They Are They Which Testify Of Me

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

John 5:39

Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible. He is the constant theme of its sacred pages; from first to last they testify of Him. At the creation we at once discern Him as one of the sacred Trinity; we catch a glimpse of Him in the promise of the woman’s seed; we see Him typified in the ark of Noah; we walk with Abraham, as He sees Messiah’s day; we dwell in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the gracious promise; we hear the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh; and in the numerous types of the law, we find the Redeemer abundantly foreshadowed. Prophets and kings, priests and preachers, all look one way-they all stand as the cherubs did over the ark, desiring to look within, and to read the mystery of God’s great propitiation. Still more manifestly in the New Testament we find our Lord the one pervading subject. It is not an ingot here and there, or dust of gold thinly scattered, but here you stand upon a solid floor of gold; for the whole substance of the New Testament is Jesus crucified, and even its closing sentence is bejewelled with the Redeemer’s name.

We should always read Scripture in this light; we should consider the word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we, looking into it, see His face reflected as in a glass-darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation for seeing Him as we shall see Him face to face. This volume contains Jesus Christ’s letters to us, perfumed by His love. These pages are the garments of our King, and they all smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Scripture is the royal chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the holy child Jesus; unroll them and you find your Saviour. The quintessence of the word of God is Christ.

6.10p

Weekly Links (4/14/2017)

“It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will—and, within that framework, it was his love for sinners like me. He really could not save himself.” (D. A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus)

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Feliz Good Friday! In light of today’s observance of and remembrance of our Lord, Jesus Christ, dying on the cross, this week I want to bring to your attention some links that will focus our eyes on the One who gave His life voluntarily to redeem us from the consequences and power of sin. So, here they are:

That’s all for this week! Please be in prayer for tonight’s Good Friday service, and that the gospel be proclaimed to all who need it. Please come if you don’t have a church to visit tonight or on Resurrection Sunday. See you all there!

Soli Deo Gloria

Missions Monday #2 – Philosophy of Missions at Lighthouse

by Pastor Patrick Cho

Since starting its ministry in 1998, Lighthouse Bible Church in San Diego has been committed to proclaiming the glorious gospel to those who need to hear it. The goal and slogan of the original church plant was to be “a beacon of God’s truth and love” in the San Diego area. We wanted to see souls saved and for people to come to know our amazing God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We knew that the church might experience some transfer growth, having believers join from other churches, but what we really desired was for those who did not know the Lord to come to know Him and be transformed through the preaching of the Word.

This all stemmed from the clear command of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). In His final instructions before ascending to the Father, the Lord commands His followers to make disciples of all the nations by serving as His witnesses even to the ends of the earth. The extent of the Great Commission is global, but the means of accomplishing it is clear: baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to observe all His commands.

By issuing the instruction to baptize, Jesus was calling on His followers to help others understand their need for salvation – the seriousness of sin against a holy God and their desperate need for forgiveness. This is wrapped up in the term “baptize.” It is more than just a commitment to an ordinance or an external rite. It involves everything that is associated with baptism, which is the ordinance that is tied to a person’s initial conversion. People need to hear the gospel in order to be saved, and they need to be taught that to believe in Jesus means turning from their sins and becoming His followers. Baptism is the public confession of one’s faith in Christ through an act of obedience. The ordinance depicts a person’s death to their old life and the newness of life that is found in Christ.

The second element of the Great Commission is to teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded. It is not “fulfilling” the Great Commission by simply making converts for Christ. Being a witness for the gospel and helping people come to know the Lord is certainly a crucial part of the work, but disciple making involves helping newborn Christians grow in their faith as well. Fulfilling the Great Commission requires coming alongside a person not only to help them come to the point of salvation, but also investing in them so that they understand and obey the Word of God, that their lives might bring glory to Him. These are the principles that Lighthouse sought to apply from when the church was first planted that drove our missions philosophy.

Seeking to be faithful to the Great Commission, there were two non-negotiable principles that the church committed itself to: a commitment to God’s Word, and a commitment to God’s methods.

1. A Commitment to God’s Word

While we had a strong desire to see people saved, our first commitment, ironically, was not to an evangelistic effort or missions program. While we understood that these needed to be an integral part of our church, a greater and deeper foundational principle drove our ministry: a commitment to live out the truth of God’s Word faithfully for the glory of His name. This became the driving force behind all we endeavored to do as a church, including missions and evangelism, and so it ought to be for any ministry seeking to honor the Lord through loving obedience.

It is through this commitment that we understood how best to measure our success in outreach ministry. It could not be measured by lives changed because that was completely out of our hands. God is sovereign in salvation and is merciful to whomever He chooses to be merciful. Our responsibility was not to find the key to a person’s heart that they might be saved. We knew that we were called to be faithful to the command of Christ and to be obedient to the Word. That way, we could say we were successfully accomplishing what we set out to do. Whether or not anyone actually became a Christian through our ministry, we knew we needed to be faithful to the message and faithful as God’s messengers.

The ultimate motivation of the church to be committed to missions and evangelism, then, is not first and foremost because of a love for the lost, but because of a love for the Lord. This is primarily because the true gospel is not ultimately man-centered but God-centered. John Piper famously and helpfully communicates the theological basis for this distinction when he writes, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.” [1] God must remain central in our outreach and our desire must be to honor and be pleasing to Him in our obedience.

This means that as those who are called to be His ambassadors to this lost and dying world (2 Cor. 5:20), we leave ourselves open and available to the Lord’s leading – whatever He would have us do, wherever He would sent, whenever He would move us. This is what shaped our missions philosophy and helped us stay focused on what we were called to do. There were certain non-negotiables for us in thinking through church-planting, missions, and evangelism.

2. A Commitment to God’s Methods

When it comes to missions philosophy, we saw in Scripture that missions and church planting were indissolubly connected. To do missions is to plant churches. This makes sense given the instructions in the Great Commission. The church is the institution established by God to not only help bring a person to saving faith but also to help them grow in faith by teaching them the whole counsel of God. We see this missions strategy worked out particularly through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Wherever he went to spread the gospel, his ultimate aim was to establish churches and to appoint elders in every church. His ministry was very church-oriented.

Pastor John Kim, who helped first plant the church in San Diego, once defined missions as “doing church somewhere else.” I always appreciated that definition if for no other reason that it removed the romanticized view of missions work that so many Christians seemed to have. Missions was not only for the extreme few who were willing to explore unknown regions armed with a machete carving paths through the Amazon, often by themselves. Missions was taking what we were doing in San Diego and looking to plant that elsewhere, in the context of and with the cooperation of a local church. The consistency of the work was encouraging and communicating it this way opened people up to the possibility of participating in it.

Doing missions God’s way also meant keeping the message of the gospel central. John MacArthur writes, “The key to biblical evangelism is not strategy or technique. It is not primarily about style, methodology, or programs and pragmatics. The first and preeminent concern in all our evangelistic efforts must be the gospel.” [2] We were not interested as much in church planting and church growth strategies as we were in faithfully disseminating God’s truth to those who needed it. Scripture makes it clear that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16), and God does not need our help to improve on His strategy for reaching the lost.

These two non-negotiable principles helped shape our ministry. In fact, we incorporated into them into our Mission, Vision, and Passion statement (MVP).

  • The Mission of Lighthouse Bible Church is to make disciples of Christ (Matt. 28:18-20). This is our commitment to help others come to know Christ and to teach them so that they can grow in faith.
  • The Vision of Lighthouse is to be a church planting church (Acts 1:8). While Acts 1:8 does not say anything specifically about church planting, the verse does serve as a sort of outline for the rest of the Book of Acts. Beginning in Jerusalem, extending to Judea and Samaria, and proceeding to the ends of the earth, the Book of Acts shows how the Spirit worked through the early believers to take the gospel to the nations. Through Acts and the Epistles we learn that the primary vehicle used by God to accomplish the work is church planting. We simply wanted to be a part of that work, and all our members know from the outset of their commitment to the church that this is our direction. Our hope is to remain committed to this as long as the Lord allows.
  • The Passion of Lighthouse is to love God and people (Matt. 22:37-40). While we could put every effort into the Mission and Vision of the church, we also know that if it is not motivated by a love for the Lord and for others, we accomplish nothing, we gain nothing, and we are nothing, according to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. The Passion statement serves as the constant reminder that we are not just part of some work, but that all of our service is rendered to the Lord in joyful worship. It also reminds us that our faith in Jesus Christ has a direct impact on those around us. Our love for the Lord is fleshed out in our love for others.

Since missions is just “doing church somewhere else,” and the MVP summarizes how we “do church,” missions naturally dovetails with and is summarized by the MVP as well. It also illustrates why missions is essential rather than tangential. Because at the end of the day, while the particulars often look a bit different than what we’re used to here in southern California, “missions” and “church” are inseparable.

[1] John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 35.

[2] John MacArthur and Jesse Johnson, “Introduction: Rediscovering Biblical Evangelism,” in Evangelism, ed. by John MacArthur (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011), viii-ix.

We Live Unto The Lord

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Romans 14:8

If God had willed it, each of us might have entered heaven at the moment of conversion. It was not absolutely necessary for our preparation for immortality that we should tarry here. It is possible for a man to be taken to heaven, and to be found meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, though he has but just believed in Jesus. It is true that our sanctification is a long and continued process, and we shall not be perfected till we lay aside our bodies and enter within the veil; but nevertheless, had the Lord so willed it, He might have changed us from imperfection to perfection, and have taken us to heaven at once. Why then are we here? Would God keep His children out of paradise a single moment longer than was necessary? Why is the army of the living God still on the battle-field when one charge might give them the victory? Why are His children still wandering hither and thither through a maze, when a solitary word from His lips would bring them into the centre of their hopes in heaven?

The answer is-they are here that they may ‘live unto the Lord,’ and may bring others to know His love. We remain on earth as sowers to scatter good seed; as ploughmen to break up the fallow ground; as heralds publishing salvation. We are here as the ‘salt of the earth,’ to be a blessing to the world. We are here to glorify Christ in our daily life. We are here as workers for Him, and as ‘workers together with Him.’ Let us see that our life answereth its end. Let us live earnest, useful, holy lives, to ‘the praise of the glory of His grace.’ Meanwhile we long to be with Him, and daily sing-

‘My heart is with Him on His throne,
And ill can brook delay;
Each moment listening for the voice,
‘Rise up, and come away.’ ‘

6.10a

Weekly Links (4/7/2017)

by Stephen Rodgers

Alright…happy Friday once again. Since this particular happy Friday is the first of the month, that means it’s time for a postload of free stuff. So, in no particular order…

  • Know Why You Believe by Paul E. Little (audio book) – I’m not familiar with this particular book, but it’s free if anyone wants to check it out.
  • Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by Randolph and O’Brien (Logos resource) – I’m familiar with the central thesis of this book (that “WEIRD”…Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) readers are prone to misunderstanding or failing to understanding cultural and social norms that are foreign to our experience. And up to a point, that’s a completely valid observation. What I don’t know is whether this book occupies the “responsible scholarship” end of the spectrum, or the “nut with an agenda” end of the spectrum. Again though, it’s free if someone wants to roll the dice or is a collector.
  • JBMW 21.2 (journal) – The latest edition of the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is out, and I have no problem recommending it. Apparently Denny Burk lays out his vision for its parent organization, so that will be interesting to see.
  • “Luther at 500” (magazine) – As I mentioned last time, CredoMag was advertising a year of Reformation-themed issues, and the first one has arrived! Again, this is a resource that I’m happy to recommend.
  • “The 17th Century” (magazine) – Of course, I’m MOST happy to recommend Tabletalk. (Although they can only milk this “xxth century” theme a few more times before they’ll either run out of centuries or have to start in on the BC ones). Still…a name Tabletalk is always a good thing.

Enjoy!

One Body: Running Together for the Faith

by Josh Liu

How would you evaluate your understanding of church? How would you evaluate your heart attitude toward the church? How would you evaluate your participation, involvement, and commitment to the church? We would do well to elevate our view of the church to the beauty, priority, and responsibilities Scripture instructs. For that, I am deeply thankful that our College Life Retreat addressed the theme of the local church.

