Saturday, August 28, 2010

So what's it all about?



From a talk by Tim Keller care of Justin Taylor's Blog.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Matt,

Happy Sabbath!

This made me think of John 8, where Jesus bears testimony of His own divinity. I completely agree with the statement "Every sermon should center around Jesus and what He has done". This can be easy to forget, but the Gospel of John reminds us that even the Savior Himself centered sermons around Himself and His Father.

A while back we were discussing finding God in creation. I had the opportunity to hike Silver Falls on Friday and take in the work of God's hands. It strikes me that the Bible begins with creation. Certainly, I Am existed before and will continue to exist after this world, but creation is our first introduction to God's word. Genesis ensures that we attempt to understand God as Creator before anything else. What do you think about this?

Have a good week,

~SP

Ed said...

I was kind of wondering why the Jesus/you dichotomy until the end. I wonder if the message is then "don't tell a bunch of cute stories about your life when you preach."

Pretty neat clip. He's spot on with his "true and betters."

Anonymous said...

There are two revelations, the one is in creation but that one is used by Paul to say that no one will have an excuse in the Day of Judgment. The other is found in Christ Jesus and this is the only saving one given to fallen man. So YES the bible is about Jesus and if we look through that lenses we read a very different book then what is so often read to us by some theologians.
This is a great clip keep them coming.

Matt said...

Hey SP, sorry for not commenting back earlier, forgot my laptop's power cord when I flew back to California.

When it comes to the question you asked in your comment I'm not sure how to answer. I agree with what the third commenter wrote and when I've tried to share the gospel I've sometimes started by talking about the creation and then talking about the Creator. As the third commenter pointed out, the moment we move from speaking of creation to speaking of Creator we must ask, who is this God? The Bible shows us that He is utterly holy and perfect, a "consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29)." At this point my hope and prayer is that one will come under conviction of sin and by God's grace receive a godly sorrow leading to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. At this point the sinner who has found salvation in Christ can know God's amazing love and mercy and lead a life of joy in knowing Jesus Christ. Of course that doesn't mean there won't be all kinds of struggles and trials.

Thanks Ed for the comment!

Ed said...

I just watched the beginning of this video again. I have to say I love the music and the slight-motion animation, it's very cool. I also like the speaker's quasi-rambling from prepared notes style, it fits the rest for a neat effect.

But on further reflection, while it seems to me based on the ending that the thrust of the video might be directed at moralistic, self-focused, or storytelling preachers, I have a certain trepidation about a potential false dichotomy in the beginning of the video.

I mean, if the Bible is about who and what Jesus is, isn't it also about a person's response to that knowledge? I'll be the first to admit that the Bible is not primarily a tool of evangelism (as all of the NT documents were in-house documents) or a systematic catechism (the NT presupposes the Church for that role), but don't most of the books of the Bible demand a response from the reader? In other words, isn't a major purpose of the New Testament that you respond to who God is by placing faith in Christ, being baptized into his name, and fulfilling his commandments? And in this sense, are the Scriptures not also about the readers? They declare Christ, but they are not written to Christ. They demand things of their readers, not of Christ. They are expected to change their readers, not Christ. You see what I'm saying?

Maybe I'm going a little overboard with this, but that potential false dichotomy troubles me (even more than his imputational language).

Jane said...

This message is good for the Church to hear in that it defines the present day tension between teachings/sermons that focus on me; how I guide my life through my understanding of scriptural principals versus a focus on the Trinity drawing me into the Trinity. Galations 2:20, Romans 6-8, John 17, 2Peter 1.

Shalom,
Jane