What Psalms Did Jesus Sing? (Christopher Ash)

 

Seeing Christ in all the Psalms - Christopher Ash

 

 

 In this episode of Expositors Collective, Mike Neglia interviews Christopher Ash, reflecting on his 50 years of preaching experience. Christopher shares how his preaching has evolved over the decades, shifting from a focus on making sermons interesting to embracing the seriousness and weight of preaching God’s word. He discusses the importance of pastoral preaching to a congregation he knows and cares for, and the dangers of seeking larger preaching platforms for self-promotion.

Mike and Christopher explore the challenges of preaching the Psalms, particularly the imprecatory Psalms, and how they relate to suffering and covenant promises. Christopher shares his ongoing passion for the Psalms and his work on a Christ-centered interpretation of them, encouraging preachers to help their congregations see the Psalms as songs and prayers for believers in Christ.

The conversation also touches on sustainable ministry, as Christopher reflects on his book Zeal Without Burnout and shares his personal experience with breakdown and recovery. He emphasizes the importance of rest, the Sabbath principle, and avoiding the pride that can lead to burnout in pastoral ministry. Finally, Christopher shares his upcoming writing projects, including a book focused on the unique challenges and opportunities for those in their 50s and 60s.

Key Topics Covered:

• Evolution in Preaching: Shifting from creating "interesting" sermons to the weight and seriousness of preaching God's word.
• Pastoral Preaching: The importance of preaching to a congregation one knows and loves, versus preaching at larger, unfamiliar events.
• Challenges of the Psalms: Handling imprecatory prayers and the importance of a Christ-centered understanding of the Psalms.
• Sustainable Ministry: Lessons from Zeal Without Burnout and the critical role of Sabbath rest in avoiding burnout.
• Future Writing Projects: Christopher’s focus on writing for those in mid-life and reflections on preaching that connects deeply with both heart and mind.

 

Why Your Sermons Should Be Shorter - Alastair Roberts

Dr. Alastair Roberts (PhD, Durham University) joins Mike Neglia to discuss the value of incorporating diverse forms of Christian teaching beyond traditional sermons. Alastair, a Teaching Fellow at The Theopolis Institute and a lecturer for Davenant Hall, emphasizes the importance of shorter sermons to allow time for other instructional methods like catechesis, Eucharistic addresses, and exegetical teaching. He argues that sermons should focus on addressing the conscience and upholding the authority of God's Word rather than attempting to encompass all aspects of Christian teaching. Mike shares his own struggles with lengthy sermons and seeks practical advice on making them more concise. Together, they discuss the benefits of concentrating on a single key application and integrating varied teaching methods within the service. The conversation also explores the significance of feedback and the pastor's role in guiding the congregation's spiritual growth.

Alastair Roberts is a well-known blogger, writer, and host of the Mere Fidelity podcast. He also runs his own podcast, Alastair’s Adversaria, where he provides daily reflections on the Bible and features topical interviews. He is the author of *Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption Through Scripture* (Crossway, 2018) and the forthcoming *Heirs Together: A Theology of the Sexes*. Alastair and his wife Susannah split their time between the UK and the US. You can follow his theological insights on his blog, Alastair’s Adversaria, his YouTube channel, and on Twitter @zugzwanged.

Why your sermons should be shorter  

You Must Be a Good Listener in Order to Become a Great Speaker - Brian Synnott

 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5CzFhElNFm2wZa91PvraQt?si=03c5c5c596ed4140 

Expository Teaching Inoculates Congregations Against False Teaching

Brian Synnott on how expository preaching combats heresy 

 https://expositorscollective.org?ppplayer=e241c0aeaf9fe7d23a97dbdba7a0b780&ppepisode=22275f7df16d461e904ed3deb90ac40c 

 

Carey Nieuwhof interview for Expositors Collective Podcast

 

https://youtu.be/lhvlqYdEUrc?si=juPKhf6qVjIrUgm3 

What is the responsibility that God has given us?

One of the most tragic errors the church can make is to emphasise the work that believers should be doing for God. How many times have you heard heavy, condemning sermons that tell you, “You ought to be praying more! You ought to be giving more! You ought to be witnessing more, or reading your Bible more, or serving God on some committee more!” How often do you go to church looking for encouragement only to hear about your failure and how disappointed God must be with you? 

The last thing I need i for someone to lay a heavy burden on me about my failures. I know I ought to be doing more. No one needs to tell me that I don’t pray enough or read my Bible enough or give to God enough. All I get from such messages is a huge guilt complex. My frustration increases because I really want to love God more, to pray more, to have a deeper fellowship with Him. When we place our emphasis on areas of failure, we end up creating defeated, discouraged Christians who give up and drop out of the race. 

What a different message we see when we turn to the New Testament! It highlights not what we ought to be doing for God, but what God has already done for us. What we can do for God can never be enough. Our efforts at righteousness are always marred by our imperfections. What what God has done for us is perfect, beautiful, complete, and fantastic. How sad that we have reversed the equation and constantly harp upon our responsibility instead of God’s wonderful grace! This is why we see so much of the church on the verge of dying out. We don’t need someone to remind us of our failures as much as we need someone to show us the way out of our predicament. We need grace, not guilt. 

