God Has Destined Us for Sonship Not Employment

By / Sep 13

“In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 1:4-5)

The Not-So-Whole Story

We’re all familiar with the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). It’s the one Jesus told about the fellow who couldn’t wait to get out on his own. So he decides to ask his father for an advance on his inheritance, which is basically another way of saying, “Listen, Dad, I can’t sit around forever and wait for you to die so I can get what’s coming to me. I want it now.” Despite the unthinkably dishonoring nature of this request, the father grants it. And the son takes off, putting as much distance between himself and his father as he possibly can.

With moneybags in tow, the son wanders to a faraway city to live out his own version of the good life. He arrives ready to spend his inheritance on any and every decadent activity he can think of. But the thing is, such a lifestyle can only last for so long. Eventually, the money runs out.

With nothing in the bank and nowhere left to turn, the son gets the only job he can find: taking care of pigs. In the minds of the first-century Jewish audience to which this story was being told, the very idea of a Hebrew taking care of pigs would have been offensive. After all, swine were unclean according to the law (Lev. 11:7). But remember, the offensiveness of this detail had a very specific purpose. Jesus was wanting to convey just how far this son had fallen. In fact, He includes one more detail to make matters even worse: the son is so poor and so hungry that he seriously begins to consider eating pig slop. Pig slop! This would have been more than enough to get any self-respecting Israelite thinking, “Okay, now this guy is officially scum.”

But here’s where the parable takes a turn. As the son entertains the thought of taking a bite of the slop, a lightbulb suddenly comes on. He gets to thinking, “Hey, I’ll go back home and see if Dad will hire me. I mean, his servants eat pretty well and have a decent place to live. Surely, he won’t want me for his son anymore, but maybe he’ll give me a job.” So the son heads home, practicing what he’s going to say to his father: “I’m not worthy to be your son, so make me your employee instead.”

The End.

Wait, the end?!

Getting Past The Middle

Even though we know the rest of the story, we too often live as if it ends right there. If our lives were any indication of how things turn out for the prodigal son, the credits would roll as he heads home with fingers crossed, hoping his dad will treat him as a hireling. We tend to approach our relationship with our heavenly Father like that as if we’re His employees trying to compensate for our moral and spiritual deficits. Functionally, we get stuck in the middle of the parable. Theologian Sinclair Ferguson puts it this way,

“Despite assumptions to the contrary, the reality of the love of God for us is often the last thing in the world to dawn upon us. As we fix our eyes upon ourselves, our past failures, our present guilt, it seems impossible to us that the Father could love us. Many Christians go through much of their life with [this] suspicion. Their concentration is upon their sin and failure; all their thoughts are introspective” (27).

That version of the Christian life sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We can be so discouraged by our sin and failure that we end up not being able to move past the son-seeking-employment part of the story. However, as God would have it, that is precisely what we’re being invited to do—to get past that part of the story so that we can run into the Father’s loving embrace.

But for that to happen, we need a good dose of Gospel sanity. We need to revisit the stunning reality that in eternity past, our Father chose us to be His sons and daughters. Long before we ever did anything right or wrong, He claimed us to belong in His family. Why? Because He loves us. It’s as simple as that. The Bible couldn’t be clearer: “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:4-5).

Yes, our God and Father has destined us for sonship and nothing can change that. It was done “in love,” which means, though we’ve sinned in more ways than we can count, He won’t banish us to eke out the Christian life in the servant’s quarters until we can get our act together. No, we always have a place at the family dinner table. Ours is the seat in between our doting Father (Ps. 18:19) and Jesus our loving elder Brother (Heb. 2:11-12). God’s predestining love has guaranteed that seat for us now and forever.

So let’s get beyond the middle of the parable, shall we? God has arranged everything so that we can experience the best part for ourselves—the father running wildly down the road toward his son, the son being enfolded in Dad’s loving embrace, the feast on the table, and the rambunctious celebration filling the corridors of the father’s household. That’s God’s heart for us. It’s time we allow His astonishing grace to interrupt our lame speeches about making up for our sins. Quit all your self-focused introspection long enough for this life-changing reality to land upon your heart: our Father doesn’t need us to be His employees; He wants us as His own dear children, and for no other reason than because it brings His heart the greatest pleasure to see prodigals come home. He really loves us that much.



Preaching is Indispensable

By / Sep 10

Preaching is not optional to the life and health of the church. A church that does not emphasize and value preaching is not simply a different style church, it is an unfaithful church. J.I. Packer warns,

History tells of no significant church growth and expansion that has taken place without preaching (significant, implying virility and staying power, is the key word there). What history points to, rather, is that all movements of revival, reformation, and missionary outreach seem to have had preaching (vigorous, though on occasion very informal) at their center, instructing, energizing, sometimes purging and redirecting, and often spearheading the whole movement. It would seem, then, that preaching is always necessary for a proper sense of mission to be evoked and sustained anywhere in the church. 1

Preaching is uniquely the God-ordained means for the proclamation of His gospel message and the nourishment of His people. Edmund Clowney critiqued the contemporary fascination with drama over preaching. He wrote, “Preaching the Lord as present in the Gospel narratives has more power than do the best films that seek to portray the ministry of the Lord. . . . The effort to give reality beyond the preached word fails as fiction. The actor is not Jesus.” 2 Haddon Robinson noted that “To the New Testament writers preaching stands as the event through which God works”3 There have always been those who have considered straightforward preaching to be outdated, irrelevant, and foolish, but God calls it His wisdom and declares that He “was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor 1:21).

According to Paul, preaching is an expression of the sovereign purposes of God. As Leon Morris notes regarding Paul’s statement about preaching in 1 Cor 1:21, “Pleased fixes attention on God’s free and sovereign choice.”4 In Speaking God’s Words: A Practical Theology of Expository Preaching, Peter Adam describes the great theological foundations for preaching with the following simple phrases; God has spoken, it is written, preach the Word.5 The Scripture begins with a sermon, Adam carefully explains,

God’s revelation begins with a sermon; God preaches and the world is made. ‘God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.’ Six sermons are preached in a wonderful sequence; the Word of God is proclaimed in heaven’s pulpit and all comes to pass; the preaching forms the universe . . . the Word preached is no empty word; it accomplishes what it pleases and never returns void to him who speaks.

