Essential Sovereignty

We've been thinking a lot about God's Sovereignty as we've been studying Ephesians so far. The Sovereignty of God is one of the most thrilling, awe-inspiring, hope-inducing doctrines in Scripture. And it's not an option!

But Christ

Tempted to look and to long beyond Jesus Christ? Think again.

"After Jesus Christ we have no need of speculation, after the Gospel, no need of research. When we come to believe, we have no desire to believe anything else; for we begin by believing there is nothing else which we have to believe."

Tertullian (c.160-c.220 AD)

The Inconvenient Church

We had a wonderful day together at Gunnersbury yesterday. And I bet it was a long and tiring one for almost all involved. But that’s why it was so good.

I preached on Ephesians 1.15-19 in the morning. Not an obvious place in Paul’s flow of thought at which to break, but I want to slow down and look next time at the implications of being united through faith to the Ascended Christ in verses 19-23. It was thrilling to look at Paul’s prayer, to see his passion and prayerfulness for the church at Ephesus (who says that believers in predestination aren’t passionate and prayerful? Paul was!). We saw the need we have of the Sovereign Holy Spirit if we are to know God, and to go on in our knowledge of Him. We thought about how nothing, in time and space or in eternity, is more precious than the knowledge of God. The sermon’s final part was practical application: we took five minutes of silence in which to pray for ourselves, each other and those we love in the light of Paul’s prayer.

After the service we shared a church lunch, over 90 of us squeezing into the church hall. It was a wonderful time, with amazing food and a great atmosphere. We also took some time to say our farewells to Mike and Tricia who are leaving us after 40 years to begin life on the South Coast (40 years! They’re not even old!!). There were a lot of tears, many precious memories shared, and glory given to God for all that they’ve meant to us and have done amongst us. For all of our sins and struggles, Gunnersbury has the strength it does because people have shared their lives together through the years, and Mike and Tricia’s commitment to the church’s people and work is typical of so many established members.

All of that catering (both working and eating!) left many tired, but a good number gathered together for our evening worship, where I preached on 1 Peter 2.4-12, looking at our identity and calling as those who value Jesus above all else.

Church leaders are – or should be – very cautious about the commitments they expect of their church members. We live in a frenetic age, and in West London we live in one of the busiest parts of England, where many people seem to have everything expect time. Weekends are precious, Sundays are special. We all need time free from demands, and many of us crave a little time on our own.

And yet, I worry that so many church leaders are so keen to be promoters of ‘balance’ that they effectively encourage a neglect of the very commitment which they’ve been called to promote, the church. The church is the family of Jesus Christ, a people called to belong to God in Christ and to do His will. It’s in the community of the church that we learn to share our lives, to receive as well as to give; it’s in the church that we hear the Word of God; it’s in the church alone that we find our true identity. Relationships take time to develop, and relationships are costly, and frequently difficult. Church can be inconvenient. But that’s the point! God’s work and His people do deserve that first place in our hearts. Often it’s in the very inconvenience of church that we discover the real joy of belonging to a part of what God’s doing in the world. And it’s in the church that we make ourselves open to what God wants to do in our hearts.

I wince when I hear of yet another church plant whose Sunday service (‘meeting’, as the preferred speak is now) is positioned at a time so that it won’t clash with other people’s commitments. Of course, I see the rationale – church plants are primarily for those who aren’t Christians, and who need to be offered a taster of church which is not too demanding for them, or unworkable because of their already established routines. Afterall, the stats show that many Christians leave their own churches for the church plant down the road because they love the fact that they can get back their Sunday morning and/or evenings, freed up for other pursuits!

But church is to be a commitment, presented to the world not as an extra to be fitted into an already crowded life, but as the heart of life, in place of what is so much less important. Jesus Christ calls for commitment – to Himself, to His people, to His work. Leaders must definitely take care that their concern for people doesn’t unwittingly lead to a watering-down of what church life should be. If they do, they are preventing their people from discovering God’s blessings.

I look forward to many more tiring Sundays. Not Sundays that leave me jaded and fretful when Monday comes, but days which bring me into contact with the lives of fellow believers, from whom I can learn, and who I am privileged to call my brothers and sisters. As Pastor, I long to teach them more of the Word of God, and as fellow sheep I want to grow in my knowledge of Christ together with them. There is nothing in the Universe like the church, and nothing in my life like the church.

So I look forward to this weekend, because we are going away as a whole church family, for two nights and two days. And best of all, a really good number have signed up to go. May the Lord reveal more of His glory to us as we spend these days together.

See, what a Morning

My Assistant Pastor came down with suspected swine flu last night.
Then my Evangelist croaked down the phone this morning that he's got all-too similar symptoms.
Then my son came and spent an hour or two in the corner of my study whilst waiting for an appointment at the doctor's with his asthma.
Then I realised that one of our pianists is really far too unwell to cover for Sunday's morning service.
Then an elderly church member tripped over and landed awkwardly with what's probably now a broken hand. It was precious to see her and pray with her before she went to A and E.
Then various conversations and emails brought home afresh the pain and complexity of the lives of Gunnersbury people who bravely fight on and claim victories of faith in their discipleship.
Then I had to start reshaping my evening ministry in the light of much of the above.

I think I'll have lunch now!

I've been helped in the last couple of years by the observation that 'the problems are the work'. Whether that came from a Christian source or not I don't really mind, and it's certainly true of the Christian life. God the Holy Spirit wants to make me like my Master Jesus - trusting, kind, concerned, open to God's agenda and timetable, not fixed on my own one. This is His work in me. My work is to embrace the unexpected, and the difficult, not to push them aside or to resent them as taking me away from what I assume is important. And His grace will be more than sufficient for all in my church, and for me as well.

Do you know, I'm rather looking forward to my afternoon. I've not got anything like enough hours for me to prepare my sermon, do some ThM study, attend to emails and calls and lead a kids' club. But the Lord knows all that. So I'll pray for His wisdom, rejoice in His love, depend on His energy and get down to His work. Hurrah!

Da Lucem, Domine

“Til the Lord opens them, the eyes of our heart are blind. Til the Spirit has become our Instructor, all that we know is folly and ignorance. Til the Spirit of God has made it known to us by a secret revelation, the knowledge of our Divine calling exceeds the capacity of our minds.” Calvin on Ephesians 1.17.

This Magnificent Letter

I’m preaching my way through Ephesians on Sunday mornings, and loving it! It’s a letter I’ve felt drawn to throughout my Christian life, but especially came to appreciate on Sabbatical three years ago, when I gave myself the challenge of committing it to memory, which I just about managed to do. I’ve wanted to take the congregation through it ever since, but feel that now is the Lord’s timing for us. We’re moving slowly through the letter (five sermons on chapter one, for example). When something’s this good, and important, it must certainly not be rushed.

Here are my sermons to date on 1.1-14.

There’s a wealth of good stuff to read alongside Ephesians, and I’m moving amongst commentaries by John Stott, Charles Hodge, Sinclair Ferguson, Francis Foulkes, John Calvin and Peter O’Brien, and have been dipping into Lloyd-Jones' and Calvin’s sermon as well. It’s good to stand on giants’ shoulders, but more important to get immersed in the text.

Ephesians is an astounding letter. Sublime doctrinal truth, passionately preached by the Apostle, and clear, compelling lessons set out for us in the light of the Gospel. Spurgeon said “Whosoever would see Christianity in one treatise, let him ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest’ the Epistle to the Ephesians.” Let’s do it.

Illumination - in Finchley

I'm off to the John Owen Centre today for a day's study on Calvin at their Calvin Conference. This wonderful man has shaped my faith and living more than any other theologian. Who can't love his theology, as it traces the depths of God's purposes and grace in Christ? And it's impossible to be unmoved at Calvin's childlike, worshipping faith and the extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice which marked his life as he laboured to bring Christ to others.

'No man can arrive at faith by his own wisdom; all are blind, until they are illuminated by the Spirit of God.' (commenting on John, chapter 1).

I'll be praying for a day's ongoing illumination, as we share the joy of the Lord together.

Trivial Pursuit

Not many people fish the Thames at Chiswick. Tides, mud, boats, it's all a bit too tricky for the person who simply wants to haul out fat carp, and he will head off for the nearest stocked lake to do that. The irony is that there are plenty of heavy carp in the Thames, and 20 pounders are regularly taken on our stretch of river.

So the Allens are getting to work. A couple of hefty rods are coming out of my loft, and as I retire my flyfishing gear for the winter the children and I are getting elbow-deep into the smelly world of making ground-bait out of luncheon meat, beefstock and all things smelly.

Meanwhile, we've had fun with eels. Like most fishermen, I have a distinctly ambiguous attitude to them. Who can't admire the tenacity and ingenuity of this wandering creature, and who can't be repelled at the same time by their beady eyes, shovel mouths, gulping greed and slimy contortions? Still, one day we'll catch a monster, and then set to work on making the eel pie which I've long promised Sarah.

Prepared to Serve

More from J.W. Alexander (p.139). Speaking of Richard Baxter he says,

'to look at his controversial works, overladen with enormous quotations from Chrysostom, Jerome, Hales, Scotus, the Reformers, and the very Jesuits, you would say that he was never out of his study: to look at his preachings, catechisings, visits, and imprisonments, you would say that he was never in it.'

Thoughts on Preaching

What a wonderful book J.W. Alexander’s ‘Thoughts on Preaching’ is. I first came across it in my early twenties. It’s brilliant – fresh, quirky, wide-ranging, provocative, and a much-needed challenge to today’s dreary and often predictable preaching.

How’s this from the very first paragraph in the book:

‘Formalism of sermons – without flattering myself with the notion that I was ever eloquent, I am persuaded that the most effective discourse I ever delivered were those for which I had made the least regular preparation. I wish I could make sermons as if I had never heard or read how they were made by other people. The formalism of regular division and application is deadly. As to written sermons, what is written with weariness is heard with weariness.’

Now I don’t agree with all of this. I’m a believer in ordered, methodical sermons, and believe that the best sermons are invariably the ones which have taken the most pains to prepare. We also have to recognise that Alexander isn't encouraging laziness in the study, quite the opposite, he was committed to life-long and rigorous learning in the Pastorate. But he was convinced that sermons should live when they are preached, and should give life, not breed boredom and indifference.

I grieve over the times I’ve been dull, predictable and wearying to my hearers. On those occasions I wonder if I didn't sometimes kill myself in the study before I killed others from the pulpit! A sermon is an event – there is life and urgency. It is not the trotting out of some thoughts which have been codified, classified and tapped out into a script to be lamely delivered on Sunday. There is real challenge to the congregation, a living, prayed-through, passionately delivered sermon from a man alive in Christ, not some half-hearted sleepy suggestions for renewed faith and action.

So, if you’re a preacher, or a friend of a preacher, seek out this book. You won’t like all of it, but you will definitely learn from it, and will have an expanded view of the glory and the need of preaching.

The Trinity is my Shepherd

On Sunday night I preached from Psalm 23. I’ve preached four or five time on this favourite psalm over the years from my pulpit (probably a great deal more, too, reckoning with funeral addresses). This time, though, I decided on a different approach to it, and we looked at the shepherding work of the Triune God.

How does the Trinity care for the believer? Can we properly distinguish the different aspects of the care of the different Persons? Here we must tread very carefully. The old maxim stands firm - opera Trinitatis ad extra indivisa sunt – you can’t separate the external works of the Trinity. That means, when one Person acts towards the world, in every sense we must say that this is also the work of the whole Godhead, not divided from the other two Persons, as each is always fully in accord with the others.

And yet, can we meaningfully speak of how the Father cares for us, as well as the work of the Son and of the Spirit with their own distinctive features? I believe we can. Just as Owen teaches us to trace our knowledge of God in His different Persons, so we can bring those same reflections to the Trinity as we trace God’s care.

And the sermon? Well, I think it was a helpful time for us in seeing God’s hand on our lives. There is the care of the Father, protecting and providing for His people, working out His wonderful foreordained care for us. Then the love of the Son, who forsook green pastures and quiet waters, and who ultimately entered the valley of the shadow of death, He faced human evil, and received the blows of the Father’s rod as He suffered as our sin-substitute on the Cross, then to rise to be the Good Shepherd who calls us by name. The Spirit brings to our lives the work of Christ. He brings us to repentance and faith in the Saviour who laid down His life for us. By the Holy Spirit we are anointed, and our lives overflow with His blessings. We are pursued by His goodness and love all of our days as we walk in conscious fellowship with God. And we are led every step of the way as we are transformed increasingly in Christlikeness, before the full transformation in heaven.

This is the Living God we delight to name as Trinity, the God who shepherds us. May your walk with Him be full of joy and peace, and glory to His name.

Great Truth, Great Saviour

'The value, worth, dignity of the ransom which Christ gave Himself to be, and of the price which He paid, was infinite and immeasurable; fit for the accomplishing of any end and procuring of any good, for all and every one of whom it was intended, had they been millions of men more than ever were created.'

'It was, then, the purpose and intention of God that His Son should offer a sacrifice of infinite worth, value, and dignity sufficiently in itself for the redeeming of all and every man, if it had pleased the Lord to employ it for that purpose; yea, and of other worlds also, if the Lord should freely make them, and would redeem them.'


John Owen, 'The Death of Death', Vol 10, Banner of Truth Edition, pp. 231, 295.

Pure Theology

I'm in the second of two back-to-back modules for my ThM at the John Owen Centre, and this week our group is studying the Atonement, under Garry Williams' guidance.

On Monday we surveyed the evidence among the Church Fathers for belief in penal substitution, that is, the conviction (clearly taught in Scripture) that on the Cross Christ was bearing the punishment of God for our sins in our place by the offering of His life. We then looked at how John Calvin approaches the same doctrine in the Institutes, particularly, how he develops his teaching on the Person of Christ as the One who came to be our sin substitute as the God-man. After Calvin we looked at the terrible errors of Socinus on his teaching on the Cross, errors which drove the later Reformed to articulate their doctrine of the Cross with an eye to the important questions Socinus was asking, as well as to his disastrous conclusions.

Today was a lengthy and demanding day, looking at John Owen's 'The Death of Death' and 'The Death of Christ'. Each is a masterful exposition of the necessity of understanding Christ's death as a voluntary sin-bearing action, designed to satisfy God's justice and to purchase a people for Himself. In a clarifying statement in his argument, Owen puts it like this:

'It was a full, valuable compensation, made to the justice of God, for all the sins of all those for whom He made satisfaction, by undergoing the same punishment which, by reason of the obligation that was upon them, they were bound to undergo' ('The Death of Death' in Banner of Truth edition of Owen's Works, Vol. 10, p.269).

The course has been a stirring reminder that the truth of the Gospel must be explored, contended for and explained in its truth. Only pure theology brings God glory and our souls good.

Tomorrow we go on to to look at the Atonement Theology of the Edwardses (Jonathan and Jonathan Jr), and then will be moving into the 19th Century.