Romans 4 on Abraham: Turn your Yawns into Songs of Joy

I once preached in a little church outside Oxford on Romans 4: Paul's long discourse on Abraham the man of faith. One of the congregants was clearly not much grabbed by the passage and afterwards told me of his sadness that Paul had taken the simple message of Jesus and messed it up with unnecessarily complicated theological pronouncements!

It is true that Romans 4 is somewhat parenthetical (ie it could be enclosed within brackets). Paul's argument would proceed perfectly smoothly if 3:28 skipped right over to 5:1. But here I will endeavour to show why Paul's long exploration of Abraham's faith is an important strengthening of his argument in Romans- and that in an Islamic context it makes an important point in correcting the false assumption that Muslims are the true heirs of Abraham's religion.

Much preaching of Romans skates over the historical content of the letter. This is a shame, because understanding the setting helps us to preach the doctrine of Romans as inherently practical. Very evident in Romans are the tensions between Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome. I enjoyed Christopher Ash's brief introduction to the letter, available in this free sample chapter. These were tumultuous times for Jews in Rome; we know that because in Acts 18:2 we read that Priscilla and Aquila were in Corinth, after the Jews were expelled from Rome by the emperor. But a few years later this famed house-church host and hostess were back in Rome (see Romans 16:3).

Put yourself in the shoes of the first-century Jew. They were tremendously proud; they saw themselves as God's chosen people, morally far above the degenerate pagans around them. And then try and imagine the hostility of many Gentiles to these Jews. The Emperor Claudius had seen fit to turf the lot of them out of the capital city. There must have been a simmering dislike of the Jews, or else his decree would have been so unpopular as to weaken his rule. Some 8 years after the expulsion of the Jews, Paul writes Romans. The church was clearly an uneasy mix of Jews and Gentiles; perhaps the first converts in the imperial capital were Jews who had returned, reborn, from the Day of Pentecost, at which we know Romans were present. But during the Jews' exile from Rome, the Gentiles must have gained prominence in the church. Paul is clearly addressing their dismissive or even contemptuous attitude towards Jews in chapter 11: verses 1, 11, and 19-20. 'Do not arrogantly think God has finally rejected the Jews', Paul argues.

Something to underline in Romans is Paul's beautiful prayer in 15:5-6. This shows us how Paul wanted them not just to grasp sound docrine, but to live out that teaching in harmony, as Jew and Gentile together in one church:

5 Now may the God who gives[a] endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.

So, how does this help us understand the long excursus Paul makes in Romans 4? Paul is teaching doctrine at great length, with OT backing. The Jews, of course, boasted that they were sons of Abraham, and had circumcision to show their membership of this covenant. The Gentiles were, on the other hand, in their eyes uncircumcised and dirty. If they had been accepted into God's family by faith, which the Jewish believers assented to, it was a stretch for some of them to accept Gentile believers into the inner circle and to think of them as sons of Abraham. This attitude, if left unchallenged, would do great damage to the unity of the church. So, you see, Paul's definition of true Christians - whether Jew or Gentile - as sons of Abraham, was of great pastoral importance.

Now, having gone to Rome, let's zoom to the modern Kurdish context. Is Romans 4 really important for the fellowship of believers here? We believe that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful, but often it takes time and careful reflection to see what precisely its use is.

A Kurdish believer will likely feel very lonely in their new faith; they will be shunned by relatives. This is unlikely to be a showdown between well thought-through doctrinal positions, but there is a deep-seated sense that Kurds have, since time immemorial, been Muslims, and it is a great sin to depart from that faith. That culture, that feeling that Muslims have the pure and simple monotheism that shines a light on pagan idolatry and Christian 'tritheism', owes a lot to beliefs about Abraham. At the very least, every year Abraham is invoked at the Feast of Sacrifice, when his willingness to sacrifice his son is remembered. But also, it is perhaps little known that Abraham is believed to have gone with Ishmael to Mecca to build the Kaaba. So, to be attached to the hajj and the centre-point of Islamic spirituality, the revered city of Mecca, is to stand by the religion that Abraham supposedly founded.

It is not sufficient armoury for believers to embrace Rom 1-3 and argue 'you cannot be saved by works; the only way is by faith in Christ'. Romans 5, too, has tremendous comforts for those who 'have been justified by faith' (v1); even the trial of persecution is for their good (5:3). But in between these vital sections comes a bolstering of Paul's gospel in ch 4, and it comes by way of a long discourse about how both Jewish and Gentile believers are descendants of Abraham.

Evangelical Christianity must be viewed by many in the Middle East as a sort of new-fangled, trendy sect of an ancient faith, a movement that spreads by material and perhaps sexual enticements; it is associated sometimes with guitars and modern praise music, Ultimate Frisbee and English lessons, all offered with alarmingly free mixing of the sexes. So, Romans 4 can help us show how historically-rooted evangelical Christianity is. The gospel goes back (at least) as far as Father Abraham. The evangelicals' controversial claim that you just have to believe and you get free forgiveness actually goes back to Abraham who believed and it was counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6).

More could be said from the standpoint of Kurdish patriotism. Abraham travelled to Urfa (Harran- see Gen 11:31), and there there is a huge fishpond which commemorates him there. This is a very Kurdish city, the home town of singers Shivan Perwer and Ibrahim Tatlises and a certain paramilitary leader also... The border crossing between Turkey & Iraqi Kurdistan is called Ibrahim Khalil. It refers to Abraham's title 'Abraham the friend of God'. Believers should know the story of Abraham and be able to defend their belief that they walk in the footsteps of Abraham. Romans 4 helps us greatly in this.

7 Giving and Receiving Critique

 As Christians, we should all sign off on the need to be 'teachable'.  Reading through Proverbs this month I have been struck by how many proverbs exhort us to receive correction and not stiffen our necks.

In many seminary and church settings, there are lots of things in church life where review is vital if the church is to grow up in its service of Christ.

However, cultures do this in somewhat different ways and we must be willing to adjust the way we do things. Unless I am mistaken, there is a spectrum and people from the USA tend to be reluctant to critique publicly for fear that they will crush the spirits of the one being critiqued. Brits are more on the direct and confrontational end and perhaps the Dutch are further along that spectrum- but having not lived in Holland that may be only a stereotype.

I was made aware of my own expectations by listening to an interesting Dick Lucas interview. This grandfather of British evangelicalism is asked about the emergence of the Proclamation Trust and he explains that it had its origins in the early 1980s in a group of ministers getting together and critiquing each others' sermons. For one thing, the story of the Proclamation Trust -  a hugely influential evangelical organisation in the UK and beyond - is refreshing. It began not with Dick Lucas or anyone else 'telling everyone else how to preach rightly' but a collective discovery that pastors were routinely getting the text wrong by receiving correction from their peers.

Uncle Dick traces this approach back to the camps on which he was converted and became a leader - the 'Bash' camps that nurtured many British evangelical leaders.  E.J.H. Nash used to publicly review the talks given to the schoolboys and 'called a spade a spade', judging by Lucas' memories.  Clearly the approach exemplified by Bash was later deemed by the network of clergy connected with St Helen's Church to be a painful but necessary remedy for the weaknesses in our preaching.

As it happens, I was converted through the same schools ministry and gained a wonderful training in Christian ministry in that context, so I came to see critique of talks given in a group setting to be a healthy way to help believers grow in their skills as exegetes and preachers.

As for cultures that take a different approach, we should all bear with one another as we bring different expectations to the table in an international setting. But I would want us to distinguish between publicly confronting people for sin - which Matthew 18 tells us should be done privately - and reviewing public pronouncements. In some cases, surely a private word would be better- irritating or embarrassing habits in speech and body language, for example. But the one who steps up to issue a public declaration of what God's word means does have to be prepared to face public correction. The same goes for those who promulgate teaching in written forms- they do have to face a public correction if they lead people astray, or else their false teaching will spread unchecked.

But for the Brits and the Dutch and whoever else may be inclined to be 'brutally' honest: let's remember the Lord Jesus' example:

A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out (Matthew 12:20 NIVUK)

Exploring Assyria: Opening our eyes to the drama of the OT

A Christian lady in my Mum’s village was interested in my presentation and asked for a bit of a reading-list to help people get to grips with the role of the Assyrians in the OT. So here goes:

If you find dates difficult, just remember your OT ABC!

The Israelites came into the Promised Land but God said if they worshipped false gods and did not respect human rights, eg by practising child sacrifice, they would suffer the same fate as the Canaanites whom they drove out of Palestine. So God sent 

SSYRIA: 10 of the 12 tribes sent off into exile (N Iraq) 722 BC

ABYLON: Judah and Benjamin sent off to Babylon (S Iraq) 587 BC

YRUS: The king of Persia allows the Jews to return and rebuild their temple (539 BC) 

The Assyrian Empire was a desperately cruel superpower. (Check what they boasted in: see panels in British Museum)  Nahum 3:19

However, I don’t think it’s fair to say that the Bible presents a caricature of the Assyrians.  Human beings are precious to God and therefore Assyria are characterised for their oppression and wickedness (Isaiah 14:25; Jonah 3:8) and their pride (Isaiah 10:12-14).

Interestingly, there is an acknowledgement in the OT of the genius of Sennacherib: he was an amazing statesman and water engineer as well as a warmongerer: see 2 Kings 18:32; 19:23-24).  This accords with the Sennacherib documented so well by Dr Stephanie Dalley from extra-biblical sources.

If I was to preach a sermon series on Assyria (in an Iraqi context where there is particular interest in Assyria), I suppose I might sketch it out as follows:

1. Assyria: Who were they? Only mentioned once in Psalms Psalm 83:8
1. Mentioned in the Table of Nations, Gen 10:22; considering Gen 12:3 they have a bright future as recipients of blessing through Abraham’s offspring 
2. But synonymous with pride (much to boast in: Is 10:18) and cruelty, and God promises to judge them
3. But hope held out for their salvation Ps 83:16
4. Mention Tatian the Assyrian, early Bible translator.  Assyrian Christianity was a remarkable movement spreading as far as China (C.Baumer’s book)
2. Isaiah 10: a key chapter about Assyria
1. Note 9:12- Arameans & Philistines fade from view as Assyria looms large…
2. 10:5 very famous description of Assyria as ‘the rod of my anger’
3. A spiritual feast: it teaches us that God is in control of the likes of Hitler and Daesh and uses them, mysteriously, to achieve his purposes
3. Jonah: sent to preach in capital of Assyria
1. Jonah 4:2  shows how much God loves even Nazis and the like
4. Nahum: this book is the twin of Jonah
1. Yes God is merciful to evil people, but his patience is not unlimited
2. Nahum preached c140 years after Jonah and by that stage they had returned to their cruel ways
3. God’s justice is something to rejoice in
5. Assyria has a special place in God’s plan: Isaiah 19:23-25
1. This text is an object lesson in interpretation of OT prophecy
2. Assyria no more important than Britain, Brazil or Burkina Faso, but an encouragement that the most cruel and idolatrous nations - Egypt and Assyria in this chapter - can be claimed by Christ for his kingdom 

Preachers' nonsense about the creation of the word 'Atonement'?

This was not created out of thin air, as is popularly believed, from the idea of 'at one ment'- being made at peace, 'at one with one another'.  Rather, a medieval Latin phrase already existed, adunamentum, which influenced the creation of the English word atonement.  When preachers say this word was created in the Reformation to mean 'at one ment', I have always raised my eyebrows and wondered if this is preachers being careless about fact.  But the reality is that although you could not 'create' a term like that today- the component parts have lost their meaning and the word atonement does not even sound out the crucial part 'one'.  But there was a word, now obsolete, 'to one' meaning to unite (I guess it was pronounced like 'to own').  ie "their marriage is on the rocks but I'll try to 'one' them".

Here's the authoritative note from Oxford Reference:

The word comes (in the early 16th century, denoting unity or reconciliation, especially between God and man), from at one + the suffix -ment, influenced by medieval Latin adunamentum ‘unity’, and earlier onement from an obsolete verb one ‘to unite’.

Psalm 91: does God promise Corona won't come near your tent?

Proverbs 30:6 says "Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar."

The mainstream media has been recently exposing some religious people- effectively showing them to be liars, in line with that verse above.  The most shocking example that I've seen is the woman in her car leaving church in Ohio.  The CNN journalist speaks to her through the car window, questioning the wisdom of going to church during this pandemic... and she insists that 'I'm covered in Jesus' blood'.

Another lady interviewed actually marshals Psalm 91 in her defence.

But, very briefly, I want to note down why people like her are misusing Scripture to think they can act dangerously and then claim they're safe in God's shadow, or 'covered by the blood of Jesus'.

Yes, I believe true believers are 'safe'.  But to add to what God means by safety to include walking into danger, is to add to God's word and end up being proved a liar.  This is a terrible witness to the watching world.

1. Paul showed us how we should claim the promises of Psalm 91.  He had confidence that God would rescue him, and bring him safely to...where? His heavenly kingdom.  So, we actually don't know if we will be rescued from the sword or plague, but what we can count on is that God will bring us safely to our true resting-place.  More than that, Romans 8 trains us to view even the extreme hardships that God allows us to face as agents God uses for good in our lives.

2. Satan used Psalm 91 and tried to give Jesus a false assurance.  He said Jesus could jump off the temple and the angels would guide him safely to earth, quoting Psalm 91:12.

So, even today, Satan may actually use Scripture to tempt believers to think 'I can mingle with all these people, against governmental decrees, and I'll be kept safe from Corona'.

(Interestingly, this is not using the NT to abrogate the OT.  Even within Psalm 91, there is almost an elephant in the room. God promises long life at the end...but not eternal life.  So, death still looms (see Psalm 90 just before it).  So the Psalm itself is calling out for a deeper fulfilment, one that conquers not just sickness and warfare but death itself.  Christ provides that fulfilment: he carried our sicknesses and even the arrow that flies by day- think of the nails in his hands and feet and the spear in his side.  He is our true refuge)

5 Devote yourself to Exhortation

Today, I am meditating on what my commission is.  It's all about feeding weak and vulnerable lambs; precious lambs, because they have been bought by the precious blood of the Lamb of God.

I've pointed out that lambs need to be fed on God's word; through Scripture-rich singing, through public reading of Scripture and now to these next two words:

13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. (1 Tim 4:13 ESV)

The NIV that I was discipled with translated it as 'preaching and teaching'.  Perhaps because of that translation, I didn't give very much thought to this verse, since it was easy to see that preachers did both 'sermons' and 'adult Sunday-school classes'.  The former was presumably 'preaching'; the latter perhaps what Paul called teaching.

Both CSB and ESV translate the first word as 'exhortation'. It means encouragement, an act of appealing to people.  The Greek word is paraklesis.  The Holy Spirit is the ultimate paraklete (his title in the Greek of John 14:15-27): the divine Encourager, Exhorter, Appealer, Comforter.  And Christians, by the Spirit, carry out his ministry to one another.  Pastors are not the only ones who should encourage, but we should take the lead in exhorting one another.  Indeed, we get at least one weekly slot in which we are expected to exhort the people. 

I need to read more on this and maybe come back and revise this blog after some more reading.  But for now I want to concentrate on what it means to 'exhort' in our teaching.

I'm grateful that Paul uses two words, and not just exhorting on its own.  Preaching that merely appeals to people to give to the poor, to pray, to be better parents, is full of appeals but lacking in nutrients.  We need to be taught who we are in Christ - blood-bought, adopted children of God with a staggeringly beautiful inheritance to get excited about - before we can work through how such children should behave in their new adoptive family.

But we do need preachers who appeal to us.  There is the danger that good preaching is summed up as being 'expository' or 'expositional'.  No doubt that is an important point. We don't decide on the content of what we preach. We preach what God has spoken- we expound his words.  But that can lead to a sort of preaching in which we hide behind the passage, rather than let the passage appeal through us.

Lloyd-Jones in his famous Preaching and Preachers - I've listened to the recordings that gave rise to the book - criticises preaching that is merely a running commentary on a passage. I used to wonder if that was a bit harsh.  I have pasted his comments in the footnote: (1)  But I think Lloyd-Jones was right to criticise what can be a travesty (that word means a mere dressing-up) of expository preaching.

I said earlier we can 'hide behind the passage'.  The act of preaching demands from us courage not just intellect.

The reason I chose to write this post came from my own devotional reading of Romans.  I noticed how Paul interspersed his very theological letter with appeals, very often with an address: 'brothers and sisters'.  Have you noticed that when someone in the middle of a conversation with you uses your name, it adds an earnestness to their appeal.  Picture the scene: you're talking with one person over a cup of tea after church. "I've seen many pastors leave their ministries." he says. "Jerry, I encourage you to guard your personal devotional times fiercely".  Wow- using someone's name packs more of a punch.  Paul gives us that tone because of the way he addresses his readers: he 'eyeballs' them in so afar as you can in a letter.  I will close with a machine-gun burst of Paul's appeals in Romans: skim them and be encouraged (I mean that in the original sense of en-courage: be filled with courage by Paul's example!). Paul hasn't even visited Rome, but he doesn't just write a theological treatise.

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles... (11:13)

19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, 21 because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. (11:19-21)

I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: (11:25)

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. (12:1)
So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. (14:19)

7 Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. (15:7)

My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 Nevertheless, I have written to remind you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God (15:14-15)

30 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in fervent prayers to God on my behalf. (15:30)

17 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them (16:17)

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As a Brit - we're a reserved and understated people - I used to find preachers who addressed their audience as 'dear friends', or 'brothers and sisters', rather intense and awkward. I've got more used to it now. Interestingly, Paul was not unfamiliar with timidity. In Corinthians 2:3 he says "I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling."

May God strengthen those who feed the flock and fight off wolves that come near the flock, to keep urging their brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God.  May we preach like Paul who "night and day for three years...never stopped warning each one of you with tears". Acts 20

(1) To be fair, MLJ here is not arguing specifically for 'exhortation'; his beef is with those who preach sermons with no form to them.  But I would argue that the form a sermon should have is that it is an appeal to changed thinking and behaviour, with clear reasons given.
" A sermon should always be expository. But, immediately, that leads me to say something which I regard as very important indeed in this whole matter. A sermon is not a running commentary on, or a mere exposition of, the meaning of a verse or a passage or a paragraph.

I emphasise this because there are many today who have become interested in what they regard as expository preaching but who show very clearly that they do not know what is meant by expository preaching. They think that it just means making a series of comments, or a running commentary on a paragraph or a passage or a statement. They take a passage verse by verse; and they make their comments on the first, then they go on to the next verse, and do the same with that, then the next, and so on. When they have gone through the passage in this way they imagine they have preached a sermon. But they have not; all they have done is to make a series of comments on a passage." Quoted at https://nickcady.org/2018/10/04/what-is-expository-preaching-some-thoughts-from-martyn-lloyd-jones/

  

4 Devote yourself to the Public Reading of Scripture

Today, I feel the burden to minister to local people.  I must feed the lambs!  I must preach the word "in season and out of season". Preaching 'out of season' means using online communication to evangelise the lost and to strengthen the lambs, to help them grow to maturity.

So please bear with me if this post has typos or is sloppy in some ways. My aim is not to spend my hours preaching in English, but rather in Kurdish.

But English is my best language and I do most of my thinking in English.  The end result of blogging these thoughts - and I pray for this - will eb that I am more effective in training up KUrdish shepherds.

Today I am trying to sharpen my thinking and yours on what it means to 'feed Jesus' lambs'.  We have seen that it means providing spiritual food.  Much of it is done in song, not just in spoken word.  But today we look at the importance of reading out the Scriptures, not just preaching them.

1 Timothy 4:13 (ESV)

13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Shepherds of the church are not just meant to explain the Bible, they are to read it out.  And they are to 'give themselves' to this, to be 'devoted' to it.  All too often, the public reading of Scripture is given to people who are not gifted at public reading.  Or the task is assigned very late in the week, so they get no chance to practise.

Here's a tip: if you are preaching a apssage, do the reading yourself.  You can devote some of your preapration time to really conveying the meaning of the passage well in your reading.  It will often take three read-throughs.  First, you get used to the words. Second time, you understand the meaning a bit more. And on the third time you read it out loud, you know what meaning is coming up so you inject the right emotion into the reading too.  Public reading conveys interpretation.

Another suggestion: if you give the second reading to someone else, ask those who are reasonably gifted at public reading to send you a voice recording of the reading the day before the service.  Assuming that nearly everyone has a smartphone - here in Duhok they do - that's quite easy to do and it's part of the preparation.  "If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words" 1 Peter 4:11

Churches gnerally do not tolerate a guitarist making a hash of the songs because he hasn't pratised.  Let's be graciously intoerant of people reading out the Bible without practising!

Finally, another practical thought.  Let's say your church decides to teach Jeremiah- the longest book of the Bible.  We are used to the pattern that you have a short reading and then a long exposition.  But I want to challenge that tradition.  I think we neglect the longer books of the OT becuase we are too wedded to that system.  I think for a church/ home group to cover 52 chapters of Jeremiah, they could consider doing it like this:
-roughly 4 chapters each time, over 3 months
-the leader should practise his reading intensively, somewhat like an actor rehearses for Shakespeare's Hamlet [no, I'm not saying memorise the words completely, but actually I am saying you should memorise the words.  That's what good public reaading is! You have partially memorised the passage. You know what's coming next. You know when to sigh, you know when the speed up with anger and you can deliver the mother of all depression poems in chapter 20 with all the right mood swings] 
-deliver your reading with little chunks of exposition as you go, enough to bring out the meaning of Jeremiah's words.
-don't be pinned down by the tradition that exposition follows the reading.  It might be better to say: 'Now, friends. We're going to hear Jeremiah sinking into a deep pit. As I read, remmeber that this is fiulfilled in Jesus's dark dark hour. He walked through the valley of the shadow of death for you. He felt forsaken by his Father.  Take this reading in and hide it in your heart.  You will face dark days yourself.  Jer 20 will keep you bearing fruit in the wilderness years.  Here goes, I'll read it to you- prepare to be shocked by how desparate life can feel, even for true believers..."

For more on this topic,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-yskME0Y4&feature=emb_title
http://thebriefing.com.au/2011/03/devoted-to-the-public-reading-of-scripture/
https://www.amazon.com/Devote-Yourself-Public-Reading-Scripture/dp/0825442192
https://matthiasmedia.com/products/reading-the-bible-aloud-workbook