Tag Archives: theological thinking

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Preaching Why It’s Good To Be Godly: What I’m Learning from Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Early Sermons

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The Theology in, “Christian Happiness,” Edwards’s First Sermon

Edwards chose Isaiah 3:10 for his first text to preach on:

“Say unto the righteous, it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.”

As far as I can tell so far, Jonathan Edwards did not preach through books of the Bible. He selected texts very carefully. His texts were short like Isaiah 3:10. But they were theologically significant for providing foundations for Christian living.

Edwards’s sermon on Isaiah 3:10 is titled, Christian Happiness. The sermon shows Edwards’s skill at philosophy and theology. His philosophical side comes out in the first sentence:

“Reasonable beings, while they act as such, naturally choose those things which they are convinced are best for them…” (p. 296).

A large part of Edwards’s ministry is built on the assumption that “God always deals with men as reasonable creatures, and ever [word] in the Scriptures speaks to us as such” (p. 296).

Over and over again you’ll find Edwards reasoning at length with his listeners about every important matter of Christian faith and practice.

Part of Edwards’s genius–his theological side–is that his comprehensive knowledge of Scripture allows him to choose theologically loaded texts that display God’s reasonableness. So, in light of Isaiah 3:10 Edwards writes in the fourth sentence,

“in commanding of us he desires us to do nothing but what will be for our own advantage, our own profit and benefit, and frequently uses this argument with us to persuade us to obey his commands….and God, in our text, gives it as a special charge to assure the godly from Him that his godliness shall be of great advantage to him” (p. 296, emphasis added).

Look at this reasoning and ask yourself how many times it might find its way into other Scriptures and sermons. Before Sunday see if there are any commands. Remember that most of our listeners struggle with the notion that God’s commands are unreasonable. But we keep telling them otherwise!

May our Lord receive glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you apply such beautiful reasoning.

Randal

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Becoming a Deep Theologian for Your Faith-Family

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Your Stack of Good Pastor-Theologians

Over the past several weeks these posts have been switching back and forth between help on preaching through Numbers (Ouch!), what I’m learning from Jonathan Edwards’s early sermons (Yes!), and what I’m learning from, Preaching That Matters (Interesting!). This week I’m combining the second and third categories. Here’s why…

Carrell writes,

“If your sermon communication content is going to be deeper, you are going to have to be deeper. Depth isn’t something you can borrow from a source you find on a website. As a spiritual leader, you must go as far below the surface as possible.” (p. 113).

I’m all in when it comes to having to become spiritual, intellectually, exegetically, and theologically deeper. It’s the middle sentence that arrested me, so let me nuance it a bit.

It’s true: you can’t borrow depth that doesn’t belong to you. Carrell states, “Speakers who live and breathe their subject matter are deeper” (p. 113). But you can gain depth through reading someone like Jonathan Edwards.

Certainly. Pick another pastor-theologian if you like or at least settle for a theologian. But have your favorites and read your favorites so that you learn to think like they think about the Scriptures and their listeners. You can’t borrow depth, but you can burrow deep into the depths of someone like Edwards on a regular basis.

“Why did he say that? What caused him to think like that?” That’s what I ask while I read him. And, over time, I begin to find myself going deeper.

I know I’ve said this before, but you realize that most pastors are reading more church growth and leadership material than they are reading deep theologians. Our deep preaching comes from deep thinking, which, for me, comes in a large part to deep reading.

And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as a result of our Spirit-driven efforts.

Randal

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Deep And Clear Preaching: Developing Flathead Sermons

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I love this picture of Flathead Lake in Montana. It’s deceptively deep because it’s so clear. I want my sermons to be like that.

I’m not happy with this after-sermon comment: “Wow, Pastor! That sermon was deep!” There’s so many things potentially wrong with that as I’m sure you know.