God’s proclamation of His own Word and the creative, effective power of His Word is immediately evident in the created order.6 Carl F.H. Henry points out the awe-inspiring wonder of God’s decision to speak when he writes, “Revelation is a divinely initiated activity, God’s free communication by which he alone turns his personal privacy into a deliberate disclosure of his reality.”7. According to His design God’s spoken Word soon became God’s written Word. Adam reminds that “What we have in Scripture is the revealed and preserved words of God.”8 Jay Adams avers,

These written and preserved words of God possess no less authority than the spoken words of God. Commenting on 2 Timothy 3:16, Jay Adams contends, “What Paul is affirming about the Bible is that it is as much the very word of God as if it had been spoken audibly by God by means of breath. It is His Word. If God were to speak audibly what He wants us to know, He would say nothing more, nothing less and nothing different that what He has written in it. It is identical with anything He might have spoken by breath.9

The reality of God’s revelation, preservation and inscripturation of His words led J.I. Packer to assert that Scripture itself “may truly be described as God preaching.”10 Everything God has revealed about Himself is to be proclaimed and the preacher who is faithful to the written Word of God is functioning as God’s mouthpiece to deliver God’s message to the people.11 According to Roger Wagner,

Many preachers are tempted to identify themselves with the congregation in preaching, rather than with God. This may be the most significant reason for their feeling ill at ease in speaking to their congregation in the second person. Such preachers do not want their people to get the impression that the preacher is holier than them—for preachers know that they are not. Conscious as they are of their sin, it is natural for them to identify themselves with their people as being in need of the grace of God, ready and willing to hear what God has to say from His Word. The genuine piety behind such an attitude is indeed commendable. Nevertheless, this point of view can come to expression in the wrong way, and create problems for the preacher. If a man, even for the most noble of motives, identifies himself primarily with the congregation in preaching, rather than with God, the best he will be able to do is speak from God to them. He will not function as God’s mouthpiece, bringing God’s life-giving message to the people—correcting, rebuking, and encouraging them in God’s name (i.e., on His behalf).

Thus, the God who has spoken and caused His Word to be written commands those who lead His churches to “Preach the Word” (2 Tim 4:2). Preaching is dangerous—an indispensable act of spiritual war. Martin Luther explained the cosmic combat of preaching in this way: “Indeed, to preach the word of God is nothing less than to bring upon oneself all the furies of hell and of Satan, and therefore also of . . . every power of the world. It is the most dangerous kind of life to throw oneself in the way of Satan’s many teeth.”12 I fear Luther’s words sound melodramatic to many contemporary evangelicals. It is hollow to defend the authority of the Bible while domesticating it by our lack of confidence in the indispensable power of preaching.

 

  1. James I. Packer, “Why Preach?,” in The Preacher and Preaching, ed. Samuel T. Logan (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1986), 21.
  2. Edmund Clowney, Preaching Christ in All of Scripture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003), 49.
  3. Haddon W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), 17.
  4. Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, vol. 7 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 44.
  5. Peter Adam, Speaking God’s Words: A Practical Theology of Expository Preaching (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), 15-56.
  6. Ibid., 15.
  7. Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation and Authority: God Who Speaks and Shows, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1999), 17.
  8. Adam, Speaking God’s Words, 27.
  9. Jay Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Commentary: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus (Hackettstown, NJ: Timeless Texts, 1994), 77.
  10. James I. Packer, Truth and Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1996), 163.
  11. Roger Wagner, Tongues Aflame: Learning to Preach from the Apostles (Geanies House, UK: Christian Focus, 2004), 74.
  12. Martin Luther, “On the Councils and the Church,” in Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, Weimarer Ausgabe, 25: 253.
Editor’s Note: This originally published at Prince on Preaching. 


Steve Bezner on Maintaining Community in a Growing Church

By / Sep 10

We asked Steve Bezner, “How do you maintain a culture of community in a growing church?”



The Resurrection as a Landmark in Acts

By / Sep 9

The book of Acts is one of the longest and most wide-ranging books in the New Testament. It covers a span of about 30 years, from Jesus’s ascension to Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. Readers are taken on a journey from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, all the way to the center of the Roman empire. We meet an Ethiopian eunuch, a council at Mars Hill in Athens, Roman governors, two king Herods, Paul of Tarsus (and his teacher), Jewish factions, and a Roman centurion. There are councils, stonings, healings, resuscitations, a shipwreck, a snakebite, and a girl possessed by a python spirit (16:16).

It can be tough to know how all the events in this wonderfully wide-ranging book fit together.

Thankfully Luke, the author of Acts, provides some helpful landmarks to help us identify some of the most important points, while also helping us to keep our eyes on Jesus himself.

The Resurrection and the Unity of Acts

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the key emphases of Acts, and this helps us appreciate the theological unity of the entire book. Click To Tweet One of the key landmarks Luke provides is the persistent emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection plays a crucial role in the longest speech of Peter (at Pentecost), the two longest speeches of Paul (at Pisidian Antioch and before Herod Agrippa II), and the speech of James at the Jerusalem Council. It’s also key to understanding Paul’s conversion, for it is the risen Christ Paul meets on the road to Damascus—and Paul retells this story twice after it is narrated in Acts 9. It pops up in many shorter speeches besides.

In sum, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the key emphases of Acts, and this helps us appreciate the theological unity of the entire book.

A few examples will illustrate this. In Peter’s Pentecost sermon the resurrection of Christ fulfills Psalm 16. Because Christ has risen, he is the ultimate Davidic king, and because he lives, the proper response is faith and repentance. Similarly, in Acts 13 Paul points out that Christ by his resurrection is the true Son of God who reigns over all the nations. Later, when Paul states that he is on trial because of the resurrection of the dead (23:6), this is not merely a rhetorical ploy. This is a faithful summary of his message: for Jesus is the living Lord of all (see Acts 10:36).

Once we start looking, we’ll find the resurrection is highlighted throughout Acts. The apostles’ preaching in Jerusalem is summarized as resurrection preaching (4:33), Stephen saw the glorified Jesus (7:56), James spoke of the rebuilt Davidic dynasty realized through the resurrection (15:16), and Paul proclaims even to the Areopagus council that Jesus is the risen judge of all people (17:30–31).

