This is the Convocation Sermon, Fall 2010 for Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC.
Michael A. Milton, Ph.D., President, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC; James M. Baird Jr. Professor Of Pastoral Theology
Acts 13:1-3, 44-52
The theological lens through which we observe and interpret life has powerful implications for our lives. For example, when we see the stories of the Bible standing alone, disjointed, and unrelated to each other, the Bible can seem like a confusing collection of historical accounts, ancient stories with imaginative characters, and perhaps even as a book that provides inspiration.
If on the other hand, we view Scripture the way that Jesus did, (according to Luke 24:27[1]) as being connected through what has sometimes, I think correctly, been called the “scarlet thread” of the redemptive plan of God in Christ that brings about the restoration of His Creation, then we view the Bible, our faith, the Church, our seminaries, our personal and corporate missions, and, of course, our families and our lives in a new and exciting way. We see the Bible as a cohesive framework that brings a dynamism to living by which we understand life and the purposes of God.
I have been thinking about these things lately as I have been praying about the open door the Lord has given to me in this ministry called RTS. I believe that my thinking about this larger, cohesive picture of the covenant of grace, this plan of God has been shaped in large part because of the following Scriptures. These Scriptures have spoken to my heart and I pray they will to yours as well.
This is the inerrant and infallible Word of the Living God:
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).
ACTS 5:34-39
“But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And he said to them, ‘Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!’ So they took his advice” (Acts 5:34-39).
Acts 13:1-3
“Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:1-3).
Acts 13:44-52
“The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,
‘”I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13.44-52).
Power to Get You Through
There are times when forces conspire to bring you down unless there is a power to get you through.
I fly a lot. I have experienced times when in take off, particularly in a “puddle-hopper,” I could almost feel the cross winds against my cheek, and through my prayers, I was also talking, under my breath, to the pilot, “Giver her some power, son, give her some power!”
In the ministry—in life—there are forces that conspire to bring us down—and would—except for a power that is greater than the force, greater than ourselves.
I saw this in church planting as we were taking off and suddenly, almost imperceptibly at first, then building to an obvious threat to our work, we experienced the crosswinds of opposition. The opposition we felt was apathy in the congregation, a lack of commitment in the culture around us, and a general lackadaisical attitude among others. Like any good pilot I wrote up my encounter and it made its way to the desk of a denominational overseer for church planters. He flew to Kansas City to pay me a visit. He took Mae and me out to dinner near the airport. He told me that he had read about the problems. But he said, the problem, was not in the culture, or in others. The problem was with me. I was lacking power to get through the headwinds because pride, like a flock of Canadian geese, had been sucked into the life of the work.
“Mike (he seemed to be telling me) you are clogging up the work of the Lord in this place with your pride, your sense of entitlement from God and others. You have to get out of the way. You are taking the safe route, but not the prayerful, trusting route. You are turning into an intuition. What you need to have is a true movement of the Lord in this place. Then others will also be set free. Then you will know the blessing of God.”
Well, I responded by asking him if he was ready to go to the airport! And I took him, dropped him off and was delighted to say “Good-bye!” On the ride home, I told my wife how wrong he was. But over the next few weeks I committed myself to prayer and learned how wrong I was. I asked God to forgive me. I sought to get out of the way of His work and to rely on the ordinary means of grace—Word, Sacrament and Prayer—to advance His Kingdom work.
I gave the church, rightfully, to the Lord of the church. It was at that point that I believe our church left the physical dynamics of this world and entered into another World, another Kingdom. At that moment our congregation stopped being an institution and became a movement.
I have been thinking and praying about “movements” and “institutions” of late as I have been praying about our seminary. I was happy when my friend, Tim Keller, revealed that he, too, has been thinking on such things. He recently wrote:
“A movement is marked by an attractive, clear, unifying vision for the future together with a strong set of values or beliefs. The content of the vision must be compelling and clear so that others can grasp it readily. It must not be so esoteric or difficult that only a handful of people can articulate it. Instead, it must be something that all members of the movement can understand and pass along to others. By contrast, “institutionalized” organizations are held together by rules, regulations, and procedures, not by a shared vision.”[2]
I would add that institutions are often held together by the power of the personality and gifts of the founder or leader. These often look like movements, until the leader moves on. Then, if there is no power from on high, the pseudo-movement is revealed to be nothing more than a human institution. It is at this point that one thinks of the words of Gamaliel when the religious leaders were considering what to do with Peter and the courageous band of believers who would not stop preaching:
And now I say unto you, refrain from these men, and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God (Acts 5:34).
Gamaliel, even in his unbelief, recognized a truth of God at work in the world: movements are bigger than one man. The Pharisee was half right: you cannot stop what is of God. But he wrong in sitting still. He should have repented rather than let the movement pass him by. But in his own life, he was bound by an institution. And that institution of first century rabbinical Judaism was powerless before the movement of God displayed even in poor apostles and preachers.
Jesus Christ did not found an institution, but was the crucified Mediator of God’s plan—God’s movement—to save mankind. And those whose lives were miraculously transformed by Him were not just following a man, they were following God, or better put, were being led by God, inspired and sustained by God.
Today, sometimes we think if only we can have a vision statement then we will have a future. There is nothing the matter with them and much right if they are reflective of the Bible’s vision and mission. But the early Church went forth in a vision and mission that came down to them from on high. They had been swept up into the glorious cloud of witnesses stretching back to Genesis and stretching forward to an Eden-restored under the sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ. They were part of the movement of the Holy Spirit in the world.
