There has never been a more important time to talk to preachers about preaching on mission.

The landscape of Old Christendom is like an abandoned strip mine, with huge, gaping, ugly craters, filling now with the most horrid debris and litter. These strip mines were once verdant pastures and lovely hills of Western Civilization, where Christian morals and a Biblical worldview nurtured the pleasant fields. Though not always perfectly landscaped, there was, nevertheless, a form of godliness that allowed for growth to return. Yet now we are witnessing a post apocalyptic moral wasteland. This past week the announcement of a U.S. president, coinciding with a new French Socialist president, to recognize same-sex marriage reminded us that the cultural and moral decay and destruction continues. Our people will soon become sick from the stench of the filthy standing water in the craters. In the East, there is fresh revival. The Global South and the Global East, the New Christendom , as Peter Jenkins has called it, grows green, but shallow. There is a need for leveraging the legacy of Old Christendom to support the revival in New Christendom. And a “Next Christendom” waits, perhaps in the Middle East, as Chinese believers raise the Cross and cry, “On to Jerusalem.” There has never been a more important time for every preacher to examine his heart and review his sermons and ask, “Am I preaching on missions?”

Today I will ask if there is really any other kind of preaching than preaching as an act of mission. But let me pause.

I am not only honored to be asked to bring the keynote address at the national preaching conference, I am humbled to be able to do so before my favorite kind of people: preachers! Let’s face it: fishermen really enjoyed talking to Fishermen. They can talk about fishing in a way that no one else can really understand. And farmers really enjoyed talking about pesticides and soil erosion and the price of pork belly and all the latest and greatest from John Deere. I think of a line from Walker Percy and his book, “The Last Gentleman,” where the great Southern novelist talked about his character:

“When he was with Ohioans, he found himself talking like an Ohioan and moving his shoulders around under his coat. When he was with Princetonians, he settled his chin in his throat and stuck his hands in his pockets in a certain way. Sometimes, too, he fell in love with fellow Southerners and in an instant took on the amiable and slightly ironic air which Southerners find natural away from home.”

Well, when I’m with preachers I find myself talking like a preacher. That can be a bad thing, but at least Walker Percy would understand. So I get to talk with you—my favorite people—preachers—about my favorite subject—preaching. It seems to me that when we talk about preaching we can talk about one of two things: we can talk about the grammar of preaching or we can talk about the glory of preaching. When I speak of “grammar” of preaching I’m talking about the components, the guts, the inner workings of preaching. Those are important things to talk about and important things to review. But today is not the time to give a discourse about the mechanisms or the grammar of preaching. It is not the time to speak of the fallen condition focus or the introductory chain or the proposition or the big idea or the interrogative question and the transitional sentence with key words or the conclusion that has a recap and a positive illustration to answer “so what?” and a final charge that brings the redemptive purpose. Those are critical. They form the mechanical components of the sermon. So, no, I do not believe I am called today to speak of the grammar of preaching, but rather the glory of preaching. And the glory of preaching is to be found in the theme of this conference—Preaching on Mission. Preaching on Mission is glorious because it transcends grammar. Preaching on mission takes us beneath the components of the sermon and takes us to the very operating system of the sermon—the tenderloin of the sermon—the heart of our work, and the reason for our work. For “Preaching on Mission” takes us into the sacred encounter of God in our souls and the divine calling of Christ on our lives.

When we approach this conference inquiring of the Holy Book about “Preaching on Mission” we are like native Pacific divers, stripped down to our skin, with no other equipment needed but our Spirit-soaked minds probing the very mind of the Lord’s Word. When we come with this vocation of finding pearls, then we dive deeply into the turquoise sea of Scripture to discover the choicest of pearls. We need not linger long in our dive, for the pearls of preaching are readily available to us. The good sea of the Word is bountiful with blessed beads of truth about preaching. Yet we must come up for air, sit on the side of our boats and break open this purpose in preaching and not only observe it, but crack it open, with prayer, and taste it—taste the salty brine that is the fluid that washes and refines the pearl of preaching which is not a component or a part, but the life within the shell that covers the pearl. Here is the pearl—the purpose of preaching. And the purpose of preaching is mission. The Bible tells us that Jesus came preaching. And we cannot separate the very mission of God and all of its glorious redemptive panoramic view from Genesis to Revelation from the simple yet powerful heaven-sent moment of preaching. Jesus Christ models that for us. Jesus came preaching and his preaching was God’s revelation of God’s mission. Today we are going to look in the Gospel according to St. Matthew and taste and see that the Lord is good—good to His preachers who will pause to ponder His ways and his wonder in advancing His mission and then pray that we will leave with His ways and our wonder for that mission in our own churches. That is my prayer for you and for God’s Word in you. We are preachers. Let’s talk preaching. Let’s learn from THE PREACHER OF PREACHERS, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let’s learn with Jesus in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, 4:12-17.

This is the inerrant, infallible Word of the living God.

“Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.’ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:12-17 ESV).

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERMON

I believe that we are addressing the most important aspect in our work as preachers. There are books on pastoral preaching, textual preaching, topical preaching, expository preaching and first person preaching. Yet these topics, as important and helpful as they may be for the work of the preacher, do not get at the heart of all preaching. It was Lesslie Newbigin who wrote in his pivotal work, The Household of God, “We must say bluntly that when the Church ceases to be a mission, she ceases to have any right to the titles by which she is adorned in the New Testament.” Thus, there is no bride of Christ without a self-identification with mission. There is no spiritual building. There is no “household of God.”

Because preachers are the servants of the Church, proclaiming the message of God in the Church, we can also say that when the preacher ceases to preach as an act of Gospel mission, the preacher has no right to the titles by which he is adorned in the Bible. Yet I feel the threat of this bluntness in my own heart. For I preach different texts and different topics and must be faithful to the text. Is it an act of mission to preach on the parables of Jesus in Matthew 13? Must my messages be missional when I preach on a text from, say, Leviticus, or the Minor Prophets?

The answer to the question is in the life of the Lord Himself. Jesus said that all the Scriptures were about Him, so we can see that as He is the very incarnation of God’s mission to redeem a fallen world and to glorify Himself in Christ. The message of the Scriptures are then essentially about that mission. This position is undeniably established in the central activity of Jesus leading to the Cross and the Empty Tomb: preaching. For Jesus came preaching mission.

In Mark, Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. Matthew, so important a link between the Old and New Covenant, alternatively, prefers the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven,” to the Kingdom of God (he does use that phrase four times). Yet it’s the same mission. Whatever your eschatological position, we can all agree with Herman Ridderbos, “The whole of the preaching of Jesus Christ and his apostles is concerned with the Kingdom of God.” Indeed, for Christ and the Apostles, the mission is comprehensive and clear: In Jesus Christ, the chaotic state of a fallen world would not remain forever. The renewal – a radical undoing of death, “the death of death in the death of Christ” as the Puritan John Owen entitled his famous book, was underway with the coming of Jesus. That one phrase, “the Kingdom of Heaven” or the “Kingdom of God” pointed to a sweeping redemptive plan of God that always forced the Church, whether the Ancient Hebrew people of God or the New Covenant saints, to focus on the world, not themselves. The Gospel is thus centrifugal. And this was his preaching. Shall it not, therefore, be ours? Can we possibly be witnesses to the Kingdom of God that has come (and, yes, will come in a fuller, glorious “in-breaking” when He comes again) without preaching as an act of mission? The words from Revelation come to me now as I think about “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15 ESV). This was gloriously evident in the preaching ministry of Jesus as we see him in his public ministry appearing in Matthew chapter 4 verses 12 through 17. Embedded in that simple message of Jesus, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” is the fullness of the redemptive plan of God in Christ. This mission in preaching is the Gospel. The passage is pregnant with redeeming love of God being born into the world. And how then shall we preach? It is clear that the Lord God calls preachers today to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven and to preach for mission. We bear a Word from another World that must be proclaimed in this world. This is our mission. This is missions in preaching. Such preaching brings powerful dynamics to your church and your life. From this passage, Let us focus on five Biblically revealed dynamics of Preaching on Mission. The first dynamic we might point to in the passage is this:

1. PREACHING ON MISSION CRAFTS IDENTITY

The preaching ministry of Jesus Christ begins after a grueling series of tests and trials in which he is baptized into his public ministry by his cousin, John the Baptist, and then, wet with his identity of mission, Jesus is driven into the wilderness (as Mark puts it) by the Holy Spirit. There he overcomes the devil in the wilderness and proves greater than Moses and the Hebrew children who wandered in sin. With John arrested, Christ begins to preach repentance and faith because the Kingdom has come. For the common people, there is an awareness of His identity: “He speaks as one having authority, not like the Pharisees.” His identity is clear in the hearts of the people because His identity is sealed in His own mind and heart. From this message at the beginning of this ministry until he says “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” the identity of Jesus created his understanding of Preaching on Mission. Examine the texts of the Word of God. There will not be one instance in which the preaching ministry Jesus is separated from the missional ministry of Jesus. I believe that every preacher has only one sermon: it is the mission of God in his own life.

Look at Paul. Whether he was writing to Timothy or presenting Jesus to philosophers, he was always talking about the mission of God in Christ. And all theology was personal for Paul. You only have one sermon: it is what God did in your life. You are to be faithful to the texts from which you preach, but that one sermon will always come through. That is your identity in Christ. It is always related to Christ’s mission in you. When God’s mission has reached us and we preach out of that mission at work in our own lives, a new identity is created that will bring authority. The common people will hear you gladly. And souls will be saved and lives will be transformed.

There is second dynamic that I would bring out in this passage.

2. PREACHING ON MISSION CRIES URGENCY

Both the Gospel of Matthew and Mark moved the scene from the victory in the wilderness over the Devil to the fact that Jesus was confronted with the arrest and imprisonment of John the Baptist. Jesus began his ministry in conflict and crisis. Being fully God and fully man, something that we talk about in our theology classes and repeat throughout our ministries, he must have felt the emotional impact of the fast-moving spiritual attacks and strange events. But we often default to understanding his divinity without appreciating his humanity. We must recognize the humanity of Jesus as He’s dealing with the imprisonment of his cousin, the last great prophet to announce His coming. It’s not just that John has been taken away but that the diabolical activity of Satan was not confined to the wilderness experience. The Devil and his demonic band were working in the hearts and minds and hands of unwitting agents of Hell. Thus, our Lord left Nazareth, went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulon and Naphtali. And out of the crises of spiritual warfare, human pain, reverent awe, and a palpable opposition, He began preaching repentance. For the kingdom had come. Preaching on Mission contains urgency.

This is seen not only in the preaching of Jesus, but in the preaching of His apostles. Paul wrote in Romans that, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12 ESV).

Read Bonhoeffer. Listen to Henry Luke Orombi from Uganda today. Listen to the Chinese House Church preachers. You will hear a message of urgency. The opium of banality and inevitability has not drugged these preachers. They believe that their years are numbered and that souls are before them who need Christ. Believers must be deployed. The lines of life are never long when seen from end to end and shall we ever approach our pulpits without this urgency? It is the dynamic that gives strength to our sermons and power in our preaching. I draw your attention to a third dynamic:

3. PREACHING ON MISSION CREATES TENSION

The preaching of Jesus – preaching his mission – intentionally provoked the status quo. His message “to repent and believe because the kingdom of heaven is at hand” provoked individuals personally. His call for repentance signified the presence of sin in their lives and in their culture. Jesus was then and is now, an affront to humanity, which gratifies itself in its own supposed achievements and abilities. But the preaching of Jesus Christ’s assaults the pride of man and establishes Him as a fallen creature in need of divine salvation. Such preaching also provokes the powers that be. To declare that one must repent for the kingdom is at hand implies that the present kingdom is being done away with. The kings and rulers of this world, whether political or religious rulers of this world, all come under the indictment of God in Christ. There could be no other way for the kingdom to come in except by such preaching; yet such preaching led Christ to the cross. It has led more than one preacher to follow Him to places they never wanted to go. But to preach the mission of God in the world guarantees tension. To be blunt: preaching is not for wimps. I once had a professor, Dr. Robert L. Reymond, who said that if you are not taking any hits because of your preaching, you’re probably not preaching the Gospel according to Paul. I would only add to that by saying you’re probably not preaching the message of Jesus. You’re not preaching as an act of Gospel mission, for such preaching is provocative. It is neither safe nor wise according to the world’s ways. Preaching for repentance and calling men and women and boys and girls to surrender to the rule of a new kingdom is to issue a Divine fiat to abandon the systems of this world because they’re crumbling. Calling people into a new kingdom can cost a great price. And yet, where else do we go? What else should we preach? We’re not lecturers on the circuit. We are called to preach this missionary message to God’s come down to live the life we could never live and die the death that should’ve been ours. We are called to preach that the redemptive purposes of God are being fulfilled through the coming of Jesus, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit in the empowering and the sending of the church into the world.

When tension comes we must hear the words of Jesus to Paul at Corinth (in Acts 18) when tension was like a black pall over the ministry of the Apostle:

“Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

Preach for mission. Tension will both precede and follow your message. But Christ is with you and that is enough. There is a fourth dynamic of preaching for mission that gives great joy:

4. PREACHING ON MISSION COMFORTS THE BROKEN

What’s so amazing about this kind of preaching by Jesus is that while it brings provocation, it also brings the light that Isaiah prophesied. From the time of the fall until this time, darkness and Satan oppression covered the earth. In Jesus and in His preaching the darkness began to recede—the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of diabolical oppression, and the darkness of disease and backwardness. As you note in Matthew 4.23, “He went throughout all Galilee …proclaiming the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” Preaching on Mission obviously fulfills the redemptive plan of God to release human beings from the bondage of sin. Now there is a sometimes irritable but absolutely unmovable paradox in such preaching. The paradox is that if we seek to be compassionate by withholding preaching the mission—that is, we are sinners in need of salvation and Jesus is the only Savior—we end up preaching to the prisoners without setting them free. We speak beautiful words, interesting stories, but there if there is no Gospel mission, there is no light and the people are left in darkness. To preach like Jesus is to preach a missions message that brings the light of Heaven to the darkness of earth.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was critiquing the preachers of his day, in the late 19th century, when so many of them thought it rude in society to bring up the matter of hell. Some felt that Hell was not a fit subject for the pulpit. Charles Spurgeon replied that Jesus Christ knew no such supposed compassion.

“None used stronger language or more alarming language than our dear Redeemer concerning the future of ungodly men. He knew nothing of that pretend sympathy which will rather let men perish than warn them against perishing.”

He showed real compassion by talking about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. He talked about hell so much because he offered a way out and he declared that he was the way. In a similar way, we must not be tricked by the peddlers of preaching methodologies today who would call us away from the plain preaching of the Word because it is too stark for postmodern man. Such paddlers are not only wrong but naïve. They forget that at the core of humanity we are all the same, whatever our generation or nationality or culture. We all ask the same great existential questions – “who am I? Why am I here? Is there life after death? What is the purpose of living?” I have preached in India, northern and southern. I have preached in Albania. I have preached to different generations and groups in Great Britain, Europe, and America. I have attended Lausanne Conferences and spent deep and meaningful times of dialogue with people from around the world. Languages and customs notwithstanding, I’ve seen no difference in any of these people. The message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of the mission, transcends language and culture and every barrier because it is conceived by the Almighty God who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves. So let us avoid the cultural carnies that entice us to spend our pastoral currency on phony tricks that never pay off. Stick to the supernatural means that only can realize a supernatural goal. Stick to the message. Stick to preaching the mission. Jesus did and people were healed. When we do people will also be healed and set free in this life and the next.

5. PREACHING ON MISSION CALLS FOR RESPONSE

Finally, we need to see that the preaching of Jesus Christ was not only announcing that the kingdom had come, but was commanding the people to respond to the message. Such preaching is not just the giving of helpful information. It’s not just a transfer of data. It is not just telling stories to scratch the itching years of an audience. Such preaching demands a response.

Think about the ministry and preaching of Jesus. And think about Jesus’ ministry at the funeral, if you will, of his friend Lazarus in John 11. Jesus receives a mournful rebuke from Martha: “If only Jesus to been here then our brother would not die.” Martha’s statement called for a new response. So Jesus asked her, “Martha, do you believe in the resurrection?” She replied that she did. But the response Jesus required was a deep personal answer based on the kingdom of God, the mission of God, had come to Martha. Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he dies yet he shall live.” There is no room for subtlety or irony. It is a stark statement requiring an absolute surrender.

A few weeks ago I had the great joy and privilege to meet with Dr. Billy Graham. We all remember in the biography of Billy Graham that there came a time when he had to make a response to God over the truthfulness of his word. He went up on a mountain and had a time of prayer with the Lord. He could not go on preaching until he settled the matter of the word of God. He trusted His Word the way He trusted Jesus Christ. As I shook hands with Dr. Graham and knelt beside his wheelchair to talk, I remembered that his decision to trust in the Word of God changed his life and the lives of millions and millions of human beings. His response to God led to many other responses to God. We must not succumb to any movement in preaching that would tell us to essentially let people off the hook.

There are movements afoot in homiletics which would say that the message best comes to the postmodern man by respecting the intellect of the audience and allowing them to “get it” without having to say it. In other words, the purveyors of a preaching without proposition say, “preach and they will fill in the blank with their own understanding of the text.” That all sounds rather clever and gives quite a bit of credence to the spirit of postmodern man, but here’s only one problem: Mankind is in sin and cannot save himself. He’s fallen and all of his faculties are infected by Original Sin.

The Word of God must be preached clearly. Then the Holy Spirit will open the soul, work repentance and faith and apply the benefits of Christ’s redemption to the soul. The Word of God will not return void, but there is a truth clearly seen in that promise that the preacher must preach the Word of God and not hope that it bubbles up from within sinful man. The Bible knows no such sort of preaching. We cannot let any man get away from the truth of Jesus Christ when we have the opportunity to proclaim the truth. Call people to repentance. Call them to see that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Call them out in the name of the Lord and command by the authority of God that they must bow their minds and hearts to the resurrected and living Jesus Christ now before it is too late. The kingdom has come. It is coming in a fuller, more glorious way, but it is also here now in the person of the resurrected Christ. There must be a response. “Now is the time. Today is the day.”

 CONCLUSION

Preaching on mission finally, after all else, lifts up Jesus Christ as the God of unstoppable love who will not be denied. The Kingdom of Heaven marched through the dusty roads of Israel from Galilee to Jerusalem, and came to human beings. Jesus called ordinary men to be preachers and they were sent to preach the kingdom. Read Acts. “Repent and believe” is everywhere. You and I stand in a spiritual apostolic line that reaches all the way back to Jesus Christ the greatest preacher. And you and I stand in our pulpits, whether that pulpit is a cathedral, a chapel, an itinerant evangelistic ministry, a seminary, a college, or an inner city rescue house, and we preach for mission— the mission of God in Christ to save humanity and to bring about a new heaven and a new earth. We are part of the sweeping epic of redemption. Such preaching on mission crafts identity. Such preaching cries out for urgency. Such preaching creates tension. Such preaching comforts the broken. Such preaching calls for a response. There is no other way to preach but to preach with mission. But there is one thing that is necessary in preaching for mission: that the preacher has experienced the mission of God in his own life.

In post-Reformation England, there are two great preachers often noted in that time between James and Charles 1 and before the Puritan ascendancy. There was Lancelot Andrews (1555 – 25 September 1626) whom TS Elliott called the greatest preacher of his time. The other noted preacher who lived in the same era was John Donne (between 24 January and 19 June 1572 – 31 March 1631), the pastor-poet and Dean of St. Paul’s. Donne remains a much more compelling figure even according to T.S. Eliot who preferred Andrews. I have read both. One is very erudite and contemplative. The other seems to be on fire with the God of grace who saved him and transformed him so that “every season is a season of His grace.” Lancelot Andrewes preached and taught with great skill. But John Donne was a man who knew the personal reality of God’s mission to Him in Christ. He had been a most sinful young man and his sins haunted him. Yet he was converted by the appeal of Jesus’ life lived for him and Jesus’ death on his behalf. Just read “A Hymn to God the Father” written as he thought he lay dying and you catch the robust spirit of the man as he sought the justification of God in Christ for his own soul. Yes, Donne knew God’s mission personally. He preached out of that mission to his own flock. And I have to agree with the English literature critic, F.P. Wilson, who wrote that

“For every reader of Andrewes, there are a hundred of Donne…one reason why one is much more read than the other may be that John Donne used to be Jack Donne, whereas Andrewes was always Lancelot.”

Preaching for repentance; preaching that the kingdom of heaven has come requires a preacher who is on fire. He is on fire with the glory of God’s grace in his own life. Then will others gather to watch you burn alive; some will catch on fire themselves. This is how churches are planted, churches are revitalized, and ministries advance with vision and courage. And this is how the Lord will bless your preaching. Remember His mission when it came to you. Out of the fullness of that personal mission proclaim—preach—the mission of God.

What will be your response?

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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May 11, 2012

Dear Friends and Colleagues,   Often we cannot fully grasp the historical significance of events as they happen. The 24/7 news feeds into our homes can desensitize us to even the most remarkable of events. Yet, the announcement of a United States President (and Vice President) publicly endorsing same-sex marriage is to support that which God explicitly condemns. It is shameful and a reproach to decency and honor and a sad commentary on the regrettable departure of our national leaders from the Biblical heritage that has guided our country. The President’s announcement came hours after another of our states voted to protect the God-ordained institution of marriage and was thus particularly painful for citizens in North Carolina and further deepened the obvious cultural divide in our nation.   I join many other Christian leaders, churches and ministries asking God’s power for revival to come upon our country as we face this latest assault on the law of God. While we pray for our President and his family, we ask the Lord to bring repentance and Spirit-wrought renewed faith to him and all. Oh, that we might seek Him and live!   Now more than ever, we at Reformed Theological Seminary must be vigilant in our sacred calling to raise up godly pastors and other servants of the Church who will courageously, boldly and compassionately declare Jesus Christ’s Word to our people. That Word brings abundant life and eternal life.   May God have mercy for the sake of His Church and stir us all to prayer like never before. Then, this remarkably sad moment for our country would have brought about something good.

Yours Faithfully,

Mike Milton

A producer and film crew from Truth In Action Ministries – formally Coral Ridge Ministries — came to our Charlotte campus today to shoot some footage for a special production on remembering the late Dr. D. James Kennedy. The thoughtful visit gave me some reason to reflect and remember my late friend and mentor.

I fulfilled my pastoral internship under Dr. Kennedy. More than that, I first understood the biblical doctrine of God‘s grace through the preaching of James Kennedy. There was a Mike Milton before I heard his message on Ephesians 2:8, 9 and there was a Mike Milton afterward. I had been orphaned and then adopted by my Aunt Eva.   My godly Aunt Eva reared me in the church. She laid her hands on my head and prayed for me everyday of my life. But the hurt and the pain of an earlier childhood trauma left scar tissue on the contours of my soul. I was— humanly speaking — impenetrable to the truth. Thank God that His grace is more powerful than spiritual scar tissue. Through Aunt Eva’s prayers, God brought Dr. D James Kennedy into my life and, like millions of others who heard his presentation of the gospel through Evangelism Explosion, I learned that I was a sinner in need of a Savior. Christ was that Savior and if I would repent and believe in him and receive him as the resurrected and living Lord, I would be saved from the certain punishment to come for my sin.

I also learned about discipleship from Dr. Kennedy. I learned that what some call the “rule of faith” of the Christian life involves faithfulness to the Bible, worship, prayer, fellowship, and witness. Thus, with my wife, we begin the journey—the journey of following Jesus Christ through this life. That journey was interrupted at one point by a divine calling into the gospel ministry. I was blessed to be able to study under Dr. Kennedy as he was founding a seminary. I was even more blessed to be able to study and to work with him personally—a sort of pastoral apprentice to Dr. Kennedy. I will treasure those days for the rest of my life. There’s not one day that I don’t think, “What would Dr. Kennedy have done here?” His influence on my life and ministry cannot be fully measured.

I suspect that in the interview, I’m going to be asked about his legacy and work in my life. I thought about three essential aspects of his legacy at work in my life; and, surely, in the lives of others. Like so many other things in life it is hard to quantify and to categorize human beings and their influence. In fact, I will sum up his influence, his legacy, and his enduring impact on my life and ministry with the initials of the man. Those of you who knew or worked with or around Dr. Kennedy, know that he was often simply called “DJK.” I will use those letters, so familiar, as an acrostic to share my faults about his living legacy.

D— is for the dignity of the pulpit.

One of the greatest things that Dr. Kennedy left me was the critical idea that the pulpit is deserving of the finest scholarship. In his own life he not only was a church planter, a pastor and evangelist, but he was a scholar. He spent every year studying: Greek or patristic history or Hebrew or archaeology or systematic theology or biographies of great theologians or great preachers. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of New York and did serious research on Emmanuel Kant. More than that, Dr. Kennedy taught us that the dignity of the pulpit required the training of the voice, attention to the details of the components of the sermon and classical rhetoric. Listen to a D James Kennedy sermon and you will be sure to pick up on the meticulous intentionality on the use of logos, pathos, and—he did this so well and was so obviously gifted by the Holy Spirit – ethos, the Aristotelian concept of authority and believability in speaking.

The effect of Dr. Kennedy’s legacy concerning the dignity of the pulpit has had a remarkable impact on many lives. In my life his influence in the dignity of the pulpit called me to pursue a doctor of philosophy degree in Britain. His concept of the pulpit deserving the finest scholarship influenced me to bring whatever scholarship, whatever learning, whatever insights, I received from my research studies, and pour them with affection through the narrow channel of the pastoral ministry, particularly, the pulpit ministry. The fact that I am now a servant in a theological seminary is more of God’s directing the river of my life according to his own design than any trajectory I had about my pastoral career earlier. I am ambitious to be well pleasing to Christ but I’ve never had an ambition to be anything more than a pastor and a preacher. That is all I am now, just in a different section of the Good Shepherd’s pasture.

It seems to me the pastors now and always should be concerned about the dignity of the pulpit. Dr. Kennedy impressed that upon my conscience my pastoral ministry will never be the same. By the way, the “dignity” of the pulpit is altogether related to the fact that we are ambassadors of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That is the source of the dignity, never ourselves.

J- is for Joint Operational Ministry.

Now, I would admit that the “J” gave me some pause in my attempt at an acrostic. What I came up with describes one of the most important and important features of the Ministry of my late friend, Dr. Dee. James Kennedy: I call it “Joint Operations.” What I mean by that is the Dr. Kennedy practice and talk the concept of the multiplication and maximization of ministry. He believed that every sermon had within it the possibility of an article, devotionals, teaching series, audio, video, and remnants that could be, with editing, brought together for a meaningful book or other resource for the believer. In other words he wasted no part of any single sermon. He told me one time that he learned this from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. “Imagine,” he reflected, “if no one ever copied down the sermons of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. There would’ve been no Penny sermons going out all over the world. There would’ve been no collection of sermons making up books. They would’ve been no commentaries. In fact we would have no remnants of the ministry of one of the greatest preachers in the Christian church. Charles Haddon Spurgeon maximized and multiplied his ministry to the glory of God into the good of the lost and the church. Therefore, always aim to maximize and multiply ministry.”

He also told me that I should never do ministry alone, but I should always be investing my life in another person, in another pastoral intern, in another believer. This “joint operation” is especially helpful to me now as we are considering, as a seminary, how to leverage the heritage and gifts of our strong multi-campus, residential pastoral education ministry, and, through the use of technology and strategic alliances with Christian ministries on the ground in the global cities of the earth, multiply and maximize the ministry of the seminary. Thus, the legacy of Dr. D James Kennedy is embedded in my own prayerful and strategic thinking about the future of Reformed Theological Seminary and our “global city initiative” in the 21st century.

This “joint operation” approach to ministry, however, is useful for the local pastor in a small, rural community in, say, Iowa, where the pastor is able to have a joint operation of ministry – multiplying and maximizing his own pastoral work — with local newspapers, clubs, other ministries, other churches, and through the use of technology. One sermon preached on a Sunday night in a small church in Iowa can become, through a joint operation approach to ministry, multiplied and maximize so that people on the other side of the world hear the Gospel and believe.

All of this for the glory of God and the good of the people.

My last letter and Dr. Kennedy’s name and in this acrostic about the living legacy of the man is a very easy one for me to come up with.

K –is for “Keep the main thing, the main thing, and the main thing is Evangelism.”

For Dr. Kennedy, all ministries, finally, had to be focused on the redemptive purposes of God on earth and in the cosmos. He believed that each believer, whether a minister or not, was commissioned by Jesus Christ to not only preach (or just be a “witness” to) the Gospel to as many people as we can through every means available, but also to train others to do it as well. That was his main thing. And I am not ashamed to say that I am not very original. It is my main thing as well.

It is become quite fashionable to quote the great missionary, bishop, pastor and missiologist, Leslie Newbigin. It was Newbigin who said that if a church ceases to become concerned with the mission of God, it, in fact, ceases to be the Church. For Dr. D James Kennedy, this truth was applied to each believer. When we are no longer concerned about the mission of God in the world, the great commission as well as the cultural mandate, we have ceased to live out our destiny as people who were called Christians.

The last time that I saw Dr. Kennedy was just months before he fell ill to the health issue that would, at length, call him home to glory. During that time I will never forget that he opened his arms to embrace me. He looked at me and smiled, as I shook his hand, and said, “Now, that is no way to greet your old father in the faith.” Now, for all of you who knew him, you will realize that Dr. Kennedy was not what one calls a “hugger.” So I was rather surprised when that moment happened. It never happened before. A handshake was enough. If it was an emotional moment, perhaps he would put the other hand on my shoulder or the back of my neck (usually in a time of prayer before we left to go leading worship). But this would be the last time. I suspected it and I guess he did as well. The Spirit called for us to move beyond the handshake and embrace as father and spiritual son. That embrace is with me even to this day.

There is a wonderful song by the late singer/songwriter, Dan Fogelberg, where he wrote about his father, a band leader in a high school in Peoria, Illinois. The song is one that many of us know very well and even now the tune is in my head. The song is called, “The Leader of the Band.” Dan Fogelberg would later say that it was the most important song he had ever written. It was about his identity of “just” being “the living legacy of the leader of the band.” When I think of Dr. Dennis James Kennedy, and I think of the legacy of the man in my life and ministry, and, of course, in the ministries of so many others around the world, I realize that I am just the living legacy of the ministry of a man – a man who followed the Man, the “God-Man,” Christ Jesus.

Related articles

• Coral Ridge Ministries Renamed Truth in Action Ministries (prweb.com)
• A Great Oak Has Fallen, but New Growth is On its Way: The Legacy of Charles Colson (1931-2012) – A Remembrance from RTS (michaelmilton.org)
• Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 – 1892) – The Powerful Pulpit Preacher of England (shantadaniel.wordpress.com)
• A Letter to a Friend in Ministry on Development (michaelmilton.org)
• How to Depend on God – David’s Hope and Ours from Psalm 25:4 (michaelmilton.org)
• On the Preparation of the Pastoral Prayer (michaelmilton.org)

God hates rebellion.

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23a) [See also Numbers 20:12-14; Isaiah 30:1; Isaiah 63:10; Psalm 68:6; Psalm 107:10-11; Nehemiah 9:26. Rebellion is described throughout the Bible as a certain path to judgment and destruction, unless there is repentance and an embracing of godly order].

Christianity has changed government and culture in many ways. One way has been to inject the very concept of order. Order is a communicable attribute of the Triune God. There is order in His creation of the world and, through redemption in Jesus Christ, order in our lives may be recovered—cosmically and personally (though the fallen world, still suffering from that disorder, awaits the consummation of the Kingdom of Christ, when all Edenic order will be restored).

“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace…” (1 Corinthians 14:33 NIV).

Just go to a country where the residual faith of Judeo-Christianity is culturally, historically absent. You can almost say that it is a universal, “If there is no Christian influence in the culture, you don’t want to drive there!” Chaos in traffic, a simple but real example of “ideas have consequences,” is just one consistent indicator of a void of a Christian world and life view. The way a people treat women and children is another more profound and infinitely more important feature of such cultures.

So back to the point. God hates rebellion. He calls for order. He would tell Peter, who cut of Malchus’ ear (a Roman soldier who kept his head but lost his ear to the impulsive Peter), that “those who live by the sword die by the sword.” Yet many look upon the “Occupy Movement” in America has a positive, non violent movement that is seeking justice for all people. But that is not the story that is unfolding before us. It is, to quote my son, “simply anarchy.” Left-over-Abbie Hoffman-wannabe” rebels called occupiers have found a “movement” to vent their inner angst. It reminds me of disproven but once radically fashionable Students for a Democratic Society who, in the 1960s, stormed administrative buildings of campuses, shutting down education in the name of democracy. It sounded more like lawlessness and mobocracy then and it does now. I hear the passage in my mind as I see the images of chaos and disorder in our streets:

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25 ESV).

But there is hope.

This morning my son and I got up at “zero-dark-thirty” to vote. The polls opened at 0630 here in North Carolina. We wanted to be first up. My son just turned eighteen and this was his first time to vote. He was excited to do so and I was excited to watch him sign in and cast his vote after carefully examining the candidates and their stance on issues (with Safari and his iPhone). That is order, albeit order with technology! Order is the way to effect change. Yet even that process is a by-product of a Biblical past which continues to leave a positive influence in this increasingly secularist culture. We should all pray that we “occupy” ourselves more with the Bible, with the truth of Jesus Christ which sets men free, and less time being occupied with scenes of anarchists who have no idea why or what they are protesting.

Let them get up at 5:00 am and go vote.

Related articles

• The rebel and the king; ‘the law has not changed’ (theaquilareport.com)
• When God Comes Down (Isaiah 64) (michaelmilton.org)

With my friend, Dr. Ric Cannada

To the Executive Committee of Reformed Theological Seminary:

This is my final report as Chancellor-elect! That really means that it is the last report of the Chancellor, Dr. Ric Cannada. As you all know, the Chancellor Succession Plan comes to a conclusion this month. June 1st is the day that Ric goes emeritus. It is my first day on the job. Yet because of the beauty, wisdom and elegant design and implementation of this Succession Plan, the work was handed off seamlessly and without too many bumps several months ago. Well, I want to use my report to give a report, not on the plan, but on the man.

The Bible passage that I think of when I think of my dear friend, Dr. Ric Cannada, is this one:

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV).

Ric has demonstrated that in his theology, his dedication to the pastoral ministry, his dedication to preaching the Gospel, and to serving the Church of Jesus Christ. He has abounded in the work of the Lord, focusing his work, primarily—and to our joy and benefit—through the narrow channel of the ministry of RTS. His work according to St. Paul is not in vain. His labors in Christ have not only deepened the Golden Lampstands of the Church around the world, but his labors will produce an ever-increasing harvest of good Gospel fruit until that day when he sees a multitude of souls “safe in the arms of Jesus” as a result of his work among us. And the best is yet to come.

I would like, therefore, that my final report as Chancellor-elect to be a hymn, that according to his daughter, who talked to me, is Ric’s favorite. It is amazing to me that he has modeled the hymn, which reflects this passage. It is also filled with the Biblical truths of Christ that we pray will lead us forward.

Before we sing, let me give one last word about the Chancellor/CEO transition. It has been a long and GOOD flight path to land this transition. In 18 months of sitting in a “left-seat-right-seat relationship” with Ric in leadership, I have learned much. Mostly I have seen the life of Jesus Christ in the life of Ric Cannada. I have seen an example of wisdom and prayer, humility and boldness in the Gospel, and the spirit of servanthood before Christ and His Bride, the Church. I, thus, give glory to God, thanks to the Executive Committee for your wisdom and oversight, and I want to express my gratitude to my esteemed predecessor. I cannot replace Ric. I can only follow him. 

Would you stand to sing to God with me?

With prayers for every blessing on our faculty, staff, students, board, and our constituents, I am

Yours Faithfully,

Mike

Michael A. Milton, Ph.D.

Chancellor-elect

The James M. Baird Jr. Chair of Pastoral Theology

She didn’t know what unction was (maybe you don’t either). It’s an old King James kind of word for “my spirit, my calling, my identity, the anointing of God on me.” So he was saying, “Don’t let them take the calling in my heart out!”

