Note: information for this blog gleaned from Tom Murrow’s column The Paper, a free weekly in San Diego County. V.
The Golden Age in America for: Newspapers and Magazines – late 1800’s to 1950. Automobiles – 1920’s – through 1970’s. Radio – late 1920’s – through 1940’s. Allowing some flexibility in Murrow’s calculations, his column offers entrée into this blog. What is the golden Age of Preaching?
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Have we considered how the relationship between the Old and New Testaments represents Gospel Truths fulfilled in Jesus Christ?
Consider: Genesis 3:24. God won’t allow fallen humanity to have access to a Paradise on earth. Many have sought it; none have found. Many have claimed Creation as Paradise. But under that veneer of beauty lies:
Indeed, humanity is the natural enemy of any pristine creation. For, wherever we go, we carry in our decisions, relationships and expectations the deadly pestilence of SIN that corrupts all perfection into warring divisions. Consider: Genesis 6:18. God’s saving Ark had but one DOOR into and exit from it 8:15-22. The New Testament counterpart of the door is Ephesians 4:4-6, the ONE baptism being the entrance into God’s eternal kingdom. A truth our faith-only mad Christendom will never understand. Consider: Exodus 35:30-35. It’s been said that those who CAN, DO; those who CAN’T, TEACH. However, God gifted Bezalel and Oholiab with skills in “all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers and embroiders”. Then…and having DONE it, they TAUGHT others to replicate it. A reference fulfilled completely only in Jesus Christ. He established, not as a gift from God, but AS God, the CLASSIFICATION of MASTER TEACHER, who ALSO inspired others to follow, working towards what Jesus perfectly embodied Ephesians 4:7-16. He enjoyed a Balanced Perfection between Teaching and Life, a balance we fitfully follow, but never achieve, and always poorly imitate. . . . . . . . . . Just like God, Jesus never altered, edited, removed or added as an addendum to any teaching or claim made. . . . . . . . . . Never believe the satanic lie that cultural change means that old rules don’t apply. Cultures do change, but OLD BIBLE truth still applies, whatever change occurs. Every single thought of God recorded remains in place and carried to completion by the Holy Spirit. No decision ratified in Heaven will ever be abrogated by any law, decision or culture on earth. Jesus is the Stone the prophet Daniel saw cut from the mountain and filling the earth Daniel 2:1-45. That continues to be a warning to humanity. Get in its WAY and it will crush you to dust. . . . . . . . . . Christ is the Mystery of God, and the church his instrument. A Bible mystery is something or someone hidden until God wanted it or him revealed. For example, Revelation 4 has no mention of Jesus. While Revelation 5 has Christ as its entire focus. Meaning: he was THERE ALL THE TIME, Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, waiting the optimum time to be revealed. Indeed, Ephesians 2:1-3:13 declared Christ as God’s Mystery-Person, revealing him as head of the Church, God’s Mystery Organism, to unite all mankind by his Grace. . . . . . . . . . We sometimes say, if “such and such happens,” or “if such and such doesn’t happen”, we can succeed. Romans 8:28-39 issues a “Neither/Nor” promise. As in “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons”, etc., etc. “Neither, neither nor”…. Believers are perfectly secure in Christ’s love so long as we seek security in God’s love in Christ. Wherever God speaks, whether:
He demands that we:
Whenever Jesus or his apostles spoke, he and they:
That expectation should inspire preachers to deep-pit mining of God’s WORD:
For even the least-educated Christian:
And no Christian:
Preachers…never:
Instead, preachers…always have as your goal the object of:
Remember, preachers…Jesus aims to:
By its eternal nature, the Gospel of Christ calls us forward to its advanced position:
If we understand dunamis – dynamite – Romans 1:16, as spiritual energy, the ability to:
First, Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work, I John 3:8, of which we have examples in healings, exorcisms, resurrections and conversions. Second, once forgiving sinners, he fashions them into new lives out of their old John 2:7-10, II Corinthians 5:17. Third, he fills each new believer with the Holy Spirit, the ONE exactly like the Father and the Son:
Fourth, he seeks transformation of our minds as we welcome the Spirit and remain obedient to his direction Romans 12:1-2. Fifth, he aims to change us from one beggar telling another beggar where spiritual food is: to
- corporately as congregations I Corinthians 3:16 - dramatizing Christ’s glory in our lives II Corinthians 3:18 - that serve as the reason why unsaved people should also accept Christ I Peter 3:15, II Corinthians 4:5-6 - in a sentence, while it’s easier to hide Christ’s glory from sinners than to reveal his glory in Christians, WE ARE HIS BIBLE to BE READ and EMULATED BY THE UNSAVED. We have no choice but to Grow Up into Christ-likeness and out into society as his witnesses. In summary, the Holy Spirit inspires preachers to be “deep pit” miners when studying God’s Word. Holes here and there in each Gospel text appear, meaning someone’s down there digging for spiritual gold! That leads to believers being empowered to BE Living Epistles of the Eternal Christ. Fini Note: for the purpose of this blog, see Gospel and Bible as synonymous terms. The Gospel is the logical and only possible end of all God’s revelation. V