Thus, the Church of Jesus Christ is an organic movement of the Lord. The true Church is not and can never be an institution. Those local churches and ministries that have been swept into the glorious forward moving Pentecostal thrust of the Holy Spirit in history are part of this Movement. Indeed, like little whirlpools within the larger great river of God, these local churches and ministries are movements within this Movement. The Movement and the subsidiary movements born out of it are true eschatological movements in that they are bringing about transformation in human souls, one at a time, as well as in nations and cultures where revival is burning with fire from the very altar of God. These movements are also eschatological because they are moving all of the smaller movements together into one, so that the great river of God’s Covenant Promises are moving, like the mighty Mississippi River, to finally spill out into the glorious gulf of a New Heaven and a New Earth.
Such was the case in the Book of Acts as Jesus promised a power from on high that would propel the Church of God to the ends of the earth. And so looking in Chapter 13, I would draw forward three marks of a true movement of God that provides the power we need to move through the challenges of our lives and the challenges of ministry.
1. The first mark of a true movement of God is seeking God in prayer (13:2)
Paul had gone to minister at Antioch. He joined a college of preachers there, even as we have here today at this convocation. And what marked the power of their teaching and ministry? It was prayer. And from that life of prayer came the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul…” The movement of God that would “turn the world upside down” started as it did in the Upper Room, as it always does in the Kingdom of God, with prayer. In fact, that is why the founders of this institution called for us to seek God each semester that we may know His blessing and His power and presence on this place, in a Convocation that seeks Almighty God in prayer.
Before Israel took Jericho there was prayer when the successor to Moses, Joshua, “fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to Him, ‘What does my lord say to his servant?’”[3] Before the conversion of Lydia, often referred to as the first European to be baptized[4], there was prayer by Paul as the Holy Spirit forbid the apostle from going to Asia and redirected him to Europe[5] and gave him a prayer-soaked vision of a Macedonian man calling him to come and “help us.”[6] Such visions, such callings, such conversions come to us in prayer. Before I went to preach each Sunday at First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga—from the first day—the officers of that church met me and led me to a place, a small room, and we sought God in prayer, for the Spirit to come down, for sinners to be saved and souls to be transformed. Before the performance of duties there was prayer. Before Jesus went to the Cross there was John 17—there was prayer: “Father, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.”[7]
I thank God for the opportunities of prayer that are before us here: in chapels, in prayer meetings, in the offices of our professors. But I implore you: if your life at seminary is to be swept into the grand narrative of what God is doing in the world, then you will need to become a man or woman of prayer while you are here to study. To study without prayer, that “intimate conversation of the pious with God”[8] as Calvin called it, is to miss the dynamic center of the movement of God in your life and will be to institutionalize your calling. If our professors ever fall into teaching without asking first for a power from on high, then we too will institutionalize.
I read the stories of our seminarians that do their internship here at Presbyterian Hospital. Every M.Div. student will. One paper was brutally honest. He was in the presence of a lady who was dying. He didn’t know what to say. But she led him, knowing he was nervous, and even though she lay dying, she sought to instruct the seminarian. “Son, why don’t you just pray?”
A true movement of God is marked by seeking God in prayer. Will you commit on this Convocation day to seek him in prayer? Then will you and I both be swept up in the forward movement of God’s glorious design for the world. Then will we know His favor and His blessing on our lives, if we will seek Him with all of our heart.
The first mark of a true movement of God is seeking God in prayer (13.2).
2. The second mark of a true movement of God is being sent in power (13:3).
You will notice that after the voice speaks, they begin to pray again! At the conclusion of their prayers they laid their hands on them—to signify the apostolic setting apart for sacred service to God—and then they were sent. I would say that they were thus sent in a transfer—symbolic and yet very real—of power, a power from on high.
This is a perfect picture of what happened to you! You were in prayer, and the Lord called you to ministry. And what did you do? You came to seminary, you came to a life of prayer and study and focus on the Word of God, and entered into a community of spiritual and vocational formation with these pastor-scholars. Prayer—calling—Prayer—Power. Then you will be sent forth. Thus the movement begins in prayer and then returns to prayer to know the power to be sent forth. This is the power that will overcome all crosswinds, all Bar-Jesus figures in your ministry and your life. You will know many. But the movement is greater and the movement is inside of you. The movement is the Kingdom of God empowered by the Holy Spirit. And nothing, not even “the gates of hell” can prevail against it, said Jesus in Matthew 16:18.
I grew up on a chicken farm. One of the things I remember so well on our humble little farm was putting the eggs about to hatch under a lamp. There they lamp would provide the warmth that the hen would provide if it were possible for her to do so. But there were often too many eggs for one hen to set on! And so the iridescent light and all-encompassing warmth of the single light bulb, dangling on an old gray electric cord, suspended from the top of the rough-hewn “bittie-coop” would bring forth glorious new life. Is there anything as exciting as watching a little chick tapping its way out of the protective shell and coming into the world? What a memory.
And my beloved there is nothing more beautiful to me than seeing a new minister or missionary coming to the conclusion of his or her study, tapping their way out of the protective covering seminary, excitedly taking their place in this movement called the ministry of the Gospel. What a joy.
