Tag: Religion

Why Preach Expository Sermons?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Pastoral, Preaching6 Comments

Today I am reading through Peter Adam’s book Speaking God’s Words, and I came across a section on why we need to preach expository messages. I would like to share with you what Adam’s says.

Reasons For Preaching Expository Messages:

(1) Expository sermons help us to let God set the agenda for our lives.

The danger of topical preaching is that it implies that we know what is important! Expository preaching lets God set the agenda in an obvious and public way.

(2) Expository preaching treats the Bible as God treated it, respecting the particular contexts, history and style of the human authors.

God chose to have the Bible written in books, each by a human author, and not as a collection of useful but disconnected sayings. We should follow God by preaching the way He wrote.

(3) This kind of preaching gives ample time for us to make clear the context of the Bible passage from which we are preaching.

If the Bible passage follows on from last week, the congregation will understand the context clearly. If I change the context each week, and include three or four Bible passages in my sermon, it will be very hard for the congregation to hear any text in context. This is not a model we should encourage. Expository preaching helps us to take each text in context, as God causes it be written.

Resource

Quoted from Peter Adam, Speaking God’s Words, 128.

Image: arkorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

New Book Recommendation Page

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Books, Practical3 Comments

This week I have been working on a new Book Recommendation page. You can view it by clicking here. For the most part it is completed, even though it will always be a work in progress. I will be adding new books as I read them, so check back often.

The books I recommend on this page are ones that have influenced and taught me many things about the Christian faith, so I want to recommend them to you in hopes that they will teach you as much as they have taught me throughout the years. I have read almost every book on this page, so be assured it is not a page I put together off of a list somewhere. And I want to assure you the ones I have not read come highly recommended from friends whose lives have been touched as they have read these books. As a result, I felt comfortable recommending them, as well as placing them on my personal reading list. I just need to find the time to get to them.

When you go to the Book Recommendation page, you will be greeted by a bunch of book covers, which are broken down into categories. If you would like to learn more about a book, or purchase it, just click on it. When you do, you will be redirected to Amazon.com’s page for the book. There you can read reviews or add the book to your cart.

In order to get you started, I want to provide you with a quick list of my personal favorites. Of course, all the books on the Book Recommendation page are excellent and are highly recommended, but there are some that have resonated with me more than others. Here are those books:

Christian Living

  • Counterfeit God’s
  • Hard to Believe
  • Respectable Sins
  • Christ Formed in You

Marriage & Family

  • The Exemplary Husband
  • When Sinners Say I Do
  • What Did You Expect?
  • God, Marriage and Family

Evangelism & Missions

  • The Mission of God
  • Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
  • Questioning Evangelism

Reading & Writing

  • How to Read a Book
  • A Classic Guide to Better Writing
  • The Craft of Research
  • How to Read the Bible as Literature

Culture & Society

  • Amusing Ourselves To Death

Theology

  • The Existence and Attributes of God
  • Theology of the Reformers
  • The Potter’s Freedom
  • Putting Amazing Back Into Grace
  • Systematic Theology

Biblical Theology

  • God’s Glory In Salvation Through Judgment
  • Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church
  • According to Plan

Preaching

  • Preparing Expository Sermons
  • Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture
  • Using Illustrations to Preach with Power
  • Preaching with Variety

The Church

  • Ashamed of the Gospel
  • Nine Marks of a Healthy Church
  • The Shepherd Leader
  • The Deliberate Church

Hermeneutics

  • Gospel Centered Hermeneutics
  • The Meaning of the Pentateuch
  • 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible

Philosophy & Apologetics

  • Love God with All Your Mind
  • The Francis Schaeffer Collection
  • The Reason for God
  • Does God Believe in Atheists?
  • Defeating Darwinism

Biography

  • Spurgeon: A New Biography

Image: Paul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The King and His Kingdom

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

Yesterday, while preaching over 1 Corinthians 4:17-21, our pastor talked about the Kingdom of God. In doing so, he told us Paul delivered a message from the king to the kings citizens (that would be those who live in the King’s Kingdom as redeemed humanity ie Christians). The message Paul delivers to the citizens is the message of the cross, which is both the way into the kingdom and how we can live in the kingdom.

The Message of the Cross is the Way Into the Kingdom

Here is where the worldly idea of a king and his kingdom is turned on its head. In Christianity, the King comes down from His throne, takes the form of the rebels in His kingdom, dies for them, and purchases, by His blood, a way for those who are living as rebels in His kingdom to live at peace with Him in His kingdom.

