In his classic book Preaching and Preachers Martyn Lloyd-Jones asks, “What is the chief end of preaching? I like to think it is this. It is to give men and women a sense of God and His presence.”

The Doctor evidently didn’t think he hit the mark very often for he once said, “I can say quite honestly that I would not cross the road to listen to myself preaching.” The venerable J.I. Packer would beg to disagree. When Packer was a 22-year-old student he heard Lloyd-Jones preach each Sunday evening during the school year of 1948–1949. He said that he had “never heard such preaching.” It came to him “with the force of electric shock, bringing to at least one of his listeners more of a sense of God than any other man” he had known.¹

Lloyd-Jones has affected untold preachers over the last few decades, two of whom are Mark Dever and Tim Keller. The latest 9Marks Interview finds Dever discoursing with The Manhattan Man on the latter’s biography and early ministry. Tucked away at the interview’s end is Dever’s question of how The Doctor influenced Keller’s preaching. What ensues is an edifying dialogue on the role of tone, personality, and power in preaching.

Listen to the short segment below and the download the whole interview here.

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David Helm, pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Chicago, is no stranger to biblical theology. Through his work with the Simeon Trust he’s trained hundreds of pastors in expositional preaching that’s rooted in biblical theology. He’s also published a perennial best-seller, The Big Picture Story Bible, which eloqently explains the basics of biblical theology for parents and children.

On top of all this, Helm recently published Expositional Preaching in 9Mark’s “Building Healthy Churches Series” in which he says, “The discipline of biblical theology offers preachers a certain benefit. It prevents intellectual or moralistic preaching. To put that positively, it brings you – legitimately – to the heart of the Christian gospel from particular texts in the Bible. It keep the main things the main thing.”

BT & ST IN PREACHING

So what is it about the resurgence of biblical theology – a very resurgence he’s helped promote – that concerns good Mr. Helm? That’s what Mark Dever asked in a recent 9Marks interview. Furthermore, does systematic theology have any place in preaching? Helm says, “Yes!” and his answer is oh so good.

Listen in to this four and a half minute clip as Helm provides sound counsel on how to faithfully integrate biblical theology and systematic theology in your preaching.