10 Gospel Questions

... and after he brought them out, he said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household' (Acts 16:30-31)


Some helpful hints from Don Whitney for turning conversations toward the eternal things of the Gospel and Jesus Christ (I personally like using #'s 7 and 10):

1. When you die, if God says to you, "Why should I let you into Heaven?", what would you say? Are you interested in what the Bible says about your answer?

2. If you were to die tonight, where do you think you would spend eternity? Why? Are you interested in what the Bible says about this?

3. Do you think much about spiritual things?

4. How is God involved in your life?

5. How important is your faith to you?

6. What has been your most meaningful spiritual experience?

7. Do you find that your religious heritage answers your questions about life?

8. Do you have any kind of spiritual beliefs? If what you believe were not true, would you want to know it? Well, the Bible says . . . .

9. To you, who is Jesus?

10. I often like to pray for people I meet; how can I pray for you?

HT: 9Marks

The Church in the Future: Smaller and Stronger

... I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it (Matt 16:18).

In his recent talk at the Next conference, "The Church," Kevin DeYoung helpfully clarifies the grim numbers which frequently seem to indicate the decline of Christianity in America:

When you hear these numbers of the decline of the Church, on one level we are sad, but you dig into the numbers and you realize that it is not a new-found dissatisfaction with the Gospel, as much as it is the continuing story of Catholic and mainline protestants losing their young, not increasing through evangelism, and the old “dying-off.” What we are losing in this country are nominal Christians who no longer feel the cultural pressure to say they go to church or that they are Christians. ...my hunch is that in your life time, my lifetime, we will see the church in North America smaller than it is today, but it will be more Gospel–centered, more Scripture-saturated, stronger, more doctrinally-robust, and more in love with the Savior than it has been in the last fifty years.

Christ will build His Church... and He continues to do so today.

(For more winsome wisdom on loving the Church see DeYoung and Kluck, Why We Love the Church).

Update: Providentially, CJ Mahaney and I posted on DeYoung's message today. See Mahaney's summary here.

Are We Still Serious about Hell?

Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt 10:28).

Here at TPC, we are strictly non-conformist, neither Anglican nor the son of an Anglican. Yet, we continually thank God for the Australian Anglicans and their ministry through Matthias Media! Their evangelistic efforts with Two Ways to Live, their book publishing with such gems as The Trellis & the Vine, and their monthly periodical, The Briefing, are continually Biblical, straight-forward, and helpful.

This continues with the most recent issue of The Briefing (June 2010), which is focused on the Church and the ignored (despised?) doctrine of Hell. In "Are We Still Serious About Hell?" Jonathan Gibson simply, but thoroughly, explains the current controversies and the biblical teaching on hell. Despite the intuitive difficulty, Gibson exhorts all Christians to upholding the Bible's clear teaching on hell:

But as I have studied this topic again, I am reminded of John Stott’s words: the issue is “not what does my heart tell me, but what does God’s word say?" If what God’s word says is true—that hell really does exist—then I need to face it. Ignoring it, denying it or even reinterpreting it will not change its reality. In fact, I believe that the reality of hell explains why Jesus taught more about it than he did about heaven. When given the only opportunity that we know of to address thousands of people, Jesus chose to speak about hell (Luke 12). And when interrupted with the tragic news of Pilate’s slaughter of Galileans (Luke 13:1-5), he refused to be taken off the topic: “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (v. 3).

All this is to say that the issue of hell ultimately comes down to trusting Jesus—trusting that he’s telling us the truth and that he’s telling us for our good. I believe with all my heart that he is worth trusting, for he too wept over Jerusalem and, what’s more, vanquished hell, so that Jerusalem and all the ends of the earth might enjoy his heaven—a new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

Gibson has also expanded greatly on his article in three on-line posts that are worth your time:

Hell: Is the church still serious about it?

Hell: Theological Reflections on Hell

Hell: Pastoral Reflections on Hell

Be Real: Confess Your Sins

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9).

Classic evangelical Christianity has often been accused of a morbid preoccupation with sin and guilt. John Stott reminds us that we are in no way to be offended by such criticism:

We are not in the least ashamed of the fact that we think and talk a lot about sin. We do so for the simple reason that we are realists. Sin is an ugly fact. It is to be neither ignored nor ridiculed, but honestly faced. Indeed, Christianity is the only religion in the world which takes sin seriously and offers a satisfactory remedy for it. And the way to enjoy this remedy is not to deny the disease, but to confess it.

- John Stott, Confess Your Sins, p. 9.

There is no good reason for Christians to downplay the significance of sin in their personal testimonies, public worship, or even corporate prayer. In a world that asks for authenticity, here it is... you and I are undoubtedly sinners. So, let's get real and confess our sins.

Prepare for Persecution

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life (Rev 2:10).


One of the more obvious observations of this passage is that our Lord felt it necessary to prepare His people for suffering. This is consistent with His teaching throughout the New Testament, that Christians are to know and expect suffering for Christ's sake. Receiving the "crown of life," humanly speaking, depends on it.

I am continually mindful of this in my role as a pastor and teacher in Christ's Church. Are my people prepared to suffer well? Am I? Especially with the recent reports out of Dearborn, MI, where four Christians have been arrested for "disorderly conduct." What conduct merited such a charge? Sharing the Gospel at a gathering of Muslims.