In biblical language, we would say Jesus is the King, who came down off His throne in heaven, took the form of a man, and went to the cross for the sins of those who oppose Him (rebels). His death on the cross, and man’s subsequent belief in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, restores their relationship with God, so they can once again live in the kingdom as peaceful citizens. After Christ’s sacrifice and subsequent resurrection, God showed He approved of Jesus’ cross-work by giving Jesus the name that is above every name and making Him the King who rules over His kingdom (Philippians 2:5-11).

The Message of the Cross is the Way to Live in the Kingdom

As Christians we live in God’s kingdom, through the sacrifice of His Son, who is now the rightful ruler of the kingdom. Jesus’ sacrifice was a one time event that secures the citizenship of all those who make Him their Lord and Savior. Instead of earning their right to live in the kingdom daily by performing works that please the King, Christians, whose citizenship was bought by Christ’s blood (the King), are made citizens forever in the kingdom by God’s grace. This means, citizenship into, and forever in, Christ’s kingdom cannot be bought by good works, it can only be bought by the blood of the King Himself. What a wonderful thing to know that our citizenship is not contingent on our works; rather, it is the result of Christ’s sacrifice. A perfect, once for all sacrifice that is sufficient to restore our citizenship in the kingdom for all eternity.

With that in mind, we see that Christianity says both our entrance into and our stay in the kingdom of God are secured by the King’s sacrifice. Whereas, all other world religions are about doing something, Christianity is about believing in someone.

Christianity tells us that when we get up in the morning, we do not have to work to get God on our side, nor do we have to earn His gift of citizenship daily, His grace is already their waiting for us.

Implications

So then, when we feel like we need to work to earn God’s favor, or we are not feeling it one day, we need to preach the message of the cross to ourselves, in order to assure ourselves that our citizenship in the kingdom of God is both real and secure.

It also means that we live as citizens of the kingdom now. Paul tells us our citizenship is not of this world (Phil. 3:20). And he also tells Christians that if they want to live as citizens worthy of their citizenship, they are to stand firm against their enemies and be united with one another (Phil. 1:27-2:4). This shows that we live in the already, not yet. We live in the world, but our citizenship is not of this world. Rather it is of the kingdom of God.

However, Christ is reigning on His throne now over His kingdom, which includes both heaven and this world. As Christians, we are rightful citizens of Christ’s kingdom, and we should live as citizens of that kingdom now because He is ruling over His kingdom now. This means those who are not Christians, are living as rebels to our king and are living as such alongside us in Christ’s kingdom. So then, instead of viewing Christ’s kingdom and our citizenship in that kingdom as a distant reality, we need to view it as happening right now. This should have massive implications for the way in which we live, and the way we view those who reject Christianity and the rule of our King.

It also should have massive implications for the way we deal with our own resources. Christ is the King who is ruling over His Kingdom right now. As such, He has control over the resources in His kingdom. This means we should not feel that the resources (money, job, property) we have are ours and that we somehow earned them apart from the King providing them for us. Since these resources are not our own, but the Kings, and the King is the one who gave them to us, we should feel free to share our resources with others in the kingdom, knowing that our good and benevolent King desires to take care of His citizens by providing for them.

Image: Nick Coombs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Book Recommendation: Preaching with Variety

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Books, PastoralLeave a comment

Today, on the blog, I want to recommend a book I have been reading, and will be reading for a long time, not because it is a thick book, but because its content is so rich. The book is Jeffrey Arthurs’ Preaching With Variety.

I know you are probably wondering, I am not a preacher, why is he recommending a preaching book to me? And I understand not all my readers are preachers, but I believe this book is not only helpful for preachers, but also for the average congregate. The reason is because Arthurs spends half of every chapter talking about the literary genre used in the Bible, then he spends the other half of the chapter talking about how to preach that specific literary genre, which, even if you are not a preacher, is helpful in understanding how the biblical text applies to your life.

So, if you have ever wondered how to interpret the Psalms, how to read an Epistle, how to get at the meaning in a Parable, how to understand the pithy sayings of Proverbs, what strategies are employed by the biblical author in the Narratives, which by the way make up about 70-80% of the Bible, or how to read Apocalyptic literature like Daniel or Revelation, then this book is for you.

You can purchase it on Amazon by clicking here.

Characteristics of Believers in Christ

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals2 Comments

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In Philippians 2:1 we are privileged to read a four-fold emotional plea from Paul to the Philippians. This plea is couched in a 1st class conditional If…then clause. This type of clause has the idea that if you possess these characteristics, and you do, then you are to obey the command that follows in the “then” portion, which is to “make my joy complete.” To simplify, instead of using the word “If”, we could translate the Greek word as “because” or “since”.

Moving on, when Paul writes “make my joy complete”, he is not being selfish, or self-serving. In the first chapter of his letter, he tells us what brings him joy, which is the exaltation and proclamation of Christ. So then, Paul here desires the Philippians to make his joy complete by proclaiming and exalting Christ. He goes on in verses 2-5 to tell them how they can exalt Christ, which will have to be the subject of another post. Today, I want us to focus on Paul’s four-fold plea, in which Paul gives the Philippians five characteristics all believers in Christ will possess.

Characteristics of a Believer

(1) Encouragement in Christ

The idea is to come alongside someone and give assistance by offering comfort, counsel, or exhortation. Meaning, as Christians, we are to find our hope, comfort, counsel, and exhortation from Christ and Christ alone. Where we look for comfort, counsel, exhortation, and hope changes from the world to Christ and His Word, when we become believers.

(2) Comfort from Christ’s love

From Christ’s love we receive alleviation from sorrow, or grief. It is Christ’s love that comforts us and provides us with relief in a time of distress or sadness. This characteristic is tied closely to the following in that we as Christians find comfort and solace in Christ alone, not in the world.

(3) Fellowship with the Holy Spirit

Here we learn that all Christians fellowship with the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? It means He is our seal and guarantor of eternal life (Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; 2 Cor. 1:22). He is our spiritual source of power (Acts 1:8; Rom. 15:19). In addition, it means we possess spiritual gifts, which are given by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4-11; Rom. 12:6-8). Furthermore,it means the Fruit of the Spirit as laid forth in Gal. 5:22-23 is evident in our lives. Lastly, it means the Spirit prays and intercedes for us, since we do not always know what to pray (Rom. 8:26)

(4) Affection for others

When we become believers, our affections change. We should notice a deep longing for the welfare of others.

(5) Sympathy for others

As believers, we should have compassion and mercy for others. We should have this compassion and mercy for others because we realize the magnitude of the compassion and mercy God poured out on us as sinful men, who deserve nothing but death.

Conclusion

If we are to call ourselves followers of Christ, like the Philippians, we should possess these characteristics in our lives. We should seek comfort and encouragement from Christ, looking to Him in times of distress and sorrow. We should also seek exhortation and counsel from Him and His Word over the world. Furthermore, we should notice a deep fellowship with the Spirit, which is evidenced by a birth of spiritual gifts and the manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit. Moreover, we should notice a change in our affections and sympathy towards others.

Here is the warning we can take from this verse, if we do not notice these characteristics in our lives, we need to examine ourselves and see if Christ has truly changed our heart, if He has really raised us from the dead and released us from the bondage of sin and the grip of Satan.

Interestingness

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn InterestingnessLeave a comment

Here are some interesting articles I came across this week.

Human Flourishing

Here is an interesting article on Human Flourishing. It has to do with busyness, value in work, identity in work, and depending on God in our work. It will give you a good look into our culture and where we find our identity, and where we should find our identity. You can read the article by clicking here.

Does Questioning Evolution Make You Anti-Science?

Writing in response to Paul Krugman of the New York Times  harsh critique on Republican Candidate Rick Perry for his views on Evolution, Rabbi Shmuley brings up some interesting points regarding the idea or theory of evolution. You can read his article by clicking here.

Sin: This is Not the Way it is Supposed to Be

Cornelius Plantinga Jr. wrote an excellent article regarding sin and its destructive capability. He looks back at the way things were and heralds that things are not the way it is supposed to be right now. You can read his article here.

Scripture Reading Plans

My friend Dustin Bruce over at Gospel Spirituality highlighted a helpful reading plan this week. You can check out his post by clicking here and you can check out the reading plan by clicking here.

Is You Dining Room on Mission?

That was the title of a recent article by Tim Chester over on The Resurgence website. The article is an excellent read for anyone wanting to be more missional or focus their church to be more missional. You can read it by clicking here.