Author Archives: Mark Heath

I Do Not Know Rob Bell

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As part of my research for the ecclesiology course I have been teaching, I have been trying to listen to some sermons by those involved in the "emerging church". In particular, I have subscribed to the weekly sermon feed from Mars Hill Bible Church, where Rob Bell’s sermons can be heard (not to be confused with Mars Hill Church in Seattle where Mark Driscoll is the pastor, and whose sermons are also on my subscription list).

I have been hoping to catch Rob Bell explaining clearly what he believes "the gospel" is, and what it means to become a Christian, yet despite listening for several months I am still waiting. With time running out before I do my talk on the emerging church, I fear I will not manage to get an authoritative quote. If you know of one, perhaps from one of his books, do let me know.

Anyway, the sermon of his I listened to today was entitled "I Do Not Know", and was the latest in a series of sermons on Philippians. One of the good things about Rob Bell, unlike in many evangelical and emerging churches, is that he can often be found doing an expository series working his way through a section or book of the Bible.

His sermon title comes from chapter 1:22, where Paul says

If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!

From this, he draws out some points about the real pressure that Paul was under, so much so that at one point he confessed to being at the point of giving up (2 Cor 1:8). He talks about the need to admit to our doubts and struggles.

Of course, this is a recurring emphasis in the emerging church – the need for openness about the issues and battles we are facing, rather than keeping up appearances and pretending never to struggle with doubt or sin.

And what Rob Bell goes on to say about the need to "doubt your doubts" rather than just giving in to them without challenging them is excellent. However, I did think it slightly revealing that while preaching a whole sermon entitled "I do not know", he somehow managed to avoid telling the congregation that merely three verses later, Paul says

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain…

So while we should not minimise the reality of his doubts and struggles, the fact is that Paul moved past them, and arrived at a place of real certainty. It is this type of certainty that borders on being a sin in the minds of some emerging thinkers. And yet it characterises all the New Testament writers.

In what was on the whole a good sermon, Rob Bell concluded in what I thought was a disappointing manner. If you have doubts about the existence of God or the resurrection, the answer is just to do good deeds of kindness, and in so doing you become "the resurrection" or "divine" to those people around you. At this point, he was repeatedly asking his audience, "are we tracking?". No, I wasn’t tracking.

Why not? Well simply, its back to what Rob thinks the gospel is. I honestly don’t know what he believes. Sometimes he hints that he is very clear on the message of salvation by grace alone, and then out pop these statements that sound very much as though he considers beliefs irrelevant so long as you are doing good deeds. Which may be a popular sentiment, but its not the gospel.

Ecclesiology Course

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Things have been a bit quiet on this blog at the moment, mainly due to a Saturday Morning Theology course I am running at the moment, on the subject of Ecclesiology – the doctrine of the church. If you are interested in seeing our notes and PowerPoint presentations, have a look here. Unfortunately, we have not been able to record any of the sessions so far.

Marks of the Church

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As some of you know, I have recently started running a Saturday morning theology course at my church, which will run for five sessions over the next few months. We’ve had the first already, and I am currently working on my talk for the next session.

We will be looking at the "Marks of the Church". The way I am planning to tackle it is to start off by looking at some important historical formulations of what the marks of a true church are. The two main ones I have come up with are:

1. The Nicene Creed

The Nicene creed simply states "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church". These four points or marks of the church seem to be the main focus of Roman Catholic attempts to define the church. They emphasise its oneness, so that churches not part of Roman Catholicism are not considered true churches. Also under the term "apostolic" they include the concept of apostolic succession as well as apostolic doctrine. So while the Nicene creed is an "ecumenical creed" in that Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians will all assent to it, their interpretations of this statement can vary.

2. The Reformers

When I looked through Calvin’s Institutes to see what he said about the church, I was surprised by the simplicity of his answer. He simply defined the marks of a true church as right preaching of the word and right administration of the sacraments. Having spoken to various other people, it has become clear that the reformers did in fact have more to say on the nature of the church than just those two things (e.g. worship, biblical discipline/order, compassionate ministry of deacons, mission etc), but still I find it interesting that those two are picked out as the key marks. The high place of the "sacraments" in their ecclesiology is not matched by most of the modern books on church I have read.

Modern Marks of the Church

Most modern discussions of the marks of the church seem to be more interested in answering the question "what is a healthy church", than "what is a true church". I guess we all take it for granted that our church is indeed a true church.

I have some notes gathered from various sources on what modern church leaders have identified as the marks of the church, but I thought perhaps that some of my blog readers might like to suggest some answers.

If you could list up to five marks of the church, what would they be?

Feel free to give your own answer, or suggest an answer representative of different groups of churches (e.g. charismatic, emerging, reformed, mainline protestant etc).

Book Review – Body Beautiful (Melvin Tinker & Nathan Buttery)

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Despite what the title might conjure up in your mind, this is actually another book on the church. The subtitle is "Recovering the Biblical View of the Church". It is written by a couple of Anglican Ministers in Hull, and their approach is to simply take 11 short New Testament passages relating to the church, and briefly expound them.

The book is 125 pages long, and fairly accessible. It was perhaps written with small-group study in mind, as it has a section of question for further discussion. The aim of the book is to present the Biblical model of the church and challenge us as to whether we view church in the same way.

The authors are particularly keen to emphasise the importance of the Word of God in the church, being the basis for what we do, and central to the life of the church. The Word of God, or the Gospel, is the ‘rock’ on which the church is built. Expository preaching and Bible ministry are seen as key to a healthy church.

They examine the "marks of a church" from Acts 2:42-47 arguing that success should not simply be measured in terms of numbers attending, but in being a learning, caring, committed and growing church.

There are two chapters looking at passages from Ephesians on the Call of the Church and Unity within the church. In a chapter on worship, they criticise Catholic and charismatic worship as being "BC" (before Christ) worship – as they go through a "mediator" of a priest or worship leader who draws us near to God. Rather they emphasise that the whole of life is to be worship, and worship should be defined as "engaging with God".

There is a helpful section on prayer. A praying church is a God-centred church and the their prayers will be God-centred. Prayer should be our natural reaction. If it is not, we are not a God-centred people.

In a chapter on the influence of the church, they encourage Christians to engage politically, but more importantly, to make a difference by being different where they are. Christians are called to be a people who leave a blessing wherever we go.

… central to all of God’s plans and purposes for his entire universe is his church.

Overall, this is a very helpful short book on the church. In perhaps a few places, as a charismatic, I might disagree with some of their statements, and a couple of the illustrations were a bit dated or Anglican specific. But on the whole, it is well worth a read, particularly if you don’t want to tackle something too long.

Commentaries and NIV for e-Sword

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Just a quick update to say that I have finally updated my commentaries page. It is at a new location now as I have rewritten it using .NET in a way that will make it easier for me to keep up to date (and hopefully add some new features to it). The number of commentaries I have on file is slowly growing towards the 1000 mark. I’ve also done a lot of work updating some of the ISBNs to the new ISBN-13 standard and fixing broken publisher links, although there is still a long way to go as the switchover to ISBN13 has made most publishers reorganise their sites. I’ve added links to the new Baker Exegetical Commentaries volumes as well as updated a few other series as well.

The other thing that may be of interest is that finally, the NIV is available for e-Sword. For those of you that don’t already know, e-Sword is a great free Bible study tool that allows you to search and compare multiple Bible versions, including Greek and Hebrew. There is lots of free material available, including the excellent ESV translation of the Bible. You do have to pay for the NIV, but it is made available as part of the NIV Family Bundle from eStudySource which includes NIV, TNIV and the NIRV, all for $30. There seems to be a growing amount of material on estudysource including some commentaries. I’m hoping that IVP will make the Tyndale or Bible Speaks Today series available for e-Sword.

Book Review – The Message of Zechariah (Barry Webb)

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Brief Summary

A 186 page commentary / exposition of the book of Zechariah. It is part of the Bible Speaks Today series which generally follows an expositional format – not just explaining the Scriptures but applying it.  The subtitle is “Your Kingdom Come” and the whole exposition of the book takes a kingdom perspective.

The Introduction

The introduction is a fairly generous 30 pages, and Webb shows that the structure of the book is eight visions followed by two oracles. He sums up the main theme by saying “it is a book about the future coming of the kingdom of God, and the need to live now in the light of it”. He also points out sub-themes of repentance and cleansing as well as an key theme of the Messiah running through the book. He puts Zechariah’s prophecy into its historical context, but also is very careful to show how his message is directly applicable to us, as we have the same concern to see God’s kingdom come. He highlights how regularly the NT writers draw from the book of Zechariah.

