Gospel-Centered Affections for Life and Ministry

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, we were talking before we started recording. It is Holy Week. Of course this will drop into emails after Easter. But we are right in the heart of thinking about all that pertains to holy week and the week that Jesus went to the cross and rose from the dead. And you were describing what you're called a convergence of some things happening in your life that you wanted to talk to us about.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, there has been just a convergence of and a stirring of affections on my heart of two things. The first is the one you just mentioned. This is Holy Week. We are recording this podcast on Maundy Thursday. So just reflecting upon what this day represents as the stories of the Bible tell them; Jesus obviously washing his disciples feet in John 13, the sharing of the Passover meal the night before his death, and in doing so announcing that the new covenant was about to be established through his death. And then obviously tomorrow, good Friday, I think one of the most important days in the Christian calendar as we reflect upon the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for us who have trusted Christ, for all of our sins on the cross where he bore and received fully the wrath of God. He drank the cup empty of God's wrath on our behalf and it's just a good truth to continue to reflect upon.

And then obviously Resurrection Sunday, that's coming Sunday as we celebrate his resurrection. Three days later, he rises from the dead as our victorious savior and king victorious over sin and over Satan and over death and now rules and reigns. And we await his glorious return. Yes, we do. Those are wonderful truths that we need to not only rehearse in our mind, may they affect us and deepen our understanding of the gospel and our gratitude to Christ for what he has done for us in bringing salvation. So that's one thing.

The thing that's converging with that I mentioned in a podcast a couple episodes ago, that during my knee injury and surgery and now I'm in physical therapy, I've been capturing a number of lessons that I am writing down that I believe the Lord's teaching me, but I've just started to write resolutions. It's a little different way to think about it. And so I'm writing resolutions for my life and ministry in my later years. So I'm reflecting a bit on what happens now with my life and with my ministry from here until I go to glory.

And so there are resolutions I've begun to write. I may talk more about these. I only want to share one today. The first one is related to obviously giving God glory in all of my life. But here's the next one, and this is how I wrote it and it's appropriate to write this during holy week. Here's the resolution: I resolve to keep the gospel central in my life; affections, marriage, home and ministry, for it is the grand storyline of the Bible, the pinnacle of God's redemptive acts, the power of God and the essential message for faith, life, ministry, and witness.

And so anybody listening to that language would hear some of that language is found in our shared value of gospel-centered preaching, gospel-centered doctrine. And as I read that, I just thought I can't improve on that. So I took some of that language and shifted it just a bit. But I want to give credit to obviously, I think Jeff Purswell wrote that for our description of that particular value, it's an important value, what I just said, that we want to keep the gospel central in life and affections and marriage and home and life and ministry. I think everyone listening to this podcast is aware of its knowledge that you have, certainly Sovereign Grace pastors, and really all pastors are trying to build gospel centered churches. And whether you're part of a Sovereign Grace church or not as a member, you want to keep the gospel central. And I'm praying that that knowledge deepens for me in my later years of life and ministry that it never becomes familiar and may it never become familiar with any of us.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's excellent. Mark, appreciate your example. The resolution sounds very Edwardian, Jonathan Edwards and his resolutions that are wonderful as well. In that resolution, you talk about how you want to make sure the gospel is central in your affections. And certainly this is a great week for us to deepen our affections for Christ during Holy Week. But talk to us about why you included that in your resolution.

Mark Prater:

Well, I include it in the resolution because I want that. I desire that personally. But it's also what you see in scripture. There is an effect that the gospel has where the knowledge of the gospel, the full story of the gospel, affects you. It stirs and deepens your affections. And I think Paul is a great example. So a couple of passages where you see that: Romans chapter 1 where he writes in verse 14, I am under obligation. Obligation. He feels this obligation, this compulsion both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. And what is the obligation that he feels? Verse 15 says, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first and also to the Greek. And so this obligation is something that Paul feels, it's something that has stirred his affection, his zeal for preaching. The gospel has only grown because of the truth of the gospel. And we want, as Jeff Purswell preached a couple of years ago at our pastor's conference, we want to be pastors and we want to be members of churches who have zeal in our life and ministry. And the gospel stirs that kind of zeal.

Just one other example from Paul's life that you find in 1 Corinthians 9, it's just a wonderful example in verse 16; for if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. So he's saying, look, if there's any boasting, it's the gospel. Then he says this, for necessity is laid upon me. He feels this necessity laid upon him. And then he says, woe to me if I do not preach the gospel again. He's feeling this necessity, this compulsion, this urgency, this eagerness to preach the gospel. And he says, if I don't do that, woe to me. That is gospel truth that has a stirred his affections and his zeal. So you see that in scripture. We want to be like that. We need to pray and ask God that the truth of the gospel would never be familiar to us, but that it would bring an obligation, necessity, that we would feel, to share the gospel, to preach the gospel, to pastor people with the gospel to lead our churches into gospel centered lives. And may we do that all for the glory of Christ. And so I'm praying that as I grow older, that that would happen in my life and I wanted to share that during this Holy Week.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's excellent encouragement for us, Mark. It's been well said that when you read the letters of Paul, he just never got over his conversion. He never got beyond daily wonder for the gospel, deepening wonder, it appears, in the gospel. And so it is part of our jobs, our calling as pastors is to continually be working to get the gospel that we know intellectually, to get it down into our hearts so that we do have those kind of passionate affections for Christ and a passion to preach Christ to our people, knowing that the people we love and serve need the gospel more than anything else. So love your example, appreciate your encouragement. I hope everybody is going to have a wonderful Easter. We're anticipating a great weekend coming up, starting tomorrow with our Good Friday service. So thank you, Mark. Thank you for checking out the podcast and we'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.