What I treasure is the kind of comment I received recently from someone who visited our church when I was preaching a series of sermons through Romans 1-11. That morning I was preaching the middle of Romans 9 and that “easy” section on God’s prerogative to harden the heart of whomever He wants. A few weeks later he told me:

“I couldn’t believe you would preach that text. It was so clear. Thank you.”

“It was so clear.” Thank you, Lord!

Carrell (Preaching That Matters) has a chapter, Going Deeper, Not Wider. In the chapter she confirms our aversion to “deep” sermons, but urges: “when you are aiming for spiritual transformation and you have a choice between breadth and depth, go for depth” (p. 103).

Our allergic reaction to “deep” stems from confusing deep with confusing. I’m arguing for both deep and clear.

I guess we don’t have to worry about being too deep. Carrell writes,

“Not once in the comments from the more than thirty thousand listeners who have responded to sermons over these past several years has anyone ever said something that even begins to suggest: ‘That sermon content was just too deep for me'” (p. 104). [Of course, that could be a reflection of what a steady dose of topical preaching is doing to us!]

Depth will require that we be the best theologians we can be. Clarity will require us to be the best communicators we can be.

Flathead Lake reaches a depth of around 370 feet. It is also clear as crystal. Lord willing, in a couple of days we’ll be able to preach Flathead sermons.

Before Sunday check your manuscript for depth and clarity so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Tell ‘Em Why: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’ Sermons

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In these posts I’m observing how Jonathan Edwards crafted what may have been his first sermon, Christian Happiness. His text was Isaiah 3:10 “Say unto the righteous, it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.” (cf. Kimnach, pages 296-307)

In his doctrine section, proposition II is “The good man is happy in whatsoever condition he is in; and that, First, because…”

What follows are three reasons why this proposition is true. Let me give you the three so you can see what Edwards is doing in this segment of the sermon.

“First, Because no worldly evils can do him any real hurt….

Second….because of the spiritual privileges and advantages, joys and satisfactions, he actually enjoys while in this life….

Third. And lastly, from the joyful hope and assured expectation of the enjoyment of the completion of happiness eternally hereafter…”

There are at least two things to consider. First, why does Edwards spend these minutes developing these reasons. Second, how does Edwards maintain biblical authority while answering these questions that his passage doesn’t answer.

First, Edwards identifies these reasons because the listeners requires some proof that this is true. Isaiah 3:10 is too good to be true in a badly broken world (the same could be said about Romans 8:28). Sometimes this kind of theological/philosophical exposition–remember, I’m not entirely happy with this designation but feel it’s adequate for now–requires our investigation of why the assertion of the Word of God is true or not true.

Second, Edwards answers these questions that are not answered in his text by appealing to the rest of Scripture’s teachings. At times Edwards appeals to multiple Scriptures without quoting them directly. If you read this sermon, you could easily insert Bible references because of Edwards’ ability to loosely quote Scripture. At other times Edwards paraphrases the teachings of Scripture that directly affect his text in Isaiah.

Before Sunday, see if your text contains questions that need to be answered and answer those questions, especially the “why?” question so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

 

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Why the Question, Why?, Adds Theological Depth to Your Sermon

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why

 

In Luke 18:9 we read: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.”

The “what” part of analysis might define self-righteousness as the feeling that we’re basically good and, therefore, acceptable to God. That’s certainly an important part of preaching Jesus’ parable.

We add theological depth to the sermon by asking why we feel that we’re basically good and, therefore, acceptable to God. During this segment of the sermon we delve into our depravity–how the human heart works.

That alone would be a good reason to move from “what” to “why.” For instance, I’ve met some non-Christians and some Christians who feel they are good because they compare themselves to others. I’ll never forget one person telling me they felt they were okay with God because they were better than Michael Jackson. I didn’t expect this from an elderly gentleman.

But there’s another reason to spend time talking about why we feel self-righteous. When we explore “why,” we create new angles from which to explain the Gospel to Christians. The bad news of the Gospel isn’t that only the “worst” people are condemned. The bad news of the Gospel tells us that “there is none righteous” period.

