Expositional Listening

A lot of conservative churchgoers like myself often sound the trumpet in demand for thoroughly expositional preaching. And we should. Preaching that is not expository -- that is not explaining and applying a text of Scripture -- is not preaching.

But we can be so vehement in our pursuit of expository preaching, that we can place the responsibility for sanctification-via-sermon solely on the preacher. The truth is, as much as we want our pastors to be expositional preachers, we in the congregation need to be expositional listeners.

Tim Challies wrote a phenomenal post a few weeks ago that I want to reproduce here. Consider these things as you prepare to be affected by the sermons you will listen to in 2010.

Being a Diligent Listener

We set high expectations for our pastors, and rightly so, I think. Ministers of the Word have a high calling before God to be his mouthpiece, to bring his Word to his people. We expect that every Sunday we will sit under the pastor’s teaching and learn sacred truths from his mouth. We expect that he will spend his week studying Scripture and digging deeply into God’s Word so that he can teach us something on Sunday that will change our lives. We expect him to be true to Scripture, to make a good presentation of it and to keep us engaged all the while. It is a difficult and often thankless task.

What we consider less often, I think, is that while a pastor bears great responsibility in preparing for and delivering the Word of God each Sunday, the listener shares in the responsibility. The church has no place for an audience. We are all to be involved in the preaching, even as listeners. We may drive home on Sunday muttering about the pastor’s lack of preparation after a less-than-engaging sermon, but how often do we drive away reflecting on our own lack of preparation? How often should we trace our lack of learning or our lack of engagement right back to our own lack of preparation?

Weekly Preparation
Preparation for the worship service needs to begin before walking into church on Sunday morning. The Bible exhorts us in many places to pray for our pastors. In Romans 15:30-32 Paul begged for the prayers of believers. “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, … that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints…” To the Thessalonians 3:1 he writes “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored.” We should be in regular prayer for the pastor, asking that God will continue to work in his heart and illumine the Word to him so he can in turn teach us. The congregation cannot grow beyond the pastor, so it is crucial that he continue to learn and grow in his faith. At the same time we should pray that the pastor would not fall to the attacks of Satan who is always opposed to any fruitful ministry and who will work diligently to disrupt it.

Physical Preparation
When I was a teenager, I usually tried to sit in the back rows of the sanctuary along with my other friends. We took pride in being able to be the first person to fall asleep during the service. Often we had been up well into the wee hours on the morning the night before and were now looking forward to an opportunity to catch up on our sleep. And what better opportunity is there than when the pastor is speaking for thirty or forty five minutes?

One of the most important things congregation members can do is be prepared for the service. This means that we need to be well-rested and attentive rather than tired and glassy-eyed. Our minds need to be alert and both ready and able to hear the Word of God. As a child I was told that preparing for Sunday begins on Saturday night, the implication being that a good night’s sleep is an important prerequisite to attending a worship service. And I have come to see that this is the truth. Little wonder that Christians have often written prayers and hymns meant to be prayed and sung on Saturday night as a means of preparation. Little wonder that the Jewish Sabbath began at sundown rather than sunup! Going to bed at a reasonable hour on Saturday evening is one of the best ways you can prepare for a meaningful Sunday.

Personal Preparation
When we attend church we should do so with the eager expectation of hearing words that will challenge, convict and change us. We come expecting to hear Divine words. We should approach the service with these goals in mind. We should seek to allow the words of God, as summarized and explained by the pastor, to convict us of sin and shortcomings, to challenge our presuppositions and comfort zones and to begin the process of change in our lives. George Whitefield says, “Come to hear them [pastors], not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty. To enter His house merely to have our ears entertained, and not our hearts reformed, must certainly be highly displeasing to the Most High God, as well as unprofitable to ourselves.” Come eagerly, come expectantly, come excited.

Spiritual Preparation
Knowing that we hope to be challenged, changed and convicted during the preaching of the Word, we should be certain that we are spiritually prepared. Our hearts must not be filled with unrepentant and unconfessed sin. Prior to hearing the proclamation of the Word, we should take opportunity to repent of sin and to make sure we come before God with clean hands and pure hearts. This can be done before even leaving for church or during times of quiet preparation in the service. We should seek the Spirit’s illumination for the words we will hear. Psalm 119 models this as David prays “Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” (verses 17 and 18) David asks the Lord to open his eyes that he might be able to truly understand and apply the words of Scripture to his heart. In the same way we should ask the Spirit to work in us so we can understand. Matthew 5:24 warns against coming to worship while harboring anger or bitterness against a brother. Again, that kind of disunity be reconciled and resolved, as far as is possible, before we come before the Lord in worship.

Pay Attention
This seems almost too obvious, but we should make sure that we are paying attention during the service. It is easy to look around, to chat with the person next to you or to count heads. It is even easy enough to get involved in a “righteous” pursuit such as reading the Bible. But we have just one hour or two hours a week to listen to our pastor so we should be sure that we are making the most of the time. It is not just a good idea, but is our responsibility. Listen, learn and grow. Take a pen, take your Bible and make a dedicated effort. This is a very good thing to pray for throughout the week and on Sunday morning, that God would give us both the desire and the ability to heed the Word as it is preached.

After the Service
Traditionally a portion of Sunday afternoons was dedicated to gathering as a family and speaking about the sermon and perhaps looking over notes taking during it. Many families would sit down together and re-read the passage of Scripture that had been preached on that very morning and would share what they had learned. It was an opportunity for the father to ask his children for their understanding and to help them make application. This is a custom that has largely been lost, but we would benefit, I’m sure, by its recovery.

Pray For Application
After the service, perhaps during some quiet time on Sunday afternoon, we would again do well to pray that the Lord would help work in us what we heard in the morning. We should ask that He would allow the words to continue to convict and change us and that they would not simply fall out of our minds and be lost. In Revelation Jesus said “He who has ears, let him hear.” Hearing goes beyond the ears, but into the mind, the heart and the life. Hearing involves application and application usually requires dedicated though, reflection, meditation. Who knows what application of truth God will draw out of us if we spend time reflecting on what we have heard.

Be Bereans
Our final responsibility is to imitate the Bereans of old who “received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11). We need to be sure that we do not blindly accept what the pastor teaches us, but that we diligently compare his words to the Scripture to ensure that “these things are so.” If your pastor is a godly man, he should be willing and eager to answer questions you may have, and be humble enough to accept correction when he has erred. I do not know of a pastor who would claim he has never made mistakes from the pulpit. When we do detect (or think we detect) error, we should approach the pastor humbly and prayerfully, going to him with our questions and not first to others.

Conclusion
While the responsibility of the preacher cannot be underestimated, the listener is also responsible before God. We, as those who sit under the preaching of the Word, are to prepare ourselves even during the week. And on the Lord’s Day we are to listen attentively, to search the Scriptures and to apply what we have learned to our lives. I fear that far too often we expect the pastor to do the work while we coast along as the beneficiaries of his hard labor. It is time for us to take seriously our role in the preaching of the Word of God. I post this article on a Tuesday. Perhaps it is worth asking: what are you doing today to gain the greatest benefit from the sermon you heard just two days ago? And what are you doing today to prepare yourself for the sermon you will hear just five short days from now?

Don't Waste Your Christmas Presents

With Christmas comes presents. And presents can be both precious and precarious, both delightful and dangerous. It reminded me of this post that I wrote a while back, as I responded to some of John Piper's thoughts in God Is the Gospel.

God is the Giver of all good things (James 1:17). And yet those good things often times entice us to love them over and above the God who gives them. And that is idolatry. So at Christmas time, how are we to glorify God and enjoy the good gifts that come from Him? In other words:

All the enticements to God that are not God are precious and precarious. They can lead us to God or lure us to themselves. They may be food or marriage or church or miracles. All of these blessings bring love letters from God. But unless we stress continually that God Himself is the gospel, people will fall in love with the mailman -- whether his name is forgiveness of sins or eternal life or heaven or ministry or miracles or family or food. (p. 143)

Or laptops, or cameras, or external hard drives, or books... even theological books!

All the gifts of God are given for the sake of revealing more of God's glory, so that the proper use of them is to rest our affections not on them but through them on God alone. (p. 116)

I think I read that sentence about 10 times as I was reading through the book. The way we glorify God in His gracious gifts and at the same time not make idols out of them is, in the moment we receive them, to recognize why God is giving them to us. He is giving us gifts and mercies to reveal His glory, so that we might see Him in them and enjoy and worship and magnify His sweetness. Our affections must not terminate on the gifts. We have to push through the gifts and rest our affections on God alone.

So when I unwrap a Christmas present, I have to push through my affections of, "Wow, this is so cool! I really wanted this!" to "From the bottom of my heart, thank You, Father, for having compassion on me, and giving me the grace to enjoy this good gift. May it be that it only points to the gift of eternal life that You give in Christ. Grant that having this gift causes me to see You, in the beauty of Your fullness and beneficence. Cause me to worship."

Here's another quote:

"Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving" (1Tim 4:4). Yes, if the thanksgiving is rooted in the sight of the glory of the Giver who is more to be admired than all His gifts, and supremely to be enjoyed in all His gifts. (p. 138)

That was another ~10-timer. We must root our thanksgiving in the sight of the glory of the Giver. We are to admire Him more than His gifts, but also we are to enjoy Him in all His gifts.

Love your Christmas gifts. And more importantly, love the people who gave them to you. But most importantly, love your Christmas presents as gifts from God that were designed for you to receive them and see the glory of God in the face of Christ that they're pointing to.

I want to worship God in the good gifts that He gives. Here's more of Piper explaining how that happens:

When the gospel of Jesus Christ frees us to see and savor the glory of God above all things, the way is opened for us to experience seamless joy in God and His gifts. We are able to see every gift as a beam from the sun of God's glory. Every joy in the beam runs up to the fountain of light and ends there. No created thing becomes a rival but only a revelation of God. Therefore we can say that, for the gospel-liberated mind, all joy in created things is seamless with joy in God. (p. 141)

Man I want that! I want a gospel-liberated mind! I want to be so freed from my idolatry and my sin that I can enjoy everything as a gift from my Father, and have none of it be a competition for my worship, but a catalyst for my worship of the Giver.

He goes on, paraphrasing Psalm 73:24-26:

There is nothing in heaven or on earth that I desire besides you, O God. That must mean ... that in and through all the other good things on earth and in heaven, Asaph sees God and loves Him. Everything is desired for what it shows of God. Augustine put it like this: "He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee which he loves not for Thy sake." (p. 144)

Everything is desired for what it shows of God. I want everything that God gives me because it shows me more of Him. Even in gifts that are not God, I want to cherish the Giver as His Greatest Gift.

If I don't, I will waste my Christmas presents.

Don't you do that. Don't waste your Christmas presents.

The True Temple: Glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father

We've been considering Christmas according to John, as John gives us a fresh, theological look into the significance of Christmas in the opening of his gospel. We've been focusing on three key words in John 1:14 that fight against the familiarity of Christmas and cause us to be properly affected by the glory of the incarnation.

First, we considered how Yahweh dwelt among His people in His tabernacle. Then, last time, we considered how the dwelling place of Yahweh is inseparable from His glory. We saw that first in the tabernacle, then in the temple, and finally in Jesus. And so John is proclaiming to his audience that this Jesus is Yahweh’s divine self-expression in the same way that the glory of the Tabernacle and Temple were.

But then he goes even beyond that! He goes beyond that when he mentions our third key word: “… and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.” “Only begotten” there is better translated “unique,” or “One and Only.” And so when John says that this Eternal Word dwelt among us, the glory we saw wasn’t a cloud. It wasn’t a pillar of fire. It was the unique, one-and-only glory of the Father Himself. John presents Jesus, this Word-become-flesh, as the ultimate divine self-expression and the fulfillment of all the tabernacle and temple were! The glory of the tabernacle and the temple was amazing! But in Jesus, something greater than the temple is here (Mt 12:6; cf. John 2:19-21)!

Hebrews 1:1-2 - God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.

