Jason Alligood

In my opinion, there is no better bible study software than Logos. I’ve been using it since the early days and still love it today. It is my main means of study as I prepare sermons. And, yes, I am shamelessly promoting them because they are giving away Mac products but I am not lying. It is the best bible study software!

Logos Bible Software is giving away thousands of dollars of prizes to celebrate the launch of Logos Bible Software 4 Mac on October 1. Prizes include an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an iPod Touch, and more than 100 other prizes!

They’re also having a special limited-time sale on their Mac and PC base packages and upgrades. Check it out!

Thad Bergmeier is a friend from my days at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. A few years after we graduated we ran into each other at a prominent pastor’s conference in California. I was pleased to see him there and to hear of how God was blessing his ministry. As we have kept up over the years I was encouraged about his continued education and happy to find out in the midsts of his doctoral studies he had his dissertation published by Wipf and Stock (before he defended it, I might add).

I’m the kind of person who likes to mark up my books. I love to find sentences and paragraphs that convey truth concisely. Helping Johnny Listen (hereafter HJL) is full of these great nuggets. Not only this, but one can find practical helps throughout the work, that can be applied to both those of us who listen to sermons and to those of us who preach them.

In the first chapter “The Preaching Intersection” Dr. Bergmeier offers helpful insight into the realm of the preacher.  One cannot hope to understand how to listen to a sermon well, if one is not familiar with the task of preaching and the work of the preacher. He gives us great lines such as, “When the preacher is faithful to preach the message from God’s word, it is as if God is speaking to the audience…” Bergmeier goes in to support this claim through half of the rest of the chapter by breaking down the preachers responsibility to accurately represent the word of God to the hearer. The last half of the same quotation states, “and the listeners, when the Bible is preached, are placed at a crossroad with every sermon.” This makes up the meat of the last half of the first chapter and is what Bergmeier concerns himself with in the rest of HJL, challenging the listener to consider reasons why they may not enjoy the preaching (stating the possibility of no true conversion) and the responsibility believers have to be good listeners.

In chapter two, “Receiving the Preaching of God’s Word” Bergmeier encourages us to be prepared to receive. One might think lightly of this, since the burden of making the sermon acceptable seems to be borne by the preacher, but we find quickly this is not the case. We are challenged to come rested, filled, healthy, focused regularly and thoughtfully. Under the category of being focused we are urged, “When the preacher stands up to preach, lock in on him, focus on him, and tune out all other things except the preacher and his voice.”  We are also commended to come spiritually prepared with hearts that are hungry, worshiping, praying, expecting and forgiving. Bergmeier wisely declares, “Showing up at church is one thing, but having the burning passion within us that longs for God’s word is quite another.”

In chapter three we are asked to “Examine the Preaching of God’s Word.”  In this chapter we are invited to listen in various ways. Bergmeier emphasizes the need for the listener to be a good Barean and search out the Scriptures. The most well intended preacher, gets it wrong sometimes. Because of this the listener must have a discerning ear and the author gives us great insight into ways in which we can accomplish this, without being overly critical of our pastors. One helpful insight was stated in regard to relationship. If we have the privilege of knowing our pastors, getting to know them and their hearts, always aids in the listening process.

Chapter four entitles, “Live the preaching of God’s Word” is best summed up with the author’s statement that, “There is no biblical listening to preaching if we do not live the preaching of God’s word.” With this thought Bergemeier suggests that we respond with, thoughtfulness, specifics, dependence and completeness. One chilling statement that the author makes in regard to this last area is that we should “not be half-hearted. Good intentions will not do at this point. Hell is filled with people with good intentions.”

Lastly we are encouraged to “Persevere the Preaching of God’s Word” where Bergmeier explores hindrances we have to listening to preaching. Everything from a low view of preaching to our tendency to look to the internet for good preaching is addressed. One area that was quite helpful, was when the author explored learning styles, and although he admits these differences do present their challenges, the author also states, “we should not use our learning styles as an excuse for not listening to the preaching of God’s word.”

Dr. Bergmeier has done an excellent job of capturing and codifying a much needed study of the listening responsibility of the believer.  I have no reluctancy in recommending this book for preacher and listener alike!

Continuing in our series (our much drawn out and often not posted series) on being Salt and Light, I wanted to approach what I believe is the common belief in most evangelical circles. It goes something like this, “If I invite someone to our worship service on Sunday, I have doe my job of evangelism.” I believe the Bible begs to differ.

We are all familiar with what has been coined the Great Commission found in the Gospels (Matt. 28:18-20), that we should go and make disciples, making disciples being the main thrust in the original language. We have often relegated this call to those who are known as “overseas missionaries”, but we must see that this is the call to all those who profess faith and trust in Christ.  Much in our evangelical world has taught the practice of evangelism equalling bringing someone into a church service that is “geared” for their liking so that they are not offended by the gospel. This is counter intuitive to what the Scriptures know, as it describes the cross as foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18).

In light of this we must change our thinking. We must be in the world and not of the world (John 17:14-19). So it seems we must therefor, proclaim Christ in word and deed. There is no salvation of men seeing Christ only in our lives, for they will not know it is Christ unless we tell them that He is who has made the difference in us. We must proclaim Christ with our tongues, but back it up with our lives (James 2:14-26). We must proclaim the gospel with our tongues. We must also of necessity back it up with what we do. Is there merit in not only being a good neighbor, but also asking for forgiveness when I am not? If the world looks at us and expects us to be perfect because we claim Christ, we must adjust their view to the right and proclaim, when we have sinned against them, that Christ is perfect and we are not and it is His righteousness that God counts as worthy for us to be received by God (2 Cor. 5:21).

I do not believe that St. Francis of Assisi has captured the whole of Scripture with the saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” I believe it is more biblically accurate to say, “Preach the Gospel at all times and it is necessary to use words and live what we preach (Romans 10:14-17; 1 Pet. 2:12).”

One question/thought that has plagued me over the last couple of weeks and keeps ringing in my head is, “How am I reaching my neighbors?” And as a pastor my next thought is, “How are we cultivating this within the minds of God’s people?” It’s not that I don’t believe evangelism isn’t happening when folks go out and shop or go to the pool. What I know about myself is that I have not done an effective job of cultivating relationships with my neighbors. They don’t know that my home is open to them, because I have not offered. Yes, this has been plaguing my thoughts.

One reason this has been on my mind is because of a message preached by Ligon Duncan at the Truth & Life conference at the Master’s College this year (you can listen to it here). He does a great job of communicating the balance we as Christians need to have of being in the world and not of the world.

I am going to continue to explore this and will probably preach on this the next opportunity I get.

Another interesting twist in this is Dr. Varner’s posts, that seem to be dealing with much of the same topic (Starting with the linked post read on for a few posts).

I am curious as to our readers take on this. What does it mean to be salt and light in the world?

Your thoughts?

This is a reposting of something I did last year on my old blog around memorial day…

This is, obviously, Memorial Day weekend.  Many will be packing up the family and heading to not-so-far-off destinations, as I did with mine.  Others will betaking part in picnics and meeting up with family or fellow believers to memorialize the fact that we do this every year.  OK, I know it is to remember our fallen war heroes and those who fought bravely for the freedom of our country.  Honestly, how many of us actually remember that on Memorial Day?  I am not saying this to discount it’s importance, but to simply make a point.  I believe we should make mention of this fact on a day, when most people just see it as a day off for celebrating, well a day off.

This anticlimactic response to the day’s supposed meaning is a parallel to the way in which we treat the memorial known as Communion or the Lord’s Table in the Evangelical Church. (For those who want to start in on the Calvinistic vs. the Zwinglian  meaning, you know where I stand by my use of the word memorial, let’s please leave it at that and get to the point.)  Many unknowing people treat this ordinance with the same disinterest as remembering the fallen War Heroes on Memorial Day.

For many Communion or the Lord’s Table was known as Mass for most of their lives.  Others may simply see it as wrote religious practice that must be done every Sunday, once a month or once a quarter.  Does it have significance in the life of the Christian today?  I would say yes and it all depends on two questions…

“What is Communion?” and “Who Instituted It and Why?” (I guess you might categorize that as 3 questions, but I’ve never been that good at math!)

I guess we might have to answer the second (& third, oh never mind you get what I mean) in order to answer the first.  In Matthew 26:26-30 (as well as the accounts in the other Gospels) Jesus inserts new meaning into the tradition of passover.  He takes the bread (the Afikoman), breaks and distributes it to the men and tells them to take it and eat it, and Luke adds, in remembrance of Him.  He took the after dinner wine (the fourth cup Hallel) and in the same manner told them that it was an emblem of His blood and that they should drink in remembrance of Him.  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 that we are to do this as often as we do in remembrance of Christ, until He returns.  So, there is the Who and the why.  In this we get the answer to the “why” question.

