Preaching and Teaching God's Word - five articles

A Hermeneutics of the Open Ear

We shouldn’t idealize premodern interpretation of Scripture. We’ve learned a lot about ancient languages, history, and culture over the past few centuries, and that new information has immeasurably deepened our understanding of the Bible. Yet, as more and more theologians have discovered, patristic and medieval commentators knew things that we have forgotten, much to our detriment.

They knew that biblical hermeneutics was a hermeneutics of the open ear. They trained themselves to be attuned to every inflection of God’s voice, to ponder the slightest twist of phrase, to hear every reverberation and overtone of Scripture’s music. A single verse of the Psalms could lead Augustine through the prophets to the gospels and epistles, with a side tour of the Song of Songs along the way. Keep reading

One More Way to Outline a Sermon

Adrian Rogers outlined sermons using four phrases:

• Hey You! (Get the audience’s attention)
• Look! (Examine the Scriptures)
• See! (Explain the passage)
• Do! (Make application)

Keep reading

5 Types of Sermon Illustrations and How to Use Them

I used to never bother with sermon illustrations because I believed their number one myth. I thought the purpose of illustrations is to help explain the passage you are preaching. I figured if I did a good job teaching the text, I could avoid the work of crafting modern-day connections. The result was sermons heavy on explanation, light on application, and empty of illustrations.

My perspective took a 180-degree turn after listening to Bryan Chapell's lectures on Christ-centered preaching. He argues that illustrations are not for the head so much as the heart. They don't primarily explain, they motivate.

At that point it became abundantly clear that the preacher must connect emotion to cognition in order to get action. There is no motion without emotion. It's as true in the underdog's locker room at halftime as it is in your pews on Sunday.

I no longer had an excuse to neglect the work of applying audible paintbrushes to mental canvases. Keep reading

How Your Preaching Might Increase Sin in Your Church

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering . . . – Romans 8:3

We tread lightly here, but I fear we vastly underestimate the spiritual damage inflicted on our churches by “How To” sermons without an explicit gospel connection. The Bible is full of practical exhortations and commands, of course, but they are always connected to the foundational and empowering truth of the finished work of Christ. When we preach a message like “Six Steps to _______” or any other “be a better whatever”-type message — where the essential proclamation is not what Christ has done but what we ought/need to do — we become preachers of the law rather than Christ. (And it is not rare that this kind of message with barely any or no mention of Christ(!) at all gets preached.)

But is it just merely unfortunate? Something that could be improved but not really that big of a deal?

I think the Scriptures show us that this kind of preaching isn’t just off-center, but actually does great harm, actually serves to accomplish the very opposite of its intention. How? Keep reading

Preaching to Your People's Vocations

'How will our idea of work impact the life of a church?' An interview with Tom Nelson

Tom Nelson pastors Christ Community Church in Leawood, Kansas. PreachingToday.com editor Matt Woodley talked with Tom about preaching's relationship with a Christian theology of work. Keep reading