JESUS! In Word and Song

Today starts volume 2 of JESUS! In Word and Song. See SONG in main menu for more information.

WEEK 28

TRINITY SUNDAY

“Trinity Sunday is a day when Christians think of the nature of God rather than, as with other festivals, commemorating historical events of special significance.”¹

“[T]he three blessed Persons in the Trinity divided up the work: The Father planned, the Son put it into operation, and the Holy Spirit applies it.”²

God was so sure of the depth and expansiveness of your sin, of your inability to grasp how desperate your condition is (and, even if you were able, your complete inability to free yourself from it), that he was willing to harness the forces of nature and to carefully control the events of human history so that at a certain point Jesus would come to live the life you could not live, die the death that you should have died, and rise again, conquering death. Why did God go to this elaborate and sacrificial extent? There is only one answer to the question. God the Father planned it, God the Son was willing to do it, and God the Holy Spirit applied this work to your heart and mine because there just was no other way.³

“When God brought His work of revelation to its climax by sending into the World His Son and His Spirit, He thereby showed Himself to be tri-personal—three Persons in one God.”⁴

“God exists eternally as one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each person within the Trinity possesses the same essence and attributes of deity and is co-equal in power and glory.”⁵

“While each ‘personage’ is distinct in function, each shares together in the same deity and each reflects the divine attributes of the one living God.”⁶

[T]he Father plans, directs, and sends; the Son is sent by the Father and is subject to the Father’s authority and obedient to the Father’s will; and both Father and Son direct and send the Spirit, who carries out the will of both. Yet this is somehow consistent with equality in being and in attributes.⁷

“All that can be felt of God is in the Holy Spirit; all that can be known of God is in the Son; and all that is of God is in the Father.”⁸

“It requires a whole Trinity to keep a saint of God.”⁹

To him that sits upon the throne,

The great eternal Three-in-One;

To him let saints and angels raise

An everlasting song of praise.¹⁰

ENDNOTES

(28) SPIRIT, FATHER, Son

1. “A Guide to Christian Festivals and Dates,” Church of Scotland, 4 July 2021 https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/worship/festivals-and-dates.

2. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Gods Great Plan of Redemption,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 1.

3. Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014) February 29^th.

4. J.I. Packer, God Has Spoken (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,1979) 47.

5. New Hope Church Statement of Fatih, “2. God,” Spring 2021 https://www.newhopechurchofoxford.org/statement-of-faith.

6. “Holy Spirit,” 2002-2020, All About God, 17 February 2021 https://www.allaboutgod.com/holy-spirit.htm.

7. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2514.

8. Horatius Bonar, Words Old and New (Carlisle, PA: THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST, 1866, 1994) 340.

9. Bonar, 332.

10. J. Swain, “To Him That Loved Us, Ere We Lay,” 1838 Gadsby’s Hymn Book, 17 February 2021 https://bethlehemswell.com/hymns/721/.

11. Charles Spurgeon, “God’s Covenant in Eternity,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 6-7.

12. Spurgeon.

13. Spurgeon.

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 27

PENTECOST

Pentecost Sunday is a commemoration and celebration of the official birthday of the Christian church, marked by the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the early believers. Pentecost Sunday is observed on the seventh Sunday after Easter and ten days after Ascension.¹

“[Y]ou will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5 ESV).

The effects are seen in the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost changed all their outlook. The Scriptures were made luminous in the light of the Holy Ghost. The change in their characters was even greater than the change in their knowledge. The Gospels portray these men as proud and contentious, selfish and cowardly; but the first pages of the Acts of the Apostles tell another story. Pentecost transformed them.²

Under the training of Christ the disciples had been led to feel their need of the Spirit. Under the Spirit’s teaching they received the final qualification, and went forth to their lifework. No longer were they ignorant and uncultured. No longer were they a collection of independent units or discordant, conflicting elements.³

“[L]et us recall and realize all the mighty and marvelous signs of this first Pentecost, and its instant and immediate results and effects; of conquered cowardice, of utterance, of courageous speech, of other tongues.”⁴

The preaching of the cross of Christ was the very center and heart of the message of the apostles. It was not the teaching of Christ, nor the example of Christ either. What they preached was His death on the cross and the meaning of that event.⁵

[T]hey were to proclaim to the world the truths entrusted to them. The events of Christ’s life, His death and resurrection, the prophecies pointing to these events, the mysteries of the plan of salvation, the power of Jesus for the remission of sins.⁶

“[T]he gospel must be proclaimed. The wonderful truth that through Christ alone could remission of sins be obtained, was to be made plain.”⁷

[W]e should read the writings of the New Testament as God’s very words, still living and powerful to speak to our hearts today with the authority of God himself. No other words spoken today can ever equal the words of Scripture itself in authority, in purity, or in power.⁸

ENDNOTES

(27) Abiding Miracle

1. Joe Carter, “9 Things You Should Know About the Christian Calendar,” 1 December 2019, The Gospel Coalition, 3 July 2021 https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-know-christian-calendar/.

2. Samuel Chadwick, The Way to Pentecost (Fort Washington, PA: CLC Publications, 2000) 169-170.

3. Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1911) 45.

4. W.C. Doanne, “Commentary on Acts 1:2,” 1876, James Nisbet’s Church Pulpit Commentary, 16 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/acts/2-1.html#verse-cpc.

5. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking With God Day by Day (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003) April 2^nd.

6. Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1911) 27.

7. White, 31-32.

8. Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1988) 49.

9. W.C. Doanne, “Commentary on Acts 1:2,” 1876, James Nisbet’s Church Pulpit Commentary, 16 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/acts/2-1.html#verse-cpc.

10. Samuel Chadwick, The Way to Pentecost (Fort Washington, PA: CLC Publications, 2000) 35.

11. Chadwick, 37.

12. Chadwick, 40.

13. Chadwick.

14. Chadwick 43.

15. W.C. Doanne, “Commentary on Acts 1:2,” 1876, James Nisbet’s Church Pulpit Commentary, 16 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/acts/2-1.html#verse-cpc.

16. Alexander MacLaren, “Commentary on Acts 2:1,” Alexander MacLaren’s Expositions of Holy Scripture, 16 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/mac/acts-2.html.

17. MacLaren.

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 26

THE ASCENSION

“Ascension Day commemorates the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter although some denominations move it to the following Sunday.¹

“The ascension has been included in every important creed of the church because it teaches the enduring complete humanity of Jesus as the only mediator between God and man.”² “[E]verything that stands between us and God has been dealt with and has been removed.”³

“The ascension is Christ’s return to heaven from earth. Jesus lives, now and forever, as true man and true God to mediate between God and man. He will come again as he left, fully God and fully man.”⁴

“[T]he God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, according to the working of his great might, raised [Jesus] from the dead and seated him at his right hand” (Eph 1:17,19-20 ESV).

“Jesus ‘sits’ to portray the sufficiency of his saving work on earth; he continues a vital, active ministry as he reigns over all creation.”⁵

Christ’s new status as the God-Man meant God gave Him privileges He did not have prior to the incarnation. If He had not lived among men, He could not have identified with them as the interceding High Priest. Had He not died on the cross, He could not have been elevated from that lowest degree back to heaven as the substitute for sin.⁶

Though the full penalty for our sins was paid at the cross, Christ’s priestly work didn’t end there. It continues to this day in heaven, where Christ ‘appears in the presence of God on our behalf’ (Heb 9:24). Our eternal redemption was secured—not simply by Jesus dying on the cross—but through Jesus entering heaven by means of his own blood. In short: no ascension, no salvation.⁷

“[T]he ascension wasn’t simply Jesus going home; it was Jesus being enthroned.”⁸

Christ is a teacher that He may be a king; Christ is an example that He may be a king; Christ is a Savior that He may be a king; this is the great end and object that He has in His life, His death, His resurrection, and His second coming—that He may set up a kingdom among the sons of men to the glory of God.⁹

“Jesus Christ, [is] the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev 1:5 ESV). “O King, live forever, and we shall find our life in Your life, and glory in promoting Your glory.”¹⁰

ENDNOTES

(26) The Savior Lives No More to Die

2. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2517.

3. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Great Doctrines of the Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003) I:348.

4. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2526.

5. ESV Study Bible.

6. John MacArthur, One Perfect Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2012) 501.

7. Justin Dillehay, “What Jesus’s Ascension Does for Us,” May 30, 2019, The Gospel Coalition 15 February 2021 https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/4-reasons-ascension-matters/.

8. Dillehay.

9. Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons on New Testament Men (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications 1994) 115.

10. Spurgeon.

11. Isaac Watts, “Christ’s Victory, Death, and Dominion,” 1838 Gadsby’s Hymn Book, 15 February 2021 https://bethlehemswell.com/hymns/168/.

12. Watts.

13. Matthew Bridges and Godfrey Thring, “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” 1851, Hymnary, 15 February 2021 https://hymnary.org/text/crown_him_with_many_crowns.

14. Isaac Watts, “Christ’s Victory, Death, and Dominion,” 1838 Gadsby’s Hymn Book, 15 February 2021 https://bethlehemswell.com/hymns/168/.

15. Watts.

16. Samuel Medley, “Because I Live, Ye Shall Live Also,” 1838 Gadsby’s Hymn Book, 15 February 2021 https://bethlehemswell.com/hymns/751/.

