Don Carson Pre-Conference: Preserving the Gospel

by Kimberly | Jun 22, 2012 | Uncategorized

Speaking from 2 Timothy 1:1-2:7

Preserving the Gospel

We are tempted to think defensively, and start ministry to attack those who, we think, are drifting away.

What is the Gospel that we are defending?

Paul speaks of this preservation of the Gospel in these verses.

“Preach the Gospel, if necessary, use words.” Yes, but when you have an announcement, you speak it.

Yes, our lives must be in conformity with the Gospel, but when you have news, you must proclaim it. There’s a huge emphasis of this in the Bible.

What is the content of the Gospel? 

What God did for us in and through his Son. He bore our sins in his own body as he hung on the tree. God the Father sees us righteous. When God looks on the Son, He sees my sin.

The last enemy is death, and he will battle until that enemy is defeated on the last day.

On the last day, we will see Christ as He is and we will be like him, bearing the likeness of Christ as much as

The Gospel is not what we should do, but news of what God has done.

We cannot separate marriage and happiness and living life in general from the Gospel.

Six Steps for Preserving the Gospel

1. Fan into flame what you received (vv. 3-7). 
   1. Timothy came from a mixed faith family. His grandmother and mother had to reach back to pre-Christian religious systems. And Timothy was heir, not through his father, but through his godly mother. He received the Word from those who were using the Old Testament and things beyond.
   2. He saw the value of their belief structures in his parents. His father was a storyteller and him mom was analytical.
   3. Faith that is worked out in observable ways is seen in subsequent lives. The Gospel is not merely a corpus of beliefs, abstracts of belief. They are lived out and seen in families, and in, above all, the context of the church.
   4. “For this reason…” fan into flame the gift of God. The fact that he is a Christian, reared in a believing home, called into service. Don’t just assume, act.
   5. How do we fan this into flame?
      1. The Gospel must be more than something that is merely assumed.
      2. People do not learn what we are teaching, they learn what we are excited about.
      3. If we want the Gospel to be fanned into flame, we must live out our excitement about the Gospel.
      4. If we are excited about corporate worship styles, about sociological analysis and not about the Gospel, others pick up that the Gospel is really not that important. We must be excited about what is at the center so that it is passed on to others.
      5. The Gospel can be denied not by denying it but by overlooking it.
      6. Think constantly about the Gospel, keep it at the center of all that you think and do.
      7. “For…” verse 7. When we have fanned into flame, we are motivated to courage and love and self-control
2. Maintain a clear grasp of the Value of the Gospel (vv 8-11). 

1. We know these things but we must be constantly be reminded of these things.
2. How will your life look fifty billion years from now? It will still be seen. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
3. There is a context in which we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves. And all of this is secured by someone else.
   1. Why do we have to be encouraged to keep that in view?
   2. “Anchored in eternity and grounded in history.”
   3. I don’t know when I was saved… “When did you save me?” “Before the foundation of the world.”

3. Maintain a willingness to suffer for the Gospel (1:6, 2:8). 

1. “It has been graciously been given to you to believe in his name, and also to suffer for his sake.” Suffering is a gracious gift. “May I know… the fellowship of his suffering.”
2. With Pentecost, there came such a power that 3,000 people were converted in one sermon. People lined the streets, hoping the Apostles’ shadows would fall on them. Did the Apostles think, “Where’s the suffering?” Were they worried they were doing something wrong at first?
3. In the Gospel, suffering for Christ is considered normal in the Scriptures.
4. In the West we think of general suffering: cancer, loss, physical pain. But the Bible overwhelming talks of suffering for the sake of Christ.
5. Instead of being outraged for not being treated equitibly in a free society, we are to enjoy in the sufferings of Christ. We should be encouraged and strengthened in our eternal state when being opposed or shut down, even by legal means, and know we have shared in the sufferings of Christ.
6. Don’t be ashamed of Christ or the Gospel. Don’t be ashamed of those who suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Rather, join in the suffering for the sake of Gospel. Genuine boldness, faithfulness and willingness, should it please God, to suffer for Jesus’s sake.

4. Uphold the mandate to guard the Gospel. 

a. More than making practical, personal application to our lives, but faithfulness to the pattern of sound teaching.

b. We must know how the patterns of the teaching come together and stay on right trajectory.

c. There are more than simple moral lessons.

5. Distinguish the between the betrayers and supporters of the Gospel. 

1. Paul has been abandoned by the church in Asia Minor. They are no longer supporting him since he is in prison.
2. But he also brings attention to those who bring him food and clothing and writing supplies. They met his needs despite the treatment they received.
3. We are tempted to be soft on those who are our friends. But Paul ties it to how people respond to the Gospel.
   1. We love the Gospel Coalition. It has become a place in the council to learn about and to love one another through the shared Gospel that links us and joins. This is the same as should be found in the context of the local church.
   2. Within this framework we learn who is for the Gospel and who is quietly undermining it.
   3. Alliances must be made with those who are Gospel driven, not those who are of the same gender or race or denomination or training…

6. Work hard at passing along the Gospel. 

a. We preserve the Gospel by passing it along.

b. Moreso than defending it.

c. You guarding the Gospel by giving it away.

d. We lose the Gospel when we hold on to it and defend it. The next generation doesn’t see it or hear it and they lose it.

e. We must look for those who are particularly reliable for passing it along, like to Timothy and Apollos from Paul and Priscilla and Aquilla.

