What drove the NT church?

In a message at the 2008 Shepherds Conference, John Macarthur preached from Acts and gave this overview of the NT church that experienced God’s incredible blessing. They had these characteristics:

• A transcendent message
• A regenerate congregation
• A valiant perseverance
• An evident purity
• A qualified leadership

You won’t find too much emphasis on this in the modern church growth movement–but we dare not improve upon God’s standard for a godly church.

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The church’s worst enemy

Iain Murray paraphrasing Lloyd-Jones in his biography of Lloyd-Jones (vol. 1):

“The church’s worst enemy is the man of little faith within its membership, not the faithless man of the world.” (p. 185).

(HT: Pure Church)

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The drive thru church

Yesterday I was preaching about how worship is being downgraded today in many ways and, sort of off the cuff, said that I wouldn’t be surprised if one day someone invents a drive-thru church. Well, here is a drive-in church that is not too far off from what I had envisioned–I just didn’t know it was already here. (Thanks, Dick G, for the link).

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Bricks are for buildings

Chris Braun talks about bricks, buildings, and the church:

“Four bricks hide behind my tool shed. The shed sits on the edge of the woods so leaves hide the bricks. If you weren’t looking, you wouldn’t notice them: just a few bricks settling into moist, black soil under brown oak leaves.

If I picked up one of those bricks, brushed the leaves off it, and asked it what it is doing, I wonder what it would say. I know that bricks can’t talk. Bear with me for the sake of the thing. A brick disconnected from any building, lying behind my tool shed, how would it explain itself?

It might be a little defensive. Can’t you just hear the brick bristling when asked why it is not in a building?

“Look, I am a brick! I assure you that I am a brick. Are you implying that I am not a brick?”

I would probe gently. “No, I’m just wondering why you aren’t part of one sort of building or another? Just curious.”

The defense would continue. “Look, I don’t have to be in a building in order to be a brick. I can be a brick all on my own.”

True enough.

Then again, maybe it wouldn’t be a defensive brick. It might be a “friendly, procrastinating” brick: agreeable and well-intentioned.

It would say, “I know what you are thinking and you are right. I do need to find a good building. I just haven’t gotten around to it. I mean there was a time when I was in a building, a school actually, but I drifted away and now I’m back here behind the tool shed. But, I am going to find a good building. I still listen to the radio – – -you know, to stay in touch with what is going on in the building industry.”

Or, it might be critical: a brick that lists and describes the imperfections in other bricks. This brick would point its finger while it answered. It would go on offense.

“Hey, I got tired of being next to so many irregular bricks. Bricks, and I am talking especially about the ones in buildings – – they have rough edges. I don’t want to judge, you understand, but they’re lopsided. They’re uneven. I decided if that’s what the other bricks are like, then I am not interested in being in a building.”

Or maybe the brick would be too busy. It has nothing against buildings per se. At some point it would even like to be part of one; it just can’t find time.

At the end of the day, there would be as many different excuses as there are loose bricks in the world. Each brick would offer some logic about why it is stacked out behind a tool shed and not mortared into a building.

Of course, none of the explanations would work. There is no good reason for a brick to be lying in a sloppy pile, dirt crusted on the side of it, underneath brittle leaves.

Don’t get me wrong. The explanations make sense. I can relate. I understand that a brick is still a brick regardless of whether or not it is in a building. We’ve all seen enough brick-laying going on to know that it is an involved process; there are legitimate reasons why a brick might take some time jumping into the wheel barrow. And, there are a lot of uneven bricks in the world – – certainly, it is a challenge to fit next to them day after day.

What brick isn’t busy?

But, none of those reasons adequately explain why a brick would be tossed aside next to a tool shed under decaying leaves and hollow excuses.

Bricks are made with a building in mind.”

Read the rest of this story by Chris Brauns.

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The case against the R-rated church

Phil Johnson talks about a recent interview he conducted with John MacArthur on the loss of evangelical innocence as churches become more and more like the world. As Phil prepared for the interview, he was struck with three facts which he discusses briefly. Here are some excerpts:

One: This is a huge and widespread problem.

Two: Modesty is all but gone from the evangelical movement. Not only have today’s evangelicals cast aside innocence as if it were something to be ashamed of; they are proud to have done so. They are keen to show a comfortable familiarity with the very things Scripture says it is shameful to speak of in public (Ephesians 5:12), and they would be embarrassed to be thought squeamish about such things.

Three: In short, the church is fornicating with the world and intoxicated with the spirit of the age.

Read the rest of Phil’s remarks here.

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The Rape of Solomon’s Song

John MacArthur has published a blog series on a disturbing trend in pulpits today–inappropriate language in the pulpit.  Phil Johnson dealt with this at the Shepherd’s Conference this year as well.  Looks like an interesting and more than likely highly controversial series over the next few days, In the first article John writes:

The language Scripture employs when dealing with the physical relationship between husband and wife is always careful—often plain, sometimes poetic, usually delicate, frequently muted by euphemisms, and never fully explicit. There is no hint of sophomoric lewdness in the Bible, even when the prophet’s clear purpose is to shock (such as when Ezekiel 23:20 likens Israel’s apostasy to an act of gross fornication motivated by the lust of bestiality). When an act of adultery is part of the narrative (such as David’s sin with Bathsheba), it is never described in way that would gratify a lascivious imagination or arouse lustful thoughts.

