Leadership. Preaching. Ministry. theology.
G. Campbell Morgan taught his disciples to read a book of the Bible fifty times before you ever preach it.[1]
This takes time. A large block of uninterrupted time early in the morning is usually the best. There is an excellent interview between C. J. Mahanay and Mark Dever on this necessary step. Mark Dever says that he first reads and rereads the passage that he will preach and spends about 35 hours a week in sermon preparation.
Read morePut bluntly, America is becoming more secular. Albert Mohler identifies the problem: “Recent studies have indicated that the single greatest predictor of voting patterns is the frequency of church attendance. Far fewer Americans now attend church, and a recent study indicated that fully 20% of all Americans identify with no religious preference at all. The secularizing of the electorate will have monumental consequences.” Constitutionally, the church and the state are separate. But practically, the church has an influence on the state, even in the outcome of elections.
Read moreThere is a contrast and comparison between the ethics of the War for Independence, Deitrick Bonhoeffer, and the murder of abortion doctors. Before we seek to correct the justification of the murder of abortion doctors like George Tiller by referencing Deitrick Bonhoeffer's plot to murder Adolf Hitler, we must remember our responsibilities to God-ordained human government.
Read moreGod’s command to kill the Canaanites in the book of Joshua, modern-day Jihad, and Just War Theory are related. Here is a question fielded by William Lane Craig:
I have heard you justify Old Testament violence on the basis that God had used the Israelite army to judge the Canaanites and their elimination by Israelites is morally right as they were obeying God’s command (it would be wrong it they did not obey God in eliminating the Canaanites). This resembles a bit on how Muslims define morality and justify the violence of Muhammad and other morally questionable actions (Muslims define morality as doing the will of God). Do you see any difference between your justification of OT violence and Islamic justification of Muhammad and violent verses of the Quran? Is the violence and morally questionable actions and verses of the Quran, a good argument while talking to Muslims?
Craig provides a more accurate contrast between the Old Testament Holy War and modern-day Islamic jihad.
Read moreThe late Dr. Jack L. Arnold agreed with John MacArthur that the Revolutionary War was a rebellion against God:
“In our own American Revolution, Christians were divided over how to understand their responsibilities to the state and over the right to revolt. Some, especially those of the Church of England, fought on the side of the British in an attempt to be faithful to Romans 13:1. Others fled to Canada. Yet the Reformed Churches, especially the Presbyterians, felt the revolution justifiable. This revolution was somewhat different from others as it did not result in a breakdown of law and order. Political, social, and economic order was maintained. In fact, the Congress of 1774 had no thoughts of revolution and tried for two years to gain equal representation by lawful means. History shows that Britain, not the Colonies, forced the issue. It was in 1776, after much prayer, that the Continental Congress decided to declare its independence. This ultimately led to the formation of our Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges God as the Creator of all men. Our Constitution and form of government were set forth to a nation that was God-fearing, Christ-living, and biblically oriented. However, this does not prove it was biblically correct to revolt …. To resist government is to resist God because the government is merely an instrument of God.[1]
The Founding Fathers had a starkly different view of the American Revolution.
Read moreOn July 4th we celebrate Independence Day, the day commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This document declared our independence from the government of Great Britain in 1776. Great controversy between evangelicals rages concerning what the Founding Fathers did in the Revolutionary War for Independence. Was the America Revolution civil disobedience or rebellion against God’s Word in Romans 13?
Read moreMichael Bryson, a first-time father, surprised his wife on her first Mother’s Day. He did so by bringing their six-month old son, Jason, to the hospital where she worked as a nurse. After the balloons and the laughing and the sharing was over, Miriam returned to her post and her two men returned to the car for the trip home.
You can imagine that getting all the stuff back into the car was not an easy job. Michael balanced the baby carrier on the roof of the car while tossing the candy in the front seat, arranging the flowers on the floor, and wrestling the balloons out of the wind into the backseat. Finally, he got everything arranged and headed home.
Suddenly, other drivers began to honk at Michael and flash their lights. He could not figure out what was happening, until he hit about 55 miles per hour on the highway and heard a scraping sound move across the top of his car. Then, Michael watched in horror through the rearview mirror as the baby carrier – and Jason – slid off the roof, bounced on the trunk, dropped to the road, and began to toboggan down the highway behind the car.
The driver in the car behind Michael’s had spotted the baby carrier and was prepared. He screeched to a halt behind the car seat to shield it from oncoming traffic. Michael slammed on his brakes, ran back to Jason, and discovered the baby had only minor scratches. Then, as the waves of fear, guilt, and relief hit him, this new father began to sob uncontrollably on the highway, while holding his son in a tight embrace (Byran Chapell, Holiness By Grace, 2001, http://www.preachingtoday.com, 2003).
Read moreThe possibility of Ephesians being an encyclical letter which therefore could argue for the epistle from the Laodicea being, in reality, the Ephesians epistle has been mentioned several times with good arguments. Dr. Robert Gromacki provides the other view that Ephesians was not an encyclical letter in his introduction to Ephesians.
Read moreShould we pray, “Your will be formed,” or “Your will be done.” Bruce Ware contrasts how God answers prayers according to Open Theism, which teaches God does not know the future in reference to prayer, and Biblical Omniscience, which teaches that God does know the future and answers our prayers according to his will.
“God does not necessarily know exactly what will happen in the future,” wrote Open Theist David Basinger in Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities 163.
Jesus commanded, “Do not be like them [Pharisees], for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:8). Because Jesus exhaustively knows the future and what we will be asking before we ask, He can providently prepare to answer our prayers. Open Theism, which teaches that God does not know the future, can only react when He hears our prayers. John Sanders, an Open Theism advocate, wrote, “To a large extent our future is open and we are to determine what it will be in dialogue [prayer] with God” (John Sanders, God Who Risks, 277).
Ware wrote, Jesus does not instruct us to pray, “your will be formed,” but rather, “your will be done.” God has a will that predates our prayers.
Read moreThe great British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, knew this encouragement from Christ’s exaltation. When he was only 22, his popularity had spread throughout London. Thousands were flocking to hear him preach. To accommodate the crowds, his church rented the Surrey Gardens Music Hall, which seated at least 10,000. The opening service there was Sunday, October 19, 1856. Word spread and when they opened the building, people crowded in, taking every seat, packing the aisles and stairways, while thousands more stood outside, hoping to hear through the open windows. When Spurgeon arrived and saw the crowd, he was almost overwhelmed. The service began, and everything seemed to be going well.
Read moreThis personal oversight begins with the necessity of the pastor being converted: “See that the work of saving grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves, lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim to the world the necessity of a Saviour, your own hearts should neglect him, and you should miss an interest in him and his saving benefits.[10] This is the same counsel with which Charles Spurgeon opened his Lectures to My Students.
Read moreMark Noll declared that Creationism originated with a false teacher, Ellen White: “[Creationism] has spread like wildfire in our century from its humble beginnings in the writings of Ellen White, the founder of Seventh-day Adventism, to its current status as a gospel truth embraced by tens of millions of bible believing evangelicals and fundamentalist.”[1] Actually, Creationism originated with Moses in Genesis 1-2 and was confirmed by Jesus in Mark 10:6-7 and Paul in 1 Timothy 2:13-14. In a previous post on this subject, I document that the early Church Fathers (click to open) also advocated six twenty-four days of creation six thousand years ago. But let's move on to the Reformers who taught six twenty-four days of creation six thousand years ago. spoke literally and plainly and neither allegorically nor figuratively; that is, he means that the world with all creatures was created in six days as he himself expresses it.[2] The issue with Luther was not a debate of old earth versus young earth but nanoseconds versus literal days. Earth.