What is the point of the resurrection? The resurrection demonstrates the righteousness of Christ—it was wrong to put him to death, for he is the fully righteous Son of God (Luke 23:47). By means of the resurrection he has been installed as both Lord and Christ, and he reigns over an everlasting kingdom (Acts 2:36). The resurrection is not alien to the Scriptures, but fulfills them. In this way, the resurrection legitimates the early Christian movement, and demonstrates the veracity of Scripture. God had not abandoned his promises, but the resurrection is the hope of Israel (28:20).

The Resurrection and the Unity of the New Testament

Speaking of Scripture–Acts also provides a glimpse into the unity of the New Testament. If the resurrection helps show the coherence of the book of Acts, the book of Acts itself is an important facet of the overall unity of the New Testament.

The resurrection is not alien to the Scriptures, but fulfills them. In this way, the resurrection legitimates the early Christian movement, and demonstrates the veracity of Scripture. Click To Tweet Put simply, the resurrection is not an ancillary doctrine, but is central to all the books of the New Testament. The resurrection is necessary to understand the Gospels, Paul’s letters (and Hebrews), the Catholic Epistles (James through Jude), and Revelation.

It’s interesting that in the ordering of early Christian manuscripts, Acts proved to be quite flexible: it was sometimes grouped with the Gospels, sometimes with Paul’s letters, and quite frequently, with the Catholic Epistles. There are surely a number of reasons for this, but one of the key takeaways is how Acts serves as a lens for interpreting various portions of the New Testament. In fact, it may be that the resurrection emphasis of Acts, read alongside other New Testament books, helps us see the resurrection emphasis elsewhere in the New Testament as well.

For example, while the Gospels mention the resurrection in a more limited way, Acts supplements these accounts by filling in more details—including specific Old Testament texts that Jesus’s suffering, death, and resurrection fulfill (see Luke 24:44–47). Similarly, the New Testament epistles say relatively little about Jesus’s resurrection. Instead, they assume it. It may be that Acts was often grouped with the letters to provide the proper narrative framework for understanding the teaching of the letters, including how to contextualize their authors: especially Peter, James, John, and Paul. Reading Acts alongside New Testament letters helps provide the christological context for the calls to Christian living, and the importance of the resurrection for understanding this Christology.

Conclusion

There is much more to Acts than only the resurrection of Christ. But the resurrection is indeed one of Luke’s key emphases, and we do well to reflect on its wide-ranging significance. By tracing this theme throughout this wide-ranging book, we’re able profitably to keep our eyes on Jesus and what he has done for us—including how he reigns even now.

————-

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared at the blog for Credo Magazine. Brandon covers these themes in more detail in The Hope of Israel: The Resurrection of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020).



The Servanthood of the Believer

By / Sep 8

Love gives without expecting in return. This can be challenging because it does not come naturally to us. We are not naturally selfless. We are, by nature: selfish, self-driven, self-obsessed, self-promoting, and self-prioritized human beings that could stand a good and hearty lesson on love and selflessness. Followers of Christ are to be imitators of Him, who is the most servant-hearted of all. God, in His authoritative Word, has much to say to the Christian about being servant-hearted.

While walking the road going up to Jerusalem, Jesus tells the twelve disciples about the sufferings to come. As they spoke with him, Jesus tells them what a servant is not. He uses the rulers of the Gentiles as an example, saying that they lord their power over the Gentiles. Jesus continues,

“But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45 NASB)

Being a servant is being proactive in loving others well. It is not merely speaking of the desire to love and serve but to live out what Jesus commands of us. Jesus says,

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13 NASB)

To love without expecting in return applies to every aspect of our lives: work, school, marriage, family, friends, church, etc. The joy in loving and serving is blessing the receiver. Loving others becomes tainted when our intention is rooted in self-motivation, manipulation, pridefulness or expected reciprocation. In other words, if Jesus Christ is not our example and motivation for why we love and serve others, then our intentions are rooted in self. We cannot simultaneously live for ourselves and live for Jesus. Living for Jesus means that our lives declare His lordship. One of the ways this is expressed is how we love and serve those around us. Jesus tells his disciples,

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25 NASB)

Here are four characteristics of a servant-hearted Christian:

  1. They are unwavered in their dependence on the Lord.

Do you pray diligently for the Holy Spirit to make you more servant-hearted?

Do you believe God can help you be more like Jesus in His selflessness?

In what areas of your life is the Lord prompting you to be more servant-hearted?

We must first be a servant of Christ Jesus. How can we biblically serve others if we aren’t serving the One who teaches us how to?

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”(Romans 8:11-14 NASB)

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” (Galatians 5:16-17 NASB)

  1. They selflessly serve.

Are you serving with joy and willingness?

Do you feel your needs are more important than the needs of others?

Are you disappointed when something you’ve done for someone isn’t reciprocated?

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:3-7 NASB)                 

  1. They generously serve.

Do you allow ill feelings to drive your willingness to serve another person?

Do you find yourself feeling inconvenienced by the needs of others?

In what ways has God provided opportunities for you to serve another person?

“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” (Colossians 3:12-14 NASB)

  1. They authentically serve.

Are you genuine in the ways you serve those around you?

Do you find yourself serving others to make a good impression?

In what ways do you show others that you love and care for them?

Are you reliable in your commitments?

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:15-17 NASB)

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” (Colossians 3:23-24 NASB)



The Love of God…More Than A Second-Hand Emotion

By / Sep 8

One of the most remarkable things that has ever been said is that the God who made the universe loves us.

To better understand the weightiness of this, we have to understand the meaning of love. Love as we understand it is typically associated with feelings that come and go. One pop song tells us that love is a sweet, old-fashioned notion and a second-hand emotion. But the biblical picture of love is much more breathtaking than this.

When Jesus says that God so loved us, what does he mean?

Love Means Covenant

The anchor of covenant travels through the pages of Scripture. God makes a covenant with Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, and ultimately with all who have faith in Jesus. The essence of his covenant is, “I will be your God, and also the God of your children, and you will be my people.” Here, we are promised his steady presence, his enduring kindness, his relentless commitment never to leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). In the same way that a bride and groom covenant to be faithful to one another in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, for better or for worse, so God covenants himself to us.

