Seeking through Thinking

In Colossians 3:1-2, Paul gives two commands: (literally) “seek the things above” (v. 1) and “think on the things above” (v. 2).

What’s the relationship between those two commands?  Do we seek with our heart and think with our mind?  Do we both seek and think with our mind, or both with our heart?

Maybe the second command is synonymous with the first (since Paul is prone to say the same thing twice, only with different words), or perhaps the second command explains how the first one is accomplished…

I think the parallel object in both commands (“the things above”) suggests that the two commands are essentially the same–but not totally the same.  In both commands, “the things above” are the goal.  But what if someone read Paul’s first command and asked, “How do I seek the things above?”  Paul’s next statement might be seen as the answer: You seek the things above with your mind.  This is a command, then, for seeking through thinking.

The commands in Colossians 3:1-2 are not totally distinct, given their identical object, but the second seems to explain how to obey the first.

Paul’s emphasis on the mind here shouldn’t be surprising, given the fact that Jesus himself said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).

Pursuing God, then, begins in the mind.  We must be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom 12:2), and we must think on what is excellent and praiseworthy (Phil 4:8).

Seeking God through thinking doesn’t render void the aspects of our affections, though.  That would be a false dichotomy–saying that we would have to choose between thinking and loving or thinking and zeal.  We need both.  We shouldn’t settle for ignorant zeal or empty intellectualism (besides, didn’t we just read Jesus’ words that said to love God with the mind?).

Finally, note that Paul’s words in Colossians 3:1-2 are commands.  Seeking God through thinking is a matter of obedience.  Paul is not presenting us with recommendations.  We will either pursue God with our minds, or we will be disobedient.

Expository Preaching is Also (Sometimes) Topical

It is the preacher’s responsibility and high calling to proclaim the Scriptures.  We must herald the Word.  We must declare the Truth.  We must announce the Good News.  We must teach the Bible.

This means the text must be our focus, not something supplementary to it.  We must spend time with the text, thinking about it, reflecting on its structure, preaching its meaning, and unfolding its content.

Some people falsely believe that topical preaching (bouncing here-and-there-and-everywhere, pulling from this verse and that one) every week will teach believers more about the practical Christian life.  I think a consistent serving of expository preaching (choosing a passage and then preaching the point(s) and implications of that passage) accomplishes Christian growth as God intended.

The proposed benefit of topical preaching (dealing with many topics week in and week out) is sometimes unfortunately portrayed as an advantage over expository preaching.  But, while recently studying for a series in Colossians 3, I was reminded how expository preaching is often topical itself.

Take Colossians 3 as a good example.  In over twenty verses, Paul deals with a variety of topics: the believers’ identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus (3:1, 3), the mindset of the Christian (3:1-2), the return of Jesus (3:4), the resurrection body of the believer (3:4), the need to put sin to death (3:5-11), the wrath of God (3:6), the centrality of Christ in all things (3:11), the Spirit’s fruit in the lives of believers (3:12-17), worship (3:16), marriage (3:18-19), parenting (3:20-21), and honoring God in the workplace (3:22–4:1).

Behold, preacher!  By expositing Colossians 3, you would preach all of those different topics.  People grow in their understanding of the Bible when they wade in the waters of biblical exposition.  Churches benefit from sustained treatments of Bible passages (and–chapters, even entire books).

This doesn’t mean you have to take the book of Genesis and preach it all the way through without a break.  But in selecting chunks of the Bible and then preaching them, you will inevitably cover a wide range of topics.

Expository preaching, therefore, doesn’t exclude topics.  Instead, expository preaching deals with topics as the text addresses them.  Preach the Word!

The Sound of Predestination in Acts 18:10

When Jesus told Paul (in a vision) to stay in Corinth despite rising Jewish opposition, the Lord gave three reasons to support His command:

(1) “For I am with you” (Acts 18:10a)
(2) “No one is going to attack and harm you” (Acts 18:10b)
(3) “I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:10c)

While the first promise is a familiar reassurance of divine presence and the second promise is a unique promise to Paul applicable only in Corinth, the third promise is strange because of the seeming ambiguity of who the “many people” are.

I see only two possible interpretations of the “many people” here:
(1) The “many people” are Christians
(2) The “many people” are not yet Christians–but will be

I don’t think the “many people” can be those who have converted already.  This third promise of v. 10 is given as a reason for the second promise (“no one is going to attack and harm  you, because I have many people in this city”), and it doesn’t make much sense to promise Paul that he won’t be persecuted because there are already Christians in Corinth.

After all, Paul was persecuted in Philippi (Acts 16:22-24) after believers were converted (Acts 16:14-15).  There seems to be no reason in Acts that Paul shouldn’t worry about persecution simply because of the presence of other believers.

However, there is reason to think that Paul shouldn’t worry about extreme opposition (namely, martyrdom) if the Lord promised that people will still believe under his ministry.  In other words, if people will still believe under his ministry, it’s because he is still around to have a ministry!  Any opposition he faces in Corinth, then, will not physically harm and destroy him.

So I think it’s best to interpret “many people” (Acts 18:10c) as those who have not yet believed but who will believe under Paul’s preaching.

But what about the first part of the third promise found in Acts 18:10c?  Jesus said, “I have many people in this city [Corinth].”  What would such a possessive statement indicate?  The people aren’t yet saved, but the people are in some sense…His.

Could Jesus’ possessive words be akin to John 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away”?  The “many people” in Acts 18:10 would be those who the Father has given to Jesus and who will come to him in faith.

Jesus’ words in Acts 18:10 probably sound the same notes of predestination as Acts 13:48: “…and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”

In summary, the appointment preceded the believing (Acts 13:48), being given to Jesus preceded coming to him in faith (John 6:37), and–in the passage in question–Jesus has “many people” before they are ever converted (Acts 18:10).

In Acts 18:10, Jesus told Paul to remain in Corinth and keep preaching, because He had “many people” there.  These “people” had not yet been converted, yet they were already His by virtue of being appointed to eternal life.  Jesus is saying, “Paul, stay in Corinth a while longer, because there are many elect ones of mine who have not yet believed–and who will believe under your ministry.”

So Paul stayed (Acts 18:11).

A Promise Made to Paul, Not to Us

In Acts 18:1-17, Luke briefly narrates the account of Paul’s first visit to Corinth that resulted in the founding of a church, as well as persecution from his opposition.

Like similar accounts of his ministry resulting in opposition (Acts 13:50-51; 14:5-7, 19-20; 16:22-40; 17:5-10a, 13-14), Paul intended to leave Corinth and move onto the next place.

But Jesus came to Paul in a vision and said, “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.  For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you…” (Acts 18:9-10).  And Paul stayed for 18 months (Acts 18:11).

Jesus made a unique promise to Paul: “no one is going to attack and harm you.”  And this promise seems to apply only in that unique setting in Corinth, for Paul was harmed before arriving in Corinth (for example, in Philippi in Acts 16:22-24).  And according to church history, Paul was martyred in the mid-60s under Nero’s reign.

We must be careful so as to avoid a serious error when reading Acts 18:10.  That error would be thinking, “Jesus promised Paul he wouldn’t be harmed, so we can claim that promise when we are engaging in missions.”

The reason such an interpretation would be a mistake is based on Paul’s teaching in other churches that conveys the exact opposite: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).  Elsewhere he said, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12).  And the Lord told Ananias concerning Paul, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16).

So it is a mistake to interpret Jesus’ promise to Paul as a promise to every believer.  Instead of gospel-work being comfortable and easy, the opposite is promised to us in the New Testament: we will face persecution and the world will hate us.  That is what we’ve been promised.

Paul not experiencing physical persecution in Corinth seemed to be an exception to the rule.  Read Paul’s own recollections of what he endured while on mission for God (2 Cor 6:4-10; 11:23-27).

16 Truths about God from Paul’s Speech in Acts 17:24-31

Last night, our Sunday evening message brought Acts 17 to a close, and below is a summary of what we went through as we dissected Paul’s speech.

There are many truths to learn about God from Paul’s speech in Athens.  In Acts 17:24-31, Paul exalts the nature of God that the Athenians have so poorly distorted in their idolatry and pagan philosophies.

1.  God is the maker of all creation (17:24)
2.  God is the ruler of all creation (17:24)
3.  God is self-sufficient (17:25)
4.  God sustains all creation (17:25)
5.  God is purposeful when he creates (17:26)
6.  God is providential in his creation (17:26)
7.  God is God-centered (17:27)
8.  God is omnipresent (17:27)
9.  God is the source of human life (17:28)
10.  God is the father of all people as their creator (17:28)
11.  God cannot be materially represented (17:29)
12.  God is superior to his creation (17:29)
13.  God is patient (17:30)
14.  God is a jealous God (17:30)
15.  God is the judge (17:31)
16.  God is righteous (17:31)

That’s two theological truths from each verse of the speech.  After spending only one sermon on that speech, now I realize there were 16 messages buried there.  What a wonderful series on the doctrine of God that would make…

Seeing/Entering the Kingdom of God Now

In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that only people who are born again will see/enter the kingdom of God (3:3, 5).

The four Gospels (especially John’s), and the New Testament in general, presents the reader with an “already-but-not-yet” tension regarding kingdom realities like new birth, resurrection, eternal life, justification, etc.  These blessings are not relegated to the day of the kingdom’s consummation but are partially realized and experienced with the kingdom’s inauguration in Jesus.

Jesus wasn’t telling Nicodemus that people who are born again will one day enter the kingdom–they will enter the kingdom now with the gift of eternal life, and they will enter the kingdom now with the gift of regeneration.

This means that when people are born again they are citizens of the kingdom of God.  Born again now, people of the kingdom now.

The Distinction Between Acknowledging Facts and Demonstrating Faith

Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.  For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him” (John 3:2).

Now that admission sounds good, since it’s true, but it’s woefully inadequate.  Jesus proceeds to explain to Nicodemus how the latter must experience new birth in order to see the kingdom of God.  This means…Nicodemus knows things that may be true about Jesus (i.e. that Jesus is from God), but such knowledge does not necessarily flow from saving faith.

Christians are after more than just having others comprehend and acknowledge certain facts.  There’s a difference between knowing what is true and loving what is true.  There’s a difference between knowing what is true and joyfully embracing the implications of what is true.

Nicodemus’ admission does not proceed from saving faith.  After all, Moses and Elijah were prophets from God.  Nicodemus is probably not claiming anything more for Jesus than he would claim for Moses or Elijah.

The saddest thing that the reader discovers is that Nicodemus knows about Jesus’ signs while simultaneously failing to see where they are pointing.  He is not yet drawing the right conclusions about the signs.

The end of John’s Gospel records the purpose of the signs that Nicodemus is failing to comprehend: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples…But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).

That’s what Nicodemus should do: he should believe in Jesus.  That’s what the signs were telling him.  That’s what the signs are telling you.

The Profile of Nicodemus in John 3

Here is Nicodemus in a nutshell:

(1) A Jewish man (3:1)

(2) A Pharisee (3:1)

(3) A member of the Sanhedrin (3:1)

(4) A teacher to Israel (3:10)

(5) An unbeliever (3:3-4, 9-10)

And it’s that fifth point that makes the previous four seem pretty meaningless in the big picture.

An Important Parallelism in John 3

In John 3, there are debated questions about the “new birth.”  For instance, what does it mean to “see” the kingdom of God (3:3)?  And, what does it mean to be “born of water and the Spirit” (3:5)?

We should note an important parallelism between Jesus’ words in 3:3 and 3:5 that seems to shed light on such questions.  Since both verses begin with “I tell you the truth,” I will focus on what comes after those phrases.

We must put v. 3 and v. 5 in a symmetrical arrangement:

V. 3: “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

V. 5: “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”

I’ve italicized certain above phrases in order to emphasize certain parallels.  Let’s make 2 observations:

First, “see” is parallel with “enter.”  When Jesus speaks of “entering” the kingdom, then, he is explaining what he means by “seeing” it.

Second, being born “again” means to be born “of water and the Spirit.”  This solves what seems to be an enduring interpretive issue.  Some wonder, does Jesus refer to natural birth with the word “water” and then spiritual birth with the word “Spirit”?  The parallelism denies that view.  Instead, the words “of water and the Spirit” all refer to the new birth.

These observations may provoke further questions, and that’s good.  At least by viewing these verses in parallel form, we will be asking the right questions.

…Questions such as:

(1) Does one enter the kingdom now by faith, or at the end when the fullness of God’s kingdom comes?

(2) How does being born again by “water” relate to being born again by “the Spirit”?  Are these two separate acts that bring about the new birth, are they two ways of speaking of the same things, or are the two complementary notions?  Does this “water” reference have anything to do with baptism?  And since the Greek word for “spirit” can refer to the human spirit or the Holy Spirit, how do we know which one Jesus meant?

But those are questions for a later day.

David Platt at the June 2009 SBC Pastors Conference in Louisville, KY

In the four parts to this message, David conveys a clear and relevant call to the SBC to risk everything for the glory of Christ among the nations.  May the Lord bring forth great fruit from the proclamation of such a message!