The Unnamed Faithful

July 18, 2018July 16, 2018 / Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

I’ve been stuck at home for a little over a week recovering from minor surgery. This week our church (Grace Baptist Church) is doing what many churches all over America are doing–ministering to the local children with Vacation Bible School. I can’t be there with them, but our little church keeps plugging along faithfully as it has done for over 80 years.

Saints whose names are found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but unknown to almost everyone else, are working hard all day at their regular jobs and then wolfing down dinner or skipping it altogether to go and serve the Lord for a couple more hours every night. They have been preparing, planning, decorating, setting up, giving countless hours and dollars, and most of it will never be seen on this side of eternity.

As I think about my brothers and sisters tonight, I am grateful for their hard work and I am proud to be their pastor. They do it for Jesus. Even when I can’t be there, they love the kids in our neighborhood so much that they keep charging ahead. The darkness keeps pushing back, but they are undeterred. They love our community, and the best way to show their love is to introduce the little one’s and their parents to the Savior.

I am thankful that He sees it all. I love you, GBC.

The “Good” versus “the Good News”

June 5, 2018June 5, 2018 / Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good programs, good ideas, and good support systems. . . . But the heart of Christianity is Good News. It comes not as a task for us to fulfill, a mission for us to accomplish, a game plan for us to follow with the help of life coaches, but as a report that someone else has already fulfilled, accomplished, followed, and achieved everything for us. Good advice may help us in daily direction; the Good News concerning Jesus Christ saves us from sin’s guilt and tyranny over our lives and the fear of death. It’s Good News because it does not depend on us. It is about God and his faithfulness to his own purposes and promises.”—Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2009), 20.

Preaching Christ from All of Scripture? TMS Lecture Series #1- Richard Mayhue

May 26, 2018May 25, 2018 / Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

One of the more difficult issues that often comes up in preaching is how to properly preach the gospel in any given sermon. Obviously, there are texts which easily lend themselves to preaching the gospel, but how can we be faithful to stress the authorial intent of the Bible and still be faithful to preach Christ?

Thankfully, back in 2016 The Master’s Seminary held its annual Faculty Lecture Series on Christ-Centered Preaching. I would commend the whole series to you if you struggle with this issue, which many men do, but I want to take some time here to highlight each message and then when I have finished the sermon series I’d like to make some practical applicational comments for how we can preach Christ in our sermons in a way that is biblically faithful to the text.

The first message is from Dr. Richard L. Mayhue, the former dean of The Master’s Seminary from 1990 to 2014.

His message can be be heard here as audio or video.

In this message, Dr. Mayhue covers:

An Overview of the Christ-Centered Preaching Movement
An Overview of the Improper Practices of the Movement
And Overview of Legitimate Christ-Centered Preaching

“It is exegetically fraudulent to try to extract from every biblical text some truth about Christ.”–Daniel Block

Dr. Mayhue briefly addresses the argument used to defend this preaching from texts such which seem at first glance to say that Christ can be found in the totality of the Old Testament, such as Luke 24:44; John 5:39; 1Cor 1:22-23; 1Cor 2:2; 2Cor 4:5. He also deals with the issue of hermeneutics and how coming to the text with a theological bias may allow for preaching Christ in every text, but it also abuses the authorial intent of the text. Likewise, Mayhue argues that a Christo-centric hermeneutic falls short of a full theocentric emphasis in Scripture and points to John Calvin himself as a good model of faithful, biblical exposition which does not fall into the same pitfalls as modern Christo-centric preachers.

Although this message clocks in at 52:31, it only begins to scratch the surface of the issues at hand and does not deal with a lot of the issues, nor does it help much in showing a young expositor how Christ can be preached in many texts other than those which are explicitly Messianic. That task is left for those that will follow.

Preaching with a Tender, Compassionate Heart

May 22, 2018May 22, 2018 / Richard Bargas / 1 Comment

There have been times in my ministry when an icy chill has come over my heart, when my soul no longer weeps, when my sermons no longer connect, and when the act of preaching becomes a drudgery. I know that I have then lost compassion for people. That is when I retreat to a small taco stand in the barrio of East Los Angeles, to a place where real people live. I order a cup of coffee and sit with my back against the wall. Then I watch, I observe, I read, and I listen intently for the heart cry.

A group of gang-bangers come in for a snack-one in four will die before the age of eighteen; two of the others will end up in prison. All are doomed to a hard life. A young mother comes in with her brood of youngsters. It is obvious that they are poor. They share drinks. They live in poverty; some will never see a forest or snow. An old drunk staggers in, begging for a meal. He is quickly thrown out. That was somebody’s baby boy. A mother at one time cradled that man and nursed him. The poor specimen of humanity has children. His wife is somewhere out there. They have long since disowned him, but they have not forgotten him. He is still somebody’s daddy. For all I know, he could have been my own.

I look, I listen until I hear their cries, until their souls cry out to me, “Please help, I’m perishing!” until the tears pour forth from my melted heart! I am in love with humanity once again. Now I am fit to ascend the pulpit, to weep with those who weep, to laugh with those who laugh, and to bring a living Word-Christ-to a needy people. Now I can preach with passion, for now I have compassion.— Dr. Alex Montoya, Preaching with Passion

The Longest Journey-How God Opened the Eyes of Two Italian Nuns

May 21, 2018May 21, 2018 / Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

This video tells the sweet story of two former Italian nuns, Cristiana and Annamaria, who found Christ in much the same way that Martin Luther did–through reading the Scriptures. Produced by Biblical Ministries Worldwide, this encouraging short documentary (36:30) illustrates the biblical truth that the power of the gospel is the Word of God.