12 YouTube Sermons by Mark Driscoll on Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the very center of Christian faith.  There is no Christianity, there is no Bible, there is meaning or purpose to anything at all, without the incredible center of Christianity, Jesus Christ.  

I've been struggling a bit lately, as we all do, and this sermon series has been powerfully edifying to my faith.  It's very easy to drift off into the Old Testament, doctrinal issues, Armenian vs. Calvin, and issues surrounding the Christian faith.  

Be cautious in your own walk, that Jesus Christ is always at the very center.  We hear about the cross of Jesus Christ so often in our lives that it becomes easy to just pass it over.  It's been spoken and re-spoken so many times to us, that we begin to lose touch with the power and meaning of it.  Just like with extremely popular Bible verses like John 3:16, I'll start to avoid those popular verses because I'm just so tired of hearing them over and over.  

Constantly in my walk as a Christian I want to be finding ways to rediscover the power and beauty of the cross of Jesus Christ.  I want to be falling deeper and deeper in love with my glorious Savior.  I'm not special, I'm just some blogger, seminary student at best.  I can very easily fall off track.  But a good sermon series like this can do a lot to strengthen the core of my belief system, which is Jesus Christ.

The way Jesus lived is a constant inspiration.  The way Jesus died provides a powerful example for me to aspire to.  His sovereignty as he lives in heaven on the throne at this very moment is a constant imputing into my life of authority, leadership, correction, and most often, powerful encouragement. 

This is a sermon series by Mark Driscoll one of my heroes of faith.  I've decided this is a sermon series I'll regularly return to, in order to always be reminding myself of the center piece of my personal redemption.  The man Christ Jesus is my brother, my savior, my best friend, and my God.  Nothing can ever change that, I was saved at the moment I believed in him.  No demon or fool can take Jesus Christ away from me, and I know they will try.  But they can't.  

Before you delve into these wonderful sermons, be aware that Pastor Mark Driscoll is exceedingly crass, lewd, and direct.  He doesn't hold back, and he explains things exactly as they are.  Before we as moderate Christians jump on his back about his abrupt, sarcastic, and intense mode of preaching the gospel, let's consider who he preaches to.  He communicates the gospel to young men in their 20s in the west coast city of Seattle, Washington.  Very simply Mark Driscoll is engaging the culture and radically adapting the objective truth of scripture to the cultural practices and styles of communication in that area of the country.  This is absolutely Biblical.  At the Acts chapter 15 Jerusalem council, it was ruled that non-jews becoming Christians would not be forced to comply with the cultural practices of the Jewish faith.  This allowed the gospel to flow freely into the Greek world and beyond.  Missionaries in foreign lands, in China, India, and other parts of the world take the truth of scripture, separate it from the traditional religious practices of western culture, and help new people groups apply it to their indigenous cultures.  This is a practice the modern Christian church in the United States needs to adopt, because when we cling to our traditional American ways of communicating the gospel, we do so at the expense of younger generations.  We can't be surprised when using that approach, that the entire culture begins to turn radically against Christianity.  Relevance, relevance.

Jesus Christ is Lord.  This is an apologetically strong sermon series, often addressing issues and sourcing outside direct reference to Bible verses, in order to edify and build up possible new believers in the coherence, historical accuracy, philosophical superiority, and incredible love within the life, death, resurrection, and current heavenly ministry of Jesus Christ, who lives now in heaven and works in the lives of billions of believers today.  

Enjoy!

10 Encouragements to every 1 Rebuke

1 Corinthians 12:27 (NIV)  Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

I'm quite stunned by the mud slinging that goes on within the United States Evangelical movement.  It runs like a cancer within Christianity.  Everyone, from the very top leadership to the lower echelons, bloggers, and local congregations... well, it seems to be a problem on all levels.  Whether on blogs, on Youtube, at my home church, or talking to friends.. someone always has something negative to say about a leader, or a movement, or a theological issue.  And very often nothing to say if they think that person is doing a good job.

Why is it that we can only say something if it's negative?  Is rebuking the only language the church may speak to and regarding one another?

It's quite upsetting to see such a petty problem.  My first reaction is to think my goodness, can we grow up?  Have we forgotten our primary purpose of knowing Jesus Christ and making him known?   

John MacArthur is one of the worst with this, I've seen him come at Mark Driscoll calling for his resignation.  He did the same thing to Rick Warren.  I see an incredible amount of fire come at just Driscoll and Warren.  It's systemic.  I was at a presentation at a local church a few months ago watching an open air preacher call apologetics worthless.  I've seen apologists mock presuppositionalists.  At the Strange Fire conference cessationist calvinists mocked charismatics, and later on I saw Mark Driscoll show up at the conference to mock the cessationists.  John MacArthur called the NIV a heresy, while my text book for Inductive Bible Study said formal translations are not accurate.  I've seen John Piper interview Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan, and Rick Warren, and find very little wrong theologically in their views.  

What about unity within the body of Christ?

I love John MacArthur, he is one of the greatest expository preachers the world has ever seen.
I love Mark Driscoll, his ministry to guys in their twenties is incredible.
I love Rick Warren, he's attacking some the biggest issues our planet faces.

I love the body of Christ, because you're my family.  And not because that's what I'm suppose to say, or it's kinda true because the Bible says it, or even that it's definitely true but I don't actually feel it, it's that it's completely true, and I do feel it.  You are my family, actually, and truly, if you're a Christian.  That is the happy fact. 

My spiritual gifts are "showing mercy" and "exhortation" so maybe I'm just better at picking out the things to love in people.  But how can we be missing this one? 

Show love.  Show more love.  Any given situation, love.  And more love. 

Romans 16:17-18 (ESV) I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

Fortunately my friends, my family, this is not a difficult problem to solve within Christianity.  Start blogging about unity!  Project a positive mindset into the body, and a lot of the divides can be healed.  It's as simple as people swallowing their pride and choosing to magnify the good about others, rather than focus on the bad. 

We can learn to love anyone.  And Jesus said love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.  Christianity in the United States is under organized attack, vicious attack daily in the colleges, in the classrooms, at the bars, the clubs, on the internet, and in people's homes.  We don't have the luxury of going to war with each other every time we find a disagreement in theology.  If we both love Jesus Christ and match our truth from the Bible, we're on the same team!

The problem here is that we're forgetting to love one another.  We're favoring doctrinal disagreements and failing to love.  May I share chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians?

1 Corinthians 13 (NLT)

13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.^[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Jesus said Love God and love your neighbors. Let's do that.  Blog about unity.  Christianity is under enough fire without various sects within Protestantism taking pot shots at one another.  Unity, unity. 

I suggest a new rule, for every 1 time you rebuke another Christian brother or sister, you must first encourage 10 others.  Encouragement is sorely lacking in the body today, and especially in the pulpit.  Too many are rebuking, too few encouraging.  So show your family some encouragement.  

Hebrews 10:23-25 (ESV) Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The Paradox of Wisdom in Christianity

Proverbs 30:1-4 (NLT) I am weary, O God;
    I am weary and worn out, O God.^[b]
2 I am too stupid to be human,
    and I lack common sense.
³ I have not mastered human wisdom,
    nor do I know the Holy One.

⁴ Who but God goes up to heaven and comes back down?
    Who holds the wind in his fists?
Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak?
    Who has created the whole wide world?
What is his name—and his son’s name?
    Tell me if you know!

And Proverb 12:1 says "To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction."  What is the assumption when considering wisdom, truth, and enlightenment?  Whether it's western or eastern thinking, we're talking about gathering knowledge, discovering secret truth, compiling information and obtaining it. 

But the sum truth I gathered under the assumption of gathering and self-introspective discovery did not stand as much as a crippled molding wobbly tent of dung compared to the truth path of trust in Jesus Christ.  

The Lord God towers tens of thousands of stories taller than the foolish wisdom of the world.  Compare Bukowski to Chesterton.  Compare Hunter S. Thompson to C.S. Lewis.  Those writers inspired by the word of God and the Holy Spirit which leads into all truth, compared to the writers who are inspired by misery and illicit drugs... well, there is no comparison.  

C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton would not have been able to reach the heights of truth and wisdom they had, without at first coming humbly to the feet of Jesus Christ and welcoming him into their hearts.  

I made that same choice to stumble to my knees and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ.  I did not come to that conclusion by work of reason or wisdom, but by work of drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, sleep deprivation, and utter inexhaustible misery.  When I called upon the Lord Jesus, it was the sort of inward scream for help that shutters through your own being, through your whole self, an unconditional surrender.  The sensation of the desperate cry for help must've been so sincere, so singly empty of conditional clauses that it rang true to the very throne of God himself.  

I recall the moment quite clearly.  Not so much what I was saying, but how it felt.  And relief of at least, finally, I can call on the name of the Lord.  But I would not have known whose name to call on had it not been for God the Father.  He reminded me whose name I ought to speak at that moment.  Not "save me krishna"  or "save me godish whoever"  but "Please save me Lord Jesus Christ!"

That is the beginning of actual wisdom.  C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”  How incredibly true that statement is.  

As a human being, young especially, the last thing I wanted to do was admit that I needed anybody elses help!  I wanted to do it myself.  I wanted to prove my own self sufficiency.  That has got to be a product of sin nailed to my heart.  I am of the line of Adam, as we all are.  We are all born with the sin nature on ourselves.  In retrospect I can see it's work so incredibly.  Nothing in the very untrained human desires in myself told me that I was made by and for God.  Yet.. there was something there.  Something I didn't want to believe.  I tried to hide it, to lay a pile of papers and scientific conclusions on top of that truth.  In the end it was totally buried.  But desperate misery uncovered it again.

Total admission of need for God in my life, saved my life.  I would not have come to this conclusion on my own.  Everything in the world told me to trust nothing and no one.  And upon extended inspection of the elements of culture and society, and especially government and economics, that conclusion is absolutely justified.  If I were to trust even half of the institutions,businesses, and people I meet in this world I would be in for some serious hurt.  But I learned there was one incredible exception to that conclusion, I must place absolutely trust in the Lord God of the Bible. 

It is most paradoxical.  But I've learned to love the paradoxes in the Bible.  I've also learned to love the paradoxes of 12 step recovery.  The two agree on most everything.  Of course my bottom line source for truth in the Bible.  Always remember that.  We test what is true by the word of God.  Experience is very important, but always test that experience by scripture.

For me, I always wanted to be the rebel fighting the righteous cause.  Just like Luke Skywalker leading the rebellion against the evil empire.  Or Morpheus, or Neo, fighting for the survival of the human race against the evil machines.  I wanted to be special.  The irony here is that I wanted to be a rebel, and I thought I was a part of the sort of "rebel alliance" of US politics, which is kind of a rough conglomeration of Libertarians, Anonymous Hacktivists, Occupiers, Tea Partiers, and the remnants of the anti-war left.  Maybe I was closer than I thought.  I will say this, that I see a closer representation of Christ in the works of Ron Paul, Julian Assange, and Justin Amash than I've ever seen in the works of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Al Gore, or Sarah Palin. 

But I had believed the most deceitful propaganda.  The quiet propaganda against Christianity.  Don't underestimate our enemy, Satan, or his spiritual forces.  He has it stacked so well that if I tell anyone that they're communing with demons, or that in the mainstream media and in Hollywood there is tons of demonic imagery and dark symbolism, they will immediately assume I'm a quack.  I'm not a quack, obviously.  I'm a Christian though.  And that's about as bad, when considering the social views today.

The generalizations are generally thus, Jesus Christ was a great teacher but he wasn't the son of God.

Organized religion has led to so much blood shed it shouldn't exist at all.

Christians are hypocrites.

All Priests are molesters.

 Science has disproved God.

 The Bible is no longer relevant.

And so on and so forth.  But after inspection, none of those things hold up to be actually true.  

The beginning wisdom is paradoxically not a striving to know it independently, but an initial admission of total inability to know truth, followed by a declaration of the need for God, followed by the commitment to follow God and to live as Jesus Christ did on Earth.  More so than any other truth in the Bible, the method of life lived by Jesus is to be our guide to living.  Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, he loved his friends, he loved his enemies, he healed the sick, he gave hope to those who had none, he shined a light on the religiosity of the Pharisees, he humbly washed the feet of his disciples, and then willingly died on the cross for all the evils of the world, once for all time, for all mankind, reclaiming his life on the third day, and giving final instructions to his dearest friends.  There is no other life like it in history or beyond, there is no greater example for how to live, and no humbler a God than ours, who would come in person to wash his people clean, paving the way for their redemption.  We were lost, and of no merit to be redeemed, yet we were redeemed, once for all time by Him who loves us.

