This Week's White Horse Inn

The Nature of Spiritual Growth

This week on the White Horse Inn we are continuing our series on sustainable church growth. In this program, we will be looking at the nature of spiritual growth itself. How do faithful disciples and faithful churches grow? What sustains this faith across the decades? The horticultural metaphors in Scripture are definitive for understanding the nature of the church’s health and growth. Although a church may grow in attendance, does that mean it is necessarily fruitful or faithful? Can Christians grow spiritually in these church environments over the long haul?

While it’s true that megachurches continue to see growth in numbers, it is not being mean spirited to ask whether there is real viability or sustainability in their methods. True spiritual growth is the topic on this episode. This topic is something we need to desperately understand in today’s environment. So how do faithful churches grow? What does it mean to be a lifelong disciple who is maturing in Christ (Eph 4:15)? We will trace these horticultural metaphors in Scripture to help us understand this process. Join us this week on the White Horse Inn as we discuss the means and method the Spirit of Christ has promised to bless and use according to his Word.

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"The King of Israel" -- John 12:12-26

The Fortieth in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

There are times when things are not what they seem.  What appears to be a spontaneous moment of triumph and joy when Jesus enters Jerusalem to return the nation to greatness, is actually a sign of Israel’s unbelief and hardness of heart.  The people sense the obvious messianic significance of David’s son entering his royal city.  But for the citizens of Israel, this was a political event with religious implications, not the moment when Jesus enters Jerusalem as the prince of peace, and suffering servant who will lay down his life for his sheep.  What looks like the culmination of his three year public ministry–the messiah has come to his royal city in a triumphal procession–is but a step on the way to Jesus’ cross and empty tomb.  This is a day of joy because Scripture is being fulfilled and Jesus must obey his Father’s will to secure our salvation.  But on this day, the crowds do not understood the true meaning of what they were seeing.  Israel’s moment has come, but the people do not understand the significance of what is happening.

We are continuing our series on the Gospel of John, and we have come to Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem–commonly celebrated in Christian churches on Palm Sunday.  There are few events recorded in all four gospels–Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem is one of them.   As we have seen during our time in John 11-12–which is the literary hinge of John’s Gospel uniting our Lord’s messianic mission (the first ten chapters) and our Lord’s Upper Room Discourse and Passion (chapters 13-21)–Jesus’ messianic mission is rapidly coming to its conclusion.  Jesus has raised his close friend Lazarus from the dead, proving that he is the Son of God and Israel’s Messiah.  Sadly, the Sanhedrin’s response to Jesus’ seventh miracle is to issue a warrant for Jesus’ arrest–which provides a pretext to put Jesus to death.  The Sanhedrin takes this action against Jesus because of their collective fear that Jesus is attracting large numbers of followers and this might provoke the Romans to remove the Sanhedrin from power.

As we saw at the end of John 11, when people became aware of the Pharisees’ order that anyone who saw Jesus or who knew where he was, was to immediately report that information to the Sanhedrin, a buzz began to spread throughout Jerusalem.  Would Jesus dare come to the city to celebrate the Passover, knowing that if he did so he would be arrested and put to death?  That question is definitively answered “yes” when Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph the Sunday before the Passover.  Jesus will defy the Sanhedrin because his chief concern is obedience to his Father’s will and that he accomplish all that the Father has sent him to accomplish.  And this he will do.

In fact, the best indication we have regarding the true meaning of Jesus’ entrance into the city on Palm Sunday actually came the evening before, during a dinner given by Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in the home of Simon the leper.  After the dinner concluded, Mary took a large amount of nard (a year’s wages worth) and anointed Jesus’ head, body, and feet, wiping them with her hair.  When Judas complained that the perfume could have been sold and the proceeds given the to poor, Jesus rebuked him.  Jesus tells Judas and the assembled group, “leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.  For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”  Although the folks in Simon’s home were probably taken aback by Jesus’ rebuke of Judas, and certainly did not yet grasp the full meaning of all that Jesus said, his statement that Mary was going to anoint him for the day of his burial reveals what lay ahead in the coming days.  Jesus will enter Jerusalem in great triumph the next day, but by Friday afternoon of the Passover, Jesus will be dead, and once again, Mary will anoint her Lord’s body in preparation for his burial, exactly as Jesus had foretold.

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"Everyone Who Calls Upon the Name of the Lord" -- Acts 2:1-47

Here's the audio from Rev. Compton's Sunday sermon

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This Week's White Horse Inn

Sustainable Churches       

Over the past several decades, mega-malls have been draining commercial and social life from downtown shops and eateries. Built for the automobile, malls attract people from a region more than a particular town. Leisurely downtown strolls where you recognize neighbors and meet new ones became passé. Downtown in small town America, even cities, was boring compared to the big box centers of consumption and entertainment. But something strange is happening in recent years, many American small town main streets seem to be coming back to life. What has that do with churches? Sustainable churches? Actually, plenty.

For similar reasons megachurches have thrived, not by evangelism as much as by draining people from smaller churches. Instead of particular churches committed to a particular confession and a particular place, you have megachurches with generic names like “Bubbling Brook” or “Inspire.” Denominational names have been dropped. Sometimes you don’t even see the word “church” on the side anymore. “My church is dead,” people often say, the little church they’ve grown up in, but “the Spirit’s really doing big things at Rockin’ it Christian Center.” How much of our evaluation of “dead” and “alive” churches is actually determined by the same market forces that make us attracted to the mega-mall instead of our local downtown?

It’s not just the stereotypical megachurch with its sophisticated entertainment and technology that keeps us looking for the next big thing. You can go to a conference and hear great preachers and great music. You learn tons. Then, you go back to your home church and it just seems so… ordinary. So, even in solid churches people often move around from church to church looking for Martin Luther or John Calvin to rock their world. We’re all caught up in this impatience with the ordinary growth that happens week in and week out, but the good news is that like downtown local churches are making a comeback. Many people who wanted anonymity are now missing the community they had before. Many are saying “Hey, we need to move to that house close to our church, so we can actually go their regularly.” It’s more important that we and our kids grow up, instead of being dumbed down. Join us this week on the White Horse Inn as we look at what it means to build sustainable churches in a mega-mall culture.

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Mike Horton on Court's Ruling on SSM

Mike Horton has written a short essay regarding the Supreme Court ruling (Horton on Supreme Court ruling)

On Saturday, we were lamenting the decision. But then this response came back from one friend, who happens to be a U. S. Senator: “Yes, it’s a big disappointment, but tomorrow’s Sunday, Christ is risen, and ‘trust not in princes.’”

Adding Insult to Injury

Update on Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 03:13PM by Kim Riddlebarger

Here's a great response to the White House's very poor decision to rub Christian citizen's faces in the recent SSM decision.  Why the "Rainbow White House is a Bad Idea

h.t. PB

The White House should not ever be used as an icon or celebration for any particular political or even social cause or purpose, regardless of our personal belief on the rightness of that cause. It just shouldn't.

It's the people's House which we happily and proudly present to every President to conduct his solemn business of leading our nation and for the protection, enjoyment, and relaxation of his family. It is not one person’s, administration’s, or particular group’s house to proclaim his or their particular views on any topic of social or public policy.

Trunews Interview

I was interviewed by Rick Wiles of Trunews today.  The topic--the end times, what else?

I have never been on a radio program/podcast the same day as a CIA operations manager.

End Times Interview

"You Do Not Always Have Me" -- John 12:1-11

The Thirty-Ninth in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

When he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus demonstrated for all to see that he is Son of God and Israel’s Messiah.  But Israel’s religious leaders–the Sanhedrin and the high priest Caiaphas–were very troubled by the news that Jesus had returned to Jerusalem and was working miracles just a few days before the annual Passover.  They were afraid that Jesus would return to Jerusalem during the Passover for a final showdown with the Sanhedrin.  And so they had hatched a plot to arrest Jesus upon his return to the city, so that Jesus would then be put to death.  Blind to the fact that Jesus was that one promised throughout the Old Testament, the Sanhedrin was worried that Jesus would do something to provoke the Romans to intervene and remove them from power.  It was clear that many people had seen (or heard of) Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  Jesus was already popular because he was a miracle-worker and messianic figure and now, Jesus had many new followers as a result of his seventh and greatest miracle to date.  When Caiaphas proposed that Jesus die for the sake of the nation, his proposal was quickly agreed upon and the Pharisees made it known that if anyone saw Jesus or knew where he was, the Pharisees were to be informed.  And if people are following Jesus because of Lazarus, then Lazarus should be arrested and put to death as well. . .   Yes, it really has come to this.

We return to our series on the Gospel of John.  We have come to the literary hinge of John’s Gospel–chapters 11-12–which serve to join the two halves of John’s Gospel together.  The first 10 chapters of John deal with Jesus’ three-year messianic mission, while chapters 13-21 deal with those events surrounding the coming Passover, which include Jesus’ final instruction to his disciples (the Upper Room Discourse), his passion, and his resurrection (all of which take place during the last week of Jesus’ life).  Chapters 11-12 serve as the transition from our Lord’s messianic mission to his Passion.  

In John 11, we read of Jesus’ seventh and most dramatic miraculous sign, the raising of his dear friend Lazarus from the dead.  We read of Jesus’ great sorrow at the death of his friend, as well as the grief experienced by Lazarus’ friends and family.  When Jesus arrives at Lazarus’ tomb, he openly weeps.  But what moves Jesus to such anguish?  There is the spectacle of death itself.  There is the tomb.  Lazarus’ body is wrapped in linen and embalmed with spices to deal with decomposition–the cruelest reality of death.  There is the wailing of the professional mourners along with Lazarus’ family and friends.  The musicians play their somber funeral dirge.  The family and friends are all grief stricken and wailing.  Jesus rages in anger against what sin and death have done to the human race, including his dear friend.

John also tells us that a good number of people actually witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.  They saw the once-dead man now hopping and staggering out of his tomb, still bound by his grave clothes.  Mary and Martha and Lazarus’ family certainly witnessed the miracle.  So did a number of Jews from Jerusalem who had come to the graveyard near Bethany, a small village about two miles from Jerusalem, to pay their respects to Lazarus’ family.  According to John, many of those who witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus believed in Jesus.  Who else but the Son of God and Israel’s Messiah could raise a man who had been dead for four days?

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"Witness to His Resurrection" -- Acts 1:12-26

Here's the audio from Rev. Compton's sermon on Acts 1:12-26, recounting Peter's role in the Book of Acts

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This Week's White Horse Inn

Ordinary Grace

“September 2010 marked a turning point in the development of Western civilization,” so begins an intriguing study by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter in A Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture. Interesting subtitle, isn't it? How counterculture became consumer culture. It was the month they say that Ad Busters Magazine started accepting orders for the Black Spot sneaker, its own signature brand of subversive running shoes. That's what we need… Subversive running shoes, I hate those just sort of non-subversive behaving shoes. After that day, no rational person could possibly believe that there's a tension between mainstream and alternative cultures. After that day, it became obvious to everyone that cultural rebellion of the type epitomized by Ad Busters Magazine is not a threat to the system. It is the system.

And it enamored of its own amazingness every generation, raises the empire to the foundations and starts over until the next generation as it goes at it. This is no way to build a culture and it's no way to build a life and it's no way to build a neighborhood, and brothers and sisters, it's no way to build a church. Who wants to be an ordinary person living in an ordinary neighborhood with ordinary people going to an ordinary church, having an ordinary calling? Our life has to count. It has to mean something and our legacy has to be measurable. It's something that we have to see preferably, not just in our lifetime but in the next 40 minutes. And yet, there's a growing restlessness I sense out there with restlessness. Some have grown tired of constant calls to reboot their lives or their churches or their ministries or the world. They're less sure they want to jump on to the next bandwagon after having fallen off of a few already.

Writer Rod Dreher observes “Everydayness is my problem.” In his book about his sister, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Dreher signals a growing sense of weariness with the cult of the extraordinary. Alternative is mainstream, extreme is common in a 24-hour news cycle. Now, every now and again, things have to be shaken up because the word of God, above all earthly powers challenges. It shakes things up. It keeps us from settling into our comfortable idolatries. And yet, whenever the word breaks things down, it is to build things up the right way, and building things up take time. That's why the 16th century movement led by the likes of Luther and Calvin was not called “the Revolution” but the Reformation.

Now, movements are usually youth driven, that's why they have so much vitality, whereas institutions are usually elder driven. And bringing these two things together as you know, especially those of you who are pastors, is one of the greatest opportunities and one of the greatest challenges in ministry. To fulfill Paul's exhortation in Ephesians 4:3, “Make every effort to preserve the bond of unity” and that means across the generations. The fathers aren't always right, as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us looking back at Israel's history. The fathers could be the generation in the wilderness that failed to enter the Promised Land, and it was the next generation that entered.

So, also Paul encourages Timothy, “Don't let anyone despise you because of your youth.” But he doesn't say, “Because remember your charisma. Remember your entrepreneurial skill. Remember all of your personal charm and your gifts, or remember your education.” He says, “Remember what you were taught and by whom you were taught when your mother and your grandmother catechized you into faith. And remember what happened when the elders in the presbytery, the council of elders, laid their hands on you in your ordination.” Very ordinary things… He calls Timothy to look outside of himself to ordinary things that God has done to put his seal of approval on his ministry. Our culture celebrates the next big thing but the Bible celebrates God's faithfulness from generation to generation. Kind of tough when we've been sold whatever it is that we really think is valuable with the slogan, "This is not your father's Oldsmobile." Well this is our fathers and our mothers’ faith, spiritual fathers and mothers at least who have gone before us and the children who will come after.

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