Sermons by Jack Miller

Hard to find many out there, but here are three, available at the Westminster Seminary website, from chapel services thirty years ago. Gold.

Grumblers Surprised by Christ (Exod 17)

The Celebration Song of Moses (Exod 14)

Opportunity: Church with the Open Door (Rev 3:7-13)

HT: Drew Hunter

Shadows

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
-1 John 1:5

I Am Going to Him

On August 23, 1683--the day before he died--John Owen dictated a final letter to his friend Charles Fleetwood. Part of it reads:

I am going to Him whom my soul hath loved, or rather who hath loved me with an everlasting love; which is the whole ground of all my consolation. The passage is very irksome and wearysome through strong pains of various sorts which are all issued in an intermitting fever . . . I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm, but whilst the great Pilot is in it the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable.

--quoted in Sinclair Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life (Banner of Truth, 1987), 18

Goldsworthy: 'Macro-typology'

The macro-typology I propose is a way of showing the comprehensive nature of the fulfillment of God's promises in Christ. . . . 

When we allow the Old Testament categories to expand to their full potential, antitype is shown to be broader than the mere fulfillment of certain explicit types and promises. Biblical theological study of the events, people and institutions provides us with a comprehensive view of reality and God's part in it. On this view, typology has regard for the full scope of God's redemptive work in that salvation means that he restores everything that was lost or marred by the Fall. According to Paul's take on Genesis 3, this involves the entire creation (Rom. 8:18-23). It was also Paul who declared the resurrection to be the locus of fulfillment of all God's promises (Acts 13:32-33). Paul's cosmic Christology, especially in Colossians 1:15-20 and in Ephesians 1:10, would appear to present a view that God has drawn all things together in Christ, through whom and for whom all things were created. 

--Graeme Goldsworthy, Christ-Centered Biblical Theology: Hermeneutical Foundations and Principles (IVP, 2012), 184

Christ's Professional Business

Christ has undertaken to save all such from what they fear, if they come to him. It is his professional business; the work in which he engaged before the foundation of the world. It is what he always had in his thoughts and intentions; he undertook from everlasting to be the refuge of those that are afraid of God's wrath.

--Jonathan Edwards, 'Safety, Fulness, and Sweet Refreshment, to Be Found in Christ,' in The Works of Jonathan Edwards (2 volume Hickman ed.), 2:930

The Central Core of My Life

Jack Miller: 

Personally I do not see anyone as a special case with special problems. . . . As Christians we all believe in the forgiveness of sins. Whenever we confess them to God through Christ, we know that they are released from having power over us and the guilt is removed through His atoning sacrifice. But often this does not really control where we live on a practical level. What we are saying is just words, good words, yes, but words nonetheless which have no reference to where we really live and believe.

But it does not have to be this way. I can begin to build my life on the platform of God's forgiving grace. I can make the central core of my life the knowledge that Christ died for me and thus removed my guilt and with that accepted me permanently as His son. 

--The Heart of a Servant-Leader: Letters from Jack Miller (P&R, 2004), 253

Home at Last

Jewel the unicorn in The Last Battle at the end of all things in Narnia:

 “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here.

This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.”

Two Beautifully Done Crossway Bibles

I recently went from the Thinline, which I used since 2002 and loved, to the Single-Column Legacy. Both great Bibles. Here's an overview of each.


Thinline Bible Overview from Crossway on Vimeo.




Single Column Legacy Bible Overview from Crossway on Vimeo.

A Purpose-Driven Cosmos: Why Jesus Doesn't Promise Us an 'Afterlife'

Outstanding article from a few months ago by Russell Moore at CT. Right on, at so many levels. Thanks for this, Russell.

A quote that perhaps represents the heart of the article:

We tend either to ignore the future, because we are so consumed in the drama of the here and now, or to see it as simply a continuation of our present lives, with our loved ones there and sickness and death gone. But in Jesus we see a future that has continuity and discontinuity. In his resurrected life, Jesus has gone before us as a pioneer of the new creation.

Perhaps we dread death less from fear than from boredom, thinking the life to come will be an endless postlude to where the action really happens. This is betrayed in how we speak about the "afterlife": it happens after we've lived our lives. The kingdom, then, is like a high-school reunion in which middle-aged people stand around and remember the "good old days." But Jesus doesn't promise an "afterlife." He promises us life—and that everlasting. Your eternity is no more about looking back to this span of time than your life now is about reflecting on kindergarten. The moment you burst through the mud above your grave, you will begin an exciting new mission—one you couldn't comprehend if someone told you. And those things that seem so important now—whether you're attractive or wealthy or famous or cancer-free—will be utterly irrelevant.

HT: Dave McHale

Finished