Scott Stephens reflecting on Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man and the Jesus’ trial:
It is in control of his life, and it couldn’t care less. And that’s the obscenity of the entire ordeal. There is no slick dialogue or high courtroom drama in The Wrong Man – just the brutal enactment of an insane system that is convinced of its own rectitude.
And of course the parallel:
The Gospel narratives depict Jesus as being paraded, like some freak at a carnival, before Pilate and then Herod, both of whom taunt and goad Jesus to accept their supposed power over him and thus to join in their insanity. They want Jesus to be part of their world, to quiver before them, or at least to rage against them. But instead, Jesus remains silent.
Here’s part THREE of the four part booklet - The Two Adams, byHomer D. Baxter. This is the first half of Part II - with the last half of it (or the final quarter) to come next week. A fitting topic (The SECOND Adam) to present here this weekend where we celebrate the Resurrection of our Messiah!
I thought this 10 minute video was inspiring in light of American Christianity’s tendency (in some sectors) to imply that joining the people of God means blue skies and prosperity all the time. John Piper shares the glory of suffering for Christ with a packed audience of college students. Thanks to Russ Brown for sending this over.
Saw this advertisement for the job search site, Monster.com
This ad made me think about our lives for the LORD. Are we living up to our potential? He created us to glorify Him. His son died to offer forgiveness for our sins against Him. He sent His spirit to those who turned to Him to empower them to live the life that we’d been planned to live from the beginning….
And then we hear ourselves say “I just can’t do it.” “I can’t be like Jesus, he was perfect.” “It’s impossible to live without sin” “It’s hard” and so on… certainly there is truth to each of these statements - but why are we keeping out expectations so low? I cannot stress the following verse enough:
Last weekend we held an evangelism conference at Living Hope Community Church in upstate NY. During the conference we focused on what the biblical gospel is and how to speak the gospel of the kingdom and the cross to a world in desperate need. The weekend included teachings, an interactive video workshop, role playing, and an evening out at the park. We wanted to provide an opportunity for those who wanted to try out what they had learned while at the same time not forcing anyone who wasn’t ready to do evangelism. Fortunately a good number of people did speak to people at the park and we had a wonderful time discussing these encounters as well as some related questions regarding evangelism in general Saturday night. The teachings from the conference are now available for free download.
Click here to listen to Jesus and Atonement delivered by John Obelenus, Apr 28th 2008, Atlanta Georgia. Commentary by Sean Finnegan.
John’s big idea is summarized in this statement, “We must make sense of Jesus’ crucifixion in light of his ministry, and his ministry in light of his crucifixion.”
His outline followed these points
Jesus’ ministry defined by Isaiah
Substitution from Isaiah
Jesus’ actions as substitution
Jesus’ claims about power in light of atonement
Jesus’ authority challenge leads to trial
Crucifixion as substitution
Resurrection
Conclusion
Jesus’ self understanding of his ministry is founded upon Isaiah 61 (as reflected both in his first sermon (Lk 4) and in his response to John the Baptist’s inquiry (Mt 11).
Click here to listen to The Sacrifice of the Son of God as delivered by Alex Hall, Apr 27, 2008 in Atlanta Georgia. Commentary by John Obelenus
In the introduction Alex brings up a good point about assumptions and how they guide how we assimilate information into our pre-existing belief structure.
Next he brings a strong counterpoint to the common belief that Jesus had to be God to die for our sins. Based on a survey of the New Testament, it is in fact Jesus’ humanity that was a necessity for forgiveness, not any divinity.
The Gnostic dualism of matter vs spirit influenced the doctrine of the Person of Jesus needing to be God. God, that is spirit, which is good, must be present to “save” the flesh, matter, which is bad. Only by God becoming Jesus (not Jesus being God) was anything accomplished.
As I sat in an Easter service today, I couldn’t help but dwell on the idea that the understanding that the writers of the New Testament are working out a theology to deal with reality. They didn’t sit down and craft how they could get from a nationalistic warrior Messiah theology to a peaceable wisdom teacher calling Israel to repent, who is then killed by his countrymen. Nor, did they have to figure out a way to justify the idea of a Messiah being, not only vivified, but resurrected from the dead into glory. They didn’t have to figure out how they would admit Gentiles into their Jewish religion, without going through the standard Jewish ways - they just did because of reality.
Last weekend we held an evangelism conference at Living Hope Community Church in upstate NY. During the conference we focused on what the biblical gospel is and how to speak the gospel of the kingdom and the cross to a world in desperate need. The weekend included teachings, an interactive video workshop, role playing, and an evening out at the park. We wanted to provide an opportunity for those who wanted to try out what they had learned while at the same time not forcing anyone who wasn’t ready to do evangelism. Fortunately a good number of people did speak to people at the park and we had a wonderful time discussing these encounters as well as some related questions regarding evangelism in general Saturday night. The teachings from the conference are now available for free download.