What are your dreams and visions of ministry? What has God called you to do? The seminary, which simply means “seed-bed” is a place to bring the light of heaven down on you and your family, to soak you in the iridescent light of Jesus Christ as He is hidden in the hearts of our pastor-scholars. This means that seminary is a place of prayer, and thus a place of power, from which you shall be sent forth to do God’s work. It may be another body that lays their hands on you—though when invited we get to do that too as some of us did just two Sundays ago—but we will lay our hands and our hearts on you in prayer, that you may be sent. If you are sent in such power, you can be sure that you will be a part of the very movement of God at work in the world today.
3. The third mark of a true movement of God is being sustained in the Spirit (13:3).
No sooner than Barnabas and Saul enter upon their missionary work, they are opposed by a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was a magician. But Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit (9) and spoke out of the center of Spiritual activity in his life and said that Bar-Jesus was not a “son” of Jesus, but he called him “You son of the devil…” and identified him as an agent of the devil to be used to stop the work of Lord. And God sent a blindness upon this demonic opponent of Christ’s kingdom work.
At the end of this section we read in verses 49-52 that the “word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district” (49-50). Yet the close of this portion of Scripture tells us that it could not stop the movement of God. Indeed, we read that despite the persecution, the disciples, those who believed in the Gospel preaching of Paul, were “filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (52).
To enter into the service of Jesus Christ is to enter into a field of conflict. The Evil One and his demons and the unwitting persons doing his bidding will seek to stop the work of God. You can be sure of that. If you do nothing, hide, turn away and go home, quit and give up, then you have nothing to worry about! He goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and at that point he will have you. There will be no more opposition for you for you will be vaporized on the field of spiritual battle. But should you in your heart say “God has called me here” and “God has called me to be prepared to preach” or “I am not sure why I am here or where I am going but I want to be a part of the movement of God” then there will be attack! My beloved brothers on faculty, as you do God’s work, you must remember that you too will be attacked. To open up God’s Word to these students, year after year, decade after decade, and to multiply the Gospel a million times over as you reach people you will never see cannot be ignored by the arch enemy of our Savior. But you will be sustained as you are filled with the Spirit of God.
Thus, all the more, my beloved in Christ, must we be a people of consecration here. Thus must we seek God that He would send down His Spirit for this great work, but also to stir us up to revival.
My prayer is that people do not walk onto this campus, but they perceive somehow that they are walking into a community of prayer and worship and that our seminarians and our faculty are united in this: We are seeking His Spirit to do his work.
If a revival broke out here—a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit bringing about repentance and forgiveness and evangelism in this city—what a glory that would be! Stranger things have happened. Let us leave that with God. But let us seek to do His work filled with His Spirit. And He promises that if we draw near to Him He will draw near to us.
Conclusion
Gamaliel was right: you can’t stop the movement of God. He should have joined it though rather than sitting and doing nothing!
Recently I had a conversation with our Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Reformed Theological Seminary, Mr. Jim Moore. Mr. Moore told me to remember that I have been given a torch. But it is not my torch. It is God’s. It was given to others before me who sought it in prayer. It was handed to leaders and faculty and students before us. It is like an Olympic torch, he said. He generation is running the race of faith, seeking to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. And each generation, each man and each woman of God who will reach out, who will join the race by faith, receives the torch until we hand it off to another in evangelism and missions.
“Mike,” he told me, “it is your time to carry this torch. Just be sure to pass it on!”
Jim was saying to me that our seminary is a movement of God in our generation. It started in prayer, it has sent out others in power, and will be sustained by His Spirit.
This kind of encouragement to carry the torch in faithfulness was given in this note, which a friend from the Chief of Chaplains office gave me last night:
“…it is our business to pray. We preach its importance. We urge its practice. But the time is now to intensify our faith in prayer…Urge all of your men to pray, not alone in church, but everywhere. Pray when driving. Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day…Now is not the time to follow God from ‘afar off.’ The Army needs the assurance and faith that God is with us. With prayer, we cannot fail.” —from a Training Letter on Prayer written by Chaplain (COL) James O’Neill to the 486 Chaplains of the Third United States Army under the command of George S. Patton during the Battle of the Bulge.[9]
I love that instruction for prayer on the battlefield. I thanked my friend for the note and told him just how timely it was for me, for us. For this is our battle. This is our day. This is our Antioch. For it is a new semester in giving Biblical light and pastoral warmth to pastors and missionaries and teachers and counselors in training. We are called to carry the torch as students in the Lord and as teachers of the Word. We are called to pray at all times and in all places that Christ may secure His victory.
Thus, let the movement of God go forward in power in this place. May God by His Spirit capture our hearts in prayer and sweep us all into it; and may there be much joy in the souls of millions upon millions who will hear of Jesus Christ and His grace as a result of our prayers, his Sustainment and His power at work here at RTS Charlotte.
Never an institution. Always a movement. May it always be so!
Students and faculty and friends: The lines of the faithful are putting on the full armor of God. They are marching forward in our generation. Let’s join them again. Let’s get going in God’s work. Let’s move out.
[1] “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24.27).
[2] Timothy Keller, “Ministry Movements,” redeemer city to city (2010).
[3] Joshua 5.14
[4] Acts 16.14
[5] Acts 16.6
[6] Acts 16.9
[7] John 17.20
[8] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960) 3.20.16.
[9] As related by Chaplain (BG) James H. O’Neil on 06 October 1971 in The Review of the News (http://pattonhq.com/prayer.html). I received this prayer for my own spiritual encouragement on 29 August 2010 from my friend, CH (LTC) Pete Sniffin in the Chief of Chaplains office, Washington DC.