John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” No one has seen God at any time. Paul tells us He “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1Tim 6:16). But Jesus, who is Himself God, has explained the unseen Father. Literally, “He has exegeted” Him. John is announcing that Jesus Christ is the exposition of God the Father. Even Jesus Himself said it to Philip: “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9). You wanna know what God is like? Look at Jesus!

• Colossians 1:15 – He is the image of the invisible God.
• Hebrews 1:3 – And He is the radiance of [the Father’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature.
  

And in 2 Corinthians 4:6, in magnificent sweetness, we are told that the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God is in the face of Christ!

This is what John wants us to see when we read verse 14!

• Just as the glory of God appeared in the tabernacle, so now the fullest expression of God’s glory is in Jesus!
• Just as everyone who sought God went to the tabernacle, so now everyone who seeks God must go to Jesus!
• Just as the tabernacle was the place of condescension, where God met man, so now Jesus is where God condescends and meets man!
• Just as the tabernacle was the place where God’s people are consecrated for service, so now Jesus is where God’s people are consecrated and sanctified!
• Just as the tabernacle was the place where God spoke to His people, so now in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son Jesus!
• Just as the tabernacle was the place where atonement for sin was made and God’s wrath was propitiated, so now Jesus is where atonement is made and is where God’s anger is satisfied!
• Just as the tabernacle was the place where Israel worshiped God, so now the “hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24) for they will worship Him in Jesus, and in Jesus alone!
  

The Gospel of Christmas to the Believer

And so this Christmas, as you meditate on the birth of the baby in the manger, don’t neglect to hear John’s words: that in Jesus, God is tabernacling with men as He did in the wilderness. Grasp the weight of the fact that Christmas is about the God of the universe graciously coming again to dwell in glory among men after He had been absent for 600 years!

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel.

Oh see the Godhead veiled in flesh! See Jesus, our Immanuel, our “God-with-us!” Don’t let this be just an academic exercise that stimulates your intellect! The inseparable connection between God’s dwelling place and His glory is screaming at us that the point of the incarnation – the point of the birth of Jesus… the point of Christmas! – is that we might behold His glory!

We didn’t talk about it much but when John says, “We saw His glory,” in verse 14, that word “saw” is theáomai in the Greek. It means “to behold, to contemplate.” One Greek scholar says, “[It is] gazing with a view to satisfy the eye.” We can't miss this! The reason that the Word has become flesh, the reason that Jesus has tabernacled among us, is so that we might gaze at Him and behold His glory, full of grace and truth. And that by beholding Him in all His glory we might receive from that fullness, grace upon grace (Jn 1:16)!

Oh, Christian, would you receive grace upon grace? Would you look to Jesus and see His glory, glory as of the One and Only from the Father? Would you let these truths soak into you that they might satisfy your soul? Would you let them compel your heart to worship Him by embracing Him, and treasuring Him, and delighting in Him, and following Him, and displaying Him to your family and your friends and your neighbors, perhaps even more than you ever have? Oh dear brothers and sisters, receive grace upon grace from your Savior!

The Gospel of Christmas to the Unbeliever

But even as we exult over such glorious things, there is a tragic reality that we’re confronted with. And that is that there are some people reading this that can’t do that. You can’t do what I just described. You can’t receive grace upon grace from Jesus Christ. Because you haven’t believed in Him. Because when you look at Him you don’t see glory. You don’t see the most beautiful thing that ever was. You look at Him and He seems boring, or mythical and fairy-tale-like. You look at Jesus and you say, “Ugh! Get Him away! He’s the guy who spoils all my fun and tells me what to do and makes me feel guilty all the time!”

You need to be born again.

Because just as we read about the Israelites in 2 Chronicles 36, how God sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on them (2Chr 36:15), so I write to you as God’s messenger. And I declare to you that if you, like Israel, reject the glory of God which has tabernacled among us, and you continue to serve your idols of self, money, comfort, and pleasure… then on that last day when Jesus comes again in glory for judgment, the glory of God will depart from you as it did from Israel, and you will go into everlasting punishment. Just as sure as Ezekiel’s prophecy of destruction came upon Judah at the hands of Babylon, so will the Word of God come true for destruction upon those who reject His glory, who reject the Savior, Christ the Lord.

You need to be saved.

And the good news is that that is exactly why Jesus came!

Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die!
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth!

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us ultimately that He might live a perfect life and die on the cross for the sins of His people, that by faith they might behold His glory and receive grace upon grace! The first grace to receive is the grace of the second birth, the grace of salvation, the grace of forgiveness for your sins!

Just as the Israelites did, you have an opportunity to turn from your sin, to turn from your idolatry, and to worship God alone! And so you, in this day, unbeliever, are bid to come to Christ! This is a day of salvation! Flee to Christ while He may be found. Oh, may it never be that you behold the glory of the Lord departing from you, never to return again! Forsake your sin. Embrace the glory of God in the face of Christ (2Cor 4:6). Receive your Savior!

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the One and Only from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is Christmas, dear friends.

This is Christmas.

God's Glory in His Temple: And We Saw His Glory

As we are seeking to be properly affected by the truth that John 1:14 teaches us about Christmas, we are considering three key words in that verse which give us a depth of insight into the significance of the incarnation. The first key word was dwelt.

The second key word that gives us worship-inspiring insight into the significance of the incarnation is glory. After John writes that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he says, “And we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And so having seen how the glory of God was such a big part of His dwelling with His people in the tabernacle (Ex 40:34-38), we now see how “and He dwelt among us,” fits with “and we saw His glory.” There is an inseparable connection between the (1) dwelling place of God, and (2) His glory that fills that place.

In fact, you remember that I mentioned that the Hebrew word for "to dwell" is shākan. Well does that sound like any other popular Hebrew word you might know? How about shekinah? That's the old Jewish word for the glory of God. Shākan and shekinah also have those same consonants. They come from the same root.

And what that teaches us is the same thing John is teaching us by adding on the rest of this verse: that the dwelling of God is absolutely inseparable from the glory of God. In Exodus 40 when the tabernacle is completed, Yahweh’s glory descends and fills the tabernacle to signify that He will dwell there.

The Journey of the Glory of Yahweh in the Tabernacle

And so the glory of Yahweh was with Israel in the tabernacle – a cloud by day and a fire by night (Ex 40:38). And it led them in all their journeys through the wilderness and into the land of Canaan, the Promised Land which He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give to their descendants. And whenever they would move, they would take down the Tabernacle, and then when they would settle in another place they would set up the Tabernacle (Ex 40:37).

And that’s the way it went for over 450 years, even after they entered the land of Canaan. And so if we fast-forward about 450 years from Exodus 40 and the journey of the glory of God with Israel in the wilderness, we arrive at 1 Kings 8.

The Glory Fills the Temple

By this time the construction of Solomon’s temple has been completed. And the temple is just magnificent. It was twice the size of the tabernacle, which itself was impressive. Not including the court, the temple itself was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. And on the inside everything in it was overlaid with gold. And so as construction is finished, the priests and the Levites bring the Ark of the Covenant into the holy of holies, verses 4 through 6, and station the ark under the wings of two massive 15-foot golden cherubim.

Then, 1 Kings 8:9-11 says, “There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb [about 500 years earlier], where Yahweh made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of Yahweh, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.”

Sound familiar?

This is exactly what happened in Exodus 40 at the completion of the tabernacle. Yahweh is now declaring that He will no longer dwell in the tabernacle, but He will be with His people in this temple. And His glory descends and takes up residence. The parallel account in 2 Chronicles 7:3 adds, “All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of Yahweh upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to Yahweh, saying, ‘Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindess is everlasting.’”

Yahweh’s glory settles in His temple. He dwells there among His people.

The Glory Departs from the Temple

Until the tragedy of the Babylonian exile.

Between the time of the completion of Solomon’s temple and the final king of Judah, over 350 years had passed. The glorious united monarchy of Israel had been divided into two kingdoms: Israel the northern, and Judah the southern. And because of the idolatry and apostasy of the northern kingdom Yahweh had given them into the hands of the Assyrians in 721 BC.

And in 592 BC Judah was facing the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians, because of their great wickedness. 2 Chronicles 36 sets the context. Judah is under their final king, Zedekiah. They are only six years away from the Babylonian captivity.

2 Chronicles 36:11-14 – Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of Yahweh his God; he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for Yahweh. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh God of Israel. Furthermore, all the officials of the priests and the people were very unfaithful following all the abominations of the nations; and they defiled the house of Yahweh which He had sanctified in Jerusalem.

Take notice of that. They defiled the temple of Yahweh, where His name dwelt, where His glory dwelt. And then, listen to the sadness in the next two verses:

2 Chronicles 36:15-16 – Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against His people, until there was no remedy.

He did everything He could! But the people just preferred their idols.

The prophet Ezekiel prophesies during this time. And it is his vision that gives most interesting insight into what’s happening at the time of the exile. In Ezekiel 8 [click here], we see the great and wicked abominations of the sons of Israel (Ezek 8:6, 9, 13, 15, 17):

• The idol of jealousy in the inner court (Ezek 8:3, 5)
• Graven images (cf. Ex 20:4-5) of every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things (Ezek 8:10, 12)
• The offering of strange incense (Ezek 8:11; cf. Ex 30:9)
• Women weeping for Tammuz, a god of the Phoenicians (Ezek 8:14)
• Men with their backs to the temple, worshiping the sun (Ezek 8:16)
  

These abominations, this mass idolatry, is happening in the dwelling place of Yahweh! In the place where His glory dwells! In the place where He condescends and meets Israel and provides atonement for their sin!

And so Yahweh visits them in His wrath and destroys so many Israelites that Ezekiel thinks He’s going to wipe out the whole nation (Ezek 9:8). And as that's happening, the glory of Yahweh begins to stir.

Ezekiel 10:1 - Then I looked, and behold, in the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim something like a sapphire stone, in appearance resembling a throne, appeared above them.

He sees heaven opened over the cherubim that protect the Ark of the Covenant! And He sees the throne of God Himself breaking into His earthly dwelling!

“Now,” verse 3, “the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered, and the cloud filled the inner court.” This is His glory now. This is the cloud of glory that had been with them since Exodus 13. “Then the glory of Yahweh went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of Yahweh.” And so the glory of Yahweh has gone from the Ark, it moved to hovering over the cherub, and now it goes to the threshold of the temple, to the exit, and it stays there.

Skip down to verse 18: “Then the glory of Yahweh departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.” Now these are different cherubim. These are actual cherubim; they’re not the golden ones. These are the real cherubim from Ezekiel's vision. Verse 19: “When the cherubim departed, they lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight with the wheels beside them; and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of Yahweh’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.” So now the glory is with His angels, at the last exit of the temple.

And finally, in Ezekiel 11:22, the prophet tells us: “Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. The glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city.” The glory of Yahweh departs from the temple, it hovers over the Mount of Olives, and then ascends with the cherubim back into heaven.

And what is amazing, and also heartbreaking, is that the glory seems to be departing reluctantly. It goes from the ark to the cherub wings (Ezek 10:3-4), and it hovers in one place. Then it goes from the cherub wings to the threshold with the real cherubim (Ezek 10:18-19), and it hovers there. And finally it leaves the Temple and goes east over the Mount of Olives (Ezek 11:22-23). It’s as if Yahweh is saying, “Won’t any of My people worship Me? Won’t anyone listen to My Word? Won’t any of you turn from your idols? From your Baals and your Asherim and your golden calves?

“And from your television and your computer, from your pornography and your fornication, from your love of money and your preoccupations with your Christmas presents and your possessions and having more stuff? Won’t any of you turn from your impatience, your anger, your fear, your anxiety, your complaining? Oh My dear people, won’t you put away all your idols that you have erected before Me, and open your eyes to see my glory which has been with you always, and has satisfied you, and now love Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?! Am I not worthy of that?”

And no one did.

And so God's glory left the temple. For the first time in Israel's history, for the first time in 850 years, Israel was without the presence of their God. Yahweh is no longer dwelling with His people. This is the last time the glory of Yahweh is seen on the earth.

