The image above is an attempt to show what might happen to a preacher’s authority during the sermon. The red line shows how our authority fluctuates while we communicate God’s Word. Below the line equals a loss of authority; above the line means the authority of God’s Word is coming through loud and clear.

I’m assuming that a preacher doesn’t have authority because he is preaching. Our authority comes from the combination of our office (we are soul-watchers according to Hebrews 13:17) and communicating God’s Word. There are minutes in the sermon when I may not be communicating God’s Word as much as I think I am. Think about sermon time devoted to…

• illustrations
• jokes
• secondary applications (the Word teaches us to give financially, but I specify how and how much)

I’m only beginning to think this through. The issue may not be only authority versus no authority. It might be an issue of levels of authority (higher and lower). In this case, “pure” explanation of God’s Word might contain more authority than a funny illustration.

This has made me think carefully about how well I’m communicating God’s authoritative Word. Luke 4:32 records, “and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.”

In his book, Preaching: A Biblical Theology, Jason Meyer writes, “Scripture….is ‘God preaching’ in a complete and unqualified way because Scripture is free of error. Our preaching is not. A preacher cannot claim that people have heard from God simply because they have heard the preacher’s sermon!” (p. 239). We have to make sure sermon seconds are saturated with accurate explanation and application of God’s Word.

Before Sunday, look over your sermon notes and get a rough idea of how many minutes are over the line and how many are under the line.

Preach well for God’s glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

This post was originally published on February 11, 2015.

Even though I regularly preach through books of the Bible, I am always on the lookout for a good, topical/exposition preaching series. I recently completed a study of 25 “one another” instructions found in the New Testament. If you haven’t preached these “one another’s”, I highly recommend it to you.

Why? Because the “one another” instructions help us resist the gravitational pull of our society toward a disconnected or isolated spirituality. More and more I’m reading of professing Christians who believe in Jesus, but do not believe in being vitally connected to a local church. These “one another” instructions teach us why we need the Church and why the Church needs us. It is difficult–maybe even impossible at times–to obey the “one another” instructions without close association with a faith-family. If you plan on some pulpit time each year dealing with what it means to be a local church or with your church covenant, the “one another” study is a good option.

If you decide to preach all or some of the 25 “one another’s” (and the count may vary depending on what English translation you follow), here are a few things I learned. They affect virtually every individual instruction:

• show the connection between “love one another” and many, if not all the other instructions. The much repeated/restated command seems to function as an umbrella under which all the other commands occur. Love is the first thing to go. If I don’t love you, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for me to pray for you.
• spend time teaching the hurdles that must be overcome in order to put the “one another” instructions into practice. For instance, if you are preaching on “put up with one another” (my favorite, non-Christian sounding one!), what is it about the default setting of our hearts that make that difficult to do? Often, it is some form of selfishness or self-focus. Sometimes, however, the hurdle is the other person–what they’re like or how they act.
• balance the imperative (the “one another” command) with the indicative (what God-in Christ-through the Spirit has done in us). The “one another” series tips the scales each weekend on the imperative side. It’s easy to forget that these instructions are organically linked to detailed indicative sections with which most NT epistles begin.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation.

Randal

This post originally appeared on August 12, 2014.

In Luke 2:39-52 we read the story of the time the pre-teen Jesus got in trouble with His parents. Luke 2:46 says, “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” Where will you focus application, on Jesus’ perfection or our need to copy Him (i.e., display the same love for God and His Word)? The Gospels present a huge temptation for us to moralize the life of Jesus. This narrative is also bracketed by Luke 2:40 and Luke 2:52 which record Jesus’ overall growth pattern. Again, it’s so tempting to simply say, “Go and do likewise.” I follow Tim Keller’s approach and suggest that it’s not either/or, but both/and. Bolster faith first by highlighting the perfections of Christ. Then urge obedience by calling everyone to follow His example. If you’re interested in reading more on this topic, see my article, Cross-Eyed Application in the May 2007 issue of Preaching journal.

This post originally appeared on March 3, 2013.

Romans 12:12 reads, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” I have found it helpful to explain the meaning of commands by exploring the opposites of these attitudes and actions. If you decide, for instance, to preach verse 12, each command becomes one major thought block. Each thought block might contain a brief segment on how the un-renewed mind thinks and acts (cf. the context of Romans 12:2 where the renewing of your mind is the way the transformation of a Christian occurs). So, instead of being patient in tribulation, the un-renewed mind is focused on the irritation the troubling circumstances are causing and wants out. The contrast helps everyone understand the meaning of being patient in tribulation.

This post originally appeared on March 14, 2012.

There is an organic connection between faith and obedience. That means there is also an organic link between unbelief and disobedience. I learned this from reading Hafemann’s book, The God of Promise and the Life of Faith.

