seeing in a mirror dimly » sermon

The Eyes of Your Heart

Mark — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:15:00 +0000

“that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know” Eph 1:18

In preparation for the sermon I’m preaching at St. Anne’s this Sunday, I’ve been struck again by the way that God’s word speaks of heart-knowledge. The phrase “eyes of your heart” is an Old Testament way of referring to the seat of your whole person. And for you to experientally know things – and Ephesians 1:15-23 certainly speaks of incredible things to know.

Have a look at what Jonathan Edwards has to say in his A Divine and Supernatural Light sermon:

“There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful, and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person’s being heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion that it is excellent.”

And later in the sermon: “As for instance, the notion that there is a Christ, and that Christ is holy and gracious, is conveyed to the mind by the word of God; but the sense of the excellency of Christ by reason of that holiness and grace, is nevertheless immediately the work of the Holy Spirit.”

And this work of the Holy Spirit is what Paul is praying for – that the saints in Ephesus might know God with the eyes of their heart.

Masculinity (ii)

Mark — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 04:10:00 +0000

Ok, well thanks for the good comments people – appreciated your thoughts: have been using them in my preparation, and will most likely use them next Sunday. It’s been fascinating to read different people’s thoughts on gender and the masculinity issue. Guys like Steve Biddulph and Hugh Mackay have been particularly interesting. Here’s sociologist Hugh Mackay’s summary on the present state of gender understand in his great book, Advance Australia Where?*

“Vive la diffference! was never about superiority and inferiority; it was always about complementarity… For men, the goal is authentic masculinity. The New Bloke believes it’s perfectly all right to be a ‘bloke’ – to acknowledge the legitmacy of masculine urges, masculine images and masculine culture – as long as you understand the real point about the gender revolution: men and women, for all their obvious differences, are equal. Thirty years after it began, the gender revolution has brought new life, new richness to the word ‘person’.”

Here’s what God has to say about the past, present and future state of gender understanding in his great book, The Bible**:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.“ Genesis 1:27 and Adam’s reaction to the sight of his beautiful Eve: ”This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:23

There is equality (mankind created with equal worth in the image of God – this equality is so deep, that it touches the bone and flesh), and complementarity (they’re different but work together. Now, what does that look like…?). No wonder Adam was pretty stoked with her!

So, thanks for your help – I’m writing the sermon tomorrow, and I’ll let you know how it goes!

* PS – this book is fantastic by the way. Read it!

** PPS – this book is even better. Read it first!

Masculinity

Mark — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:06:00 +0000

I’m preaching on masculinity in a couple of weeks time at church, and have been thinking through a whole bunch of things. Especially off the fact that Mark Driscoll really provoked a good deal of thought about this lately, it’s something which I’m keen to reinforce in our hearts and minds.

So, with that in mind – I’m keen to do a bit of a survey. I’d love it if you could simply reply with a few thoughts on the following:

1) Are you male/female?

2) What do you think are the biggest blindspots for men today in their being masculine? (Ie, what are the big challenges you’d put to men today?)

3) What things in our current culture fight against what being masculine is? (Ie, what cultural things are causing men to drop the ball?)

Much appreciated!
Mark

Francis Schaeffer Video – A Christian Manifesto

Mark — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:47:00 +0000

“Where have all the Bible-believing Christians been in the last 40 years?” asks Schaeffer.

This snippet of video is from his “A Christian Manifesto” sermon preached only a few years before his death.

You can really appreciate his passion and zeal for God, and His creation!

What an encouragement and exhortation to live for Christ in all vocations of life!