I’d like to share a new venture with you that started this week. On January 1, 2023, I launched a Substack called “Biblical Theology,” and I’d love for you to check it out and subscribe. You can find it here: mitchchase.substack.com
I wanted to write about Biblical Theology on a regular basis, because writing helps me think. And thinking about biblical theology has changed my life. I’d love to share these posts with you!
This November 2022, I wrote an advent hymn called “O Come, All You Faithful, to Him.” It’s set to the melody of “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.”
VERSE 1
O come, all you faithful, to him,
Lord of heaven, born on earth,
resting now inside a manger,
upholding the universe.
He, the one whom prophets spoke of
in the ancient words of life,
is the Word incarnate with us,
spoken in the silent night.
VERSE 2
Run, you shepherds, to the little
town of Bethlehem and see
Christ, the bringer of salvation.
Hark! the herald angels sing.
Come adore and bow before him,
let your praises fill the night,
then go tell it on the mountain:
to the darkness came the Light!
VERSE 3
Come, O come, Immanuel, and
bring your promises to pass.
Hear the groanings of your people,
conquer sin and death at last.
Glory in the highest heaven,
and joy to the world below!
Let the nations bring to you their myrrh
and frankincense and gold.
VERSE 4
Let us all with jubilation
shout good tidings far and wide.
Deck the halls and set the tables,
ring the bells and hang the lights.
Christ has overcome the darkness,
sing his name in one accord.
Tell the world there is a Savior,
and he reigns forevermore.
In November 21, I wrote the following Christmas hymn “Crown Him the Father’s Word.” It’s set to the melody of “Crown Him With Many Crowns.”
VERSE 1
Crown Him the Father’s Word,
Ever-begotten Son.
The one in whom all things are held
Is held in Mary’s love.
His glory veiled in flesh,
He in our likeness came.
So hail Incarnate Deity,
O come adore his name!
VERSE 2
Crown Him the promised Seed,
Whom prophets had foretold,
The one from Judah’s tribe, whose hand
The scepter e’er would hold.
From age to age, the hope
Now dawned with holy light,
And voices of the heav’nly host
Sing praises in the night.
VERSE 3
Crown Him the newborn King,
Whom shepherds run to see,
The spotless lamb of God was born,
Immanuel is he.
Rejoice and spread the news,
Go tell it on the mount
That all may know what God has done:
Salvation has come down.
VERSE 4
Crown Him the Lord of life,
Whose birth was for the cross.
The babe in Bethlehem had come
To seek and save the lost.
Awake, my soul, and sing!
The Savior died for me!
And now my hope is life with him
Through all eternity.
My favorite method of preaching Scripture is to walk through a book of the Bible with my congregation. And many years ago I set out on a journey to preach all of the New Testament. (I haven’t only preached from the New. I have loved preaching from the Old Testament too!)
My exposition of the entire New Testament took place at two churches where I have served as pastor: the First Baptist Church in Santo, Texas (where I pastored from 2006-2010) and Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky (where I have pastored since 2012).
The journey began with 1 Corinthians on March 5, 2006. And it concluded with Luke’s Gospel on May 22, 2022. If I add up these years of exposition (2006-2010 and 2012-2022), then preaching through the New Testament took fourteen years. (From 2010-2012, I wasn’t in pastoral ministry doing book exposition, because I was in Louisville completing my doctoral course work at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.)
My exposition of the New Testament took a total of 1,106 sermons at two churches during fourteen years of pastoral ministry.
One major reason I was able to complete the exposition of the New Testament is multiple services in the churches I have pastored. In Texas, the First Baptist Church of Santo had Sunday morning and evening services, as well as a Wednesday evening service. And for most of my years at that church, I studied for and preached at least two different expositions each week, sometimes three expositions. In Kentucky, Kosmosdale Baptist Church has Sunday morning and evening services, and I prepare a different exposition for each service there as well. You get through a lot of Bible this way!
Sometimes as I preached through a longer book, I would divide it into chunks, do a series through one chunk, move on to something else for a while, and come back to the longer book for another chunk. Occasionally I would preach morning and evening sermons from the same book.