Todd Nettleton, of Voice of the Martyrs, has reported that they have video-taped proof of their conduct:

'No one was screamed at. No one was accused. There was not a disrespectful tone toward Islam. There were not verbal attacks against Islam, there were not verbal attacks against Mohammad,' says Nettleton. 'It was simply a theological discussion, which, in the United States, we should be free to do.' ("Religious Freedom: Does it Still Exist for the USA?")

If the United States follows the trends in Western Europe and Canada (as we have in so many other socio-economic areas), we should only expect such persecution to increase. This is no cause for alarm, the freedom we Americans have enjoyed the last two hundred years or so has been a brief anomaly out of two millennia of Christian history.

Yet it is a cause for concern. I am concerned for the millions of professing Christians in America, particularly those in my congregation... are they prepared for the testing of tribulation? Generally speaking, most of our lives are filled with relative ease. We frequent social gatherings and have unending entertainment at our finger-tips (or our ear-buds). We have, in fact, grown so accustomed to gobs of leisure time that when you listen to most Christians complain it generally revolves around something that is hindering their leisure! Gathering each Lord's Day and during the week to pray and study God's Word costs most of us little more than gas and television-time.

How will we fair when evangelism means imprisonment? What will attendance-trends be like in the US when going to worship with the church puts you on some government list? (I am guessing we will have less "mega-churches"). Are we prepared for such a day in our souls? What are we teaching our children about following Christ... is Christianity a prerequisite for a successful American life or is it a call to die so that we may live with Him, our Lord and our joy?

Christ was and is very clear... be faithful unto death. Discipleship means believing, praying, serving, and expecting nothing less than that. I, for one, am praying that He will prepare all of us for such faithfulness.

Looking Down on Youthfulness

Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe (1 Tim 4:12)

Pastoral ministry in the local church is not the easiest endeavor in God's world, but as Paul anticipated for his young disciple, and as Jon Acuff has humorously observed, it is only compounded when you're not the oldest guy in the room:

Sure Whitney Houston, I believe that children are the future, but I’d be lying if I said that’s the first thing I think when a minister younger than me takes the stage. Call it jealousy that the next generation is about to lap me or that the generation behind me has a cooler name, “millennial tweener x-tremes,” but when youth is served at church, sometimes Christians like to tune out and think:

“Oh no, where’s the regular pastor? Is it ‘regular’ or ‘senior’ or ‘teaching pastor of imaginevisioneering’? I can never get those right, but who is this kid up on stage? Is he doing the announcements? Is there a youth group fundraiser I need to know about? Fine, I’ll get my car washed in a Chick-fil-A parking lot. That’s like a win-win right there, holding a Christian event in the parking lot of a Christian restaurant. That’s God squared.

But why isn’t this kid getting off the stage? Is he, no, is he about preach? Is it youth Sunday already? What, he’s the youth minister? That’s great, but this isn’t youth group. He’s way too young to school me in the game of life. Oh, but this is happening. It’s tool ate for me to walk out and leave. It’s time for the junior hour of power.

Please just don’t use that phrase that all young ministers bust out. Please don’t say, oh no, you just did. You just said, “When I was growing up.” You said it like it was over, like you’ve crossed from young man into wizened old gentleman. But you’re only twenty-four. The toughest decision you’ve faced in life so far was whether to get the full meal plan or the five-day-a-week meal plan at seminary. You went with the five? That’s good to know, let me scribble that down here in the sermon notes section of my bulletin.

But I’ll forgive you that one. I’ll let that one slide as long as you don’t give me any marital advice. You’ve been married for about fifteen minutes. You’re still tan from your honeymoon. I can still kind of smell suntan lotion on you. If at any point in this sermon you try to give me marriage advice, I am going to think about college baseball. I just want to be up front about that. The toughest marriage decision you’ve faced so far is whether to exchange one of the china sets you got as a wedding gift for a George Foreman grill that is shaped like a massive charcoal grill. Don’t, I’ve done that, I fought that battle, and it was not worth it. You need more plates than you think and less George Foreman grills than you think. Trust me on that.

See, I should be doing this sermon, I just gave you some free marital advice. You’re welcome.

- Stuff Christians Like, pp. 84-85.

This seems to be God's recipe for hammering humility in the ranks of youthful pastors. (FYI, I brown-bagged lunch at seminary, but we did get a Foreman Grill at our wedding!). Of course we also have Psalm 119:99-100 at the ready to remind ourselves and everyone else that the root of wisdom is not experience.

HT: Kevin DeYoung

Piper: Is Church Membership Important?

Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it (1 Cor 12:27)



As usual, John Piper is perceptive and right on point. Do not miss his, in our opinion, accurate diagnosis of the resistance to church membership in American evangelicalism:

If you want to say, "OK, I believe the New Testament says, 'Be a part of a community, give yourself to ministering there and receiving ministry there, and advancing the cause of the gospel there, and upholding the name of Jesus there, and doing mission there,' and I'm a part of that," then to resist putting your name on the line for that is probably not a biblical conviction. It's probably an American, independent, give-me-elbow-room, don't-get-in-my-face-too-often conviction, which I don't think is biblical.