The Commentary

The commentary itself is able to devote a couple of pages to each small section of Zechariah which gives enough space to explain and apply the text adequately. Webb generally avoids detailed discussions of historical context or Hebrew grammar, and is cautious in offering his interpretations of some of the more obscure visions.

He shows how there is a progression in the visions of the first six chapters that culminate in God’s judgment and rule over all the earth. He acknowledges that chapter 7 marks a new beginning, but argues that it is not unrelated to what had gone before. In chapters 10 and 11, he draws out a major theme of leadership – true shepherds are those who trust in God and lead others to do the same.

… it is impossible to be in relationship with God unless we are prepared to be ruled by him.

When he comes to chapter 13, he explains the links to Jesus, and there is also a brief excursus that deals in more detail with the use of Zechariah in the New Testament. He argues that the Old Testament prophecies concerning the kingdom of God are fulfilled in the events of Jesus’ life – his birth, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension and return. Hence there are elements of kingdom prophecy in Zechariah yet to be fulfilled.

Strengths

For me, the great strength of this volume is how he consistently draws us to the Christological and New Covenant implications and interpretation of the book. He takes what can be a perplexing book, and brings out a very challenging and practical message of the kingdom of God.

Weaknesses

Nothing to complain of. It was the right length. It obviously isn’t an academic treatment of Zechariah, and also those looking for detailed and speculative explanations of every last detail of the visions will be disappointed. But it ranks as one of my favourites in the BST series.

Why Buy It?

As with pretty much all the BST volumes, this is ideal if you are personally studying or planning to preach or teach on the book of Zechariah.

Book Review – The Provocative Church (Graham Tomlin)

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I have been reading as many books on the church as I can get my hands on recently, and hearing someone speak highly of this one, I ordered a copy. Graham Tomlin is currently principal of St Paul’s Theological Centre in London.

The subject of the book is actually evangelism. He begins by asking the question of how we can evangelise those who are simply not interested in hearing what it is the Church has to offer. What would provoke such people to want to find out more?

He examines the shift in culture towards postmodernism, and argues that people may not be looking for “forgiveness” but they are often seeking help to live a “better and less superficial way of life”. The question is then, do they find that people who go to church live in a discernibly different way? Are we provocative? Do we awaken a desire for God in people?

He then goes on to argue that our role as Christians is to be signposts to another kingdom. Crucial to our witness is our living under the kingdom of God, and demonstrating a new “style of life”. The church is to be a sign of the kingdom.

The only hermeneutic of the gospel is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it.

Tomlin spends a few chapters explaining that Jesus’ message was concerning the kingdom of God, drawing heavily from Tom Wright. He makes a clear distinction between church and kingdom – the church is to live out the kingdom life – how life was meant to be lived. But he is careful to emphasise that evangelism is not merely about the way we live. Just as Jesus explained the significance of his actions with words, so we must explain why we live the way we do when (as it should) it provokes interest.

Without actions, no one listens, without words, no one understands.

He goes on to explore how often Christians confess to feeling guilty about their lack of evangelism. He suggests that if we can simply be what we are called to be as a church, a community characterised by kindness, we won’t be able to help being evangelistic. Churches therefore should not put all the emphasis on persuading their members to invite people to “guest services” but recognise that while some people experience a “crisis” conversion, for many others it is a process. Therefore, church health must be considered higher priority than church growth. A healthy church will grow – evangelism and spiritual growth are inextricably linked and depend on each other.

The priority for the church is neither evangelism nor social action; it is to live under the lordship of Christ.

So a church must be a transforming community, where we are being restored into the image of God that we originally had before the fall. Having established this, Tomlin devotes a couple of chapters to defining an evangelistic church. He encourages cell or house church models as these offer a more “dispersed view of authority” and are therefore more appropriate for a postmodern culture. They allow unbelievers an opportunity to see the kingdom style of life in action.

The book closes with a very practical chapter on how to lead an evangelistic church. There is also a theological postscript which seeks to answer the question “why doesn’t the NT mention evangelism very often?” He works through Ephesians and concludes that the reason is that the church’s primary task is simply to be what we are called to be. If we can do that, we will be a “provocative church”.

This book certainly succeeds in being provocative. I really liked his approach, and while much of what he says is not particularly new, I think he makes some points that are in serious danger of being forgotten by churches all eager to find the latest and greatest evangelistic strategy. Most importantly, it is a call for each believer in the church to live their life increasingly under the rule of God, for in doing so, we will display the wisdom of God to those who look in from the outside.

Book Review – The Perfect Gift (Philip Greenslade)

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I saw this book in the bargain bin at a Christian bookshop earlier last year, and bought it to read at Christmas. Philip Greenslade works for CWR, and I have always found him to be a very thoughtful and insightful theologian and Bible teacher whenever I have heard him speak.

The book itself is a collection of mini-expositions of the various parts of the Christmas story, mainly the early chapters of Matthew and Luke. He draws widely from other theologians, and manages to shed plenty of fresh light on a familiar story.

He has a great chapter on Jesus’ humanity, and is always careful to keep the story connected to its OId Testament roots and historical context. I found the book very helpful as I prepared a couple of talks to give this Christmas, and would recommend it to anyone wanting to go deeper into the meaning and significance of Jesus’ birth.

Book Review – The Message of Samuel (Mary Evans)

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Brief Summary

A 284 page commentary / exposition of the 55 chapters of the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. As with other volumes in the BST Series it seeks to find contemporary relevance and application while remaining mindful of the original intent and audience of the text. Each chapter ends with a few brief questions for further reflection.

The Introduction

Mary Evans reminds us that these books are narrative – and so we should be asking why the story was told. The writers (she believes there was probably more than one writer involved in the composition of the books as we now have them) are interested in David the person, as opposed to the Chronicler whose focus is more on David as King. She picks out the abuse and misuse of power as a recurring theme in the books.

The Commentary

The commentary itself is I think just about the right length for most people who will be studying this book. It doesn’t get bogged down in translation issues or complex historical details, but does provide background information where it is helpful.

Each sub-section has a one sentence heading, which often gives a “moral” of the story in question in the form of a proverb. For example “the cost of failure is not borne solely by the one who fails”, “results that satisfy us do not necessarily satisfy God”, and “celebrity status is not all there is to leadership”. She does though avoid simply turning the book into a collection of “timeless principles”, and does remain concerned with the flow of the narrative.

She is appreciative of the way that women are written about by the authors, and often points out the way that the perspective and value of women has been highlighted.

There are a number of “problem” passages in Samuel, where God seems to command or at least approve of certain actions that do not seem to fit with the rest of Scripture. Evans maintains an evangelical commitment to all of Scripture as God’s word, and provides some careful observations that may help us understand what is and what is not being taught in these difficult passages.

Strengths

Probably the greatest strength of this commentary is the immensely practical lessons that are drawn out from it. A tale of Kings, betrayals and wars can seem very far removed from our own world, but Evans turns these into lessons of friendship, loyalty, controlling your temper, hospitality, valuing others and so on. Many of the lessons relate to leadership, but there is a good breadth of applications to a variety of situations.

Weaknesses

There’s not much to criticise here – this is a helpful commentary. Perhaps some will be disappointed that there was not more exploration of how the gospel is foreshadowed in these books, despite a brief section identifying Jesus as the fulfiller of the roles of faithful priest and anointed one.

Why Buy It?

As with most volumes in the Bible Speaks Today series, this would suit anyone studying the book for personal edification, or preparing Bible studies or sermons on 1 or 2 Samuel. Those who want to study a passage in detail will probably also wish to consult a more comprehensive commentary. I found it just right for reading a bit each morning after I had read the relevant passage from the Bible.

Driscoll at Brighton

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Sorry my blogging output has been rather reduced recently. I have actually been quite busy preparing various talks and sermons. Anyway, I thought I’d pass on the news that Mark Driscoll will be the guest speaker at next year’s Together on a Mission conference. I listen to most of his weekly sermons, but it will be great to get a chance to hear him live and in person, and doubtless he will stir up some controversy for us to blog about! See Terry Virgo’s post for more details.

In other news, I will be off to the New Word Alive next Easter where John Piper, Don Carson and Terry Virgo are the speakers, so I’m looking forward to a real feast of the word at these two conferences.