The following breakdown identifies the New Testament book, the number of sermons I preached through it, the church where I exposited it, and the length of time that passed from the beginning to the end of that exposition. The length of time includes not just weekly exposition but also any temporary breaks that I took from that series. I didn’t rush through books. Some longer books took more than fifty sermons, and some of the longest books took more than a hundred!
The 1,106 sermons through the New Testament break down like this:
Matthew – 123 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from June 13, 2013 to April 10, 2016.
Mark – 60 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from January 14, 2018 to April 28, 2019.
Luke – 116 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from November 10, 2019 to May 22, 2022.
John – 104 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from December 3, 2006 to April 11, 2010.
Acts – 110 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from January 6, 2008 to July 25, 2010.
Romans – 77 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from June 25, 2006 to May 27, 2009.
1 Corinthians – 61 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX from March 5, 2006 to June 22, 2008.
2 Corinthians – 43 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from October 5, 2008 to August 1, 2010.
Galatians – 28 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from April 16, 2017 to October 22, 2017.
Ephesians – 41 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from November 1, 2006 to November 25, 2007.
Philippians – 24 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from October 18, 2020 to March 28, 2021.
Colossians – 20 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from June 3, 2009 to April 14, 2010.
1 Thessalonians – 22 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from July 3, 2016 to November 27, 2016.
2 Thessalonians – 11 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from January 15, 2017 to April 23, 2017.
1 Timothy – 24 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from October 1, 2006 to April 1, 2007.
2 Timothy – 19 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from July 15, 2007 to November 25, 2007.
Titus – 11 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from August 25, 2019 to November 3, 2019.
Philemon – 3 sermons at First Baptist Church in Santo, TX, from December 2, 2007 to December 23, 2007.
Hebrews – 66 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from June 9, 2013 to August 27, 2014.
James – 23 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from May 16, 2021 to January 16, 2022.
1 Peter – 26 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from April 1, 2012 to November 18, 2012.
2 Peter – 14 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from January 13, 2013 to May 26, 2013.
1 John – 21 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from April 12, 2020 to August 30, 2020.
2 John – 3 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from August 13, 2017 to August 27, 2017.
3 John – 3 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from September 10, 2017 to September 24, 2017.
Jude – 10 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from September 9, 2012 to November 25, 2012.
Revelation – 43 sermons at Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, from June 8, 2014 to May 24, 2015.
Today I turn 39 years old. So I thought I’d share 39 of my favorite quotes:
These are my top-five favorite books, in no particular order, that I read in 2021.
Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask About Social Justice, by Thaddeus J. Williams
Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption, by L. Michael Morales
The Trinity: An Introduction, by Scott Swain
God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World, by Andrew Wilson
The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom, by Andrew Peterson
Our church in Louisville has begun a reading plan that takes us through the New Testament in thirteen weeks. The PDF of that guide is at the end of this post.
Supplementing the guide will be a series of videos introducing the New Testament books. I’ll will update this post with the latest video when it’s released. The goal of these videos is to orient the Bible reader to some basic information about each NT book. The videos will be approximately 10-11 minutes long and will be uploaded to YouTube.
Beginning Monday August 2, 2021, our church (Kosmosdale Baptist in Louisville) is going to follow a reading plan through the whole New Testament. It’s a 13-week trek, from August through October.
Would you like to join us?
The PDF of the guide we will use is at the end of this post. In a series of short videos, I will introduce and explain how to approach each New Testament book. A video for each NT book will be uploaded to social media (and to this blog) on the day that the readings for that NT book begin.
Here are seven reasons you should consider reading through the New Testament from August through October:
(1) Maybe you’ve never read through the New Testament before. This will be a great milestone, then, as you expose your eyes and heart to the truth of the Four Gospels, the Book of Acts, the twenty-one Letters, and the Book of Revelation.
(2) Maybe you’ve wanted to read through the New Testament before, but you need a guide and some guidance to keep you accountable. Well, let us serve you by providing the guide (see the attached file) and the guidance (videos that will introduce each NT book).