So, if it’s true that every act of disobedience is first and foremost an act of unbelief, then we attack disobedience by attacking unbelief. For instance, in Luke 12:22-31 Jesus teaches us not to worry. The sin of worrying is a good example of this approach because in v. 28 Jesus addresses His worry-wart disciples as, “O you of little faith!” Our lack of faith in God’s ability to take care of us is the root cause of worrying. So, in order to repent of the sin of worrying, we need to link that sin to our unbelief.

When I worry, I’m saying to God, “God, I don’t trust you.” Doesn’t that sound worse than saying, “God, I worry about ________”? Imagine having to tell God face-to-face that you don’t trust Him.

Unlike the sin of greed, which is rarely, if ever, confessed, worrying appears to be the sin that is frequently admitted, but rarely conquered. It might help if, instead of giving five ways to be worry-free, we link worrying to unbelief and talk about reasons why we can trust our Heavenly Father.

Use this approach with other sins that are censured in your upcoming preaching portions. Ask how sin X links with unbelief. Explore with your congregants how a particular sin links with unbelief. If the sin is unrighteous anger, how does unbelief fuel that emotion? You want to repent of worrying? Increase your faith. You want to repent of anger? Increase your faith in what God has provided in Christ and His Spirit.

As you practice this approach each Sunday, you will help everyone attack the hidden sin behind the visible sin. Instead of only providing advice to keep anger in check (and that’s probably all our “five ways to curb anger” are), you will also get to the heart of one’s relationship with Christ.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in the world.

Randal

This post originally appeared on July 7, 2014.

There are times preaching through the Gospel of Luke (and many other places throughout the Scriptures, for that matter) when we are forced to monitor our spiritual progress. For instance, in Luke 11:28 Jesus says, “Blessed…are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” The rest of the paragraph describes in general terms, through the imagery of light and darkness, what it’s like when we allow Jesus’ teaching to enlighten every area of our sin-infected hearts.

I found it helpful to create a slide that lists some prominent sins. I wanted us to ask if we commit these sins just as much as the non-Christian. You don’t have to use a slide. You could use a handout or simply read the list to your hearers. The key is to somehow help the faith-family monitor their level of obedience. Are we hearing the word of God and keeping it? How do we know?

Take the same list and transform it into LifePlus character traits. It’s easy now to ask which list, or, more likely, which one(s) on the two lists best describe us.

The Bible forces us to evaluate our lifestyle to help us be sure our faith in Christ is living. This approach is not the only way, but I’ve found I can get a lot of mileage out of these contrasting lists.

If you desire to stay away from moralistic preaching, simply remind everyone that Jesus died in literal darkness (Luke 23:44ff.) so we could be “full of light” (Luke 11:34). The second slide describes the genuine Believer. It’s the difference between a morally restrained heart and a supernaturally changed heart.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in the world.

This post originally appeared on March 3, 2014.

In Luke 15 Luke puts two genres together to make meaning. The first piece of the puzzle, only two verses (vv. 1-2), is narrative; the second piece is a lengthy three-part parable (vv. 3-32). The short, narrative piece and the long, parable piece combine to make meaning.

The subject of the chapter is found in the narrative, the reaction of the religious leaders to Jesus receiving and eating with sinners. Their reaction is clearly wrong in light of God’s mission in the world. Their reaction results in Jesus telling about what happens when something/someone valuable is lost: people who consider the lost thing/person to be valuable search for it/them and when they find it/them they invite others to celebrate.

And the only person not celebrating at the end of the parable is the older brother. He’s the focus of the chapter, not the younger, prodigal son. The older son, as you know, corresponds to the religious leaders who grumbled at Jesus receiving and eating with sinners.

You probably already knew that the parable is misnamed. We’re indebted to the likes of Tim Keller (Prodigal God) for helping us read this parable correctly. I just wanted to help you see, if you hadn’t seen it already, that there is a hermeneutical reason why the parable is misnamed. The opening two verses of narrative force us to focus our attention on the older brother. And when the parable ends we never know whether the older brother joins the celebration.

So, that means that if we’re going to call anyone “home” at the end of the sermon on Luke 15, it’s going to be the older brother-type parishioners. We’re calling home all those good, moral attendees who rarely relate to sinners on faulty theological grounds (quoting verses like, “Abstain from all appearance of evil”, etc.). I suppose there’s a place after that to call all the prodigals home, but, like one of my students said last week, they’re usually not sitting in church.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus.

Randal

I misspoke, actually misswrote, earlier concerning my book, A Preacher’s Manifesto. For the first 90 days, I’m obligated to stick only with Amazon. After the 90 days I will try to remember to make the book available through Smashwords. I am sorry for the confusion.

Again, thank you for thinking with me about preaching in the church.