17th Century Puritanism (1643-1735 [the conversion of George Whitefield at Oxford])
I wrote this story for Vacation Bible School at First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga. I loved telling it as much as writing it. I have enjoyed writing Gospel stories where I use animals to draw the children into the story. I pray it might be of some good to someone. 
n towards Jesus and trust Him by faith. Jesus will always forgive you. But even more than that, like the good father, Jesus will come searching for you. Maybe He is doing that right now. Come home.
By grace, God has allowed me to express ministry for His glory and, hopefully, others’ good through a variety of ways. One of those has been through music. Today, I give thanks to God, that a second album of reflections in music is released. Follow Your Call, on the label 
1. Preach, ordinarily, sequentially through books, or least chapters of larger sections. This should form your extended series with others series brought in to add variety and different sorts of Biblical vitamins to the spiritual diet of the saints.
Our Dear Students,
The following was written to our student and seminary community as a new semester begins in Spring semester 2009.
I just read the latest issue of the Economist. What sad news. I have learned editorial opinions about how we all got into this financial mess that we are in. But I could discern no real answers. So I am shifting my heart and mind now to a place where there is a fortune to be made. Where is that? Well, a new semester begins on Tuesday for Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte. New students are moving in. Other students already in the program are now getting ready to come back. Professors are re looking at syllabus, praying about their presentations, and remembering why we do what we do. Staff are preparing for our pastoral and missionary students to return in numerous ways seen and unseen, all of which deserve our gratitude. A new professor, Dr. James Anderson, now joins our faculty and begins to teach apologetics. A new adjunct faculty member, Dr. Harry Reeder, now helps to lead a Doctoral of Ministry program in Church Revitalization, through his influential ministry, Embers to Flames in Birmingham. Interest in our chaplain and Reformed campus ministry institutes continues to grow. Our admissions numbers are higher than last year (at this point; there is always some last minute shifting, so we say that humbly as unto the Lord and not to boast). But we are thankful for the continued growth of our Master of Divinity core program but also the other programs. So despite the recession and the hard times, there is great refreshment in seeing this work of the Gospel go forward in these and many other ways. 
Our Dear Students
more session, “The Pastor’s Wife.” I share the notes, here, from the handout. As I post this, I pray for our future pastor wives, missionary wives and wives in ministry. May the Lord Jesus Christ speak His peace into their souls, grant them wisdom far beyond their years, and anoint them with the Holy Spirit for the work of building up the pastor for the goal of building up the Body of Christ. Truly she is a beautiful and precious jewel in the Ministry of the Gospel and she is a treasure to her husband and children, and to the Kingdom of God.
Philip Jenkins’ writing is exciting, but his research and findings are even more so. As I read the 
Last night we enjoyed our second Mrs. in Ministry session on “The Pastor’s Wife and her Role with the Church.” An outline of our evening is given below.
We are facing a crisis in American Christianity:
The Psalmist, David, wrote, in one of the several so-called imprecatory Psalms these words:
I was to preach a message to our congregation on the subject of aging. It was to be a senior saint’s Sunday. But for me it turned out to be a Sunday of vigil, over my mother-in-law, who was preparing to leave this world, and as I had learned that my Aunt Georgia, in Baton Rouge, had died. I had been reared by her sister, my Aunt Eva, who had gone to be with the Lord in 1997. Aunt Georgia was only one left from that family where I had come from. So as I prepared this message for our congregaiton, I did so with the a heavy heart, but, I must say, with a heart that rejoiced that God loved his saints and cares for us at every stage of life, even the final one. I also sang a song, 
According to the New York Times,
I am very excited and deeply honored to go and preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus to our chaplains serving in Europe. At a special retreat next weekend in Garmish, Germany, I will join chaplains and families in a time of focus, refreshment and renewal in the essentials of ministry as divinely described in the Pastoral Epistles. I do pause now to ask God to bless this and to invite others to pray for those who minister Christ to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and guardsmen who fight over there so we don’t have to fight here.
