PREACHING OR LECTURING? PART TWO

So should what we do be a “lecture” or a “sermon?”

• ·        A lecture being “an on-going commentary like address on the content of a passage.

• ·        A sermon being “a completed distinct message tailored to move the hearts of people.”

Do I want to move a person’s heart with emotions, or do I want to reach the mind to understand the word of God?

D.A. Carson’s book “For the Love of God.” He states:

• ·        "Preaching the Word means more than the mere conveying of information. There is information, of course, but it is so shaped and applied that it functions in one or more of these transforming ways. Thus the minister of the Gospel is necessarily a spiritual diagnostician, discerning the ailment and knowing what remedies to apply.  Pity the ministry of the Word who applies encouragement when rebuke is called for, or the reverse."

He points out “the importance of doing spiritual triage: (the process of prioritizing sick and injured people for treatment according to the seriousness of the condition or injury) before I preach.  To assess the real lives of the people I am preaching to you and to tailor the application accordingly.

“The preacher must be a spiritual cardiologist.” Really. How about a spiritual neurologist.

Anthony points out another point:  He directs us to the article by Joel Beeke and Ray Lanning. "The Transforming Power of Scripture" and it appeared in the book, Sola Scriptura: The Protestant Position on the Bible (Reformation Trust, 2009)

• ·        "The Word of God is often preached today in a way that will never transform anyone because it never discriminates or applies.  Preaching is then reduced to a lecture, a demonstration, a catering to the wishes and comforts of men, or a form of 'experientialism' that is cut loose from the foundation of Scripture.  Such preaching fails to expound from the Scripture what the Reformers called vital     religion: how a sinner is continually stripped of his own righteousness; how he is               driven to Christ alone for a full-orbed salvation; how he finds joy in simple reliance upon Christ and strives after obedience to Him; how he encounters the plague of indwelling sin, battles against backsliding, and gradually gains full             victory by faith in Christ." (127)·       

^{·             http://www.ligonier.org/blog/sola-scriptura-protestant-position-bible-new-reformation-trust/}

The point is then: Do I want to be more “experimental” or “experiential” in my preaching? Or do I want to teach  as I generally do “academic” and “high-minded” redemptive-historical approach?

Will it be the John Piper approach or the John MacArthur approach>? 

 While I note that I am  proclaiming God’s Word from a pulplit and not a lectern.  I should remember that God’s Word is a sharp two edged sword and not a dull pocket knife.   

PREACHING OR LECTURING? Heart or Mind In View?

“To be a great preacher, one needs to be tri-perspectival (a mental view) in their exegesis. That is, they need to be committed to the exegesis of the Bible, the exegesis of our culture, and the exegesis of the human heart. Some preachers claim that if you exegete the Bible properly, you don't need to bother yourself with the exegesis of our culture or the human heart. The problem with this view, however, is that the Bible itself exhorts us to apply Biblical norms to both our lives and to our world.” This is a point of view that I am quoting, and not necessary in agreement with.

Should I review preaching from the point of view of John MacArthur or John Piper. Both preach and teach the Word of God. But it is the way they they preach/teach the word.

Preaching to People  Anthony Selvaggio Reformation 21.org

I was reading the article by Anthony  and someone said to him, “You are one of the few young preachers who actually recognizes that you are preaching to people.” Of course I thought that is what we all do as preachers.

Anthony didn’t really know what he meant. “But as I listen to him preach over the days. And as my heart was moved by God’s Word preached through him I began to get it.”

• ·        I drifted into a practice of “wikipreaching” in which I provided people with biblical facts rather than the Word preached.

•   I preached at people rather than to people.

•   I gave them research papers that proved my knowledge of the original language and systematic theology,

But tended little to their souls.

Of course we are standing each week in front of people sitting in the pews and we are speaking to them.  But is that really preaching to people?

Am I really deliberately preaching/teaching directly to their hearts?  Well, I have said, I teach to their mind, rather than their emotions.   I believe the way to the heart is through the mind.

Anthony said, “I am talking about preaching that understands that the pews are filled with pilgrims who are voyaging though a spiritual wilderness, not with students who are trying to earn their certificate in  Reformed theological studies.”

Well,  when I look at my sermon notes, I often see that is exactly what I am doing.: teaching to people who I see as students. Some times I am giving a theological  lecture or a oral commentary on a biblical text.

Of course when I was recent in Romans 3 I spoke on “The Religion of Self-ism” . 

Preaching must be both theologically sound and built upon the foundation of careful biblical exegesis. (quote)

I have never advocated for fluffy felt-needs sermons that tickle the ears of post-modern searching for existential authentically.

Anthany said this:

• I am simply calling for sermons which are delivered with the recognition that preaching, while targeting the intellect, is ultimately aimed at transforming the heart and the will of the actual living and breathing people sitting in the pews.”  And I really agree with that as well.  I guess I need a little John Piper in my teaching of the word, or a little preaching in my teaching.

First, there was Iain Murray's excellent article in the February 2010 issue of Banner of Truth magazine entitled, "Expository Preaching - Time for Caution."  In this article Murray admonishes preachers that they need to do more than simply instruct in their sermons:

ü  "Preaching needs to be much more than an agency of instruction. It needs to strike, awaken, and arouse men and women so that they themselves become bright Christians and daily students of Scripture. If the preacher conceives his work primarily in terms of giving instruction, rather than of giving stimulus, the sermon, in most hands, very easily becomes a sort of weekly 'class'--an end in itself."

First, there was Iain Murray's excellent article in the February 2010 issue of Banner of Truth magazine entitled, "Expository Preaching - Time for Caution."  In this article Murray admonishes preachers that they need to do more than simply instruct in their sermons:  ^{http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/magazines/2010/02/issue557.php}

"Preaching needs to be much more than an agency of instruction. It needs to strike, awaken, and arouse men and women so that they themselves become bright Christians and daily students of Scripture. If the preacher conceives his work primarily in terms of giving instruction, rather than of giving stimulus, the sermon, in most hands, very easily becomes a sort of weekly 'class'--an end in itself."

So should what we do be a “lecture” or a “sermon?”

Next article.

What Do You Feel About The Text?

I HAVE SAID FOR YEARS BIBLE STUDY SOME TIMES BECOMES A PLACE TO POOL YOUR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORD OF GOD.

MY BROTHER'S BIRTHDAY

TO DAY IS MY BROTHER'S BIRTHDAY.

Donald and I are eleven months apart in age. Don was born October 6 and the next year October 22 I was born. Both born in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Glenn Beck on Salvation?

This is rather interesting for sure. I would say most Christians believe what Glenn Beck says about salvation and how one becomes a Christian.

MY POINT: Jesus Christ can say you if you receive Him. It must be accepted personally and individually yes, but Christ gives the invitation to those whom He died for on the Cross. Yes we are saved by GRACE, and GRACE alone.

The point is this: Salvation starts and ends with Christ alone.

REGENERATION: OR Justification or SALVATION .....

• .the first effect of the power of God in the heart in regeneration is to give the heart a Divine taste or sense; to cause it to have a relish of the loveliness and sweetness of the supreme excellency of the Divine nature.Jonathan Edwards

• I say that man, before he is renewed into the new creation of the Spirit's kingdom, does and endeavours nothing to prepare himself for that new creation and kingdom, and when he is re-created has does and endeavors nothing towards his perseverance in that kingdom; but the Spirit alone works both blessings in us, regenerating us, and preserving us when regenerate, without ourselves..."

Martin Luther fromThe Bondage of the Will (pg. 268)

• Indeed the Word of God is like the sun, shining upon all those to whom it is proclaimed, but with no effect among the blind. Now, all of us are blind by nature in this respect... Accordingly, it cannot penetrate into our minds unless the Spirit, as the inner teacher, through his illumination makes entry for it.

John Calvin from The Institutes of the Christian Religion (3.2.34)

The Reason for Our Salvation? .

THE REASON WHY CHRIST DIED AT CALVARY

God’s Glory and our Salvation

Romans 3:23-24

How a Believer gets blessed? The idea is not self-fulfillment. We know a lot about that, but little about worship and glorifying God. What we see in scripture as a major theme is we do all things for the glory of God. Psalms 115:1 sums up the perspective of a believer in God. If God is God, and He is, He alone is God, and as God He has the right to be glorified as God. Believers are required to.

· Isaiah 45:5-8, 21-23: We are NOT to seek glory ourselves; all is to the GLORY of Jesus Christ.

· 1 Corinthians 10:31: All the daily acts of life are to be for the GLORY of the Father. We are to be lost in the GLORY of Christ.

· 1 Chronicles 16:8-15 Give thanks to the glory of HIS NAME.

· We are to live filled with HOW GOD FEELS -- NOT HOW WE FEEL. Matthew 6:33.

· Psalms 16:8 “I have set the LORD always before me.” What really makes my heart glad?

ü BUT WE ARE EVEN IN OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE STILL ABSORBED IN OUR OWN COMFORT. We do not want to get out of our comfort zone to go out and share the gospel to the world.

ü THE SINGLE GREATEST SPIRITUAL REALITY THAT IS DESIGNED TO GLORIFY GOD (and there are many) IS SALVATION. The saving of a soul lost in the pit of sinful destruction glorifies God.

Philippians 2:5-8 “ Jesus..became obedient unto death even the death of the cross.” Vs. 11 “to the glory of God the Father.” Romans 1:5 “For His Name.”

When you are SAVED? What do you think? Why do you believe you and I were saved? When you think of Heaven what do you think?

The purpose of Paul is to say to us: Salvation is to glorify God.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, All men. SIN:

ü To sin is to act contrary to the will and law of God. Everybody is born into Adam and thus all sinned for when he sinned, for he acted as the representative for all his descendants. Men are not only sinners by nature, but are also sinners by practice and thus continually fall short in committing sin themselves. Thus there is a universal need for the gospel, which is thankfully mercifully universally available!

Glory: ¹³⁹¹

· Is that which gives a proper opinion of something or someone. The glory of God is what God is essentially. The glory of God includes the outward manifestation of His splendor or radiance. It is that which we will one day see forever.

v Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 40:5; Habakkuk 2:14”For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord; as the waters cover the sea.” Colossians 1:27. John 17:24, Isaiah 40:4-5

v

Outline of the message by Charles e. Whisnant, October 02, 2010. Video coming soon.

Servants of the Lord

We are happy to be in the work of the Lord at Rivers of Joy.