You are currently browsing the daily archive for May 6th, 2009.
Kanishka peached a very powerful sermon on hell – ‘Hell – the End of the Broad Road’
He painted vividly a dark picture of hell then he point out that Jesus had to die so we would not go to hell. When he was talking about how Jesus was nailed on the cross and how God delivered Him from the death, Kanishka was very emotional and he had to have a ’tissue break’.
His big point “Without hell, we won’t understand the Cross; Without the Cross, we won’t understand God.” “Hell won’t make people love God, only the Cross does.”
Bryan’s 3rd lecture – The Hands of a Christ-centered Message
Bryan talked about how to develop redemptive messages, there are three steps to determine the FCF – big idea, context, and ‘what do we share in common with?’
He pointed out that not all FCFs are sins though all are a result of our fallen condition. People need to be corrected as well as encouraged as people are live in a fallen world.
Expository preaching demonstrates redemptive truth logically through text, type and context. Every passage either is predictive or preparatory or reflective or resultant of the work of Christ.
What redemptive messages ’sound like’
- grace despite our sin (the messages of assurance and adoption)
- grace destroying the guilt of sin (the messages of justification and forgiveness)
- grace defeating the power of sin (the messages of sanctification and enablement)
- grace compelling holiness (the message of worship and obedience)
His last lecture – The Hope of a Christ-centered message
He talked about how Christ-centered redemptive messages affect the Christian life.
key idea “the imperative rests on the indicative and this order is not reversible.” He argues that ‘being is based on doing’ is not gospel. Gospel is doing based on being.
Proper application in Christ-centered preaching
- take people away from themselves as the instrument of healing.
- make sure you know how to connect to Christ’s grace and power.
To end, ‘fill up people with love for Jesus.’
John wants us to think about the gap between our theology and what we actually believe through a historical perspective. Do we really trust that God is at work throughout the history.
His first two lectures covers the 1st and 2nd Great Awakening. He talked about Wesley, Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards (1st Awakening), and Western frontier, Yale University, and Charles Finnley (2nd Awakening)
Jonathan Edwards’ observation of Awakening
- God’s season of mercy
- teaching about Hell
- dealing with the problems of ‘false Christ’ – during the movement, there must be a lot of people who claim they are God-sent.
The distinguish marks of the Holy Spirit
- Jesus Christ is lifted up
- Satan’s kingdom is in danger and Satan is not happy
- High regard on Scripture
- believer’s ability to discern truth and error
- Spirit of love to God and neighbour
Woodbridge’s advice:
- Call upon people to make life long commitment in the early stage of their lives (example: Jonathan Edwards)
- Read Wesley and Whitefield’s journals
- persistence of prayer
(I expected John Woodbridge to have a greater focus on preach in the context of church history. I think today’s two lectures were a bit too general. Still two more from him on Thursday, I wonder what he is going to say.)