A Sermon in the Fourth Sunday in Lent by Michael A. Milton, Ph.D., President and Professor of Practical Theology. Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina
Through all of my recent travels, meetings, and even other preaching times, I have had Jonah on my mind. And so I leave now to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the Book of Jonah at the wonderful 
The fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but is swept away through injustice
The following is an excerpt from a booklet on generous giving published by
We have come to a new time in our nation, a time when Christianity is being widely announced as on life support in America. But I do not believe it. Oh I believe in the falling numbers of true believers, of the closing of churches every week in America, of the fog of immorality, as Peter Marshall described the America of his day which sounds like the America of our day, and the rampant ungodliness that has us calling right wrong and wrong right. I believe that the watery, insipid religion called liberal Christianity is deathly anemic, and the feckless fundamentalism of moralism and justification by good reputation may indeed be dying, as sure as the seeker-sensitive, dogma-denying cults of consumerism and entertainment may be sick unto death, but I, for one, encourage their deaths. I would rather the playing field be leveled between pagans and bold, Christ-Believing, grace-embracing, Cross-Magnifying disciples of the sinless Lamb of God, the Man, Christ Jesus, than to have players like that representing, or seeming to represent, the Christ of the Scriptures. I still believe that Almighty God reigns. I believe that the sinless life of Jesus Christ saves, the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ atones, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead seals it all as absolutely true. I believe that the Holy Spirit moves over the dead soul of the most vile sinner and transforms him into a saint. I believe that the Lord is building HIs Church, His Body of assembled saints, from all over the world, and I expect that more and more people of our generation will be gloriously swept into this kingdom of Christ. And if C.S. Lewis was right, that in the end there will only be Hinduism and Christianity, for Hinduism swallows up all other religions, and Christianity rejects all other ways to God but through Jesus Christ, then I am confident that Christianity will be victorious in the history of men. For God made man. And Man fell from God in his choice to sin. But the rest of our history is the story of the unrelenting love of God to redeem that sinful Man. And Christ is God’s Son, and God’s provision for Man’s sin. Jesus is God in the flesh who came to identify with Man and save us through an unmerited grace offered to all who will call upon His name, the name of Jesus, and that is the underlying power of Christianity. As Augustine said, what God has required, to repair this damaged relationship between Creator and Creature, God has provided. That message, which is nothing but the Gospel, when left to stand as it is, will always come out on top. It did in the first century world, with that age’s veritable cafeteria of religions available to the consumer of faith, and it shall do the same today. And because God is God, and Jesus Christ remains the most compelling figure in human history, and because the soul of Man longs for restoration with God and with each other, I am most optimistic. Something called Christianity may be dying in America. But I believe America is dying for a true Christianity. It is our happy cause to see to it that we not let America down; no, that we not let our Savior down who calls us to the noble work of proclaiming the plight of Man and the power of God in Christ to this generation. So let the Church, then, be the Church. Let Christ be Christ. And may this bold, gracious and supernatural Christ of the Bible be unleashed with all of His glory upon the sin sick souls of Americans. And let the fires of revival come down from on high and devour the false gods of this age, including every pretender to the faith of the apostles, the saints, the martyrs, and the billions of humans who have found new life through Jesus Christ, the resurrected and reigning Lord of life.
RTS Charlotte is pleased to announce the Doctor of Ministry degree program with an Emphasis in Church Revitalization. I hope you will 
Through a memorandum of agreement with Dr. Harry Reeder, Briarwood Presbyterian Church and Embers to a Flame, Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC is introducing a Doctor of Ministry with an Emphasis in Church Revitalization. The first group of pastors will begin studies in January 2010 at the Embers to a Flame Conference in Birmingham, AL. New groups for church revitalization will begin every other year. 
Mark 8.22-25
Today is Ascension Thursday. There will be few who will remember it, sadly. I personally believe that this Day is one of the most glorious in the Church calendar. Our Savior not only lived a life we could not live, and died a death that should have been ours, and rose again from the dead, a seal of God on the divinity of Christ if there ever was any doubt, and a first fruits of all of us who will fall asleep in the Lord ourselves (1 Corinthians 15.20); but also Christ ascended. His ascension into the heavens was witnessed by men and angels (Acts 1.9). His ascension into heaven marked the triumph of His mission on earth, to come and die for our sins, and to secure a righteousness of His people that we could not secure ourselves. The One who created all things, and for whom all things were created (Colossians 1.16-17), sat down at the right hand of His Father (Hebrews 1.3, 10.12). In our language, in the language of kings, Jesus Christ was crowned in heaven on that day. This was the holy coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ. To think that this very day (and this very moment as you read these words and contemplate this vision), our Head, our Savior, our Lord, is present in heaven, with a real body, a resurrected body but also let us remember, a human body that was dead and is now alive forevermore, is the news of cosmic history and makes this day a day of unsurpassed festivity! He is alive and He is reigning with the power of the Almighty over all creation. He will come again. And what a glorious day that shall be. For some of us, we shall see Him in His glory before that day, as we are called home to heaven, to wait in glorious splendor for the end of all things and for His great cataclysmic climactic return, judgment of men and angels, and the devil, and His gathering of His children, and His Word which will establish a new heaven and a new earth. Then shall Christ hand over the kingdom to the Father that God might become all in all (1 Corinthians 15.28). What glory! What grand images and ethereal thoughts to now possess the human mind! But for now, for now my beloved, we live within the boundaries of time and space, to follow Him, to fulfil His commandments and to be His people in the world. And one way to do that today is to stir up our faith and love (Hebrews 10.24) as we remember what we learned as little children,
I should have known it. 
While listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909, Sonora Louise Smart Dodd was thinking of her father: a Civil War veteran and a farmer, he was also a single dad to 6 children. She began to work to get a day to honor fathers. The Lion’s Club helped to popularize it, President Coolidge gave the first presidential proclamation for Father’s Day and it was not until 1966 that President Johnson made the third Sunday in June the official holiday called Father’s Day.
I shared these thoughts this morning in a letter to our faculty and staff. I share them with you.
Philip Jenkins has written some outstanding books on the emergence of the new Global South and East; what he calls 
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God [my emphasis]” (2 Timothy 3.1-4 ESV).
Perhaps no figure since St. Paul has influenced Western civilization like the man born 500 years ago this date, Jean Cauvin (10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564), the pastor-scholar of Geneva. Through the ordinary means of God’s grace in Word, Sacrament and Prayer, Pastor John Calvin impacted law, economics, government, social welfare, family life, civic life, education, and of course the Church. At the Taste of Calvin 500 conference (sponsored by 
I appreciate prayer for upcoming appearances on “Prime Time America” on Moody Radio Network stations across N. America at the following times:
This Orientation Devotional was originally given on August 24, 2009, as “The Two Things to Remember in Seminary from Psalm 40.1-3″ by Michael A. Milton, Ph.D., President and Professor of Practical Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina (Interim President, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, Florida).