The Glory Returns with the True Temple

“Until,” says the Apostle John, “Until now! Until the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.”

Luke 2:8-14 - In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And suddenly, there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.’”

The next time the glory of Yahweh is seen it comes to the shepherds to proclaim the birth of Jesus. The angels’ message is that, “The glory of the Lord has returned to Israel in the city of David; it is the Savior! It is Christ the Lord.”

These words… these are huge words in Hebrew. “It is ‘Mashiyach ha Adonai!’ This is Messiah! The Anointed One of Yahweh! The Coming One! And “the Lord,” there isn’t functioning simply as a title, it’s functioning as LORD (in all capitals). The angel is saying, with the glory of Yahweh that no one has seen for 600 years shining around him, he’s announcing: “Yahweh is here!!!” In Jesus, God is declaring the fulfillment of that great New Covenant promise that so many hoped in for thousands of years: “My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people” (Ezek 37:27)!

This is the baby Jesus! This is the Word become flesh! This is your Savior, Christian!

And so John tells us that the Eternal Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory.

And by using this language in John 1:14, he is proclaiming to his audience that this Jesus is Yahweh’s divine self-expression in the same way that the glory of the Tabernacle and Temple were.

In fact, he goes beyond that. But that's for next time.

The Tabernacle: The Word Dwelt Among Us

As we seek to be affected by the truth in John 1:14, I mentioned that I want to frame this discussion around three key words that John uses - words that give us life-altering insight into the significance of Christmas.

The first key word is: dwelt. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…”

Now, there is much more going on in what John is saying here than it sounds like to us English-speakers. We read that Jesus “dwelt” among us, and when we think of the idea of “dwelling” we just think of “hanging out.” But John uses a peculiar word here. There are more common Greek words for “to dwell,” but he chooses this one. The word is skēnoō. Now, the word skēnē in Greek means “tent.” We have the verb form of skēnē here, so skēnoō literally means, “to pitch a tent.” John tells us that this Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.

Now, that’s a weird way to talk, isn’t it? Especially since we don’t have any Scripture that tells us that Jesus actually pitched a literal tent during his time on earth. I mean, why say it this way? He’s got at least two other words that he could use here. Why use this word?

He uses this word because he wants his readers – who would either be Jewish or would be familiar with the history of Israel – to recall the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, where God met with the Israelites in the Old Testament. And that’s exactly what they would think of.

The Greek word skēnoō that we have in verse 14 is very similar to the Hebrew word for “to dwell.” In Hebrew the word is shākan. Shākan and skēnoō. They actually have the same consonants: shākan: s, k, n, and skēnoō: s, k, n. And the ‘tabernacle’ in Hebrew is mishkān, which is just the word shākan with an “m” in front of it. When Hebrew wants to denote “place,” it puts an “m” in front of words. So if shākan is “to dwell,” mishkān is “dwelling place.” And that’s the word that gets translated “tabernacle” in the Old Testament.

The Tabernacle

Yahweh first gives the command to build the tabernacle in Exodus 25:8-9: “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell (shākan) among them. According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle (mishkan) and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.” And so in the next chapters Yahweh gives the directions for the construction of the Tabernacle.

The tabernacle itself actually was covered over by a tent, which is why the early form of it is called the “tent of meeting.” It was 15 feet wide, 15 feet high, and 45 feet long. The entrance was covered by a curtain or a veil made with fine linen and costly dyes. When a priest entered the tabernacle they were first in the holy place. This was a 30 x 15 x 15 foot room that contained the table that held the Bread of the Presence (Ex 25:23-30) which the priests would offer to Yahweh as a memorial offering (Lev 24:27), the lampstand (Ex 25:31-40) which gave light to the holy place, and the altar of incense (Ex 30:1-5; 37:25-29) which Aaron used for incense offerings to Yahweh. And all of these furnishings were covered in pure gold. And beyond that room was the holy of holies. It was a 15-foot cube, and there was nothing in it but the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 25:10-25; 37:1-9), which housed the tablets of God’s Law. Only the High Priest could enter this room, and only once a year: on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:34).

So that’s the physical tabernacle. But in Exodus 29 we learn something of its significance. There, God is speaking about what the tabernacle will be to the sons of Israel:

Exodus 29:42-46 – …at the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by My glory. I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to Me. I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. They shall know that I am Yahweh their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am Yahweh their God.

So from this passage we learn that the tabernacle will be

• Ex 29:42 – A place of meeting
• Ex 29:42 – A place of revelation
• Ex 29:43 – A place of consecration and sanctification
• Ex 29:44 – A place of propitiation
• Ex 29:45-46 – The significance of God dwelling among His people. He says that the reason He brought them out of Egypt was so that He would dwell with them. This tabernacle is a big deal.

In chapter 33, we learn a bit more:

Exodus 33:7-11 – Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. He met with God here while the tabernacle was being built. And everyone who sought Yahweh would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp. And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and Yahweh would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent. Thus Yahweh used to speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.

Verse 7 says, “…everyone who sought Yahweh” came here. This was the place where Israel could have fellowship and communion with their God. And verse 8 says that when Moses would go into the tent, everyone would gaze after him. They would drop everything! They would say, “Hey! Moses is getting ready to go into the tent of meeting,” and they’d watch him go in. They were in awe! And rightfully so! Verse 9 says that whenever he went in, a pillar of cloud would descend. What a sight this had to be! So again we see that this was a place of condescension.

It tells us Yahweh would speak with Moses – that’s revelation again, God speaking to His people. Verse 10 tells us that all the people would worship when they saw the glory of Yahweh revealed in the cloud, so again we see that this was a place of worship. And finally, – such a beautiful sentence! – we’re told that Yahweh would speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. And so this is a place of intimate fellowship.

Finally, in Exodus 40, we have the climax of this story. Everything that Israel has heard up until now has been what would be when the tabernacle was finished. In chapter 40, construction is completed. And with all Israel watching, God’s glory fills the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:34-35 – Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle.

Now Yahweh descends upon His dwelling place, upon His tabernacle! The glory descends in such a way that not even Moses – who had gone into the cloud before, who had seen Yahweh’s glory – not even he could enter into the tent! What an amazing scene! This is God declaring: “I am with My people! I now dwell among them!”

And, Exodus 40:36-38: “Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of Yahweh was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.”

And so when the Apostle John uses that peculiar word, when he tells his readers the incarnate Word dwelt among them, he is calling our attention here. John is telling us that the way Yahweh descended and dwelt among His people in the Tabernacle, – and spoke with them and revealed Himself – that very same thing is happening in Jesus Christ! In Jesus, the glory of Yahweh is descending and is pitching His tent to dwell among His people!

Oh let that cause you to worship! Be affected, be moved to awe and adoration and worship at the fact that the Word – the Eternal, with God, God Himself, the agent of the creation of all things, the life and the Light of the world – became flesh and tabernacled among us!

Christmas According to John: The Word Became Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'" For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Over the last few weeks I've been preparing to preach a sermon on Christmas -- on the subject of the incarnation of God in Jesus. And I spend a good amount of time thinking about how I might present the Christmas story to the congregation. And before coming to the Gospel of John, the first passages that came to mind were Luke 1 & 2 and Matthew 1 & 2. And I have to admit that there was an air of familiarity about those stories as I read them. My heart wasn’t affected as it should be. And as I read them I realized that we Christians are used to seeing Christmas and thinking about Christmas from a historical perspective. We all know the story. Even the most committed atheist can recite the story of Mary and Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, there being no room in the inn, and the baby Jesus being born in a manger. That’s the story recorded in Matthew and Luke. And the majority of our Christmas services and sermons are founded upon the accounts of Matthew and Luke. And that’s good! They should be!

But in John’s account of the Christmas story, what is amazing, what is unique, is that John gives us the theological perspective of Christmas. Matthew and Luke give us the historical perspective, but John gives us a look into the Christmas story that you wouldn’t know anything about even if you were with Mary and Joseph that night. Considering Christmas from the theological perspective helps us battle against familiarity with some of the loftiest of truths.

We see the heart of Christmas in John 1 verse 14: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

There is a wealth of truth in that one little sentence! It is a treasure chest so deep that we could spend weeks mining out all of its implications for the way we should understand Christmas, and for how we live our lives throughout the rest of the year as well.

James Montgomery Boice, the long time pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, now with the Lord, wrote this in his commentary on this verse:

I wish it were possible to approach John 1:14 as though reading it for the first time. The verse contains something that was new and quite startling when it was first written, and yet for us who read it nearly two thousand years later it has become commonplace. … This was the great sentence for which the Gospel of John was written. It tells us – inexplicable as it may be – that God became man. Nevertheless, because we have heard that verse from childhood, we read it and are often strangely unmoved.

And he’s right. We read this and are unmoved. But as we take an extended look at this text together, I want this to move you! I want you to perceive the full weight of what John is teaching us about Christmas! I want you to be affected by the declaration – and by the reality – that this Word...

• this Word that was in the beginning (1:1-2)
  
• this Word that existed before the world was (1:1-2)
• this Word that was with God in the beginning before creation (1:1-2)
• this Word that actually was God Himself (1:1)
  
• this Word through which everything in the universe was created (1:3)
  
• this Word who had life in Himself (1:4)
  
• this Word who was the Light of men (1:4, 9)
  
• this Word that gives sinful human beings the right to become children of God (1:12)
  

…this Word became flesh, and dwelt among us!

And so as we seek to be affected by the truth in John 1:14, I want to take a couple of posts to look into this treasure chest of a verse and focus on three key words that John uses – words that give us breathtaking, worldview-shifting, life-altering insight into the significance of Christmas, insight into the significance of the incarnation, insight into what was really happening when God Himself took on human flesh, and became man.

Those three key words are "dwelt," "glory," and "only." We'll look into the truth they teach us as we look forward to Christmas.

Christmas According to John

1. The Word Became Flesh
2. The Tabernacle: The Word Dwelt Among Us
3. God's Glory in His Temple: We Saw His Glory
4. The True Temple: Glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father

Update: Audio now available.

Better Christmas Stuff

Frank Turk, over at Evangel, has been doing a great series on Christmas. Specifically, he's talking about how the coming of Christ points us to the coming of God's wrath. That is, the reason Christ came into the world is that there was a problem: humanity was under the wrath of God and had no hope of escape. It's a good, sobering reminder to us all that in the midst of the decorations, shopping, Christmas trees, egg nog, and even nativity scenes on your lawn, Christmas is about the birth of a Savior. He came to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21).

Anyway, I appreciated Frank's most recent post, and wanted to post it here as well. If any of you are tempted to think of Christmas as simply a quaint holiday that's mostly about family and friends and presents with an occasional hat-tip to Jesus, you're in danger of wasting your Christmas this year, and for the rest of your life. Frank exhorts us not to waste our Christmas. Enjoy.

My point, so far, is that God’s wrath is coming, and Jesus — whose birth we celebrate at Christmas — is the savior from that wrath. It’s a point a lot of people got because that’s what a savior is — and it’s a point I have made here before, so you were probably with me on it by way of preparation, one way or the other.

Now, the question is: is that enough? That is, if we understand that what we deserve is God’s wrath and what we get is God’s savior, can we now have some ham and some applesauce and some casserole and maybe (in presbyterian and Lutheran homes, of course) a glass of wine, a decent night’s sleep, and then open the presents on Christmas morn after an appropriately-solemn reading of Luke 2? I mean, seriously: enough’s enough.

Listen: Christmas is not about a logical argument, an intellectual affirmation, and then a secular session of either greed or idolatry (or maybe both). Christmas is about God with us.

When the Jews had the Temple, God’s wasn’t “with us”: He was nearby, to be sure, but He was separated ritually and physically from the people. He had a covenant with the Jews, and He gave them the means to sort of “pay up” or “make up” the ways in which they broke the covenant, but here’s what He says about that:

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Two little lines in the book of Hosea — a book in which God says that the right way to see the relationship between Israel (the chosen nation) and God is that God is a faithful husband and Israel is a wife who prefers the life of a prostitute to the life of fidelity. But Hosea has to go and buy his wife back out of prostitution to make himself like God in this object lesson prophecy.

