Over the past two weeks Jeff Purswell has been answering some key questions about the relationship between the cross and the resurrection. Here's an index to the questions and Jeff's answers:

1: Will focusing on the cross lead us to neglect the resurrection?

2: Why focus on a crucified Savior when we serve a living Christ?

3: Will a cross-focus lead us to be more aware of our sin than of our new life in Christ?

4: Doesn’t the book of Acts stress the resurrection more than the cross?

5: Will paying so much attention to the atonement lead us to make too much of the cross?

Some readers may find it easier to read the series as a single PDF document. You’ll find that file here.

“What is the gospel?” If someone asked you right now, would you have a clear answer? Would you be confident that your answer is biblical?

There are a surprising number of answers to this question, but not all of them are clear and biblical. So we’re glad to point you to a free chapter from Greg Gilbert’s important new book, What Is the Gospel?. Here’s how C.J. endorsed the book:

Two realities make this a critically important book: the centrality of the gospel in all generations and the confusion about the gospel in our own generation. What Is the Gospel? provides a biblically faithful explanation of the gospel and equips Christians to discern deviations from that glorious message. How I wish I could place this book in the hands of every pastor and church member.

After you read the free excerpt, you’ll probably want to read the whole thing. And you can! Browse the book online at Crossway.org. Or get a copy in your own hands, and buy copies to put in the hands of others, here.

For more from Greg Gilbert, listen to a 59-minute interview by C.J. Mahaney and Mark Dever. It’s the latest in the 9Marks Leadership Interview series, available for free here. 

Recently C.J. was invited to join Mark Dever in the latest 9Marks Leadership interview with Greg Gilbert, author of What Is the Gospel? (Crossway, 2010). The interview covers the gospel, the kingdom, the church, and how these three are both related and distinct. Along the way Greg displays his unique gift of speaking backwards. ereh netsiL

At the NEXT conference in Baltimore this weekend, C.J. preached from Philippians 2:12-13. You can download the message—“Sanctification”—as an mp3 here.
 
During his message C.J. shared the following quote from John Murray, a fitting summary of the passage and the message:

God’s working in us is not suspended because we work,
nor our working suspended because God works.
Neither is the relation strictly one of co-operation
    as if God did his part and we did ours
    so that the conjunction or coordination of both
    produced the required result.
God works in us and we also work.
But the relation is that
    because God works
    we work.
All working out of salvation on our part
is the effect of God’s working in us,
    not the willing to the exclusion of the doing
    and not the doing to the exclusion of the willing,
        but both the willing and the doing....
The more persistently active we are in working,
the more persuaded we may be
    that all the energizing grace and power is of God.

[source: Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Eerdmans, 1955), pp. 148-149. Line breaks added.] 

Summer is fast approaching. The kids will soon be out of school and families will be loading into the minivans and SUVs and merging with millions on their summer road trips. In anticipation of the coming travel season, C.J. posted a series to encourage husbands and fathers to begin preparing their schedules—and their hearts—to lead their families in a “God-glorifying, grace-filled, relationship-building, memory-making time together.” The series was originally published two years ago.

Here is an index to the three-part blog series:

Leadership + Family Vacations (part 1)
Leadership + Family Vacations (part 2)
Leadership + Family Vacations (part 3)

And perhaps the easiest way to read this series is to download it in one printable PDF file. You can download that file here.

Happy vacationing.

The eight panel talks from T4G2010 are now online:

• Eric Bancroft: Convincing Christianity: The Implications of a Robust Gospel in Marriage
• Tony Carter: Proclaiming the Comfort of the Gospel 
• Kevin DeYoung: ‘Tis Mystery All, the Immortal Dies: Why the Gospel of Christ’s Suffering Is More Glorious because God Does Not Suffer 
• Greg Gilbert: What Is the Gospel? 
• Brian Habig: Fears of the Minister 
• Joshua Harris: Dug Down Deep: Helping Others Build Their Lives on Christ-Centered Doctrine 
• Michael McKinley: Unity, Not Uniformity: Diversity in the Body of Christ 
• David Platt: An Unadjusted Gospel in an Unreached World: Connecting Gospel Theology with Urgent Missiology  

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

Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications

During the second panel discussion at T4G2010, Mark Dever asked John MacArthur about his concerns for what is known as the “prosperity gospel” or the “health/wealth gospel.” The discussion followed Al Mohler’s message, “How Does It Happen? Trajectories toward an Adjusted Gospel.” Here’s an excerpt of the exchange:

Mark Dever: I think I heard you say recently in a conversation that you are more concerned about the prosperity “gospel” than you have ever been before, that you see it as an increasing problem. Do you want to talk about that for a moment?

John MacArthur: I think it is a far greater threat than the intellectual issues of modernism and postmodernism, because most people don’t live in those categories. I think it is the single greatest lie being propagated by so-called Christians today, in the sense that it overpowers all other lies.

Promising people they will feel better [therapeutically] will only get them so far. But if you promise them they will get rich—that will trump feeling better every time because you can feel better once you’re rich. I think it is a Satanic doctrine…

It preys on the weak and the weary and the broken and the sad and the poor and the desperate, and it promises them something God will never deliver, Jesus will never deliver. And it is a Ponzi scheme; the guys at the top get rich and everybody else is left in rags shredded everywhere in the name of Jesus Christ. So I think that is the most marketable commodity of all of the trajectories that you were talking about today.

