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."...
Genesis 3:15Â is the sum and substance of the Biblical meta-narrative. If you want to understand the Scriptures you must come to terms with what this verse teaches about the war that God establishes between the Kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of the Son of His love. It is interesting to see how, in the unfolding of Redemptive-history, Genesis 3:15 finds its ultimate...
Keep ReadingSeems like all the concerns about Pete Enns were not in vain. Enns has recently denied that Adam was a historical being. You can read the article here. Camden Bucey has a helpful post, in which he considers the relationship between Enns' theology and his apparent affirmation of the teaching of the Westminster Standards. You can read that post here. The question that mu...
Keep ReadingScott Thomas posted the following charts over at the Acts 29 website. Churches may seem to mirror one another as far as growth, finance and activity are concerned, but if they are not driven by the word of God and the Gospel the inevitable outcome--though it may be somewhat postponed--will be disastrous at every level. ...
Keep ReadingThere is an interesting, predictive structure in John chapter 10 and 11. John 10 contains the Good Shepherd discourse. It is the first time, since John 3 that Jesus explicitly explains His death. He has certainly mention His death in His interactions with the Jews who do not believe, but He did so under the veiled language of "going away."Â He was going away by means of...
Keep ReadingIf you are anywhere near Greenville, SC, I want to encourage you to consider going to the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology (PCRT) at Second Presbyterian Church on April 16-18. My good friend Gabe Fluhrer has written some very persuasive arguments why you should attend. You can read them here....
Keep ReadingSome people complain about ministers being too repetitive. This may be a real problem in some cases, but we cannot forget that the Scriptures frequently use repetition. Jim O'Brien has a post on the Puritan John Arrowsmith's explanation of the Bible's use of repetition. You can read it here....
Keep ReadingJonathan Edwards has frequently been noted for saying, "there is perhaps no part of divinity attended with so much intricacy, and wherein orthodox divines do so much differ as stating the precise agreement and difference between the two dispensations of Moses and Christ.†It should be no surprise then to find a great deal of material in Edwards on the relationship b...
Keep ReadingHere is the link to a rich post by Tim Keller on reading Proverbs chapter 3 as a guide to life. I have personally benefited from Proverbs chapter 3 more than almost any other chapter in the book....
Keep ReadingShould a minister preach Christ and the Gospel in every sermon? Or the question may be asked, "Does God expect a minister to preach Christ from every text of scripture? The first question can be answered quite easily: If we want people to be saved we should! The second needs to be more carefully addressed. I have recently heard several ministers express that it is sufficie...
Keep ReadingWalter Brueggemann once said, “When we pray we participate in the ultimate act of humanness as we yield to a power greater than ourselves.†There is a faint echo of Brueggemann’s statement in William Fenner’s (1600 – 1640) treatise on prayer: The Sacrifice of the Faithful … shewing the nature property, and efficacy of Zealous Prayer: ...
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