Tuesday Trainings : Diaconal Ministry - 1

Deacons are a gift from the exalted Savior to the Church. Their work is to take care of the practical needs of the flock so that the pastors may “devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.” (Acts 6:4)[1] They are to oversee the deeds of mercy both to the church and the community around the church.  It is the only other holy office in the New Testament church in addition to the elder.  The diaconal ministry of the church frees the church's teaching and preaching, it validates the church's teaching and preaching, and it accompanies the church's teaching and preaching. [2] It is thus a very important office of the church. As George C. Fuller puts it, "To denigrate the high office of deacon is practical heresy". [3]

In part 1 of his diaconal ministry training, Tim Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian, well known for his books on the diaconate like Resources for Deacons and Ministries of Mercy, develops a theology of mercy ministry. He begins by considering the well known passage of Scripture dealing with the story of the good Samaritan. Keller makes some initial observations on the text like the overarching category for all that the Samaritan did, namely, mercy, noting down the deeds of the Samaritan as deeds of mercy, namely, meeting medical needs, financial needs and providing shelter, and finally noting the common thread among all the needs he ministered to, namely, human or felt needs.

With this introduction, Keller begins to lay a theological foundation for mercy ministry. He begins by defining diaconal ministry as the meeting of felt human needs through deeds and word in the power and love of the kingdom.  Keller defines a need as a dependency distorted and aggravated by alienation from God. He then goes to Genesis 3 to show the four levels of need due to four levels of alienation that resulted from the Fall. Firstly, we are spiritually alienated from God (Gen 3:8), resulting in psychological alienation causing guilt and shame (Gen 3:10), leading to social alienation from each other (Gen 3:7, 12), culminating in physical alienation (Gen 3:17-19). He moves onto show how the gospel heals every level of need, partially in this age and completely in the age to come. This healing is the essence of the kingdom of God and spreading it is the ministry of the church. The diaconal ministry is crucial in spreading this healing, though partial, especially in the needs arising from the physical alienation caused by the fall.

Diaconal Ministry - 1  Listen  |  Download 

Footnotes  

----------------

[1] Deacons, Heritage Baptist Church, Owensboro

[2] Ronald Pearce, God's Gift of Deacons

[3] Timothy J. Keller, "The High Calling of Deacon", Resources for Deacons, Pg11

Wednesday Word : What is Gospel-Centered Ministry?

“Gospel-centered” is  a popular term these days, used by many Evangelicals, predominantly Reformed who give much emphasis on the centrality of the gospel in one's theology, life and ministry. Here at Beacon of Truth, we have Jay Dharan’s articulation of the centrality of the gospel as follows: “Doctrinally, canonically and thematically, the center of the Bible is the gospel. The gospel thus dictates our understanding of every single doctrine, orients our hermeneutics and brings coherence to our grasp of the Bible storyline. Thus it is only by keeping the gospel at the center of our theology, life and ministry, we would faithfully uphold the supremacy and sufficiency of the gospel. We thus want to be as gospel-centered as the Bible is.”[1] Thus being gospel-centered affects our systematics (understanding of doctrine) and makes it thoroughly Evangelical; affects our hermeneutics (understanding of texts) and makes it thoroughly redemptive-historical in approach; and finally it affects our understanding of the biblical metanarrative (understanding of the whole story line) and makes it Christocentric.

What kind of a ministry would this result in the church? Tim Keller, very much a veteran in gospel-centered ministry expounds 1 Peter 1-2 to explain how a ministry profoundly shaped by the gospel will look like. He lists seven aspects of the gospel from this passage and then reflects on ministry implications of each of these. The seven facets of the gospel that Keller expounds from this passage are  :  Historical, Doxological, Christocentrical, Personal, Cultural, Transformational and Wonderful. For each of these, Keller has a very profound ministry application and thus lets the listener see how each of these ought to shape the ministry of a church. When the gospel shapes the ministry of a church, it is a gospel faithful ministry and as Evangelicals, the people of the Evangel, that is what we should yearn for the most in our churches.

Gospel Centered Ministry  Listen |  Download  |  Watch

Footnotes  

----------------

[1] Jay Dharan, The Gospel and Worshipping The Lord At Any Cost, Beacon of Truth.

What is the Gospel?

Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, a champion for gospel and gospel-centered ministry expounds Isaiah 53 and 54, to explain what the gospel does. He begins by noting that the gospel is neither “moral conformity religion” nor is it “self-discovery secularism”.  

From this passage in Isaiah, Keller points out three results that come from the gospel. The gospel brings, Keller says, “restructuring of your heart, removal of your sin and reversal of your values.” Keller preaches persuasively about the “costly grace” of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and how change happens in us only “when the gospel is intellectually coherent and existentially melting”. This sermon beautifully pictures the kind of people the gospel produces.

The Gospel  Listen  | Download

What Is The Bible All About?

It is of little wonder that most pulpits today lack preaching flavored with the aroma of the gospel, when pastors to a great degree do not have any clue on how to put their Bible together. This is the reason why, at least in some circles of Christendom, preaching is merely an articulation of ethical and moral imperatives and has nothing to do with gospel indicatives. There is no exegetical faithfulness in making distinctions between descriptive and prescriptive passages.  Little or no thought is given to what unifies the whole Bible. Some even question whether there is any such unity, even venturing to speak against the Old Testament.

 We need to rediscover and appreciate with deeper levels of insight the bond between God’s partial and preparatory words of promise spoken through Israel’s prophets and his final word spoken in Jesus, the Son who is the Word (Heb. 1:1–2; John 1:1, 14). The contemporary sense of estrangement of the Old Testament from the New Testament is an anomaly in the history of the church. From the apostolic period through the Church Fathers, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Reformation, the church maintained a hearty confidence that God’s role as the primary author of Scripture, speaking his message infallibly through distinctive human voices, secures the harmony and unity of the Bible’s message from Genesis to Revelation. Admittedly, some like Marcion denied that the Lord who addressed Moses on Sinai is the Father of our Lord Jesus. The church, however, condemned such aberrant repudiation of the Old Testament as contradictory to the teaching of Jesus himself. Others failed to recognize the diversity within the Bible’s unity, especially the fact that the Messiah, in bringing Old Testament promises and institutions to fulfillment, also has transformed God’s covenantal modes of relating to his people. Nevertheless, despite such anomalies in relating the Old Testament to the New Testament, the heartbeat of the church as a whole has coincided with Augustine’s pithy maxim: “The old is in the new revealed, the new is in the old concealed.” [1]

The answer to all of these is given by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in Luke 24, when He expounded the Scriptures to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and showed how the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms were all about Himself. Pastors would do well if they realize how the whole Bible is all about Jesus Christ. We need preachers who are committed to a redemptive-historical reading of the Bible and expounds its central theme – the person and work of Lord Jesus Christ, the full and final revelation of God.

How would a Christocentric reading of Scriptures look like? How would preaching Christ from all of Scriptures look like?

Here is an interesting short clip of Tim Keller giving us a feel of how Christ is all though out the Old Testament. He thus shows how the Bible is basically not about us, but primarily about Jesus Christ. The video ends with an implication for preachers. May those of us who are called to preach Christ take heed.

 

Footnotes

-------------------

[1] Dennis. E. Johnson, Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ From All The Scriptures, Pg 4

Remembering Roger Nicole

Renowned Reformed theologian Roger Nicole went to be with the Lord last Friday. He was 95 years old. Theoblogy pointed its readers to his study on the atonement just a week earlier his demise. The Evangelical church has truly lost one of its finest heroes. In this post, Theoblogy wants to point its readers to some of the best tributes Reformed Christians have written in memory of Dr. Nicole.

Justin Taylor has written a very good obituary, where he notes the significant works of Dr.Nicole and gives an overall picture of his life. In this eulogy, Taylor also gives a lot of details on various resources of Dr. Nicole that are available online and in print.

Roger Nicole (1915-2010) by Justin Taylor  | Read

In a short blog post, R.C Sproul reflects upon some of his personal experiences with Dr. Nicole. Sproul calls Nicole “one of the greatest titans of Christian faith” who for him was also “one of the legendary voices for the Reformed faith in the past century”.

Roger Nicole (1915–2010) — A Reflection from R.C. Sproul | Read

Colin Hansen has got the reactions of D.A Carson, Tim Keller and Mark Dever on Dr. Nicole’s death. Keller and Dever are also former students of Dr. Nicole. All three affirms his faithful service and profound scholarship.

Carson, Keller, and Dever Remember Roger Nicole by Colin Hansen | Read