The therapeutic one is always there, but I think we have been through and out the other side of the psychology thing. And I think the people who try to make their ministry some kind of pulpit therapy have probably already changed their approach to that and maybe they have gone off and opted out for the marketing thing.

“The poor you will always have with you,” Jesus said [Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, John 12:8]. The desperate are always going to be there. And if you prey on those people, you are going to always have a wide audience.

You can download the entire discussion here.

In the discussion Ligon Duncan mentioned the videos by John Piper, videos like this one titled “Why I abominate the prosperity gospel”:

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

Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications

During the second T4G panel discussion Mark Dever and Al Mohler discussed evangelism, preaching, and the hesitancy among some Christians to speak openly on tough subjects like God’s judgment. The conversation moves from evangelism to a discussion of how expositional preaching helps steady the preacher against the temptation to avoid tough topics. Here’s a transcript of the brief exchange.

Mark Dever: In the name of evangelism there are brothers and sisters that we know and love who are attempting to make the gospel something that is more immediately appealing than we are convinced it is in Scripture. So, for instance, you will have people who do not want to talk about hell. They believe in hell as much as you or I do, but they would say that it is counterproductive in our context today. What do we say to folks like that?

Al Mohler: I would say that we can’t accept that logic. Now at the same time we understand how you can be absolutely unbalanced in talking about hell. There are some people, very rare these days, but more commonly in days past, where they would simply celebrate the joy of preaching hell. And their only message was a “hellfire and brimstone” message. There can be an imbalance there.

That is where expository preaching that is verse-by-verse and text-by-text and chapter-by-chapter and book-by-book doesn’t allow you to ride a hobbyhorse. It doesn’t allow you to enter into that imbalance. It takes you on to the next truth, which you then have to prepare yourself to teach and to preach.

I don’t think we are very good, arbitrarily, at setting a sense of balance for ourselves. But you ask a great question. What happens when there is an issue and you recoil from it? I honestly think that means—

MD: And in your own mind you’re recoiling from it because you really mean to be helpful.

AM: Yeah, you could even say it is a well-intended recoil because you love your people and you are trying to reach them for the gospel…

There is a sense in which I think that that means you have got to prepare your heart, and perhaps your message, with a whole new sense of brokenhearted determination to present this text in the larger context of the gospel, the great narrative of Scripture, and God’s purpose to bring glory to himself by the salvation of people through the blood of his Son…

But if, indeed, we recoil and say, “I don’t believe people can handle this,” then we are violating what we say about Scripture. If we are really saying that lost people can’t handle this text and come savingly to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and be drawn even by this text in Scripture, then we are violating what we say we believe about Scripture.

The entire conversation can be downloaded here.

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

Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications

In the first panel discussion at T4G, a question was raised about preaching and the priority of sermon application. C.J. asked Mark Dever how he includes application as a part of his weekly sermon research. Here’s a segment from the discussion.

C.J. Mahaney: Mark, how would you help a pastor who devotes the majority of his time in his preparation to the exegesis of the text, to the neglect of the application of the text?

Mark Dever: I would tell him, as your question implies, that he shouldn’t neglect the application of the text.

CJM: How would you help him alter the patterns of his preparation so that his preaching is different in its accent on application?

MD: Once he is confident of the meaning of the text, then he should spend time in prayer and reflection. And that may just be my personality, but I find talking to other people very helpful. If I know the four points I am bringing out [in the sermon], what are the implications of each point:
 
• for the non-Christian?
• for the mom at home?
• for somebody at work or in school?
• for us as a whole congregation?
• for the individual Christian?

And then do that with each point in the sermon. I find that very useful. It is sort of a structured meditation on each text.

I won’t necessarily put all that in my sermon, but I will make note of all that and a lot of it will get in my sermon.

CJM: But that is an intentional part of your preparatory process.

MD: A very important part.

Ligon Duncan: Is your application grid available at the 9Marks site?

MD: Yes, it is a couple of places. It is on the 9Marks website. It’s also in Michael Lawrence’s new book Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry. He has a grid that you can fill in with the points of your sermons in these various categories [see page 184].

Later in the discussion Dever said that of the 25–30 hours he invests weekly in sermon prep, around 5–10 of those hours are spent on application. The full audio recording of this panel discussion can be downloaded here.

The sermon application grid is available from 9Marks in two downloadable PDF versions: a blank grid and a sample completed grid.

In his new book Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church, Lawrence highlights four benefits of the sermon application grid:

For more on the grid and its value to the preacher, see chapter 11 in Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church.

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

Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications

Did Paul preach the gospel of Jesus?

Dr. John Piper sought to answer this question during his general session at the recent T4G conference. 

At one point Piper connected the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9–14 to Paul’s testimony in Philippians 3:4–9. Piper says, “When we listen to Paul in Philippians 3:4–9 we are tempted to think he was the Pharisee in Jesus’s parable in Luke 18:9–14.”

Read them for yourself:

Jesus (Luke 18:9–12):

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

Paul (Philippians 3:4–6):

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Jesus (Luke 18:13–14):

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Paul (Philippians 3:7–9):

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.


Paul preached the gospel of Jesus because it was the gospel of Jesus that had forever changed his life.



Piper’s entire T4G message—“Did Jesus Preach Paul’s Gospel?”—can be read, listened to, or viewed online here: