Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ - John Piper

One of my favorite parables that Jesus told was the one about the merchant and the pearl. It's found in Matthew's Gospel (13:45-46). It goes something like this. A merchant (a fancy salesman) is looking for pearls. Apparently he finds them and sells them or else their is absolutely no reason to tell us that he is a merchant. So, his daily activities would be finding stuff of value (i.e. pearls) and selling it for a profit. That would be how he put food on the table. On one particular occasion he finds a pearl that is of "great" value. Jesus says that he sold everything that he had to get that pearl. End of story. It seems like it would continue to say that he consequently went and sold that pearl and became the richest man alive. But it doesn't. It ends with saying that he just gave up everything to buy that pearl. Judging from the previous parable, where a man sells all he has to by a field with a treasure in it, we can safely assume that on this particular occasion our merchant seeks to keep the pearl. The language is the same... sold all he had... to get the field... to get the pearl. This pearl was so amazing that he quit everything and gave up everything to get this pearl. Jesus' Point - The Kingdom is that amazing. "O taste and see that the Lord is good." (Ps. 34:8)

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper is an attempt to get you to truly "taste and see" the beauty and grandeur of our Lord and Savior. Piper briefly surveys the life, ministry, and character of Jesus in hopes of letting you savor Christ.

Concerning Christ's defeat of Satan, he writes:

The glory of Christ is seen in his absolute right and power to annihilate or incapacitate Satan and all demons. But the reason he refrains from destroying and disabling them altogether is to manifest more clearly his superior beauty and worth. If Christ obliterated all devils and demons now (which he could do), his sheer power would be seen as glorious, but his superior beauty and worth would not shine as brightly as when humans renounce the promises of Satan and take great pleasure in the glory of Christ.

One of the most incredible things about the work of Christ is that it allows us to obtain a treasure, namely, Christ Jesus as our Lord. His beauty is supremely superior than anything created. The ultimate way that Christ is glorified is by humans treasuring him and his rule more than any other thing.

About what he calls the "tough side," Piper writes:

The glory of Jesus Christ is that he is always out of sync with the world and therefore always relevant for the world. If he fit nicely, he would be of little use. The effort to remake the Jesus of the Bible so that he fits the spirit of one generation makes him feeble in another. Better to let him be what he is, because it is often the offensive side of Jesus that we need most.

There is no other person that ever lived that compares to Jesus. He is all we need. He is more than we could ever want. The more we see Jesus, the more we will know that he is good -- that he is best. Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ will help you with that.

Nine Marks of a Heatlthy Church - Mark Dever

There are tons of books on the market on how to get a church to grow. Many deal with marketing strategies and ways we can Christianize fast food marketing techniques. "If only you will do these seven things at your church, it will be the next mega church." Some talk about the charismatic visionary leadership skills you just have to have or you will get nowhere. But are we seeking an end when the Bible is screaming for a means.

In Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Mark Dever describes the biblical truths that shape whether or not your church is healthy, and it's not about an interesting church image or a new type of leadership style. He simply reviews the biblical guidelines for church. Ultimately, a healthy church will grow both spiritually and numerically, but being a healthy church has far more to do with the attitudes and convictions of a church than with its programs and techniques.

Mark sets up what he calls the "Nine Marks" of a healthy church. This is not an exclusive list of healthy things a church must do, but it is what he considers crucial things that must be present for a church to be biblically healthy.

Mark 1 Expositional Preaching
The church must make the Word of God the center of all the endeavors.
Mark 2 Biblical Theology
Where will our understanding of God come from, the Bible, or popular philosophy? The healthy church must place all its theology within in the confines of Scripture.
Mark 3 The Gospel
The Gospel changes people; it doesn't make them feel better.
Mark 4 A Biblical Understanding of Conversion
Rom. 1:16 does not say the Gospel is the power of persuasion. It is the Power of God for salvation. Conversion is His work.
Mark 5 A Biblical Understanding of Evangelism
Our concern should be the message, not "drawing the net."
Mark 6 A Biblical Understanding of Church Membership
Membership should matter. If your not "active," why call you a member at all?
Mark 7 Biblical Church Discipline
Believe it or not, Church Discipline is both biblical and good for church growth. We need to get back to making membership a responsibility.
Mark 8 A Concern for Discipleship and Growth
The common saying is that we Baptists dunk'em and let 'em drip dry on the pew. Growth is not about adding church members. It is about maturing our church members.
Mark 9 Biblical Church Leadership
Two heads are better than one. Build a team of elders who can faithfully lead the church.

Dever's book is encouraging and convicting at the same time. This is my first book from Dever, but will certainly not be the last. Check it out. You will come away believing that God will grow His church.

Introduction

I've created this separate blog page for "articles." Basically, all I mean by that is that they are long and would probably discourage your from reading my blog if it were filled with these endless lines. This way, I can write something with more detail and not lose the convenience of a quick-read blog.

Primarily what you will find here are reviews of books that I have read. My reasons for writing these are two-fold. First, I want to introduce you to books that you might not otherwise read. I encourage everyone to read. It is not just for 'smart' people. You will find that the more you read, the more interesting the Bible becomes, because you are training your mind to be a better listener. Second, I want to force myself to think through some of these works more thoroughly than I normally would.

Either later this evening or tomorrow morning I will publish the first review. It is of the book, "Nine Marks of a Healthy Church", by Mark Dever.