Category Archives: pastoral preaching

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Challenging False Professions Of Faith: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Sermons

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Your “Text” is one warns the saints of their need for holiness.

This post comes from my reading Edwards’s sermon, The Way of Holiness. He will make sure that those who profess faith in Christ display a faith that results in holiness.

Edwards’s text was 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.”

We might be tempted to stay in the future with this prophetic Text, but Edwards cannot do that. In the Doctrine section of the sermon he immediately highlights the common misconception that holiness isn’t necessary for entrance into heaven. He writes (and read!):

“Everyone hopes for heaven, but if everyone that hoped for heaven ever got there, heaven by this time would have been full of murderers, adulterers, common swearers, drunkards, thieves, robbers, and licentious debauchers. It would have been full of all manner of wickedness and wicked men, such as the earth abounds with at this day.” (pp. 470-471, Kimnach).

All the stats tell me that more and more people claim faith in Christ but their lifestyle shows no transformation. It’s a good time to speak for God whenever He makes holiness a prerequisite for being a child of God.

This is especially important if you shepherd a church that holds tightly to the doctrine of eternal security. Our listeners will tend to water down any of those warnings, any of those conditions (e.g., Colossians 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard). Many of our listeners believe that their profession of faith expressed when they were young makes them secure, without any evidence.

Edwards’s would reply: “What a wretched place would the highest heavens have been by this time if it were so….the royal palace of the Most High…would be turned into a mere hell. There would be no happiness there for those that are holy.” (p. 471)

In interpreting Isaiah, Edwards is practicing what I call ecclesiological exegesis. Isaiah is functioning for the church by showing a future that mirrors the status of every genuine Christian: holy and clean.

Does your preaching portion for this Sunday include a Word from God that challenges the professions of your listeners? Mine does: Psalm 80:18.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus as we faithfully challenge our listeners to display genuine faith (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

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Are You Achieving this Balance in Your Preaching?

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How to challenge hypocrites without unduly stressing out the saints!

I’m not quite finished with Bavinck’s one volume theology, but couldn’t help starting to read, Theoretical-Practical Theology, written by Petrus Van Mastricht in the late 17th century. I was excited to read it because he wrote the theology book to train pastors. For instance, it contains a wonderful first section, The Best Method of Preaching. What a way to begin a systematic theology book!

In it, Mastricht speaks to a subject matter that may be difficult to do in some churches because of their goals. However, it is impossible to avoid if a pastor is committed to preaching through books of the Bible.

That subject matter is challenging the saints to make sure their lifestyle matches their profession of faith. In other words, the Scriptures regularly urge the saints in church to a faith that expresses itself in required virtues.

Of course, this kind of preaching will create some angst in those who know they are saved. So Mastricht writes,

“…from one perspective, we would not without cause lead the consciences of the pious into doubts and anxieties from which afterward we could not so easily lead them out; from another perspective, so that we would not also strengthen hypocrites and harden them in their carnal security” (vol. 1, p. 23).

That’s the tension that can be created in preaching the Word of God to both kinds of listeners. It’s the kind of preaching that some preaching portions demand.

When the Text demands it, may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) because of your faithfulness in not strengthening the hypocrites without pricking the consciences of the saints without cause.

Randal

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Where Does Your Church Stand With Doctrine?

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We will continue to face enormous pressure to rescind certain doctrine!

A couple of weeks ago, as I was preparing for upcoming lectures on theological interpretation, I came across this “plausible and sobering picture” in the Preface of Vanhoozer’s, The Drama of Doctrine (p. xii).

Vanhoozer quotes Alan Wolfe, sociologist from Boston College, who wrote a book back in 2003, The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith. He wrote,

“Evangelical churches lack doctrine because they want to attract new members. Mainline churches lack doctrine because they want to hold on to those declining numbers of members they have.”

Notice that Wolfe treats both sides, evangelicals and mainliners. So he recognized this phenomenon 20 years ago.

Do you think the situation has gotten better or worse? Do you ever feel that pressure?

This made me reflect on the Apostle Paul’s statement to the elders in Ephesus recorded in Acts 20:27

for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ac 20:27.

It made me wonder what could possibly cause Paul to shy away from certain Scripture in his day.

Wolfe identified the problem in our day. Vanhoozer wrote, “Christian doctrine is necessary for human flourishing: only doctrine shows us who we are, why we are here, and what we are to do” (p. xiii).

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we preach and teach as much of His Word as He gives us time and energy to do so.

Randal

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An Unexpected Source for Learning how the Cross Gives Life

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Some Cross-Eyed Readings

A few years ago my youngest daughter and her husband bought me a copy of, The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions. In the prayer, Love Lustres At Calvary, I came across an unexpected tutorial in how to move from the cross of Christ to the benefits His death provides.

I find that these kind of examples help me connect text to Christ to some element of salvation contained in the text.

In that prayer there are 18 “that I might” statements. In general they’re like: Christ died “that I might” experience some benefit of His death.

