read / sung / prayed?

Resources on the Psalms

Derek Kindner, Tyndale Commentary (2 vols)

J. Clinton McCann Jr., A Theological Introduction to the Psalms: The Psalms as Torah (instruction) (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1993)

G. Grogan, Prayer, Praise & Prophecy: A Theology of the Psalms (Christian Focus, 2001)

Tremper Longman III, How To Read the Psalms (IVP, 1988)

Alec Motyer, Journey: Psalms for Pilgrim People (IVP, 2009) – Psalms of Ascent - Ps 120-136

Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David – hints for preachers etc. (3 vols)

Michael Wilcock, The Message of the Psalms, Bible Speaks Today Series (2 vols)

Gerald H. Wilson, The NIV Application Commentary (vol 1) – Psalms 1-72

Sermons & other stuff online:

Mike Reeves on Psalm 1 & introductory comments on Psalms on All Souls, Langham Place website: http://www.allsouls.org/ascm/allsouls/static/sermons/showsermon.flow?id=10800

John Cheeseman recent sermons on a selection of Psalms - http://www.holytrinityeastbourne.org.uk/sermons.php

A Search for Meaning

Some jottings towards a sermon on Ecclesiastes 1:12-26.

Ecclesiastes 2

A Quest for Meaning: Living With Death

(1) A search for significance (1v12ff)

The paths of …

… Study / wisdom / knowledge (1v13, 16-18)

… Pleasure / laughter / wine (2vv1-3)

… Great projects (2v4-6) / riches (2v7-9)

… Entertainment (2v8) / self-indulgence (2v10)

… Work / labour / toil (2v10, 17-23)

(2) Dead ends – vanity / foggy vapour

2v5 – “few days”

2v14f – the same fate for wise and foolish

2v16 – quickly forgotten

2v16 – the wise man too must die

2vv18-19, 21 - Who will get it when you’re gone? - 1 Tim 6:7

(3) A way forward (2vv24-26)

Better to be wise (2v10, 13-14)

Don’t make the penultimate ultimate / confuse gifts and Giver

Death defeated -1 Cor 15:54-58

Matthew 6:19-21; 24-34

Top Earning Dead Celebrities of 2009

This might make an illustration for my sermon on Ecclesiastes 2 tomorrow where I'll talk about the difference death makes to life. There are no pockets in a shroud and you can't take your stuff with you. 1 Timothy 6:7

What would you rather carry?

Mrs Lloyd tells me that there is a poster up in our local chemist that asks: "Which would you rather carry? A condom or a child?".

The answer is a child, quite frankly! Children are a blessing, are they not? A rather distasteful sad poster, I think.

Why I'd Like To Be An Atheist

While we were on holiday I enjoyed reading Peter Hitchens' The Rage Against God (Continuum, London / New York, 2010) - 168pp, which is a response to the New Atheists (Dawkins et al) including Hitchens' own brother, Christoper, who wrote God is Not Great.

The book is very engaging and readable. Interestingly personal without being egotistical or gushy.

As I remember it, some of it read like a hymn to a forgotten England, an England which was the product of Christendom, the Bible and The Prayer Book and so on.

Peter Hitchens was more or less brought up as a Christian but rejected the faith as a teenager. He is particularly revealing on the cultural atmosphere that encouraged him to do so and perhaps some of the corruptions of Christianity such as baptised patriotism or a cult of Churchill that he was reacting against. Hitchens describes how he thought himself too clever to believe and especially how attractive it was to embrace atheism, since at a stroke duty and accountability were gone. Without God there can be no real should or ought.

Hitchens cites W. Somerset Maughan's hero, Philip Carey, in the autobiographical novel Of Human Bondage. On his denial of God, we read of Carey:

He was free from degrading fears and free from prejudice. He could go his way without the intolerable dread of hell-fire. Suddenly he realised that he had lost also that burden of responsibility which made every action of his life a matter of urgent consequence. He could breathe more freely in a lighter air. He was responsible only to himself for the things he did. Freedom! He was his own master at last. From old habit, unconsciously, he thanked God that he no longer believed in him. [quoted in Rage, p8]

Hitchens says:

... my excitement was undimmed. There were no more external, absolute rules. The supposed foundation of every ordnance, regulation, law and maxim from 'don't talk after lights-out' and 'give way to pedestrians on the Zebra crossing' to 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'. 'Thou shalt do no murder', 'Honour thy father and thy mother' and 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me' was a fake. ...

Enlightened self-interest was the evolutionary foundation of good behaviour. I did not have to [do] anything I did not want to do, ever again. I would therefore be 'happy' because I was freed from those things whereof my conscience was afraid. My conscience was in any case not to be relied on where my desires were stronger, or my fears greater than my promptings. I could behave as I wished, without fear of eternal consequences, and (if I was cunning and could get away with it) without fear of earthly ones too. And I could claim to be virtuous. Unlike Philip Carey, I did immediately recognise that some of the virtues could now be dispensed with, and several of the supposed sins might turn out to be expedient if not actually delightful. I acted accordingly for several important and irrecoverable years. (p9)

Rev'd Douglas Wilson is blogging his way through The Rage, by the way.

Preaching The Psalms

God-willing, I'm going to share some thoughts on preaching the Psalms with my little preaching group at The Sussex Coast Ministry Training Course on Tues 27th. All hints and tips gratefully received.