Author: pjwenzel

2-12-12 Study Notes

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1:19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

  • The men would have come from the Sanhedrim, which was the high council of the Jews at the time.  This council was composed of both Pharisees and Sadducees, and was in charge of the religious affairs of the Jewish people, along with other things (cf. Barnes Notes), though I’m not sure exactly what else fell under their purview.  It seems likely that they would have been a sort of representative voice for the Jewish people to the Roman occupiers.

1:20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

  • His correct answer here assumes that they asked the question, or at least meant to ask the question as to whether or not he was the Christ.
  • Barnes says that this is the true mark of a gospel minister, “all Christians, and especially all Christian ministers, however much they may be honoured and blessed, should be willing to lay all their honours at the feet of Jesus; to keep themselves back and to hold up before the world only the Son of God. To do this is one eminent mark of the true spirit of a minister of the gospel.”

1:21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

  • Note the two different people they mention here.  They mention Elijah (Malachi 4:2-5), then they mention “the Prophet”, this is the prophet that Moses spoke of in Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.”  The Jews thought of this prophet as someone who would arise prior to the Christ, but they were wrong.  The Christ (Jesus) and the Prophet spoken of this in passage are actually one in the same.
  • Calvin notes that, “But in this passage John has a different object in view, which is, to show that he has no special message, as was usually the case with the prophets, but that he was merely appointed to be the herald of Christ.”
  • So there is a sort of comparison between an expected Prophet and John the Baptist here.  John denies that he is the prophet saying “no”, but Christ later will say that he is the greatest of the prophets (Matt 11:9) and fulfilled the role of Elijah as well (Matt. 11:14; Mark 9:13).  He is a combination of the two, so to speak, though he has no specific prophetic message.  As Calvin states, “The distinction lies in this, that the voice crying, that a way may be prepared for the Lord, is not a prophet, but merely a subordinate minister, so to speak; and his doctrine is only a sort of preparation for listening to another Teacher. In this way John, though he is more excellent than all the prophets, still is not a prophet.”
  • So it is appropriate to say that Christ Himself was perhaps the ultimate prophet that Moses was speaking of.  In fact, Peter makes this very clear in Acts 3:19-22 when he says, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.”

1:22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

  • Note how they demand that he must give some kind of account.  They really seem pushy.  It is obviously a test of John that God is allowing to bring Himself glory.  We will all face this moment, when people see the way our lives are changed as a result of Christ’s work in us.  The question will inevitably come, but what we say on behalf of Christ is a matter of obedience.  Will we give honor and glory to Him?  Or will we shrug off the compliment and puff ourselves up?  What our response is to this question shows how gospel-focused our lives really are.

1:23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

  • This phrase is referring to John’s mission to prepare the hearts of those men and women who would be soon hearing the message of the Christ.  He is making their hearts and paths (so to speak) straight.  He is baptizing them in a baptism of repentance in preparation for the gospel message.
  • This was not the same kind of baptism that we receive today.  When we are baptized today we do so as an outward signification and identification with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Those who had been baptized in the baptism of John were not identifying with the coming Christ, but rather showing an outward desire for repentance.

1:24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) [25] They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

  • The reason this was such a poignant questions was because it was unusual to baptize Jews the way John was baptizing them.  It was customary to baptize proselytes (converting gentiles), but it was not customary to baptize Jewish people who by their natural descent from Abraham would not have been considered so unclean as a pagan gentile.
  • Baptism, then as now, was a sign of cleansing and repentance and John was here adding something to the normal religious rites and order, and this (combined with his popularity) were worthy of attention from the highest officials.

1:26-28 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, [27] even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” [28] These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

  • It is significant to note that the sandal of a man was a very dirty and disgusting piece of clothing.  Slaves weren’t even required to unleash the sandal off their master’s feet, because that was considered below a slave and ill treatment.  Such was the humility of John. How unlike the typical young pastor in popular evangelical circles!  Instead of grabbing for the brass ring, he got down on his face and counted himself unworthy to even touch the dirty sandal of the man coming after him.

How do we teach this to our children?  If you were to tell your children on the way home today that you learned about how Jesus was and is the Word of God, what would you say?

EXAMPLE:  This morning we learned more about the mission of John the Baptist.   John was a man who was sent from God to prepare the hearts of the people of Israel for the coming of their Messiah.  Who was the Messiah (savior) they were looking for?  (JESUS).  Right! Jesus.  And John’s job was to help all of the people of Israel repent of their sins and prepare their hearts to hear what Jesus was going to say.  Do you know what it means to “repent?”  Well, to repent means to “turn” from your sin and your wrong actions and ask God to forgive you.  That’s what John the Baptist was sent by God to do!  Just like the people of Israel were supposed to repent of their sins and ask for forgiveness, we do the same, by asking Jesus to forgive us of our sins.  Only Jesus can forgive us of our sins, because only Jesus died and paid the penalty for our sins.

Family Worship

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As the kids have gotten older, Kate and I have tried to find ways to raise the kiddos in a way that causes them to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.  Some of the time we feel as though we’re doing great, other times…not to much!  Much of this is just a matter of disciplining ourselves to make time and make it a priority. 

To that end, I wanted to pass along a helpful excerpt from RC Sproul, Jr. on the topic of Family Worship.  He has many helpful suggestions that were encouraging to our family, and hopefully will be encouraging to yours!

 

Simple Steps for Family Worship

by RC Sproul, Jr.

Timing

Right now in our lives, we practice family worship right after supper. We used to have family worship right before the kids went to bed. Either one is fine for us, but there is a practical reason for doing it in that time frame. Every day, no matter what, we eat supper and we go to bed, so we have a pair of alarm clocks that tell us we cannot escape our call to do this. We think, “Oh, we just finished eating, it’s time,” or, “We’re about to go to bed, it’s time.”

After supper, I’ll ask one of the children, “Please gather the things for worship.” We have a place where we keep the worship materials, and one of the children will go and get the stack of books and things, and place it on the table in front of me.

Away From Home Or With Guests

By the way, if we’re not at home, we modify things a little bit. We have worship in the car sometimes. If we’re at a friend’s house or even a stranger’s house, we don’t impose on him or her and say, “Well, thank you for supper, it’s now time for the Sproul family to have worship.” If we have a guest at our house, we try to make an assessment of his or her spiritual maturity and then make a decision. We might ask ourselves, “Will this make our guest angry, or will he like this?” If it likely will make him mad, we probably won’t do it.

Catechism

When we are at home, we start with our catechism work. Catechism is a word that is unfamiliar to many today. A catechism is simply a tool for teaching basic biblical content to those who are young or new to the faith. A catechism typically consists of questions and answers. The parent asks the child a question, and the child gives the answer.

We use two different catechisms. We have a children’s catechism that consists of fifty questions. Each of the questions is five or six words and each of the answers is about three words. I ask my son Reilly, who is three years old, “Reilly, who made you?” Reilly says, “God.” I say, “What else did God make?” He says, “Everything.” As you can see, the questions and answers are very short. We teach these to the very small children, and when they learn these things, we celebrate. We don’t bribe. We don’t buy them off. But we do celebrate. When one learns the entire children’s catechism, the whole family goes out for ice cream, because Daddy likes ice cream.

When the children get bigger, we move to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which has slightly longer questions and answers. There are 107 of these. When the children master them all, I take them skiing, because Daddy likes skiing.

We have a “sophisticated” system by which we do the memory work. It goes like this. I say to the children: “Daddy says, ‘What is man’s chief end?’ You say, ‘Man’s chief end …'”

They say, “Man’s chief end …”
I say, “… is to glorify God …”
They say, “… is to glorify God …”
Finally, I say, “… and enjoy him forever.”
They say, “… and enjoy him forever.”

We do that, and after a couple of days they get it. As I said, it’s a terribly complicated system.

Scripture Memory

Then we move on to Bible memory. We have a “complicated” system for that, too. Right now our family is working through the Psalms, so every day we recite one of the psalms we have learned and we work on a new psalm. Don’t be overly impressed; we are only up to twelve. I don’t know what we’re going to do when they get really long. When we get to Psalm 119, then you can be impressed. But again, we use the same system. I say a verse or part of a verse, and the kids repeat it. My older kids make fun of me because I have my Bible open as I’m helping them learn these things, but they know many of the psalms by heart.

Scripture Reading

Then we move to Scripture reading. We have done our Scripture readings in different ways. Sometimes we read a book of the Bible. Sometimes, when we have a new child who is very small, we use one of the children’s Bible storybooks. I want to give them a very basic understanding of the flow of Scripture. Right now we’re going through one of those Bible storybooks where Jesus has eyes that look like Ping-Pong balls.

I read the story, then I give my sermon, and my sermons are typically twenty to thirty seconds long. I give the children some sort of lesson from the text. I want to bring the text to bear on their lives and mine.

This gives me an opportunity to practice the first corollary to the “R. C. Sproul Jr. principle of hermeneutics.” Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation, and the R. C. Sproul Jr. principle of hermeneutics states that whenever you are reading your Bible and you see someone doing something really stupid, you must not say to yourself, “How can he be so stupid?” but “How am I more stupid?” The first corollary to this principle is that whenever you are reading a story in the Bible and you wonder who you are in the story, you are the sinner. If you are reading a story and there is more than one sinner, as in the parable of the prodigal son, you’re both. So we read our Bible text and I ask: “Children, how are we like this person? And how are we like that person? And how am I like this person or that person?” That’s the sermon.

Prayer

After the sermon, I take prayer requests. I ask, “Children, what would you like Daddy to pray for tonight?” Now, I encourage my children to pray. They pray before they go to bed. They pray at times during home-school. They pray on many occasions. But when we gather together for family worship, they don’t pray. Why not? From the beginning, I have done the praying at family worship because I want to communicate to them—and, more importantly, to myself—the importance of the father’s priestly role in the home. I am saying to them and to myself, “I am responsible, as the head of this home, to take you before the throne of God, to beseech the God of heaven and earth for your wellbeing.”

In fact, when the children were younger, we even had a posture to help communicate this—again, more to me than to them. I would ask the little ones to come sit on my lap. I would take one on each leg, put my arms around the children, put my hands over their heads, and pray for them. I would ask God to bless them specifically. My son Campbell would ask every night, “Please ask God that we would grow in grace, in the fruit of the spirit, and in wisdom.” God has blessed him with wisdom.

Singing

Then we move into singing. Again, the children are invited to participate by choosing what we are going to sing. We sing the service music from our church’s liturgy. We sing the Gloria Patri. We sing the Doxology. We sing the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. We sing the Song of Simeon, which is how our church closes its service.

Let me tell you about something that is even more practical. When visitors to Saint Peter Church try to find the nursery, we tell them we do have a nursery, but we hope they won’t mind serving in the nursery on that particular day. We assure them that if they’ll look after their children, we’ll be fine. You see, we worship together—parents and children. Visitors are afraid and puzzled about this. They think, “What kind of weird thing is this?” Then, when we in the congregation stand to confess our faith together and little two- and three-year-olds ardently recite the Apostles’ Creed, suddenly our visitors see the beauty of it.

We let our children pick the songs they want to sing. We do have one rule—only one child’s song a night. Reilly always wants to sing “Hallelu.” I’ll ask, “What do you want to sing tonight, Reilly?” and he’ll say, “Hallelu.” It’s a very simple song: “Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah, praise ye the Lord!” We divide the family in half, and half of them are the “hallelus” and half of them are the “praise ye the Lords,” then after the first verse we switch and do it faster. But we sing only one of these a night.

That’s it. It’s not complicated. It’s not time-consuming. It’s not a duty. It’s a joy, a delight.

What If I Haven’t Been Doing Family Worship?

At this point, you fathers might be thinking, “OK, R. C., I see this. I see that I ought to do this. I see how to do it. But what do I do about the fact that I haven’t been doing this?” Here’s what you do: Gather your family together, sit them down, and then tell them that you are sorry for failing them in this way. Show them what repentance looks like. Then tell them that Jesus Christ came to suffer the wrath of God the Father for failures such as this. Give thanks for that provision. Pray in thanksgiving for that forgiveness. Then sing in thanksgiving for that forgiveness. That is day one. If you have done this in the past and have fallen out of the habit, simply follow the same instructions.

But I’m Too Busy for Family Worship

But if you are too busy, here is what I want you to do: stop being too busy! What could possibly be more important? The God of heaven and earth, the self-existent, transcendent, holy God, is inviting you to walk with Him in the cool of the evening. Will you say to Him, “Thanks for the invitation, Lord, but I’ve got my bowling league tonight.” Would you tell Him, “I’d love to meet with You tonight, but I have a meeting with someone important.” No one is too busy to draw near to the living God. No one is too busy to give up the less important, the less rewarding, and the less joyful for the source of all joy.

The glory of the gospel is that the high, transcendent, exultant God, because of the work of Christ, has drawn near to us and to our children, and will continue to do so. Therefore, don’t do this in order to be holy. Do it to be happy. In the end, it’s the same thing. Our austere pursuit of personal holiness doesn’t impress God one bit. But God delights when we delight in Him. Bring the children; suffer the children to come unto Him (Matt. 19:14). Do this so that you might glorify and enjoy Him now, for this is what we will be doing forever.

This series has been adapted from material in R.C. Sproul Jr.’s contribution to Holy, Holy, Holy: Proclaiming the Perfections of God.

If you’d like more resources to assist you in the area of family worship, please consider:

Orginally found at: http://www.ligonier.org/blog/simple-steps-family-worship-part-1/

Ligonier National Conference

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Coming up on March 15-17 Ligonier Ministries will be hosting their national conference in Orlando.  If this is something that interests you, please let me know and I’ll make sure you get a ticket (I’ll take care of the tickets – you just take care of getting to Orlando!).

Ligionier Ministries was founded by Dr. R.C. Sproul, and has been greatly influential in my life, and the lives of many members here at Dublin Baptist.  Check out the video below for more information on the conference.

PJW

Ligonier Ministries 2012 National Conference (March 15-17 in Orlando) from Ligonier on Vimeo.

Register & Learn more: http://www.Ligonier.org/events/2012-national-conference/

Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads.

One of the things most alarming about today’s culture is the way in which evangelicals are responding to attacks. Many have bought into the idea that having one’s heart in the right place is all that matters—that a passion for Jesus and the life of the mind are mutually exclusive. What this view misses is that burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads. We must develop our minds if we are to sustain our passion for the Savior and deal with the bias against us.

At Ligonier Ministries’ 2012 National Conference, we will be addressing this problem as we consider the theme of “The Christian Mind.” From March 15-17, 2012, R.C. Sproul will be joined by Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Michael Horton, Steven J. Lawson, Albert Mohler, Stephen Meyer, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Del Tackett to consider the importance of building a Christian worldview, the role of education in the Christian life, science and God’s natural revelation, defending the faith, and many other topics.

2-5-12 Study Notes

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1:15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)

  • Christ was above him and that he wasn’t the Christ.  He wants to combat any misunderstanding of his own ministry, which is by nature subservient to the ministry of Christ.
  • John the Baptist is saying is that even though his ministry was a priori, it was not superior, but rather inferior to Christ’s.

1:16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

  • We know that all good things come from God (James 1:17).
  • Morris notes that the word “fullness” indicates, “Christ is the source of all our blessings. There is a hint at the infinite extent of his resources.”
  • “Fullness” is not in the active tense to it means really to fill one time.  Morris says that the Evangelist probably “prefers to concentrate on our becoming participators in the fullness when we first received Christ.”
  • The phrase “grace upon grace” is literally translated “grace instead of grace” and is continuous in the sense that John is likely meaning “that as one piece of divine grace (so to speak) recedes it is replaced by another. God’s grace to his peoples is continuous” (Morris).
  • I can personally identify with this in the area of Christ’s forgiveness (Matt.18:21-22).
  • But we must not regard forgiveness as the sum total of what it means when Scripture says “fullness.” For the truth is that “fullness” paints a much deeper, richer meaning.  It is the fact that we are receiving in Him a life that is “more abundant”, more “conformed to the image of Christ”, indeed as are receiving from Christ every good thing that makes this life worth living at all, and what helps prepare us (sanctify us) for the life to follow.

1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

  • Here we see another elusion to Moses, and here we get the full weight of Christ’s superiority.  For the way of the law is not superior to the grace bought us by Christ.
  • Furthermore, not being under the law, we are not bound to the legalistic standards of the law.  This doesn’t mean we have a license to sin (Rom. 6:1-2), but it means that when we do, we can run to the cross of Christ and know that there is full forgiveness there.

1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

  • Jesus has united us with God, and reconciled us to God through His atoning work on Calvary. This is the climax of John’s prologue.
  • John is reminding us again exactly who we’re talking about here – the eternal God – this is the Being who made us and created all living things. The fact that we as humans have never seen God emphasizes the barrier to knowing Him (Exodus 33:20).
  • Calvin helps us understand, “When he says that none has seen God, it is not to be understood of the outward seeing of the physical eye. He means generally that, since God dwells in inaccessible light, He cannot be known except in Christ, His lively image.”
  • So when John concludes by telling us that Christ is going to make this God known, it is worthy of us wondering in awe and thankful reverence at the mercy and grace He has poured out upon us.  It also points out once again His goodness.
  • But more than that, Christ has helped make God known to us because He put flesh and blood to God.  He came and showed us what it was like to be a perfect human being, and what it was that God wanted for us.  I’m reminded of Joel Olsteen’s book ‘Your Best Life Now.’  Olsteen is perhaps the truest type of antichrist that we can point to in modern terms, but there is a lesson to be learned from his heresy.  What we want is a good life.  What Jesus wanted for us was the same.  The problem is that we had different ways of defining what this means.  Christ showed us the true definition, Olsteen shows us Satan’s false one.  Jesus, by revealing the nature and character of God, showed us more clearly what kind of life a fulfilled human being ought to live.  Jesus lived the most fulfilled human life of all time, and yet he was neither rich, nor comfortable, nor educated, nor powerful (in the way that we desire power).  He showed us that true fulfillment in life is to be found in eating of the Bread of Life, and in “doing the will of the Father.”
  • We must beware of false christs who whisper lies of material wealth, corporate or political power couched in biblical terms.  These are the antichrists and the spirit of this age, and they will not fulfill us.  Taking part in these false blessings is like feasting in an open grave.

How do we teach this to our children?  If you were to tell your children on the way home today that you learned about how Jesus was and is the Word of God, what would you say?

EXAMPLE:  Today we learned about how Jesus gives us all that is necessary to be happy in this life.  We talked about how often we get distracted with things like sports, games, books and so on that promise fulfillment and happiness but always end up disappointing us.  The reason we can’t find happiness in all these things is because they are just temporary.  Basketball and football games end, and the players get old and can’t play anymore. Books get read and get old and fade away.  Games get boring.  TV shows and movies become outdated, boring, and even silly.  But Jesus and His Word (the Bible) are eternal.  What does eternal mean?  It means to never get old.  To last forever.  Not only does Jesus last forever, but His promises last forever, and He has promised that if we trust Him as Lord, and surrender our wills to Him, we will live forever in happiness and joy with Him in heaven.  It doesn’t mean that life here on earth will be easy, but it does mean that He will always be here to give us joy through difficult times, and encourage our heart when we are sad.  His promises never get old or fade away because Jesus never fades away (“He is the same yesterday, today and forever”).  That is why we find happiness and fulfillment in Jesus.

G.R.O.W.

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As I mentioned this past Sunday, the GROW outreach ministry is going to be kicking back into full gear in February, and our class will be to be a big part of it!  Our week will be the third Tuesday of every month.  In February that will be the 21st.  Some details on GROW (Go Reach Our World) are below, and we’ll be passing around a sign up sheet in the coming weeks for those who want to be involved (I’m thinking we should all be involved, right?!)

Each Week at GROW, there are the following opportunities for service:
1 – Prayer – while others are talking directly to the community, you’re talking directly to God to help cover all that we do during an evening.
2 – Make Visits – these are Evangelistic visits, Prospect visits, and Care-giving visits. (We send out in teams of three).
3 – Letter Writing – The church will provide sample letters for us, and we’ll write personal follow up letters to guests and visitors who attended the church recently.
4 – Phone Calls – Just as with the letters, there are sample scripts for the phone calls.  Phone calls allow you to follow up with guests, and call absentees.
5 – Child Care – This hasn’t been a need in the recent months but now that more people are engaged in GROW we may need more people doing this.

Here’s what a typical GROW schedule looks like
6:50-7:00pm sign in
7:00-7:10pm welcomes and assignments.
7:10-8:00pm go to work!
8:00-8:15pm report and celebrate the work
8:15pm prayer and dismiss

Please consider coming to this each month.  It’s going to be a great time to grow together as a class (no pun intended), and reach others in the community with the love of Christ.

PJW