Category Archives: sermon series’ theme

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Our Final, Hope-filled Instructions: Preaching Through All Of Numbers

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What a sense of accomplishment!
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

This post completes the series I enjoyed through the book of Numbers with our faith-family.

My preaching portion was 33:50–36:13. I know it’s a lot of text, but we were at the end of the series and these instructions were far from new to our congregants.

The structure is clear with the repeated or restated version of: “And the Lord spoke to Moses…” (cf. 33:50; 34:1, etc.). These instructions for God’s people to live successfully in the Land must somehow translated into instructions that help us in our faith-journey with the Lord.

Then, as always, we follow the narrative to identify the theology:

  1. Our ongoing fight against cultural idols is in vv. 33:50-56. The theology shines through the command to get rid of the temptations and the warning of what will happen if God’s people don’t. Our walk with God requires constantly putting sin to death in the power of His Spirit.
  2. Our secure piece of the Promised Land in vv. 34:1-29; 36:1-13. Every person receives their inheritance (cf. 36:8). The special case revolving around a command to give a piece of the Land to a man’s daughters makes it clear that everyone was entitled to enjoy the blessing of God. The same goes for genuine believers enjoying their spiritual inheritance (cf. Acts 20:32 “…and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”). As a good theologian, you will have to help them see why this inheritance means the world to God’s people.
  3. Our commitment to worship in vv. 35:1-8. This section centers on the implications of providing a place for the Levites in the Land. God’s people are surrounded by priests who will help them maintain a vital connection to their God.
  4. Finally, our commitment to value human life in vv. 35:9-34. Some of the strangest sections in the OT for me are those instructions concerning creating cities of refuge. Yet, because the presence of God made the Land and the people holy, it was crucial for human life to be taken seriously and the taking of human life to be taken seriously. In his commentary, Wenham speaks of “the most potent pollution of shed blood.” The same life-giving element that covered sins could also become destructive.

Anyway, I settled on these four hope-filled instructions from the final sections of Numbers. The book closes with:

“These are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho” (36:13).

And I know our Lord receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) when the instructions are preached.

Randal

P.S. Next time I will try to share what I learn each time I complete a lengthy sermon series through books of the Bible, especially the OT.

P.P.S. For those who may be looking for a Christological reading of Numbers, look no further than 1 Corinthians 10:1-14.

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If Ever Local Churches Needed Theologians, It’s Now!

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That’s Thomas Aquinas by the way.

I don’t know if you sense this, but it seems like the folks entrusted to our care need theologians more than ever. The circumstances of the past several months and now leading up to the inauguration of President-Elect Biden have created a kind of perfect storm in the country and in the Church.

As I’ve read the news and listened to some pulpit plans, including some actual sermons, I was feeling tempted to become something other than a theologian for the faith-family.

The topics being discussed were relevant for the day–COVID-19, severe racial, and political tension. Most parishioners were hearing and talking about it. However, I was struggling to prepare sermons in such a way that I could say, “This is what the Lord is saying…” At least to the degree that some parishioners wanted to hear.

For instance, one sermon I heard on politics began:

“You are welcome to disagree with me.”

So much for “Thus saith the Lord.”

It was important for me to keep focused in another direction. I quickly realized I wasn’t smart enough to sort through varying opinions about all these volatile matters. I was and remain convinced that the Holy Spirit could provide insight into what our faith-family needs to hear in order to flourish spiritually during turbulent times.

First, I set out to record the way in which the elements creating the perfect storm were affecting Believers.

Second, I set out to select the best Bible pericopes to address how the church was being affected.

By the grace of God may we continue to flex our God-given theological muscles at a critical moment in our church histories so He receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. I am praying now for you as you communicate God’s Word this coming week.

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How Edwards Selected Future Sermons: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Early Sermons

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I thought you might like to read about how Jonathan Edwards selected sermons to preach. In part 2 of his General Introduction to Edwards’s preaching is a chapter called, The Making of Sermons. I am enjoying Kimnach’s careful analysis as much as Edwards’s actual sermons.

I am a huge Edwards fan even though he did not preach through books of the Bible. There. I said it.

So, how did he plan sermons to preach?

First, he selected Scripture texts that stood out to him as needing to be preaching due to their subject matter.

Second, he at times matched the text to a time of year or holiday such as Thanksgiving.

Third, he listed potential Scriptures or subjects that would be appropriate for children, young people, or old men. You can see that he’s thinking about preaching to specific categories within his congregation.

Fourth, Edwards also took notes on certain subject matters such as:

“These things persons ought to seek after: That they may live to the glory of God. Their own comfort. That they may be blessings to others.” (p. 58)

One of the most insightful entries in one of Edwards’s sermon notebooks is: “I choose this time to treat on this subject [of people contending with their minister] because now there is no contention between me and my people.” (p. 64, an entry made in March or April of 1749).

That’s good practice when it comes to preaching on money: preach on it when you don’t need to ask for it.

Anyway, you can see that Edwards is constantly planning out sermons to preach, taking notes, even developing initial drafts of key statements and broad outline points.

