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....
The sermon video from the Sunday morning worship service at New Covenant is now available online. The text was Acts 10:24-11:18, and the title, "Pentecost 2: No Partiality."Â You can watch the video below: Pentecost 2: No Partiality (Acts 10:24-11:18)...
Keep ReadingThe thorny question of whether or not Cornelius--the Italian centurion officer to whom God appeared in a vision--was a regenerate believer prior to Peter's preaching Jesus to him has proven to be quite challenging for me as I prepare to preach the second part of the narrative (Acts 10:23-11:19). In the opening verses of chapter 10 we are told that Cornelius was "a devout m...
Keep ReadingThe audio and video from last week's Sunday morning worship service at New Covenant is now online. The text was Acts 10:1-23, and the title, "Bringing Home the Bacon." You can listen to it here. You can watch the video here....
Keep ReadingI love to read. I hope you do too. Reading keeps the mind active and the imagination fired up. Some recent books that I have been dipping into are the following: James White's provocative Pulpit Crimes: The Criminal Mishandling of God's Word which can be found here. Dr. White provides hard hitting commentary on common misuses of the Bible in the pul...
Keep ReadingWe recently had the opportunity to interview Chad Van Dixhoorn, on Christ the Center, with regard to his work on The Westminster Assembly Project. Anyone interested in the development of Reformed and Confessional Theology will certainly want to listen to this interview. You can find it here....
Keep ReadingMany theologians have acknowledged the typological role that Boaz played in redemptive History. He descended from the tribe of Judah, comes out of Bethlehem to bless his people, grandfather of David, the one to whom the promise of Messiah was given, and was therefore in the genealogical line of the Christ. He owned a field into which he sent His laborers. He receives a Gen...
Keep ReadingOne cannot help but admire the biblical lyricism of Michael Card. He redefined biblical compositions at a time when the Christian music world was suffering from creative and theological anemia. Card's Things We Leave Behind and God's Own Fool are two of the best examples of his creativity and theological substance....
Keep ReadingI am grateful when I am reminded of the urgent need to preach Christ for pardon and power--for justification and sanctification--and to continually look to Him for grace and mercy. It is far too easy to be moved away from Him into some sphere of self-reliance or self-renovation. When we do we inevitable fall into the trap of failure and condemnation or pride and self-right...
Keep ReadingWe’ve stumbled upon a real test for our trusting pre-modern exegetes. Revelation. In New Horizons in Hermeneutics Anthony Thiselton summarized the differences between pre- and post- modern attitudes for interpreting as ‘trusting’ and ‘suspicious’ of traditional readings. Our series so far has looked at how 17th c. expositors have treated di...
Keep ReadingActs 10:1-23 puts a very specific focus on Peter's vision which leads to the conversion of the Roman Centurion Cornelius. While Peter was praying he got hungry. The Lord then caused him to fall into a trance, in which Peter saw a sheet with four corners full of clean and unclean animals. The four corners of the sheet probably refer to the same thing as the "four corners of...
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