R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 43

An Event of Cosmic Proportion

To the average onlooker, Jesus’ death on the cross would have appeared to be a commonplace execution. But as R.C. Sproul teaches in this brief clip, God has revealed that the crucifixion of Christ is the centerpiece of redemptive history.

Transcript:

In the Roman Empire, the normal method for the execution of convicted criminals is the method of crucifixion. And we are aware from the annals of history that there were tens of thousands of people who were executed in that manner. But there's only one Man whose death by crucifixion has the occasion of His death celebrated worldwide every year, and that, of course, is Jesus of Nazareth. And there are two reasons why His execution by way of crucifixion stands out in history. The first is because His execution was the execution of a King. Second of all, because it is the understanding of the church and the faith of all Christians that the significance of His death by crucifixion is found not in the immediate sensation of physical pain that that manner of death involved, but because it is the church's understanding that in that death, an event of cosmic proportion was taking place.

Was the Lord’s Day Sabbath Revoked by Jesus?

The teaching of Jesus and the pattern of the New Testament church plainly demonstrate that one day in seven is to be set apart for the worship of God. From one of our Ask Ligonier events, Derek Thomas expresses the importance of the Lord’s Day.

Do you have another biblical or theological question? Ask Ligonier is your place for answers.

Read the Transcript

The Real Meaning of Christmas

One of the most remarkable stories of Christmas comes from one of the darkest moments of modern history. World War I ravaged a continent, leaving destruction and debris in its wake. The human cost, well in the millions, staggers us. But from the midst of this dark conflict comes the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914. The Western Front, only a few months into the war, was a deplorable scene of devastation. Perhaps as if to give the combatants one day to breathe again, a truce was called from Christmas Eve through Christmas Day.

As darkness settled over the front like a blanket, the sound of exploding shells and the rat-tat-tat of gunfire faded. Faint carols, in French or English voices on one side and in German voices on the other, rose to fill the silence of the night.

By morning, soldiers, at first hesitantly, began filing out of the maze of trenches into the dreaded and parched soil of No Man's Land. There was more singing. Gifts of rations and cigarettes were exchanged. Family photos were passed around. Soccer balls appeared. Up and down the Western Front, soldiers, who only hours before had been locked in deathly combat, now faced off in soccer games.

For one brief but entirely remarkable day, there was peace on earth. Some have called the Christmas Truce of 1914 "the Miracle on the Western Front."

Anxious to print some good news, The Times of London reported on the events of the Christmas Truce. Soldiers recorded the day in letters home and in diaries. Some of those lines made it to newspapers, while others remained unknown until later brought to light. Here's one such line from the diary of a German infantryman:

The English brought a soccer ball from the trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.

"Friends for a time," "the celebration of love," "peace on earth"—this is the meaning of Christmas. But these celebrations, these truces, don't last. After Christmas Day, the soccer balls and the soldiers went back into the trenches. The Christmas carols subsided and the war carried on. And even though World War I eventually ended, a few decades later, Europe's countryside and cities became the field of battle once again, as did Africa and the Pacific, during World War II.

Events like the Christmas Truce are worth celebrating. But they lack something. They lack permanence. Such impermanent peace is what we often find in our quest for the real meaning of Christmas. If we are looking for permanent and ultimate goodwill, love, and peace, we must look beyond our gift-giving, get-togethers, and office parties. We must look to no other place than to a manger.

We must look to a baby born not with fanfare, pomp, and circumstance, but to poor parents in desperate times. Joseph and Mary, and the Baby Jesus for that matter, were real historical figures. But in a way, Joseph and Mary extend beyond themselves, beyond their particular place and time. They represent all of us. We are all poor and living in desperate times. Some of us are better than others at camouflaging it. Nevertheless, we are all poor and desperate, so we all need the promise bound up in that baby.

We are in need of a way out of our poverty of soul and the desperate state of our human condition. We find it in this child lying in a manger, who was and is Jesus Christ, the long-promised Messiah, Seed, Redeemer, and King.

The birth of Jesus so many centuries ago might have been a slightly-out-of-the-ordinary birth. Even in ancient times, stalls didn't typically double as birthing rooms and mangers didn't typically double as cribs for new-born babies. And that newborn baby was very much out of the ordinary. Of course, in some respects, He was perfectly ordinary. He was a human being, a baby. He got hungry. He got thirsty. He got tired. When He was born, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes—the ancient equivalent of Pampers.

An infant. Helpless, hungry, cold, and tired.

Yet, this child was the Son of God incarnate. He was Immanuel, which translated means "God with us." According to the Apostle Paul's account, this infant created all things. This infant created His own manger. And this infant, this King, brings peace on earth, ultimate and permanent peace.

An excerpt from Peace: Classic Readings for Christmas by Stephen Nichols.

$5 Friday (And More): Evangelism, Salvation, & Assurance

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as evangelism, salvation, assurance, reformed theology, apologetics, the Old Testament, and more.

Plus, several bonus resources are also available for more than $5. These have been significantly discounted from their original price. This week’s bonus resources include:

Apostles: The Truth about Apostleship by Augustus Nicodemus, Paperback, Portuguese $20 $15
Awakening the Evangelical Mind by Owen Strachan, Hardcover $25 $17
Brave Dad by John MacArthur, Paperback $13 $9
R.C. Sproul Classic Collection , CD $62 $18
Heaven on Earth by Derek Thomas, Hardcover $13 $8
Defending Your Faith by R.C. Sproul, Paperback $17 $10
Dust to Glory (Old Testament) with R.C. Sproul, CD $73 $25
Dust to Glory (New Testament) with R.C. Sproul, CD $66 $19
And More

Sale runs through 12:01 a.m.–11:59 p.m. Friday ET.

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

Right Theology Is Essential for Faithful Christian Living

You may have seen these words I wrote to some of our ministry friends back in January: Sound theology is practical theology, informing every step of the Christian walk.

True then, and more evidently true now. This year has demonstrated with crystal clarity how essential right theology is for faithful Christian living. Your year-end gift of any amount will make it possible to meet our December budget need and continue distributing right theology around the world.

Amid the ups and downs of the COVID-19 health crisis, economic turmoil, and political upheaval, Christians rest in the sovereignty of God. Dr. R.C. Sproul and the generations of faithful pastors and theologians who have come before us often reminded the church that the Lord is in control and He will build His church, comforting and protecting His people in tumultuous times. We cling to the true, life-giving message of His sovereignty, goodness, and holiness. Ligonier Ministries has proclaimed God’s truth in 2020. In fact, we’ve reached more people than ever before, even in this difficult year.

Give thanks to God with us. In the Lord’s timing, our increased reach is particularly fitting as we press into 2021. We are weeks away from beginning Ligonier’s fiftieth year of ministry.

Your support is so vital. The vision in front of us is urgent and global. Now, through your support and with God’s blessing, we’ll move forward. I’m sure you recognize how Ligonier’s discipleship resources are needed now more than ever. Our biennial State of Theology survey and other research is showing that large numbers of professing evangelicals in the United States and around the world are confused on essential matters such as the deity of Christ. The need for solid biblical teaching is vast, and Ligonier is working to meet this need, enabled by your prayers and donations.

You are amazingly generous people. Thank you. What a gracious journey we’re on together as God uses each of us for His glory. In 2020:

You enabled the completion of Ligonier’s on-campus studio, making it possible, due to COVID-19 restrictions, to transition our 2020 National Conference to an online event that reached more than one hundred thousand people around the world.
You gave us the confidence to make our entire video library free to stream during the many stay-at-home orders around the world. As a result, time spent on Ligonier.org doubled, and video views on Ligonier’s YouTube channel tripled.
You provided the needed resources for Reformation Bible College to offer its Foundation Year certificate online for the first time.
Your support launched the Ask Ligonier and Luther: In Real Time podcasts. You also underwrote the production of a new podcast from Dr. Sproul launching in January.
You helped publish the Spanish edition of the Reformation Study Bible.
You advanced the milestone work on Ligonier’s Chinese-language website.
You bolstered the production of new teaching series and books, including the release of Dr. Sproul’s commentary on Luke’s gospel and A Field Guide on False Teaching .
You are making it possible to release the first wave of upgrades to Ligonier.org early in 2021. We’ve developed a world-class teaching platform to properly preserve Dr. Sproul’s years of teaching, deliver Ligonier’s deep content library to people around the world, and foster encounters with the holiness of God among the nations. We anticipate the ministry engagement we’re seeing on Ligonier.org to grow expansively.

There’s so much more to be done, and 2020 has reminded us of how much we rely on your support. The funds we must raise in December to meet our ministry budget are significant. The Lord uses donors like you to bridge the gap between need and outreach, vision and action. With nearly eight billion souls on earth, the need is great. By praying for and supporting Ligonier as we begin the next fifty years of ministry, you help ensure that the truth that encourages you and helps inform the steps of your Christian walk can be made available to millions more people in more languages next year—and perhaps even billions in the decades to follow. Thank you.

 

Now Available: A New Translation of John Calvin’s Classic Book

The church reached a turning point in the sixteenth century. Worship had become a spectacle, the gospel was distorted, the sacraments were replaced by superstition, and ministers lived in immorality. To restore the church to the teachings of Christ, the Reformers cried out for a return to God’s authoritative Word.

In his classic book The Necessity of Reforming the Church, John Calvin presents four areas of the church’s life and doctrine that must be carefully guarded and guided by Scripture. This timeless call for biblical faithfulness beckons us today. How will we respond?

This new translation by Dr. Casey Carmichael, with a foreword from Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, also includes A Reply to Cardinal Sadoleto, Calvin’s letter defending the work of reformation as it was applied in the city of Geneva. Order your copy of this book today to discover a past answer for the church’s present need.

“Although the church and the world today are very different from what they were in Calvin’s day, we can still learn valuable lessons from Calvin’s treatise on how to improve the church.” —Excerpt from the foreword by Dr. W. Robert Godfrey

Available now in the Ligonier store.

Hardcover for $17.00 $13.60

 

The Context of Jesus' Prayer

Here’s an excerpt from The Context of Jesus’ Prayer, Andreas Köstenberger's contribution to the December issue of Tabletalk:

While Jesus’ prayer in John 17 has traditionally been dubbed His High Priestly Prayer, others have called it “the Lord’s Prayer,” because Jesus here engages in one of the longest recorded prayers in the Gospels. This is noteworthy also, since John’s gospel does not include the “Lord’s Prayer”—perhaps better named “the disciples’ prayer”—which Jesus taught His disciples at their request and which is included in both Matthew and Luke (Matt. 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4). On the reasonable assumption that John knew the earlier Gospels when he wrote his, one may surmise that, rather than featuring the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew or Luke, he recorded Jesus’ final prayer before His crucifixion instead.

Continue reading The Context of Jesus’ Prayer, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month’s issue.

One-Day Sale: 12 Months of Tabletalk Magazine for $12

How will you enhance your Bible study in 2021? Reach for Tabletalk magazine to add depth and clarity to your daily Scripture reading. Today only, get an entire year of Tabletalk for just $12.

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Throughout 2021, Tabletalk’s daily Bible studies will lead you passage by passage through the Apostle Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Monthly themes in 2021 will also equip you to think and live biblically by considering topics such as God’s providence, anxiety, the doctrine of justification, and more. A whole year of trusted teaching and practical commentary can be yours for only $1 per issue. Don’t delay—this special sale ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. ET.

 

The Magnificat

The people of God may be weak, but He is not. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul draws encouragement from Mary’s Magnificat, showing how this song of praise extols the power of God to establish His kingdom and overcome all His enemies.

Transcript:

If you want to do something that will change your life, write out the words to the Magnificat and put it on your refrigerator and memorize it, so that that prayer is in your head. You won’t believe how many times you’ll be moved to utter it. Listen to it: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.” Why? “For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, for He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His name.” One of the reasons why we shrink from Christian service is because we believe that the powers that be out there that stand over against the work of the kingdom of God are so strong and so powerful that we are powerless in the face of it. But, Mary said, “He who is mighty has done great things for me,” and listen: “and His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm.” There’s the arm of the Lord again. You won’t hear Mary saying, “How are You going to do it,” you know? She doesn’t believe in a God with a withered arm. “He has shown strength with His arm.” What does He do with His arm? Listen. “He has scattered the proud and the imagination of their hearts.” Here come all these proud people, defiant people over against God, and God just takes His arm, and it’s like sweeping chess men off a chess board on a table. He scatters them across the floor. He has yanked down the mighty from their seats. God raises up and God brings down. All He has to do to Caesar is to just grab a hold of the hem of his garment and slip him off the throne, and that’s the end of Caesar. And Mary understood that.

Save Up to 92% on Trusted Resources

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