So, at some point in the sermon I might ask congregants: “How does faith in the Gospel move us from being self-righteous to being “one who humbles himself” (Luke 18:14)? I want them to see a connection between their faith in Christ and their ability to not be like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable. I want them to see a connection between their faith in Christ and their ability to be like the tax collector who said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

Before Sunday, see if your preaching portion highlights sin. If so, along with explaining what the sin is, spend some time exploring why we commit that sin. You can do the same with righteousness too. What kind of attitude or action is being held up for us to emulate? Why do Christians do that? How does the Gospel create that righteousness?

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

Randal

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What Do You Do to the Bible to Create a Sermon? (part 4) Fill in the Gaps

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AMISOM-operation

Each week we perform some operations on our preaching portion to create sermons. We…

  • explain various terms and concepts
  • announce the shape our worship takes (what that Scripture is intending to do to the Church)
  • show the flow of thought or logical connection between the thought blocks

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The fourth operation we perform on the Bible to create a sermon is filling in important gaps. The meaning of some preaching portions are like a puzzle that is missing one piece. Expository preachers fill in that missing piece.

In Luke 16:19-31 Luke records Jesus’ teaching on the rich man and Lazarus. In Jesus’ story, the poor man dies and is “carried by the angels to Abraham’s side” (v. 22a). The rich man, however, dies and lands “in Hades, being in torment…” (v. 22b-23a).

Jesus doesn’t give any explicit explanation of why each man goes to his eternal destiny. But, we have to. We have to fill in this theological gap in the preaching portion. We explain (you can see the overlap in these operations) that the poor man is not saved because he is financially destitute. Likewise, the rich man is not condemned by God because of his wealth. There were wealthy characters in the Bible that did not end up like this rich man (folks like Job).

So why is the rich man condemned and the poor man saved? The rich man didn’t love God or neighbor (cf. v. 20 and the address of the poor man: “And at his gate was laid a poor man…”). And the poor man? He must have also been poor in spirit. His humble financial situation must have been matched by a humility in his heart that recognized his need of God’s mercy. That gap must be filled in in order for this preaching portion to be understood and acted upon. Everyone must know what it is about the rich man to be avoided and what it is about the poor man to be emulated.

Before Sunday see if your preaching portion is missing a vital piece of theology and if your sermon devotes minutes to supplying that missing piece.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation.

Randal

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How To Thicken Your Sermon With Theology

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One of the many definitions of the word, thin, is lacking an important ingredient (Reader’s Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder). Usually, more than a few times a year I listen to sermons in class that fall into the class of being thin. What always strikes me about those sermons is, rarely is the problem not enough exegesis. Usually, it’s a problem of not enough theological thinking. On August 13, 2013 I published a post, Add Theological Thinking To Your Exposition, and said I’d add some examples from the Gospel of Luke. Here’s one and it shows, again, how important it is to move beyond exegesis.
 
In Luke 8:19-21 Jesus makes obedience the sign of being in the faith-family: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” This is another example of having to come to grips with Jesus’ gospel. Jesus sure sounds like we’re saved by our obedience. It requires thinking through the difficult relationship between faith and works. Jesus doesn’t tell us why obedience to the Word of God is necessary for family-of-God-status. I believe we should make that theological move in our sermons. At some point we must say to our parishioners, “Jesus’ family members are those who obey God’s Word because relationship precedes responsibility, but relationship does not preclude responsibility” (cf. p. 190 in Kuruvilla’s excellent book, Privilege The Text!). When you complete that thought (“…because…”), theology has thickened the sermon. Your communication is commensurate with Scripture’s portrayal of the nature of salvation. Of course, since Luke 8:19-21 doesn’t contain the answer to your question, you’ll have to look elsewhere in the Canon to find one.
 
Take a look at your preaching portion for this coming weekend and see if there are gaps that exegesis alone cannot fill.