What Makes You Greater than King David? Matthew 11:2-19
The Dissatisfied, the Smug and the Broken Matthew 11:16-30
How to Wait for the End Matthew 24:36 – 25:46
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This wasn’t the point of his sermon today on gender roles in the church from 1 Tim. 2:9-15, but it was insightful for me as I am 96% convinced of congregationalism as the biblical form of church government. I think I’ll be blogging about that in days to come, but here’s Mark’s quote for now:
We don’t think it’s best to call the church a democracy. We don’t think that’s how things work. We’re a congregational church but we don’t see the congregation so as much as ruling, not in that sense properly summarized as a democracy, but we see the whole congregation rather as finally adjudicating issues of doctrine and discipline. The elders lead, guide, or rule, always in subjection to the Word, and only with the continued approval of the congregation. Elders we see, in the next chapter [1 Tim. 3] teach and have authority.
You can here the whole sermon here.
If you want to read Mark’s thoughts on congregationalism, I’d start here. His most famous book, I think, regarding church matters is his book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church.
“We must not only have learning in Divine things, but we must ourselves be Divinely learned… we need much acquaintance with the human heart, and with our own heart in particular – a deep-searching knowledge of Scripture – a careful study of the best works on casuistical, and experimental divinity – most of all – a spirit of humble and importunate prayer for constant and increased supplies of “the wisdom which is from above. Add to this – a knowledge of the constitutional temperament of the individuals is obviously most important” (Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry, 382-3).
How can I plan to grow in these things? Well for acquaintance with the human heart, especially my own, I could journal more and invite more evaluation from my wife and others who care for my soul and are discerning. For a deep-searching knowledge of the Scripture I must continue to read the Bible all the way through and do more intense studies of particular books or passages. I haven’t done the latter lately except when teaching since I use all my time to do the former. I need to do a careful study of the best works casuistical and experimental divinity which motivates me to want to read through all the CCEF books in print and the journal of biblical counseling along with other great works in this category, like John Owen and CJ Mahaney’s stuff. A spirit of humble and importunate prayer for wisdom has been helped by my reading through Proverbs and Ecclesiastes these past two months, but I need to “continue steadfastly in prayer” by scheduling and guarding a concentrated time of prayer in my day. I’ve been inconsistent in this for a while now. Knowing individuals can increase by being more intentional in the conversations, asking good questions, listening carefully, taking time to talk to people, coming up with a plan to get to everyone in the congregation with a good conversation, and praying for people with following up on discerning answers to those prayers.
Lord help me to pray to you and seek your grace for wisdom that is from above and not within myself or my ability to obtain. Help me to grow as a Christian minister. I love you and look to you to fulfill every resolve for good in me and every work of faith by your power. In Christ’s name I pray, amen.
Check it out here! I use the Greek one all the time. I’m looking forward to using this one too. I’ll likely be posting a review soon.
T4G
Are any of you that I know going to the Together for the Gospel Conference this month in Louisville Kentucky? If you are, please let me know by leaving a comment on this post so that we can plan to meet up and catch up.
In Christ,
PJ