Archive for the Sermon Follow-Up Category


Jun 11

Connecting the Dots in Luke 9

2009 | by Ryan Kelly | Category: Sermon Follow-Up

Last Sunday’s sermon looked at Luke 9. Below is a basic outline for the sermon.

THE CHAPTER IN EIGHT SCENES:

Scene 1: The twelve sent out on mission (1-11)

Scene 2: Five thousand fed (12-17)

Scene 3:  Peter’s confession (18-21); Prediction of Jesus’ death (22); Discipleship explained (23-27)

Scene 4: The transfiguration (28-36)

Scene 5: A demon possessed boy healed (37-45)

Scene 6: Who is the greatest? (46-48)

Scene 7: Who is for us and who is against us? An outsider who heals in Jesus’ name? (49-50); Inhospitable Samaritans? (52-56)

Scene 8: Discipleship explained again (57-62)

CONNECTING DOTS BETWEEN THE STORIES

1.  It’s time to get more clear about who Jesus is

• He’s the commissioner of the disciples (1-6)
• He’s the Elijah-like Prophet (8, 19, 30)
• He’s a miraculous provider (12-17)
• He’s the Christ (20-21)
• He’s the friend of Elijah and Moses (30-31)
• He’s the unique glory of God incarnate (32, 34-35)
• He’s uniquely sovereign over demons – unlike the disciples (40-43)
• He came to save, not destroy (56)
• He’s on a mission – He’s “determined to go to Jerusalem” (51)

2.  It’s time to tell the disciples of his impending death

• Herod is growing concerned (7-9) – this is Luke tipping his hand about what’s to come
• Jesus explicitly says that he will suffer and die and be raised (22, 44)
• His disciples will have to follow him to take up their cross (23) 
• He was “determined to go to Jerusalem” (51) 
• In light of v 51, the significance of v 31 becomes clearer (“they were speaking of His departure which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem”)

3.  It’s time to start to pass the mission on to the disciples

• Disciples go out as an extension of Jesus and his ministry (1-2, 6)
• Disciples are to join Jesus in seeking salvation of the lost (54-56)
• Disciples are not to be rivals (49-50)

4.  It’s time to fully warn of the sacrifice and single-focus of the mission

• Disciples go out expecting their provision to come from God (3)
• Disciples go out anticipating rejection and suffering (5, 23-27)
• Disciples are to be child-like, not jockeying for greatness (46-48)
• Disciples go out in sacrifice and with a singular focus (57-62)

5.  It’s time for the disciples to start to really get all of this

There are a couple examples of them getting it in this chapter:
• When they’re sent out with nothing and return with a good report  (1-11)
• Peter’s confession (20)

There are more examples of the disciples not getting it (being knuckleheads):
• Peter doesn’t understand the utter uniqueness of Jesus in God’s plan (32-35)
• Jesus is frustrated with the disciples’ failure to cast out a demon (40-41)
• They did not understand what he said about his death (44-45; cf 22)
• They debate among themselves about which of them is the greatest (46)
• They wonder if they should oppose an outsider who works in Jesus’ name (49)
• They wonder if they should call down destruction on inhospitable Samaritans (53-54)

May 28

John Owen on Beholding Christ

2009 | by Ryan Kelly | Category: Books,Lord's Supper,Quote,Sermon Follow-Up

Last night, at our Lord’s Supper service, I preached from Heb. 12:1-4 and emphasized our need to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and “consider him.” I quoted from John Owen’s excellent book, The Glory of Christ (1684):

How, then, can we behold the glory of Christ? We need, firstly, a spiritual understanding of his glory as revealed in Scripture. Secondly, we need to think much about him if we wish to enjoy him fully (1 Peter 1:8). If we are satisfied with vague ideas about him we shall find no transforming power communicated to us. But when we cling wholeheartedly to him and our minds are filled with thoughts of him and we constantly delight ourselves in him, then spiritual power will flow from him to purify our hearts, increase our holiness, strengthen our graces, and sometimes fill us “with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”

This quote is taken from the Puritan Paperback version — modernized, abridged and made easy to read. You can see the other volumes in the Puritan Paperbacks series here. If you’re feeling courageous or have some comfortability with reading Puritan prose, the unabridged edition of Glory of Christ is available online for free or in the hard cover Volume 1 of Owen’s Works.

I’d recommend eventually getting to and working through (even if it is work) the older, unabridged edition, but no matter what version you start with, I cannot recommend this book enough. It might be in my top three of all time favorites.

