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Reading for Preaching

Saving-EutychusI’ve heard many preachers offer some variation on this comment, “Don’t read books on preaching, just listen to good preaching.”

And that’s sound advice for sure. Because certain aspects of good preaching can be taught, but so much of it is caught. Thus, the best thing young and aspiring preachers can do is regularly sit under sound preaching. This is even one reason why pastors ought not fill the pulpit every single week, for they too need to sit and be sharpened. Listening to podcasts or mp3s is all fine and dandy, but it is still no replacement for the visual event of preaching.

YET, ONE COMES ALONG WORTH READING

Every once in a while, however, a book comes along on the topic of preaching and it falls into the “must read” category. For me, those books usually are not methodologies of preaching nor theologies of preaching1, they are better categorizes as “experiences of preaching.” These books come from seasoned pastors who have the correct principles of preaching in place, but the bulk of the work offers up practices for consideration. How do you prepare a sermon? Structure a sermon? Deal with discouragement in preaching?

One recent book worthy of any preacher’s attention is Gary Millar and Phil Campbell’s Saving Eutychus: How to Preach God’s Word and Keep People Awake.

As a rule of thumb, if D.A. Carson endorses a book, you need to pay attention. His recommendations are few and thoughtful. Consider what he says about Saving Eutychus:

I have read books on how to make sure your sermon is interesting, and I have read books on how to make sure your sermon is faithful to the text, but this book wants your sermon to be both. If I could, I would make this little book mandatory reading for seminarians everywhere, and then urge them to read it a couple more times during the course of their ministry. It avoids cutesy and manipulative suggestions, and makes its practical points while urging integrity, faithfulness, and imagination. Many books on preaching are published every year; this one is a ‘must.’

PUT IT INTO YOUR SHOPPING CART

Filled with humor and immediately employable wisdom, I can’t see how any preacher wouldn’t benefit greatly from this book. I found it so compelling and challenging that my prayers before preaching regularly include a petition that God would “save Eutychus.” We need more preaching books like this one.

If you haven’t read it yet, make sure to buy a copy today.

  1. Yet, such books are valuable. Click here to see my post “3 Books Every Pastor Should Read: On Preaching.” ↩
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A Festival, Not a Funeral

Good FridayFor the last few weeks I’ve been preaching through Mark 15 and the events of Good Friday. Sadness and loss imbued the first century followers of Christ as our Lord was rejected, beaten, mocked, and killed.

And there is a sense in which such emotions are appropriate for the 21st century Christian. But they ought to never dominate our thinking of Good Friday. Why? For we know how the story ends! We know the fulness of what Christ did on that cross in a way the 1st century participants did not immediately comprehend.

With typical eloquence, Spurgeon encouraged his people to see Good Friday more as a festival, than a funeral:

The Lord of life and glory was nailed to the accursed tree. He died by the act of guilty men. We, by our sins, crucified the Son of God.

We might have expected that, in remembrance of his death, we should have been called to a long, sad, rigorous fast. Do not many men think so even today? See how they observe Good Friday, a sad, sad day to many; yet our Lord has never enjoined our keeping such a day, or bidden us to look back upon his death under such a melancholy aspect.

Instead of that, having passed out from under the old covenant into the new, and resting in our risen Lord, who once was slain, we commemorate his death by a festival most joyous. It came over the Passover, which was a feast of the Jews; but unlike that feast, which was kept by unleavened bread, this feast is brimful of joy and gladness. It is composed of bread and of wine, without a trace of bitter herbs, or anything that suggests sorrow and grief. …

The memorial of Christ’s death is a festival, not a funeral.”1

The takeaway for preachers? Let joy permeate your spirit when you proclaim the glories of Calvary. Be reverent, not flippant. But don’t be dour as though you have come to a funeral. The opposite is true, you have come to the soul’s festival of salvation.

  1. The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit No. 2248, “Sad Fasts Changed to Glad Feasts.” ↩
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An Awful Weapon

mccheyneAlthough he only lived until the age of 29, Robert Murray M’Cheyne left a timeless collection of writings on which countless Christians have fed for over 150 years.

But his writings cannot compare to the holiness his life preached every week.

Undoubtedly the most pastorally encouraging and challenging book I’ve read in recent memory is David Beaty’s An All Surpassing Fellowship: Learning from Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Communion with God. In it he offers the following reflection:

M’Cheyne believed that ministers, especially, should pursue and give evidence of holy lives. To Rev. Dan Edwards, he wrote, ‘Remember you are God’s sword, – His instrument, – I trust a chosen vessel unto Him to bear His name. In great measure, according to the purity of perfections of the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.’ To another pastor, he wrote, ‘Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two, your life preaches all the week.’

Dear pastor, give yourself to this study. Spend His energy (Col. 1:28) striving for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). That is what your people need more than anything else.

