Mark 3: A Healthy Church Member is Gospel Saturated

This mark sounds very churchy but it’s also critical. “The greatest need in the world today is the gospel. It is the greatest need of the world because men, women, and children are perishing without a vital knowledge of God through the good news of our Savior and his Son, Jesus.”

Totally agree and with the fact that its also the church’s greatest need and that we need to be saturated in it. And how do we do that?

1. Know The Gospel

2. Desire to Hear the Gospel and Preach the Gospel to Yourself

3. Take the Gospel to its Conclusion

4. Order Your Life Around the Gospel

5. Share the Gospel with Others

6. Guard the Gospel

There so many good points in this chapter it’s tough to summarize without restating the whole chapter. I particularly find it helpful when he states under “Order Your Life Around the Gospel,” that “our aim is to understand the gospel so deeply, so intimately, that it animates every area of our lives.” To me that pretty much sums the rest up.

Unfortunately there’s much man in gospels that we preach and order our lives around, but when get a more biblical understanding it changes us from the inside out and then the church. The hard part is keeping it central and rooted in all that we are and in all that we do. In our sin, we so want to make it about us.

I would add one other idea, which is addressed later in the book, in our gospel saturation we need the ability to communicate the gospel truth, pun intended, in a way that’s understandable to unchurched people. Which goes under “share the gospel with others,” but don’t get tunnel vision in communicating it just one way or through some track or program you learned. The gospel must have a context or its simply feeds our self-righteousness, we feel holy for sharing something no one understands, which isn’t the point. It’s ok if people are offended by the gospel but too often we offend them in our method before the gospel

An Explanation of Repentance

“Repentance” is a word that seems always need defining as there seems to be many understandings and misunderstandings (see picture).  Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Pres. in New York City, is in my opinion a “Grade A” approved communicator of Christian orthodoxy in our age.  I believe his explanation of “repentance” is both solidly biblical and effectively communicated, capturing both the common religious misunderstanding (man-centeredness) and the correct biblical (God-centered) understanding.

From Of First Importance:

“In the religious approach, repentance separates you from the source of your power and your hope and your confidence - because that’s a good record.

But in the gospel, repentance reconnects you to the source of your power and your confidence and your joy. Why? Because the source of your self image, the source of your power, the source of your confidence is not your record, but His record. Not what you have done, but what He has done.”
- Tim Keller

Wedding Dress

Today is proving to be a tough day for sermon prep.  I’ve run through every excuse until it just hit me, I’m not allowing the text to HIT ME.  Well, it just did and here’s a song that pretty much sums up my affections right now…

This song was written as an indictment upon the church, which we are all a part.  So often being ungodly and calling it holy, while refusing to look for that which truly is. I am chief!

Wedding Dress by Derek Webb

If you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, your life
Should that be all I’d ever need
or is there more I’m looking for

and should I read between the lines
and look for blessings in disguise
To make me handsome, rich, and wise
Is that really what you want

I am a whore I do confess
But I put you on just like a wedding dress
and I run down the aisle
and I run down the aisle
I’m a prodigal with no way home
but I put you on just like a ring of gold
and I run down the aisle from you

So could you love this bastard child
Though I don’t trust you to provide
With one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in your side

I am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers so less wild
That I would take a little cash
Over your very flesh and blood

Because money cannot buy
a husband’s jealous eye
When you have knowingly deceived his wife

Mark 2: A Healthy Church Member is a Biblical Theologian

This chapter may scare the average church member.  The word theology scares a lot of people, so why should healthy church members be biblical theologians?  Isn’t that what seminaries and ministers are for?

The book says plenty about what and how but perhaps there’s another question before these.  I think the first question to answer is “why?”  Why do members need to be theologians?  Primarily and simply because it will strengthen them in the faith, I think there should be a bit of selfishness here, my spiritual health is largely measured and enjoyed by my knowledge of God.  Maybe a bit more Piper-esque way of saying it would be to say, I am more deeply satisfied in God as I know Him.  So first things first, biblical theology will strengthen the believer.

The book gives great definition of biblical theology as knowing God Himself and the macro story of redemption.  I like the emphasis of the larger story being a part of theology.  Theology has some of the same pitfalls of other sciences and the macro story helps us keep perspective and practice theology holistically.

The book then gives a few other reasons of how biblical theology promotes health in a church member.
1.    Grow in reverence for God
2.    Overcome wrong ideas
3.    Inoculates the church against doctrinal controversies
4.    Necessary for fulfilling the Great Commission
5.    Deepens our understanding of and facility with the gospel
All great points for why we need this mark.  In a day when Christians seem to know more about their hobbies than God and His story, these reasons are great reminders.

The practical steps for becoming a biblical theologian are also helpful, and if practiced, no doubt would produce biblical theologians.  The elephant in the room however is that it takes effort to be a biblical theologian just as it takes effort to be a healthy church member.  In order to put in the effort, we first have to be convinced that the effort will be fun and worth it.  Theology is rarely associated with anything fun, however it is worth it and will help us redefine what really is fun.

