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Chapel Notes
J.D. Greear
January 7 Missions Conference
InMark 14, in the Garden of Gethsemane,
the Son of God, who could speak to legions
of demons and they would flee, calls out with
such intensity the capillaries in His face burst.
What had He seen that caused that kind
of intensity?
William Lane Craig, the New Testament
scholar, says the only explanation for how
these events in Gethsemane transpired is that
God had already begun to turn His face away
from the Son. In Gethsemane, Jesus stared
into hell and voluntarily went into it. Hell is
complete abandonment by God. That was the
horror of the cross.
You need to feel the weight of His love for
you. For those of you who are not living sold
out fully to Jesus Christ, it is because you have
never had your eyes opened to the weightiness
and the glory of the God who gave this
for you.
J.D. Greear
is Lead Pastor of The Summit
Church in Raleigh-Durham, North
Carolina. He is the author of several books,
including
Jesus, Continued…: Why the
Spirit Inside You Is BetterThan Jesus Beside
You
. Summit Church has grown from 300 to
8,000 members under Greear’s leadership.
He is on the faculty at Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary.
D.A. Carson
February 4
Jesus tells a story in Luke 10: A man is
going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He’s
robbed, beaten, stripped, and left for dead.
The priest passes by. Then a Levite. And
along comes a Samaritan. From a Jewish
perspective, a half-breed. A faulty race and
religion. But the Samaritan has compassion.
He gets off his donkey, pours in oil and
wine — commonly used for medicinal
purposes in the ancient world — then he puts
this barely conscious man on the donkey. He
gets to an inn. He says something of blistering
importance and extraordinary generosity:
“If there are further expenses, whatever they
be, I’ll pay them.” In the ancient world, if you
owed money, and you couldn’t pay your debt,
then you had to sell yourself into slavery. The
Samaritan saved this broken man from death,
then saved him from slavery.
Jesus asks His question: “Which of the
three do you think was a neighbor to the
man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The question is whether I’m a neighbor. And
that’s measured by my response to need. The
parable pictures grace responding to need.
D.A. Carson
is Research Professor of New
Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity
School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has written
or edited more than 50 books and is
President of The Gospel Coalition.
Watch or listen online at
cedarville.edu/chapelto hear these upcoming speakers:
David Jeremiah ’63
January 22
I moved to Cedarville when I was in
the seventh grade and became a basketball
player. If you had somewhat of a lead in the
third quarter, your coach would say, “Slow it
down.” When you did that you had just about
a 50 percent chance of losing. When you stop
trying to win, usually, you end up losing.
We do in life what we do in sports. We
find a comfort zone, a place where we are no
longer challenged, that demands no faith, and
we settle in. God created us to win and to live
each day of our lives with winning as our goal.
When we’re trying not to lose, we’re living out
of fear. When we’re trying to win, we’re living
out of faith.
My favorite illustration of trying to win
and not trying not to lose is Caleb. Caleb
and Joshua brought the minority report back
from the promised land. Forty-five years
has gone by now. Caleb is now 85 years old
(Josh. 14:10), but it is clear he was as
passionate as he was at age 40. At the last
trimester of his life, he was able to accomplish
the greatest thing he’d ever done.
David Jeremiah ’63
is the Founder of
Turning Point Radio and Television
Ministries and is Senior Pastor of Shadow
Mountain Community Church in El Cajon,
California. He is the author of numerous
books including the Jeremiah Study Bible.
He also serves on the Cedarville University
Board of Trustees.
“OUR FAITH DEMANDS
OUR LIFE AND OUR
ALL, ESPECIALLY IN
WAYS THAT SHOW
GRACE IN THE
MARGINAL AREAS
OF THE WORLD.”
“NO MATTER HOW
OLD WE ARE OR HOW
YOUNG WE ARE, WE
SHOULD ALWAYS BE
MORE CONCERNED
ABOUT THE FUTURE
THAN WE ARE ABOUT
THE PAST.”
“CHRISTIANITY IS NOT A
DEVICE FOR MAKING
NICE CITIZENS ...
IT IS TO MAKE PEOPLE
READY TO BE IN
FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.”
Aug. 17–20
Fall Bible Conference
Clayton King
Founder of Clayton King Ministries
Anderson, South Carolina
Sep. 2
Mark Bailey
President of Dallas
Theological Seminary
Dallas, Texas
Sep. 9
Alistair Begg
Sr. Pastor of
Parkside Church
Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Sep. 10
Albert Mohler
President of The Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary
Louisville, Kentucky
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Cedarville Magazine