Being in covenant with God means that once we become his children, we cannot un-become his children. In other words, we are safe with him. He will not reject us. On our best days and our worst days, he will remain loyal to us. This is a unique truth about Christianity. God will continue to accept us, even when we fail him repeatedly. He will not push the eject button on us when we fall short of the mark. We are never on eggshells with him because the God who forgives is the God who stays. This cannot be said of our work. If we fail at our work it won’t forgive us…we’ll be fired. It cannot be said of our investments. If we predict the market wrong, they will not forgive us…we’ll be in the poorhouse. Ultimately, it cannot be said about people either. While some are more prone to forgive than others, if we fail people badly enough, there’s no guarantee they’ll give us a new start…trust may be permanently broken. But Jesus! Jesus is the God who stays with us, seventy times seven and then some.

Love Means Intent to Restore

Though God invites us to come to him as we are, this is not an invitation to stay as we are. Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that we are his “workmanship” (literally his “poem”), created in Christ Jesus for good works. When God created human beings, he created us in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. In the beginning, male and female together reflected his likeness as his “very good” crown of creation (Genesis 1:26-27). But when we sought independence from him, our very-goodness was marred like the defacing of a magnificent piece of art. Ever since, we have not been what God intends for us to be. But God, being the Redeemer of all that is broken, intends to restore the whole universe back to its original glory and beauty (Romans 8:18-25). This especially includes people, who are his joy and his crown. Scripture promises that when God is finished restoring us, we will be like Jesus, with a character that is perfect, completely free from all transgression and corruption.

J.I. Packer says that to truly love someone is to make them great. It is to look at the caterpillar and envision the butterfly, and be committed to come alongside the caterpillar to help it along toward becoming the butterfly. This is God’s intention toward us.

As God’s image-bearers, we are carriers of this restoration impulse. We are motivated to mend that which is broken, enhance that which is dull, beautify that which is unsightly. Mechanics restore cars, contractors restore houses, physicians restore bodies, ministers restore souls, and so on. We love the feel and look of a nice haircut, a newly-hemmed pair of pants, or a restored piece of wood. We enjoy making new things out of what has decayed through time and the aging process. This is nothing less than a reflection of the image of God in us.

Love Means Enjoyment

Did you know that God doesn’t merely love you through Jesus, but that he also likes you? He is very fond of you. If you are his child, he takes great delight in you and rejoices over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). He calls you his beloved, and wants you to think of him in the same way. Does this blow your mind? If not, don’t you think that it should?

We all want to be enjoyed, don’t we? Students light up when they get a paper back and the teacher’s comments say, “Great job! A+!” Athletes come alive when the crowd cheers in appreciation for their performance. Employees feel larger than life when the boss rewards their hard work with a promotion or a bonus. Children are always crying out to their parents, “Watch me!” because they want to be praised, adored, approved of, and enjoyed. A bride blushes when she walks down the aisle with all eyes gazing at her in all of her loveliness. We want to be cherished, and guess what? God cherishes us! This is part of what he means when he says that he loves us.

My dear friend and long time “big brother” Scotty Smith tells the story of a wedding he once officiated, in which the groom, upon seeing his lovely bride at the back of the sanctuary, left Scotty’s side and ran to her! The groom was so taken by his bride’s beauty, that he could not bear to be separated from her for even another second. He happily made a “fool” of himself in front of a full room of family, friends, and other guests. The Father in heaven, who wants us to call him “Abba” (an Aramaic word meaning “Papa”), the Son who calls us his bride, and the Spirit who pours out the love of God in our hearts, loves us in a similar way. If you don’t believe it, just read Luke 15 and remind yourself that you are the lost sheep and he is the Shepherd rejoicing at the sight of you. You are the lost coin that is found and he is the woman who celebrates after recovering her wealth. You are the lost son and he is the father who throws a “welcome home!” party in your honor. You are the resentful son and he is the father who reminds you that all he has is yours and invites you into the party.

So, will you go in to the party? His love awaits.

Editor’s Note: This originally published at ScottSauls.com



Episode 134: Raleigh Sadler on Human Trafficking

By / Sep 8

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson talks with Raleigh Sadler, founder and president of Let My People Go and author of the book Vulnerable: Rethinking Human Trafficking, about the misconceptions we often have about the problem of trafficking and how we can help.



Pastors, Fight Against Fear of Man by Fighting for the Fear of the Lord

By / Sep 7

When I began pastoral ministry, I didn’t realize it would be my job to disappoint people. I had to tell a young man he wasn’t ready for ministry. I had to counsel a couple that they shouldn’t get married. I had to inform the church that Sunday’s text means exactly what they don’t want it to mean. Pastoral ministry is full of no-win decisions. Because of this, ministry is a miserable place for a pastor who needs everyone’s approval.

If we knew that before 2020, we know it even more now.

Fear of Man & Pastoral Ministry

This sinful desire for the approval of others is often called “the fear of man.” We were made to desire loving relationships, acceptance into a community, and the favor of those in authority over us. But the fear of man multiplies and warps these desires into an insatiable hunger for applause, honor, and status.

In pastoral leadership, this wrongly placed fear surfaces in many ways. It makes a pastor perform in the pulpit, but never quite preach from it. It makes him hide in his study with the light off, afraid the bully member might swing by. It fixates him on what would make his favorite professor proud, so much that he forgets to ask what his people need. It addicts him to fame or internet attention. It makes him easily manipulated by those who know how to hand out honor, shame, and pressure.

Every pastor struggles against this in different ways, but their hearts all say the same thing: “I need approval to be happy.” Young pastor, learn to overcome the fear of man now.

That’s easy to say. But how?

Fighting Fear of Man

There’s a temptation to fight fear of man with self-confidence or a foolhardy “who cares what anyone thinks” attitude. But that won’t work. After all, humans were made to revere something. The question isn’t whether we will tremble, but what will make us tremble. The only pastor who won’t tremble before the honor and shame of others is a pastor who has learned to tremble before God. This must be part of why, again and again, the Bible urges leaders to fear the Lord (Exo. 18:21; Deut. 17:18–20; 1 Sam. 12:14; 2 Sam. 23:3–4; 2 Chron. 19:7; Neh. 5:9, 15; Ps. 2:10–11, Lk. 18:2).

The fear of the Lord is a glad trembling before God that leads to humility and obedience. Like the word “thrill,” the word “fear” can be either positive or negative. It’s possible to be afraid of God, but the man who rightly fears God enjoys the thrill, the breathlessness, the awe of glimpsing God’s glory. This man knows his own smallness—and doesn’t mind it.

Over the years, this trembling disposition will form a man into a courageous and gentle pastor. He’ll learn to sit patiently while a church member scolds him or hurls false accusations at him. When that conversation is over, he can love that member even more than he did before. He can do this because he does not need others to tell him he is great. He is so consumed with God’s greatness that he is free from the fear of man.

