A helpful article by Mark Dever, taken from ‘The Gospel and Personal Evangelism’ (Crossway 2007).
Many “ordinary” Christians feel scared or ill-equipped in evangelism, and often the “professional” clergy folk give the impression – intentionally or unintentionally – that they’re the only ones who can do it. Should we leave evangelism up to the extroverts and the professionals?
No – it’s for all Christians! What Scripture says on the subject:
Part 2. A summary of Book 3, Chapter 20 of Calvin’s Institutes.
4. Who to pray through: The importance of a Mediator
5. Different types of prayer: The importance of prayer with thanksgiving
6. Private and public prayer
7. Use of words and singing in prayer
4. Who to pray through
It is impossible for any human to approach God’s presence in his own name, without alarm and dread for God’s majesty. But God in his graciousness has provided his Son Jesus to be our advocate and mediator, through whom we can approach God boldly, securely, and confidently (Hebrews 4:16), knowing that nothing will be denied to us because nothing is denied to him (1 Timothy 2:5, 1 John 2:1). Read the rest of this entry »
Part 1. A Summary of Book 3, Chapter 20 of Calvin’s Institutes. Surprisingly practical!
1. Why is it so important?
2. If he knows everything, why bother praying?
3. Rules of engagement
1. Why is it so important?
Man is utterly destitute and without hope, were it not for God’s intervention; but God has chosen to give us Christ, and so we call out to him, and the Spirit makes those requests possible. Prayer “digs up those treasures which the Gospel of our Lord discovers to the eye of faith”, and therefore is such a necessity because our only safety is in calling upon the name of our sovereign Father and resting in his omniscience. Read the rest of this entry »
‘The Original Jesus, or How the New Testament bears witness to him’
A Christological Survey & Summary of the New Testament, taught by John Stott at The London Lectures in Contemporary Christianity, 2000
Regardless of whatever people may think of him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in Western culture for almost 20 centuries. 3 particular ways we can notice his dominance:
(i) He is the centre of human history. One third of world claims to be Christian, split history into BC/AD
(ii) He is the focus of Scripture. Jerome: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ, because the Scriptures are full of Christ.”
(iii) He is the heart of mission. Why do Christians cross continents and cultures as missionaries? To commend a person, Jesus Christ.
In this lecture, Stott considers the New Testament evidence for the Original Jesus, in general, except for the book of Revelation which he considers in a later lecture. He summarises each New Testament book and in particular considers their teaching on Jesus Christ. He proposes that the lecture series is appropriately called ‘The Incomparable Christ’, for there is nobody – past, present, or future – like Jesus.
Part 2 of 3 on the Doctrine of Revelation, taught by Mike Reeves on UCCF Summer School with the South massive. Listen to it here.
In particular, a doctrine of Scripture, but not just about Scripture!
Often this is seen as a prologue to real theology. However, this attitude leads to treating it in a non-Christian way. So in the last 200 years it has been seen as a theistic and not a Christian theology. Abstractly, the classic question has been: is it possible for God to make himself known? That depends on the God! Instead, the better question to ask is: how has God revealed himself? Read the rest of this entry »
