Are You Bored with the Gospel?
Over the past decade a floodwater of cultural change in our country has occurred, leaving a massive impact on the church in America. Twenty years ago, there was a push to address the issue of mercy ministry and evangelism in our churches. Much of this was, no doubt, a helpful corrective to a perceived deficiency in local churches.
Today, the loudest voices speak incessantly about issues related to social justice, intersectionality, and human flourishing. Time will most certainly tell whether this was a needed corrective or a toxic corrosive for the church. Movements and organizations spring up almost as fast as they whither. The leaders of many social and para-ecclesial syndicates wish to influence the church in such a way that the church will embrace the obligations they press on her.
There is a noticeable lack of focus on the Gospel in many churches today.
When I sit back and read the deluge of thoughts and opinions online about what the church ought to be doing, I sense a noticeable lack of focus on the Gospel. In the many Twitter rants that recur on a daily basis, there is a discernible deficiency with regard to Scripture and the Gospel. Any intellectually honest assessment of the content of so much that is bandied about on the Internet must necessarily lead to the conclusion that people are bored with the Gospel.
Either they don’t believe that it is “the power of God unto salvation for those who believe,” or they have convinced themselves that the Gospel is simply one among many messages that ought to take front seat in the message and ministry of the church. In either case, the only conclusion we can draw from the fact that the preaching of the Gospel is no longer the center of gravity in the message and ministry of many churches in our day is that people don’t believe the Gospel works. They are not astonished by the glory, majesty, unspeakable greatness of the message of Christ crucified and risen.
The central message of Scripture is the message of the Gospel.
When we turn to the Scriptures, we get everything necessary for life and godliness. We hear God’s voice in Scripture. “The Holy Spirit says,” “The Spirit said through…,” and “As the Spirit says,” are some of the most commonly used introductions to Old Testament citations in the New Testament. The whole of the Bible is the whole of God’s word. It is God speaking by the Holy Spirit to the church. The church is perfected by the washing of the water of the word and the proclamation of the whole counsel of God given by those men God has called and equipped to faithfully preach and teach the Gospel. Christ is the only head of the church and as such is the sole authority for how the church is to function in the world.
Jesus is also the great High Priest of his church and the perfect sacrifice for the salvation of the souls of his people. The central message of Scripture is the message of the Gospel—the good news of what God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus for the salvation of his people. Surely, the message of the cross impacts more than simply the forgiveness of the sins of an individual, but it is not less than that. In fact, whenever the Gospel in preached by the apostles, that is the central message of the cross.
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Practices in the Christian Life- Intercessory Prayer
Among the many practices of the Christian life (such as gathering for worship, meditating on God’s Word, serving the needy, forgiving, and seeking forgiveness) There are two very basic practices in the Christian life; receiving God’s Word, and then speaking with God. Receiving God’s Word of course comes through reading, or hearing the scriptures. And speaking with God occurs in prayer. As soon as the topic of prayer comes up, questions are not far behind. Questions like “If God already knows, why pray?” or “What are the outcomes of prayer?”. It is appropriate to ask questions about prayer as we learn from Jesus’ example in answering the first disciples about how to pray (Matthew 6:5-13). In today’s piece, we examine how prayer is linked to the work of Christ, and the role of the prophet.
What is Intercessory Prayer?
The Greek word is ὑπερεντυγχάνω and is a compound word. “Huper” means “on behalf of” and “entungchano”, which means, “to entreat or pray, plead” combined we get, “to entreat or pray/plead on behalf of someone else”
More often than not when we talk about intercessory prayer we think of the office of the priest. In many religions today, people come to confess their sins to a priest and he in turn prays or “intercedes” on their behalf to God (or at least he is supposed to entreat God on their behalf). However, what is striking is that in the scriptures the most wonderful intercessory prayers are found on the lips of God’s prophets, e.g. Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and our Savior and God’s ultimate Prophet, Jesus Christ. Looking further at the above examples, we see a pattern regarding intercessory prayer in each of these passages. Abraham intercedes for King Abimelech who had taken Sarai to be his wife because Abraham lied and said she was his sister. God graciously intervenes and reveals Sarai’s true identity in a dream to the king and tells him that Abraham is a prophet and will intercede on his behalf if he safely returns her to Abraham. (Genesis 20:7)
Moses twice makes intercession for the idolatrous people in Exodus 32. He prays for forgiveness and for God to remember His covenant promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through Moses’ humble prayer on behalf of the people, God graciously and mercifully forgives. We will look a little closer below of Moses’ intercession. Samuel in 1 Samuel 7, intercedes like Moses did for the idolatry of Israel, do you recognize a pattern? In Isaiah 63:7-64:12, Isaiah the prophet intercedes for exiled Israel for their idolatry. Similarly in Jeremiah 15:15-21, Jeremiah’s intercessory prayer is graciously heard by the LORD. Daniel, an exile, remembers Jeremiah’s prophecy and in contrite intercessory prayer to the LORD pleads for the exiles in Daniel 9.
From these texts, we see that “intercession” in regard to prayer is someone advocating or pleading on behalf of another before God. Intercession is a legal term for a witness taking the stand to plead the cause of the accused. Job 16:19,21 is helpful for us to consider at this point. The text reads, “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high.” In verse 21 we read, “O that a man might plead with God…”. In the context of the passage, Job has been accused in heaven by satan of having advantage and privilege and the blessing of God, and that was the reason he was committed to the LORD. Satan was permitted to persecute Job physically and materially. Materially speaking, Job lost everything, yet his faith in God’s righteous and gracious care remained steadfast despite the devastation inflicted upon him. The reason for Job’s steadfast faith is that it is in the Man in heaven pleading his cause on his behalf (vs.21). Job knows he can plead his (a man) case before God because the God/Man is interceding for him, more of this in a moment.
In the NT. we see the theme of intercession continue in the Great Prophet Jesus Christ. 1 John 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. -
Canonicity, the Old Testament, and the Apocrypha
Bible believers may still benefit from some apocryphal writings as historical or devotional materials. The testimony of Jesus and the apostles as well as the mainstream of church history, however, weighs against their being recognized as Scripture.
When Protestants talk about the Bible they mean the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. To these, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy add several other apocryphal or deuterocanonical books, plus additions to multiple biblical books. Even more apocryphal books exist, but they are not recognized as Scripture by any branch of professing Christianity.
Obviously, at some point choices had to be made about which writings would be recognized as Scripture and which would not. The process of recognizing some books and rejecting others is known as canonization, and the collection of recognized books is known as the canon. No doctrine of Scripture is complete without a discussion of canonization and canonicity.
The word canon was originally the name for a particular kind of straight reed. People would cut this reed to length and use it as a measuring rod. Eventually the word became a metaphor for any standard of measurement. Then it was applied to the collection of things that measured up to the standard. When we talk about the canon of Scripture, we are talking about the collection of writings that measure up to the standard of being recognized as the word of God. To say that a document is canonical is to say that it is God’s word and consequently that it is authoritative for faith and practice.
What is the standard for canonicity? The short answer is inspiration. A writing is canonical if and only if it has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. Properly speaking, human beings can never declare a writing to be canonical. Even the declarations of church councils do not make a document canonical. All they can do is to recognize its canonicity. Its canonicity depends entirely upon whether it has been inspired.
Consequently, discussions about canonicity are really discussions about inspiration. To know which writings are canonical, we must simply discover which writings have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. How can we do that? This question will have different answers depending upon which testament we are asking about.
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A Simple, Sobering Explanation of Our Sick Society
To listen to the chaotic, nonsensical ramblings of many in our society (many of which reside in our “highest” institutions of learning and who are currently rioting in our streets) is a study in Isaiah 5 and Romans 1. Any man or woman, any family, any nation who, in their pride, reject God’s Word will fall into a dramatically deluded mind and depraved behavior.
Forgive me for some reminiscent rambling. I don’t do it often, but I digress to highlight a comparison and a tragedy. In my lifetime, I remember when…
Most churches were filled on Sunday morning and night.
All businesses were closed on Sunday.
Every day at public school began with a prayer over the intercom or in the classroom.
Children in almost any neighborhood could play or walk to school with no threat of harm.
Most children had zero thought or confusion about their gender identity and happily embraced who they were.
There was a general understanding of many undeniable, universally accepted moral values across the nation.
Certain sins and behaviors were generally condemned, not accepted and applauded.
And on and on…What has happened? Don’t think I am naive enough to believe that our society was altogether righteous and I am not advocating a return to the 50s. We were rampant with our own brand of iniquity. But to compare our nation in the past to the current highlights a major moral declension.
It’s Beginnings
In Isaiah’s day, the prophet speaks for God to His people…people to whom He had shown great mercy, blessing, and favor. Somewhere they had made a turn, best described in a few verses. It didn’t take many words from God and His prophet to identify what had happened.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.Isaiah 5:21
A fall away from God always begins with pride. We think we know better and are wiser than God, and this pride leads to a further disastrous decision.
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