10 years ago I’m the last guy anyone would have probably pegged as a person who would like theology.  I feel in love with theology a year after receiving Christ, maybe even to the point of idolatry which is a bit tough to understand, but I probably lost some of the macro story of theology in my initial studies and obsession with it.  However, once released from my Calvinist cage (and no I didn’t loose my Calvinism I just set it free), I’ve been able to see more of the beauty of God that I would never have seen without studying theology. God makes more sense and thus the world makes more sense with a healthy dose.  Some of my greatest friends are those who are able to carry on a theological discussion, there is something unique that binds people when they talk about knowing God and understanding His story of redemption.  That binding that takes place helps us in unity around the purpose and calling of God.  And perhaps that’s another reason why church members should engage in biblical theology.

A Family Missional Strategy?

by Paula Nix

I love cross cultural ministry.  One of the things I love about it is how relational other cultures around the world are.  Relationships really seem to matter.  Time isn’t important, schedules aren’t important, people and relationships seem to trump all.  I long for that, but many times the cultural context in which we live makes it difficult.  Ours is a society where schedules and time clocks rule the roost.  But, isn’t missional supposed to be all about relationships?  So, how do we become missional in THIS cultural context?  How do we start to make the relationships we have and the people we love the most important thing? Read more

The Priority of God

Bruce H. Leafblad captures it well in this article. At Isaac’s Keep we desire to focus on worship, not as an event, but as the pursuit of God.  But it’s all vanity if we don’t have our priorities straight.  Leafblad cuts straight to the heart of the matter.

Expositional Listening

This mark of a healthy member gets me excited on many levels.  To be honest with you, when I first began my weekly pulpit preaching ministry I was intimidated and down right scared, and over a year later I still get nervous before delivering a sermon.  But what has helped me to get over the nervousness and also part of the reason why I’ve fallen in love with the actual act of preaching is seeing the fruit of it.  And yes, I’m sure there is some pride here, but there is little that encourages me more than to hear how the Word of God is working in your lives.  Expressing your questions, struggles, and victories that have come from a sermon is so encouraging to me.  It keeps me diligent in study and in improving my own expositional preaching skills.  It keeps me excited to see how God is going to work in His Word.

I never sit down to study for a sermon and begin with a point I want to make.  I study to the best of my ability using the tools in which I’ve been trained to use to find the point of the text. I try to start with absolutely no assumptions and then allow the biblical sciences and spirit of God to direct the path to understanding the main point.    I then try to work off that point to make it as understandable to a listener as possible.  I still have much to learn here.

What I’ve found so amazing is how God’s Word speaks to so many situations.  Usually when I prepare a sermon I’m dealing with the things in my own life, I try not to let it take over a sermon but it’s impossible to completely remove myself from the text.  But what’s cool is that while a text speaks to me one way, and then when I deliver the sermon and I hear of how God is speaking a certain way in another person’s life, it illustrates to me how divine His Word really is.  He can use the truth of His Word to speak to many different people in many different areas.  You just don’t get that with topical sermons or what I call “point of reference sermons.”  The text of the Word transcends topics and personal agendas.

I am convinced that there is really only one kind of preaching, expositional preaching; why we have to qualify preaching as expositional is due to the fact that so few preachers actually preach.  I’ve heard many great orators and motivators, some who say some true things and helpful things, but none of that makes one a true biblical preacher.   The Word of God is not to be used as a reference for our personal agenda; it is our agenda.  And as a body of Christ, we must make this Word central to our lives, practically.  When we hear the promises of God, the doctrines of His Word, we don’t just bank it in the brain, we search out until it becomes relevant for our lives.  Expositional preaching takes many unfair shots from those who accuse such a “method” as irrelevant, but I beg to differ, the problem isn’t that the Word of God is not relevant for today’s modern people, the problem is that modern people, sinners, hate God and God haters hate truth and don’t want to deal with it.  Which is really nothing new.  We must discipline ourselves to listen, it is not natural in man to desire the Word, and redeemed man must cultivate it and fight against all flesh.

Do we need to preach in context? Absolutely, we must continually find the best way to communicate unchanging truth, but never should the context drive the content.   In other word, the Word of God is not to be changed as to no longer contain the truth.  Contextualization has a place but there is far too much heresy and weak preaching in the name of contextualization.  Sometimes when I listen to sermons it appears that the preacher took more time coming up with a title than He did in studying the Word.

When we neglect expositional preaching or don’t cultivate the discipline of listening to it, we damage the body and ourselves.  Many ills within the church can be linked to the lack of expositional preaching and expositional listening.

But when we do cultivate expositional preaching and listening we get our priorities more in line to God’s.  As this chapter has shown, expositional listening is a defining mark of a healthy church member, and really we can’t hope to exemplify the other nine without first having this one.

What is a Healthy Church Member? Mark #1: An Expositional Listener

REVIEW OF MARK 1, CONDENSED FROM THE BOOK:
Expositional preaching is the first and most important mark of a healthy church.  Do we really believe that? I do. What does our culture seem to say about the most important mark of a healthy church?  Numerical growth, baptisms, offerings, budgets???  We must be driven by Scripture and its meaning must drive the agenda. Read more

What is a Healthy Church Member?

Isaac’s Keep is discussing the book What is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti M. Anyabwile in its community group.  Being a church that seeks to be a 9 Marks church, this book is an important book to accomplish this goal.  I am including a review of the book and hope to post more articles as we study together. Read more

What about Children?

How do you balance being a missional church, void of many of the programs that we offen associtate with church, and remain faithful to the calling of Deuteronmy 6, to teach the children diligently?  In many ways this is a challenge that forces us to rethink children’s ministry.  Read this article and comment what you think about it.

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