This Week in Blogworld 4/10

Mike Leake 3 Comments

What Happened to the 12 Apostles as Proof of Easter; a great article by C. Michael Patton.

What is the significance of the shedding of blood in the atonement? RC Sproul answers.

Tim Challies hits this one out of the park: Evil as Entertainment. Combine this with Steve Camp’s “disclaimer” and you have a really excellent article.

Joe Thorn’s “Note to Self” was a good note for me too.

Sometimes I read the sermons from Geoff Thomas for my own sermon preparation. I was very excited to find this by Colin Adams: Preaching on Preaching.

“World” has a broad range of meanings. John Samson outlines the meaning of “world”. UPDATE: I should mention that he outlines the meaning of the word “world” in the Gospel of John, not the entire NT.

I have not gotten a chance to read this yet but it looks interesting. Michael Patton gives us a primer on Ghosts, or The Christian View of the Supernatural.

Tim Chester continues his discussion of Creating Communities of Grace.

I really like John Piper’s take on his visit to a main-line Protestant church; read it here.

Jay Adams asks, “Is All Help Truly Help?”

Alvin Reid continues his discussion of Towards a Great Commission Resurgence. This time he tackles Convergent Evangelism.

Tonight you can watch the Mars Hill Good Friday service live.

Didn’t know there was a third one of these…if you haven’t seen first 2 you should……but don’t think less of me after you do.

What If…There Had Been No Resurrection

Mike Leake

I used to collect comic books.  One of the particular series that I liked was the what if“What If…” series.  What If…Daredevil Killed the Kingpin?  What If…the Fantastic Four All Had the Same Power?  What If…Kraven the Hunter Had Killed Spider-man?  This past Sunday evening I had the opportunity to preach.  I recycled an Easter sermon from last year:  What If…Jesus Was Not Resurrected.  The text is from 1 Corinthians 15:12-20.  Here are the points and sub-points:

I.  What If…Christ is Not Resurrected?

  1. Christian preaching (proclamation) is in vain
  2. The faith of Christians is in vain
  3. The writers of the New Testament cannot be trusted; they are false witnesses and guilty of misrepresenting God. 
  4. Christians, believing they are forgiven, are in fact still in their sins
  5. Those that have died have no hope (there is no hope of an after-life)
  6. Christians are people to be most pitied

II.  What If…Christ is Resurrected?

  1. Christian preaching is NOT in vain
  2. The faith of Christians is NOT in vain
  3. The writers of the NT are reliable (at least this goes a long way in proving that)
  4. The sins of believers has indeed been removed; we have newness of life
  5. We do have hope of an after-life
  6. Rather than being pitied believers have hope and meaning in their lives

The resurrection is vital to our faith.  It is worth noting that what is being addressed in Corinth is not a denial of the resurrection of Jesus but resurrection altogether.  Even so, to deny the resurrection is to deny the Christian faith. 

Replanting the Garden of Eden

Mike Leake

Came across this quote by bible commentator R.C.H. Lenski while reading a MacArthur sermon:

Cure selfishness and you’ve just replanted the Garden of Eden.

As we know the only cure for selfishness is the work of Christ alongside the inner working of the Holy Spirit.  Thankfully, some day selfishness will be cured and the Garden of Eden will be “replanted”.  May the Lord work in our hearts to root out selfishness. 

Unity Within Before Our Relationship with Those Outside

Mike Leake

It is worth noting that in Ephesians 4 Paul focuses on unity within the body before he focuses on our relationship with those outside the body. Ephesians 4:1 serves as the introduction to the rest of the letter. Everything Paul says after this statement flows out of “living lives worthy of the calling by which we have been called.” The call of Ephesians 4:1 is to live in such a way that you accurately represent what God has done in your life. What he has done in principle we are to live in practice. 4:2-6:20 is what that statement looks like in practice.

In 4:2-16 Paul focuses on walking in unity. In 4:17-24 he focuses on walking differently than we once walked (or even in the present to walk differently than those outside the body). I do not think it is an accident that Paul focuses on relationships within before he focuses on our relationship with the outside world.

In other words, if you look different from the world but you aren’t in unity with your brothers and sisters in Christ then you aren’t really walking in a manner worthy of the calling. Jesus died to redeem our relationship with him but also to redeem our relationship with one another. Relationships and unity within the body is not an option.