The Message of the Cross
I had the rare occasion to listen to Alistair Begg in person at Mars Hill Church Thursday night. And here I'd like to highlight a few things.
To keep us at ease before he launched into what he anticipated a long sermon he told a joke which was by George Burns. George Burns says he knows the key to a good sermon. He said you should have a good beginning, and a very good ending, and that you should keep them as close together as possible.
His message is based on 1 Corinthians verses 18 through 31 in the chapter. And of course he followed it with a 3-part sermon with subtitles in alliteration. The subtitles were that the Message of the Cross is a) Central, b) Clear, c) Crucial.
One takeaway I heard was that if a church takes its eyes off of Christ on the cross, that church will have troubles.
Another takeaway was not in something that he said but in how it is said. He does not think he has accomplished much. Rather he is being accomplished by the Lord. He is humble. He is completely amazed that the Lord saved him. He expounds on the amazing grace. He doesn't just pass off message of the cross as "matter of fact", but passionately preaches that it is an amazing thing to keep our eyes onto, daily.
Finally, I'll mention one more thing he said about personal evangelism. In the Q&A part of the event a woman asked how one should address her very intellectual friends regarding the message of the cross and salvation through Jesus. And he answered with a short story about an intellectual, a lawyer, who looked at the Bible and Darwin's book and said, using court of law process he could not prove either. Later in life this man went to watch the ending program his child was in at vacation Bible school. And the sunday school teacher closed with a short message that to this man didn't make much sense to him, it was a lot of nonsequiters strung together. "But," the man said, "but I am convinced that that man is convinced of what he believes!" The point Alistair made is that you cannot address the Gospel with intellect. It's not in how the message is conveyed, how clever we can communicate, but in our personal conviction of the Gospel in our lives. And that the Spirit of God will do His work in people through that.
I hope you take time to listen to Alistair's messages, they are free, on TruthForLife's website. http://www.truthforlife.org
To keep us at ease before he launched into what he anticipated a long sermon he told a joke which was by George Burns. George Burns says he knows the key to a good sermon. He said you should have a good beginning, and a very good ending, and that you should keep them as close together as possible.
His message is based on 1 Corinthians verses 18 through 31 in the chapter. And of course he followed it with a 3-part sermon with subtitles in alliteration. The subtitles were that the Message of the Cross is a) Central, b) Clear, c) Crucial.
One takeaway I heard was that if a church takes its eyes off of Christ on the cross, that church will have troubles.
Another takeaway was not in something that he said but in how it is said. He does not think he has accomplished much. Rather he is being accomplished by the Lord. He is humble. He is completely amazed that the Lord saved him. He expounds on the amazing grace. He doesn't just pass off message of the cross as "matter of fact", but passionately preaches that it is an amazing thing to keep our eyes onto, daily.
Finally, I'll mention one more thing he said about personal evangelism. In the Q&A part of the event a woman asked how one should address her very intellectual friends regarding the message of the cross and salvation through Jesus. And he answered with a short story about an intellectual, a lawyer, who looked at the Bible and Darwin's book and said, using court of law process he could not prove either. Later in life this man went to watch the ending program his child was in at vacation Bible school. And the sunday school teacher closed with a short message that to this man didn't make much sense to him, it was a lot of nonsequiters strung together. "But," the man said, "but I am convinced that that man is convinced of what he believes!" The point Alistair made is that you cannot address the Gospel with intellect. It's not in how the message is conveyed, how clever we can communicate, but in our personal conviction of the Gospel in our lives. And that the Spirit of God will do His work in people through that.
I hope you take time to listen to Alistair's messages, they are free, on TruthForLife's website. http://www.truthforlife.org
posted by Gary at 8:09 AM
1 Comments:
Convicting and inspiring at the same time. Oh how we need to just fix our eyes on Jesus and let go of all the rest.
Post a Comment
<< Home