The obvious application is that God is coming back for us when we don’t deserve it — you’ve all heard that one, I am sure. But look: when God is spelling it out for Israel in Hosea 6:6, God is saying, “You know: I don’t want you just to think about what I have done this for you, I want you to acknowledge that I have done this for you and act like I am real to you.”

I think that’s a little dazzling, frankly. God doesn’t want to just save us: God wants us to act like a wife bought out of prostitution.

We don’t have to be people who are in it for the money anymore — because the price for us has been paid forever. We don’t have to work off our debt. Now, that sounds like standard christianese, I am sure — and the best way to overcome that is to describe for you in detail what the life of a prostitute is like. However, homeschool moms are reading this, and they would probably find that a little much — and they might be right. I’ll sum it up in a sentence: imagine a life in which your own body is not safe from the demands and impulses of others who care nothing about you. If you were stuck in a life where you don’t even own your own body, or have a right to your own flesh, how would you act toward the person who paid the price for your body and set you free from that kind of slavery?

That’s the razor’s edge at Christmas: it’s the place where mental assent doesn’t cut it. We can’t just agree that these things are true for us in some religious metaphor, or maybe in some metaphysical transaction. We have to be in love with the one who has actually done this for us. We have to live as if God is with us. God doesn’t want us to go and offer a dove or a lamb or a bull in the temple: God wants us to love Him above all things because He deserves to be loved above all things. And He should get it right now because He is worthy of it right now — in the same way you love your own spouse right now personally, passionately, and somewhat impulsively.

This Christmas thing — it shouldn’t be about an idea of God: It should be about God. In person. Here with us.

When we prepare for Christmas, we ought to be loving God in a real way — because He is saving us in a real way, and He is here with us. Welcome Him into your family and life as if He was your beloved husband and deliverer from slavery.

Christmas Stuff

So as we're getting ready to head home, things are a bit hectic and I haven't had time to write Monday's post. Lucky for you, my friend Dan Phillips has come up with some gems related to the season that I've thoroughly enjoyed. Hopefully you will too.

The first is a great story about the best Christmas decorations ever. I was never very festive around Christmas time. The lights and the decorating the tree and the window stick-ons and the lawn ornaments never really appealed to me. But I really enjoyed this idea:


That's just priceless.

I also enjoyed the following:

Oh, and just in case any of you wanted to know what I might want for Christmas (:oD), you can click here. Thanks!

An Update: 12/12/09

So it's been a while since I've just posted an update on how things are out here. I actually intended to do more of that than I've done. Hopefully the other stuff has been helpful and interesting as well.

Seasonal Fellowship

But as for where we are right now, we're doing well. Now's the time of the season where we get to have a bunch of fun get-togethers. On the 3rd, the seminary students brought their wives and children to the annual TMS Christmas Chapel. We sang wonderful worship songs that focused on the theme of the incarnation, Christ's entering into His own creation to die for sins and live for righteousness for all those who believe. We read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and we were served by the music of Christan Ebner. And after that, we enjoyed a wonderful assortment of Christmas cookies. In fact, the administration here at TMS has to remind us that it's called the Christmas Chapel, and not the Cookie Chapel, as it has come to be called. That was a great time of fellowship with the faculty and students, and having the students' families there makes it even better!

Backing up a bit farther, we also enjoyed our first Thanksgiving away from home. We traveled two doors down in our apartment complex to enjoy the day with two other young seminary couples (plus one of their sisters). The smallest turkey we could find in the nearby grocery stores was a 20-pounder, so all of us really enjoyed that! We had a great dinner and wonderful fellowship with some dear brothers and sisters in Christ. After dinner we had a fun time learning a card game called Canasta (pronounced ca-NAS-ta), which brought quite a few laughs considering some of the terminology of the game. But the real party started when we began to play spoons. Our host was a big fan of grabbing a bunch of spoons and just throwing them all over his house, causing a rampage among the rest of the players who (at many times) violently fought for the last spoon. His wife left with a nice cut on her forehead, Janna was finding bruises on her legs for a couple days, but the highlight of the night was when I was tackled and put a hole in their wall. I felt pretty bad about damaging someone else's home, but Dan loved it. It was a night not soon to be forgotten.

And still speaking of these seasonal get-togethers, we just enjoyed our first of three Christmas parties in a row Friday night. This first one was for our Bible study. We had some great food, and great desserts. It was a real treat to just hang out and talk and get to know each other better. The Lord Jesus has really blessed us with a good group of people whom we can serve and who we can serve alongside. We also enjoyed our $10-gift-card white elephant game. We got an extra $10 for Cold Stone! Woohoo! Saturday and Sunday nights we'll be having somewhat of a similar experience as a couple of friends from seminary are having Christmas parties. We look forward to enjoying the fellowship we have with each other in Christ.

The Job Situation

Janna has continued to tutor students at Grace Community School. She's been doing a great job, and has been preparing for these one-hour weekly sessions as any great teacher would. She's actually been studying Latin (which she's never done before) so she can tutor 8th and 9th graders in first year Latin. As a language teacher, I'm very proud of her for that. That job has also been a great blessing from the Lord to us, as it has been the principal source of income for the last four months. She's also continued to sell a particular brand of makeup that we can't mention by name online. So ladies, if you're interested, give my wife a call.

We do have some better news on the job front, though. Janna recently had an interview at Henry Mayo, the hospital that's like right around the corner from our apartment. The position is medical-surgical, but it's on a telemetry / oncology floor that seems to be in really good shape. Apparently, the interview went really well. Obviously, they loved Janna, but what was great is that Janna really liked them as well. The hospital seems to be in really good shape, has a great nurse-patient ratio, pays well, and is being flexible with her start date. And it's a 12-hour day shift! They haven't officially offered her the job, but things are looking positively. Praise God for His provision and for His perfect timing! Please continue to pray that it would all come through and that she would indeed get this job.

