EMA Day 1: Main Seminar - The Preacher & Evangelism

THE PREACHER & EVANGELISM: The Word One To One evangelistic resource – studies in John’s Gospel

Richard

The Word One To One - Jonathan Carswell & William Taylor

Rico Tice - 1954/55 - Billy Graham evangelism - 90 per cent of converts were already in churches

1990s - Gospel untrue? Irrelevant? Homophobic?

Today - tolerance and permissiveness and no journey towards God

Lots of people have a Xian friend they like

Would you like to look at the Bible with me?

People need someone to help them

The importance of individual invitation

The Bible from the front, small group, one to one, reading for self at home

Has anyone ever looked at the Bible wit you one to one?

Do you understand? What does it mean for us in practice? Next step?

Word on to one gives QQ and AA - you don't need to be a Bible teacher just a Bible sharer

Shepherds don’t give birth to sheep; sheep give birth to sheep

Evangelism, opening the Bible for every Christian - would you read the Bible with me?

More than an intellectual conversation - how to lead someone to Christ?

John Lennox on John 1:1-3 - the Bible has challenges and answers!

Golden tonsils top insurance broker was silenced by v4!

Word one to one - John 1-4 - 4 booklets covering Jn's gospel

Episodes - like a box set - the non-Christian won’t know what comes next

People are v biblically ignorant

verse by verse exposition so that by the end they can read it and understand it

An acceptable accessible version of John's gospel

People don't know there is an OT & they are not sure if Isaiah is a bird or a plane!

people often think the Bible probably has some good stuff in it! They are often willing to look at it.

People esp. men don't want to look idiots. Don't embarrass them.

Only Xians read out loud! People read in their heads! In business, no one has ever read a contract out to me!

An amazing claim in John 1v2: that a person existed eternally from the very beginning and is the maker of all things, the source of all life

The Bible has sold more books than any other. Don't you think it's worth checking out?

1 in 5 people say yes to doing it! Sometimes roughly 50 per cent say yes.

each episode is about 20 mins. You might do one, two or three.

people say why has no one shown me this before?

start on a level playing field - both have the booklet out, not a bible

people are interested in peace and security, not asking about X or Xianity

Jeremy Marshall, chairman of Xianity Explored, terminally ill - an advantage!

We have to start further back than we did 20 or 40 yrs. ago

people have v little knowledge of the Bible

50 per cent of people in the UK think J was not a real person or are not sure

in business we go to them at a time that suits them

church seems weird / frightening / alien to people

trust the supernatural power of the Word to transform

Ask lots of people!

Would you like to read the Bible with me?

God's word connects, resonates - you don't know what is going on in someone's life but God can put his finger on things

people will open up one to one

Jesus and the Samaritan woman

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

Jesus walks off the pages of the Bible and meets with people

The church staff must help people to do it - how to do it - help one another

The person doing the training and encouragement must do it himself

The pastor must do the work of an evangelist and needs to have non-Xian contacts

Model how to do it

The biggest dread is not people saying no but people saying yes! Then you have to do a Bible study with them!

it is okay if people say no - The parable of the sower - throw out the seed

people often fall in love with doing one to ones and typically do 4 one to ones at once

this will transform your prayer meeting - pray people will say yes, pray for the one to ones going on

you have to jump into the pool! just do it!

the bible, you and the other person are conversation partners. it does not matter too much who does most of the talking sometimes it is 10 - 90 sometimes 50 - 50

Word one to one could be done one to two - could be done in youth group - every BB group in Singapore are apparently doing it

thewordonetoone.com

cf. uncover - studenty resource, younger people, time limitation

not too much on one page - taking time to go through it

a natural discussion / conversation

middle class English people have a file of self-justification - I tried - I wasn't too bad, I ran the marathon for charity - John 5 - you must honour the son if you are to come to the father

all god's people can be involved in the work of evangelism and know X at work and experience the Spirit at work

EMA Day 1: Garry Williams on Luther's Theology of the Cross

(Some of the following are my attempts to capture quotations from Luther that I didn't get down perfectly or fully. It would be worth checking with Google / Luther's Works!)

Diet of Worms (?):  Luther, “Here I stand!” - Would you stand with him?

Likely Luther would not stand with you!

Double predestination

Infant baptism

Confessional Xian government

State reforming the church

Consubstantiation

Do you think of yourself as an heir of Luther?

The supreme authority of Scripture

J b f a

But his distinctives were fellowship breaking for Luther - not EA basis etc.

He would exclude us; he could not be a member in many of our churches

Trueman - desert island with Calvin or Luther?! Would you have 2 camp fires?

