Category Archives: People

The good shepherd

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‘The good pastor…models his ministry on the good shepherd,’ writes John Stott in The Contemporary Christian (pp 280-290).  As such, he has the following characteristics:-

  1. The good shepherd knows his sheep, Jn 10:3, 14f.  He will know them by name, and he will know them personally and intimately.
  2. The good shepherd serves his sheep, Jn 10:11.  This is in contrast to false shepherds, who serve themselves, Eze 34:2; June 12.  It may be unrewarding, sacrificial work, but he is following Jesus’ example in doing it.
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To what are we called?

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We are called to

  1. fellowship with Jesus Christ, Mk 3:14; Jn 17:3; 1 Cor 1:9;
  2. freedom, Gal 5:13;
  3. peace, Col 3:15;
  4. holiness, 1 Cor 1:2; Rom 1:7; 1 Pet 1:5; 1 Thess 4:7; 2 Tim 1:9;
  5. witness, 1 Pet 2:9;
  6. suffering, 1 Pet 2:20f; Jn 15:18,20;
  7. glory, Heb 3:1; 1 Pet 5:10; Rom 8:17.

(Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 133f)…

‘The Sin of Certainty’ – 7

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‘God Wants You Dead’, exclaims the title of chapter 7 of Peter Enns’ latest book.

Many of us, says Enns, feel doubt creeping up on us, and then start to feel guilty about it.  So we fight it.  And then, when we find that the doubt won’t go away, we end up living lives of ‘quiet and wretched desperation’.

But doubt is not the enemy of faith, but only the enemy of certainty.  In fact, doubt is the friend of faith, because it takes us away from the security ‘knowing what we believe’ and towards trust.  …

‘The Sin of Certainty’ – 6

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If we limit faith to correct thinking, we find ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for what life throws at us.  But faith-as-trust enables us to listen to our ‘uh-oh’ moments, and even to grow and mature in our walk with God.

What do we do, for example, with the God of the Bible, with his impatience (Gen 6-9) and violence (Deut 20:10-18; Rev 14:14-16)?  How is this any better than today’s ideologically- and religiously-motivated violence?

What do we make of the world-view of the Bible, so completely different from what we now know from modern science?  …

‘The Sin of Certainty’ – 5

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OK, so Peter Enns anticipated the objection I raised in response to chapters 3 and 4 of his book.

In chapter 5, he acknowledges that some people might think that some of the psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Job are exceptions to the rule.  They express doubt, it might be argued, but the rest of the Bible promotes assurance.

Perhaps, responds Enns, but not assurance about what we believe, but whom we trust.

Enns pleads that he is not opposed to ‘knowing’, but, rather, he is opposed to ‘preoccupation with correct thinking’.…

‘The Sin of Certainty’ – 4

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The book of Ecclesiastes goes even further than the psalms in representing this point of view.  Life – the life that God has given us – is a sick joke (Eccle 1:13-15).  We run around in circles, and have nothing to show for it, for it all ends in the absurdity of death (Eccle 3:19-21).  After twelve chapters of more-or-less unrelieved despair, the take-home message is this: trust God and keep his commandments anyway (Eccle 12:12f).…

‘The Sin of Certainty’ – 3

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In chapter 3 of his book, Peter Enns considers those parts of the Bible that give voice to doubt, rather than certainty.

He looks first at those psalms in which the writer complains that things have gone terribly wrong, and that God seems to have gone AWOL.  They express, in other words, a crisis of faith.  Psalm 88 is a notable example.  Enns feels that he and others have been shielded from such expressions of doubt, and even made to feel guilty for having such feelings themselves.…

“Aha” moments that challenged beliefs about the Bible

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In 2014, Old Testament scholar Peter Enns began a series of posts in which he invited biblical scholars to share key moments when their inherited conservative view of the Bible was challenged, and subsequently modified.

Here’s the (very) distilled essence of each entry in the series:-

  1. Peter Enns – realised that Paul accepted, apparently without demur, the extra-biblical legend about a ‘moveable rock’ (1 Corinthians 10:4).
  2. John Byron – found that Jesus (or Mark) was mistaken about what 1 Samuel 21:1-9 says about David and his men eating the consecrated bread from the tabernacle.
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How much did Jesus know?

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At times – according to the Gospel narratives – Jesus showed evidence of extraordinary knowledge.  This included knowledge of what others were thinking (e.g., Mark 2:6-8; Mark 11:2; John 1:48-49).  But such knowledge is not necessarily evidence of our Lord’s divinity, since at other times he displays ignorance.  And this combination of extraordinary knowledge about some things and ignorance about others also characterised the prophets of the Old Testament.

According to Raymond E. Brown, this limitation does nothing to diminish our admiration for Jesus Christ, for it shows ‘what depths divine condescension went in the incarnation–it would show just how human was the humanity of Jesus.’…

How to begin a sermon

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I’m afraid that many of our hearers would respond to the title of this post by pleading, “Please don’t!”

To be sure, if preachers are brave (or foolhardy) enough to think that they have something worthwhile to say, then they are going to have to work hard during the first 30 seconds of the message if they hope to take any of their hearers with them.

As usual, Bryan Chapell offers sound advice.

Purposes of introductions

To arouse interest in the message.  …