Chris Gee

Overview

The 2017 College Life Retreat theme–One Body: Running Together for the Faith–focused on the beauty, commitment, need, and responsibilities of the local church. Pastor Chris Gee presented a thoroughly robust ecclesiology! Here is a brief overview of the sessions:

Session 1 – What Is the Church? (Selected Scriptures)

The church is the temple of God, a pillar of the truth, the bride of Christ, and the family of God. If the church does not feel like family, serve!

Session 2 – For Better or For Worse (Selected Scriptures)

The case for church membership and why being committed to a church will result in the deepest and most authentic love. The early church models church membership, our leaders’ responsibility to us implies it, church discipline necessitates it, the one another commands demand it, and the metaphors for the church illustrate it. The greater the commitment to one another, the deeper the love we will experience.

Session 3 – One Another (John 13:34-35; Heb. 10:24-25; James 2:1-13)

We love sacrificially like Christ loved; we fellowship in a way that provokes each other to holiness; and we love and serve in the church without partiality. We do not show favoritism and we do not exclude people.

Session 4 – The Power of Encouragement (Eph. 4:29)

Our tongues play a big role in promoting unity in the church. Biblical encouragement can draw us together. Good encouragement is God-centered, specific, genuine, thoughtful, and verbal.

Session 5 – Give Your Life Away (Acts 20:17-38)

The greatest joy is found in giving your life away to God and to others. Apostle Paul models for us what it is to knit your heart to a group of people so closely that you sweat, weep, and bleed for them.

Beside the sessions, other retreat highlights include discussion groups, lost nametag punishments, playing outdoor games in the rain, hosting a “lipdub” music video competition, and corporate sharing!

Below are brief reflections from the sessions that serve as a primer to meditating on, studying, and applying ecclesiology.

17264174_10210893895317882_1974549189969381910_n

Five Brief Reflections

Reflection #1: The Church Is Important (cf. Acts 20:28)

This might seem elementary, but many do not understand the depth of the importance of the church. Practically, there are many in the church who treat the church as a low priority (e.g., committing to extracurricular activities over the church).

Pastor Chris powerfully reminded us of the importance of the church: “Why is the church worth your life? Why is the church valuable enough to give your life? Because Jesus thought it was valuable, so valuable that He gave His own life. Christ thought the church was precious enough to die for; we ought to think the church is precious enough to live for.”

Reflection #2: The Church Is Needed (cf. 1 Cor. 12:14-27; Heb. 10:25)

The pictures and metaphors (the temple of God, a pillar of the truth, the bride of Christ, the family of God, the body of Christ), responsibilities of, and commands to the church make it needed for each believer to be committed to a local assembly. It is within the church that the believer beholds the fullness of Christ, faithfully carries out the good works that God prepared, and stands as a corporate witness to the world.

Pastor Chris shared an account about Charles Spurgeon (which I have adapted from other sources but have not been able to verify as fact, yet believed it was a helpful illustration):
One day a young man came to visit Spurgeon and the young man said to him, “I can be a Christian without the church; I don’t need others.” They were sitting in the lounge by an open fire and Spurgeon picked up some tongs, took a coal from the blazing fire, and placed it on the hearth. They continued talking and after awhile, Spurgeon said, “Look down at the hearth. What happened to the coal I took out of the fire?” The young man answered, “Well, it’s become black. It’s lost its heat and its flame.” Spurgeon replied, “Young man, that’s why you need to be part of the church, because it is only together we are stimulated and together that we grow. But like this coal taken out of the fire, on its own it dies out. But in the heat of the fire all the other coals are stimulating it to go on glowing and give off heat.”

Reflection #3: The Church Is Active (cf. Rom. 12:4-8)

There are many who simply attend church without any participation or involvement in the body of Christ. The church is not simply a program or service to witness, after which an attendee returns to his or her life. Each individual member of the body of Christ is expected to be active for the healthy functioning of the whole body.

Pastor Chris highlights three myths about serving in the church: (1) my church does not need me to serve; (2) ministry is programs; and (3) I am too young to make an impact.

Scripture describes every believer as a unique part of the body with spiritual gifts given for the edification of the church, since ministry (i.e., church) is people, not program. There are no age prerequisites for the active functioning within the church.

Reflection #4: The Church Is Beautiful (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18)

I cannot help but be in awe of the biblical descriptors of the church! Too many find the church as an unattractive religious institution, outdated or offensive.

God sanctifies His saints from one degree of glory to another, unto Christlikeness. It is a beautiful image of the Gospel of Christ. The church is the temple of God (1 Pet. 2:4-5), the pillar of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:25; 31-32), and the family of God (1 Tim. 3:15; 5:1-2). It reflects the glory of God and His redemptive work!

Reflection #5: The Church Is Family (cf. Rom. 8:16-17; 1 John 3:1-2)

Many complain about a lack of intimacy, fellowship, or community in the church. There may be valid points for particularly difficult experiences; however, each believer is united in Christ becoming a child of God, brother and co-heir with Christ, and joined to the family of God.

The family of God produces authentic intimate community, overflowing in acts of love, unified in experience and devotion, and pursuing the same direction of life (cf. Acts 2:41-47; Rom. 12:9-21; Matt. 28:18-20).

IMG_7270

Conclusion

Implied above is that there are many who have a distorted, unbiblical understanding of the church. They often consider the church unimportant, irrelevant, unnecessary, passive, unattractive, and, at best, weekend acquaintances. These reflections serve as primers–preliminary thoughts and exhortations–to studying and being a faithful member of the church to the glory of Christ–the head of the church.

Missions Monday #1 – Introduction

by Stephen Rodgers

I’m extremely happy to introduce a new series here on the Beacon that addresses the topic of “missions” in the context of LBC. Our little church isn’t so little anymore, and there’s a pretty sizable number of attendees who have come since the last set of trips in 2015. So this will be a fantastic opportunity for people who’ve been-there-done-that to reflect and reminisce, as well as for the relative newcomers to discover why missions is such a big deal at LBC. And more than just knowledge, the hope here is that this will lead to greater church-wide involvement in this particular ministry.

Maybe you’ve asked yourself one or more of the following questions:

  • What is LBC’s theology of missions?
  • Why do we go to the Czech Republic and Argentina?
  • Who’s going?
  • What even happens on a missions trip anyways?
  • How can the church help?
  • What’s a “Meinolf?”
  • Where can I immerse myself in media relevant to past trips?

All of these and more will be answered in the coming weeks. I’m looking forward to it myself, and I’m really looking forward to getting these articles in front of all of you.

See you next Monday!

Search the Scriptures

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

John 5:39

The Greek word here rendered search signifies a strict, close, diligent, curious search, such as men make when they are seeking gold, or hunters when they are in earnest after game. We must not rest content with having given a superficial reading to a chapter or two, but with the candle of the Spirit we must deliberately seek out the hidden meaning of the word.

  • Holy Scripture requires searching-much of it can only be learned by careful study. There is milk for babes, but also meat for strong men. The rabbis wisely say that a mountain of matter hangs upon every word, yea, upon every title of Scripture. Tertullian exclaims, ‘I adore the fulness of the Scriptures.’ No man who merely skims the book of God can profit thereby; we must dig and mine until we obtain the hid treasure. The door of the word only opens to the key of diligence.
  • The Scriptures claim searching. They are the writings of God, bearing the divine stamp and imprimatur- who shall dare to treat them with levity? He who despises them despises the God who wrote them. God forbid that any of us should leave our Bibles to become swift witnesses against us in the great day of account.
  • The word of God will repay searching. God does not bid us sift a mountain of chaff with here and there a grain of wheat in it, but the Bible is winnowed corn-we have but to open the granary door and find it. Scripture grows upon the student. It is full of surprises. Under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the searching eye it glows with splendour of revelation, like a vast temple paved with wrought gold, and roofed with rubies, emeralds, and all manner of gems. No merchandise like the merchandise of Scripture truth.
  • Lastly, the Scriptures reveal Jesus: ‘They are they which testify of Me.’ No more powerful motive can be urged upon Bible readers than this: he who finds Jesus finds life, heaven, all things. Happy he who, searching his Bible, discovers his Saviour.

6.9p