Banner 2010 01

I've had a little trouble getting online so this report on the first evening of the Banner Conference here in Leicester is a little behind. I had a nice journey up from London with Robert Strivens LTS Principal and a student (25 students here altogether). We picked up vice-principal David Green en route.
Wyn Hughes from Cardiff spoke first on Romans 1:16. Asked to be brief and encouraging, he certainly was. He turned our attention to the gospel itself – our raison d'etre as preachers. As he said, we are Reformed no doubt but is it the gospel that thrills us? In Romans we have a taste of Paul's preaching as he outlines the panorama of the gospel. Is preaching the gospel what we want to be better and better at?
He addressed the question of what made Paul so enthusiastic about the gospel (which he clearly is – he is using litotes). How was the manna as fresh at this point as when he began? Why was he like this? Wyn suggested 3 reasons
1. It's about salvation – Believers don't talk enough about salvation, being saved. Unbelievers speak of salvation in mere earthly terms. We often lack a sense of eternity. Death is a reminder of how short life is. It is an awesome thing to preach. How thrilling to know there is a way to be saved.
2. The power of God – Salvation is not just escaping hell but much more and yet people are very sceptical. We had a nice illustration at this point from the propitiation tiles (as they are called – they tun away the tremendous heat) on the space shuttle.
3. It's for everyone who believes – Here we had one or two more illustrations including Spurgeon offering his gold watch to anyone in the orphanage who would take it and one ragamuffin going for it.
May our default position be the gospel. If Christ crucified is at the centre the rest will fall into place. So a nice gentle start.
Liam Goligher from London announced that he plans to preach on Revelation 4 and 5, beginning tonight. He spoke of the church then and now being in much trouble. Revelation starts with the church as it is and ends with the church as it will be. Its purpose is to encourage. He quoted from 1689 Confession Chapter 26 (3) "The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan; nevertheless Christ always hath had, and ever shall have a kingdom in this world, to the end thereof, of such as believe in him, and make profession of his name."
He summed up the book as being the revelation of God about Jesus by the Spirit to John in symbols for churches.
In Chapter 4 John is caught up to heaven to see who is on the throne. By the end we see Christ rules the world for the sake of his church. At the end of Chapter 3 Christ is sitting on his throne offering participation in it. Typically for Revelation the final idea of that previous section is then exploded and expanded in the section that follows. After this points to it being the second vision. 3:8 mentions an open door and it is here again in the timeless dimension of God's holy counsel. In the spirit means like the prophets of old. Here we have one vision in two parts – God the Creator and our Redeemer in Christ.
1. Heaven's throne. The focus is not on God himself but on what is all around him. The Temple idea is in the background. The answer of the throne is that God is sovereign. John uses revealed language to describe what God is like. When we speak about God we must use the language God has revealed about himself. He has given us the very language to use. God is at the very centre. Everything else centres on the throne. We see here God's glory, his beauty, the unapproachable brightness of his being. The rainbow is a sign of common grace. His justice is signified in the thunder, etc). Ultimately we can only use God given vocabulary. A book like The Shack is problematic because it replaces scriptural imagery, which we are not free to do.
2. The throng around the throne. These are either angels or symbols of (not God's people) but those representing God's people. 24 is symbolic of the OT and NT Church. This is the way into the church. This is what the prophets and apostles preach. These heavenly representatives are “keeping our seats warm”. The main emphasis is not on the elders but the four living creatures. The order is church then creation. They represent the cherubim and seraphim and ultimately creation (fallen as it is).
The creatures are doing what all creation should do. When we gather with God's people we are joining in this heavenly worship. We are involved in covenant renewal before God and we echo this picture. We should begin our worship with worship of God as Creator. God's holiness is his separateness from us and the fact is so much higher. His holiness sets him against us by nature. He is infinitely worthy. In the presence of God all worldly plaudits are nothing. Everything else is nothing.
Go to the throne and remind yourself who you are serving. The greatest blessing is to see God. In The Wizard of Oz Dorothy and her friends discover the wizard is a sham. What John sees is so very different. Dr Goligher closed by quoting the hymn "I'll praise my Maker while I've breath etc."