On Sunday we continued a six week series through John’s “Book of Signs.” Our goal in the series is to examine the vignettes John offers in the first half of his gospel account to gain a full picture of who Jesus is and what he means to us. The fourth part of the series was from John 4:43-54, and the sermon manuscript can be found below:
On Sunday we continued a six week series through John’s “Book of Signs.” Our goal in the series is to examine the vignettes John offers in the first half of his gospel account to gain a full picture of who Jesus is and what he means to us. The third part of the series was from John 2:1-11, and the sermon manuscript can be found below:
A while back a friend and I began sharing the best quotes and thoughts we had from our personal reading. The idea was to give one another greater access to books without having to read as many. If I read a book, my friend could benefit from reading the quotes I pulled out and any thoughts I shared. For 2017, when ever I read a book I’ll share quotes I like, as well as any major thoughts I have about the book.
I just finished reading Dr. Timothy George’s Theology of the Reformers. This year marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. George’s goal is to set forth the distinguishing theological contributions of 5 reformers: Martin Luther, Hulrych Zwingli, John Calvin, Menno Simons, and William Tyndale. I highly recommend this book. It’s like getting 5 75 page biographies in 1 volume.
A few quotes:
Luther’s new insight was that the imputation of Christ’s alien righteousness was based not on the gradual curing of sun but rather on the complete victory of Christ on the cross.
Another aspect of Zwingli’s doctrine of election deserves some special attention: his postulation of the salvation of the so-called “pious heathen.” Zwingli held that even among those who had never heard the gospel, those who lived outside the chronological or geographical bounds of salvation history, God chose some.
On Calvin- The knowledge of God in the natural realm had only a negative function— to render humans inexcusable for their idolatry.
On Sunday we continued a six week series through John’s “Book of Signs.” Our goal in the series is to examine the vignettes John offers in the first half of his gospel account to gain a full picture of who Jesus is and what he means to us. The second part of the series was from John 1:29-34, and the sermon manuscript can be found below:
A new series for this blog in 2017 will be Book Thoughts. A while back a friend and I began sharing the best quotes and thoughts we had from our personal reading. The idea was to give one another greater access to books without having to read as many. If I read a book, my friend could benefit from reading the quotes I pulled out and any thoughts I shared. For 2017, when ever I read a book I’ll share quotes I like, as well as any major thoughts I have about the book.
The first book is Christ and Culture Revisited by D.A. Carson. In 1951 Richard Niebuhr wrote what has become a Christian classic, Christ and Culture. The book plotted 5 different viewpoints on how Christianity relates to the world (culture). Carson gives Niebuhr an update and advances Niebuhr’s original thought, slightly.
The greatest contribution I took from this book was Carson’s admonition to balance my view of the relationship of Christ and Culture across the great turning points of salvation history (Creation, the Fall, Call of Abraham, the Exile, the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Church Age, Second Coming and Restoration/Consummation). For example, a view that focuses too heavily on the Fall without also focusing on the Resurrection will tend to hate the world as an evil/irredeemable annoyance. This results in isolationist Christians.
Two other insights I found helpful are these:
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
On Sunday we began a six week series through John’s “Book of Signs.” Our goal in the series is to examine the vignettes John offers in the first half of his gospel account to gain a full picture of who Jesus is and what he means to us. Our first sermon was from John 1:1-18, and the sermon manuscript can be found below:
