Kindle Notes & Highlights
Likewise, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to draw attention to the magnificence of Jesus, rather than to himself.
we wouldn’t describe ourselves as “cessationist”, because we believe Scripture teaches that God continues giving his gifts of grace to his people for serving others with love (1 Corinthians 12 – 14).
The Spirit of God created the universe and now recreates his people through his Word.
Sydney, Tokyo, Cairo, Rio and London may be full of social and intellectual life, but spiritually are filled with millions of dead people—skeletons in valleys of death.
Churches everywhere are full of regenerated skeletons!
Notice that he will “remind” them of what Jesus taught them—and not us, who weren’t there.
Peter explains from Joel that the Spirit now enables all God’s people to prophesy, proclaiming what the Bible says about the wonders of God done in Jesus. All of God’s people can prophesy about Jesus in this general way (“for it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus”, Revelation 19:10).
Paul explains that holiness comes from “living by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:13-18). This isn’t walking around hearing messages or tingling with miraculous powers. It means being willing and able to serve one another in love.
The prophecies in Corinth were clearly spontaneous revelations (presumably insights into Scripture) from God.
The biggest challenge of 1 Corinthians 14 is not to look for messages from God beyond Scripture (which we can’t expect), but to welcome the prophetic gifts of church members offering their God-given insights into his Word (which we can expect).
But two glorious themes emerge in them all: Jesus is our Lord (the theme of who he is) and Jesus is our Saviour (the theme of what he has done).
He says it’s “regarding his Son”. If we’re not talking about Jesus, we’re not talking about the gospel.
This is not different to Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom, for we enter his kingdom by being united by faith with his death and resurrection; the cross is how our King opened the way into his kingdom.
judgment is part of the gospel,
When we turn to Jesus, we begin to daily experience the reassuring comfort of peace with God even in the midst of tragedy and pain,
The gospel declares joyful news: Jesus is Christ our Lord, who came as our King, died for our sins, rose to rule and will return to judge; in other words, Jesus is our Lord and Saviour.
Open Doors watchdog, reckoning that 7,000 of our brothers and sisters were killed for their faith in Christ in the year to October 2015 (the highest year to date), while an estimated 70-80,000 Christians are currently held in North Korean labour camps.
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (The Problem of Pain).
body, building and bride:
The gospel of the cross (and not church leaders) is the means of unity within and between churches.
The challenge of being his body is to preserve our unity.
The challenge of being the building of Christ is to grow in holiness.
The challenge of being the bride of Christ is to submit to him.
What areas of unity, holiness and submission most urgently need to be addressed in your church—and how can this be done?
Christ is the head and his cross is the heart, pumping the lifeblood of his grace through all the teaching arteries of the church to keep the organs and limbs of his body alive.
God told his people to paint some blood from a sacrificed lamb over the doors of their homes to show that death for their sin had already occurred. This would satisfy God’s justice and divert his wrath, which would “pass over” their firstborn sons. This Passover sacrifice “bought” the Israelites freedom from the judgment of God and slavery to Pharaoh. God did this to help us understand that Jesus was our Passover sacrifice, because his blood was shed instead of ours. As a lightning conductor attracts lightning bolts, Jesus diverted onto himself the lightning of God’s wrath at our sin, so that
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Some have suggested that his death was “sufficient for all at the cross and effective to some through our faith”.
We’re not saved because we have more faith than others, but because he died for us.
Is this a false dichotomy?
For God to allow someone to swap places with us is grace; for God to provide that person is amazing grace; for God to be the person who swapped places with us on the cross is grace beyond measure!
twisted interpretations of Scripture are not interesting alternatives but savagely destructive of saving faith.
But the Bible teaches that the “Lord’s Supper” recalls and commemorates the completed satisfaction of God regarding payment for our sins at the cross (looking back), participates in the risen Jesus by faith (looking up), anticipates the great feast in the new creation (looking forward), and appreciates all who eat and drink in dependence on Christ’s death (looking around).
We are not saved by Christ’s righteousness being imparted by his Spirit into us, but by the righteousness of Christ being imputed and counted to all who believe in him. We are not saved by God’s grace in us but in Christ!
He is our real environment, keeping us alive until he decides we must die.
God cannot suffer any damage to his own divine attributes or character—but he has from eternity voluntarily accepted the pain and grief of loving revoltingly wicked sinners like us.
avoiding the truth that God loves us (which Westerners find obvious), but by them avoiding the accompanying truth that human beings are wicked and deserve God’s judgment (which Westerners find ridiculous).
It was never good advice about what we must do for God, but good news about what God has done for us.
Of course, whatever God says must be important because he is our Creator, who designed us, and our Redeemer who loves us!
So Hebrews, for example, introduces numerous Old Testament texts by saying that God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit speaks them today (e.g. Hebrews 2:12; 3:7).
When preachers speak of hearing God’s guidance from the Bible, from sanctified common sense, from the godly advice of friends and from the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit, they should mean that these are the different ways we discover what the Bible says! For the only way we know whether the common sense we hear is sanctified rather than worldly, or whether the advice we’re given is godly and not sinful, or that promptings within us are the Holy Spirit reminding us of God’s Word and not the temptations of Satan, is to check whether the Bible says it!
According to Acts 2, all believers are prophesying when, like Peter, we proclaim from the Scriptures the wonders of the Lord done in Jesus.
they had much more than memories. They had hope!
All that Christians need do to receive this inheritance is… die. Even I can manage that!
Our culture says, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die”—but when the party’s over, and we collect up the empty wine bottles, the fear still gnaws away at our souls.
Our world offers tons of misguided faith and gallons of temporary love—but solid resurrection hope? That is a rare treasure!
The exact tone of his words and that smile on his face will be thrilling for eternity and make every hardship here worthwhile.
It will be INSANELY FABULOUS to be there!
Some churches probably wouldn’t encourage their members to get involved in social initiatives at all, in case they’ll be distracted from evangelism—even if they aren’t actually doing much of either.
“In all the attempts to alleviate suffering, we must not forget to alleviate eternal suffering by the proclamation of Christ.”
“A sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to his Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.”
Real prayer is “for such things as God has promised”