UPDATE: My friend, Justin Taylor, pointed me to a version of The Glory of Christ that I unfortunately didn’t know about. It appears to be an unabridged yet revised/updated edition of the book, put out by Mentor. So this edition would be something between the two options listed above: longer than the abridged Puritan Paperback, but in more contemporary language than Volume 1 of Owen’s Works (which was last edited in the 1850s). If you’re interested to read more about the Puritan John Owen, a good place to start is Justin Taylor’s website JohnOwen.org.

May 22

From Sunday to Sunday: Review and Preview

2009 | by Ryan Kelly | Category: Clarus 09,Recommended Link,Sermon Follow-Up,This Sunday

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, feelings.” Yup, I mean that song (I prefer this version on YouTube, dubbed over a Japanese James Bond-like movie). The song has been in my head ever since I said “feelings” 56 times in my last sermon. Of course, the song doesn’t talk about feelings in the same way that Luke 8 does, but that’s just the oddity of a brain like mine — filled with Bible and pop-art.

So with the pop-art nostalgia out of the way and that song now freshly in your head, let me give you some book recommendations on the Bible and feelings.

I’ve been reading through a new book by Brian Borgman, which is more of an overview and analysis of all the different feelings in the Bible, Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life. You can see the table of contents here, and from that page you can read each of the 21 chapters online for free (you got to love the people at Crossway, who actually seem to look at Christian publishing as more of a ministry than a money-maker).

During our recent Clarus conference on “The Convergence of Doctrine and Delight” we mentioned several great books on the importance of the affections and how to fight for joy, such as:

Of course, the references to emotions in Luke 8 are not just the kind of amazement and joy; there are many more references to fear, worry, and sadness. Here are a few books I’d strongly recommend on thinking through and wrestling with our “darker” emotions:

That’s the review of last Sunday. On to the preview of this Sunday.

This coming Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll entertain this question: in light of the miracles and emotions in Luke 8 how do we fight for joy and faith when the miracle doesn’t come? How do we move from angst to awe, from fear to faith, and from lament to laughter when the storm-tossed drown, when the sick stay sick, when the dying die?  Do we need miracles to believe? Luke gives us some hints at the answer, but from there we’ll go hunting in the Psalms.

May 21

To Speak or Not to Speak?

2009 | by Ryan Kelly | Category: Quote,Sermon Follow-Up

Last Sunday I preached a sermon from Luke 8:26-56, “Miracles, Belief, and Emotions.” The study of the four miracle stories and the dozen-plus references to varying emotions in this passage was our focus. So time did not permit to address what seems like a contradiction in the chapter:

Why is it that, after one healing, Jesus tells the man to “go and describe what great things God has done for you” (v 39), and, after another healing (actually, a resurrection), Jesus instructs them to “tell no one what has happened” (v 56)?

Well, here is the best and most thorough answer I’ve found in my many Luke commentaries:

The command for silence [in v 56] seems a little odd. This contrasts with the instruction to the Gerasene demoniac in Luke 8:39 and the efforts Jesus went to in having the woman with the hemorrhage relate her healing (8:45-47), not to mention an earlier public resurrection in 7:11-17. It seems clear that Jesus is concerned about what aspects of his ministry receive attention (4:41; 5:14).

Jesus knows that he is headed for a different kind of ministry than people will want from him. Excessive focus on his works of power will undermine the type of commitment he will ask from people. He does not need to be raising people on a daily basis. The type of commitment that will be required of them, should they follow him, is one of suffering, not comfort (9:22, 36, 57-62; 10:17-20). People will talk about his works, but they should not be encouraged to focus on elements that only point to deeper issues. There will come a time when the miracles will go public, but their publicity need not be encouraged since they are not at the heart of what Jesus is doing. Rather they point to more significant spiritual realities (11:14-23).  In Luke, miracles are a testimony to the nature of the times; they are not intended to be the focus of Jesus work (7:22).  Rather, they picture deeper realities that Jesus offered, as Acts 2:22-36 suggests.  The call to silence makes clear that Jesus does not regard such acts as the center of his ministry, but as only the evidentiary periphery.

(Darrell Bock, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Luke 1:1-9:50, pp. 804-805.)

In other words, for that time in redemptive history, there is a bit of a razor’s edge to understanding the place of miracles. They verify who this Jesus is and the truth of what he says; they evidence that the Christ and his kingdom have finally come. But, too much attention drawn to the miracles themselves and they could possibly overshadow the very things to which they point. Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, knows exactly when to say “go and tell” and “speak of this to no one.” So v 39 and v 56 are not in contradiction; they represent the complexity of the purpose of miracles in Jesus’ ministry. The difference between the two verses also hints at the sinful temptation to be more focused on and impressed by miracles than the presence of the Christ, the reality of his gospel, and the presence of his glorious kingdom.

May 11

Walt Chantry, “The High Calling of Motherhood”

2009 | by Ryan Kelly | Category: Quote,Recommended Link,Sermon Follow-Up

From an older Banner of Truth printed sermon on 1 Tim. 2:15 (“But women will be saved through childbirth, if they continue in faith, love and holiness…”):

What is involved in motherhood? After birth pangs bring children into this world, there come years of life pangs. It is a mother’s task and privilege to oversee the forging of a personality in her sons and daughters. For this she must set a tone in the home which builds strong character. Hers it is to take great Christian principles and practically apply them in every-day affairs – doing it simply and naturally. It is her responsibility to analyse each child mentally, physically, socially, spiritually. Talents are to be developed, virtues must be instilled, faults are to be patiently corrected, young sinners are to be evangelised. She is building men and women for God. Results may not be visible until she has laboured for fifteen or twenty years. Even when her task ends the true measure of her work awaits the full maturity of her children.

This is why Proverbs 10:1 tells those who are children that “A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother”. Immorality is a public shame to the mother of one who breaks God’s law. Her whole life was devoted to raising her son and daughter. Father has a career as well as a home. But all of mother’s eggs have been placed in one basket. Motherhood could not be a part-time hobby. If you become a fool, you will break your mother’s heart. Godly women do not live for kisses and nice little gifts, but to see their children walking with the Lord in righteousness. All of a godly woman’s hopes in this world are bound up with the children of her motherhood.

The rest of the sermon (online here) has some provocative — if not controversial — thoughts on the on the “salvation” and “childbearing” of the 1 Tim. 2:15 passage. Some excerpts:

This is not a text on remission of sins but deliverance out of sin-related suffering and oppression. Woman will triumph over and emerge from the misery and curse under which she is held by forces of evil.

It is obvious that more is intended by “childbearing” than the physical process of conceiving, carrying a child in the womb, and bringing him into the world, but mothering that person is assumed.

But how are women saved? By their joining militant organisations which demand rights equal to man’s? By proving that women can “make it” in the world of business, politics, sports, and even the pastorate? By escaping from home where she has been buried in obscurity and where so many evils have been perpetrated by abusive husbands? Never! That approach only institutionalises her rebellion against her God-given place.

Conscientious motherhood cannot follow the selfish pattern of having a child only to send him off as soon as possible to a day-care centre. Of course, at times this is essential for survival! But at other times it is produced by a selfish interest in one’s own career or in acquiring more wealth. Women want to get on to more exciting things. This low view of a mother’s task is damaging the church.

Her pathway to real salvation was appointed by the Almighty. It is motherhood. “She shall be saved through childbirth” (v 15). The first gospel promise was given before any curse was pronounced on man or woman. And the promise wonderfully involved the means of motherhood. “I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:5). God our Maker would not allow the human race to perish. Now that Adam and Eve had sinned and Paradise was shattered, the only hope lay in God himself. “I will” is the message of grace. One means was mentioned as the instrumental course of salvation from the devil’s clutches. It was childbearing! Deliverance comes, not through man’s vocational efforts in the cultural mandate, but through woman’s childbearing. How wrong women are when they imagine that their hope lies in imitating men’s careers. As they abandon motherhood for the office and factory, they despise God’s carefully designed means of breaking the devil’s yoke and fleeing the miseries he has inflicted.

It is to woman, not man, that God assigned this high calling. But her hope is not identified with her political savvy, her business acumen, or her social activism. It is in childbearing! Women today are so eager to abandon “mere” motherhood to duplicate male labours. How tragic, when the hope God has given woman and for all of our race is tied to childbearing! Of course the central attention of Genesis 3:15 is upon one seed of the woman, Jesus Christ. He who was born of the Jewess, Mary, delivered the decisive death blow to the head of the serpent on Calvary. He purchased salvation for all who are redeemed.

Yet, even before Christ came, a godly seed of the woman was set against Satanic forces. Childbearing prepared the way of the Lord. When about to raise up mighty leaders, Jehovah God, often sought out peculiarly able women. Jochebed, the mother of Moses; Hannah, mother of Samuel; Manoah’s wife, mother of Samson, are leading examples. Through their childbearing the course of history was wonderfully altered. Since Christ has come, a godly seed carries the gospel to all the earth to gather God’s elect and hasten Christ’s return. Raising a godly seed is still of the profoundest importance to the cause of God in the earth.

Adam saw at once that the most profound work of the ages – God’s work of grace – is directly related to motherhood. Appreciating God’s purpose, “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living” (Gen 3:20).