Here are 1-minute demos of the two CWM songs on the CD:

• For the Sake of His Name (Grand View Singers)
• His Robes for Mine (Grand View Singers)

1. Jesus corrected a common misconception about hardships. The chapter begins with the disciples questioning Jesus about the cause of the poor beggar’s blindness (John 9:2). They assumed that it was due to some great sin, either on his part or his parents’. It was a common assumption (John 9:34; Luke 13:1-5), but an inaccurate one, denying both common grace and universal sin. And it’s a cruel assumption, assigning blame where there should be compassion. 

We may be tempted to think that we’re beyond the mistaken idea that every trial can be traced to personal failure. But are we? Do we not assume that hardships—from a flat tire to a diagnosis of cancer—are God “zapping” us for disobedience of some sort, as though He were in heaven just waiting for us to skip our devotions for a day so He can bop us on the head? More pointedly, the notion that hardships can be traced to frailty is the dark side of Joel Osteen’s seemingly cheerful lessons about having your best life now. “Prosperity Gospel” types come off as such an optimists, but in reality, there’s a cruelty in the notion that I’m sick or poor or unemployed because I lack the faith to make the change. Really? Far better to submit to the teachings of Christ in John 9:3. Yes, hardships exist in our fallen world. And Jesus has compassion on us. But our trials aren’t random. God has ordained them to magnify His work through them. Even our headaches and heartbreaks are part of a God-glorifying plan—and that’s fine (Phil 1:20).

2. Jesus displayed His deity by the manner in which He healed the man. Just restoring sight to the blind is a sign that Jesus is God. It shows omnipotence. It fulfills Messianic promises (Luke 7:18-23; Luke 4:16-21; Isaiah 61:1-2). But the way in which He did it is especially striking. I love this. Jesus could have healed with a thought, or a word, or a touch. But this time, He acted very intentionally and symbolically. He spat on the ground, made a mixture of mud, then applied it to the man’s eyes. It’s no random detail—the “mud” is recorded in John 9:6, 11, 14, and 15. Why’d He do that?

Well, throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus has claimed to be God. John started the book by saying that Jesus was the Creator of all things (John 1:3), and he’s in the process of presenting evidence of the deity of Christ (John 20:31). Jesus’ use of mud to heal the man’s blind eyes is an audacious and glorious allusion back to the original creation of man. In Genesis 2:7, Christ formed man from the dust of the ground. He created galaxies with just a word, but He formed man with attentive delicacy. Now, in John 9:6, He again uses the dust of the ground to repair His creature—to “remake” him, if you will. It’s a beautiful, meaningful act.

3. Jesus used the miracle to show His power to save. The miracle of mercy is beautiful to behold. However, Christ had a bigger agenda. He preceded the healing by announcing again that He is “the light of the world” (John 9:5; cp. John 1:4, 5, 9; 8:12). Then he used a physical miracle to prove it. It’s very like Matthew 9:1-8, where Jesus healed a paralytic for the specific purpose of proving that He had power to do something far greater—to forgive the man’s sins. Similarly, Jesus heals the blind man’s eyes as part of a greater plan: (1) to save his soul (John 9:35-38; cp. a similar circumstance in John 5:14), and (2) to introduce a discussion on spiritual blindness (John 9:8-41). Jesus healed the blind to display His power to give “sight to the inly blind,” as John Mariott put it (cp. 2 Cor 4:4-6).

What a Savior He is! Grace!

(Note: John Mariott’s great hymn “Thou, Whose Almighty Word” is a delight to sing to the tune Italian Hymn, usually associated with “Come Thou, Almighty King.”)

His Robes for Mine 

• Here is an MP3 of His Robes for Mine from a recent service. (I posted a previous recording, but they were missing some key musicians during that service.) The whole thing is beautifully done, but the organ and brass transition into the last stanza is amazing. It just about moves me to tears every time I hear it. (Horns!)
• Here is a PDF (zip) of Paul’s orchestration for congregational accompaniment. We’re providing it for free, but a suggested donation of $25 can be made here.
• Here is an MP3 of Chuck Swindoll making extemporaneous comments on the hymn, its doctrine, and the gospel.