Every story has spiritual lessons. The Jessop Clock story reveals at least three lessons. First, the craftsmanship creating may NOT exist to reproduce the clock. Or it MAY, but be too expensive to do so. No mortal mind or skill, whatever the genre, has, can, or ever will exist to reproduce Bible truth. The Bible, as source, has often been author of economic, political, social and spiritual truth. But never equaled in style, content or result! It can never be. Second, the clock, like anything else mortals build, always wears down or out and needs to be replenished, re-fitted or replaced, whether with cosmetic or substantial corrections. The Second law of Thermodynamics continues its relentless assault on people and things. The Gospel defies the tests of time that weaken and destroy all human creations. It’s the:
Third, the great-grandson of Joseph Jessop leads the family and recruits the donors making the Clock’s gift possible. But any first—or succeeding—generation preacher can have the privilege of being a Gospel herald. And owes obedience only to the ONE who called him to preach. However, so far from being capable of THINKING the Gospel needs to be up-dated by us, we are hardly capable of preaching at any depth the truth it holds at every depth. Unable to be worthy of preaching it, how can we be egotistical enough to think we can improve it by amending it? This writer remembers preachers in Florida wondering what to preach to space scientists. On asking, they were told, “Preach the Gospel!” Karl Menninger, author of Whatever Became of Sin?, challenged preachers to Preach the Word. Tell it like it is! He reminded preachers of the privilege they enjoy by preaching God’s WORD every Sunday! End Part II In Part III, suggested, but hardly exhausted, results Bible preaching has. V Note: medical issues prevented blogging last week. Issues resolved now, back to the task. V
The historic Jessop Clock—a 22 foot tall hand-made time-piece of 300 moving parts, 17 faces and jewels, with accompanying parts—had its maturity in 1908 outside Joseph Jessop’s jewelry store at Broadway and Fifth Avenue, San Diego. It moved in 1927 with the store south of Broadway. Then to the new Horton Plaza shopping center in 1985. With the dissolution of that once-innovative center, the family chose, from several options, to house it with the San Diego History Center In Balboa Park. It will soon be moved from its present storage in Kearny Mesa to the History Center to begin necessary cosmetic restoration. That finished, the Clock will be installed within “a three story exhibit around a new winding staircase.” Presently insured for a million dollars, it’s essentially priceless since the family doubts that knowledge and craftsmanship exists to build a replica. San Diego U-T, 5/18/23 This story not only reveals pleasant history but teaches valuable spiritual lessons. End Part I The Old White Lighthouse remains a prime attraction in Pt. Loma, California. It had once been, since 1855, one of three lighthouses built and beaming off the California coast. When first occupied by its keeper, he looked across San Diego Bay to meadows where sheep grazed. Where high rise apartments, hotels and bank buildings now stand.
Because fogs settled below the hills, by 1891 it had out-lived its usefulness. A new cottage group built at ocean elevation, 400 feet lower than the original location, took its place and remains the Pt. Loma lighthouse. Truly, what mortals build can have a lifespan beyond which it cannot compete. Which, by the way, the Gospel of Christ never experiences. Why preachers don’t study it more deeply, and proclaim it more steadfastly, I cannot say. But the church suffers without God’s Word faithfully and continually preached. And...sadly...our role as witnesses to the lost in equal proportion. May God find us as open to his Word as old Simeon. May he find us looking for the Christ. And, may God lead us, as he led Simeon, to see: the Christhood in the Christ child; the Godhood in his humanity; the royalty in his commonness; the strength in his weakness; the wealth in his poverty; the fame in his obscurity; the exaltation in his humiliation; and the resurrection in his death. Once we do, we’ll re-dedicate to repeating after the mature Jesus the message that never loses its relevance and usefulness, and never loses its power over sin, Satan, death and Hell—whatever the age. I have explained in another article what I consider the best understanding of Matthew 26:19. This blog stresses the devotional thought from there. Remember that it’s essential to the Master’s institution of the Lord’s Supper. And the meaning of the Supper relates entirely to his sacrificial death for sins, our renewed life in discipleship AND the new body believers inherit after Christ returns.
With that understanding, only the Christians who proclaim his sacrifice as the reason he came—to be the SAVIOR, Christ the Lord, Luke 2:11—and who proclaim that reality as Christianity’s primary message, truly represent Jesus before the unsaved. The rest may preach a pleasing message, but not God’s primary message. No matter what the unsaved sinners want to hear, this they must hear because it’s God’s Priority outreach to them. Let us be warned: however methods change, God’s message does not. And we must not delete from the Gospel the essential that distinguishes it from all other messages. We must NEVER reduce to secondary or tertiary what God demands FIRST. LOST the unsaved are, and they remain lost till they accept what God says finds them. They must accept that truth about themselves before they’re candidates for conversion. They can be won to a program without that emphasis; to a church fellowship without it; to a small group study without it. But they’re won to Christ only through admitting they’re sinners and he’s the SAVIOR! |
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