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Sounds from the Stone Pavement

MARK - Slider NT

In Mark 15:1-20 we come to the final hours of our Lord Jesus as he stands at The Stone Pavement on trial before Pilate.

It is a part of Mark’s gospel familiar to Christians and non-Christians alike. And thus we must recognize that danger lurks in these pages. The danger is that such familiarity constrains our ability to be freshly affected. Spurgeon, when preaching on this text, said, “I hope that you will not be wearied with this subject. If so, it will be the fault of the preacher, for the subject is always full and fresh. Or if the preacher is not to blame, there will be something of censure due to his hearers. If we grow tired of the story of the Cross it will be a sad indication of secret soul-sickness.”1

In God’s good kindness He calls us to look to His word so that our soul-sickness and soul-slumber might be exposed.

THE SOUL’S ALARM CLOCK

For have you ever considered how much the truth of God’s word is like a spiritual alarm clock for the soul? Through His work God speaks and summons us to life and joy because of Christ’s sacrifice. He calls us to wake up! And the sound of this alarm in Mark 15:1-20 has two primary beats on which I want to meditate as we close.

The Stone Pavement calls for reckoning with Christ. We see in Pilate the reality that fascination with Jesus doesn’t equal faith. He is amazed and interested at Jesus, but when the cries of the worldly crowd get loud he figures its time to be done with the supposed king. Some of you like Pilate and the crowd need to reckon with the truths of Christ. He is no mere man to be amazed at, He is the King who demands your faithful allegiance. Every day the enemy of mankind and Lord of mankind call you to a reckoning, whom will you follow? False saviors that make promises they never can fulfill or the Savior who Himself is the greatest promise? Let your reckoning with Christ then lead to the second sound.

The Stone Pavement calls for thanksgiving in Christ. I’ve always wondered what Barabbas did the rest of that Good Friday. Did he make the walk up to Calvary later that afternoon and watch as the Christ was crucified in his place between his friends? Or did he walk away only to give occasional thought to the man who was his substitute? Church, let us acknowledge that so often we do the latter. We walk away from the glorious substitution of Christ and only infrequently remember what He did. Oh, but the every time the gospel is announced it is like a Thanksgiving holiday for the soul! The church’s corporate gathering is a weekly summons to consistent thanksgiving, for it is here we sing and hear the good news. And is there any greater ground for gratitude than this gospel of substitution?

He took the accusation.

He took the condemnation.

He took the humiliation.

And gave you salvation.

Hear the King’s silence before Pilate, see the King’s substitution for Barabbas, feel the King’s shame at the battalion’s mockery, and come to a reckoning with Christ that leads you to thanksgiving in Christ. What joyful news we have and herald: The Son was shamed for sinners.

The post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Savior’s Sentence.”

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  1. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1644. ↩
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Have a Plan – Pt. 2

Praying Pastors 2

Last week I encouraged pastors to read through the entire Bible at least once a year. One of your best friends in such an endeavor will be a Bible reading plan. Ministers of the word must plan to read the word.

The same thing goes with that other half of pastoral ministry: prayer.

IN NEED OF A PLANNED TIME

Carson makes this point with typical verve in A Call to Spiritual Reformation when he writes,

Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray. We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray.

Pastor, do you have such set aside time?

Carson’s quote reveals the first part of planning to pray: our schedule must include regular times devoted to nothing but prayer. If that is a universal rule of wisdom, the uniqueness then comes in when each pastor looks at his own schedule and discerns when such times are right. My recommendation is to schedule three blocks of time per day – morning, afternoon, and evening – with one devoted to extended prayer. I personally find I am best suited for extended prayer in the afternoon.

IN NEED OF A PLANNED LIST

To ensure that set aside time is productive the ordinary pastor will need a prayer list. Thus, the second part of planning to pray is: our devoted prayer times will need a prayer list to protect faithfulness in the various areas of biblical prayer.We all know how hard this is. Some major in confession, others intercession, yet others thanksgiving, and oh so many more in simple petition. But we want to – and need to – do all those things everyday! A straightforward list is necessary here. Everyone’s system will be different, but you will need a system. I encourage pastors to have a list with specific categories. Here are the categories I typically pray through:

  • Personal
  • Family
  • Pastoral Ministry
  • Church Life
  • Intercession

I then take those categories and subdivide them into areas of praise/thanksgiving, confession, petition, and intercession. As much as possible I try to update these lists at least once a week. That way, whenever I enter the closet for an extended time of prayer I am never short of items to focus my attention. In fact, if you are good with updating your list and categories I think you will soon figure out how easy it is to pray in an extended manner. And when you reach that point you are heading in the right direction.

So make a a plan and get to praying this day . . . and don’t forget your church directory!

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A Series Worth Serious Investment: Vol. 3

Pastors and Reading

Among the many words one can use to describe D.A. Carson “prolific” is quite a good one.

This servant of God has published standard commentaries on Matthew and John, a perennial bestseller in the seminaries, a slim volume every pastor should own, and as good a book on prayer as you will find.

A MAGISTERIAL SERIES IN THE MAKING

What some people don’t know however is that Carson is in the midst of editing a marvelous series published by IVP titled New Studies in Biblical Theology. The series’ aim is to

. . . address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology. Contributions to the series focus on one or more of three areas: (1) the nature and status of biblical theology, including its relations with other disciplines (e.g. historical theology, exegesis, systematic theology, historical criticism, narrative theology); (2) the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought of a particular biblical writer or corpus; and (3) the delineation of a biblical theme across all or part of the biblical corpora.

Above all, these monographs are creative attempts to help thinking Christians understand their Bibles better. The series aims simultaneously to instruct and to edify, to interact with the current literature, and to point the way ahead.

If you’ve got the ability to do so, buy the whole set of 26 (more are on the way) over at WTS Books and get reading. If not, here are few individual titles well worth your money and study.1

A PLACE TO START

0830826157Dominion and Dynasty: A Study in Old Testament Theology by Stephen Dempster. Christian theologians rarely study the Old Testament in its final Hebrew canonical form, even though this was very likely the Bible used by Jesus and the early church. However, once read as a whole, the larger structure of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) provides a “wide-angle lens” through which its contents can be viewed.

In this stimulating exposition, Stephen G. Dempster argues that, despite its undoubted literary diversity, the Hebrew Bible possesses a remarkable structural and conceptual unity. The various genres and books are placed within a comprehensive narrative framework which provides an overarching literary and historical context. The many texts contribute to this larger text, and find their meaning and significance within its story of “dominion and dynasty,” which ranges from Adam to the Son of Man to David, and to a coming Davidic king.

0830826114mSalvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission by Andreas Kostenberger and Peter O’Brien. Few biblical topics are as important as mission. Mission is linked inextricably to humanity’s sinfulness and need for redemption, and to God’s provision of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This “good news” of salvation must be made known! The saving mission of Jesus constitutes the foundation for Christian mission, and the Christian gospel is its message. According to Andreas Köstenberger and Peter O’Brien, this significant theme has rarely been given its due attention in biblical theology.

Motivated by their passion to see God’s mission carried out in today’s world, they offer a comprehensive study of the theme of mission. In Salvation to the Ends of the Earth they explore the entire sweep of biblical history, including the Old Testament, the second-temple period, each New Testament Gospel, Paul and his writings, and the General Epistles and Revelation.

9780830826018mPossessed by God: A New Testament Theology of Sanctification and Holiness by David Peterson. David Peterson challenges the common assumption that the New Testament views sanctification as primarily a process. He argues that its emphasis falls upon sanctification as a definitive event, “God’s way of taking possession of us in Christ, setting us apart to belong to him and to fulfill his purpose for us.” Simply to identify sanctification with growth and holiness, he contends, obscures the emphasis and balance of New Testament teaching and creates unrealistic expectations.  Throughout this study Peterson builds his case on the careful exegesis of relevant passages, with a keen eye for the pastoral implications of his findings.

0830826181mTemple and the Church’s Mission: Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God by G.K. Beale. In this comprehensive study, G. K. Beale argues that the Old Testament tabernacle and temples were symbolically designed to point to the end-time reality that God’s presence, formerly limited to the Holy of Holies, would be extended throughout the cosmos. Hence, John’s vision in Revelation 21 is best understood as picturing the new heavens and earth as the eschatological temple.

Beale’s stimulating exposition traces the theme of the tabernacle and temple across the Bible’s story-line, illuminating many texts and closely-related themes along the way. He shows how the significance and symbolism of the temple can be better understood in the context of ancient Near Eastern assumptions, and offers new insights into the meaning of the temple in both Old and New Testaments.

0830826211mShepherds After My Own Heart: Pastoral Traditions and Leadership in the Bible by Timothy Laniak. Most of Israel’s pastoral imagery is grounded in two traditions: Moses as God’s under-shepherd and David as shepherd-king. These traditions, explains author Timothy S. Laniak, provided prototypes for leaders that followed, and formed the background for the ministry of Jesus, the good shepherd. The pastoral role was central to the ongoing life of local churches in the Christian movement, and today’s pastors are still called to be shepherds after God’s own heart, to lead his people, living on the margins of settled society, to their eternal home.

In this excellent study, Laniak draws on a wide range of Old and New Testament texts to develop the biblical theology of “shepherd” imagery, and concludes with some principles and implications for contemporary pastoral ministry. A wonderful resource for pastors, teachers and seminary students, as well as readers interested in the study of biblical imagery.

Click here to see previous entries in the “A Series Worth Serious Investment” series.

  1. All following descriptions are taken from the publisher. ↩
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Sermon Preparation as Thanksgiving

Sermon Preparation as Thanksgiving

Pastor, have you ever thought of sermon preparation as a weekly Thanksgiving holiday? Let’s just briefly consider how the work of sermon prep is high octane fuel for gratitude.

OCCASIONS FOR THANKSGIVING

If you get illumination into the text’s truth – give thanks.

If you receive heart-searching application to give to your congregation – give thanks.

If you understand how your text organically points to Christ – give thanks.

If you gain a deeper understanding of God’s character – give thanks.

If you have a sermonic structure that’s memorable and persuasive – give thanks.

If you see how your text uniquely heralds the gospel to an unbeliever – give thanks.

If your affections for God’s glory in Christ increase through the preparation – give thanks.

If your heart is moved to confess sin in light of your text – give thanks.

If you gain helpful illustrations or metaphors to adorn the passage – give thanks.

We could go on and on. If we see sermon preparation as a powerful means of grace, what type of people ought we pastors to be but those “always abounding in thanksgiving?”

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The Beautiful Game

Precious few things will cause me to deviate in this space from things related to ordinary ministry through the ordinary means. But today I venture out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary.

For this afternoon the 2014 World Cup begins.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . .”

For the next month I will be glued to the drama soon to unfold down in Brazil and you should be too. Remember, our God reigns over the nations, and those nations are transfixed with “the beautiful game.”

To whet your appetite I give you the greatest American moment from the 2010 World Cup.

My man Landon1 shook up the country with his 92nd minute strike against Algeria to secure the team’s place into the Round of 16.

And I celebrated with seminary students in, of all places, Charlotte, North Carolina. I had traveled out to RTS for a summer module and actually thought hard about dropping the class when I noticed it would cause me to miss the USA’s final group game against Algeria. World Cup Soccer does things to me few people understand. But I went, and in God’s providence the scheduled class ended early on that fateful day of June 23, 2010.

The classmate on my left, one brother named Joel, pulled up the game on espn.com and we were able to watch the nail-biting final twenty minutes. I wish someone would have taken a video of us that day for we would surely have made the YouTube offering above. Fifteen seminary students – many of whom cared little about soccer – were huddled in close to a fifteen inch screen yelling, pounding tables, and crying out in exasperation. When LD smashed home the game winner we made such a ruckus that all the administrative staff ran upstairs to see what the emergency was.

What a day.

What a moment.

What a game.

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  1. I had the occasion to play with him on the Olympic team during our failed bid to make the 2004 Summer games in Athens. Not to mention the other times I had to chase him around the field during my few years in the MLS. ↩

We are often for preaching to awaken others; but we should be more concerned with prayer. Prayer is more powerful than preaching. It is prayer that gives preaching all its power. . . . Prayer must be added to preaching, else preaching is in vain. . . . O believing brethren, what an instrument is this which God hath put into your hands! Prayer moves him that moves the universe. – Robert Murray M’Cheyne

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Have a Plan

The Pastor and His Bible

Faithful preachers are Bible men. When they answer questions about spiritual things Scripture begins to flow in the most natural manner. When they prepare sermons a repository of truth is available at a second’s notice. Like Bunyan, you merely need to poke ’em to see their Bibline blood.

Because assumptions are dangerous and I have no empirical data to render the brief encouragement moot, let me say this: every pastor must read his entire Bible at least once every year.

“New law!” you cry. No, that’s probably just the Worm talking. Psalm 119-esque delight in God’s word is at the heart my exhortation. The longevity of your ministry, in a very real sense, depends on your faithfulness to daily saturate your soul in the whole counsel. Sure, you can minister for a long time and disregard my exhortation, but I’d have no reason to expect those decades to be healthy.

Very early in pastoral ministry I read an old copy of the Doctor’s Preaching and Preachers and my ministry has never been the same. He said,

Read your bible systematically. The danger is to read at random, and that means that one tends to be reading only one’s favorite passages. In other words one fails to read the whole bible. I cannot emphasize too strongly the vital importance of reading the whole Bible. . . . One of the most fatal habits a preacher can ever fall into is to read his Bible simply in order to find texts for sermons. This is the real danger; it must be recognized and fought and resisted with all your might. Do not read the bible to find texts for sermons, read it because it is the food that God has provided for your soul, because it is the Word of God, because it is the means whereby you can get to know God. Read it because it is the bread of life, the manna provided for your soul’s nourishment and well-being. (183-184)

I found great wisdom in that advice, printed off M’Cheyne’s reading plan, and read the whole Bible systematically. The practice has become life and light for my soul. I bet it would do the same for you. Tolle lege!