Read moreHaddon Robinson, the former preaching guru, said an illustration can either be like a beautiful lamp or a streetlight. When you walk into someone’s expensive den and notice an ornate lamp, you complement its beauty to the owners. But if you are walking down a city sidewalk at night, the streetlights provide you visibility, but you hardly notice them. A sermon illustration should be like a streetlight. It throws light on the subject you are preaching but doesn’t unnecessarily draw attention to the illustration. The illustration is always a handmaiden to explanation. The illustration should not be the centerpiece of the sermon. Our people should not leave the service saying, “Wow, what an illustration!” They should exit contemplating the text and how they can “be doers of the Word and not hearers only.”
Read moreIn the introduction, Scott Floyd states the thesis of his book: “Knowing how to provide crisis care is essential, then, to any type of effective ministry.”[1] He begins his introduction with a series of catastrophizes that would demand crisis counseling. Floyd reviewed the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people; the 1997 Columbine High School, where thirteen students and a teacher were killed; the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center building, massacring almost three thousand civilians, and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans which causes 1,836 fatalities. After listing these disasters, Floyd asks, “Are we dealing with a new problem? He answers his question by referring to examples given by Jesus recorded in Luke 13:1-5. Jesus refers to natural and moral evil. The moral evil was Pilate murdering a group of worshippers. The natural evil was the tower of Siloam falling and killing eighteen individuals. Albert Mohler has a good article describing the difference and even overlap of natural and moral evil: The Reality of Natural Evil and Moral Evil: Devastating Earthquake in Afghanistan, Genocidal Attack in Israel (click to open). Floyd concludes, “Crises and traumatic events have been a part of human experience since the creation.”[2]
Read moreWhat is in Bold should be written and included in the sermon.
Scripture: 3 points
Title: 2 points
Introduction: (has three steps)
1. Attention Step: 5 points
2. Interest Step: 5 points
3. Lead into the Subject Step: 5 points (includes the two subpoints)
A. Give the Theme of the Book of the Bible from which you are preaching
B. Give the development of the theme
MPS (Main Point of the Sermon): 10 points
Interrogative statement: 10 points
With a HOW or WHY
Transitional statement: 10 points
a. If How is the interrogative the transitional statement is: We can make disciples By
following these steps (keyword is “steps”)
b. If Why is the interrogative the transitional statement is: We should make disciples
Because of the following reasons (keyword is “reasons”)
I. Main Division (beginning with By or Because) 10 points
A. Explanation: 10 points
B. Argumentation: 10 points
C. Illustration: 10 points
D. Application: 10 points
II. Main Division
A. Explanation:
B. Argumentation:
C. Illustration:
D. Application:
Conclusion (has two parts) 5 points (includes the two subpoints)
1. Repeat or restate the MPS and Main Divisions
2. Give one final exhortation to practice the MPS
For more details and examples, see the post: Construct the Sermon Outline (click to open)
The reason for raising the question, Is the gift of exorcism to be practiced today? is because there are groups (click to open) that believe exorcism is a spiritual gift: “Exorcism is a spiritual gift enabling Christians to confront demonic forces.” One argument against exorcism being a practice for Christians today is that New Testament Epistles do not teach exorcism as a method of confronting demon opposition.
Read moreDietrich Bonhoeffer is a blank canvas on which many paint him in their own image. Admirers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 -1945) portray him as a Protestant Saint. His critics expose him as a German liberal theologian—most respect Bonhoeffer as a martyr at the hands of Hitler’s antisemitic Nazism.
Read moreBecky and I wish each of you a very blessed Christmas. Here is a book of five sermons on Christ’s incarnation at Christmas at Amazon (click to open)..
Martin Luther believed that “The entire Old Testament refers to Christ and agrees with Him.” Sidney Greidanus, in Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, wrote that in spite of his warnings against allegorical interpretation, Luther continued using this arbitrary method of interpretation. Ironically, while Luther left some limited room for allegorical interpretation, he apparently had no use of typological interpretation, for, as David Dockery puts it, typology with its foreshadowing “annulled the historical presence of Christ in the Old Testament.” The Antioch School “saw shadowy anticipation of what was to come. This meant nothing to Luther. To him, the Old Testament was not a figure of what would be, but a testimony to what always holds true between humankind and God” (Dockery, GTJ I4/2 (1983) 193.[19]
Read more