Dr. Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City

• Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Mark 1:9-13)
• The Man Who Would Not Be Believed (Mark 6:1-13)
• Become a Little Child (Mark 10:13-16, 35-45)
• The Final Temple {Mark 11:1-18}
• Arguing About Politics (Mark 12:13-17)

The following series of sermons were preached at Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. by Dr. Mark Dever, and at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MS by Derek Thomas. I have combined them to give a full exposition of the gospel. If you are interested in more of Derek Thomas’ exposition of Mark (including transcripts), you can find it here). Find other books of the Bible here.

• Mark 1:1-8 — “Preview” (Dever: Jesus: The Early Years: Sep 3, 1995)
• Mark 1:9-13 — “Jesus’ Debut” (Dever: Jesus: The Early Years: Sep 10, 1995)
• Mark 1:14-20 — “Jesus Breaks His Silence” (Dever: Jesus: The Early Years: Sep 17, 1995)
• Mark 1:21-28 — “Amazing Authority” (Dever: Jesus: The Early Years: Sep 24, 1995)
• Mark 1:29-34 — “Jesus, Healing and the New Age” (Dever: Jesus: The Early Years: Oct 1, 1995)
• Mark 1:35-39 — “Preaching, Praying & Popularity” (Dever: Jesus: The Early Years: Oct 8, 1995)
• Mark 1:40-45 — “The Secret Savior” (Dever: Jesus: The Early Years: Oct 15, 1995)
• Mark 2:1-12 — “Who Can Forgive?” (Dever: Jesus: The Early Years: Oct 22, 1995)
• Mark 2:13-17 — “Good People and Jesus” (Dever: Introducing Jesus: Oct 9, 1994)
• Mark 2:18-3:6 — “What’s So Different About Jesus?” (Dever: Introducing Jesus: Oct 16, 1994)
• Mark 3:7-19 — “Attracted or Called?” (Dever: Responding to Jesus: June 2, 1996)
• Mark 3:20-35 — “Blasphemous or Obedient?” (Dever: Responding to Jesus: June 9, 1996)
• Mark 4:1-25 — “Ignoring or Hearing?” (Dever: Responding to Jesus: June 16, 1996)
• Mark 4:26-34 — “Impatient or Patient?” (Dever: Responding to Jesus: June 23, 1996)
• Mark 4:35-5:43 — “Fear or Faith?” (Dever: Responding to Jesus: June 30, 1996)
• Mark 6:1-6 — “Offense or Belief?” (Dever: Responding to Jesus: July 7, 1996)
• Mark 6:6-13 — “Jesus & the Apostles: Ambassadors of God” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Feb 1, 1998)
• Mark 6:14-29 — “Jesus & Fear: The Futility of Opposing God” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Feb 8, 1998)
• Mark 6:30-34 — “Jesus & Margins: Jesus on Vacation” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Feb 15, 1998)
• Mark 6:35-44 — “Jesus & Hunger: Jesus, The Bread Winner” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Feb 22, 1998)
• Mark 6:45-46 — “Jesus & Prayer: Praying Alone” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Mar 1, 1998)
• Mark 6:47-56 — “Jesus & Nature: The Scary Jesus” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Mar 8, 1998)
• Mark 7:1-13 — “Jesus & Hypocrisy: Fake Worship” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Mar 15, 1998)
• Mark 7:14-23 — “Jesus & Filth: The Heart of the Problem” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Mar 22, 1998)
• Mark 7:24-30 — “Jesus & Faith: Pushy People” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Mar 29, 1998)
• Mark 8:14-21 — “Jesus & Yeast: A Bad Answer” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Apr 19, 1998)
• Mark 8:22-26 — “Jesus & Spiritual Sight: Beginning to Get It” (Dever: Meeting Jesus: Apr 26, 1998)
• Mark 8:27-30 — “The Messiah” (Dever: Who Do You Say I Am?: Apr 1, 2001)
• Mark 8:31-9:1 — “The Sufferer” (Dever: Who Do You Say I Am?: Apr 8, 2001)
• Mark 9:2-13 — “The Son” (Dever: Who Do You Say I Am?: Apr 15, 2001)
• Mark 9:14-32 — “The Healer” (Dever: Who Do You Say I Am?: Apr 22, 2001)
• Mark 9:33-37 — “The Servant” (Dever: Who Do You Say I Am?: Apr 29, 2001)
• Mark 9:38-42 — “For Or Against?” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Mar 13, 2005)
• Mark 9:43-50 — “Mortification, Jesus Style” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Mar 20, 2005)
• Mark 10:1-12 — “Rent Asunder” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Apr 10, 2005)
• Mark 10:13-16 — “Children” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Apr 17, 2005)
• Mark 10:17-31 — “The One That Got Away” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: May 15, 2005)
• Mark 10:32-45 — “Crossways” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: May 22, 2005)
• Mark 10:46-52 — “Lord, Have Mercy” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: May 29, 2005)
• Mark 11:1-11 — “Hosanna!” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Sep 21, 2005)
• Mark 11:12-24 — “Upset Over a Tree” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Sep 28, 2005)
• Mark 11:27-12:12 — “The Napa Valley Parable” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Oct 5, 2005)
• Mark 12:1-12 — “The Judgemental Jesus” (Dever: The End of Jesus: Nov 20, 1994)
• Mark 12:13-17 — “Majority Rules?” (Dever: The End of Jesus: Nov 27, 1994)
• Mark 12:18-43 — “The Danger of Being Religious” (Dever: The End of Jesus: Dec 4, 1994)
• Mark 13:1-37 — “Jesus: The Sequel” (Dever: The End of Jesus: Dec 11, 1994)
• Mark 14:1-11 — “How Do I Tell Jesus I Love Him?” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Jan 15, 2006)
• Mark 14:12-21 — “Selling Your Soul to Satan” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Jan 22, 2006)
• Mark 14:22-26 — “The Last Supper” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Jan 29, 2006)
• Mark 14:32-42 — “Dark Gethsemane” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Feb 5, 2006)
• Mark 14:43-65 — “The Silence of the Lamb” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Feb 12, 2006)
• Mark 14:27-31 — “Failure” (Thomas: Exposition of Mark: Mar 19, 2006)
• Mark 15:33-16:8 — “Born to Die?” (Dever: The End of Jesus: Dec 25, 1994)

John Piper’s Sermons

Alistair Begg’s Sermons

Monergism Listings: [multimedia] [text]

streaming Listen to Max McLean (ESV)

• Tom Ascol on The High Calling of Women
• more to come …

Thabiti’s Posts:

• Finding Reliable Men
• Finding Reliable Men: Those Above Reproach
• Finding Reliable Men: One Woman Man
• Finding Reliable Men: Temperate, Self-Controlled, Respectable
• Finding Reliable Men: Hospitable
• Finding Reliable Men: Able to Teach
• Finding Reliable Men: Sober, Gentle, Peacemaking
• Finding Reliable Men: Not a Lover of Money
• Finding Reliable Men: Leaders at Home
• Finding Reliable Men: Mature and Humble
• Finding Reliable Men: Well Thought of by Outsiders 

]]> http://www.objectivegospel.org/eldership-thabiti-anyabwile/feed 0 http://www.objectivegospel.org/whywelovethechurch http://www.objectivegospel.org/whywelovethechurch#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:48:17 +0000 Tim http://www.objectivegospel.org/?p=5336 “An attitude of indifference to the church has become tragically common within American Christianity. As a result, many people fail to make a solid commitment to congregational life and responsibility. The New Testament is clear – to love Christ is to love the church. Kevin and Ted provide a powerful word of correction, offering compelling arguments and a vision of church life that is not only convincing, but inspirational. ...]]> Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

“An attitude of indifference to the church has become tragically common within American Christianity. As a result, many people fail to make a solid commitment to congregational life and responsibility. The New Testament is clear – to love Christ is to love the church. Kevin and Ted provide a powerful word of correction, offering compelling arguments and a vision of church life that is not only convincing, but inspirational. This book will deepen your love of the church – and for Christ.”

–R. Albert Mohler, President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

 

Excerpts from Why We Love the Church:

If Christians are interested in a Christianity free from doctrine, demands, and damnation, they aren’t just sick of the church and its unflattering quirks; they’re tired of the Christian faith altogether. (p. 87)

Being disliked by teenagers and twentysomethings is not our biggest problem. (p. 82)

Relationships are indispensable, but not enough. No matter what the teachers of tickling ears say, we do have rules to follow. Jesus didn’t say if you love me you’ll feel close to Me. He said if you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments… (p 178)

It’s possible the church needs to change. Certainly in some areas it does. But it’s also possible we’ve changed–and not for the better. It’s possible we no longer find joy in so great a salvation. It’s possible our boredom and restlessness has less to do with the church and its doctrines and more to do with a growing coldness toward the love of God displayed in the sacrifice of His Son for our sins. (p. 225)

When Amos predicted a “famine” of “hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11) he wasn’t thinking of the lack of personal conversations about Yahweh over a grande cup of goat’s milk. He was thinking about the absence of God’s appointed mouthpieces to declare His Word. If we lose preaching–the passionate, authoritative proclamation of God’s message from God’s man to God’s People–we are losing more than a half hour talk once a week. We are losing a normative, essential aspect of Christian worship, one that began in the New Testament, stretches back into the Old, and has had a rich and continuous history over the past two thousand years…. The answer to bad preaching (and no doubt that’s what we have in some of our churches) is not no preaching, but better preaching… (p.176)

Ironically, as the mainstream media fears an impending Christian theocracy, Christians in America fear their own extinction, or at least their irrelevance. (p. 28)

See Kevin’s Madlib of all the “church is lame” books.

Resources:

• Read/Download the Study Guide
• Read/Download a Sample Chapter
• Official Web site of the Book

Click image to learn more.

If you would rather hear this article read by John Piper. You can access streaming audio here or download the mp3 file here.

Enjoy!

March 21, 2007

Let me tell you about a most wonderful experience I had early Monday morning, March 19, 2007, a little after six o’clock. God actually spoke to me. There is no doubt that it was God. I heard the words in my head just as clearly as when a memory of a conversation passes across your consciousness. The words were in English, but they had about them an absolutely self-authenticating ring of truth. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God still speaks today.

I couldn’t sleep for some reason. I was at Shalom House in northern Minnesota on a staff couples’ retreat. It was about five thirty in the morning. I lay there wondering if I should get up or wait till I got sleepy again. In his mercy, God moved me out of bed. It was mostly dark, but I managed to find my clothing, got dressed, grabbed my briefcase, and slipped out of the room without waking up Noël. In the main room below, it was totally quiet. No one else seemed to be up. So I sat down on a couch in the corner to pray.

As I prayed and mused, suddenly it happened. God said, “Come and see what I have done.” There was not the slightest doubt in my mind that these were the very words of God. In this very moment. At this very place in the twenty-first century, 2007, God was speaking to me with absolute authority and self-evidencing reality. I paused to let this sink in. There was a sweetness about it. Time seemed to matter little. God was near. He had me in his sights. He had something to say to me. When God draws near, hurry ceases. Time slows down.

I wondered what he meant by “come and see.” Would he take me somewhere, like he did Paul into heaven to see what can’t be spoken? Did “see” mean that I would have a vision of some great deed of God that no one has seen? I am not sure how much time elapsed between God’s initial word, “Come and see what I have done,” and his next words. It doesn’t matter. I was being enveloped in the love of his personal communication. The God of the universe was speaking to me.

Then he said, as clearly as any words have ever come into my mind, “I am awesome in my deeds toward the children of man.” My heart leaped up, “Yes, Lord! You are awesome in your deeds. Yes, to all men whether they see it or not. Yes! Now what will you show me?”

The words came again. Just as clear as before, but increasingly specific: “I turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There they rejoiced in me—who rules by my might forever.” Suddenly I realized God was taking me back several thousand years to the time when he dried up the Red Sea and the Jordan River. I was being transported by his word back into history to those great deeds. This is what he meant by “come and see.” He was transporting me back by his words to those two glorious deeds before the children of men. These were the “awesome deeds” he referred to. God himself was narrating the mighty works of God. He was doing it for me. He was doing it with words that were resounding in my own mind.

There settled over me a wonderful reverence. A palpable peace came down. This was a holy moment and a holy corner of the world in northern Minnesota. God Almighty had come down and was giving me the stillness and the openness and the willingness to hear his very voice. As I marveled at his power to dry the sea and the river, he spoke again. “I keep watch over the nations—let not the rebellious exalt themselves.”
This was breathtaking. It was very serious. It was almost a rebuke. At least a warning. He may as well have taken me by the collar of my shirt, lifted me off the ground with one hand, and said, with an incomparable mixture of fierceness and love, “Never, never, never exalt yourself. Never rebel against me.”

I sat staring at nothing. My mind was full of the global glory of God. “I keep watch over the nations.” He had said this to me. It was not just that he had said it. Yes, that is glorious. But he had said this to me. The very words of God were in my head. They were there in my head just as much as the words that I am writing at this moment are in my head. They were heard as clearly as if at this moment I recalled that my wife said, “Come down for supper whenever you are ready.” I know those are the words of my wife. And I know these are the words of God.

Think of it. Marvel at this. Stand in awe of this. The God who keeps watch over the nations, like some people keep watch over cattle or stock markets or construction sites—this God still speaks in the twenty-first century. I heard his very words. He spoke personally to me.

What effect did this have on me? It filled me with a fresh sense of God’s reality. It assured me more deeply that he acts in history and in our time. It strengthened my faith that he is for me and cares about me and will use his global power to watch over me. Why else would he come and tell me these things?

It has increased my love for the Bible as God’s very word, because it was through the Bible that I heard these divine words, and through the Bible I have experiences like this almost every day. The very God of the universe speaks on every page into my mind—and your mind. We hear his very words. God himself has multiplied his wondrous deeds and thoughts toward us; none can compare with him! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told (Psalm 40:5).

And best of all, they are available to all. If you would like to hear the very same words I heard on the couch in northern Minnesota, read Psalm 66:5-7. That is where I heard them. O how precious is the Bible. It is the very word of God. In it God speaks in the twenty-first century. This is the very voice of God. By this voice, he speaks with absolute truth and personal force. By this voice, he reveals his all-surpassing beauty. By this voice, he reveals the deepest secrets of our hearts. No voice anywhere anytime can reach as deep or lift as high or carry as far as the voice of God that we hear in the Bible.

It is a great wonder that God still speaks today through the Bible with greater force and greater glory and greater assurance and greater sweetness and greater hope and greater guidance and greater transforming power and greater Christ-exalting truth than can be heard through any voice in any human soul on the planet from outside the Bible.

This is why I found the article in this month’s Christianity Today, “My Conversation with God,” so sad. Written by an anonymous professor at a “well-known Christian University,” it tells of his experience of hearing God. What God said was that he must give all his royalties from a new book toward the tuition of a needy student. What makes me sad about the article is not that it isn’t true or didn’t happen. What’s sad is that it really does give the impression that extra-biblical communication with God is surpassingly wonderful and faith-deepening. All the while, the supremely-glorious communication of the living God which personally and powerfully and transformingly explodes in the receptive heart through the Bible everyday is passed over in silence.

I am sure this professor of theology did not mean it this way, but what he actually said was, “For years I’ve taught that God still speaks, but I couldn’t testify to it personally. I can only do so now anonymously, for reasons I hope will be clear” (emphasis added). Surely he does not mean what he seems to imply—that only when one hears an extra-biblical voice like, “The money is not yours,” can you testify personally that God still speaks. Surely he does not mean to belittle the voice of God in the Bible which speaks this very day with power and truth and wisdom and glory and joy and hope and wonder and helpfulness ten thousand times more decisively than anything we can hear outside the Bible.

I grieve at what is being communicated here. The great need of our time is for people to experience the living reality of God by hearing his word personally and transformingly in Scripture. Something is incredibly wrong when the words we hear outside Scripture are more powerful and more affecting to us than the inspired word of God. Let us cry with the psalmist, “Incline my heart to your word” (Psalm 119:36). “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). Grant that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to know our hope and our inheritance and the love of Christ that passes knowledge and be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 1:18; 3:19). O God, don’t let us be so deaf to your word and so unaffected with its ineffable, evidential excellency that we celebrate lesser things as more thrilling, and even consider this misplacement of amazement worthy of printing in a national magazine.

Still hearing his voice in the Bible,

Pastor John

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org (reprinted by permission)

When a Russian cosmonaut returned from space and reported that he had not found God, C. S. Lewis responded that this was like Hamlet going into the attic of his castle looking for Shakespeare. If there is a God, he wouldn’t be another object in the universe that could be put in a lab and analyzed with empirical methods. He would relate to us the way a playwright relates to the characters in his play. We (characters) might be able to know quite a lot about the playwright, but only to the degree the author chooses to put information about himself in the play. Therefore, in no case could we “prove” God’s existence as if he were an object wholly within our universe like oxygen and hydrogen or an island in the Pacific.

Lewis gives us another metaphor for knowing the truth about God when he writes that he believes in God “as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Imagine trying to look directly at the sun in order to learn about it. You can’t do it. It will burn out your retinas, ruining your capacity to take it in. A far better way to learn about the existence, power, and quality of the sun is to look at the world it shows you, to recognize how it sustains everything you see and enables you to see it.

Here, then, we have a way forward. We should not try to “look into the sun,” as it were, demanding irrefutable proofs for God. Instead we should “look at what the sun shows us.” Which account of the world has the most “explanatory power” to make sense of what we see in the world and in ourselves? We have a sense that the world is not the way it ought to be. We have a sense that we are very flawed and yet very great. We have a longing for love and beauty that nothing in this world can fulfill. We have a deep need to know meaning and purpose. Which worldview best accounts for these things?

Christians do not claim that their faith gives them omniscience or absolute knowledge of reality. Only God has that. But they believe that the Christian account of things–creation, fall, redemption, and restoration–makes the most sense of the world. I ask you to put on Christianity like a pair of spectacles and look at the world with it. See what power it has to explain what we know and see.

If the God of the Bible exists, he is not a man in the attic, but the Playwright. That means we won’t be able to find him like we would find a passive object with the powers of empirical investigation. Rather, we must find the clues to his reality that he has written into the universe, including into us. That is why, if God exists, we would expect to find that he appeals to our rational faculties. If we are made “in his image” as rational, personal beings, there should be some resonance between his mind and ours. It also means that reason alone won’t be enough. The Playwright can only be known through personal revelation. That is why we have the take a look at what the Bible says about God and the human condition.

In the Christian view, however, the ultimate evidence for the existence of God is Jesus Christ himself. If there is a God, we characters in his play have to hope that he put some information about himself into the play. But Christians believe he did more than give us information. He wrote himself into the play as the main character in history, when Jesus was born in a manger and rose from the dead. He is the one with whom we have to do.

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

Click here to see more of this section of the book.

David Taylor: Awakening the Artistic Ache

 Some additional recommended resources:

Art for God’s Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts by Philip Ryken

For the Beauty of the Church by David Taylor

Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer

Here’s a Sample

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