School

As far as seminary itself goes, I've officially finished my first semester here at TMS. It's pretty amazing! It really did go quickly. And it was indeed a ton of work. One of the things that they tell you to do at the beginning of the semester is to just go through all of your syllabi and make a master file of assignments and due dates. I remember looking at that file at the beginning of the semester and marveling at the fact that they expected me to get all of that done in 15 weeks. Well, 15 weeks later, by God's grace, it's all done. It was a lot, but it was all work that I really enjoy doing. At times I would complain (mostly in my heart) about how much work I had to do. But in many of those instances, God was gracious to me, and brought to my mind this thought: "If I didn't have to do any of this work and had nothing to do, what would I do?" And the answer was always the same: I'd read the stuff I'd had to read. I'd write about the stuff I had to write about. I often remarked that seminary life was very much like the Christian life; it required me to do things that are a joy to do. So seminary has indeed been a blessing.

There are so many things that I could write about as to what I've been learning from God's Word as well as what He's been teaching me about life and ministry in general. Maybe I'll just share one or two in each category.

1. One of the greatest blessings that I've enjoyed this semester is just reading the Bible (particularly Genesis through Esther) in large quantities, quickly, and repeatedly. For our Old Testament class, we had to read one book of the Bible per week, twice. So, for example, last week I had to read through the book of Chronicles twice, write chapter titles for each chapter, note major themes of the book, write what I thought the purpose of the book was, and also write a one-page synopsis of how the Chronicler traced the history of the theocracy and temple. Assignments like those for the first 17 books of the Bible really helped me grasp the message and major themes of that foundational portion of Scripture. And one thing that I was gripped by was just how central and theologically significant the covenants are (particularly the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants), how an essential characteristic of God is His covenant faithfulness, and how all these covenants find their ultimate fulfillment and fullest expression in Jesus Christ. I mean, it's just magnificent. Thousands of years of history, failures of the people, continued faithfulness of God, and crazy amounts of anticipation and hope all lead up to one man, the God-man, Jesus Christ, Son of God and God the Son. History is about Him. The Bible is about Him. The Universe is about Him!
2. In that vein, I've really been learning to just let the Bible speak in its context. One temptation for young guys like me who are aspiring to be preachers is the lie that we have to find something better, more shocking, or more profound to say than has been said. We think that if we want to have an impact, we have to show people something they've never seen before. Rather than just letting the text say what it says, I try to find a big way to spin it. And it's not like it gets heretical, it just betrays a lack of faithfulness in the sufficiency of Scripture. For example, I don't need to force Christ into every single verse of the Bible. I don't need to read Joshua 2, find out that Rahab's cloth was red, and see in the red cloth the blood of Christ protecting Rahab's house as the blood of the Passover Lamb. That sounds wonderfully tempting. It could make a congregation go, "Ooh!" and "Aah!" But it's not in the text. And what I've been learning is, the text is sufficiently glorious on its own. If preachers and teachers of God's Word are truly content, in the depths of their soul, to cry out, "He must increase, I must decrease," then we will be satisfied with letting Scripture say what it says instead of getting it to say what we want it to mean.
3. The last thing I'll share is that I've been learning that it is not true that merely being in seminary fixes or maintains your spiritual life. If you struggle with consistent devotional times, just being around Christians, church, and talking about the Bible does not necessarily cultivate rich and sweet fellowship with Christ. If anything, it makes it more difficult. The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay, as they say. It's been clear to me that I need to make it a priority, above everything else, to actively pursue that relationship with Him. One way I've thought of it is like this: Seminary, rich study, great fellowship, and having your conversations and thoughts dominated by spiritual things are all like various kinds of wonderful herbs and spices. But a thriving personal devotional life with Christ before His Word and before His throne in prayer is like the meat. The seminary package really adds wonderful flavor and nuance to that devotional time. But if you try to do the seminary thing without that relationship, it'd be like taking the meat away and just eating spices. It's not enjoyable, it's unhealthy, and doesn't strengthen you for the work you need to do.
   

So those are some things I've been learning. I do look forward to what God has for me next semester. I'm taking quite a heavy load, but I suppose that will provide multiple opportunities to see my own insufficiency, to depend on Christ and trust Him fully, and be a beneficiary of His grace. In the Spring, I'm taking: Old Testament Studies II (Job through Malachi), Beginning Hebrew II, Pastoral Counseling, Historical Theology (Reformation to present), and Biblical Exposition of Prayer.

Coming Home

The last bit of news is very exciting. Janna and I are getting ready to fly back to New Jersey on Tuesday to spend three weeks with our family and friends for the holidays. The semester doesn't start back again until January 12th, so we're going to stay out in New Jersey till the 6th. We're really excited to see everyone!

I've also been graciously offered the opportunity to preach at Christian Fellowship Church in North Brunswick on Sunday morning, December 20th. Many thanks to Pastor Steve for inviting me into his pulpit and giving me such a wonderful opportunity to serve him and his people. Each time he's asked me to do this it has proven to be such a humbling and enriching experience. I trust this time will be no different. Indeed, I've already begun to enjoy those experiences in the time I've had to prepare. God is good. The Lord Jesus will build His Church. There is no time that I am more convinced, more driven, and more thrilled at the thought of giving my life to "spending and being spent" for the souls of God's people by ministering His Word to them than when I am preparing and preaching. May God give me grace upon grace to always have such affections. Please pray for me as I continue to prepare.

I'll also be teaching Sunday school the following Sunday morning at Christ Community, our home church. I very much look forward to that experience as well. I've missed the saints there, and having been absent for the last four months has taught me how much a privilege it is to minister to the same group of people over a period of years. I would appreciate your prayers for this as well.

Somewhere in between there I hope to visit Hammarskjold Middle School, where I taught Italian last year. As I've missed family and friends, I've also missed my fellow teachers and my students. It's been nice to hear from a few of them and keep in contact. I look forward to seeing them again!

Well, I suppose that's enough of an update for now. Hopefully I'll be able to talk more with you all about these things in person! Until then...

Delight yourself in the LORD,
and He will give you the desires of your heart.
- Psalm 37:4 -