“The debate in the early church was not whether the Jews should stop circumcising their sons; it was whether the Gentiles had to start. The decision of the Jerusalem council was not that individual Gentiles did not have to be circumcised. If circumcision had been required of them, it would have obligated them to live …
Pulpit Honesty
“The essential secret is not mastering certain techniques but being mastered by certain convictions” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 92).
Tullian, Kevin and the Point of Our Conference
First thing, if you haven’t already, go to the post below and look at the trailer for The Grace Agenda. We’ll wait here. Okay, second, if you haven’t already, check out this link to Justin Taylor that points you to an irenic and helpful discussion between Tullian Tchividjian and Kevin DeYoung on the subject of …
A Grace Trailer
Grace Agenda Conference Trailer from Canon Wired on Vimeo.
Saul and the Serpent
INTRODUCTION:Saul functions in this story as the last of Israel’s judges. He has been anointed as a king, and acclaimed as one, but he has not yet been made a king. This fact alone means that at the beginning of his reign, there is faithfulness to the theocratic ideal. And, at the very beginning of …
Answering the Invitation
The Supper we partake of here is, among other things, a glorious foreshadowing of the great eschatological banquet. This is the time at the culmination of history, when all God’s people sit down together in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. In the course of history, before that time, there is a winnowing—which foreshadows those …
Threshold
For a number of years, in addition to our monthly Psalm sing, we have had a Sunday evening service that we have held once a month, one which we called Evensong. A number of months ago, we shifted the emphasis of that service, making it explicitly evangelistic—church for non-Christians. We have been grateful for how …
Not Credo Circumcision
“The advent of Christ did not result in Jewish parents starting to wait until their children made a profession of faith before they were circumcised. The Jewish Christians did not suddenly switch to ‘believer’s circumcision'” (To a Thousand Generations, p 65).
Failure to Communicate
“The anti-authority mood makes people unwilling to listen, addiction of television makes them unable to do so, and the contemporary atmosphere of doubt makes many preachers both unwilling and unable to speak. Thus there is paralysis at both ends, in the speaking and in the hearing. A dumb preacher with a deaf congregation presents a …
Jewish Boys Still Included
[Concerning Acts 21:18-25] “A false report concerning Paul and his teaching had in the Jerusalem church before Paul had. This report was that he taught Jewish Christians to cease circumcising their infant sons” (To a Thousand Generations, p. 62).