Jesus, Thank You

A Song For Thanksgiving

I thought I would repost my blog about the song "Jesus, Thank You". I think it is an appropriate reminder for all that I should be thankful for.

I am very picky about worship music. I recently stumbled across a great song by Sovereign Grace Ministries and Bob Kauflin. It is a great worship song, about propitiation called "Jesus, Thank You." If I knew how to upload audio to this blog I would put it on here. I don't so here are the lyrics.



The mystery of the cross I cannot comprehend,
The agonies of Calvary.
You, the Perfect Holy One, crushed Your Son,
Drank the bitter cup reserved for me.

Your blood has washed away my sin,
Jesus, thank You.
The Father’s wrath completely satisfied,
Jesus, thank You.
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table,
Jesus, thank You.

By Your perfect sacrifice I’ve been brought near,
Your enemy made Your friend.
Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace,
Your mercy and your kindness know no end.

Your blood has washed away my sin,
Jesus, thank You.
The Father’s wrath completely satisfied,
Jesus, thank You.
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table,
Jesus, thank You.

Dying To Preach

This is the question every pastor needs to ask as he prepares his sermons, "am I 'Dying to Preach'"?

That question is not about a desire, but a lifestyle.

That is also the title of Dr. Steven Smith's new book on preaching. I am blessed to have Dr. Smith as a professor and to have read an advanced manuscript of this book. It is not a fun book! I say that as a compliment. Being called of God to preach His Holy Word requires the death of the preacher. Not just once, but on a weekly basis.

The call to preach is a call to die. That is the theme of Dr. Smith's book and one that I highly recommend.

You can purchase the book online in many places, and here.

P.S. I did not write this to kiss up to my prof, but if it helps, all the better.

Archaeological Confirmation

A couple of months ago as I was preaching through the gospel of Mark, we came across this verse, “" And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”" (Mark 13:1-2, ESV)

A recent archaeological discovery in Israel uncovered some of the ruins of the temple. Some coins were found burned and charred by the destruction that happened in A.D. 66.

You can read the article here.

Here is a portion of my sermon about the historical event of the destruction of the temple.

After Christ’s resurrection and ascension things got too tense. In Galilee a Roman leader sacrificed some bird to his false Roman gods right near the local synagogue. This violated so many Jewish laws and customs that the local Jews could take no more. The proverbial straw landed on the camel’s back. They rioted, and rebelled against the local Roman magistrate.

News of this small revolt made its way up the Roman chain of leadership a short way. A small legion of soldiers was dispatched to take care of these unruly Jews. They marched arrogantly into Galilee to subdue these pests. Little did they know that the boiling point had been reached. The local Jewish rebels organized. They ambushed the Roman soldiers and soundly defeated them.

Romans hate defeat more than they hate anything else. News of this defeat made it back to Emperor Nero. He dispatched Vespasian and thousands of soldiers to defeat all of Israel.

Vespasian marched into Galilee and quickly subdue the entire land. There was some fighting but with a vastly larger army there was not much resistance. In fact, many of the cities surrendered without fighting at all.

That fact, did not sit well with certain groups of Jews. There was one group in particular that was infuriated that Jews surrendered to Romans. This group was so extreme in its views and so passionate about Israel, they were called the Zealots. The Zealots saw the defeat of the northern region of Galilee and they headed south for Judah and Jerusalem.

The Zealots marched right in and took over Jerusalem and even the Temple. This was a huge violation of their own laws. These Zealots encouraged revolt at all costs. They supported the outright murder of not only Romans, but even their Jewish brothers who favored surrender. A sort of small civil war broke out because of these zealots.
They invited these murders into the temple. That was a big no no. They allowed any who wanted, to roam freely in the Temple. There were murders even in the holy of holies. That would have been an abomination. They even committed murder in the temple courts. Instead of following the rules of the Law they anointed their own priest named Phanni. This Phanni was no more qualified to be priest than a Roman. Some consider this the “abomination of desolation”.

Meanwhile, the Romans were not sitting idly by. Vespasian began to march on Jerusalem. Eventually, Vespasian’s son Titus takes over the assault of Jerusalem. But, the city is well fortified. There are a series of several walls that the Romans are having a hard time penetrating.

What Titus does is he has his own wall built. His soldiers build up an earthen mound to surround the city, cutting it off from everything. Then when Titus catches a Jew he has them crucified and displayed on top of this mound for all to see.
Eventually, the soldiers breech the final Jewish wall. They rush in and devastate the city. Josephus says that 1.1 million Jews were killed, 97,000 were captured. The final siege lasted 5 months. It could have been much longer but not for the grace of God.

After the fighting stopped. Titus ransacked the Temple. He took the temple treasures. In fact, if you go to Rome today you can see the Arch of Titus that was built in honor of Titus victory over the Jews in Jerusalem. On that arch is a carving of the Romans carting of the treasures of the temple.

There were a few zealots remaining who escaped from Jerusalem, they made it to an outpost near the Dead Sea called Masada. The Romans pursued. In A.D. 73 the Romans breeched the defenses there and the complete victory over the Jews was secured.

This series of events were cataclysmic for the Jewish people. They had no land. In fact, the nation of Israel would not even exist from that moment until 1948. That land was the promised land. That Temple was where God’s presence was.

What sticks out is that the cause of these catastrophic events was not the imperialstic tendencies of the Romans, it was the punishment of God upon His rebellious, sinful people. It was also, the start of an entirely new era.

Veterans Day Tribute

Teach Me To Do Your Will

The word disciple means learner or student. What are you a student of?
I love to learn. I love to learn new things. I hope to be a student for the rest of my life. When it comes to following Christ, we are to be continually learning of Him.

Look at Psalm 143:10
"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!" (Psalm 143:10, ESV)

First of all it is a prayer for help. It is recognition of the fact that doing God’s will is not something we are ingrained to do. We need help. We need someone to teach us. Not just anyone, but the Lord.

There is a twofold trap that we can fall into:
1. That I can do it.
2. That it will just happen.

I am not so good at doing my own will, much less God’s. I need some serious help. And the amazing thing is that God provides it. He has the power to sufficiently manage my life, if I will surrender it to Him.

As for number 2: learning does not normally just happen. You don’t just learn by osmosis. We do have a responsibility as students to seek learning. If you just think that your faith is going to grow, without actually having to apply yourself, it’s not very likely.

What about the subject matter of this learning? It is God’s Will. There is no subject greater to learn than the subject of God and His Will. It is a pursuit that is worthy of the utmost attention, devotion, and dedication.

Most people are too overconsumed with their own will. If we showed as much desire for God’s will, as we did for our own, I think our lives, churches, and the world would be different as a result.

Why Does The Church Exist?

I was recently reading a paper for the Evangelical Homiletical Society and ran across a quote about the nature of the church that was outstanding. The paper was written by Glen Watson entitled “The Preacher As Cultural Architect”.

The church is by nature, missionary. The church does not have a mission; God has a mission, and He sends the church into the world to complete it.
David Bosch says,

“The church is not the sender but the one sent. Its mission…is not secondary to its being; the church exists in being sent and in building itself up for the sake of its mission…Ecclesiology(nature of the church) therefore does not preceded missiology(nature of missions). Mission is not a ‘fringe activity of a strongly established church, a pious cause that maybe be attended to when the home fires are first brightly burning…Missionary activity is not so much the work of the church as simply the Church at work.’ It is a duty ‘which pertains to the whole church’. Since God is a missionary God…God’s people are a missionary people.