It is not as the Roman Catholics put it, that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ.  In that they eat and drink condemnation unto themselves, supposing that they earn favor with God in the re-sacrificing of Christ (in which the priest commands Christ to come down and be sacrificed again for sin.)  No, we are remembering what Christ did, in the fashion in which He asked us to.

Understanding this remembrance is of utmost importance!  We cannot let it go the way of other ceremony, somehow only giving a nod to it’s intent and purpose, while religiously adhering to its practice.  It is one of the activities that God has called us to and one in which we must obey with not only doing, but thinking as well.

In my last post I was making the point that we must reflect upon the way in which we have been forgiven, by Whom we are forgiven and the great cost at which that forgiveness was secured, namely the blood and sacrifice of Christ.

I also made the point that in that same post that we can act in a spirit of forgiveness towards someone, but that we cannot actually forgive them until they have sought it. I was teaching a VBS content meeting the other night and I made the same statement and some folks were not sure that that idea settled with them that well. I decided maybe the best place to hash it out was in my blog space.

The question was raised in regard to how we can obey the admonition to forgive those of their debts as God has forgiven us (Matt. 6:12 in the Lord’s Model Prayer), even when they have not asked for it. I don’t think it is a stretch to say, that we can act in a spirit of forgiveness, but the exchange of that forgiveness cannot take place, without an actual personal verbal interaction. My mind is drawn to Matthew 18 and Jesus’ conversation with Peter. After Jesus’ admonition to lovingly confront those in unrepentant sin within the church, Peter asks Jesus how much we should forgive. Peter believes he is being generous with seven times. Jesus says, seven times seven (or seventy times seven depending on your translation), either way, it is a futile effort to try and keep track and that is exactly the point. It goes back to the previous post about how much we’ve been forgiven vis-à-vis the price paid by Christ’s shed blood. Avery clear parallel to this is Luke 17:3-4 in which in a similar way Jesus states that if your brother sins against you rebuke, if he repents, you need to forgive him. And if v.4 we see even if he does it seven times a day. The thing we notice is that there is an exchange. It follows then, that for actual forgiveness to occur, there must be an interaction. It also follows that without that exchange the actual, relational aspect of forgiveness can not be granted, but we are never the less to act in a spirit of forgiveness, because of the great price paid to secure our forgiveness in the sight of God and in light of His just wrath.

A couple of weeks ago I filled in for John Callan (a fellow elder) in a class called “Different by Design” based on the book of the same name by H. Dale Burke. This particular class was on forgiveness. I studied as I should have for the class, but as I was praying the morning of the class I was struck with the reality of the reason/ basis for us forgiving one another and the need to express to the class this foundation. I extemporaneously dealt with the issue of Christ’s death and resurrection and how it is the basis for God’s forgiveness of us and therefore the basis of our forgiveness of one another (Eph 4:32). While the following will not be exactly what I spoke, it will be close. I believe this is important because of the attack on penal substitution that is underway within so called evangelicalism.

Let’s begin with the verse referenced above. Ephesians 4:32 states, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” How is it that God in Christ has forgiven us? My mind goes to Hebrews 9:22, “without the shedding of blood there us no forgiveness.”  If we cross reference this with Heb 9:28 we see that Christ was offered “once to bear the sins of many.” (I leave the extent of the atonement alone for now, although there are implications that involve that in what I am stating).  There are those who are positing today that Christ’s death was not a substitution (Click here and follow a discussion started by Adrian Warnock in regard to Stephen Chalke who does not belive in Penal Substitution) in that it does not satisfy the wrath of God. If God’s wrath is not satisfied, there is no forgiveness (Romans 5:9; 1 Thes 5:9-10).  This seems plain and simple enough.  But what we must do is reflect upon the forgiveness offered to us and what was necessary for the accomplishment of it, in order to undersand the gravity of our need to forgive others. (The next post will deal with the idea of how we forgive or live in a spirit of forgiveness, if we have not been literally asked for forgiveness.)

If it took the very sacrifice of the Son of God to satisfy the Father’s wrath in order that He might forgive us, how can we hold forgiveness back from those who ask it of us?  What have they done that compares to the horror of the cross?  What have they done that can’t be covered by the blood of Christ that was shed on our behalf?  Is there anything like the cry of Jesus from the cross, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” This should cause us to pause and consider what basis we have to not forgive others. The answer seems simple enough, the practice of it seems to be the problem…at least for me.

Our pastor-teacher did a great job of preaching about the priority of missions yesterday. (Listen Here)

That message has caused me to ask and try to answer this question, “Why has Missions/Evangelism lost its Biblical priority in American Evangelicalism?”

First, let’s define missions & evangelism. God has called us to preach the gospel to every creature and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). We are to do this and support this as the body of Christ. Missions/evangelism is not, work projects and food drives. These are vehicles for the good news to go forth.

Now on to answering the question I posed above.

First, it seems silly to ask this, since within the title of Evangelicalism is the term, evangelical, which is rooted in the evangel, that is the Good News. So maybe we should call this entity that has lost the priority of missions, “Church Going Americans”.

Secondly, it is likely that the leadership of these so called churches have no value for evangelism/missions. The truth is, we talk about what we love and drive home what we are passionate about. We love our temples we have built for ourselves, we love our Christian celebrities, we love our pet theologies. The reality is that true Biblical theology will drive our love and passion for evangelism/missions. As you will hear (or heard if you listened to the message I posted above), Paul’s passion was clear. He was willing to spend a Christ-less eternity to see Israel saved ( Romans 9:1-5)

Thirdly, because of this possible lack of leadership, most church going Americans are focused on themselves. Look at the proliferation of “self help” books that line the shelves of “Christian” book stores. The average American church goer is so focused on the himself, that he has no thought for any other person or people group.

Fourthly, if there is a solid leadership focus on evangelism/missions, the problem could be that the church goers are so wrapped up in their world, they don’t see the real world that is dying around them. We are so busy with our activities and events (sports, scouts, political groups, etc.), we have little to no interaction with lost people or missionaries who are trying to reach the lost where we can’t. By the way, a missions conference is for the purpose of refocusing our attention on these matters and introducing (reintroducing) us to those who are doing this around the world!

This is just a quick post based on some thoughts from Sunday’s message. I’m sure there is more clogged up in wrinkles of the gray matter, but that’s all I have for now.

Here is a great sermon series by my good friend Smedly Yates on the theology of missions.

As many of you (all two who read my blog) know, I am currently pursuing a masters degree in Bible and theology, which means my time is taken with all of my regular family stuff, pastoral duties, plus school work.  I am finishing up my second systematic theology class.  The whole second, third and fourth degree thing is going to likely take another ten years to complete, so I’m nowhere near done. All that to say, there haven’t been many posts, at all.

But having finished some of my course work for this class (five, five to ten page papers), I will present some here for your perusal and discussion. Here is one on the Triunity. I expect it is not the best work you’ll ever read, so I would appreciate critiques if they are delivered in a kind manner. 

If you are a non-trinitarian who wishes to interact with me on the subject, I would ask for charity as well as an answer to this question first: “If I give you one more evidence will you change your position?” Given the response I expect you will give, I will respond, “Neither will I.”

Triunity Paper

I am also currently reading a few books. I will try to post some discussion in regard to those as well. I would like for you to especially check out my friend Thad’s book on listening to the sermon.

First, I apologize for the lack of updates on the Shepherds’ Conference.  I was just simply too busy in the midst of the conference to update day by day.  I will post a summary of the conference soon.

Today, however, as I was rereading J.I. Packer’s classic work Knowing God, I was struck with one paragraph particularly.  Packer said in regard to Daniel and J.C. Ryle’s boldness for God, “those  who know their God are sensitive to situations in which God’s truth and honor are being directly or tacitly jeopardized, and rather than let the matter go by default will force the issue on men’s attention and seek thereby to compel a change of heart about it – even at personal risk.”¹

It is this “personal risk” aspect that caught my attention.  It is easy for me to sit behind a computer and defend my positions on a page or a blog, there is a certain amount of anonymity to it.  But to boldly stand in a personal way in the face of opposition to my God, that is a “horse of a different color” to quote the Wizard of Oz.  How am I doing at defending the honor of God to a watching world?

I also happen to be writing an exposition of Psalm 73, in which Asaph is struggling to see the justice in the lack of consequences the wicked incur at their bold defiance of God.  How much more the piercing of the heart will I receive, if I do not boldly stand for His honor now?

These are just questions I am asking myself.  I am now encouraging you to ask the same.

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¹ Packer, J.I., Knowing God, p.28