What is the secret that unlocks the power of prayer?
What is a Biblical theology of “animals in heaven?”
Christ will win. A new heavens and a new earth is on its way. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has inaugurated a glorious rule and reign that will end with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the judgment, the acquittal of the elect and Christ making all things new and then handing over the Kingdom to the Father that God may be “all in all.” That is not only the message of Scripture (see missions passages below) but the glorious teleological vision of redemptive history. It also is the mind expanding, soul stirring motivation for you to become involved in something greater than yourself.
This morning (Friday, September 25, 2009) after reading the Wall Street Journal I couldn’t help but go back and link three articles about “empathy.” One article (“I
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
When I was in India teaching I encountered many strange and exotic things. It is said that India assaults all of your senses at once. This was, in a way, true for me. Yet in the company of God’s people, as my family and I went to great, expansive megalopolis like Madras (now called Chennai) and then from there on to New Delhi. Our next stop was up to the beautiful northern area where Dehradun sits near the Ganges River that flows majestically, mysteriously down from the misty, green distant bu visible Himalayan Mountains. There we found something, I should say someone who I recognized. I want to talk to you about her. I found her coming to me in several persons.
They were the Cold War years of the mid 1970s. The California folk sounds of Neil Young and Dan Fogelberg wafted through the nightspots in Monterey. Progressive rock sounds from bands like Kansas were heard blaring from certain rooms in the Navy barracks. The music reflected the questions of the age: were we in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s or were we in a new day?
“Both (pilots) stated there was a distraction in the cockpit” reported Alan Levin in a USA Today article (October 27, 2009, 3A). What was the distraction? We have all been waiting for a conclusive answer since the story broke a few days ago. Most Americans who fly regularly have been interested in the story for, well, let’s say for reasons related to their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. And because we still freeze when we hear about plane crashes killing hundreds of human beings. 
June 21, 2010
Devotional Commentary of The Twenty-Third Psalm
The LORD is the covenant name of God to His people. How comforting it is, in the midst of troubles in this world, to know the beauty of hearth and home, of the relationships that will never let us go. David encourages himself in the Covenant name of God. And thus this Covenant God reaches across the millennia to seek you as you read this. He is your God of sacred promise; He is your Father. How very much this passage reminds us of the Lord’s Prayer.
Perhaps it is for this reason that the Church of Jesus Christ has taught Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer to our children, for they both speak of the deepest relationship in this transient life: our relationship with our Father. This God is the shepherd of David. Much has been written, and rightfully so, about the shepherding work of David and how this Psalm reflects that ignoble profession. Much can be gleaned from these studies (i.e., A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23). But for this meditation, we recall that the pastor needs a pastor, the shepherd needs a shepherd.
David was not the shepherd of a flock of sheep but of a nation of people. He was in need as those in leadership are always in need. What an invitation this is to pastors. For the pastor to say, “The Lord is my pastor” is the beginning of inner healing, of quiet strength, of calm hands that must guide the lambs across dangerous open fields and treacherous narrow cliffs.
What a blessing this is to the pastor of the family, the father, or to a single mother. “The Lord is my shepherd.” And the promise here is enough. I shall not want. Jesus Christ is the shepherd. For in His words, “I am the Good Shepherd” we find the fulfillment of this Psalm. He is the covenant God made flesh. He is the One whose presence and power reaches across the millennia to you today to comfort you, quiet you, guide you, and help you. He will never leave you nor let you go.
For every leader, every pastor, every parent, every shepherd, He is the perfect One to guide you in your lonely times of oversight. Rest in Him today, weary saint. Come to Him today, wandering lamb. You will not want for any good thing. He will be your all in all. And this is the testimony not only of this poor, wandering lamb, this lonely pastor in need of wisdom, this leader in need of love, but it is the very Word of God that has come to you this day.
This second verse speaks of the shepherding care of the Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. Food and water, hunger and thirst, nourishment, protection and provision, rest and refreshment are all needed by the sheep and are all addressed here.
We all need this, do we not? It is the Lord who makes us to “lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8). And yet without the guiding love of our shepherd, we are want to go to fields where wolves wait to attack us. Thank God “He makes us.”
We do not do this by ourselves but are guided by God to do this. He tucks us in our beds, as it were, when we would be given to anguish. Calvin wrote of the green pastures, profitable words for us when he wrote, “Some, instead of translating the word neoth, which we have rendered pastures, render it shepherds’ cots or lodges.” If this translation is considered preferable, the meaning of the Psalmist will be, that sheep-cots were prepared in rich pasture grounds, under which he might be protected from the heat of the sun. If even in cold countries the immoderate heat that sometimes occurs is troublesome to a flock of sheep, how could they bear the heat of the summer in Judea, a warm region, without sheepfolds? How we thank God that He leads us out of the heat of trials in this life to take shelter in pleasant places?
Thank God that we can count of our Good Shepherd from leading us to a place of protection to a place of cool refreshment. And take note that He leads us to “still waters.”
The sheep, as David knew so well in reflecting on God in his work as a shepherd, do not like water that is rushing but water that is still. But how shall we find such water? Only God can lead us to that place. It is to be noted that while He makes us to lie down, He does not make us to drink. He leads us besides the waters. And there we may drink.
“Draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto thee,” says James. And Christ Himself speaks to us who are so near the quiet, flowing streams of rest in another way, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). And will we not come to Him who is so close to us? Will we not open the door? Will we not drink?
The promise of the Psalmist is echoed in the promises of Isaiah:
They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.
