For the Church

Episode 221: What the World Wants in a Pastor

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson look at the biblical qualifications for pastors and how both the culture’s and oftentimes the church’s expectations differ.

8 Reasons We Should Evangelize

By Lucas Hahn / Jul 20

For most of us, if we are honest, evangelism is intimidating. It can be incredibly hard to work up the courage to talk to others about Jesus. In some moments when we have opportunities to share the Gospel, that little voice in your head rattles off about 10 reasons why you shouldn’t. “What if you mess it up? You should just remain quiet until you have studied more…” Or “You really don’t have time. After all, if you speak up now and get into a conversation, you may be late for church!”

The first thing that needs to be said is that this is, unfortunately, normal. I say it is unfortunate because it would be great if when we became a Christian, evangelism, all of a sudden, became easy. But that isn’t often how it works. Rather, evangelism is hard. It is hard because evangelism requires us to kill our pride and the fear of man.

And, because evangelism never just becomes easy (at least in my experience it hasn’t), this means that the reason why we evangelize must be based on something other than our feelings. Therefore, consider these eight reasons we should evangelize. These eight reasons will, I pray, help to give you proper motivation to share the Gospel (even if you don’t feel like it).

First (and in no particular order), we evangelize because we have an incredible message to tell. Think with me briefly about the nature of our salvation. God is the holy and just one, and we are sinful and unworthy. Due to sin, humanity’s relationship with God was ruptured. God would have been right and just to give sinners what they deserve, that is, His holy and righteous wrath due their sin. But instead, God planned to save sinners. In the Gospel, we are confronted with the reality of full pardon for all of our sin, past, present, and future. Not only full pardon, but a restored relationship with our Creator. We are adopted as sons of the King. This is truly a remarkable message, and God’s goodness demonstrated in this remarkable message compels us to tell others.

Second, we evangelize because Jesus commanded us to do so. Matthew 28:18-20 says, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

We, as followers of Christ, are commanded to go and make disciples. This is not an optional endeavor for a set apart group of Christians. Rather, this call is for every person who claims to be a follower of Christ. As slaves of Christ, we must be faithful to what our Master has commanded us to do.

Third, we evangelize because Hell is real. There is a real place called Hell where people will go if they die outside of Christ. The Bible describes this place in graphic terms. Listen to some of them:

Revelation 21:8: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Matthew 25:41: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 25:46 says that those outside of Christ will “go away into eternal punishment.”

Revelation 14:11: “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says: “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”

Matthew 13:50 describes the unrighteous being thrown “into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

And we could go on and look at more verses that speak about the awful reality of Hell. Because Hell is real, we should pray that God would use us to save as many people as possible from that terrible reality.

Fourth, in light of the reality of hell, we evangelize because we love the lost. What kind of sick people would we be if we had the cure for cancer but told no one? That would reveal that we don’t actually love people. But sometimes, this is how we act with something even far more important than a cure for cancer. We have the good news of the Gospel which reconciles God and man for all eternity. Therefore, let us pursue people with the Gospel out of love for them. We aren’t trying to win arguments; rather, we are trying to win souls. To truly love people is to share the Gospel with them.

Fifth, we evangelize because we are God’s means to reconcile the world to Himself. Yes, God is absolutely sovereign over all things. Yet, He accomplishes His Divine purpose by using means. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God could have written the Gospel in the clouds for all to see, but He didn’t. Rather, He calls people to Himself and then He entrusts them with the ministry of reconciliation. That is, He entrusts you and me to take His saving message to all peoples. God uses means to accomplish His purposes and accomplish His purposes, He will! Revelation 7:9 describes an incredible scene in heaven, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”

So, take confidence that God does in fact save people, and there could be several people standing around the throne one day because of God using you, as His means, in this great endeavor called evangelism. Let that amaze you for a moment.

Sixth, we evangelize because tomorrow is not promised. Our lives, and the lives of those around us, could be gone in an instant. As we are told in James 4:14, our life is but a vapor. Therefore, we seek Gospel conversations with others in the here and now because tomorrow is not guaranteed. The Bible is clear that Christ could return, or we could die at any moment. Let’s share the Gospel with diligence and zeal because we never know when the Lord will either return or call us home.

Seventh, we evangelize because it sanctifies us. Evangelism is one of God’s means to kills our pride and make us more dependent upon Him. Some of you might find that evangelism is one of the hardest things you will ever do. You will find that you pray for strength a lot when you are sharing the Gospel with people. But this is intended! God designed it that way because we were never meant to live in our own power. Dependence upon God is a good thing. So, when you feel overwhelmed, discouraged, or fearful. Pray. That may be exactly why God has you in that moment.

Eighth and finally, we evangelize because we love God. This is, perhaps, the most important reason. The fuel for our evangelism should not be out of duty or dread. Rather, we should strive to be obedient in evangelism because we love the Lord, and we want to see Him rightly honored and worshipped.

In conclusion, we have at least 8 reasons we should evangelize.

Because we have an incredible message to tell.
Because Jesus commanded us to do so.
Because Hell is real.
Because we love the lost.
Because we are God’s means to reconcile the world to Himself.
Because tomorrow is not promised.
Because it sanctifies us.
Because we love God.

Therefore, when you don’t “feel” like sharing the Gospel, don’t let that “feeling” have the final say. Rather, remember these reasons for why we evangelize and strive to be faithful. It won’t always be easy, but our God is faithful.

There Is One God

By Lucas Hahn / Jul 20

The Bible begins with the claim, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Do not miss the significance of that first sentence. The Bible begins with a stunning claim: there is one God.

Imagine how this statement would have landed on the ears of its original audience, Israel, waiting in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. For four hundred years, they had lived in a polytheistic land, the fruit of their labors pulled from their hands to be offered up to a pantheon of Egyptian gods. Here they stood, poised to enter into a land with a pantheon of equal size. The Canaanite gods were equally numerous, and equally demanding. And God declares there is no pantheon at all, but a mono-Theon. It is a message embedded in the covenant He had declared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it is a message He had declared to Moses at the burning bush: “I AM WHO I AM” (Exod. 3:14). The so-called gods of Egypt and Canaan might claim, “I am the god of rain or harvest or childbirth,” but none could make this claim. Only the God of the Bible can say: “I AM.”

In the wilderness wandering, Israel finds comfort in God’s oneness: “Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). They owe all of their allegiance to Him and Him alone. Similarly, our worship cannot be divided. We worship the God who creates all things and redeems us from slavery to sin, and we worship Him alone. Just as Israel would run to foreign gods, we, too, are tempted to trade our mono-Theon for a pantheon. Like them, we need to hear, again and again, that the Lord our God is one.

God’s oneness remained in the hearts and on the lips of Israel’s faithful all the way into New Testament times. This is what makes Jesus’s claim in John 10:10 so bold. He says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). We will explore Jesus’s claim of unity and equality with God in chapter 7, but note here that He reiterates the historic claim that there is only one God. The gods of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome are not gods at all. According to Jesus, there is only one God.

The New Testament authors preserve this teaching, as well. Paul reminds the church in Galatia, full of Jewish and Gentile believers, that “God is one” (Gal. 3:20). Over and over again, the Bible asserts there is only one God who is Creator, Sustainer, and providential Ruler over all things.

As in the days of Abraham and Moses, as in the days of Jesus and Paul, so in every era of human history we have been drawn to belief in many gods. Or in no god at all. The Bible emphatically disagrees. There is one God, and He alone is worthy of worship.

The oneness of God is the first of two important instincts for Trinitarianism. It is what distinguishes the God of the Bible from the many gods and godlessness of human invention.

God Is Three Persons

The second important instinct for Trinitarianism is the threeness. God is one God, but He is One God who eternally exists as three distinct persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Each person is fully God. But the Father is not the Son, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son, but they are the triune God who is perfectly one and distinct in three persons. The threeness of God is not a form of poly-theism because Christians worship just one God. Nor would Christianity teach particular or preferential worship of any of the three persons within the godhead.

Confused yet? Let’s break it down by asking a few further questions: What distinguishes each person of the Trinity?

What makes the Father, Father? What makes the Son, Son? And what makes the Spirit, Spirit?

If ever an analogy offered help, it would seem that now would be the time to employ one. Maybe you have heard some analogies for the Trinity: God is an egg: a shell, white, and a yolk. God is like water: ice, water, and steam. God is like a three-leaf clover. Though at first these honorable attempts may seem helpful, they can actually hinder our understanding of the diversity of the three persons in the Godhead. Fortunately, the Bible offers some simple language that helps us with distinguishing the three persons.

Two categories that have historically helped Christians see the distinctions of each person are the Immanent Trinity and the Economic Trinity. The Immanent Trinity refers to God in Himself—even before creation. The Economic Trinity refers to how we see the Immanent Trinity revealed in redemptive history. What we see in Scripture is that:

Economic Trinity

God the Father initiates the plan for salvation.

God the Son accomplishes salvation. God the Spirit applies salvation.

Immanent Trinity

The Father, eternally unbegotten.

The Son, eternally begotten by the Father.

The Spirit, eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.

In order to see these two categories more clearly, we give our attention to how the Bible describes each person and what they do. To understand what distinguishes each person, we look to what each person does in the biblical story. What do we know of each person as it relates to their redemptive acts in history that give us insight into their eternal relations as Father, Son, and Spirit?

Here are the three keys:

God the Father is never sent in Scripture. That means He is eternally unsent or eternally unbegotten. Who is God the Father? The eternally unsent.
God the Son is sent by the Father in Scripture. That means He is eternally sent or eternally begotten. Who is God the Son? The eternally sent by the Father.
God the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son in Scripture. That means He eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. Who is God the Spirit? The eternally sent by the Father and Son.

Editor’s Note: Interested in reading more? You can purchase your copy of You Are a Theologian: An Invitation to Know and Love God Well here.

Introduction: Ten Reasons the Old Testament Matters for Christians

By Lucas Hahn / Jul 19

“For Our Instruction” (Rom 15:4)

Is Christ really part of the Old Testament? Should I as a believer in the twenty-first century claim Old Testament promises as mine? Does the Mosaic law still matter today for followers of Jesus? Is the Old Testament Christian Scripture, and if so, how should we approach it?

This blog series on Delighting in the Old Testament seeks to help Christians make connections to Christ and practical application to the Christian life from every page of the Old Testament. More specifically, it seeks to help you:

To understand the Old Testament fully, we must read it as believers in Jesus, with God having awakened our spiritual senses to see and hear rightly. That is, we read through Christ. Then, as Christians, biblical interpretation reaches its end only after we have found Jesus and experienced him transforming us into his image. We, thus, read for Christ.

Some Christians may query, if we are part of the new covenant, why should we seek to understand and apply the Old Testament? While I will develop my response throughout this blog series, I give ten reasons here why the “Old” in Old Testament must not mean “unimportant or insignificant.”

1. The Old Testament Was Jesus’s Only Bible and Comprises 75% of Christian Scripture

If space says anything, the Old Testament matters to God, who gave us his word in a Book. In fact, it was his first special revelation, and it set a foundation for the fulfillment we find in Jesus in the New Testament. The Old Testament was the only Bible of Jesus and the earliest church (e.g., Luke 24:44; Acts 24:14), and it is a major part of our Scriptures.

2. The Old Testament Influences Our Understanding of Key Biblical Teachings

Without the Old Testament, we wouldn’t understand the problem for which Jesus and the New Testament supply the solution (Rom 5:18). We would miss so many features of God’s salvation story (9:4–5). And we wouldn’t grasp the various types and shadows that point to Jesus (John 1:29; 2:19, 21). Furthermore, some doctrines, such as the doctrine of creation, are best understood only from the Old Testament (Gen 1:1–2:3). Finally, the New Testament worldview and teachings are built upon the framework supplied in the Old Testament.

3. We Meet the Same God in Both Testaments

Note how the book of Hebrews begins: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb 1:1–2). The very God who spoke through Old Testament prophets speaks through Jesus!
Isn’t the Old Testament’s God one of wrath, though, whereas the God of the New Testament is about grace? Not exactly. In brief, God is as wrathful in the New Testament as he is in the Old (e.g., Matt 10:28), and the Old is filled with manifestations of God’s saving grace (e.g., Exod 34:6). Certainly, there are numerous expressions of Yahweh’s righteous anger in the Old Testament, just as there are massive manifestations of blood-bought mercy in the New. Nevertheless, what is important is to recognize that we meet the same God in the Old Testament as we do in the New.

4. The Old Testament Announces the Very “Good News” We Enjoy

Paul stresses that the Lord “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” the very powerful “gospel of God” (Rom 1:1–2; cf. Gal 3:8). Foremost among these prophets was Isaiah, who anticipated the day when Yahweh’s royal Servant (the Messiah) would herald comforting “good news” to the poor and broken (Isa 61:1; cf. 40:9–11; 52:7–10; Luke 4:16–21). Reading the Old Testament, therefore, is one of God’s given ways for us to better grasp and delight in the gospel (see also Heb 4:2).

5. Both Testaments Call Us to Love and Clarify What Love Looks Like

As with Israel, the Lord calls Christians to lives characterized by love (Deut 6:5; 10:19; Matt 22:37–40; cf. 7:12; Rom 13:8, 10; Gal 5:14). However, he now gives all members of the new covenant the ability to do what he commands. As Moses himself asserted, the old-covenant law called for life-encompassing love (Deut 30:6), and Christians today can gain clarity from the Old Testament on the wide-ranging impact of love in all of life. As we will see, this happens rightly only when we account for how Jesus fulfills every particular law.

6. Jesus Came Not to Set Aside the Old Testament but to Fulfill It

Far from setting aside the Old Testament, Jesus stressed that he came to fulfill it, and he highlighted how the Old Testament’s instruction was lastingly relevant for his followers (Matt 5:17–19). In later posts we’ll consider further the significance of this text, but what is important to note here is that, while the age of the old covenant has come to an end (Rom 6:14–15; 1 Cor 9:20–21; Gal 5:18; cf. Luke 16:16), the Old Testament itself maintains relevance for us in the way it (a) displays the character of God (e.g., Rom 7:12), (b) points to the excellencies of Christ, and (c) portrays for us the scope of love in all its facets (Matt 22:37–40).

7. Jesus Said That All the Old Testament Points to Him

Jesus himself said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39; cf. 1:45; 5:46–47). Then, following his resurrection, he opened his disciples’ minds “to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:53; cf. 24:27; Acts 26:22–23; 1 Cor 2:2). A proper “understanding” of the Old Testament will lead one to hear in it a message of a suffering and resurrected Messiah and the mission his life would generate.

8. The New Testament Authors Expect Us to Read the Old Testament

The New Testament often cites the Old Testament in ways that call us back to look at the original context. For example, Matthew 27–28 portray Christ’s tribulation and triumph at the cross by recalling Psalm 22 many times. Jesus quotes Psalm 22:1 when he declares, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). In stating, “And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots” (Matt 27:35), Matthew alludes to Psalm 22:16, 18, which reads: “They have pierced my hands and feet…. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” To fully understand their words, the New Testament authors call us back to the Old Testament through their quotations and allusions.

9. The New Testament Authors Recognized That God Gave the Old Testament for Christians

Regarding the Old Testament prophets, Peter identifies, “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you” (1 Pet 1:12). Similarly, Paul was convinced that the Old Testament authors wrote for new-covenant believers—those following Jesus on this side of his death and resurrection. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4; cf. 4:23–24; 1 Cor 10:11).

10. Paul Demands That Church Leaders Preach the Old Testament

Significantly, Paul was referring to the Old Testament when he spoke of the “sacred writings” that are able to make a person “wise for salvation” and of the “Scripture” that is “breathed out by God and profitable” (2 Tim 3:15–16). Knowing this fact colors our understanding of his charge in 2 Timothy 4:2–4. In short, Paul believed Christians like Timothy needed to preach the Old Testament to guard the church from apostasy. While we now have the New Testament, we still must study, practice, and teach the Old Testament like Jesus and his apostles did for the good of God’s church.

Conclusion

This Delighting in the Old Testament series seeks to supply believers with an interpretive framework and guide for rightly handling the Old Testament as God’s Word for us (2 Tim 2:15). It approaches the Old Testament through Christ and for Christ. The series will develop in four stages, each with three to four posts. Stage 1 calls for reading well the Old Testament by interpreting it through and for Christ. Stage 2 then develops this call by indicating how Christians can see well Christ’s person and work within the Old Testament. Stage 3 considers how to hope well in Old Testament promises, which through Christ become certain for all who are in the church. Finally, Stage 4 overviews how to live well by applying Old Testament laws in view of how Christ fulfills them.

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The blog series summarizes Jason S. DeRouchie’s forthcoming book, Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and for Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024). You can pre-order your copy here.

Episode 220: Most Embarrassing Preacher Stories

By Lucas Hahn / Jul 19

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson discuss their most embarrassing moments in the pulpit.

The Verse from Acts that Inspired Preaching Revelation

By Lucas Hahn / Jul 18

“This will really bring the crazies out…” That is my inner dialogue whenever I considered preaching the book of Revelation. Many pastors, including myself, look at the book of Revelation and think: I have not been doing this pastor thing long enough to preach that book. Preaching the book of Revelation brings all sorts of interesting questions and theories out of the hearers. Some come with strong views of what the book references, some come with anxiety over how crazy the images are, and others have their minds drawn to charts and ideas of exactly what the future holds (not to mention you have to address the colloquial title of “revelations”). For the preacher, Revelation produces anxiety over how to deal with all the different approaches and experiences that a congregation has.

I felt all of this before. A few years ago, I had done the seven letters from Revelation 2 and 3. But moving beyond it seemed like too much to handle. I did not want to deal with the questions about the locusts corresponding to military helicopters. I did not want to explain views on the millennium. I just want to preach God’s Word expositionally without facing the dystopian pictures that fill the minds of whoever might walk in the doors on a given Sunday.

Now, months into the preaching Revelation, and getting to the closing stretch, I’m glad I have labored in this bizarre treasure in God’s Word. My view of the book changed last July. And it was one verse from the book of Acts that changed everything! In Acts 20, Paul meets with the Ephesian elders for what is probably the last time. Paul knew these men from three years of laboring together. He warned and exhorted them. And in this beautiful story of Acts 20, Paul says “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).”

Paul declared the whole counsel of God in three years. As I look at the 66 books, the 1,189 chapters of the Bible, I do not know how I can come close to that type of declaration in my preaching ministry. I started to think about the ways it could be done within my conviction of expositional preaching. This brought me to Revelation. Revelation was a way to do it. You see Revelation is full of the whole counsel of God.

When you read Revelation, You are drawn to every corner of God’s Word. Revelation on the conservative side has 500 Old Testament citations. Not only that but scholars believe John cites somewhere between 17 to 22 books of the Bible. This certainly adds to the difficulty and to the richness. Expositional preaching often sends you down rabbit holes trying to understand all the cross-references. Revelation as the final book written makes the challenge even greater. John has access to more of the Scriptures than any other author and boy does he use it.

Understanding the vision of God in chapter 1 depends on the description of the Lord Almighty in Daniel 10. The four horsemen in chapter 4 are running from Zechariah bringing God’s people restoration, not torment. The throne room visions throughout the book use language from Exodus, Isaiah, and Daniel. The dragon, woman, and child reflect the enmity between woman and serpent from Genesis 3. The judgment of Babylon amplifies the call of Jeremiah to be faithful to the Lord under evil kings and kingdoms. The final chapters’ New Heaven and New Earth pull together the visions of ultimate restoration in God’s land from the Isaiah and Ezekiel paired with Eden to give readers a timeless hope.

John richly weaves stories and prophecies from the whole counsel of God together into a beautiful tapestry of God’s glory and comfort for his church. John’s use of the Scriptures and his encouragement to hold to the Scriptures has encouraged me as a preacher and our young congregation. Revelation is a marvelous writing in its telling of God’s story and glory. We saw our church grow in numbers and in commitment as we walked through the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God that John recorded for us. And at the end of preaching Revelation, I can say I did not shirk from preaching the conclusion of the counsel of God.

Sexuality and Gender in Baptist Perspective

By Brett Fredenberg / Jul 17

The restrained vision of gender and sexual ethics embraces limits imposed by Scripture and is readily distinguished from the culture’s unrestrained view in which sexual ethics are released from virtually all limitations. Christian sexual morality assumes God exists and, in the Bible, has made known definite boundaries for appropriate sexual expression. God designed sex, and as its designer He knows its proper use and the correct parameters for sexual expression. Circumventing God’s guidelines ultimately leads to pain, heartache, destruction, and God’s judgment.

Regarding the relationship between human nature, gender, and sexuality, no scriptural teaching is more formative for the Baptist perspective than the image of God. Genesis 1:26 proclaims the inherent value of every human being, and says, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”[1] Humans are not mere brutes, nor are they the accidental result of a purposeless process: humans are made by God to reflect his power and glory. Baptist ethicist C. Ben Mitchell adds, “The imago Dei is not a ‘function’ human beings perform so much as it is a ‘status’ they enjoy. The imago Dei is not what humans do but who humans are.”[2] From the perspective of the restrained vision, every human has an inestimable value attached to his or her life prior to and separate from the person’s sexual availability. This is in stark contrast to the culture’s crude and depressing insistence that one’s value is defined by his or her sexual attractiveness and availability or the idea that we find meaning and worth in unrestrained sexual expression and sexual autonomy.

The gift of the biological sexual binary is inseparable from being made in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.” Like the broader Christian tradition, this verse shapes Baptists’ restrained vision of sex and gender in two ways. First, both men and women share equally in the image of God and, thus, have an ontological equality—men are not better than women nor are women better than men. Second, one’s biological sex is not an accident nor is one’s gender something to be chosen. The biological sexual binary is normative and constrains the extent of permissible individual expression that surrounds gender. In other words, there may be different enculturated ways of living out biblical manhood and womanhood, but men cannot be women and women cannot be men. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 says, “[God] created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.”[3] This premise is core to Baptist resistance to the idea that sex and gender can ever be completely distinguished into different ontological categories. Instead, one’s anatomical sex determines the manner in which one expresses his or her gender.

Not only is gender directly tied to the image of God, but human sexuality is as well. In Gen 1:28, the goodness of the gender binary is tied to God’s purposes for sex, which are procreation and marital unity: “God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.” Genesis 2:24b adds, “and they become one flesh,” meaning sex strengthens the relational unity of a marriage by enabling a husband and wife to experience a shameless intimacy and joyful sexual pleasure (Song 4:1–16). These two purposes—procreation and unity—bring to light that sex does not exist for its own sake, but serves a greater purpose for a culture. The Colorado Statement on Biblical Sexual Morality stresses this point and says sex “fosters human nurturing, both through the union of husband and wife and also through the enrichment of society through the building of families and communities.”[4] Sex was never designed by God as something to be indulged in for pleasure in any manner one chooses, in or out of marriage. Sex was intended to strengthen marriage and, by helping to build strong marriages, to build a strong society. Societies that abandon responsibility in sexual matters are doomed to implode from the weight of disintegrated families.

Not only are humans created in the image of God, but also they suffer the effects of the fall recorded in Genesis 3. Because of the fall, humans now inherit a nature and environment inclined toward sin. The entrance of sin means sexual desires are disordered, and humans frequently wish for sexual pleasures God has forbidden. Sexual passions pull heavily on the soul and, when indulged outside of God’s moral parameters, lead to destruction and pain. Understanding both gender and sexuality correctly requires taking both the image of God and the fall into consideration. Emphasizing the image of God while neglecting the fall can lead to unbridled celebration of every sexual desire as if all are inherently good. Emphasizing the fall while neglecting the image of God can lead to a relentlessly severe and gloomy vision of gender and sexuality that contains no positive instruction at all.

Balancing the two concepts of the image of God and the fall is crucial, but the doctrine of human sinfulness differentiates the restrained and unrestrained visions. Many advocates of the unrestrained vision will grant the existence of God and that God has some role in shaping gender or sexuality, but what they reject is man’s fallen nature. Romans 1:18–32 details the sinful nature of humanity, and distorted sexual desires are placed squarely at the center of rebellion and idolatry. Sexual ethics need restraint because humans’ natural desires have been disfigured by sin. Sin so pervades the intellect and emotions that even the most unholy acts are sometimes affirmed as natural and good. But Scripture never denies that sexual temptation can feel natural: what Scripture denies is that all natural, sexual desires are inherently good. When sin prevails, thoughts about both gender and sexuality can be twisted and distorted; as such, moral boundaries are needed to safeguard human behavior.

The good news is God has provided for redemption from sin via the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:1–11). The meaning of life is found in fulfilling God’s purposes through believing in his Son and being conformed to the image of Christ, not in indulging every whim of lustful desire. The difference between the restrained and unrestrained visions of sexual ethics is this: the unrestrained vision believes sexual desires should be indulged while the restrained vision believes they must be redeemed. Grace is necessary to redeem and complete nature.

[1] Carl F. H. Henry defines the image of God as “a cohesive unity of interrelated components that interact and condition each other, [which] includes rational, moral and spiritual aspects of both a formal and material nature. . . . But in contemplating the divine image in man, it should be clear that the rational or cognitive aspect has logical priority.” Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation and Authority: God Who Speaks and Shows, vol. 2 (1976; Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1999), 125.

[2] C. Ben Mitchell and D. Joy Riley, Christian Bioethics: A Guide for Pastors, Health Care Professionals, and Families (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2014), 55.

[3] “Man,” The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, art. III, https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/#iii-man.

[4] Council on Biblical Sexual Ethics, “Colorado Statement on Biblical Sexual Morality (Full Statement),” in Daniel Heimbach, True Sexual Morality (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 363.

Editor’s Note: This article is taken from Baptist Political Theology and used by permission of B&H Academic. The book is now available everywhere Christian books are sold.

Small Groups and Church Planting

By Lucas Hahn / Jul 13

In church planting contexts, community groups can be the best way to reach the unchurched, build strong community, and identify future leaders.

Over the past fifteen years, I have had the privilege of leading community groups in four new congregations, including the one I now serve as lead pastor (Trinity Community Church in Columbia, MO). As a result, I recommend a general process for planting healthy groups in a new church environment. If you are planting groups from the beginning—which I encourage—then your community groups will each serve as a microcosm of the church as a whole for the first few years.

Starting your first few community groups with strength will enable a healthy trajectory for your new congregation, while neglecting these groups can be costly to the whole church. While every context is different, I encourage some broad principles and practices.

Launching the Pilot Group

Since the first community group will be a microcosm of the church plant, it’s typically best for the lead pastor and his wife to lead the pilot group. Whether it’s located in their own home or another member’s, this is a great foundation for future groups. This pilot group can turn into a core group or launch team, and your future leaders may come from this group as well.

The lead pastor typically sets the tone and culture of the church from this early community group. It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of the lead pastor’s vision for the pilot group. Most church planting statistics show that people who join a new church do so for the community. Whereas a church of 200-400 will grow largely through visitors being attracted to the preaching and worship, churches under 200 tend to grow by fostering deep community through engaging small groups.¹

Thus the pilot community group should get a large amount of the church planter’s best energy. This will be difficult for some. Whereas most church planters have been trained in biblical studies, preaching, leadership, and mission, few have received significant training in community groups. As a result, the typical church planter overestimates the need to teach and cast vision and underestimates the need to build relationships and deploy members for mission.

The most effective church planters I’ve witnessed typically do a few things well. They often:

Gather in another member’s home and train the hosts as future leaders
Share a meal together with the group (approximately 30-45 minutes of group time)
Lead a short Bible study or devotional that blends prepared teaching with well-planned questions and times of discussion (30-45 minutes)
Offer childcare for families with young children, perhaps using a children’s ministry curriculum
Prepare the group for regular growth and multiplication
Gather the group outside of regular meeting times for increased fellowship
Allow significant time for prayer weekly (15-30 minutes)

Consider meeting on Sunday evenings prior to launching your first Sunday gatherings. This will give you the opportunity to launch Sunday evening services if needed, or the community could remain a Sunday evening group if morning services are chosen. You may also want to have a musician lead a few worship songs at the beginning of the gathering time, although you’ll need to subtract this time from discussion, sharing, and prayer. In total, two hours seems to be a good maximum gathering time.

The First Multiplication

Hopefully, this pilot community group will reach new people and grow to be multiplication ready. As described in chapter three, the leader must lay out a vision for multiplication from the first gathering to increase the likelihood of a healthy new group.

Ideally, the next community group leaders after the planter’s family will have some experience leading a small group. Being the first non-pastor community group leader is a big responsibility, and many people may not want to step into this role. While you certainly want a high-character person in this role, you also want to trust God with the people he has given you.

In my opinion, the two non-negotiable things to look for in a group leader at this stage are character and relational skills. While some leadership background and theological knowledge will be helpful, those can be provided through training over time.

While the need for a character-qualified leader or couple should be obvious, we can often forget to look for strong relational skills in our leaders. Remember, your church of 20 to 40 adults will grow primarily from life-giving relationships, not vision and doctrine. Although God can anyone to build his church, it is typically wise not to entrust this particular role to individuals who lack social awareness or who aren’t relationally oriented.

As for the process of multiplication, following chapter three should help ensure a healthy new group. You don’t want to rush this first multiplication; think of it as the DNA for future multiplications and prayerfully seek to make it as healthy as possible.

Shepherding Growth in Small Groups Ministries

In leading groups and coaching numerous other pastors and leaders, I’ve noticed some common growth barriers for groups ministries. You may be familiar with growth barriers for church attendance; there are similar barriers to group ministries. I would expect to see occasional slowing of multiplication at the following points:

5-6 groups: At this stage, the lead pastor will be unable to adequately oversee each community group; it’s ideal to identify another elder or leader who can come alongside him and coach groups toward health.

10-12 groups: Here, the lead pastor will want to consider focusing his time on equipping group coaches and training leaders as a whole; at this stage, you want to consider having three to four coaches overseeing 3-4 groups each. Monthly gatherings of all the leaders together will help with vision and equipping.

25-30 groups: While not all churches will reach this number of groups, for many this will be another difficult barrier. In fact, I have talked to multiple churches over 1000 in attendance that can’t get past this number of groups despite consistent Sunday growth. At this stage, the lead pastor is typically unable to oversee the number of coaches needed, and even then, a second layer of coaches is recommended. In other words, to grow beyond 30 groups, a church will typically need a full-time groups pastor or leader, plus three or four lay elders or head coaches overseeing three or four coaches each. Here, monthly group leader gatherings are essential and a quarterly or annual new group leader training should be considered.

In general, you will want to have a coach for every three or four community groups and an elder for every 10-12 groups. Just like with multiplying, these are conversations to have long before the need is urgent.

Conclusion

In bringing this series to a close, I want to summarize a bit. I believe, after a decade of overseeing community groups ministries, that the thesis of my e-book is reality:

Community groups are the best place for us—as relational beings—to become mature disciples of Christ.

As I did in the first article, I’ll do again here. I want to compel you: Pour your hearts and souls into your community groups.

As a pastor or church leader, you will not regret a minute spent in prayer, reflection, or planning for your groups. If you can cultivate healthy, multiplying groups in the first five years of your church plant, you will reap decades of spiritual transformation and church health.

Let me say it again: Your investment in small groups will pay off exponentially in the souls of your people and the culture of your church.

^{1. For church size and growth dynamics, see Tim Keller “Leadership and Church Size Dynamics” http://www.gospelinlife.com/leadership-and-church-size-dynamics. See also Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Trittian, Effective Staffing for Vital Churches.}

*This article is Part 8 of an eight-part series on community groups and their importance that will run this summer. Read the full series here.

What is Biblical Theology?

By Brett Fredenberg / Jul 12

Editor’s Note: The Theology in the Everyday series seeks to introduce and explain theological concepts in 500 words or less, with a 200-word section helping explain the doctrine to kids. At For The Church, we believe that theology should not be designated to the academy alone but lived out by faith in everyday life. We hope this series will present theology in such a way as to make it enjoyable, connecting theological ideas to everyday experience and encouraging believers to study theology for the glory of God and the good of the Church. This week, biblical theology.

What is biblical theology? It’s not just theology that is ‘biblical.’ All good theology sits under the authority of Scripture and seeks God’s revelation of Himself in it, but there are several important types of theological study. Biblical theology seeks to understand the unity and diversity of Scripture’s expressions by comparing the Bible’s parts to its other parts in light of the whole canon. Those parts might include a phrase, metaphor, theme, pattern, book, author, genre, section, or even testament (Old or New). When one of these parts is compared to another of these parts or to the whole canon, biblical theology is happening.^[1]

There is obvious diversity of expression and emphasis in Scripture, because God spoke through many human authors in many genres on many occasions (Heb 1:1). There is nevertheless unity in Scripture, because it is the one triune God who breathes out all Scripture (2 Tim 3:16), from whom and through whom and to whom are all things (Rom 11:36). Sound biblical theology is biblical not only because it takes God’s Word as its authority and source but because it is occupied with the literary particulars of Scripture, its diverse expressions, its canonical structure (for example, there is both an Old Testament and a New Testament), and the way later books refer to earlier books. It is also theological because it takes all these books as God’s one Book revealing God’s own essential nature through His economy, that is, His interactions with His creation, chiefly through the work of the incarnate Son. Indeed, “All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation”^[2] (Luke 24:27).

Biblical theology benefits our exegesis and our systematic theology. It can help us to understand the richness of any given part or passage of Scripture as we study, teach, or preach it. It can also help us see how Scripture’s structure and story support or correct our systematic theology. Biblical theology also benefits from these sister disciplines. For example, the particular grammatical construction of an NT quote of the OT can help us discern whether the NT author is trying to draw out a particular implication of the OT text or perhaps re-apply it to a new context in a new way. Likewise, a theological concept like the hypostatic union–the universal Christian confession that Jesus is one Person with two natures, one divine and one human–can help the biblical theologian rightly relate two diverse statements about Jesus in Scripture by distinguishing whether a passage is referring to Jesus’s one Person, His divine nature, or His human nature (a method called ‘partitive exegesis’).

In the Scriptures, through many human authors in many circumstances, the one God speaks (Heb 1:1), and the unity in this diversity leads us to God’s final Word: Jesus Christ. Biblical theology is the attempt to relate the diversity and the unity alongside the likewise important disciplines of exegesis and systematic theology, all with the ultimate goal of beholding God.

For the Kids:

Do you know how many people wrote parts of the Bible? Dozens!

Can you guess how many words are in the Bible? Hundreds of thousands!

Do you know how many names there are in the Bible? Thousands!

Though the Bible has so many authors, it was written by God. God picked the authors of the Bible, so they were prepared to speak for Him. God’s Spirit inspired them to say exactly what He wanted to say to His people!

Though the Bible has so many words, it is God’s Word. God never lies or changes His mind, so everything in the Bible is true and trustworthy.

Though the Bible has so many names, it’s all about one name: the name of Jesus. God is perfectly wise, so everything in the Bible is connected in God’s big plan of rescue and glory through His Son by His Spirit.

All the authors, words, and names of the Bible are like one big choir, all singing a song of praise to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit: one God in three persons speaking one message in sixty-six books.

Bonus Poem:

The Bible’s a book full of chapters and verses,

Problems and promises, blessings and curses,

Rules and riddles and stories and songs

Of the power of God to make weak people strong

It was written by dozens of men through the ages

But the Spirit of God has breathed out all its pages

Its stories are woven together like threads

In one beautiful quilt on a comfortable bed

You can rest, child, knowing that all of its words

Are telling the best news that you’ve ever heard

How we all need a hero, and there’s really just One

God sent Him to save us: Jesus, His Son

He’s the Word that God spoke when He made everything

He’s the King people want when they cry or they sing

He’s the Lamb who laid down His own life in our place

He’s the Logic of laws and the Giver of grace

He’s the Baby Boy laid in Bethlehem’s manger

The Best Friend of sinners who cares for a stranger

The Teacher who taught us to live with great love

The Miracle-Worker who came from above

He came for His people, but He was rejected

Accused, betrayed, abandoned, arrested

Though He raised up the dead, He was hung on a tree

To save loveless people like you and like me

He went down to the dead, but He didn’t stay there

He walked out with hell’s keys and went up in the air

Now He sits at God’s side, and He gives us good things

He commands us to fly, and He gives us His wings

A new life with His Spirit and His family, the Church

Now there’s no better gift, there’s no reason to search

Still we study His Word and find riches of grace

Until Jesus returns and we see face to face

–

^[1] Some common types of biblical-theological studies might seek (1) a theme in a book (e.g., “the kingdom in Matthew”), (2) a theme in all Scripture (“the kingdom of God”), (3) an overall structure for Scripture (“from Garden to Garden-City”), or (4) how a later author uses the themes, phrases, or ideas of an earlier author (like the repeated use of “I will be your God”). When this study is done in light of the whole canon in submission to it as God’s Word, we have reason to hope that good biblical theology is happening.

^[2] From Article I: The Scriptures, The Baptist Faith and Message, 2000 ed.

Episode 219: What Does Revival Look Like?

By Lucas Hahn / Jul 12

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson discuss the happenings at Asbury College and dig into the historical apprasial of genuine revival as our measurements for true revival today.