The Power of The Word and words #LeadersAreReaders January 2023

I was doing a house cleaning last week when I discovered my old notes with amazing stories in them. Let me share one about the transforming power of the Word. It is written by Peter V. Deison about a man named Ramad. Ramad was the most dangerous man in all of India. His gang attacked, plundered, and terrified the remote villages of the area. He was wanted dead or alive. While ransacking a small home in one of these villages, he found a small black book.

At first, he started to throw it away, but he noticed that the paper was very thin and just the right size for roll-you-own cigarettes. Each evening after a meal Ramad would relax with a smoke. He would take out the little book, tear a page out, and fold it over for the tobacco. One evening while folding the paper, he noticed the writing was in his own language. So each evening after eating, he would read a page of the little book - presumably the New Testament - and then smoke it.

One evening, by God's grace, over time, he was convicted! He knelt and asked Jesus Christ to forgive his sins and confessed Him to be his Lord and Savior. At once he turned himself over to the police, much to their surprise, and turned from a bandit to an evangelist for Christ in the prison! It became Ramad's first mission field where he led many other prisoners to Jesus.

I heard and read many real-life stories like this when God's Word - even His servants' words a.k.a. books about the written Word - made a change in people's lives. It's true: "Know it in your mind; Stow it in your heart; Show it in your life; Sow it in the world." Amen!

#ServeToLead #ReadersAreReaders #PrisonMinistry #ThePowerOfTheWord #Repentance #ChangedLife #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

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Very Short Reviews of Michael Green's The Message of Matthew & Larry Chouinard's Matthew NIV Commentary (Why and How to Use Bible Commentary)

 The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven (1988, 2000) by Michael Green

& Matthew: The College Press NIV Commentary (1997) by Larry Chouinard

I’ve finished 198 episodes of Bible study on the Gospel according to Matthew (check it out here: http://bit.ly/LegasiSpotify) in the Malaysian language and these two commentaries are very instrumental in helping me to think contextually about some difficult passages in this precious book. I’m biased but I truly believe that the Gospel according to Matthew is perhaps one of the most important books of the New Testament next to the Epistles to the Romans and Hebrews. In it, we have the fullest account of the birth, life, teaching, miracles, death, resurrection, divinity, and humanity of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. It is an excellent continuation after we read and study the Old Testament because the Jewishness of Matthew can be best understood in this context. As the saying attributed to Augustine of Hippo: “The new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.” Matthew revealed the long-awaited Messiah foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament and expanded by the apostles in the New Testament. Matthew, in short, helps us to see the unity of God’s revelation from beginning to end.

As I have hinted earlier, Matthew is a very Jewish Gospel. This can be a challenging task for interpretation a.k.a. hermeneutics and many like myself - especially my earliest podcast episodes, I realized - probably have missed the mark. Perhaps errors, hopefully not heresies. Yes, getting so familiar with the Old Testament is a great advantage for Biblical backgrounds and theological truths (as another saying goes, “Scripture interprets Scripture”) but we also need to know the historical insights, textual research, and cultural understandings to bridge the gap between the world of Scripture and our world today. This is where good Bible commentaries are needed. My go-to commentary is always from The Bible Speaks Today series by Inter-Varsity Press. The Message of Matthew (323 pages), the late Dr. Michael Green is the expositor and author. I love this series because each book is characterized by a threefold ideal, namely, 1) To expound the biblical text with accuracy, 2) To relate it to contemporary life, and 3) to be readable. Dr. Green is faithful to these ideals. Plus, he has a vast knowledge of Jewish customs and manners and derives many practical applications from the texts. Larry Chouinard’s Matthew (512 pages), however, was unique in the sense that it is thorough and detailed without being too technical and academic. The Greek words are not distract-full and the footnotes are just essential. Sweet!

Let me end with a word of caution: Don’t read or depend on Bible commentaries more than the Bible itself. Don’t go to it first or second or third… go to the Bible first. Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, authors of a classic book, How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth, give excellent advice: “You do not begin your Bible study with a commentary… You go to the commentary after you have done your own work; the reason you eventually consult a commentary is to find answers to the content questions that have arisen in your own study.” When I prepare for Bible study, I make sure I’ve read the entire book (e.g. Matthew) first. I read from at least 2 to 3 translations such as ESV, NIV, NLT, AVB, and TB. Then, I meditate on the passage or chapter that I’m working on and come out with rough outlines. I will refer to cross-references, if any, and check by memory for connections. Usually, I have the big picture before I go with the details. Only afterward I will consult commentaries and other tools for second opinion, expertise, verification, correction, background, insights, and wisdom. But if I don’t have the clue (which rarely happens), I will go straight to commentary on the particular verse(s). Good Bible commentaries, if used wisely and properly, will add value to your personal Bible study, teaching, preaching, and even - thinking.

