Senior Pastor John Neufeld introduced three of our guest speakers: David Short, rector of St John's (Shaughnessy) Anglican Church in Vancouver, BC; R. Kent Hughes, Senior Pastor Emeritus at College Church in Wheaton, IL; and Bruce Ware, Associate Dean and Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Serminary. They along with Pastor Neufeld are answering questions about expositional preaching. Our questioner is Stephen Kroeker, the pastor of Manitou Mennonite Brethren Church in Manitou, Manitoba.
1. How would you define expositional preaching? What is and what isn’t?
Hughes: It's not simply a running commentary where pastor goes through verse by verse and connects the thoughts together, which is characterized as very boring. It's also not an exegetical discourse where the pastor indulges in mere wordplay. It's also not coming with presuppositions and imposing them on the text: imposition, as opposed to exposition. It's also not a place where the preacher looks at the text, approaches it existentially, and relates whatever thoughts bubble into his mind.
Expositional preaching is when the preacher reads the text within the context of the book he is reading, and knows it well enough that he knows what the theme of that passage is; and then uses the structure of that text as a hint for the symmetry and structure of the sermon. Also, relating that passage into its place in the whole history of salvation and its relationship to Jesus Christ. Then applying the text to his own life. And finally standing in the power of the Holy Spirit and delivering the Word of God.
Pastor Neufeld then asked R. Kent Hughes, many pastors know how to exegete a text, but they don't know how to apply. Hughes' reply is that the text is an application in its original context, to its original audience. So if the pastor understands what the original context was, then the application will emerge. Expositional preaching is a dynamic and passionate process and should ideally come from within the heart.
2. Why the big emphasis on expositional preaching? (Especially if we allow that a doctrinal message can also be faithful to scripture and profoundly deep/meaty)
Hughes: There are places for topical, textual sermons. But Scripture was given by the Holy Spirit. The text is sovereign. The text rules. He wants to stand behind the text, not in front of it, as so many do today. The Word of God is totally sufficient.
Neufeld: Expositional preaching takes twice as long to prepare, but he never wonders, "What am I going to preach this week?" The Holy Spirit determines what to preach by what has been ordained in Scripture (my paraphrase). He does not preach the things that occur to him, but the things that occur in the text.
Short: Expositional preaching delivers our congregations from our own hobby horses. If we preach Luke 20, we need to have first preached Luke 19. What is more relevant to us than Scripture? If we work on any particular passage and determine what God means in this passage, application will emerge.
Hughes: The Word of God is radical. Example: Dr. Ware's explorations of Daniel 4 and Isaiah 40 earlier in the morning (see notes here). By treating those texts in their context, the audience was electrified.
Ware: Expositional preaching determines that we preach the whole counsel of God—even the unfashionable things like hell and judgement. ...Unless you're a very clever expositional preacher who can dance around things like that. No methodology is a guarantee of anything. You have to have the heart, the desire, the make the emphases that God makes, and the applications that He wants people to receive.
It's possible to do topical exegetical sermons, e.g., on atonement, Christology, or exclusivity of the Gospel. On these topics, one can approach Scripture almost as if were the testimony of the witnesses. What are Ezekiel, Isaiah, or Paul saying about God on the witness stand? You'd better be faithful to the text, though.
3. Why has God chosen preaching? What’s the unique feature that sets it apart from other forms of communication? Certainly preaching is not the only form of communication used in the New Testament, we see God using conversation to radically transform lives as well.
Short: Scripture doesn't distinguish between preaching to one and preaching to many. The relationship of God to the world is through His Word. God made us from dust and breath. As human beings we are constituted both externally and internally to respond to the Word of God. When Satan comes along, he assails the reliability of the Word of God.
Rev. Short referred us to 2 Peter 1. We have apostolic witnesses. Peter cites the Transfiguration to back up his testimony. This is ambiguous, however: we know from Luke that Peter didn't really understand the Transfiguration at the time it happened. But it was through the Word of God that we was made to understand it.
4. What elements of preaching must always be there, and what elements can and need to change as the audience/context changes? (If we are committed to expositional preaching, but our preaching seems ineffective, what might we look to change about our preaching?)
Hughes: We have to understand that the Holy Spirit, when He authored the text, had a future audience (as well as a present audience) in mind. He begins with the Word of God and what it says, with confidence that its principles will communicate today.
Short: If you read Augustine's or Chrysostom's or Bernard of Clairvaux's or Calvin's sermons today, you could preach and apply them to a contemporary congregation with very few changes.
Ware: Cultural diversity is huge, but what is bigger is common humanity that spans time and cultures. Far too much emphasis is put on cultural relativity, and not nearly enough emphasis is put on common humanity. We all struggle with the same things. Consider Jeremiah 9:23—that is just as relevant to us today as it was in Jeremiah's time.
Neufeld: Congregants should be able to go home, read the passage one has just preached on, and be able to say, "Yes, that's what he just said."
Hughes cited Twain (a non-believer) who said, "It's not what I don't understand about the Bible that bothers me; it's what I do understand." Scripture is comprehensible.
Short: There's some idea that we can gain some kind of special insight by understanding how to make Scripture relevant to contemporary culture, but Scripture doesn't need that. (My paraphrase.)
5. As Canadian pastors, we are greatly influenced by American pastors, theologians and authors. What is unique about the Canadian situation? And, should that affect our ministry, or is the need in both countries the same?
Neufeld: Evangelical pastors are not invited into the national discussion forums. Our voice is not invited, sought, or to the most part even heard, in the nation as a whole. We live in a time very much like the New Testament era, in a pagan culture with no coherent centre. Nevertheless, this culture still claims the authority
Are all the great authors and writers in the US? We claim D.A. Carson as our own, being born in Canada. There are and have been many great Canadian pastors and theologians.
Ware: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has three up-and-coming Canadian theologians on its staff, one of whom has written a book on belivers' baptism (it was a gentle jab at the evangelical Anglican on our panel).
Short: Some observations on local cultural differences. E.g., he lives in Shaughnessy, where many residents are caught up in keeping up with the Joneses (to paraphrase). Canadians generally have an over-rosy view of human nature, overly positive, self-righteous about our peacekeeping role in the world, etc. As a consequence, the "clarity passages" in the Bible are very difficult to deal with.
6. How do you preach/lead in such a way that the church remains focused on Jesus and is not you as pastor? (or How do you preach in a compelling way that makes people say, "Wow. Isn’t Jesus amazing!" and not, "Wow. That pastor is really something else!")
Short: Lazy preachers are the ones who congregations think well of. If you study Scripture, the text always points to Jesus Christ. If we're lazy in our study or preparation, we'll throw a couple of ideas together with some heartrending stories, and then that's when people walk away thinking, "Isn't that pastor amazing?"
As pastors, we have to be humble, and show evidence to our congregations of progressing of growing in our walk with God (to paraphrase).
Hughes: You've got to stand behind the Bible, and everything you do (in preaching) has to serve the Word. When Hughes started out as a pastor, he loaded the text with a lot of illustrations. Over the years, he has moved away from this practice, since illustration can detract from or overpower the text. Because the text is sovereign, he wants the illustrations he uses (sparingly) to serve the text. They are only to be used judiciously when the time is right.
7. How do you preach to a multicultural audience? Sometimes it seems hard enough to communicate an ancient story to a contemporary mono-cultural audience...
Neufeld: Our sermons are simultaneously translated into seven different languages. The translators get a sermon manuscript ahead of time, so they have time to prepare. Other-language believers and
Many congregants are first-generation Canadians, many of them or Chinese or Korean origin, and are highly receptive to the Gospel. Those who have grown up in this culture are often more resistent to the Gospel—it takes eight or nine times to hear the Gospel before one repents and is saved (to paraphrase).
Amazingly, the Holy Spirit anticipated issues that we might not even have expecte. For example, he preached a sermon series on 1 Corinthians regarding meat sacrifices to idols, and got a lot of emails afterwards from Chinese Canadian believers who are struggling with this very issue in their families today.
8. How do you preach to both believers and unbelievers at the same time? In your ministry, do you focus on one over the other?
Neufeld: You can be encouraging the faith of both the believer and the non-believer. So many say you have to be "seeker-sensitive" to reach the lost, but genuine, bona fide non-believers out there want the truth straight up. Tell it the way it's written, and the Holy Spirit will regenerate those whom God calls.
Of course people will be offended. We have many non-believers coming here each weekend. There are some who are offended and leave, but there has never been a weekend when someone hasn't come to Christ.
9. What do you do to ensure that you are not preaching on talent alone, but are relying on the Holy Spirit? (Both in the process of studying and in preaching.)
Hughes: Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that a pastor can be pleased with the sermon he's prepared, without any dependence on the Holy Spirit, and effects a false passion, which is a very seductive thing. It's a matter of constant repentance and dependence upon God and submission to His Word.
Neufeld: He was preaching from Philemon on reconciliation. He thought he had it all worked out, but something happened the day before to convict him of the truths in that letter. He trusts that the Holy Spirit will awaken him on whatever he's preaching on.
Ware: The self-suffiency of God. When he first encountered this doctrine, he was transformed. Everything we have is a gift of God, and anything we have to contribute is His doing and by His grace. Do we struggle? Yes, we are still sinners. But Ware is grateful to God for His mercy in revealing His self-sufficiency to him early in his life.
Short: This is delicate, but if we rely on our gifts and not on the Spirit, we have a ministry that is shallow, and God will deal with us. He will not allow that to continue.
Hughes: The gift of gab and a great presence in front of people can be a great disability. God's strength is perfected in weakness.
10. How does biblical theology fit in, if we are only to “say what the text says”? How do you preach a single passage within the context of the meta-narrative of Scripture?
Short: The sermons one hears in evangelical churches tend to take a text and use it as a springboard to talk about other things. E.g., preaching on God's call of and promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, and interpreting
Exodus is about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Every time you preach on Exodus, you need to preach on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus said that all Scriptures bear witness to Him. When we preach on Zechariah, Hebrews, or Leviticus, people need to go away with a greater understanding of who Jesus is.
Finally, to wrap up, Pastor Kroeker asked Rector Short if he could recommend any books on this subject (apart from the Bible itself, if I may expand upon what he said!). Reverent Short recommended Vaughan Roberts' book God's Big Picture: Tracing the Story-Line of the Bible (Intervarsity Press, September 2006), which is a short, readable book built upon Graeme Goldsworthy's work.
April 15, 2008
reFocus 08 Q & A: Expositional Preaching
reFocus 08: Bruce Ware (part 2)
We start off this morning with Bruce Ware's second session, on Universal Authority: The Authority of the Creator. (See the notes for yesterday's session on The Basis for Authority: Authority in the Godhead.)
Worship Pastor Ron Clark started us off, then Senior Pastor John Neufeld introduced Dr. Ware again and opened with a prayer.
As with yesterday's session, what follows is a combination of Dr. Ware's own copious notes, direct quotes from what he said, and in some cases my own paraphrases. Incidentally, Dr. Ware is an NASB guy, by the way.
I. Introduction
The most fundamental principle of all is that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
I-A. Genesis 1:1
To create is to own, and to own is to rule. The Creator of heaven and earth owns all that he has made, and he alone has rightful rulership, therefore, over it all. This passage declared in a polytheistic world that there is One God Who is over all of creation, and therefore the rightful owner and ruler of all that he has made. There is no portion of creation that stands outside of God's rightful jurisdiction, because he created all of it. To create is to own, and to own is to rule. Monotheism is a revealed truth: had the ancient Jews followed their neighbours, they would not have come up with a monotheistic doctrine. Yahweh is God over all, and all are accountable to him. This is the foundation upon which everything else is built. Universal Creatorship and hence universal Lordship over all.
I-B. Acts 17:24-25
Summary of a Theology of God as Creator. The Creator of heaven and earth is thereby shown to be both Sovereign Lord over all, and Self-sufficient Provider for all. Dr. Ware brings up a passage that has been discussed recently on another blog. Dr. Ware's approach is that the one God the Greeks knew nothing about (the "Unknown God") is precisely the only true God. God needs nothing from creation, and owes nothing to creation. We receive life and breath and all things from God (verse 25). He is the sovereign Ruler and the independent, self-sufficient Lord of all. God has authority over creation insofar as he is the sovereign Ruler, self-sufficient and independent.
The two remaining sections of Dr. Ware's session (sections II and III below) come directly from the principles stated in Acts 17:24-25.
II. As Creator, God is Lord over All—Sovereignty
II-A. Definition of Divine Sovereignty
God plans and carries out his perfect will, as he alone knows is best, and he does so without failure or defeat, accomplishing everything pertaining to the created order, from the smallest details to the entire course of human history, according to the counsel of his will and fulfilling his purposes in all things.
II-B. God's Sovereignty Exhibited—Daniel 4:34-35
Daniel had interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream to him, on God's bestowing him with riches. Rather than being humble, twelve months later, the king marvelled at what he perceived to be his own achievement, denying the sovereignty of the Lord. The chastening came swiftly, relayed to the king by Daniel, "until [Nebuchadnezzar would] know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will." God has sovereignty over even the rulers of the earth. After seven years of living like a wild animal in the wilderness, he was restored. And in his prayer after being restored to the throne, he prayed:
1. Everlasting Sovereignty—"His dominion is an everlasting dominion" (4:34)
There is one God who rules over all. There is no one—without exception—who does not owe every moment of their lives to the sovereign Lord. Every one of us owes everything to God. He is the everlasting God. Compare Romans 1:21—He exists and is sovereign over all, whether we acknowledge Him or not. We as Christians especially must be thankful to God for everything. There can be fewer things that are more of an affront to God than a grumbling, complaining Christian. From Him come life and breath and all things. There is nothing we have that we deserve. Well, one thing—condemnation. That is the only thing we earn and deserve. Anything else that God bestows upon us is a blessing by His grace alone. (Amen!)
2. Uncontested Sovereignty—"All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing" (4:35a)
..."and [or 'but'] he does according to his will." Nothing can thwart the plans of God.
3. Universal Sovereignty—"the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth" (4:35b)
4. Victorious Sovereignty—"no one can ward off His hand" (4:35c)
5. Righteous Sovereignty—"no one can say to Him, 'What have You done?'" (4:35d).
A humble question before God, e.g., "God, I don't understand why you have ordained this" is one thing. But the accusatory, spiteful crying out to heaven of "What have You done?" is a different thing entirely. No one can question what God does, for all things are ultimately for His glory alone (to paraphrase). He has rightful rulership over all.
III. As Creator, God is Independent of All—Self-Sufficiency
III-A. Definition of Divine Self-Sufficiency
God possesses within himself, intrinsically and eternally, every quality in infinite measure.
What the Puritans meant by perfection: everything that is qualitatively good—all beauty, wisdom, truth, righteousness, justice—are possessed within God intrinsically. Is the qualifier "intrinsically" redundant? No. There can be things within us that are extrinsic to us (like the air we breathe into our lungs). Hence we as humans are beholden to things outside ourselves for things we need. God, however, possesses every quality within Himself. It is impossible for anything outside God to contribute anything to Him that He lacks: He possesses it already. God's "godness," as it were, is His possession of everything that is qualitatively good. There no quality outside Himself that could be added to His being. And He possesses all these qualities eternally. There has never been a time, nor shall there ever be, a time when He did not or will not possess any of these qualities. What does "infinite" mean? Without limit, measure, or boundary. Without end.
Dr. Ware then quoted the moving last verse of a hymn that his father used to sing: Frederick M. Lehman's The Love of God:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were ev'ry stalk on earth a quill,
And ev'ry man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the
Whole, though stretched from sky to sky.
God's love is utterly without bounds. It is infinite, never to be depleted by even the smallest iota. (My paraphrase.)
III-B. God's Self-Sufficiency Exhibited—Isaiah 40:12-17
1. God's Immensity and Power (40:12)
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span...?" Dr. Ware told a story of taking his daughters to the beach, scooping a handful of water out of the ocean, and asking them if they saw the water level of the ocean go down. "No, Daddy," they replied. But imagine, he told them, that there is Someone big enough Who could dip His hand (as it were) down, and scoop up the entire Pacific Ocean in one fell swoop.
Dr. Ware then launched into a magnificent description of the awesome, incomprehensible dimensions of space. Light travels at hundreds of thousands of miles (or kilometres) a second. There are ten billion stars just in the Milky Way galaxy. There are hundreds of millions of galaxies in the universe, separated by hundreds of millions of light years of space. Who can measure that with a span—a unit measuring the distance between one's thumb and forefinger? Imagine that: God is so much incomprehensibly bigger even than the whole universe.
2. God's Knowledge and Wisdom (40:13-14)
Who has ever been God's adviser. Who taught Him his knowledge? No one. No one has ever taught God. He has no need. What could we possibly tell God that He doesn't know far more thoroughly than we. God could do us such a favour—those of us who have intellectual pride, especially—if in an instant He could reveal to us exactly how much more He knows than we know. It would humble us for eternity! Who are we to pray to Him instructing Him what to do? We must approach Him in our prayers as children praying to our Father who knows best. We should always end our prayers with somethig along the lines of, "Not my will, but Yours be done." Lord, be merciful to me, and do what You know is best. We ought to have that sense of humility (that accompanies boldness) before the Throne of Grace.
3. Implications for Us (40:15-17, 27-31)
The nations—the totality of all humanity—are like a drop in a bucket or a speck of dust on the scales. Trivial, inconsequential, absurdly small. A speck of dust wouldn't even tip a scale. We might respond, "Well, at least we're a speck!" Read on: it gets worse. All the nations are as nothing. Well, it couldn't get any worse, could it? Yup. All the nations are less than nothing and meaningless.
Now, this doesn't mean He doesn't care about the nations: John 3:16. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Or the end of Isaiah 40 (verses 28 to 31). God lifts us up. So what was the point of the earlier verses? To make us realize that we depend upon God for everything, and we can contribute nothing to Him.
IV. Implications and Applications of God as Sovereign and Self-Sufficient Creator
IV-A. Because God as Creator is universally sovereign and infinitely rich and full, i.e., because God is fully sovereign and self-sufficient, consider these implications:
- God does not need the glorious creation he has made, either in whole or any part, including his creation of human beings. As humbling as it is true, God does not need us (Isaiah 40; Acts 17:25). Because of erroneous thinking here (God created us because He was lonely), Christian service can be so skewed. We're doing work God needs because He can't do it, goes the thinking, which is absolutely blasphemous and so deeply dishonouring of the God Who does not need anything and is not served by human hands as though He needed anything. You must take this truth and make it your own. God does not need me. What is the theological answer to the idea that "God is lonely"? The Holy Trinity. He already has an infinitely rich and full fellowship within Himself, in the three Persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- God does not need anything from us; he needs no help, no gifts, no service, no fellowship (Acts 17:25) Though he commands our obedience and calls us to service, he needs nothing that we are or have to offer. The first thing we ought to think about ministry is privilege: a privilege He bestows upon His according to His sovereign will. (My paraphrase.)
- God cannot receive anything from us that is not previously, rightfully, and entirely his and his alone (Acts 17:25; James 1:17). In fact, this is so much the case that God is both dishonoured and offended when we approach him as if he needs that we have to bring him, as if we can give him something that he lacks (Psalm 50). Rather, every good and perfect gift, necessarily, is from him and him alone (Acts 17:25; James 1:17). Imagine this: there is no true thought, no good work, no discerning word, no talent, no ability, no gifting that is not from him. For every quality that exists in creation, and in your lives and mine, is there at all, and is there to the scope and extent that it is, only because God, in his grace and kindness, has granted this to us. While God possesses all that he has—all that there is—intrinsically, in contrast, we have what we have—all that we have—by derivation. We owe him everything for all that we have and enjoy.
- As Creator of all that is, his rights of ownership and of rulership are as extensive as the creation itself. We have no claim on our own lives or anything that we call our own. God has absolute rights over our lives, and it is our duty to reverence, honour, and obey him.
Dr. Ware mentioned John Piper's teaching on delighting in the Lord, which Dr. Ware embraces as well. He pointed out that in Pastor Piper's teaching, delight and duty always go together. Holiness and happiness are wed: they should never be bifurcated.
What should one do if the offering plate comes around one Sunday morning and one doesn't delight in offering money that day? There are expenses, cash is short.... The answer is that we should give the money, and our confess our sin in the same moment. What is the sin? Lord, forgive me for not delighting in my duty, in not loving to do what I ought to do. More generally, we should pray, "God, move my heart to love to do what I ought to do, to delight in my duty."
IV-B. Questions for Application
1. Why are we here? What is our purpose?
Although God doesn't need us, he loves us, and his purpose in creating and redeeming us is not that we might fill up some lack in him, but that he might fill us up with himself. He made us empty to be filled with his fullness, thirsty to drink of the water of life, weak to receive his strength, foolish to be instructed and corrected by his wisdom. In his love, he longs to give, to share the bounty. He wants us to experience in finite measure the fullness of joy and blessing that he knows infinitely—all to redound to the praise and glory of his name, the Giver and Provider of all the good we enjoy.
C.S. Lewis, in his The Problem of Pain, says that God's love is not like ours, helping another while needing also to be helped. No, God's love, says Lewis, is "bottomlessly selfless, by very definition; it has everything to give and nothing to receive" (p. 50).
2. Why does God demand our obedience?
As Creator and sovereign Lord, God has absolute rights over us, and hence, his command to obey him reflects what is both right and good. But furthermore, even though God is self-sufficient and doesn't need our obedience, he loves us and wants our best. And he knows that our only true joy is found when we follow in his ways. So his demands (yes, demands!) that we obey him are, then, both our duty and our delight.
His commandments lead us to life; they are given as from a Lover. C.S. Lewis, again, says concerning the commandments of God, "Those divine demands, which sound to our natural ears most like those of a despot and least like those of a lover, in fact marshal us where we should wnat to go if we knew what we wanted" (p. 52). As he says in his sermon, "The Weight of Glory," we are far too easily satisfied. God calls us to life, and this is found only in obedience to his will and ways. Obeying God, then, is simultaneously our highest obligation and our greatest satisfaction, our responsibility and our riches, our duty and our delight.
3. Why does God enlist our service?
Psalm 100:2 and Acts 17:25—how to put these together? He doesn't need our service, so his call for us to serve is a call to participate in the privilege and joy of the ministry of grace that flows from him, into us, and then through us into the lives of others. We can take no credit. All we have is a gift from him, and he gives us what we have to be used in service to others. God is so shareful! He is so generous! Rather than just doing the work unilaterally—which he surely could do (!) since he is both sovereign and self-sufficient—he devises a plan by which he intends that some of the work be done in and through others, by calling and equipping and using them. We have absolutely no basis for boasting, either before God or others. Human pride is utterly shattered; it is devasted, when we understand in the depths of our souls the infinite and intrinsic fullness that is God's alone for all eternity. It not only is not about us; it is not of us, or from us, or because of us! All that we are—every quality that we possess; all that we have&mdahs;every good and worthwhile characteristic; and all that we can do&mdahs;every ability, both in its kind and in its degree—all are gifts to us from God. We simply cannot rightfully take credit for anything we ever are or ever do.
4. Why does God call us to pray?
Does God benefit from our prayers? Does he learn new things? Think of it, in Matthew 6, in light of Jesus telling us not to worry since the Father already knows what we need, you might think that he'd teach regarding prayer, "don't bother." But God invented prayer as a tool, a mechanism, for drawing us close to him, in sensed dependency, trust, hope, faith, love, longing, anticipation. It is for relationship—for our relationship with him!
5. Why does he require our worship?
a. It is our highest duty to worship God alone, for in him alone is the fullness of infinite perfection and the authority of absolute sovereignty. Hence, Isaiah 42:8; 1 Corinthians 10:31.
b. It is our greatest delight to worship God alone, for from him alone do we receive the fullness of everlasting joy and satisfaction. Hence, Isaiah 55:1-3; John 15:11.
c. It is our ultimate destiny to worship God alone, for to him alone are we drawn to know the intimacy of his glorious presence. Hence, Isaiah 11:9; John 17:24.
V. Conclusion
Dr. Ware summed up the application this way: Live your days going after, seeking, pursuing, praying for, studying for all that God longs to bring to you, as your heart is drawn to Him with an attitude of loving, willing reception of all that He has to give us. The revelation of Christ poured into our lives.
Amen! The grace of God is good, and we should be thankful to Him every moment of every day. (Those are my words.) Dr. Neufeld finished off with a closing prayer.
April 14, 2008
reFocus 08: Bruce Ware (part 1)
Our first speaker at reFocus 2008 is Bruce Ware, Associate Dean and Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and President-Elect of the Evangelical Theological Society. We (the Willingdon congregants) had the honour of hearing a guest sermon from him this past weekend, "Beholding the Trinitarian God," on distinct but complementary roles of the three persons of the Trinity in salvation.
Tonight, Dr. Ware is speaking on The Basis for Authority: Authority on the Godhead. Our Assistant Worship Pastor, Andy Frew, led off with a set of worship songs old and new, Pastor Daryl Kroeker led us in prayer, and our Senior Pastor John Neufeld introduced Dr. Ware by explaining the motivation for the reFocus conference.
Over the last number of decades, said Pastor Neufeld, there has been a drifting away from the authority of Scripture. It's getting harder and harder to define what it is to be Evangelical. There used to be a consensus; but it seems that now, most churches and denominations that call themselves Evangelical seem to be more and more fractured around certain themes. The consequence is that many churches decide to leave certain decisions on fundamental issues to individual believers.
The Evangelical landscape has evolved into a three-ring circus that one can choose what one likes from; "pick your poison," as it were. So he prayed on that: what is God calling Evangelicals in Western Canada to do? Why don't we have conferences that are not about church growth or "how to...," but get back to Scripture and ask, "What saith the Word on various issues?" This year's theme is about leading with biblical authority. What does authority look like? Scripture itself is sufficient to tell us.
From here, Pastor John Neufeld moved on to introduce Dr. Ware and lead off with a prayer. The following notes are a combination of a handout prepared by Dr. Ware, direct quotes from him, and some paraphrases by me.
I. Introduction
Dr. Ware started off with an overview of the doctrine of the Trinity. The early church struggled into the 4th century on the question of who is Jesus, and what is His relationship to the Father? Once that was settled in Nicea, the question came up, what about the Holy Spirit. Finally, as a result of Nicea, Constantinople, and Chalcedon, the doctrine of the Trinity came into expression. The amazing thing is that even though the church held that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God—and they lived in a polytheistic environment—they held very strictly to the monotheistic principle they inherited from Judaism. So how did they reconcile the realization that there are three persons in the Trinity, with the principle of monotheism?
I-A. Twin Pillars for Trinitarian Doctrine: Equality and Distinction
The three persons of the Trinity are distinct and different from each other. But this on its own would lead to tritheism. So the other necessary theme is the identity or equality theme: the Father is God, AND the Son is God, AND the Holy Spirit is God. The equality of the Trinity is even greater than that which exists between human beings. There is one God, and one nature that is possessed simultaneously and eternally by all three persons. The three persons are distinct, but equally God.
Consider John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God [distinction], and the Word was God [identity]."
Or Ephesians 1:1-2: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God [distinction], to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ [identity]."
Moving on Ephesians 1:3-14, if we read it very carefully, we can see Paul's careful distinction between the roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You must pay careful attention to the pronouns. There are lots of "he"s and "him"s, and none of them refer generically to God: they each refer to one or another distinct person of the Godhead.
In sum (regarding Ephesians 1), we see the distinction of the Father and the Son in verse 1, the equality of the Father and the Son in verse 2, and the implicit ranking of the members of the Trinity, with Father supreme, the Son next, and the Spirit next, for example in verse 3 (Dr. Ware holds that "spiritual blesssing" refers to blessings of the Holy Spirit).
I-B. Definition of the Trinity
God's whole and undivided essence belongs equally, eternally, simultaneously, and fully to each of the three Persons of the Godhead, so that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each is fully God while each is his own personal expression, in role and activity, of the one eternal and undivided divine essence.
I-C. Brief Elaboration
There is one God, but three personal expressions of the one undivided, infinite, and eternal nature of God. By "nature," the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each is equally God, and each is fully God, as each possesses fully the one undivided nature. Yet each is a different Person, and as such, each is different in role and position within the Godhead. The Father is supreme in authority, the Son under the Father, and the Spirit under the Father and the Son.
Clearly, when we see the Trinity for what it is, we do marvel. We marvel at the unity of their work, and we marvel at the authority and submission relationship that works so smoothly and perfectly in accomplishing this work. Unity of purpose and harmony of work, yet with differentiation in lines of authority and submission within the Godhead—this truly is a marvel to behold.
II. The Father's Unique Role Within the Trinity
II-A. The Father as Supreme among the Persons of the God-head
Dr. Ware cited passages in which God the Father has supreme authority. One of the Father's prerogatives in some of these passages is the right to bestow authority to the Son. The father bestows the gift which is mediated by the Son and activated by the Spirit: this is the common theme in these passages. See Psalm 2:7-9, Revelation 19, Matthew 6:9-10, 1 Corinthians 15:28, Ephesians 1:3, and Philippians 2:9-11.
II-B. The Father as the Grand Architect, the Wise Designer of Creation, Redemption, and Consummation
See again Ephesians 1, specifically verses 9-12, in which God the Father is the supreme Architect of His plan of redemption. The Father is the One Who designs the whole of His creation to be summed up in His Son. Consider the humility of God, who shines the spotlight upon His Son. The Father who directs and commands the Son and ordains all, is the One Who wills that the Son is the One Who is worshipped, followed, and glorified.
Consider also Colossians 1:12. Paul specifically mentions giving thanks to the Father for sending His Son to redeem us, and all the other marvellous things in the following verses.
II-C. The Father is the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift
See James 1:17 and Romans 8:31-32—especially in the latter case, verse 32: "He [the Father] who did not spare His own Son but gave Him [the Son] up for us all, how will He [the Father] not also with Him [the Son] graciously give us all things?"
II-D. Yet, the Father is the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift.
All of Ephesians 1:3-14 makes this clear. The Father is to be praised, but His gifts to us come—every one of them—through the Son and Spirit.
III. The Father's Role of Authority in Relation to the Submissive and Obedient Son
III-A. The Son is under the headship or authority of the Father—General Truth Stated
1 Corinthians 11:3: "But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ."
Note: Nowhere in Scripture does the Father ever do the will of His Son. It is always the Son Who does the will of His Father.
III-B. The Son's Submission of the Father over the Son is clear in the Son's incarnation and earthly mission
Consider John 8:28-29 or John 4:34. Jesus Christ in His incarnate ministry was doing the will of Him Who sent Him, and was sent to accomplish His work. The amazing thing is that in His earthly life, we can surmise that He never woke up wondering, "What am I going to do today?" His sole purpose was to do the will of His Father. He always does what pleases His Father. Dr. Ware then made a key exegetical point on a verse that I missed: Christian freedom is doing the will of the Father. This is "counter-cultural."
But what about in His eternal relationship with the Father? Is the submission to the Father merely incarnational—only true during the time of His earthly mission? There are some who argue that, but it is manifestly not the case: see the next section.
III-C. The Son's Submission to the Father in eternity past
Forty times in John's gospel, Jesus mentions in fact that the Father has sent Him to accomplish the mission that He is here to do. Some might be understood as a "sending" that occurred during the incarnation itself, but most refer to His being sent from heaven.
Did God suddenly decide after Christ came into the world—or some time before, but after the Fall? No. See 1 Peter 1:20: God's plan of redemption came before the foundation of the world.
So, it is clear that the Son obeyed the Father in heaven, in order to come from heaven, and He obeyed His Father in coming from heaven. Therefore, His submission to the Father existed in eternity past. See also John 3:16-17, 10:36, and 6:38.
III-D. The Son's Submission to the Father in eternity future
The single clearest passage that indicates this truth is 1 Corinthians 15:25-28—"For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet." But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. "When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all."
Consider the Garden of Gethsemane: not my will, but Yours be done.
IV. Jesus' authority and primacy over the Spirit—in his role as the Son of the Father
While Jesus submitted to the Spirit for the sake of His incarnational mission, Scripture is clear that the Spirit's role most fundamentally is to elevate, extol, and honour the highest position and authority of the Son. The incarnate Christ lived in the power of the Spirit, as the second Adam, as the son of David; but Jesus had authority over the Spirit. See John 14:25-26, 15:26; Acts 2:33; John 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 John 4:1-3.
Consider the historical controversy over the "filoloque clause": the Spirit comes from the Father and and the Son, as clearly witnessed in Scripture.
The Spirit exalts Christ. What does a Spirit-filled person or church look like? See 1 Cor 12:3—someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit loves Christ.
V. The Spirit's Uniform Purpose to Put Forward Jesus
V-A. Inspiration of Scripture, by the Spirit, but focused on Christ
The Spirit working through human authors ensured that every word was written exactly as God wanted it to be (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21).
What is the Bible about? If the Spirit wrote it, note that it is not autobiographical. Luke 24:24-27, 44—especially, "He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures" (verse 27) and "These are My woreds which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms [the threefold division of the Hebrew Bible at the time] must be fulfilled."
The Holy Spirit is the Author of Scripture, and Jesus Christ is its central figure.
In the very context where Paul asserts that the words he speaks are taught by the Spirit, listen to what he talks about: 1 Corinthians 1:18, 23; Galatians 6:14
V-B. Evangelism, by the Spirit, proclaiming the gospel of Christ
Consider Acts 1:8, and marvel at the Spirit's empowerment to proclaim not the message of the Spirit but the message of Christ. "You shall be My witnesses," says Jesus. And what does Peter proclaim on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit descends? Christ crucified, risen, and exalted!
This is part of what makes the inclusivist view so wrong and distressing. There is no independent work of the Spirit that does not point to the Son. Everything about the Spirit's work involves Christ and his work.
V-C. Salvation, wrought in our lives by the Spirit, to conform us to the likeness of Christ
In initial conversion (2 Corinthians 4:4-6), and in our transformation (2 Corinthians 3:18), the Spirit constantly urges upon us the beauty and glory of Christ. Consider 1 Corinthians 12:3.
Conclusion: In all He does, the Spirit chooses and works to shine the spotlight on Jesus.
VI. Application
- Marvel at the Father who designs and purposes and wills all that He does so that the spotlight shines not on Himself, first and foremost, but on His Son, to the ultimate glory of His name. Marvel, then, at the humility of the Father in the exaltation of His Son. Perhaps Philippians 2:9-11 expresses this as well as any text. Learn here the kind of humility that one in authority may have before a subordinate. There is such misunderstanding here. As if humility before another cannot be exercised by one in authority, from one who commands and controls what occurs. Not true. But notice here, the humility of the Father is shown first in appointing the Son to share in the work that the Father designs, and then by honouring the Son who accomplishes the work He has been appointed to do.
- Marvel at the submission of the eternal Son to the eternal Father, carried out with absolute fidelity to His Father's will, and with nothing but joy and happiness and satisfaction. Note: this is true not merely of the incarnate Son, but of the eternal Son, to the eternal Father! And marvel at the Spirit's joyful willingness to be eternally in submission to the Father and to the Son. Take this to heart, and apply this principle broadly in ministry: It is as God-like to submit joyfully and gladly to rightful authority as it is God-like to exercise wise and benevolent rightful authority. Is it any wonder that that when God created human beings in His image, that He made them equal in essence, but distinct in function? Relationships of authority and submission in human relationships, then, derive from and should be modelled after the relations of authority and submission in the Godhead.
- Marvel at the both the unity and harmony of the relationship of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. Unity implies that they have one purpose, work toward one common goal, follow one common plan, and fulfill one common mission. The Son fully accepts the will of the Father, and carries it out in the power of the Spirit, and in this, there is fully unity. But, there is also harmony, where the unity is manifest through differing parts, not just one, differing voices, if you will, not unison. The voice of the Father might be likened to the melody line, perhaps, but the Son and Spirit do not sing unison with the Father. Each has His own distinctive line of the music to sing, so that together the music produced has the richness and texture of harmony, not the overlap or redundancy of unison. The Son, then, works in common cause with the Father, and the Spirit does His work, empowering the Son and furthering His work, but each does the work that only that Person can do. Unity and harmony, identity and distinction, sameness and difference—this dual reality marks the roles and relationships of the Persons of the Trinity. Do we seek in our churches and in our ministries, a unity of unison, or have we caught the vision for the more glorious, the richer, the more textured unity of harmony? Can we celebrate the variety of gifting in the body of Christ, while all together seeking, in our different ways, to fulfil the mandate of the one Lord of the Church?
Bottom line: The basis for authority is in the eternal Godhead. What is authority if there is nothing to submit? Does authority originate with creation? No. Authority and submission is eternal within the very Godhead. We as Christian people and Christian communities ought to be among those who are the most counter-cultural in the societies in which we live: rather than chafe at and despise submitting to authority, we ought to joyfully and gladly submit to God and do the will of the Father. Wives to husbands, church members to elders, employees to employers, citizens to the states. This is not some device simply to maintain control, but a reflection of the divine order.
We ought to exercise authority in a God-like fashion: to elevate and lift up those under our authority. It is our gift and our stewardship that has been entrusted to us.
After the Session
After Dr. Ware finished, Pastor Neufeld asked Dr. Ware what he thinks of the concept of "servant leadership." Dr. Ware said the phrase has always caused him "cognitive dissonance." To work, it must serve and build up those under the leader's charge.
Dr. Ware is a complementarian. His teaching on the Trinity seems to fit into this, observed Pastor Neufeld. Yes, replied Dr. Ware—conversely, those who reject Dr. Ware's teaching on this subject are generally egalitarians.
After this, Pastor Neufeld finished with a closing prayer, and we broke for evening coffee. Next session bright and early tomorrow!
