Meditation - Gleanings from the PTC Conference.
by Isaac Overton
Over the course of this last week, I had the chance to go the Ministry Conference of the Presbyterian Theological College (based right here in Box Hill! Public memberships at their wonderful library are available for all!). It’s been really valuable, not only because it provides a bit of space to think and grow, but also because as I take a weekend out of the pulpit, it’s a reminder that the church at Box Hill doesn’t depend on me (that’s something preachers need regularly to be reminded of!). So – firstly – my thanks to the Session for providing the space to allow me to do that this week, but also thanks to both Harry Berends and Albert as they fill in for me in leading the services. May the Lord richly bless us through these brothers!
Having said that, I thought that I might take a one-week hiatus from the series of meditations that we launched into last week on the Doctrine of God’s eternal nature. Instead, let me share a few gleanings that I took away from the conference this last week.
One of the speakers, Sandy Galea, told a story at one point that struck me quite powerfully. She was speaking about something she’d seen in children’s ministry at her church. As she recounted this one particular experience, she spoke of nine boys in a Sunday School lesson, whom she had noticed would rarely pray in the time when the children were encouraged to pray. She really wanted to see that prayer life develop, but was unsure as to how that might happen. Anyway, a man from the church stepped up to serve in this class, and to her surprise when she dropped back in at one point, she saw that all nine boys prayed – one after the other! What was the difference? The difference was that as they seemed to be following the pattern of the older man leading the class. He would pray with them, and the boys picked up on his example and followed suit. It really struck me, and Sandy pointed it out clearly, that children follow the pattern of living that they see in their parents and other influential people in their lives.
Now this insight, the insight that imitation is a powerful force in our lives, was not at all really a major focus of the conference. However, it was an insight that struck me again, and again, and again across the course of the conference. In many ways, I am not a particularly bright person, so perhaps the Lord wanted to make sure I picked up on this message! Let me share a few other instances where I noticed this.
Firstly, it came across regularly – and even dominantly – in the preaching at the conference. As David Cook, Jarrod Hood, and Ray Galea took us through an overview-type sermon series in the book of judges, repeatedly they drew lines between the people and times of the judges, and our own lives and times. As Ehud the left-handed judge was used of God for his “quirk” of character, as well as a string of providentially arranged opportunities, David Cook noted that so too God may use us. Ehud, in that sense, provides a pattern of how God works through his people. Jarrod Hood recounted the tale of Barak the judge, and pointed out in particular his cowardice in leading Israel through a time when they were on the verge of national destruction. He called us powerfully and directly to step up in the Lord’s army ourselves. In this case, Barak was a negative pattern of life to be avoided. Ray preached to us on Gideon, encouraging us that God uses cowardly people – just as he used Gideon. Take heart all those who are fearful and cowardly! David Cook expounded the judge Samson as a flawed man of both good and bad motives and actions. And he noted: “When I look at Samson, it’s like looking in the mirror.”
Now at no point did the preachers discuss the place of imitation and life-patterns in interpreting and preaching narrative passages of scripture, but certainly in their preaching they used this tool as a constant way of bridging the gap between the text and our lives. You might even say that they were providing an example or model for preachers to follow – which, as a matter of fact, David Cook explicitly put forward as a good way of growing as a preacher! All preachers, he said, should listen to sermons by good preachers in order to learn how to preach (the assumption being that we learn by imitation – again, another example of the lesson I have been learning!). In God’s providence, this idea of transformation by imitation came up repeatedly in other moments at the conference as well.
One speaker quoted the great preacher and pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne, who said: “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.” There’s a thought to think about. At one point Ray Galea himself graciously took some time to have a conversation with me, and as I asked him what advice a seasoned pastor and preacher might have for a young preacher and pastor, his number one piece of advice was: “Get a mentor, because we need to see living examples of the truths that we believe.”
As all these thoughts turned over in my mind and developed, I thought about whether or not we see this kind of principle of imitation in scripture as well. Is there really something about narratives in scripture that is designed to give us patterns for our own lives? I think that the answer is yes. For starters, we were created in the image of God. By our very nature, we are designed to be reflective of the pattern of who he is as we become who he made us to be in Christ. Beyond that, I thought of Paul’s instruction to the Philippian Church: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (Phil 3:17). Wow! That’s profound. Perhaps even more profound, however, is the thought that all and any good that abides in God’s people, is ultimately unoriginal. In truth, it is a reflection of Christ himself. So in 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul says: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
Ultimately, there is, I believe, a transformative power in seeing patterns of the divine character in others. When we see inspiring examples in the lives of others, it spurs us on to emulate them and follow in their pattern of living. The “pattern” is not some mere moralistic, man-centred path to change either, but is – in truth – a mediation of Christ himself to us. All of scripture speaks of Christ, and I think that the lives recorded in it’s pages provide inspired types and reflections of Christ as well. At the end of the day, the real goal is to see Christ himself. Whether directly in the scriptures, or by analogy as we see his character being formed in the lives of the saints. And there is a transformative power in gazing upon Christ, for as we read in one of my favourite passages, 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
God has saved us, and his design beyond this is to remake us in his own image as revealed in Christ, who is “the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4). And how does he do this transformative work? He does it by calling us to gaze upon Christ, to behold him in all his loveliness and beauty – as he is revealed to us in scripture (thus scripture is said to have a renewing effect upon our minds, for in it we behold Christ – Rom 12:2; Ps 1; Lk 24:27). As we see Christ in it’s pages, revealed in types and patterns in the lives of the saints across the years, and as we see Christ formed in the lives of his people around us, all of this has a transformative effect upon us in ourselves. We need one another, we need supremely the Spirit’s work in our lives through the Word of God, we need to see Jesus. We were created in God’s image, but even having fallen from grace into sin, God has restored us by grace again to be remade into that image. We are creatures of imitation, we are designed to reflect Christ as we are remade to conform to his own perfect character, and we must thus keep our eyes upon him, and upon those about us who conform to the pattern of who he is.
Who do you spend your time with? What kind of people do you expose yourself to? Who is it in your life that you look up to? Who do you set your eyes upon? Which voices are you listening to in the media-sphere? Which Christ-like patterns of life and people have you set before your eyes? Do you read the biographies of godly men and women who have gone before us? (yes, even this has a transformative power to inspire our lives and conform us to Christ). Do you set your eyes upon Christ revealed in the pages of scripture? These are important questions and are, perhaps, among the most important of questions when it comes to God’s sanctifying work in our hearts and lives. Brothers and sisters, keep your eyes upon those who walk with Christ. Keep your eyes upon Christ himself, and over time we will find that – by his grace – we more and more conform to Christ. SDG.