Preserve the Gospel by articulating it, defending it, preserving it, and passing it along. 

Tim and Kathy Keller, Pre-Conference

by Kimberly | Jun 22, 2012 | Uncategorized

Tim Keller:

The Culture needs to understand that love is a covenantal thing. God is a witness of the first marriage.

Our culture doesn’t know about covenant, the counterintuitive combination of love and law. More intense than just a love relationship, more personal and binding than a legal contract. The “I’m committed for my whole life, not just to FEEL loving but to BE loving, regardless of how I feel.” That is how we can be safe to be ourselves and trust. It’s MORE intimate, and you can even stop fooling yourself as to who you are.

Covenant allows us to be who we are. Cohabitation leaves us in “Marketing and promotion” b/c the other person can always leave.

Do you get the same electrical charge when you hold your wife’s hand now?

“Heck no!”

“Not the magnitude of my love for her, but the flattery of her choice of me. I didn’t feel love, I felt my ego affirmed.”

“Love is sacrificial service, and the increasing delight you find in the person you’ve invested your life in.”

When we fall in love, we fall in love with the idea of the person we think the other is. As time goes by, we find out who we really are. We live life together, find out who we really are. Live, love, repent, learn who we really are. And real love grows out of that.

“The praise of the praiseworthy…”

What do you do when marriage brings out the worst in both of you? Only the grace of Christ. Jesus saw what we would do, and he stayed on the cross. We can stay, too.

Christ didn’t die for us because we were lovely, but to make us lovely.

Kathy Keller

As memebers of Christ’s body, we are the hands and feet of Christ, ministering grace to a needy people.

Not just a nice metaphor, but a reality.

1 Cor 12: Reflection of “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Not my people, but me.

Eph 4:25: The world sees us, and we are Christ made visible.

Christian marriage is an apologetic vehicle, a message that will astonish the world if we get it right.

We have been told that we have made a God in our image, but CS Lewis stated that he populated the world with things He would be able to call on to describe Himself through His creation.

The revelation that is written is drawn upon analogical language of his previously created beings. It is Divine Show and Tell.

Character of God can be visible in the distinct roles of men and women in a marriage.

Main Point: 

In a Christian marriage, each person gets to play the Jesus role. Each member, playing out their role of headship and submission shows a complete picture of Christ.

Phil 2: Submissive to the Father

Eph 5: Headship over the church

God meant something important when he stamped us XX or XY, so that we would more fully represent in the divinely ordained gender roles.

Headship and submission are both roles reflective of Jesus. Mystery of the Dance of Trinity…

There’s a church on every corner, but only in a marriage can people see repentance operating without manipulation. Marriage can become a window into the Gospel.

Deeper understanding of ourselves and the Triune God.

People see your marriage and how it works (or doesn’t work) more intimately than anything else you do. How you interact is visible, even to casual observers.

What should people see about Christ in your marriage?

What do people actually see in your marriage? 

Husband: Eph 5, Headship and sacrificial love. Gave himself up to make his bride holy and spotless. Not Archie Bunker definition of headship.

Headship is not qualification to receive all the perks and benefits with your little woman to provide them for you…

Great becomes servant, First becomes slave. Jesus emphasized the redemption of power and authority by washing the feet of his disciples. Headship is flipped upside down from what the world expects.

Jesus took the ego out of leadership and redefined as sacrificial servanthood, willing to do the hard work and to even die.

Wives:

If you have a husband who understands headship, there will be no problem submitted to him. But…what about those who are single or are in unhappy marriages, with husbands who do not understand headship properly?

Phil 2… Humbled himself, became obedient to death. THEREFORE… exalted to the highest place. Submission leads directly to God being glorified.

Jesus took the role of a servant. They (headship and submission) are roles. You salute the uniform, not the person.

Father and Son are equally God. But Jesus took a role that is economically subbordinate. Not compelled or required of him, but a gift offered for securing our salvation.

Submission in a marriage is given first to God, not to a husband.

“If submission did not harm the second person of the Trinity, it surely will not hurt me.”

Gal 3: 26-28– Not a challenge to gender roles, but a window into how God uses them.

All sons, but all brides, too. Also sheep… Not as rich when we are “Children”

No one’s worth is found in the role in which they play here on earth.

Distinguish roles from gifts and their value.

Men are = in value and status before God, equally gifted by the Spirit.

Equally called to use gifts, but in different roles, but both in roles Jesus fulfilled.

Idolatry: We forget our true Spouse because we are so focused on our earthly spouse. We are all betrothed to our heavenly bridegroom.

Jesus had an earthly body. Jesus still has His earthly body. He knows what you’re going through when you remain chaste and pure for His sake. Single people are placed uniquely in the lives of married people to remind them to not place too much worth in the earthly life they have in marriage. Married people play out the Gospel before a watching world.