TABLETALK - February 2018

I continue in my daily studies to be guided by Tabletalk magazine. 2018 was a study on the Gospel of John and its straightforward presentation of the person and work of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, and other doctrines. 

• January 2018 (July 4, 2023 - July 23, 2023) John 1:1-2:22 - The preexistence of Christ, the ministry of John the Baptist and the person of Christ. 
• February 2018 (July 24, 2023 - August 10, 2023) John 2:23 - 3:36 - Regeneration and our need to believe in Christ for Salvation

Encounter with Nicodemus

Jesus and the Hearts of Men - People were believing in Jesus' name, but Jesus did not entrust Himself to them. Jesus knows hearts and must have not seen true faith in all people. Nicodemus Comes to Jesus - Nicodemus, observing the signs Jesus was doing, comes to Jesus to remark him as a Rabbi and that He must be sent from God. Our Need for Regeneration - To see the kingdom of God, you must be born again, by the Spirit of God. Irresistible Regeneration - The Spirit moves in us to be born again, and we believe then, which pleases God. Mysterious Regeneration - Even to the Jewish leader and teacher, the things of truth can be mysterious. The Witness of Jesus - Jesus testifies that He has come from heaven to speak of the things of God. We must know the basics to understand the heavenly things. The Son of Man Lifted Up - We must believe in Jesus that He was lifted up on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. God's Love for the World - God's love is significant and is a love that up to this point has not been mentioned in this way by God for His people and yet it is a love central to our Bible and changes everything about us who believe for eternity. Why God Sent His Son - Those who look to Christ escape condemnation, but those who refuse to trust Him are as good as condemned already. Loving the Darkness - The Light has come into the world but people love evil and hate the Light for fear of being exposed. Doing the Truth - We must expose ourselves to God, admitting we are sinners and run to the Light, believing, and we are saved and God gets all the glory. Christ Increasing - God gave Jesus authority and we are commissioned to be His ambassadors, giving Him all the attention. The Divine Testimony of Jesus - Jesus comes from God and is God, different from finite man, speaking the words of God and has the fullness of the Spirit. The Father's Love for His Son - Jesus has it all. He is loved by the Father and the Father has given him all things. Believing in and Obeying the Son - It's simple and profound, the Spirit draws us, we believe in Jesus, and we obey. All are needed. All must happen. 

The Problem of Forgiveness - RC Sproul - Distinguish between forgiveness and feeling forgiven. When we don't think God will forgive us after He has we are committing the sin of arrogance. God requires perfect holiness. Once it is lost, we cannot regain it. Forgiveness is objective, but the feeling of it subjective. I can feel forgiven but not be forgiven. I can be forgiven but not feel it. God forgets our sin. He does not hold them against us. Forgiveness means not bringing it up. If people confess their sin, we are to forgive, but if people don't repeat, we are not obligated to forgive. The Bible provides a provision of marriage dissolution for adultery. But we still must forgive and treat the person as a brother/sister in Christ, but we can end the marriage. We can have forgiveness, but there still may be consequences. 

How Not to Do Theology - Rev. Robert Rothwell (Associate editor of Tabletalk magazine) - After Hurricane Katrina in 2017 many people lost their lives for operating a generator inside. They didn't know and died from carbon monoxide poisoning. We need to know our theology for it determines our eternity. Do we all realize that we are each theologians because we have thoughts about God? But in this regard, our thoughts are our own and not divine revelation. This works when our thoughts match scripture, but what about when they don't. The idea of sola scriptura is the belief that studying the scripture on my own will give us understanding of truth. God promises in His Word to provide other people, our church leaders and theologians understanding of theology. Rarely is anything new being discovered. Even during the reformation period, what Luther stated about justification by faith alone and Scripture as the infallible authority was not new information. Lots of teachers out their to gravitate towards, but we need to be careful we don't put all our eggs in one basket, so listen to many. Reading blogs is great and other things on the internet, but we need to dive into Scripture and listen to known sound teachers. We can each do theology and it is not only seasoned veterans that can assist us. We must be careful to not get puffed up on ourselves though. We must stay humble. 