Here are a few of them to give you a sense of what this move might sound like:

“Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,

cast off that I might be brought in,

trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,

surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best,

stripped that I might be closed,

wounded that I might be healed,

athirst that I might drink,

tormented that I might be comforted…” (pp. 76-77)

I have found that this kind of formula helps me know what to look for in a preaching portion. The text contains some link to Christ-crucified and that link moves me to a “that I might…” statement of an element of salvation.

Watch your congregants’s faces reflect their gratitude to God for providing His Son. The author of the prayer states,

“All this transfer thy love designed and accomplished; Help me to adore thee by lips and life.” (p. 77)

Not only do cross-eyed readings like this illicit faith-first response to the text, but they also urge our listeners to love God more.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we perform cross-eyed readings each Sunday.

Randal

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Ready for Another Year of Fast-Paced Weeks of Sermon Prep?!

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Sunday’s come so quickly!
Suggestions to handle the pace

Are you ready for another year of preaching Sunday to Sunday?

If you are a preaching pastor, you know that Sundays come so quickly. It is tough to keep up this pace week after week. Here are some things I do to work effectively and efficiently each week:

  1. Keep improving your own exegetical skills. This takes time, but saves time in the long run when it’s time to consult commentaries (later in the post). The more quality exegesis you do, the less you need the help of scholars.
  2. Identify the big idea (or whatever you call it) and intention of the preaching portion on Monday morning. For years I have taught a Monday morning ritual to aspiring and accomplished expositors that reverses normal sermon preparation sequencing (begin by gathering exegetical fragments, but wait until the end of the week to put it all together). Try locating the meaning of the pericope and what it intends to do to the church early. Then you will know how the fragments fit. It addresses the ole, “I’ve got lots of notes but no sermon yet,” end of the week syndrome.
  3. Use the best commentaries efficiently. This implies that you know how to find them. Access copies of the two OT and NT commentary surveys by Longman and Carson, respectively. Since you’re improving your exegetical skills, you read the best commentaries to locate only what you’ve missed. You can read faster than you would if you were relying on the commentators to find meaning and intention.
  4. Write your sermon while you study. This is the best thing I have learned through the years. I never study for a sermon without creating the manuscript in real time. As I execute my method, I write as if I were preaching.

Sundays come so quickly. I hope you will consider these four tips and I know our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through your efforts (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Lessons from Listening to Student Sermons

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Two Observations and Suggestions from Watching Another Round of Student Sermons.

No offense to my recent students, but my mentor and long-time homiletics professor, the late Dr. Haddon Robinson, once said:

“I’ve listened to so many bad sermons in my lifetime, it’s a miracle that I am still a Christian.”

I’m pretty sure he was only half joking.

Last week I had the privilege of listening to many good sermons preached in my Advanced Homiletics class. Here are a couple of observations and suggestions:

  1. Introductions usually are too long in proportion to the number of sermon minutes. Novice preachers tend to create sermon introductions that are too long. This tendency might be caused by a failure to think carefully about what introductions must do. It also appears that preachers think introductions are more valuable than they really are. A sermon introduction must do two things: (1) introduce the subject of the sermon and (2) tell why listeners need to hear that subject matter [a bonus (3) could be telling them the worship response: “We worship this morning by ____________.” In light of what I just experienced, my suggestion is to shorten your sermon introductions.
  2. The segment between the introduction and the first point is too long. Again, the more inexperienced preachers seem bent on spending precious sermon minutes on contextual or background information. Part of the reason might be what the students are used to hearing from their professors or from reading commentaries. My standard rule in class is, only supply contextual/background-type information that is critical for interpreting your preaching portion. My suggestion is before placing contextual or background information in the sermon, ask yourself, “Could I understand the meaning of this text without this piece of background information?” If the answer is, “yes,” then leave it out of the sermon.

As you can tell, I am a huge fan of saving sermon minutes for the theological interpretation of Scripture. And that clock sure moves quickly on Sundays!

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as a result of our evaluations and striving to preaching well.

Randal

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Why BAGD Is Important For Preaching

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The standard Greek Lexicon is extremely helpful for the definition of key terms.

I currently have the privilege of teaching another Advanced Homiletics class to Masters level students at Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School.

During a recent residency I warned the class that an annual complaint of mine is that students at this level are rarely using the best sources for conversation partners (commentaries, etc.).

One of those quality sources is an old standard lexicon I call BAGD.

I wrote it out that way when I was in seminary in the ’80’s after the order of the last names of the four authors listed on the front cover of the book. Many called it, BDAG (pronouncing it “bee-dag”). As you can see from the image, only half as many authors are listed now.

But, what is more important is how useful this tool is for foundational exegetical work. Here’s an example…

This past Sunday I was preaching Colossians 1:9-11 which contains the concept of God’s will. Listen to the precision of BAGD’s definition:

“What [God] wishes to bring about by the activity of others, to whom [He] assigns a task.”

I think many of us could have gotten the part of God’s will reflecting what He wants to do. But notice how BAGD includes the thought of what He wants to do through an assigned task. It was a simple step for me to recite this definition and then ask all of us if we are aware of the task God has assigned to us. Then, one step further, of course, to accomplishing that task.

You might be one of my readers who regularly uses such lexicons like this. You know how valuable it is. If you are not in the habit of using it, consider it. The Logos version is helpful because of how everything is linked to biblical texts. The search-ability is priceless.

And you will be rewarded with precise definitions that will add clarity to your preaching. That, in turn, will help ensure that God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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At the Start of a New Homiletics Class I Am Reminded That…

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There’s nothing better than studying preaching together!

I am extremely fortunate for another opportunity to meet a class of preaching students at LBC|Capital. We are just completing week #2 and are headed into residency week. It will be great to see everyone face-to-face.

Gearing up for the course and evaluating the work being turned in provides a chance for me to review some of the more important aspects of preaching. So, at the beginning of this new Advanced Homiletics class I am reminded that…

  1. it’s extremely helpful to think about intention as a part of your exegesis. That way you don’t separate your exegesis from your application and application doesn’t have to come last in the process.
  2. the amount of verses you select for preaching can either help or hinder your ability to identify the theology of a preaching portion. Cutting the text too short or too long can create problems.
  3. your method of sermon preparation should include a way for you to distinguish between big and little ideas in your text. And, then, of course, you need to be able to show how all sized ideas interrelate to make meaning.
  4. finding the meaning of a passage begins, not by searching for what the meaning is, but how the meaning is made (how the structure of the particular genre of your preaching portion communicates).
  5. when Christ-centered preaching is done well, your listeners will never leave church as good moralists.

That’s probably enough for now, but I do love thinking about some of the key elements to developing a sermon that represents God well.

And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus as a result of the way in which you read and communicate the sacred Scriptures (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. If you’re free this coming Friday or Saturday, whether for the day, half-day, or even an hour or so, find PAS 513 Advanced Homiletics in LBC|Capital’s Lancaster campus (2nd floor of the academic building).

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How What Evangelicals Currently Believe Affects Our Preaching

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The current State of Theology helps us know the doctrines in danger.

In preparing for some new disciple-making initiatives in the coming year, a colleague of mine at church and I have been collecting some data on what Evangelicals believe. In the process of skimming some of the findings, I realized how important this data can be for our preaching.

[For years, I have watched the survey results reveal a slow, but steady movement away from orthodox beliefs. This has caused me to see at least part of my preaching ministry as an attempt to keep my listeners from losing important aspects of the Christian faith.]

If you’re interested, I suggest you look at what Ligonier and Lifeway present about the State of Theology (thestateoftheology.com).

What you will find is that Evangelicals are moving away from traditional beliefs about Christology, including things as foundational as whether or not Jesus was created by God.

When I presented some the findings to our Wednesday night crowd, two folks quickly replied: “Well, I wonder how the survey defined ‘Evangelical’?” That’s a very common Fundamentalist reaction. My reply was that it doesn’t matter. Even if the word wasn’t defined as tightly as some of us might want, the stats still show that some of our parishioners might be experiencing a similar shift.

If you’ve used such info before, then you know that the survey answers help us know what doctrines we need to highlight in our preaching. For instance, in one recent survey I saw, three of the five questions/answers involved the Person and work of Christ.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we accurately preach Christ as God portrays Him in His Word.

Randal

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“The Power of the Office and of the Minister”: Preaching and Pastoral Ministry

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Is it only me, or does the thought of the power of the pastoral office/ministry seem out of step these days?

I regularly read ancient confessions to help me think theologically. The goal is to add theological depth to my preaching in order to feed the flock well as we read Scripture together each Sunday.

I am also near completion of my first full-length e-book, Preacher As Soul-Watcher, which contains a section on Hebrews 13:17 and the preacher’s authority.

The Second Helvetic Confession (“Helvetic” is Latin for “Swiss” and this confession grew out of the context of Swiss-German Reformed Protestantism in the mid-sixteenth century) contains chapter 18:

“Of the Ministers of the Church, Their Institution and Duties.”

After the section on our Lord’s absolute power is,

“The Power of the Office and of the Minister” (p. 93, The Book of Confessions). It reads…

“Then there is another power of an office or of ministry limited by him who has full and absolute power. And this is more like a service than a dominion….In virtue of this power the minister, because of his office, does that which the Lord has commanded him to do; and the Lord confirms what he does, and wills that what his servant has done will be so regarded and acknowledged, as if he himself had done it” (p. 93)

When we preach God’s Word with accuracy, we’re doing what the Lord commanded us to do. According to the confession, the Lord confirms what we do and wants our listeners to regard our preaching as if He Himself had preached.

I don’t know from Sunday to Sunday who will think of my preaching like this, but I do know that this thought encourages me as I prepare for another Sunday.

I hope you are encouraged too by the thought of our derived pulpit power bringing glory to God in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal