A Site for the Teaching Ministry of Nick Batzig
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....
While recent developments concerning the state of Israel have given us reason to revisit this subject--it would do us good to be settled in our minds about the fact that all who are united to Jesus by faith have been made children of Abraham and heirs of God (Gal. 3:29). Believers are the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem (Phil. 3:20). This is the only Jerusalem that ultimately matters. As John Newton put it, "Solid joys and lasting treasures, none but Zion's children know."...
The old bishop of Galloway was highly commended by Spurgeon for his striking clarity and evangelical warmth. Cowper wasn’t exactly a ‘Puritan’ – he took an Episcopal bishopric after years of serving the Scottish Presbyterians. Nevertheless he maintained scripture priority over the sacrament and (expository) preaching as the means by which the Spi...
Keep ReadingThe sermon audio and video from the June 6, 2010 Sunday Morning Worship Service at New Covenant Presbyterian Church is now available online. The text was Acts 8:4-25 and the title, "Can't Buy Me Life." You can download the audio here. You can watch the video below:
My friend Jay Harvey has an article over at Reformation 21 on the priority of pastoral ministry in the life of Augustine. You can read it here....
Keep ReadingA friend of mine from the UK recently pointed out how people in the American church are so quick to put their stamp of approval upon a man or women regardless of their belief system. You've probably heard this come in the form of the following statements: "He's such a great guy," or "She's a really great person," or "I just love so-and-so." And, if you listen carefully, wh...
Keep ReadingPhilippians 2:5-11 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death o...
Keep ReadingTime Magazine has a cover article, in the June 7, 2010 edition, on the situation that the Roman Catholic Church finds itself in with regard to the pedophilia-priest scandals. The title of the article is "Why Being Pope Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry." It is interesting to see how the watching world perceives the weaknesses and inconsistencies of the dogma of Rome. ...
Keep ReadingThe dying words of many of the Scottish Covenanters are recorded in James Thomson's A Cloud of Witnesses. One such record is that of the dying words of James Renwick (pronounced "Renick"). Renwick was the last of the Covenanter martyrs. The old Methodist ministers were fond of saying, "He who would die well must live well." Renwick is an example of one who died well be...
Keep ReadingThe newest sermon audio from New Covenant Presbyterian Church is now online. The text was Acts 7:54-8:5 and the title, "To Die is Gain." You can listen to and download it here....
Keep ReadingMy wife and I love the music of the Sons of Korah, the Australian band which has set many of the Psalms to modern tunes. What do they sound like? Think of an Australian version of Shane Shane with more lyrics, more harmonization and more of a 70's rock influence. You can listen to some of their music here and here. I especially like the album Redemption Songs. The band ha...
Keep ReadingIn his 1981 address at Urbana, Eric Alexander made the following observations about Stephen's martyrdom and the fruit it bore: We see that Stephen's death was for the glory of God. There are clearly two sides to the fact of Stephen's death. There is on the one hand the wrath and hatred of the people as they gnashed their teeth against him (v. 54). That, I suppose,...
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