Studying Scripture and Doing Theology - R. Carlton Wynne (associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Atlanta) - Everyone is a theologian. God is able to make Himself known to those He has made in His image (Gen. 1:26–27). Theology (joins the Greek logos, or “word,” with theos, or “God”) literally, a word or knowledge concerning God—delivered by God to us first. Scripture is God-given and infallible and “the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 2). The Apostle Peter teaches that the human writers of the Bible “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Scripture is the letter of Jesus Christ to His church (see Rev 2–3; 22:16). And just as He, now risen from the dead, gives life to all of His people (John 5:21), so His Word remains “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12). The psalmist sings to the Lord, “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation” (Ps. 119:99). Pay careful attention to the meaning of particular passages in their immediate contexts, but also trace organic connections with other passages across the whole of Scripture. Doing theology centers on the question, what does the whole Bible say about God, man, sin, Christ, the church, heaven, or any other topic relevant to God’s Word? For things “hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16), we can and should look for help from godly teachers, Bible commentaries, and the wealth of the church’s past reflections on the Bible. After all, they, too, are Christ’s gifts to us (Eph. 4:11–14). Our final authority must be the Spirit speaking in the Scriptures He inspired. Westminster Confession of Faith: “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly” (WCF 9.1). Jesus promised His Apostles that the “Spirit of truth” would guide them into all truth (John 16:13). Sometimes we do eisegesis, reading things “into” (eis in the Greek) the text that are not there, rather than exegesis, reading the truth “out of” (ex in the Greek) the text. His Word is able to expose and correct the faulty assumptions we bring to it. Through careful reading of what Scripture says to better align our thinking with Scripture. For example, a new Christian may have learned that Jesus died to take away sin (1 John 3:5). This knowledge, however limited it may be, becomes a grid through which he reads about the Jewish sacrifices described in the Old Testament. Suddenly, upon reading Hebrews 10:4 (“For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”), a new theological insight develops: the sacrifices in Israel anticipated the coming of Christ, who is the only effective sacrifice for sin (Heb. 7:27; 9:26). The Christian’s knowledge of Scripture thereby increases, and soon, John the Baptist’s declaration in John 1:29 (“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away sin of the world!”) sparkles on the page with a newfound brilliance. God’s revelation has come to us for an even higher purpose, namely, that we might know God personally in Christ and worship Him in the bond of fellowship. 

The Role of Creeds and Confessions in Doing Theology - R. Scott Clark (professor of church history and historical theology at Westminster Seminary California) - Ecumenical creeds and Reformed confessions are like maps of Christians of the past. Creed comes from the Latin word credo, “I believe.” The ecumenical creeds, including the Apostles’ Creed (developed during the first four centuries AD), the Nicene–Constantinopolitan Creed (often called the Nicene Creed; AD 325/381), the Athanasian Creed (after AD 428), and the Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451), widely accepted across the ages of church traditions and often responses to heresies of Christian religion at the time. Other Reformed confessions include the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Canons of Dort (1619), and the Westminster Standards (1648). Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” is known as the Shema, after the Hebrew word translated as “Hear!” in the verse. It is quoted by Jesus, Paul refers to it and James alludes to it. Our Lord Himself commands us to confess the faith. He said, “So everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32–33) even where there is opposition in culture. The confessions serve the Scriptures. They are ecclesiastically sanctioned summaries of God’s Word, not an alternative authority of thought. Some have been revised and further supported by scripture references. They themselves declare scripture alone as authority. They are not of equal value to Scripture. The creeds and confessions are the living voice of the church’s understanding of God’s Word on the most important issues of Christian doctrine and living. Without the roadmap of the creeds and reading the Scripture in isolation from the Church it can lead to different understandings. Thus with creeds and confessions we are learning from their journey before us and learning with them the most vital doctrines of the Christian faith and basic Christian practice: the observance of the Lord’s Day, attendance to worship and the means of grace, prayer, repentance, and dying to sin and living to Christ by grace alone.

Doing Theology Together under the Leading of the Holy Spirit - Gabriel N.E. Fluhrer (Senior pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tenn.) - The Bible and church history teach us that the Holy Spirit guides not just Christians individually (Rom. 8:4) but the church corporately. Doing church is not optional in the NT. Upon professing faith we are to belong to a local body of fellow followers. Jesus passed authority to the apostles and those they would teach to teach and baptize. Paul’s letters are to church’s and to be read in churches. And the Holy Spirit would guide people into truth after Jesus’ death. John 14 promises guidance by the Holy Spirit and “you” in these passages is plural. And then Paul gives instruction to those that will have the gift of teaching and instruction. The Lord has gifted His church to serve with gifts of teaching and preaching (see Eph. 4:11–12; Heb. 13:7). Jesus and the disciples well versed in Jewish synagogues where community was important and reading and interpretation of scriptures not only by rabbis but every devout Jew. There is community interpretation, never in isolation, learning from the past. If the Holy Spirit guides the people of God, why has there been so much error in church history, and why have so many important truths been buried for so long? First, false teaching will be prominent until Christ's return, even in the church (Matt. 24:11; Acts 20:29; 2 Tim. 4:3–4). This should be no surprise. Second, God is sovereign and allows false teaching. God will guide His people by His Spirit to glory and as He does they shall prevail. 

The Goal of Doing Theology - Sinclair Ferguson (a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and vice-chairman of Ligonier Ministries) - Theology is a joyful and glorious activity because it is ultimately about the glory and joy of our God. Its goal is that of the angels, indeed, of God Himself: this combination of glorifying and enjoying God, which is to the unbeliever the ultimate contradiction but for Christians the discovery of our destiny. Next to the Lord Jesus, no one has embodied what this means more fully than the Apostle Paul. Romans 9–11 provides us with an extended illustration. These three chapters, then, are perhaps the headiest theology anywhere to be found in Paul’s letters. What triggered Paul’s entire exposition here was his “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” of heart for his kinsmen (9:2). He longs that they will be saved (10:1). Why? A further step backward into Romans 1–3 provides the answer. It is because of his passion for God’s glory. He sees the tragedy of man’s condition—made in God’s image and for His glory but in sin exchanging the glory of God for creatures and idols (1:23). Sin is indeed “any want of conformity unto, or transgression of the law of God” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 14). But its result is that we “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and lose both our crown and our destiny. If we see this, the fallen condition of our kinsmen and its repercussions are heartbreaking indeed. So, those who “do theology” for the glory of God must also be prepared for sorrow (9:2) and have a willingness to sacrifice (v. 3) and evangelize (10:14–17). Besides acting as a catalyst, Paul’s way of “doing theology” has life-changing repercussions. Romans 9:1–11:36 hinges into Romans 12–16 and especially into the first words of those chapters (12:1–2). The mercy God displays (11:30–32) calls for unconditional consecration to Him expressed in nonconformity to the world and transformation into Christ’s image, ultimately to reflect His glory. But how does this take place? By “doing theology” to His glory and for His pleasure. For transformation takes place “by the renewal of your mind” (12:2).

Wonder and Awe - Thomas Brewer (Managing editor of Tabletalk magazine and teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America) - We use telescopes to look out into space, trying to understand the shape of our universe. Galileo invented the microscope by reversing the telescope and in the process discovered a very small world living. Like a droplet of lake water will reveal an amoeba swimming. With our eyes we see nothing, but with the microscope a new world. And yet we can go smaller still and see how the amoeba is made up. And in the middle of space and these small details is us humans comprehending some and not comprehending other. “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Ps. 8:4). “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). Such thoughts lead to wonder and awe as we acknowledge that He continues to uphold the universe by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3).

It's So Easy to Be Jealous - Rev. Stephen Mueller (church-planting pastor of Gospel Church München in Munich, Germany) - Pr 23:17, “Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.” Part of envy and jealousy is being sad when things are going well for someone else and rejoicing when things are not going well for them. Author rememberss a wedding in which his friends did skits and received accolades and did well while what he did not merit much. This is when he recognized his joy in seeing them do poorly. But in the process of being jealous he started to not feel good at all or enjoy himself. Pr. 14:30: “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” Upon recognizing the sin, asked the Lord to forgive him and things improved and he could rejoice with friends when great things happened to them. We have no need to compare ourselves anymore with others.

Church Matters - Jon D. Payne (Senior minister of Christ Church Presbyterian in Charleston, SC) - More and more people are punting church thinking that the church is not offering them what they need to build their lives seriously. People continue to miss the point of church. "God ordained the visible church as an organization for the gathering, protecting, and perfecting of the church as an organism––the members of the body of Christ (Rom. 12:3–8; 1 Cor. 12:12–31)." To be the church we must be a part of a local body. Our spiritual life is not simply individualistic it is to be connected to others and the church is this connection we all need and all must have. 

The Benefits of Fasting - Rebecca Vandoodewaard (author and mother) - Fasting is a popular decision for the healthy and there are probably more people fasting at the gym than at the church. Fasting is a discipline and hard work and Scripture associates hardship with it. It is marked by prayer, repentance, and grief. First, fasting reminds us we are not in control. If no food, we will die. Second, self-control is learned and gets stronger as one repeats it. Third, a growling stomach is a reminder to pray, and opens up wider angles of praying. Fourth, it creates a spiritual seriousness, it is giving ourselves in a way others cannot see. It draws us into the throne room of heaven to plead in Jesus' name. Take it seriously.