As always, the PDF of the hymn version can be downloaded here and an explanation of the text found here. Other hymns can be found at ChurchWorksMedia.com. May the Lord use His Word in song to point both sinners and saints to the Savior.

(Note: While posting this I received word that the hymn has been translated into Chinese. Grace!)

“In the real world, many, perhaps most,  of us worship and work in churches of 100 people or less; life is not loud and exciting; big things do not happen every Sunday;  budgets are incredibly tight and barely provide enough for a pastor’s modest salary; each Lord’s Day we go through the same routines of worship services, of hearing the gospel proclaimed, of taking the Lord’s Supper, of teaching Sunday School; perhaps several times a year we do leaflet drops in the neighbourhood with very few results; at Christmas time we carol sing in the high street and hand out invitations to church and maybe two or three people actually come along as a result; but no matter — we keep going, giving, and praying as we can; we try to be faithful in the little entrusted to us.  It’s boring, it’s routine, and it’s the same, year in, year out.   Therefore, in a world where excitement, celebrity, and cultural power are the ideal, it is tempting amidst the circumstances of ordinary church life to forget that this, the routine of the ordinary, the boring, the plodding, is actually the norm for church life and has been so throughout most places for most of the history of the church; that mega-whatevers are the exception, not the rule; and that the church has survived throughout the ages not just—or even primarily—because of the high profile firework displays of the great and the good, but because of the day to day faithfulness of the mundane, anonymous, non-descript  people who constitute most of the church, and who do the grunt work and the tedious jobs that need to be done.   History does not generally record their names; but the likelihood is that you worship in a church which owes everything, humanly speaking, to such people.”

(HT: Ryan Shanahan)

Christ Has Won!

Born in sin, so sin I craved—
Born, and from that birth depraved.
Till I turned to Christ from sin
And by faith was born again.

Refrain:
Christ has won! My soul is free—
Loosed from Satan’s tyranny;
Loosed from sin’s enslaving cord;
Free, and bound to Christ my Lord!

Dead in sin, my hopeless state—
Dead, with death my timeless fate.
Till by dying, Christ won life;
Raised with Him, I shall not die.

Lost in sin, I groped for help;
Lost, and slinking down to hell.
Till Christ, piercing moral night,
Rescued me and gave me Light.

Bound by sin, I was a slave;
Bound to self from birth to grave.
Till Christ broke my dungeon grim,
Loosing me from me, to Him.

1.  Sin is the barrier.
2.  Sin must be dealt with.
3.  There is a real hostility between God and sinners.
4.  Reconciliation is God’s work.
5.  Reconciliation proceeds from the love of God.
6.  The reconciliation must be received.

That’s good. I’d clarify by offering two more points which I believe are essential:

5b.  Reconciliation is rooted in the cross-work of Christ.
7.  The goal of reconciliation is restored fellowship between God and sinners.

That last point is thrilling to me. Not only is estrangement and enmity ended in Christ, but a positive, loving relationship with God is gained. I don’t just get pardon—I get God!

Spend some time in the verses mentioned above. Meditate on the amazing truth that we can have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace!

The text below will almost certainly go through some tweaking after I’ve lived with it awhile and before it’s joined to music. But I’m excited about it. I believe it faithfully progresses through her solitude (v. 1), her spiritual thirst (v. 2), her forgiveness (v. 3), her transformation into a worshiper (v. 4), and her joyful evangelism (v. 5).

Stylistically, I decided to write in a format that would make the piece both an expression of praise to God and an invitation to fellow Samaritans. “Come! Drink! Rest! Joy! Go!” Also, the story (and, I suppose, the meter) brought to mind a lot of hyphenated compound modifiers, which developed into a motif throughout the piece. That’s not typical for a hymn text, I realize. There’s probably a good reason for that. But she’s not typical. Her Savior certainly isn’t! At any rate, I hope the text will help people wonder at the immense mercy of Christ. If nothing else, it’s been good for me to go through the exercise, as with the other texts published at CWM. Grace!