Today these promise are all ours in Christ who said that He is the Good Shepherd. Let us come to Him today and find shelter. Let us follow Him today and be led to the restful place of refreshment.
How I bless the Lord for that one word, “restore,” from the primitive root, sûub.
As a shepherd restores, heals, brings to life his sick and wounded lambs, so too the Good Shepherd does all these things for His sheep. And He does that for you today.
This fall that you have now is infinitely more hurtful than those of your childhood. It not only is bringing you internal disease but the disease is spreading along the paths of your life. But look! To come to this Good Shepherd is to come to One who not only heals you, but He also brings you into paths of righteousness. These are the good footpaths well-worn by the little healed lambs that have gone before you. These are righteousness paths because they bring righteousness to life, for to follow them is to sup with the Savior. The paths are righteousness for the paths are His prescribed directions that lead to life and life abundant.
That is the way of the fool, of the atheist, and even the way of the believer who has eternal life but has fallen from the way for a season until He learns of the robbers and thieves and deadly vipers and incalculable miseries who lie on that bad road of disobedience. How much better to follow the way of David’s son who wrote:
The end of this verse contains a truth that if comprehended by the saint who yields his life to Christ, would find his life changed forever. He restores, He puts on the right path, for His name’s sake. The salvation of the saints, the saving of the lambs, and the guiding of the flock all the way home bring honor to the name of God. Why? He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. He paid the highest price to redeem us from the ravages of that liar, the Devil. He rose again to give us new life in Him. When we are born again it brings glory and honor to the Lord for the sake of His name.
Your life is thus a testimony to the goodness of God to you, and through your example, of the blessed mercies of Christ to a world in sin. How can we ever walk the same way again?
How can we remain the way we are in light of such a glorious salvation? Look at verse 3 one last time before moving on this day: “He restores…” Not you, not your good religious works, or your finest efforts at turning over a new leaf. No! He restores! Glory to His name! Look again, “He leads…” Not my ingenious discovery of a new path to life or my commendable innate sense of “direction” in life. No! “He leads…” Yes, from beginning to end, from “faith to faith” God saves.
And thus verse three leaves us still and quiet before the goodness of our God, content at last, to know, as David knew as he looked over his little flock, of the sheep’s security and the sheep’s serenity which is due to the Shepherd’s untiring watch born out of His undying love.
Our fables, our novels, even our children’s stories are filled with Hansel and Gretel-like situations, which reveal the innate fear that we all have as we make our way through this world. No sooner after we learn to walk do we begin to experience the difficulties and dangers of life. And so our unspoken fears of doom, of death itself, are given expression under the guise of Auden’s poetry, or Hans Christian Anderson’s fables, or Truman Capote’s novels. So, too, the Bible, the primary source of our being, the most perfect reflection and explanation of our condition, speaks to this universal experience of mankind. It does so through the Spirit-wrought poetry of a human like us. But this man is special.
Indeed, as we read this passage, we must recall that the author, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the ruler of an earthly kingdom. He is no ordinary man. He is a person of enormous, unsurpassed privilege. His life is under the constant protection of well-armored guards. Anyone seeking to even slap at this man, the king who writes this verse, would be slashed through with the claymore. So why write of walking through a Gothic-like valley where a shadow seems to him like a shadow of death looming so ominously?
This is an important question to bring to the passage. We must also remember that David was a man of wealth who lived off of the revenues of his kingdom. Thus he was comforted in the luxuries that such position afforded. Advisors constantly surrounded him. So, why should he revert to the similitude of a shepherd and speak of a rod that guides him? He had servants, family, and friends to bring him the human comforts we all desire. Why write of needing another comfort?
While David had many enemies, he also had many admirers. It may well be argued that he was one of the most popular leaders in any nation in any time. Why then should such a one speak so tenderly of a shepherd who would touch his side with a rod, as if he were a mere sheep enjoying the presence of a shepherd with the rod nestled against his side? And why such a dark scene of life in this passage for a man with so much light in his life? It is because this man recognizes that he walks, as we all do each and every day, through a valley that is ever in the shadow of death. I mean to say that he understands both the brevity of life and the uncertainly of life. David wrote,
The Psalmist thus puts his hopes not in his own wealth, or in his court advisors, or, indeed, in anything available to him in this present, transient life. David put his hopes in an eternal safety, an eternal presence, and a surety that is beyond the valley. His hope is in the covenant God of Israel (verse 1). The Psalmist enjoys the presence of his Shepherd and he needs that Shepherd. No mere mortal can be his guide or comfort. No one else can protect him, only God.
Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). The believer will never walk alone. The child of God will never walk alone in this world, filled with dark valleys, foreboding circumstances, ever-present enemies, and dizzying afflictions which leave us lost in the wilderness of life, and separated from God.
The passage can also be used to plead to those who are trying to walk by themselves, naively ignoring the dangers of the flesh, the world, and the devil. This is a warning to those who forget the brevity of life, or the sudden changes that can come to us and our families. This is not an invitation as much as a plea to run to Christ, the One who is the very God of this Psalm. Then, receiving Him, you can walk through “the valley of deep darkness” which the Hebrew portrays. You can be relieved of fear, fear that impedes a bold witness for Christ; fear that poisons your inner life of joy; fear that keeps you from walking wherever God calls you to walk; and the fear, that demonic fear placed in our breast by the sin of Adam and the judgment of God, of death.