The message of Scripture regarding sex is simple and consistent throughout: total physical intimacy within marriage is pure and ought to be enjoyed (Hebrews 13:4); but remove the marriage covenant from the equation and all sexual activity (including that which occurs only in the imagination) is nothing but fornication, a serious sin that is especially defiling and shameful—so much so that merely talking about it inappropriately is a disgrace (Ephesians 5:12).

Above all, Scripture never stoops to the lurid level of contemporary sex education. The Bible has no counterpart to the Hindu Kama Sutra (an ancient Sanskrit sex manual supposedly transmitted by Hindu deities.) Nothing in Scripture gives any vivid how-to instructions regarding the physical relationship within marriage.

In the last article he declares:

The notion that degenerate subcultures and sexually-addicted people cannot be reached without “learning to speak their language” is an absolute fallacy. Grace Church is seven miles from Hollywood, in the heart of Southern California, in a carnal, pleasure-mad culture well-known worldwide for everything but healthy spiritual values. No city in America is more “unchurched” than our valley, which houses more than three million people. The people of Grace church are reaching friends and neighbors in every imaginable subculture—from ex-cons to ex-Catholics to people in the entertainment industry. We baptize new believers virtually every Sunday night. It is neither necessary nor helpful to inject explicit sexual references into the conversation in order to reach people from such a culture. God draws them to Christ through the gospel.

Here are links to the articles:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

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Where perscution happens most

Open Doors tells us where persecution is most intense in the world this year.

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Thoughts on “fellowship”

In Philippians 1:5, Paul rejoices that the church in Philippi had maintained a “partnership in the gospel from the first day [day of their conversion] until now.”

Fellowship implies relationships centered on the gospel.  This means that sharing a meal together, drinking coffee together between Sunday School and church, or even staying after church isn’t necessarily Christian fellowship.  Part of fellowship is definitely building relationships with other Christians.  But they must be gospel-centered relationships.  Why is it that you invite your unsaved neighbor over for tea and this is friendship, but if you invite a believer over for tea that is fellowship?  Why is it that if you talk with your co-workers about politics, sports, family, and the weather, we call that friendship, but if we talk to believers about politics, sports, our families, and the weather, we call that fellowship?  You see, fellowship involves gospel-focused relationships.

This leads to a second observations. The heart of biblical fellowship involves a partnership for the sake of the advancement of the gospel.  Fellowship involves sharing life together, but it also involves sharing a cause, a vision, something that is bigger than any one person or a group. his fellowship shares the vision of getting the gospel to the world!  This fellowship is a willingness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of a shared, transcendent vision! It is taking Christ to the world because the world needs Christ!

How are you partnering with missionaries for the advancement of the gospel?  How are you partnering with others in your local church for the advancement of the gospel?  Do you need to re-think what true fellowship in the gospel talks about?  what true fellowship in the gospel does? Are you actively fellowshiping with others in the gospel.

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A little perspective!

What’s the biggest problem or disappointment you are facing today?  What are you most concerned about in your church or family?  Need a little perspective?  Well consider that Christians in places like Orissa, India aren’t waking up thinking about the economy, a recession. They aren’t debating and dividing over music styles, Bible translations, the timing of the rapture, or concerned about what they are going to buy for Christmas.  No, as Timmy Brister points out, they wake up every morning wondering which believers were killed in the last 24-hours.  They live in a place . . . .

“Where 300 villages have been pillaged and plundered, 70,000 Christians have been left homeless, many of them forced to live in the jungles.

4,000 homes have been destroyed.

3,000 people are missing and 77 people have been burned or hacked to death.

450 churches have been burned to the ground.

One Christian worker who was attacked by a mob while praying, said, “It’s like a never-ending nightmare . . . we’re living in constant fear of more attacks.”

The violence in Orissa, according to Voice of the Martyrs, is due to the increasing number of Indians converting to Christianity.

At a time when those of us who either write or read blogs, I felt that it is necessary to call us back to Christianity 1.0 where there’s a cross to carry and a price to pay far greater than anyting we have known in front of a computer screen. Let us pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters, and by their lives, determine to have a right perspective about the gospel, the church, and the kingdom of God where the weight of glory conforms our character and characterizes our conduct as we seek to follow Christ.”

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A prayer for reformation!

Don Carson ends his classic book A Call to Spiritual Reformation with this prayer.  It is a great prayer worthy of meditation and adaptation in our own prayer lives!  OH LORD, REVIVE YOUR CHURCH!

And now, Lord God, I ask your blessing on all who read this book, for without it there will be no real benefit. We may have education, but not compassion; we may have forms of praying, but no fruitful adoration and intercession; we may have oratory, but be lacking in unction; we may thrill your people, but not transform them; we may expand their minds, but display too little wisdom and understanding; we may amuse many, but find few who are solidly regenerated by your blessed Holy Spirit.

So we ask you for your blessing for the power of the Spirit, that we may know you better and grow in our grasp of your incalculable love for us. Bless us, Lord God, not with ease or endless triumph, but with faithfulness. Bless us with the right number of tears, and with minds and hearts that hunger both to know and to do your Word. Bless us with a profound hunger and thirst for righteousness, a zeal for truth, a love of people. Bless us with the perspective that weighs all things from the vantage point of eternity. Bless us with a transparent love of holiness. Grant to us strength in weakness, joy in sorrow, calmness in conflict, patience when opposed or attacked, trustworthiness under temptation, love when we are hated, firmness and farsightedness when the climate prefers faddishness and drift.

We beg of you, holy and merciful God, that we may be used by you to extend your kingdom widely, to bring many to know and love you truly. Grant above all that our lives will increasingly bring glory to your dear Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip us with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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