(3) Maybe you started 2021 with a Bible reading plan to go through the whole Bible, yet you fell off along the way. Don’t sweat it. Why not pick up a shorter plan that goes through the New Testament before this year is over?
(4) Maybe you’ve been trying to incorporate more Bible reading and discussion in your family and friendships. Why not do this reading plan with some others with you and near you? Get your roommates or spouse or children involved. Touch base with a friend during the week. Get a Zoom group together across state lines. There are so many possibilities! You don’t have to read it alone. Read some chapters as the guide directs you, and then what a joy it would be to discuss it with others along the way.
(5) Maybe you find it difficult to sustain many months of a goal. Eventually things in life can crowd out good endeavors that we once began. So would you consider 13 weeks? In light of a whole year, 13 weeks isn’t long. You can do this. You’d start in the summer, and you’d be done in the fall.
(6) Maybe the guide’s blank days (or “miss days”) will help you see how doable the reading plan is. The guide doesn’t give readings seven days a week. The readings cover five days a week (with the exception of one week when readings are only four days). These “cushion” days will help you get ahead if you’d like, or you can catch up if you fell behind.
(7) Maybe the shortness of the readings will work with your schedule. The guide assigns five or less chapters per reading day. You could do the chapters all in one sitting. You could do some in the morning and some in the evening. You could read during your lunch break. You could use an audio Bible app while you’re driving. You can do this. I hope you’ll consider this post’s invitation and look carefully at the attached guide. This is the last full week of July. Sunday is August 1. After that we begin.
Part of my goal for The Gospel Is for Christians (2nd ed.) is that it would benefit groups as well as individuals. One of the requests I’ve received is for reflection questions to benefit group discussion. I’m happy to oblige! The PDF below this paragraph contains a series of discussion questions, five for each of the book’s ten chapters. If you’ve read the book, perhaps you’d consider taking someone through it as part of a mentoring relationship. Or if you lead a small group and are looking for discipleship curriculum, perhaps a book on gospel-shaped discipleship would benefit your crew. At any rate, I offer these discussion questions to you.
In Matthew 2:13-15, the holy family flees to Egypt. Joseph had received a dream that Herod was seeking to kill the Christ, and an angel instructed them to travel to Egypt. The following poem is an imaginative reflection on these verses.
“The Flight to Egypt”
December 23, 2020
Joseph woke and grabbed the arm
of Mary at his side.
“We must go, my dear, for harm
will come unless we hide.”
“Harm to whom?” she asked and looked
where Jesus lay asleep.
“To him,” her husband whispered low
and felt that he could weep.
“How can you be so sure, my love?”
she asked and rose from bed.
“An angel spoke within my dream
that Herod wants him dead.”
Mary heard those words and pondered
what her husband meant.
“When? How Long? And where shall be
the place this time is spent?
Joseph moved with haste to gather
what few things were there.
“We leave for Egypt now, tonight,
there is no time to spare.
“My dear, I do not know the length
of days we shall be gone.
The angel may appear again
when God will call his Son.
“But until then we must flee to
that land of ancient grief,
where Hebrews once had been enslaved
and where God set them free.
“Let us be strong and full of hope
for God will make a way.
We will see his faithfulness,
and night will turn to day.”
From Bethlehem the couple fled
and rushed along the path,
when suddenly they saw the flames
of those who rode with wrath.
“Soldiers!” Joseph gasped and rushed
with Mary through a field.
“We must run where they won’t see,
and God will be our shield.”
Hours passed beneath the moon,
and dawn at last arrived.
They walked and rested, slept and prayed,
they talked and sang and cried.
Through the promised land they went
as Joseph held the son.
They neared the wilderness and saw
the day was nearly done.
They slept that night and many more
beneath the stars above,
while o’er them watched the Maker of
all things who led with love.
Storms they faced, and bandits too,
but God preserved through dangers.
Many meals came from the hands
and hearts of caring strangers.
Weeks more passed before they saw
the land of Egypt near.
Joseph said, “The Lord will keep us
safe while we are here.”
Mary said, “I trust he will. I know
that God is with us.”
Then Joseph’s eyes met Mary’s, and
they both looked down at Jesus.
Unto Him 