I am better at planning which books to preach through. However, usually in between book studies I will preach mini-series. In addition to my own growing list of potential sermon series, I benefit from perusing the series of effective pastors such as James Emery White (Church&Culture blog).

Do you have a method for long-term sermon development?

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you continue to plan future preaching/teaching series.

Randal

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What I Learned From Preaching Through Chronicles

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For my final post on preaching through First and Second Chronicles, I thought I would share what I learned from this process. I hope it helps you consider taking your faith-family through some OT books.

First, I preached 13 sermons in 1 Chronicles and 18 sermons in 2 Chronicles for a total of 31 sermons. If you know the length of these two books, then you realize that many of my preaching portions (pericopes) were large. I believe this is best if you are going to preach theology without getting bogged down in minutia (I use that term reverently when dealing with Scripture!). This also reflects my position on being careful as to how much repetition I imitate in OT narratives.

Second, I encourage you to break such series up into smaller chunks. In this case you might consider at least taking a break from the series between preaching First and Second Chronicles. It also helps if Christmas or Easter, for instance, falls somewhere in the lengthy series. These holy days provide opportunities to break away from the normal series for some weeks.

Third, I don’t know of anything like preaching through such books of the OT that will test your abilities as a theologian/pastor for your faith-family. Great sermons require great texts and not all pastors and parishioners consider every text a great text–especially in some places in Chronicles! The process of preaching through OT books will test your hermeneutic/homiletic like nothing else.

Fourth, preaching through Chronicles will give you new appreciation for the inspiration of Scripture. There are some exquisite texts in those two books, found nowhere else in the Bible. Your congregants will benefit greatly from your efforts and come away with a new appreciation for the canon of Scripture.

Fifth, preaching through books will force you to think about their theme and purpose or intention. Over the years of preaching through both Old and New Testament books, I have had to wrestle with selecting themes for the book (including an image like the Google Maps one above). For Chronicles I chose the wording of David’s prayer: Direct Our Hearts Toward You, Lord (with each pericope adding a different subtitle).

Sixth and finally, preaching through Chronicles will help you develop your Christo-centric instincts and method as you move from each pericope to the Gospel in order to show how Chronicles functions for the Church.

I hope you’ll consider preaching through books of the Bible so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

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Preaching for Emotional and Physical Health

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physical-emotional-spiritual

I am always looking for potential sermon series for the future. Maybe you are too.

Lord willing, I will complete a summer teaching series called, The Emotional and Physical Health of the Christian. It has been an enjoyable experience for me because I was able to team up with two men. One is a counseling professor at Lancaster Bible College who leads a counseling practice in our town. The other is an MD who practices family medicine locally. Both men are a part of our faith-family, love the Lord and His Church.

Our plan was for one of the professionals to take 15-20 minutes to talk to the church about one of the top three issues that they regularly encounter. Then I would spend the final 15-20 minutes teaching the theology of a passage related to that topic.

(There, I admit it. I preached a few topical sermons)

If you are tucking away some sermon series ideas for the future, you might consider the following topics. You may not have the option of having professionals join you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t address these topics from Scripture.

Top three emotional health issues routinely encountered in the counseling office are…

  1. The connection between what we think and how we feel
  2. Our self-worth and self-image
  3. Taking responsibility for our actions

Top three physical health issues routinely encountered in the doctor’s office are…

  1. Proper eating
  2. Proper rest
  3. Proper exercise

These issues are rarely confronted in the Church on Sunday’s. Our experience was extremely positive as we watched parishioners respond each weekend.

Series like this give me and our congregants a break from preaching through books of the Bible. They allow us to address issues in the Christian life that might not ever come up, let’s say in a series through the book of Judges.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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How to Preach Through Books of the Bible: Selecting a Theme

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judges slide

One of the most difficult and rewarding facets of pastoral ministry is preaching through books of the Bible. I’m praying Christ returns before I have to preach through Ezekiel!

In this series of posts I want to share some of the things I’ve learned from 25 years of preaching through books of the Old and New Testament.

The first thing I do is select a theme for the series. Here are some I discovered:

  • Unfaithful People/Faithful God
  • So Great Salvation
  • God in Chaos
  • Broken Heroes

From Judges 2:19 I selected the theme: The Salvation Of Stubborn Hearts. I wanted to capture God’s gracious deliverance and our stubborn tendency to forget Him and worship idols.

The theme you select is important because it is heard and developed in every sermon.

One of the hurdles of preaching through books of the Bible is locating and communicating the relevance of each preaching portion in the book. The theme can be extremely helpful in showing this relevance.

If your theme is accurate–meaning it is found in the book and is a major, not minor, concept–then it becomes the foundation for the relevance of each individual sermon. So all the time it takes reading the book, figuring out how it functions for the church is well worth it. And selecting the theme for the series usually takes up a majority of my study time as I prepare for the first sermon.

I wish there was a foolproof method for locating such a theme. I have discovered that theme-worthy concepts are often found at the beginning or ending of a book. That’s a great place to begin looking. It paid off for me in Judges as I said above. I’m sure a theme could be developed from the famous, final words describing God’s people: everyone doing what was right in their own eyes.

So, if you plan to preach through a book of the Bible soon, spend some time selecting a theme for the series so our Lord receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal