spurgeon

Oceanology

Tony Reinke Ocean, spurgeon, Vacation

About a week before we departed for the beach I tossed together a salad of biblical passages related to the sea/ocean. I made a point of personally studying the passages before we left and reviewed them a couple of times while at the beach. Although we did not have our regular family worship there were many opportunities to talk about what I had studied. We talked about these themes as we bobbed on the surf, as we ate dinner together, just at various moments throughout the vacation. Here are a few themes I shared throughout our vacation in anticipation of gospel opportunities (fwiw):

A Line in the Sand
Job 38:1–11
Point: The beach is the line that God drew in the sand as a boundary for the ocean. The sea is contained because God controls the cosmos.

The Rebels Versus The Seas
Genesis 7:6-24, 8:20-22
Point: One time the sea exceeded its boundary in a global flood. But that will never happen again. God intended not merely to judge sin, but to make a covenant. The rainbow proves it. God is mindful of our weakness and shows us compassion.

Cast Away
Micah 7:18–20
Point: How deep is the ocean? The deepest part of the ocean is over 6 miles deep (Mariana Trench). God throws our sin away, deep into the ocean like a stone. What happens when you throw a rock out in the ocean? It disappears and sinks away [We did this a few times on the beach to make the point]. That’s what God does with our sin—only because of Jesus.

Mightier Than Waves
Psalm 93:1-5
Point: The waves and churning of the sea is a metaphor for the chaos of rebellion in our world. God is stronger still.

God Rules the Raging Seas
Psalm 89:5-9 and Mark 4:35-41
Point: God controls the sea. Jesus controls the sea. Jesus is divine. [Out on the powerful surf we would talk about how cool it would be to stop all the waves at once.]

Sovereign Over the Ocean
Jonah 1:1–17
Point: God is sovereign over wind, waves, sea storms (1:4), fish, boats, everything on/in/under the sea. They all work for Him.

Sea Like Glass
Revelation 4:1–11
Point: The crucified and resurrected Jesus reigns forever. In his presence a rainbow flashes around him (3), there is something of a mighty storm (5), but the floor remains as a perfectly tranquil sea (6). There is no evil and no chaos in heaven. The sea—as an embodiment of sin, rebellion, and chaos—will be gone (see 21:1). Christ will finally do away with all the chaos and rebellion and sin of this world. We long for the day.

Happy Father’s Day

Tony Reinke spurgeon

About 2 hours home in a 7-hour drive we pulled over for a stop. I asked my 2-year-old son if he was “all wet” (ie needed a new diaper).

Son: “I’m all wet.”

So I unbuckle him from his car seat, make room on the van floor, remove diaper, etc.

Me: “Your diaper is totally dry!”

Son: “Happy father’s day.”

Me: “Um, thanks.”

All Things New

Tony Reinke spurgeon

Who doesn’t love new stuff? I love new shoes, new books, new music albums, new movies, and I really like the new iPhone (no, I don’t have one). New is the new new, or, to say it another way, our hearts long for the new and it’s always been that way.

Murray Harris, in his commentary on 2 Corinthians, writes that “The theology of the NT—or indeed Pauline theology—could be written around this theocentric concept of ‘newness’” (p. 433).

In the new era brought by Christ, there is—

  • new wine of the new age (Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37–38)
  • new covenant (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8:8, 13; 9:15; 12:24)
  • new creation/creature (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15)
  • new man/humanity (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10)
  • new song of redemption (Rev. 5:9; 14:3)
  • new name for believers (Rev. 2:17; 3:12)
  • new commandment of love (John 13:34; 1 John 2:8)

In the consummated kingdom there will be—

  • new wine of the heavenly banquet (Mark 14:25)
  • new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1; 2 Pet. 3:13)
  • new Jerusalem (Rev. 3:12; 21:2)

“See!” God says, “I make everything new!” (Rev. 21:5).

Indeed he does, and in a very permanent and non-consumerist way.

A lesson from 20 years of reading

Tony Reinke John Piper, Reading, spurgeon

In an old message delivered on July 12, 1981, John Piper said:

“What I have learned from about twenty-years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don’t begrudge the 99%.”

Jesus and the Old Testament

Tony Reinke Geerhardus Vos, Old Testament, spurgeon

A gem from the classic book by Geerhardus Vos—Biblical Theology (p 358):

“[Jesus] regarded the whole Old Testament movement as a divinely directed and inspired movement, as having arrived at its goal in himself, so that he himself in his historic appearance and work being taken away, the Old Testament would lose its purpose and significance. This none other could say. He was the confirmation and consummation of the Old Testament in his own person, and this yielded the one substratum of his interpretation of himself in the world of religion.”