Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
January 4 - January 6, 2018
is, if we jump too quickly to application in our teaching, over time we create self-absorbed readers who skim the Scriptures in search of personal application rather than the primary meaning of the text. We start seeing the Bible as if it were a self-help book, designed to enhance our current way of living.
we sometimes get so busy thinking that people need more information or better application that we forget that our main task is to lead people to exultation. That’s a fancy word for “worship.” We exult—we delight in the Savior we exalt. Exaltation of the Savior leads to exultation of the saints. The Bible is ultimately about Jesus, which means that Bible study ought to lead us to worship Him.
The Bible has one central theme: God’s redemptive purpose. It has one central figure: Christ. It has one central goal: God supreme in a redeemed universe. The Old Testament sounds the messianic hope. The Gospels record Christ’s incarnation. Acts relates His continuing work through the Holy Spirit. The Epistles interpret His person and work. Revelation proclaims His final triumph and glory. The Bible points forward to Christ, backward to Christ, and again forward to Christ in His glorious return and reign. Forward, backward, and forward. Everywhere you turn, there is Christ.1
What we need most is to fall on our knees before an almighty God and beg Him to work through us. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.
The dynamite isn’t the packaging, but what’s inside—the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that has been melting hearts and defying expectations for two thousand years now. We need to be gospel-centered because that’s where the power is. It’s not in me. It’s not in you. It’s in God.
saved.” The gospel isn’t just what saves us, but it’s also what sustains us. We hold fast to the God who is holding fast to us.
We need our hearts to be wrecked afresh
When we notice our small groups are not engaged in the mission of God, we should look beyond the symptoms to the root cause.
The question is not, “Do you open the Bible and comment on it?” but “How do you open the Bible and comment on it?”
At the end of the day, unless we bring people back to the gospel, we are not offering anything distinctively Christian in our small groups.
“All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”
they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. . . . God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character.
Head knowledge of the truth is not enough. Heart knowledge of the Truth-giver is not enough. At some point, the head and the heart must move the hands into service and the feet into mission.
fruitfulness comes from a heart gripped by God’s greatness and enthralled with His grace. We ought to be so mesmerized by the glory of Jesus Christ that we count it as nothing to lose our lives for the spread of His fame.
Lack of mission is rarely a knowledge problem; it’s a worship problem.
Rushing to application is a sign that we are bored with the Bible.
Gospel-fueled transformation takes place best when the teacher’s life is bubbling over with gospel enthusiasm.
Deeper teaching happens when we have deeper teachers. Your group won’t remember everything you teach them, but they will probably remember what you’re most excited about.