Antisemitism in later writings

His character

LUTHER's THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS

Theologians of the cross - us as people - how we live and think - how we know God through the cross of J - our own crosses

A theology of revelation and our whole experience of life

God hides himself in unexpected places

God reveals himself in thoroughly ungodlike ways

Dt 32 - I kill and I make alive. I will make my arrows drunk with blood

1 Sam 2:6-7

Is 28:21

God's strange and alien work

JX - unattractive - no form or majesty or beauty

A theology of opposites - God reveals himself under the opposites

Life is found in death

Mercy is found in the expression of God's wrath

Looking for heaven? Go look at hell

The cross - opposites - the worst death, awful wrath, hell itself

True theology and God are to be found in the cross of Christ

1 Cor 1 - wisdom in foolishness

Jesus only here, God only here

Sermon on meditation on Christ's sufferings - pass beyond the sufferings to his friendly heart which so loved you that it bears your pain etc

God's eternal and kind heart is found in the awful cross of death, wrath and hell

Suffering

Our Christian life like Jesus'

The real and true work of Christ's passion is to make man conformable to Christ

X's suffering overflows into our life

Calvin: if we are joined with X, we must share his suffering

We must live Chistomorphic lives, cross shaped life

When we suffer, God is not being unfatherly to us - God is being most father-like to us

Luther often in fear of death, but everyone faces this suffering - Anfechtung - temptation, devil; trial, God's work in it to test you; affliction, tribulation

Temptations, trials, afflictions, inward sadness, timidity, fear, poverty, contempt, weakness

Spiritual depression, all black and horrible wherever you turn your eyes

1510s, Luther's torment by sin, agony of conscience, conviction of sin crucial, as much as we accuse ourselves, God pardons us

Opposition, persecution

Hiding in Wartburg castle - isolation, attacked by devil

Wittenberg - Reformation too fast / radical - battles in church life

Years of great ministry disappointment, struggles, Luther thought he was failing

1529 - we are preaching but it seems fruitless

I am sorry I ever freed you from the tyrants and papists you ungrateful beasts. You are not worthy of the Gospel. If you do not improve I will stop preaching

I would rather preach to mad dogs!

For most of 1530, Luther stopped preaching

Xian life is largely a matter of death, spiritual daily death

Luther almost dismissive of physical death

Sermon at the elector of Saxony's funeral - his real death was when he stood up at the diet of Augsburg and owned the gospel

Literal death is animal, childlike

cf. the fear of death - opposition, sin, humiliation

You must be humiliated. The one thing you can never be is proud esp. in your ministry

Do not think you have made it or flatter yourself that you have made it and your little books please you. Take yourself by the ears if you love praise.

You will find donkey ears. Decorate them! People will then see and hear you, O great preacher and writer of such marvellous books.

Let us be proud and seek honour where we can, but God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

What Luther feared most was the lack of temptation. That would be total temptation and pride.

Commentary on Patriarchs, Joseph and Jacob.

What was it like for Joseph to be snatched from his family, thrown into prison and expecting death? You must see in this the good will of God, though it seems the opposite. God hides himself under the form of the worst devil.

God cannot be God unless he first becomes a devil. All that God speaks and does the devil has to speak and do first.

God uses the devil all the time. The devil is God's constant instrument.

The devil is always and only the instrument of God, always under his control, never let off his leash, utterly subordinate under the totally sovereign God.

God is always working his good purposes.

Luther's contemporaries seem to have believed in leprechauns / pixie like things! A highly spiritualised world.

cf. Manicheism - the devil a power at war with God - might he even win?

Luther says endure, wait for the Lord, hold fast, trust his word, courage, be undismayed

If you cannot do this, hold fast! Just cling on if you cannot do it triumphantly.

Jacob and his fight with God - weak and battered - faith struggling - they were not senseless rocks and logs, not always firm and strong in faith

We suffer from infirmities like the Patriarchs did

See God in your sufferings - he is the God of the cross - he uses the worst work of Satan

God is in your circumstances - the signs of his wrath are signs of his love and good will

God is accustomed to wrestle with us in the form of a destroyer but he reaches us up from hell and kisses and embraces us as his beloved sins

Ah, how I would like God to love others not me, said one peasant, if God loves like this!

But we can look back on God's good work in us.

Luther said the Papists had done God's work in him and made him a fair theologian through anfechtung

Embrace Luther's wide view of suffering / temptation / trial / anfechtung

The battle is raging here. We are in danger and must be on our guard.

The suffering of a troubled conscience, battle with the flesh. Crucify the sinful nature. All affliction. All fear of death. Death itself.

Have a big category of affliction!

What are you teaching yourself and your people about suffering?

Are you merely a bible teacher or do you teach for the sake of godly Christian living in the face of suffering?

Bible teaching is not an end in itself but a means to living the Xian life to the glory of God.

You are not just a Bible teacher you are a life-coach!

The Bible is oriented to experience, to the cross shaped life.

Are we preparing people for Monday? For the next stage of life? For the temptations of mid-life, retirement, old age?

Prepare them for anfechtung! Prepare them for suffering and death broadly conceived.

Take up your cross and follow J. Crucifixion is the shape of the Xian life.

Prepare the people for daily and ultimate death.

Xian life and Xian gatherings are a sober business. We are not light & fluffy / glossy magazine / not prosperity gospel.

Preach a message for the storms of life. A theology for the wilderness which is the true character of all Christian life.

If the Xian message is unattractive, so is Jesus.

Do we have the beautiful people on our website?

Come and learn how to suffer and die daily!

Only this message is real about life and faithful to the crucified Christ.

Only the cross of Jesus can suffer.

Luther would have you apply to Satan's seminary of suffering. It is the school of God at work. Submit to daily suffering, crucifixion, death.

God will teach you to die that you might live.

Preach Job and more Job!

This is the shape of the whole Bible.

Abraham - not receiving the land he looks for, near sacrifice of sin

Isaac

Jacob's labours for a wife

Joseph rotting in jail

Moses years in wilderness, people grumbling, dying outside land

David - Saul, Absalom

Stephen stoned to death

Paul whipped, shipwrecked

Jesus

EMA Day 1: Andy Gemmill - Ephesians introduction

Andy Gemmill - Ephesians

Acts 20:17-35; Eph 6:10-20

Going to the wrong wedding reception - hang on, have I got this right? - Sunday AM, no revival, problems, irrelevant? - have I got something wrong?

Acts 19 - magic and supernatural - Eph - supernatural powers

Pl spent best part of 3yrs in Eph - why so impersonal etc.?

Written during which imprisonment?

Purpose / why written? - why the top of Pl's busy to do list?

Reassurance: an antidote to the hang on is this right moments of ministry

Pl's Ephesian ministry climactic in Acts - programme notes p28

Acts 18-20

Written from Prison in Rm?

1 & 2 Tim written from prison in Rm to Timothy in Eph

Corinthian activity between Acts 20 and writing of Ephesians

Does Pl organise Acts 20 meeting with Eph elders after the arrival of false teachers in Corinth?

cf. coveting gold and silver and clothing - Acts 20 - cf. Pl & super-Apostles

PL's EXCEPTIONAL MINISTRY IN EPHESUS (Acts 19-20)

climactic - the most powerful ministry in Acts

Pl's longest city ministry

Unusual breadth and depth of ministry, geographically and ethically, all Asia, Jews and Greeks (cf. impersonal feel of Eph - aimed at the city and the region beyond)

Extraordinary healings and exorcisms at Eph

The economics of Eph affected - Artemis second only to Caesar - tourist trade affected - riot

The gospel seriously transforming the city and region - the supremacy of JX as Lord

A ministry that underlines Pl's importance as J's authorised ambassador in the world

Extraordinary miracles (v11) - cf. Acts 5, Pt's miracles like these - the apostles as the locus of God's powerful work in the world (not temple centred worship)

Pl's ministry authenticated by J

Israel must listen to Pt; the world must listen to Pl

Pl is recognised publicly by the evil spirits - Jesus whom Pl proclaims, J I know and Pl I know!

Pl is recognised publicly by the world (v26) - This Pl has persuaded many people

The supremacy of J, J conquers - through Pl's gospel ministry outside the synagogue, superior to Judaism, for Jew and Gentile alike

J is working through Pl's ministry for Jew and Gentile

PL's URGENT WARNING (Acts 20)

cf. Lk & Pl's description of the ministry in Eph

Conquest & Conflict - it looked v powerful but it felt v difficult to do

The plots of the Jews and how Pl dealt with them - extraordinarily hard ministry

1 Cor 15 - wild beasts in Eph

Many opponents - 1 Cor 16

Climactic ministry both in terms of fruitfulness and opposition

Conquest and conflict huge themes in Eph

Eph - the victory of the Lord Jesus emphasised - 1:10, 20, Ch. 4 - Jesus ascended, enthroned - Ch. 6 - Jesus the conquering warrior

The conflict of J's people a huge theme in Ephesians

Pl looks back and look forward - future opposition and suffering on Jerusalem journey

Future difficulties from false teachers - cf. Cor ? - savage wolves from outside and deviant teachers from within

Pl is preparing them for his future and theirs - a ministry which will look different - Pl's imprisonment not impressive looking

Life is going to change and look different from Acts 19 - coming conflict

Acts 21 - Pl arrested in the temple in an agonising and demoralising manner - Jews from Asia stir up the crowd recognising Pl and his Ephesian colleague

Why is Pl not looking victorious now?

2 Tim - the warnings of Acts 20 fulfilled - do not be ashamed about the testimony of our Lord or me his prisoner

Eph - trouble in the visible realm (weakness and conflict) but look to the unseen realm

Eph 6 - not a battle against flesh and blood - human conflict not the main / ultimate thing - spiritual enemies

Fight according to the rules of the bigger game - with the word of God and prayer - Christ-like chr, the armour J wears (Isaiah)

Cf. Eph 6 and Acts 20 - ministry of word, truth, humility etc. 

Eph 2:11 - Jewish opponents - similarly Acts 20

Conflict in 4:26 - anger - conflict - Ps 4 - horrible human hostility from outside - tempting to come out swinging and fight back

Remember the bigger battle than the one which is obviously in your face

Weakness - 1:18 - grasp your hope better as things don’t look v hopeful - it doesn't look v glorious

Remember J's resurrection power - 1:20 - your physical eyes may not reassure you. You need your heart eyes opening.

Eph 3 - Pl's digression at the heart of the letter? - God's power is found in the ministry of the prisoner of the Lord - v7 - 4:1

3v13 like Timothy - do not lose heart over my sufferings for you

Pl and his gospel look weak and powerless but he is the authentic minister of the Lord with a powerful gospel

The experiential gulf between the powerful ministry of Acts 19 and ordinary ministry

Jesus the risen Lord - cf. ordinary human life

The gospel in the UK in decline, Xianity more marginal, growing human conflict

Is revival breaking out where you are?

Is Jesus' stamp of approval publicly obvious on your ministry? Is your city being powerfully transformed by the gospel?

Do you feel powerful and conquering or frustrated and impotent?

Do you need encouragement for post Acts 19 ministry in a world of conflict?

Ministry looks ordinary and weak, but the power and freedom are there.

Talks on the theology of the Westminster Assembly

Drs McClenahan & Cowan will no doubt have been excellent at the International Presbyterian Church conference:

http://ipc.church/catalyst/?utm_source=Catalyst+2017&utm_campaign=c5363d9f59-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_06_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4e7de533f7-c5363d9f59-58512011

Parish maps, population, demographics etc.

http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=67bce0ed36dd4ee0af7a16bc079aa09a&extent=-5.3948%2C50.0787%2C-4.5516%2C50.3686

Water into blood / wine

I have preached an John 2, the wedding at Cana a few times. I have heard a number of sermons on it. I have read and listened to quite a bit about it.

It was in the Day One Travel Guide to Israel, that I can across the idea, new to me, I think, that there is a particular contrast between Jesus and Moses here:

Moses' first public miracle was to turn the water of the Nile into blood in judgement on the people.

Jesus' first sign was to turn water into wine for people's blessing.

The other New Moses stuff in the context of course makes seeing the connection more likely.

John 6:1-15 Feeding of the 5000 Sermon Heading Competition

I recently preached on the feeding of the 5000 from John 6:1-15.

(1) The people's need (vv5-6)
(2) The disciples' inability (vv7-9)
(3) Jesus' ability
(4) Jesus chooses to use his disciples

I encouraged my listener to see if they could make the headings more memorable or engaging, perhaps with the aid of alliteration's aidful art. Their suggestions were:

(1) Picnic unplanned
(2) Panic
(3) Perspective
(4) Provision

(1) Provide?
(2) How?
(3) Eyes on Jesus!
(4) Wow!

(1) Woe
(2) Whoa
(3) Wow
(4) What, me?

(1) People's predicament
(2) Problem posed
(3) Perfect powerful plan
(4) Partner participation

(1) People in need
(2) Philip can't help
(3) Provision from the Shepherd
(4) I'm still working on that one

(1) Hungry humanity / tummies
(2) Helpless disciples
(3) Huge provision from Jesus
(4) Humbled disciples used by Jesus

Need
Ability
Inadequate
Let's help

And I think there was one other I failed to write down!

Given that they were doing this in snatched moments in a busy schedule, I was most impressed and delighted with their enthusiasm for engaging in this little evangelical parlour game.

Irked!

Now, dear reader, it will surprise you to hear that I can sometimes be irked, irritated, riled, downright cross.

We know of course that there is such a thing as righteous indignation. But it is worth asking why I am cross. Or why inordinately so.

You might say, because I've got 4 young children. Well, okay. They have been known to be irksome.

You might just say that I should stop being angry, and you might be right. But what is it in me that causes rage?

For example, is it desire for peace, pleasure, ease, fun, interest, control? Is it that the dear children misbehaving shatters my image of myself as the perfect parent? Am I stressed by what I think of as wasted time or duties prevented? Do I long for harmony and a domestic idle as a refuge from the world? Do I think my temper tantrums can solve things quick? Are my outbursts intended to make me feel better or make them lot share my frustration? These, and probably many other questions.

No doubt introspection can be overdone. We must look to Christ a million times for every look at ourselves. But what are our sins and what are the causes of our sins? We might then begin to see cures. Naming the rat might be a step towards killing it.

Luther

The Revd Andy Robinson, a Sunday evening sermon on Luther, audio & handout (mainly Luther quotes). http://wrbc.org.uk/2017/06/04/an-evening-with-martin-luther/

Dear Preacher

As a preacher who sometimes has to listen to sermons, and indeed wants to be helped by them, please indulge me for a moment.

I hope you will think this post is stating the obvious. And we can all have our off-days or preach a dud sermon. I imagine many of mine would require some pretty firm feedback. But please could we resolve to do this:

Sermons should have a point. They may have points. They probably usually should. But they really should be purposeful. What is the point of your sermon? Do you know? Could you tell me?

Sermons should be intentional messages aimed at changed thinking, feeling, willing, praying, praising, living, relating, speaking, or some other transformed outcome. That is what they are - what they are for. Unless you do that, you have given a lecture or read out a potential commentary or told stories or jokes or made noise, but you have not preached.

Now God is gracious and sovereign, good. You may not have it all sown up. There may be lots of other good things along the way. But please don't get into the pulpit unless you can briefly and clearly state at least one truth to do with God, Jesus or the Bible which you hope to impress upon your hearers and one way in which you have prayed that they will respond. I'm sorry, but I really think it is worth deliberately bothering with the old theme and aim sentences in your preparation. One big truth and the difference it should make, please.

It is not rocket science, really, is it? So please, don't just fill x number of minutes with true statements or walk us through a passage of Scripture. Think and pray about your application and try to push beyond, "Isn't that remarkable / great!".

Thank you. And with my love and prayers.

Pentecostal Fire & Wind

The Day of Pentecost is often spoken of as a kind of birthday of the church. We might think of blowing out candles. But the day of Pentecost is almost the opposite of that: when the Spirit / breath / wind of God comes, he sets the church on fire. The church burns with a zeal to make the light and life of Jesus known in a cold dead world.

Gerald Bray on The Lord's Prayer

5 lectures: https://myrrh.library.moore.edu.au/handle/10248/7619

The weekly sermon essay crisis?

Is your sermon preparation rather hand to mouth, a bit like a weekly essay crisis? Perhaps the deadline helpfully focuses the mind and makes you decide between your three different outline and your plethora of exegetical and applicatory notes, but is it ideal that the ink is still wet as you preach? Do you pray over and get familiar with your notes so that you can preach it without the distraction of remembering what to say next, so that you can concentrate on what you are saying, and how you want to say it, and those to whom you are speaking? Or even think of God in the whole thing?!

So, how much is this an issue? And if it is less than ideal, what might one do about it? Do you just resolve to have it "finished" (= preachable) the night before so that you can spend the AM in prayer and memorisation? And what if you don't have steely self-discipline?!

Psalm 10 (and 9) jottings

Psalm 10 (and Psalm 9) notes

Uses:

When feeling abandoned by God / when God seems distant

When the wicked seem to dominate

Prayer:

O LORD, eternal king of the nations and defender of the fatherless,

Forgive my forgetfulness of you.

Deliver me from pride, arrogance and boasting, from all self-sufficiency.

Teach me humility.

May I know my dependence on you and always seek you.

I acknowledge my helplessness before you.

I commit myself to you.

Be my helper.

May my mouth be full of blessings and truth.

Rise up, O LORD, against the wicked and arrogant and all who persecute your people.

Thank you, Lord, that you see and know and hear.

Consider the cause of your people and take it in hand.

Encourage and strengthen me and all your people I pray.

May I fear you and fear nothing else.

Outlines / structure:

Expositor’s Bible:

Goldingay, Baker Commentary

Wilcock, BST:

The other side of the picture (vv1-11)

A prayer in the light (vv12-18)

Kidner, Tyndale:

Man: Predator and Prey

Vv1-11 – The tyrant’s boast

Vv12-18 – The victim’s prayer

Dale Ralph Davis, The Way of the Righteous in the Muck of Life

Hidden Hearer

Lament (vv1-2)

Description (vv3-11)

The wicked: (1) his apparent immunity (vv3-6) (2) his ingenuity (vv7-10) (3) his philosophy (v11)

Intercession (vv12-18)

Reasons for hope: (1) The Lord’s sight (vv13-14); (2) The Lord’s reign (vv15-16); (3) The Lord’s Strength (vv17-18)

Notes:

No heading – a continuation of Psalm 9

Ps 9-10 the longest Psalm so far

Patrick D. Miller, “no other psalm so fully joins the basic themes of the Psalter – the rule of God, the representative role of the king, the plea for help in time of trouble, the ways of the wicked and the righteous, and the justice of God on behalf of the weak and poor.” (quoted in Goldingay, p184)