Tip: You can also read (and buy) pocket-size Bible commentaries like William Barclay's The New Daily Study Bible series or Tom Wright's For Everyone series or Warren Wiersbe's BE Series or my favorite, J.C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts series as any normal books. These are easy to read. Read them at your leisure and fill the well of your knowledge. They can be handy if you needed them!

Note: D. A. Carson’s Matthew: The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, John MacArthur’s sermon series on Matthew, and David Pawson's Unlocking the Bible overview also have been valuable resources for me. Thank you, gentlemen!

#ServeToLead #LeadersAreReaders #BibleCommentary #TheGospelOfMatthew #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

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The Lord from Heaven (1958, 1974) by Leon Morris, Book Review

 The Lord from Heaven: A Study of the New Testament Teaching
on the Deity and Humanity of Jesus Christ (1958, 1974) by Leon Morris

This is a very worn-out book. But it is very good, insightful, and surprisingly still relevant amidst the many books on the same topic. I’ve read it during my flight to Cambodia a few years ago. Due to the holiday mood, I forget most of the contents (this is good because I can read it all over again as if it's new for me) but I remember thinking that I must read it again slowly and thoughtfully. I’m glad I did. Because over the years as I’m gaining more knowledge of the Scripture, interest in theology, and passion for the Person of Jesus Christ, I can appreciate it even more now. What I like about Leon Lamb Morris (1914-2006), a respected New Testament scholar, is that he writes in such a way that is both scholarly and yet readable, with depth and yet simple, just like the late John Stott and Michael Green. I highly recommend his Bible commentaries too especially on the Gospel of Matthew, John, and Romans.

Why this book is important? Simply this: Jesus Christ is. His question to the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15) is what we - the believers and the potential believers - must discover over and over again for the rest of our lives. Knowing Jesus is not enough. Knowing the right Jesus as taught in the Scripture is essential. Knowledge of truth leads to saving faith, faith leads to eternal life. Our theology affects our doxology. What do we say and believe about Jesus matters! The main purpose of Leon Morris in this book is to give a short and simple outline of what the New Testament says about the Person of Jesus. He concludes that the Scripture taught clearly that He is BOTH God AND man. I agree. Morris writes, “The great thought of the New Testament is that God has taken action in the Person of His Son to put away man’s sin. This is not the idea of one or two writers, but the whole of the early church. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find any such thought as that Jesus is like one of the angels, or that He can be fully explained in purely human terms. With one accord the New Testament writers insist that Jesus must be thought of as God in the fullest sense. His relationship to the Father is the very closest relationship possible. There is no doubt about the place they ascribe to Jesus.”

He continues, “This is all the more remarkable in view of their convinced monotheism. They do not seem to have envisaged the possibility of a multiplicity of gods. They took it as an axiom that there can be only one God. Without compromise on this basic tenet, they yet affirmed the deity of Christ.” Right. When someone asks me to explain about the Doctrine of the Trinity, how can one God exist in three Persons, I usually added one more challenging issue to the inquiry by stating the Doctrine of the Incarnation, that God became human, and He - Jesus - was truly God and truly man. How can it be? Well, I can help him or her to examine the Scripture but I can never explain it fully. “How these two, the deity and the humanity, are related, or even how they could come to co-exist in the one Person, we do not know,” said Morris honestly. “The evidence does not indicate that Jesus was partly God and partly man, that He did some things as God and others as a man. Rather He was one Person, though a Person with divine and human characteristics.” This is a mystery beyond any man’s power to solve or to explain it away. I think we are free to reject this doctrine if we also reject the consistent testimonies of the Scripture, particularly the New Testament, regarding the Person of Jesus. But if we accept the Scripture as the written Word of God (I do), there is no way for us to deny that Jesus was God incarnate. As H.E.W. Turner, quoted by Morris, emphasizes strongly, “The Person of Jesus does not come apart in our hands into the two halves of humanity and divinity, one of which we have to set on one side when we begin to examine the other. His Personality is a seamless whole.”

This book is divided into eight (8) chapters, namely, 1) Jesus of Nazareth; 2) Jesus’ View of Himself; 3) Jesus the Man; 4) A Prince and A Saviour; 5) The Lord of Glory; 6) A Great High Priest; 7) God the Word; and 8) Conclusion. In each chapter, Morris unpacked what the New Testament taught about the humanity and divinity of Jesus from multiple angles, genres, and themes but leave the verdict for us to answer ourselves: “Who do you say about Jesus?”

#ServeToLead #LeadersAreReaders #TheLordFromHeaven #LeonMorris #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

Related book review: The Forgotten Trinity (1998) by James R. White, CLICK HERE
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The Man They Crucified: A Portrait of Jesus (1975) by R. T. France, Book Review

 The Man They Crucified: A Portrait of Jesus (1975) by R. T. France

Philip went to look for Nathaniel and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathaniel. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied. As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel - a man of complete integrity.” “How do you know about me?” Nathaniel asked. Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.” Then Nathaniel exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God - the King of Israel!” (read John 1:45-49). After Nathaniel's personal encounter with Jesus, he turned from being a skeptic to one of His most devoted followers.

Two things will always happen when someone meets the real Jesus of the Bible: accept Him or reject Him. Of course, one can be undecided but not for long because decisions have to be made soon or later when it comes to the person and identity of Jesus (to ignore Him is to reject Him). He demands a verdict! As R. T. France (1938 - 2012), a renowned New Testament scholar, writes about the change that happened to Nathaniel: “That is the sort of thing that happens when Jesus is around. People find their prejudices shaken. Some of them respond by digging themselves deeper into the trenches. Others find themselves, to their amazement, abandoning the preconceptions of a lifetime, and they are never the same again.” By faith, I know why Jesus is irresistible: He is the divine Son of God, the gracious Son of Man, and the wonderful Savior of the world. But these truths, although can be supported by the Scripture, can only be accepted fully by faith. So, what about Jesus in His humanity, in the context of history, that is also irresistible? Or to put it another way, why Jesus was controversial and phenomenal in His lifetime on earth? And why does Jesus still do so today, more than 2,000 years later? This book can help us to understand - as an introduction, not comprehensive studies - Jesus in His historical context and background.

By using the Gospels as France’s main sources for his portrait of Jesus (see Appendix for explanation) and some other reliable materials, he divided the book into 12 chapters, namely, Nazareth, Expectation, Preparation, Disciples, Miracles, Society, Controversy, The Kingdom, Confrontation, Condemnation, Vindication, and Dilemma. The book helps us to explore the life of Jesus as a Jew living in Israel; surrounded by particular religious issues, customs, and ideologies; with unique socioeconomic orders and political turmoils. Examining Jesus’ claims about Himself in these chapters also makes it more meaningful and relevant. These are the things that we must take into considerations when we read the Gospel accounts of Jesus and it helps us to make the decision (that I write earlier) with intellect and awareness NOT just by faith. Well, of course, at the end of the day faith is required to bridge the gap between mere knowledge to saving knowledge. “It would be much more convenient if Jesus could be made to fit the formulas which we are all so good at devising for him, as the ethical reformer, the pacifist, the prophet of the oppressed classes, or whatever. All of these he is, and much more,” said R. T. France in the closing of this highly commended and accessible book, “But he cannot be reduced to any one of them. The only meaningful way to relate to the Jesus of the Gospels is in the totality of the claims he makes on us. If we do not come to him on his terms, we do not come to him at all.”

“Can anything good come from the life of Jesus of Nazareth?” you might ask. I want to invite you to read the Gospel accounts for the first time - or once again - and say, “Come and see for yourself.” And if you need help, this book can be one of your guides 😉☑💡#ServeToLead #LeadersAreReaders #GrowingLeaders #LifeOfJesus #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

I also recommend:

1) The Jesus of the Bible (2009) by Stephen M. Miller ✔
2) Jesus, A Virtual History (2014) by Donald Brake ✔
3) Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ (1996) by Robert H. Stein ✔

 

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Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go: Luke & Acts (2007) by International Bible Society, Review-Maybe

 

Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go: Luke & Acts (2007) by International Bible Society

I think I heard first from the late David Pawson that chapter divisions in the Bible are added later in the year around 1227. When I checked the internet, it was done by Stephen Langton, an Archbishop of Canterbury. The Wycliffe English Bible of 1382 was the first Bible to use this method and since then, nearly all Bible translations have followed Langton’s divisions (then about 200 to 300 years later, verse divisions were added). It is NOT inspired by God in a sense like the Scripture but it is helpful for 1) Quotations, 2) Memorisations, and 3) References. It is easier if I say, "Let's turn to the Gospel according to Luke chapter 22 verse 10" than to say, "Let's turn to somewhere in the middle of the Gospel according to Luke."

But there are, of course, weaknesses with chapter and verse divisions. First, you'll miss the context of the passage of the Scripture easily when it is divided wrongly. For example, in Matthew 16:28, when Jesus said "some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom" is fulfilled just after that in Matthew 17:1-13 through Jesus' transfiguration. Many people argue the meaning of Matthew 16:28 when all they have to do is continue reading the next chapter! Secondly, you'll assume what the Scripture said isolatedly instead of as a whole. For example, Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them", is in the context of church discipline from verse 15 not a general promise for any prayer meeting per se. Thirdly, you'll see the Scripture as a religious document only instead of the story of redemption ultimately. For example, when Zakir Naik lectures against Christianity, he always quotes like this, "Chapter [bla bla bla] verse [bla bla bla] said..." When I paused the YouTube videos and search some of the verses that he mentions, it was always out of context. To put it mildly, the person of Jesus of his version is very abstract here and there instead of the real God-man who enter into the world history. We too must be careful not to do the same. Don't let chapter and verse divisions distract you from seeing the big picture, the drama, the story of redemption.

So you see, there are pros and cons of having these divisions in our modern Bible. With this long introduction, let me say something about this book Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go. It is actually the compilation of the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the apostles without chapter and verse divisions. Church historians claim that Luke and Acts are two volumes of a single work which traces the story of Christianity from its beginnings in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ up to the middle of the first century AD. I read it like a novel, only that it is not works of fiction but the truth continuation. The translation is from Today's New International Version (TNIV) and I love it!  #1Book1Week #ServeToLead #LeadersAreReaders #LukeActs #KingdomComeKingdomGo

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The Preacher's Portrait: Some New Testament Word Studies (1961) by John Stott, Book Review

 

The Preacher's Portrait: Some New Testament Word Studies (1961) by John Stott

A book like this must be read with a pen and paper at hand. When Stott writes, I better listen. His writings, especially a superb commentary on 2 Timothy, have been parts of God's instruments that changed my life and draw me closer to the God of the Bible and quench my thirst for His Word. Stott writes clearly (not as an academic scholar but as a loving "Uncle John"), biblically (or should I say, exegetically), and humbly (in the preface he reminds his readers, "I do not pose as an expert, I am far from it"). Yes, I realize some controversies surrounding Stott during his lifetime and even after he died in 2011. Most are false, some are questionable, one or two are plausible. I admire Stott but never in my right mind believe what he wrote is infallible. I echo what Peter said to the Lord Jesus Christ, "You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). Only Jesus and His words are infallible - and inerrant.

When Stott was asked during an interview, "What do you believe about the state of preaching today?" Without a pause, he said, "Miserable!" (watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/eXpY0IPYxcE). I miserably agree. Preachers today become celebrities; preaching becomes entertainment, and motivational speaking and marketing strategy filled the pulpits. Or look at our social media ministries. The message of Memikul Salib Kristus have become self-help advice Menjadi Orang Berjaya dan Sukses and minimize into trivial "Bolehkah Orang Kristian Bertatu?" 😒 What a downgrade! What have we become? Since 1961 through this book (then later in 1982, when he also wrote I Believe In Preaching), John Stott keeps urging us to return to Biblical preaching.

"We need," states Stott, "to gain in the Church today a clearer view of God's revealed ideal for the preacher, what he is, and how he is to do his work. So I shall be considering his message and his authority, the character of the proclamation he is called to make, the vital necessity of his own experience of the Gospel, the nature of his motive, the source of his power, and the moral qualities which should characterize him, notably humility, gentleness, and love. This, I suggest, is the preacher's portrait, a portrait painted by the hand of God Himself on the broad canvas of the New Testament." In short, the preacher is 1) A Steward, 2) A Herald, 3) A Witness, 4) A Father, and 5) A Servant. At first, I wanted to just share summary outlines of what Stott writes about each word. But then again, maybe I'll pass. If this review sparks your interest, you'll find ways to search for it online or better - buy the book! 😉

I was listening to an interview in Open Book Podcast when Stephen Nichols asked John MacArthur about one of the books that influence him the most in his early years as pastor. Yes, one of them is The Preacher's Portrait. He said, "By the time I was through that book, I knew I could never do anything in a pulpit - in my life - except explain the Scripture." The impact of this book is evident 💪 ✍📖 #1Book1Week #LeadersAreReaders #JohnStott #BiblicalPreaching #PreacherAndPreaching #GodsWordAutority

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