You are free in Christ to walk, to live. This “shepherd of the universe” as Calvin calls the LORD, is here for us. And as Calvin, the preacher, also said, pleading with his hearers, as the Spirit pleads with us,
So read this sweet Psalm that many of you learned as a child in Sunday School, or in the lap of your mother, or from the deep voice of your father. Read this Psalm, so infinitely superior to any childhood story that would seek to alleviate the fears of a little boy or girl.
Read this Psalm, little lamb and lift your eyes and receive your Shepherd. He will relieve your fears, take up residence in your life, and bring refreshment to your soul. Feel His shepherd’s staff touching you, guiding you in His Word and by His Spirit. Feel the touch of that staff touching you in the darkest night of your soul and stilling your fears. That staff is the very presence of the Good Shepherd to comfort you. It is the presence of Jesus the LORD in your life at the greatest moment of need.
What a beautiful ministry the Lord brings to His worn and wearied disciples! The whole of this verse speaks to God’s provision and to our perilous condition in the presence of enemies. For David his enemies had included Philistines, unbelieving brothers, mad, jealous, spear-launching monarchs, Amorites, and, sorrowfully, even his own son. Yet God, His Savior, was always faithful as the taunting tongue’s threatening words were transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit in David into a feast of praise. The distrusting rebuffs were metabolized into David’s soul to become nourishment rather than something that tore him down. The spears thrown at him caused him to seek the refuge of God.
David knew the anointing of the Holy Spirit as he led men into battle against those who would terrorize his people, for his cause was holy, and thus the terror was supernaturally translated to power and his head overflowed with the courage and wisdom of God. And the sweet Psalmist of Israel, who would fall into such sin that its effects would create deep wounds in his own family, would one day face off with his son Absalom, deep into his own heartache and striking out with troop and sword against his father. Thus there would even come a time when this Psalm 23:5 would be tested to the utmost. For we will come to hear the mournful cry of the Shepherd-poet:
Yet even in this cry, the truth of the Word of God came to be. What parent, what father, can imagine a greater pain than to see his son rise against him, seeking to kill him, and falling himself in his diabolical ambition? What parent whose child is a prodigal (because of the sins of the fathers) can in any way understand that God anoints his head at such a time? And yet we read that David took his place in the gates after a time of solitude and mourning.
Is this not the same man who also mourned the loss of his first son by Bathsheba by going to God and saying that while the child would not return to life, he, David, would go to be with him in heaven? Thus, at the hardest, most hurtful times of one’s life, the believer can know that Jesus Christ is there with him. The oil of the presence and power of the resurrected Christ flows over our head as we are exalted as well as when we are laid low. It is then, at that hour, in that day, that if you have never said it before, you will say, “My cup overflows.” He is more of a Savior than I have ever known.
The human authors of the Word of God often conclude their divinely inspired writing by sealing the words with doxology. And thus David, after giving the believer such hope and courage and assurance in the midst of trials and, indeed, throughout every season of life, explodes into an affirmation of faith that ought to be remembered and recited by every child of God.
The “surely” points to the verity of what he is about to say. And what he says is that “goodness” and “mercy” shall follow him all of the days of his life. Now this is not just any goodness or any mercy but this is connected to the LORD (the covenant name YHWH is here employed) and to eternal life in His presence, that is, His house. The goodness of God towards David and towards each of us is evidenced in both His general love and His special love. He is good to us in life in that He gives us food and drink, children’s laughter, and crisp autumn days. Every man must be bound on Judgment Day to thank God, if it were possible in the hearts of rebels, to praise God for His general love to us all. But the special love of God is His goodness to us. He is good in His Person and thus His goodness overflows from the attributes of the Lord to His own children.
We know this through the promise to redeem us and to redeem this fallen world. He has sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to bring about that redemption. In our own lives, He has worked powerfully, mysteriously, as He did in David’s life, to preserve us, protect us, and to present us to Himself as His dear children. He sent your parents to you to tell you of Jesus. This is His goodness. He sent a preacher to you. This is His special love, His goodness to you, dear friend. God is good, and thus goodness must logically overflow, but that it overflows into your life, child of God, is reason for you to thank Him and praise Him! David here speaks of that most famous word, God’s “Hesed,” that is, His mercy. The word is most often translated “steadfast love” in the English Standard Version (indeed, there are 191 instances of that phrase). The “Hesed” of God is God’s “covenant love,” the “unfailing love,” the “stork-like” love of one who loves to death.
This is the love that left divine prerogatives in order to come to earth, a King of Kings and Lord of Lords born to woman in a feed-trough. This is the love that sent God the Son to the cross in order to save His children. What wondrous love! And yet this love, this “hesed love” of God is what David claims. He claims it for himself, as you should for your life. And David seals the beauty of this whole Psalm with Hesed. And then, whether feast or famine, David is assured that this divine goodness and love will go on and on. Indeed, David will dwell in the “bayit” of God, His “royal court” forever. Thus the Psalmist who has led the lamps of the flock through dark, dangerous fields, and over ragged mountains, now looks to the Good Shepherd to lead him home. So, too, should you rest in the LORD of this Psalm, Jesus Christ. You too can seal your life, see how every sorrow is sanctified, how every circumstance is under the sovereign saving work of Jesus and will be used to get you home.
Thinking of these things, I once wrote:
Let me trust Your Sovereign Grace. David did. And through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, you too can know the power of the promises, the security of the Savior, and the blessings of being a well-beloved lamb in the fold of the Good Shepherd.
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