Goldingay: Pss 9 & 10 have an unconventional interweaving of prayer and praise and of verbal forms which make their interpretation uncertain

Statement of faith and praise for Yahweh’s past acts (9:1-12)

Plea (9:13-14)

Statement of faith and praise for Yahweh’s past acts (9:19-10:2)

Lament at the present (10:3-11)

Plea (10:12-15)

Statement of faith and praise for Yahweh’s past acts (10:16-18)

Psalm 9 focused on the judgement to come; this Psalm focuses on the present age when injustice is rampant (Kidner, p71)

“Psalm 9:1-12 focused on God, and the wicked were only mentioned to be dismissed; 10:1-11 focus on the wicked, and God is mentioned only to be dismissed.” (Wilcock, p43)

Both Psalms 9 and 10 begin with prayer and then later revert to it (Wilcock, p44)

Broken acrostic

Address to God v1, (v5) vv12-15, v17f

The Psalmist speaks to God; the ungodly only speak about God (v11)

V1 a shock after the largely positive Psalm 9

Davis emphasises that this is a faithful lament (p117)

Godward insult and manward injury (Kidner, p71)

V1 - Cf. Yahweh sitting in Ps 9

V1 – Does the LORD really stand far off or is this just how the Psalmist feels? Is the question answered in the Psalm? The later part of the Psalm tends to deny it. – For the Psalmist’s good – to teach him to live by faith?

Yahweh’s apparent inaction seems out of character to the Psalmist – an implicit faith

Kidner: does the wicked man protest too much, betraying a basic disquiet, desperate to reassure himself? (p71)

V1 cf. 9:10

V2 – description (NIV) or petition (NKJV, NASB)?

Faith can be both perplexed (v1) and pleading (v2) – Davis, p117 – This is not a philosophical discussion but prayer, not an intellectual quandary but a devotional dilemma – He does not understand Yahweh but he is still dealing with Yahweh – Davis, p118

God is far off (vv1-2) and the tyrant is doing nicely (vv3-11) – The psalm holds this problem before us – it should disturb us and drive us to prayer

The heart (vv4, 6, 11) determines and directs actions (vv8-10)

Some contradiction between v4 and v11 – he does think of God – Kidner, “he is a practicing atheist, if hardly a convinced one.” (p71) – he acts as if there were no God – Wilcock, p44: It is the God he doesn’t believe in, he is hoping will leave him alone!

V3a cf. 44:8a

The defenceless as his natural prey (v2a, vv8-10)

V4 – or “There is no God” (Goldingay) – for all practical purposes God can be left out of account as he does not act to hold people to account – God is up on high, far off, not engaged in the world

God does not seem to be doing his job / what he ought to do!

V5 – God’s laws / judgements both his rulings / standards but also his action to enforce them

Vv8-10 – the wicked man is doing some hiding, but he also believes God is hiding

V8 – repetition of victim / hapless / poor wretch vv8, 10, 14 a word found only here a probable Egyptian cognate with the sense of overwhelmed / demoralized (Kidner, p71)

V12 – arise – cf. 9:19

V12 – Lift your hand suggests taking firm action for or against someone – often the same act does both, judging and saving – deliver the faithful and put down the faithless

V13 – The why echoes the why of v1

9:12 – to seek out / avenge = 10:13 – call to account

V14 functions as a retort to the cocky security of the wicked in vv4, 11, 13 (Davis, p120)

V14 – a rising sequence – see, consider, take in hand

V14 cf. Jer 23:24

V14 – The victim commits himself – lit. he abandons himself – cf. 37:5

V15 – break the arm = break the power of – 44:3 – break his arm and therefore frustrate his strong arm tactics – arm, cf. 71:18, strength

V15b – seek out his wickedness until you find none, to the last trace

Vv16-18 – the prayer turns to affirmation so that the Psalm ends with a series of statements of faith

V16 – the nations cf. Ps 9

First reference in the Psalms to Yahweh as the king (5:2 – my king) – cf. Ps 9 - enthroned

V17 – cf. 2 Cor 12:8-10

V18 – the ultimate solution, but also v17, stamina for the meantime

2 Tim 4:16-17

Similarity between final v and final v of Ps 9 – puny man, of the earth, mortal

God’s perception (vv13-14), position (vv15-16) and power (vv17-18) (Davis, p122)

John 14:18

Christ as the speaker of this Psalm? V1 – his abandonment? His innocent suffering?

