Saturday, March 08, 2008

did god speak at the shepherd's conference?

As I read through the notes of the Shepherd's Conference at Pulpit Magazine I found good, bad, and contradiction.

The opening session was led by John MacArthur, one of today's most prominent anti-Charismatic voices. He chose to cite Pentecost as the example of the power of God growing the Church.
Acts 2:39 is a key verse in this regard, underscoring the sovereign call of God and the generational impact that the Gospel has. It is a preview of how the church that Christ built extends across ethnic and generational barriers.

When we start in Jerusalem (Acts 1), we have 120 people. By the end of Acts 2 (v. 41), we are up to some 3,000 souls. Within hours, the church goes from 120 to 3,000. Then, in verse 47 we see that the Lord was adding to that number day by day those who were being saved. In Acts 4:4, the number of men is listed at about 5,000. In 5:14, many more multitudes are being constantly added to the church. Acts 6:7 notes that the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, including priests. This pattern continues throughout the rest of the book of Acts.

Hmmm ....

On a positive note, I agree with his outline of what marks the Church the Christ is building.

1. It is marked by a transcendent message.
2. It is marked by a regenerate congregation.
3. It is marked by a valiant perseverance.
4. It is marked by an evident purity.
5) It is marked by a qualified leadership.


Session 5 by Al Mohler reminded me of the contradiction in the MacArthur camp. Here Mohler used Deu 4.32-40 to make observations regarding expository preaching. I love these points but I wouldn't add the artificial limit of applying them to pulpit speaking and only in when reading the written Word.

I've copied it here and added some emphasis. I find it interesting that the message was presented to those that firmly believe God has finished speaking.

1. The true and living God is the God who speaks.

Dr. Mohler referred to a book by Francis Shaeffer. He is there and He is not Silent. We preach because God is there and He is not silent. God still speaks. This is the miracle of revelation. It is a manifestation of God’s love, mercy, and grace. Elijah will use this when he confronts all the pagan priests. There was no voice from the God of the priests. Where would we be if God had not spoken? We would be worshiping idols who don’t speak. This is the gift of revelation. The God of the universe forfeited His own personal privacy. We must cling to this revelation. There is not one person who will come to the knowledge of Christ by general revelation. There is an appropriate sense in which God spoke…If you think that all God’s speaking was done in the past, then resign from the ministry. God is still speaking through you through His Word. God speaks to His people now even as He did to His people in times past. It makes all the difference between true and false religion.

What if God had not spoken? We would be lost in an aimless cosmos. If He doesn’t speak then eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. There is no middle ground between understanding that every Word of revelation is God speaking and thinking He didn’t speak at all. Let us see clearly that God speaking is a matter of life and death.

2. God’s true people are identified by hearing His voice and obeying it.

Moses told the Isrealites time and again that they were the people to whom Yahweh spoke. He hasn’t spoken to everyone, but he spoke to them. This is not to produce an arrogant self confident people. It is only by grace and mercy that God chose to speak to Israel and not the other nation. Following verse 32 Moses asks the people a series of questions. The question he focuses on is found in verse 33.

How do the people of Israel know they are God’s children? No other people heard the voice of God speak to them from the fire and survive. Israel was at Mt. Horeb and they heard God speak and live.

In Matthew 13 Jesus explains to the disciples that they had been granted the opportunity to hear the voice of God. They were not granted this opportunity because they were the best. God sovereignly granted them to hear his voice. This is the same way we know we are believers. It’s all by grace. We hear because of the grace of God. God grants to us to hear in the same way he granted to Israel to hear. It’s not about the power, talent, or wisdom of Israel. God chose this tiny little people, who couldn’t even draw a straight line through the wilderness, in order to show His glory. Why did God choose us? He chose the weak things of the world in order to shame the strong.

The fact is that its not about us. When we obey God it shows to the other nations the glory of God. God’s electing purpose is to create a people saved by His son for His glory.

3. God’s people serve and survive by hearing His Word.

By God’s grace and mercy we have this Word. For Israel the Word was like manna. They had to have it every day to survive. This Word brings help and blessing, life and identity. Here again, this takes place in the NT as well. In Romans 10, Paul says that the faith that saves comes by hearing the Word of Christ. We have to live by the Word just as much as Isreal. How will we know we are His? How will we know how to live? It is only through the ministry of the Word.

4. As a result of all this, preaching had better be the exposition of the Word.

It is not just how will we build bigger churches. It is whether our people will live or die. We have the Bible. If the Bible is what we say it is, this puts preaching in its proper perspective. Is God going to speak or the preacher? When the Word of God comes through the preacher this brings life. Do we arrogantly think we can bring the people life through our words. We have been called to this and we obey the call by studying. We get up in front of God’s people, we read the text and then we explain it. We do it again and again until Jesus comes or we die. We yearn for people to leave the service and turn to one another and say, “Did we hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire and survive”?

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