Christ Church

Kirkers Read 10: Truth in Tension

Ben Zornes on

As we head into week ten of the Summer Bible Reading Challenge, we will be reading through 2 Corinthians and the epistle to the Ephesians. Particularly with 2 Corinthians it is important to keep something vital in mind, these letters are written in the thick of profoundly difficult situations. Paul isn’t writing a letter to perfect saints, in perfect churches, in perfect cities, from the comfort of his armchair, pipe in hand, Bach playing in the background… although Paul strikes me as a classic rock kind of guy, but that’s beside the point…

It is apparent that the rebuke of the incestuous man of 1 Corinthians 5 produced quite the kerfuffle. It produced, on the whole, godly repentance and sorrow (2 Cor. 7:8). However, after Paul’s visit (after the writing of 1 Corinthians) the offender plainly was continuing to gripe and wrangle causing Paul to write again (2 Cor. 2:3-4). Put yourself in Paul’s shoes; this was not a pleasant situation. It was tense, difficult, and likely painful for Paul, the congregation, the man being rebuked, and the larger body of believers who were acquainted with the situation. Remember that as you read. These truths about our reconciliation with God through Christ (2 Cor. 5), the ministry of reconciliation we’ve been given (2 Cor. 5-6), the precious promises we’ve received (2 Cor. 7:1), the nature of true repentance (2 Cor. 7), grace in sufferings (2 Cor. 12), are all rising in the midst of a profoundly difficult controversy. To top it off, after this letter, once Paul returned again to Corinth to continue to sort out this and the other issues facing that church, he wrote the book of Romans. The deep truths presented in that epistle are in the context of practical Christian living, in the midst of the rough and tumble of pastoral ministry.

Similarly, we see in the book of Ephesians the presentation of the rock solid foundations of the Christian faith (chapters 1-3) leading to the practical execution of those truths in the Christian’s daily life (chapters 4-6). We must never think that our doctrines and ethics sit on opposite ends of the cafeteria. They ought to be best friends. This is all a simple reminder that in reading Scripture we not only learn about who God is, but we are exhorted to put what we learn about God into action by imitating Him!

Read Full Article

Kirkers Read 09: Something’s Amiss in Corinth

Ben Zornes on

Corinth was a wealthy city, and quite influential in the ancient world. When Paul first visited, in Acts 18, he landed himself––as he often did––in a legal tussle. The magistrate Gallio decided that since the friction was between the Jews and what––to him––seemed to be only a sect of the Jewish faith (i.e. the Christians)––that he had no business interfering with this dispute. This was an important precedent, and is a clear instance of God moving the heart of kings to His own ends. In this decree, it allowed Paul future freedom in other cities to teach the Gospel freely.

However, after the establishment of the church in Corinth, it would seem that Jewish Christians came along and began teaching a spin on the implications of the resurrection of Christ. They taught that the resurrection was the inauguration of the Israelite kingdom, and that the Gentiles were considered inferior in God’s eyes, unless they fully submitted to the Mosaic law. While these Jewish believers were right in declaring that Christ’s resurrection was the inauguration of His kingdom, they seem to have been still clinging to a position which the Jerusalem Council had already decided against. In essence, Gentiles and Jews were one in Christ, and Gentiles need not be circumcised.

These errant teachings stirred up a partisan spirit in the congregation. Which is why Paul opens his letter to them by rebuking this party-spirit and declaring that we are all under the headship of Christ. Further, there were other issues in the Corinthian church, as the scathing rebuke of the incestuous man in chapter 6 indicates. This certainly wasn’t contributing to a healthy church. Finally, the sign gifts were being sought after as proofs of greater spirituality, and thus contributing more to sectarianism than to unity.

It is striking that the false teaching about the resurrection, which stimulated Paul to write to the church, is the very topic he concludes the letter with. This return to the resurrection of Christ reminds us all that the Christian faith lives or dies by this important event. If Christ be not raised, we are to be pitied. However, if Christ be raised, it is the commencement of a new creation in which every nation, tribe, and tongue are to be joined together in Him as one body, with many members, all to the glory of the Father. The doctrine of the resurrection truly is foundational, and if it is being tinkered with, it is the duty of godly men to fight like hell against false interpretations of it.

Read Full Article

Kirkers Read 08 – A Mere Missionary Letter?

Christ Church on

Later this week we begin the magnificent Book of Romans. What has come to be in many minds the peak of Paul’s writings was actually a missionary fundraising letter, most likely penned from Corinth around A.D. 57 and delivered to the Roman church by Phoebe. But through the providence of God, it has become arguably the most influential letter written in Christian history.

A bird’s eye view of the structure of the Romans looks like this:[i]

  • The Gospel as the Revelation of the Righteousness of God (1:1-17)
  • God’s Righteousness in His Wrath against Sinners (1:18-3:20)
  • The Saving Righteousness of God (3:21-4:25)
  • Hope as a Result of Righteousness by Faith (5:1-8:39)
  • God’s Righteousness to Israel and to the Gentiles (9:1-11:36)
  • God’s Righteousness in Every Day Life (12:1-15:13)
  • The Extension of God’s Righteousness through the Pauline Mission (15:14-16:23)
  • Final Summary of the Gospel of the Righteousness of God (16:25-27)

As you can see, Romans is about the righteousness of God. But the reality is that Romans practically contains all the main themes of Paul’s writings in one. J.I. Packer lists these themes as: God, man, sin, law, judgment, faith, works, grace, creation, redemption, justification, sanctification, the plan of salvation, election, reprobation, the person and work of Christ, the work of the Spirit, the Christian hope, the nature of the church, the place of Jew and Gentile in God’s purpose, the philosophy of the church and world history, the meaning and message of the Old Testament, the significance of baptism, the principles of personal piety and ethics the duties of Christian citizenship — et cetera!”[ii]

So take up and read! Paul’s letter to the Romans has built up the Church for the past two millennia, and God is ready and willing and able to encourage and instruct you through this same letter. But be prepared, for “when the message of Romans gets into a person’s heart there is no telling what may happen.” [iii]

P.S. — If you would like to see all of Paul’s words arranged in one letter, Pastor Doug has recently completed such a project, The Complete Paul. This book is “a compendium of everything the Apostle Paul wrote in systematic, topical order using the Book of Romans as the framework around which to arrange all the topics.”

[i] ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).

[ii] J.I. Packer, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press, 2011) 254.

[iii] Ibid., 253. Full quote: “All roads in the Bible lead to Romans, and all views afforded by the Bible are seen most clearly from Romans, and when the message of Romans gets into a person’s heart there is not telling what may happen.”

Read Full Article

Kirkers Read 07 – Revival by Riot

Ben Zornes on

We pointed out that last week, the books of Luke and Acts belong together as a two-volume defense of the gospel, likely to be presented during Paul’s trial in Rome. One of the most striking features of the second volume (Acts) is the progression of gospel preaching, riot, followed by revival. Throughout the book we see the Apostles, and especially Paul, proclaiming the gospel near and far, and almost always there was some controversy, fight, riot. But in the end, saints were always added to their number.

The reason this is striking is that some of the most famous sermons of the early church, which are recorded in Acts, are in the setting of civil hearings, trials, public debates, etc. It is easy for modern American Christians to look at civil society through the grid of “separation of Church and State.” In many ways this hinders us from provoking the society to deal with the political claim at the heart of the Christian faith: “Jesus Christ is King.”

Another interesting progression found in Acts is that, as Jesus promised, they would “be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).” Like the concentric circles from the ripples of a pebble dropped in a pond, the book “moves outward” from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. The Messiah had come in relative obscurity, but within a generation his gospel was being declared to the ends of the earth all by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Read Full Article

Kirkers Read 06 – Defending the Faith

Ben Zornes on

As we launch into the second half of the Summer Bible Reading Challenge, we begin with the Gospel of Luke this week, followed by Acts next week. These should be thought of as a two-volume book. They really are inseparable; where Luke leaves off, Acts picks up. Further, it is likely that both books together are a sort of legal briefing which Paul commissioned Luke to write as they were preparing for Paul’s hearing before Caesar (cf. Acts 28:17-20).

You’ll notice that Luke is far more attentive to detail and tedious than the other Gospel writers are, which makes sense given the fact that part of the purpose of this Gospel and Acts is to precisely proclaim the events of Christ’s ministry. Luke tells us in the preface that he is writing unto Theophilus (more on that in a second) “in order (Lk. 1:3).” Matthew Henry asserts that, “When [Luke] was under that voluntary confinement with Paul [in Rome], he had leisure to compile these two histories (and many excellent writings the church has been indebted to a prison for): if so, it was written about twenty-seven years after Christ’s ascension, and about the fourth year of Nero.”

There are three likely options for who Theophilus is. Either a prominent individual believer, a Civil Magistrate (either in Greece or Rome), or a more metaphorical name for the whole church. Given the context of Paul and Luke’s imprisonment in Rome, awaiting a hearing before Nero, it seems probable that this is written to copiously defend the faith before both the Jewish and Gentile leaders. Thus, this is in some sense the first apologetical book in Christian history. Luke begins by announcing the coming of the King in Luke 1-2, and then ends with Paul and the other believers proclaiming Christ’s Kingdom to all the earth (Acts 28:30-31). Luke’s arc in these two volumes is from Incarnation of the Promised One, to the proclamation and miraculous establishment of His Kingdom. All these details are what “are most surely believed among us. (Lk. 1:1).”

Read Full Article