Doctrinal precisionism

You have got to love a good bit of distinguishing. That was the kind of thing we were into a theological college. And for good reason. We often need it. It is good for us to try to think precisely. Apart from anything else it is good exercise. Loving God with our minds matters. We serve a precise God. To go wrong by 1 degree can soon put you miles off course. A small error here can lead to three big errors over there. Ideas have trajectories.

But, as one of our theological college lecturers once said, "why this doctrinal hair-splitting?". The answer should always be for the sake of love and obedience. Truth must be applied if it is to be truly known. Even if we can't see what difference this qualification makes today, we should pray that in twenty years it will help us to live better.

So it is good to get it right if we can.

But there are also far more important things. Yes, tithe your doctrines of the Trinity and your concept of revelation, but do not neglect the weightier matters of love and mercy. The theologian who centuries ago would have had inky hands must also be willing to get them dirty in washing the feet of others.

And the mode of discourse of the Reformed Scholastics is not the only, the best or the most appropriate form all the time. Can your theology by prayed and sung? Does it preach to the heart and will? Yes, be precise, but there is also a place for poetry in theology. Make it right but make it beautiful too.

Dead on your feet

A picture of death and resurrection is surely programmed into creation. You can feel awful, worn out, defeated. Actually, what you need is death-like sleep. And you can wake up in the morning the same person but utterly transformed, made alive again, renewed by death, in short, resurrected.

Reformed Spirituality

You don't have to read or listen to much on prayer for a Christian to say that prayer includes listening to God.

Now, strictly speaking, I'm not convinced.

(1) Prayer in the Bible always seems to be talking to God. (I would be interested to hear any counter examples). Jesus says, "When you pray, say..." and gives the Lord's Prayer as something to say and as a model for our praying. When we pray we talk to God. Simple.

(2) The Reformed consensus is that God's Word to us is final and sufficient in Scripture. The Bible is God speaking today. He does not give new extra words. Listening to God is engaging with the Scriptures.

it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his Church;^c and afterwards, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing;^d which maketh the holy scripture to be most necessary;^e those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.^f 

The Westminster Confession of Faith (part of chapter 1, of the Holy Scripture)
http://www.covenantofgrace.com/westminster_chapter1.htm

We all know that prayer is not a vending machine and it is good if our prayers are not just shopping lists for ourselves but include Adoration of God, Confession of Sin, Thanksgiving and Supplication for others and ourselves (ACTS). We want to pray in the light of and in response to the Scriptures.

But we can go further.

Just because prayer is talking to God and reading the Bible is listening to God, it does not mean that either should be a speedy barrage of words. It might do us good to slow down and pause. We are not only to read and study the Bible but to think and meditate on it - to chew the cud, the murmur it over to ourselves. We do well to stock our minds with it. We have the blessing of printed Bibles we can read and of audio Bibles and so on, but what might our spirituality look like if we depended more on the Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle and Gospel we had heard read and proclaimed on Sunday? Would there be gains as well as losses?

Maybe we could slowly, thoughtfully, deliberately remember God and his presence with us and consciously enjoy him. We could pause to think of his majesty and goodness and love and to praise him. We could pray the Psalms we know. Or dwell on a single line from the teaching of Jesus.

And maybe we could even simply be with him. We need not bring our agenda. If our thoughts are racing and distracted, fine. He wants to hear about all that. We can talk to him freely. But maybe we could also learn to be quiet and still and wait in his presence.

It's worth a go, anyway.

On the Vulgate

Peter Cousturier [Peter Sutor] said:

... if in one point the Vulgate were in error the entire authority of Holy Scripture would collapse, love and faith would be extinguished, heresies and schism would abound, blasphemy would be committed against the Holy Spirit, the authority of the theologians would be shaken, and indeed the catholic Church would collapse from the foundation.

Quoted in Jenkins and Preston, Biblical Scholarship and the Church: A Sixteenth-Century Crisis of Authority (Ashgate, 2007) p27 from Bainton (1972) pp167-8

You will be pleased to know this is of course not true, by the way!

A worthwhile project?

Search The Scriptures:

William Whitaker’s, Disputation on Holy Scripture

Anglican Evangelical The Revd Canon Chancellor Prebendary Dr William Whitaker (1548–1595), Regius Professor of Divinity and Master of St John's College, Cambridge, was a leading theologian. He showed his ability by translating The Book of Common Prayer into Greek. Whitaker’s work was discussed on seven occasions at the Westminster Assembly[1]. Though he missed out on a bishopric, The Dictionary of National Biography says: “No English divine of the sixteenth century surpassed Whitaker in the estimation of his contemporaries. Churton justly styles him 'the pride and ornament of Cambridge.'”[2]

William Whitaker’s A Disputation on Holy Scripture Against the Papists, Especially Bellarmine and Stapleton[3] is a classic of its kind, which is readily and economically available in English. It is framed as an exposition of Christ’s prophetic office from John 5:39, which Whitaker takes as a command to search the Scriptures[4]. On page 704, Whitaker will say: “we have come to the close of our controversy, and suppose that, in what hath been said, we have sufficiently explained that sentence of scripture which we laid down at the commencement as our text”. It is not likely that he has left the average reader wanting more.

I do not claim it should be your go to book on the doctrine of Scripture[5]. In my view, Warfield and others have improved on the Reformed doctrine of Scripture they received from the tradition without fundamentally departing from it[6].

Whitaker’s Disputation is very much of its time in both content and style. The structure sometimes leads to unnecessary repetition and makes things hard to find as Whitaker divides up refuting his opponents’ views and stating his positive case, and so on. It is not exactly encouraging when the translator (in his preface) feels the need to warn the reader about the author's tedious prolixity! Perhaps I might give a flavour of something of the style by this quotation from p348, Question 3, Argument 15: "As to [my opponent Stapleton's] first equivocation, I return a fourfold answer."  

But I think the treatise is of more than historical interest and possibly worth persevering with. It contains much that is interesting[7] and useful. It would have been of most benefit to the openminded late 16^th Century Papist, or an evangelical having to do with one, but a 21st Century evangelical could no doubt profit from wrestling with it. You will have to search for the gems. Most of us are probably already persuaded, for example, that the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts are preferable to the Latin Vulgate and will not need 100 pages of demonstration of the fact[8]. Here I have attempted to extract, organise and summarise the most useful and interesting bits of its 700+ pages (where possible in his own words) for today’s evangelical, offering some comment and criticism in places. In particular, Whitaker gives further explication and argumentation for a Reformed understanding of Scripture such as that found in the Westminster Standards, particularly against what he would call Roman errors. He makes considerable, careful and thorough use of a wide range of Biblical texts and is also a useful source for Patristic quotations which he thought supported his case, or at least, did not carry the day for his opponents.

---

[1] Chad Van Dixhoorn (ed.), The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly 1643-1652 (Oxford University Press, 2012) Vol 2: 120 n, 227, 273f, 613

Vol 3: 312, 317, 320f

[2] Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 61 Whitaker, William (1548-1595) by James Bass Mullinger This version is in the public domain and is available at: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Whitaker,_William_(1548-1595)_(DNB00)

[3] (Latin original 1588; The Parker Society Edition, Translated and Edited by William Fitzgerlad, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, MDCCCXLIX = 1849) Forgotten Books Reprinting, London, 2015. Amongst Whitaker’s other works it is relevant to note here De Authoritate Scripture written in reply to Stapleton (1594)

[4] It is debatable whether the text should be read as an imperative or an indicative.

[5] This should probably be Tim Ward’s Words of Life

[6] I attempted to summarise Warfield’s doctrine of Scripture in ‘What the Bible Says, God Says:  B. B. Warfield’s Doctrine of Scripture’ Ecclesia Reformanda 1.2 (2009): 183-210 available at  https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/ecclesia-reformanda/1.2_183.pdf

[7] For example, Whitaker notes that a number of the church fathers said that there are 22 Old Testament books, corresponding to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, pp57-60; 64-65. p112). He also thinks that Hebrew is the most ancient of all languages having been spoken by all those who lived before Babel citing Augustine City of God Lib. Xvi. c. 11. Also Jerome on Zephaniah 3, also Epistle 142. He suggests that 2 Peter 3:15 ("our brother Paul has written to you") might require us to think that Paul wrote Hebrews, as 1 Peter 1 and 2 (see 2 Peter 3:1) seem to be written to Hebrews. He adds: "This, however, I leave to the judgement of the reader, without determining anything absolutely one way or another." (p107)

[8] The Council of Trent makes this pretty extraordinary claim for the Latin Vulgate: "Moreover, the same sacred and holy Synod,--considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic,--ordains and declares, that the said old and vulgate edition, which, by the lengthened usage of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever." (Session 4) As Tony Lane points out, Pope Pius XII's Divino afflante Spiritu (1943) talks of the duty of exegetes to make use of the Hebrew and Greek: "The original text... having been written by the inspired author himself, has more authority and greater weight than even the very best translation, whether ancient or modern" (section 16). It is said that Trent's declarations about the Vulgate apply "only to the Latin Church and to the public use of the same Scriptures." Lane summarises: "The Vulgate is "free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals" and so can be safely used for teaching and preaching. But when it comes to establishing the correct text of Scripture it is the original Hebrew and Greek that is normative." ('Roman Catholic Views of Biblical Authority from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present' in Carson, The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures, p299)
By the time of Vatican II's Dei verbum (1965) "the Vulgate is listed as one of a number of ancient translations to be held in honor. Vernacular translations should be made from the original texts." (Lane, p311)