Trembling before God does more than help a pastor overcome the fear of man. It actually becomes a source of strength for his leadership, giving him integrity (Deut. 6:2; Job 1:1, 8, 2:3, 4:6; Prov. 6:6) and wisdom (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7) while also blessing his wife and children (Ps. 128:3–4: Prov. 31:30). These qualities make him a more credible and effective leader. Some church members may not like the direction he takes Wednesday night Bible study, but they will recognize a gentle father whose children obey him. They will notice when he sorts out a sticky staff situation with God-fearing wisdom. A member whose husband left after two years will notice when her pastor leads for twenty years without a moral failing. In the fear of God he earns their trust while he also becomes a better steward of that trust.

What Your Church Needs

Future pastor, local churches need unwavering leaders who fear the Lord. They don’t need you to meet their expectations, but they do need to see your hand tremble when you hold up your Bible. They need to know that you would rather have the whole room turn on you than utter one word that displeases the Spirit. That means they need you to close the door to your study, read your Bible, and marvel at the God who forgives sinners. They need you to learn the fear of the Lord.

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared at the 9Marks blog and is used with permission.



FTC Preaching Guide: Judges

By / Sep 7

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Preaching Outlines
3. Key Themes and Motifs
4. Problem Passages
5. Commentaries and Resources
6. Preaching Christ from the Book
7. Why You Should Preach This Book

Introduction

During seminary my wife and I were members of a small local church near our home. I volunteered as much as time and permission from church leadership allowed. A few times a year our pastor let me preach. One fateful year I managed to land the opportunity to preach during Advent. Even sweeter, he let me pick the passage. I chose the book of Judges, specifically Judges 19.

Looking out from the pulpit upon a sanctuary decorated with golden stars and red velvet bows and families dressed in their Sunday Christmas best, I told the story of a concubine raped all night to her death, sliced into twelve pieces, then packaged and sent throughout the tribes of Israel. “Such a thing has never happened or been seen,” says the narrator (19:30). That’s sort of how I felt too as I preached the passage during Advent.

I titled the message “Unexplainable Misery and the Wonder of Advent,” and I intended to mean the misery of everyone in the book of Judges (especially those in chapter 19), as well as the misery of all us who live east of Eden. But as I preached, it sure seemed awfully hot in the sanctuary for the middle of December. My misery, however, did not seem so unexplainable.

It has been fifteen years since I preached that sermon, and different ministry roles have taken me to churches in other parts of the country. But just the other week I ran into my former pastor. Although we had not seen each other in years, do you know what came up? “Ahhh, yes, that sermon,” he said. I guess neither of us can forget it.

Although my seminary preaching ambition may have been greater than my preaching ability, the gospel punchline from that sermon still preaches: There was no king in Israel—until there was. The King of Kings came in a manger, and he will come again on a white horse. Both Advents bring good news to all who see Jesus as the only Savior from the sinful world around them and the world of sin within them.

As you preach through the book of Judges, your people may stare back at you with blank faces; indeed, you may sit in your study on more than a few Wednesdays pouring over a passage with your own blank stare. Yet, if you “pray until the sermon’s hot,” as I’ve heard one pastor say, the glory of the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ will sparkle against the grizzly backdrop of the book of Judges—and against the backdrop of our lives. And after you preach each week, and the music team takes the stage for one more song, with every head bowed and every eye closed, your people will be able to rest in this one truth: although scarcely will one man die for a good man, they will know that while we were still sinners—sinners like the sinners in the book of Judges—God demonstrated his love for us in the death of his Son. Soon and very soon, the Son who now sits will yet stand to split the sky.

Sound the trumpet, Preacher. There was no king in Israel until there was. And is. And will be again.

Preaching Outlines

College Church in Wheaton, Illinois
Preached by Josh Moody and several others in the summer of 2009 as part of their evening services. The sermons were apparently not individually titled, but the series had the title “If You Want God, You Have to Get Over Your Self.”

  1. Judges 1:1–2:5 (Josh Moody)
  2. Judges 2:6–3:6 (Josh Moody)
  3. Judges 3:7–31 (Josh Moody)
  4. Judges 4:1–5:31 (Josh Moody)
  5. Judges 6:1–32 (Jay Thomas)
  6. Judges 6:33–7:8 (Josh Moody)
  7. Judges 7:9–25 (Todd Augustine)
  8. Judges 8:1–35 (Josh Moody)
  9. Judges 9:1–57 (Brandon Levering)
  10. Judges 10:6–11:40 (Todd Augustine)
  11. Judges 12:1–15 (Jay Thomas)
  12. Judges 13:1–25 (Chris Castaldo)
  13. Judges 14:1–20 (Josh Moody)
  14. Judges 16:1–22 (Jonathan Cummings)
  15. Judges 16:23–31 (Eric McKiddie)
  16. Judges 17:1–13 (Jeff Hershberger)
  17. Judges 18:1–31 (Collin Hansen)
  18. Judges 19:1–30 (Chuck King)
  19. Judges 20:1–48 (Brandon Levering)
  20. Judges 21:1–25 (Ryan Skinner)

Bent Oak Church in Springfield, Missouri
Preached by Chase Replogle in the summer of 2016

  1. “Introduction to the Judges”
  2. “Othniel, Ehud, and Eglon”
  3. “Barak, Deborah, Jael”
  4. “Gideon Encounters God”
  5. “Gideon’s Pride”
  6. “Abimelech, Son of a King”
  7. “Jephthah”
  8. “Samson’s Parents”
  9. “Samson’s Riddle”
  10. “Samson and the Escalating Violence”
  11. “Samson and Delilah”
  12. “Sin Makes Us Boring”

Community Evangelical Free Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek and Jason Abbott in the summer of 2016

  1. “Courage then Compromise then Consequence then Christ,” Judges 1:1–2:5 (Jason Abbott)
  2. “Upon Further Review,” Judges 2:6–3:6 (Benjamin Vrbicek)
  3. “The Good, the Bad, and the Oxgoad,” Judges 3:7–31 (Jason Abbott)
  4. “God Wins,” Judges 4:1–5:31 (Benjamin Vrbicek)
  5. “Wooing a Warrior,” Judges 6 (Jason Abbott)
  6. “Finish Strong,” Judges 7:1–10:5 (Benjamin Vrbicek)
  7. “No Negotiation,” Judges 10:6–12:15 (Jason Abbott)
  8. “The Purpose of Privilege,” Judges 13:24–16:31 (Benjamin Vrbicek)
  9. “Born to Save,” Judges 13 (Jason Abbott)
  10. “Feasting in Freedom,” Judges 17–18 (Benjamin Vrbicek)
  11. “And They Gave the Sense,” Judges 19–21 (Jason Abbott)

Key Themes and Motifs

The cycle of sin, suffering, supplication, and salvation. Students of the book of Judges describe the cycles in Judges with various monikers. Here is my best attempt, a patchwork from several sources (the ESV Study Bible, various commentaries, and my seminary classes): Savior . . . (then) service . . . (then) sin . . . (then) subjugation . . . (then) supplication. The cycle begins with God as Savior, the God who saved his people from Egypt and gave them the Land of Promise. Throughout the book, God remains the only Savior, but he uses individual human judges to do his saving. Under the leadership of said judge, God’s people often initially served the Lord with vigor but would later fall into sin. And their sin would grow. And grow. And grow. God would then give his people over to foreign nations to chasten them. Consider Judges 6:1, for example, to see both sin and the subsequent subjugation: “The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.” In their distress, God’s people would then cry out to the Lord (supplication), and God would again send them a judge to save them. This is the cycle in Judges. Another good verse to illustrate this cycle is Judges 2:18, which says, “Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.”

We think we are right in our own eyes. Likely you are familiar with the refrain the narrator sings several times near the end of the book, including the final few musical bars: “In those days there was no king in Israel” (21:25; cf. 17:6; 18:1; 19:1). Some commentators take this to mean that the book of Judges served as a justification for kingship in Israel. Perhaps it did. Look here, people, when we didn’t have a king, life was this bad. We better get us a king who looks like the kings of other nations. But there is more to the final verse in the book. The full verse reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25 and 17:6). The theme of doing what is right in one’s own eyes, a euphemism for following the sinful desires of our hearts, develops slowly over the course of the book. At first, when the people sin, the narrator tells us, “the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” (2:11). This description—doing “evil in the sight of the LORD”—is the typical repetition: 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1. Then, with Samson and his eyes, the wording shifts. Samson tells his father to get him a wife from the Philistines, saying, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes” (14:3). And consider 16:1, which says, “Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her.” Thus, Samson serves as a bridge to the final refrain: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” And isn’t this exactly how sin grows? First, we rightly measure ourselves by God’s standard and how far short we fall. Then, well, we just sort of stop talking about God—he’s such a nuisance, you know, always telling us what we can and can’t do. We’re probably better off without him, calling our own shots. But does the ending to the book show that we are better or worse without God?

Generational faithfulness is simultaneously really important and really difficult. In the New Testament, James famously speaks of our lives as “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (4:14). The prophet Hosea says something similar of a certain tribe of Israel. Because of sin, Ephraim had become as ephemeral as a vapor and as easily blown as chaff (Hosea 13:3). These two aspects of our humanity, our finitude and our depravity, combine to make faithfulness from one generation to the next just as wispy and vanishing. It certainly was in the book of Judges. At times, under the reign of one judge or another, obedience to the Lord abounded. At other times, under the reign of a different judge, or in the gap between two judges, the people of God floundered. The second chapter of Judges offers a key passage to show the simultaneous importance and difficulty of generational faithfulness. “And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD,” we’re told (2:10). How could this happen? Did the older generation not teach the younger generation? Or did the younger generation not want to learn? We don’t know. Maybe both. This tragedy of the miscarriage of generational faithfulness cycles on repeat throughout the book. The ideal among the people of God—an ideal to which we often fall short—is that “One generation shall commend [God’s] works to another [generation]” and that the future generation “shall speak of the glory of [God’s] kingdom and tell of [his] power” (Ps. 145:4, 10).

Problem Passages

General Issue #1: What was a “judge”? The judges were not judges in the sense that we commonly understand the role of judges in the American judicial system; the judges in the book of Judges did not adjudicate between disputing parties while wearing black robes and holding a gavel. “All rise, all rise, for the honorable Judge Shamgar.” No, the judges settled conflict while holding weapons of war and spilling blood. Interestingly, only Deborah is said to judge Israel in the way familiar to us. “She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment” (4:5). It is better to think of the judges as military leaders or generals who ruled for a season over a region of Israel, either by self or outside appointment.

General Issue #2: Deeply flawed leaders. You might appreciate a leader who saves you from your enemy, and you might even be thankful to God for that leader, but, generally speaking, we shouldn’t necessarily pattern our ethical and spiritual devotion after the judges. Please forgive my use of an anachronism, but no judge says, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1), nor should we listen too closely if he did. Once, Gideon did say, “Look at me, and do likewise” (7:17). Still, that instruction was for a specific military stratagem for a specific battle, the lighting of a torch, the blowing of a trumpet, and the shouting of a battle cry. Speaking of Gideon’s battle cry, it went like this: “For the LORD and for Gideon” (7:18). And here we see the thread already starting to pull away from the knitted sweater. Gideon—as was the case with many of the judges—was deeply flawed. In fact, the more material we have on a particular judge, especially with Samson, the more we might be tempted to wonder about the sincerity of his salvation were it not for the fact that Hebrews 11:32ff considers the judges men of faith. Still, Gideon began by pulling down idols of Baal and Asherah only to later erect idols to his own honor that “all Israel whored after” (6:28 and 8:27). “I will not rule over you as a king,” Gideon tells God’s people. “But come over here and meet my son—his name is ‘My Father Is King’” (paraphrasing 8:22–23, 31). If not for the seriousness of sin, Judges almost reads comically, as though it were a parody of leadership. And yet, without too much mental effort, we could name the scores of celebrity pastors who have failed out or deconstructed out of ministry as dramatically as they seemed to flourish in ministry. Today, Christian apologists must craft apologies to explain the failure of our leading Christian apologist. We do not, however, need new arguments to describe our present predicament. We need the ancient ones, the arguments as old as Ur. We live after Genesis 3, and God has always drawn his straight lines with crooked sticks. As you preach the book of Judges, though, do not keep the flaws of the leaders at arm’s length. Bring them close and apply them near, not far. Remember that the flaws of Jephthah and Samson and the like do not merely explain the flaws in contemporary leaders but the flaws in our common humanity. When you and I look honestly in the mirror, sometimes we see judges.