The Lord God then as our sovereign, our friend, our protector, and our comforter, leads us along the path of wisdom, unveiling secret after secret, and truth after truth.  What a wonderful thing, don't you see?

Jeremiah 33:2, 3 NIV "“This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’"

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/cslewis162523.html#CYFiV8sABy3T79su.99

 

Persecution of Christians in Kazakhstan

I was following a story, and throwing my support behind an issue occurring in the country of Kazakhstan over the past year, involving the illegal imprisonment of a certain "Pastor BK."  The story involves a mysterious city that's been built by the country of Kazakhstan.

Rumor was that Pastor Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev "Pastor BK" was working on a translation of the Bible into the language of Kazakh.  But that's only a rumor.  Inevitably he was arrested in May 2013 on false charges, for being a Christian believer in Jesus Christ.  He was tortured, denied medical assistance, and they were treating him as if he was a mental patient, and that his faith in God was a delusion they needed to beat out of him.

On October 8th he was released from prison, and then re-arrested at his home that same day.  This is often done to mentally torture the victim.  They feel the powerful relief of being freed from prison, and then they are suddenly re-arrested and forced back into the prison cell they thought they had finally escaped.  This same method has sometimes been used by organizations in the United States like the FBI, on journalists and political prisoners.

That's the kind of world we live in.

It's ironic that Christians would face persecution in a country like Kazakhstan.  This country has made headlines in the past year regarding a mysterious and strangely designed city, now their capital city, called Astana.  CNN article on Astana architecture.  Just a few years ago there was nothing in the area known as Astana, and the president of Kazakhstan chose to construct a city out of nothing in this area.  If you page through pictures of the city, you'll notice plenty of occult imagery.

 A photo of the "Palace of Peace and Reconciliation." 

A photo of the tower at the center of the city.

Kazakhstan has been noted to be a tolerant and welcoming place for diverse religions and spirituality.  Ironically, they quietly lock up and torture Christians.  Maybe God is giving us a living message here in what happened to Pastor BK.

Some suspect that this city could eventually be the seat of the Anti-Christ, as it has just the sort of ring of "New Age Inclusiveness" and unifying world religions for peace.  Intriguing Article and more pictures here.  Naturally it's hard to nail anything down as fact, but these theories shouldn't be dismissed lightly.

I got involved with the International Christian Concern right around Christmas 2013 in aiding in the release of Pastor BK.  We sent emails, shared pictures, made phone calls, and tweeted the Kazakh embassy.  People also made pictures to show their public support for Pastor BK.

Here is mine:

After more than 200 days of being imprisoned, Pastor BK was released by the Kazakh government.

From the Facebook Free Pastor BK page: "Dear Friends,

We are still praising God that Pastor BK is out of prison, and home with his wife, able to receive medical care. But the battle isn’t over and we still need your prayers. “Kazakh authorities found Pastor Kashkumbayev guilty of bringing physiological harm through prayer. This precedent can be used against any other pastors in Kazakhstan in the future,” said Russian Ministries. We must continue to pray for Pastor BK and his lawyer as they appeal this guilty verdict. We must also continue our efforts to ensure that believers, and people of faith in Kazakhstan, can exercise their rights to religious freedom."

As members of a global movement of Christianity, let's keep the persecuted church in our prayers!  Let us also remain vigilant and watchful as we live in the end times today.  Recall the great commission to make disciples, and consider becoming involved in missionary work.  If you'd like to get involved in supporting and praying for persecuted Christians internationally visit persecution.org

 Please pray for these issues regarding the trial of Pastor BK, his family, and the charges made against him:

• He was released but found guilty (a face-saving measure). This could set a precedent for other pastors in Kazakhstan to receive the same treatment. Pray for the safety of Christians in this country.
• Pastor B.K. and his lawyer's plan to appeal the "guilty" charge. Please pray for the success of this case.
• The repeal of his fine of $10,800 USD which is under appeal. 
• That Pastor B.K. and his family would sense God's presence and experience healing from the trauma over the last nine months. Pray especially for Pastor B.K.'s health to improve.

 Thank you very much for your concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe.  Peace be with you.