A Site for the Teaching Ministry of Nick Batzig
When I sit back and read the deluge of thoughts and opinions online about what the church ought to be doing, I sense a noticeable lack of focus on the Gospel. In the many twitter rants that recur on a daily basis, there is a discernible deficiency with regard to Scripture and the Gospel. ...
It is the common lot of those God has called into gospel ministry to become discouraged on account of the challenges and trials that come from serving as a pastor. I can almost always sense when a brother is weighed down by the pressures, demands, and discouragements that come with serving as a pastor of a congregation, because I have known them throughout my own pastoral service. The apostle Paul intimated the challenges that pastors face in the church when he added to the external opposition he experienced from the unbelieving world the care that he had for the church. He wrote, "apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches" (2 Cor. 11:28). So what are ministers to do when they feel overwhelmed by the discouragements of ministry?...
We are meant to know that Jesus had to remain silent when he was judged so that we might have our mouths shut before the just tribunal of God. Then, having heard the sentence exacted against the spotless lamb of God, believers might open their mouths in praise to God for all the ways that He has removed their transgressions and the righteous condemnation that stood against us for Christ's sake. The silence of condemnation belonged to Jesus that praise for justification might be ours. ...
Sadly, many professing believers approach the gifts of the Spirit by overvaluing the idea of the miraculous spiritual gifts (e.g., tongues, prophecy, healing) and undervalue the common spiritual gifts (e.g., salvation and sanctifying fruit). Holding faulty views of the miraculous spiritual gifts is usually due to a failure to grasp the redemptive-historical purpose of the gifts. When we come to understand the biblical teaching about the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and the ordinary gifts of the Spirit, we will better value the greater and continuing gifts in the life of the church today....
When each of the Old Covenant signs (i.e., the rainbow, Sabbath, circumcision, and the Passover) are viewed in light of the fulfillment of all that they typified, we come to understand a great deal about the work of Christ...
As we enter a new year with new personal goals and desires, the Lord wants His people to commit to Christian living among the members of the body. We must resist the urge to look to practices and programs in the local church to live out the Christian life or do the work of ministry for us. Our God has given us the enormous privilege and responsibility of diligently living out, daily, our Christian lives in Christ. Let’s commit ourselves to the practice of seeking to live the organic Christian life in the context of the local church to which we belong. ...
The reason why Mary sang a song of humility is because she was focusing on what God was doing to provide the Savior she needed. Mary had been waiting on God to fulfill the promises that He had made throughout the Old Testament era. Mary doesn't speak of herself or her privileges because Mary was focused on her need for redemption. ...
We rightly wonder of the coming of the eternal Son of God into the world in true human form while wrongly neglecting to wonder at the accompanying role of the Spirit of God in the ministry of the Redeemer....
In many of life’s circumstances, we struggle to understand how we will come to attain the promises of God, forgetting that their fulfillment is entirely based on the person and work of Christ. Jesus has secured an everlasting joy, an inheritance of hope for His people through His death and resurrection. Though we do not now see all that he has for us, we wait for him with patience. We are to be a people who trust in and wait for Christ in faith....
Today, Dr. Philip Graham Ryken was installed as the eighth President of Wheaton College, in Wheaton, IL. Dr. Ryken served as the senior minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA for the past 10 years. Here is what Donald Meyer, a trustee and co-chairman of the Presidential Selection Committee, had to say about the prospect of Phil's ministry at Wheaton: â...
Keep ReadingHaving had the privilege of growing up around such men as Dr. John H. Skilton, the late professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological seminary,--who selflessly opened his home in the Vietnamese section of Philadelphia to minister to missionaries, homeless and social outcasts--mercy ministry has been something exemplified and deeply impressed into my thinking from m...
Keep ReadingLast Thursday I had a distinct honor and privilege. I had the opportunity to be with my mother as she entered into glory. Readers will remember from my post "Startled by Grace?" that my mom had spoken with me and my wife on a Saturday night a week and a half ago shortly after she had been relocated from the local hospital to the area rehabilitation center. My m...
Keep ReadingRecently PR Publishing reissued Roderick Campbell's study Israel and the New Covenant which can be obtained here. While I am not a postmillennialist myself, it is always good to read books and articles from other perspectives to keep one's mind sharp and alert. This volume has an introduction by Oswald T. Allis, former professor at Westminster Theological Seminary ...
Keep ReadingMartyn Lloyd-Jones, at the beginning of his commentary on Romans 6, made the most profound and important statement about the true preaching of the Gospel. The grace of God is so free, and so abundant, that it brings salvation to the ungodly apart from anything we do. It is not our "works of righteousness that we have done" that brings about this salvation. It is the gr...
Keep ReadingThe sermon audio and video from the Sunday morning service at New Covenant Presbyterian Church is now available online. I deviated from our regular series through the book of Acts, on account of it being a baptism service, to preach a sermon on John 13:1-20. The title was, "Cleansed by Christ Alone." You can listen to the audio here. You can watch the video below: http:...
Keep ReadingI vividly remember the morning of September 11. 2001. I was living in Flat Rock, NC, just south of Asheville. I remember hustling into the Country Club where I worked as a cook, trying not to lose my job because of my prodigal lifestyle. At some point, the head chef ran out and sat the staff down. We all huddled around a small, portable, black and white television and list...
Keep ReadingI grew up as a pastor’s kid. I’ve remained a committed Christian despite the fact. And having spent the better part of the last fifteen years looking for the perfect church I’ve finally committed to the reformed expression, jumping in with both feet. In this four part series I hope to sketch out some of the highlights of this long arduous process, anti...
Keep ReadingJonathan Leeman writes: One of the greatest ironies of the postmodern West might be this: that great symbol of pleasure in our culture for which it (consciously or not) most emphatically rejects God - sex - is the very thing God has given humanity so that it might have an analogy, a category, a language for knowing what the unadulterated enjoyment of him will be like in g...
Keep ReadingThe audio and video of the sermon from the Sunday morning worship service at New Covenant Presbyterian Church is now online. The text was Acts 13:13-52, and the title, "Promises, Promises." You can listen to the audio here. You can watch the video below: http://vimeo.com/14740517...
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