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WEEK 25

DISCIPLES WAITING FOR THE PROMISE

[JESUS’] right to send the Spirit into the hearts of fallen men was acquired by His atonement. It was the well-earned reward of all His toil and sufferings. One of the chief results of the perfect satisfaction which Christ offered to God on behalf of His people, was His right now to bestow the Spirit upon them.¹

“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:45-49 ESV).

Ten days they waited together attempting to comprehend this power that was coming. They also had plenty of time to ruminate their commission of proclaiming CHRIST’s ability to grant repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

This SPIRIT would: “teach them all things, lead them into all truth, take of the things of Christ, and show them to them, and bring to their remembrance all things they had seen and heard.”²

The SPIRIT would fortify and inspire them with “courage and greatness of soul with undaunted courage, and resolution, and boldness.”³

And it is the same power the SPIRIT endues to us who believe. “[T]hough God promised special grace to the apostles, and Christ bestowed it on them, we ought to hold universally that no mortal is of himself qualified for preaching the gospel, except so far as God clothes him with his Spirit.⁴

“That bountiful supply of the Spirit was designed for the erecting and equipping of the New Testament church.”⁵ We, too, are to wait to be “aided by the power of the Holy Spirit.”⁶

ENDNOTES

(25) At the Temple Praising

1. A.W. Pink, The Holy Spirit (Pensacola, FL: Mt. Zion Publications), http://www.mountzion.org. 30, brackets mine.

2. John Gill, “Commentary on Luke 24:49,” 1999, John Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible, 15 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/luke/24-49.html#verse-geb.

3. Gill.

4. John Calvin, “Commentary on Luke 24:49,” 1840-57, Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible, 15 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/luke/24-49.html#verse-cal.

5. A.W. Pink, The Holy Spirit, (Pensacola, FL: Mt. Zion Publications), http://www.mountzion.org. 30.

6. Albert Barnes, “Commentary on Luke 24:49,” 1870, Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible, 15 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/luke/24-49.html#verse-bnb.

7. “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer . . .” (Acts 1:14 ESV).

8. “ . . . he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22 ESV). “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,” (Luke 24:45 ESV).

9. “And they . . . were continually in the temple blessing God” (Luke 24:52-53 ESV).

10. “ . . . stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49 ESV).

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WEEK 24

THE GREAT COMMISSION

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and made disciples of all nations teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:18-20 ESV).

“Jesus commanded his disciples and now commands us also to teach believers to observe all that he commanded.”¹

“Men are ignorant of Divine things, and must be taught. Only those can be considered as proper teachers of the ignorant who are thoroughly instructed in whatsoever Christ has commanded.”²

Now to teach all that Jesus commanded, in a narrow sense, is simply to teach the content of the oral teaching of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospel narratives. However, in a broader sense, ‘all that Jesus commanded’ also include the Epistles, since they were written under the supervision of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore the New Testament epistles also endorse this view of the Old Testament as absolutely authoritative words of God, then it becomes evident that we cannot teach ‘all that Jesus commanded’ without including all of the Old Testament as well.³

“[T]here is only one method of evangelism: namely, the faithful explanation and application of the gospel message. [T]he test for any proposed strategy of evangelistic action must be this: will it in fact serve the word?”⁴

“These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them [to].proclaim as you go saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Matt 10:5,7 ESV). “[H]e gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction”(Matt 10:1 ESV).

To call persons to the ministry belongs only to Him who can give them power to cast out unclean spirits.”⁵ “[T]hey were to make disciples who obeyed the commands they had received.”⁶

[T]hree things Jesus did to shape disciples. Observation: He let them listen and watch as He lived. Impartation: He made sure they had authority and power in His name. Delegation: He sent them out to do what they had seen Him do—heal and deliver, both spiritually and physically, the helpless and harassed.⁷

Imagine what kind of disciples we might develop if we employed His simple, focused method: powerfully declare and demonstrate His kingdom, make sure disciples are filled with spiritual authority and power, and place them in front of dire human need that only the power of God can meet.⁸

ENDNOTES

(24) Following His Lead

1. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994) 27.

2. Adam Clarke, “Commentary on Matthew 28:20,” 1832, Adam Clarke Commentary 22 June 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/matthew-28.html.

3. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994) 27.

4. J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979) 86.

5. Adam Clarke, “Commentary on Matthew 10:1,” 1832, Adam Clarke Commentary 15 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/matthew/10-1.html#verse-acc.

6. Doug Newton, Fresh Eyes on Famous Bible Sayings (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2018) 139.

7. Newton, 141.

8. Newton, 142.

9. “ . . . he . . . gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction” (Matthew 10:1 ESV).

10. “These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them . . . proclaim as you go saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Matthew 10:5,7 ESV).

Bonnie's Prayer Affair

Keeping myself in CHRIST

Month: May 2023

JESUS! In Word and Song

JESUS! In Word and Song

JESUS! In Word and Song

JESUS! In Word and Song

JESUS! In Word and Song