Next thing you know, he woke up, looked around the room and saw a nurse. He called the nurse over and said, “I wish you would reach in that desk drawer and see if there’s one of those Gideon Bibles in there.” As she was pulling the Bible out he said, “Would you turn to 1 Samuel 17:40 and read it to me?” She smiled and read,

Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

“Now how is that?” she said as she put the Bible back in the drawer. He said, “Just stand there for a minute.” And he kind of raised himself up on his elbow as much as he could and he said, “Five smooth stones. Five smooth stones are all David needed to kill and bring down that one giant. All we need is what God has given us: His Word – all we need is a Savior.” About that time, his stitches and chest began hurting and he lay back down and said, “Thank you for listening. I just wanted to make sure that y’all didn’t take my unction out.”

I want to challenge you to examine your heart to see if God’s calling is there. As we come to study the call of God on the life of Moses, we see that when God wants to do something great in the world, God calls men and women to do it. When God wanted to raise up a people for Himself He called Abram and He said,

Abram, I want you to follow Me.

Abraham didn’t even know where God was sending him. And from Abraham there was going to come a Savior who would bless the world – and you being saved – because Abraham followed God’s call.

When God wanted to liberate His people, He called this man Moses, and Moses answered the call.

When God wanted to raise up a leader at the very pinnacle of the Israelite nation’s history – as God wanted to raise up one who would lead them in the worship of God – God raised up the shepherd boy David who wrote the sweet Psalms of Israel. And David answered the call.

When God wanted to reach the Gentile world and reach Europe with the gospel, He called Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor of the church of Jesus. And Saul of Tarsus became the greatest preacher, the greatest missionary, and the greatest church-planter there ever has been. He laid the foundation for western civilization and for the gospel to be taken to the ends of the earth.

When God wanted to reform the excesses and the problems that had arisen in the medieval church, He raised up a professor of theology named Martin Luther. And Martin Luther answered the call.

When God wanted to show how a worldview could touch every area of life and transform an entire city, He called up a Frenchman by the name of John Calvin of Geneva. And there at that Swiss church in St Pierre’s a Reformation began unlike any other.

Sitting under John Calvin was a man named John Knox who was on the run from Scotland. And John Knox heard that gospel and he brought the gospel back to Scotland. God called him to take a stand. John Knox stood in the midst of Scotland and all of the opposition and he screamed though all of his life, “Give me Scotland or I die!”

When God wanted to lay the moral foundation for a nation that was beginning – just decades before our Declaration of Independence – God raised up a very academic pastor by the name of Jonathan Edwards. God led a Great Awakening in our nation through this man who read his sermons line-by-line, and at whose soft spoken preaching people fell on the floor, repented of their sins, and cried out to God. And Jonathan Edwards answered the call.

But let’s move from those stories to your life. Somebody answered a call and shared the gospel with you. It may have been your mother or your father. It may have been a pastor – or perhaps it was a teacher. Maybe it was an evangelist, a teacher, a coach, or a friend. Someone answered the call to come into your life.

When we look at the life and the call of Moses we see things in that call that remind us of the way God works. And our call looks like Moses’ call in several ways.

I want to talk about a call for just a few moments. In the Bible, there are different kinds of calls. There’s a general call. The general call goes out into the entire world. It is a call to repent and receive the gospel. It is a call that goes out into the whole world through the heavens. Romans chapter 1 tells us that creation itself declares there is a God. Paul goes on in Romans to say that internally the Gentiles understood the law and were convicted by it though they had never received the law. And Calvin called this the sensus divinitatis, the sense of the Divine in human beings – that we realize there is a Creator and we are creatures. It’s the general call. That call incidentally is going out today: “Repent and receive the gospel of Jesus Christ; follow the Lord Jesus Christ; trust in Him and not in your own works.”

But that call has to be effective. It has to go into your soul. It has to go to work. And the Holy Spirit has to open up your soul and that is an effectual call. That is what Paul was talking about when he wrote to Timothy. He talked about how God has called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace that He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. And then we read Ephesians 2:10, “We are His workmanship…” We get the idea that it is God who has done this calling. He’s made it effectual. He’s opened up our hearts so that we can receive Him.

But there’s also in the word of God specific calls. That is where a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, realizes that “I am here, I am God’s workmanship, I am here for a purpose. I’m here to give my life to God!” A lot of times people come in to my office and they’ll say, “I want to know God’s will for my life.” What they’re asking is, “I want to know what to do with my life.” A lot of times it’s asked by young people. Sometimes it’s people in transition. Sometimes it’s middle-aged people; sometimes retired people are asking. “What do I with my life?”

I believe in the call of Moses found in Exodus 3 we can see features of the call of God in our own life in four ways:

The first way: Moses had to understand a burden.

Not his burden. Moses had a burden. That’s why he killed the Egyptian. He had a burden to see those people set free. What he had to understand is that God had a burden. Our call is like Moses’ call in that first God’s burden must become your burden. What is your burden? Is your burden God’s burden? If you ask me about God’s will for your life, one of the first things I want to know is what God has burdened you with in your life.

Now you don’t know who Cindy Lightner is (maybe you do), but in 1980 her daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunk driver ¾a repeat offender. So she founded Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD). She has saved perhaps thousands upon thousands of lives through her activity. She had a burden and that burden moved her to a call.

God’s burden is saving human beings from the drunken consequences of sin. His burden came to life through this man Moses. His burden came to life through Jesus Christ ultimately. The apostle John said in 1 John 2:8 that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. We often think of Jesus coming to save, and He did, but He also came to destroy. He came to liberate. He came to set free. What is God’s will for your life? Well, what is your burden? What has God put on your heart? Identify that and you’re on your way to a better understanding how you are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

The second way: God’s enemy is our enemy.

In the passage God told Moses that he had to go to Pharaoh because Pharaoh was holding His people from establishing the nation from which the Savior of the world would come. Pharaoh was standing in the way because he was holding God’s people captive. He was the target for Moses. Remember, the enemy that we have today is not some dictator in the world. No, the enemy of your soul is the devil. And thank God that Jesus Christ, our great Liberator, came to destroy the work of Satan. And He did! On the cross He liberated humanity. All those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

It is true, as Peter says, that the Devil goes about like the roaring lion. But my beloved, he cannot stop the forward advance of the gospel! Satan cannot hold our nation captive when believers stand with the gospel of Jesus Christ because “greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.” Our nation in many ways is drunk today with the materialism of our country, stumbling along disgracefully. But thank God we have a Savior who has defeated the Devil. And when you know that truth, you can turn to Christ and know that there will be victory in the Lord Jesus Christ.

A third way: God’s people become your people.

God told Moses, “I’m sending you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.” God loves His people and so must we. God loves people in bondage and people in slavery and so must we. God loves sinners – thank God, or I wouldn’t be here. If God loves sinners, I must love sinners too. But here’s what I want you to see that God was doing in redemptive history: God was building up His church. Remember Jesus Christ said that He was going to build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

It’s very interesting that Stephen, the great deacon, when he was being martyred was preaching the gospel to those who were killing him, and he says (in Acts 7:38), “This is He (speaking about Jesus) that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in the Mount Sinai.” That was Jesus. So what was God doing when He was sending Moses? He was sending Moses to build up His people who would become the worldwide movement of God, embracing all races. In that time the Jewish people, and from them all people, would be engrafted who would believe and trust in Jesus Christ, who had become part of the church in the wilderness.

What am I saying? I’m saying that just as Moses had to love those people, you and I have got to love the church. I believe that if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, you love the church and you also love the lost, those who are in bondage. Are you using your gifts to build up the body of Christ? Do you love the church?

The fourth and final way: God’s power must become your provision.

God’s power must be your provision. Moses asked the question rightly. Moses, after God said I’m sending you to Pharaoh, asked, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Well, good question, Moses. I mean, number one, you’re a murderer. Number two, you’re a fugitive. Number three, you’re a man with a tremendous identity crises. Are you a Hebrew or are you an Egyptian? You’re married to an unclean Midianite daughter of a desert dweller. Exactly who are you? And because of what happened, how could you ever go back?

And God went to Moses and told him, Here’s the proof that I’ve called you. You’ve got My call on you. You’ve got My anointing on you. And more than that, you’re going to come back to this Mountain.  Look what it says, “I have sent you and when you have brought up the people out of Egypt you shall serve God on this mountain.” Moses was standing before that mountain and God says I’m going to bring you back here. Do you know what God was doing with Moses? God was saying I’m going to use this as a testimony in your life. The very place where you’ve questioned Me, I’m going to bring you back. In Exodus 19 Moses came down from hearing God and seeing millions of people on that very same mountain. God was faithful to His calling.

I love to see the boyhood homes of our presidents. I’ve seen Eisenhower’s home in Abilene, KS; Nixon’s home in Yorba Linda, CA; Truman’s home in Independence, MS. I haven’t been to Dixon, IL (I’d love to go); I haven’t been to Hope, AR. But if you go to those places, those are the places where some boys ran barefoot and maybe plowed in the field. But now presidential libraries are there. Something happened in those lives.

And that is what God is saying to Moses. Listen: that is what God is saying to you. You see how God works. God is going to use some of you struggling with depression to be good listeners to others who are struggling with depression. It wouldn’t surprise me that those of you who are going through a divorce may one day be leading a divorce-care group at your church.

“I’m going to lead you back to this mountain.” How will they know? How will I know? Look at my baggage. Look at my background! You need to hear God saying to you, “The very area that you’re questioning Me about is going to become your testimony.”

Maybe you are asking, “How can I serve God?” It’s not by works. It’s not by your strength. I’d say the very place of your questioning can become the testimony that God uses to say to you, It’s My power, not yours.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort who comforts us in our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)

Your calling is not dependent upon your gifts, but upon God’s greatness. It’s not dependent upon your passion, but upon God’s power.

Conclusion

So in the call of Moses, we’ve seen a specific calling, and it teaches us about having God’s burden, understanding God’s enemy – that this is spiritual warfare, whatever it is that we’re doing – that we love God’s people, that we minister in God’s power. And listen: one of the great reformation truths is that whether God is calling you to the ordained ministry or to be a missionary – or whether God is calling you to be a teacher, a doctor, a homemaker, or a wife, a great reformation truth is that all of these are holy callings, if you give them up to the Lord and say, “God use me!”

Sometime ago I visited Walker, LA. Walker, LA used to have a much greater name. It was once called Milton Old Field. Those were the good old days in the early 19^th Century. But then a guy named Walker came around who was a state Senator. He got a post office put there, and Milton Old Field became “Walker.” There used to be a school there named Milton Academy that’s now Walker School. There is a Walker Methodist Church there. I visited that church and wanted to see the records. I flipped back through the records until I came to entries in 1906.

I noticed in 1906 there were a bunch of professions of faith of young children. There was an entry of Reverend So-and-so, a Methodist circuit rider, an evangelist. When this pastor came through, there were people who confessed Jesus Christ. I held my breath and was gripped by the Holy Spirit when I read one of those names. “Mary Eva Milton, 9 years old.” This was my Aunt Eva. From her, because she heard a call, I heard a call – a general call because she preached the gospel in our home; an effectual call, because the Holy Spirit used that to open up my heart; and even a specific call, because she prayed for me to preach the gospel.

You know when I get to heaven, I want to see my Aunt Eva, I want to see her immediately, but I will look for the Reverend So-and-so, because he answered God’s call.

Mary Eva Milton, at 9 years old, received the gospel. Now I’m called. Now I’m standing here and I’m calling you. Is there a holy calling on your heart?

I challenge you today with these words: Consider Christ’s call on your own life.

*   *   *   *   *

A companion album has been produced for this theme of God’s call on our lives.

Distributed through  iTunes, or any major online distributor or bookstore, or through Music for Missions.

Dear Pastoral Students in the Gospel of Christ:

I want to bring you a charge as we approach the conclusion of this season of study. My charge to you is to preach one sermon. This is what I mean.

If we read Paul right, then this former blasphemer could never get over the grace of God that forgave and called “an insolent man” into the ministry of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is not hyperbole to say, as we survey the life of St. Paul, that he really only had one sermon. Of course, the great Man of God would preach the Gospel in different contexts, using different messages, and explaining New Covenant theology in Christ Jesus out of the Old Testament sacred writings to different people. He was, most certainly, as we remind you to be, “true to the text.” Yet this did not alter, could not alter, the deep-seated, internal “operating system” that had been placed there by the Lord. That “operating system,” if you will, ran all the programs for Paul. The grace of God that would cause Paul, in 1 Timothy 12-16 to explain to Pastor Timothy that the way to deal with all the extensive challenges (he has summarized these dark problems in earlier, opening sentences and will expound upon them in following verses) in Ephesus was to minister out of the sacred encounter and divine calling that one has with and from the risen Lord Jesus Christ, is what also led to the spontaneous doxological combustion in verse 17. How characteristic of the “Apostle of the Heart Set Free” (Eerdmans, 2000) as F.F. Bruce called him, to insert the language of praise as he concluded the narrative of conversion:

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (ESV).

Thus the internal operating system, his own conversion, leads to a constant expression of praise. He ministers out of a core that is a veritable nuclear reactor of grace that produces a life of praise, whether in prison or being beaten or ministering freely before pagan philosophers on Mars Hill. This is the “one-sermon” motif that ruled this man’s life. God’s grace can save anyone, anywhere, with any past. His own life had become “a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life” (1 Timothy 1:16).

What is your one sermon? If you are a believer you have one. If you are a believer who has been called to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to others, then you surely have one. Your one sermon is what God has done in your life. Your one sermon is your sacred encounter. It is your divine calling. It may be the one sermon of a faithful covenant family who were used of God to bring you to Christ in the home with godly examples. Your calling to preach came as you realized the brokenness of the world which did not have that experience. Or, it may be the sacred encounter of Christ in a prison cell and then the wrestling you had when you knew God was calling you to preach, like Charles Colson, to other prisoners, whether bound in the shackles of a penitentiary or the chains of false religion. That is your one sermon. John Wesley was a “brand plucked from the burning” and that theme runs throughout all of his messages. Whitefield burned alive with the glory of his assurance of salvation. Can you read Whitefield and not come away with that one sermon? Spurgeon was arrested by the lay preacher who called for him to “look, look!” and to see his salvation in the Lord. He would call many others to “look” to God in thousands of messages, strong with that one compelling mandate which became his one sermon. What is your one sermon? What makes you burn alive with Christ until your messages break out in a holy conflagration of praise? That “one sermon” is the work of God in you and it will be the Spirit-compelling feature of your ministry which will cause you preach every sermon, from every text, with Gospel power and Scriptural faithfulness.

I, therefore, write you and appeal to you to now bring all of your studies before the bar of God, recalling His work in your life, His call on your life, and go to preach one sermon for the rest of your life. And others will break into spontaneous doxological combustion too.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

In Christ,

M.A.M.

Related articles

• The difference between a lecture and a sermon (Sean Lucas) (reformation21.org)
• On the Preparation of the Pastoral Prayer (michaelmilton.org)
• Why Hope? Grace! (A sermon on Grace from John Piper) (theaquilareport.com)
• Ministering Personally to Minister Pastorally (michaelmilton.org)
• A question of character (4) (Jeremy Walker) (reformation21.org)

A great oak has fallen.

The death of Chuck Colson (1931-2012) is so remarkable because of the life of Chuck Colson. His life is summed up in the scripture that the Manhattan Declaration posted:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)!

Chuck Colson was truly a new man. His life forever will be remembered, not in a legacy of political intrigue, but with a legacy of new life in Jesus Christ that overflowed to the world with a robust intellect and dynamic message lived out in a heart of deep, demonstrable compassion. Yet the new life that transforms old legacies of shame into legacies of faithfulness is available to all who call, like Chuck, on the name of Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.

Chuck’s life reflected the newness of God’s Truth in Christ. The man thought like Christ. He was immensely theological—caring deeply about the Truth of God revealed in His Word in the Flesh, Jesus, and in His Word, the Bible. He brought that Truth to bear in every area of life and encouraged others to do the same. At a time when some proclaim that there is no truth, and others shrink from proclaiming that Truth in a postmodern, pluralistic age, Chuck Colson became one of the Church’s greatest apologists for the Truth of God in Jesus Christ. He proclaimed Truth with boldness, intellectual strength, compassion and humility and was active in his presentation of Jesus Christ through the last days of his work on his earth. He is now worshipping face to face before the One he preached so well.

All of us at Reformed Theological Seminary, and Mae and I as a family, pray for Patty and the Colson family and for the continuing strength of Prison Fellowship and all the ministries that Chuck helped to found or lead. He gave vitality, enthusiasm, coureage to the Church in a profound way and he left his mark on our seminary campuses where he taught and preached on numerous happy occasions.

A great oak has indeed fallen, but because Chuck Colson ministered through others, there are acorns—disciples of his Lord and ours—all over the world now rising with the new life that Chuck experienced in his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For that reason we in the Christian Church must remain most hopeful. A new heaven and a new earth is on its way. The forest of giant new oaks is growing and not even death can stop it.

“Thank you Lord for your servant, Chuck Colson. Help us to go on and take up the full armor of God and be soldiers of Christ who arise, as he did so well. Comfort his family. Bless his ministry colleagues. Encourage Thy Church. Raise up more men and women like your servant, Chuck. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

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The smoke of ten thousand camp fires rise from primitive villages and green jungles mingles with the heat and gasoline fumes from snarled traffic in innumerable, economically booming and yet humanity-crippled urban mega-centers, while locusts and flies swarm over the endless, rich plains of the former “Star” in the Crown Jewell of the British Empire; and before that, the Taj Mahal-inspired-brutal-passion of the Mughal Empire—and this is the enigma that is India. And India represents the clash of ancient and new, mysterious and yet opening lands of the Indian Ocean.

I was reading the book by Robert D. Kaplan — “Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power,“^[1] when I heard the news report in my hotel room. India has launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of sending its nuclear arsenal as far away as Europe or to a more likely scenario—Iran. The news report came, literally, as I was reading Kaplan’s report on the shift from the Atlantic, beyond the giant sapphire Pacific, around the rugged African Cape, to the “embayed” Indian Ocean.  I slowly laid the book aside as I watched the video, in astonishment, of this latest illustration of Indian engineering genius shooting through the riddle of Indian poverty and Indian economic prowess, into the cloudless sky with all the menacing events this might portent. The visage before me became a metaphor for Kaplan’s proposition. But the news didn’t stop there. There was more news coming out from China. There is now always news about China. The Communist-market titan, another dialectical puzzle in the Indian Ocean frontier, dominates the economic news, the military news, and the geo-political news, but invariably competes with more peaceful, democratic India for attention. Whether it is financial buoyancy, or industrial espionage, or the projection of its naval might in the region, we are witnessing, in my view, the ascendancy of Kaplan’s forecast. Even as the Bay of Bengal receives the great southwest monsoon in the early summer, so we steer our way deeper into the blank-page annals of the 21st-century, and the unrestrained waves of the Indian Ocean crash against the pylons of the older Atlantic nations. The Monsoon is not coming. The Monsoon is here.

Our Seminary is setting a course of prayer, asking God that He would show us the great global cities and regions where we should be; where we should leverage the theological and Biblical tradition, legacy and resources, to reach what Philip Jenkins has now famously called the Next Christendom.^[2] The Christendom that Jenkins sees arising in the global South in the global East is better understood, I think, by reading Kaplan’s book. Indeed the Indian Ocean and the great arc of its sweeping extent, from the horn of Africa, up the dangerous Somalia coast, past the pirate lanes and through the Arabian Sea, over and down to the Asian Subcontinent, then through the treacherous, billion dollar oil lane, the Strait of Malacca, into the scattered, burgeoning population centers of the Indonesian islands on the South China Sea, finally merging into the Pacific ocean at the Philippines and Taiwan, is now the new dramatic setting for an economic clash of the titans—of China and India—with other players, like Indonesia, seeking to take the stage with them, appearing all but certain to draw in new colossal armies, air forces, and especially, the naval forces that will make the Royal Navy and perhaps even the American Navy seem like ghost ships of a far-flung past. Yes the Monsoon is now here. As American and British and Western powers come to grip with the reality that globalization has shifted like a great Southern hemispheric gust of warm wind, blowing new-born influence and agitated unease to the Indian Ocean, so, too, the opportunities for ministry — for preparing pastors and evangelists and missionaries to bring the Gospel to their own people – are rising like the “mountains of hibiscus and bright orange mangoes”^[3] in the Bay of Bengal.

This is one of the most exciting times in history to be a believer. It is a time to seek strategic alliances with other ministries on the ground in the Indian Ocean nations, to use both necessary residential seminary ministry (which are committed to) along with technology (which we embrace as a new “Roman Road”) to deliver the repository of two millenia of faithful pastoral preparation to mentors and students on the shores of these great 21st century nations. It is time to deepen our own committment to residential theological education at home while handing off the sacred treasures of faith to a new movement of God in a new place. It is not one or the other. The missional thrust of our seminary will enhance the residential ministry in the United States.

With the historic shift taking place before our eyes, shall we believe that Christ the Lord is not in, with and under the Monsoon? Is this not His own sovereign occasion to convey His Kingdom rights over the Indian Ocean even as He would, we pray, revitalize the Atlantic “Old Christendom,” and then prepare for His ultimate sweep across the earth? Oh, let us not be blind to the days we live in or stagger, benumbed by the fast-moving currents of the white-foamed sea that is mostly divided on our maps; as remote and strange as the moon, and yet is now before us. This is also our time; for it is always His time. And do we not see the image of One walking on the waters through the misty reach of the Indian Ocean? Is He not the Lord of the Monsoon? It is time to deploy for places unknown to us but not to God.

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• Sky Candy: Southern Lights Over The Indian Ocean(universetoday.com)

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• When God Comes Down (Isaiah 64) (michaelmilton.org)
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