Kevin DeYoung's Blog, page 19

The Greatness of Giving Thanks

There are 13 letters from Paul in the New Testament, and in 9 of them he explicitly gives thanks for the recipients of the letter (Rom. 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:4-8; Eph. 1:15-16; Phil. 1:3-5; Col. 1:3-5; 1 Thess. 1:2-3; 2 Thess. 1:3-4; 2 Tim. 1:3-5; Phm. 4-5). The only exceptions are 2 Corinthians (where he jumps in with a word of comfort), 1 Timothy and Titus (for whom he implicitly gives thanks), and Galatians (who were in danger of apostasy). The mighty apostle Paul was a man marked by gratitude.

Paul did not have an easy life. He was beaten, slandered, misunderstood, imprisoned, shipwrecked, stoned, and opposed by someone almost everywhere he went. Nevertheless, he was profoundly grateful. Being grateful has little to do with your circumstances. Sure, it’s easier to be happy when everything is coming up roses, but we’ve all known people who seem to have everything, and yet are terrifically unhappy. Conversely, we all know people who seem to find hidden blessings in every trial. Grumbler or thanks-giver: we really do have a choice.

Think of the godliest people you know, the saints you most respect, the ones you want to be like when you grow up, the believers you want to emulate and imitate. Almost certainly, the people you are thinking of are thankful people. Cynics and critics may be celebrated on social media and on late-night television, but they do not make great heroes of the faith.

Despite his many earthly reasons to complain, Paul was constantly giving thanks to God—and not mainly for food or health or safety (though all are worth remembering), but for triumphs of the gospel.

Look at the beginning of Paul’s letter and notice what he gives thanks for in the churches.

Have gave thanks for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, 1, 2 Thessalonians, Philemon).
He gave thanks for their love for all the saints (Ephesians, Colossians, 1, 2 Thessalonians, Philemon).
He gave thanks for their steadfastness, especially in trials (1, 2 Thessalonians).
He gave thanks for their spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians).
He gave thanks for their partnership in the gospel (Philippians).
He gave thanks for their history and mutual affection (2 Timothy).

It’s quite a list, especially when I consider the things that I’m most naturally thankful for (my family, a house, a job, good health, safe travel, nice holidays). These are all gifts from God too. There is no shame in thanking God for a million different things. After all, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17). But Paul’s list reminds us of the greatest gifts: gospel faith, gospel partnerships, and gospel victories.

As most Americans gather around the table this Thursday, take a moment to put on your apostle Paul hat and share what gospel graces you are thankful for. And while you’re at it, think about the friends and family you’d love to be like. Chances are they are overflowing with gratitude, even more than they are overflowing with turkey and stuffing.

Magnify Conference 2017

Even though I’m no longer in Michigan, I still want to commend to you the Magnify Conference. Magnify is a two-day conference at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan.

This year’s conference is December 1-2. Magnify is a great opportunity to meet other brothers and sisters from mid-Michigan (and beyond) and hear excellent teaching. It’s also inexpensive–only $5 for students and $10 for adults!

The keynote speaker this year is Derek Thomas, a native of Wales who is currently the Senior Minister at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina. The theme is “Heaven on Earth.”

Here is the schedule:

Friday, December 1

Doors Open at 6:00pm

7:00 – 8:15 Session 1: Five Minutes after death… then what? (Derek Thomas)

8:30 – 9:30 Session 2: A conversation between Jason Helopoulos and Derek Thomas

Saturday, December 2

7:45 – 8:45 Leader’s Breakfast (special sign up)

9:00 – 10:10 Session 3: New Heaven and New Earth (Derek Thomas)

10:30 – 11:30 Session 4: Question and answer with Jason Helopoulos and Derek Thomas

11:30 – 12:30 Session 5: The Weight of Glory (Derek Thomas)

Conference ends at 12:30pm

The leader’s breakfast on Saturday morning is designed for church leaders and counselors. Seating is limited and the event always fill up, so sign up soon. Dr. Derek Thomas will also be preaching the two morning services (9:15, 11:00) at University Reformed Church on Sunday. Those services, of course, are free.

You can register for the Magnify Conference here.

 

Two Things That Should Be Obvious

Tis the season for allegations of men treating women badly. From Harvey Weinstein to Louis C. K. to Roy Moore to Aly Raisman’s testimony on 60 Minutes, the last two months have seen a number high-profile men accused of unwanted advances, sexual harassment, and much worse.

To be sure, we should not presume guilt just because accusations are made. Of the dozens of allegations made public this fall, some have been owned up to, while others are still resolutely denied. This article is not about the specific accusations or the people involved, let alone about what should be done when athletes or politicians or media moguls have past sins uncovered. This post is about the bigger picture, about first things, about the principles that all Christians should agree on.

There are two things that should be obvious to all Bible-believing Christians.

First, men should honor women, not harass them; treat them as fellow image bearers, not sexual fantasies; and protect them, not perpetrate disgusting advances against them. That should all go without saying, but perhaps it has gone without saying for too long. As I’ve said before, underlying Jesus’s ministry was the radical assumption that women have enormous value and purpose. The clearest example is his mother, Mary, who’s called highly favored in Luke 1:28. Moreover, Jesus used women as illustrations in his teaching, mentioning the queen of the south (Matt. 12:42), the widow of Zarephath (Luke 4:26), women at the second coming (Matt. 24:41), and the woman in search of her lost coin (Luke 15:8–10). He held up the persistent widow as an example of prayerfulness (Luke 18:1–5), and the poor widow’s offering as an example of generosity (Luke 21:1–4).

Jesus addressed women tenderly as “daughters of Abraham,” placing them on the same spiritual plane as men (Luke 13:16). His teaching on divorce treated women as persons, not mere property (Matt. 5:32; 19:9), and his instruction about lust protected women from being treated as nothing more than objects of sexual desire (Matt. 5:28). And in a time where female learning was suspect, Jesus made a point to teach women on numerous occasions (Luke 10:38–42; 23:27–31; John 11:20ff).

Every generation and every culture has certain sins it tolerates and those it doesn’t. No doubt, our culture and this generation tolerates a number of sins they shouldn’t. But if men coming on to women, and men leveraging their power over women, and men abusing women is de-normalized in our day, that would be a good thing. Whether we blame the pornography that objectifies women, the collapse of chivalry that sought to protect women, the sexual revolution that untethered erotic intimacy from marital fidelity, or simply the fallen human heart, the church of Jesus Christ must not be afraid to call sin sin and denounce iniquity for what it is.

Second, character cannot be compartmentalized. Of course, there is forgiveness. Of course, some offenses are worse than others. Of course, we do not demand perfection from athletes, politicians, or movie stars (or from pastors for that matter). But let us not be so eager to defend our team—whether that’s Team Democrat or Team Republican or Team Hollywood or Team Whatever—that we start defending the indefensible. Sin is sin. When repented of, it can be forgiven in Christ. When unacknowledged, it wreaks havoc in the soul.

I get that politics is often a binary game in the United States, which leads us to make less than ideal choices, but that’s doesn’t mean character is now magically irrelevant. We are whole people. Out of the heart the mouth speaks . . . and feet walk, and eyes look, and hands move. Who we are in private is never far removed from who we will be in public. Some sins can be kept hidden, but over time that measure of the man (or woman) will be found out.

So let us never excuse what we should condemn—in others or in ourselves. Sin is ugly, and no less so when committed by beautiful or powerful people. Father, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Monday Morning Humor

I’m sure there is some biblical lesson to be learned here.

When Everything Is Missions

Pastors, mission committees, mission agencies, and church leaders would do well to read the new (and short!) book When Everything is Missions, written by Denny Spitters (Vice-President for Church Partnerships with Pioneers USA) and Matthew Ellison (a missions pastor turned parachurch president and missions coach).

The theme of the book is simple and provocative: we are not all missionaries and not everything is missions, and if we don’t get these definitions correct we will not be effective in carrying out the mission Christ gave to the Church.

In his Foreword to the book, Jeff Lewis (of California Baptist University) notes that in his class on the global context of the Christian faith, 99 percent of his students think every Christian is a missionary, and 99 percent think he thinks that as well (12). But the old slogan “every member a missionary” is not really accurate. We are all called to be witnesses and disciple makers, but the Latin word missio, like the Greek word apostelein, refers to sending or being sent. A missionary, Spitters and Ellison maintain, means (a) sent (b) across a boundary to where the gospel is not known, (c) to see a church planted that (d) can reach that region with the gospel once the missionary leaves (69). When everything is missions and everyone is a missionary, this task is obscured or forgotten.

Likewise, Spitters and Ellison insist that missio Dei, mission, missional, and missions cannot be used interchangeably. Though helpful terms when used with precision, we should not assume, for example, that the missio Dei and the mission of the church are synonymous. We are not called to do all that God will do, and what we are called to do in missions is not equal to all the good we want to do as Christians. Spitters and Ellison make it clear that they do not oppose social transformation and holistic ministry, but they do not believe these are the goals of Christian mission. In fact, they argue that when the primacy of disciple making and church planting have been replaced with efforts at social transformation the results have been bad for the spiritual welfare and the physical welfare of the people we are trying to reach. In other words, “Making disciples who birth the local church is the key to both evangelism and social transformation” (45).

Spitters and Ellision do not write as armchair critics looking to pick nits over things that don’t matter. They are both deeply engaged in missions and have been for decades. Their burden is that definitions matter: “We contend that many churches do not do missions well because they don’t think about missions well” (19). We will not make progress in the mission if everything is missions. That’s why we must be careful with the words we use.

It is not too late for the North American church to reassert that missionaries are sent-out ones–to cast aside the notion that everything is mission and everybody is a missionary, or that the debate is only a semantic one. We believe the future health of the Church and the advancement of the gospel in our own context is directly linked to thinking clearly about the mission task and missionary roles. To go and make disciples of all nations and send out those whom God has called for specific purposes is not only a command, it is the very lifeblood of our task–of advancing the gospel and joining in the work of Jesus to build His global Church. (80)

Should churches support Christian schools at home and college ministry on secular campuses in the United States? Should we work to have excellent and engaging youth and children’s ministries? Should we be concerned by poverty and homelessness and clean water? Yes, yes, and yes. But Spitters and Ellison remind us that if we think all of this is missions we will end up neglecting the very task laid out for us in the Great Commission. When everything is missions, missions gets left behind.

The post When Everything Is Missions appeared first on The Gospel Coalition.

A Mighty Fortress

The post A Mighty Fortress appeared first on The Gospel Coalition.

A Mighty Fortress

Written by: Kevin DeYoung

A Reformation of Confidence

The Reformation was about many things. It was about papal abuses and church reform. It was about worship and the sacraments. It was about repentance and indulgences. It was about the Bible and the priesthood of all believers. And of course, the Reformation was about justification.

But it was also about confidence. Not self-confidence, but confidence that God is for us not against us, confidence that we can go to heaven without a sentence in purgatory first, confidence that though we cannot rest in our works, we can rest in Christ’s.

Consider, for example, this powerful reflection from Luther on the confidence we should have in prayer.

Therefore, since it is commanded that we pray, do not despise prayer and take refuge behind your own unworthiness.

Take an example from other commands. A work which I do is a work of obedience. Because my father, master, or prince has commanded it, I must do it, not because of my worthiness, but because it has been commanded.

So it is also with prayer. So, when you pray for wife or children or parents or the magistrates, this is what you should think: This work I have been commanded to do and as an obedient person I must do it. On my account it would be nothing, but on account of the commandment it is a precious thing. So you should pray for the prince, the city, the burgomaster, and so on. Therefore I admonish you most faithfully, do not despise your prayers!

But do not pray as the clerics do, who merely pray at a venture and think: I am not holy enough and fit enough to be heard.

Or:  I if I were as holy as Peter and Paul I would pray too! You must rather say: The commandment which applied to St. Peter applies to me also, and Peter’s prayer was no more holy than mine, for I have been given the same second commandment as he.  Therefore my prayer is just as holy and precious as St. Peter’s.

Your prayer is not one cent less valuable than St. Peter’s. And this is the reason: I will grant that he is holier as far as his person is concerned, but the commandment and obedience upon which St. Peter based his prayer I base my own also.

You have needs enough: You are lacking in faith, in love, in patience, in gentleness, in chastity; my wife, my children are sick. Then pray undauntedly and with sure confidence, because God has commanded you to pray. He did not command it in order to deceive you and make a fool, a monkey of you; he wants you to pray and to be confident that you will be heard; he wants you to open your bosom that he may give to you. Sermons on the Catechism (1528)

To be sure, we can’t tell the story of the Reformation without talking about the printing press and political turmoil in Europe. And we’ll certainly want to say something about Eucharistic controversies and the important influence of Renaissance humanism. The Reformation has been written about for 500 years, and it will be written about for 500 more. There’s a lot to say.

And yet, one of the things we must never forget to say is that the Reformation mercifully allowed fearful sinners to have a new kind of relationship with God. The Reformation reminded God’s people that they can have direct access to God through Christ. It re-centered the church on the lavish, scandalous good news of the cross. And it reassured them (and us) that God is on the side of the justified saint, even though they were still struggling sinners.

Praise the Lord. This is gospel indeed.

The post A Reformation of Confidence appeared first on The Gospel Coalition.

A Reformation of Confidence

Written by: Kevin DeYoung

The Reformation was about many things. It was about papal abuses and church reform. It was about worship and the sacraments. It was about repentance and indulgences. It was about the Bible and the priesthood of all believers. And of course, the Reformation was about justification.

But it was also about confidence. Not self-confidence, but confidence that God is for us not against us, confidence that we can go to heaven without a sentence in purgatory first, confidence that though we cannot rest in our works, we can rest in Christ’s.

Consider, for example, this powerful reflection from Luther on the confidence we should have in prayer.

Therefore, since it is commanded that we pray, do not despise prayer and take refuge behind your own unworthiness.

Take an example from other commands. A work which I do is a work of obedience. Because my father, master, or prince has commanded it, I must do it, not because of my worthiness, but because it has been commanded.

So it is also with prayer. So, when you pray for wife or children or parents or the magistrates, this is what you should think: This work I have been commanded to do and as an obedient person I must do it. On my account it would be nothing, but on account of the commandment it is a precious thing. So you should pray for the prince, the city, the burgomaster, and so on. Therefore I admonish you most faithfully, do not despise your prayers!

But do not pray as the clerics do, who merely pray at a venture and think: I am not holy enough and fit enough to be heard.

Or:  I if I were as holy as Peter and Paul I would pray too! You must rather say: The commandment which applied to St. Peter applies to me also, and Peter's prayer was no more holy than mine, for I have been given the same second commandment as he.  Therefore my prayer is just as holy and precious as St. Peter's.

Your prayer is not one cent less valuable than St. Peter's. And this is the reason: I will grant that he is holier as far as his person is concerned, but the commandment and obedience upon which St. Peter based his prayer I base my own also.

You have needs enough: You are lacking in faith, in love, in patience, in gentleness, in chastity; my wife, my children are sick. Then pray undauntedly and with sure confidence, because God has commanded you to pray. He did not command it in order to deceive you and make a fool, a monkey of you; he wants you to pray and to be confident that you will be heard; he wants you to open your bosom that he may give to you. Sermons on the Catechism (1528)

To be sure, we can’t tell the story of the Reformation without talking about the printing press and political turmoil in Europe. And we’ll certainly want to say something about Eucharistic controversies and the important influence of Renaissance humanism. The Reformation has been written about for 500 years, and it will be written about for 500 more. There’s a lot to say.

And yet, one of the things we must never forget to say is that the Reformation mercifully allowed fearful sinners to have a new kind of relationship with God. The Reformation reminded God’s people that they can have direct access to God through Christ. It re-centered the church on the lavish, scandalous good news of the cross. And it reassured them (and us) that God is on the side of the justified saint, even though they were still struggling sinners.

Praise the Lord. This is gospel indeed.

The Stupidity of Sin

The Puritans use to speak of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And they were right to do so. Sin is a heinous insult to a holy God. It is lawless, treasonous, rebellion.

It’s also really dumb.

Everyone who knows the Bible, knows people, or knows his own heart, knows this to be true: sin makes us stupid.

Think of the Garden of Eden. You literally live in paradise, and you listen to a snake whisper something about a tasty fruit. Why risk it?

Or David and Bathsheba. You are the king for crying out loud. You have everything. You’ve seen the Lord bless your socks off since you were a boy. And you send for a pretty bathing girl? And then try to cover your tracks with one boneheaded sin after another?

The prodigal son is another classic example. He could have had fine food, familial warmth, and a roof over his head. But he got greedy, blew through a wad of cash, and ended up with the pigs.

Or what about the thief on the cross (the bad one) who can’t think of anything better to do with his final breaths than to mock another dying “criminal”?

And then there’s Ananias and Sapphira who get themselves killed over a silly lie about how much they got for their property. What a waste.

Sin makes us stupid.

When we are thinking rationally, we can see the insanity of sin. Why would anyone throw away a livelihood, a family, or a reputation for a 30-minute roll in the hay? What good will it do to seek revenge, and feel satisfied for an afternoon, if it means reaping a whirlwind of consequences for decades? Why would we keep drinking, telling ourselves it’s only in moderation, if we know a thousand bad things can happen if we fall off the wagon again? Why would we flirt with a married man? Why follow the woman up to her room? Why flip through those channels in the hotel room?

Sadly, we’ve all seen it before. From friends and family. Maybe from a trusted pastor or ministry colleague. It’s easier to see in others—the defensiveness, the blame-shifting, the excuse making, the nonsense of exchanging decades of faithfulness for minutes of folly. But what’s clear when looking at others can be hard to spot in ourselves. Just like the proverbial piece of lettuce on the lips, we can be last to realize how stupid we’ve become because of sin.

We may sin in serenity for a season. But God cannot be mocked forever (Gal. 6:7). Our madness will be made manifest. Eventually, his words will overtake us (Zech. 1:6).

So repent, says the prophet (Zech 1:6). Let us turn from temptation before it is too late. Let’s all of us—myself included—hide the Word in our hearts, or better still, tell a friend, “Please tell me when I’m being stupid, and if I don’t believe you then, remind me that I believe you now.”

And if we ever do find ourselves sitting among the swine, let’s remember that the Father is ready for us to come home. With open arms, a warm embrace, and a top-notch party.

When we come to our senses and put aside the stupidity of sin.

The post The Stupidity of Sin appeared first on The Gospel Coalition.