The First 18 Months: Reviewing the Expository Pulpit of Lake Country Bible Church

The First 18 Months:  Reviewing the Expository Pulpit of Lake Country Bible Church

“You guys have been in Revelation for a long time.”  Well, yes and no. Between Pastor Sal and the new guy it has taken us quite a while to exposit and digest twenty chapters and nearly four hundred verses of what is often called “Scripture’s greatest prophecy.”  Since the end of the story (Revelation 6-22) is Divinely intended to impact the here and now we have been in no hurry to move on to something else; (note Dr. Vlach’s insightful article- “7 Reasons Your Church Should Take Eschatology Seriously”). 

Having said that, in the past year and a half we have considered many different themes, subjects, and biblical books during our corporate worship service. My first message as the new Senior Pastor of Lake Country Bible Church was on “Satan’s Strategy Against Christ’s Church” from 1 Corinthians 3:1-7; Philippians 4:2-3.

Next, we reminded ourselves what a robustly Biblical Philosophy of Ministry looks like.  During this expository study we took four weeks to carefully examine Paul’s inspired mission statement from Colossians 1:28-29.  For two decades this text, along with Ephesians 4:11-16 and Matthew 28:18-20, have shaped the ministry of LCBC.  Lord willing, these passages will continue to define our mission for a long time to come.

Along the way I’ve preached a few standalone sermons from both the Old and New Testaments (Hosea 3:1-5; 2 Timothy 2:15; Jude 22-23) as well as a few holiday themed messages for Easter and Christmas (1 Corinthians 15:1-10; Isaiah 7:1-16).  I have also preached a few big picture messages such as “The Three Key Words of Biblical Prophecy.”

During a miniseries in 2017 we spent many weeks trying to get our arms around how the ancient covenant promises of God are related to the Church (Gal. 3:13-29; Heb. 6:11-19), to Israel, and to the prophesied end times (Revelation).  During this study, we studied Genesis 12; Genesis 15; and 2 Samuel 7; while Dan R. provided an overview message on the New Covenant during a Wednesday evening service.  We then considered how these grand covenant promises provide the basis of Messianic and future hope for the people of God in Luke 1:5-56.  One cannot fully appreciate the joy of Christmas or the details of Revelation without understanding the grand covenants of Scripture.

10 Things We Should Know About Charles Spurgeon (the Prince of Preachers)

My Favorite Spurgeon Bio

"1. His ministry began in the year of his conversion as a young man.

Spurgeon was raised in a Christian home, but was converted in 1850 at fifteen years old. Caught in a snowstorm, he took refuge in a small Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester. After about ten minutes, with only twelve to fifteen people present, the preacher fixed his eyes on Spurgeon and spoke to him directly:

“Young man, you look very miserable.” Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.” Spurgeon later wrote, ‘Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away.’ 1

The ‘Prince of Preachers’ was tricked into preaching his first sermon that same year. An older man had asked Spurgeon to go to the little village of Teversham the next evening, “for a young man was to preach there who was not much used to services, and very likely would be glad of company.” It was only the next day that he realized the ‘young man’ was himself.2

2. He was a man of hard work and huge influence. (Col. 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:10)

He went on to preach in person up to thirteen times per week, gathered the largest church of his day, and could make himself heard in a crowd of twenty-three thousand people (without amplification). In print he published some eighteen million words, selling over fifty-six million copies of his sermons in nearly forty languages in his own lifetime.

3. He was self-consciously a theological and doctrinal preacher.

While Spurgeon is not known as a theologian as such, he was nevertheless a deeply theological thinker and his sermons were rich in doctrine, and dripping with knowledge of historical theology – especially the Puritans.  Some preachers seem to be afraid lest their sermons should be too rich in doctrine, and so injure the spiritual digestions of their hearers. The fear is superfluous. . . . This is not a theological age, and therefore it rails at sound doctrinal teaching, on the principle that ignorance despises wisdom. The glorious giants of the Puritan age fed on something better than the whipped creams and pastries which are now so much in vogue.3

4. He was pre-eminently a theologian and preacher of the cross.

Spurgeon’s was a cross-centered and cross-shaped theology, for the cross was “the hour” of Christ’s glorification (John 12:23–24), the place where Christ was and is exalted, the only message able to overturn the hearts of men and women otherwise enslaved to sin. Along with Isaiah 45:22, one of Spurgeon’s favorite Bible verses was John 12:32: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”  For this reason He insisted on celebrating the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. He believed his preaching of the crucified Christ was the only reason why such great crowds were drawn to his church for so many years.

Who can resist his charms? One look of his eyes overpowers us. See with your heart those eyes when they are full of tears for perishing sinners, and you are a willing subject. One look at his blessed person subjected to scourging and spitting for our sakes will give us more idea of his crown rights than anything besides. Look into his pierced heart as it pours out its life-flood for us, and all disputes about his sovereignty are ended in our hearts. We own him Lord because we see how he loved.4  Regeneration, he saw, is a work of pure grace—and those the Lord regenerates, he will indwell.

5. He aimed his ministry and preaching at new birth (as did George Whitefield).