Listened a few times, and choose on purposen to listen this sermon once more today, to celelbrate my 39th baptism aniversary, so insightful as always! Praise the Lord, and thanks!
Another great teacher of the whole truth. I have many of his books, without which I would have received almost no discipling. The church in this 21st century is shamefully lacking in discipleship. I thank my Lord God and Savior for him. So many like him have gone on to glory. I will miss him, though I know I will see him in glory. Thank you for posting this.
Notes: Theology is mostly "left to the theologians" these days. Disciple, which Christians call them selves, means learner in Greek. Christians want to, and are commanded to, make disciples of the world. Early churches would spend 3 years with a new disciple at catechism school preparing them for baptism. Teaching and learning is not common or even encouraged anymore. "Packer's Last Crusade": The need for learning the faith in a full and proper sense the way Christians before us learned the faith. The word for learning the faith: Catechesis. Catechesis has fallen out of the window. Previous Pope wanted to expand the catechesis and the new Pope is working on it. Rome is beating all other protestant denominations in this regard. The heart of catechizing: theology. Heart of thesis: Theology is for everyone because Catechesis is for everyone. Theology means "an account of God." Think together all the many things the Bible tells us about God for the purpose of life. The Bible which is history, prophets, poetry, and letters yields teaching for how Christians are to live, what to believe (doctrine), what is true about us and God, and ethics (how to behave toward God and others). Theology gets God's point of view on every part of life. "Love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, soul and strength." This is a focus on mind. Theology is useful Theology is useful for witnessing. We are sent in to the world for good works and good words. Peter tells us to have a ready answer for the hope within us. Sometimes sharing is opened up this nice way. We need theology for this. Theology for practical matters. Romans 12: Present your whole persons to God a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to him, don't be conformed to this world. (The world is labouring to squeeze you in to their mould.) Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Renewing the mind means learning to think Christianity, Learn to think God's thoughts after him. Truth shaping the conscience works in our hearts to show us the will of God, showing what to do as the will of God. Thirdly, Theology is needed for full Biblical understanding. Personal growth through group Bible study as a church activity greatly commended by Packer. Modern church requirements: Be with the assembly on Sunday, be in a small group during the week. By this, some have derived that Bible study is all we need. Rare [but needed] message: We can't do solo Bible study properly without Christian theology. We can not be discerning without good theology. Per Calvin, Calvin's institutes were expanded (from 300 pages to 1400 pages) for theologians and those who wish to study the Bible. 10 Things we need to learn: 1) The Authority of the Bible The Bible is an inspired type of book. The human writers were so guided by God that we may think of him as the primary author and humans as secondary. Christians have always known this, calling it the Word of God. We keep in mind (hopefully) that this is God speaking, preaching and teaching us things by his authority. We have to learn to interpret the Bible and map it's contents in our mind if we are to use the Bible as a reference point for all we say in our Lord's name. 2) The Reality of the Trinity You might have expected the Authority of God- and sure. But the Biblical way of understanding is to remember the Trinity at all times. [Three persons, one being, equal in glory etc]. God is three persons, He is they, they always act together- in love (basic reality of God's nature). We were created and redeemed in love. Christians forget the Trinity because they don't understand the Trinity. They talk about it, confess it, circumscribe it, preserve it. Don't lapse in to tritheism or unitarianism. The unity is as basic and threeness. The threeness as basic as the oneness. There is much to learn about how to think of the Trinity. We sing much about the trinity and talk rarely about it. 3) The Sovereignty of God The Triune God is infinite, eternal, ominscient, omnipotent, the Lord of creation, providence, grace. Our freedom is framed by his sovereignty in all situations. He rules over everything we say and do in a way that surpasses our understanding to grasp. God is in charge in his world even though in his wisdom he allows Satan and his demons freedom. He wants evil to be made plain and he wants his own glorious love to be made plain. He orders and shapes not just Bible history but also world history. His complex will will be done in this world. 