Category Archives: pastor/theologian

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The Attitudes that Affect the Way We Respond to God’s Word

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Things that get in the way of applying life to the Bible

In my last post I began summarizing some of the things I’m learning from Marsden’s, An Infinite Fountain of Light. In the book he highlights a number of ways in which Jonathan Edwards is relevant for our day. Much of Edwards’s enduring value stems from the similarities between our listeners and those in the eighteenth century.

Here are some excerpts that help us know what is in the air we breathe:

“the autonomous individual is the fundamental unity of society” (p. 33). Which explains why it is very difficult to get a local church to think about community or to even think that the church is important enough to commit to.

“the God within” (p. 33). Virtually everyone in our society has been trained to think that listening to their own voice or following their own heart is the way to success. Each weekend you and I give them another word, a Word from God that is outside of themselves.

“the privatization of meaning” (p. 33). This is a spinoff from the one above. People in our day are ditching parents or a close knit group of neighbors or spiritual community and opting to discover their own meaning. Again, on Sundays we confront them with God’s Word and His meaning, but it’s not easy because deep down they believe they are the final authority on meaning.

That’s only three of them, but they are big ones that we face. What’s fascinating is to read how all this started with someone like Benjamin Franklin (remember, he and Edwards are contemporaries). Marsden points out one huge difference between their society and ours: they believed that there was some kind of transcendent basis for their values; our society does not.

This kind of analysis reminds me that when I am preaching, listeners are hearing God’s Word in the context of their cultural values. These attitudes always affect the way people interact with God’s revelation. As you head into this Christmas week and prepare to teach and preach on Christmas Eve, keep this in mind. See if your Scripture speaks directly to these attitudes and may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Learning 21st Century Characteristics From 18th Century, Jonathan Edwards?!? Who Knew?!?

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A Look at What’s in the Heart of all of Us

Over my recent vacation I was able to order a few new books and finished George Marsden’s, An Infinite Fountain of Light: Jonathan Edwards for the Twenty-First Century. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know how much I love reading Edwards. Marsden’s book offers something unique: a look at the abiding influence of Edwards because of how similar today’s mindset is to Edwards’s. I didn’t expect that. I certainly didn’t expect that the similarity is due to the influence of Ben Franklin’s thinking.

I read this kind of material to continue learning about the kinds of listeners I preach to (and the kind of man I am). When we preach God’s Word, what kinds of influences affect the way we fight for faith and righteousness?

How about this list?

  • ever-increasing technology
  • aggressive market capitalism
  • celebration of self
  • trying to balance liberty and equality
  • materialism
  • permissive sensuality
  • nationalism

Sound familiar?

If you enjoy history, you’ll appreciate Marsden’s work on Edwards and Franklin. If you enjoy thinking about preaching to your listeners, you’ll benefit from keeping these cultural characteristics in mind. They influence all of us; they’re in the air we breathe. And Marsden suggests that all of this 18th century “semi-Christian or cultural Protestant” outlook continues today.

If he’s correct, this means that many of our listeners each Sunday believe in God but are most concerned with their own personal flourishing.

And if you have teenagers in your church, here’s their “most typical religious outlook…even those who had been reared in traditionalist Christian churches… ‘moralistic therapeutic deism.’ They tended to believe that there was a benevolent , mostly distant God who wanted people to be good and who might be called on in times of sickness or crisis for help and comfort. At the same time they believed in developing one’s now self-identity.” (p. 26, Marsden quoting Christian Smith’s, Soul Searching: The Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers)

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you and I continue to exegete our listeners while expositing sacred Scripture.

Randal

For all the care you put into artistry, visual polish frequently doesn’t matter if you are getting the story right.

Ed Catmull, former President of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (NYC: Random House, 2014), 37
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Why We Preach With Confidence

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We preach in an environment where God is already at work!

If you’re ever discouraged in your preaching and teaching of God’s Word, John Webster provides a strong dose of encouragement. In his book, The Domain of the Word: Scripture and Theological Reason, Webster writes,

“But in acting as the ambassador of the Word, the preacher enters a situation which already lies within the economy of reconciliation, in which the Word is antecedently present and active….The preacher…faces a situation in which the Word has already addressed and continues to address the church, and does not need somehow by homiletic exertions to generate and present the Word’s meaningfulness. the preacher speaks on Christ’s behalf; the question of whether Christ is himself present and effectual is one which–in the realm of the resurrection and exaltation of the Son–has already been settled and which the preacher can safely leave behind.” (p. 26)

I purchased this book in order to continue to explore the theological interpretation of Scripture, but was pleasantly surprised to see sections like this on the relationship between God, preaching, and the church.

Be encouraged in your ministry because you preach and teach in an environment where God is already at work. We do have work to do in preparing clear words from God from His Word, but the hardest work of God bringing creatures back in fellowship with Himself is something He’s already doing when the sermon/lesson begins.

And that’s why our Lord receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus each Sunday (Ephesians 3:21)!

Randal

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Learning About How Meaning Is Made For Biblical Preaching

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Discover how meaning is made before asking what the meaning is.

Last week I had the privilege of teaching the Ph.D. course BIB909, Old Testament Hermeneutics and Theology, for LBC|Capital Seminary & Graduate School. One of the concepts we discussed during residency days in Greenbelt, MD was how meaning is made in a pericope.

It is not a familiar topic, especially when worded that way. It comes from the world of literary studies.

In my own practice I always discover how meaning is made in my selected preaching portion before attempting to discover what the meaning is. This allows me to allow the biblical author to show me what he means to say.

In many cases this means beginning with the passage’s structure. In a narrative, for instance, trace the storyline of the text (setting, rising action, climax, and conclusion). This is how theology is communicated. This is how meaning is made. This shows the interrelationship between the many ideas in a narrative. This helps you know what idea is prominent and which are subordinate.

In other cases, such as didactic texts, you are tracing the flow of thought or argument of a paragraph. This provides the logical relationship between sentences and paragraphs. This is how theology is communicated. This is how meaning is made. Again, this shows the interrelationship between the many ideas in the argument. This helps you know what idea is prominent and which are subordinate.

In both case above, you will have to investigate further. You will have to ask how various elements in your preaching portion mean something to your readers. Here’s an example from Matthew 10:1-15, my text for this coming Sunday, Lord willing.

In a text like this, Jesus’s instructions to the Twelve somehow instruct us in how to make disciples.

That’s it.

You’ll have to decide how much of the details transfer to our day, but as far as how meaning is made, you’ve got it. There’s authority, specific instructions on what to do, including how to handle rejection and what that means for those who do that.

It’s your turn. If you’re preaching Sunday and if you didn’t do this already, take a moment and analyze how meaning is made in your preaching portion. And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through your Spirit-guided efforts! (Ephesians 3:21)

Randal

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Why It’s Important to Preach the Implications of Your Text (part 2)

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I am attempting to put some finishing touches on this Sunday’s message on Hebrews 10:19-27. The summer series is, Hard-Working Faith.

Hebrews 10:23 reads,

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

The first implication in this verse can be asked this way (I teach students to formulate these implications in the form of a question to help their listeners come along with them during the sermon):

What is it about “the confession of our hope” that is worth holding onto?

Don’t assume that every congregant is aware of the inestimable worth of the Gospel and faith in Christ. Better to take a moment and remind them of what this confession means and why it is linked to biblical hope (desire and expectancy).

The same goes for the second implication in v. 23 which is connected to the first one. The only reason why any of this matter is because God promises something you and I really care about. And we’re going to help them care about it.

This illustration may help. If my wife, Michele, said to me, “I promise we’ll have lots of vegetables for lunch today,” I wouldn’t be too excited. I am not a huge fan of vegetables, except for corn, but being diabetic squashes that appetite! But, if she said, “I promise we’ll have lots of ice cream for lunch (notice I didn’t say, “with lunch”) today.” Then, because I love ice cream and because I know Michele keeps her word, I am going to believe her and be at the table at lunchtime [Yes, i realize I am being very inconsistent about being diabetic!].

So, whenever you can, search for meaning at the level of implications from the text. Usually those implications will make your sermon more robust theologically as you show how the text penetrates the heart of a listener.

And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through your careful exposition of Sacred Scripture (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Our Dual Role as Exegetes and Theologians

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Preachers function in the dual role as exegetes and theologians.

Recently, I gained the privilege of teaching a Ph.D. class this fall for Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School. The course is BIB 909 Old Testament Hermeneutics and Theology.

One of the many stages of preparing to teach includes selecting major textbooks. One of my choices is Bruce Waltke’s, An Old Testament Theology: an exegetical, canonical, and thematic approach.

[If you plan on preaching from the OT, then this is an excellent resource to have on your shelf. I can’t say enough about the quality of Waltke’s scholarship. Despite being only 100 pages into the book, I am glad I purchased it!]

Near the end of chapter 3, The Method of Biblical Theology (Part 1), section 3 is, “Abstract Themes, Ideas, and Messages.” The last paragraph reads,

“After the exegete has interpreted the text and mined its message, the theologian through critical reflection interprets that message from its old horizon to the new horizons of the canon and then of both to the contemporary church. In other words, the theologian builds his or her interpretation that unites the ancient message with the contemporary world after the exegete has done his or her interpretive work….In this way godly theologians inform the conscience of the church.” (p. 92)

Notice, pastors have a dual role as exegete and theologian for the faith-families they serve.

It is true, then, that interpretation doesn’t end with our exegesis. It extends to our ability to locate the message that functions for the church.

You’ve stopped short of that dual role if you cannot articulate what God intends for your preaching portion to do to the church, to your listeners (“the contemporary world”).

Remember, the meaning of your text for this coming Sunday should combine content (exegesis) + intent (theological interpretation). When meaning combines content and intent, you are functioning in your dual role as exegete and theologian.

And our Lord will continue to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. Waltke basis this understanding of our roles on the nature of the Bible. He writes, “The Bible is more than concepts about God….It is God’s address to his people and his encounter with them. His ‘ideas’ and ‘principles’ are true and call for a personal response to obey and participate in the truth, the divine reality.” (p. 91).

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Preaching the Implications of Scripture: You Can Always Ask “Why?”

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Sometimes “meaning” can mean “implication.”

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching on Colossians 1:28–2:8 for our summer series, Hard-Working Faith. The Apostle Paul writes about the extreme effort he put into his preaching and teaching.

Colossians 1:29 reads, “For this I toil [the act of preaching Christ by warning and teaching as described in v. 28], struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

One of the many things we preachers and teachers do is provide the meaning of a text. It is always important for us to make sure we know what we mean by “meaning.” This is one of my favorite subjects to explore with my students.

Sometimes, when we say a text or portion of a text “means something,” we’re talking about the realm known as implication.

In the case of my preaching portion in Colossians 1:28–2:8, one strong implication is that preaching Christ in a pastoral or soul-watching context requires tremendous energy and effort.

So, there is great value in making sure we move meaning to the level of this implication. One question you can ask the text and then your listener/learners is: Why is preaching Christ in church so difficult? Or, you might ask, “What is it about the nature of preaching Christ that requires such effort?”

In this case, our text does provide at least a partial answer in vv. 4 and 8. Preaching Christ in the context of being a soul-watcher requires great effort because of the threat that false teaching poses to our congregants.

There are times when your selected preaching portion does not answer such a question as we raised above. In those cases, you must look to other Scripture to provide the answer(s) so that you can present the strong implicational meaning.

You will find that your theological depth will increase as you practice identifying implicational meaning and, of course, our Lord’s reputation will increase in the church and world in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. If you want to explore implicational meaning further, search for a Bib Sac article written by Ramesh Richards.

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Moving From Stated Reality to Application: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Early Sermons

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Edwards never let his listeners forget the goal of the sermon!

One of the things I’ve benefited from by reading Edwards’s early sermons is his emphasis on application. If you read his sermons you’ll see a balanced presentation of deep theology and practical exhortation.

In his sermon, The Way of Holiness, on Isaiah 35:8 (“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.”), Edwards concludes with an application section containing three elements. Here are the first two:

  1. By inference, Edwards reasons, “how many poor creatures are there that think they are in the way to heaven who are not?” (p. 476). I will never forget hearing veteran pastor, Chuck Swindoll, announce that the longer he pastored his church, the more he felt that less of his parishioners were saved.
  2. If this verse is true, then it is critical that his listeners “examine [them]selves by this doctrine to see whereabouts [they] are, and see whether or no [they] are in the way to heaven…” (p. 477). Under this point, Edwards exhorted: “Meditate on the holiness of God, and see if you cannot see a conformity, a likeness in your mind….It is not supposed that ever any copy comes near to this original, nor ever will; but yet they may perceive whether the same spirit, the same temper and disposition, in a lesser degree be in them, that was manifested by the life and conversation of Jesus Christ.” (p. 477)

Notice that Isaiah only presents stated reality. Edwards teaches by example that our job is to move from stated reality to the application inferred by that reality.

If you read this before tomorrow (Sunday), or early next week, see if your Scripture contains a stated reality that requires the same hermeneutical/homiletical move as Edwards.

And our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

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Help from Jonathan Edwards for Preaching on Sin: What I’m Learning from Reading Edwards’s Early Sermons

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Edwards sure thought a lot about sin!

In his sermon, Way of Holiness, Jonathan Edwards lists “reasons why none that are not holy can be in the way to heaven, and why those who never are so can never obtain the happiness thereof.” (p. 474, Kimnach)

Edwards’s fourth reason taught me much about the nature of sin and its affect on all of us. Take a moment and check this against your own understanding of sin and how you normally explain it to your congregants. If you’re like me, you will say something like, “Wow! My definition is a bit light!”

“The nature of sin necessarily implies misery. That soul that remains sinful must of a necessity of nature remain miserable, for it is impossible there should be any happiness where such a hateful thing as sin reigns and bears rule. Sin is the most cruel tyrant that ever ruled, seeks nothing but the misery of his subjects….Sin is a woeful confusion and dreadful disorder in the soul, whereby everything is put out of place…” (pp. 475-476, Kimnach)

The last part is extremely insightful. Unlike anything I’ve read in theologies.

This kind of analysis helps me whenever I try to communicate the meaning of sin. My definition or understanding of sin isn’t as robust as Edwards’s. What I’m learning from Edwards’s preaching is that he is working so hard to convince his listeners that they should avoid sin at all cost.

If your preaching portion for this coming Sunday contains explicit or implicit references to sin, maybe Edwards’s keen understanding may help you help your congregants. I know, as we do this our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal