Tethered to the Text: Why Expository Preaching?
CrossWay Community Church
October 16th, 2022
Tethered to the Text: Why Expository Preaching?
Theology
A Case for Believers’ Baptism by Immersion from Colossians 2:11-12
Paul’s argument in Colossians 2:11-12 assume the following three things:
- Believers are baptized.
- Those who are baptized are believers.
- Baptism is immersion.
Allow me to briefly elaborate on each of these assertions.
1. Believers are baptized
You’ll notice in this passage, as Paul addresses the Colossians, he can assume all of them have been baptized (“you been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him”). It was assumed that believers were baptized, such that Paul can readily appeal to their baptism as part of his argument here. Paul, along with the rest of the New Testament, has no category or conception of an unbaptized believer.
Continue readingExperiential Calvinism: A Functional Theology of the Doctrines of Grace (with J. A. Medders)
What are the so-called doctrines of grace? And what bearing do they have on our lives? Jeff Medders joins me to talk about Calvinism and the practical ways it ought to manifest in those who believe it.
Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)
A Christian Assessment of News Consumption (with Jeffrey Bilbro)
In a world in which our consumption of news is increasingly polarized and sensational, and disinformation is all too common, how do we combat such unhealthy habits to form a better relationship with the news? And what, after all, is the news even for? What is a particularly Christian mode of engaging and consuming news? In his book, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry Into the News, Jeffrey Bilbro provides a theological, even historical, perspective on the function and impact of the news in our lives, a diagnosis of our problem, and a reframing of how we might construct alternative practices.
Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)
Some key concepts and ideas from the book:
- “Macademized minds” (or fragmented attention)
Our attentions are overloaded; we are unable to attend in meaningful ways because there’s too much to attend to.
As a result, presentations of the news become competingly sensational in order to compete for our distracted attention.
Thus, we need to develop better habits for shaping what we give our attention to.
Continue readingMarks of a Church (Diagram)
The following is a chart that seeks to capture the logic of the following confession from Article 29 of The Belgic Confession:
“The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head. By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church—and no one ought to be separated from it.“
Marks of a Church
Preaching the Gospel – What creates the church, a community of those who believe the gospel.
Administration of the Ordinances – What marks out and makes known the boundaries of that believing community.
- Baptism = the initiating rite to mark off those who belong to Christ and his church.
- The Lord’s Supper = the ongoing rite which continually marks off those who constitute the church.
Exercising Church Discipline – What maintains the proper boundaries of the church, i.e., those who demonstrate lives consistent with their profession of faith in Christ.
Kirk E. Miller 