T4G Day Two, Part One

Today's sessions started early. The first speaker was Thabiti Anyabwile. He had fun with his name by telling us that Thabiti means "who did I tick off to get the 8 AM spot" and Anyabwile means "thank God they gave you free coffee." His talk was entitled "How Wrongly Engaging the Culture Adjusts the Gospel," and his text was Colossians 1:24-2:23. He started by recognizing that it is not uncommon to hear people talk about engaging the culture or winning the culture. He then highlighted the reasons why that proposition is so difficult; it is hard to define culture, we need to ask at what level do we need to engage culture (popular, ethnic, political, high) and it is hard to define the objective (how do we know if we have won the culture?). He then addressed us as pastors (a good portion of the attendees are pastor) and asked the question - is it the pastors task to engage or win the culture? Using Colossians he showed that engaging the culture is not the pastors task and he then outlined what Colossians puts forth as the pastors task. The pastors task is clearly revealed in Col. 1:24-2:5. It is to make the word fully known and to present everyone mature in Christ. Paul emphasized the importance of this task by revealing that he joyfully suffered for the sake of this purpose. Mr. Anyabwile said that it is easy for churches to embrace something that seems good (like engaging the culture) and in the process lose sight of their true purpose.

He then revealed the philosophy that guides the purpose. The philosophy is the sufficiency of Christ. We have been given the knowledge of Christ, Christ rules over all creation, we have been filled with Christ and are to be rooted and growing in Christ. The sufficiency of Christ and the fullness of His work comes to us only in the gospel. Thus we need to put aside the pressures that weigh on us (worldly philosophy and tradition) and be content to proclaim the gospel.

Next he reemphasized the necessity of gospel proclamation. He reminded us that there is great pressure to measure ourselves by the false standards of righteousness prominent both inside and outside the church. The culture is a poor standard of measure since the gospel is counter cultural. At this point he made a powerful statement, he said that every human culture is fundamentally apostate and that through the proclamation of the gospel God was in the process of creating a new culture. He also told us that the church is multi ethnic but it is not multicultural.

He concluded with what he called the proper pastoral perspective and told us that in order to do any earthly good that we must be heavenly minded. Capitulating to the culture is no way of engaging the culture, the culture needs to be confronted with an unadjusted gospel.

Thabiti Anyabwile was followed by John MacArthur. His talk was entitled "A Theology of Sleep." He started by telling us that his theology helped him sleep well and that if the salvation of soul's depended on him he would not sleep well. He then compared the circumstances facing Jesus and the disciples with the problems facing the modern church. Jesus had spent a great deal of time preaching and teaching and had a number of followers who were drawn in by a superficial fascination but He had very few believers. Dr. MacArthur then put forth that the disciples might have been tempted to suggest a different (better) strategy; Jesus had been preaching and would not allow anyone to talk about the miracles He had done. The disciples might have been tempted to tell Jesus that He wasn't meeting the crowds felt needs or that he was out of touch and needed to adjust his message in order to produce more believers. Dr. MacArthur was obviously making the point that this is what many churches today are doing; they adjust the gospel becasue the gospel does not seem to work.

After establishing this context he pointed to Jesus' teaching in Mark 4:26-29. Jesus compares the work of evangelism to the work of a farmer. The farmer plants the seed and goes to sleep. While he is sleeping the seeds grow and the farmer does not know how. The same is true of the work of evangelism. We must sow seed (proclaim the gospel) and sleep. Once we have proclaimed the truth it is up to God to bring forth truth. Dr. MacArthur then put forth four attitudes that we must have as we contemplate our responsibility to proclaim the gospel. By the way he was not limiting this proclamation to pastors. He pointed out that in the parable of the sower there are no adjectives to describe him, he was simply one that sowed seed. All believers need to be sowing seed. As we sow these are our attitudes:

1. We sow seed humbly knowing that we do not have to power to change the human heart. In our humility we do not try and improve the message but we proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He warned against appealing to emotion or the will and said that we need to appeal to the mind proclaiming the objective truth about who Christ is and what He has done. He even said that the sharp edge of our proclamation is sin and repentance. He suggested that in our proclamation we need to make acceptance hard and press the foolish message of the cross and resurrection. By doing this we guard against spurious "conversions."
2. We sow obediently knowing that we possess the light. Even though we do not have the power to change the heart we have the message that God uses to change hearts. Because of this we must obediently sow the gospel.
3. We go diligently because we are motivated by God's promises and rewards.
4. We go confidently knowing that God has determined an exponential outcome.