The “double introduction” (1:1–2:5 and 2:6–3:6). The first four words of the book say, “After the death of Joshua . . .” Short as they are, the biblically informed reader should feel sufficiently situated for the context of the story that follows. Additionally, this line gives readers the appearance of chronology, which is to say one event will follow the next. Despite this general, chronological flow of the book, the second chapter takes a step backward. We read in 2:6, “When Joshua dismissed the people . . .” But how did Joshua, the leader who had recently died, dismiss people? It seems that Judges 2:6–3:6 provides a second introduction to the book, an introduction that chronologically precedes the first introduction. The second introduction explains, with more depth, an issue that seems to have been intentionally glossed over in the first introduction. In 1:19–36 we read that most of the tribes of Israel did not fully drive out the inhabitants of the Promised Land, but we are not told why. The closest we get to an explanation for their failure is in v. 19, which says, “because they [the foreign nation] had chariots of iron”—the idea being that Israel had an inferior military, and that is why they failed. The real reason for their failure, however, was their spiritual infidelity. It is for this reason that the second introduction highlights in sobering detail: when the people of God “abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth” (2:13), they floundered. Noting this in a sermon or two allows preachers to pull up sin by the root, not merely the leafy green parts.

Deborah, Barak, and women in leadership (4:1–5:31). Much more is happening in the important story of Deborah and Barak and God’s victory over Sisera than we typically discuss in the egalitarian and complementarian debate. In other words, if you only focus your sermon here, you will miss the bigger issues. This is not to say that a discussion of men’s and women’s roles is irrelevant to the passage. The fact that Deborah chides Barak that her going with him to the battle “will not lead to [his] glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (4:9) indicates that a woman in such an authoritative military role is at least unusual, and at most, shall we say, unnatural. Preachers will need to reckon with whether this unusual circumstance is the result of a transgression of cultural norms or of God’s transcendent design. I tend to think both. And, as with all narrative passages of Scripture, hermeneutic decisions must be made about whether an event is more prescriptive (this should happen) or more descriptive (this did happen). Once a preacher comes to conclusions on these questions—and a host of others—then comes the leap to the discussion of ways this passage relates to, and does not relate to, the local church in the New Testament era. Even when all the exegetical and theological questions have been considered, then comes the question of how much can be addressed on Sunday. It seems to me that preachers will serve their congregations best as they preach this passage by only making passing comments in the direction of men’s and women’s roles in the home and church, so that the thrust of the sermon can be pointed in the same direction as the passage: God—not Deborah or Barak or even Jael—gets the glory.

Jephthah’s vow (11:29–40). I will be brief here because, as you study this, you’ll realize the possibilities abound for what Jephthah intended when he made the vow and what he actually did. Did Jephthah assume an animal would come out of his house or a servant or something else? And what actually happened to Jephthah’s daughter—was she conscripted into the service of the Lord and not allowed to marry, or was she offered as a human sacrifice? It is difficult to know with certainty the answer to these questions and other aspects of the passage, although I’m persuaded her father, quite tragically, made her a human sacrifice. Whatever you conclude exegetically, it’s helpful from a preaching standpoint to remember that all the options are bad. There is no way to read this passage and view Jephthah as an embodiment of godly leadership. Even if he intended to sacrifice an animal, and even if he didn’t actually sacrifice his daughter, behind his vow was the attempt to barter with God. If you do this, Lord, then I’ll do this. Perhaps Jephthah’s view of God is more pagan than Hebrew, which is to say, perhaps Jephthah’s god is more like the gods of the nations who worshipers must placate to avoid bad karma. Perhaps Jephthah’s god has no concept of grace and mercy for the penitent. Perhaps Jephthah’s god is not much like the real one, “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness . . . forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Ex. 34:6–7).

Helpful Commentaries and Resources

Block, Daniel I., Judges, Ruth: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, The New American Commentary, (Holman Reference, 1999)

Davis, Dale Ralph, Judges: Such a Great Salvation, Focus on the Bible, (Christian Focus, 2015) [This is a must-have if you’re preaching through Judges. Reading a Dale Ralph Davis OT commentary is an experience like reading no other commentary, one full of both wisdom and wit.]

Keller, Timothy, Judges For You, God’s Word For You, (The Good Book Company, 2013)

McCann, J. Clinton, Judges: Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011)

Pressley, Emily (Author) and Watson, Stephen (Illustrator), Powerful Kindness: The Story of Judges and Ruth, Kaleidoscope Kids Bibles Reimagined (Rocky Heights Print & Binding, 2020) [This is a wonderfully helpful chapter-by-chapter illustrated resource for children to follow along with the storyline of Judges.]

Schwab, George M., Right in Their Own Eyes: The Gospel According to Judges, The Gospel According to the Old Testament (P&R Publishing, 2011)

Webb, Barry G., The Book of Judges, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2012)

How to Preach Christ from Judges

I wouldn’t necessarily liken the book of Judges to a cut diamond that sparkles anyway you turn it. The book is more of a coal mine; the gospel diamonds are in there, you just might have to dig to find them. Here are some of the places I’d suggest you dig.

The anti-examples point to Christ. The Old Testament frequently promises and prefigures the person and work of Christ through glimmers of hope, those times when God empowers sinners to look more like saints as they serve him. Often in the book of Judges, however, sinful people and sinful leaders stoke our longings for the Messiah by way of contrast, by sinners acting like sinners. Thus, the judges often serve more as anti-examples than examples in the traditional sense. C. S. Lewis notes how our longings that cannot be met in this world indicate that we were made for another world. In a similar way, our longings for a faithful judge indicate that we need more than a judge from this world—and certainly more than a judge from the book of Judges. Timothy Keller has said of Jesus that he is “the true and greater David.” Indeed he is. And in even starker contrast, Jesus is the true and greater judge.

When all seems very dark, with God there is always light we cannot (yet) see. Do not forget the opening line in the book of Ruth: “In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons” (Ruth 1:1).  A book that begins with a crippling famine in the house of bread (i.e., Bethlehem) and the loss of husbands and fathers, soon becomes a story about the obscure but fierce faithfulness of one man and one woman who join in holy matrimony and give birth to the grandfather of the future king of Israel (Ruth 4:21–22). Remember this as you preach the book of Judges. Remember to tell your people that in the days when the judges ruled the land, even though most people could not see the light, God was on the throne and not everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

The violence of our sin anticipates the violence of our salvation. Swords stuffed to the hilt in entrails, tent pegs tapped through temples, and animal jawbones cracking human skulls. These are the ways of the judges the Lord raised up to save Israel out of the hand of those who plundered them (cf. 2:16). Blood-soaked and grotesque, redemption came through judges, and so it comes through Christ, the “one from whom men hide their faces” (Isa. 53:3). This is not to excuse the sins of the judges or to impugn Christ with corruption. May it never be! But it is to say that when God pulls us from the mire, it means he must wade into the swamp. When Jesus said the bronze serpent that Moses lifted in the wilderness would look like the Son of Man lifted up on a cross (John 3:14), he meant that our salvation, in one sense, looks as venomous as our sin. And by staring with our eyes unblinking, fully absorbed by the horror of the cross, God means to burn away our lust and pride. It’s hard to boast when you know how ugly is your sin and how costly is your redemption.

Except for the prayer of Jesus, God has only ever answered the prayers of those who do not deserve his grace. “If any of you lacks wisdom,” James writes in the New Testament, “let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach” (1:5). Note the connection between our lack and our asking and the God who gives generously without finding fault. So it was in the book of Judges. In other words, no prayer for salvation is ever prayed by those with clean hands. “Wash me, savior, or I die,” goes the hymn. The people of God in the book of Judges are dirty and need washing because they rolled around in the muck—time after time after time. We know this, but knowledge of our sin often keeps us from going boldly to the throne of grace in our time of need. And it should not be. If while we were enemies, Christ died for us, how much more will he not answer us when we cry to him for help?

The Advent of the King. I hinted at this in the introduction. There was no king in Israel until there was.

Why You Should Consider Preaching Judges

Those who live in the Rocky Mountains or on the Hawaiian shores can behold beautiful scenery as easily as they can walk to their back porch. For most of us, however, tracking down mountain vistas or ocean sunrises takes a lot of work. From a preaching standpoint, the vistas seen from Ephesians 2 or Romans 8 tend to be more accessible and thus more often traveled by preachers and beheld by congregations. Yet for those willing to break a sweat and endure some soreness, the vistas that open in the book of Judges are just as fearfully and wonderfully made—you just might have to wade through a swamp or hack through a jungle before you can see them. In short, you should preach Judges because the book offers modern readers scenery that we didn’t know we needed until someone has shown us. These “views” include but are not limited to those I have listed below. Knowing these breathtaking views exist and hiking with your people to see them is reason enough to start the journey through Judges. And as you go, you will discover other sights both terrifying and awesome, sights you didn’t know you needed until God showed you that you did.

The book of Judges shows us the purpose of divine rumble strips. Rumble strips are annoying. They shake your car and rattle your teeth. If you have young boys in the back of your car, someone might yell, “Who farted?” In other words, rumble strips get your attention. So do smelling salts. So do defibrillators. God often goes to great lengths to get our attention when we, his people, are tempted to sin. “When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates” (5:8). For his glory and our good, thankfully the invasive love God displays in Judges, he still displays now. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The book of Judges shows us that sin is fundamentally illogical and only partially explainable. To read Judges slowly and carefully is to also become confused. He did what? But why?  And she said what? But why? Often, you can deduce probable answers to many of these questions, and yet even when the questions are answered, you still might not know the deeper reason for why people do what they do. For example, consider some of the unanswerable questions from chapter 19. Why wouldn’t anyone take the travelers into their house? How could it be that an angry mob demanded violent, homosexual acts in an Israelite city? Why would a man offer his virgin daughter to the mob to be devoured? Why would the Levite allow his concubine to be handed over? What was a Levite doing with a concubine, anyway? And who could cut up a woman and send her out in twelve little pieces? When you stand back and let the totality of the depravity of this passage land on you, one recognizes almost immediately that we must settle for partial explanations. This is because, in the order of the universe, sin is only partially explainable. Why would Adam take and eat the fruit? Why would sin ever have looked pleasing to his eyes? Why would anyone crucify the son of God? Why would the drunk driver get behind the wheel? Why would I ever use that tone of voice with the wife of my youth? Because sin is only partially explainable and fundamentally illogical. We really do need a savior.

The book of Judges stokes our longings for permanence. Peace and prosperity ebb and flow like the ocean tide, and all our progress seems as permanent as castles in the sand. The cycles in the book of Judges show us this. And they show it to us again. And again. And again. We need a savior who sits on the throne he will never vacate, which is what we have in Christ.

Finally, the book of Judges shows us the greatest enemy of the church is not external but internal. The book of Judges both shouts and whispers this indictment. Consider, again, the last sentence in the book. “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25; see also 17:6). Positioned intentionally at the end, this statement is the ancient equivalent of bold, italics, underline, and all caps—an example of the book shouting that our greatest enemy is internal. We hear another shout in Judges 2:10 where God lays the blame for all their trouble on the fact that “there arose another generation . . . who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.” Again, the foe is internal, not external. The book also whispers this message. For example, consider the judge Tola (10:1–2). He, like another judge named Shamgar in Judges 3:31, was a deliverer only mentioned in a verse or two. But unlike Shamgar, who delivers from an external enemy (the Philistines), no enemy is listed that Tola fought. When Tola comes to save, he saves Israel from Israel. And that is why the book, as a whole, concludes with an appendix of sordid stories likely from an earlier time in the book, stories of a greedy priest, a Levite who dismembered his concubine, and a civil war that nearly annihilated one of the tribes. It is easy to point the finger at those outside the church. The greatest threat to the church, however, is not ISIS or Planned Parenthood. It is not Hollywood. It is not atheist professors who ruin the faith of our sweet college freshmen. The greatest enemies are not secular politicians and Supreme Court judges. If we want to know the worst enemy of the church—the one that, apart from the sustaining grace of God, could eternally destroy us—then we must look in the mirror. Doing so will not be easy; it will be uncomfortable. But a long look into our own souls and our indwelling sin might catch our melanoma while it’s early. And if it does, praise God we have the gospel for our healing.



Jason Duesing on the Role of General Revelation in the Christian Life

By / Sep 7

FTC.co asks Jason Duesing, provost and professor of church history at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, “What is the role of general revelation in the Christian life?”