Ferguson and Begg on The Beeson Podcast

Beeson Divinity School recently launched The Beeson Podcast, and the two most recent episodes are:

Preaching and Ministry with Sinclair Ferguson

The Shaping of a Pastor with Alistair Begg

Click here for more information or to listen.

Sinclair Ferguson on "Santa Christ"

"How sadly common it is for the church to manufacture a Jesus who is a mirror reflection of Santa Claus. He becomes Santa Christ.

Santa Christ is sometimes a Pelagian Jesus. Like Santa, he simply asks us whether we have been good. More exactly, since the assumption is that we are all naturally good, Santa Christ asks us whether we have been "good enough." So Just as as Christmas dinner is simply the better dinner we really deserve, Jesus becomes a kind of added bonus who makes a good life even better. He is not seen as the Savior of helpless sinners.

Or Santa Christ may be a Semi-Pelagian Jesus - a slightly more sophisticated Jesus who, Santa-like, gives gifts to those who have already done the best they could! Thus, Jesus' hand, like Santa's sack, opens only when we can give an upper-percentile answer to the none-too-weighty probe, "Have you done your best this year?" The only difference from medieval theology here is that we do not use its Latin phraseology: facere quod in se est (to do what one is capable of doing on one's own, or, in common parlance, "Heaven helps those who help themselves").

Then again, Santa Christ may be a mystical Jesus, who, like Santa Claus, is important because of the good experiences we have when we think about him, irrespective of his historical reality. It doesn't really matter whether the story is true or not; the important thing is the spirit of Santa Christ. For that matter, while it would spoil things to tell the children this, everyone can make up his or her own Santa Christ. As long as we have the right spirit of Santa Christ, all is well.

But Jesus is not to be identified with Santa Claus; worldly thinking - however much it employs Jesus-language - is not to be confused with biblical truth.

The Scriptures systematically strip away the veneer that covers the real truth of the Christmas story. Jesus did not come to add to our comforts. He did not come to help those who help themselves or to fill life with more pleasant experiences. He came on a deliverance mission, to save sinners, and to do so He had to destroy the works of the Devil (Matt. 1:21; 1 John 3:8b)."

--Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel Centered Life

Chapters by Ferguson and Taylor

Yesterday, I posted two excerpts from Paul David Tripp's chapter in The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. I have decided to provide a few quotes from each chapter of the book for the rest of the week (except for Friday, which of course will be a hymn or poem).

From Sinclair Ferguson's chapter, "The Bit, the Bridle, and the Blessing"

We foolishly assume that our real struggles with sin are in the areas where we are "weak." We do not well understand the depth of sin until we realize that it has made its home far more subtly where we are "strong" and in our gifts rather than in our weaknesses and inadequacies. It is in the very giftedness God has given that sin has been at its most perverse and subtle!

From Daniel Taylor's chapter, "Story-shaped Faith"

When Israel remembered the stories that told them who they were, where they had come from, and who their God was, they prospered. When they quit telling the stories, they no longer understood who they were, and they invited disaster. And the same is true with us....

Propositions are important....But propositions depend on the stories out of which they arise for their power and meaning and practical application....

Imagine having all the propositions of the Bible but none of the stories. No Genesis or Exodus, none of the historical books of the Old Testament, no Gospels, no Acts - only Romans, parts of the Epistles, and scattered assertions and commands from here and there. Those assertions and commands would still be true, but we would have very little idea of what to do with them.

Sinclair Ferguson on Lessons from the Puritans

As I was reading Sinclair Ferguson's introductory essay, "Puritans - Ministers of the World," in The Westminster Directory of Public Worship: Discussed by Mark Dever & Sinclair Ferguson, I was struck by two statements he made - one related to expository preaching and the other related to preaching sin.

Why Expositional Preaching Is So Important

"These men (the Puritans that drew up the Westminster Directory of Public Worship) recognized that, as a general rule, the way Christians read the Bible privately is shaped by the model of exposition they regularly hear from the pulpit. That is why this principle is not only essential to the integrity of pastoral preaching but central to the whole ethos of a congregation's life."

Why Preaching Sin Is Essential to Preaching Grace

"The Puritans treated this as a pastoral as well as a theological formula: grace makes sense to us only in the light of the sin to which it provides the remedy. Consequently, the more sensitive we are to sin, misery and danger, the more clearly we will grasp the wonder of God's salvation. Grace is only 'amazing' when we see that it is a 'wretch like me' it saves. Only sinners seek Jesus as a Savior!"