4) Human Sinfulness to be Studied "Most of us know all about sinfulness without your help." Yes in one way because it's a reality. There is a doctrine of sin that takes us further and deeper in understanding. A doctrine of nature of sin. A pattern of self centeredness stemming from morally twisted heart. God made us in a way that the heart would look and rise to God would be our natural life but Adam and Eve fell from this nature. Today our hearts are twisted on #1 (us). We find we haven't got it in us to look to God apart from God's grace. There is a rarely mentioned dimension, pervasive in scripture, that our hearts are self deceptive. Deception is seconded by Satan. The human heart produces these deceptions. We think wrong things are right. We do behaviour we believe is proper, which is not. We kid ourselves that we are altruistic. We think we are public hearted. We are truly self serving all the way. If we are to get a handle on sin we must recognize this. In order to do that you must learn about it. 5) The Glory of the Incarnation The Son of God, the Second person of the Trinity. Taking to himself all that human without surrendering anything divine. He had a ministry in Palestine, died, rose for our justification, ascended to the Father's right hand and sits on the throne and reigns. Now he is fulfilling the OT promise of king. We are living under this OT fulfillment as his servants to the King, disciples. 6) The Ministry of the Holy Spirit He walks with us even to the end of the age. Jesus is with the Father, but he is with us through the Spirit. 7) The Glory of Redemption. The great exchange (Athanasius, Luther, Packer): The Lord Jesus takes on his shoulders our sin and becomes an atoning sacrifice. Calvary looks like Jesus was a passive victim. In fact Jesus was fulfilling the Father's will and entirely active. He took on our sin and guilt and bore our punishment. God's holiness judged transgression. This is the glory and mystery of the cross. He took our sins and atoned for them. Then, he puts on on us, as a cloak, the reality of his relationship with the Father. This is called in theology the "imputed righteousness." We are "at the same time righteous, yet sinner" (Luther). Jesus has taken me by the hand and introduced me as a Son to the Father as a member of the family. We are established in the Father's favour as with Christ's righteousness. That is imputed to us and tremendous. That is the second half of the "great exchange." This is salvation and worth studying to get the wonder and glory clear in your mind. 8) Faith: The Nature and Necessity of. Christianity contrasted with other religions: They say "do" and earn your salvation. Christianity says "done" and you receive your salvation by faith. Faith believes, trusts, turns in obedience, lives touching the invisible (the realities of God as long as life lasts in this world.). 9) Centrality of Church It is central to the plan of God. "I thought we were the church?!" We were called to be units in the church. It's the church that will be with the Lord in glory. We are limbs in the body. The circuitry of communion makes us better shaped Christians. Study and practice communion. The Circuit: we study the Bible, we worship with his people, we go to the Lord's table, we live our lives in responsive love, we serve our neighbours- So the life that God has given us has flowed back to God in praise and fellowship. 10) The Goal of Glory God is the ultimate end. Human nature with redemption finds light with glorifying God. It is the most joyful thing. God will be adorned and praise in Heaven. Skeptics say Heaven will be a terrible bore. That is precisely not the experience we're gong to have. Have I convinced you that theology is for everyone? That theology will introduce us to truth will thrill us and bring joy? Steps that will make our walk steadier, steps stronger, and witness stronger? What this boils down to is Packers Last Crusade (a message to church leaders): bring all age catechesis back in to our churches so all worshipers and attenders will learn these things properly and enjoy the richness and fullness of the real mature Christian life in to which this theology will lead. Now The Monologue Ends, Q&A Commences [in video]. ~B
Blake B My life is too short to read your thesis.....why would I listen to Idol worshipping,robe wearing, child abusing sinners? Suggest you read Jeremiah 33:3.
Very good topic to the present day world. As Dr.J I. Packer said that in order to become a disciple learning is a primary important . Without properly educated one can not understand about the Bible , let alone teach others. So the theological study is a must for everyone. Thanks to the man of God.
JI Packer was/is a beautiful and passionate saint, who fellowshipped with the Father and the Son, and equipped us to do the same. “Theology is thinking together all the many things that the Bible tells us about God for the purpose of discerning the paths of life that the Bible sets before us: teaching on doctrine, what we should believe about what is true about God and ourselves, and ethics, how we should behave towards Him and how we should behave towards each other. Theology is thinking from God’s revealed standpoint about all the issues of daily life, all the activities of daily life, getting God’s point of view on everything.“ - J.I. Packer
I wish Packer had had time to do a more thorough response to the last question pertaining to the challenge of evolution. What he did have time to say is fine, that is staking out Christian turf as being different from the scientist's turf. The problem with ending there is that the scientific community is no longer willing to adhere to that distinction, to restrict themselves to empirical evidence. Instead, they want to claim ultimate knowledge for everything, an approach that excludes any notion of God or even intelligent design. And, most deadly for the Christian faith, that is what they are, and have been teaching for decades, the children of faithful Christians. Hence, the exodus of young people from any supernatural belief system. The real question was/is: should we as Christians be teaching the Genesis story of creation as fact? That critical question was not answered.