God has given you one simple responsibility: to believe in His promise. You can enjoy the blessing of a relationship with God even though you may not pray enough, or give enough, or sacrifice enough because of your faith in what God has already done for you.

God made Jesus to be sin for you that you might be made the righteousness of God through Him. Jesus imparts to you His righteousness when you simply place your faith and trust in the work He has done for you. His work is all of grace. 

Chuck Smith 

Why Grace Changes Everything

Harvest House Publishers, 1995 

My attempt to encourage Gospel centred preaching

E8 Gospel Centered Preaching from Calvary Chapel on Vimeo.
 

Its not enough that we simply know truth. God wants us to feel it, to believe it, and to apprehend it in the deepest, most personal way. He wants us to be able to say, “The cross is for me. The empty tomb is for me. Forgiveness and adoption and redemption are mine because I am united with Jesus Christ! Jesus loves me! Jesus is with me!”

Joshua Harris, 

Dug Down Deep 

Multnomah, 2010, pg 191

What does it mean to be forgiven?

The forgiveness of all sins! From your childhood to your old age! The sins of fourscore years, if you have lived so long! Your public misdemeanors, your private trespasses, your overt acts, your secret thoughts, your uttered words, your smothered wishes—the whole catalog all unrolled of your transgressions and [iniquities] shall be at once blotted out from the book of God's remembrance, if you trust in Jesus Christ! They shall not be laid to your charge. However black the list, or long the inventory, do but trust in this Man and they shall be all forgiven you! He that confesses his sin and comes to Jesus shall find mercy!  

- C.H. Spurgeon
Simple Fact and Simple Faith
(No. 3547)

Why Preach Leviticus?

  Similarly, if you only look at the highlights of the Pentateuch, you’ll preach the famous stories, but you’ll probably also miss what the Holy Spirit has to say through much of Leviticus. Chapter after chapter of regulations about sacrifices, offerings, washings, purifications, and the like does not seem at first to make for good, exciting sermons. Yet all that concern for purity in sacrifice is a crucial part of the Christian story. It was pointing to the ultimate sacrifice of the perfectly obedient One, who shed His blood so that we could be forgiven once for all. Jesus paid it all. His blood washes clean.
That is why the book of Leviticus is important, and why we need to preach it even if it’s not filled with dramatic stories. Do our people feel the burden and weight of sin that called for such detailed regulations and rituals? Do they feel the release and exaltation of not having to do these things every day, of not having to sit outside the tent, of not having to worry about being ritually unclean? By the power of the gospel, there is no one who needs to be unclean or unrighteous in God’s sight, for sinners are washed one for all in the blood of the Lamb. Every text - not just the ones we know well - cries out about the Lord Jesus Christ.
 

Al Mohler,

He is not silent, Moody Publishers, 2008 Pg. 96-97

Forgiven AND Accepted.

The voice that spells forgiveness will say:
"You may go, you have been let off the penalty which your sins deserve."
But the verdict which means acceptance  [justification] will say: 

"You may come; you are welcome to all My love and My presence."

Marcus Loane

1911-2009

Holy Saturday

Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptised into the death of Thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with Him; and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection ; for His merits, who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer
Easter Even, Collect

Why does God explain Himself?

Providential happenings may serve to remind us, more or less vividly, that God is as work (cf. Acts 14:17), but their link, if any, with His saving purposes cannot be known until He Himself informs us of it. No event is self-interpreting at this level. The Exodus, for instance, was only one of many tribal migrations that history knows (cf. Amos 9:7); Calvary was only one of many Roman executions. Whoever could have guessed the unique saving significance of these events, had not God Himself spoken to tell us?
 

J.I. Packer, God Has Spoken, Revelation and the Bible, Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, 1979, pg. 76

Why have we been made acceptable before God?

One of Satan’s favourite ploys is to accuse us before God, pointing out that we have no righteousness of our own and therefore no right to stand in God’s presence. Once again, we are faced with a half truth that can easily lead us astray, if we are not careful. As a statement of fact, Satan is right to say that we are unworthy to stand before God, but in saying this he is not reckoning with God’s grace and mercy, to both of which he is a stranger. 

A classic example that illustrates this occurs in Zechariah 3:1-2, where the prophet has a vision of the high priest who is clothed in filthy rags and is therefore unworthy to perform the all-important task of making atonement for the sins of the people. But the high priest, who is called Joshua, is saved by God, and Joshua’s atoning sacrifice is accepted because he has taken the sins of the people on himself. His filthy clothing is not a sign of his character but the sins of the people for whom he is making atonement, and the fact that the high priest takes this on himself reveals a deeper righteousness than anything that Satan can grasp. 

The vision of Zechariah was fulfilled in the sacrifice of Jesus, when He became sin for us in order to take it away and make it possible for us to share in the righteousness of God Himself. We who are filthy inside and totally unworthy of God’s grace have been covered by a cloak of righteousness dyed in the blood of the One who was slain in our place. It is because of that covering that we who have no merit of our own have been made acceptable to God. Satan has no right to accuse those whom Jesus has chosen and united to Himself - because we have been set free from the condemnation that we would otherwise deserve. That does not stop Satan from trying, of course, and it is here perhaps more than anywhere else that we must be constantly on our guard, so as not to fall into the trap that he wants to set for us. 

Gerald Bray, God is Love, pg. 363-364 

Crossway, 2012