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The offence of the gospel

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You might have heard it said that the faithful preaching of the gospel will inevitably cause offence.  In fact, if your evangelism does not cause offense, you’re probably not doing it properly.  You might as well measure your faithfulness to the gospel by the number of people who hate you.  Count it as a badge of honour.

About this assertion I shall say nothing at the present time, except that any truth that might reside in the first of these claims is utterly negated by the attitude which it expresses.…

Proclaiming the gospel

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In Acts 2, Peter ‘focused on Christ and told his story in six stages.’

      1. ‘he was a man, though divinely attested by miracles;
      2. he was put to death by wicked hands, though according to God’s purpose;
      3. he was raised from the dead, as the prophets had foretold and the apostles had witnessed;
      4. he was exalted to God’s right hand, and from there poured out the Spirit;
      5. he now gives forgiveness and the Spirit to all who repent, believe and are baptized; and
      6. he thus adds them to his new community.’
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Divine retribution in the New Testament

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It is often asserted that divine judgement is restorative, and not retributive.  But this is a false dichotomy, and one that flies in the face of the testimony of Scripture.

Andrew Atherstone notes that the concept of divine retribution (punishment administered by God in return for wrong that has been committed) is not frequently encountered in the New Testament, but that it is present nonetheless:-

‘For example, after Jesus healed an invalid at the Pool of Bethesda he warned the man, ‘Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you’ (John 5:14).…

Richard Rohr’s ‘Universal Christ’

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The Universal Christ (London: SPCK, 2019)

Richard Rohr’s latest offering will, as with his previous books, delight some and perplex others.  His many fans will love his fresh, imaginative, free-association, experientialist approach.  His critics will be distressed by what they see as his careless irrationality.  Count me among the latter; one of those ‘who value plodding virtues such as accuracy and attention to what the scriptures and teachers of the tradition have actually said, [and] will find difficulty with the sweeping generalisations, questionable assertions, and Aunt Sallys that Rohr frequently sets up, so as then to be able, triumphantly, to knock them down’

(Edward Dowler, writing in the Church Times).

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Contending for the faith

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‘Contending for the faith’, writes Lee Gatiss in Evangelicals Now, is a phrase often used by Christians, but not always with a clear sense of its meaning.

Gatiss offers a helpful, if hard-hitting, summary of ‘the biblical doctrine of contending’:-

1. Contending is not a worldly exercise

  • We do not contend against flesh and blood, but against demonic powers.
  • We do not merely contend against something but for the faith, for the gospel.
  • We do not contend in a violent way for Jesus’s kingdom as if it were an earthly kingdom.
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Three levels of sermon application

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In his book Teaching Acts David Cook writes about three kinds, or levels, of preaching application:-

1. The necessary application.  This comes directly from the meaning of the text, and demonstrates how the text applies to all hearers at all times.  For example, some beliefs and attitudes are always wrong and are therefore to be repented of, while others are always right and are therefore to be adopted and nurtured.

2. The impossible application.  It can be helpful, says Cook to show what sorts of application do not flow from the text. …

It’s all about Jesus

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According to Acts, the gospel is all about the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 1:1; 2:36, 38; 4:8–12; 5:42; 8:12, 35; 10:36; 11:20–21; 13:38–39; 15:11; 16:31; 18:5, 28; 19:4; 20:24; 24:24; 28:31).

David Cook (Teaching Acts) notes that:

• At Pentecost Peter preaches about Jesus (Acts 2:14–39).
• At the healing of the lame man, Peter preaches about Jesus (Acts 3:6).
• To the God-fearing, Peter preaches Jesus (Acts 10:34–48).
• To conservative Jews, the apostles preach Jesus (Acts 14:3).…

An unstoppable gospel

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“You will be my witnesses,” declares the risen Jesus to his apostles, “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)

David Cook observes that the gospel is indeed unstoppable, despite:

• external religious opposition (Acts 4:1ff; 5:17ff; 6:8ff);
• economic opposition (Acts 16:16ff; 19:23ff);
• internal hypocrisy (Acts 5:1ff);
• church friction (Acts 6:1–7; 15:36–41);
• persecution (Acts 5:17ff; 8:1ff; 12:1ff; 13:49–52; 14:19–20; 17:1ff; 21:27ff);
• martyrdom (Acts 7:54–8:4; 12:1–4);
• storms and shipwrecks (Acts 27:13ff);
• courts (Acts 4:5ff; 18:12–17; 24:1ff; 25:1ff);
• imprisonment (Acts 12:5ff; 16:16ff);
• orthodox religious tradition (Acts 15:1ff).…

Are miracles meant to be everyday occurrences?

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We have no reason to think that God will not, still less cannot, grant miracles in our own day.  But before we conclude that they ought to be everyday occurrences, we might pause to consider that:-

  • in the Bible, ‘miracles clustered round the principal organs of revelation at fresh epochs of revelation, particularly Moses the lawgiver, the new prophetic witness spearheaded by Elijah and Elisha, the Messianic ministry of Jesus, and the apostles, so that Paul referred to his miracles as “the things that mark an apostle”.’
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Ex 14 – Baptised in the sea (sermon notes)

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Exodus 14

The crossing of the Red Sea is used throughout Scripture as a picture of what it means to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

1 Cor 10:2 – ‘They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.’

1. Behind them was a place of slavery

v5 – ‘We have lost their services’(!)

Jn 8:34, “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”

“Sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom.…