A synopsis of Sunday’s Message- Encountering an Outcast – Mark 1:40-45

In this text we will be gleaning from Jesus’ encounter with a societal outcast – someone who has been pushed to the edge of a stable life in the city.

Listen to this unusual story:

Mark 1:40-45
⁴⁰ ¶ And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” ⁴¹ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” ⁴² And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³ And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, ⁴⁴ and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” ⁴⁵ But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. Read more »

Destroying the Works of the Devil

The following is a short gospel message that was preached to the poor and homeless at a special worship outreach and feeding on April 16th:

This evening, I want to share a few words about a people who were severely afflicted and oppressed; and a few words about the God who heard their cry and delivered them out from under the hands of those who were causing their suffering.

Before the time of Moses, the ancient Egyptians enslaved the people of Israel and “made their lives bitter with hard service,” treating them “ruthlessly,” (Ex. 1:14) the leaders even going so far as ordering that all male Hebrew children be killed immediately after birth (Ex. 1:15-22). Read more »

On “Therapeutic Spirituality”

Frequently, I dialogue with nice, moral people who genuinely believe that they are “good” and that Jesus came to help them discover their ultimate potential in life. They believe that he can help them by unleashing some kind of untapped, or dormant, power inside of them.

I’ve asked people who believe this sort of thing to explain to me what they believe Jesus meant when he said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Usually, I get an explanation that sounds something like this: “Well, Jesus can help us discover how much love and greatness we have inside of ourselves so that we can live better lives.”

In this type of religious system, Jesus the omnipotent God-man is reduced little more than a self-help guru. Sort of like Tony Robbins with a halo.

Those who are deceived (or have deceived themselves) into thinking such strange and unbiblical things are usually people who have some type of (very) limited knowledge of the teachings of Scripture, attend church on occasion (either presently or in their past), and know some facts about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. I confess that, in the months leading up to the day I was saved, I believed something very similar to what I described above (although, for the life of me, I don’t believe I could have offered such a creative explanation as to what being “born again” meant).

Following are some excerpts from a fabulous book I am currently reading and re-reading. In it, the author adeptly addresses the type of culturally-popular / ungodly / vapid / powerless / counterfeit “spirituality” I just described above.

Excerpts from Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009), 78-80:

“Spirituality” is as successful as materialism in feeding our narcissism. Keeping us preoccupied with our inner self and its experiences, morality, and activity, the “search for the sacred” is as godless as atheism. There are plenty of resources on the market to feed our culture’s anxiety over self-improvement. But they are all different ways of dressing up the old Adam. Furthermore, their moralistic prescriptions never actually reduce stress but pile more expectations upon us to try to make ourselves acceptable to God.

We are not sick, but spiritually dead. We are not good people with room for improvement, but the ungodly. We are not children who need a little direction, but lost. The gospel comes not to help us get our act together, fixing us up for a night on the town, making us more respectable to ourselves or others. Rather, it comes to kill us and make us alive as completely new creatures. Not a new and improved self, but a self buried and raised with Christ, is the gospel’s message of genuine transformation.

Moralistic, therapeutic spirituality is part of that narcissistic complex about which Paul warned Timothy that makes us “lovers of self…, having an appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:2, 5). And the power that it denies is the announcement of free justification in Christ, apart from works. The power of God does not lie in programs, strategies, self-help formulas, seven steps to a better life, or political reform. Like someone trapped in a burning building, we cannot rescue ourselves. There is no hope inside of us! There are no inner resources or possibilities – no Archimedean point at which we might pry ourselves open to God and begin to climb the stairway to heaven. Our whole nature is in bondage to sin, so we cannot even repair our condition by an act of the will. Our only hope lies outside of us, from the God who rescues us in his Son! Paul said that he was “not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16)….

This gospel – the Good News of God’s justification of sinners in Christ – …is the ocean that we swim in, the air that we breathe, the identity that defines us….

The gospel is not a general belief in heaven and hell or hope for a better life beyond; it is not even confidence in a resurrection at the end of the age. It is the announcement that Jesus Christ himself is our life, for he is our peace with God. He does not merely show us the way; he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Christmas – A Celebration for Notable Sinners

Christmas – A Celebration for Notable Sinners

Dr. John P. Davis

In preaching on Matthew’s record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1-17, I was wonderfully reminded of the grace of God in giving us a Savior who is not deterred by our great sinfulness. One point of my message that day was on how the genealogy of Christ contains the names of notable sinners. They are notable because they stand out in the genealogy, though everyone (except Jesus) in that genealogical record is a sinner.

It was unusual in ancient genealogies to include the names of women. Their inclusion in Matthew is not necessary to establish any legal point so they must be included for a theological purpose.

Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba share something in common. They have notoriety in Scripture partly because of their moral failures. In our self-righteousness and pride we would exclude names of those with whom we do not want to be identified. Jesus doesn’t.

Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah. Her husband died and left her childless so it was the next son’s responsibility to take her as wife and continue the family name through her. He refused to do so and Judah did not demand it. Tamar sought justice but in an unrighteous way. She posed as a harlot and seduced her father-in-law and bore twins through her father-in-law. So her father-in-law is a philanderer and she is a prostitute. This is the ancestry of Jesus Christ. I know this story sounds like a Hollywood soap opera, but it is real life where sinners, even those who know better, do sordid and horrible things. Matthew doesn’t hide it. Jesus identifies with them. Jesus came as a friend of sinners, to call them to repentance, and to give his life for them.

Rahab even when spoken of in the NT is called Rahab, the harlot. Though she came to faith in the true and living God she doesn’t seemed to have outlived her prior reputation. She married one of the descendants of Judah through whom the Messiah would come. Salmon must have seen in this harlot a transformation of God’s grace that brought him to marry her or perhaps he was sordidly attracted by her reputation. She becomes the great, great grandmother of King David. She is a marvelous picture of God’s redeeming and transforming grace.

Bathsheba is noted in Scripture for being not only the mother of Solomon but the woman involved in bringing King David to the lowest point in his kingdom. Though she was seduced by David, she surrendered to his seduction, and became pregnant. David had her husband killed, then married Bathsheba and bore a child whom God did not allow to live. Nevertheless, God in his grace gave another son, Solomon, the heir to the kingdom.

Jesus’ genealogy includes notable sinners because he comes for sinners. He identifies with sinners in his incarnation and in his death. Whatever your sin may be, you are not so bad that Jesus would not identify with you. He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

This is our Savior. And let me say, that until you have seen yourself as a notable sinner, you will not know the power of the grace of Jesus Christ. He came for sinners.

When you trace the genealogy of Jesus that follows Him, i.e. those who are his descendants by faith, you find the names of notable sinners. One of those names is John P. Davis – a sinner saved by grace. This is the blessing of Christmas.

Barriers to Serving the Poor – Partiality

It is my firm belief that service to the poor is not some special spiritual “calling,” but a normative part of the Christian life, just like attending church or praying or reading your Bible. So why aren’t more Christians involved in caring for the poor? One reason I’ve encountered is ignorance. We discussed this point previously.

Ignorance tends to breed stereotyping, which breeds prejudice, which breeds partiality.

Partiality is the practice of favoritism. It is an act of the will that transcends the stereotypes and prejudices of our mind.

Let’s see what partiality looked like in the first century church:

James 2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.  2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”  4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?  5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?  6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?  7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?  8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.  9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

In our time, we also have “dishonored the poor man” (v. 6). This “dishonoring” manifests itself in the omission of regular and consistent acts of basic Christian compassion toward others who are in great need of such ministry.

In this, we too are guilty of “committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”

Like the early church, we also are guilty of showing partiality toward our weaker brothers and sisters by refusing to do what we can to come alongside them and encourage them in the Lord. It seems that Christians are frequently too busy disputing amongst themselves over minor and relatively obscure points of doctrine, or too busy pouring all of their energy back into their own congregations to help their poor brothers and sisters who remain outside the walls of our oases of Christian sanctuary.

May God give us eyes to see our weaker brethren as He sees them. May this motivate us to love and service and the elimination of partiality in our midst, by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Our Philosophy of Ministry

Along with others on our leadership team, I currently find myself in a ministry context of planting a new church in an urban area that is racially, culturally, and socio-economically diverse. Add to this mixture a highly transient student and young, urban professional population and further challenges to long-term ministry become immediately evident. In this short piece I will set forth my philosophy of ministry in general (regardless of any temporal or geographical circumstances) and my philosophy of ministry in the immediate context of University City, Philadelphia.

The ultimate goal of my life is to serve and minister in a way that is radically Christ-centered, radically gospel-centered, and radically other-centered by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Matt. 22:34-40; 28:18-20). It is the God-man Jesus Christ whose life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension gives meaning to the gospel and displays for me the precious value of each and every human life (John 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-8; 1 John 4:9-10). It is through the gospel that I am reconciled to this Jesus and empowered to love and serve others (Rom. 1:16; 5:5; 1 John 4:19). It is through indiscriminately loving others that I can live out this gospel and serve Christ by serving others (Matt. 25:31-46; 1 John 3:14-19).

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The Cause of the Human Condition and its Remedy

The Cause of the Human Condition and its Remedy

Dr. John P. Davis

The Bible does not offer a definitive explanation of how evil entered the universe. We know from the Bible that Satan, a created being, is evil and that he existed prior to the fall of man. Scriptures do not explain how Satan became evil. They simply present him as evil and as God’s opponent as he enters the stage in the drama of human life.

Satan’s method of deceit in the Garden of Eden brings about the fall of humanity and sets the pattern for all future deceptions. In the temptation (Genesis 3:1-5) Satan entices Eve to eat of the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. God had set this test so that Adam and Eve would experience moral discernment at the highest level of obedience.

Satan asserted doubt concerning God’s ways and he attacked God’s character by implying that God was unfair in not giving Adam and Eve access to every tree. He focused on the negative prohibition. Eve succumbed to Satan’s wiles. She misquoted God’s permission, God’s prohibition, and God’s penalty. She made the fatal mistake of not being careful with the Word of God.

Satan responded by blatantly denying God’s word. Satan essentially said, 1) You won’t reap what you sow; 2) God fears, rather than loves man; 3) You can be independent of God; 4) There is efficacy in things; 5) Don’t trust God’s Word. Satan propagates these same lies today.

Satan succeeded in taking Eve’s focus from God to self. Now that God is questioned, she trusts her own reasoning and Eve acts by sight rather than by faith. She sees; she covets; she takes; she draws others (Adam) into sin. The consequences of sin (3:7-12) are separation, alienation, and anguish. There had been harmony between God and man; man and man; man and animals; man and land. Now all harmony is gone as God’s word and order are violated. The woman listens to Satan, the man listens to the woman, and then the man attempts to have God listen to him.

Every human is infected by the sin of the parents of the human race. As Romans 5:12 states: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.

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