Come, Lonely Heart

Come, lonely heart, to the outsider’s Friend—
To Jesus, who seeks out the lost.
Your soul-wrenching solitude will fin’lly end;
Find welcome—find home—at the Cross.

Drink, thirsty heart, of the water of life—
Of bountiful, thirst-quenching grace.
The world’s broken cisterns cannot satisfy;
A Savior is what your heart craves.

Rest, guilty heart, in forgiveness of sin—
In pardon from shame-stirring vice.
Though Satan and sinners and conscience condemn,
Your soul may be spotless as Christ’s.

Joy, grateful heart, in the Father above—
In God who is seeking your praise.
The sinner becomes through His life-changing love
A trophy and trumpet of grace.

Go, brimming heart, to declare what you’ve found—
To share that Messiah has come.
Go, that the glory of God may redound
Through Jesus, the world-saving Son.

(Note: If you wonder what this all means, I encourage you to listen to this brief gospel presentation, which tells how sinners can be right with God through Jesus Christ.)

However, there are still more parallels between the Passovers of the two Testaments, and they are richly described by Leon Morris in The Atonement: It’s Meaning and Significance. In addition to the “deliverance” parallels, there are positive “assembly” parallels. God wasn’t just breaking Egyptian bonds; He was gathering a people for Himself (Ex 6:7; 19:6), collecting a nation to serve Him (Ex 8:20; 9:1; 10:3). Redemption has both doxological and corporate purposes. Morris explains:

“The Passover commemorated not simply a deliverance, but that deliverance which made a nation out of the slave rabble into which the descendants of the great patriarchs had degenerated in Egypt…. In a very real sense the Passover commemorated the birth of a nation and that nation the people of God.” (p. 91)

Morris goes on to note that just as the initial Passover event had a corporate, assembly-making purpose, so later observances celebrated community. The entire nation was required to travel to Jerusalem, and “the gathering at the temple when the sacrifice was offered gave the necessary emphasis to national unity” (p. 99). Beyond that national observance, even the individual meals were corporate affairs:

“Passover was a time when the idea of community was very prominent. Jews gathered from all the world to keep the feast, a fact which was significant in itself. Passover was not a purely individual affair to be observed according to individual taste. While the most important part of the celebration took placed in homes with small companies of people, the occasion was corporate, not individual…. Passover was a time for the collective joy of the nation, not the private happiness of individuals.” (p. 98)

Christ is the church’s Passover (1 Cor 5:7). He has delivered us from spiritual bondage by His propitiatory death. We remember that by observing the Lord’s Table, the new Passover meal. But He has also gathered us into a spiritual nation by that deliverance (1 Pet 2:9), claiming us for Himself and uniting us with one another. And we remember that by observing the Lord’s Table, as well. We are delivered from sin, unto God, into the church—all for God’s glory. Grace!

(Note: Some of these themes are contained in the hymn “Gaze on the Christ,” where I allude to the Passover theme in relation to Christ.)

Paul speaks often in this “seminar” of the importance of character and affection (as I noted in this post). He roots spiritual influence both in the leader’s integrity (“you know me” type comments in v. 18-21 and v. 33-35) and relationships (“I wept over you” comments in v. 19 and 31; cp. v. 37-38). But example and engagement are far from sufficient. The genius—the essence—of Christian ministry is the teaching and preaching of Scripture. Paul emphasizes the centrality of the Word in a variety of ways:

1.  Paul describes the ministry ideal by using multiple NT words for preaching. Again and again he reminds us of the centrality of the Word to church life. What did he do for three years in Ephesus? Explain and apply the Bible, in every possible manner. As he recounts his ministry, it’s like he’s using a Greek Thesaurus:

• He declared what was profitable (anangelō, v. 20)
• He taught the Ephesians (didaskō, v. 20)
• He testified repentance and faith (diamartureō, v. 21)
• He testified of the gospel (diamartureō, v. 24)
• He proclaimed the kingdom (kērussō, v. 25)
• He declared the whole counsel of God (anangelō, v. 27)
• He admonished the Ephesians (noutheteō, v. 31)

2.  Paul describes the ministry ideal by equating “ministry” with preaching. In v. 24, he speaks of his desire to finish his course and fulfill the ministry which he received from the Lord Jesus. But then he defines that ministry in the final phrase of the verse: “to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” That’s huge. Paul wanted to finish the ministry entrusted to him—that is (or namely, or in other words) to bear witness of the Christian Gospel. I can’t conceive of a clearer statement of the pastor’s central responsibility. He is to point his hearers to the grace of God as manifest in the Son of God and revealed in the Word of God. That is the ministry.

3.  Paul describes the ministry ideal as incessant instruction. Paul is talking about more than Sunday morning sermons, though certainly not less. He couldn’t open his mouth without Scripture coming out.

• Where did Paul he teach the Word? ”In public and from house to house” (v. 20). That tells us that biblical instruction takes place both in public (in services and classes) and in private (counseling, discipleship, small groups, etc.). In fact, v. 25 gives the impression that Paul often taught on the fly as he wandered about Ephesus (v. 25), not only at designated teaching times.
• To whom did Paul teach the Word? Anyone who would listen, whether Jews or Gentiles (v. 21).
• How did Paul teach the Word? Courageously, refusing to flinch or hold back even when what he was saying was hard to hear (v. 20, 27). After all, it wasn’t about him (v. 24).
• When did Paul teach the Word? All the time, “night or day” (v. 31).

4.  Paul describes the ministry ideal by contrasting the teaching of shepherds and wolves. His command to the elders to “care for the church of God” (v. 28) is vital. The term is poimaino, which is the verb form of “shepherd.” The KJV’s translation of the term as “feed the church” is too narrow. However, it is true that feeding is one of the primary jobs of shepherds—probably the primary job. Sure, they are also to protect the flock (v. 29-30). But even that protection must be an exercise in teaching:

• Wolves are noted for their teaching. The M.O. of the church’s enemies is “teaching twisted things” (v. 30). The battle for the flock is a battle of ideas. Wolves are teachers as surely as shepherds are. To protect the flock requires that we not only expose false teachers (which is necessary) but that we refute them—protecting from twisted things by teaching straight things!
• Wolves are combated with teaching. Paul demonstrates how to fight off wolves by his own Word-centered example. He immediate responds to his discussion of wolves (v. 29-30) by again pointing to his example of teaching: “Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears” (v. 31). Preaching is essential in the face of apostasy. It includes warnings, including of specific wolves. It includes emotion. It includes urgency. It’s a matter of defense as well as nourishment.

5.  Paul describes the ministry ideal by commending the church to God and His Word. Acts 20:32 was forever chiseled into my memory by one of the pastors of my youth. Dr. Richard Keltner would end each service by quoting it as an benediction: “I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” I loved that, and I do it often myself. But the words would have been even more meaningful in their original context. Paul wasn’t commending the church to God and the Word of His grace (a great name for the Scriptures!) for a week, “till we meet again.” He was leaving them for good (v. 25, 38). What’s more, he was telling them that they didn’t need him. He was expendable as long as they had God and the Scriptures to build them up and to prepare them for their approaching inheritance. Ministry that centers on the Word is sustainable even in the messenger’s absence. Why? Because it is the Word that edifies and equips the church of Christ.

Conclusion: Faithful Christian ministry is all about the Word. The pastor delivers it. Announces it. Explains it. Indoctrinates with it. Warns with it.  Defends with it. Reminds of it. Applies it. He isn’t an executive, a manager, or a marketing specialist. He’s a teacher. Yes, he provides an example and builds strong relationships, but the Word is the hallmark of his ministry and the source of his influence. His heartbeat is the Gospel. That’s the way Paul did the ministry. That’s the way he told the Ephesian elders to do it. And that’s the way we should be doing it some 2000 years later. God help us.