WM 327: Scrivener Series.Part 1 of 3: Life of F. H. A. Scrivener (1813-1891)

 

JTR

The Vision (5.2.25): Before and After

 

Image: Rhododendron, North Garden, Virginia, May 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 2:11-16.

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

In Ephesians 2, Paul continues to draw a contrast for the Ephesians between their unregenerate and regenerate states. It is a before and after contrast. Think of a fitness channel on social media. This was the before (fat and flabby), and here is the after (lean and fit).

In v. 12 Paul offers three descriptions of the Ephesians in their unregenerate state:

First, there were “without Christ.” How sad it is to live a Christ-less existence, yet so many do. He ties this to their apartness from “the commonwealth of Israel” and “the covenants of promise.” They had not known all the shadowy covenants that had pointed to the New Covenant through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter will say that such were “in time past not a people, but are now the people of God” (1 Peter 2:10).

Second, they were hopeless: “having no hope.” Many people live in this world without hope. I recently read an online story about a 10 year-old girl who took her own life. I saw the scars of hopelessness firsthand while living in a post-communist nation.

Take God away and what hope is there? Hope in yourself? In sport or entertainment? In money or power? In science or knowledge? Of course, Paul is also saying here that they were without the ultimate blessed hope of Christ’s second coming.

Third, they were “without God (atheoi) in this world.” This is the spirit of atheism (cf. Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1). One of the worst and most deceptive songs ever written was John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and it is sung over and over again, even recently at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral. It has a diabolical message. Take away belief in God and create an earthly paradise! Have they never seen what happened in communist Soviet Union or on the killing fields of Cambodia when nations tried to live without God?

The contrast comes in v. 13: “But now in Christ Jesus….” This parallels the “But God…” in v. 4. Those who were far off have been brought nigh (close) by the blood of Christ. Paul takes the Ephesians back to the foundational work of the cross, and especially to the blood of Christ. Already in Ephesians 1:7 Paul had affirmed, “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Later in this chapter he will say, believers have been reconciled “in one body by the cross” (2:16).

The key to the transformation from the unregenerate to the regenerate state is the cross of Christ. Now, we have Christ; we have hope; and we are not without God in this world.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.25.25): Resurrection Appearances (Luke 24)

 

Image: Azaleas, North Garden, Virginia, April 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from morning and afternoon sermons last Sunday on Luke 24.

“And they said one to another, Did not out heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32).

“And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you” (Luke 24:36).

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 Paul summarized the key four historical facts that were essential to his preaching of the gospel or good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those four basic facts: (1) Christ’s atoning death; (2) his burial; (3) his resurrection on the third day; and (4) his resurrection appearances.

The second and fourth of those points affirm or prove the first and third point points. We know that Christ truly died on the cross, because his lifeless body was placed in the tomb. We know that Christ was truly raised again from the dead, because he appeared to his disciples in his resurrection body.

All four of the canonical gospels reach their climax with these four points. One German scholar from years ago said that the Gospels were “passion narratives with extended introductions.”

Luke 24 presents an inspired narrative of Christ’s resurrection appearances on the first Lord’s Day,  to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (24:13-32) and then to the twelve in Jerusalem (24:36-48).

Aside from providing the true historical details on what transpired that day, Luke, driven along by the Holy Spirit, also provides a template for what will continue to happen when the saints gather on the Lord’s Day. The risen Lord Jesus Christ will make himself present and known to us. This happens now by the Spirit since Christ has ascended and is seated at God’s right hand till he comes again with power and glory.

When meeting with him we will say, as the disciples of old did, “Did not our heart burn within us… while he opened to us the scriptures?” (24:32). The risen Lord Jesus himself will stand “in the midst” and say to us, “Peace be unto you” (24:36). He will extend his pastoral care to us, asking, “Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” (24:38).

Let us continue to gather each Lord’s Day to meet with the one who died on the cross for our sins, was buried, rose again the third day, and appeared to his disciples.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Old English Riddle: Holy Book

 From Burton Raffel, Poems from the Old English (University of Nebraska Press, 1964), a riddle on a Biblical or sacred writing manuscript:

JTR

Duffy on "creeping to the cross"

Historian Eamon Duffy describes the late Medieval Good Friday tradition of “creeping to the cross” in English churches and how the Protestant Reformers sought to discourage it:

“Good Friday in the late Middle Ages was a day of deepest mourning. No mass was celebrated, and the main liturgical celebration of the day was a solemn and penitential commemoration of the Passion. The whole of the narrative of St. John’s Gospel was read, with a small dramatic embellishment: at the words ‘They parted my garments among them’ the clerks parted and removed two linen cloths which had been specially placed for the purpose on the otherwise bare altar….”

Later, “The cross was unveiled in three stages….”

“Clergy and people then crept barefoot and on their knees to kiss the foot of the cross, held by two ministers.”

“Creeping to the cross was one of the most frequent targets of Protestant reformers from the 1530s onwards, and there can be no doubt of the place it held in lay piety: well into the Elizabethan period Bishop Grindal would complain on Good Friday ‘some certeyn persons go barefooted and barelegged to the churche, to creepe to the crosse.’”

-The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580, p. 29.

The Vision (4.18.25): Stewards of the Mysteries of God

 

Image: Laying on of hands and prayer during Elder ordination at CRBC (4.13.25)

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, which included an Elder ordination and installation.

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1).

What did Paul mean when he declared that ministers of Christ (referring both to extraordinary ministers, like apostles, and ordinary ministers, like elders) are “stewards of the mysteries of God”? What are these mysteries?

There is no doubt as to what our Particular Baptist forefathers thought. They cite this passage as a key prooftext in Confession 28:2 “Of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper,” where it teaches who should administer these ordinances: “These holy appointments are to be administered by those only who are qualified and thereunto called, according to the commission of Christ.”

Stewardship of the mysteries of Christ means stewardship of the ordinances (sacraments) of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. But when the old men spoke of ordinance they also spoke first of the ordinance of preaching and teaching the Word.

Paul ordered Timothy, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2).

The old Puritan exegete Matthew Poole (1624-1679) explains in his commentary:

“The apostle here gives us the right notion of the preachers of the gospel; they are but ministers, that is servants, so as the honour that is proper to the Master… belongeth not to them.” Their “primary obligation [is] to preach Christ and his gospel unto the people.”

“They are also stewards of the mysteries of God, such to whom God has committed his word and sacraments to dispense to his church.” The term mystery signifies that which is secret, “represented by signs and figures.”

Poole’s commentary concludes, “Ministers are the stewards of the mysterious doctrines and institutions of Christ, which are usually comprehended under the terms word and sacrament.”

Paul told Timothy that he was to be “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

And in 1 Corinthians 14:40 he told the church (especially her officers), “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

The first thing our church should expect from its Elders is that we rightly preach Christ and the gospel to you and that we rightly administer baptism and the Lord’s Supper so that the things that are secret or hidden in them are made known.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Audio and Video Resources: 2025 Presbyterion (Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Virginia Spring Pastors' Fraternal)

 

Session 1 (X post version): On The Civil Magistrate:

Session 2 (X post version): The Case for Christian Nationalism: A 1689 Reaction:

Session 3 (X post version): "Communion" Among Churches:

JTR

Benjamin Beddome (1717-1795) Hymn: Father of Mercies, Bow Thine Ear

Note: From X post:

Make old hymns great again! We enjoyed singing this hymn by Particular Baptist Pastor Benjamin Beddome (1717-1795) in our Elder ordination service last Sunday (to the HAMBURG tune, "When I Survey"):

Father of mercies, bow Thine ear, Attentive to our earnest prayer; We plead for those who plead for Thee; Successful pleaders may they be. Clothe Thou with energy divine Their words, and let those words be Thine; To them Thy sacred truth reveal, Suppress their fear, inflame their zeal. Teach them aright to sow the seed: Teach them thy chosen flock to feed; Teach them immortal souls to gain, Nor let them labor, Lord, in vain. Let thronging multitudes around Hear from their lips the joyful sound, In humble strains Thy grace adore, And feel Thy new-creating power.